Richie Havens (1941-2013)
Beloved folk icon Richie Havens died this morning at his home in New Jersey from a sudden heart attack. He was 72. Even though he was never a mega-seller, he was instantly immortalized by his stirring Woodstock performance in 1969. Also known for his covers of pop, rock, and folk classics, he reached no. 16…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: The Cutting Edge Fiesta Fashion Show
Its official medal may celebrate gowns fit for a duchess, but The Cutting Edge Fiesta Fashion Show often departs from the traditional shapes, fabrics, and colors of the season as it showcases the creative talents of seniors attending the fashion design program at University of the Incarnate Word. The culmination of a year of sketching,…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: A Taste of New Orleans
Originating as Fiesta West in 1983, the San Antonio Zulu Association’s signature shindig imports the flavors of the Big Easy to the Alamo City for a family-focused weekend at Sunken Garden. In addition to serving up French Quarter favorites (including jambalaya, etouffee, gumbo, alligator, crawfish, and beignets) and plenty of suds to wash them down,…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Fiesta Arts Fair
A Fiesta fixture since 1973, the Southwest School of Art’s Fiesta Arts Fair wraps the citywide celebration’s colorful spirit into a kid-friendly affair filled with live music, food and drinks from La Margarita, a Target-sponsored Children’s Art Garden, and some of the season’s most unique browsing and shopping. Showcasing more than 100 artists in outdoor…
Artpace Fiesta Metal Medal commemorates OZZY at the Alamo
As a San Antonio native, filmmaker Jim Mendiola knows a lot about the traditions of Fiesta. He proved that recently, when he met Artpace’s new director, Amada Cruz. “I asked Amada if she was looking forward to Fiesta. She didn’t really know anything about it, so I told her about various aspects of Fiesta, one of those…
Video: will.i.am and Justin Bieber team up for “#thatPOWER”
After the single “Scream & Shout” sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide, here’s the video of “#thatPOWER,” the new single off will.i.am’s #willpower. The Ben More-directed video was shot in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Barcelona. As of this writing, “#thatPOWER” is number 22 in Top 40 radio. #willpower comes out Tuesday, April 23.
Rosemary Catacalos Named 2013 Texas Poet Laureate
The Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) has announced the state lege has named San Antonio native Rosemary Catacalos 2013 Texas Poet Laureate. Catacalos’ poems are published widely in high school and college textbooks; her acclaimed collection, Again for the First Time (1984, Tooth of Times, Santa Fe), winner of the Texas Institute of Letters Poetry…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: WEBB Party: “Pop Candy”
The WEBB Party is the biggest annual fundraising push for the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, a nonprofit that’s been preventing the spread of HIV through education, counseling, and testing since 1986. Serving up Fiesta glam with an over-the-top, pop art-inspired fête inspired by the likes of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, “Pop Candy” promises some…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Har Mar Superstar
In a 2004 piece, London’s The Independent was quick to point out that Har Mar Superstar (Sean Tillman, also known from his Sean Na Na project) almost resembles porn star Ron Jeremy, and Wikipedia went as far as to say the two have only “one notable physical dissimilarity.” Talking on the phone from New York,…
National Poetry Month, poem by Fernando Esteban Flores
Dreaming in Noir Chapter Three Johnny Almond’s sax Double helix in my head Double helix in my head Sound & sex The city night spirals Redolent with the yeasty scent of fresh bread A sugary plea from the bakery across the tracks & sour beer spiked on saw dust floors Of cantinas dotted with cheap…
Metric Trivia Winners announced: Stephanie, Lindsay and Bryon
Stephanie Guerra, Lindsay Rodríguez and Bryon Farris correctly answered Metric’s trivia question and will get to see the Canadian band perform at the Pearl Stable on April 29. Come to our office no later than Monday April 29 at noon, show your ID (you must be over 21) and the tickets are yours. We’re located…
METRIC IN SAN ANTONIO: WIN FREE TICKETS
(photo by Brantley Gutiérrez) In case you didn’t know, Toronto’s Metric will be performing at the Pearl Stable on Monday, April 29. Doors open at 8pm and music starts with Bad Books. The show is free, and that’s the good thing. The bad thing is that registration for the concert, part of Jack Daniel’s “Live…
LONELY HORSE TO REPRESENT SA IN HARD ROCK’S GLOBAL BATTLE OF THE BANDS
Lonely Horse (Nick Long on guitar and vocals and Travis Hild on drums) won the regional qualifier of the Hard Rock Rising competition organized by Hard Rock Café and will battle 95 other bands from around the world. The goal is to earn enough votes to become one of 25 finalists, and then a panel…
Sam Houston Doc Now Available on DVD
After walking up and down the governor’s mansion all night, Texas governor Sam Houston made a decision. “Margaret, I will not do it,” he told his wife. He would not recognize the legality of the 1861 secession efforts, even knowing it would cost him the governorship. “He lived the rest of his days, in Confederate…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: The Crazy Locomotive
One of roughly 40 plays penned in the 1920s by Polish poet, playwright, novelist, painter, photographer, and philosopher Stanis?aw Ignacy Witkiewicz (aka “Witkacy”), The Crazy Locomotive (originally Szalona lokomotywa) is set aboard the engine room of a train hurtling toward its destruction. An avant-garde gem that’s been described as Witkacy’s “indictment against futurism, the cinema,…
The Strange Saga of the COSA Ban
When a federal judge last month ordered San Antonio officials to lift a criminal trespass warning banning Michael Cuellar from City Council sessions or other public City meetings, it was an open question how COSA would handle John Foddrill. Both men are disgruntled ex-COSA employees, and City Attorney Michael Bernard and SAPD Chief William…
‘42’: The True Story of An American Legend
Baseball is a game of tradition, ritual and, most of all, numbers — from fluctuating outfield dimensions and batting averages to home run records, numbers are all important on the diamond. But for eight decades there was one inviolable number that did not waver: zero. That was the number of African Americans allowed to compete…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: What do we need to do to make the güeros understand that we come in peace as Mexicans and that we are from this great American continent as well? In the average close-minded English-speaking folks’ definition of “American,” it’s amusing to see they don’t understand what it really means, as in: unless you…
Industry News: A new Veranda, power lunching, and fun foodie events
The building that formerly housed Jason Dady’s The Lodge at Castle Hills has reopened its doors as the Veranda, an event space. The Lodge closed at the end of 2011, and the Spanish-style facility is well suited to weddings, which the Veranda will most likely see many of. Chef Mike Bomberg of Spice of Life…
Muni Madness
City and school elections, Fiesta’s official afterparty (we kid), technically begin April 29 when early voting opens. The early voting closes May 7, but you can also swing by your local polls on Election Day, May 11. Visit sanantonio.gov/clerk/elections to find your appropriate voting location and get other importantinformation. With a few notable exceptions, detailed…
Har Mar Superstar will be bigger than Ron Jeremy, but not in the way you think
In a 2004 piece, London’s The Independent was quick to point out that Har Mar Superstar (Sean Tillman, also known from his Sean Na Na project) almost resembles porn star Ron Jeremy, and Wikipedia went as far as to say the two have only “one notable physical dissimilarity.” Talking on the phone from New York,…
'Beyond the Hills,' flesh vs. spirit in a Romanian convent
A connoisseur of female desperation, Cristian Mungiu won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2007 for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the story of a young woman who struggles to obtain an illegal abortion in Nicolae Ceauşescu’s repressive Romania. In Beyond the Hills, a true story of catastrophic exorcism, Mungiu depicts two young women…
The Extraordinary Life of Photojournalist Tim Hetherington (1970-2011)
In this fascinating documentary, HBO examines the all-too-brief career of brilliant war photographer Tim Hetherington, a British journalist with movie-star looks who died covering the Libyan civil war in 2011. He packed a few lifetimes’ worth of experiences into his 40 years, plunging into the white-hot center of conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The writer Oliver Burkeman has some advice that would be helpful for you Aries folks to hear right now: “When you assume your current preferences won’t alter, you’ll make bad decisions: embarking on a career or marriage, say, not with a view to its durability, but solely based on how it…
Will alternative art return to Blue Star?
Two weekends ago, it almost seemed like First Friday was back at the Blue Star Arts Complex. For months, foot traffic at the Complex, which relied on First Thursday and Friday art openings, suffered as its main entrance was all but impossible to access due to construction on South Alamo Street. Another construction project, this…
Generosity is the norm at Sparky's Pub
Weekends offer an abundance of entertainment, but for daily relief, nothing beats everyone’s favorite British export — the pub. With roots stretching back to travelers’ rest stops during the Roman occupation of England, and perfected in the 1700s, the pub is a neighborhood gathering place where you can get beer on tap, a bite to…
Q Fest Brings LGBT-themed films closer to home
It’s been more than 15 years since the San Antonio City Council stopped public funding to the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center in response to pressure put on them by local conservative groups including the Christian Pro-Life Foundation and the Bexar County Christian Coalition. Groups like these criticized the Esperanza for sponsoring Out at the…
Punking sex, religion, and society at the Guadalupe
“Bite like a kitty” might be named after a punk band, but the Contemporary Art Month Perennial exhibit, still on view at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, reflects a shrewd aesthetic strategy: If you want people to pay attention, make ’em laugh. Curator Bill Arning, executive director of Contemporary Art Museum Houston, selected five San…
Texas abortion regulations, new and old, tout suspect science
“While there are studies that have found an increased risk in developing breast cancer after an induced abortion, some studies have found no overall risk,” reads page 17 of “A Woman’s Right to Know,” a pamphlet the State of Texas mandates doctors give to every woman seeking an abortion. “There is agreement that this issue…
Solar Flare Between CPS and Local Industry
A report this year from the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group of investor-owned utilities, spells out how rooftop solar could lay waste to the utilities’ century-old business model. The group argues that, as ratepayers opt for rooftop solar (or any other type of so-called distributed energy resource), the cost to maintain “fixed assets” —…
Sweet Yams: Southern Living Lite
Traditional Southern food is perhaps not the first genre called to mind when seeking a low-fat, vegetarian, or gluten-free meal. Sweet Yams, a new restaurant on the near East Side, works to prove that healthy food can be comfort food, too. Located on Cherry between Houston and Commerce, Sweet Yams opened in October of 2012.…
Saveurs 209: Fine French dining on the block gentrification forgot
Next door to a loan service shop and across the street from the recently incinerated Frisky-a-Go-Go building ain’t the most obvious locale for French fine dining. And yet, early last month Saveurs 209 popped up there, its sleek modern decor and aggressive brightness helping the petit spot stand out on a stubbornly gritty block of…
Fiesta Survival Guide
Meet Isis Madrid. She’s our digital content editor. Isis moved to San Antonio from Boston, Mass., last summer, which means she’s never before experienced the cultural behemoth known as Fiesta. She needs advice, lots of it. Because she both lives and works downtown, Isis can’t really run or hide from the 10-day explosion of parades,…
City Council and Mayoral Candidate Questionnaires
Once again we sent out a candidate questionnaire to everyone running in the 2013 City Elections that we could track down. Read our questionnaire below, and then search for answers your district and mayoral candidates. The Current simply provides the candidates’ answers, in their own words, we are not responsible for the veracity of these…
Giggle Water
When you get tired of shot-gunning Bud Lights or sneaking sips from your flask this Fiesta, try this festive mix. Sparkling wine makes it fancy, but the three additional spirits mean it packs a punch, too. To make ginger syrup, dice a chunk of the fresh stuff and mix it to taste with 1 cup…
Joe Ely's musical career a star-studded, genre-busting affair
You might say the difficult-to-summarize and impossible-to classify musical life of alt-country/folk-rock singer-songwriter Joe Ely started at a used car lot in Amarillo. Lured to a Pontiac dealership by promises of free soda and hot dogs, Ely, six or seven years old at the time, became fascinated with a much more memorable attraction. A flatbed…
National Poetry Month: Poem by Laurie Ann Guerrero
Sundays After Breakfast: A Lesson in Cotton Picking South Texas, 1943 It was a kind of dance: feet shuffling in dust, fluttering hands like birds: nest-building: blood staining brown birds red. Cotton sacks, twelve feet long, dragging behind like a tongue— fat and slow as sun. I watch him: slow weep of his eye remembering the…
San Antonian College Student Reports from the Boston Marathon Explosions
(Text and photos by Joel Pena) Boston is a beautiful, well-kept city. As a new college student I have enjoyed the amount of events that are held in public spaces. Going on long walks helps me meet new people and stretch my legs, and the day of the Boston Marathon was no different. I wanted…
