Food & Drink : All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Calling all vegetarians: Chef, cookbook author, and avid gardener David Hirsch, of the famous Moosewood Restaurant, will teach a course at the Central Market Cooking School, 6:30-9 p.m. Friday April 21. If you’ve been wondering how to get away from stir-fry and black beans, this is…
Food & Drink : Kidding around
Confessions of a young goat keeper Petunia was the mother’s name, and the first three kids were Patience, Penelope, and Prudence. Don’t blame me — my sister named them, and I have no idea where the “P” thing came from. Anyhow, Petunia, small and white with black and brown markings, had been given to my…
News : Cyber defenders, unite!
UTSA pits college-age whiz kids against faux hackers to determine the best of the online sentries Seven or eight kids, each gifted with specific computing skills and abilities, team up to build and maintain highly advanced technology and defend Earth from evil would-be conquerors, all the while teaching us the importance of working together to…
Food & Drink : Organic America
A new book plumbs the true meaning of the ‘O’ When Wal-Mart’s charisma-challenged CEO starts touting his interest in organic food, you know the stuff is no longer the domain of back-to-the-land hippies. What’s not clear, however, is what “the stuff” actually is. For example, can an organic farmer use preservatives or pesticides and still…
News : Speed reads
Natural gas rises CPS Energy will hold a public meeting, 6 p.m. Thursday, April 20, at the Villita Assembly Building, 401 Villita, to take public comments on a proposed increase in natural-gas rates. According to CPS, the utility has not adjusted the gas base rate since 1991. The proposed increase is projected to be $2.96/month…
News : Party lines
Night in old City Council “I have word that the King is approaching,” said Alcalde Phil Hardberger last week as the Council wound down a day of ordinance adoptions, zoning changes, and contract awards. “I hear the herald of trumpets.” Nope. That was somebody’s cell phone ringing, but let’s play along with the mayor anyway.…
Music : All ears
A few exceptional voices I’ve been listening to the latest release, Thunderbird (Blue Note) from Cassandra Wilson, and enjoying the new direction the chanteuse has taken. Not that her old sound — the lushly organic, swamp-slow vibe perfected on New Moon Daughter — wasn’t great; it’s just nice to hear her stretch, pulling more modern…
News : The number of the beasts
National Animal Identification System: End Times conspiracy or good horse sense? When the scientists start to freak, we generally freak right along with them. It’s just good horse sense, really. (Or perchance we’ve watched too many movies.) At any rate, few circumstances during the past handful of years have tizzied and confounded malady experts more…
Music : Current Choice
B O X C A R S A T A N NO ONE AT THE WHEEL * Rumble seat The video clips on Boxcar Satan’s new DVD collection No One at the Wheel are linked by footage of a car winding its way through desolate, after-hours San Antonio. The creeping sense of unease that…
Arts : Fiesta four ways
Whether you’re a lover or a hater, we’ve got a party for you Faith (that you’ll find a parking spot). Hope (that you’ll find your friends at the end of the evening). Love (that nobody expects me in the office before 10 this week). Charity (really). Texas Cavaliers prepare for the long, hot Battle of…
Music : CD Spotlight
‘Bones’ of contention On Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sophomore album, Show Your Bones, you’ll find a maturity they didn’t show last time around, a commitment to reeling in their furious extravagances for something precise without sounding polished. The simmering threat that they might explode at any moment is the sonic equivalent of watching a circus performer…
Arts : Gotham glamour, SA style
Antsy for the Apple? Get your big-city shopping fix right here at home I spent last weekend shopping in New York City: buying fabric and trimmings in the Garment District, stocking up on cheap basics at Scandinavian superstore H&M, and delighting in fantastic fakes in Chinatown (Frendi, anyone?). A transplanted New Yorker commented that it…
Music : Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene Jazz markets and masked balls One of the best ideas to hit the local club scene recently is College Radio Wednesdays, a weekly happening at Sam’s Burger Joint which allows the city’s college-radio programmers to put together live showcases. In each instance, a portion of the proceeds benefit college radio.…
Arts : The art capades
Pretty colors and bird-filled skies? It must be spring. Two shows in town might be accused of reflecting such summery themes as pleasure-reading and bird-filled skies. Jeb Stuart’s Page Turner, at Sala Diaz, turns the duplex’s two galleries into hedonistic reading rooms, complete with large blocks of soft furniture. Experimenting with book art, Stuart binds…
News : Guadalupe theater director resigns
Web Exclusive On April 10, as 18,000 people marched in an immigration-reform protest that began at Milam Park and ended in HemisFair Park, the board of directors of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center convened a special meeting to discuss personnel matters. No one except a handful of GCAC employees and dance instructors were in the…
Arts : Personal Poetry: ‘Howl’-ing about Ginsberg
“Howl,” the infamous beat-era poem by Allen Ginsberg, turns 50 this year. The anniversary has already led to the inevitable tribute readings and gassy lionizations. Happily, it has also flushed out a terrific anthology of essays on the poem’s legacy edited by Jason Shinder, The Poem that Changed America: Howl Fifty Years Later. The title…
Music : When worlds collide
With her namesake band, Ani Cordero finds a way to connect her Puerto Rican roots and her punk-rock passions Some days, when she’s hanging out with her indie-rock friends, Ani Cordero does most of her thinking in English. Other days, when she’s visiting with family members, her Puerto Rican roots assert themselves and she finds…
Media : Too close to home
Model ‘American’ Paul Weitz takes on the top brass and the pop-culture machine American Pie and About a Boy director Paul Weitz has a history of creating the semblance of reality in his movies despite such preposterous notions as Shannon Elizabeth’s willingness to sleep with Jason Biggs, or Hugh Grant’s need to manipulate women into…
Media : Discovering Las Americas
Salsa outsells catsup, and players named Alex Rodriguez, Pedro Martinez, and Vladimir Guerrero dominate the national pastime of a nation that is browner than ever. The Latinization of the United States, where one in eight residents fits the census category “Hispanic,” is visible in the election of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor of Los Angeles and…
Media : That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres “The film is a comedy about a lot of things that you’re really not supposed to laugh at,” director Paul Weitz (About a Boy) told the Current during an interview in Austin last month about his satire, American Dreamz. “But I feel that it might actually be kind of…
Media : Game theory
Best in show This month’s column celebrates the best people, places, and publications in the world of gaming. Best online publication devoted to thoughtful game journalism: The Escapist. Now in its 40th issue, this free magazine (Escapistmagazine.com) explores issues ranging from Wal-Mart’s impact on game content to the growing popularity of casual games among elderly…
Media : Special screenings
SA Film Slam Part of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ “San Antonio Film Series,” the SLAM is a celebration of independent film and a competition in which Texas indie producers can present their work to peers and judges. A panel of judges will offer feedback for each film and select the top two.…
Food & Drink : Get your goat
Lactose intolerant? Goat milk could be the answer When I tell people I’m allergic to milk — not intolerant, but actually allergic — they usually react casually enough: “Oh.” Then about 10 minutes later, as the idea finally filters down through their culinary subconscious, they say, “Oh my God, you can’t eat ice cream.” Well,…
