Cold Case Special Victims Unit CSI
As we round out the time of Fools and Fiesta, we thought we’d end on a more serious note: The National Sexual Violence Resource center has named April Sexual Assault Awareness month. The Sex Crimes Unit of San Antonio Police Department is more than aware of sexual assault, and has recently taken steps to attempt…
Also seen: CURTAINS at San Pedro Playhouse
So I caught one of the final curtains of Curtains this weekend at the San Pedro Playhouse; this murder-mystery musical is obviously B-list Kander and Ebb, with a genial, if undistinguished, score and an old-fashioned script by Rupert Holmes. On Broadway, the evening seemed to fly by, carried by the immense charm of David Hyde…
Nuke objections in limbo as federal money nears STP
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Modeling of a worst-case meltdown and explosion at the South Texas Project nuclear complex in Matagorda County performed in 1982 suggested 18,000 area residents would die, followed by 4,000 additional cases of cancer within 30 years. Strangely, when just such as accident occurred in 1986 in northern Ukraine, the United Nation’s World…
STP nuke expansion may be close to a go
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com It appears the planned expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear facility is close to getting the necessary federal loan guarantees that would put the two-reactor project back on track. San Antonio hit the freeze button on payments into the project ââ?¬” and socked 50-50 partner NRG Energy with a $32 billion…
Show & Prove: Beneath the Underdogs
There’s an old NBA playoff adage that says that a post-season series doesn’t truly begin until a visiting team secures a victory on their opponents home court. The San Antonio Spurs effectively arrived in the playoffs in Game 2 of their first round series with a convincing win over the Mavericks in Dallas. Leading the…
Patio Pinots
There are some restaurants you expect to hold wine dinners; it’s a class-distinction thing. And then there are others you might be forgiven for thinking whaaaa? about. Pam’s Patio Kitchen is one of those. But having attended such an event there a couple of years ago, I can attest to the fact that they do…
Volcanic Vodka
Iceland is in the news these daysâ??perhaps not in a way they might prefer, but any news is good news (to a degree) for a country that normally flies totally under the radar. Something air traffic hasn’t been able to do, of course. It was coincidental, I swear, that a friend with Icelandic lineage happened…
Tamaladarama
The tamal: it’s not just for the # 2 Dinner any more. If proof were needed, the 3rd annual Tamalada Throw-Down, held at The Spire at Sunset Station last week, would surely supply it in spades. Eight chefs vied for honors in three categories: Traditional, Contemporary and Sweet. The competition was fierce. And the winner…
Jail voter drive complete; Guzman death ruled â??natural’
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com The first voter registration drive by a local organization inside Bexar County Jail wrapped up last week, ensuring that several hundred absentee ballots will be headed into the jail become November. “We wanted to make it possible that inmates serving misdemeanor sentences and those that haven’t gone to court yet are able…
Girl in a Coma’s cover of David Bowie’s As the World Falls Down
Adventures in Coverland – Vol. 2 was released yesterday.
May Day! May Day! March for immigration reform
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Unprecedented raids in Arizona coupled with a failure of the Obama Administration to spell out its stance on immigration reform are fueling unease in Latino communities around the county. In San Antonio, those twin forces of intimidation and uncertainty will likely inspire more than a few of the marchers expected to gather…
Lucky and Queenie: Down For Life
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but every once in a while we print something here at the Current that gets some of our more rigid residents all bent out of shape. Such was apparently the case after we first wrote about Lucky the Asian elephant, held captive at…
Current gets first-place props at statewide First Amendment Awards
Please pardon a moment of third-person bragging; now and then we like to remind the (totally lovely Irish-Catholic progressive) suits who sign our checks why they pay us. The San Antonio Current took home first-place honors in two categories April 16 at the SPJ Fort Worth First Amendment Awards. Staff writer Greg Harman’s three-part series…
MLB 2k10
MLB 2k10 Release Date: 2010-04-21 Publishing House: 2k Games Rated: NONE ESRBRating: Kids to Adults Genre: Video Game Let’s face it: For the last couple years, the MLB 2K series has sucked. Playing was such a bug-filled glitchfest that you’d likely tear your rotator cuff launching the controller in frustration. While 2K sports games have…
The Joneses
The Joneses Director: Derrick Borte Screenwriter: Derrick Borte Cast: David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Amber Heard, Gary Cole, Ben Hollingsworth Release Date: 2010-04-21 Rated: R Genre: Film He may work for the Fox Business Network, but financial guru Dave Ramsey is usually right, and never more so than his mantra, “Don’t keep up with the Joneses.…
Dear Uncle Mat
Dear Uncle Mat, I am going on my first solo business trip next month for a week, and I am hoping to have a fling or even just get laid. I know that might seem a bit shallow, but I think it sounds fun and exciting. I am single, so I won’t be cheating. What…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Although obstacles and difficulties frighten ordinary people," wrote French painter Théodore Géricault, "they are the necessary food of genius. They cause it to mature, and raise it up . . . All that obstructs the path of genius inspires a state of feverish agitation, upsetting and overturning those obstacles, and producing…
Buzz Report
The first three months of the year are traditionally the shittiest three months of the year for music. There are exceptions, of course (Animal Collective released one of last year’s best albums in January, and Vampire Weekend – more on them later – unveiled their debut during 2008’s first month). But most CDs that come…
How could you be so Heartless?
Can we let the girls play with the boys now? “I just like to consider myself a musician, instead of a female musician,” answers Heartless Bastards’ frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom when questioned about her place in the legacy of powerful female rock vocalists. “I guess maybe there aren’t that many, but it doesn’t make me feel…
Gas Wars
I did it without thinking: On the day we left San Antonio for California in June 2007, I stopped at the local Valero Corner Store on McCullough Avenue, filled the tank and squeegeed the windows, then rolled to I-10 for the 1,321-mile jaunt to Claremont, a quaint college town 40 miles east of Los Angeles.…
The QueQue
D1 Designs We’re a year out from our next round of Council elections, but the race for District 1 is already percolating, and, man, it’s looking like a good, strong brew. Chris Forbrich, the fresh-faced out IT whiz who gave Council Member Mary Alice Cisneros an unexpectedly strong reelection challenge in ’09 is back, and…
You’ve Been Served
Best Taco Truck Tacomiendo,700 Division Ave (210) 843-1735 The mini-tacos — savory/tart al pastor, rich carnitas — generous handmade tortas both con-carne and veggie, and even Tex Mex staples such as quesadillas and cheese enchiladas — are far superior to anything you’ll get out of any wheeled vehicle anywhere: truck, car, biplane, sailboat, submarine, hovercraft,…
Vice and Virtue
Best Meat Market (Meat) Bolner’s Meat Market2900 S. Flores, (210) 533-5112 bolnersmeats.com You must love the tinted family portrait by the entrance, and the cases full of go-with basics and fancy prepared sides (creamed spinach is just the beginning), and you probably like the slightly cocky way the meat-tender slaps the price tag on the…
Creative Class
Best Fiesta Event NIOSAApril 20-23, 2010 niosa.org NIOSA stands for A Night In Old San Antonio, but it’s highly unlikely that you hear that phrase pass any locals’ lips. Instead, you hear “Nye-Oh-Suh” referred to as the number-one Fiesta destination. The San Antonio Conservation Society fundraiser takes place over four evenings, transforming La Villita into…
You Turn Me On (and sometimes off)
Best Evening News KSAT 12 ksat.com According to weatherman Steve Browne’s bio, he became interested in meteorology when he was in the first grade because he was curious about the snowstorms in his hometown of Duxbury, Massachusetts. Sorry to disappoint you with all the sunshine, Steve, but Browne’s lifelong fascination with his area of expertise…
Shop Till You Drop
Best Shoe Store & Local Fashion Boutique Sole Sneaker Boutique4025 Broadway (210) 822-7653 soleboutique.com In addition to the hyper-color sneaks sold at Sole, proprietors Julio and Fabby Rodriguez carry street-smart clothing lines, too. For the ladies, there are super-skinny jeans by Married to the Mob, adorable tees from Tokidoki, and sweet dresses by Heavy Rotation.…
Mini Me
Best Library Branch Central Library600 Soledad(210) 207-2500sanantonio.gov/library Bless our oh-so-forgiving (and impeccably grounded) readers, who not only forgave architect Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis’s Evel Knievel-grade angles at our downtown library branch, but obviously revel in the whole chili-powered enchilada enough to give it Best Library Branch plaudits. They know the cellar’s bookstore, wickedly good Texana collection,…
Working Class Heroes
Best Activist/Watchdog Lanny Sinkin, Solar San Antonio solarsanantonio.org Lanny Sinkin swept back into San Antonio as something of a wild card. He was one of the area’s most effective — and by that we mean “only” — activists who fought back in the day against construction of the first two nuclear reactors at the South…
Kangaroo court
It’s February 22, 2010, and the second monthly meeting of San Antonio’s Dangerous Structures Determination Board is in session in the City Council chambers. Projected on the giant screens in the front of the room are images of deep urban decay: rotting wood, exposed floor beams, cement piers moldering in a pile, holes in the…
O cruel spring (cleaning)
Ah, the cruel irony of the too-short San Antonio springtime: Bluebonnets and butterflies, blue skies and 75-degree days — and so much green dust coating our cars and sinus passages that we’re forced to wait out the oak-pollen plague indoors. Since it hasn’t been safe to emerge sans allergy mask until this Fiesta week, pollen…
Best of 2010
Best of 2010 Map Mini Me (for mommy and daddy’s little darlings) You Turn Me On ( and sometimes off) You’ve Been Served (order up!) Vice and Virtue (round up the usual suspects!) Shop Till You Drop (bagging the best bargains) Working-Class Heroes (we salute you) Creative Class Best of San Antonio 2010 FAQ Who…
Pinko and proud
Maverick journalist and author Dick Reavis is a Texas pioneer of another sort: As a senior writer for the prestigious Texas Monthly, he covered a plethora of subjects, including motorcycle gangs, politicians, convicts, coal miners, and the undocumented. His investigation into the Branch Davidian aftermath in The Ashes of Waco is considered both evenhanded and…
Abuse of Power
Few things compel me to write in the first person, but go ahead and google ‘police and sexual assault.’ Below the entries relating to police units that deal with sexual assault, there should be about five entries on the first page alone concerning police officers who were charged and/or convicted of committing sexual assault. Just…
Councilman Rodriguez drafting smoking ban
District 7 Councilman Justin Rodriguez wants to close most of the remaining loopholes in the City’s 2003 smoking ban, making it illegal to smoke in bars and restaurants that are currently exempted by the code. He told the QueQue Tuesday that the Mayor had committed to the project and he could have a five-signature memo…
