Best of SA 2005 – People & PoliticsReaders’ Picks – People & Politics
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places Meet the movers and shakers BEST PROFESSOR: Marianna Ornelas at Palo Alto College Marianna Ornelas, humanities instructor at Palo Alto College, is the readers’ pick for Best Professor. (Photo by Laura McKenzie) San Antonio typically isn’t thought of as a college town. But with eight colleges and…
Best of SA 2005 – Media Media mediocrity
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places Turn off your TV Talk about discouraging: The FCC hearings came and went and not a damn thing has changed for the better. Oops, I mean gosh-darn thing. Newly appointed FCC Chairman Kevin Martin continues sucking up (can we even say suck?) to the religious right by…
Best of SA 2005 – Food – Staff picks Flapjacks to chicken scratch
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places A little something for everyone – even the birds Munchener Apfel Pfannekuchen (aka Munich Apple Pancake), a Magnolia Pancake Haus specialty, is made to order and comes topped with a generous helping of whipped cream. (Photo by Laura McKenzie) Among breakfast foods, there’s no sight cheerier than a stack…
Best of SA 2005 – Food – Staff picks Never too blasé for love
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places The jaded critic embraces chocolate cake with ardor From front: Sarovar’s Shrimp Biryani served with raita and curry sauce; ras Malai dessert; and the potato and pea masala dosa. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) The critic is often at odds with the reading public, which should come as…
Best of SA 2005 – Arts Turning our face to the dawn
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places ‘Best of’ voters wallow in ‘Memory,’ while visionaries build the cultural districts of tomorrow Current readers voted family members Louis and Paul Lubbering Best Teacher, but Eduardo Rodriguez ranks high among our critics. The associate professor in visual arts at San Antonio College earned a BFA and…
Best of SA 2004 – Music San Antonio grows its own
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places From Buttercup to Flaco, the music scene survives Buttercup exemplified the best aspects of SA music over the last year. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) San Antonio’s music scene has spent so many years in Austin’s shadow that even locals tend to forget its legacy. Consider it this…
Best of SA 2005 – People & Politics Everyday people
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places The good, bad, and the ugly Baryshnikov’s grand jete might be more graceful, but you’d have to pay to see him; tickets to see the Trinity Men’s Soccer, critics pick for Best University Sports team, are free. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) More than 1 million people live…
Best of SA 2005 – Food Readers’ Picks – Best Food – Part 2
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places Second helpings… BEST SUSHI: Sushi Zushi Various locations Sushi Zushi. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) There’s a place in San Antonio where the menu cascades endlessly from crab to eel, the sake overflows into saucers, and the soy sauce will not assuage the cruel bite of the jalapeño…
Best of SA 2005 – Food Readers’ Picks – Best Food – Part 1
Best of SA 2005 – Food Readers’ Picks – Best Food – Part 1 Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places For the glutton in everyone BEST BEER SELECTION: Flying Saucer 11255 Huebner, 696-5080 “I never met a beer I didn’t drink.” – Norm Peterson DeWese’s is de Best Chicken Fried Steak (Photo by…
Best of SA 2005 – Arts Readers’ Picks – Best Art
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places Pretty pictures and funny bones BEST BOOK OF 2004 BY LOCAL AUTHOR OR PRESS: Vigorous Vacation, Vibrant Health by Andrew McGown Mark Vickery and Joan Bailey discuss a painting in the Blue Star Contemporary Art Space. Blue Star and surrounding galleries drew typically large crowds for the…
Best of SA 2005 – Music Readers’ Picks — Best Music
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places These artists ring the readers’ bells BEST BLUES/R&B: After Midnight Blues Band After Midnight won in the blues category for the second consecutive year. (courtesy photo) San Antonio blues aficionados often lament that this city is not particularly supportive to blues musicians. But if SA’s blues community…
Best of SA 2005 – Media Readers’ Picks – Best Media
Food Arts Music Media People & Politics Places What does it say when Chris Marrou’s the best we can do? BEST RADIO STATION: KSYM 90.1 FM KSYM, San Antonio College’s radio station, moved to its new studios in the recently unveiled Radio and Television Building on West Courtland Street. (Photo by Lisa Sorg) Welcome to…
Screens New reviews
Journey to ‘Sahara’ salvages nothing comprehensible Mathew McConaughey fails to put the swagger in Dirk Pitt, bestselling author Clive Cussler’s modern-day swashbuckling hero who managed to Raise the Titanic! and unite Canada and the U.S. in Night Probe. In Sahara, Pitt and company seek a Civil-War sunken treasure in plague-stricken West Africa. Whether talking about…
Screens Many Europes, one frame
A recent film festival reveals a fractious population thriving in the shadow of Hollywood Scenes from a changing European film industry: Since Otar Left, by French director Julie Bertucelli. On two occasions, I was invited to Peru to curate a festival of films from the United States. Of the tens of thousands of features released…
Special Screens ‘In the country’ and Latin American films
Acclaimed Mexican film and Instituto de México’s April schedule In the Country Where Nothing Happens Dir. Maricarmen de Lara; writ. Maricarmen de Lara, Laura Sosa; feat. Fernando Luján, Julieta Egurrola, Carmen Delgado. (NR) Released in 2000, In the Country Where Nothing Happens won acclaim at the Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival and was nominated for an…
Armchair CinephileHead east, young film buff
Asian titles “now playing” in your living room Lately we’ve been hearing from folks who’ve read about some Asian film opening in a nearby city – be it the kung-fu thrillfest Ong-Bak or any of the South Korean flicks shown by Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse – and want to know why their local theaters aren’t showing…
News Speed reads
Speed reads Hunger poll: Through mid-May the San Antonio Food Bank is surveying soup kitchens, food pantries, and shelters it serves in Southwest Texas to determine who is eating how much and how often. Survey results, due this fall, will allow the Food Bank to target programs and help secure funding for their programs. It…
Food & Drink Ode on a tuber
The potato is noble root vegetable with a grand history and real food value The potato is at once the most humble and the most majestic of food sources. It would be difficult to identify a more versatile, adaptable, generally nutritious, and frankly, yummy vegetable. It is one of the most important food crops world…
News 15 months in the hole
Councilman Sanders pays for refusing to testify H. Jack Pytel, wearing shades, arrives at the John H. Wood Federal Courthouse behind his lawyer to hear Judge Royal Fergeson hand down his sentence of nine months in prison. Pytel pled guilty to conspiracy and bribery after an FBI sting operation fingered him as the courier who…
Food & Drink Grecian formula
Suffused with honey and spice, Papouli’s galaktobouriko is everything nice Papouli’s feast: Tossed Greek salad, olives, peppers, dolmas, gyro, beef, chicken, and lamb souvlaki, spanikopita, tiropita, tzatziki sauce, topped with onions and tomatoes, and served with warm pita bread. It was inevitable that a Greek restaurant would open on Agora Parkway in The Forum -…
News Kill bill
HB 16: Pharmacists don’t need it, Texans don’t want it It’s bad enough that most health insurance will only allow a woman to buy a month’s worth of birth control at a time, but now, if Representative Frank Corte has his way, a pharmacist will be able to tell her she can’t have it at…
Food & Drink All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene A Burrito for your troubles While the Bush administration drags its heels on providing overseas troops with adequate armor, Chipotle is taking care of soldiers at home. Anyone with a military ID who dines at Chipotle on Mondays in April will be presented with a free…
City South, film at 11
From the murky depths of the mighty Medina River that someday will resemble a necklace of emeralds as it winds its way through City South, a revelation: This is Mayor Ed Garza’s legacy as well as his obligation to Houston bankrollers. Yes, the mayor signed on with a Houston development company to convert the former…
Sound and the Fury : Jagged Edge and It’s Raining Mem
A week on the scene Jagged edge This year’s SXSW offered plenty of memorable musical moments, but it was a thoroughly negative experience for Steve Freeman, publisher/editor of The Edge, the SA-based monthly magazine devoted to Texas hard-rock. Since 2003, The Edge has sponsored the Quadruple Heart Bypass Rockfest, a four-night Austin showcase for bands…
Vested rights not right
Task Force cancels meeting, fur will fly at future date Fur went un-flown last week as the City’s Vested Rights Task Force canceled its post-dawn meeting to consider how much leeway a grandfathering ordinance will give to residential and commercial developers. Planning Commissioner Mitch Meyer, who recently resigned as a task force member, says the…
Current Choice Brass in pocket
Dirty Dozen brings New Orleans attitude back to Luna’s Dirty Dozen Brass Band There’s a moment on the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s 2003 concert album, We Got Robbed – Live in New Orleans, that defines what makes this New Orleans horn ensemble so special. Halfway through their original tune “Dead Dog In The Street,” the…
Election – Political consultantsEarwigged
Political consultants: well-paid advice columnists or shrewd strategists? Political consultants have a rich literary history in fact and fiction, although not a particularly flattering one. Shakespeare’s Iago and Tsar Nicolas’ Rasputin come to mind, as does the enterprising Italian Machiavelli, who never stopped working on his rehabilitation while imprisoned. Karl Rove, kingmaker of the early…
Value Vino Gris is the new noir
“Pinot Noir is a notoriously degenerate vine variety, prone to mutate at the drop of a gene,” claims wine authority Jancis Robinson. One of those degenerate mutations is pinot gris (pinot grigio in Italian), a grape that is fast becoming one of the most popular whites in California and has already surpassed chardonnay in Oregon.…
Classical music Counterpoint and contradiction
Composer Michael Twomey premieres new and old Contemporary composer and performer Michael Twomey likes to remind audiences that “at one point, every piece of music was new. I won’t go to a concert unless there’s a composition I haven’t heard before in the program.” There are, hopefully, a few moments in every artist’s life when…
Election – Dirty tricksThe phantom push poll
Candidates point fingers, citizens ponder The infamous push poll of February: Some say it never existed. Others claim it lived as surely as the Yeti, but died when the voting public turned their cheek on moral turpitude and focused on real issues. Many are still trying to sort out what happened, and who was the…
Music Art of propagation
“Video Trapped the Rapper” tour brings lyricism back to hip-hop Tableek In Arabic, the verb “tableek” means to propagate or to speak the truth. Bronx-based emcee Tableek takes the concept very seriously. His current brainchild, the “Video Trapped the Rapper” tour is driven by the following manifesto: “Hip-hop is today at its most popular. At…
Artifacts News and notes from the San Antonio arts scene
Did you enviously fondle your boxing gloves as San Antonio’s arts organizations savaged one another, Office of Cultural Affairs Director Felix Padron, and the Cultural Arts Board during last year’s program funding process? Ladies and gentlemen, start your word processors. OCA’s Project Funding process is in full swing, and applications are due by April 29.…
Election – ‘Reputation mercenaries’A necessary evil
Opposition research: Does it keep campaigns honest? For years, opposition research has been to politics what plastic surgery is to the movie industry. Almost everyone has it done, but most of them are too embarrassed to admit it. Consider what a client once said to Jason Stanford, head of the Austin-based Stanford Research, after Stanford…
Music ‘Extraordinary’ response
How Fiona Apple’s unreleased third CD became a cause celebre “I don’t believe in the wasting of time, but I don’t believe I’m wasting mine.” So sings Fiona Apple near the end of Extraordinary Machine, her long-awaited, unreleased third album. Unfortunately for Apple, she and the bean counters at Sony/Epic Records appear to have radically…
Classical music Tallis Scholars grace Trinity
Renaissance sacred music at Parker Chapel Tallis Scholars On April 13, anyone even vaguely interested in early music should get themselves to Parker Chapel to hear the Tallis Scholars, considered by many to be the leading interpreters of Renaissance sacred music in the world. The 20-voice ensemble was founded in 1973 by Director Peter Phillips…
Culture How to be gay
Sex proliferates on TV and movie screens, but the gay rights movement is increasingly abstaining, leaving queer youth without a guide Be afraid, be very afraid: Safe-sex education has shifted from promoting healthy sexuality to a new tone that harkens back to the scare tactics of the early-to-mid ’80s. Over the past two decades, queer…
Screens The mayor of Sin City
Robert Rodriguez is the head of a council that includes ‘Sin City’ author Frank Miller and pal Quentin Tarantino Although graphic novelist Frank Miller swore off having anything to do with Hollywood adaptations of comic books after the disastrous Robocop 2 and Robocop 3 of the early ’90s (two films for which he wrote the…
Stage No-person’s land
In ‘Otherwise Occupied’ Palestinians live checkpoint to checkpoint Clockwise from the top: Monessa Esquival, S.T. Shimi, and Xelena Gonzalez capture the daily tribulations of life in war-weary Palestine in Otherwise Occupied On opening night, the Jump-Start Performance Company’s heartfelt production of Otherwise Occupied brought a deeply moved San Antonio audience to its feet. Written by…
CD SpotlightBeck and call
If Beck’s Sea Change was such a friggin’ masterpiece, why is everyone so relieved that he’s back to making funky music with the Dust Brothers? For all of its critical acclaim, Sea Change split Beck’s base into two camps: those who like wallowing in that album’s brand of melancholy folk, and those who prefer the…
Screens : So close to Woody, so far from great
Allen’s newest film hints at the old genius, but the aging Lothario has yet to find his replacement Latest Allen ingenue Radha Mitchell plays emotionally unhinged two ways in Melinda & Melinda, once for laughs and once for tears. The question has become an annual ritual among Woody Allen fans: Is this year’s entry his…
Screens Border primer
Film fest takes a hard look at life tan cerca de la frontera Scenes from (from top) New World Border, Beca de Giles: Rebeca’s Story, and Senorita Extraviada, which will screen during OLLU’s free three-day film festival exploring border issues. Since 9/11, the border between Mexico and the U.S. has been cut even deeper. Narco-corridos…
Local Election Coverage The L word
Lobbyists: Advocates or influence peddlers? Lobbyist is a dirty word. Such a dirty word that nobody wants to be own up to being one. “The City refers to what we do as lobbying,” says David Earl, one of San Antonio’s most recognized you-know-whats who primarily represents developers regarding land use and water rights. “It’s not…
Screens That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres “Have you seen my baseball?” as a slow-witted Warren so adamantly asks in There’s Something About Mary, is the perfect plug for the new comedy Fever Pitch by the Farrelly brothers, the deranged filmmaking duo that brought moviegoers a urine-drinking cop in Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey (Liar, Liar)…
