Max Cavalera: The Current Q & A
Soulfly, the band led by former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera, plays at the Korova (107 E Martin) on Tuesday, August 7 (door at 7 p.m.). Tickets are $18-$20 and you can get them at jivetickets.com. Days before the show, the Brazilian-born Cavalera spoke with the Current from his home in Phoenix, Arizona. What are you…
New video: Girl in a Coma’s “One Eyed Fool”
(photo by Cameron Russell) The new Girl in a Coma video is out, thanks to the folks at Transistor Six in Austin, an all-analogue project inspired by the BBC’s Peel Sessions. The bands are invited to perform at Frank and record a few tracks, and the shows are filmed on Super 8. Credits goes to…
Pick of the Day: Big K.R.I.T.
The early ’00s age of Southern hip-hop dominance — where it seemed every rapper with a drawl and access to a tricked out ’72 El Dorado was guaranteed a handful of hits — eventually passed about as quickly as a Georgia rainstorm. Fortunately, someone forgot to swing through Meridian, Mississippi, to tell Justin Scott, better known…
Chavela Vargas (1919-2012)
Chavela Vargas, one of Mexico’s greatest musical and cultural icons, passed away in Cuernavaca, Morelos August 5 of heart and respiratory failure. She was 93, and had been hospitalized for a week. According to her doctor and those close to her, she was conscious until the last second and had refused any invasive surgery to…
Pick of the Day: Mo’ Better Blues
With blues as one of its themes, Radcliffe Bailey’s retrospective sets the tone for the McNay’s “Memory as Medicine” film series. In Mo’ Better Blues, Spike Lee opens up Beneath the Underground, a Manhattan nightclub where the Bleek Quintet casts a jazzy spell with music by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Bill Lee (the director’s…
One hundred years of art at the San Antonio Art League
One hundred years ago, with San Antonio on the verge of becoming a bustling metropolis, the San Antonio Art League was born. Since then, Art League members have acquired more than 450 paintings and other artistic works, and supported the development of art in San Antonio with competitions, lectures and patronage. As a result of…
Pick of the Day: Girl Talk
If you listen to Girl Talk’s All Day, you’ll hear 373 samples cleverly woven into a puzzle of danceable pop prescribed for the Adderall set. If you listen to Girl Talk talk, you’ll hear words like “debaucherous,” “recontextualized,” and “Plunderphonics” (a musical concept introduced in composer John Oswald’s 1985 essay subtitled “Audio Piracy as a…
Pick of the Day: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Lauded as “effortlessly endearing” by critic Charles Isherwood, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee introduces a half-dozen young eccentrics in a quirky format that goes beyond breaking the fourth wall. Expanded from Rebecca Feldman’s improvisational comedy C-R-E-P-U-S-C-L-E, the Tony-winning musical changes with each performance as it invites audience members onstage to compete alongside Olive…
To My Love by Alexandra Booth
History, like love, is mysterious. So much of it is about what you put into it yourself. We make up pasts, memories get fuzzy and out of alignment with time. Even pictures tell only a half-truth that can so easily be mislaid with the loss of human connection. And yet we still create stories, fill…
Alamo Beer: A new future for Hays Street Bridge
As expected, Council members Thursday gave their unanimous blessing to Eugene Simor’s plans to build an Alamo Beer Co. microbrewery on the east end of the historic Hays Street Bridge, despite a growing chorus of voices opposed to the project. The approval clears the way for the city to sell off a 1.69-acre lot of…
Lance Henriksen discusses ‘Champion,’ comic books, movie violence
Lance Henriksen on the set of Kevin and Robin Nations’ family film “Champion,” which is currently shooting in San Antonio. (Photo by Kiko Martinez) Veteran actor Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Terminator) is currently in San Antonio shooting the family film Champion. Directed by Kevin and Robin Nations, Champion stars Henriksen as a farmer whose relationship…
Pick of the Day: “In the Dreams of the Trees & Gumption”
Curious constructions and “reconfigured ready-mades” land at UTSA Satellite Space courtesy of artists Erin Elko, James Miller, and Lenise Pérez-Miller. Incorporating elements of sculpture and printmaking, Elko’s “In the Dreams of the Trees” conjures a destination where humans respond to life on half-submerged islands by constructing airships from readily available resources. Rooted in marine iconography,…
Spuriosity: French Twist
Despite some initially sloppy play from both France and Argentina, the first on-court matchup between Spurs All-Stars Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili lived up to Silver and Black expectations. Manu scored 26 points and was easily the best player on the hardwood, but it was Parker’s speed and steady game-management that proved the difference, lifting…
Saluté fallout: Casey Lange’s letter to San Antonio
(In a video blog post earlier this week, Casey Lange, well-known owner of Limelight on North St. Mary’s as well as the building where Saluté International Bar was — until last weekend — located, has been accused of … well, a lot of stuff. Some of the rhetoric swirling in the wake of his eviction…
Pick of the Day: Friendly Outdoor Movies: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Slab Cinema and The Friendly Spot’s outdoor summer series continues with a screening of The Empire Strikes Back (aka Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) — the highest grossing film of 1980. As Luke Skywalker trains intensely with self-exiled Jedi Grandmaster Yoda, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Co. deftly evade Darth Vader and…
Newsmonger: Lackland AFB alleged sex scandal victims climbs to 38, Adoption Services Associates investigated by the AG, Frack-study author takes industry money
Noted "It’s bullshit." — Darren E. Sherkat, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale professor, speaking to the Chronicle of Higher Education about UT Austin prof Mark Regnerus’ highly controversial study challenging the parenting abilities of same-sex couples. Look for a more particular takedown of Regnerus’ work by Sherkat in an upcoming issue of the journal Social…
Taste this: Jalapeño cheeseburger: $5.95
The name might remind you of roadkill, but Armadillos Texas-Style Burgers are worth a try if you’ve developed wallet fatigue from the over-priced patties now offered by many other establishments. Flipped on the griddle like grandma cooked ’em, topped with biting jalapenos and gooey cheddar, you’ll need both hands to negotiate this glorious half-pounder in…
Queen of Burlesque Coco Lectric on teasing the audience, sexuality, and 'stank face'
Named 2010 Queen of Burlesque at the influential New Orleans Burlesque Festival, founding member of Austin’s Jigglewatts Burlesque and headmistress of The Austin Academy of Burlesque, Coco Lectric has graced the pages of magazines and appeared in numerous festivals. Current Arts Editor Scott Andrews had the good fortune to reach Coco Lectric by phone in…
Bad Breaks: 'Bad Breaks'
Bad Breaks really captures my attention at the moment of transition into "Seppuku," the album’s second (and best) song. It’s a jarring transition that reminds me to pay attention no matter how much the opener sounds like a lost Spoon B-side. This record is full of such moments, exhibiting real molten life and an excellent…
Benefit aims to keep West Side Horns keyboardist Arturo "Sauce" Gonzalez hard at work
Last May, we previewed a show benefitting Danny Esquivel, guitarist for the West Side Horns and the OBG Band, who is experiencing some medical issues. Next in line for help is Esquivel’s boss in the West Side Horns, the legendary Arturo "Sauce" González. "I will need a kidney transplant very soon," González, 69, told the…
'Wolf' gnaws over sexual predators in church, but fails to tackle the hardest questions
The drama of a dutiful boy abused in church, Wolf was written and directed by a local kid who made good. A graduate of San Antonio’s Sam Houston High School who now teaches at UT Arlington, Ya’Ke Smith has earned a string of prizes for his short films (his acclaimed Katrina’s Son was shown at…
Tony Parker's Nueve Lounge: Avoid TMZ drama at upscale freeway-side Dominion-land lounge
As of this writing, San Antonio Spur’s point man Tony Parker is recovering from eye surgery he received in France that is directly linked to a low point at a high-end Soho basement bar called W.i.P (Work in Progress). Chris Brown’s entourage apparently ran afoul of Drake’s people at this Factory-inspired dungeon, and bottles were…
Hide the children (but not the women), burlesque is in town
The New York nights were sultry when H. L. Mencken coined the term "ecdysiast" to describe Gypsy Rose Lee, a star of Minsky’s Burlesque during the Great Depression. Lured by promises of the bump and grind, they packed the joint, but what made the stage door johnnies succumb was a sly thing — a wink…
3 more reasons not to miss Kiss and Mötley Crüe
1 The Treatment "Get to the KISS_CRUE show early and check out the @thetreatmentuk," tweeted @NikkiSixx, bassist for Mötley Crüe. "Support new music… These guys rock." 2 The Lightshow According to Sixx, this is "one of our most aggressive and over-the-top lighting designs … accompanied by all the lasers, it’s pretty much all eye candy."…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: I’m a Mexican-American high school student, and just as patriotic as the Joneses who live next to me. In my neighborhood, a gabacho got mad when someone hung a Mexican flag and ended up cutting it down. I think this whole idea of putting one’s flag up and another down seems pretty pointless…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The astrological omens suggest that you now have a lot in common with the legendary Most Interesting Man in the World — adventurous, unpredictable, interesting, lucky, one-of-a-kind. To create your horoscope, I have therefore borrowed a few selected details from his ad campaign’s descriptions of him. Here we go: In the…
From food truck to family eatery
Knife & Fork Gastropub (20626 Stone Oak Pkwy, where Damien Watel’s Ciao2 used to be) opened last month, serving up high-end versions of pub fare. The chef, Javier Orozco, is no stranger to serving haute cuisine, as he’s also the chef at the helm of Bistro 6, a gourmet food truck catering to private parties…
Bad LGBT Parents? Bad UT study, audit finds
Are kids raised by gay and lesbian couples bound to struggle more in life than those raised by straight parents? Drawing from the small body of research compiled by the American Psychological Association, the general consensus has stood that kids raised in same-sex households turn out pretty much the same as those with heterosexual parents.…
Paul Stanley promises brand-new Kiss spectacle with Crüe, The Treatment
Kiss has never worried about being upstaged by an opening act. "We’ve always believed in letting the best bands available go out there and do what they do because it only fires us up that much more," original singer/guitarist Paul Stanley said in a mid-July phone interview. "Our track record is pretty stellar, whether it’s,…
Sugar, spice, and gender coalesce in trio of bilingual kids' books
I have a surprise for you, I tell my four-year-old daughter when I pick her up from preschool. Three surprises, actually. What is it? A treat? Xochitl shouts, and I can see visions of raspas twirling in her mind already, legacy of our occasional after-school excursion down the street to the Wizard Sno-Cone shack on…
Fear stalks the characters of 'I-DJ', but the music plays on
Setting a beautiful standard for the new Overtime Theater, I-DJ, written by Gregg Barrios and directed by Matthew Byron Cassi, explores aspects of the late 1970s Chicano movement, homophobia, the rise of disco, and the outbreak of AIDS in L.A. club land as seen through the eyes of gay Chicano DJ Warren Peace. Peace’s story…
Season 5 of 'Breaking Bad' delivers the monster inside
Breaking Bad (9pm Sun, AMC) I hope you’re not letting the Olympics distract you from Breaking Bad’s final season. This is TV history in the making, folks. The series is a profound investigation of corruption — the corruption of a single man’s soul. And the new episodes suggest that Breaking Bad will work out its…
Former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera brings his Soulfly to SA
With 20 million copies sold worldwide (more than three million in the U.S.), the Sepultura legend has been steadily growing since Max Cavalera left the influential and versatile Brazilian metal band in 1996. Yet, Cavalera has remained active and comes to San Antonio on the heels of Enslaved, the new album by Soulfly, one of…
Beyond kuntry kuteness
Though Mr. Tim’s was established in 2009, it has, in the café’s new location close to the intersection of South Presa and South Alamo, the feeling of a place that has seen some years. The building has housed many a failed food concept in the past, and they all still linger in a space that…
Mötley Crüe: Never too old to rock ‘n’ roll
You’re only as old as the bands you feel, and when one of those bands wrote a song called "Dr. Feelgood," well, that’s a clue, isn’t it? There’s almost an infinite number of nostalgia acts touring the country right now, but Mötley Crüe — hitting the AT&T Center as part of a national sweep with…
Pick of the Day: Cinema Tuesdays: Harold and Maude
Decades before Harold and Kumar were going to White Castle and escaping from Guantanamo Bay, Harold and Maude were attending random funerals and bonding over a common fascination with death. Starring Ruth Gordon as a 79-year-old free spirit named Maude and Bud Cort as a morbidly theatrical young man named Harold, the 1971 film flopped…
