Plum Island comes to SA?
Those interested in the possibility of Homeland Security bringing an expanded Plum Island germ lab to Alamo City, may want to watch Karl Grossman’s two-part account of issues facing folks around New York regarding the site that has become vilified from New York to Georgia. Seems only Mississippi, Kansas, and SA are swollen with longing…
On the Street (Warning: Not Sure Why These Entries Are Jambled and Unreadable)
“Summertime Blues” Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite) #1 Arrivee Asusual with OTS correspondence, things are either cryptically brief, orlong-winded pseudo-advertisements. This first letter was notthe latter. Though one might think it would somewhere use the overused expression”fail”, or worse “epic fail”, we are spared. #2 For Foto Lovers… not sure how much…
Sweatin’ to the Latin Jamz
By: Jennifer Herrera jherrera@sacurrent.com I skipped lunch today in hopes of getting a free pre-Columbian meal. Apparently the press release faxed to our office about said cooking demonstration listed the incorrect time so my video and lunch plans were scrapped. With my stomach growling and no video to bring back to the office, I headed…
Anti-wall actions galore
By Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com MSM news coverage of the Border Wall is picking up. Which in this case means the walling has begun. With the dozers in view and forms up on the levy at Granjeno, come a slew of anti-border-militarization actions. (Here’s David Martin Davies with TPR yesterday.) There will be un encuentro in…
Revenge of the toy commercial
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Director: Dave Filoni Screenwriter: Dave Filoni Cast: Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kane Release Date: 2008-08-20 Rated: PG Genre: Animation Remember the days of not being disappointed by George Lucas? Me neither. I was just a twinkle in some anonymous transient’s milky eye when…
Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dems
By Gilbert Garcia The Bexar County Democrats gathered last night for a pre-Denver mixer, and while some conceded that they’ve never before seen the kind of lingering animus that exists between Clinton and Obama supporters, there were also signs of unity in the air. State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, one of Hillary’s most ardent…
Aventuras de un carpero
Last weekend Bihl Haus Arts hosted La: Carpa: A Mini-Symposium with Witte Museum curator Dr. Michaele Haynes and Pete Haney, Ph. D, who wrote his dissertation on the Carpa tradition, both spoke about the history of las carpas (Mexican tent circuses). The presentation coincided with Adriana Garcia’s Bihl Haus exhibit Entre la Carpa/Inside the Tent,…
Fixing SAPD: Act One
By Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com It’s been more than a month since Police Chief Bill McManus (above, right, next to PERF’s Tegeler) and other city leaders authorized the release of a veritable catalog of use-of-force-related policy-change recommendations submitted to McManus by a City-contracted D.C.-based non-profit police practices organization. Since the July 3 release of the 141…
Artslam! saves the day
Artslam!: Revenge of the Superheroes took over the Limelight on August 9, and I got to be one of the artists involved. I’ve never done anything like that before (and I’m not much of a painter â?? I’m more of a Photoshopper), but it was alot of fun and I’d definitely do it again if…
Letter weather
People for Renewal check in with the Current. By Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com You may not know this, as, like, 21st Century we’ve been getting of late, but some of us at the Au Currant absolutely LOVE TO GET LETTERS!!! (Did the shrieking All-Caps give it away?) This one may have been in response to my…
Are we ready for the nuke renaissance?
By Roland James rolandjames_318@hotmail.com Despite their supposed conservatism, which usually means local, state, and decentralized solutions, John McCain and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison are calling for many more nuclear power plants in the U.S. (‘Texas poised to lead nuclear renaissance’ by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, August 10 2008). The nuclear industry in the U.S. is…
Don’t Do Anything
Don’t Do Anything Composer: Sam Phillips Conductor: Sam Phillips Label: Nonesuch Release Date: 2008-08-13 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Singer/Songwriter (Rock/Pop) It’s hard to tell if this is the end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth phase of Sam Phillips’ career. In the mid-’80s, she was a popular,…
(Not) our town
American Teen Director: Nanette Burstein Screenwriter: Nanette Burstein Cast: Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Megan Krizmanich Release Date: 2008-08-13 Rated: PG-13 Genre: Documentary Beginning with its title, American Teen perpetuates the bogus notion that the Midwest — the heartland of the homeland — is the locus of real America, as if Oregon, New Jersey, and Hawaii…
Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder Director: Ben Stiller Screenwriter: Ben Stiller Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black Release Date: 2008-08-13 Rated: R Genre: Comedy Lowbrow comedy (which I shamelessly support, generally) is often peculiarly particular in its appeal. It’s not always clear what causes some folks to swear by or pass on such fare as Super…
Fly Me to the Moon
Critic’s Diss
Wednesday 13 w. Eden Burning & Gandis Gun
Release Date: 2008-08-13 Gear up for a night of fun, rockin’ horrorpunk as Wednesday 13 zips through San Antonio in support of his spiderweb-laced new album, Skeletons. Wednesday has strapped the guitar back on for this tour — a car crash resulting in a broken collarbone forced him to abandon the axe last time —…
Noche Azul: Mas Boleros
Release Date: 2008-08-13 Cantante/songwriter Azul returns to the Esperanza with Mas Boleros, her monthly concert series that features a celebration of song, story, y amor. The audience at last month’s packed affair was treated to performances by renowned jazz musicians Bett Butler and Joël Dilley, who will again accompany Azul as she further explores the…
When Clouds Clear
Release Date: 2008-08-13 The Museo Alameda hosts a film screening of When Clouds Clear, an award-winning documentary that tells the story of the remote farming community of Junín, Ecuador, and its radical resistance to a proposed copper mine that would destroy its way of life forever. Suddenly these once-peaceful farmers find themselves thrust into a…
Tension Speak, Stillborn, Innervoid, & Until We Erase
Release Date: 2008-08-13 Local hard rockers Tension Speak have decided to help out the city’s less fortunate through music, by donating proceeds and food items collected at Friday’s show to the S.A. Food Bank. Tension Speak has spent much of the last year regrouping, but they’re solidifying their place in the scene with dynamic performances…
Joe Ely & Joel Guzman
Release Date: 2008-08-13 Joe Ely is noted for the spectacular band combinations he’s brought to Gruene Hall over the years, but a favorite has been his show with Grammy Award-winning accordion player, Joel Guzman. The duet of Ely and Guzman is supremely harmonious, excelling with skillful renditions of Ely’s original songs that appeal to the…
Shakespeare-on-the-Walk
Release Date: 2008-08-13 SA-based touring group the Company Theatre concludes their 2007-08 season with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged!), a fast-paced romp through all 37 of the Bard’s plays. The one-night-only performance will be anything but traditional, featuring only three actors and a heavy dose of improv in the 97-minute production on the…
Gorgeous Frankenstein, Bella Morte, Car Bomb, The Banner, The Cuttthroats, So Unloved, & more
Release Date: 2008-08-13 From the fallen remains of the resurrected Misfits rose Gorgeous Frankenstein, brainchild of hulking axeman Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein. Argyle Goolsby and Jesco Devilanse of Blitzkid fame joined Doyle for a 2007 tour opening up for Danzig — which included a crowd-pleasing number of Misfits tracks. This year Doyle recruited long-time friend…
Caliente competition
La Choza gives Cascabel’s huaraches a run for their money
Amuse-BOUCHE
Another grocery-delivery service is vying for your vittles dollar, this one bound not by organics (like greenling.com, featured in A-B December 5, 2007), but by grocery chain. U.S. Armed Forces vets Shane and Amanda Eastman are loyal to H-E-B, which is helping them spread word of their business, Grocery 2 Me, and provides staging areas…
OK Chardonnay
OK, enough already; we’ve collectively beaten up on Cali chardonnay for so long now that it’s about time for a comeback. (Some things, like Hummers, don’t deserve the reprieve they may get via an Indian manufacturer, but that’s another issue.) So here they are, the first recent words out of my mouth in praise of…
Tough all over
We love our heroes brash, unsparing, and a little bad. But that’s a young man’s garb, before life’s iniquities engender a little more pause in the devil-may-care strut. Maybe that’s why it seems that rock is the music of boys, and country the music of men. Gary Allan has always walked a little on both…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
From 1999 to 2004, Medicine Tongue was one of the trenchant forces on the local metal scene, drawing airplay and headbanger bonus points for their 2002 debut album, Collide, and a 2003 follow-up, … And Soon the Sun Will Rise. But the band has been quiet for the last several years while its members worked…
Return of the brilliant ’90s songwriters
My Favorite Waste of Time Freedy Johnston (Singing Magnet) In an unexpected treat for Central Texas music lovers, songwriter Freedy Johnston popped up in Austin last week for not one but two live shows, one acoustic and one with a band. Unexpected, because Johnston hasn’t put new songs on a disc since 2001, and hasn’t…
Far east
The East, East Side I hadn’t really consulted a map before I left. I just knew I was going east of the East Side, whatever that meant. About 14 months ago I was talking to a City gardener named Brad (who also goes by Bob), who spoke of a vast and relatively unknown part of…
CDs Nuts
One Day As a Lion One Day as a Lion (Anti) A quick skim of the Rage Against the Machine lyric books will tell you, frontman Zach de la Rocha’s purpose statements are visceral, preaching general anger and indignation to both the downtrodden and the fratboy. By that standard, One Day as a Lion, the…
The QueQue
Missed connections San Anto Greenies may have watched CPS Energy slash-and-burn management practices, as Queque has this past year, and thought the company was slimming down to better sell its nuke ambitions. Welcome to a whole new spin: It’s a dastardly scheme to spin-off the transmission service, or the gas service, or some portion of…
The Heroine
There are maybe 35 people crowding the Rock Bottom stage when the Heroine come on. The radio-station remote crew has gone, ditto the pretty girls handing out free beer. But the Heroine play sweaty, riff-driven rock ’n’ roll, music to chug by, so frontman Ernest Isaac Benavidez offers to buy a round of Lone Star…
No day in the park
When the San Antonio Police Department announced in May that the city’s park and airport police would merge with the SAPD, the rationale seemed to be that it would create a more efficient, uniformly trained force. The response to the initiative, however, was outrage from both park-police officers and many community activists. Even with a…
“The Spider in the Experimental Bike” — Anfo Merc
Anfo Merc provide no background info, only B-movie tribal chants and finger-blistering thrash riffs, before throwing us into the middle of the story, finding biker and spider in the midst of their quest to burn rubber for justice. Also, gargoyles are involved somehow. The perfect theme song for one of those damn-near incomprehensible Japanese cartoons,…
Racing against time and the odds at Artpace
A vinyl codex, built of hundreds of records stacked floor to ceiling, is the psychological and emotional center of William Cordova’s Artpace installation. It alternately glimmers and absorbs light, one minute a beacon, the next a black hole. Like other magical manmade ladders — Jack’s beanstalk, the Tower of Babel — it promises to elevate…
Running Joker
Dear Christopher Nolan, Do you mind if I call you Chris? I’ve been thinking a lot about the Joker recently. Like many people, I was blown away by the performance Heath Ledger gave in your most recent Batman film. His sadistic portrayal of the Joker, and the complex ties he has to the Dark Knight,…
Thank heaven for little girls
Reading Lolita in Tehran, clandestinely, Azar Nafisi defied a repressive régime. In Vladimir Nabokov’s novel of eros perverted and thwarted, Humbert Humbert, a middle-age scholar, recounts his abduction and abuse of a 12-year-old girl. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, her 2003 memoir, Nafisi explains how the book helped beleaguered Iranian women understand the ways others…
S’NUFF
My student film was basically Star Wars Episode I, recorded from television and cut down to only the best parts — those featuring Jar Jar Binks’ luscious, luscious lips. I screened it for the first and only time on George Lucas’s lawn, projected on a soiled bedsheet. Reviews were extremely mixed, many involving pepper spray…
ARTIFACTS
Fotoseptiembre, the annual celebration of the shutter-driven medium, is out of the gate, with Bantu-Eyez already open at the Carver. You know Artifacts’ weakness: works that question photography’s function and value. This weekend’s reception for John William Keedy at Galeria Ortiz Contemporary (4026 McCullough) should scratch the itch. Keedy grabbed an early 15 minutes of…
Just ‘Plain’ bad
Damn, those are big lips, Mary McCormack! Seriously. They weren’t always that big, were they? Certainly not back in your Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star salad days. What gives? Oh, wait, I get it … maybe. Are they for your hot new character? The one who looks like a girl, but walks, talks, fights and…
Skyscrapers and screaming teddy bears
Spinning realistic human memoirs using cute animals as stand-ins is hardly a new idea to the comics world — if you’ve never heard of Maus, odds are you’ve still seen it done a half-dozen other places — but the conceit feels fresh in Skyscrapers of the Midwest (AdHouse Books), a strange little creation from Joshua…
Cinema Obscura
Over the title sequence of 1989’s Heathers, the hauntingly sweet cover of “Que Sera, Sera” by Syd Straw plays while the three young women that make up the eponymous clique — the most popular girl gang at Westburg High School — step on flower beds while partaking in a game of croquet. Viewers already know…
Dear Uncle Mat
Dating in SA is like going to the effin’ dentist to get your wisdom teeth pulled without Novocain or laughing gas. Why is SA such a hard place to meet someone? I went from a husband to a girlfriend to a young artist boy from Houston to just fucking. My friends encouraged me to join…
Actually awesome blossoms
A study published this summer in The American Naturalist, called “Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation,” details the method by which male orchid dupe wasps, Lissopimpla excelsa, actually engage in true coitus with Australian tongue orchids. Yes, sex until climax, with flowers. The benefit for orchids is clear: The wasps can’t help but pollinate other flowers…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Golden Globe-winning actress Edith Evans had some advice for actors who were just coming into their full power: “Don’t indulge yourself by showing off; the moment that you begin to find that you can do something well, you must control it, and do it more selectively.” This recommendation would serve you…
No new Cold War (probably)
“Have you noticed,” my wife asked, "that when one of America’s allies thinks it has a green light to invade somewhere, they always do it in the summer?" She was right: Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990; Israel invaded Lebanon in July, 2006; Georgia invaded South Ossetia in August, 2008. Israel really did have a…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: As a Mexican, I’m always ashamed of the fact that a lot of Mexican women just come to the U.S. to have babies and to utilize this country’s welfare. I know a lot of them who just keep having children, and they do not pay a dollar for the hospital care. They even…
Swig and a miss
The game seemed out of reach only a few plays before, but Derek Campbell and Alex Castro have somehow clawed their way back into contention. Derek, with beads of sweat forming at his brow, takes control of the ball, and steps up to attempt the game-winning shot. His teammate stands beside him as he concentrates…
Clean energy breaks into respectability
By Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Goddamn Queque. You get horned into answering one question, say, divulging the latest gossip floating around CPS Energy service centers, and pretty soon your whole day is sunk. Hopefully, you appreciate this week’s offering. Understand the price being I couldn’t wear down my heals loitering on the steps of the San…
