Macy’s Hosts Sixth Annual Shop for a Cause on Saturday
On Saturday, August 27, 2011, Macy’s hosts their 6th annual “Shop for a Cause” charity shopping event. It’s a unique one-day-only shopping event created to support local charities’ fundraising efforts. Shop for a Cause has raised more than $38 million for local charities across the country since 2006. By purchasing a $5 shopping pass to…
SA premiere: ‘We Were Here,’ Thursday at Alamo Drafthouse North
As part of San Antonio AIDS Foundation’s 25th anniversary celebrations, David Weissman’s We Were Here: The AIDS Years in San Francisco will be shown Thursday at the Alamo Drafthouse North, 618 NW Loop 410. The movie starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $8, but celebrations begin at 5:30 p.m. and you can attend all events (movie included)…
No San Antonians in 2011’s Texas Filmmakers Showcase, but still plenty to inspire
Last year, the Current celebrated the fact that, for the first time in its 16-year history, three filmmakers with ties to San Antonio (Ya’Ke Smith, James T. Moore, and Miguel Alvarez) had their films shown in Los Angeles as part of the 2010 Houston Film Commission’s Texas Filmmakers Showcase (launched as Young Filmmakers Showcase in…
Jaime’s Bday and Photo Hack Day
Tonight Jaime Monzon is celebrating his birthday at the Mix. If you don’t know Jaime, you should. He’s one of the creatives over at SA Current HQ keeping the publication in gear. When Mr. Monzon isn’t working, or gigging with Ledaswan, he’s volunteering his skills with Local782. So I’m tagging Jamie today in celebration of…
Obama halts deportations of DREAM-eligible youth
Yesterday, the Obama administration proved that it’s trying to do something – anything – to win back the votes of its Latino-based electorate. The Department of Homeland Security has issued new guidelines that would prevent the deportations of some 300,000 undocumented people throughout the country – that is, those with a low-risk profile who entered the United States as children,…
Interview with ‘Conan the Barbarian’ lead Jason Momoa
He might be playing the same iconic action role made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the early 80s, but actor Jason Momoa wants you to know his title character in the reboot of Conan the Barbarian was never meant to imitate the original. “They hired an actor, not a puppet,” Momoa, 32, told me…
‘Save The Farm’ screening and urban garden discussion Monday at SWU
Sometimes in the food fight, we take a few steps forward and a few more backward. Like First Lady Michelle Obama’s organic food garden on the lawn of the White House (which had real foodies everywhere celebrating and visioning a greener future for America) or her support for local organic farms and food artisans. Other…
“Off Fukushima” by Amos van der Merwe
This week’s piece blends recent events with fiction. It uses the earthquake in Japan as it’s place/setting and frames the events in terms of character, as it must be framed. Devastation is about people. Yet in the end, ironically, the character mimics the action of the earth. School starts on Monday. Procrastinate by writing something…
Comedian Andy Hendrickson at Rivercenter Comedy Club
When Andy Hendrickson first performed at the Rivercenter Comedy Club he was surrounded by a different world. The club was feeling the wear and tear of hosting 18 years of performances, evidenced by a fading paint job and a back drop stripped from the title theme of Saved by the Bell. The crowds were slim…
Perry’s ignorance on climate change not aided by Texas’ state climatologist
Perry and Texas’ state climatologist have apparently never spoken about climate change — despite the fact that nearly the entire state is experiencing “exceptional” drought and has been breaking summer heat records all summer long. This is the climate of the future we’re wading into, a condition most of the scientific community expects to lock…
Emerging Designer Fashion Show Auditions Today!
The Emerging Designer Fashion Show will be held during Fashion Week San Antonio on October 10-15. Don’t miss today’s Emerging Designer Call for the show! Sponsored by Fashion Group International of San Antonio, the event takes place this evening at Sunset Station Main Depot from 6:00-9:00 pm on 1174 East Commerce. October’s fashion show celebrates…
Southtown San Antonio – Yoga and Non-profits
Photo Credit – Buzzetta Photography SEPTEMBER IS NATIONAL YOGA MONTH! I am celebrating with my friends at Southtown Yoga Loft with a fun-filled First Friday night of Vino & Vinyasa. The festivities include: An hour long Yoga class – 6:30 – 7:30 and then Music, wine, appetizers, art and mingling lots and lots of mingling. Mark your calendars…
Zollie Glass displays art — and product — of deft torch work
Jake Zollie Harper thought he might want to be a photographer, but it didn’t quite work out that way. A successful artist and craftsman, he left photography’s world of captured light for the light of the fire. “I’m a pyro,” Harper said. He’s one of SA’s top glassblowers, too. Back in 1999 while he was…
Artist opportunities around town
The school year is starting or gearing up, yet it’s still hot as blazes, and until September, there is a bit of a lull in art land. But wait, I can hear the rumblings of the creative machine now — it’s time for auditions and getting in on the ground floor as an arts volunteer…
Matisyahu whispers on the power of the spirit
Even though “King Without a Crown” is a great track, the big moment in Live at Stubb’s (2005) — Matisyahu’s second, breakthrough album recorded in Austin — is “Lord Raise Me Up.” If that track doesn’t get you into Matisyahu, nothing will. The song builds with keyboards and a guitar and then explodes into a…
San Antonio’s new smoking ordinance explained
Flower or weed? Smoking, according to City Code, is “inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, weed, plant, or other combustible substance in any manner or in any form.” Electronic cigarettes and the state of being so ethereally sensual that you exude smoke are exempt. Shrine on While nearly all indoor…
Power up
Gamers are typically no sufferers of hardship. They are neither starving nor homeless nor prevented from participating in civic activities. To game, you need a couple hundred bucks and copious free time. Yet, to be a gamer among art lovers is to be the blackest sheep in a platinum pack, one that finds themselves defending…
Gems as constellations … on stage
A thin tuxedo-clad man holding a microphone walks onto a sparsely appointed stage, a lit cigarette dangling in his right hand, while the dark, sultry tones of a double bass begin to swell under the floating arpeggios of the grand piano. In a soft baritone voice, the lyrics of the bolero “Veracruz” fill the room.…
Charged, audience-driven poetry leading some higher in educational pursuits
“A lot of people walk out of here in disgust — or it’s just too much for them to take.” Anthony Flores is prepping me on the imminent verbal onslaught as we sit at the bar inside downtown slam-poetry hotspot On the Half Shell. The night is just getting started — “slammers” are signing up…
Jay-Z and Kanye West: Watch the Throne
Watch The Throne is easily the most anticipated rap release in 2011. The bad news: This isn’t as impactful as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or Reasonable Doubt. The good news: Any fear of a high-profile train wreck is dashed from the album’s opening notes. Not only did ‘Ye and Jay smack this shit out…
Jeff Bridges: Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges, aka “The Dude,” has temporarily set aside his acting career to focus on music. His new self-titled album is his major-label debut, following 2000’s indie-released Be Here Soon, which received mixed reviews. This time around, he teamed up with famed producer T Bone Burnett, whom Bridges worked with in Crazy Heart. Bridges plays…
Beyond the outer loop, a country bar shoots for Saturday night every night
It’s sort of heartbreaking to see a mechanical bull sitting off in a dark corner of a bar, slouching against an empty booth. You’re used to seeing them in action, surrounded by crash pads and laughing drunks and bucking against a girl with expensive shoes or a college guy about to go sneer-first into the…
Fast Foodie: Dulce Vida Mexican Cocina & Cantina
For a restaurant with sweet life connotations, Dulce Vida’s first impressions strike a less-than-saccharine note. For starters, the restaurant occupies the shell of an oddly designed, former Greek restaurant, faux columns, Mykonos murals, and all. A few conventionally Mexican artworks on the walls are the only evidence of a genre-change operation. Given the elevated prices,…
Rockin’ your socks off
Here’s your annual precocious singer-songwriter alert. Fifteen-year-old Victoria Celestine (new stage name of the artist formerly known as Victoria Zaleski) is one of the local talents who caught the ears of producer Gordon Raphael (the Strokes, Regina Spektor) during his extended visit to San Antonio. They recorded a few acoustic songs that kept Victoria stretching.…
Sculley’s 2012 At-A-Glance Budget
Even as the City loses $24 million from its general fund, there is no planned tax increase, no terminations of city employees, and a substantial boost for Animal Care Services. — Michael Barajas Eliminates 197 positions, about half of which are currently filled. However, to avoid layoffs those employees are to be placed in other…
Local Review of Glambilly: White BBQ Sauce
What makes Glambilly so great isn’t in a song, but a monologue. “Pablo” is a voicemail left on the title character’s machine, wherein frontman/bassist/songwriter Hans Frank confesses that he “made eye contact” with Pablo’s mother, a tattooed sexpot with a cokenail but no coke problem. “I am not old enough to be your father,” Frank…
Guy Clark: Songs and Stories
Guy Clark’s songwriting gifts have earned him greater approbation from fellow musicians than commercial success. His sharp un-showy rhymes, plainspoken writing style, and evocative stories are delivered in gently persuasive country-folk arrangements. It’s music that rewards repeated listening and is particularly impressive to those who appreciate the nuts and bolts of a well-crafted song. Indeed,…
Street food comes to Alamo Heights
If the Boardwalk on Bulverde is too far of a drive for you (and let’s face it, it’s too far for many of us), you should try the tincan mashup on Broadway. This month, food trucks started convening on Wednesdays in the Revolution Room’s parking lot. Head down after 6 p.m.,* when StrEAT Food will…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Time magazine asked Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough why he started writing a biography of Pablo Picasso but never finished it. McCullough said it was because the famous artist turned out to be boring. He attracted a steady flow of new lovers, and he made hundreds of paintings, but he didn’t…
Critick’s Pick: Selena
I loved director Gregory Nava’s El Norte but I hated Mi Familia/My Family. I respect producer Moctesuma Esparza’s contribution to Latino filmmaking in the U.S. (especially the Robert Redford-directed The Milagro Beanfield War), but almost puked when I saw Price of Glory, which Esparza produced and Jimmy Smits starred in. So by the time the…
Success of Vegeria will require serving the underserved … and luring the merely curious
As a fellow traveler who did time in the religious life, Vegeria Vegan Tex-Mex co-owner Fred Anthony Garza almost certainly knows this already. But it’s probably worth reminding the rest of you: the Original Diet was a meat-free one. Check those shared origin myths informing the three chief monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam;…
The Apoca-List
AKA The “We’re Fucked” Index
The QueQue: Electric bill help in San Antonio, Open records fights in Alamo Heights, Smith protective of Canseco in redistricting, 152-0: CPS Energy’s Beneby lauded by Sierra Club
Electric bill help in San Antonio While we’re grateful local governments offer electric bill assistance to low-income, elderly, and disabled residents with federal funds and donations from CPS Energy customers, you may want to get it while you can. With the economic weather and Washington mood, those funds are most likely about to be greatly…
SWEET POTATO FRIES FROM CULLUM’S ATTABOY, $3.95
A bite of what we’re eating here at the Current
Lamar Smith’s push to HALT the DREAM Act
Two bills snaking their way through Congress, both with equally catchy names, show just how polarized the debate over immigration has become. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois took up his decade-long fight to move the DREAM Act through Congress in late June, holding the bill’s first-ever Senate committee hearing. Durbin and the bill’s House…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Readers: Your faithful Mexican is putting the final touches on his coming magnum opus, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America (out April 2012) and is thus at the rancho, getting handmade tortillas made by his chica in pigtails while he works on rewrites. But instead of a Best Of columna, I’ve decided to…
Glambilly reaches a mature frenzied state with White BBQ Sauce
Hans Frank feeds off criticism, crafting it into art. Take his band Glambilly. A sour member of the audience first hurled the term at Frank back when he was fronting his group Hans Frank and The Auslanders (“People thought I was from Germany and it was a mouthful,” he said recently. He was in the…
Falling in love with Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway sadly swims. Anne Hathaway sadly rides her bike. Anne Hathaway sadly signals a left turn. So opens One Day, the new film from An Education director Lone Scherfig. Based on the opening montage, one might imagine that the film will rise or fall based on the viewer’s ability to stomach a Sad Hathaway…
Legislature continues to raid electric bill assistance fund
Thousands of elderly and poor Texans are enduring another hot summer with little or no air conditioning because their strapped budgets leave no room for expensive utility bills. North Texas counted at least 13 heat-related deaths during sustained triple-digit temperatures this summer. San Antonio has not documented any heat-related deaths yet, but firefighters responded to…
Mata taking her spring fashion line to NYC
When I walked into Angelina Mata’s River North abode, I was immediately transported onto a set of The Devil Wears Prada — if that film had been about a talented artist preparing for fashion week in New York City, that is. My eyes were drawn to an array of colorful fabrics waiting to be drawn…
Harbingers of fall
Harbingers of fall With the first chill in the air last week (Did you notice the daily high dip from 102 to only 99 degrees?) the beers of fall began to pop up on shelves. I pulled on a sweater to taste the fall Brewmaster’s Collection from Samuel Adams, with its spicy Harvest Pumpkin Ale…
Sam Lerma’s Lilia screens at Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival
Kudos to local filmmaker Sam Lerma, whose short Lilia had two screenings at the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival in July and screens August 17 and 18 at the New York International Latino Film Festival. After that, the short (about a man struggling to keep his family together after losing his job) will be…
