On the Street
From Jupiter to Stumptown (And No Place Inbetween) In the 80s for some reason I thought of Randy Beamer as a young David Letterman hambone type. Specifically, I’m thinking of a scene he did live at La Villita during NIOSA for Chanel 5. Those were the waning Dan Cook years when a younger Chris Marrou…
On the Street
From Jupiter to Stumptown (And No Place Inbetween) In the 80s for some reason I thought of Randy Beamer as a young David Letterman hambone type. Specifically, I’m thinking of a scene he did live at La Villita during NIOSA for Chanel 5. Those were the waning Dan Cook years when a younger Chris Marrou…
An Evening with Ian Moore
Release Date: 2007-08-22 While rising up through the rough-and-tumble Austin music scene in the early ’90s, Ian Moore quickly became known for his guitar techniques, but in the oversaturated guitar market at that place and time, it was his strong talent for songwriting that set him apart. His highly anticipated album To Be Loved hit…
The Receiving End of Sirens, Emmanuel, Hopesfall, & Goodbye Tomorrow
Release Date: 2007-08-22 Boston’s own The Receiving End of Sirens have made their debut on the Billboard Charts with the release of their new album, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi. Charting in at the #3 and #130 spots on Billboard’s Heatseekers and Top 200 Charts, respectively, Sirens’ sophomore effort points to their maturation as…
The Red Room Presents Wendy Colonna
Release Date: 2007-08-22 Colonna’s latest, Old, New, Borrowed & Blue, is part of a collaboration between Austin’s Music & Entertainment Television, Front Gate Tickets, and area musicians. The two CD/DVD combo is made up of 22 songs — “old” songs from previous records, two “new” previously unreleased songs, and some tracks “borrowed” from local songwriter…
Patrick Sigel
Release Date: 2007-08-22 Colonna’s latest, Old, New, Borrowed & Blue, is part of a collaboration between Austin’s Music & Entertainment Television, Front Gate Tickets, and area musicians. The two CD/DVD combo is made up of 22 songs — “old” songs from previous records, two “new” previously unreleased songs, and some tracks “borrowed” from local songwriter…
Dear Uncle Mat
Dear Uncle Mat, My life has more drama than a late-night novella. I thought I’d throw a question that’s been bugging me lately. Anyone who can answer this should be given a trophy or a puppy or something. I’m a single mom to a 6-year-old and I admit that I’m overprotective. I finally have gotten…
The secret lives of toddlers
The way Iremember it, pretending to be an adult was much more fun than actually being one. That’s not the case for the youngsters of Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade (who are, admittedly, much more worldly than the tots of yesteryear), but their trials are certainly entertaining to watch. Most of the time. Our protagonist, Lucy,…
Free will astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’ve been putting out and putting out and putting out, Aries. Good work! I’m impressed with the blend of high-minded generosity and ego-boosting self-expression you’ve synergized. Now, however, it’s time to make a transition. You need to start taking in and taking in and taking in. Your radiance needs to be…
Comic-love and self-hate
A detail from King of Persia, collected in Walt Holcombe’s Things Just Get Away From You. Some time back, this column happily noted the arrival of a new line of archive-quality reprints devoted to historic publisher EC Comics. At the time, only two titles from the pantheon had been released, but I’m pleased to report…
There’s no place like home
The Ruby Slippers Cookbook:Life, Food, Family & Culture After Katrina, is a visual disaster of a book by contemporary publishing norms. Juicy, lacquered photos of impossibly perfect plates of unreal food are nowhere to be found, and in their stead are images of chaos and destruction interspersed with photos of real-life crawfish boils, shots of…
All about Steve
Rennaissance man Steve Buscemi stars in, co-wrote, and directed Interview, a remake of the eponymous 2003 Dutch movie made by Theo van Gogh before he was brutally murdered in 2004. Interestingly, Van Gogh had intended to remake the movie in New York in English himself. Buscemi stepped in, and delivers a taut, stage-worthy confrontation between…
Amuse-bouche
Two weeks ago Central Market delivered not one but two palanquins of Hatch chile peppers — green, fragrant, on the edge of overripeness, and accompanied by a gadget that purports to make it easier to remove the seeds. We couldn’t figure the whatchamadoodle out, so we peeled and seeded the peppers by hand, after roasting…
Critical Darling
Afew months back, when my predecessor and the Current’s prime purveyor of parentheses, Brian Villalobos, wrote an approving review of Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, I struggled to categorize the film as far as genre is concerned. Like Apatow’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin, it’s basically a romantic comedy for guys. I settled on “dick flick” … but…
The fruity meat technique
Few people would suspect that a rabbit cooked in plum sauce would be anything like the Mexican classic chile verde. In many respects, including flavor, this is true. But in their preparations, both dishes employ a similar methodology. The technique, in essence, is to slowly cook meat with fruit, which encourages a mutual unlocking of…
Painting the ills of Old Spain
Goya’s Ghosts begins and ends with images of prints etched by the greatest Spanish artist between Velasquez and Picasso. However, this is not the kind of biopic that does for Francisco Goya what The Agony and the Ecstasy did for Michelangelo and Lust for Life for Van Gogh. In fact, despite a vigorous performance by…
What happens at Martini Club …
Wayne Harper’s Martini Club is inauspiciously located in a bland strip mall at the corner of McCullough and Rector, in the shadow of North Star Mall. The equally inauspicious sign above the bar doesn’t suggest the delights found inside, starting with a décor that draws inspiration from an old Vegas lounge. People who are familiar…
Invasion of the goodness snatchers
With every remade film I take in, I ask myself “Why?” Or to be precise, Why is this story relevant and in need of retelling? If I were more pragmatic, I’d probably be asking myself, How much money stands to be made from this tried-and-true tale? Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds suggests itself as…
Local Cinema: SAY Sí’s Doldrums
Last Friday I attended SAY Sí’s premiere of Doldrums, a 30-minute film written by John Strong, and directed by Strong and Antonio Rodriguez. This was only my second time at SAY Sí, but like the first time I visited, I felt right at home, enveloped in the gorgeous, art-saturated space. Also like the first time…
Mark Richter, Executive Director, the San Antonio Opera
You saved San Antonio opera in your 30s. What are you going to do with your 40s? I was giving a presentation to some entrepreneurs to get sponsorship for the opera, and the husbands would say, I’d like to introduce you to my wife, we’ve been married for 20 years, or whatever. And so I…
The Ten
I’m not quite certain what to do with The Ten — the patently, almost aggressively absurd(ist) bundle of comic anarchy from The State/Stella/Wet Hot American Summer/The Baxter alumni David Wain, Ken Marino, et al. (And I do mean “et al.”: The film is replete with faces old and new, a sprawling panoply of notables peppered…
‘Romance’ connection
A year ago, Ken Slavinworried that he was losing his voice. He’d been diagnosed with acid-reflux and found himself struggling to lay down acceptable vocal tracks for the long-awaited follow-up to his 2001 album, The Song is You. “I had moments during the whole process where I got kinda down,” says Slavin, San Antonio’s preeminent…
Armchair Cinephile
PICK OF THE WEEK:One of the very best films of 2006, now out on standard and high-def disc, is a thriller for the soul, pitting a German spy against his conscience and the power of love and art. Sadly, the film’s brilliant star Ulrich Mühe died last month, just as many filmgoers became aware of…
Sound and the Fury
Time flies when you’re headbanging, and no one knows that better than Robb Chavez, host and creator of cult-fave cable-TV show, Robb’s Metalworks. This summer marks 10 years since Chavez brought the SA cable-access market a video/interview show celebrating every ear-melting contour of modern metal. In recent years, Chavez, who has managed to build an…
Remotely Interesting
Weeds (Showtime, Monday, 10 p.m.) The climax of Weeds’ second season was so shocking I had to re-watch it to make sure I didn’t miss something. A standoff? Seriously? Season one ended with our drug-dealer mom, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), realizing she’d just slept with a DEA agent, exposing all sorts of existential anguish. Season…
Rocanrol in a hard place
When it comes to Spanish-language rock, nobody comes to San Antonio. And when they do come, they wish they never had. On June 22, D. Baron Media in Los Angeles sent out an email announcing the cancellation of a scheduled concert at Club Rio by Mexico’s Jaguares (the band led by Saúl Hernández, former leader…
Aural Pleasure
This guy’s beenputting out a steady stream of intelligent continental soft pop, the kind of perfect party background music that doesn’t intrude on anybody’s personal space, but rather swirls around the contours of one’s head like a comfortable pillow. And on even closer investigation, you’ll find Rouse singing funny lyrics, such as “I wanna die…
Letters To The Editor
Re: “Desperately seeking sushi,” posted 8/15/2007 Godai is good, but didn’t live up to the hype that many people gave it. So I can accept the slight critique that was given. We recently moved here from out West and came across a place called Niki’s Tokyo Inn through a website called SAeats.com. That was the…
CDs Nuts
The duet act once famously described by me as “like Tenacious D, but not funny” is proving a lot of people (me, mostly) wrong these days. The too-short collection of songs offered here is good for approximately one laugh per 1.5 minutes, and at $5 a CD, that’s not a bad average. Opener “Business Time”…
House rules
When House Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland) ruled that he was not required — under House Rules or state law — to recognize House members for a motion that could have resulted in his removal as speaker in the final days of the 80th Legislature, it set in motion a chain of events that may cause…
Spittin’ Game
For the past 12 years or so, most decent Madden reviews have completely stopped commenting on the game itself and just served as an inventory of the newest features. So here are the newest features: An icon system displaying player’s strengths is the first thing you’ll notice, and the first thing you’ll complain about. Did…
The Que Que
Needling the addicts With Bexar County poised to launch a needle-exchange program sure to save lives, cut county expenses by the millions, and help keep dirty needles out of our parks and yards, where is District Attorney Susan “Hang ‘Em High” Reed? Why, she’s threatening to arrest the county employees that would lead the needle…
Mex In Manhattan
This MexicaninManhattandecided one cold, dreary New York morning to cook up a good-old stomach-filling desayuno: toast, eggs, and bacon fried extra crispy the way I like it. After breakfast and ready for the day, I stepped outside my loft and bumped into my neighbor in the hallway. “Mmmm,” she sighed. “I could smell your breakfast…
License to kilt
Sitting atop a 1971 UnionJack-crested Mini Cooper as if he were riding a British Spotted Pony, Danny Badiola did not feel confident about his immediate prospects. Taking a page from Johnny Knoxville’s book of Jackassery, Badiola’s entourage dug their heels into the ground and pushed the pint-sized vehicle as fast as they could, launching it…
Psychologists in denial about torture
This weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers at places like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret CIA “black sites” around the world. Instead, the 148,000-member organization passed a resolution at its annual meeting in San Francisco banning psychologists from…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Readers: It’s not just questions and racist rants that invade the Mexican’s mailbox — your feedback sneaks under my digital fence, también. Let’s start with Lean Like a K Street Chola, a former gangbanger-turned-lobbyist who wrote in a couple of weeks back wondering how she could explain to quizzical pals why Mexican women use…
Artifacts
The Artist Foundation, a local nonprofit that makes grants directly to artists and was forged in the crucible of the city’s arts-funding process by Cultural Arts Board members Bettie Ward and Patricia Pratchett, has opened the mail slot for its second round of applications — due before midnight, September 14. Thanks to the success of…
The Say Town Lowdown
This weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers at places like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret CIA “black sites” around the world. Instead, the 148,000-member organization passed a resolution at its annual meeting in San Francisco banning psychologists from…
Clothes-Minded
Once upon a time, I wore a peach wool sweater and beige corduroys to my first day at Castle Hills Elementary. The fact that it was approaching 1,000 degrees in our “portable” building that August was not a deterrent. My fashion dementia has its roots in the lure of a new seasonal wardrobe, the much-loved…
The opera-phobe’s guide to ‘La Bohème’
In honor of Giacomo Puccini’s 150th birthday, the San Antonio Opera opens its 2007-08 season with La Bohème, the Italian composer’s classic tale of art, love, and loss among the bohemian inhabitants of Paris’s famed Latin Quarter in the 1830s. Completed in 1896, La Bohème is one of the few opera mainstays that no self-respecting…
Local Cinema: SAY Sí’s Doldrums
Last Friday I attended SAY Sí’s premiere of Doldrums, a 30-minute film written by John Strong, and directed by Strong and Antonio Rodriguez. This was only my second time at SAY Sí, but like the first time I visited, I felt right at home, enveloped in the gorgeous, art-saturated space. Also like the first time…
