Live & Local preview: Yes, Inferno
Tonight (Friday, August 28), we’re hitting Rock Bottom to check out instrumental rockers Yes, Inferno, who, despite their names are not in fact a band that reinterprets Yes covers into disco jams. But we’ll try not to hold that against them. Doors open at 9 p.m. and this show is free for everybody. Locals Bisön…
Chaléwood No. 18: Paola Turbay
Paola Turbay – The Cleaner By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current contributing writer kiko@cinesnob.net Colombian actress Paola Turbay’s first role in an American television show did not end the way she would have liked. As the character Isabel Vega in the short-lived CBS series Cane, which starred Jimmy Smits as the head of a Latino…
A little more on the Museo’s City funding
Below you’ll find this week’s QueQue item about the Alameda — the nonprofit Latino cultural-arts org that operates the Museo Alameda, is restoring the Alameda Theatre, and is now partnering with other local arts orgs to open the Henry Ford Academy: Alameda School for Art & Design. As the QueQue notes this week, the chair…
Screw ‘The Great Gatsby,’ this is the great American novel
Sure, maybe Fitzgerald’s masterpiece dissects our tendency to confuse wealth hording for personal growth and our constant obsession with a golden-hued past that probably never really existed, but can you stick your dick in it and have your significant other complete a maze around it? Not without a pen-knife and some serious drinking you can’t,…
A wrinkle in time
Humpday Director: Lynn Shelton Screenwriter: Lynn Shelton Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, David Bundgren Release Date: 2009-08-26 Rated: R Genre: Film If you’re talking art pornography, there’s nothing more beautiful and moving than two straight dudes boning each other. That’s how it seems to friends Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard), anyway,…
Travels with frenchie
Part XII: Ice-cream men
Ponyo
Ponyo Director: Hayao Miyazaki Screenwriter: Hayao Miyazaki Cast: Frankie Jonas, Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Tina Fey, Noah Cyrus Release Date: 2009-08-26 Rated: G Genre: Film Our Rating: 3.50 “Her name is Ponyo. She likes to eat ham and she does magic.” This line, spoken by 5-year-old Sosuke, effectively sums up the whimsical fable-like…
Mysterious Mess
Mysterious Mess Composer: I Ching Gatos Conductor: I Ching Gatos Label: Self released Release Date: 2009-08-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Armed with the Nuggets collection and an off-color, multilingual pun that would make James Joyce jealous, I Ching Gatos have genuinely crafted a Mysterious Mess. First track “Sing the Mama” provides the album title but…
Hospice
Hospice Composer: The Antlers Conductor: The Antlers Label: French Kiss Records Release Date: 2009-08-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Hospice is the best record this year that I have absolutely no desire to revisit anytime soon. Brooklyn’s Antlers have crafted an impressively assured album with beauty oozing from every moody track, recalling the crystalline ambience of…
Watch Me Fall
Watch Me Fall Conductor: Jay Reatard Label: Matador Release Date: 2009-08-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Jay Reatard has been making a garage-inspired racket for almost a dozen years in a variety of guises — the last four as a solo artist. His musicianship has sharpened, and his second solo album delivers more of the fuzz,…
Hot Mess
Hot Mess Composer: Cobra Starship Conductor: Cobra Starship Label: Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen Release Date: 2009-08-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording When they formed back in 2006 as a one-off group to record a song for the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack, Cobra Starship’s aspirations were slight: Former Midtown singer Gabe Saporta gathered some of his old…
Family reunion
First, the semi-bad news: This dynamite free show was going to take place at the Falls Plaza at the Shops at La Cantera (which would’ve been a first), but it won’t, because Phase 2 of the Falls Plaza is still under construction. Instead, the show has been moved to the Leon Springs Dance Hall. Now,…
Cheap, sweet dates x 4
For the Outdoorsy Types $30-$40 1. Head to the Botanical Garden. It’s open until 5 p.m., so be sure to get there around 4 to leave extra time for macking behind plants if that strikes your fancy — usually it strikes ours but, hey, everyone’s different. Cost: $5 each with a student ID. 2. After strolling…
The Sound & The Fury
According to the band’s website, Girl in a Coma “plans to go on tour again in the fall, so don’t know when the next SA show will be and want to see everyone there.” The girls certainly deserve — and will get — a packed house, so show up early Friday, August 28, at White…
I
Joel Panchevre and Molly Spratt are nearly inseparable. For the past year, the couple has talked every day, shared countless experiences, and even learned the art of finishing each other’s sentences. And though they are young, they have no reservations about their compatibility or the strong foundation of their relationship. When Panchevre enters his freshman…
Buzzo’s last suppers
Key Kurt Cobain influence the Melvins still rock after a quarter-century of ear damage. Check out last year’s Nude With Boots for proof. Here, leader King Buzzo burps up his Top Five Last Meal Requests from Death Row. If you need to ask why, go listen to Lysol again. Actually, do that anyway; that record…
Follow the money (?)
We’re in a recession, even in slow-burn South Texas, and some college majors are faring better than others in that post-graduation job hunt. So which degrees are in high demand even when we’re not in high cotton? Health Care. Margaret Garcia, associate director of public relations at the University of the Incarnate Word, said the…
Live & Local
I’m beginning to feel like that dickhead voice-over dude from the Head-On commercials. But instead of repeatedly instructing you take a roll-on deodorant stick and “APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD!!!” I’m constantly telling you to “TURN YOUR FUCKING AMPLIFIERS DOWN.” My message has a far better chance of preventing headaches than rubbing wax on your face,…
Up in smoke
Clean, modern, and well-lit are not words commonly used to describe a head shop, but they fit the Lazy Daze store at the corner of St. Mary’s and Durango. Owner and manager Hans Enriquez wants his business to flout expectations. “We’re basically trying to be the modern smoke shop, where it’s about glass, art, function,…
“Front Page News” — Moai
Universal City’s Moai begin this would-be call to arms with Kelsey McDaniel’s coffee-shop acoustic riff and drummer Dave Orschell’s military cadence. Adopting the somber-yet-uptempo drum-corps rhythm in an antiwar song is appropriate, if pretty on-the-nose, but we need better marching orders in 2009 than McDaniel’s sleepyheaded refrain “Front page news, how many dead?” and shrugging…
Very fine threads
Cielo Boutique 16535 Huebner cieloboutique.net Two-year-old Cielo is for the occasional, tempting indulgence. Yardley Bowen, wife of former Spur Bruce Bowen, bring an upscale West Coast style to the Southwest with top contemporary designers. Gabby B’s Boutique 1723 N. Loop 1604 Merging style and affordability, Gabby B’s features prices lower than that of traditional boutiques,…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: A gabacho in the local daily suggested that some of our prisons be outsourced to Mexico to save us some money. What are your thoughts? Would wabs make for good guards looking after homies and white-trash inmates? Have a chew on that taco. — Mike the Mick from Missouri Dear Mick: My thoughts?…
The long game
In the world of San Antonio skateboarding, the Ides of March mark more than a warning to Julius Caesar. Louis Beaumier remembers it as the day his brainchild was born out of a run-in with a parking-garage security guard, who admired his homemade board. “I saw some videos of some guys on longboards and thought…
Plato, live! at the Overtime
Not that there’s anything wrong with Ludacris’s version, but the ensemble at the Overtime has its own ideas about “theater of the mind.” The Overtime’s newest production brings to life the pages of Ryan Dunlavey and Fred Van Lente’s Action Philosophers!, a comic-book series that puts the ink in history’s greatest thinkers, producing an energetic,…
Must-see local bands
Brotherhood myspace.com/brotherhood If you’ve never been to a Brotherhood show, or been within a 5-mile radius of one, you might be excused for thinking the local metallurgists are some kind of hippy-dippy peace-and-love outfit. But think “brotherhood” not in the sense of a saccharine plea for global unity but rather an organization of sinister, hooded…
ARTifacts
Artpace does an awful lot for the arts community hereabouts, from providing free beer at their openings and travel grants to artists (the current, and very deserving, grantees include Justin Parr, Marlys Dietrick, and Thomas Cummins) to educational opportunitites for kiddos — and, frequently, even a slot in their residency program for an artist from…
Sun scream
As a playwright, Charles Busch is probably best known for his breakout spoof Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, a touching buddy story inexplicably ignored by the Magik Theater’s programming for kids. (Sadly, the Magik also neglects the abundant parent-child bonding opportunities of Busch’s Die! Mommy! Die!) The playwright’s 1987 Psycho Beach Party — currently running in…
The trial balloon
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. — Winston Churchill United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday the appointment of a special prosecutor, who will decide whether the Justice Department should investigate several cases of prisoner abuse at the hands of the CIA. Following the public release…
Monkey eat, monkey die
The idea that eating less can prolong life has been gaining traction in recent years, thanks to studies on many organisms that correlate fewer calories with longer life. A group called the Calorie Restriction Society has formed to encourage and assist people in reducing their long-term caloric intake for the sake of health. Their diet,…
Amuse-BOUCHE
The vodka market is flooded, admits Justin Reitmeyer, one of two UTSA students behind the new Y Vodka, but he and partner Brett Cohen thought they saw a significant untapped niche: their generation. “Our demographic has a lot of spending power,” Reitmeyer told A-B last month. “but we also like simplicity.” Another word for simplicity,…
Vi Vi’s remains, Alameda’s $ pains
Summer shift Your local City-owned utility is dying — just as we suggested it should two years ago. Evidence: 14 megawatts of liberating solar power, to be constructed here in town by the end of next year, powering 1,800 homes. The deal, announced Monday, follows on the heels of a 27-megawatt West Texas solar purchase…
Health, lies, and videotape
On August 17, approximately two dozen health-care activists met in front of U.S. Representative Ciro Rodriguez’s office on DeZavala street. I counted 13 pro-reform, 12 against. I watched the demonstration for an hour and a half, but the passing motorists didn’t seem too enthusiastic about the debate over the President’s proposed health-care overhaul: Out of…
Dear Uncle Mat
How do I know if my dog is pregnant? – Confused Dear Confused, After this little puppy-pregnancy debacle has passed, please have your dog fixed. If you want puppies, visit any of the local shelters and pick out a poor, homeless, sad, cute puppy who cries himself to sleep every night in a concrete and…
Give it a spin
Occasionally you’ll spot a lone cyclist braving the heat, whizzing down the access road. They’re doing some serious sweating — this is Texas — and you think: crazy-ass. But to that rider, the trek is worth the 10 gallons of water (or other beverage) he or she will need to drink to maintain consciousness. San…
Student films
You kids just starting college don’t know how good you have it. In my day, bit torrents weren’t so popular, and they were primarily used for music. Downloading a film on Kazaa is about as worthwhile as waiting for toilet-tank wine to ferment, so movie night meant a trip to an actual video store. Worse,…
Not made of people
The government of the United States is not trying to kill your grandmother. Or at least, if it is, no one saw fit to include that detail in the broad proposals for the reform of the American health-care system. The public debate on health-care reform has been largely lost in a litany of concerns, real…
S’nuff Film
I hate to put a damper on our College Guide, but this weekend is not the time to engage in any underage drinking, premarital sex, or illicit drug use. None other than Michael Myers, Leatherface, and Jason mofo’ing Voorhees are coming to town for the second annual Horrific Film Fest, and you do not want…
Artist in Residence Vol. VI
LOS ESPURS!!!!!!! So when the Spurs won their first ring — you should’ve seen it — the whole pinche East Side walked into downtown like ants on a cold sandia. My hand still hurts from all the high fives. East Town loves our San Antonio Spurs. Now if the Spurs would just love East Town…
Obama’s capitulation
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Texas activist Jim Hightower’s take on the health mess. All this “grassroots” anger… What’s real and what’s been orchestrated? I think there’s a lot of real anger across the country about health care, the Wall Street bailout, the way corporations send jobs out of the country, how they get tax breaks…
The WAO Files
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Update from 8/27/09: It’s 1:22 pm, and Turton hasn’t called yet. Update from 8/26/09: Turton just called me and said “I’m not trying to avoid you. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and afterwards I’ll call you between 11 am and noon” to arrange for me to see the files. As…
White Men With Guns
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com On the phone from Summerville, Massachusetts, Chip Berlet, the co-author of Right-Wing Populism In America: Too Close for Comfort, spoke with the Current on the state of dissent in America. When was the last time there was real debate in American politics? (laughs) That’s a tough question. Kennedy and Carter tried.…
This just in: Wu-Tang Clan still awesome
video platform video management video solutions free video player Need proof? Here’s the new video for the J Dilla-produced “House of Flying Daggers” off Only Built for Cuban Linx II, due out (for real this time?) on September 9. There’s nothing much unexpected here (hell, GZA’s verse is just rewarmed from his “Clan in da…
CPS as Jerk: All I need is this (radioactive) ashtray â?¦ and this paddle game
San Antonio’s CPS Energy seals deal for new solar, but projected nuke costs won’t let it out of the kiddie clean-energy pool. Boss man from juwi solar (and UT alum) Michael Martin got a “Hook ‘Em Horns” hail sign from CPS CEO Milton Lee and a deal for clean megawatts. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Your local…
