‘Apollo 18’ actors probably wish they could remain anonymous
After refusing to screen the film for the press (a move usually reserved for studio execs who know they have a bomb on their hands) and delaying the release of Apollo 18 six times, Dimension Films’ head Bob Weinstein was quoted as saying “We didn’t shoot anything, we found it. Found, baby!” Ha-ha. Apollo 18…
Wilco to deliver new album (and ACL Live performance)
After taking a long break from constant touring, Wilco is back with their eighth album, The Whole Love (due Sep. 27). As part of their North American tour, the band will perform at Austin City Limits Live on December 1 at the Moody Theater. You can buy tickets at Austin’s Waterloo Records, or by calling…
“A Future Roof” by Colin Hill
Allegory framed with surrealism and gabled with fable. Thus Colin Hill serenely cobbles “A Future Roof.” Let the lyricism hold sway primarily, then look at how it’s built. Looking, fairly aggressively, for some excellent stories. Consider it a call to arms, art community. Send in your short pieces. I’m looking for stories, prose poems or…
Wiesz delivers in portrayal of U.N. whistleblower
Based on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a police officer from Nebraska who in 1999 joined the peace forces in post-war Bosnia and uncovered the United Nation’s involvement in sex trafficking, The Whistleblower is a movie about evil, corruption, and, ultimately, whether there should be such as thing as diplomatic immunity. As Bolkovac, Rachel…
September First Friday preview
Thursday offered a preview of September shows, with just a taste of what will be on view tonight. At Southwest School of Art Laura McPhee’s collection of huge analogue C-Prints. That’s old school, shot on film, monster photos. Above, “Quartered Rocky Mountain Elk,” Milky Creek, White Cloud Mountains, Idaho. Life in the West. The Fotoseptiembre…
Confessions of a former climate change skeptic
It’s not easy communicating the finer points of climate change (everything from differentiating weather from climate to explaining how it can still snow in an era of global warming trip up really nice folks all the time). Add to that a mobilized army of skeptical laypersons (not so many climate scientists, however) that turns out…
Pranayama and the humming bee breath
Bhramari Pranayama I’ve always felt a strong connection to bees. My name, Deborah, means “bee” in Hebrew. And I’ve been stung (initiated?) by them 3 times, once after having the following song lyric to Regina Specktor’s song On the Radio stuck in my head: “A million ancient bees, began to sting our knees.” And wouldn’t you…
Rene Lopez: E.L.S.
The pretensions of Rene Lopez’s E.L.S. are hard to swallow. The album’s title stands for "Electric Latin Soul," which the native New Yorker considers his own signature sound. But his is pop music drenched in Latin jazz, R&B, hip-hop, and rock, a sound not foreign to local clubs like Luna and Bar De España, and…
The QueQue: SAPD’s Internal Affairs attacked, Sidewalks and sodomy, Benchslaps over sonograms
SAPD’s Internal Affairs attacked The Austin-based Texas Civil Rights Project, working with a number of local community organizers and victims’ rights groups, released a report last week criticizing the San Antonio Police Department’s citizen-complaint process, claiming the department still suffers from officer misconduct and lax oversight. Jim Harrington, TCRP director, claims a “departmental culture that…
LHI: The biggest art lab in town (all 1,200 acres of it)
“The words aren’t there yet, this is hard to talk about,” said Penelope Boyer, director of the Land Heritage Institute. We’re talking about a new art practice that happens in wild areas, away from cities. Rooted in the land art movement that began with projects like Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, constructed in 1970 on the…
I can haz No Kill?
No-kill by 2012? No way. The admission out of City Hall this summer that San Antonio can’t possibly reach no-kill status by next year, a goal laid out in 2006, outraged local animal-rights activists, many of whom bristled that the city simply hasn’t done enough to stem the tide of strays roaming San Anto’s streets.…
Local dissident plays advisor to the Libyan rebels
Before he fled Libya 30 years ago, Mansour El-Kikhia remembers driving past bodies strung up in town squares across Benghazi, bodies of men who he said were outspoken government dissidents just like him. El-Kikhia, who now chairs UTSA’s political science and geography department, has for decades spoken out against the regime of Muammar El-Qaddafi, writing…
Live & Local: Copper Gamins at The Limelight
Originally from Zinacantepec, near Mexico City, J. Carmen (guitar, vocals) and Clau Lafania (drums) like to do things fast: They recorded an EP on a four-track analog tape, moved to San Antonio, played several local shows (including one on their first day here), and moved to Austin (making this their first and last Live &…
Medicine for the soul
When San Antone Café & Concerts closed its doors in March, a hole opened up for a good chunk of the local and touring Americana/folk singer-songwriter scene. So Melissa Ludwig — a singer-songwriter of some renown herself (Current readers selected the Melissa Ludwig Band and their recent release Now That You’re Here as local bests…
September brings new restaurants as Green goes north
Green Vegetarian Cuisine, one of the few vegetarian restaurants in town, wasn’t content simply with a menu revamp including a veggie take on fish tacos, apparently. As a follow-up, they’re taking that menu to a second location. For those on the Northside wanting to sample the kosher vegetarian fare, you’ll find them opening in October…
Castro declares Climate Change Awareness Month as Texas cooks
Welcome to the weather of the future: 106, 110, 107, day after day of scorching heat exacerbated by the worst one-year drought on record. As the mercury boils beyond all-time highs, San Antonio is greeted by Climate Change Awareness Month, 30 days to meditate on decades of human inaction on climate change and the punishing…
Andrea Echeverri: Dos
Has it already been six years since her solo debut? The self-titled album by the singer of Colombia’s Aterciopelados was a magical statement by a then-joyful new mother and a renewed woman and lover. It was an album that was so present for those who enjoyed it, that it feels like it was released only…
Red Hot Chili Peppers: I’m With You
Who’s the most important Chili Pepper? The popular answer would be Flea, the nihilist bass virtuoso whose hard-edged funk work-outs defined the band’s sound for more than 20 years. Sure, Flea is pretty badass, but my vote goes to on again/off again (currently off) guitarist John Frusciante, whose knack for melody and mood is the…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: I see a lot of vatos around wearing the clam digger pants with the knee-high white socks and white sneakers. While this is nothing new, I’ve noticed recently that the shoes and socks are the whitest white I’ve ever seen. If I wear white sneakers and socks, they get dirty pretty quickly, even…
This year’s photo-driven event heavy on Taiwanese lenses
Fotoseptiembre, now one of the largest photography festivals in the country, began 17 years ago as an effort to bring photographers from Latin America to exhibit in San Antonio next to local talent, to join North with South. This year it’s also an East/West venture, with works by many Chinese photographers coming to town. But…
The Apoca-List
AKA The “We’re Fucked” Index
Critic’s Pick: Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah)
Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a present-day American journalist working for a magazine in Paris. During an editorial meeting discussing her upcoming story on the 1942 Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup (when more than 13,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied France were detained and sent to Auschwitz), a photographer wonders why there is not a single photograph of those…
Kinks and char mar the delight of simple delivery and decor
The influx of moneyed Mexican nationals now making San Antonio home was bound to have an influence on local restaurants — and not just those of the mainstream Mexican variety to judge by the likes of Italian-accented Barbaresco. We start here by assuming that the influence is potentially a good one, and cite as a…
Game Over provides a haven for old-school gamers
Eight-vs-eight online death matches, intuitive AI enemies that adapt to your tactics, destructible environments governed by real world physics, and deep, enriching narratives that weave complex characters into a singular goal to stop an overwhelming evil force. These are some major elements found in today’s video game industry. With companies staffed with dozens of programmers…
Smoke and berries
If you’ve seen the final Harry Potter installment — or even if you haven’t — it may be time to relive the series with some smoke and mirrors. OK, bring your own mirror, but the ghostly vapours (yes, English spelling) surrounding the creation of a nitrogen margarita ($7) at the Aldaco’s happy hour (4-7pm) are…
Byron’s hex: SA author’s occult fantasy
Lord Byron might have been described by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” but in David Liss’ most recent occult-themed historical romance The Twelfth Enchantment we find the dark and debauched author of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage spitting up needles before a young woman who has been swindled out of…
‘Tweens and Teens’ get Stone Oak training
I first saw Nikki Young in 2004, during one of San Antonio Theatre Coalition’s TheatreASAP programs. She played a baby (yes, a baby) in a short play written by Deon van Rooyen, and, as far I was concerned, she stole the show. Young isn’t just an actress, but one of the most active players in…
Best of Flash Fiction, August 2011
When I was growing up houses became sentimental, but only passingly, as we moved frequently. I still remember them fondly, but I wonder if perhaps my ghost in them is that much more ethereal. The temporal quality of our sojourn means I could not hope to see myself in them any longer. But that’s not…
Returning to when San Antonio ruled South Texas
Next time you hear Bexar County District Court Judge Sol Casseb’s name, picture this: 43 years ago this Labor Day weekend, the gavel of the 288th was drumming for the Laughing Kind in a battle of the bands at the Teen Canteen. His rivals were Swiss Movement, an interracial quintet who played Austin’s prestigious Vulcan…
La Chola Wants You
Please don’t be intimidated by La Chola, whose real name is Mayra “Breezy” Ramírez. She lives in the Bay area, but has become an instant San Antonio icon thanks to photographer Rio Yañez and designer El Robótico, who is no other than Roberto Livar, leader of Bombasta. The three of them together produced a killer…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Strange but true: To pave the way for your next liberation, you will have to impose some creative limitation on yourself. In other words, there’s some trivial extravagance or unproductive excess in your current rhythm that is suppressing an interesting form of freedom. As soon as you cut away the faux…
Paul Rudd indie comedy won’t leave well enough alone
Our Idiot Brother does not entirely work, though it’s not for lack of ability or desire. The film, which stars Paul Rudd as a long-haired, bearded, earthy do-gooder who seems to inadvertently step on every landmine along life’s terrain, bears a palpable, almost sweaty sense of almost-there, a desperate longing to will it to a…
Ballot count: ‘Ugly People’ at Overtime
How has politics responded to the 24-hour news cycle? By running election campaigns non-stop, of course. Since the days of idealism back in 2008, we’ve all slunk into cynicism, but still consume the endless stream of sound bites and video clips like corn chips. But there’s a bright side to this sorry business: The worse…
‘The Magic of Sinatra’ at Franco’s Lounge
Who better to usher in a Vegas-style lounge in Castle Hills than “Frank Sinatra stylist” Paul Salos? Deemed “as smooth as velvet” by Sharon Osbourne, the Garland resident and America’s Got Talent finalist is among a handful of performers who’ve taken the intimate stage at Franco’s Lounge, a snazzy new music venue (with excellent martinis)…
Francisca Valenzuela: Buen soldado
Francisca Valenzuela (born in San Francisco and raised in Chile since age 12) has been kicking ass for some time, and now the world is ready for her. Isabel Allende wrote the intro to her poetry book (Defenseless Waters, 2000), and Bono invited her onstage to sing "One Tree Hill" during a U2 show in…
Alamo City gains international fame for poverty
We learned recently that SA is getting some international attention. Unfortunately, it’s not the sort that will thrill the tourism crowd over at the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Texas: A State of Hunger is a TV documentary about hunger, filmed right here in the Alamo City. Jason Edwards, a former graduate student at the University…
Ranger Creek Hefe
Ranger Creek Hefe After a bit of a delay to get things right, Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling Co. has released its German-style hefeweizen. It will be available on draft only in September and into October at select locations. While people watching on South Alamo at The Friendly Spot, a pint of the beer went…
That’s one mean mangoneada
A mangoneada is many things: a popsicle, a combination of unlikely flavors, a double-entendre, and an inside joke I can’t seem to crack. There are many variations on this heat-beating treat, all of which contain mango, chile powder, salt, lime or lemon, and usually chamoy, a Mexican sauce traditionally made from pickled fruit and chile…
Artpace TX artist open call deadline TODAY
If you are a Texas artist (with some chops), you’ve got a chance to appear at Artpace. But time is running out — the application deadline for the Texas Artist Open Call is TODAY, August 31, at 5pm. They’re not kidding. 5:01pm, it’s all over, so stop procrastinating now. “Visit artpace.org to complete your Open…
Verseau Creates Perfect Dress for SA’s “Changing” Seasons
Story by Desiree Prieto It’s almost autumn and major fashion magazines have already published their fall favorites. Yet Fashionation has still been searching for the Perfect Dress to weather the 100 plus temperatures; an outfit that is both comfortable and cool to wear, but is also versatile with the changing seasons, looks good with a…
