RECENT REVIEWS
Bad Santa Dir. Terry Zwigoff; writ. John Requa & Glenn Ficarra; feat. Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Bernie Mac, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, John Ritter (R) Bad Santa is vile. Snot-dripping and alley-pukey, pants-pissing and rotgut-swilling vile. It does not have redeeming social merit; it will not enrich your soul or teach you the meaning…
SOUTH SIDE EFFECTS
Yuri Montelongo (right) dances in her high-heeled boots at Noche Caliente. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Noche Caliente is fighting for the South Side’s right to party D avid Dameshghi has a way of making the club business sound like a spiritual calling. Dameshghi, owner of South Side dance haven Noche Caliente, relocated from New…
SHINDIG
The Shins: grazing in the greenhouse (courtesy photo) The Shins are more than the sum of their impressive influences A ll too familiar with his retro-obsessed characterization in the music press, James Mercer would like to clear up one common misconception. Contrary to popular belief, the soft-spoken songwriter of the Shins insists that he…
FEAR OF AN IMMIGRANT PLANET
Bexar County Sheriff Ralph Lopez (right) stands with Sergeant Mark Gibson at the Bexar County Jail. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Politicians are using fear to push through the CLEAR Act, one of the most sinister changes in immigration policy. Politicians must be seen as doing something important for the voter. The fact of the…
FEELING MINNESOTA
T he pantheon of hip-hop is stacked with dynamic two-man, MC & DJ groups. Eric B. and Rakim laid the foundation, Gangstarr invented jazz rap, and Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth successfully paired fierce horns with mellow-yet-aggressive flows. E.P.M.D. brought the funk and are considered by many to be the greatest MC/DJ pairing of…
KINKY COALITION
Portrait of the artist as a young Australopithecus Boogie-Man (aka Kinky Friedman, in his Texas Jewboy prime). All together now…”Jomo Kenyata, oh no you’re notta…” Come to Casbeers and find out what’s wrong with the Beaver. K inky Friedman probably qualifies as Texas’ most beloved musical fringe artist. Admired by presidents across the political…
PATRIOTS TAKE A STAND
San Antonio citizens urge City to uphold civil rights A host of patriots queued up at last week’s City Council meeting, urging elected officials to pass a resolution opposing the Patriot Act, legislation passed by U.S. Congress to ostensibly strengthen national security, but instead effectively suppresses the civil rights of U.S. citizens. But Council wouldn’t…
SOUND AND THE FURY
a week on the scene Wood Shedding His name might suggest a computer-generated hybrid of Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts and Ron Wood, but local guitarist Charlie Wood’s musical passion has long been smooth jazz. After playing with country artists early in his career – even logging three-and-a-half years in Gilley’s house band – he began…
SIGNS OF SOUTH TEXAS
The opening reception for Alejandro Diaz’ “Back in 5 Minutes” exhibit featured a fine spread of Bill Miller’s Bar-B-Q fare, flanked by hand-painted signs on corrugated cardboard. (courtesy photo) Alejandro Diaz brings home the bacon, fried chicken, and barbeque I t was homecoming night for Alejandro Diaz at the opening of his one-man show,…
ARTIFACTS
News and notes from the San Antonio art scene CREMASTER COMPLAINTS No one disputes the effort expended by the Blue Star staff in bringing Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle to the IMAX Theater on December 5 and 6, but those who bought their tickets online had cause to complain about the process. The IMAX website, which…
WHAT THEY WANT
Bedford Hills inmates Kathy Boudin (left), Betty Harris (middle), and Cynthia Berry (right) at Eve Ensler’s writing workshop. (courtesy photo) P.O.V. on PBS documents Eve Ensler’s writing workshop at a maximum security women’s prison T he power of words to misrepresent people is as much at the heart of the P.O.V. documentary What I…
MARTIAL CHOREOGRAPHY
Tom Cruise as Captain Nathan Algren in The Last Samurai (courtesy photo) Beating swords into plowboys in modern Japan W hat makes A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court one of the most unsettling of Mark Twain’s books is what happens at the end. Hank Morgan, the resourceful 19th-century mechanic who shows up in…
HAIL TO THE KING
Bruce Campbell portrays an aging Elvis impersonating an Elvis impersonator in Bubba Ho-tep. (courtesy photo) R ecently, the mainstream cinema market has suffered a tidal wave of blockbuster bullshit – films that insult the viewer with their formulaic triteness and cost more than the gross domestic product of your average Third World country to…
Armchair Cinephile
REVISIONS AND FOOTNOTES A s the wait for Return of the King becomes nigh-on unbearable – that thrown-around phrase “most anticipated movie of the season” is an understatement, and one is tempted to strike “season” and replace it with “year” or maybe even “decade” – the canny folks at New Line have seen fit…
