Arrests start at Occupy S.A.
By noon Monday, police had arrested at least six Occupy S.A. protesters, ending the remarkably calm and amicable relationship seen between city cops and protesters seen since the start of the local movement over two months ago. The first three arrests arrests came just before 8 a.m. Monday, when a group of roughly a…
Tonight: FREE Spurs Open Scrimmage at 7pm
It’s the beginning to look a lot like Spurs season. Tonight, the San Antonio Spurs will be participating in a free open scrimmage that tips off at 7 p.m. at the AT&T Center. Fans are invited to begin arriving at 6:30 p.m., with the first 1,000 fans receiving a free ‘limited edition’ NBA T-shirt. Seats…
Reader complaint: tacky and disrespectful (our mag & your city)
We love our readers. Sometimes we especially love the ones who don’t seem to care for us so much. Case in point: last week’s disgruntled former San Franciscite who called in to express her disappointment with Chuck Kerr’s presentation of District Attorney Susan Reed as a blood-sucking vampire (no comment on Mr. Barajas’ treatment of…
UFO symposium landing in San Antonio next year
Our planet’s skies are being invaded by extraterrestrials. Or, at least that’s what a group of experts who will be visiting San Antonio in March believe. I just learned that a UFO mini-symposium would be held in the Alamo City during the first weekend of March 2012, according to Steve Hudgeons, the state director for…
Progression by Nicole Cohen
Life in chunks. Not the way we all see it all the time but if you consider the structure of this piece with Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in mind, you may. Though the overall theme may seem bleak, there is a peacefulness to it. A mango colored calm. Send in your flash pieces to flashfiction@sacurrent.com. If I…
Emilio Flores and Melissa Latimer at Hausmann Millworks
Bleeding Canvas – Amarillo sonrojado from Emilio Flores on Vimeo. Opening Friday night at Hausmann Millworks, “Grace & Grit, Grit & Glamour: Emilio Flores and Melissa Latimer” matches new works in metal with process painting that flows from the border. Flores will exhibit a series of paintings that were made by striking canvas to release…
Xican@ Art Notecards from Aztlan Libre Press
For those who prefer not to add to the deluge of reindeer-themed holiday cards this season, San Antonio’s own Aztlan Libre Press has just released their first offering of Xican@ Art Notecards. Formed in 2010 by Anisa Onofre and Juan Tejeda, the press is “dedicated to the promotion, publication, and free expression of Xican@ literature and…
John Folks, Superintendent of the Year, to leave NISD
Northside ISD Superintendent John Folks, one of the state’s loudest voices in the fight against draconian cuts to education at the Legislature, announced Wednesday he’ll leave the district by the end of the school year. Folks, who has led Bexar County’s largest school district since 2002, said in a prepared statement Wednesday he’s stepping down…
New report: homeless children on the rise
“America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010,” a report on homelessness among American children compiled by The National Center on Family Homelessness, was released Tuesday. The study reports that more than 1.6 million children, or one in 45 are homeless annually in America — that’s 30,000 children each week, and more than 4,400 each day This represents an…
San Antonio nonprofits need beyond seasonal giving
The holidays are the biggest season in nonprofit fundraising. Almost half of charities receive 30% to 60% of their annual contributions between October and December, according to last year’s AFP Holiday Giving Survey. Most nonprofits are mailing out that end-of-year giving appeal envelope disguised in a holiday card or letter. Corporations and businesses dutifully take…
SA’s 2011 48 Hour Film Experience winners announced
Best Actress and Best Movie: Jamye Cox in Love After. With a fun, packed party at Sunset Stations’ The Depot last night, the winners of the 2011 48 Hour Film Experience were announced. FIRST PRIZE Love After, directed by Mark Cantu SECOND PRIZE Harvest, directed by Isaac Rodríguez THIRD PRIZE Hypnosis, directed by Pablo Véliz…
Area distilleries putting Texas flavors on the map
When President Jimmy Carter made home brewing legal in 1978 the newly legitimated hobby spawned fledgling brewmasters across the country. Some got stars in their eyes, and the American micro-brewing industry was born. Inspired by the new brewers, the first craft distillers opened shop a dozen years later. The Texas trend didn’t begin until 1997,…
Where better to pour holiday cocktails than into gift-worthy glasses made by local artists?
In this feature, we paired three local glassworkers with three progressive drinking establishments for a mashup of handcrafted inebriation.
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Jim Moran (1908-1999) called himself a publicist, but I regard him as a pioneer performance artist. At various times in his colorful career, he led a bull through a china shop in New York City, changed horses in midstream in Nevada’s Truckee River, and looked for a needle in a haystack…
Brave resident tasters put several especial bottles to the test
‘Tis the season when booze meets billboards all over town and flossy liquor images fill the pages of consumer magazines. This year tequila is making a more concerted appearance, with ads for premium-priced brands especially apparent. A new brand in the increasingly crowded field seems to be making its pitch based on price — higher,…
Winners, losers, and unanswered questions in smoke-free SA
When the city rolled out its sweeping smoking ban this summer, eager to make the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights list of smoke-free cities, the winners and losers were obvious. The winners: bars that already had sizable patios, cigar bars, and, many would argue, anyone with a set of lungs looking to imbibe clear of a…
Photog attempts to sidestep gun advocacy despite loaded subject
"My art world friends really thought this project was misguided on my part," said New York-based photographer Lindsay McCrum. "But I think that if you have a curiosity about something, you should pursue it." The result of her perseverance is the book, Chicks with Guns, a collection of 78 stunning portraits of American women gun…
Will Bexar County’s no-refusal blood draws dismantle the effectiveness of traditional DWI defense?
District Attorney Susan Reed has been on a steady crusade for over two years to push Bexar County into full-time no-refusal territory, setting up a legal framework to draw blood from any suspected drunk drivers who refuse a breath test any day of the week. And by late October, just before Halloween weekend, she got…
Micro- to middle-brew pubs kicking up dust need to cling to that vision thing
Those who have caught the fever for brewing beer often become like little kids picking what they want to be when they grow up. And like most youngsters who want to be firefighters, ballerinas, astronauts, or benevolent dictators, home brewers aren’t quite sure what it takes to achieve the dream until they are in deep.…
My favorite alcohol-fueled moments in cinema
From Pathés’ anti-drinking documentary Les victimes de l’alcoolisme (1902) to Sideways (2004) and beyond, the devil’s drink has been a frequent guest on the big screen with actors delivering some of the medium’s most memorable lines (and gags) when a bottle was nearby. BEST ALCOHOL GAG:’ The Idle Class’ (1921) "I will occupy the other…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: This is the second rant I’ve felt I had to send to you. I don’t know if readers are allowed “seconds” but here it goes: Much has been said about the terrible things happening to the United States and its citizens by the Mexican drug cartels. But what’s the difference between the modern-day…
Bands are not the only thing on tour at Ten Eleven
Ten Eleven is well known for putting on some of the best indie/hardcore/unclassifiable shows in SA, but lately the Ave. B venue has been courting a different crowd: beer aficionados. In October, co-owner Colin Wells kicked off the first 1011 Brewery Tour, featuring a one-night-only hosting of Saint Arnold Brewing Company’s entire lineup. The next…
Two Current critics choose their favorite drinking songs
Billie Holiday’s “One For My Baby (AND One More For the Road)” There’s a whole cannon of Holiday’s material we could choose from, but it’s her rendition of the standard “One More For My Baby (And One More For the Road)” that’s top shelf, an aching last-call confession to her bartender on a love affair…
What SA’s bartenders (slash therapists, slash BFFs, slash secret crushes) wish you knew
Four Aggie fans are sitting in a bar, sipping beers, and spending an afternoon being ornery over a football game against their most bitter rivals, the Longhorns. The game’s a real nail-biter. Something about changing conferences and ending a century’s worth of tradition. Well, the Aggies fans watch their team lose and it’s not pretty.…
One part perspiration, one part experimentation = beers that hit, miss, bewitch
It’s not unusual for beginner home brewers to make a few mistakes even when playing it safe, but experienced brew-kettle commandos intentionally pushing the envelope have their own tales of woe and victory to share, too. Pine Sol porter How to make a spruce beer in Texas when we’re so far away from a source…
SA punk pioneer Jeff Smith on the sober life
In the bad ol’ days, the frontman for the Hickoids knew how to kick ’em back. He used to drink stuff that wasn’t even invented yet. But he’s been sober for more than nine years now, and besides his singing duties he’s also one of the most active — and professional — music promoters in…
Getting dragged into tourist row? Here’s some perfect hidden drinking spots to ease the pain
As San Antonio denizens, we all live in fear of it. It usually happens around the holidays, or in the dastardly drought that is summer. We avoid it. But it’s always there, waiting: the Alamo. It’s not that we hate the Alamo, per se (really DRT, we don’t, please don’t sic your flying monkeys on…
Bye-Bye Occupy?
In the drizzle outside HemisFair Park Monday night, there were no chants of “Banks got bailed out! You got sold out!” among the Occupy San Antonio contingent, no “Whose park? Our park!” Instead, some in the fluctuating group of 10 to 20 protestors continuing to camp out at HemisFair quietly gathered blankets, pillows, tarps, flyers…
