Gayby’s Monday Musings
Apologies for the skimpy list this week. Holiday obligations coupled with a best friend’s wedding (photo evidence, above) hampered my basketball pulse-taking abilities. Eight and counting – The San Antonio Spurs remain atop the Western Conference with an NBA best record of 23-3. Winners of eight straight, the Spurs take on the new-look .500 Phoenix…
“Flight: A Theory, the Problem” by Roni Castaneda
Introduction It’s not quite surreal. But it’s surreal. Life. This story. “Notes on things which spin.” Just when we think things make sense, they don’t make sense. Why? Because we try to lay maps over the world and they don’t quite fit. Here’s a story that shows you that. Read it. Understand it. Don’t understand…
Tats For Tots
You’ve definitely heard of Toys for Tots — but how about Tats for Tots? Yeah, we know the tagline is a little odd at first glance, but Flesh Electric Tattoo is utilizing their platform to give back this holiday season. The Northside shop has decided to donate 100-percent of their proceeds from Saturday, December 18th…
Yoga in Southtown
It’s about time Southtown gets a yoga studio. The new Southtown Yoga Loft is a trapezoidal-shaped, open space loft studio with antique character, which sits above La Frite Belgian Bistro on South Alamo. The space has a hip, urban vibe that meshes well with the artsy Southtown/La Vaca/King William neighborhoods. SYL offers a variety of classes…
Interview: Cast of ‘Barry Munday’
In the dark comedy Barry Munday (released on DVD and Blu-ray Dec. 7), actor Patrick Wilson (Little Children) plays the title character, a douchebag stuck in the ’90s, who wakes up in the hospital to discover he no longer has testicles. A homely-looking Judy Greer (13 Going on 30) chimes in as Ginger, a past…
The VGAs: More Proof God Hates Us
I’m going to be honest with you. I hate award shows. “The Oscars?” Cher has one, and Avatar was given a best picture nod last year. “The Emmys?” No one watches daytime TV anyways. And the Grammys? That pisses me off something fierce. (Jethro Tull over Metallica?) But if you really want me to rant,…
Rammy Awards party photos
A party was held for the 2010 Rammy Award winners Dec. 16 at Boneshakers. Check out the photos below and, for a list of this year’s winners, click here.
Slideshow: December shows at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center and Fl!ght Gallery
Angelina Mata’s Creatures in Blue Star Contemporary Art Center’s Project Space Joan Hall’s Crossovers: Materials and Metaphors in Blue Star Contemporary Art Center’s Main Gallery Ivano Vitali’s Crossovers: Materials and Metaphors in Blue Star Contemporary Art Center’s Main Gallery Marilyn Lanfear’s What is Lost/What is Found/What is Remembered in Blue Star Contemporary Art Center’s Middle Gallery…
Gingerbread House Workshop
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 If you’ve ever wondered about the ins and outs of making an edible structure, this workshop’s for you. Our Lady of the Lake University’s International Folk Culture Center provides the delicious walls, roof, and mortar (aka icing), so all prospective builders need to bring is a cutting board (or tray)…
Vertual Vertigo, Awdazcate, K.I.N., Era, and DJ Scuba Gooding Sr.
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 Prhymemates production crew connects San Antonio to the national underground hip-hop scene for its annual Christmas show. The four members of Chicago-based Vertual Vertigo proudly call themselves “old school,” taking cues from A Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC, and LL Cool J. Awdazcate (pronounce it like “audacity” or just go…
A Tuna Christmas
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 Committing to the holidays means overeating, overspending, and overstressing. And — outside of a cup of 80-proof cheer — what gets us through the rough rush of Santa sidewalks is standard Christmas programing: A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Grinch, and that Island of Lost Toys. It’s like end-of-the-year…
A Tuna Christmas
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 Committing to the holidays means overeating, overspending, and overstressing. And — outside of a cup of 80-proof cheer — what gets us through the rough rush of Santa sidewalks is standard Christmas programing: A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Grinch, and that Island of Lost Toys. It’s like end-of-the-year…
Kuumba House Dance Theatre
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 When Kuumba House was founded in 1982 (by South Africa’s Lindi Yeni and Houston’s Thomas Meloncon), the company’s main focus was producing plays by noteworthy playwrights. Twenty-eight years into its multi-disciplinary preservation of the “cultural experience of African art,” the collective now goes by Kuumba House Dance Theatre (or KHDT)…
Ram/Tacoland Tribute Show with he Swindles, Boxcar Sanford, Shit City Dreamgirls, Plata, Smartypants, & Suzy Bravo
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 Despite what certain foreign exchange students might think, the flyer blowing around the St. Mary’s Strip that reads, “Hey Pussy, It’s a Taco Tribute,” is not advertising a feline-friendly review celebrating ’80s-era Dutch pop-star Taco, who readers may remember from his cringe-worthy cover of Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”…
Sandra Cisneros’ Pajama Pachanga
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 In celebration of her 56th birthday, beloved writer Sandra Cisneros, best known for The House on Mango Street, hosts a cozy fundraiser for the organization she founded: The Macondo Foundation, which “supports professional writers who are giving back in underserved communities.” Aside from being given the rare opportunity to appear…
Cowboy Christmas at Enchanted Springs Ranch
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 For a holiday jaunt with nostalgic appeal, head to Boerne’s Enchanted Springs Ranch, where everyone’s a cowboy for the day ? including Santa. Among the activities included in the ticket price are tractor-pulled wagon rides through a wild animal park (longhorns, buffalo, deer, and a variety of exotics all call…
Tony Bennett
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 Tony Bennett has been quoted as saying, “If you study the masters ? Picasso, Jack Benny, and Fred Astaire ? right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.” It could be said that creativity played a part…
Get Reel Film: Winnebago Man
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-15 He’s been quoted by everyone from Ben Affleck to SpongeBob, but until recently, Jack Rebney had no idea why. Ben Steinbauer’s documentary focuses on the filmmaker’s search for Rebney, the unwitting creator of one of the first viral videos in history. While taping a Winnebago sales ad promoting the 1989…
Our heart belongs to Annie
As two new shows open in San Antonio, I’m finding it hard to blend the disparate worlds of Cole Porter and Ann Richards into a single, unified introduction. But howzabout this: If Rick Perry’s the absolute bottom, Ann’s the top! (Nice try, Jenkins. – Ed.) In any case, Ann Richards is not only tops, but…
Just one thing …
1. Avoid sharp edges Need a special place to hide those $39.95 My Econo’s Optical glasses? (We’re looking at you, Mike Yuchnitz!) Look no further than local crafty chica, Missy May’d (AKA, Melissa Ozuna) and her spec-tacular eyeglass sleeves. While perusing her table at Dia de los Craftos a few weeks ago, I came across…
Third annual Rammy Award winners
It’s sort of sad that the Music Issue is my last full issue as the music editor at the Current. Going through each and every one of your ballots, finally, I felt like I was getting a handle on what makes San Anto’s music scene tick. I learned which metal band voted for themselves so…
Good Golly!
No wonder you turned out in droves to vote in Nicolette Good as this year’s best singer-songwriter. Her voice is pure ear candy. It’s an ethereal thing, one part smoky youth, another part fluorescent wisdom, a dream you just woke up from and are dying to remember. I learned this seeing her perform at Casbeers…
Further listening
JOE REYES Worry Row (Bedlamb Records) All by his lonesome, Buttercup and Swindles stalwart Joe Reyes quietly released his latest solo effort this summer. With the exception of Buttercup singer Erik Sanden’s chorus contribution on “Unlikely,” Reyes recorded and produced all 14 songs solo. Reyes himself explains his solitary approach as “the tiny musical Hitler…
Lighters out
LISA FRANK Ten Eleven, Wed, June 9 The rowdy punk foursome meant it when they said “Grrrlz Just Wanna Have Fun.” Embracing the hot and humid atmosphere, the sweaty Bettys set up their act in the middle of the melee on the floor for some gleeful feminist ranting. They shrieked, danced, switched instruments, and thoroughly…
Glambilly
Periodically, a new music genre comes along that is a precision split of what it claims to be. Think conjunto punk or rap metal. The former can be pretty good (Piñata Protest), and the latter requires hormonal discharge of the pubescent degree (Linkin Park). Somewhere in the middle of all that is San Antonio’s Glambilly.…
Proud bottles, living space
While on sabbatical in Cozumel (which lasted five years), SA-based architect José Luis Hernández took a lot of pictures that he’d later reflect upon. Aside from focusing on architecture, Hernandez found something charming about the simplicity of many of the bars in Mexico. “I designed the ‘Blue Room,’ you know, the center part of Revolution…
The Queque – December 15, 2010
Warning shot As the Texas Legislature prepares to convene in January, tasked with skimping our way out of a projected $21-billion budget deficit over the next two years, proposed cuts in state mental hospitals and community-based mental health services are getting serious attention. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s consolidated 2012-2013 budget proposes $65-million…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Someone wrote you a while back wondering why Mexicans have made a mess of their beautiful country. You got all bent out of shape because he called Mexico a Third World country instead of a “bottom tier” First World country. I think you missed the point of the argument. Mexico should be much…
Save Lerma’s
Conjunto pioneer Bene Medina loves to reminisce about San Antonio’s Westside music scene of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. The legendary accordionist describes a flourishing circuit of venues boasting renowned players week after week, greats like Eva Ybarra, Henry Zimmerle, Valerio Longoria, and Esteban “Steve” Jordan. Medina began playing in 1965. At the time, it…
Still dancing with the one that brung ’em
Seventy-six years ago, today, Mickey and Lois Bell married. They began dating as high schoolers in Fort Stockton. Mickey was 16; Lois was 14. After graduation, they both attended the University of Texas at Austin. Mickey studied pre-law, but was forced to leave school early. Lois graduated with a degree in Spanish. According to Lois,…
The hope and burden of dreams
Cine File is a random reference guide to help explore the vast catalog of films available on Netflix instant viewing, with special emphasis on the interesting, the unusual, and the ones that got left behind. Here are two absolutely compelling documentaries about the insane lengths traveled for artistic creation: Burden of Dreams and Man on…
Float double, swan and shadow
One woman: two roles, reflecting back and forth into oblivion in the mirrored walls of a dance studio. Performance does not cease when a ballerina pirouettes off stage, as director Darren Aronofsky and Black Swan’s handful of writers well know (nor does it when the cameras stop rolling, I suspect). The contemporary, psychologically thrilling adaptation…
Critic’s diss: Yogi Bear
As beloved as William Hanna-Joseph Barbera’s TV cartoons have been since the late ’50s, their recent resurrection as live-action/CGI-animated feature films has been hugely disappointing. Somewhat inspired casting choices like John Goodman as Fred Flintstone in The Flintstones and Matthew Lillard as Shaggy in Scooby-Doo (zoinks!) were spot on, but the films themselves were a firm…
Rocker’s delight
South Texas’s most accessible menu item — the humble bean and cheese taco — can be dauntingly problematic for San Antonio’s sparse vegetarian population. Among local foodstuffs it is unmatched for economy and portability, a working musician’s dream. Unfortunately, it is also usually tainted with Tex-Mex cuisine’s most ubiquitous additive: bacon fat. “Ninety-nine percent of…
My Big Fat Greek Restaurant: Vast portions and hefty prices
In 2002, Nia Vardalos wrote and starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a romantic comedy about a Greek woman marrying a non-Greek. It was a sleeper hit, and even drew an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. Taking their cue, Chris Tsailakas and John Roumanas opened the first MBFG Restaurant in 2003. Expanding rapidly around Phoenix (Mesa, Tempe,…
Making room for all those presents
Ferg_e – A Mom On A Mission We have a tradition at our house. Before we bring new stuff in we have to get old stuff out. That means every year at Christmas we go through everything and select all of the items that are still in good condition that just don’t get the love…
Port SA will not press charges on DREAM Act protestors
A spokesperson for Port San Antonio said today the Board of Directors have decided they will not press charges against supporters of the DREAM Act who staged a sit-in at U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s office on November 29. The group of 16 UTSA students and supporters (including former SA Councilmember Maria Berriozábal) was arrested…
Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly
Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Will Ferrell
