Bad News Bexars: Missing money has key Democrats in the spotlight
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com In last year’s presidential election, Bexar County swung more solidly Democrat than it had since 1976 when 54 percent of registered voters backed a one-time Georgia peanut farmer to force out disgraced President Nixon’s ex Vice. As 52 percent of registered voters clicked the Obama button, the Bexar County Democratic Party seemed…
Uprising of the Cave Critters threatens San Anto’s cement mixers
What if that fly on the right was your daughter? Is it time to think about it? Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com You may have noticed the pace of blasting and clear-cutting over the contributing recharge zone (west/northwest Bexar) has slowed with this pesky global economic slowdown. Normally, like good freemarketeers, we would take the down time…
Guns for Goons: Colin Goddard, survivor
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com The Colin video. No ID? No problem. On April 16, 2007, Colin Goddard was shot in the shoulder by 23-year-old fellow student Seung-Hui Cho, who earlier had killed 32 students at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. Goddard, 21, an international studies major, faked to…
Avatar
Avatar Director: James Cameron Screenwriter: James Cameron Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez Release Date: 2009-12-18 Rated: PG-13 Genre: Film Our Rating: 3.50 I should know better. Every critical bone in my body says I should be much harder on Avatar than I am. After all, it’s James Cameron’s first…
Solar jammers of SA, unite!!
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com EchoTown’s Matthew Ahern with tomorrow’s recording studio. If you’re a local, environmentally conscious musician, or just a regular Joe (or Joanna) interested in anything green, I think you’ll like this. On Monday, December, 21, the folks from EchoTown will be inviting the music community and the general public to a demo…
The State vs. Radric Davis
The State vs. Radric Davis Composer: Gucci Mane Label: Asylum Release Date: 2009-12-16 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Recording Officially Gucci Mane’s sophomore album after god knows how many mixtapes and a non-major debut, The State vs. Radric Davis is set to move nearly 100,000 units its first week while Davis…
Elvis 75
Elvis 75 Composer: Elvis Presly Label: RCA/Legacy Release Date: 2009-12-16 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Compilation Genre: Recording Elvis 75 presents 100 Presley rock and pop hits, gospel songs, live stunners, and passable movie tunes on four CDs, wrapping them up in a bunch of photos and a literate essay. All the hits…
Green Christmas: Eco-Couture Fashion Event
Release Date: 2009-12-16 Austin-based Lebanese fashion design house Jalpar took cues from nature and ecology for their latest collection. The presentation of their 2010 couture line will undoubtedly be the highlight of Solar San Antonio’s Green Christmas, an event conceived by fashion producer Tony Harris and hosted by SA television personality Tanji Patton. Tiffany &…
Screening: The Cove
Release Date: 2009-12-16 Environmental thriller The Cove won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2009 (it’s also shortlisted for an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature). In the film, Ric O’ Barry, an activist who formerly captured and trained the five dolphins that played “Flipper,” leads a covert mission to investigate the killing practices of…
Element Tattoo Art Show w/ the Sandworms & Murderama
Release Date: 2009-12-16 Although SA’s the Sandworms appear to be members of some sort of menacing coven, their MySpace page is evidence of a keen sense of humor laced with an ironic dose of Satanism. They describe their sound as “high voltage horror-surf-rock from outer space,” and seem to be inspired by grave robbers and…
Get Reel Film Series: Works by Lawrence Andrews and Kalup Linzy
Release Date: 2009-12-16 Brooklyn-based video artist and Guggenheim fellow Kalup Linzy has generated serious buzz with his brilliant soap-opera satires. A delightful surprise for those with a sharp sense of humor, “All My Churen” (left) is a keyhole view into the world of Nucuavia, a woman whose boyfriend Jojo has been killed in a drive-by…
Hawthorne Heights w/ Just Surrender, Monty Are I, Anarbor, & NightBeast
Release Date: 2009-12-16 Hawthorne Heights, a band that used to fall into the genre known as “screamo,” was forced to evolve in 2007, when guitarist (and resident screamer) Casey Calvert died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose. Best known for songs like “Ohio Is for Lovers” and “Saying Sorry,” (both hits thanks to MTV), Hawthorne Heights…
San Antonio Symphony: Holiday Pops
Release Date: 2009-12-16 Sunday presents a festive opportunity to enjoy the San Antonio Symphony’s Holiday Pops concert with your wonder-tot. Before listening to yuletide carols like “Silent Night” and “White Christmas,” kids can participate in interactive activities such as an instrument petting zoo, conducting lessons with Maestro Masur, and musical crafts. Consider bringing a new…
Sandra Cisneros’s Birthday Bash
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-12-16 ¡Feliz cumpleaños! The House on Mango Street, the breakout novel from San Antonio’s most famous writer-in-residence, Sandra Cisneros, turned 25 this year. To celebrate, Cisneros has been giving readings of the novel (still required on high-school syllabuses nationwide), notably on NPR in April and most recently for Mark Twain Middle…
Reading: Five Thin Slices of Truth
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-12-16 Adolphus Herndon will read from his short-story collection, Five Thin Slices of Truth, Thursday night at Candlelight. Herndon, an East Texas native and South Texas resident, marks his literary debut with the collection, which addresses some timely and some timeless stuff. On Herndon’s roster of fictive concerns are the frustrations…
San Antonio Symphony: Holiday Pops
Release Date: 2009-12-16 Sunday presents a festive opportunity to enjoy the San Antonio Symphony’s Holiday Pops concert with your wonder-tot. Before listening to yuletide carols like “Silent Night” and “White Christmas,” kids can participate in interactive activities such as an instrument petting zoo, conducting lessons with Maestro Masur, and musical crafts. Consider bringing a new…
Phonolux
Phonolux Composer: Phonolux Conductor: Phonolux Label: Toastworks Release Date: 2009-12-16 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording It’s too late now, but a band with songs and musicianship this good deserves a better name than “Phonolux.” Despite their press release claiming sonic uniqueness, the band didn’t invent a new wheel. Their self-titled debut is song-oriented ’60s and ’70s…
Graffiti
Graffiti Composer: Chris Brown Label: Jive Release Date: 2009-12-16 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Recording Good luck listening to Brown’s third album if you know anything about his assault on Rihanna earlier this year. Brown’s image used to be that of a young R&B singer exploding with life and talent. Now…
Rock ‘n roll Christmas
In this season of hope, family, and … Oh, screw it. These books, CDs, and DVDs came out in 2009 and are my personal shopping recommendations for the holidays. You know what to do with them. Visit the Curblog at sacurrent.com for a few more items and details. Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the…
Getting Up
The hip-hop pantheon is stacked with MCs and DJs who also wrote graffiti and vice-versa, going way back to cats like Fab 5 Freddy, Kool Herc, and KRS-One. During the ’90s, acts like the Artifacts carried the flag for writers -turned-rappers, making the designation into a hip-hop subgenre of sorts. With their latest mixtape, The…
Live & Local
My biggest problem with We Leave at Midnight is that guitarist and lead vocalist John Dailey comes from some podunk about 90 miles north of here. I don’t recall the name, just something about “live music capital” of the something or other. Whatever. The rest of the band’s bona-fide SA, from keyboardist Chris Guerra (also…
The Sound & The Fury
Remember this name: Nadine Mansour (pronounced man-SOOR). Born in Germany, and a San Antonio resident since the age of 10, she’s a young Berklee graduate who has just released Catharsis, a debut that’s one of the best local albums of the year. Her thing, supposedly, is R&B and soul but, really, as far as I’m…
Big Mo vs. Da Traxx
Confusingly, Big Mo Fresno Bar is not a gay bar for the 6-foot-and-over crowd (I can just picture high ceilings, tall stools, and a bumping, grinding dance floor), but rather a tiny hole in the wall that caters to a much older, but no less fun, clientele. Big Mo’s is long and narrow — not…
Up in the Air
Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You For Smoking) has a casually confident sense of tone among young mainstream directors working right now, and in Up in the Air, he uses that deft touch to explore the compartmentalized life of Ryan Bingham (Clooney), a for-hire corporate hatchetman. Ryan is the sharp-dressed man who bosses hire when they…
Home on the Range
Lark has a lovey. Lark is my 3-year-old daughter, and her lovey is Kapi. Kapi is short for okapi, and if you don’t know what an okapi is, well, you really need to get to the San Antonio Zoo more often. An okapi looks like a cross between an antelope, a giraffe, a zebra, and…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m an Asian female, and for some time now I’ve been fascinated by the Mexican culture. I find Mexican males to be very attractive. Their food, language, and music are just amazing! How much of a chance do I have dating a Mexican hombre if I’m Asian? — Muchacha China Curiosa Dear Chinita:…
Lee Carvello’s Putting Challenge
Look, buying video games is hard enough when you’re buying for yourself, but it’s practically impossible to purchase one for someone else. With myriad choices out there, finding the right game is daunting. So here are a few suggestions so that you don’t get the forced old Christmas fib “Oh, neat … this is just…
The Cosmic puppeteer
Legendary sci-fi author Philip K. Dick enjoyed perhaps his most fertile creative period in the late ’50s and early ’60s, most of which he spent in Point Reyes, California, with his third wife, Anne. During this period, PKD penned 17 novels, including several of his most celebrated works: The Man in the High Castle, The…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I don’t understand why the astronomers responsible for naming new-found objects are so devoid of flair. Here’s a prime example: They found a blazar, or blazing quasi-stellar object, in a faraway galaxy. It’s powered by a supermassive black hole that’s 10 billion times larger than our sun. Why did they give…
A tale of two X-mas Carols
Professional taxonomists of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol have now identified several thriving subspecies of Carol, including musical Christmas Carols (such as at the San Pedro Playhouse), spectacular Christmas Carols (such as at Houston’s Alley Theater), and 3D Christmas Carols (invading megaplexes everywhere). To these we may now add community productions of A Christmas Carol about…
The DA’s hot-check fund, more sad jail tales
Slush fund Bexar County DA Susan Reed has been in office for a decade now, and she’s seeking another four-year term next November. While the public might be most concerned with criminal-conviction and crime rates, nothing riles up fellow politicians like a pot of few-strings-attached money, and Reed has access to at least two. Under…
Human pyramid
Think the circus was a utopia of outsiders? Not hardly; a strict caste system was enforced in virtually every circus whose history is known. And as in Reaganomics, interaction tended to trickle only downward. Top of the Big Top The circus owner, natch, who — despite various fictional depictions — was not the ringmaster. Nor…
Chicano revolt in a Texas town
Last week, the Cara Mia Theatre in Dallas reenacted a landmark event in Mexican-American civil-rights history: the Crystal City Walkout of 1969. The all-Chicano drama spotlights the valiant students who demanded equity, dignity, and opportunity in their education. Their victory changed the face of Texas public education forever. Back then, Mexican Americans were often the majority…
A taste of Philip K. Dick
Curious about Philip K. Dick but not sure where to start? Dick produced arguably eight masterpieces: The Man in The High Castle (1962), Martian Time-Slip (1964), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Ubik (1969), Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974), A Scanner Darkly (1977), and Valis…
No home for the holidays
In May 19, 2009, Universal City passed Ordinance 602, making it illegal for registered sex offenders to live near places where children gather. It’s the kind of law that no politician can vote against. No one wants to be labeled at the next election as the person in favor of sex offenders living near children. At first…
Dear Uncle Mat
Dear Uncle Mat, I have no idea what to get my new boyfriend for Christmas. We have been going out for a little more than three months now, and it is definitely serious. He sleeps almost every night at my house, and we have discussed him moving in once his roommate can find a…
Lives of the saints
I think of it as an anthropological exhibition,” Marise McDermott, president of the Witte Museum, says. “`Circus Folk` is less about the phenomenon of the circus from an audience’s vantage point, and more about the culture surrounding the circus, the people who actually made the circus happen, from performers to workers, and what their lives…
The Watermark brand sails
Located in the former Reggiano’s, a popular Italian restaurant that closed earlier this year, Watermark Grill is both similar and different. Boasting a convenient location with ample parking at Loop 1604 and Stone Oak Parkway, the new eatery has kept the general features of its predecessor, but updated the décor with tatami-style table covers that match…
Amuse-Bouche
That slight tremor you felt last month in the space-time continuum? SA’s taco-specific mobile-food universe has been hit by a sugar bomb: Saweet Cupcakes is now making the rounds of San Antonio high life — Pearl Brewery, the Legacy Outdoor Market, Taco Truck Fridays at Artpace. The three-week-old venture is piloted by sisters-in-law Tien Friedberg…
COP15: Justice movement holds own assembly as U.N. prepares to block people from negotiations
Image Courtesy: Indigenous Environmental Network Protesting development of the Canadian tar sands, called the “the largest and most carbon intensive industrial project on the planet,” in Copenhagen. Jill Johnson jill@swunion.org COPENHAGEN, Denmark â?? The temperature has dropped to freezing in Copenhagen as the streets are increasingly becoming a military zone and talks inside are headed…
New numbers at CPS Energy suggest we can take a pass on nukes, spend decade developing alternatives
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Over the past few weeks, CPS Energy staffers have been finalizing some new figures on how much energy San Antonio will need and when. And, for anyone who has even casually been following the recent scandals at the City-owned utility, it comes as no surprise that they are significantly different from those…
Is a climate movement rooting in Alamo City?
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com About 50 San Antonio residents, including a gaggle of concerned high school and middle school students, gathered amidst the holiday décor at Milam Park Saturday night to show their solidarity with those pushing for tough international agreements on greenhouse gas reductions in Copenhagen this week. It’s the second such gathering I’ve attended…
