Gayby’s Monday Musings
On Sunday night, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the wand-less Washington Wizards, 94-80. The road victory prevented the Spurs from posting their first losing streak of the season, after Thursday night’s loss to the new-look, Orlando Magic. Admittedly, I am not an x’s and o’s guy, but I will chalk the Magic loss up to…
“Pacific” by Veronica Salinas
Introduction The story here hints at the magnificence of the ocean, it’s violence held, miraculously, at bay but constantly surging under the choppy surface. Perhaps this is in part because of our shared, taming idea of “ocean” (the word itself, calm, soothing). But for someone who’s never seen it before, the word is deceiving. The…
5MB: top news in gaming for the week of 12/24
1MB All right San Antonians, according to KENS 5, there have been three GameStop robberies in less than a week. The three robberies occurred at Bandera Road and Mainland, the 600 block of Northwest Loop 410 and the 6000 block of Northwest Loop 410. In one robbery, the store employees were tied up with duct…
Interview with Eric Barba, TRON’s visual effects wizard
When the original TRON was released in 1982, it was a groundbreaking moment for visual effects in movies. Now, TRON: Legacy is making the same sort of impact on the industry its predecessor did 28 years ago. Leading the charge into the new and improved digital grid in TRON: Legacy is visual effects supervisor Eric…
The One & Many Voices of Jimmy James
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-22 Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Jimmy James was the most celebrated Marilyn Monroe impersonator on the planet. As Marilyn, James appeared in iconic ad campaigns for L.A. Eyeworks (photographed by Greg Gorman in 1991) and Kenar (starring supermodel Linda Evangelista — flanked by James disguised as Bette Davis and Judy…
Fun Film Shorts
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-22 If you’ve got kiddos over the holidays, the McNay’s got you covered. A handy schedule at the information desk will help you plan a perfectly balanced day of appreciating art (visit mcnayart.org for a list of current exhibitions), watching unique, kid-friendly shorts (“The Cat Came Back,” “Sleeping Betty,” “Peter and…
The Adolescents & Lower Class Brats
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-22 A little more than a year after forming in 1979, the Adolescents released an eponymous debut (which was allegedly recorded in four days and is also known as the Blue Album). Among the jagged gems on Adolescents is “Amoeba” — a revered song that helped establish the influential punk supergroup.…
Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-22 Scheduled to arrive via flying leap this Sunday afternoon are award-winning Moldovan dance sensations Cristina and Alexei Terentiev. Under the direction of Ballet Master Vladimir Troschenko, the Terentievs replace previously scheduled leads Anna Dorosh and Maksim Chepik (both of whom were delayed by visa issues) in Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian…
Nina Diaz (Girl in a Coma) & David Garza
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-22 It was evident in the flurry of online responses we received lamenting the absence of Girl In A Coma among last week’s Rammy Award winners that this city really, really likes GIAC. So do we! In case you forgot, we dubbed their latest, the eclectic Adventures in Coverland, one of…
Joey Fauerso: Four Animations
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-22 At times, an artist’s process can be almost as compelling as their work. Such could be said about local artist on the rise, Joey Fauerso, whose video installation Four Animations is on view in the McNay’s Rotunda through February 13. Fauerso, who was raised in a Transcendental Meditation community in…
Shane Mauss
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-12-22 Rather than transcribe jokes that probably wouldn’t survive the translation, we’ll just tell you that Boston-based comedian Shane Mauss is funny enough to score three appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and (possibly more importantly) he’s working for the weekend — including two shows on Christmas. $15, 8pm Thu,…
The Raccoon
The Raccoon Label: Self-released Release Date: 2010-12-22 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Merykid (aka Nick Mery, the 25-year-old local multi-instrumentalist) wouldn’t settle for a mere earth-bound run-of-the-mill debut LP. Instead, he went straight-up concept, telling the tale of an astronaut about to go into space, forever. At first I sided with the hysterical woman at the…
P.A.R.C.E.
P.A.R.C.E. Label: Universal Music Latino Release Date: 2010-12-22 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording “The North and South poles are melting/ Nobody was expecting it/ Dolphins are mercilessly annihilated/ It seems like a chimera/ But it is not a chimera/ Nor a fiction novel.” This is not a case of “lost in translation:” the original Spanish is…
Noche y Citas
Noche y Citas Label: Rebeleon Music Release Date: 2010-12-22 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Named after the patron saint of musicians, LA’s La Santa Cecilia is a rarity among party bands: even though they’re fun, they concentrate on the songs and arrangements instead of the crowd-pleasing crap. And as musicians they’re as good as they come.…
The King’s Speech
The King’s Speech Dir. Tom Hooper; writ. David Seidler; feat. Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon (R) While it’s natural for almost anyone to get a bit nervous when speaking in public, stumbling over a few words while giving a keynote address or losing your train of thought during a…
Reclaiming waste
In the main gallery of the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, viewers are confronted by underwater-inspired wall pieces that assault the retina with a sense of ecological terror and the weight of environmental responsibility. Crossovers: Materials and Metaphors is a joint effort curated by Meredith Dean, which brings together the distinct innovative energies of two…
Lüke pairs intention with location
Brand new restaurant at a brand new hotel downtown — selling Old World charm? That’s a challenge. Historic Houston Street is packed with 19th-century buildings, and tourists come to San Antonio specifically for the historic qualities of the Missions, the Cathedral and the Alamo. Lüke, built in 2010, just doesn’t qualify. But despite the difficulties,…
Rooting for healthier eats
Caterer Tim the Girl and Chuck Hernandez of Arugula Catering started the non-profit organization EatSmart SA as a way to share with San Antonio their knowledge of nutrition and food preparation. San Antonio’s struggle with health is obviously a major issue, which makes eating better all the more a priority. When Tim the Girl isn’t…
Los de Esta Noche
My apologies to Coast to Coast, Jai Roots Herb-N-Café Project, and Piñata Protest: I missed CTC; Jai Roots was without at least half his usual band, so I’m holding on my review; and by the time Piñata Protest took the stage, not only didn’t I have my notebook in hand, I didn’t know what a…
Dear Uncle Mat
You better sit down, kids… It has been an honor and a delight to answer your questions and write this column in the Current, but Uncle Mat is retiring. You can still find me on Facebook if you have a dire situation and no better last resorts. I want to take this opportunity to thank…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I live in a moderately fancy-ass suburb of Dallas, am super-white, and make decent money. Naturally, I have a Mexican gardener/lawn dude who works his ass off, has 14 brothers and sisters in Guanajuato, employs all his relatives, etc. He also has a sweet wife and three little boys. He does extra landscaping,…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “There’s always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in,” wrote novelist Graham Greene. I’ll add to that: There are at least three moments in adulthood when a new door opens and invites the rest of the future in. Judging by the astrological omens, I’m guessing…
Bottle & Tap
Faust Brewing Co. comeback in 2011 After more than a year of no beer to call its own, New Braunfels is close to a revitalization of its first brewpub. The Faust Brewing Company, located in the historic downtown Faust Hotel, has developed under new ownership into a popular local bar with good taps and an…
The Sound & The Fury
For the last 10 years, the (mostly) New York-based Latin Alternative Music Conference has been the place to meet well-established, up-and-coming Spanish-language bands based in the U.S., Latin America, and Spain. It was there that Manu Chao rocked 9,000 people at a free show at Central Park’s SummerStage, and Puerto Rico’s Circo and Spain’s Bebe…
Last Call salutes Saluté
A couple of weeks ago, when I was neck deep in Last Call (the glossy, yearly bar guide that may slide out of your hardcopy version of this week’s Current) and trying to unwind at Saluté, I had a light bulb moment. Just beyond the stiff drink Azeneth Dominguez had served me was a vintage…
The Loser and the Lame
You’re a 19-year-old aspiring musician who wants to rescue the San Antonio music scene from its perennial lameness and turn it into, say, the Seattle of the new decade, right? OK, here’s what you don’t do: 1. You don’t bullshit the Strokes’ management team into giving you producer Gordon Raphael’s personal info. Yeah, that Gordon…
Silent night
• With distant relatives and enforced gifting on the horizon, we know at least a few of you are looking for a way out. A few untraditional holiday shindigs for you to consider: Expect to see at least one Chucky doll at the Ten Eleven’s Holiday Toy Drive, where Hero to Villain, Afflictive Nature, Echoes,…
Gordon & The Strokes
Even though he produced an eclectic mix of artists (from Regina Spektor to Mexico’s pop-rockers Fobia), it was his work with the Strokes (especially Is This It) that put the name of Gordon Raphael onto the musical map. The Raphael-produced The Modern Age EP (2001), which contained earlier versions of three songs included on Is…
The Queque – December 22, 2010
Bow your heads There is no cross on the wall at the Willie M. Cortez Senior Center. During the summer, however, the execution device benevolently radiated illegal religious favoritism over the tops of the bowed heads as city staff led visitors in prayer. Of course, there are no more city-funded prayer leaders these days. A…
Music my mom does yoga to
Every time she goes home to visit, Callie Enlow does yoga with her mom, a devoted practitioner of the Anusara style. She always surprises her daughter with super-hip yoga music mixes, which she now shares with other Current yoga posers every other week. This week’s mix is part two of the “soul music” yoga mixes.…
Top censored stories of the year
Each year, a growing coalition of media critics and democracy-guarding students led by professors at Sonoma* State University exhume the should-have-been headlines beneath the headlines — those stories that either never, or only very rarely, received the attention they deserved. Last year, picks included the risks associated with nuclear fuel storage in North Carolina, for…
Critical Darling
Who’s afraid of Danny Trejo? Not the folks at the Texas Film Commission, apparently. The TFC recently denied film incentives to the producers of Machete, Robert Rodriguez’s 2010 wanna-B-movie, in which Trejo starred as the title character. FYI: Incentives can be withheld if the TFC determines that a film “portrays Texas or Texans in a…
Love does time
I Love You Phillip Morris begins as a feverish recollection by a man on his deathbed who may or may not be dying of AIDS. “Love is a funny thing,” he narrates. “It makes you do things you never thought you’d do before. In fact, love is the reason I’m laying here dying.” Jim Carrey…
The western holy grail
True Grit is True Grit. Walking out of the theater with a friend, he turned to me and said, “That’s a story you really can’t break.” And he’s right: “The strangest trio to ever track a killer.” That’s all the pitch you need. It’s a three-way buddy movie, with built-in redemptions, all the necessary sacrifices,…
The Real Skinny on Hunger
Food, glorious food. From Thanksgiving through New Years, many of us participate in what seems like an eating marathon. There are huge turkey dinners with enough leftovers for a week. We allow ourselves to overindulge in party buffets. We bake and eat a mountain of holiday breads and sweets. All this food makes me keenly…
