Guns for goons
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Are you tired of lame laws that make it difficult for people to get guns? Are you a felon, or a “dangerously mentally ill” person who needs a gun to â?¦ never mind, no questions asked. It’s your constitutional right!…
Toddlers and porn: shit happens?
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com On the one hand, the release of Norton’s OnlineFamily rankings of the most popular searches by kids during 2009 shows the (developing) sexes aren’t so different. Outties plugged “sex” into the search window almost as much as the innies. The young ladies added Taylor Swift to top searches like YouTube, Google, and…
“It’s the definition of personal”: Bexar Dems hire Tim Maloney to pursue stolen $$ trail
The Bexar County Democratic Party has turned to attorney and old political ally Tim Maloney to pursue the individual(s) responsible for the theft of more than $200,000 in primary-election funds. Former Party Chair Carla Vela revealed the missing funds last week as she stepped down to run for County Clerk. “The Maloney family has a…
RiP: A remix manifesto
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-12-23 Sam’s Video Jam will host a special screening of RiP: A Remix Manifesto, a Canadian filmfest circuit fave directed by firebrand Brett Gaylor, of the EyeSteelFilm collective, whose projects include “Homeless Nation,” a website by and for Canada’s homeless, the weed grow-op doc Puff Daddy, which won over the Banff…
Screening: The Law of Human Gravity
Release Date: 2009-12-23 Filmmaker David Sims founded his production company, Human Gravity Films, right here in SA, but relocated to San Diego in 2007. After producing numerous independent films and commercials, Sims shot his first feature, The Law of Human Gravity. The film tells the story of Abe, an escape artist and former fighter pilot…
Trans Siberian Orchestra
Release Date: 2009-12-23 Conceived by music producer Paul O’Neill in 1996, Trans-Siberian Orchestra is based on collaborative productions with Aerosmith, the Scorpions, Humble Pie, and Savatage, a power-metal band formed at the Tarpon Springs, Florida Astro Skate in 1978. At first the members of Savatage weren’t thrilled with the concept of helping raise O’Neill’s heavy-metal-meets-classical…
Santa’s Railroad Wonderland
Release Date: 2009-12-23 Saturday marks the final day of SA’s Texas Transportation Museum’s Santa’s Railroad Wonderland. The 40-acre site has been decked out in lights and decorations, which should look even more charming from an antique tractor hayride or a moonlit train. Even though it’s the day after Christmas, the San Antonio Ragtime Society will…
Brave Combo Xmas Show
Release Date: 2009-12-23 Founded in Denton in 1979, Brave Combo is an early example of musical genre-blurring. Zydeco, classical, cha cha, blues, cumbia, and rock are but a few styles Brave Combo has been known to mash up. “Santa’s Polka” is one of their standards, as is “Hey Little Dreidel.” Sound uncool? Think again. Brave…
The Lion King
Release Date: 2009-12-23 Although the touring version of The Lion King isn’t exactly what you’d see in New York (where it’s the ninth longest-running show in Broadway history), it’s still a spectacle to behold. Director Julie Taymor’s award-winning musical (Tonys for Best Lighting, Costume, and Scenic Design to name a few) doesn’t follow the rules…
Guy Forsyth, Band of Heathens, & The Tejas Brothers
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-12-23 The Austin-based Americana quintet is actually a band of three soloists who happen to be a hell of a singer-songwriter team. The songs and harmonies of Colin Brooks, Ed Jurdi, and Gordy Quist, with the precise backbone of Seth Whitney and John Chipman, aren’t revolutionary, but the musicianship and tasteful…
Tradiciones Navideñas
Legend has it — and it’s a good story so why not perpetuate it? — that the New World’s first buñuelos were made by stretching the dough over the knee of a nun. That the recipe was brought by the Spaniards, who got it from the Arabs, would seem to cast doubt on the notion,…
My 50 favorite albums of 2009
My Top 10 for the year, as previously reported here. I’ve linked to any applicable reviews, by myself and others: 1. â?¦And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Century of Self (Justice) 2. Yo La Tengo , Popular Songs (Matador) 3. Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. II (Ice Water)…
Lisa knows best
Release Date: 2009-12-22 It was a gray and blustery day (just short of the classic dark and stormy night) and the street in front of Lisa’s was under serious construction. Looks like it had been, and would be, for quite a while. But inside the restaurant, already decorated for the season, there was no evidence…
Christmas in the Heart
Christmas in the Heart Composer: Bob Dylan Label: Columbia Release Date: 2009-12-22 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Recording Anything Bob Dylan puts on record is worth a listen. Yet his new holiday offering, Christmas in the Heart (with all artist royalties benefiting Feeding America), is more of a curiosity than a…
Baionearena
Baionearena Composer: Manu Chao Label: Nacional Release Date: 2009-12-22 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Recording Latin Grammys and sold-out tours aside, singer-guitarist Manu Chao is not quite a household name in most of the U.S. Yet he’s an international star, something this excellent live collection, taken from an inspired show in…
The Young Victoria
Critic’s Pick The Young Victoria Director: Jean-Marc Vallée Screenwriter: Jean-Marc Vallée Cast: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent Release Date: 2009-12-22 Rated: PG Genre: Film Though life is experienced in forward drive, history is understood in retrospect. The chance to use the movie screen as a rearview mirror accounts for the appeal of…
The Pointe Martini Lounge
Release Date: 2009-12-22 Several weeks ago, I got a text that read: “It’s official, the Pointe Martini Lounge has reopened as a homo hut.” The concept of a gay establishment living and breathing North of downtown is always fascinating. Earlier this year, the Closet Lounge in Alamo Heights was briefly the Northernmost watering hole for…
Crimes of emission
The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport,” said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, on Friday night. “There are no targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty.” The guilty men included U.S. President Barack Obama and Brazilian…
Last-minute party savers
We’re not here to judge. It doesn’t matter why the much-hyped Saturday baking party didn’t happen, and there’s no use pointing out that the holidays sneak up like this every year. Right now we need to problem-solve: You want a treat that looks and tastes special — not like you just remembered dessert as you…
Albums of the year
1. Florence + The Machine, Lungs (Universal) Will 22-year-old Florence Welch get her shit together and avoid the Amy Winehouse bit? They’re both Brits, they both like to get wasted, but that’s about as close as they get. Florence + the Machine’s aptly titled Lungs is the stunning debut from a woman who sings so…
Live & Local
Like everybody about my age, I miss MTV. Specifically I miss MTV the way it was in the early to mid ’90s, when the channel’s schedule consisted mostly of hours-long music-video blocks, not segregated by genre — the Toadies followed by Tupac followed by Metallica. I bring that up as an introduction to Egshan not…
The Sound & The Fury
It’s been two years since irresistibly weird local band Not the Government left San Anto for LA, but they keep returning for a Christmas show that’s becoming a holiday staple in this column. This time they play on December 26 at the Ten Eleven (1011 Ave B, (210) 320-9080), with “a set consisting of brand-new…
Life wide shut
I’ve avoided Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life for most of my adult life. Capra’s films — from Meet John Doe to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — tread the same storyline of a populist hero who solves life’s problems in a predictable “Capra-corny” way. So I never understood what makes Life such a classic…
Just say whoa
I assume the marijuana subculture is a foreign entity to most San Antonio Current readers. You are no doubt five-figure-a-year, God-fearing, upstanding members of society. When you hear the term “dope,” the first things that come to mind are the Manson Family murders, Dr. Dre, and teenagers stealing money from their parents’ wallets. Make no…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Can you recommend a solid, accessible history of California and Arizona so I can learn what really happened when the U.S. gobbled Aztlán? — La Chica Confundida Dear Wabette: The holistic classic in this genre is Rodolfu Acuña’s Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, but it’s a bit pricey, a problem that the…
Dear Uncle Mat
Welcome to Uncle Mat’s How to Entertain and Be a Holiday Winner Series, part two. Today we are discussing how to throw a holiday party on a budget. It’s a little late for a Christmas do (unless your friends are also procrastinators with few family obligations, in which case, get busy) but there is still…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): What influences do you really, really need to say goodbye to? The next six months will provide you with ample motivation and opportunity to finally bid those farewells. What long-term cycle really, really needs to be drawn to a close, no more hemming and hawing, all loose ends tied up and…
A quinceañera, 15 years late
The quinceañera, that wedding-like extravaganza marking a girl’s passage into womanhood, is more than a tradition. It’s an obsession. For one day, an average teenage girl becomes a princess. So what happens when five grown women decide to reclaim their lost quinceañeras — still childless and unmarried, but 15 years late? One might expect equal parts house…
The R-rated Bible
Growing up in a household I’ll classify as more religious than most1, I held the illustrated Bible as an early favorite book, second only to Hop on Pop. The Holy Book, filled with cheery watercolors of serpents, Egyptians, and heathens and leftover elephants drowning in God’s great flood, streamlined and censored God’s infallible word: Strategically…
Short Shorts
I’ll make this quick (let the tales speak for themselves): Keep on sending in those brilliant and brief stories (the shorter the better; get those six-word stories in) to flashfiction@sacurrent.com. Loving live brevity. The next installment of Short Shorts will appear January 13. — Lyle Rosdahl Untitled by John Luciano There are no words I…
New Airport Police commander, old $$ woes for the Dems
Top gun Kenton Rainey, the newly appointed commander of the San Antonio Airport Police, has spent the last four months on paid leave from his previous post: Police Chief of Fairfield, California, a Bay Area suburb hard-hit by the housing crisis and subsequent economic fallout. And although some tension clearly surrounded his departure, it sounds…
Give America its best gift ever
NEW YORK — Citibank is suspending foreclosures and evictions for 30 days, until after the holidays. Mighty white of them. Who knew bankers could be so amusing? In an interview, Citi mortgage czar Sanjiv Das acknowledged that “moratoriums are not permanent solutions” and said his company was looking for “some long-term fundamental alternatives” to throwing…
