Jame’s scores on the strip
New café gets high marks in Holy Trinity of Tex-Mex
ALL THAT JAZZ
The general manager of Trinity University’s KRTU makes a move that throws SA’s only jazz station into limbo Gibbs, known to his fans as “The Thrasher,” is hardly the only person connected with KRTU – Trinity University’s jazz-based radio station – who feels this way. Donnelly is widely credited for energizing the community behind the…
THE LONELY HEART’S CLUB
This V-Day, instead of wasting your money on crap to woo someone with or whoring yourself out to the first available man, woman, or beast willing to accept your pricey little trinkets, blow your wad on yourself. Look into self-love, and splurge a little. You could buy some fancy flora or trite chocolates, but try…
SOUND AND THE FURY
AN ODE TO ODIE Monday nights are now the creative territory of an artistic singularity simply known as Odie. For the few hours on Monday nights, Odie works his magic, transforming Tequila Mockingbird’s River Walk digs into a relaxed and dusty roadside honky tonk. As he rattles off an eccentric medley of originals and covers…
SUPER JOE SCRUGGS
The Children’s Fine Arts Series features Joe Scruggs and Company in concert for three shows on Thursday, February 13. Entitled the Nanny Nanny Boo Boo Musical Revue, the show promises to be “another hand-clapping, foot-tapping, sing-along, fun-filled event.” Last year, I accompanied a class of 20 4-year-olds to see Scruggs, and while I enjoyed…
HOT FUSION
It was highly sexual music: aggressive, testosterone-driven, all angular lines and breaks and kicks, fast and funky as hell. It took some serious chops to play. Listening to it was akin to being a lonely guy watching RANDY BRECKER 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday, February 15 $20 Carmen’s de la Calle Cafe 720…
AN ORDINANCE TO REMEMBER
Reading revisits San Antonio’s slave curfews The excerpt is a portion of the law passed on October 2, 1850, ordained by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of San Antonio. When the document, unearthed by a student, came to Sterling Houston at a Gemini Ink writing workshop, the playwright found inspiration for his latest…
HOW TO SAY ‘I LOVE YOU’ IN FRENCH MUSIC AND FOOD
Musical Bridges and Floraisons Musicales host a three-day French festival at La Mansión The festival, which runs from Friday, February 14 through Sunday, February 16, is an a lá carte affair; each event is separate and requires a reservation. An opening wine tasting and reception, co-hosted by La Mansión and Alliance Francaise, San Antonio’s French…
SONG OF SAN ANTONIO
Emma’s song celebrates the life and work of the native San Antonian who, at the age of 21, led the Pecan Shellers Strike of 1938. It is the song of EL CORRIDO DE EMMA TENAYUCA 7pm Tuesday, February 18 Free admission The Witte Museum 3801 Broadway 357-1900 20,000 young Mexican-American women employed…
SPANKING THE CHEEKY MONKEYS
The Spanker’s staunch, anti-amplification artistic stance is the source of much ballyhoo, both pro and con. The Spankers have been known, much to the chagrin of club owners, to halt performances if audience members grow so loud as to drown out the performers. Some critics applaud the band’s purist inflexibility in this matter; others just…
SPEAKING VOLUMES IN A WHISPER
Phillip Noyce’s latest film is actually more than a year old. Shot in 2001 and based on a novel Graham Greene wrote in the ’50s, The Quiet American was shelved by Miramax after September 11 for fear that U.S. audiences wouldn’t be receptive to its critical (but not controversial) perspective on America’s role in agitating…
HAS THE SOUL TURNED SACCHARINE?
Santana helped me appreciate guitar-playing greats like Jimi Hendrix, and the Bay Area funk of Tower of Power. Adventurous and inspired by the music, I began to try out other bands with the Latin Rock sound, guys who had their start with Santana Band before venturing out and forming their own groups. El Chicano, with…
Armchair Cinephile
EXTRA! EXTRA! Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Criterion Collection) The Killers (Criterion Collection) Full Frontal (Buena Vista) The award for “Most Enjoyable DVD Bonus Features” for February of this foul Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Three must go, hands down and eyes bugged out, to Criterion’s new edition of Fear and Loathing…
ALL EARS
Oddly, the band who seems most responsible for this trend seems to be backing away from it. Sure, Calexico’s new disc Feast of Wire (Quarterstick) has a couple of pure Wild West homages, such as the rousing instrumental “Close Behind.” Their songs are still peppered with the genre’s ingredients: mentions of mission bells in the…
SPECIAL SCREENS
Unlike some festivals, this one announces its winners well before the first public screening – and the jury’s choice for Best Feature Film, Washington Heights, will open the five-day fest. The movie, directed by Alfredo de Villa, is about a subject close to our hearts: an aspiring comic book artist trying to make it in…
STILL PLAYING
ABOUT SCHMIDT Dir. Alexander Payne; writ. Louis Begley (novel), Payne; feat. Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates (R) Schmidt is a road movie set on the other end of life’s cycle from Nicholson’s Easy Rider, as full of metaphoric ambition and as devoid of solid meaning. The actor is utterly convincing as a…
IS SA READY FOR TOYOTA?
The good news is Toyota is coming to San Antonio. The bad news is Toyota is coming to San Antonio. The announcement is the biggest economic news to hit the city in recent memory, but let’s put things in perspective: In the grand business scheme, 2,000 jobs and a $78 million payroll ain’t that much.…
IT’S ABOUT TIME
City Engineer Doug Yerkes announced at a meeting – attended by merchants, State legislators Leticia Van de Putte and Mike Villarreal, and City and Texas Department of Transportation officials – that within the month, construction crews will rectify the botched parking situation on Hildebrand. For a few businesses, this promise means recently built structures will…
WAR: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
Communication with “them” is impossible because only our side is capable of telling the truth. There is the illusion that “It is the time of the final battle between good and evil.” The Bush administration, with the help of the U.S. media, has skillfully tapped into this unquestioning primal war mentality with respect to Saddam…
DIOS TE BENDIGA, TOYOTA: God bless the baby Tundra
Despite the A-listers’ absence, about 30 regulars of García’s faithful flock gathered in the sparsely furnished church that stands adjacent to where the wheels of government spin in perpetuity. One woman rested on her knees and held her hands up in fervent prayer as García lit candles, bells rang in the church tower, and the…
THE BUSINESS OF PLEASURE
With city officials estimating that the Northeast Side will have 99 percent of San Antonio’s SOBs within a decade, these sexually oriented businesses are commonly portrayed as a social plague. They are literally a constituency without representation. Regardless of the candidate’s political biases, a disdain for District 10’s sex establishments is obligatory. For instance, Chip…
A DENT IN THE AQUIFER
The line in question is located in the zoning ordinance section of the UDC, and prohibits auto body shops and repair shops, including quickie lube franchises, from opening over any part of environmentally sensitive Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. Much to the furor of local environmentalists, the city zoning commission will consider a proposal on February…
