Film Feast and Soul Food Fest
Film Feast and Soul Food Fest Cinecultural 2004 Food, sensuality, and film. They all come together in the San Antonio Museum of Art’s Cinecultural 2004, a film festival celebrating food and the “sensual art of cooking.” Refreshments from local restaurants complement the films. The festival opens with Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, on February 26, with…
Home Lit
Grace Paley, noted craftswoman of the short story and essay, will give a free public reading at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre on Thursday, February 19. Paley is in town for Gemini Ink’s Spring 2004 Autograph Series, which includes a luncheon benefit and a fiction class on Friday. The midwife of the American short story…
Replicant Vibes
Echo Base Soundsystem: a cornerstone of Austin’s underground music scene (courtesy photo) Austin’s Echo Base Soundsystem takes traditional dub into the electronic age “Dub music is all about roots, it’s all about that good feeling – almost like moving 24 frames per second,” says DJ Low-Res, a local artist responsible for bringing Austin electro-dub group…
Spanish Bombs
A Spanish Civil War poster New compilation documents the idealistic protest songs of the early Franco era In a valiant attempt to combat the rising tide of fascism under General Francisco Franco, the Communist International issued a call in 1936 for volunteers to fight for the preservation of democracy and make “Spain the grave…
Sound and the Fury
Spettro a week on the scene South Texas Boy A local CD to look for comes from Eddie Scott, aka Spettro, who celebrated the release of his new disc, Southern Boy, with a Valentine’s Day show at the Davenport. Spettro, one of San Antonio’s most ardent champions of house music in particular and dance…
San Antonio Jewish Film Festival
Arnon Goldfinger’s The Komediant is a portrait of the Burstein family, durable stars of the Yiddish theater. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) The Barshop Jewish Community Center and Embassy Theater provide a kosher alternative to studio tripe What is a Jewish film festival? A series of Jewish films. What is a Jewish film? A film by…
Love In Vain
Ten years ago, at a public memorial gathering for Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love joined a group of mourners and told them that the mass media would never understand Cobain’s greatness because the media was dominated by out-of-touch baby boomers. The sentiment seemed to sum up the generational divide that had grown between flower-power graybeards…
Low Plains Drifters
The Flatlanders Low Plains Drifters There’s something very old-world about the way the Flatlanders express themselves. The group’s new album, Wheels of Fortune (New West Records) overflows with references to weary brakemen, wishing wells, tough gals, roadside diners, and Old West circuses. When they hit the road, they do so “in a rooster tail of…
Life’s Rich Pageant
Related Stories
Learning from the French
Georges Lopez works with one of his students in Nicolas Philbert’s profile of the teacher. (courtesy photo) A lesson in the daily labors of a 55-year-old saint in a one-class schoolroom “I don’t think I could have done any other job,” Georges Lopez tells the camera during a rare moment in which he directs attention…
Repeating the Past
Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler co-star in another kooky movie. (courtesy photo) ’50 First Dates’ is déjà vu all over again Should a clumsy movie with a good idea get credit for that good idea, even if it’s more or less stolen from another, much better movie? Something about 50 First Dates screams “yes” -…
Special Screenings
OnScreen at ArtPace 6:30pm Thursday, February 19 Free ArtPace 445 N. Main 212-4900 Current Choice ζ A scene from L’atalante St. George Fine Arts Series Silent Film Festival 7pm Saturday, February 21 $12 door, $10 advance, $30 (maximum) family rate St. George Episcopal Church 6904 West Ave. 342-4261 Current Choice ζ OnScreen at ArtPace During…
RECENT REVIEWS
21 Grams Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu; writ. Guillermo Arriaga; feat. Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melissa Leo, Paul Calderon (R) 21 Grams juggles three main characters who, though they don’t know it yet, are involved in one story. We see snippets (very short ones, for much of the film) of their…
Armchair Cinephile
A Not-So-Simple Filmmaker In our lives and on the news, trust can be a hard thing to come by. So is Trust, the second (and most accessible) feature by idiosyncratic indie filmmaker Hal Hartley. Despite constant requests from fans, the video rights are currently held by a company with little interest in issuing it on…
Quasi-Chemistry
Cementville’s main dining area. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Cementville is still missing a few elements Many of you surely must have studied the periodic table of elements in high school or college chemistry – if nothing else, you might remember that Au stands for gold and NaCl equals sodium chloride (salt). The designers of…
Drive-Thru Done Right
An enchilada combo plate from the Malt House (Photo by Laura MacKenzie) The Malt House serves up Mexican & Southern on the cheap What would you expect from a place called the Malt House? If your answer is a thick, syrupy malt topped with whipped cream and a cherry, think again. The Malt House…
Requiem For a Working-Class Hero
Author Juan Sepúlveda’s long-awaited biography of Mexican-American voting rights activist Willie Velásquez is being published by Arte Público Press this spring. Sepúlveda, for whom Velásquez was both a friend and mentor, writes about the political and private struggles of the man who founded the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Willie Velásquez…
