ALL EARS: REMIXED, RECONFIGURED, REAL GOOD
It’s hard to get credit for being a pop genius these days unless you spread yourself around. Take a bit part in an indie film. Publish a book of photography. Get Republicans to go easy on Third World debt. Shouldn’t good music be plenty? Jeff Tweedy, at least, is content to diversify within his chosen…
All hail the chocolate malt
Release Date: 2003-02-20 There exists no finer ice cream confection than the chocolate malt. And thanks to a high metabolism, I can be the Edwards Aquifer of chocolate malts – always needing recharged – without having to widen my doorways. In hopes of pouring a modicum of nutrition down my 9-year-old throat, mom packed my…
All hail the chocolate malt
Release Date: 2003-02-20 There exists no finer ice cream confection than the chocolate malt. And thanks to a high metabolism, I can be the Edwards Aquifer of chocolate malts – always needing recharged – without having to widen my doorways. In hopes of pouring a modicum of nutrition down my 9-year-old throat, mom packed my…
ARTIFACTS
News and notes from the San Antonio art scene The McNay Museum’s board announced plans to demolish the vacant Charles Moore building on the museum’s grounds, despite its historical significance and a slew of offers from various institutions – including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Southwest School of Art and…
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
Buttercup perfects the art of live performance as deconstruction Front man Erik Sanden revels in such musical spontaneity, embellishing already remarkable performances with a quirky stage presence. Unlike most of his Austin-based musical counterparts, he can also string a sentence together quite expertly. Erik Photo courtesy of Ramin Samindari “I think I’ve always been…
HENRY FOOL
Punk godfather Henry Rollins talks loud, but he’s not saying much In 1998, Henry Rollins went to a Los Angeles club to catch a gig by the long-forgotten ’80s hair-metal band Ratt. Rollins – former singer for hardcore-punk trailblazers Black Flag, and presently an ultra-prolific singer/writer/actor/spoken-word performer – went to check out the crowd, to…
SOUND AND THE FURY
FIST HITS THE ROAD “This is what I’ve been waiting for — the chance to get out of Texas and perform for a new audience.” Mike Pendon, aka DJ Jester — aka the Filipino Fist — sounds like an excited schoolboy when discussing his upcoming tour with Canadian turntablist Kid Koala. For several years now,…
DON’T SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYERS
The same goes for Elton John. Singing along to “Tiny Dancer” may have become a less guilty offense thanks to Billy Crudup, but admitting that “Nikita” is one of your all-time favorite ’80s songs still falls somewhere under the shameful category. To complicate matters, Joel and John are hitting the road for the third time…
LA HISTORIA SE REPITE Y REPITE
¿Se ha escrito la historia en vano? Editor’s note: Once a month, the Current will feature a Spanish column on a variety of topics written by Santiago Daydi-Tolson, a native of Chile and professor of Spanish at UTSA. This month’s installation features Daydi-Tolson’s thoughts on war, its history, and how hawkish world leaders forget the…
REINCARNATED MILKMEN
Seattle punks with a sense of the absurd. THE BRIEFS 9pm Wednesday, February 26 Sin13 1902 McCullough 785-9461 This nouveau new wave has created a tidal wave effect across the country that can be heard in east coast bands such as Le Tigre and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. By comparison, the Briefs’ sound is more…
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
The world’s history offers infinite examples of wars that were considered perfectly justified by those who provoked them. The roots of war are so old that even the ancient voices of the first epic poems carry the echoes of an arrogant certainty in the faith of the gods of triumph and defeat. War has an…
BEAUTY MYTH
Jesse Amado’s McNay installation plays clever, deconstructive games with language Jesse Amado’s site-specific installation Beauty Spot, currently on view in the McNay’s Brown Gallery, delicately confronts its audience with a tangled conceptual conundrum. Though the installation initially purports to examine the ambiguity of language, all the while it BEAUTY SPOT: JESSE AMADO February 4 -…
THE PACKAGE AT THE POST OFFICE
A few days before Valentine’s, I went to the downtown post office in San Antonio to mail my love packages – to people who could care less, but that’s another story. Anyway, as I went through the gauntlet of security apparatus post 9-11, a puffy-taco kind of security guard asked me for my driver’s license.…
TUNDRA: GAS GUZZLER?
Three years before the Toyota plant rolls pickups off the production line, there’s no sign they will feature hybrid or fuel cell power But it’s time for the dawning of an economic bonanza on the city’s exploited and forgotten Southside – right? Toyota Motor Corp. President Fujio Cho took the microphone during last week’s group…
DENIED ACCESS
The digital age has promised an even greater freedom, openness, and empowerment. Watch the rows of patrons – young and old – sitting before banks of brightly lit computer screens at our Enchilada-red library downtown: With the click of the mouse, they are able to tap into a seemingly infinite realm of news and information,…
REINCARNATED MILKMEN
The Briefs: Seattle punks with a sense of the absurd. This nouveau new wave has created a tidal wave effect across the country that can be heard in east coast bands such as Le Tigre and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. By comparison, the Briefs’ sound is more consistent with 1977-style punk than anything anything…
YOUTH OF TODAY
Not just the fogeys, but kids also oppose the war Many of the day’s events, including food, and speakers, had been planned primarily by high school and college-aged students. Tourists stopped to take pictures as police shepherded the line of protesters on the two-mile march from HemisFair Park, along the sidewalks of Commerce Street -…
KODO OF HONOR
Japanese drum ensemble respectfully maintains cultural traditions – but it also rocks One type of fan (for ease of reference, we’ll call them KODWEEBS) approaches the group’s work dispassionately. They are Japanophiles, quite likely academics, who appreciate the Taiko drums not for their thunderous ability to invade the human heart and make it beat in…
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
McNay exhibit of Mexican prints explores the radical potential of popular art The image is unmistakably, enigmatically Emiliano Zapata. Defined by bold, stark lines, he gazes forward under his furrowed brow, upper lip covered by his distinctive bigote. And his eyes – his piercing, penetrating eyes. The look befits the leader of the Revolución, Revolution…
