Justice Sotomayor benchslaps local prosecutor for racist comments
To steal a term from the often-hilarious legal blog Above the Law, a local prosecutor today got a stunning benchslap from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who chided him for racist comments in court. After denying the appeal of convicted drug dealer Bongani Charles Calhoun on procedural grounds, Sotomayor issued a rare, scathing opinion…
2013 Oscars afterthoughts
Seth MacFarlane, the host of the 2013 Oscars. PICTURE Winner: Argo Should’ve won: Zero Dark Thirty With all the precursor awards it had picked up over the last two months, it was no surprise Argo won the big prize of the night . Still, I think a lot of love for Argo came from the…
The Art Guys’ big wheel at SA Intn’l Airport
A mammoth sculpture created by The Art Guys almost 20 years ago is out of mothballs, and making its SA debut inside Terminal B’s second floor (departure level) ticketing lobby at San Antonio International Airport. Suitcase Wheel is a 16-foot diameter wheel made of vintage Samsonite suitcases stacked face-to-face to form a circle…
Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence shoots straight
At the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles last night, Jennifer Lawrence took home the coveted Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook and just about cinched the America’s Sweetheart crown in one fell swoop. Not only was her acceptance speech humble and sweet, Lawrence’s…
How the sequester will hit Texas
The White House last night began releasing state-by-state reports detailing how the sequester will unroll (it’s worth noting some Republicans are already challenging some of the state-specific numbers). According to the Texas fact sheet, here’s some of what we can expect to happen this year in the Lone Star State unless Congress intervenes to…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: “Dinosaurs Unearthed”
“Patty” the 60-foot long Apatosaurus welcomes guests to the Witte’s “Dinosaurs Unearthed: Bigger. Better. Feathered…” Boasting the most extensive and comprehensive fossil collection in North America and some of the world’s largest and most advanced life-sized animatronic dinosaurs, the exhibit encompasses skeletons of small winged dinosaurs and aquatic lizards, a feathered juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex, impressions…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Sans Souci Festival
Championing “highly experimental and interdisciplinary forms” since its inception in 2003, the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema has developed from an informal screening in a trailer park to an internationally touring showcase. Supported by the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and the University of Colorado at Boulder, Sans Souci (French for “without concerns”) curates…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Scary Cherry and the Bang Bangs
“A beautifully concocted Molotov cocktail that explodes like a supernova,” Scary Cherry and the Bang Bangs is fronted by former Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Lezlie Deane, a provocateur whose acting credits include Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Almost Pregnant, and Dynasty. As a member of the lesbian techno-pop group Fem2Fem, Deane toured with Nine Inch Nails…
Daily Show riffs on Texas secessionists
Last night the The Daily Show masterfully showed how truly bat-shit the Texas secessionist movement can be. The segment mostly follows perennial GOP candidate Larry Scott Kilgore, who claims he’s running for governor in 2014, and fellow secessionist Lynn Troxel. “One of the things that Texas allows, you can still talk on the cell phone…
San Antonio Spurs: Playoff March launches from Houston
Recent All-Star Weekends in Texas have had a distinct flavor when it comes to proponents of the San Antonio Spurs. Houston in 2006 was an urban-themed coming out party for Tony Parker as a baller and fledgling rhyme-sayer. Dallas in 2010 was dominated by the excess of Cowboys Stadium, aka Jerry World and the record…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: “Riff House Review”
It’s that time of the year again when Sam’s Burger Joint hosts the Riff House Concerts that capture the intimacy of the invitation-only shows held at Tim and Candyce Slusher’s home. This year boasts an impressive lineup of artists who have performed at Riff House at one time or another. Among them, Pop Pistol needs…
Judge recommends overturning former SAPD officer’s child rape conviction
Frank Navarijo at his court hearing in November Frank Navarijo was still recovering from a surgery that removed his cancerous prostate when he was accused of raping his daughter in 1998. At trial, Navarijo, a 23-year SAPD veteran and a former Department of Justice contractor, embarrassingly admitted he was incontinent, sometimes forced to wear…
Malcolm X: The Last Speech
Today marks the 48th anniversary of the death of Malcolm X, one of the most misunderstood figures in America’s political history. This is a speech he gave at Detroit’s Ford Auditorium on February 14, the same night his New York home was bombed. Days later, on February 21, he was assassinated as soon as he…
Executing the mentally ill
Texas Tribune managing editor Brandi Grissom has a stunning piece in the March issue of Texas Monthly, highlighting the case of convicted murderer Andre Thomas and posing this uncomfortable, big-picture question: What should the system do with the deeply mentally ill who commit horrific crimes? Grissom follows in excruciating detail how the state’s mental health…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Julie Speed: “Cut Up”
Julie Speed, based in Marfa, has delighted Austin and SA collectors (and artists) since she moved to Texas in 1978. Her expressive riffs on Renaissance-style painting have cast an acerbic glance on the qualms and quandaries of life for her viewers for awhile, and continue to do so in accelerating fashion. Southwest School of Art…
More CineFestival film picks
CineFestival takes place at the Guadalupe Theater (1301 Guadalupe). Click here for complete schedule and ticket info. SPECIAL JURY AWARD WINNER Stable Life (60 min) ****1/2 Directed by Sarah MacPherson 7pm Thu, Feb 28 Stable Life is an unflinching portrait of a family of undocumented workers. Dionicia Martínez and her husband Mario Muñoz are Mexican…
Review: Memphis at the Majestic
It was something of a surprise when the unpretentious Memphis beat out both the indy-rock spectacle American Idiot and the afrobeat fantasia Fela! for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical: the latter two musicals had generated a lot more buzz (if not box-office receipts) than this modest, earnest, and generally enjoyable tale of…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Pretty Things Peepshow
The stars of tomorrow perform the acts of yesterday in New York’s Pretty Things Peepshow, a daring ensemble that serves up vintage vaudeville set to live swing, blues, surf, and jazz by the Peepin’ Toms. Champions of a genre they call “broadville,” the troupe — Go-Go Amy (Impresario of Undress), Lil Miss Firefly (Midget of…
Q&A: Comedian Kevin Nealon makes maiden voyage to San Antonio Feb. 22 & 23
Comedian Kevin Nealon (“Saturday Night Live,” “Weeds”) will perform his stand-up act at the LOL Comedy Club in San Antonio Feb. 22 and 23. Someone warn the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Comedian Kevin Nealon, 59, is on his way to San Antonio for the first time in his 30-year career and has his…
Review: Pete's Tako House
Founded in 1978, Pete’s may have received celestial assistance a decade latter when Pope John Paul II passed by in his motorcade during the 1987 papal visit to SA. Or so many loyal costumers claim. The blessings have continued unabated since. Pete’s still thrives, now at a new location just off the river on Brooklyn…
Filmmaker to screen documentary-in-progress on wrongly imprisoned San Antonio women
Anna Vásquez is still a prisoner of sorts. Paroled in November after 13 years behind bars, Vásquez was the first of her friends to re-enter the outside world. But her life is still dictated by damning allegations made two decades ago, when Vásquez and her three friends were accused and ultimately convicted of brutally molesting…
Local collective Ghostpizza drops its first compilation
On any given day, if you ask Ghostpizza founder and leader Miguel Nelson just what exactly this awesomely named entity is, you get some variant of his standard answer. "Ghostpizza is associated with fun stuff," he said. "If you see the name attached to something, it’s like a seal of certified fun." And while that…
Unmasking CineFestival 35
35th Annual CineFestival February 23-March 2 $10-$75 Teatro Guadalupe 1301 Guadalupe (210) 271-3151 guadalupeculturalarts.org Filmmaker Jim Mendiola’s decision to move back to San Antonio after years in Los Angeles is not only good for CineFestival, which he directs — it’s good for our film community. Here’s a man who understands making movies has very little…
Artists of SAMOMA play with the viewer
Arts nonprofits and artist-run spaces abound in SA now, support for the arts is strong, with municipal funds spreading public art throughout the city, and new museum wings and performing spaces continuing to be built. But in the 1970s, the emphasis on the arts that Mayor Phil Hardberger would bring to the city in the…
Texas beer bills get another go
Small Texas breweries have been asking the state Legislature for one thing since 2007: the right to thrive. And for three sessions in a row, that right has been denied, angering not just those with small businesses at stake, but also a fast-growing market segment of consumers of craft beer. On Feb. 12, District 1…
Review: India Chaat House Spicy Café
If your ideas of India, like mine, are informed by cinematic spectacles such as Monsoon Wedding, then you will be sorely disappointed by Chaat House; there’s no color, no flash, no fabulous fabric set with sparkling mirrors … in short, and despite some posters of Bollywood stars, it’s plain to a fault. Could be why…
How Gemase Simmons chewed up and spit out young fame-hungry victims for years
By fall of 2010, Andrea was 18 years old, fresh out of high school, and had just started her freshman year at the University of Texas – San Antonio. A communications major, she visited information booths lining the halls of the university’s Humanities and Social Sciences building, searching out jobs, internships, and any way to…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: In the past, you have defended illegal immigrants by arguing that they (paraphrasing one of your previous columns) will do the jobs gabachos won’t do for the same wages. I agree. I have a white-collar job, so I’m totally content to benefit from the low prices brought about by an uneducated underclass unprotected…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the course of her world travels, writer Jane Brunette has seen many wonderful things — as well as a lot of trash. The most beautiful litter, she says, is in Bali. She loves the "woven palm leaf offerings, colorful cloth left from a ceremony, and flowers that dry into exquisite…
Electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick's "Silver Apples"
The year 1962 brought the beginning of the otherworldly modules of psychedelia. That year, circuit designer Don Buchla was commissioned to create a project for avant-garde composers Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender for the San Francisco Tape Center. Together, they created the Buchla 100e, the first modular synthesizer. In 1967, Nonesuch Records released Subotnik’s breakthrough…
No Idea Festival brings avant-garde improv to San Antonio
This year marks a decade since the launching of the surreptitious No Idea Festival. It is a progressive, multifarious connection between sound and surge — a challenge to musicians, dancers, and poets alike as they perform provoking, avant-garde improv pieces, usually in an intimate setting such as an art gallery or performance space. The Festival…
Industry News: Corner Bakery Serves Healthy Options
Corner Bakery, a fast-casual chain, is getting on board the ¡Por Vida! train and offering healthy options. The ¡Por Vida! campaign is a movement started by the Healthy Restaurants Coalition to promote healthy food choices in restaurants. Almost 20 restaurants and eateries across the city have joined the program. Corner Bakery is offering breakfast, lunch…
Good cop, bad cop: in ‘Golden Boy’, they’re the same person
Golden Boy (Tuesday, 9 p.m., CBS) This is a new cop drama that takes an original approach to its protagonist. Walter Clark (Theo James) is not only a smart, capable police officer with a vulnerable streak (nothing new there), but an opportunist. He has a lean, hungry look, watching for the main chance at all…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: PechaKucha Night vol. 9
PechaKucha, a concept created by Tokyo-based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham as a platform for young designers to share their work in a “20×20” format (20 images are shown and explained for 20 seconds each), turns 10 years old this month and celebrates the occasion as a thriving global network made up of 600…
Ranger Creek starts Kickstarter for bottling line
Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling has created a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for “a great used bottling line being sold by another brewery that is upgrading to a bigger one.” The microbrewery has been around for two years now, and bottling its tasty brews is the next natural step. “Here in San Antonio beer…
Fox anchor Karen Martinez dies of cancer at age 37
Popular KABB Fox anchor Karen Martinez died Tuesday after battling breast cancer since 2010. She was 37. Laurel Portié, a News Promo Producer at Fox and guitarist for Mrs. Howl (where she is known as “Laurel Dagger”), described Martínez as a sweet, caring co-worker loved by all who met her. “We were glad to know…
