The right stuff
Come hungry to Scenic Loop Cafe
NEW REVIEWS
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE Dir. Alan Parker; writ. Charles Randolph; feat. Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, Gabriel Mann, Matt Craven, Leon Rippy (R) But you need not be a longtime Texan to spot the pervasive falseness of The Life of David Gale, a ham-fisted and lead-legged Texas-set drama that sets out to convince…
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…
Armchair Cinephile
THREE (OR FOUR) THE FUN WAY The Complete Musketeers (Anchor Bay) Heroic Trio (Miramax) Walking out of The Two Towers, I felt a great rush of giddiness knowing that there were only 12 months to wait for the third Lord of the Rings installment. Fans will surely feel the same way when they leave the…
SHOW TIMES
These show times are provided by the theaters and are subject to change. The Current includes show times submitted by press deadline, and is not responsible for the changes in the ever-morphing film industry. All times are p.m. unless otherwise indicated. DOWNTOWN AMC RIVERCENTER 9 Rivercenter Mall, third floor, 558-9988 Dark Blue (R) Fri ……
CROSSING ANTLERS
From the deer’s viewpoint, people have displaced and crowded their herds, which depend on the natural forage that is wiped out when subdivisions are built. Some human residents are exasperated by deer chewing on their fruit trees and plants, or wandering into yards and roads in this North Side suburb. And other humans, who are…
NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET BOB
The guy’s a personality. A radio personality, that is, which gets him a lot of play. Airplay, anyway – on San Antonio College’s radio station, KSYM 90.1 FM. Between Postal Service and Wilco, Beck and Johnny Cash, Bullet Bob is the best thing on the radio. Really. His charismatic banter transitions listeners from the esoteric…
OPEN MIC MONDAYS
As Plankenhorn sets up his sound equipment, his bass player Ivan Brown and drummer Herb Belofsky arrive with their gear. Musicians carrying guitar cases drift in to sign up for their turn to pick and sing on stage. “A lot of fresh talent and some established performers show up,” says Plankenhorn. Saengerhalle bartender Jennifer Martinez…
SELLING THE FUEL CELL
The event may have been anticlimactic but for the applause from those who witnessed the historical moment. But it marked the beginning in San Antonio of what could be a bigger economic boom than the computer industry. Southwest Research Institute has a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to monitor three 5-kilowatt Proton…
BLACK DIAMOND
Black’s penchant for the absurd – and downright silly – has been part of his complicated appeal ever since he sang “Nimrod’s Son” on the Pixies’ 1987 debut EP, Come on Pilgrim. But on his first three solo albums, tossed-off whimsy like “Whatever Happened to Pong?” diluted the impact of pop gems like “Two Spaces”…
AUTO DEALERS ZONED OUT
Commission deflects latest assault on San Antonio’s main source of drinking water Brown, an attorney with registered City Hall lobbyists Earl and Brown, sniveled that his (unnamed) client had waited patiently for the past two years while Brown weaseled his way onto a zoning commission advisory committee – the same committee that recommended a change…
MÚSICA ROMANTICA
In the same spirit, you might expect Grupo Mojado to be mildly political. You might anticipate songs about the homeland or of creating community in a new, sometimes hostile, surrounding (à la Los Tigres del Norte and the corridos exhibit at the Witte Museum). Instead, Grupo Mojado excels at música romantica, along the same lines…
SOUND AND THE FURY
A WEEK ON THE SCENE BE BRAVE “The whole room was up doing the Hokey Pokey.” That’s how Catherine Cisneros, co-music director of the Urban-15 Group, described not a kindergarten classroom, but last year’s Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball hosted by the Urban-15 Group. Anyone who has attended a local parade where the dance group has…
FAT KIDS
San Antonio is especially threatened: Obesity is prevalent among the poor, Hispanic, and Black populations. In a state where 28.6 percent of low-income children ages 2-5 are classified as obese (not overweight, obese), parents often look to the schools for clues as to why their little boy isn’t so little. Perhaps stirred by memories of…
GLOW-IN-THE-DARK LUNCH
Irradiation opponents stewing over nuked meat Proponents of the irradiation process æ in which gamma rays or electrons are used to kill potentially toxic food bacteria, such as salmonella æ know that they will continue to lose in the court of public opinion as long as the technology’s name evokes images of thermonuclear meltdown more…
PRESSING TIMES
A look at local presses of the university and independent variety We’re talking about publishing, and specifically the role Ras plays as the director of a university press, that niche between big market-driven New York houses and smaller independent ventures. “I see what we do as the preservation of local culture in the best sense,”…
NONE OF THE ABOVE
In this book, In Schools We Trust, Deborah Meier disses the “high-stakes” testing regime that’s taking over our nation’s schools. Testing won’t save us, Meier argues. In place of killer tests and today’s hermetically-sealed youth culture, kids need sustained engagement with adults they can respect and trust. They need small, self-governing, innovative public schools. Meier’s…
STARVING ARTIST CAUSES FUROR
MAX Writ. & dir. Menno Meyjes; feat. John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, Molly Parker, Ulrich Thomsen (R) Set in Munich in 1919, Max is a film whose chief appeal is the haughty thrill of historical irony. The Weimar Republic was a period of cultural and political tumult and economic adversity that we now know…
