What does it mean to provide & protect?
Writers explore Planned Parenthood’s mission with essays and poetry A literary fundraiser can be quite romantic – especially if you can’t get your lover to read you poetry. February 12 is the annual Planned Parenthood Valentine Party and art event, featuring 12 local writers reading poetry and essays. Poet Jenny Browne brings together writers whose…
Revolutionary heart
New CD finds Conjunto Aztlan getting sensitive without sacrificing its activist roots. Conjunto Aztlan melds the personal and political with new batch of love songs Somewhat unexpectedly, Conjunto Aztlan’s new full-length release, From Aztlan With Love, opens not with a blazing polkita or a rousing cumbia but with an invocation set to a fiery guaguanco…
CD Spotlight
Women on the verge Marianne Faithfull has done most of her best work (and earned some extracurricular headlines) with high-profile collaborators, from the Rolling Stones to Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti. Nonetheless, her personality is remarkably strong – helpers come and go, but there is a singular artist at the heart of her career’s arc…
Skirting the issues
Three times a lady: Gael García Bernal plays a chameleon with a complicated past in Pedro Almodóvar’s latest tale of melodramatic youth and complicated adulthood. Don’t let the NC-17 rating scare you away from Almodóvar’s brilliant tale of a vengeful transvestite Pedro Almodóvar’s spellbinding Bad Education has already been celebrated for so long – from…
‘Blame’ game
Augie Meyers Back in the early ’90s, the Texas Tornados made a television appearance on the music show hosted by Valley legend Johnny Canales. The diminutive, bespectacled Canales (the Ed Sullivan of South Texas TV) was visibly pleased to be in the company of Tex-Mex royalty, but one band member clearly impressed him the most.…
That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres Following in the cross-dressing footsteps of actors such as Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Gene Hackman in The Birdcage, Patrick Swayze in Too Wong Fu, and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mama También) puts on his best high heels and enters the classroom of Academy…
Girls gone wise
Troop 1500 at the Gatesville Hilltop Prison northeast of Austin. The girls visit their mothers at Gatesville once a month. ‘TROOP 1500’ is the story of Girl Scouts whose lives are filled with law enforcement badges and tough cookies “I was actually kicked out of the Girl Scouts,” laughs Julia Cuba, leader of Austin-based Troop…
Recent reviews
Aliens of the Deep Dir. James Cameron Titanic’s James Cameron returns to the screens – this time the 3D IMAX – with a flashy meditation on the natural majesty of the ocean. Two teams, one of marine biologists and one of NASA researchers, accompany Cameron on a voyage to the Mid-Ocean Ridge to observe how…
Hope floats
Sue Calberg (front) listens as representatives of the Brooks Development Authority, George Pedraza and Cyndy Hanson, along with Ruth Jacoby (center stage), from the Somerset Academy in Florida, answer questions during a public meeting for a proposed charter school at Brooks City-Base. Calberg’s son Jamie, 13, hopes to be among the first students at the…
Lost in personal space
The Vivian Girls are aided in an escape by one of Darger’s magical child-creatures in an illustration from his 15,000-page epic The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, as caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. Henry Darger remains an enigma despite,…
That would be a big N-O
Good-bye bond proposal The Alamo Community College District’s bond proposal was given the boot last week by 53 percent of voters who rejected the proposed $450 million bond package that included a health careers campus on the Northwest Side. If passed, the bonds would have been used to build a $100 million allied health campus…
Armchair Cinephile
Warner Brothers has just released a fantastic Gangster Collection that has the film-buff world abuzz (watch for a review here soon), but they were beaten to the punch by Home Vision, which recently delivered a lavish look at gang warfare, Japanese-style. The six-disc The Yakuza Papers collects a five-film series from the ’70s that not…
Special screenings
A Century of Black Cinema Celebrate Black History Month by visiting the Institute of Texan Culture’s film festival, Classics of Black Cinema, which runs throughout February. Included in ITC’s daily admission price is a viewing of A Century of Black Cinema, a documentary that examines the impact and experiences of African-American entertainers through a combination…
Cooled heels and hot chops
Rack of lamb served with goat-cheese sauce, Moroccan couscous, and pineapple chutney. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Reservations recommended at Encino Grill, or you’ll have to wait for the delectable lamb It was Friday night, the joint was jumping, and I had neglected to make reservations. (To be honest, stubbornly refused was more like it.) The…
Toeing the county line
Bexar County officials have a packed legislative agenda With the 79th session of the Texas Legislature underway, dozens of special-interest groups have begun lobbying for a piece of the legislative pie, which could be divvied among nearly 5,000 prospective bills. Along with the environmentalists, big businesses, and religious fundamentalists competing for the attention of Austin…
Calling all home cooks
(Photo by Melissa Sutherland) Because three or four in the kitchen is more fun than one When I finally found my way into the kitchen, a friend said that folks become home cooks through either necessity or remembrance. Necessity usually has something to do with money, job, or location; and remembrance typically involves crafting the…
How I wish that you were mine
My Cherry Amor Central Market, 4821 Broaday, will present a hands-on couples’ cooking class Friday, February 11, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The Cooking School staff will show you how to connect with your loved one through the culinary arts with a menu that includes crepes with smoked salmon, seared duck breast with cherry…
Word on the street
Meow, meow With its spacious aisles, uncluttered, dust-free shelves, and comfortable reading areas throughout, Nine Lives Bookstore (4919 NW Loop 410, in the Village at the Summit) encourages lounging as much as browsing – unless you’re allergic to cats (WOTS managed to last only a half hour). As the name implies, the place has nine…
All You Can Eat
Norm’s, 700 N. St. Mary’s, Suite 150, opened just two weeks ago in Paul Pardo’s former space. Owned and operated by Norman Aldmour, the restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch, and provides catering services. The menu features an assortment of Mexican, American, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern cuisine, including tacos, hamburgers, falafel, gyros, and shish…
Holmes truths
The Holmes Brothers endured years on the cover-band circuit before emerging as beloved legends. Veteran vocal trio puts the blues in gospel and the soul in country The Virginia-born Holmes Brothers aren’t all related by blood – two are siblings, the third merely shares their home state – but any group of men who have…
Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene San Antonio Rose If you exclude contestants and their families, the Urban Music Festival didn’t draw a huge crowd to the basement of La Villita Assembly Hall on Saturday, February 5, but it never lacked for enthusiastic audience response. In a wildly eclectic talent contest that ranged from pint-sized, nine-year-old…
