Serfs Over Royalty
The lowlier dishes triumph at Ilsong
Tito’s Hidden Treasure
Release Date: 2007-01-10 Two Peppers is a hidden little jewel of a restaurant nestled one block south of the Fort Sam Houston entrance in the generally overlooked Government Hill district. The neighborhood is considered “emerging,” which is an odd way of describing it because one can sense that its heyday is well behind it. Old…
Armchair Cinephile: The Cine-Mini
PICK OF THE WEEK: Extras Season One (HBO): Can’t get enough of The Office? (The original BBC version, that is?) Step over to HBO, where creator and star Ricky Gervais digs into his big box of cringe-worthy setups, this time casting himself as an actor whose dreams of a speaking gig haven’t yet paid off.…
Aural Pleasure
MODERN-ROCK MISFITS When VH1 Classic recently paid tribute to the Pretenders with a taping of Decades Rock Live, most of the special guests made sense. There was Iggy Pop, one of Chrissie Hynde’s avowed musical heroes; Shirley Manson, an obvious example of Hynde’s influence on the generation of female singers who followed her; and Kings…
On the Street
Deck Foreclosures, Werewolves, and Magic Lanterns Though last Tuesday was a day of remembrance for Gerald Ford (and yes it did seem like the remembrance was actually gaining momentum with each passing day), there was work to be done around town. Congressman Al told me there would be a house-foreclosure auction that morning on the…
On the Street
Deck Foreclosures, Werewolves, and Magic Lanterns Though last Tuesday was a day of remembrance for Gerald Ford (and yes it did seem like the remembrance was actually gaining momentum with each passing day), there was work to be done around town. Congressman Al told me there would be a house-foreclosure auction that morning on the…
Sound and the Fury
CITIZEN RUTHIE How can you tell that Ruthie Foster’s new CD is a breakthrough work for her? Just consider that the disc is called The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster. No artist as self-effacing and self-aware as Foster would agree to such a boastful title (though the idea apparently came from her record label) unless she believed…
Inside Ed’s Head
Edward Norton on the set of The Painted Veil. Edward Norton has a Yale education and impeccable manners, but he’s also that racist skinhead in American History X who cracked a man’s skull open on a street curb. Persuasively. Norton always looks strongest when he’s tapping some hidden seam of sadism. Fight Club. Primal Fear.…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Sound and the Fury
CITIZEN RUTHIE How can you tell that Ruthie Foster’s new CD is a breakthrough work for her? Just consider that the disc is called The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster. No artist as self-effacing and self-aware as Foster would agree to such a boastful title (though the idea apparently came from her record label) unless she believed…
If art is a lie, then tell me a tale
On Truth By Harry G. Frankfurt Alfred A. Knopf $12.50, 112 pages With scholarly treatises including “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of the Person” and Necessity, Volition, and Love, Harry G. Frankfurt established his credentials in academe. But in 2005, after publishing a book that was only 80 pages long, Frankfurt, a professor…
On the Street
Deck Foreclosures, Werewolves, and Magic Lanterns Though last Tuesday was a day of remembrance for Gerald Ford (and yes it did seem like the remembrance was actually gaining momentum with each passing day), there was work to be done around town. Congressman Al told me there would be a house-foreclosure auction that morning on the…
After Sunset
Club Cohiba 1015 Navarro 222-2008 Life is music. Every movement produces a sound. The easiest way for me to free my mind of past regrets or future worries is to meditate on the aural moment. The sleepy lull of a husky train whistle cooing in the distance. The happy vibrato of a cat’s purring. The…
Inside Ed’s Head
Edward Norton on the set of The Painted Veil. Edward Norton has a Yale education and impeccable manners, but he’s also that racist skinhead in American History X who cracked a man’s skull open on a street curb. Persuasively. Norton always looks strongest when he’s tapping some hidden seam of sadism. Fight Club. Primal Fear.…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
After Sunset
Brooke Palmer recreates her sensational New Year’s Eve garb at the Havana’s Club Cohiba. Club Cohiba 1015 Navarro 222-2008 Life is music. Every movement produces a sound. The easiest way for me to free my mind of past regrets or future worries is to meditate on the aural moment. The sleepy lull of a husky…
Magic Lantern
It was 6:45 p.m. at January’s First Friday and I found myself at Blue Star’s Three Walls Gallery trying to quickly get a photo of projectionist Luke Savisky before the crowd came storming through the black curtain. Things were running late and it was pretty much my fault. I had interviewed Luke and gallery owner…
On the Street
Deck Foreclosures, Werewolves, and Magic Lanterns Though last Tuesday was a day of remembrance for Gerald Ford (and yes it did seem like the remembrance was actually gaining momentum with each passing day), there was work to be done around town. Congressman Al told me there would be a house-foreclosure auction that morning on the…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Straight Shooter
Lost Girls Top Shelf Story by Alan Moore Art by Melinda Gebbie, Todd Klein $75, 264 pages The Spirit #1 DC Comics Story by Darwyn Cooke Art by J. Bone, Dave Stewart $2.99, 24 pages This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Scent of a Woman
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Dir. Tom Twyker; writ. Twyker, Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger (screenplay), Peter Süskind (novel, Das Parfum); feat. Ben Whisaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood (R) Fie on those critics and commentators who took the below-the-belt bait and titled their reviews with some variation of the assertion that Tom (Run,…
The Pac’s 11-Member Special Team
With the Texas Parent PAC in the role of legendary coach Darrell K. Royal (well, the Austin-based innovators also drafted a good team; after their successes in the GOP primaries, Parent PAC should have a stadium named after them, too), this 11-member, bipartisan formation stormed the Dome this week: Juan Garcia (D-Corpus Christi): A Harvard-educated…
If art is a lie, then tell me a tale
With scholarly treatises including “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of the Person” and Necessity, Volition, and Love, Harry G. Frankfurt established his credentials in academe. But in 2005, after publishing a book that was only 80 pages long, Frankfurt, a professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton University, became an unlikely celebrity. He found…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Straight Shooter
Lost Girls Top Shelf Story by Alan Moore Art by Melinda Gebbie, Todd Klein $75, 264 pages The Spirit #1 DC Comics Story by Darwyn Cooke Art by J. Bone, Dave Stewart $2.99, 24 pages This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few…
The Born Supremacy
Why are dystopias, visions of the worst of all possible worlds, so appealing? In King Lear, Edgar provides a cogent explanation: “The worst is not,” he says, “So long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’” Unhappy the age that finds consolation in a profusion of projected nightmares — novels, including Cormac McCarthy’s The…
The Pac’s 11-Member Special Team
Juan Garcia (D-Corpus Christi) With the Texas Parent PAC in the role of legendary coach Darrell K. Royal (well, the Austin-based innovators also drafted a good team; after their successes in the GOP primaries, Parent PAC should have a stadium named after them, too), this 11-member, bipartisan formation stormed the Dome this week: Juan Garcia…
Magic Lantern
It was 6:45 p.m. at January’s First Friday and I found myself at Blue Star’s Three Walls Gallery trying to quickly get a photo of projectionist Luke Savisky before the crowd came storming through the black curtain. Things were running late and it was pretty much my fault. I had interviewed Luke and gallery owner…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Straight Shooter
Lost Girls Top Shelf Story by Alan Moore Art by Melinda Gebbie, Todd Klein $75, 264 pages The Spirit #1 DC Comics Story by Darwyn Cooke Art by J. Bone, Dave Stewart $2.99, 24 pages This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few…
Your next 100 hours
The Atlantic Monthly just published their “100 Most Influential Americans of All Time” and asked us to suspend our value judgments about dirty-peeper-in-a-robe Hugh Hefner, who tied Tiger Woods for Number 33 on a “Living Influential Americans” sidebar. (The guy who freed the slaves was officially Number One and, at lowly Number Two, the Virginia…
The Born Supremacy
Magic baby? Check. Coat built for three? Check. Protagonist with a jaw like an ocean liner? Check. Bring it on, apocalypse. Children of Men Dir. Alfonso Cuarón; writ. Cuarón and Timothy J. Sexton, based on a P. D. James novel; feat. Clive Owen, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine (R) Why are dystopias,…
Mom Knows Best, Jimmy
Grusendorf, Keffer, Seaman, & Wong. No, it’s not the name of a prominent law firm but rather a few of the big names in the old Texas Legislature who found themselves on the wrong side of the electorate and in the sights of one of the unlikeliest heroes of the recent election cycle: Texas Parent…
Noshing & Shopping Near the Alamo
Main Plaza Market 126 E. Main Plaza 223-4173 7:30am-8pm Mon-Fri ; 11am-8pm Sat; 11am-6pm Sun Credit cards Free delivery in the downtown area I’m trying to figure out ways to get called for extra jury duty just so I can spend the hour-and-a-half lunch break at Main Plaza Market across from the Bexar County Courthouse.…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Noshing & Shopping Near the Alamo
Main Plaza Market prepares fresh, handmade sushi daily. Main Plaza Market 126 E. Main Plaza 223-4173 7:30am-8pm Mon-Fri; 11am-8pm Sat; 11am-6pm Sun Credit cards Free delivery in the downtown area I’m trying to figure out ways to get called for extra jury duty just so I can spend the hour-and-a-half lunch break at Main Plaza…
Straight Shooter
Lost Girls Top Shelf Story by Alan Moore Art by Melinda Gebbie, Todd Klein $75, 264 pages The Spirit #1 DC Comics Story by Darwyn Cooke Art by J. Bone, Dave Stewart $2.99, 24 pages This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few…
The Pac’s 11-Member Special Team
Juan Garcia (D-Corpus Christi) With the Texas Parent PAC in the role of legendary coach Darrell K. Royal (well, the Austin-based innovators also drafted a good team; after their successes in the GOP primaries, Parent PAC should have a stadium named after them, too), this 11-member, bipartisan formation stormed the Dome this week: Juan Garcia…
That’s a Wrap
So, it’s my last That’s A Wrap, and I’ve got to make it a quick one. All’s well, worry not. Come this Friday, I’ll be taking more of a writer’s position with our beloved Current; I commend you heartily, meanwhile, into the capable hands of your wonderful new editress (and mine), Ms. Ashley Lindstrom. Against…
Mom Knows Best, Jimmy
Carolyn Boyle, PTA mom and Capitol giant slayer. Grusendorf, Keffer, Seaman, & Wong. No, it’s not the name of a prominent law firm but rather a few of the big names in the old Texas Legislature who found themselves on the wrong side of the electorate and in the sights of one of the unlikeliest…
Noshing & Shopping Near the Alamo
Main Plaza Market prepares fresh, handmade sushi daily. Main Plaza Market 126 E. Main Plaza 223-4173 7:30am-8pm Mon-Fri ; 11am-8pm Sat; 11am-6pm Sun Credit cards Free delivery in the downtown area I’m trying to figure out ways to get called for extra jury duty just so I can spend the hour-and-a-half lunch break at Main…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Noshing & Shopping Near the Alamo
Main Plaza Market prepares fresh, handmade sushi daily. Main Plaza Market 126 E. Main Plaza 223-4173 7:30am-8pm Mon-Fri; 11am-8pm Sat; 11am-6pm Sun Credit cards Free delivery in the downtown area I’m trying to figure out ways to get called for extra jury duty just so I can spend the hour-and-a-half lunch break at Main Plaza…
Smells Like Anarchy
Clinton Heylin is the greatest living writer about rock music. He’s never enjoyed the elite status of seminal graybeards such as Robert Christgau and Greil Marcus or the mythical aura of gonzo martyr Lester Bangs. But Heylin stands alone because he combines the tireless reporting of a Peter Guralnick with the intellectually acute critical insights…
The Mashup
From the Editor God requires faith, human beings require forbearance, and the Virgen de Guadalupe may need the legendary wisdom of King Solomon to deal with both. Should the 500-year-old Mexican religious icon spread her protective arms over Anna-Marie Lopez (who dared represent Our Lady in the guise of her pagan predecessor, Tonantzin) and Anel…
Inside Ed’s Head
Edward Norton has a Yale education and impeccable manners, but he’s also that racist skinhead in American History X who cracked a man’s skull open on a street curb. Persuasively. Norton always looks strongest when he’s tapping some hidden seam of sadism. Fight Club. Primal Fear. Even playing it for laughs in The Italian Job,…
Mom Knows Best, Jimmy
Carolyn Boyle, PTA mom and Capitol giant slayer. Grusendorf, Keffer, Seaman, & Wong. No, it’s not the name of a prominent law firm but rather a few of the big names in the old Texas Legislature who found themselves on the wrong side of the electorate and in the sights of one of the unlikeliest…
Noshing & Shopping Near the Alamo
Main Plaza Market prepares fresh, handmade sushi daily. Main Plaza Market 126 E. Main Plaza 223-4173 7:30am-8pm Mon-Fri ; 11am-8pm Sat; 11am-6pm Sun Credit cards Free delivery in the downtown area I’m trying to figure out ways to get called for extra jury duty just so I can spend the hour-and-a-half lunch break at Main…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Serfs Over Royalty
A spread from Ilsong (from left): Stir-fried squid, stir-fried octopus, Jurassic Park sushi, pepper calamari, and ban chan. Ilsong Korean B-B-Q and Sushi 6905 Blanco Rd. 366-4508 11am-10pm Mon-Fri; noon-10pm Sat Credit cards Accessible The Queen of Korean Cuisine, Young Casey, has left her sons in charge of the Eastside fiefdom that is Go Hyang…
If art is a lie, then tell me a tale
On Truth By Harry G. Frankfurt Alfred A. Knopf $12.50, 112 pages With scholarly treatises including “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of the Person” and Necessity, Volition, and Love, Harry G. Frankfurt established his credentials in academe. But in 2005, after publishing a book that was only 80 pages long, Frankfurt, a professor…
The Mashup
From the Editor God requires faith, human beings require forbearance, and the Virgen de Guadalupe may need the legendary wisdom of King Solomon to deal with both. Should the 500-year-old Mexican religious icon spread her protective arms over Anna-Marie Lopez (who dared represent Our Lady in the guise of her pagan predecessor, Tonantzin) and Anel…
Inside Ed’s Head
Edward Norton on the set of The Painted Veil. Edward Norton has a Yale education and impeccable manners, but he’s also that racist skinhead in American History X who cracked a man’s skull open on a street curb. Persuasively. Norton always looks strongest when he’s tapping some hidden seam of sadism. Fight Club. Primal Fear.…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Noshing & Shopping Near the Alamo
Main Plaza Market prepares fresh, handmade sushi daily. Main Plaza Market 126 E. Main Plaza 223-4173 7:30am-8pm Mon-Fri ; 11am-8pm Sat; 11am-6pm Sun Credit cards Free delivery in the downtown area I’m trying to figure out ways to get called for extra jury duty just so I can spend the hour-and-a-half lunch break at Main…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Aural Pleasure
MODERN-ROCK MISFITS When VH1 Classic recently paid tribute to the Pretenders with a taping of Decades Rock Live, most of the special guests made sense. There was Iggy Pop, one of Chrissie Hynde’s avowed musical heroes; Shirley Manson, an obvious example of Hynde’s influence on the generation of female singers who followed her; and Kings…
If art is a lie, then tell me a tale
On Truth By Harry G. Frankfurt Alfred A. Knopf $12.50, 112 pages With scholarly treatises including “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of the Person” and Necessity, Volition, and Love, Harry G. Frankfurt established his credentials in academe. But in 2005, after publishing a book that was only 80 pages long, Frankfurt, a professor…
The Mashup
From the Editor God requires faith, human beings require forbearance, and the Virgen de Guadalupe may need the legendary wisdom of King Solomon to deal with both. Should the 500-year-old Mexican religious icon spread her protective arms over Anna-Marie Lopez (who dared represent Our Lady in the guise of her pagan predecessor, Tonantzin) and Anel…
Straight Shooter
This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few months for the Straight Shooter take it on before you spend your hard-earned comic/porn money. So here, at last, is my advice: If you’re buying this as a comic fan, you can’t get to the…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Serfs Over Royalty
Ilsong Korean B-B-Q and Sushi 6905 Blanco Rd. 366-4508 11am-10pm Mon-Fri; noon-10pm Sat Credit cards Accessible The Queen of Korean Cuisine, Young Casey, has left her sons in charge of the Eastside fiefdom that is Go Hyang Jib and has set out to make new converts in the uncharted western territories abutting Blanco and 410.…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Aural Pleasure
MODERN-ROCK MISFITS When VH1 Classic recently paid tribute to the Pretenders with a taping of Decades Rock Live, most of the special guests made sense. There was Iggy Pop, one of Chrissie Hynde’s avowed musical heroes; Shirley Manson, an obvious example of Hynde’s influence on the generation of female singers who followed her; and Kings…
Mom Knows Best, Jimmy
Carolyn Boyle, PTA mom and Capitol giant slayer. Grusendorf, Keffer, Seaman, & Wong. No, it’s not the name of a prominent law firm but rather a few of the big names in the old Texas Legislature who found themselves on the wrong side of the electorate and in the sights of one of the unlikeliest…
Value Vino – Great wines for under $15
For nearly 20 years now, a troika of mad monks and their eager acolytes has gathered at the Grey Moss Inn in the month of January to celebrate zin. Yes, with a “z.” The Order of Original Zin was established by Grey Moss owner Lou Baeten, then Express-News wine writer Bill Stephens, and your humble…
Straight Shooter
Lost Girls Top Shelf Story by Alan Moore Art by Melinda Gebbie, Todd Klein $75, 264 pages The Spirit #1 DC Comics Story by Darwyn Cooke Art by J. Bone, Dave Stewart $2.99, 24 pages This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Aural Pleasure
MODERN-ROCK MISFITS When VH1 Classic recently paid tribute to the Pretenders with a taping of Decades Rock Live, most of the special guests made sense. There was Iggy Pop, one of Chrissie Hynde’s avowed musical heroes; Shirley Manson, an obvious example of Hynde’s influence on the generation of female singers who followed her; and Kings…
Mom Knows Best, Jimmy
Carolyn Boyle, PTA mom and Capitol giant slayer. Grusendorf, Keffer, Seaman, & Wong. No, it’s not the name of a prominent law firm but rather a few of the big names in the old Texas Legislature who found themselves on the wrong side of the electorate and in the sights of one of the unlikeliest…
Value Vino – Great wines for under $15
For nearly 20 years now, a troika of mad monks and their eager acolytes has gathered at the Grey Moss Inn in the month of January to celebrate zin. Yes, with a “z.” The Order of Original Zin was established by Grey Moss owner Lou Baeten, then Express-News wine writer Bill Stephens, and your humble…
Love, ‘Italian American’ Style
ITALIAN AMERICAN RECONCILIATION 7:30pm Thu-Sat $10 general Through Jan 13 Josephine Theatre 339 W. Josephine 734-4646 Watching a troupe of (mostly) recent high-school graduates play divorcées and commitment-phobes is a bit like watching elementary-school students perform a prison drama, but it doesn’t take the actors of the Convergent Theatre Company too terribly long to make…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Armchair Cinephile
event listing on right Top Ten season is always a good time to take note of those sneaky films that made it onto critics’ must-see lists without getting onto yours. In that spirit, I’ll include two titles I myself haven’t had a chance to view on this roundup of recent foreign/arthouse fare that deserved more…
Sound and the Fury
CITIZEN RUTHIE How can you tell that Ruthie Foster’s new CD is a breakthrough work for her? Just consider that the disc is called The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster. No artist as self-effacing and self-aware as Foster would agree to such a boastful title (though the idea apparently came from her record label) unless she believed…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Tito’s Hidden Treasure
Two Peppers 1917 N. New Braunfels 212-7804 Two Peppers is a hidden little jewel of a restaurant nestled one block south of the Fort Sam Houston entrance in the generally overlooked Government Hill district. The neighborhood is considered “emerging,” which is an odd way of describing it because one can sense that its heyday is…
Smells Like Anarchy
Clinton Heylin is the greatest living writer about rock music. He’s never enjoyed the elite status of seminal graybeards such as Robert Christgau and Greil Marcus or the mythical aura of gonzo martyr Lester Bangs. But Heylin stands alone because he combines the tireless reporting of a Peter Guralnick with the intellectually acute critical insights…
Straight Shooter
This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few months for the Straight Shooter take it on before you spend your hard-earned comic/porn money. So here, at last, is my advice: If you’re buying this as a comic fan, you can’t get to the…
Inside Ed’s Head
Edward Norton has a Yale education and impeccable manners, but he’s also that racist skinhead in American History X who cracked a man’s skull open on a street curb. Persuasively. Norton always looks strongest when he’s tapping some hidden seam of sadism. Fight Club. Primal Fear. Even playing it for laughs in The Italian Job,…
After Sunset
Brooke Palmer recreates her sensational New Year’s Eve garb at the Havana’s Club Cohiba. Club Cohiba 1015 Navarro 222-2008 Life is music. Every movement produces a sound. The easiest way for me to free my mind of past regrets or future worries is to meditate on the aural moment. The sleepy lull of a husky…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Tito’s Hidden Treasure
Two Peppers 1917 N. New Braunfels 212-7804 Two Peppers is a hidden little jewel of a restaurant nestled one block south of the Fort Sam Houston entrance in the generally overlooked Government Hill district. The neighborhood is considered “emerging,” which is an odd way of describing it because one can sense that its heyday is…
Clothes-Minded – Fashion Deconstruction
Now that the decorations have come down and we’re all back at work or school, take a moment to evaluate your holiday bounty. Unfortunately, not every gift was a winner. Don’t hold on to anything you won’t use — now is the perfect time to re-gift, recycle, or reinvent those not-quite-right items. First, the impersonal…
Straight Shooter
This book has a suggested retail value of $75, so I know you guys have been waiting these past few months for the Straight Shooter take it on before you spend your hard-earned comic/porn money. So here, at last, is my advice: If you’re buying this as a comic fan, you can’t get to the…
The Born Supremacy
Children of Men Dir. Alfonso Cuarón; writ. Cuarón and Timothy J. Sexton, based on a P. D. James novel; feat. Clive Owen, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine (R) Why are dystopias, visions of the worst of all possible worlds, so appealing? In King Lear, Edgar provides a cogent explanation: “The worst is…
Aural Pleasure
When VH1 Classic recently paid tribute to the Pretenders with a taping of Decades Rock Live, most of the special guests made sense. There was Iggy Pop, one of Chrissie Hynde’s avowed musical heroes; Shirley Manson, an obvious example of Hynde’s influence on the generation of female singers who followed her; and Kings of Leon,…
Left of Center
Kings of Leon (left) and Wilco were two non-metal acts that drew huge crowds to Sunset Station last fall. Can the venue repeat that feat in 2007? For long-suffering San Antonians who like their rock a bit left-of-center, September and October 2006 was a golden time. Rather than filling our weekends whining about all the…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Noshing & Shopping Near the Alamo
Main Plaza Market prepares fresh, handmade sushi daily. Main Plaza Market 126 E. Main Plaza 223-4173 7:30am-8pm Mon-Fri; 11am-8pm Sat; 11am-6pm Sun Credit cards Free delivery in the downtown area I’m trying to figure out ways to get called for extra jury duty just so I can spend the hour-and-a-half lunch break at Main Plaza…
On the Street
Though last Tuesday was a day of remembrance for Gerald Ford (and yes it did seem like the remembrance was actually gaining momentum with each passing day), there was work to be done around town. Congressman Al told me there would be a house-foreclosure auction that morning on the courthouse steps. There’s nothing like betting…
Smells Like Anarchy
Clinton Heylin is the greatest living writer about rock music. He’s never enjoyed the elite status of seminal graybeards such as Robert Christgau and Greil Marcus or the mythical aura of gonzo martyr Lester Bangs. But Heylin stands alone because he combines the tireless reporting of a Peter Guralnick with the intellectually acute critical insights…
Aural Pleasure
When VH1 Classic recently paid tribute to the Pretenders with a taping of Decades Rock Live, most of the special guests made sense. There was Iggy Pop, one of Chrissie Hynde’s avowed musical heroes; Shirley Manson, an obvious example of Hynde’s influence on the generation of female singers who followed her; and Kings of Leon,…
The Born Supremacy
Magic baby? Check. Coat built for three? Check. Protagonist with a jaw like an ocean liner? Check. Bring it on, apocalypse. Children of Men Dir. Alfonso Cuarón; writ. Cuarón and Timothy J. Sexton, based on a P. D. James novel; feat. Clive Owen, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine (R) Why are dystopias,…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
Serfs Over Royalty
A spread from Ilsong (from left): Stir-fried squid, stir-fried octopus, Jurassic Park sushi, pepper calamari, and ban chan. Ilsong Korean B-B-Q and Sushi 6905 Blanco Rd. 366-4508 11am-10pm Mon-Fri; noon-10pm Sat Credit cards Accessible The Queen of Korean Cuisine, Young Casey, has left her sons in charge of the Eastside fiefdom that is Go Hyang…
On the Street
Deck Foreclosures, Werewolves, and Magic Lanterns Though last Tuesday was a day of remembrance for Gerald Ford (and yes it did seem like the remembrance was actually gaining momentum with each passing day), there was work to be done around town. Congressman Al told me there would be a house-foreclosure auction that morning on the…
Smells Like Anarchy
Babylon’s Burning: From Punk to Grunge Clinton Heylin Canongate $25, 672 pages Clinton Heylin is the greatest living writer about rock music. He’s never enjoyed the elite status of seminal graybeards such as Robert Christgau and Greil Marcus or the mythical aura of gonzo martyr Lester Bangs. But Heylin stands alone because he combines the…
Aural Pleasure
When VH1 Classic recently paid tribute to the Pretenders with a taping of Decades Rock Live, most of the special guests made sense. There was Iggy Pop, one of Chrissie Hynde’s avowed musical heroes; Shirley Manson, an obvious example of Hynde’s influence on the generation of female singers who followed her; and Kings of Leon,…
‘Veil’ed Contempt
Love me or I’ll burn your hand with lye: Kitty is bored by her husband Walter — perhaps she’d prefer Tyler Durden? The Painted Veil Dir. John Curran; writ. Ron Nyswaner; feat. Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Toby Jones, Liev Shrieber, Anthony Wong (PG-13) Set in 1925, The Painted Veil, an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s…
TX Guide – Sweeps Session
Sweeps Session The YouTube election’s over, FOX has officially lost its Gallup grip, and so begins the rise of MSNBC. Keith Olbermann is veraciously counting down the first 100 Hours of the Congressional session while Joe Scarborough cocks the starter pistol to signal the head-on chicken game between Bush’s soldier surge and Congress’s budget hostage-holding.…
