Julieta of the spirits
“Nah … that’s complicated,” says Julieta Venegas on the phone from Mexico City when I ask her the identity of her five-month-old child’s dad. But she’s wrong — that is not complicated. That’s simple stuff. Complicated was finding an explanation for her third album, 2003’s Sí (“Yes”). After two critically acclaimed alternative singer-songwriter gems, 1997’s…
Guilty as Charged: Bridezillas tops my TV pleasures
How many hours of television do you watch in a day? In a week? In a year? If you had a childhood anything like mine, there was at LEAST one utterance from your mom warning that the TV would “rot your brain.” As a kid, I’d roll my eyes and mutter. As an adult I…
Healthy eating resolutions: How to keep your salad life interesting
So we’re a few weeks in on those new years resolutions now and I can only speculate as to how many of us have our list topped with “Eat healthier in 2011!” So I pose the question … are you sick of salads yet? Over time, I find even the best salads get monotonous. As…
“Fingerprints from Childhood, Not?” by Julie Weinstein
Introduction Childhood friends seem to reappear throughout life. They pop up here and there like memories. Those strange moments remembered, for example, when the world encroaches upon your view of it. That moment of growing up, changing — epiphanies. Sometimes though, you ignore them or hide them or fit them to your worldview so that…
‘Battleship Potemkin’ coming to the McNay
When Sergei Eisenstein wrote and directed Battleship Potemkin in 1925, the Communist Party had consolidated its control over the Soviet Union. And if cinema was the most important of the arts, as Vladimir Lenin had proclaimed a few years before, Eisenstein was the most important of its artists, the filmmaker most successful at rousing the…
Yoga Day USA: enjoy free yoga classes Saturday
This Saturday, January 22, yogis and non-yogis alike will be partaking in free yoga classes across the country. The occasion? Yoga Day USA: a national celebration to raise awareness of the benefits of yoga, and introduce newbies to the profound benefits of the ancient practice. The event was created by Yoga Alliance, the national education…
Playwright and poet Celeste Guzman Mendoza on ‘El Sabor’
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is kicking off 2011 with the 1st Peek Staged Reading Series, featuring San Antonio poet, performer and playwright Celeste Guzman Mendoza. Her never-before-staged play,“El Sabor del Pasado,” focuses on family and identity, with a healthy sprinkling of lightheartedness. Mendoza, a San Antonio native now living in Austin, will conduct a…
Holy hell! Are water bottles really that bad?!
We have all heard that single use plastic water bottles are bad for the environment and are filling up our landfills and our oceans but this graphic from Online Education really puts some punch behind the argument to ditch single use water bottles and invest in a reusable one. For years I have made a…
Comcast NBC Universal Merger: “…simply too much, too big, too powerful…”
Epic Fail! On February 18, in a 4-1 vote, the FCC approved one of the largest media mergers in history between Comcast and NBC Universal. I’m at a loss for words right now. But, it’s essential to point out that one guy as David did, battled Goliath. His name is Commissioner Michael Copps. Soon after the,…
Theater review: Legally Blonde, The Musical
I first caught Legally Blonde: The Musical by accident; I had one slot left during a New York theater jaunt in August, a notoriously slow month when many Broadway shows close before the new fall season. So on a sweltering weekday night, I spent the evening with 1,700 teenage girls and 39 gay men watching…
Spanish Young Art: The New Generation opens at Blue Star LAB tonight
ARTslut Strongly Suggests: Spanish Young Art: The New Generation Although this wide-ranging exhibition technically opened January 6, Blue Star LAB postponed the opening reception so that guests of honor Miguel Ángel Fernández de Mazarambroz Bernabeu, Consul General of Spain in Houston, and his Cultural Advisor, curator Tania Tapia Paz could attend. Among the show’s highlights…
San Anto Cultural Arts Mural re-dedication & Open House
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 “End Barrio Warfare,” one of San Anto Cultural Arts Center’s cornerstone Westside murals “designed to confront the neighborhood’s violence and ask passersby to instead focus on the area’s cultural strength and beauty,” will be re-dedicated on Saturday. During a recent restoration project, the original mural (which was created in 1998)…
Slash
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 With all due respect to Ozzy Osbourne, his opening act is my musical pick of the week. Yes, Ozzy is hot (“Let Me Hear You Scream” is up for a Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy in February), but Slash is hotter. In 2009, the former guitarist for Guns N’ Roses,…
Art opening: Spanish Young Art: The New Generation
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 Eight emerging artists born between 1970 and 1980 represent “the new Spain” in Spanish Young Art: The New Generation (on view through February 5). Credited with renovating Spain’s contemporary scene, the new generation experiments with a broad range of media and concepts. Chaos and defeat are explored in both María…
Meat up
Texas de Brazil delivers with flair
Thai Spice: Closing in on the crown
Release Date: 2011-01-19 Ever since the closing of Siam Bangkok the search for a successor has been, if not tireless, at least intermittently active. There’s much good to say about elements of many places — some of the more exotic, yet subtle dishes at Sawasdee rank high, for example, as do the beautifully presented lunches…
Deerhoof: Deerhoof vs. Evil
Deerhoof: Deerhoof vs. Evil Label: Polyvinyl Release Date: 2011-01-19 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Deerhoof have always been something of an art-rock superhero team (drummer Greg Saunier is practically a real-life Elongated Man behind the kit), and with their 11th LP, the excellently named Deerhoof vs. Evil, they’re making it their mission to crush evil with…
Monotonix: Not Yet
Monotonix: Not Yet Label: Drag City Release Date: 2011-01-19 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The sophomore release from these Israeli maniacs wears its ragged heart on its sweaty sleeve. Monotonix is an absolutely insane three-piece from Tel-Aviv. Since 2006, after being all but outlawed in their hometown, the band toured heavily in the U.S. and Europe,…
Smith Westerns: Dye it Blonde
Smith Westerns: Dye it Blonde Release Date: 2011-01-19 Genre: Recording The Smith Westerns have youthful indie panache sure to get your loafers twitching, complete with catchy guitar riffs and sweet lyrics. With the softest sounds and a pining chorus (“Weekends are never fun unless you’re around here too …”), “Weekend” feels ready-made for carefree hippies…
Social Distortion: Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes
Social Distortion: Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes Label: Epitaph Release Date: 2011-01-19 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording After a hiatus of more than six years, L.A.’s Social Distortion returns another incarnation of their signature twangy-but-ever-magnanimous rock ’n’ roll to patiently waiting fans. Instrumental opener “Road Zombie” rings of the familiar gritty tones that sparked our love…
Art opening: Andy Benavides: Am I What?
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 With undeniable polish on practically everything he touches (including the majority of the contemporary art being framed in San Antonio), it makes perfect sense that artist Andy Benavides earned a degree in advertising art. Although Benavides (who’s also the founder of the not-for-profit organization Supporting Multiple Arts Resources Together, or…
Art opening: Zine Library
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 Small quantity, do-it-yourself publishing gets the archival treatment this Friday when Unit B opens Zine Library (on view by appointment through March 5), an exhibit organized by Emily Morrison and Trouser House that unites 50 zinesters from Mexico City, Austin, New Orleans, and SA, including Adriana Lara, Ryan Peterson, Maddie…
NOFX, Dead to Me, Old Man Markley
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 With all of its original members (Fat Mike, Eric Melvin, and Erik Sandin) and a guitarist named “El Jefe” (who joined the band in ’91), ’80s-era San Francisco punk band NOFX should sound as tight as they did on 1994’s Punk in Drublic, which was certified gold without any aired…
Legally Blonde The Musical
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 If words like “omigod” repeated in upbeat songs and gratuitous usage of the color pink turn your stomach, then you should probably stay away from Legally Blonde, a musical based on the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon. Just as she does in the film, Elle Woods challenges preconceived notions about…
Sans Soucà Festival of Dance Cinema
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-01-19 The brainchild of Michelle Ellsworth and Brandi Mathis (both of whom share a love for “viewing and creating dances for the screen”), the Sans Soucí Festival of Dance Cinema was conceived in 2003 in a Boulder, Colo., trailer park named Sans Soucí, which means “without worries” or “carefree” in French.…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m not Mexican (or from a Spanish-speaking country for that matter), but I get mad when the gabachos in my town say that all Mexican girls do is take drugs and get pregnant, drop out of school and end up on welfare. I know a lot of Mexican women who haven’t done any…
There be dragons
Let’s face it: you either love the Tea Party for being tireless advocates of a stricter interpretation of the Constitution as a way to cure what ails our economy and society, or you think they are undereducated morons who are enjoying way too much media time. There’s not much middle ground. Which is why reading nearly…
Red, white and blue-balled
Is America finally catching up? I don’t mean in education or manufacturing (clearly we are lagging). Nor do I mean in love for games that don’t allow the use of hands (like football’s retarded older sister, soccer). No, what I’m asking is, with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, has America finally begun to…
Teabooking 101: We read them so you don’t have to
"Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America" Critics of Glenn Beck consider his television and radio shows to be poisonous attacks on the intelligence and free-thinking abilities of anyone who takes him seriously. Despite his years of objective journalism at The Washington Post, reporter Dana Milbank joins the fray, but…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The age-old question comes up for review once again: Which should predominate, independence or interdependence? The answer is always different, of course, depending on the tenor of the time and the phase of your evolution. But in the coming weeks, at least, my view is that you should put more emphasis…
Up in smoke
Spice is not so nice, according to the DEA — and soon it could go away completely. In November, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced it was preparing to implement an emergency year-long ban on the key chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana, frequently marketed under the tradename Spice. The ban, which has yet to…
Meat up
The Spanish-style Kress five and dime at Houston and Presa Streets in downtown San Antonio opened in 1939 but was soon eclipsed by the mall-construction boom of the 1960s. The property drifted for years until finally being salvaged by Texas de Brazil, a chain of 18 churascarias (Portuguese for barbecue or grill) last year, receiving…
Gourmet food trucks in San Antonio better late than never
Where can you park a dozen gourmet food trucks in San Antonio? As of this month, at the Boardwalk on Bulverde (on Bulverde Road, between 1604 and Thousand Oaks). The mobile truck park was once a large empty lot and is now a space for the city’s food trucks to conduct business. With the Boardwalk…
Thai Spice: Closing in on the crown
Ever since the closing of Siam Bangkok the search for a successor has been, if not tireless, at least intermittently active. There’s much good to say about elements of many places — some of the more exotic, yet subtle dishes at Sawasdee rank high, for example, as do the beautifully presented lunches (and, of course,…
Live & Local: Chisme (CD release party) at Pedicab Bar and Grill (with video)
In the heady but laidback hip-hop of Chisme, one doesn’t need to search hard for some nuanced dialogue on seeking the artistic life. On the musical sketch “It’s Only Writing,” the rap duo weaves a quilt of dialogue on the art experience: how fringe scenes inevitably become exclusionary, how gentrification destroys working artist communities, or…
The Sound & The Fury
BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) which represents 475,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers), has just launched BMI Live: From Soundcheck to Royalty Check. It’s a new program that allows songwriters “to register their concerts and set lists online to be considered for payment in live music venues, regardless of size.” If you’re already a BMI member,…
Barrels of beer on the law
San Antonians are leading the charge to bring a nonsensical and economy-stultifying state beer law to a close. State Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, introduced House Bill 660 late last week proposing that brewpubs also be allowed to operate as microbreweries. It would allow brewpubs to sell up to 5,000 barrels of beer a year…
Undead and loving it: Zombies gets reanimated in a new location
About four months ago, Northeast bar and live music venue Zombies was forced to close down. Owners Steve Freeman and Toni Torres opened the horror-themed establishment in the fall of 2009 (see “Land of the dead,” November 11, 2009), and quickly cultivated a loyal following of Nacogdoches/Thousand Oaks area beer guzzlers and hard rockers. Rumors…
Sperm is in the air
Sperm, it seems, has gone airborne. Yes, you read it here first. That is, if you can read this through all the sperm. As lesser news sources focus on those other signs of the apocalypse — birds dropping like flies, fish going belly up, that boa constrictor who reproduced asexually — I deliver a message…
Pain in Spain
The first words uttered in Biutiful are also the last. “¿Es real?” someone asks about a diamond ring at the beginning, and the question is repeated at the end. But “Is it real?” could also be posed about what flits across the screen. Of course, all cinema is illusory, flickering shadows, but Biutiful flaunts its…
Ledaswan’s new album is geared toward impatient fans
Since forming in 2004, Ledaswan has earned a solid following as one of the most active bands in San Antonio. With two EPs under their belt, the group’s third self-produced — and most ambitious — recording will be released on January 21. For it, they re-enlisted the services of Matt Brown (from the Seattle-based band…
Life ain’t beautiful
When Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu followed Babel (2006) with Biutiful (2010), his first Spanish-language film since the acclaimed Amores Perros (2000), he knew exactly what he was getting into — only now, as if reluctantly, are (some) U.S. theaters screening the film. “The language can already be an obstacle, especially among cultures that are…
Noir means noir
With the exception of Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, I don’t like cop protagonists in my noir. Why am I watching all this brooding murk if I have to associate my frisson with the fuzz? All Good Things, the third installment of a San Francisco-styled noir to be staged at the downtown Overtime Theater,…
Lemmy
Motörhead’s bassist Lemmy Kilmister won’t touch a needle, but that may be his only taboo. In his still-active 64 years of age, Lemmy has outdrank, outsmoked, and outfucked anyone. Keith Richards has nothing on the guy. Diabetes is not going to stop him, and “I’m too old to find God,” he says in this killer…
Into the dark
Meeting an artist on the cusp of an exhibition can be a study in astonishment, hesitation, and exhilaration as they prepare to transport their work, cringing over any potential bump or bruise. Nestled deep in the former glory of the retro-esque art deco building that houses James Saldivar’s 2nd Sight Studio off Fredericksberg Road, the artist…
Sanctuary, sanctuary
A ploy to distract from a $27 billion dollar shortfall? A potentially disastrous unfunded mandate for local government? Or a governor keeping a campaign promise to give law enforcement the tools and discretion necessary to do their jobs? Perhaps one of those, or maybe all. Texas Governor Rick Perry’s decision last week to designate legislation…
College Night at Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club
Irony has been a substantial part of comedy ever since the Church made Valentine, a noted virgin, the patron saint of a holiday where men buy chocolate hearts in the hopes of getting anal. (Fingers crossed.) This Thursday, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club introduces its first college night, “5 Comics for 5 bucks.” With classes…
Blue Demon and El Santo coming to HemisFair Park
If you’re one of the millions who have watched the trailers below and wonder about the Tarantino-worthy dialogue, acting that would make Laurence Olivier envious, and special effects that still cause George Lucas sleepless nights, this is your lucky day. On January 22 and 29, the Instituto Cultural de México will screen these two classic…
Alejandro González Iñárritu on ‘Biutiful’
The Oscar-nominated director spoke in Spanish to Enrique Lopetegui on January 15. Biutiful opens in San Antonio on January 21. When did you realize you were going to dedicate Biutiful to your father? At the end of filming. It’s a movie that talks a lot about paternity, which is a theme that has been present…
