Thrills, chills, and a bit of zing
Top: Ilsong Garden serves a variety of small side dishes with each entrée. Middle: Ilsong’s menu also includes Chinese dishes such as (front to back) orange chicken, sesame shrimp, and lemon chicken. Bottom: Oh jing uh buk-um, stir-fried squid with vegetables, is delivered to the the table sizzling. (Photos by Laura McKenzie) Explore the Korean…
Armchair Cinephile
Debasers “Slicing up eyeballs, ha ha ha ha ho!” goes the Pixies song that threatened to destroy my 18-year-old brain. It took me a year or so and access to a college-town film culture to learn that the lyrics to “Debaser” paid homage to an outrage that long predated punk rock. Un Chien Andalou (Facets),…
C12 H22 O11
(Photo illustration by Julie Barnett) Chemistry of cooking views cuisine at a molecular level It’s no use crying over spilled milk, sure, but a fallen cake, now that’s a tragedy. There are a handful of artful diagnoses for cakes that suffer from a slump in the middle, aka “sad cake syndrome.” Most likely, the baker…
Special screenings
Classics 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 of…
All You Can Eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Drinking and shopping: a delightful mix In the deli, I was buzzed. By cheese, I felt tipsy. In frozen foods, I passed out, stone drunk on Merlot Carignan. The Central Market floral manager tossed me out of the store, and I landed by the valet stand.…
Collective soul
Blue Cat Studio’s Joe Treviño (right), plays air guitar while he and musician Willie Jaye Laws listen to the playback of one of Laws’ recording sessions. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Blue Cat Studios: where high tech meets the front porch As always, it begins on the porch. This is where the circus gathers. It is…
Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene WAI going MIA Where the Action Is will says “adios” at their farewell show Saturday, January 29 at Tacoland, 103 W. Grayson. The Swindles open, and then will be joined by WAI. The following evening, El Dorado and the Ruckus, who opened for KISS and Aerosmith last summer under the…
Win, lose, or draw?
For opponents of corporate welfare, a recent court decision may be fool’s gold “This decision is a major blow against the most insidious form of corporate welfare,” trumpeted consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader last September when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down an Ohio tax incentive rewarding…
Whose side is it anyway?
“Bush and Rice, what do you say, how many people did you kill today?” was the chant of about 50 locals who marched from Milam Park to Plaza de las Islas on January 20 to protest the war in Iraq and President George Bush’s inauguration earlier in the day. (Photo by Laura McKenzie) Two San…
Rhyme pays
Snoop Dogg: entrepreneur or corporate ho? Hip-hop artists fall under the corporate spell — without regrets The marriage between hip-hop and Madison Avenue can be traced to a 1986 concert at Madison Square Garden where headliner Run-DMC encouraged 20,000 die-hard fans to hold their Adidas sneakers in the air. With Adidas executives conveniently standing in…
CD Spotlight
It’s been nine years since the Fugees, an eclectic trio from New Jersey, conquered the music world with their sophomore album The Score. After selling more than 18 million records worldwide, Wyclef, Praz, and L-Boogie shifted focus to their respective solo careers; Clef was the first out of the gate with The Carnival, a joyful…
Innovation gets a leg up
Northwest Vista College hosts the New Vistas in Video Festival, where the winner will receive a $600 scholarship to any school within the Alamo Community College District. The New Vistas video competition rewards experimentation and chutzpah Bill Colangelo knows that turning fantasy into film can be a challenge. So the creator of the New Vistas…
New station on the block
KTFM features artists from the era before Bobby Brown went to jail If the Spinners’ “One of a Kind Love Affair” or KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Please Don’t Go” are at the top of your all-time favorites list, then a new radio station will likely make you shake your polyester-clad booty. But first, you’ll…
New review
Director James Cameron takes viewers on a 3D IMAX ride into the ocean’s depths in Aliens of the Deep. A ride into the deep, then the question ‘Are we there yet?’ Aliens of the Deep Dir. James Cameron In the nearly eight years that have passed since his Titanic sailed upon the waters of melodrama,…
The golden age
Maria Blanchard stars as an independent, chess-playing vixen who falls in love in one of three short movies, Canasta de Cuentos Mexicanos, that screened at the Guadalupe Theater. (Photos by Lisa Sorg) Cine Oro brings classic Mexican cinema back to the West Side It feels very 1951 today. At 9 o’clock on this Friday morning,…
Recent reviews
A Very Long Engagement Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet; writ. Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant, based on the novel by Sébastien Japrisot; feat. Audrey Tatou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jean-Pierre Becker, Dominique Bettenfeld, Clovis Cornillac, Marion Cotillard, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Julie Depardieu, Jean-Claude Dreyfus (R) The film begins in the infamously muddy and claustrophobic French trenches of World War I. Five French…
Pow! Right in the kisser
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, a manager and a former prize fighter, are fading away in the boxing business until Hilary Swank’s character shows up, demanding a chance to train in the ring in Million Dollar Baby. Clint Eastwood’s ‘Baby’ puts a romantic back in the ring A friend of mine recently described Clint Eastwood…
