SAHA’s Dust Still Blowin’ in the Wind
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, The answer is blowin’ in the wind. — Bob Dylan, 1962 No one’s died…
Minneapolis Bureau Super Bowl Review
Did y’all watch the Super Bowl? I did not. I did, however, attend a Super Bowl party at which I drank beers in a backyard and argued about art in the community colleges (some more). A blog post featuring art from ACCD grads and instructors is forthcoming, by the way. Sometimes I do enjoy watching…
CNN dumbfounded by prison riots
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Shameful CNN. When a prison riot in a remote far West Texas prison broke out last weekend â?? the second in two months â?? CNN offered a truly anemic report. “Officials said they do not know what prompted the riots,” the broadcaster reported just a couple grafs before saying, “The inmates, who…
On Chavez: The beatings will continue until morale improves
Bryan Thompson bthompsoe@gmail.com One way to measure the state of the global economy is by counting the number of Latin American autocrats in power. Wall Street’s periodic tumbles seem to be something akin to Miracle-Gro for generalissimos, and the current crop of presidentes appears to be a rehash (albeit with minor modifications) of older repressive…
Pump house to poop house: a super-special day with SAWS
End of the line. After your dietary richness has been extracted, nearly drinking-quality water rushes out the outfall of Dos Rios wastewater plant into Medina River. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Saturday, while you were sleeping in, watching old cowboy movies, and demanding someone squeeze your softening oranges (we know who you are!), I was “up and…
Texas Republicans Still Carrying Torch for Contrived Vote Fraud Issue
The Texas Senate rejected a voter ID bill two years ago, with Democrats blocking the bill out of concern that requiring voters to show a picture ID would discriminate against certain sectors of the electorate (i.e. minorities and the poor.) But Texas Republicans, apparently desperate to stop a purple surge in the Lone Star state,…
On the Street: Incident at the “Russia Bar”, Goodbye Ladies of Video, Molten Pits of Hellfire, High Ankle Anxiety, and Other Important Discussions of Our Time
“This earthquake’s gonna leave me in the poor house.” Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite) #1 BMX Kung Fu Nice Guy Rob writes in with a link to this Hilarious scene. It’s fairly self-explanatory. Bicycles don’t kill people, people with bicycles kill peopleâ?¦or something like that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qve-THEDTs0 #2 Sexy Trashman Followup/Director Sam Lerma…
CPS to take lead role in burying CPS
Mayor’s assistant Larry Zinn caught a prominent mention during the State of the City speech and later led the discussion on what the heck Mission Verde is â?? and isn’t. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Post Mayor Phil Hardberger’s State the City Address and the steady dispersal of the lunchtime enthusiasts, those suffering from severe, incurable hungering…
Live & Local preview: SOLI Chamber Ensemble
Break out the monocle and fancy shoes (yes my idea of dressing to impress is inextricably tied to Mr. Peanut â?? get over it) because tonight, Live & Local is headed to Blue Star Contemporary Art Center to see SOLI Chamber Ensemble, in the group’s own words, a “not-for-profit instrumental ensemble seeking to promote the…
Mission Verde finally unveiled
Sustainability studies, chatter fleshed out in speech San Antonio infected with sustainability bug: green jobs, clean power, mass transit? What city is this? Mayor Hardberger presented broad points of ‘Mission Verde’ to a packed house yesterday at this year’s State of the City Address. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com I walk in a hungryish daze, snapping pics,…
Digital Billboards: Let’s not rush, says Planning
As promised in this week’s QueQue, Planning and Development Services released an updated evaluation of the year-old Digital Billboard Pilot Program that went dark at the end of 2008. It calls for nine more months in which to evaluate the signs’ impact before a final report is presented to Council. Regular readers will recall that…
Annihilation Time, HOD, Lewd Acts, No Return, Results, A.N.S., & Mammoth Grinder
Release Date: 2009-01-28 A lot of bands name-drop legendary hardcore punkers Black Flag as an influence, but dirty Oakland rockers Annihilation Time actually have the chops to back it up. And think again before you cry hack — the volatile five-piece puts their own spin on the angry tunes with 70’s hard-rock licks that evoke…
Julie Schurr
Release Date: 2009-01-28 After years living within the constraints of a conservative home, lesbian singer-songwriter Julie Schurr taught herself to play guitar and drew upon 20 years’ worth of memoirs to provide an outlet for her individuality. Schurr’s songs are honest and emotional, while live performances reveal her charisma, storytelling ability, and comedic wit. She’s…
22nd Annual Asian Festival
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Though San Antonio’s annual Asian Festival began as a small reunion for local Asian groups, it’s since ballooned in popularity and festival organizers expect nearly 10,000 participants this year. 2009 is the Year of the Ox in the Lunar New Year, and the ITC celebration includes a wide variety of food, martial-arts…
Black and Blue: 400 Years of Struggle and Transcendence
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Gemini Ink kicks off Black History Month with San Antonio native Sterling Houston’s play Black and Blue: 400 Years of Struggle and Transcendence. The hour-long snapshot of the African-American odyssey includes excerpts from The Ballad of Henry Box Brown, a play chronicling the true story of a Southern man who mailed himself…
De Los Muertos
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Underneath the “Sounds Like” heading on their MySpace page, San Antonio’s De los Muertos describe their music as “TexicanGothPunk?” with a question mark to indicate that even the band can’t adequately describe the style. De los Muertos stitch familiar parts — glass-gargling Tom-Waits-ish vocals, Tex Mex guitar riffage, and garage-band rhythm —…
Travels with Frenchie
Part V: the other Palace
Sketching in SAMA’s Galleries
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Lloyd Walsh is taking over SAMA! Well, not really … and not permanently. But Renaissance Man Walsh — Palo Alto instructor; Exploding Sex Kitten; motorcycle and scooter hobbyist; and everybody’s fave painter of (among many other inspired subjects) cigarette-smoking lemurs — will hold court every Tuesday in February in a SAMA gallery…
Go another round
Release Date: 2009-01-28 I kind of like East Commerce between I-37 and the railroad tracks. It’s like a block of tourist town without the tourists. And let’s face it, it’s the tourists that are the problem. They seem to take the sheen off things. Being over there near Sunset Station is kind of like being…
Rich Vos
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Branded “A creep of a human” by fellow comedian Jim Norton, Rich Vos is brutally straightforward and offensive, a hardcore East Coast comic whose razor sharp wit and insulting nature make him one of the top headliners working today. Vos is Jewish-American and makes that clear during his set — he’ll definitely…
Sarah & Octopus
Sarah & Octopus Composer: Sarah & Octopus Conductor: Sarah & Octopus Label: Self-released Release Date: 2009-01-28 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Sarah & Octopus have jazz chops and tons of ambition, and their complex pieces can wear you out with their car-crash meter shifts and wild leaps across the harmonic spectrum. Because the band’s vocal ideas…
Rich Vos
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Branded “A creep of a human” by fellow comedian Jim Norton, Rich Vos is brutally straightforward and offensive, a hardcore East Coast comic whose razor sharp wit and insulting nature make him one of the top headliners working today. Vos is Jewish-American and makes that clear during his set — he’ll definitely…
Pop!
Pop! Conductor: The Exploding Sex Kittens Label: Self-released Release Date: 2009-01-28 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Good luck reading the combination of the band’s name and album title without picturing a roomful of S&M-gear-clad baby tabbies spontaneously combusting, but don’t worry: The album’s less depressing, and much easier to clean up after. “King R. Rodrigo” finds…
De Los Muertos
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Underneath the “Sounds Like” heading on their MySpace page, San Antonio’s De los Muertos describe their music as “TexicanGothPunk?” with a question mark to indicate that even the band can’t adequately describe the style. De los Muertos stitch familiar parts — glass-gargling Tom-Waits-ish vocals, Tex Mex guitar riffage, and garage-band rhythm —…
Collagist
Collagist Composer: Mnolo Conductor: Mnolo Label: Collage Records Release Date: 2009-01-28 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording A collage is supposed to be more than the sum of its parts, but Collagist — which features local beatmaker Manuel “Mnolo” Escobar collaborating with 18 different regional artists — seems to lack any overriding theme or logic. The subject…
Symphony Special Concert: Joshua Bell & Jeremy Denk
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Widely hailed as the man who made classical music cool again, violin virtuoso Joshua Bell performs with the San Antonio Symphony for one-night only. Called “the most celebrated American-born violinist of the modern era,” Bell’s performances have been described as special events that are just plain fun to listen to, and he…
Artifacts
Artifacts Composer: Aether Conductor: Aether Label: Exponential Release Date: 2009-01-28 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Local hip-hop producer Diego Chavez’s first solo outing creates a MacBook-powered soundscape that falls quietly between Handsome Boy Modeling School (minus humor) and Brian Eno (minus sleepiness). After the first two tracks I gave up on waiting for Chavez to treat…
Mnolo CD Release Party w. Bombasta, Word Association, & Notes Floats
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Read a Review of Collagist here: http://www.sacurrent.com/music/review.asp?rid=13381
Cock-blockalypse now
Taken Director: Pierre Morel Screenwriter: Pierre Morel Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Katie Cassidy, Anjul Nigam, Goran Kostic, Holly Valance Release Date: 2009-01-28 Rated: PG-13 Genre: Film “You have to lose it sometime,” admonishes Amanda (Cassidy), the brash, blond best friend of Kim (Grace) — no last names needed, because we all know a Kim…
Soy Ilegal, No Criminal
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Centro Cultural Aztlan presents its 31st annual Segundo de Febrero Art Show that commemorates the 1848 signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the beginning of the Mexican-American as a political entity in the United States. Noted San Antonio artist Raul Servin will be the lead artist this year. His painting…
Notorious
Notorious Director: George Tillman Jr. Screenwriter: George Tillman Jr. Cast: Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith Release Date: 2009-01-28 Rated: R Genre: Film George Tillman Jr.’s biopic about the life of Christopher Wallace (Woolard), better known as superstar rapper Notorious B.I.G., doesn’t take any liberties with the Brooklyn native’s life. It…
The Chicharones, The Hawks (Of Holy Rosary), Mexican Stepgrandfather, & The Astex
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Cheap tequila is being swilled in bars and discos around the globe in celebration — underground rap duo the Chicharones have climbed back on top! Named after the greasy, but immensely tasty, Latin American porkskin snack, Canadian MC’s Josh Martinez and Sleep shook off the cold weather reputation of their home country…
Lunacy (Sileni)
Release Date: 2009-01-28 Surrealist master Jan Svankmajer mixes stop-motion animation with live action, kinky sex, Euro-trash violence, black comedy, and frisky meat puppets in Lunacy, his 2005 film about inmates taking over an asylum. UTSA prof and Current contributor Steven G. Kellman is curating the McNay’s month-long Thursday-evening film series, which hails the Czech Republic…
SOLI Chamber Ensemble
Release Date: 2009-01-28 SOLI Chamber Ensemble takes the stage for the third time this season with guest artist Allison Garza on flute. Michael Torke’s vigorous and rhythmic Telephone Book reduces alphabetical order to a feeling of activity and gradual change, while George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale, originally scored for three masked players on flute,…
Mayoral Hospitality: SA Style
By Gilbert Garcia Who needs opinion polls? After all, you can always spot the frontrunner in any political race by the way they get tag-teamed by the other candidates. On that basis, Julian Castro must be the candidate to beat for mayor this year, because halfway through a Tourism Council forum (not to be confused…
Oscar lite
The moment we’ve all been waiting for is almost here – the nominees have been picked, the statues are being shined, and for the past month nary a carb has touched a collagened lip in all of Hollywood. Why? Because it’s awards season — that delightful time of year when we all gather to celebrate…
Serene Dominic Episode 11
Our first bi-coastal vidcast starts out in the cold wintry climate of Westchester, New York, where Serene clears some brush and reviews "Rock and Roll Jobs Created and Lost in 2008." Then he jets back to sunny Phoenix to interview Cris Kirkwood of the legendary Meat Puppets. Cris talks about the new album, gives us…
S’Nuff film
UTSA comparative-literature professor and frequent Current contributor Steven G. Kellman will be curating a weekly film series at the McNay (mcnayart.org) celebrating Czechoslovakian cinema. The series begins 6:30 p.m. Thursday, January 29 with Lunacy, a 2005 hybrid of stop-motion and live-action combining works by Edgar Allan Poe and Marquis de Sade, and continues with a…
Art missions
Where’s the love? Attention, artists: Not only do they want you, the Alamo Community Colleges need you. The economy’s grim, state funding is down, and so is enrollment. But the ACCD art departments offer you newly expanded facilities, incredibly diverse students and faculty to bounce your ideas off of, and a rich legacy of excellence…
Cinema Obscura
A high-school comedy based around a band whose songs include “Beat on the Brat,” “Teenage Lobotomy,” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” should be pretty hard to screw up. The band practically wrote it for you. And credit the first-timers and no-names behind the Ramones-centered Rock ’n’ Roll High School for letting the movie…
ARTIFACTS
Pee-wee Herman — the first metrosexual? Something to meditate on February 13 as you light good-fortune votives for SA’s Dawn Brooks. Brooks will be in LA, pitching Paul Reubens’ agent her brainstorm for Amerivespa 2010: VCOA’s Big Adventure, in which scooter riders from around the country cruise the Alamo City and compete in a Pee-wee’s…
The QueQue
Personal PERF The QueQue was super-excited to read E-N columnist Carlos Guerra’s exposé of the brutish behavior of local police officers during his January 15 arrest for suspected DWI. Even when you’re pulling over a car that comes up as “stolen,” helmed by a driver who’s just had a “sumptuous dinner” and “two glasses of…
SALA DIAZ IS OPEN
On Tuesday, January 20th, local artist and DJ John Mata sent out an interesting email that began simply, "For his exhibition Sala Diaz Is Open John Mata will utilize the east and west rooms of Sala Diaz to present an art show and record store respectively." Given John’s focus in both art and music, the…
Breasts, toes, and probation
It’s all high times and misdemeanors at Bexar County’s probation department — and I’m not referring to the behavior of the department’s clients. How bad is it at Bexar County’s Community Supervision? Not taking into account the administration’s unwillingness to reconsider months of revocations triggered by drug tests that were more than likely faulty —…
Gore vital
Eating and reading often go well together. An entertaining book and a good meal make for a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Unless the book happens to be Charlie Huston’s gruesome thriller The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death. When his roommate tires of his freeloading, Webster “Web” Fillmore Goodhue gets a job in the…
Masculin et féminin: The new fashion grammar
In high school and college, I studied French. I think I was under the misapprehension that I would be moving to France sometime in the near future, or at least Quebec. No matter that both my grandparents spoke Spanish as well as English, and I could have practiced español on the bus, at my friends’ houses, and,…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I am a naturalized (legal) Hispano in the U.S. and I just realized what the “illegal” craze is about. What immigrant-bashing citizens are trying to protect here are people like … me. Consider what this concerned woman said to John McCain during a public meeting in New Hampshire last year: “I just think…
Dear Uncle Mat
It’s Sunday morning, and I am in a total state of silence and tears. I come to you not so much for advice but for a swift kick in my ass. I am madly in love with someone (and yes, they, too, are madly in love with me). What started as a new friendship two…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t tell me you have nothing to be thankful for, Aries. Your parents could have named you “Hooligan” or “Lightsaber” or “Flu,” and they didn’t. There are no photos floating around the internet that show you riding a pig in the nude. No one has ever broken up with you via…
Cabernet franc
Without cabernet franc, Bordeaux blends on both banks would lose much of their complexity. Both cabernet sauvignon and merlot benefit from the grape’s emphatic aromas, which range from pretty violets to burly tobacco and leather. Flavor components can include cassis and raspberry, often with a peppery edge. Yet it’s easy to forget that the…
Amuse-BOUCHE
With diners cutting back on eating out, there’s only one conclusion: They will be cooking at home more, which means we may also need to hone our cooking skills. Central Market to the rescue with a battery of classes, including one by the popular chef of Mac & Ernie’s in Tarpley (February 2), an international…
Youth at the summit
It’s a drizzly afternoon on the campus of St. Philip’s College. As it has done for the past three years, the City of San Antonio MLK Commission’s Hip Hop Summit has descended upon the college to explore the current and future state of affairs in hip-hop culture. In a workshop entitled “Today’s Girls, Tomorrow’s Women”…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
Not the Government returned to SA in December for back-to-back shows at Sam’s Burger Joint and the Warhol, and the exhilarating havoc they stirred up reminded us how much we’ve missed this band since they relocated to Los Angeles in 2007. In keeping with the back-to-their-roots spirit of the Alamo City homecoming, the post-punk quartet’s…
The Vultures
The Vultures aren’t fucking around here. The local hip-hop collective’s song titles alone (“Bloody Pools,” “Mic Slaughter,” “Bludgeon U to Death”) seem like evidence enough for some pretty serious jail time, and on record, the Vultures play the part of flesh-eating psychos, spitting breathless threat-filled verses over raw, simplistic beats with hardly a hook to…
“Save My Soul” — Ashlee Rose
A hip-shaking guitar groove precedes Rose’s voice, but typical for Texas country, the lyrics drive the song. “This holy water better save my soul,” Rose huskily demands, not out of desperation but skepticism, as if she suspects that God’s gonna welch on the deal. While Rose’s powerful voice, spread thick in many places via multi-tracked…
Hardberger, Obama, & Gozer
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com If bad polluting energy and economic rack and ruin had been loosed on the world as ghosts and gremlins, we may have collectively shut this depression thing down before it started to unwind a year ago. That is, we would have found the portal and slammed it shut back when the slime…
Metal columnist needed
Hey there, music lovers. As you may have noticed, we’re adding a few new features to our music section. In our current issue, we’ve got Punk Matters, a new monthly column by kick-ass writer/cartoonist Mitch Clem, of Nothing Nice to Say fame. Tomorrow, we’ll be running All City, a column covering the local hip-hop scene…
