Arts In the round
News and notes from the San Antonio theater scene January is never a good month for local theater. Most companies have just closed whatever show they felt obliged to put on to attempt to get in on the holiday spending spree. Organizations with overhead can’t allow their spaces to be dark, and so will soldier…
Screens Show, don’t tell
Ang Lee and Jake Gyllenhaal talk about the need to bare all in Brokeback Mountain “Heath did, I think, but not me,” Jake Gyllenhaal jokes when asked if he had to down a few shots of vodka to prepare for the rambunctious, homosexual sex scene he shares with Heath Ledger in this winter’s Brokeback Mountain…
Screens Trisexual and on a tear
Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, and Richard Shepherd laugh about their Matador antics Pierce Brosnan looks like a youngish Don Quixote these days; his once crow-black hair is now charcoal, and his sunburned face is masked by a tangled, pointed beard and bulging mustache. Sure, his dark denims and designer dress shirt muck up the imagery,…
Screens Armchair cinephile
Unseen no longer Newcomers to the world of experimental cinema quickly come across a few key facts. The American avant-garde was born in 1943, the conventional wisdom goes, when Maya Deren made Meshes of the Afternoon. Before that, there was little activity this side of the Atlantic. Try telling that to Bruce Posner, whose Unseen…
Screens That’s a wrap & Special screenings
The low-down on this week’s premieres Directed and written by Eli Roth (Cabin Fever), Hostel, which is being marketed as a film based on true events, follows two American backpackers, Paxon (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson), as they travel through Europe and are lured into an underworld of human trafficking and sex tourism. Roth…
Food & Drink Pass the salt
At its best, La Marginal is deep-fried yuca and savory garlic, at its worst, well … I’m of two minds about ethnic restaurants that are located next to ethnic grocery stores. On the one hand, it’s reassuring to feel the synergy that results from such a pairing; on the other, that same synergy may cause…
News All rise
Sakai quits Children’s Court, seeks 225th District Court seat Standing at a podium last Wednesday morning, Judge Peter Sakai waited for the Brackenridge Eagle train to round a curve and slow to a stop before launching his campaign for the 225th District Court. Sakai told the gathering that he purposely chose Brackenridge Park and the…
Food & Drink All dried out
Only time and plenty of liquids can cure the hangover blues After the first two shots of tequila you were giddy, three shots later you were brilliantly funny if somewhat given to expletives, six shots and the agave goddess presented you with the meaning of life; the vision was so beautiful, you took a seventh…
News Briefs
‘Grits’ is a meaty prison blog Grits for Breakfast, the Koufax Award Winner for Best Single Issue Blog in 2004, has recently joined the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition’s stock of reform and civil-liberties projects. The blog covers police interactions with the public, the state of local jails and prisons, the overflowing and almost-capped probation system,…
Food & Drink All you can eat
Current Online news politics culture News and notes from the San Antonio food scene North Side Ladies and Gents Who Lunch are in luck, as the Oak Room, 226 W. Bitters, is now open for mid-day meal. No dainty salads or finger sandwiches here: The Oak Room’s menu features wood-grilled meats and seafood. If you…
News Party lines
The Saints we ain’t It’s gratifying to hear that the New Orleans Saints are packing up and returning to their home state where they belong. No more tooting the NFL horn. No more talk about forcing the taxpayers to build a football stadium so a handful of gridiron nuts can attend home games in San…
Music South by southwest
At long last, Florida’s Iron & Wine meets Arizona’s Calexico The American highway is dotted with tollbooths and coffee shops, small stops and oases alongside the vast scrolls of patchy asphalt that unite us all. And it’s here, between refueling and stopping to stretch, that we find Calexico drummer John Convertino, making his way from…
Recent articles Features and Top Stories
02/01/06 The peoples lawyer? Texas AG Greg Abbott has been a friend to corporations, but now he says he works for you La vida peligrosa Tommy Lee Jones new film tells a true-enough tale of the treacherous borderlands Craigssucks.org Why is SAs version of the famous hook-up site so lame? Fast times at Bonneville Anthony…
Music CD Spotlight
Bo-ring idol When American Idol debuted four years ago, it was fascinating precisely because it represented such an anachronism. At a time when even frivolous teen idols made a big show of co-writing their own material, Idol pretended that we still lived in a world where leather-lunged belters such as Linda Ronstadt and Joe Cocker…
News Speed reads
All about sprawl Bexar County Audubon Society meets on Thursday, January 12 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss how San Antonio became a sprawling metropolis. In a talk entitled “Best Laid Plans: How San Antonio Grew,” Trinity University history professor and director of urban studies Char Miller will explain the historical relationship between city policies and…
Food & Drink The bar tab
The writing’s on the wall I had just read the sign on the wall — “Beware of Pickpockets and Loose Women” — when the red-headed stranger reached out and grabbed my hand. “How have you been?” she asked, pulling me closer to her. “Duh, OK I guess, who are you?” I inquired, my eyes twitching…
Feature Road rage
A lawsuit caps the battle over SA’s proposed toll roads Once upon a time, to live near U.S. Highway 281 north of Loop 1604 was like residing on Pluto, its homes and ranches and dusk-to-dawn lights seeming faint and distant from the city center. Now, San Antonio’s uncontrolled northward push has transformed the netherworld into…
Music ‘Window’ dressing
Jazz bassist Joël Dilley makes a concept album without words Joël Dilley and his trio play regularly on the River Walk at Swig. Behind the bandstand, the club has a window that inevitably attracts the attention of pedestrians. “They look inside and forget that you can see back at them,” Dilley says. “Some people will…
Arts Salzburg in exile
SA celebrates Mozart’s 250th birthday with festivals worthy of his hometown Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most revered musical figures in the Western Classical tradition. Known almost as much for his colorful, legendary life and death as for his compositional genius, Mozart is both the classic “musician’s musician” and a mythic figure for…
Music Current Choice
Grupo Fantasma Cowbell du jour Ask the 11 members of Austin’s Grupo Fantasma for their biggest influences, and the answers will range across the spectrum of recorded music: Timbaland, Charles Mingus, Pete Rock, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Eddie Palmieri, for starters. While much pan-rhythmic, globally oriented music smacks of cosmic calculation, Grupo Fantasma comes by its…
Arts Type A positive
The guru of gore flicks, Herschell Gordon Lewis chats about the film biz, his direct-marketing career, and his soft spot for Norman Rockwell There is a scene in Gore Gore Girls, Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1972 bloodfest about a series of murders involving strippers at a Chicago nightclub, in which a woman stands at a stove…
Music Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene Meeting the Fockers It’s not everyday that you come across a psychedelic noise-punk band with a singing trombone player, but that’s part of the lure with Austin’s Gorch Fock. A pile-driving machine powered by two drummers, this seven-piece band offers a wild, incomprehensibly ranting ode called “Bono,” covers Neil Young’s…
Arts Happy new you
A quick guide to matching your inner and outer makeovers It’s the first week of the new year — a time for recovery and reflection. As you consider that massive life overhaul called “New Year’s Resolutions,” make a commitment to revitalize your appearance next year. Don’t forget to dress the part when you decide who…
Arts Social intercourse
Although I am far too old for such nonsense, I still judge how good my New Year’s Eve celebrations are by the intensity of my hangovers. This year’s was a good one. Instead of celebrating with the masses in HemisFair Park (I get a little wigged out by crowds that large), I opted for a…
Arts The best birthday bash
In San Antonio, January means Performance Party. It’s Jump-Start Performance Co.’s annual birthday bash and it is, hands-down, the coolest theatrical event of the new year. Since 1988, the place to be on the first Saturday of the year has been this marathon of comedy, music, video, poetry, dance, and performance art. Jump-Start director Steve…
