Screens No good deed goes unpunished
Après Vous’ generous waiter finds a heart of gold may be worth its weight in uranium No one feels as indebted to us as those who do us favors. Someone who lends you $50,000 takes a stake in your prosperity. So when Antoine (Auteuil) cuts Louis (Garcia) down from the rope on which he has…
News It’s no crime
Diversion Program aims to keep mentally ill out of jail When Eliseo Smith’s son, Danny, awoke in the lobby of an apartment building at Vance Jackson and West Avenue, he was surprised to see police. “He thought he owned the building,” Smith says. But instead of hauling Danny to jail, San Antonio police officers, who…
Screens Dropping up
Rafael Yglesias left school at 16 and the Dark Water screenwriter says he’s never done an honest day’s work Rafael Yglesias dropped out of high school in New York in 1970. But the 16-year-old knew exactly what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. “I wanted to be a writer,” Yglesias, 51,…
News Party lines
CPS towers go to court Local attorneys squared off one more time on July 11 in 37th District Court over the high-voltage transmission lines that CPS Energy plans to build from its Cagnon station to Kendall County. The lawsuit, Gallagher Headquarters Ranch Development LTD et al v. the City of San Antonio, was filed by…
Screens That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres Whether they’re gluttons for truffles, Reese’s Pieces, or good old-fashion fudge, candy lovers everywhere should get ready to sink their teeth into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a new rendition of the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. When Charlie (Freddy Highmore, who reunites with…
News Briefs
New report says DoD doing all it can More than 6,000 Defense Department sites, including the former Kelly Air Force Base, have contaminated groundwater from military activities and hazardous waste, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued in June. The GAO studied the Defense Department’s cleanup methods and concluded that the military is using…
Food & Drink Europa Europa
Food critic’s cover blown as he enjoys foie gras avec l’abandon Pecan-crusted rack of lamb is well-complemented by a glass of Jaboulet Parallele 45 Rhone red. (Photos by Laura McKenzie) San Antonio chef Guy Collinet has been around the block a few times: The Plaza San Antonio in its early days, The St. Anthony, the…
Screens Small screen
A gun grows in Brooklyn – Connecting the American weapons market to the insurgency in Kosovo At Elk City Ammunition and Arms in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania, Florin Krasniqi presses his eye against the sight of a 50-caliber, single-shot rifle. “What exactly are you going to do with it?” asks the salesman, warily sizing up his…
Food & Drink Hoja santa or diablo?
Like many good herbs, the root beer plant must be eaten in moderation In the Garden for the Blind at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, there grows a lofty bush with large, velvety, heart shaped leaves. Children like to pet them, pulling off little pieces to smell and chew; root beer-scented, they taste of anise,…
Screens Special screenings
SA Current Online Bluegrass at Blue Star King of Bluegrass Dir. George Goehl (2004) The Sundowners Dir. George Goehl (2005) Straight 6 Films presents King of Bluegrass, a documentary about Jimmy Martin, bluegrass’ rebel child, and his lifelong quest to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry cast `see “Pickin’ and fightin’,” July 7-13,…
Food & Drink The gonzo gourmet
Fired Up! is a messy romp celebrating 20 years of fearless cooking and whimsy The first thing I noticed when I opened chef Jeff Blank’s Fired Up!, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of his restaurant, Hudson’s on the Bend, was the eclectic design, a jumble of brightly colored elements – photos, song lyrics, quotes, anecdotes,…
Screens New reviews
Hustle & Flow Dir. and writ. Craig Brewer; feat. Terrence Dashon Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, Taraji P. Henson, DJ Qualls (R) A deeply involving, realistic, and well-executed film, Hustle & Flow is an assertive urban drama intensified through strong narrative and an amazing performance by lead actor Terrence Dashon Howard (Crash). A pimp by…
News A numbers game
The way to teach local kids math is to teach them how to read The state’s new math TAKS test consists of 60 word problems, and it’s not the numbers that are puzzling students. According to area teachers, students aren’t getting lost in the multiplication process, but rather, in the text of the questions that…
Food & Drink All you can eat
Current Online news politics culture News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Home, home on the range On Saturday mornings, Rancho de la Chuparrosa can be found at Madhatter’s Teahouse, 320 Beauregard, from 8am-noon and Artisans’ Alley, 555 Bitters, from 10am-1pm, selling locally grown vegetables and meat. The farm is not USDA certified…
News Speed reads
Water plan needs input While you’re draining the aquifer by watering your lawn, consider attending a public meeting about the South Central Texas (Region L) Water Plan, July 21 at 7 p.m. at the Marriott Plaza Hotel, 555 S. Alamo. The draft plan is one of 16 in the state that proposes strategies to meet…
Music Loud and proud
Robb’s Metalworks brings the noise for its third annual multi-band showcase As Robb Chavez maneuvers his Ford SUV around town on a Friday morning, his prized bobblehead of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett rocks the dashboard. The vehicle’s back window features a sticker promoting Chavez’ long-running public-access television show, Robb’s Metalworks. In the back seat, Chavez’…
Feature Living downstream
SARA looks at recreation options for the lower San Antonio Editor’s Note: In March, the Current published two stories about the San Antonio River Authority’s plans to restore and revive the San Antonio River. This is the third of three parts about that revitalization. Here are links to the previous stories, “Mission control” and “No…
Music All ears
Doing it their way, part one It has been five years since Soul Coughing coughed up the ghost, and frontman Mike Doughty didn’t exactly hit the ground running after the breakup. There was a little rehab to do, one gathers, along with some experimental labor in the do-it-yourself, just-me-and-a-guitar fields. It was enough for hardcore…
Arts Paper trails
Botanica and handmade papers link exhibits in and out of town Snakes shed all at once, neatly turning their old skin inside out like the sleeve of a shirt. Left behind is a tenuous shell, imprinted in pale colors and the outline of thousands of scales, a natural metaphor for memory, regeneration, and impermanence -…
Music CD Spotlight
Black light It’s a slightly surreal experience hearing Frank Black take on the soul classic “Dark End of the Street” on his new album, Honeycomb. One of the definite dark ballads in the R&B canon, it’s not an easy fit for a yelping iconoclast who once gave us “Nimrod’s Son” and “Wave of Mutilation.” But…
Arts CAM-a-lot more
You’re not flagging yet, are you, art troopers? Worrying about the housework? Dreaming of the icy cold cineplex? CAM is only half over. Openings, closings, and other events take place all month and several artists have saved the best for last. For a complete listing, visit the official CAM website, camsanantonio.org. Now grab those Luna…
Music Current choice
Tell Etta “And life is like a song,” sings Etta James on “At Last.” It’s one of her most enduring tracks, but it’s this line that lingers longer than the “at lasts” she belts out. That’s because her life has been like every one of her songs, which is to say riddled with pain, supported…
Arts In the round
News and notes from the San Antonio theater scene All (well, at least two) roads lead to theater July 15 is the application deadline for writers and directors for the San Antonio Theatre Coalition’s Second Annual TheatreASAP 24-hour theater-making event `see In the Round, June 16-22`. On July 17, get involved at SATCO’s Summer Community…
Music Life in the slow lane
Bobby Pinson to perform at Cowboys Dancehall If Bobby Pinson understands the pulse of small towns, it’s because he had plenty of time to familiarize himself with them. A product of the Texas Panhandle, Pinson spent his childhood moving from one sparsely populated community to another while his father took on high-school football coaching jobs.…
Arts Bits and pieces
A new show about scrapping illustrates the strength of a hobby “My name is Debbie D – and my favorite thing about scrapbooking is actually the socializing.” “Hi. I’m Barbara M – and I love scrapbooking because it tells people’s stories, and you can read about other people’s stories.” “My name is Carrie M -…
Music Sound and the fury
SA Current Online A week on the scene Border polemics Over the course of one weekend, San Antonio audiences had the opportunity to catch three of the biggest rock bands Mexico has produced in the past 20 years. On Friday, July 8 at Sunset Station, Café Tacuba and Maldita Vecindad split an open-air triple-header (with…
Arts First-person recruiter
Hezbollah and the U.S. Army employ the same strategy to fill their ranks: video games Two years ago, the video game Special Force began circulating on the internet. This “first-person shooter” immerses players in convincing, three-dimensional combat environments. In terms of underlying game mechanics, it is almost identical to such titles as Battlefield Vietnam and…
Arts A hair off the mark
Larry McMurtry’s tale of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill leaves Little Miss Sure Shot out of focus Long before someone taught George W. Bush how to walk and talk like a Texan, performers have been selling the Wild West mythology to Americans. Tales of cowboys and Indians spawned entire libraries of westerns and dime-store novels.…
Screens Armchair Cinephile
Web Exclusive Voyage into the surreal It’s entirely fitting that Kino, the DVD home of those pioneering animators the Quay Brothers, has just become the distributor for KimStim’s collection The Collected Shorts of Jan Svankmajer. Without the work of this Czech filmmaker, after all, the Brothers’ films would look quite different – if they existed…
Screens The heart’s construction
Even in our dispassionate time, secrets equal tragedy Diana Lee, the imperious, extravagant theater diva played by Glenn Close in the Merchant Ivory film Heights, is unbearably eager to pass along her disillusionment with marriage and love to her engaged daughter, Isabel. Humiliated by her husband’s open affair with her younger understudy, Lee takes every…
