Damn the tortillas and full speed ahead
Cascabel dares to skip the chips and spotlight the huitlacoche
Urban anthems
Revolutionary but gangsta Dead Prez (Columbia) Urban anthems Let’s Get Free, the debut album from dead prez, featured a series of hard-hitting, unabashedly confrontational tracks that took on issues such as education, police brutality, capitalism, and the commodification of hip-hop culture. Their message of black revolution and self-determination resonated across communities much like the Panthers…
Artifacts
Artifacts News and notes from the San Antonio art scene Move ’em on head ’em up The RC Gallery artist potlucks swing back on to the scene this month at RC’s new location, 222 Roosevelt. The Outdoor Whirligig Show, a drive-by art event for the summer heat wave (BYOA/C), opens July 10, and the potluck…
Capitol city soul
W.C. Clark Capitol city soul As John Lennon once put it, the blues is a chair: a functional piece of architecture that’s sturdy, unadorned, and made for sitting. With that in mind, no one on the Austin music scene has done more to maintain the condition of that chair than W.C. Clark. An Austin blues…
Showdown in District 45
Campaign materials for Texas House of Representatives, District 45. Democrat Patrick Rose campaigned against Republican incumbent Rick Green in 2002. Their contentious race is documented in Last Man Standing: Politics – Texas style. Showdown in District 45 By Steven G. Kellman P.O.V. follows Texas’ Republican shift through chili cook-offs and church gatherings It is almost…
New reviews
Will Ferrell earns leading-man status as ’70s-era anchorman Ron Burgundy. New reviews Anchorman Dir. Adam McKay; writ. Will Ferrell & Adam McKay; feat. Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steven Carell, David Koechner (PG-13) “There was a time,” a sonorous voiceover declares, “before cable news.” A simpler, shoddier time when the community buffoon could build…
Too Good to Eat
Bite-size faux pastries, made of compressed coffee grounds and other near-food substances, by Yolanda McKay are on display at Three Walls Gallery in the Blue Star complex for Contemporary Art Month. Too Good to Eat By Elaine Wolff Yolanda McKay’s miniature cakes are one of CAM’s best treats Three Walls is one of the smallest…
One hump or two?
Ikhbayar Amgaabazar and Odgerel Ayusch work to reconcile a mother camel, Ingen Temee, to Botok, the young calf she has refused to nurse, in The Story of the Weeping Camel. One hump or two? By Elaine Wolff ‘The Story of the Weeping Camel’ is a gorgeous, unmediated introduction to another world Not long into the…
Concrete cinema
Concrete cinema By Xelena Gonzalez ‘In the Public Domain’ shows free summer movies near La Tuna icehouse Movie-going will always be a favorite American pastime, but one that too often involves long lines, bad food, and exorbitant prices. Specialty theaters such as the Bijou are springing up to offer full menus, alcohol, foreign films, and…
Special screenings
Special screenings The Band Wagon Dir. Vincente Minnelli; writ. Betty Comden, Adolph Green; feat. Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan (NR) Screenwriting team Betty Comden and Adolph Green followed up their 1952 Singin’ in the Rain with this musical satire for the giant of the genre, Minnelli. Astaire plays a washed-up…
Recent Reviews
America’s Heart and Soul Dir. Louis Schwartzberg (PG) By virtue of timing alone, America’s Heart and Soul, a slice-of-life series of stories released just in time for the flag-waving Fourth of July, has the dubious (and likely unwarranted) appearance of being Disney’s substitute for Fahrenheit 9/11, which it declined to distribute. In any case, it’s…
Armchair Cinephile
Armchair Cinephile John DeFore on DVD The quirky tube I’m not sure what took ’em so long, but Universal is making up for the delay of their first-season Northern Exposure with a cute packaging gimmick: Set in Alaska, the comedy comes bundled up in a tiny orange parka. Not that the distributors need more selling…
Damn the tortillas and full speed ahead
From front: Cascabel’s quesadillas de huitlacoche and a milanesa torta flanked by bowls of frijoles de la olla and sopa de fideo. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Damn the tortillas and full speed ahead By Ron Bechtol Cascabel dares to skip the chips and spotlight the huitlacoche It’s sloppy-sensational, messy-magnificent, and it’s as traditional a torta…
Piñata politics
The LULAC conference was held July 7-9 in San Antonio, where political candidates and business leaders vied for Latinos’ attention, buying power, and votes. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Piñata politics By Jodie Briggs Everyone from Bush to Wal-Mart is courting LatinosEveryone from Bush to Wal-Mart is courting Latinos They may not have donned sombreros or…
PFTUT!
PFTUT! By Lisa Sorg Soy cheese: a crime against nature Meatless in Steer City Back home in Indiana, my family lived across the road from a 75-acre field that every other year Old Man Pittsford would farm in soybeans. As a carnivorous child, I wondered why the hell one would eat a soybean, but as…
It’s a secret
It’s a secret By Lisa Sorg If Congress passes a transportation bill, San Antonians could be forbidden to know what – or if – hazardous materials are rolling through town Buried in section 4439, page 1,001 of the proposed transportation bill, a 1,381-page behemoth that addresses everything from highway funding to motorcycle crashes to bus…
Celebration and drink
Celebration and drink Azúca Celebrates Celia Cruz A two-day Celebration in honor of Celia Cruz will take place on Friday, July 16 and Saturday, July 17, 5 pm-close, at Azúca Bar and Grill, 713 S. Alamo. Painter Carla Veliz will be exhibiting La Negra de Colores, a collection featuring several figurative paintings of Celia Cruz,…
Sexual ostriches
Sexual ostriches By Elaine Wolff Will Texas stick its head in the sand over sex ed? “The debate over whether to have sex education in American schools is over,” we wrote last February `”Total protection,” February 12-18, 2004`, quoting a recent National Public Radio/Kaiser/Kennedy School poll that found that only 15 percent of Americans support…
Inspired ‘Mess’
David Garza: a restless troubadour who recognizes no stylistic boundaries Inspired ‘Mess’ By Gilbert Garcia David Garza puts the first 15 years of his career in a box David Garza’s new, career-spanning box set includes a bonus DVD that illustrates what life on the road is like for the Austin-based singer-songwriter. There are periodic visits…
Bright light
Roy Thomas rehearses as Gilda Goldstein in the upcoming Alamo Street Theatre production of Mazal Tov Menudo. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Bright light By Laurie Dietrich Roy Thomas blazes a flamboyant path through SA’s theater community Roy Thomas should be a star. And not just because he’s talented. Followers of the famous know that talent…
Sound and the Fury
Sound and the Fury a week on the scene So long, Suzy Bravo Suzy Bravo, Chicana soul sister number one (and frontwoman for the eponymously named group), sings here for the last time on Saturday, July 17 at Taco Land. Backed by bluesy guitar riffs courtesy of the ever-versatile Eddie Hernandez (Sexto Sol), and with…
Security barriers
Paul Bonin-Rodriguez brings back his “small-town sissy boy,” Johnny Hobson, in Fringe and Fringe Ability, through July 25 at Jump-Start Theatre. Security barriers By Laurie Dietrich Johnny Hobson returns with Oedipal issues and a cellphone Johnny Hobson is back in town. That’s a deceptively simple sentence. Because Johnny Hobson is the alter-ego creation of Jump-Start…
Reality bites
Jessica Simpson: Suzanne Somers for a new generation? Reality bites By Gilbert Garcia For Jessica Simpson, the best revenge is a line of edible beauty products There’s a curse going around, and it’s targeting the teen-pop class of ’99. The three preeminent members of that class – Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Jessica Simpson -…
