Big softies
AT&T: Accuse them, attack them, hijack their merger hearings to scold them, but this hard-bitten telecom remains unmoved Give AT&T its props. Who else would dare introduce a pioneering new privacy policy saying that they own customer data — serendipitously — after civil-liberties superfriends (ACLU, the Austin Chronicle, Studs Terkel, etc.) filed lawsuits claiming AT&T…
Feature The dog days of summer
Survival Handbook Pour water into radiator after the engine has cooled. Take care not to spill water on any other engine part. HOW TO DEAL WITH AN OVERHEATED CAR Delmer, a mechanic at Gaston’s Automotive over on Basse, worked on Oldsmobiles exclusively for 17 years, so he knows how to handle trouble. He gave the…
Net neutrality, part II
The web’s not over ’til the fat-cats cry uncle, so pay attention for a minute Jon Stewart couldn’t stop talking about “network neutrality” on The Daily Show last week. What was that all about? Great question! Network neutrality is a core principle of the internet that preserves innovation, competition, and free speech. It ensures that…
Arts : Pucker up
Performance-art averse? You’re gonna love it! Let’s get back to essentials with Judith Cottrell: Lemonade is yellow. Although according to Foodtimeline.org, Mrs. E.E. Kellogg included a pink variation in her 1892 tome Science in the Kitchen, when lemonade came to be (as most food-o-philes seem to agree it did) in 17th-century France, it was made…
EAA + TCEQ = ???
Finding a little strength in numbers Driving west on Loop 1604 from 281 to Huebner, you’ll pass grocery stores, strip centers, discount department stores, banks, churches, hotels, and fast-food joints. A few vacant lots on this drive through the middle of the Edwards Aquifer’s Recharge Zone stick out like green thumbs, but they won’t stand…
Arts : Straight shooter
Comic book reviews by Jeremy Martin Wonder Woman #1 D.C. Comics Written by Allan Heinberg Art by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson $2.99, 32 pages Admit it: Wonder Woman is kind of lame. There, don’t you feel better now? Sure, she’s part of D.C.’s trinity (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman), but she’s by far the weakest…
Arts : Clothes-minded
Fashion analysis by Leigh Baldwin Local designers on the runway Linda Pace’s mirrored igloo, featured prominently as the catwalk’s pivot at this year’s Art of Fashion fundraiser for the Southtown Mainstreet Alliance. Appropriate, given its references to vanity, or maybe there was just no way to stage the show around it. My companion was hopeful…
Food & Drink : Fizzology 101
When I was 5, my life revolved around toys — especially one called the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine. For those of you who do not remember the now-vintage item, it was a small, red-and-white, dog-house-shaped machine used to shave ice for the most delicious snow cones any kindergartener could imagine. Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker: mixed-drink training ground…
Media : Lady surfacing
The entrancing Bryce Dallas Howard takes another stroke toward stardom with M. Night Shyamalan’s strange new flick Bryce Dallas Howard is a lucky girl. Not only did she win the genetic lottery when mega-director Ron Howard fathered her (in Dallas, hence the middle name), but she also grew into a fantastically talented, impossibly sculpted, flame-haired,…
Food & Drink : All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene How about some corn with your coffee? Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and International Paper are trying to take a small sip out of the 14.4 billion paper coffee cups that are discarded each year after they’ve served their short-lived purpose. On July 12, the companies introduced…
Media : (Not quite) ready for check out
With Clerks II, Kevin Smith successfully mines his roots, but leaves the question of “growth” unanswered That contingent of moviegoers which believes that Kevin Smith is a one-note filmmaker, doomed to embarrass himself when he tries to stretch beyond pop-culture references and dirty dialogue, is bound to feel some kind of vindication this week, as…
Media : Doing the work of a polyglot god
POV does GRN: The Tailenders explores the possible intersection between technology and religion In the beginning, the word was clear and commanding. “Yihee or!” (Let there be light!), God proclaimed, according to Genesis. And, since the obedient elements must have known Hebrew, there was light. However, after Babel, it takes an omnilingual being or an…
Music : Trucker soul
Austin (one-man) band Scott H. Biram rocks hard, looks like a convict, and just might be impossible to kill Scott H. Biram looks like the type of guy who’d punch you in the face if you looked at him the wrong way. With wild eyes, a gnarly Fu Manchu mustache, and tattooed forearms that make…
Media : Game Theory
American knock-offs, coming to stores near you For as long as most of us can remember, American writers, musicians, and filmmakers have dominated world culture. Even today, the phrase “global culture” is sometimes viewed as a code word for McDonald’s, Superman, and other elements of American popular culture. Long accustomed to this dominant position, Americans…
Music : Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene Can control After a lengthy hiatus, Clogged Caps, San Antonio’s Annual International Aerosol Arts Festival, is back for a vibrant, event-packed fifth edition. This year’s graffiti celebration kicks off on Friday, July 21, with an evening Meet & Greet Gallery Show at Travis 151, with entertainment provided by Houston’s Lower…
Media : That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres Shhh … Be vewy quiet … M. Night Shyamalan’s releasing a movie, but I don’t think we’re allowed to talk about it, ’cause it’s a big secret and he’ll get mad. See, that’s the first rule of Night Club: Don’t talk about Night Club. I kid. I like the…
Music : After Sunset
A crawl through the San Antonio club scene Playing to the room When I read on Sarah Sharp’s email list that she and two musician comrades (Dallas’s Kristy Kruger and Houston’s Glenna Bell) were looking for a San Antonio volunteer to host the final house concert of their “Texas Angels Tour,” I immediately stepped up.…
Media : Special screenings
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL Steven Spielberg (1982) Time Warner Cable’s “Evening in the Park” features E.T. on the big screen. Lady Bird Johnson Park, Friday, July 21. Movie begins at sunset; Fandango and Alamotion will provide entertainment 6:30-8 p.m. and the pool will be open until 8 p.m. 10700 Nacogdoches. Free. More info: Twc-sa.com. SLAB CINEMA:…
Music : Current choice
Rhymin’ Simon Paul Simon may have been pegged as a folkie early in his career, but his true roots were in doo-wop and the secularized gospel of ’50s rhythm and blues. Since splitting with childhood chum Art Garfunkel in 1970, Simon’s best work inevitably has found him connecting his tightly constricted persona with the visceral…
Food & Drink : To eat the possible dream
Don Quixote’s ideal is rustic perfection, and the result is not far off Even the French admit it — or at least some of them do (grudgingly, bien sûr): Spain is the new center of the culinary world. Barcelona is the new Paris. Airy foams are the new cream-based sauces. And agar-agar confabulations have replaced…
Music : CD spotlight
‘Eraser’ Head The Eraser should satiate Radiohead enthusiasts salivating for their favorite band’s forthcoming seventh studio album, which is slated for 2007. Neither unpredictable nor unrewarding, Yorke’s debut solo outing follows his established MO of asking and answering questions in a cryptic figure eight. But even though every electronic tick, werp, bleep, and scratch is…
Food & Drink : Meat on a stick!
For easy summertime eatin’, make like your caveman forebears There is something so basically satisfying — dare I say primal? — about eating meat on a stick. I would venture a guess that, oh, a week to 10 days after their encounter with the mysterious monolith, those newly enlightened primates in 2001: A Space Odyssey…
Arts : On the street
Merging modes: ModaCoLab at Radius The success of any artistic collaboration or multimedia fusion depends on two factors: what the participating artists get out of the experience, and whether the finished work translates aesthetically to a third-party viewer. When the Modern Dancers’ Co-Laboratory formed, a little over a year ago, the idea was to create…
Arts : A spoonful of sugar for those meds
Web Exclusive San Pedro Playhouse’s Carouseloffers more than nostalgia in a time of war The San Pedro Playhouse’s summer production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel opens with a lone man on the first step of a stairway (OK, ladder) to heaven, followed by a delightfully choreographed group of young girls miming the darker, and repetitious,…
Arts : Shoot this, please
Tim Davis turns the camera’s cold eye on democracy Tim Davis is not a cynical bastard. He’s adamant about this. All he did was set out to photograph what politics in America looks like right now; it’s not his fault the modern political landscape is a desolate place. “My hope is that it isn’t dark…
Criminal negligence
Whether by accident or design, our crazy Lege might execute abortion providers Mark August 7 on your calendar. That’s the date legal briefs are due in the Texas Attorney General’s office for request RQ-0501-GA, in which Representative David Swinford asks the burning question: Did the 79th legislature intend to hang (or lethally inject, or shoot,…
