Right Now Experimental Music Fest Spotlights All Manner of Weird Sounds
The term experimental music, once indicative of an actual, scientific-like pursuit of new frontiers in sonics, has become a catch-all term used to indicate any unconventional, relatively weird stuff that plays with fundamental notions of beauty/achievement in music. If experimental music, which actually, to be fair, splinters into a multitude of sub-categories, has a problem…
Why Is James Crying? Find out at Rapper Froggy Fresh’s Show at Paper Tiger
Originally going by Krispy Kreme, before the donut company of the same name forced him to change his monkier, Froggy Fresh is a comedy-rapper who became famous through YouTube (yep, one of those). Most likely popping up in the “suggested videos” column on YouTube while smoking weed with your friends, the rapper’s video for “The…
San Antonio Film Festival Kicks Off Tuesday with a Spotlight on College Filmmakers
Day one of the 23rd annual San Antonio Film Festival features 15 short films made by college students from around the world, including one from the Alamo City. The shorts will be screened in two separate blocks, so choose wisely or buy tickets to both. At 6 p.m., the shorts screening include Driver’s Ed (dir.…
TPR’s Cinema Tuesdays Series Revives Mel Brooks’ 1974 Comic Masterpiece ‘Young Frankenstein’
Nutshelled in a four-star review by the late great Roger Ebert as “not only a Mel Brooks movie but also a loving commentary on our love-hate affairs with monsters,” 1974’s Young Frankenstein earned both critical acclaim and cult classic status while achieving something even rarer: a comedic remix drawn from both Mary Shelley’s early 19th-century…
Emo Bro’s This Wild Life Head to Paper Tiger
Cue Hot Topic emo tears in 3, 2, 1… OK, all scene-kid, mascara sobs aside, Long Beach, California’s This Wild Life actually isn’t as cheesy as you might think at first listen. Sure, the duo definitely fall into that acoustic, second-wave-emo sound made popular by acts like Dashboard Confessional and Bright Eyes, but they manage…
Will Downing to Play the Majestic
Blessed with a versatile and endlessly palatable baritone, neo-soul/R&B crooner Will Downing is the real deal. Over his nearly 30-year career, he’s amassed an impressive catalog of songs, ranging from radio-ready to even more radio-ready, from pure silk to a silky cashmere medley. Sure, this is baby making music, but it’s also forget-your-troubles music, fall-back-in-love-with-someone…
San Antonio Reggae Fest Returns
A year ago, the inaugural San Antonio Reggae Festival (not to be confused with BobFest fka Marley Fest) went down at Rosedale Park, in the heart of a vibrant and proud community, to little fanfare. The event, however, was a success in many ways, and it’s back again for its sophomore year of celebrating reggae…
Jerusalem to Brooklyn to SA: Rotem Sivan Trio to Play Carmens De La Calle
As scores of shows are billed every week here in Alamo City, the few that land in our “top picks” are the sort of the shit that we think y’all would like to see or should know about (duh). Out of the nine or so in this particular bunch however, we’re super duper excited about…
Lawyers Say Death Row Inmate’s String of Awful Attorneys Should Halt Thursday Execution
On the eve of TaiChen Preyor’s scheduled execution date, his lawyers are scrambling to make requests for more time to change his death sentence to one of life-long imprisonment or, at least, to fully investigate his case. His lawyers claim that Preyor’s previous counsel was under-qualified and held back crucial information about his past, which…
Albuquerque’s Red Light Cameras to Play Paper Tiger
Albuquerque band the Red Light Cameras has a few different sounds that it seems to move in and out of with seamless ease. From silky and often danceable indie pop to soulful garage rock, Red Light Cameras just might be better off not knowing exactly where to place itself. You can dig the band’s music,…
Texas Filmmaker David Lowery’s ‘A Ghost Story’ Disrupts a Predictable Genre
“We do what we can to endure,” says a pontificating hipster (played by the musician and sometimes indie-film actor Will Oldham) in a monologue delivered during a party that takes place in the house where a ghost (Casey Affleck) continues to reside long after his physical body has died. It’s a lengthy speech in a…
The Pearl Launches New Music Programming “Canciones”
It seems that, what with tricentennial fever in the air and all, folks have been possessed by a renewed zest for knowing, understanding, and celebrating the artists, and doers of all types, who laid the spiritual groundwork (if you will) for our city’s singular soul. This type of joyous bringing-to-light-of-history is, no doubt, what the…
8-bit Family Super Best Friends Jamboree Kicks off at 502 Bar
So, if you haven’t yet noticed, the fandom surrounding video games and gaming culture continues to grow through the years with events like PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) uniting gamers across the U.S. and Australia to celebrate their love for all things arcade. Emerging from game adoration are a number of bands that whose either lyrics…
9 ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Stars Join Fierce Forces for Rey Lopez’s Birthday Bash
Since its 2012 premiere at the Bonham Exchange, the Rey Lopez Birthday Bash has never failed to bring the top performers from RuPaul’s Drag Race to the Alamo City. This year’s extravaganza pairs established fan favorites like season three alum Raja with newcomers such as Naomi Smalls and Valentina (pictured). Raven and Jujubee (aka Team…
‘Greater Tuna’ Creator Jaston Williams Weathers Storms and Wild Relatives in ‘Clear to Partly Crazy’
If there’s anything we Texans can do, it’s weather a rough storm – be it a real-life door-banger or turmoil that skews a bit more internally. In that vein, Jaston Williams asks us to hunker down with him in a storm cellar and bear the bluster of crazed relatives as well as literal tornadoes, all…
Free Will Astrology (7/26/17-7/31/17)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you feeling as daring about romance as I suspect? If so, I’ve composed a provocative note for you to give to anyone you have good reason to believe will be glad to receive it. Feel free to copy it word-for-word or edit it to suit your needs. Here it is:…
Savage Love: Creepers
I’m a reader in Kansas with two teenage daughters, 16 and 18. My girls recently met a boy where they work and both took an interest in him. The 18-year-old was devastated that he was more interested in her younger sister. I spoke to the 16-year-old about it, which is when I found out this…
‘Daily Show’ Correspondent Michelle Wolf Brings Her Sharp Political Comedy to Laugh Out Loud
You may have first seen her portraying “Grown-Up Annie” on Late Night with Seth Meyers, or interviewing an itchy-buttholed candidate for an internet startup on the web series Now Hiring, but seriously folks, stand-up comic and Daily Show correspondent Michelle Wolf began her post-collegiate career working at financial institutions Bear Stearns and JPMorgan Chase. “For…
La Madeleine to Open Live Oak Location Next Month
La Madeleine French Bakery & Café is heading to Live Oak with its fifth San Antonio-area location, slated to open Thursday, Aug. 10. To kick things off, the French restaurant will host an all-day celebration, beginning at 6:30 a.m. with complementary coffee and baguettes. The first 50 guests in line will also receive bread for…
Photograph of New Incarnate Word President Gets Out of Hand
The Incarnate Word’s magazine “The Word” posted a picture of its new president with what appears to be three hands. A picture of the magazine cover was posted onto Reddit with the caption “the university’s president is really hands on.” Reddit users have upvoted the picture of the president Dr. Thomas Evans 36,100 times. The…
SeaWorld’s Last Orca Calf Dies in San Antonio
SeaWorld’s last killer whale bred in captivity died Monday after serious health complications. The 3-month-old whale contracted a disease, which officials say is likely pneumonia, over the weekend. SeaWorld said pneumonia is common in whales both in captivity and in the wild saying it was “one of the most common causes of illness or morbidity…
Air Force Trainer Convicted of Rape May Walk Free Due to Judge Error
A judge’s error has overturned the 20-year sentence of a former San Antonio Air Force sergeant found guilty of three rapes. According to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, which approved the appeal on Wednesday, July 19, Michael Silva’s 2015 trial was flawed because the military judge told jurors they could use the testimony of…
Web Celebs Turn Motherhood into ‘Momedy’ with Their Touring Show ‘#imomsohard’
Motherhood is no joke, but to Kristen Hensley and Jen Smedley, the women behind the hilariously honest web series #imomsohard, it kind of is. With two husbands, four kids and three dogs between them, Hensley and Smedley bring comic relief to motherhood, body odor, the stresses of marriage and lots more in the form of…
‘The Giving Distance’ Sees Artist Kristy Perez Drawing from Personal Experience
Although she’s likely best known for her realistic drawings of skulls and bones, local artist Kristy Perez also sculpts, paints, designs and collaborates with her partner Britt Lorraine on sets and concepts for contemporary dance pieces. Possibly even lesser known are Perez’s poems, which stemmed from the attention she gives to the titles of her…
Performer and Activist Dan Guerrero Fuses LGBT and Mexican American History in His Signature Show ‘¡Gaytino!’
In 1962, Dan Guerrero arrived in New York City eager to break into the world of show business. Decades before Latinos were projected to become the largest minority group in the U.S., Guerrero was often the lone Mexican American auditioning for roles on and off Broadway. The son of Chicano music icon Lalo Guerrero, he…
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ is a Relentlessly Suspenseful Tour de Force
Dunkirk is primal. It feels urgent and contemporary even though it is set 77 years ago, outside the memory of the vast majority of people who might see it. And it is a movie about war, an experience that fewer of us today have had. But writer-director Christopher Nolan creates an immediacy to the film by dropping…
