Trouble at Saluté: Azeneth locked out
(this is a developing story) Azeneth Domínguez, whose lease at Saluté International Bar expires July 31 after a 25-year run, was locked out of the legendary venue on July 30. According to new owner Casey Lange (who also owns Limelight), Domínguez and a crew of helpers who were cleaning up the place took the venue’s…
Batman shooting: Guns don’t solve problems, people do
By Michael Minch Can anything be said in the wake of the most recent murderous eruption, this time in Aurora, Colorado? On one hand, many people jump forward quickly with new laments, calls for greater gun control, appeals against such control, and frankly, everything we’ve heard so many times before. Others, on the other hand,…
Spuriosity: London Calling
Day one of Olympic hoops action kicked off this weekend across the pond with six Spurs taking the hardwood in London. The trio of Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, and recently signed Nando de Colo started off strongly for France, trailing only by 1 after the first quarter, before team USA utilized their superior depth to…
Pick of the Day: Anime at the Alamo: Goemon
Anime at the Alamo steps out of the box and into hot water with a free screening of Kazuaki Kiriya’s live action historical fantasy Goemon. Starring Y?suke Eguchi as Ishikawa Goemon, the 2009 film is a fictional account of a very real 16th-century Japanese outlaw, folk hero, and pop culture icon who mirrored Robin Hood…
SA Scorpions on fire after beating Carolina 8-0
After a shaky season start, the Scorpions continued their recovery and remained atop the NASL standings after pulverizing the Carolina Railhawks Saturday at Hero Stadium by a score of 8-0, the most lopsided win in NASL history. In front of 7,186 fans, forward Pablo Campos scored four goals (his personal best in the season) and…
Saluté unplugged: The goodbye
OK, the July 21 Sexto Sol at Saluté was the official last night of live music at the venue, but no one said anyone couldn’t eventually show up and give Azeneth Domínguez a last farewell. It happened at 1 a.m. Sunday, July 29, when Mariachi Sol de Tejas took the stage at Saluté for the…
Pick of the Day: Hairspray
As far as career validation goes, the 2002 Broadway musical adaptation of John Waters’ 1988 film Hairspray is major. Not only did it win eight Tonys, spark national tours and foreign productions, and inspire a $75 million Hollywood film starring John Travolta as a big fat woman, the blockbuster washed away a multitude of sins…
Kathryn McCormick ‘dancing with a purpose’ in ‘Step Up Revolution’
Kathryn McCormick cuts a rug with Ryan Guzman in “Step Up Revolution.” In Step Up Revolution, the fourth installment of the dance flick franchise that started in 2006, professional dancer and actress Kathryn McCormick stars as Emily, a young dancer who moves to Miami with aspirations to turn pro. While there, she hooks up with…
Pick of the Day: Rock Your Socks Off! Festival
The RYSO concept is simple, yet unusual: you donate a pair of new or used shoes at the door and get half off the ticket price. In turn, the shoes will be donated to people in need (of shoes) locally and worldwide. The third edition features Trip The Light (8pm), Sugar Skull (9pm), Heather Go…
Film review: ‘Where Do We Go Now?’: a Middle Eastern ‘Lysistrata’
Two and a half millennia ago, Aristophanes mocked the macho urge for violence by having women declare a moratorium on sex as long as their men continue to long for war. Writer-director Nadine Labaki has created a Levantine Lysistrata by transposing the ancient Greek battle of the sexes to an isolated village in contemporary Lebanon.…
Lupe Ontiveros (1942-2012): An appreciation
Lupe Ontiveros belongs to that honored, yet often underappreciated, vanishing breed of character actors that have populated Hollywood films since the silent era. Moviegoers have seen Ontiveros more times than they might imagine. The Mexican American actress played in so many films and TV programs that even she lost count. For many Mexican Americans, she…
Unite Here agitates for Tip Integrity Act at SA’s Grand Hyatt and River Walk hotels
At 5 p.m. outside the Grand Hyatt downtown, a tight group of Unite Here protesters discussed, shouted, and acted out their concerns over an issue they deem unjust: tip distribution in hotel chains along the River Walk, and the Grand Hyatt in particular. The Hyatt has been the subject of a long-running campaign to…
Lupe Ontiveros, who played Selena’s murderer in ‘Selena,’ dead at 69
Lupe Ontiveros, one of the most recognizable and acclaimed Latino TV and film actresses of our time, reportedly died in Los Angeles Thursday night after battling liver cancer. On early Friday, actor Jacob Vargas (who played A.B. Quintanilla in Selena and had been at her bedside on Thursday night) had tweeted, “My friend Lupe Ontiveros…
Prose Poem by Jan Notzon
Interestingly, Jan of the below just titles the piece Prose Poem. I say interestingly because I wouldn’t consider it a prose poem, really. In many ways it follows the standards of “fiction” insofar as it has character, setting and “plot.” Of course this brings up some interesting questions about the difference between the two forms…
Pick of the Day: Friday Night Films in the Park: Serenity
Taking the Star Trek lead-in “Space, the final frontier” somewhat literally, 2005’s Serenity fuses sci-fi and Western genres with action-packed results. Written and directed by Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fame), Serenity serves as a continuation of his short-lived Fox series Firefly — a show reportedly pitched as “Stagecoach in space.”…
Pick of the Day: “Mixology”
Since its inception in 2005, the Los Angeles-based independent arts organization RAW has spread like wildfire and currently produces multi-faceted “circuses of creativity” in 65 cities. In addition to signature showcases, RAW promotes a “plethora” of artists within the first decade of their careers on its website and caps off each season in October with…
Encouraging the next generation of nonprofit leaders
Few people know nonprofit organizations like this week’s guest blogger, Francesca Rattray. Francesca has spent most of her adult life in the nonprofit world as a fundraiser, trainer, and consultant. She studied Asian Studies at Georgetown University and has an MBA from Boston University’s School of Management. She can be reached at fdr67@aol.com. — Laura…
Pick of the Day: “Obstruction-Deconstruction: Works from the Women of UTSA”
Art in the Chamber spotlights female artists with the exhibition “Obstruction-Deconstruction: Works from the Women of UTSA,” curated by Rebecca Gomez and Trina Faundeen. Touching on themes of identity and acceptance, Tsun-Chuan Liang references her Taiwanese upbringing in figurative paintings that present traditional floral patterns as second skins. Whether working in two or three dimensions,…
Lead author of UT fracking study takes industry money
We here at the Current let out our own little sigh of frustration when UT professor Charles “Chip” Groat and his team presented some preliminary findings of their supposedly-independent report on fracking last November. Headline writers across the state (hell, country) had a field day citing Groat et al’s work saying fracking, the process of…
Pick of the Day: Cinema Tuesdays: North By Northwest
Texas Public Radio’s Cinema Tuesdays series continues with North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant as an ad man mistaken for government operative George Kaplan. Described as “Alfred Hitchcock’s most stylish thriller, if not his best,” by journalist Nick Clooney and penned as “the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures” by screenwriter Ernest Lehman, North…
SA comic Blair Thompson headed to the World Series of Comedy
There’s a duality in comedian Blair Thompson I’m not sure most people appreciate. On one side he’s a black man disposed to wearing giant baggy clothes featuring a splash of color and bling that would make Jackson Pollock comment as being ‘a tad too liberal.’ On the other is his act. First impressions mean so…
