5 Things You Have to Do This Week
1. Swing Nite with The Rollfast Ramblers The serendipitous meeting of pedicab drivers Wes Davis (guitars, vocals) and Ben “Sparky” Sparks (bass, vocals) led to the formation of The Rollfast Ramblers, a western swing/classic country group based in Austin. Rounded out by Adam Nurre (drums, hollerin’) Sean Bolivar (lap steel guitar, tenor ukulele, vocals), and…
Senate Committee Prepares For Long Night of Anti-Abortion Bill Testimony
At around 11 a.m. this morning, panels of testifiers spoke before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee to share their thoughts on the highly controversial omnibus abortion-restrictive, Senate Bill 1, during the second called Legislative special session. The hearing, and outpouring of interested speakers– coming to the Capitol by the hundreds and even thousands–is one…
In San Antonio, Perry Announces He Won’t Seek Reelection
Gov. Rick Perry’s long reign as Texas governor comes to end. At the Holt Catepillar plant in San Antonio, Perry announced today he would not seek reelection in 2014. At the same time, he didn’t rule out the possibility of stepping into the presidential ring for a second run. “I will spend the next 18…
Karbach hits SA
Seriously, real soon. (Courtesy) Beer buds, clear your schedule. As announced on the Luxury’s Facebook, the Houston-based Karbach Brewing Co. will be taking over several taps around town as part of its San Antonio launch starting on Tuesday, July 9. Stops include The Flying Saucer (11255 Huebner Rd #212); Big Hops Growler Station (8313 Broadway);…
Mid-Year Music Roundup: The Top 5 Albums of 2013 Pt. 6
Happy July, San Antonio! This week, seven of our music writers are taking turns listing what they believe to be the top 5 albums of 2013 so far. Yesterday, we had J.D. Swerzenski’s thoughts, now we present Current music editor Enrique Lopetegui ’s picks. Let us know in the comments what your favorite new music…
Mid-Year Music Roundup: The Top 5 Albums of 2013 Pt. 5
Happy July, San Antonio! This week, seven of our music writers will be taking turns listing what they believe to be the top 5 albums of 2013 so far. Yesterday, we had Matthew Stieb’s thoughts, now we present J.D. Swerzenski’s picks. Let us know in the comments what your favorite new music of 2013 is…
SA Scorpions win not enough: Atlanta wins NASL Spring season
Scorpions forward Hans Denissen scored twice and is tied as the league’s top scorer with eight. (sascorpions.com) “We may not be champions, but you’re not going to be crowned in our home either.” That seemed to be the San Antonio Scorpions’ message in a spirited 2-0 win against the Carolina RailHawks. The Scorpions needed just…
New Music Review: Jay-Z’s ‘Magna Carta… Holy Grail’
Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail (Roc-A—Fella/Roc Nation/Universal) After dropping in-jokes for the art crowd on “Picasso,” Jay calls out some unlikely assailants (his audience), letting us know of our weight on his shoulders, shouting “Don’t forget, America, this is how you made me.” True, we’ve made his name a synonym for excellence, but for an…
Grubbing Out for Fourth of July
Heads up, folks. Your favorite joint may or may not be open today: OPEN CLOSED Check back for updates as they roll in. Happy Fourth!
10 Things You Have To Do This Weekend
1. Rey Lopez Entertainment presents The Heathers Recent Current covergirl Tencha La Jefa hosts an evening showcasing Raja Gemini, Manila Luzon, Carmen Carrera, and Delta Work — a quartet of queens dubbed The Heathers on Season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The fierce drag clique shares the stage with RLE showgirls Toni R. Andrews, Nilaya…
5 Under the Radar Firework Spots
Our beloved Alamo City offers a multitude of grand professional firework displays including the renowned Woodlawn Lake Park and HemisFair spectacles, but maybe you’re itching to spice up your star spangled revelries this year? If so, skip the suffocating crowds (maybe) and snuggle up with your loved ones under San Antonio’s explosive sky this Thursday…
Four Great Places for Chinese in SA
Just a taste of what you’ll find at Sichuan Cuisine. (Sarah Maspero) Get your chopsticks out, kids. Ron Bechtol’s glowing review of Tang Street gives us another Chinese dining option in an otherwise eggroll-lacking city. Here are some options if you’ve got a hankering for great Chinese: Sichuan Cuisine (2347 NW Military Highway): This one’s…
Mid-Year Music Roundup: The Top 5 Albums of 2013 Pt. 4
Happy July, San Antonio! This week, seven of our music writers will be taking turns listing what they believe to be the top 5 albums of 2013 so far. Yesterday, we had Alejandra Ramirez’ thoughts, now we present Alejandra Ramirez’s picks. Let us know in the comments what your favorite new music of 2013 is and check…
Mid-Year Music Roundup: The Top 5 Albums of 2013 Pt. 3
Happy July, San Antonio! This week, seven of our music writers will be taking turns listing what they believe to be the top 5 albums of 2013 so far. Yesterday, we had Kasia Pilat’s thoughts, now we present Alejandra Ramirez’s picks. Let us know in the comments what your favorite new music of 2013 is…
Coach Hankinson on the SA Scorpions’ biggest game of the year
Two days after the SA Scorpions’ key victory Saturday at Ft. Lauderdale, Coach Tim Hankinson spoke with the Current about the situation of forward Esteban Bayona, the Scorpions’ amazing recovery after a poor season start, and the crucial 4th of July game against leader Carolina RailHawks at Toyota Field. If the Scorpions win by a…
Anti-Abortion Bill Passes House Committee Amid Limited Testimony
At around midnight Tuesday, the Texas House State Affairs Committee passed an abortion-restrictive bill in an 8-3 vote during a second special legislative session. Among other effects, the bill would automatically close nearly all abortion centers in the state, severely limiting access to the majority of women and outlawing the procedure after 20 weeks. The…
Queensrÿche feat. Todd La Torre: 'Queensrÿche'
If you liked the ridiculous infighting that resulted in two touring versions of Black Flag, you’ll love the new Queensrÿche! Ex-singer Geoff Tate’s dithering cost him everything but the umlaut, and that’s too bad, because the rest of the band (which replaced Tate with Crimson Glory frontman Todd La Torre) sounds rejuvenated and downright electrifying…
Oak Hills Tavern: The Med Center dive will lift your spirits, too
The so-called Supermoon illuminates our steps in the otherwise lightless back lot hidden behind Oak Hills Tavern. As luck would have it, my cohort for this Saturday night, Mr. Angotti, used to, according to him, frequent this bar “about six or seven years ago.” If his memory holds, we should be able to safely make…
A Day in the Life: Groomer Seafood
A family business since the late 1800s, San Antonio-based Groomer Seafood is one of the largest seafood distribution companies in Texas. Owners and brothers Rick and Mike Groomer descend from a long line of fishmongers, boasting origins in shrimping on one side of the family and fishing on the other. Eighty-five percent of the business…
'Dirty Wars' shows what Obama won't
Here’s a movie both Obama-hating Republicans and disappointed progressives can enjoy: Richard Rowley’s powerful, deeply disturbing Dirty Wars. The film (which takes place in Washington, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia) describes how the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has been systematically carrying out covert missions abroad meant to find and annihilate any real or “possible”…
Two of SA's Favorite Musical Sons Return With All-New Songs
It’s a funny thing when a gifted and strong personality leaves a relatively small group like San Antonio’s indie music scene. Amid wishes that we could still catch them some random Friday night at Music Town, or Tuesday night at the Mineshaft, we feel a sense of hope that their new experiences will push them…
Artpace International Artist-in-Residence Series 3
The Current is pleased to partner with Artpace to present a weekly series of work by International Artist-in-Resident Pak Sheung Chuen. Read more about the Hong Kong-based artist in this interview with Ben Judson. View previous works here. Check back next week for the next installment!
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Readers: My columna a couple of weeks ago about whether Aztec savagery influences violence in Mexico today drew muchos responses, both bueno and malo. Here are two: Dear Mexican: I enjoy reading all your replies and was thinking about the last reply you wrote about the violence/Aztec blood question posed to you. I grew…
Northeastern Chinese Cuisine at Tang Street Introduces a Whole New World
My German grandmother kept a stoneware crock on her back porch in the fall. Into it she put shredded cabbage from her garden, occasionally some pickling cucumbers, and always salt. The mixture sat beneath a porcelain plate covered with cheesecloth and weighted down with a large, smooth stone. I constantly risked a swat by sneaking…
Value Vino: Carioca Chardonnay — and More
The average Tom, Dick, and Jose would likely think beaches and bronzed bodies when Brazil is mentioned. Or maybe carnaval and caipirinhas. But fine wine? Fat chance. But our own Central Market wine manager Heidi Weidner recently went on a “fact-finding” mission to Sambaland and came back enthusiastic. Though Weidner feels that dark and brooding…
Notorious Abortion Bill Inspired by Draft Legislation From National Anti-Abortion Group
When questioned by colleagues about legislation that, if enacted, would destroy abortion access in Texas, bill authors state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (R-Parker) and state Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy) oftentimes fumbled their responses, evaded definitive answers or simply didn’t have the knowledge or data to back them up, making for some cringe-worthy exchanges under the Capitol…
SA Sounds: A Quick Glance at the Local Scene's Near and Not-so-near Future
DEE DEE ROCKS… BUT STILL NEEDS HELP: Dee Dee Williams, former singer of Lost in Space, promoter, original owner of Texas Trash, and iconic figure of the local scene since the ’80s, was paralyzed from the waist down after an accident years ago and now lives in a rehab home. The “Dee Dee Rocks Reloaded”…
Questions for Katie Pell
Click Here to View Katie Pell’s Work Katie Pell is a multi-talented artist, professor, and bundle of energy who lives and works in Southtown. I was first drawn to her because she looks like a California surfer girl. Her latest project was a six-year collaboration with her husband, master woodworker Peter Zubiate, in which Peter…
Despicable Me 2: A Worthy Follow-up to Superbly Silly Original
What does a super-villain who decides to retire from wreaking evil do with his time? It’s a quandary that few people (outside of Dick Cheney) ever have to face, but it forms the core of the comic crisis Gru confronts in Universal Pictures’ superbly silly CGI sequel, Despicable Me 2. Picking up an unspecified number…
Mrs. Howl: 'Dance Inertia'
Mrs. Howl came and went like a comet. In just two years in SA, they became one of the strongest and more active local acts, thanks to riotous live shows and an explosive 2012 debut, Lovie and a Yellow Lamp. This follow-up EP is a concentrated experiment that squeezes five solid songs into 15 minutes…
Industry News: Grilled Cheese on Wheels, a Breastaurant, TBA Opens
The Grilled Cheese Truck is exactly what it sounds like – a truck serving grilled cheese sandwiches. The cheesy variations include a brie with bourbon marmalade, buffalo chicken with blue cheese, and goat cheese with basil and spinach. You can sample their sandwiches at the Fourth of July celebration at Woodlawn Lake Park. The truck…
Steve Earle: 'The Warner Bros Years'
After not writing or recording anything for four years, Steve Earle came back with a vengeance. A month after getting out of rehab, he recorded the acoustic (“Not unplugged… God, I hate MTV,” he said) Train a Comin’ (1995), thus beginning a new, clean, and prolific chapter in his career. This superb box set includes…
‘The Lone Ranger’ Rides Again
The cinema snobs scoffed, the industry folks couldn’t raise their eyebrows any higher, and the politically correct sharpened their spears. As for me, I couldn’t be more excited about The Lone Ranger, out this Wednesday. What can I say, I love a good, old-fashioned Western, and this one delivers. Some may view the semi-reunion of…
DOMA, Prop 8 Rulings Bittersweet for Local LGBT Community
Last week, in a landmark 5-4 decision the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a significant part of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal law barring same sex-marriage. Section 3, the key provision now ruled “unconstitutional,” had prevented the U.S. government from allowing gay and lesbian married couples to receive federal benefits. The…
Kemosabe wasn't such a bad guy after all
The cheesiness, the Native American put downs, the rewriting of history in regards to what really happened to the Native Americans here… Forget about all that — a closer look at The Lone Ranger TV series that aired from 1949-1957 (based on a 1933-1954 radio show) presents two equally smart characters battling not only injustice,…
Lone Ranger’s Armie Hammer Talks Tonto and Texas with the Current
Standing on a rickety platform at the edge of a mountain in Utah’s Dead Horse Point State Park, actor and San Antonio business owner Armie Hammer (The Social Network) could see straight down into the canyon 2,000 feet below. The shot for the action/adventure film The Lone Ranger, in which Hammer plays the title role,…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In his book The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden, Robert Johnson says many of us are as much in debt with our psychic energy as we are with our financial life. We work too hard. We rarely refresh ourselves with silence and slowness and peace. We don’t get enough sleep…
Cityscrapes: Development Dreams
In the 1980s, there was the dream that the new Fiesta Plaza mall would open up the near west side of downtown to a development boom. There was also the promise that the revitalization of St. Paul Square would transform the near East Side around the old Sunset Station. In the 1990s, there was the…
Mid-Year Music Roundup: The Top 5 Albums of 2013 Pt. 2
Happy July, San Antonio! This week, seven of our music writers will be taking turns listing what they believe to be the top 5 albums of 2013 so far. We began with M.R. Brown, now we present new Current contributor Kasia Pilat’s picks. Let us know in the comments what your favorite new music of…
10 Reasons to be Excited for ‘The Lone Ranger’
As you’ll see in tomorrow’s edition, the Current (primarily under the directive of their Western-obsessed Editor in Chief, aka ‘me’) has a bad case of Ranger fever. As in The Lone Ranger, Disney’s reboot of the genre-defining radio and television series that branded the William Tell Overture, “Hi-Yo Silver!,” and the good-guy-in-the-white-cowboy-hat archetype into our…
‘The Exorcist’: still scary after 40 years
For most of cinema’s history, the horror genre existed at the fringes of more popular fare. Universal Studios had much financial success with early monster films such as Dracula and Frankenstein, but great actors like Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff never received the accolades for their work in these films that they would have had…
This Bytes: Strawberry Berry Shortcake Stars Recipe
Fourth of July is this week — you’re welcome for the reminder. As we all know, this holiday brings out the American flag tanks and cut off shorts. Hundreds of people will flock to beaches and pools, rivers and lakes — well pretty much anywhere with a body of water. As in true American fashion…
UPDATED: Where to find the best weinies in the Alamo City
What, we ask, is more stars and stripes than a good old-fashioned hot dog? In order to satisfy your every Americana need, we have compiled a list of the top 3 must-have wienies for the summer. Forget all the fancy shmanciness of forks and knives and head out to Frankfurter Express, Jerry’s and RockerDogz to…
6 San Antonio Scoops for National Ice Cream Month
In honor of National Ice Cream Month and for all those sweet lovers looking to indulge, here are some of our top picks for ice cream in the Alamo City. Whether you’re searching for a funky flavor, a cheap find, or a vegetarian option, San Anto’s got you covered. The board changes weekly; follow the…
Beware the Vegan Sellout List
Have you ever tried being vegan and then come to your senses after catching a whiff of a bacon and egg taco? You might be on the Vegan Sellout List. Under the copyright of Vegan Power, this 100 percent user-generated site calls out former vegans by state. A screenshot shows the interactive map where you…
“Can You Hear Us Now?” More Than 5,000 Pro-Choice Activists Protest at Capitol
At the start of the second called Legislative special session, pro-choice advocates– with the help of their legislators and a couple of celebrity names– came out to the Capitol grounds by the thousands to send a message to GOP anti-abortion lawmakers– don’t tell a woman what she can do with her body. More than 5,000 Texas citizens…
A Q & A with ‘Dirty Wars’ journalist Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy Scahill (investigative reporter for The Nation and the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army and Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield) views former Vice-President Dick Cheney as a “cartoonish villain.” “But I don’t see President Obama that way at all,” he told Huffington Post. “I think he’s…
