The waiting game
If you’re sick and uninsured in Texas, better get used to standing in line Ruth Espinoza works part-time in San Antonio and doesn’t qualify for healthcare benefits. She tried to get Medicaid, but she came into a little money after her husband’s death, so she earns too much to qualify. On Friday, she sat in…
Food & Drink : I come from pickles
Brine runs in this family’s blood This is a story of wicked children and salty hobos, of near-ancient family feuds and erstwhile traditions. This is a story about pickles, and it’s mighty suspenseful. It takes only an hour or so to can a batch of pickles, but unlike the relatively instant gratification of pie or…
Private/public housing?
HUD’s new policy forces public housing to mirror private business The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says it’s high time for public housing to go capitalist. The government is mandating that local housing authorities manage their properties as it’s done in the private sector: Make money, or else … Henry Alvarez HUD is…
Food & Drink : Flip for joy
Or at least modest happiness at Chris Erck’s new burger franchise At 4 a.m., the Cheddar Fries had their revenge. Although I did not accidentally eat any of the foil from which we scraped the last, crunchy remains (one dining companion warned ingested foil can tear tiny holes in your small intestine — something new…
The recycling stereotype
A new study of citywide recycling says that a greater number of Northside households recycle and those homes, on average, recycle more material than residents in other parts of the city. But that might not mean San Antonio’s wealthier zip codes are recycling role models, environmental-services professionals say. About 330,000 homes in San Antonio use…
Music : ‘Machine’ tested
Fiona Apple learns to find whimsy in her fears and humor in her heartbreaks No matter what Fiona Apple is talking about, abject terror always lurks around the corner. It comes up when Apple talks about crying and throwing up after playing her first-ever show — a 1996 Sony Records bash in Paris to christen…
Reschedule for the environment
How to make your day planner eco-friendly almost effortlessly. As you read this, you can be sure that somebody in the Alamo City is bitching about a time restriction: downtown parking meters, juvenile curfew laws, expired coupons for free Victoria’s Secret cotton panties. But a time restriction isn’t always the cattle prod mindlessly moving you…
Music : Current choice
Shooter Jennings Who would Jesus drive around? Waylon Jennings once wrote that he was “too dumb for New York City, and too ugly for L.A.” Jennings’s son, Shooter (his only child with wife Jessi Colter), could easily adopt that slogan for himself. As with his father, Shooter probably recognizes that he can raise a lot…
Counterpoint
‘Oversight’ is not a bad word That government is best which governs polluters The Express-News reported this week that the EPA is forcing local businesses to pick up the tab for a Superfund cleanup at a former Southside oil recycler. Although the businesses, including large retailers like Wal-Mart, federal and local governmental entities, and small…
Music : CD Spotlight
Sweetly sour The more Julieta Venegas sells out, the better she gets. After earning oodles of alterna-cred for for a pair of moody albums loaded with her offbeat, Tom Waits-ian accordion runs, she settled into a pure-pop groove for 2003’s Sí and became the huge star she’d deserved to be for nearly a decade. The…
Feature Life on the brink
In Texas, 6,000 Katrina victims are about to be turned out of their FEMA-subsidized homes Just below ground near the intersection of East Travis and Navarro, toward the end of a narrow hallway framed by textured, lime-sherbet walls, a man sits quietly in an electric wheelchair. He doesn’t move much. Dark, oval-lensed sunglasses clasp the…
Arts : The New Mod Squad
ModsnapTV is gone for now, but Jacob Flores’s merry fashionistas continue their campaign For some fashion fans, “Mod” is a young man riding his Vespa to a coffee bar or tea room in Liverpool in 1963, dressed in a bottle-green mohair suit with black trousers. At the club he kicks back and listens to Chuck…
Arts : Don’t hide your light under a bushel
Linda Pace and George Yepes shine in Blue Star 21 “So, you write bad things about good people,” Blue Star 21 curator William Campbell quipped when I was introduced to him at the show’s opening as the editor of the city’s alt-weekly paper. Having just met Campbell, the eponymous proprietor of a Fort Worth contemporary-art…
Arts : CAM for writers
Gemini Ink’s Summer Literary Festival puts pen to paper this week Looking for a way to let your inner writer flourish this July? Uncap your pens, open your journals, and get ready for Gemini Ink’s 9th Annual Summer Literary Festival, July 7-23. Classes, readings, seminars, performances, and workshops will be available to readers and writers…
Music : Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene Fire starters Percussive Latin-rock band Sexto Sol are finalizing the mixes for their highly anticipated third album, Let There Be Fire. Sexto Sol bassist Greg Goodman says the disc has been two years in the making, with the band compiling a group of studio tracks and deciding early this year…
Arts : Framed
Small panels, meet big screens I am delighted (and a little surprised, after feeling unmoved by the ads and trailers) to report that Superman Returns is a heck of a movie: A few casting quibbles and plotting questions aside, it hits exactly the notes I wanted, doing just what a movie has to do to…
Music : Cinderoison
In one writer’s imagination, two notorious hair bands square off and do … whatever he wants them to Well howdy, folks, and welcome to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. I’ll be your host today as we bring to you a match-up like you’ve never seen before … er, unless, of course, you saw them together in…
Arts : Home on the Range
A former New Yorker’s guide to the Texas adjustment What a drag it is getting old. – “Mother’s Little Helper,” The Rolling Stones Since moving to Texas, I’ve expanded my vocabulary to include a lot of new words: Roadie cup. Bucket of tea. H-E-B. Shiner. 85mph speed limit. But the term that’s had the most…
Media : Special screenings
SAMSON AND THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD Riccardo Freda (1961) This Italian film follows Samson, a man who wanders the world helping those in need, in his quest to rescue a beautiful Chinese princess. Slab Cinema’s outdoor screening at La Tuna Bar and Grill. Thursday, July 6. Pre-show at dusk, feature at 9 p.m.…
Media : That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres So, here’s the part where I thoroughly and irrevocably alienate my audience, and they abruptly stop trusting me (stop?) even to accurately report what’s opening each week, because I’m clearly froth-mawed, bat-turd bonkers. Ready? I am in no semblance, manner, or form excited about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead…
Food & Drink : The bar tab
To a Smashing July Whole Foods Market is hosting a Cool Summer Mint Festival in-store July 8 `see All You Can Eat, this page, for details` that seems perfectly timed for this week’s cocktail manifesto: On the Superior Flavor and Snap of the Whiskey Smash. The Whiskey Smash, as we are going to discuss it…
Arts : Clothes-minded – fashion deconstruction
Ultimate beach bag I hope that, like me, you’re celebrating summer with a quick getaway to our backyard coastlines, either taking advantage of cheap all-inclusives to Mexico or the kindness of friends-of-friends’ condos on the Texas Gulf. What to pack for three or four days living out your Corona-beer-commercial fantasy? Look no further: Headed to…
Food & Drink : All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Chef Andrew Weissman’s Le Rêve restaurant, 152 E. Pecan, was the subject last week of a rave review by the New York Times’ R.W. Apple. The timing was great, boosting summer business (which can be slow while San Antonians head out of town for vacation) before…
Media : Will ‘Blow’ for Depp
If you’re a true fan of the Johnny, you’ll sail into deeper waters with him So let me guess: You dug Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean and its much-publicized follow-ups, Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride, and suddenly you’re all gung-ho about calling yourself a real fan. Of course,…
Media : Incomplete structure
Sketches of Frank Gehry holds true to its name “That is so stupid-looking it’s great.” In that single sentence, uttered as he and an assistant are contemplating a crude model they’ve been tinkering with, celebrity architect Frank Gehry captures something of the spirit of his work that this film about him sometimes tries too hard…
Media : Game Theory
Binary ethics Taking advantage of your cell phone’s long-distance rates, you surprise your grandmother in Nova Scotia by calling on the morning of her 83rd birthday. You crank up the soundtrack to Dave Chappelle’s Block Party. You order three months worth of Lipitor from a legitimate Canadian pharmacy. With the help of Classmates.com and a…
