Shang-hai noon and night
American-Chinese cuisine is a combination plate of quality and quantity
VINYL REVIEWS
DJ Spettro and sifter Greenbowl Packers EP (12-inch, Aquarius Recordings) From the depths of South Texas, a pairing of up-and-coming producer/DJs, Sifter and DJ Spettro, release an EP featuring two cuts and a remix. The duo’s production of “Varig” features the bass stylings of Dwavehed and hot Latin percussion by T-Bow Gonzalez, both local musicians.…
CD REVIEWS
18 Moby (CD, V2) When Moby’s Play was released in 1999, it was very much the work of a techno bluesman. After following his heart straight into the cutout bins with punk-rock covers and gorgeously out-of-place ambient tracks on 1996’s Animal Rights, Moby found himself without a deal or DJ gigs. So he put his…
OF LIES AND OIL
Long-time political activist Rahul Mahajan has had a busy year. He completed his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote over 20 articles on the war on terrorism, authored a widely acclaimed book, The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism, and entered the Texas gubernatorial race as the Green Party candidate.…
GETTING WAGGED
In the movie Wag the Dog, a presidential adviser (Robert De Niro) and a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffmann) successfully divert the media’s attention away from a presidential sex scandal by creating a make-believe war. William Randolph Hearst discovered at the beginning of the last century that sensational war stories boosted his newspaper’s sales; it has…
SLEEPING LAWYERS
To an outsider, the folks of Texas can seem quite scary sometimes. Apparently, we want to put a fellow to death, even though his lawyer fell asleep on numerous occasions during his murder trial in 1984. The inmate appealed on the grounds that he didn’t receive his constitutional right of effective legal assistance. Sounds like…
PLAY IT AGAIN
Perhaps the most beautiful piece on Gib Wharton’s 1994 album, Things I’ve Always Known, is the final cut, “Waltz of Life.” The song is actually a musical pun; the chord progression is based on Wharton’s philosophical observation that life seems to consist of “one step forward, two steps back.” When Gib wrote that composition a…
INDIANS DEFEAT THE JAPANESE
Intelligence has become a theme, though not an attribute, of current popular culture. The colossal failure of the FBI, CIA, and other investigative agencies to avert attack concentrates the mind on the importance of gathering and applying covert information. Spooks lurk on prime-time TV, and a recent feature film, Enigma, makes romantic drama out of…
SPECIAL SCREENS
I’m no expert on sexual perversion, but I know that the phrase “golden shower” refers to something I don’t want to experience. So I was always a little leery of Adam Rocha’s annual event called the Golden Shower Film & Video Festival — no matter how nice the graphic design was on the posters, no…
NEW REVIEWS
Bad Company “They don’t mean ‘bad’ in a good way” Dir. Joel Schumacher; writ. Jason Richman and Michael Browning; feat. Anthony Hopkins, Chris Rock, Gabriel Macht, Garcelle Beauvais, Adoni Maropis (PG-13) Remember when Michael Jackson called himself Bad? When he thought he was “bad” as in “tough,” but really he was announcing his shift from…
STILL PLAYING
About a Boy “Charming oasis in the blockbuster desert” Dir. Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz; writ. Nick Hornby (novel), Peter Hedges, Weitz & Weitz; feat. Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz (PG-13) Changing Lanes “Lawyers as swindlers — a novel idea” Dir. Roger Michell; writ. Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin; feat. Ben Affleck, Samuel…
JACKIE OF ALL TRADES
“They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.” — Charlie Parker, as quoted by jazz critic Nat Hentoff in liner notes from Jackie King’s The Gypsy (Indigo Moon) Spend any time at all with virtuoso jazz guitarist Jackie King, and you’ll come to two conclusions: first,…
ALFARO AS THE EYE CAN SEE
In the late ’80s, San Antonio’s best store for underground dance vinyl was Eclipse Records. The store manager, Randy Haecker (who hosted a radio show on KSYM 90.1), was primarily spinning indie tracks, and some of the earliest dance and house tracks to hit the airwaves. Young fan and aspiring underground aficionado Joe Alfaro tuned…
