The Say-Town Lowdown
Now in the Beginning, there were no Brand Names. Our Italian designers still priggishly awaited a hell warm enough to be born into; Nike refused to pay even premordially low minimum wages; and Faded Glory’s gelatinous seed had yet to penetrate the rudimentary canal linking the impoverished East with the destitute West. Raw materials lay…
TONIGHT :: Dave on KTSA
Tonight … at 8pm … on KTSA 550 AM … Sean Paul Kelley, whose blog The Agonist beat me fairly, squarely and quite appropriately for the Best Blogger title in our 2007 “Best of” Reader’s Poll , has invited me to discuss the state of mainstream and alternative media on his radio show this evening. You can…
On the Street: I Was Cuba, In the Shadow of the Sage of Baltimore (And A Few Basketball Poets), D-Day (SA Style), and The Lesson of Algiers
On the Street: I Was Cuba, In the Shadow of the Sage of Baltimore (and a few basketball Poets), D-Day (SA Style), and the Lesson of Algiers I Was Cuba I stopped by the newly renovated El Tropicano for an upcoming Bar Tab review. Though many of my friends have already “snuck” down into Cuba…
Judge Dread: Political Post Number Two Requiring Iconic Action Movie Puns
Southwick Leslie Southwick, President Bush’s latest nomination to fill one of two empty seats of the 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals, shares his name with an odd British man who writes books about swords. And, given the Mississippian Southwick’s judicial record, the author of London Silver-Hilt Swords might be preferable. As much as I’d love…
Texas Democrats Going ‘Commando’
It looks like Texas Democrats are following California’s lead. Scott Cobb, longtime Democratic activist (and president of the Texas Moratorium Network), has started a “Vote US out of Iraq” campaign to place an Iraq referendum on the ballot for the 2008 Texas Democratic Presidential Primary. Democrats in California are a bit farther…
Debatocratic
I watched the Democratic debate on Sunday. I tuned in, watched, listened, laughed, learned and even perhaps marveled once or twice. The debate made me wish we could just elect the party, like they do in Britain, and allow all of those leaders to form a single executive government. They’d elect among them a single Prime Minister…
Texas Democrats Going ‘Commando’
Democratic War Ref It looks like Texas Democrats are following California’s lead. Scott Cobb, President of the Texas Moratorium Network, has started a “Vote US out of Iraq” campaign to place an Iraq referendum on the ballot for the 2008 Texas Democratic Presidential Primary. Democrats in California are a bit farther along– a…
Debatocratic
I watched the Democratic debate on Sunday. I tuned in, watched, listened, laughed, learned and even perhaps marverled once or twice. The debate made me wish we could just elect the party, like they do in Britain, and allow all of those leaders to form a single executive government. They’d elect among them a single Prime Minister…
HAIKU CHALLENGE IV: Blitz Me, Baby
So now that my long-winded pro-sumer analysis is out of the way, how about a few haikus on the 2008 hopefuls? The debate, the field, Wolf Blitzer’s flat-tiredness, the lightning bolt that almost struck down Giuliani … Richard Dame, Chris the Haiku Bike Guy … have at it.
Armchair Cinephile
Norman, You Old Poop Katharine Hepburn: 100th Anniversary Collection (Warner Bros.): Speaking for buffs who find Katharine Hepburn’s filmography more enjoyable than John Wayne’s, I’m sorry studios aren’t making as big a deal out of her hundredth birthday as his. Still, this budget-priced set offers six films new to DVD — not her most famous,…
The Current’s Lege Roundup
BIRDY BIRD WINGED LEGISLATION ‘Twas the session of the birds, dead ones: On January 8, 2007 some 63 birds were found dead in downtown Austin just as the freshly elected Legislature was gearing up for their biannual bill hunt. Travis County Health officials determined 11 days later that the omen was the product of “a…
The Great New Mexico Chile War
In New Mexico, the local flavor comes color-coded. “Want that with red or green?” is a question you hear often, in reference to the sauce that marinates, stews, sautés, smothers, fills, or otherwise improves your meal, from the most pedestrian burrito to the finest con carne. In addition to meaning “sauce,” the word “chile” also…
The Great New Mexico Chile War
In New Mexico, the local flavor comes color-coded. “Want that with red or green?” is a question you hear often, in reference to the sauce that marinates, stews, sautés, smothers, fills, or otherwise improves your meal, from the most pedestrian burrito to the finest con carne. In addition to meaning “sauce,” the word “chile” also…
Free Will Astrology
By: Rob Brezsny ARIES (March 21-April 19): Though one of the closest stars to our sun, Teegarden’s star was unknown to astronomers until 2003. Located in the constellation of Aries, it’s a red dwarf with relatively modest heat and luminosity, and moves very fast compared to other stars. Let’s make Teegarden’s star your metaphor…
last words
“Untitled” (2007) by Enrique Martinez
Letters to the Editor
mail ON THE COVER On the cover English idioms are unique: it’s users can say “Healthcare for America’s 47-million uninsured costs an arm and a leg.” In the Spanish idiom, it’s “The uninsured pay an eye out of their face (cuesta un ojo de la cara).” Cover Illustration by Chuck Kerr. MAIL Draw it…
The Bar Tab
Split Rail Saloon @ Brunswick Thousand Oaks Bowl 4330 Thousand Oaks 654-0031 10am-11:30pm Mon-Thu; 10am-1:30am Fri-Sat; noon-11:30pm Sun Slow-cruising Naco-Perrin in search of a Spanish-galleon-themed Shakey’s Pizzeria turned heavy-metal bar/possible strip club, I eventually accepted that I was looking for lost gold. The place was no longer there. Fittingly, I was near El Dorado, a…
Lost in the woods
Trota de funghi and tiramisu from Emerald Forest. Photo by Antonio Padilla. Emerald Forest Café 12656 West Ave. 545-2881 Credit cards Price range: $7-$17 Accessible Emerald Forest has some crones to conquer before all is right in its quirky kingdom, and we could start with the purported Wizard of Oz theme that will lead to…
Artpace keeps local artists from turning Into starving artists
Artpace San Antonio announced its 2007 Travel Grant recipients this week. The grant doubled this year to $5,000 and supports “an ongoing dialogue between local artists and the international art community.” This year, the money will support the travels of four San Antonio artists: Sabra Booth, Margaret Craig, Mimi Kato, and Chris Sauter. Each artist plans…
Aural Pleasure
Minutes to Midnight Linkin Park (Machine Shop) ‘Midnight’ Confessions In 1982, Rolling Stone magazine devoted a cover story to the popular emergence of “faceless bands” such as REO Speedwagon, Journey, Styx, and Foreigner. The piece implied that the sales dominance of bands with no perceptible charisma was a signal that rock was in seriously bad…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I was sitting around with my daughter and her Mexican husband the other day talking about her past. Jokingly, I mentioned that when she was a teenager (30 years ago), lots of boys came by the house to see her. Her husband flew into a rage and said that Mexicans consider such a…
Dangerously hot stuff
The title character (Gloria Sanchez) and Orestes (Roy Eric Gonzales) in the Cellar’s production of Electricidad. Photo by Justin Parr. ELECTRICIDAD 8pm Fri, 7pm Sat, 2:30pm Sun Through Jul 7 $20 general; $18 senior, military; $12 student San Pedro Playhouse Cellar Theatre 800 W. Ashby 733-7258 Sanpedroplayhouse.com The San Pedro Playhouse kicks off this year’s…
The land’s good memory
Does the land remember me? By Aziz Shihab Syracuse University Press $19.95, 149 pages Reading and book-signing 5-7pm Wed, Jun 13 The Twig 5005 Broadway 826-6411 Thetwig.booksense.com I’m proud of my dad. To have a book published on one’s 80th birthday is pretty great. To have written it while on dialysis is also encouraging. Mostly…
Playing it safe
In Smithsonian style, the Current grabs a chewy handful of Latino-esque goodies from the melting pot Cesar Chavez, labor leader Henry Cisneros, political phoenix Jennifer Lopez, Selena Cubanos, oral fixes Chicle, Aztec chew Chiquita, edible colonialism A T-shirt being sold outside Museo Alameda “And a new story will be told …” is the cinematic tagline…
Last Words
mail The damage-control email By: Daniel Asa Rose “The email era has made necessary a special type of apology: the kind you have to make when you are the bonehead who fired off a ridiculously intemperate email or who accidentally sent an email to the person you were covertly trashing. In situations like these,…
Songs of the country
Clockwise from top left: Daniel Garces, Flaco Jimenez, Mingo Saldivar, and Juan Viesca are all part of John Dyer’s Conjunto exhibit. As soon as you reach the second floor of the Museo Alameda del Smithsonian, you’re greeted by a striking image. It is a large, black-and-white John Dyer photo of Tejano icon David Lee Garza’s…
Sound and the Fury
Chao, Austin Manu Chao’s shows are the ultimate pot parties. You don’t even have to roll a joint at home, choose a safe spot away from securities and do two or three puffs in a hurry. Just get as close as you can to the stage and stand there. The second-hand smoke — and, mostly,…
Hey buddy!
Buddy Wakefield: A spoken-word artist who has toured with Ani Difranco. The first time I watched Buddy Wakefield perform, the poet made me believe that beside him on stage stood, on one side, an albino orangutan blowing a bass-line in a whiskey jug, on the other, a pitch-black diva draped in a slow tornado, and…
Finding her voice
Patty Griffin: A Texas transplant who launched her music career relatively late. Courtesy photo. It’s a lot easier to believe what others say than trust yourself. But when you do take that leap and then really stick the landing to the roaring applause of those assembled — talk about validation. For Patty Griffin that moment…
The Mashup
From the Editor The campaign for the future is underway. Ideologies are being carefully woven into compelling narratives, styled for their intended audiences, and delivered via television, web, and even movie theaters. Like Tom Cruise’s character in Minority Report, we’re swimming in messages designed to win our hearts and minds — or at least a…
Keeping it Villarreal
This session’s go-to performer: Mikey “Rulebook Nerd” Villarreal. Photo by Dave Maass. NAME: Representative Mike Villarreal CONSTITUENCY: District 123, a thin Y-shaped strip that starts in South Town and runs north through downtown San Antonio to just beyond 410. ALTER EGO: Captain Recess SECRET ID: Rulebook Nerd HABITAT: During the session, Villarreal rocked it…
Hustle and Flow
Following a career-defining 48-point-performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron James led his Cleveland Cavaliers to a stirring series upset over the Detroit Pistons and into the NBA Finals. Awaiting them are the three-time champion Spurs, who made quick work of the Utah Jazz, dispatching them in the Western Conference Finals in…
Hot wines
They say variety is the spice of life, but really it’s cayenne pepper. Sprinkle enough of this pungent, piquant seasoning on anything and watch mouths water and tears run. But it’s worth it — adding spicy sauce or pepper to a half-pound burger imparts excitement to an otherwise dreary clump of meat. And summer is…
Finding her voice
Patty Griffin: A Texas transplant who launched her music career relatively late. Courtesy photo. It’s a lot easier to believe what others say than trust yourself. But when you do take that leap and then really stick the landing to the roaring applause of those assembled — talk about validation. For Patty Griffin that moment…
Letters to the Editor
mail ON THE COVER Did you know expensive shotguns are a popular gift lobbyists send to Texas legislators? We’re sure hot shots like House Speaker Tom Craddick and Governor Perry know. Read the Current’s Lege Roundup. Cover Illustration by Matt Bors. MAIL Draw it like it is Jeremy Martin’s comic book review of Army@Love `Straight…
Letters to the Editor
mail ON THE COVER On the cover English idioms are unique: it’s users can say “Healthcare for America’s 47-million uninsured costs an arm and a leg.” In the Spanish idiom, it’s “The uninsured pay an eye out of their face (cuesta un ojo de la cara).” Cover Illustration by Chuck Kerr. MAIL Draw it…
The Great New Mexico Chile War
In New Mexico, the local flavor comes color-coded. “Want that with red or green?” is a question you hear often, in reference to the sauce that marinates, stews, sautés, smothers, fills, or otherwise improves your meal, from the most pedestrian burrito to the finest con carne. In addition to meaning “sauce,” the word “chile” also…
Lost in the woods
Emerald Forest Café 12656 West Ave. 545-2881 Credit cards Price range: $7-$17 Accessible Emerald Forest has some crones to conquer before all is right in its quirky kingdom, and we could start with the purported Wizard of Oz theme that will lead to so much excess in this article. It’s not my fault; a wicked…
Keeping it Villarreal
NAME: Representative Mike Villarreal CONSTITUENCY: District 123, a thin Y-shaped strip that starts in South Town and runs north through downtown San Antonio to just beyond 410. ALTER EGO: Captain Recess SECRET ID: Rulebook Nerd HABITAT: During the session, Villarreal rocked it Chris-Farley style, living in a trailer by the river at McKinney Falls…
The Queque
Look, the Queque is feeling alienated and standoffish right now, that’s why we flaked on Tuesday’s Courthouse pep rally big-upping the Spurs on their fourth Larry O’Brien-op. And we won’t be tallyhoing to our old haunt the Central Library this weekend (and it has nothing to do with Gates of the Alamo author Stephen Harrigan’s…
Aural Pleasure
‘Midnight’ Confessions In 1982, Rolling Stone magazine devoted a cover story to the popular emergence of “faceless bands” such as REO Speedwagon, Journey, Styx, and Foreigner. The piece implied that the sales dominance of bands with no perceptible charisma was a signal that rock was in seriously bad health. A full generation later, Linkin Park…
All Ears
Is the legacy of Sly & the Family Stone joyous or heartbreaking? Is the group’s message utopian or bleak? Maybe both things are true. Ask your average music fan about the group, after all, and she’ll talk about songs like “Everyday People” – exuberantly egalitarian anthems whose power-to-all-the-people message was echoed in the band’s famously…
The Say-Town Lowdown
“Of making books there is no end.” When Ecclesiastes made that observation, some 2,300 years ago, bookmaking was barely beginning. Today, though space for thoughts about books is shrinking, more books are being made and bought than ever before. In 2005, 172,000 new titles were published in the United States, 206,000 in the United Kingdom.…
God and Bernal
Mingo Saldivar brings a country touch to the Tejano Conjunto Festival. Courtesy photo. Paulino Bernal is the Al Green of conjunto music. Both men established themselves at a young age as great musical innovators and left their respective genres at the peak of their powers to establish ministries. Understandably, both men watched their legends grow…
They Said It II … The Mayorals
davedave Mayoral incumbent Phil Hardberger’s been avoiding debates and public forums with his six osbcure challengers all season, and so we were shocked and flattered when he was one of the four runners who returned our candidate surveys. — Dave Maass Phil Hardberger. “I don’t like toll roads, and it was a mistake to drain…
Armchair Cinephile
Bedazzled (Fox): How can it be that it has taken so long to unleash this bit of Swinging-London irreverance on the DVD-buying public? Not the sickly, dull Elizabeth Hurley remake, mind you, but the one starring the delicious comic pairing of Peter Cook and pre-Arthur Dudley Moore. It’s a witty take on the Faust story…
Propositioned
TEXT OF PROPOSITION 1: “The constitutional amendment authorizing the Legislature to provide for a reduction of the limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for public school purposes on the residence homesteads of the elderly or disabled to reflect any reduction in the rate of those taxes for…
Kino Club
The Solution, a found footage film in the style of a pre-movie 50’s newscast, presents the hypothetical situation in which a new program, The Final New Deal Solution, has been implemented by the American government. This program is designed to solve the “immigration problem” by means of turning Mexicans into food. By using found footage…
The Mashup
From the Editor Last month’s decision by the Supreme Court to let a nationwide partial-birth-abortion ban stand was a wake-up call … and you still haven’t answered it, you alleged fans of radical, armed autonomy and mind-your-own-bidness. The battle for privacy between reproductive-capable men and women, and women and their doctors, has returned with a…
Sabado (somewhat) gigante
Our undercooked Saturday election might as well be taking place somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, in a rainforest of aborigines vying for a spot on the highest tree canopy, for all the local interest in selecting San Antonio’s next group in charge of our $1.8-billion City budget. Would it surprise you, then, to know that…
Straight Shooter
Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America — Wolverine Marvel Story: Jeph Loeb Art: Leinil Yu $2.99 The highlight of this book is the cute way that Marvel thinks they’ve got us fooled. “Oh, no,” is the tone of the book, “Captain America is so totally dead, like for real.” This is comics, though, where…
Clothes-minded
Books for the Clothes-minded tend to fall into two categories: coffee-table tomes with academic credentials and titles like Extreme Beauty: The Figure Transformed and Fashion, Desire and Anxiety: Image and Morality (both of which I recommend) and, well, magazines. Fashion is inevitably about looking forward, about searching the street, and since the advent of the…
Phat pig
Fat Pig’s bathing beauties (right to left): Eric Lozano, Reneè Garvens and Jennifer Colacino. Courtesy photo. Fat Pig8pm Thu-Sat, 2:30 SunThrough May 13$15 general; $12 senior, military; $8 studentAttic TheaterRuth Taylor Theater BldgTrinity University999-8524Atticrep.org You are what you eat. You’re also who you drink with, or so Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig deftly intimates. Yes, in…
Postcard Diaries and Head Humpers:
Some of Mark Mothersbaugh’s extra-Devo pursuits are on view at Fl!ght this month. Courtesy photo. Mark MothersbaughBy appt.Through Jun 1Opening reception: 6:30pm Sat, May 12Fl!ght Gallery1906 S. Flores872-2586Turnitoff.tv The cultural vortex that swirls around Mark Mothersbaugh is moving swiftly toward San Antonio, sweeping the brilliantly unlikely into its great maw as it comes. The show of…
Hustle and Flow
After the premature playoff exits of the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs entered the Western Conference Semifinals as the last Texas team still standing in the NBA playoffs. While early word is that Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy and Dallas point-guard Jason Terry will shoulder the blame for their respective teams…
Value Vino – Great wines for under $15
The wannabe wine wonk with a budding Bordeaux bias might do well to quit his or her job now and start drinking. Just kidding, but Bordeaux is the world’s biggest wine-producing region – turning out more than 700,000 bottles in a good year – and it is also one of the world’s most complex. There…
Aural Pleasure
Yes I’m a Witch Yoko Ono (Astralwerks) ‘Witch’ Craft You either respect Yoko Ono as an artist, the presence that loomed so heavily in John Lennon’s post-Beatles career, or loathe her as a more pretentious Linda McCartney who broke up the band. Either way, she’s part of pop history. For Yes I’m a Witch, Ono’s…
The Fast Foodie
Tank’s Chicken and Waffles1607 E. Houston Street(866) 849-883211am-9pm Tue-Fri 11am-4pm Sat-Sun At a point early in the Tarantino film Jackie Brown, Samuel L. Jackson’s character tries to convince Chris Tucker to help him with a job by offering a free meal from Hollywood’s infamous Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. Tucker accepts and ends up dead in…
Sound and the Fury
Lara Revisited Simplemente Lara, José Rubén De León’s spare, intimate tribute to the torch-song majesty of Agustin Lara, was one of the great local releases of 2006, and De León continues to receive acclaim for his Lara-themed performances. On Saturday, May 12, De León will be honored by his hometown of Laredo, as the Webb…
Fresh Spice
Clockwise from top: Tom kha, seared dumplings and gang masaman from Spice Asian Bistro. Photo by Antonio Padilla. Spice Asian Bistro434 N. Loop 160411am-10pm Mon-SunCredit CardsPrice range: $8.25-$13.95Accessible Well, I’m surprised – pleasantly surprised, let me hasten to add. I had grown apathetic about Mon’s Thai Bistro due to lackluster lunch offerings and a slightly…
The Queque
Look, the Queque is feeling alienated and standoffish right now, that’s why we flaked on Tuesday’s Courthouse pep rally big-upping the Spurs on their fourth Larry O’Brien-op. And we won’t be tallyhoing to our old haunt the Central Library this weekend (and it has nothing to do with Gates of the Alamo author Stephen Harrigan’s…
