Free “Square” app turns your smartphone into a cash register
Desiree Prieto Okay. So I know I’m supposed to be writing about the first ever fashion component that took place this past week at South by Southwest (SXSW). In addition, I should really be telling you not only about how, in 24 years, it’s the first time fashion has participated at the mega conference, but…
Fashionation checks out Austin’s emerging boutiques at SXSW’s Style X
By Desiree Prieto South by Southwest’s first ever fashion component, Style X, kicked off with a Shop Hop event—a tour of Austin’s emerging boutiques. By the end of the night, and after being shuttled around to several shops, I tallied up my own short list I’m calling Shop Stops: the places you and my friends…
Positive Pin yourself: Native San Antonian inspires national message
Story By Desiree Prieto Jonathan de la Garza, a real estate broker based in San Antonio, Texas is the creator of the Positive Pin™, a lapel pin meant for everyday wear to remind ourselves and others about the power of positive thinking. While fashion is as much about making a statement as it is about…
In his own words: Dan Ramos on Stonewall, homosexuality (audio file)
I didn’t call Bexar County Democratic Chair Dan Ramos more than a week back to coax ugly epithets from the man. I called to talk shop. Specifically on my mind: the local party’s former treasurer heading back to court for a trial setting, and a bill introduced in the Texas Lege by state Representative Trey…
what’s it/where’s it? CAM mystery pic March 21
Hello, it’s Monday, day 21 of Contemporary Art Month. During CAM we are posting a mystery art pic every day here at Artifacts. What is it? Where is it? We’ll get back to you on that if you know, just leave a note below. Be the first to post the correct answer *on our website*…
Consumers Revolt: Stand Up to Restaurants!
Sometimes restaurants just get it all wrong. Food pairings seem so off, you wonder if there was a misprint on the menu, or if the dishes are being devised by a group of chimps. A recent visit to Chuy’s had me wondering just that, when my shrimp taco was served in Heavens to Betsy! a…
Special screening: Evangelion 2.0
The hyper-realistic slice of life that is anime has found a degree of mainstream success in U.S. films like Golgo 13 and Akira, which are standouts in an already saturated market. Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, is part of a series of four films that are, in turn, part of the Rebuild of Evangelion…
Sunday Extravaganza: Karma-free feast and mantra-rock dance at the G.I.G. on the Strip
The poster of the historic 1967 show at the Avalon in San Francisco… … and now in San Antonio. Tonight, March 20 at the Gig, the Hare Krishna devotees (known locally as “the Ashram-5 monks”) of San Antonio are organizing a free gathering of local musicians and distribution of spiritualized vegetarian food (prasadam, a Sanskrit…
PAX East 2011: Arcana Heart 3 Impressions
At the site where I’m associated with, original-gamer.com, I’ve become the designated “anime guy” of the site. Why? I’m not entirely sure myself, but I’m not one to complain, since anime and video games go hand in hand with each other. And being the “anime guy”, that also means I get assigned the JRPGs and…
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Sheryl WuDunn to Keynote at Planned Parenthood Lunch
If you want a strong, healthy community, you begin with educating and empowering its women and girls. Planned Parenthood knows this. For more than 90 years, they’ve been investing in women and girls by providing vital health care and information to millions–around the globe–regardless of their ability to pay. So, it makes perfect sense that…
PAX East 2011: 3DS impressions/Super Street Fighter IV 3D
At PAX East this past weekend, it was the public’s first chance to try out Nintendo’s newest portable system, the 3DS. On Saturday morning the expo floor was opened an hour early to the press and as soon it was, I made a beeline to one of the booths that had the 3DS on hand and demo…
“Excerpt with a Homeless Man” by Michael Aaron Casares
Introduction This week’s piece is confessional in tone. It may not have happened or not exactly this way, but the matter-of-factness and the slice-of-life quality creates a sense of voyeurism in the reader. It requires the reader to consider the topic of homelessness, unfortunately a ubiquitous one. But it is a complex issue which brings…
what’s it/where’s it? CAM mystery art pic March 17
Hello, it’s Thursday, day 17 of Contemporary Art Month. During CAM we are posting a mystery art pic every day here at Artifacts. What is it? Where is it? We’ll get back to you on that if you know, just leave a note below. Be the first to post the correct answer *on our website*…
Exene Cervenka: The Excitement of Maybe
Exene Cervenka: The Excitement of Maybe Label: Bloodshot Records Release Date: 2011-03-16 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording From her days as the undisputed queen of punk hi-jinks in X to the lonesome country twang of The Knitters, Exene Cervenka’s road to rock star maven has been plagued with a depressing air of departure and the impending…
Beady Eye:Different Gear, Still Speeding
Beady Eye:Different Gear, Still Speeding Label: Dangerbird Records Release Date: 2011-03-16 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Oasis is dead. So are the Beatles. Someone should tell Beady Eye. It wasn’t enough to suffer the humiliation endured during the early days of alternative rock because of a wimpy twerp named Liam Gallagher (and his so-called brother), but…
Art opening: CAM: The CAM Video Jam
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 Among other treasures to be screened in Unit B’s backyard courtesy of Video Jam — whose motto is “We find it so you can watch it” — is the very first episode of MONO SHOW, in which visual artists Jeremiah Teutsch and Matthew van Hellen collaborate with filmmakers Mark and…
Art opening: CAM: The DIY Factory
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 Has Contemporary Art Month put a crafty bee in your bonnet? Look no further than the DIY Factory, an artist-owned studio that offers classes in ceramics, sewing, knitting, silkscreening, and more. If you’ve got 30 minutes to spare in one of the factory’s “Craft & Go” stations, you can walk…
Tia Fuller
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 Saxophonist and flutist Tia Fuller got a big break when she was chosen as a member of Beyoncé Knowles’ all-female band for 2007’s The Beyoncé Experience world tour. While the tour and appearances with Beyoncé on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and the BET Awards gave Fuller serious…
Art opening: CAM: Underground Ghetto Cartoon People
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 Inspired by the “social art realm” and her experiences as a “never-ending night creature,” Jump-Start Performance Co.’s Monessa Esquivel makes an unexpected departure with Underground Ghetto Cartoon People, an exhibition of playfully collaged drawings curated by David Zamora Casas. In Esquivel’s comical world, leaping unicorns and sassy Pepsi bottles rendered…
Echale! Latino Music Estyles featuring Ozomatli
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 In conjunction with the official opening of the Park at Pearl, the quickly growing complex launches a free, six-part concert series focusing on “genre-bending Latin music.” Taking off with an impressive bang, three-time Grammy-winning Los Angeles-based multi-cultural rockers Ozomatli (the band takes its name from the Nahuatl word for the…
Lords of Acid
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 Just last year, flame-haired Texan reality-show queen Lacey Conner (Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, Rock of Love Charm School) was tapped as lead singer for Lords of Acid, an overtly sexual Belgian band founded by Praga Khan (née Maurice Engelen), who credits “extensive experimentation with drugs” and “esoteric paths…
Kenny Rogers
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 Even though his plastic surgeon has yanked him beyond recognition, and you’ll have to brave a dreaded Cracker Barrel if you want a copy of his latest release (2011’s The Love of God), Houston-born Kenny Rogers is still one of country music’s most beloved entertainers. Best known for such timeless…
Miss Tess & The Bon Ton Parade
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 When trying to describe Miss Tess’ music, the easy way out is to say she belongs in the jazz world. But her stuff is more complicated than that. While living in Boston, the now-Brooklynite won a local award for “Outstanding Folk Artist” and in the subsequent two years was nominated…
Art opening: CAM: The 2nd Annual Art Kite Festival
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-16 Kite flying is an important pastime in Asia — everyone does it — but in the USA the old saying, “Go fly a kite!” really means, “Get away from me, nitwit!” Perhaps we rate seriousness, like work, too highly in this country. This Sunday afternoon everyone is invited to go…
SXSA: SXSW spillover shows in San Antonio
San Antonio has unquestionably perfected the art of the spillover. Consider Angel Castorena, the founder and publisher of local music zine Backbeat, who has been booking SXSW spillover shows in San Antonio for almost eight years. The highlight was The Big Spill 2009, the SA-based festival in which Castorena and crew featured 150 bands in…
Dan Ramos’ queer position, radiation clouds/Texas nukes, and warbler warning on Forestar deal
Ramos’ queer position In a wide-ranging interview with the Current last Friday, Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Dan Ramos likened homosexuals to children stricken with polio and the Stonewall Democrats, an organization working to advance the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, to the Nazi Party. In immediate response, State Democratic Party Chair…
SXSW: Current writers map the musical jungle
“The first year I didn’t envision it as something I would be doing 25 years later,” said SXSW creative director Brent Grulke, who’s worked at the festival since the first edition in 1987. “I was the stage manager, making my living as tour manager and sound engineer for bands, and my perspective was different than…
Plans to gut mental health spending in Texas will not only destroy lives, but overwhelm jails, emergency rooms, and taxpayers’ wallets
One night in 2003, police responded to a disturbing-the-peace call at a Southside McDonald’s. Inside, they encountered a man crouched in the corner of the restaurant, screaming the Lord’s Prayer. Before being hauled off to jail, the man told officers the prayer helped calm the voices screaming inside his head. To Leon Evans, who runs…
Forgotton thrillers: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Mechanic
Here we focus on two somewhat forgotten thrillers from the 1970s, both of which are better known by their more recent remakes: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) and The Mechanic (1972). To say the original is better than the remake is a cliché, but in this case it’s the truth. The original…
Rep. Mike Villarreal on the ongoing budget battle and why community organizing might be our last hedge against deep cuts
Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, chimed in last week at an appropriations committee hearing soon after Gov. Rick Perry and House GOP leaders announced they’d agreed to use a third of the state’s $9 billion Rainy Day Fund to cover our current 2010-2011 budget gap. “Is this just about trying to prevent a financial embarrassment?”…
Casino Jack and the art of the steal
By the late director George Hickenlooper’s own admission, Casino Jack is only a “fictional” story based on the real events surrounding the fall of Jack Abramoff, the man the Wall Street Journal once called “the superlobbyist.” Casino Jack isn’t a documentary, but it isn’t entirely fiction either. Real names are used throughout the film, and…
Critic’s Diss: Red Riding Hood
No matter what version you’ve heard, when it comes to traditional folklore and fairytales, there isn’t one that comes with more thematic baggage than Little Red Riding Hood. Whether as a parable on a young girl’s sexuality or simply a cautionary tale for kids about the dangers of wandering off the beaten path, most written…
Firewater Grille brings Southwestern casual to Stone Oak
A pleasant 25-minute drive north of downtown San Antonio sits an attractive, newly opened restaurant in The Shops at the Overlook strip. If you don’t think about the rising price of gas or that the “overlook” is a Stone Oak parking lot, you can enjoy a very good meal at Firewater Grille for $12 to $20. …
Toyota’s ‘Farm to Table Tour’ stopping by Pearl Farmers Market
When I think “farmers market,” the first thing that pops into my mind is not “hybrid vehicles.” However, Toyota is trying to plant the seed in your foodie brain by bringing their Farm to Table Tour — now criss-crossing the country — to San Antonio’s most popular open-air market. Toyota will invade the weekly farmers…
Taste This: Spinach, bacon, chicken, and cheese sandwich from Guillermo’s Deli
It’s a deceptively simple combo: spinach, bacon, grilled chicken, and provolone between two slices of focaccia bread. But something special happens when Guillermo’s (or, as they say when they answer their phone: “Guiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillermo’s!”) adds it all up. Maybe it’s the way the focaccia bread is toasted to golden perfection, or how the warm, melted provolone…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Why is it que cada vez that I talk to a Hispanic (not many Mexicans in New York yet), it seems that they have a fantasma that they think lives in their house? I know that Carlos Mencia has used this in his material, but I wonder if la raza is more liable…
SXSW: 3 questions with Ernest Gonzales, AKA Mexicans With Guns
Tell me about your SXSW shows. It’s really one massive day. I’m playing Thursday; I’ve got four shows that day. I’m really excited about `the Friends of Friends showcase with Daedalus`, that’s a good show for electronic music in general. It almost seems like this year all the good shows are free. I’ve been looking…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Like Bob Dylan in his 1962 song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” you’ve done a lot of rough and tumble living lately. You’ve “stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains.” You’ve “stepped in the middle of seven sad forests.” You’ve “been out in front of a dozen dead oceans.” Maybe…
SXSW: OBX and Tech-Neek
Veteran Saytown rapper and vindictive wage-earner OBX has been in the rap game for over a decade. In that time, he’s dealt with no lack of doubters and naysayers — who he eloquently addressed with the words “Fuck ’em” in a recent chat with the Current. On March 19, OBX will receive a measure of…
Plundering the beer riches in San Antonio, Ranger Creek brewery expanding, and the new offering from Saint Arnold’s
PLUNDERING THE BEER RICHES There was a time that intrepid beer explorers in Texas had to leave the state to find something new on the shelves or the tap regularly. Thankfully, those days are gone and there is an embarrassment of riches right now. Definitely worth a taste from the taps at the Flying Saucer…
SXSW: The Strokes
Forget about NME and Rolling Stone choosing Is This It as best and second-best album of the decade, and forget about the futile attempts by some to rewrite history and claim that the N.Y. band is overrated. Also, beware of what’s coming: some idiots claiming that Angles, the Strokes’ first album since 2006’s First Impressions…
Sasha Petraske repairing the lingering evils of Prohibition as he puts Bohanan’s on the virtuous path
The drink, a classic Negroni, arrives in a pinch-style rocks glass, and it is luminous — a brilliant Cinzano red tempered with the earthier ruby of Italian vermouth, all accented with an intensely colored shaving of orange peel. But even more impressive is the ice. A single piece looms large, forcing the liquid into contours…
SXSW: Le Butcherettes
Born in Denver to a Mexican mother and an American father, Teri Gender Bender (Teresa Suárez) grew up bilingual and moved to Guadalajara when she was 14. There, she teamed up with a female drummer (Auryn Jolene) and sang in English to stunned crowds for a few years. Her fierce but radio-friendly artsy garage rock…
Art after life: Wayne Gilbert’s works at Fl!ght Gallery include human ashes
Before chemical pigments began to arrive from the modern laboratories of Europe, artists relied on earth colors and vegetable dyes to color their paints. The dyes were often fugitive, destined to fade. Among the more durable were white from lead, the mined yellow and red ochres, and green from malachite. Ultramarine blue, made from Fra…
SXSW: 3 questions with Alvaro Del Norte, accordionist/vocalist of Piñata Protest
This is your third consecutive SXSW. Does it feel like “been there, done that” by now? SXSW is always something new. It’s such a big event, we never really know what to expect. We’re going into our third year and we’d like to say we know what we’re doing, but it could go anywhere. ……
Class war and caviar: Franco Mondini-Ruiz brings ‘Ginormous’ party back home
It’s 10 p.m. the opening night of Ginormous, Franco Mondini-Ruiz’s new show in Alamo Heights. The caviar is gone now but the bar is pouring heavy and a brisk trade in monotypes dominates the action near the right wall of the gallery. His assistants pick one, then another print for the prospect to judge, their…
SXSW: Upon a Burning Body
Born just over five years ago, hardcore/metal hybrid Upon A Burning Body has continually served as a model to other bands in San Antonio’s underground scene. Their high-speed riffs, brutal breakdowns, heavy blast beats, and complex time changes first caught the eye of Sumerian Records in 2007 when the SA natives participated in a national…
Unique headgear and dinner herald Casa Chuck
This Saturday Sala Diaz will present The Long Table of Love, a dinner and art sale to benefit Casa Chuck, its new residency program for artists, art curators, and writers. Residency programs have become a hallmark of nonprofit arts in SA — Artpace was founded to house them, and Blue Star fronts them, too. This…
SXSW: The Heroine
OK, we’ll admit it. We’ve upheld the Heroine’s claim that they’re SA’s most hardworking band so many times that you’re sick of hearing it. But there’s no denying that these guys whip Lone Star-guzzling crowds into consistent frenzies with their straight-up, sweat-soaked live show. Though they aren’t on the official 2011 SXSW roster, SA’s rock…
Food as art, the table a canvas
Last Friday, woodworking artist Peter Zubiate and caterer Tim McDiarmid (aka Tim the Girl, of the non-profit venture EatSmart SA) launched the Special Projects Social, a series of invitation-only dinner parties in unexpected places, the first of which was held at kitchen-less Zubiate Projects (112 Broadway). “A Dinner Party,” as the $100-a-ticket Contemporary Art Month…
Calling all community organizers
Gov. Perry has publicly endorsed a plan to take money out of the state’s $9.4 billion rainy day fund to fix one part of the Texas budget shortfall. What does that mean for the proposed budget cuts? What does that mean for our teachers? Our children? Our future? I don’t know but I want to…
PAX East 2011 days 2 & 3 recap
This past weekend at PAX East was one of the most busy and tiring weekends that I’ve had in a while. But amongst all of that chaos, I enjoyed myself. Now with that out of the way, I wanted to give a really quick recap of what happened and what I saw over the last two…
what’s it/where’s it? CAM mystery art pic March 15
Hello, it’s Tuesday, day 15 of Contemporary Art Month. During CAM we are posting a mystery art pic every day here at Artifacts. What is it? Where is it? We’ll get back to you on that … if you know, just leave a note below. Be the first to post the correct answer *on our…
Texas Ghost Show Coming to Beaumont
This Saturday, March 19th, hundreds of self-proclaimed ghost hunters and seekers of the strange will descend on the city of Beaumont for the second annual Texas Ghost Show. Last year was a huge success and this time around, the state’s premier paranormal gathering promises to be even bigger, with some of the field’s top names…
