Behind the Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio council endorsements
It was no surprise that Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Dan Ramos’ recent bigoted statements became something of a litmus test at Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio’s candidate forum on Sunday, leading to the group that respresents the interests of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals in the city endorsing one incumbent, several newcomers, and…
International Academy of Design and Technology to host runway show with Project Runway’s Shirin Askari
This Thursday March 31, 2011 from 6:30 p.m – 9:30 p.m., the International Academy of Design and Technology (IADT) presents, “Imagine.” An annual fashion runway event, featuring ten of IADT’s graduating fashion design and merchandising students, this year Shirin Askari of Project Runway Season Six will host. Tickets are $20 and VIP tickets are $35…
SXSW, Style X Theme Among Themes: Fashion For A Cause
Story by Desiree Prieto I’m left with many impressions of SXSW’s first ever fashion component, Style X. However, among those impressions I’m referred back to a comment I made in an earlier Fashionation blog: “Fashion is not just a passion; it is a lifestyle that tells a story about ourselves, from something as ubiquitous as…
An Interview with Lan Samantha Chang
Last month, Current contributing writer Adam Coronado gifted Lit-URL with a glowing review of Lan Samantha Chang’s All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost, a novel chronicling four artists grappling with following their dreams while leading their (often) obstructive lives. This month, Lit-URL got a moment to discuss with Chang the story’s ultimate questions, why she…
The Mothman Cometh
This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the quiet, little town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, home to one of the strangest urban legends in American folklore — that of the mysterious Mothman. During the 1960s you see, many people in the area began to report encounters with a macabre, winged humanoid. Just…
Review: The Lion in Winter
The roster for the Classic Theatre’s current season: Shakespeare! Coward! Ibsen! Goldman! Er, Goldman? Well, if James Goldman’s 1966 chestnut The Lion in Winter isn’t exactly a classic of the theatrical canon, it’s still a fine example of what used to be known as the Well-Crafted Three Act Play. (Yes, strictly speaking, The Lion in…
what’s it/where’s it? CAM mystery pic March 25
Hello, it’s Friday, day 25 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*…
“After Morgan” by Anel I. Flores
Introduction This week’s piece is a little unusual because it’s actually an excerpt from a novel. But you probably wouldn’t have guessed it from reading “After Morgan” by Anel I. Flores, since it so well tells a story in the space constraint of a flash piece. The narrator’s keen sense of smell quickly twists your…
Activision vs ‘Call of Duty’ designers: why CoD will lose its luster
It seems like every other year or so, some no-name studio or company throws down the gauntlet against one of the major video game publishers with some kind of wishy-washy claim that they’ve been swindled. Whether it’s patent infringement, creative plagiarism of a game’s lore, or one of the many other far-fetched excuses to try…
Study finds juveniles sent to adult prisons aren’t ‘worst of the worst’
By Michael Barajas mbarajas@sacurrent.com It’s commonly assumed that juvenile offenders thrown into the adult court and prison system are the worst of the worst, beyond rehabilitation. But a new report released today paints an altogether different picture. “The juveniles that are being transferred to the adult system and those that stay in the juvenile system…
CAM: Rewound: a night directed by Kellen Stanley
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-24 Memory, technology, and documentation are crucial to both Krapp’s Last Tape (Samuel Beckett’s one-act, one-man play from 1958) and The Marnie Tape (an evolving thesis project by San Marcos-based artist Kellen Stanley), which act as two sides of a strange coin in Rewound: a night directed by Kellen Stanley. Internal…
Art opening: CAM: Milk & Cookies
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-24 Four of SA’s most buzzed-about ceramic artists get baked for Milk & Cookies, one of the more whimsical happenings you’ll find on the Contemporary Art Month calendar. In addition to high-concept, one-of-a-kind cookie jars, Diana Kersey, Wesley Harvey, Kimberly Rumfelt, and Ryan Takaba have designed edible, CAM-approved treats to be…
Women, Wisdom…Wine Poetry Slam & Luncheon with Isabel Allende
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-24 In its inaugural event, the Women & Girls Development Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation hosts the Women, Wisdom…Wine Poetry Slam and Luncheon with renowned Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende. The creative mind behind The House of the Spirits and Of Love and Shadows (both of which have been adapted…
Art opening: CAM: IAIR 11.1
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-24 Artpace opens New Works: 11.1, exhibits from the International Artist-in-Residence program, with an artists’ dialogue this Thursday night with E.V. Day, Kelly Richardson, and Devon Dikeou. Day, known for Bride Fight (right), her installation of giant exploding, dueling wedding gowns, has revisited feminine conflict in a roiling cat fight between…
CAM: 7th Annual Dignowity Hill Pushcart Derby
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-24 The laws of science will be tested once again at the Dignowity Hill Pushcart Derby, billed as a “collaborative artist intervention” that ? among other things ? presents creatively constructed pushcarts as positive symbols of change on San Antonio’s East Side. Organized by Tigercorn Productions (aka Cruz Ortiz and Mary…
Native San Antonio!
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-24 On Saturday, the Land Heritage Institute gives nature lovers and explorers a perfect excuse to spend a day in the great outdoors. The 1,200-acre living land museum gets interactive with Native San Antonio!, a family-friendly day of hands-on activities, presentations, live music, scavenger hunts, guided nature hikes, hayrides, and more,…
Mizuumi-Con 4
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-03-24 Brought to you by the Mizuumi Anime Club (considered one of Our Lady of the Lake University’s most active and fun student organizations), Mizuumi-Con 4 is a one-day, kid-friendly convention that celebrates anime and other colorful aspects of Japanese culture. Last year, more than 1,500 anime fans attended Mizuumi-Con 3,…
Still DREAMing: Immigrant Youth Educational Workshop
We here at the Current have been closely following the path that undocumented students throughout the country have been taking toward gaining citizenship. Back in November, I wrote about the need to pass the DREAM Act, and in the months since, Newsmonger and I have taken to the blogs – following the DREAMers’ late 2010 hunger strike,…
Review: WEST SIDE STORY
A newly updated version of West Side Story waltzes—or rather, mambos!—into the Majestic, with some startling revisions to what may be regarded (in iPad terms) as “the look and feel” of this cornerstone of American musical theater. Gone are the day-glo hues of the original ’50s production and film; in their stead are gritty, urban…
The Strokes: Angles
The Strokes: Angles Label: RCA Release Date: 2011-03-23 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Has it really been ten years? Feels like only yesterday I was a teenager, suffering from a Scott Stapp-infection and looking for new bands that weren’t such a freaking downer, man. Enter the Strokes, circa 2001. Their scruffy-yet-tight, retro-but-millennial garage-pop was a breath…
New York Dolls: Dancing Backward in High Heels
New York Dolls: Dancing Backward in High Heels Label: 429 Records Release Date: 2011-03-23 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The Dolls have now released more albums since their 2004 reunion than during their first run in the ’70s, and it’s clear they’re unwilling to live in the past. Dancing Backward explores soul and classic ’60s pop…
Various Artists: Closed Sessions: ATX
Various Artists: Closed Sessions: ATX Label: Soundscape Recordings Release Date: 2011-03-23 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Closed Sessions: ATX is a convergent media project for the post-Survivor world. The product of a week’s work overseen by producer DJ Babu and a host of MCs, the effort reeks of empirical drama. Can one producer and 24 rappers…
Local review of Leon Shannon’s SKRAPS
Local review of Leon Shannon’s SKRAPS Label: Self-released Release Date: 2011-03-23 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording SKRAPS, the debut mixtape from Leon Shannon, is being released with a promotional tour de force featuring t-shirts and posters intended to mark an epic start of the rapper’s career. While his marketing team doesn’t lack for ambition, SKRAPS doesn’t…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I often pick up the Alibi in Albuquerque to read your babosadas. Now, let me get this straight: you appear to be a bright guy who claims to have the Mexican people all figured out, right? To you, we are all 5 feet 6 inches tall, have medium complexions, and we all pray…
Review: Paul
Two British nerds (Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who also wrote the script) traveling across the U.S. in a rented RV to check out UFO landmarks find a pot-smoking, foul-mouthed alien (voiced by Seth Rogen) on the run from mysterious men in black. This geekfest crams in tons of sci-fi references…
Time to own up to the homoeroticism (and homophobia) within the NBA
I was sitting at the AT&T Center minutes before the opening tipoff (after which the Lakers decimated the Spurs) talking to a reporter and photographer for a local weekly. It was the first time we had met and we subsequently traded business cards. “I thought you said your name was Ryan,” he asked with a…
Review: Battle: LA
Why are hostile aliens from outer space so attracted to Los Angeles? They blew the fuck out of California in last year’s Skyline, and in Battle: Los Angeles we really don’t even get a reason for their invasion (it may have something to do with water). When the movie starts, the city is already in…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Were you under the impression that the sky is completely mapped? It’s not. Advances in technology are unveiling a nonstop flow of new mysteries. In a recent lecture, astronomer Joshua Bloom of the University of California described the explosion of wonder. One particular telescope, for example, detects 1.5 million transient phenomena…
Critic’s Diss: The Lincoln Lawyer
As far as courtroom dramas are concerned, you’d be hard-pressed to find something as generic as The Lincoln Lawyer. Forget about the excitement brewing because Matthew McConaughey (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) is actually starring in a film that doesn’t require him to remove his shirt or offer up his rugged good looks for an insulting…
Rossini Italian ignites
Gioachino Rossini, the Lone Ranger’s classical composer of choice, was said to be a gourmand of the first order and no mean amateur chef to boot. In between composing such enduring classics as William Tell (the overture, used in the equally classic Lone Ranger radio series of yore, is the opera’s most well-known aspect) and…
Live & Local: Sex Bomb Baby at The Korova
The dimly lit basement of The Korova looked sinister. Perhaps it was the disco lights reflecting off the mostly empty dance floor — the Grasshopper Lies Heavy show was going on at The Ten Eleven, and SXSW had already engulfed Austin. Regardless, Sex Bomb Baby started shortly after 11 p.m. and performed with heart. The…
San Antonio chefs playing musical chairs
If the food or menu at your favorite restaurant has changed lately, it’s probably because the chefs have been playing musical chairs in San Antonio. In Southtown, there’s a new chef at The Monterey — Quealy Watson. He’s been with the gastropub for a while, but only recently took charge of the kitchen. And Il…
Developer swipe at SA tree protections, Hasslocher assault on public servant, and Rep. Villarreal’s budget-knowledge war
Developer swipe at SA tree protections It was former mayor Phil Hardberger (starring as the whiskery tree-loving Lorax) who first locked horns with Milestone Potranco Development in 2005 in a case that drove the developer to the mat (via the State Supreme Court in 2010), all to show the world that San Antonio can and…
Taste this: Ginger pepper tofu from Pho Sure
A fresh, clean, fast stir-fry to set your week aright, alternatively titled: comfort food for the non-chicken soup set. Cubed tofu remarkably stands out in this Pho Sure chef’s special rather than merely filling space for a more flavorful animal protein, a texture somewhere between fried and baked. Long-sliced carrots, sweet red pepper chunks, onion,…
City Council Election 2011: San Antonio’s City Council could grow decidedly younger this election cycle
As this year’s council races start to rev up, some parts of the city have a chance to push the bar younger. Among the 10 contested City Council races, six districts have candidates under 30, one a sitting council member vying for his second term, and another, should he win at just 19 years old,…
Darjeeling unlimited: India Palace
India Palace has shuffled sideways in its strip center at Fredericksburg and Wurzbach, and it’s now all pimped-out in pink. There also may be more sundry images of that other palace, the Taj Mahal, than previously. But regardless of whether you’re a partisan of pink, the change has been for the better. Visually. The buffet…
City Council Election 2011: Rey Saldaña gets a rise (District 4)
At the end of last year, Leticia Cantu seemed poised to take over the District 4 Council seat as her fiancé Philip Cortez termed out. She briefly held the seat last spring while Cortez was out on Air Force Reserve training. Then, once she announced she was running, Cantu gained support from a broad range…
Tejano Conjunto Festival poster contest announce winners
One of the key guidelines for submitting art to the 30th Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival’s poster competition was that no photos of real people could be used, due to copyright issues. Imagine my surprise when I saw a huge photo of legendary accordionist Narciso Martínez used in the $1,000-winning poster, designed by photographer Al Rendon…
City Council Election 2011: Isy Perez: A reluctant candidate (District 10)
Nowhere is the age gap between candidates more stark than in the race for District 10, where 19-year-old Isy Perez is competing against 72-year-old Bud Little. Perez treats his candidacy with a touch more levity than other youthful contenders. After days of trying to schedule a sit-down interview, I was met instead by Perez’s mother…
Punk godmother Exene Cervenka releases a country album and predicts the return of “real” rebellion
In Los Angeles, everyone knows Exene Cervenka was always many things. For the last 35 years, she’s done it all — music, poetry, art, film — but she’s best known as the co-singer of X, the seminal Los Angeles punk band formed in 1977. Yet, despite her six solo albums (not counting collaborations), all of…
Latin alternative pop superstar Juanes presents his new album in San Antonio
Let’s face it: When Fíjate bien came out in 2000, no one gave two fucks about Juanes (born Juan Esteban Aristizábal in 1972). Sure, the critics loved him, music industry insiders loved him, and those who had heard of Colombian rock band Ekhymosis knew he was the man. But the record buyers, mainstream press, TV,…
After vaulting many obstacles, a new-old Texas Tornados is back in action
“When I play with Shawn `Sahm`, all I see is Doug,” Augie Meyers told me shortly after the release of ¡Está bueno! (2010), the first Texas Tornados studio album since 1996. It’s the first album without Doug Sahm, Shawn’s dad and the group’s heart and soul, who passed away in 1999. But Augie’s right. After…
Alamo and Rahr fare well in Chicago tastings, and another beer bill
Alamo and Rahr fare well in Chicago tastings San Antonio’s Alamo Golden Ale was given a World Beer Championship silver medal and a rating of 88 (highly recommended) by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago. Most San Antonians have had Alamo, especially for summer drinking, but here’s how the trained taste buds at the BTI…
Vegas Bar provides upscale ambiance without the din of quarter slots
After conducting a series of experiments inside some of SA’s worst (and simultaneously best) dive bars, my fellow Scientists and I decided to play high rollers for a change, moving our lab uptown to Vegas Bar (formerly Babcock Bar). So how does Vegas (the bar) stack up against Vegas (the city)? First things first: No,…
Comedian Bob Khosravi’s awesome pajama party
A long time ago, a musician friend told me he didn’t care if he reached national fame and success. He felt he could easily make a comfortable living touring Texas like it was its own country and would be satisfied with just that. When I take into account that it takes longer to get to…
Yarn Dawgz continue bombing SA with their unauthorized art
The Yarn Dawgz have been bombing SA with unauthorized art installs for over a year now. And until the end of March, you can find some of their unexpected artworks on the street with the city’s blessing for a change. Pole cozies, the Dawgz’ signature form of yarn bombing, also called yarn graffiti for its…
Alamo Drafthouse presents Gong Shorts film festival
On April 18, Alamo Drafthouse Stone Oak will present the first edition of Gong Shorts, a unique film festival that aspires to be quarterly or, better yet, a monthly event in San Antonio. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves, says organizer Kimberly Suta, a producer with NiffNot productions. “We’ll see how this one goes first,”…
Gift of suffering and loss: Retrospective opens window on four decades of Roberto Sifuentes
Roberto Sifuentes is shining his old army boots, putting on a spit polish. When he’s done, he says, the piece will be finished. We sit at the table in the yard behind Gallista Gallery while Roberto spits, buffs, and talks about his comrades in arms, the Sky Soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. His intention…
Limitless delivers techno-thriller flash, but shies from most interesting angles
Busting at the seams with its spunky, offbeat vibe, the thriller Limitless is like the super-drug it peddles. With its miraculous promises, the film is too intriguing not to bite. When it hits your bloodstream, the high is exhilarating. But once that buzz starts to wear thin, things become exhausting. It’s the type of movie…
Invading lobbies: Exposing unconscious, replenishing deserts at the Emily Morgan
It’s the last week of Contemporary Art Month; have you visited Invading Spaces II, the Hotels Project? Organized by SMART Art, exhibitions and day events are still happening at the Hilton Palacio del Rio, Emily Morgan Hotel, El Tropicano Hotel, and Hotel Indigo at the Alamo. In addition to the hotels, Steel House Lofts is…
Barrio movies: The Guadalupe announces winners of the San Antonio Neighborhood Film Project 2.0
The winners of the city’s online Neighborhood Discovery Tours — a short-film project managed by the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the Office of Cultural Affairs meant to highlight the hidden and not-so-hidden treasures of San Antonio — will be announced and their movies screened this weekend at the Teatro Guadalupe. Sixeen finalists from all…
what’s it/where’s it? CAM mystery pic March 22
Hello, it’s Tuesday, day 22 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*…
