Part 5: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
As promised, here’s some local art to please your spirits this weekend. Okay, so this image might is great in so many ways. It’s right off of San Pedro and the area has a sort of gloominess about it but this building painted in bold colors livens up the area, even if it’s a bit…
On the Street
On the Street High Culture, Low Culture All Co-Existing Uneasily In Another Installment of On the Street. As always, read at your own risk… March Madness (Meteorlogically) In the second year of the premature time change (Spring Forward), there still doesn’t seem to be a complete understanding of the amazing window that this month represents.…
Part 5: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
As promised, here’s some local art to please your spirits this weekend. Okay, so this image might is great in so many ways. It’s right off of San Pedro and the area has a sort of gloominess about it but this building painted in bold colors livens up the area, even if it’s a bit…
On the Street
On the Street High Culture, Low Culture All Co-Existing Uneasily In Another Installment of On the Street. As always, read at your own risk… March Madness (Meteorlogically) In the second year of the premature time change (Spring Forward), there still doesn’t seem to be a complete understanding of the amazing window that this month represents.…
Part 4: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
Oh Flickr, how much I love thee. Seriously, folks this site is an awesome place to dump your images and an ever awesomer (yes, we made up the word … so what?) to search for interesting images. I came across the group San Antonio Street Art although the page hasn’t been updated in sometime (April…
Part 4: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
Oh Flickr, how much I love thee. Seriously, folks this site is an awesome place to dump your images and an ever awesomer (yes, we made up the word … so what?) to search for interesting images. I came across the group San Antonio Street Art although the page hasn’t been updated in sometime (April…
Switchfoot w. Athlete
Release Date: 2008-03-26 Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman’s big inspirations fall decidedly outside the music business. He looks to Søren Kierkegaard, C.S. Lewis, Jack Kerouac, and Isaac Newton’s law of gravity for creative juice. The latest album from his San Diego-based band, Oh! Gravity, continues the string of Foreman-influenced lyrical masterpieces. There are the playful yet…
tick, tick … BOOM!
Release Date: 2008-03-26 This student-produced play isn’t your typical, run-of-the-mill musical. Sure, it has a young cast weighing their options over “selling out” or staying true to themselves, but the journey to adulthood was never an easy one, right? Tick, tick … BOOM! is the autobiographical account of Tony-award-winning composer and playwright Jonathan Larson, of…
Girls Rock!
Release Date: 2008-03-26 Shane King and Arne Johnson follow campers who came to the Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon, to form bands, write songs, and play gigs. They ask the 8-18 year-olds about their dreams, thoughts about our society, and their excitement about rock ’n’ roll, and the resulting rockumentary expresses…
Art at Our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers and Artists
Release Date: 2008-03-26 OLLU’s 2008 festival explores social justice in literature, featuring a diverse lineup of authors over the course of a week. The event kicks off with readings from authors represented in the Trinity University Press anthology, Art at Our Doorstep, including host (and Current freelancer) Steven G. Kellman, Rolando Hinojosa Smith, Wendy Barker…
Homey, weekday Tex-Mex
Release Date: 2008-03-26 Located in a small yellow house in the shadow of a downtown AT&T building, Chella’s gets lost in the mélange of the neighborhood’s parking lots, charitable organizations, and various medical offices. Were it not for the unexpected recommendation of a few visitors passing through town, I may not have gone there as…
Skate-bored
Paranoid Park Director: Gus Van Sant Screenwriter: Gus Van Sant Cast: Gabe Nevins, Jake Miller Release Date: 2008-03-26 Website: http://www.paranoidpark.co.uk/ Rated: R Genre: Drama Funny that, of all things, it’s Kevin Smith’s cheekily self-aware 2001 grab-bag Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back that springs to mind here. Or, more precisely, one belly-laugher of a cameo…
Ego Trippin
Ego Trippin Composer: Snoop Dogg Conductor: Snoop Dogg Label: Geffen Release Date: 2008-03-26 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Hip Hop/Rap Years ago, while hosting Saturday Night Live for the umpteenth time, Steve Martin mocked his own jaded comfort with success by assuring viewers, in song, “I’m not going to phone it…
The Bee Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
The Bee Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull Composer: Earth Conductor: Earth Label: Southern Lord Release Date: 2008-03-26 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Free Improv Earth was one of the first bands to re-create droning musical concepts in a rock or metal context. Heirs to all preceding drone-metal acts, they nonetheless…
Run Fatboy Run
Run Fatboy Run Director: David Schwimmer Screenwriter: David Schwimmer Cast: Simon Pegg, Hank Azaria, Thandie Newton Release Date: 2008-03-26 Website: http://www.runfatboyrunmovie.com/ Rated: PG-13 Genre: Romantic Comedy Oooh, that explains why this isn’t funny: David Schwimmer directed it! For a second there I thought nothing could overcome the magic certain to be borne of the writing…
Ultraviolet & Punk Bunny
Release Date: 2008-03-26 There’s a steady buzz surrounding fiery frontwoman Sarah Hudson and for good reason — once she takes hold of you, she’ll never let go. L.A. quartet Ultraviolet (right) pumps out addictive, electro-dance rock that demands you shake it. Since completing their first EP, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, last summer, the…
Aceyalone, 88 keys, DJ Drez, Truth Universal, MC One Eye, DJ EF Cuttin, OBX, & DJ Tech-neek
Release Date: 2008-03-26 A founding member of the pioneering rap group Freestyle Fellowship, revered emcee Aceyalone played a leading role in the evolution of literate hip-hop on the West Coast indie scene. Since then the prolific artist has released solo projects and collaborations, in addition to albums with Freestyle. 2007 saw the release of Aceyalone’s…
Chris Rock
Release Date: 2008-03-26 Comic heavyweight Chris Rock is on the road with all-new material for his first stand-up tour in three years — the “No Apologies” worldwide tour kicked off New Year’s Eve with a sold-out Madison Square Garden show. The three-time Emmy Award-winner hits San Antonio for one night only with an adults-only, intelligent…
CineMujer Film Festival
Release Date: 2008-03-26 Featuring more than 20 films from diverse communities around the world, CineMujer addresses a broad range of issues. One of many highlights is Antonia, a film depicting four young Afro-Brazilian women rap artists in Sao Paolo struggling against the racism and misogyny of the music industry as well as the challenges of…
Cesar E. Chavez March For Justice
Release Date: 2008-03-26 Join the community to celebrate the legacy of César Estrada Chávez, the labor leader who committed his life to the struggle for social justice. The San Antonio March aspires to be the largest in the nation honoring Chavez. The March to the Alamo begins at 1 p.m. after an assembly and program…
Lady be good
Dianne Reeves isn’t generally thought of as a songwriter, but when it came to wrapping up her new album, she knew that the closing statement she envisioned had yet to be written. So she wrote it herself, with more than a little inspiration from her mom. That track, “Today Will Be a Good Day,” is…
Married Life
It always pains me to use the word tandem “chamber drama,” but there you have it. Married Life is one of those. Set in the ’40s. Based on a book. With narration by Pierce Brosnan. Hey, come back here! It’s darkly funny! Ex-double-O is playboy Richard Langley, whose best friend and polar opposite, Harry Allen…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
One of our favorite local bands, Big Soy, will soon be heading to Ireland for a five-date April mini-tour, but before they start packing, they’ll headline a Thursday, March 27 gig at the Warhol (1011 Ave. B) with fellow SA duo Robo Trumble and El Paso’s Mexicans at Night. Showtime is 9 p.m. After they…
Stone City Attractions
Stone City Attractions Giveaways We will be giving away: 8 Stone City Attraction T-shirts 2 Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghost of Christmas Eve Dvds 2 Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Lost Christmas Cds To qualify, please send an email to: freebies@sacurrent.com Winners will be picked at random on Wednesday, April 2nd and notified by email. Winners…
Tone deft
Garage bands never die, they only fade away. Little Steven’s Underground Garage and the many garage-rock revivals have proven this much. But the Fleshtones won’t go quietly into that cold night. More than 30 years into a career that’s seen them laugh in the face of ridicule and spit in the face of imminent success,…
The optimist club
“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence,” wrote Italian radical Antonio Gramsci, “an optimist because of will.” No intelligent observer can deny that these are tough times for optimists. Global warming; environmental degradation; a widening chasm between the very rich and everyone else; continuing violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Tibet; corruption of the mighty; AIDS; contempt…
Playback
I know he’s a master of those torso-contorting serpentine dances, and he always turns up on the E! channel’s 100 Hottest Celebrity Body countdowns, but can we all now agree that Scott Weiland is the biggest tool in rock? Even after he gave up his early pilfering of Eddie Vedder’s every vocal inflection, and, with…
ARTIFACTS
Faithful Artifacts followers, forgive me. Why, you ask? I totally missed the boat on the San Antonio & Beyond prepaid pass. Yeah, if you didn’t take advantage of the pass during spring break, I’ll take full responsibility. Let me explain, it really is pretty awesome if you’re a tourist (if you’re a local, not so…
Backdoor draft
Kimberly Peirce hasn’t changed much physically since she wrote and directed the gender drama Boys Don’t Cry in 1999. Forty years old now, she’s still a sliver of a woman so small that it doesn’t sound particularly impressive when she says Channing Tatum, one of the stars of her latest opus, Stop-Loss, picked her up…
War without pepper
I would have left depressed had it not been so funny. Hollywood has realized that audiences just don’t want to watch movies about war — their war, specifically. Why would we want to see plays about it? Whether it’s the Iraq or the Peloponnesian, I’m not sure we do. Nonetheless, the Cellar Theater dishes out…
CRITICAL Darling
Remember how indecipherable the In Bruges trailer was, with all the swearing bleeped out? And what’s going on in Pineapple Express’s, right? (Uh, is it about the meteorological phenomenon?) So, those are approved-for-all “green band” trailers. Visit the websites for either of these films, enter your birthday, and you can view the “red band” trailers,…
Love is our battlefield
Girl Fight is a small retrospective of Kate Gilmore’s performance-based video work from the last four years. The Washington, D.C.-born artist creates a series of challenges and situations and records herself as she attempts to complete, conquer, or even just survive the trials. The show features eight videos, including “Endurance Makes Gold” (2008), a site-specific…
Immortal peril
New Amsterdam (FOX, Mondays, 9 pm) Why do mystics, wizards, and shamen always go overboard? Once upon a time, for example, when John Amsterdam was stabbed through the heart for stopping the rape of an Indian girl in like the 1600s or something, the girl’s people repaid him by healing him, then making him immortal,…
Perky’s Fifteen
Hours of idling tension marked South Hackberry yesterday as city crews descended to demolish the home of local folk artist and subterranean city visionary (ask him about it sometime) Rev. Seymour Perkins. Locked in a months-long dispute over the physical condition of his home and ongoing requests for the time to collect the money needed…
Ivory-tower takes on comix
The book of the moment for comic book fans may not be a comic. In the Ten-Cent Plague (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), author David Hajdu (whose Billy Strayhorn bio Lush Life and Greenwich Village history Positively 4th Street both earned praise) turns his yen for pop-culture examination toward the four-color throwaway stuff that held teen…
Part 3: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
Sorry, folks – busy day at the office. Here are some unconventional demonstrations of street-art: Little People- a tiny street art project How to make street art Reverse Graffiti: Clean Green Street Art Pretty City: street art in and around the nation’s capital Draw Here: Visual Street Art – Graffiti for the Web HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:…
Funny is as funny does
I’d always wondered, how can I open a bottle with my eye socket? I mean, is it even safe? Surely, it’s impossible … right? Not according to master trickster Sam Bartlett, artist, traveling musician, father of three, and writer of the about-to-be-released book The Best of Stuntology. “I tour, draw, and I take care of…
The other campaign for your heart and mind
I thought the script seemed a little familiar. It wasn’t another instance of accidentally channel-surfing into an episode of CSI: Miami and recognizing yet another ripped-from-the-headlines special. No, tonight’s TV feast featured the best political team on television — now there’s an unintentional punchline — going on about Hillary Clinton’s amazing comeback in the race…
Clothes-minded
Ruta Maya Riverwalk Coffee House continues to support local talent by hosting a fashion show for aspiring designers on Saturday, March 29 at 8 pm. Titled “De Colores” the show will focus on spring/summer collections for both men and women. Three of these emerging artists have been well mentored by San Antonio’s elder states(wo)men of…
Welcome to SAN ANTONIO
The Golden Goose, like the recession we’re not in and the peace dividend promised an undeclared war ago, is a wraith. Here today, in Timbuktu tomorrow. How do we know when we’ve starved or overburdened it? When it might disappear over the westerly horizon with the last drop of pure spring water sliding down its…
¡Ask a Mexican!
SPECIAL LAST COLUMN EDITION Dear Mexican: I’m a gay man in his mid-30s that has always loved Mexican men. And this question is not only from my experience, but also that of friends: Why is it that Mexican men are so flaky? They seem the top offending ethnicity in this. And, by flaky, I mean not…
Gotting to moove these refrigerators, color teevees
Equinox omens Earth’s regurgitation of color and the return of Leo the Lion to the night sky are not the only reminders that a season of renewal is underway. Actor-Jesus was actor-beaten through downtown city streets to remind us all how authorities deal with peacenik radicals; dirty rain was followed with a frosty blow and…
Dear Uncle Mat
I met this guy from Austin who is a friend of a friend. We met when he came into town a few weeks ago. We hung out several times over the weekend, with lots of great conversations and eventual really hot making out sessions. We talked on the phone the following week and I threw…
Free ‘gift certificate’ for all San Antonians
The proposed Visitor Tax extension will appear on the May 10 ballot. At this point, you are probably thinking you’d rather visit an overpriced dentist in Stone Oak than read about another bond election. But give me six minutes of your time dear reader. It will be worth it. You have been the recipient of…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): It’s a good time to start preparing for the shocks that will arrive when the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Some measures to consider: Learn how to use a gun, live off the grid, and gather edible plants that grow in the wild. APRIL FOOL! Everything I jut said…
Build it right the first time
If you own a home in Texas, you should get to know Janet Ahmad. In 1978, following a bad experience with a home builder, she founded Home Owners for Better Building. That year HOBB came within one vote of passing a city ordinance that would have required home builders to be licensed. After a period…
Oyster whites
It was really unfair, all of it. With the only criterion being to present wines that should be oyster-friendly, flavors and aromas were all over the map, making evaluation an exercise in focus and filtering. But why stop there? Omniboire also introduced actual oysters — eight varieties, each with its own flavor profile. Just to…
The Ruins
The Ruins Thursday, April 3rd 10:00pm at Santikos Palladium 17703 W. IH-10 We are out of passes for this screening
Amuse-BOUCHE
A-B is eagerly thumbing the new 2008 Zagat guide for Tejas. More than a thousand restaurants, four metropoli, and a single 29 for food on the 30-point scale: Andrew Weissman’s Le Rêve. His Sandbar follows close behind with a 28. Once you get over that epicurean rush, though, dining nirvana becomes noticeably rarer in SA…
Perky’s Fifteen
Hours of idling tension marked South Hackberry yesterday as city crews descended to demolish the home of local folk artist and subterranean city visionary (ask him about it sometime) Rev. Seymour Perkins. Locked in a months-long dispute over the physical condition of his home and ongoing requests for the time to collect the money needed…
Message in a bottle
I, Mark Collins, have been living here on the island of Vanuaca for the past eight years conducting anthropological studies. During my time here, I have been living with the Narpola family. They have been very diligent in living their lives as normally as possible, even with me watching their every move — up until…
Part 3: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
Sorry, folks – busy day at the office. Here are some unconventional demonstrations of street-art: Little People- a tiny street art project How to make street art Reverse Graffiti: Clean Green Street Art Pretty City: street art in and around the nation’s capital Draw Here: Visual Street Art – Graffiti for the Web HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:…
Bake Now
We’re all twisted in SA. Poised on the brink of investing billions for two nuke plants that will likely be obsolete by the time they get online. In the meantime, solar is making strong plays, with many mainstream scientists coming to see the potential for solar (coupled with efficiency measures, other renewables, and natural gas)…
Part 2: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
Today’s lesson highlights two of the most influential street artists around: D*Face and Banksy. Their work has inspired a legion of budding graffiti artists and have pissed off quite a few police officers in the process, too. Dean Stockton, or D*Face, is a more commercial artists, in a sense. However, with his mantra of “Look…
Bake Now
We’re all twisted in SA. Poised on the brink of investing billions for two nuke plants that will likely be obsolete by the time they get online. In the meantime, solar is making strong plays, with many mainstream scientists coming to see the potential for solar (coupled with efficiency measures, other renewables, and natural gas)…
Part 2: A Guide to Recognizing your Street Art
Today’s lesson highlights two of the most influential street artists around: D*Face and Banksy. Their work has inspired a legion of budding graffiti artists and have pissed off quite a few police officers in the process, too. Dean Stockton, or D*Face, is a more commercial artists, in a sense. However, with his mantra of “Look…
