5 Things You Have to Do This Week
Mon 3/31 “Talking to the Brain in Its Own Language” In conjunction with its Distinguished Scientists Lecture Series, Trinity welcomes physiology and biophysics professor Sheila Nirenberg of New York’s Weill Cornell Medical College. Recipient of a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship (often referred to as a “Genius Grant”), Nirenberg will shed light on new technologies for treating…
Lying Liar Rick Dyer Admits To Lying About Bigfoot
Lying sack of shit Rick Dyer has admitted to being just that. The self-proclaimed master tracker confessed on Facebook that the Bigfoot he claimed he shot in far west San Antonio and subsequently put on display was the hoax it so very obviously was. “Coming clean about everything is necessary for a new start!” Dyer said in…
Hot Joy Opens Thursday, April 3
We’ve been chomping at the bit for Hot Joy (1014 S Alamo) to open its doors and the day is finally here. The Asian pop-up-turned-restaurant will open for business April 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and a smaller late night eats menu from 11 p.m. to 2…
SA Book Festival Interview: Dr. John Prados, military intelligence expert
I was honored to be asked to moderate a panel on domestic surveillance with two leading authors on the subject: Dr. John Prados, senior fellow at the National Security Archive and author of The Family Jewels: CIA, Secrecy and Presidential Power and Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild and author of Spying…
Miles at the Fillmore: A live peek into the mind of a genius
To dive into the early ’70s dates of trumpeter Miles Davis is like throwing yourself into the bullfighter’s ring with no sword, no cape and no training, victim to the rhythms of Miles’ bloodsport. It’s raw, unrelenting and spiritual music, extraordinary in its ability to move from textural ambience to avant-funk scorchers. In the summer…
Sunday Night Sound Bite: Marion Band$: “Hold Up” featuring Nispey Hussle (Crizzly Remix)
You might’ve already noticed, but San Antonio-based “crunkstep” DJ/producer Chris Lee “Crizzly” Marshall of the Ghostpizza gang is officially blowing up. Not only is the 21-year-old once again joining the Vans Warped Tour (which touches down at the AT&T Center on June 14), he’s playing at (already sold-out) Lollapolooza in Chicago (August 1-3 in Grant…
What I Ate: BBQ research, SAFlavor photos and a really big donut
Another food adventure-filled week is in the books and I need an Alka Seltzer. See what you missed at Thursday’s SA Flavor event, and what the Pearl looks like in the early morning before the masses start shopping. Bonus points if you recognize my barbecue plates. For more food porn, follow me on Instagram: @JessElizarraras.…
One Big Scrappy Family in ‘Crumbs from the Table of Joy’
Both A Raisin in the Sun, which the Renaissance Guild revived last year, and Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris’ reconception of Lorraine Hansberry’s play (currently in production at the Cellar Theatre), evoke African American family life in the urban North on the eve of the civil rights revolution. So, too, does the Renaissance Guild’s latest offering,…
Aural Pleasures: Cloud Nothings, ‘Here and Nowhere Else’
Cloud Nothings, Here and Nowhere Else (Carpark Records) Dylan Baldi’s fourth album as Cloud Nothings follows right along where 2012’s masterful Attack on Memory left off. Both albums are full of rigid textures worked into smooth arrangements, both make good use of the juxtaposition of bright and dark spaces, and both are solid examples of…
Aural Pleasures: Mac DeMarco, ‘Salad Days’
Mac DeMarco, Salad Days (Captured Tracks) In a 2012 interview with Exclaim, DeMarco described his sound as “jizz jazz.” Apart from the disturbing connotations of the word “jizz,” the phrase seems apt to describe his lackadaisical pop-hued sound on his third Captured Tracks release Salad Days. Deeply anchored by groovy and crisp bass lines and…
Aural Pleasures: Future Islands, ‘Singles’
Future Islands, Singles (4AD Records) I recently attempted to explain my obsession with Future Islands’ performance on Letterman to a friend. “It’s like synth-pop with a singer who acts like ’50s Marlon Brando playing King Lear and dances like your uncle in a community production of West Side Story. Oh, and he does a death…
Last Weekend to Vote in Best of San Antonio!
“Tick-tock, I’m watching the clock. I can’t wait ’til we get to rock and throw a love parade …” OK, that’s a Janelle Monae lyric, but I am rather anxious to see who all the winners are for our 2014 Best of San Antonio readers poll. You can only vote through the end of March,…
Maura Reilly and Linda Pace Foundation Part Ways
Photo by Andrew Watson UPDATED: March 30, 2014, 10:45 a.m. The Current learned Friday evening that Dr. Maura Reilly, who joined The Linda Pace Foundation as executive director just last June, has parted ways with LPF. Rick Moore, president of the Linda Pace Foundation, confirmed late Saturday evening that Reilly left LPF effective Thursday, March…
La Panaderia Opens April 11
(Courtesy Marks Moore Photography) Call it a Fiesta gift–La Panaderia will open its doors at 10 a.m. Friday, April 11 at 8305 Broadway. The bake shop is the brick-and-mortar offshoot of brother Victor and Jose Caceres who are bringing their bread cultura to San Antonio. Goodies via La Panaderia will still be available at the…
Rosario’s North Readies for Opening
A look at the main dining room at Rosario’s North. Rosario’s third location is days from opening on the city’s North side. Located at 9715 San Pedro inside the former Barbaresco, Rosario’s adds more color than its predecessor with bright orange and signature hot pink walls found in its other two locations. The restaurant is…
Bonehead Quote of the Week: Gov. Rick Perry on the Equal Pay Law
The topic of equal pay has been taking over the state dialogue lately, so when Republican Gov. Rick Perry showed up to the studios of MSNBC this week, hosts of Morning Joe didn’t hesitate to ask why he opted to veto a bi-partisan bill last year that would help women with pay discrimination lawsuits in…
Supporting Local Radio: A guide to SA’s Public Radio Pledge Drives
Earlier this week, San Antonio College’s KSYM kicked off pledge/fund/membership drive season among San Antonio’s public radio community. As listener-supported stations, SA’s public radio relies upon its audience for a significant chunk of their budget. So, if the extended on-air banter this week can’t convince you to go from regular listener to full-time, rent-paying member…
Update: Cured to Reopen Thursday
SAFD checking out the scene at Cured earlier this afternoon. A possible issue with the ventilation system inside Cured’s kitchen shut down the restaurant this afternoon. Four firetrucks and several police cars were at the scene. Kitchen and waitstaff members waited outside the restaurant along with diners who were ushered out of the eatery at…
Flower Jesus and Low Times Release “Cosmic American Music” Split at Hi-Tones Tonight
Cosmic American Music Creatura’s lysergic Open the Door isn’t the only release coming from tonight’s party at Hi-Tones. The evolving sounds of SA’s Flower Jesus will be documented in their current form on Cosmic American Music, a split release with Dick Dalin’, psych-surf outfit Low Times. Featuring six cuts from Flower Jesus on Side A and six from Low Times…
New Owners for Broadway 5050’s Original Location
(Courtesy) After a fire took out the kitchen and months of will-they-won’t-they reopen, Broadway 5050’s original location is back at it. The bar and burger lounge reopened its doors on March 17 under new ownership by husband-and-wife team PJ and Nicole Gottsacker, Alamo Heights natives and owners of Gruene Harley Davidson and Javelina Harley Davidson.…
Shot of the Week: The Next Morning
For those kind of mornings (Dustin Dooling) We are quickly approaching that time of year again where alarm clocks go out the window and the party seems to never stop: it’s (almost) Fiesta time. From NIOSA to the parades and Fiesta Royalty, Alamo City denizens take to the streets, parks, alleys and anywhere else not…
Paul Chávez Talks ‘César Chávez’ and Reminisces About Life with Father
President and chairman of the César Chávez Foundation, Paul F. Chávez, the sixth of eight children César and Helen Chávez had together during their 45-year marriage, always knew growing up the importance of the work his father was doing for labor unions and farmworkers. With César Chávez, the first feature film ever made about his…
Update: SAPD Will Arrest Lyft Drivers
UPDATE: March 28, 2014, 4:15 p.m. Mayor Julian Castro came out with in support of Lyft this morning, despite objections from the San Antonio Police Department. He posted his support in Facebook and Twitter. We can make Lyft, Uber and similar services work in San Antonio. They need to meet strong standards for safety and quality…
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Texas Abortion Law
Update: Plaintiffs in the case challenging Texas’ abortion restrictive law are asking the Fifth Circuit to reconsider its decision to uphold the legislation. The groups— Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights— filed a petition today requesting the court review the constitutionality of House Bill 2. “We’re asking the court to acknowledge what is crystal…
Conger’s Smoke Shack is Open for Lunch
Some serious BBQ. (Courtesy) Another food truck-turned-brick-and-mortar eatery is here. This time via Conger’s Smoke Shack. The beloved barbecue fare is now at 3714 Broadway next to the Schulz Nursery. Lunch is Monday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for now. Conger’s trailer on Nacogdoches is still open with the same hours.
10 Things You Have to Do This Weekend
Thu 3/27 – Sat 3/29 World Theatre Day Launched in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute, World Theatre Day (March 27) plays out in a range of global events laced together by a message written by a different figure each year. Penned by South African playwright Brett Bailey and addressing the “irrepressible spirit of performance,”…
Van de Putte Launches Statewide Bus Tour
This weekend, San Antonio state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte takes her campaign on the road. The Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor plans to kick off a bus tour on Sunday in SA, making stops in more than 15 cities across the state. Van de Putte, extensively profiled in the Current’s March 26 cover story,…
6 NSA/Surveillance Blogs to Follow
Recently, I’ve been digging into the NSA surveillance controversy, prompted in part by a panel I’ll be moderating at the San Antonio Book Festival next weekend . The panel features longtime U.S. intelligence expert Dr. John Prados, whose latest book (I think it’s his latest, dude releases like five books a year) The Family Jewels: The…
5 Ways to Get Your Drink/Grub on this Week
(Courtesy) Saturday, March 29: Come drink for a cause. It’s cocktails for the cure at Dor?ol Distilling Company benefiting Susan G. Komen San Antonio. 8pm-1am, 1902 S Flores, (210) 229-0607, facebook.com/DorcolDistilling. Saturday, March 29: Gaucho Gourmet will present a very wide selection of cheeses with a grand cheese tasting of 40-50 of the best European…
Max Brooks’ Graphic Novel “The Harlem Hellfighters” Turns his attention from Zombies to WWI
An author who’s made millions bringing life to his poignant, violent and well-crafted visions of zombie lit, Max Brooks has turned his attention back to reality for his newest effort The Harlem Hellfighters, in stores on April 1. A collaborative project with illustrator Canaan White, the graphic novel documents the 368th Infantry Regiment’s trials and successes…
Booze News: Girls’ Pint Out, Blue Box Menu Launch and Blue Star at Lüke
Booze News slings up the latest gulp downs around town every Tuesday. All this and burgers too. (Courtesy) Wednesday, March 26 is another Girls’ Pint Out at Big Bob’s Burgers (447 W Hildebrand) from 7 to 9 p.m. San Antonio Girls’ Pint Out encourages you to bring a non craft beer drinking friend to try…
Travels With Frenchie: Shisha Cafe
To the possible curiosity of the local public and likely general annoyance of other food critics, the Travels with Frenchie power trio returns after a four-year hiatus to further traverse the local hinterland in search of interesting dining experiences. As before, the culinary vice squad includes Fabien Jacob, aka Frenchie (now a Certified Sommelier from…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I have coined a new word just for your horoscope this week. It’s “zex,” short for “zen sex.” Zex is a kind of sex in which your mind is at rest, empty of all thoughts. You breathe slowly and calmly, move slowly and calmly, grunt and moan slowly and calmly. You…
Richter Co. Hosts First Taco Tuesday
Tacos (top), fixins (bottom right) and the adult horchata (bottom left). Full-time clothing store/shop, part-time taqueria? Well, sorta. The Richter Co. (616 Broadway), the garment company founded by Mario Guajardo, held its first Taco Tuesday tonight from 6-11 p.m. The shop also plays host to a slew of other events including yoga sessions, dinners and…
Leticia Van de Putte’s Lite Guv Bid Assures One Outcome: She will be heard
Ten minutes left on the clock. The tension, palpable. The chaos, looming. By now, the scene had drawn an estimated 180,000 viewers from around the country, even attracting the attention of President Barack Obama. Orange-clad activists filled the Texas Capitol gallery in solidarity with state Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Forth Worth), who stood for 11 hours…
Bottle & Tap: 9 spring brews from Texas
I’m a big believer in seasonal drinking–some beers just taste better in certain weather. As we transition from winter to spring, here’s a taste of limited-release seasonal quaffs coming from Texas brewers as everything turns green. (I’m limiting this list to most of what’s available in or near San Antonio.) Fredericksburg’s Pedernales Brewing reports they’ll…
Wake and Bake: Aspen’s Brew offers feel-good coffee on Northwest side
Looking for a place to grab your daily coffee where you’ll be known by name rather than your drink order? Check out Aspen’s Brew (11255 Huebner, Ste 100, (210) 561-5551), and discover what a joy grabbing a cup of joe can be. Located on the corner of a strip center near the busy intersection of…
Savage Love: Noise Makers
READERS: A crowd of smart, engaged students packed a theater for Savage Love Live at Centenary College of Louisiana last week. Centenary is a terrific liberal arts school in Shreveport. Centenary students submitted more Qs than I could possibly A in the 90 minutes I had with them. So here are some bonus answers to…
Leon Russell Rides off on His ‘Final Journey’ High in the Seat
Leon Russell wasn’t exactly lost, but thanks to Elton John, he’s been rediscovered. After their collaboration on 2010’s The Union, the Oklahoma songwriter enjoys his highest profile since the early ’70s when he released three gold records in as many years. He’s resurfaced just in time for his brand of grizzled gospel-roots to catch a…
‘Clybourne Park’ Take on 50-year-old ‘Raisin’ is Slightly Stale
Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and John Updike’s novel Gertrude and Claudius put the cast and universe of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to fresh uses. Clybourne Park, too, recycles a familiar play–Lorraine Hansberry’s earnest 1959 drama A Raisin in the Sun. Bruce Norris sets his 2010 piece in the living room of 406 Clybourne…
Keepin’ SA Real at Bottom Bracket Social Club
On March 2, approaching dawn, unknown assailants with a penchant for automotive violence slammed their beater into the front door of the Bottom Bracket Social Club (the same fate that struck Tucker’s Kozy Korner twice in January). The suspects took a television, $300, a few bottles of booze and smashed the jukebox out of malice,…
No Se Pudo: The mostly unexceptional ‘César Chávez’ biopic
As the credits began to roll at the end of director Diego Luna’s much-anticipated film César Chávez during its North American premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, a number of moviegoers sprung from their seats in spirited applause. Led by audience members wearing red shirts with the United Farm Workers insignia (a black Aztec eagle)…
D.T. Buffkin on Merle Haggard, Race and Every Song Ever Written
If you are not familiar with Jimmie Rodgers, or the “Blue Yodeler” or the “Singing Brakeman,” you’re probably a son of a bitch. He is considered the Father of Country Music to most that care, and he recorded with Satchmo (aka Louis Armstrong) in 1930. In 1930, when even music was segregated to the “popular”…
Zoko Finds Its Groove Inside Former Auden’s Kitchen
When Zoko Restaurant Bar & Grill opened its doors in late January, the eatery had an extra obstacle to clear. Zoko occupies the same space once held by Auden’s Kitchen, Bruce Auden’s new American eatery, which closed last February. Outwardly, not much has changed, but a step inside revealed a new lavender paint job and…
Creatura Rising: Far-out local psych-rockers celebrate debut EP
San Antonio’s own Creatura, a power-packing psych-rock quintet led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Divina (aka Emma Felicia), has developed a unique and mesmerizing sound in its short life as a band. Born in June 2013 through the type of serendipity that is almost enough to make a determinist out of me, Creatura has been melting…
Just Happens to Be LGBT: New LULAC Chapter Focuses on LGBT Latina/os
Although Latinos and Latinas have come a long way in the history of this country (and this city), we’re not a monolithic culture. In fact, we’re as diverse as any other culture, and face challenges internally as well as externally. As with any group, there’s a unique set of circumstances that LGBT Latinos face. Whether…
Thrills, chills and two Jake Gyllenhaals in ‘Enemy’
There are movies about doppelgangers, and there are movies in which doppelgangers appear. And then there is Enemy, based on José Saramago’s 2002 novel The Double, which is unlike any other doppelganger movie. It doesn’t really operate under any discernible set of rules; in fact, it doesn’t seem to aspire to mundane concepts such as rules.…
Artpace’s International Artists-in-Residence Geek Out
I’ve been a big fan of Los Angeles County Museum of Art Associate Curator Rita Gonzalez’s curatorial work since “Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement,” the most provocative and, to my mind, unmissable traveling contemporary exhibition of 2009. In “Phantom Sightings,” Gonzalez went past an encyclopedic approach to “Chicano art” (itself a hugely problematic…
Gloria Steinem Feminist and “Hopeaholic” Turns 80
Today is Gloria Steinem’s 80th birthday, and while Google doodle dropped the ball, the least I can do is direct your attention to one bright spot in the internet that is commemorating her legacy. Makers is a unique digital portal that introduces you to thousands of inspiring, radical women. It has a library of short…
An Interview with Diego Luna, Director of ‘Cesar Chavez’
Diego Luna, the director Although it had taken the family of César Chávez a few long years to release the late civil rights leader’s story to a filmmaker they felt could capture it correctly, it didn’t take much time for Diego Luna to convince them that he was the right man for the job. “I was…
H-E-B Gains National Attention For Its Awesome Commercials and General Awesomeness
When H-E-B is not flexing their corporate muscle to divert downtown traffic, the San Antonio-based grocery chain is joining forces with the Spurs to sell you pre-cooked brisket. Last week, ESPN highlighted those goofy, but memorable H-E-B commercials featuring the stars of San Antonio Spurs. Everyone knows these ads. They dominate the commercial break during playoff season. “I’m…
Op-Ed: Bill O’Reilly’s Number One Mission in Life
Bill O’Reilly Frederick Williams is an adjunct professor at San Antonio College and the author of Fires of Greenwood: The Tulsa Riot of 1921. He wrote this op-ed. Bill O’Reilly of FOX News seems to be on a one-man demolition mission to destroy the image of the African-American family, the women and the culture. He seems to be stuck…
Digital Media Interns Wanted
Update: August 18, 2014 Marshall Naylor and Nick Joyner were two interns from the Spring and Summer sessions. Naylor carved his niche in writing about nerd culture and the swell of “nerd-cons” we’ve been having in San Antonio; readers went wild for his slideshow documenting the Coolest Star Wars Nerds at the SA Wookiee Walk. Naylor’s weekly blogging…
Texas Officials In Support of Hobby Lobby ‘Religious Freedom’ Supreme Court Case
Update: It turns out Hobby Lobby invested million in the makers of the contraceptive prescriptions they are now suing the federal government over. In a case that’s reached the U.S. Supreme Court, the craft supply chain store is fighting for their (religious-)right to prevent paying for employee’s birth control methods under the Affordable Care Act.…
The Curator Diaries Week 6: Thank you
Every exhibition takes an army of people to pull it off. This year’s CAM Perennial is no different. In the end I met with 27 artists over the course of three weeks, a feat that would have been totally impossible had it not been for Chris Sauter, who drove me around from Stone Oak, the…
