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Cyclers …. Come out and play-ee-ay …
Awright! All you rabble-rousers, malcontents and thugs: nce yer done marching for Cesar, go home and nap until about 6pm. Then chug something with Taurine in it, mount your two-wheeler and head to Southtown for the BIKE GANG SUMMIT. Anti-bike ganger Colonel D. Williams (Ret.) has released a list of bike gangs who plan on attending:…
Armchair Cinephile
This week, the New Releases shelf is very much a stick-your-neck-out affair, with an assortment of guilty pleasures and boy-do-I-hope-they’re-pleasures. What am I talking about, exactly? Well, there’s Alexander Revisited: The Unrated Final Cut (Warner). After releasing a dud in the theaters, then taking a second crack at cutting it for the DVD market, are…
Five-Foot Nothin’
Natassia Marchbanks Natassia Marchbanks is a 19-year-old student at San Antonio College. Her interests are band, dance, and cardio-thorasic surgery. She’s short, buff, and socks-off charming. She’s also an unsuccessful pageant addict. So, how have you done in the pageants? Well, to be quite honest … Please, please … “To be quite deceitful …” Oh…
Glamour 101
Whenever you watch a pageant and one of those glamour headshots bursts onto the screen, there’s a good chance Sheila Robertson-Bantz’s eyelining pen played a part. Robertson-Bantz is a 17-year veteran of the Miss America, Miss USA, and Galaxy pageant circuits, and a consultant to NFL and NHL cheerleading squads (including the Dallas Cowboys’), and…
Glamour 101
Whenever you watch a pageant and one of those glamour headshots bursts onto the screen, there’s a good chance Sheila Robertson-Bantz’s eyelining pen played a part. Robertson-Bantz is a 17-year veteran of the Miss America, Miss USA, and Galaxy pageant circuits, and a consultant to NFL and NHL cheerleading squads (including the Dallas Cowboys’), and…
Five-Foot Nothin’
Natassia Marchbanks Natassia Marchbanks is a 19-year-old student at San Antonio College. Her interests are band, dance, and cardio-thorasic surgery. She’s short, buff, and socks-off charming. She’s also an unsuccessful pageant addict. So, how have you done in the pageants? Well, to be quite honest … Please, please … “To be quite deceitful …” Oh…
Buffet Bliss & Blah
Release Date: 2007-03-28 Spice Café 8515 Starcrest @ Loop 410 946-1309 11:30am-10pm Sun; 11am-10pm Mon-Thu; 11am-10:30pm Fri & Sat Cash only Price range: Buffets $6-$7.99; entrées $4.50-$7.99 Bathrooms not accessible In 2001, Robin Cook, Tony Blair’s Foreign Minister, declared what many travelers had long held to be gospel: chicken tikka masala is a national dish…
The Fast Foodie
This critic was spellbound by the TV show Gidget growing up — perhaps the only black, inner-city tweener planning her summer vacation around Sally Field’s exploits at the beach. So I know to expect a shaman-from-the-sea when someone/thing is called “big kahuna” … And the Viet-boho new owner of Big Kahuna’s is the closest thing…
The Queque
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Sound and the Fury
Hail Cesar For the second consecutive year, activist Latino-funk ensemble Bombasta will supply the polyrhythms at SA’s annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice. The Saturday, March 31 march, which celebrates the 80th birthday of the late, pioneering labor leader, will end at the Alamo, and Bombasta is scheduled to perform there at approximately 1:45…
Indie-Pop Pharmacy
By denise blaz email? “Where can I throw this away,” I ask Blake Cormier, lead singer of indie-rock band Druggist, referring to my empty water cup. “Right here,” Cormier says pointing to the trashcan. “Yes, help yourself. You can take anything you want in there, we don’t want it,” he says in his all-but-constant sarcastic…
The Queque
111
Sound and the Fury
Bombasta’s Roberto Livar. Courtesy photo. Hail Cesar For the second consecutive year, activist Latino-funk ensemble Bombasta will supply the polyrhythms at SA’s annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice. The Saturday, March 31 march, which celebrates the 80th birthday of the late, pioneering labor leader, will end at the Alamo, and Bombasta is scheduled to…
Super-Estrella
On January 20, the Silver Dollar Saloon hosted an event that general manager Skyler Blue called “the most excitement the strip has experienced in many years.” The production provoked similar responses from other eyewitnesses. “More than once I overheard people say, ‘This has been the best day ever’ … ‘I’ve had so much fun,’” said…
The Queque
111
All Ears
One of the most lovely surprises of this year’s SXSW was that, after it became clear that Rickie Lee Jones was playing only new songs at the Direct TV taping I caught, I found myself not minding one bit. All the more surprising because I hadn’t heard the songs, just released on The Sermon on…
The Queque
Because the biweekly Texas Observer only has a meager circulation of 8,000 readers, the Queque thought it’d repeat something found in its latest edition about the hip-hop record label that helped with the Queque’s early-onset puberty. (We were in a parking lot after a junior-high dance. Some teenagers drove up blasting the Beastie Boys’ “Brass…
Indie-Pop Pharmacy
“Where can I throw this away,” I ask Blake Cormier, lead singer of indie-rock band Druggist, referring to my empty water cup. “Right here,” Cormier says pointing to the trashcan. “Yes, help yourself. You can take anything you want in there, we don’t want it,” he says in his all-but-constant sarcastic manner. The members of…
Hollywood declares war on Iranians
At Lulu’s, the all-night diner of last resort on Main, I was propositioned by the early Brandon Lee-before-his-success/death-with-the-Crow waiter: “You want to download some quality new movie releases before they get to video?” Seems like this guy had the ins on a website, and had downloaded the movie 300, which he’d watched 4 times…
Beached Tale
When I read, I hunt for unforgettable passages. And by unforgettable, I don’t mean words that automatically etch themselves into my brain. My memory doesn’t work like that. Instead, I mean I’m hungry for passages that I won’t let myself forget, that I’ll want to bookmark, reread, and hold handy for whiskey-fueled late-night debates with…
Hollywood declares war on Iranians
Posted by Keli Dailey at 02:39 pm on 03.27.2007 At Lulu’s, the all-night diner of last resort on Main, I was propositioned by the early Brandon Lee-before-his-success/death-with-the-Crow waiter: “You want to download some quality new movie releases before they get to video?” Seems like this guy had the ins on a website, and…
Framed
More Batman comics hit the stands each year than any sane person would ever read, but the soft spot I’ve always had for the character leads me to watch for those that try something different with him. The new Batman Year 100 (DC) certainly does that, imagining the Caped Crusader resurfacing in the year 2039,…
Hollywood declares war on Iranians
Posted by Keli Dailey at 02:39 pm on 03.27.2007 At Lulu’s, the all-night diner of last resort on Main, I was propositioned by the early Brandon Lee-before-his-success/death-with-the-Crow waiter: “You want to download some quality new movie releases before they get to video?” Seems like this guy had the ins on a website, and…
Real Estate
ddd
Super-Estrella
ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1 7:30pm Wed Apr 4 $12 general; $10 student, senior Metropolitan Community Church of San Antonio 611 E. Myrtle 857-4233 Getjaded.com On January 20, the Silver Dollar Saloon hosted an event that general manager Skyler Blue called “the most excitement the strip has experienced in…
Hollywood declares war on Iranians
Posted by Keli Dailey at 02:39 pm on 03.27.2007 At Lulu’s, the all-night diner of last resort on Main, I was propositioned by the early Brandon Lee-before-his-success/death-with-the-Crow waiter: “You want to download some quality new movie releases before they get to video?” Seems like this guy had the ins on a website, and…
Buffet Bliss & Blah
Spice Café 8515 Starcrest @ Loop 410 946-1309 11:30am-10pm Sun; 11am-10pm Mon-Thu; 11am-10:30pm Fri & Sat Cash only Price range: Buffets $6-$7.99; entrées $4.50-$7.99 Bathrooms not accessible In 2001, Robin Cook, Tony Blair’s Foreign Minister, declared what many travelers had long held to be gospel: chicken tikka masala is a national dish of Britain. For…
The Art Capades
International Artist-In-Residence 07.1 Noon-5pm Wed-Sun; noon-8pm Thu Through May 13 Free Artpace 445 N. Main 212-4900 Artpace.org What works as art these days? I can’t go with “everything is art,” because then of course “nothing is art” would also be true, and while that’s probably an exhilarating proposition for 20-something philosophy students, I find it…
Hollywood declares war on Iranians
Posted by Keli Dailey at 02:39 pm on 03.27.2007 At Lulu’s, the all-night diner of last resort on Main, I was propositioned by the early Brandon Lee-before-his-success/death-with-the-Crow waiter: “You want to download some quality new movie releases before they get to video?” Seems like this guy had the ins on a website, and…
Buffet Bliss & Blah
Chicken tandoori surrounded by (clockwise from top) naan, cauliflower and peas, tikka masala, goat curry, and steamed rice. Spice Café 8515 Starcrest @ Loop 410 946-1309 11:30am-10pm Sun; 11am-10pm Mon-Thu; 11am-10:30pm Fri & Sat Cash only Price range: Buffets $6-$7.99; entrées $4.50-$7.99 Bathrooms not accessible In 2001, Robin Cook, Tony Blair’s Foreign Minister, declared what…
Planting, Sowing, Reaping a Lifeline
Uprooted: The Katrina Project 8 pm Fri, Mar 30 & Sat, Mar 31 $12 general; $9 student, senior 8 pm Thu, Mar 29, free preview for Katrina Evacuees Jump-Start Theatre 108 Blue Star 227-5867 Jump-start.org The winds have subsided and the headlines are gone. But for many of those who survived Hurricane Katrina (and the…
Hollywood declares war on Iranians
Posted by Keli Dailey at 02:39 pm on 03.27.2007 At Lulu’s, the all-night diner of last resort on Main, I was propositioned by the early Brandon Lee-before-his-success/death-with-the-Crow waiter: “You want to download some quality new movie releases before they get to video?” Seems like this guy had the ins on a website, and…
Buffet Bliss & Blah
Chicken tandoori surrounded by (clockwise from top) naan, cauliflower and peas, tikka masala, goat curry, and steamed rice. Spice Café 8515 Starcrest @ Loop 410 946-1309 11:30am-10pm Sun; 11am-10pm Mon-Thu; 11am-10:30pm Fri & Sat Cash only Price range: Buffets $6-$7.99; entrées $4.50-$7.99 Bathrooms not accessible In 2001, Robin Cook, Tony Blair’s Foreign Minister, declared what…
Hollywood declares war on Iranians
Posted by Keli Dailey at 02:39 pm on 03.27.2007 At Lulu’s, the all-night diner of last resort on Main, I was propositioned by the early Brandon Lee before-his-success/death-with- the-Crow waiter: “You want to download some quality new movie releases before they get to video?” Seems like this guy had the ins on a website,…
Spittin’ Game
So let’s get this out of the way: This is the game that comes with the chance to download the Halo 3 beta when it’s released. Crackdown is probably worth your money on its own, though. In a sort of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup stroke of genius, the geeks at Microsoft have thought to combine…
Little César
11th Annual César E. Chávez March for Justice Sat 11am assembly and program Plaza Avenida Guadalupe (1321 El Paso) 1pm March to the Alamo Sachavezfoundation.org Senator Robert F. Kennedy called him “one of the heroic figures of our time.” Author Rudolfo Anaya said he was “a soft breeze to cool the campesino’s sweat.” “But before…
Spittin’ Game
So let’s get this out of the way: This is the game that comes with the chance to download the Halo 3 beta when it’s released. Crackdown is probably worth your money on its own, though. In a sort of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup stroke of genius, the geeks at Microsoft have thought to combine…
Little César
11th Annual César E. Chávez March for Justice Sat 11am assembly and program Plaza Avenida Guadalupe (1321 El Paso) 1pm March to the Alamo Sachavezfoundation.org Senator Robert F. Kennedy called him “one of the heroic figures of our time.” Author Rudolfo Anaya said he was “a soft breeze to cool the campesino’s sweat.” “But before…
Spittin’ Game
Crackdown Xbox 360 $59.99 Indigo Prophecy Xbox Price varies (from $13.25 at Amazon.com) So let’s get this out of the way: This is the game that comes with the chance to download the Halo 3 beta when it’s released. Crackdown is probably worth your money on its own, though. In a sort of Reese’s Peanut…
Little César
11th Annual César E. Chávez March for Justice Sat 11am assembly and program Plaza Avenida Guadalupe (1321 El Paso) 1pm March to the Alamo Sachavezfoundation.org Senator Robert F. Kennedy called him “one of the heroic figures of our time.” Author Rudolfo Anaya said he was “a soft breeze to cool the campesino’s sweat.” “But before…
Aural Pleasure
Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock’s appeal has always depended on the sense that he’s slightly unhinged. His most striking vocals have been glorious rants, rabid-dog tantrums that only intermittently intersect with standard concepts of pitch and melody. Much to the dismay of his ’90s clique, Brock toned down that hysteria a bit for the band’s…
Little César
Top: Rita and César Chávez making their First Communion. Above: Rita Chávez Medina today. 11th Annual César E. Chávez March for Justice Sat 11am assembly and program Plaza Avenida Guadalupe (1321 El Paso) 1pm March to the Alamo Sachavezfoundation.org Senator Robert F. Kennedy called him “one of the heroic figures of our time.” Author Rudolfo…
Aural Pleasure
Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock’s appeal has always depended on the sense that he’s slightly unhinged. His most striking vocals have been glorious rants, rabid-dog tantrums that only intermittently intersect with standard concepts of pitch and melody. Much to the dismay of his ’90s clique, Brock toned down that hysteria a bit for the band’s…
The Queque
111
Aural Pleasure
Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock’s appeal has always depended on the sense that he’s slightly unhinged. His most striking vocals have been glorious rants, rabid-dog tantrums that only intermittently intersect with standard concepts of pitch and melody. Much to the dismay of his ’90s clique, Brock toned down that hysteria a bit for the band’s…
last words
A Quick Guide to Not-Us By: The Current Team Sometimes, you just run out of the Current. You finish the news, the culture, the cartoons, skim the sex personals, read everyone’s horoscope, and still you discover your coffee’s got a few drops left. You need something else to read. You could pick up the latest monstrosity from…
The Omniboire
Courtesy photo In springtime — or any time, for that matter — the young oenophile’s fancy rarely turns to thoughts of the wines of Basilicata. Or Campania. Or Puglia … despite the fact that Southern Italy is one of the world’s oldest wine-producing regions, home to grapes with names such as uva di troia (yes,…
The Say-Town Lowdown – Guest Column
Earlier this month, the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group founded by Cecil Richards (daughter of the late Governor Ann Richards), released its second annual report on the state of the Religious Right in Texas. The report, God’s Lawgivers, highlights a special 14-person “watchlist” (including San Antonio’s Ken Mercer, recently elected to the State Board…
The Queque
The weather’s been so beautiful this week that the Queque has had trouble concentrating on the news. And so, while the boss was away on vacation, we found ourselves lost in unimportant mid-summer ponderings, such as trying to convince the Current’s media editor that Lars Von Trier’s Dogville was a rip-off of Dog Day starring…
Passion of the Crist
Saving Texas: Schuylar Crist. Photo by Kiko MJartinez As I listen to laundry list of political organizations that local ultra-right-wing activist Schuylar (prounounced Sky-lar) Crist (rhymes with twist) belongs to, the rock anthem “Making Time” (played, appropriately, by the Creation) from the Rushmore soundtrack plays in my mind. Crist’s extracurricular activities are exhaustive in their…
Divested Interests
First, a quick lesson on the limits of divestment when you’re trying to change the world. Consider the case of the Prison Moratorium Project and its No More Prisons campaign of the late ’90s, a student-based movement that sought to end the U.S. expansion of private prisons. The project sicced the Young Democratic Socialists on…
Spittin’ Game
Superman Returns Electronic Arts Xbox 360, Playstation 2 $49.99-59.99 Drop $60 for this and you’re mostly buying a valuable life lesson. Superman video games are like movies featuring Martin Lawrence in drag. No one’s made a good one, ever, and they never will. Please stop giving these evil people money. At least this time EA’s…
The Mashup
From the Editor When I was promoted to editor of the Current 10 months ago, a good friend gave me a piece of advice: Don’t spend time criticizing the San Antonio Express-News, he said, because … well, I don’t actually remember his rationale, but I generally follow the suggestion since, to borrow liberally from Sir…
Framed
Gary Panter’s 10” Jimbo vinyl figure comes with a real fabric loincloth (with cool genital-covering action!) and a creepy stare. Courtesy photo. Add Gary Panter to the growing number of adult-oriented cartoonists who have entered an arena once exclusive to super heroes and other kidstuff: the world of action figures. Granted, this won’t be any…
Being the Voice
Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder Edited by Max Sherman $19.95 2007, UT Press The feminine counterpart of “avuncular,” meaning “like an uncle,” is “materteral,” but if you were watching Barbara Jordan on your living-room set July 25, 1974, the large, hunched-over black woman easily improvising her comments in the Richard Nixon Inquisition…
Mistaken Identity
The Virgin of Flames By Chris Abani Penguin $14, 304 pages Chris Abani’s new novel is flying off the new-releases shelves at stores throughout the city. It’s easy to see why. A glance at its cover of Alma Lopez’s unorthodox “Our Lady” might remind readers of the brouhaha in San Antonio over another artistic take…
Anger Management
Kaitlyn Jones and E.J. Roberts are two of the 10 cast members who reprise Laramie’s 60 characters at Trinity. Courtesy photo. The Laramie Project 7pm Wed-Thu 8pm Fri-Sat Through Mar 3 $8 general, $6 senior, $4 student Jane and Arthur Stieren Theater Trinity University 1 Trinity Place 999-8515 Nearly 10 years after the first production…
Japanese Charms, Shining in the Dark
“Cricket and Flowering Vine,” a hanging scroll painting with colored lacquers and gold wash by Japanese artist Shibata Zeshin. Courtesy image. The Genius of Shibata Zeshin: Japanese Masterworks from the Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection 10am-8pm Tue, 10am-5pm Wed-Sat, noon-6pm Sun Through May 6 $8 adult; $7 senior; $5 student; $3 children over 3 San…
Aural Pleasure
New Magnetic Wonder The Apples in Stereo (Simian Records) If he’d been conceived a generation earlier, Robert Schneider might have built a lucrative career writing commercial jingles and Saturday-morning cartoon themes. But Schneider grew up in an era when the bubblegum virtues of the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar” were no longer in the pop mainstream, so…
Sound and the Fury
Boogaloo Nights Michael Chambers, aka Boogaloo Shrimp, first burst onto hip-hop’s collective consciousness via the seminal German documentary Breakin’ and Enterin’. Most people, however, remember him for his role as Turbo in the 1984 b-boy classic Breakin’ and its famously maligned sequel Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. Chambers was also featured in Lionel Richie’s video for…
All Ears
Like Dylan in the movies: Don’t Look Back gets the deluxe DVD treatment. Courtesy photo. The next time you see this column, festival mania will be upon us, with South By Southwest ahead and piggyback-fest SAIndie just finished. Music will be inescapable on the streets, in the air, in your favorite hangover-nurturing breakfast joint. Just…
Super Bad
Suzy Bravo and the Soul Revue are on the good foot. From left to right: Frank Rodarte, Paul Ward, Suzy Bravo, Eddie Hernandez, and Roland De La Cruz. Photo by Justin Parr. James Brown Tribute Show 10pm Wed, Feb 28 $5 Limelight Music & Drinks 2718 N. St. Mary’s Suzy Bravo and the Soul Revue…
Crescent City Cool
Robert Riddle and his Podna’s specialities: Sausage with red beans and rice, oyster poor boy, and fried catfish. Photo by Antonia Padilla. Podna’s Catfish and Po’Boys 1264 Austin Highway 829-8333 11am-8pm Mon-Thu, 11am-9pm Fri & Sat $5.45-$8.95 Credit cards Bathrooms not technically accessible When last we encountered Chef Robert Riddle, he was clad in stain-free…
Ask the Chef
Chef Boy Ari Dear Chef Boy Ari: Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved baked mac and cheese: melted block cheese poured over cooked pasta shells, covered in crumpled potato chips and baked until the mess is congealed into a single glob. I’ve always made it with Velveeta, just like dear madre did. I…
