Screens Scintillating city
It sparks, it flashes, it sizzles, but ‘Sin City’ doesn’t land the punch “Ashton Kutcher, you’re a dead man,” warns Bruce Willis. If you’ve seen the trailers, you probably understand why fanboys nationwide are frothing at the mouth to see Robert Rodriguez’ adaptation of the Sin City graphic novels. What’s on view there looks like…
Screens Dreaming of Oceans in New Mexico
Web Exclusive ‘Off the Map’ is a sweet coming-of-age story As far as Bo Groden is concerned, the great depression occurred during the summer of 1974. Most of Off the Map is a flashback to when her handsome, rugged father, Charley (Elliott), withdrew into despondent silences broken only by uncontrollable jags of weeping. Bo was…
Screens Size matters
Skin color or character? ‘Guess Who’ answers the question with a fat wallet Guess who’s having a nightmare? Ashton Kutcher awakes not to Demi Moore, but Bernie Mac. To the Mississippi jury that acquitted the brutal murderers of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955, it was a capital offense for a black boy to whistle at…
Schubert opposes hotel union, Vested Rights Ordinance and the Lower Guadalupe Water Supply project
Speed Reads No union: District 9 Councilman and mayoral candidate Carroll Schubert announced that he opposes requiring union labor at the proposed Convention Center Hotel. Schubert alleges that unionizing would increase costs and set a “harmful precedent” for publicly funded projects, noting that the hotel developer, FaulknerUSA, has agreed to pay a living wage -…
Screens Special screenings
The End Of Suburbia Dir. Gregory Greene; writ. Greene (NR) Since its release in 2004, Gregory Greene’s first film, The End Of Suburbia, has slowly garnered critical attention. The film delves into the suburban phenomenon, its embodiment of the “American Way of Life,” and what the decline of natural resources, especially oil, means for communities…
Current Choice Spartan discipline
Sparta: the lesser-known offshoot of At the Drive-In When heralded El Paso indie-rock band At the Drive-In disbanded in 2001, it quickly split into two diverse outfits: Sparta and the Mars Volta. Sparta boasted three-fifths of the old At the Drive-In lineup and burst out of the gate first, with a four-song EP in 2002.…
Screens That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres Based on the graphic novel series by Frank Miller, Sin City is co-directed by Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Spy Kids) and Miller `see review, page 21`. In this metropolis, lush special effects, a la Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, are meshed with dabs of film noir to…
Screens New reviews
Beauty Shop, Congeniality 2, and Off the Map Beauty Shop Dir. Bille Woodruff; writ. Kate Lanier, Norman Vance Jr.; feat. Queen Latifah, Alicia Silverstone, Kevin Bacon, Djimon Hounsou, Mena Suvari (PG-13) Following her role as Mama Morton in 2002’s Chicago, Queen Latifah has starred in nothing but cinematic duds (Bringing Down the House, The Cookout,…
News A shoe-in … or not
City manager race pits a thoroughbred against quarter horses Phoenix Assistant City Manager Sheryl Sculley serves on the board of the Downtown Phoenix Hotel Corporation, which authorizes bonds to finance the City-owned convention center hotel. The hotel and a downtown Arizona State University campus are two big projects that Sculley is promoting. City Council members…
Screens Brave new whirligig
‘Robots’ skips merrily over the implications of our mechanized future Robots’ narrative is based on class divisions in capitalist society, as if the Wealth of Nations’ Adam Smith and Das Kapital’s Karl Marx were automatons. Recently I have been fascinated by Freud’s argument concerning the end of human-centered history. In brief, Freud felt that Copernicus…
9/11 Commission Chairman to speak at Trinity
Briefs War gag order, a failure of imagination, and the Gallagher Ranch plaintiffs Soldier decries war gag order In February 2004, Marine Captain Josh Rushing received an obscure phone message complimenting his performance in the documentary Control Room, which concerned Al-Jazeera’s media coverage in Iraq. The military-press liaison knew nothing about the film, nor his…
Food & Drink All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Quit your whining! All the wine enthusiasts who mourned when February passed without the annual San Antonio Express-News Wine Festival can remove their black armbands and veils: The festival isn’t gone, it just moved down the calendrical block. Apparently, February is already over-populated with wine-related events,…
News A picture yells a thousand words
Justice for all, free speech for some After stirring controversy at six Texas universities, including UT, Baylor, and Texas A&M, Justice For All, the traveling anti-abortion exhibit, made its way to UTSA’s 1604 campus March 21-24. The exhibit, consisting of 16-to-18-foot-high graphic pictures of aborted fetuses and “fact” boxes, was sponsored by the Alliance Defense…
The bar tab The fountain of youth
“Do you have a tip jar?” I asked the barkeep, a dollar bill in my hand. “I keep it behind the bar,” she replied. “Otherwise it would be gone.” Lowkey and lowlit, the Fountain Room doesn’t have the vibe of a place where you’d have to guard a jar of George Washingtons, but it was…
Demanding answers — The mayoral candidates get a list of concerns
Party Lines San Pedro Springs Park was once the site of one of the premium swimming holes in San Antonio. Nowadays, residents in the adjacent Alta Vista, Beacon Hill, Five Points, and Tobin Hill neighborhoods get short shrift when 100-degree temperatures dominate the latter weeks of August. The City, citing a lack of funds to…
Sound and the Fury Tommy Castro and Casa de Ayala
Tommy Castro Castro regime In an effort to inject some vitality into an ailing local blues scene, the San Antonio Blues Society, for the first time in its history, has begun bankrolling concerts by nationally known blues figures. Their first effort takes place on Sunday, April 3, when San Francisco-based blues-rock veteran Tommy Castro comes…
Feature Beat the press
If journalists want to save journalism, they’ll have to get better at their old game and master the Internet, too Heroes of a golden age: The Woodward-Bernstein Watergate Archive now resides at UT-Austin’s Harry Ransom Center. The reporters worked at the family-owned Washington Post when, in 1972, they broke the story that ultimately forced Richard…
CD Spotlight Riot squad
If my count is correct, we’re now entering the fourth wave of Brit-pop. While the form always adheres to the Ray Davies template of English slice-of-life vignettes set to richly melodic three-minute songs, the specific feel changes with each era. The first wave celebrated and lampooned the Swinging London of the 1960s; the late-’70s revival…
Culture That little something extra
‘Dále shine’ has encouraged generations of Mexican-Americans to give it their all San Antonio’s “Shoe Shine King,” Antonio Cruz, gets a polish from a young employee. (Courtesy photos) Until a few years ago, a man who took pride in his boots or fine shoes could have them spit- and mirror-shined at 130 Houston Street in…
Small ScreensReturn to sender
KLRN won’t air ‘Postcards From Buster’ depicting lesbian parents In January, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings criticized PBS for planning to air an episode of the acclaimed children’s show Postcards From Buster, in which Buster, a cartoon bunny, visits a maple sugar farm in Vermont and stays with a host family whose parents are a…
Arts Every strand is sacred
Renowned potter Shuji Ikeda has learned to let go of ego and anger Shuji Ikeda employs delicate strands of clay to mimic the texture of straw. “You have to push and bend at the same time; if you just bend, the clay will break!” Award-winning potter Shuji Ikeda is standing in the center of the…
Armchair CinephileShakespeare … and smart kid-stuff
You never have to look far to find somebody performing Shakespeare, but some especially sharp productions have made their way to DVD lately. One of the most avant-garde meditations on the bard, My Own Private Idaho, is the beneficiary of a luxe Criterion Collection edition. The Gus Van Sant film casts River Phoenix and Keanu…
Classical Attitude Spring fling
News and notes from San Antonio’s other music scene Spring is in the air, the classical music season is winding down, musicians are gearing up for summer festivals and tours, and next season’s programs are being set. Most ensembles and orchestras follow a September to May season, so there are still a few excellent performances…
Food & Drink The bad seed
Terminator technology threatens farmers’ livelihoods and the time-honored practice of saving seeds The so-called “suicide seeds” of the future are neither downcast nor despondent. They are suicidal because the seed companies that produce them tinker with their DNA and make them that way: sterile after a single growing season. This trait prevents farmers from replanting…
Events Church of the Holy Chrome
With the help of state-of-the-art hydraulic systems, the autos will do the genuflecting at the 23rd Annual Lowrider Festival, Sunday, April 3. The puro San Antonio event gives lowrider artists the opportunity to show off their engineering and artistry as they compete for cash prizes and trophies. The MuddCatts, who tear it up in Beatles-meet-Elvis…
Food & DrinkKaraoke krazy
S.A. Burger, dinner with a side of guichy, guichy, ya, ya, ya SA Burger’s grilled veggie sandwich, spicy BBQ chicken wings, and Ranchero burger. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Karaoke drives me crazy. Maybe it’s memories of listening to bad ABBA (is there any other kind?) in bars during the ’70s, or maybe it’s the odious…
Words Play it again, Samuel
‘Desahogate’ anthology gives the brown and proud a place to vent Venus Prado, 33, sat at her computer and thought about the life experiences that have made her the person that she is today: an independent and successful Hispanic woman. Born and raised in San Antonio, with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s…
Music ‘Scene’ stealers
Eclectic new music show elbows its way into SA’s cable market Matt Mirabella and Jennifer Broich, producers of the public-access cable show The Scene, stop in recently at The Mix on North St. Mary’s Street. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) A new music show is nudging its way into San Antonio’s slightly crowded cable-access market. The…
Events Mom and Pop Hip Spot
Happ’nin’s for you and your child Ah, spring is finally here! It won’t be difficult to find activities this month with Fiesta all around us, but we’ve outlined a few events that are both on and off the “Fiesta trail.” These outings won’t be quite so wildly attended as the Fiesta Parades. Why not begin…
Music After Sunset
Pianos, tube tops, and booty pants Clubgoers enjoy a recent Friday night at Howl at the Moon. (Photos by Mark Greenberg) I was standing outside in the rain on a Saturday night, waiting in a long line to enter Howl at the Moon, a sing-along piano bar along on the River Walk. It wasn’t my…
