Screens Remember the Levant
Ridley Scott’s Crusade begs comparison to other last stands Hopeless odds against an implacable enemy, anyone? Orlando Bloom is the Jew Balian, who film critic Steve Kellman likens to the Alamo’s William Travis, in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. Besieged within the crumbling, protective walls, a ragtag band of defenders is vastly outnumbered. Refusing to…
Screens Company town
In America’s wilderness – solace, sonnets, and some really bad corporate behavior Scenes from America, gothic: Libby, Montana, pop. 2,400, was home to a W.R. Grace vermiculite mine that so contaminated the town with asbestos more than 10 percent of its residents have died from related diseases. In 1999 the EPA began a belated and…
Screens New reviews
‘Kingdom of heaven,’ ‘House of wax’ and ‘Mindhunters’ Kingdom of Heaven An idea whose time has come: In Kingdom of Heaven, the enemy is fanaticism. Dir. Ridley Scott; writ. William Monahan; feat. Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, David Thewlis, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, Edward Norton, Ghassan Massoud, Martin Czokas, Brendan Gleeson (R) It’s been a bad…
Screens Armchair cinephile
The real thing and the fake The word “documentary” doesn’t quite capture Orson Welles’ fascinating F For Fake (Criterion), but it’ll have to do. Ostensibly a portrait of a legendary art forger, this late entry in Welles’ filmography quickly reveals that the forger’s biographer was also a con man; cinephiles will understand there’s another hoaxer…
News More green will need more green
Funding, management determines the state of the City’s parks Bright red feathers contrast with the shadowy canopy of trees as a cardinal flits across El Camino trail. The pathway, 6-feet-wide and wheelchair accessible, winds from the park headquarters, still under construction, and angles gently downhill, past a cultivated section of spring wildflowers to a family-reunion-size…
Screens Special screenings
Mexican movies, cinema on the slab, and TX Filmmakers’ grant writing workshop Mexican Movies at the Instituto Ladrón de Cadáveres / Thief of Cadavers Dir. Fernando Méndez (1956) Two professional wrestlers team up to capture a madman who is playing Dr. Frankenstein with dog brains and the bodies of dead athletes. Ladrón de Cadáveres will…
News Nixing Big Tex
Zoning commission denys Lifshutz plan over asbestos concerns Citing concerns over possible asbestos contamination, the San Antonio Zoning Commission last week denied developer James Lifshutz’ request for a rezone for his Big Tex development, 354 Blue Star Street. Lifshutz is proposing a mixed-use residential and retail development on seven acres on the San Antonio River…
Screens That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres In her first film in 15 years (her last was 1990’s Stanely & Iris, co-starring Robert de Niro), two-time Academy Award-winning actress and aerobics enthusiast Jane Fonda (Klute), 67, returns to the silver screen for a cat fight with Jennifer Lopez (Shall We Dance?) in Monster-in-Law. Unwilling to accept…
News Party lines
One vote counts in Helotes Someone stayed up late last Saturday night to post the following message onto the main page of the Helotes Heritage Association’s website, which went up after Wal-Mart unveiled its plans to build a store at the corner of Bandera and Scenic Loop roads in northwest Bexar County: “Voters yesterday rejected…
Food & Drink Just another ethnic food?
SA’s Expo Comida Latina serves up food, not politics San Antonio’s Expo Comida Latina, the first of three industry showcases (the remaining two will be held in New York and Los Angeles later this year) brought together Hispanic food and beverage exhibitors from South, Central, and North America at the Convention Center April 24-25. Mariachis…
News Coal-plant hearing, section 8 list, vested rights and more
Briefs: News notes from around the corner and around the world Important coal-plant hearing set The controversy over CPS Energy’s proposed $1 billion, 750-megawatt coal-fired power plant ratchets up a notch with a preliminary hearing Wednesday, May 18 at 10 a.m. at UTSA’s 1604 Campus in the Bioscience Building, Loeffler Room 3.03.02. This hearing starts…
Food & Drink Indiana Jones & the temple of dumpling
Hidden deep in Hanaro Mart, steamed pockets of kimchee and toasty barley tea Davney Fong, front, and Derek A. Toy steam kimchee dumplings in the restaurant at Hanaro Mart on Rittiman. (Photos by Mark Greenberg) Ear to the ground, nose to the wind, eye on the sky: This is the Indiana Jones attitude assumed by…
News Speed reads
Church meets state, grassroots victory, driving in circles Church meets state: On May 5, hundreds of people gathered on the City Hall steps for the National Day of Prayer. In its 11th year, the event also featured mayoral and council candidates, who apparently needed divine intervention two days before Election Day. A City spokesman said,…
Food & Drink Eating ketchup with de Rothchilds
Liz Smith ‘Dishing’ on food, high and low, and famous friends Liz Smith has eaten kidney pie with Elizabeth Taylor, been ill on Tex-Mex with Elaine Kaufman of the famous New York restaurant Elaine’s, and breakfasted with the late Malcolm Forbes, who brought his Fabergé egg collection to the table. Her latest book, Dishing, does…
Sports Glory days
Former Spurs star George “The Iceman” Gervin talks about the night the lights went out in Washington and other career highs While scouting for the ABA one night in 1972, Johnny Kerr watched a skinny 19-year-old kid score 50 points in an otherwise ho-hum game played in the relatively obscure Eastern Basketball Association. The kid…
Food & Drink All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Jim’s watch, day 35: Open at last! Early one morning last week, we stopped by Hildebrand and San Pedro, and peered once more through the windows of Jim’s, where we spied bustling workers, who -along with brand-new signage announcing Jim’s Café & Coffee Bar – told…
Culture feature – Comedy The Borat ‘tell’
If your neighbors don’t recognize cable star Ali G, you may be living in a very red state British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen became so well-known in Britain that he had to bring his alter egos to America for season two of HBO’s Da Ali G Show. Cohen’s character, the Kazakhstani “reporter” Borat, has been…
Music CD Spotlight
Lonesome daze – Springsteen once again plugs into the country’s spiritual decay Bruce Springsteen’s career has stretched on for so long, even his unpredictably bleak, band-less records have acquired a predictable pattern. Every time he comes off a big-rocking commercial triumph, he feels compelled to unplug his guitar and plug himself into the country’s spiritual…
Book reviews Lost, found, and reconstructed
A trio of books recovers an undocumented history of struggle on plantations, in the Jim Crow South and the urban North /*********************************************** * Fade-in image slideshow script- © Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (www.dynamicdrive.com) * This notice MUST stay intact for legal use * Visit Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ for full source code ***********************************************/ var…
Music Current choice
Foster parent Radney Foster Twenty years ago, Radney Foster got a gig as a staff songwriter for a Nashville publishing company. All these years later, even with a prolific recording career that includes solo work and a stint with the duo Foster & Lloyd, Foster essentially remains a songwriter. His tunes have been covered by…
Theater & Stage Priceless cargo
The Vex expertly dramatizes the tribulations and trauma of women convicts bound for Australia Cast members of the Sheldon Vexler Theater’s production of Female Transport (from left) Kimberly Stephenson, Christy Huffman, Eva Laporte, Anne Gerber, Belinda Harolds, and Susan Brosdon. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) The Vexler Theater’s production of Steve Gooch’s Female Transport is a…
Music Sound and the fury
A week on the scene Diamonds in the rough dancesound jazz andnight clubs the bands furyshows musicians sa current online  sa current online This is a big week for those who gravitate to big-ticket arena concerts and outdoor festivals. The hotly anticipated Anger Management Tour, featuring Eminem, 50 Cent and the ever-suave kings…
Culture Bigger than columbus
The Jung Center searches for the cause and meaning of crop circles There is magic in the data itself. Like the phenomena they represent, the charts and maps fall into patterns that appear to defy human machination. Why are crop circles – large geometric symbols that reportedly appear overnight in open fields – so much…
Music All in the game
Gangsta rap’s latest phenomenon writes what he knows The Game: Dr. Dre’s latest platinum-selling gangsta disciple. The empire-building music genre known as gangsta rap essentially can be traced to a diminutive young brother from Compton most people knew simply as Eazy. Along with his sonic architect, Dr. Dre, Eric “Eazy-E” Wright pioneered the west coast’s…
Culture Indonesian art scholar targets curricula
Indonesian music, dance, puppetry, and mask-making traditions /*********************************************** * Fade-in image slideshow script- © Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (www.dynamicdrive.com) * This notice MUST stay intact for legal use * Visit Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ for full source code ***********************************************/ var slideshow_width=’220px’ //SET IMAGE WIDTH var slideshow_height=’250px’ //SET IMAGE HEIGHT var pause=5000 //SET PAUSE BETWEEN…
Music Americana tune
Anniversaries celebrate the symbiotic connection between Gruene Hall and Radio New Braunfels Slaid Cleaves is a Radio New Braunfels mainstay who’ll perform at the station’s Americana Music Jam. If nature hadn’t called Pat Molak during a stop in Gruene about 30 years ago, Texas might not have one of its defining musical venues. Molak, a…
Events Mom and Pop Hip Spot
Happ’nin’s for you and your child May, the month of green growth! It’s the perfect month for your family to experience a bit of inner growth as well, but does attending church conjure up pious, god-fearing, and reverent imagery for you? Well I’ve found a few places in San Antonio where the religion comes in…
Culture feature – Comedy The Borat ‘tell’
If your neighbors don’t recognize cable star Ali G, you may be living in a very red state British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen became so well-known in Britain that he had to bring his alter egos to America for season two of HBO’s Da Ali G Show. Cohen’s character, the Kazakhstani “reporter” Borat, has been…
Book reviews Lost, found, and reconstructed
A trio of books recovers an undocumented history of struggle on plantations, in the Jim Crow South and the urban North /*********************************************** * Fade-in image slideshow script- © Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (www.dynamicdrive.com) * This notice MUST stay intact for legal use * Visit Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ for full source code ***********************************************/ var…
