‘No More Dirty Hippies’ illo caption contest
Artwork from Governor Perry’s website suggests … what, exactly? The public relations news item on the Gov’s website trumpets the state’s selection by Chief Executive magazine as tops for “job growth and business development.” The secret of our “success”? That’d be our low taxes, of course. But at the Current, we’re having a hard time…
Election Results: runoffs, upsets and some painfully predictable reelections
Though most of the races proved utterly predictable this year, Election Day brought two runoffs, one major upset, and showed us just how dismal San Antonio’s voter turnout can be – only 7 percent of registered Bexar County voters graced us with their presence at the polls this year. With no serious challenger, Mayor Julián…
Interview with Go For It! director Carmen Marron
It’s been a long road traveled for Chicago-born filmmaker Carmen Marron over the last 7½ years to get to the point in her career she is at right now. On May 13, Go For It!, Marron’s very first feature film, will debut in movie theaters across the country. “I’ve probably encountered every single challenge there…
District 1 election: Why I heart Diego Bernal
First, there was Juan Diego, and then I fell for Diego Rivera, and now, I’m thinking there might be room for another Diego in my heart. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Diego Bernal is getting my vote this Saturday in the election for the District 1 seat on City Council. But my reasons for choosing Bernal aren’t…
“The Great Ernesto” by Arnulfo Talamantes
Introduction Arnulfo Talamantes is back with another great flash fiction piece which subverts expectation and implores us to examine our own lives and relationships — as the best fiction does. The irony of “The Great Ernesto” is that it really has nothing to do with his greatness (that slippery, loaded term). At once amusing and…
Saving kids from our fat habit
One day a few weeks ago I was sitting at home eating a burrito and flipping channels. I came across Taboo on the National Geographic Channel and immediately got sucked in Toddler’s and Tiara’s style. You know, the train wreck that you don’t necessarily want to watch but the then the judgment and the horror…
Judge’s order derails city drainage project
State District Judge David Berchelmann signed an order today blocking the City of San Antonio from moving forward with any construction on a controversial drainage project before a trial jury hears the case later this year. Lawyers with the Headwaters Coalition and the River Road Neighborhood Association took the city to court last month to…
Review: ROCK OF AGES
It’s crude! It’s loud! It’s terribly constructed! And it’s polarizing! Well, that last phrase is my own editorial comment, but the authors of Rock of Ages actually advertise the first three in the evening’s oddest moment, in which a gyrating, leather-clad narrator pulls out a Playbill of Rock of Ages and explains to sweet-faced protagonist…
Jazz Meets Classical XIX
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 The timeless music of Astor Piazzolla, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and other greats gets a fresh new twist in Musical Offerings’ “Jazz Meets Classical XIX…Meets Dance,” an eclectic program based on fruitful collaborations between classical and jazz musicians. Part of the chamber music organization’s 27th season, the 19th…
Beyond the Canvas III: “Myth and Sea”
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 On Friday, twenty models will be treated as artists’ canvases in the third edition of Beyond the Canvas, a body-art competition and exhibit set to live music. With a theme of “Myth & Sea,” expect to spot at least one landlocked mermaid-in-the-making tapping her fin to the sounds of The…
Rock of Ages
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 The over-the-top sounds and styles of the 1980s come to life in Rock of Ages, a musical comedy that revisits such timeless classics as Quiet Riot’s “Cum on Feel the Noize,” Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” and Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” While some might…
Art opening: 20th Annual “Superhero” Contest and Exhibit
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 Twenty years strong this year, Centro Cultural Aztlan’s “Superhero” contest and exhibit invites young artists (between the ages of six and 18) to create original works of art inspired by real-life heroes. “Super Dad” may be the only hero on the invite, but he’s one of the many positive role…
Disco Ball
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 Regent Empress XIX SoFonda St. John is among the special guests who’ll be holding court at the ninth–annual Disco Ball, a benefit for local nonprofit organization BEAT AIDS (Black Effort Against the Threat of AIDS). Even if you don’t opt for the catered dinner portion of the evening (which starts…
SOLI Dance Party with DJ Soli and Marcus Rubio
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 The final 2010-11 season performance by the SOLI Chamber Ensemble is special — DJ SOLI is in tha house! Sort of. DJ SOLI is nothing but Ertan Torgul (violin), Stephanie Key (clarinet), Carolyn True (piano), and David Mollenauer (cello), performing alongside Marcus Rubio, who will run all the electronics/beats in…
Art opening: Tracey Moffatt & Potter-Belmar Labs
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 This Thursday Artpace hosts a double-barreled event, pairing internationally acclaimed Australian artist Tracey Moffatt and local heroes Potter-Belmar Labs in two simultaneous openings. Yup, we’re excited, having been a Moffatt fan for some time. Her show at the Hudson (Show)Room is a collection of seven video pieces done between 1999…
The Irish Curse
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 Written by Martin Casella — whom you may or may not know as the playwright of such theatrical gems as Paydirt, The Big Enchilada, and George Bush Goes to Hell — The Irish Curse deals with the stereotype that many an Irishman is cursed with a small penis (often accompanied…
San Antonio Ragtime Festival
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2011-05-11 Since 2001, the San Antonio Ragtime Society (the only organization of its kind in Texas) has been slowly-but-steadily building the River City’s ragtime scene, anchored by a yearly Ragtime Festival that pulls in guest pianists from as far away as Argentina to celebrate the genre. With roots that dance all…
City ’36: Tell us what San Antonio will look like 25 years from now
Cisneros had his Target 90. Little Julián has SA2020. But at the Current we’re giving you something even better: City ’36! In celebration of our 25th Anniversary this year, we’re publishing a special issue chronicling San Anto’s greatest hits since that fateful day in 1986 that the Current set up shop. But we need your…
12 reasons to attend the 30th annual Tejano Conjunto Festival
1. The Conjunto Hall of Fame Inductions Six new members will be inducted at a “Dinner and Baile” as the 58 inductees of the last 29 years are also honored. This year’s batch includes: Román Martínez (The Hometown Boys), Santiago “Jimmy” Bejarano (Los Cuatro Vientos), George and Mague Orosco (Dueto Carta Blanca), Santiago Jiménez Jr.…
El Cine: an outsider’s look at San Antonio filmmaking
Mexican-born director Juan Carlos Hernández and Venezuelan actress/writer Tatiana Smithhart have already filmed one Spanish-language movie in San Antonio, Secuestrada (2008), and a new one, Patricia (2011), is almost done. In about three weeks, Patricia’s main actors (which include Eric del Castillo, Claudia Troyo, and Agustín Arana) will come back to finish the 20 percent…
New Jersey band Symphony X heavies up the orchestra
Over nearly 20 years, the New Jersey quintet Symphony X has been churning out a unique brand of music that seamlessly blends the relentless fury of Pantera with the progressive prowess of Dream Theater and the Bach rock of Yngwie Malmsteen. Comprised of a classically-trained pianist, a jazz drummer, a shred-metal guitar hero, a singer…
Will Ferrell’s dramatic muscle strengthens, but the film around him drags
On paper, Everything Must Go has everything going for it: the film features one of the biggest comedy stars in the world stretching a dramatic muscle that keeps getting stronger; it’s an adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story; it has a strong supporting cast, including Rebecca Hall and the recently white-hot Michael Peña; and…
Live & Local: River City All Stars at Limelight
There are two types of ska bands, just like, as Stravinsky said, there are two types of music: the good and the bad. The bad ones are the ones usually fronted by people who think all you need to do to play sax is to blow, but you need a lot more than that. If…
Thor is (mostly) awesome
Thor’s Kenneth Branagh faces the challenge of synthesizing two seemingly incompatible worlds: Asgard — glittery, CG home of Viking deities, icy giants (including a nigh-Pentagon-sized cousin of the dogs from Ghostbusters), and a Rainbow Bridge — and modern-day alt-New Mexico, where people know Tony Stark as Iron Man, and Natalie Portman is an astrophysicist. Early…
New San Antonio label Unscene hopes to merge rave culture with ‘civil’ society
It’s been nearly 30 years since rave culture came of age in the 1980s. Compare that with the San Antonio crop of DJs just now solidifying the local scene. Raves are now held regularly at the Korova, and the recent Redbull Thre3Style International DJ Competition showed that SA’s DJs have a distinct style. They dabble…
Ya’Ke Smith on his first full-length feature and the future of San Antonio filmmaking
The Cannes Film Festival, which begins May 11, will screen Ya’Ke Smith’s short Katrina’s Son (2010) in the fest’s Short Film Corner Selections event. It will be the second time at Cannes for one of Smith’s films; he already visited the world’s most prestigious film festival with Hope’s War (2005). But this time, Smith won’t…
Foo Fighters: Wasting Light
Let it be said that Dave Grohl can write a damn catchy chorus. Simple groundbreaking rock replenished with a heavy dose of rich vocal melodies was never a weak point for the Foo Fighters, and their seventh release, Wasting Light, with guest appearances by Bob Mould and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, is no exception. The…
Critic’s Pick: Bridesmaids
No one can take a tennis ball to the tit quite like comedienne Kristen Wiig. Her threshold for pain is only one of many admirable traits she possesses in Bridesmaids, a bold and bawdy comedy that proves having balls isn’t just for boys anymore. While the movie’s generic title might scream Kate Hudson rom-com horror,…
Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power Live: In the Hands of the Fans
Iggy Pop would have landed himself in the dusty vaults of forgotten rock when 1973’s Raw Power emerged — every song red-lining to the point of completely unlistenable wails, almost ruining one of the greatest punk records to ever exist (sans the beautifully lewd cover) — had it not been for David Bowie toning down…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The 16th-century English writer John Heywood was a prolific creator of epigrams. I know of at least 20 of his proverbs that are still invoked, including “Haste makes waste,” “Out of sight, out of mind,” “Look before you leap,” “Beggars shouldn’t be choosers,” “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and “Do…
Local review of Tangible Green’s Breathe Heavy (EP)
I’ll admit it. I’m a big fan of this psychedelic/blues-based power trio, and with Breathe Heavy I was immediately hooked by the same elements that got me into them in a live setting: the Hendrix-influenced guitar of Josh Huval, his brother Dan’s adventurous trips up and down the bass frets, and Sinisa Tesic’s no-nonsense beats…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I can’t help thinking of Mexico as a Tea Party paradise. Mexican taxes are very low. There are few regulations, and environmentalists, socialists, and liberals are few and far between. There is no Obamacare, and Mexico is the home of Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, a tribute to Mexican crony capitalism. Apparently,…
Antlers: Burst Apart
Antlers have always felt like the little band that could, an image based in no small part on their 2009 breakout Hospice, wherein the then-obscure band masterfully balanced the intimacy of a bedroom recording with a grandeur reflected both in its often huge sound and weighty subject matter. So what does a little band do…
Gwendolyn’s marriage to the Greater San Antonian foodshed inspires
Gwendolyn, prim and proper, has taken a vow of chastity. Not only is she determined to just say no to the blandishments of globe-trotting cads and bounders, but she’d like for us to do the same. Restaurant Gwendolyn is the inspiration of chef Michael Sohocki, and it’s named for his grandmother. It’s perhaps fitting that…
San Antonio artists descend on Lawrence, Kansas
When the group first swarmed off the bus at the Lawrence Arts Center two weekends ago, haggard but giddy from 14 hours of travel, it seemed that a fully armed raiding party had arrived to take over the sleepy Kansas college town. By the next afternoon, after making visits to local studios and attending a…
Trader Joe’s making its way to Texas; no word on San Antonio yet
Those rumors about Trader Joe’s coming to the Lone Star State? True. All true. Only the California-based health foods chain hasn’t figured out that San Antonio is the real Texas yet. Company officials announced plans last week to open a store in Dallas this year, while also scouting possible locations in Houston, Austin, and other…
Manny Castillo retrospective at Museo Alameda
Manny Castillo is reported to have remarked, “I’ve done everything I wanted to do,” before he succumbed to cancer at the age of 40 in 2009. The exhibit “Manuel Castillo: The Painting of a Community,” on view to August 31 at Museo Alameda, presents 16 works by 19 artists who worked with Castillo. Their tribute…
Taste this: Italian panini from W. D. Deli
If you know me at all, you already know that I’m something of a panini enthusiast. Some people host wine tastings, I throw panini parties. I even have two George Foreman Grills so I can make paninis twice as fast. So believe me when I say that the W.D. Deli Italian panini is worth a…
San Antonio Museum of Art selects Luber to lead
As of this July, the San Antonio Museum of Art will have a new director. Katherine Luber, a fifth-generation Texan, will take the helm as Marion Oettinger, director of the museum for the last six years, steps down to devote his full-time attention to overseeing the museum’s Latin American art collection. Perhaps we are influenced…
Wasabi Sushi Bistro showcases creativity
Wasabi has had a difficult run. It’s next to the more widely known Sushi Zushi. When it first opened, plumbing issues created an unpleasant smell in the restaurant. And it has never seemed very busy. But it should be. In a town where any food wrapped in rice is considered sushi, Wasabi is serving up…
Fracking polluting water, air, while protest mars Tobin Center groundbreaking
Newsflash UT: Nat gas pollutes water, air Believe it or not, there are days the QueQue is downright despondent. What is it all for? Why the trouble and toil? we mutter to our higher Que-ness. Then — in an echo of Barnett Shale development of North Texas — a natural gas boom explodes across the…
San Antonio Beer Week starts Sunday
The Texas Legislature, with a few exceptions, may not know anything about Texas’ growing thirst for homegrown beer, but San Antonians get it. That’s why folks will be turning out for craft beer-centric drinks and eats beginning this Sunday, May 15, and running through Sunday, May 22. The first San Antonio Beer Week, which coincides…
Council races to watch this weekend
This weekend marks San Antonio’s biennial changing of the guard. For the first time since the city completed its SA2020 “visioning” process, we’ll get to see which city leaders will have the opportunity to set the first stages of the plan into motion. While it doesn’t take a crystal ball to foresee the outcome of…
Wringing laughs from the tragedy of living
For a comedy podcast, Marc Maron’s WTF has some painfully unfunny moments. But that’s almost inevitable. When an interview passes the one-hour mark it becomes an in-depth psychological profile, at least at a time when most of our conversations take place via Facebook status updates. In recent interviews, Andy Dick admitted to living in a…
Migrant Nation: Hispanic Caucus urges Obama to rein in ICE reform
When the DREAM Act failed last year, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus feared it was a sign that immigration reform was dead in the water. It was a sentiment that grew stronger as the new, Tea Party-infused House rolled into D.C. months later. U.S. Representative Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, who chairs the caucus, now…
Luxuriating with Barbaresco’s tropical Lynchburg
True, Barbaresco looks like a resort hotel lobby and the food could use some work, but happy hours here click along fine, stretching out luxuriously from 2-9 p.m. (inside and on the patio). Drink snacks are all $5, and they include the knee-jerk calamari fritti, a carpaccio, portobellos alla gorgonzola, and Italian chicken wings arrabbiata.…
Promoting your music through Headliner.fm, music biz scholarships available, and a message to San Antonio venues
Here’s a new way for bands to promote themselves: through Headliner.fm, a free social media service launched in February 2010. The service recently formed an alliance with SoundCloud and, in the last month alone (according to Headliner.fm, that is), 16,000 artists reaching 40 million new fans have joined the network. Here’s how it works: Whenever…
Artifacts
When the group first swarmed off the bus at the Lawrence Arts Center two weekends ago, haggard but giddy from 14 hours of travel, it seemed that a fully armed raiding party had arrived to take over the sleepy Kansas college town. By the next afternoon, after making visits to local studios and attending a…
Artifacts
When the group first swarmed off the bus at the Lawrence Arts Center two weekends ago, haggard but giddy from 14 hours of travel, it seemed that a fully armed raiding party had arrived to take over the sleepy Kansas college town. By the next afternoon, after making visits to local studios and attending a…
Cathy Ragland on Eva, Narciso, and whether conjunto can (or should) evolve
Interviewed by Enrique Lopetegui Cathy Ragland, Ph D., is an assistant professor of ethnomusicology at UT Pan American in Edinburg, and the author of Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation Between Nations (Temple University Press). She’s also one of the world’s foremost authorities on conjunto music, and will be the artistic curator of the 2011…
Protest marks groundbreaking ceremony for new performing arts center
A small group protested outside Municipal Auditorium Tuesday morning as prominent city and county leaders broke ground on a new multi-million dollar performing arts center, slated for construction atop the existing structure. Protesters insisted the auditorium, built in 1926, has a long and rich history that deserves preserving. Emma Tenayuca, a labor rights champion who…
Quick take: NYC theater weekend
Ah, nothing like a the-ah-ter weekend in New York City, particularly after the Tony nominations are announced: productions are at their tiptop best as potential voters flood the theater. My quick takes, in order: WARHORSE: A transfer from Britain’s National Theater, WARHORSE tells the story of a boy and—surprise—his horse, drafted into service in WWI.…
A Recipe for Savings in Hard Times – “Clean Out the Crisper” Vegetable Soup
Times are tough and a lot of us can’t afford to let food go to waste. What to do with those random veggies hanging out in the crisper drawer? You know, the lone potato rolling amongst the limp celery and that bag with two scrawny carrots in it. The answer – soup. As old as…
Q & A with Carolyn Kelley
San Antonio is about to come on hard times, given major budget cuts at a state and federal level. What programs do you think can be trimmed back? What should we not touch? All of my answers flow from the concerns of District 1 residents and business owners. Their largest concerns are: SAFETY INFRASTRUCTURE: both…
