San Antonio tollroad battle heats up in Austin
Greg M. Schwartz gschwartz@sacurrent.com The San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization held its regular Transportation Policy Board meeting this afternoon, with nary a mention of the controversial toll road issue that’s become a hot topic in Texas. But there’s a mad scramble in Austin surrounding two different bills that could authorize toll roads in the…
Charlie shamed and scolded from the pulpit for climate meddling
Power to the strong-lunged. Outside the Federal Building today. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Heartening to see that at least some San Antonians got up this morning, scrambled their yard eggs, and marched right down to the Federal Building to decry the nefarious work of one Congressman Charlie Gonzalez. Reps from MoveOn.org played a facilitating role, leading…
Healy-Murphy park’s reprieve
It was a day for redemption and revelation at last week’s Quality of Life Committee meeting, where outgoing District 8 Councilwoman Diane Cibrian and District 1’s born-again conservationist Mary Alice Cisneros saved little Healy-Murphy Park by refusing to support La Villita del Rio Development’s sole $350,000 bid. District 2’s outgoing Councilwoman Sheila McNeil pushed the…
Gonna be in Austin tomorrow? Wanna hear me cuss immoderately?
Well, come on up and scissor-kick me in the junk while I’m eating, then. (Ha.) Yeah, not really, though. Hey — so, let’s get this much out of the way: This is a plug. All right? I’m sorry. These things happen. I’ve accepted it. Give it a moment; you might find that you can, too.…
CPS’s nuke plant price tag to be shared next month
Raising the bar on energy savings, CPS’s Bartley addresses his masters. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Nothing to see/hear. Move along. In terms of fireworks, the public hearing over City-owned CPS Energy’s proposal to tackle a ream of conservation measures by raising energy rates a nearly imperceptible amount (plug in one CFL bulb and you’ll never see…
Chaléwood No. 8: Carlos Cuarón
By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current contributing writer paperboy5456@yahoo.com Carlos Cuarón – Rudo y Cursi Five years passed after screenwriter Carlos Cuarón was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2001 film Y tu mama tambien before he began writing his next feature script. The rough idea he had for his movie was about “a…
Money’s Too Tight to Mention
By Gilbert Garcia It was a good thing the Council decided to honor Mayor-elect Julian Castro before getting down to city business this morning. If Castro had been forced to sit through the full two-hour budget discussion that consumed the Council’s pre-lunch agenda, he might have thought twice about taking the helm of SA city…
Gonzalez tells world to bow to CPS Energy
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com I was going to try to work on some deadline-related projects today, but I haven’t been able focus since reading my morning paper. In it, Congressman Charlie Gonzalez broke his long and offending silence regarding his position on pending global warming legislation. He’s been adamant about not commenting until a bill had…
City Council takes tough look at street repair budget issue
What to do when city repairs are needed but the budget lacks the necessary cash flow? San Antonio has $15.3 million worth of street repair projects that need to be addressed, but lacks the funds to do it. How to deal with this budget quandary was the subject of yesterday’s city council information “B” session.…
Live Review: Jane’s Addiction, NIN/JA Tour – Austin – May 12
Story and photos by Greg M. Schwartz gschwartz@sacurrent.com Anticipation was high at Austin’s Frank Erwin Center Tuesday Night as two of the architects of alternative rock joined forces once again to give fans a fine taste of that late 20th century flavor. Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails first teamed up on the original Lollapalooza…
Live Review: Nine Inch Nails, NIN/JA Tour, Frank Irwin Center – Tuesday, May 12
Photo by Greg Schwartz Judging from last night’s performance in Austin, the conversation between Trent Reznor and Perry Farrell before Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction teamed up for the NIN/JA tour probably went something like this: Perry Farrell (in a helium-induced voice): Say Trent, how’s life? Trent Reznor (in a brooding, dark tone): Not…
White Lies for Dark Times
White Lies for Dark Times Composer: Ben Harper and the Relentless7 Conductor: Ben Harper and the Relentless7 Label: Virgin Release Date: 2009-05-13 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording For years, Ben Harper has dutifully played the role of laid-back, new-age hippie for glassy-eyed jam-band fans. His two-disc 2006 release, Both Sides of the Gun, was an ambitious…
New Monsoon Live
New Monsoon Live Composer: New Monsoon Conductor: New Monsoon Label: New Monsoon Records Release Date: 2009-05-13 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording This San Francisco-based jam band’s new double live album has a Texas twist, with all the tracks taken from a three-show swing through Austin, Dallas, and Houston last fall. The group’s sound is based in…
The Goat or Who is Sylvia?
Release Date: 2009-05-13 Written by Edward Albee, this award-winning play looks to shake up the theater scene considerably. A wacky dance musical? Opportunistic children’s theater? Community theater about happy-sad family dysfunction? No, no, and no. A play about a married, middle-aged architect whose life crumbles when he falls in love with a goat? YES. This…
“Back in the Day Booty Bash” featuring 2 Live Crew
Release Date: 2009-05-13 In 1990, dirty-filthy-nasty booty rap was public enemy #1 as well as a lightning rod for First Amendment fights. The owner of Hogwild Records made national news when the vice squad arrested him for selling a 2 Live Crew album. Times sure have changed. Even if you offered a free breakfast at…
Book signing: Jay Brandon and Milagro Lane
Release Date: 2009-05-13 This seems to be a good time for San Antonio writers. Just as femme fatale/writer Barbara Renaud Gonzalez debuts her novel Golondrina, why did you leave me?, Jay Brandon releases his Raymond Chandler-esque mystery novel set in San Antonio and called Milagro Lane. Brandon seeks to capture the mystery and forgotten history…
Art Opening: Jonathan Monk: Rew-shay Hood Project
Release Date: 2009-05-13 Artpace debuts a new body of work by Berlin-based artist Jonathan Monk, who transforms Ed Ruscha’s photos of vintage gas stations into a series of painted hoods from muscle cars made in the same era. This should be quite interesting, and not just because it appeals to SA’s “macho-sensitivity” — e.g., like…
Art Opening: Abhorrence of the Void
Release Date: 2009-05-13 This show is an exploration of the phenomenon “horror vacui,” which is a fear of leaving any blank space in an artistic composition. Evidently, when that term was first coined, minimalism hadn’t come out yet, nor was anyone smoking enough weed to fully embrace the concept of negative space. However, that isn’t…
Visions of A Bible
Release Date: 2009-05-13 While Lori Ann Hunter’s rich voice delivers the gospel, Savion Glover’s tap dancing honors the living and departed saints of tap, Saint Steve, Saint Honi, Saint Gregory, by teasing their steps into higher speeds and textures. Some form of religious experience is sought, but not in a traditional sense. $31-$41, 8pm, The…
Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy, Beardo
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-05-13 Some of you probably wonder about the Current’s criteria for awarding shows our coveted “Critic’s Pick” status. Take sometimes MC Dirt Nasty, aka Simon Rex, for example. Are we recommending him because he was formerly an MTV VJ, and, before that, an internet porno star? Of course not. Rex doesn’t…
‘Trek’ support
Star Trek Director: J.J. Abrams Screenwriter: J.J. Abrams Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg Release Date: 2009-05-13 Rated: PG-13 Genre: Film The moment Zachary Quinto (the evil Sylar from NBC’s Heroes) was cast as Spock, fans had every reason to believe this reboot would successfully relaunch the franchise.…
WindowWorks: Mimi Kato
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-05-13 Mimi Kato, a Japanese-born photographer who earned her MFA at UTSA in ’06, will open her Window Works installation at Artpace on May 14. We’re psyched to see what Kato’s come up with, because her otherworldly photographic dioramas, often featuring herself in costume in doppelganger twosomes or moresomes, are sheer…
Return to sender
Next Day Air Director: Benny Boom Screenwriter: Benny Boom Cast: Mike Epps, Wood Harris, Donald Faison, Omari Hardwick, Emilio Rivera Release Date: 2009-05-13 Rated: R Genre: Film If you’ve seen the poster for Next Day Air, you’ve seen approximately 10 percent of the frames containing prominently name-dropped Mos Def (Be Kind Rewind, The Hitchiker’s Guide…
Critic’s Diss
Angels & Demons
Biker bar
Release Date: 2009-05-13 The downtown cycling scene has never really had a bar to call its own. For a while, people would park their bikes in the back of Beethoven’s and drink pitchers of Spaten after a group ride, or occasionally hang at Acapulco Drive Inn or the Texas T. But for various reasons, none…
THE FAST FOODIE
Home for the hungry
Actor
Actor Composer: St. Vincent Conductor: St. Vincent Label: 4AD Release Date: 2009-05-13 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Pixie dream girl Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) cornered the market on delicate, too-cute indie-pop with her debut, Marry Me. Actor, however, trades wide-eyed naïveté for jaded maturity, as Clark — who once penned a tune called “What Me…
Relapse
Relapse Composer: Eminem Conductor: Eminem Label: Aftermath Release Date: 2009-05-13 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Marshall Mathers’s straight-up hatred of the music-buying masses oozes from single “We Made You.” His class-clowning hits Epic Movie mode, taking lazy pokes at pop-culture piñatas six months outdated. (Who’s Sarah Palin again?) The real hatred is reserved for himself, though.…
Unjust desserts
Humbug will be a crusading magazine. We will tackle important important national issues such as Should the Mayflower Replica be Allowed to Land in the U.S., and Fluoridation — the Red Conspiracy. Humbug will be a responsible magazine. We won’t write for morons. We won’t do anything just to get laughs. We won’t be dirty.…
And the living is easy
The parkside building that houses Boardwalk Bistro on Broadway can’t boast the age of Liberty Bar’s rambling home, but it shares a number of features with the more venerable institution. Namely, a varied, international menu that runs the gamut from Mexican to Mediterranean, a nicely balanced wine list, and efficient and personable staff. Definite pluses at Boardwalk…
AMUSE-Bouche
Blanca Aldacohas garnered herself a rio-tastic triumph: Her custom-created libation swept the San Antonio River Foundation’s first annual Rivertini Pour-Off on Saturday, May 9, at Swig. Blanca’s Cucumber Martini earned a near-unanimous First Place from the judges (Dave Davies of Texas Public Radio, Richard Perez of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Ernie Zuniga,…
Jeanette Jaffe Longoria
By my definition, a woman who dresses in full mermaid regalia (complete with blond wig, jeweled crown, and webbed feet) on her 80th birthday to receive hundreds of globe-trotting guests while reclining on a divan has a thing or two to tell us about capriciousness. The cover of Jeanette Jaffe Longoria’s delightfully unconventional 2004 memori-mento…
Ask a Mexican
Dear Mexican: My wife is from Michoacán state. We’ve bought a home in the small town of her birth. I love everything about the quiet little place. Even her mother is kind to me, as if I were her son. The food is incredibly good. The puerco is killed that morning and the taste is…
The QueQue
Castro-ville Saturday night, Julián Castro’s campaign headquarters was filled with excitement, but very little suspense. Mid-afternoon, Castro campaign manager Christian Archer openly suggested that his candidate might be looking at a mayoral runoff with either Trish DeBerry-Mejia or District 8 Councilwoman Diane Cibrian. Archer indicated that early-voting returns would hold the key to the race,…
Nowhere to run to
The seemingly quiet little town of Balcones Heights is consumed entirely by the city for which it was once a suburb on the hill. Its location at the intersection of IH-10 and Loop 410 has become less important as the city expands north and south, and any residual cachet it once held was long ago…
Y tu pelota también
Like soccer, moviemaking is a team sport, and the Mexican team that put together the endearing and devastating coming-of-age escapade Y tu mamá también returns with a feature that is being distributed in the United States with another untranslated Spanish title. Directed by Carlos Cuarón, who co-wrote the earlier film with its director, his older…
‘Trek’ support
The moment Zachary Quinto (the evil Sylar from NBC’s Heroes) was cast as Spock, fans had every reason to believe this reboot would successfully relaunch the franchise. The Star Trek universe deserves so much better than the weak UPN Enterprise series that was mercifully canceled in 2005 after four seasons. Quinto just emanates the Vulcan…
Tell a friend
When it comes to Eminem, a lot of backstory probably isn’t necessary. I mean, hell, even my mom knows who Eminem is. Six years away from the spotlight is a long time, though, sometimes a lifetime, in modern pop culture, and that’s how long it’s been since he’s released an album. In case you haven’t…
The Sound & The Fury
SA band the Blend? has based its sound on the improvisational, psychedelicized blues of the late ’60s, which singer-guitarist Marc Smith suggests has been a necessity as much as an aesthetic choice: For most of the group’s history, Smith attended Texas A&M University and drove three hours to San Antonio for each gig, leaving the…
Live & Local
Disclosure: An environmental activist (didn’t catch the name) put me in a weird headspace for Middle Ground’s poppy, upper-register Americana-lite while the band was still tuning up. With effort, this guy insisted, San Antonio could be the vegan, low-flow-toilet mecca his home state of Oregon has become. Had his proclamation preceded a show in the…
S’Nuff Film
Tired of living in your own filth? If only there were some snappy, amateur-produced viral video to help you remember to throw your trash in the garbage can, you wouldn’t be reading this while sitting in a pile of rancid cheese and scratched-off lottery tickets. Well, good news — the Texas Department of Transportation’s Don’t…
Dear Uncle Mat
I’m wondering about your views on something. How concerned should someone be if she hasn’t been in a relationship by the age of 18, nor ever garnered the attention of the opposite sex? At what point does that mean that it’s that person’s fault for failing to make oneself attractive? I have reasonable cause to…
Fire in the hole
It’s been said that any canon — artistic, literary, cinematic — consumes the oxygen of subsequent generations, burning up ideas as soon as they’re uttered, turning ambition into gray ash the moment it sees the gallery light, its academic acolytes suffocating revolution when it flares. Until the canon itself is consumed, which generally takes a…
Mordant enemies
The time has come to choose sides. Do you talk like you’ve had a throat infection for several weeks? Do you emphasize the pairing of “a” and “r” every time they appear in a word? Do you wear stylish women’s belts over your T-shirts? If so, then you, my friend, are a pirate. But if…
Uranium gouging in Goliad
UEC: Don’t mess with a Duderstadt. Just, don’t. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com What can we say but sorry? We haven’t been back to this Texana-licious little burgh since the early days of their battle against the forces of reviving â??death ore’ mining. Despite our 33-percent newsroom enhancement (when you line up our news staff, you have…
Are you Hearing this? CPS seeks your dollars for green
However much you wish it, don’t expect Clamp to go along quietly on this. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com It’s for the good, so why do I feel so bad? CPS Energy comes before a city freshened up by its weekend election. We’ve cut off the dead weight, corralled up some new blood, and are all ready…
