Daft Punk: 'Random Access Memories'
Fresh off shattering Spotify streaming records, Daft Punk return with their dance music history lesson, Random Access Memories. Rooted in the slick grooves of disco, the French duo’s latest album is a heavy hand of criticism towards modern pop music. They upgrade their sound production by weaving in seemingly countless lines of audio into each…
Primus: 'Sailing the Seas of Cheese' (Reissue)
“When some trendy new atrocity/has brought you to your knees/come with us/we’ll sail the Seas of Cheese,” promises Les Claypool in the introductory track, and in the world of cheese seas, Primus’ 1991 sophomore album and major-label debut is an indisputable classic. “Here Come the Bastards” gives us fair warning of what’s to come, “Sgt.…
Mayor Castro Bets Granary ‘Cue on Spurs
Texas Monthly’s BBQ Twitter sparked a rivalry of the meatier sort between Memphis and San Antonio this week, and San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro has gotten in on the fun. After a virtual nudge from the Texas mag, Mayor Castro decided to put his BBQ where his mouth is and wager tasty smoked meats from The Granary…
Simon Pegg Talks ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’
In “Star Trek Into Darkness,” the second film of the series directed by J.J. Abrams, actor Simon Pegg (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”) reprises his role as Montgomery Scott (AKA Scotty), a Starfleet Officer and the chief engineer on the Starship Enterprise. In this sequel, Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine) leads a man hunt for…
Video: Piñata Protest’s “La Cucaracha”
The Piñata Protest team doesn’t do anything in a conventional way, so even though the first single of El Valiente, the band’s new EP, is “Tomorrow, Today,” the first video associated with the new recording is this crazy version of “La Cucaracha.” “I saw a video of a guy going through a tour of hipster…
Does ‘The Office’ Belong in the NBC Hall of Fame?
As the last call for tears and laughs slowly fades away, The Office becomes another generational NBC program. The media giant is home to some of the most preeminent television series in history, including Cheers, Seinfeld, Frasier, The Cosby Show and Friends. The reaction to whether The Office will take its seat among these bannermen…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Bloc Party
Fronted by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kele Okereke, guitar-driven British rockers Bloc Party struck a major chord with Silent Alarm, a 2005 release highlighted by the danceable indie gem “Banquet” and The Smiths-inspired “Like Eating Glass.” A slight departure from the early work that earned them comparisons to post-punk pioneers Gang of Four, the quartet’s…
Ask Aliyah: Gifts From Exes and Long Distance Best Friendships
Dear Aliyah, Last year, my boyfriend gave me a watch that I know is valued at a few hundred dollars retail. We have since broken up but are still great friends. He recently lost his job, should I return the watch? I am concerned about his finances. Time on Her Hands Dear Time, You indeed…
The Spurs Play Perfect Game Against the Grizzlies as Matt Bonner Resurfaces
The Spurs played nothing short of a perfect game Sunday, throttling Memphis 105-83 while holding Grizzlies’ star Zach Randolph to a mere two points in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Kawhi Leonard continued his playoff-long coming out party with 18 points on 4-5 shooting from three-point range, but the game’s real revelation was…
Sunday Comic: The Adventures of Pizza and Myrtle
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Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Hellcab
In Hellcab, playwright Will Kern explores the thrilling randomness of the whole taxi experience. Originally performed as the unlikely holiday offering Hellcab Does Christmas, the dark comedy introduces all walks (obnoxious sports fans, drunks, druggies, and born-again Christians included) in roughly two dozen vignettes as a Chicago cabby struggles through an endless shift. Revived last…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Like many Americans, I’ve heard about the “Fast and Furious” scandal in which our own ATF was shown to be guilty and corrupt of supplying guns that ended up in the hands of the drug cartels. Now, if I say any more, I might be talking about facts that I don’t know, and…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Bamako Airlines
Austin-based Bamako Airlines has just released their self-titled EP —an engaging collection of mostly solid AfroPop covers from Algeria, Madagascar, Ethiopia, and Mali. What I’m really looking forward to is their next album, which reportedly will be more centered on their promising originals (listen to Bamako Airlines’ “Desséché” for clues). Singer Meera Chandy, trumpeter Brian…
Six Flags Fiesta Texas’ Epic New Rollercoaster
The Iron Rattler is no joke. This ridiculous new hybrid coaster (made of both wood and steel) opens to season pass holders this weekend and then to the public on Saturday, May 25. The Rattler is the world’s steepest and fastest hybrid coaster, boasting a terrifying/awesome 81-degree fall from a height of 180-feet, so be…
Spurs vs. Grizzlies Conference Finals Tickets On Sale
Straight from the Spurs’ mouth: Tickets to the San Antonio Spurs’ first two home games of the Western Conference Finals (Games 1 & 2) against the Memphis Grizzlies are on sale now on Spurs.com or ATTCenter.com. The Spurs will host the Grizzlies at the AT&T Center for Game 1 on Sunday, May 19 at 2:30 p.m. Spurs tickets for…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Spring Awakening
With music by Duncan Sheik (best remembered for his 1996 single “Barely Breathing”), this provocative musical combines a sexy book with even sexier, alt-rock based songs like “The Bitch of Living,” “Touch Me,” and “Totally Fucked.” Unlike a lot of musical theater, this isn’t a safe bet for a first date or a matinee with…
Spurs Advance to Conference Finals
If you, a Spurs fan, were told that Tim Duncan sat on the bench during the final four minutes, that Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker combined to shoot 4-22 from the field, and that the Spurs were playing a Game 6 against a desperate–and supremely talented–team in one of the most hostile road arenas in…
'The Flu Season'
A quarter of the way through The Flu Season, Will Eno’s 2003 absurdist exercise set in a psychiatric hospital, patients in the TV room watch a report on how an entire family fell through early-winter ice and died. Skating on a thin dramatic surface, the play itself hovers on the verge of its own destruction. …
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: New Directions in Conjunto Music
If San Antonio is the mecca of conjunto, then the Tejano Conjunto Festival serves as the genre’s hajj — a chance to pay homage to accomplished bands and musicians, bask in the energy of fresh talent, and, mostly, shuffle to the squeezeboxes.The TCF is oomping through its third decade of existence, and this year’s theme…
Guadalupe Conjunto Music Hall of Fame: The 2013 inductees
Five new hall of famers will be inducted into the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Music Hall of Fame during the festival, bringing the total to 70. In the past, the musicians were ushered into eminence during a separate ceremony at the Teatro Guadalupe, but this year the honors will be awarded onstage at Rosedale…
Why We Won’t Help the GEO Group Avoid a Lawsuit
Last July, GEO Care, a wholly owned subsidiary of the private prison behemoth GEO Group, submitted a proposal to the Texas Department of State Health Services to privatize the Kerrville State Hospital, where hundreds of criminal defendants deemed mentally incompetent are sent for treatment each year. To the delight of government watchdogs and prison…
Letters From the Editor: On Vaginas
Introducing a weekly opinion column about vaginas, penises, and everything in between. Why yes, there is some sand in my vagina. It is actually irritating me and I need to address it, so hold on, here we go Vagina. There, I said it. Vagina, vagina, vagina. I have a vagina. Y’all, my mom has a…
The Lydia Mendoza Commemorative Stamp is Here
Few times has the Teatro Guadalupe been as packed as it was in the morning of May 15, when the United States Postal Service and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center headed by Patty Ortiz hosted the First-Day-Of-Issue Ceremony of the Lydia Mendoza Commemorative stamp launched by the USPS. The ceremony was emceed by actor Jesse…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: The Fruit Hunters
Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze, China Heavyweight) spent two years following fruit-obsessed horticulturalists, pomologists, and backyard enthusiasts to create The Fruit Hunters, a documentary inspired by Adam Leith-Gollner’s book The Fruit Hunters: A Story Of Nature, Adventure, Commerce And Obsession. In his cinematic odyssey around the world, Chang explores how intertwined we are…
Spurs Win Game 5, in Spite of Tiago
Photo by Josh Huskin Have you ever seen a vagina walk down the street? Not in the midsection of a woman, but an entire human who’s made entirely of vaginal matter? If you haven’t, just watch a Spurs game and, in particular, watch Tiago Splitter. Oh, the Spurs won Tuesday night, rather easily (109-91), because…
2013 Tejano Conjunto Festival Explores The Genre's Family Tree
2013 Tejano Conjunto Festival 4-Day Pass $40, individual events vary May 15-19 Guadalupe Theater, 1300 Guadalupe Rosedale Park, 4601 W Martin (210) 271-3151 guadalupeculturalarts.org Wed, May 15, 9:30am Lydia Mendoza stamp launch 10am Free senior dance Guadalupe Theater Thu, May 16, 7pm New Directions in Conjunto Music $10 presale/$12 at the door Guadalupe Theater Fri,…
Monk's Toolbox: A Local Start-Up Helps Craft Brewers Handle Their Biz
During the height of Medieval barbarism, as Mayan civilization hit the skids, Scandinavian Vikings plundered rocky European coasts, and Arabian armies conquered Central Asia, a quiet movement brewed along the cool, mossy corners of Europe’s monasteries and abbeys. Back then, beer was the safest alternative to contaminated water, not to mention a welcome respite from…
Advocates say 'SunCredit' flap shows how CPS undervalued rooftop solar
Last Thursday, CPS Energy CEO Doyle Beneby threw water on a controversy that burned for nearly a month, delaying a program that would slash how much the public utility reimburses rooftop solar customers for the power their systems produce. While CPS and the local solar industry have at least a year to strike a compromise,…
Primal Screen: 'North America'
(8pm Sun, Discovery) This seven-part nature documentary takes us on a stunning tour of the continent, gliding from the Canadian tundra to the Utah desert to the Atlantic coast. It captures majestic views of mountains and oceans, along with intimate views of animals hustling for survival. The narrator says of the continent’s untamed wilderness: “In…
Stella Public House takes pizza and beer to the next level
The terms “wood-fired” and“brick oven pizza” have longbeen bandied about as guarantors of quality, though sadly they seldom ring true. What may arrive out of elite ovens, even those of high pedigree, is all too often an over-crisp cracker of a crust, or its opposite number, fat and doughy. Not so, the extraordinary crusts at…
Primal Screen: 'Shark Tank'
(8pm Fri, ABC) In the season finale, the panel of five self-made millionaires hears intriguing pitches from budding business people. A woman named Val seeks a $200,000 investment for a curated dating service in which only appealing people are picked to participate. An 11-year-old boy named Ryan seeks $25,000 for his dog-biscuit-baking enterprise, with the…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the alternate universe created by Marvel comic books, there is a mutant superhero called Squirrel Girl. She has the magic power to summon hordes of cute, furry squirrels. Under her guidance, they swarm all over the bad guy she’s battling and disable him with their thousands of tiny chomps and…
Primal Screen: 'Billboard Music Awards'
(7pm Sun, ABC) The Billboard Music Awards prides itself on having something for everyone, with nods to R&B, rap, country and Billboard’s other charts. In booking this year’s musical performances, though, the ceremony has favored artists who’ve recently disgusted large segments of the population. Chris Brown has continued to behave obnoxiously after his assault conviction;…
Craft Brew Tastings in New Braunfels, Taps y Tapas to Open
The Grapevine in Gruene is a place to try the excellent local wines. Now it’s also where you can sample some craft beers, too. On the third Thursday of every month, The Grapevine, 1612 Hunter Road, New Braunfels, will offer wine and beer tastings on their patio. You’ll be able to try the craft brewery…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Where did the notion of adding an -o to the end of an English word and assuming it makes it a Spanish word come from? Juanito Dear Wab: “Anglos have long held power in making Spanish and Spanish-speaking culture invisible,” writes University of South Florida assistant professor of foreign language education Adam Schwartz…
Is Wild Party the next great SA band?
As booking agent for Twin Productions, Erica Vigliante can really only keep her eye on the national scene. To her surprise, it took an out-of-town friend to hip her to an up-and-coming act from just down the street. “I was approached by an agent out of New York,” Vigliante told the Current. “He said, ‘These…
Las Casas competition awards college-bound performers
Kaye Lenox, former San Antonio Public Library Foundation executive director, admits she was dubious the first time a friend asked her to see the finals of the Las Casas Performing Arts Scholarship Competition at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre. About 100 students from 35 different high schools throughout South and Central Texas entered the competition…
Primal Screen: 'American Masters'
(8pm Mon, PBS) When you tune into an American Masters program about Mel Brooks, you know it’s going to be fun. As a Borscht Belt entertainer, TV comedy writer, movie director and Broadway impresario, Brooks will see to that. Even in the context of a respectable PBS documentary, he will sing, tell earthy jokes, make…
'Renoir': The painter, his model, and his son
It is hard to think of a father-son combination that distinguished itself more in two different art forms than the Renoirs père et fils. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1844-1919) was one of the leading figures in the Impressionist movement, and as crucial as Pierre-Auguste was to the history of painting, his son Jean (1894-1979), who directed Grand…
Cooking With Beer
Cold beer is a staple in Texas. As the mercury starts its inevitable climb into sizzling summer heat, beer’s indelible association with barbecue and other grilled goodies is particularly appealing. Yet aside from its cooling properties as a beverage, beer has a venerable place in the culinary repertoire. With the wide range of excellent beers…
New Cove Bar is the Latest to Step Up Craft Brew Offerings in SA
Believe it or not, The Cove co-owner Lisa Asvestas was once a Coors Light drinker. “Seriously, Coors Light,” she said with a hint of contrition. Asked if she still drinks the swill, Asvestas was adamant. “No, no, are you kidding? I know there’s so much more out there now.” The Cove, with its well-earned reputation…
Homebrewing Has Gone Far Beyond Bathtub Beer
Some craft beer aficionados take the go-local movement to an extreme. Not content to seek out the latest seasonal brew from a Texas brewery, they’re making their own suds at home. Using ingredients sourced from DIY suppliers, they can achieve results that are a far cry from the watery bathtub beer your great-uncle made to…
Primal Screen: 'The Goodwin Games'
(7:30pm Mon, Fox) In Fox’s promising new sitcom, three estranged siblings reunite after their father (Beau Bridges) dies, only to learn that he has set up a series of competitions to determine which one of them will win his fortune. This questionable approach to an inheritance echoes his questionable approach to childrearing. The siblings have…
Pairing Food and Beer The Granary Way
That beer goes with barbecue is a Texan article of faith, but as smoked meat purveyors gain cult status and the craft beer culture explodes, a Shiner and a plate of brisket seems like settling. While wine pairing advice is now just a mouse click or sommelier away, how do average, beer-swillin’ Joes match brews…
Icehouses Cure What Ails Ya
San Antonians know that icehouses, those uniquely Texan structures, are “the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems” to paraphrase Homer Simpson. Cash-only, and stocking the beer basics, along with a pool table and a jukebox if you’re lucky, the icehouse offers respite on a hot day, a cure for the blues, and…
Michael James and Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga at Southwest School of Art
The twin exhibitions now on view at the Navarro campus of the Southwest School of Art could serve as a self-portrait of the school that began as a crafts center, but grew to become one of the foremost advocates of contemporary art in San Antonio. Michael James and Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga are both innovaters in…
Mistaken Identity Brings on SWAT Raid
A mistake by law enforcement put Miguel Montanez inches away from death. Driving to his job at a metal shop in the early morning hours last July, a Hays County SWAT truck rammed the front of his BMW. Montanez dove to the floorboards when bullets began flying through his windshield. When Montanez emerged from…
A Great Gatsby NES Game Exists and it’s Awesome
CLICK HERE TO PLAY! While I’m still a little skeptical about Baz Luhrmann’s 3D film based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, this 8-bit video game modeled after Jay Gatsby’s life is one adaptation I have no qualms about diving into. The Great Gatsby For NES has been around since February 2011,…
Poor Man’s Guide to Culinaria 2013
Look out, San Antonio, Culinaria 2013 is upon us. It’s time to put on your party pants. Maybe the stretchy ones with an elastic waistband. Culinaria highlights expert local, regional, international chefs through a series of tasty events, in an effort to promote San Antonio as a leading destination for food and wine and to…
The 2013 800 lb. Film Festival
For the last 16 years, students at the North East School of the Arts have been creating and screening their shorts, chosen by their peers, at the 800 lb. Film Festival. The faculty and staff of NESA’s cinema department train students through all aspects of a movie’s production, even traveling to Los Angeles to film…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: The Golden Age of Homebrewing
Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, Alamo Beer Company, Freetail Brewing Company, and other brewing enthusiasts join forces for San Antonio Beer Week (May 12-21), nine days dedicated to “celebrating beer and the community that enjoys it.” Comprising brewery visits, beer dinners, pub crawls, tastings, and a brewing competition, SABW spotlights homebrewers on Tuesday with a…
