Le Butcherettes: The Current’s Q & A with Teri Gender Bender
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Le Butcherettes 2011: Jonathan Hischke (bass), Teri Gender Bender (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Gabe Serbian (drums). How do we do this? English or Spanish? [In Spanish:] Anyway you like! What do you prefer? I’m totally bilingual. I was born in Denver, but moved to Guadalajara when I was 14. I already…
Plácido Domingo: With Love to San Antonio
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com It often happens that, whenever artists reply to an interview request with a “send your questions via email,” they either don’t answer them or send half-hearted, generic responses that don’t mean anything. Not Plácido Domingo. The Spanish tenor, who will present Con Amor a San Antonio on Wednesday, June 1 at…
Road to the Electronic Entertainment Expo
E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is known by gamers by various descriptors: the mecca of gaming, gathering of the man children, the Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory of gaming, etc., etc. To gamers not in the industry, E3 is a sacred place where attendees get to play games that have yet to be announced, see new games for the first time, and hear…
HBO’s ‘Habla Texas’ series speaks truth
At my brother’s urging, I curled up with HBO On Demand today and watched a two-part series entitled Habla Texas. The series originally debuted in two installments on May 6th and May 13th. Having developed an entire channel solely dedicated to the Latino presence in the United States, HBO is doing their part to bring…
Texas State Lege names Blue Star’s FitzGibbons 2012 State 3-D Artist
The Texas Legislature runs the state in two year parcels. Along with a double-year budget, we get two year’s of art notables named this year. Light sculptor Bill FitzGibbons, the director of Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, has been named Texas State Three-Dimensional artist for 2012. The one-year term is also held by the positions…
Current 25: Ladies and germs: Augie Meyers!
Bob Dylan once called Augie Meyers a “master of syncopation and timing,” but what’s important is not what Dylan said about South Texas’ living legend — it’s what he did with him in the studio. After an erratic ’80s career, Dylan came back with a vengeance with Time Out of Mind (1997, which won three…
‘She Walks in Beauty,’ a woman’s journey through poems
Story by Desiree Prieto Caroline Kennedy came to San Antonio for a five-city launch tour promoting her new poetry anthology, She Walks in Beauty, A Woman’s Journey Through Poems. Titled after Lord Byron’s famous poem, the anthology includes works from other greats of English literature, such as Edna St. Vincent Millay, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Amy…
Interview with Kung Fu Panda 2 director Jennifer Yuh Nelson
After working in the animation department for 2008’s Kung Fu Panda, story artist Jennifer Yuh Nelson was given the opportunity of a lifetime when DreamWorks decided to produce a sequel after the box-office success of the first. “Then they asked me to direct it and I was like, ‘OK,’” Nelson told me during an interview…
Two by Jeffrey Castilla Wohl
Introduction This week we get a twofer from Jeffrey Castilla Wohl. In “The Girls” we encounter the burden of guilt and subsequently the onus of being the confessee. “For Juanita” claims a similar haunting. The past again surges forth and the character makes a habitual decision. The very stories themselves are elicited from the travails…
Current 25: Ladies and germs: Augie Meyers!
Bob Dylan once called Augie Meyers a “master of syncopation and timing,” but what’s important is not what Dylan said about South Texas’ living legend — it’s what he did with him in the studio. After an erratic ’80s career, Dylan came back with a vengeance with Time Out of Mind (1997, which won three…
Apple Inc. employees band together for their rights
An Apple Retail Workers Union group page has popped up on Facebook. The page currently has a little over 300 likes, and is updated frequently. According to previous blog posts around the net the initiative is spearheaded out the San Francisco Bay area. San Antonio resident and media justice activist DeAnne Cuellar blogs throughout the…
Yoga Pose of the Week
Thanks to some amazing new photos by Sparrow, I will now be featuring a yoga posture every week to help you learn the fundamentals of postural alignment, breath, and awareness that are the essential components of practicing yoga. Even if you only practice one posture for 2 or 3 minutes a day, you will feel…
‘The Darth Vader of clean air’ tweaks pollution bill, stifling public right to sue
Clean air advocates are calling a bill passed yesterday by the House a virtual coup for industry polluters, saying a last-minute tweak could give companies the power to pollute at will. Environmental groups worry a late-night amendment made by Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, on Tuesday to Senate Bill 875 would free up companies to dump…
Beer dinners: Shiner at Westin, Sierra Nevada at Pavil
Beer dinners, considered a major food and drink trend by chefs polled by the National Restaurant Association, are getting more buyin from restauteurs in San Antonio. This week, the folks at Westin La Cantera Resort are trying their hand at what they hope will be a regular thing. On Friday, May 27, Westin La Cantera chefs…
How great thou ‘art’: Carmen Lomas Garza
I’m feeling moved by art these days. Before I sat down to write this blog, I studied the image I wanted to write about: Carmen Lomas Garza’s “Barbacoa Para Cumpleaños.” I examined the faces of the work, its colors. I reflected on what the artist incorporated into the painting, and I began to feel a…
Carbon-copy candidates? D1 runoff candidates struggle to set themselves apart
At the end of Tuesday’s forum with District 1 runoff candidates Diego Bernal and Ralph Medina, the toughest question of the night remained, “What distinguishes you from your opponent?” “We’re just different guys,” Bernal laughed, while Medina joked, “I’m taller.” Both Bernal and Medina had tried to up their profiles earlier in the day, Bernal…
Taste This: Goya Roasted Coconut Juice
A bite of what we’re eating, er drinking, here at the Current
Reel Grrls take a stand against bullying media giant
When I was in Washington, D.C., a couple of weeks ago a large group of reps from various media justice and media reform organizations took time out of our schedule to meet with FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker’s staff. One by one we took turns explaining our work and our community’s concerns with the potential…
Kimberly Cotton CD release party at Limelight Music + Drinks
Kimberly Cotton CD release party Thu, May 19 Limelight Music + Drinks Kimberly Cotton’s airy vocals are captivating, rife with emphatic pauses, and full of sweet sensuality. But as we know, Limelight crowds are fickle. They’ll show up in droves for the city’s darlings, but what about an acoustic show? A massive crowd seemed…
Book Review: “She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems”
She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems Caroline Kennedy Voice $24.99, 352 pages The idea behind this collection of women’s writings came to Caroline Kennedy while she was reading over the poetry friends had sent her on her 50th birthday. Intended to celebrate the stages of a woman’s life, She Walks in Beauty:…
F**K, the movie: Documentary explores the history of the F-word
F**K: A Documentary Dir. Steve Anderson; feat. Drew Carey, Billy Connolly, Bill Maher, Hunter S. Thompson, Ron Jeremy. “We’re going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket.” — General George S. Patton’s address to the troops on the eve of D-Day, 1944 If Patton can say it, why can’t I every…
‘Super Size Me’ director bottoms out with non-doc about product placement
POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Dir. Morgan Spurlock; writ. Morgan Spurlock, Jeremy Chilnick; feat. Morgan Spurlock, Peter Berg, Paul Brennan, Noam Chomsky. (PG-13) In 2004, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock captured audiences’ imaginations with a documentary in which he turned the camera on himself to prove a point — that fast food is…
Tim the Girl has a summer enchilada that won’t weigh you down
Caterer Tim the Girl and Chuck Hernandez of Arugula Catering started the non-profit organization EatSmart SA as a way to share with San Antonio their knowledge of nutrition and food preparation. In collaboration with local physician-assistant students, EatSmart SA presents this ongoing series of recipes to promote nutritious and tasty eating options. (Look for EatSmart…
Thurston Moore: Demolished Thoughts
Until recently, Thurston Moore’s solo albums fell into one of three categories: relentless noise, abstract improvisation, and mawkish verse-chorus-verse. With 2007’s Trees Outside The Academy he began mixing mediums, and the avuncular, gregarious Sonic Youth guitarist started cutting his pro-forma rawk with distortion studies and soft-core folk. On Demolished Thoughts, Moore’s barbed-wire violence migrates from…
Rumors of Taco Land reopening as an ice house
Taco Land as ice house with Billy Bob Thornton strumming madly in the corner? That was the essence of a recent Facebook post at Keep San Antonio Lame backed by “several reliable sources.” The “semi-official if not fully confirmed” scoop suggested that developer David M. Adelman and actor Ricardo Chavira (Desperate Housewives) own the old…
Best of Flash Fiction, May 2011
Arnulfo Talamantes is back with another great Flash Fiction piece that 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 crushing,…
Local review of Blowing Trees’ Wolf Waltz and the Big Nothing Now
Why is it that I can’t stop listening to an album with melodies that often captivate at first but, ultimately, don’t go anywhere? The fact that Chris Maddin is a terrific singer with the dramatic force of an early Bowie and the range of Freddie Mercury has something to do with it. Don’t look for…
Artifacts
The Kronsky Charitable Trust Foundation has issued a challenge grant to encourage new support for ARTS San Antonio. Each dollar donated by new supporters of ARTS San Antonio before August 11 will be matched one-to-one: Give a buck, deliver two. The challenge will match donations up to $25,000, and extends to those who have not…
Illegal injections: How Texas is breaking the law, one execution at a time
In the early hours of May 21, 1994, 16-year-old Adria Sauceda and dozens of others attended a raucous Southside house party on Vincent Street, where witnesses reported seeing a dazed Sauceda — pumped full of alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana — pulled to the backyard. There she was stripped and circled by eight or nine men,…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sought to screen Bexar County Jail visitors
While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have repeatedly said in recent years their aim is to root out and deport criminal aliens above all others, a local ICE official fired off an email in March to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department asking for help setting up a “pilot program” to target undocumented immigrants…
Fasten your seat belts: Le Butcherettes are coming to town
Le Butcherettes w. Deftones and The Dillinger Escape Plan $32 7pm doors, music 8pm Fri, June 3 AT&T Center, One AT&T Center (800) 745-3000, attcenter.com “Before I say anything, I need 24 hours to process what I just saw,” Adrián Sosa, drummer for Latin Grammy-winning tango/electrónica collective Bajofondo, said seconds after Le Butcherettes’ show…
Sock-wielding Gibson shows restorative power of acting in ‘The Beaver’
The Beaver Dir. Jodie Foster; writ. Kyle Killen; feat. Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin. (PG-13) Full disclosure: I very nearly hate Mel Gibson. I’ve heard the tapes and I’m comfortable in the knowledge that he’s a mentally disturbed, entitled, violent, anti-Semitic misogynist, and a racist. Short of a select few “-ists,” that almost completes…
¡Ask A Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m a Spanish court interpreter in Santa Bárbara, California; I’ve also worked in Los Angeles courts. I just read your most recent column regarding the promotion of the learning and practicing of English by Latinos in the U.S. Generally, I agree with your view. But my question is why can’t we also promote…
Sen. Fraser attacks military foliage, and the fight against Municipal Auditorium’s façadomy
Fraser attacks military foliage James Cannizzo wasn’t a happy camper last week. Cannizzo, an environmental attorney for the U.S. Army at Camp Bullis and Fort Sam Houston, has fought hard to secure greenway buffer zones around the city’s military training grounds. Such buffers hinge on the city’s ability to enforce its tree ordinance inside its…
Critic’s Pick: ‘Casablanca’
Casablanca Dir. Michael Curtiz; writ. Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, based on a play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison; feat. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains. (PG) Texas Public Radio Cinema Tuesdays series $10 for TPR members, $12 for non-members 7:30pm Tuesday, May 31 Santikos Bijou, 4522 Fredericksburg…
Tales of the Cocktail
Ann Tuennerman’s tiny Toyota is shrink-wrapped in boiled-shrimp pink plastic that’s been screened with slogans such as “Shake things up.” Given its size, the slogan might almost apply to the car, but, no, Tuennerman is in town to promote Tales of the Cocktail, the colossal, New Orleans-based cocktalian confab that’s now in its ninth year.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Weaseling out of things is important to learn,” said cartoon anti-hero Homer Simpson. “It’s what separates us from the animals — except the weasel.” I normally don’t share that sentiment. My standard advice is to face up to challenging situations and take responsibility for the part you played in creating them.…
Freetail expands, Shiner at Westin, and Ranger Creek gives out its first Sippy Cup
San Antonio’s Freetail Expands Freetail Brewing Co. has selected downtown Houston for its second brewpub location after nearly two-and-a-half years of successful operation on San Antonio’s north side. Although there is plenty of room to grow in San Antonio, including the far northwest part of town or near downtown, Houston’s lack of a brewpub since…
‘Two Worlds’ Graeber retrospective hints at larger, human story
Larry Graeber, "Two Worlds: A Look Back" Free, by appointment Hausmann Millworks, 925 W Russell (210) 884-6390, hausmannmillworks.com Exhibit on view to May 31 Mounted in a long cinderblock room that was once part of an architectural cabinetry shop, the Larry Graeber retrospective “Two Worlds: A Look Back” at Hausmann Millworks has a settled calm…
The Krays: Sangre
The Krays are back on the radar with a sound reminiscent of SoCal punk interlaced with sexy Spanish tendencies. Imagine local boys Piñata Protest without the accordion (sacrilege, we know, but still damn good), and Social Distortion in a West Side Story street fight. Sedated love and political, angst-filled lyrics, sometimes delivered in English, sometimes…
Local film activities in June
Since our June 1 edition will be devoted to the Current’s 25th anniversary and we won’t have our usual sections, I thought I’d give you a heads up on some local film activities taking place in early June: The San Antonio Film Academy (SAFA) has teamed up with 13th Floor Studios and the Short Shorts…
Beat Battle nurtures education and revolutionary roots of hip-hop
San Antonio Producer Beat Battle and Calmeca CD release party $5 Doors 9pm, Sat May 28 Limelight Music + Drinks, 2718 N St. Mary’s (210) 735-7775, thelimelightsa.com The new recession may be taking a “low-and-slow” attitude towards recovery, but local producer and musician Bryan Hamilton isn’t having any of that business. “Music is my…
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…
Free samplings at Brasserie Pavil; Filling Station has a new name and expansion in the works
With Memorial Day upon us, we yearn anxiously for that elusive three-day weekend. Celebrate those who’ve served by heading to Brasserie Pavil (1818 N Loop 1604 W) for free booze. Sample some complimentary Angel’s Envy Kentucky bourbon from 4-6 p.m. Saturday. Free appetizers will be served on the patio. Then on Sunday come back for…
Lady Gaga: Born This Way
For the world’s biggest pop star, the lead-up to her second full-length release has been less than glamorous: the drug abuse allegations, the Madonna rip-off criticisms, that cover art. Now the full album has arrived, and it is every bit as grandiose, ridiculous, erratic, and often brilliant as its maker. Gaga throws in everything here:…
Two surefire Chinese bets, and the secret menus that make them great
It would come as no surprise to anyone to say that Chinese food in San Antonio is lacking in options. Kung Pao chicken is delicious, but sometimes you just need something more. When I first relocated my Houston-based Hong Kong palate to SA, I must have chewed through 100 pounds of greasy Chinese food before…
Your memory wanted: A ‘Current’ quarter century
Memory is more indelible than ink. — Anita Loos The year before the Current set up shop, San Antonio saw its first International Woman’s Day March downtown; the year after, the legendary arts pioneer Hap Veltman passed away (and, we might add, Chernobyl blew sky-high, though it didn’t register quite as deeply with locals).…
The guerrilla Queer Invasion needs WOMEN!
It’s always nice when San Antonio gets a little bit of big city action to break up the monotony of our small town feel. It’s rare, but sometimes it feels like magic. I was recently invited to go to “The Queer Invasion,” and even though I had no idea what I was in for, I…
