Great Jupiter!
Or: Why now is a perfect time to invest in clean â?? really clean â?? living. Marla Cone, dominating the ocean of podium. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Having grown up eating fish on the Great Lakes not too terribly long before Superfund gave local fish an unpalatable flavor, Marla Cone was understandably interested in finding the…
RIVER RE-DEVELOPMENT ROUNDUP PART 5: NEVER THE SAME RIVER TWICE
Actually, this might be RR-DR Part 6, if you count this review Elaine and I wrote to be part of this crazy series. Or this Q and A with Kim Abernethy, the River Foundation Executive Director. Well, anyways. The Museum Reach of the River Re-Development project has FINALLY opened, and I am not disappointed in…
Stuck on the lege
By Gilbert Garcia As the lege’s session (apparently) winds to a close, the clearest result is the return of the familiar partisan rancor that made the Tom Craddick years so entertaining for observers and so frustrating for participants. With Democrats trying every possible point of order last week to bury Voter ID so the House…
State gears up to fight sex trafficking
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Slavery still exists. Human beings bought, sold, traded on an underground market. Women, primarily, threatened and beaten, tortured, and killed. According to Siddharth Kara, in Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, sex trafficking has become a chronic reality across Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, following the reach of…
Live & Local: Piñata Protest
Get your picket signs and baseball bats, cause tonight, we’re heading to Salute International to check out Piñata Protest. The 21 & up show begins at 10pm, and admission is $3. The Protest will be joined by Rings of Saturn, recent Live & Local reviewees Viet Ruse,and obvious Clockwork Orange fans No Time for the…
Chaléwood No. 10: Guilherme Jacinto
Guilherme Jacinto (animator) — Up By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current contributing writer paperboy5456@yahoo.com As a young, aspiring animator, Guilherme Jacinto moved from his home country of Brazil to San Francisco to study at the Academy of Art University in 2003. With zero credits to his name, he hoped he could break into the very…
Big Brother alert on TxDOT Sunset Bill
Greg M. Schwartz gschwartz@sacurrent.com The controversial Texas Department of Transportation Sunset Bill, HB 300, has been under extensive scrutiny and change as legislators have tacked on a slew of amendments that have brought the bloated bill to nearly 250 single-spaced pages. There’s already been concern about private toll road contracts having been snuck into the…
Anita Ledbetter: The woman who’s Building San Antonio Green
Muggin’ at a recent Council meeting… and talkin’ serious sustainability. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com It’d been one of those days designed special for the sustainability curious and transformational technology buffs alike. We’d all gathered in the Pearl stables (not as lowly as it sounds) to honor San Antonio’s living legend, Mr. Bill Sinkin. Keynoting was SunEdison…
LI’L KIM (ABERNETHY) Q&A with san Antonio River Foundation Executive Director
San Antonio River Foundation Executive Director Kim Abernethy builds community, shops at Costco SARAH FISCH sfisch@sacurrent.com photo from the San Antonio River Foundation website Kim Abernethy is a secret radical. Sure, she may come across as a no-nonsense executive who hobnobs effortlessly with powerful board members and city leaders (to wit, her poised and polished…
AUDIO: Toxic trains for Texas
Talking with the Sierra Club’s Neil Carman about the toxic trainloads of cancer-causing PCBs about to be shipped 2,000 across the country to Waste Control Specialists outside Andrews.
Blackout! 2
Blackout! 2 Composer: Method Man, Redman Conductor: Method Man, Redman Label: Def Jam Release Date: 2009-05-27 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Ten years after their original team-up album, mans Method and Red return, but most of the producers who made Blackout! a near-perfect party soundtrack weren’t invited back. “AYO” and “Hey Zulu” feature high-energy production, but…
Townes
Townes Composer: Steve Earle Conductor: Steve Earle Label: New West Release Date: 2009-05-27 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Steve Earle’s debt to cult singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt is immeasurable. Van Zandt championed Earle during his struggling-artist years, and Earle even named one of his sons after the troubled troubadour (who drank and drugged himself to death…
Soy Sauce
Soy Sauce Composer: Mexican Institute of Sound Conductor: Mexican Institute of Sound Label: Nacional Records Release Date: 2009-05-27 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Mexico City DJ and record-label exec Camilo Lara’s third MIS album continues to mix electro, hip-hop, dub, and several genres of Latin American music in ever-inventive ways. Cumbias, boleros, and mariachi tunes are…
SAMA Riverwalk Extension Celebration
Release Date: 2009-05-27 In celebration of the River Walk extension, SAMA hosts an all-day party with children’s art activities, a scavenger hunt through the galleries, and music and food available throughout the day. For the adults, from 1-3 p.m. in the SAMA auditorium, there will be a panel with eight public artists discussing their contributions…
Prick Magazine & Pabst Blue Ribbon Present: Musical Mayhem’s Travelling Rock n’ Roll & Burlesque Review
Release Date: 2009-05-27 Prick Magazine and everyone’s favorite crappy beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, present this over-the-top traveling circus. Consider this: loud, psycho-billy rock ’n’ roll from the Hotrods, tattoos, and naughty-but-nice PG-13 stripteases from the Pretty Things Peepshow (featuring the notorious Suicide Girl Bettina May and Coney Island Sideshow Girl Angelica Insectavora). It’s power chords,…
King’s X
Release Date: 2009-05-27 While the band’s greatest commercial success was in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the Katy, Texas, power trio never broke up and continued to deliver consistent albums and tours over the years. The band presents an unusual sound, mixing the classic-rock influences of Hendrix and Rush with Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s…
Chranene Uzemie (Protected Territory)
Release Date: 2009-05-27 Jump-Start Theatre presents the first U.S. tour for the original production Chranene Uzemie (Protected Territory). Ensemble members of the Divadlo z Pasaze theater are individuals with profound mental challenges recruited from Slovak institutions. This performance is nonverbal and seeks to communicate through an international theater language. Ultimately, the play is about what…
Art Opening: Stephanie Bonham & Art Silva: Drums and Cats 4ever
Release Date: 2009-05-27 “Three kick drums. A cluster of kittens. Forbidden love betwixt percussion and feline.” Look for new works of collage and sculpture by Stephanie Bonham and Art Silva, who began collaborating in art school in 2005. Don’t miss the live performance from 8-9 p.m. Those hoping for Steve Martin-esque cat juggling look elsewhere.…
Kate’s Frosting
Release Date: 2009-05-27 Kate’s Frosting 2518 N. Main (210) 248-9809 THE SKINNY No doughnuts, bear claws or empanadas — just devilishly delightful cupcakes DON’T MISS Four daily flavors of cupcake, including the Ruby Slipper (red velvet) and the Jessica Rabbit (carrot cake)
DMC Regional Finals
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-05-27 Kool DJ Herc, DJ Shadow, DJ from Full House — odds are none of these will be at Blue Bubble Ballroom for the DMC Regional Finals (well, except for Candace Cameron, who I think may be working part-time as a waitress there), but we have been promised performances by Certain…
Blame it on the boogie
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2009-05-27 You’re just in time to honor the tail end of “Dance Celebration Month” with perhaps the least likely of San Anto’s cultural institutions to host the pachanga: the San Antonio Public Library System. (We kid; the SAPL actually does tons of nifty and relevant arts programming). This Saturday at the…
Dive Bar in disguise
The Mine Shaft Saloon
Raimi does ‘Drag’
Evil Dead director returns to horror with giggles and gasps
The Dominican dream
Sugar Director: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck Screenwriter: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck Cast: Algenis Pérez Soto, Rayniel Rufino, Andre Holland Release Date: 2009-05-27 Rated: R Genre: Film Asked why people call him “Azúcar” (Sugar), Miguel Santos (Pérez Soto) replies: “I’m sweet with the ladies.” A friend offers an alternative explanation: “He eats so much…
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Critic’s Pick Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Director: Shawn Levy Screenwriter: Shawn Levy Cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan Release Date: 2009-05-27 Rated: PG Genre: Film The first installment of Night at the Museum may have been a pithy, middle-of-the-road, comedy lark with top-notch special effects, but…
Wavering Radiant
Wavering Radiant Composer: Isis Conductor: Isis Label: Ipecac Release Date: 2009-05-27 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Often labeled avant-metal, this Los Angeles fivesome really does defy definitions. Following 2006’s In the Absence of Truth, the band’s fifth album, Wavering Radiant, perpetuates Isis’s explorative sonic landscapes, many of them instrumental. Guitarist Aaron Turner’s voice is brought in…
The QueQue
Tru luv’s calling Last week was marked by bold grasps for personal fulfillment, as indentured public servants from Texas’s far corners abandoned their old-school institutions for partners who grok their deep inner feelings. Along the way, the world shifted just a bit. The announcement that three-term San Angelo Mayor J.W. Lown was resigning his office…
The nuclear-power lobby
U.S. Congressman Charlie Gonzalez wanted two things out of the Waxman-Markey climate bill: assistance for the nuclear industry, and free pollution credits for utilities like our City-owned CPS Energy. He nailed free pollution days before the legislation was voted out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce last week by requiring most carbon credits…
The San Antonio River Improvements Project: Urban Segment of the Museum Reach
San Antonians like to hang out together, and we’re good at it. It’s testament to our mutual tolerance and genuine civic affection that riots don’t break out at, say, post-Spurs-championship pachangas. As we toast (repeatedly; see a selection of events, page 37) the grand opening of the San Antonio River’s Museum Reach Urban Segment this…
Jackie O’no
To paraphrase Tolstoy: If all happy families are alike, dysfunctional ones make for better drama. The shattered dream of Camelot haunts the Pascal family, which disintegrates during a hurricane in a funny, chilling, though somewhat uneven, production by the Rose Theatre Company of Wendy MacLeod’s deliriously dark comedy, The House of Yes. Monique Sleeper is…
ARTifacts
Pow! Nate Cassie! Katie Pell! Bettie Ward! Jesse Amado! Shazam! These are only some of the featured artists who donated works to the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center’s biggest annual fundraser, the Red Dot Sale. Chuck Ramirez! Riley Robinson! Cesar Martinez! C’mon! It happens this Thursday, and in addition to raising needed funds for all…
Artist in Residence Vol. III
1. Roosevelt Park 331 Roosevelt Ave. Bring a spring upon her cable, Lad! To the parks we go! A pleasant greenspace for swimming, walking, and general galivanting. 2. HemisFair Park 600 HemisFair Strap on yer helmet Lad and Missy for an adventurous ride through historical landmarks and, if we’re lucky, we’ll get splashed by a…
Don’t Fence Them In
Janko Kinces is a professional actor. You haven’t seen him in the movies or on the red carpet. He has never been to Los Angeles or New York. He doesn’t even audition or have an agent. Janko is a member of Divadlo z Pasáze, Theatre from the Passage, a Slovakian company that employs 14 directors,…
¡Ask a Mexican!
SPECIAL CINCO PREGUNTAS EDITION Dear Mexican: My question is simple: Can you please confirm the fact that there are doctors, lawyers, and other professionals living in Mexico? I’m a Mexican-American woman living in Chicago who had a HEATED discussion about that topic. My friend who is a teacher at a local school was of the…
SAMA overflows
Celebrating the opening of the River Walk’s new Museum Reach, curator David Rubin — thirsting for a popular audience with this easy-to-swallow theme exhibit — has gathered 15 local artists who contemplate the importance of the liquid combination of hydrogen and oxygen in Waterflow at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Though jammed in the…
The Omniboire: Tempranillo
Let’s start with the name. Tempranillo has more aliases than a fugitive in a witness-protection program: Cencibel, ojo de liebre, tinto del pais, tinta de Toro, tinto fino … and that’s just within Spain, its historic homeland. This mysterious grape may produce light-bodied, lively wines in Rioja but intense, burly ones in Toro, and rampant…
Amuse-BOUCHE
Spirits were high at Ciel’s paella night last Thursday (David Shelton also unveiled his eponymous art gallery, where we highly recommend Scott Lifshutz’s devastatingly delicate watercolors; davidsheltongallery.com), but out front, a travestywas underway. The conflict between owner Damien Watel (of Bistro Vatel, Ciao Lavanderia, and La Frite fame) and the Stone Oakies over his Gilbert…
Travels with Frenchie
Welcome to another installment of Travels with Frenchie, the monthly food series in which a trio of culturally mismatched San Antonians explores our city’s culinary nooks and crannies. As before, the team consisted of: Frenchie (aka Fabien Jacob, sommelier at Le Rêve), Carlos the Bike Mechanic (aka Carlos Montoya, informal taco scholar), me (recovering vegan…
Dear Uncle Mat
I would like your take on this relationship: Married 6 years; the husband moved into his wife’s home. Husband’s language: “your house,” “your neighbors.” Wife’s: “our house,” “the neighbors.” Husband is 52. Third marriage with two adult children from a previous marriage. He enjoys sitting at the computer, reading science fiction, woodworking. Occupation: construction. Very…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): While reading a crime report in the online version of Northern California’s Arcata Eye newspaper, I came across this entry: “A dreadlocked man attacked a lamp post on the Plaza with his mighty fists, punching it while yelling and, in the memorable description of a witness, ‘fighting amongst himself.’” I immediately…
S’NUFF Film
All right, you lazy little bastards, this is your last warning. If you’re gonna enter your short (20 minutes or less) film in the 2009 Josiah Youth Media Festival, you better be reading this shit either on set or in the post office, ’cause you got until June 1 to postmark that masterpiece. Go to…
BAND INTERRUPTED
Live-wire club scenes, plentiful celeb-bonding opportunities, and record-company HQs tend to lure the young, ambitious, and almost famous to the East or West Coast music business, or just up the road to the singer-songwriter capital of the world. But San Anto’s Girl in a Coma is staying put. “We’re all born and raised here, so…
The Sound & The Fury
In ska terms, SA band Channel One qualifies as a local supergroup. The sextet formed two years ago when former Resistors Gerald Hooper, Laith Fisk, and Jeremy “Germ” Garza joined forces with former Spies Like Us guitarist Jason Trevino. Hooper, a former Columbia and RCA Records employee, views ska as the jagged rhythmic propulsion that’s…
Live & Local
The pros and cons of opening for a bigger act: The house was packed (presumably) when Articles of Separation finished tuning up, but because headliners the Thermals wanted to play a longer set, some of the opening bands were canceled. So the Articles took the stage earlier and had to lop the last song off…
Voter ID bill headed toward garbage can
Greg M. Schwartz gschwartz@sacurrent.com Months of Voter ID controversy heads toward a conclusion at midnight tonight, the deadline for passing the Republican bill that would require voters to show a photo ID or two forms of non-photo ID. Democrats have argued the bill would disenfranchise students, minorities and the elderly due to red tape involved…
Giving away the (wind) farm
Wind and nuke jobs coming at high cost to Texas economy Where’s the ‘quit-taking-my-money’ switch? Hard-up West Texas schools… Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Thanks to a little renewable-energy windfall known as wind farms, many West Texas counties are reaping big money these days. And they’re not sending it on to the state to be divided up…
