REFEREEING THE REFERENDUM
If you can’t get representation, then you have to force a referendum. Those are the sentiments of Enrique Valdívia of Save Our Aquifer, which is helping to organize the referendum petition against the proposed PGA Village. “Our representatives are not representing the San Antonio voters,” says Valdívia, who leads the group with former City Councilwoman…
SHORTWAVE OF THE FUTURE
Rarely does everyday music tap into our conscious state of being and move us to listen to, feel, and experience something far beyond rhythm, beats, and lyrics. Sometimes artists create music that demands our attention, delivering a message that only listeners can decipher. An important question posed by local musician Danielle Cunningham of the electronic,…
DO NO HARM
A new book from University of Minnesota Press has just hit the stores. But weeks before it was available to the public, Harmful to Minors had already provoked a rash of national press. The media is responding to what can only be called the usual suspects. They include a posse of moral conservatives and practitioners…
VOTER INTIMIDATION
On April 26, Jeff Judson, President of the Texas Public Policy Foundation issued a statement criticizing the Every Texan Foundation stating, “People should not confuse the two organizations for we have little in common.” This statement is probably as close to telling the truth as this right wing front will ever make. Every Texan Foundation…
CHAI AND A MOVIE
Forget the lack of subtitles — the most puzzling aspect of the Movieplex 5 experience is simply finding the joint. The theater sports no signage, interior or exterior, and is housed in a remote underground annex to Windsor Park Mall. Few are aware that the defunct Regal Cinema has recently reopened under a new moniker,…
BOLLYWOOD FACTS
Amitabh Bachchan is the most famous Bollywood star in history. In a poll conducted in India, Bachchan proved to be more widely known than even Mahatma Gandhi. The Indian film industry employs about 2.5 million people and produces approximately 1,000 films annually. India has the world’s most prolific film industry, churning out 1,013 films in…
INDIA GOES DVD
After watching four hours of teary-eyed monologues of love and more than my share of good-natured slapstick — all framed by marathon-length song-and-dance routines — I’ve got a tune in my heart, and it goes “Shava Shava.” Parvinder Singh, whose thick, black beard belies his 18 years, suggested Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham to me. Singh’s…
THE ARCHNESS OF TRIUMPH
When Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux’s Le Triomphe de l’amour opened in pre-Revolutionary Paris in 1732, its genteel mockery of aristocratic mores brought titters to the gentry assembled in the audience. When Clare Peploe’s cinematic version opened in Italy (where it was filmed), on September 6, 2001, it must have seemed like an elegant…
Still Playing
A Beautiful Mind “Pity, fear, and cognitive reverie” Dir. Ron Howard; writ. Akiva Goldsman, based on biography by Sylvia Nasar; feat. Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Vivien Cardone, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Christopher Plummer (PG-13) Blade II “Goes for the jugular” Dir. Guillermo del Toro; writ. David S. Goyer; feat. Wesley Snipes,…
New Reviews
Hollywood Ending “Not up to Woody’s standard” Dir. and writ. Woody Allen; feat. Allen, Téa Leoni, George Hamilton, Debra Messing, Mark Rydell, Treat Williams (PG-13) Any longtime Woody Allen fan knows he has zingers aplenty. There will probably never be a time in his life that he can’t invent a delicious one-liner, and Hollywood Ending…
New Reviews
Hollywood Ending “Not up to Woody’s standard” Dir. and writ. Woody Allen; feat. Allen, Téa Leoni, George Hamilton, Debra Messing, Mark Rydell, Treat Williams (PG-13) Any longtime Woody Allen fan knows he has zingers aplenty. There will probably never be a time in his life that he can’t invent a delicious one-liner, and Hollywood Ending…
CD Reviews
Art in Heartache #1 “Lately I’ve Let Things Slide” From The Convincer by Nick Lowe (CD, Yep Roc Records) Breaking up with someone can put a dent in your routine. Last month, I missed more deadlines than I met, I slept too much or too little, and shaving became a less-than-daily habit. Nick Lowe knows…
21st Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio
Call 271-3151 or visit www.guadalupeculturalarts.org for more information. Thur 5|9 Rosedale Park 340 Dartmouth “Ladies get in free.” 6-7:15pm Chente Barrera y Taconazo 7:30-8:45pm Shelly Lares 9-10:15pm Los Desperadoz 10:30-midnight David Lee Garza y Los Musicales Fri 5|10 Guadalupe Theater 1301 Guadalupe Free 2pm Conjunto: International Reach. Panel discussion with three conjuntos from abroad, all…
CHOPPY WATERS
Jamie O’Neill’s At Swim, Two Boys is a hugely ambitious, 572-page high-literary epic about events in Dublin prior to the Easter 1916 rising — a bloody prelude to the bloodier war for Irish independence from England. It’s a marvel of sorts, but makes no concessions to readers unfamiliar with Irish history, geography, or terminology: You’re…
A LINK IN THE VIRTUOSIC CHAIN
In American music, a new artist can be said to have the music “in his blood” if his father played it: Your dad was Bob Dylan? Okay, Jakob, you have a head start. That’s not entirely unreasonable. Even a one-generation legacy goes back to a time when our pop music was still in its infancy.…
THE VINE OF DESIRE
“What is it that I owe myself?” asks Sudha, one of the central characters in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s latest novel, The Vine of Desire. The sequel to 1999’s Sister of My Heart continues the story of Anju and Sudha Chatterjee, cousins born on the same day who consider themselves twins. Though the new novel delves…
