Reviving La CAUSA
SA Pride Parade 2011, photo by Michael Barajas Last week, with much of City Council stuck in campaign season crunch time, downtown Council member Diego Bernal sought to deliver on a promise he made to the LGBT community nearly two years ago. Bernal, who went uncontested in Saturday’s election, met with members of CAUSA…
Hear The New Piñata Protest Album
El Valiente, Piñata Protest’s brand new recording, officially comes out May 21, but you don’t have to wait that long — it has been streaming since May 12 on NPR’s First Listen. The nine-song EP includes Piñata-styled conjunto-norteño-punk covers of immortal classics like “Volver, Volver” and “La Cucaracha,” plus new hits like “Vato Perrón.” Produced…
Analog Is Not Dead: First Friday at J&O’s
Hi, my name is Bryan De La Garza (everyone calls me Brain) and I’m a photographer here in San Antonio. There are still a lot of photographers that shoot film, and I’m one them. I have always wanted to do a photoblog where only analog photographs were shown and can still be beautiful. For me,…
Is Mad Men Untouchable?
For every angry letter, online petition, or sofa rant spilled over a cancelled show, one thing is true: the reason many viewers’ favorite bits of home cinema disappear, is because they aren’t Mad Men. With recent news of network and cable’s cancellations and re-ups for next season, it comes as no surprise that Mad Men…
The Spurs Lost Sunday but Moms Lost Bigger
Happy Mother’s Day from the NBA! We gave every conference semifinalist the night off on Thursday so we could plop a key playoff game right in the middle of your day, just for you. Chicken wings and beer are great brunch items, aren’t they? And surely you’d rather spend your afternoon at a sports bar…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkesta
Israel “Cachao” López was the father of mambo, but it was fellow Cuban Dámaso Pérez Prado who turned mambo into a world craze, thanks to his stirring live performances and recordings in the ’50s. Fast-forward 63 years, and Tucson, Ariz.’s Sergio Mendoza (Calexico, DeVotchKa) and his seven-piece big band honor mambo fever with 2012’s Mambo…
Classic Theatre’s Version of 'Scapin' treats Molière to Pratfalls and Bathroom Humor
Pratfalls and Proust, Anderson Cooper and bathroom humor, games with words and Game of Thrones: this is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink version of Molière’s Scapin, as adapted by Bill Irwin and Mark O’Donnell, and mounted in a frenetic, hyper-stylized production by Matthew Byron Cassi. A mash-up of commedia dell’arte, vaudeville, and South Park, this Scapin simply aims…
2013 Elections: Your Vote Actually Counts
Less than 7 percent of San Antonio’s registered voters turned out yesterday and during early voting. To be fair, most races were pretty uninspiring: popular incumbent mayor without a serious threat; an unchallenged D1 council member; only one open seat on council, with all but two races going handily to incumbents. Most of us can…
Ask Aliyah: Nervous Bride & Stressed Out Mom
Dear Aliyah, My fiancé and I are happily engaged and actively planning a fall wedding for this year. Earlier this spring, we attended my fiancé’s brother’s wedding. It was a large, lavish affair at a local high end, arts destination. While I am so happy for my BIL, I can’t help but think of his…
Sunday Comic: The Adventures of Pizza and Myrtle
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Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Scapin
The word “zany” comes from Zanni, notorious tricksters introduced in 16th-century commedia del’arte. Among the Zanni family is Scapin, a playful servant who lives up to his name by escaping from the sticky situations he orchestrates. First staged in Paris in 1671, Molière’s comedy Scapin’s Deceits presents the title character as a pompous liar who…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Little Shop of Horrors
Before he founded New World Pictures in 1970, Oscar-winning Hollywood rebel Roger Corman was launching actors’ careers (including those of Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and Robert De Niro) and influencing big-time directors (such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Ron Howard) as the king of B movies. Arguably the most influential of Corman’s early…
Tim Duncan Shines in Spurs’ Game Three Win
Isn’t it amazing what happens when the San Antonio Spurs decide to run their offense through Tim Duncan and move the ball? Actually, it’s not; it’s utterly fucking predictable. Unless they’re facing the ghosts of Bill Russell’s Celtics, the Spurs are going to win. And win they did Friday night in Oakland by a score of 102-92,…
Spotlight on Southtown: Jack of All Trades
It’s 8:00 a.m. at Sam Houston High School and the words, ‘hello,’ sleepily escape from peoples’ mouths. The quiet energy barely has time to settle before a firecracker comes flying in; it’s Jack Schneider. Shaggy blonde hair unbrushed, Casio watch broken – but still useful for his timed meditations – Schneider nonchalantly rolls his bicycle…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Sweet and Tender Hooligans & Mariachi Mystery Tour
The spring portion of the Pearl’s Échale! Latino Music Estyles series wraps up Friday with a playful bill pairing two tribute bands. Formed in 1992, L.A.’s Sweet and Tender Hooligans sell themselves as “the ultimate tribute to Morrissey and The Smiths.” Fronted by Jose “The Mexican Morrissey” Maldonado, the quintet records Spanish versions of Moz’s…
Vampire Weekend: 'Modern Vampires of the City'
With the exception of Dirty Projectors, there’s really no more distinct-sounding band out today than Vampire Weekend. No matter your level of music literacy, you know a VW song when you hear it. That patented Afro-pop-meets-indie-rock sound has turned the New York quartet into mainstays on festival bills and dorm room playlists alike. Five years…
Addams Family 2.0 at the Majestic
We might think of the Addams Family as, say, creepy and ooky, but the one thing that doesn’t come to mind is syrupy. That quality, I’m afraid, is what sinks the touring production currently at the Majestic, the end result of four years of desperate tinkering, including different versions mounted in Chicago and on Broadway.…
The Webbys Swell Again: Part 1
SURF is a new column featuring transcendent, collaborative practices of art and tech on the Web. Nowadays, professing you don’t own a television lacks punch if you own a computer. That said, my DVR has been collecting dust since the Webbys announced winners last week. How do you sum up the Webbys? My favorite line…
CPS Energy delays ‘SunCredit’ program
CPS Energy and local solar installers have struck a compromise, at least for now. According to Solar San Antonio director Lanny Sinkin, during a Wednesday morning meeting with Doyle Beneby, the CPS Energy president and CEO agreed to delay for a year a proposed program that solar advocates claim could kill the local market for…
Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum’s Executive Director Stepping Down
Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum announced this morning that Bill FitzGibbons, executive director of the museum for more than 10 years, is resigning his position effective June 15 in order to pursue his public art career. FitzGibbons was chosen Texas State Artist for 2012 by the Texas State Legislature, and has served six years on…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Ansen Seale & Betsy Dudley
If you’ve ever taken pictures at a party, you’ve most likely had a few blurry shots, especially what should have been the cool dancing pics. Ansen Seale’s digital slit-scan camera takes long exposure photographs and turns this state of affairs on its head: static objects are rendered as a blur but movement is captured as…
San Antonio Spurs Lose to Warriors in Game Two
Photo by Alexis Wiesenthal If you thought the NBA’s youngest team might come out demoralized after blowing a 16-point lead with four minutes to go in Game 1, you wouldn’t have been alone. But you’d have also been dead wrong, as the Golden State Warriors won in San Antonio (100-91) for the first time since…
Plaza de Armas on Hiatus
In the weeks leading up to the 2011 municipal elections, San Antonio’s die hard political junkies were glued to plazadearmastx.com, looking for the latest chismé on our local political ruling class. Fast forward to 2013: during the home stretch of our current campaign season, the subscription-only website sat idle for nearly a month, to the…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: The Addams Family
The ghoulish characters illustrator Charles Addams introduced in The New Yorker in 1938 remained nameless until the ’60s; now Gomez, Morticia, and Wednesday Addams are iconic monikers. Descending on Broadway in 2010, the musicalized version of The Addams Family unearths dialogue from Addams’ cartoons but owes more to the macabre sitcom they inspired. Featuring a…
Jayne Lawrence and The Architecture of Insects
Here hang the bones of the unknown. Insect wings dangle down and twirl slightly in the breeze of an opened backdoor. Ribcage constructions rest on the tops of antique tables. This is not an artist’s studio, this is the laboratory of some insane alchemist. Natural forms are dissected and remade unnatural. Grasshopper segments are fused…
We Can Haz Cheese/Veggie/Bison/Hamburger?
May is, apparently, national burger month. While it’s debatable whether such a culinary staple truly deserves a month of feting (whither lasagna month, or taco month, or blueberry muffin month?), screw it, we’ll take any excuse to nosh on a high-fat, cholesterol-busting, all-American fave — Fries with that. If you feel the need to salute…
Piper Sandals: Made for Comfort but Strong Enough for the Trail
When it comes to sandals, locally hewn Pipers are trucks. Someone once told me to never hike in sandals, but that person had never worn these puppies. I logged more than 100 miles last summer backpacking in Israel’s Judean wilderness. I’ve trekked in them by the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Red Sea,…
Lucas Jack: 'Sun City'
Chicago piano man Lucas Jack recently moved to San Antonio, and we can thank him for that. More Billy than Elton, he shares with both a penchant for well-crafted melodies and solid playing. But his singing is what sets him apart — a smooth tenor further enhanced by Mack Damon’s spotless production. This is a…
Halo hovers on the North Side
The ownership of Halo, a club that celebrated their grand opening last weekend, tells you everything you need to know. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect if two self-proclaimed “famed French restaurateurs,” a plastic surgeon, and the owners of a valet parking service decided to create a Stone Oak utopia by way of ultra…
A Punk Rebel's Defense of the Pit Bull
Christine Rebel always liked dogs, but her love of pit bulls became an obsession after she met Farrah Fawcett. Not the Charlie’s Angel, but Rebel’s own four-legged angel, the same who, on one occasion, resisted a bath, prompting “Scallops” (Rebel’s roommate) to make a desperate phone call. “Farrah’s got fleas and doesn’t want to take…
Iggy & the Stooges: 'Ready To Die'
Should Iggy Pop be allowed to make another Stooges record? I mean, technically he has the right, but after sullying the Stooges perfect ’69-’73 trilogy with 2007’s supremely lame The Weirdness, it felt like a task force needed to search and destroy any further attempts at new material. But alas, we have Ready To Die.…
In Texas, Juvenile Sex Offenders Get Virtual Life Sentence
When Allen and his girlfriend moved into their Austin-area house, a woman down the street passed out fliers warning neighbors a monster had moved in next door. His front door was egged, their cars broken into, and “people started crossing the street instead of walking in front of my house,” said Allen, who asked that…
The Whirlybirds: 'KRTU Plugged In Session'
San Antonio’s Whirlybirds are the bubbling liquid of garage pop filtered through the snotty mesh of punk — masters of a tin and rev sound occasionally reminiscent of some of the Rolling Stones’ dirtier blues-rock. This KRTU Plugged In session — the first recorded document of the group’s relatively short existence — treats listeners to…
Prodigal Merlot Returns
In the immortal words of Miles, the dyspeptic pinot partisan of the 2004 movie Sideways, “I am not drinking fucking merlot!” At the time, I agreed (at least regarding California). It was a wakeup call to action — sales slumped — and the industry responded. Today it’s a different story. Here are some recent favorites…
The life of legendary movie producer Richard D. Zanuck
“If you want to be a producer and you want to do it right, I would study Richard D. Zanuck,” says Johnny Depp in Laurent Bouzereau’s Don’t Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story of Richard D. Zanuck. The documentary, which had its world premiere April 28 at the annual Turner Classic Movie (TCM)…
Arcade Midtown Kitchen
It can’t be easy playing the part of the prodigal son. Local boy Jesse Perez, who cut his professional culinary teeth under Southwestern guru Mark Miller at Francesca’s at Sunset in the Westin La Cantera, must be feeling just a little of the pressure of a return home from distant lands — minus the squandering…
Review: 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'
Mira Nair’s new film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, arrives at a time when its story is likely to be of interest to a much larger audience, now that we all know the Tsarnaev brothers’ names. The film and its excellent, eponymous source novel by Mohsin Hamid follow an ambitious young Pakistani, Changez, who rises rapidly in…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Tarahumara Indians of northwestern Mexico are renowned for their ability to run long distances. The best runners can cover 200 miles in two days. The paths they travel are not paved or smooth, either, but rather the rough canyon trails that stretch between their settlements. Let’s make them your inspirational…
Culinaria Offers Package For Foodie Moms
Culinaria, San Antonio’s all-encompassing yearly food and wine festival, is fast approaching and the good people behind the tasty fest are offering the very special Trio package for yo mamas just in time for Mother’s Day. Be they foodies, wine aficionados, or simply excellent dining company that enjoy a good beer and a burger, this package is…
Manu Ginobli, Spurs Beat Warriors in Double Overtime
Courtesy Photo In a 129-127 game in which the guy you’re guarding goes for 44 points and your famously clutch teammate hits a three-pointer with one second to go for the win, it’s tough to single out a defender’s effort as the key to a team’s success. Yet once Kawhi Leonard switched on to Steph…
Stay Current with the Pick of the Day: Stray Sunbeam Capture Tuesdays
Erik Sanden gained local acclaim as frontman for popular bands, most notably Buttercup. But there’s a (sorta) first time for everything, even for this author of 300+ songs. Every Tuesday in May at the Liberty Bar, Sanden will perform solo, something that’s only happened once before in SA. Sanden says he’ll be story-telling as much…
