Holy Mayo!
You don’t need religion to eat at Leap of Faith Café
LIVE TO TELL
Dead or alive? Tupac Shakur (courtesy photo) Tupac Shakur’s second coming: to be young, black, gifted, and dead On Friday, September 13, 1996, Tupac Amaru Shakur, named after an Incan warrior, entered the hip-hop ghetto in heaven. Seven years after the rap music avatar was slain in a drive-by hit on the Las Vegas…
MAD ABOUT THIS MOVIE
Elmer Fudd (far left), Bugs Bunny, Brendan Fraser, and Jenna Elfman in a scene from Looney Tunes: Back in Action. (courtesy photo) An irreverent take on some of America’s favorite ‘toons Here’s the only good news about Looney Tunes: Back in Action: Taking a family to the movies is expensive. Parents who do some…
LIFE AT SEA
Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) warns his crew that the Surprise is about to come under attack. (courtesy photo) ‘Master and Commander’ pits the British against the French, and leaves Americans to enjoy a spirited film Before his death three years ago, Patrick O’Brian published 20 volumes of vivid historical fiction that, focusing on…
Armchair Cinephile
Movies worth humming about Gospel According to Al Green, Black Wax (WinStar) Space Is the Place, Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns (Plexifilm) Amandia! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (Artisan) The Kids Are Alright (Pioneer) Naqoyqatsi, Chicago (Miramax) All That Jazz (Fox) Cover Girl (Columbia/TriStar) Not long ago, this column summed up the so-so state…
RECENT REVIEWS
Elf Dir. Jon Favreau; writ. David Berenbaum; feat. Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel, Edward Asner, Daniel Tay, Mary Steenburgen (PG) Elf exploits Will Ferrell’s most innocent childish side, one that he has elsewhere used to play just play dumb. Here, Buddy is not stupid but guileless, a human raised by Santa’s helpers…
RADIO WARS
KTFM’s recent switch to a rock format has jammed San Antonio radio dials. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Airwave shakeup leaves little wiggle room in the crowded rock field If there is truth in the old axiom that no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public, it’s also likely that…
HOUSE CALL
Hackberry saplings and spiders are tenants at 422 E. Park Avenue in the Tobin Hill neighborhood. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) East Park Avenue a showcase for urban blight and renewal The house at 422 E. Park Avenue has seen better days. Built around 1900, the three-bedroom, two-story, 2,520-square-foot structure leans in a southwesterly direction,…
STRICTLY ELEMENTAL
Alias: One of hip-hop’s most respected auteurs (courtesy photo) Lotus Tribe constructs an ambitious local celebration of hip-hop culture Forget monochromatic track suits laced with infinitely ridiculous accessories (insert nostalgic sigh over full-size clocks on necklaces). The evolution of hip-hop, a paradox in itself, has allowed the genre to emerge as an artistic force…
BUCKING BUSH
Rebecca Johnston was arrested at a protest against President Bush on October 30. Witnesses said San Antonio Police Officer Rafael Medel and three other officers threw her on the street and handcuffed her. The officer’s report alleges that Johnston “began kicking violently” at the policeman. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Woman busted at Bush protest…
EASY BEING GREEN
When Al Green left secular music behind in the late ’70s to focus his energies on creating the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, he was still a major star. Abandoning a successful career while at the peak of his creative powers, Green created his own particular myth. He was the R&B equivalent of…
BLUES CLUES
A man from Blue Man Group Some performers must be seen to be appreciated. Take the Blue Man Group. Put this group on a stage, and you get something akin to a theatrical experience: big blue freaks flailing about onstage, playing oddball art-funk music on an array of plastic pipes. Put that same group…
ALL EARS
MTV AUTEURS Consider this week’s column an appendix to the one over in the Screens section on music docs and concert films; if we’re giving the DVD section to the musicians this issue, why not give the record column to the filmmakers? I’m talking about The Director Label, a generic sounding outfit made up by…
ALL EARS EXTRA
SENSITIVE, BUT NOT FRAGILE The recent news of Elliott Smith’s death was startling and very sad. Sad enough for Smith’s own sake, of course, but also as another example of what threatens to be seen as a romantic tradition of suicide (deliberate or passive) among some of songwriting’s most quietly beautiful voices. Sitting around thinking…
THE ART OF APPROPRIATION
A still grabbed from an issue of Reset, a local underground video magazine. (courtesy photo) ‘Reset’ video magazine represents the San Antonio hip-hop culture – and the politics that inform community art “It’s like Michael Moore on speed,” says filmmaker Jim Mendiola, (Come and Take It Day, Speeder Kills), in reference to Reset, a…
SOUND AND THE FURY
a week on the scene LUNA TUNES The local jazz scene should get a major, much-needed boost this weekend with the highly anticipated opening of Luna, a non-smoking venue striving for the ambience of an authentic New York jazz hot spot. Luna will spotlight the best in local and national jazz every Wednesday through Saturday.…
READY-MADE BLUES
A work from the “Tools as Art” exhibition at Blue Star through January 4. (courtesy photo) Blue Star features the Herchinger Collection in the exhibition ‘Tools as Art’ Blue Star changed its formal name not long ago, from the pleasingly rough and experimental-sounding Art Space to the more formal Contemporary Art Center. This new…
ARTIFACTS
News and notes from the San Antonio art scene Finesilver Gallery has been notably active lately – putting San Antonio on the international map via the contemporary art fair circuit. Despite the meteoric price tags (which start at about $5,000 per exhibitor for a bare bones booth space), invitational art fairs afford top commercial galleries…
