E-N: buyouts or layoffs for up to 50 employees
R.G. Griffing, editor of the San Antonio Lightning, confirmed persistent rumors today that our local Hearst-owned daily would be cutting jobs again this year to compensate for declining revenues. Read the leaked memo to Express-News employees here. Griffing told the Current he confirmed the document’s authenticity with E-N publisher Tom Stephenson — the first time…
Tinfoil hat attack: AGUA bares its mettle
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com The footchase is over, disentangling into beery memory. A catalog of stupid comments I likely made or thought as I struggled to come to grips with the orchestrated chaos of AGUA’s Third Annual Tinfoil Hat Party are likewise being pushbroomed into obsolescence. And it’s sad. Had I to do it all over…
Free Speech Coalition activate in West SA
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com
Live & Local Preview: Ill Prospekt
To paraphrase the Beastie Boys: My name’s Jeremy Martin, I’ve got a license to kill (a press pass anyway), I think you know what time it is â?? it’s time to get ill. As in Ill Prospekt, the keyboard driven noise-rockers we’ll be reviewing for this week’s Live & Local feature. The band plays Saturday,…
Rock â??n’ Roll Marathon: Your best bets
by Gilbert Garcia and Jeremy Martin Looking to throw up at a rock concert for a reason not related to alcohol? Look no further than the San Antonio Rock â??n’ Roll Marathon which places bands sporadically throughout a 26-plus mile course. The marathon’s sold out, but for those of you running, we’d like to offer…
Bleepin’ Huge Damn Deal (for energy nerds on deadline)
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com You must have clean energy. Whether you get it from ‘myco-diesel’-excreting mushrooms, or sun spot-blemished solar, or micro-turbines, is your choice. But it goes like this: The International Energy Administration issued one scary forecast this week that we need four more Saudi Arabia’s to protect us against a global energy supply crunch.…
Yes We Scam!: Hearst wants you to buy an Obama T-shirt
As you may have noticed, I gave up bitching about faux-alt 210sa’s “Wardrobe Warrior” feature almost a year ago. I thought I’d use my nonexistent free time more productively — e.g. train my super-smart mini-dachshund to ring a little bell when he needs to take a whiz. And as it happens, the occasion of today’s…
On the Street: More Time for Rapping, Tricep Tattoos, Less is More, The Sprawl of First Friday, and Other Important Discussions of Our Time
“Winning and Losing” Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite) Last week was a torrent of communication. As usual, the flow died off in the week after. A few drops did push throughâ?¦ #1 Chiapas Spurs Roundtable From the travels and travails of local artist, The Once and Future Mantecatron, comes this excerpt. “I’m…
Give Me My Nudie Magazine! a Blog Post by Ryan Johnston.
So I went to Wal-Mart to buy the latest issue of Vanity Fair, which has Kate Winslet gracing the cover in nothing but a white coat and stilettos. Not only is she the best actress to come out of the past twenty yearsâ?¦she is an amazing classic beauty. And yes, I am extremely excited for…
Avenue A gets a reprieve
Charles Bartlett, the District 3 rep on the Linear Creekway Parks Advisory Board looked beatific as he departed this morning’s Park Segment Subcommittee meeting. Minutes earlier, the group — which had been charged with the politically difficult task of recommending hike and bike trails between Josephine Street and Hildebrand Avenue for the ongoing San Antonio…
Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008, Day Two
I am aware of the gap between my Day One post and my Day Two post, and I apologize to anybody who follows this blog for the delay. You see, on the Monday following Fun Fun Fun Fest I got caught up in another big event: Work Work Work Fest. But now that WWWF is…
City to River Road: Take a hike and bike?
Queque was so busy this week drawing a comparison between the proposed sale of Healy-Murphy Park (in which the City is drafting an RFP — a request for offers to buy the park — then holding a community meeting, and then issuing the RFP no matter what happens at the public meeting, just, you know,…
Doña Rosita’s Jalapeno Kitchen
Release Date: 2008-11-12 The holiday season gets started with fabulous food and tantalizing gossip in Doña Rosita’s Jalapeño Kitchen. A small restaurant owner attempts to retain her sanity while the forces of change and urbanization threaten her existence, but she keeps dishing out the tasty food and salty advice to all. Written by Rodrigo Duarte…
Booth
Release Date: 2008-11-12 Booth is the story of Junius Brutus Booth, a fugitive, bi-polar perfectionist and his bitter rivalry with his son, and acting competition, Edwin Booth. Junius, played by guest artist and professional actor Andrew Thornton, is the father of a tribe of thespians including Edwin and his brother, John Wilkes Booth, who fatally…
Quietdrive
Release Date: 2008-11-12 With their sophomore album, Deliverance, debuting at the top of Billboard’s Alternative New Artist Chart, Quietdrive is proving they’re a force in today’s underground music scene. A solid and enjoyable album, Deliverance ranges from guitar-driven rock to passionate power ballads to ’60s-era pop. The Minneapolis foursome feels completely at home on the…
Girl In A Coma w. Bitch & The Exciting Conclusion, and Autosuggestion
Release Date: 2008-11-12 Fiery indie-rocker Bitch (above) and her band The Exciting Conclusion have joined SA punk faves Girl in a Coma for a fall Midwest/South tour that concludes with Saturday’s show at Sam’s. Signed to Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records, GIAC has been touring in promotion of their debut CD, Both Before I’m Gone, and…
Texas Traxx Live w. When Words Attack, Goodnight Goddess, & Flesh Electric
Release Date: 2008-11-12 Local rock is the spiel every Sunday at Scout, where S.A.’s best take the stage in the name of 99.5 KISS — $2.50 Corona and Jäger specials guarantee a packed house of local scenesters. When Words Attack graces the stage this Sunday, back on the scene with all new songs after a…
Green Jelly, Radioactive Chicken Heads, Rosemary’s Billygoat, & more
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2008-11-12 By semi-jokingly attempting to be the world’s worst band, Green Jelly differentiates itself from all those horrible bands that aren’t so self-aware. Combining juvenile humor, minimal musical ability, and guitar riffs shamelessly plagiarized from Black Sabbath and Motorhead, Green Jelly’s music is actually more original and enjoyable (or at least…
Cut out the middle, man
Guajillo’s offers exceptional chips, salsa, and desserts; underwhelming entrées
The DIY Factory
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2008-11-12 Indulge your crafty side with the second annual DIY Factory, which showcases more than 50 alternative arts and crafts vendors who epitomize the Do-It-Yourself ethos. You’ll find unique fashions and accessories, art dolls, handmade house items, jewelry, found-object art, paintings, silk-screened tees and totes, knitted goods, and many other one-of-a-kind…
A lounge where you can lounge
Release Date: 2008-11-12 I have nothing but good things to say about Mon Ami, the new lounge attached to popular mid-Broadway restaurant Mon’s Thai. For Alamo Heights, a neighborhood that is fairly dry in its tastes, Mon Ami is a like a fresh southeasterly breeze pushing against a wall of stale air. First off, Mon…
The Psychedelic Films of Ken Adams
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2008-11-12 Sala Diaz is almost always a good bet for an art experience with a touch of the unusual, so the Current recommends you check out a screening there on the 18th of the early psychedelic works of experimental filmmaker Ken Adams. There will be a trio of videos: Alien Dreamtime,…
‘Soul’ drain
Soul Men Director: Malcolm D. Lee Screenwriter: Malcolm D. Lee Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac, Sharon Leal, Adam Herschman, Sean Hayes, Isaac Hayes, Affion Crockett Release Date: 2008-11-12 Rated: R Genre: Film With Soul Men, fans of the late Bernie Mac will get a familiarly amusing dose from one of the Original Kings of…
Jedi Mind Tricks, Outerspace, & Reef the Lost Cause
Release Date: 2008-11-12 Time has generally not been kind to aging rappers. Many of the heroes Jedi Mind Tricks emcee Vinnie Paz looked up to during rap’s golden age from the mid-’80s to early ’90s — Marley Marl, Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane — have all but disappeared, nearly forgotten by the generations of hip-hop…
Off With Their Heads
Off With Their Heads Composer: Kaiser Chiefs Label: Motown Release Date: 2008-11-12 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording How do you get older, wiser, and better without becoming too serious? The UK-based Kaiser Chiefs tackle this question following sophomore slump Yours Truly, Angry Mob, which traded the upbeat fun of stellar debut Employment for stuffy mediocrity. Off…
Doña Rosita’s Jalapeno Kitchen
Release Date: 2008-11-12 The holiday season gets started with fabulous food and tantalizing gossip in Doña Rosita’s Jalapeño Kitchen. A small restaurant owner attempts to retain her sanity while the forces of change and urbanization threaten her existence, but she keeps dishing out the tasty food and salty advice to all. Written by Rodrigo Duarte…
Exposion
Exposion Composer: White Denim Label: Transmission Release Date: 2008-11-12 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Rather than the ’80s hair-metal throwback the name implies, Austin’s White Denim play acid-washed blues-rock with an off-kilter pop sensibility. Exposion, the group’s full-length debut, is a half hour of noisy psychedelia trimmed of bloated excess and crammed into hooky, digestible, three-to-four-minute…
GLBT National Day of Protest
Release Date: 2008-11-12 This Saturday San Antonio will be joining hundreds of thousands of GLBT Americans and our straight allies in a National Day of Protest against the passage of Proposition 8 and the other discriminatory laws against GLBT Americans. There will be guest speakers, including San Antonio Native and National GLBT Activist, Retired Marine…
Gossip in the Grain
Gossip in the Grain Composer: Ray LaMontagne Label: RCA Victor Release Date: 2008-11-12 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Ray LaMontagne’s third album proves once again that this bearded wonder is more than a singer-songwriter. This well-crafted collection of songs digs deeper into previously mined caves of vulnerability and raw emotion, and plays like a string of…
Booth
Release Date: 2008-11-12 Booth is the story of Junius Brutus Booth, a fugitive, bi-polar perfectionist and his bitter rivalry with his son, and acting competition, Edwin Booth. Junius, played by guest artist and professional actor Andrew Thornton, is the father of a tribe of thespians including Edwin and his brother, John Wilkes Booth, who fatally…
Back to the River
Back to the River Composer: Susan Tedeschi Label: Verve Forecast Release Date: 2008-11-12 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Tedeschi spent the past two summers touring with husband/slide-guitar ace Derek Trucks in their Soul Stew Revival, focusing on the couple’s affinity for old-school blues and early ’70s classic rock. It shows here, as Tedeschi delivers a dynamic…
RocknRolla
Critic’s Pick RocknRolla Director: Guy Ritchie Screenwriter: Guy Ritchie Cast: Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Idris Elba, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges Release Date: 2008-11-12 Rated: R Genre: Film Getting divorced sucks, and it can’t be easier when the whole world knows about it. For English director Guy Ritchie, then, this is a great time to…
Kitty Kitty Bang Bang
Release Date: 2008-11-12 The lost art of burlesque is making its way back into the mainstream with Austin-based variety troupe Kitty Kitty Bang Bang. Paying homage to the early glam era of burlesque and vaudeville, these six women use their sexuality to express their individuality, power and humor, and have been serving it up since…
Celebrity Boxing Gala
Release Date: 2008-11-12 The Ringside S.A. Gala brings together local elected officials, business owners, and community leaders for a night of celebrity boxing that raises funds for the South Texas Hispanic Fund. Former World Champion Jesse James Leija serves as honorary chairman, and celebrity boxers include State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, Bexar County Judge Nelson…
Special-needs supervillians
Dr. Julius No Dr. No Life sure sucked back in 1962. Slavery was still legal, the world was reeling from the assassination of President Rutherford B. Hayes, and, since mankind was about five years from exiting the iron age, the best prosthetics available were made from cold, hard metal. After losing his hands in a…
The time machine
The Oxford Project, a collaboration between photographer Peter Feldstein and writer Stephen G. Bloom (as well as the town of Oxford, Iowa, without whom this project would not have existed), has a commanding presence. It’s not just the size of the book, but the scope of the undertaking: an entire town photographed twice, once in…
S’NUFF film
Good news for people who like to pay to see images of stuff they regularly see in real life projected on a big screen — Alamo Drafthouse Westlakes (1255 SW Loop 410; drafthouse.com/westlakes) will screen two San Antonio-shot films this week. Brad Blank’s Dust has its world premiere 8 p.m. Thursday, November 13. According to…
Down Lo Mo
Mo acts tough. He has to, surrounded by guys who do weed and girls on the weekends. He speaks tough: dropping his ending Gs and peppering every sentence with “Fuck” or its derivatives like it were a cup of corn bought on the corner of 26th and Pulaski. He does so to distract “the boys” from…
Virtually indistinguishable
With the support of a forward-thinking country, a man recently took an unprecedented stand for justice, freedom, and honor. History has been made, good friends. The man I am referring to is, of course, the Japanese citizen who brought charges against his online ex-wife for viciously murdering his avatar, or digital persona, in an online…
My childhood was fucked up: Entry 4,586
Extreme confessionalism is nothing new in comics. But even after decades of reading about everything from R. Crumb’s sexual fetishes to Joe Matt’s toilet technique, occasionally something comes along that’s so direct, embarrassing, or raw it feels like a revelation. The French cartoonist Patrice Killoffer, who goes professionally by just his last name, offers a…
Cinema Obscura
The DVD case describes A Boy and His Dog as a “rather kinky tale of survival,” but keep your hands where we can see them, pervert. Sure the film chronicles the adventures of Vic née Albert (Johnson) — a horny young dude in a nearly female-free post-apocalyptic wasteland — and Blood (McIntire) — his faithful…
Amuse-BOUCHE
Melissa Guerra’s new namesake shop in the Full Goods building at the Pearl Brewery Development is Williams-Sonoma stripped of its excess and themed “Mexico.” The McAllen native and star of the PBS series the Texas Provincial Kitchen, has created a tienda-style boutique where traditional comales are right at home with that racer-red Cuisinart you’ve been…
Kitchen-hoppin’ Chefs
The dirty little secret we all like to imagine is that high-class chefs sneak out for Big Macs and Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in their off hours. Sorry to disappoint you, but they wouldn’t admit it — to me, at least. The closest I came was a confession from Café Paladar’s chef-owner Brian West: “ … as…
Wine wars
Keep your eyes open and your palate primed; the wine world in San Antonio may be about to undergo some changes. This should come as good news to VV readers. The first recent clue to the shifting sands was the opening of Gabriel’s-Spec’s Wine & Liquor Outlet opposite the outlet malls in San Marcos. Spec’s,…
Dear Uncle Mat
I feel like the boy who cried wolf. And I hate that. A lot. I’ve gone through a myriad of relationships that really weren’t relationships in my opinion, but more like trying on different pairs of shoes and, knowing that I don’t like them at all, buying them anyway. It’s gotten to the point that…
The QueQue
This land is our land Is it telling that “charrette,” that touchy-feely design process beloved of progressive urban planners, and “charade” both derive from the French charrá — to chat or chatter? (K, maybe not. Queque’s not a linguist. But they could.) In any event, the words were bumping into one another in Queque’s noggin…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “You can’t know fire unless you play with it,” says Mark Finney, a math whiz who develops computer models for fighting forest fires. I offer that as a motto for you in the coming week, Aries. I’m not saying you should purposely ignite a conflagration for the sake of impulsive experimentation.…
Dearly ‘Departed’
As Elvis is to Memphis and the Beatles are to Liverpool, the Dropkick Murphys are to Boston, Massachusetts. Need proof? Check out The Departed, Martin Scorsese’s 2007 Academy Award winning Beantown mobster film, which prominently features the Celtic-influenced punk band’s ode to their hometown, “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.” To fans of the group — which…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
S&F’s favorite hellhound-racing, demon-exorcising, blues-punk trio, Boxcar Satan, seems to follow the old Satchel Paige axiom about not looking back because someone may be gaining on you. In the time it takes most of us to brush our teeth, they inevitably write and record a new set of scary/stunning classics. BS will celebrate the release…
Revenge of the Jedi
Time has generally not been kind to aging rappers. Many of the heroes Jedi Mind Tricks emcee Vinnie Paz looked up to during rap’s golden age from the mid-’80s to early ’90s — Marley Marl, Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane — have all but disappeared, nearly forgotten by the generations of hip-hop fans to follow.…
Buttercup
Vocalist-guitarist Erik Sanden looks so happy and comfortable onstage, he doesn’t seem to realize he’s working. “I had a dream last night” he says, “that Barack Obama gave me a big kiss on the forehead and told me it’s gonna be OK.” He grins like he’s joking, but the band’s stage presence is so goofy…
“Wait” — Laura Marie
“I’m this way because I’m cold,” Laura Marie begins, but we don’t believe her for a second, not with that warm, glowing voice, confident but softly diffused and smoothed of any rough edges. “Wait until I’m gone,” she suggests in what has to be one of the most polite-sounding kiss-offs in musical history, backed by…
Prêt à Courtenay
When I was a wee child with a well-defined sense of style that came from who-knows-where, my grandmother used to sit me down with a map and a sheet of paper, and we would make a list of the garments we wanted to buy and the places where we planned to find them. We made quite…
The Zionist in winter
John Hagee should be at home. On October 2, the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church underwent quadruple bypass surgery, and doctors urged him to spend at least a month recuperating. But for someone whose entire adult life has been a fire-and-brimstone crusade, a charged series of prophetic bulletins about salvation and damnation, lounging on the…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: In a column some time ago, you mentioned the Aztec prophecy claiming that “their descendants would reclaim ancestral lands in the southwest U.S., and guess what.” I’d appreciate it if you shed a little light on this statement. This is the mythical state of Aztlán your referring to, right? What are its “borders”?…
Fox to FCC: WTF?
On the morning of Election Day, the Supreme Court tiptoed around the profanities that defined the case before it in a way that greatly disappointed its audience. “Sh** Doesn’t Happen,” reported Slate. “Prudence prevailed, but the news stops there,” headlined a disenchanted SCOTUS blog. In the case before the Court that morning, FCC v. Fox…
Grip River and Austin fever
Whoa, I’ve got many miles to cover in this month’s Art Capades, intrepid readers, so I’ll step lively. First stop: Artpace, where this past Thursday the current artists-in-residence exhibition, New Works: 08.3, opened to the public. Curated by Swiss critical juggernaut Hans Ulrich Obrist, the show features Richie Budd (of San Antonio), Lu Chunsheng (of…
How much change can we really expect?
Barack Obama’s historic election to the presidency represents what a majority of Americans hope is a pivotal moment enabling the country to escape the national nightmare of the past eight years, and move into a new era of egalitarian and progressive change. But how much change can we realistically expect? While John McCain and his…
ARTIFACTS
Holiday shopping season may lurk around the corner like an aggrieved sweathouse elf, but the Current is feeling pretty psyched about the Second Annual DIY Factory happening this Saturday. What the Sam Hill is that, you ask? See here: 50-plus cutting-edge arts-and-crafts revolutionaries will hawk their handmade wares, while indie musicians rawk La Plaza del…
Perhaps less topical than it would have been three weeks ago, but no less heartfelt for all that.
If you’re anything like me, you’re a trifle worried about Madonna’s love life. Also, it’s possible that you mull her lovelife over in an effort to avoid fretting about your own. LET’S MOVE ON. And, you know, much as I’ve noticed (admiringly, mind you) la Ciccone’s…shall we say, pronounced-tendoniness of recent years, I still felt…
