Over, Under, Around …
Cathy Brilson, director of marketing and PR for Southwest School of Art & Craft, invited me over for a rare peak at the installation of their newest exhibition “Over, Under, Around, and Through.” Featuring the works of Linda Hutchins, Tracy Krumm, and Piper Shepard. Each artist shares a distinct appreciation of process, time, and space.…
Over, Under, Around …
Cathy Brilson, director of marketing and PR for Southwest School of Art & Craft, invited me over for a rare peak at the installation of their newest exhibition “Over, Under, Around, and Through.” Featuring the works of Linda Hutchins, Tracy Krumm, and Piper Shepard. Each artist shares a distinct appreciation of process, time, and space.…
On the Street
Picking Up the Pace Last Thursday Artpace unveiled new works from its 3 artists in residence – Chris Evans, Matthew Buckingham, and Alex Rubio. Evans was the international artist coming from England/Germany; Buckingham was the U.S. artist from New York City, and Rubio was the Texas artist, though in his particular case he was…
On the Street
Picking Up the Pace Last Thursday Artpace unveiled new works from its 3 artists in residence – Chris Evans, Matthew Buckingham, and Alex Rubio. Evans was the international artist coming from England/Germany; Buckingham was the U.S. artist from New York City, and Rubio was the Texas artist, though in his particular case he was already…
Bexar County Young Democrats Re-Launch Party
Release Date: 2007-11-14 A single frozen turkey will cover admission for you and four friends to a night of music at Ruta Maya featuring San Antonio Bluecats, Austin’s Whitman, Silent Minority, and headliner Big Soy. KSYM’s annual event collects canned goods, frozen turkeys and money for this year’s recipient, St. Peter-St. Joseph’s Children’s Home. $5,…
Date For A Change
Release Date: 2007-11-14 A single frozen turkey will cover admission for you and four friends to a night of music at Ruta Maya featuring San Antonio Bluecats, Austin’s Whitman, Silent Minority, and headliner Big Soy. KSYM’s annual event collects canned goods, frozen turkeys and money for this year’s recipient, St. Peter-St. Joseph’s Children’s Home. $5,…
Buffaloed by the options
WoW Cafe and Wingery takes wings to a new, all-family level
Be-‘Devil’-ed by high expectations, Lumet’s latest falls short
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead Director: Sidney Lumet Screenwriter: Sidney Lumet Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney Release Date: 2007-11-14 Website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292963/ Rated: R Genre: Drama Our Rating: 3.00 When I say that Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead — the 44th American film privileged to list Mr. Sidney Lumet…
Dud “in the Time of Cholera”
Love in the Time of Cholera Director: Mike Newell Screenwriter: Mike Newell Cast: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, John Leguizamo, Catalina Sandino Moreno Release Date: 2007-11-14 Website: http://www.LoveInTheTime.com Rated: R Genre: Romance Our Rating: 2.50 For those who found the Gabriel García Márquez novel Love in the Time of Cholera sublime — and I…
ILL COMMUNICATION: A Hip-Hop Conference Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Release Date: 2007-11-14 The Texas Media Empowerment Project partners with various local groups this weekend for A Hip-Hop Conference Beyond Beats and Rhymes, an innovative cultural exchange that strives to expand the public’s socio-political understanding of urban culture. Friday features an evening of abstract talents and universal consciousness with performances by Lotus Tribe, Public Zoo,…
Ledaswan CD Release Show w. Meryll & Transfers
Release Date: 2007-11-14 Ledaswan headlines Friday’s lineup with a CD release set, celebrating their second 7 song E.P., Verse of Truth Trash and Beauty. The band steers their music into the less genre-specific realms of interpretation, translation, and raw emotion, their music ostensibly geared toward the abstract dynamics of the heart and soul where music…
Down
Release Date: 2007-11-14 Originally founded as a Pantera side-project, Down is now a clear triumph in their own right. Their latest, Down III: Over the Under, was generally received positively by the music press — namely, Metal Hammer, Kerrang, and Rolling Stone. Pure, unbridled emotion races through the music, and ex-Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo’s voice…
Plastic Parachute
Release Date: 2007-11-14 LA-based Plastic Parachute makes a stop in San Antonio as part of its long 2007 road-trip. The power-pop foursome is looking to make its style and sound familiar as they gear up for the release of their first full-length, Elephants and Giraffes. Self-declared hams for the spotlight, the band promises to hook…
SA Film Slam
Release Date: 2007-11-14 That’s right, it’s the final film slam of the year, and NALIP’s going out with a bang. A crisp Benjamin — that’s like 20 MiniDV tapes! — is up for grabs for the lucky slammer, so save the date and bring your films. It’s all about the networking and feedback at this…
10th Annual Alternative to Hunger
Release Date: 2007-11-14 A single frozen turkey will cover admission for you and four friends to a night of music at Ruta Maya featuring San Antonio Bluecats, Austin’s Whitman, Silent Minority, and headliner Big Soy. KSYM’s annual event collects canned goods, frozen turkeys and money for this year’s recipient, St. Peter-St. Joseph’s Children’s Home. $5,…
Ian Moore
Release Date: 2007-11-14 Ian Moore, band in tow, hits his usual San Antonio spot on a string of Texas dates in support of To Be Loved. Moore disciples have already soaked their brains with the new album, a terrific collection of pop goodness tinged with blues. The music is upbeat, the lyrics superb, and the…
KSYM’s Alternative to Hunger
Release Date: 2007-11-14 A single frozen turkey will cover admission for you and four friends to a night of music at Ruta Maya featuring San Antonio Bluecats, Austin’s Whitman, Silent Minority, and headliner Big Soy. KSYM’s annual event collects canned goods, frozen turkeys and money for this year’s recipient, St. Peter-St. Joseph’s Children’s Home. $5,…
Mojoe, Bavu Blakes, & the Extra Plairs
Release Date: 2007-11-14 A single frozen turkey will cover admission for you and four friends to a night of music at Ruta Maya featuring San Antonio Bluecats, Austin’s Whitman, Silent Minority, and headliner Big Soy. KSYM’s annual event collects canned goods, frozen turkeys and money for this year’s recipient, St. Peter-St. Joseph’s Children’s Home. $5,…
ARTIFACTS
While taking in some stellar artwork by the gang at Say Sí during Muertitos Fest, I was overjoyed by the great turnout. People supporting the arts in San Anto is essential, especially our youths’ art. Can you imagine what would have become of Picasso if as a child he didn’t have the tools needed to…
God save La Reina
Where was Gloria Ríos when I needed her? When all I had was Freddy Fender to turn to for a South Texas, Spanish-language rock pioneer. All of a sudden, she’s recognized as the Queen of Rocanrol, and I (and a long list of colleagues) didn’t know it. And she did it with original tunes! “At…
Destination: Latino USA
Former UTSA professor Louis Mendoza is on an ambitious sabbatical from his current post at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Chicano Studies. His San Antonio stop this week is roughly the three-quarters mark on a six-month cycling trip tracing America’s borders and gathering stories that shed light on our country’s increasingly Latino-ized identity. He…
‘The Women’ may be ancient, but they’re still vicious
Paris and Nicole would be so proud. That is, if they could endure a play of nearly three hours without popping out to film a quick sex tape and get knocked up. Feisty? You betcha. With The Women in residence for another month, the Cellar Theater may as well change its name to Catfight Central.…
aural pleasure
Proof of Youth The Go! Team |(Sub Pop) The Go! Team really doesn’t sound like any band on the map right now. Imagine a world where the Jackson 5 gets a raw makeover, your high-school cheerleaders have street cred, and Public Enemy doesn’t need samples. Over the past couple of years, the band has backed…
Coma Dose
Current contributor and esteemed pop-music critic Serene Dominic (author of the definitive look at Burt Bacharach’s song catalog) recently profiled SA trio Girl in a Coma for Phoenix New Times and subsequently communed with the band for a podcast interview when they made a tour stop in the Valley of the Sun. Throwing out the…
Jibara or bust
Like Bob Hope in Vietnam and the Andrews Sisters in an Italian villa, the Nieves family will cross an ocean this month for Puerto Rican-San Antonians aching to hear their hometown cuatristas. What’s a cuatrista? Someone who plays a cuatro, the 10-stringed national instrument of Puerto Rico. Sunday, the Puerto Rican Heritage Society of San…
CDs Nuts
The Flying Club Cup Beirut (Ba Da Bing) Considering that Beirut released two albums last year and principal player Zach Condon was hospitalized for extreme exhaustion, Flying Club Cup sounds remarkably unrushed and energetic. String arrangements by Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire, Final Fantasy) and the surprisingly sweet addition of a variety of weird instruments that…
Straight Shooter
Batman #670 Words by Grant Morrison Art by Tony Daniel and Jonathan Glapion $2.99, 24 pages (DC Comics) As completely unsurprising as a Lazarus character has become in comics, I have to admit the resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul is looking pretty sweet so far. For maybe the first time since the original issue of…
Coen to Texas
No Country for Old Men, The Coen Brothers’ adaptation of the eponymous Cormac McCarthy novel, is their first good movie in six years. It certainly goes a long way toward helping us forgive them for Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. Tommy Lee Jones gets top billing as a West Texas sheriff on the trail of…
Coma Dose
Current contributor and esteemed pop-music critic Serene Dominic (author of the definitive look at Burt Bacharach’s song catalog) recently profiled SA trio Girl in a Coma for Phoenix New Times and subsequently communed with the band for a podcast interview when they made a tour stop in the Valley of the Sun. Throwing out the…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Is Lou Dobbs right when he says that close to 80 hospitals in California have been closed down because of the illegals, or is he lying? – Cabrónes No Necesitamos Dear CNN: Dobbs is right to a certain point, and only in spite of his idiocy. The father of two half-wabs spouted off…
CRITICAL Darling
Is it just me, or is contemporary cinema feeling a bit … rehashed of late? Who said that that 1970s-style of storytelling — upon which Scorsese radiates his patron-saintly glow — is relevant again? (It was a mercy Oscar, people.) And why is everyone doing coke? Is everyone doing coke? If so, why hasn’t anyone…
Home on the Range
I just went to a great Halloween party, the third I’ve been to in three years of living in San Antonio. The kids enjoyed fresh-baked cupcakes, clever decorations, personalized party favors, and the opportunity to go wild with hardly any fear of reprimand. The adults enjoyed good food, wine, and conversation — albeit conversation occasionally…
Be-‘Devil’-ed by high expectations, Lumet’s latest falls short
When I say that Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead — the 44th American film privileged to list Mr. Sidney Lumet as director — left me disappointed, please try to understand. This is not an easy review to write. First, let’s get something straight: Sidney Lumet doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. Not to…
Clothes-minded
I’ve given up my annual grump about how early the holiday music and decorations appear in stores. The inevitable Christmas creep has arrived, but you can put a good spin on the extended gift-giving season. Before you play Santa for friends and family, visit Changingthepresent.org. This new website lets you buy a “gift” for more…
Dud ‘in the Time of Cholera’
For those who found the Gabriel García Márquez novel Love in the Time of Cholera sublime — and I know a fabulous few who did; it is yet unread by me — skip the adaptation, for the film is, alas, merely the work of a craftsperson, devoid of the artistic ecstasy its origins promise. Someone…
Dear Uncle Mat
I fucked up again. My friend has this crush on a girl who bartends at our favorite bar. Last night she finally got the nerve to ask her out and they made a date. Later the bartender and I were hanging out at an after-hours party at my place and we totally did it. I…
Armchair Cinephile
PICK OF THE WEEK: Berlin Alexanderplatz (Criterion) A holy grail of world cinema, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 15-hour-plus 1980 epic hits DVD for the first time this week, following a 2006 restoration that inspired some die-hards to fly overseas for screenings. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Sony) One of the few films audiences knew from…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I love it when you forget all your troubles and get lost in thoughts about your friends’ problems. I love it when you place your entire focus on the heat steaming from your cup of coffee or on the sun reflecting on a puddle or on the mysterious expression gracing the…
Daisy chain
Pushing Daisies (ABC, Wednesdays, 7 p.m.) Waiting for a good new series to hit its stride and fulfill its promise is like taking a philosophy class from a junkie with a Ph.D. You settle into your chair each week and wonder if you’re about to get compelling, witty insights into human nature or, you know,…
Gotta have the bubbly
I’ll admit it. I’m an addict. My friend calls it liquid crack, and I personally have a 12-can-a-day habit. I’m not talking about Red Bull, Coca-Cola, or any other canned incarnation of a beverage. I’m talking about fizzy water, that heavenly drink consisting of nothing more than plain-old H20 infused with C02 and maybe a…
Spittin’ Game
The Orange Box Xbox 360 (Valve) $59.99 There’s no question that this game is worth the money. This may be the best deal in video games since Wii Sports: Five games that could’ve easily been sold in at least three different $60 packages bundled together with no crappy filler. Half-Life 2 you’re probably very familiar…
Amuse-BOUCHE
Truffle season is in swing; great news for your palate, not so much for the old checkbook. But there’s nothing like the real, funky, earthy thing (as opposed to “truffle” oils), so find the unmaxed credit card and make reservations at Las Canarias on the River Walk for Chef Scott Cohen’s five-course prix-fixe menu. Secure…
Correction
In our November 7, 2007, issue, the music piece "Anything Goes" was incorrectly attributed to Gilbert Garcia. The piece should have been attributed to Cole Haddon.
Sipping into the holidays
Tis the season for the wine industry to pull out the big guns at industry taste fests featuring way too many wines to ever evaluate seriously — a deplorable situation which requires a strategy. At a recent Glazer’s tasting at the San Antonio Country Club, mine was to concentrate on Champagne and to move onto…
They say they want a revolution
“Every generation needs a revolution.” — Thomas Jefferson Armed with bumper stickers, DVDs, literature on civil liberties, a few Bush-bashing marketing tools, and copies of the United States Constitution, local supporters of 2008 presidential hopeful Ron Paul aren’t acting like their candidate is a long-shot to become the next leader of the free world. They…
Buffaloed by the options
The year-old Far North outpost of WoW Café and Wingery, a “New Orleans inspired” chain, is a pioneer in the totally unnecessary trend of making America’s latest health-oblivious identity food into a full-concept restaurant. The menu is heavy on Americana, with burgers, wraps, sandwiches, and chopped salads, but WoW does stand for World of Wings,…
THE QUE QUE
Pumpin’ war blend Really good wars — the kind that movie moguls retune and recast ad infinitum after the respectful period of corpse decay — take a lot of oil, blood, and money. And while Operation Iraqi Liberation, that is Freedom, didn’t look like much going in, Queque is proud to report that Iraq has…
The rehabilitation of Joe McCarthy
Some politicians are simply untouchable. For instance, you never hear a Democrat extolling the virtues of Lester Maddox, the late, segregationist governor of Georgia. And when was the last time you heard a Republican laud the Depression-era economic policies of Herbert Hoover? But no American political figure of the last century has approached the Kryptonite…
US alone? A veteran journalist limns the Ron Paul appeal
The most important issue facing America is not even being debated by the presidential candidates. With the exception of Ron Paul, all of the candidates are acting on the assumption that America’s interventionist foreign policy should continue. They only differ on the details of the intervention. Since Paul doesn’t have a chance of winning, I…
The Mist
The Mist Monday, November 19th 7:00pm at Palladium 19 17703 IH 10 West If you would like to attend this special free screening, you can pick up a pass for admission for 2 at the SA Current offices 1500 N. St. Mary’s between the hours of 8:30am-5:30pm Mon-Fri The Mist – Trailer Posted Sep 06,…
Police report
In the early stages of The Police’s meteoric rise to superstardom, band frontman/sex-symbol Sting openly predicted that the group would say everything it had to say by its fifth album. In 1983, after releasing the mega-platinum Synchronicity and promoting it with an epochal stadium tour, The Police disbanded. Sure enough, they had released five albums,…
Grave expression
ALPINE — Forgetting is easy. Names, faces, numbers, they slip from our mind unnoticed every week like a thousand gentle deaths. Some things we are despairingly desperate to un-remember, but like fighting a mud-sunk tire, the harder we strain the deeper that memory sinks. For most Americans, the events in Iraq these last four years…
Norman Mailer: Death of a titan
“The history of American literature in the 20th and early 21st century would be both depleted and inaccurate, minus the inclusion of the work of Norman Mailer.” – Toni Morrison Norman Mailer one of the last surviving 20th-century literary lions is dead. Yet the oft-times controversial and combative Mailer was far from a relic of…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
Wednesday, November 14, marks the fourth anniversary of Luna Fine Music Club (6740 San Pedro Ave.), a non-smoking venue created primarily to provide a comfortable, listener-friendly environment for live jazz, in all its various forms. Over the last four years, Luna’s emphasis has shifted (or expanded) to include standup-comedy nights and music that ranges from…
Revealing Briefs
CRANDALL — If you thought you’d seen the last of Victor Morales, think again. The man whose 1996 grassroots Cinderella campaign waged from a white pickup truck against U.S. Senator Phil Gramm surprised the state’s political establishment is back. Morales, a Democrat, is considering a run against State Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell), in Texas House…
Half Lies
Sierra Clubbers in San Anto want to recycle City-owned CPS’s energy policy and turn it into something that will last. Of course, first they have to get the clunker to the curb. That will take some doing. At a press conference this morning, members distributed reports from the steps of City Hall. The pages said…
Half Lies
Sierra Clubbers in San Anto want to recycle City-owned CPS’s energy policy and turn it into something that will last. Of course, first they have to get the clunker to the curb. That will take some doing. At a press conference this morning, members distributed reports from the steps of City Hall. The pages said a…
