Lard!!! What is it good for?
While Texas will never be accused of intellectual elitism, it remains the vanguard of lard Making a perfectly flaky pie crust can seem – like a mousse that keeps its head or a homemade gravy without lumps – akin to playing the violin with the Royal Philharmonic: out of reach of most mere mortals. But,…
More questions, no answers
Still no solution to Leon Valley contamination The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will sample more wells in Leon Valley this week. Since March, five private wells have tested well above the federal drinking water standard for PCE, a chemical that can cause kidney and liver damage and possibly cancer. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) More…
Tamales and turkey
Dealing with Big Bird and your basic tamale It’s tamale time Think of it as a quilting bee with corn stalks instead of fabric: the traditional Tamalada, a social gathering in which people create tamales around a communal table. Blanca Aldaco will lead a class on making basic tamales at Aldaco’s Mexican Cuisine, 100 Hoefgen,…
Swing set
Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys: vigilant guardians of American roots music Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys just weren’t made for these times Robert Williams has always liked to trace things back to their source. As a kid growing up in Orange County, California, Williams, better known as the namesake frontman for the tireless…
Texas tornado
Doug Sahm: San Antonio’s greatest gift to music connected conjunto with British Invasion rock. A campaign builds to get Doug Sahm in rock’s hall of fame Clifford Antone and Doug Sahm didn’t become friends until the mid-’70s, but Sahm made a strong impression on Antone a full decade before that. Antone, proprietor of the legendary…
Hickey on Vegas
Art follows the money to Sin City, and Texas’ most famous critic says it makes sense It’s hard to imagine The Persian Robe, by Henri Matisse (on view at The Wynn Collection of Fine Art), on the same glitzy bill of fare as prize fights and showgirls, but Las Vegas has added such masterpieces to…
Sound and the Fury
Gary P. Nunn will be at Floore’s Country Store on November 19. A week on the scene Hunger alternative KSYM 90.1 FM and Sam’s Burger Joint join forces this weekend for the radio station’s 7th annual “Alternative to Hunger” canned-food/turkey drive. The lineup includes six Texas bands, including locals Hyperbubble, Hearts Fail, Red Reverse, and…
Drive by
Stills from Anne Wallace’s video “el otro lado,” on view at ArtPace through January 9, provide a poetically graphic reminder that thousands of human beings have died trying to find a better life for their family by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to our modern-day Promised Land. Anne Wallace makes a pilgrimage to the U.S.-Mexico border…
Filipino fury
Jester delivers a somber, stirring and personal third LP Like many heads in the local hip-hop galaxy, G. Michael Pendon is one of San Antonio’s adopted sons. As DJ Jester, the West Columbia native founded a pair of DJ crews (the sorely missed Underdog Turntablists in 1998 and always funky Supa Brother Scientists in 2000),…
Artifacts
News and notes from the San Antonio art scene Doling it out Finesilver’s newish director, John Tevis, always sounds like he’s holding back something, which makes it hard to believe him when he swears that the San Antonio Finesilver/FYI galleries will remain in business when the new location opens in Houston in mid-December. But, some…
Crossing jordan
Jordan Knight Even R. Kelly got over the Olsens five years ago Toward the end of his recent stint on VH1’s reality show, The Surreal Life, Jordan Knight revealed that he didn’t want to participate in the show, and had to be coaxed into it by his manager. In the future, Knight might want to…
The life you save may be your own
Daniel Craig portrays Joe, a professor who participates in the rescue of a young boy from a freak hot air balloon accident. Another rescuer is killed, setting off a chain of events that challenges his philosophy of life and love, and threatens to destroy his relationship with his girlfriend, played by Samantha Morton. A tale…
All ears
Are you serious? Boys and girls, think for a moment before trying this at home: Tell your friends that your favorite record of the month is the new one by William Shatner. Yes, that William Shatner. I’ll be over here waiting, and will be ready to console you after you’re laughed out of the room.…
Fleeing through the woods
Two young boys must flee for their lives in Undertow when their jailbird uncle (Devon Alan, below) returns to exact vengeance on their father (Dermot Mulroney, above). David Gordon Green’s latest goes where few art films dare Late in the rusty, kudzu-overgrown Undertow, two boys on the run find themselves in a dilapidated service station.…
Armchair Cinephile
The good, the rich, and the strange Sometimes it seems that all the good ideas are already taken. Paradoxically, that feeling can hit you the hardest when you’ve just encountered a new stroke of genius: “That’s the last one,” you figure. “Guess the world will be pretty boring from here on out.” Michael Apted’s Up…
A very good year
It’s a headlong detour into wine, women, and redemption for old odd-couple college chums portrayed by Paul Giametti and Thomas Haden Church in Sideways. Sad sacks and fine wine add up to one of the year’s best films There are road movies and buddy movies, and buddy-road movies, and midlife crisis road-buddy movies – and…
New reviews and special screens
CUTLINE (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Sponges, sunsets, spectres and scholarships New reviews The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Dir. Sherm Cohen, Stephen Hillenburg; writ. Hillenburg, et al; feat. Tom Kenny, Bill Bagerbakke, Jeffrey Tambor, Rodger Bumpass, Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johansson, David Hasselhoff (PG) “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” I can’t speak for all adults,…
Taking the sex out of sex ed
State Board of Education places politics before education On November 5, the Texas State Board of Education voted to approve four new health textbooks, all of which contain – to the dismay of many, including some of its own members – the last-minute addition of language that defines marriage as “a lifelong union between a…
Making his own luck
At that point in your career you’re like, “Dude, just put me in a movie.” You’re not really picky about the script. — Armando Riesco ‘National Treasure’ star Armando Riesco is building a career one small role at a time Call him lucky or call him blessed. The only thing actor Armando Riesco knows for…
It’s warm, fuzzy, and it won’t make you itch
Keke Palmer stars as a streetwise virtual orphan and William H. Macy plays the mute haunted by his past that she adopts as a father figure in The Wool Cap, the TNT remake of Jackie Gleason’s classic Gigot. ‘The Wool Cap’ is a remake of ‘Gigot’ that you can curl up with on the couch…
Recent reviews
Alfie Dir. Charles Shyer; writ. Shyer, Elaine Pope; feat. Jude Law, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon, Omar Epps (R) So, Alfie, what is it all about? Given the number of times that Burt Bacharach-penned question has been repeated since 1966 (as the title song to the original Alfie), you might think filmmakers Charles Shyer and Elaine…
City soul
The view of downtown from the Terrace of Las Leyendas accompanies the restaurant’s gastronomic creations. Herb-roasted rack of lamb with mint jelly or jalapeño jelly and garlic-whipped mashed potatoes; smoked beef empanadas in a roasted red pepper and tomato salsa; chocolate dream cake with chocolate ganache top and chocolate cookie crust decorated with a lace…
