Nov 22-28, 2006

Nov 22-28, 2006 / Vol. 20 / No. 47

Perpetual Bond

With Daniel Craig — a With Daniel Craig — a.k.a. the closest thing we’ll ever get to Steve McQueen-as-007 — serving notice that gone are the days of Broccoli-and-cheese Bond (and ushering in a new era of unhinged, jacked-and-merciless, tiny-hotpants Bond), the time seems right for a bit of a retrospective. But in these heady,…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Related Articles: Five-Foot Nothin’ Glamour 101 Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the…

The Debater

The Conservative Soul By Andrew Sullivan Harper Collins, New York $25.95, 304 pages Several months ago comedian Bill Maher, whose show Real Time is about enough to justify HBO’s guilt-inducing price tag, hosted one of his typically implausible panels. The cast included Salman Rushdie, Ben Affleck, and the writer and blogger Andrew Sullivan. While Rushdie…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Related Articles: Five-Foot Nothin’ Glamour 101 Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the…

Aural Pleasure

Braggtown Branford Marsalis (Universal/A&M) Sibling Reverue Of the Marsalis siblings, Branford has always been the most musically adventurous. This recklessness can have favorable results, as on his collaborations with Sting, or 1992’s blues-tinged I Heard You Twice the First Time. But there have been flops, too: Buckshot La Fonque, his wacky hip-hop and jazz hybrid,…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the glass turns to a hotel employee…

Game Theory

Iam glad that the tenure review committee can’t see me now. Two hours ago, I was in a small lecture hall, discussing the documentary 49 Up with a group of college students. Now I’m nervously clutching my notebook as I wait in the plush lobby of xXx Fantasy Escorts. Brieanne Bomazi, one of Second Life’s…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Related Articles: Five-Foot Nothin’ Glamour 101 Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the…

Sound and the Fury

COMA DOSE Former San Antonio filmmaker Jim Mendiola has always been preoccupied with punk rock and South Texas culture, and he puts both of those obsessions to use on the pilot episode of Jammin, a planned music-documentary series on Sí TV, an English-language, Latino-oriented cable network. Mendiola, who now lives in Los Angeles, devotes the…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the glass turns to a hotel employee…

Abrupt Coda

Just when we thought it was safe to count on the Symphony, the November 8 announcement that Music Director and Conductor Larry Rachleff’s contract would not be renewed for the 2008-09 season came as a shock. Some musicians are up in arms, others are taking it with a battle-weary “Here we go again …” attitude.…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Related Articles: Five-Foot Nothin’ Glamour 101 Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the…

Sound and the Fury

COMA DOSE Former San Antonio filmmaker Jim Mendiola has always been preoccupied with punk rock and South Texas culture, and he puts both of those obsessions to use on the pilot episode of Jammin, a planned music-documentary series on Sí TV, an English-language, Latino-oriented cable network. Mendiola, who now lives in Los Angeles, devotes the…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the glass turns to a hotel employee…

St. Mary’s School by the … Uganda?

Pius Mukiibi is wearing a “St Mary’s School by the Riverwalk” San Antonio T-Shirt. You may think there is nothing very surprising in that. But 14-year-old Pius is not from San Antonio. Indeed, he is not even American, and has no idea where San Antonio is. Pius is from the East African country of Uganda…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Related Articles: Five-Foot Nothin’ Glamour 101 Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the…

All Ears

Last week saw the CD reissue of two titles near the hearts of many Texas music fans, both of which have spent inexplicably long periods out of print: Doug Sahm’s Doug Sahm and Friends, and the Sir Douglas Band’s Texas Tornado. Both are seminal records, and the Friends disc works a hundred times better than…

The Mashup

Nature may abhor a vacuum, but Eastside community leader Nettie Hinton embraces them – or at least she knows how to work one. After District 2 Councilwoman Sheila McNeil washed her hands of the uproar over the Nolan Street graffiti mural, Hinton and some of her Dignowity Hill neighbors moved ahead with their plans to…

The Pumpkin Pie Diet

It’s been scientifically proven that one can live for weeks on a diet of only pumpkin pie. The study, heretofore unpublished, was conducted about 10 years ago. I was the lead researcher, as well as the primary subject/guinea pig. I was also the lab tech, along with my two business partners. Leading into our first…

The Bar Tab

The first time I rode a bike into downtown San Antonio, death bared her teeth at me thrice: First, a small delivery truck swung out wildly at the Woodlawn-Belknap intersection while my life unrolled in slow motion on its side. Second, on the sun-dappled eastern side of Travis Park, a man in a Mercedes popped…

The Debater

Several months ago comedian Bill Maher, whose show Real Time is about enough to justify HBO’s guilt-inducing price tag, hosted one of his typically implausible panels. The cast included Salman Rushdie, Ben Affleck, and the writer and blogger Andrew Sullivan. While Rushdie was soft-spoken and Affleck proved smarter than South Park would have you believe,…

Everybody’s All-Americans

The All-American Rejects bring their dreamy eyes and crippling inferiority complexes to San Antonio November 25. The All-American Rejects w. Motion City Soundtrack, The Format, and Gym Class Heroes Sat, Nov 25 $24 Freeman Coliseum 3201 E. Houston 224-9600 Ticketmaster.com. Funny story. Well, sort of. About two years ago, maybe a month after I got…

The Mashup

From the Editor Nature may abhor a vacuum, but Eastside community leader Nettie Hinton embraces them – or at least she knows how to work one. After District 2 Councilwoman Sheila McNeil washed her hands of the uproar over the Nolan Street graffiti mural, Hinton and some of her Dignowity Hill neighbors moved ahead with…

Arte Es

Taqueria Guadalajara #1 2702 Roosevelt 532-5500 6am-11pm daily Mon-Thu, 6am-3am Fri-Sat, 7am-11pm Sun Credit cards above $5 Plates: $4.49-$6.49 Bathrooms not accessible Compared to many of the city’s other mature streets – Fredricksburg and Flores come to mind – not a lot seems to happen on Roosevelt. True, it does pass by Mission San José,…

Value Vino – Great wines for under $15

The unfortified red wines of Portugal are almost totally unknown in San Antonio and difficult to find to boot, which is why I’ve set out to remedy the situation with a two-part foray into the species. Part I ran in the November 15-21 issue, which can be found online at Sacurrent.com. JP Vinhos, which produces…

The Debater

The Conservative Soul By Andrew Sullivan Harper Collins, New York $25.95, 304 pages Several months ago comedian Bill Maher, whose show Real Time is about enough to justify HBO’s guilt-inducing price tag, hosted one of his typically implausible panels. The cast included Salman Rushdie, Ben Affleck, and the writer and blogger Andrew Sullivan. While Rushdie…

The Say-Town Lowdown

Ever since we broke the news that the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees was quaking under spectacular pressure from City glitterati who wanted to change the name of the 37-year-old Oakwell branch to honor the late velvet gentleman Robert L. B. Tobin, our attention has focused on the library board’s cautiousness, on impassioned…

The Mashup

From the Editor Nature may abhor a vacuum, but Eastside community leader Nettie Hinton embraces them – or at least she knows how to work one. After District 2 Councilwoman Sheila McNeil washed her hands of the uproar over the Nolan Street graffiti mural, Hinton and some of her Dignowity Hill neighbors moved ahead with…

‘Fountain’ of (Widely Accepted) Truth

The Fountain Dir. Darren Aronofsky; writ. Aronofsky (screenplay and story), Ari Handel (story); feat. Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Mark Margolis, Cliff Curtis, Sean Patrick Thomas, Ethan Suplee (PG-13) Allow me to preface with a caveat, a soul-baring disclaimer, as it weighs reasonably upon my conscience to let you know precisely with whom you’re…

The Pumpkin Pie Diet

Pumpkin pie can go sweet or savory, giving you plenty of holiday dining options. It’s been scientifically proven that one can live for weeks on a diet of only pumpkin pie. The study, heretofore unpublished, was conducted about 10 years ago. I was the lead researcher, as well as the primary subject/guinea pig. I was…

Game Theory

Second Life escort Brieanne Bomazi in her xXx lounge. I am glad that the tenure review committee can’t see me now. Two hours ago, I was in a small lecture hall, discussing the documentary 49 Up with a group of college students. Now I’m nervously clutching my notebook as I wait in the plush lobby…

Autumn Flames

James Myart has an admirer … James Myart. The San Antonio Observer: Eastside tabloid that uses race card as a policy tool Object of its desire: James Myart His attractive qualities: high-profile lawyer and your last best option for a police-abuse settlement (see: SAPD off-duty officer at a car auction who, in April 2005, dropped…

Five-Foot Nothin’

Natassia Marchbanks Natassia Marchbanks is a 19-year-old student at San Antonio College. Her interests are band, dance, and cardio-thorasic surgery. She’s short, buff, and socks-off charming. She’s also an unsuccessful pageant addict. So, how have you done in the pageants? Well, to be quite honest … Please, please … “To be quite deceitful …” Oh…

Genius in ‘Fur’

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus Dir. Steven Shainberg; writ. Erin Cressida Wilson, Patricia Bosworth (book); feat. Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jr., Ty Burrell, Harris Yulin, Jane Alexander (R) Screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson is a woman of many metaphors. This is an odd thing to say about someone. Most people don’t aspire to be…

Arte Es

Taqueria Guadalajara #1 2702 Roosevelt 532-5500 6am-11pm daily Mon-Thu, 6am-3am Fri-Sat, 7am-11pm Sun Credit cards above $5 Plates: $4.49-$6.49 Bathrooms not accessible Compared to many of the city’s other mature streets – Fredricksburg and Flores come to mind – not a lot seems to happen on Roosevelt. True, it does pass by Mission San José,…

Abrupt Coda

Unfinished symphony: conductor Larry Rachleff will not be returning as the San Antonio Symphony’s Music Director in 2008. Just when we thought it was safe to count on the Symphony, the November 8 announcement that Music Director and Conductor Larry Rachleff’s contract would not be renewed for the 2008-09 season came as a shock. Some…

Is No Myspace Sacred?

A Myspace page maintained for Texas death-row inmate Mark Stroman, who killed a South-Asian convenience store clerk after 9-11. It ain’t easy being against the death penalty. The Governor-writing, the cross-country journeys, the heartbreak and frustration, and threatening phone calls – all just to keep a human being alive. Now anti-death-penalty activists are facing the…

Five-Foot Nothin’

Natassia Marchbanks Natassia Marchbanks is a 19-year-old student at San Antonio College. Her interests are band, dance, and cardio-thorasic surgery. She’s short, buff, and socks-off charming. She’s also an unsuccessful pageant addict. So, how have you done in the pageants? Well, to be quite honest … Please, please … “To be quite deceitful …” Oh…

Perpetual Bond

With Daniel Craig — a With Daniel Craig — a.k.a. the closest thing we’ll ever get to Steve McQueen-as-007 — serving notice that gone are the days of Broccoli-and-cheese Bond (and ushering in a new era of unhinged, jacked-and-merciless, tiny-hotpants Bond), the time seems right for a bit of a retrospective. But in these heady,…

Arte Es

The #9 plate at Taqueria Guadalajara #1 consists of beef, mexican rice, beans and guacamole. Taqueria Guadalajara #1 2702 Roosevelt 532-5500 6am-11pm daily Mon-Thu, 6am-3am Fri-Sat, 7am-11pm Sun Credit cards above $5 Plates: $4.49-$6.49 Bathrooms not accessible Compared to many of the city’s other mature streets – Fredricksburg and Flores come to mind – not…

St. Mary’s School by the … Uganda?

Pius Mukiibi, a 14-year-old resident of Kampala, Uganda, sports a San Antonio T-shirt that found new life in the global secondhand-clothing market. Pius Mukiibi is wearing a “St Mary’s School by the Riverwalk” San Antonio T-Shirt. You may think there is nothing very surprising in that. But 14-year-old Pius is not from San Antonio. Indeed,…

The Man You Hate to Love

Meet the new Mark Cuban. The usually outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner apparently loves the new NBA, has traded in his Mavs Fan For Life shirt for one that reads TYDS (Thank You David Stern), and seemingly now avoids opportunities to critique Stern’s league. “I don’t do any promotional or marketing interviews about the NBA any…

Aural Pleasure

Sibling Reverue Of the Marsalis siblings, Branford has always been the most musically adventurous. This recklessness can have favorable results, as on his collaborations with Sting, or 1992’s blues-tinged I Heard You Twice the First Time. But there have been flops, too: Buckshot La Fonque, his wacky hip-hop and jazz hybrid, was dreadful. Fortunately, Marsalis…

All You Can Eat

There goes the neighborhood bar … again. But this time it’s been saved from the wrecking ball or tourist kitsch. San Antonio developer Mitch Meyer, who recently announced plans to open Hippo’s, a 3,600-square-foot grocery and deli in his La Cascada condos downtown, has purchased the beloved Eastside haunt Tucker’s Kozy Korner, at East Houston…

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13) I’d like to draw…

Glamour 101

Whenever you watch a pageant and one of those glamour headshots bursts onto the screen, there’s a good chance Sheila Robertson-Bantz’s eyelining pen played a part. Robertson-Bantz is a 17-year veteran of the Miss America, Miss USA, and Galaxy pageant circuits, and a consultant to NFL and NHL cheerleading squads  (including the Dallas Cowboys’), and…

Aural Pleasure

Sibling Reverue Of the Marsalis siblings, Branford has always been the most musically adventurous. This recklessness can have favorable results, as on his collaborations with Sting, or 1992’s blues-tinged I Heard You Twice the First Time. But there have been flops, too: Buckshot La Fonque, his wacky hip-hop and jazz hybrid, was dreadful. Fortunately, Marsalis…

All You Can Eat

There goes the neighborhood bar … again. But this time it’s been saved from the wrecking ball or tourist kitsch. San Antonio developer Mitch Meyer, who recently announced plans to open Hippo’s, a 3,600-square-foot grocery and deli in his La Cascada condos downtown, has purchased the beloved Eastside haunt Tucker’s Kozy Korner, at East Houston…

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13) I’d like to draw…

Glamour 101

Whenever you watch a pageant and one of those glamour headshots bursts onto the screen, there’s a good chance Sheila Robertson-Bantz’s eyelining pen played a part. Robertson-Bantz is a 17-year veteran of the Miss America, Miss USA, and Galaxy pageant circuits, and a consultant to NFL and NHL cheerleading squads  (including the Dallas Cowboys’), and…

All Ears

Last week saw the CD reissue of two titles near the hearts of many Texas music fans, both of which have spent inexplicably long periods out of print: Doug Sahm’s Doug Sahm and Friends, and the Sir Douglas Band’s Texas Tornado. Both are seminal records, and the Friends disc works a hundred times better than…

That’s a Wrap

If you’ve ever gotten the distinct hankerin’ to pick Darren Aronofsky’s brain about life’s big questions (not the ones about babies and why it feels funny “down there” sometimes – save those for Ted Nugent), but were denied the natural extension of said hankerin’, The Fountain may be as close as you’re likely to get…

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13) I’d like to draw…

Everybody’s All-Americans

The All-American Rejects w. Motion City Soundtrack, The Format, and Gym Class Heroes Sat, Nov 25 $24 Freeman Coliseum 3201 E. Houston 224-9600 Ticketmaster.com. Funny story. Well, sort of. About two years ago, maybe a month after I got it into my head that I should become a music journalist, I found myself waiting in…

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13)

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13) I’d like to draw…

Autumn flames

The San Antonio Observer: Eastside tabloid that uses race card as a policy tool Object of its desire: James Myart His attractive qualities: high-profile lawyer and your last best option for a police-abuse settlement (see: SAPD off-duty officer at a car auction who, in April 2005, dropped his gun in the bathroom and shot Joseph…

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13)

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13) I’d like to draw…

Is No Myspace Sacred?

It ain’t easy being against the death penalty. The Governor-writing, the cross-country journeys, the heartbreak and frustration, and threatening phone calls – all just to keep a human being alive. Now anti-death-penalty activists are facing the threat of their own deletion from the system. By system, I mean Myspace.com, the social-networking site that has added…

This One Goes to Eleven

For Your Consideration Dir. Christopher Guest; writ. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy; feat. Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Carrie Aizley, Sandra Oh, Richard Kind (PG-13)

Genius in ‘Fur’

Nicole Kidman as Diane Arbus in Fur. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus Dir. Steven Shainberg; writ. Erin Cressida Wilson, Patricia Bosworth (book); feat. Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jr., Ty Burrell, Harris Yulin, Jane Alexander (R) Screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson is a woman of many metaphors. This is an odd thing to say about…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the glass turns to a hotel employee…

The Debater

Several months ago comedian Bill Maher, whose show Real Time is about enough to justify HBO’s guilt-inducing price tag, hosted one of his typically implausible panels. The cast included Salman Rushdie, Ben Affleck, and the writer and blogger Andrew Sullivan. While Rushdie was soft-spoken and Affleck proved smarter than South Park would have you believe,…

Chasing San Antonio’s Teen Crowns

Gown Town: 232 of the area’s best and brightest beautiful young ladies competed for Nationals Inc.’s Miss Pre-teen, Junior Teen and Teen titles. Related Articles: Five-Foot Nothin’ Glamour 101 Behind the glass in the hotel’s atrium, a 3-foot iguana sleeps on the back of a desert tortoise. A little girl with her hands against the…


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