Obama choices bode Border Wall ill
Woulda been a wall there. Presidio County Commissioner points to where a wall almost stood. Instead they got massive flooding on both sides of the Rio. Other areas south of Falcon Dam have since been canceled. Are recent Obama appointments reason to cheer the demise of the Wall? Greg Harman The blanket authorities granted Homeland…
Duran Duran Cancels Tonight’s Show
Duran Duran have been forced to cancel tonight’s show (Monday, December 1) in San Antonio, scheduled to take place at the Majestic Theatre, because the band’s keyboard player, Nick Rhodes, is still suffering from a very serious inner ear infection and doctors have told him that he is not allowed to fly. The four band…
On the Street: The Cave of Parrots, European Tourists, Sad Sack Has No Friends, Bone Deep Confusion, and Other Watercooler Discussion Points
“No Longer Older Than Dirt” Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite) #1 Bob the Gardener and the Cave of Parrots Bob the Gardener (the behind the scenes Svengali) writes in… Jones does the Current have a weekend getaways writer? can I deliver this scoop to you? planning to spend a lost weekend in…
Turkey Day Nightlife Happs
The night before Thanksgiving is huge on the nightlife circuit â?? no work, Wednesday drink specials, and all you’ve got to do the next day is laze around and eat. In fact, I can’t remember a Thanksgiving (after I was in high school) that I’ve woken up without a hangover. But spending the entirety of…
The dog delusion
Bolt Director: Byron Howard and Chris Williams Screenwriter: Byron Howard and Chris Williams Cast: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell, James Lipton, Greg Germann Release Date: 2008-11-26 Rated: PG Genre: Film Leave it to Pixar to inject some much-needed imagination into the recent animated efforts of Walt Disney Studios. As the…
Glamarama 2: The Legends Drag On
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2008-11-26 The queens are back, and they’re better than ever in Glamarama 2, Jump-Start’s annual event commemorating World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is “The Legends Drag On,” and John McBurney has once again put together an evening of over-the-top hair, stilettos, and campy antics honoring classic drag. McBurney is a…
Australian for (Production Design) ‘Oscar’
Australia Director: Baz Luhrmann Screenwriter: Baz Luhrmann Cast: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham, Bryan Brown, David Gulpil Release Date: 2008-11-26 Rated: PG-13 Genre: Film Say what you will about American self-involvement, but when you’re all done saying it, allow me this: Americans be crushin’ on Australia. Like, for serious. Look: We live…
14th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza
Release Date: 2008-11-26 The 14th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza is Texas’s largest and longest running Latin music event of its kind, attracting more than 20,000 people to the Alamo City for the week-long music festival. The Extravaganza includes a mariachi-themed art exhibit at the Centro Cultural Aztlán, Christmas-themed student mariachi serenades on the River Walk,…
Double your Fatso’s, double your fun
Release Date: 2008-11-26 After some 20 years of providing family-friendly fun to thousands of San Antonians — not to mention hosting many a jam-packed night of Cowboys, Spurs and even professional wrestling viewing — it made sense a year or so ago when Fatso’s Sports Garden opened a new establishment on the North Side. Like…
The BBC Sessions
The BBC Sessions Composer: Belle & Sebastian Conductor: Belle & Sebastian Label: Matador Release Date: 2008-11-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Indie Rock Scottish indie-rockers Belle & Sebastian serve up a little something to tide over their rabid, bookish fanbase while they work on a new album (which is supposedly a soundtrack for their upcoming feature film!).…
In Lucid Dreams
In Lucid Dreams Composer: The Bright Conductor: The Bright Label: Self released Release Date: 2008-11-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Formerly known as Superstring, this Dallas-based band is making waves with dynamic vocalist Julie Lange singing out over a modern-rock sound that combines an alternative edge with a power-pop sensibility. Lange’s wide range at times recalls…
Sycamore Meadows
Sycamore Meadows Composer: Butch Walker Conductor: Butch Walker Label: Original Signal Release Date: 2008-11-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording It’s as though Walker produced enough nubile-divas-of-the-week (Katy Perry, Lindsay Lohan, Pink, Avril Lavigne) to want his own shot at the charts. Walker follows 2006’s (Lohan-inspired?) glammy power-pop paean to Hollywood decadence and excess, The Rise &…
XV
XV Composer: Kingâ??s X Conductor: Kingâ??s X Label: InsideOut/SPV Release Date: 2008-11-26 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The Katy, Texas, power trio’s aptly titled 15th album (including a few live releases) continues to mine the rich rock vein that has been the band’s trademark since their 1988 debut, Out of the Silent Planet. Bassist Dug Pinnick,…
SunDay w. The Next Day, Ledaswan, & One Last Shot
Release Date: 2008-11-26 Sun*Day rocked out to a full house at Royal Palace Ballroom during their first Thanksgiving show in ’91 without knowing it would become a 17-year tradition. While most Turkey Day customs involve the dinner table, Sun*Day has decided live music affords more sustenance than bird and cranberries — or at least they…
14th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza
Release Date: 2008-11-26 The 14th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza is Texas’s largest and longest running Latin music event of its kind, attracting more than 20,000 people to the Alamo City for the week-long music festival. The Extravaganza includes a mariachi-themed art exhibit at the Centro Cultural Aztlán, Christmas-themed student mariachi serenades on the River Walk,…
Las Nuevas Tamaleras
Release Date: 2008-11-26 The holidays get a jump-start with the bilingual play Las Nuevas Tamaleras, which revolves around three contemporary Chicanas who attempt to make the perfect tamale. When spirits Doña Juanita and Doña Mercedes appear to guide the young women, their bickering and frustration grows into an entertaining comedy. Written and directed by San…
Light Up The Night Package
Release Date: 2008-11-26 Be there when the switch is thrown and bask in 122,000 twinkling holiday lights forming a canopy over San Antonio’s River Walk. The Ford Holiday River Parade and Lighting Ceremony is a holiday tradition for many, and serves as the official kickoff to the Paseo del Rio Festivities. The one-hour parade features…
World AIDS Day
Release Date: 2008-11-26 The San Antonio AIDS Foundation commemorates World AIDS Day with a candlelight vigil in remembrance of those we have lost to the auto-immune disease. Great strides have been made in the fight against AIDS, and we’re reminded that the day is for celebration in addition to awareness and remembrance. Free rapid-result HIV…
Mutual UFO Network Lecture Series
Release Date: 2008-11-26 A self-professed investigator and researcher of government files on UFOs, Nick Redfern has written more than a dozen books on the topic and is a well-known author in the field of the supernatural. He’ll be discussing the connection between UFOs and chupacabras, and that’s enough to pique our interest — look for…
Cult to Follow w. Spinning Chain & Open Chapter
Release Date: 2008-11-26 The night before Thanksgiving is huge on the live-music circuit, so jump-start the four-day weekend with Cult to Follow. The band comprises frontman Bryan Scott of Union Underground fame, lead guitarist Todd Connally, bassist Troy Doebbler, and Jason West behind the kit. The Texas scene has been buzzing about their regional touring,…
Misfits, Sick City Daggers Comeback, & Blood Moon Howlers
Release Date: 2008-11-26 INT. My subconscious – day. My inner 16-year-old boy is jumping up and down, squealing in a way that would embarrass my inner 6-year-old girl. Me: What are you doing? My inner 16-year-old: Holy eff, dude! The Misfits are totally playing here on Sunday! (begins to play a spastic air-guitar version of…
Sword play
Ashes of Time Redux Director: Wong Kar Wai Screenwriter: Wong Kar Wai Cast: Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Maggie Cheung Release Date: 2008-11-26 Rated: R Genre: Film Devastated when the woman he loved rejected him for his brother, Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) retreated to the wilds of China’s western desert. He wallows…
Mercado de Paz/Peace Market
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2008-11-26 Celebrating the tradition of open-air markets found throughout the world, the Esperanza’s Mercado de Paz brings people together as a community, dispelling the idea that the perfect holiday gift has to be found in a retail marketplace filled with corporate clones. The Peace Market connects shoppers with more than 90…
My big fat California wedding
Photos by Justin Parr For Glamarama 2 show info, at Jump-Start Nov 29, click here. No to Prop 8 petitions: couragecampaign.org, sevenweekstoequality.com Ts inspired by Keith Olbermann’s anti-Prop 8 speech: cafepress.com Krystal Kelly, Annelle Spector, Eva Green, Shyla, Jessica St. John, and Kitty The cast, crew, and friends of Glamarama 2 Bird is the word:…
Sweat dreams are made of these
The vortex is surely one of the most powerful and terrifying things in the literary and physical universes. It sucks you in and spits you out; transports you from one time and space to another; it vacuums and broadcasts. And in Travis Townsend’s sculptures on display at the Southwest School, they add the “anxious” promised…
Giving thanks on the Canary Islands
Circling to land at the Arrecife airport on Lanzarote, one of seven islands in the Canary Islands archipelago off the coast of North Africa, the first-time visitor is offered tantalizing hints of the extraordinary landscape that lies mere kilometers from this charming port city. Explore the town on foot, and dally if you will at…
Cinema Obscura
This 1984 cult film might feature a bad mother-shutyourmouth who’s crash-landed his space ship on planet Earth — and this dark-skinned humanoid might have seemingly magical abilities to heal injuries and repair electronics — but don’t get it confused for some sort of latter-day-blaxploitation version of E.T. Not much is made clear by the end…
S’Nuff film
Hey hey, sweet baby, what you got goin’ on Friday December 5 through Sunday, December 7? Here’s an idea — you, me, 48 hours, a video camera, and one sexy-ass $35 registration fee. Hey, put away the pepper spray, I’m just talking about the San Antonio 48 Hour Film Experience, not to be confused with…
Guns control
In 1975, Bruce Springsteen was close to losing his mind. Facing an imminent deadline for his Born to Run album, with a promotional tour already booked, he decided that he hated the record and wanted to scrap the whole thing. In exasperation, his co-producer Jon Landau told him that recording artists never feel satisfied with…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
Joe Reyes likes to say that teaching guitar at Spacetone Music is beneficial because it gives him a daily schedule and keeps him from getting lazy. It must be working, because Reyes is remarkably productive — from his work with the Swindles and Buttercup to his production efforts and one-man-band solo projects. Reyes is forever…
Wild boys
Hip-hop be damned, Duran Duran invented bling. Long before Notorious B.I.G. and P.Diddy née Puff Daddy cruised the waves in their massive motorboat in the 1997 video for “Hypnotize,” the boys in the late Princess Di’s favorite band — scheduled to perform Monday, December 1, at the Majestic Theatre — sailed on yachts in Armani…
Sarah and Octopus
The Octopus sets up on the floor and the crowd closes in tight. So close that people two and three rows back can’t see anything but heads and shoulders. And that’s a shame, because if you don’t actually witness guitarist Mark Anthony Esquivel and bassist Ian McIntosh playing, you’re probably going to wrongly assume they’ve…
“Never Change” — The Green
Coming from a group categorizing itself as electronica, “Never Change” sounds surprisingly organic. An extremely simple drum-machine beat anchors tinkling keyboard fills and low-key laser effects, but the narcoleptic surf bass line drives the song, drowsily and well below the speed limit. Keyboardist Anne Noel’s vocal delivery complements the lethargy. Her low alto is pretty,…
King of the pews
It was clear just 10 minutes into the Woodlawn’s premiere of J.C. Rocks — a karaoke version of the passion of Christ — that this misbegotten production should never have been reviewed: During the nativity scene, we see Mary, a onetime biker chick and now Mother of God, apparently expel a bouncing plastic doll from…
Dear Uncle Mat
I am a professor at a local university. I am in my early 30s, divorced, and generally not optimistic about the female gender. Like a proper asshole, I have started dating a student. I know this is a cliché and a bad idea, but isn’t that what makes it fun? This is where it gets…
The QueQue
The auditor’s new clothes San Antonio’s brand-spankin’-new City Auditor ordinance doesn’t fix the problem, says District 2 Councilwoman Sheila McNeil, one of two nay votes when the ordinance sailed through Council last week. “It just brings more people into the problem.” Citizens, specifically. The new law adds two commoners to an expanded three-member council committee…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Have you ever arrived at a mountaintop on a clear day? Do you remember what you felt like? Can you re-imagine the sparkling purity of the air as it sweetened your lungs, the shimmering light that washed through you in lush waves, the exaltation of the sweeping vista as it lifted…
Baby, I have to drive this car
On a bright October morning, I was walking out of my daughter’s elementary school when I heard a voice behind me: “You’re not from around here, are you?” It was a mother I recognized from after-school pick-up. “No,” I replied. “I’m from New York, but I’ve lived in San Antonio for four years.” “Ah, that…
The visionary
Here in San Antonio, you hear about Arthur P. “Happy” Veltman Jr. all over the place: as a downtown real-estate developer and restaurant and nightlife entrepreneur; and as an arts advocate, historical conservationist, and celebrated man-about-town. He’s still a hell of a presence, a mix of uptown sophisticate and true-blue hometown hero, part Renaissance Medici…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I hear all the time that 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States. Is that true? Who counted them? How did they do it? Is there a turnstile at the border tallying up illegals and stamping their hands with neon glowing cartoon characters so they can go back and visit their…
The archivist
You’d never know it to belly up to the Bonham Exchange’s Crockett Bar, or while shakin’-that-ass, shakin’-that-ass up in the third-floor ballroom, but the august red-brick building at 411 Bonham contains a Wikipedia’s worth of Queer memory. And I’m not talking about those kind of memories: the ongoing ( if hazily recalled) plethora of crazy…
A saint without God
Albert Camus was 46 on January 4, 1960, when the flashy open convertible that his publisher, Michel Gallimard, was driving smashed into a tree, killing them both. Camus’ afterlife is now longer than his brief but luminous existence. It has included the posthumous publication of two unfinished novels, A Happy Death and The First Man,…
Clear Channel likes skies bright, citizens in the dark
Clear Channel Outdoor is nothing if not punctual. Here it is just about a year since our City Council approved the 12-month digital-billboard pilot program, which allowed them to flip the switch on a dozen hi-def signs across the city, and they’re back at City Hall, pushing a variety of agendas. Last week, Clear Channel…
ARTIFACTS
Joseph Marioni, whose irrepressibly emotional paintings hang in the McNay’s Stieren Gallery in the ARTMATTERS 13 — Joseph Marioni: Liquid Light exhibition (October 22, 2008 – January 18, 2009), is a cheerful soul with an axe to grind. Impishly, but with a sense of real urgency, he refutes the sometimes hastily bestowed title of Minimalist…
Kinetic Artists
Kinetic Artists Profiles in Dashingness : Artists who get off their Asses 1. AUBUCHON VS. AUDUBON (Audubon no longer running) Lady on the move: Kimberly Aubuchon, artist, archivist at Artpace, and founder/curator/gallerist of Unit B (http://www.unitbgallery.com). On November 13, Kimberly was the featured artist in the McNay’s “Artists Looking at Art” series, in which local…
CPS lays groundwork for expansion of nuclear power
CPS Energy held their quarterly board meeting yesterday, amidst much glad-handing and fanfare. (Do all Texas companies have a group prayer and a pledge of allegiance to the flag before their board meetings?) Yet beneath all the gloss, a potentially disturbing truth emerged. While ultimately delaying the decision for another year, CPS clearly laid the…
The semi-local daily
From the Romenesko forum at poynter.org comes cold comfort in the form of another Express-News memo: fewer jobs here, but, hey, Houston might be looking for copy editors and page designers. This note elaborates on news that the paper will shed 50 full-time workers (perhaps as many as 20 from the newsroom, according to one…
The visionary
Here in San Antonio, you hear about Arthur P. “Happy” Veltman Jr. all over the place: as a downtown real-estate developer and restaurant and nightlife entrepreneur; and as an arts advocate, historical conservationist, and celebrated man-about-town. He’s still a hell of a presence, a mix of uptown sophisticate and true-blue hometown hero, part Renaissance Medici…
