The State of the Arts
Last week I attended the conference “Creating Ways” which focused on San Antonio’s creative economy. About 400 local creative minds were in attendance at the event, which raised a plethora of questions in the local and not so local arts community. The consensus was that the major problem in the creative community was a lack…
The State of the Arts
Last week I attended the conference “Creating Ways” which focused on San Antonio’s creative economy. About 400 local creative minds were in attendance at the event, which raised a plethora of questions in the local and not so local arts community. The consensus was that the major problem in the creative community was a lack…
On the Street
“Wow, Yao?” Un-Ironic Sports Analysis That could possibly be one of the highlights they play when Manu is inducted into the basketball hall of fame. Given his macabre consistent highlevel of success, how could he not be? But that is a tangent for another time. The Spurs steamrolled through their first three below average opponents…
On the Street
“Wow, Yao?” Un-Ironic Sports Analysis That could possibly be one of the highlights they play when Manu is inducted into the basketball hall of fame. Given his macabre consistent highlevel of success, how could he not be? But that is a tangent for another time. The Spurs steamrolled through their first three below average opponents…
Spam the Senate
Release Date: 2007-11-07 “Every generation needs a new revolution.” The words of Thomas Jefferson, perhaps our most influential forefather, are as important now as ever. With the 2008 presidential election just one year away, its time to get into a political mindset and become civically engaged. Ruta Maya helps the cause by hosting Spam the…
Bayside, June, The Sleeping, A Day to Remember, & Driverside Impact
Release Date: 2007-11-07 This New York foursome returns to the Alamo City after rocking sweaty crowds on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour. With a name derived from their hometown, Bayside is recognized for killer guitar rampages, piercing vocals, and energy-laden shows. The band headlines this Victory Tour stop in support of their latest album, The…
Monotonix (Tel-Aviv), Sohns, Great Northern Guns, Make Your Own Maps, Barkus, Sly, & The Golden Egg
Release Date: 2007-11-07 This guitar-drums-vocals trio from Tel Aviv thrashes Rock Bottom Sunday night. Known for their wild stage antics, killer rock riffs, and unbridled enthusiasm, Monotonix often plays in the crowd rather than in front of it, bringing the arena-rock experience within your immediate reach. The Israeli band’s cathartic set promises to make indie…
Flickerstick, Mother’s Anthem, Downfall Funeral, & 50 dollar dynasty
Release Date: 2007-11-07 This Denton rock explosion has always attracted a generous crowd in Texas, but really turned heads after winning VH1’s Band on the Run competition. National radio singles, raucous records, and constant promotion have since fueled their intense touring schedule and strong fanbase. Call for price, 8pm, Jack’s Patio Bar, 2950 Thousand Oaks,…
Sala Bowl
Release Date: 2007-11-07 Sala Diaz Art Gallery celebrates its twelfth birthday with a night of dinner and bowling at Hermann Sons, featuring fabulous fare from Liberty Bar, music by JJ Lopez, and a silent auction of artist-altered bowling pins. The party continues at Sala Diaz with open galleries, Music By James, and refreshments. $125 dinner,…
The Evens
Release Date: 2007-11-07 The Evens add a bit of dynamism to Dischord Records’ punk and hardcore family. Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi/Embrace/Dischord founder) paired with Amy Farina (The Warmers) in 2001 to form this ambitious, melodic, minimalist, DC-based duo, and they formally recorded their first nine-song demo two years later with MacKaye on baritone guitar and…
50 Dollar Dynasty CD Release w. Last of Our Kind
Release Date: 2007-11-07 This Denton rock explosion has always attracted a generous crowd in Texas, but really turned heads after winning VH1’s Band on the Run competition. National radio singles, raucous records, and constant promotion have since fueled their intense touring schedule and strong fanbase. Call for price, 8pm, Jack’s Patio Bar, 2950 Thousand Oaks,…
Terill Avenue
Release Date: 2007-11-07 This Denton rock explosion has always attracted a generous crowd in Texas, but really turned heads after winning VH1’s Band on the Run competition. National radio singles, raucous records, and constant promotion have since fueled their intense touring schedule and strong fanbase. Call for price, 8pm, Jack’s Patio Bar, 2950 Thousand Oaks,…
Jam Solid
Release Date: 2007-11-07 This Denton rock explosion has always attracted a generous crowd in Texas, but really turned heads after winning VH1’s Band on the Run competition. National radio singles, raucous records, and constant promotion have since fueled their intense touring schedule and strong fanbase. Call for price, 8pm, Jack’s Patio Bar, 2950 Thousand Oaks,…
Mambo Italiano
Luce’s traditional fare gets a little contemporary twist
Mex in Manhattan
I dread four-way stops; those tricky intersections where four drivers, each of them manning several tons of metal, fuel, and cheap plastic, warily eye each other as they wonder which car goes first. There is no traffic cop, referee, or Saint Christopher (not since his demotion anyway) to negotiate the subtle baile of you go,…
Master of his universe
With a dismantled label maker glued to the wall, representing a state-of-the-art police security system, and a Black Cat primed for detonation inside the hollowed-out gadget, local filmmaker Brett Mauser, 34, stands behind the camera and delivers his favorite command: “Action!” The fuse is lit as one of the actors points a gun (loaded with…
Clothes-minded
Fashionistas, it’s been a long year. Fashion reality show Project Runway finally returns for season four on November 14 at 9 p.m., to supply our fix of outrageous egos, catch phrases, and underdog villains. The show seemed in dire peril when mentor Tim Gunn left Parsons the New School for Design (Project Runway’s home base)…
Redford’s latest is a well-meaning, manufactured, middling movie
Convinced that evil triumphs when good people do nothing, Stephen Malley summons a brilliant slacker to his campus office. A professor of political science, Malley berates young Todd, a child of white privilege, for the glib cynicism that leads him to coast through class and life. “Why don’t you care anymore?” Malley demands. By contrast,…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I like to think that I’m an open-minded sorta guy for a teenager. I fervently oppose racial stereotypes, though I do think that they’re good for a laugh or two sometimes. I have several Mexican friends, and none of them live up to the “Mexican standard” of lawn-mowing, stupidity, and the like. One…
‘Fred Claus’: like ‘The Santa Clause,’ only less clever
Say what you will about its sequels (or its star, Tim Allen; be sure to grunt afterward), but The Santa Clause wasn’t half bad. I mean, St. Nick actually bites it within, like, the first 20 minutes of that movie, am I right? The mythology was precise; the sleigh a miracle of modern technology, and…
Dear Uncle Mat
I have been kinda seeing this guy and I was nice and gave him a second chance, sorta. We started out fine with a few dates, but my interest was waning. He told me he understood if I wasn’t interested and I said that I was, even though I kinda wasn’t very interested. It’s just…
Armchair Cinephile
PICK OF THE WEEK: Ratatouille (Disney) Pixar’s Ratatouille boasted perfect seasoning, balancing adult flavors with kid-friendly ones; if it wasn’t their biggest hit, it was still among their best. The studio pairs its release this week with two others, the Blu-ray arrival of Cars and the standard/Blu-ray release of a welcome new anthology, the Pixar…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Read these lines by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, translated by Chana Block and Stephen Mitchell: “A flock of sheep near the airport or a high voltage generator beside the orchard: these combinations open up my life like a wound, but they also heal it. That’s why my feelings always come in…
Carbon indulgences
Airlines from Virgin Blue to Quantas have been touting new eco-friendly programs under which passengers paralyzed by enviroguilt over all of those jet-fueled carbon-dioxide emissions can pay an extra carbon offset fee for tickets. The money these passengers pay — sometimes as little as $1 — is supposed to go to renewable energy or unspecified…
The cornbread chronicles
“Cornbread-love, like all love, is universal and deeply individual.” The Cornbread Gospels is a tribute to a beloved, but humble, American legend. Six years ago, Crescent Dragonwagon, the decorated author of cookbooks, children’s books and adult fiction, set out on a pilgrimage armed with a skillet and a soft spot for the subject matter. She…
Amuse-BOUCHE
San Antonian Myrna Devore’s recipe for Texas Yum Yums — in Eat Dessert First!, the charming, brightly colored new cookbook that gathers sweet treats from the adventurous ladies of the Red Hat Society — isn’t particulaly Texan (except for a pecan crust) but, she says, “It’s rich” and always popular at potlucks. The confection relies…
Crush hour
PRESIDIO — Local legend holds the Devil used to swing out here. He rocked back and forth between the communities of Ojinaga, Mexico, and Presidio, Texas, flame-tipped ocotillo and rugged greasewood tickling his rooster feet. After innumerable misdeeds, El Diablo found himself sealed up in a cave behind an inconveniently placed rock. But many Big…
Mambo Italiano
Love the new name. Practical, too; at least they could keep the first two letters of the old Luciano moniker. They could have kept even more of the old menu, but Joe Buonincontri saw the light in more ways than one once he became sole owner. The Southwestern-accented Italian cuisine that was the inspiration for…
THE QUE QUE
We are the people We are the people. One small step for typographers, one giant step for interpreters, notes the bespectled, ’fro-sporting campaign flack in Taxi Driver. (We are selling mouthwash, says the lovely Betsy some moments later, but we’ll leave that parable for later in the 2008 presidential season). Some nights Queque lies awake…
Patterson’s Xmas Mountains soufflé
If the same frontier justice of Pancho Villa’s day ever revisits this remote corner of blasted volcanic rock, it would likely mean Jerry Patterson’s hide curing in the sun. That is to say, the Texas General Land Office Commissioner is not a popular man in Brewster County. Did the foul rep begin with his continuing…
Love in the Time of Cholera
Love in the Time of Cholera Monday, November 12 7:30pm at Santikos Silverado 16 1604 and Bandera Rd 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
Anything goes
If Max Bemis were Christian instead of Jewish, this week would be his Christmas. His band Say Anything’s latest CD, In Defense of the Genre, hits stores and Bemis has been trying to stay cool by … shopping for new clothes? “I’m always called a girl like that,” he says, chuckling as he makes his…
A vote for Mukasey is a vote for torture
Judge Michael Mukasey admits waterboarding is repugnant, but refuses to say whether it amounts to torture. Yet Democratic Senators Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein voted for his confirmation as U.S. attorney general anyway. Mukasey, Schumer and Feinstein should talk to French journalist Henri Alleg. An editor of a paper in Algeria, he was waterboarded by…
No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men Tuesday, November 13 7:30pm at Santikos Palladium @the Rim – IH 10 Exit La Cantera Sorry, we have run out of tickets for this. No Country For Old Men – Trailer – Red Band Posted Aug 27, 2007 Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies,…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
If it seems that Sexto Sol has been slightly less prominent on the local club scene in recent months, that’s due to a subtle strategic change for the band. In May, the group severed its relationship with Rage Productions, a management group known for its Latino music connections, and began managing themselves. Since then, the…
Making the City-State leap
District 3 City Councilman Roland Gutierrez recently announced his intention to run for the District 119 House seat being relinquished by State Representative Robert Puente. The district includes south-central San Antonio, Schertz, China Grove, Converse, and part of Live Oak. He spoke with the Current by phone from his office. Representative Puente is considered a…
Taking a stroll on the crafty side
It could not have been a better night for First Friday attendees — a nice breeze was in the air and the crowds were fairly calm (with the exception of a mini-scene at the bridge of South Alamo where a Ron Paul supporter was being arrested). Though the streets were bustling, as usual, during the…
Post-punk pioneers
It’ll be at least a few weeks before local audiences get to see Control, the Joy Division biopic that, for a welcome change in movies like this, was actually made by a person who knew the subject first-hand: Photographer and music-vid king Anton Corbijn (whose gritty, high-contrast style you know from U2’s Joshua Tree, countless…
Revealing briefs
ARLINGTON — State Representative Paula Hightower-Pierson (D-Arlington), who defeated Toby Goodman, a lieutenant of House Speaker Tom Craddick, in last year’s general election, has drawn an opponent for 2008: Bill Burch (R-Arlington). Burch’s previous political experience includes a last-place finish in a three-way Republican primary against former Fort Worth Mayor and Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Fort…
ARTFACTS
Shakira has nothing on local Middle Eastern dance performer Asheba. Since 1982 Asheba has studied dance while maintaining various other jobs such as teacher, seminar instructor, and costume vendor. As her website states, “Her style is technically complex, ranging from emotionally compelling to fun and flirtatious.” Asheba along with her troupe, the Bedouin dancers, will…
aural pleasure
Even before the masses knew Bob Dylan’s nasal voice and elusive persona, they knew his songs from covers by the likes of Peter, Paul & Mary and Joan Baez. Over the last 45 years, singers have never tired of giving the Dylan catalog a whirl, but the way they’ve approached his songs has changed considerably.…
Colectiva Agresiva
What do you get when you cross Craigslist, performance theater, a coffee shop, and unpaid, fed-up thespians? A fascinatingly organized, artist-driven theater company called La Colectiva that’s more resourceful and visionary than the Warholian commune you might be picturing. The founding members are pooling their time, production equipment, and industry experience to create an online…
Playback
They say that pop audiences want to see themselves when they gaze at a concert stage. They want to see their fears, fantasies, and experiences reflected right back at them, so they know they’re not alone. I’m not so sure about the mirror thing. Personally, I don’t want to pay good money to watch a…
Friendly creatures
Before meeting Ed Wilcox, the artist whose work is featured in One Hundred Small Paintings and a few Big Ones, I was expecting to see a child emerge from behind the door to introduce himself as the creator of the 100-plus works on display at Salon Mijangos. I was pleasantly surprised when Wilcox, a full-fledged…
On the ‘Road’
I kind of want to start with your imprisonment in Ireland `in 1975`. If you’re uncomfortable talking about it … No, not at all … Um, well, it was at the start of the Troubles, and I was involved, like most of the youth in my neighborhood and around Belfast, in sort of a faction…
Girl fight
She might consider herself a “peacemaker” when it comes to family feuds, but when Deborah Garcia, 31, competes in her first professional cage fight this weekend, she’ll be ready to start a war. On Saturday, Nov. 10, Garcia, San Antonio’s first professionally-sanctioned female Mixed Martial Arts fighter, will go knuckle-to-knuckle with Deborah Wofford, 37, during…
CRITICAL Darling
The strike has struck. Motion picture and television producers failed to extend what was apparently the make-or-break olive branch — a percentage of new media revenue — to movie and TV writers in their final hours of negotiation, and as a result at 12:01 a.m. Monday, November 5, Writers Guild of America members capped their…
Poison Pill
Five years ago, Congress had a fit of conscience regarding nuclear power. The power plants, each with the potential to spew deadly radioactivity into air and water, were a potential problem to more than the four-and-a-half million people living within 10 miles of the 110 plants operating in the United States. They were a threat…
Poison Pill
Five years ago, Congress had a fit of conscience regarding nuclear power. The power plants, each with the potential to spew deadly radioactivity into air and water, were a potential problem to more than the four-and-a-half million people living within 10 miles of the 110 plants operating in the United States. They were a threat…
