Armchair Cinephile: The Cine-Mini
Deck PICK OF THE WEEK: Motion Picture Masterpieces (Warner Bros.): Includes David Copperfield (1935), Marie Antoinette (1939), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Pride and Prejudice (1940), Treasure Island (1934). W.C. Fields in a Dickens yarn? Ohio-bred Tyrone Power as a French count? That’s Hollywood, babe. Warner’s latest box of prestige titles packs more literary…
The Mashup
From the Editor First, out with the old name; in with the new. I inherited the title “Counterpoint” from the previous editor and have never fully embraced it, to use some hackneyed politico-speak. It has a sort of musty, old-school, tit-for-tat feel — kind of like my least-favorite public-radio program, Justice Talking, which manages to…
DVD? DIY!
Like a lot of folks I know who suffer from delusions of smartness, I went through a period of a few years when I prided myself on watching absolutely no television. (At least I wasn’t one of the ones who brag about it.) My monklike abstinence ended in the early days of broadband, when in…
Flunking the Electoral College
“It’s not the voting that’s democracy,” quips a cynic in Tom Stoppard’s play Jumpers. “It’s the counting.” When the counting in Florida was halted by extraordinary order of the Supreme Court, George W. Bush had 537 more votes than Al Gore. He was awarded all of the state’s 27 electoral votes and thus residency in…
Chronicle of a disorder
Family Gathering: A look into the world of eating disorders 1-5pm Sat-Sun by appt. Through Nov 17 Dicke Art Building Trinity University One Trinity Place 999-7682 Joy Christiansen uses photographic transfer, embroidery, and text to outline the psychological effects of a complex disease — anorexia — in Family Gathering, an installation currently on view at…
Counterpoint
From the Editor First, out with the old name; in with the new. I inherited the title “Counterpoint” from the previous editor and have never fully embraced it, to use some hackneyed politico-speak. It has a sort of musty, old-school, tit-for-tat feel — kind of like my least-favorite public-radio program, Justice Talking, which manages to…
F*** the Good F***
A not-so-quick note before we get this feature off the ground: In Hollywood parlance, a “round table” is an interview environment provided by PR companies and studio PR departments that allow a gaggle of journalists to bombard filmmakers with inane, often stupid and petty questions. Sitting around at these things, waiting for the talent to…
Truth on Tolled
It should have a spirited praying-mantis-fighting-a-cart quality — a movie about farmers and regular urban folk opposing (mainly) Texas Republicans in their push to make us all lay down, get paved over with toll roads, then pay Cintra-Zachry for the pleasure. Instead, Trinity alum William Molina’s new documentary Truth Be Tolled (Storm Pictures) — although…
Chronicle of a disorder
“Forgiveness.” – Joy Christiansen, the Lennox Visiting Young Artist at Trinity University, uses photo transfers and glass etching to explore the psychological effects of disease on a family. Family Gathering: A look into the world of eating disorders 1-5pm Sat-Sun by appt. Through Nov 17 Dicke Art Building Trinity University One Trinity Place 999-7682 Joy…
Counterpoint
From the Editor First, out with the old name; in with the new. I inherited the title “Counterpoint” from the previous editor and have never fully embraced it, to use some hackneyed politico-speak. It has a sort of musty, old-school, tit-for-tat feel — kind of like my least-favorite public-radio program, Justice Talking, which manages to…
F*** the Good F***
A not-so-quick note before we get this feature off the ground: In Hollywood parlance, a “round table” is an interview environment provided by PR companies and studio PR departments that allow a gaggle of journalists to bombard filmmakers with inane, often stupid and petty questions. Sitting around at these things, waiting for the talent to…
Blog Roll
11111
Locally grown: the new organic
The recent outbreak of E. coli, traced to bagged spinach from California, has been linked to at least one death and more than 140 hospitalizations. Since the first reported incident in late August, fingers have been pointed and re-pointed, and the exact source of the mass food poisoning remains a mystery. Some blame the cattle…
Value Vino – Great wines for under $15
Many wine drinkers, this one included, secretly yearn to be involved in winemaking. We are encouraged, if only subliminally, by the French garagistes who have parked the Peugeot outside in order to concentrate on Pomerol, by young couples who have moved from Texas to California on a shoestring and are now making cult-class pinots (Siduri,…
F*** the Good F***
A not-so-quick note before we get this feature off the ground: In Hollywood parlance, a “round table” is an interview environment provided by PR companies and studio PR departments that allow a gaggle of journalists to bombard filmmakers with inane, often stupid and petty questions. Sitting around at these things, waiting for the talent to…
Blog Roll
11111
So far from home
Casa Chiapas 928 S. Alamo 224-2606 6:30am-4pm Mon-Wed; 6:30am-10pm Thu-Sat; 10am-2pm Sun Credit cards Entrées: $5.95-6.50 Not wheelchair accessible The recent outbreak of E. coli, traced to bagged spinach from California, has been linked to at least one death and more than 140 hospitalizations. Since the first reported incident in late August, fingers have been…
All You Can Eat
Can you dish? If so, it might mean a trip to New York and guest spot on Good Morning America and a mention on Desperate Housewives. KSAT 12 is hosting the Desperate for Dinner Cook-Off, and they want your recipes. Fourteen runners-up will receive the new Desperate Housewives cookbook; one will win a gourmet cooking…
F*** the Good F***
A not-so-quick note before we get this feature off the ground: In Hollywood parlance, a “round table” is an interview environment provided by PR companies and studio PR departments that allow a gaggle of journalists to bombard filmmakers with inane, often stupid and petty questions. Sitting around at these things, waiting for the talent to…
Blog Roll
11111
Not another teen drama
Friday Night Lights Tuesdays, 7pm NBC It’s my theory that before any of us gets to the Charlie Kaufman-loving, Arrested Development-watching, “I-like-you-because-you’re-strangely- attractive-from-the-right-angle” state of enlightenment, we must first experience an entanglement with a teen television drama. Pregnancy scares, illicit student-teacher affairs, 30-year-old guys pretending to be 16 — who can resist? For me, it…
Locally grown: the new organic
The recent E. coli and spinach scare may bolster farmers who sell to local markets. The recent outbreak of E. coli, traced to bagged spinach from California, has been linked to at least one death and more than 140 hospitalizations. Since the first reported incident in late August, fingers have been pointed and re-pointed, and…
Blog Roll
“They took our jobs!” Citizen journalists/bloggers (from left: Inthepinktexas.com, Pinkdome.com, Acapitalblog.blogspot.com) give political coverage a shot; we, the bitter old-school media, grade them. Googling your tax dollars was made possible last month by lovable lawmakers holding hands across the aisle (senators John McCain, Barack Obama) and bloggers, who threw a wet sheet around the exposed…
So far from home
Casa Chiapas’s inviting porch is rarely this empty. Writers, residents, and the leisurely hold forth over cups of coffee during most business hours. Casa Chiapas 928 S. Alamo 224-2606 6:30am-4pm Mon-Wed; 6:30am-10pm Thu-Sat; 10am-2pm Sun Credit cards Entrées: $5.95-6.50 Not wheelchair accessible We suspect that when most norteamericanos think of Chiapas, the images that appear…
Rampage On Ice
It’s unusually quiet in the AT&T Center, except for the sound of blades gliding over ice and pucks striking Plexiglas, echoing throughout the virtually empty building. At the center of the arena, a freshly glazed hockey rink radiates cool air and bright light as San Antonio Rampage Head Coach Pat Conacher and Assistant Coach Gord…
Jailhouse Rock
Let’s talk about felons and the formerly incarcerated and their right to vote. The laws vary state to state across this fine land. For example, in Maine and Vermont even people currently in prison can vote. Meanwhile, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, and Virginia say once a felon, never a citizen again (except by special appeal).…
Not another teen drama
Friday Night Lights Tuesdays, 7pm NBC It’s my theory that before any of us gets to the Charlie Kaufman-loving, Arrested Development-watching, “I-like-you-because-you’re-strangely-attractive-from-the-right-angle” state of enlightenment, we must first experience an entanglement with a teen television drama. Pregnancy scares, illicit student-teacher affairs, 30-year-old guys pretending to be 16 — who can resist? For me, it was…
Aural Pleasure
The Information Beck (Interscope Records) SOLID ‘INFORMATION’ Beck’s2005 album Guero was obviously meant as a return to the post-modern form of the classic Odelay. But many detractors carped that the album’s echoes of Beck’s youthful absurdist streak merely emphasized what a humorless grump he’d become. The suggestion was that the Church of Scientology…
Spittin’ Game
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy LucasArts Xbox 360, Xbox, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, Gamecube, PC Lego Star Wars captures the fun of playing Han Solo and Boba Fett with those plastic blocks as a kid. It’s more fun, really, because your console or computer makes the laser sounds for you. Playing out like…
Not another teen drama
Friday Night Lights Tuesdays, 7pm NBC It’s my theory that before any of us gets to the Charlie Kaufman-loving, Arrested Development-watching, “I-like-you-because-you’re- strangely-attractive- from-the-right-angle” state of enlightenment, we must first experience an entanglement with a teen television drama. Pregnancy scares, illicit student-teacher affairs, 30-year-old guys pretending to be 16 — who can resist? For me,…
Sound and the Fury
LONESTAR PAVILION RIVE WALK FOXTROT While it’s become common for respected alt-rock bands to bypass San Antonio in favor of Austin, Wilco’s current two-and-a-half-week tour reverses that trend, with SA the band’s only Texas stop aside from Fort Worth. The tour represents a pregnant pause in recording work for Wilco’s sixth studio album, for which…
Take my amulet (and shove it)
It may have belonged to Verdi first, but Aida, a musical from Disney Theatrical Productions (and power duo Elton John and Tim Rice), shares a common element with another Disney musical, Beauty and the Beast. I’m talking about Stockholm Syndrome. I don’t see why Rice didn’t make the lyrics to the captive-captor theme song, “Elaborate…
Spittin’ Game
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy LucasArts Xbox 360, Xbox, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, Gamecube, PC Lego Star Wars captures the fun of playing Han Solo and Boba Fett with those plastic blocks as a kid. It’s more fun, really, because your console or computer makes the laser sounds for you. Playing out like…
Take my amulet (and shove it)
“You had me at ‘Attack.’” Crystal Evans’s Aida loves David Davila’s Radames. It may have belonged to Verdi first, but Aida, a musical from Disney Theatrical Productions (and power duo Elton John and Tim Rice), shares a common element with another Disney musical, Beauty and the Beast. I’m talking about Stockholm Syndrome. I don’t see…
Not another teen drama
Are you ready for some … posing? The football studs of Friday Night Lights look fresh off the catwalk. Friday Night Lights Tuesdays, 7pm NBC It’s my theory that before any of us gets to the Charlie Kaufman-loving, Arrested Development-watching, “I-like-you-because-you’re-strangely- attractive-from-the-right-angle” state of enlightenment, we must first experience an entanglement with a teen television…
Salt-less wounds
Veruca Salt 8pm Sat, Oct 14 $12 Sanctuary 1818 N. Main St. 732-0313 Power-pop rockers Veruca Salt first appeared in 1994, perfectly poised to take advantage of the post-Nirvana indie confusion that was the vacuum left by Kurt Cobain’s suicide; there was still so much angst to exploit, but the labels couldn’t figure out how…
Take my amulet (and shove it)
“You had me at ‘Attack.’” Crystal Evans’s Aida loves David Davila’s Radames. It may have belonged to Verdi first, but Aida, a musical from Disney Theatrical Productions (and power duo Elton John and Tim Rice), shares a common element with another Disney musical, Beauty and the Beast. I’m talking about Stockholm Syndrome. I don’t see…
Spittin’ Game
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy LucasArts Xbox 360, Xbox, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, Gamecube, PC Lego Star Wars captures the fun of playing Han Solo and Boba Fett with those plastic blocks as a kid. It’s more fun, really, because your console or computer makes the laser sounds for you. Playing out like…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
In between wiping noses and playing with Barbie dolls this weekend I was able to read The New York Times, and an interesting article caught my eye because of the title’s “duh” factor. “The More We Make, the Better We Want” by Robert H. Frank is an abstract on the 1930s essay “Economic Possibilities for…
That’s a Wrap
Still got an axe to grind over the fact that your mom didn’t let you see Batman when you were 12? Care for a clandestine peek at the folks who enforce the one-F-bomb-per-PG-13-rating rule? Pop over to the Bijou for some cathartic cleansing and some far-behind-the-scenes gumshoeing, courtesy of Kirby Dick’s This Film Is Not…
Salt-less wounds
Still looking for their golden ticket: Louise Post and Veruca Salt are back — and, she says, better than ever. Veruca Salt 8pm Sat, Oct 14 $12 Sanctuary 1818 N. Main St. 732-0313 Power-pop rockers Veruca Salt first appeared in 1994, perfectly poised to take advantage of the post-Nirvana indie confusion that was the vacuum…
Game Theory
Wait. Stop. Don’t flip that page. Don’t click away. This is important. Everything is speeding up. The rate of change has been accelerating since long before you were born, and you need to decide what you’re going to do about it. “But Aaron,” you think skeptically, “each new generation thinks it is living through a…
Game Theory
A monkey controls a cybernetic arm with its thoughts. Seriously. Google it! Wait. Stop. Don’t flip that page. Don’t click away. This is important. Everything is speeding up. The rate of change has been accelerating since long before you were born, and you need to decide what you’re going to do about it. “But Aaron,”…
Immigrant Song
Clemente Dir. and writ. Pablo Véliz; feat. Jorge Jimenez, Mariana Wachter, Kristel Lara, Pedro Garcia Jr., Jeff Horny (NR) Well, I don’t feel quite so bad for Macario anymore. (That, or I feel worse. I’m not quite sure which.) Thing is, even if the protagonist of twentysomething San Antonio filmmaker (and recent UTSA graduate) Pablo…
Squeeze-box score
International Accordion Festival Fri-Sun, Oct 13-15 La Villita 573-6984 Internationalaccordi-onfestival.org As Pat Jasper talks about this year’s International Accordion Festival, a Polish folk group called Kapela Marian Pelka is en route from Eastern Europe to Houston. Jasper is driving from San Antonio to meet them. She is quick to point out that at least a…
Game Theory
A monkey controls a cybernetic arm with its thoughts. Seriously. Google it! Wait. Stop. Don’t flip that page. Don’t click away. This is important. Everything is speeding up. The rate of change has been accelerating since long before you were born, and you need to decide what you’re going to do about it. “But Aaron,”…
Framed
Where does High Art stop and Low begin Where does High Art stop and Low begin? It may never have been a simple question, but Pop Art ensured that from the ’60s on, parsing the issue would be murder – for anyone, that is, who needs to draw a line. Craig Yoe is not one…
Spittin’ Game
111
Squeeze-box score
International Accordion Festival Fri-Sun, Oct 13-15 La Villita 573-6984 Internationalaccordi-onfestival.org As Pat Jasper talks about this year’s International Accordion Festival, a Polish folk group called Kapela Marian Pelka is en route from Eastern Europe to Houston. Jasper is driving from San Antonio to meet them. She is quick to point out that at least a…
Framed
Where does High Art stop and Low begin? It may never have been a simple question, but Pop Art ensured that from the ’60s on, parsing the issue would be murder — for anyone, that is, who needs to draw a line. Craig Yoe is not one of those people, as he proves in Arf…
Framed
Where does High Art stop and Low begin? It may never have been a simple question, but Pop Art ensured that from the ’60s on, parsing the issue would be murder — for anyone, that is, who needs to draw a line. Craig Yoe is not one of those people, as he proves in Arf…
Spittin’ Game
111
Squeeze-box score
Renatto Borghetti, one of many accordionists who will be putting the squeeze on San Antonio at this year’s International Accordion Festival. International Accordion Festival Fri-Sun, Oct 13-15 La Villita 573-6984 Internationalaccordi-onfestival.org As Pat Jasper talks about this year’s International Accordion Festival, a Polish folk group called Kapela Marian Pelka is en route from Eastern Europe…
Framed
Where does High Art stop and Low begin? It may never have been a simple question, but Pop Art ensured that from the ’60s on, parsing the issue would be murder — for anyone, that is, who needs to draw a line. Craig Yoe is not one of those people, as he proves in Arf…
The Citizenship Issue
This Land Is Your Land Dear Student of Our Town High School, Don’t think of this as a rejection letter. Consider it a reason to rethink your role as a citizen in this inconstant-as-the-moon American society. And may we suggest getting a head start on penning next year’s “I Can’t Keep Up With What An…
Framed
Arf capades: Craig Yoe presides over the unholy marriage of art and comics. Where does High Art stop and Low begin? It may never have been a simple question, but Pop Art ensured that from the ’60s on, parsing the issue would be murder — for anyone, that is, who needs to draw a line.…
Spittin’ Game
111
Sound and the Fury
LONESTAR PAVILION RIVE WALK FOXTROT While it’s become common for respected alt-rock bands to bypass San Antonio in favor of Austin, Wilco’s current two-and-a-half-week tour reverses that trend, with SA the band’s only Texas stop aside from Fort Worth. The tour represents a pregnant pause in recording work for Wilco’s sixth studio album, for which…
Chronicle of a disorder
Family Gathering: A look into the world of eating disorders 1-5pm Sat-Sun by appt. Through Nov 17 Dicke Art Building Trinity University One Trinity Place 999-7682 Joy Christiansen uses photographic transfer, embroidery, and text to outline the psychological effects of a complex disease — anorexia — in Family Gathering, an installation currently on view at…
The Citizenship Issue
This Land Is Your Land Dear Student of Our Town High School, Don’t think of this as a rejection letter. Consider it a reason to rethink your role as a citizen in this inconstant-as-the-moon American society. And may we suggest getting a head start on penning next year’s “I Can’t Keep Up With What An…
Chronicle of a disorder
“Forgiveness.” – Joy Christiansen, the Lennox Visiting Young Artist at Trinity University, uses photo transfers and glass etching to explore the psychological effects of disease on a family. Family Gathering: A look into the world of eating disorders 1-5pm Sat-Sun by appt. Through Nov 17 Dicke Art Building Trinity University One Trinity Place 999-7682 Joy…
Spittin’ Game
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy LucasArts Xbox 360, Xbox, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, Gamecube, PC Lego Star Wars captures the fun of playing Han Solo and Boba Fett with those plastic blocks as a kid. It’s more fun, really, because your console or computer makes the laser sounds for you. Playing out like…
Sound and the Fury
LONESTAR PAVILION RIVE WALK FOXTROT While it’s become common for respected alt-rock bands to bypass San Antonio in favor of Austin, Wilco’s current two-and-a-half-week tour reverses that trend, with SA the band’s only Texas stop aside from Fort Worth. The tour represents a pregnant pause in recording work for Wilco’s sixth studio album, for which…
Chronicle of a disorder
Family Gathering: A look into the world of eating disorders 1-5pm Sat-Sun by appt. Through Nov 17 Dicke Art Building Trinity University One Trinity Place 999-7682 Joy Christiansen uses photographic transfer, embroidery, and text to outline the psychological effects of a complex disease — anorexia — in Family Gathering, an installation currently on view at…
