On the Street
Into the Wild Random thoughts… This Sean Penn movie is very much a surprise. The last film I remember him directing might have been one of the worst directing efforts I can remember. Something about Jack Nicholson getting weepy and the police force. I had almost driven it out of my mind out of respect…
On the Street
Into the Wild Random thoughts… This Sean Penn movie is very much a surprise. The last film I remember him directing might have been one of the worst directing efforts I can remember. Something about Jack Nicholson getting weepy and the police force. I had almost driven it out of my mind out…
Whoa Daddy-O
Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, known locally for his larger than life boots displayed at the entrance of North Star Mall (which marks its 30th anniversary in 2009) and his junk yard dog creation at Alamo City Inc, located on Somerset road, held an impromptu “Day of the JunkYard Dog” event at Alamo City Inc. With mariachi’s,…
Whoa Daddy-O
Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, known locally for his larger than life boots displayed at the entrance of North Star Mall (which marks its 30th anniversary in 2009) and his junk yard dog creation at Alamo City Inc, located on Somerset road, held an impromptu “Day of the JunkYard Dog” event at Alamo City Inc. With mariachi’s,…
Zombie Night at Aztec Theatre
Release Date: 2007-10-31 Zombies attack the Aztec on Halloween night with a double feature— San Antonio filmmaker Bryan Ortiz’s Dr. S Battles the Sex Crazed Reefer Zombies and the classic zombie thriller The Night of the Living Dead. The night includes costume contests, zombie trailers from Texas filmmakers, and the short film What to do…
4th Annual Uptown Art Stroll
Release Date: 2007-10-31 If you’re an art collector or appreciator, enjoy the emerging fall weather with an art stroll in Olmos Park Terrace. Thirty-three artists display paintings, clay collages, ceramics, mosaics, photography, metals, jewelry, fused glass, and more. Eight new artists and three galleries join the stroll this year. Free, 10am-5pm Sat, 1-5pm Sun, Olmos…
Blue October
Release Date: 2007-10-31 Universal Records’ Shiny Toy Guns combine aspects of electronica and indie-rock, seamless rhythm and synthesis paired with male and female vocals for a unique and fresh sound. Currently, their single “You Are The One” is peaking on the Alternative Chart, and the band is performing songs off their debut We Are Pilots…
Chiodos, Emery, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, & The Devil Wears Prada
Release Date: 2007-10-31 Their style likened to a melting pot, Chiodos can incorporate electronic beats behind piano, metal guitar riffs, and a poppy melodic vocal line in one song. The six-member, post-hardcore band released their second full-length album, Bone Palace Ballet, in early Septermber and it debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200. $16.50/20,…
Wurstfest
Release Date: 2007-10-31 The “10 day salute to Sausage” officially kicks off Friday with enough pork and German brews to give you a bellyache. The 46-year tradition features a ‘Biting of the Sausage’ ceremony, traditional dishes, German-style entertainment and dancing, and beer sold by the pitcher. Abiding by tradition, college night promises to stack up…
SAY SÃ’s Muertitos Fest
Release Date: 2007-10-31 The Dead have arrived! SAY Sí marks the festive celebration of Día de los Muertos with the first-ever Muertitos Fest, featuring student exhibitions, curated altars by San Antonio artists, family workshops, food booths, artisans, live music, and dance performances. Dead Artists Society opening night fundraiser $25 Thursday. Free, 5-11pm Friday, 10am-6pm Saturday,…
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Release Date: 2007-10-31 Recent months have marked a departure from previous work for Ben Harper. His new acoustic soul album, Lifeline, was recorded in Paris — Harper’s first time ever recording in The City of Light, and the first album he co-wrote with The Innocent Criminals. He’s always done his best to emphasize that he’s…
The General
Release Date: 2007-10-31 Zombies attack the Aztec on Halloween night with a double feature— San Antonio filmmaker Bryan Ortiz’s Dr. S Battles the Sex Crazed Reefer Zombies and the classic zombie thriller The Night of the Living Dead. The night includes costume contests, zombie trailers from Texas filmmakers, and the short film What to do…
One Arm Raised
Release Date: 2007-10-31 The “10 day salute to Sausage” officially kicks off Friday with enough pork and German brews to give you a bellyache. The 46-year tradition features a ‘Biting of the Sausage’ ceremony, traditional dishes, German-style entertainment and dancing, and beer sold by the pitcher. Abiding by tradition, college night promises to stack up…
Raiders of the Lost Wurst
Release Date: 2007-10-31 The “10 day salute to Sausage” officially kicks off Friday with enough pork and German brews to give you a bellyache. The 46-year tradition features a ‘Biting of the Sausage’ ceremony, traditional dishes, German-style entertainment and dancing, and beer sold by the pitcher. Abiding by tradition, college night promises to stack up…
Interview with a vampire professor
Whether your concept of “vampire” stems from Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic Dracula, Wesley Snipes blasting vamps into ash in Blade, or the Count adding up the number of bats in his castle on Sesame Street, Dr. Thomas Garza appreciates them all. As the director of the Center of Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies at…
aural pleasure
The Life of Pillows Marcus Rubio (Self-released) Marcus Rubio’s The Life of Pillows begins with a portentous two-chord figure straight out of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” swiftly elevated into overdrive by his own interweaving violins. This opening establishes a working pattern for the 18-year-old indie-pop phenom. Rubio’s songs are invariably simple and repetitive, and most…
One Bob to rule them all
As we approach up-and-coming artist Bob Rules’s studio you can tell his living space reflects his artwork, from the brittle gray sidewalk to the pitch-black door with hazy splashes of orange. He draws throughout the duration of our interview — an interviewer’s dream is to witness an artist at work. Rules’s paintings of a luridly…
CDs Nuts
Chrome Dreams II Neil Young (Reprise/Warner) You’re better off pretending the first two songs – "Beautiful Bluebird" and "Boxcar" – don't exist and heading straight for the album's main draw: "Ordinary People." The much-hyped (as in "old dudes on Neil Young mailing lists" hype), previously unreleased, 18-minute track is at least 16 minutes of awesome,…
Mex in Manhattan
The technicians made the final adjustments to the lights and plugged Barbara Walters into the 220-volt outlet that was to power her during the pre-awards show interview. Barbara snapped into consciousness and, as attendants from the Museum of Natural History applied eyeliner and blush, a muy nervioso Mex in Manhattan smoothed the pleats in his…
Sex, lies, and arty escape
Let’s get this done upfront: Lust, Caution is rated NC-17. What can you expect? (Besides no children around to kick your seatback. Hooray!) Breasts: Check Balls: Check Butts: Check Pubic hair: Check Armpit hair: Check Vagina: Nuh-uh Penis: Nope Penetration: Nada *Also, a scene of rough sex (too many words for my cute little checklist…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: How do I go to the Mexican grocery store and bakery to buy supplies for our Día de los Muertos party without looking like I’m doing the kitschy-goofy thing I’m doing? I walk up to the register and smile ingratiatingly, saying Gracias as usual — but a basketful of sugar skulls and other…
CRITICAL Darling
I don’t know what’s more pitiful, the fact that Shatner’s not been invited to play spaceship again with Leonard Nimoy in J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek movie, or that Abrams’s Lost cast still can’t lay off the sauce. Are there no other interesting island vices? Are Hawaiian drinking establishments just that lax about over-serving? For every…
Clothes-minded
When my mother was in high school she worked as a “tea room model” for a high-end department store. Those were the last days of a fashion tradition begun over a hundred years earlier in Paris by the House of Worth. Women of means would come directly to the designer’s “house,” see the latest designs…
A doll, a delusion, and the great actor mix-up of 2007
Ryan Gosling is David Arquette in Lars and the Real Girl, director Craig Gillespie’s follow-up to his acclaimed (cough) debut, Mr. Woodcock. It’s not the little goose’s fault he resembles Mr. Courteney Cox when he grows a ’stache and a donut ’round the middle. That’s nature, baby. That no one informed him that his acting…
Dear Uncle Mat
I have a girlfriend whose husband has been diagnosed with the “Madonna Whore” complex. Actually, his doctor says he has an Oedipal Complex, but after watching Sex and the City, she’s convinced it’s less about wanting sex with his mother and more about viewing her as the future mother of his children. — Speechless about…
Martian Child
Dir. Menno Meyjes, writ. Seth Bass, Jonathan Tolins, David Gerrold (novel); feat. John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Amanda Peet, Bobby Coleman The second John Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler hoisted a boom-box over his head to blast “In Your Eyes” at Diane Court’s window in Say Anything, he solidified a certain image of himself in the minds of…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): A top official at the European Robotics Research Network predicts that humans will “be having sex with robots” sooner than anyone expected — probably within four years. I hope this little shocker will help motivate you to follow my astrological advice for the coming week, which is to flee in the…
Armchair Cinephile
PICK OF THE WEEK: Barbara Stanwyck: The Signature Collection (Warner Bros.) I, like many of my film-loving pals, am late to the Babs party; all those lame TV shows she did in her twilight years cast a pall over her early, fiery career. Here’s a sampler of her heyday work, ranging from Westerns to thrillers…
Masterful malbec
One thing before I forget: decant all these wines. Or at the very least open them well in advance of pouring. Now we can get started in earnest with this month’s tasting target: malbec. Once a relatively minor blending grape in Bordeaux, this thick-skinned grape (also called cot), is now found in France, principally in…
The WORST new TV edition
Early fall is an exciting, disappointing time to be a TV fan. The best new shows won’t show their true luster for weeks, but the worst are already totally obvious in their horribleness. Here are the early losers, in no order other than the level of bile they stir within me. Cavemen (ABC, Tuesdays, 8…
Amuse-BOUCHE
Pure Luck should consider changing its name to Pure Hard Work — which is responsible for the Dripping Springs goat dairy’s many national awards for its cheeses. Most recently, Pure Luck’s Basket-Molded Chèvre was listed in Food & Wine’s November issue as a component in “the Great American Cheese Plate.” A-B likes the Red Pepper…
Spittin’ Game
Stranglehold Xbox 360 (Midway) $59.99 For those of you anticipating that Stranglehold will be the continuation of Tequila’s story post-Hard-boiled, here’s a spoiler alert: I have no idea what the hell is going on. But everything’s shiny and slideable and shooting a gun, so the game’s definitely true to the spirit of the film. The…
Tater tops
Savvy cooks with a mind for dollars and cents know how valuable it is to save, reuse, and recycle — but I’m not talking about paper and plastic. One kitchen philistine’s garbage is an old kitchen hound’s epicurean treasure trove. Nothing gets tossed, if at all possible, because it has a second and possibly a…
365 days of fighting
In less than a year, voters will be going to the polls to elect 150 state representatives, 32 Congressmen and women, a handful of state senators, a United States senator, and a smattering of judicial and administrative statewide offices in Texas. Unlike days gone by, however, where elections really got nasty only after Labor Day…
The Olmos Bharmacy
Olmos Pharmacy has changed. The actual pharmaceuticals have not returned, and the lunch-counter burgers and shakes still remain during the day. The difference is that now at night beer and wine are served. Olmos Park could use a bar, so I was eager to check it out. To be honest, when I first heard the…
THE QUE QUE
Hey, ho Tasers stayed holstered, but an energetic group of protesters locked-out of CPS Energy’s board meeting Tuesday raised a holy ruckus after being told they couldn’t come in to observe the scheduled vote committing the City-owned utility to a double-portion of new nuke power. Instead, with about half of the fully-seated, 80-something capacity room…
Three days in the Valley
As a Brownsville native who has spent much of his life in the Rio Grande Valley, I can testify that the region has much to recommend it, but live music has never ranked near the top of that list (excluding the Valley’s undisputed history with conjunto music). The only notable rock bands that ever visited…
Everything must go
Hard enough to lose your father. What if in the raw 30 days following his passing, you have to dig up, pull down, and sell off his life’s work? The backyard bird fantasia that Sam Mirelez spent more than 15 years building from tile, grout, plastic fish ponds, and miles of aluminum gutters and siding…
Big Tex update: Test the artists, but with what?
As soon as the Current has a free moment, it will pen a letter to New York Times etymologist William Safire: Was the phrase “no news is good news” coined before the word “bureaucracy”? Because if you’re a King William resident or former Blue Star Art Silos tenant waiting for word on the ongoing asbestos…
MASHUP
Let’s get real, says Economist correspondent Vijay Vaitheeswaran: Cars are part of the American dream for perfectly valid reasons. The solution is to clean them up, not scrap them, he and his coauthor argue in Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, and use technological innovation to end Detroit’s steel grip…
Still separate and unequal
Forty years ago, in the wake of riots in Newark and Detroit, President Lyndon Johnson appointed the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. The report of the “Kerner Commission,” issued in March 1968, laid out a stunning finding: “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.” San Antonio’s…
First Friday preview
This month’s First Friday art walk will feature a little of everything for you art aficionados, from Dia de los Muertos-themed works to a twist on mixed media to everything in-between. So as autumn sets in, head down to Southtown (and a few nearby locales) for a cornucopia of seasonal art works. The once tight…
High drama
Gerry Gibbs rolled around on the floor of Carmen’s de la Calle Café with Cosmo, the reliably exuberant, tail-wagging boxer belonging to Bett Butler and her bass-playing husband, Joël Dilley. The lanky, famously sardonic Gibbs, a stellar jazz drummer known by his friends as “The Thrasher,” grinned at his canine friend and announced, “You know,…
Three days in the Valley
As a Brownsville native who has spent much of his life in the Rio Grande Valley, I can testify that the region has much to recommend it, but live music has never ranked near the top of that list (excluding the Valley’s undisputed history with conjunto music). The only notable rock bands that ever visited…
ARTFACTS
Twenty years ago Gloria Anzaldúa’s landmark book Borderlands/La Frontera was released and a legion of mestizo-conscious readers were born. Her mixture of English and Spanish poetry and prose covered social, political, and cultural issues. Trinity University is holding a poetry reading to celebrate Anzaldúa’s life during the two-day event “Güera y Prietas: Celebrating 20 Years…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
Raised outside San Marcos, Scott Biram stewed in a mix of hillbilly country, tar paper shack blues, and rugged punk attitude. Around 2000, he began playing a stomp-box with his left foot like a bass drum, blowing harmonica, and slashing away at a Gibson ’59 hollow body. Things took a catastrophic turn when Biram hit…
A ‘miraculous’ composition is born
As California grapples with the ravages of wildfires, the San Antonio Symphony begins rehearsals for the world premiere of Something Miraculous Burns, the newest work by local composer David Heuser. The 10-minute piece for winds, percussion, piano, and strings deals with the things we lose, or perhaps destroy – lives, cultures, histories, entire species –…
Ben Harper finds his ‘Lifeline’
“The hardest thing any musician will ever do is follow an album that’s decent,” Ben Harper says of his 2006 release, Both Sides of the Gun. “To avoid self-adulation, I’ll just use the word ‘decent.’” Both Sides, a wildly ambitious double CD and concept album that pitted Harper’s love for his family and hopes for…
