A GUTFUL OF GOLF
After scolding activists for spreading “misinformation” about the PGA development, City Council unanimously approved a timetable for an annexation plan of the golfopolis over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. The plan, penned by Mayor Ed Garza in a letter of intent to the PGA and its developer, Lumbermen’s Inc., is not a replica, but remarkably…
ALL EARS
Pity, then, the poor eighth-grader who must now contend with hip-hop stars the Roots. Their “human turntablist,” who calls himself Scratch, has taken the “one body, infinite sound possibilities” agenda to the limits of physical feasibility, mimicking everything from beats and bumps to the wickety-whir of a DJ scratching vintage vinyl. It is a logical…
HERE’S THE DEAL
The new proposal for the PGA Village entails the following proposals: The City would delay annexation of the property for 15 years Impervious cover is 25 percent, up from 15 percent in the previous plan Environmental considerations include using only organic pesticides and fertilizers, banning underground storage tanks, buffering sensitive recharge features. A panel of…
A RESOUNDING NOTE OF HOPE
The San Antonio Symphony’s marketing budget apparently hasn’t suffered from the recent loss of its generous benefactor, the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation. In a gross display of desperation to boost ticket sales and balance the budget, the publicity for the season’s opening concert features the Spurs’ poster boy. Without checking the fine print, an innocent glance…
PGA TIMELINE
Wednesday, September 25: Public hearing, location and time TBA Wednesday, October 3: Public hearing, City Council Chambers, 114 W. Commerce Monday, October 8: Bexar County Commissioners appoint five representatives to negotiate annexation agreement Wednesday, October 10: City Council briefed on annexation agreement Thursday, October 24: Final approval of annexation agreement
IT’S EASY BEING GREEN
It didn’t look goofily Jetsonish like Honda’s first hybrid, the two-seater Insight introduced in 2000. Instead, it looked like a Civic, the most vanilla car ever produced. “Our goal was to make it look, for lack of a better word, normal,” explained Kevin Bynoe, spokesman for American Honda. And the happier I got, the angrier…
WE KICKED THE TIRES, TOO
Indeed, the thrill of the gas/electric car is green — not just environmental green, but spending green as well. As I drove halfway across town, I felt damn near altruistic, watching the special dashboard gauge swing from “Assist” when I accelerated to “Charge” when I decelerated, and watching the gas level budging nary a hair.…
THE FUTURE IS OPEN
“Doctor’s appointment in 10 minutes,” he said. “I hurt my neck. Where’s your breaker box?” I introduced myself, and got him to pause long enough to shake my hand. “Breaker box,” he repeated. “You’re going to need a 220 breaker.” He opened the trunk of the two-seater, a bottle-green car shaped the way comic book…
IN PRAISE OF PROCRASTINATION
As a writer, you probably recognize the symptoms: As that first blank page looms in front of you, you are suddenly struck by an urge to dust your clock radio or label your lawn tools. Several hours later, you may find yourself feeling like a failure as a writer, but try to look on the…
DOT-COM TONIC
That absurdity makes 21 Dog Years a great testament to the irrational exuberance of the dot-com era. Daisey signed on at Amazon as a last resort after a string of temp jobs and low-paying acting gigs. The book’s best passages tingle with tension as Daisey watches himself fall for the new-economy talk he knows is…
KINDNESS IN CHINA OUT OF SIGHT
The seven films that Zhang made with Gong Li (Red Sorghum, The Puma Action, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju, To Live, and Shanghai Triad) a decade ago were the fruits of a collaboration between a director and his leading lady as brilliantly productive as the partnership of Joseph Von…
NEW REVIEWS
City by the Sea “The cop who cried” Dir. Michael Caton-Jones; writ. Ken Hixon, based on an article by Mike McAlary; feat. Robert DeNiro, Frances McDormand, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe, George Dzundza (PG-13) NYPD Lieutenant Vince LaMarca (De Niro) learns that the prime suspect in one, then two murders in Long Beach is…
Armchair Cinephile
Jon Jost’s quietly magnificent All the Vermeers in New York (World Artists) shows the little-known indie filmmaker as an heir to John Cassavetes, fascinated by the kind of long, awkward or seemingly irrelevant moments that get discarded in other films, but combine in the right hands to make you feel you’re seeing something very real.…
SPECIAL SCREENS
The Public Enemy “Made when Hollywood was still raw” Dir. William Wellman; writ. Harvey Thew; feat. James Cagney, Edward Woods, Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell (UNRATED) Long before Jack Valenti was paid millions to tell concerned parents how well his Motion Picture Association of America was keeping their children safe by labeling nasty movies “R” or…
HEAR IT WITH YOUR EYES
But put him behind a horn, and the sharpness you see behind Vandermark’s eyes turns into intensity. He puts his sax through the wringer with shrieks and full-bodied bellows, discordant blurts and lung-emptying trills. In the space of a half hour he can deliver riffs worthy of James Brown, chunks of startling noise, beautifully lyrical…
