5 Things You Have to Do This Week
1. The Book of Mormon Nothing is off limits in The Book of Mormon, an outrageously profane and surprisingly sweet musical from the minds of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez. Described by Parker as “an atheist’s love letter to religion,” the runaway hit follows handsome prep…
A Second Trader Joe’s for SA?
More cookie butter! (Courtesy) That’s what it looks like right now. Texas Sales tax permits issued last week revealed a new Trader Joe’s location (403 N LOOP 1604 W) in the works for SA along with Southlake, Houston and Dallas. Looks like the Monrovia, California-based TJ’s is following in Whole Foods’ footsteps and hitting up…
Where to Celebrate Diez y Seis de Septiembre in San Antonio
We might have missed El Grito de la Independencia, but you can still celebrate Mexican Independence Day today by eating at your favorite Mex (and even Tex-Mex) restaurant. Here’s a list of choices of some of the city’s best: La Fonda on Main, 2415 N Main Ave, (210) 733-0621 Continued on next page. La Fogata,…
Tuk Tuk Tap Room in Soft Opening Stage
The lights are on at Tuk Tuk. Tuk Tuk Tap Room, Asian street fare meets craft beer, opened for the first night of service on Friday. To spin up the POS system and give the staff some practice, Tuk Tuk opened to little fanfare but quite a few diners. They literally just turned on the…
Song of the Week: Blood Orange’s “Chamakay”
We here at the Current think you should take a break from whatever you’re doing and check out the wonderful new track “Chamakay” by Blood Orange. Trust us, you’ll thank us later for turning you on to this laid-back, soulful gem. Blood Orange is the musical child of Devonté Hynes who previously worked under the…
Remembering Johnny Ramone (1948-2004)
On September 15, 2004, Johnny Ramone died after battling cancer for five years. He was 55. “God bless President Bush and God bless America,” Johnny said at the Ramones’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2002, reminding us of a curious fact: the guitarist of arguably the most influential punk band ever was…
Mayweather Easily Beats Canelo
Floyd Mayweather Jr. kept his unbeaten record intact with a surprisingly easy decision over Mexico’s Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez for the WBA-WBC superwelterweight title Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. If Canelo’s less-than-stellar performance was surprising, even more so was one of the judges’ scorecards: C. J. Ross (who saw Timothy Bradley beat Manny…
Expert Doug Fischer on Why Canelo will Beat Mayweather
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is more than a 2-1 favorite to win Saturday’s fight against Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez and, though most experts agree the young Mexican will put up a good fight, the consensus is an Álvarez win would be a monumental upset. Unless, of course, you’re Doug Fischer. The editor of RingTV.com is one of…
Top 3 Reasons to Watch Mayweather-Canelo
At this point, you might think my obsession with the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Canelo Álvarez fight is due to some contractual obligation I may have with Showtime, but you’d be wrong. For starters, the fact that this fight is happening at all has nothing to do with boxing’s desire “to give the fans what they want.”…
Bonehead Quote Of The Week: Ted Cruz on Jesse Helms
Nearly everything that spews from Tea Party Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is (oftentimes intentionally) controversial, even upsetting members of his own party –his latest rhetorical faux pas is no exception. “We need 100 more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate,” said Cruz during an event at conservative think-tank, the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday.…
Failing At Fact: Education Board-Nominated Reviewers Demand Creationism in Texas Science Books
A perennial punch-line of the nation, Texas’ State Board of Education may see another round of finger-pointing and head shaking from onlookers for its handling of biology textbooks. Tasked with nominating panelists to review the books, conservative evolution deniers on the SBOE have stacked the teams with creationists who are offering up some controversial suggestions.…
Boardwalk on Bulverde Will Host Third OctoBeer Feast
The weather won’t be scorching in October. (Courtesy) The Boardwalk on Bulverde, 14732 Bulverde Road, will be celebrating their third annual Octobeer Feast with The San Antonio Fire Museum Society in honor of Fire Prevention month. The event will take place during Oct. 4 from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Oct. 5 from noon to…
Shot of the Week: Urth Juice Bar’s Ginger-Orange Shot
Goes down smooth. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the type of shot, LMFAO raps about, but I decided to take a healthier approach to shots this week. With the upsurge of juice bars to open with the last year (Juicer Heroes, Revolucion Coffee + Juice, Urth, One Lucky Duck and Farm to Juice), there were…
R.I.P. John “Juancho” Stanford, the Indispensable One
There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better. There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones. —Bertolt Brecht John “Juancho” Stanford…
NAO Celebrates Mexican Independence Day
Modern Mexican food, anyone? (Current Files) No, not Cinco de Mayo. The New World Flavors restaurant will celebrate Diez y Seis de Septiembre with a $35 three-course menu that salutes everything Mexican and tasty on September 13, 14 and 16. The menu includes a tuna brulee with mole negro and jiacama slaw, red pozole with…
Council Passes Budget, Evades Domestic Violence Response Team Cuts
In a meeting this morning, San Antonio City Council voted to adopt a FY 2014 budget that prevents cutting positions with the Crisis Response Team, a SAPD domestic violence program, and restores proposed cuts to library and parks by adding an additional fee to CPS Energy bills. During a community budget hearing last month, residents…
10 Things You Have to Do This Weekend
1. “Localized Histories” The late artist, collector and philanthropist Linda Pace maintained that “contemporary art is essential to a dynamic society.” While her convictions live on at Artpace (the revered residency program and “laboratory of dreams” she launched in 1995) and the Linda Pace Foundation (which “fosters the creation, presentation and understanding of innovative expression…
Fun Fun Fun Fest 2013: The Complete Lineup
Finally, the full lineup for Fun Fun Fun Fest 2013 has just been announced. The festival will take place November 8-10 at Austin’s Auditorium Shores and, in addition to the main concerts, it will feature comedy, skateboarding and BMX activites, and the FFF Nites (nightly after parties that are free if you have a festival…
Mayweather-Canelo: Where to Watch it in SA
Saturday’s fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez is coming soon to a theater (or bar) near you. Unless, of course, you already bought it on pay-per-view. Everything indicates that, indeed, it’ll be the richest fight in history: the arena in Las Vegas is sold out and, on Tuesday, Golden Boy Promotions CEO…
‘Napoleon Dynamite’ Co-writer Takes a Trip to ‘Austenland’
Infuse Joe Wright’s glossyPride and Prejudice with the fondant-colored, overdone costume design of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, then add the absolute absurdity of Jerusha Hess (co-writer of Napoleon Dynamite), and the resultant concoction is Hess’ latest: Austenland, based on the novel by Shannon Hale. Keri Russell plays Jane Hayes, an obsessive Austen fan who, upon…
10 Free Events Happening This Week: 9/10 – 9/15
1.) Alice Leora Briggs & Rigoberto A. Gonzalez gallery shows Tuesday, Sept. 10- Sunday, Nov. 10 5 p.m.- 8 p.m. Alice Leora Briggs, a resident of Lubbock, visited the city of Juarez to see it’s asylums, rehabilitation centers, and cartel death houses looking to observe human behavior. She…
Bar Louie Hosts Sixth Annual Tater Tot Eating Contest
That’s a lot of tots. (Courtesy) Bar Louie (22610 U.S. Highway 281 N, 15900 La Cantera Parkway), aims to set a world record for most tater tots eaten simultaneously during their sixth annual “Rock the Tot” tater tot eating contest 8 p.m. Sept. 19 at all Bar Lou locations nationwide. This is when a juice…
The Evolution of Tegan and Sara: A Video Recap
In anticipation of Tegan and Sara’s visit to the Alamo city this Saturday at Sunset Station, we’ve assembled five videos to get you ready. This isn’t so much a “best of” but more of a chronicle of the twin’s evolution to current ‘Heartthrob’ status. “Living Room” is one of the girls’ first videos from their…
Arcade Joins James Beard Challenge
San Antonio’s Jesse Perez, will compete in JBF’s Taste America: (Courtesy) Arcade Midtown Kitchen, 303 Pearly Parkway Suite 111, is partnering with the James Beard Foundation’s Taste America Local Dish Challenge. Diners can support the dish challenge by visiting a a participating restaurant from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, order a Taste America Local Dish,…
San Antonio Cocktail Conference Releases Events Schedule
Drinking for a cause. (Courtesy) I know I’ve already penciled in next January’s booze-a-thon with a cause, AKA the San Antonio Cocktail Conference, but now the organization has released a new partner charity. Along with helping provide life-saving heart surgeries for tots through HeartGift San Antonio, proceeds from the SACC will benefit San Antonio’s ChildSafe,…
New Non-Profit Looking to Help Texas Abortion Clinics Stay Afloat
Abortion access in Texas has actually become a charity case. With the majority of clinics in the state expected to close as a result of Texas’ sweeping recently passed anti-abortion law, reproductive health leaders are scrambling to find ways to comply with the onerous restrictions– and one newly formed non-profit is promising much-needed help. A new…
International Accordion Festival: the full schedule
The Schedule SATURDAY 1pm Harmonouche 2:30pm Petrojvic Blasting Company 4pm Los Nahuatlatos 5:30pm Riyaaz Qawwali 7pm Pistolera 8:30pm Radhames Rodríguez SUNDAY 1pm Moona Luna 2:30pm Mazel Tov Kocktail Hour 4pm Harmonouche 5:30pm Petrojvic Blasting Company 7pm Step Rideau & The Zydeco Outlaws 8:30pm Chicha Libre WORKSHOPS All workshops are free at the Juarez Plaza stage.…
Sweet Toof: Celebrate Bakery Lorraine’s 1st B-day with Plum Upside-down Cake Recipe
It was just under a year ago that Bakery Lorraine first opened its doors inside a small remodeled home just off Broadway. Owners Jeremy Mandrell and Anne Ng had already amassed a fiercely loyal following at the Quarry Farmers and Ranchers Market on Sundays in late 2011, but the brick and mortar location meant their…
Warehouse Woes: Amazon and the new “middle class”
For a month now, thousands of workers have been applying to work at a new Amazon warehouse in Schertz. The City of Schertz paid $7.6 million in subsidies to the mega-corporation in order to secure the 1.26 million-square-foot warehouse that will bring “good job[s] in a durable, growing industry” according to a recent speech from…
Sharkey's: A place for ghost stories, cheap beer and chicharrones
The booming crack of shotguns surrounds us and echoes across the near-empty maize field but for the half-dozen dusty hunters waiting for the piteousness of doves to circle back overhead from beyond the protective ridgeline of oaks. One silver-haired hunter greets us, raises his shotgun over our heads and takes his shot. We duck just…
Grass-fed Beef and Bolsas From Rancho Ojo de Agua
Do you know where your meat comes from? Where it lived, what it ate or who took care of it? Customers of El Rancho Ojo de Agua can answer all those questions with a resounding yes. El Rancho Ojo de Agua has been in purveyor Susana Canseco’s family for six generations. In 1970, Susana’s father…
The International Accordion Festival is Back, Hoping for Sunshine
After two consecutive years of rain caused financial losses and forced the cancellation of the 2012 edition, the International Accordion Festival returns for the 12th time this weekend at La Villita. The weather forecast? Looking good so far. “I go by the [Old] Farmer’s Almanac, believe it or not,” Gwen Rivera, the festival’s production coordinator,…
Bottle & Tap: Beer laws signed into effect…now what?
It’s finally official—On June 14, Governor Rick Perry put his signature on the 83rd Legislature’s package of bills designed to reform and stimulate the craft beer industry in Texas. Senate Bills 515, 516, 517 and 518 became law immediately upon the ink drying. Consensus seems to be that brewpubs (restaurants or bars that brew their…
Savage Love: Sheathe That Thing
I’m a Savage Lovecast listener, but I’m sending this question to your column because my boyfriend would FOR SURE recognize my voice if I called the show. I’m 25, I live in Portland, and my boyfriend and I have been monogamous for five years. His dick is of average size. It’s not small enough for…
Industry News: Original Taco C gets a facelift, fancy new Mexican dishes at NAO and La Fogata
Taco Cabana (multiple locations) is celebrating 35 years of low-cost Tex-Mex by renovating the original Monte Vista location to look like it did when it opened in 1978. The renovation started in late August and will end with a grand re-opening on September 21. Bean and cheese tacos will be 35 cents at all TCs…
Bill Burr Will Probably Make You Uncomfortable
To AMC addicts, Bill Burr might be best known as the henchman Kuby, a recurring character on Breaking Bad. To many comedy fans and comics, Burr is a living legend, one of comedy’s most fearless and effective truth-tellers in the Bruce/Carlin/Pryor/Hicks tradition. Like his late friend Patrice O’Neal, Burr seems to accept a priori that…
Chicha Libre: psychedelic cumbia at the International Accordion Festival
The International Accordion Festival has never been this psychedelic: Chicha Libre, a Brooklyn-based band of musicians from France, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico, will debut in San Antonio on Sunday and could be the highlight of the festival. “Chicha Libre is a lot of fun,” said Cathy Ragland, the festival’s curator. “They’re a great group but…
Culinary Calendar Sept. 11-17
Saturday, Sept 14: Grab some chocolate, some Laffy Taffy or some oompa loompas and head down to HemisFair Park for a Slab Cinema’s screening of 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, sponsored by Target. Free, sundown, 200 S Alamo, (210) 212-9373, slabcinema.com. Sunday, Sept 15: Imagine a world where you knew how to cook…
Tegan and Sara Ride Their Momentum to SA
This is turning out to be a monumental year for Tegan and Sara. If they aren’t already on your radar, we dare you to take one listen to Heartthrob and not love it. In their first true venture into the pop world (notwithstanding previous EDM collaborations with David Guetta, Tiesto and Morgan Page), the twins…
State Jail Rehab Allegedly Tried to Pass Mentally Ill Inmates as Addicts
After months of frustration, Melissa Cantu felt pushed to her ethical brink. A therapist for more than 10 years, Cantu’s most recent job as a state contracted substance abuse counselor for a rehabilitation program at Dominguez State Jail left her torn and scared for not only herself but the inmates she was tasked with aiding.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart,” wrote Chuck Palahniuk in his book Stranger Than Fiction. From what I can tell, Aries, the sequence is the reverse for you. In your story, the disruption has already happened. Next comes the part where you laugh.…
Questions for Franco Mondini-Ruiz: An interview by artist Gary Sweeney
GALLERY: The Artwork of Franco Mondini-Ruiz Ten minutes into my conversation with San Antonio art star Franco Mondini-Ruiz, it became obvious that my little one-page interview in the Current would not be able to hold Franco’s oversized personality. The story of how his parents met could be an entire article in itself. During our two-hour…
Value Vino: Comeback for fizzy Italian wines
What was it about the ’70s? Richard Nixon, bell-bottom pants, Hamburger Helper…need we say more? Oh, sure—why not: “Riunite on ice….that’s nice!” also springs to mind. In the 1970s and ’80s, Banfi Vintners aggressively peddled a sweet and fizzy, soda-pop style wine made from the lambrusco grape in Italy’s Emilio-Romagna region, and in the process…
Motherlovers Dominate Tawdry Flick ‘Adore’
Roz (Robin Wright) and Lil (Naomi Watts) are lifelong best friends who seem to idle away most of their days bikini-clad, wandering back and forth between their adjacent Australian beach houses, sipping white wine and lounging in the sand while admiring the glorious sea, the sun and each other. Lithe, statuesque blondes, they are near-mirror…
Festival People En Español: The Good, The Bad, and The Feo
The second annual Festival People En Español, which took place August 31 and September 1 at the Alamodome, extended its line of credit here at least for another year. Here’s my quick take on what worked, what didn’t and what we could have gone without. The Good: The crowd was considerably larger than in 2012.…
Quarry Farmers & Ranchers Market Adds Two New Vendors
Garra de Oso from La Panaderia. (Courtesy) My favorite thing to do as of late is to eat breakfast at the market. I’m guessing I’m not alone since the Quarry Farmers & Ranchers Market is adding a pair of vendors that will carry ready-to-eat grub. Needless to say, I’m pumped. The new vendors are La…
Bud Light’s Taste of the River Walk Kicks Off Tonight
Chefs fire up the grill at last year’s Taste of the River Walk. Paseo Del Rio’s Taste of the Riverwalk is still going strong regardless of today’s rain. The three day event will kick-off with tonight’s Taste of Houston Street, 5-6:30 p.m. at the Majestic Theater. Participating restaurant’s for Tuesday’s event include Luke, Barron’s at…
Janelle Monáe ‘Dances Apocalyptic’ All Over Letterman’s Desk
In celebration of the release of Janelle Monáe’s new album Electric Lady she delivered a smashing performance of “Dance Apocalyptic” on the Late Show with David Letterman last night. Monáe looked like a woman possessed by James Brown dancing across the stage and on top of Letterman’s desk, leaving Letterman so impressed he called her,…
De La Hoya Back in Rehab, Won’t Be at Mayweather-Canelo
Former Olympic and 10-time world boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya, a promoter in the September 14 Floyd Mayweather-Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez fight, announced today he admitted himself to an undisclosed alcohol and drugs facility. “Canelo Alvarez and I have big fights coming up this weekend,” De La Hoya said in a statement. “His is in…
Analog is Not Dead #5: Marcus Rubio?, Lonely Horse?, Street Wandering and Encounters with Wild Dogs
Analog is Not Dead #5 Instagram walks, Amaze EP release at Renewable Republic, neighborhood wandering, Sputnik Jazz Trio at 502 Bar’s Jazz Tuesday, Grand Marais, Slomo Drags, and Marcus Rubio at 502 Bar CLICK ON PHOTOS TO SEE LARGER VIEW Hi again, so this is post number five. I recently went to the Renewable Republic because…
Jimmy Kimmel, King of the Trolls: Host Reveals ‘Twerk Fail’ Hoax
If you are a person who uses the internet, chances are you watched or are at least aware of the Youtube video “Worst Twerk Fail EVER,” which went uber viral last week (9 million views and counting). Well, guess what you guys? We’ve all been trolled. Hard. On tonight’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” the…
