West Ave. Kitchen lays it on thick
Release Date: 2007-09-12 It’s with a sinking feeling of “What do they know that I don’t?” that one walks into an empty restaurant. Granted, we arrived at West Avenue Kitchen on one of those recent really rainy nights — streets awash, that sort of thing. But people still have to eat. We had our choice…
The Reverend Horton Heat w. One Last Shot
Release Date: 2007-09-12 The Rev’s legendary, ass kickin’, fit-causin’ throwdown of a live show is coming your way yet again. The three-piece psychobilly band from the warehouse district of Dallas is known for outlandish antics, blistering stage performances, and some renowned staying power. Their sound is self-described as country-fed punkabilly, the music an eclectic mix…
Jeff Dunham And His Suitcase Posse
Release Date: 2007-09-12 Jeff Dunham never travels alone — he’s put some new faces on 21-st century comedy with his fast-talking, socially reckless “Suitcase Posse.” They hit the road to promote Spark of Insanity, which will air on Comedy Central beginning September 16. Dunham’s last CC airing, Arguing With Myself, was one of the network’s…
The Rentals, Copeland, & Goldenboy
Release Date: 2007-09-12 This time it’s a real return of The Rentals, as the group just released their first new material in over eight years, backed by a massive U.S. tour. “The Last Life” EP was created while the band was writing new songs for their highly-anticipated third full-length expected early ’08. Joining them on…
Dr. Dog w. The Dimes & Hawks of Holy Rosary
Release Date: 2007-09-12 The Philly-based psychedelic-pop band makes its first San Antonio stop a day before an ACL afterparty with The White Stripes and the Cold War Kids. The group has gained the admiration of big-name artists in addition to praise from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and other music pubs. Tinged with a ’70s AM rock…
One Minute to Midnight w. Steve Bassel and T.J. Dolotina
Release Date: 2007-09-12 One Minute to Midnight takes the oak-grove stage of the Cibolo Nature Center for dance night, joined by Steve Bassel and T.J. Dolotina. The eclectic mix of big-band music complements the dance floor set under the trees, and includes jazz, ’60s soul, and contemporary rock ’n’ roll. Come early and bring food…
The Business of Being Born
Release Date: 2007-09-12 UTSA’s Euro film fest screens at the mighty Palladium, comprising cinema from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. Over 40 screenings feature 18 recent films and two documentaries, the films shown in their native languages with English subtitles. Two open-discussion sessions round out the bill. Schedule and synopses at Europeanfilmfestival.org. Free, 10am-10pm…
Hannah Montana 3D Movie
Release Date: 2007-09-12 UTSA’s Euro film fest screens at the mighty Palladium, comprising cinema from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. Over 40 screenings feature 18 recent films and two documentaries, the films shown in their native languages with English subtitles. Two open-discussion sessions round out the bill. Schedule and synopses at Europeanfilmfestival.org. Free, 10am-10pm…
Hannah Montana 3D Movie
Release Date: 2007-09-12 UTSA’s Euro film fest screens at the mighty Palladium, comprising cinema from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. Over 40 screenings feature 18 recent films and two documentaries, the films shown in their native languages with English subtitles. Two open-discussion sessions round out the bill. Schedule and synopses at Europeanfilmfestival.org. Free, 10am-10pm…
A simple ‘Doubt’ yields complicated lessons.
John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt is a slim play with a large concept. Actually, it’s not even called a play, it’s called a “parable” and this is not just a matter of semantics. As a play, Doubt seems to be lacking something (although it’s not lacking a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award) but it is…
The making of a mobster
In 2005, director David Cronenberg — probably best known as the horror master behind Shivers and The Fly, but more recently, helmer of existential fare like Crash and eXistenZ — teamed up with Viggo Mortensen for A History of Violence. The result was the eccentric Cronenberg’s first mainstream hit in more than a decade and…
Pat Neff, the Autocrat of Waco
Many illustrious Americans have served as state governors — Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, Benjamin Franklin in Pennsylvania, Franklin Roosevelt in New York, Adlai Stevenson in Illinois, Robert La Follette in Wisconsin. However, except for Sam Houston, a national pantheon of governors would likely slight Texas; constitutional constraints in this state limit accomplishment, and the political…
CRITICAL DARLING
Critical Darling understands, you’re heaving with desire to know what Ashton Kutcher has writ in Harper’s Bazaar this month, but somehow you never thought to subscribe to that journalistic stronghold. Let me save you the trouble (and the moula) of buying Bazaar off the rack: According to Kutcher (pfft, never thought I’d say that), men…
Straight Shooter
Seems a little too early to get all Halloweeny up in this piece (“piece” meaning the comic book industry) but several recent quality — or at least interesting — horror-esque minis are launching. I’m not complaining, though, nor am I going to wax all psychological/political about it. I’ll just do a set of reviews and…
A cock and ball story
There are few actors as obnoxious and yet likeable as Seann William Scott, who somehow manages to make you want to beat his face to a wet, meaty pulp with an aluminum bat while simultaneously you desire nothing more than to buy him a drink and call him your new best friend. This quality is,…
Dear Uncle Mat
My neighbor’s dog consistently deposits its waste in my yard, and my neighbor attempts neither to prevent nor clean up this mess. I posted one of those no-dog-defecation signs with the picture and this has had no effect. I can’t afford a fence and it seems rude and unwelcoming anyway. What should I do? —…
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Whoa, talk about Lord of the Geeks. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, is a difficult movie for even the on-the-fence, black-framed-glasses-wearing, but-I-watch-Heroes nerd to penetrate. However, once you, poser-art-nerd, and you, normal person, are sucked into the film, over the threshold into full-fledged, speech-impedimented, retired-at-30 Nerddom, there’s no turning back. You’ll like…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Metaphorically speaking, I foresee glacier ice melting and molten rock flowing in your immediate future, Aries. I expect that hard solids will become fluid; permanent fixtures will be in flux. This is a good thing, believe me. Though it may unnerve you at first, you will have the power to change…
2 Days in Paris
Doing everything oneself isn’t generally advisable, but it is often understandable. For a long time I cut my own hair so that if my bangs were too short I could only blame myself. My “Friends-cut” became a pixie in a brief period. I don’t know who styled Julie Delpy’s hair for 2 Days in Paris,…
West Ave. Kitchen lays it on thick
It’s with a sinking feeling of “What do they know that I don’t?” that one walks into an empty restaurant. Granted, we arrived at West Avenue Kitchen on one of those recent really rainy nights — streets awash, that sort of thing. But people still have to eat. We had our choice of any seat…
Armchair Cinephile
PICK OF THE WEEK:A very classics-aware, hardcore gangster epic from new-action master Johnny To. Less interested in milking the viewer’s sympathies than his predecessors were, To barely hints at where his own sympathies lie — and rarely suggests he wants you to enjoy the brutality. On the other end of the Hong Kong spectrum, John…
Amuse-Bouche
“Comanche Lookout Park is my favorite park,” begins one of the essays in the very limited edition book San Antonio’s Favorite Parks: Memories of Much Loved Parks, Shared by San Antonio Starbucks Customers. “Me and my family love to take our dog for walks.” The essay is being read to me over the phone by…
Till the bonkers end
Prison Break (Fox, Monday, 8 p.m.) Speaking as broadly as possible, there are two kinds of TV dramas: shows with plots and shows with a Plot. The former usually revolve around characters going about their lives. Things happen to them. Some of those things lead to other things, which develop across several episodes. These things…
Ask the Chef
Hello Flash, Last year you published a recipe for oven-roasted tomato sauce. I made it with my homegrown tomatoes and it was the best sauce I have ever tasted. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the recipe. Could you send it my way? Thanks for all your food and garden wisdom. — Karen Dear Karen, It…
Mashup
It seems hardly a day goes by that we don’t get a fax or email from local civil-rights attorney James Myart: An off-duty police officer has beaten a woman at a community pool. Cops have tasered a developmentally disabled young man. There are virtually no blacks in positions of power in the City’s legal and…
Loire Valley whites
Like many of the world’s wine-growing regions, France’s Loire Valley has experienced rising temperatures and riper harvests in the last several years. The result, especially among signature sauvignon blancs, is that formerly lean and racy wines have taken on fleshier qualities. And while this may confuse critics and consumers alike, it’s a trend we might…
Revealing Briefs
NUEVO LEÓN, Mexico — World Net Daily, an internet news source, reported Monday that official Mexican government reports reveal that country has entered into discussions with top Texas and Bush administration officials concerning the extension of the controversial, multi-billion-dollar Trans-Texas Corridor into Mexico to connect Monterrey to the deep-water ports on that country’s Pacific coast.…
Back in residence
That you’re even reading this article about the Rentals is a trick of fate to hear former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp tell it. After two terrific albums blending New Wave and power pop bolstered by dulcet duet vocals and harmonies, Sharp went off to make a solo album, and got lost in the rabbit hole.…
In sprawl’s shadow
BLANCO COUNTY — “It really frosts my cookies,” the spirited German grandmother says as she wheels the pickup toward a grove of milkweed. “They are doing things that are against nature – actually.” Past the 1850-circa barn, through a field of summer flowers and a stand of mature juniper, Shirley Beck is navigating along ruts…
On the Street
(Disclaimer: The relationship between what follows and truth is tangential. Read at your own risk.) First Wednesday A friend invited me to a showing of Anastacia Uriega’s photographs at the downtown SoHo lounge. We showed up late due to a deadline at work but there were plenty of people still around swimming in the free…
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
Druggist, one of SA’s most talented underground-pop bands, is on the road this week, building a case for its new sophomore release, There’s Already an Everything. A followup to last year’s addictive Early Michael Keaton, the new disc finds the pharmaceutical lads in radically altered form. After the band’s bassist and drummer quit in April…
The Que Que
So the pack of smokes didn’t exactly fall into your pocket on their ownsome, and you were jogging across the street from mid-block, and maybe Against Me! in your earbuds did make it kind of hard to hear Johnny Law roll up on you with a firmly worded “Halt” – but there was no mistaking…
Too gay for Joe Blue’s?
Arevalo The MySpace bulletin boards are abuzz today with word that artist Marc Arevalo’s FotoSeptiembre exhibit at Joe Blue’s, a bar in the Blue Star Arts Complex, was cancelled because owner Joey Villarreal objected to the content of the photographs. Arevalo said Villarreal told him that he was afraid the images, some of which feature…
Take it to the Limits
It’s time again for Austin’s other music festival. Not the one that’s held at night and indoors, during the briefly temperate spring, but the one that plants music lovers in an open field, all day, under the still-hot September sun. So far, the Austin City Limits festival has not failed to book acts that merit…
Tear down that wall
I sat down with former President Jimmy Carter last week at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The Center was hosting a conference of human-rights defenders, people at the front lines confronting repressive regimes around the globe. After a quarter-century of humanitarian work through the Carter Center, monitoring elections, working to eradicate neglected tropical diseases and…
Playback
“It’s gonna get ugly.” That’s what Pharrell Williams predicted during the pre-show for MTV’s Video Music Awards, and we might as well call him Nostradamus. Five minutes after Williams’s announcement, Britney Spears looked straight into the camera and mumbled, “If you’re looking for trouble, you’ve come to the right place.” It was an obvious homage…
Spittin’ Game
Good news for Wii fans: If you don’t feel like playing as Tiger Woods y’all, the famous EA Gameface option is intact on the Wii port, which allows you to make a freakishly realistic-looking, playable version of yourself. The bad news: All those options don’t seem so cool when you’re struggling through the screens with…
Growing ballet in the barrio
If it’s up to Christopher Fairbank, ballet folklorico won’t be the first ballet that comes to mind in San Antonio. On September 15, Fairbank and his Tri-Coastal Ballet Company will host An Evening of Elegance at the Carver Community Cultural Center. Tri-Coastal is a new ballet troupe created by Fairbank to reach out to underprivileged…
Aural Pleasure
The H!X are a good example of what happens when baby boomers go nuts. If Claude “Butch” Morgan and his band of rootsy pranksters were in their teens, their healthy absurdist streak would manifest itself in loud, fast, aggressive dissonance and maybe a bit of onstage auto-destruction. But while they’re more than a little bent,…
Last Words
The Bill of Right
Artifacts
NSIDE Magazine’s Mario Ochoa is sympathetic to the disconnect between talent and opportunity that can frustrate young artists’ efforts to join the Creative Class. So he and Amanda Reyes are launching a monthly solution that adapts a time-honored business lubricant to the arts: the mixer. The first Saturday Exchange will be held from 1-3 p.m.…
Ask A Mexican
I am addressing this to both ¡Ask a Mexican! and “Savage Love” hoping one of you will have an answer to this: Why do Mexican chicks yell for their papi during sex? — Daddy del Diablo Dear Readers: Daddy del Diablo sent the above query to both the Mexican and Dan Savage, author of the…
On the Street
(Disclaimer: The relationship between what follows and truth is tangential. Read at your own risk.) First Wednesday A friend invited me to a showing of Anastacia Uriega’s photographs at the downtown SoHo lounge. We showed up late due to a deadline at work but there were plenty of people still around swimming in the free lemon…
Freeze frame
The almost-universal appeal of photography rests on its competing promises of documentation and subterfuge, and this year’s Fotoseptiembre shows exploit and explore these traits, with the occasional foray into more formal academic concerns. In the latter category, Blue Star’s mostly excellent Photoplus, curated by Lilly Wei, presents two sets of abstract “paintings” by Gwenn Thomas.…
Clothes-Minded
Work quickly to catch a San Antonio fashion favorite supporting a worthy cause — a few seats are still available for the September 19 fundraising luncheon for Any Baby Can, featuring a fashion show by Julian Gold. Any Baby Can, celebrating its 25th anniversary, offers resources and support to thousands of children and families in…
Too gay for Joe Blue’s?
Arevalo The MySpace bulletin boards are abuzz today with word that artist Marc Arevalo’s FotoSeptiembre exhibit at Joe Blue’s, a bar in the Blue Star Arts Complex, was cancelled because owner Joey Villarreal objected to the content of the photographs. Arevalo said Villarreal told him that he was afraid the images, some of which feature…
