Cantinflas Retro: Revisiting Mexico’s King of Comedy
For a whole month, the San Antonio Public Library, the SA Public Library Foundation, and KLRN are presenting Cantinflas Retro: A Mario Moreno Centennial Retrospective, an exhibition of photographs and some of the films starred by Mario Moreno “Cantinflas” (1911-1993), the great Mexican comic. Did Charles Chaplin actually said “Cantinflas is the greatest comedian alive!”…
Pick of the Day: “IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas”
“IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas” explores policy, community, creative resistance, and lifeways as they relate to people of dual African American and Native American ancestry. Produced by the National Museum of the American Indian in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service…
Blackbird Sing at 502 Bar, 9/14/12 (video and review)
Blackbird Sing 502 Bar Fri, Sep 14 Blackbird Sing, one of our city’s most promising outfits, took the stage just after 11pm Friday at a packed 502 Bar. The group’s first performance at the venue was also significant in that it’s the first time the band has shared some of the tracks from their upcoming…
‘Samsara’: The 70mm reincarnation movie
Here is a sublime film with no story, no dialogue and no characters. Flowing with ethereal beauty and heavy platitude, in Samsara (made by the creators of Baraka, the 1992 transcendental globetrotting epic) the star is again a Panavision 70mm camera with its striking luminosity. With National Geographic-like portraits spanning six continents, Samsara delivers a…
Pick of the Day: KZEP Zeptember Classic Rock Art Show & Sale
Blurring the lines between record convention and art exhibit, the Zeptember Classic Rock Art Show & Sale imports an archive of rock ephemera to Wonderland for a nostalgia trip that presents rock stars as both subjects and visual artists. Presented by KZEP, the expo counts a prized Led Zeppelin photo collection among 250 components including…
Actor Lou Diamond Phillips on ‘Sanitarium,’ conspiracy theories and the 25th anniversary of ‘La Bamba’
Actor Lou Diamond Phillips on the set of “Sanitarium” in downtown San Antonio. In San Antonio last week to shoot his segment for the thriller Sanitarium, actor Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba, Stand and Deliver) took some time to sit down with the Current and talk about the new film anthology. Directed and written by…
Pick of the Day: Boyfrndz
Scott Martin, Joseph Raines, and Aaron Perez call Austin home, and they sound like it: the swirling, tense washes of guitar and crashing polyrhythmic drums on their upcoming album, All Day Pass (out Sep. 11 digitally and Sep. 25 on CD/vinyl), have the indie-rock goods often on display in the beer halls and bars of…
San Antonio’s Shadowy Hat Man Spooks Residents
Just recently I interviewed a local woman named Stacy Alejos who related an extremely creepy and disturbing tale to me. According to Stacy, when she was a very young girl living on the far Westside of San Antonio, she was awoken one night by an uncomfortable sensation and felt eerily compelled to look out her…
Pick of the Day: Otep
“Art Saves” is a mantra for Otep Shamaya. When the Los Angeles-based artist/activist/vegetarian/lesbian decided to channel her deepest thoughts and aggressions into a musical project, she turned to her journals and illustrations. In less than a year, her “artcore” outfit Otep had generated major label interest and a spot at Ozzfest based on live performances…
Pick of the Day: Fotoseptiembre: Ansen Seale: “China In Motion”
Ansen Seale is a Valley kid who did good in the big city, but the McAllen-born photographer had an edge when he entered Trinity University three decades ago. His father is Dr. Carl Seale, a composer and now past-director of the Valley Symphony. His mother, Jan Epton Seale, is a much-published writer and the 2012…
Guess who’s talking at TEDx San Antonio?
TEDx San Antonio is just around the corner. On October 13, 2012 at Trinity University’s Jane and Arthur Stieren Theatre, twenty-one bold, passionate speakers will be sharing their ideas–opening minds and creating discussion. If you’ve been waiting to learn who the speakers are before filling out your TEDx San Antonio attendee application—wait no longer. The…
LocoCycle: An Interview with Jay Stuckwisch from Twisted Pixel
First, it was about an alien named Frank and his weird, amorphous creature-buddy called the Maw. Then it was about an escaped science experiment who could make himself explode over and over again. From comic-jumping heroes to resurrected gun-fighters looking for revenge on the posse that killed him, the minds at Twisted Pixel have made…
New York Designer Celebrates Anniversary and Continues to Reflect Her Texas Roots
Fashion Designer Marisol Deluna “Shh I am in SA!” read the subject line of Marisol Deluna’s email. I’d been trying to pin down the San Antonio native turned New Yorker since the Marisol Deluna New York 15th anniversary fashion show at Manhattan’s General Society Library last spring. After viewing Getty images and celebrity photographer Patrick…
Pick of the Day: Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America
In his book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, award-winning ¡Ask a Mexican! columnist and author Gustavo Arellano combines cultural criticism and personal anecdotes to put an array of interrelated topics in a historical context. Spanning from Mexico’s early gifts – including chocolate and vanilla – to worldwide cuisine to SA’s own chili queens and Taco Bell’s Doritos…
A Triad of Intangible Territories
Unless dealing with outright metaphysics, much nonfiction is mere map-making, stencil patterns, or instruction. And it really has something to do with the approach: how much song is given to each subject. Here are three books by three lyrical masters that deal with such inaccessibles as the loss of one’s land, the loss of a father, and…
'Wild Horse, Wild Ride' misses chance to examine deeper Mustang story
Before the dust settles, debut filmmakers Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus need to pitch their documentary Wild Horse, Wild Ride as a reality TV series to CMT. In a format like that, the stories behind the herds of wild Mustangs tamed each year so they can participate in a Texas riding competition, could be very…
Newsmonger: Symphony woes, Eagle Ford reserves questioned, Money laundering probe
Symphony woes As classic music lovers anticipate the October 5 season opener featuring works by Russian masters Rachmaninoff and Rimsky-Korsakov, a contract offer has finally been tended to the musicians of the San Antonio Symphony. But all is still not well in the musical trenches. After failing to sign a contract for the 2011-2012 season,…
Cat Power: 'Sun'
There are a few things we’ve come to expect from Cat Power, indie rock’s most reliably miserablist singer-songwriter this side of Elliott Smith. Suffice to say, when she caps her new electro-pop album with an 11-minute "I Wanna Live!" mantra ("Nothin’ But Time") it’s pretty goddamn shocking. But that’s Sun, singer Chan Marshall’s ninth full-length…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You will never be able to actually gaze upon your own face. You may of course see a reasonable likeness of it in mirrors, photos, and videos. But the real thing will always be forever visible to everyone else, but not you. I think that’s an apt symbol for how hard…
Los Super Seven are back, and they start here
I see nothing wrong with the word "supergroup" (a band with its members being well-established soloists or coming from other, well-established bands), and that’s exactly what Los Super Seven are. The only thing they are not is, precisely, seven, but many more. The band’s 1998 Mexican-American-flavored self-titled debut included members of Los Lobos, Flaco Jiménez,…
'Secret ingredients' deliver a strong showing at China Bistro
M J China Bistro seems to be doing everything it reasonably can not to appear too Chinese. The color scheme is subdued — no reds and blacks, no gold accents. Painted screens have given way to illuminated alabaster slabs and spiky "forests" of stripped bamboo. There’s not a paper globe in sight — and certainly…
Adad Hannah encounters our intimate city
Though many art works declaim loudly about the acts of perception, Canadian photographer Adad Hannah’s exhibition sited within the small gallery just beyond the museum gift shop in the San Antonio Museum of Art whispers quietly. A cursory glance at the pieces representing four bodies of work might easily leave one with the impression of…
A cheater's guide to love
Despite all the TV jokes about New Jersey, it has long been the bedrock for our best writers — from Dorothy Parker and Philip Roth to William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg — and don’t forget the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. Now add Junot Díaz to that illustrious list. If you know Díaz’s previous literary work…
J.J. Abrams' 'Revolution'
Revolution (9pm Mon, NBC) J.J. Abrams’ series plunges you into an alternate reality. Ben (Tim Guinee) hurries home to tell his wife (Elizabeth Mitchell), “It’s happening.” And then “it” abruptly happens. The electricity shuts off all around the world. We see stunning images of lights going out down a highway, then all around the Earth.…
Keith Morris' mission: get rid of bands that suck
Nearly 34 years after the release of Black Flag’s definitive hardcore EP Nervous Breakdown, frontman Keith Morris is still churning out raw, incendiary music. Following his tenure with Black Flag and Circle Jerks, Morris teamed up with Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Steven Shane McDonald (Redd Kross), and Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket from the Crypt) to form…
Don Pasquale at The Josephine
The show began with a chair squeak. High pitched and quickly echoed throughout the intimate Josephine Theatre, it served as starting gun for an equally high pitched performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s comic opera masterpiece, Don Pasquale. The culprit? An anxious member of the orchestra, directed by maestro Kristin Roach, settling in for two and a…
Animal Collective: 'Centipede Hz'
Fierce and fiery, alien and nostalgic in one gasp, Animal Collective’s ninth album is an amalgamation of the most gratifying idiosyncrasies and musical themes from throughout their exceptional catalog. Though every bit as listenable as the group’s 2009 masterpiece Merriweather Post Pavilion, Centipede Hz veers somewhat from that record’s focus on distinct grooves and delightfully-layered…
Shawarma, puh-lease: Athens Greek Xpress & Catering
In the block of South Flores opposite the Justice Center, and just down the street from City Hall — evident of the food on offer — can be read the reasons for the low esteem in which politics and politicians in general are held by the public these days. The dark-looking Roosevelt Buffet (established 1938),…
Southtown 101: New kid on the Southtown block attracts pro talent
Southtown has developed into a conglomeration of a lot of things deliciously hip, (think the Monterey and Feast) a few things urbanely cool (1919 comes to mind) and a little bit of things in between such as the aptly named bar, Southtown 101. Connecting the residents of the King William Historic District with the likes…
Matchbox 20: 'North'
I’ll make this as quick and painless as possible. First of all, Matchbox 20 still exists (yes, the “push you around” guys). Secondly, they have a new record and this is a review of that record. North, the group’s first full album in more than 10 years, is less of an album than a manufactured…
Deerhoof: 'Breakup Song'
Deerhoof has always felt like the little band that could: a bit too eccentric to reach wide notice, but charming enough in their weirdness to stay on the radar. Both in its relentless sonic attack and penchant for lean run times (11 tracks in a half-hour flat), there is a familiar fuck-all attitude at the…
Whole Foods opens second SA store
Though Whole Foods is headquartered in nearby Austin, southern neighbor San Antonio has long had only one store. There’s finally going to be a second location, opening on Tuesday, September 17. Located at the Vineyard Shopping Center on Blanco and 1604, the store will have the standbys Whole Foods is known for — local and…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: Is it just me, or has what to call our friends from south of the border become a partisan issue? While taking in both political conventions over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that Republicans invariably use the word "Hispanics" while Democrats are far more likely to say "Latino/a." What gives? Is…
Original Blues Brother still baring his soul
Sam’s Burger Joint may have likenesses of The Blues Brothers overlooking its stage, but soon the sculptures will be overshadowed by the man who influenced the famous duo. "I was John Belushi’s muse," said soul man Curtis Salgado, 58. "He pretty much absorbed whatever I gave him." The blues harmonica-playing vocalist-songwriter isn’t shy about the…
Blackbird Sing previews upcoming debut album
San Antonio’s Blackbird Sing — winner of Shiner Music’s Rising Star competition in 2011 — play a hybrid best described as crunchy country or fuck-yeah folk. It’s lyrical and stone-faced Americana done Texas-rough and San Anto-haughty and (so far) it’s been good enough to earn them a solid reputation even without a proper album out…
Should the Gong Shorts Film Competition be gonged out?
The Gong Shorts is the film industry’s version of a high school student council election: those with the most friends, the coolest title, and the thickest (blemish-free) skin win. San Antonio-based writer Kimberly Suta was inspired to start the film festival in 2011 after a visit to Tucson’s rowdy First Friday Shorts. The challenge, if…
Pick of the Day: Cinema Tuesdays: The Sting
Texas Public Radio’s twelfth annual Cinema Tuesdays series concludes with George Roy Hill’s 1973 caper The Sting, starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Robert Shaw. It’s 1936 in Chicago and Henry Gondoroff (Newman as an experienced con artist) and Johnny Hooker (Redford as an enthusiastic small-time swindler) combine minds to cultivate the “Big Con” to…
