Review: Gilberto Santa Rosa at Club Rio
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Dear Gilberto Santa Rosa: You are forgiven. No, my mind wasn’t blown away as it was when I first heard Willie Colón/Rubén Blades’ Siembra, or when I saw the Afro Cuban All Stars in LA, or when Celia and the Fania All Stars rumbled in the jungle. But the Puerto Rican…
U: Father Frank urges caution on new uranium mining, nuclear
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Father Frank heard the call of the Church after spending a year working at a chemical plant in coal-rich Silesia, Poland. It could have been worse. He tells me of another priest he knows who heard it only after staring at a mule’s ass year after year as he plowed his fields.…
U: Toxic legacy of South Texas uranium mining
One of 32 abandoned uranium mines on private ranches across South Texas. The hill to the right is a pile of uranium mine tailings. Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com “Prepare to meet thy God,” reads the small black-and-white sign in the yard at the end of this dusty county road in Karnes County. I’m looking for a…
Live & Local preview: Blood of Our Enemies
I’ll be playing the role of “innocent bystander” tonight (Friday, September 4th) at the White Rabbit when all hell breaks loose for the 3rd Annual Rick Sciaraffa Birthday Scholarship Show, to catch local metal act Blood of Our Enemies. The lineup looks pretty intense with Brotherhood, one of San Antonio’s “must-see local bands,” headlining. If…
From the department of “90% of life is showing up”.
I’m doing something unusual here, and posting pretty much a whole press release. You wouldn’t believe how many press releases I get. Some of them are very weird. Almost none are well-written. Some have joegs of kittens and shit attached. Anyway, here’s another call for entries for local artists, this one from the San Antonio…
BREAKING: Being President not a big deal
If there’s one lesson that students take away from Tuesday’s planned Presidential address to the nation’s school kids, it may be that you don’t have to listen to anyone that your parents disagree with — even if they’re the President of the United States. Yes, the President can get us into a military quagmire that…
Kinky Friedman: “Think of me as Ann Richards in drag.”
By Enrique Lopetegui elopetegui@sacurrent.com Photos by Erik Gustafson (special for the Current) Poor Kinkyâ?¦ The campaign hasn’t even started and I’m already underestimating him. I chose the 9 a.m. slot for the interview at the Commerce Building because I wanted to get him fresh, and because I just knew he would be late and that…
Even More Brinkley-ana
Gratuitous Historical Timeline Department on the brinkley: his lifetime and timeline sarah fisch sfisch@sacurrent.com The more I researched the tragicomic life of America’s most legendary forgotten medical-media celebrity, the more obsessed I became â?? not only with Brinkley, but with what Greil Marcus called the “Old Weird America;” the hoary early-20th-century sideshow of catastrophic financial…
Late Nights/Early Flights
Late Nights/Early Flights Composer: Young American Conductor: Young American Label: Mustache Rodeo Release Date: 2009-09-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording In terms of “emo,” Young American, the band formerly known as July, merits more comparisons to Dashboard Confessional than Rites of Spring, but this local four-piece manages to talk about their hurt feelings while keeping most…
Heartbeat Radio
Heartbeat Radio Composer: Sondre Lerche Conductor: Sondre Lerche Label: Rounder/UMGD Release Date: 2009-09-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Norwegian pop phenom Sondre Lerche is often compared to Burt Bacharach for his melodic, jazz-inflected compositions and silk-smooth vocals. Unfortunately, Lerche shares another trait with Bacharach: He kind of sucks as a lyricist. Throughout Heartbeat Radio, Lerche drops…
American Classic
American Classic Composer: Willie Nelson Conductor: Willie Nelson Label: Blue Note Release Date: 2009-09-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording The last time Nelson recorded the American Songbook, it was on 1978’s Stardust. It not only got there years before Rod Stewart and other reformed rockers tackled the same material, but it also stands as a genre…
Humbug
Humbug Composer: Arctic Monkeys Conductor: Arctic Monkeys Label: Domino Release Date: 2009-09-02 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording Those expecting the third album from the Arctic Monkeys to simply rehash the post-punk dance-floor fodder of their first two albums will be disappointed. Humbug retains singer Alex Turner’s distinctive vocals and the signature angular guitars, but many songs…
Good finger food
Nosh serves sophisticated small plates and swank drinks
Stations of the ‘cue: III & IV
Release Date: 2009-09-02 The brisket-sandwich search inspired by the release of Texas BBQ: Photographs by Wyatt McSpadden continues with two more targets. My previous two destinations, Pat’s on East Houston and Chit Chats on Cherry, rated 11 and 15 toothpicks out of 20, respectively. `See The Fast Foodie, August 19.` Mr. J’s BBQ on South…
The rumble before the ‘Rumble’
Soul Power Director: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte Screenwriter: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte Cast: Muhammad Ali, James Brown, Celia Cruz, B.B. King, Miriam Makeba Release Date: 2009-09-02 Rated: PG-13 Genre: Film “You can’t be liberated … and broke.” -James Brown to Don King in Soul Power “We should invite Nelson Mandela to this thing,” said Carlos Santana on September 10,…
Judge advocate
Extract Director: Mike Judge Screenwriter: Mike Judge Cast: Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons Release Date: 2009-09-02 Rated: R Genre: Film There’s something about Mike Judge’s work that I find consistently endearing. It may, I imagine, have something to do with not having had cable during the early-to-mid ’90s or so,…
Michael Moore gives capitalism a bad name
Capitalism: A Love Story Director: Michael Moore Screenwriter: Michael Moore Cast: Michael Moore Release Date: 2009-09-02 Rated: R Genre: Film Our Rating: 4.00 This abusive relationship has gone on long enough. Sure, capitalism was charming at first, all about “freedom of choice” and “giving and taking.” But let’s face it: Lately, it’s done you wrong.…
Entrance music
One of the founding members of the Convocation (formerly the Convocation Of…), Guy Blakeslee moved to California several years ago and formed Entrance, a band that shifted comfortably between bluegrass and folk, lush orchestral rock, and, finally, a wonderful, populist take on blues-rock. His debut record as the Entrance Band, with Paz Lenchantin and Derek…
Dear Uncle Mat
Here is a question for you: The guy you have been dating for over a month now invites you to join him at a nudist camp for the weekend. Do you go? I knew he was a nudist, but I didn’t realize that he would ask me to join him so soon, or ever, I…
¡Ask a Mexican!
I am a 22-year-old Mexican-American woman, still living with my parents, but going to college, working full-time and taking care of myself financially. I grew up in a very traditional Mexican household, youngest of four kids, and we were all born in the United States. I’m unmarried but with a steady boyfriend I have been with for four years. My…
Doctor Strange
Every once in a while, with any luck, a writer obtains miraculous access to a life story almost too good to believe: too epic, too hilarious, too sad, too illustrative of the weft and weave of American history to be the life of one mere fallible human being. Michael Jackson was such a subject, I…
Time in a bottle
In the first act of his renowned play The History Boys, Alan Bennett throws down the gauntlet to any would-be critics. As his characters discuss the meaning of a great poem, one of them says, “In other words … ” His companion responds, “If it is a work of art, there are no other words.”…
Full-spectrum comics
In 1954, the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency recommended that comic-book publishers censor their amoral and violent storylines — thanks largely to the findings of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, who believed Batman and Robin’s relationship was suspicious and Wonder Woman’s lifestyle was anti-masculine — lest they corrupt the children. If Wertham interpreted Wonder Woman’s rescue missions,…
The QueQue
The road to wellville Lydia Lopez, the San Antonio State Hospital nursing assistant who was severely beaten in June by a patient, is recuperating nicely and feeling upbeat, thanks to weeks of intensive therapy, a neck brace to hold her broken vertebrae in place, a letter from her daughter who’s deployed in Iraq — and…
A bridge to somewhere
Haven for Hope, San Antonio’s one-stop service center for homeless individuals and families, is scheduled to open its facilities in early 2010. Its integrated-partnership model is based on best practices culled from campuses in San Diego, St. Louis, Miami, and Phoenix, and will bring together health and dental care, job training and placement, three square…
S’nuff Film
OK, Alamo City filmmakers, the time has come once again to video some shit and stuff it in a manila envelope (warning: sending a film of actual shit through the mail is a misdemeanor in the state of Texas). The third-annual San Antonio Local Film Festival is open for entries until September 15. New categories…
LIVE & LOCAL
Nobody says much, and the bassist wears a tie. That’s about all the description you need of Yes, Inferno’s stage presence tonight. To be fair, the guys in YI play a sometimes-ambient brand of post-rock (i.e., “music without singin’ on it”), though, so not much more’s expected of them than occasional closed-eyed rhythmic swaying and…
Three’s a crowd
When people say “they don’t make ‘em like they used to,” they’re usually referring to a degree of quality: They don’t make them as well as they used to. But every now and then, you see something that reminds you there are certain things we just don’t do anymore. They’ve fallen out of fashion or…
Amuse-BOUCHE
Nobody goes to Jim’s expecting haute cuisine, so it was interesting to be invited to a test meal with nine other “regulars.” (I qualify by virtue of wolfing down pancakes most Sunday mornings with 15 to 20 other long-distance runners.) Jim’s 16 local restaurants are distributed all over town, and most do a land-office business, filling…
Gentlemen prefer them green
Gilberto Santa Rosa is the only romantic salsa star that doesn’t suck. Having said that, what’s the big deal about Gilberto Santa Rosa? The Grammy- and Latin Grammy-winning Puerto Rican sonero (master vocal improviser) and bandleader performs Sunday at Club Río, and even my Russian friend Inessa is going nuts, telling everyone about it, and…
The Sound & The Fury
It seems the Free Show Friday series finally found a permanent home. The gratis performance-arts festival, which takes place every first and third Friday of the month, starts its new chapter this week at the Pedicab, 415 E. Cevallos (right next to La Tuna). The action begins at 9:30 p.m. with spoken word by artist…
ARTPACE: CALL FOR ENTRIES DUE THIS FRIDAY
I know I’ve been critical of Artpace in the past, but I want to spread the word about their upcoming deadline for their Texas Artist in Residence slots for 2011. If you only have even a TEENSY bit of motivation or desire to have a residency, APPLY. As noted in my Artifacts column this week,…
La Lupita strikes again
BY ENRIQUE LOPETEGUI elopetegui@sacurrent.com “SAVE THE GCAC MEDIA ARTS PROGRAM TONIGHT! @ 6:30PM,” read the August 27 Facebook posting by Sandra Peña-Sarmiento, Media Arts coordinator for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. “The Executive Director of the `Guadalupe` has decided to dissolve their Media Arts Program effective immediately! Come out for tonight’s GCAC Board Meeting and…
