Music State of independence
Melissa Ferrick takes a tortured path from major-label washout to self-released success Melissa Ferrick is hiding in her Pittsburgh hotel room, desperate for a cup of tea and genuinely thrilled at the fact that she’s going to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith tonight. Her voice is still a touch raspy after losing it yesterday. The…
Music CD Spotlight
Maybe we’re amazed Once they got the knack of songwriting (right around “Please Please Me”), John Lennon and Paul McCartney didn’t really need each other for nose-to-nose collaboration. Lennon looked to McCartney for musical embellishment (the waltz-time organ intro for “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds”; a crucial chord change for “In My Life”), while…
News The dueling parking lots
East Side leaders agree they want to revitalize their neighborhood. ‘How’ is the issue If Governor Rick Perry is looking for a case to demonstrate the importance of the eminent domain bill he signed on September 1, Tommy Moore Jr. is happy to oblige. In mid-August, the East Side businessman received a letter from the…
Music Current Choice
‘Revenge’ of the nerd Everyone has one in his family: the ghostly man-child who lives in his parents’ basement and lives off a daily regimen of on-line gaming, Dungeons & Dragons, and, of course, comic books. Usually, you pity him and, when he’s not around, call him a loser. In Gerard Way’s case, we call…
News Budget love-in
$1.7 billion is the biggest ever There was little animosity last week as City Council debated, communicated, commiserated, and adopted what Mayor Phil Hardberger calls the most comprehensive annual budget in the City’s history. After public hearings and Council discussions, the finished product, a $1.7 billion budget, is the largest package in the City’s 274-year…
Music Walking tall
During the making of their 2004 sophomore album, Bows and Arrows, the Walkmen must have wondered if someone was conspiring against them. While cutting tracks at Memphis’ Easley-McCain Recording, a storm killed electrical power at the studio for a week. When they got back to their native New York for mixing, again they experienced a…
News Party lines
Web Exclusive Car not insured? You’d better park it. Attention, San Antonio motorists. If you have auto liability insurance coverage, read no further. But if you don’t, pay very close, attention. Starting in January 2006, San Antonio Police Department patrol officers will crack down on motorists who operate motor vehicles without at least a $10,000…
Music Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene Finish line It’s unlikely that any San Antonio band experienced a more exciting weekend than 10 City Run, which traveled up to Waxahachie for the 10th annual Texas Country Reporter Festival and returned to SA as the grand-prize winner of the “Texas Country Star” contest. Competing against nine other finalists…
News Briefs
Ceragem busted for bogus claims Ceragem, the hocus-pocus therapeutic-bed retailer with two San Antonio outlets, has been fined $180,000 by the Texas Attorney General’s office for making unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits of its beds. `See, “Diamond or cubic zirconia?” March 3-9, 2005`. The AG’s office penalized Los Angeles-based Ceragem International, which has 130…
Feature Family way
With a new CD on the way, Mojoe carries the weight of San Antonio hip-hop on its back The members of Mojoe like to refer to their band as a family. The San Antonio R&B/hip-hop collective, fronted by emcees Tre (T.R.E.) Scipio and Charles (Easy Lee) Peters, speaks with an almost evangelical zeal about expanding…
Arts Games without bustiers
60 percent of college women play online games, and they’re tired of being men and ‘hos Video games are not just for nerds anymore. During the past three decades, they have grown from a niche hobby to an industry valued at more than $9.4 billion. As young people continue to drift away from traditional media…
News Speed reads
A so-so session for the aquifer San Antonio state legislators did a mediocre job of protecting the Edwards Aquifer from polluting development this session, according to a scorecard by Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas and the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance. Rookie representative David Leibowitz, a Democrat, received the highest grade, voting on legislation to protect…
Arts A week of art heaven
It’s a great week to be a flaneur, young or old, so shush your internal erstwhile hobbyist or dedicated reader and dabble in sidewalk art and experimental theater. What Are You Doing Tonight?, an original theatrical production by the RESET collective, explores the art, emotion, and fallout of hooking up, Thursday-Saturday, September 22-24, at the…
Arts Bringing up baby … overseas
As San Antonio native Pen Ward discovered, animation born in the USA is usually raised in Asia History is filled with tales of young, impressionable talents meeting their idols and, inspired by greatness, following in their footsteps: Miles Davis met Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker when he was still a teenager in St. Louis, a…
Arts Artifacts
When it rains … You may not have heard the thunderclap last week, or spotted the multiple lightning strikes, but the second week of September 2005, was positively Olympean for the arts. On September 16, the Alameda symbolically re-started construction on the Museo Americano building at Market Square, by clipping a chain-link fence encasing Alameda…
Do ya feel lucky?
Gordy Grundy might make your day with a cheeky paean to the joy and necessity of membership Fortune is a difficult concept in a world in which so few control so much wealth. As a causal agent, it’s been used to explain away injustice for centuries, but not everyone believes lighting candles to our ancestors…
Screens What’s past is past
Wong Kar-Wai makes a beautiful movie about the impossibility of cinematic romance Of all the myths the movies love to believe, surely one of the most universal is that lost love can be recaptured. Stories need conflict, after all, and a tale of two people who meet, fall in love, and stay together is not…
Arts The art capades
For Ralph Howell, all the world’s a camera. For Steve Reynolds, it’s a diagram. Robot Gallery has redesigned its gallery space to make viewing easier (724 S. Alamo, Ste. 3, 476-8668, through September 30). This month it features Andrew Watson’s How We Used to Live. An image suite of smoke curls, running the length of…
Screens Small variation
A French adaptation of 1978’s Fingers adds little to a young Harvey Keitel’s memorable performance The Beat That My Heart Skipped, in an uncommon switch, is a French adaptation of an American film, namely James Toback’s 1978 debut Fingers, starring Harvey Keitel. The essential story is faithfully transposed from post-Mean Streets-era New York to contemporary…
Music Crowd control
The Austin City Limits Music Festival scales back its own explosive growth Three years ago, the organizers of the Austin City Limits Music Festival worried if anyone would show up at Zilker Park for the unveiling of their multi-band, multi-genre event. These days, their bigger concern is keeping too many people from showing up. Over…
Screens One-trick dorky
The timeless, yet tiresome, tale of an unredeemed nerd who finds love among his own kind Does anyone remember Brian Avery? He played Carl Smith, the jilted would-be groom who is left standing at the altar when Katharine Ross’ Elaine Robinson runs off with Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock at the end of The Graduate. Elliott…
Screens Armchair Cinephile
Bring the Tarantino festival home As of press time, I am 80 percent of the way through the sixth Austin Film Society-sponsored Quentin Tarantino festival of forgotten cinema. Judging from internet traffic, many film buffs are wishing they’d scored passes. For Current readers who’d like to replicate the experience at home, here’s a round-up of…
Screens Special screenings
Toga, toga, toga! The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 1255 SW Loop 410, celebrates its first birthday Saturday, September 24, with an outdoor screening of the frat-house flick, Animal House. It will be shown on a three-story, inflatable outdoor screen, with munchies including the Belushi burger – a cheeseburger befitting of the film’s star – hot dogs,…
Food & Drink Keep the fire burning
The Smokehouse upholds the Texas tradition of authentic pit barbecue San Antonio has never been a heavy hitter in the world of hard-core barbecue, BBQ, or Bar-B-Q. Yet as recently as 30 years ago, smoke from a battery of barbecue pits shrouded certain sections of the city, and even denizens of its white-bread core made…
Screens That’s a wrap
Collaborating for the fifth time in their careers, Tim Burton (Big Fish) and Johnny Depp (Ed Wood) cross into the underworld with the animated film Corpse Bride. When Victor Van Dort (Depp) places a ring on the finger of a dead girl (Helena Bonham Carter), the lifeless lass takes it as a sign of true…
Food & Drink It’s a piece of (cup)cake
Author Ann Byrn wants you to stop worrying and love the cake mix Last month I fell in love with a cupcake at Central Market. Well, to be honest, I fell in love with six, each decorated with a bright buttercream flower – pansies, roses, and sunflowers – atop vanilla or chocolate cake. Together, in…
Food & Drink All you can eat
Current Online news politics culture News and notes from the San Antonio food scene Going gluten-free Danna Korn, an author and expert on celiac disease and gluten intolerance will lead a Q&A session, cooking demonstration, and lecture on “Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free: Should You Be?” at Sun Harvest, 17700 Highway 281 North, Thursday, September 22, from 6:30-8…
Food & Drink ACE Mart v. Mission Restaurant Supply
There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition How is it that, in a neighborhood that needs a grocery, two restaurant supply stores now face each other across the broad swath of cement that was once Handy Andy’s parking lot? According to Ace Mart, which opened two weeks ago at 1220 South St. Mary’s, it’s…
