Sally Fallon debunks USDA psuedoscience of School Lunch Program
Two weekends ago, Institute for Integrative Nutrition (my nutrition school alma mater) hosted a huge conference in NYC, which I had the pleasure of attending. It welcomed speakers including Deepak Chopra (formerly an endocrinologist, now a mind-body guru), Dr. Mark Hyman (Functional Medicine superstar), Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Kathy Freston (both vegan diet advocates), Joe…
Even if you hate Microsoft, Gears of War 3 is worth buying the 360 for
From the Michael Bay over-the-top explosion set pieces, to the near constant onslaught of juggernaut Locust soldiers, to the bro-motional, albeit predictable finale, Gears of War 3 is a symphonic bloodbath co-operative shooter that masters the Epic Games’ formula constructed over the past five years. The trilogy is a case study in precise improvements, benefitting…
Moving Planet event demands a move beyond fossil fuels
San Antonio joined cities around the world in organizing to demand the nation’s of the Earth move beyond fossil fuels, largely responsible for the climate change already changing the face of the planet. Moving Planet organizers claim 2,000 events are being held in 175 countries today. Speakers at the Pearl Brewery Complex in SA included…
San Antonio, Texas Punk Rock Archive 1986-1989
I was just a tween back in 1986. My favorite movie was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and for my brother it was Top Gun. Together we watched reruns of the Cosby Show and Growing Pains. Thanks to my parents we were exposed early on to everything from David Bowie to Kiss. My mother…
Schmoozing for tar sands
Has TransCanada been greasing the wheels at the State Department for easy approval of its proposed $7 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline to ship tar-sands crude from Canada down to Texas refineries? Diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks had already left environmental activists and pipeline opponents with the nagging suspicion that behind-the-scenes schmoozing had turned TransCanada’s Keystone XL…
Video: Candis Cayne in Heat
Back in the ’90s, when ARTslut was based in New York, Candis Cayne sightings were a dime a dozen. We might see her doing high-kicks in a glitzy gown in a Chelsea dive on Saturday night and then find her lip-synching to Yma Sumac in sensible daywear at a drag brunch in the East Village…
You Can’t Take It with You by Laura Carter
The Current’s own Laura Carter is this weeks flash fiction author (check out her SA Current blog here). A slice of life turns into an epiphany. This is a now-I-understand moment: cliche is given new life in the story. Read on and submit: flashfiction@sacurrent.com. I’m still looking for six word stories (or single sentence stories…
Settling the score with film composer Cliff Martinez
There’s nothing conventional about what film composer Cliff Martínez has been doing in his music studio for the last 22 years. His work doesn’t feature full orchestras like many traditional scores. His background as a rock musician sets him apart from others who took a more classical approach to the craft. Martínez started his professional…
Wilco: The Whole Love
Who needs magicians pulling rabbits from hats when Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy can perform the same trick using either his head or his ass? Tweedy’s a talented, frequently maddening songwriter who received too much credit for fleeing Americana in search of Radiohead. While Wilco’s fractured experimental pop can be majestic and intriguing (and self-indulgent), it’s generally…
Tex in the City: Angelina Mata does New York Fashion Week
With more than a little help from friends and the online threshold pledge system Kickstarter, local fashion designer Angelina Mata presented her Spring/Summer 2012 collection as a tableau vivant at Cvult Studios in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood during New York Fashion Week. In what felt simultaneously comforting and surreal, San Antonians were everywhere… in the Champagne-guzzling…
Express-News fallout continues
The quick exodus of the Express-News’ top two editors since Tuesday has, by all accounts, left a newsroom grasping for explanation. The day after executive editor Bob Rivard stepped down, sending a rosy email to staff that left more questions than answers, the paper’s no. 2, Brett Thacker, quickly followed, emailing staff his own frustratingly vague…
Matt Bonner vs. Arcade Fire’s Win Butler
With their flamboyant stage antics and sparkly costumes, Arcade Fire looks more like a pep squad than a team of hardcore ballers. But 6’4″ frontman Win Butler is a known basketball junkie (he even allegedly stole some dude’s basketball once) and shoots hoops at every opportunity. So it’s no surprise that Butler would participate in…
The Pose of the Goddess: Deviasana
I love the Goddess! After all, she is the divine source of our creative inspiration. The Goddess lives within all of us–men and women–as the intuitive, creative, receptive, feeling, and nurturing parts of ourselves. This is the essence of feminine energy, which we must cultivate in order to achieve balance between the masculine and feminine…
Express-News fallout day 2: ME Thacker resigns
Nervous Express reporters and curious readers continue to contact us about the changing of the guard at the daily paper. Editor Bob Rivard left Tuesday (read his letter to staff). Now Managing Editor Brett Thacker is out. As we continue to make calls, allow us to share now-former ME Thacker’s letter to staff, as distributed…
Fair Trade Fund releases app that measures your ‘slavery footprint’
Last night before bed I quoted Elizabeth Warren, running for Senate in Massachusetts, on Facebook. My update status read: There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads…
Foodways Texas cooks up history of Texas foods
Whether you were born in Texas or just got here as fast as you could, you’re sure to have tasted the many different cultural influences in Texas cooking. From Alsace-Lorraine, Poland, Mexico, Vietnam, and a host of other countries, immigrants have come to Texas with their ethnic foods and put a Texas spin on them.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I have a simple philosophy,” said Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a self-described hedonist who lived till the age of 96. “Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches.” That’s not an approach I recommend you pursue all the time, Aries, but I think it could be both wise and fun…
The Que Que: Domestic partnerships pass split Council, Milton Lee returns as Perry’s dump pick, ICE’s Secure Communities Task Force a bust, ACS shakeup
Domestic partnerships pass split Council Last week, with an 8-3 vote, Council approved a budget granting domestic-partner benefits to gay and straight city employees, capping countless hours of intense, fiery debate that roiled nearly every community budget hearing over the past month. LGBT advocates and several on council cheered the vote as a step toward…
The Apoca-List
AKA The “We’re Fucked” Index
Disturbing Harvest focuses on child labor in America
“In some countries, children work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week,” the opening title cards in The Harvest/La Cosecha read. “Children 12 and younger pick crops. The United States of America is one of those countries.” It is easy to dismiss this documentary produced by non-profit Shine Global and executive-produced by Eva Longoria…
No man’s land
In Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, there is an average of eight drug-related murders every day. Making use of stock footage and on-location interviews, Charlie Minn’s documentary 8 Murders a Day exposes the city as the epicenter of a bloody conflict where governments on both sides of the border are just as responsible as the warring drug…
Drink for rain, drink for fall
Beer isn’t just for fancy food pairings, but also for special occasions. Thankfully the season offers special occasions galore. First day of fall: Grab a pumpkin ale from Deleware microbrewery Dogfish Head Punkin’ Ale or Harpoon Brewing Co. Temperatures dropping below 90 degrees before October is always a cause for celebration. Avoiding Stage 3: Water-use…
The struggle to save the Museo Alameda hinges on a big bottle
When Museo Alameda opened its doors in April, 2007, as an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute, it was the realization of a dream for many artists in San Antonio. Though the City of San Antonio turned over city property to house the Museo and continues to help fund the effort through the Office of Cultural…
Opeth: Heritage
For being one of the world’s foremost death metal bands, Sweden’s Opeth sure are good at making non-death metal albums. Mostly to blame is bandleader Mikael Åkerfeldt’s decades-long obsession with forgotten ’70s progressive rock bands such as Camel and Triumvirat, whose influence has helped him craft a song breed that owes as much to Yes…
Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1
Unless you happen to be a musician or a very perceptive listener, it’s often tough to distinguish exceptional jazz from the merely satisfactory. Miles Davis’ famed second quintet of 1964-68 is a rare exception to this rule, a band so individually brilliant and collectively virtuosic, even your average Katy Perry fan can tell there’s some…
Dirty Dixie martinis infused with true ‘kuntry’ attitude
My boycott of Wal-Mart and other, rapacious big-box stores never extended to Borders, and I’m sorry to see it go; it was often the book-end to a Whole Foods visit. But the so-long sale did yield one benefit: a slim volume on martinis. Some purists would suggest that the book could have been even slimmer…
20 years after Nevermind musicians still credit Nirvana for changing the course of their development
On September 24, 1991, DGC Records released a modest pressing of 40,000 copies of Nevermind. By January 1992, Nirvana was the biggest band in the world. “[In 1991] rock music wasn’t really happening,” Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic told Spin. “There were these beachheads — Faith No More, Jane’s Addiction — these alternative rock bands that…
Film Review: Straw Dogs
Times have changed since the release of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs in 1971. “Bloody Sam,” known for The Wild Bunch and other über-violent films — at least by the standards of the day — claimed in his autobiography, If They Move… Kill ‘Em!, that at the first Straw Dogs preview approximately one-third of the audience…
Desperate measures: Review of Lilia
I don’t necessarily believe San Antonio filmmaker Sam Lerma when he tells me he might’ve been impulsive enough to rob a bank back when he was living paycheck to paycheck as a photo journalist for a local TV station. But Lerma, who now teaches film at Harlandale High School, would know better than me. I…
Max’s Wine Dive pitches in for wildfire relief
The rain was a welcome respite from the oppressive heat and worrisome wildfires around town, but we’ll need more help to recover from the damage that’s already been done. We can all do our part by not barbequing or playing with fire until the burn ban is lifted; we can also donate money to the…
So you want to be in show business?
Once upon a time, suitcase-laden sedans swarmed west down Route 66 to Hollywood, carrying dreams of movie stardom along with extra socks and shoes. Some went east instead, chasing Broadway stage lights. But until YouTube, most aspiring actors hadn’t much of a chance unless they made it into a big-city acting class and showed the…
Queen: 40 (Vol. 2)
Queen’s second five albums are a document of the most successful and — at least for them — fun years of the British foursome. That 1977-1982 period is Queen deliberately embracing pop and becoming the world’s biggest band. Yet, a closer look reveals that Queen, even at its poppiest, never stopped rocking. The first two…
Austinite Paul Gordon’s debut provides low-calorie laughs
An aspiring poet has a dream to open up a mobile stand of organic, mostly vegetarian food at an Austin park. But when Bill (played by writer-director Paul Gordon in his first full-length film) applies for a loan is when the comedy starts — the loan officer only gives him $750 to start the business.…
‘Eating’ hosts honest talk on female body image
Does a “very serious comedy” about the frequent war between women and food hold the same relevancy today as it did upon its initial release in 1990? Unfortunately, yes. And that sad fact makes Henry Jaglom’s film on the subject required viewing. Centered around a shared birthday party, Eating explores the troubled intersection of bodies…
Steroid Edition: What to see and hear in the weeks ahead
Blues for kids The great local blueswoman Catherine Denise (who had a terrific opening set for Gary Clark Jr. last week at Sam’s) will play a free show to benefit the No Kid Hungry campaign, a movement of “people committed to ending childhood hunger in America by 2015.” The show will take place 6pm-10pm Thursday,…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: I am a half-breed, as they say (Mexican father, Anglo mother), and recently I’ve been reading a lot about the drug violence in Mexico. I’ve become increasingly disturbed by the way in which we Americans are directly contributing to this war by supplying the demand for drugs while still making it illegal to…
Mata’s Atelier shines at New York Fashion Week
NEW YORK CITY — The entrance to Cult Studios is hidden behind plywood and a closed-off sidewalk when I arrive at the Flower District location near New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology. Inside, Henry De La Paz, a hairdresser originally from the Rio Grande Valley, is preparing models with weaves, curls, and Princess Leia…
Live & Local: Saving Face at Hot Tin Roof
Drummer/singer Josh Walker likes to play loud. Real loud. So much so, that he plays behind a see-through acrylic drum shield, so he can pound freely without destroying anyone’s ears. He’s a fine, solid drummer and, more than a singer, he has the voice of a talk radio DJ. But the shield wasn’t just meant…
Explosion of culinary light from a recently dank corner of the River Walk
Dolores del Rio was a dump. Fortunately, the lighting was dim enough that it mostly didn’t matter. When it closed, my only thought was to wonder why it hadn’t happened sooner. Daylight is now not to be spurned with the determination of Bela Lugosi. The new owners of double-l Bella have cleaned the old girl…
Jimi Hendrix: Hendrix in the West
The fourth wave of remixed Hendrix releases continues with this album of 1969-1970 live performances first released posthumously in 1972. The album starts chillingly with "The Queen," a version of "God Save The Queen" recorded a little over a month before Hendrix’s death. Unlike the original version of the album, which wrongly featured "Voodoo Child"…
South Africa, Chile deliver more southern sweethearts
As was predicted — or perhaps threatened — the south is rising again. In the case of wine, it’s both again and for the first time. And the south in question is the entire Southern Hemisphere. Though wines have been made in places such as Chile and South Africa for hundreds of years, many of…
Sudden departure for Express-News Editor Bob Rivard
A short post late Tuesday set the Twitter feeds aflutter – longtime San Antonio Express-News editor Bob Rivard had resigned, shocking staffers at the daily’s afternoon newsroom meeting. The exact details of Rivard’s exit are still unclear (how much can you confidently glean from Twitter?), but by all accounts the announcement by Express-News publisher Tom…
Express-News Editor Bob Rivard resigns (the letter)
The announcement was made by publisher Tom Stephenson and Mark Aldam, a Hearst corporate exec, at about 4:40 this afternoon and is effective immediately, according to newsroom tweets by E-N journo John Tedesco. We’ll have more on Newsmonger soon, but first: the letter. Sept. 21, 2011 Colleagues: After 35 years as a newspaperman, I have…
More San Antonians resorting to drug trials, despite the risks they pose
There’s a scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life where a father informs his 50 kids he can no longer afford to feed them. “It’s medical experiments for the lot of you,” he announces to his brood. Yet in real life, the specter of growing numbers of people turning to clinical trials amidst economic…
