(ALT) Universe Music Festival rescheduled for Dec. 2
The Wallflowers: See you in December? The Alternate Universe Music Festival, originally scheduled for October 6 at the Alamodome, was rescheduled for December 2 at the same venue, according to a press release sent in the morning of October 1 by Livein210, the event’s promoter. The reason? “Scheduling conflicts,” according to the press release. “In…
Pick of the Day: Mummies of the World
The 6,420-year-old “Detmold Child,” a baby crocodile, felines from the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC), a dramatically accessorized howler monkey, and a boot-clad nobleman are among the 150 intentionally and naturally preserved specimens that make “Mummies of the World” the largest exhibition of real human and animal mummies and related artifacts ever assembled. Sparked by the…
Scorpions, quicksand, and Girl in a Coma: a most interesting party
The only thing that would have made the setup of Dos Equis’ The Most Interesting Academy at Sunset Station on Thursday more surreal would have been an appearance by The Most Interesting Man in the World himself. Of course, 74-year-old actor Jonathan Goldsmith is busy reaping the rewards of the beer’s successful advertisements, but his…
Google Knows What You Play!
It is no secret that our internet interests, tastes, and patterns are monitored. While market analysis researchers are bidding profusely for our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram data to better hone their own advertising strategies, the minds at Google have been utilizing their own data for years. A report published today from Google – titled “Understanding…
Jack the Rapper
Fans of San Antonio Spurs swingman Stephen Jackson’s off-court poetics will have to wait another month for his official debut album Jack of All Trades. Originally scheduled for release on September 25, the LP has been pushed back to October 30 for promotional reasons, and will now drop on the eve of the NBA’s opening…
Pick of the Day: The Marvelous Wonderettes
When the lead singer of the Crooning Crab Cakes gets suspended for smoking, it’s up to the Marvelous Wonderettes to step in and headline the Springfield High School Prom. Comprised of Cindy Lou, Betty Jean, Suzy, and Missy, the namesake girl-group carries Roger Bean’s jukebox musical through two eras of pop. After establishing in act…
Pick of the Day: Red Hot Chili Peppers
When the Red Hot Chili Peppers originally scheduled their 2012 tour, it was derailed before it even got started when singer Anthony Kiedis injured his foot, but Kiedis is now back healthy and happy and the show must go on with a rescheduled stop this weekend. Of all the bands of the mid-’80s American post-punk…
Pick of the Day: Manhattan Short Film Festival
Hundreds of short films from all over the world narrowed down to 10 finalists, with the winner to be chosen by an international audience that could include you. The movies are shown during the same week in cities across the USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Central and South America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East.…
Pick of the Day: Ali Wong
Scoring San Francisco Weekly’s “Best Comedian of 2009” and the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s “Best of the Bay” awards was all the encouragement comic Ali Wong needed to leave the Bay for L.A. Judging from acting roles (playing a hacker in Oliver Stone’s Savages and portraying Chelsea Handler’s BFF Olive on the NBC sitcom Are…
Report: Railroad Commission of Texas way behind on oil and gas well inspections
By Andrew Oxford More than 9,000 new oil and gas wells have been drilled across Texas so far this year. The breakneck pace of the state’s burgeoning energy sector is keeping regulators at the Railroad Commission of Texas busy. Too busy, in fact, to inspect most of those wells to ensure they were drilled safely…
Pick of the Day: W-I-P: (Wednesdays-in-Performance/Works-in-Progress)
Jump-Start Performance Co.’s longstanding collaboration with the San Antonio Dance Umbrella continues with the September installment of W-I-P (Wednesdays-in-Performance/Works-in-Progress), featuring modern dance works by Jayne King and AlignDance/Wendy Ellis and an authentic Kathac dance by KAJIRI. $3-$5; 7pm Wed, Sep 26; The Sterling Houston Theater at Jump-Start, 108 Blue Star, (210) 227-JUMP, jump-start.org. Check out our full online…
Fall preview: Latin CDs
SEP 24 Vikki Carr Viva la Vida (Sony) *** Her first album since 2001. A collection of songs backed by José Hernández’s Mariachi Sol de México and the National Symphony of the Americas. SEP 25 Ozomatli Ozomatli Presents OzoKidz (Hornblow/Megaforce/RED) ***1/2 Children’s album produced by Robert Carranza, who had already worked with them in 2007’s…
Actor Michael Peña brings new attitude to role as cop in ‘End of Watch’
Michael Peña stars as LAPD Officer Mike Zavala in the action thriller “End of Watch.” In the action thriller End of Watch, actor Michael Peña (The Lincoln Lawyer) plays Mike Zavala, an LAPD police officer who is targeted, along with his partner Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal), by a Mexican drug cartel after they come across…
90 days of music: The best fall music to hear and see
SEPTEMBER 28: Bombasta, Las Cafeteras (L.A.), Los Nahuatlatos at the official grand opening of the new Boneshakers ($6, 9pm, 306 Austin, boneshakersonline.com). OCTOBER 1: The Dirty Clergy at Nightrocker (605 San Pedro, 210/265-3573, more info in Sound and Fury blog at blogs.sacurrent.com). 3: Circa Survive at Sunset Station. 6: Alternate Universe Music Festival at the…
Pink: 'The Truth About Love'
Pink gets credit here for sticking to her guns — after all, she’s always been a chameleon in style and a damaged postmodern romantic in content. But it is worth noting that, although the title track and the album opener "Are We All We Are" are among the sharpest and most gigantic songs of her…
NBA style wars ensare Spurs in 'black-on-black' drama
Earlier this offseason, the fashion police at the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network ranked the top uniforms in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs coming in second behind the Boston Celtics. ESPN lauded the classic silver-and-black color scheme along with the Spurs’ ability to integrate a graphic image onto their chest typography, while lamenting…
Perello's Flamenco Fashion Show a luscious feast
I may have been biased in the enchantment I felt as I watched Lisa Perello’s All Flamenco Fashion Show at Say Sí’s Black Box Theatre due to my experience as a classical dancer and as a student of flamenco. But as I observed the amazement on the faces of those around me, I realized it…
Daddy Yankee: 'Prestige'
At this point, he’s bigger than God. Reggaetón galvanizer Daddy Yankee co-releases his sixth studio LP alongside his Cartel tequila, joining a line of Azad watches, Section 8 headphones, and a licensed Zumba track. This business provides much context for Prestige. In 2010’s Mundial, he largely ignored the beat that made him famous. But DY…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: Hey mojado, since when do you think it’s OK to fuck up the facts of your wretched culture and concentrate on the few who have done something with their lives? For the most part, Mexicans are perverted, short, dark, little disgusting animals. You fit into that category. They shit out litters to circumvent…
Green Day: '¡Uno!'
There is nothing especially new or unique on Green Day’s new album, but after the trio’s previous two releases of “high concept” rock anthems, the familiarity of ¡Uno! is welcome. That’s not to say this is Kerplunk-era Green Day, but Billie Joe Armstrong has loosened his corporate tie just a bit and gotten back to…
Little Brave: 'Wild' EP
"I want to be a bitch/ I want to live with all my heart/ I want to finish all I started/ then rip it all apart," sings Little Brave (Stephanie Briggs) in "Under Wings," the closing track of her follow up to Wound & Will (my favorite regional album of 2011). If W&W was Little…
Newsmonger: Private gains, public pains
Private gains, public pains In June 2011 staff at the South Florida State Hospital began to worry Luis Santana, who’d long battled mental illness, had slipped into another psychotic episode, writing in reports that Santana was "pacing, restless, repeatedly flushing the toilet." Some hours later hospital staff put Santana, pumped with six powerful psychiatric meds,…
Fall Arts Preview: Festivals, food, drink & outdoor fun
Oktoberfest One of the most popular expressions of German kultur is Oktoberfest, a two-week long party filled with beer, polkas, and piles of food. Founded in 1867, Beethoven Maennerchor is one of the oldest German singing societies in Texas, and hosts of the annual fall celebration in SA at their Halle und Garten with an…
Valero, other corporations, giving big to Boy Scouts despite anti-gay policies
Corporate foundations have given millions to the Boy Scouts of America and its subdivisions in recent years despite that organization’s policy of excluding gays and lesbians. Many of those same foundations have policies against giving to organizations that discriminate based on sexual orientation. Twenty-three of the top 50 corporate foundations, ranked by the Foundation Center…
Ex-financier cleverly steers Mon Ami's metamorphosis
The soul of a good bar is a delicate thing. It is shaped by place, proprietor, and product to be sure, but then there’s an ineluctable essence that comes from the people that tend to call a place home — whether night after night or on an as-needed basis. When Mon Ami, more formally known…
Three recommended films confirmed for San Antonio
October 5: Chicken with Plums An imported delicacy that, though marinated in weltschmerz, manages to be more savory than cloying. From Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, directors of Persepolis (2007). — Steven G. Kellman October 12: Searching for Sugarman The incredible story of Rodríguez, a largely forgotten singer-songwriter from Detroit in the early ’70s who…
No Doubt: 'Push and Shove'
Slick and shiny, there is no denying the catchiness of Push and Shove, the first album in 11 years from Orange County rockers No Doubt. Producer Mark Stent’s credits span Lady Gaga to P. Diddy, and his skill at crafting mass-appeal music is evident. Tony Kanal’s superb bass skills are one of the few remnants…
The Hood Internet make SA debut
After gracing stages in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Denton, the Chicago mash-up kings known as The Hood Internet are poised to make their San Antonio debut with a proper album in hand. The duo of Aaron Brink (aka ABX) and Steve Reidell (aka STV SLV, pronounced "Steve Sleeve") bonded five years ago over a mutual…
Fuerza Unida launches fashion line on Southside
Two decades after 1,150 garment workers lost their jobs when Levi Strauss closed its San Antonio factory, a handful of the original craftswomen — aided by some of their granddaughters — are turning the tide towards social justice by starting their own fashion line. This Saturday, sewing cooperative El Hilo de la Justicia (The Thread…
Fall Arts Preview: Classical & Chamber Music
Musical Bridges Around the World October 7: "Fusion of the Worlds" MBAW’s eclectic new season opens with a concert featuring Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato (a member of Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble) along with Victor Prieto on accordion, John Hadfield on percussions, and duoJalal members Kathryn Lockwood on viola and Yousif Sheronick on eastern…
Movies that will (or should) come to SA this fall
Typically, the movies opening in San Antonio have already opened elsewhere first, thanks to that strange studio policy that mistakes our fair city for some sort of a movie dumpster. But with the turn of the weather, we can also hope for a turn in the hearts of the film moguls and start planning now…
Fall Arts Preview: Museums
Artpace Artpace alumna and zingmagazine editor Devon Dikeou exhibits her art trove in the Hudson (Show) Room: "Swap Meet: Artpace and the Dikeou Collection;" Westside activist collective Más Rudas demonstrates Chicana consciousness in a multimedia install in Windowworks. Opening November 15: international artist-in-residence exhibition IAIR 12.3 curated by Heidi Zuckerman-Jacobson, with Dor Guez (Tel Aviv,…
90 days of music: Fall CD Releases
SEPTEMBER 25: Mumford and Sons, No Doubt, Deadmau5, Chris James, Cypress Hill, and a collaboration between Yoko Ono and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, (YOKOKIMTHURSTON). Reissues by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros. OCTOBER 2: The Wallflowers, Kendrick Lamar, Van Morrison, Muse. 9: John Fogerty, Kiss, My Jerusalem (Austin), Suzanne Vega. Reissues by the…
Bakery Lorraine gets solid
Does the city need another bakery? Some may say no, but many would go out of their way to make room for Bakery Lorraine. Having enjoyed a presence at the Sunday farmer’s market at the Quarry* for months, Lorraine just opened a permanent residence at 511 E. Grayson. In addition to the usual breads, pies,…
Valero sticking with the Scouts
While the Boys Scouts of America lost its largest corporate funder last week, San Antonio’s Valero Energy Corporation, which gave about $189,000 to scouting groups in 2010 in spite of the group’s policy of discrimination against homosexuals, plans to keep the tap open. Company spokesman Bill Day this week said Valero will continue to fund…
Taste This: Sausage & Queso Platter, $5.95
Sliced South Texas sausage, sautéed chunks of onion, and blister-fried chips. What more could you want? Oh yeah, a big pot of queso, seasoned nicely, to pour over it all. We kept our sunshine-sauce on the side for dipping on the chance that we were out-provided. We were. It all comes on a steak-sized platter…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here’s the curious message I derived from the current astrological configurations: It’s one of those rare times when a wall may actually help bring people together. How? Why? The omens don’t reveal that specific information. They only tell me that what seems like a barrier might end up serving as a…
Fall Arts Preview: Performance
PERFORMANCE, DANCE, & MORE Ballet San Antonio 2012-2013 Season October 26-28: Dracula Ballet San Antonio leaps from the depths of Transylvania to the streets of London for a reprisal of artistic director Gabriel Zertuche’s original adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Gothic vampire epic. November 23-December 2: The Nutcracker Tickets range from $15-$102. For tickets, timetables, and…
Fall Arts Preview: Theater
THEATER Cadillac Broadway in San Antonio 2012-2013 Season October 23-28: Catch Me If You Can Cadillac brings the magic of Broadway back to the Majestic with a whimsical season that kicks off with Catch Me if You Can: a swinging ’60s musical based on the wild life of Frank Abagnale — a former trickster and…
Bland location even pollutes the plate at Savor Fare
Poise, grace and the instinct for polished sureness in social situations: this is savoir-faire. It’s the ability to say the right thing, give off the best impression and, most importantly, make others feel comfortable in one’s presence. Savor Fare, a five-year-old Vietnamese-Chinese fusion restaurant on Huebner, does not have savoir-faire. Hidden away in a garden-variety…
Michael Jackson: 'Bad (25th Anniversary Edition)'
Any successful ’80s artist with the good sense to stay alive in the 21st century is bound to get the deluxe reissue treatment. That’s what makes the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Bad so fascinating — MJ’s unexpected death forces listeners denied the yet-to-come to contemplate the glory of what was. The remastered album itself…
Public Lands Day shines spotlight on our sacred Yanaguana
The mist was still rolling gently off the water when Alan Stephenson and Joe Leija placed their flat-bottomed boat into the San Antonio River to show off 12 miles of serpentining paddling territory being officially opened by the San Antonio River Authority this weekend*. Recent showers had leaf litter and plastic debris clinging high in…
Pick of the Day: “Estampas de la Raza: Contemporary Prints from the Romo Collection”
Billed as “the most comprehensive survey of the contributions of Latino artists of post-1960 American printmaking to date,” the McNay’s “Estampas de la Raza: Contemporary Prints from the Romo Collection” comprises more than 60 prints chronicling the Latino experience in the U.S. Drawing from the generous gifts of collectors Ricardo and Harriet Romo, the exhibition…
