Arts The romantic is the political
RESET Collective combines live theater and video for funny, pointed musings on identity, love, and location “There’s this Hollywood ideal of what love is and all these other things of what love is and love really isn’t like that,” says Haldun Morgan, one of the driving forces behind the RESET multimedia magazine and the Guadalupe…
Music All Ears
Soul, then and now Last week saw the release of Pure Genius (Rhino), the seven-CD, one-DVD box that in content (the entire Atlantic recordings of Ray Charles) and packaging (a clever replication of an old portable phonograph) will have collectors salivating. It’s a treasure trove of the pianist’s best work, but it’s far from the…
Arts Flash fiction
Paola Corso’s debut story collection jumps abruptly from one character to the next, but leaves a distinct impression Given that the novel evolved out of medieval story cycles such as Boccaccio’s Decameron and The Heptameron by Margaret, Queen of Navarre, it should be no surprise that linked story collections are back in fashion. The only…
Music CD Spotlight
Beat’s still lonely In 1985, when a 17-year-old Charlie Sexton released his debut album, Pictures For Pleasure, fans of the Austin blues-guitar prodigy were universally dismayed. The album found Sexton forsaking his blues roots for shallow art-songs designed to present him as an American David Bowie. With Cruel and Gentle Things, Sexton’s first solo album…
Arts Beginner Mind
What not to do with a hangover? Attend opening day of “Dinosaurus Tex” with two toddlers. We all have to play tour guide at one time or another. I did it on Labor Day weekend when my college roommate, her husband, and 4-year-old son, Griffin, paid us a visit from Denver. I’ve called San Antonio…
Music Current Choice
Wu disciples U-God Like most emcees from Staten Island’s fabled Wu-Tang Clan, Lamont Hawkins, aka U-God, comes strapped with razor-sharp lyrics and a slew of aliases, including Golden Arms, Lucky Hands, Baby U, and the 4-Bar Killer. U-God is an original member of the Wu-Tang crew and in the group’s early days, he often supplied…
Arts Far away winds, close up icons
The Carver Cultural Center’s fall season begins at 8 p.m. Saturday, October 1, at the Jo Long Theatre with an evening of music by the Imani Winds, a wind quintet that weaves African, American, and European musical traditions, and Cuban-American jazz legend Paquito D’Rivera. The 8-year-old Imani quintet has made appearances at the Kennedy Center…
Music Ear food
Grand Buffet For the uninitiated, the Pittsburgh group Grand Buffet can best be described as the Ween of indie-rap. Like Ween, Grand Buffet is a duo composed of self-satisfied, white, pop-culture nerds who gave themselves cartoonish pseudonyms and make music for their own amusement, first and foremost. Even song titles such as “Nate Kukla’s History…
Screens Nasty, brutish, and short
One irate reviewer takes a hatchet to the Religious Right’s penguin snow job The Far Right has found a most unlikely ally in Emperor Penguins. Media moguls from The New York Times to the Chicago Tribune and Agence France-Presse to the editor of the National Review are chiming in on the subject, joining a chorus…
Music Sound and the Fury
A week on the scene Turner tribute Randy “Biscuit” Turner, former frontman for seminal Austin punk band the Big Boys, passed away in August at the age of 56 due to complications from Hepatitis C, and Turner’s friends are gearing up to celebrate his life with back-to-back shows in early October. While Turner fronted several…
Screens Lost in thought
A contemplative film tries to pierce the veil of mystery surrounding genius and its attendant insecurities Can a camera capture thought? A mathematician lost in thought is a phenomenon that is lost to movies. The most abstract of disciplines, mathematics defies cinema, the most concrete of arts. It is ludicrous enough to reduce the intensity…
Screens Forget me not
Memory of a Killer’s addled old soul unloads a conscience-ful of bullets in a final act of redemption Belgium, judged solely by films set in the small European country, is a cold, emotionally strictured and culturally ambivalent place, reviled equally by the sensual French and the militaristic German. It is telling that in the new…
Arts The target is engaged
OCA proposes a new funding process, but some arts groups are already shooting holes in it On a recent sunny September morning, a wiry young man with a bowl haircut was painting This is not Art in bright red, 3-foot-high cursive lettering below Anton Vidokles installation of large, multi-colored graphic symbols on the old Lacks…
Screens Armchair Cinephile
The kids are alright Say what you will about Francis Ford Coppola’s recent obsession with tinkering with his old movies – sure would be nice to see him making new movies again someday, provided they’re nothing like Jack – a large constituency evidently has been begging him to return to one title: Fans of The…
Screens Special screenings
Hispanic Heritage Month Chicano Film Festival In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, UNAM-San Antonio, UTSA, and the Museo Guadalupe Aztlán present nine films that explore the history, politics, and culture of U.S. Latinos. A reception and introductory remarks begin at 3 p.m. Tuesday, October 4, followed by Chicano: The History of the Mexican American Civil…
News Briefs
Air Force pleads immunity in fish kill The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is planning to sue the Air Force over a fish kill that occurred as the result of construction at the former Kelly Air Force Base. But the suit and $10,000 fine might not stick because the Air Force is invoking its exemption…
Screens That’s a wrap
The low-down on this week’s premieres Jessica Alba (Sin City) and Paul Walker (Joy Ride) go deep-sea diving for buried treasure in Into the Blue and instead come up for air with a cargo of cocaine owned by irate drug lords. Those baggies better be tied tight or all sea life around the Bahamas will…
News Speed reads
Lights out for one Ceragem It’s unclear if there’s a connection between Ceragem’s recent legal troubles and the closing of the company’s outlet at 803 SW Military Drive, but the space is for rent and there’s nary a therapeutic bed in sight. Earlier this month, the Texas Attorney General’s office fined the therapeutic-bed company $180,000…
Food & Drink Upper crust
Flaky and delicate are the passwords at Janie’s Pie Factory In the late afternoon, Janie’s Pie Factory feels less like a factory than a crowded kitchen. There are an old enamel pie cabinet in the corner, a baker’s cabinet stacked with cookbooks, and a few oak trestle tables. Janie Bailey sits at small baking table…
Feature Stages and phases
Mayor Phil Hardberger: 100 days down, 630 to go Mayor Phil Hardberger made two important decisions even before he was sworn in on June 17 following a contentious election campaign against former Councilmen Julián Castro and Carroll Schubert. First, he killed the Major League Soccer deal that outgoing Mayor Ed Garza had brokered to occupy…
Food & Drink Hot diggity
At Fire Dog, Chicago-style weenies shine and the Blue Bunny is radiant Iam occasionally asked how on earth I come up with the restaurants I review. It’s all less mysterious than you think, for apart from whispered conversations in corridors, notes tossed over transoms and stuffed into hollows in designated trees, and meetings in darkened…
Food & Drink Meatless in Steer City
Faking it – Who needs eggs when Tofu Scrambler will do? One morning, Paul McCartney awoke with a song running through his head. It had a melancholy melody, but no words. So until he wrote “Yesterday,” he used as a placeholder the phrase “scrambled eggs.” While the traditional breakfast entree helped inspire one of rock’s…
News Stuck in the middle
Cable-Westwood residents question SAHA’s plans to build mixed-income housing between two floodplains On Thursday, September 22, as travelers from Houston and Galveston lined I-45 in a frustrated attempt to avoid Hurricane Rita, Councilwoman Delicia Herrera motioned to postpone, yet again, re-zoning five acres of District 6 property because of issues of flooding and traffic. Developer…
Food & Drink Cold-pressed Crisco
Like many a home cook, I like to keep a variety of oils around the house: Corn oil for popping corn, grapeseed oil for deep frying and the occasional salad dressing, and safflower oil for baking bread. But the king of all oils, at least in my house, is olive, which flows like water into…
News Party lines
City is offsides in building soccer fields Carlos Rodriguez was disappointed when newly elected Mayor Phil Hardberger killed the Major League Soccer deal in June. The president of the San Antonio Soccer Association men’s league says that hosting professional soccer games at the Alamodome would have catalyzed the city into building needed soccer fields for…
Food & Drink All you can eat
News and notes from the San Antonio food scene It’s for a good cause, dahling The San Antonio Country Club, 4100 N. New Braunfels, is hosting a Feast for Relief dinner from 4-8 p.m. on Sunday, October 2. The dinner will benefit the Red Cross’ Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, and will be served in “dine-around”…
Arts Space cadets
A trio of new art galleries vie for attention in Blue Star’s shadow San Antonio’s once fresh-faced young art spaces are hitting milestones: Blue Star turns 20 this year, Sala Diaz is 10. Triangle Project Space recently acquired non-profit status and a board of directors, and Cactus Bra and Three Walls have made waves at…
Music Bagpipe dreams
As one of SA’s few working street musicians, Russell Hoke blows away downtown pedestrians The cross streets of Market and Commerce are tremulous with the rush of visitors and San Antonio natives. They hustle from trolley to street corner, some plunging below onto the slices of sidewalk that form the River Walk, while others push…
