First Friday Rattled
While doing our monthly First Friday art stroll we momentarily forgot about FOTOSEPTIEMBRE when we passed by Blue Star Brewery. We were too consumed with the sounds of Rattletree Marimba, a high-energy dance/trance quintet hailing from Austin. If you didn’t catch their performance, check out what you missed:
Jenkins on Wonderland: ‘Alice’ at the Magik
While you all were lining up to see Gregg Barrios’s Rancho Pancho at the Jump-Start (sold-out Saturday night, and a Current critic’s pick to boot), theater critic Tom Jenkins went to see the closing weekend of another SA original at the Magik. Here’s his report: Your intrepid critic-in-the-trenches managed to catch the final ‘adult’ performance…
Live and Local Preview: Mojoe
The Current (as in me, Jeremy Martin) will be headed to Limelight Saturday, to catch a performance by local hip-hop duo Mojoe (the brandy sippin’ dudes in that bad-ass photo to my left). Supporting them will be several talented Chicago artists, including the recently critically (as in me, but I know what I’m talking about)…
Walking against the Wall
Pilar Pedersen pilar.pedersen@gmail.com March Against the Border Wall August 27 — 30, 2008 Last week a group of citizens marched from Ft. Hancock to El Paso to protest construction of the Border Wall along the Rio Grande by the U.S. government. The march commenced Wednesday evening with a cultural event at Fort Hancock and formal…
On the Street
“Motivational speakers make the worst lovers” Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite) #1 $10 Million Down the Toilet? Somehow I forgot to post this amazing letter last week. The letter is in regards to the article two weeks ago about unusual museums. flickr user: lindseymorrison I’m not sure what happened to the fotos…
Northern Exposure at the RNC
By Gilbert Garcia If we cast aside the content of Sarah Palin’s platform (and remember, this is someone who’s anti-choice even in cases of rape or incest; who opposes all forms of sex education, aside from abstinence; and who tried to get books banned from her hometown library), she gave a great political performance at…
Boosting SAWS bottom line
Greg Harman gharman@sacurrent.com Tommy Lee Jones found his way back off the Water Hogs list during a break stumping for natural gas drillers up in DFW, but somebody really needs to tell these remaining million-gallon-club members that flaunting green lawns during Alarm Stage drought is no way to make friends in South Texas. Million-gallon membership…
Wrong Said Fred
By Gilbert Garcia Fred Thompson’s red-meat throwdown at Tuesday night’s RNC was certainly more potent than anything the retired lawyer-turned-actor-turned-senator delivered on the presidential campaign trail last year. But CurBlog simply can’t let him get away with his claim that Barack Obama is “the most inexperienced nominee to ever run for president.” “Ever” is an…
Carolina on her mind
By Gilbert Garcia A big revelation for me at the Democratic National Convention was Linda Ketner, the Democratic nominee for the House of Representatives from South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District — who just happens to be an out-of-the-closet lesbian. Only three open members of the LGBT community have ever made it to Capitol Hill and…
Pro Tools
Pro Tools Composer: GZA Release Date: 2008-09-03 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Hip Hop/Rap The long-awaited new solo disc from Wu-Tang “Genius” GZA is more cohesive than it should be, considering nearly a dozen different producers assembled its tracks. It’s a top-heavy record, with show-offs like the chorus of “Alphabets,” which…
McKay Otto
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
Critic’s Pick In Search of a Midnight Kiss Director: Alex Holdridge Screenwriter: Alex Holdridge Cast: Scoot McNairy, Brian McGuire, Sara Simmonds, Kathleen Luong, Twink Caplan Release Date: 2008-09-03 Studio: IFC Rated: R Genre: Comedy This is Annie Hall for dudes who listen to Coldplay. Woody stand-in Wilson (McNairy) is a Y-generation kind of neurotic: In…
Jon Lee
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254
Rattletree Marimba & Joel Loviolete
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Blue Man Group meets Afro-pop is one of the best ways to describe the music of Rattletree Marimba, a high-energy dance/trance quintet hailing from Austin. They made their first visit to San Antonio about a month ago and were met with resounding approval. Giant wooden marimbas are their instruments of choice, and…
Bettie Ward Gallery Talk
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254 Expressionist with needle: http://www.sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69775
Un Retrato de Diego: La Revolución de la Mirada
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa and photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo collaborated on a documentary commemorating legendary muralist Diego Rivera’s art career in 1949, but shelved the project before completion. Figueroa’s son and Rivera’s grandson embarked on a new collaboration after discovering the lost footage and retracing the trio’s steps — the final cut includes…
The Jewel of a Visionary Architect
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254 Expressionist with needle: http://www.sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69775
Rancho Pancho
Release Date: 2008-09-03 San Antonio native Gregg Barrios chronicles the short-lived but intense relationship between playwright Tennessee Williams and South Texan Pancho Rodriguez, who met on the Texas-Mexico border in 1946 when Williams was returning from a trip to Mexico. The play — based in part on previously unknown correspondence between Williams and Rodriguez —…
Bleed The Sky, The Destro, Gigan, The 11th Massacre, D-Railed, Remember This, Awaken the Fallen, & more
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Named by Spin as one of the 50 up-and-coming bands in the U.S., Bleed The Sky is claiming their place in the industry by creating a new respect for metal through lyrical depth, tangibility, and musicianship with integrity. Also on the bill is The Destro, a hard-hitting Dallas foursome that has plowed…
Hometown Grown: Reaping teh Local Harvest
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Community gardens have sprouted up in neighborhoods across the city due to consumers who understand the importance of buying local, in-season produce, or growing it themselves. Join Green Spaces Alliance and Texas Public Radio for a panel this Sunday to learn more about growing food in your own backyard, cooperating with friends…
European Film Festival
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Head out to The Rim for this year’s screenings, where The Department of Modern Languages and Literature at UTSA has selected 25 recent European films for the four-day festival. The inaugural movie will be the French film Qui m’aime me suive (above), the story of a doctor in his 30s who gives…
The Bop Kings
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Rockabilly string trio The Bop Kings get down for this Tuesday’s Rockabilly Ruckus night. The band rocks their audience with flourishes of honky-tonk, surf, and the occasional Irish jig, proving that rockabilly is still alive and well in the heart of South Texas. Just off a five-year hiatus, they’re set to embark…
Breast man
Roth adaptation Elegy is as shallow as its narrator
Mojoe, Pugs Atoms, Awdazcate, Vertual Vertigo, & DJ Intel
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Hard to say what’s more unusual about Pugslee Atomz — that he’s a talented, intelligent Chicago rapper without a major-label deal, or that he appears to have named himself after that husky-sized weird kid from Addams Family Values. Contrary to what you might take from the influx of quality Chi-Town hip-hops clogging…
international man of misery
Traitor Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff Screenwriter: Jeffrey Nachmanoff Cast: Don Cheadle, Archie Panjabi, Guy Pearce, Lorena Gale, Aly Khan Release Date: 2008-09-03 Studio: Overture Rated: PG-13 Genre: Drama The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Just as the Dems were wrapping up their histrionic national convention and attention turned to the GOP and their efforts to…
12 Japanese Photographers
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254
29 Brix still means wine
Troy Fullmer’s northern exposure works best with grapes
Zoë Sheehan Saldana
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254
Tavern in the green
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Exiting I-35 North and pulling on to the isolated stretch of road known as FM 1102, it’s rather refreshing to leave the traffic-produced illumination behind in favor of some trees, quiet, and natural light — even if this particular setting bears a striking similarity to a hoard of poorly produced slasher flicks…
Veronica Riedel: The Making of a Mestiza
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254
Moody Motorcycle
Moody Motorcycle Composer: Human Highway Label: Suicide Squeeze Release Date: 2008-09-03 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Oldies/Doo-wop Forget the Dylan getup Nick Thorburn (Islands, the Unicorns) sports on the cover, the real influences here (Everly Brothers, Beach Boys) predate the thin, wild mercury. Even more interesting than Thorburn and Jim Guthrie’s…
Sky Patterson
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read Ben Judson’s profile of Sky Patterson here.
The New Year
The New Year Composer: The New Year Release Date: 2008-09-03 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Indie Rock Rock ’n’ roll is filled with songs about the road, but Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” or Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band” won’t prepare you for the first single from the New…
International Artist-In-Residence 08.2
Release Date: 2008-09-03 The Current reviews New Works: 08.2 here.
Old Wounds
Old Wounds Composer: Young Widows Release Date: 2008-09-03 Rated: NONE Media: CD Length: LP Format: Album Genre: Punk/Hardcore Young Widows’ new record is a compilation of golden points spliced and fused from live performances. Old Wounds’ channeling of the tendencies of classic noise and rock bands is well-crafted and smart. Inexorably steeped in the entropy…
Bettie Ward
Release Date: 2008-09-03 Read a review of this FOTOSEPTIEMBRE show here: http://sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69254 Expressionist with needle: http://www.sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69775
The real Palin baby bomb
Oh, there are all sorts of reasons Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s Twilight Zone vice-presidential pick, could finish off the professional POW’s malingering presidential hopes, but her unwed daughter’s pregnancy probably isn’t one of them. Or rather, voters who list that as one of their top reasons for rejecting her probably were sour…
Mile-high hopes
The most compelling speaker at this year’s Democratic National Convention wasn’t standing in front of a podium. He didn’t have a packed arena or an overflow football stadium hanging on his every inflection. He only spoke for a couple of minutes, to an audience of about 100 people in a small meeting room at the…
Rhymes with ‘kennel’
Who can retreat for six years, shake off the residue from abrupt turnabouts and false starts, and return polished? Chicago natives Dianogah, for one. Their 2002 release Millions of Brazilians was tepidly received by critics, but this post-rock trio has since established a more recent catalog of work that’s well worth the listen. Since establishing…
THE SAY-TOWN LOWDOWN
Expeditious. With a single word, the literary sleeping pill of Section 102(c) of the Real ID Act has led to a civil-rights nightmare on the southern border. Designed to mute laws that could hinder Secure Fence Act construction, Section 102 provides that “the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall…
Lie and Wait
Lie and Wait sound checks after other high-energy hardcore acts have been playing for hours, an hour past schedule in fact. Stale mosh sweat lingers. A few fans line the stagefront, and the casual head-bobbers are backs-to-the-wall. There’s a 10-foot patch of empty concrete no man’s land for the violent types. The all-agers loiter catching…
The QueQue
Cry uncle! More than 10 years ago, a small crowd gathered downtown to lift a sign, bow their heads, and publicly object to Texas’s killing of killers and the drivers who love them. Like doomsday clockwork, each time the state loosed the fatal chemical cocktail, Johnny Martinez (or others of like mind) have gathered near…
“Darkening Skies” — Willard Marcell Theory
“My heart returns to you” vocalist John Marcell incants repeatedly, but this is no spell for romantic reconciliation. Tribal drums and disorienting sonic swirls give the track the shade of a pagan ritual mourning the day’s death, while that guitar solo at midway mark expertly combines Hendrix’s earth and air elements, eventually blotting out the…
FOTOSEPTIEMBRE Week 1: Missing inaction
It’s impossible to view the Japanese photography exhibit at Blue Star without thinking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the nearly quarter-million individuals who perished in those cities in August 1945, when the U.S. brought a decisive end to World War II in the Pacific and declared itself top dog for the remainder of the century.…
Say-Town slugger
It’s 3 a.m., and Buddy Calvo sits in his backyard alone in the dark, with a baseball bat in hand. He’s not quite sure what’s going to happen if he actually catches the thieves who have been targeting his neighborhood for the last two years, but he does know, if given the chance, he’s going…
ARTIFACTS
Following this summer’s uncertainty about Contemporary Art Month’s future, Robert Tatum, co-founder of its current incarnation, has reasserted control, announcing that the festival will move to March in 2010, and telling Artifacts this week that he’ll soon announce seven new “dream team” board members. `See “CAM O’ War,” June 25, 2008.` Tatum also confirmed a…
S’NUFF film
Prepare to be rewarded, loyal readers (aka Mom and that creepy guy I used to sit next to in English class). I’m telling you where you can see the hit movie Grease for absolutely, 100-percent free. No, smart-ass, not TBS, TCM, or ABC Family any given three nights of the week. It’s playing at 7:30…
Restoring an icon, in film and deed
Diego López Rivera had just turned 5 when his grandfather, Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera, passed away in November 1957. Although he does not remember anything about him, López Rivera says he learned to cherish the stories his family has passed on about his short time with a man regarded as one of the…
Cinema Obscura
Darkman is a product of its time: a late-’80s action movie full of over-the-top violence, corporate villains, a gruesome anti-hero, and a plot as thin as a razor blade. Dr. Peyton Westlake, a scientist developing a synthetic skin capable of replicating facial features, unwittingly crosses the mob and is left for dead in a lab…
‘Third’ doesn’t make the grade
Wendy Wasserstein’s Third is a play about academia, so let’s couch things academically: This is a B+ production of a B- play. I report this with a heavy heart. The same playwright’s The Heidi Chronicles (which Third occasionally resembles) won the Pulitzer for its propulsive mix of academe, dreams, and disillusion, and I was hoping —…
Going stupid
I had one of those ah-ha experiences last week when I read an essay in the July/August Atlantic Monthly. The author, Nicholas Carr, wrote this: “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t…
Miami vices
It’s amazing what a linguistically gifted writer can do once he decides to wander outside the confines of his comfort zone. Scotsman Irvine Welsh has had the peculiar limbo of the post-industrial, working-class, substance-addicted, emotionally decrepit, football-loyal contemporary white man on lock since his 1993 Trainspotting debut, and even though he’s altered settings here and…
Potty humor
If director Deb Hagan knew her binge-drinking freshman year at the University of Delaware would actually be used as research for her first feature film 15 years later, she might’ve stayed around an extra couple of semesters just to make sure she understood the full meaning of the term “riding the porcelain bus.” Nevertheless, Hagan…
Dear Uncle Mat
I’ve been with my husband (common law) for almost three years now. I know I love him because through all the b/s we’ve gone through, we still stand strong (or what seems to be strong) in the aftermath. When I was seven months pregnant (our son is now almost 2) he cheated on me ……
Alt Prez
Two things mark a third-party or independent candidacy for President: the desire to change politics as we know it and the inability to do so. The major minor parties are more effective at scuttling each other’s chances than rousting the two-headed troll that holds absolute power in this country. For example, you’d think that one…
Slaughter The Caf
A washer and dryer. A bathroom not shared with 20 people. A bed larger than a shoe box. These are all things that college students will miss as they head back to school. For some, these luxuries pale in comparison to another comfort of home: real food. You can cope with this, however. Whether you’re…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Like an ox-cart driver in monsoon season or the skipper of a grounded ship, one must sometimes go forward by going back,” wrote novelist John Barth in The Friday Book. Consider using that approach, Aries. Retreat may be the strongest move you can make right now; surrender could turn out to…
Get a Move On
With today’s skyrocketing oil prices, the coming-of-age journey to college is getting more and more costly, sometimes limiting which college a student chooses. No longer can you throw everything but the kitchen sink into the trunk of your car and hightail it to freedom-land. In our current economic state, you have to plan ahead and…
FARM aid
A decade ago, environmentally friendly business practices brought to mind roadside fruit and vegetable stands and arts & craft fairs. But today, earth-conscience consumers are embracing their hippie heritage at the Alamo City’s own FARM. Think homemade art, live jam sessions (local acts autosuggestion, Aly Tadros, and Mira Radar are a few of the musicans…
Poli-Science Spree
Voting among people ages 17-29 has increased substantially in recent years. According to Circle, a non-partisan group that encourages civic engagement, youth voting increased from 22 percent to 25 percent between the 2002 and 2006 elections. Texas has already seen an impressive youth turnout in this year’s election. Seventeen percent of Texans under 30 turned…
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m an illegal alien. Got here on a tourist visa and stayed for a job. My gabacho employer knows about it and doesn’t give a crap. I don’t apologize about it. Ever since I can remember, the U.S.A. has meddled around other countries’ business like it owns the world. That, at least in…
Dorm Decor
Clashing with your new college roommate over some decisions is inevitable, but creating a comfy dorm room doesn’t have to be one of them. Keep four budget-friendly tips in mind when shopping for your new room to enjoy smooth sailing ’till graduation. Most college dorms are a tight squeeze, so bunk your beds to fit a…
Amuse-BOUCHE
Friends who brew together, stay together. Southern Star Brewing Company, founded in Conroe, Texas, this year by longtime home-brew pals and golfing buddies Brian Hutchins and Dave Fougeron, is meeting its founders expectations. “Actually a little bit better,” says Hutchins. Even the micro-brewery’s logo was designed by another old Fougeron friend and college home-brewer. Hutchins…
Alternate Universe
Today’s high-school seniors are pre-programmed with the idea that they must graduate, attend a four-year university, rack up debt, and graduate again. They do all this in hope of landing their dream job. Some students, however, are realizing that their preferred profession isn’t something taught in a traditional, four-year college. They turn to alternative schools…
Postcard from Alaska
The defining moment of Sarah Palin’s political career — at least up until Friday, August 29 — took place while she didn’t even hold elected office and occupied a place largely outside the public eye. In 2004, two years after leaving the office of mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (a town of fewer than 10,000 souls),…
Electric Companies
With a failing economy, burgeoning credit problems, and companies laying off workers right and left, it’s daunting for young college grads to jump headfirst into our depressing job market. Evading student-loan collectors after a pricey four years is no fun, but even worse is the thought that a degree you might not use could decimate…
Birth of the anti-cool
I haven’t even met Owen Duggan yet, and already my conscience has gotten the best of me. The man is a music minister at a local church, an accomplished children’s musician, a devoted family man, and I’ve invited him to where else but the booze-filled, smoke-tinged dregs of happy hour in the Alamo City. Fortunately,…
Field Trips
Live Music White Rabbit A staple of the local music scene, the White Rabbit makes San Antonio a definite tour stop. Beloved by scenesters and recognized by touring bands around the world, the live-music venue plays host to all genres of rock, but metal and hardcore are definitely a stronghold. The Rabbit has been raising…
THE SOUND & THE FURY
Mitch Webb & the Swindles have enjoyed solid alt-country radio support for their latest CD, Lonely Kind, since its June release, and last week they moved into the number-30 slot on the Americana Music Association album chart. Joining big-name veterans such as John Cougar Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, and John Hiatt on the AMA chart, the…
