Your Interests Represented Here
Why this blog? Because ignorance is contagious. How did we get politicians who advocate for the richest 2% in this country while advising the nation’s beleaguered unemployed–in the worst economic recession in 80 years–to simply get some jobs? Because apathy is contagious, too; particularly the voter variety. It takes an informed and motivated electorate to fully…
An extra-Happy Monday
Hello world! As much as I loved saying “curblog” (pronounced “kerblahg”), it is with great joy that I post the very first of a very real San Antonio Current blog devoted to music and film. We’ve got some awesome guest bloggers covering related topics, Gentleman Gamer by video game fanboy Adam Coronado and Star Crazy…
Leaving San Antonio
I recently read a book entitled “Mexican Enough” by Stephanie Elizondo Griest. Obviously, the title caught my eye because I often wonder if I am, you know, Mexican enough. And who gets to decide? The book is essentially a travelogue, a documentation of experience by a half-Anglo, half-Mexican, but fully American female voice. A twentysomething…
Struggling with ranch, Bamberger warns of national collapse
I had the pleasure to tool around conservationist legend David Bamberger’s ranch with the man himself (above) on Saturday, considering, for a story this week, the stranded scimitar-horned oryx (also above), soon to be listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Since playing a pivotal role in bringing the African animals back from the brink…
A Healthy Dose of…Yoga?
Yes, Yoga! Welcome to Yoga Dose, a new SA Current Blog about all things yoga. Yoga is an ancient, holistic system of wellness that encompasses a wide range of practices, many of which (contrary to popular belief) are actually quite simple for most people to implement. You don’t need to be a contortionist or spiritual…
After-Hours In Say-Town
I’m not gonna lie. I LOVE to sleep for eight hours or more when I can. But even though I’m a sound sleeper by nature (read: I need lots of help to drag myself off the couch, out of my contacts, and into bed), there are stretches of time when everything goes haywire and I’m…
New School Chicana
Growing up on the Westside of San Antonio, I was immersed in Mexican-American culture as a child and have grown into an adult who now faces the challenge of sharing that experience with the world, breaking down the stereotype of what it means to be an American of Mexican descent. My goal is to create –…
Distilling Civility from the Hobby
Ah, the video game. The pimply-faced, milkman’s child of media. Too fun to be mature. Too vaudevillian to be artful. Too profitable to be irrelevant. Occupying a space somewhere between Wagner operas and serialized gay/black/vampire science fiction, the video game refuses to push its digital daisies. As we near the 40th anniversary of the first…
Slideshow: Second Saturday in SoFlo
Warning: This slideshow contains photographs of artwork with explicit content. Photographs by Bryan Rindfuss
Second Saturday in SoFlo
Warning: This slideshow contains photographs of artwork with explicit content. Speaking of explicit content … Congratulations to Wesley Harvey, whose naughty exhibition “Our First Kiss” completely sold out on opening night at Fl!ght Gallery. Photographs by Bryan Rindfuss
Artifacts, now with 78% more everything
Oh, thank heavens you’ve found us! Y’all know how I — arts and culture staff writer Sarah Fisch — sometimes have a little bitty column in the Current about art news called Artifacts, and how also sometimes I write about art and culture on what used to be the Curblog? Well, Artifacts — this blog…
Artifacts, now with 78% more everything
Oh, thank heavens you’ve found us! Y’all know how I — arts and culture staff writer Sarah Fisch — sometimes have a little bitty column in the Current about art news called Artifacts, and how also sometimes I write about art and culture on what used to be the Curblog? Well, Artifacts — this blog…
newsmonger is born
Welcome to the new SACurrent blogs: an expression of our striving for ever more community-enhanced, community–currated, and (gods of the dying South Texas summer preserve us!) relevant content. Newsmonger is what the QueBlog was: a dumping ground for all things miserable that, with patience and endured common struggle, lead to mass chortles of hope and…
Live and Local: The Sound of Curves
The Sound of Curves Thur, Sep 9 The Ten Eleven 1011 Ave. B theteneleven.com For a band that claims they never practice together, the Sound of Curves sure sound tight. And it’s not the â??we’ve been in a band so long we can do this in our sleep’ excuse for not practicing; they’ve only been…
P-A-R-T-Y with Bryson’s “Freaky Girl” track
It’s officially the weekend. I’m using wi-fi on a plane to NYC for work-related research*. All is right with the world. Enjoy this track after checking out this week’s cover article on local hip-hop baller in waiting, Bryson. That’s right. Just Bryson. Here’s a link to Bryson and Carlos Herrera’s collaboration, “Freaky Girl.” perfect for…
Resident Evil: Afterlife review
Ali Larter (left) and Milla Jovovich star in Screen Gems’ action horror RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE. Photo By: RAFY. � 2010 Constantin Film International GmbH & Davis Films/Impact Pictures Inc. All rights reserved. Our go-to guy for all things campy, horrific, and/or zombie, Stephen Jones, caught Resident Evil: Afterlife in 3D last night and couldn’t resist…
Daddy’s Home Premiers in San Antonio
Daddy’s Home Dir: Justin Price; writ.: Christina Trevino; feat.: Christina Trevino, C.H. Morris, Sebastian Trevino, Daniela Espinosa Valley natives, you may want to check out low-budget thriller Daddy’s Home, now playing on a limited run at the Santikos Rialto Theater Sept. 10-16. Writer, producer, and star Christina Trevino set and filmed her movie in and…
Second Saturday Meets Fotoseptiembre
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 FotoSeptiembre has taken over nearly every gallery in town (and some in Boerne, Fredericksburg, and Austin) and South Flores Arts District is no exception. At Gallista Gallery, photographer Eric Lane presents Art Driven Lives, a series of 40 portraits that “reunite artists with their work.” Many of SA’s “most interesting…
Tales of the Maya Skies
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 SAC’s Scobee Planetarium unveils new technology and programming this Friday. The wee ones won’t want to miss The Little Star That Could, a narrative explanation of what makes stars special and how they combine forces to form galaxies (6:30pm). Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart narrates Violent Universe: Catastrophes…
Art opening: Two to Tango: Linear
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 At Hausmann Millworks this weekend, abstract painter Louis Vega Treviño will show his unique brand of handcrafted yet minimalist-inspired color field works, some in conventional canvas rectangles, others on panels joined together in hexagons suggesting a target for meditative focus. He’s showing alongside new paintings by Kim Bishop, whose surreal…
TheatreASAP
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 Now in its seventh year, TheatreASAP tests the timeliness of some of SA’s more daring playwrights, actors, and directors. On Friday, six local playwrights will randomly draw props, “San Antonio-related lines of dialogue,” and cast lists — all of which must be stirred into a one-act masterpiece in the following…
Randy “Biscuit” Turner Tribute: Let Your Freak Flag Fly with The Jocks, Gay Sportscasters featuring The Lollygaggers, The Texas Biscuit Bombs, Mydolls, & Anarchitex
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 On the fifth anniversary of his death, the life and work of legendary badass Randy “Biscuit” Turner will be celebrated. Singer for Austin’s punk-funk outfit The Big Boys, Turner is also remembered as a “visionary outsider artist.” Among the flag-flying freaks on the roster are: The Jocks, Gay Sportscasters featuring…
Dasa Avatar
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 In Hindu mythology, it is believed that Lord Vishnu has already appeared as nine unique avatars: Matsya (the fish), Kurma (the tortoise), Varaha (the boar), Narasimha (half-man/half-lion), Vamana (the dwarf), Parashurama (Rama with the axe), Rama (prince and king of Ayodhya), Krishna (literally “the dark one,” Krishna is often depicted…
Fabrizzio Poggi & Chicken Mambo
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 Are your tweens trying to con you into buying tickets to the Jonas Brothers concert (7:30pm Friday at the AT&T Center, from $49.98 at ticketmaster.com)? Do you know who opening act (and Disney spawn) Demi Lovato is? Do you care who their bratty “friends from Camp Rock” are? We didn’t…
Leon Russell, Chris Simmons
Critic’s Pick Release Date: 2010-09-08 Are your tweens trying to con you into buying tickets to the Jonas Brothers concert (7:30pm Friday at the AT&T Center, from $49.98 at ticketmaster.com)? Do you know who opening act (and Disney spawn) Demi Lovato is? Do you care who their bratty “friends from Camp Rock” are? We didn’t…
The Extra Man
Critic’s Pick The Extra Man Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini Screenwriter: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini Cast: Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, Katie Holmes, John C. Reilly Release Date: 2010-09-08 Rated: NONE Genre: Film The Extra Man is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from the brains behind both American Splendor and The Nanny Diaries.…
Junky Star
Junky Star Composer: Ryan Bingham Conductor: Ryan Bingham Label: Lost Highway Release Date: 2010-09-08 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording On Ryan Bingham’s third album, he channels storied rockers John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan through his blue-collar imagery and world-weary vocals, while fusing these influences into his own unified voice. Junky Star feels like a…
Fighting the Fool
Fighting the Fool Composer: Mario Flores Conductor: Mario Flores Label: ShimFlo Release Date: 2010-09-08 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording I hope I don’t blow what little credibility I’ve built over my brief tenure in the Current’s music section, but I’m about to do the unthinkable and recommend a radio-friendly country album. Many people respond to the…
Body Talk Pt. 2
Body Talk Pt. 2 Composer: Robyn Conductor: Robyn Label: Cherrytree Release Date: 2010-09-08 Rated: NONE Genre: Recording She’s tough enough to earn Parental Advisory stickers, support Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet Tour, and guide Britney Spears through a post-lunacy comeback. She collaborates with Snoop Dogg, but sounds more at home backed by fellow Swede Carl Bagge’s…
Legendary
Critic’s Pick Legendary Director: Mel Damski Screenwriter: Mel Damski Cast: John Cena, Patricia Clarkson, Danny Glover, Devon Graye Release Date: 2010-09-08 Rated: NONE Genre: Film Unless you’re a fan of either high school wrestling or WWE “RAW” star John Cena, this movie really only has one purpose: It makes a great drinking game. The drama…
Simpler times
With a name like Picnikins it’s got to be good. Wooden benches and tables draped with kitschy gingham cloths came to mind. An excuse to use Styrofoam and plastic wear, I cynically suspected. Visions of deviled eggs danced in my head. But, no. Picnikins is actually a smartly designed café with lots of glass, some…
Treating CPS Energy’s addiction to the seven-percent solution
Sherlock Holmes used a “7-percent solution” of cocaine to get through life when he wasn’t solving mysteries. When Conan Doyle wrote of his addicted detective in the 1880s cocaine was considered perfectly harmless. As its deadly properties became known, Doyle tried to wean his hero off the drug. The Doyle in San Antonio’s own…
Toward a Tent City world
Recurrent public protests in Central Texas, prison uprisings in the West, while down in the Valley detainees staged waves of hunger strikes. All occurred in the last few years; all involve Texas immigration prisons operating for profit. Such facilities represent a growing field for security companies specializing in the warehousing of skyrocketing immigrant prison populations.…
Roomies
“One day I walked into my apartment and there was a 12-year-old smoking weed and watching Tom and Jerry’s Greatest Hits” says Brittney Gilsdorf, who, out of desperation for a roommate, moved in with a casual acquaintance and suffered the consequences. “She had weirdos over constantly. Once there was some 80-year-old dude on the couch…
Dear Uncle Mat
Dear Uncle Mat, My boyfriend really wants me to perform oral sex on him, and I don’t want to. I have tried once in my past with another guy, and I think it’s dirty. Not like dirty bad, but gross. It’s stinky and doesn’t taste good, to be frank. I really love my boyfriend and…
Love doctoring
There are few dilemmas more stressful than an unexpected pregnancy or exposure to a sexually transmitted disease. The last thing you want to do is compound the experience with worry about how to pay for the necessary medical care. Thankfully, there are a few local organizations that offer services from low costs to no cost.…
¡Ask A Mexican!
Dear Readers, ¡VIVA MÉXICO, CABRONES! Happy 200th cumpleaños to America’s favorite country, to the land of pretty señoritas and eternal economic crises, to the world’s greatest, drunkest bola de hijos de la chingada! Celebrate this 16th, drive safe, and guys: remember to wear a helmet before going into battle with a gabacha, if you coger…
Brain juice
While Starbucks definitely works in a pinch, here are some excellent independent-styled coffeehouses where your coffee-lovin’ dollar goes towards local businesses (even if that business is a church) rather than a big-ass corporation. Grace Coffee Café 3233 N Saint Mary’s St Suite 102 (210) 736-6576 Gracecoffeecafe.com The Foundry 2720 McCullough Ave (210) 785-8208 thefoundry-sa.org Guadalupe…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): My friend Alana suffered from a mysterious ailment for months. Symptoms included vertigo, stomach pains, and numbness in her legs. After being treated unsuccessfully by six health care practitioners, both mainstream and alternative, she went to see Dr. Ling, a Chinese herbalist recommended by a friend. Ling was a dour woman…
Discount culture
What with tuition, parking decals, textbooks, gas, and those oh-so-perfectly-timed everyday mishaps, who has the money to live a financially care-free college life? Thankfully, in San Antonio, being a college student brings respect. Various locations throughout the city offer struggling students noteworthy discounts. Here are a few of my favorites. San Antonio Museum of Art…
Tee time
Country music plays from speakers hidden along pathways. Golf carts whiz by. At night, the imposing look of the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa gives off a sci-fi vibe. And with 1,002 guest rooms, 140,000 square feet of customizable indoor space, a 26,000-square-foot spa, and two championship-level golf courses (offering “epic…
Link logic
Making use of online apps and group-editing tools can enhance your scholastic performance or bog you down in hard-to-operate, poorly conceived projects. Here are some sure-fire tools to bring out the best side of your research. Google Docs Have you ever lost an important file on your computer? Do you own outdated, sluggish word-processing…
Bottle & tap
Although I feel nary a twinge of guilt when enjoying a good beer, it certainly is not a guilt-free liquid. Yet some people take assuaging that guilt to extremes. You know the world has gone a little crazy when beer companies actually start naming beers after the number of calories they contain. Then there’s the…
Better than half-price
During my Freshman year, I spent around $300 on textbooks, workbooks, and some fancy calculator that my professors deemed “required.” I assumed that meant that these materials would be imperative to the curriculum, that I would use them for something other than a doorstop (and a shitty one at that). I thought that if I…
The Queque – September 8, 2010
CPS sunshine Now that CPS Energy is dishing so much sunshine to the Express-News (telling them, for instance, that the City-owned utility spent $6.1 million extracting itself from 50-percent ownership in two planned nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project in Matagorda County to today’s 7.6-percent status; confirming a range upper-management sorts are paid pro-sports-type…
How for-profit thinking undermines teachers
The flipside of back to school for students is back to work for the teachers who fill the classrooms of colleges and universities throughout San Antonio — an apropos reminder for a college guide issue that tails the Labor Day holiday. We tend to view college campuses as ivory towers cut off from the everyday…
Choosing sides
Hunger strikes at the Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Los Fresnos over the past couple of years didn’t arise out of a vacuum. To hear former detention guard Tony Hefner tell it, they were preceded by years of vicious prisoner treatment, rampant sexual harassment and abuse of both detainees and staff, and mysterious arrangements…
OLLU
As much as San Antonians talk about how small our city feels, many of us end up retracing the same routes again and again on our way to eat, drink, and shop — after an hour trying to figure out what to do — keeping it boring. Here’s a new block to shake up your…
Hearthstone Bakery Cafe
After you’ve paid for your food at the McCullough Street Hearthstone’s order counter, you’ll be given a buzzer to take to your table. Before long, lights will start flashing and a raucous buzz will erupt from the device. You then take it to the kitchen counter and exchange it for your food. You can’t turn…
UTSA
With over 30,000 students crowding the UTSA campus, where can a Roadrunner run to escape the headaches of academic life? Of course, you can nuzzle a cup of Joe at the University Center Starbucks, but beware long lines in the morning and lunchtime. Or you can hit the Einstein Bros. inside the Bioscience and Engineering…
The really red shoes
Veteran director Bruce Beresford has carved out a three-decade career crafting sturdy, slightly above-average films with just enough pulse and winsomeness to shuffle his audiences out of theaters with a half-smile and maybe a bland utterance like, “That was nice.” From Tender Mercies to Driving Miss Daisy, Beresford’s filmography is the Reader’s Digest of cinema.…
‘Jihad’ jams
It took six years and one controversial immigration law for Andrew Jackson Jihad to get around to doing what most folk-punk bands might consider their bread and butter: the protest song. Now they can’t seem to stop. The band’s cri de coeur “Lady Liberty” made it onto a recent compilation CD assembled by Phoenix New…
Live & local
There is something so quirky and charming about G.I.G.’s set-up, an 850-square-foot jewelry-box of a venue decorated as if by someone’s Miami-based Grandma, that it’s hard not to feel at home. Ruben Garcia’s “club,” which is really more of an all-ages hang spot, caters to the singer-songwriter set especially, making the ambience of couches and…
The mother country
The annual Fotoseptiembre festival hit First Friday last week and ushered in curator Kimberly Aubuchon’s photo show, This is not a photo show. Aubuchon has assembled an ensemble of photographers playing dually at Blue Star’s Contemporary Arts Center and the Unit B gallery in Southtown. First of the Blue Star batch, Yumi Janairo Roth’s photos…
The Sound & the Fury
Recently I heard that expression, “if it wasn’t for bad luck, she’d have no luck at all.” These days I can relate, but accordionista Eva Ybarra can relate more. The undisputed, long-reigning Queen of Conjunto Accordion and San Antonio treasure has had a bad run lately. First, in late spring someone burgled her house, stealing…
Sunrise over booty
The first time I heard local visual artist Franklin Bryson Brooks rap was after a benefit at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center last spring. I was steadying myself from the effects of too much free vodka when Brooks, having also enjoyed a few beverages, asked if I wanted to hear his rap song. “Seriously?” I…
Revolutions in time
On SAMA’s second floor, in the Golden Gallery of The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, hangs a selection of photographs from the museum’s permanent collection: a small but historically loaded exhibition of images of the Mexican Revolution. Called Tierra, Libertad y no Re-Elección! (Land, Liberty and No Re-Election), the grouping includes some…
M for eMo
If the Metroid video games could be considered a love letter to director Ridley Scott’s Alien films, the series’ latest installment, Metroid: Other M (Wii), is fan fiction penned by a junior-high James Cameron. For some reason, Nintendo drafted its own employees, with members of Team Ninja, the group responsible for the post-millennial installments of…
Letterbox
Each week, the Current will collect and republish the best commentary we receive through parcel post, email, and our Facebook and Twitter accounts to allow more diverse points of view to see print in our pages. While we may accept user IDs, twitter handles, or stage name, we save a special place in our collective,…
No TPR Cinema Tuesday today
Summer lives! We just heard from director Nathan Cone that Texas Public Radio is delaying the last evening of their popular Cinema Tuesday summer screenings by one evening. The culprit: power outage at the Bijou Cinema. And I thought this was perfect movie-watching weather. All reservations for tonight’s TPR screening (of Oscar-nominated short documentaries) will…
Happy (belated) Monday: Band of Heathens live
I hope you all had a non-laborious Labor Day. Today the music and screens inbox yielded this live performance by Band of Heathens, performing “Free Again,” a political protest song about the BP oil spill wrapped up in a laid-back good-times ‘awlins piano shuffle. Band of Heathens plays San Antonio on Sept. 24-25 at Lone…
