Dear Readers,
Your excuses to camp out next to the window unit, chew ice and cry softly are evaporating faster than a wet footprint on a hot rock. Even if you hate the sun. Even if you wear a lot of black and have tattoos. Even if the only thing that used to drag your ass out of your house in July was Contemporary Art Month, still the city of hundred-degrees-for-months-at-a-time offers charm, sexiness, and more art than you can shake a raspa at.
Let’s start with two new arty institutions that have joined forces like tequila and lime.
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, and Stars and Garters Burlesque
With Dr. Sketchy’s chapters in New York, L.A., and 40 other cities across the US of A, this combination life-drawing class and burlesque performance welcomes sketchers with little to no, or lots to much experience at the scribbly happening. If you’re the kind of art student who was into life drawing primarily for the chance to ogle ladyflesh, or you just feel as though your current ouevre is short on pasties and arched backs, this one’s for you, buddy. Leering or drawing with chair only is $5, a whole table to yourself is $14, and if you’re sharing a table, it’s $8 per person. It’s held monthly at the Pedicab Bar, and drink specials, ridiculous contests, and silly parties are all part of the fun. The next “class” occurs July 11. Write to blue@drsketchysa.com for reservations.
Dr. Sketchy’s accomplice in this endeavor is the San Antonio Stars and Garters Burlesque. Thus far, all of the Pedicab sketcheramas have starred lady performers from this frisky troupe of practitioners of vintage hoochy-kootchy, employing various poses for your class inspiration. Former Burlesque-teers who’ve graced the Pedicab for Dr. Skethchy’s Anti-Art party include Pystol Whips and S.T. Shimi (aka “Black Orchid,” her Burlesque name), a beautiful mover, social activist, and a star of the two-and-a-half-hour July 18 Stars and Garters Burlesque show at Jump-Start Performance Co. at Blue Star. If you’re itching to master the fan dance, yourself, visit their website and sign up for a workshop.
July 11
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School
$5-$14
Pedicab Bar and Grille
drsketchysa.com
July 18
Stars and Garters Burlesque: An Evening of Classic Burlesque
Jump Start Performance Co.
$12 advance/$15 door
starsandgartersburlesque.com
Unit B Gallery’s International Pancake Film Festival and Bike ’n’ Movie Night
We don’t know what bike rider and activist, founder of the Downtown Highlife Bicycle Club, and film enthusiast (and Current contributor) Mark Jones has up his sleeve for July 24, but we do know it’ll involve an arduous yet rewarding bike ride around downtown, winding up in the spacious Unit B backyard, where cyclists can recover and gulp cold Lone Stars, eat some snacks provided by Unit B, and watch an outdoor screening of something really, really interesting (if we know Jones). It miiiiiight be Rolling Thunder, an S.A.-set, ’70s-tastic revenge flick penned by Paul Taxi Driver Schrader and starring one Tommy Lee Jones. That’s pure speculation though; soon as Jones lets us know what the movie is, we’ll tell you.
Speaking of film and Unit B: Once again, Chicago-based video artist Damon Bishop and Kimberly Aubuchon, artist and curator at Unit B, team up to put on what must be one of the most unusual (and fun as heck) film festivals in the country. Unfortunately, it’s too late to submit your own pancake-themed short (the due date was June 15, so get ready for next year), but aren’t you at least a little curious about how this flapjack theme is played out? Do pancakes act as the characters, the background, the special effects, or maybe the motivation? In any case, each film will last no longer than five minutes, so it’s not like you’re gonna be trapped watching a three-hour hotcake epic. Plus! Pancakes will be served! We’re about to pass out.
Downtown Highlife Bicycle Club and Unit B
Bike ’n’ Movie Night
7-11pm Jul 24
The International Pancake Film Festival
7-10pm Aug 7
Unit B Gallery
unitbgallery.com
The McNay’s Summer Latin Jazz & Lunch Series
Tomatillo’s caters a yummy Sunday buffet while you sit in the nice cool Leeper Auditorium, soaking up the hottest Latin Jazz from SA’s bad-ass musicians.
Hot Sauce Jazz with Alfredo Flores
12:30–3pm, Jul 25
Richard Oppenheim’s A&R Band
12:30–3pm, Aug 22
Concerts free with museum admission: contact info@mcnayart.org
McNay Art Museum
mcnayart.org
San Antonio Museum of Art
SAMA’s First Sundays for Families program features a super-special July 4 edition: Celebrate Red, White and Blue.
This marriage of art and patriotism offers kiddos the opportunity to make mobiles, paint landscapes, go for a scavenger hunt through the contemporary and Early American galleries, make kites, and more. Grownup handlers can enjoy live music and tasty box lunches from SAMA’s Café des Artistes.
Other SAMA events this summer include an artist conversation between Brown Contemporary Curator David Rubin and artists Susan Budge and Angel Rodriguez-Diaz, a screening of Tommy, and the engagingly titled tour “Little People: Latin American miniatures not to be believed!,” led by Marion Oettinger Jr., curator of Latin American Art.
Celebrate Red, White and Blue
1-5pm Jul 4
Conversations with Artists: Susan Budge
6:30-8pm Jul 6
Little People: Latin American Miniatures Not to be Believed!
6pm Jul 6
SAMA Screens Film Series: Tommy (1975)
7pm Jul 13
Conversations with Artists: Angel Rodriguez-Diaz
6:30-8pm Jul 20
Tuesday-evening and family-day events free
San Antonio Museum of Art
samuseum.org
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2010 and Summer Guide (2010).