San Antonio Current – April 11, 2018

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APRIL 11-17, 2018

WHY

DOES

SHERYL

SCULLEY PISS OFF SO MANY PEOPLE?

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FIRST WORDS 1

31

On Trump's Border Wall Would Mess With Texas Wildlife, New Report Finds // Bravo, this is the sweetest red herring fallacy I’ve seen in a long time. How lucky are we to have a news source that promotes misbelief – Fritz Krueger On Real Food Costs Money: Sandwich Edition // The Station Cafe could charge $13 for their sandwichs and I'd still eat there once a week – Dustin Crabtree

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On Just Gimme The Light and Pass The Dro: Sean Paul Is Playing Oyster Bake // Just by reading the header i knew it was gonna be another Chris Conde shit piece – Fred Cereno

Blowing Smoke SA is closer to finding out how dirty its air is

Issue 18_15 /// April 11-17, 2018

NEWS

Forced Feeds That pro-Trump propaganda ploy last week?

Just another day in Sinclair’s newsrooms

20

CALENDAR

Our top picks for the week

26

Crossing Borders San Antonio and Canary Islands artists venture ‘Beyond the Wall’

Texas Lawmakers Derailing Housing for Seniors Texas essentially gives state legislators veto power over affordable housing in their districts.

On Lou Diamond Phillips Pleads Guilty to Drunk Driving Near Corpus Christi // I get it, you need clicks and all, but this incident is from November! It has zero impact on anybody’s life that’s reading this. It’s just gossiping and being mean. You report on news and culture, and you do it well, this is neither news nor culture. You don’t have to do this. My two cents, thanks. – Brian Contine

Their Town Have a beef with Sheryl Sculley? Get in line

29 41

SCREENS

Staying True to Spirit Composer Antonio Sánchez keeps improvisation part of live Birdman show

31

FOOD

Evolving Panadería With a third store, Bedoy’s Bakery is more culturally relevant than ever

35

COVER City Manager Sheryl Sculley takes a lot of heat for her compensation package. But there’s a lot more to it than that.

Illustration by Jeremiah Teutsch Art direction by Carlos Aguilar 6

CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

41

MUSIC

Outlaws Uncovered Listen to early recordings of Texas icon Jerry Jeff Walker at the Wittliff Collections Let’s Get Filthy Post-punk outfit Filthy releases Fault in Tolerance Music Calendar What to see and hear this week

48

NIGHTLIFE

Tipple Test Southtown’s newest Happy Hours

The Big Spoon Dinner with SA’s biggest foodies

ON THE

ARTS + CULTURE

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Savage Love Jonesin’ Crossword Freewill Astrology

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sacurrent.com •April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 9

NEWS

SANFORD NOWLIN

>

That pro-Trump propaganda ploy last week?

Just another day in Sinclair’s newsrooms

When Deadspin last week spliced together footage of anchors at Sinclair Broadcast Group TV stations across the country reading an identical statement decrying “fake news,” the effect was creepy. It perfectly captured the point at which a media giant injected politics into local news.

But, in reality, there’s nothing new here.

Sinclair — owner of San Antonio’s WOAI-TV, KABB-TV and KMYS-TV — has spent the past two decades using the credibility of its local anchors to foist off a far-right political agenda. And those efforts are poised to reach even more eyeballs if federal regulators allow the Maryland-based company to complete a deal that will bring its signal into three-quarters of U.S. households.

The heavy-handed nature of last week’s promo, which echoes President Donald Trump’s favorite mediabashing talking points, should be an eye-opener to media consumers, Trinity University communication professor Aaron Delwiche said.

“We’ve always known corporate owners have opinions, and that those opinions affect the content,” Delwiche said.

“But, until this video, we’ve tended to see those filters operating in a more fuzzy and abstract way.”

Although in Sinclair’s case, “fuzzy” might be in the eye of the beholder.

The company’s controlling Smith family began putting their conservative stamp on stations as early as 2001. After the 9/11 terror attacks, they mandated local anchors read statements supporting George W. Bush’s war on terror. In 2004, they made headlines by trying to force outlets to run a 30-minute documentary slamming Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s war record. The company eventually trimmed the hatchet job down to five minutes, following threats of a massive ad boycott.

And, for the past year, the media group has required its 193 stations to run pro-Trump propaganda segments featuring former White House official Boris Epshteyn. In them, 10 CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

DELAINE MATHIEU/FACEBOOK

Forced Feeds

Epshteyn — now Sinclair’s chief political analyst — frequently takes aim at other media for their stories critical of Trump.

Attempts to contact Sinclair prior to press time were unsuccessful, but the company did issue a news release defending its “fake news” segment. In it, Scott Livingston, Sinclair’s senior vice president of news, said it was “ironic that we would be attacked for messages promoting our journalistic initiative for fair and objective reporting.”

But Livingston’s statement misses the point (perhaps intentionally), observers argue. It’s not the pledge to be fair and objective that’s alarming, but the way the promo mirrors Trump’s language. Not to mention, the statement fails to acknowledge the years of “must run” content Sinclair’s home office forces on its local stations.

Don Dimick, a former editor and videographer for WOAI and KABB, quit that job in October, in part because of Sinclair’s must-run dictates. Among the most flagrant, he said, was its requirement that stations run its shrill “Terror Alert Desk” segments, whether or not they contained anything newsworthy to local viewers.

While Dimick understands public outrage over the “fake news” promo, he urges people not to take that anger out on employees at local stations. Most want to do good local news and fear leaping off the train when journalism job prospects are the worst in modern history.

“I quit because I didn’t like working for Sinclair,” he said.

“But I wouldn’t want to say anything bad about the local anchors, the local photographers, the local reporters. They ran this stuff because they had to. It was like taking medicine.”

Delaine Mathieu, an anchor at both WOAI and KABB, posted on Facebook that she and fellow anchor Randy Beamer had no choice but to read the recent promo if they wanted to keep their jobs. The pair had to re-record their initial cut because they looked “so mortified.”

“I absolutely understand — it was hard for us to watch, too,” she responded to a poster who threatened to tune out the newscast. “Beamer and I have nothing if we don’t have

our credibility and trust in the community.”

It’s not like Sinclair’s controllers have exactly been quiet about their political goals. Since 1994, the company, its officers and owners have paid $1.4 million in campaign contributions, overwhelmingly to Republican candidates, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

For his part, CEO David Smith recently told New York Magazine via email that print media “serves no real purpose” and is “so left wing as to be meaningless dribble.” (We’re guessing Dave meant “drivel” there, but hey, why trust print?)

And the chief beneficiary of the Smith’s on-air propaganda has certainly taken note. After the Deadspin clip surfaced, Trump wasted no time letting his thumbs do the talking.

“Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke,” he tweeted in support.

It’s especially alarming that Sinclair and Trump seem to be in lockstep as the feds consider whether to allow its $3.9 billion takeover of Tribune Media. That deal would allow the company to grow by as many as 43 stations and reach 72 percent of U.S. households.

The acquisition still needs approval from anti-trust regulators and the Federal Communications Commission, now led by Ajit Pai, the Trump-approved corporate cozy who led the dismantling of net neutrality rules. The FCC’s top internal watchdog is investigating whether Pai and his aides improperly pushed for rule changes that allowed Sinclair’s transaction.

Trinity’s Delwiche said the “fake news” promo could be a catalyst for outraged media consumers to limit Sinclair’s growing power. He points to Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg’s Twitter campaign to drive advertisers from Laura Ingraham’s show, which has led to departures of around a dozen sponsors.

“It will require the public to engage in a certain level of media-literacy activism,” Delwiche said. “They’ll need to keep bringing attention to these things every time they happen.”

NEWS

Texas Lawmakers Are Derailing Affordable Housing for Seniors Texas essentially gives legislators veto power over affordable housing. Rep. Lyle Larson and a colleague have used it to stop projects for seniors.

>

Long before Joan Hawn moved to Oak Bluff Village in Columbus, a Colorado River town about halfway between Houston and Austin, she knew it was the place for her when she got older. Now, at 72, she doesn’t know where else she could live.

Her apartment at the independent-living facility is adapted for the scooter that she needs as a result of childhood polio. And rents at other apartments in Columbus “are outrageous,” Hawn said.

But the almost 30-year-old complex is showing its own age. The door at the community center won’t open or close properly. The grass in the once-beautiful lawn is gone because of a broken sprinkler system. Problems with the plumbing and air conditioning systems are becoming more frequent.

In January, National Church Residences (NCR), the Ohio-based nonprofit that owns Oak Bluff and other homes for low-income seniors around the country, was preparing to apply for a grant through a federal program that uses tax credits to encourage development of affordable housing. The $2 million grant, which had enthusiastic support from city and county officials, would have paid for critical repairs and update accessibility at the complex, which houses “some of the most vulnerable and economically challenged

… seniors in the community,” said Tracey Fine, a senior project leader for NCR. The group had already filed a preapplication with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). “We had a very high likelihood of getting the award,” she said.

But that was before NCR ran afoul of state Representative Leighton Schubert.

A 2001 state law gives individual legislators a virtual veto over low-income housing. It has essentially redlined entire legislative districts as off-limits to poor families, mostly black and brown folks, and drawn the scrutiny of federal courts and housing officials. And now that veto is also being applied to proposals for senior housing. In recent months, Republican legislators have derailed two NCR proposals in Texas. Oak Bluff was the first. The second was a new senior development in suburban San Antonio.

Under the 2001 law, members of the Texas House can award positive points to housing applications they support or negative points to those they oppose.

They can even kill projects by doing nothing. Very few projects are approved without the active support of the area’s state representative — a major problem for state and local housing officials, who are under pressure from the courts, federal agencies and civil rights advocates to

build low-income units in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods rather than just concentrating them in poor areas. But until recently, senior housing has faced much less opposition than family units. Compared to family housing, senior developments were so easy to get through the process that, in some Texas cities, limits were placed on how many grants could go to projects for the elderly.

“I’m not sure what the impetus is behind this newly found fear of lowincome elderly people,” said Charlie Duncan, research director for Texas Housers, an affordable housing nonprofit based in Austin. These days it’s even harder to pin down the reasons for opposition: In many cases, he said, developers realize that legislators hold all the cards, so they often “don’t submit full applications anymore” unless they can get support from legislators.

And when constituents object to a project, they often do so without showing up at a public meeting or writing a letter.

That’s the trouble that NCR encountered.

As soon as NCR officials learned that Schubert wouldn’t support the Columbus proposal and that state Representative Lyle Larson was opposing the one in San Antonio, they put the brakes on.

JOHNNY SALDIVAR

GAYLE REAVES

Preparing a full application for taxcredit funding can cost $20,000 to $50,000. Without the letters, “it is not even worth submitting,” Fine said.

“I know that much of the opposition is happening behind closed doors and through verbal communication — not on the record,” Duncan said. “One of the bigger problems that seems to be brewing is that councils and commissions won’t allow a resolution of support to make it to their agendas, letting them die by the sands of time rather than taking an official position.”

If there was any opposition from Columbus residents to the funding for Oak Bluff Village, neither NCR nor city or county officials heard about it.

Nonetheless, Schubert, who wasn’t running for re-election, declined to support the proposal to fix up the 39unit complex. He didn’t actively oppose the subsidy; he didn’t have to. Simply remaining neutral doomed the project by denying the application the positive points that it needed.

Colorado County Judge Ty Prause said Schubert wouldn’t give a reason CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 ►

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 11

NEWS

for his silence, but did insist that the project would get along fine without his involvement.

“I thought it would only take a phone call,” Prause said. “I did that. He flat told me that he had quit and the office was closed and he wouldn’t do anything.”

Oak Bluff, Prause said, is a tremendous asset to Columbus. “We are a small rural county, 22,600 people at last census. There aren’t any services” for the elderly such as an urban county might offer, he said. “It would just be tragic if it closed down due to this.”

Prause said the two Republican candidates vying for Schubert’s seat have both “given their assurance that they would support the grant” if Oak Bluff reapplies in the next round of funding.

In San Antonio, Larson did put his objections into writing. The legislator’s February 7 letter to TDHCA, which administers the tax-credit housing program, says that he had been contacted by several nearby homeowners concerned about traffic and “land use challenges.” He also pointed out that several hundred apartments are under construction in the area, “seeming to indicate that government support should not be needed for such a development.”

Fine said that not a single homeowner or homeowner group in San Antonio responded to NCR’s offers to discuss concerns, and the city council had registered support for the project. And while there may be plenty of marketrate apartments going up in the affluent

neighborhood, “there are no affordable units in this area and no senior units in the vicinity,” she said.

Larson didn’t return calls seeking comment for this story.

During the 2017 legislative session, various proposals to abolish or change the legislative point system failed to pass. Many other states, however, have reduced or removed the power of individual legislators to veto affordable housing developments, Fine said.

Texas is “increasingly isolated” in giving legislators so much power, Duncan said.

He’s looked at the rules in about twothirds of the states, he said, and none had the requirements for local political support that Texas does.

In December, the National Council

SHUTTERSTOCK

Blowing Smoke SA is closer to finding out how dirty its air is SANFORD NOWLIN

>San Antonio’s day of reckoning on air quality has crept that much closer.

In a federal filing last week, the EPA said it would comply with a court-imposed July 17 deadline to rule whether the San Antonio region meets more stringent air pollution standards. Until then, the agency hadn’t said whether it planned to appeal the case in a bid to keep its original deadline of August 10.

What’s more, the agency on March 19 provided a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott saying that it would designate “at best” portions of San Antonio as “unclassifiable,” seeming to suggest the city’s likely to lose its status as the largest population center not yet declared in violation of federal air quality standards. The seven surrounding counties that make

12

CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

up the region would stay in attainment, according to the letter.

The EPA in 2015 released a stricter, health-based air pollution standard of 70 ppb of ground-level ozone concentrations. Bexar County’s level is currently around 73 ppb.

“We’re so close,” said Doug Melnick, the city of San Antonio’s chief sustainability officer. “If we end up (in non-attainment), it’s very feasible we can get back into attainment, but it will be up to the community. We’ll all have to do our part.”

The quarrel over how quickly the EPA would hand down its final decision ended last month, when a judge in Northern California set the July 17 deadline. U.S. District

of State Housing Agencies issued a recommendation that housing agencies not allow local officeholders to veto tax-credit housing proposals. Another group, the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Partners, noted that Texas has drawn criticism from both the IRS, which has a key role in the tax-credit housing process, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, for, in effect, requiring local political approval of proposed developments.

Other states give points to projects that have “community buy-in,” but not to the point of allowing that to be a make-orbreak requirement, said Michelle Norris, NCR’s executive vice president.

“I can tell you for a fact that Texas is pretty unique” on that score, she said.

Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. ruled that EPA chief, Scott Pruitt “violated his nondiscretionary duty” when the agency missed an earlier October 1 deadline to announce where cities stood on their attainment of ozone standards.

Ozone is the primary ingredient in smog and exacerbates breathing problems for people with respiratory diseases.

A study commissioned by the city of San Antonio last year estimates that 19 respiratory deaths would result yearly if local ozone levels were to creep up to 80 ppb, a return to 2012 levels. By reducing ozone below 68 ppb, the city could avert an additional 24 deaths per year.

Abbott has lobbied against stricter air quality regulations for San Antonio. He has argued the state should get more time to collect data that shows much of the region’s ozone blows in from pollution hotbeds such as the Port of Houston.

“It’s true that air pollution doesn’t respect borders, and that’s why it requires a state or national approach,” said Luke Metzger, executive director of the Environment Texas Research and Policy Center. “But that’s not to say all the cars and trucks in San Antonio don’t contribute or that all the air pollution coming from the Eagle Ford Shale doesn’t also play a part.”

However, San Antonio has made strides to improve its air quality. Its ozone level is down considerably from a high of more than 90 ppb in 2004. And, according to projections, it’s likely to meet the EPA’s more stringent 70 ppb standard by 2020 if it stays on trend. The city has also organized a task force to put together a climate action plan.

While some of those gains come down to improved automobile emissions, Alamo Area Council of Governments Executive Director Diane Rath pointed to key local efforts that reduced pollution levels. Among those: CPS Energy’s drawdown of its coal-burning J.T. Deely power plant and VIA’s transition of buses to compressed natural gas.

Concerned residents can also contribute to lower emissions by carpooling, taking public transit and avoiding running errands during lunchtime, Rath added.

“It’s important that people truly understand their actions have an effect on our ozone levels,” she said.

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V

FEATURE: NEWS

THEIR TOWN

GREG JEFFERSON

Have a Beef

with Sheryl Sculley?

JEREMIAH TEUTSCH

Get in Line

The city manager has her detractors.

We sort out a few of the reasons.

≥

The next time something hits the news about City Manager Sheryl Sculley – especially if it’s about her pay or performance bonus – turn on talk radio if you’re not already listening.

Angry people.

It’s not much different on social media, especially Facebook. Link to the latest story on city council granting another big bonus to Sculley, with elected officials showering her with praise, and wait for the rage to roll in.

Sure, people go to social media and talk radio to be angry. These forums often highlight the extremes of people’s opinions. But they also show you what’s in the public’s bloodstream.

Lower-voltage Sculley-bashing surfaces in casual conversations with friends and co-workers, in community meetings, in old-fashioned letters to the editor. City council members, who hold the power to fire, censure or reward Sculley, see this anger more than anyone as they work their districts.

When he was campaigning last year in District 8, Councilman Manny Pelaez said

it wasn’t uncommon for voters to complain to him about street conditions and then say the city could solve the problem just by taking Sculley’s compensation and putting it into repairs.

“They weren’t kidding – that made mathematical sense to them,” said Pelaez, a supporter of Sculley, who will earn $475,000 this year plus a $75,000 bonus for her performance in 2017. You can’t repave many streets or build many sidewalks with that kind of money.

“The thing is, [these constituents] are frustrated with government,” he added, “and she’s the face of city government.”

San Antonio government works under the “weak mayor-strong manager” system, which a lot of cities adopted in the mid 1900s to neuter political machines. Essentially, the mayor and city council set policy, and the city manager executes it. As a result, the city manager is behind so much of what shapes your everyday experience – street conditions, library hours, how good or bad the airport is, protection from crime, and hundreds of other things. It’s difficult getting your

head around someone who’s unelected holding that much power.

But look at other cities with city managers, including Austin and Dallas.

Unless they’ve done something colossally stupid or corrupt, they don’t take the same degree of heat that Sculley frequently does.

Why her?

It’s a tangle of reasons. But each of them relates in some way to the fact that Sculley has changed city government profoundly, in ways good and bad.

These are the strands: • Sculley is a sharp executive who was brought in from Phoenix in 2005 to end amateur hour at City Hall. She ran off or demoted many of the locals, and brought in more out-of-towners to help run the show, including Police Chief William McManus and Fire Chief Charles Hood. There’s still a residue of resentment among the natives. Beyond the world of City Hall, Sculley will always be an outsider.

• Sculley dominates in a field dominated by men. “She’s playing three-dimensional chess while everybody else is playing checkers,” San Antonio political consultant Laura Barberena said. She’s as hard and corporate as

they come. You could be on fire, or she could be on fire, and she’d still maintain eye contact. If you’re an unprepared underling or you’re lodging a poorlythought-out criticism or question, her gaze can feel like the pin that holds you wriggling to the back of the specimen box. We expect this demeanor from male CEOs, but many are unnerved when women behave this way. So, yeah, there’s some sexism at play here.

• After nearly 13 years on the job, Sculley is thoroughly entrenched. The city organization – with 12,000 employees and an annual budget of $2.7 billion – is now essentially a reflection of her will. She has longstanding ties to San Antonio’s business and civic leaders that are entirely independent of her bosses, the mayor and city council. In fact, these chieftains are some of her most ardent defenders. Just ask County Judge Nelson Wolff about her elite support. After making a joke in January about filling the San Antonio Symphony’s financial hole with Sculley’s salary, he said he got concerned calls from several bigwigs, including former Mayor Phil Hardberger, prompting Wolff to write a letter to “clarify” his joke. Any hint that her job is CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 ►

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 15

OPEN CALL FOR

Exhibitions & Related Programming DEADLINE: May 11, 2018 The City of San Antonio seeks exhibition proposals from area, state, and national curators, artists, artist groups, and organizations interested in exhibiting and programming at Centro de Artes.

For more information, and to submit your proposal, visit GetCreativeSanAntonio.com.

#getcreativesa | 210-206-ARTS 16

CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

FEATURE: NEWS

CITY OF SAN ANTONIO

GEORGE H. RODRIGUEZ

Antonio Spurs have a graciousness about their [pay].

That’s why nobody complains about their big salaries.”

That goes to show you can’t escape the tug of San Antonio history.

German merchants helped set the tone a century and a half ago when they balked at raising taxes for essential infrastructure such as drainage. That small-government mindset – which has never worked out particularly well for San Antonio’s Latino and African-American communities – isn’t as prominent, but it’s still here.

It showed up in spring 2005 when the city council under then-Mayor Ed Garza selected Sculley as the finalist for city manager, and worked up an offer of $265,000. Then-Councilman Julián Castro, in a close mayor’s race against Phil Hardberger and council colleague Carroll Schubert, came out against the compensation package, calling it too rich. Sculley pulled herself out of consideration shortly after Castro’s news conference.

For what it’s worth, Castro won the race but landed in a runoff with Hardberger, who then clobbered his much younger rival and re-recruited Sculley. Looking to set the tone for his new administration, Hardberger cast her hiring as a decisive break, a sharp turn toward a more ambitious, professional city government.

After years of underinvestment and largely piecemeal street and drainage work, the city went on a tear when Sculley took control. There was a glut of major projects, from the Museum Reach, Haven for Hope, Hardberger Park and the “Decade of Downtown” giveaways to developers and employers to Pre-K for SA and improved city services.

In almost no time, a sleepy municipal government had gotten caffeinated and turned activist.

The Smallest Big City The city’s general fund – which pays for police and KTSA talk-show host Jack Riccardi and his listeners fire protection, libraries, parks, senior centers and other spend a lot of time talking about Sculley, though she’s basic services – lurched from $701 million in fiscal year never been on his morning show. Her compensation is 2005 to $1.1 billion last year, a growth of more than 60 usually the reason they flood the phone lines. He said percent, according to an analysis of the city’s audited callers grew alarmed in 2009 when it made the news annual financial reports. that council members hadn’t read Sculley’s contract But the more breathtaking increase was in debt extension even though they were scheduled to vote on spending. it. That got his audience thinking more about the size of Under Sculley, the city’s debt burden jumped 78 her salary and bonus package, and that she wasn’t living percent between fiscal years 2005 and 2017, reaching by the same rules as other people. $3 billion as of September 30. Those borrowings “It was very out of character for our city,” Riccardi include general obligation bonds, which voters said of her compensation, “especially considering our approved, and tax notes and certificates of obligation, median income” – which for households was $48,000 in for which voters didn’t have a say.

2016, according to the U.S. Census. “And there’s not an Not surprisingly, a dollar amount that big or a growth attitude of humility or even self-awareness. Even the San rate that high comes with qualifiers. San Antonio’s strong population increases over the last 13 years – new residents mean higher demand for city services – is one. The priorities set by city council is another.

There’s also Sculley’s tight grip on the city’s finances.

Despite the sharp increase in general-fund and debt spending, she has boosted city government’s financial reserves, essentially its rainy-day fund, to a high 15 percent of revenue. That’s one of the main reasons San Antonio has maintained a AAA rating from the Big 3 credit-rating agencies.

That rating, enjoyed by no other major city in the in jeopardy, and you can expect a lot of corner offices in this town to become mini-war rooms. We mortals recoil at that kind of power.

• Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether Sculley and her team are making policy or executing it. Consider her recent decision to allow developer Mitch Meyer to build apartments next to the Hays Street Bridge, albeit with several restrictions. In doing so, she overruled the Historic and Design Review Commission, and flouted the project’s opponents. Sculley had the authority to make the move, but she looked like the strongest of strong mayors. “People’s frustration with her is because of that gray area,” Pelaez said, “and she’s not shy about operating in that area.”

• When the city challenged the 10-year “evergreen clause” in police officers’ and firefighters’ contracts in court in 2014 – a clause that keeps the agreements’ provisions in force even if there’s no new deal – the unions went after her publicly and all-out, seeing the move as a betrayal. The police union has mostly gone quiet since reaching an agreement with the city in 2016, but the fire union is still hammering away at her standing.

• Finally, Sculley is a very well-paid municipal employee. By comparison, Austin’s city manager earns $309,000, and Dallas’s makes $375,000, though neither have as many years on the job as Sculley. But she works in a city where many families have been unable to keep up with the median household income at the state and federal levels.

This is a blue-collar town. How many San Antonians receive performance bonuses?

Her employment contract – the money – is usually the prism through which the other strands come into focus.

United States, allows San Antonio to borrow (that is, to sell bonds to investors) at low interest rates, saving millions in interest expense had the rating been just one or two notches lower.

Sculley’s financial management has also cleared the way for several record-breaking bond elections, including the $850-million debt issue that voters overwhelmingly approved nearly a year ago. None of them required an increase in property tax rates.

Sculley and her people portray the three consecutive winning bond elections under her watch as San Antonians’ stamp of approval on her administration – or at least the handful who voted.

When I asked for an interview with Sculley, this is the response I received from Jeff Coyle, director of the city’s public affairs office: “As you know, the elected mayor and council evaluate the city manager’s performance annually and did so recently… We do not do any public opinion polling on job performance; however, we believe the overwhelming voter approval of city of San Antonio Bond Programs is reflective of the public’s confidence in their city government.”

Coyle also forwarded the 17-page memo that Sculley gave to council members as they considered her bonus, highlighting her 2017 accomplishments. They included the $850-million bond package, $90 million in healthcare savings, a shiny new fleet of electric river barges and the city’s response to Hurricane Harvey.

Her way with numbers is also at the heart of Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s support for the city manager.

“Sheryl Sculley’s fiscal management has helped earn San Antonio a coveted AAA rating from all three bond rating agencies for eight years in a row,” the mayor said in a written statement. “That rating saves millions of dollars for the taxpayers of San Antonio. She earns every penny of her pay.”

But Wall Street talk – of rating agencies and interest expense – doesn’t register with most people.

Backlashes

Many of the San Antonians who think Sculley’s salary is obscenely high probably also believe that city spending is out of control, and that the city is growing too quickly and natives are losing ground to the newcomers – both in the cultural life of San Antonio and in neighborhoods like Dignowity Hill where new arrivals are displacing longtime homeowners. Talking about her contract is shorthand for these frustrations.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 ►

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 17

Come see where

PURPOSE meets CULTURE From native peoples to Spanish explorers, the San Pedro Creek is the keeper of a rich and storied history. At the site where it all began 300 years ago, take a stroll along the banks and soak in the history at the San Pedro Creek Culture Park. Flowing with renewed purpose to protect the water and our community, the park honors our ancestors and their sacred creek.

MAY 5

th

NOON-9 PM

7:30 PM Illumination Ceremony 715 Camaron Street

Bexar County, the San Antonio River Authority and the City of San Antonio invite you to celebrate the opening of the first segment of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park, located downtown.

GRAND OPENING

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT • FAMILY-FRIENDLY • FOOD TRUCKS

Visit SPCculturepark.com to learn more. @SanPedroCreek

DIRECTED BY HECTOR GARZA

APRIL 19–29 PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 1400 W. Villaret Blvd., San Antonio, Texas 78224

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

For tickets & more information, please visit alamo.edu/pac/teatro or call the Box Office at 210-670-6670.

alamo.edu/pac/teatro

CREATIVE COMMONS

FEATURE: NEWS

The San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association is capitalizing on this anger in its push to put three city charter amendments on the November ballot. One of the changes would cap the city manager’s compensation at no more than 10 times the earnings of the lowestpaid city employee, and prevent him or her from staying on the job for more than eight years. If it gets on the ballot and voters approve, the amendment wouldn’t affect Sculley, but it would hamstring city council when it’s time to look for her replacement.

The other amendments would make it easier to put city ordinances to a public vote, and bar the city from resorting to the courts in fights over labor agreements.

In an interview with the Current last month, union President Chris Steele said the goal was to take power away from the City Hall insiders and give it to voters. “The people are the smartest ones,” he added, “and they run this city.”

District 6 Councilman Greg Brockhouse, who worked as a political consultant for the fire union, helping its leaders sink the proposed downtown streetcar in 2014, is the toughest critic Sculley has yet faced on the council dais. He sometimes talks about her administration as if it was a black box, without transparency or accountability.

The fire union and Brockhouse aren’t alone in publicly pillorying Sculley.

She was a major target in the 2017 city elections. County Democratic Party chair Manuel Medina often spent more time blustering about Sculley than he did going after Ivy Taylor or Nirenberg in the mayor’s race. In his telling, she was the overpaid Svengali who’d hijacked council and was loading up San Antonio with debt, which he likened to a J.C. Penney’s credit card.

The same themes popped up in council races, including the one in District 9 on the North Side. John Courage wasn’t the most outspoken Sculley critic on the campaign trail, but he was one of them.

He was one of three council members who sided in January against the 2017 bonus of $75,000 for Sculley. “Anything over and above [her salary] is because you did something extraordinary,” he said. “I just don’t see that she did anything truly extraordinary in 2017.”

Part of what bothered him and others was the lack of written criteria in determining whether Sculley deserved a raise – a shortcoming Nirenberg is fixing.

Yet Courage has softened on the city manager since his election last June – as often happens with new council members, who have to negotiate with her and her staff every day to deliver on campaign promises and secure projects for their districts. He thinks she’s a strong executive and has hired well, that her lieutenants and department heads are first-rate.

“Sometimes I’m concerned that her influence is moving the dial more than we’d like,” he said. In other words, she occasionally veers onto council’s turf. But Courage said he doesn’t want to make a public thing out of his couple of concerns.

Sculley’s job is to keep Courage and his 10 colleagues happy, and, on balance, she’s succeeded spectacularly. As for her detractors, they’re mostly among the 1.5 million sitting on the sidelines.

The Southside’s newest favorite park is ready. Join us for a day-long festival with live music, activities and outdoor fun as we officially open this 43-acre greenspace on the Brooks campus. Free and open to the public.

saturday, april 14 10:00 am -10:30 aM

10:30 am -2:00 PM

Opening Ceremony and Dedication

Activities throughout the park

The Greenline, 2532 Sidney Brooks For more information visit

livebrooks.com/events

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 19

CALENDAR

COURTESY OF DUSTIN YBARRA

CALENDAR

OUR TOP PICKS FOR THE WEEK

COMEDY You might have seen Bedford-born stand-up Dustin Ybarra as a character actor in Gotham, We Bought a Zoo or Ted 2, but watching him on stage, it’s impossible to imagine him being anyone but himself. In all the right ways, Ybarra’s act seems indistinguishable from THU-SUN watching him telling a story to friends at a party — the setups and punchlines are so well crafted they’re nearly invisible. Rejected coupons, stealing toilet paper from Long John Silver’s, video game trash-talking and other day-to-day activities serve as launch pads for tangential rants that sound like they could come from your funniest friend — if he or she spent countless hours working them out on the road. $17, 8pm Thu, 8pm & 10:15pm Fri-Sat, 8pm Sun, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 541-8805, rivercentercomedyclub. com. — Jeremy Martin

Dustin Ybarra

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Now in its 71st year, the Poteet Strawberry Festival, for our money one of the most unique and fun events in Texas, might just prove the perfect warm-up for Fiesta. At the massive fair, which packs in good times for people of all ages, the focus is definitely on the delectable titular berry, but the variations on that theme are many and impressive. Suffice it to say that you can FRI-SUN get your hands on just about anything with strawberries you’d ever want. Not a fan of strawberries? While that makes you highly suspect as a person, we won’t hold it against you — and, there is still plenty in the way of food, drink and fun for you down in Poteet. Increasingly, the Strawberry Festival serves up quite the bill of entertainment, this year featuring more than 130 acts. The stacked music lineup includes Tanya Tucker, Ramon Ayala (!), Jaime y Los Chamacos, The Spazmatics, Natalie Rose and so many more. Throughout 14 areas of continuous entertainment, concerts are supplemented by gunslingers, carnival favorites, various contests, rodeo performances, and the like. As ever, the Strawberry Festival promises to offer fun for the whole family. $5-$15, 6pm-midnight Fri, 10am-1am Sat, 10am-11pm Sun, 9199 N. State Hwy. 16, Poteet, (830) 742-8144, strawberryfestival.com. — James Courtney FESTIVAL

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In the midst of San Antonio’s 300th birthday, it’s hard not to wonder what the Tricentennial’s takeaways will be. Memories of parties, concerts and festivals? A better understanding of the history of San Antonio and its peoples? From our corner at least, one of the biggest standouts so far is the degree of nostalgia and reflection its inspired from San Antonio artists, who’ve collectively done a commendable job of placing our city in a fascinating historical context. The latest example of this creative introspection arrives in the form of “Signs of Their Times: Totemic Marquees and Neons of San Anto,” a series of 13 paintings by Ben Ortiz. Although born in Chicago, Ortiz grew up near Jefferson High School, an area of San Antonio that (from certain angles at least) feels like a time capsule. A charming throwback seemingly devoid of irony, the historic ’hood comes to light in Ortiz’s realistic paintings that link Jim’s Coffee Shop, Pizza Hut and the Tip Top Cafe through vintage signage.

Presented as underdog icons that have witnessed the passing of time — proven by rust, broken FRI bulbs and other battle scars — his “Signs of Their Times” take on further meanings via philosophical messages (“We cannot change anything until we accept it.” — Carl Jung) spelled out on their marquees. Described by the artist as “a window into an art form that is disappearing from society,” the solo show opens with a reception featuring food, drinks and poolside music by the Michael Waid Trio. Free, opening reception 6-9pm, on view 1-4pm Fri-Sat through May 19, Bihl Haus Arts, 2803 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 383-9723, bihlhausarts.org.

— Bryan Rindfuss ART

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BIRDMAN LIVE

Special Guest

APRIL 13 20

EMPIRE

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APRIL 27

MAY 16

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EMPIRE

BEN ORTIZ

Poteet Strawberry Festival

‘Signs of Their Times’

CALENDAR

‘Between Us’

BARBARA MIÑARRO

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Sunset Boulevard

If you close your eyes and try to imagine a dark, madcap hybrid of The Exorcist and Avenue Q, you might find yourself somewhere in the ballpark of Hand to God, a truly unusual comedy that made its Broadway debut in 2015 and earned five Tony nominations (including Best Play) that same year. Penned by Texan playwright Robert Askins and set in a church basement in his native Cypress (less than 200 miles from San Antonio), the play surrounds a seemingly innocent puppet class that steadily devolves into a deranged scenario riddled with obscenities, sex and violence. Having recently lost his father, grieving teen Jason joins the Christian Puppet Ministry his mother Margery leads but quickly finds himself at odds with Tyrone — his foul-mouthed and flirtatious sock puppet likely possessed by Satan himself. While he may be too timid to hit on nerdy Jessica, Tyrone isn’t — especially when she pulls out her busty puppet Jolene. Meanwhile, Margery fends off sexual advances from Pastor Greg only to hook up with one of her FRI-SUN teen students. Beneath all the comic debauchery, Hand to God, which lands on the Public Theatre stage this week, juggles with fairly universal themes Variety summed up as “death, depression, alcoholism, sexual guilt, emotional repression, religious hypocrisy and the eternal battle between your good puppet and your bad puppet.” $20-$35, 7:30pm FriSat, 2pm Sun (through May 6), Public Theater of San Antonio, Cellar Theater, 800 W. Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258, thepublicsa.org. — BR THEATER

PUBLIC THEATERE OF SAN ANTONIO

Fresh off the rare honor (for an up-and-coming talent) of being featured in this year’s CAM Perennial exhibition, Monterreyborn, San Antonio-based artist Barbara Miñarro offers up a new body of work entitled “Between Us.” Like most of Miñarro’s work, the exhibit, which will be on display through April 28, takes the form of textile installation. In her work with textiles, Miñarro repurposes fabrics that have emotional value to her and uses them to create works that “abstract the way [her] culture, language, and body conform” to new environments. Using emotionally significant artifacts, “signifiers of identity” from her homeland, Miñarro’s thoughtful work centers on the “idea that environments can effect identities, dictate relationships and change the way that bodies navigate through familial spaces and abstract borders.”

FRI Free, opening reception 7-11pm, on view by appointment through April 28, Clamp Light Artist Studios & Gallery, 1704 Blanco Road, Suite 104, (512) 5698134, clamplightsa. com. — JC ART

FRI

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Once summed up by Time as “Hollywood at its worst told by Hollywood at its best,” the iconic noir FILM Sunset Boulevard earned widespread acclaim upon its release in 1950 and has never left the cinematic conversation, popping up in recent history as an influence on everything from Twin Peaks to The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made. An epic reminder to always keep your vehicle in proper working order, the Oscar winner stars William Holden as a Joe Gillis, a down-and-out screenwriter who has a blowout and hides his car on the property of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a forgotten silent movie star in the midst of a downward spiral. Faced with diminishing possibilities, Gillis reluctantly moves into Desmond’s garage apartment and accepts a job editing a screenplay she’s written as an attempted comeback — a Biblical epic starring herself as Salomé. Before long, Gillis finds himself a kept man tangled up in a delusional web bound by “a longterm contract with no options.” The final collaboration between director Billy Wilder and writer Charles Brackett, the timeless classic boasts iconic quotes (“No one ever leaves a star” and “I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille” among them) and, furthering the dark commentary on the Hollywood machine, appearances by the likes of director Cecil B. DeMille, gossip maven Hedda Hopper and silent-film heavyweight Buster Keaton. If you’ve never seen it, this free outdoor screening at the San Antonio Botanical Garden (complete with a cash bar) promises a memorable introduction to what’s considered one of the greatest films of all time. Free, gates at 6:30pm, film at dusk, San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Pl., (210) 536-1400, sabot.org. — BR

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Hand to God

Sign up for ExcluSivE prESalES & announcEmEntS! tExt maJESticEmpirE to 22828

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sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 21

Saturday, April 14

Voces Cosmicas presents San Antonio Poets sharing their souls. Expected to participate: Fernando Esteban Flores, Tom Keen, Marilyn Keen, Victoria Garcia Zapata, Dr Tomas Porter, San Juana Guillermo, Barbara Renaud Gonzales, Eddie Vega, Jacinto Jesus Cardona, Suzanne Green, Liz Vera, Clair Harris, Alicia Zavala Galvan, Susana Nevarez-Marquez, Stephanie Velasquez, Andrea Greimel and Edward Guadalupe Acuna Lucio Cody Jr. The San Antonio Jazz Poets led by Eduardo C. Garza will provide the jazz backing. Call (210) 573-5375 or email eacpgc@gmail.com

Sunday, April 15

1pm | 10TH WORDS FOR BIRDS Mitchell Lake Audubon Center, 10750 Pleasanton Road Annual NPMSA reading poems in celebration of our avian friends readers include: Mobi Warren, Darby Riley, Janice Campbell, Jim LaVilla-Havelin, Toni Heringer Falls, Marisol Cortez, Carol Coffee Reposa, Laurel Bodinus, Jeanie Sanders.

Call (210) 628-1639 or email mlac@audubon.org

Monday, April 16

HIGHLIGHTS Thursday, April 12

8:30am-5:30pm | LATINA POETRY ACROSS THE AMERICAS — A SYMPOSIUM Trinity University, William Knox Holt Center, 106 Oakmont Ct. To recognize the long line of poetic production by women poets in the Americas and to mark National Poetry Month, Trinity University will host a One-Day Symposium. Featured poets include Latina poets from Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, and from throughout Texas—the Rio Grande Valley, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Each of the 9 poets will speak about her own process of writing poetry and read some of her work. The culmination of the event will be an evening reception honoring three Chicana poets: Rosemary Catacalos, Carmen Tafolla, and Lucha Corpi for their contributions to the Chicana literary heritage and their indefatigable work in support of Latina writers. Please register to attend: Laura Rodriguez, mrodrig7@trinity.edu or Call (210) 999-8377.

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

6pm-7:45pm | POETREE CLUB Igo Branch Library, 13330 Kyle Seale Pkwy The PoeTree Club, a gathering of people who read and write poetry, will meet to discuss their work. Writers at all levels of experience are welcome. Call (210) 207-2614 or email marcie. hernandez@sanantonio.gov

Tuesday, April 17

6pm-8pm | POETRY WORKSHOP WITH LOU TAYLOR Tobin Library at Oakwell, 4134 Harry Wurzbach Road Join us for a poetry writing workshop and open mic with Voices de la Luna volunteer and poet, Lou Taylor. Lou is a native Texan who lived in "temporary exile" in Louisiana for 30 years. Since retiring she has discovered a passion for poetry which she has pursued by reading and writing poetry at every opportunity, working with Voices de la Luna and attending and conducting poetry readings and workshops.

She is convinced "there is a poet in everyone" is committed to bringing that poet to life. Call (210) 621-3686 or email carlaleedpineda@gmail.com

KIKUTARO

11am-3pm | OUR POWER IS OUR WORDS Deco Pizzeria, 1815 Fredericksburg Rd.

CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE

Whether it’s Goldust’s sci-fi-soundtrack, Mark Henry’s Three 6 Mafia-rapped intro or the Undertaker or Bray Wyatt’s creeping, unsettling entrance themes, music plays almost as big a role in “sports entertainment” wrestling as metal folding chairs. By pairing matches with a live band, Heavy Metal Wrestling gives fans the chance to bang their heads between bodyslams and beatdowns.

Formed in 2017, the counter-cultural sports organization is set to break in its new digs at The Guillotine with Psycho Holiday. In addition to promising a comedy-infused smackdown between alleged “Japanese legend” Kikutaro (pictured) and “Ab-Wheeling Son of a Gun” Dillon Divine, the Friday the 13th roster includes tag-team antics from The Hooligans, a bout pairing “Heavy Metal Berserker” Ruben Steele and chainsaw-wielding “Wildman from the Ozark Mountains” Alex Herzog, a “Fatal Four-Way Lightweight Scramble” pitting masked warrior El Fantastico and Jake “The Warhorse” Parnell against J. Serious and Zac Taylor, a bout showcasing the talents of fierce female newcomers Alexa and the “The Pink Dream” Alex Gracia, and a potentially scene-stealing square-off between notoriously underhanded Great Scott and “The Big Margoogliack On Campus,” Mikey McFinnegan. Card subject to change, but what’s better than a party where the music’s live (literally) and all the fights are planned (hopefully)? $10, 9pm-1am, The Guillotine, 1816 N. Main Ave., (210) 569-2203, heavymetalwrestling.com. — JM + BR SPORTS

FRI

KIKUTARO

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Psycho Holiday Celebrated two weeks after Easter, Seville’s Feria de Abril is one of Spain’s largest fiestas that includes flamenco dancing, bullfighting and sherry tastings. What began as a cattle trading fair in the 1840s is now a two-week event drawing thousands of annual visitors to its brightly colored tents set up outside the city’s center. On Saturday, Carmens de la Calle is hosting La Feria Pequeña at Travis Park in honor of San Antonio’s SAT Tricentennial and Spain’s rich SPECIAL EVENT

influence on our city. Inspired

by Seville’s Feria de Abril, Carmens’ Feria Pequeña will feature flamenco performances, traditional Spanish food and photo opportunities with flamenco performers in horse carriages. Although it may not be on the same scale as Seville’s world-famous celebration, La Feria Pequeña is certainly one to look forward to and one which highlights our very own flamenco talent.

The outdoor festival marks the perfect kick-off for Fiesta and provides a welcome change of scenery to Carmens’ weekly world music offerings. Free, 6-10:30pm, Travis Park, 301 E. Travis St., (210) 281-4349, carmensdelacalle.com.

— Marco Aquino

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La Feria Pequeña

Nick Swardson A comedy Rorschach test: According to Netflix executives, the biggest opening for any movie on the streaming site was for The Ridiculous Six,, Adam Sandler’s purposefully idiotic and offensive Western parody that boasts a zero percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and features Vanilla Ice as Mark Twain. If any part of that sentence made you laugh, let alone the movie itself, you’ll probably get a kick out of Nick Swardson, who co-stars in the film as well as many other Sandler posse productions including Grandma’s Boy and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, which he also co-wrote. To put it another way, using titles alone you can pretty much map the evolution of Swardson’s stand-up act from his 2009 special Seriously, Who Farted? to 2015’s Taste It to his current tour Too Many Smells. If, like critic Debbie SAT Day, you think “The Ridiculous Six is everything wrong with Hollywood for the past two decades,” you’ll probably spend the whole time rolling your eyes. But have you ever stopped to consider that maybe you’re the one who farted? $28-$39.50, 8pm, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. Saint Mary’s St., (210) 8124355, theaztectheatre.com. — JM COMEDY

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Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World The third installment of the Briscoe’s third annual Native Film Series, which will feature the 2017 documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, is a must-attend for those interested in the cultural legacy of Native America and/ or American music history. The documentary takes a close look at the general impact of Native Americans on popular music while zooming in on particular Native players like Link Wray, Buffy Sainte-Marie and others. Using clips and contributions from an impressive cast of artists, musical and otherwise, the film highlights an often undersung group that nevertheless has made countless foundational contributions to contemporary America. Interviewees for this special documentary include Buddy Guy, George Clinton, Steven Tyler, Iggy Pop, Tony Bennett and many more. Series curator Dr. Dustin Tahmahkera will lead a discussion following the screening. Free, 6:30pm, The Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W. Market St., (210) 299-4499, briscoemuseum.org. — JC FILM

TUE

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sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 23

NominationS Open NOW THRU MAY 23RD

Top 5

WILL MOVE ON TO THE VOTING PHASE. MAY 30 - JULY 1

Top 3 Winners WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN BEST OF SAN ANTONIO ON JULY 25, 2018

CHECK OUT THE CATEGORIES & NOMINATE YOUR FAVORITES FROM AROUND TOWN. VISIT SACURRENT.COM 24

CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

CALENDAR

ART Art opening: ”Denominator: No Earth, No Culture” Dock Space

Gallery welcomes artist Paul Karam for an exhibition of new work exploring the correlation between societies, cultures and their common denominator — Earth. Free, 7-10pm Saturday; Dock Space Gallery, 107 Lone Star Blvd., (210) 723-3048.

Art opening: ”Feelin’ Like A Champ”

Incorporating installations and video performances, multidisciplinary artist Raul Gonzalez’s new solo show draws inspiration from the Houston Astros winning their first World Series, his recent MASS MoCA residency and his inclusion as a Featured Artist on Whataburger.com. Free, 7-11pm Saturday; Revenant Gallery, 1913 S. Flores St., (210) 660-7163.

Art Of Consciousness #2 Building on the

success of last year’s inaugural event, Art of Consciousness returns to “expand our conscious connection” with an evening combining a cleansing ceremony (5:30pm), a Kundalini yoga workshop (6pm), “visionary art” created by Kim Bishop, Nazareth Sando, Dru Bergeronn and more than a dozen others, a garden concert featuring sets by Golden Teachers Band (7pm), Verisimilitude (8pm) and Ramparts (9pm), an eclectic assortment of vendors, and a community drum circle (10pm). Free, 5-11:30pm Saturday; Movement Gallery, 1412 E. Commerce St., (210) 299-2666.

WORDS Latina Poetry Across the Americas A

celebration of Latina artists in the midst of National Poetry Month, Trinity’s Madrid Lecture and Symposium features keynote lectures by revered local poets Carmen Tafolla and Rosemary Catacalos and presentations by featured guests Eugenia Kaiser Toledo (Chile), Eleonora Requeña (Venezuela), Angeles Martínez Donoso (Ecuador) and Minerva Margarita Villarreal (Mexico). Free (reservations requested at eventbrite.com), 8:30am-6pm Thursday; William Knox Holt Center, 106 Oakmont Court, (210) 999-7011.

COMEDY Dan Cummins An Idaho native

who’s recorded five observational/ autobiographical stand-up albums, Dan Cummins has performed on The Tonight Show, Conan and World’s Dumbest, and has also worked as a writer and producer on reality shows ranging from Town of the Living Dead to Duck Dynasty. $20, 7pm Sunday; Improv San Antonio, 849 E. Commerce St., (210) 229-1420.

SPECIAL EVENTS Fiesta Mariachi Mass Now in its 22nd

year, the annual Mariachi Mass blesses all Fiesta royalty, commissioners and participants as they embark on their various commitments during Fiesta. Free, 8am Sunday; San Fernando Cathedral, 115 W. Main Plaza, (210) 227-1297.

Selena Night Groove House celebrates

Selena’s birthday a few days early with allday screenings of the 1997 biopic starring Jennifer Lopez, Selena classics in the mix and a Selena lookalike contest with a $250 prize. Free, 9pm-2am; Groove House, 12333 West Ave., (210) 598-2083.

The Talking Tree Farm Barn-Raiser The

nonprofit San Antonio’s Chef Cooperatives brings together more than a dozen area chefs (Michael Sohocki, Stephen Paprocki and Tony Hernandez, to name a few) for a farm-fresh pop-up dinner benefiting Talking Tree Farm, a local permaculture farm whose forthcoming barn will be used for production and classes. $55 in advance from chefcooperatives.com, 1-4pm Sunday; Talking Tree Farm, 9611 Green Road, Converse, (210) 725-2339.

3OH!3 • THE AMITY AFFLICTION • AS IT IS • ASSUMING WE SURVIVE • BOWLING FOR SOUP CHASE ATLANTIC • CHELSEA GRIN • CROWN THE EMPIRE • DAYSEEKER DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY • DEEZ NUTS • DOLL SKIN • DON BROCO • EVERY TIME I DIE FALLING IN REVERSE • FAREWELL WINTERS • FOUR YEAR STRONG • GRAYSCALE HAIL THE SUN • HARM'S WAY • ICE NINE KILLS • IN HEARTS WAKE • ISSUES • KNUCKLE PUCK KUBLAI KHAN • LIGHTERBURNS • THE MAINE • MAKEOUT • MAYDAY PARADE MOTIONLESS IN WHITE • MOVEMENTS • MYCHILDREN MYBRIDE • NEKROGOBLIKON PALAYE ROYALE • PHINEHAS • PICTURESQUE • REAL FRIENDS • REEL BIG FISH • SIMPLE PLAN STATE CHAMPS • STORY UNTOLD • THIS WILD LIFE • TONIGHT ALIVE • TRASH BOAT • TWIZTID UNEARTH • THE USED • WAGE WAR • WATERPARKS • WE THE KINGS • WITH CONFIDENCE

The Greenline Experience Brooks unveils

its new 43-acre urban linear park with the Greenline Experience, a festival featuring live music, outdoor activities and kidfriendly fun. Free, 10am-2pm Saturday; The Greenline, 2532 Sidney Brooks, (210) 678-3367.

The Pastie Pops Fiesta The award-winning cast of the Pastie Pops shimmies into Fiesta with a high-energy burlesque and variety show deep in the heart of Southtown. $20-$50, 8pm Saturday; Sexology Institute and Boutique, 707 S. St. Mary’s St., (210) 487-0371.

Turkish Festival The Raindrop Foundation’s eighth annual Turkish Festival brings together an array of Turkish cuisine (from kebabs to baklava) in a festive atmosphere with arts and crafts, family activities, live music and dance performances. Free, 10am-7pm Saturday; Alamo Plaza, 300 Alamo Plaza, (210) 377-1110.

TALKS PLUS Journalism in the 21st Century Trinity-

based publication The Contemporary facilitates a conversation between some of the state’s leading journalists: Beth Frerking (Rivard Report), Ayan Mittra (Texas Tribune), Greg Jefferson (San Antonio Current), Jasper Scherer (San Antonio Express-News) and David Martin Davies (Texas Public Radio). Free, 7-8:30pm Thursday; Trinity University, Chapman Auditorium, One Trinity Pl., (210) 999-7011.

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ARTS + CULTURE

Crossing

PHOTOS BY CHARLIE KITCHEN

Borders San Antonio and Canary Islands artists venture ‘Beyond the Wall’ DAN R. GODDARD

>

Contemporary Art Month in San Antonio reached across the Atlantic Ocean to the Canary Islands, where some of the city’s earliest 18th-century settlers originated, and invited curator Adonay Bermúdez to re-colonize the city’s imagination by organizing a crosscultural exchange for the Tricentennial’s CAM Perennial.

With three artists from the Canary Islands and three from San Antonio, “Beyond the Wall: Border Readings in a State of Emergency,” on view through May 6 at Artpace, takes on the thorniest issues of the Trump era — immigration, migration and borders, both real and imagined.

Putting the United States’ immigration “crisis” into perspective, PSJM (Canary Island artists Cynthia Viera and Pablo San José) built their own wall charting the migratory flows of almost Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration. Based on statistics gathered from 1820 to 2010, one side of the wall uses an enormous color-coded graph to show the relative size of various immigrant populations. Towering above all others during the most recent generations is the dark orange Mexican wave.

But on the opposite side, a similar mural-size graph compares immigration flows to the overall U.S. population.

Northern Europeans from Great Britain, Ireland and Germany form blue Everest-like peaks, while the immigrant waves are reduced to mere ripples.

The North American Free Trade Agreement is being derided as unfair to U.S. business interests, but Canarian Luna Bengoechea contemplates the negative impact south of the border with a large mandala-like installation made with different hues of corn, similar to a Tibetan sand painting.

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

PSJM (background), Luna Bengoechea (foreground)

On the gallery floor, she laid out by hand individual kernels of yellow, white and blue corn to create a giant Mexican five-peso coin featuring the profile of the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc. Corn may be Latin America’s gift to the world, but it’s now cheaper to import it from the U.S., according to Bengoechea. The price of corn has fallen by 50 percent in Mexico, affecting more than 2.5 million Mexican peasants. Her title, Sin Maíz No Hay País/ Without Corn, There Is No Country, references the Mexican movement that has been protesting NAFTA since 2007.

In the most complex installation, Everything Matters, the Canarian team of Francis Naranjo and Carmen Caballero employ photography, video and mixed media to explore the links between America and the Canary Islands, but the message is a little lost in translation. Photographs of a funeral are juxtaposed with creepy scenes of a science laboratory with the people’s eyes blacked out. A surgical clamp holds a band of gauze. An astronaut floats above the Earth while waves crash on a beach and rocky cliffs. The video shows a flag waving over a bleak island landscape that might as well be the moon.

Lacking any textural clues, you have to follow the visual cues, which contrast the scientific, industrial and institutionalized world with nature, spiritual longing and human mortality. The connections between the two hemispheres appear more metaphysical than tangible, but the artists invite us to “think about a new planet, perhaps outside our borders, where everything really matters again.”

San Antonio artist Ethel Shipton, who grew up between two worlds on the Texas/Mexico border, reveals the transient influence of clashing cultures by cutting English words

Ethel Shipton

Bárbara Miñarro

ARTS + CULTURE

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out of the wooden seats of swings in Texas Swing/The Cross Roads. Light shining through the cutouts project the words “Best,” “Power” and “Unite” onto a street map with Spanish words: “Juntos,” “Pasando,” “Estamos” and “Aquí,” or “Together, passing, we are here.” While the Spanish words remain rooted, the English words swing back and forth without actually changing the underlying culture.

Born in Mexico and now based in San Antonio, Bárbara Miñarro stuffed corn and newspaper clippings into clothing from her grandmothers, her mother and herself to create colorful suspended sculptures that suggest stuffed animals. Looping over and around, symbolic of the interweaving of Mexico and the U.S., the corn represents something wanted versus the unwanted people who wear the clothes.

Land of Corn, Sister Land embodies the contradictory feelings of the U.S., which tends to like the products of Mexico, from tacos to tequila, but disdains its citizens.

Originally from Venezuela, San Antonio artist Hayfer Brea shows that all borders can be considered imaginary, or at least artificial political constructs, with An Imaginary Line, a video of the words in Spanish, “Una Linea Imaginaria,” floating in the water off the coast of Venezuela.

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Whether the line is the border between Earth and sky or between two countries, it only exists in our minds.

Both San Antonio and the Canary Islands are located at about the same latitude and both can be considered cosmopolitan frontier crossroads where imperialistic forces have collided, commingled and co-existed. “Beyond the Wall” examines the harsh reality of borders and wonders if the world would be better off without them.

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sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 27

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 2018 Native Film Series

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210.299.4499 BriscoeMuseum.org 28

CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

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SCREENS

Staying

True to Spirit ≥

“I’m not as crazy as him,” composer and jazz percussionist Antonio Sánchez said when asked if there are any similarities between him and the main character portrayed by actor Michael Keaton in the 2014 dark dramedy Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). In the film, Keaton’s manic character spends a lot of time pacing around deep inside a Broadway theater.

Now Sánchez, who composed the percussion-only score for filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning film, finds himself, like Keaton’s character, backstage in theaters across the country waiting to perform his extraordinary Birdman soundtrack live on stage. The film plays simultaneously for the audience as he drums.

“I’m going a little crazy, but not that much,” Sánchez says. “I do love the bowels of the theater though.”

Sánchez will get to explore the inside of San Antonio’s Empire Theater when he makes a stop Friday, April 13, for his Birdman Live tour. The Current caught up with Sánchez to talk about the Birdman tour and his 2017 album Bad Hombre.

What has your experience been playing the score for Birdman live for audiences?

It’s such a different experience for me and

COLUMBIA ARTISTS MUSIC LLC

Composer Antonio Sánchez keeps improvisation part of live Birdman show

KIKO MARTÍNEZ

for filmgoers and concertgoers because it’s like a combination of a concert and a movie.

The energy is automatically different having somebody on stage performing live. It’s a trip to sit on my drums and play in front of a bunch of people just by myself backing this incredible movie.

You’ve performed this score countless times. Since the original score was always meant to be improvised, does each audience get a different version?

Every performance is unique. I always tell a story at the beginning of how I got involved with the film and how this all came to be. I also say that what I’m going to perform this night in particular is completely different than any other night because the spirit of what we wanted to achieve in the movie is improvisation — it was organic. I want to stay true to that spirit but I also want to stay true to the dramatic effect that we achieved in the movie. I have guidelines that I am very faithful to, but I improvise within those quite a bit.

As a composer, how do you tell a story using only percussion?

You can create a lot of tension without spelling out exactly what it is that you want to portray. If you have strings and a piano and an orchestra, it’s a lot easier to spoon

feed you what [you think] it is that the scene is about. When it’s just drums and percussion, it’s a lot more subjective.

Why do you think your work on the score didn’t automatically lead to more work in Hollywood?

If you hear [the Birdman score], you’re not going to think, “Oh, this guy would be great to score my movie with a full orchestra.” I have done a couple of films. One was a British film called The Hippopotamus and another one was a Spanish film — a political documentary (Politics, Instructions Manual). There is talk of a couple more films. I want to do more, and I’ve been working hard trying to make people aware that I can do a lot more than just play drums.

Talk a bit about the album you released late last year, Bad Hombre.

It’s a very experimental project, but it’s been a lot of fun to do. It’s also a reflection of what’s going on right now in our country.

I realize I have a lot of issues and anger and frustration with what’s happening, especially since I became an American citizen [in October 2016]. I was very proud to become an American citizen. Then, all this stuff started happening. It’s not this country’s proudest moment. It’s a little bit

conflicting having become a citizen right at that moment, but I feel because I am an American citizen now, it is my duty to fight for what’s right.

How do you get political with percussion?

One of the songs on the album opens with a mariachi band and my grandfather telling tales about the Mexican Revolution with me playing drums in the background. I try to portray some of the aspects that I feel are relevant to what is going on and some of the rhetoric Trump has used towards Mexicans and Latinos and minorities. I have a tune called “The Crossing,” which is very dark. I immediately imagined a family trying to cross the border in the middle of the night. So it alludes to some of these feelings I have inside me since [Trump took office].

Birdman Live $29-$99 7:30pm Fri, Apr. 13 Charline McCombs Empire Theatre 226 N. St. Mary’s St. (210) 226-2891 artssa.org

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 29

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

FOOD

Big The

DINNER WITH SA’S BIGGEST FOODIES

Spoon

JESS ELIZARRARAS

Meet Alan and Beverly Williams, the couple who moderates the largest restaurant group in San Antonio JESS ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

>

The Stone Oak-based couple has always had an interest in dining and trying new things. At dinner, we all ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the spread before us, which featured more than 20 cold and hot sides displayed elegantly in a cafeteria-style setting. Billed as a Mediterranean Luby’s, Z Mediterranean opened three months ago inside the former Darna Mediterranean Cuisine and features seriously delicious vegetable dishes, tender lamb and more at moderate prices. New owner Hisham Rashid and his son stopped by to check on our table (the lone table throughout the meal, which took an hour and a half), and Alan asked questions about the business. Are they doing OK? What does lunch look like? Why did they go with the cafeteria style? Dinner is hit or miss, lunch is usually busy, it was a way for busy doctors and nurses to zoom in, pick out items from the line and eat within minutes.

That thoughtfulness extends to how he and Beverly run the group. Reviews that feature purely negative restaurant experiences with little to no explanation don’t stay up long.

What he shares is measured carefully, likely in the same way he methodically asked questions about my career, time in San Antonio, and how I do my job.

We shared thoughts on favorites. Chas, Clementine, Pinch for us. Fish City Grill, Max & Louie’s Diner, Smashin’ Crab for the Williamses. We all love Cullum’s Attagirl for the fun ambience and beer lineup. And we all know that chains are still very much so a part of the dining culture in San Antonio (let’s just say, we won’t turn down a slice of Whiskey Cake).

For this writer, the San Antonio Restaurants Group helps keep my ambitions in check.

It’s a reminder to include restaurant options at all price points.

It’s a reminder that sometimes you really need a chicken-fried steak. And it’s a reminder that there is still a lot of food knowledge to share about our fair city by sharing stories about its chefs, cooks, farmers, ranchers, servers and beyond.

In San Antonio Restaurants, the city’s population comes together for their love of dining — be it fast-casual or the latest gastronomy — and their leaders give me hope for where dining out in the Alamo City can go.

COURTESY OF ALAN AND BEVERLY WILLIAMS

Z Mediterranean Cuisine was empty last Thursday as my partner and I met Alan and Beverly Williams for dinner. And the relative silence of the restaurant, along with the quality shirazi salad, spicy hummus and chicken schwarma, were the perfect backdrop for an honest conversation about what it’s like to command the attention of 10,000 restaurant fans in San Antonio.

Alan Williams first launched the humbly named San Antonio Restaurants group on Facebook on March 15, 2014. As of press time, it had grown to 10,785 members.

“Welcome to San Antonio Restaurants, Facebook group.

We love to talk about restaurant experiences in and around the San Antonio area, whether it’s a new restaurant or lamenting one that is no longer around.

"Advertisements are not allowed unless it’s for a special charity event. Other advertisements will be removed.

Rudeness will not be tolerated. Other than that, we are glad you are here!”

Posts range from recommendations on where to find tasty seafood, to recommendations for a nice night out, to stories of unpleasant dining experiences.

Williams and wife Beverly moderate the group on a daily basis. This means ending any sort of bickering that may arise, or deleting spam that might make its way onto the forum. Both are life-long San Antonio residents, who reminisce about Christie’s, a longtime San Antonio seafood restaurant that closed in the 1990s, and both have full-time jobs away from their interest in food.

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 31

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FOOD

Evolving Panadería

>

The interiors are warm and inviting at the newest location of Bedoy’s Bakery on Hillcrest, which doesn’t need excessive signage. Inside the cozy panaderia, which is celebrating its 57th anniversary this year, photos of the founders hang at the entryway as Juan Gabriel’s biggest hits waft to the front from the kitchen. And though it’s a San Antonio staple, Bedoy’s Bakery is still introducing newcomers to the world of pan dulce.

First opened in 1961 off 24th Street by Manuel Bedoy and wife Emma Castillo, who he met while working at her father’s bakery, Bedoy’s Bakery is now three generations deep. Xavier Bedoy and wife Patricia, along with son Jameson and a small group of employees, keep the panaderias filled with area favorites.

“We make memories one pan dulce at a time,” Patricia said.

The latest location comes four years after the Bedoy family opened a second off Cupples Road. At just over 2,000 square feet, the Hillcrest location features a slightly more polished look than it’s predecessors off Hildebrand and Cupples, while still offering a familiar feel. And yes, there’s barbacoa and menudo available on weekends.

“A lot of the people who live here in this neighborhood, grew up with the original bakery off 24th St.,” Patricia said.

Though you’ll find conchas, orejas, marranitos, powdery wedding cookies and more, Patricia says Jameson, a die-hard fan of the Food Network, is slowly adding contemporary items to the company’s lineup.

That includes kolaches following a trial period at Cupples, the location Jameson helms. Soon came scones and doughnuts (a chocolate-meets-bacon number is a favorite), along with sugar cookies decorated with Selena album covers, Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls, Friday Kahlo, guitars, and Spurs Coyotes by Patricia.

“My husband was reluctant to bring the new products into the panaderia, but once he tasted it and saw how people were asking for the product … so as long as it sells,” Patricia said.

For those few who trickle in asking for cupcakes or puff pastry, the family finds a way to convert their new visitors who might not be familiar with the 2,000-plus varieties of pan dulce.

“We want to attract the new generation,” Patricia said, “sometimes it happens that the pan de huevo just came out of the oven so

I’ll cut them off a little piece.”

That “new generation” is also enjoying Bedoy’s pan dulce at Hemisfair’s Yanaguana Garden, albeit in a radically different way, as colorful conchas are used by the staff at Con Safos Cocina y Cantina to complete their popular pan dulce burger.

JESS ELIZARRRARAS

JESS ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

With a third store, Bedoy’s Bakery is more culturally relevant than ever And a newer generation still is already primed to takeover in the future — the Bedoy’s 8-year-old granddaughter Jamie, Jameson’s daughter.

“She’s a good decorator and she loves the bakery,” Patricia said.

Multiple locations, bedoysbakery.com.

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 33

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF WEBB

THE AZTEC THEATRE

APRIL 20, 201 8 | 7-11 p.m.

Tickets on sale at THE AZTEC THEATRE, SAAF, The Fiesta® Store and online Photo I.D. required for entry. No exceptions. www.sananton ioaids.org

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

TIPPLE TEST

NIGHTLIFE

COURTESY OF HOT JOY

Southtown's newest

Happy Hours ERIN WINCH

Name: Francis Bogside Background: After a Halloween fire in 2016 left Bogside and sister restaurant, Brigid, out of commission, Francis Bogside reopened on the anniversary of their closing as a whole new bar. They nixed the neighboring restaurant and expanded the bar, which now sports a full menu serving lunch, dinner, brunch and happy hour treats.

Happy Hour: Stopping in during the discounted hours will allow patrons to take advantage of drink specials like $6 cocktails, $5 wells, and $1 off draught beer. On the food side, the bar sports snacks like poutine for $5, chicken wings for $8 and a burger or pizza for $10. With a happy hour that runs from 4 to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and then all day Sunday and Monday, there is plenty of opportunities to experience Bogside’s deals.

Patrons: Dropping into Francis Bogside during happy hour, you’ll be met with regulars, industry folk, and the occasional traveler. Sunday could be packed with those wanting to take advantage of a Sunday Funday deal. During my most recent visit on a Tuesday, the bar was fairly open, with most of the patrons being from the Southtown neighborhood.

Experience: The new concept has made for a larger bar with ample seating, especially during happy hour. I was quickly greeted as I sat at the bar and handed menus and water. While there are plenty of drink options on the happy hour menu, it is disappointing to see that only one signature

cocktail, the Irish Old Fashioned, was listed. I went with the only signature drink, made with Jameson, Guinness simple syrup and bitters. It’s a decent cocktail, a twist on the Old Fashioned with a little Irish flair. For food, it was hard to choose between the poutine, the pizza or the burger. With the help of the bartender and the other patrons at the bar, the burger was the answer, and if you really want to treat yourself, substitute fries for the house-made chips for an extra $2. When the burger arrived, I knew I hadn’t been led astray. It was a double-meat cheeseburger, and is honestly enough to feed two people. The burger was cooked perfectly and coming during happy hour saved about $2 — which isn’t a ton but when you include drinks with it, it’s a steal. I would easily come back to try other items on the food menu and take advantage of the inexpensive classic drinks.

Name: Hot Joy Background: Part of the Empty Stomach group, Hot Joy opened in Southtown off of South Alamo after launching as a pop-up inside The Monterey. The restaurant-bar concept is about to celebrate their fourth anniversary this weekend, where they will bring back food and drink favorites.

Happy Hour: The happy hour deals at Hot Joy are insane.

There are four cocktails all priced at $4. You can also enjoy a glass of wine for $3 or beer called the Montucky “cold snack” for $2. If you’re hungry, the bar offers steamed buns for $1 apiece, in addition to their full food menu (no discount on menu items, though). Don’t forget about Wing Wednesdays, when you can get a bowl of wings for $6.

Patrons: The guests who venture into Hot Joy seem to vary. Like most of Southtown, there are locals from the neighborhood who stop by for a quick bite to eat before heading home. Then there a few industry folks who come in for a quick shot and a bun before heading off to their shift at a neighboring establishment. On Wednesdays, the crowd during happy hour is more robust, with individuals and couples who are looking to score half-off wings.

Experience: I happened to walk into Hot Joy on a Wednesday, not recalling that this was the day wings were at a discount price, and I was happily surprised. I took a seat at the bar and glanced over the happy hour menu. The cocktails offered during the discounted hours seemed to be on the sweeter side, following the tiki theme that Hot Joy has always sported. You can choose from a Caribbean mule, bourbon cooler, a Locals Only, or a Hot Joy daiquiri. I went with the daiquiri, which can be ordered as an original lime flavor, a strawberry, or a passion fruit variety. The drink was solid and $4 the price cannot be beat. I was glad to have visited on Wing Wednesday as I ordered both the chicken and the tofu steam buns, and was pretty disappointed in their taste. The tofu bun was flavorless and dry, while the chicken was drenched in a miso honey butter to the point it was all you tasted. The wings, however, were great, and they offered the three menu varieties as well as the special of the day. To recap, visit Hot Joy for a cheap drink during happy hour or for the specials like Wing Wednesday and Ramen Mondays — skip it though if you are craving steam buns.

Erin Winch writes about boozin’ in the Alamo City on her blog Drinking In SA. Follow her on Instagram at @drinking.in.sa for more.

sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 35

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

MUSIC

Outlaws

COURTESY JERRY JEFF WALKER

Uncovered

CHRIS CONDE

Listen to early recordings of Texas icon Jerry Jeff Walker at the Wittliff Collections

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If you’ve been reading up about music in San Antonio over the last 10+ years, chances are you’ve read an article or two by the talented Hector Saldaña, who wrote for the San Antonio Express-News for almost two decades. Saldaña is now the Texas Music Curator

for the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University. Over the past couple of years, we’ve become friends through our occupations as music journalists and musicians.

After one of my recent shows back in January, Saldaña chatted with me about this dude named Jerry Jeff Walker, and said the Wittliff would be opening an exhibit showcasing the artist’s work.“Have you heard of Jerry Jeff Walker?” Saldaña asked me.

“No?” I replied with a drawn-out inflection in my tone. I thought maybe I should know about this dude, since I do write about music in Texas for a living.

Saldaña briefly described the musician’s contributions to Texas music, and it piqued my interest. I was a little shocked to find out that Jerry Jeff Walker is actually from New York yet is held in high regard as one of the leading contributors to outlaw country. Like, WTF, a New Yorker?

So, the abridged story about this dude goes something like this: this cat, Ronald Clyde Crosby (Jerry Jeff Walker), grows up with live music in his life (his grandparents were musicians), eventually joins a local band, travels to Philadelphia to audition for American Bandstand, but doesn’t get on the show. After high school, Crosby enlists in the National Guard but goes AWOL to hitchhike and busk (play music in public for money) around New Orleans, Texas, Florida and New York. He changes his name to Jerry Jeff Walker, writes a hit song called “Mr. Bojangles” after getting thrown in jail, eventually moves to Austin where he sort of “makes it” in the music scene and becomes known for being a wild man who loved to do cocaine, drink whiskey and play outlaw country music.

“Love him or hate him or [be] indifferent, Jerry Jeff

Walker set the course for Texas Music, before there was Willie Nelson [and] before there was George Strait,” Saldaña said in a phone interview. “There was this guy, Jerry Jeff Walker, who with his album Viva Terlingua, which was recorded there in Luckenbach, in 1973 in August…

It really kinda brought out this outlaw country and rock looseness and folk element to country that wasn’t that prevalent at that time.”

Saldaña said the Wittliff Collections had acquired Walker’s entire archive of music in 2017. In January of this year, while Saldaña was putting the exhibit together, he traveled to Louisiana and uncovered the earliest known recordings of the musician playing in coffee houses in New Orleans. The demo tapes, which dated back to 1964 and 1965, showcased a kid who, unbeknownst to Jerry Jeff Walker followers, was really in tune with civil rights and was writing songs about the discrimination and injustice he was witnessing on the road during that time in America.

“He was writing about segregation, about government corruption, urban renewal, the Vietnam war – those are topics we don’t associate with Jerry Jeff Walker,” Saldaña said.

The Jerry Jeff Walker exhibition — Viva Jerry Jeff: The Origins and Wild Times of a Texas Icon — is worth traveling to check out before it closes on July 8. You’ll be able to discover more about this living legend and get a glimpse into an important time in history.

Free, Mon-Fri 8:30am–4:30pm, Saturday 11am5pm, Sunday noon-5pm, Texas State University, Alkek Library, 7th Floor, Talbot St., San Marcos, (512) 245-2313, thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu.

Let’s Get Filthy Post-punk outfit Filthy releases Fault in Tolerance

≥

The DIY music community in San Antonio is something to be proud of. It’s filled with hardworking artists committed to getting their music out to as many people as possible, no matter how weird, abrasive or loud it is.

And because of this freedom to create whatever the fuck we want, the scene includes a massive cross-section of artists and bands that sounds so sonically different from each other. Due to the amount of weird shit bands keep cooking up in the Alamo City, a lot of times these outlier acts end up on the same bill, showcasing their unique sounds to the same audience inside spaces like house shows, art galleries and DIY venues.

In January 2016, I dropped a lure in Facebookland in attempt to discover more of the weird and avant-garde artists and bands making music in SA. A week later, I found myself at a house show happening not five blocks from my apartment, where a mixed-bag of artists from several different genres including harsh noise/power electronics artist Wolf Party, rapper D.R.O., noise-rockers Pinko, and folk Americana band Barrera and The Hot Springs, among others, were slated to perform.

The show actually happened to be a tour kick-off show for Filthy, a band I had just recently discovered and really dug. Since then, the darkwave/post-punk trio has continued to play shows across Texas, and last month released a brand-new EP entitled Fault in Tolerance.

“We get thrown in with a lot of hardcore bands, a lot of punk bands, a lot of rap shows,” guitarist/vocalist Leonard Guerra told the Current. “We’re kind of happy not fitting in ’cause those shows end up a little more interesting ... you definitely reach an audience that might not understand where you’re coming from, but they listen to you and they end up grabbing a piece that speaks to them, which is cool for us.”

Formed in summer 2016, the three-piece mixes ’90s darkwave textures, post-punk vocals and ambient electronic tones for a mix that’s vintage yet breathes with contemporary edge.

On the track “Evil,” for instance, Guerra’s electric guitar notations cut through an atmospheric buzz in the intro, before Rick Flores’ heavy electronic drum-beat pushes the track forward with a hypnotic, unchanging pulse. While Guerra’s raspy vocals seem to follow a sort of pop verse/ chorus/verse pattern, his voice acts more as an added

COURTESY OF FILTHY

CHRIS CONDE

texture or ingredient mixing into the whole dynamic of the 4-minute track. To complete the song, Alex Alvarado’s bass lines moan under the mix with the perfect amount of inflection to keep listeners interested.

“We recorded a bunch of songs, and kind of cherrypicked a few things,” said Guerra, who spoke to us from Kansas City. The band is currently wrapping up a 16-date tour, including stops in Canada. “Basically, our sound kind of evolved based on the type of shows we were getting – we were playing such a broad spectrum of stuff that kind of really infl uenced and changed the direction we were going in.”

Even though the EP is a pretty satisfying helping of gloomy pop, I really wanted more, but thankfully, Guerra says we can expect another EP or two within several months – and eventually maybe even a full-length.

For now, enjoy the arguably best local release of the year so far. sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 41

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

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“Diving Woman” by Japanese Breakfast might be my new favorite song right now. If you listen to hoards of new music like I do, you know that when a song hits you in all the right places that it causes you to stop what you’re doing and say out loud, “Holy shit, this is amazing” isn’t an ordinary occurrence. The solo project of Michelle Zauner of Little Big League, this particular song by Japanese Breakfast pulls from the best of the ’90s – breathy, female singer-songwriter vocals, bass-forward melodies, and echoing electric guitars that add more texture and atmosphere rather than melody. Dare I say this song is perfect?

With close to 2 million streams on her Spotify account, I doubt I’m the only one who thinks this. Also on the bill is lo-fi dream-garage pop artist Snail Mail and Football, etc., who sort of remind me of first-wave, early ’90s emo in the vein of Mineral. This bill is lit, go to it. Go now. $13-$15, 8pm, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com.

WED

11

MUSIC PICKS

OK, so besides the classics like George Clinton and ParliamentFunkadelic, we don’t really spin too much funk over here in the office.

And I honestly can’t remember the last time I was at a bar or club, and some funk slipped into the mix. The Main Squeeze, however, might be reminding us why we need more funk in our lives.

Formed as a party band at Indiana University, the group has continued to rock and release records since 2010. While they’re not necessarily straight-forward funk in the vein of the aforementioned P-Funk, the group blends a healthy portion of the genre with rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop for an amalgamation that any long-time listener of funk or curious bystander could appreciate. $12-$15, 7pm, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. WED

EBRU YILDIZ

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Gilberto

COURTESY OF THE MAIN SQUEEZE

Bebel

Powerman 5000

Yup, it’s another one of these. If you’ve been living in San Antonio for, I don’t know, at least a year, you know that several times a year, nu-metal bands from the ’90s sneak into the 2-1-0, and we sort of live for it.

Whether it’s bands like Chevelle or P.O.D. who’ve made respective appearances at Oysterbake the last couple years, or bands like Deftones, who aren’t necessarily nu-metal but often get grouped with those bands, San Antonio shows up in the hundreds. This week, Powerman5000 will be making a stop at the Rock Box to make sure we get our distortion-heavy, groove metal fix. Known for their track “When Worlds Collide,” the band got big in the late ’90s when the ripcurl of nu-metal began to course through the radio airwaves. $15, 7pm, The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 677-9453, therockboxsa.com.

THU

12

Born to bossa nova pioneer João Gilberto and singer Miúcha, Bebel Gilberto is a Brazilian American singer who you should absolutely check out after you read this, or while you read it. Bebel Gilberto grew up saturated in all things music and even made her Carnegie Hall debut singing with her mother at age nine. Though her sound has evolved over the years, the work that stands out most is her downtempo, trip-hop-esque records that incorporate her distinctive, lush vocals with synthesized drum beats reminiscent of early-2000s Zero 7. $39, 7:30pm, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org.

THU

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COURTESY OF PARADIGM AGENCY

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sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 43

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CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

COURTESY OF RANDOM MOVEMENT

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MUSIC

Soccer Ummm, excuse me? Is it just us or has there been an outpouring of beautiful, unique, indie rock produced by females rolling into our sights as of late? For instance, just this week, Japanese Breakfast, Snail Mail, and Football, etc. – all dope indie bands with female front-men, are coming through SA, and it’s just fucking cool. Add Soccer Mommy to this list. Soccer Mommy blends smartly written indie rock with singer-songwriter aesthetics in the vein of Mirah, only not as weird as Mirah?

Regardless of my own interpretation of her music, Soccer Mommy is absolutely a show you need to see this week if you dig catchy songs with indie flare. With Madeline Kenney, Demitasse, $7-$10, 8pm, 502 Bar, 502 Embassy Oaks, (210) 257-8125, 502bar.com.

SAT

14

Just when you thought all the music festivals for the next couple of months have been announced, Taco Fest comes out of nowhere, and includes two things San Antonians appreciate: tacos and live music. “Taco Fest is a long overdue celebration of San Antonio’s favorite food. From foodie-tacos to classic breakfast tacos, we will showcase in one place the amazing diversity of tacos that make San Antonio famous,” said Taco Fest creative director, Jimmy Mendiola. His team has produced other local festivals, including Día de los Muertos Fest, Maverick Music Festival, San Antonio Beer Festival and Texas Salsa Festival. The fest will feature more than 20 live bands and DJs, including La Santa Cecilia, Brown Sabbath, Santiago Jimenez Jr., Girl in a Coma, Money Chicha, El Conjunto Nueva Ola, Piñata Protest, Femina-X, Bombasta, Eddie & the Valiants, and more. Music, vendors and local artisans, interactive cooking demos, and children’s activities round out the downtown festival programming. $15-$50, Noon-11pm, La Villita Historic Arts Village, tacomusicfest.com

Big K.R.I.T.

SAT

If you’re unfamiliar with the genre of drum & bass, also known as simply D&B or DnB, it’s basically a branch of electronic music that emerged from the rave scenes in England during the early ’90s. With track tempos ranging from 160-180 beats per minute (most hip-hop songs you hear on the radio are 80-100bpm to give you a gage for how fast these beats are), the genre crossed the Atlantic, and if you were around to go to raves during the early ’90s, there’s a good chance you dropped some X and liquid-danced to drum-n-bass, dude. Though this isn’t as popular as it was back in the day, there are artists like my personal favorite Spor and Noisia (who have remixed for electronic artists like The Prodigy) who keep the genre alive in the underground corridors where raves are birthed in secret. Random Movement is another one of these artists keeping the genre alive, and since we really don’t get a whole lot of electronic artists of this caliber rolling through the Alamo City, this is pretty much the club music event you want to be at this week. With MC Astro, $10, 9pm, Web House, 320 Blanco Rd., (210) 531-0100.

m ando R : z Hero B N D Astro C M +

COURTESY OF RANDOM MOVEMENT

COURTESY OF BIG K.R.I.T.

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COURTESY OF SOCCER MOMMY

Mommy

SAT

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There are a lot of things I could say about this Mississippi-born rapper, but former music editor Travis Buffkin sort of hits the nail on the head with his quick blurb about the artist, the last time he came to town back in 2015: “It’s no wonder that K.R.I.T. stands for a “King Remembered In Time,” which, in this case, could almost be taken literally. From a technical standpoint, K.R.I.T. is an exceptional rapper, channeling the socio-political fodder of Goodie Mob, the charismatic gusto of Pimp C, and the Southern p-funk of Big Boi circa Speakerboxxx.” Yes. Totally. Agreed. And with Big K.R.I.T.’s latest album 4eva Is A Mighty Long Time to add to his arsenal of fire raps, this is bound to be a show for the books. With Cyhi The Pynce, Childish Major, $25-$125, 8pm, Alamo City Music Hall, 1305 E. Houston St., alamocitymusichall.com.

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sacurrent.com • April 11-17, 2018 • CURRENT 45

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MUSIC CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11 Herlin Riley Radio Show Taping American jazz drummer and member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performs live during special show taping. $10. Jazz, TX, 8:30-11:30pm.

The Primetime Jazz Orchestra San Antonio’s premiere jazz big band presents an evening of live jazz under the direction of legendary John Magaldi. Free. The Cove, 8-10pm.

Spoonfed Tribe Formed in the Fort Worth area in 1999, Spoonfed Tribe is a musical/visual group known for mesmerizing live shows combining hypnotic walls of percussion, psychedelic sonics and mind-expanding visuals. $10-$45. Sam’s Burger Joint, 7:30pm.

THURSDAY, APRIL 12 American Swine New Jersey punk rock quartet Doc Rotten takes the stage with hardcore reggae trash band American Swine, pop punk group Destroy Orbison and punk rock band Sketchy Trench. $2. Bottom Bracket Social Club, 10pm.

Bill Carter Solo Austin-based Bill Carter writes the kind of songs other artists turn to for inspiration and for their own material. Over the past three decades, he has earned a reputation for his own recordings and for providing songs for many legends of rock, blues and country, including The Fabulous Thunderbirds, John Mayall, Ruth Brown, Robert Palmer, The Brian Setzer Orchestra and Waylon Jennings. $12$50. Sam’s Burger Joint, 7pm.

The Devilish 3 Rockabilly trio plays early R&B, Jump blues and swing. Free. The Cove, 7:3010:30pm.

FRIDAY, APRIL 13 Aaron Prado Trio Featuring local jazz artists Adam Carillo, Chris Villanueva, Mike Porter and Brandon Guerra. $5. Jazz, TX, 5:30-7:30pm.

Big 4 Massacre Featuring SA’s newest Metallica Tribute Band Blackened, Bloodline a Slayer Tribute, Rust In Piece Megadeth Tribute and Armed And Dangerous a Anthrax Tribute. $8$10. Bond’s 007 Rock Bar, 8pm-2am.

Eden Burning, Ghandis Gun With positive messaging and an aggressive edge, Gandhi’s Gun combines the best elements of rock from days past with the most modern textures of synths and electronic dance music. Also performing is Eden Burning a local rock’n’roll band We Are the Heroine mixing rock, soul and country. $5. The Amp Room, 8:30pm.

Palm Daze Dreampop band hailing from Austin joins freak folk grouo The Millbrook Estates and The Halfways. $8-$10. Paper Tiger, 8-11:30pm.

Passing Strangers Local based 1st Wave/80’s retro/ Alternative band best known for the dance remake of Dream Weaver. $10-$50. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm.

Steve Wariner, Bri Bagwell Four time Grammy award winner rightfully earned the title of a true Country Legend. Wariner has released over twenty studio albums and charted more than fifty singles on the Billboard Country Singles Charts. $25-$400. John T Floore’s Country Store, 7pm.

MUSIC

Chris Lopez Performing a mixture of blues, rock, and classic americana tunes for guests to enjoy.

Free. Quarry Hofbrau, 9pm-1am.

The Elected Officials Hardcore punk rock with lyrics about corporate politics, big box stores, religious pundits and oppression with special guest The 13th Victim a gritty punk band from Austin.

Free. Limelight, 8pm-2am.

Godiva Showcasing local artists once again, Imagine Books and Records brings heavy metal band Godiva over from Switzerland, German power metal band Wizard, Just Fine and Depot Lane. $5. Imagine Books and Records, 8pm.

Quiet Company Quiet Company from Austin plays Weezer’s Blue Album and Food Group plays Radiohead’s In Rainbows. $10-$12. Paper Tiger, 8pm.

Ramble Cats Saturday Night Ramble San Antonio band of seasoned musicians playing an eclectic mix of Country tunes with a rock’n’roll edge including some roots rock from the greats.

Free. The Cove, 7:30-11pm.

Rick Barroso and the BigNasty Juke Joint Experience Blues artist and front man Rick Barroso performs an evening of blues and deep jazz alongside his band. $5. Jazz, TX, 5:30-7:30pm.

Wishbone Ash Formed in 1969, Wishbone Ash cut their teeth on the US stadium circuit first opening for The Who. Once they began headlining in the States, Wishbone’s opening acts included Springsteen, Kiss and Aerosmith. Special guests include Los #3 Dinners performing original tunes about life in San Antonio. $25-$80. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm.

SUNDAY, APRIL 15 2018 Fiesta Blues Heritage Series Featuring The Keeshea Pratt Band draped with amazing style, class and sophistication, Pratt takes you on a journey through all genres of music alongside local 24 year old singer-songwriter Michael Alanis. $15-$50. Sam’s Burger Joint, 3pm.

Adelitas Way Las Vegas rock trio formed in 2006 performs with metal band Sons of Texas, hard rock 4-piece Stone Broken from the UK, rock’n’roll band Taking Dawn and local electronic rock group The Taking Band. $18-$20. Paper Tiger, 6-11:30pm.

An Evening with Abraxxas A Tribute To The Music Of Carlos Santana $15. The Martini Club, 5-10pm.

Mark’s Brothers Performing a broad range of swing, country, folk, blues, and rock from the 1920’s through the 1970’s to form their own blend of music with some originals thrown into the mix. Free. The Cove, 4-6pm.

Noche Azul de Esperanza: Maria Felix Noche Azul de Esperanza is The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center’s ongoing series of intimate cafe style performances with acclaimed singer/ songwriter Azul Barrientos. Featuring a new theme and musical lineup each month, Noche Azul showcases traditional Mexican songs while highlighting the cultural influences and interconnections between Latin America, Spain and Mexico. This concert’s theme is Maria Felix. $7. Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, 4-6pm.

SATURDAY, APRIL 14

Peyote Coyote Psychedelic beach bop trio from Pompano Beach, Florida performs with Glove from Tampa Bay and local band Processions. $5.

Limelight, 9pm-2am.

Bloody Cape Featuring the Deftone tribute band Bloody Cape with Rooster and Alice In Chains cover group Baad Newz and Dutchess. $8$10. Bond’s 007 Rock Bar, 8pm.

Valley Queen Hailing in from Los Angeles Natalie Carol leads a band reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac and My Morning Jacket with vocals evocative of Florence Welch. $6-$10. 502 Bar, 7pm.

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My boyfriend and I love each other deeply, and the thought of breaking up devastates me. We also live together. I deeply regret it and am full of shame, but I impulsively went through his texts for the first time. I found out that for the past few months he has been sexting and almost definitely hooking up with someone who I said I was not comfortable with. After our initial conversation about her (during which I expressed my discomfort), he never brought her up again. Had I known that he needed her in his life this badly, I would have taken some time to sit with my feelings and figure out where my discomfort with her was coming from and tried to move through it. We are in an open relationship, but his relationship with her crosses what we determined as our “cheating” boundary: hiding a relationship. How do I confess to what I did and confront him about what I found without it blowing up into a major mess?

Upset Girl Hopes Relationship Survives

and ungrateful. She is also anthropologically and historically allocated in another temporal space continuum. And last but not least: She runs less quickly than me despite eight years age difference and her having the lungs of a 26-year-old nonsmoker. Thoughts?

Desperate Erotic Situation If someone is criminal, racist, and dishonest—to say nothing of being allocated in another temporal space continuum (whatever the fuck that means)—I don’t see how “cannot hide her true feelings” lands on the “pro” side of the pro/con ledger. You shouldn’t want to be with a dishonest, moralizing bigot, DES, so the fact that this particular dishonest, moralizing bigot is incapable of hiding her truly repulsive feelings isn’t a reason to consider seeing her. Not being able to mask hateful feelings isn’t a redeeming quality—it’s the opposite.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Amateur filmmakers, porn-star wannabes, kinksters, regular folks, and other creative types are hereby invited to make and submit short porn films—five minutes max—to the 14th Annual HUMP! Film Festival. The 13th Annual HUMP! Film Festival is currently touring the country—go to humpfilmfest. com to find out when HUMP! is coming Snooping is always wrong, of course, to your town—and the next HUMP! except when the snooper discovers kicks off in November. HUMP! films something they had a right to know. can be hardcore, softcore, live action, While there are definitely less-ambiguous animated, kinky, vanilla, straight, gay, lez, examples (cases where the snoopee bi, trans, genderqueer—anything goes was engaged in activities that put the at HUMP! (Well, almost anything: No snooper at risk), your boyfriend violating poop, no animals, no minors.) HUMP! is screened only in theaters, nothing is the boundaries of your open relationship rises to the level of “right to know.” This is a released online, and the filmmakers retain all rights. At HUMP! you can be a porn major mess, UGHRS, and there’s no way star for a weekend in a theater without to confront your boyfriend without risking having to be a porn star for eternity on a blowup. So tell him what you know and the internet! There’s no charge to enter how you found out. You’ll be in a better HUMP!, there’s $20,000 in cash prizes position to assess whether you want this awarded to the filmmakers by audience relationship to survive after you confess ballot (including the $10,000 Best in and confront.

Show Award!), and each filmmaker gets a percentage of every ticket sold on This is about a girl, of course. the HUMP! tour. For more information Pros: She cannot hide her true about making and submitting a film to the feelings. Cons: Criminal, irascible, best porn festival in the country, go to grandiose sense of self, racist, humpfilmfest.com/submit. abstemious, self-centered, anxious, mail@savagelove.net moralist, monogamous, biased, @fakedansavage on Twitter denial as a defense mechanism, ITMFA.org manipulative, liar, envious, 48

CURRENT • April 11-17, 2018 • sacurrent.com

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries statesman Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States.

He wrote one of history’s most famous documents, the Declaration of Independence. He was an architect, violinist, inventor, and linguist who spoke numerous languages, as well as a philosopher who was knowledgeable about mathematics, surveying, and horticulture. But his most laudable success came in 1789, when he procured the French recipe for macaroni and cheese while living in France, and thereafter introduced the dish into American cuisine. JUST KIDDING! I’m making this little joke in the hope that it will encourage you to keep people focused on your most important qualities, and not get distracted by less essential parts of you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the early 1990s, Australian electrical engineer John O’Sullivan toiled on a research project with a team of radio astronomers. Their goal was to find exploding mini-black holes in the distant voids of outer space. The quest failed. But in the process of doing their experiments, they developed technology that became a key component now used in Wi-Fi. Your digital devices work so well in part because his frustrating misadventure led to a happy accident. According to my reading of your astrological omens, Taurus, we may soon be able to make a comparable conclusion about events in your life.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the fictional world created

by DC Comics, the superhero Superman has a secret identity as a modest journalist named Clark Kent. Or is it the other way around? Does the modest journalist Clark Kent have a secret identity as the superhero Superman? Only a few people realize the two of them are the same. I suspect there is an equally small number of allies who know who you really are beneath your “disguises,” Gemini. But upcoming astrological omens suggest that could change. Are you ready to reveal more about your true selves? Would you consider expanding

the circle that is allowed to see and appreciate your full range and depth?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Playwright Tennessee Williams once spent an evening trying to coax a depressed friend out of his depression. It inspired him to write a poem that began like this: “I want to infect you with the tremendous excitement of living, because I believe that you have the strength to bear it.” Now I address you with the same message, Cancerian. Judging from the astrological omens, I’m convinced you currently have more strength than ever before to bear the tremendous excitement of living. I hope this news will encourage you to potentize your ability to welcome and embrace the interesting puzzles that will come your way in the weeks ahead.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Are you finished dealing with spacious places and vast vistas and expansive longings?

I hope not. I hope you will continue to explore big bold blooming schemes and wild free booming dreams until at least April 25. In my astrological opinion, you have a sacred duty to keep outstripping your previous efforts. You have a mandate to go further, deeper, and braver as you break out of shrunken expectations and push beyond comfortable limitations. The unknown is still more inviting and fertile than you can imagine.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Between December 5 and 9, 1952, London was beset with heavy fog blended with thick smog. Visibility was low. Traffic slowed and events were postponed. In a few places, people couldn’t see their own feet. According to some reports, blind people, who had a facility for moving around without the aid of sight, assisted pedestrians in making their way through the streets. I suspect that a metaphorically comparable phenomenon may soon arise in your sphere, Virgo. Qualities that might customarily be regarded as liabilities could at least temporarily become assets.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Your allies are always important, but in the coming weeks they will be even more so. I suspect they will be your salvation, your deliverance, and your treasure. So why not treat them like angels or celebrities or celebrity angels? Buy them ice cream and concert tickets and fun surprises. Tell them secrets about their beauty that no one has ever expressed before. Listen to them in ways that will awaken their dormant potentials.

I bet that what you receive in return will inspire you to be a better ally to yourself.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the coming weeks, I suspect you will be able to find what you need in places that are seemingly devoid of what you need. You can locate the possible in the midst of what’s apparently impossible. I further surmise that you will summon a rebellious resourcefulness akin to that of Scorpio writer Albert Camus, who said, “In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. No matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1936, Herbert C. Brown graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in science. His girlfriend Sarah Baylen rewarded him with the gift of a two-dollar book about the elements boron and silicon. Both he and she were quite poor; she couldn’t afford a more expensive gift. Brown didn’t read the book for a while, but once he did, he decided to make its subject the core of his own research project. Many years later, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries about the role of boron in organic chemistry. And it all began with that twodollar book. I bring this story to your attention, Sagittarius, because I foresee you, too, stumbling upon a modest beginning that eventually yields breakthrough results.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In 20 B.C., Rome’s most famous poet was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known to us today as Horace. He prided himself on his meticulous craftsmanship, and advised other writers to be equally scrupulous. Once you compose a poem, he declared, you should put it aside for nine years before deciding whether to publish it. That’s the best way to get proper perspective on its worth. Personally, I think that’s too demanding, although I appreciate the power that can come from marshalling so much conscientiousness.

And that brings me to a meditation on your current state, Capricorn. From what I can tell, you may be at risk of being too risk-averse; you could be on the verge of waiting too long and being too cautious. Please consider naming a not-too-distant release date.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Luckily, you have an inventive mind and an aptitude for experimentation. These will be key assets as you dream up creative ways to do the hard work ahead of you. Your labors may not come naturally, but I bet you’ll be surprised at how engaging they’ll become and how useful the rewards will be. Here’s a tip on how to ensure you will cultivate the best possible attitude: Assume that you now have the power to change stale patterns that have previously been resistant to change.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): May I suggest that you get a lesson in holy gluttony from a Taurus? Or perhaps pick up some pointers in enlightened self-interest from a Scorpio? New potential resources are available, but you haven’t reeled them in with sufficient alacrity. Why? Why oh why oh why?! Maybe you should ask yourself whether you’re asking enough. Maybe you should give yourself permission to beam with majestic self-confidence. Picture this: Your posture is regal, your voice is authoritative, your sovereignty is radiant. You have identified precisely what it is you need and want, and you have formulated a pragmatic plan to get it.

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD by Matt Jones

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1 Cereal aisle consideration 6 Former Senate Majority Leader Trent 10 Carpet protection 13 Diagnostic machine 15 Hawkeye’s state 16 “Here ___ Again” (1987 Whitesnake hit) 17 Spicy appetizers 20 Like chai, sometimes 21 M&Ms color replaced by blue 22 Parlor furniture 23 Charged subatomic particle 24 “Wild” author Cheryl 25 Some barnyard noises 29 Gender pronoun option 30 Card game where you match adjectives with nouns 36 Girl in “Calvin and Hobbes” 37 “The Subject Was Roses” director Grosbard 38 Ancient Aegean region 40 Slice choice 43 T or F, e.g.

44 Sleeper’s breathing problem, to a Brit 45 “You Might Think” band 50 ___ Awards (event held in Nashville) 51 Outburst from a movie cowboy, perhaps 52 Massage 53 “That ___ not fair!”

57 “Wacky Races” character who later got her own cartoon

5 Certain theater company, for short 6 Pride member 7 Alley ___ (basketball play) 8 “Texas” dance move 9 ___ off (dwindle) 10 Devoutness 11 Give a thumbs-up DOWN 12 Gave a shot, perhaps 1 Tonga neighbor 14 Mix again, as a salad 2 Desktop that turned 20 in 2018 18 Photographer Goldin 3 Hay unit 19 School fundraising gp.

4 Watsonian exclamation 23 “Why do ___ trying?”

60 Director Roth 61 1982 Disney movie with a 2010 sequel 62 PiÒa ___ (rum drink) 63 Sugar suffix 64 Bypass 65 Cobalt, for one

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24 Olympic snowboarding medalist White 25 ___ in “questionable” 26 “___ and away!”

27 Domed church area 28 Movie snippet 29 One-person performances 31 Goes sour 32 Kate Middleton’s sister 33 Pork cut 34 Auto manufacturer Ferrari 35 10 1/2 wide, e.g.

39 Abbr. on a tow truck 41 Tune that’s tough to get out of your head 42 Like much of Keats’s poetry 45 Blood group known as the universal donor 46 High shoes 47 Kids’ rhyme starter 48 “Weekend Update” cohost Michael 49 Finnish architect Alvar who’s the first entry in many encyclopedias 50 Sippy ___ 52 “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes” musical 53 Spot in the ocean 54 Sports page number 55 Scotch mixer 56 Birthstone that shares a first letter with its month 58 Luau delicacy 59 Cruise around Hollywood

THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow

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