San Antonio Current - February 22, 2023

BALLOT BLOCKERS

TEXAS REPUBLICANS AREN’T DONE TRYING TO KEEP VOTERS AWAY FROM THE POLLS

San Antonio Current

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15 Feature

Ballot Blockers

Texas Republicans aren’t done trying to keep voters away from the polls

No Carts, but Lots of Choices

Small plates shine at Dim Sum Oriental Cuisine, even if some of the presentation pageantry is gone

San Antonio Icehouse

Week will celebrate city’s outdoor drinking spots with discounts and prizes

United We Brunch moves to San Antonio Botanical Garden for its sixth installment

Hot Dish

55 Music

Fabulous Monsters

San Antonio punk band Fea composed original music for play debuting at Public Theater

Gov.

appropriation, provocation and politics

Tales of Terror

San Antonio small press Ghoulish Books opening horror bookshop after a successful Kickstarter campaign

Varied Viewpoints

Exhibition at San Antonio’s Centro de Artes shows the diverse themes explored by Texas’ Latinx artists

39 Screens

It

Certified Weird

Seven bizarre movies shot in San Antonio you’ve probably Never Heard Of

43 Food Box Lunch

San Antonio restaurants offer a variety of bento options perfect for daytime dining

Critics’ Picks

BALLOT BLOCKERS

Featuring

On the Cover: Even though the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature passed sweeping voter restrictions in 2021, lawmakers are at it again. Design: Samantha Serna.

Katelyn Earhart

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

COVID/CONSTRUCTION RECOVERY GRANTS PROGRAM

APPLICATIONS OPEN FEBRUARY 13-28, 2023

Small businesses impacted by COVID and City-initiated construction that are located in qualifying project zones may be eligible for up to $35,000 in grant funding supported by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). To see if you qualify, scan the QR code or visit the link below.

SanAntonio.gov/EDD/Programs-Grants

HA top Texas Education Agency official was recorded telling a North Texas parent that a Gov. Greg Abbott-backed school voucher plan would cut funding for the state’s public schools. During the call, TEA Deputy Commissioner Steve Lecholop — a former San Antonio ISD board member — pushed the parent to publicly support the plan by sharing her story with an Abbott speechwriter.

CPS Energy’s Casa Verde Weatherization Program last week hit the milestone of weatherizing its 30,000th home. The program is designed to help low-income households save money and energy by updating their residences. Moving forward, the initiative will expand its efforts to also include multifamily properties.

HBlack and Hispanic Texans and people living in the state’s low-income areas don’t trust the quality of their drinking water, a new survey from the nonprofit Texas Water Trade finds Some 61% of the poll’s 650 respondents don’t think their water is safe to drink and 56% said that their water doesn’t taste acceptable. More than half of those surveyed rely on bottled water as their primary source of drinking water.

San Antonio’s The Starlighter has returned to hosting drag shows. The music venue played host to a rodeo-themed drag brunch on Sunday, Feb. 12, its first such event since it was forced to cancel the rest of its 2022 drag schedule in December due to online threats from far-right extremists. The Starlighter said on Instagram that it expects to host another drag brunch in March. —

Abe Asher

Embracing John Hagee’s Christian nationalism with Nikki Haley

Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

Anyone operating on the pie-eyed assumption that the launch of Nikki Haley’s presidential bid will inject a moderate candidate into the Republicans’ 2024 primary probably needs to think again.

The former South Carolina governor invited San Antonio-based TV evangelist John Hagee to deliver the invocation for the Feb. 15 launch of her campaign, a clear suggestion that she’s leaning in on the Christian Nationalism that seems to have consumed the party.

Hagee, of course, is known for inflammatory rhetoric like his claim that Hitler was a “hunter” dispatched by God to help create the state of Israel, that Hurricane Katrina was a sign the Almighty was pissed off about gay people and that women are “only meant to be mothers and bear children.”

Controversy also swirled around the pastor’s Cornerstone Church in late 2021 when it hosted a gathering of far-right kooks and conspiracy theorists at which former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn demanded that the United States adopt “one religion.”

While Hagee kept the controversy to a minimum during his opening prayer at Haley’s campaign launch, the candidate herself uttered some words that should be alarming to free thinkers. When thanking Hagee for his words, she said, “I still say I want to be you when I grow

YOU SAID IT!

Councilman Clayton Perry last week announced that he won’t seek re-election to his District 10 seat. Perry, currently facing drunk driving and hit-and-run charges stemming from a Nov. 6 car crash, took a leave of absence from council in the wake of the incident and is expected to appear in court on March 8. Four candidates have already filed to run for his seat.

up.”

If she meant that she aspires to be an intolerant blowhard, she’s off to a good start by inviting Hagee into the fold. Assclowns tend to flock together. — Sanford Nowlin

A San Antonio police shooting has emerged as an issue in the Chicago mayor’s race. Last week, news site The Triibe reported that the son of Windy City mayoral hopeful Paul Vallas was one of three SAPD officers accused of shooting a Black man fleeing on foot from police in March 2022. Vallas, a law-and-order candidate with the backing of Chicago’s police, frequently praised his son’s law-enforcement service on the trail. —

— civil rights attorney Lee Merritt on a Bexar County grand jury decision not to indict SAPD Officer Stephen Ramos for shooting unarmed 13-year-oldAndre “AJ”Hernandez last summer.

City council last week approved a ballot measure that will let San Antonio voters decide whether to decriminalize cannabis and abortion along with making substantial changes to local law enforcement rules. The vote was a mere formality, however, since the measure’s progressive backers secured the necessary number of signatures to place it on the May ballot. The proposed charter change still faces a challenge in court and San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia has argued that the city doesn’t have legal authority to enforce many parts of it.

Abe Asher

“Bexar County prosecutors have repeatedly sent the message to police officers in San Antonio that they are above the law.”

Instagram / @pastorjohnhagee

Michael Karlis

Gov. Greg Abbott’s anti-diversity rhetoric is a shameful attempt to whitewash history

BY KEVIN SANCHEZ

Editor’s Note: Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.

Gov. Greg Abbott chose to honor Black History Month by discouraging state officials from diligently searching for qualified minorities to hire.

In a leaked early February memo obtained by the Texas Tribune, Abbott’s chief of staff warned government agencies and public universities to abandon Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs which purportedly “favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others.” Such a suspect framing suggests a not-so-subtle ploy to stoke white fears over alleged preferential treatment afforded to racial minorities.

To publicly justify the move, the memo paints initiatives that cast a wider net when looking for job applicants as violating anti-discrimination law.

Andrew Eckhouse, an employment lawyer at Kaplan Law Firm in Austin, told the Current that Governor Abbott “is conflating DEI initiatives — which are meant to increase the diversity of people who apply for a job — with quotas. They’re not the same thing.”

Eckhouse went on to explain that DEI functions as “a catch-all term that’s been turned into a bogeyman in certain political circles, just like Critical Race Theory.”

The State of the State Address Abbott delivered last Thursday was even less coded. “Schools should not push woke agendas,” the Republican governor declared.

For Abbott, the evident purpose of education is to manufacture what he calls “employable Texans,” not critical thinkers, and the GOP-controlled legislature is willing to usurp the role of the Texas Education Agency to impose a top-down curriculum by legislative fiat that the Antebellum South could be proud of.

But we know what the polite euphemism of “school choice” really means and what scaring parents over “woke

agendas” is designed to do: divert much-needed funding from public schools in the service of an all-but-explicit soft privatization.

One would think Abbott has already secured his anti-”woke” bonafides. Thanks to him, Section 28 of the Texas Education Code now reads, “A teacher may not require an understanding of the 1619 Project.”

The 1619 Project is a Pulitzer Prize-winning achievement in historical journalism that reinterprets the nation’s founding from the perspective of the mass abduction and enslavement of Africans. A corresponding documentary series streaming on Hulu is a tour de force of ethnomusicologists, labor historians and civil rights activists interspersed with news footage and archival deep dives.

Like all good pedagogy, it’s an exploration, not a doctrinaire set of answers. Six episodes cover the absurdity of “box-checking” racial classification systems, the finding of joy and humanity through music in the midst of apartheid and the inseparability of chattel slavery from late-stage capitalism, in particular of the slave patrols of old and the trigger-happy policing driving Black Lives Matter protests today.

“If you don’t have slave-grown cotton, you don’t have an American industrial revolution, it’s as simple as that,” Brown University historian Seth Rockman says in the series.

And the meticulousness of the metrics used to squeeze the most productivity out of plantation slaves eerily mirrors the surveillance of modern warehouses run by Amazon.

“The truth is, we all know someone who stayed in a job they hated because they needed healthcare or because they felt powerless to demand better,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the 1619 Project, explains during the series’ narration. “And while Black

workers might have it the worst, we all suffer under this uniquely brutal and unequal system of capitalism that was born on the plantation.”

The 1619 Project itself helps explain why Abbott’s divisive politics have proven so strategic. Conservatives perennially stoke culture wars then blame the victims for instigating them. And white elites exploited race to divide the interracial labor organizing which could have meant higher wages and better working conditions for all workers.

“When I grew up in Longview and Duncanville, we were taught the basics — reading, writing, math, and science,” Abbott waxed nostalgic during last week’s speech. “We were inspired by our country’s founding and how it stands apart from the rest of the world as the beacon of liberty and opportunity.”

This romanticism contrasts with one of the Project’s basic theses: that a primary motivating factor for seceding from Britain was the preservation of slavery.

Consider Thomas Jefferson’s 27th grievance against King George in the Declaration of Independence: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages.”

“Domestic insurrections” meant slave revolts just in case anyone is unsure.

The loyalist Earl of Dunmore, for example, who governed Virginia in 1775, offered slaves their freedom if they fought on the side of the British, both enraging and galvanizing the colonists.

Woody Holton, a history professor at the University of South Carolina, confessed the poor quality of his own childhood education: “If slaves had been as passive as I was taught they were in Virginia schools in the 1960s, then the Revolution might never have come to the South, and you can’t win the Revolution without the South.”

Don’t parents have a right to expect an update to the history textbooks Abbott and Holton read as kids?

The 1619 Project should have been our generation’s Roots, but the forces of right-wing extremism are far more mainstream than they were in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. Talking-points traditionally confined to Ku Klux Klan rallies or meetings of the John Birch Society are, in 2023, a regular part of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the highest-rated primetime televi-

sion on Fox News. Not trusting — and, indeed, criminalizing — teachers who draw from 1619’s treasure trove of educational materials is a gross disservice to students and adds to the list of demerits for which our state appears a national embarrassment.

Teaching the controversy — regarding the case for reparations, for instance — does not mean giving up on the dream of the United States as a beacon of liberty and opportunity. It means, as Hannah-Jones indefatigably argues, striving to “live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded.” It means acknowledging that, again in her words, “the very people who were never supposed to be a part of our democracy have played the most pivotal role in creating it.”

In episode one, Hannah-Jones interviewed MacArthur Cotton, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who was arrested in 1963 for refusing to leave the Alabama courthouse after being denied the right to vote.

In state prison, they handcuffed him to bars above his head so his feet barely touched the ground, keeping him in what former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would no doubt call a “stress position.” They left the prisoner to shit and piss himself, nearly to death.

With the gravity of that historical context in mind, how silly is to to obsess over hiring a few more minorities than white politicians feel comfortable with?

Abbott’s purported “Texas of Tomorrow” sounds an awful lot like the Texas of the past — one that true patriots, on this Black History Month, should recommit themselves to leaving in the dustbin of history.

Instagram / @governorabbott

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For the Birds

Environmentalists blast San Antonio’s attempt to relocate Brackenridge Park aviaries

BY BRANDON RODRIGUEZ

Controversy is again swirling around Brackenridge Park. This time it’s about the birds, though, not the trees.

Earlier this week, the City of San Antonio closed off large swaths of the park behind chain link fences and began using “nonlethal” measures to force the relocation of migratory birds. The project, which has drawn outrage from local environmentalists, is expected to continue into March.

City officials said they’re trying to protect the park’s playground and Joske Pavilion from being covered with bird feces, which can be harmful to human health. Such relocation efforts are commonly used by other municipalities, they added.

Still, environmental advocates aren’t happy. They consider the city’s actions an affront to the park’s natural space, adding that many of the migratory birds now flocking there are doing so because of development and other human activity.

“They were shooting shotguns last year, using lasers and drones,” avian advocate Alesia Garlock said of the city’s ongoing relocation efforts. “The assault is not only on wildlife but on the public, who value the park for a tranquil place to enjoy nature.”

In an emailed statement, city officials said they’re coordinating the project with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

No control

The relocation efforts include clearing underbrush and removing nests, along with frightening the birds with clappers, spotlights, explosives, lasers, distress calls and more, according to details the city officials shared with the Current. Environmentalists said they’ve heard blasts and the revving of chainsaws from behind barricades closing off sections of the park.

Often used to trim trees, chainsaws are a key tool in mitigation efforts, experts argue. Migratory birds such as herons and egrets are attracted to areas with mature trees like the ones in Brackenridge since they provide dense canopy cover.

Grant Ellis, natural resources manager for San Antonio Parks and Recreation, said the efforts aren’t an attempt to move the birds completely out of Brackenridge Park, just to a less-disruptive location inside the public space.

However, those kinds of relocation efforts can’t control where birds go, Texas State University Biology Professor Clay Green told the Current. If run out of one place in Brackenridge, there’s no guarantee the

animals will simply move to another less bothersome spot inside the park, he added.

When the birds choose to move, their new location must resemble the one they’re vacating, said Green, an expert in migratory birds. That means they’ll look for spots that have ample access to foraging opportunities, nesting, safety and a constant water source. Joske Pavilion at Brackenridge Park currently provides those exact resources.

Green said he understands why people are upset about the city’s attempt to move the birds. At the same time, he’s not blind to the city’s struggle.

“[Brackenridge] is a public place,” he said. “Aesthetically, these are beautiful birds, but this is a very common thing for cities.”

The city of Arlington also had its struggles dealing with urban rookeries, according to Green. In 2019, egrets took over a neighborhood there, and since a federal treaty protected the egrets, residents were forced to endure their fecal fallout.

Vicious Circle

Environmentalists liken the city’s relocation efforts

to a vicious circle. City crews chased birds away from Elmendorf and Woodlawn lakes during similar remediation projects, and now they have relocated to Brackenridge, wildlife advocates maintain.

“The city’s destruction of habitats at Elmendorf and Woodlawn has caused disruption to the ecosystems, Garlock said. “Thus, the birds moved as they were forced to.”

Environmentalists said they’re troubled by the city’s lack of transparency about its plans for the birds, saying officials should have collected more public comment before starting the project.

Those arguments echo concerns wildlife advocates and neighborhood groups raised last year about the city’s handling of a plan to cut down 104 trees, including 10 heritage specimens, at the park. Prompted by public outrage, the city pushed back the culling to allow more citizen input.

Ellis said the city held a series of public meetings last year to answer questions about its bird mitigation efforts.

But Garlock counters that those weren’t sufficient. She argues that the city has actively avoided public comment about its ongoing efforts to relocate birds from public spaces.

Brandon Rodriguez

Breaking the Cycle

It will take more than federal funds to solve San Antonio’s domestic violence crisis

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

Last week at the Bexar County Courthouse, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro revealed that his office had secured roughly $1 million in federal funding to help combat San Antonio’s domestic violence epidemic.

Of that total funding, $472,699 will go to the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s Center for Miracles, a program that helps train future social workers. The remaining $483,963 will go towards the Guardian House’s Triple P Positive Parenting Program which seeks to stop the cycle of abuse at the source.

That support plus the $6.3 million allocated by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office in 2021 to help victims of domestic abuse navigate the legal system is evidence that community leaders are finally taking San Antonio’s domestic violence problem seriously.

Even so, advocates say additional resources along with better communication between criminal courts, civil courts and nonprofits are critical to ending domestic violence in San Antonio.

“One of the main things that our community needs is a major overhaul of all of our systems that we have and how we interact with one another,” said Patricia Castillo, executive director of P.E.A.C.E. Initiative, a San Antonio-based group that helps victims of domestic violence leave their abusers. “How does the work of the civil court complement and collaborate with the work of the criminal courts? Streamlining can help us understand where the gaps are, where we’re dropping the ball, and how we can better connect.”

The conversation around San Antonio’s abuse crisis comes in the wake of a nationwide increase in domestic abuse during COVID-19. U.S. instances of abuse jumped 8.1% in the year following the imposition of lockdowns in early 2020, according to a report by the Council on Criminal Justice.

The Alamo City appears to be on the extreme end of that disturbing trend. The San Antonio Police Department experienced an 18% increase in family violence-related calls in March 2020 compared to a year prior. For the entirety of 2021, SAPD responded to more than 20,000 family violence calls, Castro said at the press conference announcing the new funding.

Signs of abuse

San Antonio is consistently ranked among the poorest U.S. metro areas, and some studies suggest poverty can be a major contributor to domestic violence since victims lacking resources are less able to break free of the cycle.

However, Castillo said the biggest factors contrib-

uting to San Antonio’s continuing abuse problem are a lack of information available to victims and poor communication between civic groups, law-enforcement agencies and nonprofit organizations.

“A lot of times, people don’t realize that once you get to the shelter, you’re going to have access to counseling and therapy,” Castillo said. “Somebody can help you file a protective order, somebody can help you file for divorce, somebody can provide you with services in Spanish. Somebody can help.”

One of the primary signs of domestic emotional abuse is when someone’s romantic partner attempts to isolate them by cutting off contact with their friends and family, according to the Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence. That allows the abuser to control the abused partner’s intake of information.

When victims do seek help, they do so at heightened risk. When someone is trying to escape an abusive partner, their chances of being seriously injured or killed by that partner increase by 75%, according to Castillo.

“When you’re trying to get out from under the person who’s using violence against you, they’re going to come down on you harder,” she explained.

No quick fixes

The new funds allocated via the DA’s office and through other programs appear to be having an impact on the city’s domestic violence numbers. In 2021, domestic violence homicides declined by 33% in Bexar County from the year prior, according to a report from the Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence, led by the City of San Antonio and

Bexar County.

Even so, San Antonio is unlikely to see a dramatic decline in numbers until civil courts, criminal courts and advocacy groups have adopted more streamlined communication process, Castillo said.

Starting in 1991, P.E.A.C.E Initiative tried to improve its communication with local law enforcement through the nonprofit’s Family Assistance Crisis Teams, also known as FACT.

That initiative allowed volunteers to ride along with officers responding to domestic violence calls.

“[The program’s] value is that citizens are involved in helping officers do this work,” Castillo said. “They do an aspect of the work that police officers don’t want to do. [Police] don’t want to be handling emotions, they don’t want to be dealing with crying kids. They want to go in, write their police reports and move on out.”

The volunteers also were able to provide information and resources to victims, which Castillo said increased the likelihood that they would take steps to exit a dangerous situation.

However, FACT ended indefinitely during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic due to safety and health concerns. Castillo hopes that additional federal and local funding could help the P.E.A.C.E Initiative relaunch the program.

For now, the P.E.A.C.E Initiative is working to expand outreach in other ways, including to the city’s faith community. On Valentine’s Day, hundreds of people showed up for a P.E.A.C.E Initiative event at a local church, Castillo said.

“It’s everywhere,” Castillo said. “It’s affecting the whole community.”

Michael Karlis

Ballot Blockers

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

Last session of the Texas Legislature, Republican lawmakers passed a sweeping bill that gave more protections to partisan poll watchers, made it harder to vote by mail and prevented local authorities from making it easier for Texans to cast ballots.

Voting-rights advocates blasted the proposal as an effort to suppress the votes of people of color and other Democrat-leaning voters. Meanwhile, Democrats in the Lege fled to Washington, D.C., in a bid to run down the clock before the measure could pass.

In the end, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott extended the session, and the GOP-controlled legislature passed the bill anyway.

Now, even after that decisive victory, the state’s Republican lawmakers are once again trying to make it harder for Texans to vote.

With a new session underway, Texas state lawmakers had filed 128 voting-related bills as of press time, according to a tally by the Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan organization that pushes for fair and free elections.

The majority filed by Democrats seek to expand voting rights by adopting practices such as online voter registration, something already available in the majority of other U.S. states.

However, most of the Republican-authored measures reviewed by the Current seek to further limit poll access, impose harsher penalties for illegal voting or give more authority to the state to pursue voting-related criminal charges.

As with 2021, GOP lawmakers are couching their bills as efforts to boost election security even though Texas has some of the most restrictive voting rules of any state.

The new proposals also come as Republican lawmakers across the country continue to double down on former President Donald Trump’s repeated lies that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud.

Such claims have been repeatedly debunked and rejected by courts. What’s more, a raft of insider communications from media outlet Fox News made public last week in a court filing showed that the network’s stars and executives privately ridiculed Trump’s election fraud lies while promoting them on-air.

“I don’t think anyone who’s been following the facts, even the authors of these [Texas] bills, believes there’s rampant voter fraud,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a nonpartisan group that advocates for making voting more accessible. “It’s clear to me that the intent here is to suppress the votes of Black and Brown people and to make it harder to vote, especially in areas of the state

that are more progressive-leaning.”

At least two of the new Republican-authored bills would change the penalty for illegal voting in Texas from a misdemeanor to a felony — a charge that was actually downgraded in the 2021 elections bill.

Another would give the officer of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton — a die-hard Trump loyalist — more authority to prosecute election crimes, while a third would enable the Texas Secretary of State to appoint a special unit of election marshals to pursue election-related criminal charges.

Additional GOP-penned “election security” proposals introduced this session would ban polling places on college campuses and require the state to collect the thumbprints of people who use mail-in ballots.

Voter intimidation

Voting-rights advocates say they’re most troubled by the bills that would set up a police unit to pursue election-related charges. Instead of curbing illegal voting, which the state already is able to pursue through existing statutes, such proposals are designed to intimidate voters on the margins.

Florida and Georgia both adopted similar elections crimes units in the wake of Trump’s 2020 defeat. Advocates point to warning signs in both of those states.

Last summer, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that his state’s newly minted voting crimes task force had arrested 19 people, all people with prior criminal convictions that should have prevented them from

MAt least one bill would bolster the ability of Texas AG Ken Paxton (right), a Trump loyalist, to pursue election-related charges.

casting ballots.

But media probes revealed that many caught up in the sweep had been told by government officials that they were authorized to vote. Indeed, some received voter registration cards in the mail, which they read as a signal that they had been legally approved to cast a ballot, according to an analysis by the UK publication the Guardian.

While the launch of Georgia’s new election crimes unit wasn’t accompanied by a similarly high-profile dragnet, voting-rights groups say data from the 2022 primaries suggest that the law-enforcement unit is having its intended result: scaring Black voters away from the polls.

Georgia tallied similar turnout numbers in the 2022 midterms to those it recorded in 2018. However, an analysis by nonprofit law and public policy institute the Brennan Center for Justice showed that the turnout gap between white and Black voters in the most recent election hit its highest number since at least 2014.

White turnout was 8.6% higher than nonwhite turnout in November, according to the center’s number crunching. That’s higher than any general election of the past decade, and around 50% percent higher than in the prior two midterms. 17

Texas Republicans aren’t done trying to keep voters away from the polls

Twitter / @KenPaxton

15 “It’s important to look behind the top-line number when trying to see how these bills will effect particular groups of voters,” said Eliza Sweren-Becker, counsel in the Voting Rights & Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “What these offices are really designed to do is scare vulnerable people away from casting ballots.”

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, who filed the Texas bill proposing the creation of the election crimes unit didn’t respond to the Current’s request for an interview.

Bettencourt filed a similar election police proposal during 2021, although that one died in the House. That session, he also authored a failed bill that would have created a civil process that would have allowed candidates and political parties’ county chairs to demand audits of election outcomes they didn’t like — a process opponents said would allow virtually any contest to devolve into a litany of frivolous complaints.

‘Developing country’

Beyond the intimidation factor, voting-rights proponents said the Texas bills targeting election crimes and stiffening illegal voting penalties will have real consequences for anyone swept up in a partisan dragnet like the one DeSantis engineered.

Even in cases where the charges are eventually overturned, they’re most likely to be brought against people on the margins, advocates argue. A lengthy court battle to avoid jail time for an honest mistake can yield insurmountable hardship.

Texas already faces a firestorm of

controversy over its conviction of Fort Worth resident Crystal Mason on illegal voting charges. Mason received a five-year sentence after authorities accused her of turning in a provisional ballot during the 2016 election while on supervised release for a federal offense.

The case has drawn national attention because Mason, who said she didn’t know she was disqualified from voting, filled out the provisional ballot at the advice of a poll worker. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has since ruled that a lower court must look at the case again and consider evidence of her intent when filling out the ballot.

Indeed, voting-rights proponents argue that the creation of specialized voting police is antithetical to a functioning democracy.

“It’s the sort of thing you’d see in a developing country, not in a country that’s had peaceful transfers of power for 200 years,” Daniel Griffith, senior director of policy for Secure Democracy USA, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C., that seeks to improve voter access.

Legislative priorities

During last week’s State of the State Address, Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t include tightening election laws as one of his priorities for the Texas Legislature to tackle this session.

However, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, did list election security among his 21 priorities for the session. In particular, Patrick said he wanted to see illegal voting returned to a felony-status crime. 19

Sanford Nowlin

17 So far, at least two Republican-filed bills would reimpose that penalty.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, didn’t respond to the Current’s request for comment on his proposal. However, Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, author of the House bill making election fraud a felony said the stiff penalties are needed to ensure safe and secure elections.

“People need to be able to rely on the results of our elections,” he said. “When people tell me there’s no election fraud and things like that, that’s just not true.”

The state pursued 534 illegal voting cases between 2005 and June 2021, according to Spiller.

But that number is misleading, voting-rights advocates maintain.

Just because the Texas Attorney General brought a case doesn’t mean it ended in a conviction. A ProPublica investigation from November found that of the 390 election-related investigations Paxton’s office opened between January 2020 and September 2022, the AG only secured five convictions.

It starts at the top

Despite the low number of prosecutions coming from Paxton’s office, advocates for free and fair elections said state Republicans’ overheated rhetoric around voter fraud is already damaging democracy by reinforcing debunked conspiracy theories and driving voters away from public participation.

“Our democracy works best when all voters participate,” said the Brennan Center’s Sweren-Becker. “Undermin-

MDuring a 2021 protest, San Antonians decry the Texas Legislature’s restrictive elections bill.

ing trust in elections and excluding groups of people from the electorate undermines the democratic process.”

That lack of trust is already apparent in Texas, critics of new election security measures charge.

The legislature’s new spate of proposed poll restrictions comes as local elections officials face unprecedented harassment and physical threats. Over the past two years, approximately onethird of the state’s election administrators have tendered their resignations, the Texas Tribune has reported, citing data from the Texas Secretary of State’s office.

Despite the massive changes to Texas’ voting laws since 2021 and the Attorney General’s increasingly aggressive efforts to prosecute illegal voting, the state only spends roughly $4 million annually on voter education, Common Cause’s Gutierrez points out.

That disconnect is intentional, he said. And it starts at the top. Even if Abbott hasn’t prioritized election security bills in this session, he’s likely to sign them, and he’s been one of the state’s loudest voices when it comes to unsupported claims of voter fraud, according to advocates.

“It’s very clear to me that Greg Abbott has been the architect of the repeated attempt to claim there’s widespread voter fraud in Texas,” Gutierrez said. “He’s been on this crusade since 2006, when he was still the attorney general.”

Katelyn Earhart

FRI | 02.24SUN | 02.26

COMEDY

D.L. HUGHLEY

Stand-up comedy veteran D.L. Hughley’s effortlessly suave demeanor and laid-back stage presence are hallmarks of his shows, ensuring he’s both the coolest and funniest person in the room. He’s also shown his ability to bring laughs to the masses whether through his afternoon radio program

FRI | 02.24SUN | 05.21

‘ROMAN LANDSCAPES: VISIONS OF NATURE AND MYTH FROM ROME AND POMPEII’

The San Antonio Museum of Art’s latest exhibition features 65 wall paintings, sculptures, mosaics, silver vessels and pieces of cameo glass created in Roman Italy between 100 B.C. and A.D. 250. “Roman Landscapes” aims to introduce visitors to the cultural and archaeological contexts of Roman art, demonstrating ancient Romans’ perspectives on the natural world, their relationships with the gods and the empire’s political and social upheaval. Many of the pieces are on loan from museums in Italy, France and Germany and are being shown in the U.S. for the first time. $10-$20, 10 a.m.7 p.m. Tuesday and Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org.

— Christianna Davies

SAT | 02.25

DANCE

DANCING WITH THE STARS LIVE

Dancing with the Stars is coming to you live — more live than live television — on stage at the Majestic Theatre. Talented guest stars and cast members from the show’s 31st season, which switched from ABC to streaming on Disney+ for the first time, will get down on the Majestic stage to mesmerize a captive audience, glued to their auditorium seats instead of their couches. Experience electric dance routines in a range of styles — and delivered by a host of professional dance cast members and special guest co-host Gabby Windey, The Bachelorette co-star who finished as runner-up last season. $55 and up, 8 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. —

Dalia Gulca

The D.L. Hughley Show, stand-up specials such as D.L. Hughley: Contrarian or through his many satirical books. Hughley’s breakthrough moment came with his appearance in the groundbreaking stand-up film The Original Kings of Comedy, directed by Spike Lee and featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac and Steve Harvey, all of whom became comedy legends in their own right. Recently, the 59-year-old Hughley took over the desk of The Daily Show for three days, showing he’s still got the ability to deliver socially relevant comedy and pop culture-related zingers. During his stint, the comic made repeated jabs at NFL star Tom Brady for announcing his retirement, and he took to the streets of LA to ask strangers what they thought about Black History Month. While standing on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a smiling Hughley noted that the show’s camera crew didn’t want to go to M.L.K. Jr. Boulevard for the segment. $80-$320, 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday and

SAT | 02.25

SPECIAL EVENT

SAN ANTONIO AFRICAN AMERICAN BOOK FESTIVAL

Honoring Black History Month, the Fourth Annual San Antonio African American Book Festival (SAAABF) is returning to the Carver Library and the Second Baptist Church Community Center. Presented by the Friends of Carver Branch Library, this family-friendly event has grown significantly over the course of its short existence. This year’s festivities will include an author pavilion, speakers, discussions and activities

Reminder:

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

Courtesy Photo / LOL Comedy Club

Image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program

Courtesy Photo / Majestic Theatre

Davis

Leeson

celebrating the power of Black voices in writing and storytelling. It also will include a young people’s writing workshop. Mateen Diop, author of The Making of a MAD Man and Inner-City Public Schools Still Work, is scheduled as headline speaker, and guests at the author pavilion include Reggie Scott Young (Yardbirds Squawking at the Moon), Clemonce Heard (Tragic City) and Caleb Alexander (Two Thin Dimes). Free, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Carver Library, 3350 E. Commerce St., Second Baptist Church Community Center, 3310 E. Commerce St., facebook.com/carverfriends. — CD

TUE | 02.28MON | 05.29

SPECIAL EVENT

DISNEY ANIMATION IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

Following the staggering success of the Immersive van Gogh and Immersive Nutcracker exhibits in San Antonio last year, experimental art company Lighthouse Immersive is bringing yet another 360-degree installation to the Alamo City. Disney Animation Immersive Experience will invite visitors to step into the enchanting worlds of their favorite adventures from the groundbreaking studio. With nearly 80 years of animated films represented — from Pinocchio to Encanto — there’s enough magic to go around for Disney devotees of every age. Disney Immersive’s evocative visuals and invigorating soundtrack are designed

SAT | 03.04

SPORTS

SPURS VS. ROCKETS

In a busy NBA trade deadline that shipped Kevin Durant back to the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs parted ways with their longesttenured player, Jakob Poeltl, among other moves. Acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for veteran Josh Richardson, guard Devonte’ Graham made a strong first impression in his Spurs debut, scoring 31 points off the bench in a double-overtime loss to Detroit last month. Graham’s point total against the Pistons set a franchise record for a Spur in his team debut, adding some timely shooting to an ailing San Antonio squad. A slew of injuries during the team’s annual Rodeo Road Trip sent the young team slumping to the second worst record in the league, just ahead of the Houston Rockets in the standings. After suffering through their second double-digit losing streak this season, consecutive contests against the Rockets at home and in Houston could help the Spurs get back in the win column. $22 and up, 7 p.m., AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Parkway, (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com, CW35. —

M. Solis

to make audiences feel as if they’re soaring amongst the stars with Peter Pan, deep sea diving with Ariel and conjuring snowstorms with Elsa. Light-up bracelets, bubble machines and behind-the-scenes looks into the animation process are included alongside the main exhibit. San Antonio is one of only nine U.S. cities participating in the touring show’s 2023 rollout. $35.99-$99.99, times and days vary, Lighthouse Artspace, 221 Burleson St., (844) 307-4644, lighthouseimmersive.com/ disney/san-antonio. — Caroline Wolff

THU | 03.02SAT | 03.04

COMEDY

TRAE CROWDER

By now everyone is familiar with Jeff Foxworthy’s “you might be a redneck” jokes — some of us way too familiar. Trae Crowder created a fresh twist on backwoods humor by branding himself the “liberal redneck.” Although it might seem like an oxymoron at first, Crowder has racked up a following since getting his start ranting on a front porch in viral videos that featured both his bleeding heart and Southern drawl. Since then, the Tennessee native has written a best-selling book dubbed The Liberal Redneck Manifesto, made TV appearances and is now touring

the country under the WellRED banner, which includes five stand-up shows in the Alamo City. $80-$240, 8 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 Northwest Loop 410, (210) 541-8805, improvtx.com/sanantonio.

— Michael Karlis

Courtesy Photo / Mateen Diop

San Antonio Spurs

Lighthouse Immersive Courtesy Photo / LOL Comedy Club

FRI | 03.03 -

SUN | 03.05

BALLET

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Ballet San Antonio’s Alice in Wonderland, a collaborative production between choreographer Brian Enos and visual artist Luis Grané, uses dance to capture all the wonder of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale. Grané uses colorful, surrealist projections along with inspired costume and set design to bring Alice’s story to life, complementing and enhancing Enos’ hybrid choreography style. The show’s alternating casts feature Brenna Mulligan and Sofie Bertolini as Alice, who follows the white rabbit (Andrea Huynh) down a hole, finding herself transported into a world of mystery and imagination, where she meets classic characters such as the Mad Hatter (Aiden Carrasquel and Benjamin Rose) and the Red Queen (Sofie Bertolini and Elaine Blank).. $25.20-$132, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org.

TUE

THEATER HAIRSPRAY

FRI | 03.03 -

SUN | 03.26

THEATER

RAGTIME

A musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel of the same name, the grandiose musical Ragtime weaves together the experiences of New Yorkers pursuing the American dream at the turn of the century. The show depicts the disparate worlds of a wealthy white couple portrayed by Megan DeYoung and Christopher Steinmetz, a Jewish immigrant father (Rene Sandoval Jr.) along with his motherless daughter, and Af-

Based on the 1998 John Waters film of the same name, the Tony Award-winning musical Hairspray’s fusion of comedy and commentary has made it a modern classic. Tracy Turnblad, a spunky 16-year-old living in Baltimore, has an untamable passion for dance — just like the kids on her favorite program, The Corny Collins Show. When a spot on the cast opens, she doesn’t skip a beat, arriving at auditions the following day with her unshakable moves and moxie. However, Tracy is surprised to discover that the television station is run by the malicious Velma von Tussle, who pulls strings to put her daughter center stage. Even worse, von Tussle opposes racial integration. Much to her disgust, Tracy isn’t given the chance to audition, and is instead publicly shamed for her weight and her desire for social change. Over time, Tracy goes on to befriend Black students at her high school, bonding over a shared love of dance. The friendships inspire her to lead the charge against The Corny Collins Show’s exclusionary casting, giving everyone the shot at the spotlight they deserve. $45 and up, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — CW

rican American ragtime musician Coalhouse (Edward Burkley). As a work of historical fiction, Ragtime also throws many real historical figures into the musical mix, including J.P. Morgan (Chris Duke), Henry Ford (Marshall Chase), Booker T. Washington (E. L. Jones), Willie Conklin (Brian Hodges) and Harry Houdini (Antonio Cruz). The play’s blend of fact and fiction with the invigorating sounds of ragtime music thoroughly immerses audiences in early 20th century New York. $18$32, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Woodlawn Theatre, 1920 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 267-8388, woodlawntheatre.org. — MC

MON | 03.06

THEATER

LEGALLY BLONDE – THE MUSICAL

Based on the 2001 film of the same name, Legally Blonde tells the story of a woman facing stereotypes, sexism, snobbery and scandal, while still coming out on top. UCLA sorority girl Elle Woods expects a proposal from her boyfriend Warner Huntington III. Instead, he dumps her, saying he wants to be with someone more serious. Desperate to win Warner back and prove she does have depth, Elle follows him to Harvard Law School. Once she’s accepted into the program, she faces adversity and ridicule for her frilly appearance and personality. In her journey to prove herself against the odds, she realizes she can use her

knowledge of the law to help others, and defies everyone’s expectations while still staying true to herself. An hour ahead of showtime, Tiffanie S. Clausewitz — a member of the Board of Directors for the San Antonio Bar Association and council member of the State Bar’s Women and the Law Section — will be on hand to discuss the experience of women in the field of law. $37.20-$94.50, 7:30 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org — CD

— Macks Cook

Courtesy Photo / Woodlawn Theatre

Courtesy Photo / Majestic Theatre

Clint Tuccio

Marty Sohl Photography

Ruffling Feathers

DIY T-shirt artist Mr. Skunk talks appropriation, provocation and politics

BY BRYAN RINDFUSS

During a First Friday art crawl late last year, I happened upon a guerilla-style pop-up of irreverent T-shirts designed and printed by an artist who goes simply by the moniker Mr. Skunk.

“While I appear publicly to sell my stuff, I prefer to [remain anonymous] so the focus is on the idea and not ‘me’ per se,” he later explained in a text that also referenced the eyeball helmet-wearing avant-garde art-rock collective The Residents and their so-called “Theory of Obscurity.”

It’s safe to say that the $20 purchase I made that night — a simple white T-shirt depicting Miles “Tails” Prower from the Sonic the Hedgehog series getting high under the handwritten slogan “Smoke Drugs, Do Crimes” — has earned its weight in gold. The shirt turned the heads of hardened people, sparked unsolicited conversations and — most importantly — elicited more wicked laughter than any garment I have ever owned.

When I returned a few months later to buy the same design in black, I proposed a Zoom Q&A with Mr. Skunk, whose other shirts depict Donald Trump branded as “Poison,” Joe Biden donning a clown nose and Ted Cruz characterized as a “Booger Eater” — which is thoughtfully also available as a “snot rag.”

How’d you come up with the name Mr. Skunk?

When I turned 15, I [got] a mohawk and frosted it white. Whenever it wasn’t spiked up, it kind of looked like this white skunk stripe on my head. There’d be dudes who’d say, “You look like a skunk.” I was a ratty punk rock guy, so it fit. … I started calling myself Mr. Skunk since I’m a little older [now].

Have you always been interested in art?

I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. I’ve always been fascinated by cartoons and how they’re done. … I got a guitar when I was 12, and by the time I was 14 I was singing in a punk band. We were called AWOL — Adolescents Without Lives. … My nose would spontaneously bleed [during shows] and I would just keep singing. So, it was kind of a funny, unintentional gimmick where I’d start bleeding everywhere. The White Rabbit used to make me bring my own mic. … But I’ve always basically been an odd persistent guy [and] just kind of elbowed my way into the art and music scene. … [And] I’ve always been somebody who just tries to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

Are you originally from San Antonio?

[I was] born and raised here, and my family’s lived here since 1905. My great, great grandfather came here when he was like 8 or 9. … I’ve lived in San Antonio all my life … around Jefferson High School, near Woodlawn Lake. My parents and my grandparents all grew up in that same area.

Tell me a bit about your designs. What do you consider some your greatest hits in terms of your T-shirts?

If you don’t mind, I could start [with] the way this began. When I was 15, I mashed together a picture of Che Guevara and the KFC guy, [Colonel Sanders]. It was just a goofy little [design] — not a serious art piece. [When ideas] pop up in my head, I want to put them on paper. That’s [the case with] a lot of my designs. Anyway, I put it on DeviantArt. And maybe three or four years later, I found out that it [had been stolen and reproduced] on shirts. Actually, more than one website put it on shirts, phone cases and even a shower curtain that I found on Reddit. It was kind of like, this is cool, but what do I think of this? And, even then, I kind of internally argued with myself [and asked], “Is this even art because I just threw two things together?” But still, it’s something I came up with and it got stolen. So, the shirt company got shut down for stealing art from DeviantArt. … I found out about it in 2009 or 2010, [but] here and there I’ll still see weird boutiques try to use it. … One day about a year ago, my wife gave me a silkscreen kit for Christmas. I was telling her it’d be cool to make that shirt for myself — just to say I have one, since so many people have [them and] they’re floating around. So, I made the silkscreen for it and made a couple [of shirts]. And then I sold one to a friend for 20 bucks. Maybe a day or two later, [someone] was like, “Dude, that’s so cool. Where’d you get it?” And I was like, “I have one in my trunk.” So, he bought it for another 20 bucks. So, I used that to buy another silkscreen or two and a couple more shirts. I had a couple of [designs] that [I thought] would work — one of Kim Jong-un and one of Trump that says “Poison.” And I awkwardly sat at 33

Mr. Skunk / instagram.com/uxoboutique

Mr. Skunk / instagram.com/uxoboutique

Partnering with dozens of San Antonio icehouses to offer ice-cold beer at an accessible price, encouraging beer-loving, neighborhood-loving, locals to get out & try new places or to patronize your local icehouse!

Between FEB. 24 - MAR. 05

San Antonians will have access to beer specials, giveaways, and prizes across all participating San Antonio Icehouse Week participants.

90 Proof Bar & Grill

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

11880 US-90, San Antonio, TX 78252

Backyard on Broadway

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

2411 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78215

big hops

$4 Freetail, Weathered Sould, V!VA, or Second Pitch

2188 Texas 46 Ste 107 San Antonio, Texas | 226 W Bitters Rd Ste 108, San Antonio, TX 78216 | 11224 Huebner Rd Suite 204, San Antonio, TX 78230 | 7915 W. Loop 1604 N. San Antonio, Texas 78254 | 226 W Bitters Rd #108, San Antonio, TX 78216 | 4470 Green Valley Rd Ste 145, Cibolo, TX 78108 | bighops.com

Brooster’s Backyard

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

815 Pleasanton Rd, San Antonio, TX 78214

Bruno’s Dive Bar

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

1004 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78210 | brunosdive.com

Burleson Yard Beer Garden

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

430 Austin St. San Antonio, TX 78215 | burlesonyardbeergarden.com

Camp 1604

$7.50 Tito’s Vodka Shot | $6.75 V!VA Brewing |

$6.75 Freetail Bowie Bock

5534 N Loop 1604 W, San Antonio, TX 78249 | camp1604.com

Dakota East Side Ice House

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

433 S Hackberry St, San Antonio, TX 78203 | thedakotasa.com

Hills & Dales Icehouse

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

15403 White Fawn Dr, San Antonio, TX 78255 | hillsanddalesicehouse.org

I-10 Icehouse

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

9518 Console Dr, San Antonio, TX 78229 | i10icehouse.com

Jaime’s Place

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka 1514 W Commerce St, San Antonio, TX 78207, jaimesplace.pub

Joe’s Icehouse

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka 3711 West Ave, San Antonio, TX 78213 | joesicehouse3711.com

La Tuna Icehouse & Grill

$3 Weathered Souls

100 Probandt St, San Antonio, TX 78204 | latunasa.com

Los Tres Mosqueteros Bar

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

5103 Randolph Blvd, San Antonio, TX 78233

Lost Bar & Grill

SA Ice House Week special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

12730 NW Military Hwy, San Antonio, TX 78230 | thelostbarandgrill.com

Lucky Duck

$5 Draft Beers (daily before 8pm) | $7 Mimosa Champagne Bottles (Weekends)

810 N Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78215 | luckyducktx.com

Lucy Cooper’s Texas Ice House

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

16080 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78232 | lucycoopers.com

Mcintyre’s Southtown

$6 V!VA | $6 Freetial 22oz. Drafts

1035 S Presa St, San Antonio, TX 78210 | mcintyresusa.com

Old Main Ice House

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

110 N Main St, Cibolo, TX 78108 | oldmainicehouse.com

Redland Icehouse

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

2838 N Loop 1604 E SUITE 105, San Antonio, TX 78232 | redlandicehouse.com

Rock & Brews

$4 Freetail - Soul Doubt | $5 Weathered SoulsHardwood Classic Pilsner | $6 Second Pitch - Goat Dog AT&T Center Parkway, San Antonio, TX 78219 | rockandbrews.com

official passport BENEFITING

Sanchos Cantina & Cocina

$5 V!VA Americana 12oz. Can | $5 Freetail Bowie

Bock 12oz. Bottle | $25 Bucket of Six

628 Jackson St, San Antonio, TX 78212 | sanchosmx.com

Slackers Sports Bar

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

12234 Nacogdoches Rd, San Antonio, TX 78217 | 126 W Rector Dr, San Antonio, TX 78216 | 16620 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78232 | 2719 N St Mary’s St, San Antonio, TX 78212

Social Spot

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka

930 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78215

Southtown 101

$5 Freetail | $5 Tito’s Vodka

930 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78215 | southtown101.net

The Block SA

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka 14530 Roadrunner Way, San Antonio, TX 78249 | theblocksa.com

The Cove

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka 606 W Cypress St, San Antonio, TX 78212 | thecove.us

The Dooryard

$4 Second Pitch Hometown Lager Pint | $4 Freetail Bowie Bock Pint from the tapwall 4503 De Zavala Rd Suite 108, San Antonio, TX 78249 | thedooryardsa.com

The Friendly Spot

$7 OG Tito’s with soda & lime | $5 Freetail Hill Country Blonde Draft 943 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78205 | thefriendlyspot.com

The Rusty Nail

SA Ice House Week Special: Second Pitch, V!VA, Weathered Souls, Freetail or Tito’s Vodka 15122 Potranco Rd, San Antonio, TX 78245 | therustynailsa.com

Wurzbach Ice House

$4.50 Tito’s Vodka $3 Wells$3 Miller Lite 10141 Wurzbach Rd, San Antonio, TX 78230 | wurzbachicehouse.com

29 First Friday with just those three designs in a couple sizes each. I sold four or five of them, got like 80 bucks, bought more shirts and did it again with more colors. I repeated [that process], got a Square, set up Cash App and just multiplied it. So, I really grew it out of $20 and a Christmas present.

And you’re mainly selling at First Friday?

Yes. I also made a “Sex Pistols: Live at Randy’s Ballroom” shirt just as a commemorative thing for myself but [then decided to] try to sell them. They sold … so I made more. And then this guy at Flagship Records [bought one] and he told his buddy Jeff [Smith] of the Hickoids. … I [ended up selling 35-40 shirts at his Sex Pistols tribute] event “The Filth & the Flautas.” … I’m [hoping] to have all my designs at Pink Zeppelin, which is a little record store off Culebra. That place is pretty cool, and I’ve gotten traffic there.

It seems like quite a bit of your stuff skews toward political commentary. It’s kind of all over the place. To me, it’s more just thought-provoking or shocking or whatever. Some of it’s political, of course. Even the Tails [design that says “Smoke Drugs, Do Crimes”] is kind of political in a weird way. … There’s this one weird PSA that shows Tails smoking a cigarette and Sonic [the Hedgehog] telling him that’s bad. You could find a similar-ish image … but not with what I put on it. [It’s] kind of like the Vivienne Westwood “Seditionaries” shirt of Mickey Mouse shooting dope.

Your gay cowboys shirt also has Vivienne Westwood vibes.

That is a Vivienne Westwood reproduction. The only reason I felt okay with it — considering the fact that this was born out of my stuff being stolen — is

that that one has been so mercilessly [reproduced]. Honestly, ever since I was 12 or 13, when I found Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s designs for the “Seditionaries” shirts, I was like, those are cool. Even nowadays, they’re too edgy. People would be like, “No, you can’t do that.” I’ve always thought, man, we need something like that today. But everyone’s too scared to do it. And like … what better way to display artwork than to put it on a shirt? I could very easily try to do paintings of pop culture stuff … and some hipster’s gonna throw it in their bathroom. Why not make it [functional]? People need clothes, right? And on top of that, they’re wearing my art … and making other people upset or making them chuckle or whatever. If I made you laugh or upset, I know I did something right.

What kind of reaction have you gotten to your Ted Cruz “Booger Eater” design?

Mostly positive. There have been people that might support him and scoff or something. But most people have been like, “Yes, that’s awesome.” It actually sells more than I [expect it to]. People like it, people buy it, and when I don’t have certain sizes, people are disappointed. … But if you’re asking if any of them have gotten visceral or maybe irate reactions, the one that usually does is the Kyle Rittenhouse “Small Dick Energy” shirt I have [with] a picture of him crying. … And then I had one person look at my Trump shirt and say, “Fuck Joe Biden.” And I was like, “Yeah, fuck him. You look like a smart guy. Here, I have a ‘Brandon the Clown’ shirt.” And he kind of looked at me like, “Oh,” and just walked off. It’s disarming if you do it right.

Keep up with Mr. Skunk by following him on Instagram @uxoboutique.

Mr. Skunk / instagram.com/uxoboutique

Tales of Terror

San Antonio small press Ghoulish Books opening horror bookshop after a successful Kickstarter campaign

BY CHRISTIANNA DAVIES

San Antonio already has a rep as one of Texas’ spookiest cities thanks to its haunted hotels, theaters and train tracks.

Now it’s poised to become even more horrifying thanks to the couple behind a locally based publishing company. Next month, the pair will open Ghoulish Books, the Alamo City’s first horror-focused bookstore.

“It was something myself and my partner have discussed at great length and fantasized about for years,” said Max Booth III, a horror author who along with fellow scribe Lori Michelle runs a small press with the same name as the forthcoming store. “But we never really had the opportunity or thought that it would be a realistic thing to do.”

That is, until the perfect opportunity dropped right in front of them.

The couple had been looking to rent a space for their publishing office, which had operated out of their kitchen for the past decade. During the hunt, Booth visited a used bookstore in Selma that he and Michelle frequented. One of the owners revealed the shop would soon be closing.

After some discussion, the couple inked a lease. Since the storefront was already configured as a retail space, they decided to continue operating it as a bookshop under the name of their publishing brand.

Ghoulish Books is the recently renamed horror imprint of Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, an indie press Booth and Michelle founded in 2012. The company has always focused on publishing works in the horror genre, so the recent name change made sense.

“We changed [the name] up because we discovered that we seem to be successful when leaning into this niche of spooky stuff,” said Booth, who occasionally writes for the Current “Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, nobody knows what that means. But if you say, ‘Ghoulish Books,’ they go, ‘Oh, OK, I got that.’ So, we began publishing mostly with that name, with PMMP being the umbrella company of every-

thing.”

The Selma storefront, 9330 Corporate Drive #702, will house both the publishing operation and the retail space. The shop will primarily stock indie horror titles along with a few gifts and used books. It also will provide a venue for events such as author readings and signings.

However, the new space is only part of the expansion underway at Ghoulish.

Kickstarter campaign

Last year, the small press allowed customers to preorder eight books at once for a single upfront fee. The offer brought an uptick in sales, so the partners toyed with doing it again in 2023. But Booth wanted to try a different twist.

“I just had the idea of, well, what if we did that, but on Kickstarter instead?” he said. “Because then we have the opportunity of it becoming a Staff Pick on Kickstarter, which it did. And if it does become a Staff Pick, then we gain a whole new audience of people who would have never even known about us.”

Booth’s stock as an author went up amid the pandemic, when his novella We Need to Do Something was turned into a feature film distributed by IFC Midnight.

He figured the time was right to leverage the buzz.

Ghoulish pledged to use the Kickstarter funding to release 13 new books, including Warren Wagner’s The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark, the story of an HIV-positive gay man surviving a zombie apocalypse; E.M. Roy’s Let the Woods Keep Our Bodies, in which a young woman questions everything about her hometown after her girlfriend disappears; and BOUND IN FLESH: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror edited by Lor Gislason, featuring 13 transgender and nonbinary authors exploring the depths of both the horror genre and the boundaries of flesh.

Depending on the size of their donation, Kickstarter backers received just one of the books or a bundle of all 13 — along with other bonuses. After gaining the Staff Pick designation, the campaign shot past its original $7,000 goal to hit more than $25,000 at its Feb. 2 close.

Ghoulish Tales

In addition to the new books, the Kickstarter raised money for a new horror-themed literary magazine. Booth and Michelle got their starts in indie horror in 2010 working for the horror magazine Dark Moon Digest, founded by Stan Swanson of Dark Moon Books.

The couple later bought the rights to the magazine and continued operating it until last year, when they ended its run after 48 issues.

“We discontinued it so we could begin a new magazine,” Booth explained. “The previous magazine never quite felt like it belonged to us, because we weren’t the ones to launch it. We wanted to start over with something that we created.”

The couple’s new mag Ghoulish Tales will publish biannually with its first issue dropping this spring. They planned

to launch the publication regardless of the outcome of the Kickstarter. However, after surpassing the $20,000 stretch goal, they were able to increase contributor pay to 10 cents a word from 7 cents.

The Kickstarter bonuses also include the publication of a third issue of Night Frights — a young-adult horror magazine, which proclaims itself “Goosebumps for perverts” — and the upcoming Dog Ears podcast, in which Booth and Michelle will discuss their experiences in the publishing industry. Although Ghoulish Books hasn’t yet set an opening date for the retail store, the publishing company will hold its Second Annual Ghoulish Book Festival April 14-16 at San Antonio’s historic Hermann Sons Home Association. Ultimately, Booth said he and Michelle’s foray into retail is a continuation of a successful business and isn’t solely reliant on generating walk-in business.

“If we were only relying on it as a retail space, I would probably be more afraid-sounding right now,” Booth said. “But because we also just publish books, and those books can be bought by anyone on the planet, I’m real confident that it’s not gonna be a disaster.”

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Varied Viewpoints

Exhibition at San Antonio’s Centro de Artes highlights a diversity of themes explored by Texas’ Latinx artists

BY MARCO AQUINO

The new exhibition at the City of San Antonio’s Centro de Artes, “Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art,” lives up to its title, showcasing more than 100 works by 40 contemporary Texas-based creators.

Curated by Rigoberto Luna, co-owner and director of San Antonio’s Presa House Gallery, the exhibition reflects a diversity of work and themes explored by Latinx artists across the state.

The idea for the show, which runs through July 2, has been years in the making, according to Luna, whose biggest challenge was selecting the 40 artists from a list of over 200 he considered for inclusion. Starting with such an exhaustive list required him to do additional research online and spend time visiting with creators to learn more about their work.

“There isn’t one particular theme,” said Luna, who’s long emphasized Latinx art at Presa House shows. “It’s just about a lot of things happening throughout the state that we are all having to deal with. It’s just a bunch of conversations from a bunch of different artists and most of them haven’t met.”

Some of the pieces focus on the familiar subjects of identity, borders, race, migration and displacement. Others delve into gender, class and even mythmaking.

The exhibition fills both floors of the Centro de Artes galleries, and it contains a variety of large-scale and innovative installations. The works encompass nearly every medium, including video, sculpture, painting, photography and printmaking.

Esto Cala

Among the exhibition’s highlights is the work of Gil Rocha, an artist who was born and raised in Laredo. Fittingly, Rocha’s work often speaks to the ways people learn to adapt and survive in underserved communities.

His mixed-media installation Esto Cala finds beauty in disaster and offers a testament to the strength and resilience found in Latinx households.

The installation consists of a fence made out of wire, wooden crates, banners and a variety of found objects — the type of construction common in impoverished areas. The work demonstrates how residents of neglected communities learn to make do with whatever they have.

“For me it really hits home because it reminded me so much of the way I grew up,” Luna said. “I grew up with a father that was a ‘Mr. Fix It,’ and things weren’t

always done the way they were supposed to be done. There was a lot of Chicano ingenuity in finding solutions to things.”

Crude yet inventive, Rocha’s structures seem to hold countless untold stories from the past and current lives of the objects that comprise them.

QueeRider

Born in El Paso, San Antonio-based artist Jose Villalobos is heavily influenced by border culture, and his work often appropriates macho-identifying signifiers such as vaquero outfits. Villalobos dismantles their meaning through explorations of his queer identity. Most recently, he’s been exploring toxic masculinity in objects and imagery associated with Chicano car culture.

With the series QueeRider, Villalobos presents three horse saddles decked out in the kind of gaudy objects normally seen on lowrider cars. Fuzzy dice, rearview mirrors and a chrome, heart-shaped muffler transform these otherwise ordinary horse saddles into a spectacle.

Standing tall on their white pedestals, Villalobos’ horse saddles present a contradiction in cultural and gender norms.

“When I was a lot younger my mother used to always say that I was going to be a fashion designer,” Villalobos told the Current in 2017. “I would always say, ‘No, that’s gay!’ because I was hiding myself. But I’ve always loved creating something that goes over a person, clothing and accessories and things like that. I think my goal is altering certain things, to change the perspective people have. … It’s like bending reality.”

LaLineaImaginaria

In La Linea Imaginaria, Karla Michell García presents a series of ceramic sculptures resembling cacti. Presented on a bed of sand, the work captures the natural beauty of the desert landscape along the border.

“She’s talking about these self-imposed borders that we create,” Luna said. “I think the message she has in her work is one we’re all dealing with.”

Although born in El Paso like Villalobos, García was raised on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. In an online statement, she describes how that bicultural experience informs her artistic practice.

“I create desert landscape installations as a metaphor for my upbringing in the border towns of Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, in the United States,” she explains. “I create cacti sculptures with clay to reference my Mexican cultural heritage and as a metaphor for the resilient spirit of our collective stories as immigrants in the U.S.”

“Soy de Tejas” comes at a significant time for Latino artists in Texas. A report in the Texas Tribune last fall revealed that Hispanic residents now make up more of the state’s population than Anglo residents. That demographic shift reflects a growth in Latinx populations in other parts of the country.

Ahead of the Feb. 9 opening reception, Luna said he hoped people could identify with the pieces on display. And they did.

“A lot of people came up to me and were just really appreciative of the work,” he said. “It’s hard if you’ve grown up in Texas to not connect with some of the images or material.”

Free, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, noon-5pm Saturday-Sunday through July 2, Centro de Artes, 101 S. Santa Rosa Ave., getcreativesanantonio.com.

Marco Aquino

Certified Weird

Seven bizarre movies shot in San Antonio you’ve probably never heard of

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

When San Antonio’s cinematic history comes up, people usually talk about the best-known movies shot in the Alamo City — like the 2000 comedy Miss Congeniality and the 1997 biopic Selena.

They’ll also bring up the 1985 classic Peewee’s Big Adventure, even though the amount of actual screen time San Antonio gets in that movie runs 20 seconds. Still, we claim it proudly.

However, along with those movies — and favorites such as Spy Kids, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Cloak & Dagger — San Antonio has played host to dozens of lesser-known cinematic projects. A few of those under-the-radar pictures boast bizarre narratives.

Here’s a look at seven of those strange San Antonio flicks you might not have heard of before.

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946)

An all-Black cast leads a story about a nightclub entertainer from Harlem named Gertie LaRue (Francine Everett), who shakes things up when she travels to a Caribbean resort. While on the island, “Dirty Gertie” performs as the hotel’s headlining act. Thanks to her new gig, she finds herself at the center of a love heptagon as a series of men pine for her affection — among them the resort’s owner, a soldier and sailor she nicknames “Tight Pants” and “High Pockets,” respectively, plus an ex-boyfriend who tracks her down.

The Weird Ones (1962)

This microbudget sexploitation comedy tells the story of a creature from outer space called an “Astronik” that lands on Earth with a mission of terrorizing and murdering young women. However, two modeling agency publicists and a “Cosmic Cutie” team up to lure the alien into a trap. The film was directed by San Antonio native Pat Boyette, who later made his living as a TV producer and broadcast journalist. His resume also included stints working as a comic-book artist for projects including The Peacemaker

The Dungeon of Harrow (1962)

The same year Boyette released The Weird Ones, he returned with a horror film set in the 1870s. A sadistic count named Lorente de Sade (William McNulty) and the other inhabitants of a waterfront castle end up taking a shipwrecked sea voyager (Russ Harvey)

captive and torture him in their dungeon. Along with the count, the cast of characters includes a manservant, a former nurse, a whipping girl and a diseased bride.

Prelude to Happiness (1975)

The romance Prelude to Happiness follows Sue (Rose Petra), a nursing school graduate who injures her leg in an accident and is immediately rejected by her fiancé when her limb must be amputated. While in the hospital, Sue meets and falls in love with Dr. Steve Hartman (Gary Lee Davis), who urges her to get on with her life and not feel sorry for herself. Later, the good doctor saves Sue from a violent attack and their relationship grows, although he is already engaged. The official tagline for the film: “No man wants half a woman.”

Nightwing (1979)

After the success of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece Jaws, studios attempted to replicate its success with a string of man vs. beast flicks. Directed by Arthur Hiller (Man from La Mancha), Nightwing is set on a Hopi Indian reservation in New Mexico where a colony of vampire bats that may have been infected with bubonic plague are sucking living creatures dry of blood. A young deputy (Nick

Mancuso) ventures onto the reservation to investigate a series of deaths by the bats.

Blood Circus (1987)

This independent sci-fi horror, also known as Blood Circus Wrestling, never found distribution, but its back story is too fascinating to ignore. The film’s director, Santo Victor Rigatuso aka Bob Harris, funded it with an alleged mail-fraud scheme he concocted through his jewelry business. The movie follows a group of aliens from the planet Zoran who are sent to Earth to fight against pro wrestlers from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Naturally, once the aliens are victorious, they devour their muscular victims. Some of the wrestlers were played by real grapplers from the shortlived San Antonio-based Southwest Championship Wrestling.

Veritas, Prince of Truth (2006)

Sean Patrick Flanery portrays the title character, a comic-book superhero who comes to life to help a young boy stop an evil villain from destroying the Earth. Along with Flanery, the computer-animated fantasy film stars Amy Jo Johnson (The Pink Ranger from the original Power Rangers series), Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf), Kate Walsh (Emily in Paris) and Danny Strong (Justified).

Columbia Pictures

Box Lunch

San Antonio restaurants offer a variety of bento options perfect for daytime dining

BY NINA RANGEL

Japanese bento boxes are a perfect way to shake up workday lunches. They feature a variety of foods, artfully arranged, and tend to emphasize fresh, healthy ingredients that don’t leave diners weighed down for the rest of the day.

Fortunately, a growing number of San Antonio restaurants offer bento in varieties that range from traditional to contemporary and feature anything from sushi to pork belly to spicy tofu as a centerpiece.

The word “bento” is said to have originated with 16th-century Japanese military commander Oda Nobunaga, who fed large numbers of people at his castle by offering simple meals prepared for each visitor.

Nowadays, the term refers to a lunch arranged in a box with separate compartments for each food item. Typically, steamed rice occupies the largest section, along with a

variety of veggies and a protein or two. They may feature sushi rolls or nigiri, a fresh or pickled salad and something deep-fried such as gyoza or tempura-battered vegetables.

Here’s a rundown of half a dozen San Antonio restaurants offering bento boxes perfect for a midday munch.

Piranha Izakaya

This central San Antonio sushi spot offers two bento choices for lunch. Just be warned: they may not be served in a sectioned tray. Even so, they hit the spot. Choose between a sushi or nigiri bento, include either five pieces of sushi or seven pieces of nigiri selected by the chef, alongside a tuna or California roll and a small house salad. The Alamo Quarry-area eatery sources prized ingredients such as Maguro tuna, also known as Northern bluefin — the darkest red and fattiest of the species.

Maguro’s distinctive flavor and firm texture make it a solid choice for sashimi. While control freaks may be nervous about letting the chef make the calls, Piranha is one of those spots where guests can rest assured that whatever sushi or nigiri makes its way into the box will be fresh and flavorful. $12, 260 E. Basse Road, (210) 822-1088, piranhaizakaya. com.

Botika

Even though Peruvian-Asian fusion eatery Botika is more than a sushi bar, Venezuela-born Chef Geronimo Lopez’s focus on fresh sushi is apparent. Botika’s approach to cuisine and presentation is decidedly contemporary, and that extends to its lunchtime bento box, which changes daily. Lopez’s selections often include some of his favorite “Chifa” (Chinese-Peruvian) and “Nikkei” (Japanese-Peruvian) dishes, such as a saucy, savory beef and broccoli and a cold noodle salad loaded with edamame, mint and carrying the perfect hint of heat. One recent bento adventure offered a small but tangy pickled red cabbage slaw that proved a tasty palate cleanser. Fried plantains dusted with powdered sugar provided a sweet ending to the meal. $15, 303 Pearl Parkway, #111, (210) 670-7684, botikapearl.com. 45

Nina Rangel

Botika

Piranha Izakaya

43 Godai Sushi Bar & Japanese Restaurant

Northside sushi mainstay Godai’s uber-fresh seafood and easygoing vibes have made it a favorite since opening in 2005. Chef-owner William “Goro”

Pitchford creates sushi masterpieces with more than 20 different types of seafood, some of which make their way into the eatery’s weekly bento box offerings. The protein choices have shifted over the years — at various times, the options have included chicken teriyaki, chicken katsu, fried whitefish and breaded pork or chicken cutlets — but the serving size and quality remain consistent. Each of Godai’s bentos includes the main dish and rice, two pieces of nigiri, two to three small sushi pieces, tempura-fried veggies and a delightfully light cucumber salad. Pitchford also throws in a house salad and small miso soup. Prices vary, 11203

Sushi Seven

West Ave., (210) 348-6781, godaisushisa. com.

Wild Goji

Tucked away in a North Central San Antonio strip center, Wild Goji is known for massive sushi-filled boats and piping hot ramen. At lunch though, bento also gets a starring role — especially the savory basil beef option. The garlic-marinated strip steak is sautéed with Thai basil, onions, mushrooms and cilantro. The box also includes a serving of steamed rice, salad with ginger dressing, four California roll pieces and a pair of pillowy, hand-formed steamed dumplings. Each bento lunch option is also served with a cup of miso soup. What’s more, Wild Goji can be a go-to when planning lunch with friends on plant-based diets. Tofu in a spicy brown sauce serves as a centerpiece for its vegetarian-friendly bento.

$12-$15, 7115 Blanco Road, #110, (210) 277-0638, wildgojisatx.com.

Sushi Seven

When looking for a lunch option stacked to the gills with fresh fish, Sushi Seven is where it’s at. As its name suggests, the centerpiece of the chain’s chirashi bento features a variety of raw fish along with other ingredients such as Japanese omelet artfully arranged atop a bed of sushi rice. Agedashi tofu, four California roll pieces and seaweed salad complete the box. Each bento option also includes miso soup. Sushi Seven’s rice, in particular, is a standout thanks to its balance of rice vinegar and kombu, or kelp. Perfectly prepared rice is essential to the chirashi bento, since the seasoning cuts through the fattiness of raw fish such as salmon and tuna. Sushi Seven’s nigiri bento box is another alluring option thanks to its crispy fried gyoza. $14-$16, multiple

locations, sushi-seven.com.

Artea

Although bubble tea is the star attraction at Artea, the mini-chain also serves up a menu of Asian-inspired eats, including two bento boxes. The focal point of the chashu bento is a pair of pork belly slices braised in soy sauce, sake and mirin and served with spicy mayo. Pot stickers, an ajitsuke soft boiled egg, a small mandarin salad and rice complete the box. Most often seen in steamy bowls of ramen, Japanese chashu pork belly is tender, salty, sweet, fatty and melts in the mouth, making it an excellent choice for a lunchtime bento. The preparation of the chashu suggests the crew in Artea’s kitchens knows what it’s doing. Rendering a tough cut such as pork belly tender takes both time and expertise. $12.50, multiple locations, drinkartea.com.

Nina Rangel

Nina Rangel

No Carts, but Lots of Choices

Small plates shine at Dim Sum Oriental Cuisine, even if some of the presentation pageantry is gone

BY RON BECHTOL

For many, an “authentic” experience of eating Chinese food dim sum style involves dining in a room of carts bearing tantalizing bites in bamboo steamers or presented on pristine porcelain plates. It’s seduction on wheels, and it works.

Sadly, COVID-19 put an end to that in many places — including at San Antonio’s Dim Sum Oriental Cuisine, a Northwest Military Drive restaurant known for genuine Chinese specialties such as chicken feet and beef tripe.

The dining room’s almost total lack of decor doesn’t help in restoring romance to the occasion, either. You indicate your choices on a plastic menu with a marker, and they come out in whatever order suits the kitchen. It pays to be prepared.

Here’s a little help in that direction, starting with a couple of items you might not think to order:

steamed beef tripe and steamed curry squid. The feathery white tripe has an unexpected, but not unpleasant, crunch. Like many items on the menu, the flavor is direct and delicate, modulated only by faintly aromatic slivered scallion. Try it just as it is before automatically adding soy sauce or the restaurant’s red chili condiment. The diamond-scored squid also has a bit of a bite, but its flavor is inherently more assertive, the curry coming across as both subtle and sharp at the same time.

Steamed shrimp and pork shao mai is a dim sum classic, its tender filling revealed like the center of a flower surrounded by a petal-pleated wrapper. It’s an artful package, and a dot of chili serves as both a flavor and visual accent.

The steamed pork dumpling, fully enclosed in a velvety envelope of a different kind, is also pure in its flavor. Just a streak of soy sauce is appropriate here. Chopped shrimp mixed with corn kernels provides the stuffing for a pan-fried version of the steamed dumplings — worth a try for the textural difference alone.

No wrapper is employed in the preparation of the pan-fried, shrimp-stuffed eggplant, for which a little interpretation is required. The slice of eggplant itself is either steamed or simply braised, and the resulting texture is soft and yielding. It’s topped, not stuffed, by what might best be called a fried shrimp fritter. The combination of textures and techniques elevates this bite beyond the sum of its otherwise simple parts.

In the case of the steamed chicken sticky rice in lotus leaf wrapper, the wrapper almost proves more important than what’s inside the package. Partly because the leaf adds a faintly aromatic flavor to the dish, and partly because unbundling the loosely bound packet is half the fun. The rice inside is sticky indeed, and the saucy ground chicken serves as a tiny jewel at its heart. Feel free to enhance the bland rice with whatever condiment you prefer.

Speaking of wrappers, the menu description of steamed barbecue pork in rice noodles didn’t do it justice. The item is really more like a diminutive burrito in a silken, rice-sheet wrapper. Otherwise, the menu says it all: the only other ingredient is smoky, chopped barbecue pork. The combination — served with a diluted, sweetened soy on the side — is perfect in a minimalist sort of way.

Steamed golden egg yolk lava buns are on-point as

DIM SUM ORIENTAL CUISINE

far as poetic descriptions go. In contrast to the previous envelopes, these featured a slightly sweet wheat wrapper, one that Dim Sum also tints a golden color. But the joy here is in the filling. Pierce the dome of the bun with a chopstick, and out oozes the golden “lava,” a salty-sweet and unctuously lush egg custard. You’ve gotta love it.

The chicken or beef stir fried with ho fan proved almost pedestrian in contrast. Even so, the dish offered a nice balance to a meal of small plates. Ho fan are short, wide rice noodles that readily absorb soy-based sauces.

With chicken as the main meat component, they’re tossed with onion, scallion and sprouts, and the stir-frying process yields a slight smoky char that’s sometimes called “the breath of the wok.”

It’s a welcome addition to a dish that’s both satisfying, straightforward and seductive — even if it’s not served from a cart.

2313 NW Military Highway, Suite 125 | (210) 340-0690 | dim-sum-oriental-cuisine.com

Prices: $2.50-$16 per dim sum dish

The skinny: Yes, Dim Sum Oriental Cuisine has a conventional menu with fried rice and various noodle dishes, but you’re really there for the steamed or pan-fried dim sum of its name. The buns and dumplings feature fillings such as imitation shark fin, pork, shrimp, beef, daikon or taro root. Pristine beef tripe, lightly curried squid, red beans and lotus seed also appear in various guises. Luscious egg custard gushes from the golden egg yolk lava buns. COVID-19 has quashed the carts, so dishes will appear from the kitchen in no particular order, while the plain decor puts all the focus on the food.

Ron Bechtol

San Antonio Icehouse Week will celebrate city’s outdoor drinking spots with discounts and prizes

BY NINA RANGEL

Owners of the casual outdoor drinking spots that are a key part of San Antonio’s community and culture will kick off the Second Annual San Antonio Icehouse Week on Friday, Feb. 24.

The 10-day celebration will highlight some of the city’s most vibrant icehouses, all offering drink specials, prizes and giveaways. A portion of proceeds from the event — which is co-sponsored by the Current and ends Sunday, March 5 — will benefit Launch SA, a local entrepreneurship and small-business support community.

Alamo City entrepreneurs Jody Newman, owner of Bruno’s Dive Bar and the Friendly Spot, and Kent Oliver, owner of Dakota East Side Icehouse, launched the inaugural Icehouse Week in 2022 to support small businesses recovering from the pandemic. They also wanted to celebrate the icehouse’s vital place in South Texas culture.

“In the last two decades or so, there’s been a resurgence of people who appreciate what icehouses are about,

and what they have to offer,” Oliver told the Current last year. “A close place to home, where they can go and hang out, be with friends, meet their neighbors. ... I think some of the newer neighbor hoods and subdivisions just don’t have an outlet that’s personal and embedded in the neighborhood, so it’s so import ant for us to preserve that culture.”

During the first run of the event, thousands of San Antonians showed their support for local small businesses by patronizing participating icehouses.

This year, the featured establishments including Backyard on Broadway, Bruno’s Dive Bar, Dakota East Side Icehouse, La Tuna Icehouse & Grill, the Lucky Duck, Lucy Cooper’s Texas Ice House and McIntyre’s — to name a few. This iteration also is presented by local breweries Freetail Brewing Co., Second Pitch Beer Co., Viva Beer and Weathered Souls Brewing Co. along with Tito’s Vodka.

A full list of participants and other details is available online at saicehouse week.com.

Instagram / @lucycoopersicehouse

United We Brunch moves to San Antonio Botanical Garden for its sixth installment

BY NINA RANGEL

San Antonio’s premiere brunch event, United We Brunch, will return Saturday, Feb. 25 for its sixth installment, boasting a new venue and the revival of the Tito’s Vodka Bloody Mary Challenge.

This year, attendees will savor cocktails, bubbles and mimosas while sampling brunch bites in the lush setting of the San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Place. Live music and other entertainment will serve as an extra eye opener.

The Tito’s Bloody Mary Challenge, which made its United We Brunch

debut in 2020, will take over an outdoor stage on the Greehey Lawn. The competition pits local bartenders against each other to determine who makes the Alamo City’s best variation on the classic cocktail and hangover cure.

This year’s United We Brunch benefits the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, which raises more than $45 million annually for programs that help create a diverse and thriving community.

The event will run 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets and more details are available online at unitedwebrunchsa.com.

NEWS

Black Restaurant Week San Antonio kicks off Feb. 26, featuring nearly 30 restaurants. The event raises money for the San Antonio Food Bank and will showcase dishes from Ma Harper’s, Mark’s Outing, Southern Roots Vegan Bakery and more.

blackrestaurantweeksanantonio.com.

The group behind Toro Kitchen + Bar and The Cellar Mixology are planning a multi-concept expansion that will begin with The Bunker Mixology, a subterranean bar located inside the former downtown site of Jet Setter. The new cocktail spot will open in March. 229 E. Houston St., #10, instagram.com/thebunkermixology.

Twenty-five SA dining spots — including Clementine, Los Barrios and Black Lab Brewing — are participating in the Fourth Annual Girl Scout Cookie Flavor Fest, which features limited-time culinary creations that riff on classic Girl Scout Cookie flavors. girlscoutcookieflavorfest.org.

OPENINGS

Restauranteurs Houston and Emily Carpenter have updated the launch date for their newest

concept, sushi bar Nineteen Hyaku. The culinary power couple behind Little Em’s and other dining spots is now eyeing an October opening. 1900 Broadway, nineteenhyaku.com.

Chef Johnny Hernandez will reopen Southtown’s Casa Hernán this month as a Mexican cantina with botanas, cocktails and tequila. Mexican art and bold color schemes will also feature prominently. 411 E. Cevallos Street, chefjohnnyhernandez.com/casa-hernan.

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Fabulous Monsters

San Antonio punk band Fea composed original music for new play debuting at Public Theater

BY DALIA GULCA

San Antonio Latina punk band Fea is contributing new music to Fabulous Monsters, a play making its world premiere at the Public Theater of San Antonio on Friday, Feb. 24.

Set in late 1970s as the punk revolution swept the Los Angeles music scene, the play follows two Latinas who meet at a band audition, start their own group and find fame nearly overnight. However, the pair eventually grow apart and pursue different musical roads — one goes pop, while one sticks to her punk guns.

After reuniting roughly three decades later, the former bandmates repair what’s left of their turbulent friendship and reconcile to rock out on stage once again.

The story focuses on the oft-overlooked contributions of Latinas to punk, which isn’t limited to the late-’70s or to Los Angeles.

Playwright Diana Burbano, a Colombian immigrant living in Southern California, chose to set the story in LA but expects it to resonate in San Antonio as well.

Indeed, elements of Fabulous Monsters mirror the real-life story of Fea, whose core

membership is comprised of drummer Phanie Diaz, bassist Jenn Alva and vocalist Letty Martinez. Since rising from the ashes of indie-rock outfit Girl in a Coma in 2015, Fea’s uncompromising Latina take on punk has earned it mentions in Rolling Stone and on NPR — not to mention a prominent shoutout from punk godfather Iggy Pop. Burbano, a Fea fan, reached out to the band to commission music for the production. The lyrics were already written as part of her script, so she tasked the trio with coming up with music to bring them to life. Adding to the challenge, the music had to be reproduced as part of the productions with the actors playing the songs and singing the lyrics.

“Fea is so excited to contribute the music to this story that is all at once hedonistic, spiritual, raunchy and emotionally deep,” Diaz told the Current. “We look forward to seeing the songs come to life.”

Yet another thread connects Fea to the production. The Public’s resident music director, Jaime Ramirez, once played with Girl in a Coma. Although the play takes place in LA, he hopes Fea’s involvement will help drive home

the performance for San Antonio audiences.

“Diana [Burbano] wanted authentic-sounding punk, and that’s about as authentic as it gets,” he said.

Ramirez said he wants to see the performance connect with San Antonians on multiple levels, even including the set design. For Fabulous Monsters, Public’s Cellar Theater will be transformed to look like a rock club, complete with walls covered in band flyers, which Ramirez is sourcing from SA clubs.

Also adding to the authenticity is the performance of the music itself. The production will feature a live three-piece band backing the cast, which includes Josey Porras, Marisela Barrera, Noelle Elise Mefford, Ginger Gamble Martel, Alyx Irene Gonzales and Mark McCarver.

Putting live instruments in such an intimate space — the theater only seats about 60 — requires the performers to deliver a sound that will capture punk’s energy without overwhelming the audience. The producers are close to deciding whether to present the music with acoustic or electric instruments, Ramirez said.

In a recent rehearsal featuring real drums and electric guitars, people sitting in to watch described the outcome as “loud, but a good loud,” Ramirez added. “That’s kind of the goal, especially in a space like that.”

$15-$45, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24-March 19 (additional showtimes available online), The Public Theater of San Antonio, 800 W. Ashby Place, (210) 733-7258, thepublicsa.org.

Reminder:

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

Courtesy Photo / Public Theater of San Antonio

critics’ picks

Wednesday, Feb. 22

Donny Benét, Well Well Well

The danceable yacht rock of Australian singer/multi-instrumentalist Donny Benét, known to his fans as “The Don,” seems like it would best be enjoyed in a smoky retro lounge with a stiff highball. Benét manages to channel a sensuous Michael McDonald, and his suggestive lyrics were reportedly born of his experience playing Tom Jones covers in an airport Hilton ballroom. Benét’s 2022 EP Le Piano showcases his musicality by diving into an ’80s post-disco groove with four instrumental tracks. $20-$22, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. —

Danny Cervantes

Thursday, Feb. 23

Inner Wave, Jukebox Tour

Starting out as a lo-fi pop act inspired by bands including the Arctic Monkeys and the Strokes, Inner Wave had its first breakthrough with the single “American Spirits” in 2013, which led to gigs supporting Chicano Batman and Cuco, both luminaries in LA’s Latin rock scene. By the time of 2017’s critically acclaimed Underwater Pipe Dreams, the group had expanded to a quintet with the addition of a keyboardist and a drummer. Its sound floats somewhere between psychedelia and synthwave, mixing up a bubbly concoction that plays out like a fuzzy cinematic memory. $23-$26, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Saturday, Feb. 25

August Burns Red, The Devil Wears Prada, Bleed From Within Pennsylvania-based metalcore band August Burns Red tours for almost every new album, single and milestone, so it should come as no surprise it’s hitting the road to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Two decades deep, the guys still have a dedicated fan base that appreciates the little things like guitarist JB Brubaker’s dedication to wearing sandals during shows. With supporting acts mining a similar sonic territory, expect a night of nostalgia-filled metalcore. $29.50-$35, 7:30 p.m., Vibes Event Center, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, facebook.com/vibeseventcenter. — Brianna Espinoza

Monday, Feb. 27

The Appleseed Cast

Founded in 1997 during the height of the emo craze, the Appleseed Cast moved a lot in its early days, heading from Southern California to North Carolina and finally to Lawrence, Kansas. It’s also evolved sonically. While still rooted in emo, the band has taken on more experimental approaches over the years, particularly an embrace of post-rock. $15-$18, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Mike McMahan

Tuesday, Feb. 28

Thy Art Is Murder

Australian deathcore outfit Thy Art is Murder is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its heavy-as-balls second album Hate. With plenty of brutal breakdowns and crowd-killing expected, it’s probably best to bring helmets and knee pads. $26-$30, 6 p.m., Vibes Event Center, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, facebook.com/ vibeseventcenter. — BE

Thursday, Mar. 2

OV7

Latin-pop group OV7 formed in 1989 when its members were fresh-faced, prepubescent kids singing Spanish-language covers of 1950s and 1960s tunes. Appropriately enough, it was originally called La Onda Vaselina or The Vaseline Wave, a name inspired by the musical Grease. The group opted for the sleeker moniker OV7 in 1999, and along with it, a more contemporary image and sound. The Mexico-based group is touring the United States as part of an extended celebration of its 30th anniversary. $54.45 and up, 8:30 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Marco

Aquino

Epik High

This South Korean hip-hop trio might not be the Beastie Boys, but they sure are changing the landscape of the genre by integrating old-school beats with modern lo-fi sounds. The emcees switch between their native language and English smoothly on some songs. Despite the South Korean government censoring the group’s albums for tackling subjects including war, education and religion, it remains one of the most successful rap acts in its home country. $36.40-$195.50, 8 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, boeingcentertechport.com. — BE

Friday, Mar. 3

Marisela

Known as “La Dama de Hierro” and “Latin Madonna,” Marisela Hernandez began recording pop albums in 1984 at the tender age of 18. In the mid-1990s she expanded her sound by collaborating with ranchera and mariachi artists Vikki Carr and Joan Sebastian. Marisela’s current ¡Vámonos! Tour includes stops in the U.S., Chile and Mexico. $54.75-$139.75, 8:30 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire. com. — MA

Saturday, March 4

Christian McBride’s New Jawn

Eight-time Grammy-winning jazz bassist and composer Christian McBride has recorded 18 albums while appearing on over 300 recordings as a sideman. His many other roles include bandleader, educator, broadcaster and artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival. McBride has shown an enthusiasm for bringing his hard-swinging sound to music that ranges from big band and post-pop to jazz funk and neo-soul. His versatility has also allowed him to work with both small groups and ambitious, large-scale ensembles. $49.50-$64.50., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — MA

The Oxys

Punk rock has been around for a long time, and the ever-evolving genre taken many forms. But some bands like Austin’s the Oxys, like to keep things old-school. That approach likely stems from guitarist Jason “Ginchy” Kottwitz, whose resume includes time in a reformed version of the Dead Boys. That group’s seminal 1977 album Young, Loud and Snotty sums up the Oxys’ approach. As a side note, vocalist Phil “Punkrockphil” Davis is back on stage after recovering from a coma he fell into last summer, which forced him to relearn how to sing. Now that is punk rock.

$TK, 8 p.m., The Mix, 2423 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 900-2772, themixsa.com. — MM

Silversun Pickups, Paris Jackson

Known for a densely layered alternative-rock sound, Silversun Pickups formed in 2000, playing gigs in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, which inspired its moniker. The band’s releases “Lazy Eye” and “Well Thought Out Twinkles” both landed high on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks in 2007, leading to opening slots for Wolfmother and the Foo Fighters. The band’s 2009 album Swoon built on that success with breakouts songs including “Panic Switch” and “Substitution.” Silversun Pickups’ latest release, Physical Thrills features bassist Nikki Monninger as lead vocalist on “Alone on a Hill”, which allows her to channel her inner Kate Bush. And don’t sleep on opener Paris Jackson. Despite being Michael Jackson’s daughter, the budding singer-songwriter’s brooding, emotionally raw music sounds nothing like her dad’s poppy R&B. $49.50-$169.50, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre. com. — DC

Tuesday, Mar. 7

Loolowingen & the Far East Idiots, Sarafonics, Powdered Wig Machine

Tokyo-based Loolowningen & the Far East Idiots bills itself as an “avant-punk/alternative-blues trio,” which gets to the basics of its minimalist, skronky style driven by a tight-wound rhythm section. Meanwhile, San Antonio’s the Sarafonics started making music in late 2021 yet bring to mind the indie-rock sensibilities of a decade earlier, especially the folk-tinged elements of Death Cab for Cutie and Dr. Dog. The Sarafonics’ sweet and lovelorn lyrics, velvety vocals and leisurely guitars make for a soothing listen perfect for a summer road trip. Psychedelic punk band — and art collective and surreal web series — Powdered Wig Machine rounds out the diverse bill. Free, 7 p.m., Burleson Yard Beer Garden, 430 Austin St., (210) 354-3001, burlesonyardbeergarden.com. — DG

Shutterstock / Catwalker

Christian McBride Trio

EMPLOYMENT

Regulatory Affairs Specialist. Draft legal docs & participate in negots. & comms. w/ partners & clients, ensure compliance matters of biz. deals & maint. reg. doc database. Bachelor’s in law, compliance or rltd. is req’d. Send resume to PocketzWorld Inc, 21750 Hardy Oak Blvd, Ste 104, PMB 63316, San Antonio, TX 78258

Web Application Programmer (Location of Employment San Antonio, TX), Write, analyze, & review software programs for use in the dental industry utilizing open-source front-end JavaScript library React & open-source, cross-platform, back-end JavaScript runtime environment Node.js; * Correct code errors by making appropriate changes & reviewing the changes to ensure desired results are achieved; * Write code on the expansion of existing software to increase operating efficiency; * Write, update, & maint comp programs in C++ programming language & other software packages to handle specific jobs such as storing or retrieving data; * Dvlp Web apps for dental practices for daily use by patients & dental offices; * Investigate whether new & existing software is responsive to code changes & updates through logging systems; * Perform systems analysis & programming tasks to maint control the use of comp systems software as a systems programmer; * Consult w/ & assist comp operators or system analysts to define & resolve problems. A Bach’s deg in Comp Sci or retld field is req’d. Must submit to a criminal bckgrnd check. To apply, email resume & 3 professional or personal references to info@tx24seven. com or send items to Coke Management Group LLC, at 2211 NW Military Hwy Suite 127B San Antonio, TX 78213.

Alonso Excavation and Construction located in 13810 Toepperwein Rd. Live Oak, Texas 78233 is actively recruiting a Process Engineer.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s in Mechanical, Industrial or related Engineering.

• Engineering license in good standing in the U.S. or abroad.

• Duties: Create plans and establish work sequence instructions and operation standards to improve the efficiency of work processes for projects. Review project schedules and engineering specifications to evaluate issues and establish the resolution of an engineering problem. Coordinate with team members to implement quality control procedures to ensure project quality, cost reduction, and efficiency. Advise management concerning methods to improve utilization of personnel, meet project budgets, and assist in training staff in new technology and methods. Statistical analysis in determining project schedules, processing methods, and personnel requirements. Root cause analysis to locate issues in the work process and apply problem-solving tools such as 8D, DMAIC, Ishikawa, 5 Why's, etc. to determine problem resolution and solutions.

• Traveling is required for this position.

• Must be able to communicate fluently in Spanish and English

• 24 months of experience in construction or manufacturing.

• Compensation: $94,330.00 yearly salary

Please submit all resumes via email at hiring@alonsoexcavation.com