San Antonio - September 20, 2023

TEXAS PRISONS STILL ON LOCKDOWN | ENJOYING THE RIDE AT TOKYO COWBOY | BIG SAM BRINGS THE FUNK TO JAZZ'SALIVE |

San Antonio Current

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Issue 23-19 /// September 20 – October 3, 2023

Critics’ Picks

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Photograph: Nina Rangel. Design: Samantha Serna.

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The Time to END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE is NOW

San Antonio receives 5 domestic violence calls every hour. The time to end domestic violence is now. You are not alone. Step out of violence and call 211 for help or 911 in case of an emergency.

HThe wife of a man convicted of entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection has been appointed to a North East Independent School District (NEISD) committee, raising community concerns. Crystal Keen, wife of Jan. 6 participant Matthew Mazzocco, was appointed last month to NEISD’s School Health Advisory Council, which advises the district on topics relating to sexuality and mental health.

University Health has won a $3.6 million grant from the federal government to fund its ongoing work to reduce the rate of LGBTQ+ youth suicide in the area. The grant money will go to the Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Blueprint for Adults and Youth (CoSPLAY) program, which aims to reduce the number of suicide attempts among LGBTQ+ young people in Bexar County by 10% over the next four years.

HThe privately owned San Antonio Aquarium has again run afoul of federal authorities, this time over the death of a female porcupine in its care. An aquarium employee discovered the dead porcupine in late July, with the aquarium reportedly determining that the porcupine met its end after escaping its enclosure and entering a male porcupine’s enclosure where it was impaled. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the facility as a result.

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales told a public safety town hall crowd last Monday night that he’s back on speaking terms with Police Chief Bill McManus. The relationship between the two men has been strained in recent weeks over a series of shootings of San Antonio police officers, including shootings perpetrated by suspects who were out of jail on bond. — Abe Asher

YOU SAID IT!

Putting bias on full display with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

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

Plenty of observers were concerned about the ability of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to fairly preside over the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

After all, Patrick, who’s neither an attorney nor a judge, benefitted from a $1 million campaign contribution and a $2 million loan from Paxton-backing PAC Defend Texas Liberty weeks before the trial began. Not to mention, Patrick — a cutthroat partisan — was overseeing a trial of a fellow member of the right flank of the Texas GOP.

Now, in a tirade that followed the Republican-controlled Texas Senate’s acquittal of Paxton on all 16 charges he faced, Patrick has put his bias on full display.

In what the Texas Tribune referred to as a “blistering speech,” Patrick railed against the impeachment process and skewered the Texas House’s impeachment managers and Speaker Dade Phelan, claiming they rushed the trial while also providing insufficient evidence.

Further, Patrick called for an audit of taxpayer money spent during the impeachment process, claiming it had wasted “millions of taxpayer dollars.”

Never mind that the impeachment managers from the GOP-controlled House provided more than 3,000 pages of documents. Or that the evidence against Paxton included damning whistleblower testimony from former members of his own inner circle of Christian conserva-

tives.

Contrary to Patrick’s claim, the trial was anything but a political sham. The accusations that Paxton directed state resources to benefit real estate developer Nate Paul, a friend and campaign donor, were serious, and the evidence against the AG — an officeholder whose career has been synonymous with political scandal — was overwhelming.

Patrick may have fooled some Texans by playing at impartiality during the trial, but this assclown’s recent comments betray a deep-seated bias to shield one of his key political allies.

— Sanford Nowlin

City Council last week approved a $3.7 billion city budget for the 2024 fiscal year, with every member of the body but one voting in favor of the proposal. The budget includes $500,000 for the city’s new Reproductive Justice Fund and $621.1 million for the San Antonio Police Department — an increase of 8.5% over the 2023 budget. It’s the most money the city has ever spent on its police force.

A new proposal from Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda would allow CPS Energy to keep between 2-3% more of its monthly revenue so it can bolster its power supply and reliability. CPS Energy currently sends 14% of its monthly sales to the city, but Cabello Havrda said concerns over the reliability of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) have made it all the more important that CPS Energy can meet the city’s electrical demands.

A federal judge in San Antonio has begun hearing arguments in a lawsuit challenging a 2021 Texas law tightening voter restrictions in the state. The plaintiffs in the suit, a coalition of organizations ranging from the League of Women Voters of Texas to the Southwest Voter Education Project, are arguing that the bill intentionally suppresses the votes of non-white people, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The trial is expected to run through late October. —  Abe Asher

“After an intense review of the evidence, an acquittal of every article of impeachment condones the morally bankrupt actions of Warren Kenneth Paxton, Jr. Moreover, it sends a message to future whistleblowers that their bravery may not produce justice. The final chapter of this decision is not written, and it is my belief that this outcome will be known as a profound error.”

— State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, on the Senate’s acquittal of embattled AG Ken Paxton

Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

Katelyn Earhart

Recent shootings of San Antonio cops should be a wake-up call about guns and outdated views on law enforcement

BY KEVIN SANCHEZ

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

Being a cop is a tough job.

Since Aug. 24, five San Antonio peace officers have been shot in the line of duty, and although none died, from what research tells us about the statistical relationship between the prevalence of guns and the harm incurred by law enforcement, we have no right to act shocked when our luck runs out.

“If we’re interested in protecting police officers, we need to look at what’s killing them, and what’s killing them is guns,” David Swedler of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health said in 2015.

Police are three times more likely to be murdered on the job in high gun ownership states than in those with low levels of gun ownership, Swedler found in his research.

A separate analysis published last year in Preventative Medicine Reports showed that in states without mandated universal background checks, “for every 1% increase in state-level firearm ownership, there was a 12.4% increase in the odds of a firearm assault on a law enforcement officer.”

Not only does Texas not require private sellers to conduct background checks, Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 signed a law during a ceremony at the Alamo that allows anyone over the age of 18 to openly carry a firearm without a permit, let alone training. Abbott, who was accompanied by NRA chief Wayne La Pierre at the ceremony, signed that bill over the adamant objections of the Texas Police Chiefs Association and sheriffs across the state.

“The recent wave of shootings against SAPD officers should be a wake-up call about the dangerous, lawless environment that Texas Republicans have fostered,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said following the string of cop shootings here. “Law enforcement officers and the public are paying the price for this recklessness.”

August marked the 49th consecutive month that gun sales nationwide topped 1 million. That’s more than 1 million more guns in America, every single month — for four years. We are the only country in

which firearms outnumber the citizenry, and unlike in Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and free societies elsewhere, commonsense gun licensing is practically a political third rail.

Given their party’s refusal to discuss any kind of gun reform, GOP politicians’ claims to “back the blue” are all hat and no cattle.

Enter U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican representing part of San Antonio and a wide swath of South Texas, including Uvalde. Since he was censured by Texas Republicans over his support for bipartisan gun-control legislation, he’s felt the need to overcompensate with bellicose pandering.

Speaking at a downtown convention for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, he declared his intention “to go to war” with Bexar County

Distract Attorney Joe Gonzales. The congressman also proposed increasing sentences for those who attack first-responders from 20 years to 25.

But does anyone really think those extra five years will deter a single criminal? We’ve already got 2 million people in prison, more than any other nation on the planet. Can anyone seriously contend that we’re not throwing the book hard enough at lawbreakers?

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, understandably exasperated over the recent officer 13

Michael Karlis

MBexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales addresses the crowd at a recent public safety forum attended by SAPD Chief William McManus.

For friends, family, and co-workers to MEET, PARTY, and PLAY!

10 shootings, has argued just that.

“Another SAPD officer was shot and hospitalized a few hours ago by a repeat violent offender who should have been in jail,” the chief tweeted on Sept. 5, adding to the chorus of those accusing the District Attorney of being lax in keeping recidivists behind bars.

Let’s get real. It’s highly unlikely that anybody’s first criminal offense will be shooting a cop. That means any such assailant will almost always have an extensive rap sheet which bad-faith critics can point to and ask why the shooter isn’t rotting in prison.

That kind of reasoning by anecdote isn’t serious, and it seldom results in sound public policy. Absent indefinitely detaining everyone who ever ran a red light, the vast majority of prisoners are going to be released eventually. We need to address the root causes of crime instead of playing a desperate game of Whack-a-Mole.

In the wake of the San Antonio shootings, McManus and Gonzales privately gave one another the silent treatment for weeks while bickering through media sound-bites. They have since appeared to make up at a town hall last Tuesday.

Local TV news ate up the bickering, of course, and Gonzales has admitted to getting a bit defensive in his effort to protect the 200 prosecutors who work in his office and together process 50,000 cases annually.

Only two of the five suspects involved in the recent shootings had any violent history, and one of the officers inadvertently shot himself, Gonzales pointed out last week during his appearance on the Express-News podcast Puro Politics.

Gonzales also argued that a bail bond system based on how much money someone has rather than how much of a risk they pose to the community is an affront to public safety.

“So, if somebody who commits a serious offense, like a murder, if his bond is set at $100,000 and he

happens to have access to what is typically the percentage, 10%, he can get out posting $10,000, and if a bail-bonds agent is willing to write the bond, sometimes they do it as low as 3%,” he told Express-News editors. “If it’s a family violence situation, that individual can be released and go back to continue to assault the victim.”

Meanwhile, a low-level, nonviolent offender who’s dead-broke can languish in lockup until their court date.

Mending this senseless disparity isn’t something a lowly judge or district attorney can do, and under pressure from the Texas Legislature, Gonzales has already rolled back his modest attempts at bail reform for those caught with cannabis and homeless people charged with trespassing.

That’s why the recently defunded community organization SA2020 supported the failed ballot initiative known as the Justice Charter: to stop wasting taxpayer money by locking up graffiti taggers, petty shoplifters and pot-smokers.

“The Bexar County jail is full,” Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai told reporters in his office Sept. 8, after a week spent avoiding the press.

One solution Sakai intends to discuss as part of a city-county commission set up by he and Mayor Ron Nirenberg is releasing mentally incompetent inmates who may not pose a danger to others. That would free up room for repeat violent offenders.

“We have limited resources, we may have to increase those resources to make sure that the people who are committing violent crimes are kept off the streets,” Sakai said.

However, the judge’s priority last week was passing the nearly $3 billion county budget, over $157 million of which will go to the sheriff’s office alone. And that’s just the county.

The city’s new $621 million police budget is its largest ever.

Yet, when speaking to reporters, Sakai said, “I’ve got to make sure that the DA and the sheriff have the manpower, that they have the resources, that they have everything they need to do to better protect our community.”

To ask an obvious follow-up, if Sakai doesn’t know whether and where the police lack resources until the new city-county commission does its work, why approve a massive budget without first acquiring that knowledge? And why usher another 50 cops into a broken system?

The most sober defense of “defunding the police” came not from a Black Lives Matter protester, but from then-Dallas Police Chief David Brown. His comment came after an Army reservist in 2016 shot and killed five officers and injured nine others in what was the deadliest massacre of law enforcement since 9/11.

“We’re asking cops to do too much in this country. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve,” Brown said. “Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it. Not enough drug addiction funding, let’s give it to the cops. Here in Dallas we’ve got a loose-dogs problem. Let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, give it to the cops. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems. And I would just ask for other parts of our democracy, along with the free press, to help us, and not put that burden all on law enforcement.”

We can’t lay every social ill — from homelessness to mental health to poverty to addiction to animal control — at the feet of police officers. Is it any wonder that half of murders go unsolved?

Capitulating to ever-increasing police budgets, which Abbott has now mandated by law, amounts to defeatism. If we could somehow manage to give cops less to do while encountering fewer firearms on the streets, we’d all sleep more safely.

Michael Karlis

Powder Kegs

Texas’ lockdown of its overheated state prisons is worsening an already volatile situation

BY BRANDON RODRIGUEZ AND MICHAEL KARLIS

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) earlier this month put all 104 of its prisons under lockdown, a move that occurred as families of the incarcerated argue that this summer’s extreme heat is killing state inmates. Experts warn that the crackdown, which began Sept. 6, will only exacerbate already inhumane conditions inside Texas prisons. They caution that it could further spike heat-related deaths and illnesses while worsening dangerous tensions.

Citing a rise in drug-related homicides at its facilities, TDCJ officials said they implemented the lockdown to search for illicit drugs and homemade weapons. The sweep restricted the movement of 129,000 incarcerated people, leaving most locked in their cells 24 hours day, according to advocates.

“It’s harder to get access to water, or ice, or the various initiatives that [TDCJ] has instituted,” Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, said of lockdown conditions. “[The cells] are concrete boxes. So you can imagine just how extraordinarily uncomfortable it can be in these settings.”

Amid one of the hottest summers in Texas history, families of state prisoners have testified that their loved ones are soaking their bedsheets in toilet water, sleeping on the floor, and intentionally getting sent to solitary confinement to escape their un-air conditioned cells. Fewer than a third of Texas’ state prisons are air-conditioned, according to the Associated Press.

While some prisons have slowly resumed normal operations, at press time Monday, most Texas inmates remained locked in their cells, and TDCJ hasn’t said how long it expects the crackdown to last. The opening days of the sweep occurred while temperatures across the state were still regularly cresting over 100 degrees.

“A lot of sentences are turning into

death sentences,” Deitch said. “That’s something no civilized society should tolerate.”

Indeed, at least 41 prisoners are suspected to have died in state prisons of heat-related causes this summer alone, according to an analysis by Texas Tribune. Even so, TDCJ officials maintain that there hasn’t been a heat-related death in a Texas prison since 2012.

“Specifically, it would be inaccurate to classify any death this year as a heat-related death as a lot of these are still under investigation and pending final autopsies,” TDCJ spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez said in an emailed statement.

However, experts and advocates said there’s overwhelming evidence that Texas prisoners are being cooked alive.

“A lot of these deaths that we’re seeing are young people in their 30s and 40s, who otherwise have no known health conditions,” Deitch said. “So, common sense tells us that a lot of these deaths may be due to heat-related causes.

Damning testimony

Marci Marie Simmons, a former Texas prisoner turned inmate-rights advocate, accused TDCJ of preventing those under its supervision of knowing how bad their living conditions are.

“They have thermostats in the cells that [guards] cover with electrical tape so you can’t read them,” Simmons said. Simmons recalled a time during the summer of 2020 when she climbed to the ceiling of her cell and peeled back the tape on the thermostat. It read 136 degrees, even though TDCJ facilities are required to be kept between 65 and 84 degrees.

“That was the ceiling,” Simmons said. “So, even if it was a little cooler where we slept, it was only about 10 degrees less.”

Testimony from prisoners’ families during an August TDCJ meeting painted a similarly bleak picture.

Tona Southards-Naranjo, whose son

Jon Anthony Southards, died at Texas’ Huntsville Unit on June 28, said her son had no underlying medical conditions and had spoken to her three times on the phone the day he succumbed to what she believes was extreme heat.

“You see, ladies and gentlemen of the board, I myself turned my son in [out of] tough love,” Southards-Naranjo testified. “I believed in doing so that my son would be rehabilitated, he would pay his debt to society, and he would come home a different man. Two of those things did not happen. He was not rehabilitated, and he did come home a different young man – a dead one.”

The TDCJ locked down the state’s prisons a little over a week after Southards-Naranjo’s impassioned testimony.

Southards’ cause of death remains “unknown,” according to the TDCJ.

Prisoners in some Texas facilities that have air conditioning are unable to access it, said Lorie Dorpinghaus, whose husband is incarcerated at the Segovia Unit in Edinburgh.

“My husband has said that he and the other inmates are able to see the other federal inmates in that unit who are wearing orange jumpsuits and that they can see that they’re being held in a climate-controlled building with air conditioning,” Dorpinghaus told the Current. “While my husband and others are left to suffer, knowing that the unit has air conditioning, but they are not allowed to turn it on.”

Lack of political will

The recent lockdown has only worsened living conditions, according inmates’ to families.

Yvonne Lopez, whose diabetic father Christopher is incarcerated at the Bu-

ford Jester III Unit in Richmond, said he hasn’t been able to receive his insulin during the lockdown. Without it, he could die, she added.

The situation has gotten so bad that Lopez’s father risked being sent to solitary confinement because those units are among the few that are air conditioned, she added.

Prison advocates said Texas Republican leaders’ tough-on-crime rhetoric is making state lawmakers reluctant to improve living conditions at state lockups.

“I am always surprised that when I talk to a group of people, how many just say that our state is a penal state,” Simmons said.

While Simmons is hopeful some Texas lawmakers are starting to evolve, it may be a long and slow process to win support for more humane conditions. During the past legislative session, lawmakers in the Texas House passed a bill that would install air conditioning throughout the state’s prison system. That measure died in the Senate.

“It’s pretty obvious that it’s not a priority [in Austin],” Deitch of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab said. “I think what it will take for it to pass the legislature is for them to recognize the humanity of everybody who both lives and works in these facilities.”

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Deitsch warned that the lockdown, coupled with the fierce Texas heat, is creating a powder keg in the state’s prisons.

“[The heat] can increase the level of violence within the facilities, increased tension between staff and incarcerated people,” she said. “So, I think that the lockdown is really going to exacerbate what is already a very dangerous and tense situation because of the heat.”

Wikimedia Commons / Robert Stringer

chico bean

Hans Kim

Andrea Jin

OCTOBER 04

ART WATER WAYS

Ruby City’s newest exhibition, “Water Ways,” unveils more than 50 paintings, drawings, photographs, prints and sculptures from regional, national and international artists. The featured artworks, almost entirely pulled from the Linda Pace Foundation/Ruby City Collection, focus on the theme of water, either literally or metaphorically. “Water Ways” invites viewers to wander depictions and recreations of lakes, rivers, oceans, pools and waterfalls. It also includes works that embody the unique and enamoring qualities of water — fluid motion, reflection and transformation. Artists featured in the exhibition include Ricky Armendariz, Joey Fauerso, Surasi Kusolwong and Jim Hodges. “Water Ways” also showcases Ruby City’s recent acquisition of the largescale installation Mobile Home II (2006) by internationally renowned artist Mona Hatoum. Free, on view 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday Sept. 21-July 28, 2024, Ruby City, 150 Camp St., (210) 227-8400, rubycity.org. — Caroline Wolff

WED | 09.20

SPECIAL EVENT CRISTELA ALONZO

Mexican American comedian Cristela Alonzo made sitcom history nearly 10 years ago when she created, produced, wrote and starred in ABC’s Cristela — a breakthrough achievement for Latinas in prime-time network TV. Alonzo’s two Netflix stand-up specials, Lower Classy (2017) and Middle Classy (2022), the former of which was taped at San Antonio’s Empire Theatre, show her ability to wring laughs

FRI | 09.22 -

SAT | 09.23

CLASSICAL MUSIC SAN ANTONIO PHILHARMONIC

The San Antonio Philharmonic opens its second season with a concert showcasing internationally acclaimed Korean violinist Chee-Yun and culminating in a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird (1945). Under the baton of guest conductor Jeffrey Kahane, the ensemble returns to First Baptist Church to play a program featuring Latin Grammy-nominated Juan Pablo Contreras’ Mariachitlán, followed by Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, for which the Philharmonic will be joined by Chee-Yun, who performs with a 354-year-old Francesco Ruggieri instrument. The concert closes with the half-hour suite Stravinsky adapted from his one-act ballet The Firebird, which originally debuted in Paris in 1910 to critical acclaim. A collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, Firebird’s success opened the door for Stravinsky to compose additional ballets for the company, including Petrushka and his infamous Rite of Spring $35-$75, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, First Baptist Church, 515 McCullough Ave., (210) 201-6006, saphil.org. — Kelly Nelson

from her experiences growing up in a traditional Mexican American household and navigating poverty in South Texas. Although Alonzo’s frequent visits to the 210 typically revolve around her stand-up shows, her latest visit will have her taking the stage to discuss her book Music to My Years: A Mixtape-Memoir of Growing Up and Standing Up. The memoir details her lifelong work to foster a comedic career and tells of situations that compelled her to devote more of her time advocating for political change. A moderated Q&A will follow the event. $30-$75, 7:30 p.m., H-E-B Performance Hall, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Amber Esparza

Reminder:

Although

Surasi Kusolwong

Courtesy Photo / Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

Courtesy Photo / San Antonio Philharmonic

SUN | 09.24

SPECIAL EVENT PARKTOBERFEST

It’s that time of year again — when folks strap on their lederhosen and cinch up their dirndls to eat, drink and polka at Brackenridge Park Conservancy’s annual Parktoberfest. Visitors can enjoy local brews and craft beer samples from breweries like Freetail Brewing Co., Tuff Dog Brewing, Altstadt Brewery, Busted Sandal Brewing Co., Pearl Brewery, Man Overboard Brewing Co. and Alamo Beer Co. Schilo’s and Hüftgold will be slinging traditional German fare as well as some dishes with a Texas twist. Local artists collective Hausmann Millworks will be displaying artwork and offering painting and drawing in the park. The event will also feature sounds from German music club Beethoven Männerchor, the Dirty River Jazz Band and an appearance from the Trinity University Swing Bums dance troupe. Free, 2-5 p.m., Koehler and Cypress Pavilions, Brackenridge Park, 3700 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 826-1412, brackenridgepark.org. . — AE

Jon Alonzo for the Brackenridge Park Conservancy

SAT | 09.30

FILM MONTOPOLIS:

L’INFERNO

The landmark 1911 Italian film L’Inferno is coming to life with a live score by the Austin-based orchestral rock group Montopolis. With an astounding run time for its era at 73 minutes, L’Inferno is a loose adaptation of the Inferno canticle from Dante’s Divine Comedy, making it the first feature-length horror film ever to be produced. Montopolis’ live scoring of L’Inferno will bring it back to Slab Cinema’s Arthouse space after last appearing in 2022, when the group did the same for the 1929 Soviet documentary Man with a Movie Camera. Performing the works of composer Justin Sherburn, the ensemble’s pairing of visual and interactive elements with original music has graced Texas and other states for the better part of a decade. The visual spectacle of L’Inferno coupled with an inventive musical performance is likely to please both San Antonio cinephiles and horror lovers. $15, 7 p.m., Arthouse at Blue Star, 134 Blue Star, (210) 212-9373, slabcinemaarthouse.com. — Colin Houston

Courtesy Photo / Montopolis

HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

CPS Energy is proud to serve the largest Hispanic-majority city in the nation. Our company’s roots are just like our city’s: a rich mix of cultures, stories, and traditions. Hispanics are represented in every area of CPS Energy - from our dedicated crews, to the Chair of our Board of Trustees and our President & CEO. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we honor our Hispanic employees, customers, and stakeholders. Thank you for making our city a unique and rich cultural melting pot where our people are our energy!

Read our stories at cpsenergy.com/blogs

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Community Concerts

San Antonio Philharmonic planning more free holiday performances to expand its audience

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

The San Antonio Philharmonic last Friday performed a free, standing-room-only Diez y Seis concert at the Lanier High School Auditorium.

The first-of-its-kind performance at the public school followed a move by the orchestra — created last year from the ashes of the San Antonio Symphony — into a new home office at the West Side’s Avenida Guadalupe, just two blocks from the Lanier campus.

If such moves make it seem like the San Antonio Philharmonic is intent on presenting itself as the people’s orchestra, that’s intentional, Executive Director Roberto Treviño said.

“The point of all this is to say that we’re reaching out to all communities in San Antonio,” said Treviño, a former San Antonio councilman who chaired the deliberative body’s Arts, Culture, and Heritage Committee. “We’re looking to expand our audience, not change it and move on [from the people who normally support classical music].”

The Lanier concert is one of many free performances the musician-run orchestra is planning across the community this year. This marks the group’s second year of operation since it formed after the San Antonio Symphony Society dissolved the previous orchestra amid a months-long labor dispute.

While the Symphony, under its prior leadership, periodically played free concerts outside of its home base at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, those were most often one-off shows, according to Treviño.

The Philharmonic aims to make its free community performances annual events that build excitement in the community, including people who normally wouldn’t dress up for a classical music performance, Treviño said. That kind of exposure is necessary if the orchestra is to continue building its audience and attune a new generation to classical music.

To that end, the 62-member Philharmonic is already planning a slate of performances including a Fiesta concert at either the Majestic Theatre or The Espee, a Juneteenth performance on the East Side and a July 4 concert at the Alamo.

“We want to plant things that become new traditions,” Treviño said.

The Philharmonic hasn’t ruled out adding more to its calendar, which also includes 10 classical concerts scheduled for its 2023-24 season at First Baptist Church of San Antonio.

The first of those are scheduled for Sept. 22 and 23, when the orchestra will play selections including Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird with guest conductor Jeffrey Kahane and violin virtuoso Chee-Yun.

New digs, new opportunities

In conjunction with the opening concerts, the Philharmonic will present a masterclass with Chee-Yun, one of seven such educational programs it plans to present this year. Treviño said that kind of community outreach is also essential — and something aided by the orchestra’s new home.

In addition to its West Side office space, the Philharmonic now has access to Guadalupe’s El Progreso Hall, a 4,500-square-foot space where it will be able to rehearse and offer programming once it’s able to make acoustic upgrades.

At present, the Philharmonic pays $4,000 monthly for rent and access to El Progreso. That compares to rehearsal costs that can run $5,000 to $15,000 per concert if it’s required to rent outside facilities, according to Treviño.

The upgrades at El Progreso, expected to take place in coming months, also would enable the hall to be used as a sound studio

— another moneymaking opportunity for the Philharmonic.

“There are also things we’d like to make available to the community free of charge,” he added.

Treviño said he’s hopeful the organization’s expanded outreach won’t just draw in new audience members but also funders who haven’t supported classical music in the past.

To that end, he points to the $45,000 in funding which the orchestra raised to support its Lanier performance. Former Mayor Henry Cisneros, who suggested the location, kicked in the first $10,000, according to Treviño.

The pace and intensity of fundraising is also bound to increase once the organization brings on a full-time development director. The Philharmonic has already started a search for that position, and the candidate must be ready to expand outreach beyond the same old channels, Treviño said.

“We want people to know we’re listening,” Treviño said. “There’s an opportunity to get out there and have conversations with the community.”

Sanford Nowlin

MExecutive Director Roberto Treviño (right) looks over scores with Alison Bates, the orchestra librarian, at the San Antonio Philmarmonic’s new office.

Letting Loose, Loving Life

San Antonio filmmaker recalls time he recorded Jimmy Buffett interview on private island

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

It had been two years since filmmaker, cinematographer and San Antonio native Steve Acevedo (Love and Baseball) started shooting the documentary Parrot Heads about the loyal fan base of singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett when he got a call to pack his bags for Key West.

The film’s director and co-writer, Bryce Wagoner, had landed an interview with the “Margaritaville” singer-songwriter, and he and Acevedo, who served as director of photography, had to be in Florida the following day.

“So, I got on a plane,” Acevedo told the Current during a recent interview. “We didn’t have a lot of details, but the next morning we got on a boat to this private island. It turned out filming wasn’t allowed on the island.”

Unable to take his normal gear with him (not even a tripod), Acevedo had to get by with a small digital camera and a mic.

“I had to figure out how to shoot without gear,” he said. “I had some nice, soft light coming from the windows. I used a chair to rest my elbows while holding the camera. And I put the mic on a paper towel holder. As a cinematographer, you always want the tools to make things look as good as possible, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have.”

During our talk, Acevedo reminisced about

shooting the interview with Buffett and what he learned about Parrot Heads during the making of the movie.

Buffett died earlier this year after a fouryear battle with skin cancer. He was 76.

Parrot Heads, which was released in 2017, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

How did you initially get involved in the project?

I had worked with the production company on a couple of other things. Originally, we were only going to shoot for about a month, but I ended up shooting over 70 days during a two-year period. So, it ended up being a pretty big project.

Did you know anything about Parrot Heads before you started shooting?

I knew nothing about the fan base at all. I just knew various musicians have their specific fan bases, like the Grateful Dead has their Deadheads. The director and one of the producers gave me the lowdown. They were both big Jimmy Buffett fans. I learned that all these very famous songwriters like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney [and] Gordon Lightfoot were big fans of Jimmy Buffett. When I saw the fan base, it was at another level. At his concerts, people tailgate like it’s a college football game. I had never seen that done at a music

show before.

So, is it safe to say that Parrot Heads are a lot different than, say, Swifties?

I mean, do people tailgate before a Taylor Swift concert? When I say tailgate, I’m talking about lots of alcohol. Lots of, probably, sex in RVs. It’s pure hedonism. It’s just people having fun. Most of them are white, middle-aged professionals. This was their opportunity to just let loose and enjoy life.

What was Jimmy Buffett like?

He was so nice and cool. He walked in and he was barefoot. He was basically wearing what he wears on stage — a concert T-shirt and swimming trunks. He was very sincere and funny and gracious. He was appreciative of us for making the movie. I can’t express to you how big of a fan our director was. He was basically interviewing his hero. I was a little bit more removed because I didn’t know a lot of his music. I had only heard “Margaritaville” and “Come Monday.”

Did he offer you any margaritas while you were there?

No margaritas there, but in the process of production, we definitely drank a lot of margaritas. So, I will say it was one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever had.

What did you think when you found out he had died?

When I heard the news, in my mind, I was just thinking about our director and how he was going to take it. The next morning, I talked to him, and he was pretty shaken up. The guy meant a lot to a lot of people. He basically created a lifestyle for people to live out.

Courtesy Photo / Steve Acevedo

Homegrown San Antonio’s LocalSprout is sowing sustainable success

BY NINA RANGEL

When someone says “urban farming,” it’s unlikely the image of San Antonio’s LocalSprout Food Hub springs to mind.

With its chilly, LED-lit interior and steady mechanical hum, the hydroponic-powered shipping container garden looks and sounds more like a spacecraft than a growing operation. An occasional tick sounds as a bug zapper claims another winged victim.

“These spiders really need to get to work,” LocalSprout Food Hub Manager Jess Rivera joked as a gnat hovered incessantly around her head.

LocalSprout celebrates 10 years in business this year — a worthy feat for any small, cutting-edge venture. However, it’s done more than survive. It’s thrived — and so have the ideas its operators have planted in the larger community.

LocalSprout has built a booming culinary community by preaching a gospel of entrepreneurial spirit, sustainable living and urban agriculture via its Eastside Food Hub. Not bad for a project launched by a freshly graduated Trinity University student in 2013.

LocalSprout Founder and CEO Mitch Hagney is also the San Antonio Food Bank’s director of food sustainability and chairs the Urban Agriculture Workgroup for the City of San Antonio’s Food Policy Council.

His decade of business experience in soilless hydroponic farming, along with his community leadership in food and nutrition policy, have laid the groundwork for partnerships with other sustainably-minded, small local businesses.

“At a basic level, the role that LocalSprout plays is to help grow small businesses in a culinary and sustainability context — in a way that helps those ventures actually become sustainable lifestyles,” Hagney said. “A lot of people, they come to the Hub with a side hustle, or they just left a job and want to give something a shot. At 10 years old, I think we’re an institution. And we want to continue to provide services that culinary entrepreneurs can use to launch their dreams.”

Selling to the public

LocalSprout’s Eastside Food Hub provides 16,000 square feet of shared space where

more than 20 active companies can access large walk-in coolers and freezers, prep kitchens, food-truck commissary space and urban farming infrastructure. Powered by a rooftop solar array, the co-working facility will soon see another benchmark of growth: its foray into the retail space.

Later this fall, longtime tenant Pulp Coffee Roasters will anchor the retail endeavor at 503 Chestnut St., giving the public direct access to its specialty private label Joe and other products produced by hub tenants. These include pickles, kimchi and sauerkraut from Madge’s Food Co., chili fixings and enchilada sauces from JD’s Chili Co. and protein from free-range heritage hog ranch Peaceful Pork, to name a few.

Food Hub Manager Rivera was first introduced to urban agriculture while cooking at San Antonio dining spots including Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery and long-sinceshuttered Alchemy Kombucha and Culture. Her work at farm-to-table eateries fulfilled her creative side, but when she was furloughed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rivera was relieved.

“It’s been great to get out of the kitchen. It’s like after I turned 30, my body was over it,” she joked. “When the pandemic happened, I’d been at Southerleigh for three years, and I’d just hit a wall. I have to say I was pretty stoked to be furloughed, and so we took off and did our own thing.”

Like plenty of foodservice pros who 29

Nina Rangel

27 lost jobs during the pandemic, Rivera and her fiancée launched and operated a heart project — a delivery charcuterie outfit called Cafecito, which operated out of LocalSprout’s Hub. Along with cured meats, Cafecito’s charcuterie packages included scratch-made preserves, crackers, pickles and sweets.

At the time, LocalSprout CEO Hagney had begun working more closely with the Food Bank and larger organizations outside the company, so he offered Rivera a job overseeing its day-to-day operations. With wedding expenses on the horizon, she pressed pause on Cafecito and dedicated herself full-time to LocalSprout.

Figuring out the nuts and bolts

Rivera now oversees operations at the Food Hub, including scheduling, tenant relations, garden design and general handiwork. The position helped her hone her fixer-upper skills, from plumbing to troubleshooting electrical systems to installing a heavy rolling service door on the property.

“She’s not a mechanical engineer or welder, you know, but [the rolling door] was something the space needed to become more functional,” Hagney said. “I bought it, we looked at it, she figured out the nuts and bolts. She doesn’t have to build a lot of doors, but she built that one, and when it breaks, she knows how to fix it. That’s the creative problem-solver in her. I’m so grateful to have her there.”

Rivera’s duties also include cultivating lettuces and herbs and harvesting

LocalSprout’s impressive haul of tender kale. Housed in a climate-controlled shipping container within the Food Hub, LocalSprout’s soilless system is rigged with energy-efficient LED grow-lights and a lifeline of water and nutrients, offering Rivera an acute level of control over the plants.

The elaborate hydroponic system allows her to reliably anticipate the yield, which is sold directly to consumers via the LocalSprout website and also to local restaurants including James Beard Award finalist Steve McHugh’s Cured and John and Jessica Philpot’s Extra Fine bakery.

Cultivating urban agriculture

With Rivera at the helm of LocalSprout’s day-to-day operations,

Hagney has more free time to devote to researching effective urban agriculture, including forging partnerships with outside experts.

One such relationship is with Stanford University’s Natural Capital Project, or NatCap. The program strives to make valuing natural capital — that is, resources such as soil, air, water and living organisms — easier and more accessible to the general public.

Earlier this year, NatCap worked with the Food Policy Council of San Antonio and three city departments to quantify the benefits of urban agriculture here.

Armed with data from the study, the stakeholders hope to inform future decisions about urban agriculture investments at a local level in the Alamo City and beyond.

Using state-of-the-art modeling to map the projected benefits of urban farming, the report’s authors — which included Hagney — determined that devoting even a fraction of San Antonio’s underutilized public land to farming would yield significant net gains for the community.

Using San Antonio as a pilot, NatCap now plans to use funding from NASA’s Environmental Equity and Justice program to develop an online tool that

will let urban planners use its models to explore development scenarios for expanding urban farming. Theoretically, the tool will allow municipalities to think through a variety of scenarios to help neighborhoods that need better access to fresh foods.

On Thursday, Sept. 14, San Antonio City Council signed off on $60,000 in seed funding to develop three urban farms on public land. Further, the city will devote money from its Resiliency, Energy Efficiency, and Sustainability (REES) Program Fund to maintaining food forests in public parks and generating green jobs for agriculturalists in the city.

Work paying off

The creation of those jobs is part of a larger plan to educate communities on the inner workings of sustainable living, no matter their prior experience, according to Hagney.

“If you have the drive to learn the details, not just the big picture, of how your plan can be executed, there are so many resources available,” he said. “And they’re not just public financing and mentorship programs. It’s YouTube and the guy at the help desk at the

hardware store. It’s asking the grittiest people you know all the questions you have and working it out.”

The fruit of Hagney’s labor is on display in Tamōx Talōm Community Food Forest, the city’s largest urban food forest to date.

After visiting the high-tech growing operation at LocalSprout, the threeacre food forest at the South Side’s Padre Park offered a different kind of sensory experience.

Tall grasses, stalks of underripe okra and the leaves of fledgling fig trees rustled in the breeze. The occasional chitter of crickets punctuated the soft murmur, and huge butterflies floated between squash blossoms and burgeoning, marble-sized native figs.

As the plants mature, the three-acre spread will provide free nuts, fruits and vegetables to the surrounding community.

LocalSprout and its partners have spent a decade trying to rewrite the mindset around food and agriculture in San Antonio and the rest of the world. Tamōx Talōm is evidence that their forward thinking and hard work have taken root — not just in the Eastside Food Hub, but for a whole community.

Nina Rangel

Spilling the beans on San Antonio’s Pulp Coffee Roasters

BY BRANDON RODRIGUEZ

Name:  James Mireles

Title:  Owner and operator of Pulp Coffee Roasters in partnership with his wife Liza

Birthplace: San Antonio

Where to get Pulp’s products: Pulp’s in-house roasted coffee beans can be purchased at the company’s roasting facility, 503 Chestnut St., and at the Summit Cafe, 2575 Marshall Road.

James and Liza Mireles, the owners of Pulp Coffee Roasters, are so passionate about the bean they got married on National Coffee Day.

The Mireleses founded Pulp Coffee Roasters almost seven years ago inside LocalSprout Food Hub, where they were among the first tenants. (See this week’s cover story for more info on the LocalSprout and its sustainable food-production goals.) Now, after a long battle with the City of San Antonio, Pulp is preparing to open an in-person coffee bar inside its roasting facility.

Beyond their passion for coffee, the married business partners have nearly 40 years of combined experience in the industry. Before striking out on their own, the pair worked for global coffee brands in Southern California.

During a conversation with the Current, James spoke with passion about every aspect of the coffee-making process.

When it comes to sustainability, why is it essential for a sustainable coffee brand to have certifications and labels?

Traceability. I think people are more curious than ever before to find out where their product comes from. Never before have they been able to trace it. Now, because of technology and because of the access to [your phone], you can trace anything that comes your way. Where is the farm? Does the farm even exist? [You can] look it up

on Google, and it will tell you. So, like, that’s a big deal. Which is going back to the question of earlier, commodity versus specialty [coffee]. You’re not going to find traceability on commodity coffee. But you will find traceability on specialty coffee.

Wine has its similarities to the coffee market. In terms of price, does a more expensive coffee translate to a better cup of coffee?

Most of the time, the answer is yes. That is an 80/20 rule. When [my wife and I] go out to have coffee, we can sometimes tell whether it is a commodity or a specialty coffee. Even though we thought we were getting a specialty coffee, it may have been a commodity. It comes out in the flavor and how consistent they are with their water. Water is one of the biggest things. One of the worst places to do coffee in America is San Antonio. It’s the hardest water in comparison to any other part of the country.

Does this summer’s heat wave affect your coffee roasting process?

One-hundred-thousand percent. Humidity is a big one. In Southern California, our weather was pretty consistent — we never changed roast profiles that much. Here in San Antonio, we do not have a choice but to redo our profiles two to three times a year. Say we start off a normal 10-minute roast. Well, it may go to 10 minutes, 30 seconds, or it may go down [to] nine minutes and 45 seconds, depending on how long the green coffee bean has been sitting. What is the atmosphere? We roast coffee by temperature and time. What is the ambient temperature inside? All those play a factor. That’s what we do. We never wanted to cut any corners when we started.

Could Texas have a hyperlocal coffee economy? Similar to how Colorado has a hyperlocal grain economy?

Well, the bean can grow in a climate-controlled environment like a greenhouse where you have full control. Coffee needs tropical weather. It needs the belt, Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer, inside that middle line. That is the coffee belt region. That’s where coffee grows the best now. Companies like Blue Bottle grew some beans with a university in California and charge a ridiculous amount of money [for their product]. Why? Because of rarity, not because it tastes good. So, you have things that are not readily available. It doesn’t mean that they taste better. Remember, taste is subjective. There is no right or wrong. It’s just what you like.

Is there something you’re doing

because you know it’s better for the environment even though it may pass on a higher cost to the consumer? Well, when we first started roasting, we got an afterburner. [For larger coffee roasters, afterburners are recommended. The natural byproducts resulting from the coffee bean roasting process carries a foul odor and produces heavy smoke into the air.] An afterburner will burn the air from the coffee roaster a second time. That was standard operating procedure in California. I don’t need an afterburner in Texas. But we future-proofed ourselves. For better, clean air as we’re roasting. I mean, do we need it? No, Texas doesn’t mandate it. But I knew down the road, eventually they may. So, I’ll be safeguarded for the future. We invested early into that.

Brandon Rodriguez

Not Quite Tokyo

Tokyo Cowboy’s food satisfies with pan-Asian flavors, even if its name is a little misleading

BY RON BECHTOL

Nothing shouts “Tokyo” at Tokyo Cowboy Whisky Diner, the recent addition to downtown San Antonio’s dining scene. Don’t go expecting the labyrinthine alleyways of Netflix’s charming Midnight Diner or the neon-washed boulevards featured in other on-screen depictions of the teeming metropolis.

And, as for the Cowboy part of the name, you’ll have to make do with a low-key frieze featuring Western-esque flora.

This is more of an observation about Tokyo Cowboy than a criticism. Even so, it leaves the food and drink to do the heavy thematic lifting.

Let’s start with the bar. But not, as you might expect, with its Toki Highball.

There’s been a lot of Western fascination recently with the Japanese whisky highball. Some liken its preparation to a tea ceremony: the glass shall be filled with clear ice, and the whiskey shall be poured alongside, not on top of the ice, which is stirred a ritualistic number of times after — or before — adding the soda.

But at TC, there’s no ice to stir, and the alleged “super-carbonated” water unexpectedly fell flat, so I got neither a chill nor a tingle with my highball.

If the highball’s a dud, the list of more than 20 mostly unfamiliar Japanese whiskies — you may have to ask to see it — more than compensates. Just to pick one example, the Kaiyo Cask Strength is aged in mizunara oak casks, part of that time on an ocean-bound ship. Though its inspiration in the Scottish Highlands is clear, the spirit also boasts unique fruity and herbal notes. I’d order it, or another, early on and allow it to evolve in the tasting glass with a tiny splash of water.

The food on Tokyo Cowboy’s menu doesn’t scream “Tokyo” either. Rather,

it feels free to range around the Pacific Rim encompassing such influences as China and India and ingredients including Spam and brisket. Maybe the latter is meant to evoke the moniker’s Cowboy element.

Regardless of the cultures involved, the House Pickle Plate is a kaleidoscopic triumph of colors and textures. Knitted together with a tangy sweet and sour brine, cauliflower, summer squash, daikon, roasted cherry tomatoes and cabbage all play together beautifully.

We usually associate poke, or raw cubes of marinated fish, with Hawaii, but at Tokyo Cowboy knowing the inspiration doesn’t guarantee orthodoxy. Take the Salmon Poke Taco. The promised “taco” is a piece of salmon cradled in nori along with rice and a spicy mayo. It’s unexpected and unexpectedly good.

As listed on the menu, Crispy Eggs gives little clue to that dish’s origins — let’s assume Thai Son in Law Eggs as a stepping-off point. The softly boiled eggs were coated in panko, fried, showered with mixed herbs and plated over tamarind-spiked fish sauce caramel. The eggs ooze, the panko crunches, the sauce comforts and stimulates all at once. Score one more for ambiguous parentage.

Let’s just call the Dashi Corn Waffle kitchen-sink culture and be done with

it. Drifts of shaved bonito that wave in the air-conditioned breeze blanket a dish that includes a base of chewy corn waffles strewn with an unusually good and smoky pork belly, shrimp and Japanese barbecue. Kewpie mayonnaise studded with sesame seeds bravely attempts to unite the rowdy siblings, and it nearly succeeds. This wasn’t my favorite dish, but it’s worth ordering just for the combination’s sheer chutzpah — to draw from another culture altogether.

Tokyo Cowboy’s minimally described Crispy Pork Chop isn’t called tonkatsu, as it would be on Japanese restaurant menus, but it might as well be. Boneless, pounded somewhat thin and fried with crunchy panko coating, the plate-sized chop is sliced for your chopstick-wielding convenience. In Japan, it would usually be served with a fruit- and vegetable-derived sauce, but

TOKYO COWBOY WHISKY DINER

here we have what’s labeled as apple curry gravy alongside pickled purple cabbage. The gravy hints of India, the cabbage of Germany and the neutral-tasting pork welcomes both.

The restaurant’s Japanese beer list might come in handy with this entree. The Echigo Hefeweizen was a light and clean version of the craft favorite, but it did what was expected of it.

The menu lists no desserts, but if you ask there may well be one. A yuzu tart — think Key lime — was our lot. Capped with a billowy mound of torched meringue, the presentation also featured a crumbled topping of graham cracker enlivened with dried Thai chili and a crust I could swear tasted of fortune cookie. Possibly that was just the power of cultural suggestion, but it provided a good base for a successful cross-cultural confection nonetheless.

135 E. Commerce St. | (210) 305-7075 | tokyocowboytx.com

Hours: 4-10 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday, 4-11 p.m.

Price range: $6-$36

Friday-Saturday 4-11, 4-10 p.m.

Sunday

Best Bets: House Pickle Plate, Crispy Eggs, Salmon Poke Taco, Crispy Pork Chop

The Skinny: Tokyo Cowboy is housed in a sleek space that shouts neither Texas nor Cowboy. However, it sports an impressive menu of Japanese whiskies and a kitchen that turns out dishes that range around the Pacific Rim, from Spam to Sukiyaki burgers. Small plates such as Panko-coated eggs stand out, along with larger servings including a crispy pork chop with an India-inflected curry gravy and corn waffles with a kitchen-sink array of toppings.

Ron Bechtol

NEWS

Mexican street food concept Milpa will to relocate to the city’s East Side sometime next month. 419 S. Hackberry St.

The owners of downtown’s Casa Rio and Schilo’s have purchased food truck haven Broadway News. Under the deal, the Lyons family is buying the original 2,760-square-foot Broadway News building, the site’s anchor. As of press time, the food trucks are operating, business as usual. 2202 Broadway, instagram.com/broadwaybooze

Upcoming San Antonio food hall Make Ready Market will hold a sneak-peek event featuring tenants Idle Brewery, Eet-up, Buje and Pescado Bravo at Three Star Bar on Friday, Sept. 22 from 6-9 p.m. makereadymarket.com

Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii will open five San Antonio stores as part of an ambitious Lone Star State expansion. The cheekily named chain plans to start opening the Alamo City units next spring. badasscoffee.com.

The Texas Kosher BBQ Championship will return to the Congregation Agudas Achim Sunday, Nov. 12. This year’s fest is dedicated to the late San Antonio barbecue aficionado and journalist Chuck Blount. 16550 Huebner Road,

thetexaskosherbbqchampionship.com.

The U.S. Labor Department sued popular Tobin Hill pizza spot Barbaro, accusing it of violating federal labor laws by making tipped workers give a share of their gratuities to managers. Owner Chad Carey denied the allegations in a statement but said he’s been cooperating with the department’s audit. 2720 McCullough Ave., barbarosanantonio.com.

San Antonio Beer Week will return Oct. 21-28 to celebrate local craft brews. The festivities kick off with the 17th Annual San Antonio Beer Festival on Saturday, Oct. 21.

OPENINGS

The Bussin’ Breakfast ghost kitchen concept has expanded into a brick-and-mortar location in Olmos Park. The Black- and veteran-owned business is now open in the same strip that once housed eatery Folc. 218 E. Olmos Drive, (844) 2287746, facebook.com/thebussinbreakfast.

New speakeasy Boutique will begin slinging drinks inside Southtown taco concept Taqueria Los Cuates on Sept. 22. Boutique will be accessible through a cooler door near the kitchen. 732

S. Alamo St.

Nina Rangel

Milpa

Down and Dirty

Jazz’SAlive headliner Big Sam’s Funky Bunch comes with a packet of New Orleans’ special sauce

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

Big Sam’s Funky Nation is bringing its raucous, brass-fueled funk to San Antonio as a headliner for the 40th annual Jazz’SAlive, scheduled for Sept. 29-30 in Hemisfair’s Civic Park.

The New Orleans-based group is known for working from an eclectic sonic palate that includes not just the jazz and funk of its Big Easy roots but also rock, hip-hop and more. It’s an accessible mix meant to get audiences up and moving as part of a communal experience.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation will perform Saturday, Sept. 30. A full schedule of Jazz’SAlive performers — who also include Kirk Whalum, Jackie Venson and the Yuko Mabuchi Trio — is available at saparks.org/event/jazz-sa-live.

Bandleader and trombonist Sammie “Big Sam” Williams launched Funky Nation in 2000 after a stint with his city’s revered and long-running Dirty Dozen Brass band. He joined the Dirty Dozen at the age of 17.

In common with the Dirty Dozen, Funky Nation has collaborated with a wide variety of artists. Notably, Williams played with Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint on their critically acclaimed The River in Reverse album and tour.

Jazz’SAlive will mark something of a homecoming for Williams, who settled in San Antonio for two years following Hurricane Katrina. Appropriately, he also had a recurring role on the HBO drama Treme, which followed New Orleans residents rebuilding after the storm.

We caught up with Williams by phone to talk about what separates New Orleans’ funk from the rest of the pack, what inspired his break from the Dirty Dozen and his memories of the Alamo City.

There’s a ton of bands that purport to play funk, but not everybody can get people up and moving. What’s that special ingredient in your music that makes people dance?

Yeah, you’re right. In my personal opinion — and professional opinion, now (laughs) — it’s all about the vibe and the energy that you bring. You know what I’m saying? Overall, I like to live a positive life, and I like to bring a lot of energy and a lot of good spirits to the stage. You know what I mean? When I’m performing, I’m all about, let’s have fun, let’s make it about all of us and have a good time.

Let’s put all our words behind us and let’s be in the moment and have a blast, you dig?

A lot of musicians, no matter what type of music they play, some of them make it about them and only them. And that’s cool if that’s your thing. … But for what I do, and from what I notice with a lot of musicians that make people get up and dance and make them feel good, the music is about simplicity too.

You want them to be able to groove and move with you. You don’t want to be doing so many things, where it’s so intricate where they can’t really enjoy themselves. … But to have them focus on the music and having a good time at the same time and dancing, just dancing — “Oh, this is great. I love this song.” Or “I love this music. I’m having such a blast.” That’s a whole other level, man.

Could you talk a little bit about the

difference between New Orleans funk and what separates it from the funk people might be familiar with from elsewhere?

So, in New Orleans we add that little extra sauce with it, and that’s the thing. We all take our interpretation of whatever we want to play, and we create our own musical gumbo. You dig? So, I’m a fan of different rock bands and funk bands, jazz bands, hip-hop, everything. I’m a fan of all of that, and I make it all into my own one little thing. ... I mean, I call it funk. It’s a funky pot of music. You dig?

New Orleans, specifically, though, man, we play on that back beat. A lot of cats just like stick to a straightforward boom-chick, boom-chick, boom-chick. And that’s cool, and that’s funk — we get into that too. But in New Orleans, you go, [emulates a drum kit hitting a syncopated rhythm heavy on the backbeat.] I don’t know how you’re going to write that out. (Laughs.) 39

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 / Jazz’SAlive

I was thinking that as you said it. Might be a challenge.

Right. (Laughs.) It’s one of those things where we play more syncopated than a lot of other cats, and I give you that extra pep in your step when you’re doing your thing. So, I would say New Orleans music and New Orleans funk is more syncopated, you know what I’m saying?

If you listen to Zigaboo Modeliste from the Meters and Russell Batiste [Jr. of the Meters and others] and [New Orleans rock ’n’ roll pioneer] Earl Palmers and all these cats, you see where they were coming from.

In the old school with the Mardi Gras Indians, it’s all about beats. It’s African beats with our New Orleans things. That big four is important on the bass drum, but the accents that we play with, it’s just so different than anywhere else in the world, man. Everybody else will play it straight, but we play more syncopated and we just do our thing with it.

You up got early tutelage from saxophonist Kidd Jordan, an undisputed legend in New Orleans music. I’m wondering when you look back on that, what do you take away as the one or two most important things you learned from that exposure?

Kidd always taught me to be intentional and never be afraid of stepping outside the box. Especially coming from New Orleans, people want to put you in one box and say, “Hey, you play this type of music,” or “You play this instrument, you should do this.” And Kidd always taught me to be intentional, do what you want to do. Don’t let anyone box you in. If you want to play country or whatever you want, you want to play folk music and you’re on trombone and you want to be doing that, go ahead and do that. Just as long as you do it with great intentions. You show people, “Look, this is what I’m meant to do. I’m doing this, and you’re going to love it because it’s just genuine and that’s what you’re feeling. So, it’s all going to work out.”

You also performed with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, again, a legendary New Orleans ensemble. But the impression I got was that you found that a little too confining. You wanted to break out on your own and blend more styles in with the brass. Exactly. And here’s the thing: Dirty Dozen, they were ahead of their time. Dirty Dozen back in the day, man, they

were playing bebop tunes in a brass band setting, and that’s what was being played on radio back in the ‘70s [in New Orleans]. You know what I’m saying? And when I was with them, they were still breaking boundaries, man. They were still doing their thing and pushing and pushing the envelope as far as musicians, especially from New Orleans, can do to contribute to the musical scene.

My time there, I felt like the four years that I was with them, I was kind of like, “OK, I need to keep going now.” It was something that I wanted to do since I was 16 years old. Then I was 19 and playing with them — my favorite band of all time, at that point. They’re the band that inspired me to start playing music in the first place. So, playing with them for those years, I was like, “OK, this is pretty cool. But, kind of like, what’s next?” I wasn’t content. Once I did it, I was like, “OK, cool, I’m in this now,” and we’re still family to this day. We say once a Dozen, always a Dozen. So every now and then, they’ll call me if they need somebody on play ‘cause somebody can’t make it. … That’s my people, man. Money isn’t even an object, I’m there. You need me. I’m free. I’m there.

You mentioned earlier that you try to have a positive attitude. I’m guessing that played into things as well. Oh yeah, I hope so. I was like, “Hey, got to figure out one way or another, we’re going to be all right.” And thing is too, we were doing 300 shows a year. We were on the road nonstop. We were doing stuff with Dave Matthews, Widespread Panic, James Brown. I

mean we were rolling, man, Modest Mouse. It was a ton of bands that we were working with at the time too, and Gov’t Mule. But I just had to be like, “All of this is great, but let me see what else I can do now on my own.”

You’ve kept up that spirit of collaboration since leaving Dirty Dozen. Funky Nations played with a lot of people as well.

Oh, yeah. And that’s the beautiful thing about music, man, and it’s so cool, especially in my city. We get to still travel the world and collab and get to meet some of the other cats, and people always want to work together. So, that’s a plus for us. It’s always a good thing to work with other people.

Do you have any memories of your time in San Antonio after Katrina? I’ll tell you what, man, it’s two things actually.

One was actually meeting Buddy Miles. Buddy Miles was doing a show there. It was a restaurant, outside on the patio, and he was just looking for something to add to the show, and I got the phone call that he was looking for someone [to sit in]. … So, I got to meet Buddy Miles, and we did a whole show together. He was trying to get me to go on the road with him and all that, but I said, “Man, I have too much going on right now. I’m really trying to do something.” But Buddy Miles, that’s a living legend right there, especially meeting him for the first time. He played with Hendrix and everybody, bro, so he’s that dude.

But that was one of my most favorite memories of being in San Antonio. And

my second one, man, was my love for Mexican food. I had no idea, man. In New Orleans, I would eat Mexican every now and then. … Had a spot here called Not Your Mama’s, it was pretty good. I’m like, “Alright, cool.” Then I got to San Antonio, and the Mexican food is killing

So, two years later, when I finally got back to New Orleans, I said, “I want some Mexican food. OK, that spot has some good food. Let me go check it out.” Then I was like, “What the hell is this? Get this out of here, man, what the hell?” I started trying to find another spot and, man, I couldn’t find nowhere to compare to the food out in San Antonio. I was like, this is food, yes, but it’s not Mexican food. I said, “Man, I got to get back to Antonio, get me some real Mexican food.” Now, though, about 27 years later, we have some better spots here in the city now, so I got my fix.

What should people be expecting when you come back to perform at Jazz’SAlive?

They can expect one hell of a party. I kind of feel like these kind of festivals, people going to have their lawn chairs out there and all — and that’s cool. It might be hot outside, you might want your lawn chair for a minute, but once we hit that stage, I’m going to have you up and dancing. So get ready to shake something.

Free-$60 (special packages available), 4:30 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, and 11:00 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, Civic Park at Hemisfair, 210 S. Alamo St., (210) 709-4750, saparks.org/event/jazz-sa-live.

Courtesy Photo / Jazz’SAlive

critics’ picks

Eyes Set to Kill

Wednesday, Sept. 20

Zulu, Soul Glo

LA-based Zulu brings blast beats, death growls and a veritable buffet of extremity to its approach to hardcore punk. The group also punctuates its songs with extensive soul and funk interludes and samples of speeches — both live and in-studio — and those pauses in intensity amplify the impact of their actual tunes. When these guys hit, they hit hard. Get in the fuckin’ pit. $20, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Mike McMahan

The Midnight

The synth wave stylings of The Midnight are born of the unlikely union of Atlanta’s Tyler Lyle and Denmark’s Tim McEwan. Driven by Lyle’s lyrics and McEwan’s dreamy sonic soundscapes, the duo’s songs feel simultaneously contemporary and retro. That approach is best encompassed by the band’s motto, “mono no aware,” a Japanese phrase which loosely translates into a sense of wistfulness in knowing that nothing lasts forever. $30-$99, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — Danny Cervantes

Friday, Sept. 22

Citizen Cope

Two decades after his breakthrough album The Clarence Greenwood Recordings, Clarence Greenwood is still rolling down the highway as Citizen Cope. The performer’s blending of blues, hip-hop, soul and alt-rock helped him both achieve and hang onto his cult status, and his prowess as a songwriter has allowed him to lend songs to Santana, Dido and Richie Havens, among a myriad of others. This year’s album The Victory March builds on the elemental style of Citizen Cope’s music with

intimate and piercing lyrics given a gritty blues accompaniment. $49.50, 9 p.m., Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Road, New Braunfels, (830) 6061281, gruenehall.com. — DC

Mr. Pidge, Shoshy

Continents collide on the latest collaborative EP from London-based Shoshy and San Antonio band Mr. Pidge — and the pair are keeping that collaborative spirit going for a Texas-heavy set of road dates dubbed The Y’allternative Tour. The artists will stop in San Antonio for two separate dates, the first of those at 502 Bar. Mr. Pidge has been making music for nearly seven years, mixing lo-fi with Latin, R&B, funk and soul, then stirring up a smooth brew of dreamy, laid-back tracks. This transatlantic collaboration, three years in the making, brings singer Shoshy’s soothing vocals and sharp inflection into the blend. $5-$10, 8 p.m., 502 Bar, 502 Embassy Oaks, (207) 257-8125, 502bar.com. —

Dalia Gulca

Tuesday, Sept. 26

Guns

N’ Roses, Alice In Chains

Despite decades of drama, lineup changes and inactivity, Guns N’ Roses managed to retain its status as one of rock’s biggest acts, and once OG members Slash and Duff McKagan returned to the fold a few years back, the group’s been doing victory laps in stadiums. Born at the ass-end of the hair metal era, GNR released the massive albums Appetite for Destruction and the fraternal Use Your Illusion twins, though not much of note since. A new single, “Perhaps,” dropped a couple weeks ago, though you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a rewrite of the “November Rain” outro. $44 and up*, 6 p.m., Alamodome, 100 Montana St., (210) 207-3663, alamodome.com. — MM

Friday, Sept. 29

Ingrid Contreras

Mexico’s Ingrid Conteras brings mariachi-style melody to her pop balladry. Her latest single, “No Mereces Que Te Quiera,” mixes an immediately familiar trumpet sound with a message of female empowerment. As a young child, Contreras dreamed of becoming an American pop star, and moved to Boston at the age of 18 to make it happen. When that didn’t work out, she returned to her native Mexico and debuted a string of singles, including “Te Seguiré Queriendo” and “Costumbres” that cemented her status in her native land. $28-$128, 8:30 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 8124355, theaztectheatre.com. — MM

Frankie Cosmos, Good Morning, alexalone Singer Greta Kline’s delicate and deliberate lyrics propel the DIY sound of Frankie Cosmos. The daughter of actors Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline, the native New Yorker delivers her matter-of-fact vocals with a touch of sweetness influenced by the anti-folk sound of The Moldy Peaches. The lo-fi melancholy of Melbourne duo Good Morning will help set the stage. $25, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Saturday, Sept. 30

Eyes Set to Kill, Reddstar, RVNT, Kill Lonely, Cxsslynn

Mixing elements of post-hardcore and metalcore, Tempe, Arizona’s Eyes Set to Kill isn’t pulling punches. Mixing chuggy guitars and the screams of frontwoman Alexia Rodriguez, the band brings a sound that’s both hard-hitting and anthemic. Eyes Set to Kill has earned high-profile attention from places both obvious (Headbanger’s Ball, Alternative Press) and less

obvious (USA Today). This tour celebrates the 15th anniversary of its debut LP Reach. $16-$18, 6:30 p.m., Vibes Underground, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, vibeseventcenter.com. — MM

Sunday, Oct. 1

Elnuh, Brody Price, Villagerrr

Doom and gloom meet poignant lyrical and instrumental expression in this lineup. San Antonio solo act Elnuh creates spare, shoegazey tunes that feel like they drift through a deep, melancholy void before emerging into wintry sunlight. Dallas-based Brody Price specializes in what he refers to as “doom country,” while Columbus, Ohio-based Villagerrr creates folksy, wistful tracks in a similar vein. $5, 8 p.m., The Lonesome Rose, 2114 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 455-0233, thelonesomerose.com. — DG

Tuesday, October 3

$uicideboy$, Ghostemane, City Morgue, Freddie Dredd, Sematary, Ramirez

New Orleans cousins Ruby da Cherry and $crim built their duo $uicideboy$ from humble SoundCloud beginnings into one of the most popular underground rap acts, thus averting suicide if they didn’t make it big by age 30. After years of releasing mixtapes and EPs, $uicideboy$ first studio album, 2018’s I Want

To Die In New Orleans, became a Top 10 album. Collaborations with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Korn guitarist James Shaffer followed. The pair’s current undertaking is a four-volume series, Yin Yang Tapes, which include tracks with openers Ghostmane and Freddie Dredd. $49.95-$403.00, 6:30 p.m., AT&T Center, 1 AT&T Center Parkway, (210) 4445000, attcenter.com. — DC

Courtesy Photo Eyes Set to Kill

EMPLOYMENT

Marathon Petroleum Company LP in San Antonio, TX needs a Senior Developer IT. Responsiblefor enhancing and developing moderately complex SAP modules partnering with business analysts to implement, solve issues, and develop technical solutions/options into detailed technical design documents ensuring all functional requirements are met in the technical design. Please visit our career website at https://jobs.marathonpetroleum.com/ and apply online. EOE: Veteran/Disability

IT Positions - San Antonio, TX. iHeartMedia Management Services, Inc. seeks candidates for the following IT positions: Software Engineer (req. # 31665), responsible for working with the software development team by creating & executing functional, regression & performance tests for systems software and applications. SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) Solution Architect (req # 31682), responsible for architecting, designing, & developing complex, scalable, & robust test automation solutions & frameworks for enterprise applications & services at iHeartMedia. Senior Data Engineer (req # 31684) responsible for developing, expanding, testing &/or optimizing the infrastructure & architecture of existing & future data pipelines, as well as optimizing data collection, flow, & delivery for cross-functional teams including software engineers & business partners. Senior Software Engineer (req. # 31681) responsible for building highly resilient, fault tolerant real time & batch integrations as well as applications that will provide analytics to the company. Interested candidates should respond to the appropriate req. # at www.iheartmedia.com/careers.

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