San Antonio Current - October 4, 2023

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in this issue

San Antonio Current

Editor-in-Chief: Sanford Nowlin

General Manager: Chelsea Bourque

Editorial

Digital Content Editor: Kelly Nelson

Contributing Arts Editor: Bryan Rindfuss

Food and Nightlife Editor: Nina Rangel

Staff Writers: Michael Karlis, Brandon Rodriguez

Contributors: Abe Asher, Noah Alcala Bach, Ashley Allen, Ron Bechtol, Danny Cervantes, Macks Cook, Brianna Espinoza, Jace Gertz, Dalia Gulca, Colin Houston, Kiko Martinez, Mike McMahan, M. Solis, Karly Williams, Caroline Wolff, Dean Zach

Editorial Interns: Jace Gertz, Colin Houston, Dean Zach

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Social Media Director: Meradith Garcia

Local Culture Creative Agency Director: Mindi Overman

Client Strategy Manager: Cristina Zalaznik

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16

Back to Reality

Scaled-back plans, lack of communication raise concerns about San Antonio electric vehicle startup DeLorean Motors Reimagined

Love, Loss and Rock ’n’ Roll

Nashville-based Bluephoria will bring its diverse sounds to San Antonio in support of a major-label debut

Critics’ Picks

49

San Antonio filmmaker Rob Mabry makes feature debut with comedyhorror TheLegendofElChupacabra

Sudsy Strategy

Make your tasting plan now to get the most from the San Antonio Beer Festival

Checking what’s on tap with Idle Brewing’s Brandon Pettit

Fiddler on the Riff NeObliviscaris bringing its violinfueled extreme metal to San Antonio

On the Cover: For our annual beer issue, we preview the San Antonio Beer Festival and talk to Idle Brewing’s Brandon Pettit.

Design: Samantha Serna.

Facebook / DeLorean Motor Company

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!

Learn about our Vision 2027 strategic plan at cpsenergy.com/vision2027

Rudy D. Garza President & CEO

Janie Martinez Gonzalez Board Chair

HBetween 2014 and 2019, more people died working in the oil and gas industry in Texas than in any other state, according to a new, first-ofits-kind analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During that time, 219 Texans died on the job in oil and gas-related fields. Oklahoma was next with 48 deaths and North Dakota ranked third with 39.

For the first time ever, all five of the San Antonio Spurs’ preseason games will be televised — no doubt due to sports fans’ interest in No. 1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs’ preseason matchups begin with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Oct. 9 in Oklahoma City, with the first preseason home game set for Oct. 13 against the Miami Heat.

HThe closure of the Art Institutes’ eight remaining U.S. schools came as a surprise to 200 students at the for-profit college system’s San Antonio campus. Enrollees were informed of the closure Sept. 22, giving them just eight days to process the development before the doors shut on Sept. 30. School officials said they’re working to facilitate transfers for its students to other colleges.

A federal judge last week ruled that Texas’ ban on drag performances is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge David Hittner declared Senate Bill 12, passed in June, a violation of Texans’ First Amendment rights and halted its enforcement. A person could reasonably read the law and “conclude that activities such as cheerleading, dancing, live theater, and other common public occurrences could possibly become a civil or criminal violation,” the judge wrote. — Abe Asher

Banning travel in Texas with anti-abortion activist

Mark Lee Dickson

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

Last week, the board of commissioners in Cochran County, a county of 2,500 people that borders New Mexico, adopted an ordinance banning people from traveling on its local roads to get an abortion, the Texas Tribune reports.

County Commissioner Eric Silhan, who introduced the measure, said it allows the all-male board to stand for “the people who can’t speak for themselves.”

Cochran’s ordinance only applies to people driving someone seeking an abortion. Like the controversial six-week abortion ban approved in 2021 by the Texas Legislature, it doesn’t apply to the abortion seeker, and it would be enforced through private civil suits, the Tribune reports.

At least two other Texas counties have banned people from traveling their roads to seek abortions, according to the Tribune. However, Cochran County appears to be the first actually bordering a state where abortion is legal — in this case, New Mexico.

If it sounds like these measures are legally indefensible, count yourself on the side of law scholars and abortion-rights groups, who say they’re blatantly unconstitutional.

But, like much of what the American right forces down our throats these days, that’s not the point. The rationale behind the bans is to sow confusion and fear, potentially deterring

people from seeking abortions in states where they’re legal.

“This is an effort, one by one by one, to create a statewide ban against travel to other states, literally creating a reproductive prison in the state of Texas,” Wendy Davis, a former state senator who’s now a senior adviser at Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, told the Tribune.

To be sure, the travel bans aren’t popping up organically but being pushed by outside political operatives and conservative members of the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature, according to media reports.

Mark Lee Dickson — an anti-abortion activist who’s convinced dozens of Texas counties to adopt “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinances — was key in lobbying for Cochran County’s travel ban, according to the Tribune. What’s more, Dickson and his cronies have been circulating a letter signed by 20 Texas lawmakers requesting counties adopt his proposed ban, the news site also reports.

Look out. There’s no reason to expect Dickson and his fellow assclowns are going to stop at three counties.

— Sanford Nowlin

The first of six defendants charged for their roles in the June 2022 deaths of 53 migrants in an abandoned tractor-trailer pleaded guilty last week. Christian Martinez, 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants resulting in serious injury for his alleged role as the middleman in an operation that moved migrants from Laredo to San Antonio. He’ll be sentenced in January.

The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen is calling on San Antonio City Council to hire an impartial ratepayer advocate to protect residents’ interests as CPS Energy prepares to pursue another rate hike. The planned increase, which could be as high as 5.5%, would likely kick in at the beginning of 2024 and cover expensive upgrades to CPS plants and equipment. The city council last approved a rate increase in March of this year. —  Abe

Asher

— Texas

A Catholic priest who’s served at least eight San Antonio-area congregations has been arrested on allegations that he sexually abused a woman in her 70s. According to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Rev. George Mbugua Ndungu is accused of assaulting a church employee and parishioner at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church on three separate occasions starting in November of last year. Ndungu is facing felony charges of aggravated sexual assault.

YOU SAID IT!

“Ted Cruz wants to keep our systems broken. He voted against fixing our grid and keeping our schools safe from gun violence. Now he’s voting to hurt Texans by shutting down the government.”

Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, on Cruz’s vote against bipartisan legislation to keep the federal government funded

Twitter / @markleedickson

Let’s catch up on routine vaccines.

COVID disinformation won’t die, but people who ignore scientific facts just might

BY KEVIN SANCHEZ

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

Alot of times if you see me on this podcast talking about shit, I probably just read the headline.” — Joe Rogan, Sept. 20, 2023

Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan is a menace to public health.

In winter 2021, as the Omicron wave was set to flood our hospitals, Austin’s adopted meathead broadcast the ravings of two disreputable vaccine-skeptics, encouraging his massive audience to ignore the consensus medical advice of public health professionals. By April 2022, the School of Public Health at Brown University estimated that the deaths of well over 300,000 Americans could have been prevented if they’d opted to receive the safe and effective vaccines we had at hand.

On September 20, Rogan did it again. His guest this time was former business reporter turned spy novelist Alex Berenson, famous for suing his way back onto the social media platform formerly known as Twitter after getting banned for spreading reckless falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic to his half-a-million followers.

“Don’t get your kids vaccinated with the COVID vaccines, it’s not good for them,” Berenson — a non-doctor — declared on The Joe Rogan Experience. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines for everyone over 6 months of age, with approval for Novavax, a protein-based vaccine, expected soon.

Keep in mind that for a newborn with no previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2, it’s practically 2020 again.

“More than half of the COVID deaths in children occur in those without any preexisting risk factors,” epidemiologist Michael Osterholm reported on his pandemic podcast Osterholm Update. “Let me again sound like a broken record and say that these vaccines are the best defense we have right now, particularly against serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths. So please, please, please get this vaccine if you’re eligible.”

Non-doctor Joe Rogan gave a different prognosis. ”Take care of yourself and [COVID’s] a cold. Nobody wants to say that. It’s like this verboten thing. C’mon, kids, let’s be real about it,” he opined on one of his episodes.

However much we may wish that were true, it sim-

ply ain’t so.

While most of us can recover at home without needing a trip to the emergency room, plenty of people require hospital care. Others, even after mild bouts of COVID, many develop a long-haul syndrome that can last for months or even years.

“It’s very clear in our data that reinfection contributes additional risk of Long COVID,” Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Healthcare System, told science and medicine news site STAT News. “If you’ve had COVID previously and dodged a bullet and did not get Long COVID the first time around and you’re getting another infection now, you’re pretty much trying your luck again.”

More than 8 million Americans are currently experiencing COVID symptoms lasting three months or longer, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. Meanwhile, multiple studies have found vaccination reduces the odds and severity of Long COVID.

But note Rogan’s proviso above: the third leading cause of death behind cancer and heart disease is equivalent to the common cold if you “take care of yourself.” Except, millions of Americans deal with maladies like asthma, diabetes or chronic kidney disease through no fault of their own — all are comorbidities for COVID.

Pregnancy also puts you at higher risk of severe illness. And many prescription medications result in weight gain. By the time you count up all the exceptions to Rogan’s blanket statement, you’re forced to admit that the exceptions are the rule, and those who can afford to forget COVID are a privileged minority.

Neuroscientist Sam Harris recently took his friend Joe to task on exactly this point.

“You would think losing a quarter of a million people in the under-age-65 cohort would be a pretty big deal, but oh, of course, many of them were fat,” Harris said with a hefty helping of sarcasm.

He continued: ”Everyone in the anti-vaxx and vaccine-hesitant world seems to point to obesity as though it were somehow morally relevant. Realize that about half of American society is obese, and a person can’t suddenly lose 70 pounds at the first sign of a pandemic. The cult of self-sufficiency that surrounds the obsession with fitness, the notion that each individual can be fully absolved of having any stake in the health of society-at-large, the 13

Twitter / GregAbbott_TX

MPodcaster Joe Rogan (left) and Gov. Greg Abbott pose for a photo op in Austin. Both have done a disservice to Texans when it comes to COVID-19 and public health.

11 idea that we can all just go it alone with our ice baths and our Zone 2 Cardio, this is a delusion. Eating only grass-fed beef isn’t a strategy for dealing with pandemics in general and all of the anti-vaxx bullshit could well get a lot of people killed next time.”

Succumbing to pressure from the Texas GOP’s right flank, Gov. Greg Abbott has done his best to prohibit municipal health officials from issuing mask ordinances and other mitigation measures in the event of future disease outbreaks.

“What’s crazy is we have examples of Florida and Texas where they just opened up, and they didn’t have it worse,” Rogan opined on his podcast.

Only, we did.

“Texas and Florida have about twice as many vaccine-preventable deaths compared to California,” to again cite the analysis from Brown University’s School of Public Health.

By the time Texas Health and Human Services stopped publishing COVID fatality counts on its website in May, around 100,000 Texans had perished from infections. Do those invested in rewriting the history of this preventable tragedy truly believe that was the best pandemic response our state is capable of mustering?

As of April, 40% of the money the federal government gave Texas to improve ventilation in schools had remained unspent. Yet “for classrooms equipped with mechanical ventilation systems, the relative risk of infection of students decreased by at least 74%”, according to an Italian study published last year in Frontier Public Health. Cleaner air would help asthma and allergy sufferers breathe easier too, but a state with a $33 billion budget surplus failed to make this an urgent bipartisan priority.

As ugly as COVID deniers’ indifference to those with preexisting conditions is, it’s compounded by their smear campaigns against experts who have dedicated their careers to studying and defeating infectious diseases — doctors whom Rogan calls “Branch Covidians.”

“Just today, this epidemiologist wrote, ‘We have different rules about the new COVID boosters than other countries because we’re sicker than other countries, so we have to give people more mRNA,’” Berenson said. “And it’s like, wait, your argument is, our public health establishment and medical care is so bad... that you want us to take our advice? Maybe we should listen to the other countries where things are going better, for a change. Maybe we should just tell people, go for a walk. Maybe the solution is not to have morbidly obese people sit on their asses.”

The epidemiologist he’s referring to is Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, who publishes an informative Substack called Your Local Epidemiologist. Her readers learn what Rogan’s listeners don’t. For example, that the rare risk of heart inflammation (myocarditis) in young men that was previously associated with the initial rollout of mRNA vaccines has now all but disappeared.

“After last Fall’s updated COVID-19 vaccine, two myocarditis cases were verified out of around 650,000 doses,” Jetelina wrote, concluding, “The benefits of a vaccine for severe disease among adolescents outweigh the risks.” Adding to that, the known

dangers of all types of cardiovascular ailments after a severe COVID infection remain a cause for concern. They’re also worth taking sensible precautions to avoid, including high-quality masking, when cases are on the rise.

Returning to Berenson, let’s put aside the fact that merely going for a walk isn’t a recognized treatment for COVID and acknowledge that we ought to provide all our citizens with universal healthcare coverage like most other rich democracies. Absent waving a magic wand to accomplish that — along with paid sick leave and greater hospital capacity — the more immediate task before us is not letting another 50,000 to 100,000 people die from this virus by next April.

So, don’t roll the dice with a potentially debilitating disease that’s already killed 1 million Americans. Just like going to the dentist, asking a stranger to stick a needle in your arm can be scary. I received my fifth dose on Sept. 22 at a CVS Pharmacy inside

a Target, and I experienced the usual sore arm and attendant body aches.

But the war against sickness and death is just about the most noble fight there is, and whatever their shortcomings and mistakes, the doctors I’ve trusted in covering COVID for the Current — Michael Osterholm, Peter Hotez, Katelyn Jetelina, Richard Hatchett, Amesh Adalja among them — are soldiers in that struggle.

Joe Rogan, on the contrary, is an unaccountable and unreliable pantywaist who has proven himself incapable of shame. Being a contrarian for its own sake — and during a national emergency no less — is its own pathetic and perverse kind of conformity.

“It’s been a long three years, but what’s so depressing is, they don’t seem to have learned anything,” Berenson ended the podcast by saying. “Still it’s important to point out that they’re full of it.”

I agree completely.

Courtesy Photo / City of San Antonio

Flights of the Condor

San Antonio’s new flights to Europe came at a cost, and the money could be better spent

BY HEYWOOD SANDERS

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

In case you missed Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s recent bout of boosterism, San Antonio is now an “intercontinental city” that has “arrived on the world stage.”

At least that’s what the mayor proclaimed with the announcement that Condor Airlines will begin service next May with direct flights from San Antonio International to Frankfurt, Germany. City leaders, hospitality industry honchos and economic development leaders were ecstatic. With the flights, there’s the promise of a flood of German and other European visitors. Perhaps even new foreign investment in our town.

Of course, Condor will only be flying here from mid-May to early September. And there will only be three flights each week. And we’ll be joining — and competing against — a host of other Condor destinations in the United States, including Miami, Anchorage, Baltimore, Boston, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. Presumably, those cities are already on the “world stage.”

It will cost San Antonio to join them there, because Condor isn’t necessarily convinced there’s a sufficient market here. So the city will be subsidizing the new flights with waived landing and terminal fees and a marketing grant — a package valued at $1.3 million in total. And on top of that, Greater: SATX — the renamed Economic Development Foundation — and Visit San Antonio have committed to using their funds to provide a minimum revenue guarantee to Condor, potentially as much as $2 million.

All that to get a handful of seasonal flights to Europe.

But Jenna Saucedo-Herrera of Greater: SATX was still upbeat: “With each new nonstop flight, our region is better positioned to support and attract new corporate growth that, in turn, develops greater career opportunities for the San Antonians here today and those it will attract in the future.”

The goal is admirable, although how much those subsidized seasonal flights from Condor will do to “attract new corporate growth” is open to question. The problem and issue for me is what this deal says about the mindset of San Antonio’s business and

governmental leaders.

For generations, this city’s leadership has looked outward for its economic future. We gave away free land — and limestone — to the Army to get Fort San Houston and its soldiers. In the early 20th century, the business leadership promoted San Antonio as a “Tropical Paradise” and “Charming Winter Resort,” with the “picturesque quaintness of ‘Spanish town’ with its odd, winding streets... its water carriers…” in an effort lure Midwesterners to visit, spend their money and perhaps invest in homes and businesses here.

And, of course, there was Hemisfair: yet another attempt to find civic and economic salvation by luring visitors.

In always looking outward to attract growth and development, in spending on big silver bullet projects — a new auditorium in the 1920s, a new stadium in the 1930s, a new coliseum in the 1940s, a new convention center in the 1960s — and again and again, plus the Grand Hyatt —local business and government leaders have managed to avoid dealing with the real needs and potential here.

Our inability to gain a direct flight to Europe isn’t a function of how lovely the terminals and facilities

at San Antonio International are, it’s a product of the incomes and market reality of this community.

So, if we have subsidies to dole out, and a spare couple of million lying around, why not consider what might enhance and support the quality of life for the region’s current residents. I’m sure lots of us have our own ideas, and a broad civic conversation would be a fine idea.

But having watched the new San Antonio Philharmonic be born and flourish in its second season, I personally would love to see some of those dollars, both public and corporate, committed to music and the arts with the goal of putting our talented local musicians and artists — well-funded — on that “world stage.”

Heywood Sanders is a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Brandon Rodriguez

MTop officials from San Antonio International Airport and Condor Airlines press the flesh at a city event celebrating San Antonio’s first direct flights to Europe.

Back to Reality

Scaled-back plans, lack of communication raise concerns about San Antonio electric vehicle startup DeLorean Motors Reimagined

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

DeLorean Motors Reimagined grabbed national headlines when it aired a 15-second commercial during Super Bowl LVI that depicted its new vehicle as the electric-powered successor to the sports car made famous in the ’80s film franchise Back to the Future

The day after the spot debuted, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced on social media platform X, then known as Twitter, that DeLorean had chosen San Antonio for its corporate headquarters.

“In an increasingly competitive electric vehicle market, San Antonio is ready to lead,” Nirenberg said in a statement at the time. “By planning to establish their global headquarters in San Antonio, DeLorean is validating the talent, strategic preparation and adaptability our region provides for [electric vehicle] manufacturers to thrive.”

However, almost two years after the commercial and the mayor’s announcement, DeLorean appears to have fallen short on some of its early promises, leaving customers worried.

This spring, DeLorean scaled back by more than half the number of cars it plans to deliver to the first round of customers who put down deposits for its first model. Some of those depositors now say they’ve been unable to reach company officials to get answers.

Meanwhile, the venture — which San Antonio and Bexar County approved for nearly $1.1 million in grants and tax incentives in exchange for creating 450 jobs by 2026 — appears to be a long way from reaching the benchmarks required to secure those perks.

Further, San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute, a massive R&D nonprofit that regularly works with the automotive industry, said it has no existing business relationship with DeLorean — even though the startup’s executives have said otherwise.

Despite scaling back its launch plans, executives from DeLorean told the Current during a video-chat interview last week that the company is stable and moving ahead. They also encouraged customers to be on the lookout for a “big announcement” in coming months.

Non-refundable deposits

In August 2022, six months after the Super Bowl commercial aired and four months after the city and county approved its grants and tax abatements, DeLorean debuted its sole model, the electric-powered Alpha 5, at a California car show.

After that unveiling, Florida resident Ken Brackins put down a deposit for two “build slots” from DeLo-

rean — a total cash outlay of $5,000.

“At first, they had a couple of working models, and I was fairly confident that they were going to do something,” said Brackins, a Tampa restaurateur. “It looks like a pretty good design and everything, but the radio silence is deafening.”

Unlike other EV makers such as Tesla or Rivian, which make deposits on future vehicles refundable, DeLorean, in keeping with its futuristic motif, opted to sell non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — unique digital assets that exist on a blockchain and can’t be reproduced or edited — as a way to reserve slots for its cars.

“We saw it as a fun and futuristic way to basically allocate those thoughts to customers of buying a car and to be more transparent about where you stand in line,” DeLorean Chief Brand Officer Cameron Wynne said during last week’s interview.

Under the company’s plan, those who wanted to reserve their purchase of a revamped DeLorean would need to join the private Alpha 5 Club, which runs $88, then spend $2,500 to $3,000 to reserve a spot on the list. Instead of a receipt, customers received an NFT.

NFTs emerged as a big deal in some investment circles during 2021 and 2022 — around the time of DeLorean’s launch. Some people got rich quick by selling the online assets, which in many cases were marketed as works of “digital art.”

However, many who dabbled in NFTs and didn’t get out in time got stuck with garbage, according to industry observers. An estimated 95% of NFTs are now likely worthless, according to a report this month by Markets Insider, which cited an analysis by crypto and NFT gaming website dappGambl.

Brackins, along with other concerned DeLorean customers, told the Current he began to feel uneasy about his deposit after the company failed to launch

Courtesy Photo / DeLorean Motor Co

an NFT marketplace in February. That marketplace was intended to allow trading of the NFTs awarded to people who paid for deposits.

After launching the NFTs, DeLorean told depositors that it’s scaling back production plans for the Alpha 5. In an email sent to depositors in February, the company said it’s revised the number of available build slots from 9,351 to 4,000 due to “supply chain bottlenecks.”

DeLorean didn’t offer refunds, according to an email sent to Alpha 5 customers on Feb. 28, 2023. Instead, those holding deposit NFTs were bumped up in line, or could hypothetically sell their NFT’s on the DeLorean’s exchange.

“Please be assured that your Build Slot is secure and that the reduced number of production units from 9,351 to 4,000 means that each NFT build slot has become more exclusive,” the email said. “By raising our pricing, you, our first holders of our build slots, will enjoy the benefits of that action.”

DeLorean added that the price of Alpha 5 NFT’s would increase to $3,500, and that the price would go up by $500 for every 500 units sold. It’s unclear exactly how many built slots DeLorean has actually sold as of press time.

“You know, there’s a lot going on in technology,” DeLorean Chief Technology Officer Ben Marquart said during last week’s interview. “There’s a lot happening geopolitically, there’s a lot happening all over the place. And so that impacts everybody everywhere.”

Delayed exchange launch

Last year, DeLorean told NFT holders that it would launch an exchange where people could sell their NFT deposit on the Alpha 5 to other interested parties or trade to move up in the queue.

“The NFT is a fixed price, and once the exchange opens up, people can start trading,” DeLorean CEO Joost de Vries said in an October 2022 Twitter Spaces interview. “We’re really hoping and rooting for people to have an opportunity to either get the car, because there’s a lot of car enthusiasts that really want to get a car, or for the people that want to just bet with the brand and earn some money on the NFT.”

De Vries continued: “By doing it the way we did, we believe that we have democratized access to the brand, and we’d love for people to either get the car eventually or speculate on the value of the production slots.”

Florida deposit-holder Brackins told the Current he purchased two slots, thinking that if needed, he could potentially sell one for a profit on the exchange.

There was just one problem, he and other depositors said: the company’s NFT exchange never became available.

“That link is on their website, but you click on it, and it was never activated,” said New Yorker Andrzej Bubilo, who bought a DeLorean NFT last year for $2,500. “So, that’s when I started calling a guy [at the company], and he said, ‘Yeah, we’re working on some stuff. I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks when it’s up and running.’ He never called me back.”

In an email sent to Alpha 5 depositors on Feb. 3 of

this year, DeLorean officials said the exchange “has been built and ready to go live last year.” However, the company opted to postpone the launch “until the financial processes were flawless,” the message added.

As of press time on Monday, Oct. 2, the DeLorean exchange was still inaccessible from its website, according to NFT holders.

Jeff Reed, a slot holder from the Texas town of Tyler, bought his DeLorean NFT in November 2022. Reed said his NFT seemed to have disappear from his Alpha 5 account this June and he’s still been unable to locate it.

“It was there all the way from November until June, and I was more than happy to check on it, because I kept hearing people say, ‘Hey, my build slot [NFT] disappeared,” Reed said. “Then, all of a sudden, one day, it disappeared.”

Adding to the confusion, depositors said, the company managing DeLorean’s NFTs, New York-based NFT IQ, was listed as “temporarily closed” on its Google business listing until Sept. 22. DeLorean executive Wynne said he’s aware that NFT IQ was listed as shut down on Google, adding that he reached out to the company about the situation.

“I made them aware of it, and they were as shocked as I was, which is weird,” he said. ”Yeah, I don’t know. They don’t know why that’s on there, and I don’t [either].”

‘Responded to every communication’

Texas depositor Reed told the Current he’s tried to reach someone at DeLorean since he was first aware he couldn’t find his NFT. He said he tried calling DeLorean’s office in San Antonio and has sent several complaints to the company’s customer service email account.

During the recent interview, DeLorean executives said customers with concerns should forward their complaints to that same email address.

Eventually, Reed got fed up and started sending the startup copies of his credit card statement to prove he’d spent $2,500 on an NFT, he added.

Someone from DeLorean finally got back to Reed

on Sept. 12, informing him that the business had credited back his $2,500, he said. Reed added that he’d still not received a refund as of press time on Monday, Oct. 2.

DeLorean tech officer Marquart said he was unsure how or why Reed’s NFT disappeared.

“I can tell you that we have responded to every communication that we have received,” Marquart said. “We will make sure, and we have been making sure that we have reached back out to every single person that has reached out to us to date.”

NFT IQ has yet to respond to the Current’s request for comment on Reed’s complaint about being unable to find his NFT.

SwRI connection?

DeLorean CEO De Vries established bold timelines and a big vision for the company during a June 2022 interview with the Express-News

At the time, De Vries teased the idea that DeLorean would develop a hydrogen-powered vehicle within the next year and said it plans to lease space at a new futuristic tower being built at Port San Antonio that would eventually be dubbed “DeLorean Tower.”

“I think you’ll start seeing something late next year around here, the prototypes, testing validation cars,” de Vries told the Express-News. “Mainly at Southwest Research Institute.”

DeLorean’s Marquart and Wynne declined to say when depositors can expect to see cars rolling off the assembly line, nor did they say when the company’s NFT exchange will be up or running.

Instead, they said those interested in the company’s plans should be on the lookout for a “public update” in the coming months. Again, however, they declined to reveal additional details when pressed.

“What I’ll say is precision and accuracy and authenticity in our messaging is paramount to us,” Marquart said. “And therefore, we will continue to ensure 18

Michael Karlis

MDeLorean Motors Reimagined currently operates from this office at Port San Antonio.

17 that what we release is as accurate and authentic as possible continuing to move forward.”

Although the executives were tightlipped about the production schedule for the Alpha 5, they continued to trumpet plans to work with Southwest Research Institute.

In comments to local media, De Vries has said SwRI is one of the reasons DeLorean chose San Antonio for its corporate headquarters. In an email last week, Chief Financial Officer Dean G. Hull told the Current his company is “in discussion with the institute regarding them supporting us in a variety of ways.”

Marquart also said the DeLorean is receiving support from SwRI.

“We’ve been in pretty occasional contact with them [SwRI], and they’ve been supporting us in a few different ways and will continue to support us, and we’ll get more and more in depth with them as time goes on,” he said during last week’s interview.

However, in a statement emailed to the Current, SwRI said it “has no active contract with DeLorean at this time.” Officials at the nonprofit declined to offer further comment.

Despite that denial, Marquart stuck to his guns about the relationship.

“SwRI is a very large organization, and I’m not sure if their head of communications is aware of the projects that we run,” he explained.

Jobs and incentives

As of press time Monday, Oct. 2, DeLorean’s LinkedIn profile only includes 18 employees.

During a weekday visit to the company’s offices at 907 Billy Mitchell Blvd. in the Port San Antonio industrial complex, no one answered the call button on the front door. Most of the parking spaces were vacant, and empty desks were visible through the windows.

Under the “Careers” tab on DeLorean’s website, it says to check LinkedIn for job listings. Currently, no DeLorean job listings are available on LinkedIn.

While startups frequently run with lean staffing, DeLorean officials have publicly hinted at big hiring plans in the Alamo City.

Following the Super Bowl commercial, officials from the City of San Antonio and Bexar County negotiated with DeLorean brass to lure its headquarters to the Alamo City. In exchange, economic development officials offered to give the EV startup grants and tax

subsidies.

Under the agreement between the city and DeLorean approved in April 2022, the company would need to employ at least 150 people with an average salary of $70,000 by the end of 2023 to receive its first $187,500 grant from the city. If DeLorean employs 450 people at its Port San Antonio offices by 2026, it will receive $562,500 in city incentives.

In April of last year, Bexar County commissioners also approved a decade-long tax abatement for the company valued at $512,828.

To secure that abatement, DeLorean told county officials in a document that the company plans to invest $590 million in personal property in the county, including $18 million put into the company’s headquarters at Port San Antonio.

However, for the county abatement to go into effect, DeLorean must have 300 employees by the end of 2023, Jordana Mathews, special initiatives program director at Bexar County’s Economic and Community Development Department, told the Current in an email.

“If they do not meet their employment commitment, then they are not eligible for an abatement for that tax year,” Mathews added.

Asked about whether the company is on target to deliver the hiring schedules promised to the city and county, DeLorean executives said the business is still growing. They wouldn’t reveal how many people it currently employs, but they didn’t rebuke the information publicly available on LinkedIn.

“I mean, are we at 450 [employees]? No, we’re not at 450,” Marquart said. “We are continuing to grow and scale at the appropriate rate with the work in progress — in the place that we are today. And that will be more apparent when we provide a public update to what has been going on and, kind of, where we’re at, what the status updates are and whatnot moving forward.”

Reason for skepticism?

Both DeLorean executives and San Antonio Economic and Community Development Department Senior Public Information Officer Regina Villalobos-Perez confirmed that the company hadn’t received any public money as of press time.

However, since the firm first announced its plans to produce the revamped sports car in San Antonio,

experts have cautioned that such a project will be a heavy lift.

Only four months after city and county officials approved subsidies for DeLorean, California-based EV manufacturer Karma Automotive sued top execs at the San Antonio company, alleging intellectual property theft.

Although the suit was dropped on Sept. 8, Washington D.C.-based intellectual property attorney Michael Connelly told the Current last year that the city and county should have been skeptical of the pace at which DeLorean was able to organize and produce a concept vehicle.

Meanwhile, Nathan Jensen, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Current in October 2022 that it “does seem like, at least on the surface, that some basic due diligence [by local officials] would reveal at least a hint of a problem.”

Further, experts who track the electric vehicle industry cautioned that startups ventures in the space face high hurdles. Anjan Hemanth Kumar, an analyst for San Antonio-based market research firm Frost & Sullivan, told the Current in February 2022 that auto manufacturing startups are risky, regardless of how well capitalized they might appear.

“You need to make hundreds of thousands of cars to achieve profitability, so that’s a huge problem,” Kumar said. “It’s a huge mountain to move.”

Villalobos-Perez defended the city’s due diligence last year, telling the Current in an email that the Economic Development Department completed “a review of legal and business history” of the team behind DeLorean. She declined to reveal further details during

that exchange.

“Prior to the approval of the incentive agreement with DeLorean Motor Company, the city completed a review of [the] legal and business history of the C-suite team,” Villalobos-Perez said.

Looking for the finish line

Time will tell how successful DeLorean is at living up to customer expectations and the big promises it made to city and county officials.

However, some of its depositors said they’re increasingly skeptical.

Reed, the Tyler man who maintains that his NFT disappeared, said he doubts he’ll see his deposit returned.

“I know I’ve been scammed on it,” Reed said. “There’s no way that a bona fide company would be that quiet. When they don’t say anything, that’s concerning.”

Brackins, the Florida depositor, also isn’t hopeful.

“I got a bad feeling they’re probably going to do the old bankruptcy thing and wipe everybody out,” he said.

DeLorean’s Marquart said the company is on the level and working to make sure the Alpha 5 makes it to the finish line.

“I think for us to take personally statements that people make, we would do nothing but respond to every single comment that anybody ever makes in the history of the internet,” he said. “I mean, it’s all we would ever do. We would never get anything done.”

Shutterstock / Ross Mahon

MAn original 1980s-era DeLorean on display with its gull-wing doors open.

SAT | 10.14

SPECIAL EVENT

FIESTA DEL SOL

On Oct. 14, San Antonio will be in the path of totality for an annular solar eclipse, also called a “ring of fire” eclipse. The event will span a little over three hours, beginning around 10:23 a.m. The full eclipse will take place between 11:52 and 11:56 a.m., reaching its maximum at 11:54 a.m. It’s expected to wind down and come to an end at 1:33 p.m.

Watch parties have sprung up around town, with plenty of options to enjoy the celestial phenomenon across the Alamo City. While many events will provide protective eyewear or other safe ways to view the phenomenon, it may be wise to pick up some eclipse glasses just in case. They can be sourced online or at local stores including Whole Earth Provisioning Co. (255 E. Basse Road, (210) 829-8888, wholeearthprovision.com) and Analytical Scientific (11049 Bandera Road, (210) 684-7373, analyticalsci.com).

We rounded up eclipse-viewing options in San Antonio, and best of all — they’re all free to attend. Additional information is available at visitsanantonio.com/eclipse.

— Kelly Nelson

THE ALAMO

What’s more iconic than viewing the eclipse at the Alamo?

The historic downtown landmark will hold a viewing party complete with special eclipse viewing glasses that feature the Alamo’s parapet roofline as part of their design. Glasses can be reserved online or purchased at the Alamo’s Welcome Center for $5 apiece, but a purchase isn’t required to attend. Free, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 300 Alamo Plaza, (210) 6409903, thealamo.org.

MISSION SAN JOSÉ

The “Queen of the Missions” will play host to its own viewing party, with free glasses provided while supplies last. The event also will feature a 20-minute educational presentation by an astronomer from UTSA’s Curtis Vaughan Jr. Observatory, which will take place at 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own water, since food and drink won’t be provided at the event. Free, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 6701 San José Drive, (210) 932-1001, nps.gov/saan.

SCOBEE EDUCATION CENTER

The Scobee Education Center at San Antonio College is pulling out all the stops for the eclipse. Its event will include

guest speakers, live music, kids’ activities and food trucks. Solar-filtered telescopes also will be available for public viewing of the eclipse, and free viewing glasses will be available while supplies last. The event is free to attend, but parking is $5. Free, 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 1819 N. Main Ave., (210) 486-0100, alamo.edu.

TRINITY UNIVERSITY

As part of its eclipse celebrations, Trinity’s campus will partly transform into a one-billionth scale model of the solar system. The event will feature family-friendly arts and crafts, educational activities and food trucks, and the university will provide protective glasses while supplies last. Festivities will take place at “The Cube” in the Center for Science and Innovation building, with rooftop viewing of the eclipse at the Marrs McLean Observatory. Free, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., 1 Trinity Place, (210) 999-7011, trinity.edu.

ALAMO BEER CO.

Downtown brewery Alamo Beer Co. has made a special brew for the occasion: a beer made with Eclipse Hops called Ring of Fire. Eclipse glasses come free with a purchase of a beverage while supplies last. Free, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 202 Lamar St., (210) 872-5589, alamobeer.com.

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.

FRI | 10.06SUN | 10.08

SPECIAL EVENT

BIG TEXAS COMICON

San Antonio pop culture enthusiasts have reason to rejoice with the return of Big Texas Comicon. This year’s celebrity appearances include sci-fi and action movie stars David Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow), Carl Weathers (Predator, The Mandalorian) and Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) as well as professional wrestling legend Trish Stratus. Also look for appearances by comic creators and artists such as Cary Nord (X-Men, Conan the Barbarian) and Sam De La Rosa (Batman, Venom). Aside from celebrity guests, the con will feature activities and events including gaming tournaments held throughout the weekend and a Sunday costume contest. Some events require pre-registration, and tickets are available now. $26-$36, 2-8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Henry B. González Convention Center, 900 E. Market St., bigtexascomicon.com. — Colin Houston

singer is awarded to the woman who’s suffered the most at the hands of Henry. Winner of the 2022 Tony Award for Best Original Score, Six’s historical underpinnings, rousing rock orchestra, powerhouse vocal performances and rapid-fire raps build on the Broadway precedent set by Hamilton — all while contributing a feminist flair. Deriving musical influence from female pop icons both classic and contemporary — think Beyoncé, Britney Spears and Jennifer Hudson — Six sheds a new and empowering light on one of history’s most unfortunate sisterhoods and celebrates the hard-won transformations of women everywhere from damsel to diva. $45 and up, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Caroline

Wolff

THU | 10.12SAT | 10.14

FILM

RAZA CÓSMICA

On a weekend during which a ring-of-fire eclipse will transform the skies over San Antonio, MonteVideo is bringing timely programming on the ground with its third annual Raza Cósmica: A Constellation of Sci-Fi Cinema. The film festival highlights Latinx and international filmmakers at locations across San Antonio. MonteVideo, an organization founded by filmmaker and Current contributor Manuel Solis that highlights Latinx-themed indie films, will kick off the series at Slab Cinema’s Arthouse space on Thursday with a two-part event — a live recording of Joaquin Muerte’s paranormal podcast Xicanx Versus Aliens followed by a screening of four out-of-this-world shorts from dynamic

FRI | 10.11SUN | 10.22

THEATER SIX

The six wives of the infamous King Henry VIII are divorced-beheaded-revived in the electrifying pop musical Six, which is slated to bring 16th century sizzle to the Majestic Theatre. Trading their corsets for catsuits, the wives take to the strobe-lighted stage to recount their lives and deaths in the form of a modern pop concert. Tensions run high as the gig transforms into a competition in which the position of lead

filmmakers. On Friday, MonteVideo brings the reality-blurring, Laredo-set 2023 film Hummingbirds to downtown’s Central Library with one of the filmmakers in attendance. Finally, the fest concludes with three cosmic screenings on Saturday — the “Excursions in Afrofuturism” set of six shorts at 4 p.m., the “Above the Clouds” five-short set at 6 p.m., and the Texas premiere of the 2021 Peruvian film Tiempos Futuros, set in a dystopian parched city, at 8 p.m. All three will take place at JumpStart Performance Co. on the West Side. Eclipse glasses optional. Free (tickets required), 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Various Locations, montevideo210.org. — Dean Zach

FRI | 10.13

SPORTS SPURS VS. HEAT

After a long offseason full of change, the day that Alamo City sports

fans have patiently waited is almost here. The revamped San Antonio Spurs, led by No. 1 draft pick Victor Wembanyama, will take on the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat at the recently renamed Frost Bank Center. Although the game is a preseason friendly, tickets for seats in the lower bowl are going for $200-plus as fans expect Wemby to play in what will be his first ever NBA preseason game. Although the French phenom should provide plenty of game action — especially paired with promising talents including Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vasell — the Silver and Black are still in for a tough time against Jimmy Butler and the Heat. $11 and up, 7 p.m., Frost Bank Center, 1 AT&T Center Parkway, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com.

Michael Karlis

—

FRI | 10.13SUN | 10.15

DANCE

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Experience a tale as old as time as Belle (Brenna Mulligan-Olson) and the Beast (Michael Agudelo) put on their pointe shoes for a two-act ballet retelling of the classic story Beauty and the Beast. Choreographed by Bruce Wells with music by Léo Delibes, this production combines recognizable elements from the story — a stolen rose, a yellow ballgown, a curse that can be broken with the power of love — with the art of ballet for a performance designed to capture the imaginations of children and adults alike. This is the opening show of Ballet San Antonio’s 2023-24 season, and two more productions are scheduled to follow — a holiday production of The Nutcracker and the world premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in February. $36-$132, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, H-E-B Performance Hall, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 2238624, tobincenter.org — Macks Cook

Jaime Monzon

Joan Marcus

Courtesy Photo / Raza Cósmica

Spurs / Reginald Thomas II

Courtesy Photo / Ballet San Antonio

21+ MUST BE

OCT 26 THURSDAY

SAT | 10.14

ART

20TH ANNIVERSARY CHALK IT UP

“Dream Big!” is the theme of this year’s Chalk It Up, which returns to downtown San Antonio for its 20th year. Organized by Artpace, the free and family-friendly event invites dreamers and artists of every caliber to get their hands dirty making sidewalk chalk creations. They’ll work alongside a slate of featured artists including Ed Saavedra, Carly Garza and Barbara Miñarro, each turning out 10-foot-by-15-foot murals along Houston Street which showcase their interpretations of this year’s dream theme. The theme honors Artpace San Antonio founder Linda Pace, whose vision of building a “laboratory of dreams” has allowed artists from around the world to work and create in San Antonio. Groups from around the city also will create murals for the event’s TeamWorks competition, which will be judged on creativity, execution and adherence to the theme. Free, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Legacy Park and Houston Street, 103 W. Houston St., (210) 212-4900, artpace.org/chalk-it-up. — Amber Esparza

FOOD • DRINKSSPOOKY FUN COSTUMES & MORE! A NIGHT OF PLAY FOR THE YOUNG AT HEART!

•PRESENTEDBY• 7-9:30 PM EVENT TIME

Francisco Cortes

SAT | 10.14

FILM

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE

The transmissions dispatched from Night Vale’s community radio station are mostly normal, at least to its host and residents. For the rest of us, they provide a surreal portrait of a town shrouded in eerie, curious incidents. The most downloaded fiction podcast worldwide, the cult hit Welcome to Night Vale presents a fictional radio show from a small desert town where it seems anything bizarre can happen. The host, narrator and main character, Cecil Gershwin Palmer (Cecil Baldwin) routinely announces the local news and weather, covering topics such as the glow cloud that joined the school board (“All hail!”) and the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home. The touring live shows have become an essential part of the Night Vale experience, immersing live audiences in the town’s odd daily life. Don’t worry, though — one need not have experienced the podcast to enjoy the performance. In addition to his “normal” community radio dispatches, the latest touring show has Cecil finding creepy photos from one of his old family road trips that have been incorporated into a cursed slide projection. An unsettling descent into his childhood memories ensues. $30 and up, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — Dalia Gulca

Courtesy Photo / Welcome to Night Vale

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Boulevard

Low, Slow and on Display

San Antonio airport art display shows off cars and bikes in tribute to the city’s lowrider culture

BY BRANDON RODRIGUEZ

San Antonio International Airport last week unveiled an exhibition showcasing cars, bikes and memorabilia that highlight the creativity and artistry of the city’s long-standing lowrider culture.

Cruising into History — A Celebration of Lowriders in San Antonio, curated to honor Hispanic Heritage Month, is on view through Oct. 25 in the airport’s Terminal B.

The items on loan to the airport come from local lowrider clubs. The autos on display are adorned with vibrant, candy-colored paint, striking geometric patterns and cultural symbols. The bikes are similarly eye-catching, and some even feature homages to deceased family members.

“When you come to this airport, you are going to know that we have a majority of Latinos in this city, and I think that’s something to celebrate,” civil rights activist and educator Rosie Castro said during a ceremony launching the exhibit.

“[The bright colors] that’s part of our culture too,” added Castro, the mother of San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro and former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro. “All the colors, the vibrance, it shows the excitement within us.”

Lowrider culture revved as the postwar boom in American auto manufacturing led to a growing secondhand car market, according to Denise Sandoval, a professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at California State University, Northridge. Sandoval discussed the origins of the moment in the 2012 short film

A Rolling Canvas.

The culture arose in the Southwest and Southern California, a symbol of Latino cultural identity. Mexican Americans were part of a growing middle class, and thanks to higher educational attainment from the G.I. Bill, many had additional income to pump into transforming secondhand cars into rolling works of art and self-expression, according to lowrider historians.

Later, African American car enthusiasts adopted the lifestyle, and low-and-slow cars became intertwined with the West Coast’s hip-hop culture.

’We beautify everything’

Early adopters of the culture saw the transformation of used muscle cars as an opportunity to leave a Mexican American stamp on one of the definitive American-made products.

The culture also grew alongside the rise of the Chicano movement. Car enthusiasts spoke to their own experiences by creating unique paint jobs and using symbology that represented Latino culture, from Aztec imagery to motifs representing day-to-day neighborhood life.

“In our culture, one thing we have learned to do, we never waste anything. We don’t throw away anything,” Castro said. “We make it beautiful. We beautify everything.”

Following a record-breaking summer, the airport expects nearly a million visitors to pass by the exhibit. And that’s good news for curator and lowrider advocate Clint Westwood, who worries the culture has been undervalued due to its connection with the Mexican American community.

“It’s about time our culture is being highlighted and being put on a stage like this,” he said at the opening.

While the artistry of the cars is front and center, Joe De La Rosa, owner of a 1959 Chevy Impala, one of three cars displayed in Terminal B, said he wants people to understand that lowrider culture is also a family experience.

“I think that one part of the story that does not get told is that cruising is a pastime,” said De La Rosa, a member of the Lonestar Lowriders club. “It is an experience that a family can do together that is not expensive. It’s something that we enjoyed together.”

Family affair

For Arturo DeHoyos, owner of a 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme on display, cruising is akin to a day at the spa.

“A lot of people go to spas and stuff like that to relax, things like that, you know, get ready for the next week … but for us, it’s just about getting in the car,” he said. “No schedule, no nothing, just relax and [cruise].”

DeHoyos’ plum-colored Cutlass features detailing and fixtures that wouldn’t look out of place inside a Venetian chapel. Each layer of paint and detail represents DeHoyos’ individuality.

On the car’s trunk is a striking mural of famed Mexican ranchera singer Vicente Fernández.

The portrait isn’t just a tribute to the singer’s music but to the memories his music brings back for DeHoyos. DeHoyos said Fernández’s music evokes times spent with his family, including uncles, his father and his grandfather.

DeHoyos hopes the car stays in his family and is passed down to future generations. He also wants each to add its own flair, keeping the vehicle alive as an evolving piece of art and representation.

“I am still in awe,” he said. “I am just thinking about growing up as a little kid, playing with the model cars [to having one] of my own.”

Brandon Rodriguez

MArturo DeHoyos shows off his 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, which is part of the new lowrider exhibition at San Antonio International Airport.

Eric Eaton

OCTOBER 8

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OCTOBER 5-7

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OCTOBER 10

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OCTOBER 26-28

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OCTOBER 12-15

Friday, October 6

Film on the Green: Selena

7:00–9:30 p.m. | Free to all

Cuentos, Bailes y Música with The Guadalupe Dance Company

6:00–7:00 p.m. | $5 for Non-members

food | drinks | music | free parking

PERFORMING LIVE FINDING

FRIDAY THE JOE PANTHER BAND

Punchlines and Jump Scares

San Antonio filmmaker Rob Mabry makes feature debut with comedy-horror The Legend of El Chupacabra

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

As a kid, storytelling always came naturally to San Antonio filmmaker Rob Mabry. He ran around making movies with his father’s Super 8 camera. He wrote comic books and screenplays. That love for writing continued as he grew up, and it led to a career as a journalist in the U.S. Army.

Today, Mabry is a software development director for a travel company. However, his passion for cinema never waned. About eight years ago, he began participating in San Antonio’s 48 Hour Film Project and quickly became hooked.

After writing and directing a few shorts, Mabry has completed his first feature, The Legend of El Chupacabra, a horror-comedy centered on the legendary South Texas monster.

During an interview with the Current, Mabry, 56, talked about his desire to make a movie set in Texas and the kinds of comedy and horror movies that inspire him. He also discussed his work with local creature effects artist Sergio Guerra on the design of his film’s Chupacabra.

The Legend of El Chupacabra will have its red-carpet premiere Friday, Oct. 20 at San Antonio’s City Base Cinemas. To purchase tickets to the screening, visit citybasecinema.com.

What was it about the Chupacabra that appealed to you as an idea for your first feature film?

I really wanted to do something that took place in Texas. The Chupacabra is this cryptid of South Texas. The whole film takes place in a fictitious town in the Hill Country. It was really important to me to have a Texas cast and crew. So, everybody is local. Almost everybody is from San Antonio. We let a few Austin people in.

remember being paralyzed with fear. I was trying to scream for my parents. From more of a traditional horror film sense, my parents let me watch The Exorcist when I was really young. It was terrifying. Bad parenting. But I would say [The Legend of El Chupacabra] is far more a comedy than it is a horror film. It’s more of a B-movie monster movie.

Did you grow up watching those kinds of B-movies?

$13 adults, $12 children

7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20 City Base Cinemas 2623 SE Military Drive (210) 531-3000 citybasecinema.com

Yeah, I grew up as a kid on a military base. Every Sunday, they’d have a matinee and they’d show lots of 1950s movies, even though it was the 1970s. I saw a lot of these kinds of monster movies. In the ’80s, I watched things like Friday the 13th and the Freddy Krueger series. So, I have an appreciation for those too.

Who inspires your comedy writing?

I think jokes and scares are kind of similar. They both set the audience up for the punchline or for that jump scare. You know, I just enjoy parodying things. I think that’s why I’ve been drawn to horror-comedy. I did make a short film about a serial killer who’s too out of shape to catch anybody. It did well at festivals. For me, the ultimate goal is to make people laugh.

How did you decide what you wanted your Chupacabra to look like?

I left that in the hands of a really talented creature effects artist, Sergio Guerra. I wanted something that was going to be familiar to people who are familiar with the Chupacabra. There are a couple of versions that are common — the mangy coyote look and a version where the Chupacabra has spikes on its back and red eyes. [Sergio] put four different designs together, and then we refined it. I think we came up with something that feels very unique.

What’s your earliest memory of being scared of something you saw in a movie? I would say it was The Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch The Wizard of Oz is the first thing I had a nightmare about as a kid. I

Mel Brooks is a big influence on me. The humor of Airplane! always stuck with me. Monty Python was a big influence. I’m also a big fan of Steve Martin and the things he did in his early days like The Man with Two Brains and Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

Why do you think horror and comedy go so well together?

You know, a family-friendly Chupacabra movie called Chupa hit Netflix earlier this year. (Laughs.) I was hoping to beat that one to the theater before it started streaming. I didn’t want to ride its coattails. I actually haven’t watched it yet. I told myself I wouldn’t watch it until my movie was done. Unlike that movie, the Chupacabra we have would not make a great pet.

Photo courtesy of Rob Mabry

The Legend of El Chupacabra premiere

© 2023 EIGHT BREWING CO., AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701 | PROTEIN 1.0g, FAT 0.0g

ingredients

Beer Cheese

instructions

• 15 oz Ricos Condensed aged cheddar cheese sauce in a large bowl, mix the beer and cheese until smooth. heat in the microwave for 30 second intervals stirring in between each until desired temperature is reached. Dip your favorite ricos products into the cheese and enjoy!

• 10 oz of your favorite beer

Sudsy Strategy

Make your tasting plan now to get the most from the San Antonio Beer Festival

BY TRAVIS E. POLING

Beer festivals have something for everyone. However, trying to experience all the fun by sampling every brew available isn’t recommended. Nor is it physically possible.

Rambling around the 17th Annual San Antonio Beer Festival and sampling randomly from 410 offerings from 82 booths and three tents can be good time, but given the event’s size it can be better to plan ahead. SABF, which takes place Saturday, Oct. 21, is one of the state’s largest single-day beer festivals, after all.

One good way to maximize your enjoyment is to pick a theme to guide your tasting — for example, a quest for barrel-aged brews, a hunt for all the hazy IPAs or the pursuit of the perfect pils.

Here are some hints to help strategize time spent at the city’s biggest beer event.

Stick to a style

Hazy IPAs, West Coast IPAs, fruited sours, pastry stouts and German-style lagers are all favorites that festival-goers frequently seek out. They’re also a good place to seek out styles that are a little off the beaten path — and the grocery shelf.

Look for American interpretations of Belgian ales such as Longtab Brewing’s Belgian Amber, Blue Star Brewing’s Brother X Belgian pale ale and Gather Brewing’s cheekily named Jean Blonde Van Damme, a Belgian blonde ale.

Dos Sirenos Brewing and Vista Brewing are trotting out their takes on Belgian tripels for the occasion. Real-deal Belgian goodness comes in the form of the Delirium line of beers — you know, the ones with the pink elephant on the label — from Melle, Belgium. That brewer’s offerings include a blonde, dark strong, golden, red and fruited ale.

For those who have a strained relationship with beer because of an intolerance for barley and wheat, use the fest to seek out gluten-free options. Gluten-free is more a lifestyle than a beer style, and craft breweries have improved both the varieties and flavors in this category. Colorado-based Holidaily Brewing Co. is bringing its gut-friendly blonde, American IPA and hazy IPA to the party.

German-style fest beers, especially this time of year, are finding their way into the lineup of more American craft breweries. The style is the golden elixir you see hefted in liter masskrugs, or big mugs, by attendees of Oktober-

fest in Munich. They’re also considerably different from the sweetish amber maerzen-style we call Oktoberfest in the United States.

New in town

Some of the Lone Star State breweries represented at the festival don’t have a presence in San Antonio, or they’re so new to the market they can’t be readily found. This is a good opportunity to see if a drive to visit the brewery is worthwhile.

Bear King Brewing of Marble Falls opened in 2019, but its southernmost distribution point is in Kyle. Most of its beers are classic styles or popular American variations, but the Dreamboat orange creamsicle IPA shows that Bear King is willing to have a little fun in the brewhouse.

Texas Cannon Brewing Co., which opened in 2021, is relatively new to the beer festival circuit. The little brewery and restaurant in Blanco is sampling several classic styles, including the crisp Lost Leg Lager named for General Santa Anna’s abandoned prosthetic leg.

Rare brews

Finding rare beers from various breweries’ series, small batches and one-offs is worth the hunt at the San Antonio Beer Festival, and it

makes a good way to try exotic flavors. The caveat is that some of these hard-to-find brews will be exclusive offerings only available to early arrivers with VIP tickets.

A highlight is a host of special beers from Blanco’s Real Ale Brewing Co., which has a tent dedicated to VIP exclusives. That includes spontaneously fermented brews in the long-running Mysterium Verum series, which includes the Codex Triplex and Imperium wild ales and the Tenabrate Aeterna porter.

Also look for goodies in the H-E-B Beer Experience tent. On the rare side, keep an eye out for Second Pitch Brewing’s Aggressively Texas pepper lager, Freetail Brewing’s La Muerta imperial stout variant aged in Blanton’s bourbon barrels and Dallas-based Lakewood Brewing’s Moody Tongue, a caramelized chocolate churro porter.

Highs and lows

A couple of beers on the San Antonio Beer Festival list give wine a run for its money when it comes to alcohol content, and a few more want to see how low they can go.

The showstopper on the high-alcohol side is the Habitual Line Stepper imperial stout from SA’s Weathered Souls Brewing Co., which comes in at 16.4% alcohol by volume. The 2020 version of Chicago-based Goose Island Brewing Co.’s Bourbon County 41

Jaime Monzon

39 Stout is 14.6% ABV and at one time was a rare beer find.

Other bold standouts are the Coffee Imperial Stout from Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling. Part of the brewer’s Texas Bourbon-barrel series, it clocks in at 13.3% ABV. Also look for the fall favorite Saint Arnold Pumpkinator Imperial Stout from Houston and Real Ale’s old-school, barleywine-style ale, Sisyphus.

Those who like it with a little sugar and spice may want to sample New Holland Brewing Co.’s Dragon’s Milk Imperial Stout and the Mexican Hot Chocolate Imperial Stout from Weathered Souls. Both weigh in at 11% ABV.

at 2.5% ABV, and local Blue Star Brewing’s sour Raspberry Geyser at 3.8% ABV. Alamo Beer Co. brings a favorite thirst quencher to the party with its 3.2% ABV Premium Light.

Michelada-inspired beers from Mexico also offer low-alcohol refreshment. Some available at the festival include Estrella Mango Chelada, Sol Limon y Sal Chelada, Sol Mango y Chamoy and the Cerveza Sol Chelada. All of them come in at 3.5% to 3.7%.

17th Annual San Antonio Beer Festival

Tickets: $45-$110 Noon-6:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 21, Crockett Park, 1300

N. Main Ave. sanantoniobeerfestival.com

There’s also something for the designated drivers in the crowd or those who want to audition beers for their next Dry January. Just the Haze, a non-alcoholic brew from Boston Beer Co., celebrates the tropical hop flavors and low bitterness of a hazy IPA. Other buzz-free beers on tap include Budweiser Zero and a crisp Stella Artois Liberte lager from Leuven, Belgium.

Low-alcohol beers are on the menu too. Some to seek out include the tasty raspberry notes of Lindeman’s Framboise Belgian lambic, which weighs in

Award winners

The awards at the annual Great American Beer Festival remains the U.S. brewing industry’s most sought-after recognitions. Last month, Texas breweries brought home 19 medals from the Denver-based festival. Those award-winning beers may warrant seeking out at SABF.

Start by looking for the two gold medal-winning beers produced by San Antonio breweries.

Check out Second Pitch’s Hometown Lager and Longtab’s DOL American-Belgo ale for a taste of gold. Sadly, Roadmap Brewing Co’s silver-winning Derby Day Kentucky Common will have run dry by the time the festival rolls around.

4 CONVENIENT SAN ANTONIO LOCATIONS!

Jaime Monzon

FIGHT HUNGER WITH EVERY STEP!

Lace up your running shoes and gather with family, pets, and the entire community on Thanksgiving Day at 8:30 AM for the San Antonio Food Bank’s Turkey Trot 5K Run/Walk at the Commander’s House in Downtown San Antonio.

Every registration provides a turkey for a family facing hunger this holiday season.

safoodbank.org/turkeytrot

ACCESS EARLY BIRD PRICING THROUGH OCT. 31

NEWS

San Antonio-based, family-owned Twang has inked deal to get its beer salts into 3,500 Walmart stores nationwide, up from the 700 locations already carrying them. The company doesn’t expect new hires, but it is hoping to win over more customers outside the Southwest. twang.com

Second Pitch Beer Co., Longtab Brewing and Roadmap Brewing Co. all landed medals at this year’s prestigious Great American Beer Festival. Second Pitch Beer and Longtab nabbed gold medals in the American Amber Lager and American-Belgo-Style Ale categories, respectively. Meanwhile, Roadmap bagged silver in the Historical Beer category for its Derby Day Kentucky Common. Lone Star State brewers took home 19 total medals spread across 100 different categories.

San Antonio nightlife staple Retox Bar will close Oct. 28, ending its 15-year run serving the Castle Hills area. The owner said his team is looking to unveil a new nightspot later this year or in early 2024. 1031 Patricia Drive, (210) 775-2886, facebook.

Biff Buzby’s

com/retoxbarsa.

Raspa Squad, take note: Big Daddy’s Eats & Treats has relocated half a mile away from its original Cevallos Street location. The puro snack shop is now operating from inside Burgerteca 403 Blue Star, (210) 635-0016, facebook.com/Bigdaddyseatstreats.

OPENINGS

New honky tonk Blayne’s is now boot scootin’ on the second floor of St. Paul Square pub Francis Bogside. The new nightspot is open 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. 1170 E. Commerce St., Suite 100, (210) 314-2994, francisbogside.com/ blaynes-honkey-tonk-bar.

Northeast San Antonio burger haven Biff Buzby’s will expand with a second location, this one near MacArthur Park, sometime this fall. The pending Nacogdoches Road location will offer ample patio seating and a playground — amenities not available at the flagship Toepperwein restaurant. biffbuzbys.com.

Nina Rangel

Checking what’s on tap with Idle Brewing’s Brandon Pettit

BY BRANDON RODRIGUEZ

Name:  Brandon Pettit

Age: 31

Birthplace: San Antonio

Title: Head Brewer at Idle Brewing

Previous brewing jobs: Alamo Beer Co. (San Antonio) and Altstadt Brewery (Fredericksburg)

Favorite food: “My favorite recent meal is my wife’s homemade ramen.”

Movie choice: Zoolander and anything comedy

Where to find his brews: Idle Beer is available at Make Ready Market, 711 Broadway

Idle was among the initial tenants to secure a spot at Make Ready Market, a highly anticipated food hall in San Antonio’s River North. The brewery is a branch of Pouring With Heart, a company based in Los Angeles that operates comparable establishments in Austin, Denver and Southern California. All are recognized for their appreciation of artisanal beers.

While it sounds like a safe assumption that the person heading Pouring With Heart’s Alamo City brewery would be a lifelong beer enthusiast, not so with Idle head brewmaster Brandon Pettit.

For much of his life, Pettit didn’t find beer appealing. It wasn’t until seven years ago that an ice-cold Shiner Bock after a bike ride sent him down a beer-obsessed rabbit hole and led him to his current position as head brewmaster at Idle Brewing. During a talk with the Current, Pettit spoke about beer from both a brewer’s and layperson’s perspective.

How did you get your start brewing beer?

Funny enough. I didn’t even drink beer. [I didn’t like it], for the longest time. Me and [a friend] went on a 14-mile bike ride at McAllister Park — we’re just mountain biking on trails and the only thing I wanted was a beer. I was like, “I just want a beer.” It was the weirdest thing. I’ve never really had a beer and my first beer ended up being a Shiner Bock. It’s a good memory. … It was just downhill from there.

Did that Shiner Bock influence the beers you brew now?

Not necessarily, Shiner is great. But I learned the German style by [former Alamo Beer brewmaster] James Hudec. He was a very German Brewer who didn’t like IPAs. [He liked] a good lager, a good clean Amber lager, you know, that kind of stuff. And so that I feel

like it influenced my kind of style.

This West Coast IPA that we’re producing is the first West Coast I’ve ever brewed. You know, if you read about it, you can learn so much. Until you brew it you don’t really know, so this was the first one that I ever had. And so it was a really interesting experiment of sorts, right?

Beer makers are chemists to some degree. Were you ever interested in chemistry as a kid? Or did it come much later?

I was the kid sitting in chemistry, biology and math class, wondering, “When the hell am I ever going to use this in my future?” Now I’m using every single one of them every day, multiple times a day. Going back and going through all my notes and trying to figure out how things work. It’s a funny turn of events.

What’s something that’s misconstrued about beer?

Well, one of the big ones is that ales are dark and

lagers are light. That one’s a funny one to me. You can have a dark ale. Stouts, porters, those are ales. Then you have a blonde ale, right, which is light and pale. And then your lagers, you’ve got bocks, double bocks, those are dark lagers. And then you got your helles and pilsner. Those are light lagers. So, you know, people kind of misconstrued that, ‘Oh, it’s an ale. It’s really heavy.” There’s all sorts of little nuances — people that still think bottles are better than cans. You know, things like that are a very old world way of thinking.

What’s the theme that ties together Idle’s beers? Oh, that’s a tough one. I would say, just keeping it classy. Keeping it traditional. Obviously, we’ll have some twists and stuff. We’re talking about doing golden stout, so basically, a stout with all the roasted malts. We will have coffee, vanilla and cinnamon in it, kind of a fall drink. This is way outside of what I am used to … but now I can play around and add stuff. We are having a kolsch and a peach kolsch … . There is all sorts of stuff I can do now.

Brandon Rodriguez

Fiddler on the Riff

NeObliviscaris bringing its violin-fueled extreme metal to San Antonio

BY MIKE MCMAHAN

It happens all the time.

There you are, headbanging to sick riffs from your favorite extreme metal outfit when the graceful sound of a violin filters in and … Wait, what?

The inclusion of violin in a punishing metal band, replete with death growls and thundering bass drumming, may not sound like an obvious fit. But it’s the calling card of Melbourne, Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris, who will perform at The Rock Box on Sunday, Oct. 15.

Yes, the band features slamming death metal elements, including the harsh vocals of Marc “Xenoyr” or “Xen” Campbell. However, what separates it from the extreme metal pack is the addition of Tim Charles, a classically schooled violinist.

Under Charles’ leadership — he also provides Ne Obliviscaris’ striking clean vocals — the band has made long flamenco and waltz passages, not to mention infectious melodies, part of its sound. Although some have called the combination “gypsy metal,” the members of the band argue that its music falls under the larger umbrella of progressive metal.

For 20 years now, NeO — as the fans call the band —has delivered powerful live shows and albums, most recently Exul, which dropped in March.

We talked to Charles via Zoom about the band’s loyal fans, how its unusual sound developed and more.

You’re Australian, but you spent time in San Francisco as a youngster. When I was a little kid, my dad was a politician, and he spent a lot of time away in Canberra, which is where the federal parliament is here in Australia. He was a member from 1980 to 1990. By 1990, I was 8 years old. At that point in time, my parents had four kids under 10. I think my mom thought maybe it might be nice for dad to be around a little bit more. You know what life is like for a politician pretty much anywhere you are in the world. So, he left politics and ended up being given a position as consul general in San Francisco. It’s a three-year role, so our family went off. It was this semi-bizarre three-year period where we were living in a government house that was enormous. Then we came back to Australia and back to this normal, middle-class lifestyle. I love it in San

Francisco, and I still have friends there. Before this tour I’m stopping by San Francisco for a couple of days to see a Giants game with a friend of mine.

A baseball game? That’s a very American kind of thing.

I played baseball as a kid back in Australia. I was 11 when I came back to Australia. I had a complete American accent. It’s still a thing. People in Australia say, “Where are you from?” I’m Australian, but my accent is a bit weird because I was in the U.S. as a kid, and I travel the world a lot.

When did you start playing violin? I was about 6 1/2. I’d been learning for a year, year-and-a-half. I just continued from there, and it’s 30, 35 years later. Whenever I get a compliment about my violin playing, I say, “It took me 35 years, so you’d think that after 35 years of practicing, you’d be pretty good.” Literally some of my very first memories of my life are my first violin lessons.

It seems like the band started off as more “traditional” extreme metal, for lack of a better term. Then some of the folk and flamenco influences started to come in as the core group got more comfortable with each other. Is that fair to say?

Yeah, the original idea behind bringing in a violin was Xen’s. He wanted a black metal thing with that classical, symphonic ele-

ment. We actually didn’t end up sounding like any of those things. Instead, it ended up being this more progressive influence and then bringing in stuff from a lot of different genres. We liked it even if it was kind of weird or we hadn’t heard bands do that before. Xen and I took it very seriously, which is kind of funny looking back, because we weren’t really very good.

You’ve had real success with using crowdfunding to pay for album releases and overseas tours. What is it about Ne Obliviscaris that inspires such fan loyalty?

I often say to people that we don’t seem to have too many fair-weather fans who kind of like us. People either don’t get us at all or we’re one of their favorite bands. Maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. It definitely seems that way, because of the fans we do have, there’s a really good number of them that are what you call superfans who come to every show or come to five shows on the same tour or travel around or buy every edition of vinyl that we ever release. We just do our own thing, and we’ve attracted people who connect with that.

For more of our interview with Tim Charles, including the crazy story of the band’s first American gigs, visit bit.ly/48yq4K1.

$28-$32, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15, The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St. (210) 772-1443, therockboxsa.com.

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 Season of Mist Records

Love, Loss and Rock ’n’

Roll

Nashville-based Bluephoria will bring its diverse sounds to San Antonio in support of a major-label debut

BY DANNY CERVANTES

The COVID-19 pandemic brought life to a standstill for most bands and musicians. However, for Reign LaFreniere, lead vocalist and guitarist of Bluphoria, it served as inspiration for the band’s major-label debut.

“The pandemic started during the most important part of college, between my sophomore and junior years,” said LaFreniere, 23. “It was a weird time to be growing up and trying to find out who you are as a person.”

Appropriately, themes of love and loss in the midst of the isolation dominate the diverse tracks on the Nashville-based band’s self-titled album, which dropped in May.

San Antonio fans will be able to take in Bluphoria’s sound during a Thursday, Oct. 12, performance at Sam’s Burger Joint — its second stop on a tour promoting the release. It’s co-headlining the 29-city tour with Texas-raised singer-songwriter Noah Vonne.

LaFreniere talked with the Current via Zoom about his musical roots, the paradox of today’s music industry and how his love of “yacht rock” inspired a song on the new album. The following interview is edited for length and clarity.

Can you tell us about your first musical memories?

I come from a very musical family. My mom and sister can sing and dance circles around me. (Laughs.) I remember I tried to write a song, and I made it a point I never wanted to write a song about love. It was about flowers and oceans. It’s funny, because now most of our songs are about love.

I first picked up a guitar in high school because I heard the soundtrack to the video game The Last of Us. I made films back then, so I wanted to make my own soundtracks.

It’s interesting how important game soundtracks have become to your generation, the way movie soundtracks were for ’90s kids.

Yeah, a lot of video games have these iconic soundtracks that were inspired by famous films, like the Indiana Jones movies and Star Wars. The art form easily passed from the medium to video games and their representation of that nostalgia.

You’ve previously stated that Bluphoria is a rock ’n’ roll band. No qualifiers like “alternative” or “indie”?

It’s hard when you try to pigeonhole a sound into a genre, when you put too many there, subset upon subset. We are a rock band.

Do you feel it’s harder or easier for a band like Bluphoria to get known today with the way we listen to music?

There’s pros and cons to it. Technically, it’s easier, since so many bands can get their name out and remain independent. But you also have the power of a label promoting your band and trying to win over the internet. I feel like I would have done better before the internet age, mostly because I’m not good at social media. (Laughs.) I would have liked it more grassroots, going town to town, which nowadays doesn’t work as well as throwing up a TikTok. It’s given a lot of opportunity to people, but the no man’s land between a successful indie underground act and being famous is larger now.

How did the new album Bluphoria come together?

We wrote 50 to 80 songs, and there weren’t enough slots on the album. The best songs oriented around love and loss during COVID, and our experiences through that time, like getting in relationships. We captured that energy and the most powerful theme was how we were impacted by the pandemic. We curated the album around that theme.

“Driving Through Fire” is a propelling rock song. What was the inspiration behind it?

I was listening to a lot of Elvis and gospel, and I wanted a gospel chorus with a classic rock interjection. It then dials down to a bit of a British Invasion feel. I wanted the song to feel larger than us. We wanted it to have the energy of being pent up in our town and wanting to get out of there.

“Pretty People” feels a bit alt-country. Where did that sound come from?

It’s one of my favorite songs because I love the rhythm behind it, driven by the bass beat. I love yacht rock, The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. I wanted a song that carried that energy and groove.

Is this Bluphoria’s first big tour?

This is the most dates we’ve done at once. It’s a long haul, but it’s exciting and we’re ready for the adventure.

Have you ever been to San Antonio?

I have not been, but I know a lot about your basketball team and you’ve got that new kid [Victor Wembanyama].

$15-$60, 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com.

Jena Yannone

critics’ picks

Thursday, Oct. 5

Bill Frisell

Journeyman jazz guitarist Bill Frisell is known for incorporating a wide variety of styles into his lyrical playing, especially American roots music. His latest release, Four, showcases the virtuoso working in a quartet that uses improvisation and sophisticated interplay to explore themes of loss and renewal. While Frisell boasts a long creative relationship with avant-oddball John Zorn, expect a tasteful, contemplative evening of engaging improvisation during this appearance. $60-$70, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Jazz, TX, 312 Pearl Parkway, Building 6, (210) 332-9836, jazztx.com. — Mike McMahan

Friday, Oct. 6

The Ocean Blue, Motorcade

The Ocean Blue crashed onto the early alternative shores of the late ’80s with the hit single “Between Something and Nothing,” which showed off the band’s jangly sensibilities. After a few albums with Sire Records, the band went indie for 1999’s Davy Jones’ Locker. Despite a limited run, this album grew to mythic status with fans on what lead singer David Schelzel calls the group’s “most eclectic and least fussy record.” The Ocean Blue is touring behind the newly remastered Davy Jones’ Locker, a release that bridges the gap from New Order to Blur to modern day peers such as Beach House. $30-$250, 8:30 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — Danny Cervantes

Sunday, Oct. 8

Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Sean Wheeler Fake Emos, Fiend Without a Face, Cliff & Ivy, The Hares, Hickoids

This stacked bill, dubbed “The Sideshow en Satantonio” pulls together a wild-ass assortment of rockabilly, cowpunk, goth, country and rock ’n’roll. Tav Falco’s Panther Burns are a pioneering outfit who helped create the psychobilly sound, but that’s not the only draw here. Fiend Without a Face is a similar-minded combo helmed by Mastodon guitarist-singer Brent Hinds. Throw in California punk lifer Sean Wheeler, Alaskan goth duo Cliff & Ivy and two strong local combos — The Hares and Hickoids — and you’ve got a lineup that throws back to the heyday of the’80s underground, when bills were big, varied and full of musical chance-taking. $15, 5 p.m., The Lonesome Rose, 2114 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 455-0233, thelonesomerose.com. — Dalia Gulca

Stick To Your Guns, Comeback Kid, Orthodox, Spirit World

This Sunday night lineup will feature SoCal hardcore outfit Stick To Your Guns playing its 2012 release Diamond in its entirety. Tourmates

Comeback Kid, a blue-collar punk band from Winnipeg, Canada, can draw a setlist from seven albums of expertly executed hardcore to keep fans thrashing and bashing. $25.50$27, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Monday, Oct. 9

Shinedown, Papa Roach, Spiritbox

Radio hard rockers Shinedown headline a stacked bill that includes nu-metal vets Papa Roach, which is still pouring sauce from its big bottle of rock. Evidence? Most bands aren’t still getting hits this far in their careers, but Papa Roach hit the charts last year with “Cut The Line (feat. Beartooth).” Don’t sleep on opener Spiritbox, who have been making big waves with a mix of metalcore and Evanescence-style goth metal. $20 and up*, 6:40 p.m., Freeman Coliseum, 3201 E. Houston St., (210) 226-1177, freemancoliseum.com. — MM

Thurday, Oct. 12

MILLY, Rocket

The emo-meets-indie sound of MILLY centers singer-songwriter Brendan Dyer and bass player Yarden Erez. After relocating from Connecticut to Los Angeles, Dyer turned his solo project into a band with the addition of Erez, and together they recaptured the feel of ’90s indie rock. The band released its debut album, Eternal Ring, in 2022. Fellow Angeleno act

Rocket opens with a lo-fi approach to rock and pop. $15, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Friday, Oct. 13

Chris Conde, Wayne Holtz, Name Sayers

Self-described “queer rapper” Chris Conde has recently returned from a European jaunt on the heels of their single “C.O.M.B.” Conde — a former Current staff writer — spent their formative years in SA, though they relocated to the hipster ground zero of Brooklyn last year. The rapper is reportedly working on a new record, which they hope to release next year. Conde also guested on the recent release from Austin outfit Name Sayers, which will be bringing its signature gothic folk sound to the bill. $7-$10, 8 p.m., 502 Bar, 502 Embassy Oaks, (210) 2578125, 502bar.com — MM

Los Lobos, Josh Baca & The Hot Tamales

After five decades, roots rock outfit Los Lobos has honed its live show into high art, and it continues to rack up 100 gigs a year, which makes the musicians’ interplay something close to telepathic. From the early hits like “Will the Wolf Survive?” to recent albums such as 2021’s California songwriting-themed Native Sons, the members of Los Lobos continue to show off their versatility as performers, songwriters and interpreters of others’ music. If you doubt Los Lobos ability to get outside the box, check out the group’s amazing cover of the Grateful

Dead’s “Bertha.” Sold out, 8 p.m., Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Road, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall. com. — MM

Saturday, Oct. 14

Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Roxanne Shante, Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Spinderella Hip-hop turns 50 this year, and this package tour, dubbed Masters of The Mic: Hip Hop 50, features plenty of pioneers capable of rocking a block party. Expect the “Freaks” to get the “Street Talkin’,” and remember there “Ain’t No Half-Steppin” in the Alamo City or you’ll deserve “Roxanne’s Revenge.” $25-$99.50, 7 p.m., The Espee, 1174 E. Commerce St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — DC

Sunday, Oct. 15

The Stools, Sex Mex

Detroit punk trio The Stools are touring the South in support of the new album: R U Saved? It’s a high-energy and abrasive record that proceeds at a breakneck pace and includes uncharacteristically evocative and strange lyrics. Taken together, it adds up to a frenzy of ’80s punk influences mixed with modern-day eccentricity. The San Antonio-based post-punk outfit Sex Mex will open. The pairing represents some of the best output in the current punk revival. $10, 9 p.m., Vice Versa, 123 Heiman St., (210) 977-0566, instagram.com/viceversa. sanantonio. — DG

Bill Frisell

Carole D’Inverno

EMPLOYMENT

Engineer I (San Antonio, TX), Preparation & development of drilling plans for geotechnical investigation. Coord & conduct necessary process to obtain excavation permits (from municipalities, counties, state) locate, stake borings & clear utilities. Conduct proper sampling, record field tests (SPT, TCP), & complete accurate logging of soil samples. Complete preparation of lab test assignments to obtain representative geotechnical data. Complete reduction of geotechnical data & preparation of geotechnical boring logs (gINT, Wincore). Perform pavement design analysis (MFPS), slope stability analysis (SLIDE), settlement analysis (Settle3D), pier capacity analysis (Wincore, LPile), & retaining wall analysis (MSEW). Attend meetings & communicate w/clients to estab their needs & solve design issues. Prep & review reports & proposals; Review lab testing & assist w/field operations. Reqs, Mser’s deg in Civil Engg & 1-yr relev exp. Mail resumes to HR at Arias & Associates inc. 142 Chula Vista Dr., San Antonio, TX, 78232.

FIGHT

WITH EVERY STEP!

RENTAL FLEET AND ACQUISITION OF A MAJOR CONSTRUCTION DEALERSHIP AUCTION

~ BottomLine Equipment ~

~ H & V Equipment ~

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 TH @ 10:00 AM

8803 SE Loop 410 San Antonio, TX 78223

HIGHLIGHTS: 11 TELE. FORKLIFTS: Unused Skytrak 1254(cab), (2)Unused Skytrak 10054(cab), Unused Skytrak 10042, 2019 JLG 1255, 2010 JLG 10054, 2020 JLG 943, JLG G6-42A, 2016-2015 Genie GTH-1056, 2014 Genie GTH-844, 3 ARTI. HAUL TRUCKS: 2015 Bell B50D, (2)2023 Bell B30, 75 HYD. EXCAVATORS: 2018 Cat 330FL, 2021-2020-2018 Cat 320GC, 2020-2018 Cat 320, 2017 Cat 313FLGC, 2022-2021-2017 Cat 313FL, 2019-(2)2018 Linkbelt 350X4, (2)2019-2018 Linkbelt 300X4, 2018 Linkbelt 210X4, (2)2015 Doosan DX350LC-5, 2012 Doosan DX300LC, 2023 Doosan DX225LC-7, 2022-2020-2018 Doosan DX225LC-5, (2)2022 Doosan

DX180LC-5, 2023 Doosan DX140LC-7, (2)2015 Doosan DX140LC-5, 2023 Doosan DX89R-7, 2022 Doosan

DX85R-3, 2022 Doosan DX63-3, (6)2023 Doosan DX50Z-7, (3)2023 Doosan DX35Z-7, (6)2023 Doosan DX27Z-7, (3)2019 Kobelco SK260LC-10, (3)2019 Kobelco SK210LC-10, 2012 Kobelco SK210-9, 2019 Kobelco SK140SRLC-5, (2)2020 Kobelco SK55SRX-6, 2016 Kobelco SK25R-6E, 2014 Case CX210LC, (4)2019 JD 35G, (3)2019 JD 26G, (3)2019 JD 17G, 2013 Kubota KX91R, 2015 Kubota KX080, 2015 Kubota KX057, (2)New Cherry KV12, New AGT L12, LONG REACH EXCAVATOR: 2018 Linkbelt 350X4, 4 ROUGH TERRAIN CRANES: 2009-(2)2008-2006 Broderson IC-80-3G, 7 MOTOR GRADERS: 2016-(2)2014 JD 770G, 2015 JD 770GP, 2015 JD 672G, JD 670G(ripper), 2022 Sany SM200C-8, 18 RUBBER TIRED LOADERS: 2020 Cat 980M, 2017 Cat 966M, 2019 Cat 950GC, 2019 Cat 938M, (2)2019-2018 Cat 930M, 2015 Cat 926M, 2019 JD 644K, 2012 Doosan DL420, 2023-2022 Doosan DL250-7, 2015 Doosan DL250-3, (2)2023 Doosan DL220-7, 2021 Doosan DL2005, 2015 Doosan DL200-3, Case 621B, 25 CRAWLER TRACTORS: 2011 Cat D6TLGP, (2)2020 Cat D5KLGP, 2018 Cat D5K2LGP, (2)2020 Cat D3, 2014 Cat D3KXL, 2009 JD 850JLGP, 2020-2019-2014 JD 750K, (2)20212015-2014 JD 650K, (3)2015 JD 550KLGP, 2021-(2)2020 JD 450K, (2)2019 JD 450KXL, 2016 JD 450JXL, 2021 Komatsu D61PX-24, (2)2023 Doosan DD100, 4 CRAWLER CARRIERS: 2021-2018 Terramac RT9, (2)2019 Morooka MST2200VD, 16 BACKHOES: 2020-2019-(3)2015-2014 Case 580N, 2020-2018 Case 580NEP(4x4), 2020 JD 310SL(4x4), 2019 JD 310EL, 2015 JD 310LEP(cab), 2007 JD 310SJ(4x4), 2017 Cat 420F2(4x4), (3)2015 Terex TL840R, WATER TANKER: Cat 613B, SOIL RECLAIMER: 2009 Cat RM-300, 15 VIBRATORY

ROLLERS: 2019 Bomag BW213D-5, 2020-(5)2019 Bomag BW211D-5, 2019 Bomag BW177D-5, 2018 Hamm H7i, 2018 Hamm H10i, 2017 Hamm H5i, 2014 Dynapac CA2500D, 2010 Dynapac CA362PD, 2013 Dynapac CA150PD, 2014 Case DV210, 23 TRACKED SKID STEERS: 2018 Cat 299D3, (3)2018 Cat 299D2, (3)2020 Cat 289D3, 2019 Takeuchi TL12, (4)2020 Takeuchi TL10V2-CR, JD 333E, (2)2022 Wacker ST31, (2)2022-2021 Wacker SW24, 2021 Wacker SW16, 2019 Bobcat T650, (2)2013 Terex PT110F, 2015 Terex PT75, 2 SKID

STEERS: 2022 Cat 262D3, 2014 JD 315, ROUGH TERRAIN FORKLIFT: JCB 940, 6 FORKLIFT: Hyster H190XL, (2)2023 Heli CPYD25, Xtreme XT60, 2008 Noble RC60, Yale 050T, 2 BOOM LIFTS: 2007 Snorkel TB60, Genie Z45/23(150hrs.), 3 SCISSOR LIFTS: 2016 Snorkel S4732E, 2016 Snorkel S3219E, 2015 JLG 20MVL, HYDROSEEDER: Turfmaker 1200(trailer mtd.), AIR COMPRESSOR: 2008 IR T301600XG, 3 GENERATORS: 2017

Atlas Copco QAS45, (2)Airman SDG25, 3 LIGHT PLANTS: (2)2021 Allmand NLGR, 2013 Doosan LSC, 4 WATER

PUMPS: (2)2013 Pioneer 10in., 2014-2013 Bakercorp 6in., 30 AGL TRACTORS: (2)2019 JD 6155R(4x4), 2014

JD 5100E(4x4), (3)2017-2016 Case Magnum 310(4x4), 2022 Case 110A(4x4), (5)2022-(5)2021-2020-(2)2019

Zetor P100SS(4x4), 2018 Zetor P100C4(4x4), 2020 Zetor ZM229(4x4), 2018 Zetor M80C4(4x4), 2022 Zetor ZC55(4x4), 2018 Zetor Major HT45(4x4), NH 6640(4x4), 2005 NH TS100(4x4), 2019 Zetor Front Loader(w/ GP), VAN TRK: 2018 Isuzu(s/a), 3 CONCRETE TRKS: (2)2019 Kenworth, 2020 Peterbilt, 2013 Freightliner, 2

CONCRETE TRKS & TRAILERS: 2002 Putzmeister 28M(Mack Truck), 2013 Putzmeister TK50, 3 ROLLBACK

TRKS: (2)2020-2019 Isuzu(s/a), FLATBED TRK: 2012 Ford F550, 3 CAB & CHASSIS: 2011 Ford F550, 20172016 Ford F350, 9 SERVICE TRKS: 2018-2007-2004 IH 4300, 1998 IH 4700, 2012 Ford F750, 2014 Ford F550, 2008 Ford F450XL, 2001-1999 Ford F450, 9 TRK TRACTORS: 2024 Peterbilt 567(heavy haul, tri., 46R, DF), 2013 Peterbilt 367(tri.), 2024 Kenworth(heavy taul, DF, tri.), 2002 Kenworth W900, 2019 Mack Anthem(t/a), 2017 Freightliner Cascadia 113(t/a), 2001 Freightliner FL60, 2016 Cat CT660, 2007 Sterling A9500(t/a), DUMP TRK: 1994 Kenworth(t/a), HYDROVAC TRK: 2011 Peterbilt(Gapvax, HD, tri.), 8 PICKUPS: 2020 Dodge Ram 2500, 2019 Dodge Ram 2500HD, 2007 Ford F250XL, 2015-2014-2012 Ford F150, 2007 Chevy 2500HD, 2012 Chevy 1500, SUV: 2018 Ford Explorer, 6 DETACHABLE TRAILERS: (3)New Witzco RG52, 2012 Eager Beaver 55GLS/3, 2018 Eager Beaver 50GSL/3, 2016 Eager Beaver 35GSL(t/a), FLATBED TRAILER: 2016 Dorsey(tri.), 2 TAGALONGS: 2021 Proco 8320(t/a), 1999 Trailtech 20ft.(t/a), FLIP AXLE: 2012 Eager Beaver, 2 UTILITY VEHICLES: 2018 JD

XUV560, 2017 Kubota RTV-X1100CW, MULTI-USE CONTAINER, 2 CONTAINERS, PORTABLE BATHROOM, 4

SCRAP HOPPERS, PRESSURE WASHERS, 3 SPECIAL BUCKETS: (2)Like New MB Jaw Crucher(70,000lb.), Indeco FP20 Rotating Concrete Crusher, 9 HYDRAULIC HAMMERS, 20 EXCAVATOR THUMBS, EXCAVATOR

RIPPER, 42 EXCAVATOR BUCKETS, 155 ATTACHMENTS: (33)Skid Steer, (38)Excavator, (18)Wheel Loader, (55) Backhoe, 28 NEW SUPPORT EQUIPMENT.

SITE PH: (262) 903-6269 • TX LIC: #15791 Jack Lyon

ALEX LYON & SON

SALES MANAGERS & AUCTIONEERS, INC., BRIDGEPORT, NY 13030

Ph: (315) 633-2944 • www.lyonauction.com