The ugly truth about Texas AG Ken Paxton's voter-intimidation crusade
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in this issue
11 Feature
The Damage Done
Even if courts shut down Paxton’s ‘election integrity’ moves, he’s already intimidating Texas voters
07 News
The Opener News in Brief
Missions Accomplished?
Nirenberg’s eager backing of ballpark project not the best legacy to be remembered for
Bad Takes Republicans’ overzealous ‘election security’ moves are thinly veiled voter suppression
15 Calendar
Our picks of things to do
19 Arts
Wild Cities
Texas author Christopher Brown in San Antonio to discuss book on urban edgelands
23 Screens
Screen Time
The 4:30 Movie cast discusses Kevin Smith flicks and impactful cinematic memories
25 Food
Cold Comfort
Coffee cocktails, including the ubiquitous espresso martini, are refreshing any time of year
Perfectly Paired
San Antonio riverside dining event Top Shelf making debut on Sept. 28
Home Cooking
San Antonio Spurs add 12 new locally owned dining concepts to Frost Bank Center for new season
Still Shining
Long-running alt-rock act Silversun
Pickups coming to San Antonio’s Aztec Theatre
Critics’ Picks
Long-running alt-rock act Silversun Pickups coming to San Antonio’s Aztec Theatre
39 Music Music for Listeners
KRTU-FM’s indie-music program celebrates 25 years with two free concerts
On the Cover: Texas AG Ken Paxton’s recent maneuvers to ensure “election integrity” are an exercise in voter intimidation, critics charge. Design: David Loyola. Ken Paxton Photo: Gage Skidmore.
Courtesy Photo / Texas AG’s Office
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SELLBUY TRADE
That Rocks/That Sucks
HA new filing with the Federal Election Commission shows that a super PAC partially funded with money from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s podcast distribution deal with iHeartMedia is funneling big bucks back into his campaign. In the second quarter, Truth and Courage PAC paid out $1 million to fuel Cruz’s re-election bid — even though federal candidates are not allowed to solicit or receive funds on behalf of super PACs. Cruz maintains the arrangement is legal.
The city of San Antonio has brought five new solar panel sites online as part of a $30 million clean energy push it’s aiming to complete by 2026. In total, the city plans to build new solar panel sites with canopy shading at 42 municipal sites. Once complete, the project is expected to offset 11% of the city’s electricity consumption from its buildings and yield up to $11 million in savings over its first 25 years.
Climate change will likely worsen food insecurity for the country’s most vulnerable people, including those in the Alamo City, a top official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said during an appearance at the San Antonio Food Bank last week. Admiral Rachel L. Levine noted that rising temperatures in the Southwest are harming native food sources and making it harder for farmers to grow crops, driving up prices. Low-income residents face the brunt of those changes in the form of higher prices, she added.
HThe two top executives at San Antonio’s Morgan’s Wonderland took home the Leadership Award at the Golden Ticket Awards, the annual ceremony recognizing achievements in the theme park industry. Morgan’s Wonderland, which is fully accessible to people with special needs, has welcomed more than 3 million guests since opening in 2010. Park founder and award-recipient Gordon Hartman came up with the idea to open a fully accessible park after a group of children refused to let his daughter play with them. — Abe Asher
YOU SAID IT!
“Don’t lie to us. The media, the mayor, City Council — if it’s already sold, tell us the truth and tell us the truth tomorrow. If you can’t tell the truth, then get out of City Council and get somebody that can be truthful to us.”
Someone needs to inform Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that Texas has real problems. Profound and pressing problems.
For one, we’re the nation’s most-uninsured state. According new U.S. Census data, 21.7% of Texas adults age 19 to 64 went without health insurance in 2023, nearly double the national rate.
We’re also regularly ranked near the bottom when it comes to worker protections, and our unemployment benefits cover less than 10% of the average cost of living, a recent CNBC study showed.
When it comes to public schools, Texas is $4,000 behind the national average in per-pupil spending, putting it in the bottom 10. What’s more, our basic allotment for school spending hasn’t gone up since 2019.
None of those things appear to matter much to Patrick, who recently released a second list of 21 legislative priorities for the Texas Senate, the body over which he presides and sets the agenda.
Rather than calling for legitimate solutions to the state’s most serious shortfalls, Patrick’s directives double down on extreme right-wing priorities more attuned to fanning the flames of culture war.
Striking against a familiar Republican bogeyman, for example, Patrick wants to “expose” how Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs at universities are “damaging and not aligned with state workforce demands.” Even after state lawmakers passed legislation last session banning DEI programs at public universities — a move resulting in layoffs and confusion — he now wants to “examine programs and certifi-
cates” at other schools, presumably the private ones.
In an effort to replicate laws recently passed by other red states, Patrick also wants to ban protesters from wearing masks, something he suggested they’re doing so they can get away with crime. Civil rights groups and immunocompromised people argue such bans solve nothing and violate the rights of people to protect their identities and stay healthy.
And in what’s become a familiar Republican drumbeat, Patrick is also demanding that lawmakers discuss proposals to keep non-citizens from voting. Never mind, of course, that state laws — including two passed in 2021 — already ensure that only citizens cast ballots. And never mind that it’s exceedingly rare that non-citizens even try to register to vote or for elections officials not to flag the applications of those who do, voting experts say.
Until Texans decide to vote this assclown out of office, expert more skewed priorities and divisive legislation from the state legislature. And, as a result, expect the Lone Star State’s real, pressing and profound and problems to snowball. — Sanford Nowlin
San Antonio City Council voted 9-2 Tuesday to move ahead with a $160 million minor-league baseball stadium development — even though it will mean the demolition of the Soap Factory Apartments, one of downtown’s few affordable rental options. After members of council appeared to balk at the initial plan, developer Weston Urban and the city each agreed to provide $250,000 to help Soap Factory residents with relocation. Additionally, those who relocate to vacant Soap Factory apartments not affected by Phase 1 of the project would receive $2,500.
A former Rey Feo is going to prison after a federal judge sentenced him for his alleged role in conspiring with government employees in a multimillion-dollar scheme to rig Army housekeeping and janitorial contracts to benefit his
family business. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery handed Ken Flores a four-year prison sentence, while his brother, Christopher Flores, received two years behind bars. Their mother, Irma Flores, received five years of probation. The trio also owe $3.7 million in restitution.
The trial of a lawsuit filed by former state Sen. Wendy Davis and two others against members of the “Trump Train” caravan of Republican activists that nearly ran a Democratic campaign bus off of I-35 four years ago began last week in Austin
The suit argues that members of the caravan, who were applauded by former President Donald Trump on social media, violated state law and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 by conspiring to disrupt the campaign. — Abe Asher
Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
Missions Accomplished?
Nirenberg’s eager backing of ballpark project not the best legacy to be remembered for
BY MICHAEL KARLIS
Editor’s Note: The following is a piece of opinion and analysis.
Termed-out San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg is clearly looking to cement his legacy. However, there’s a good chance he won’t be remembered as the leader who saved the the San Antonio Missions, the city’s minor-league baseball team, from relocation but as another mayor in a long line who built something San Antonio didn’t need.
Nirenberg’s eagerness to cement a deal to give the Missions a new, $160 million stadium brings to mind the zeal with which former Mayor Henry Cisneros pursued big projects that would “put San Antonio on the map.” Those included building a SeaWorld in the middle of South Texas, constructing a football stadium without a team and the unforgettable “pink elephant” of a West Side mall that was ultimately torn down. Similar arguments swirled when Nirenberg and other members of City Council voted Sept. 12 to move ahead with the city-financed ballpark. If only San Antonio had yet another sports facility, it would finally feel like the nation’s seventh-largest city, the logic went. Others on the dais said the 4,500-capac-
ity stadium is needed to revitalize San Antonio’s lackluster downtown.
The truth is, Austin didn’t evolve from a sleepy college town to an international tech hub — and one U.S. News & World Report recently named among the nation’s most livable cities — because it has UT football or an MLS soccer team.
No, Austin came from behind and left San Antonio in the dust because it made strategic decisions to invest in industry — real industry, rather than tourism and service jobs. Like every other city but San Antonio in the so-called Texas Triangle, it has a top-100 nationally ranked university.
Meanwhile, WalletHub has ranked San Antonio among the least-educated large U.S. cities for three consecutive years. In 2021, a report by the San Antonio Public Library found that a quarter of the city’s population was functionally illiterate.
It’s little surprise San Antonio consistently ranks among the most impoverished large cities in the nation. Local leaders have known about the factors that contribute to our problem with generational poverty and have had decades to right them.
False promise
The San Antonio Missions’ sports and entertainment district won’t spark
meaningful economic development downtown because that’s not how economic development works, regardless of whatever Centro San Antonio CEO Trish DeBerry says.
True economic development starts with education. Employers want to relocate headquarters and locate investments in areas that offer educated workforces. Municipalities with highly educated workforces also have an easier time building their own resident local economy through entrepreneurship and investment.
That’s the organic manner in which revitalization occurs.
Meanwhile, Weston Urban’s promises and Centro San Antonio’s claims that a minor-league ballpark will jumpstart downtown investment seem flimsy and hollow.
Weston Urban co-founder and CEO Randy Smith, the public face of the stadium proposal, told the Express-News his company plans to build 1,500 luxury apartments in the northeast corner of downtown surrounding the new baseball stadium.
It will be interesting to see how many people in this low-wage city can pay $1,500 a month to live in downtown San Antonio.
Additionally, the idea of building two competing sports districts on different
sides of downtown is a questionable one, experts in publicly financed sports facilities have pointed out. If the San Antonio Spurs do end up at Hemisfair, then why would any restaurant or bar owner be enticed to relocate to Weston Urban’s sports district?
Besides, the financing mechanism being used to pay for the stadium has its own problems, those same experts argue. If business owners do relocate to the Houston Street Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone that will fund the Missions’ facility, that tax money will be removed from San Antonio’s general revenue stream. How good a deal is that, considering the city is already facing a $68.2 million deficit over the next three years?
Schemes vs. substance
But don’t worry, folks, the minor league baseball stadium is going to fix everything, advocates promise. San Antonio will finally be a world-class city. If San Antonio truly wants to be recognized as a city with that distinction, it needs to invest in people rather than pricy buildings. Instead of pumping public money into a minor league baseball stadium or a $4 billion sports district at Hemisfair, it needs to invest in education. Nirenberg deserves some credit for openly discussing San Antonio’s problem with generational poverty and trying to apply an equity lens to the city’s longstanding problems. However, it’s a shame that he didn’t appear to pursue those issues with the same vigor as he did the Missions development.
The Damage Done
Even
if courts shut down Paxton’s ‘election integrity’ moves, he’s already intimidating Texas voters
BY SANFORD NOWLIN
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s crusade to uphold “election integrity” is legally flimsy, not to mention motivated by voter intimidation, voting-rights advocates argue.
However, even if the courts or the U.S. Justice Department shut down the Republican attorney general’s efforts, some of the damage is already done, according to those same advocates.
Paxton’s current legal maneuvering is designed to scare progressive groups away from registering likely Democratic voters ahead of the November election, and it’s also likely to keep some of those same voters away from the polls.
“I’m not blaming the media here, but when people read about this or hear about what the attorney general is doing, they get concerned,” said Albert Kauffman, a professor at St. Mary’s Law School who specializes in voting rights. “They ask, ‘Well, could I get in trouble for voting?’ Or, ‘What if the state comes after me? What if they raid my house because I had 20 people over to talk to them about an election and gave out voter-registration materials?’ I think that it adds to an atmosphere of fear, and I think that’s a real negative about these lawsuits.”
In recent weeks, Paxton sued Bexar County to prevent it from hiring an outside contractor to mail voter-registration cards and postage-paid return envelopes to unregistered voters. On Monday, a state district judge declined to grant the temporary injunction Paxton sought, but his office could seek an appeal or take other legal action.
What’s more, Paxton’s office approved raids on the homes of several South Texas Democratic activists, including that of an 87-year-old woman. Paxton said the raids were part of a two-year-old investigation into allegations of voter fraud.
Last month, Paxton also announced he’s investigating whether organizations are “unlawfully registering
noncitizens to vote” after Fox News host Maria Bartiromo claimed without proof in a social media post that unnamed groups were registering “immigrants” to vote in North Texas.
In the wake of those actions, leading Hispanic civil-rights group the League of United Latin American Citizens and a group of Texas Democratic lawmakers asked the U.S. Justice Department to open an investigation.
And the nonprofit group Jolt, which focuses on boosting Latinos’ civic participation, last week filed a federal lawsuit against Paxton, arguing his investigation into noncitizen voting would cause irreparable harm to the group and its workers by publicly disclosing their information to the public.
“Even if the state loses this lawsuit [with Bexar County], and even if they are stopped from these raids on voter groups in Texas, the LULAC activists and everything, these things do indirectly intimidate people from voting,” added Kauffman, spent nearly 20 years as senior litigating attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in San Antonio.
Parroting MAGA claims
Paxton has been among the staunchest defenders of former President Donald Trump’s discredited claims that he lost the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud. Indeed, the AG now faces a State Bar of Texas ethics complaint that accuses him of dishonest behavior when he filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Trump’s election defeats in four swing states.
Voting-rights advocates also maintain that Paxton’s spurious claims that noncitizens are casting ballots echo a common refrain from Trump’s MAGA playbook.
The former president has repeatedly claimed without supporting evidence that noncitizens are voting in huge
numbers. Multiple large-scale studies show that’s not the case, and multiple state and federal safeguards prevent people who aren’t citizens from being able to register.
Confusion and intimidation
Spurious as such claims are, voting-rights experts said they’re part of a larger push by Republicans to throw likely Democratic voters from the rolls and create confusion that may keep people away from the ballot box.
In Alabama, for example, roughly 3,200 voters got letters from the state saying they’re suspected of being noncitizens and now must update their registrations to cast a ballot. The Alabama Secretary of State’s Office later clarified that people who got the notice still can vote if they bring their driver’s license or Social Security card, but National Public Radio reports that information wasn’t included in the original letter.
Closer to home, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued a press
release saying that 6,500 “noncitizens” who shouldn’t have been registered were recently scrubbed from state voter rolls. A coalition of voting-rights groups asked Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson to clarify whether Abbott’s claim means Texas dropped voters from its rolls within the 90-day period before an election — something that may be a violation of federal law.
“MAGA Republicans are dangerously manufacturing the false issue of non-citizen voting,” Jonah MinkoffZern, co-director of Public Citizen’s Democracy Campaign, said during a recent press briefing on the November election. “This false narrative aims to place barriers on everyday Americans to express our freedom to vote and perpetuate the Big Lie 2.0 so they can again attempt to undermine the results of the 2024 election should they lose. Instead of taking these extraordinary efforts to scapegoat immigrants and prevent Americans from voting, perhaps they should put forward an agenda that addresses the needs of the American people.”
Courtesy Photo / Texas AG’s Office
THE CITY OF SAN ANTONIO IS CURRENTLY HIRING FOR THESE POSITIONS:
• Engineer
• Project Manager
• Administrative Support Professional
• IT
Republicans’ overzealous ‘election security’ moves are thinly veiled voter suppression
BY KEVIN SANCHEZ
Editor’s Note: Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.
The Greek philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis traced the creation of democracy to its roots in ancient Athens.
“According to Athenian law, a citizen who will not take sides while the city is in civil strife becomes atimos (despised) — deprived of political rights,” he wrote. So if you contributed nothing except “sheer indifference,” to quote Aristotle, to the live controversies besetting your community, you were dishonorably discharged from any further participation in public affairs.
In both Belgium and Australia today — alongside a couple dozen other countries — voting is compulsory. To say we in the United States are long on personal liberty and short on civic duty would be putting it far too leniently. Although the past three electoral cycles boasted some of the highest turnouts in more than a century, a full 53% of eligible voters sat out the 2022 midterms, and in San Antonio that year, a measly 44% of registered voters bothered to vote at all. In our hyper-polarized era, even the most innocuous get-out-thevote initiatives are now instantly met with suspicion, lawsuits and disinformed rage.
On cue, litigious Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Bexar County this month to halt a voter-outreach effort approved by our Commissioners Court. Since 2018, Civic Government Solutions has sent more than 10 million mailers to folks around the country with state-specific info on registering to vote, including a postage-paid return envelope addressed to one’s relevant election registrar. Rather than applauding attempts to remedy abysmally low voter engagement, Paxton chose to cast aspersions of partisanship, describing the letters as “blatantly illegal” and “potentially invit[ing] election fraud.”
“Let’s first make one thing clear,” Sophie Feldman, social media maven for the voting-rights news outlet
Democracy Docket, said in response,
“Just because someone was sent a voter registration application does not mean they will be allowed to register and vote.” That’s because the elections office must fully cross-check their relevant information, including their Social Security and driver’s license.
“I’m not out here to try to tip the scale,” Judge Peter Sakai, who heads the Court, said in defense of the proposal.
“What we wanted to do in Bexar County was to reach out and register voters.”
In a recently published explainer piece on election security, the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board posed the question whether we have any reason to question whether our state elections are secure.
The answer? ”No. From 2005 through 2022, among 94 million votes cast in Texas elections, there were 174 total prosecutions for election fraud.”
So, even if all those charges held up, that’s a fraud rate of about 0.000185%.
“More recently, the Chronicle’s Taylor Goldenstein reported that Paxton’s ballyhooed election fraud unit closed a grand total of six cases since September 2022,” the board added.
Contrast the right-wing yarns about undocumented migrants pouring over the border to vote in droves with the very real danger of voter suppression.
“Five years ago, former [Texas] Secretary of State David Whitley was forced to resign after attempting to purge 100,000 suspected ‘noncitizens’ from the voter rolls, even though many were found to be naturalized citizens,” the Chronicle noted.
Fact is, election fraud is mostly a non-issue because it really sucks getting caught. Consider the case of Texas resident Rosa Maria Ortega, a mother of four.
“Having come to this country as a baby and living her entire life in America legally, Ortega cast a ballot five times between 2005 and 2014 mistakenly thinking her green card gave her
the right to vote,” CBS News reported in early 2020.
She received a prison sentence of 8 years. To twist the cruel irony one notch further, the ballots she cast were actually for Republicans, according to news reports.
Would you risk years in prison or deportation to furtively insert a single vote that’s unlikely to swing the final tally?
“The very idea is so illogical,” Alice Clapman, senior counsel at the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Program, told the Texas Tribune. “It’s irresponsible for politicians and others to be fanning the flames of misinformation out there and undermining trust in elections.”
The pro-democracy Brennan Center is waging a campaign against digital-only voting equipment to protect a hard-copy paper trail.
“Nationwide, we expect around 98% of all votes to be cast on paper in the 2024 general election,” the center reported in August. That’s up from 75% only 10 years prior.
Meanwhile, the Brennan Center has been tirelessly debunking myths of widespread voter fraud and “vanishingly rare” noncitizen voting. And if the GOP sincerely cared about election integrity, wouldn’t they want more people to vote, so the potential distortion of any suspect ballots was vastly outnumbered by legit ones?
Because what’s so wrong with simply mailing every voter a ballot? The Republican bastion of Utah conducts all its elections entirely by mail, and in 2018, by coincidence, the six states with the highest percentage of mail-in votes all had GOP state election supervisors.
As Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told the Salt Lake Tribune back in 2016, in addition to increasing turnout, by-mail voting
MLULAC members hold a press conference asking for a federal probe into Texas AG Ken Paxton’s raids of Democratic activists’ homes.
results in a better educated electorate, “because they actually have the ballot, and they have the opportunity to research what’s on it — instead of just getting in the booth and finding out there are three constitutional amendments they had never heard of.”
Are we justified in suspecting that Trumpublicans aren’t really scared of fraud but higher turnout itself?
That might help explain why Paxton raided the home of an 87-year-old LULAC volunteer who dedicated three decades of her life to expanding voter registration among South Texas seniors and veterans. The League of United Latin American Citizens and a group of Democratic lawmakers have called for a federal investigation into Paxton’s alleged intimidation tactics.
But the news hasn’t all been despairing. Michelle Davis, who runs the blog Lone Star Left, was elated to document that the commissioners in Fort Worth’s Tarrant County decided to keep polling locations on college campuses, despite a knavish attempt to scrap them. That decision came about after some 160 people showed up to testify — most urging the county to keep them open.
Political apathy may be a problem for the ages, but win or lose, half the country not voting is a national disgrace. Content with our proverbial bread and circuses, maybe we’re less Greek than we flatter ourselves to be and more latestage Roman.
Zdenko Hanout
THU | 09.19
MUSIC
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER IN CONCERT
International orchestral group GEA Live will take audience members on an auditive adventure through the enthralling world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The symphony will perform this new cult classic’s most iconic instrumentals, timed to a two-hour montage of beloved scenes — everything from flourishing friendships to falling empires. Previously, GEA Live has produced orchestral renderings of film soundtracks including La La Land, Dirty Dancing, Titanic and The Hunger Games. For its newest project, the orchestra collaborated with the original Emmy Award-winning Avatar composer Jeremy Zuckerman, show creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Koneitzco and show editor Jeff Adams. $25-$255, 7:30 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — Caroline Wolff
WED | 09.18
VISUAL ART
LEIGH ANNE LESTER: VAIN FICTIONS OF OUR OWN DEVISING
The title of Leigh Anne Lester’s solo exhibition of new works in an ongoing series, Vain Fictions of Our Own Devising, evokes Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia (1687), which urges human beings not to attempt to transmute the patterns of nature since nature only exists as a constant unto itself. San Antonio artist Lester taunts and manipulates the order of things in her multilayered collages and digital disruptions, creating an ontological ecosystem of her own imagining. In doing so, she probes the fragile balance maintained in both micro and macro ecosystems and questions how deeply the mere touch of the human hand can dislocate or destroy brittle equilibriums. Free, opening reception 6-8 p.m.
Wednesday Sept. 18, artist talk 2-4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 5, open 11 a.m.4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday through Oct. 19, Ruiz-Healey Gallery, 201 E. Olmos Drive, (210) 804-2219, ruizhealyart.com. — Anjali Gupta
Courtesy Photo / Leigh Anne Lester
FRI | 09.20
SPECIAL EVENT
ANCIENT ALIENS LIVE
Conspiracy buffs, ufologists and lovers of quality camp are in for a treat as this 90-minute “experiential extension” of the History Channel’s long-running Ancient Aliens TV program comes to town to explore a wide range of pseudoscientific and pseudohistoric topics. It’s a safe bet the panel of fright-wigged host and producer Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, investigative mythologist William Henry, UK government UFO investigator Nick Pope and ancient-civilizations expert Jason Martell will chew over weighty topics including lost civilizations, interstellar visitations and planar travel. If you’re missing Art Bell’s time behind the mic at Coast to Coast AM, this may be just what you need to get your fix of unrepentant weirdness. $39-$79 with $120 VIP add-on, 7:30 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Sanford Nowlin
SAT | 09.21THU | 10.31
SPECIAL EVENT ZOO
BOO!
The San Antonio Zoo is ushering in the spooky season with the fur-raising fun of its annual Zoo Boo! event. Expect Halloween decor spread across the grounds and a plethora of family friendly activities through Halloween night. Trick-or-treating will take place daily during the last hour of zoo operations — 4-5 p.m. Sunday through Friday, and 6-7 p.m. Saturday. To keep things fresh, every weekend will incorporate a theme. From Medieval regalia to superhero suits to decade-specific get-ups, guests can keep coming back in new costumes and experience a new atmosphere. While guests are encouraged to bring their own candy receptacles, bags will be available for purchase at all zoo gift shops and merchandise carts. Guests of all ages are welcome, but Halloween masks are only permitted for children under 12. Free-$32, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21-Oct. 31, San Antonio Zoo, 3903 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 734-7184, sazoo.org. — CW
Courtesy Photo / Tobin Center
Courtesy Photo / San Antonio Zoo
IRRATIONALLY SPEAKING: COLLAGE AND ASSEMBLAGE IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Ruby City, the resplendent red granite building designed by famed architect Sir David Adjaye, houses the personal collection of legendary San Antonio art patron Linda Pace. The site has only one rotating exhibit annually, and it’s usually an art highlight for the city. Irrationally Speaking will include collage and assemblage work by Leonardo Drew, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Arturo Herrera, Thomas Hirschhorn, Ken Little, Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu, Lorraine O’Grady, Jon Pylypchuk, Deborah Roberts, Martha Rosler and Nancy Spero, among others, providing a wide-ranging view of artists, from local to international, working in a mode that’s flexible, idiosyncratic and highly personal. Ruby City’s permanent collection is also always worth visiting, including the serene outdoor areas which provide a bucolic respite in the middle of Southtown. Free, opening reception 2-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday through August 2025, Ruby City, 150 Camp St., (210) 781-7180, rguthmiller@rubycity. org, rubycity.org. — Neil Fauerso
MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
The Manhattan Short Film Festival is an interesting and novel “microfestival” that occurs at 500 venues around the globe simultaneously and screens shorts from 10 selected filmmakers.The films are typically a mixed bag, but the thrill of seeing a bracing work and perhaps the next Jonathan Glazer or Lynn Ramsey in their developing stages is an unmatched thrill. This year’s festival will once again take place at the art collective Urban-15’s headquarters just south of the Freetail Brewery. $20 per evening, 7-10 p.m. Sept. 27-28 and Oct. 4-5, 2500 S. Presa St., 210)736-1500, events@urban15.org, urban15.org. — NF
Texas author Christopher Brown in San Antonio to dis-
cuss book on urban edgelands
BY SANFORD NOWLIN
Award-winning Texas author Christopher Brown will appear in San Antonio Wednesday, Sept. 18, to talk about his new genre-defying book that explores the spaces where cities and wild nature collide.
A Natural History of Empty Lots documents Brown’s 20-year experiment traversing, living in and writing about these urban edgelands. Publisher Timber Press has called the book a “genre-bending blend of naturalism, memoir and social manifesto for rewilding the city, the self, and society.” It’s also racked up praise from Pulitzer finalist Kelly Link, bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer and esteemed comic-book writer Chuck Wendig.
Austin-based Brown, who’s also an attorney and an author of dystopian science fiction, will appear at the The Twig Bookshop, 306 Pearl Parkway, for a reading and a conversation with fellow naturalist and author Jennifer Bristol. The free event will get underway at 5:30 p.m. Signings by both writers will follow.
We caught up with Brown via phone to talk about A Natural History of Empty Lots, the book’s origins and how people can carve out time for their own explorations of urban nature. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
At its core, this a book about place, and you do a great job using vivid, descriptive language to put us there. How difficult was it to get that dialed in?
I’m glad you had that reaction to it. … In this book, I’m trying to weave together some very disparate kinds of writing or narratives. You have the things that are sort of traditional nature writing, that’s very focused on place, very focused on types of life or landscape. But I was also weaving in literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction and threads of memoir to provide a personal through-line — idea stuff, essay-like stuff.
So, with respect to the writing about place, it’s really challenging, because you want to achieve that effect of describing the very particular thing but also give a reader who’s not familiar with that place a chance to say, “Oh, I can imagine that place in my mind based on this description on the page.” And also you want to help them see their own world and place through a similar lens, if you will, and get the universal from the particular through that.
The landscape of this book is a very specifically Texas kind of landscape. It’s the industrial part of Texas, where you have the sometimes-brutal engineering interventions of the petrochemical industry and other light and heavy industrial
activities that sometimes have the unexpected — and at times wonderful — coincidence of preserving little pockets of wild nature within, because they keep all the other human activity out.
For example, nobody goes down to the stretch of the river behind factories because there are big fences cutting them off. Or people don’t typically go paddling in Houston up in the creeks that are feeding into the ship channel because they’re afraid they might breathe something unhealthy.
And so, I was trying to do what my old editor at Harper would call “dystopian nature writing.” Trying to show the world as it is and show the
arts
really beautiful things that demonstrate the resilience of nature in these kinds of places, while at the same time, not hiding the ugly bits.
The book grew out of an e-newsletter you published called Field Notes. Can you talk a little bit about what Field Notes was and how that led to the book?
In, I don’t know, February of 2020, right after I finished the last round of editorial revisions on my most recent novel, Failed State, I had been accumulating all of this material from — it’s been 20 years now — walking every day in the urban woods and creek beds and watersheds and whatnot, having encounters with urban
Courtesy Photo / Christopher Brown
5-year Anniversary Celebration: Dreams, Champagne, Mariachis & a Séance!
Saturday October 12, 2024
Ruby4-9pm City, 150 Camp Street, San Antonio,TX 78204
Ruby City celebrates five years with a dream interpretation workshop, cake, champagne, and a special séance with Los Angeles artist Jeffrey Vallance.
Event Schedule: 4pm – Dream Interpretation workshop in Chris Park – limited space, RSVP required 5pm – Remarks, cake, champagne toast in Ruby City’s Plaza 5:30-6:30pm – Mariachis Damas de Jalisco, Ruby City Plaza 7pm – Séance with Jeffrey Vallance in Ruby City Sculpture Garden
Guests can stay for
event!
wildlife and experiencing this edgeland landscape. And I was thinking, I wanted to do something with that material. And I was very interested in the newsletter format. I’ve kind of always been interested in that format. I was a newspaper guy before I became a novelist and a lawyer, science fiction writer or whatnot, and I always liked that opinion-column length. And I love that idea of publishing weekly. Almost like a letter to friends, but to friends you don’t know.
When many people look at urban renewal, which you discuss in your book, or even trying to devote more attention to nature, they say, “If only I had the time.” What would you say to people about making time for interacting with nature in an urban surrounding?
Oh, that’s a great question, Sanford. I’d say it starts with just changing how you look at the world around you, and relearning how to see that the very word “nature” embodies an illusion that there’s some separation between us and the natural world, when all of the spaces that we occupy are part of it, and nature is always there. But yeah, if you’re inside a building that we’ve made, it’s still pretty distant. You don’t need a lot of time to experience nature in the urban environment. You just need to tune in the aperture of whatever time and natural objects are available to you. And it can be as simple as going for a walk and just stopping to pay attention to what bugs are on those flowers near your path — something you might not even really notice unless you stop and focus in on that almost-microscopic world.
Or if you go out for a run or a bike ride, try to alter your route to go to a place where instead of being likely to run into a bunch of other people, you might have a chance of bumping into an early morning coyote. Or a place that will give you a view of some exceptional body of water or remnant of the prairies that once dominated the landscape.
And San Antonio is incredibly blessed with the kinds of places that I think are easy for anybody to access. From the obvious stretches of the San Antonio River, where some of the natural character has been preserved or restored, to places like the headwaters of the Comal River, where there’s been a full-on Blackland Prairie restoration, to the Missions and the areas around there. And there are all the little creek beds and empty lots.
It’s easy to find your nearest creek or a little pocket of urban woods or empty lot. And if you could just go to a place
like that, and if you take the little trick of simply just sitting in one spot, if you have 15 minutes — or, even better, half an hour or an hour — and see what manifests around you. If you bring a little stillness, you’d be amazed because the life is there, it’s just usually doing a very good job of hiding from us.
That kind of exploration seems to push back at the notion that you need to be an expert in nature before you start immersing yourself in it.
It’s OK to be naive and clueless — and just be curious. You can look stuff up in a book later. And you’ll better understand it if you’ve seen it and experienced it that way than if your understanding is only based on looking at a picture on Wikipedia.
Early in the book, you write that the natural world “is more beautiful when it manifests in these fallen places because of the resilience it reveals. But it’s also deeply damaged and scarred, evidence of the way we have remade the world into some butchered cyborg.” It almost sounds like you’re saying that it’s at once beautiful and at once harrowing to experience the resilience and beauty of nature in those liminal urban spaces. Totally. Yeah. When you find these pockets of genuine and rich biodiversity within walking distance from your home, often it will be in that kind of a place. Where it’s basically some location that was so abused by us through industrial or agricultural or other uses that it’s run out of economic gas, or it’s so polluted where nobody can go there anymore. And na-
ture very quickly takes those spaces over.
And in Texas in particular, very often the kind of nature that takes over is species of plants and animals that are indigenous to this place, because agriculture only really arrived here in the 1820s. And so it’s just all that life, and the memory of that life is still in the land. And the seeds, literally, of that life, are still in the land.
And so when you have those kinds of experiences, of seeing these beautiful species of wildlife that are right at your back door or right there in this blighted yet beautiful brownfield, it fills you with hope when you understand the resilience of nature that it evidences.
But, then, over time, as you start to learn more about what’s really going on there, it often can also fill you with a sense of anticipatory loss. Both in the damage you see from the past, but also when you’re like, “Oh, the reason all these herons are nesting behind this warehouse in this industrial corridor on the urban stretch of the Colorado that winds its way past the east end of Austin must be because there isn’t anywhere else to go.” And the coyotes are here because partly because their rural habitat is ever diminishing.
And then you see statistics like the fact that, as I note in the book, the World Wildlife Foundation — which seems like a credible source to me — says that 69% of the wildlife population of the planet has disappeared since 1970. You hear a number like that and it’s hard to even get your head around it.
Texans, especially, seem to be very in love with this notion of the frontier, the freedom of the frontier. In your book, you point out that the frontier isn’t always someplace outside of cities or population centers. Could you talk a little bit about the false narratives that we’ve created about frontiers?
I think growing up in an American context, we’re deeply invested in the idea of the frontier and the concept that the frontier embodies that wild nature — the wilderness. There’s an idea that truly wild places are out there in some space that you have to travel to get to. And I think we internalize that kind of thinking in ways that are really unhelpful in terms of learning to really understand the natural environment in which we exist.
And while that idea of the frontier obviously played a crucial role in the formation of American identity and the way it informs our conceptions of liberty and a lot of positive things about the way we’ve impacted the landscape and prospered from it, it’s also caused us to be almost
unable to see that, one, that wilderness that you’re conceiving of when you’re thinking about the frontier, it’s not there. Yeah, there are national parks. And yeah, I’ve been to Alaska where there’s all this Bureau of Land Management land, not even officially designated as a park, and it’s kind of open.
But the last frontier is literally at the edge of the Arctic, basically, at one end of the hemisphere. Or at the edge of the totally uninhabitable desert regions. Everything else is occupied by us, and the wilderness is now an interstitial wilderness. It exists in the liminal spaces between the zones that we have totally managed to reshape to serve our purposes. And in a way, that’s what most of our parks are. They’re little, liminal preserves we created between our cities and our farms.
So just learning to rethink how you see the landscape around you can really transform how you go about experiencing and connecting with nature. And in the U.S., there’s a lot of good news on that front. The eastern half of the U.S. has reforested tremendously in the past 100 to 120 years … Where what had been cleared for agriculture has often gone back to woodland. Now it’s a mixed sort of woodland. It’s one that’s like woodland suburbia, right?
But the result of that is that two-thirds of the American population now lives within a short walk or drive from a pocket of wild foliage that’s significant, woods or prairie or whatever. And in those places are all manner of other plant and animal life ready for us to experience. They’re ready to change our experience of our own lives with and get out of our own heads — and also to encourage, cultivate, welcome into our reality in a way that both can enrich our lives in an everyday way and help us start to mitigate some of the damage we’ve done to the climate and to the biodiversity of the planet.
Courtesy Image / Timber Press
Screen Time
The4:30Movie cast discusses Kevin Smith flicks and impactful cinematic memories
BY KIKO MARTINEZ
Filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks) has never made a superhero movie, but he’s a huge comic book fan. His keenness for comics might be one reason he decided to commit his own origin to screen in The 4:30 Movie, his latest flick.
Set in 1986, the semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age comedy follows young cinephile Brian David (Austin Zajur), a character based on Smith’s own movie-loving teen years. After inviting his crush Melody (Siena Agudong) to the movies, David spends the entire day at the theater with his two best friends, Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) and Belly (Reed Northrup), before his big date begins. There, the trio encounter a handful of colorful characters, eat “movie bacon” one of their mothers has prepared and get into some trouble with the theater manager.
The Current recently caught up with the four main cast members of The 4:30 Movie and talked about their favorite Kevin Smith films, cinema snacks and core movie memories.
The 4:30 Movie is playing at San Antonio’s Regal Cielo Vista, Regal Live Oak and Regal Alamo Quarry.
Austin, what kind of notes did Kevin give to you to play a version of him as a teenager?
Austin Zajur: He kind of gave me an open playing field. I have a pretty good relationship with him and understand him and his witty humor from doing Clerks III. In terms of preparation, he told me to watch Weird Science a bunch of times.
What is your favorite Kevin Smith movie?
AZ: For me, it’s Chasing Amy. Tonally, it’s a really beautiful piece of work.
Siena Agudong: Clerks because I feel like it’s a testament to his writing. Setting a camera down and letting the characters just bounce off of each other is beautiful and just so raw.
Reed Northrup: Mine is also Chasing Amy. So much of the politics of love in it still stand true today and how complicated gender and sexuality and love can be.
Nicholas Cirillo: The 4:30 Movie. It paid my bills.
Not counting “movie bacon,” what’s your go-to snack at the movie theater?
AZ: Reese’s Pieces.
NC: Twizzlers! If you know anybody over at
Twizzlers, let them know. I’m trying to be an ambassador.
SA: Sno Caps.
RN: I don’t eat bacon, so this movie was very difficult because I had to eat a lot of it and was always spitting it out between takes. I normally just eat good ol’ salty popcorn and a little bit of Buncha Crunch.
They didn’t have veggie bacon for you on the set?
RN: No, we had turkey bacon, but it was so floppy that it was almost worse than the actual pig bacon. So, I just stuck with the pig and then spat it out.
NC: I’m positive whatever bacon they were giving us gave us cancer.
RN: Yes, save this interview for our future lawsuit.
Since most of this movie takes place inside a movie theater, what is your earliest memory at a movie theater?
AZ: I honestly didn’t remember it until recently, but I have spurts [of memories] of my dad taking me to see The Passion of the Christ, and it horrified me.
NC: It might’ve been Star Wars: The Clone Wars for me.
RN: One that’s coming to mind as a pivotal one when I was younger was Holes.
SA: I wanna say Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I just remember watching it with my dad, and I remember seeing [the ape] bite [off someone’s] finger. That’s a core memory for me.
Can a relationship between two people with different tastes in movies last?
RN: My girlfriend loves rom-coms, and I love horror. You would think that those would be on opposite ends of the spectrum and that we would never find commonality. But I’ve started watching all these classic rom-coms with her, and it’s been amazing. We just watched Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts, which I’d never seen before. I loved it. So, we made it work!
There’s a quote in the film that states, “Movies make life make sense.” What movie has impacted you in a way that gave you that kind of deep perspective?
AZ: The Pursuit of Happyness had a really big impact on me. That’s when I started listening to that little whisper that told me I had to be an actor. That kept repeating to me as a kid.
NC: Sean Penn’s Into the Wild really changed me as a human. It was around the time where I was becoming more aware of Transcendentalism and [Henry David] Thoreau. I probably wouldn’t have chosen a life in the arts if I wasn’t introduced to something like that.
Find more film stories at sacurrent.com
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TIGRES VS. RAYADOS OCT
Cold Comfort
Coffee cocktails, including the ubiquitous espresso martini, are refreshing any time of year
BY RON BECHTOL
Some people think bourbon is only meant to be drunk in the fall and winter — a la pumpkin spice, It would seem. Others feel a gin and tonic is purely a summer drink. Balderdash. Or poppycock, if you prefer another antiquated term of dismissal. By the same token, coffee drinks need not be confined to Irish coffees in front of a roaring fire. There are plenty of icy, all-season recipes to choose from. The elephant in the room here is the TikTok-famous espresso martini. It’s everywhere you turn. Which doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. There may be times that a chill hit of caffeine and booze is just what you need to both pick you up and calm you down.
But the shame of ordering an espresso martini at a bar with aspirations and affectations is too much to contemplate. You just don’t want to face the bartender’s potential scorn.
The obvious solution is to make the cocktail at home. But, excuse the affectations on my part, there are some ground rules: no Bailey’s or cream of any kind, and no flavored vodkas.
Yes, though my usual definition of a martini is gin only — stirred, by the way — this is a drink made for vodka. And it begs to be shaken, which yields a nice, frothy head. Maybe it shouldn’t be called a martini at all, but that’s for another time. Here’s a simple recipe. Yes, you do need to buy a coffee liqueur.
2 oz. vodka
½ oz. coffee liqueur, usually Kahlùa 1 oz. robust espresso, cooled to room temperature, or cold brew
1/4 oz. simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water)
Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a glass of your choice. I happen to prefer the Nick and Nora. Top with three coffee beans. For some reason, the addition of the beans appears to be cosmically important.
One needs to buy another specialty bottle for the Mexican-favorite Carajillo, which is traditionally, but not necessarily, served after
dinner. The cocktail is so simple and appealing that you’ll want to repeat it.
Carajillo
2 oz. cooled espresso or cold brew
2 oz. Licor 43
Add to a shaker with ice and agitate aggressively until the outside is frosty. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.
The citrus, vanilla and spice notes of the Licor 43 keep the Carajillo lively until the last drop. If you need incentive before springing for a bottle Cuarenta y Tres, as the Spanish-made liqueur is also called, check out the cocktail at Cuishe in St. Paul Square, Biga on the Banks or Supper at Pearl. Chances are you’ll want to try it at home
This last cocktail is admittedly me tooting my own horn. The KinKafa came about as a result of a series of guest bartender stints I did pre-pandemic behind the currently shuttered bar at Dorcol, distillers of Kinsman Rakia, an apricot-based brandy. In the interest of full disclosure, the owners, who also produce HighWheel beer, are friends of mine — which is how I got roped into this in the first place. These appearances involved coming up with several original drinks — or variations on old favorites — using the dry and lightly
food
fragrant Kinsman, plus standing behind the bar making drinks and small talk for six hours or more. The experience gave me a new appreciation for the work that real bartenders do.
This drink was a favorite.
KinKafa
2 shakes Aztec or other chocolate bitters
1¾ oz. prepared, strong coffee
½ oz. cardamom simple syrup (see note below)
1 oz. Kinsman or other Balkan fruit brandy such as plum or quince
Add all ingredients to a tin with ice, shake with conviction, strain into a chilled coupe glass. Cut a swath of lemon peel, pinch over glass to express the oils, then drop into glass. To make the cardamom simple syrup, bring 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and 2 tsp. cardamom seed — either removed from the tough greenish pod or purchased separately — to a boil. Remove from heat, let steep until cool, strain into a lidded glass container.
Though I probably shouldn’t say it, this is a perfect excuse to start your day drinking early. If seasons really have little with what cocktails you drink, hours also shouldn’t be restricted, right?
Find more food & drink news at sacurrent.com
Coffee Martini
Ron Bechtol
Home Cooking
San Antonio Spurs add 12 new locally owned dining concepts to Frost Bank Center for new season
BY SANFORD NOWLIN
During the Spurs’ upcoming season, fans catching games at Frost Bank Center will feast on fare from The Hayden, Benjie’s Munch, Tacos Al Carbon Cabron and other favorite locally owned restaurants.
Spurs Sports & Entertainment picked 12 Alamo City dining spots to participate in its Culinary Residency Program, which allows local food businesses to showcase their signature dishes at during the NBA team’s home games. Now in its fourth year, the program — run in collaboration with caterer Aramark and beverage company Coca-Cola — has expanded to a dozen restaurants from eight. This year’s full list of participants includes:
• The Hayden
• DonutNV
• Hotaru Sushi
• Bussin’ Q
• Cake Llama
• Maui’s on Main
• Benjie’s Munch
• Sweet Cheeks Bake Shop
• Crepelandia210
• Tacos Al Carbon Cabron
• K-Pop Dogs
• The Purple Pig BBQ
Restaurants participating in the program collaborate with SS&E and Aramark to create unique dishes served in Frost Bank Center concession stands. SS&E officials selected 11 of the dining spots through an open application process, while The Purple Pig BBQ won its slot in a fan vote.
“The Spurs Culinary Residency Program is more than just a showcase of delicious food; it’s a celebration of the stories and passion behind each local business,” SS&E Associ -
Perfectly Paired San Antonio riverside dining event Top Shelf making debut on Sept. 28
BY SUZANNE TOWNSEND
Anew dining event will bring elevated food and drink to an intimate setting overlooking the San Antonio River.
The inaugural Top Shelf will take place Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Briscoe Western Art Museum’s Jack Guenther Pavilion. The Current-sponsored dining experience will offer an evening of firstclass food and drink from area chefs and distillers.
The riverfront setting — including string lights, family-style seating, live music and a curated DJ set — is designed to evoke an atmosphere of festivity, community and cuisine, according to organizers.
Top Shelf will pair craft cocktails, beer and wine with unique dishes from local chefs. Ten participating
restaurants will serve up creations encompassing a variety of cuisines, each thoughtfully paired with spirits from Garrison Brothers Bourbon and Carabuena Tequila.
Some of the restaurants participating in Top Shelf include Halcyon Southtown, Full Goods Diner, Palomar Comida & Cantina, The River’s Edge and Míra Matcha, with more to come.
Guests can expect a menu that spans from brisket mini-tacos paired with margaritas to duck-and-prosciutto Monte Cristo sandwiches accompanied by Blackberry Lemondrop cocktails. Tickets run $125 per person and are available at localculturetickets.com. However, the event does have limited capacity, so early purchase is recommended.
ate Director of Culinary Experience Kevin Barker said in a statement. “By expanding the program and involving fans in the selection process, we
want to highlight the unique narratives and culinary traditions that make San
food scene so special.”
Courtesy Photo / Top Shelf
Courtesy Photo / Spurs Sports & Entertainment
Antonio’s
Music for Listeners
KRTU-FM’s indie-music program celebrates 25 years with two free concerts
BY BILL BAIRD
Music for Listeners, the taste-making indie-music program on Trinity University’s KRTU-FM, celebrates its 25th birthday this weekend.
The crew behind Music for Listeners is celebrating with two free concerts, both at the campus’ Laurie Auditorium. The first, which took place Saturday, Sept. 14, included San Antonio’s quirky popsters Buttercup along with Austin indie-rockers Voxtrot and Blushing. A Saturday, Oct. 5, show focused on alt-country artists will feature Austin’s Cactus Lee, Sentimental Family Band, both of Austin, along with Philadelphia’s Native Harrow. The radio show, helmed by DJs Orlando Torres and Michael Thomas, is a passion project of the highest order.
The program originated during the fertile ’90s indie-rock scene, when Torres hosted Indie Vision, a San Antonio public access TV program that showcased some of the biggest names in indie music, including Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Superchunk, Suede, The Sugarcubes, and more.
While Torres was busy interviewing bands and filming their performances, Thomas worked at KRTU, first as a classical DJ, then spinning jazz. When the station switched to a free-form format in 1999, the two music enthusiasts joined forces and haven’t looked back. Over the past 25 years, they have premiered countless indie-rock singles and become one of the area’s biggest tastemakers for breaking bands, especially English ones. The show’s website, musicforlisteners.com, details that impressive history.
We recently sat down for an interview with both Torres and Thomas to talk about the origins of the show and the upcoming concerts.
Tell me about your program name. It’s quite generic and yet... specific.
Michael Thomas: The show was called Community Service for about a month. I hated it. So I tried Music for Headphones. But that’s too stoner-y. So I did Music for Listeners, and it felt more like Brian Eno.
Ah, yes, MusicforAirports.
MT: Kinda based on that. And Music for Listeners is a vague enough name to tap into that free-form spirit. You never know what you’re gonna hear.
San Antonio has such an amazing radio history, but KRTU is one of the last stations standing that gives DJs autonomy.
MT: KRTU is distinct because it’s run by volun-
teers. The station gives us freedom — we play whatever we want.
There’s a certain romance to being on the radio.
MT: Yes. The biggest compliment anyone’s ever given me is that I’m a “quality monger” — always looking for things of quality to share with people. You want to share new music, help out bands. That’s what drew me to Orlando. He was doing a TV show in those days called Indie Vision. Orlando Torres: On public access, Channel 20. Ran for five years. Being on public access, we learned how to do everything, how to set things up, talk with bands, managers. [Legendary shoegaze band] Ride did the video show in the ’90s. We had Radiohead on the show! Inspiral Carpets, Catherine Wheel. So many great bands on there. We had Frank Black busking on the street in Dallas. That was wonderful.
MT: Orlando and I really started talking more at an amazing show, Ride and Lush at the Backroom in April of 1991. I stayed on at KRTU, and in 1999, I got word they were turning the late night into a free form again. That’s how KRTU started in 1976. And so Music for Listeners was born. The show grew naturally. The first five years it was just me, [and] Orlando would come in as a guest. Then in 2004, they wanted two people late at night for safety issues ... late at night on the Trinity campus. So I called Orlando and asked him to become a permanent cohost, and that’s when it really blew up. Indie Vision and Music for Listeners merged. OT: We became an audio version of the video show. We’d go to SXSW and interview bands all week.
MT: We befriended a bunch of English labels, went to their parties, interviewed their bands. We recorded Bloc Party’s first American set. In 2009, for our 10th anniversary, we decided to have our first SXSW day party. It started with a bang. Our first year, we had Mumford and Sons playing for pizza and beer. Laura Marling played as well with Marcus Mumford on drums. Over the years, we’ve had Bombay Bicycle Club play there, the Wedding Present, Django Django, Hinds. We’ve had I think 400 acts at this point, of all genres.
Our biggest influence is John Peel, the legendary BBC DJ. He played every genre of music, he played things before anyone else and he had a
good ear – always on the cusp of what was coming next. And now, with the labels in England, we have a reputation for playing things first in the U.S., before anywhere else.
Do you have overlapping tastes?
MT: We both have our own tastes, but there’s a ton of overlap. We both follow those early ’90s British bands coming out of Manchester. Orlando loves the Stone Roses. My favorite is the Charlatans. Orlando likes more poppy things, and I like more spacey things. But there’s so much overlap, because we just love music.
OT: The show always changes, it’s always different. We have six different bands, all different genres. That’s what we like. An early highlight was when we hosted Jose Gonzalez at the Limelight.
So it’s not just a radio program, it’s a vehicle for shows?
OT: We do shows, but mostly at SXSW. They’ve gotten relatively big now. Bands from [labels including] 4AD, Sub Pop [and artists such as] Kristin Hersh, the Wedding Present, lots more. It’s gotten harder though. Now bands want a fee to play SXSW parties. We had a couple of big bands waive their fee just to play our party.
MT: I take pride in that. And we are a good team. Orlando mostly books the shows, I handle the production. And for the radio shows, I’d say most of it is programmed by Orlando. Because he is obsessed with finding new music.
Tell me about your 25th anniversary shows.
MT: We’re doing two shows. For the first, we asked our friends Voxtrot from Austin. Having Voxtrot play our party is important to us. When they came out, they were Orlando’s favorite band for years. And the session they did was the only San Antonio thing they did for, like, 20 years. They’re performing their first three EPs.
How does it feel to be going for 25 years?
MT: 25 years on, I couldn’t have thought it would have lasted this long. It keeps going. We’re about to record another set, and [we’re] doing a world premiere this week. We love seeing bands succeed, sell merch. You want to support the acts, the music, the scene.
Courtesy Photo / Music for Listeners
music
Still Shining Long-running alt-rock act Silversun Pickups coming to San Antonio’s Aztec
Theatre
BY THOMAS CRONE
In more than a few respects, Silversun Pickups is very much a 21st century band, formed during 2000 and essentially untouched in membership since the core group coalesced in 2002.
Since then, the guitar-driven alt-rock band’s nucleus has remained Brian Aubert on guitar and vocals, original member Nikki Monninger on bass and vocals, Christopher Guanlao on drums and Joe Lester on keys.
That same lineup will play San Antonio’s Aztec Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 24, as part of the quartet’s current tour.
Aside from Monninger’s relatively brief hiatus from the band a decade ago due to a maternity leave, that remarkable longevity isn’t lost on anyone in the group, which maintains a career-long homebase in Los Angeles.
Aubert initially jokes that the group’s tenure comes down to a simple question: “What else are we going to do?”
However, he opens up about the band’s life together with minimal prompting.
“You know, I think it’s something that you re-evaluate all the time,” he said in a recent interview. “There’s nothing conscious about it, we don’t get into child’s pose to discuss it. But when you’ve always had a thing, is it still energetic? Do you still feel compelled to do it?”
It didn’t hurt that the members had some degree of familiarity with each other before they climbed in a van together, Aubert added.
“We were friends for a little while before being in a band, and so you get a lot of the personal stuff stripped out of it in a certain way,” he said. “You already know how to read each other, and especially now that we’ve gotten so good at touring, you know when people need space. I say that all the time, but everybody has their role in the band. I’m going to lead it in certain ways. It’s just natural in the way that’s happened. But no one’s higher up than
anyone else. And no one’s fireable, unless it was for something absolutely insane. Touring with other bands, you see some that think, ‘If only we could get this other drummer.’ We don’t go into that conversation. It’s not on the table, which is probably why we’re still around.”
Silversun Pickups also has an interesting 21st century connection in that the band’s been active through pretty much all of the iterations of music that have been released and promoted over the past quarter-century, experiencing most of the options that could come their way.
Digital music’s been around since the group’s beginning, for example. It’s also known different record labels. It’s had music licensed for video games, TV and film. It’s toured as a headliner, in support and played festivals. It’s recorded short live spots for the hip streaming channels, and it’s offered up the occasional, clever cover. And it’s even done something that not all contemporary rock bands can claim.
“We do get played on the radio,” Aubert said with just a hint of amusement.
That, plus a host of other factors, have enabled Silversun Pickups to build a fan base through time, keeping long-term listeners in the audience while continuing to blend in new followers.
“We’ve had songs in video games and played Letterman and knew Napster, so people have found us in so many ways,” Aubert said. “Maybe they heard us playing along to us on a video game, or we’re that weird band that still gets onto the radio, so it’s all about different pockets. I am very curious, having been around for so long, to look out into the crowd and see that it’s much more diverse than it used to be. The ages are all over the place. There’re teenage punk-rock girls, older dudes, little kids. I don’t know when they all started listening to us.”
Touring has always been a part of the group’s build, though, and Silversun Pickups only had the obligatory time off because of the pandemic. Aside from that stretch, the group’s been at it ever since the release of its initial EP, Pikul, in 2005. Things accelerated with the release of the debut album Carnavas in 2006, which featured the indie
hit “Lazy Eye.” Five more albums have followed.
For the current round of touring, the group plans to pull from the band’s last album, 2022’s strong effort Physical Thrills, which was produced by Butch Vig of the band Garbage.
“We did some pretty heavy touring on it,” Aubert said, noting that for this round “we’ll lean into it a little, not as heavily as on the previous tour. Now it’s more about weaving in and out of different eras.”
Aubert said Silversun Pickups’ work on Physical Thrills holds up well in the catalog.
“I haven’t listened to it in a while,” he said. “With most bands, the most that we ever listen to a record is when it’s not done. By the time it is done, you’ve heard it a few times and you rehearse it and interpret it live. Now it’s just about swimming in the live experience of it, which is really fun — seeing how it all works in juxtaposition with the older songs. And every time a Physical Thrills song comes on the set, I’m really proud of it.”
$41-$119, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 8124355, theaztectheatre.com.
Claire Marie Vogel
critics’ picks
Thursday, Sept. 19
Chromeo, The Midnight Two electro-dance-funk powerhouses are coming together for a fun night that may make some folks think they’re living inside the Drive soundtrack. Montreal-based Chromeo has spent more than two decades crafting catchy, fun dance music. The group is touring behind its latest LP, Adult Contemporary . Meanwhile, LA-based The Midnight explore similar territory, and for this series of road dates, dubbed the Chrome Nights tour, the act is promoting a newly released comic book. Joining The Midnight are special guests Ruth Radelet from the awesome Chromatics and Girl Ultra, the stage name of Mexican R&B artist Mariana de Miguel. $34.95-$114.95, 7 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, boeingcentertechport.com. — Bill Baird
StrateJacket, The Lemon Trees, Good City Modern
Alt-punk trio StrateJacket headline an evening at Paper Tiger in anticipation of its debut album release Bad Start in early October. Formed in Sunnyvale, California, in 2019, StrateJacket tallied a singular gig before the COVID-19 pandemic. The time in isolation allowed the band to refine a catchy sound that owes much to the influence of ’90s alt-punk sounds. The eponymous title track was featured in the video game NHL ’24 and is a good entrée into the group’s style. $12, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Danny Cervantes
Saturday, Sept. 21
Avett Brothers, Jamestown Revival
The Avett Brothers make feel-good, chillin’by-the-river Americana that blends elements of indie rock and hints of emo with bluegrass and other old-timey roots music. While not always super-distinctive, it’s well enough crafted and performed that the group has scored on the Billboard charts and cut albums with Rick Rubin. Jamestown Revival explores similar sounds. $101.64, 8 p.m., Whitewater Amphitheater, 11860 FM306, Suite 1, New Braunfels, whitewaterrocks. com. — BB
Monday, Sept. 23
Big Fun, Minor Issue, Street Lamp
The name kind of says it all. Three-piece band Big Fun play loud, dumb and enjoyable music using a fuzz bass, drums and a keytar. How’s that for a fun instrument, eh? Throw in a couple of hipster mustaches and a grimy, underground attitude and you’ve got something kinda awesome. Consider it electro-clash meets punk meets groovy party vibes. $12, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx. com. — BB
Tuesday, Sept. 24
Hozier
Hozier crafts anthemic white-dude indie-soul a la the Kings of Leon. If that seems like too many hyphens, well, so be it. The Irish singer-songwriter rose to fame on his extremely catchy, if inescapable, “Take Me to Church.” Expect stadium-sized singalongs — for at least that one song. $39-$99, 7:30 p.m., Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5000, frostbankcenter.com. — BB
Thursday, Sept. 26
Wallflowers, Early James
Nearly three decades after the 1996 breakthrough album Bringing Down The Horse, the Wallflowers are hitting Gruene Hall. Expect Jakob Dylan and crew to showcase the album’s hits such as “One Headlight” and “6th Avenue Heartache,” the latter of which should give all the feels in the renowned Texas music haunt. Despite an ever-changing lineup, the voice and storytelling of Dylan — the son of some famous singer-songwriter named Bob — remain a constant for the Wallflowers and should make for
Avett Brothers
a wonderful evening under the cross timbers, assuming you have a line on tickets. Sold out, 8 p.m., Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Road, New Braunfels, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall. com. — DC
Brooks Nielsen
Brooks Nielsen, formerly of “beach goth” garage-psych band The Growlers, is coming to SA to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Growlers’ Chinese Fountain LP. Celebrating the 10th anniversary may seem premature, but The Growlers’ fanbase is deep and devoted. Nielsen recently released his first solo record, the double album One Match Left, which draws on influences as varied as Harry Nilsson and Jonathan Richman. $35-$82, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 S. St. Mary’s St., theaztectheatre.com. — BB
Saturday, Sept.
28
Jim Messina
Pencil this one in, classic-rock fans. As half of Loggins and Messina — the other half was ’80s soundtrack king Kenny Loggins — Jim Messina
cut a series of celebrated folk-pop albums that included radio hits such as “Your Mama Don’t Dance” and “Danny’s Song.” Prior to that, he did time in the final iteration of legendary ’60s folk-rock group the Buffalo Springfield. $59.50-$100, 7:30 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — BB
Dayseeker, Alpha Wolf, Catch Your Breath, Kingdom of Giants
Straight out of Orange County, California, Dayseeker delivers an intoxicating combo of post-hardcore and synth-pop. Check out the band’s 2019’s “Sleeptalk” if you’re unsure how that blend is even possible. Singer Rory Rodriguez’s powerful vocals bring moments of both lucidity and rage to the band, helping it handle the disparate-seeming range of musical moves. Dayseeker even released the acoustic album Replica earlier this year, adding another layer to its approach. $33.50-$35, 7 p.m., Vibes Underground, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, facebook.com/vibesunderground. — DC
Shutterstock / Adam McCullough
“But Why Though?”--some unusual seconds. by Matt Jones
