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23
CONTENTS April 29-May 5, 2015
13 NEWS
43
28 SCREENS Role Reversal Warning: Clouds of Sils Maria just might make you like Kristen Stewart
30 FOOD
20
Happy Hour Hound Kimura’s worth getting dolled up for
47 MUSIC Dance A Hole In The Floor We look back at Gruene Hall’s storied past on its 40th anniversary as a music venue
In Their Own Words SA’s mayoral candidates sound off on key issues, from police body cameras to lack of funding for the arts
A Rolling Boil SA’s chefs discuss what it’ll take to earn a James Beard nod
Silence & Deterrence Moms on hunger strike. Limbless men threatened with punishment. Immigrant detention woes galore in South Texas.
r/SanAntonioFoodies Redditors are eating their way through town with a monthly dining meet-up
Music Calendar What to see and hear this week
Culinary Calendar 6 ways to get your drink/grub on this week
56 ETC
20 CALENDAR
Our top picks for the week
Flavor File La Botanica needs your help with its $10K fundraiser
27 ARTS
41 NIGHTLIFE
No Hummus In New Jersey An endearing coming of age in Karim Dimechkie’s debut novel Lifted by the Great Nothing
Cocktail Dreams A Q&A with Jeret Peña on putting San Anto cocktails on the map
8 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
Hopeful Headspace An interview with Bright Like the Sun, on the occasion of the SA band’s new self-titled album
Savage Love Free Will Astrology Jonesin’ Crossword This Modern World
ON THE COVER
Photo by Lizzy Flowers Art direction by Eli Miller
sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 9
10 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
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NEWS
JEREMIAH TEUTSCH
From left to right, here are the four leading candidates vying to become the Alamo CIty’s next CEO: Ivy Taylor, Leticia Van de Putte, Mike Villarreal and Tommy Adkisson.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS Leading Mayoral Candidates Talk La Villita, NDO And Cop Cameras
tenants and what are your plans for arts and culture funding? Leticia Van de Putte: It should have never come to this in the first place. The city’s process for our tenants at La Villita was disrespectful. I understand the goals of maximizing space, but the tenants were unable to provide input in the re-bidding process. I hope they would re-look at it in a manner that stays true to its intent as a community of craftsmen. A portion of the Hotel Tax can be used for arts, but it needs a direct link to increasing economic development and attracting visitors. We have huge amounts of talent — that for a lack of funding — has not been sustainable.
MARK REAGAN/@210REAGAN
Since President Barack Obama appointed Julián Castro last year to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the muchanticipated May 9 election for the Alamo City’s next full-term mayor has shifted into overdrive. The San Antonio Current sat down with the leading candidates vying to replace Castro, including Ivy Taylor, who has temporarily held the seat and now wants to keep it. Other candidates interviewed include former State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and former State Rep. Mike Villarreal. Former Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson was unavailable despite multiple attempts on our end to talk with him. We asked candidates about the city’s use of police body cameras, the non-discrimination ordinance, lack of arts funding, streetcar, SA2020 and the future of La Villita. Their answers were edited for clarity and length. Current: What are your thoughts on the city’s troubled re-bidding process for La Villita
Mike Villarreal: I think it could be more effective. I believe the city should spend some time learning from how The Pearl, specifically, Silver Ventures, went about filling their spaces. They approached it more as a curator. Funding in arts and culture is a priority. We need to grow our economy to generate more revenue and we need to control costs in other areas, like public safety and we need to get more out of existing dollars we are spending. Ivy Taylor: I think we need to do something different at La Villita, but I think we could have started by communicating with businesses that were already there on how they could improve their strategies. I will work with the staff to get us in the right direction to get where we need to be. Based on our current situation and status with the budget, particularly public safety, I could not tell you that I could make a commitment. But I would look at how we are spending current dollars to get the most bang for our buck and explore opportunities for partnerships and grant funding.
The LGBT community has continued to criticize the non-discrimination ordinance and Mayor Ivy Taylor for calling its passage a “political stunt.” Is this fair? Taylor: I think it’s important for people to not just react emotionally. I characterized it that way because I felt leadership who pushed for it shouldn’t just make speeches if they were committed to the premise. They should have worked to put something in place and I was shocked when I was appointed mayor and found nothing in place. If we’re going to pass an ordinance, we have to implement it and when I became mayor, even though I voted against the ordinance, it was my responsibility to uphold the law of the land. Van de Putte: It breaks my heart to hear the mayor say the NDO was a political stunt. My family members have been discriminated against in the workplace because of who they love. We need to make sure that in the workplace people are judged by performance and skill set — not for who they love back home. And that goes for everybody. Villarreal: I don’t believe Mayor Taylor’s comment was fair. I would call it political courage that was required by members of the LGBT community and their straight allies, family members and friends who showed up to petition local government and get the policy approved. Should every San Antonio police officer be equipped with a body camera?
CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 ►
sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 13
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NEWS
◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 (MAYORAL CANDIDATES)
Villarreal: Body cameras are not a panacea. And so I think they need to be strategically deployed. They are not a silver bullet solution because storing the video is expensive and technology is changing, which needs to be balanced with fiscal responsibility. Taylor: I do believe that in order to provide this added measure of accountability that we should equip officers. I don’t know for sure whether it should be every officer. That depends on what they do. But collective bargaining agreements with public safety officers impact the outcome on which resources we have available, including providing public safety officers with equipment. Van de Putte: I think our next police chief will have a great opportunity to make recommendations. The cameras aren’t the expensive part; it’s archiving and retaining film and data. Cameras are appropriate for those folks who are protecting us, but it may not be right for every single unit. If voters approve changes to the City Charter that require a public vote for light rail and streetcar, would you bring them a proposal? Van de Putte: San Antonio has to look at its transportation plan. We need to maximize everything we do with VIA Metropolitan Transit. I’d like to see maximized park-and-rides. So when people talk about a spokes system where downtown is core, what if you live on the Northeast side and your job is in the Medical Center? So you have to look at connectors like the Wurzbach Parkway. We need to get people out of cars with bike-able and walk-able communities and more convenient public transit. Villarreal: I think streetcar as proposed is dead. San Antonio is growing at a fast pace and we need more types of transportation, not fewer. I’m a big supporter of public transit because if we are going to double in population, we can’t just
double cars and trucks because it impacts quality of life. Options include a more robust bus rapid transit system along business corridors and congested highways, along with protected bike lines. We also need to bring back Lyft and Uber and create more safe spaces to walk and bike.
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Taylor: I want to see what the outcome from our planning process is going to be. Right now, we are in the process of creating a multi-modal transportation plan in conjunction with land use and planning efforts to incorporate projected growth. So I think we have to be really thoughtful. I don’t have a streetcar plan waiting on the shelf that I’m waiting to whip out. We need more community discussion on what is feasible for San Antonio. Are you committed to SA2020? Taylor: I think SA2020 was a great opportunity for San Antonians to come out and articulate our vision for what the city should be like in a 10-year time-frame. It’s appropriate as a starting point in a larger discussion of a comprehensive plan that guides growth through 2040. Van de Putte: SA2020 was a great process for community input. Its goals were very inspirational, to shoot for the moon, but in many instances those goals were not practical, like transportation. The goal was to triple VIA ridership. I’m sorry, it’s a noble goal but it’s not realistic, so let’s look at what is doable and do as much as we can. Villarreal: I’m a supporter of SA2020. I think it’s helpful to know where things are on track and where things aren’t on track. Knowing where you are on major issues is half the battle. I look forward to working with SA2020 and using it as a framework to harness not just the city’s resources, but also public resources, volunteers and philanthropists. mreagan@sacurrent.com
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NEWS
JOSEPH SORRENTINO
SILENCE & DETERRENCE Do Migrant Families And Limbless Men Pose A Threat To U.S. National Security? HERNÁN ROZEMBERG/@SCRIBEHERNAN
Kenia Galeano wasn’t sure what would become of her after crossing an international bridge from Mexico and surrendering to U.S. border agents in the Rio Grande Valley in November. Surely, she thought, the land of the free and home of the brave would at least afford her an opportunity to make her case and be given a chance to stay in the country. Instead, she and 11-year-old son Alejandro were promptly processed for being in the country illegally and detained for five months while fighting deportation. The mother and son were held in Karnes City, a tiny town about an hour south of San Antonio and home to one of only three federal immigration detention centers for families in the country. “It was shocking,” Galeano, 26, recounted in an interview with the San Antonio Current last week, just days after she was granted the rare opportunity to get out on a $7,500 bond pending her court case. She’s appealing her asylum request denial. Her argument is that she escaped Honduras because ruthless gang members were hunting her down after she turned one of them in for threatening her family. “They can call it what they want, but it’s a prison,” she continued. “It’s bad enough for adults, but how are you going to have babies imprisoned? Kids can’t even run around, they must be within a yard of their mothers at all times.” Galeano was one of around 100 mothers and their children — most from Central America — detained in Karnes City. Three were able to bound out; the rest remain inside. They made headlines by staging a hunger strike, then halting it to give authorities an opportunity to reverse course. But no action was taken, so the hunger strike is back on. Galeano said the women live under constant threatening supervision of guards, employed by forprofit private company, the GEO Group, contracted by the Homeland Security agency charged with detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Guatemalan mothers who only speak Quiché, a Mayan dialect, and thus can’t communicate in Spanish, are particularly harassed, Galeano said. For its part, ICE has not recognized nor discussed the hunger strike. In a statement to the Current, the agency
A group of Honduran migrants left with missing limbs from their trek through Mexico are now detained in South Texas.
said it’s ensuring “residents” are served three daily meals and are provided adequate medical treatment. “ICE fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference, and all detainees, including those in family residential facilities such as Karnes, are permitted to do so,” according to the statement. Upholding human rights is about the last thing the agency does, said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a statewide nonprofit agency based in San Antonio. The organization, commonly known as RAICES, represents and advocates for dozens of asylum applicants. Ryan said it’s no coincidence that ICE is promptly jailing women and children and fighting their release. “They’ve been deemed a threat to national security and that’s why this policy of family detention was implemented as a deterrence,” he said. And apparently the next threat is migrants with missing limbs. Ryan is representing nine Honduran men who succumbed to La Bestia, literally “The Beast,” the cargo train crisscrossing Mexico atop which thousands of undocumented migrants ride to get to the U.S. border. Hundreds of them fall off or are pushed off and end up killed or, if they survive, it’s resulting in lost limbs. With rickety prostheses, a group of Honduran men trekked through Central America and Mexico — again — as part of La Caravana de los Mutilados, or “Caravan
of the Mutilated,” to raise awareness of the plight of hundreds of others just like them. Their goal: Not to immigrate to the U.S., but to meet with President Obama and convince him to enact immigration reform so there will be no more mutilated migrants. Unlike here, back in Honduras, handicapped people don’t stand a chance of making any sort of living, said Norman Varela, part of the group currently detained in the federal immigration detention center in Pearsall. They turned themselves in to U.S. border agents at the international crossing in Eagle Pass on March 19. In a phone interview from the prison, Varela said he lost his right leg in 2005 when Mexican immigration agents pushed several migrants off La Bestia. The train was stopped but then it started with Varela stuck underneath. When he made it back to Honduras, he formed a support group of 64 other migrants with missing limbs — now he counts more than 600 nationally. Like the detained families, Varela said his group in Pearsall are seen as troublemakers and are repeatedly threatened to be put “in the hole” if they don’t shut up. Asked for comment, ICE pledged to look into the matter but it did not get back to the Current. “All we wanted to do is talk to people about what’s going on,” said Varela, 43, father to four teenage boys. “When I get down, all I think about is my kids. Anything to keep them to have to go through what I’ve gone through.” hernan@sacurrent.com sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 17
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CALENDAR
SIGGI RAGNAR
Los #3 Dinners, among the local acts performing at Fredstock.
The local cast of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
THU
30
Mega Corazon WORDS
As National Poetry Month comes to a close, the good folks of the URBAN-15 performance group invite you to partake in Mega Corazon. The poetrycentric event will feature a diverse group of 15 poets, including the Alamo City’s inaugural poet laureate Carmen Tafolla, over the course of six hours. Taken as a whole, this special reading showcases “San Antonio’s rhythmic and pulsated voice, its rainbow of life,” in the richest possible way. And if you find yourself still a bit hungover from Fiesta and unable to attend, fret not — the whole thing will be live-streamed at urban15.org. Free, 4-10pm, URBAN-15 Studio, 2500 S. Presa St., (210) 736-1500, megacorazon.com. — James Courtney
20 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
FRI-SUN
1-3
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike THEATER
Two single siblings inside their dead parents’ house, one movie star and one handsome lover named Spike: This is not an Anton Chekhov play. Christopher Durang hijacks characters and themes from the Russian playwright and forces them into a house in present-day Pennsylvania in his comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Following the siblings as they hash out their ancestral home’s uncertain future, the play may lack the absurdity Durang is famous for, but promises laughter over love, heartache and sibling rivalry. $10-$25, 8pm Fri-Sat, 3pm Sun, Classic Theatre of San Antonio, 1924 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 5898450, classictheatre.org. — Murphi Cook
SAT
2
Fredstock Music Festival MUSIC
Each year, students and faculty of San Antonio College’s Music Business program put on the Fredstock Music Festival. Named after longtime program director Fred Weiss, the fest is part on-the-job training for students, part fundraiser and all fun. This year’s lineup is steeped in the traditions of the blues and roots rock, featuring performances from SA legends Los #3 Dinners, Jimmy Spacek and the Westside Horns, Ruben V, Granvil Poynter and more. The free event will also feature food trucks/booths and vendors of various types. Free, noon-6pm, Longwith Radio Television Film Building, San Antonio College, 1300 San Pedro Ave., (210) 486-1380, fredstocksatx.com. — JC
Fast-rising country star Kacey Musgraves.
SAT
2
Kacey Musgraves MUSIC
Perhaps the brightest young star in a genre that feels like it could really use them, Texas’ own Kacey Musgraves rightfully garnered glowing praise, inside and outside the country music community, with her stellar 2013 album Same Trailer Different Park. Now, she’s got a cute but snarky new single out, “Biscuits,” and she’s slowly ramping up to the yet-to-be-announced release of her highly-anticipated follow-up. Our advice is to catch this brilliant and defiant young performer while you still can — soon enough it’ll be all arena shows and big stages for Musgraves. $23-$28, 9pm, Floore’s Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Rd., (210) 695-8827, Helotes, liveatfloores.com. — JC
CALENDAR
Aztlan’s Lowrider Festival presents tricked-out rides as “mobile works of art.”
SUN
3
Lowrider Festival SPECIAL EVENT
Along with all the flowers made possible by those April showers, the month of May brings a wild array of lowriders to the Deco District. A San Antonio signature since 1982, Centro Cultural Aztlan’s Lowrider Festival debunks stereotypes while celebrating tricked-out rides as “mobile works of art” showcased in a family-friendly environment. Much more than a gathering, the 33rd annual event features festival fare, arts and crafts vendors, live music and a competition awarding cash and trophies to winners in more than 30 categories — including Best Lowrider Bike and Best Bomb. $7, 10am-7pm, Centro Cultural Aztlan, 1800 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 432-1896, centroaztlan.org. — Bryan Rindfuss
SUN
3
San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet performing Snow White in 2014.
Barbacoa & Big Red Festival SPECIAL EVENT
Driven home by Randy Garibay’s classic album Barbacoa Blues and Hacienda’s contemporary offering Big Red & Barbacoa, the Alamo City is the epicenter of the distinctly Texan combo of barbacoa and Big Red. Why slow-cooked beef head and bubble-gummy soda marry so well clearly lies in the mouth of the beholder. Five years strong, the Barbacoa & Big Red Festival celebrates the unlikely union with an all-ages event combining food trucks, beer and live music by Ernie Garibay & Cats Don’t Sleep, Network For Young Artists, Felix Truvere and Los Aguilares. $5-$10, 11am-7pm, R&J Music Pavilion, 18086 Pleasanton Rd., (210) 628-6200, barbacoabigredfest.wix.com/bbrfest. — BR
SUN
3
Dance Kaleidoscope DANCE
San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet brings its annual spring performance to the Majestic for a whirlwind tour of classical and contemporary dance. Officially endorsed by SA2020, Dance Kaleidoscope offers a ticket to Vienna with its opening one-act ballet Graduation Ball (a toe-tapping good time in an 1840s all-girls finishing school), a tour of the history of Japanese theater and dance with Denise Oustalet’s Asian Fusion and new contemporary works by Karin Heiden. Guest artists include local chamber group Musical Offerings and married ballet duo Joseph and Laura Villalobos. $13-$33, 2:30pm, The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-333, majesticempire.com. — MC
TUE
5
American music icon Gregg Allman.
Gregg Allman MUSIC
If you wanna do yourself a disservice, you could skip the Allman Brothers Band chapter in music history and still get a pretty good idea of Gregg Allman, circa 2015, from the first track on his latest album. Exactly what it says it is, 2011’s Low Country Blues opens with “Floating Bridge,” a cover of a Sleepy John Estes song in which the narrator falls from a bridge and drinks “a gallon of muddy water.” It also makes a fine superhero origin story for Allman, a former shroom-chomping hippie kid who grew up to be one of America’s greatest remaining bluesmen. $34.50-$64.50, 7:30pm, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Jeremy Martin
sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 21
eth
e ing for veryone
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A tailor ma
THREE SIMPLE WORDS DESCRIBE CULINARIA:
eek of tastes for ans – and som Tex
MAY 13-17, 2015
ew
This is a festival with a purpose. More than just a week in May, Culinaria is a year round experience that gives you the best that San Antonio has to offer and in return gives the best back to the city. We invite you to Eat. Drink. Give. at one (or more) of these events!
EAT, DRINk, GIVE.
SERIOUS FOODIES TO CURIOUS NEWBIES #EATDRINkGIvE Twitter: @culinariasa | Facebook.com/CulinariaSanAntonio | Instagram: @culinariasa
www.cULINARIASA.ORg 22 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE
THU
30
‘30 Day Rx’
MON
Enigmatic, unpredictable and accomplished are but a few of the words that come to mind when considering Jesse Amado, a San Antonio artist who’s represented in collections stretching from the McNay to the Smithsonian. A former firefighter, Amado’s been known to turn everything from dangling crystals to yards of fringe into conceptual works exploring themes of seduction, beauty and romance. Drawing from his personal experience with illness, Amado’s latest body of work employs richly colored virgin wool felt cuttings to address “the gamut of ways that pharmaceuticals inflect our daily lives.” Ranging from orderly grids of pill-inspired shapes (Nine Tablets) to draped arrangements of felt scraps (Consequences #1), “30 Day Rx” marks the 70th exhibition arranged by Ruiz-Healy Art, an Olmos Park gallery specializing in “contemporary and modern art with an emphasis on Latin American and Texas-connected artists.” Free, 6-8pm, Ruiz-Healy Art, 201-A E. Olmos Dr., (210) 804-2219, ruizhealyart.com. Through June 6. — Bryan Rindfuss
Art
Art opening: Juried Visual Arts Student Exhibition San Antonio College’s
Department of Fine Arts hosts a scholarship presentation and opening reception for its annual Juried Visual Arts Student Exhibition. Free, 4:30-6:30pm Thursday; Visual Arts Center Gallery, San Antonio College, 950 Lewis St., (210) 486-1040.
Art opening: “Surface Trending” & “Beneath the Flowers” University of
Texas at San Antonio MFA candidates Trent Hebert and Jenna Wright unveil their thesis exhibitions at Terminal 136. While Wright’s “Surface Trending” critiques and questions the essence and abstraction of the sociological home, Hebert’s “Beneath the Flowers” expresses the complexity and beauty of decorative surfaces, the male form and functional art objects. Free, 6-9pm Thursday-Friday; Terminal 136, 136 Blue Star, (210) 458-4391.
“Back from Berlin” The group exhibition
“Back from Berlin” brings together Vincent Valdez, Cathy Cunningham-Little, Ricky Armendariz and Karen Mahaffy, the first San Antonio artists to take part in Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum’s two-year-old Berlin Residency Program. $3-$5, noon8pm Thursday, noon-6pm Friday-Sunday; Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, 116 Blue Star, (210) 227-6960.
Chicano Fine Arts Museum Presentation Bazan Branch Library welcomes revered San Antonio artist Adán Hernandez for a discussion introducing the concept
and development of his Chicano Fine Art Museum (CFAM) and its mission to showcase and promote Chicano art, film, poetry and special collections. Free, 6:307:30pm Wednesday, Bazan Branch Library, 2200 W. Commerce St., (210) 207-9160.
International Artist-in-Residence Exhibition As guest curator for Artpace’s
first International Artist-in-Residence exhibition of 2015, Los Angeles-based Cesar Martinez tapped London-based Colombian art star Oscar Murillo, theatrical Houstonite Autumn Knight and LA-based painter Henry Taylor. Free, noon-5pm Wednesday-Sunday, Artpace, 445 N. Main Ave., (210) 212-4900.
“It Takes a Village” Although based in
New York, Alejandro Diaz’s influence can be felt all over his native San Antonio. A master of disarming viewers with humor while engaging them in conversations about identity politics, Diaz’s new solo exhibition “It Takes A Village” employs reinterpretations of iconic styles to address current issues of class and culture. Free, noon-5pm Wednesday-Saturday, SPACE Gallery; 111 Camp St., (210) 227-8400.
”Jamie Wyeth” Painter Jamie Wyeth grew up between Pennsylvania and Maine, in what’s been dubbed “America’s first family of art.” Beyond famed portraits of icons (such as John F. Kennedy, Andy Warhol and Rudolf Nureyev), Wyeth has built bodies of work exploring the Maine coastline, a reverence for nature and a curious fascination with pumpkins. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the retrospective
4
Think Big Movie Marathon
Part of the national fundraising initiative Give Local America, the Big Give S.A. unites 877 organizations for a 24-hour period designed to “bring nonprofits and donors together, expand the idea of online giving, connect people to the causes that move them the most and, of course, make giving fun.” As an added incentive to show your favorite nonprofit some love with a donation of $10 or more, each participating organization is eligible for matching funds and a variety of prizes totaling $650,000. To celebrate the occasion and encourage generosity, Texas Public Radio and Slab Cinema are teaming up for the aptly titled “Think Big Movie Marathon.” Promising a funny, strange walk down memory lane (not to mention encounters with the likes of Zoltar, The Dude and Large Marge), the free triple feature kicks off with Penny Marshall’s nostalgic fantasy Big (7:30 p.m.), continues with Tim Burton’s cult classic Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (9:35 p.m.) and wraps up with the Coen brothers’ surreal stoner comedy The Big Lebowski (11:10 p.m.). Free, 6:30pm-1am, Pearl Amphitheater, 303 Pearl Pkwy., thebiggivesa.org; tpr.org. — BR
“Jamie Wyeth” encompasses 100 paintings, works on paper, illustrations and assemblages spanning his 60-year career. $15-$20, 10am-5pm Wednesday-Thursday, 10am-9pm Friday, 10am-5pm Saturday, 10am-9pm Tuesday; San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones St., (210) 978-8100.
MujerArtes Mother’s Day Sale Expressing
their creative voices through the medium of clay for 20 years now, the women of MujerArtes (a program of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center) celebrate Mother’s Day with an annual show and sale of works (priced between $5 and $300) inspired by “mothers, grandmothers, tías, and daughters from all walks of life.” Free, 10am-5pm Wednesday-Saturday; MujerArtes Casita, 1412 El Paso, (210) 228-0201.
Film
Get Reel Film Series: Post Tenebras Lux Described by The New York Times as
“a male psychodrama cum family-man meltdown,” Mexican writer/director Carlos Reygadas’ semi-autobiographical 2012 film Post Tenebras Lux (Latin for “light after darkness”) concerns a family living in rural splendor in an isolated house. It looks like a little bit of paradise, though one that needs an armed guard. Free, 6:30pm Thursday; McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368.
The Last Picture Show Peter Bogdanovich’s adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s semiautobiographical novel The Last Picture Show pays homage to Hollywood’s golden age as it chronicles generational rites of
passage in Anarene, a fictional one-horse Texas town. Set in 1951, the film follows high school seniors Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) as they play football, go to the movies at the Royal Theater, hang out at the pool hall and lust after rich tease Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd in her film debut). Northeast Lakeview College screens the 1971 classic in conjunction with its Spring 2015 Film Series. Free, 6:30pm Tuesday, Performing Arts Center, Northeast Lakeview College, 1201 Kitty Hawk Rd., (210) 485-0200.
Theater
Journeyman and Womyn with a Y
Written by Mike Wirsch and directed by Liz Vermeulen, the Overtime’s latest dystopian drama brings together an absurd cast of characters (Satan, SuperPope, members of a suicide cult and “the most uninteresting man in the world”) for a Russian Roulette tournament. $10-$14, 8pm FridaySaturday; The Overtime Theater, 1203 Camden St., (210) 557-7562.
La Cage Aux Folles Everything is dandy
in Saint-Tropez until the “Tradition, Family and Morality Party” shows up. In La Cage Aux Folles, Georges, the owner of a glitzy drag club, and his partner Albin, the club’s star performer, experience an upheaval of their charmed lives when Georges’ son arrives with his fiancée and her homophobic parents in tow. From there, antics ensue, love is tested and disguises are worn. Based on a 1973 French play, the Tony-winning musical comedy (which inspired the 1996 film
sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 23
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24 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
CALENDAR
The Birdcage) lands at the Woodlawn under the direction of Tim Hedgepeth. $17-$26, 7:30pm Friday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; Woodlawn Theatre, 1920 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 267-8388.
Rumors Michael Burger directs the Vex’s
production of Neil Simon’s classic farce surrounding a dinner party that blows up when the host (the Mayor of New York) shoots himself in the ear lobe. $15-$21, 8pm Saturday, 2:30pm Sunday, Sheldon Vexler Theatre, 12500 NW Military Hwy., (210) 302-6835.
Shrek The Musical Jr. With music by
Jeanine Tesori and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, Shrek The Musical is based on both the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film and the book Shrek by William Steig. Adapted by iTheatrics, this junior version follows the lovable ogre on a mission to rescue feisty princess Fiona from a tower guarded by a fierce dragon. $15-$17, 7pm Friday, 2pm & 7pm Saturday; Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624.
Special Events
4th Annual Cinco de Derby Join the
Library Foundation’s First Edition Society on the St. Anthony’s rooftop for the “most exciting two minutes in sports.� This annual event marries two time-honored traditions — the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo — with drinks, eats, live music and friendly wagers. $40 at saplf. org, 2:30-6:30pm Saturday; St. Anthony Hotel, 300 E. Travis St., (210) 227-4392.
6th Annual Paseo por el Westside
The Esperanza’s cultural preservationminded Paseo por el Westside features walking tours led by Westside Preservation Alliance members, oldschool children’s games, informative workshops (covering everything from medicinal plants and genealogical research to making tortillas and pan dulce) and live music from Las Tesoros
de San Antonio, Mariachi Durango, Son Semilla, Bene Medina and Conjunto Aguila. Free, 9am-3pm Saturday; Rinconcito de Esperanza, 816 Colorado St., (210) 228-0201.
9th Annual Girls Inc. Rockit Into The Future Science Festival Presented by
local nonprofit Girls Inc. in collaboration with Rackspace and Tesoro Corporation, this family-friendly festival is designed to encourage girls ages 6 to 18 to participate in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by exploring, asking questions and solving problems at activity booths and hands-on workshops. Free, 10am-2pm Saturday, Heroes Stadium, 4799 Thousand Oaks Dr., (210) 212-2510.
Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Bonita Author
and artist Xavier Garza, musical groups Los Inocentes, Conjunto Heritage Taller and the OLLUtlan Mariachis, members of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Texas Archaeological Society president Mary Galindo come together in celebration of Cinco de Mayo and the late Mexican-American rights activist and educator Maria L. de HernĂĄndez (1896-1986). Free, 1-4:30pm Saturday; Forest Hills Branch Library, 5245 Ingram Rd., (210) 207-9230.
SABS Bead Bazaar May 2nd & 3rd 2015
Sat: 10am-6pm & Sun: 10am-5pm
Featuring: Beads & Findings • Classes Finished Jewelry • Raffle FREE PARKING • FREE ADMISSION PUBLIC WELCOME • FREE CLASSES
Schertz Civic Center 1400 Schertz Pkwy Schertz, TX 78154 Bring 3 cans of food and get a free raffle ticket! For more information visit our website @ SABEADS.org
The Big Give S.A. The Big Give S.A.
is a day of giving (from midnight to midnight on May 5) uniting hundreds of local nonprofits. The purpose of this community-wide giving challenge is to increase public awareness of the impact local nonprofits make in addressing our community’s social challenges, bring nonprofits and donors together, expand the idea of online giving, connect people to the causes that move them the most and, of course, make giving fun. Last year’s event raised over $2 million for 467 participating agencies. $10 minimum donation, midnight Monday-midnight Tuesday; visit thebiggivesa.org for details.
Dance
Panza Fusion Belly Dance Basics
Giomara Bazaldua of local troupe Zombie Bazaar instructs guests in the techniques of Panza Fusion, a blend of belly dance, ballet folklĂłrico, cumbia and theatrics that has been used to raise awareness about social issues such as gentrification, racism, sexism, violence against women and immigration. Attendees are asked to arrive in comfortable clothes with a yoga mat or towel. $5 mĂĄs o menos, 6:30-8pm Tuesday, Movement Gallery, 1412 E. Commerce St., (210) 299-2666.
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26 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
ARTS
NO HUMMUS IN NEW JERSEY Max Boulos Comes Of Age And Karim Dimechkie Comes Into Print STEVEN G. KELLMAN
Early in Lifted by the Great Nothing, Karim Dimechkie’s endearing first novel, Mr. Yang, a patient horticulturalist who lives next door, invites Rasheed Boulos and his son Max to a special ceremony. Mr. Yang has spent 14 years cultivating a rare Asian plant he calls camukra and he calculates that it will finally bloom today. However, the nature of the flower is to open and wilt within less than five minutes. While celebrating the beauty of the blossom, Mr. Yang’s guests are acutely aware of its impermanence. Though the only explicit memento in the novel of its author’s sojourn in Texas is the Spurs cap that a character called “Coach Tim” rarely removes from his head, Dimechkie is a former Michener Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. And he arrives heralded as the latest floral wonder cultivated in the literary nursery of UT’s Michener Center for Writers. Philipp Meyer, another former Michener Fellow, blurbs Dimechkie’s novel as “a hugely original, big-hearted, and staggering debut.” Moreover, Kevin Powers, also a former Michener Fellow turned literary celebrity, describes the novice author as “one of the most psychologically attuned, wise, and evocative young novelists I’ve read.” In an essay he published in the March 5 edition of The New York Times, Dimechkie recounts how, after moving from Austin to New York, he, a manic-depressive, suffered a devastating nervous breakdown from which he recovered with the help of medication and a pit bull mix named Pavlov. The Pavlovian reaction to the essay — keen interest in Dimechkie’s forthcoming book — has been widespread, even if, unlike the response to the flowering of a camukra, there are no house parties planned to celebrate its appearance. Its shelf life deserves to exceed five minutes.
Lifted by the Great Nothing by Karim Dimechkie Bloomsbury | $26 | 304 pp. On the opening page of Lifted by the Great Nothing, Rasheed installs a tree house in the Boulos backyard in Clarence, New Jersey. It is intended for use by 12-yearold Max, an only child whose happiness seems to be Rasheed’s exclusive, obsessive concern. Max, who does the household cooking, has been told merely and vaguely that his mother died long ago in Beirut. He and Rasheed seem to live entirely for each other. Rasheed, who prefers to be known as Reed, tries to erase all traces of their Lebanese origins. “When we are in America,” he informs Max, “we are Americans.” To a well-meaning neighbor who assumes that Reed
must be an expert in Middle Eastern cuisine, he insists: “I don’t eat hummus, I don’t enjoy hummus, and I don’t know how to make hummus.” Yet, the way he botches a familiar greeting – “Audi, fucks” – betrays the fact that Mr. Boulos was not born in New Jersey. Lifted by the Great Nothing is an immigrant narrative about two newcomers from Lebanon who settle in a residential neighborhood populated largely by AsianAmericans and African-Americans. To support his son, Rasheed works two jobs, in a warehouse and a gas station. This is also a coming-of-age story, one that follows Max from 12 to 26. When, at 17, Max learns that his quirky childhood idyll has been based on a monumental lie, he embarks on a journey to find out the truth, one that takes him as far as Paris and Beirut. It is no surprise that Dimechkie once told an interviewer that Jonathan Safran Foer was an important early influence. Like Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Dimechkie’s Lifted by the Great Nothing focuses on a sensitive, stubborn and sometimes cloyingly sweet boy who is determined to solve the mystery of a missing parent. Along the way, we meet Kelly, a self-righteous scold of global injustices who insists on teaching Max how to masturbate; Nadine, a vivacious African-American doctor who, though 14 years his senior, becomes his sexual partner; and Samira, a Hezbollah guerrilla fighter turned saintly volunteer in a refugee camp. At several points, Max, who learns that his name is actually Hakeem and whose hold on reality is upended at least twice, undergoes a near-death experience. Poised between life and death, he is both cast down and raised up by an awareness of the cosmic sham — simultaneously crushed and lifted by the great nothing. Perhaps a representation of the manic-depression with which Dimechkie has been diagnosed, Lifted by the Great Nothing provides an exhilarating and devastating encounter with disorientation. As Rasheed points out: “Loving too much makes life very difficult.” But loving not enough makes life unbearable.
F E B R UA RY 1 8 | M AY 1 7 , 2 0 1 5
mcnayart.org sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 27
SCREENS
ROLE REVERSAL Kristen Stewart Redeemed In Disorienting Clouds Of Sils Maria DAN HUDAK
Whether Kristen Stewart was starring in terrible vampire movies, sleeping with her Snow White and the Huntsman director, pouting on the red carpet or just generally looking uncomfortable, the media and public have never had trouble finding reasons to pick on her. To be frank, it was hard to find a reason to like her. But if you kept a close eye on her performances alone and blocked out all the nonsense, she was effectively proving herself as an actress. She perfectly embodied indecisive teen angst opposite Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland and she was solid as Joan Jett in The Runaways. She also offered sturdy support to Julianne Moore in Still Alice. Most triumphantly, she recently became the first American actress to win a César Award (the French Oscars), honored for her supporting work in Clouds of Sils Maria. In Sils Maria Stewart plays Valentine, the personal assistant to successful actress Maria (Juliette Binoche, fabulous as always). Valentine is not a showy role full of histrionics, but her glasses, introverted personality and quiet confidence require layered depth and screen presence. As the film opens on a symbolically bumpy train ride, Valentine and Maria are on their way to an awards reception that Maria is wholeheartedly unenthused about attending. Her big career break that launched her to stardom came when she was 18 and played Sigrid in a play (and later a movie) called Maloja Snake, named after the low-lying clouds that “snake” their way through the Maloja Pass in the Swiss Alps. In Maloja Snake, Sigrid tormented the 40-year-old Helena, who was in love with Sigrid. The offer comes: A theater director (Lars Eidinger) wants Maria to return 28 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
Juliette Binoche (Maria Enders) and Kristen Stewart (Valentine) have an oddly compelling dynamic in Clouds of Sils Maria.
to the play, but this time as Helena. A young Hollywood starlet named Jo-Ann (Chloë Grace-Moretz) will assume the role of Sigrid. Maria waffles but ultimately accepts, then travels to the town of Sils Maria near the Maloja Pass to rehearse. The intention is to get close to the material, but in reality Maria has trouble seeing the content from Helena’s perspective. This is where Valentine becomes prominent, as she explains an alternate perspective on the play that Maria isn’t able to absorb. Maria and Valentine have a playful dynamic: They care and look out for one another, eat and drink together, and discuss their personal feelings. But when they disagree, the tension is palpable, as personal and professional lines are blurred to a foggy degree. Valentine is smart and she knows it. She respects Maria, but not to the point that she’ll be a “yes” woman to whatever Maria says. It’s these moments of tension when the film is most alive, as you don’t know who’s right or wrong and it doesn’t matter — you just enjoy watching Stewart and Binoche play off one another so effectively. Writer/director Olivier Assayas (Irma
Vep) is consciously merging the content of the play (as Valentine and Maria rehearse) with the characters’ real lives, to the point that in some conversations it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s the play and what’s true conversation. For example, we can’t help but wonder if, just as Helena develops a crush on Sigrid, Maria now has a crush on Valentine. And so you have to listen closely to the dialogue; think, engage with the characters and trust those involved that the payoff will be worth it. Because you know what? It is, even if things are left a tad unclear in the end and a better sense of the play itself is needed in order to fully appreciate the Valentine/Maria dynamic. Aesthetically, Assayas’ film is very … theatrical. The editing often fades to black only to fade in at a new location, simulating dropping the curtain between scenes for set changes in a live play. The effect is that everything we’re seeing is a play, a sideshow, a drama in a world of crazy in which everything is a spectacle and few things are tangibly real. Maria, Sigrid, Jo-Ann, doesn’t matter: The world’s a stage and people are but mere
players of inconsequence, billions of minions inhabiting the same planet at the same time. The Maloja Pass clouds — poetic, even elegant as they move through the beautiful countryside — are symbolic: They swerve their way through mother nature in much the same way that people swerve in and out of one another’s lives, often without much indentation. Clouds of Sils Maria also has artreflecting-life irony: We can’t help but smile when listening to Stewart’s Valentine describe Jo-Ann’s troublesome tendencies. It’s celebrity news gossip at its worst and Valentine seems to enjoy (and forgive) every salacious detail. Here’s hoping Stewart has successfully left scandal behind and will continue to take on challenging roles, as she clearly has the talent for a long, long career. Just like Maria.
Clouds Of Sils Maria (R) Writ. and dir. Olivier Assayas; feat. Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz, Lars Eidinger Opens May 1 at Santikos Bijou
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FOOD
BRYAN RINDFUSS
A ROLLING BOIL SA At Culinary Crossroads After Two Years Without A James Beard Award Nomination JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS
Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio has one. Cronut creator Dominique Ansel has one. So does Austin’s Paul Qui. By this time on Monday, one of four chefs working in eateries in the Lone Star State (among them Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue, Bryce Gilmore of Barley Swine, both from Austin, Hugo Ortega of Hugo’s and Justin Yu of Oxheart, the latter two in Houston) could be the owner of a James Beard Foundation Award — the Oscars of the food world. And for the second year in a row, no local chef made the cut. San Antonio is absent from semifinalist nominations. The foundation honors the “dean of American cookery,” who pioneered food programming and culinary culture. As it gears up to celebrate its 25th awards ceremony (in Chicago for the first time) on May 4, SA chefs can take the consecutive snub in one of two ways: as a huge blow to a burgeoning scene, or an emphatic call to action for chefs and restaurants eager to be recognized for their innovation. But the endeavors extend much farther than your local chef cooking badass plates. After February’s list of semifinalists was announced, Jason Dady didn’t hide his emotions. “It’s certainly disappointing. The reality is our food culture is on solid ground and only getting better. Chefs like Stefan, Jesse, Steve, Diego, Robbie, Johnny, to name a few, are cooking food in restaurants that are as good as any in Texas,” he wrote in an email. “As a city, we need to speak up and get the voice out there. Pretty simple really. Anyone can nominate chefs, pick your favorite and help us put the SATX food scene on the national map once and for all. Soapbox. Out. “ Indeed, anyone can nominate their favorite chefs for the chance to score insane bragging rights, a bronze medallion and all the perks that come with being named the top of any category. The JBF awards collect nominations or call-to-entry in mid-October, taking names up to the December 31 deadline. More 30 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
than 38,000 entries were submitted for the 2014 restaurant and chef awards. The JBF restaurant and chef awards committee, made up of food writers and critics (Texas Monthly’s Patricia Sharpe is the Texas rep) then has the monumental task of whittling down entries to 20 semifinalists. Category winners are selected by a panel of more than 300 previous JBF winners, as well as 250 judges in 10 regions and 17 members of the subcommittee. So how do local chefs replicate — nay, surpass — the magic of yesteryear, when they made the semifinalist stage? Who will be the pioneer of a new cuisine à la Bruce Auden in the mid-’80s? Auden, known for his impish and playful plate, has seven semifinalist nominations to show for it, including an Outstanding Service nod for Biga in 2013. Andrew Weissman has a couple of wins under his belt for Best Chef Southwest while David Gilbert and Michael Sohocki each have one. And Dady’s nomination for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2012 could see a repeat as he strengthens his lineup with the newly-opened Tre Enoteca and the upcoming Shuck Shack. The nomination process is relatively simple, but the San Antonio dining scene might still have some waiting to do to regain and surpass previous achievements. Luckily, we won’t have to go hungry while we do so, as shiny new knives head into the kitchen (Mixtli’s Diego Galicia and Rico Torres; Quealy Watson and John Philpot of Empty Stomach; David Arciniega and Joel Herrera of Amaya’s Tacos, Luis Colon and staff at Folc; Steve McHugh, Tim Rattray and Jeff Balfour of the Pearl; and Best of San Antonio chef Pieter Sypesteyn, to name a few) and slightly worn ones drive the charge. For Karen Haram, who witnessed firsthand the rise of the previous successful generation of SA culinary leaders as former food editor of the San Antonio Express-News for the better part of 30 years, the city’s going to need to grab a louder megaphone.
Kat Sees (left) and Jessica Perez are two of SA’s top pastry chefs.
“The growth of the food scene in recent years in San Antonio has been phenomenal as an influx of new talent has joined existing restaurateurs to take restaurant and bar offerings to a new level. Now, the word needs to get out, and that’s not easy in a state that has three other food-intensive cities competing for culinary attention. Putting the word out means getting culinary influencers to the city, as James Beard Awards rules state that in order to vote for a restaurant, judges must have eaten there,” Haram said via email. “So to get nominations, we need more than just great restaurants, chefs and bartenders. We also need an audience — regionally, certainly, and preferably nationally — that is aware of what we’re doing here.” Leading the way in that effort is SA’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is targeting millennial travelers these days. “We’re strategically trying to increase awareness and enhance their visitor experience. Millennials are traveling more aggressively, and when they come
into some money as they enter the workforce, they like to be mobile and very experiential,” said Richard Oliver, CVB’s director of communications. To zero in on this demo, the CVB has reached out to chefs and service industry professionals to form a culinary task force to expand on foodie offerings in the city. The bureau is planning to host more than 300 reporters from across the world this year to try to raise the city’s dining profile. To better understand what a James Beard nomination means for our local chefs, the San Antonio Current sat down with two leading fine-dining chefs, Robbie Nowlin of Citrus and Stefan Bowers of Feast, to learn what else the city as a whole can do to take the city to a higher level. For the sweeter side of things, we sat down with pastry chefs Kat Sees of Folc and Jessica Perez of Hot Joy to gain insight on their creative process and why you’ll want to try celery-lime ice or pig blood merengue. To quote the puppet wisdom of Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no try.”
each other. It’s the Karate Kid syndrome. When the student starts getting better, they get insecure and instead of embracing they think, ‘oh fuck.’ I think it’s one of the reasons San Antonio has not had the influx of spotlight on us. But within the last few years and certainly several months, sous have decided to host their own pop ups. How do we maintain that steam? SB: You don’t even have to try. The ball is rolling. There’s no way that to say do we want it, that’s a no-brainer. He’s instantly made. I remember asking my chef in 2003, what does it mean to win James Beard and he kind looked at me stupidly, and goes, ‘It means you’re done.’ Cookbook, six figures, packed every night. That’s a grossly simplified explanation. That was also in 2003. SB: It’s a slow crawl here. If you take out the Pearl, you have one and a half fistfuls of restaurants that would arouse James Beard’s attention.
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Stefan Bowers: Yeah, we 100 percent want it.
owners, they had no stake or equity in these businesses, they were chefs that became talented and their owners were smart enough and gracious enough to explore those talents and sharing with the community. And they went on to win these awards and rightfully so.
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Robbie Nowlin: I think more so now than ever, San Antonio is “James Beard” worthy. We’ve been so held down by the nature of our convention business, but Biga and those restaurants get notoriety for being in all the terminals in the airport and the CVB as a whole all having a marketing scheme of their own accord. I don’t know any other local chefs who
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RN: I don’t know what it is, I think the talent pool was so low in San Antonio five years ago that the biggest chefs became a boys club and they loved
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RN: I think my question is what’s James Beard worthy? What the fuck is worthy of it? I was cooking better food as a chef de cuisine at The Lodge and no one knew who the fuck I was. I was cooking the best food in the world as a line cook at the French Laundry and nobody knew who I was. All of a sudden, I get the title of executive chef in a hotel in San Antonio and people think I’m a badass chef. The hotel does lend you the budget to try new things, though. RN: But it all goes back to chef-owner. If you don’t have that title or executive chef somewhere nobody looks at you. If it’s about the food and the culture, that’s not the answer. CONTINUED ON PAGE 33 ►
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SB: Guys that win James Beard change the culture of things around them instead of just their cooking. Powerful James Beard winners change more than just what’s on the plate. It’s not good enough anymore to be a stellar chef. You have to change your landscape. That’s what’s happening here, finally, but it takes time. It’s not going to happen overnight, and it’s not James Beard’s fault. What’s the process to win a James Beard award, I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t tell you what sponsorship I need. I know I need PR backing. The chef I mentioned earlier did a James Beard Dinner, but the hotel he worked at were huge society people and that’s how he got a dinner. It’s the ‘it’ factor. Some chefs have it and they get it. RN: But what’s the ‘IT’ factor? SB: What was it with Sean Brock? He’s brilliant. He took Southern cooking and inverted it and made it as raw as it can be and as refined as it can be. Brought it to its roots. He changed the cultural position of Southern food. Brock took it to Laundry standards. RN: As a food writer, why do you think it hasn’t happened? JE: I’m not entirely sure. I can’t stop writing about dinners and pop-ups and collaborations, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s how insular we are? CONTINUED ON PAGE 35 ►
SB: That is a good term. I feel like I almost can’t escape it. It’s too tight-knit here. There’s no way of escaping that. Remove the Pearl and yes, you do have good chefs here, but it’s still … I have a hard time finding someplace to eat on my side of town that’s independent dining. Where do I go? Who’s the chef on my side of town where there’s half a million people living there?
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RN: It’s not even Houston. How do you reconcile that? SB: Franklin’s up for a James Beard this year for barbecue, right? Because he changed the landscape and viewpoint for that type of cooking. Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco in Arizona. Pizza won a James Beard (Best Chef: Southwest 2003) because he completely revolutionized his medium.
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SWEET Jessica, when did you take over all three restaurants’ pastry operations? Jessica Perez: I came on and had to work the line for a little bit. It was supposed to be change one, and ongoing. It was a matter of time before the chefs wanted to change their stuff. How hard is it for y’all to change their menu? Kat Sees: I’m ready to change. I get bored after a month and a half and want to do something else. What do you draw inspiration from? What sort of media do you like working with? JP: Vegetables. KS: I like sweet and savory. Every once in a while I’ll do an overly sweet dessert because people want that in this town, they get turned off by strange things. We’re not as adventurous as other cities, you know? Someone came in here once and asked, ‘Why don’t you just have a piece of chocolate cake on the menu?’ I’m like, really? What about at Hot Joy? You had to reinvent your own Asian styles, were you familiar with Asian flavors at that point?
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What are some flavors you lean toward? KS: I try to go with what’s in season. JP: Yep.
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What are you making out there? JP: Right now I’m doing a celery, lime and apple dessert, a carrot dessert and a donut. We can do whatever we want there. Where do you see desserts going in town in the next five years? KS: Hopefully we get more recognition, man. Hopefully that brings more pastry chefs ‘cause there’s very few pastry chefs in town. We’re pretty few and far between. I know Elise Broz, you, Libby Mattingsley, Jeremy and Anne obviously.
JP: I was, because back in L.A. I had just come out from an Asian restaurant.
You’re introducing people to a ton of new stuff. What kind of questions do you get?
The first thing I had of yours was a passion fruit meringue, with lychee sorbet, pineapple bits and a Thai basil whipped cream. How does that even come together?
KS: I think people are just surprised that things work so well with each other, like when you pair a vegetable with something sweet. I think people are amazed by that.
JP: I don’t know. There’s a meringue sandwich that I used to do that I modeled it after. The way the merengue melts with the whipped cream is harmonious.
Do you ever have to warn servers about what you’re making?
One medium you both seem to share is ice cream, why is that? Can you just get together and open an ice cream shop?
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KS: I think their biggest thing is that they get frustrated when there’s 5,000 components and they have to explain all that to the guests. I think it’s a little overwhelming for some people ‘cause there’s so much going on.
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SA Reddit foodie members, including Derek Marc (right), gathered at Pasha last week for their monthly outing.
R/SANANTONIOFOODIES A Fledgling Reddit Group Goes For The Gusto On SA’s Culinary Scene DEREK MARC
On the evening of November 13, 2014, five strangers met for dinner at the Tuk Tuk Taproom. In what has since become a monthly tradition, the Reddit Foodie Meetup of San Antonio was founded that night. Michelle Young and Davin Cross are professional millennials in their early 30s. Transplants to San Antonio, they’re looking to explore culinary options their
new city has to offer. A few weeks prior to the Tuk Tuk Taproom get-together, a hungry and eager Young took to her favorite site, Reddit, and posted an inquiry in the San Antonio subreddit. She asked if anyone would be interested in starting a monthly food group. The idea was to try a new restaurant and a new cuisine in the San Antonio area once a month.
Young, at the time, was a cobbler in Alamo Heights who moved there two and a half years ago with her husband. A self-described foodie, she was desperate to explore her new city’s food scene. When she posted about starting a monthly Reddit Foodie Meetup, Cross saw it on his computer in his Stone Oak home and rejoiced in excitement at the prospects of such an endeavor. Cross, an IT professional and foodie, came to San Antonio from New York City by way of Miami. He was looking to also probe the San Antonio food scene for any and all hidden gems. He responded to Young in a private message and asked to help organize the first meet-up. The two, along with another fellow Redditor, Arshaad, came up with the idea to hold it every
second or third Thursday of the month — thinking it’d be a good day to get seated without having to wait too long. Young and Cross came up with a system to pick which restaurants to visit. It was simple but ingenious. Each attendee writes down the name of a restaurant or cuisine on a Post-it note. The note is then folded and placed into a velvet pouch and shaken. A volunteer picks one out and that’s the selection for the following month’s visit. Each attendee pays for his/her own tab. The nights have gone on to include board games and an after-party bar meet-up. The criteria for restaurants is fairly simple: no chains! The attendance at the first meet up was a bit underwhelming to say the least. Only five people, including the founding three, showed up. Perhaps the cold weather that night kept people from leaving their homes. Perhaps the demand Young and Cross believed existed was no more reality than unicorns or half fly, half Jeff Goldblum sci-fi monster. However, the December event proved their theory correct, and the number of people who attended the Two Bros BBQ Market meet-up doubled to 10. Group members have gone to La Tuna in Southtown, Cured at the Pearl and most recently, Fujiya Japanese Garden in the Medical Center. Each meet-up is larger than the next with no signs of slowing down. The April meetup targeted Pasha Mediterranean Grill. The May visit will have group headed to Fratello’s off Broadway for honest Italian fare. The group brings together folks who under normal circumstances would likely never interact with one another. But because of their love for cuisine, these foodie redditors have been able to make lasting friendships and bonds that go beyond culinary trends. What began as the desire of two people to expand their foodie horizons has turned into something better than either could have imagined. The continued growth of the group has sparked talk of expanding meet-ups to twice a month. With SA currently experiencing a culinary renaissance, it seems that the group is not bound to run out of new and varying options any time soon. sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 37
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The North Side is flush with new dining and drinking options coming via the folks who brought you China Garden. Owner Adrian Martinez opened Smoke The Restaurant inside the former home of Auden’s Kitchen at 700 E. Sonterra with chef Brian West promising fab urban barbecue in a swanky setting. West, most recently helmed the kitchen at Tribeca 212. The menu includes guava-glazed crispy pig tails, braised pork belly dressed with apple butter and Acadian dusted fried chicken livers with jalapeño orange marmalade, a brisket sloppy joe, a Thanksgiving sandwich and something called “sexy barbecue meatloaf” with brisket, bratwurst, mashed potatoes and pickled okra. The eatery is open 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday-Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. ThursdaySaturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Sunday brunch. Martinez has also tapped Matt Dulaney (formerly with Blue Box) to open Hidden Dragon, adjacent to his China Garden location on Blanco Road with Asian-inspired hand-crafted cocktails. Hidden Dragon is open daily from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. at 14355 Blanco Road. Chef Rebel Mariposa is reaching out to the community to help fund La Botanica, an all-vegan eatery slated for a summer opening. Mariposa has launched a Kickstarter campaign, trying to raise $10,000 to help pay for kitchen renovations and a garden. Pledges start at $10 and go up to $5,000, with gifts ranging from appetizer vouchers to having a menu item named after a big-time donor. As of press time, the campaign has raised $2,380 and has through June 7 to reach its goal.
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The Fox & Hound (12651 Vance Jackson Road, Suite 110, (210) 696-1356) will host an Autism Treatment Center fundraiser on Thursday, April 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. Guests can sample complimentary signature dishes and enjoy $4 signature cocktails and $2 draft beer. Ten percent of the proceeds will be donated to the organization, which helps provide educational, residential and therapeutic services for children and adults with autism. San Antonians who are fans of the horse-race scene can hit up Sustenio’s Derby Day celebration inside Eilan (18603 La Cantera Terrace, (210) 598-2950). Stop in for a lavender mint julep, participate in the best hat contest and enjoy free apps (for all ladies with hats). And in case you weren’t one of the many burger fanatics to hit up the second location of In-N-Out in the area, you can get in line at their newest location in Windcrest at 8202 N. IH-35. Finally, our sincerest apologies to farmers market supporters in town. Our Best of SA issue is a beast and readers’ picks for Best Farmers Market were accidentally left out. Results are also updated on sacurrent.com: Pearl Farmers Market took first place, followed by The Yard Farmers & Ranchers Market and Straight From The Crate. flavor@sacurrent.com
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6 Ways To Get Your Drink/Grub On This Week Saturday, May 2: Head to New Braunfels for the day and enjoy the 2015 Wein and Saengerfest, which includes live music, a grape stomp for the winos, an artisan market, food seminars, a chef’s showdown and activities for the little ones. Texan beers and wines will be flowing throughout the day. Admission is free, $15 for wine tastings includes commemorative wine glass, $15 for beer tastings and pint, noon10pm, downtown New Braunfels, (830) 221-4350, weinandsaengerfest.com. Saturday, May 2: Newsflash: There are calories in beer. Lots of ‘em. Run off your beer paunch (or try to at least) during the Alamo Beer Company 5K, which loops around the Dignowity Hill area and the brewery. Runners will be offered a beer tasting, a finisher’s glass, tech shirt and awards. Strollers and pups (on leashes) welcome. $50 in advance, $55 on race day, 8am, 202 Lamar St., (210) 872-5589, runintexas.com/beerrun. Saturday, May 2: The San Antonio Cerveceros rescheduled its DIY All-Grain Home Brew to this Saturday with a free brew session that will show attendees how to make a Hefeweizen from beginning to end. Taste free samples as you work. Lawn chairs and steins are encouraged. Free, 10am, Parman Library at Stone Oak, 10735 Wilderness Oak, (210) 207-2703, facebook.com/sanantoniocerveceros.
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Saturday, May 2: In case you miss both chances at drinking beer earlier in the day, Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling will host its weekly “brewstillery tour” with an educational and hoppy walk through of its beer- and bourbon-making facility. Admission includes a souvenir glass and three samples of award-winning products. Don’t forget your lawn chair. $10, 2-4pm, 4834 Whirlwind Drive, (210) 775-2099, drinkrangercreek.com. Sunday, May 3: There are few things better then a sunny, breezy patio and a cold beer. The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium and Karbach Brewing are spicing up options by adding brunch to the equation. The brunch will include a peach and goat cheese crostini and balsamic reduction with Weekend Warrior Cask beer, pork shoulder huevos rancheros with Rodeo Clown, Japanese-style pancakes with banana, beer syrup, hand-whipped cream and blueberry sausage with Avery Weise Versa and mimosas made with Avery blood orange ale sorbet. $25 for non-UFO club members, $20 for members, noon-1:30pm, 11255 Huebner Road, (210) 6965080, facebook.com/sabeerknurd. Tuesday, May 5: Ditch the usual Cinco de Mayo festivities for a lesson on how to whip up your own sweet and savory Greek pastries. The Central Market cooking school staff will lead this hands-on class on how to make custard pie with phyllo, Greek donuts with honey syrup, chocolate walnut torte and chicken phyllo pie. $60, 6:30-9pm, 4821 Braodway, (210) 368-8600, centralmarket.com.
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COCKTAIL DREAMS Can SA’s Booze Scene Reach Higher Ground? JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS
Unlike San Antonio’s restaurant scene, attention from the James Beard Foundation has been scant in terms of the city’s drinking domain. The sole local semifinalist, Jeret Peña, nabbed that honor in 2012 for his program at the then-newly reopened Esquire Tavern. Since leaving the downtown establishment, Peña has focused efforts on expanding his cocktail footprint by opening The Brooklynite, Stay Golden Social House, The Last Word and the upcoming pub on Main, inside the former Beat Street Coffee Co. The 33-year-old sat down with the San Antonio Current to talk about how to regain JBF attention and how he’s getting back behind the stick.
Current : How have you seen the cocktail landscape change? Jeret Peña: We went from nothing to something to almost a vertical spike in three years. You’re talking about the genesis of it all and there was really a whole lot of forward thinking, progressive food and dining concepts. Was there a specific catalyst? I think the turning point was when StarChefs.com came to San Antonio and Austin. I really think that was the turning point for San Antonio. They’re almost like the left hand of the James Beard Award. Jason [Dady] and I talked about it when we were both in New York for the International Chefs Congress. He pointed it out. The only reason we got these was because of StarChefs. They put us on the map. Most people who have gotten a StarChefs award, not all, have also been nominated for James Beard. It’s a pretty powerful organization. They spend a lot of time dealing with chefs and bartenders, trying drinks and scaling where they are. How do we keep pushing forward? Typically, I don’t have to push my people. We’re all very ambitious with the whole creation side of the cocktail. How do we replicate that? Our goal behind the Last Word is to make it a very small intimate bar where we focus on super-esoteric cocktails. Laborious, chef-driven drinks, from presentation to the nuances of flavors in the layers of the drinks. What role do you think public relations professionals play in drawing attention to the scene?
Jeret Peña at the helm of the Esquire Taven. His work there earned him a James Beard Foundation semifinalist nod back in 2012.
I do believe publicists are making their way to San Antonio and that’s another voice, so other people around the country start to hear about San Antonio. Three, four years ago, getting a publicist or a PR company wasn’t even considered in the city because it didn’t make sense. But now to have a well-oiled machine, or cocktail concept, it sure as hell helps to have a PR company to reach out to the mass amounts of writers, bloggers that a chef or bartender wouldn’t normally have access to. Still, the proof is in the program, if it’s progressive and solid and gets a bunch of accolades and you use them to stoke the flames. That helps out. Now that you’re getting back behind the stick, what’s your thought process? It’s been hard. Over the last year and a half I’ve been really focusing on operations and fine-tuning operational stuff. I missed it. It’s what I’m good at. I like being behind a bar, entertaining people and equally being creative. My creativity has been pushed to putting deals together and concepts, but I still miss that. I miss making a drink for someone and setting it down on a bev nap and watching them enjoy it. I feel like now that I’m slowly getting back in and watching things from afar and looking at how people make cocktails now compared to two years ago, there has been a shift. I got more inspiration in regards to flavor profiles and I feel like my creative juices are flowing and starting to come back in the drink concepts I’ve announced.
Who else do you find equally ambitious? Chris Ware. I’ve definitely had conversations with him about seeking James Beard out. He’s very ambitious and has some really great ideas and concepts. I think he’s a fantastic bartender. Karah Carmack is another one that really does. She wants it. People want national recognition for a program they’ve put together. Why was that Esquire program so successful? The best menu I’ve seen was at The Esquire from fall 2011 to winter 2012. That was the fuckin’ best cocktail menu we’ve ever had; it was just perfect. Everything was good. Every drink was a really great drink. Everything was really thought out and well made, from the Only the Besh cocktail we put on the menu for John Besh to the Only Word, which is basically a mezcal Last Word with celery bitters. How do you get back? I need someone to operate my business so I can get back behind the bar. I’ve hunkered down with ops and business development. People ask about me, and I want to get there. We’re really close. flavor@sacurrent.com sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 41
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Kimura
MELANIE ROBINSON
MELANIE ROBINSON
An izakaya, the Japanese equivalent to a pub or speakeasy, should be a casual eatery with plenty of after-work drinking opportunities — with an emphasis on the drinking opportunities. On East Pecan beneath the Exchange Building apartments, Kimura is San Antonio’s best izakaya and a unique dining experience in general. You’ve no doubt walked past the unassuming bamboo covered windows of the restaurant and speculated at its contents as you carefully sidestepped the VIA bus stop. Fill up inside SA’s best izakaya. Kimura is a quaint little spot complete with stringed lights and pleasing cocktail made with tequila, an open kitchen that, from the looks green chartreuse, yellow chartreuse, of it, can only hold about 40 diners maraschino, grapefruit and Vietnamese max. Its interior is cozy, but can border coriander. Another drink to splash on cramped depending on the day. on your palate if you’re feeling like Kimura has already gained some local something a bit stronger is the Ginger attention for its ramen creations, to Geisha with bourbon, lemon, honey, the credit of chef Michael Sohocki of ginger and cherry. Honorable mentions Restaurant Gwendolyn. He has been include the Green Lady and the Vanilla hard at work crafting this authentic Fig Manhattan. neighborhood noodle shop. The appetizer selection is substantial I appreciate the longer happy hour and hovers around the $6 happy hours, considering I look tore up after hour price range. The gyoza, a plate a long workday and most definitely of four pork dumplings with a tangy want to go put on more makeup. You house-prepared soy sauce sprinkled can imagine my joy at a happy hour with diced scallions, is a must-have. that runs Monday to Friday, 4 to 7 Grilled chicken skewers, or yakitori, are p.m. During that time, Kimura serves delectable and the baby bok choy with specialty cocktails for $6, house wines black garlic sauce tasted as if coming for $5, bottled beer for $6, draft beer straight off the grill. For my vegetarian for $4 and half-off on appetizers. To comrades, the nasu offers one of the boil it down, you can toss back a few few eggplant dishes I have found not and make a meal of the small bites — all only edible but actually enjoyable. It’s for under $25. tossed with a not-too-spicy The bartenders are soy glaze. spending quality time with Kimura So, go ahead, get all these drinks and making 152 E. Pecan St., Suite 102 dolled up for this happy hour them right. The Gonzalez is (210) 444-0702 facebook.com/kimuraIzakaya — it’s worth it. a sweet and aesthetically
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h wit
The Local Bar
$3.00 Cosmos All Day Mondays, Shot Specials All Day Tues. & $2.75 Wells $2.50 Margaritas all day on Wednesdays $2 Ziegenbock Draft “River Rat Special”
1919
Happy Hour M-F 4pm-7pm $1 off Draft Beer Select cocktails on Special
Serna’s Backyard Sports Bar
Hand - Crafted
SernasBackyard.com • HH Daily 2-8pm (12pm Sundays): $2 Domestic Longnecks $2.50 Well Drinks, $3 Smirnoff Vodkas (13+ Flavors)
On The Rocks Pub
270 Losoya, SATX 78205 facebook.com/ontherockspubTX HAPPY HOUR: Mon-Fri, 2pm-7pm $3 Wells, $3 Domestics $3.75 Flavored Vodkas
Kimura
Happy hour monday - friday 4-7 Saturday 12-4 $6 Kimura Cocktails, $5 House Wines $4 Bottled Beer, $6 Draft Beer $3-$4 Appetizers, $6 Miso Ramen
Cocktails
Slackers
LOOSE MOOSE 19178 Blanco Rd. Ste. 201 Tue.-Fri.: 2:30- 8PM, Sat. & Sun.: 5-8PM $2 Domestics $3 Imports $2.50 Wells
Sports-Drinks-Arcade SlackerSA.com • $2.50 Domestics, $3 Wells Daily, $3 You Call It
Bucks Saloon
$2 Domestics $2.25 Specialty Beers Cheap Drafts $9 Dom. Buckets $11 Prem. Buckets Thurs-Live Music & Free Pool
Koyla Grille
HH ALL DAY Everyday! $2 Domestics $2.50 Imports $3 (& up) Well Drinks
Shenanigans
Original Live Music Mon-Wed-Fri-Sat Happy Hour 12-7 $2.25 Wells $2.50 Domestics $2.50 Shiner Birthday Beer of the Month Drink and Shot Specials Daily Try our Texas Infusions Check Facebook for our Events! facebook.com/shenaniganssanantonio
Vortex Bar & Grill
Happy Hour 4-8 $5 APPS $3 XX & SHINER $2.75 DOMESTIC & WELLS $3.50 DOMESTIC TALLS $4 WINE $5 VORTEX PUNCH & More Daily Specials!
Bavarian Brauhaus
Happy Hour Monday-Friday, 3p - 7p & Reverse Happy Hour Friday-Saturday, 9p - 11p $1 off Draft Beer, $5 house wine, $3 Domestic bottles, $4 house margarita, $4.50 El Jimador Margarita, $3 Well Drinks New Happy Hour 1/2 Price Appetizers (at bar only) Mon Night $2.50 Pint Night 3p-10p Wed Night $5.50 Flight Night 3p-10p
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$3 Wells Sat-Sun 12-7 pm: $2.75 Domestic Longnecks, $3 Wells | REVERSE HAPPY HOUR 10pm-2am DAILY SPECIALS!
VISIT HAPPYHOURS.SACURRENT.COM 44 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
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The Irish Pub
Happy Hour Every Day from 2-8 pm Discounts on everything in the bar including: $2.50 wells and domestic bottles $3.50 Jameson, Jack, Tito’s, Skyy & Deep Eddy $3 Sweet Tart and Starf*cker Shots $1 off all Draft Beers Daily Specials Sunday-Monday!
Smitty’s Pub
$2.50 Domestic long necks $2.75 well drinks everyday 2pm - 8pm
Wurzbach Ice House
HH: 4- 8pm Home of the $2.50 Well Drink! $2 Domestic Draft $3 Import Draft, Daily specials 8 till close
Oak Hills Tavern
Mon - Fri 3 - 7pm $3all draft selections
Twenty Grand
Happy Hour Everyday 12-7 Monday- $2.50 All drafts- Live Music Texas Tuesdays $2.50 All Texas Beers Thursday Ladies Day-Free Raffle & Drink Specials
Charlie Brown’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill Charlie-Browns.com • 210-496-7092 Mon.-Fri. until 7pm $2.75 well drinks, $8.00 domestic pitchers $2.75 domestic longnecks Mon.-Fri. 2-6pm 60¢ Wings
The Leaky Barrel HH 2p-8p $2 Tecate & Heineken $2.25 Domestic Drafts $2.50 Wells $3 Long Necks & More Daily Specials
Shenanygans
Sun & Mon - $2 Wells/Jello Shots $2 Domestic Pints/Cans, $3 Import Pints Wed - $3 Wells $4 25 oz domestic mugs $5 25 oz import mugs
NEVER FILLING. ALWAYS FULFILLING.
Highlander Bar & Grill
Mon-Sat: 7am - 4pm $3.25 Import Drafts & Mini Margaritas $2.75 Domestic Drafts Tue- $3.25 Mini Hurricanes Thu- $3.25 Premium Vodka Specials Sun- $.75 Wings & $3 Sunday Specials 4-8pm: $1 off mixed drinks & appetizers!
Beer Goggles
HH 2p-8p: 2 tecate & heineken 3.25 domestics bottle/draft 3.25 shiner&dos xx, $3 wells Plus Daily Specials
Spanky’s Clubhouse
6pm-2am, Closed Sundays Featuring TEXAS Booze and Brews Happy Hour 6-9pm: $2.25 Domestics $3 Premium Beers $2 Smirnoff Moonshine Mondays Texas Tues. $2.50 All Drafts & Keep the Glass Wed $3 You call it Thurs. $3 All Tequilas Fri.- $3 Fireball Sat.- Ladies Night $3 Margs & Martinis Try our Texas Vodka Infusions
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MAY 1 JUNE 5 JULY 3
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DANCE A HOLE IN THE FLOOR Rickety And Lovin’ It, Gruene Hall Celebrates 40 Years As Top Music Joint MATT STIEB/@MATTHEWSTIEB
In its long clapboard history, very few alterations have been made to Gruene Hall, one of Texas’ oldest and most frequented dance joints. The “Willie door” may be the best-known exception. Performing at Gruene Hall one packed evening in 1998, Willie Nelson felt uncomfortable about having to bum-rush through the crowd to get up onstage. “We don’t have a stage door, no green room or backstage or anything,” said Pat Molak, co-owner of the hall. Sitting in Gruene Hall’s beer garden, he pointed to the low-key podium. “So the men’s room is in the back corner, and we opened one of the flaps in the men’s room, cut the chicken wire, put a little ladder up there and that’s where Willie comes in,” Molak said. What the adjustment lacks in prestige, it makes up for in notoriety. When asked about the men’s room portal, Molak employed the worn smile of a man who has explained a minor detail over and over. “Kevin Costner was here with [his band] Modern West the other day and first thing they walked right back to the men’s room,” said Molak. “He asked, ‘What’s the deal with this Willie door?’” Like Nelson’s career, the modern history of Gruene Hall dates back to the ’70s. Molak, sick of his gig as a stock broker, bought the hall in 1975 with his then-girlfriend Mary Jane Nalley, saving the venue from its status as a dusty, underutilized beer joint. “The hall, all the back part was a big old warehouse, was a junk pile,” said Molak, describing the building’s current dance floor. “If you walked in the front part, you didn’t even know the back was there.” At the time, the whole town of Gruene mimicked the venue’s state of disrepair. Its few 19th century blocks were in danger of being torn down in lieu of new housing developments. By the 1950s, Gruene had effectively become a ghost town. Over 100 years ago, the town told a different story, one of startup success and capital-letter American Dreaming. Ernst Gruene founded his eponymous little township in the 1840s, building on the dollar of his cotton crop. The mansion, the hall, the grist mill and all the lovely old buildings still there today are courtesy of the German immigrant’s monopolistic success. “Old man Gruene rented out to sharecroppers, so
Gruene Hall, host to many country greats, celebrates 40 years as a concert hall. It actually opened in 1878 as a community center.
he had a little fiefdom going,” said Molak. “He built the general store across the street and the farmers would go in and spend the rest of their money.” In 1878, Gruene’s son Henry built the hall, a long wooden building with a gorgeous front façade, its posture stiff and remarkably upright. “He built the hall as a community center for the people,” explained Molak. “On weekends, they’d have shindigs. Rumor has it they had badger fights in there one time. It was a very versatile, maybe semi-lawless community hall.” The area flourished for the next 50 years or so, until economic and plague conditions forced locals to flee to San Antonio and Austin. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the boll weevil ate its way up from Central America to Texas and the South. A bulb-shaped creature with an anteater’s snout, the little monster decimated the cotton crop in South Texas. It was in these conditions that Gruene suffered the stock market implosion of October 29, 1929. With a two-front war against the Great Depression and the boll weevil, the town raised a white cotton flag of defeat, chewed through in places by its beetle adversary. Gruene retained its status as a ghost town until the 1970s, when a curious University of Texas student kayaked down the Guadalupe and saw the tattered but charming township. Chip Kaufman, an architecture major, convinced developers to build down the road instead of razing the town. By 1975, Kaufman got the township on the National Register of Historic Places. For a second time, a young man willed Gruene into existence, rebooting the area as a a tourist destination.
On weekends, they’d have shindigs. Rumor has it they had badger fights in there one time. It was a very versatile, maybe semilawless community hall. – Pat Molak, Gruene Hall co-owner
In 1975, Molak and Nalley got onboard, reviving Gruene Hall’s reputation as a gathering spot. With a revolution in country music underway in Austin, it was an ideal time for Gruene Hall to pop back into the scene. Doug Sahm, Jerry Jeff Walker, George Strait, CONTINUED ON PAGE 49 ►
sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 47
MAY 2
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BARFLYS or SPURS/CLIPPERS Game 7
BILLY KIESEL
APR 30
SPURS vs. CLIPPERS
MAY 1
Happy Hour 4pm-7pm Mon-Fri $1 Off All Beers • $2.50 Infusions
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LIP SYNC BATTLE w/MC LIN-Z LANG $3 everything
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Ryan Bingham has had his turn on the nondescript but famous Gruene Hall stage.
◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 47 (GRUENE HALL)
Asleep at the Wheel and Willie Nelson were all making their statements in the state’s capital. And down the road by the Guadalupe River, Gruene offered the real-deal Texas feel. “It’s the authenticity of it,” said Molak. “Anybody can go to a stadium or a slick new joint. I don’t want to brag, it’s just a building. Tons of the old-timers say it’s their favorite place to play. I think there is something to it; the crowd interaction is fabulous. Some say it’s a little hot every now and then. We don’t have AC.” Packed to capacity, things tend to get a little sweaty. Management will open the side flaps to the building, letting a thin cross breeze fight against the body heat. But the hall’s temperature hasn’t dissuaded any performers or patrons from showing up in the fat heat of a Texas summer night. For the hall’s 40th anniversary this weekend, Gruene favorites Asleep at the Wheel and Robert Earl Keen will pack the old, tin-roofed building. About halfway through the conversation with Molak, co-owner Mary Jane Nalley arrived at the hall to give the abbreviated cinematic history of the joint: A BBC feature on the Texas Tornados, album shoots, the ’93 Meg Ryan/Dennis Quaid joint Flesh and Bone. If it’s in celluloid and has a scene in a Texas dance hall, it was probably shot in Gruene.
“There were several different movies filmed here in the ’90s,” said Nalley. “Texas was a lot more aggressive in the film industry at the time; they had more money to throw around.” Probably the most famous Gruenefeatured flick is Michael, a ’96 movie about a not-so-pious archangel. In one of John Travolta’s classic dance scenes (there are so damn many!) he gets down to Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools,” gathering a chorus of women to strut on Gruene Hall’s bowing wood floors. “It really exposed us to a wider market, especially for people on vacation,” said Nalley. “From then on, we became the go-to hall for the film and travel industries.” The publicity is not without reason. From the whitewashed and wide-kerned front to the character of the beersoaked wood inside, Gruene Hall is the picturesque vision of the dance hall, an endangered institution in Texas culture. Built largely by German immigrants in the 19th century, dance halls are standing documents of the German influence on South Texas — where the accordion first met with Mexican styles to form conjunto. “They were initially built as social halls as gathering places for the community,” said Nalley. “And they became part of the social fabric of the place. And Gruene Hall is still that.” mstieb@sacurrent.com
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SA’s Bright Like the Sun Shines On Sophomore LP JAMES COURTNEY
Typically, when you think of the post-rock genre — ill defined as it may be — you think of ominously ruminative, instrumental soundscapes that demand great attention from listeners, only to leave them feeling rather flattened. San Antonio’s Bright Like the Sun, however, showcases an entirely different — more uplifting — concept of post-rock on its self-titled sophomore album, out last week on Sun Sea Sky Productions. “Post-rock in general tends to have a very brooding, depressing mood to it and with this record we made a very conscious effort to show that you can sound emotive without being sad,” multi-instrumentalist Chris Etheredge told the San Antonio Current. “You can use post-rock to establish positive emotions and good feelings, as opposed to feelings of alienation or abandonment or whatever.” Album opener and instant standout “White Lights” starts out at a flutter that feels like you’re stuck in an elevator, both because of the mood of ascension and the soft, nebulous pleasantness of the first notes. Etheredge told the Current that this song, one of three on the album with vocals, came about naturally from a genuine experience of hopefulness. “The whole band was watching New Year’s Eve fireworks from the roof of
Blue Star and we quickly realized that from our vantage point we could see all of the fireworks people were popping at their homes too,” Etheredge explained. “It was just this magical evening that left us all with an optimistic feeling, like ‘you know, shit may be going bad in your life, but keep your head up, everything’s fine.’” Indeed, the whole record is charged with an optimistic sonic brightness (pun intended) and conjures feelings of positivity, encouraging personal exploration. Lyrics, which are new territory for BLTS, became a part of the music “extremely late,” when the band noticed some pre-production “holes” in the songs. The vocals came as a natural patch that proved to be exactly what the tracks were missing. While they will remain a secondary component of the music, Etheredge reports that lyrics will likely continue to be a part of the band’s work moving forward. Bright Like the Sun is an album full of arresting movements, small and large, pushing the heady listener into a rarefied space for contemplation and expansion. The band’s constantly improving live set now features an epic light show that fully syncs up to the emotional waves of the music. All in all, it’s hard to believe that this self-assured outfit came together through chance and a few Craigslist posts by musicians simply eager to create.
Facebook: TheLostBarAndGrill • 12730 NW Military Hwy 78231 • (210) 437-4873 • Hours: 2pm-2am sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 51
full bar opens at 7am! serving breakfast!
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Saturdays at Highlander can only mean one thing ...
Big Red, Barbacoa, & Bloody Marys!! Only at Highlander and only ‘til 11am! Sun: 11 am - 2 am | Mon-Sat: 7 am - 2 am | 5562 Fredericksburg Rd. In the Medical Center
Parker Millsap
A 22-year-old Okie with a staunch Elvis chin, Parker Millsap is a young man fully read up in the spirit of old country. His voice has the grainy texture and explosiveness of saltpeter, wielding it like an expert drunk holds a knife in a bar fight. “Quite Contrary” is Millsap’s most perfect song to date. Inspired by the violence of fables that gets filtered out over the years, the tune is packed with quick-witted turns of the blade. “Hey diddle diddle, the cat’s on the moon and the folks got a lighter underneath the spoon,” sings Millsap, oozing emotion and wit. As versed as he is in the gutter life, Millsap can do the cleaned-up thing, too. On “Truck Stop Gospel,” a rockabilly fiction of a travelling preacher, Millsap hits in the ballpark of radio country without losing any of his individuality. $10-$45, 8:30pm, 330 E. Grayson, (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com — mstieb@sacurrent.com
Wednesday, April 29
Midtown Jazz Sound Drummer John
Fernandez, leader of Midtown Jazz Sound, returns to Soho for the sixth year of residency at the downtown club. Soho, 10:30pm
Miles Tackett & The 3 Times Known
for his work with soul jazz Californians Breakestra, Miles Tackett is out on his own, shredding funky for his new release The Fool Who Wonders. With Alyson Alonzo, DJ JJ Lopez. Phantom Room, 9pm
Toro Flores & Miguel Garza Toro Flores
and Miguel Garza team up for an evening in six-string jazz. Urban Taco, 6pm
Trizz From the Inland Empire of Southern
California, Trizz’s 2014 mixtape Amerikkkas Most Blunted retains the heaviness of its Ice Cube reference, while adding the heavy-headed nod of a rapper in a room full of smoke. With Core the Emcee, Southeast Steve, Here$y. The Korova, 8pm
UIW Jazz Ensemble The University of
the Incarnate Word jazz ensemble is an exciting learning lab for students, placing them in the company of gigging SA musicians like saxophonist John Magaldi and pianist Luvine Elias. The Cove, 8pm
Thursday, April 30
Asleep at the Wheel Formed in 1970 in
West Virginia, Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel made its claim to fame in Austin and nearby Gruene Hall, where the band is helping to celebrate the music
52 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
joint’s 40th anniversary this weekend. The country masters are also celebrating the release of Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. As the title suggests, Asleep at the Wheel pays homage to Bob Wills, one of the founders of the Texas-brewed music known as Western Swing. Gruene Hall, 7pm
Cliffside of the Pinkeyed Sky, Collective Dreams The Mix hosts this pair of bands delivering lucid instrumental post-rock. The Mix, 10pm
Dog Fashion Disco With a tongue-in-cheek candor, Maryland’s Dog Fashion Disco creates huge metal tunes, holding on to disparate influences like a flytrap. With Beebs & Her Money Makers, Celebrity Sex Scandal. The Korova, 7pm
Dwight Yoakum Outsider country
specialist Dwight Yoakum wrote his own rules as he made a name for himself in the great tradition of outsider country, a la Buck Owens, his hero. His stop in New Braunfels gives us a chance to look back at his odd and wonderful output over the course of his near 30-year career as country music’s favorite urban cowboy. River Road Icehouse, 7pm
King William Jazz Collective The self-
titled release from saxophonist and bandleader Bill King, King William Jazz Collective is a big band showcase of the finest players San Antonio has to offer. Trumpeters Logan Keese and Jason Jones dominate the top of the spectrum,
MUSIC
providing the punch’s weight when the band opens up. The rhythm section of pianist David Lopez, bassist Bob Storck and drummer Darren Kuper are limber enough to pound on the huge hits and remain quiet but engaged on softer features like “Too Young to Go Steady,” featuring singer Joan Carroll. Luna, 9:30pm
Lynnwood King SA frontman Lynnwood King ditches The Heroine for this quiet evening at the former punk spot. Viva Tacoland, 8pm
The Suite feat. DJ Gibb and Donnie Dee Two of SA’s finest soul and funk jockeys deliver a Thursday night soundtrack in original funky drummers. Southtown 101, 10pm
Zappa Plays Zappa Dweezil Zappa, the
eldest son of the late avant-rock icon Frank, leads this tribute to the historic weirdo, prolific songwriter and master stylist (side note: only Frank Zappa would name his son Dweezil). Aztec Theatre, 7pm
Friday, May 1
Beethoven Seven Percussion expert
Evelyn Glennie plays Corigliano’s 2014 Grammy-winning Conjurer, paired with Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, the composition that provided the background for King George’s radio broadcast in The King’s Speech. Tobin Center, 7pm
Carolyn Wonderland Austin blueswoman Carolyn Wonderland plucks and slides with a fiery authority. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm
H.R. of Bad Brains, Los De Esta Noche
Frontman of legendary D.C. punks Bad Brains, H.R. (born Paul D. Hudson) is a punk legend of the highest tier. San Antonio septet Los De Esta Noche are mockingbirds of style, picking up on genres and spitting them back with accuracy and attitude. On the new, self-titled album, the nocturnal homies take a swing at cumbia, ska, rocksteady and Tex-Mex rockabilly, trading Spanish for English as gracefully as they swap out their rhythms. With Kill Liberal. The Korova, 8pm
Henry + The Invisibles SA’s own Henry +
the Invisibles continues to turn in nothing but spectacularly soulful, ridiculously costumed one-man shows. Rebar, 10pm
Remanon EP Release SA quartet
Remanon release the new EP Episodes. With All Sides Equal, Anova Skyway. Boozehounds, 10pm
Falling In Reverse Like candy in a salad or Kevin James in any movie, Falling In Reverse is combining things that should not be together — dubstep and
metalcore, rap and country, etc. With Ronnie Radke’s Three Ring Circus Ghost Town. Alamo City Music Hall, 6:30pm
Royal Punisher Featuring Estevan Garcia
on sax, Don Robin on guitar, Phillip Luna on bass and Kory Cook on drums, Royal Punisher’s incendiary improvisations make the quartet one of the best in San Antonio jazz. Rosella, 9pm
Sleep ∞ Over Stefanie Franciotti of
Austin pursues chill, brilliant creations of electronic pop. With Delenda, Moze Pray. Paper Tiger, 8pm
Wishbone Ash In 1974, Wishbone Ash
sucessfully turned a Shakespeare quote into a handjob joke, naming its album There’s The Rub after a line from Hamlet, while covering the record with a dicklooking cricket ball. Other points on their résumé include pioneering the dual lead guitar technique (see: Thin Lizzy, Mac DeMarco) and releasing 24 studio albums. With Ultra. Aztec Theatre, 6:30pm
Saturday, May 2
Korpiklaani Finland’s Korpiklaani
introduces the accordion into bibulous metal tunes like “Vodka,” “Tequila” and “Beer Beer.” With Trollfest, Hogbitch. The Korova, 7pm
IAMSU! On “Only That Real,” IAMSU!
recorded a minor radio hit, drenched in reverb and featuring 2 Chainz sounding like he’s yelling into an ancient Nokia cell. With Rome for Fortune, Dave Steezy. Alamo City Music Hall, 8pm
Pinkish Black Denton’s Pinkish Black
worships the drone, placing it in the guise of experimental rock and slowmotion metal. Paper Tiger, 8pm
Reckless Kelly Reckless Kelly’s roots
reach back to Idaho and Oregon, where brothers Willy and Cody Braun paired their state-required education with a musical school of learning taught by their father. Aztec Theatre, 7pm
Robert Earl Keen Another Gruene Hall
mainstay helps celebrate the 40th anniversary weekend of the iconic Texas venue. In the early 1980s, Keen emerged from South Texas to make his statement in Americana, a genre that he would help define. Gruene Hall, 9pm
Roxy Roca Soul horndogs be warned: The
ratio of beautiful women to horn players in the video for Roxy Roca’s “Try My Love” is way off. Luna, 9:30pm
Swingin’ Utters Signed to the record label of Fat Wreck Chords of Fat Mike of NOFX, Swingin’ Utters has been making upstart punk since its appearance on the first Warped tour. The Korova, 7pm
sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 53
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Sunday, May 3
Barbacoa and Big Red Festival
Celebrating the pairing that has become shorthand for some puro San Antonio shit, the Barbacoa and Big Red Festival features Ernie Garibay & Cats Don’t Sleep, Felix Truvere and Los Aguilares. R&J Music Pavilion, 11am
Doc Watkins Trio Unlike some jazz
musicians whose claim to a doctorate is just a nickname (looking at you, Dr. Lonnie Smith) and others who have won honorary degrees (congrats, Sonny Rollins!), Brent ‘Doc’ Watkins has a doctorate in music from UT Austin. It’s a degree he’s put to good use, swinging viciously on his piano or Hammond B3 rig. Esquire Tavern, 3pm
Fiesta In Song The Children’s Chorus of
San Antonio interprets the folk heritage of Latin America in its spring concert. Tobin Center, 3pm
Flyleaf From Temple, Flyleaf toes the
Monday, May 4
Bad Banjo Brown This week at Sam’s
swing night, SA’s Bad Banjo Brown provides the dancing soundtrack. With or without horns, the band introduces the welcome guest of the banjo into swingera jazz. Sam’s Burger Joint, 7pm
Boz Scaggs Looking at Boz Scaggs, it’s
hard to believe that the man is 70 years old. Hearing him play confirms that
of King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Bix Beiderbecke, cornetist Jim Cullum is a leader among a growing community of trad jazz players. Tucker’s Kozy Korner, 7-10pm
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Small World Led by drummer Kyle Keener and guitarist Polly Harrison, Small World places world music in the jazz setting. The band features music from the Great American Songbook and bossa nova sung in the original Portuguese. Olmos Bharmacy, 7:30pm
Wyclef Jean Moving from Haiti to New
Jersey at the age of nine, Wyclef Jean has become a major figure in the Haitian diaspora in the United States. With The Fugees, Jean created some of the most memorable and powerful hip-hop of the ’90s with his bandmates Lauryn Hill and Pras Michel. Since 1997, the multiinstrumentalist has been on a solo kick, creating socially-conscious and partyrocking music across the spectrum of genre. Tobin Center, 7pm
Tuesday, May 5
Crimson Jazz Orchestra Saxophonist
George Briscoe leads his band through the repetoire of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich and contemporary arrangers. Blue Star Brewery, 8pm
Mastodon From Atlanta, Mastodon is one
of the most talented metal bands of the 21st century. With Clutch, Graveyard. 210 Kapone’s, 6pm
210 Kapone’s 1223 E. Houston, 210) 279-9430, 210kapones.com Alamo City Music Hall 1305 E. Houston, alamocitymusichall.com Aztec Theatre 201 E. Commerce, (210) 760-2196, theaztectheatre.com Blue Star Brewery 1414 S. Alamo, (210) 212-5506, bluestarbrewing.com Boozehounds 8531 Perrin Beitel, (210) 590-3223 Esquire Tavern 155 E. Commerce, (210) 222-2521, esquiretavern-sa.com Gruene Hall 1281 Gruene, New Braunfels, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall.com Luna 6740 San Pedro, (210) 804-2433, lunalive.com Majestic Theatre 224 E. Houston, (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com Olmos Bharmacy 3902 McCullough, (210) 822-1188, olmosrx.com Paper Tiger 2410 N. St. Mary’s, papertiger.queueapp.com Phantom Room 2114 N. St. Mary’s R&J Music Pavilion 18086 Pleasanton, (210) 6286200, rnjmusicpavilion2.com Rebar 8134 Broadway, (210) 320-4091, rebarsatx.com River Road Icehouse 1791 Hueco Springs Loop, New Braunfels, (830) 626-1335, riverroadicehouse.com Rosella 203 E. Jones, (210) 277-8574, rosellacoffee. com Sam’s Burger Joint 330 E. Grayson, (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com Soho 214 W. Crockett, (210) 444-1000
Southtown 101 101 Pereida Street, (210) 263-9880 The Cove 606 W. Cypress, (210) 227-2683, thecove.us The Falls 226 W. Bitters, (210) 490-5553, thefallsbar.com The Korova 107 E. Martin, (210) 226-5070, thekorova.com The Mix 2423 N. St. Mary’s, (210) 735-1313 The Ten Eleven 1011 Avenue B, (210) 320-9080, theteneleven.com Tobin Center 100 Auditorium, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org Tucker’s Kozy Korner 1338 E. Houston, (210) 320-2192, tuckerskozykorner.com Urban Taco 290 E. Basse, (210) 332-5149, dinedsrg.com Viva Tacoland 103 W. Grayson, (210) 368-2443, vivatacoland.com
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suspicion, as Scaggs plays with a vitality that many teenage musicians would trade with the devil for. Including his brief tenure with the Steve Miller Band, Scaggs has seen 12 of his albums reach the Billboard Top 200. The most famous of which is his ’76 album Silk Degrees, a soulful Grammy winner that went fivetimes platinum. Tobin Center, 7:30pm
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sacurrent.com • April 29-May 5, 2015 • CURRENT 55
ETC
AGE PLAY
SAVAGE LOVE by Dan Savage
My partner is 31 years older than I am. I know the math: He’ll be 60 when I’m 29. But that isn’t the problem. The issue is he’s been a lifelong bachelor and never been monogamous. He’s fucked hundreds of women and is close friends with a lot of his former fuck buddies. Because of our four-year friendship before we hooked up, I know a lot about his sex life. The problem isn’t jealousy—and it isn’t knowing he’s fucked every woman he’s friends with or that he fucked someone else after declaring his love for me. It’s that I know too much. We both feel vulnerable at times — him because I’m still in contact with one ex, and me because I feel like I’m fighting his past preference for no-strings-attached relationships. He tells me this relationship is different and he loves me in a way he hasn’t loved anyone before. But I still feel like because of how many people he’s been with, and how many of these amazing, beautiful, young fuck buddies are still in his life, I’ll never attain any sort of primacy. Notable Age Gap Gets In Newbie’s Grill At some point in the future, your partner is going to be 60 and you’re going to be 29, NAGGING, which means you’re somewhere in your 20s and he’s somewhere in his 50s, right? (Math is hard!) And since you two were friends for four years before he realized you were the only woman he wanted to stick his dick in for the rest of his life — pay no attention to the woman he dicked during the brief interlude between telling you he loved you and the aforementioned realization — that means… um… Math is hard, like Barbie says, especially when you don’t have all the relevant data. The same goes for giving advice. Answering your question without knowing your actual 56 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
ages is difficult, because it makes a difference whether you’re 21 and he’s 52 (which means this man befriended you when you were a high-school student) or you’re 28 and he’s 59 (and you met this man after you got out of college). Likewise, it would help to know how long you two have been together. Three months? Three years? Essentially, you’re asking me to game out the odds for both long-term success and monogamous success (and, yes, those are two different things), and that’s hard to do without knowing your ages and how long you’ve been together. Because I would definitely give your relationship slimmer odds of long-term success if your partner were the kind of middle-aged man who befriends and eventually beds high-school students. Conversely, I would give your relationship fatter odds of long-term success if you were three years into it and your partner had been successfully monogamous all that time. That said, NAGGING, cheating and breakups regularly happen in the absence of significant age gaps and friendship networks composed exclusively of ex– fuck buddies. (Since people tend to partner with — and cheat on and be cheated on by — people in their same age demographic, cheating and breakups almost always happen in the absence of significant age gaps. But that is correlation, not causation—and sophistry, too!) There are no guarantees. Your partner may revert to nonmonogamous form at some point and either cheat (boo!) or ask for permission to open up your relationship (yay?). You could find yourself in a caretaker role in 10plus years and find yourself asking him for permission to open up your relationship. Or you guys could stay together and stay faithful until death comes for one of you—most likely your partner, leaving you plenty of time to hook up with your ex, if he’s still available. Oh, shit—blah blah blah, I haven’t answered your question. You’ll obtain primacy — or realize you’ve already attained it — after a significant chunk of time has passed. So give it more time. Either it will work out or it won’t. But even if this relationship isn’t a long-term success, it can still be a short-term success. Good luck. I’m 62 and happily married for 20 years to a sweet guy who doesn’t seem particularly interested in sex any longer. We are open to allowing each other freedom, with full disclosure, and have occasionally done this. When I watch music videos of John Sebastian in his 20s, I cream my jeans. And I have noticed similar reactions to sweet, intelligent young men in their 20s and 30s. I don’t necessarily discriminate on the basis of age — or gender, color, etc. — and if a cute guy or gal in my age group came on to me, I’d consider the offer. But what I’d really like is a young man who finds me attractive and would be interested in seducing, or being seduced by, yours truly, even though I’m old enough to be his grandma. Wicked Older Woman
A study you’re not going to want to read and that I’m not going to cite — because it lumps people who are sexually attracted to the elderly together with people who are sexually attracted to prepubescent children — puts the percentage of people attracted to senior citizens at .15 percent of the population. That means there are more than 11 million gerontophiles of all ages out there. We’ve already established that math is hard, WOW, so I’m not going to try to figure out how many gerontophiles are in their 20s and 30s. But there should be lots. And there are probably a few non-gerontophile guys (and gals) out there who are willing to take a walk on the postmenopausal side. How to make it happen? The same way everyone else does: Get online and advertise for what you want (clearly and explicitly), and get out of the house (you never know who you’ll meet). Then seize — safely — the opportunities that come your way. My partner and I — both fortysomething males — had a threesome with a very cute twentysomething college student who approached us online. He considers himself straight and has a girlfriend, but he “has been wondering” about his sexuality. The evening went incredibly well, but he had the typical “curious guy” freak-out the day after. Texts and e-mails flooded in — he wanted (more) guarantees about our health status even though we played safe during sex. He said he told his girlfriend (“She was understanding but pissed!”). He also said that we could never get together again. Then he started drunk-texting us at night, offering to send us more sexy photos and talking about how much he wanted to see us again. Sober texts arrived in the morning apologizing for his drunken behavior. We’ve tried to be there, not just for the sex but also his process afterward. Did we do this guy a disservice by engaging with him? (Also, I’m not convinced there really is a girlfriend.) Curious Over Curious Kid It might look like you’re not honoring the campsite rule (“Leave ’em in better shape than you found ’em”) because this guy is a mess right now. But some queers can’t seem to accept themselves — or even recognize themselves — until after a clarifying queer sexual encounter or three. In all likelihood, this twentysomething will one day look back at his “typical ‘curious guy’ freakout” as an important part of his coming-out process as a gay or bi man. So you probably did him a favor. (Although I would describe his freak-out as cliché — and increasingly atypical.) As for the real-or-imaginary girlfriend: If she exists, she should dump him. Not because of your actions, COCK, but because of his. A priest and a rabbi come on to a podcast… savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter
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1 Maze runner 4 Sarah Michelle Gellar role 9 Tasmanian _ _ _ 14 Mellow 15 Skater _ _ _ Anton Ohno 16 Hair extension 17 Skeleton’s weapon? 19 Redheaded Broadway character 20 1996 gold medalist in tennis 21 Black Sabbath singer, to fans 23 Last of 12, for short 24 _ _ _ of Maine (toothpaste brand) 25 Antiseptic used on muscle pulls? 28 They can be rolled or crossed 30 Potato outside 31 Pipe unclogger 34 Address starter 37 Spitefulness 40 Ready follower? 41 The rougher alter ego? 44 Card game based on matching groups of three 45 Impersonates 47 Exchange 48 Impersonate 50 Disorderly defeat 52 Cable staple since 1979 54 Act on misery loving
company? 58 Obama predecessor 62 The A of BAC: Abbr. 63 Aunt Bee’s nephew 64 Aretha Franklin’s longtime label 66 Shop tool 68 Complaint during a bland Mad Lib? 70 “Roots” family surname 71 Pint-sized 72 Pen fluid 73 Comedic actor _ _ _ William Scott 74 Defeats, as a dragon 75 “Dr. Mario” platform
DOWN
1 City near Casablanca 2 L.A.’s Whisky _ _ _ 3 First coffee break time, perhaps 4 Meadow sounds 5 Revolt 6 In favor of 7 Knock senseless 8 “Holy moly!” 9 The Rock’s real first name 10 Ending with hallow 11 Bad change of scenery? 12 Cornell and Columbia, for two 13 Bloodsucker 18 Krupp Works city 22 Lighter option
26 “Baloney!” 27 Intricate network 29 _ _ _ Kippur 31 June honoree 32 2016 Olympics setting 33 Colonial collectibles 35 _ _ _ Impact Wrestling (wrestling league) 36 Blood bank’s universal donor 38 Band presented on an island, perhaps 39 “And many more” 42 Bar legally 43 Figure known for calling out? 46 Theo, to Cliff 49 Risking a lot 51 Annual PGA event 53 High-class 54 _ _ _ or better 55 Skateboarder’s jump 56 Cheese coverings 57 Do some tune-up work on 59 Bolt like lightning? 60 “Goosebumps” creator R. L. _ _ _ 61 “The Green Mile” actor 65 2008 World Series runner-ups 67 _ _ _ Dew (stylized brand name) 69 “_ _ _ Maid en Manhattan” (Telemundo novela)
ETC
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Chris Moneymaker was employed as an accountant in Tennessee. On a whim, he paid $39 to enter an online poker tournament. Although he knew a lot about the game, he had never competed professionally. Nevertheless, he won the tournament. As his award, he received no money, but rather an invitation to participate in the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Can you guess the storybook ending? The rookie triumphed over 838 pros, taking home $2.5 million. I don’t foresee anything quite as spectacular for you, Aries, but there may be similar elements in your saga. For example, a modest investment on your part could make you eligible for a chance to earn much more. Here’s another possible plot twist: You could generate luck for yourself by ramping up a skill that has until now been a hobby.
TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): eBay is a multi-billion-dollar e-commerce business that has been around for almost 20 years. But it had an inauspicious beginning. The first item ever sold on the service was a broken laser pointer. Even though the laser pointer didn’t work, and the seller informed the buyer it didn’t work, it brought in $14.83. This story might be a useful metaphor for your imminent future, Taurus. While I have faith in the vigor of the long-term trends you are or will soon be setting in motion, your initial steps may be a bit iffy.
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Poetically speaking, it’s time to purify your world of all insanities, profanities, and inanities. It’s a perfect moment for that once-in-ablue-moon Scour-a-Thon, when you have a mandate to purge all clunkiness, junkiness, and gunkiness from your midst. And as you flush away the unease of your hypocrisies and discrepancies, as you dispense with any tendency you might have to make way too much sense, remember that evil is allergic to laughter. Humor is one of the most effective psychospiritual cleansers ever.
CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): I was in the checkout line at Whole Foods. The shopper ahead of me had piled her groceries on the conveyor belt, and it was her turn to be rung up. “How are you doing?” she said cheerfully to the cashier, a crabby-looking hipster whom I happened to know is a Cancerian poet and lead singer in a local rock band. “Oh, I am living my dream,” he replied. I guessed he was being sarcastic, although I didn’t know for sure. In any case, I had a flash of intuition that his answer should be your mantra in the coming weeks. It’s time to redouble your commitment to living your dream! Say it 20 times in a row right now: “I am living my dream.”
LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22):
As I awoke this morning, I remembered the dream I’d just had. In the dream, I had written
a horoscope for you. Here’s what it said: “The Kentucky Derby is a famous horse race that takes place on the first Saturday of every May. It’s called ‘The Run for the Roses’ because one of the prizes that goes to the winning horse and jockey is a garland of 554 roses. I suspect that your life may soon bring you an odd treasure like that, Leo. Will it be a good thing, or too much of a good thing? Will it be useful or just kind of weird? Beautiful or a bit ridiculous? The answers to those questions may depend in part on your willingness to adjust your expectations.”
VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Don’t calm down. Don’t retreat into your sanctuary and relax into protective comfort. If you have faith and remain committed to the messy experiment you have stirred up, the stress and agitation you’re dealing with will ripen into vitality and excitement. I’m not exaggerating, my dear explorer. You’re on the verge of tapping into the catalytic beauty and rejuvenating truth that lurk beneath the frustration. You’re close to unlocking the deeper ambitions that are trapped inside the surfacelevel wishes.
LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): American author Stephen Crane wrote his celebrated Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage in ten days. Composer George Frideric Handel polished off his famous oratorio Messiah in a mere 24 days, and Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky produced his novel The Gambler in 16 days. On the other hand, Junot Díaz, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, needed ten years to finish it. As for you, Libra, I think this is — and should be! — a phase more like Díaz’s than the other three creators’. Go slowly. Be super extra thorough. What you’re working on can’t be rushed.
principle applies to you, Sagittarius. If we were to try to evaluate your current situation with conventional wisdom, we might say that part of your usual array of capacities is not functioning at its usual level. But if we adopted a perspective like Hedberg’s, we could rightly say that this part of you is simply serving its purpose in a different way.
CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): I’ve got a tough assignment for you. It won’t be easy, but I think you’re ready to do a good job. Here it is: Learn to be totally at home with your body. Figure out what you need to do to feel unconditional love for your physical form. To get started on this noble and sacred task, practice feeling compassion for your so-called imperfections. I also suggest you cast a love spell on yourself every night, using a red candle, a mirror, and your favorite creamy beverage. It may also help to go down to the playground and swing on the swings, make loud animal sounds, or engage in unusually uninhibited sex. Do you have any other ideas?
AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): When Aquarian media mogul Oprah Winfrey was born, “Oprah” was not what she was called. Her birth certificate says she is “Orpah,” a name her aunt borrowed from
a character who appears in the biblical Book of Ruth. As Oprah grew up, her friends and relatives had trouble pronouncing “Orpah,” and often turned it into “Oprah.” The distorted form eventually stuck. But if I were her, I would consider revisiting that old twist sometime soon, maybe even restoring “Orpah.” For you Aquarians, it’s a favorable time to investigate original intentions or explore primal meanings or play around with the earliest archetypes.
PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): What I propose is that you scan your memories and identify everyone who has ever tried to limit your options or dampen your enthusiasm or crush your freedom. Take a piece of paper and write down a list of the times someone insinuated that you will forever be stuck in a shrunken possibility, or made a prediction about what you will supposedly never be capable of, or said you had a problem that was permanently beyond your ability to solve. Once you’ve compiled all the constricting ideas about yourself that other people have tried to saddle you with, burn that piece of paper and declare yourself exempt from their curses. In the days after you do this ritual, all of life will conspire with you to expand your freedom.
THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow
SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): In her book A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman describes a medieval knight who asked his lady for a strand of her pubic hair: a symbol of her life force. The lady agreed. He placed the talisman in a locket that he wore around his neck, confident that it would protect him and consecrate him in the course of the rough adventures ahead. I recommend that you consider a similar tack in the coming weeks, Scorpio. As you head toward your turning point, arm yourself with a personal blessing from someone you love. Success is most likely if you tincture your fierce determination with magical tenderness.
SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): “An escalator can never break,” mused comedian Mitch Hedberg. “It can only become stairs. You should never see an ‘Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order’ sign, just ‘Escalator Is Temporarily Stairs.’” I think a similar
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Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
NOTICE OF APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION FOR WATER QUALITY LAND APPLICATION PERMIT FOR MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER RENEWAL PERMIT NO. WQ0014331001 APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION. Trinity Assembly Church, San Antonio Texas, 5415 North Loop 1604 East, San Antonio, Texas 78247, has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for a renewal of TCEQ Permit No. WQ0014331001, which authorizes the disposal of treated domestic wastewater at a daily average flow not to exceed 6,000 gallons per day via non-public access subsurface drip irrigation system with a minimum area of 1.86 acres. This permit will not authorize a discharge of pollutants into water in the state. TCEQ received this application on October 21, 2014. The wastewater treatment facility and disposal site are located at 5415 North Loop 1604 East, approximately 1,500 feet north and 750 feet east of the intersection of North Loop 1604 East and Judson Road in San Antonio, in Bexar County, Texas 78247. The wastewater treatment facility and disposal site are located in the drainage basin of Salado Creek in Segment No. 1910 of the San Antonio River Basin. The TCEQ Executive Director has completed the technical review of the application and prepared a draft permit. The draft permit, if approved, would establish the conditions under which the facility must operate. The Executive Director has made a preliminary decision that this permit, if issued, meets all statutory and regulatory requirements. The permit application, Executive Director’s preliminary decision, and draft permit are available for viewing and copying at the Julia Yates Semmes Library, 15060 Judson Road, San Antonio, Texas. This link to an electronic map of the site or facility’s general location is provided as a public courtesy and not part of the application or notice. For the exact location, refer to the application.
PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR A DIABETES STUDY! IF YOU ARE: •Have diabetes but otherwise healthy. •30 years of age or older. •Take Bydureon (exenatide) or Victoza (liraglutide.
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/hb610/index.html?lat=29.605555&lng=- 98.384722&zoom=13&type=r PUBLIC COMMENT / PUBLIC MEETING. You may submit public comments or request a public meeting about this application. The purpose of a public meeting is to provide the opportunity to submit comments or to ask questions about the application. TCEQ holds a public meeting if the Executive Director determines that there is a significant degree of public interest in the application or if requested by a local legislator. A public meeting is not a contested case hearing. OPPORTUNITY FOR A CONTESTED CASE HEARING. After the deadline for submitting public comments, the Executive Director will consider all timely comments and prepare a response to all relevant and material, or significant public comments. Unless the application is directly referred for a contested case hearing, the response to comments will be mailed to everyone who submitted public comments and to those persons who are on the mailing list for this application. If comments are received, the mailing will also provide instructions for requesting a contested case hearing or reconsideration of the Executive Director’s decision. A contested case hearing is a legal proceeding similar to a civil trial in a state district court. TO REQUEST A CONTESTED CASE HEARING, YOU MUST INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING ITEMS IN YOUR REQUEST: your name; address, phone number; applicant’s name and permit number; the location and distance of your property/activities relative to the facility; a specific description of how you would be adversely affected by the facility in a way not common to the general public; and the statement “[I/we] request a contested case hearing.” If the request for contested case hearing is filed on behalf of a group or association, the request must designate the group’s representative for receiving future correspondence; identify an individual member of the group who would be adversely affected by the proposed facility or activity; provide the information discussed above regarding the affected member’s location and distance from the facility or activity; explain how and why the member would be affected; and explain how the interests the group seeks to protect are germane to the group’s purpose
You may be eligible to join a clinical trial conducted by the Diabetes Division of the UTHSCSA at the Texas Diabetes Institute (TDI). If qualified, you will receive: •Physical exam at no cost. •No cost trial related blood tests. •Compensation for your time.
Following the close of all applicable comment and request periods, the Executive Director will forward the application and any requests for reconsideration or for a contested case hearing to the TCEQ Commissioners for their consideration at a scheduled Commission meeting. The Commission will only grant a contested case hearing on disputed issues of fact that are relevant and material to the Commission’s decision on the application. Further, the Commission will only grant a hearing on issues that were raised in timely filed comments that were not subsequently withdrawn. TCEQ may act on an application to renew a permit for discharge of wastewater without providing an opportunity for a contested case hearing if certain criteria are met. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ACTION. The Executive Director may issue final approval of the application unless a timely contested case hearing request or request for reconsideration is filed. If a timely hearing request or request for reconsideration is filed, the Executive Director will not issue final approval of the permit and will forward the application and request to the TCEQ Commissioners for their consideration at a scheduled Commission meeting. MAILING LIST. If you submit public comments, a request for a contested case hearing or a reconsideration of the Executive Director’s decision, you will be added to the mailing list for this specific application to receive future public notices mailed by the Office of the Chief Clerk. In addition, you may request to be placed on: (1) the permanent mailing list for a specific applicant name and permit number; and/or (2) the mailing list for a specific county. If you wish to be placed on the permanent and/or the county mailing list, clearly specify which list(s) and send your request to TCEQ Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. All written public comments and public meeting requests must be submitted to the Office of the Chief Clerk, MC 105, Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, TX 78711-3087 or electronically at www.tceq.texas.gov/about/comments.html within 30 days from the date of newspaper publication of this notice. AGENCY CONTACTS AND INFORMATION. If you need more information about this permit application or the permitting process, please call the TCEQ Public Education Program, Toll Free, at 1-800-687-4040. Si desea información en Español, puede llamar al 1-800-687- 4040. General information about the TCEQ can be found at our web site at www.TCEQ.texas.gov. Further information may also be obtained from Trinity Assembly Church, San Antonio Texas at the address stated above or by calling Mr. Mitchell Brown, Director of Facilities, at 210-653-0003. Issuance Date: April 16, 2015
62 CURRENT • April 29-May 5, 2015 • sacurrent.com
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