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25
CONTENTS April 8-14, 2015
53
Imaginative Memory Fact meets fiction in Kristin Valdez Quade’s colorful collection Night at the Fiestas Color Czars Mother-daughter duo Joann and Arielle Eckstut on color palettes, orange cars and The Dress Her Texas British-born, Pakistani-bred writer Sobia Khan is in a Lone Star state of mind
35
45 NIGHTLIFE Booze And Blues We check out Bar 414’s hooch list Heading East New watering holes on the city’s East Side
51 MUSIC
12 NEWS
San Antonio Book Festival Cheat Sheet Panels, talks and readings at a glance
East Side Blues Revitalization efforts in long-neglected San Antonio neighborhoods are making a difference, but who reaps the benefits?
Lightning Strikes Thrice Maverick Music Festival returns for a third year, with sets from Cypress Hill, tUnE-yArDs, Toadies and more
35 SCREENS
Music Calendar What to see and hear this week
18 CALENDAR
Ready For Change San Antonio’s Fabian Dominguez State Jail through the lens of filmmaker Cynthia Fitzpatrick
Our top picks for the week
24 ARTS One For The Books What to expect from the third annual San Antonio Book Festival Luckiest Man Alive? Local artist Mark Menjivar sheds light on The Luck Archive 8 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
37 FOOD Some Like It Hot Ask for it spicy at Café Bahar Where’s The Beef? Let’s cool it with the lease disputes and subsequent restaurant drama, shall we? Flavor File There’s a new farmers market in town
65 ETC
Savage Love Free Will Astrology Jonesin’ Crossword This Modern World
ON THE COVER
San Anto’s East Side, long discarded as the city’s trouble spot, is going through a strong rejuvenation. But will it continue and to what end? Art direction by Eli Miller
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 9
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sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 11
NEWS
J MICHAEL SHORT
Abandoned houses such as this one (left) on SA’s East Side are being sold at a feverish pace. But for veteran East Sider Mildred Bailey (right), lingering poor instrastructure continues to mark her way life.
THE GOOD WITH THE BAD SA’ East Side Seems Renaissance–Bound ... But At Whose Expense? MARK REAGAN/@210REAGAN
The Alamo City has seen a Manifest Destiny-like northbound sprawl, feverishly gobbling up land for construction past Loop 1604 and beyond. At the same time, over on the East Side of the city near downtown, neighborhoods languished as crime and poverty rates soared. That’s now starting to change. Five years ago, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor was a councilwoman representing the East Side and, following on the footsteps of her predecessor Julián Castro, she opened the floodgates to revitalization efforts in some of the Alamo City’s most underserved communities. “I am personally very engaged in this effort,” she told the San Antonio Business Journal last summer. “We have a tremendous opportunity to create a model of comprehensive community development that can be replicated 12 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
in San Antonio and in other cities throughout the nation.” A wave of redevelopment has occurred in historic East Side neighborhoods, bolstered by none other than the nation’s top leader. Two years ago, President Barack Obama designated a 35-square-mile area from Interstate 37 to Fort Sam Houston and AT&T Parkway to East Commerce as one of the first “Promise Zones” in the country. The designation brought access to exclusive federal grants in an effort to improve the lives of more than 64,000 San Antonians who face a 35 percent poverty rate in what are still considered some of the Alamo City’s most rundown and violent neighborhoods. It hasn’t completely turned around, but in many aspects, the East Side is starting to look like a shell of its former self. Private development has spilled
into neighborhoods in and around the Promise Zone, creating a real estate boom and bringing an influx of new homes and businesses.
Signs Of New Life Wheatley Courts is the bull’s eye of what’s called the “Choice Neighborhood.” The former public-housing complex is surrounded by a high chain-link fence and the troublesome block that used to be the epicenter of gang activity in the neighborhood is now comprised of large piles of dirt and deep holes in the ground to make room for new housing. The renovation of Wheatley Courts from a public-housing project into a mixed-income housing complex for more than 500 residents is the anchor for East Side revitalization through the Promise Zone initiative. The massive undertaking still faces challenges, as highlighted in a 2012 study by the San Antonio Housing Authority for its “transformative” plan for the Wheatley Courts neighborhood. In the study area that is bounded by New Braunfels Street to the west, Interstate 35 to the north, railroad tracks to the east and Martin Luther King Drive to the south, 57 percent of the housing stock was built prior to 1959 and there are around 180 vacant lots.
Violent crime has also been a perennial dilemma. It usually stood at twice the overall city rate, according to the SAHA study. Not anymore. All crime has dropped by seven percent, according to the city. It may be way overdue and change is coming about gradually, but there’s a certain buzz that positive change is palpable in the East Side. “First of all, crime has been decreasing because of the renewed focus on community policing. We have neighborhood watch programs. The police department is engaging more with the community and building trust,” said Mike Etienne, director of the San Antonio EastPoint & Real Estate Office, which coordinates revitalization efforts in the Promise Zone between the city, developers and a host of nonprofit agencies. Then there are high school graduation rates. For instance, the SAHA study found that 43 percent of adults didn’t graduate high school, compared to Bexar County’s rate of 18.5 percent. But that’s starting to change for today’s youngsters. “The high school graduation rate has increased, especially at Sam Houston High School, which was 46 percent, and has gone as high as 84 percent,” Etienne said. Part of the reason for this drastic
NEWS
increase is the federal Promise Neighborhood Grant. The monetary infusion has been used to pay for tutoring and coordinating internships. And the San Antonio Independent School District has used it to hire more experienced teachers. Education is key to future prosperity, which is why revitalization efforts need to focus on workforce development, Etienne said. “There’s a large percentage of East Side residents who have significant barriers to employment, like adult education, criminal backgrounds, ESL, daycare, transportation and so we do have barriers,” he said. In response, the city has tapped Alamo Colleges to develop a strategic plan to address those barriers, while St. Phillips College provides adult education and GED certification. “It’s critical that the residents have a job, that they have income to pay for houses that we build … to improve the quality of life for their families,” Etienne said. Beyond injecting new life into the former Wheatley Courts trouble spot, some pockets of the East Side are seeing an infusion of modern housing investment. At Cherry and Burnet streets, you’ll find a sleek new high-end apartment complex at the foot of the Hays Street Bridge called Cherry Street Modern, featuring 12 units sold out before construction was even finished last year. Units at the modern-styled box-like complex, which sits across the street from the newly opened Alamo Brewery, sold for about $177,000 to $190,000 apiece. Angel Lopez, a 32-year-old system administrator at Rackspace, was quick to grab one. “The main attraction to me was the contemporary style. This place had a lot of what I was looking for,” Lopez said. He said the rooms were laid out just right, the kitchen was big and open, there was a smooth floor of stained concrete and it featured a peaceful view of downtown. “I enjoy the small-town feel of this neighborhood. The many styles of architecture found in this neighborhood are indicative of its rich history,” he said. As he sees it, revitalization has been great for this area. “The new businesses opening in this area have definitely brought more people to visit the East Side. I’m happy to witness it,” he said.
Troubled Transformation Lopez and Promise Zone backers may be happy, but that’s a feeling countless other East Side residents have yet to experience. For 80-year-old Mildred Bailey, who lives near the railroad tracks by the intersection of St. Charles and Rudolph streets, the flood of revitalization leaves only standing water — literally. In late March, following strong rains, Bailey stood outside her Dignowity Hill house stamping down wet gravel laid down by the city in its effort to soak up the standing water. “The water would come around the
corner and it would just stand,” Bailey explained. “It would be so high because it rained just about two or three days ago. So it’s kind of gone down some.” There are no curbs on her street or sidewalks, and brown murky water filled potholes. The problem escalated during the workweek. During the summer, brush in the area draws stray dogs and cats while stagnant water attracts mosquitos and other pests. Bailey has lived here for more than three decades and has yet to see her quality of life improve. “Sometimes I have to go to the doctor and I have to call the VIA bus transit and they’ll pick me up, but they have to come
Federal “Promise Zone” designation has brought hope and opportunity to SA’s East Side.
way up there,” she said, pointing to an alley. “I can’t walk out down here because of the mud and water.” Yet she’s practically down the street from the new Cherry Street Modern complex, thus highlighting the apparent hodge-podge nature of the East Side comeback. “All this different development, it’s random,” said Juan Garcia, a resident of Dignowity Hill and former president of its neighborhood association. “It’s organic, but really random.” On any given street, overgrown vacant lots with leaning chain-link fences sit next to rickety homes making one wonder how they’re still standing. That’s a stark contrast with the smell of fresh sawdust at historic houses being refurbished for sale just down the street. But even the vacant lots and rundown houses have something in common with structures undergoing renovations: forsale signs. “Prices have more than doubled in the seven years I’ve lived here,” Garcia said. For instance, five years ago, vacant lots were selling for $10,000. But now, it’s not uncommon for lots to sell between $40,000 and $60,000. And then there are the houses. “People are flipping properties like crazy. One property was valued at $90,000. This guy turned it around and sold it for $119,000,” Garcia said. “And the guy fixing it up right now is going to sell it for $350,000.” While the nuts and bolts of renovating East Side homes – many are considered historic – are difficult in their own right, maneuvering between historic commissions, building boards and zoning requirements while applying for city incentives is a tall order. Syngman Stevens, who grew up in Dignowity Hill, said he meant to renovate a house he bought four years ago and was ready to invest $250,000 to fix it up, but cost estimates came in at more than $500,000. Stevens, a businessman who owns Tong’s Thai on Austin Highway said all his efforts ended up in yet another vacant lot. “What I find is big business or commercial contractors can maneuver easier than someone in the neighborhood that’s trying to be engaged,” Stevens said. Because of the high price, he planned CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 ►
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 13
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NEWS
J MICHAEL SHORT
Many formerly rotting homes in Dignowity Hill are now being brought back to life.
◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 (EAST SIDE)
to demolish the home, which was considered historic, and build anew. But he actually couldn’t do that on his own – he had to get approval from the city’s Historic Design and Review Commission. He didn’t have any luck. “The average home here was $50,000. For most people, economically, fixing them up is a hardship,” Stevens said. “But I was ready to put $250,000 in this home and $250,000 in another I owned.” He appealed to the Building Standards Board, which allowed the demolition, trumping the HDRC for public safety reasons. If the HRDC had approved his plans he could have built a new house as originally planned, but instead, since the building was condemned, he’ll have to wait five years per city regulations if he still wants to build on the property. “They was against me. They wanted to fight, but they lost the war because now we got another empty lot,” he said. And there are a lot of empty lots. Garcia estimates there are at least 100 in Dignowity Hill alone. “None of this was a problem until revitalization. What I see isn’t fair to some of the people who live here. The city is writing citations right and left,
which I like. But I worry about it,” he said. “I have resources, but some of my neighbors don’t.” So the nature of the East Side’s rejuvenation is spotty. While the Promise Zone is seeing an influx of federal money and private developers are pumping cash into neighborhoods like Dignowity Hill, others have yet to reap the same benefits.
Priority Issues Another obstacle in the effort to revamping the East Side is the age-old problem of drumming up community involvement – getting locals in the act. “Residents, they are busy. They work. They have families. There is news of big activity and then it wears off, but the question is how do we keep it going,” Etienne said. “Ultimately, we want to get the residents to take ownership, where they will make sure that if they see a pothole they are empowered to call the city and say ‘Look, there’s a pothole in the street. Can you come and fix it?’” Potholes, like the ones staring at Bailey when she walks out of her CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 ►
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 15
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NEWS
J MICHAEL SHORT
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house. Not that they’ll get fixed any time soon. City officials told her the streets will need to be completely redone to fix drainage problems – not expected until 2017. “This has been a problem since I moved in more than 30 years ago. I even talked to (city manager) Sheryl Sculley and she told me to get back with the guy who was working with her,” Bailey said. “But for some reason he left the city and I never did hear anymore about it.” Bailey’s even attended a public meeting put on by the Mayor’s Task Force on Preserving Dynamic and Diverse Neighborhoods. The task force’s goal is to increase investment in inner city neighborhoods without forcing locals to flee – gentrification. Garcia attended one of those public meetings, too. “No one was allowed to ask questions. People who wanted to speak got three minutes,” Garcia said. “It was one-sided discourse.” The Texas Organizing Project, a member-driven advocacy group, has thus far been skeptical of the task force’s priorities. Mu Son Chi, the group’s Bexar County director, said the task force has a draft report full of recommendations for preventing gentrification in spots the city has identified as longneglected neighborhoods. “We need to get recommendations to make sure our communities are not displaced. There needs to be a policy solution,” Chi said. “Obviously, there’s
a need to track displacement but without policy to help prevent it they are making displacement a forgone conclusion. That’s a problem.” Chi wrote a letter to members of the task force urging them to place more importance on preventing gentrification, but also to address those nagging problems like curbs, sidewalks, streetlights and drainage. “These infrastructure problems are a result of not a natural disaster but a political disaster that happened over long period of time,” Chi said. “These residents deserve basic infrastructure. It’s a matter of equality and justice and dignity.” But with increasing property value attracting more development, low-income residents who have lived in the historically neglected neighborhood long before city leaders and developers began paying attention could soon end up with the short end of the stick. “If I drive to the North Side I see streetlights every 30 yards, proper drainage and sidewalks,” Chi said. Probably something most people in the nation’s seventh-largest city would expect. Yet it remains a decades-long elusive dream for folks like Bailey. So, yes, good things are happening in the city’s long-neglected East Side. It seems poised for a definitive transformation. But will change benefit all or just some, making this area just the city’s latest gentrified hot spot? mreagan@sacurrent.com sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 17
CALENDAR
Add Stars and Garters Burlesque to your bucket list.
Thomas Allen Harris’ Through a Lens Darkly.
WED-THU
8-9
Through a Lens Darkly FILM
Raised between the Bronx and Tanzania, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris employs a blend of video, photography and performance to address everything from sexuality and spirituality to politics and identity. UTSA’s Honors College celebrates the “cultural warrior” by screening his documentaries The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (an intimate exploration of the antiapartheid movement) and Through a Lens Darkly (a film Time summed up as “a deep, rich dive into the history of African-American photography”), both to be followed by discussions with Harris. Free, 7pm Wed-Thu, Santikos Bijou, 4522 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 734-4552, honors.utsa.edu. — Bryan Rindfuss
18 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
THU
9
17.5 Sexy Things to See in San Antonio Before You Die BURLESQUE
If the name of Stars and Garters Burlesque’s sultry new spectacle rings a bell, it’s possibly because it resembles the title of our 2015 City Guide (100 Things To Do In San Antonio Before You Die). Teased as “a naughty numeration of local assets,” the vaudeville-style show sees the troupe setting up shop at Laugh Out Loud. Emceed by Larry Garza, the “carnal countdown” of striptease and stand-up combines the talents of burlesque beauties (Pystol Whips, Suki Jones and Black Orchid, to name a few) and comics Brandi Dunagan, Regan Arevalos and Jess Castro. $17, 8pm, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (432) 235-0414, starsandgartersburlesque.com. — BR
THU
9
Kevin Hart COMEDY
San Antonio is the very first destination on comedian Kevin Hart’s “What Now? Tour,” which will see him go through 45 U.S. cities in the next four months. The “comedic genius” (at least that’s the award being bestowed upon him at the MTV Movie Awards this weekend) started his stand-up comedy career in Philly in the late ’90s and has since starred in movies such as Ride Along, The Wedding Ringer, and Get Hard opposite Will Ferrell. We’re not sure if his tour’s name poses a rhetorical question, but we’ll venture to say more blockbusters, comedy specials and sold-out arenas are in his future. $49.50-$152, 7pm, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com. — Kiko Martínez
“Paranoid pop” quartet Gringo Star.
FRI
10
Gringo Star
MUSIC
Atlanta-based indie rock outfit Gringo Star makes swirling, fuzzy and sepia-toned tunes that hearken, to some extent, back to mid-1960s garage-psych. The band members have, quite aptly, characterized the four-piece’s familiar yet inventive sound as “paranoid pop,” a term that nods to the nervous energy and spastic motion of their music. This month, the group announced on social media that its recently completed fourth LP should see a 2015 release. If it’s anything like the most recent Gringo output (last year’s excellent “Long Time Gone”/“World of Spin” 7-inch), we’re in for a treat. $10, 8pm, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 666-6666, papertiger.queueapp.com. — James Courtney
CALENDAR
Ruby Nelda Perez in her show Doña Rosita’s Jalapeño Kitchen.
FRI-SUN
10-12
Doña Rosita’s Jalapeño Kitchen THEATER
Nationally acclaimed Chicana performance artist Ruby Nelda Perez returns to the Alamo City with her signature piece Doña Rosita’s Jalapeño Kitchen. Written by Rodrigo Duarte-Clark, the one-woman show takes us to the last supper in the barrio of Salsipuedes, a neighborhood on the brink of extinction due to a new shopping mall development. Recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as an American Masterpieces touring artist, Perez expertly weaves English, Spanish and Spanglish into her irresistible and irreverent collaborations with Latino writers. $12-$15, 8pm Fri-Sat, 3pm Sun, Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St., (210) 271-3151, guadalupeculturalarts.org. — Murphi Cook
FRI-SUN
10-12
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill explores Billie Holiday’s life.
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill THEATER
Set in a Philadelphia bar circa 1959, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill fuses biographical narrative and song to imagine one of Billie Holiday’s final performances. Upon its 2014 debut, critics called the play “unrealistically stuffed” with detail, but praised it for its music; it subsequently earned actress Audra McDonald a Tony. But can you blame a playwright for too many details? From a stint in prison to heroin abuse, Holiday’s life was unrealistically stuffed with unhappiness. Michelle Burnett leads the local production. $5-$10, 8pm Fri-Sat, 2:30pm Sun, Watson Theatre, St. Philip’s College, 1801 Martin Luther King Dr., (210) 486-2000, alamo.edu/spc/fine-arts. — MC
SAT
11
El Primer Border Town Art Collective ART
This weekend, Zac Cimi Arte, one of West Side San Anto’s newest art galleries, is hosting a multi-arts showcase that celebrates border life and art, particularly in the oft-maligned city of Laredo. The all-ages event will feature musical performances by La Grange-based singer-songwriter Cass Adcox, Laredoan hip-hop outfit i35 ConneKt and DJ Street Samurai. While the music keeps your head nodding, local and Laredo-based artists (such as Nina Donley, Edmundo Martinez and Carlos Ramos) will display artwork in various media. Bonus: Mexican hotdogs and other borderinspired treats. $3, 6-11pm, Zac Cimi Arte, 2003 S. Zarzamora St. # 3104, (210) 7250391, zaccimiarte.com. — JC
Zac Cimi Arte artists Nina Donley and Arturo Barz.
TUE
14
PuroSlam NPS Finals WORDS
It’s the pinnacle of the most under-appreciated competition you’ve never heard of — that one where drunken poets voice their feelings and audience members score them accordingly, biases and all. With enough whooping, hollering and heckling to go ‘round, PuroSlam prides itself on being one of the rowdiest poetry slams in existence. Metaphorically duking it out for the past seven months, the crew’s top 10 poets will face off Tuesday for a spot on PuroSlam’s team at the National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California in August. Delight at the rivalries and bask in the revelry. $2, 10pm, The Korova, 107 E. Martin St., (210) 226-5070, facebook.com/ puroslampoetry. — Melanie Robinson
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20 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE
SAT
11
Welcome to Night Vale
FRI-SUN
10-12
Gilbert Gottfried
Although listeners can’t resist drawing comparisons between the wildly popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale and the work of H.P. Lovecraft or David Lynch (or even likening it to A Prairie Home Companion narrated by The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling), true fans claim it’s unlike anything that came before it. The supernatural brainchild of writers/creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, Night Vale owes some of its hypnotic charm to narrator Cecil Baldwin, an actor, performer and member of the experimental New York theater troupe Neo-Futurists. As radio host Cecil Palmer, Baldwin navigates the bizarre landscape of Night Vale, an imaginary desert town inhabited by angels, dragons, a menacing Glow Cloud and “dark hooded figures with unknowable powers.” Given plot twists and anecdotes that involve everything from a gay romance to a PTA bake sale benefiting “Citizens for a Blood Space War,” the podcast inspires both binge listening and an imaginative canon of fan art. With a novel set for release in October, Night Vale’s first official U.S. tour stops at the Aztec with a brand new script enhanced with live musical accompaniment from Brooklyn-based electronic composer Disparition (aka Jon Bernstein) and British psychpop surrealist Mary Epworth. $25-$30, 8pm, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — Bryan Rindfuss
Forget the too-soon 9/11 joke or the Tweet that cost him his job voicing the Aflac duck, the biggest violation of the comedy code Gilbert Gottfried ever committed is releasing Dirty Jokes. Following a brief intro in which he urges the audience to lower its expectations and expresses his regret for appearing there, Gottfried launches into nothing but street jokes, those locker-room stories with no known author, deemed not suitable for stage use by most pros since vaudeville fell out of fashion. Regardless, the album is an underground classic among comics and fans because Gottfried, by sticking to unoriginal material, creates a control environment in which comedy’s other fundamentals, delivery and timing, can be studied in stark detail. Gottfried, at his most obscene and obnoxious, is a master at both, often getting more laughs from digressively setting up or over-explaining the joke (the infamous Aristocrats takes him more than 10 minutes to tell, for example), than delivering the filthy punch line. It’s the seventh grade class clown given run of a teacherless classroom. Everyone knows it shouldn’t be happening, yet it is. Gottfried in a nutshell. $22.50, 8pm & 10:15pm Fri-Sat, 8pm Sun, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 541-8805, lolsanantonio.com. – Jeremy Martin
Art
Theater
Art opening: “Art & Conservation”
Artists and land owners collaborate in the creation of unique works of art showcasing the beauty of Texas. Free, 10am-8pm Saturday, 10am-3pm Sunday; Cibolo Nature Center Auditorium, 140 City Park Rd., Boerne, (830) 331-8952.
Art opening: “San Antonio Artists Exhibition” A curator at the National
Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Michael David Leslie serves as juror for the San Antonio Art League and Museum’s 85th annual “San Antonio Artists Exhibition,” an offshoot of the fabled Edgar B. Davis Competitions of the late 1920s. Free, 3-5pm Sunday; San Antonio Art League and Museum, 130 King William St., (210) 223-1140.
Art Party: Viva Fiesta! Colores Everywhere SAMA’s monthly happy hour
series continues with a colorful event featuring docent-led gallery talks, the unveiling of the museum’s annual Fiesta medal, margaritas and live music by local Americana outfit Blackbird Sing. $5-$10, 6-8pm Friday; San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones St., (210) 979-8100.
”Amor Sin Fronteras” Referencing erotic
Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo period, children’s book illustrations and lots more in between, young Mexico City artist Felix D’Eon’s provocative yet playful gouache paintings hijack vintage sheet music and other ephemera with homosexual fantasies exploring
“happy endings and outcomes in Aztec civilization, Revolutionary-era Mexico and the American West.” Free, 11am-6pm daily; San Angel Folk Art, 110 Blue Star, (210) 226-6688.
“Jewels of the Court: A Journey Through Fiesta’s Coronation” With “more glittering gowns and crown jewels than ever before,” the Witte’s new Fiesta exhibition showcases the intricate planning and careful execution of one of Texas’ most iconic celebrations. $10-$13, 10am-5pm Wednesday-Saturday, noon-5pm Sunday, 10am-5pm Monday, 10am-8pm Tuesday; Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway, (210) 357-1900.
International Artist-in-Residence Exhibition As guest curator for the first
IAIR exhibition of 2015, Los Angelesbased Cesar Martinez tapped Londonbased Colombian art star Oscar Murillo, theatrical Houstonite Autumn Knight and LA-based painter Henry Taylor. Dubbed by fans as a “21st-century Basquiat,” Murillo has been known to paint with a broomstick and scrawl words like “burrito” on his canvases. A trained drama therapist, Knight combines elements of performance, video and sculpture in multimedia projects that encourage discourse about emotional, racial and geographic boundaries. Honored in 2012 with a mid-career retrospective at MoMA PS1, Taylor has depicted prostitutes and drug dealers in his folky paintings, but does not identify as an “outsider artist.” Free, noon-5pm Wednesday-Sunday, Artpace, 445 N. Main Ave., (210) 212-4900.
An Excruciatingly Ordinary Toy Theater Show Funded in part by the Jim Henson Foundation, locally-based artist Zach Dorn’s latest “live-action comic book” recounts mysterious tales surrounding a lonely puppeteer, a vertically challenged ghost and an opera-singing landlord. $15, 8:30pm Friday-Saturday; Miniature Curiosa’s Toy Theater Parlor, 1906 S. Flores St., (813) 843-3722
Cyrano De Bergerac The San Antonio
College Department of Fine Arts caps off its 2014-2015 season with French playwright Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano De Bergerac, an 1897 play about a man of many talents (swordsman, poet, musician and playwright) whose ability to excel at love is thwarted by his extremely large nose. $5-$10, 7:30pm Thursday-Saturday, 2:30pm Sunday; McAllister Auditorium, San Antonio College, 1300 San Pedro Ave., (210) 486-0255.
Eleemosynary Heralded as “one of the
real gems of the contemporary American theater,” Lee Blessing’s 1985 play Eleemosynary focuses on the delicate relationship of three generations of women. $10-$15, 8pm Thursday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; Classic Theatre of San Antonio, 1924 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 589-8450.
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 The Birdcage) lights up the Woodlawn under the direction of Tim Hedgepeth. $17-$26, 7:30pm FridaySaturday, 3pm Sunday; Woodlawn Theatre, 1920 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 267-8388.
Mary Poppins Based on the books by P.L.
Travers and the 1964 Walt Disney film, Jullian Fellows’ theatrical adaptation of Mary Poppins promises to “transport audiences to the Banks’ household on Cherry Lane as well as the rooftops of London” while revisiting such classic songs as “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Jonathan Pennington Studios presents the Cameo’s production. $15-$33, 8pm Friday-Saturday, 4:30pm Sundays; Cameo Theatre, 1123 E Commerce.
Special Events
Best of the West! OLLU’s signature Fiesta
fundraiser brings together area eateries (including Pure Texan BBQ, Cocina Heritage and Gallo Pizzeria) for a kid-friendly evening with hands-on activities and live music from Ernie Garibay and Cats Don’t Sleep, Colao and Grupo Vida. Free, 4-11pm Saturday; Our Lady of the Lake University, 411 SW 24th St., (210) 431-3985.
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22 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE
Cutting Edge Fashion Show Student
designers attending University of the Incarnate Word present collections they have illustrated, designed and constructed in a fashion capstone course. $30-$125, 7pm Tuesday; Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 829-2748.
Fiesta Masquerade Party Sponsored
by the Psi Alpha Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, this multicultural Fiesta masquerade features a diverse array of food, door prizes and musical entertainment. $30, 8pm-1am Friday; Omni Hotel, 9821 Colonnade, (210) 863-0601.
and discuss the profound effects they’ve had on the American West. $10, 6:30pm Tuesday; Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W. Market St., (210) 299-4499.
Artists Looking at Art: Daniel Rios Rodriquez Local artist Daniel Rios
Rodriguez combines imagery found in nature and derived from fantasy in his collaged works on canvas. Free, 6:30pm Thursday; McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368.
Girls’ Guide to Going Down Sexology
Institute invites the gals over to learn “blow-by-blow how to perfectly service his pleasure pole.” $15, 7-8:30pm Wednesday; Sexology Institute and Boutique, 727 S. Alamo St., (210) 487-0371.
History of Text in Visual Art Arts writer
and curator Ruben Cordova presents a talk contextualizing Ruiz-Healy Art’s group exhibition “More Than Words: Text-Based Artworks.” Free, 1pm Saturday; Ruiz-Healy Art, 201-A E. Olmos Dr., (210) 804-2219.
Lecture and Concert: Hearing Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes Opulence
and virtuosity infused the music that gave life to the Ballets Russes. In this lecture/ performance, Kevin Salfen, associate professor of music history, and faculty from the University of the Incarnate Word perform music by the remarkable composers who wrote for Diaghilev’s legendary corps de ballet. $5-$10, 2pm Sunday; McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368.
Funders Fiesta! A celebration of recent
SPRING SEASON IS HERE
Symbols of Texas Family Day Explore
UNTAP YOUR POTENTIAL
and longstanding supporters, San Anto Cultural Arts’ Funders Fiesta! brings the one-of-a-kind sound of Chicano soul outfit Los Nahuatlatos to the back patio of Taps y Tapas. Free, 6-9pm Friday; Taps y Tapas, 1012 N. Flores St., (210) 277-7174. the symbols of Texas (from mockingbirds and horned frogs to chili and blue topaz) through stories, artifacts, artworks and activities. Free, noon-5pm Sunday; Institute of Texan Cultures, 801 E César Chávez Blvd., (210) 458-2300.
The Peddler Show Billed as a “perfect
street of shops created just for San Antonio,” the Peddler Show brings together an assortment of designers, artisans, creators and craftsmen from all over the country. $5-$7, noon-7pm Friday, 9am-6pm Saturday, 11am-4pm Sunday; Freeman Coliseum, 3201 E. Houston St., (800) 775-2774.
Talks Plus
Ancestral Journeys: The Epic of Mexican Migration and Its Impact on the American West In conjunction with the
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4/1/15 12:33 PM
ARTS
ONE FOR THE BOOKS Readers And Writers Unite For San Antonio Book Festival BRYAN RINDFUSS/@BRYANRINDFUSS
With inspiration and support from the Austin-based Texas Book Festival, the San Antonio Public Library Foundation launched the San Antonio Book Festival in 2013 with a mission to “unite readers and writers in a celebration of ideas, books, libraries and literary culture.” Expanding on a format that attracted more than 10,000 visitors and camera crews from C-SPAN last year, SABF’s third outing (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, April 11) will showcase 89 local, regional and national authors via free panels and presentations held between Central Library, the Southwest School of Art and the Empire Theatre. For year three, the festival makes its first foray into film with the San Antonio premiere of Joe Nick Patoski’s Doug Sahm documentary Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove (1 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N. St. Mary’s St.) and introduces the aspiring author competition Pitchapalooza (1:30 p.m., Coates Chapel, Southwest School of Art, 300 Augusta St.) while also bringing back the 2014 fan favorite “Literary Death Match.” Said to marry “the literary and performative aspects of Def Poetry Jam, rapier-witted quips of American Idol’s judging (without any meanness) and the ridiculousness and hilarity of Double Dare,” LDM tasks authors with performing “their most electric writing” before an audience and panel of judges. The Alamo City’s second stab at the competitive reading series pits Neal Pollack, Isabel Quintero, Lance Rubin and Natalia Sylvester in a literary ruse to be judged by Luis Alberto Urrea, Molly Cox and Wendi Aarons ($10-$50, 7 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre). “The beautiful thing about a book festival that concentrates on books published within the past year is that the ideas are always new and that attendees have free access to the hottest ideas in our culture,” SABF literary director Clay Smith told the San Antonio Current via 24 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
email last week. “It’s been a great year for fiction and I think you’ll see that featured in the schedule.” While fiction factors into a number of panels and readings, it joins poetry, history, art, politics and the environment on SABF’s diverse schedule. Given that a number of programs overlap, serious festival-goers should arrive with a plan in place. Not intending to put them on the spot, we asked Smith and SABF executive director Katy Flato to pinpoint a few panels they’re excited about attending. “No matter what I pick, I’ll be leaving out dozens, Flato responded. “But because it is unique and exciting to have an author who was named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business,” I’ll highlight Andrew Yang, who’s book is Smart People Should Build Things and he’ll be in conversation with another super-smart person, Rackspace cofounder Dirk Elmendorf (1:30 p.m., Central Library, 600 Soledad St.). In Smith’s words: “The ‘Her Texas’ panel shows the diversity and depth of women writing about Texas (11 a.m., Navarro Campus, Southwest School of Art, 1201 Navarro St.); the ‘Boots on the Ground, Pens to Paper’ panel is a reflection of a really vibrant new occurrence in publishing, which is novels being published by former soldiers who’ve served in Iraq or Afghanistan (3:30 p.m., Central Library); and one of the things I like about the ‘Running (Out of) Water’ panel is that we’ve got a water authority on that panel (Robert L. Gulley), but Kenna Lang Archer and Seamus McGraw are writing about [ how] drought affects us in more emotional and psychological ways” (2:15 p.m., Central Library). Panels and presentations aside, SABF offers plenty for those who’d rather play things by ear — including a literary marketplace with more than 50 vendors, a Central Market Cooking Tent, food trucks, live music, kid-friendly activities and a “Geektown” for young adults.
LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE? Artist Mark Menjivar On Building The Luck Archive BRYAN RINDFUSS/@BRYANRINDFUSS
Born in Virginia and raised in Central America, self-described “artist and photographer” Mark Menjivar attended Clark High School, studied social work at Baylor University and earned an MFA (in art and social practice) from Portland State University. It wasn’t until after he’d moved to Bolivia and started a nonprofit that he began looking at photography as a creative and professional tool. A completely self-taught photographer, Menjivar began freelancing in 2006, has made a business out of documenting visual art, exhibitions and architectural design, and is a lead artist of the social art project Borderland Collective. In his personal work, Menjivar favors collaborative endeavors that “take place just as much in the streets and abandoned warehouses as they do in university galleries and museums.” After giving a talk in conjunction with TEDxSanAntonio in 2012, Menjivar was approached by Trinity University Press about publishing a book on his ongoing project The Luck Archive. Due for an official release in June, the meticulously curated volume is but one
part of an endeavor exploring the role luck plays in our lives. Sparked by the chance discovery of four four-leafed clovers pressed into a copy of the 1940s-era book 1,000 Facts Worth Knowing, The Luck Archive currently comprises more than 500 stories, objects and photographs that connect dots between such unlikely parties as a motivational speaker, a witch named Lady Mimi and members of the San Antonio Missions minor league baseball team. When did you discover the fourleaf clovers? That was in 2008 … I walked into an old bookstore [in Indiana] and found the four-leaf clovers pressed into the pages of an old book. I always say it was better finding those than it was finding money — because of the possibilities. Eventually I started having conversations with people about the concept of luck and how luck intersects with beliefs, cultures, traditions. And I had the idea to begin archiving everything on this journey and exploration of luck in peoples’ lives.
ARTS
her to be a part of the project … And so we decided that she would take a picture of herself crossing every single part of her body. And she wrote the entry? For most pieces I’d try to get people to write their own stories and choose how they desire to be represented in the book. So every single person has approved being in the book, most wrote their own text, and that was something that was really important to me. I just felt like it was the ethical thing to do. Part of it is working with people individually … but I’ve also done a couple of artist residencies around the project. One of them was wabiStory, which was started by Ben Judson. For wabiStory, I looked in the San Antonio phonebook [for businesses] that used Lucky in [their names] ... and participated in whatever way that would be. So I went and watched game six of the NBA finals in the Lucky Monkey Sports Bar; got a haircut at the Lucky Star Barbershop; sent my wife on a date at Lucky Nails; bought lotto tickets at the Lucky Food Mart with my son; [and] invited a couple people I was working with to come play bingo at the Lucky Ballroom. A lucky tattoo on the neck of a Luck Archive contributor (left) and a contact print Mark Menjivar gives participants (right).
Some of the things included in The Luck Archive piqued my interest – underwear and rainbows, for instance.
folder or text pieces that can be stored on the computer, but kind of collecting all these objects. What about the rainbows?
I was flying from Dallas to San Antonio, and … a guy [came] bouncing down the aisle and … sat next to me. We actually talked the whole way back; he’s a motivational speaker. I told him I was exploring the concept of luck and he told me that he’s given over 950 talks, and every time he wears a lucky pair of gray underwear. He has a few pairs that he changes out … He’s actually from San Antonio and gave me a pair of his ‘lucky grays.’ Did you have to return them? No, I still have them. That’s the crazy thing. When I started the project, I was just making photographs of things. But then people started giving me things and I was blown away that people would give me their grandmothers’ rings or an evil eye amulet that they bought in Turkey … But that’s how I kind of came into the idea of archiving things and collecting them, not only with the photographs that can be printed and stored in a
There is an artist who lives in Portland and is named Lane Collins, and she took a photograph of a double rainbow. I included the photograph in the book and she believes that double rainbows are really lucky. Just seeing a rainbow is lucky, but seeing a double rainbow is really lucky. Did you ever see that video of the guy seeing the double rainbow? You gotta Google it at some point, it’s hilarious. The dude starts crying ... it went viral a few years back. Is that the only photograph in the book that’s not yours? No, there are a few. This girl Rebecca emailed me [because she] was interviewing artists for a class project … and she was like, “When I was a child I believed I could bring my brothers good luck if I crossed every part of my body.” I invited
Has anyone shared anything that scared you in terms of what brings them luck? There was a witch [named Lady Mimi] that I met in the French Quarter (New Orleans) and she sold me this root and told me all sorts of crazy things to do with it, like putting bodily fluids on it … She told me to carry it with me and blow smoke on it or pour alcohol on it … All of this would make it more potent … She also talked about all sorts of things you could do to bring curses on people, and that for me was a little outside of my realm. And what are you doing for the Book Festival?
It’s basically going to be an artist talk … I’ll talk about the project, share some of the submissions from the book, and talk about some of the artist residencies that I’ve done and try to activate the book in a new way. But the book is only one iteration of the project … I didn’t do the project to make a book; the project is still The Luck Archive ongoing. My hope is that the book is a way for Free people to learn about the project and join in and 3:15pm Sat, Apr 11 The Studio, Ursuline Campus be a part of it. At the festival people will literally Southwest School of Art have an opportunity to sign up to sit down and 300 Augusta have a conversation with me at a later date and (210) 224-1848 saplf.org be a part of the project.
F E B R UA RY 1 8 | M AY 1 7 , 2 0 1 5
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IMAGINATIVE MEMORY Kirstin Valdez Quade’s ‘Fiesta’ Stories
Kirstin Valdez Quade’s emotive and often family-focused fiction has appeared in publications like The New Yorker and The Best American Short Stories. Quade was a recipient of the 2014 National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award and currently teaches writing as the Nicholas Delbanco Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. Her recently published collection Night at the Fiestas focuses largely on the unique family and cultural history that she absorbed during her childhood in northern New Mexico. Quade, who will take part in a San Antonio Book Fest panel titled “Family Ties: It’s Complicated,” spoke with the San Antonio Current last week about the origin and methods of her new book.
JAMES COURTNEY
are kinda my attempt to go back, at least imaginatively. It was important for me to explore this place from the point of view of many different kinds of characters, to view it through as many different lenses as possible. And then, in a few of the other stories, I explore how this place and its cultural history linger with people when they leave. So, is this primarily an autobiographical work?
Often I will start with a nugget of truth. For instance, in the story “Nemecia,” the title character’s childhood experience stems from something my godmother really experienced; her grandfather put her mother in a coma. I grew up knowing It’s a collection of 10 stories that I’ve my godmother, but I never knew this been working on for about 10 years. history until after she passed away. I The stories are set mostly in northern was amazed that she had never New Mexico, where my family is from spoken of this. So from that nugget and where they have been for about 400 of truth, I built this fictional story to try years. I have long roots there in that fairly to understand what that must have isolated area. I am interested in that long been like for her, but also for the other and complicated, often violent history. people that grew up in So I wanted to look at how that household with her. that history manifests in So, often there will be this the contemporary world. Family Ties: It’s Complicated Free small piece of real life that Having moved around a 2:45pm Sat, Apr 11 will be transformed as I lot as a kid and also as an Cental Library (1st floor) explore what interests me adult, this place has stuck 600 Soledad St. saplf.org most about the story. with me. And these stories Tell me a bit about your new book of short stories Night at the Fiestas.
26 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
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For The Secret Language of Color, the mother-daughter pair of Joann and Arielle Eckstut teamed up for an extensive look at the science and culture of the light we experience as color. Joann, an interior designer, and Arielle, an author, are both on the “color czar” committee of the Color Association of the United States, choosing the palette that dominates industry trends each year. We spoke with the Eckstuts over the phone last week about the book, The Dress and the unobserved beauty behind the colors we see. What was the most exciting fact you discovered while writing the book? JE: The huge aha moment was when we fully came to understand that there really is no such thing as color, in terms of no object is inherently colored. It is solely us, or any animal, perceiving a color. It’s completely dependent on the brain that that animal has. Some animals will only see shades of black and white and others will see literally millions more colors than we do.
themselves or they look to other industries like fashion to get ideas that are up and coming. From my perspective, these color cards are merely there to give creative ideas. If you’re going to do your living room or design your whole home, I would never recommend basing it on a trend for one year. AE: There are certain industries, like the automobile industry, where the wrong color choice has very big consequences, because a car costs so much money. I don’t know if you noticed it, but last year most major car companies came out with an orange car. That was a pretty radical choice and from what I saw, I don’t think it worked out that well for anyone. As people tuned into the way color works, what was your impression of The Dress meme earlier this year? AE: We loved this so much, that dress was the most perfect image for showing that color does not exist without a brain. And that brains interpret colors differently. It showed a very strange split in human brains that we don’t normally see with color.
What decisions go into the process of creating the Color Association’s yearly color card The Secret Language of Color palette? Free JE: These trends are there to give people ideas. Often the designers on this committee create the ideas
11:15am Sat, Apr 11 The Studio, Ursuline Campus Southwest School of Art 300 Augusta (210) 224-1848 saplf.org
JE: I wish that photo came out before we wrote our book ‘cause it was such an interesting thing to talk about and help people see in one moment what the essence of our book is about.
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HER TEXAS Place And Identity In The Work Of Sobia Khan JAMES COURTNEY
Sobia Khan is a British-born, Pakistani-bred writer, scholar, proud Texan and English Faculty member at Richland College in Dallas. She earned her PhD in 2014 from the University of Texas at Dallas and has published translations of Urdu poetry as well as many critically lauded short stories. Currently, Khan is finishing her first novel, Mariam, which — like much of her shorter output — deals with issues of cultural and spiritual identity and how disparate traditions often collide with provocative individual results. She contributed an intense, multicultural short story, “The Fallen,” to the recently published Wings Press anthology Her Texas: Story, Image, Poem & Song, which explores the divergent experiences of women writers in Texas and is the subject of San Antonio Book Festival panel. Khan spoke with the San Antonio Current last week about the new collection and her own personal impetus to write. Tell me about how you got involved in writing.
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of identity that surround me as a transplanted Texan who is constantly accused of being from elsewhere. These issues of identity are the subject of much of my writing. Place, then, is of particular importance in your writing? It is. And that’s why Her Texas was a very good fit for my work; it ties together concerns about place and identity. For me, these issues are very real and constant. People in Texas always ask me where I’m from, and when I tell them ‘Dallas,’ they’re like ‘No, but where are you really from?’
Well I think that my identity, my background is integral to what I write and where my scholarly and creative endeavors focus. I was born in England, but primarily raised in Can you tell me a bit more about Pakistan, with brief sojourns to Japan the Her Texas collection? and the Middle East. But I was 18 when I moved to Dallas and if you Well the title says it all. The dropped me anywhere where I was ownership is implicit in raised, I wouldn’t know the title Her Texas. It’s a what to do. Dallas is Her Texas: Women Write collection of creative work my home and I identify About the Texas Experience that explores, in various strongly with it. I became Free forms, the ownerwship an adult here and planted 11am Sat, Apr 11 Rogers Hall and identity of diverse my own roots. And so Southwest School of Art women in Texas. There’s my writing originates 1201 Navarro St. really nothing else like it, within these spaces and (210) 224-1848 saplf.org to my knowledge. the complicated issues sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015• CURRENT 31
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ARTS
SAN ANTONIO BOOK FESTIVAL CHEAT SHEET
19th Annual Boerne Parade of
Notable Panels, Talks And Readings At A Glance AMY RITTHALER GILMOUR
The Latino Vote: Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going With the Supreme Court’s recent dismantling of the Voters Rights Act and the rising importance of the Latino vote, this conversation is a timely one. Political scholars and co-authors Matt Barreto (UCLA) and Henry Flores (St. Mary’s University) will serve as astute historians and prognosticators under the moderation of Gilbert Garcia. Free, 10am Sat, Central Library Auditorium, 600 Soledad St. Her Texas: Women Write About the Texas Experience While Texas politicians continue to draw unfavorable attention to our fair state, Texans can be proud of the tradition of strong female writers who call this state home. Moderated by Rachel Crawford, this panel offers three such examples, with the effervescent Rosemary Catacalos (2013 Texas Poet Laureate) leading the pack. Catacalos, Mary Guerrero Milligan and Sobia Khan will share their experiences on the Lone Star literary scene and discuss what it means to be a woman writing about the Texas experience. Free, 11am Sat, Rogers Hall, Southwest School of Art (Navarro Campus), 1201 Navarro St. Luis Alberto Urrea Talks About His New Books Chicano professor, novelist and collector of awards for fiction, Luis Alberto Urrea will discuss his latest literary ventures with former San Antonio Express-News book editor Gregg Barrios. With so many shared experiences and interests, these two will, no doubt, carry on a conversation you’ll want to check out. Free, 12:30pm Sat, Coates Chapel, Southwest School of Art (Ursuline Campus), 300 Augusta St. Turtle Of Oman While she is beloved all over the world, San Antonians of a certain age will always relate to Naomi Shihab Nye as our literary den mother. Subsequent to those years as visiting poet for San Antonio’s public schools, Nye has accumulated prestigious fellowships, literary awards and published scads of well-received writing in various genres. This book, Nye’s latest in lyrical fiction exploring childhood, portrays a boy, his grandfather and a shared love of mother nature. Free, 2:15pm Sat, Central Library Story Room, 600 Soledad St.
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Black Is The Color Of Strength You call yourself a loyal San Antonian? We dare you to resist your midday siesta and make an appearance at Mayor Ivy Taylor’s book launch. Co-authors Aaronetta Hamilton Pierce and Frederick Williams will join the SA mayor and DreamWeek founder Shokare Nakpodia (who will moderate) to discuss their joint venture and the experiences inspired by it. It’s scarcely available online, so purchase a copy while you have the chance. Free, 3pm Sat, Central Library Gallery, 600 Soledad St. Imprisoned For Being A Citizen: WWII Internment Hometown powerhouse Rick Casey (longtime newspaper man and host of KLRN’s Texas Week With Rick Casey) moderates a panel with Jan Jarboe Russell and Richard Reeves, respective authors of spanking-new books addressing WWII internment camps. Russell’s well-received The Train To Crystal City is aptly paired with Reeves’ Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese-American Internment in World War II. Be sure to ask about San Antonio’s own sordid involvement during Q&A. Free, 4:30pm Sat, Central Library Auditorium, 600 Soledad St.
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SCREENS
Real rehab: First-time fillmmaker Cynthia Franklin uses the case of a former inmate at a state jail in SA to highlight issues with the lock-it-and-throw-away-the-key prison philosophy.
READY FOR CHANGE Inside Peace Goes Behind Bars At SA’s Dominguez State Jail KIKO MARTÍNEZ
It’s been three years since Chase Cowan has been inside a jail cell. For someone who has spent much of his adult life in and out of the prison system for drug and alcohol-related crimes, it isn’t a place he wants to return to anytime soon. “I was ready for change one way or another,” Cowan told the San Antonio Current during a phone interview last week. “There was a motivation inside me telling me I needed to grow up.” Cowan credits a series of self-improvement classes he took during his last stint at San Antonio’s Fabian Dominguez State Jail for putting him on a path to transform his life for the better. The Peace Education Program (PEP), which started at Dominguez in 2007, consists of workshops designed to show inmates how to improve their lives through inner strength and give them the resources to make good choices. “The program helped me to calm down and find my
center and be able to handle each problem individually,” Cowan said. “I remind myself not to get emotionally caught up with everything. That was a big cause of me acting out in the past. [PEP] has really helped me bring back the focus to myself.” First-time feature filmmaker Cynthia Fitzpatrick was quick to realize there was an inspirational story unfolding at Dominguez when she saw video footage of inmates participating in the classes in early 2011. In her new documentary Inside Peace, Fitzpatrick takes a close look at the impact of PEP through interviews with Dominguez detainees and state jail officials. Fitzpatrick, who lives in Los Angeles and is a TV show editor by trade (The Sopranos, Sex and the City), made her first trip to San Antonio in summer of 2011. Although she said her initial intention was to simply record one of the PEP classes, it was clear to her that there was a more important story to be told when she met the men at Dominguez. Unlike prison reality TV shows like Lockup and Jail, which Fitzpatrick said make audiences fear inmates, she wanted Inside Peace to tell a different kind of story rarely seen from behind bars. “In those reality shows, everyone is portrayed as very stereotypical,” Fitzpatrick told the Current last week. “But these men have hearts and souls. I was interested in what happens when human beings get a little self-esteem and decide for themselves that they want to change.” For Cowan, participating in PEP was the motivation he needed to get out and stay out of jail. Currently living in Edna, Texas, with his wife and two children, he works for his father as a laborer on rental properties. Cowan said he enjoys his freedom and does his best to remember the lessons he took from PEP, especially those that taught him to “think and act instead of just
react.” It’s no easy task. “I still struggle, but I always try to utilize the tools I learned at Dominguez,” Cowan said. “Sometimes it’s just about enjoying the small moments of the day and just looking at the sky instead of being frustrated about the problems in the world. I don’t care how bad my day is, it’s always better than being in jail.” It’s this change in perspective that Fitzpatrick wants to highlight in her film. She wants authorities across the country to see that criminals like the ones she met at Dominguez are able to rehabilitate and shouldn’t be thrown into a “rickety old system” where they are locked up for a period of time and then released, only to repeat the cycle over and over again. “Rehabilitation is really starting to gain some traction,” Fitzpatrick said. “The old way is not working. People are realizing they can’t just lock someone up and throw away the key. I mean, why would you put a kid away for 10 years who robbed a liquor store with a banana in his pocket to get $100 for drugs? It doesn’t make sense.” Although Cowan said he has an “X on his back” because of his record, he wants audiences to know there are many individuals like him that simply made bad choices in life, but are not bad men. He hopes a film like Inside Peace proves people can evolve into upstanding citizens. “I want people to enjoy life the way I’m able to enjoy it,” Cowan said. “It’s not about what you have, it’s about being able to have inner peace and finding balance and joy within yourself.” Inside Peace does not currently have a release date in San Antonio, but Fitzpatrick says she hopes her documentary is accepted into the San Antonio Film Festival, scheduled for August 5-9. sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015• CURRENT 35
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FOOD
SARAH FLOOD-BAUMANN
SOME LIKE IT HOT Tender Kebabs, Giant Dosa At Café Bahar RON BECHTOL
“Are you guys from around here?” asked our hair-netted waiter/cashier. We had just finished telling him that everything we had eaten could have been a little bit spicier, and he was having trouble processing the information. “Most people want it less spicy,” he said with a shrug. Whether you like your food smugly spicy or not, there will be Indian and Pakistani dishes aplenty at Café Bahar to test the prepared palate. For sheer visual shock value, let me suggest starting with the South Indian Mysore masala dosa. Hanging off both sides of the serving plate, this roll of crisply fried fermented lentil and rice batter is easily as long as your forearm. It’s stuffed with a fragrant potato mixture — and it makes you wonder how the heck do you eat this thing. Here’s one way: cut it across the equator (that’s where most of the filling is, and yes, it could have been even spicier), then either pick it up or go at it with a fork, redistributing the potato mix or not, as you see fit. Having passed this test, the rest is a breeze. Gobi Manchurian, battered and fried cauliflower served with a sweet, spicy sauce with soy and tomato, is one of Bahar’s Indo-Chinese recipes and it’s easy to like. But so too is the only slightly more challenging goat soup. In this case, it’s just spicy enough, tastes
deeply herbal and would surely cure whatever ails you. (Most goat dishes are available only on weekends, we were told.) A soup of another sort, this one a comforting, lentil-based vegetable sambar, comes with the irresistible, fried lentil “doughnuts” that go by the name medhu vada. About the size of a golf ball, they’re great dipped in either the peanut or tomato chutney that accompanies them — or in the sambar itself. In some parts of India, these might be part of a tiffin lunch made by women at home and delivered to working men by dabbawalas on bicycle. Check out The Lunch Box, a recent Indian movie on a relationship that develops when the elaborate system goes comically awry. The most daunting aspect of the mirchi ka salan (spelled at Bahar as mirchikasalaan) is its name, spelling issues aside. It’s billed as containing “long hot peppers,” but here’s the thing: long, yes, but it’s just one. And not more like a mild Anaheim pepper. The curry with its sesame seed masala was unique and worth ordering. But even more distinctive is the chicken methi, a “preparation” flavored with fenugreek leaves. They lend a flavor not altogether unlike the Mexican epazote and once you identify these long leaves with slightly serrated edges, you’ll begin to find them in many of Bahar’s dishes. This is a good thing.
Battered and fried: another great way to take in some cauliflower.
Most of Bahar’s visual excitement comes from the over-the-top Bollywood music videos in constant play on a large TV in one corner of the joint. The space itself otherwise looks like a cafeteria that has been temporarily decorated for a prom. The buffet line, empty at night, was pushed to one side. But all is forgiven when a dish as simple as chicken tikka kebab comes out as subtly spiced, tender and moist as does Bahar’s. There’s an entire section of the menu devoted to these tandoori-cooked skewers and if the marinated chicken is any indication, it might be well worth checking out the minced goat (“cooked to the level of
your expectations”) or the Awadi-region vegetarian version. I will probably never learn, however, that biryanis usually fail to thrill. Yes, I know these sumptuous-sounding rice dishes are really all about the rice — and Bahar’s is particularly good. So my suggestion is not to fall for the luxe model with (tiny and scant) shrimp but to go instead with the simplest (and cheapest) egg biriyani with vegetables. And then to pair it with, say, the Kadai chicken – ordered “spicy.” I’m convinced that the kitchen staff does its best work when you order a dish the way they would eat it. Just be sure, between glugs of water, to tell them you’re from around here.
Café Bahar 10227 Ironside, (210) 558-8289, cafebaharusa.com The Skinny Indian and Pakistani cuisine using halal meats. The space is plain, the spicing anything but. There is a lunch time buffet. Best bets Mysore masala dosa, medhu vada, gobi Manchurian, methi chicken, chicken tikka kabab. Hours 11 am-3 pm, 5:30-10:30 pm Wed-Mon, closed Tuesday Price range $9.49-$14.99
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WHERE’S THE BEEF? Hoping SA’s Culinary Scene Recovers From Black Eye Over Nasty Legal Fight JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS
It was a day that the owner of Feast restaurant felt like he could jump for joy and, well, throw a celebratory feast. Andrew Goodman, who opened the eatery in 2012 as the second small plates dining concept in Southtown, rejoiced in a March 24 court ruling confirming he could stay put at 1024 South Alamo for at least the next three years. “I’m just really happy and glad that it’s behind me and all over with,” Goodman said over the phone March 26, “I’m really excited to look forward to new projects, and that the city of San Antonio will continue to enjoy the amazing food of Stefan Bowers.” But that day didn’t come without strife and consequences. The legal battle turned into a drawn-out soap opera lasting nearly a year, including a six-day trial. Somebody’s got to come out the winner while the other ends up on the losing side – but all seem to agree that the ordeal left them burned out. As your humble food and nightlife editor, I’m tasked with reviewing restaurants and bars, and providing readers with the latest openings, closings and what-have-you that fill our burgeoning culinary landscape. It was unusual, then, when I found myself going to a court proceeding, sifting through documents and trying to sort out why exactly Goodman filed a suit against Santos Holdings, owned by Casey Lange, back on May 23, 2014. This isn’t the People’s Court. I’m not an attorney (I don’t even know where to find a power suit) and I’m not assigning blame to any party, but here’s how Feast almost lost its home of three years … as told by all involved parties through interviews and court documents.
Landlord Casey Lange (left) just ended a lengthy, bitter legal fight against tenant Andrew Goodman (far right) and staff at Feast restaurant.
All Good
Goodman sued Santos Holdings for breach of their lease agreements, in particular by refusing to extend the lease. Other reasons Goodman listed included being falsely accused of not complying with certain provisions of the lease as well as, basically, not being allowed to live a peaceful life as a tenant. In other words, Lange wasn’t going to extend Feast’s lease and was allegedly trying to boot the eatery from its South Alamo digs. The original lawsuit also called for a temporary restraining order (granted on May 23, 2014) barring Lange from evicting Goodman or otherwise messing with Feast’s operations. Goodman said he actually sued to avoid a similar fate as previous Lange tenant who did get kicked out. Lange, unfortunately, has a bit of a track record with locking people out. To be fair (truly trying my best here, honest), Feast isn’t Saluté and Goodman isn’t Azeneth Dominguez. For those unfamiliar with that story, Dominguez ran out her month-to-month lease after 25 years at the storied institution on North St. Mary’s during a brouhaha involving her tearing off improvements to the property, Lange locking himself in the bar and a visit by law enforcement. Saluté might have been an institution in its heyday, but it struggled in its later years, whereas
Feast has helped turn Southtown into a current foodie hot spot – to the tune of 400 mimosa-fueled brunch-goers every Sunday.
Landlord Issues
For Lange, the dispute boiled down to Goodman breaking the lease in many ways, namely by putting in several additions to the historic building. Lange initially leased the building in 2006 to open Oloroso, eventually buying the joint outright in 2008. Because of its prime location in Southtown, any changes to the façade have to be cleared through SA’s Historic and Design Review Commission. Pardon this chunk of legalese, a statement by Peter Kilpatrick, lawyer for Santos Holdings. “As to the portion of Mr. Goodman’s lawsuit relating to the disputed renewal of the lease, at the risk of overgeneralization, Santos Holdings asserted the tenant made substantial changes to the footprint of the building without written consent of the landlord as required by the Lease, and that the tenant engaged in unauthorized additions and electrical and plumbing work without complying with local ordinances as required by the Lease. For example, Santos Holdings alleged that the tenant was in violation of the law and thus the lease when tenant used an unlicensed contractor
and failed to get building permits and permission from the City before modifying the structure that was originally built in the 1800’s as required – the property is undisputedly located in the King William Historical District.” Yet the court sided with Goodman on the property upgrades, saying that Lange did not point out the apparent breach until much later. And, in retrospect, that much seems to be true, Lange acknowledged – he should have done something sooner. “I should have evicted him right then and there, that’s my major mistake,” Lange told the Current. “I let this stuff slide, I tried to be cool with them because I didn’t want to start social World War III with them.” Lange pointed out that of the many building changes Goodman made through the years — a prep room, a dish pit , a 450-square-foot expansion to the dining and bar rooms, a metal lighting structure, among others — he had only agreed to the small prep room. “The reason I lost this case was because I wasn’t enough of an asshole when I learned about it. Therefore I waived my right to be an asshole,” Lange said during an interview at his office last week.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 41 ►
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 39
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FOOD
◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39 (LAWSUIT)
Paint Job
The issue didn’t start with a tree, as the rumor mill has it. It was actually sparked by a painting project in January 2014 – this is where Chad Carey of Empty Stomach LLC, comes into the picture. According to Carey, his business partner Erick Schlather, approached Goodman about having workers paint the side of Hot Joy’s building in midJanuary. After a bit of back and forth, Carey circumvented Goodman and asked Lange for permission on the 10-foot shared property boundary where Feast keeps eight easily accessible recycling bins and five trash bins. After Lange gave permission via email on January 27, Goodman asked Empty Stomach for liability coverage (in case a worker got hurt doing the paint job) and rightly so – no one likes getting sued. The indemnification agreement drawn up by Hot Joy’s attorneys was shared on January 28, along with a copy of the restaurants commercial general liability insurance, which would “indemnify, protect, defend and hold Santos and Champ of Camp [Goodman] and its employees harmless from and against any and all liabilities, demands, actions, causes of action, suits, claims, losses, damages, costs and expenses.” Goodman didn’t sign the document, Hot Joy sent a crew over and cops were called, according to Carey. Come June, Lange mentioned an interest in selling the Feast building – and Carey was interested. “I was very serious about buying the building when Casey told me he wanted to sell it,” Carey said via email. “We like the neighborhood, are already invested in the neighborhood, and it’s a great building. Besides, I’ve been in the real estate business much longer than I’ve been in the restaurant business.” Though letters of intent were sent to Santos, that whole business of the sale stopped in June. Carey was deposed for court, but was not actually called in as a witness for trial in the case against Lange.
Moving Forward
Lange and his counsel will explore
options on whether to appeal or file for a new trial, as the ruling was likely entered on Tuesday, April 7. Meanwhile, Feast stays put. Chef Stefan Bowers and Goodman will finally move forward with plans to open a new restaurant, Rebelle, as well as The Haunt, a cocktail bar, both to be based at The St. Anthony Hotel. “The space will be glamorous,” Goodman said, “It’ll be the same principle on a grander scale. We’re taking what we do here and recreating that feel.” Their next project will hopefully come three or so months later, with the opening of the Firehouse No. 7 building, a massive undertaking where Bowers hopes to serve niche, regional Italian. “It can’t be hoity-toidy, just good, fresh and accessible,” the chef said. So how will folks get along for the time being? Carey doesn’t see the possibility of being friends with Goodman, but it doesn’t stop him from recognizing good work: “I think Feast is good for the neighborhood … and I think Stefan is one hell of a chef.” For his part, that chef seems a bit more optimistic. “Everything heals in time,” Bowers told the Current. Lange, who had to shelve Hash, his breakfast dining concept for six months, in order to fund the lawsuit, lamented that the whole ordeal could give the burgeoning SA culinary scene an unnecessary black eye. “I think it’s sad and ridiculous. It’s pitting the not-very-large scene in San Antonio against itself and that’s the last thing I would have wanted,” he said. But perhaps a black eye or two, sadly, is still better than a knockout punch. I point to our hipster neighbors north on I-35 where food trucks on South Congress have been displaced to make way for a new JW Marriott Hotel and just last week, Super Burrito closed its location at 1800 E. Oltorf — their landlord sold the building to P. Terry’s parent company. If I’m allowed rose-tinted glasses for a minute, let’s keep San Antonio friendly, and let chefs cook. It’s what I’d really prefer to be writing about, anyway. flavor@sacurrent.com
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SUSHI HAPPY HOUR Tue & Thur 5 - 6pm
LUNCH 11am-2:30pm DINNER 5-10pm SATURDAY 5-10pm | CLOSED SUNDAY FANTASTIC WINE LIST, EXCELLENT SAKE SELECTION & NEW CRAFT BEER OFFERINGS!
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42 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
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Download Our free Uber-hip Kate Payne will partake in the hands-on culinary panel at SA Book Festival.
HAPPY HOUR app
FLAVOR FILE
Foodie Options For Readers, A New Farmers Market And Dinner With Luca
San Antonio’s Best Turkish Grill
JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS
The San Antonio Book Festival is upon us Saturday, April 11 (read all about it, pages 24-33), and Central Market’s Cooking Tent is back with four authors, demos and plenty of snacks. Kate Payne, the Austin-based author Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking, will share recipes from her latest book. Released in 2014, Hip Girl’s Guide to the Kitchen shares tips on being a confident cook by stocking up your pantry with must-haves, and cooking nutritious, affordable dishes. Payne will take the stage 10-11 a.m. Terry Thompson-Anderson, a 2015 James Beard Finalist will demo recipes at 11:30 a.m. from her latest, a beautiful coffee table-turned-kitchen essential, Texas on the Table, which features recipes from across the state and San Antonio, including Clean Plate’s spring rolls with bison and peanut sauce. Beef-aficionados can pick up grilling techniques from North Carolina’s Christopher Prieto, who will demo recipes from Southern Living’s Ultimate Guide to BBQ at 1 p.m. To end the day, Jim Peyton, author of several Mexican-American cookbooks, will whip up recipes via Naturally Healthy Mexican Cooking, which includes dishes for dieters and diabetics, at 2 p.m. All authors will sign copies of their books after their respective demos. Mercado O’liva is spreading its roots into the Mission Marquee Plaza with a bimonthly farmers market starting Saturday, April 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Organized by Chuck Hernandez of Arugula Catering, who also helms Mercado O’liva (105 Plaza De Armas) next to the Spanish Governor’s Palace, the new Mission Marquee Market (3100 Roosevelt Ave.) will host organic produce and chef-created products, along with handcrafted artisan goods, boutique food items and live entertainment. During their launch, the Mission Marquee Market will partner with SA Parks & Rec to give away fruit trees. Chef Luca Della Casa, a finalist on The Next Food Network Star, will host a four-course dinner with Emiliano Monchiero, brand ambassador for Korbrand Wine & Spirits, on Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. at Silo Alamo Heights (1133 Austin Hwy.) For reservations: (210) 824-8686. Jason Dady and Stefan Bowers will act as San Anto ambassadors on Monday, April 13 at 6 p.m., as they join Texas Monthly’s Fire & Smoke dinner series, which pairs a badass pitmaster and an equally great chef together in creating a multicourse soiree. Editors Patricia Sharpe and TMBBQ’s Daniel Vaughn will be on-hand to mingle with diners. The dinner will be held at Feast (1024 S. Alamo) and tickets ($150) are available at tmbqq.com. flavor@sacurrent.com
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NIGHTLIFE
JAIME MONZON
BLUES AND BOOZE Bar 414’s Downtown Tribute To Robert Johnson AARON PEÑA
The night before my visit to The Sheraton Gunter’s Bar 414 was spent having my face melted by hot guitar licks provided by the legendary Buddy Guy and backup band at The Aztec Theater. I woke up with the blues still on my mind the following day, and decided it was time to revisit a storied piece of blues folklore that claims its home right here in downtown San Antonio. Robert Johnson is a mythological figure in blues folklore whose legacy includes haunting recordings which provided a blueprint for the blues. That jangling, acoustic walking a 12-bar blues progression with Johnson’s voice hitting his notoriously nostalgic high falsetto – these were the recordings that introduced me (and evidently countless others) to the blues. So little is known about Johnson’s life that much of the legend that surrounds the man seem like fables out of a storybook, such as the most infamous tale of selling his soul to the devil at “The Crossroads” (a meeting point of intersecting highways located in Clarksdale, Mississippi) in exchange for the ability to play guitar and sing the blues in a manner that was absolutely unprecedented at that time in music history. While it may be difficult to decipher fact from fiction, it is historically accurate that on November 23, 1936, Johnson cut a record right here in San Antonio — in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel. I situated myself at the bar top of Bar 414, soaking in the ambiance of the elegantly flourished downstairs speakeasy. Pictures of Johnson dot the room, a few canvas oil paintings of the man himself with guitar in tow. I began to lose myself in thought as my eyes scanned the room — the blues historian in me trying to piece together what that room (the actual room is no longer present at the hotel) may have looked like when Robert cut that record on that November night. The drink menu offered classic cocktails renamed after Johnson songs (with classic names such as The Manhattan or Moscow Mule listed underneath for easy reference) and a small list of compiled house crafted cocktails. Bar 414 also boasts a hefty listing of all booze carried in house, along with an in-depth description of the flavor profile of each spirit. As the cocktail culture is continually evolving, I found this booze listing to be something of educational value for novice boozehounds trying to expand their understanding of glorious spirits
Take in great blues folklore and fine booze at Bar 414.
that make our hearts flutter. nameplates honor guests under its previous namesake Having an apparent heavy emphasis on their Scotch and pay homage to those who have since passed away. selection, Bar 414’s list also features a map of Scotland, In chatting with Gonzalez, I learned of his tenure with showcasing the highland/lowland areas from which the the hotel in working all aspects of the job from bellman to featured scotches derive. While this detail may seem valet and now as a bartender. I derived a refreshing sense miniscule, I applaud it. As a fellow bartender (at The of passion for service in his tone. While the clientele has Brooklynite), I feel it is our absolute duty to not only serve been primarily hotel traffic throughout the year, Gonzalez libations, but to understand the process behind them and shared that they are starting to experience an increasing be able to provide guests with this type of curious trivia. number of downtown bar patrons as well as fellow service Halfway through my “Homeward Bound” industry folks looking for a post-shift libation. cocktail, a boozy treat using Cutty Sark Prohibition While thankfully San Antonio is now a city where Edition as the base spirit, I grew curious as to a proper cocktail is never hard to come by, with its Bar 414 Sheraton Gunter Hotel pristine and historically storied past, Bar 414 is a the name plates I found on the bar top. Bartender 205 E. Houston St. Jared Gonzalez informed me of the “perfect prime candidate for a visit for the blues enthusiast (210) 585-9999 attendance” required of bar patrons to receive looking for a peaceful drink alone or an evening bar414.com such legendary enshrinement on his bar top. The date destination. 4pm-2am Mon-Sat
Digital Underground
w/ Shock G, DJ Laz & Freestyle Evolution
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 45
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46 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
NIGHTLIFE
HAPPY HOUR EVERY DAY FROM 2-8 PM
HEADING EAST
AS WELL AS DAILY SPECIALS SUNDAY-MONDAY!
Nightlife Options Growing In Neglected Area JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS
Call it the Near East Side, Dignowity Hill, “just east of downtown” or what have you, the area east of U.S. 281 as it borders downtown has come seen a boom in watering holes as of late. Here’s a rundown of new options to head to once the clock strikes 5.
600+ SPIRITS 100+ CRAFT BEERS
WINE - CIGARS - FOOD
HAPPY HOUR
Mon.- Fri. 4 - 7pm Open 4pm-2am Everyday
Alamo Beer 202 Lamar St. (210) 872-5589, alamobeer.com 3pm-9pm Thu; 3pm-midnight Fri; noon-midnight Sat; noon-6pm Sun Much like St. Arnold Brewing Company’s warehouse location in downtown Houston, Alamo Beer is tucked neatly alongside other massive buildings. But unlike its H-town counterpart, which is devoid of a patio, Alamo Beer’s 1,800-square-foot taproom puts the brewery’s ample lawns to good use by hosting hundreds of beer-lovers Thursday through Sunday. Though the patio features polished wooden tabletops and benches, the brewery also allows for use of lawn chairs and blankets. If the brewery is hosting a special event, get there early – it’s turning into quite the hot spot.
Bluestar 1420 S. Alamo • 210.227.1420
DISCOUNTS ON EVERYTHING DURING HAPPY HOUR INCLUDING:
$1 OFF ALL DRAFT BEERS
ily t posted da New conten or blog. on our Flav om sacurrent.c
$2.50 WELLS & DOMESTIC BOTTLES JACK, TITO’S, $3.50 JAMESON, SKYY & DEEP EDDY $3.00 SWEET TART & STARF*CKER SHOTS 9726 Datapoint Dr. 210-692-7620
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Big Hops Growler Station 306 Austin St., Suite 100 (210) 320-1995, bighops.com 3pm-midnight Mon-Thu; noon-midnight Fri-Sun The fourth location in a string of Big Hops Growler Stations found its groove inside the home of the former Boneshakers Tap House and Pizzeria this March next to the Hays Street Bridge. Riding the city’s newfound love for craft beers originally established in the area by its predecessor, Big Hops “The Bridge” offers 30-plus beers on tap from across the San Antonio area and the state. Unlike its sister locations which have opened in strip centers off Broadway, Huebner Road and Bulverde Road, “The Bridge” uses a cast of ever-evolving food trucks and its historic building to attract downtown denizens (as if the beer to-go options weren’t enough to get the job done). Toro Taco Bar 114 Brooklyn Ave. torotacobar.com 5pm-1am Thu-Mon Chef-owners Josh Cross and Rick Frame have been around the scene long enough to know what people want — accessible snacks, cold beer, boozy margaritas and an awesome patio with a view. Bar-goers get all three with the addition of their first solo project, Toro Taco Bar. The kitchen cranks out street-style pork, cabrito, lengua and smoked cod tacos, a handful of guacamole iterations and quesadillas to fill those bellies while throwing back fresh-fruit frozen cocktails and craft beer from Mexico and Texas. flavor@sacurrent.com sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 47
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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
The Lost Bar
$3 Wells Sat-Sun 12-7 pm: $2.75 Domestic Longnecks, $3 Wells | REVERSE HAPPY HOUR 10pm-2am DAILY SPECIALS!
VISIT HAPPYHOURS.SACURRENT.COM 48 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
THE CRISP REFRESHING TASTE OF BUD LIGHT.
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
Enjoy Responsibly
©2014 A-B, Bud Light® Beer, St. Louis, MO
Brand: Bud Light TX Item #:PBL201410556 Job/Order #:262969
sacurrent.com • April 8-14,Trim: 2015 • CURRENT 49 Closing Date: 5/19/14 5.070" x 10.182" QC: CS
Publication: San Antonio
Bleed: none Live: 4.82 x 9.932"
50 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
MUSIC
COURTNEY CHAVANELL
Get ready, San Anto. Featuring styles such as funk from Austin’s collective Brownout (left) to psycho pop from Portland’s Portugal. The Man (right), Maverick Music Festival’s back in full force.
LIGHTNING STRIKES THRICE A Rundown Of This Year’s Maverick Music Festival MATT STIEB/@MATTHEWSTIEB
Last year at La Villita, Maverick Music gave San Antonio its first real music festival as defined by the 21st Century behemoths cultivated in Austin, Tennessee and Southern California. Now in its third year, Maverick Music Festival returns to the historic though tourist-heavy spot, boasting a strong lineup of rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop and everything in between. Below, we’ve addressed each artist on the main stage – the big, booming podium set up in La Villita’s main plaza. On the next page, we’ve scouted our favorite picks for the Juarez and Arneson River Theatre stages, pointing out a few of the 34 South Texas artists on tap for Friday and Saturday. The Bolos / 5:15 p.m. Named after the braided leather tie, this San Antonio quartet rocks the Southwestern essential with the posture of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction — slurring, fastmoving Elvis men in a world of vice and guitar distortion. Heartless Bastards / 6 p.m. Behind the androgynous hum of singer Erika Wennerstrom, Heartless Bastards are a perfect act for the twilight slot of outdoor festivals, gravitationally pulling
listeners toward their showered-and-shaved garage rock. Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath / 7:05 p.m. It all started as a one-off. Having set up residency at Austin’s premier hotdog themed venue Frank, Brownout were looking for ways to spice up their live set beyond their tried and true blend of latin funk. When the band started kicking around possibilities for classic rock, someone pitched a Black Sabbath cover night. “We threw the idea around, didn’t take it too seriously,” bassist Greg Gonzales told the San Antonio Current. “But then soon enough, the gig was coming up, and we were just like ‘Alright, I guess we’ve got to commit to it.’ That show ended up being the biggest turnout of the month.” It has been almost a year since Brownout first transformed into Brown Sabbath, and they haven’t looked back since. Their 2014 record of latin funk-infused Sabbath covers Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath was picked up by NPR as one of the top 50 releases of the year, going on to be the most high-profile release in the band’s decadedeep catalog. Their subsequent tour, which took the band all across the country, further widened the Brown Sabbath appeal and gained momentum for further performances, including their slot on Maverick’s main stage and at Bonnaroo later in the summer. Beyond the approval of metal heads, the band also scored the biggest Sabbath endorsement of all: “Even Ozzy has chimed in and said he really likes what we’re doing, which is wild,” said Gonzalez. — J.D. Swerzenski Toadies / 8:20 p.m. Like horn-rimmed glasses in the 2010s or fondue in the 1970s, Fort Worth’s Toadies struck a cultural nerve with their 1994 debut Rubberneck. Reaching platinum status within two years, the Texas band provided its own undercurrent to the massive wave of alt-rock washing over the nation. With an elliptical treatment of sexual
violence and dark fantasy, Rubberneck is a record imagined by the narrator of Nirvana’s “Polly,” emerging from his basement, plugging in and winking at the horrid things of his past. Portugal. The Man / 9:45 p.m. John Baldwin Gourley and Zachary Carothers of Portugal. The Man began gigging together at Wasilla High School in Alaska (most famous alum: Sarah Palin) before heading south to Portland for a more careerfriendly setting. In their 11 years in action, the band has also taken a great adventure in sound, shifting from guitar psych to big-dreaming keyboard pop.
••••••••••••• Saturday, April 11 ••••••••••••• Last Nighters / 12:15 p.m. Hearing Last Nighters’ 2012 album Animal Room is like seeing a sunset from an airplane, witnessing a new density and spectrum to sunburst pop. Quiet Company / 1:00 p.m. Formed in ’06 by singer Taylor Muse, Quiet Company has weathered transitions from being a Christian-centric indie rock group to dealing with lyrics about losing faith, all while having tight and powerful pop-rock jams. Muse’s gentle voice can erupt into harsh screams at any given moment, as heard in one of their breakout songs, “You, Me & the Boatman,” showing that Muse wears his passions on his sleeve. — Shannon Sweet Son Lux / 1:45 p.m. Producer Ryan Lott began his career designing soundtracks for TV and YouTube ads, transitioning from commerce into art under the name of Son Lux. By his second effort, 2013’s Lanterns, Lox found his CONTINUED ON PAGE 53 ►
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 51
NEWEST CLUB IN TOWN !
BOOGIE NIGHTS Dance Music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s!
Wednesdays & Saturdays 8p - 2a • Sundays 6p - 2a
Sunday: $2 U Call It Wednesday: Ladies Night
$3 Blue Hawaiian, $2 Cherry Vodka Sour, $2.50 Domestics
Thursdays: $3 Long Island Teas,
$3 Jolly Ranchers
Friday & Saturday: $2.50 Domestic Beers & $2 Wells until 11p
119 El Mio off San Pedro • 210.366.0338 OPEN 9pm-2am Tues-Sun • 21&UP
Open 3p-2a Everyday • Happy Hour 3-7pm Daily
PSYCHIC HAPPY HOUR Every Tuesday • Free from 6-8pm DJ and No Cover Saturday Nights
$2 Ziegenbock Draft “River Rat Special” ALWAYS! Mondays: $3 Cosmos All Day | Tuesdays: Shot Specials All Day • $2.75 Wells
N. Presa St.
E. Houston St.
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52 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
210.267.9885 THELOCALBARSA.COM LIKE US ON FB: THELOCALBARSA
The Place Where Locals Come to Party!
Downtown San Antonio’s True Neighborhood Bar
Sat. April 25th 11th Annual Fiesta de Lizard Crawfish Boil Drink Specials All Day!
8 (210) 271-9494
302 E. Commerce (between presa & navarro)
MUSIC
Acts galore: Maverick Music Festival will feature Bethany Consentino and Bobb Bruno of Best Coast (right) and Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YaRdS.
◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51 (MAVERICK)
groove between electronic textures and live instruments, particularly on the arresting “Lost It To Trying.” If you need inspiration to skip brunch and hit La Villita early, “Lost It To Trying” is it. With digital horns, clacking drums and spacious production, it’s electronic music at its most emotional, setting the stage for Lott’s bewildered anthem. “What do we do now? We lost it to trying,” he sings in a lush falsetto. Sarah Jaffe / 2:30 p.m. Among the best songs to come out of Denton — along with Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me” and Sly Stallone’s “I Want to Take You Higher” — is Sarah Jaffe’s “Clementine,” a beautiful exercise in parallax. Recorded in a funeral parlor, Jaffe sings of “50 states, 50 lines, 50 crying all the times” and “all that time wasted,” wishing to live as the title character, one of the most frequently visited names in pop. But in the wounded hush of her voice, Jaffe knows that this reset wouldn’t solve any problems. The “crying all the times” would still be there, just through a new set of eyes. Nina Diaz / 3:25 p.m. NPR once gave SA songstress Nina Diaz some impressive cred as “one of the two or three most exciting, scary-good vocalists in rock today.” The praise rings true if you cross-reference with Diaz’s “Rebirth,” one of the few tunes she has recorded in hi-fi since the hiatus from Girl in a Coma. As the band drops into orchestrated hits, Diaz sings of a former lover, her eyes wild with a frightening intensity and her voice scaling octaves with ease. tUnE-YaRdS / 4:25 p.m. On record, Merrill Garbus’ music as tUnE-YaRdS relies on vital polyrhythm and vocal loops that come down like a welcome June rain. “It’s empowering to make so much music by yourself,” Garbus told the Current over the phone.
Onstage, the music comes alive in a different fashion, blurted from the mouths of a big, jubilant band. “There’s nothing more satisfying than singing with other people,” said Garbus. “To me, there’s so much unspoken community and healing and connecting with other human beings. It’s a basic thing to sing with other human beings.” Though the spirit of the music is exuberant, Garbus speaks to some heavy truths in the winding, sing-song melodies of her 2014 album Nikki Nack. As an Oakland native, “Water Fountain” brings attention to her state’s looming, historic drought. “‘Water Fountain’ is about living in California, feeling that water in a water fountain is a privilege and one that is currently not available to a lot of people here … It bothers me when people aren’t talking about the elephant in the room. It’s an American talent, to avoid problems until they’re overwhelming.”
began in 2009 as a fuzzed out, shit-fi project wherein singer-songwriter Bethany Cosentino could explore her obsessions with cats, weed and boys, is now a widely popular act that has shown real musical and lyrical growth over the course of three albums and four EPs. The twosome (which also includes multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno) comes to Maverick as they prepare for the May 5 release of California Nights, their third album. Here’s what Bruno told the Current about the new material: “I think that there was just way less pressure with this record, like no pressure. Since we weren’t on a label we didn’t feel like we had to answer to anybody … On California Nights we approached each song as its own thing and weren’t afraid to add whatever kind of sounds we wanted. So there’s more adventure and more layered guitar, keyboards and effects.” — James Courtney
Wavves / 5:30 p.m. Even Nathan Williams must have been surprised when his Wavves project proved to be more than a fad. In 2009, with a pair of self-titled albums full of incredible songwriting and terrible guitar playing, the Californian rode a swell of internet buzz to immediate success. Nearly sidelined by an ecstasy/Valium/Xanax breakdown at Primavera Sound (and generally being really bad on his instrument), Williams learned from his mistakes. For recent tours, Wavves picked up a second guitar player and Williams turned down from 11 on the rock ‘n’ roll libational scale. That knowledge of personal flaws has been Williams’ songwriting drive since day one, so it’s nice to see him execute it on a practical level. On 2013’s “Demon to Lean On,” Williams expresses his self-conflict in lucid pop-punk terms — “Holding a gun to my head, so send me an angel / Or bury me deeply instead, with demons to lean on.”
Cake / 8:05 p.m. Emerging from the mid-‘90s wave of indie rock, Cake was one of the sweetest offerings from the Sunshine State. With a voice that teeters between monotone spoken word and alt-rock approved singing, founder, lead singer and cake boss John McCrea mishmashes styles like hip-hop and funk into a unique delicacy of sound. — Shannon Sweet
Best Coast / 6:35 p.m. California indie-pop duo Best Coast has carved a niche for itself somewhere between flippant grunge stonerdom and melodramatic teeny-pop stardom. What
Cypress Hill / 9:45 p.m. Known best for its 1993 nasal affront “Insane in the Brain,” Cypress Hill’s dust jacket blurb should read as the crew that introduced Spanish to American hip-hop. Along with Cypress Hill expat Mellow Man Ace, the LA quartet was the first to try Spanglish in their flow, more accurately recreating the language of California, Texas and New York City. More than two decades later, the bilingual crossover is one of the most viable options in the playbook under the direction of Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Mob, Travis $cott and O.T. Genasis. CONTINUED ON PAGE 55 ►
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 53
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54 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
MUSIC
KAITLYN GRIMSLAND
Maverick Music Festival acts Voodoo Boogaloo (left) and El Campo. ◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 53 (MAVERICK)
Juarez and Arneson River Theatre Stages Voodoo Boogaloo / Juarez Stage / Friday / 7:15 p.m. “It will all be perfect for the night,” sings Stephanie Cardona on the opener to Voodoo Boogaloo’s Yawny. Yelly. Glowy. Floaty. She’s quite right. Designed around the simple-as-sophisticated guitar, the duo from Alice is just mysterious enough to soundtrack an adventurous evening. Though the aesthetic works for a date night, Voodoo Boogaloo’s R&B loops and eight-bit riffs would sound comfortable in SNES-era Zelda. El Campo / Arneson River Theatre/ Saturday / 11:40 a.m. Written by singer Jerid Morris, El Campo’s alt-country debut Remember loosely chronicles disparate past events in the life of its weary and scorned narrator — from exquisitely rendered lamentations of love gone wrong to tall tales adopted from his grandfather; from childhood memories fused with bits of waking dream to poignant moments of solitude and reflection. — James Courtney Sub.Culture / Juarez Stage / Saturday / 12 p.m. & 5:15 p.m. A recent addition to San Antonio’s electronic music community, Sub.Culture began in 2015 as a collective for forward-thinking electronic music. A play on the importance of subwoofer speakers in subculture dance music, the five-person collective ranges from minimal dance to house music filled with EDM décor, unvaryingly working with a heavy dose of bass. Big Drag / Arneson River Theatre / Saturday / 7:40 p.m. At the angst-filled crossroads of Blink-182 and Dinosaur Jr., San Antonio’s Big Drag made a run in the mid-’90s performing high gain, high intensity rock ‘n’ roll. In 1995, the Tacoland favorites dropped a self-titled effort on Austin’s Only Boy Records before calling it quits in 1998. After their quick, memorable run, guitarist Milton Robichaux and drummer Dylan Phillips went on to create The Dixie Hammers, while bassist Colin Jones became a founding member of Austin punk quintet The Riverboat Gamblers. Violinda / Juarez Stage / Saturday / 9:45 p.m. In the early 20th century, violinist Shinichi Suzuki paved a new way of thinking about serious musical training. Called the Suzuki method, its closest relative is probably cross-training in sports. Expose yourself to a wide variety of activity, perform often and the holistic journey will help inform the singular talent at hand. San Marcos violinist Linda Lola, nom de plume Violinda, learned her instrument in the Suzuki style, a pedagogy that proves its worth on the 2014 EP Dichotomy. Lola plucks, bows, shakes and loops Maverick Music Festival her instrument to incredible effect, culling every possible $39-$149 texture and rhythm from the instrument. From clouds of 5pm-12am Fri, April 10 11am-12am Sat, April 11 psychedelic noise to tightly compacted runs in the style of La Villita Steve Reich’s minimalism, Lola commands her instrument 418 Villita with jaw-dropping precision. maverickmusicfestival.com sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 55
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NEW HOURS TO CHANGE: OPEN AT 11 INSTEAD OF 10 EVERY SUNDAY! FREE FOOD & CHEAP DRINKS! HAPPY HOUR 10AM-7PM Now Booking Events: BestTexasBarTeam@gmail.com
56 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
MUSIC
SUN
12
An Evening with Kevin Costner & Modern West
Yes, that Kevin Costner. Among his two Oscars and three Golden Globes sitting on the shelf at home, the actor has a few guitars lying around, pulling them out for sporadic tours with his band, Modern West. According to his online artist statement, Costner was inspired by the live connection between a band and its audience, starting Modern West in 2007 to “connect with people in a more meaningful way than just the autograph. I always thought that music could build a stronger, more personal moment for me. It would create the opportunity for a genuine exchange much greater than the movie, TV interview or magazine.” Modern West’s best effort yet was Famous for Killing Each Other, an album inspired by and featuring soundtrack cuts from the 2012 History Channel miniseries of the same name. On it, Costner sings with honest emotion and knowledge of his range and limits. Thankfully, it’s a deeply motivated passion project, not one OK’d by knockkneed yes men looking for money or cocaine (looking at you 1985 Eddie Murphy). Tickets are sold out, though scalpers wait with greasy palms on StubHub. $75, 7pm, Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene, New Braunfels, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall.com Matt Stieb / mstieb@sacurrent.com
Wednesday, April 8
Jarabe de Palo From Barcelona, Jarabe
de Palo creates light, classical guitar backgrounds with swirling electric solos. Club Rio, 9pm
Lions Lions From the saturated hardcore
scene of Boston and its malcontented suburbs, Lions Lions flails through posthardcore emotions and orchestrated guitar pinwheels. With Everybody Dies in Utah, Trophy Wives, Empty Eyes. The Korova, 6pm
Midtown Jazz Sound Drummer John
Fernandez, leader of Midtown Jazz Town, returns to Soho for his sixth year of residency at the downtown club. Soho, 10:30pm
Tom Freund, Garrett T. Capps After
working with reggae rocker Ben Harper and alt-country band The Silos, Tom Freund struck out on his own with his debut in 1998, North American Long Weekend. With acclaim from NPR and the New York Times, Freund’s charming acoustic rock has proven to be quite worthy of the screen too, with soundtrack appearances on Dawson’s Creek, Parenthood, One Tree Hill and This Is 40. On Garrett Capps’ “San Antone,” the cagey songwriter pins down Alamo City musical culture with verve and an insider’s knowledge: “I found myself down a deep, dark road / empty pockets and a wayward soul / then I heard somethin’ on the radio / sounded like San Antone. / It had deep blues roots, and a Vox organ / a groovy shaker, and a Fender tone / it said ‘she’s about a mover’ and
I was gone / gone home to San Antone.” Sam’s Burger Joint, 7pm
Apr. 9 Los Lobos plus Max Baca & Los Texmaniacs
COMING SOON
•BAR•
Apr. 10 John Wolfe
Apr.11 Pat Green & Cory Morrow
Toro Flores & Miguel Garza Gutiarists
Toro Flores and Miguel Garza team up for a capable evening in six-string jazz. Urban Taco, 6pm
•MUSIC•
Van Allen Belt, tides. Named after the
magnetic field around celestial objects, Pittsburgh pop quartet Van Allen Belt wields a similar magnetic charm on their 2014 LP Heaven on a Branch. In the spirit of Washed Out, Beach House and the host of other modern acts contained in the dream pop aesthetic into which tides. comfortably slides, there’s a subtle undercurrent to their music, gentle at first, that draws you in closer. And like those acts, the trick lies in making the complex sound simple. With Les Zombies, Varrin Menchen. K23 Gallery, 9pm
Apr. 24 & 25 Randy Rogers Band
May 2 Kacey Musgraves
•FOOD•
Thursday, April 9
Bloody Phoenix Deathcore quartet Bloody Phoenix easily win the imaginary medal for heaviest show of the week. The Korova, 9pm
Calico Club, PBLC From noise to punk to
electronic music, SA trio PBLC is always evolving, having recently taken the step into band-driven, live house music. Like Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing” or anything Grace Jones ever touched, Calico Clubs’ Permanent Night is a record about the bar as not only a lifestyle, but a creative opportunity: the chance to perform in posture, dress and dance even if you’re not onstage. To soundtrack these ideas, PleasureFaces and GALACTICAT of
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sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 57
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MUSIC
Calico Club placed together an exciting EP of synth and dance floor production. GALACTICAT’s rhythms lay a foundation for dancers, while PleasureFaces’ key work settles in between the abrasive sandpaper synths of the Crystal Castles and the gorgeous, tracking-shot work of Johnny Jewel. With Dance Like Robots. The Mix, 9pm
Hed(PE), Alien Ant Farm Standing for
Higher Education Planet Earth, Hed(PE) formed in 1994, before the idea of combining rap and heavy rock ellicited universal eyerolls. Riverside, California quartet Alien Ant Farm are best known for their 2001 cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” 210 Kapone’s, 8pm
Friday, April 10
Chris Young After winning USA Network’s
Nashville Star, country-rocker Chris Young fulfilled the show’s claim, becoming a bonafide force in country music, with his 2013 album A.M. selling over 250,000 copies. Cowboys Dancehall, 7pm
Ghost Police, Among Light, Filthy On
their 2013 self-titled LP, Ghost Police revved through radly named tunes like the hungry, spitting “Day of the Bacon” and the authoritarian anger of “North Korean Soap Opera.” After a spring session in the
recording studio, we’re patiently awaiting the next statement from these SA punk heavyweights. With San Antonio thrashers Among Light. Through a distorted loop of pedals, Filthy singer Leonard Guerra sounds only vaguely human, trapped on the dial between FM signals. On guitar, Guerra takes a similar approach, pulling weird, overdriven tones from the fretboard. Hi-Tones, 10pm
Holiday Mountain Somewhere between
the attitudes of Nicki Minaj and Annie Clark (St. Vincent) lies the voracious Laura
Patiño of Austin synth-pop trio Holiday Mountain. 502 Bar, 9pm
Henry + The Invisibles SA’s own Henry +
the Invisibles continues to turn in nothing but spectacularly soulful, ridiculously costumed one-man shows. Rebar, 10pm
Father Murphy In their artist statement,
Italian experimentalists Father Murphy claim that they are “the sound of the Catholic sense of Guilt.” With Illustrations, Street Sects, The Way to Light. The Korova, 9pm
Howlin Rain, Crown Led by guitarist Ethan
Miller, Howlin Rain kicks back to Doors-era organ rock ‘n’ roll. On the final track of their debut album, Crown sets up to ride out on some surf rock, but transitions to a massive slow-burner to light fire to the album’s end. It’s an impressive conclusion to a timely debut and one that upholds Crown’s status as a band best experienced live. When these three get together, there’s no rock ‘n’ roll direction that’s out of bounds. 502 Bar, 8:30pm
Friendly Savages Austin’s Friendly Savages just released East in the Morning, an album rich in detail, banjo and twinkling mandolin. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm
Ken Slavin Like a comedian careening
through a familiar joke, Slavin has incredible control over the pacing, charm and melodic intricacies of the crooner pages of the fake book. The Shops at La Cantera, 7:30pm
Los Lobos, Max Baca y los Texmaniacs
Los Lobos’ ’92 album Kiko solidified and augmented the band’s reputation as a rockin’, grooving and experimenting band. “The creative success of Kiko carried on with Los Lobos into the work they did afterward,” said producer Mitchell Froom on the new edition’s liner notes. Inspired by the work of the Texas Tornados, Max Baca founded Los Texmaniacs in 1997 under the direction of his prolific bajo sexto playing. Collaborating with Tornado accordionist Flaco Jimenez, Los Texmaniacs keep the band’s tejano rock ‘n’ roll spirit alive and well. Born in Albequerque, Baca has become a staple of San Anto’s musical culture. Floore’s Country Store, 7pm
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
sacurrent.com • April 8-14, 2015 • CURRENT 59
music festival 2015
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60 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
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MUSIC
Remanon On the forthcoming Episodes EP,
San Antonio quartet Remanon looks back to the classic prog of Rush while looking forward with gnarly, longform jams. The Mix, 10pm
Roots in the Shadow of San Antonio Fundraiser Showcase SA saxophonist
Noah Peterson presents a preview of the next installment of Roots in the Shadow of San Antonio, a series aiming to give light to rock ‘n’ roll and Americana in the Alamo City. The concert will serve as a fundraiser to press the second installment in the series. With Wolverton, Ken Little and Rodeo Ho Ho, Nuclear Juarez, ManEaters of Tsavo, I Ching Gatos, Garrett T. Capps. SMART, 6pm
Rodrigo Guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas
performs Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo’s most popular work, Concierto de Aranjuez, with support from conductor Pedro Halffter. Villegas has worked with the Lincoln Center Orchestra and John Williams. Tobin Center, 8pm
Saturday, April 11
Boxhead Ensemble, SSBT Formed
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IN THEATERS FRIDAY, APRIL 17 62 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
in 1991, composer Michael Krassner created the Boxhead Ensemble to soundtrack a student film. Outliving its original purpose, the music collective has gone on to explore the intersections of jazz and instrumental post-rock. Featuring No Idea Festival Founder Chris Cogburn, Austin’s SSBT weirds out in a setting of free jazz, punk and percussion, with duel horns, duel guitars and tape manipulation. With Berlin-based double bassist Mike Mojkowski, Austin songwriter Adam Busch. K23 Gallery, 8pm
Spray Paint On the 2014 single “Cussin,”
Austin’s Spray Paint pounce around with a pressurized energy, releasing their angular post-punk propellant in instrumental sessions. With Lower Birth Amygdala, Ill Informed, Life Decay. Paper Tiger, 9pm
Verisimilitude, Collective Dreams
Beginning with a stoned vocoder mumble, Verisimilitude’s “Hippy Eyes” grows into a band-hit stomp, as the trio slams in unison on unexpected beats. Shortly after, a poem gives way to Zach Appelbaum running amok on an upward-sprawling guitar riff. Through the vision of “Hippy Eyes,” Verisimilitude gives us a dynamic and promising listen to a band honing in on its creative truth. San Antonio’s Collective Dreams give pure instrumentation the recognition it deserves with proggy post-rock jams. With Televangelist. Hi-Tones, 8pm
Sundary, April 12
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
Monday, April 13
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
Tuesday, March 24
Bugaboo Swamp-rockers Bugaboo sound like The Black Keys weighed down by brown liquor and Spanish Moss. The Amp Room, 9pm
Jack Stone Award for New Music After a recital of the finest music students of the Alamo Colleges, Northwest Vista will present their annual merit award. Northwest Vista College, 7pm
210 Kapone’s 1223 E. Houston, (210) 279-9430, 210kapones.com 502 Bar 502 Embassy Oaks, (210) 257-8125, 502bar. com Alamo City Music Hall 1305 E. Houston, alamocitymusichall.com Club Rio 13307 San Pedro Ave, (210) 403-2582, club-rio.net Cowboys Dance Hall 3030 NE I-410, San Antonio, (210) 646-9378, cowboysdancehall.com Esquire Tavern 155 E. Commerce, (210) 222-2521, esquiretavern-sa.com Floore’s Country Store 14492 Old Bandera, Helotes, (210) 695-8827, liveatfloores.com Hi-Tones 621 E. Dewey, (210) 573-6220 K23 Gallery 704 Fredericksburg, (210) 776-5635, facebook.com/ k23gallery Olmos Bharmacy 3902 McCullough, (210) 822-1188, olmosrx.com Northwest Vista College 3535 N. Ellison, (210) 486-4000, alamo.edu/nvc Paper Tiger 2410 N. St. Mary’s, papertiger.queueapp.com Rebar 8134 Broadway, (210) 3204091, rebarsatx.com Sam’s Burger Joint 330 E. Grayson, (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com Soho 214 W. Crockett, (210) 444-1000 SMART 1906 S. Flores, smartsa.org Southtown 101 101 Pereida Street, (210) 263-9880 The Amp Room 2407 N. St. Mary’s, theamproom.com The Korova 107 E. Martin, (210) 226-5070, thekorova.com The Mix 2423 N. St. Mary’s, (210) 7351313 The Shops at La Cantera 15900 La Cantera, theshopsatlacantera.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
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KINKY BOYS
SAVAGE LOVE by Dan Savage
I’m a straight male kinkster who used to do live performances as a rope bondage top, but I recently jumped out of the kink community. I just think I’ll have better luck finding a long-term relationship with a girl from the vanilla world. So long as she’s GGG, I can live with it. As much as I loved the sex/kink with people I met in “the scene,” I never found anything/anyone for the “long term.” My question: I’m unsure of how much I should share about my past. Should I tell vanilla girls that I performed at bondage shows? I don’t want to scare them off, but I also don’t want it to come up years down the road and have it scare them off then. –Should He Always Reveal Experiences? When something awesome, interesting, or commendable about you scares someone off — your fun and sexy kinks, your sexually adventurous history — your best course of action is to shrug and say “good riddance.” But if you’re afraid the otherwise GGG woman you recently met on a vanilla dating app or in a vanilla drinking establishment will panic and bolt, SHARE, you can wait to disclose your history of tying people up in front of crowds until she’s gotten to know you better. Your past as a bondage performer doesn’t present a health risk for the GGG women you’ll be tying up in private, SHARE, so you can go ahead and roll it out slowly. But do roll it out eventually. If you find that you’re unable to locate any LTR-worthy women in the vanilla world — just like you couldn’t find any in the fetish scene — then the problem was you, SHARE, not the scene. The thought of my wife being with another guy is a fantasy of mine. We’ll sometimes role-play that she has just come home from a fling, at which point I’ll go down on her while she tells me all the
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sexy condomless details. For health reasons, we aren’t going to actually do this. But can you recommend some substance that feels and perhaps even tastes like come that she can, um, insert into herself to add a sexy dose of verisimilitude to our play? It’s got to be safe and nonirritating for her, but it needs to look and maybe taste like semen. –Boy After Realistic Emulsions P.S. This isn’t a cuckold thing for us, as I have no desire to be humiliated. It’s more of a “hotwife” fantasy with a guy/guy bi twist. There’s a brand of silicone lubricant called Spunk that looks and feels — can you guess? — just like spunk. You might not want to guzzle bottles of it, BARE, but ingesting a little safe-and-nonirritating silicone lube isn’t going to kill you. Order yourself a case at spunklube.com. I am a bi married father who recently fell on hard times. In order to make rent, I posted a few Craigslist ads, and now I occasionally suck dick for money. I don’t intend to tell my wife, but I’m getting frequent STI tests. I’m kind of freaked out by how not freaked out I am. I mean, sucking 15 cocks for cash just to make rent seems pretty extreme, but aside from some low-level shame, I feel okay about it. Do you think regular people occasionally do this? Should I feel bad? –Paying Bills Regularly Tons of stories were written at the height of the Great Recession about average people doing sex work to make ends meet, PBR. So lots of “regular people” have done sex work. (And sex workers? They’re regular people, too.) And while I don’t think you should feel bad, PBR, I do think you should tell the wife. Regular STI testing will only let you know that you’ve caught an STI, if you should ever catch one — it doesn’t immunize you against catching an STI. So your wife, if you’re having sex with her, too, has a right to know where the rent money is coming from.
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Answer on page 23
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(800) 216-3885 “Live Free and Style Hard”– more wild words. ACROSS
1 Make it through the season intact? 11 Second of 24 15 Protected sequence in some spy movies 16 Biological transmitter 17 Station wagons, in Stratford 18 Go to sleep, with “out” 19 Distort 20 “It’s ___ bad ...” 21 Record label with latenight TV ads 22 Word div. 23 As a result of 24 Extensive 25 Harkness ___ Mansion (part of Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT) 28 Depilatory brand name 29 ___ above the rest 30 Believer in good and evil 32 Petty tyrants 34 Level usually checked along with triglycerides 35 Was winning 36 Trap set under the kitchen window, say 40 Some TVs 44 Show set in Baltimore, with “The”
45 Christmas crooner Perry 47 Venomous snake 48 Dakota du Sud, for one 49 Dog’s decoration? 51 “___-la-la...” 52 Work on a nameplate 53 In again 54 Golfer Inkster 55 Restrain, as breath 56 Like Bill Murray and Bob Odenkirk, by birth 58 “You ___ out?” 59 It’s a real peach 60 Pericles’ princedom 61 Palace of Westminster structure, before its renaming after Queen Victoria
DOWN 1 Like some events 2 “So tell me ...” 3 Spread brand invented in Italy 4 Wear down 5 Prefix meaning “outer” 6 “___ you get in?” 7 Narrative 8 Just so 9 Banking info 10 Sentiment in Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams”
11 Russian letter that makes the “ya” sound 12 Unusual collection 13 Hit the gym 14 Low jewelry 26 The Jackson 5’s fourth #1 hit single (and Mariah Carey’s sixth) 27 Verdi opera 31 “La Di Da Di” rapper with Doug E. Fresh (1985) 33 Furniture wood 36 Slightly, in Shetland 37 ___ Lions (Penn State athletes) 38 It gets fired up on the farm 39 Baroque violinist and composer Giuseppe 40 Hard, like rain 41 World Series of Poker champ Mike, nicknamed “The Mouth” 42 Path for a jet 43 Dye company worker 46 “Children of a Lesser God” Oscar winner 50 They may help to lift wings 54 Medieval Japanese land manager (hidden in MOJITOS) 57 Cologne compass point
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Uitwaaien is a Dutch word that means to go out for a stroll in windy weather simply because it’s exhilarating. I don’t know any language that has parallel terms for running in the rain for the dizzy joy of it, or dancing through a meadow in the dark because it’s such nonsensical fun, or singing at full volume while riding alone in an elevator in the mad-happy quest to purge your tension. But in the coming weeks, you don’t need to describe or explain experiences like this; you just need to do them. Experiment with giving your instinctive need for exuberance lots of room to play.
TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20):
revise and refine your relationship with love. It’s time to disappear the fear.
LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Do you ever feel reverence and awe, Leo? Are there times when you spontaneously yearn to engage in acts of worship? Is there anyone or anything that evokes your admiration, humility, and gratitude? The coming weeks will be a good time to seek out experiences like these. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will get tender jolts of transformational inspiration if you blend yourself with a sublime force that you trust and respect.
Your nasty, nagging little demon isn’t nasty or nagging any more. It’s not doing what demons are supposed to do. It’s confused, haggard, and ineffective. I almost feel sorry for the thing. It is barely even keeping you awake at night, and its ability to motivate you through fear is at an alltime low. Here’s what I suggest: Now, when the demon’s strength is waning and its hold on you is weak, you should break up with it for good. Perform an ultimate, non-reversible exorcism. Buy it a one-way bus ticket to the wasteland and say goodbye forever.
VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22):
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20):
LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22):
When he was in his fifties, French painter Claude Monet finally achieved financial success. He used his new riches to buy a house and land, then hired gardeners to help him make a pond full of water lilies. For the first time in his life, he began to paint water lilies. During the next 30 years, they were his obsession and his specialty. He made them a central feature of 250 canvases, which now serve as one of his signature contributions to art history. “I planted my water lilies for pleasure,” he said. “I cultivated them without thinking of painting them. And then suddenly, I had the revelation of the magic of my pond.” I regard the imminent future as a good time for you to do something similar, Gemini: Create or find a source of beauty that will stimulate your sense of wonder and fuel your passion to express yourself for a long time.
CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): “Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love,” said Cancerian comedian Mel Brooks. Although he was joking, he was also quite serious. More often than we like to admit, desperation infects our quest to be cared for. Our decisions about love may be motivated by a dread of loneliness. We worry about whether we are worthy of getting the help and support we need. It’s a fundamental human problem, so there’s no reason to be ashamed if you have this tendency yourself. Having said that, I’m happy to report that you now have the necessary power to overcome this tendency. You will be able to summon tremendous courage as you 68 CURRENT • April 8-14, 2015 • sacurrent.com
A lot has happened since you were . . . uh . . . indisposed. You’ve missed out on several plot twists. The circle has been broken, repaired, broken again, and partially repaired. Rumors have been flying, allegiances have been shifting, and riddles have been deepening. So are you ready yet to return to the heated action? Have you learned as much as you can from the commotion that provoked your retreat? Don’t try to return too early. Make sure you are at least 70 percent healed.
Rent, but don’t buy yet. That’s my $250-perhour advice. Keep rehearsing, but don’t start performing the actual show. OK? Flirt, but don’t fall in love. Can you handle that much impulse control? Are you strong enough to explore the deeper mysteries of patience? I swear to you that your burning questions will ultimately be answered if you don’t try to force the answers to arrive according to a set timetable. I guarantee that you will make the necessary connections as long as you don’t insist that they satisfy every single one of your criteria.
SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): The Guerrilla Girls are a group of prankster activists who use humor to expose sexism and racism in the art world. Every so often they take a “weenie count” at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. During their first survey in 1989, they found that five percent of the artists who had work hanging in the galleries were women, while 85 percent of the nudes depicted in the paintings were women. More recently, in 2012, their weenie count revealed that four percent of the artists were female, but 76 percent of the naked people in the paintings were female. The coming week would be a good time for you to take a weenie count in your own sphere, Scorpio. Conditions are more favorable than usual to call attention to gender disparities, and to initiate corrective action.
SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): The English term “engine” refers primarily to a machine that transforms energy into
mechanical power. But its roots are in the Old French word engin, which meant skill or wit, and in the Latin word ingenium, defined as “inborn talent.” I’d like to borrow the original meanings to devise your horoscope this week. According to my reading of the astrological omens, your “engine” is unusually strong right now, which means that your cultivated skills and innate talents are functioning at peak levels. I suggest you make intensive use of them to produce maximum amounts of energy and gather more of the clout you’d love to wield.
CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): What I’m about to say is not a hard scientific fact, but it is a rigorous poetic fable. You don’t need to go to the mountain, because the mountain is willing and able to come to you. But will it actually come to you? Yes, but only if you meet two conditions. The mountain will pick itself up and move all the way to where you are if you make a lot of room for it and if you are prepared to work with the changes its arrival will bring.
AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): If you were a four-year-old, cookies might be a valuable treasure to you. Given a choice between a bowl of stir-fried organic vegetables and a plate full of chocolate
coconut macaroons, you’d probably choose the macaroons. For that matter, if you were four years old and were asked to decide between getting a pile of macaroons and a free vacation to Bali or an original painting by Matisse or a personal horoscope reading from the world’s greatest astrologer, you’d also opt for the cookies. But since you’re a grownup, your list of priorities is screwed on straight, right? You would never get distracted by a sugary, transitory treat that would cause you to ignore a more nourishing and long-lasting pleasure. Right?
PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): On June 23, 1917, Babe Ruth was the starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in a Major League Baseball game against the Washington Senators. After the first batter drew a walk, Ruth got upset with the home plate umpire and punched him in the head. Ejected! Banished! The Babe had to be dragged off the field by the cops. The new pitcher was Ernie Shore. He proceeded to pitch a perfect game, allowing no further Washington player to reach base in all nine innings. In the coming weeks, Pisces, I see you as having the potential to duplicate Ernie Shore’s performance in your own sphere. Coming in as a replacement, you will excel. Chosen as a substitute, you will outdo the original.
THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow
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“We have advanced a great “We have advanced a deal indeal our in understanding great our of what it takes to prevent understanding of what it diabetes. I believe that in takes to prevent diabetes. I the near future there will believe that in the near be new strategies available future there will be new to prevent this disease. My strategies available to research focuses on unprevent this disease. My derstanding the molecular research focuses on causes of diabetes and in understanding the finding ways to reverse the molecular causes of molecular abnormalities diabetes and in finding found in these patients.” ways to Musi, reverse the -Nicolas MD,
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