San antonio current july 15, 2015 by Chava Communications

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STARTING A CONVERSATION Activist Uses Legal Case To Expose SA’s Poverty And Hunger MICHAEL MARKS/@MICHAELPMARKS

It’s 9 a.m. on Tuesday, July 7, at the Municipal Court on Frio Street. About 20 people are packed into courtroom 7, most of whom are likely fretting over fire code violations, noise complaints, or other gardenvariety citations that make up the daily docket. But Joan Cheever, sitting in the front row, dressed in a pink chef’s coat, is worried about her Guinness stew. It’s been braising for 16 hours, the centerpiece of the meal she plans to serve tonight to San Antonio’s hungry — just as she’s done almost every Tuesday night for years. Cheever, 57, runs The Chow Train, a nonprofit mobile meal service. She prepares and serves over 100 free threecourse meals each week for “people who fell through the cracks.” She’s also taken The Chow Train to disaster areas, providing meals to victims and aid workers. “To me, it’s just compassion. I can’t stand to see people go hungry,” Cheever told the San Antonio Current at her house. “It’s more than just a plate of food. They tell me it’s a plate of love. I think this is the greatest way to show someone that they’re a person. They’re not invisible.” But on April 7, cops ticketed Cheever for operating a food truck without a permit. She was issued the $2,000 fine for serving food from a pickup truck instead of the food truck trailer itself, which she sometimes leaves behind due to space constraints. Cheever has waged a months-long fight against the fine. Last week at court, she rejected a chance to settle with the city, opting for a jury trial on September 23. Until then, she plans to stick to her mission – feeding the hungry. “We’ll just keep going until we can’t go anymore,” she said. A Form of Prayer Cheever, diminutive and feisty to a fault, is an attorney and former court reporter who once served as managing editor at the National Law Review. She credits her altruism to her upbringing. “We were taught to volunteer and give back to those who are less fortunate,” she recalled. For Cheever, who grew up Roman Catholic, feeding others is an expression of her faith. It’s a form of prayer, one she favors over sitting through Mass each week. “I was raised this way and this is what we’re supposed to be doing. It’s communion with the community and it’s the way I pray,” she said. “I pray quietly.” 10 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

Joan Cheever (center) and her volunteers plate meals on Tuesday, July 7.

The prayer is in the process, she says. But that’s not an argument that resonated with the San Antonio Police Department on April 7 when they ticketed her — about a week before the start of Fiesta. It started as an ordinary Tuesday night for Cheever. She was working in Maverick Park, the last of The Chow Train’s four stops, when several cops approached her. This wasn’t uncommon. Cheever said that officers often drop by the park on Tuesdays to check in with her. Their interactions were always courteous, if not congenial. She even offered them food sometimes. The cops asked to see Cheever’s food truck permit, which she provided. But Cheever wasn’t serving out of her actual food truck; she was serving out of the bed of her pickup. The 14-foot-long food truck trailer is too bulky for some of The Chow Train’s routine Tuesday stops; logistically, just using the pickup makes sense. And all of Cheever’s food is meticulously handled, labeled and checked for temperature. But the cops still ticketed Cheever for serving food out of a private vehicle, fining her $2,000. The official offense is a violation of Code 13.62: no valid mobile food-vending permit. When she cited the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act — that the act of cooking and serving food for her was a form of prayer and Texas law allowed her to do so — one of the officers told her: “‘Lady, if you want to pray, go to church.’” Even after the run-in, Cheever doesn’t harbor ill will toward SAPD or the officers who ticketed her. But if what

she’s doing is illegal (she hasn’t missed a Tuesday night in Maverick Park since being fined), then why hasn’t she been ticketed again? City officials did not respond to the Current’s repeated requests for comment on this and other questions. “Our public health safety code is in place to ensure that all people in San Antonio, homeless or otherwise, are served safe food,” city spokeswoman Di Galvan told The Texas Observer. Bill Holler, director of Under the Bridge, a non-profit service that feeds about 150 homeless people in San Antonio every week, said that ticketing Cheever was “silly.” “There’s so many people doing bad things out there, criminals. They should spend more time chasing them down instead of bother people trying to be good Samaritans,” Holler told the Current. Had Cheever accepted the plea deal on July 7, the fine would have probably gone away. But that would have meant shuttering the current iteration of The Chow Train — something Cheever never considered, according to one of her attorneys, Stephanie Stevens. “Because Ms. Cheever is adamant about her innocence and her cause, we rejected the offer,” said Stevens, who’s representing Cheever for free. Instead, Cheever insisted upon a jury trial — a strategy she thinks will not only exonerate her but will catalyze a discussion about how San Antonio treats its hungry and homeless. “I wanted to have a jury trial because I wanted to have a community conversation. Because a lot of the community has told me, ‘This ain’t no crime,’” she said.

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Organized Prep Though much of the physical work happens on Tuesdays, Cheever’s husband, Dennis Quinn, said that their lives tend to pivot around planning for the weekly meals. “We start thinking about it on Thursday. But it seems like it’s constant,” said Quinn, who describes himself as the “chief bottle washer.” To prepare a three-course meal for over 100 people, Cheever enlists the help of a rotating cast of volunteers. Interest in lending a hand has exploded due to attention from the ticket. Over 65,000 people have signed a petition on change. org to “allow good Samaritans to feed the homeless without being fined” in support of The Chow Train. Cheever has also raised over $14,000 on the crowdsourcing site GoFundMe for operational costs. Cheever’s meals aren’t hastily-assembled bologna sandwiches and Capri Suns. She holds an associate’s degree in culinary arts from St. Philip’s College and estimates that the meals she makes would run about $20 a plate in a restaurant. Cheever’s menu varies, depending on what’s in season and what donations she receives. But she follows a few basic guidelines. Vegetable soup is always on the menu. And she favors softer foods — stews, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables — so that the homeless, who often have dental problems, can eat the meal. Most Tuesdays for Cheever start at the Olmos Basin Farmer’s Market. Held Tuesdays and Saturdays just west of The Quarry, it’s small but regulars file through in a steady trickle. Cheever tries to pay the farmers for their goods (and occasionally succeeds in pressing a rolled-up $5 bill into a palm) but most of them are eager to donate surplus veggies. “We don’t have much, but we give her something every time. If she can use it, we give it to her,” said Horacio Zamudio, a farmer from Natalia. “It feels good to do something for other people.” Last week, Cheever and Warren Monnich, one of The Chow Train’s volunteers, left Zamudio’s stall with dozens of marble-sized multicolored tomatoes, a few plastic bags of okra and a toddler-sized watermelon. On The Move They cook much of the meals in the trailer itself, which sits on Cheever and Quinn’s driveway. It’s a tight squeeze — only four or five people fit in the trailer’s well-stocked but narrow kitchen. As they cook, Cheever is part maestro, part cruise director, part drill sergeant. This is serious work, but

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Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert Jr., a member of The Chow Train’s board of directors, has known Cheever for several years. He scoffed at Cheever’s citation. “It’s about the most ridiculous waste of government time I’ve ever heard of,” Calvert told the Current. “These folks are extremely grateful, you can see the looks on their faces. Other places, they just give you a number and here, you can tell they really care.”

One of The Chow Train’s diners eats at Maverick Park.

there’s an element of art and fun to it as well. The air is sticky inside the trailer, thick with the steam of boiling potatoes mixed with a heavy, heady fragrance of beef stew. And it’s hot; when Cheever took The Chow Train to San Marcos after this summer’s floods, the thermometer inside the trailer shot to 107 degrees. Once the meal is complete, Cheever sets out for four stops — two along Austin Highway, two closer to downtown. A little after 7 p.m., Cheever and Quinn in their slate grey Ford F-150 lead a caravan of a half-dozen volunteers northeast. A few folks have already gathered to wait at the first stop. They lean against a fence across the street from The Chow Train with their bikes and packs. “Come on over for soup!” Holler cries, and they shuffle towards the pickup. ‘It’s Good Food’ It’s breezy and unseasonably cool outside for a July night. Previously foreboding clouds have mostly burned off, giving way to slanting orange and violet rays of waning sunlight. Wilco drifts out of a stereo on the truck bed. Some of the diners linger and mingle with volunteers, but most gratefully accept their meal and walk back to the fence across the street. Paul Joseph Butler has eaten at The Chow Train for five years. He says he has a job, but he’s homeless by choice. “A lot of my friends out here, they don’t have a hustle

like I do, a way of making money,” said Butler, 51. “It makes me happy that we have this.” The Chow Train rolls on to the second stop, where a group of four elementary school-aged kids, three black, one Latino, approach Quinn, offering to wash the truck’s windows. They strike a deal: The kids will wipe clean the interior and exterior cab windows in exchange for a few bucks and a plate of food each. The kids, clad in sleeveless Air Jordan shirts and flip flops, accept. Cheever lets her volunteers take center stage at the stops. As they serve the food, she spends most of her time mingling with the crowd, checking in on regulars and doling out hugs. “It’s not all about the cooking. It’s about supporting them, and holding their hand and letting them cry,” Cheever said. Whereas the first two stops are quick, The Chow Train lingers longer at the last two further south, where there are more people to feed. About a dozen people are already gathered at the third stop at Brackenridge Park when the caravan arrives. Michael Deuley, 47, is one of them. Deuley has rarely missed The Chow Train since he moved back to San Antonio 18 months ago. “I believe it’s pretty screwed up that they gave these people a ticket. They do this out of the kindness of their heart,” Deuley said. He’s wearing tan cargo pants and a shirt reading, “Fishers of Men.” There’s a cigarette tucked behind sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 11

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his beet-red, leathery ear. Deuley said that while the scene at other free meals can get rowdy, he’s never seen a fight or an argument at The Chow Train. At the final stop — Maverick Park, where SAPD issued Cheever the ticket — dozens of people await. Cheever’s team springs into action, setting up a buffet-style serving table. Vegetable soup, as always, comes first. Then a line forms for the main course. Volunteers fan out through the crowd, distributing chilled Fredericksburg peaches Cheever picked out earlier in the day at the farmer’s market. Alfred Wilkinson stands on the sidewalk next to his backpack, nursing his soup and keeping to himself. Wilkinson has a well-trimmed mustache, with a pencil and a Mead steno pad tucked into his plaid shirt pocket. He’s searching for a job in manufacturing or construction — anything that lets him use his hands — but he’s had no luck. He appreciates The Chow Train, though he wouldn’t use it if he could pay for his own meals. He’s unemployed, homeless for the second time this year and hungry. “It’s the only meal around that’s

decent. It’s good food,” Wilkinson said. “It’s not the bullshit that somebody was going to give away. It’s protein, starch, carbs, everything you need.” Volunteers and diners hang out in Maverick Park for nearly an hour. Everyone asks about the citation and Cheever happily recounts the plan time and time again: reject the plea, go to court, let a jury decide. Though the turnout was lower than normal, Cheever’s volunteers had few leftovers to pack up. Some of them stick around, chatting with folks while cleaning and loading up the truck. Over 100 people ate tonight — all in a Tuesday’s work. Cheever surveys the scene, hands on her hips. It’s just past 9 p.m. now, over 12 hours since she rejected the plea deal. She’ll continue to cook and serve not just for her own sake, but as she sees it, for the rights of the thousands of faceless good Samaritans in San Antonio who do the same. “I feel grateful, appreciative, happy, because I feel the happiness in other people’s faces,” Cheever said. “I do what thousands of people in San Antonio do. I just happen to have gotten the ticket.” mmarks@sacurrent.com

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ALAMO CITY TECH

Despite Uber Debacle, We’re Still A Fledgling Innovative Hub MARK REAGAN/@210REAGAN

In the late 1990s, CPS Energy began installing a fiber-optic network. At a time when early internet enthusiasts were happy with dial-up and AOL’s “You’ve got mail!” soundbite, San Antonio showed remarkable foresight in planning for broadband. Years later, the city’s reaping the benefits. Not that many people these days readily see the Alamo City as tech-friendly, not with the bruising it took after rideshare services Uber and Lyft left town. So the city may have lost a PR battle with that one, but in reality, SA’s tech scene is a diverse creature that continues to grow. A year ago, at City Councilman Ron Nirenberg’s request, the city began developing a comprehensive digital strategy to improve private investment in digital infrastructure, expand mobile data capacity and to put to use the municipal fiber network. Now the city is making good on reaching those goals. Unused capacity in CPS Energy’s network could extend fiber to University Health System, UTSA, the UT Health Science Center and Alamo Colleges. The private sector is also a driving force. San Antonio entered an agreement with Verizon Wireless that should expand access to mobile data by allowing the company to build more infrastructure in public right-of-ways and on utility poles. Nirenberg said the city is in closed-door talks with Cisco Systems about the company’s Smart City Initiative, aimed to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and enhance quality of life. And then there’s the gorilla in the room: Google Fiber. Just last month, the tech giant received permission from the state to expand Google Fiber Austin’s service area to include SA city limits. The first big step to lure Google Fiber to San Antonio was in March 2014, when the city entered into an agreement with Google allowing the company to build “Fiber Huts.” “I couldn’t tell you where they are on construction, but, essentially, the ‘Fiber Huts’ are the terminal points for connections to neighborhoods,” Nirenberg told the San Antonio Current. “They’ve mapped out the city and identified 40 locations where these nodes would have to go to reach all areas,” he added. There’s also healthy competition. In 2014, AT&T U-Verse announced plans for San Antonio to become one

Rackspace brought San Antonio digital credibility.

of its “Gigapower cities,” bringing another high-speed internet option to consumers. Then there’s human capital, like employees of some of Bexar County’s largest tech employers, such as Rackspace. Many of these employees have the entrepreneurial itch, and they scratch it at places like Geekdom — an innovative, collaborative space co-founded by Graham Weston, Rackspace’s chairman and CEO. And there are plenty of techies who meet for beers in garages around town to brainstorm ideas or develop technologies. In May, the tech community organized under a new group called TechBloc, which brings people from the industry together to lobby for a robust tech economy, along with great networking and more brains for innovation. While Rackspace’s wild success gave San Antonio tech credibility, there’s much more happening behind the scenes. The Alamo City is a tech garden with some of the most fertile soil in the country. And Nirenberg believes all of this proves San Antonio is a 21st century city that can continue to blossom as all of these moving parts come together. “When our city can anticipate technological change instead of react to it in the way we saw with Uber and Lyft, I’ll say we are ready for the future,” he said. “We’re not there yet, but I think we’re getting close.” Alamo City Techopolis Nationally, misconceptions persist about tech development in SA and Texas.

Take Nolan Berry, a Racker who moved to San Antonio from Wisconsin two years ago after Weston’s company recruited the internet wiz. “I had my perceptions of what Texas was going to be like, which weren’t favorable,” Berry told the Current. “I didn’t have big hopes for the city and didn’t really like it for the first year.” Once he started making friends, his feelings changed. “I love it,” Berry said, adding that SA could do more for entrepreneurs. “I’m not sure how realistic it is, but the city should try to find a way to provide incentives for smaller companies and make it easier to rent small offices,” Berry said. “There should be tax incentives or grants to help fund start-ups.” Ben Batschelet, lead instructor at Codeup, an organization that teaches people how to be web developers, said San Antonio is in a good spot. “I feel like, in a lot of ways, San Antonio has a great position by flying under the radar,” Batschelet said. “A lot of companies look at Austin as a potential area to relocate or expand and invest, and I think a lot are starting to find that the market up there is too crazy, too saturated, with too much chaos.” San Antonio is an alternative to that saturation that keeps companies in tax-friendly Texas. “There are no expectations in what we deliver and offer, but when people do research and check us out they are pleasantly surprised,” Batschelet noted. sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 15

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But SA could use another big player like Rackspace. “I don’t want to talk bad about Rackspace, but we can’t put all of our eggs in one basket,” he said. Organically Grown Tech But like any diverse intelligent community, not everyone agrees on how the city should approach the future of technology. Take Joseph Lopez, an assistant professor of convergent media and communication arts at the University of Incarnate Word. “So all of what we do together is not tech building, in a sense of building techopolis. We want Google and Amazon. So bring these two huge corporations and all these tech workers and build more condos and have more Ferraris and Porsches and pop Champagne,” Lopez said. Because of San Antonio’s history, which is rooted long before the United States took over Texas, and its familyoriented culture, the city needs to look within itself instead of out of state. “Then we also look at San Antonio and see one of the biggest discrepancies of social strata,” Lopez said. “The Northwest Side gets richer and richer.” Yet in the South, West and East Sides — communities where access to the internet and technology isn’t as robust as it is in the center city and North Side — there are neighborhoods that are still dealing with basic infrastructure challenges such as lack of sidewalks. In Lopez’s eyes, that’s where the future of technology in San Antonio is

found — in working-class neighborhoods where innovation is a way of life. “If you talk to most people that are into tech development, they want to bring people in, saying it’s economic development that will create jobs,” Lopez said. “What about the people who live here?” The answer is changing expectations in underserved communities. Lopez believes that volunteering opens doors that build relationships, resulting in educational opportunities for young people. “I think the way you entice tech is you have to have youth. They have to have something at stake,” Lopez said, explaining that 18- to 25-year-olds are necessary to lead San Antonio in the tech sector. “You need to get into these schools and communities and expose them to technology.” Case in point: Nonprofit hardware hacker collaborative 10BitWorks, where Lopez likes to hang out. “We had a group from the Martinez Street Women’s Shelter come over, they were middle school girls,” Lopez said. “They had never seen these tools and stuff, and they asked me if they could make robots with the tools.” When he told them yes, their eyes opened wide with delight. “We need a lot more people realizing that things are within their reach,” Lopez said. Once San Antonio embraces this approach, said Lopez, the tech sector in San Antonio will grow organically rather than mostly depending on external brainpower to lead the way to innovation. mreagan@sacurrent.com

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NEIGHBORHOOD TAKEOVER East Side Program Fights Crime With ‘Hot Spot’ BBQs MARIA CESAR

It didn’t matter that someone had been shot at that gas station just a couple of short weeks before. In fact, that was the very reason for it. East Side dwellers fed up with rampant violence are, as the traditional neighborhood activism saying goes, “trying to take back their streets.” A crowd of denizens streamed on the lot of Handy Stop Convenience at the corner of New Braunfels and Nolan last week to eat barbecue, listen to music and mingle with local cops. It’s one of several criminal “hot spots” targeted by federally funded efforts to dial back crime and drug abuse in neighborhoods falling into the hands of gangbangers and drug dealers. Brooke Crenshaw, 38, director of the initiative, said the San Antonio Housing Authority, in conjunction with local community partners, had planned to host the event at the gas station before a man was shot and killed there last month. “What we’re trying to do is encourage the community to come out and take [this space] back,” Crenshaw, who has bright red hair, a ready smile and a right arm covered in tattoos, told the San Antonio Current. Crenshaw said she’s been working for weeks with nearby businesses to prepare for the event and organize a cleanup in the vacant lot and alley next to the gas station, an area she said has been used for prostitution and drug abuse. The desire to “take back” the neighborhood is clearly contagious. A group of men who hang out at a nearby bus stop pitched in with the cleanup without prompting, Crenshaw said. It’s moments like those that are a point of pride for her as she talks about the importance of showing community members that they’re valued. “One of the guys yelled, ‘Hey, Red, we cleared the alley for you,” she said with a smile. “The people who get fined for loitering — yeah. Those are the guys who came out and cleaned the lot. One even brought his mom back to show her ‘look mom, I helped out.’” Pinkie Omar, 61, found out about the event through her daughter, who works for San Antonio Fighting Back, a local nonprofit that offers counseling, HIV testing and resources for those dealing with substance abuse. It was a bittersweet return for Omar, who lived on the East Side until there was a drive-by shooting near her house. “I was raising a grandson,” she said while in line

In the face of violence, East Siders are working to take back their community.

for a plate of brisket, potato salad, bread, pickles and beans. “It was getting too violent.” She wasn’t the only one scared enough to want out. Neighborhood improvement grant applications cited startling statistics. Violent crime rates in the 4-mile footprint were more than twice the rest of the city, according to 2012 arrest records. Drug-related crimes were over three times higher. Sixty percent of children there live in poverty, compared to 27 percent of children in the rest of the city. The idea behind the grants is to tackle some of the factors creating or perpetuating poverty — safety issues, housing deficits, struggling schools. Additional federal grants for the United Way and SAHA tackle safety developments and dial back the root causes of crime and drug abuse. The grants also provided for a study looking at environmental factors contributing to high crime rates. Crenshaw is now targeting those factors — helping businesses install lights in the back of their buildings, cleaning up vacant lots and asking community members to physically reclaim space that has been spoken for by criminals.

“When you look at someone in the eyes, they’re a person. When you look at them through tinted glass, they’re an institution,” said Christine Drennon, director of the urban studies program at Trinity University, licking barbecue sauce from her fingers. Mike Casiano, a 12-year cop who has spent most of his career patrolling the East Side, said he wants locals to see him as being on their side. “Too many community members, including kids, see police as the enemy and we’re not the enemy,” he said. “We’re here to make their communities safer.” The effort to make communities safer is now reaching beyond police to include the city’s Metropolitan Health District, which has started a violence prevention program called “Stand Up S.A.” “Our main focus is to stop the killings and stop the shootings,” Martin Henderson, 36, a program outreach supervisor who lives on the East Side, said at last week’s BBQ. “We hope these grants bring more progress so that the community can learn more and poverty can be broken,” Henderson said as the sun beat down on his face and the music of Jackie Wilson blared from an outdoor speaker. sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 19

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THU

International Artists-inResidence ART

Acting as guest curator for the summer installment of Artpace’s International Artists-in-Residence program, Istanbulbased Ian Alden Russell selected Gabriel Martinez (Houston), Wafaa Bilal (New York) and Fatma Bucak (London/Istanbul) — a group he felt would “form a sort of family.” With shared “points of connection in their negotiation of social and political issues,” the trio has spent the last two months creating projects that explore public space and interaction (Martinez), chromotherapy as it relates to war veterans (Bilal, pictured), and immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border (Bucak). Free, 6-9pm, Artpace, 445 N. Main Ave., (210) 2124900, artpace.org. — Bryan Rindfuss

20 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

THU

‘10 Whispers’ ART

Curated by Crystal Galvan, AnArte’s all-female exhibition “10 Whispers” features work in an array of media from such emerging talents as Amada Miller, Ali Wiesse and Anais Cantu. Inspired by the natural world, Wiesse creates layered graphite drawings “evocative of living organisms and [her] own body.” Rendered in gouache and watercolor on paper, Miller’s piece 17 Heads showcases her flair for whimsy and keen sense of style. As for Cantu, her fascination with abandoned structures comes to light via photographs of the ruins of Hot Wells Hotel & Spa and lesser-seen corners of Alcatraz Prison. Free, 6-8pm, AnArte Gallery, 7959 Broadway, (210) 826-5674, anartegallery09.com. — BR

FRI-SUN

17-19

Grease

THEATER

Grab your leather jacket and your felt poodle skirt because the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies are cruising into town. Following a group of high school seniors in 1959, Grease explores the complexities of summer lovin’ and hormone-riddled identity. Inspired by his time at Chicago’s William Howard Taft, Jim Jacobs developed the risqué musical with Warren Casey in 1971. In subsequent productions and the 1978 film, much of the play’s vulgarity was diluted; however, today those greasers still manage to tackle teen pregnancy, rebellion and gang violence with hip-shaking style. $12-$30, 8pm Fri-Sat, 3pm Sun, The Playhouse, 800 W. Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258, theplayhousesa.org. — Murphi Cook

SAT

Paper Trail ART

Paper Trail SA is an art fair and exhibition that will showcase contemporary works of art and design on paper. Featuring more than 30 artists and vendors, the event will also include live printmaking demonstrations. We are particularly excited to peep new works from Cruz Ortiz’s Snake Hawk Press, St. Sucia, Carlos Pozo, and Luna Mala Press. For a chance to mingle with artists, dig Friday’s mixer at Freight Gallery and Studios (8:30 p.m. at 1913 S. Flores St.). Remember, the more we support cuttingedge, communal art events like this, the more of them we will have. Free, 11am8pm, Brick at Blue Star Arts Complex, 108 Blue Star, (210) 884-8019, papertrailsa.com. — James Courtney

CALENDAR

SAT

Cartel Land FILM

With its lens trained on two vigilante groups fighting drug cartel violence on opposite sides of the U.SMexico border, Matthew Heineman’s daring documentary Cartel Land boasts all the suspense of a narrative film. Following leaders Dr. Jose Mireles (aka “El Doctor”), of Michoacán’s Autodefensa, and Tim “Nailer” Foley, of Arizona Border Recon, Cartel Land has been described as both “a classic western set in the 21st century” and “a crazy, violent trip into Mexico’s deadly drug war and America’s border paranoia.” The Guadalupe premieres the doc in advance of its official release next week. Free, 7pm, Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St., (210) 271-3151, guadalupeculturalarts.org. — BR

SAT

‘All School Exhibition’ ART

Southwest School of Art shows San Antonio what its hoards of creative types have been up to in its annual “All School Exhibition.” Featuring recent works from the likes of Chris Sauter, Margarite Guggolz and Gary Schott alongside a pool of juried students, studio artists, adjunct faculty and the talented teens of “Bee Nation,” the well-rounded group show sprawls across The Ursuline Hall Gallery and Russell Hill Rogers Galleries to encompass a staggering range of content, medium and talent. With a member’s preview on Friday, the show officially opens to the public with a reception on Saturday. Free, 2-4pm, Southwest School of Art, 300 Augusta St., (210) 224-1848, swschool.org. — MC

SAT

The Smashing Pumpkins & Marilyn Manson MUSIC

The Smashing Pumpkins are a hell of a lot better than Marilyn Manson. Which is why the pair of ’90s-repping, alt-rock icons’ “The End Times Tour” that swings through SA on Saturday seems somewhat preposterous. It’s like giving equal billing to a footnote and a multi-chapter section in a book. At any rate, Billy Corgan (pictured) and company, who released their surprisingly killer ninth album Monuments to an Elegy last year, are experiencing a renaissance of sorts and, we all just have to deal with the fact that they’ve brought along their sometime ally, sometime enemy for the ride. $37.50-$57.50, 7pm, Freeman Coliseum, 3201 E. Houston St., (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com. — JC

MON

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo MUSIC

The commodification of poprock in the ’80s owes plenty to the likes of Pat Benatar. Between her vocal range and rock-and-roll attitude, hits like “Heartbreaker” and “Love Is a Battlefield” have become synonymous with the era that brought us “Thriller” and “Like a Virgin.” While new wave was breaking ground, she was a catalyst in bringing a rock edge to pop music, combining distorted guitar riffs with synths and electronic drum beats. Three decades later, Benatar is still wowing audiences alongside husband, guitarist/songwriter Neil Giraldo. $35-$100, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Erik Casarez

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22 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE

SAT-TUE

18-21

“Miguel Covarrubias: Culture and Caricature”

Rightfully dubbed “Mexico’s Renaissance Man,” Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957) made a name for himself as a caricaturist, writer and commercial illustrator but also made significant contributions to the realms of theater, ethnography and archaeology. Born in Mexico City, Covarrubias moved to New York on a government grant in 1923, fell in with an elite crowd and emerged as go-to caricaturist for the likes of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Vogue. Published in 1925, his book, The Prince of Wales and Other Famous Americans put a witty spin on icons of the era (Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth and Calvin Coolidge among them) while his 1927 offering Negro Drawings celebrated the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. On their honeymoon in Indonesia, Covarrubias and his wife Rosa Rolanda became enraptured with Balinese culture and collaborated on the 1937 book The Island of Bali. Compiled from the collections of the San Antonio Museum of Art, Yale University and Austin’s Harry Ransom Center, “Miguel Covarrubias: Culture and Caricature” showcases 140 works, along with a selection of Mexican folk art collected by Covarrubias’ friend Nelson Rockefeller. $5-$10, 10am-5pm Sat-Sun, 10am-9pm Tue, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org. Through October 18. — Bryan Rindfuss

Art

MoMo Art Fest Launched by siblings Andrea

Mota and Moises Mota in 2011, the fifth annual Momo Art Fest brings together 10-plus bands (including FEA, Lonely Horse and Femina-X), DJs, vendors and visual artists, plus live performances by Zombie Bazaar Belly Dance, Le Strange Sideshow, La Petite Menagerie and many others. $12-$15, 6pm Saturday; Maverick Plaza, La Villita, 418 Villita, (210) 625-0294.

”Ofrenda: A Retrospective of Liliana Wilson’s Art” Inspired by the subconscious and “spiritual aspects of the universe,” Austin-based Chilean artist Liliana Wilson’s delicate paintings and drawings of children bring to mind storybook illustrations yet carry with them real-world themes of immigration, repression and injustice. Free, 10am-7pm Wednesday-Friday, 10am-7pm Monday-Tuesday; Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, 922 San Pedro Ave., (210) 228-0201.

”Recycled, Repurposed, Reborn: Collage and Assemblage” Developing since Marion Koogler McNay’s founding bequest of 1950, the McNay’s love for collage takes center stage this summer via “Recycled, Repurposed, Reborn.” Representing a collaboration between McNay curators William J. Chiego, René Paul Barilleaux, Jody Blake and Lyle Williams, the exhibition draws from all corners of the museum’s collection and showcases a broad range of artists, including Austin’s Lance Letscher, Atlanta-based Radcliffe Bailey and San Antonio’s own Kelly O’Connor. $5-$10, 10am-4pm Wednesday, 10am-9pm Thursday, 10am-4pm Friday,

10am-5pm Saturday, noon-5pm Sunday, 10am-4pm Tuesday; McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368.

Summer Shows at Blue Star Representing

works by 21 artists selected from an open call in 2014, Blue Star’s summer exhibitions explore the anti-heroes and understated places in our lives (“Everyday Is Ordinary”), technology and communication (“Transmissions”), time, history, memory and containment (“Of Reference, Of Departure, Of Origin”) and the boundaries between interiors and exteriors (“Stellar-Scape”). $3-$5, noon-8pm Thursday, noon-6pm Friday-Sunday, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, 116 Blue Star, (210) 227-6960.

Film

Foreign Correspondent An adaptation

of war correspondent Vincent Sheehan’s Personal History, Alfred Hitchcock’s Oscarnominated Foreign Correspondent stars Joel McCrea as a reporter sent to Europe to get the scoop on the imminent war. A full-throttle espionage thriller, the 1940 film features a wild chase through the streets of Amsterdam, head-spinning plot twists and an ocean plane crash climax. Texas Public Radio screens the classic as part of its Cinema Tuesdays series. $10$15, 7:30pm Tuesday; Santikos Bijou, 4522 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 614-8977

Jaws Main Plaza Conservancy and SATX

Pedal Power’s bike-centric Cycle-In Cinema series continues with Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller following a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman who set out to stop a gigantic great

FRI

Chingo Bling: No Mames Comedy Tour

Following rapper/ comic/entrepreneur Chingo Bling’s Twitter feed (the way, for example, President Barack Obama does), you get plenty of punchlines. A recent freestyle “Jewelry to a Raspa” talks about “rolling blunts as big as flautas,” and this year’s Masahouse 2 opens with a riff on hip-hop artist ILoveMakonnen titled “I Don’t Sell Tamales No More.” To find the jokes these days, however, you must pick them out of the flood of responses triggered by his “Open Letter to Donald Trump,” a passionate defense of immigrants that got enough social media heat to catch CNN’s eye, as honest, funny and plainspoken as you’d expect from an artist who called his only major-label release to date They Can’t Deport Us All. Currently touring as a stand-up (joined Friday by comics Mario “Superstar” Salazar, Jesus “Midnite” Castillo and Mark Riojas), the Houston native and Trinity University alum will still be doing what he does best — cracking jokes and not shutting up. $20-$30, 8pm & 10:30pm, Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St., guadalupeculturalarts.org. — Jeremy Martin

white shark menacing the small island community of Amity. Beer, wine and concessions will be available for purchase from Blue Star Ice House and El Oasis Café #2. Free, 8:45pm Thursday; Main Plaza, 115 N. Main Ave., (210) 225-9800.

¡Three Amigos! The third installment of

the Briscoe’s Comedic West film series revives John Landis’ 1986 comedy starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short as three unemployed silent film stars mistaken for heroes by the suffering people of a small Mexican village. The outdoor screening includes free popcorn, beer and food truck fare available for purchase. Free, 6:30pm Tuesday; Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W. Market St., (210) 299-4499.

Theater

27 Short Plays About Being Murdered in a Hotel by ABBA Promising “more music than a play without music and surprisingly less music than a musical about playing competitive backgammon in Mumbai,” William M. Razavi’s ambitious new oddity imagines Swedish pop quartet ABBA on an absurd world tour-turned crime spree. $10$14, 8pm Friday-Saturday, The Overtime Theater, 1203 Camden St., (210) 557-7562.

Avenue Q The felt-headed creatures of

Avenue Q may look like your friends from Sesame Street, but with fast-talking potty mouths and a propensity for loud sexual intercourse, these puppets are anything but kid-friendly. Following Princeton, a freshly minted adult, and a wily gang of monsters just trying to make it in the real world, the production features

three human characters (including an interpretation of Gary Coleman playing a building superintendent) alongside 11 puppets manipulated by wholly visible puppeteers. Jonathan Pennington directs at the Cameo. $20-$33, 8pm FridaySaturday, 4:30pm Sunday; Cameo Theatre, 1123 E Commerce St., (210) 212-5454.

Mary Poppins Following two raucous

children and the magical nanny that swoops in to save their family, Mary Poppins brings laughter, music and flight to the Woodlawn. With the theater’s largest ensemble to date, artistic director Greg Hinojosa enlists choreographer Eric Mota and special effects artists to create a spectacle that’s truly “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” $17$26, 7:30pm Friday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; Woodlawn Theatre, 1920 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 267-8388.

Water by the Spoonful Pennsylvania-born

playwright and composer Quiara Alegría Hudes made her first big splash in the theater world as librettist of the musical slice of life In the Heights. Hudes’ flair for interweaving narratives took a turn for the dramatic with her “Elliot Trilogy,” a cycle of plays surrounding an ex-Marine’s search for meaning following a tour of Iraq. Skipping straight to Hudes’ Pulitzer-winning second chapter, Water by the Spoonful, the Playhouse delves into a tangled web strung together by a fractured family and an online chat room for addicts. $12-$30, 8pm Friday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; San Pedro Playhouse, 800 W Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258.

sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 23

July

8:00 pm 10:30 pm

7:00 pm

Chingo Bling ¡No Mames! Comedy Tour

24 CURRENT • June July 15-21, 17-23,2015 2015••sacurrent.com sacurrent.com

from Executive Producer

Kathryn Bigelow

Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker

a film by

Matthew Heineman

Cartel Land

San Antonio Premiere

Guadalupe Theater 1301 Guadalupe St. San Antonio, TX 78207

210.271.3151 guadalupeculturalarts.org

CALENDAR

Words

“Nature on the Edge” Local poets Mobi

Warren, Jim LaVilla-Havelin, D. Ellis Phelps, Greg Harman, Marisol Cortez, Helen Ballew and Janice Campbell read from their work in conjunction with the Bihl Haus exhibit “Nature on the Edge: Mutation and Hybridity in 21st Century Art.” Free, 2pm Saturday; Bihl Haus Arts, 2803 Fredericksburg Rd., (210) 383-9723.

Comedy

Gilberto Gless Known for his spot-on

celebrity impressions and “one-man comedic musicals,” Mexico City-based entertainer Gilberto Gless has performed on Spanish-language mainstays such as Sabado Gigante, Despierta America and El Gordo y la Flaca. $19-$79, 7pm Sunday; The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333.

Special Events

6th Annual Four Seasons Indian Market Stop in for Native American

arts and crafts, jewelry, drumming, flute music, dancing, storytelling and appearances by local actor Jesse Borrego and the American Indians in Texas Dance Theater. Free, 10am-2 pm Saturday; Mission Espada Grounds, 10040 Espada Rd., (210) 227-4940.

Drum Corps International This touring

nonprofit serves as the drum and bugle corps for America and Canada. The corps is comprised of members 21 or younger that stun the crowd with musical stylings and colorful surprises. $34-$64, 2pm Saturday; Alamodome, 100 Montana St., (210) 207-3663.

“Neighborhood Handshake” Block Party Won’t you be our neighbor? In

celebration of its 41st birthday, URBAN15 will host “Neighborhood Handshake,” a block party with live music, performances from the Carnaval de San Anto, poetry readings, a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses, and food and drinks for purchase. Free, 2-9pm Saturday, URBAN-15, 2500 S. Presa St., (210) 736-1500.

Talks Plus

NALAC Community Event: Keynote Address by Luis Valdez The National

Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) closes out its 15th Annual Leadership Institute with a keynote address delivered by Luis Valdez, a pioneer of Chicano theater in the U.S. An iconic figure in the landscape of American and Latino art, Valdez is the founder and long-time artistic director of El Teatro Campesino, a catalyst of 20th-century theater which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. His work brings to life the complexity and struggle of farmworkers, the oppressed, our working and middle classes, the excluded and our urban youth. Free, 2-3pm Saturday; Aula Canaria Auditorium (Buena Vista Building), UTSA Downtown Campus, 501 W. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., (210) 432-3982.

Dance

Give Belly Dance a Chance 2015

Karavan Studio wraps up a weekend of recitals (8pm Friday-Saturday) with a Middle Eastern dance showcase (6pm Sunday) set to live music by the Byblos Band of Houston. $15, 8pm FridaySaturday, 6pm Sunday; Josephine Theater, 339 W. Josephine St., (210) 232-3035.

Jazzed on Tap Since its formation,

the Third Coast Rhythm Project has evolved from a single performance to a four-day celebration of tap dance and percussive arts. While the “buffet of internationally and nationally acclaimed rhythm masters” presents hoofers with workshops and classes, spectators need look no further than Jazzed on Tap. Now in its 18th season, the summer tap event features performances by the likes of Max Pollak, Martin “Tre” Dumas, Lisa La Touche, Barbara Phillips and the Mark Rubinstein Jazz Trio. $26, 8pm Saturday; Jo Long Theatre, 226 N. Hackberry St., (210) 207-2234

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ARTS

HOMECOMING QUEEN Celebrated Vocal Impressionist Jimmy James Returns To SA BRYAN RINDFUSS/@BRYANRINDFUSS

It’s safe to say Jimmy James boasts one of the more colorful careers ever launched in San Antonio. Born James Jude Johnson in Laredo in an undisclosed year (he’s “older than Britney but younger than Madonna”), he started impersonating Marilyn Monroe on a whim in the early 1980s and perfected the act flawlessly enough to land in an Atlantic City revue that led to talk show appearances (from Donahue to Geraldo), performances at highprofile events (for the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Rivers and Elton John) and national advertising campaigns (including L.A. Eyeworks and Kenar). Although possibly known better by younger audiences for his original club hit “Fashionista,” James is a wildly talented vocal impressionist who shifts effortlessly between such iconic voices as Cher, Elvis, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland and Eartha Kitt. We caught up with the Los Angeles-based entertainer in anticipation of “Hearing Is Believing,” a two-night homecoming engagement combining impressions, original songs and star-studded anecdotes within the unassuming confines of Marty’s Cocktails. What was your initial spark to start impersonating Marilyn Monroe? I was studying theatrical makeup at San Antonio College, and I was studying facial bone structures ... I was skimming through a book called Life Goes to the Movies and it struck me — a photograph of Marilyn Monroe, who I had always heard about but didn’t really know much about. The way her face was in this photograph reminded me of my face, and I know that sounds presumptuous, but again, I was a makeup artist so I knew about facial structure. And I was doing theater that never paid anything, and I knew that the drag queens in the clubs got paid money [so] I thought, “What if I could present this as an actor playing the part of Marilyn Monroe on stage in a club?” And that’s how it started. But it took about three years of hard work and research to figure out who and what she was. So once you got that act together, what did it consist of?

Jimmy James channeling Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis on a billboard in Times Square.

I would lip-sync a little bit ... I could do “Happy Birthday” live because I could sing that a cappella. And I would seek out instrumentals in thrift shops ... you know there was no karaoke back then and there was no way of paying someone to make the music. How did you get gigs and promote yourself in the early days? First of all, I had to change my name from Jimmy Johnson to Jimmy James, because I was terrified and mortified that my family would find out that I was embarking on this venture which, at the time, I didn’t even know where it would take me. And I just started doing Marilyn. One of my early gigs was for Balloon Expressions. For Father’s Day, they offered that “Marilyn Monroe” could deliver your balloons for you ... Nobody ever thought I was a guy, they just thought I was a woman. And where did it go from there? And then I started making a few appearances in the gay clubs secretly when they would have a drag contest; I would enter and usually win.

me into the stratosphere. At that time, there were only like three channels, so it was like getting on Oprah. It was a huge break for me. Have you ever had vocal training or are you completely self-taught? Self-taught. I tried to take vocal lessons but basically nobody is supposed to do what I do. It’s kind of unnatural — you’re not supposed to do that with your voice; you’re supposed to sing naturally and enhance your natural singing. I’m excited about how you’ll be incorporating stories into your San Antonio shows. Can you share one of the funnier ones? [I was] performing for Jane Seymour at a private party and her twin sons asked, “Mommy, is that a guy or a girl?” And Jane Seymour apologized for them. I wasn’t even painted up; I was just hanging out for a sound check in the afternoon.

And Elton John kissed you on the lips? That was amazing, because at the beginning of the show, a fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, he How did you wind up on so many talk shows? was not giving it up to me. He was not smiling; he was just By 1984, a job saved me from the dinky little clubs staring at me. And I was mortified — truthfully mortified — I was doing ... I got called to audition in Los Angeles that it was not going to go well. But before I did my Cher for La Cage and they sent me to Atlantic City for two voice, I told a story about watching him perform on the years to work at a hotel casino. That was a Cher TV show in the ’70s with Cher and Bette great step into going into show business ... Midler. Then I felt like he was OK with me Jimmy James: “Hearing And Atlantic City is a shithole ... I believe my because I knew about him and wasn’t just Is Believing” biggest break came in the summer of 1986 performing for him. Then he really let go and $15-$20 … where I could produce my own show, 9pm Fri-Sat, July 17-18 enjoyed the show. At the end of it, he kissed Marty’s Cocktails sing live and reap the financial benefits of me on the lips and hugged me in front of 603 Isom Rd. performing live. By 1987, I got the call to be everybody, which made everybody love me (210) 341-9259 on The Phil Donahue Show. That catapulted brownpapertickets.com because Elton John approved. sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 27

ARTS

OUT OF THE BOX

So when we say “studio” we’re really talking about built structures. BL: Yeah, it’s a design studio headed by Barbara Warren. We have great relationships with contractors, too. They love the energy that we can provide them. It really gives them kind of a friendly place to work with instead of a competitive place to work with. It’s all really about cultivating these relationships to make all these beautiful things happen. CW: I think Billy’s really good at realizing people’s strengths, and so he’ll often look at a project and say, we need to bring in this subcontractor who’s really good at x and that allows us to really create a friendly environment as opposed to a competitive one.

Innovative Collaboration Brings Art, Design Studio And Publishing Under One Roof BRYAN RINDFUSS/@BRYANRINDFUSS

Sure it’s an overused phrase, but “meeting of the minds” feels especially true when it comes to French & Michigan, a multidisciplinary endeavor that combines the complementary talents of Billy Lambert, Céleste Wackenhut and a solid crew of collaborators. After graduating from UTSA’s College of Architecture, Lambert taught at the school for eight years and “always had this desire to support architects and designers through a gallery.” Arriving in San Antonio fresh out of grad school in Scotland, Wackenhut landed a Semmes Foundation Internship and then a full-time job at the McNay (working between curatorial, marketing and publications) yet never saw herself moving “into the commercial gallery realm.” Initially an outgrowth of Lambert’s Southtown-based design studio, the ambitious duo’s collaborative venture French & Michigan didn’t adopt its name until they moved into a 1930s-era building in Beacon Hill at the corner of French Place and Michigan Avenue. During its 80-year history, the structure has functioned as everything from a chicken coop to an automotive shop while maintaining a fairly Kafka-esque relationship with city zoning. So when Lambert and Wackenhut (with the support of building owner Jeff Dersh) set plans in motion to have the building rezoned to accommodate office space, an art gallery and a small apartment, a wellpublicized saga ensued and dragged on from August of 2013 to November of 2014 (including a six-month hiatus). Now successfully rezoned as a residential building with a conditional use for an art gallery, French & Michigan Gallery is but one component of an operation “devoted to strengthening collaboration between art and design through the development of a visual and built environment.” In addition to the Beacon Hill gallery, French & Michigan now encompasses a design-build studio and workshop on South Presa and an online writing platform incubating the forthcoming print publication FAM. A Southtown residency program is also in the works. Wrapping one’s head around how all this fits and works together is no easy task. “A lot of people didn’t get why a design studio [is] collaborating with an art gallery as one business,” Wackenhut told the San Antonio Current last week. “The beauty here is that I can do all of the marketing for the gallery [and] the rest of the business and then what they give is their design expertise in terms of installing the art … It’s a nice little marriage. There’s a lot of intertwining that was surprising that I don’t think everybody expected.” In an effort to better understand the various pieces of the ever-evolving French & Michigan puzzle, we caught up with Lambert and Wackenhut at their Beacon Hill gallery. 28 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

The Writing Platform

Lambert and Wackenhut in front of French & Michigan Gallery.

The Gallery How many artists do you represent right now? CW: So we currently represent 11 and then we have two who we call inventoried artists ... So when we say we represent an artist ... we really try our best to have them communicate with us ... If it is that they’re working on a major project and they need funding then let’s try to find that grant ... Same with residencies, fellowships. And your goal is to do four exhibitions a year? CW: We kind of work with the seasons ... so in the fall and in the spring I always try to do a solo exhibition of one of our represented artists and we do a catalog ... What we hope to do is every winter [have] a larger community exhibition where we can invite 30 to 50 artists. What we’ve been able to do with that is that I get to know artists that are outside of our representation and that might turn into representation a year later.

The Studio So does the studio work with architects? BL: None of us are licensed architects, so for projects that require that, we [work] with architects. So a lot of times we’ll provide the back end for an architect. In a lot of ways, we’re trying to do the same thing that we’ve been trying to do for artists, we’re trying to do that for architects.

When did you launch the writing platform? CW: So FAM we launched almost at the same time as the F&M Workshop in January of this year. The concept is something that Billy’s been thinking about for a long time. BL: Writing has always been extremely difficult for me. So I’ve always been amazed at people who can write, tell stories, narratives, and I’ve always been drawn to them. For writers, it’s always been a struggle to get work that pays ... We kind of felt that if we were going to be doing this sort of multidisciplinary work there has to be a contribution to the writers ... Without a strong community of writers, you cannot have a strong cultural community to help document it [and] bring insight to it. So does that mean you pay your contributors? CW: We pay our contributors a flat fee [of $250]. Is just one writer featured in each issue? Several writers are published online for each issue. Then we put a beautiful magazine together ... a print edition of all of those pieces ... For this first issue of “Residuals,” which is the theme, we want the writers to have as much leeway as possible. I even have talked to writers about ... that thing that you’ve worked on that you love but you can’t publish in a typical journal. We’re interested in that because those are labors of love, those are the stories that writers have put their heart into. BL: It’s a way to explore ideas through a new medium which I technically can’t do.

The Workshop What happens in French & Michigan Workshop? BL: Designers and architects tend to be removed from the direct process of making things ... We felt we couldn’t have a design studio without interconnecting it with a place to make the stuff ... We also knew that we wanted to incorporate certain things into our designs that were too expensive to commission people to do but that we could do if we involved them in the design process. What are some of those things? BL: Our workshop manager Joseph Duarte oversees the making of furniture pieces, concrete pieces, cabinetry

ARTS

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SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS the children’s shelter presents JULY 21 AND 22 JUNE 9 - AUG 19

TUESDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS at 10 AM At Palladium IMAX | Silverado | Embassy Rialto | Mayan Palace | Northwest

JULY 28 AND 29

SEE FULL LIST AT SANTIKOS.COM

[T]extured Series by Andrew Wit available at French & Michigan Gallery.

8PM ... So what the workshop allowed us to do was bring in an entire different body of people who design through making ... When we have a design meeting we have people sketching out ideas, and there’s someone literally like bending metal and welding at the conference table, and it changes the way you look at everything. Are most of the things you’re making commissions or do you create things to sell? BL: I went through two different downturns in the economy ... People stop architecture projects instantly ... and so one thing we really wanted to do was make lines of home goods that you can produce using the principles of the economy of scale mass production. So you don’t build one bench, you build 20. Then when you have a slow day, you have something to do. You build up the inventory and you learn how to make something rapidly. So the workshop shares space with the studio? BL: Yeah, it’s divided by six millimeters of plastic. CW: There’s a lot of back and forth between the two and … they are steps away. It’s like a research laboratory almost. We call it a test kitchen sometimes.

The Residency Program What’s the idea behind the French & Michigan Residency?

BL: Where the residency is now, that’s my old house (in Mike Casey’s compound with Sala Diaz) ... A lot of artists came through, there’s a lot of backyard chats, and there was a certain experience I got from that ... Everything I learned was a balance between going to school at UTSA and living at the compound. It’s a sort of experience that Mike Casey provided for me and a lot of other people. I really want to work hard to make sure that that experience continues on for graduate students at UTSA.

JULY 19 AT NOON AND 22 AT 7 PM At Bijou

BR: So there would be three residents at a time? BL: Three at a time and they stay there their entire graduate school. Is it active yet? CW: We’re in the application process. BL: We have one student committed that they’re going to do it. And hopefully we’ll have three by the fall. Would they create something while they’re there? CW: It’s their graduate school studies ... It’s an opportunity for these graduate students to be exposed to an active, urban, creative community ... It’s an opportunity to look at urban planning and urban living in a way that’s not a cookie-cutter apartment. It’s an old house. What does it mean to live in an old house and share this enormous backyard with the community? It’ll be less that they’re producing something and more that they’ll be contributing something to this community. brindfuss@sacurrent.com

JULY 19 AND 20 AT NOON AND 7 PM At Palladium | Silverado | Rialto | Embassy

NEW FILMS AT THE BIJOU IAN MCKELLEN

LAURA LINNEY

Mr Holmes An aged, retired Sherlock Holmes looks back on his life, and grapples with an unsolved case involving a beautiful woman.

ALICIA VIKANDER

KIT HARINGTON

TESTAMENT of YOUTH A British woman recalls coming of age during World War I - a story of young love, the futility of war, and how to make sense of the darkest times.

US /SANTIKOSFAN | FOLLOW US /SANTIKOSTHEATRE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE BY TAGGING #MYSANTIKOS sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 29

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Expires: 7/31/15 With select new Gold’s Gym memberships. Must be at least 18 years old and a local resident with valid ID. No Contract offer refers to no annual commitment required, however, agreement and waiver of liability must be signed for membership to be activated. FREE Enrollment offer requires annual contract. Other restrictions may apply for No Contract or Free Enrollment offers. Personal training assessment is for (1) one hour session with a Gold’s Gym certified personal trainer for new members only. The Free 12-week Transformation plan is only available at goldsgym.com/12-week-transformation. Participating Gold’s Gyms only. Not valid at Medical Center location. Offer expires 7/31/2015. ©2015 Gold’s Holding Corp.

sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 3

SCREENS

HEARTLESS SLOG Vera Brittain’s Memoirs Through A Musty Lens In Testament Of Youth DANIEL BARNES

What makes you hate a movie? In the 1990 début issue of Entertainment Weekly, the magazine’s editor thoroughly outlined an A-to-F grading scale, explaining that an F is reserved for “something utterly without redemption” and that the minus in a Dwas meant to “penalize entertainment for excessive violence or sexism.” In other words, you don’t hate a film just because it’s bad; forgettable bad films happen all the time. You hate a film because it disturbs something deep inside, because it violates personal values or because it fails to entertain on any level. A film needs to do more than merely suck to make me hate it. Jupiter Ascending may not work as storytelling, but I can’t totally dismiss something that awe-inspiring and weird. And while the solipsism of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl rubbed me the wrong way, even at its worst the film is too exuberantly creative to fully loathe. Entourage, on the other hand, becomes hateful not just because of the rampant misogyny (note to bros: female celebrities do not think it’s adorable when you stalk them), but because it’s lazy and safe and contemptuous of the act of moviemaking. It doesn’t even try. On the surface, Testament of Youth wouldn’t seem to qualify as a candidate for hate-hood. The film seemingly has a lot to like — it’s based on Vera Brittain’s WWI-era memoirs and stars Ex Machina cyborg Alicia Vikander. But it made me recall a scene in Hands on a Hard Body, a great and wildly little-known 1997 documentary about an endurance contest, where one of the contestants claims he doesn’t mind pain, but that he’s terrified of numbness, because

30 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

Alicia Vikander (as Vera Brittain) and Kit Harrington (as Roland Leighton) in a scene from Testament of Youth.

numbness means death. Sufficed to say that Testament of Youth left me as numb as any film I’ve seen this decade. It’s an embalmed and humorless slog, an interior design spread masquerading as biography, nothing but a decorative pose of noble suffering. I’m tempted to compare the act of watching Testament of Youth to trudging through a wax museum of war movie clichés, but that makes it seem as though the film might be mildly entertaining. It’s more akin to becoming a wax figure for 129 of the most interminable minutes of your movie-going life. My experience watching Testament of Youth was exactly how it must have felt like for Han Solo inside of the carbon freeze — a cold, numb, endless waking death. Vikander’s Vera Brittain is a headstrong aspiring writer whose world becomes upended when WWI starts calling away the men in her life, including a poet named Roland (Kit Harington) who

eventually becomes her fiancée. When those sweet, early promises of a swift war prove incredibly stupid, Vera drops her studies to become a nurse on the front lines, at one point tending to a group of German prisoners. BBC veteran James Kent makes his feature début here, spending a lot of his time mooning over flower arrangements and teacups and curtain patterns instead of his talented young actors. Naturally, the hell of war in Testament of Youth boils down to smudgy faces and the obligatory Gone with the Wind-style crane shot over rows of wounded soldiers. While indulging in a lot of gauzy and mummified fussiness, Kent strands his actors with one of the mustiest and daintiest scripts in recent memory. One of my unofficial criteria for a lousy movie is that the protagonist should offer a “here’s-what-I’ve-learned” speech at the end, a Brady Bunch-style moral wrap-up that lets the audience

know exactly how they should think and feel, just in case they weren’t paying attention (great movies don’t need to tell you what to feel — they just make you feel it). Vera’s big here’s-what-I-learned speech: “No war.” No more. Testament of Youth held an 82 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes and a 77 rating on MetaCritic last week. It’s utterly baffling to me that anyone could find an ounce of entertainment in this cinematic lace doily, but even critics who don’t like the film seem to be pulling their punches. Perhaps they believe that it has its heart in the right place, but they’re wrong — Testament of Youth has its heart firmly up its ass.

Testament of Youth (PG-13) 129 min. Dir. James Kent; writ. Juliette Towhidi (based on a memoir by Vera Brittain); feat. Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Taron Egerton, Colin Morgan, Dominic West, Emily Watson Opens July 17 at Santikos Bijou

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THE CLIMACTIC CASE Mr. Holmes Imagines Sherlock’s Final Mystery CAMERON MEIER

Few fictional characters have captivated us as much as Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps that helps explain the instant affection one feels for director Bill Condon’s Mr. Holmes, a touching, dramatic imagining of the final, feeble days of the super sleuth. It’s 1947 and the 93-year-old Holmes — played to perfection by Ian McKellen — lives in southern England, retired for 30 years. Watson is either estranged or dead and Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, has just passed away. The great detective is all alone, save for his housekeeper and her young son. As if the isolation and physical decay weren’t enough for this once grand man, he’s suffering a loss that, for the average man, would be a tragedy but for him is the worst of indignations: He’s losing his memory. In this reimagined post-war England, John Watson created the Holmes we know from the stories. He based these “penny dreadfuls with an elevated prose style” on real-life cases, but he embellished them, providing added theatricality. Holmes was initially fine with that, but as he grows more and more frail, he longs to put down on paper the true story of his final case, the one that prompted him to retire. Yet, tragically, he can’t remember it. Mr. Holmes is a moving and delightful look at a character we mistakenly thought we already knew. Through the use of flashbacks and a stellar portrayal by McKellen — look for an

Oscar nomination — we discover a more human Holmes, one full of both pride and regret, one struggling to balance his longing for logic with the realization that happiness may actually lie in an illogical sense of compassion. Laura Linney, as the housekeeper, has to do some heavy lifting. Almost always up to that task in prior films, she’s an odd choice for this one, partially because she can never quite perfect the Sussex sound. Much is also asked of young Milo Parker, who plays the housekeeper’s son and while he, like Linney, has some moments of real emotion, he too slips in and out of dialect. Nevertheless, it’s fascinating to watch the relationship among the three characters slowly evolve. That process ultimately reveals new insights into Holmes’ personality, crime-solving skills and — most intriguingly — his past, which is kept shrouded from both his view and ours until the final act, in keeping with the best of the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories. “One shouldn’t leave this life without a sense of completion,” says Holmes. Thanks to this film, the character of Sherlock Holmes does indeed feel just a tad more complete.

Mr. Holmes (PG) 104 min. Dir. Bill Condon; writ. Jeffrey Hatcher (based on a novel by Mitch Cullin and characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle); feat. Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada Opens July 17 at Santikos Bijou and Embassy

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Details and reservations at TPR.ORG sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 31

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3938 S Zarzamora St SA,TX | 210.932.2500 | Alamopizza.net 32 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

FOOD

JOSEPH HERNANDEZ

ONE STOP SHOP Get Your Fill Of Veggies At Alchemy Kombucha And Culture JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS

Back in April, as San Anto geared up for a rowdy Fiesta, the last pieces of a very big puzzle known as Alchemy Kombucha And Culture were falling into place. Several months in, the spot is hitting a strong stride. Opened by business partners Kevin Rayhons and Tim Trofimenkov, the space burst into the local food scene at breakneck speed. First time restaurateurs, Rayhons and Trofimenkov enlisted the help of Brandon McKelvey of Say.She.Ate food truck and Mark “Wildcat” Garcia (who has hopped around kitchens, including The Monterey and now-closed Beat Street Coffee Co.) along with spirit knowledge via Javier Gutierrez and Joseph Hernandez (and the rest of their team at Milan & Turin group). Other pieces of the puzzle include pastry maven Kat Sees, formerly of Folc and Hot Joy. All of these elements (Element also happens to the be name of the kombucha being brewed in-house, available in light green tea, sweet milk oolong, smoky black and jasmine-hibiscus) come together to create this harmonious space. I would hesitate to pigeonhole Alchemy as either a restaurant, bar or combination of both, as it has also served as a party venue and yoga studio (Mobile Om has used it for several sweaty sessions). In essence, the “Culture” part of the moniker extends far beyond that of the “symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast” or scoby used to make kombucha, or fermented tea dating back to ancient times. When it comes to menu options, think lean and well balanced. Vegetarian and vegan pals don’t have to stick with salads; instead, they can choose from five dishes that currently cater to their needs. The entire menu is made up of 11 dishes as of now, and I really hope the restaurant stays within these boundaries for several reasons — they’re already covered when it comes to veggies, meats, cuisines and sweets — but more options of this same exact caliber do seem enticing. My first quasi-official visit was late night where the kitchen served up three items. If you’re looking for a

Alchemy’s crudité plate changes weekly, but retains its vibrant colors.

Chili’s-worth of choices, you’re definitely not going to have a good time, but the noodles might persuade you to stay. The house ramen, a “tonkotsu approximation” with pork, gooey soft egg, nori (dry seaweed), black fungus (it’s a mushroom, people), black garlic oil and chili oil, though it’s accidentally misspelled as “ryu, myu” on the ingredient list. Fine by me, as I’d like to pretend Street Fighter had something to do with this funky, filling, flavorful bowl. Also on the menu that evening was the summer curry, a dish served from day one during the joint’s Fiesta début. Usually one to pass on curry, I wasn’t sold on the bowl’s vegan label. I was so, so wrong. Loaded with smoked mushrooms, fresh, chubby little peas, potato, shredded cabbage and a smattering of herbs, the curry held its own and made me reconsider the house-made sausage I had ordered. A lunchtime visit this past week meant another pleasing turn at the curry. Though the lunch menu doesn’t vary wildly enough from its dinner counterpart, it’s worth noting that dishes are heavy on the veg in the best of ways. I tried a torta on

special, usually al estilo Michoacán with red mole, sour cream, pickled red onion and cilantro, but this one was filled with house-made sausage on a toasty bolillo from the neighboring La Michoacana Meat Market. The sando is just as messy as the Traphouse burger, but when chef yells at you from the kitchen to just “take a damn bite,” well, you do. Half is more than enough for lunch, though I would have loved a side of the crudité. Dinner should be communal at Alchemy. Pick over the kaleidoscope crudité that pairs soft and chewy with crunchy textures of fresh radishes, beets, roasted cauliflower and a green onion hummus that could have been thickened a bit. Dining with a vegetarian and an omnivore, I shared bites of my Loncito’s pork shank with market veggies, one brighter than the next, atop a velvety sweet potato puree. Cocktail happy hour meant $5 libations and the Cisco’s G&T, a botanical explosion that paired well with my meal. Though not quite yet perfect, I’m ready to try more of this elixir — be it kombucha, savory jus or a fizzy cocktail.

Alchemy 1123 N. Flores St. (210) 320-1168, alchemysanantonio.com Skinny The former Far East Café gets a bohemian takeover. Find local fare done right, a solid introduction to kombucha, zippy cocktails and more. Best Bets Summer curry, ramen, Loncito’s pork shank, cheddar burger Hours 11am-2pm and 4pm-midnight Mon, Wed, Thu; 11am-2pm and 4pm-2am Fri-Sat Price $5-$22

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sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 33

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FOOD

DIVE RIGHT IN At Ro-Ho Pork & Bread, Creative Eats Abound RON BECHTOL RON BECHTOL

“This is the only trick: always use the same hand to eat the torta and don’t clean it [between bites]; that way you’ll have one clean hand for your beverage,” the chef warned. In other words, get ready to get messy. Mexico native Jorge Rojo is a graduate of the St. Philips Culinary Arts program. Along with his wife and other relatives, Rojo owns and runs Ro-Ho Pork & Bread, a quasi-independent operation housed within the Sanitary Tortilla facility on the near West Side. Recognizing me as a torta first-timer, Rojo felt obligated to delve into a little cultural history of the torta ahogada, his primary Ro-Ho’s signature torta ahogada. product. In Guadalajara, where it’s an institution, the sandwich starts with the birote salado, this limited palette, he has conjured up a sturdy, crusty roll that’s split, then several variations on a porky theme. stuffed with carnitas, dunked into a There’s a taco dorado, for example, chile de arbol sauce, then “drowned” that takes a folded and fried corn with a generous ladle of a mild but tortilla and tops it with carnitas and deftly seasoned tomato sauce. sauce. Another option offers shredded Rojo has made some adjustments cabbage for crunch, with the layered for an audience that doesn’t assume soft taco akin to tacos sudados the torta ($7) as a birthright. The chile (sweated) sold from cloth-draped sauce, for example, is not automatic — baskets on Mexican street corners. the diner can, and should, add it from Texturally between the extremes are squeeze bottles on the counters that the Chila-Killers, corn chips topped ring much of the friendly, light-filled with tomato sauce (carnitas are an space. If the idea of drowning doesn’t add-on option), showered with freshly sound appealing to you, you could ask grated parmesan and served with Rojo to cut the sandwich in half across a wedge of lime. “We put lime on its equator and stand the halves upright everything,” mused Rojo — good idea in the salsa puddle, like a couple of that you do the same. An agua fresca aggressive islands. is also counseled. But I don’t recommend going that Roho’s creativity isn’t limited to route. There’s something about getting la cocina, however. He built out the down with a dish that Rojo says “starts space himself, painted the threeout like a sandwich but finishes almost pigs mural on one wall and created a like a soup.” sophisticated folk-art-like piece that Rojo makes the impressive hangs on another. Repeat birotes, the carnitas and visits may be required to see Ro-Ho Pork & Bread the salsas; on weekends, how all this evolves over time. 623 Urban Loop barbacoa from Sanitary also Like the torta, it might start (210) 800-3487 makes an appearance as an as one thing but end up as ro-hoporkandbread.com 11am-4pm Tues-Sun optional stuffing. But with something else altogether.

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FOOD

FLAVOR FILE

Crowning A Boozy Ice Cream Champ At Dorćol Distilling, A Gonzo Party For The Library And More JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS

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There are plenty of chances to get a few drinks this weekend, under the guise of research and helping your local San Antonio Library Foundation. First off, the guys at Dorcol Distilling Company (1902 S. Flores St.) are opening their doors on Saturday, July 18 from 8-10:30 p.m., and hosting the first ever Borracho Helado: Summer Ice Cream and Cocktail Social with local restaurants and ice cream shops competing to see who makes the best adult treat using the distillery’s award-winning Kinsman Rakia. A panel of judges (I’ll be at my most judge-y for the occasion) will choose the Helado Borracho winner, while guests can vote for their fave from the participants including Lüke San Antonio, The House Boozy Ice Cream & Brews, Brindles Awesome Ice Creams, Cocina Heritage and A La Mode Gelato. Tickets, $10, include admission, samples and access to the distillery.

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Book nerds that love to party can check out the First Edition Society’s Hunter S. Thompson’s Gonzo Tiki Birthday Party on Saturday, July 18 at 8 p.m. inside The Warehouse (1119 S. St. Mary’s St.). The event, which serves as a fundraiser for the San Antonio Public Library Foundation will include tiki drinks via Milan & Turin, a pig roast by Mark “Wildcat” Garcia of Alchemy, bites by The Bees Knees Catering Co., music by DJ Dynamic Jagger and books for sale from The Twig Book Shop. Pre-sale tickets, $40, are available at saplf.org/events in advance and $50 at the door.

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On the city’s Southside, Hurricane Grill & Wings (2611 SE Military Drive, #108, 210-333-4329) will celebrate its third birthday with a seaside bash on Thursday, July 16 with happy hour from 2:30-10:30 p.m., including $2.99 house liquors, tall drafts and bottles, $3.99 Cruzan, Smirnoff and Sauza liquors, import tall drafts and bottles and 20-ounce frozen margaritas. Specialty cocktails will be $4.99 and appetizers (except for the Perfect Storm) are $5.99. In fun beer news, friends and beer fans Catherine Contreras and local comedienne Brandi Dunagan will kick off a monthly live taping of She’s Crafty Podcast starting July 26 at 6 p.m. inside The Hoppy Monk (1010 N. Loop 1604 E., 210-545-3330). The podcast features the women chatting about craft brew news as beer fans, not beer snobs. The podcast will be recorded live every last Sunday of the month with celebrity guests and beer experts. flavor@sacurrent.com

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The Most Appreciated lunch from the land of the tequila + the mariachi sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 37

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FRIENDLY GROWLERS AVAILABLE | FRIENDLY EATS TILL MIDNIGHT 38 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

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NIGHTLIFE

SARA LUNA ELLIS

PLAYOFF READY At Tony’s, The Vibes Are Chill And The Beers Are Cold AMANDA BIANCHI

As any puro San Anto resident can attest, it’s a fantastic time to be a Spurs fan right about now. So, whether reveling in Manu’s continued legacy or already daydreaming of LaMarcus Aldridge driving down the paint, now’s the perfect time to think of great-but-less known spots to watch the Spurs next season. In an attempt to convince downtown and midtown dwellers that there are better spots than ubiquitous sports barssports bars, I nominate Tony’s as the número uno choice to watch Danny Green nail some three-pointers. Owned and operated since 1999 by Tony Lopez along with his son and located next to the gas station on the corner of Brooklyn and North Alamo, Tony’s is all about hospitality. I was greeted warmly with a koozie and a joke about my caller ID name (I had called earlier to get the hours of operation, and I forgot I changed my caller ID to my nickname, “Yonky”). I have made bigger mistakes after slamming a few daiquiris. I was then asked if I was avoiding traffic, and I wondered if it was a not-toosubtle hint that I seemed out of place or because many people actually wander in to avoid traffic. After a couple laughs, I took the time to order a Bohemia and take in the calm atmosphere. I had only been in before to watch our Spurs, so I was used to the rowdy hustle and bustle of some of the most tried-and-true fans with whom I’ve partied. The vibes are mega chill. Red rope lights are the main source of lighting, along with a couple others of the string variety and some neon beer signs. A man in a cowboy hat played a slot machine video game in the corner the entire time I was there, while another gentleman (also in a cowboy hat, because Tony’s is

Off-season silence makes way for Spurs viewing come game time.

technically a country bar) and I watched Entertainment Tonight on the big screen. If found it peculiar to see a white door leaning against the wall next to me with a hand-written sign reading: “for sale $40.” Actually, all of the signage is handwritten. This is my kind of place to unwind. Just some blue-collar dudes hanging out after work, maybe or maybe not in the market to buy a door. It felt like I was chillin’ at my uncle’s house. It was all very comfortable and welcoming which, as a female, is not always the feeling I get when going solo to a new bar. That being said, I have seen Tony’s at its complete opposite on Spurs game days — packed, packed, packed in the best of ways. Picture whistles blowing, towels swirling in the air, with free tacos

and snacks typically available as a “thank fast. The maximum occupancy sign above you” from Tony. There are bar snacks being the bar confirms the joint can hold up to 62 knocked on to the floor and beers are people. You can call ahead and reserve a raised in either victory or disappointment. table but good luck, as regulars are quick Speaking of brews, prices go $2.25 to claim first dibs. If you get there early for domestics and $3 for Mexican beers. enough and get settled with your frosty With $15 per drink being the average beers in time for the opening tip, you’ll have these days, this is a breath of fresh air. a blast — guaranteed. Also worth mentioning, Tony’s is cash only The air is electric with people from all and there’s no hard liquor to be had there over our great city, and I’ve had nothing — just beer and wine (à la Bar America but friendly and fun experiences at back when it was cool). Don’t worry, there Tony’s. If you are down to clown for a is plenty of Smirnoff, so you can still “ice” special occasion (post-bris, perhaps?), the shit out of all your frenemies. private parties are accommodated for If you head to Tony’s for a game $150. If you prefer the chill, offthis upcoming season — as you duty vibes, just head down and Tony’s Bar should — get there early, especially play some pool and fiddle around 206 Brooklyn Ave. if you are coming with a group. The with the jukebox. Either way, you’re (210) 227-4551 place is pretty intimate and it fills up gonna dig Tony’s. 4pm-2am daily sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 39

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NIGHTLIFE

HAPPY HOUR HOUND

MELANIE ROBINSON

Taco Garage

MELANIE ROBINSON

There are more specialty Tart” and cucumber margaritas — that’s margaritas available at Lee’s right people, there are margaritas El Taco Garage than anybody available in mini sizes. cared to count or write down, so Taco Garage’s signature V-6 is half choosing one can be a bit of a fiasco. a dozen unique flavor combos that can I’m not a fan of ordering after a longinclude chamoy, pineapple, mango, winded spiel from my waiter about more Texas sunrise and more. The V-12 is variety than I can possibly remember, also an option for bigger groups or but the margaritas are $4 or $7 for a those looking for a challenge. large if you’re thirsty, so there isn’t really The Shock Tart was straight up room complain. like drinking blue candy and the Happy hour is 4-7 p.m. Monday cucumber was pleasantly refreshing. through Friday, meaning I had just The pomegranate stole the show by far, enough time to get over there after though. A bit sweet, a bit tart, she’s a work and get way too intoxicated for an drink after my own heart. early Monday evening and still leave by The most disappointing news, 6:30 p.m. Taco Garage also serves up though, is that appetizers weren’t $2.50 pints of beer during happy hour, available during happy hour. if brews are more your thing. Considering I like some food with I started off with a basic strawberry my booze, I ordered the nachos and margarita — swirled, big for a “small” chicken flautas anyway ($9.50 and $7, and not too sweet. From there, I moved respectively). The portions were huge, on up to a Jacked Up Melon. Made with food came quick and the cilantro lime Jack Daniel’s, watermelon pucker and salsa paired with the flautas was on a splash of Coke, this drink was served point. Note to management: If you add in a margarita glass with sugar on the happy hour appetizers, they (meaning rim and an unassuming air. A few gulps the fiscal opportunist crowd) will come. later, I was feeling the whiskey in my The atmosphere can best be knees and cursing the uneven pavement described as super chill, a Tex-Mex/ leading to my car. country saloon with plenty of To add alcohol to the already regulars and outdoor seating, Taco Garage addlebrained, the bartender which I recommend, albeit in the 8403 Broadway St. then brought over flight versions (210) 826-4405 middle of the summer day may tacogarage.com of the pomegranate “Shock be a bit too much.

1-877-987-6487 OR THEKOROVA.COM sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 41

Happy Hours Happy Hour of the Week

Downtown Central 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”

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Happy Hour M-F 4pm-7pm $1 off Draft Beer Select cocktails on Special

Serna’s Backyard Sports Bar

SernasBackyard.com • HH Daily 2-8pm (12pm Sundays): $2 Domestic Longnecks $2.50 Well Drinks, $3 Smirnoff Vodkas (13+ Flavors)

Luna Rosa

2603 S. E Military HH:; 3-7pm $5 Tapaas, $4 sangria, $3 Guavarita

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

Club Sirius

DrinkSirius.com • @ClubSirius HH Daily Noon-8pm: $2 Wells, $2 Domestic 16oz Cans/Pints, $3 Jager

Sancho’s Cantina & Cocina 4- 7pm Every Day Frozen Margs:$2.25, Well Drinks: $3.25 Select Cans: $2.50 Monday through Wednesday: Reverse Happy Hour 9-11pm 628 Jackson St, San Antonio, TX 78212 (210) 320-1840

North Central Slackers

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Smoke

700 E Sonterra | 210.474.0175 SmoketheRestaurant.com Smoke Break- 4:20pm- 6:30pm Post Shift- 9:20pm- 11:30pm 7 Days a Week! $2 OFF ALL APPETIZERS, WINES, BEERS, & COCKTAILS. Ask your server about our Don Draper special cocktail today!

42 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

On The Rocks Pub

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

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$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

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

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!

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

Northeast Charlie Brown’s Neighborhood Beer Goggles HH 2p-8p: 2 tecate & heineken Bar & Grill 3.25 domestics bottle/draft 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

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

3.25 shiner&dos xx, $3 wells Plus Daily Specials

Da Bunker

Daily Happy Hour Specials: Mon. $2 PBR, $2.50 Cuervo Tues. $2 Domestic Longnecks Wed. 2.50 Wells, $2 Fireballs Thurs. All Day Happy Hour! Fri. $3 XX, $3.50 Jack Daniels Sat. $1 Jello Shots Sun. All Day Happy Hour!

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MUSIC

WIKIMEDIA

HOWLIN’ KILLER WOLF The Mashup Brilliance Of Horror Punk Glenn Danzig D.T. BUFFKIN

“Bad artists imitate, great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso Banksy Surveying Glenn Danzig’s career with this axiom in mind, one could draw the conclusion that he’s one of our finest thieves. From the reappropriation of classic comic and B-horror iconography to the witches’ brew of metal-punk-blues-doo wop-industrial that have at one time or another coursed through the veins of his music, Danzig does what the best artists have always done: take one element (doo-wop, rock ‘n’ roll, the blues, etc.) and inseminate it with your own culture and attitude (punk rock, heavy metal, rape fetishization, gore as poetry, comics, etc.). Perhaps a testament to the brilliance and nuanced syncretism of Danzig’s catalog is the shadow of cheese, hoke, or corniness that is often used to disregard his offerings. However, if you’ve ever felt the way that the Misfits, Samhain or Danzig can make you feel when belting out, “I got something to say! I raped your mother today and it doesn’t matter much to me, as long as she ssspreeeaaad!” you realize that it is the assumed camp of a Kenneth Anger, a John Waters and a Glenn Danzig that in fact, titillate and embellish the sincerity of their work. If you can get past the cheese, you realize that, on the other side, the cheese, corn and camp make his work all the more sincere — and better. Later this summer, Danzig has a new record of covers coming out, entitled Skeletons, and he’ll be on the road with Pennywise and Cancer Bats. This is some of the shit we talked about:

listen to where everything came from. Some people don’t care, and that’s cool, I got nothing against that, but a lot of people wanna know where everything came from. Do you get a lot of say in who you take on tour with you or is there some business major behind the scenes calling the shots? Yes. I decide. At the end of the day, I’m the one that decides. Actually, we’re doing this thing on this tour where we’re letting a local open up on the bill. It’s something I always try to do. I just remember no one would take any of my bands out, so I just remember all of that, getting a break. It’s kinda nice to give somebody a chance to play in front of people. Especially an audience of your peers, y’know? Are there bands that did that for you coming up? No. Nobody would take The Misfits out, nobody would take Samhain out, even early Danzig, nobody would take Danzig out, that’s why we had to do all that on our own. We weren’t a traditional metal act. It was like dark, metal, punk … whatever it was. Our audience was pretty crazy. A lot of the traditional acts that would be touring at the time were scared of our audience. And they told us, ‘We’re scared of your audience. We don’t want any trouble,’ but I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t change a thing about our fans, they’re fucking awesome.

Glenn Danzig at Wacken Open Air in 2013.

What are some of the tunes or artists that you’re covering on Skeletons?

Do you find it interesting as a scholar/critic of mythology/theology that Danzig, the artist, has become somewhat of a mythic figure?

then here comes WWII, y’know? ‘Never Again’ can genocide happen over in Europe and you’re seeing it again in the Middle East, over stupid shit, y’know what I mean? Pretty much just take that and say it’s easy to fool people and people are full of shit.

There is everything from Elvis to Black Sabbath, there’s some Nuggets tracks, there’s two old biker movie theme songs that I re-did. There’s a lot of different stuff. I mean, people will be surprised; it’s kinda all over the place. I’m hoping people still

[Danzig chuckle] The world is pretty easy to figure out sometimes. Usually, history repeats itself and you see it repeating itself over and over again. Without getting political, y’know, everyone said, ‘Never Again’ after World War I and

Are there any works you’ve completed that you knew could stand up next to their inspiration, like, when you’re done you’re just like, ‘Dude, this song

is so badass! It’s like up there with ‘Sweet Leaf’?’

Well, of course there are songs that are better than other ones. But then again, you talk to someone and they say Danzig IV is their favorite record, then you talk to Danzig feat. Pennywise, someone else and they say, Cancer Bats ‘No, it’s Danzig I,’ or, ‘No, it’s $35-$37 8pm Wed, July 15 Danzig III, or, ‘No, it’s Satan’s Aztec Theatre Child.’ So, it’s different for all 104 N. St. Mary’s different people. I’m proud of (210) 812-4355 theaztectheatre.com all of them. sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 45

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MUSIC

COMING INTO THEIR OWN Hydra Melody’s Début Nocturna Is Lush, Radio-Ready Alt-Rock JAMES COURTNEY Named to indicate a multishould have been.” headed driving force and a And one listen to Nocturna shows multi-dimensional sound, Hydra that this is indeed an album by a band Melody is a synth-and-keys-heavy altthat has found its sound. The sound rock outfit from San Antonio. is cinematic yet brooding, angsty yet This ambitious and talented quintet patient, and, from start to finish, it’s of musicians, with its core trio of Jordan a perfectly executed and elegantly Berlanga (lead vocals, guitar, keys), polished alt-rock gem that vastly Matt Gomez (drums) and Manny Prince improves on the group’s initial outing. (percussion, keys), drops its début LP, Two clear reasons for this Nocturna, as part of the Empire Theatre improvement arose in our conversation. and Freetail Brewing Company’s Local First, the band, which already Sounds Downtown program. practices three times per week or more, This special release will only be took two extended writing retreats that available in hard copy for the moment — allowed members new and old to bond and only to those who attend the show. musically and otherwise. While the record should see wide “Leaving our collective comfort zone national distribution before year’s end, and at the same time becoming more there’s good reason to cop the early comfortable with each other and being physical release. able to just focus on music was huge,” Though Hydra Melody’s original Harari explained. three members began jamming in high The second major breakthrough for school back in the early-mid aughts, a the band involved securing Will Pugh, recent convo the band had with the San from pop-punk band Cartel, to produce Antonio Current revealed that shit really Nocturna and help the group distill got cooking after the release of a solid, some of its raw inspiration. self-titled 2011 EP. According to Ferguson, “[Pugh’s] At this time, following the departure of outside perspective on these songs three of the band’s six early was the final element the members, Taylor Ferguson album needed.” and Jason Harari joined the Whether it’s a product Hydra Melody Album band, on lead guitar/keys and Release feat. Ready of a band finally hitting its Revolution, The Native bass/vocals respectively. stride and stepping out Roar, Black Market Club Berlanga explained that of its comfort zone, or a $10 8pm Sat, July 18 the additions of Ferguson product of patience and a Empire Theatre and Harari quickly proved custom-fit producer, Hydra 226 N. St. Mary’s fruitful, taking the band’s Melody is ready for huge (210) 226-5700 sound “to where it always things with Nocturna. majesticempire.com

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MUSIC

ADULT SWIM The SA Vanguard Gets Its Time On Roots In The Shadows of San Antonio

July 17 -BrandonRhyder

MATT STIEB/@MATTHEWSTIEB

Encouraged by the hubris of a loud tweed amp and a solid haircut, it’s easy for young musicians to think they’re the only game in town — that their social media strategies, RSVPs and rehashes of old myths are a revival of sorts, resuscitating Bolan glam for a dozen friend-fans on a Wednesday night. But you can’t revive what isn’t dead. Now in its second installment, Roots in the Shadows of San Antonio is an alibi for San Antonio music vets, proving that the old guard never left its post. On 15 cuts assembled first installment in 2014 featured San from scene doyens, the compilation is a Antonio workhorses like Snowbyrd, Fear SparkNote guide to old school SA. Snakeface and Garrett T. Capps. “The theme of the bands on the CD is The second release picks right that they’re all veterans of San Antonio, up, documenting bands with a slight two-decade, three-decade old veterans recording footprint, hard to hear outside of original music in San Antonio,” said their favorite bars and stomping grounds. Phil Luna in between puffs of filterless For a while, I’ve been trying to find a brown paper cigarettes that would make recording of Miss Neesie & the Tin Can one’s lungs weep just looking at them. Trio, a stripped down troupe of zydeco “They’re exactly that, they’re the roots.” hillbilly big band the Earfood Orchestra. From the Rolling Stones devotion With “Once In A Blue Moon,” a of the Hickoids’ “A.M. Lover By The hookless collection of non-sensical Windowsill” to the little joys of Julie non-sequiturs organized by a backbeat Good and a Dog Named Mike’s “Texas groove, Roots kindly obliges. Ice House (Viva La Tuna!),” Volume II The comp’s opening runs the city’s gamut of genre. statement comes from a “The entire project is to Roots in the Shadows have a compilation CD that of San Antonio Volume reputable source: barrio bards Los #3 Dinners. On we can put into anybody’s II Release feat. West “Can’t Stop Gotta Rock,” the hand, for free, and have them Kings Highway, Mike Ryan Coyotes, Miss band spits out the chorus like for the first time get turned Neesie & the Tin Can attendants to the old gods of on to a whole community of Trio, Snowbyrd, The rock ‘n’ roll. When they sing, “I songwriters,” said Luna. Dead Barons $10 know a great little place about The idea began in 2012, 7pm a mile from here,” take down the downpour of a brainstorm Sat, July 18 the address. Around since the from Luna and Rosedale Highs Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling ’70s, The Dinners know all the singer Jason Trevino. After 4834 Whirlwind Dr. best juke joints and shortcuts raising funds and momentum (210) 775-2099 in town. for a couple years, the drinkrangercreek.com

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MUSIC SCHEDULE JULY 15 LIVE BAND KARAOKE

July 24 - Jamey Johnson

JULY 16 RUBEN V JULY 17 CHRIS LOPEZ BAND

Sept 12 - Robert Earl Keen

JULY 18 SOUL PRODIGY JULY 19 90’s NIGHT

Sept 25 - The Mavericks

JULY 20 CHRIS LOPEZ JULY 21 JONATHAN MOODY

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sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 49

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COMING TO: HOUSTON, SAN ANTONIO, AUSTIN, & DALLAS THIS SUMMER

50 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

MUSIC

ROAMING ROAD SOLACE Wild Blood’s Southwestern Rock Début MATT STIEB/@MATTHEWSTIEB

Like the Eddie Van Halens and Mick Fleetwoods of the world, guitarist and singer Joshua Bloodsworth has one of those names catered perfectly to a rock ‘n’ roll band. And like the aforementioned, Bloodsworth’s voice is only one of a small chorus on Wild Blood’s self-titled debut. With Torrin Metz (another excellent rock ‘n’ roll name) and Heidi Buchhorn singing, Bloodsworth trades off vocal and writing responsibilities, creating an ebb of style on the album’s nine tracks. “Old Fashion,” a sundamaged tale of heartbreak, sounds like something out of 69 Love Songs transplanted to Taos, New Mexico. “Black Cloud” has an uncanny Spaghetti Western feel, with a horse-clop beat, slide guitar and plea to “lead me to a better land.” “Chinati Blues” is a rippin’ highway song, its bootstrut rhythm demanding a heavy the bellies of trains and motels they’ll foot on the way out to West Texas. “never know again,” the album has a “I’ve always been inspired by those roaming feel to it, finding solace only on landscapes,” said Metz. “They create the road. “I don’t see much sympathy such an impression.” on my side of town,” sing Bloodsworth So, the heat-bent visions of the and Buchhorn on “Preacher Preach,” desert are a clear focal point for Wild detailing the problems of settling in. Blood — that or I’m desperately craving “It’s a lot of the realistic-ness of a trip west on I-10. But a light droning life, a lot of the richness of say, ‘I’m element, in the form of finger-style broke and I have to live that way,’” guitar, also weaves through the debut. said Bloodsworth. “‘I don’t see much “That’s how me and Josh started sympathy on my side of town,’ that type syncing up, in drone guitar,” said of thing. Every-day-life-type-things.” Metz. “We’re both influenced by “Preacher Preach” is the standout finger-style guitar. American Primitive, on the album, the type of psych rock Mississippi John Hurd, it’s single you can sell to like a whole style of guitar TV audiences. With an Wild Blood Album where they’re playing bass attention-jacking guitar Release feat. White notes and melody. Doing intro and impeccable drum Kyle, Ellis Redon, Flower the whole rhythm.” fills, the tune settles into Jesus Quintet $5 The heavy blues feel the groove like a flash flood, 9:30pm Sat, July 18 reflects in Wild Blood’s wiping out anything within Ritual Art Gallery language, too — content its reach. 514 El Paso matching form. Singing of mstieb@sacurrent.com facebook.com/Ritualartgallery sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 51

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MUSIC

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Salim Nourallah, Wreckless Eric

The Fab Four are the typical RIYL reference for Denton’s Salim Nourallah, though for my money, I’d go with Elliott Smith. From the haircut to the cutting language of his five albums, Nourallah carries the depth and bittersweet joy of that late Oregon prophet. On “The Quitter,” from a perfect Smithian perspective, it’s hard to tell if the hook — “You’re the Quitter,” repeated like a father over and over to a washout teen — is directed toward himself, toward audience members or all of the above. From the deep south of England, Wreckless Eric is known for his ’77 two-chord Rickenbacker masterpiece “(I’d Go The) Whole Wide World.” Featuring Nick Lowe on guitar, the pub-rock staple has been covered by artists including Elvis Costello, Mikal Cronin, The Monkees and Will Ferrell. With jovial quartet, Buttercup. $15-$45, 8pm, Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com — mstieb@sacurrent.com

Wednesday, July 15

Bring Your Own Vinyl Revel with friendly vinyl-heads over the best wax in your collection, or slam pickle shots in the corner and seethe over that one dude with an original run of Horses. Hi-Tones, 9pm

Bruk Out! A term of celebration in

dancehall culture, Bruk Out! visits the legendary reverb and airhorns of the Jamaican genre. Concrete Jungle, 10pm

Johnny P. and the Wiseguys New York

native Johnny Panzarella brings the Little Italy hits of his native New York, as well as a few deft hits of his own, to the Pearl Stable’s summer dance hall series. Pearl Stable, 5:30pm

Nag Champa Named after the Indian

incense, Nag Champa hosts a weekly revue of the explosive cumbia rhythm. Bottom Bracket Social Club, 10pm

Primetime Jazz Orchestra Prime Time

saxophonist John Magaldi riffs through straight ahead standards with his big breathy tone. He’s a worthy bandleader and first chair, having performed with Johnny Mathis, Boots Randolph, Tony Bennett and Marvin Gaye. The Cove, 8pm

Ryan Shaw Memorial Show Broadside,

Old Again, Skattered Union, Fossil Youth, Nominee, Hitting Subset, The March Divide, Locket, evident, and Benji come together with proceeds going towards non-profit Fight Sarcoma. The Ten Eleven, 5pm

Thursday, July 16

Bill King Quintet feat. Joan Carroll Saxophonist Bill King strips down his King William Jazz Collective big band for a small combo session featuring ethereal jazz singer Joan Carroll. Carmen’s De La Calle, 7:30pm

Jesse Lawson The former guitarist for

Floridian pop-rockers Sleeping With Sirens, Jesse Lawson steps to the front with the pop punk of “The Road Is Broken.” With Silent Minority, Give A Chance. Alamo City Music Hall, 6pm

Koyote Not to be confused with the K-pop group of the same name, LA’s Koyote works in booming frat-house beats. The Falls, 9pm

Meghan Trainor Nantucket native Meghan

Trainor put out three albums before finding incredible success in the bodypositive single “All About That Bass,” selling 11 million copies and earning two Grammy nods. With her 2015 album Title debuting at the top of the chart, Trainor may have emerged unscathed from the graveyard of bubblegum one-hit wonders. Tobin Center, 7pm

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Poor J. Brown Billing themselves as “Hill

Country Soul,” Texas quintet Poor J. Brown shows the efficacy of the weekend warrior band. 502 Bar, 9pm

Shai Hulud Named after the giant worms of Frank Herbert’s Dune, Shai Hulud is a sextet of heavy nerd metalcore. With Ghost Key, Cryptodira. The Korova, 7pm

sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 53

MUSIC

The Suite feat. DJ Gibb and Donnie Dee

SPORTS•KARAOKE•POOL•DARTS T B A RH E B E IN UNI S T S T VER A SA F F LC

Two of SA’s finest soul and funk jockeys deliver a Thursday night soundtrack in original funky drummers. Southtown 101, 10pm

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Friday, July 17

All Stars Tour 2015 Twin Productions

gathered a massive, all-day showcase of post-hardcore and metalcore, including Dance Gavin Dance, Upon a Burning Body, A Skylit Drive, Iwrestledabearonce, Within The Ruins, Oceano, I The Mighty, Hail the Sun, Come The Dawn, Chasing Safety, Conquer & Divide, Too Close to Touch and Inamorata. Alamo City Music Hall, 2pm

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from the horrorcore book of the Misfits, Phoenix’s Calabrese waxes morose on tunes like “Eyes Down” and “Voices from the Dead.” Dallas gothabillies Ghoultown combine Halloween themes with the traditions of Americana. The Korova, 8pm

Dotcom I’m not sure if I don’t have an ear

for this, or, in a brilliant formula of genremarketing, no one has an ear for this, but Philly producer Dotcom sounds like every other EDM artist I’ve ever heard. With Riggi, Piros. Club Rio, 9pm

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Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison Matrimonial duo Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison play light, arresting country ditties of steelguitar and lonely Texas nights. Gruene Hall, 8pm

Key! Although he slurs his lines to the point

where only bits and pieces are clear, Atlanta rapper Key! has enough passion in his bars to make his enduring habit. His video for “Tighten Up” juxtaposes the facially inked MC in front of Japanese script with footage of Street Fighter, giving fuel to hip-hop’s increasing Japanophile tendencies. Paper Tiger, 8pm

Pigweed San Anto rap-metal sextet

Pigweed thrash porcine on tunes like “Fake for Now” and “Eye of the Wasps.” With Last Battle, Aurorean. Jack’s Bar, 8pm

Psych Night feat. Crown, The Sun Machine . Catch SA power trio Crown

around town and it’s obvious that the three-piece believes deeply in their riffs and shredding them as viciously as possible. Groove-centric bassist Josh Borchardt holds it down on the low end as guitarist Carlos Zubillaga draws the most out of each bent tone. Drummer Oscar Webber’s fill-friendly rhythms drive the trio forward, as Borchardt and Zubillaga swap on vocal duties. With thick bundles of hair slapping around on stage, a blues rock style with a lysergic drop of psych and a badass take on “Helter Skelter,” Crown is one of the

best live acts currently operating out of SA. Although coming off as a newly freed spirit believing that they’re finally awakened from the confines of society into complete mental “consciousness” on their artist statemnet, The Sun Machine’s music speaks for itself. Its newest release Drag City is a solid example of Austin garage (once you get past the numerous voicemail skits) with hints of the ’60s coinciding with new age lo-fi. K23 Gallery, 9pm

Sioux & Fox On their demo “Tropics,” SA’s

Sioux & Fox are mellow in the best way possible, without any hint of Hawaiian shirt pattern soft rock. Calypso grooves paired with dreamy, island-inspired lyrics are openly all about chill-axing, but are subtle enough to fit right in with Sioux & Fox’s indie rock charms. With This Is Where Two Oceans Meet, Dead Tree Duo. Imagine Books & Records, 8pm

The Dan Band The project of comedian

Dan Finnerty (you may know him as the shitty wedding singer in both Old School and The Hangover), The Dan Band plays pop covers with a few hundred extra sweras thrown in. Aztec Theatre, 8pm

The Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley

One half of ’60s sideburn soul duo The Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley marches forward in his career without the late Bobby Hatfield, performing the Righteous gold songbook. Majestic Theatre, 8pm

Saturday, July 18

Berner Signed to Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang,

Bay Area rapper Berner shares his label head’s love of weed rap. Alamo City Music Hall, 8pm

Bob Schneider For better or worse, Bob

Schneider is the Dave Matthews of South Texas. So if you’re down for DMB, Bob Schneider’s pan-rock should be a treat. If not, avoid Helotes like the plauge. Floore’s Country Store, 7pm

Los #3 Dinners Since the late ’70s, Los #3

Dinners have been a San Anto institution with tunes like “Take a Walk on the West Side,” “South Presa Man” and “Livin’ Inside the Loop.” Barriba Cantina, 9pm

Power Trip Power Trip plays heavy music

in the way that Manu Ginobili is a pretty good off-the-bench option. On their 2013 album Manifest Decimation, the Dallas quintet comes out with hair spinning, riffing through thrash licks with dexterity. The apocalyptic album cover, complete with a seeping metal font, suggests that Power Trip traffics only in metal and speedy guitar runs. But their eight tracks on Southern Lord Recordings prove that the band is equally as versed in hardcore. With Ill Informed, No Gods, Mau. Paper Tiger, 9pm

MUSIC

Turnpike Troubadours, The Old 97’s Red

dirt up-and-comers Turnpike Troubadours made a solid Billboard debut with 2012’s Goodbye Normal Street, reaching No. 14 on the country charts and No. 57 on pop. The Old 97’s aren’t shy about their longevity, as evidenced by Most Messed Up’s five-minute-and-53-second-long opening opus “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive.” The song chronicles the band’s career and living life on the road (“Most of our shows were a triumph of rock/ although some nights I might have been checking the clock”) and methodically builds from pretty, acoustic restraint to balls-out, country-fried rock, packing in both Miller’s sly one-liners (“love is a marathon/sometimes you puke”) and a hearty, sing-along refrain (“Rock ‘n’ roll’s been very, very good to me/the open road’s the only place I wanna be”). It’s like a CliffsNotes version of the Old 97’s impeccable yet genre-resistant style. Whitewater Amphitheater, 7:30pm

Sunday, July 19

Everclear, The Toadies, Fuel, American Hi-Fi The Aztec Theatre hosts a nostalgic evening in ’90s alt-rock, featuring the owners of hits like “Father of Mine,” “Possum Kingdowm” and “Flavor of the Week.” Aztec Theatre, 6:30pm

Dick Fox’s Golden Boys This tour takes its name from producer and organizer Dick Fox, though listing the individual South Philly crooners — Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Bobby Rydell — may be a better strategy for billing. Tobin Center, 4pm

Kehlani, Pell Content with being an R&B

hipster’s dream (check out the YouTube wars over who discovered her first) Kehlania puts a feminine spin on songs with names like “FWU” and “Ni*gas.” Instead of giving the mic to a full-time singer, the multi-talented Pell is a one-man show as his silky crooning shines alongside his easy-to-digest “dream rap” and lucid

lyrics. Off his debut Floating While Dreaming, “Runaway” is a good example of Pell’s abilities working toward a common goal. Alamo City Music Hall, 8pm

King’s X Hair pop-metal trio King’s X made a strong run dabbling in the themes of Christian rock. Alamo City Music Hall, 6pm

STRFKR Named after the drink that all

21-year-olds order at college bars too busy to make them, Portland quartet STRFKR writes lovely, commercial embedfriendly indie pop. With Shy Boys. Paper Tiger, 8pm

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Monday, July 20

Small World Led by drummer Kyle

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Tuesday, July 21

Brownout! Presents Brown Sabbath It’s

ICE CREAM SOCIAL

been almost a year since Brownout first picked up the occult menu of the Black Sabbath songbook 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 decade-deep catalog. Their subsequent tour, which took the band all across the country, further widened the Brown Sabbath appeal and gained momentum for more performances, including their slot on Maverick Music Festival’s main stage and at Bonnaroo earlier in the summer. Arneson River Theatre, 7pm

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502 Bar 502 Embassy Oaks, (210) 257-8125, 502bar.com Alamo City Music Hall 1305 E. Houston, alamocitymusichall. com Aztec Theatre 201 E. Commerce, (210) 760-2196, theaztectheatre.com Barriba Cantina 111 W. Crockett, (210) 228-9876, barribacantina.com Bottom Bracket Social Club 1609 N. Colorado, facebook.com/bottombracketsocialclub Carmen’s de la Calle 320 N. Flores, 210-281-4349, carmensdelacalle.com Club Rio 13307 San Pedro, (210) 4032582, club-rio.net Concrete Jungle 1628 S. Presa, (210) 373-9907 Esquire Tavern 155 E. Commerce, (210) 222-2521, esquiretavern-sa.com Floore’s Country Store 14492 Old Bandera, Helotes, (210) 695-8827, liveatfloores.com Freeman Coliseum 3201 E. Houston, (210) 226-1177, freemancoliseum.com Gruene Hall 1281 Gruene, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall. com Hi-Tones 621 E. Dewey, (210) 573-6220 Imagine Books & Records 8373 Culebra #201b, (210) 236-7668, imaginebookstore.com Jack’s Bar 3030 Thousand Oaks, (210) 494-2309, jacksbarsa.com K23 Gallery 704 Fredericksburg Rd, facebook.com/k23gallery Majestic Theatre 224 E. Houston, (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com Olmos Bharmacy 3902 McCullough, (210) 822-1188, olmosrx.com Paper TIger 2410 N. St. Mary’s, papertiger.queueapp.com Pearl Stable 307 Pearl, (210) 212-7260, atpearl.com Sam’s Burger Joint 330 E. Grayson, (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com Southtown 101 101 Pereida Street, (210) 263-9880 The Cove 606 W. Cypress, (210) 227-2683, thecove.us The Falls 226 W. Bitters, (210) 490-5553, thefallsbar.com The Korova 107 E. Martin, (210) 226-5070, thekorova.com The Ten Eleven 1011 Avenue B, 210) 320-9080, teneleven.com Tobin Center 100 Auditorium, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org Whitewater Amphitheater 11860 FM 306, New Braunfels, (830) 964-3800, whitewaterrocks.com

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Objectively speaking, ASHAMED, there’s nothing wrong with your fantasy — hell, there would be a fuck of a lot right with your fantasy if your wife were turned on by it. So when your wife says, “It’s wrong,” try and hear what she should be saying: “It’s wrong for me.” And if you’re the optimistic type, ASHAMED, you can opt to hear, “It’s wrong for me at the moment.” There are lots of women out there happily cuckolding their husbands — or happily playing the role of hotwife — who rejected the idea when their husbands first shared their fantasies. Don’t allow yourself to be shamed — “It’s not wrong, honey, but I understand it’s wrong for us” — and don’t pressure your wife to do it, and she may surprise you one day. My boyfriend and I have been together for two years. I moved in a year ago, and we have been happy living together since. During the past year, I’ve come across a lot of his ex’s old belongings — letters and pictures. It’s not like I snoop. He’s kind of a hoarder, and I frequently find this stuff tucked in books or drawers. It’s starting to frustrate me. I long ago threw away most of my ex’s things, and the stuff I did keep is stored in a box that’s out of sight and mind. I don’t necessarily want him to throw all this stuff away, but I want to feel comfortable in our shared environment. I also want to be able to think about our life together and not his past. How do I

communicate this? Ex’s Various Items Disturb Entirely New Couple’s Environs I’m like your boyfriend — not a hoarder, but definitely a tucker. I tuck letters and photos and other keepsakes into books, stuff them in the backs of drawers, set them on shelves or beside the rest of the tchotchkes. I do this because (1) I’m not organized/depressed enough to scrapbook, and (2) I like running across old photos or letters when I’m looking for something else. Perhaps your boyfriend feels the same way — or maybe your boyfriend is a hoarder and a slob. Either way, EVIDENCE, my advice is the same: Own up to your insecurities — tell him that there’s nothing about his past that should prevent you from enjoying your present — and then ask him to make a reasonable accommodation. Tell him you would like to place his ex’s pictures and letters, as you run across them, into a box that’s clearly labeled and easily accessed, but out of sight and mind. If he says yes, EVIDENCE, take that yes for an answer. That means putting whatever you find away, refraining from griping at your boyfriend about the stuff he chooses to hold on to, and reassuring yourself that a day will soon come when your shared environment is completely ex-proofed. With my past four serious girlfriends/sexual partners, I noticed that my sweat began to smell more like theirs after we had been sleeping together for a while. Is that a real thing or is it all in my head? Sweat Turning Into New Kink I haven’t heard of this, STINK, and it might be all in your head — but my hunch is that it’s all in your diet. The things you ingest impact the scent of all of your bodily fluids, some more noticeably than others, and the longer you’re with a particular woman, the likelier you are to be sharing the same meals, the same wines, the same beers, juices, recreational drugs, etc., and this is probably what’s causing your sweat to smell more like theirs the longer you’re together.

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ETC.

Imagine the potential of a one-time treatment for chronic hepatitis C. Tacere Therapeutics, Inc, sponsor of this clinical trial along with major medical institutions, are conducting a clinical trial to assess the safety and eﬀectiveness of a single dose of an investigational drug being evaluated as a potential treatment for hepatitis C. Eligible participants must be between the ages of 18 and 65.

For more information, call toll-free

877-997-8839 or visit www.clinicaltrialspotlight.com

60 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD by Matt Jones

Answer on page 25

“Enter the Dragon” — I sea what you did there. ACROSS

1 “Hey, sailor!” 5 Ambien amount, e.g. 9 Wear away 14 Command represented by an outdated floppy disk 15 Milky gem 16 Radio tube gas 17 Dairy product used to fill a pastry? 20 Car ad fig. 21 Abbey recess 22 “2001” hardware 23 Gold amount 25 Agrologist’s study 27 Round figure? 30 One, in Verdun 31 Not as vigorous 33 Sweet statue of Sean Combs in the late ‘90s? 37 It may be Photoshopped out in school photos 38 17th Greek letter 39 Strap on a stallion 40 Part of the theme song for Blossom, Bubbles, or Buttercup? 45 Like reserved seats 46 Whence farm fresh eggs 47 Name in “Talks” 48 Goes pfft 50 In a class by ___ 54 Improve, in the wine cellar

55 Brick in the organics section 57 He played Jim in “The Doors” 58 Frivolous article in the middle of the page? 63 Previous conviction, informally 64 Peas, for a pea shooter 65 “Desperate Housewives” character Van de Kamp 66 Lots of paper 67 Like 7-Eleven, right now 68 1990s puzzle game set in an island world

DOWN

1 Arts acronym 2 Curly-haired Marx brother 3 Hardly in hiding 4 “I approve the motion!” 5 Aural “shift” named for physicist Christian 6 ___ Dei (“The Da Vinci Code” group) 7 Strongboxes 8 North Pole laborer 9 Let it out 10 Film spool 11 “___ Crazy Summer” (Cusack/Moore rom-com) 12 MS-___ 13 Reverse of WSW 18 Hawaii’s ___ Kea

19 Boss 24 Hip-hop trio with Lauryn Hill 26 “Get ___ My Cloud” (Rolling Stones hit) 27 Like some siblings 28 Changed the decor of 29 ___ Mawr, PA 32 Empire builders 33 Make a point 34 Without a hitch? 35 “Oooh, you said a swear!” type 36 “Weird Al” Yankovic cult movie 37 Calendar entry, for short 41 Hammerstein’s musical collaborator 42 Practitioner, as of a trade 43 Sheer fabric 44 In a riled state 49 Ask a tough trivia question 51 Not just some 52 They hold kicks together 53 Armada 54 Lepton’s locale 56 “You want a piece ___?” 58 EMT’s special skill 59 Palindromic poetry preposition 60 “Boyz N the Hood” actress Long 61 Kung ___ shrimp 62 Watson’s creator

ETC.

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Would you like to stop pushing and struggling for a while? Is there a clenched attitude you would love to let go of? Do you wish you could take a break from having to give so much and try so hard and be so strong? Then do it! Now would be a good time to take a sabbatical from any situation that feels too demanding or frustrating. You wouldn’t incur the wrath of the gods or the twists of karma if you sneaked away to indulge in some recreational frivolity. For the foreseeable future, “relax” and “surrender” are your words of power.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): Theologian Karl Barth speculated that when the angels get together to praise and honor God with music, they perform the compositions of Bach. But when they are playing for each other, they are more likely to choose Mozart. I guess that’s because Mozart’s stuff is loose and free and inventive compared to Bach, who’s formal and sober and systematic. Mozart is more for parties, while Bach is for serious occasions. I’m seeing the coming days as a time when you, like the angels, should be especially willing to express yourself in very different ways, depending on the audience.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Before E. Annie Proulx became a Pulitzer Prizewinning novelist, she wrote a series of how-to books, including a dairy foods cookbook and an instructional text on making your own hard cider. But the manual of hers that I especially want to call your attention to right now is Plan and Make Your Own Fences & Gates, Walkways, Walls & Drives. It might be inspirational for you to read it. You’re in a phase when it makes perfect sense to create new paths for yourself to travel on. This will allow you to forgo at least some of the paths that others have built and that can’t actually take you where you need to go.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): I’m getting itchy to see you blow your own cover. I would love you to come all the way out of your hiding place, even if just for a while, and see what happens if you make full disclosures and brave displays. My hope is that you will close the gap between the real you and the images that people have of you. Does that sound interesting? Or have you become so fond of being a big riddle that you can’t imagine any other way to be? Maybe I can tempt you to be more self-revelatory if I add this: Taking your disguises off even briefly will enable you to discover intriguing secrets about yourself. And then once you put your disguises back on, you will seem more mysterious than ever.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): A new cycle will begin for you after your birthday. Between now and then you will be wrapping up the current cycle. I invite you to

do so with a flourish. Don’t just wait around passively for the themes of the last 11 months to fade away or go to sleep. Instead, set an intention to bring them to a climactic close. Schedule a splashy graduation or a grand finale. Plan a cathartic party or a celebratory rite of passage. Take a playful leap of faith or try that magic trick you’ve been saving for the perfect moment. Or all of the above!

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22):

happy and safe, and visualize four versions of it at the four cardinal points, hovering three feet above your circle. Then say this: “I dissolve any hex and banish any pest that has been draining my energy. I purge any wasteful emotions, unsound ideas, and trivial desires that I may have grown attached to.” To put the seal on your magic, laugh for two minutes.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19):

“I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep,” said author Jean Kerr. “That’s deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?” In accordance with the current astrological omens, Virgo, you should feel free to play around with that impish idea. Just for now, appreciate and enjoy the surfaces of things. Make decisions based on first impressions and instant analyses. Give your attention and energy to what looks appealing to you, and don’t think too hard about stuff that presents a boring appearance.

By my estimation, 97 percent of the population is chronically starving for the pleasure of being listened to with deep empathy and focused intelligence. Very few of us enjoy the prolonged and undivided attention of a receptive ally on a regular basis. It’s rare to be in the presence of a person whose sole agenda is to be innocently curious about you. Your assignment, Capricorn, is to go on a quest to remedy this shortfall. Figure out how you can get the skillful listening you’re missing. (P.S. One way to prime the magic is to offer yourself up as a skillful listener to others.)

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22):

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18):

Now is a favorable time to wish upon a star. In other words, you can enhance the likelihood that your wish will come true if you choose this phase of your cycle to enlist the assistance of a higher power. It’s your duty to make sure, however, that you wish upon the right star. Pick a higher power that can truly help you with your wish, not necessarily one that has worked for other people’s wishes. Here’s another crucial detail: Be precise in formulating your wish. No foggy thinking or sloppy language allowed!

At this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony, British singer Sam Smith won in four categories. His tune “Stay with Me” was named Song of the Year. In one of his acceptance speeches,

Smith expressed appreciation for the difficult muse who inspired the song. “I want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year,” he said. “Thank you so much for breaking my heart, because you got me four Grammys.” I invite you to come up with a comparable expression of gratitude, Aquarius. What experience that seemed like tough luck at the time has actually turned out to be a blessing? Now would be a perfect time to acknowledge and relish and make full use of the unexpected grace.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): The Bay of Fundy is a branch of the Atlantic Ocean between the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It’s renowned for its tidal range. When high tide comes, the water may be as much as 53 feet higher than what it is at low tide. The shift back and forth happens twice a day. I’m wondering if in the coming weeks your emotional ebb and flow will have a similar variability. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you could experience both very high highs and very deep depths. Please note that when I say “depths,” I don’t mean sadness or despair. Rather, I’m talking about a profound ability to feel your way into the heart of things.

THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): If you are fully committed to being both honest and kind, you will have more power to heal other people than you’ve had in a long time. You will have a resemblance to a magic potion or a wonder drug. Here’s a caveat, however: The therapeutic influence you have to offer might be scary to those who aren’t ready to be cured. The solutions you propose could be disruptive to anyone who is addicted to his or her problems. That’s why I advise you to be discerning about how you share yourself. P.S. The medicine you are generating is not too potent for your own use. It’s exactly what you need to transform limitation into liberation.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): Each of us has at least one pesky ghost or nagging demon that occupies a dark corner of our psyches. It may have been there for years, or we might have picked it up more recently during a phase of temporary insanity. In any case, most of us can benefit from conducting a periodic banishing ritual. Now would be prime time for you to do just that. Ready? With your imagination, draw a clockwise circle of your favorite-colored light on the floor or ground. Next, identify an image that makes you feel

sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 61

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You may be eligible to join a clinical trial conducted by the Diabetes Division of the UTHSCSA at the Texas Diabetes Institute (TDI). If qualified, you will receive: •Physical exam at no cost. •No cost trial related blood tests. •Compensation for your time.

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Study will be conducted at the: TDI on 701 Zarzamora St. Principal Investigator: Ralph A. DeFronzo, M.D. Department of Medicine, Diabetes Division UTHSCSA. 62 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

This clinical trial could provide a one-time treatment for the disease. Ttititititi Ttititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititi titititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititi tititititifffffftitititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititi titititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititi titititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititititi

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sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 7

CONTENTS July 15-21, 2015

10 NEWS Starting A Conversation By challenging a fine, Joan Cheever hopes to shed light on hunger in SA Alamo City Tech There’s more to digital SA than meets the eye Neighborhood Takeover East siders are fighting violence with barbecues

20 CALENDAR

Out Of The Box Piecing together the ever-evolving French & Michigan puzzle

30 SCREENS Heartless Slog Testament of Youth leaves us feeling uncomfortably numb The Climactic Case Ian McKellan nails Sherlock in Mr. Holmes

33 FOOD One Stop Shop Alchemy Kombucha and Culture finds a strong stride toward success Dive Right In Getting messy with Ro-Ho Pork & Bread Flavor File Can’t-miss July events

45 MUSIC Howlin’ Killer Wolf Glenn Danzig’s Skeletons come out of the closet this fall Coming Into Their Own San Antonio’s Hydra Melody drops début LP Saturday Adult Swim A SparkNotes guide to old-school Alamo City music Roaming Road Solace Wild Blood’s self-titled début is a heat-bent vision of the desert Music Calendar What to see and hear this week

56 ETC.

Savage Love Jonesin’ Crossword Free Will Astrology This Modern World

Our top picks for the week

27 ARTS Homecoming Queen Famed vocal impressionist Jimmy James brings “Hearing Is Believing” to SA

8 CURRENT • July 15-21, 2015 • sacurrent.com

39 NIGHTLIFE Playoff Ready Catch the revamped Spurs at Tony’s Bar next season Taco Garage There’s no room to complain, but plenty of margaritas

ON THE COVER

Good Samaritan Joan Cheever is fighting the city, which fined her for feeding the homeless. Photography by Carlos Javier Sanchez Art direction by Eli Miller

sacurrent.com • July 15-21, 2015 • CURRENT 9