The McNay comes full circle with posthumous exhibition celebrating provocative Texas artist Michael Tracy
SWAN SONG
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in this issue
22 Swan Song
The McNay comes full circle with posthumous exhibition celebrating provocative Texas artist Michael Tracy Issue 25-05 /// March 5 - 18, 2025
07 News The Opener News in Brief O the Clock
Texas losing construction, farmworkers as fears of Trump’s mass-deportation plan loom
No Herd Immunity
A dozen San Antonio private and charter schools have vaccination rates that could put them at high risk for measles outbreaks
Bad Takes
The Trump GOP’s vilification of government workers is an old and familiar game
Voting With Your Dollars
How to spend your money as an act of resistance in San Antonio
27 Screens
Disaster Artist
San Antonio native Fidel RuizHealy screening TV pilot Stars Diner at SXSW
29 Food
Cocktail Creativity
The Bar at Mixtli is as innovative as the lauded restaurant’s kitchen
Cooking up Conversation
Leche de Tigre chef-owner Emil Oliva always looking to keep things fresh
32 Music Lyrical Roadmap
Ahead of Sunset Festival, Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell talks about sharing the deeply personal
San Antonio’s Jason Kane and the Jive dropping new album at March 15 show
Critics’ Picks
Our picks of things to do
San Antonio’s Sunset Festival also includes noteworthy local acts
On the Cover: Artist Michael Tracy’s first-ever museum show took place in San Antonio in 1971 at the McNay. A posthumous exhibit at the museum now celebrates his unconventional life and work. Cover design by Ana Paula Gutierrez.
Courtesy Photo McNay Art Museum
3. 1. CDS
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That Rocks/That Sucks
HThe GOP-controlled Texas Legislature has proposed cu ing some $400 million in funds for state universities in its new budget proposals, reportedly as part of an effort by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to punish schools for being too politically progressive. If the money is cut, the University of Texas at Austin would lose $40 million while Texas A&M University, the University of Houston and Texas Tech University would all lose $50 million.
Shaquille O’Neal paid tribute to Gregg Popovich as the legendary Spurs head coach remains sidelined while recovering from a stroke he suffered last year. O’Neal, who spent part of his childhood in San Antonio, said that when his family was struggling to afford his size-20 shoe, his father went to the Spurs to see if they could help. “Coach Popovich gave him three pairs of shoes,” O’Neal said. “So, I’ve always loved him and respected him for that.”
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro last week warned more than 100,000 San Antonio residents are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage under the budget recently passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House. Castro, along with every other Democrat and Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky all opposed the budget, which passed 217-215. Texas already has the nation’s lowest rate of health insurance.
Add Bon Appetit to the list of national publications singing the praises of San Antonio breakfast tacos. The magazine published a story by SA-based writer Edmund Tijerina last week that included picks for the city’s best breakfast tacos. The piece highlighted longtime favorites including the Original Donut Shop, Con Huevos, Maria’s Cafe, El Milagrito Café and Li le Taco Factory, while also praising lesser-known gems such as Yatzil, notable for a chilaquiles taco Tijerina describes as a “culinary handshake.” . — Abe Asher
Cowering before the anti-vaccine crowd with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott
Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
Ahead of his short-lived 2021 run against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, veteran political strategist Ma hew Dowd shared the word he considered most accurate to describe Gov. Greg Abbo .
“The perfect word … is ‘craven’ because I don’t think he has any fundamental principles other than responding to what his current political base is,” Dowd told Texas Monthly.
During a round of media appearances, Dowd tore into Abbo for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic — a strategy molded not by science but an obsequious bid to placate the Republican party’s anti-vaccine fringe.
The governor, as many recall, prematurely dropped the state’s mask mandate without consulting medical advisors on his own pandemic “task force,” then issued executive orders banning municipalities from enacting their own mask and vaccine requirements. His actions worsened Texas’ death toll during the pandemic, experts charge.
Now, as Texas grapples with what may emerge as its most serious public health crisis since COVID, Abbo is once again showing his true colors — the mo led brownish hues of chickenshit.
As of press time, roughly 160 people have been infected in the Lone Star State’s worst measles outbreak in 30 years. One child has died, and multiple people are hospitalized. Most of those infected are unvaccinated, according to state data.
Now is the time for Abbo to use his sizable megaphone to urge people to take the MMR vaccine, especially since it’s 97% effective against measles and proven safe by decades of data.
Instead, the craven occupant of the Texas Governor’s Mansion been all but silent.
Far from calling press conferences or appearing on TV news programs, Abbo ’s only once acknowledged the outbreak, and via social media.
He assured us in a Feb. 28 tweet — that’s about four weeks into the outbreak for those keeping score at home — that his office is in contact with health officials and “will deploy all necessary resources” to keep Texans safe.
Interestingly, Abbo ’s tweet appeared hours after the Texas Tribune posted a story critical of the state’s Republican leadership for staying silent during the outbreak. Also of note, while the governor said he’d instructed state officials to dispatch “immunization teams” to affected areas, his tweet included no call for unvaccinated Texans to get jabbed and slow the spread.
Meanwhile, the outbreak has spread to nine counties as of press time, including Travis, where Austin soon will host the massive SXSW festival. What’s more, San Antonio health officials warn that an infected visitor could have exposed “thousands” of people here to the potentially deadly ailment.
Back in 2021, Dowd said Abbo ’s time in office demonstrated his u er lack of leadership.
“Well, he’s been revealed,” Dowd told Texas Monthly “I mean, it’s between him and [Florida governor Ron] DeSantis for who could be the worst governor in America. They’re in a stiff competition.”
Four years later, both assclowns are still in office, and the measles outbreak shows not much in Texas has changed. — Sanford Nowlin
YOU SAID IT!
“This is corruption at its worst. This is a massive conflict of interest.”
— U.S.Rep.GregCasar, D-SanAntonio andAustin, onbillionaireTrumpdonorhaving thepowertoremakethegovernment whileholdingmassivefederalcontracts.
Former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff made a big endorsement last week, throwing his support behind political newcomer Beto Altamirano in the race to replace outgoing Mayor Ron Nirenberg. In a statement, Wolff said Altamirano, a tech entrepreneur, represents San Antonio’s future. “He embodies a new generation of leadership, much like former Mayor Henry Cisneros, who successfully ran for mayor in 1981 at the age of 33, energizing a new generation.”
City Council last week voted unanimously to authorize City Manager Erik Walsh to begin talks with the Spurs and Bexar County on a plan to build a new Spurs arena. Council’s priorities for the project include the new arena,
which could cost up to $1.5 billion, a major expansion of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and the conversion of the John Wood Federal Courthouse into a concert venue.
The San Antonio Police Department dismissed one of its detectives late last year over allegations he punched and verbally berated suspects while investigating a car theft last summer.
The detective, Jack E. Harper III, physically assaulted the suspects even though they posed no threat, according to disciplinary records. He was also accused of turning off his body camera, filing an inaccurate report and a empting to interfere with an internal investigation, documents show. — Abe Asher
Instagram / governorabbott
Off the Clock
Texas losing construction, farmworkers as fears of Trump’s mass-deportation plan loom
BY MICHAEL KARLIS
Although President Trump’s mass deportation plans haven’t played out at the scope and scale he promised, the fear spread by his rhetoric is still disrupting Texas construction sites, farms and school districts, experts maintain.
“We’ve been hearing stories over and over again where people are panicking right now, and because of that, they’re not only not showing up for work, they don’t want to be on the streets, they don’t want to be in public,” American Immigration Council Texas organizer Chelsie Kramer told the Current U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 37,660 undocumented migrants during Trump’s first month in office — below the nearly 60,000-a-month average under the Biden Administration. Even so, the effects of the Trump administration’s fearmongering — including posting online images of “violent criminals” detained by ICE and the spread of disinformation on social media — has stirred panic among Texas’ 1.6 million undocumented workers, Kramer said.
Faced with concerns about deportation, many of those workers are skipping out on construction jobs, abandoning work on farms and pulling their kids out of public schools — all of which are likely to hurt the Lone Star State economy, Kramer warns. Undocumented migrants make up just 5% of Texas’s population but account for roughly 7% of workforce, according to American Immigration Council data. A quarter of Texas’ construction workers are undocumented. Those undocumented laborers aren’t just working on small jobs, according to Kramer. Many of the state’s biggest construction firms regularly subcontract out major projects, not to intentionally skirt immigration law but because of a labor shortage, she explained.
There are more than 500,000 vacant construction jobs across the nation due to the tight labor market, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Those subcontractors, especially [work site] leads, may then go hire a bunch of folks under the table to fill these job orders,” Kramer said. The big construction companies may not even be aware of the immigration status of people hired by subcontractors, she added. “All they know is that they’re ge ing that work done.”
Absences by Texas’ undocumented farm workers have also increased since Trump took office, according to Kramer. That creates problems ge ing agricultural products to market.
Out of Texas’ 60 main crops, only five can be mechanically harvested, Kramer said. That means farmers face the prospect of losing product as it dies in the fields or hiring more expensive workers to replace migrant labor.
“It’s going to take a li le bit of time for us to actually see [the effects] because of how delayed these economic reporting numbers are,” Kramer said. “But if people are already feeling it on
their job sites right now ... then it’s just a ma er of time until we start seeing our housing and food prices continue to rise.”
The American Immigration Council has also received reports of undocumented families pulling their kids out of schools because of concern immigration agents could detain them up while on campus, according to Kramer.
Statewide, nearly 5% of children have at least one family member who’s undocumented. Closer to home, San Antonio Independent School District confirmed it has at least 3,000 undocumented students.
SAISD board member Ed Garza, a former San Antonio mayor, recently told Current the district’s high number of undocumented students may explain a sudden uptick in absences in the weeks following Trump’s inauguration.
“If it’s not the flu, if it’s not some other external issue, then one would conclude that it’s got to be something else,” Garza said. “And the only external factor that seems to be on the minds of many families and students is a visit by law enforcement agencies to remove a
student or talk to a student.”
Absences at Texas work sites and schools are likely to increase if the White House steps up the pace of immigration enforcement actions. This week, a Trump administration official told USA Today that deportations are poised to rise in coming months as it works to expedite removals.
Should that become reality, an economic downturn is likely to follow, according to the American Immigration Council.
The organization estimates that Trump’s mass deportation plan — deporting one million undocumented migrants annually until none remain — would slash the nation’s gross domestic product by 4.2% to 6.8%. The effects would be felt hardest in Florida, California and Texas, the group predicts.
“Our [state’s] biggest asset is that Texas-Mexico border and our access to a very large labor force that’s willing to do a lot of work that native-born U.S. citizens just are not willing to do,” Kramer said. “We benefit from cheap food, cheap housing — across the board.”
Shutterstock ungvar
No Herd Immunity
A dozen San Antonio private and charter schools have vaccination rates that could put them at high risk for measles outbreaks
BY MICHAEL KARLIS
At least a dozen San Antonio private and charter schools face could face elevated risk of measles outbreaks due to students’ low vaccination rates, state records and data from the Centers for Disease Control show.
Texas’ worst measles outbreak in 30 years potentially made its way to the Alamo City last week when an infected visitor from West Texas potentially came into contact with “hundreds of thousands” of local residents, local health officials said. The person visited UTSA, the River Walk and other highly trafficked areas on Feb. 14-15.
As concern grows about the disease’s local spread, state records show some 95% of San Antonio kindergartners are up to date on their MMR vaccines, which protect against measles and other infectious ailments. However, that rate may be considerably lower at some private and charter campuses, according to the data.
Indeed, at least 12 Alamo City schools — all private or charter institutions — have student bodies where 90% or fewer kindergartners are vaccinated, according to Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) department data. That threshold puts them at a considerably higher risk for a measles outbreak.
A vaccination rate around 95% is considered “herd immunity” against measles, lessening the risk of serious outbreaks, according to the CDC. However, a rate of 90% or below results in a high probability of an outbreak should there be exposure to the disease, the federal agency cautions.
Even so, officials with at least one San
Antonio school said the Texas numbers can be misleading, especially if a campus is small and some kindergarten students received their MMR vaccinations outside the state.
Here are the 12 San Antonio private and charter schools that had vaccination rates of 90% or lower, according to HHS data:
• San Antonio Country Day Montessori: 40%
• The Gathering Place: 60%
• Bexar County Academy: 70%
• San Antonio Christian School: 80%
• Buckner Fanning School at Mission Spring: 82%
• Heritage Academy: 86%
• The Atonement Catholic Academy: 87%
• Royal Public Schools (Charter): 87%
• Great Hearts Texas: 89%
• Cornerstone Christian: 90%
• St. John Berchman’s School: 90%
• Scenic Hills Christian School: 90%
San Antonio Country Day Montessori School appears to be at the greatest risk for a measles outbreak, if HHS records are correct. Only 40% of its kindergartners received their MMR vaccine last school year.
The risk of an outbreak at that private campus exceeds 78% should one child be infected with measles, according to CDC modeling.
The Gathering Place, a controversy-mired campus that recently lost its state charter, is the school with the second-highest risk of a measles outbreak, followed by charter school Bexar County Academy, state records show.
In an unsigned email statement, Country Day Montessori told the
Current it considers vaccinations a “personal choice made by families in accordance with their values and beliefs.” Further, school staff “respect the rights of all parents to make informed health decisions for their families while ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.”
The school’s statement continued: “In alignment with Texas state law, parents may claim an exemption from immunization requirements for medical reasons or reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The Texas Department of State Health Services provides guidance on the exemption process for families who choose this option.”
Celinda Camacho, principal of Bexar County Academy, said all the students on her campus are vaccinated. The school’s 70% score in HHS records reflects a quirk of how the state gathers its data, she added.
Of the school’s 16-student kindergarten class, three received MMR jabs outside the state or in another country. Texas requires parents have out-ofstate vaccine records certified with HHS before they’re counted in the database, according to Camacho.
While the parents of those three kindergartners in question haven’t yet taken the steps to get state certification, Camacho said their vaccination records met the school’s requirements.
“All of our students are vaccinated,” she said. “What we’re talking about is paperwork.”
Camacho added that Bexar County Academy sends le ers to parents in English and Spanish about community
health issues such as the potential measles outbreak. The school’s small size — 165 students — allows it to have open channels of communication when such risks arise, she added.
When the Current reached out to The Gathering Place for comment, Superintendent Brian Sparks replied with a one-sentence email statement saying the school will “continue to support our community with information and opportunities on immunizations.”
Texas health officials have so far recorded 158 measles cases, largely in an area south of the Panhandle. An unvaccinated child in Lubbock became the outbreak’s first fatality on Wednesday. Most of the cases in the current measles outbreak are in children, and most of the patients are either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccinated status, according to state health officials. During a measles outbreak, about one in five people who get sick will need hospital care and one in 20 will develop pneumonia, state data indicate.
“About 30% of people who develop measles will develop complications,” University Health Chief Epidemiologist and UT Health infectious disease specialist Dr. Jason Bowling said in an online Q&A. “The most common one is diarrhea, but ... children can get otitis media, or ear infections. Measles virus itself can cause pneumonia. And about one in 1,000 people can have measles virus infect their brain and spinal cord and cause encephalitis, which can cause significant problems, including coma and death.”
San Antonio Current Editor-in-Chief Sanford Nowlin contributed to this report.
NOTICE OF PROPOSED ACTION ON APPLICATION FOR CONVERSION OF BASE IRRIGATION GROUNDWATER TO UNRESTRICTED IRRIGATION GROUNDWATER
The General Manager of the Edwards Aquifer Authority (“EAA”) proposes to grant applications to convert Base Irrigation Groundwater to Unrestricted Irrigation Groundwater under § 711.342(c) of the EAA’s Rules. A copy of the applications, the technical summaries, the General Manager’s proposed actions, and the proposed amended regular permits are available for public inspection at the EAA’s offices at 900 E. Quincy Street, San Antonio, Texas Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Electronic copies may also be obtained by request to Jennifer Wong-Esparza at jesparza@edwardsaquifer.org or (210) 2222204.
The General Manager proposes to approve the following applications to convert Base Irrigation Groundwater to Unrestricted Irrigation Groundwater under § 711.342(c) of the EAA’s Rules:
Continental Homes of Texas, L.P. – Filed application on January 29, 2025. The application seeks to convert 10.473 acre-feet of Base Irrigation Groundwater to Unrestricted Irrigation Groundwater based on the development of the Historically Irrigated Land (HIL).
The applicants or any other Edwards Aquifer permit holder may file a written request for a contested case hearing on the proposed action with the EAA by no later than Monday, April 7, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. in accordance with § 707.603 of the EAA’s Rules. The EAA’s Board of Directors will consider approval of the applications and issuance of the proposed amended regular permits within 60 days of publication of this notice unless a request for contested case hearing is timely filed. If no timely requests for contested case hearing are filed, the applications will be presented to the EAA’s Board on the date of the hearing for final action.
This notice is issued pursuant to § 707.525 of the EAA’s Rules.
ISSUED THIS 5th DAY OF MARCH, 2025
The Trump GOP’s vilification of government workers is an old and familiar game
BY KEVIN SANCHEZ
Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.
“It was no more clear to me how important federal workers are than two years ago when I took office and there was a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio,” U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes told a crowd of government employees and supporters who rallied on Capitol Hill early last month.
On Feb. 3, 2023, 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train went off the rails and burst into flames, creating an airborne toxic event that caused the evacuation of thousands of residents and lofted hazardous chemicals over 16 states.
“I was dispatched to East Palestine,” Sykes, an Ohio Democrat, recounted. “I don’t even represent East Palestine but it was important to be there. I met with people from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who were dirty, who were exhausted, but they had a smile on their faces because they knew the work they were doing would make sure the people of East Palestine would have clean air, clean water and monitoring. So, when I think about the EPA who have been there for us and continue to be there, that’s why I’m standing here.”
The American Federation of Government Employees rally at which Sykes spoke went depressingly under-covered in the mainstream press.
Meanwhile, a train wreck of a different sort dominated headlines last week as President Trump’s billionaire-stocked cabinet met for the first time. One of them, a dubiously naturalized citizen named Elon Musk, stole much of the spectacle, but Trump himself boasted that his new EPA director plans to slash up to 65% of the agency’s budget.
Adding Carolina reaper pepper juice to the wound, the Ohio county in
which Palestine is located went 3-to-1 for Trump last November.
That proposed budget cut also could eliminate 10,000 EPA jobs on top of the unprecedented number of firings Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans.
So much for the notion Trump is a champion of working people. Especially if they happen to be civil servants.
Although the salaries of federal workers sit well above average, many have nobly forgone more lucrative opportunities in the private sector to serve their nation.
“Elon Musk is talking about efficiency,” AFL-CIO leader Liz Shuler said at the aforementioned rally. “Is it waste and fraud to make sure your Social Security check comes in on time? Is it the workers who spend their days and nights and weekends protecting us on our streets, our parks, our airports that are the problem? Is it the nurses taking care of our veterans who are the problem? The real waste and fraud is the billions of dollars in handouts and tax breaks we give to the wealthiest corporations in America.”
To her point, where are the purported savings of the Elon Chainsaw Massacre? The numbers we’ve heard from DOGE simply don’t add up.
“It’s so easy when you just get to make it all up,” Michael Masnick, founder of the blog Techdirt wrote of the preposterous claims DOGE has already saved taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. “The really dumb part is how Musk and DOGE keep using the word
resigned in protest.
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” 21 staffers wrote in a le er to the White House chief of staff covered by Time Magazine. “We will not use our skills ... to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services.”
It’s hard to fathom how anyone can view fired USAID workers as members of some sinister “Deep State” as they carry the contents of their desks from the building and tear up over the fate of the world’s poorest people. Doesn’t sending in billionaire swamp creatures to “drain the swamp” at least spark an ember of cognitive dissonance?
‘fraud.’ It’s a powerful word! It implies crimes and corruption and shadowy figures doing shadowy things. What DOGE has actually found, though, is … different spending priorities. Which, sure, you might not like every government program. But that’s not fraud.”
Earlier this month, Musk retweeted a memorable fake headline from right-wing satire site The Babylon Bee: “Trump becomes first fascist in history to reduce size of government.” Popular conspiracist podcaster Timothy Pool parroted the logic.
“These people are saying that Trump and Elon have consolidated power, they’re taking over the country, it is fascism, and I’m like, yo, they’re firing people, OK?” Pool said. “They’re reducing their power in government.”
But historically, purges are kind of a fascists’ thing.
For example, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service that Nazi Germany enacted in April 1933 sought to fire all “civil servants who ... cannot guarantee that they will always stand up for the national state without reservation” — a group that overwhelmingly designated non-Aryans. Workers could also be retired without cause “for the purpose of simplifying administration.”
Were the Nazis not fascists either?
That German law compelled a socialist named Albert Einstein to resign from the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin and emigrate to New Jersey. Like him, a third of those previously involved in Musk’s DOGE racket have
“You see, these claims of fraud by President Trump and Elon Musk feel like they’re a fig leaf,” Steve Vladeck, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, told 60 Minutes. “What we’re really seeing is a consolidation of power. Fraud provides a plausible-sounding reason for running over what had been historical constraints, whether they were statutes or norms limiting the president’s ability to centralize power. The endgame here seems to be controlling every single apparatus of the federal government directly out of the White House, and that’s just never been how we’ve understood executive power.”
We needn’t choose whether the broligarchs’ reckless cruelty amounts to a malice-laden game of three-dimensional chess or jaw-dropping incompetence. The relevant point is that when authoritarians seize power, they search for undesirables on which to pin the blame. And by now, we ought to know how that story goes.
The Capitol Hill rally by government employees ended with a chorus to the tune of “The Ba le Hymn of the Republic”:
They divide us by our color; they divide us by our tongue,
They divide us men and women; they divide us old and young,
But they’ll tremble at our voices, when they hear these verses sung, For the Union makes us strong!
At best, the mass firing of federal workers is nothing more elegant than union-busting. But at worst, we may say in retrospect, “First they came for the civil servants.”
Did you speak out?
Shutterstock / Julio Javier Vargas
Voting With Your Dollars
How to spend your money as an act of resistance in San Antonio
BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN
Major companies are rolling back DEI initiatives, capitulating to Trump’s executive orders targeting inclusionary practices and language. Meanwhile, the administration appears to be extending even more power to billionaires willing to go along with its agenda.
In this uncertain time, a lot of Americans are reconsidering where they’re spending their money.
In response to the DEI rollbacks, the People’s Union organized a national Economic Blackout on Friday, Feb. 28, that asked consumers to withhold their spending nationwide to make a statement.
Businesses targeted by the blackout included major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Target, and organizers also encouraged participants to avoid buying fast food and gas.
“If consumers must make purchases, they are asked to buy only from small, local businesses,” Newsweek reported on the blackout.
As such, the Current has compiled a list of local businesses and DEI-friendly retailers to replace the major brands being targeted. Plus, we threw in a few other replacements for corporations that have engaged in anti-union behavior or donated major sums of money to Trump’s reelection.
With so many great options, why let the boyco end after Feb. 28?
1. H-E-B, Costco and farmers markets instead of Target or Walmart
Both H-E-B and Costco adamantly support DEI, and they carry many of the same household items as Target and Walmart. San Antonio has more than 40 H-E-B stores and three Costco locations. For bonus points, get your
produce from local farms. Green Bexar Farms has a community supported agriculture program, which operates like a subscription service for fresh veggies, and Balboa Farms delivers orders as low as $25. Many area growers also sell at local farmers markets.
2. Local co ee shops instead of Starbucks
After only four months on the job, new Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol was awarded $96 million in pay. Meanwhile, he announced more than 1,100 corporate layoffs in an a empt to “streamline operations.” The company’s also notorious for clamping down on unions at its 17,000 U.S. stores. Instead of supporting Starbucks, San Antonio has plenty of local options including Theory Coffee, Mila, What’s Brewing, San Antonio Gold, Summer Moon, Folklores, Rise, Poetic Republic, Revolución Cafe and many more.
3. Local flower shops instead of Trader Joe’s
Lots of people love Trader Joe’s for its flowers, but other options in town may offer less ethical baggage. Trader Joe’s is trying to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board in cahoots with Starbucks, Amazon and SpaceX. Despite its crunchy image, the company also faces accusations of anti-union practices. Try Flowerama, San Antonio
Flower Co. or farmers markets instead.
4. Local book shops instead of Amazon
Amazon has become the go-to for many Americans when it comes to reading material. However, founder Jeff Bezos’ presence behind Trump at his inauguration along with accusations of flooding striking workers are only the latest in a long list of concerns many have about the company. San Antonio boasts indie alternatives including Nowhere Bookshop, Nine Lives Books and the Twig Book Shop. Websites like Bookshop.org or Thriftbooks.com also offer options for ethically purchasing books online.
5. Local sandos instead of Jimmy John’s
Jimmy John’s CEO Jimmy John Liautaud donated $3.1 million to Trump’s re-election campaign. Why support his chain when locally owned Wicked ‘Wich offers lunchtime fare at a competitive price and keeps its profits in SA? Other great locally owned sandwich options include The Station Cafe, The Hayden, Gino’s Deli and Max & Louie’s.
6. Local hardware stores instead of Home Depot
San Antonio has lots of locally owned hardware retailers including Five Oaks Hardware, Johnny Chuoke’s, Sunset &
Co. and Braundera Yard & Hardware. Choose one of these instead of Home Depot, whose former CEO Bernard Marcus donated over $8 million to Trump’s election and reelection campaigns as a Republican megadonor.
7. VRBO or Booking.com instead of AirBnB
AirBnB cofounder Joe Gebbia joined Elon Musk’s DOGE team, prompting many customers and hosts to seek other platforms for vacation rentals in protest. Instead of AirBnB, try alternatives such as Vrbo or Booking.com
8. Local taxis or Lyft instead of Uber
If you need a ride and want to send a signal with your dollars, choose Lyft or a local cab company over Uber, which donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. San Antonio has many local cab companies to choose from including Alamo City Taxi and San Antonio Taxi.
9. Local soap makers instead of Johnson & Johnson products
Johnson & Johnson donated $1 million to Trump’s reelection campaign. Instead of the corporation’s bath products, opt for local bath and body product makers such as SoilNature. Try local farmers markets to seek out other vendors who make their goods with natural ingredients.
Shutterstock / Gorodenko
WED | 03.05 - SUN | 09.28
VISUAL ART
‘SYNTHESIS
& SUBVERSION REDUX’
Adding another voice to the chorus paying tribute to the late art-world powerhouse Frances Colpitt, Ruby City’s exhibition “Synthesis & Subversion Redux” takes the original spirit of Colpitt’s historic 1996 show “Synthesis & Subversion” and wrings new life out of it. Nearly 30 years ago, “Synthesis & Subversion” sparked conversations about the new direction of Latino art and the radical approach a tight-knit group of artists took to identity, hybridity and intersectionality at the go-go turn of the century, when conceptual and minimalist currents reigned supreme. A new group of five San Antonio artists — Juan Carlos Escobedo, Jenelle Esparza, Bárbara Miñarro, Angeles Salinas and José Villalobos — approach the original show’s borderland themes from a wildly di erent angle. Foregrounded above all else, alongside the beauty of mundane objects, is the importance of once-marginalized crafts and the importance of the body. Escobedo’s cardboard-forged articles of clothing grow deeply intricate landscapes, for example, while Miñarro’s soft sculptures incorporate clothing worn by migrants. Salinas deconstructs immigrant motherhood using textiles and suspended elements, and Villalobos and Esparza explore the materiality of farm labor in the form of multimedia installation. All in all, it’s a sprawling show that dwells on the themes of belonging, marginalization and past traumas, while also living on the cutting edge just as Colpitt initially envisioned 30 years ago. Free (reservations recommended), 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, Ruby City, 150 Camp St., (210) 227-8400, rubycity.org. — Dean Zach
WED | 03.05 - SAT | 03.29
VISUAL ART
BARBARA FELIX: ‘THE GLORIOUS WAY SHE MOVES’
San Antonio visual artist Barbara Felix is engaged in an ongoing portrait project that seeks to capture the confidence of women through fluid movement. "I paint whole-body, multi-image portraits of women of color in San Antonio as part of my evolving series, The Glorious Way She Moves,” she writes. “My work celebrates the individuality, strength and joy of women across diverse backgrounds, honoring their resilience and contributions. As a woman of mixed Hispanic and Black ancestry, I strive to foster solidarity and representation through my art, resisting forces that seek to divide us." Felix's works are kinetic and sensual, not just capturing dance in a still work but also a mysterious ecstatic quality. The exhibition is funded by an artist grant from the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture.
Free by appointment, closing reception 3-5 p.m. Saturday, March 29, Mercury Project, 538 Roosevelt Ave., (520) 3956605, mercuryproject.net. — Neil Fauerso
FRI | 03.07
VISUAL ART
CONTEMPORARY ART MONTH KICK
OFF
Contemporary Art Month 2025 starts with a bang thanks to two shows at the Contemporary gallery at Blue Star. Alyssa Danna's “Tantalizing Middle Part” offers a multi-sensory experience combining natural and artificial materials to explore the uncanny and amorphous overlap between the two. Meanwhile, Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray, curator and exhibitions director at the Contemporary, has assembled “Mosh Now, Cry Later: San Antonio’s love of sad rock and its impacts on visual culture,” which features Christie Blizard, Justo Cisneros, Joe De La Cruz, Juan Flores, Angela Fox, Brian Gonzalez, Nick Hay, Domeinic Jimenez, Ashley Mireles, Charlie Morris, Theresa Newsome, Ashley Perez, Kristy Perez and Anthony Rundblade. The playful “Mosh Now, Cry Later” explores San Antonio's deep love of music, specifically a youth culture that equally embraces both the weepy ballads of The Smiths and the cathartic discord of hardcore and punk. Free, 6-9 p.m., The Contemporary at Blue Star, 116 Blue Star, (210) 630-0235, contemporaryartmonth.org. — NF Courtesy Photo Anthony Rundblade
Courtesy Image Barbara Felix
Courtesy Photo Bárbara Miñarro;
FRI | 03.07 - SUN | 05.04
VISUAL ART
BLKCK RABBIT: “WALK THROUGH THE SHADOW, FEAR NO EVIL” AND ANDREI RENTERIA: “FRINGES: DESAPARECIDX”
As its Contemporary Art Month o ering, cactusBARN is presenting two solo exhibitions. Inside cactusBARN is BLKCK RABBIT (aka Celeste Lindsey) will display “Walk Through the Shadow, Fear No Evil,” while bitti’sGAMBREL hangs Andrei Renteria ’s “Fringes: Desaparecidx.” A recent graduate, Lindsey works primarily with India ink and cyanotype on paper. Her use of metaphor and abstraction explore themes of a conflicted relationship with the forces of patriarchy that polarize her life. Renteria is a peripatetic observer who fictionalizes the atrocities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Acting as a pseudo documentarian, Renteria’s large-scale paintings imitate the pages of the notepad paper law enforcement o cials commonly used at crime scenes, creating life-sized portraits that mimic forensic portraits of kidnappings, physical or sexual assaults and murders that correlate to the very real drug war on the frontera. Eloquent, beautifully rendered and disturbing, the images speak to a brutal reality fueled by the brevity of desire and demand. Free, opening reception 5-8 p.m. Friday, March 7 and by appointment, cactusBARN, 613 Mission, (210) 872-2364, www.cactusbarn.org. — Anjali Gupta
VISUAL ART
“THE URGE NOT TO DO ANYTHING, IS EVERYTHING”
FL!GHT Gallery dives into Contemporary Art Month with a stellar group exhibition that includes everything and the (Charlie) Kitchen sink. Floating across generations and genres, this show is a definite crowd pleaser, featuring tried-and-true local artists such as Joan Fabian along with relative newcomers including Courtney Wynn Sheets. From intimate, small-scale drawings by Tim Olsen to classic neon signs by Smo (Adam Smolinsky), this multifaceted, multimedia exhibition is a FL!GHT family affair. Also expect offerings from the inimitable Rodolfo Choperena and weirdo glass artists, including local master Sean Thomas Johnston and recent replant John Joseph Vanlandingham. Free, opening reception 6-10 p.m. Friday, March 7, 5-8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, noon-5 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, FL!GHT Gallery, 112R Blue Star, (210) 872-2586, facebook.com/flightsa. — AG
SAT | 03.08MON | 10.27
ART
VISUAL
REFLECTIONS OF NATURE
Courtesy Image Chris Sauter
In celebration of its 45th anniversary, the San Antonio Botanical Garden is presenting "Reflections of Nature," a group exhibition spread across the facility’s lush 38-acre grounds. Produced and managed by Stuart Allen and Cade Bradshaw of the interdisciplinary art firm Bridge Projects, this juried exhibition pays homage to the region’s rich history of mural art — specifically, renowned Mexican creators such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. It also celebrates the intersection of art and the natural world. Twelve regional artists — Lucas Aoki, Christin Apodaca, Kat Cadena, Rudy Herrara, Jennifer Khoshbin, Rhys Munro, Steve Parker, Chris Sauter, Kathy Sosa, Mitsumasa Overstreet, Holly Veselka and Tabria Williford — were commissioned to create murals in the broadest sense of the term. Some of the works are traditional and painted on two-dimensional surfaces, while others push the boundaries of the medium, employing materials such as transparent window film (Munro), sculpture fabricated from brass instrument parts (Parker), painted benches (Khoshbin) and video projection (Veselka). $18-$22 adults, $16-$20 military, $13-$15 children 3-13, $3 Museums for All (with SNAP or WIC EBT card and valid ID), 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Place, (210) 536-1400, sabot.org. — AG
Image CactusBARN
FL!GHT Gallery
calendar
SUN | 03.09
COMEDY
MARC MARON
Marc Maron's most recent tour was set to stop in San Antonio last October, but a conflict got in the way. Since the rescheduled date is post-election and post-inauguration, be sure the sharp-tongued standup will take shots at the political — and pseudo-political — figures taking U.S. history in unprecedented directions. Watching Maron feels like a fireside chat with a close friend who happens to rant like a curmudgeon about aging, relationships and anything else that irritates him. The comedian’s 2023 special From Bleak to Dark opens with him saying, "I don't want to be negative, but..." The statement prompts knowing audience laughter but also displays his introspective penchant for discussing unexpected comedy-special topics: the death of his partner Lynn Shelton, religion and dementia, for example. Where Maron excels is in finding humor in the bleakest of subjects. His conversational style eases you into comfort until he shakes you into contemplating your own mortality, loneliness or the passing of loved ones. His acerbic style and masterful turns make it easy to laugh, even if you don't think you should. And you should laugh. Maron is counting on it, even if he complains about it along the way. $50-$130, 7 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — Valerie Lopez
| 03.10 + WED | 03.12
SPORTS
SPURS VS. MAVERICKS
Having already lost two away games to the Dallas Mavericks earlier this season, the Spurs look to bounce back at home in consecutive contests against their longtime division rivals. It was a rough February for both franchises, with the Mavericks inexplicably trading away five-time All Star Luka Doncic to the Lakers, and both Victor Wembanyama and head coach Gregg Popovich expected to miss the remainder of the season for the Spurs. With Wemby sidelined by a blood clot in his right shoulder, San Antonio faces the prospect of missing the playoffs for a franchise record sixth straight season. After a hot start in a Spurs uniform, De’Aaron Fox’s scoring has cooled off recently, and the team will lean heavily on his fluid offense in Wembanyama’s absence. Look for San Antonio’s veteran trio of Fox, Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes to set the tone for a four-game home stand as the team slides in the standings with a li le over a month left in the season. $15 and up, 7:30 p.m. Monday and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com, KENS (Monday) and Fanduel Sports Network-Southwest (Wednesday). — M. Solis
MON | 3.15
SPORTS SPURS VS. PELICANS
After back-to-back road losses to the Pelicans in February that dropped the Spurs’ standing to third-worst in the West, acting head coach Mitch Johnson elaborated on the team’s struggles. “We just have no margin for error right now, and in this league sometimes that can be the di erence,” Johnson told reporters after a tough 103-109 loss. “The 48-minute game is long for us right now, and we have to continue to challenge ourselves to lessen some of those mistakes.” New signing Bismack Biyombo was one of the bright spots for the Spurs in New Orleans with consecutive double doubles in games where the team gave up 17- and 19-point leads. San Antonio’s ailing front court faces a tough matchup in Zion Williamson who proved a di erence maker in both games. With injuries and trades exposing weaker aspects of the team’s roster, eyes shift to the bottom of the bracket and a strong draft. With some good fortune, the franchise will look to add another impact player. $19 and up, 7:30 p.m., Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com, KENS. — MS
Shutterstock Michael Mattes
Swan Song
The McNay comes full circle with posthumous exhibition celebrating provocative Texas artist Michael Tracy
BY BRYAN RINDFUSS
Although he was born in Bellevue, Ohio, artist Michael Tracy called Texas home for decades and left deep impressions on an unsuspecting locale: the tiny border town of San Ygnacio. Best known for richly layered paintings and symbolic sculptures exploring themes of religion, ritual, immigration and sacrifice, Tracy reached the apex of his fame in the 1980s — a fruitful era punctuated by shows at the esteemed New York gallery
Mary Boone and the unveiling of his pivotal 1987 exhibition “Terminal Privileges” at the Museum of Modern Art offshoot PS1.
But Tracy’s first-ever museum show took place in San Antonio in 1971 at what was then known as the Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute.
Beginning in the 1990s, Tracy’s priorities shifted away from courting the fickle art world to focus on other projects, including designing furniture in Mexico and jewelry in India and — importantly — preserving historic structures in San Ygnacio, which is billed as “the oldest inhabited town in the USA.”
In November of 2023, McNay Art Museum Director Ma hew McLendon and Head of Curatorial Affairs René Paul Barilleaux organized a studio visit with Tracy in San Ygnacio.
“It was Thanksgiving week,” Barilleaux recalled. “Within maybe three hours of being there and meeting him, we said, ‘We have to do a show.’ It felt so right at the moment and we started planning things immediately.”
Those plans began taking shape around
the same time that Tracy was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
“He knew that this was his swan song,” Michael Tracy Foundation President Christopher Rincón told the Current, referring to both the McNay exhibition and a forthcoming publication due in 2026. Tracy’s diagnosis also affected the content of the exhibition.
“He came to the conclusion that the show needed to be about this other body of work that’s never been exhibited,” Rincón added.
Initiated in the aughts, that body of work is rooted in abstract paintings inspired by the vibrant colors of flowers in Mexico and India. Evoking zinnias and marigolds, these heavily painted canvases are complemented by some of Tracy’s hallmarks — ancient-looking sculptures seemingly designed for a conceptual house of worship — in the posthumous solo show “The Elegy of Distance.” On view at the McNay through July 27, the exhibition encompasses more than 50 objects, including examples of his signature Stations of the Cross series and an altar piece covered in human hair that re-
MMichael Tracy’s 1990 project
The River Pierce: Sacrifice II created a stir in the tiny border town of San Ygnacio.
portedly sparked gasps from viewers when it was unveiled in Mexico City in 1989.
Making waves
After graduating from St. Edward’s University in Austin in 1964 and earning an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969, Michael Tracy established residence in Galveston in the early 1970s. While there, he staged Sacrifice I: The Sugar — a ritual designed to raise awareness about worldwide food and wealth inequality. Performed in a warehouse around a pyramid of sugar, the project entailed the piercing of one of Tracy’s paintings — not to mention a doctor wrapping the artist in a full body cast and then cu ing him out of it.
While many might file The Sugar under the heading of performance art, Tracy favored the term “action” to describe his
Keith Carter
multilayered presentations. Puncturing his own paintings remained a theme for Tracy, and his habit of adorning their “wounds” with his own blood fueled early rumors that he was a Satanist.
As art historian and curator E. Luanne McKinnon pointed out in a recent memoriam published by Tragaluz: A Borderland Journal of Arts and Culture, Tracy left Galveston after a fire threatened to destroy his studio in 1978.
“As the lore goes,” McKinnon wrote, “distress about the possibility of his artworks burning up was shared with Jeanne Adams, a well-connected friend from Corpus Christi. She had driven through San Ygnacio on her way home from Nuevo Laredo and suggested the village to him as a possible perfect place in which to realize his epic output.”
While much of his work was conceived and produced in San Ygnacio, few projects made the sort of waves that swelled in the wake of 1990’s The River Pierce: Sacrifice II
Orchestrated on Good Friday, the “collaborative action” brought 200 artfully dressed outsiders to the quaint town to watch Tracy’s cruciform sculpture Cruz: La Pasión as it was transported via mule-drawn wagon to the banks of the Rio Grande, set afloat and then set on fire by performer Eugenia Vargas — who was draped in magenta silk and smeared with mud.
Other performers, including renowned Mexican artist Abraham Cruz Villegas, were wearing li le more than drying mud. Although it was intended to call a ention to environmental and socio-political injustices along the Rio Grande, Sacrifice II arguably called more a ention to Tracy’s presence in San Ygnacio.
“It was a li le terrifying,” Christopher Rincón said. “Imagine 200 people [descending on] a village with a population of 700 … and nobody knows what they’re doing. And then there were reports that they’re burning this huge thing on the river. Even [Tracy] remembered that there were Border Patrol and sheriff’s deputies hiding in the bushes trying to gather intelligence, [thinking] perhaps it’s a security issue — [maybe] they’re creating a distraction here and something else is going to happen down river.”
Among Tracy’s 200 guests was Laredo-born, San Antonio-based artist Ethel Shipton. Invited on board as technical support, Shipton was tasked with helping the performers get into character.
“I was [essentially] smearing mud on naked people,” she recalled with a laugh.
A few years later, Tracy ruffled even more feathers with the release of his 1993 video Xochitl Tlayecouani/Flower Warrior. Staged and shot amid
ruins of Guanajuato, Mexico, it starred performer Yupanqui Aguilar in a homoerotic fantasy featuring Aztec references, elaborate costumes and — as Rincón summed it up — “unabashed male frontal nudity.”
“The premise of the video was this kind of futuristic Lost Boys in the Aztec landscapes of Mexico … post-apocalyptic rituals that had evolved from some kind of nuclear disaster,” Rincón said. “Mad Max meets Georgia O’Keeffe. … [It] was received with great acclaim in San Francisco. [But] his audience in Texas was completely spooked because they saw this as a real departure. … And yet there was a whole generation of these older male patrons — who were gay on the downlow — who were like, ‘Oh, we love it!’ But they were in the minority. … He was tired of having to be this show horse in the gallery world. … At the time, he was dealing with the Whitney Museum of American Art [and] the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. … He decided: I’m going to fold all that up and put it away and never show anyone except the individuals who come to see me.”
Domino e ect
MEveryday avant-garde: Michael Tracy’s uniform consisted of knee-length tunics and Coke-bottle glasses.
translate the catalog for his first show in Mexico City, “Homenaje a Mexico” at Galería Pecanins in 1979. … I translated that catalog and he encouraged me to come down to the opening. It really was life-changing for me to connect with the Mexican art scene through Michael. That opening weekend, I met a whole bunch of artists — some of whom I kept up with for years.”
One of the people Wallace met on that trip was an art collector who invited her to housesit for him outside of Guanajuato.
“I kind of thought, what the hell. … When I was down there, I got a job at the Universidad de Guanajuato and ended up staying six years. So that whole kind of domino effect of working on Michael’s show had a profound impact on me.
$10-$20, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wed, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thu, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri, 10 a.m-5 p.m. Sat, noon-5 p.m. Sun through July 27, McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368, mcnayart.org.
“Magnetic” is a word often used to describe Michael Tracy. A fascinating conversationalist who effortlessly shifted from religion and spirituality to architecture and philosophy, Tracy charmed many and delighted in connecting artists with one another. He also acted as something of a mentor to the young artists in his orbit, which stretched from Texas to Mexico.
San Antonio artist Anne Wallace remembers meeting Tracy during his Galveston years.
“I think it was 1977,” Wallace recalled. “My mother helped him find his studio in Galveston, where I grew up. I had studied Spanish literature and I was doing translation of antique documents from Spanish to English and he asked me to
It was life-changing because out of that, I ended up living in Mexico for all those years, and it changed my view on so many things — about my life, my work, my culture, the U.S., it just gave me a different lens on everything. He had a kind of galvanizing effect.”
Highlighted in the book Groups and Spaces in Mexico, Contemporary Art of the 90s: Vol. 1: Licenciado Verdad, Tracy maintained strong ties to Mexico and rented a studio-residence in a rough-aroundthe-edges building in Mexico City’s historic downtown. Edited by Patricia Sloane, the book chronicles slices of Tracy’s life there.
I knew no one and didn’t speak Spanish very well and still don’t, but I was madly, convulsively, passionately overwhelmed and in love with Mexico.
As I never had hot water in my apartment I used to go to the Centro bathhouses.
the
‘MICHAEL TRACY: THE ELEGY OF DISTANCE’
Frankie Leal
Until 1989, I paid rent for the apartmentone year in advance: one million pesos. Later I lent it to Alejandro Diaz, but in the end I gave it to Thomas Glassford who took over in 1990.
Tracy — who amusingly refers to himself as a “gringo pirate” in Licenciado Verdad — not only welcomed Texas artists such as Diaz and Glassford into his Mexico City fold, he created captivating work there, including a series of maroon paintings based on the Aztec ruins of Templo Mayor that he exhibited at Blue Star in 1992.
A seat at the table
Conversations about Michael Tracy’s artwork can quickly evolve into conversations about the legendary dinner parties he orchestrated at his restored 19th-century home in San Ygnacio. Those lucky enough to be invited to one of Tracy’s carefully curated affairs were also privy to his confrontational nature. He notoriously pushed his friends beyond their comfort zones to ascertain what they truly thought and believed. Tracy loved a heated debate — and intended to win. As a result, Tracy’s friendships could wax and wane.
“When you come to San Ignacio, there’s this magical curtain,” Christopher Rincón said. “You drive through the wilderness until you come to a turnoff on Highway 83 and then, all of a sudden, you’re in this landscaped place that’s all pla ed-out. It feels urban but you’ve been driving through the countryside — so it’s like you’ve gone down a drain and come up in this other world. And then you [arrive at] the Zaragoza Domínguez house — a 19th-century building he restored. … He would have these beautiful dinner parties in this gorgeous space and have candlelight and a fire going. He gave so much a ention to detail for the menus and, of
course, the wine was excellent. Michael had trained himself to be an excellent cook.”
Cinematic se ing aside, what stood out to many were the animated — and often heated — discussions that took place around Tracy’s marble dinner table.
“If you got invited to one of his dinner parties, it was an amazing evening in terms of food and drink and conversation,” Anne Wallace said. “And it sometimes also involved a lot of what Christopher Rincón calls ‘dinner theater.’ It could get very dramatic … and you never really knew what was going to happen.”
“There was always delicious food and lots of wine,” Ethel Shipton echoed. “And sometimes yelling and screaming and arguing — along with laughter and play.”
Virginia Lebermann — who co-founded the influential West Texas gallery Ballroom Marfa and considered Tracy her unofficial godfather — entered Tracy’s orbit early in life.
“I met him when I was very young because he and my mother were friends,” Lebermann said. “I was at many of his dinner parties at the Zaragoza Domínguez house. And that table, the conversations and the passion, it’s just wild — everything that I learned around that table. … My mother called him the morning after a dinner party that she had missed. And she asked, ‘What happened? How did it go?’ And he said, ‘Oh, we’re still just wiping up the blood off the table.’”
Michael Tracy’s legacy
In a passage from Licenciado Verdad, Tracy wrote, “[I] am back in San Ygnacio, where I have been doing what I started in 1990: creating a space meant to expand San Ygnacio as a National Historic Landmark.”
Organized under the umbrella of the River Pierce Foundation, Tracy’s efforts
MAltar Triptych: Deep Calls Unto Deep in the Roar of Your Waterfalls comprises gold dust, sewing needles, bronze spikes, glass and human hair.
originally entailed an artist residency program that would create cross-cultural dialogue between the U.S. borderlands and Latin America. Inspired by his profound interest in challenging the concept of borders — especially ones governed by water — and the stories he heard firsthand from undocumented immigrants crossing through San Ygnacio, Tracy’s foundation began to evolve.
“He wanted the River Pierce Foundation to take this part of the Rio Grande and use it to sustain life and give freedom and empowerment to not only the migrants who were coming through here with their stories of hardship, but also the artists and the citizens who were witnessing [these injustices],” Christopher Rincón explained. “In 1997, the oldest building in San Ygnacio — the Treviño-Uribe Rancho — became a National Historic Landmark. … All of the other historic villages and se lements — on both sides of the Rio Grande — were relocated, except for San Ygnacio.
“And this collection of 33 historic buildings are the last of their kind in the United States. And even though it points to these colonial origins, there’s a whole other aspect of understanding the indigenous people who were here before: the Esto’k Gna, or Carrizo/Comecrudo. This is one of the most ancient peoples in this part of the world. … A private individual came to Michael and said, ‘I’ve acquired the most important buildings from my family. I’m turning 75 and I don’t have the energy to sustain this historic architecture. I want the River Pierce Foundation to buy them, because [it] has the ability to raise money and do the historic preservation.”
The River Pierce Foundation now owns seven historic buildings in San Ygnacio — including the Treviño-Uribe Rancho, a fort constructed in 1830.
Sharing her thoughts about Tracy in Tragaluz magazine, Rio Grande International Study Center Executive Director Tricia Cortez wrote, “Michael Tracy’s legacy was one of uplifting the historic and precious community of San Ygnacio. He elevated San Ygnacio’s profile through his creation of the River Pierce Foundation and by restoring the fort and other historic buildings. … I worked with him during our struggle to prevent the confiscation of vast swaths of public and private lands by the deeds to construct the Border Wall. His efforts put San Ygnacio on the map. Our coalition was able to save 71 river miles in Webb and Zapata counties from destruction.”
Although still undergoing restoration, the River Pierce Foundation’s Treviño-Uribe Rancho welcomes visitors on the first Sunday of the month between the hours of noon and 5 p.m. But Tracy’s vast network of
Mfriends and fans are rightfully more excited by the promise of what’s to become of his storied homestead, the Zaragoza Domínguez house, now under the guidance of his unofficial goddaughter Virginia Lebermann.
“What Michael and I talked about was a residency program — [focusing on] poetry and music, things that really interested him,” Lebermann said. “His studio at the Zaragoza Domínguez house, we talked about it as an exhibition space — it’s tiny, but you could do really beautiful, small exhibitions in there. Those are ideas that we threw around. Certainly nothing is clear just yet, but those are some ideas that he had. And to keep that space alive.
“I don’t know how we could ever keep those dinner conversations as thunderous as they used to be, but we could try. … All of the passion around the table, the passion about bringing artists and filmmakers and musicians together, the importance of creativity, the importance of cross-cultural conversation, the importance of borders — all of that was his influence on me. … I miss him terribly. My gosh, the world got so much more milquetoast without him in it.”
A crowd of 200 artsy guests descended on San Ygnacio for the controversial offering The River Pierce: Sacrifice II.
Courtesy Photo McNay Art Museum
David Crossley
Disaster Artist
San Antonio native Fidel Ruiz-Healy screening TV pilot Stars Diner at SXSW
BY KIKO MARTINEZ
For filmmaker and San Antonio native Fidel Ruiz-Healy and his longtime co-writer and director Tyler Walker, the idea for their latest short project started during a visit to what Ruiz-Healy describes as a “lousy diner” in Austin.
At the diner, Ruiz-Healy, Walker, co-writer and producer Mary Neely and another pal ordered a meal that took entirely too long to get. When they got their drinks after an hour, one of them thought it would be funny to order a steak.
“It took two hours to get the steak,” RuizHealy told the Current during a recent interview. “When we tried to pay, it took forever. It felt like we were being held hostage.”
After they managed to escape, the friends started sending each other messages and joking around in a group chat about their bizarre diner experience. The messages included a series of imaginary situations that might have been a reason their trip to the restaurant felt like they’d fallen into a time warp.
“We had a brainstorming session, and the story kept evolving,” Ruiz-Healy said. “It was like, ‘The zombie apocalypse is happening outside, and we still haven’t go en our food!’”
Ruiz-Healy, Walker and Neely decided to turn their ideas into the script for Stars Diner. The TV pilot takes viewers into a small diner in Fresno, California, where a volcano is about to erupt and ruin everyone’s day.
During our interview, Ruiz-Healy, a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and currently a Los Angeles resident, talked about the reason he thought his real-life diner experience was funny and what he’d ultimately like to see happen to his idea for a TV series.
Stars Diner will screen March 9 at 6 p.m. in Austin’s SXSW Independent TV Pilot Program at Rollins Theatre at The Long Center. It also will screen at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin on March 13 at 6:15 p.m.
You know, most people who experience bad service at a restaurant don’t find humor in it. (Laughs.) I mean, we’re all very reasonable, patient people, so we just laughed about it. There were other people in the diner yelling, “This is ridiculous!” We were like, “OK, that person is not having a good time.” But we were having a great time. It was like 3 a.m. We were not in a rush to get anywhere.
I’m assuming there are no active volcanoes in Fresno, right?
No volcanoes, which is why we thought it would be funny for it to take place there.
Did you have any old TV shows in mind when making Stars Diner?
I know one that we kept going back to was Cheers. It’s like the happiest place on earth where you always make friends. Of course, [Stars Diner] is an absurdist version of Cheers that has a spooky sci-fi and disaster twist.
The reason it became a TV show and not a short film is because we came up with so many ideas for what could happen in this diner. We were like, “It should be a show where something ridiculous happens in every episode!” Also, there’s no recollection of the last thing that happened because it always gets resolved miraculously.
So, if Stars Diner is picked up by a network and given a 10-episode first season, do you already have 10 disasters in mind?
Oh, yeah. We put together like 30 ideas. There’s a zombie episode. There’s an episode where the diner gets lost at sea and they come back as ghost pirates. There’s one where the busboy gets turned into a killer robot. There’s one where they become Power Rangers adjacent.
I’d love to see something like Comedy Central give it a shot.
Yeah, I hope we can make more episodes of this silly idea. It was just a lot of fun to make. The industry’s been slow, so it was a very low stakes thing that we threw together. We tried to spend as li le money as possible. I made a volcano for the first time because I never did that in science class.
Yes, you got to experiment with some animation, which turned out great!
Tyler and I had done some stuff with [animation], but we had never gone this far with it. I think we were just trying to see how stylized we could get. In the [episode], you see that Fresno doesn’t really exist. It’s only portrayed in this miniature town that I built in my kitchen. It was like, “Oh, what if the volcano explosion is co on balls!?” It’s purposely very silly.
Find more fi lm stories at sacurrent.com
The American Standard Film Company
Cocktail Creativity
The Bar at Mixtli is as innovative as the lauded restaurant’s kitchen
BY RON BECHTOL
When the prestigious Michelin dining guide issued its first Texas edition last fall, its sole San Antonio star went to Mixtli, Southtown’s purveyor of “progressive Mexican culinaria.”
Mixtli — a Nahuatl word meaning “cloud” — focuses on regional Mexican cuisines with one eye on culinary and cultural history and another on the future. No surprise that the current menu, Mexico 1848, was already fully booked for March at this writing.
My advice: get on the mailing list.
Suggestion number two: drop by Mixtli’s adjacent bar. It’s as inventive on the cocktail front as the kitchen is at the food frontier and reservations aren’t required. Also, a modest re-do has made the small space more user-friendly — no longer do patrons seated at the bar feel like a kids with their chin on the grownups’ table.
As with the food menu, the cocktail list changes seasonally, providing an excuse, if you need one, to indulge frequently. An earlier visit introduced me to Nixta, a Mexican Licor de Elote, or corn-based spirit, that uncannily both tastes and smells of masa and has been on my own back bar ever since.
Hanging out in a closet of mine is The Smoking Gun, a device I bought a few years back that may need to be hauled out again due to inspiration provided by Mixtli’s Smoked Manha an. But even having the gun at the draw, I’m more likely to order the drink here due to its other specialty preparation: fat washing.
No, this is not a new form of liposuction but rather a process in which a fa y substance (bacon is popular when paired with bourbon) is melted, stirred with a spirit, left to infuse, then frozen enough so that any congealed fat can be strained off.
In Mixtli’s case, the fat is corn bu er, which is “washed” in both tequila and mezcal. The drink is brought to you under a glass dome swirling with smoke — yet another reason to order this at the bar. When the dome is lifted, smoke does indeed get in your eyes, but more importantly makes itself known on the tongue. There’s not a molecule too much or too li le.
Once the air has cleared, more subtle flavors of plump corn and pungent mole bi ers emerge. It’s a beautiful drink and definitely not your abuelo’s Manha an.
The smoky vegetal notes in Magdalena’s Kitchen come about a li le more naturally as a result of mezcal and chamomile — perhaps abe ed by caramelized onion. Caramelized onion, you say? My thoughts exactly. I’m not sure how they achieved this — more infusing, perhaps. But the sweet and pungent onion flavor does come through, subtly, all balanced by lime, poblano and a salt solution scented with masa. Again, be happy to let the pros do this one.
The pre iest drink of the evening was El Libre, based on tequila and rum. Not a combination I usually think of as obvious. In the “drink to me only with thine eyes” sense, the electric ruby color first a racts, followed by a transparent shard of melted sugar and a proudly large ice cube “branded” with the Mixtli cloud logo. Sage and blackberry, a handsome pair, dominate the taste spectrum, with lavender shyly following behind. I’m not sure what the jocoque — it’s usually a kind of sour cream — contributes. Maybe a tad of lactic tang. But as the drink was crystal clear, Mixtli might have employed some clarification trickery. I’ll spare
THE BAT AT MIXTLI
food
you the details of that process. Whatever the mixological magic, the drink was perfect down to the last, by-then-pale-pink, drop.
Among the other drinks that caught my a ention was the Miner’s Coffee, using the above-mentioned Nixta, Mexican whiskey and Licor 43. Think Carajillo with more depth and finesse.
But even the diehard boozehound would do well to examine the list of non-alcoholic drinks. It’s among the most artful and appealing I have seen anywhere. The “aromatic, tangy, effervescent” El Desafio, for example, combines pickled cherry, lavender and sage with sparkling water. And the Poetic End, served warm, marries hibiscus with yerba buena, rosemary, lemongrass and agave. Got to be good for you.
There’s also a small but thoughtful wine list with a few Mexican bo les.
The response when asked about bar snacks and small plates was “coming soon,” which has been the case for some time now. When management gets its head out of the clouds long enough to deliver, the Bar at Mixtli stands to become star-studded in its own right.
812 S. Alamo St., (210) 338-0746, restaurantmixtli.com/the-bar
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m.
Prices: Cocktails run $12-$18
The Lowdown: Southtown’s Mixtli enjoys a stellar reputation for its “progressive” take on Mexican cuisine. The same creativity applies to its adjacent bar, which serves up inspired cocktails including a Smoked Manha an you’ll be tempted to let the bartenders handle even if you know how to prep it at home. The Magdalena’s Kitchen mixes mezcal and chamomile to great results. Don’t overlook the non-alcoholic cocktails, which happen to be some of the most artful and appealing you’re likely to encounter. A menu of bar snacks has been in the works for a while now, and its arrival would only catapult the experience further into the clouds.
Ron Bechtol.
Cooking up Conversation
Leche de Tigre
chef-owner Emil Oliva always looking to keep things fresh
BY KAT STINSON
Name: Emil Oliva
Job: Chef-owner, Leche de Tigre
Birthplace: Laredo, Texas
Years in food service: 12
Big impact: Oliva opened upscale Peruvian restaurant Leche de Tigre, 318 E. Cevallos St., with his brothers Axel and Alec. The Southtown eatery has gone on to win accolades such as an appearance on the first Texas Michelin Guide’s recommended list and a James Beard Award nomination for Emil Oliva in the Best Chef: Texas category.
Money quote: “That li le house in Southtown has our blood, sweat and tears. It has that magic a lot of restaurants seek. Hopefully we will be there for a very long time.”
Do you ever plan to add a second Leche de Tigre location?
I think for Leche, we really want to have one special place in San Antonio. A second location would have to be in another city. Never say never!
We’re constantly inspired by our friends at Emmer and Rye Hospitality. [Editor’s note: Emmer & Rye is the group behind San Antonio’s Pullman Market and Ladino along with multiple Austin restaurants.] We really look to them for a lot of advice and how to move forward and how to grow. They’ve really changed Austin’s food and beverage scene, and now they’re changing the San Antonio scene because they come up with so many different unique concepts. And, you know, we also love Chef Fermín Núñez [Este, Suerte], who has also been a great friend to us for the same reasons. They’ve always been there for us when we need advice.
So yes, there will be another Leche — in another city.
Tell us about your background in the industry.
I knew from the age of 21 that I wanted to be a restaurateur. My mother is Mex-
ican and my father is Peruvian, so I was exposed to two of the greatest cuisines in the world while growing up.
Life took me through different paths from my restaurateur goal initially, but I always remained in hospitality. I tried to do different areas, restaurant operations, event organization and even wine sales. I tried to move around the hospitality industry to really try to get experience from all different sides, not just restaurant operations.
I thought about culinary school, but at the time, it was very expensive for me, so I wasn’t able to do it. And I believe things happen for a reason. I feel like I’ve gained a lot of hands-on cooking experience. When I would travel to Peru, I would be able to cook at some family’s and friends’ restaurants, and I got a lot of experience there.
Leche de Tigre is a concept that my brothers and I have been wanting to open for 10 years. You know, before we
will be, [because] there’s a vast pool of ever-growing talent in the city. The Michelin Guide does set a standard. We don’t necessarily cook for the awards, you know, we cook for our guests every single day, but it’s so nice to be recognized.
How do you keep Leche de Tigre’s food and service quality consistent following the accolades?
It’s really because me, Axel and Alec came from the service industry. We really know what every single position is, and we’re very empathetic, you know? We try to create a service-based work culture. It comes from bartenders, from cooks, from front-of-house and back-of-house. I think us coming from being servers, bartenders and cooks, we have a li le bit more of an understanding on what the staff needs and what they want, and we listen to them. We listen to them on the small and big things, and I think that’s important to our staff. We’ve been fortunate enough to create that work culture where … we have very low turnover. We get applications all the time, every single day, and it’s fla ering for us because that means people want to work here, because they hear that it’s a great work environment — and that’s really our goal, right? We just want people to know that here, when you walk in for a shift or for dinner, you know you’re going to walk in with a smile.
What’s up for Leche’s third year?
opened it … I didn’t know that I was going to be the one cooking!
I feel that it helped a lot in many ways, you know, not just for restaurants, but I was working with spirit and wine brands, so I was able to learn how brands market themselves and how they work with restaurants and bars. Every position I took was intentional with the goal to open a restaurant. I had never cooked professionally before, and so [Leche] is my first professional cooking job.
How did you feel when Leche de Tigre made Michelin’s Recommended list? It was surreal. Being able to be there with some of the best talent in the state was really humbling. I think it motivated us even more because, of course, it’s a great honor. We really, really appreciate the Michelin Guide. There’s a lot of restaurants in San Antonio that we would have loved to see there as well. And so maybe this next year they
We want to get more involved in San Antonio’s culinary community. I think that’s one of our goals for year three — we want to focus on a lot of collaborations with local chefs and also some Austin chefs. We’re also considering adding an outdoor bar to relieve some of the pressure from the bar inside Leche de Tigre.
Being nominated for a James Beard Award is also a huge honor. We’ll see what happens with that. If we were to continue on into the finalist round and make it out to Chicago for the awards, that would probably change all my goals moving forward after that. It is a personal goal for us to go for a star in the Michelin Guide. And so we’re taking the steps necessary to get there to be considered to be in the running on service, on food as well.
We’re always looking to stay creative and keep things fresh. I have to credit my brothers for their hard work too — I don’t even think we would be where we are today if it wasn’t for them.
Courtesy Photo Hagan Rivas Marketing & Media Group
Lyrical Roadmap
Ahead of Sunset Festival, Band of Horses’
Ben Bridwell talks about sharing the deeply personal
BY DANNY CERVANTES
Ben Bridwell’s life is pre y transparent.
Just listen to the Band of Horses lead singer’s lyrics and you’ll understand where Bridwell is at any given moment. The group’s catalog plays out like a roadmap of his life journey.
“I’m such an open book that it can be quite annoying to myself,” said Bridwell via Zoom from his home outside Charleston, S.C.
Band of Horses will perform Friday, March 7, at The Espee as one of the headlining acts of the inaugural two-day Sunset Festival, which also features Spoon, Santigold and Warren G.
During a recent discussion with the Current, Bridwell talked about his deeply personal lyrics, the upcoming show and how Band of Horses songs have taken on new meaning over the years.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Band of Horses’ music is driven by your songwriting. What’s your process like? It usually starts with me fumbling with an instrument. I’m not really proficient at any of them, but some melody will reach out to me. I just hope I’m a good enough conduit to receive it and push it correctly. Then with the words, there’s usually a process of me trying to talk myself out of revealing too much.
With “No One’s Gonna Love You,” I remember specifically having to talk myself into saying it. And I’m like, “Come on man, you grew up with Marvin Gaye and these beautiful love songs.” These guys were more men because they could say it.
I think fans connect to your music because it’s very personal and reveals deeper truths. Have songs like “No One’sGonna Love You” or “The Funeral” evolved in meaning over time?
Let’s take those two songs, our two biggest. I could say “No One’s Gonna Love You” has aged kind of oddly because it sounds like I’m an incel stalker. No one? More than I do?
(Laughs.) I never thought of it that way. I can ruin it for you. (Laughs.) Or “The Funeral.” One time I went and sang at a person’s funeral and they wanted me to play that song. I was like, “It’s too weird. Come on.”
Over the years, people have gravitated toward the band or me for commiseration or something. I guess they feel I’m open enough to talk about personal experiences with people they’ve lost and things like that. So, it sometimes takes a more heavy tone when I was writing it, like a foreseeable omen in the distance. Even with my kids now, I feel a deeper connection to what I was talking about at the time.
A few years ago, you collaborated with J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. who sings on “In A Drawer.” How did that come together?
I sang on J’s first solo record, singing backup for him. Years later, I have this song that I was stuck on what to do with the chorus. I was listening
to Dinosaur Jr. covering The Cure and started doing an impression of J singing over my chorus. And I was like, “Shit, maybe J’s voice can get in there. It would be perfect.” So it started by listening to a Cure song, and now we have J on a Band of Horses record, and I’m proud of that.
Any plans to tour behind the 20th anniversary of Everything All the Time?
Knowing that it’s been coming, I’ve been talking about it. But we have so much reserves, other songs and materials to pull from. More than anything, it’s full steam ahead writing new music. It’s hard to slow down that train, and at this age, you’ve got to keep leaning.
I do plan on celebrating the 10-year anniversary of a covers album I did
with Sam [Beam] of Iron & Wine. But maybe some scientists, behind the scenes, have a bigger idea for Everything All the Time
Last thing, talk about coming to San Antonio for this new festival at the Espee with Spoon.
I have so much respect for Spoon. I was actually a big fan from their first days, and my Dad, brother and me nerd out over Spoon records. It’s always a good day when you get to be at a festival with a band that you not only respect but just love their tunes.
We’ve grown up in age where we’ve seen a lot of small festivals grow before our eyes. I’m always stoked for those, because they feel so homey. And I’m excited to be in Texas before it’s too hot.
SUNSET: THE FESTIVAL AT THE ESPEE
The Espee, 1174 E. Commerce St., (210) 226-5700, theespee.com
Tickets: $45-$155
Friday, March 7 lineup: Spoon, Band of Horses, Aly & AJ, The Droptines, Tanner Legg & The Heaters, Cody Jasper, Bu ercup, Elnuh
Saturday, March 8 lineup: Santigold, Warren G, Allen Stone, Lilyisthatyou, The Daisy Killers, Nicky Diamonds, Los Juanos, Baldemar
Sarah Gee
San Antonio’s Sunset Festival also includes noteworthy local acts
BY JEPH DUARTE
While the debut of the Sunset Festival at The Espee boasts impressive headliners, including Spoon, Band of Horses, Santigold and Warren G, it’s worth arriving early to catch the full breadth of its musical offerings.
A bevy of talented San Antonio-based artists will grace the stage during both days of the event, which runs Friday, March 7-Saturday, March 8. Here’s a quick rundown:
Buttercup: Friday, March 7
It’s hard to imagine any music fest showcasing San Antonio artists not including long-running avant-pop outfit Bu ercup. Known for its brand of off-kilter showmanship, the band treats every show as a one-of-a-kind event. For one, it’s unafraid to seek out strange venues — a gay bar at 7 a.m., an empty warehouse, the Japanese Tea Gardens to name a few. On top of that, its antics range from frontman Erik Sanden being driven onto the stage on a moped to having the audience watch the band perform in a separate room via TVs embedded in trash cans. Mix in catchy-as-hell pop tunes, spot-on harmonies and infectious melodies, and it’s no wonder Bu ercup has emerged as one of SA’s
San Antonio’s Jason Kane and the Jive dropping new album at March 15 show
BY MIKE MCMAHAN
Agood rock tune contains timeless elements. The trick lies in figuring out which ones go where.
San Antonio-based singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboardist Jason Kane understands just where those pieces fit together. You could say he knows how to wield an axe and when to swing the blade.
Kane and his trio, The Jive, will drop the new album Find Out for Yourself on Saturday, March 15, at a release show at Jandro’s Garden Patio. Find Out unloads the kind of driving, melodic rock riffs that sound like they were wri en anytime
homegrown musical treasures.
Elnuh: Friday, March 7
Elena Lopez, known by the stage name Elnuh, fronts a trio specializing in “dreamy trashgaze,” as she describes it. As the name suggests, the sound harkens back to the ’90s shoegaze stylings of Ride or Lush, but Lopez’s piercing lyrics and beckoning tone bear a hint of Harriet Wheeler, simultaneously sweet and sad. The vocal anguish ties in effortlessly with the band’s lush sonic textures. Delicate layered guitars float over a strong backbone of bass and drums provided by Luke Mitchell and Daniel Puente, respectively.
The
Daisy Killers: Saturday, March 8
Existing to remind everyone that San Antonio remains a rock ’n’ roll town, The Daisy Killers offer exquisitely wri en, highly polished and well-produced alternative songs. At the same time, the band’s use of tricky time signatures and complex melodies will make fans of Tool and Queens of the Stone Age feel right at home. The group’s latest release, View Drive Sessions, belongs as much on 99.5 KISS as it does KSYM. A growing recognition of The Daisy Killers has also elevated the band toward a bright national spotlight, suggesting it may be the next I-remem-
between the early ’70s and a recent, hazy Friday night. And Kane, bassist Ace Jackson and drummer Tommy Bryant deliver said riffs with an infectious abandon.
By the sound alone, these guys could easily have dropped a double-live album with a gatefold sleeve at some point in their career — and maybe they still will.
But Kane and the Jive are about more than riffs. Tight harmonies, catchy songwriting and freight trainstyle boogie blues are also part of the package. We’re talking Aerosmith (when they were good, naturally), Faces and Humble Pie here.
Given the band’s versatility, you’d be forgiven for wondering if Kane grew up around a melting pot of sounds, and the answer is yes. His father spent time in Chicago metal bands, while his mom instilled a love of more chill ’70s rock.
Mber-them-when act to come out of San Antonio.
Los Juanos: Saturday, March 8
Los Juanos seamlessly blend a captivating tapestry of traditional Tejano and American pop punk, making the act a San Antonio mainstay. The band’s ability to navigate a wide range of genres also suggests it stands to expand on its already-solid fanbase. Founded by dream-pop singer Baldemar, who’s opening Saturday with a solo set of jangly originals, Los Juanos extend beyond labels while embracing South Texas’ rich musical roots.
As evidence of the band’s eye to earlier decades, they even manage to use Roman numerals in Find Out’s song titles without being prog. Check out “Honeybird” and the bluesy slow burn of “Honeybird II.” And don’t sleep on the sweet, wah-laden leads on “Taking My Time.”
Expect plenty of material from Find Out at the
release show. Local metalloid psych-prog hybrid Syr, which includes Current editor-in-chief Sanford Nowlin, will open the show with mind- melting sounds.
$5, 10 p.m. Saturday, March 15, Jandro’s Garden Patio, 2623 N. St. Mary’s St., facebook.com/jandrostx.
Instagram / elnuh
Courtesy Image Jason Kane
Elnuh will perform Friday at the Sunset festival.
critics’ picks
Wednesday, March 5
Tab Benoit
Tab Benoit is one of the last great blues guitar heroes, having risen from humble Louisiana origins to international stardom and numerous awards. The guy can play, straight up, and he does it while capturing the distinctive sound of his home state. Call it bayou blues if you need to call it something. Benoit has also fought for righteous causes, including wetland restoration, which makes him all the more worthy of support. $30, 8 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 East Grayson St., samsburgerjoint.com. — Bill Baird
Saturday, March 8
Harvey McLaughlin, Jon Dee Graham
Over the past two decades, San Antonio native Harvey McLaughlin has released an impressive folio of music, both as a solo artist and member of various groups. Behind the strength of two solo albums, the singer-keyboardist blends soul, rock and R&B into a fusion uniquely his own. McLaughlin currently serves as keyboardist for Austin-San Antonio cowpunk ensemble Hickoids as well as the Chicano soul revival group Eddie & The Valiants. Texas music legend Jon Dee Graham will play middle slot bringing his inimitable fusion of blues, folk and solid storytelling. Choppy H. Waters will open. Ticket price unavailable, 8 p.m., Lonesome Rose, 2114 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 455-0233, thelonesomerosesa. com. — Danny Cervantes
Sunday, March 9
NCT 127
K-Pop act NCT 127’s name refl ects their origins at the 127th meridian, the location of Seoul, South Korea. Formed in 2016 by entertainment promoters interested in showcasing “Neo Culture Technology,” the boy band has since grown to nine members, eight of whom remain active. Di ering from many K-Pop peers, NCT 127 is known for a style that incorporates more experimental hip-hop sounds. Elements of EDM show up in the group’s hit “Cherry Bomb.” $43.50-$203.50, 8 p.m., Frost Bank Center, One Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com. — DC
Monday, March 10
Bit Brigade
Bit Brigade, specialists in a mashup of indie-pop and computer nostalgia, will perform the music of the Nintendo game Super Mario live while a gamer speeds through play in the Mushroom Kingdom and the Grand Prix track on a video screen. This is the kind of o -thewall stu many of us live for. $17, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx. com. — BB
Wednesday, March 12
Andy Grammer, Sheppard
The stream and follower counts of singer-songwriter Andy Grammer are measured in billions and millions respectively. His rise from Santa Monica busker to uplifting multi-platinum artist has been quite a come up over the past 15 years. In October, Grammer released Monster, his fi rst new studio album in nearly fi ve years. It spawned the single “Lease on Life,” which builds on his catalog of hits. $35-$95, 8 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — DC
Thursday, March 13
Deftones, The Mars Volta, Fleshwater California’s Deftones have spent more than three decades building an immense following outside traditional music genres. Founding members Stephen Carpenter and Chico
Moreno brought along diverse infl uences such as Anthrax, Bad Brains and The Cure as the group coalesced around a sound that blends alt-rock, metal and more. The band is touring as a headliner for the fi rst time since 2022 as fans await its tenth studio album. Reportedly all instruments are tracked and just await Moreno’s vocals. $75.50-$165.50, 7 p.m., Frost Bank Center, One Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com. — DC
Friday, March 14
Bob Schneider
Though not widely known across the U.S., Schneider is a household name in Austin, where he’s garnered praise for his o -kilter songwriting and playful persona. He’s also gotten interest for dating Sandra Bullock, writing songs alongside Jason Mraz and
Patty Gri n and being generally inescapable on the radio in Texas’ capital city. $20, 8:30 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 East Grayson St., samsburgerjoint.com. — BB
Saturday, March 15
Ian Moore
Ian Moore started his career in the mold of a standard — but still impressive — Austin blues-rock guitar god. He released major-label albums full of scorching pentatonic fretboard work, and he opened tours for the Rolling Stones and ZZ Top. However, around the turn of the millennium, Moore expanded his sound to weave in psychedelic, Beatles-esque, and gospel infl uences, much to the benefi t of his recordings and artistry. $20, 8:30 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 East Grayson St., samsburgerjoint.com. — BB
Jaime Monzon
LINERS
Assistant Worship Director (San Antonio, TX), DuInternational Motors, LLC is seeking a Supplier Quality Assurance Engineering Manager Associate in San Antonio, TX with the following requirements: Bachelor’s degree and 6 years of supplier quality experience including 1 year lead experience OR Master’s degree and 4 years of supplier quality experience including 1 year lead experience OR 8 years of supplier quality experience including 1 year lead experience. Required Skills: Use root cause analysis to nd origin of a problem and understand how to x it (4 yrs); Apply GD&T to identify speci c features of a part that are critical to solve a problem (4 yrs); Apply Design Engineering Standards and Requirements (AWS, SAE - Society of Automotive Engineers, ASME – American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ANSI – American National Standards Institute), GD&T (ASME 14.5) – Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, Regulatory to understand engineering prints and ensure part compliance through problem solving and during corrective and preventive actions (4 yrs); Apply requirements used in Commercial Vehicles (ITAR – International Tra c in Arms Regulations, FMVSS – Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) to assess supplier ability to meet manufacturing requirements related to supplier compliance during the corrective and preventative actions (4 yrs). 5% international and 20% domestic travel required; must live within normal commuting distance of San Antonio, TX. Bene ts: https://careers.international. com/#bene ts. Salary range: $125,000 -$135,000.
Apply at https://careers.international.com/ Refer to Job #57962.
“Gallery Display”--you’ll know it when you see it. by Matt Jones
© 2025 Matt Jones
Across
1. Aromatic resin
7. Pose the question
10. Letters before gees
14. “Like sands through the hourglass, so ___ days of our lives ...”
15. “Got it!”
16. Spread on a BLT
17. Remain aboard
18. Negative responses
19. Almond shade
20. Boxer Liston and his new constitution?
23. German article
24. Looking with no subtlety
25. 157.5 deg. from N
26. Luau garland
27. Take care of
30. ___ Ra erty, “Baker Street” singer
32. Accept, like a coupon
33. Mixed drink with gin, vermouth, cheese, vegetables, and pastry crust?
36. Speechify
37. Groan-inducing
38. Malbec, for one
39. “Celebrity Jeopardy!” winner Barinholtz
40. Swab the deck
43. Hang on the line
47. “Brave New World” happiness drug
48. Scottish player who’s a hit at all festivities?
52. Tiger noise, to the under-2 set
53. It may be tapped
54. Palindromic 1976 greatest hits album with the track “MaMa-Ma Belle”
55. Jai ___ (fast game)
56. Noteworthy stretch
57. Having an outer layer, like fruit
58. Tailless domestic cat
59. Shortest Morse code unit
60. Like some beer or bread
Down
1. Low end of the choir
2. Belgian beer Stella ___
3. Grayson who was the title character in the Apple TV+ thriller “Servant”
4. “Funny Girl” composer Jule
5. Nautical hello
6. Collection of animals
7. Restaurant chain with root beer oats
8. Jolt
9. Healthy cereal brand
10. Reason for a siren
11. Something proven
12. ___ Festival 2 (recently announced sequel to a 2017 disaster)
13. Like some gummy candies
21. Irish actor Kristian of “Our Flag Means Death”
22. “Training Day” director Fuqua
26. Calligraphy introduction?
28. Classic Japanese drama form
29. Beats creator
30. International auto race
31. Puppy sound
32. Peachy keen
33. Trim a lawn
34. Melber of MSNBC
35. 1/20th of a ream
40. Bikes with engines
41. Egg dish (in this economy?)
42. Yankovic genre
44. Annoyed
45. Pre x before dactyl
46. Use a shovel on
47. Cathedral city of Tuscany
48. Airport people mover
49. Hi, in Hidalgo
50. Actor McGregor
51. “Swan Lake” bend Answers on page 25.
