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Police don’t know what’s behind SA’s rise in Violent crime, DA blames ‘jungle mentality’: “‘Rise in population and extreme economic segregation’ NOT ‘jungle mentality.’ Quit shuffling the poorest and most vulnerable around while you gentrify their homes and start adequately tackling the humanitarian crisis of economic inequality in our city. Stop using offensive sounding terms like ‘jungle mentality.’” – Jessica Ibarcena Texas Tech Wants to Give Campus Pigeons Birth Control: “Their body their choice!” — Alecks Orona Witness says driver who crashed into church bus was texting: “I was on this road the day before. This is a very curving road that you need to stay alert on. So very, very sad for the families and for the young man. He has to live with this for the rest of his life.” – Kathleen Leger Greer The East Side is getting a distillery: “Another reason to raise property taxes and kick out all the original residents. Bring in the hipster garbage.” – Osvaldo Charles
IN THIS
ISSUE Issue 17_14 ///April 5-April 11, 2017
08
NEWS
Cruel and Unusual Texas can’t use fiction to justify executing intellectually disabled people anymore
In 1951, San Antonio’s “Fiesta for the little people” was born at the Arneson River Theatre, where the Empress of the Cracked Salad Bowl was crowned by King Anchovy I. In the decades that followed, Cornyation has seen wild ups and downs — morphing with changing times and broadening its focus (from high society to politics and beyond), while always employing satire as a medium for pointed commentary. This week, we explore Cornyation’s history with Trinity professor Amy Stone, author of the hotlyanticipated book Cornyation: San Antonio’s Outrageous Fiesta Tradition. Photo courtesy of the Institute of Texan Cultures Art direction by Sarah Flood-Baumann
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CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
FEATURE
World Upside-Down Diving into the history of Fiesta’s most outrageous party with Amy Stone
22
CALENDAR
Our top picks for the week
19
Cultural Exchange That time a Texas official spent his spring break teaching Israeli settlers how to lasso “Jungle Mentality” DA offers a new theory for what’s behind SA’s rise in violent crime
ARTS + CULTURE
COVER
15
Fake Names, Real Policy Texas push to de-fund Planned Parenthood is based on the work of two alleged criminals
31 ON THE
24
Get Lit Our picks for the fifth annual San Antonio Book Festival
43
NIGHTLIFE
Heading East The city’s east side is gaining a distillery this summer Flavorful Fiesta NIOSA will pour local craft brews for the first time ever
37
SCREENS
Freaky Friday Stunning visuals and grownup themes in the bodyswitching anime Your Name
45
MUSIC
Music Calendar What to see and hear this week
39
FOOD
Mighty Fine An evening at Andrew Weissman’s Signature Food Court Finding the Lost Cajun, more doughnuts and menus for Houston Street Food
52
ETC.
Savage Love Jonesin’ Crossword Freewill Astrology
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NEWS
ALEX ZIELINSKI | @ALEX_ZEE
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL •
Bobby James Moore
≥
Texas can’t use fiction to justify executing intellectually disabled people anymore
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with a Texas death row inmate last week, ruling that the state’s standard for measuring intellectual disability in cases of capital punishment were outdated and non-medical. In the court’s opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said the state should hold capital punishment cases to the same strict scientific standards as any other case. “Texas cannot satisfactorily explain why it applies current medical standards for diagnosing intellectual disability in other contexts, yet clings to superseded standards when an individual’s life is at stake,” she wrote. The court’s decision voids the most recent ruling on death row inmate Bobby Moore’s case and punts it back down to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In 1980, Moore was convicted of capital murder for killing a man in a botched convenience store robbery, after which he was sentenced to death.
FAKE NAMES, REAL POLICY
Texas push to de-fund Planned Parenthood is based on the work of two alleged criminals MICHAEL BARAJAS @MICHAELSBARAJAS
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CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
In 2002, however, the Supreme Court ruled that executing the intellectually disabled was unconstitutional because it violated the Eighth Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.” The court, however, left the states in charge of deciding how to determine when someone was too intellectually disabled to execute. And in Texas, that meant both avoiding modern clinical research and basing the state’s definition on straight-up fiction. Consider how in this 2004 ruling from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Cathy Cochran references Lennie, the mentally disabled oaf-like character from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. “Most Texas citizens might agree that Steinbeck’s Lennie should, by virtue of his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt,” she wrote in Ex parte Briseno, referring to capital punishment. With the unusual
In recent years, the undercover videos shot by anti-abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt have been very important to Texas’ Planned Parenthoodhating conservatives. It was those heavily-edited, undercover videos accusing Planned Parenthood of hawking fetal tissue for profit that led to Texas’ latest crusade to defund the group. Even as those secretly-recorded discussions with abortion providers got some very angry public officials to demand numerous criminal investigations across the country, all of them ultimately cleared Planned Parenthood of any illegal activity. In fact, it was in Texas that a grand jury originally tasked with investigating the health care provider turned around and instead issued felony indictments against Daleiden and Merritt, who used fake IDs to lie their way into a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic for some of their footage. Last
anecdote, she determined a person could only be deemed intellectually disabled if they had shown signs of poor “adaptive functioning” since childhood. These signs, used to measure disability in capital punishment, were dubbed “Briseno factors.” Steinbeck’s family would later protest his work being used to justify the execution of intellectually disabled people. In Moore’s 2014 appeal to the CCA, family members testified that at the age of 13, he could not comprehend the days of the week, tell time, or understand that subtraction is the opposite of addition. By 14, Moore was kicked out of his childhood home for failing every subject in high school and began living on the streets. Despite getting food poisoning twice, his meals were mostly scavenged from trash cans. The court, however, leaned on the Briseno factors, and decided that
week, California’s state attorney general announced 15 felony counts against each activist, including charges they conspired to invade the privacy of medical providers. None of this, mind you, has kept Texas health officials from using Daleiden and Merritt’s work as proof Planned Parenthood broke laws and should be booted from the joint state-federal Medicaid program. Last month, federal district court Judge Sam Sparks was unsparing in his criticism of the state’s case when he blocked officials from going through with the de-funding plan before a trial on the matter. “A secretly recorded video, fake names, a grand jury indictment, congressional investigations — these are the building blocks of a best-selling novel rather than a case concerning the interplay of federal and state authority through the Medicaid program,” Sparks wrote. “Yet rather than a villain plotting to take over the world, the
Moore had shown adaptive intellect by successfully living on the streets, mowing lawns, and playing pool for money. Their only medical reference came from a 20-year-old manual by the American Association on Mental Retardation. Moore’s lawyers eventually appealed to the Supreme Court. In her ruling, Ginsberg writes that the Briseno factors are “not aligned with the medical community’s information” and “creat[e] an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability will be executed.” The decision bans the state from using the Briseno factors in any future cases. In his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts agreed that the Briseno factors should be thrown out, but also argued that the CCA correctly assessed Moore’s intellectual disabilities. It was the second Supreme Court ruling favoring a Texas death row inmate this year.
subject of this case is the State of Texas’ efforts to expel a group of health care providers from a social health care program for families and individuals with limited resources.” Last year, prosecutors in Texas inexplicably dropped all charges against Daleiden and Merritt. Harris County’s then Republican district attorney, who faced enormous criticism by anti-choice groups because the indictments fell on her watch, actually killed the case right before a hearing to consider the merits of the charges, claiming grand jurors had overstepped their authority. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton meanwhile has vowed to appeal Sparks’ ruling. Which we’re guessing might be even harder now, considering the antiabortion duo who triggered Texas’ decision to axe Planned Parenthood’s funding in the first place just got hit with a new slew of felony charges.
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CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
NEWS
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
ALEX ZIELINSKI | @ALEX_ZEE
APRIL is TEXAS STATE PARKS MONTH at
Make a donation during April at any Whole Earth store and help support our Texas State Parks. Donations of any amount are gratefully accepted. Donate $20 or more and receive a $5 Texas State Parks Gift Card. For a $50 donation or more donation, receive a limited edition Whole Earth branded Buff ® headwear, and the Gift Card.
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CULTURAL EXCHANGE
That time a Texas official spent his spring break teaching Israeli settlers how to lasso > Last month, Israeli officials visited Washington, D.C. to discuss the future of Israeli settlements in Palestine. While they came to no solid conclusion, the White House released a statement hinting the countries were “moving toward a peace agreement.” But it appears Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has his own agenda. As federal offi cials met in D.C. offi ces, Miller spent his time giving Israeli settlers lasso lessons on Palestinian territory. According to the Jerusalem Post, Miller visited local leaders and activists on the north end of the West Bank last month to tour farmland on horseback and sign a vague trade agreement between Texas and a region of Israel. “I’m here...to create a revived Texas-Israel exchange,” said Miller, wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses, in a video interview. Asked whether he supports unregulated resettlement of Palestine territory, Miller didn’t miss a beat: “I think the Jewish community, the Jewish State needs to reclaim all of its land, I don’t have a problem with that at all. The sooner the better.” This seems to go against the Trump Administration’s mission to reach a peaceful settlement agreement between the two countries. “My personal opinion
is that [Jewish people] should be able to settle anywhere in the holy land if they want to,” Miller added. Miller’s trade deal, promising an exchange of agricultural technology and expertise between the two governments, seemed to serve more as a symbol of unity than an actual necessary trade agreement. “I am ashamed to say that we have some in our universities boycotting Israel, so this is to counter that culture,” Miller told reporters, referring to the economic sanctions a handful of U.S. colleges have placed on Israel to protest the country’s occupation of Palestinian territory. “This is a signifi cant move that sends an unequivocal message to the parties promoting the boycott ... Israel that the countries of the world will not accept this boycott,” said Yossi Dagan, the leader of a network of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. In the Post’s video, Miller pulls Dagan into view of the camera and slaps him cheerfully on the back. “[We’ve been] riding horses, checking eggs and sheep and wine,” Miller said. Or, as Dagan put it: “As foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah, ‘you shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall eat them as common things’.”
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sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 11
NEWS ALEX ZIELINKSKI
‘JUNGLE MENTALITY’
ALEX ZIELINSKI | @ALEX_ZEE
DA offers a new theory for what’s behind SA’s rise in violent crime > San Antonio Police Chief William McManus wants to be clear: San Antonio is an incredibly safe place. “I’ve heard a lot recently that San Antonio is unsafe...To respond simply, these comments are inaccurate,” McManus told reporters at a press conference last week. “San Antonio remains one of the safest major cities in the country. Period. End of story.” Still, neither McManus nor any other law enforcement leaders in attendance gave much insight into what they’ve done differently to improve the city’s safety. The announcement from officials served as a check-in with the city’s “Violent Crime Task Force” — a new program made up of city, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to track and arrest violent San Antonians with a “significant criminal history." According to McManus, SAPD has already arrested 977 people that fit that description this year, a feat Mayor Ivy Taylor called “impressive.” The chief did not provide data on how that number compares to past years. If it’s higher than normal, however, it could be because the number of violent crimes have nearly doubled in the past year. According to the city’s online records, SAPD tallied 729 violent crimes in January 2016. This January, the department recorded 1,247. 12
CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
McManus attributes this massive sweep to a new policing model the department recently rolled out. Instead of just patrolling certain neighborhoods in hopes of catching violent criminals, like through SAPD’s 2016 “Eastside Initiative,” this new force follows particular individuals that already have criminal backgrounds. Judging by a map of 2017 arrests, it looks like most of these arrests took place in Eastside and Westside neighborhoods. This task force came, in part, as a response to the city’s overall 8 percent rise in violent crime over the past decade. While some criminal experts have tied this increase to the region’s growing population and extreme economic segregation, McManus maintains that the causes are still unclear. “Now, neither criminologists, police chiefs, academics — nobody can identify specific reasons for an increase in crime,” McManus said. But Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood has an idea. After warning reporters to not spread unnecessary fear, LaHood said this increase in crime is due to “the deterioration of our moral compass in society.” “The definition of right and wrong has been skewed and people are making up their own rules,” he said. “We’re seeing the jungle mentality out there.”
CULTURE
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Two-for-one admission to Of Country and Culture: The Lam Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Art exhibition (a $20 savings)
Didgeridoo performances • Film on the Green screening of The Sapphires Tours of the exhibition • Art Making • Cash bar • Bustro Bistro food truck TX SALSA FEST SATURDAY, MAY 27
SAN ANTONIO MUSEUM of ART
HEMISFAIR PARK | 12 PM
200 West Jones Avenue | San Antonio, Texas 78215 | 210.978.8100 | samuseum.org This exhibition is generously supported by the Robert J. Kleberg and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, and May and Victor Lam.
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sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 13
AUCTION
The vehicles listed below were impounded by San Antonio Police Dept. and will be auctioned at a public auction on May 24,2017 at 6:00 p.m. at UR Vehicle Management Solutions 3625 Growdon Rd, San Antonio, TX. Registered owners may pick up vehicles by showing proof of ownership and paying all towing and storage fee prior to auction.
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CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
FEATURE
Bryan Rindfuss @bryanrindfuss
d l r o W Diving into the most ’s a t s ie F f o y r o t his outrageous party
F
or many San Antonians, Fiesta is simply something that “happens” each year — a sprawling, expensive, messy celebration that lures tourists into downtown, dumps confetti all over the place and inspires folks to get dolled up in candycolored garb to gawk at bedazzled “royalty” passing by on parade floats. Impossibly heavy beaded trains, tricked-out cowboy boots, paper flower crowns, jingling Fiesta medals and competitive fundraising are all part of an unusual equation that’s evolved right along with San Antonio itself. Whether you eagerly anticipate or actively dread Fiesta, chances are you don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the age-old tradition that sprang from the first-ever Battle of Flowers Parade back in 1891, when participants famously “pelted each other with blossoms” in a procession honoring the heroes of the Alamo and Battle of San Jacinto. Created in 1909 with the sole purpose of crowning a “Queen of San Antonio,” the notoriously elite Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo unwittingly inspired Fiesta’s most irreverent tradition more than half a century ago. After attending Coronation in 1950, San Antonio Little Theatre director Bob Salek devised a concept to satirize the glitzy debutante pageant, complete with bizarrely named duchesses and outlandish “gowns” designed to be worn but once. That same year, the San Antonio Conservation Society invited SALT (now The Playhouse) to provide entertainment for their then-new Fiesta event, A Night in Old San Antonio
N W O D E D I U PS
(NIOSA). Serendipitously, Cornyation was born at the Arneson River Theatre, where the Empress of the Cracked Salad Bowl was crowned by King Anchovy I in 1951. In the decades that followed, Cornyation has seen wild ups and downs — morphing with changing times and broadening its focus (from high society to politics and beyond), while always employing satire as a medium for pointed commentary. Enter Amy Stone: a Southern California native who’s lived all over the U.S. and moved to Texas 10 years ago for a job at Trinity University, where she currently teaches sociology and anthropology as well as classes on gender and sexuality (including one titled Transgender Transgressions, in which students are tasked with creating a drag persona and attending a drag show). In 2009, while working on her book Gay Rights at the Ballot Box, Stone attended Cornyation for the first time and was impressed by both the diversity of the crowd (a mixture that included heterosexual couples, Latino gay men, dressed-up senior citizens, black lesbian couples and suburbanites) and the campy farce itself, which mocked “everything from from reality television to national politics to a raid on a Texas Mormon compound to San Antonio tourism.” Certifi ably hooked, Stone started digging into the history of Cornyation in 2012 as something of a “pet project” — one that led to two years of research (conducted in photography archives, online historical databases, homes and a treasure-filled closet at The Playhouse), not to mention Stone becoming a stage hand
and a Cornyation duchess. Initially focused on the early years, Stone’s project slowly but surely developed into a full-blown history of Cornyation, exploring everything from the designers and duchesses to the scriptwriters and specific content of the show. Five years in the making, Stone’s hotly anticipated Trinity University Press book Cornyation: San Antonio’s Outrageous Fiesta Tradition presents her many findings in a format that’s part scrapbook, part crash course. Brought to life through 40-plus interviews, excerpts from scripts and more than 100 photos that date as far back as the 1950s, the book offers a fascinating look at Fiesta’s development into a more inclusive “party with a purpose” and Cornyation’s transformation from a “Fiesta for the little people” to a major fundraiser that’s donated more than $2 million to local HIV/AIDS charities. Closely tied to Stone’s forthcoming book investigating the involvement of LGBT communities in citywide festivals, Cornyation is at the center of one of the San Antonio Book Festival’s most intriguing offerings — a panel discussion (moderated by former Current and Out In SA editor Elaine Wolff) between Stone and two Cornyation mainstays: designer/performer John McBurney and emcee Rick Frederick (free, 11am-noon Sat, Apr. 8, Southwest School of Art, McAllister Building–Studio, 300 Augusta St.). Save the date for Cornyation 2017: Apr. 25-27 at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre.
▲ EMPRESS MARY BYALL AND AUBREY KLINE AS KING ANCHOVY, 1963 (COURTESY OF WAYNE BYALL)
sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 15
FEATURE
Amy Stone sheds light on the bizarre history of Cornyation Bryan Rindfuss @bryanrindfuss
Did your research for this book start right after you attended Cornyation for the first time? It didn’t really start until 2012, to be honest … Nobody knew anything about the earlier years and I was curious about what I could find out there … I was able to find almost 20 people who were involved in the ’50s and ’60s. There were regular audience members, designers, duchesses, women who were in it. I would bring a stack of pictures when I interviewed them [and] we would look through them and see who they remembered and if they were in them … They had a lot to say about the designers … the content of the show, how it changed over time — incredibly insightful interviews.
Seems like there are so many wormholes you could fall through. Oh, yeah. Actually, one of my biggest breakthroughs [was discovering] The Playhouse had a closet … So we decided to look through it, and we found the old scripts from the ’50s and ’60s. That day when we found all the old scripts, I found an old scriptwriter, and she said, “Yeah, in the ’60s somebody asked me to send my script to them.” So I thought someone must have been collecting them … It’s not like a copy of Gone with the Wind … These are original things written by people in San Antonio. Sure enough, they had all the years except one or two So you would just find a name … And that was a huge find, because and start chasing them down? that’s when I really got into the content We started with old newspapers … of the show. The newspapers would Cornyation was covered every year only report so much, and what they in the papers, even in the ’50s and would report was pretty daring, but [the ’60s. So whenever someone’s name scripts] also had the full cast list and was mentioned — I had a team of two names of all the designers … So I was students — they looked for obituaries for able to go on Ancestry.com and look that person, marriage announcements them all up — and that’s a wormhole. I … And then we tried to find them just wanted to get a sense of how many and see if they might still be alive and of them were WWII vets, how many of around. We found them through the them were from san Antonio — just to [phone book]. These are people in their be able to talk about them as a group. 70s and 80s — they aren’t going to have Some of them had even moved to New an email address — you have to call York and been a dancer or actor for a them on the phone. period of time as a young man, and then they are back in San Antonio in their 30s and 40s doing this very campy kind of thing.
And you learned all of that from Ancestry.com? Yes, [and] from the obituaries [which] described where they had been. I knew that most of them were unmarried. The old phone directories used to have your occupation next to your name, so I could figure out what their occupations were and when they were designers … and who lived together in the same house — many of them were roommates. What sparked Cornyation’s departure from exclusively mocking Coronation? I only have theories, because it’s hard to find anyone who was [there]. Although I did find someone who was one of the really early designers, he was in his last stages of life [and] his memory … was very limited. But he did talk about a “changing of the guard” in the late ’50s. It started to get really racy in 1958 — it was the Court of Outer Space — being a little bawdy, a little tongue-andcheek, a lot of double entendre, a lot of slightly sexy jokes. It got much more focused on local politics and national politics in the late 1950s. And that’s where you see it starting to change, where it becomes more explicit, the costuming becomes a little bit more vulgar. It just becomes more out there … What I do know is that Chips Utley wrote that [1958] script, and it sort of set the tone for [shows that were] increasingly critical of the establishment in San Antonio. There were a lot of things going on in city politics, seedy things … But he was actually focused on the Conservation Society.
From left to right: Elaine Honigblum as the Vice-Empress of Vice, 1959 (courtesy of the Institute of Texan Cultures), Terry Behalf as the Duchess of Herman’s Happiness, 1996 (photo by Al Rendon); Anne Thompson as the Empress of the Court of Cosmetic Subterfuge, 1953 (courtesy of the Playhouse and the San Antonio Public Library Texana Collection). 16
CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
FEATURE
From left to right: Gretchen Shoopman as Empress of the Song of No Way, 1987 (photo by Michael Mehl); Aubrey Davenport as Duchess of the Turkey Trot, 1965 (courtesy of the San Antonio Public Library Texana Collection); Cari Hill asViceEmpress of the Court of Outrageous Pretentiousness, 1991 (photo by Al Rendon); Mary Byall as the Empress of the More-the-Marrier, 1963 (courtesy of Wayne Byall)
The governing entity of NIOSA. Yeah, they mainly made fun of the Cold War and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, anything like that. They made fun of some of that McCarthyism … They threw in jokes that were very campy, very graphic — things like Christine Jorgensen’s sex change … I think most of this was because the scriptwriter changed. And then after Chips Utley moved to Turkey — he was teaching English somewhere — a bunch of people started to write it [and] it rotated between them. Some of them made it much tamer, some made it racier. I talked to one scriptwriter who said they tried to do a much tamer script and the Cornyation board changed it to be racier. Was that the beginning of the end of Cornyation being part of NIOSA? Sort of. They didn’t really get kicked out until 1965. But apparently the Conservation Society started [reviewing the scripts] every year, and you can see some places in the script were crossed out, either for time or editing. They found it harder to try to edit the costuming … A lot of ad-libbing was happening in the show as well, and I think that is when they really started to find it problematic, and kicked it out in ’65 … They said it was too vulgar and not funny.
Do you know anything specific that went over the edge? It’s hard to figure out why they got kicked out when they did. One of the stories floating around is that the Empress of the More-the-Marrier (1963) was making fun of the Kennedys and she was pregnant. She was actually pregnant … That was very controversial at the time — you didn’t have pregnant women on the stage. And [another story] is that one of her attendants had a little glittery bikini on and it fell off on stage. They had a lot of wardrobe malfunctions, because wardrobe was put together with pins and staples. And there were actually kids there? There were actually kids there … so they said, “OK, that’s about enough.” But it puzzled me when I was doing this research because they weren’t kicked out for another year-and-a-half. That was the precipitating event in 1963, so why did the Conservation Society wait a year-and-a-half? Maybe they needed the money. Maybe. They got a good amount of money from it. I think another thing that probably played a role was that there was a drag show in the 1960s.
That’s the one you mention as being at a gay and lesbian bar? That was in May of 1963 at Paul’s Grove, which was often called the Country. So I think that might have played [a part], though I heard that some members of the Conservation Society actually went. Was there an era when the costumes were a bit more tailored? In the ’90s, you see some really [elaborate] costumes. There were some from the ’60s when the designers got very competitive with one another, and they would have these long trains that they would put on the duchesses and queens … But in the beginning, they always kind of prided themselves on [costumes] being made cheaply. It was part of how they were satirizing the Coronation … Many [costumes] were kind of piled together from whatever was in the San Antonio Little Theater — right before the show … But some of them you could tell they spent a lot of time. [In the costume for Miss Red Light], they have this very provocative jeweling going on. She has teeth blacked out, she has cigarettes in her wig, and this jeweled cowboy hat … that was pretty daring for 1960. So when did drag kick in? Drag didn’t become a consistent part of the show until the 1990s. There were some rumors that designers in the later 1960s tried to sneak into the shows as duchesses [but] I can’t verify that it actually happened … It wasn’t until the 1990s, the beginning of the Pointless Sisters … Even in the 1980s, when it was at the Bonham Exchange, they didn’t have a lot of drag.
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圀䄀吀䔀刀 刀䔀匀伀唀刀䌀䔀 匀䌀䤀䔀一䌀䔀 伀唀刀 䴀伀匀吀 嘀䄀䰀唀䄀䈀䰀䔀 一䄀吀唀刀䄀䰀 刀䔀匀伀唀刀䌀䔀
BOOK OF LOVE
#RCROCKFEST 18
CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
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Did you find anything interesting about the crowds? Is it typically Did you encounter any unexpected just a strange cross-section of San discoveries along the way? One of Antonio? It is a very strange crossmy favorite surprises was finding video section of San Antonio. And there are a footage of Cornyation from the 1960s, lot of LGBT people who go, especially on [through] the son of Mary Byall. He had Thursday nights. There’s a reputation for this picture laid out for me when I went certain nights. When I was in the show, I’d to visit him [and] said, “My dad was be told, “Well this night is straight night,” really into home movies and … I know and “This night is known as the rowdy they filmed Cornyation of ’63.” We went night,” which had a reputation for things digging — well, he did the digging — and going off the chain — the costumes are he kept giving me boxes of reels and 8mm falling apart, everyone is drunk, everyone is stuff. I watched a lot of Christmases and tired, everyone is dramatic at that point. birthdays and … We finally found it one day, and transferred it digitally. How do you imagine folks from outside San Antonio will appreciate So when you were a duchess, what this book? Do you see it going over was your name? I was the Queen of well in other markets? Well, I have an Historical Hysteria one year … it was article coming out in the Gay & Lesbian based on the controversy over the Review. And they were very receptive to Review Telemundo building. The judge that said they had to tear it down — I was the judge. it. They all can’t believe that this is going on in San Antonio — that’s the response I get the most often. What do you know about the origins of throwing tortillas at Cornyation? Can you give me an overview of what And what put an end to it? The the larger project entails? The larger empress in 1991 was a huge taco that project is very sociological and academic unfolded and she threw tortillas to the — a four-city study of LGBT involvement in audience, and they threw the tortillas back at her. In 2005, an audience member was city festivals. I’m not studying Pride — I’m studying the festivals put on by different hit in the head with something hard and sued Cornyation. That was the end of the cities: Fiesta here and in Santa Fe, and Mardis Gras in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, flying tortillas! and Mobile, Alabama. I knew nothing about Mardis Gras, just what we see about the
French Quarter — that’s not Mardi Gras at all. It is a really interesting set of public and private rituals. There are these gay and lesbian masked balls … The mayor comes, the school superintendent comes. They put on these tableaux, and it turns into a big dance party … They have royalty — a king and a queen, or two kings … There’s a huge community presence during festival time … I interviewed over 100 people between the four cities. I’m trying to [bring] all of my data together into a coherent story. Within San Antonio, will you branch out from Cornyation? I’ve talked to people involved in Project Fiesta and the Fiesta Hat Party. I’ve looked [at] things like Pride Center having a parade float, the King William Parade … and some of the queer traditions during Fiesta — like meeting at the Menger Hotel. Gay men have been doing that since the 1940s. There used to be a bar inside the Menger Hotel called the Roosevelt Bar, after Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. That was known as a gay hotspot during Fiesta, where you could meet your friends from out of town. And what’s wild is that the Coronation crowd is on the balcony of the Menger. And there
are all these rumors that [the famous Fiesta saying] came from this gay night in front of the Menger … Who knew what they had under their dresses? Their hairstylists did! And they would scream, “Show me your shoes!” That does not surprise me at all. I don’t know if any of that is true, but the rumor is really interesting. I’ve heard it in different iterations from different people. Do you have a title for the next book? I want to call it Queer Citizens of Carnival City, which I think is a great title. City That’s beautiful. Because I’m really talking about it as a way of belonging to the city. Saying, “We’re part of the city. Our culture is important. We contribute something as queer people who live here. We’re not going to hide during festival time. We’re going to claim our own space and our own traditions.”
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FEATURE
As told by Amy Stone
Still Corny After All These Years 19
In the 1950s, Cornyation really began as a satire of the Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo, an exclusive Fiesta event. Staged at the Arneson River Theatre during the San Antonio Conservation Society’s Fiesta event A Night in Old San Antonio, Cornyation was focused on directly mocking the Coronation. The structure of it was set up around duchesses with outrageous names. Introductions of that time were modeled after the Coronation’s introductions. In the 1950s, it played to a family audience.
60
s
1970s
198
0s
Several of the designers from the final show attempted to revive it in 1979, at NIOSA again. Not enough people remembered it. It didn’t work well in the venue anymore.
In the 1960s, Cornyation became racy. It started to focus on national and local politics and criticizing elites more directly, especially social elites in San Antonio. After the 1964 show, Cornyation organizers got in trouble with the San Antonio Conservation Society, and they officially got kicked out of NIOSA in 1965. However there was lot of enthusiasm — it was a very controversial decision. There was a discussion in the newspaper about it. There was support from the Fiesta Commission for them to continue having Cornyation at another venue. Unfortunately, they picked an Italian restaurant that was hard to find and they had a very low turnout for the 1965 show. So the San Antonio Little Theatre, which was sponsoring it, decided to discontinue the show.
19
The year the Bonham Exchange opened, one of the bartenders from the Country, who was going to work at the Bonham Exchange, looked at the Bonham’s ballroom and thought it was the perfect place to revive Cornyation. He had been involved in the last years of Cornyation in the ’60s, and so he called up some of the designers, who were very young men at that time, and they got together and they revived it. And it was this really bawdy, crowded, edgy show in the 1980s that played to an adult audience. And it was possible for them at that time to be far more explicit with their sense of humor and costuming than they ever could be for a family show in the 1950s and 1960s.
90
s
In the 1990s they eventually — very quickly actually — outgrew the Bonham Exchange. The space was just not enough, so they moved to Beethoven Hall (now the Magik Theatre), which gave them a real theater to work in and it also gave them a lot of space. The designers’ costumes became much more elaborate. They gained corporate sponsorship for their costumes, which we take for granted now. Cornyation finally moved to the Empire Theatre in the 2000s, where it remains today.
Clockwise from top left: Kay Crews as Her Asthmatic Majesty, 1952 (courtesy of the Playhouse and the San Antonio Public Library Texana Collection); Unknown duchesses with Miss Red Light, 1960 (courtesy of the Institute of Texan Cultures); Ann Kinser as the Queen of Scintillating Saturn, 1993 (photo by Michael Mehl); Gretchen Shoopman as Empress of the Song of No Way, 1987 (photo by Ruben Njaa)
195
A Condensed Cornyation Timeline
0s
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youth-focused poetry and poetry from young people. While the full schedule of readers for THU this veritable buffet of poetic expression is not yet finalized, poets already confirmed include Dr. Carmen Tafolla and Rosemary Catacalos POETRY (both former state poet laureates), Jenny Browne (current San Antonio poet laureate), Natalia Treviño, Bryce Milligan, Eduardo Vega, Jesse Cardona, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, John Philip Santos, Naomi Shihab Nye and more. All told, the poets of Mega Corazón comprise ▲ As National Poetry Month begins, you’ll no a diverse cross-section of poetic modes, doubt find yourself with an unusual glut of literary performance styles, and influences. One of the events to be excited about. One of the most coolest aspects of Mega Corazón, especially unique and talent-rich of such events, put on by relevant for those who are unable to physically the good folks of URBAN-15 with support from attend the event, is that the entire thing will be the Texas Commission on the Arts, is the fourth broadcast for the word to see at urban15.org/ annual Mega Corazón. The eight-hour, poetrylive-stream. Free, 1-10pm, URBAN-15, 2500 S. centric event will feature a large and diverse Presa St., (210) 736-1500, urban15.org. group of poets, beginning with three hours of — James Courtney
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Mega Corazón
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6-9
The House House on Mango Street
ROBERT TATUM
COURTESY OF URBAN-15
CALENDAR
THU-FRI
6-7 ART
‘Mid-Century Crisis’ ▲ As proprietor of the Blue Star emporium Choice Goods Gallery, California transplant Robert Tatum has emerged as a champion of San Antonio’s offbeat creative class, introducing scenesters to the likes of sci-fi illustrator Mike Fisher and patchwork-obsessed fiber artist Michele Morrill. While his own street-smart aesthetic can be seen quite literally all across town in the form of murals (from Ace Mart Restaurant Supply in Southtown to Mellow Mushroom in Stone Oak), signs (his “OK Monkey” at The Luxury is a favorite along the Museum Reach), and T-shirts on fans (screen-printed with everything from a puppy prepped to take a bong hit to a bird plucking one of its eyeballs out), Tatum hasn’t had a solo show in years. Riffing on the fact that he now has five decades behind him, the Southtown fixture’s come to terms with a “MidCentury Crisis.” The product of “philosophical and spiritual retrospection,” his new series of paintings promises something of a “visual self-portrait” informed by nostalgia and analysis alike. Hosted by his recently established Blue Star venture ShowDown Gallery, the exhibition opens Thursday, followed by a First Friday reception featuring live music by Dolphin Dilemma. Free, 6-9pm Thu, 6-11pm Fri, ShowDown Gallery, 1420 S. Alamo St., Suite 103, (210) 441-8491, tatumoriginals.com. — Bryan Rindfus
In September of last year, the Classic Theatre’s production of Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street was so successful, every spot in the theater’s 99-seat capacity was sold out for each night of the performance. Six months later and the play, directed by José Rubén De León, returns to San Antonio by popular demand. In a 2016 interview with the Current, León explained the road bumps the cast had to overcome before opening night, admitting that the play “almost didn’t happen,” during a rehearsal break. With Cisneros’ blessing and last-minute casting changes, the play received two thumbs up from the Mango Street author herself and a standing ovation time and time again. With this month’s performances you can expect to see the original cast come together once again for the coming-of-age story of Esperanza Cordero in The House on Mango Street. $10-$25, 8pm Thu-Sat, 3pm Sun, The Classic Theatre of San Antonio, 1924 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 468-3900, classictheatre.org. — Alejandra Lopez THEATER
MNOZIL BRASS
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CHE MALAMBO
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THE 5 BROWNS
MAY 10
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DAVID CRABB
The Moth Mainstage
◀ Born on a porch in Georgia and later developed in bars and clubs in New York City, The Moth is a globally recognized organization built around “true stories, told live and without notes.” Encompassing StorySlam events hosted in 27 cities, a radio show aired by 450 radio stations and a podcast downloaded by 44 million listeners annually, The Moth celebrates “the ability of stories to honor both the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital WORDS human need for connection.” Likened to “a community where entertainment and enlightenment merge,” The Moth Mainstage FRI takes shape in curated events that unite five storytellers often exploring a common theme. Making its local premiere as one of the most anticipated highlights of the fifth annual San Antonio Book Festival, the nonprofit’s signature series lands on the Majestic stage with a theme of “All These Wonders.” Hosted by San Antonio native David Crabb (a Morrissey fan whose memoir Bad Kid details his experiences growing up goth and gay in Texas), the event features presentations by CNBC contributor/immigration and education advocate Julissa Arce (author of My (Underground) American Dream), poet/nurse/arts advocate Barbara Collins Bowie (creator of the the Dr. J.R. Bowie Scholarship Foundation for the Performing Arts and Autism), author/Tablet Magazine contributor Liel Leibovitz (who has a Ph.D. in video games), presidential speechwriter-turnedFunny or Die writer/producer David Litt (author of Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years) and New York-based Colombian artist Martha Ruiz-Perilla (a former mime’s assistant whose childhood love of storytelling earned her the nickname RadioMartha). $20-$100, 7pm, The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, saplf.org/festival. — BR
ROBYN VON SWANK
CALENDAR
FRI-SAT
7-8
COMEDY
7
SHUTTERSTOCK
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SPORTS
Spurs vs. Clippers
Jo Koy ▲ Many comics imitate their immigrant mothers onstage. But when Chelsea Lately regular Jo Koy tells a story about his Filipino mom playing Wii or mocking him for losing his car keys, not only is
the attention to detail closer to a short story than a caricature, but he, not his mother, becomes the ultimate butt of the joke. When he describes picking his girlfriend up from the bar, the physical imitation of her peeing in public transitions into a dissection of sexual politics that’s more likely to leave men squirming uncomfortably. Koy, a family nickname and now his stage name, suits him well. The Los Angeles-based stand-up performs at Laugh Out Loud in support of his new Netflix special Jo Koy: Live from Seattle. $22.50$42.50, 7:30pm & 10:15pm Fri, 7pm, 9pm & 11:30pm Sat, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 5418805, lolsanantonio.com. — Jeremy Martin
Following recent losses to the Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings, the Los Angeles Clippers return to San Antonio in search of their playoff groove. Despite the efforts of captain Chris Paul and first time All-Star DeAndre Jordan, injuries and inconsistency have dogged Doc Rivers’ squad throughout the regular season. Home court advantage in the first round is still within reach for the Clippers, who are met by a Spurs team that is peaking just in time for the postseason. With a firm grasp on the #2 seed in the West, San Antonio looks to remain healthy, while continuing to collectively improve. Kawhi Leonard and a rejuvenated LaMarcus Aldridge are once again proving to be a potent one-two punch, and Pau Gasol has emerged as an anchor for the second unit, creating a challenging offensive flow for opponents. $42-$2,632, 7:30pm, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com. — M. Solis
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COURTESY OF TOBIN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
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Hedwig and the Angry Inch
SAT-SUN
◀ Hedwig and the Angry Inch may be the most prescient show in Broadway history; originally developed as a glam-rock riff on a gender-bending myth from Plato’s Symposium, this 1990s musical made the leap to Broadway in 2014 just as America collectively freaked out about borders of every stripe: borders between genders, nations, and even bathrooms. And while Hedwig — which follows the adventures of a transsexual émigré(e) from Berlin — has much to say about sexual identity, it’s also a searching examination of the contemporary quest for neat and tidy categories, categories that Hedwig — the character and the musical — constantly explodes. (In that respect, it’s the queerest musical ever.) With a book by James Cameron Mitchell and music/lyrics by Stephen Trask, this touring production stars the terrific Euan Morton, a Tony nominee for his portrayal of Boy George in Taboo. There are only three performances at the Tobin, so grab tickets soon: the production is sure to be Hed-spinning. $39.60-$124.50, 8pm Sat, 2pm & 7pm Sun, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Thomas Jenkins
Bill Burr
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SPECIAL EVENT
Bookworm: A Fair For Book Lovers
CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
▶ From his bulldog look, tough-guy bluster and penchant for traditionally red-state viewpoints, at first glance it’s easy to take Bill Burr as the angry guy at the bar, or perhaps another outrage comic in the vein of Lewis Black. But where a bit about parents hugging their children too much or owning a gun for home protection may seem to chart a predictable course, Burr then makes a hard-left for the self-deprecating, the bizarre or, more often than not, the totally original. Stand-up remains Burr’s primary passion, though that hasn’t stopped him from taking on all sorts of other projects. Most visibly is his Monday Morning Podcast, where a typical episode involves “Bill rambling about Hootie and the Blowfish, The Maltese Falcon and eating broccoli.” Those hour-long rants have put Monday Morning alongside WTF with Marc Maron and Comedy Bang Bang as a fixture on the comedy podcast landscape. Known to Breaking Bad fans as Kuby (Saul Goodman’s most competent henchman), Burr recently released the second season of F Is For Family, a semi-autobiographical animated series set in the 1970s. $35-$45, 7pm & 10pm, The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — J.D. Swerzenski ◀ With an impressive list of credits that includes performances at SXSW, Bonnaroo, the U.S. Open and the Superbowl, Black Violin can no longer claim to be “the biggest independent group that no one has ever heard of.” Formed by violist/vocalist Wilner “Wil B” Baptiste and violinist Kevin “Kev Marcus” Sylvester and named after violin legend Stuff Smith’s final album, the Florida-based duo creates a unique hybrid of hip-hop, rock, R&B, bluegrass and classical music. Addressing their surprising versatility, The New York Times wrote, “Sometimes they play with the intense seriousness MON of orchestral soloists; at others they fiddle as if at a hoedown; at still others they strum the violin and viola like guitars.” With three albums to their credit — a selftitled 2007 debut, 2012’s Classically Trained and 2015’s MUSIC Stereotypes — Baptiste and Sylvester have have also emerged as in-demand collaborators, working either together or independently with the likes of Alicia Keys, P. Diddy, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Tom Petty, Aerosmith and Aretha Franklin. In addition to playing 200 shows per year with their support band, Black Violin performs at schools, encouraging kids to think creatively and stressing the importance of arts education. $18.50-$49.50, 7:30pm, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — BR COLIN BRENNAN
▲ Remember the days of browsing through the Scholastic Book Fair, when the school gym or library would magically transform into a bookstore and you’d beg your parents for a few extra dollars or spend your lunch money buying books? The folks at K23 Gallery share those same fond memories. So, they’re putting together a book fair of their very own — but this time it’s for adults. Featuring a vendor list of San Antonio’s popular and upcoming zines, independent authors and comic artists, the gallery will present Bookworm: A Fair for Book Lovers. Browse through work by Beer Fang, Warship Zine, St. Sucia, Flashback Zine, Myopic Press and several others. Plus, you can pick up a limited edition poster by Hello Reg, stickers, erasers and other knick-knacks, just like the good old days. $3 suggested donation, noon-6pm, K23, 702 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 7765635, k23gallery.wixsite.com/k23tx. — AL
24
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10
Black Violin
KOURY ANGELO
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AUCTION
The vehicles listed below were impounded by San Antonio Police Dept. and will be auctioned at a public auction on April 26,2017 at 6:00 p.m. at UR Vehicle Management Solutions 3625 Growdon Rd, San Antonio, TX. Registered owners may pick up vehicles by showing proof of ownership and paying all towing and storage fee prior to auction.
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CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE
(aka Spice Girl) and live music by Prylene, programs such as Poem in Your Pocket Day, Disgraced Widely produced across the Polly Anna, Jesika, Lexi and Andria Rose, Dear Poet and Poem-a-Day. Initiated in 2009, nation in 2016, Pakistani American actor/ followed by karaoke and a “Y2K dance the City of San Antonio’s National Poetry Month author/playwright Ayad Akhtar’s PulitzerArevalo and photographer David Salinas party.” Free, 8pm-2am Friday; 123 Blue Star. calendar comprises workshops, readings, open winning drama Disgraced zooms in on the come together for a joint exhibition “based mics and recurring events like “Voices and complicated life of Amir Kapoor, a successful “Contemporary Art and the Public: on the dynamics of their shared imagery Vibes.” Presented by the interfaith organization Manhattan attorney who’s divorced himself Museo Jumex in its First Three Years” and experimental process and relationship Celebration Circle, the monthlong series from his Muslim heritage yet becomes As part of its 22nd annual gala celebration, as colleagues.” Free, 6-9pm Thursdayweaves live music into readings from awardentangled in the court case of an imam Artpace welcomes Museo Jumex (Mexico Friday; FL!GHT Gallery, 134 Blue Star, (210) winning poets such as Naomi Shihab Nye (April charged with crimes agains the state. David City) artistic director Julieta González for 872-2586. 9), Lesléa Newman (April 23) and Amanda Rinear directs Suhail Arastu (as Amir) and a ticketed lecture accompanied by light Flores (April 30). Free, 11am Sunday; SAY Sí, Art opening: “Faculty Selects” UTSA’s offsite Kate Glasheen (as Amir’s wife Emily) in the brunch offerings. $10-$20, 1-3pm Sunday; 1518 S. Alamo St., (210) 837-2866. gallery Terminal 136 highlights the work San Antonio premiere. $12-$42, 8pm FridayArtpace, 445 N. Main Ave., (210) 212-4900. of 18 artists who teach at the university in Saturday, 3pm Sunday; The Playhouse, 800 Date Night: “Of Country and Culture” TALKS PLUS the areas of drawing, painting, sculpture, W. Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258. SAMA offers guests two-for-one admission printmaking, photography, video and Nevermore Texas Light Opera and Aria Creative Contemporary Thought Leaders: A Civic to the special exhibition “Of Country and performance. Free, 6-9pm Thursday-Friday; Engagement Symposium A nationwide Productions team up for the Texas premiere Culture: The Lam Collection of Contemporary Terminal 136, 136 Blue Star, (210) 458-4391. startup publication founded to empower of Nevermore, a dark, dazzling opera-like Australian Aboriginal Art” at this spring date young journalists and spur public dialogue, Art opening: ”Game of Chance” Touching on musical exploring the life of Edgar Allan Poe night with music, gallery tours, art-making The Contemporary launches locally with themes such as cause and effect, direction of through a series of dream-like vignettes activities, food truck fare for purchase and a a free evnt promising “a dynamic and movement, balance of nature and dualism, informed by his iconic poems. $18-$25, 8pm cash bar. $20 per couple, 7-11pm Friday; San lively panel on an important political issue Freight Gallery’s “Game of Chance” features Thursday-Saturday; Roxie Theater, 7460 Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., impacting the lives of all students and young works by more than a dozen artists, including Callaghan Road, (210) 360-9180. (210) 978-8100. professionals.” Free, 6:30-9:30pm Monday; Sarah Fox, Elsa Henderson, Hiromi Stringer, Sister Act Christopher Rodriguez directs Sherry Pearl Stable, 312 Pearl Pkwy., (512) 299-7294. Kara Stevens and Andrew Leo Stansbury. FILM Gibbs-Houston, Kate Ragan, Anna Gangai, Free, 7-11pm Saturday; Freight Gallery, 1913 “Ethics in the Trump Era” In an attempt to Amelia Slab Cinema hosts a free outdoor Krystal Newcomer and Bryd Bonner in S. Flores St., (210) 331-4382. address “an ongoing storm of comments screening of Mira Nair’s 2009 adventurethe Woodlawn’s production of the “divine designed to discredit journalists and Art opening: “Nepantlera: Establishing drama starring Hilary Swank as Amelia musical comedy” following disco diva weaken public support for a free press,” Identity Through Cerámicas y los Earhart, the legendary aviatrix who became Deloris Van Cartier as she masquerades as Baylor University journalism professor Cosas” Multidisciplinary Xicano artist Jason the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic a nun after landing on a mob hit list. $18Macarena Hernandez moderates a panel Eric Gonzales Martinez presents a new Ocean. Free, 8pm Friday; Stinson Municipal $29, 7:30pm Friday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; between Shelley Kofler (Texas Public collection of assemblages employing found Airport, 8535 Mission Road, (210) 207-1800. Woodlawn Theatre, 1920 Fredericksburg Radio), Bill Lambrecht, (San Antonio objects, crafted elements and a rasquache Road, (210) 267-8388. The Sapphires Slab Cinema and SAMA’s Express-News) and Charlotte-Anne Lucas aesthetic to reflect on his Tejano experience outdoor Film on the Green series continues (Nowcast SA). Free, 9:30-11:30am Saturday; living “in between” spaces of creativity, SPECIAL EVENTS with a screening of Wayne Blair’s 2012 Texas A&M University-San Antonio, Patriots’ culture, and identity (nepantla). Free, Mission Reach Flotilla Festival The San biographical drama about four Australian Casa, One University Way, (210) 784-1000. 6-11pm Friday; Presa House Gallery, 725 S. Antonio River Foundation partners with sisters whose lives are changed forever Presa St., (210) 973-8947. Land Art Generator Initiative Workshop the San Antonio River Authority for a water when they’re discovered by a talent scout Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) “Mujeres de la Luna” Organized by Laura parade featuring a costume contest, a and sent to Vietnam to entertain American teams up with the Land Art Generator Valdez due to the “lack of representation of watercraft decorating contest (with a $1,000 troops. $5-$10, 8pm Friday; San Antonio Initiative (LAGI) to bring artists, community self-identified women and queer peoples grand prize), music, local food vendors, a Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) members and designers together to facilitate in the art scene of San Anto,” Mujeres de craft mercado and kid-friendly activities. 978-8100. a conversation around the idea of merging la Luna returns with a BYOB showcase Free, 11am-5pm Saturday; Mission County arts and renewable energy. The goal of the THEATER featuring an array of artists and vendors Park, 6030 Padre Drive, (210) 224-2694. workshop is to introduce participants to new (Grrl God, Inechi and Killa Kell, to name One Woman Sex and the City TJ Dawe Parade of Artists Show and Sale Downtown ways of thinking about solar, wind and hydro a few), vegan food from Kayla Coronado directs “whirling dervish” Kerry Ipema Boerne’s art and design district lights up for energy through the use of new technologies (as New York City singles Carrie, Miranda, a festive weekend featuring live music, art as forms of art and creative placemaking. Charlotte and Samantha) in this interactive demonstrations and a self-guided tour of Participants will develop their own ideas “parody of love, friendship and shoes” that galleries and other venues located along the for implementing these strategies in their draws from all six seasons of the EmmyHill Country Mile. Free, 10am-8pm Saturday, own neighborhood. Free, but registration winning HBO series to tackle everything from 10am-3pm Sunday; Hill Country Mile, N. required at eventbrite.com (lunch included), Post-it notes and Paris to Manolos and Mr. Main St., Boerne, (830) 248-1184. 10am-4pm Thursday; LiftFund Community Big. $34.50, 7:30pm Wednesday; Tobin Center Lift Center, 2007 W. Martin St., (888) 215-2373. for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium WORDS Mayoral Forum The Esperanza Peace and Circle, (210) 223-8624. ”Voices and Vibes” Inspired by the nationwide Justice Center plays host to a forum exploring observances of Black History Month (February) The Bald Soprano The Trinity University where mayoral candidates stand in terms and Women’s History Month (March), the Theatre Department takes on the comic of various social justice issues including: Academy of American Poets claimed April caricatures and absurd non-sequiturs of rights for women and girls, LGBTQ+ rights, as National Poetry Month back in 1996. Now Eugène Ionesco’s chaotic assault on realism. Muslim rights, immigrant rights, police billed as “the largest literary celebration in the $6-$12, 7pm Wednesday-Thursday, 8pm brutality, protections for domestic workers, world,” the initiative posts thousands of events Friday-Saturday, 2:30pm Sunday; Trinity environmental issues, gentrification and on its online calendar and also champions University, Stieren Theater, One Trinity Pl., more. Free, 6-8pm Sunday; Esperanza Peace & poetry in the information age through signature (210) 999-8515. Justice Center, 922 San Pedro, (210) 228-0201.
ART Art opening: “Asi Es” Painter Darwin
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ARTS + CULTURE
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF SA BOOK FESTIVAL
GET LIT
Our picks for the fifth annual San Antonio Book Festival Five years ago, the folks behind the San Antonio Public Library Foundation and the Texas Book Festival (which turns the grounds around the Texas capitol into a literary mecca every fall) decided to bring the show a little bit south. Which means that every year, at the Central Library and Southwest School of Art, San Antonio plays host to book fest lite, an SA version of the big-deal Austin event that, in its five year run, has managed to attract no shortage of prominent national and international scribes – all while boosting the profile of our local literary talent. Here’s a rundown of some of the writers, speakers, and panels we can’t wait to check out when the festival happens this Saturday, April 8. Visit saplf.org/festival for a full rundown of authors and panels.
JULISSA ARCE
TERRY THOMPSON-ANDERSON
JESSICA LUTHER
Political commentator, speaker, writer and former Goldman-Sachs executive Julissa Arce made a big splash when she revealed that she had also been something no one would have suspected: an undocumented immigrant. Arce moved to San Antonio from Mexico at age 11, later to attend Roosevelt High School before being accepted as a Finance student at the University of Texas at Austin. Equal parts ambitious and intelligent, Arce secured a coveted internship with international finance giant Goldman-Sachs while still at UT. The New York-based company offered her a full-time position upon her graduation in 2005. Just four years out of high school, Arce found herself climbing the ladder at one of the world’s most powerful companies. The fear of being discovered as an undocumented immigrant always haunted her, however, and eventually the work, even with all the money she was making, left her feeling empty. Now, Arce works with nonprofits and other organizations to advocate for immigrants and challenge our perceptions of what it means to be an undocumented immigrant. Her 2016 book, My (Underground) American Dream, tells her story and elucidates her struggle. – James Courtney
Terry Thompson-Anderson has found a winning formula. The professional chef, cookbook author, culinary instructor and restaurant consultant has gained fans with her beautifully shot and elegantly written books that cover all things Texas. From 2002’s Texas on the Plate to 2014’s Texas on the Table (where she showcased Texan ingredients and chefs, and was nominated as a James Beard Cookbook award finalist), Thompson-Anderson should be any young cook’s go-to for Texan cuisine. With Breakfast in Texas, she grabs readers by the flutes with her first chapter on breakfast and brunch libations. From there the book tackles migas (there’s a entire section on how to prepare eggs), kolaches and klobasnikis and more, while using local ingredients and Texas farmers. San Anto fans should note recipes from La Gloria, Tucker’s Kozy Korner and Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery. It’s the most Texan meal of the day, and there’s no better guide than Thompson-Anderson. – Jessica Elizarraras
Jessica Luther often tells interviewers she doesn’t really like to watch football anymore. As a reporter covering the intersection of college sports and sexual violence, it makes sense why. For her book Unsportsmanlike Conduct, the independent Texas journalist probed college rape scandals across the country for years in order to show the disturbing pattern in which media, college administrators and even fans too often look the other way when allegations of sexual violence hit a football program. She calls it the “playbook” – the predictable, toothless way people in power typically respond when athletes are accused of rape or assault. In fact, it was Luther’s reporting on the topic that played a critical role in blowing the Baylor University rape scandal wide open, making it a public, stomachturning mess that officials are still struggling to adequatly address. As the Baylor scandal continues to inspire headlines, you couldn’t ask for a better speaker to help you understand the problem and its possible solutions. – Michael Barajas
10am, San Antonio Public Library, West Terrace My (Underground) American Dream: My True Story as an Undocumented Immigrant Who Became a Wall Street Executive
10am, San Antonio Public Library, Central Market Cooking Tent. Wake up to Breakfast in Texas with Terry ThompsonAnderson
10am, San Antonio Public Library, Swartz Room Jessica Luther on the Baylor Football Rape Scandal 2:30pm, Southwest School of Art, Coates Chapel The Future Is Female: Feminism for the Real World with Kelly Jensen, Jessica Luther, & Siobhan Vivan
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ARTS + CULTURE
S A N A N T O N I O B O O K F E S T I VA L
collections of poetry, works of fiction, essays and more, his talk at this year’s Guadalupe García McCall, who will be San Antonio Book Festival will be quite busy at this year’s San Antonio focused on the subjects of his first full Book Festival, participating in three length nonfiction work All They Will Call different panel discussions, is a San You , which was just released in January. Antonio-based, Mexican-born teacher, The book, the end result of countless poet and author of award winning young hours of extensive research and field adult fiction. Her three novels Under the work, is a masterfully composed account Mesquite (2011), Summer of Mariposas of a 1948 plane crash in California, once (2012) and Shame the Stars (2016) are immortalized in Woody Guthrie’s song all set in or around Eagle Pass, Texas “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee),” where she spent her childhood. While that left 32 people dead, including 28 perhaps a seemingly unremarkable detail, migrant farm workers who were being the settings and characters of these deported. Guthrie, and Hernandez after novels for young adults are important, him, saw racism and injustice in the because they allow young Mexicannews reports that named only the dead American and Tejan@ readers to identify Americans onboard and referred to the with, and grow along with, characters migrants simply as “deportees.” – JC and situations that are reflective of their own lived experiences. García McCall 1pm, San Antonio Public Library, is, then, an activist and a champion of Auditorium Epic of Injustice: Remembering the highest order, helping Mexicanan American Tragedy American youth to value their culture and understand that their stories and not only valid, but valuable. – JC LAWRENCE WRIGHT GUADALUPE GARCÍA MCCALL
Lawrence Wright has spent his career digging deep in some strange, fascinating corners of humanity. A torchbearer of Texas’ unique tradition of narrative 1:15pm, Southwest School of Art, Coates nonfiction (which has birthed writers like Chapel Who Run the World? Girls! (And Beverly Lowrey, Skip Hollandsworth, Other Worlds, Too) or the late, great Gary Cartwright), the longtime New Yorker writer and Pulitzer 3:45pm, Southwest School of Art, Prize winner most often navigates the Coates Chapel Love Has No Borders (Um, muddy waters of belief. That’s meant Including Between Texas & Mexico ) exploring the world of Satanists, Scientologists, al Qaeda and pretty TIM Z. HERNANDEZ much everything else in between. Faith Tim Z. Hernandez is a poet, writer, in something, anything, and how it unites research scholar, performance artist and and distinguishes groups of people is at assistant professor at the University of the heart of Wright’s work. Since he’s Texas at El Paso’s bilingual MFA program right in our backyard, we’ve been lucky in creative writing. His work combines to have Wright at the SA Book Fest a strong sense of advocacy for social since it’s inaugural run in 2013. This year, justice with a penetrating imagination Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith will talk and an investigative reporter’s attention with Wright about his recent collection to detail. While Hernandez has published of essays, published near the 15th 11am, Southwest School of Art, Coates Chapel Stars and Blood: Retelling Shakespeare
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anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, titled The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State. – MB
or imprisoned in the ghettos. The project ultimately turned into a documentary she co-produced that earned her two Emmy nominations. Her latest book, Twenty1:15pm, San Antonio Public Library, West Six Seconds, digs into the story of her Terrace The Terror Years: From al-Queda to grandfather, Abraham Zapruder, who the Islamic State with Lawrence Wright on November 22, 1963, left his office and perched himself on a high concrete LESLEY TÉLLEZ parapet overlooking Dealy Plaza, hoping to take home a souvenir of the president’s Lesley Téllez is a New York City-based swing through downtown Dallas. Instead, journalist, culinary tour expert and he’d become owner of an important, Mexican cookbook author. Téllez runs terrible piece of American history. – MB the highlylauded culinary tour company Eat Mexico, which specializes in culinary 3pm, San Antonio Public Library, walking tours that focus on street food, Auditorium A Personal History of the markets and local food history in Mexico Zapruder Film with Alexandra Zapruder City and Puebla. From 2009 to 2015, she authored the award-winning Mexican food and travel blog “The Mija Chronicles.” MARTÍN ESPADA Her 2015 book, Eat Mexico: Recipes A longtime professor of English at the from Mexico City’s Streets, Markets and University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Fondas, is an Amazon bestseller. Téllez’s Martín Espada, who also spent some time talk at this year’s San Antonio Book as a tenant lawyer, has published nearly Festival will center on her vast knowledge 20 books as a poet, editor, essayist and of Mexico’s rich culinary traditions and how translator. Though Espada is an academic those traditions, alive and thriving even with a wide purview of influences and in an ever-changing world, continue to interests, his lifelong passion, inspired by inspire people to fall in love with Mexican his father, is in social justice, in shining food and culture. If the way to the heart light on the marginalized, and in the is through the stomach, perhaps Téllez’s important work of giving voice to the work can help win over the hearts of those voiceless. Imagine the Angels of Bread who still envision literal and figurative walls (1996), one of Espada’s finest collections separating Mexico and the United States. of poetry, received the American Book Now, wouldn’t that be delicious? – JC Award and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. His 2:30pm, San Antonio Public Library, latest collection of poems, from which Central Market Cooking Tent Eat Mexico he will read at this year’s San Antonio with Lesley Téllez Book Festival, is entitled Vivas to Those Who Have Failed. The timely collection, ALEXANDRA ZAPRUDER inspired in large part by his father’s work Yes, that Zapruder. In fact, for her third as an organizer and activist, finds Espada book, the writer and granddaughter of reclaiming historical movements that have the man whose home movie captured been thought of as failures and addressing the Kennedy assassination returns to her issues of police brutality, racism, surname’s famous, troubling legacy. The immigration reform, labor struggles, and project follows Zapruder’s first published more. – JC work, Salvaged Pages, a stunning collection of diary entries penned by young 4:15pm, San Antonio Public Library, writers during the Holocaust – some of Launch SA Vivas to Those Who Have Failed: whom were in hiding, passing as non-Jews Poems for Unknown Heroes sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 35
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SCREENS
KRISTIAN LIN
FREAKY FRIDAY Stunning visuals and grown-up themes in FUNIMATION FILMS
the body-switching anime Your Name
≥
If you were thoroughly scouring critics’ lists of last year’s best movies, you may have run across Your Name popping up on a few — a very few, since this Japanese animated film only played in theaters in Los Angeles in December and wasn’t widely screened for critics elsewhere. This week, however, the Texas-based anime distributor Funimation brings this movie to San Antonio theaters in both Englishsubtitled and -dubbed versions. While I wouldn’t have placed this film on my Top 10 list last year, this box-office hit in Japan with an eye-catching premise and visuals deserves a look while it’s here, and not just from anime fans. The plot begins with 16-yearold Mitsuha Miyamizu (voiced by Mone Kamishiraishi in the subtitled version and Stephanie Sheh in the dubbed one) waking up in her bed in a rural town called Itomori. This isn’t unusual, except that everyone she knows remarks on her weird behavior from the day before, none of which she can seem to remember. Mitsuha hates her strict life as the mayor’s daughter and wishes she were a handsome boy in Tokyo. The thing is, she already is one. Every few nights during sleep, she switches bodies with Taki Tachibana (voiced by Ryûnosuke Kamiki and Michael Sinterniklaas), a similarly aged kid with an interest in architecture and a job at an Italian restaurant in the capital’s ultra-hip Shinjuku ward. No wonder the teens have trouble remembering who their friends are. Suddenly, Mitsuha becomes much better at basketball and can’t stop fondling her own breasts, and Taki is eating all the sweets Mitsuha wants and getting
a date with that cute supervisor at work (voiced by Masami Nagasawa and Laura Post). Eventually, the teens figure out what’s happening and start leaving notes on each other’s phones. If you’re looking for a Westernstyle exploration of gender fluidity, this might disappoint you. While Taki and Mitsuha do gain some perspectives on what it’s like on the other side of the sex divide, the key to the plot and the body-switching is a mystical confluence of events tied to a comet passing overhead and the Shinto shrine that Mitsuha’s family is taking care of. This is the first movie released in America by director Makoto Shinkai, who wrote this movie’s script based on his own novel. His story is structured as a closed loop much like the braidedcord bracelet that ties Mitsuha and Taki together, but it doesn’t match the emotional impact that old anime masters like Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata regularly deliver. As the two kids try to avert an ecological disaster, the thriller-like conclusion feels like something pulled from a different film entirely. Still, there’s no doubting this 44-year-old filmmaker’s talent and eye for beauty, as he renders both the rural landscapes and the bustling cityscapes in sun-dappled glory and does particularly well by an opening shot of a meteor shower over Itomori. The script has clever touches, too, like the play on the Japanese words for “twilight” and “who are you?” If Your Name isn’t quite as revolutionary as it seems to promise, it does herald an important and distinctive new voice that uses anime to address some grown-up — or at least partially grown-up — themes.
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Donuts Du Jour
> Donuts are so hot right now. Days before Bakery Lorraine announced the upcoming opening of Maybelle’s, their donut shop inside the Pearl, Estate Coffee Co. finally announced daily donuts options. Made by owner Brian LaBarbera, the old school donuts are available ‘til noon (or until they sell out) in flavors such as honey lavender, strawberry, lemon coconut, blueberry, maple bacon, vanilla and salted caramel. But flavors can change depending on LaBarbera's fancy. 1320 E. Houston St., (210) 667-4347.
gumbos, crawfish ètouffèe, red beans and rice, jambalaya and creamy lobster bisque. Lunch po’boy specials are available for $9.95 or $11.95 catfish, sausage or fried shrimp and oysters, respectively. The sampler comes in clutch when choosing your accompanying bowl. I chose the ètouffèe with my lunch special and server Baxter clued me in on a not-s0-neat alternative. Order the crawfish pies “sloppy” and they’ll be serve on top of a bed of rice and smothered in ètouffèe. I doctored my own order, and will be coming back for more. Crawfish boils are in the works in the coming weeks, and hours are in flux for now, but expect them to open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Saturday. 5602 W. Hausman Road, Suite 102, (210) 455-2757.
dare you to have a look for yourself and just try to contain your excitement. — AL
Haute Street Food
> On Sunday, April 9, the block of Houston Street between St. Mary’s and Navarro will close and foodies will play as part of Houston Street Charities’ quarterly gourmet picnic. Known as Houston Street Food, the event invites food lovers to order a basket and grab a seat along the communal table and enjoy near-limitless wine and beer. This year’s baskets include selections from chef John Russ (roasted garlic and white bean hummus with crisps, chargrilled skirt steak with baby kale chimichurri, cherry tomato and feta Get Sloppy salad, mustard green tabouli, triple chocolate brownie); > The northwest side area gained more po’boys as of March Bohanan’s (cucumber gazpacho, watermelon salad, 20 with the opening of The Lost Cajun, the Colorado-based roasted summer vegetables and orzo, muffuletta, housechained that opened at 5602 Hausman Road, Suite 102. made giardiniera, upside-down pineapple cake); Market More from Bakery Lorraine The franchise has less than two dozen locations across several states including South Carolina and Tennessee and > Looks like Bakery Lorraine has let the cat out of the bag on Houston (creamy market cavatappi pasta salad, chilled house-smoked brisket sandwich with homemade espresso Texas. Another Lone Star State location is due for Humble — well, sorta. barbecue sauce, kettle mesquite chips, blueberry hazelnut in the coming months. The San Antonio branch was Posted to Facebook on March 24, Bakery Lorraine opened by Eric Bernal and Daniel Monterey. released a bit of information about Maybelle’s Donuts & Fried crumble); and The Palm (chilled tomato soup with orange zest, crunchy lemon buttermilk drumsticks - chilled, classic Those looking to find something to fill the void Where Pies and took to the comments, saying San Antonians can Y’at left when they closed this February should be excited for expect something new at the Pearl’s food hall. An official list carrot and cabbage coleslaw, lemon bars). Tickets for Sunday’s event are $45 and a portion of the this eatery. The laid-back setting features strewn New Orleans of the tenants of the food hall has yet to be released by Giant proceeds go toward the San Antonio Food Bank’s summer knick-knacks, a full bar and plenty of seating. The menu Noise, the public relations firm that handles the Pearl. food service program. Houston Street Food runs from includes Louisiana favorites, gumbos and Cajun classics, The bakery posted an image created by graphic designer 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. po’boys and beignets. A small a la cart section is filled with Jamie Stolarski, which by the looks of it, means we can Tickets are available at sanantoniococktailconference.com. Lagniappe or “a little something extra” items such as boudin expect doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, sweet rolls and coffee balls, catfish bites, crawfish pies, and fried pickles. from Bakery Lorraine’s latest project. In place of bread service, servers at The Lost Cajun Bakery Lorraine has also been teasing out their latest Send food and nightlife news to offer up a paddle of six 2-ounce samples filled with various creations on Instagram through @Maybelles_donuts. We flavor@sacurrent.com.
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Shops open ‘til 7 PM
Live Music by Mariachi Damas de Jalisco sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 39
CRAFT SANGRIA, MARGARITAS AND BEER PAIRED WITH SLIDERS, TACOS AND SALADS
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FOOD
@S.A.VORTOOTH
MIGHTY FINE An evening at
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Charcuterie from Andrew Weissman's Signature
Andrew Weissman’s Signature RON BECHTOL
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All over the country acclaimed chefs are shuttering temples of haute cuisine — or, at the very least, spinning off more casual kin in a kind of bet-hedging maneuver. The reason? Rising costs, a shrinking finedining demographic, the hot-today, old-hat-tomorrow Instagram and Twitter culture … Andrew Weissman, no stranger to high-end culinary concepts, steadfastly denies that Signature, his spare-noexpense new restaurant on the flanks of La Cantera’s golf greens (the building itself a former golf “academy”), is a fine-dining establishment. There are no tablecloths on the gleaming, recycled-wood tabletops, he asserts; the prices are below those of most such restaurants (tellingly true when compared to high-end steakhouses); and, it should be noted that the sommelier (maybe we should just call him the wine guy) may be suited but he is also tieless. Oh, and there’s a burger, albeit Wagyu, on the menu. We think Weissman may protest too much, but if one additional definition of fine dining is a willingness on the part of diners to sit at a table for three hours as we did, then let’s examine what happened. Expectations were naturally high, and they were only amplified by the king’s ransom in antique copper pots that served as a kind of proscenium into the open kitchen. We start with the five-piece house-made charcuterie selection. Presented on an antique wooden paddle, it’s a marvel of composition and a textbook example of varying tastes and textures from salty to sweet and plush to rustic. The baguette is one of the best in town, the poached pear pairs beautifully with the familiar foie gras torchon … and
if the paté de campagne seemed a tad under-seasoned, some exquisite pickled black trumpet mushrooms more than made up for it. Another appealing-sounding starter, the five-spice quail cooked under a brick, arrived next but couldn’t quite compete. Yes, the quartered and flattened critter was exactly as advertised but little more — though the accompanying crunchy/citrusy salad was a well-calibrated companion. A hard-fried quail egg added visual interest but no meaningful taste component ... Signature’s Caesar salad is plated in the kitchen, not showily tossed tableside — perhaps another conscious move away from old-line fine. But it’s no less excellent for all that. Some might object to the enthusiastic application of Spanish anchovies, but not me; my only request would be for just a little more of the crunchy parmesan tuile. The salad was followed by a grapefruit sorbet palate-cleanser in, ahem, classic, fine-dining tradition. It’s probably demeaning on the face of it to think of any wine steward as a caddy equivalent, but bear with me — and the inevitable golfing analogy: if the caddy’s the guy who helps pick the clubs that make the shots, then why not? And in our case, though I proposed a wine (a delicate cabernet franc-based Chinon from France’s Loire Valley), Adam Spencer, perhaps familiar to some from The Sandbar, didn’t stop at confirming; his subsequent by-the-glass suggestions, including a lusty Numanthia Termes Toro, helped to make the meal and to bridge between such disparate plates as seafood gnocchi and rack of lamb.
The bowl of gnocchi was the only merely-at-par dish in an evening otherwise at full-on Master’s level. (In this, Weissman is aided by, among others, Laurent Rea, recently of The Fig Tree.) Yes, the broth was beautiful and the butter-poached lobster and clams impeccable, but the gnocchi themselves were less than levitating, and, for this diner, the bits of merguez sausage too small and crisp to contribute meaningfully. But the two cylinders of rosy flesh that dominated the plate of deboned rack of lamb with roasted tomato, onion, and mousseline potatoes, made for a minor master course in cookery. Assertively herb-coated (rosemary at the fore) and relentlessly rare, the racks reminded me why, when done properly, lamb is one of the world’s best excuses to be an omnivore. Now, at the two and a half hour point, dessert: the sweet spot. We had cast admiring glances in the direction of Paris-Brest pastry and the artisanal cheese plate, but when push came to shove, only had room for a tarte au citron embellished by piped “combs” of torched meringue. It was perfect, as was the plate of mignardises (a beautiful macaron and more) that capped the evening — again in fine-dining fashion. So where, overlooking the aberration that is gold-foildecorated risotto, does this leave us in the fine dining debate? Weissman says that diner expectations may make him cave on the tablecloth question. But if he’s still not willing to call Signature fully-fine, then neither is it semi-fine. So, in good Texas fashion, let’s just call it mighty-fine and leave it at that.
16401 La Cantera Pkwy., (210) 247-0176 signaturerestaurant.com $18-$45 The skinny: SA’s super-star chef Andrew Weissman returns to the elegant dining arena he first exposed us to at the late, lamented Le Rêve, and his talents are undiminished. If the service is slightly less formal, the cooking is not. Best bets: Charcuterie board, Caesar salad, anything fish or lamb, tarte au citron — and any of the wine steward’s suggestions. Cost: $18-$45 Hours: 6-10pm Tue-Sat, 6-9pm Sun sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 41
CULTURE
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JACK GUENTHER PAVILION AT BRISCOE WESTERN ART MUSEUM
14492 Old Bandera Rd Helotes, TX (210)695-8827
For tickets: liveatfloores.com 42
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The city’s east side is gaining a distillery this summer
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FLAVORFUL FIESTA NIOSA Will Pour Local Craft Brews for the First Time Ever
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Alamo Premium Distillery is moving its operations from the airport-adjacent industrial park they’ve operated out of for the past two years to 621 Chestnut. Launched by church buddies Noel Burns and Daniel Taylor, the distillery will also rebrand in the coming weeks and transition into Alamo Distilling Co., which customers use more regularly. Burns, an affable former chemist with a strange likeness to another chemist that focused on Blue Sky to pay for his cancer treatment, and Taylor, formerly a operations manager at Lowe’s, met while attending Journey Fellowship’s Schertz campus several years ago and decided to get into the craft business based on Burn’s distilling prowess and Taylor’s ability to implement successful packaging and production systems. Those systems worked and now Alamo’s Texas Craft whiskey can be found across 300 stores statewide, and 100 shops in San Antonio as distributed through GIMA International, which puts them in Spec’s, Total Wine, Gabriel’s and the like. But while demand has grown exponentially since 2015 — bottles are currently on back order — the distillery’s 1,100-square-foot space at 540 Sandau hasn’t. The facility, complete with a teensy air-conditioned office, is stuffed with whiskey aging in plastic drums, the 140-gallon still that runs almost continuously to keep up with demand and distribution materials for Flaviar (the European-based, spirit of the month subscription service Burns and Taylor label and package as a side hustle). “We never intended this to be a very public venue, but a lot of people love coming to see that
we produce the craft spirits right here,” Burns said. The Chestnut location will feature approximately 7,000 square feet of space, 3,000 of which will be used for production and 1,500 or so designated for an air conditioned tasting room and offices. No major changes will be made to the facility, aside from a few repairs, a paint job and said tasting room, so Burns and Taylor are hoping to open their doors sometime this summer. They’re currently waiting on their TABC 60-day notice to wrap and other local and state agencies to give them the go-ahead. Alamo Distilling Co. will join Alamo Beer Company, Bexar Pub, Big Hops The Bridge and Burleson Yard Beer Garden as early adopters to the changing Dignowity Hill area. It’s easy to see why people would want to seek out the distillery. The highest-selling spirit so far, the Texas Craft whiskey, aged using live oak inside plastic barrels, is rich in character and surprisingly smooth (Through his careful distillation methods, Burn is able to rid the spirit of any harsh alcohol burn). Their Texas Moonshine is gaining followers, and the Texas rum is just as playful. The prices are also low for industry standards — $20 for the rum, $35 for the whiskey. The new facility means they’ll pick up more equipment, which will help them grow the line to include a single-barrel and a dark rum. Some of the Alamo Distilling office equipment and other tools are at the new location, but distillation begins the minute Burns is given the green light. The public will have to wait to tour the new facility as they catch up on orders from local liquor stores. Trust us, it’ll be worth it.
> This year as San Antonians make their way through La Villita’s make-shift multi-cultural villages such as Mexican Market, Frontier Town, Froggy Bottom, they should be on the look out for a few familiar beverages. Night in Old San Antonio chairman Patti Zaiontz has finally made a goal of hers a reality by adding local craft beer to the lineup of alcoholic beverages available during the four-night bacchanal. The craft beer will flow in Frontier Town (aka Maverick Plaza) inside the Craft Beer Saloon, which will sell four craft beers on draft from local Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling, including new-tothe-lineup San Antonio Lager, Red Headed Stranger (red IPA), Love Struck Hefe (Germanstyle Hefeweizen) and OPA (oatmeal pale ale) on draft. Over at Sauerkraut Bend (aka La Villita Assembly Building), the lineup of beers will also be poured for when you need hydrating after your fifth Chicken Dance. Lager lovers who are familiar with Dos Equis will be able to score Busted Sandal’s Finding Friday Mexican lager, named after the popular local band by the same name. The cans will be available in Especial booths, where Dos Equis are served and will replace Tecate Light. Though no numbers were set on how many kegs the San Antonio Conservation Society will order from GLI, which distributes Busted Sandal, or Glazers, which distributes Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, Zaiontz is positive the new beers will please palates. She says she comes from a German family, and watched her dad come home every day after work to enjoy a beer. But as the mother of a millennial, the 44-year volunteer has noticed a shift in her progeny’s partying. “They have more sophisticated palates and are going to bars to taste beer. They’re going to new restaurants, trying new foods, new beers,” Zaiontz says. Craft beers will be priced at seven tickets or $7, and Miller Coors products will remain at $6. A Night in Old San Antonio will run April 25 through 28.
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Bursting into pop music after her role as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon series Victorious, Ariana Grande is quickly becoming one of the most admired female pop vocalists on the planet, not only because of her voice but also the charming and goofy persona she often lets shine through her TV appearances, like on SNL and most recently NBC’s live broadcast of Hairspray. But the road to stardom hasn’t been all bubble gum and booty shakes. Grande was turned down for a White House gig because of a July 2015 scandal when she licked other people’s donuts and said, “I hate America” in a donut shop in Lake Elsinore, California. The singer/actress says she was trying to make a point about healthy eating, and the controversy didn't exactly tarnish her reputation writ large, as she still remains the fourth most followed person on Instagram and continues to pack arenas across the country. On tour in support of her latest album, Dangerous Woman, Ariana Grande’s definitely one of the biggest names to roll through Alamo City this year. 7:30pm, $36, AT&T Center, 1 AT&T Center Pkwy. THU
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COURTESY OF ARIANA GRANDE
MUSIC PICKS
ARIANA GRANDE
COURTESY OF CLOVER G RECORDS
One of the more well-known artists to emerge from Houston in the 2000s, Lil’ Flip started out as a freestyle and battle rapper before signing with independent Houston label Suckafree Records in 1999. Eventually, he landed a major deal with Columbia Records in 2002. Lil’ Flip, born Wesley Eric Weston, Jr., was first discovered by the late DJ Screw who added Weston to his rap crew, the Screwed Up Click, which has featured members like Fat Pat, Z-Ro and Trae The Truth. Definitely considered a part of the chopped-and-screwed southern hip-hop movement, Weston’s flow and vocal delivery remains calm and collected as he punctuates his songs with stories of growing up in Cloverland Park, a neighborhood on the south side of Houston. Stepping back from the forefront of mainstream hip-hop, Lil Flip is still ridiculously active, telling The Source last year that he still writes 20-30 verses a week for features on other rappers’ songs. He might even appear in the Guinness Book of World Records pretty soon since he’s appeared on a whopping 5000 albums. 9pm, $12-$15, Limelight, 2718 N. St. Mary’s St. THU
COURTESY OF EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
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LIL’ FLIP
Formed in 1999 in Austin, Explosions in the Sky helped pioneer the genre known as post-rock, a form of experimental rock which uses traditional rock instruments to produce instrumental soundscapes. In fact, they're still probably one the most recognized in the genre, alongside Mono, Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Sigur Ros. Explosions combine shimmering cascades of reverberating guitar riffs with echoey roll drumming for a style they refer to as "cathartic mini-symphonies." The band had already seen plenty of success with the release of their first three albums, but it was their heavy contribution to the Friday Night Lights soundtrack that gained them major mainstream attention — and an audience that catapulted them far away from the trenches of underground music. Carving a path for a generation of post-rock bands to follow (including San Marcos’ This Will Destroy You and San Antonio’s Bright Like The Sun), Explosions In The Sky continue to write ethereal and thunderous compositions that have been entrancing audiences for almost two decades. With Thor & Friends, 7pm, $25, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St. THU
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EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
OF MONTREAL Officially part of the Elephant 6 Collective, which has spawned heavy-hitting indie acts like Neutral Milk Hotel and The Apples In Stereo, of Montreal have been serving up their own special blend of psychedelic indie pop since the late 1990s. Formed in Athens, Georgia, of Montreal began as just one person, frontman Kevin Barnes, before adding additional members prior to the release the 1997 record Cherry Peel. Though the band has kept a general psyche tone FRI
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throughout the years, their sound has taken on a number of different manifestations — ranging anywhere from The Beatles circa 1969 to Blonde Redhead and Animal Collective. Whatever the sound, the music is almost always weird and probably would sound amazing on a dose of magic mushrooms (not that we would know). So if you’re up for a strange trip, don’t miss of Montreal’s stop at Paper Tiger on Friday. With Christina Schneider’s Jepeto Solutions, 8pm, $16, Paper Tiger 2410 N. St. Mary’s St.
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MAVERICK MUSIC FESTIAL
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TTYE LAVETTE
It’s not every day a soul singer from the 60s teams up with a rock and roll band to put out a record, but that’s exactly what happened when singer Bettye Lavette joined forces with southern alt-rockers Drive By Truckers to produce the 2007 album The Scene of the Crime. Before hanging out with the Georgia based group, Lavette got her start in the the Detroit club scene in the 1960s and wound up going on tour with the then newcomer Otis Redding after recording her first single “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man” at only 16 years old. Though Lavette continued to perform and record over the years, it wouldn’t be until 2005’s I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise did she really break out into mainstream circuits. I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise was a cover album of songs written by artists like Fiona Apple and Dolly Parton and was released on punk rock label Epitaph’s sister label Anti-, which hosts a strange combination of artists and bands including rapper Sage Francis, country singer-songwriter Merle Haggard and indie rockers Wilco, to name a few. Within a few seconds of listening to Lavette’s soulful vibrato and life experience that she carries through her vocal performances, you’ll understand why this is a concert you’ll definitely need to stop by this weekend. 8pm, Pre-sale $42.60, Carver Community Cultural Center, 226 N. Hackberry SAT
JAIME MONZON
With its fifth installation and a recent partnership with The Tobin Center, the Maverick Music Festival is gearing up for an explosive weekend of solid music. Perhaps most notable this year are hiphop heavy weights De La Soul, the legendary rap trio from Long Island with their classic jam “Me, Myself and I” and a Grammy award winning collaboration with Gorillaz on “Feel Good Inc.” Also on the Maverick roster is Bastille, Young The Giant, The Naked and Famous, Minus The Bear, Honey Honey, Generationals, Small Black, Carla Morrison and Book Of Love, a recently re-united synth-pop band from the late 1980s. Since its inception in 2013, Maverick Music Festival’s aim has been to “elevate live concerts in the Alamo City to the next level.” It’s something they’ve certainly done in recent years with headliners like Run The Jewels, Flaming Lips and Cypress Hill. What’s also pretty dope about Maverick is their inclusion of local talent. San Antonio bands don’t have the opportunity to rub elbows with national acts as frequently as bands in other Texas cities, like Austin and Dallas, so getting the chance to share stages with artists that don’t play shows in San Antonio often is an awesome opportunity for hometown talent, which this year will include soulful indie rockers Fishermen, experimental prog trio Verisimilitude and Wayne Holtz, a local queer icon and indie pop performer. $99-$169, La Villita Historic Arts Village, 418 Villita St. For more information on the Maverick Music Festival, visit maverickmusicfestival.com. And, for regular festival updates, check out Twitter @MaverickFestTX. FRI-SAT
STEVIE TOMBSTONE Stevie Tombstone’s music sounds like he sold his soul to the devil for a bottle of whiskey and he’s just riding out his last days singing sad country songs on his acoustic guitar ‘til hell takes him home. It’s great, and to be honest, a little bit unexpected considering how many country and Americana folk artists we come across living in South Texas. Matching vintage blues with country twang, the Georgia-born artist has been an active performer since immersing himself in the 1980s underground rock scene in Atlanta before pursuing the dusty acoustic path he’s currently walking. Ranging from alt-country rock to gritty southern gothic folk music, Tombstone isn’t exactly trying to mask his gloomy lyrics with upbeat happy guitar riffs (a common attribute to his traditional country counterparts). It’s raw and unashamedly depressing, yet catchy enough to keep listening to. And even if you start crying thinking about all the mistakes you’ve made with your life, you’ll probably still be tapping your foot to beat. 5pm, Free, Barriba Cantina, 111 W. Crockett St. #214 SAT
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MUSIC CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5 Dope/Combichrist Heavy metal bands Dope and Combichrist. $21. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music, 7pm-midnight Guy Forsyth & The Hot Nut Riveters Alternative/Americana band from Austin. $15. Alamo Beer Company, 7:30-9:30pm Jarabe de Palo Spanish rock group, Jarabe de Palo, performs at the Aztec. $35. Aztec Theatre, 8pm The Real La La Land at Jazz, TX On April 5, 6, and 7, the musical revue event will feature Jazz, TX club owner – Doc Watkins – and special guests Graham Fenton (star of Las Vegas’ Jersey Boys), Dave Damiani (from Sinatra 100, CBS Vegas), Bijon Watson (trumpet player featured in La La Land film), and Watkins’ orchestra. $25. Jazz, TX, 7 & 9:30pm Robbie Fulks Chicago’s alternative country singer/songwriter. $15-$50. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm
Temple of Flesh Presents
2017 San Antonio
Fetish Ball Sunday, April 16th
Ronnie Milsap Country soul singer. $34.50$64.50. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30pm THURSDAY, APRIL 6 Hot Club of Cowtown Western swing act Hot Club of Cowtown performs during a PBS filming of a new global travel series, Samantha Brown’s Places to Love. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-10pm Jartse Tuominem Finnish guitarist Jartse Tuominem performs with his band. $8-$30. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8:30pm Jay Wimberley Rock/soul act Jay Wimberley every Thursday. Free. The Phoenix Saloon, 8pm The Real La La Land at Jazz, TX $25. Jazz, TX, 7 & 9:30pm
Exotic Easter SAFetishBall.com 18+ ID Required
11431 Perrin Beitel Rd, San Antonio, TX $20 Pre-Sale $25 at Door 8:00 PM - 2:00 AM 48
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FRIDAY, APRIL 7 Anonymous Henchmen Local metal act, joined by Secret Silent, Dojo and Refugee. $5-$8. Bond’s 007 Rock Bar, 8pm
Canvas People. Free. The Phoenix Saloon, 9pm Cash’d Out Johnny Cash cover band. $10. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 8pm Denim Hares, Poets & Saints Corpus Christi’s Denim Hares is joined by psychpop band Swedish Ropes, with Poets & Saints. $5. Imagine Books and Records, 8-11:45pm Jacob Sartorius Famed from the app Musical.ly, 14 year old pop singer Jacob Sartorius performs on his “The Last Text World Tour” in support of his EP release, “The Last Text.” $25. Aztec Theatre, 7:30pm The Real La La Land at Jazz, TX $25. Jazz, TX, 7 & 9:30pm The Reed Brothers Local Americana/blues/ rock band joined by Copper Chief. $8-$10. John T Floore’s Country Store, 9pm The Fab Four: The Ultimate Beatles Tribute Emmy Award-winning Beatles tribute band. $35-$55. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30pm Uncle Lucius Americana/roots rock act joined by Arkansas rock band deFrance. $12-$70. Sam’s Burger Joint, 9pm Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly music with Viva Las Vegas, trio from Juarez, Mexico, and local act The Lucky Odds. Free. The Mix, 10pm SATURDAY, APRIL 8 2nd Annual Fitz Fiesta New Wave Bash Featuring Strangelove (Depeche Mode tribute), Boys Don’t Cry (The Cure tribute band), Marr-Moz Experience (The Smiths/ Morrissey tribute band from SA) and Electric Duke (David Bowie tribute band from California). $16.98-$20. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music, 5pm Fly Coco, Barrera & the Hot Springs San Marcos indie rock band Fly Coco, joined by local bands Barrera & the Hot Springs, and C. Rose. $5. Imagine Books and Records, 8-11:45pm The Georges San Marcos rockabilly act The Georges. $10-$45. Sam’s Burger Joint, 9pm
The Battle of The Swing Bands The Dirty River Dixie Band of San Antonio and The Waller Creek Vipers of Austin. $20-$300. Seekatz Opera House, 8-11pm
Hedwig and the Angry Inch John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s landmark American musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a record-breaking production with over 500 performances and four Tony Awards. $39.60-$124.50. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 8pm
Bob Schneider Austin-based musician and former lead singer of Ugly Americans, Bob Schneider. $25. Gruene Hall, 8pm
King Earth, Odometer Local doom acts King Earth, Odometer, Cursus and Chankla. $5. Zombies, 9:30pm
The Canvas People Indie rock act The
Maverick Music Festival “After Parde”
MUSIC
Sounds by DJ Catwalk, BRUKOUT, Colorblog and DJ Chacho. Free-$5. Paper Tiger, 10pm Mnozil Brass Septet performing classical, jazz and other styles of music using traditional brass instruments and more unusual instruments. $29-$99. Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 7:30pm Small Black DJ Set The official Maverick Music Festival after party features a DJ set by indie Brooklyn band Small Black. Joined by Filmstrips. $6-$10. Limelight, 10pm Testament Berkeley thrash metal band Testament performs with support from Sepultura and Prong. $25-$140. Aztec Theatre, 6:30pm Wade Bowen Award-winning country/red dirt artist Wade Bowen performs, joined by Kaitlin Butts. $25. Gruene Hall, 9pm Wall of Soul Reverend Lil Timmy & the Outlaw Revival Band presents blues/rock band Wall of Soul and Vagenda. $5. Bond’s 007 Rock Bar, 8:30pm SUNDAY, APRIL 9 The Aggrolites Los Angeles based “dirty reggae” band, The Aggrolites. Joined by Los Skarnales and Echo Squad. $17-$20. The Korova, 7:30pm Cash’d Out Johnny Cash tribute band. $10$15. Jack’s Bar, 8pm Decades Dj JustAngel is joined by Boi of Doom. Featuring new wave indie club classics from the 80s, 90s & 00s. Free. The Mix, 10pm EDM Sundays EDM Sundays with electronic live events. Free. The Amp Room, 8pm Fortunate Youth Fortunate Youth, a South Bay reggae band, play in support of their CD release. $14-$50. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm Hedwig and the Angry Inch John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s landmark American musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a record-breaking production with over 500 performances and four Tony Awards. $39.60-$124.50. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 2 & 7pm
Country Band and Brent Horton. Free. Frontier Times Museum, 1-4pm Shake Russell and Michael Hearne Country/folk artists Shake Russel and Michael Hearne perform at Gruene. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-9pm Sunday Afternoon w/ Mike Blakely + Jake Martin Outdoor country/Americana artists Mike Blakely and Jake Martin play at Luckenbach. Free. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 1pm Sunday Evening Picker Circle w/ Bill Lewis Open, acoustic session with Bill Lewis. Free. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 5pm Sunday Jazz at the Witte Every second Sunday of the month, jazz under the pecan trees of the Will Smith Amphitheater. $7-$10. Witte Museum, second Sunday of every month, 3-5pm MONDAY, APRIL 10 Black Violin Blend of classical, hip-hop, rock, R&B, and bluegrass music. $18.50$49.50. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30pm Drive-By Truckers Georgia alternative country/Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers, joined by folk band Hiss Golden Messenger. $20. Paper Tiger, 7pm Fabulous Miss Wendy Hollywood rocker Fabulous Miss Wendy. $5. Limelight, 9pm Marshall Hood and Friends American roots act Marshal Hood & Friends. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-10pm Meat and Metal Mondays Zombies Bar hosts a metal night while serving meat and drink specials. Free. Zombies, 5pm Monday Evening Picker Circle with Jake Martin Unplugged picker circle with Jake Martin. Free. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 5pm Swing Nite with the 24th Street Wailers Swing night with rock/blues band The 24th Street Wailers. $9-$10. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8:30pm
TITANIUM 4000, X AGAIN, BLACK PANTHER, MASTER ZONE, EXTEN ZONE, EXTREME DIAMOND, EXTRA ZONE, RHINO V5, RHINO X, MAX LOAD, MAX HARD, MAX STAMINA, RHINO BIG HORN, PURE, RED ZONE 3000, RHINO 7 (5000), RHINO BLACK 3K, POWER ZONE 3000, FUEL UP, FORBIDDEN TIGER, FIFTY SHADES, TRIPLE XXX, EREKT FOR WOMAN: KANGROO, SPARXXX, GEISHA
TUESDAY, APRIL 11 Jazz on the Rocks Live jazz, happy hour, and complimentary small bites. Free. St. Anthony Hotel, 5-7pm
Mod Sun Often described as “hippy hop,” Josh Grider and Michael O’Connor Singer/ Minnesota native Mod Sun is on his songwriters Josh Grider and Michael DriveInMovie Tour in support of his latest O’Connor. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-10pm release, Movie. $20. Alamo City Music Hall & Club, 8:30pm Tuesday Evening Picker Circle with Jake McLain Unplugged picker circle with Jake Second Sunday Music Fest Spring showcase McLain. Free. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 5pm honoring The Toman Brothers, Texas
8373 CULEBRA STE. 103 • 210.521.4555 1639 BABCOCK RD. • 210.474.6005 sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 49
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DOMME AND DOMMER > I’m a woman in my late 40s. In my early 20s, I married a much older man. We did all the requisite things: kids, house, intercourse once a week. When the sex fell off due to his declining health, he surprised me by suggesting we open our marriage. He said I was too young to be limited and he didn’t want me to leave him for sex. I spent time contemplating how to truly fulfill my desires. I read a lot of erotica, indulged in porn, and discovered that what turned me on was Dominance. Not intercourse particularly, but power play with me as the Queen controlling a slave. I like chastity, face-sitting, and light bondage. I have found that this type of play appeals to smart and kinky gents. But I am finding that, despite a gentleman’s declaration of “wanting something long-term,” perhaps a friends-with-benefits arrangement, they tend to drop out in short order. Three times in the past two years I have spent a great deal of time getting to know someone before there was any play — a lot of time chatting online, several vanilla dates. In each of these instances, I felt that I had found a good friend. Each of these three men dumped me in exactly the same way. Each said that I was too overwhelmingly beautiful and powerful, and that their obsession with me took up too much room in their lives. This is very frustrating because I feel like I give someone the space they need. I think this is likely BS. Could “I’m overwhelmed” be the new “It’s not you, it’s me”? I am tired of having my feelings hurt. Must I hang up my crop forever? Done Offering My Mental Energy Forever hanging up your crop because a few guys tactfully ended things over a two-year period seems a bit melodramatic. So hang in there, DOMME, and hold on to that crop. The mistake you’re making, if I may be so bold as to offer some constructive criticism to the Queen, is investing too much time and energy up front, i.e., you’re making large emotional investments in these guys before you get around to the play. You’ll want to screen guys for your own safety, of
SAVAGE LOVE by Dan Savage
course, but spending “a great deal of time getting to know” a potential kinky FWB is a recipe for disappointment. Because if you don’t click during play — if your style of BDSM doesn’t do it for them or vice versa — there are really no “benefits” in continuing. I suspect that was the case with your last three gents. But instead of ghosting you or saying something that could be construed as critical or unkind, all three heaped praise on you instead. You were too beautiful, too overwhelming, etc. It was, indeed, a kinder, gentler, subbier way of saying, “It’s not you, it’s me.” Dominant women are in such short supply relative to demand that submissive men will, well, they’ll submit to an endless vetting process. During that process, submissive guys open to something long-term will say so, DOMME, but submissive guys who aren’t looking for something long-term will say so, too, if they sense that’s what you want to hear. In order to be safe while avoiding avoidable heartache, DOMME, you’ll want to invest a little time in getting to know guys before you play — again, for your safety — but not so much emotional energy that you’ll be annoyed/upset/devastated if it doesn’t work out. > My wife and I are poly. Next week, my wife is going on a business trip, and I made plans with a woman who we sometimes hook up with to come over. The complication is that, at 8 a.m. the next morning, our housekeeper is supposed to show up — and she’s likely to see that my wife is away but I’m eating breakfast with another woman. I’m not sure what to do. We’re open about being poly, but that seems like an awkward and inappropriate conversation to have with your housekeeper. An Inconvenient Guest You shouldn’t have to sneak around in front of your housekeeper, AIG, but your housekeeper probably — definitely — doesn’t want to hear the details of your sex life. So sneak out the back door or pass your lady friend off as a houseguest (remember to rumple the sheets in the guest room) — or reschedule either your housekeeper or your hookup.
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CURRENT • April 5-11, 2017 • sacurrent.com
1 Super Mario ___ 5 30-ton computer introduced in 1946 10 Gets hazy, with “up” 14 Au ___ 15 ___ precedent 16 Film director Wertmuller 17 Obama education secretary Duncan 18 Exterminator’s targets 19 Reunion invitee 20 Harden, like adobe 23 Neutral area between N. and S. Korea 24 Brockovich played by Julia Roberts 25 Battleship initials 28 _ _ _ Lambert (recent viral answer to the pub quiz question “Who played Skyler White? ” where the cheating team misread Anna Gunn’s Wikipedia entry) 31 Hog, wild? 33 “No you didn’t!” 35 Guns N’ Roses frontman Rose 36 Hypnotized or anesthetized 38 Actress Taylor of High Fidelity 39 Highest-ranked tournament player 41 Facepalmworthy 44 ___-TASS (Russian press agency) 45 The Five People You Meet in Heaven author Mitch
47 Plumb of The Brady Bunch 48 Drops in on 51 Mr. Hoggett’s wife, in Babe 52 ___ es Salaam, Tanzania 53 Italian writer Umberto 54 “Top ___ mornin’ to you!” 56 “___ the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” 58 Historical medical book, or literally what’s happening in this grid? 63 Johnson of TV’s “Laugh-In” 66 Watch brand that means “exquisite” or “success” in Japanese 67 Norwegian royal name 68 Spinnaker or jib 69 ___ Rock Pete (Diesel Sweeties character) 70 Sushi ingredient 71 Coop denizens 72 “Carnival of the Animals” composer Camille Saint-___ 73 Eponymous developer of a mineral scale
DOWN
1 Tattle 2 ___ avis (uncommon find) 3 Pig noise 4 Fine equine 5 Sports-channel-themed restaurant 6 Nair rival, once 7 “My package has arrived!” 8 September fl ower 9 Lieutenant killed by Iago in Othello
10 Taqueria dessert, maybe 11 Cruet contents 12 Wildebeest 13 “Stay With Me” Grammywinner Smith 21 Infuse (with) 22 Sch. that’s home to the Wildcats in Durham 25 American competitor 26 Trap liquid? 27 Sean played by Melissa McCarthy 28 Local 29 Far from drab 30 Texas city across the border from Ciudad Juarez 32 “___ pinch of salt ...” 34 Traffic sign warning 37 BBQ entree 40 ___ Lanka 42 They fall in line 43 “... ___ man with seven wives” 46 Area sheltered from the wind 49 High ___ (Maxwell Anderson play) 50 Period of inactivity 55 The Lion King meanie 57 Typhoon, e.g. 58 Toothpaste types 59 Analogous (to) 60 A little bit of everything 61 Sound-barrier word 62 Z actor Montand 63 Pikachu’s friend 64 Charlotte of The Facts of Life 65 Sn, in chemistry
ETC.
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Be interested in first things, Aries. Cultivate your attraction to beginnings. Align yourself with uprisings and breakthroughs. Find out what’s about to hatch, and lend your support. Give your generous attention to potent innocence and novel sources of light. Marvel at people who are rediscovering the sparks that animated them when they first came into their power. Fantasize about being a curious seeker who is devoted to reinventing yourself over and over again. Gravitate toward influences that draw their vitality directly from primal wellsprings. Be excited about first things. TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): Are you weary of lugging around decayed guilt and regret? Is it increasingly difficult to keep forbidden feelings concealed? Have your friends been wondering about the whip marks from your self-flagellation sessions? Do you ache for redemption? If you answered yes to any of those questions, listen up. The empathetic and earthy saints of the Confession Catharsis Corps are ready to receive your blubbering disclosures. They are clairvoyant, they’re non-judgmental, and best of all, they’re free. Within seconds after you telepathically communicate with our earthy saints, they will psychically beam you eleven minutes of unconditional love, no strings attached. Do it! You’ll be amazed at how much lighter and smarter you feel. Transmit your sad stories to the Confession Catharsis Corps NOW! GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Now is an excellent time to FREE YOUR MEMORIES. What comes to mind when I suggest that? Here are my thoughts on the subject. To FREE YOUR MEMORIES, you could change the way you talk and feel about your past. Re-examine your assumptions about your old stories, and dream up fresh interpretations to explain how and why they happened. Here’s another way to FREE YOUR MEMORIES: If you’re holding on to an insult someone hurled at you once upon a time, let it go. In fact, declare a general amnesty for everyone who ever did you wrong. By the way, the coming weeks will also be a favorable phase to FREE YOURSELF OF MEMORIES that hold you back. Are there any tales you tell yourself about the past that undermine your dreams about the future? Stop telling yourself those tales. CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): How big is your vocabulary? Twenty thousand words? Thirty thousand? Whatever size it is, the coming weeks will be prime time to expand it. Life will be conspiring to enhance your creative use of language ... to deepen your enjoyment of the verbal flow ... to help you become more articulate in rendering the mysterious feelings and complex thoughts that rumble around inside you. If you pay attention to
the signals coming from your unconscious mind, you will be shown how to speak and write more effectively. You may not turn into a silver-tongued persuader, but you could become a more eloquent spokesperson for your own interests. LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): We all need more breaks from the routine — more holidays, more vacations, more days off from work. We should all play and dance and sing more, and guiltlessly practice the arts of leisure and relaxation, and celebrate freedom in regular boisterous rituals. And I’m nominating you to show us the way in the coming weeks, Leo. Be a cheerleader who exemplifies how it’s done. Be a ringleader who springs all of us inmates out of our mental prisons. Be the imaginative escape artist who demonstrates how to relieve tension and lose inhibitions. VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): People in your vicinity may be preoccupied with trivial questions. What’s more nutritious, corn chips or potato chips? Could Godzilla kick King Kong’s ass? Is it harder to hop forward on one foot or backward with both feet? I suspect you will also encounter folks who are embroiled in meaningless decisions and petty emotions. So how should you navigate your way through this energy-draining muddle? Here’s my advice: Identify the issues that are most worthy of your attention. Stay focused on them with disciplined devotion. Be selfish in your rapt determination to serve your clearest and noblest and holiest agendas.
SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): If you’re a Quixotic lover, you’re more in love with love itself than with any person. If you’re a Cryptic lover, the best way to stay in love with a particular partner is to keep him or her guessing. If you’re a Harlequin, your steady lover must provide as much variety as three lovers. If you’re a Buddy, your specialties are having friendly sex and having sex with friends. If you’re a Histrionic, you’re addicted to confounding, disorienting love. It’s also possible that you’re none of the above. I hope so, because now is an excellent time to have a beginner’s mind about what kind of love you really need and want to cultivate in the future. CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Your new vocabulary word is “adytum.” It refers to the most sacred place within a sacred place — the inner shrine at the heart of a sublime sanctuary. Is there such a spot in your world? A location that embodies all you hold precious about your journey on planet Earth? It might be in a church or temple or synagogue or mosque, or it could be a magic zone in nature or a corner of your bedroom. Here you feel an intimate connection with the divine, or a sense of awe and reverence for the privilege of being alive. If you don’t have a personal adytum,
Capricorn, find or create one. You need the refreshment that comes from dwelling in the midst of the numinous. AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): You could defy gravity a little, but not a lot. You can’t move a mountain, but you may be able to budge a hill. Luck won’t miraculously enable you to win a contest, but it might help you seize a hard-earned perk or privilege. A bit of voraciousness may be good for your soul, but a big blast of greed would be bad for both your soul and your ego. Being savvy and feisty will energize your collaborators and attract new allies; being a smart-ass show-off would alienate and repel people. PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): Here are activities that will be especially favorable for you to initiate in the near future: 1. Pay someone to perform a service for you that will ease your suffering. 2. Question one of your fixed opinions if that will lead to you receiving a fun invitation you wouldn’t get otherwise. 3. Dole out sincere praise or practical help to a person who could help you overcome one of your limitations. 4. Get clear about how one of your collaborations would need to change in order to serve both of you better. Then tell your collaborator about the proposed improvement with lighthearted compassion.
THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow
LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): I hope that by mid-May you will be qualified to teach a workshop called “Sweet Secrets of Tender Intimacy” or “Dirty Secrets of Raw Intimacy” or maybe even “Sweet and Dirty Secrets of Raw and Tender Intimacy.” In other words, Libra, I suspect that you will be adding substantially to your understanding of the art of togetherness. Along the way, you may also have experiences that would enable you to write an essay entitled “How to Act Like You Have Nothing to Lose When You Have Everything to Gain.” SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): If you have a dream of eating soup with a fork, it might mean that in your waking life you’re using the wrong approach to getting nourished. If you have a dream of entering through an exit, it might mean that in your waking life you’re trying to start at the end rather than the beginning. And if you dream of singing nursery rhymes at a karaoke bar with unlikable people from high school, it might mean that in your waking life you should seek more fulfilling ways to express your wild side and your creative energies. (P.S. You’ll be wise to do these things even if you don’t have the dreams I described.) sacurrent.com • April 5-11, 2017 • CURRENT 53
M
MAVERICK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017
Originators of Crispy, Cheesy, Deliciousness!
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BASTILLE • YOUNG THE GIANT THE NAKED & FAMOUS • DE LA SOUL MINUS THE BEAR • CARLA MORRISON BOOK OF LOVE • GENERATIONALS • SMALL BLACK HONEYHONEY • SWIMMING WITH BEARS
FISHERMEN • JJ LOPEZ • DUB GIDEON • CALLIOPE MUSICALS • LEVEES • BLACK MARKET CLUB • WAYNE HOLTZ JENNY + THE MEXICATS • BOMBASTA • RANCH HOUSE • LA CHICHADA • JONATHAN TERRELL • BEAUTY SCHOOL MASSACRE VERISIMILITUDE • VIOLENT PRACTICE • DJ LANDO • ELY BAT • SERGE & DESTROY • DJ BC • CHARLIE CASTLEMAN • DJ MIGHTY IRIS DJ JUST ANGEL • BUSTIN LOOSE • DJ CATWALK • DJ ROGER • THRASHERS • VJ VISION
Originators of Crispy, Cheesy, Deliciousness!
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