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CURRENT | July 4-10, 2018 | sacurrent.com

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in this issue San Antonio Current

Issue 18_27 /// July 4-10, 2018

Publisher: Michael Wagner Editor-in-Chief: Greg Jefferson

Editorial

Senior Editors: Bryan Rindfuss, Jessica Elizarraras Art Director: Carlos Aguilar Food & Nightlife Editor: Jessica Elizarraras Staff Writers: Chris Conde, Sanford Nowlin Digital Content Editor: Sarah Martinez Contributors: Alexis Alvarez , Ron Bechtol, Erik Casarez, James Courtney, Callie Enlow, Jose Garza, Dan R. Goddard, Alejandra Lopez Gonzalez, Lance Higdon, Steven G. Kellman, Hannah Lorence, Michelle C. Lorentzen, Abby Mangel, Kiko Martínez, Jeremy Martin, Kelly Merka Nelson, M. Solis, Gary Sweeney, J.D. Swerzenski, Kelsey Valadez, Erin Winch Editorial Interns: Tehua Cruz, Alex Czaja, Alisa Pierce, Megan Rodriguez, Lori Salazar, Camille Sauers, Victoria Wilson

Advertising

Sales Director: Mallory Jochen Senior Multimedia Account Executive: Sarah Estrada Account Executive: Krystal Little, April Miller Sales + Events Coordinator: Tarah Martinez

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Marketing and Events Director: Cassandra Yardeni Events Manager: Chelsea Bourque Sales + Events Coordinator: Tarah Martinez Marketing and Events Interns: Julia Aguillon, Charo Nagafuchi, Frankie Parra, Sergio Ramirez

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Creative Services Manager: Tina Corbeil Graphic Designer: Samantha Serna Graphic Design Interns: Marla Mattila, Sara Jane Filippini, Noemi Solis, Rachel Villacorta

21 Feature

Circulation

Third Coast Stories

Circulation Manager: Justin Giles

CineFestival returns to its Texas roots for milestone anniversary

Business

Operations Manager: Sarah Estrada Business Support Specialist: Samantha Lopez

BY K I KO M A R T I N E Z

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Chief Executive Officer: Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers: Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services: Stacy Volhein Creative Director: Tom Carlson Digital Operations Coordinator: Jaime Monzon Senior Marketing and Events Director: Cassandra Yardeni www.euclidmediagroup.com

Councilman’s Appraisal of BCAD Chief: ‘Smug’

12 Calendar

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Our top picks for the week

CineFestival, the country’s oldest Latino film festival, is celebrating its 40th anniversary by highlighting the work of Texas filmmakers. A revival of Chicano activism marks several of this year’s entries.

Verified Audit Member San Antonio Distribution – The Current is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Get listed 1. Visit sacurrent.com 2. Click “Calendar” and then “Submit an Event” 3. Follow the steps to submit your event details Please allow 48 hours for review and approval. Event submissions are not accepted by phone. Copyright - The entire contents of the San Antonio Current are copyright 2018 by Euclid Media Group LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be mailed to the address listed above. Subscriptions - Additional copies or back issues may be purchased at the Current offices for $1. Six-month domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $75; one-year subscriptions for $125.

Illustration and art direction by Carlos Aguilar

07 News

Deflating the AAF

19 Arts

For the Birds

San Antonio-born performance artist and activist advocates for outcasts as ‘Mother Pigeon’

21 Screens

Fighting Back Through Film

Chicano activism still an integral part of CineFestival’s long history against repressive systems

Despite the city’s cheerleading, S.A.’s new football league is a Hail Mary effort

Quick Sneak Peek

Ram’s Revenge?

Festival Darling

Lawsuit accuses Viva Tacoland operator of mismanagement

9 feature films to add to your CineFestival schedule South Texas native Raúl Castillo featured in three award-winning films at CineFestival

29 Food

The Big Spoon On drinking

Food Court

More poke, more coffee and less chicken

A Spoonful

Checking out Jason Dady’s Tre at the Museum

Cocktail of the Week

Seersucker’s Frozen Cherry Limeade

East Side Newness

Updated dive takes up residence in former convenience store

37 Music

Femina-X to Debut Sophomore Album KIVA Music Top Picks

44 Etc

Savage Love, Crossword Puzzle, Astrology, This Modern World

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BENEFITING:

news

and came up short, either from lack of funding or bad business moves. Since the mid-‘70s, it’s hosted the World Football League, the United States Football League, the Canadian Football League and the XFL, to name just a few. But Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who played a role in luring the league here, thinks this time may be different. With an emphasis, of course, on the may. “I’ve also seen the corpses of leagues piled up over our history,” he said. “But this one does have a degree of credibility the others lacked.” For one thing, AAF has a television deal with CBS, Nirenberg points out, and Ebersol’s involvement is another shot of clout. What’s more, it boasts management and coaching ties to the NFL. And the local franchise has a coach and GM who were on teams people may have heard of. (The San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys for those keeping score at home.) The AAF’s deal includes a three-year lease to play in the Alamodome, but the city hasn’t yet released the final details of that agreement. Nirenberg, however, said the nitty gritty includes no tax breaks or incentives. “This is absolutely high-risk, but it’s high-risk for the league, not for San Antonio,” he said.

Who Needs Who?

Deflating the AAF

Despite the city’s cheerleading, S.A.’s new football league is a Hail Mary effort BY SANFORD NOWLIN

hen it comes to football, San Antonio has a history of magical thinking, from playing host to at least a dozen failed leagues to building the $186-million Alamodome with the notion that it’d somehow enable us to reel in an NFL team. Now we’re about to see if the Alliance of American Football is just so much more gridiron fairy dust. The spring league, helmed by Charlie Ebersol, the son of XFL exec and TV producer Dick Ebersol, is launching next year with the Alamo City as one of its first eight markets. Even though the fledgling AAF rolls into town with some deep-pocketed investors, it does so at a time when football fans already have access to more broadcast NFL games than any point in history – yet its ratings are falling. And thanks to head injuries and lawsuits, there are real questions whether tackle football as a professional sport still has long-term prospects.

“Even in normal circumstances, it’s really difficult to start a league,” said David Berri, a professor of sports economics at Southern Utah University. “It’s something that takes decades. It’s not something that’s going to happen in 5 to 10 years.” Compounding the problem, the AAF’s owners will need to flex some Dwayne Johnson-level marketing muscle to get audiences excited over a league where players are basically the college-team leftovers who couldn’t get picked up by the NFL. “You’re recruiting second-tier players onto a team nobody knows anything about to play in a league nobody knows anything about,” Berri said.

Losing Record San Antonio’s seen its share of football failures — groups who faced that challenge

But even if fans eventually come around to the idea of yet another football league, it’s unclear whether the city’s demographics and economics will support it. To fill stands, most start-up leagues give away free tickets like they’re blasting them out of a confetti cannon, but their ultimate survival depends on converting seat-warmers into fans willing to spend on season tickets. That could be a stretch in blue-collar S.A., where many sports enthusiasts already see the Spurs taking a deep bite of their paychecks. Also key to a league’s survival is convincing the business community to drop big coin on sponsorship, box seats and the like. Again, San Antonio could come up a disappointment. Previous franchises have lamented the city’s shallow corporate bench. “The reality is we are not now, nor have we ever been, a major corporate headquarters city,” said Heywood Sanders, a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “I don’t see that changing.” While the AAF’s odds don’t look good, Sanders said there’s at least a short-term upside for the San Antonio in having another big Alamodome lessee aside from UTSA football. But, he cautions, the city should negotiate aggressively to ensure it gets a worthwhile cut of concessions, parking fees and other potential moneymakers. “The league, in many ways, needs San Antonio more than we need the league,” he said.

Find more news coverage every day at sacurrent.com

8 CURRENT | July 4-10, 2018 | sacurrent.com

news

Ram’s Revenge?

Lawsuit accuses Viva Tacoland operator of mismanagement BY DANIEL CONRAD

iva Tacoland has seen better days. We don’t just mean the original place’s heyday, before the famously chaotic Ramiro “Ram” Ayala was shot and killed in 2005 after he said “fuck you” to a pair of armed robbers demanding cash from his register. You wouldn’t know it by looking at the place – which is at the heart of a standoff between development-minded interests and residents who call the venture crass gentrification – but the latest incarnation of the midtown staple appears to be troubled. At least, that’s if you take it from co-owners David Adelman and Ricardo Chavira — of Desperate Housewives fame — whose company Tacoland Studios LLC is suing James Christopher Erck for severely mismanaging Viva Tacoland. If they’re right, this would be the latest in a pattern of debt and contract suits against the serial restaurateur and bar operator.

According to Tacoland Studios’ June 22 complaint, Erck and his Rogue Taco Ltd. agreed to lease the property where the original Taco Land once overlooked the Riverwalk. Tacoland Studios wouldn’t collect rent until Erck was open for business, which everyone agreed would happen by October 2013. Tacoland Studios ponied up $50,000 and trademark rights to the name in exchange for 10 percent ownership in Rogue Taco, royalties on the name and a cut of sales. But Viva Tacoland didn’t open until May 2014, seven months late. To an extent, Erck can’t be faulted. He, Chavira and Adelman had to seek permission from the city’s Historic Design and Review Commission to go ahead with proposed renovations to the property. That process took longer than expected, in part because one commissioner wanted to see for his own eyes that graffiti near the building’s mural was

scrubbed before giving the OK to start construction. On its own, the late open seems a minor quibble. More worrying are the allegations that Erck repeatedly defaulted on payments, and paid little heed to calls for transparency. Rogue Taco stopped paying rent on time in 2016, and wouldn’t provide sales or finance reports to Tacoland Studios, according to the suit. By June 2017, Rogue Taco had caught up on its debt, but was once again in default — the fourth time that year — by that October. So, come November, Tacoland Studios informed Erck that it would terminate the lease, which apparently kicked him into gear. From then until just last month, the lawsuit reads, “Rogue Taco made many attempts to pay Plaintiff amounts it asserted Plaintiff was due, without any competent documentation that such amounts were correctly calculated.” In February, Tacoland Studios sent the notice of termination. Among the named defendants are Erck himself, along with four companies he’s registered: Rogue Taco Management LLC, and Rogue Taco Holdings LLC — both of which were involuntarily dissolved by the Texas Secretary of State, unbeknownst to Tacoland Studios — and Qwercky Ltd. (That’s the Qwercky Ltd. that tried

to register the trademark phrase “I Can’t Remember the Alamo” for sale on tees, panties and other Viva Tacoland merchandise in 2012. In an appeal that warranted coverage in the New York Times, the Texas General Land Office successfully shot down the attempt by asserting their common-law trademark rights on the phrase “The Alamo.” Texas argued that the proposal “disparages the deceased combatants of the Battle of the Alamo by communicating that their sacrifice was not worthy of memory or esteem.”) It’s been almost five years since Tacoland Studios signed the premises over to Erck, and they haven’t received a penny back on the $50,000 investment. Now they’re seeking $1 million. Erck did not respond to interview requests by press time. Chavira’s publicist declined to comment on this story and attempts to reach Adelman and his attorneys were unsuccessful. This is the latest in a number of suits against Erck in the past few years. In 2017, Bank of America took Erck to court in Bexar and Harris counties for owing more than $68,000 on a loan for his since-closed Panzanella Pizza restaurant. That same year, Texas Capital Bank hit him for a $30,000 debt owed on a loan for his downtown Swig Martini Bar, which was open for two decades before the landlord changed the locks on Erck, citing delinquent rent payments. The food supply giant Sysco also filed a claim this January, complaining that Rogue Taco had not paid for over $4,500 worth of food and kitchen gear. A 2012 suit against Erck and his parents’ trust argues that he conspired to keep a pharmaceutical company from paying off more than $1.5 million in loans owed to the trust. The plaintiff’s attorney declined to speak on the record, citing further litigation to come, but a district court judge ruled in 2017 that the trust was to pay $6,000 plus interest in damages for repeatedly refusing to accept attempted debt payments. Viva Tacoland and Juniper Tar are among Erck’s remaining operations after he closed FLiP Burgers, The Icehouse and The WoRM Tequila & Mezcal Bar. His recent track record is a far cry from his successful 1996 turnaround of the Finesilver Building, which won an award from the American Institute of Architects and housed artists such as San Antonio’s perhaps most prolific, the late Chuck Ramirez. sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT 9

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news | their town

Councilman’s Appraisal of BCAD Chief: ‘Smug’ Councilman Manny Pelaez wins support for city examination of Chief Appraiser Michael Amezquita’s office BY GREG JEFFERSON

ouncilman Manny Pelaez doesn’t put much effort into hiding his feelings, and he has a strong one about Michael Amezquita, head of the Bexar County Appraisal District. “It’s annoying how smug this guy is,” Pelaez said. “Every time you raise a concern, his response is, ‘If you want something changed, go to the state.’ His attitude is, ‘You can kiss my ass.’” Amezquita cultivates a toughminded, no-nonsense persona – especially when he’s addressing politicians – and talks about his job in black-and-white terms. “My job is to see that there’s parity, that everybody’s appraised at market value,” he said. “My job is spelled out in state law. I don’t have a choice.” That doesn’t sit well with property owners and elected officials who question exactly how BCAD decides what’s market value. Pelaez and Amezquita publicly clashed in February – on Valentine’s Day – over how the district calculates property values. The District 8 councilman didn’t let it go after the city council meeting. Two weeks ago, he won the support of council’s governance committee for an examination of BCAD’s property valuation practices and how they affect economic development and the city’s affordable-housing crunch. Part of what has Pelaez so worked up is that residents are complaining to his office about hikes in their property appraisals, which mean bigger tax bills. Overall, the taxable value of properties throughout San Antonio jumped this year by 9.2 percent, according to BCAD. The year before, the increase was 8.3 percent. The city takes in about 22 percent of all property tax dollars collected in Bexar County, compared to 48 percent for public schools. “For every single city and county

official, there isn’t a week that passes where a constituent doesn’t call and say, ‘I got screwed over by BCAD again. What are you guys doing about it?’” Pelaez said. The answer is very little. The appraisal district has a six-member board of directors, including city, county and school district appointees, with the power to hire and fire the chief appraiser and to set BCAD’s budget. But directors don’t have a say over how homes and business buildings are appraised. Which is fine. Honestly, would you really trust politicians to fairly and accurately determine property values if they had the power? But with BCAD set up as it is, council members are in a bind. Many of their constituents are angry and assume their council reps have the political muscle to make the process, in their view, fairer. They don’t. What politicians do have is the power to put public pressure on Amezquita, which is Pelaez’s prime objective in pursuing a city examination of BCAD’s work. One of his beefs is with the district’s taste for court fights. Between 2012 and 2016, BCAD was sued 3,850 times over high property valuations, according to statistics provided by Pelaez’s office. The district settled 49 percent of those cases. That might sound like a lot, but not compared to settlement rates in Dallas and Harris counties – 92 percent and 88 percent, respectively. Since appraisal districts in general have a terrible record at trial, Pelaez questions why BCAD fights it out so much in court, running up legal expenses on cases it’ll probably lose and accepting judgments that are harsher than the settlements it could have negotiated. Pelaez also blames BCAD for frequently over-doing it on property

appraisals. He cites how much commercial property owners and homeowners succeeded in lopping off their 2015 valuations – $1.6 billion and $475 million, respectively. What is Pelaez’s endgame? “To bring BCAD in line with other counties where property owners aren’t getting fucked as often,” he said. Pelaez has garnered letters of support from the San Antonio Manufacturers Association, San Antonio Restaurant Association, North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, neighborhood organizations and others. Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who chairs the governance committee, voted for his push for an examination of BCAD. Amezquita doesn’t seem particularly fazed. He shrugged off the litigation numbers that Pelaez referred to, calling them self-reported, statistically meaningless snapshots. “The notion

Manny Pelaez LCouncilman dsdf that the settlement rate is indicative of anything is silly,” he said. The bigger issue for Amezquita is San Antonio’s torrid real-estate market. Existing-home sales – which usually push up the values of neighboring properties – recently hit yet another all-time high. Referring to a house on Mistletoe Avenue that originally sold for about $60,000, Amezquita said, “I can’t help that this [property’s] market value is now $600,000… We follow the market.” He also said he welcomes the city examination, noting his office has already passed muster with the Texas comptroller’s office. Amezquita then got in his own dig. Elected officials, he said dryly, always have the option to slash property tax rates if they feel their constituents are overburdened – leaving local government with less money to spend. sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT 11

FRI | 07/06 FI LM

THE DARJEELING LIMITED 5

Slab Cinema’s worthy ode to the work of Wes Anderson rolls on this summer with a showing of the director’s 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited, arguably his most emotionally immediate and raw outing. The movie, Anderson’s fifth feature, follows three brothers, played by Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson, as they meet up in India, ostensibly to reconnect with one another a year after their father’s funeral, where they had last convened. But Francis, played by Wilson, has ulterior motives and secretly plans to drag his brothers to see their estranged mother, who’s staying at a convent. In typical Wes Anderson fashion, the film satisfies in part because of the characters’ dazzling imperfections and endearing idiosyncrasies. Free, 8pm, Hays Street Bridge, (210) 212-9373, wesandersonfilmfestival.com. — James Courtney

WED | 07/04 Shutterstock SPECIAL EVEN T

SPECIAL EVENT

FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS

Even if you’re feeling less than pumped about dragging out the ole red, white and blue to toast ‘Murica on her 242nd birthday, chances are you’ve got the day off and there are plenty of snarky ways to observe the holiday. Wear all black to a barbecue. Quiz people with Debbie Downer-style Independence Day trivia (here’s a good one: three of the first five U.S. presidents died on the Fourth of July). Get stoned and tune into the nauseating spectacle that is Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest. But, as the Los Angeles Times pointed out last year (story title: “How should an angry liberal celebrate the Fourth of July? Fly the flag even higher.”), “we can’t afford to be downers on the Fourth.” Instead, the Times suggested we “talk about why we care so much about the Constitution” and remind ourselves and others that “America is far bigger than Donald Trump.” While the backyard might be the best damn place to celebrate with an endless supply of cold ones, San Antonio’s got a few solid community-style options. Traditionalists won’t want to miss Independence Day at the Alamo, a free event combining living history demonstrations, photo ops with reenactors, a reading of the Declaration of Independence, live music by Fort Sam’s Own 323d Army Band and free paletas (free, 9am-4:30pm, The Alamo, 300 Alamo Plaza). Inviting guests to arrive with picnics, blankets and lawn chairs, the San Antonio Botanical Garden opens its gates after hours for bird’s-eye views of the fireworks at the neighboring San Antonio Country Club ($9-$12, 5:30-10pm, San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Pl.). Guaranteeing the biggest show of public fanfare, the San Antonio Parks Foundation’s Fourth of July Celebration packs in a “Firecracker Fit” half-mile walk/run, free zumba sessions, “All American” carnival rides and games, face-painting, food vendors, free snow cones, live music by the U.S. Air Force Band of the West and the Selena tribute Bidi Bidi Banda, and a fireworks extravaganza courtesy of H-E-B (free, 8am-9:30pm, Woodlawn Lake Park, 1103 Cincinnati Ave.). — Bryan Rindfuss

2018/2019 SEASON

@EMPIRE

AUGUST 10

CURRENT | July 4-10, 2018 | sacurrent.com

OCTOBER 18

FESTIVAL OF CHARIOTS 5

File this one under wholesome, healthy, maybe even spiritually uplifting events you can attend for free on a summer’s afternoon. Ratha Yatra (or the Festival of Chariots) is a huge deal for Hindus in east India. This massive celebration of a group of deities, representations of which are hoisted and paraded on wooden chariots, draws more than a million pilgrims to the region each year. In our neck of the woods, you can celebrate the occasion or simply seek some peace at our local answer to Ratha Yatra, hosted by Krishna Temple of San Antonio. The all-ages event will feature live music, dance performances, dramatic

ON SALE NOW! THE SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR

SAT | 07/07

OCTOBER 25

THE WORLD OF MUSICALS

MARCH 22

tenTHING IN CONCERT: TRUMPET SUPERSTAR TINE “TINA” THING HELSETH AND HER 10-PIECE BRASS ENSEMBLE

@EMPIRE

APRIL 4

calendar

interpretations, yoga, guest speakers, guided meditation, local art, crafts, holistic vendors and a free five-course vegetarian dinner. If you ask us, this seems like the perfect low-stakes opportunity to take another stab at getting your vibrations right. Free, 4-9pm, Woodlawn Lake Park, 1103 Cincinnati Ave., (210) 995-7377, krishnasatx.com. — JC

THU | 07/05 SUN | 07/08 COMEDY

TOM RHODES p

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Funny enough, Mr. Rhodes, the NBC sitcom bearing his name, is probably one of the low points of stand-up Tom Rhodes’ three-decade career. Running for a total of 19 episodes in the mid-’90s, the show featured Rhodes — the first breakout star from still-new Comedy Central — as a cool, longhaired teacher and has-been novelist and is less representative of the comic than the two TV shows 15 6

Festival of Charriots

Courtesy of Tom Rhodes

WITH A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

JULY 10

JULY 25

@EMPIRE

AUGUST 23

OCTOBER 19

OCTOBER 21

DECEMBER 1 sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT

OPENING RECEPTION

July 12, 2018 • 6pm - 9pm Exhibition on view July 12 - November 11, 2018 Centro de Artes • 101 S. Santa Rosa Free and Open to the Public

#getcreativesa | getcreativesanantonio.com | 210-206-ARTS |

calendar

6 13 he later hosted in Amsterdam or his 1995 travelogue Viva Vietnam: A White Trash Adventure Tour (where he set up a Slip ’n Slide on the beach from Apocalypse Now). Though he was born in Washington, D.C., Rhodes seems to make his best TV in other countries, and several of his stand-up specials were recorded in Europe. The perspective he brings back Stateside (comparing present-day America’s standing in the world to fat, jumpsuit-era Elvis, for example) is both one-of-a-kind and invaluable right now and delivered with the fervor of a Southern gospel preacher. He’s got some good fart and wiener jokes, too, because some things are always funny whether you’re in Butte, Montana, or Malaysia. $17, 8pm Thu, 8pm & 10:15pm Fri-Sat, 8pm Sun, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 541-8805, lolsanantonio. com. — Jeremy Martin

THU | 07/05 SUN | 07/08

Brick Fiesta

SPECIAL EVENT

BRICK FIESTA L

From humble beginnings in the early 20th-century workshop of Danish woodworker Ole Kirk Christiansen, LEGO has established itself as one of the most celebrated toy manufacturers in the world. A fusion of the Dutch words “leg” and “godt” (which together translate to “play well” in English and “I put together” in Latin), LEGO released its first construction toy (Kirk’s Sandgame) in 1935, debuted “Automatic

Binding Bricks” in 1949 and fine-tuned the building blocks of an empire — the iconic LEGO brick — in 1958. Boasting big-time staying power and a seemingly indefatigable ability to inspire the imaginations of the young and young at heart, the LEGO brand has become embedded in the global psyche via LEGOLAND theme parks and hotels, a Warner Bros. Pictures animated movie complete with spin-offs and a forthcoming sequel, over-the-top LEGO constructions (from worldwide landmarks to life-size dinosaurs), John Baichtal’s and Joe Meno’s deep-diving book The Cult of LEGO, Brendan Powell Smith’s “LEGO Bible” the Brick Testament and fan-fueled gatherings such as this weekend’s Brick Fiesta. Providing “family focused fun since 2011,” the nonprofit fest employs LEGO as a platform to emphasize the importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Hosted by the San Antonio chapter of the Texas LEGO Users Group, staffed entirely by volunteers and following a theme of “Bright Ideas,” this year’s four-day event includes LEGO Derby Vehicle Races (in which participants will have 10 minutes to build vehicles to race down a track in hopes of advancing to additional rounds); ongoing, “completely unplanned” Free Build sessions; Speed Build competitions (keep an eye on those instructions as “time penalties are assessed for missing or misplaced parts); Swap Meets and Minifigure Exchanges; Stop-Motion Presentations led by Austin-based Amari Pavati; and a Keynote Speaker Assembly featuring California filmmaker Justin McAleece. $10-$50, 9am-11pm Thu-Fri, 8am-11pm Sat, 8:30am-6pm Sun, El Tropicana Riverwalk Hotel, 110 Lexington Ave., (210) 223-9461, brickfiesta.com. — BR

FRI | 07/06 SUN | 07/08

Janus Films

follows a young bride-to-be who invites three of her mother’s ex-lovers to her wedding (on the Greek island where her mother lives) in hopes of determining which one is her father. Ken Urso directs the Public Theater’s production. $20-$35, 7:30pm Fri-Sat, 2pm Sun (through August 5), The Public Theater of San Antonio, 800 W. Ashby Pl., (210) 7337258, thepublicsa.org. — BR

MON | 07/09 FILM

YELLOW SUBMARINE

One of the true gems in the history of films about music or made by musicians, Yellow Submarine, starring and inspired by the music of The Beatles, was written by Lee Minoff, directed by George Dunning and boasts wonderfully trippy animation created by a host of stoned animators on both sides of the pond. The beloved children’s fantasy/comedy, based directly on music from the Fab Four, came out 50 years ago this month. In celebration of this momentous anniversary, the Bijou is hosting a limited screening event

THEATER

MAMMA MIA! 5

When it premiered on Broadway back in 2001 — just five weeks after 9/11 — British playwright Catherine Johnson’s Mamma Mia! got New Yorkers clapping along to disco mainstays and even dancing in the aisles. Referencing its spirit-lifting powers, critic Ben Brantley likened the jukebox musical to “the theatrical equivalent of comfort food.” Cleverly weaving together 20-plus earworms by Swedish pop quartet Abba, it

Jeremy Whittington

for the seminal 1968 movie. Fun for the whole family and an unforgettable theater experience for any true Beatles fan, Yellow Submarine hearkens to a simpler time when even the cool kids were able to enjoy the innocent pleasures of a silly vanity project like this. It’s highly recommended that you buy your tickets for this one ASAP, as it will likely sell out. And, be on guard for the Blue Meanies! $10, 7pm, Santikos Bijou, 4522 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 734-4552, santikos.com/san-antonio/bijou. — JC

TUE | 07/10 FI LM

MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT L

At once sharp and dreamlike, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Cuban feature Memories of Underdevelopment is one of the great films of the 1960s, and that’s saying something. Sergio (Sergio Corrieri), a well-to-do young man, has elected to remain in Cuba while most members of his family and class have fled to Florida. As he drifts through the plotless, impressionistic narrative, he feels lost and alienated from both his own roots and the new society. This could be seen as an unofficial sequel to Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1964 masterpiece Before the Revolution. Now it’s after the revolution, and nothing has changed for the uncommitted, unconvinced bit of bourgeois flotsam at its center. His fate may be ennui and irrelevance, but the movie’s technical bravura and sheer black-and-white beauty make it a dazzling predicament. Texas Public Radio revives the 1968 classic as part of its Cinema Tuesdays series. $10-$15 suggested donation, 7:30pm, Santikos Bijou, 4522 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 614-8977, tprcinema.org. — Michael Barrett sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT

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CARLOS RODRIGUEZ: BENDITA

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THU | 07/05 - FRI 07/06

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ART

FIRST FRIDAY HIGHLIGHTS

Devilish beauties, embellished underwear and artificial limbs are but a few of the curiosities to be found in Southtown on what’s destined to be one of the hottest First Fridays of the year. If you missed the June openings of Blue Star Contemporary’s summer exhibitions — including Gary Sweeney’s homey photographic installation “A Manhattan Beach Memoir” and the multimedia group show “From Underfoot: Breaking Through Surface and Ground” — take advantage of free admission to the pioneering art space on First Thursday and First Friday (free, 10am-8pm Thu, 10am-9pm Fri, Blue Star Contemporary, 116 Blue Star). Having recently moved from the corner pocket of the Blue Star Arts Complex to a newly reconfigured space many remember as Joan Grona Gallery, FL!GHT rallies “old favorites and newcomers” alike for “We Thanusiness,” which is oddly one of two new shows borrowing its name from 100-plus bizarrely botched signs hanging at gas stations and convenience stores across town (free, 6-10pm Thu-Fri , FL!GHT Gallery, 112 Blue Star). Around the corner and up the stairs at Hello Studio, artist/curator/gallery co-director Justin Korver has assembled a solid crew of 16 artists (including Nicholas Frank, Buster Graybill, Leigh Anne Lester, Connie Lowe and Daniela Madrigal) for “Friendly Neighborhood Abstraction,” an exhibition that seeks to challenge that genre’s “cold, analytical” reputation (free, 7-10pm Thu-Fri, Hello Studio, 1420 S. Alamo St., Building B, Suite 203). Billed as an “otherworldly exhibit” marked by a “paradise-in-hell aesthetic,” Connie Chapa’s first solo show “Who Is She?” takes over Creative Creatures, complete with an Instagram-ready interactive installation (free, 6-11pm Thu, Creative Creatures, 420 S. Alamo St., Suite 106B). Teased out with a creatively reimagined pair of Hanes whitey tighties, Choice Goods Gallery’s cheekily titled “The HE MAN SHOW” brings together works by bad-boy artists Robert Tatum, Rooster and Evil Dave (free, 6-9pm Thu, 6-11pm Fri, Choice Goods Gallery, 1420 S. Alamo St., Suite 103). Striking a more serious tone, Taylor Maupin’s installation “Once Upon a Time” employs materials such as clay and caulk to address childhood trauma and pose questions about “mental illness, coping mechanisms, sexual abuse and violence” (free, 6-9pm Thu-Fri, Terminal 136, 136 Blue Star). Only a stone’s-throw away from the Blue Star campus, rightful fan favorite Presa House Gallery unveils a trio of exhibitions: “Through Rose Colored Glasses” by Justo Cisneros (a full sensory experience built from “modified objects such as flowers, toys, fish and artificial limbs”), “Stems” by Eric Mathis (which nods to nature and math while investigating “the aesthetic experience of objects presented in non-traditional formats”) and “We Thanusiness” by James Medrano, a collection of artful parodies exploring “themes of addiction, religious corporatism and consumerism’s influence in our everyday lives” (free, 6pm-midnight Fri, Presa House Gallery, 725 S. Presa St.). — BR sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT

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BY SHANNON SWEET

n the sparse greenery of New York City, a flock of pigeons and their creator can be found nestled among chess hustlers and cheap paintings for sale. Typically, a handmade sign that reads, “Do Not Feed the Pigeons, They’re Already Stuffed” is set up next to a battered suitcase filled with well-earned tips. Upon closer inspection, the pigeons are frozen in

place. As animated as they look, these life-size pigeons are crafted from felt, wire and yarn, and stuffed with recycled clothing by Mother Pigeon, an activist, artist and urban wildlife advocate who often wears whimsical, hand-sewn, faux-feathered frocks as she tends to the flock or works away on her vintage battery-powered sewing machine. Pigeons aren’t the only form of urban wildlife she

“I have always been an advocate — whatever you want to call it – for the underdog. And whenever I see that someone doesn’t like someone or something then I really want to find out why,” she said. That empathetic spirit cultivated Mother Pigeon’s love for her feathered friends. She elaborated on the origins of her pigeon religion: “Living in New York, I noticed that there were these pigeons flying around, and they were really cool and I’d love to feed them — I’ve always loved to feed everyone really — and I didn’t realize how hated and reviled they were. I really didn’t understand why, so I wanted to do something to give them some respect and some love and just to make people see them in a different way than just the horrible press that they get.” To fight the stigma against the misunderstood birds, Mother Pigeon created. “I started making the pigeons, and people really love them,” she said. “They’re always moving, always flying, and here they are still, so people always gather and have a nice time looking at them. And then I can talk to them about how much I really adore and love them.” How do people react to Mother Pigeon perched in the park, cooing at her feathered children who surround her? “There are people who always get really disturbed or angry by the ‘outstillation’ street art, and I’m always really surprised by that,” Mother Pigeon said about unfavorable feedback. “I also get people who really love it and are extremely complimentary and excited. They laugh a lot, and even some come up to me and tell me it’s the best street art they’ve ever seen.” New York has long been an epicenter for DIY culture and street art. Speaking to that particular niche, Mother Pigeon said, “One of the big reasons I like to be on the streets is because I feel like galleries are elitist and museums are uptight and they make you feel uncomfortable. I’d rather walk down the street and see someone painting with stacks of paintings around them.” In addition to her contributions to the street art scene, Mother Pigeon also created 300 Pigeons in the Park (300 Pigeons of Peace), a “renegade flashflock” designed to bring attention to illegal pigeon netting in New York City. Not only is Mother Pigeon a friend to the often-derided pigeon, she’s an activist for

arts

creates — the flock of birds is often joined by hand-crafted rats that appear to be chowing down on a slice of felt pizza. A fixture on the New York performance art scene who’s been covered by The New York Times, The New Yorker and NBC News, among other outlets, Mother Pigeon (born Tina Piña) is a San Antonio native who moved to New York in the 1980s to live out her passion as an artist. One visit to the Big Apple was all she needed to realize that was where she belonged. “When I got back from my trip, I said to everyone that I’m moving there and I’ll do whatever it takes to get there, and I did, three months later,” she said. Her love of New York-centric movies such as Midnight Cowboy and Rosemary’s Baby also inspired her life-changing move as “these references were a part of [her] life.” Coming from San Antonio — often pegged as a big city with a small-town vibe — Mother Pigeon admits the adjustment was “a little scary” at first. “When I arrived, I stayed at a YMCA on the Upper East Side, and that was terrifying,” she recalled. “I was totally scaring myself to death.” After leaving the YMCA a week later, she rented a room in Chelsea. “At the time, Chelsea was the pits of New York,” she said. “People wouldn’t even visit me there, and it was the actual meatpacking district of New York. There were prostitutes and a drug-ridden situation just along the streets.” Now Mother Pigeon is settled in a quirky Brooklyn nest complete with a talented family seemingly plucked out of a Wes Anderson film. For more than a decade, she performed with her husband Jason, an off-off-Broadway playwright and big-band composer, and their daughter Rachel, a model and vocalist currently in the band Wooing, as the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, a family band that would make the Partridge Family look tragically uncool. While doing unglamorous temp work to fill in the gaps, Mother Pigeon was also making art and selling it on the street. “My dream always was to be able to work for myself [rather than] do what someone was telling [me] to do,” she said. Pigeons, to most New Yorkers, are filthy, feathered misfits. And that’s one of the reasons Mother Pigeon has dedicated her life to inspiring love for so-called “rats with wings.”

Courtesy of Mother Pigeon

San Antonio native Mother Pigeon tending her flock of hand-crafted birds in New York City.

everything with a heartbeat. “I’ve always loved animals and cared for them and rescued them from bad situations,” she said. “I remember walking on 14th street in New York and there were these people who would set up a little table and have pamphlets — this was preinternet garbage — that would depict the most horrifying photographs of animals being tortured and slaughtered for our food. I really needed to see that. I decided that I can’t contribute to this kind of lifestyle that we’ve been brainwashed to think that it just appears on our plate or our coat or whatever.” Mother Pigeon is also known to frequent animal rights marches and protests in style — complete with a papier-mâché pigeon head and a boom box blasting everything from “Free Bird” to “I Love My Little Rooster.” Reflecting on her inspiration to embrace the underdog and change the world’s perception of pigeons, she said, “I love that it affects everyone, and it bypasses class and color and all of that.”

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CULTURE

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L O C A L C U LT U R E T I C K E T S . C O M

COCKTAIL: THE EVENT

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FRI, JULY. 27 • The Doseum

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SAN ANTONIO MUSIC SHOWCASE

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n past years, CineFestival, the longest-running Latino film festival in the nation, has featured countless films from around the world. This year, for the fest’s 40th anniversary edition, Hecho en Tejas (July 5-8), the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) wanted to take the festival back to its Texas roots by celebrating the work of Latino filmmakers from the Lone Star State. It’s a move GCAC executive director Cristina Ballí hopes will create a community where Texas filmmakers can show their work, develop their skills and have access to more opportunities. “The motive to focus on Texas Latinx films was to return to our grassroots programming and to feature our stories that were not being told in the mainstream,” said Ballí, who joined the GCAC as executive director in September 2016. “These days, we see most Latinx media coming from the East and West coasts. I want to reinforce our stories — stories of the third coast.” Festival programmer Manuel Solis, also a Current contributor, who has worked with CineFestival in numerous capacities since the mid-’90s, also views the milestone anniversary as a way to give filmmakers a chance to see the work of colleagues from their own backyard. “We’ve had programmers who have given an emphasis to films from Mexico and Latin America, but I do think because it’s our 40th anniversary, it makes sense to celebrate the filmmakers we have here,” Solis said. “We really want to cultivate a scene where these filmmakers are dialoguing with one another.” Of the 56 films at CineFestival this year, 41 of them were made by Texas filmmakers or shot in the state. This includes professional direc-

Estebandido Films

Atlantic City (Best Short Film), tors and college and high school students. directed by San Antonio native One of the directors selected to screen his film at the festival this year is McAllen Miguel Alvarez resident Ronnie Garza. He and co-director and Edinberg resident Charlie Vela made alongside this concentration of Texas-made As I Walk Through the Valley, a documentary films,” Walley said. “We believe our film can on the Rio Grande Valley’s intricate music resonate with audiences outside of Texas, but history — from its rock ’n’ roll garage bands we wanted to start by sharing Chuck’s story in the ’60s to its South Texas punk rock in the with our local community because of how ’90s to its longstanding tejano and conjunto much the film reveals about influence. Garza points to our own local art history. Texas filmmakers like CathCineFestival We’re also eager to see the erine Hardwicke, Mike Judge, $8-$10 single movie ticket, work of our fellow Texas Robert Rodriguez, Terrence $40 festival badge, $80 VIP filmmakers and hopefully Malick, Forest Whitaker and badge (includes after-parmake some new friends.” Wes Anderson as examples ties, receptions and access Along with individual of inspirational directors to the CineFestival Lounge) Texas-made films, CineFestival now working in Hollywood July 5-8 will feature Texas-themed proat the highest levels. Guadalupe Theater grams throughout the week, “Texas seems to have 1301 Guadalupe St. including the Texas Filmsomething in the water when (210) 271-3151 makers’ Showcase, a series of it comes to grand visions guadalupeculturalarts.org/ Texas-made Latino short films and stories as big as the state cinefestival presented by the Houston itself,” Garza said. “At the Film Commission; Puro same time, their films seem Shorts, a short film program immediate, personal and featuring work by Latina directors and proeven intimate while simultaneously presentducers; Burnt Orange y Que! 2.0, a collection of ing new and powerful stories.” works from Latino filmmakers at the University San Antonio-based filmmaking couple of Texas at Austin; and the Femme Frontera Angela and Mark Walley’s documentary Tía Filmmaker Showcase, a celebration of female Chuck is also part of the CineFestival lineup. filmmakers living along the U.S.-Mexico border. Tía Chuck tells the story of the life and creAlso, continuing its tradition of honoring ative process of late San Antonio artist Chuck the best films of the festival, CineFestival will Ramirez. Walley said she and her husband present the Premio Mesquite Awards. Award are excited to share their labor of love with winners this year are We the Animals (Best the local and regional community before Feature), directed by Jeremiah Zagar; Ruben they start screening it outside the state. Blades Is Not My Name (Best Documen- 23 6 “It’s significant to have our film included

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screens 6 21 tary Feature), directed by Abner Benaim; Atlantic City (Best Short Film), directed by San Antonio native Miguel Alvarez; An Uncertain Future (Best Documentary Short), directed by Chelsea Hernandez and Iliana Sosa; and As I Walk Through the Valley (Special Jury Award), directed by Garza and Vela. “Our country’s ideals are under attack today, which is why it’s important for festivals like CineFestival to showcase our stories and elevate our voices,” Solis said. “That CineFestival has endured for four decades is inspiring and a testament to our talented filmmakers.” FIGHTING BACK THROUGH FILM

Chicano activism still an integral part of CineFestival’s long history

One Scene Studios

orn out of the Chicano Movement in the late ’60s, CineFestival was originally called the Chicano Film Festival and featured cinema through the eyes of filmmaker activists combating ills such as racial discrimination and lack of educational opportunities, and championing workers’ rights. CineFestival programmer Manuel Solis doesn’t want to lose sight of that. Last year, he said, one of the central themes that many of the films shared were the U.S. presidential election and the changing political landscape for people in Mexico and Latin America. “When you look at the history of Chicano cinema, it was founded through the movimiento,” Solis said. “That’s definitely something I always keep in mind as a programmer. It’s important for films to touch on these issues and do it in a way that’s not cliché. We’re always looking for filmmakers who are telling their stories from different viewpoints.” This year is no different. With the atrocities currently taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border — from the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy to the fight for the rights of DACA recipients, films tackling these issues and others couldn’t come at a more crucial time. In the short documentary An Uncertain Future, co-directors Chelsea

8A Entertainment

Firelight Media Inc

Clockwise from top: As I Walk Through the Valley, two stills from An Uncertain Future, My Name is Maria de Jesus

Hernandez and Iliana Sosa follow two expectant mothers in Austin — one undocumented and one a U.S. citizen — as they come to terms with the growing hostility against Latino immigrants under the Trump administration. “We wanted to show immigrants as normal individuals living and working in America, creating a close, nuclear family, as many do, but showcase their thoughts of being torn apart as a 25 6

Firelight Media Inc

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brothers in upstate New York as they try to maneuver through life with a pair of emotionally volatile parents (Raúl Castillo and Sheila Vand) while the youngest boy, Jonah (Evan Rosado), begins to recognize his queer identity. “We’re really proud of We the Animals,” CineFestival programmer Manuel Solis said. “It’s a really strong film that has magical realism, animation and these biographical elements from the celebrated book. I think it’s one of the strongest films we’ve screened at CineFestival in a really long time.” We the Animals is the winner of the Premio Mesquite Award for Best Feature. 7pm Thu, July 5.

The Orchard

Pixar Animation Studios

Jay Francisco Lopez

6 23 fear that is constantly in the back of their minds,” Hernandez said. “It’s unfortunate that we need films to express this, because it’s a humanitarian issue. No one wants to be torn from their family. But that’s also the power of film and art.” Like Hernandez, filmmaker Marcella Ochoa sees her short narrative My Name Is Maria de Jesus as timely for the current immigration issues the country is facing. Set in San Antonio in 1956, the film tells the story of a young Mexican girl who is forced to assimilate to the U.S. when her elementary school teacher gives her a new name and forbids her to speak Spanish. Years later, we see how that time in her life impacted her as well as her family’s identity. “I think my short is actually very timely for what’s going on in our country and the backlash towards immigrants,” Ochoa said. “I want people to see what our country was like in the ’50s and how poorly they treated Mexicans, and to learn from their past mistakes so we don’t repeat them. I also want people to come out of my screening and be proud of their culture and embrace it and not be ashamed of it.”

QUICK SNEAK PEEK

9 feature films to add to your CineFestival schedule

CTB Productions

rom punk-rock garage bands in South Texas to the untimely death of a beloved San Antonio artist, here are nine feature narratives and documentaries to catch at the 40th annual CineFestival. For a complete schedule of the films screening at this year’s fest, visit guadalupeculturalarts.org/cinefestival.

WE THE ANIMALS A coming-of-age story that follows three young

From top: We the Animals, Coco, Love, Cecy, Closer to Bottom, Tía Chuck: A Portrait of Chuck Ramirez

a Walley Films

COCO The Oscar-winning animated Pixar masterpiece screens twice in Spanish at CineFestival — once for Senior Cinema on July 6 and again for Family Day on July 8. The film tells the story of young, aspiring musician as he travels to the Land of the Dead to discover his true family history. 10am Fri, July 6; 3pm Sun, July 8 LOVE, CECY A drama on the life and death of 15-year-old Cecilia “Cecy” Rios, who was raped and murdered in 1994 in her Richmond, California, neighborhood — the same neighborhood the film’s director Jay Francisco López grew up in. 4pm Fri, July 6. AS I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY Rio Grande Valley-based directors Ronnie Garza and Charlie Vela examine the rich music history of South Texas through interviews with punk rockers of the ’90s, conjunto stars of the ’60s and more. As I Walk Through the Valley is the winner of the Premio Mesquite Award for Special Jury Prize. 9pm Fri, July 6. TÍA CHUCK: A PORTRAIT OF CHUCK RAMIREZ A feature-length documentary by San Antonio-based filmmakers Angela and Mark Walley, the film celebrates the life and work of late local artist Chuck Ramirez. noon Sat, July 7. CLOSER TO BOTTOM Directed by San Antonio native Jesse Borrego (Blood In, Blood Out), this drama tells the story of two brothers who fall in love with the same girl while dealing with the loss of their father. 6pm Sat, July 7. RUBEN BLADES IS NOT MY NAME This documentary examines the life and 50-year career of actor and multiple Grammy-winning salsa musician Rubén Blades (TV’s Fear the Walking Dead). Rubén Blades Is Not My Name is the winner of the Premio Mesquite Award for Best Feature Documentary. 8pm Sat, July 7. FERDINAND Based on a children’s book about a bull who would rather smell flowers than bullfight, this Oscar-nominated animated film by Brazilian director Carlos Saldanha screens on Family Day. 1pm Sun, July 8. SUMMER 1993 CineFestival’s closing night film takes audiences 26 6 sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT

screens

Apertura Films

“I had a professor tell me once, ‘If they don’t let you in the front door, go find a window.’”

6 25 on a journey with a 6-year-old girl who is uprooted from her home in Barcelona after tragedy strikes, to live with her aunt and uncle in the country. 7pm Sun, July 8. F E S T I VA L D A R L I N G

South Texas native Raúl Castillo featured in three award-winning films at CineFestival

Clockwise from bottom left: CineFestival darling Raúl Castillo, Ruben Blades Is Not My Name, Summer 1993

L 26

CURRENT | July 4-10, 2018 | sacurrent.com

ising Hollywood star and McAllen native Raúl Castillo (HBO’s Looking) is no stranger to CineFestival. “I’ve been going to CineFestival for years,” Castillo said during an interview last month. “It’s really special for me to be coming back. San Antonio is a second home to me in many ways.” In years past, Castillo was seen in CineFestival films like the 2002 short Abuela’s Home and the 2009 feature drama Don’t Let Me Drown. This year, he is featured in three of the five Premio Mesquite Award winners — We the Animals (Best Feature), Atlantic City (Best Short Film) and As I Walk Through the Valley (Special Jury Award). In We the Animals, Castillo plays Paps, the father of three young Latino boys exploring the world around them. The film is adapted from the 2011 coming-of-age novel of the same name by Justin Torres. What resonated with you about We the Animals that made you want to be

Oscilloscope

a part of the film? I missed the book when it came out. I got this script for We the Animals and started reading it, and it blew me away. I connected with it on a lot of levels. It explores masculinity and family and these other themes that are universal.

Did you search out the novel after you read the script? When I read the script, I thought, “This has to have some source material,” so I turned to the front page and saw that it was based on a book by Justin Torres. I picked up a copy of the novel and read it in a sitting. Even though we’re from very different worlds, I think they’re very similar. Growing up in upstate New York isn’t too dissimilar to growing up in McAllen, Texas, in some ways. The story is told from the perspective of young Latino boys. Did it transport you back to your life as a child? Did that come across on the screen or page? Absolutely. I have an older brother. I grew up with a lot of male cousins. The film was very evocative of childhood and what it is to be a boy and to explore. I found the novel to be very similar to A Portrait of the Artist [as a Young Man] by James Joyce. It’s about the awakening of a consciousness. In We the Animals, sexuality plays a part of the story, and I thought Justin captured it beautifully in the novel. I thought if we could do that with the film, we could do justice to the novel. Your character Paps is the father of three young boys. Did you pull from

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Stills from We the Animals, starring Raúl Castillo (top left) and Evan Rosado

any male influences in your life to create him? My dad passed already, but before he passed, I had a conversation with him about his own upbringing and his father. Our conversation revealed how sometimes abuses are passed down or are in cycles. What I learned from that conversation with my father is that everyone is trying to do the best they can with what they have. In that way, I can understand that Paps is human and has these flaws and is imperfect. Even though he does these horrific things, I felt it was written with a lot of love. I thought I should approach the character with that love and understanding.

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One of the themes in We the Animals is machismo in the Latino culture. What are your thoughts on that specific personality trait? Most men adopt their roles from the social structure they were born into. Latinos definitely have a special kind of machismo. I think Justin captured that with his characters — the flaws and the virtues of that machismo. Someone explained to me once that machismo is inherently a negative thing. Any machismo is too much machismo. It’s just another way of saying toxic masculinity. People are calling the movie the Latino version of Moonlight. Are you OK with that comparison or would you rather have the film stand on its own? It’s flattering because Moonlight is an impeccable film. At the same time, you want your film to stand alone. If it helps it find an audience, that’s fine, but it’s its own film. Personally, I wouldn’t call it that. Why is it important to have festivals like CineFestival that feature Latino filmmakers and Latino-themed work? I had a professor tell me once, “If they don’t let you in the front door, go find a window.” It’s an analogy for institutions that [Latinos] sometimes don’t have access to. I think when we’re limited [in] access, we have to celebrate our own work and recognize it. I love that CineFestival has continued to do that over the last few decades, which is why I continue to go back when I can. In a city like San Antonio that is so heavily Latino, I feel proud to go back and represent in this way. sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT

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On drinking BY JESS ELIZARRARAS

ine, spirits, booze, hooch. If you’re like any Texan trying to cool off, much like pink geckos that only dash out at night, it might be easy to reach for a frosty beer or an even colder margarita. And sometimes it’s easy to reach for a drink for a plethora of other reasons, including, but not limited to, devastating decisions by the Supreme Court that uphold travel bans, side with discriminatory practices by bakers and support a lack of transparency for California’s anti-abortion pregnancy centers; families being separated at the border; the upcoming loss of the red wolf that was protected until recently; tariffs and what they mean for the beer and motorcycle industry; Kawhi Leonard essentially ghosting the Spurs and most of San Antonio after what we thought were several blissful years. In 2016, after noticing alarming patterns in my drinking, I took a small sabbatical. It wasn’t a full blown 30-day Drynuary, but instead 12 days of Topo Chico-filled introspection. After Anthony Bourdain’s death, and now with the news of five journalists gunned down in a Maryland newsroom, it could have been easy enough to turn to a nearby watering hole and try to numb that grief. For this journalist, anxiety manifests in fun ways that include loss of motivation, forgetting to eat and isolation. Maybe it’s time for another break, or maybe it’s time to ask friends out for drinks or to explore the expanding world of low ABV sours and goses. Either way, I’ll keep my wits about me, and I hope you do, too.

Contact the author: flavor@sacurrent.com

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Pearsall Road between Hidden Cove Elementary School and Southwest Elementary School at 10996 Pearsall Road. Much like its brick-andmortar predecessors in San Antonio, the cart carries espresso-based beverages such as Americanos, cappuccinos, cortados, espresso and iced lattes using beans from Estate Coffee Co. Stanley originally purchased the cart four years ago, and worked on outfitting it for coffee as well as securing all of the permitting that goes along with operating a food cart. Shebel’s Rollin Cafe, a portmanteau of Stanley’s first name and his wife’s first name – Belem – operates Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 10996 Pearsall Road.

THE BIG SPOON

Jess Elizarraras

FOOD COURT

More poke, more coffee and less chicken

oke hits Boerne Stage Road There’s another poke shop in San Antonio these days with the opening of Fugu Poke House at Dominion Springs Plaza. Operated by Andres Castro of Uniko Japanese House at La Cantera Terrace, the shop is the one of the early tenants at the sprawling plaza with Jugo Juicery and 9Round Fitness. The shop features DIY bowls in three sizes (small, medium and large, between $8.95 and $12.95), poke burritos, poke salads and a few soups and larger items such as udon, lo mein and yakisoba. Signature Bowls are also featured ranging from $7.50 to $9. The space features communal seating, swing seating and a patio for al fresco dining. Fugu is named after the Japanese pufferfish, but none is served at the restaurant (probably because it’s poisonous to humans unless carefully prepared). 23702 W. I-10 Frontage Road, Suite 101, (210) 267-5504. Shebel’s Rollin’ Café opens Next time you’re taking an idyllic morning drive down Old Pearsall Road, you may want to pay a visit to Shebel’s Rollin’ Cafe. The tricycle cart launched this week in front of owner Sheldon Stanley’s home on Old

Jess Elizarraras

Pollos closes again Though details are limited, über popular pollo palace Pollos Asados Los Norteños is closed until further notice. The restaurant reopened this April after being closed for seven months because of legal issues with their smoke output. Pollos Asados reopened with longer lines and a large smoke room outfitted with high-tech smoke scrubbers. But according to the restaurant’s Facebook page, Pollos may be down once more. Here’s the post in full: TO OUR DEAR CUSTOMERS: We would like to inform you that Pollos Asados los Nortenos will be closed until further notice. We will be in touch when we are back up and running so please stay tune. Thank you for your understanding and support. Please share to all our friends. We reached out to owner Frank Garcia for details, but hadn’t heard back by press time. 4642 Rigsby Ave., (210) 648-3303. –Jess Elizarraras

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Checking out Jason Dady’s Tre at the Museum BY JESSICA ELIZARRARAS

AMA’s Hops Building, one of the spaces behind the museum’s main building, has seen many a tenant. There was Wild Beast by the Empty Stomach Group, La Boulangerie and most recently Sketch at the Museum, a concept by CommonWealth CoffeeHouse and Bakery, in 2016. And now there’s Tre Trattoria. The decade-old restaurant moved from its original location at the Boardwalk on Broadway to the Hops Building this past weekend. Chef Jason Dady announced the move after some sales tax sleuthing by the Current. “After almost a decade at Broadway and Hildebrand, we have found a new home. We are beyond excited to be a part of the River Reach project and also be able to stay close to our very loyal clients that have made Tre Trattoria an amazing place for so long. We do not anticipate much of a break in business and are excited to begin a new chapter in the Tre story. I’ve always said that restaurants have expiration dates and you have to know before it expires to switch it up, freshen it up and stay focused on the future.” The move was fairly swift, and Tre was relocated within two weeks of its closing date at the Boardwalk. The new space takes the Hops building and pushes its boundaries unlike the other pop-ups ever truly did. There’s certainly a lot more capital being funneled into Tre at the Museum — it looks like an actual restaurant. The interior now features a dining bar (or an Aperol spritz bar if you’re feeling sassy), and plenty of indoor seating which serves as refuge from the hot Texas summers. But once the sun sets, the patio also offers up a casual and bucolic option with views of the San Antonio Riverwalk Museum Reach and all its flora/fauna. It’s comfortable enough to luxuriate in and while away an afternoon over tapas with their Summer in Spain museum menu, or an Italian cheese and salumi board. On the eats side of things, Tre’s former menu is reflected, which means you can still score a variation on gnocchi and the golden beets aren’t going anywhere. During a lunchtime visit this week, we ordered the aforementioned Aperol Spritz, and ordered the tomato Caprese with fresh mozzarella and basil oil as well as the “deviled eggs” to start. The kitchen (yes, there’s a full blown kitchen) delivered with a sweet, slow-roasted tomato and plenty of basil and sent out a Tuscan farro salad with fresh mint, a fluffy topping of Parmigiano-Reggiano and walnut vinaigrette. The Parmigiano-Reggiano rained over the softboiled eggs topped with kewpie mayo (a Dady staple), fresh cracked pepper and white truffle oil. Decadent, fun, and extremely flavorful. The crispy-skin rainbow trout, topped with a zesty salsa verde, made its way to the museum and for

Roasted tomato Caprese salad (top) and smoked Gouda white truffle radiatore with brown butter cauliflower, charred lemon and hazelnuts.

good reason. The smoked gouda radiatore, which get their name because they resemble radiators (but also resemble cute, springy squat Koosh balls), featured all the the best ingredients (smoked gouda, white truffle, brown butter cauliflower, charred lemon and hazelnuts) in one comforting dish full of texture and depth of flavor. Though we chose to spend a languid hour (ish), our starters and entrees came out of the kitchen read-

ily so Downtown office workers or museum visitors can spend their lunch at Tre without worrying about making it back to the office in time. With Tre at the Museum, Dady and co. are entering catering a new audience (that they’re more familiar with at Range), while also hoping their core Boardwalk audience makes the 3-mile hop-skip to the San Antonio Museum of Art. They should, and newcomers to Tre should, too. sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT

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food | nightlife COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK

Seersucker’s Frozen Cherry Limeade BY ERIN WINCH

et’s face it — there’s no escaping the overwhelming summer heat in Texas. But a few activities can at least alleviate it, like tubing the river, swimming in inflatable pools and sipping on a Seersucker Frozen Cherry Limeade. The frozen limeade is a new summer addition to Seersucker Distillery’s drink lineup. It features Southern Style Limeade Gin, fresh lime juice and Jack Rudy grenadine, and it’s topped with a maraschino cherry and a lime wedge. The drink is a refreshing combi-

Jonathan Rogers

nation of sweet and tart, and is the adult version of the delicious cherry limeades you can buy at America’s favorite drink stop. The Seersucker gin sets the drink apart from other frozen beverages.

The limeade gin is made on-site and slowly infused with lime and mint, which contrast nicely with the cherry. The addition of the booze makes it a perfect drink to sip on during the Fourth of July. While it is only avail-

able at the Seersucker Distillery, it’s an easy drink to make at home as well. Grab a bottle of Seersucker from the store, throw a shot of it, grenadine, lime juice and ice into a blender, and you’re done! Whatever your Fourth of July plans entail – whether it be drinking at the Seersucker Distillery just 20 minutes southeast of downtown San Antonio, sitting by the pool, floating the river or hosting a barbecue – make sure you are sipping on this cocktail of the week. The frozen cherry limeade is available at the Seersucker Distillery throughout the summer. For those opting to make it at home, Seersucker Southern Style Limeade Gin can be purchased at local liquor stores and the Seersucker distillery. 8501 Cover Road, (210) 817-1580. Erin Winch writes about boozin’ in the Alamo City on her blog Drinking In SA.

Follow the author: @drinking.in.sa

East Side Newness

Updated dive takes up residence in former convenience store BY JESS ELIZARRARAS Named: The Dakota East Side Ice House Background: Kent Oliver, a former riverboat captain, ditches the fleet for brick-and-mortar bar. Happy Hour: $1 off everything Monday through Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. Patrons: It’s hard to tell. From the folks who stopped during our visit, it seems the neighborhood is still warming up to the new digs, formerly a convenience store and originally a Chinese grocery. But there are a number of regulars who enjoy the casual vibe. Our Experience: A single yellow rope and some signage cordons off the corner of Dakota and South Hackberry Street. It creates the mandatory “barrier” as required by TABC to delineate an area where alcohol is allowed. Once you limbo your way below said rope, the Dakota East Side Ice House is

still a bit of a mystery. This windowless building is the latest bar off Hackberry, with just two months in business under its belt. The picture sharpens inside. For one, the space is larger than expected. Reclaimed bowling lanes make up counters, and former wooden organ parts serve as wine displays. The Dakota is dim and decorated with old photos and Cowboy memorabilia. It’s what you’d expect to find at your favorite dive, but the sheen Oliver and staff have added to the space make it welcoming without the grit. A beer cooler is lined with both craft and big-beer labels because Oliver knows his customers and isn’t trying to cram IPAs down their throats. Instead, Bud Light shares a shelf with Ranger Creek’s Love Struck Hefe, and an impressive wine list with reasonably priced bottles is displayed in the same case. The menu has legs. After a particularly rough week in news, the most

Jess Elizarraras

welcoming sight at the Dakota is its Pork Queso ($7), a cream cheese-based dip with pork sausage, jalapeño and tomato served with tortilla chips. Think of the best dip you’ve had at a Super Bowl party and the Pork Queso comes close – without having to make small talk at a snack table. On the slider front, the barbecue pair that was delivered was perhaps the only miss of the evening — the brisket and buns were cold but hinted at potential if warmed

up or given a rough chop instead of its strip presentation. It paired well with a bold sangria, so I’ll live. Sandwiches and flatbreads make up the rest of the menu, and the Italian with melty mozzarella and fresh basil was a winner. A patio will be in the works in the coming weeks, but for now the HVAC works tremendously well, making the Dakota a literal and figurative chill spot for the summer. sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT

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Femina-X to Debut Sophomore Album KIVA BY CHRIS CONDE

think about is your childhood, your past and all the different experiences that you had atching Femina-X gain mowith your parent. So I kept thinking about mentum over the last several when I lived with my mom, and so it made years has been exciting. The all these songs more special, like ‘Moon Latin-rock, alt-pop, trip-hop, Song’ – my mom loved that song.” world-music group has never tried to be “Moon Song” might be my favorite off the anything but themselves as their sound has album, too. The track opens with a descendmatured. They’ve explored tribal sound ing piano chord progression that plays over textures and Native American tones in their tracks, which grabbed the attention of publi- a slower salsa beat as Rioja’s feather-light, but penetrating, vocals weave around the cations such as Texas Monthly and Vice. track and envelop the atmosphere of the Spearheaded by Daniela Riojas, who works song with layered as a full-time professionharmonies. It’s puncal photographer and Femina-X Album Release Party tuated with moments artist, the front-woman Sam’s Burger Joint in which she uses her explores her spirituvoice as percussion. ality and native roots 330 East Grayson Street “I wrote this song through her music, San Antonio, TX 78215 after an ecstatic exwhich is clearly on dis$12-$45 perience, swimming play in the band’s latest Friday, July 6, 8:45pm in the San Antonio offering, KIVA. (210) 223-2830 River by Blue Star So is Riojas’s grief over during a full moon the death of her mother samsburgerjoint.com during a mushroom from cancer in 2017. ceremony,” Riojas “Of course, by the said. “I was definitely time you record all the songs, you’ve written them all [long] before,” in [communion] with the river water and the moon – just a human observing and experiRiojas says. “So it’s a little hard to be in all encing the spiritual connection they create these places at the same time, and say, ‘Oh, this is what the album is [about]’ because it’s and realizing that I was being pushed onto a a lot of different things... I kind of grabbed at path of awareness by my ancestors.” Another stand-out track will be the first a bunch of [songs] that I had put aside. But single from KIVA, “Las Caderas.” then all of a sudden it became super importThe song, a dance track, is punctuated ant to me to document for my mom because they felt like the truest essence of me. When- with flutes and a driving bass line that pulses ever you’re grieving a parent, everything you over a grooving Latin-inspired beat that

encourages listeners to move to the rhythm of the track. “‘Las Caderas’ is definitely more pop, taking inspiration from tropical dance/rave/folk rhythm,” Riojas said. “More South American for sure. I wrote this song on an upturn from grieving. I wanting to step back into the joy of life after feeling the great loss of my mother. Though the lyrics are a bit critical of our divided lives and perceptions of each other created by social media, it’s also a critique of the kind of hostility and bullying that happens online and a call to action to forget all these forged identities and just dance and move your hips!” Overall, the album feels like a sophomore record. From the production to musicianship and cohesiveness of the collection of songs, there’s a maturity about KIVA that feels different from 2017’s Multiverse. It’s less self-focused and more outward-looking, encouraging listeners to find their own light. “In ceremony, I’ve always learned that the medicine in the plants that we use will only work if you’re ready to explore everything,” said Riojas. “You can’t be like, ‘Oh, I only want it for this’ or ‘I only want it to show me this part of myself.’ It exposes everything. So, I guess, that would maybe be what KIVA is.” Femina-X will play their album release show at Sam’s Burger Joint on Friday, July 6, with Arte y Pasión and Volcán, directly followed by a two-week tour, which will take the band up the East Coast and through the Midwest. For updates on the band and to hear more recordings, follow the group at femina-x.com.

Find more music coverage Find more news every day at sacurrent.com

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music | music Picks

Catch San Antonio rockers The Lost Project at Tone Fest this Thursday .

Courtesy of The Lost Project

TONE FEST J Thursday, July 5

This free, live music bonanza should prove to be the perfect cure for your post-Fourth of July hangover. For starters, the Lost Project, one of the best live acts in the local music milieu, brings its melting-pot sound, drawing on pop, punk, ska, reggae, progressive rock and alternative rock. We are also, as always, excited to catch Midnight Cleaners, with its lo-fi bedroom rock vibes. Rounding out the impressively eclectic list of performers for this miniFest are Baldemar (solo jangle-pop), No Hitter (alt-punk), Flowershop (heady garage-rock), and War Stories (lo-fi altrock). All in all, this bill should make for an evening that may prove, depending on the number of pickle shots you decide to undertake, pretty darn memorable. Free, 9pm, Hi-Tones, 621 E. Dewey Pl., (210) 785-8777, hitonessa.com. – James Courtney

DANIEL THOMAS PHIPPS p Thursday, July 5

Hailing from the shaded river town of

New Braunfels, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Thomas Phipps actually sounds like he’s written his own music. Let me explain. Too often we get these Brooklyn or Oakland “folk” artists who write songs that sound like they grew up like Dolly Parton – without electricity in the Smokey Mountains or some shit. Not Phipps. Sure, he’s doing some pop song structuring and melody writing. But there’s this natural rustic edge in his work that’s convincing enough to make us believe he is the real deal. Free, 8:30pm, 17619 La Cantera Pkwy Ste. 204, therustic.com. – Chris Conde

Courtesy of Culture Club

the front – “281-330-8004” – which some folks still give out when they don’t want to give out their own phone numbers. Pretty funny stuff. $24-$45, 8pm, the Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. – CC

CULTURE CLUB J Saturday, July 7

Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry? If you don’t want to do those things, better buy me some Boy George and Culture Club tickets because they’re coming to

San Antonio. That’s right, BBs, Grammy Award-winning legends Boy George and Culture Club announced earlier this year their 2018 U.S. tour, and we were screaming, “Yass, girl” in the office so loud that Boy George himself would have blushed. The Life Tour: Starring Boy George & Culture Club with special guest Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey will visit 40+ cities across the U.S. with a San Antonio performance at the Tobin Center. $59.50-$225, 8pm, The Tobin Center For The Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, thetobincenter.org. – CC

CITIZEN, OSO OSO, TEENAGE WRIST Monday, July 9

If indie punk, pop-punk, post-punk, and emo happen to be your bag, this early-week show at Paper Tiger is gonna be lit. At the top of the bill, Michigan act Citizen makes somber rock with moody melodicism and occasional vestiges of punk rock 40 6

Courtesy of Mike Jones

MIKE JONES J Friday, July 6

If you haven’t smoked a blunt to “Still Tippin’” by Mike Jones, have you really lived? The Houston-based rapper helped propel the already established Houston rap sound into the mid-2000s with several hits on his album Who is Mike Jones? As you may remember, Jones used to rock that shirt with his own phone number emblazoned on

Jaime Monzon

THE LAST VAN’S WARPED TOUR

Saturday, July 7 Since 1995, the Van’s Warped Tour has traveled the country uniting scene kids, punk rockers and all those looking to let out their angst in a circle pit with an afternoon of punk, ska, metal and hip-hop. Over the years, the tour has hosted artists like Eminem (1999) and Katy Perry (2008) before they catapulted into global stardom. But the community and camaraderie of the tour is what I think was so attractive – getting to kick it with your favorite bands at their merch booths and enduring the heat with the folks who shared a passion for the same type of music you connect with. Whether it was hip-hop, metalcore, hardcore, ska, indie rock or whatever – it’s what set Van’s Warped Tour apart from your regular concert. Featured bands on the lineup include The Used, Bowling for Soup, Simple Plan, We The Kings, 3Oh!3 and Every Time I Die. $43, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy, attcenter. com. – CC Courtesy of Daniel Thomas Phipps

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music | music Picks

Courtesy of Brixton Agency

6 39 propulsion. Head on over to citizenmi.bandcamp.com to check out the band’s music. Meanwhile, Oso Oso, from Long Beach, New York, make laid-back emo music (yes, that’s a thing) with a gently driving pop-punk rollick to it. You can dig Oso Oso’s latest songs at osoosoband.bandcamp.com. Finally, this lineup will also feature likeminded outfits Teenage Wrist (emotive alt-rock from LA) and Queen of Jeans (hazy indie pop from Philly), the latter of which we are especially excited to catch in the live setting to see how its self-described “crockpot pop/denimcore” sound translates. $17-$20, 7pm, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — JC

HOLY WAVE q Monday, July 9

Originating in El Paso, but relocated some time ago to Austin (because, of course), Holy Wave is a psychedelic garage-rock quintet with an uncommon sense of nuance, melodic invention/progression and ambience. The mood is the message and the meandering massage of the reverb is the moon-moaning messenger, dressed in paisley robes and exhausted from walking the desert all day, high on shrooms, in search of enlightenment or tacos, as if there were really any difference. For our money – an ecstatic, Texan currency with Roky Erickson’s big mug on it – Holy Wave has become a standard-bearer of new-age field hippie jams, rife with jangling, lackadaisically dawdling guitar licks, waves of bendy notes and sun-drowned vocals. If you’re already a fan of the band, then you know that Holy Wave’s live show is a blistering, far-out affair that’s not to be missed. If you’re not already a fan, dig these dudes for free and you’ll very likely become one. Free, 10pm, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. – JC

James Oswald

CURRENT | July 4-10, 2018 | sacurrent.com

music | calendar WEDNESDAY, JULY 4 American Originals Heart of Texas Concert Band will perform a program in the concert hall in the Luella Bennack Music Center at UIW celebrating the music of American composers. Ricardo Gandarilla will perform the first movement of the Tuba Concerto by James Barnes. Guest conductor Brett Richardson will conduct excerpts from Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” and vocalist Elizabeth Failing will sing two songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Free. University of the Incarnate Word, 3:00pm-4:15pm. Chris Cuevas Project Sancho’s Cantina is hosting Adriel Cuevas, Zeke Galvan and Chris Villanuev of the Chris Cuevas Project. They’ll perform blues, soul and jazz. Free. Sancho’s Cantina, 6:30pm-8:30pm. The Red Clay Strays Known as “The Newest Southern Sensation”, the Red Clay Strays are bringing life back to the lost art of southern music. This band, on stage and off, reminds you of southern music’s heyday and gives you hope that it may not have lost its way after all. $5. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music Venue, 8pm-2am. Ruben V Enjoy Ruben V at Sancho’s Cantina for an intimate rock and blues performance. Free. Sancho’s Cantina, 9pm-11pm.

THURSDAY, JULY 5 Cosmic Chaos Five-piece rock band from York, Pa., takes the stage with Manners from New Haven, Conn. The Mix, 9pm2am. Green Jelly Punk-rock puppet show entertainer Green Jelly returns to Fitz with special guests Given a Chance, MonkeySoop, The Suss and Wings of Valkyrie. $10-$15. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music Venue, 8pm-2am. Jonn Del Toro Richardson On a diet of Country, Motown, R&B, Classic rock and various other genres, Jonn Del Toro Richardson worked with various bands playing all types of music. In 2007 Jonn played on the Grammy-winning album The Last of the Mississippi Delta Blues Men. $7-$30. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm. Salsa Night Mainstream Latin jazz artist Jose Amador performs with Latin jazz band Natiao Latin Jazz. $10. Jazz, TX, 8:30-11:30pm. Sunbuzzed Spooky psych garage rock band based in Denton takes the stage with Opaque Ghost, an indie funk groove band, with special guest Mockingbird Express and Wayne E. Holtz. Limelight, 10pm-2am.

FRIDAY, JULY 6 The Aaron Prada Trio Jazz is in Aaron Prado’s DNA, and it’s not hard to tell as he works his piano alongside bassist George

critic’s choice FEMINA-X ALBUM RELEASE PARTY Local alternative Latin band Femina-X is performing live at Sam’s Burger Joint. Femina-X identifies as “New Alternative” and creates unconventional fusions with electronic beats, samples, synths, and live instruments. They draw musical influence from progressive tribal and ethnic dance, hip-hop, jungle, Caribbean, industrial, punk, and drum and bass. $12$45. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8:45pm.

Prado and drummer Brandon Guerra. Prado explores the jazz movement from swing classics to boleros, be-bop to European avant garde. $5. Jazz, TX, 5:30pm7:30pm. Balcones Heights Jazz Festival Diverse headliners from across the country take the stage at the 25th annual Balcones Heights Jazz Festival. This free festival celebrates jazz in and around Texas and brings together jazz lovers for a month of live concerts. Free. Wonderland of the Americas, 7pm-10pm. Cody Jinks Fort Worth country musician Cody Jinks is performing at the Whitewater Amphitheater. Special guests include folk/country singers Colter Wall and Josh Ward. $27-$900. Whitewater Amphitheater, 7:30pm-midnight Eden Burning Christian band from Cheltenham led by Paul Northup. They originally met as members of Charlton Kings Baptist church, and were active within the Christian music community between 1989 and 1996. Free. The Amp Room, 8pm-midnight The Gentleman Joe Joe Talbert is taking the stage with live acoustic tunes and covers. The Point on Main, 8:30-11:30pm. Hollis Webb & the Sleuth Hollis Webb & the Sleuth are performing songs from their new record Rescue at the newly reopened J&O’s Cantina. Free. J&O’s Cantina, 10pm-1am. Negative Approach, Dayglo Abortions American hardcore punk band, formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1981. The band is considered among of the pioneers of hardcore punk, particularly in the Midwest. Since 1979, the band Dayglo Abortions (in one configuration or another) has been offering up no-holdsbarred punk rock as well as some truly over-the-top (and unforgettable) album

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cover artwork/images. $14-$17. Limelight, 8pm-1am. New Orleans Night – Doc Watkins and Pierre Poree South Texas jazz musician Doc Watkins is joined by Pierre Poree of New Orleans and friends to perform live. $10-$30. Jazz, TX, 8:30pm-11:30pm. West Kings Highway West Kings Highway performs blues, jazz and Americana. Free. Southtown 101, first Friday of every month, 7pm-2am.

SATURDAY, JULY 7 Bane’s World Alternative/indie group Bane’s World is performing live at the Paper Tiger. Special guests include alternative musician Michael Seyer and indie band Inner Wave. $15. Paper Tiger, 9pm. Cody Jinks Fort Worth country musician Cody Jinks is at the Whitewater Amphitheater. Special guests include folk/country singers Colter Wall and Josh Ward. $27-$900. Whitewater Amphitheater, 8pm-midnight Cory Branan Alternative singer-songwriter Cory Branan is performing live at Sam’s Burger Joint. $10-$45. Sam’s Burger Joint, 9pm. Eclipse – A Tribute To Journey Eclipse Tribute To Journey is a regional touring act performing throughout Texas cities with their unique and eclectic stage performances. $12.50-$22.50. Aztec Theatre, 8pm. Jam and Toast Brunch Join The Rustic for their popular Jam and Toast Brunch with a family-style meal served with free, live music Saturday and Sunday. Musicians will serenade brunch guests beginning at 12:30pm. $16.95. The Rustic, 11am-2pm. Los Texmaniacs Grammy Award winners Los Texmaniacs are the new kings of Tex-Mex. Annointed by Flaco Jimenez , Los Texmaniacs feed the masses with only the best musical fare. Founded by Max Baca (bajo sexto, vocals), the TexManiacs are a product of his wide-ranging experience touring and recording with Flaco. John T Floore’s Country Store, 8pm. Riff Raff AC/DC Tribute Riff Raff, an AC/DC Tribute band, is performing live at Fitzgerald’s. $5. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music Venue, 8pm-2am. Tyler Farr American country music singer and songwriter. Originally signed to BNA Records, Farr released two singles for the label before it closed. He then transferred to Columbia Records Nashville, for which he has released two albums: Redneck Crazy in 2013 and Suffer in Peace in 2015. Overall, he has charted eight singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. His highest ranking on the latter

is “A Guy Walks Into a Bar” which placed at No. 1 in 2015. $15-$35. Cowboys Dancehall, 7pm.

SUNDAY, JULY 8 Jam and Toast Brunch Join The Rustic for their popular Jam and Toast Brunch with a family-style meal served with free live music Saturday and Sunday. Musicians will serenade brunch guests beginning at 12:30pm. $16.95. The Rustic, 11am-2pm. The Norman Jackson Band Ranked 3rd in the world at the 2016 International Blues Challenge Finals, the Norman Jackson Band is touring internationally promoting their new release, It’s the Drummer’s Fault. The band plays blues through storytelling from their lives that will make you laugh and smile. $10-$45. Sam’s Burger Joint, 6pm.

TOPA CHICA GOODBYE SHOW Dreamy punk girl band says goodbye during their final show. Guests include Filthy, Mozepray and Glaze. Free. Limelight, 10pm-2am.

8/1/2018.

TUESDAY, JULY 10 Alison Krauss Alison Krauss’ latest solo album Windy City debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and Top Bluegrass Albums charts and received two Grammy nominations. Since 1985, Krauss has released 14 albums including five solo, seven with her longtime band and musical collaborators Union Station, and the Robert Plant collaboration Raising Sand, which was certified platinum and won five Grammys, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. $59.50-$99.50. The Majestic Theatre, 8pm. Jeff Crosby & The Refugees Idaho-born Jeff Crosby is a critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter based in Nashville. Crosby has won multiple awards for his song-writing, including an Eco Arts award in 2013 for “We All Know the Words.” He also had two songs featured on the hit FX series “Sons of Anarchy” in 2014. $10$35. Sam’s Burger Joint, 7pm. Young Valley Jackson, Mississippi, country group Young Valley comes to San Antonio to promote their new self-titled release. Free. Low Country, 9:30pm-11:30pm.

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etc S AVA G E L O V E B Y D A N S AVA G E

It Got Better In a recent column, you said you never hear from married couples whose sex life got better and more frequent over the years. Well, now you have. My wife and I were married 24 years ago, and we are currently having more sex and better sex than we did in the first years of our marriage. There are many reasons why, including therapy, antidepressants, and weight loss and subsequent surgery – but I would have to say that the big reason is communication. If you had known us 25 years ago, Dan, you would not have given us good odds. We’d been dating only a year and a half when we got engaged, and we’d known each other less than two years. I was a virgin, my wife was not, together we hadn’t gotten much past second base, and neither of us had laid our kink cards on the table. We were (and still are) introverts with poor communication skills and anxiety/depression/mental-health issues. I won’t say it’s been fairy-tale perfect – the kind of perfect that makes you barf and roll your eyes – but it’s been pretty damn close. My wife has been incredibly GGG, and I hope I have been, too. So there you go, Dan! Now you know there’s at least one couple out there whose sex life has only gotten better over the years. Better Erotic Ties Totally Enhanced Relationship Last week, I responded to IMDONE, a woman who married a man despite the sex being “infrequent and impersonal” during their courtship. To the surprise of no one who has ever given sex advice for a living, the sex didn’t get better after IMDONE and her boyfriend got married. “Here’s something I’ve never seen in my inbox: a letter from someone explaining how sex with their partner was infrequent, impersonal, uninspired, unimaginative, etc. at first but – holy moly – the sex got a fuck of a lot better after the wedding,” I wrote in my response to IMDONE. I did allow for the possibility that my sample was skewed; people with good sex lives don’t write to tell me everything’s fine. So I invited people whose so-so sex lives improved after the wedding to write in. And did they ever: My inbox is packed with e-mails from couples whose sex lives got better after the wedding. I was a very experienced woman (five years as a swinger and partners numbering in the high double digits) when I first met the man who would become my husband. My husband-to-be was a virgin. Sex was barely okay and very infrequent. But we were both in our early 40s and ready to settle down. We also had an amazing friendship, and we were never as happy apart as we were together. It helped that we shared some kinks and were both up for what we agreed would be a nice 44

CURRENT | July 4-10, 2018 | sacurrent.com

and mostly companionate marriage. So we got married. And, wow, did everything change! We went from once a month to a couple times a week. Turns out he needed that emotional attachment to feel safe and secure enough to open up and relax and enjoy himself. We’ve been married for years now. The sex is still good. It’s not as frequent as it once was, but it’s really good when we have it. So, yes, sometimes it does get better! Woman In Fucking Ecstasy Am I the first or the hundredth person to write in? Yes, sex for us got better after marriage. I suspect you don’t see it in your inbox very often because this isn’t what most people would consider a problem and we don’t want to waste your time! All it took for the sex to get better was practice and paying attention to cues and solving problems. I strongly suspect that perseverance and a bit of luck were also major factors. Practice, Practice, Practice My sex life improved after marriage. I am a straight male with a highly stigmatized kink. I was deeply ashamed of my sexual interest even before my mother discovered my porn when I was 14 and told me I was a pervert that no decent woman would ever want. When I met my wife, our sex life was okay – but I was never fully present, because I would have to concentrate on my fantasies in order to sustain an erection. I eventually retreated into masturbation. My wife knew I was masturbating in the middle of the night instead of having sex with her, and that led to some enormous fights. So I told her about my kink, fully expecting that it would result in the collapse of my marriage. We didn’t speak about it for a week, and then she calmly asked me if I wanted to do this with her instead of just watching porn about it. Partnership Improved Sexual Situation First, I want to thank BETTER, WIFE, PPP, PISS and everyone else who wrote in. I do feel obligated to point out, however, that these are anecdotes, not data. And while there isn’t data to back up my position – that sex doesn’t generally get better after marriage – my pile of anecdotes is a whole lot bigger. So I’m going to continue to urge people to establish basic sexual compatibility before marriage rather than hoping a so-so sexual connection – or a nonexistent one – will somehow get better after marriage. But it can be done. You just need to have PPP’s luck or be married to someone willing to do the work, like CHOMP’s spouse was, or fortunate enough to wind up with someone willing to take the leak, like PISS’s spouse was.

mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.ITMFA.org

E M P LOY M E N T J O N E S I N ’ C R OS S W O R D BY M AT T J O N E S

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“Free To Say It” – a freestyle puzzle with something to say. ACROSS 1 Game with eagles and albatrosses 5 Lag from a satellite broadcast, e.g. 14 Kind of history or hygiene 15 2014 hashtag campaign against gun violence 16 “99 Luftballons” singer 17 They’re said verbatim 18 It’s sometimes used in making feta cheese 20 Overflow 21 “Everything’s being handled” 22 Tubular pasta 23 Last Oldsmobile model produced 26 Signs of healing 28 Train stop (abbr.) 29 Western watering hole 31 Delphic prophet 33 Indicate 35 Wallet ID 39 Just ___ (a little under) 41 Grammy winner Twain 42 Barker succeeded by Carey 45 Islands, in Italian 47 Latin phrase usually abbreviated 48 Go for ___ (do some nature

walking) 50 Camera brand that merged with Minolta 52 Erato’s instrument 53 Feature of some roller coasters 57 1980s “Lovergirl” singer 60 Ride before ride-sharing 61 2007 Stephen Colbert bestseller subtitled (And So Can You!) 62 Bakery fixture 63 Singer/actress Kristin with the memoir “A Little Bit Wicked” 64 Basmati, e.g. DOWN 1 Chuck Barris’s prop 2 Cookie with a “Thins” version 3 Singer Del Rey 4 Old pressing tools 5 Targets of pseudoscientific “cleanses” 6 Type used for emphasis 7 It looks like it contains alcohol, but doesn’t 8 Treebeard, for one 9 PepsiCo product, slangily 10 Act theatrically 11 Sophia and family 12 Vehement

13 Sycophants 15 Dory helped find him 19 Drink that needs a blender 22 They’ve already seen it coming 23 Cleopatra’s nemesis 24 Chinese philosopher ___-tzu 25 Inventor Whitney 27 Baseball stats 30 Some Congressional votes 32 One who might get top billing 34 Exercised caution 36 Dir. from Providence to Boston 37 “Pretty sneaky, ___” (Connect Four ad line) 38 Take in 40 Step on the gas 42 Sea west of Estonia 43 Kool-Aid Man’s catchphrase 44 Two-tiered rowing vessel 46 Add vitamins to 49 Thompson of SNL 51 Big-box store with a meandering path 54 Sitarist Shankar 55 Business bigwig 56 Drink with legs 58 “I love,” in Spanish 59 Pet sound? ANSWER ON PAGE 15

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BENEFITING

etc FREE WILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZNY ARIES (March 21-April 19): Twentieth-century French novelist Marcel Proust described nineteenth-century novelist Gustave Flaubert as a *trottoire roulant*, or “rolling sidewalk”: plodding, toneless, droning. Meanwhile, critic Roger Shattuck compared Proust’s writing to an “electric generator” from which flows a “powerful current always ready to shock not only our morality but our very sense of humanity.” In the coming weeks, I encourage you to find a middle ground between Flaubert and Proust. See if you can be moderately exciting, gently provocative, and amiably enchanting. My analysis of the cosmic rhythms suggests that such an approach is likely to produce the best long-term results. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You remind me of Jack, the nine-year-old Taurus kid next door, who took up skateboarding on the huge trampoline his two moms put in their backyard. Like him, you seem eager to travel in two different modes at the same time. (And I’m glad to see you’re being safe; you’re not doing the equivalent of, say, having sex in a car or breakdancing on an escalator.) When Jack first began, he had difficulty in coordinating the bouncing with the rolling. But after a while he got good at it. I expect that you, too, will master your complex task. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): From the day you were born, you have been cultivating a knack for mixing and blending. Along the way, you have accomplished mergers that would have been impossible for a lot of other people. Some of your experiments in amalgamation are legendary. If my astrological assessments are accurate, the year 2019 will bring forth some of your all-time most marvelous combinations and unifications. I expect you are even now setting the stage for those future fusions; you are building the foundations that will make them natural and inevitable. What can you do in the coming weeks to further that preparation? CANCER (June 21-July 22): An open letter to Cancerians from Rob Brezsny’s mother, Felice: I want you to know that I played a big role in helping my Cancerian son become the empathetic, creative, thoughtful, crazy character he is today. I nurtured his idiosyncrasies. I made him feel secure and well-loved. My care freed him to develop his unusual ideas and life. So as you read Rob’s horoscopes, remember that there’s part of me inside him. And that part of me is nurturing you just as I once nurtured him. I and he are giving you love for the quirky, distinctive person you actually are, not some fantasy version of you. I and he are helping you feel more secure and well-appreciated. Now I encourage you to cash in on all

that support. As Rob has told me, it’s time for you Cancerians to reach new heights in your drive to express your unique self. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The ghost orchid is a rare white wildflower that disappeared from the British countryside around 1986. The nation’s botanists declared it officially extinct in 2005. But four years later, a tenacious amateur located a specimen growing in the West Midlands area. The species wasn’t gone forever, after all. I foresee a comparable revival for you in the coming weeks, Leo. An interesting influence or sweet thing that you imagined to be permanently defunct may return to your life. Be alert! VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The ancient Greek poet Sappho described “a sweet-apple turning red high on the tip of the topmost branch.” The apple pickers left it there, she suggested, but not because they missed seeing it. It was just too high. “They couldn’t reach it,” wrote Sappho. Let’s use this scenario as a handy metaphor for your current situation, Virgo. I am assigning you the task of doing whatever is necessary to fetch that glorious, seemingly unobtainable sweet-apple. It may not be easy. You’ll probably need to summon extra ingenuity to reach it, as well as some as-yet unguessed form of help. (The Sappho translation is by Julia Dubnoff.) LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Is there any prize more precious than knowing your calling? Can any other satisfaction compare with the joy of understanding why you’re here on earth? In my view, it’s the supreme blessing: to have discovered the tasks that can ceaselessly educate and impassion you; to do the work or play that enables you to offer your best gifts; to be intimately engaged with an activity that consistently asks you to overcome your limitations and grow into a more complete version of yourself. For some people, their calling is a job: marine biologist, kindergarten teacher, advocate for the homeless. For others, it’s a hobby, like long-distance-running, bird-watching, or mountain-climbing. St. Therese of Lisieux said, “My calling is love!” Poet Marina Tsvetaeva said her calling was “To listen to my soul.” Do you know yours, Libra? Now is an excellent time to either discover yours or home in further on its precise nature.

yourself so that you’re no longer forcing the call of the wild to wait and wait and wait? SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): If a downto-earth spiritual teacher advised you to go on a five-day meditation retreat in a sacred sanctuary, would you instead spend five days carousing with meth addicts in a cheap hotel? If a close friend confessed a secret she had concealed from everyone for years, would you unleash a nervous laugh and change the subject? If you read a horoscope that told you now is a favorable time to cultivate massive amounts of reverence, devotion, respect, gratitude, innocence, and awe, would you quickly blank it out of your mind and check your Instagram and Twitter accounts on your phone? CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): A typical working couple devotes an average of four minutes per day to focused conversation with each other. And it’s common for a child and parent to engage in meaningful communication for just 20 minutes per week. I bring these sad facts to your attention, Capricorn, because I want to make sure you don’t embody them in the coming weeks. If you hope to attract the best of life’s blessings, you will need to give extra time and energy to the fine art of communing with those you care about.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Allergies, irritants, stings, hypersensitivities: sometimes you can make these annoyances work in your behalf. For example, my allergy to freshly-cut grass meant that when I was a teenager, I never had to waste my Saturday afternoons mowing the lawn in front of my family’s suburban home. And the weird itching that plagued me whenever I got into the vicinity of my first sister’s fiancé: If I had paid attention to it, I wouldn’t have lent him the $350 that he never repaid. So my advice, my itchy friend, is to be thankful for the twitch and the prickle and the pinch. In the coming days, they may offer you tips and clues that could prove valuable. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Are you somehow growing younger? Your stride seems bouncier and your voice sounds more buoyant. Your thoughts seem fresher and your eyes brighter. I won’t be surprised if you buy yourself new toys or jump in mud puddles. What’s going on? Here’s my guess: you’re no longer willing to sleepwalk your way through the most boring things about being an adult. You may also be ready to wean yourself from certain responsibilities unless you can render them pleasurable at least some of the time. I hope so. It’s time to bring more fun and games into your life.

THIS MODERN WORLD BY TOM TOMORROW

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Have you entertained any high-quality fantasies about faraway treasures lately? Have you delivered inquiring communiqués to any promising beauties who may ultimately offer you treats? Have you made long-distance inquiries about speculative possibilities that could be inclined to travel in your direction from their frontier sanctuaries? Would you consider making some subtle change in sacurrent.com | July 4-10, 2018 | CURRENT