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sacurrent.com â€˘ March 29-April 4, 2017 â€˘ CURRENT 7

FIRST WORDS

• Send your thoughts, comments, kudos or tips to letters@sacurrent.com

SA lawyer accused of having sex with clients says others do it “all the time”: “I heard he also said you can save a lot of money by switching to Geico. With that kind of thought process he’ll probably soon be a US senator.” – Joe Reyes Rick Perry doesn’t like that his alma mater just elected its first gay student body president: “Get your ass to work. You’re no longer governor asshat. By the way you’ve been living off the government all your life so maybe you don’t know what real work is, POS.” – Ramon Sanchez A North Side neighborhood really wants its missing geese back: “Nobody at the Current has a real job, maybe they can look for them.” – Michael Kean Gov. Abbott wants small government, big state: “The GOP are all about small government in terms of business. They are anything but small government when it comes to individual people.” – Francesca Harris Man rides stick pony, swings rubber chicken in his underwear at the Alamo : “Better than that screaming Bible thumper” – Athena Ariel

IN THIS

ISSUE Issue 17_13 /// March 29-April 4, 2017

NEWS

“Beyond Troubling” 15 percent of female undergrads at the University of Texas say they’ve been raped School Spirit Rick Perry really doesn’t like that his alma mater elected its first gay student body president

COVER In their post-election stupor, anxious antiTrumpers across the country looked for ways to channel their dissent. The answer came from none other than battle-hardened progressives who watched the Tea Party turn the Lone Star State an even deeper shade of red. In this week’s feature, we explore how Texas progressives harnessed the Tea Party playbook to create a whole new generation of activists now trolling their government reps at town halls across the country. Photography by Ismael Rodriguez Art direction by Sarah Flood-Baumann 8

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

FEATURE

Texas Trolling 101 How the Tea Party taught Texas progressives to pressure their government

CALENDAR

Our top picks for the week

Fashion Statement Women dress in Handmaid’s Tale robes to protest anti-abortion laws in Texas Payment Plan SA lawyer accused of having sex with clients says others do it “all the time”

ARTS + CULTURE

ON THE

The Dreamer The otherworldly work of ‘trans-dimensional’ artist McKay Otto

SCREENS

Souls Adrift Austin’s music scene through an existential lens in Song to Song

FOOD

Boiled Over Southern-style peanuts are making their way into SA snack culture Food Court More taquitos, a date for Natural Grocers and El Luchador is coming

NIGHTLIFE

Texan Spirits Beer isn’t the only thing coming out of the mash at Real Ale these days

MUSIC

Music Calendar What to see and hear this week

ETC.

Savage Love Jonesin’ Crossword Freewill Astrology

sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 9

NEWS

ICE

OF F BE

OUN T

Y SHE RIF F

PAYMENT PLAN

≥

SA lawyer accused of having sex with clients says others do it “all the time”

San Antonio defense attorney Mark Benavides was running for a local judge’s seat in 2015 when he was arrested and charged with coercing women to have sex with him as “payment” for his legal services. Since then, the case has snowballed into nearly three dozen criminal charges, which include having sex with a minor, inducing a child under 18 to have sex, compelling prostitution of at least nine legal clients and possession of child pornography. Ahead of his April 3 trial date, lawyers for Benavides went into court Thursday to try to suppress a video showing his police interrogation after his arrest. As he’s questioned on video, here’s how Benavides addressed the whole sex-for-services part of the case against him, as first reported by the ExpressNews : “I don’t understand the connection between having sex with your clients and the charge of compelling prostitution. I hear of attorneys having sex with their clients all the time. I’ve never heard of them getting in trouble.” In arrest warrant affidavits filed in the case, Benavides’ first accuser to come forward was a 21-year-old sex worker who claimed the attorney offered her more money if he could film them having sex at the River Inn Motel. He also handed her his card and told her to call him if she ever needed any legal help. Which she did, and so after that first encounter, the two wound up having sex in Benavides’ law office, his car, his father’s office and even a conference room at the Bexar County courthouse, according to an arrest affidavit. Another of Benavides’ former clients was a defendant in a criminal case who told investigators she only had sex with him because she thought he was friends with the judge on her case. Another former client told police she never paid Benavides to represent her in her two criminal cases, but rather met him at a motel to make “payments” every Tuesday. If you believe what Benavides told police, apparently such attorney-client arrangements are not uncommon in Bexar County. “All of the victims recounted that they felt they had no choice in the matter and that if they did not perform the sexual acts in the manner that Benavides required, they would go back to jail or he would not give them proper legal representation,” the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement at the time of Benavides’ arrest. Benavides, meanwhile, has insisted the charges stem from a former client who was unhappy about the outcome in her criminal case and is now “making up a bunch of lies about me.” Last week, a judge on the case denied the motion by Benavides’ attorneys to block the video of his police interrogation from being played at next month’s trial. The daily reports that the video appears to show Benavides telling someone to destroy a DVD while investigators searched his house. Court records state that police found a disc labeled “137 of 276” that contained images of a minor engaging in sex acts. On the police video, Benavides can reportedly be heard telling someone: “You know what I’m talking about, the one I told you to destroy ... This pretty much will cancel my political career ... I could lose my law license over this,” he says. Later in the video, officers ask Benavides to remove his shirt so they could identify something his former clients recalled seeing: a large “scales of justice” image tattooed across his back.

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MICHAEL BARAJAS | @MICHAELSBARAJAS

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

SCHOOL SPIRIT Rick Perry really doesn’t like that his alma mater just elected its ﬁrst gay student body president MICHAEL BARAJAS | @MICHAELSBARAJAS

≥

Sure, former Texas governor Rick Perry is now charged with overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal as head of an agency he once proposed eliminating. But guv goodhair still has plenty of time to weigh in on the things that really matter in his home state. Like Texas A&M University recently electing, for the first time ever, an openly gay student body president, something Perry, in an op-ed last week, called “a mockery of due process and transparency.” Here’s the “controversy” Perry decided was worth taking time away from his new job: New A&M student body president Bobby Brooks only won after the leading candidate in the race was disqualified amid allegations of voter intimidation and failure to report some campaign expenditures. The university’s student government association’s “judicial court” later cleared that candidate of voter intimidation but upheld the latter charge and disqualified his votes — meaning A&M’s first gay student body president won on a technicality. If the whole thing sounds petty, that’s probably because it’s a freaking student body election. But to Perry, a former Aggie yell leader, it was a very big deal — sign, in

fact, that the election was “stolen” in the name of diversity. As Perry wrote in his op-ed published by the Houston Chronicle: “Now, Brooks’ presidency is being treated as a victory for ‘diversity.’ It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for ‘diversity’ is the real reason the election outcome was overturned. Does the principle of ‘diversity’ override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?” Perry’s new gig has a pretty steep learning curve, especially when you consider that two physicists (one of whom had a Nobel Prize) occupied the post before him, Perry’s only got a bachelor’s of animal science from A&M (not a star student, turns out), and he reportedly didn’t even know the job was mostly about nukes before he took it. You’d think he must have much bigger things to worry about right now than student body politics at his alma mater. Or maybe, after enough time in Texas politics, words like “gay” and “election fraud” and “diversity” are just triggering for the dude. Maybe, as Rice University political guru Mark Jones told the Chronicle, “He must be really upset about it.”

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

NEWS

ALEX ZIELINSKI | @ALEX_ZEE

SHUTTERSTOCK

‘BEYOND

TROUBLING’ 15 percent of female undergrads at the University of Texas say they’ve been raped

≥

ALEXA GAR CIA -D IT

While defending her campus sexual assault bill at the state capitol last Thursday, Texas Sen. Joan Huffman unleashed a sobering statistic: 15 percent of female undergrads polled at the University of Texas at Austin say they’ve been raped. “It’s beyond troubling,” said Huffman, a Houston Republican. “It’s shocking.” Huffman pulled this number from a yet-to-be released UT study of nearly 30,000 students surveyed in 2015. At UT's San Antonio and Dallas campuses, 9 percent of female undergrads reported being raped. The system-wide rate was 10 percent.. “The first injustice committed in every assault or inappropriate behavior is the act itself, but the second injustice is often the silence of the community surrounding the survivor,” UT-Austin President Gregory L. Fenves told the Dallas Morning News. “We must not be silent anymore, and we must not be afraid to face the very real problems that exist at our university and in society in general.” In its study, UT researchers defined rape as “having oral sex with someone, making someone perform oral sex, or penetrating someone’s vagina or anus with penis, fingers or other objects without their consent, by use of verbal pressure, taking advantage of them when they’re incapacitated, threatening to harm or using force.” This kind of comprehensive study, conducted by the // TA

I TW

school’s Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, is just the first in a series of yearly data collection on sexual assault across the UT system. It comes on the heels of a jarring report from the U.S. Department of Education, indicating students had reported more rapes at UT-Austin than any other college campus in the state — a total of 17 in 2014. While a spike in reports may just mean that more students are comfortable reporting their assault, UT didn’t hesitate to expand its sexual assault programming on campus. Shortly after the 2015 survey ended, UT-Austin released a first-of-its-kind handbook for campus police officers on how to treat victims of reported assault, in hopes of increasing successful prosecutions and reducing the shame and trauma that victims are often left with. The state legislature is now getting involved, in part a reaction to the ongoing reports of sexual assault and rape that have poured out of Baylor University. Sen. Huffman is one of a few legislators who’ve introduced aggressive bills on campus sexual assault this session. Huffman’s Senate Bill 576 would require school employees and student leaders of campus organizations (like fraternities or athletic clubs) to promptly report any cases of sexual assault, family violence or stalking that they’re informed of. It’s similar to laws requiring certain professionals to be “mandated reporters” of any signs

that the children, seniors or people with disabilities they work with are being abused. And SB 576 comes with considerable penalties. If an employee failed to report, they’re charged with a Class B misdemeanor and fired — and if they’re found guilty of concealing this information from law enforcement, they could face up to a year behind bars. Some state lawmakers and legal experts fear Huffman’s bill may create a “chilling atmosphere” on campus when paired with such serious criminal penalties. But, Huffman showed no sign of backpedaling on the Senate floor Thursday. “I realize these reporting requirements may be the most stringent in the country, but ... Texas must lead the way,” she said. Sen Kirk Watson, an Austin Democrat and Baylor alum, joins Huffman with his own round of bills on campus assault — including one that would create online forums to anonymously report sexual assault, another that would protect students reporting sexual assault from being punished if they’ve broken campus laws (like underage drinking), and a third that would require colleges to educate students on sexual consent. “I believe students on college campuses have the right to be safe and feel safe,” Watson told the Current. “And that means having control over your own body.”

R T TE

Women dress in Handmaid’s Tale robes to protest antiabortion laws in Texas

FASHION STATEMENT

> While the Texas Senate has seen protestors before, last week’s appearance of a group of women draped in red robes may have been a first. Dressed right out of the highly acclaimed novel from Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, which has seen a spike in popularity since last November’s election, pro-choice protestors gathered at the Texas Senate gallery to protest several anti-abortion bills, including

Senate Bill 25, a bill allowing doctors to withhold information from pregnant women carrying a fetus with severe disabilities or anomalies (the bill cleared the senate last week 21-9). Last week the senate also considered SB415, a bill that would put further restrictions on second trimester abortions. Ultimately, the senate considered, and passed, legislation regulating what a woman can and cannot do with her body.

Hence the handmaids. Photos of the protestors began circling Twitter last week, accompanied by the hashtag #FightBackTX. Holding up signs in the senate gallery while dressed in red floor-length robes, the statement made by protestors may have been a quiet one. But it still speaks volumes about a Texas legislature filled with conservative lawmakers intent on passing anti-choice legislation every chance they get.

ALEJANDRA LOPEZ

sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 13

FEATURE

WORDS BY

ALEX ZIELINSKI @ALEX�ZEE

N T E XAS, I T BEGAN IN T HE PARKING LO T OF A SOU T H AUS T IN GROCERY S T ORE.

as he tried to get to a staffer’s car, the chants morphing into “Don’t vote for Doggett!” Even the pixelated cell phone video of the event can’t mask the look of thinly-veiled alarm Congressman Lloyd Doggett had set up on Doggett’s face as he finally steps into a black sedan and the casual neighborhood meeting outside a drives off. Randalls supermarket on August 1, 2009 to This was Doggett’s abrupt introduction to the Texas answer questions about the new president’s Tea Party. sweeping health care plan, recently dubbed “Obamacare.” It was a scene that became commonplace across Doggett wasn’t expecting a crowd — it was the middle of a the country in the following months, as the Tea Party, a sweltering Texas summer, not the most appealing time to conservative movement whose crusade against government gather in an open parking lot. spending grew out of the economic recession, began its But shortly after the Democrat began to speak, dozens energized push to reconfigure national politics. But for a few of people flooded the lot, hoisting homemade signs reading Doggett staffers, that particular moment in the grocery store “No Socialized Health Care” and “Don’t Tread on Me.” One parking lot was the textbook example of a strategy they’d man carried a blown-up photo of Doggett with scribbled-on need to remember: How to troll your government. devil horns. Another waved a cardboard tombstone with Fast-forward seven years and five miles north, to East Doggett’s name on it. Austin’s Scoot Inn, and it appears little has changed. At first, the flustered congressman tried to address the Hundreds of Texans fill into the venue’s outdoor patio, group’s obvious concerns by explaining why he supported carrying handmade signs with health care demands and President Barack Obama’s plan. Obamacare, he argued, waving poster-size photos of Congressman Lamar Smith, would protect millions of uninsured and low-income a Republian, with the caption: “Chicken.” As the February Texans, but it wasn’t an answer they wanted to hear. afternoon fades, the group chants in unison, “Do your job!” Soon, the crowd’s chants of “Just say no!” drowned out What’s different about this boisterous crowd is that Doggett’s voice. His staff began to usher him away from they’re mostly anti-Trump Democrats. Their likeness to their the unexpected rally, but the crowd followed, swarming him radical right-wing counterpart, however, isn’t an accident. 14

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

In fact, the group of chanting liberals are using a playbook penned by former Doggett staffers, explicitly based off the Tea Party’s success at influencing members of Congress to echo their concerns. Perhaps it’s ironic that a progressive group is using Tea Party tactics to oppose the very administration the Tea Party helped take to Washington. Or maybe just refreshingly clever.

ARAH DOHL, DOGGE T T ’S F ORMER COMMUNICA T IONS DIREC T OR, remembers

the deluge of postcards, calls, and emails that flooded her boss’ office immediately after the Randalls protest. She’d pick up the office phone to hear someone shouting “Just say no!” before hanging up. The supermarket dustup had actually made national news, meaning Dohl and her fellow staffers were fielding messages of Tea Party support everywhere from Alaska to North Carolina. “It was hard to get anything done because of the constant ringing [in the office]. I’d wake up in the middle

FEATURE

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of the night because I thought a phone was ringing somewhere,” she told the Current . Some of the calls took on a dark tone. “I was told I should be ashamed of myself. That I wasn’t an American. That I should kill myself,” she said. She said that from the start, “it was very clear” that this movement was going to have a lasting impact. “It was striking how much energy there was in the opposition. You could feel the momentum growing,” said Jeremy Haile, Doggett’s former legal counsel. “It became this wave, and we watched it crash.” What made it different than past protests was the Tea Party’s direct approach. They weren’t just writing angry letters or berating liberal lawmakers. They showed up to town halls, congressional offices, and city centers with their three-cornered-hats and “NObamacare” signs. Democrat lawmakers like Doggett weren’t even their primary target. The Tea Party was mostly pissed off at Republicans in Congress who cheered them on — but stayed quiet when it came to fighting Obama. “The most interesting part is that Tea Partiers were hyper-focused on Republican members of Congress,” Dohl said. “They knew they had sway over moderate Republicans and could push them further to the right.” And it worked. As the movement whipped across Texas,

moderate Republicans in the state legislature dropped their support of Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. Tea Party organizers from Dallas, Corpus Christi, and Houston began running for office — and winning. In 2011, the movement put a record number of GOP representatives in the Texas House (99) and by 2012, Tea Party darling Ted Cruz had secured a spot in the U.S. Senate, blowing past GOP establishment candidate David Dewhurst. The slowly simmering Tea Party takeover came to a boil in 2014, when the top three offices in the state were filled by far-right conservatives with the Tea Party's blessing: Gov. Greg Abbott (who used Ted Nugent, the Tea Party’s favorite minstrel, to open a campaign rally), Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick. And after Cruz's presidential campaign fizzled, Texas Tea Partiers went on to play a big part in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Patrick eagerly served as Trump’s Texas campaign chair, and Dallas Tea Party activist Katrina Pierson became the candidate’s national spokesperson until Kellyanne Conway took over in August. The movement that began as a handful of Texas parking lot protests undoubtedly shifted federal and state politics further to the radical right. Doggett readily admits this, telling the Current , “There’s no doubt that the Texas Tea Party, in its

E RN

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determination, had some impact.” But it’s not like Texas’ GOP was wavering before 2009. Republicans ruled Texas long before the Tea Party made its raucous entrance, carrying every statewide election since 1994. The creeping conservative takeover, however, didn’t truly take off until 2003, when the GOP took control of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years. Their first mission? Redraw state election districts to push Republican members of the U.S. House into the majority. That meant clumping groups of liberal Latinos in the same district to ultimately weaken their votes. This so outraged House Democrats that eleven of them fled to New Mexico for 46 days to deny their GOP counterparts the quorum needed to pass the redistricting law. Regardless, the Texas Legislature managed to pass the redrawn district map, and by 2004, Texas’ U.S. House delegation also had a Republican majority. Despite a slap on the wrist from the Supreme Court, who, in 2006 ruled that one of the new districts blatantly oppressed minority votes, Texas Republicans did it all over again in 2011. This time, they passed even more ridiculously-shaped districts to mute the votes of a growing minority population, a plan that has only recently been ruled illegal (and racist) by a federal judge. These new district lines made it possible for far-right Tea sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 15

FEATURE

for a few minutes. To remedy the situation, the Indivisible team made the guide a downloadable PDF. By late January, 1 million people had already downloaded the guide. Groups began to pop up on Facebook with “Indivisible” in their name, representing districts across the country. People began meeting in coffee shops, living rooms, and school basements to create action plans based off the guide. By March, 2 million people had downloaded the guide, sparking some 5,800 “verified” Indivisible groups, at least two for every congressional district in the country. “All we did was pull back the curtain to let people see how Congress runs, see what makes their representatives tick,” Levin said. “We just provide IKE MOS T LIBERALS, EZRA LE VIN the tools demystify Congress, everyone else does the rest.” BEGAN HIS 2016 T HANKSGIVING While wildly polarized fights, the parallels holiday in a post-election stupor. between the Tea Party and Indivisible groups are Trump’s unexpected presidential win hard to miss. Like the 2009 movement, Indivisible had been a gut-punch to Democrats groups are zeroed in on their member of Congress across the country, but it felt even gloomier in Levin’s hometown of Austin, a blue dot in a — not necessarily Trump or his cabinet or what’s happening the next district over. sea of red on the state map of election results. “It’s key to understand that Trump’s agenda Levin, another former Doggett staffer, saw his doesn’t rest on Trump alone,” Haile told the Current. fellow Texas Dems scrambling to regain some “Congress holds significant power.” Haile assures sense of control after the election. Liberals across people that every member of Congress wakes up the country, many of whom had taken Obama’s progressive command for granted, had been shaken every morning thinking about how to get reelected. “If they hear their constituents are unhappy, they’re out of complacency and wanted to do something. going to listen,” he says. But they needed guidance. And, like the Tea Party, the Indivisible groups Levin recalled watching the Tea Party’s rise in Texas are particularly loud. On February 14, a to power during his time in Doggett’s office, a small crowd of District 21 constituents decorated movement sparked by a controversial presidential Congressman Lamar Smith’s San Antonio election. A couple days after Thanksgiving, Levin office with a long string of snarky, heart-shaped found himself sitting beside his wife and longtime Valentines (one read: “Roses are red, Violets are congressional policy director Leah Greenberg at blue, I love science, Wish you did, too”). Later in an Austin bar, outlining a rough playbook on how the month, hundreds of Dripping Springs voters to resist the Trump administration — inspired by held a town hall for Congressman Roger Williams, the Texas Tea Party. Greenberg picked a name who declined to show up. In his place, a local with nonpartisan and historic connotations, actor read quotes Williams had said in the past, pulled straight from the Pledge of Allegiance: The pulled from his website or news stories. Behind Indivisible Guide. him, a cardboard cutout of the beaming, absent What happened next was unexpected. Levin Congressman leaned on the wall. dumped their ideas into a Google document that “Doing things like this makes people stop and he shared with fellow ex-Doggett staffers Haile think about how silly Congress really is,” said and Dohl, along with other friends who worked in Jeanie Valenzuela, an original member of Texas Congress during the rise of the Tea Party. They District 21’s Indivisible group — the group known for added their own tips on how the public can put scattering lawn signs with a black and white photo pressure on their members of Congress from of Congressman Smith stamped “MISSING” across outside the D.C. beltway — what to say at town San Antonio. Like the majority of Texas Indivisible halls, who to call before big votes, how to run a groups, this is Valenzuela’s first encounter with local campaign. political organizing. “Together, we have the power to resist — and we “When I fell asleep on election night, I was just a have the power to win,” the guide’s introduction reads. “We know this because we’ve seen it before.” housewife,” she says. “When I woke the next day, I On Wednesday, December 14, Levin shared the was an activist.” Valenzuela said the majority of her document on Twitter. The next morning, Haile got a District 21 Indivisible group is also new to activism call from a friend saying, “You broke Google.” — something they share with the Tea Partiers. Donna So many people were sharing and viewing the Starnes, a founder of the Far North Dallas Tea Party, guide that Google Docs actually stopped working said she “maybe protested once in college,” but

ALEX ZIELINSKI

Partiers to set up shop in traditionally moderate corners of the state. Meanwhile, Texas Democrats, once the state's comfortable leaders, grew increasingly agitated as more and more blue districts turned red. This sea change wasn’t restricted to Texas – thousands of liberals in states where redistricting had shifted power into Republican hands, like Wisconsin, Georgia, and North Carolina, were equally concerned. Trump's election to the White House appeared to be their tipping point. Luckily for them, a group of battle-worn congressional staffers from Texas had a plan.

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

ALEX ZIELINSKI

TWITTER // @JTILOVETX

T E XAS INDIVISIBLE GROUPS USE OF F ICE VISI T S, E VEN T S HOS T ED BY CARDBOARD CONGRESSMEN, AND SNARKY VALEN T INES T O SEND A MESSAGE.

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The Spring 2017 COLLECTIONS

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

FEATURE

never thought she’d get into politics. But then Barack Obama entered the White House, sending ripples of alarm and despair across the conservative party — not unlike the shock felt by liberals in November. Starnes, a CPA, was worried that big government spending and tax hikes would further crush the country’s fragile economy. “Some people were scared, and hid. Others of us decided to do something,” Starnes recalled. So she began hosting meetings in her Dallas living room. Shortly after igniting the local Tea Party movement, Starnes challenged a longtime favorite in Dallas public sector for a city council seat — and lost by a mere six percentage points. “The movement was an awakening for people like me,” she said. But don’t tell either woman they have anything in common. Valenzuela said she remembers the Tea Party holding “violent” rallies with an attitude that made her feel “like they wanted to burn the whole world down.” According to Starnes, however, these new groups of anti-Trump protesters are “violent,” nothing like the “peaceful” Tea Party rallies she attended. These groups have both been painted as violent mobs of “paid protesters” by their political opponents since their inception. There’s little evidence to substantiate any of these claims, save for a few viral moments where fringe members turned violent — like when black-bloc protesters smashed windows and set fires during a UC Berkeley anti-Trump rally, or when Tea Partiers threw punches at a Florida antiimmigration rally. These conspiracy theories paraded by political pundits (and quickly regurgitated in online forums) include claims that billionaires, like the Koch brothers or George Soros, bankrolled the movements, making them more “astroturf” than grassroots. And members of Congress (who have reportedly renamed the group “Indigestible”) are eager to echo these conspiracy theories. “You can imagine the volume of phone calls and mail and social media contacts that we get on a daily basis,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn told Houston Public Media in a February interview, shortly after Indivisible members began flooding his office with requests to oppose Trump’s cabinet nominees. “There’s no doubt that there was a concerted campaign by the establishment.” His response, however, sounds a lot like Doggett’s comments after the Randalls protest in 2009. “This mob, sent by the local Republican and Libertarian parties, did not come just to be heard, but to deny others the right to be heard,” Doggett told the Austin American-Statesman at the time. “And this appears to be part of a coordinated, nationwide effort.” To both lawmakers, these Texas rabble-rousers were party pawns, not part of the localized movements to which they swore allegiance – which might actually serve as proof this kind of trolling works. “The worst thing you can do to constituents is tell them their concerns are not real,” Levin said. “If you tell them they’re full of it, you’re just going to rile them up more.” Especially if they’re Texans.

ONGRESSMAN DOGGE T T F IRS T ME T LE VIN when he was in high

school. The Austin teenager had organized a campus fundraiser for John Kerry’s presidential run, and had somehow caught the attention of the already seasoned senator. “I was so impressed with him,” Doggett recalled. “He showed grit, determination.” As soon as Levin graduated from Princeton, Doggett offered him a job in his D.C. office. “In Texas, we’re used to knowing a lot of people we don’t always agree with. They’re neighbors and family, and you learn how to interact with them,” Levin said. “It’s not like growing up in Berkeley or New York City — where you’re generally surrounded by like-minded people.” Which could explain why this resistance began in Texas. “Texans are uniquely equipped in the fight,” said Dohl. “It’s certainly not a new fight for liberals in this state. These are fights that have had to be fought before, and they’ll have to be fought again. Texans, along with other red state Democrats — they’re prepared for that.” It only makes sense, Starnes said, if you look at the state’s turbulent history. “The

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

CARLA MORRISON

FEATURE

people who originally moved to Texas were brave pioneers...this place was a real hellhole back then,” she said. “We’re still pioneering, it’s just the challenges that have changed. You don’t mess with Texas.” But can this new wave of pioneers be as successful as its predecessors? When Jeff Rogers first met with Arlington Tea Partiers in 2011, he felt a shared sense of anger and urgency. But he could tell there was something was missing in the conversation. “I remember thinking: ‘We’re all preaching to the choir...but what are we going to do about it?’” Rogers said. After drafting strategy plans that were drawn out over months, and years — and seeing progress — the group found solace in playing the long game. “You work with what you got,” Rogers said, pointing to the January reelection of moderate Republican Joe Straus to speaker of the Texas House. “We didn’t want Straus. But we aren’t always going to get what we want. Instead of complaining, we just continue working toward the next election cycle. We’re in it for the long haul.” And, as Trump’s election proves, there’s no telling what political interchange is on the horizon. “When Obama came into the White House in 2009, we thought Democrats would have government control for a long time. We thought we were set,” Haile said. “But these things are unpredictable.” That unpredictability is still felt by Tea Partiers, even after their 8-year-long movement helped flip both chambers of Congress to Republican control and place a Tea Party ally in the White House. On Friday, March 24, the party watched as their very first goal, the repeal of Obamacare, got even further out of reach. House Speaker Paul Ryan, another politician boosted by the Tea Party, was forced to withdraw his “American Health Care Act” before it even reached Congress. Ironically, this bill was largely killed by what appears to be a rebranded version of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, the Freedom Caucus. Friday evening, Ryan somberly informed reporters that “we’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.” A day after arguing against Ryan’s bill on the House floor, Congressman Doggett stood at the pulpit of a San Antonio church answering questions about the debate around health care. To his left, a new crop of congressional office staffers looked on. An energized crowd filled the chapel’s pews, some wearing nurse’s scrubs, others in pink knitted hats left over from January’s Women’s March. A few handmade posters leaned against a front wall, reading “Don’t Mess with Obamacare” and “Impeach TrumPutin Now!” The audience had welcomed Doggett with an explosion of applause and cheers — one woman even rattled a tambourine in appreciation. “A key part of democracy is holding every elected official accountable,” Doggett began. “Unfortunately, with all the gerrymandering that’s occurred that’s become increasingly difficult.” “You find some officials that don’t feel like they have to worry about accountability... so all you have is a cardboard cutout,” he joked, and the crowd chuckled in response. But they weren’t there to praise Doggett. Like the Tea Partiers before them, this liberal-leaning crowd had come to press their Democrat congressman to go further. A medical student asked what Doggett was doing to advocate for single-payer health care. When Doggett said he favored the health care model, but doubted it would pass in this Congress, the audience jeered. Someone shouted “Do your job!” One woman wanted to know where the congressman stood on abortion access for minorities. Another wanted answers on Medicare expansion. The line for asking questions went out the chapel door. Even with the pushback, Doggett did seem genuinely delighted to engage with constituents, thanking each speaker for their piece of mind. Instead of being chased across the parking lot by an angry group of protesters, Doggett left this neighborhood meeting with handshakes and pats on the back. And a reminder. “It’s a troubling time in our history...people are loosing faith in our democracy,” Doggett said, before leaving the podium. “It is not enough just to tweet or just to protest. It’s time to get involved in politics.”

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◀ Beyond serving up two drag stars for the price of one, Rey Lopez Entertainment’s latest extravaganza boasts unusual potential in that both Detox (last name: Icunt) and Vicky Vox have the chops to go beyond lip-synching and sing with highly amusing results. Since meeting in Los Angeles and forming a bond as drag mother (Detox, pictured) and drag daughter (Vox), they’ve found success in distinct arenas. While Detox finished fourth on season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race (2013) and then returned to the competition via RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars (2016), Vox made a memorable cameo as gay nightclub emcee Tori Snatch in the star-studded stripper flick Magic Mike XXL (2015). Joining forces with like-minded Drag Race alum Willam Belli, the pair formed DWV (nodding to their initials as well as the ’90s-era R&B trio SWV) — a sadly disbanded “drag supergroup” that created a viral stir with riotous song parodies and music videos satirizing hits by The Go-Go’s (“Gaycation”), Robin Thicke (“Blurred Bynes”) and Wilson Phillips (“Chow Down at Chick-fil-A”). $10-$25, 10:30pm & midnight, Heat Nightclub, 1500 N. Main Ave., (210) 388-4537, reylopezentertainment.com. — Bryan Rindfuss

Detox and Vicky Vox

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FILM Seemingly stronger with each passing year, the legacy of slain Tejano icon Selena Quintanilla-Pérez thrives in the modern era, inspiring heartfelt tributes, imaginative fan art, big-name covers (by everyone from Solange to Bruno Mars), diverse impersonations and even a MAC cosmetics line prompted by an online petition. Adoring fans celebrate her birthday, observe the anniversary of her death and bond over a shared disgust for incarcerated murderer Yolanda Saldívar. Filmed partly in San Antonio and released two years after her untimely death, Gregory Nava’s 1997 biopic Selena spread the native Texan’s inspiring story and timeless songs to a global audience while her chart-topping crossover album Dreaming of You was still in heavy rotation. Likened by Variety to both “a contemporary fairy tale with an unhappy ending” and a “sentimental, rose-colored portrait,” the film may not be perfect but still stands the test of time as a major peg in the Selena timeline. Inciting a ripple of online excitement, Selena’s widower Chris Pérez recently watched the movie for the first time since its release, “reviewing” it via Facebook posts that pointed out inconsistencies but also applauded then-rising star Jennifer Lopez for a convincing performance. Likely to inspire spontaneous singing and cries of “Anything for Selenas,” Slab Cinema and the City of San Antonio’s free outdoor screening is one of several events timed to coincide with the film’s 20th anniversary. Free, 7:30pm, La Villita, Arneson River Theater, 418 Villita St., (210) 207-8614, slabcinema.com slabcinema.com. — BR

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The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged!) THEATER The Dinnerbox Series at Little Italy presents The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged!) — a fast-paced parody of William Shakespeare’s plays. London’s longest-running comedy, this 80-minute rhetorical roller coaster soars through all 37 plays, performed by only three actors. Damian Gillen, Schedel Luitjen and Benji Regan of the Company Theatre return to deliver a quick comical condensation of works like Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth and even a rap rendition of Othello. Often calling for improvisation and audience participation, the performance breaks the theatrical barrier of the fourth wall, with constant interaction between the actors and audience. Tickets include snacks, salads and entrees prepared by host venue Little Italy. $30-$40, dinner & drinks at 6pm, show at 7:30pm, Big Apple Room at Little Italy, 824 Afterglow St., (210) 646-4284, thecompanytheatre.org. — Kimberly Rivera

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SPECIAL EVENT The art of W tattooing one’s body is a phenomenon that has been practiced by many cultures for many purposes, starting as early as the Neolithic time period. In ancient Egypt, tattoos were used to mark status, to heal or even to punish. In Paleolithic Japan, tattoos were spiritual and decorative. In 1980s-era Britain, tattoos became a symbol of wealth. Today tattoos are used by the masses for countless reasons — including self-expression, individuality and FRI-SUN commemoration. For 12 years, the Alamo City Tattoo Show has been providing professional inkers an opportunity to showcase their art and talents. Organized by and for members of San Antonio’s growing tattoo community, the three-day expo consists of 54 different booths, vendors, contests and more than 40 participating artists. $20-$40, noon-10pm Fri-Sat, noon-8pm Sun, Hilton Garden Inn, 8101 Pat Booker Road, (210) 659-6629, alamocitytattoo.com. — KR

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recognize outstanding projects and concepts with trophies created by local creative hub Make San Antonio. (Contemporary art fans can still vote for their favorite “artwork, exhibit or event” in a Best of CAM category through midnight on March 30.) Doubling as the closing reception for the Spare Parts Mini Art Museum’s new printmaking show “Fine Print” (featuring limited editions of wee works by Amada Claire Miller, Michael Menchaca, Jennifer Ling Datchuk and more than a dozen others), the free, family-friendly affair enlists local performer Rick Frederick as emcee and tempts guests with shakes from HoneySuckle Teatime and beer, wine and cocktails courtesy of Bellion Spirits. Free, 6-8pm, CHRISpark, 111 Camp St., (210) 630-0235, contemporaryartmonth.com. — BR

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▲ Although certain Contemporary Art Month exhibitions carry over into April and beyond (there’s still plenty of time to take in standout shows like “Reflections on Landscape and Memory” and “Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz: A Retrospective, 1982-2014”), the citywide celebration familiarly known as CAM officially draws to a close on Friday with an outdoor shindig in the Linda Pace Foundation’s quaint CHRISpark. Three decades strong, CAM made some important tweaks this year, including roping in San Antonio institutions — SAMA, the McNay, Artpace, Blue Star Contemporary, Southwest School of Art, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the Carver — to weigh in on all but one of the winners of the CAMMIE Awards. Previously determined exclusively by online voting, these decidedly niche awards

Wrestle Empire LGBT + SPORTS

▲ Possibly the most unusual aspect of San Antonio’s annual Pride Bigger Than Texas Parade and Festival (taking place July 1 in Crockett Park), Pride Championship Wrestling (PCW) bills itself as “the first LGBT wrestling organization in San Antonio and the United States.” Presented in partnership with The Royal, Sovereign and Imperial Court of the Alamo Empire (a volunteer-based nonprofit supporting individuals affected by HIV/AIDS), PCW’s spring fling features matchups between Minnesota wrestling vet and Laredo native Mad One; Valor Wrestling Champion Michael Autumn and “Hot Damn” Jesse James; Texas Wrestling Association (TWA) co-general manager Madness and Laredo Wrestling Alliance (LWA) rookie Dyl Dempsey; and a TWA Tag Team Championship match pitting Logan Shellaby and Corvice against Joey Dynamite and Aire Fuego. A wild throwdown with an admirable purpose, Wrestle Empire benefits four important nonprofit endeavors: We Are Alive, Stand Up for Kids, Martinez Street Women’s Center and Fiesta Youth. $5, 8pm, Texas Wolverine All-Star Gym, 1334 S. Flores St., (210)550-9975, alamoempire.org. — BR

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THE 5 BROWNS

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▲ A new exhibit from Kari Breitigam, “Natural Abstractions” is a collection of textile pieces that are dyed, manipulated, and arranged by the Houston-based artist. Working from a background in both painting and fiber art, Breitigam is able to use the depth, textures and tactile nature of various kinds of fabrics, combined with an astute application of color, to create a painterly feeling in her work. Drawing on personal experiences of moving around the country — she’s from Ohio and did graduate work in Indiana before settling in Houston — Breitigam aims to capture “little snippets of serenity and create abstracted personal pieces of the overwhelming vastness of our world.” Her works, which seem both strange and inviting at once, are testaments to the fact that “There is something terribly lonely about nature.” Free, 6-9pm, Mantle Art Space, 714 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 971-4740, mantleartspace.com. — James Courtney

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◀ Personified, the rapidly changing face of stand-up comedy circa 2017 might look a little bit like Lisa Lampanelli. The self-crowned “Queen of Mean” rose to royalty through her memorable appearances on Comedy Central Roasts (of Hugh Hefner, Larry the Cable Guy and the current President of the United States), where she dished out vulgar takedowns of everyone in sight but saved some of her best slams for herself. Her stand-up act turns her savage sights on the audience itself — Don Rickles style. But Lampanelli recently took a break from rapid-fire insults to write and star in Stuffed — a Women’s Project Theater-produced stage play about eating disorders and, surprisingly, self-acceptance. She came out of roast retirement in October on Howard Stern’s show to prove she can be just as offensive as ever, but the insightful storyteller who’s emerged in her play and her appearance on The Moth probably won’t be silenced on stage, even by the Queen herself. The audience will probably remain as unsafe as ever. $39.50-$59.50, 8pm, Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. majesticempire.com — Jeremy Martin

▶ Inspired by the nationwide observances of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March), the Academy of SUN American Poets claimed April as National Poetry Month back in 1996. Now billed as “the largest WORDS + MUSIC literary celebration in the world,” the initiative posts thousands of events on its online calendar and also champions poetry in the information age through signature programs such as Poem in Your Pocket Day (which encourages participants to choose a poem, carry it with them and share it with others on April 27), Dear Poet (a multimedia education project that tasks students with writing responses to contemporary poems) and Poem-a-Day (a free, digital subscription service available via poets.org). Initiated in 2009, the City of San Antonio’s National Poetry Month calendar (online at getcreativesanantonio.com) comprises workshops, readings, open mics and recurring events like “Voices and Vibes.” Presented by the interfaith organization Celebration Circle, the monthlong series brings together award-winning poets for readings “interwoven with lively music.” Hosted by SAY Sí, “Voices and Vibes” kicks off Sunday with a spotlight on Lahab Assef Al-Jundi (pictured) — a San Antonio-based Arab-American poet whose work has been described as “both political and personal” — and continues weekly with readings from Naomi Shihab Nye (April 9), Lesléa Newman (April 23) and Amanda Flores (April 30). Free, 11am, SAY Sí, 1518 S. Alamo St., (210) 837-2866, getcreativesanantonio.com. — BR

Spurs vs. Grizzlies

SPORTS

◀ Since returning from a fractured fourth metacarpal and transitioning to a reserve role, Pau Gasol has been on fire from beyond the arc, boasting one of the highest three-point shooting percentages in the NBA. The six-time All-Star’s long-range accuracy will benefit a good cause on Tuesday night, when he faces younger brother Marc Gasol and the Memphis Grizzlies. Via their Gasol Foundation, the two siblings have teamed up to bring awareness to childhood obesity, with a goal to raise $15,000 for programming benefiting families in South Los Angeles, Watts and Boyle Heights. The Gasol brothers will be matching pledges for every point scored in their head-to-head matchups this season, providing one more opportunity for hoop fans to benefit others while enjoying a possible playoff series preview. attcenter.com — M. Solis $14-$1,579, 7:30pm, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com.

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CALENDAR

ART Art opening: “New Works in Pastel and Acrylic” Local artist Dr. James W.

Brown’s latest works combine elements of ethnic art, landscapes and abstraction. Free, 5-9pm Friday; James Brown Studio Gallery, 3030 Rigsby Ave., (210) 215-1225.

Final Fridays Alamo Ice House’s new

monthly event series features local art, live artists, vendors, music and drink specials. Free, 6pm-midnight Friday; Alamo Ice House, 802 N. Alamo St., (210) 758-5151.

Movers, Shakers + Curators Haus

Collective hosts a post-CAM mixer open to “all local artists, gallery owners, curators, designers, writers, musicians, entrepreneurs, performers, pirates, Goonies, and Bill Miller’s Loyalty Club members.” Free, 8-10pm Saturday; Haus Collective, 108 Blue Star, (210) 837-7155.

“Night of Artists” Now in its 16th year, this

annual exhibition and sale showcases 250-plus works by 73 of the country’s top Western artists. $8-$10, 10am-5pm Sunday, 10am-9pm Tuesday; Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W. Market St., (210) 299-4499.

“The Creative Mind — Science and Art”

In conjunction with its Harmony Cocktail event, Texas Art House welcomes Wimberley artist McKay Otto and Hill Country Science Mill Museum founders Robert P. Elde and Bonnie Baskin for a discussion surounding Otto’s new solo show “Ever a Kiss Ever.” Free, 5-6:30pm Saturday; Texas Art House, 105 N. Nugent Ave., Johnson City, (281) 703-6528.

FILM 2001: A Space Odyssey Divided into four

acts, Stanley Kubrick’s Oscar-winning epic combines awe-inspiring imagery and classical music in a meditative journey that begins in prehistoric times, employs the longest flash-forward in cinema history and ends with a sequence involving a bedroom beyond Jupiter and an astronaut who’s reborn as a Star Child. Alamo Drafthouse screens the 1968 classic on the 49th anniversary of its debut in American theaters. $10.83, 7:15pm Monday; Alamo Drafthouse Stone Oak, 22806 Hwy. 281 N., 7:30pm Monday; Alamo Drafthouse Park North (618 NW Loop 410) & Westlakes (1255 SW Loop 410), (210) 677-8500.

Pillow Talk Northeast Lakeview College’s

Eric Reno Cinema Series continues with a free screening of Michael Gordon’s 1959 romantic comedy starring Doris Day as an interior decorator who shares a telephone party line with a womanizing composer (Rock Hudson). Free, 6:30pm Tuesday; Northeast Lakeview College Performing Arts Center, 1201 Kitty Hawk Road, (210) 486-5000.

Pina Since the 1970s, few choreographers of

modern dance have had more influence than late German icon Pina Bausch. In this 2011 doc, director Wim Wenders takes the audience on a visually stunning journey, following the legendary Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch ensemble onto the stage and then into the city and the surrounding areas of Wuppertal — which for 35 years was the home and center for Pina Bausch's creativity. Free, wine reception at 6:30pm, film at 7pm Thursday; McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368.

THEATER A Night on Broadway Directed by Heather

Heywood and produced by Anthony T. Stewart, this musical celebration of Broadway old and new combines favorites from Hamilton, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Little Women, Funny Girl and many more. $32-$37, 7pm Thursday-Friday; Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624.

Dance Kaleidoscope The pre-professional

San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet caps off its 33rd season with the 29th edition of Dance Kaleidoscope — a lively program that opens with a variety of neoclassical and contemporary works and closes with a presentation of George Skibine’s The Firebird, staged by Thom Clower complete with original costumes from the Harkness and Paris Opera Ballet companies. $15-$30, 2:30-4:30pm Sunday; The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 650-8810.

Disgraced Widely produced across the

nation in 2016, Pakistani American actor/ author/playwright Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzerwinning drama Disgraced zooms in on the complicated life of Amir Kapoor, a successful Manhattan attorney who’s divorced himself from his Muslim heritage yet becomes entangled in the court case of an imam charged with crimes agains the state. David Rinear directs Suhail Arastu (as Amir) and Kate Glasheen (as Amir’s wife Emily) in the San Antonio premiere. $12-$42, 8pm FridaySaturday, 3pm Sunday; The Playhouse, 800 W. Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258.

Speakeasy Performing Arts San Antonio stages the local premiere of Rachel Landon and Liz Tinder’s Prohibition-inspired revue reviving such roaring ’20s standards as “Charleston,” “I Want to Be Bad,” and “You Oughta Be in Pictures.” $18-$25, 8pm Friday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; Performing Arts San Antonio, 15705 San Pedro, (210) 557-1187.

The Grapes of Wrath Paula Rodriguez directs San Antonio College’s production of Frank Galati’s theatrical adaptation of John

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 ►

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CALENDAR

◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

Steinbeck’s novel following the Joad family, who leave their ruins in the Oklahoma dust bowl and cross the United States in search of the American Dream. $8-$10, 7:30pm Thursday-Saturday, 2:30pm Sunday; San Antonio College, McAllister Auditorium, 1300 San Pedro Ave., (210) 486-0255.

WORDS Notable Writers Book Award Presentation and Reading Created in memory of late San Antonio author John Igo, Notable Writers honors Wings Press publisher Bryce Milligan with a reception featuring readings from local poets Naomi Shihab Nye, Rosemary Catacalos and Robert Bonazzi. Free, 6:30-8pm Monday; Central Library, 600 Soledad St., (210) 207-2829.

"Tejana Myth, Memory, and Fiction"

Tejana/indígena author Ire’ne Lara Silva reads from her latest work and discusses her approach to reimagining Tejan@ myths. Free, 1-2pm Wednesday; UTSA Main Campus, MB 2.404, One UTSA Circle, (210) 458-6277.

The Poetry Group & Guest Readers Poetry

Group regulars Bryce Milligan, Glover Davis, Jim LaVilla Havelin, Sharon Olinka, Natalia Treviño and guest readers Ann Cefola and Linda Simone come together for readings in observance of National Poetry Month. Free, 7-8:30pm Tuesday; Senor Veggie, 620 S. Presa St., (210) 228-0073.

COMEDY Jim Jefferies Known for a “controversial

and belief-challenging stand-up style” that’s reached the masses through comedy specials including I Swear to God, Contraband, Alcoholocaust and Fully Functional, Australian comic Jim Jefferies brings his Unusual Punishment Tour to the Tobin in support of his new Netflix special Freedumb. $39.50-$49.50, 8pm Thursday; Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624.

Ryan Stout A clean-cut comic who favors

offensive humor and admittedly “loves to explore morally repugnant subject matter with smart and sterile objectivity,” Ryan Stout is well known for regular appearances on Chelsea Lately and an array of MTV shows, including Singled Out, A Shot at Love: The Hangover and MTV’s Most Valuable Players. $16, 8pm WednesdayThursday, 8pm & 10:15pm Friday-Saturday, 7pm Sunday; Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 541-8805.

SPECIAL EVENTS CarFest Hosted by San Antonio’s

Community of Automotive Professionals (CAP), this two-day fest includes onsite auto repairs benefiting local charities, youth interactive areas, how-to clinics, automotive trade school displays, vendors, a Battle of the Garage Bands and BBQ Cook-Off, plus a chance to win one of 10 cars to be given away during the weekend. Free, 10am-6pm SaturdaySunday; Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 3201 E. Houston St., (210) 831-0874.

Expo Mexican Fest Wonderland of the

Americas plays host to a festive weekend marketplace with live music, food for purchase, folk dancing and more than 50 artists and vendors offering Oaxacan dresses, Mexican candy, Talavera pottery, mirrors, jewelry, glass crafts, wooden toys, alebrije sculptures, papier-mâché figures, rugs and more. Free, 9am-7pm ThursdaySunday; Wonderland of the Americas, 4522 Fredericksburg, (210) 393-3778.

Growls and Growlers In celebration of its

second anniversary, Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery partners with Talk About It SA (the San Antonio Area Foundation’s no-kill program) for a pet-centric event where local animal rescue and resource organizations will offer 50 dogs for adoption along with pet-care advice. Free, 9am-1pm Saturday; Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewery, 136 E. Grayson St., (210) 455-5701.

TALKS PLUS 15-Year Celebration: College of Architecture, Construction and Planning The College of Architecture,

Construction and Planning (CACP) celebrates 15 years as an independent academic unit at UTSA with a day featuring a keynote lecture by Harvard Graduate School of Design professor Alex Krieger (1:30pm), exhibitions highlighting recent work by CACP faculty, centers, and students, a playhouse design-build student competition and an awards program. Free, 1:30-6pm Saturday; UTSA Downtown Campus, 301 S. Frio St., (210) 458-3090.

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 33

ARTS + CULTURE

DREAMER

The Otherworldly Work of ‘Trans-Dimensional’ Artist McKay Otto DAN GODDARD

≥

In the Silo of McKays at the Hill Country Science Mill in Johnson City, Wimberley artist McKay Otto has placed seven Tibetan singing bowls below seven abstract paintings inside the 40-foot-tall repurposed grain silo. When one of the bowls is struck with a wooden mallet, the distinctive ringing tone sets off subtle, ethereal vibrations that resonate through your body. When the lights are turned off, glow-in-the-dark patterns emerge in the paintings, illuminating Eastern medicine’s chakra energy centers. “My silo is a gift to children of all ages,” Otto said. “What a wonderful opportunity to instill light, sound and harmony — bringing science and art to an understanding that can ignite the creative passion in the ‘child’ of any age. I hope to inspire the next generation of artists and scientists to be creative with the vibrations of truth. To open up questions about unseen dimensions that exist all around us, which we perceive, but do not see. That’s a gift confirmed.” Otto describes his work as “trans-dimensional,” intended to transport viewers into another realm of universal understanding. Combining painting and sculpture, his “light boxes” feature a translucent nylon “canvas” stretched over a deep wooden frame containing three-dimensional forms such as pyramids and circles. Fluorescent paint causes the geometric forms to glow when the lights are out. Designed to change and evolve over the course of a day, Otto’s grid-like constructions deal with the themes of light, translucence, simplicity and silence. The Silo of McKays is a permanent installation by the respected Texas artist represented by Cinnabar Art Gallery in San Antonio and Lara Rathe Fine Art in Houston. Last year, his work was featured at the CAMIBAart Gallery in Austin and as part of the exhibition “Pure” at the Texas Art House in Johnson City, where his new solo show “Ever a Kiss Ever” is on view through April 22. Catherine Lee, a Texas sculptor also featured in “Pure,” describes Otto as a dreamer and a fantasist. “He’s a rare poetic being who shows just what he means and believes, visually, always with a minimum of extraneous noise, and always with a full heart and with courage,” Lee said. “Just when you think he’s a minimalist, you look twice, maybe with the lights out, and you see he’s really both calling out and whispering at the same time.” Otto has become a fixture of the Hill Country art community since moving outside of Wimberley in 2008 with his partner of 15 years, Keith Coffee, a physician and researcher. Including a glass-pyramid greenhouse and a two-story painting and 34

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

BRYAN RINDFUSS

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ARTS + CULTURE

•

From left: Ever Unsayable Ever; Silo of McKays; Ever Fear Not Ever

sculpture gallery, their rambling 20-acre home compound and nature preserve is called “Ever Land.” “We both are graduates of the University of Texas at Austin and love the Texas Hill Country,” Otto said. “We were drawn to the vortex energy near Wimberley, where we are in harmony with our surroundings and nature. It’s quiet with an enduring beauty and subtle universal energy between Austin and San Antonio, our two favorite Central Texas cities. I had hoped to find a place in Santa Fe, but Wimberley was much more affordable.” “I had the great fortune of knowing Arlene LewAllen, an amazing Santa Fe art dealer,” Otto said. “She said one summer that she would like to grant me two favors. My wish was just to meet my most favorite artist in the world, Agnes Martin. She laughed, saying Agnes was up in age and a recluse living in Taos. She thought she might not be able to deliver this favor, but two days later Agnes wanted to meet me and have lunch. That was the beginning of a longer story.” By the time Otto met Martin, known for her extremely subtle white-on-white grid paintings, he was in his late 40s and had been a practicing artist for little more than a decade after giving up his first career in real estate. Born in Wharton, Otto grew up in rural Fort Bend County southwest of Houston. “All I ever wanted to be was an artist. As a little boy, I couldn’t stop drawing. I liked drawing on my father’s white fl our sacks and white counters at his Farmer’s Market Store,” Otto said. “My father discouraged me from being an artist because he said, ‘You’ll never make a living being one.’ When I left home upon graduation from high school, he gave me $500 and said, ‘That’s it.’ So fi nancially I paid for my college education selling real estate and working as a waiter part time.” He earned a bachelor of business administration at UTAustin. “I did it to satisfy my father and everyone else,” Otto said. After graduating, he became a successful real estate salesman and marketer. He also settled into a conventional marriage and had two daughters.

“Growing up in a closeted world where there was absolutely no one to talk to about feeling different was difficult,” Otto said. “Today it’s much easier. Back then, it was hard … When you can’t quite identify with the macho male image, you start living the lie, which does not seem right or good. Looking back, I think I must have appeared homophobic in order to mask my true feelings.” He finally decided to come out in 1985 and pursue his true passion in art. He began taking classes at the Art School at Laguna Gloria in Austin. “After doing a $100 million real estate deal, I went back to my offi ce and felt like I was the most miserable person on the planet,” Otto said. “I was just really sad and even contemplated suicide. After years of real estate marketing and brokerage, I just couldn’t do it anymore and I started taking art classes and dreaming the wildest and most colorful future for my life. It was time to be true to myself and everyone in my life. Being gay and the true self — the artist. Timing is when it is supposed to be. The honest life in the end is all there is. Living truth is never too late.” After a divorce, he moved to Arizona and, in Sedona, he became interested in energy vortexes and had a mystical experience that fueled his desire to be an artist. “Leaving Texas and making $200 my fi rst year as an artist set new challenges, but I had no choice,” Otto said. “I had to live my dream awake — being an artist — and serve no other master. I junked and resold antiques in order to have enough resources for my art passion. Times were very slim, but I had no choice. I persisted in my quest, never giving up.” Over the years, he has lived all over the West, including Phoenix, Scottsdale, Santa Fe and even Los Angeles. But in the late 1980s, he returned to Texas and lived in Galveston. He had a small antique/junk shop on the Strand and started taking classes at the Glassell School in 1989. “The Glassell School helped me to confirm and get in touch with the artist McKay,” Otto said. “I learned that great artists are born to

be artists. You can only teach technique in school.” However, one of his teachers was the Texas sculptor Ben Woitena, who encouraged Otto to study sculpture. He began showing his work in Houston and had one of his first solo shows in 1991 at the Graham Gallery (1981-1992), an important venue for emerging Texas artists. William A. Graham’s small exhibition space in a remodeled garage became known as the place in Houston to see works by cutting-edge Texas artists. His art career finally launched, Otto began to show at several of Houston’s leading galleries. He was included in a group show, “Out of This World,” at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 1994. In the late 1990s, he had gallery shows in New Orleans, Chicago, Dallas and New Mexico, where he met Agnes Martin. “While living in my shack in Galveston, I woke up at 3 a.m. looking for Agnes,” Otto recalled. “Agnes had come to me in a dream and asked where the paint that always failed in our critiques was. She asked me to find it and use it. I found a small container of fluorescent paint and weeks later I finished my first light box glow painting that didn’t have an electric cord gimmick running to it. I called Agnes and told her about the dream and she wasn’t surprised. She had the same dream and was just waiting to hear from me.” Otto had his first show in San Antonio at the Joan Grona Gallery in 2000. But he realized if he really wanted to make it as an artist, he would have to go to New York. He moved to Queens in the early 2000s, which eventually led to a 2006 show at Lemmons Contemporary. Since then, he has had numerous exhibits at galleries and museums across the country. “I’m influenced by the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching,” Otto said. “It teaches that a good artist is the embodiment of light. Also, to not waste anything. I recycle and repurpose. To never lose touch with who we really are and just stay at the ‘center of the circle’ and let all things take their course. To do, then let go, to be formless and perfect. To know yourself is true wisdom.” sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 37

6411 Bandera Rd #2 • 210.627.6431 38

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF BROAD GREEN PICTURES

SCREENS

SOULS ADRIFT

Austin’s music scene through an existential lens in Song to Songa SCOTT RENSHAW

≥

A week or so before I finally sat down for Terrence Malick’s Song to Song, I shared this Twitter musing: “Like bebop, I see Terrence Malick’s oeuvre as a singular, perhaps sublime art form for which I am simply temperamentally unsuited.” Misplaced modifier notwithstanding, that fairly neatly sums up the trepidation with which I’ve come to approach a new Malick feature, and which I explored after watching last year’s Knight of Cups. While I’ve had the occasional connection with something like The Tree of Life, there was this creeping sensation that my reaction to Malick was a “me” problem. Sometimes, a little humility in the face of art serves a writer best. Song to Song is, on a fundamental level, simply a continuation of the path down which Malick has been strolling — through tall grass and/or wheat — for the last six years or so. It’s the story of someone — in this case, a woman named Faye (Rooney Mara) — in the midst of an existential crisis, which spills over into her romantic and familial relationships. From her dalliance with wealthy music-industry executive Cook (Michael Fassbender), she moves

on to a more sensitive relationship with a musician named BV (Ryan Gosling), and eventually to an affair with a French woman (Bérénice Marlohe). Meanwhile, Cook begins another relationship with an exteacher-turned-waitress (Natalie Portman), BV begins a relationship with another woman (Cate Blanchett), and look, I’ll be honest, I never would have known any of these people even had names if not for the Internet Movie Database. That’s part of what makes Malick so maddening for those who aren’t on his wavelength: His characters barely seem to occupy the physical world in which people have things like names and jobs, and spend time doing anything besides frolicking with their significant others. Song to Song is ostensibly set in the Austin music scene, in the same way that Knight of Cups was ostensibly set in Hollywood, and Malick does take the opportunity of filming during South by Southwest to get cameos by a few bigname artists, including Iggy Pop and Patti Smith (the latter of whom gets to drop some wisdom on Faye). But the milieu

plays a virtually non-existent role in how these people’s lives unfold within the narrative, to the extent that when Cook asks Faye at one point whether she wants a recording contract, I was hard-pressed to recall any prior evidence that this was her career goal. It’s even harder to connect with these people emotionally when Malick’s preferred narrative methodology — non-diegetic narration playing over whatever action is appearing on screen — blunts the opportunity to connect with their stories. His restless camera — again in the hands of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki — produces lyrical imagery, from swooping birds to twilit fields, but the scenes of his characters together in difficult moments keep darting away from honest revelations at crucial moments. During a scene in which Faye is opening her heart to her father about how much she feels she’s disappointed him, the dialogue is abruptly lost as Malick turns up her interior monologue. It seems improbable that one of the most genuinely affecting scenes involves a prostitute —

whose role lasts a grand total of perhaps four minutes — discussing the personal loss that led her to this life, until you realize it’s one of the few times when Malick allows anyone to speak for more than 30 seconds without interrupting them. All this is true, yet there’s still a unique potency to Malick’s work, in part because he’s one of the few filmmakers who is interested in people wrestling with their souls (when they’re not, as Fassbender does here, wrestling with members of Red Hot Chili Peppers). Even the few minutes devoted to the back-story of Portman’s character makes her relationship with Cook feel particularly tragic, while Mara brings greater range to someone who is utterly adrift. Song to Song moves to Malick’s own instinctive, improvisational rhythm, and while that can make it hard to get a sense that his ethereal heroes and heroines are ever earthbound, he’s prowling around in corners that aren’t often explored. It’s possible to see the value of that kind of art, even if I’ll mostly ever appreciate it intellectually, rather than feel it in my bones.

✰✰✰

sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 39

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FOOD

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS

FOOD COURT More taquitos, a date for Natural Grocers and El Luchador Is coming JESSICA ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

Taquitos Plus

> Even if you’re not familiar with the outdoor kitchen, styrofoam plate, delicious taco set-up that’s Taquitos West Ave., you’ll want to pencil in a restaurant visit for their second location. Open for just under a month, Taquitos and Panaderia West Ave. is more than 2,000 square feet of taco goodness. Orders are placed at the counter and servers handle drinks (jamaica, horchata, lemonade, teas, Jarritos and sodas are all available). The new menu isn’t much bigger than at the original location, which carries cabeza, suadero, bistek, lengua, and tripa. Al pastor is available Thursday through Sunday. The meats are available to order in tacos, tortas and cheesy quesadillas. Fun taco memes are used to decorate the interiors, so get your Spanishspeaking pals to translate. The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Next door, the Panaderia West Ave. is an aromatic and clean spot filled with conchas, empanadas, sugar cookies, maranitos, palmiers and tres leches cakes. 12734 Nacogdoches Road, (210) 444-9460.

with Rosario’s Mexican Cafe y Cantina, doesn’t have an opening date yet. The restaurant has added a gas line and stove to add a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner. The breakfast menu includes waffles, pancakes, a la carte sides, breakfast plates and tacos, and six types of chilaquiles. For lunch, Sabor will serve an abridged menu of specialties including enchiladas, Baja tacos, pollo en mole and more. The dinner menu includes more of the same with added antojitos, salads and more house favorites. The bar will include specialty tequila-based drinks. Again, no date has been set for the opening, so we’ll keep you posted when that’s announced. 5313 McCullough Ave.

Alamo Heights’ Latest Shop

> Natural Grocers, which has one location off NW Military Highway, will open its Alamo Heights store on March 29. In a preview event that showcased their products, the brand shared news of the date and some background on what San Antonians can expect to see. Natural Grocers, a Golden, Colorado-based health food store Sabor Cocina Bar Finds Home is known for its fi ve founding principles that include > The sign has been up for some weeks now and we nutrition education in every store, high-quality products, finally know what will take Mezcalería Mixtli’s place at The affordable pricing, a commitment to the community and Yard on McCullough. fair pay for their employees. Sabor Cocina Bar, owned by chef Federico Guillen formerly 6514 N. New Braunfels Ave.

APR

FIRST TH THUR SDAYS

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El Luchador Opens

> Four friends are opening a neighborhood cantina this June and San Antonians can get a sneak peek this Sunday during Siclovia. The space at 622 Roosevelt is leased by Ricardo Briones, Jesse Campos, Vanessa Martinez and Billy Mendoza, who are hoping El Luchador will keep that cantina vibe while making it accessible for others around the area. “It’s not gentrifi cation, it’s gentefi cation,” Briones told the Current over the phone last week. “We wanted to do it before someone else from Austin or California did it in that space.” Formerly Vaqueros and Andariegos, El Luchador includes a bar, dance floor and lounge area along with a patio and plenty of parking. The name comes from parking lot wrestling matches the bar used to host on weekends. The foursome is hoping to add “weird, cool” craft beers, 32-ounce caguamas pa’ los tios, mezcal and tequila along with Mexican beers on tap. Interiors are still being worked on by the owners who all grew up and live around the area and designer Kat Zuniga, but expect a few aesthetic changes (“shelves to leave your beer on when you’re going to cumbia” said Briones, purse hooks, USB ports). Sunday’s event, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., will allow visitors to check out the spot and visit with Snake Hawk Press. 622 Roosevelt Ave.

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FOOD

BOILED OVER

•

Lowcountry's boiled peanuts

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

Southern-style peanuts are making their way into SA snack culture

≥

A familiar smell wafted from an unknown source when we made it to Lowcountry’s opening night on November 25 of last year. Was my mom hiding in the back? Was I having a stroke? No, the scent of pinto beans was coming from a large Crock-Pot on the counter, safely tucked away by two porcelain cat figurines. But instead of pinto beans, the scent was coming by way of boiled peanuts. We ordered cheese straws instead, picked up our cocktails and made our way to the patio. It wasn’t until co-owner Drew Morros insisted we try the peanuts that we reached into the bag of warm and, well, moist shell-on legumes. Much like crawfish, there’s a way to go about eating said snack: crack ‘em, suck out the salty brine, and then split them open to reveal however many glistening peanuts. Eat and repeat until the bag is done. Morros, originally from South Carolina, met best friend and co-owner Roberta Marques while living in Pensacola, Florida, but she remembers watching her dad making boiled peanuts at home. “My dad couldn’t see raw, in the shell peanuts and not buy them … he would do them when I was a kid and I remember it being an all-day thing,” Morros said. She and Marques boil up to 25 pounds of raw or green peanuts sourced from Tim’s Oriental & Seafood Market in a 10-gallon pot inside their kitchen at Crossroads. This is after the peanuts soak for a day to help spread up the 8 to 12-hour process. They’ll taste for salt and add water while the peanuts are boiling at hourly intervals. The menu at Lowcountry is reflective of her time growing up in the South. There are pickled eggs, cheese straws, pimento cheese with green bean pickles, and, of course,

boiled peanuts. Though most South Texans aren’t familiar with the product, they can usually be found in roadside stands, gaming events, and flea markets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, northern Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. The snacks has roots all the way back to the 1860s, but how they came into vogue is still a bit murky. She and Marques will often guide bar-goers on how to eat boiled peanuts, but introducing the peanuts comes with a few hiccups. Though sales have picked up since the “boiled peanuts” banner was hung out front, people will still flat out ask what they are. “It’s one of those questions that’s really hard to answer without sounding condescending,” Morros laughed. “It’s in the name …” Adding a new morsel to snack-happy San Antonio is something Michael McAndrews of Lil’ Red’s Boiled Peanuts also has to navigate. The former oil and gas fluid specialist first came to the area in 2011 from Pensacola, Florida — like Morros and Marques — to work in the thenbooming oil fields. He lost his job in March 2015 after oil prices dropped. A stir-crazy McAndrews drew on his background and his newfound stay-at-home situation to create his boiled peanut operation. “It was something we took for granted back home and can’t find fresh around here,” McAndrews said. After launching Lil’ Red’s in early 2016, affable McAndrews, wife Lacy and eldest son Archie — who all happen to be redheads, by the way — took to local markets to test their product with a handy mini-warmer in tow. There, they meet two types of customers: transplants that find the snack nostalgic, and those who have no idea what they are, but want to try the boiled peanuts.

“Once they get past the idea of a wet peanut, they try it and are pleasantly surprised,” McAndrews said. Presentation is also important. At Lowcountry, the salty peanuts are served in a casual brown sack and paired with a spare bag for empty shells. McAndrews opts for red and white paper boats filled with either the regular salted peanuts or a spicy Cajun blend if you want to stroll the market (they’re regulars at the Truckin’ Tomato’s MidWeek Market on Wednesdays and newcomers to Castle Hills Farm to Market on Sundays). If people want to enjoy the creamy snacks at home, McAndrews offers vacuum-sealed brine-filled packs for $5. These can be reheated in boiling water for 5 minutes to continue the snackin’. But McAndrews has found another way to turn people onto this Southern favorite — a “dip and spread.” The dips are available in three flavors: lemon dill, cilantro jalapeño and smoked bell pepper. A 4-ounce container runs $5, and the dip has a similar consistency to hummus. Though not here to tell you how to snack, the spread goes well with pita chips, cucumber slices, carrots, and in sandwiches or wraps. A 2-tablespoon serving comes in at 90 calories, 7 grams of fat, 190 grams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein. McAndrews makes small batches of the stuff weekly inside a 180-square-foot space inside the Local Sprout Food Hub off Chestnut. And although the dips are picking up in sales, pureeing the peanuts isn’t something McAndrew’s ever witnessed back home. “My family will ask, ‘why would you do that to a boiled peanut?’ But people come back to purchase the dip alone — it’s a good little snack,” he said. sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 43

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

NIGHTLIFE

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

TEXAN SPIRITS COURTESY OF REAL ALE DISTILLING CO.

Beer isn’t the only thing coming out of the mash at Real Ale these days

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

≥

As Real Ale prepares for its 21st anniversary of brewing quality craft beer in the Hill Country, owner Brad Farbstein is making a passion project come true. The whiskey and gin fan will launch Real Spirits Distilling Co. this April with a party, distillery tours and specialty cocktails. Though years in the making, Real Spirits truly gained speed after Farbstein hired distiller Davin Topel in March of 2016. The distiller is a Jack-of-all-Trades by any definition. Before relocating to Texas after the birth of his first child, Topel had already piled up a list of jobs that included snowmaking, bartending, ski patrol, firefighting and, yes, distilling. He worked at Utah’s High West Distillery, grew more interested about the process of distilling spirits. When Topel’s resume landed on Farbstein’s desk, the former’s outdoor skills piqued the latter’s interest. After interviewing several applicants, it was Topel’s relatively newness to the field and his survival skills that helped him land the gig. “Topel is an outdoors man … he’s someone who can sustain himself in the wild, which I think is a good attribute for someone independently,” Farbstein said. Topel is tasked with developing Real Ale’s spirit and barrel program and the results will be available to consume starting April 8. The process is familiar to those who’ve stopped by the everexpanding brewery. Topel takes Devil’s Backbone, a Belgian-style tripel, and Real Heavy, a Scotch ale, and distills them into a Signature whiskey and a single-barrel whiskey. The Real Ale Belgian wit is used for the gin. Hops are left out of the brewing process to accommodate for the spirit mash. And it makes the spirits hard to replicate, especially as they go in a program that uses spirit barrels to age beers. “Using the beers as the base is truly unique and cannot be mimicked by other people,” Farbstein said. The gin, made using Real Ale’s

Belgian wit, doesn’t make the most sense from a financial standpoint as the wash starts with a low alcohol content and is distilled twice to beef up said proof. The third distillation is when the botanicals — all 10 of them — come in to play inside the Spanish HOGA handhammered still that holds 265 gallons. Much like newcomer Seersucker gin, Texas is front and center for this bouquet that really only calls for a splash of Topo. Expect notes of Rio Grand Valley grapefruit and Blanco lavender, along with orange peel, lemon peel, juniper, yaro root, Australian bottlebrush, grains of paradise, angelica root and lime. The gin is then aged for 60 to 80 days, a process borrowed from the Cognac industry. All spirits will be available in 750 milliliter bottles. The catch? Whiskey and gin fans can only buy two a month per person at the Blanco-based brewery, per TABC rules. “This isn’t going to be a highproduction, high-volume distillery,” Farbstein said while noting the spirit industry’s few large players that make entering the field ultra-competitive. “We want to focus on the artisanal side of this. There are no plans to distribute.” For the April 8 launch, the Signature whiskey and gin will be available for $50, and 125 bottles of the single barrel whiskey (barrel No. 11, which stood out among the rest, if you must know) will be available for $65. A traditional Manhattan will be offered along with a Whiskey Smash using house-made hibiscus mint simple syrup. Garnishes will be sourced from Pure Luck Cheeses who grown their own herbs in Dripping Springs. Topel’s gin-based tipple, the Blanco Breeze, will feature gin, cucumber, lemon, Topo Chico and a sprig of Blanco lavender. The experimentation won’t stop at whiskey and gin. Plans are in place for a pear brandy (watch out Kinsman Rakia) later this year, as well as some barreling experiments. “I would say there is no limit for the program,” Farbstein said.

Real Spirits Launch Party

11 a.m.-4 p.m. April 8 // Real Ale Brewing Company // 231 San Saba Ct., Blanco

sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 45

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MARCH 31 TO APRIL 7

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MUSIC

CHRIS CONDE

POLYPHIA

YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT // LIT BYPOLYPHIA

MUSIC PICKS

FRI

RYAN HUMPHRIES

TRUE INDIGO ALBUM RELEASE 48

Back from playing a few shows at this year’s South By Southwest festival, San Antonio’s psychedelic rock group True Indigo are releasing their first full length album I Saw Purple. We know what you might be thinking: another pscyhe rock group in San Antonio? Well, not exactly. True Indigo’s members have been active in the San Antonio rock scene for years, meaning the band is more a convergence of the bluesy-garage trio Crown and indie-psychers Pscyhosoma. On the opening track “Golden Sands,” the band pulls listeners through a kaleidoscope of juicy reverberating guitars and hard hitting drums for a shimmering 9 minutes of ‘60s-inspired psychedelia. This ain’t your average local band by far, and if I Saw Purple is any indication of what’s to come, we’re certainly excited to watch this band grow. With Flower Jesus, Saigon Sinners, 9pm, $6, K23 Gallery, 704 Fredericksburg Rd. FRI

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

HUNTER HAYES

COURTESY OF HUNTER HAYES

It’s not everyday a 7-year-old receives an invitation from the White House to play music for the President. But that’s just what happened to country singer-songwriter Hunter Hayes in 1999 when former President Bill Clinton invited the young performer to play at a White House lawn party. A few TV appearances later, including Maury and The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Hayes moved to Nashville to write songs for other country artists and begin working on his selftitled debut album which he co-produced, co-wrote and on which played every instrument. Though his sound is definitely poppy, an attentive listener can hear the raw talent and musicianship of Hayes as he somehow manages to take straightforward country-pop songs and add just the right amount of flair to keep a noncountry fan interested. From charming audiences as a child accordionist to growing into a seriously talented singer-songwriter, Hayes is a proven example that doing what you loved when you were young is sometimes actually the best career choice. 8pm, $35-$49.50, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St.

Polyphia sounds like the song playing in the background during the flying level in every video game ever. Distorted, poppy, jazzy, metal guitar riffs accompany technical drumming to produce a sound that is half hilarious, half awe-inspiring and 100 percent goofy. Still considered part of the “djent” movement, even though the band isn’t quite as heavy as groups like Periphery or Born Of Osiris, Polyphia explore the outlier realms of jazz and metal for a unique brand of technical prog-rock that’s been fascinating listeners since 2010. Consisting of three 23 year olds, on tour with a new single entitled “LIT,” this young Dallas trio are proving that progrock isn’t necessarily for dads in Rush T-shirts anymore. On tour with Jason Richardson from Chelsea Grin, who also happened to shred a ridiculously technical guitar solo on the track “Aviator,” Periphery is definitely a band worth watching in the years to come. With Jason Richardson, Covet, 6pm, $13 Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St. THU

CHICAGO If “25 Or 6 To 4” doesn’t get you shakin’ your tail feather, rock and roll just might not be for you — or at least the Chicago brand of rock. In a 2009 interview, founding Chicago member David Lamm said, “Some of the guys in Earth, Wind & Fire said to me, ‘I know you were doing acid when you wrote that song!” (He also denied that acid had anything to do with it.) A song about writing a song, “25 Or 6 To 4” showed up on the eponymously named album Chicago, (sometimes referred to as Chicago II ) after the band was forced to shorten their name from Chicago Transit Authority to simply Chicago. Starting out as the opening act for rock and roll legends Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Chicago rose to fame through the 1970s with their blend of jazz fusion and rock that would eventually earn them a position in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With nearly a half century of shows under their belt, Chicago remains one of the longest-running rock and roll acts in the history of the genre. With JD & The Straight Shot, 8pm, $48-$88, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St. FRI

MAVERICK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017

BASTILLE YOUNG THE GIANT THE NAKED & FAMOUS DE LA SOUL MINUS THE BEAR CARLA MORRISON BOOK OF LOVE GENERATIONALS SMALL BLACK HONEYHONEY SWIMMING WITH BEARS

FISHERMEN • JJ LOPEZ • DUB GIDEON • CALLIOPE MUSICALS • LEVEES • BLACK MARKET CLUB • WAYNE HOLTZ JENNY + THE MEXICATS • BOMBASTA • RANCH HOUSE • LA CHICHADA • JONATHAN TERRELL • BEAUTY SCHOOL MASSACRE VERISIMILITUDE • VIOLENT PRACTICE • DJ LANDO • ELY BAT • SERGE & DESTROY • DJ BC • CHARLIE CASTLEMAN • DJ MIGHTY IRIS DJ JUST ANGEL • BUSTIN LOOSE • DJ CATWALK • DJ ROGER • THRASHERS • VJ VISION

sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 49

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

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MUSIC

After suffering a hit that required Bottom Bracket Social Club to close its doors for a few months, the beloved hip haven is back with a gnarly bill that you definitely want to check out — especially if you’re curious about venturing into the underbelly of dark, noisy local music. Opening the night is the chunky synth composer duo Massiver, who, with a blend of atmospheric drone and crushing keyboards, create walls of beautiful distorted sound. Also on the bill is throwback industrial artist Mutant, who use VHS tape sounds and vintage electronics to score soundtracks fit for the dystopian future (think Nine Inch Nails circa 1989). And finally, closing out the night, is Filthy, a seriously good blast from the icy cold past of 80s dark wave and post punk, with punching electronic drums and gloomy guitar. Meaning it’s gonna get like The Lost Boys soundtrack up in there. Pro tip: Wear black. 10pm, Free, Bottom Bracket Social Club, 1603 N. Colorado St.

COURTESY OF AVETT BROTHERS

THE AVETT BROTHERS

MUTANT, MASSIVER, FILTHY FRI

COURTESY OF 21 SAVAGE

The 2000s saw an emerging folk revival with artist like Sufjan Stevens, Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. On the more bluegrass-y, Americana end of the spectrum were bands like Old Crow Medicine Show and The Avett Brothers, who formed when brothers Scott and Seth Avett’s SAT

respective bands converged in the late 1990s. From a little town called Mount Pleasant in North Carolina (population 1,652), The Avett Brothers strung together a sound that’s equal parts contemporary folk and vintage Appalachian bluegrass. It’s jangly as hell, and, at times, pretty punk rock as rapid fire

banjo strumming blends with three-part harmonies, fiddle, cello, acoustic guitar and drums. All to create music that’s as exciting as...well, any punk rock show. With St. Paul and The Broken Bones, 8pm, $45.27-$1,019.86, Whitewater Amphitheater, 11860 FM 306, New Braunfels.

Processing his life through stumbling trap beats and visually brutal lyrics that might shock listeners not exactly ready for, say, a story about shooting up some dude's mom's house, 21 Savages' persona isn't exactly an act. In an interview with Hip Hops Revival, 21 Savage, born Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, revealed he was expelled from middle school after the young rapper brought a handgun to class. Born and raised in Atlanta, Abraham-Joseph's vibe is reminiscent of the rise of the mid-90s gangsta rap era that many rappers in the sub-genre of Trap are falling into these days. Spitting lyrically violent verses with the calmness of ordering a cheeseburger at a drivethru, Abraham-Joseph plays an important role in music as his autobiographical lyrics document the gritty underside and challenges of growing up an underprivileged American youth. With Young M.A., Young Nudy, Tee Grizzley, 8pm, $29, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St. SAT

21 SAVAGE SAT

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS

Were you a high schooler in the ‘80s with rich parents and a social life full of hella dramatic mischief that would always resolve itself in a clean 96 minutes? Probably not — but whatever scenario the characters in all those John Hughes movies found themselves in, the soundtrack that scored said drama was usually pretty amazing. So go figure Hughes would name one of his signature films, Pretty In Pink , after one of the main shapers of that definitive ‘80s post-punk sound: The Psychedelic Furs. While they formed alongside new-wave counterparts like Echo and The Bunnymen and Modern English, the Furs still carved out their a distinct sound, incorporating hints of moody Cure- and Smiths-like indie pop and rock. Today, they remain a stellar example of that special, eclectic fusion embodied in so much of the ‘80s aesthetic. With Robyn Hitchcock, 7pm, $27, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St.

sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 51

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

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MUSIC

MUSIC CALENDAR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29 Bru’s Tunes Live acoustic music by Bru’s Tunes. Free. La Hacienda De Los Barrios, 6-9pm The Georges Rockabilly artist The Georges perform at Gruene Hall. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-10pm Joe Pug Austin singer/songwriter Joe Pug is joined by Taylor Pfieffer. $15-$60. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8pm Michale Graves Singer songwriter Michale Graves performs an acoustic set as part of his Backroads tour. $8-$10. The Rock Box, 8pm Odometer, Mushroom Honey, Target 7 Heavy metal bands Odometer, Mushroom Honey and Target 7 play at Fitzgerald’s for their Wednesday Originals series. Free-$5. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music, 9pm THURSDAY, MARCH 30 210 Blues Band R&B sounds every Thursday & Sunday night. Free. SoHo Wine & Martini Bar, 10pm Dirty River Boys The Dirty River Boys have opened for Willie Nelson and sold out several venues. They now are playing at Sam’s, joined by southern roots/rock band The New Offenders. $15-$60. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8:30pm Dread Mar I Reggae artists Dread Mar I, Free ‘Dem Sesh, and Arma Musical play at Jack’s. $25-$30. Jack’s Bar, 8-11pm High Plains Jamboree Country/bluegrass artist. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-10pm Jacqueline Sotelo Vocal jazz. $5. Luna, 9:30pm A Night on Broadway Anthony T Stewart presents a night of Broadway music. $32-$37. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7pm Polyphia Dallas-based Polyphia blends echnical, weaving instrumentations with hip-hop, jazz and R&B influenced grooves. Joined by Jason Richardson and Covet. $13. Paper Tiger, 6pm FRIDAY, MARCH 31 Almost Patsy Cline Band Covers of classic country music. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 8-11pm Cloak and Dagger Local post punk/goth rock bands PHANTOM, Spell 27, and The

Cretin Bop. Free. The Mix, 10pm Dr. G and the Mudcats Dr. G & the Mudcats play “roots country blues.” Free. The Phoenix Saloon, 9pm Hunter Hayes Grammy nominee country music singer/songwriter Hunter Hayes performs at the Aztec. $35-$102. Aztec Theatre, 8pm Ila Minori, Shane Cooley & The Midnight Girls, Claudine Meinhardt A night of performances featuring Claudine Meinhardt, Shane Cooley and The Midnight Girls, headlined by Ila Minori. $7-$5. Limelight, 9pm Las Cruces Local doom bands Las Cruces, Wulfholt, Black Thorn Halo, and Final Exit. $5-$8. Bond’s 007 Rock Bar, 8pm Max Stalling Americana artist Max Stalling performs with Jared Deck. $12-$15. John T Floore’s Country Store, 9pm Mothership Mothership is a Led Zeppelin tribute band made up of San Antonio musicians. $12-$90. Sam’s Burger Joint, 9pm A Night on Broadway Anthony T Stewart presents a night of Broadway music. $32$37. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, March 30-31, 7pm The Other LA Louisiana alt-rock band The Other LA plays at Fitzgeralds with Wall of Soul, Deathdodger, and Vagenda. $7-$12. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music, 7pm Skajects Ska and Indie rock by Skajects, The Inverters, and River City All Stars. Free. The Amp Room, 9pm SouthXSellOut Local psych band The Awols are joined by Scumacide, Dickie Briganza, The Zukinis, and Bloodskid. $5. Ventura, 9pm The Unfinished Symphony and Mahler No. 4 The San Antonio Symphony featuring soprano Mane Galoyan present Schubert and Mahler, masters of the symphony and the song. $15-$96. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 8pm

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Zane Willams Country artist Zane Williams performs at Gruene in support of his fifth studio album, joined by Hunter Hutchinson. $12. Gruene Hall, 8pm SATURDAY, APRIL 1 21 Savage - Issa Tour East Atlanta’s rapper tours in support of his latest release, “Savage Mode,” joined by Young M.A., Young Nudy, Tee Grizzley. $32.50-$130. Aztec Theatre, 8pm Annika Chambers Band Soul and blues artist Annika Chambers plays with her band. $10. Luna, 9:30pm

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

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MUSIC

Avett Brothers Folk rock act The Avett Brothers perform in support of their most recent release, True Sadness. They are joined by St. Paul and The Broken Bones. $45.27-$1,019.86. Whitewater Amphitheater, 7pm Darius Jackson & the Mighty Texas Blues Band Texas blues act Darius Jackson & the Mighty Texas Blues Band are joined by Jonathan Matthews Band. Free. The Phoenix Saloon, 1pm Heavy Metal April Fools Ball Heavy metal bands Silvertonguedevil, Fore of Rage, Odometer, and Wid perform at the Heavy Metal April Fools Ball. $5. Zombies, 9:30pm Joe King Carrasco Tex-Mex rock musician Joe King Carrasco is joined by The Bluebonnets, who play garage/blues rock. $15-$60. Sam’s Burger Joint, 9pm Mark Jungers Band Texas folk act Mark Jungers Band performs at Gruene. Free. Gruene Hall, 1-5pm Memories of Broadway The Memory Ensemble takes you on a stroll down Broadway’s memory lane with songs and stories from New York’s greatest shows. $30-$35. Cave Without A Name, 7-9pm Quiet Company Austin rock band joined by We Leave at Midnight and Sioux & Fox. $10. Paper Tiger, 8pm Ray Wylie Hubbard and Kelley Mickwee Country/rock and folk at Luckenbach. $20. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 8pm Sick City Daggers Punk and indie rock band, joined by MDI. Free. The Amp Room, 9pm Stoney LaRue Red dirt/Americana artist Stoney LaRue plays in support of his latest release, Aviator. Aaron Einhouse opens. $25. Gruene Hall, 9pm The Unfinished Symphony and Mahler No. 4 The San Antonio Symphony featuring soprano Mane Galoyan present Schubert and Mahler, masters of the symphony and the song. $15-$96. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 6-8pm SUNDAY, APRIL 2 210 Blues Band R&B sounds every Thursday and Sunday night. Free. SoHo Wine & Martini Bar, 10pm Cursus w/ Curse and Cortege Local psychdoom act Cursus performs with Cortege (Austin), and Curse (Baltimore). Free. The Mix, 10pm EDM Sunday With Tranzcend, Shaggy, Zu, and more. Free-$5. Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music, 8pm EDM Sundays With electronic live events.

Free. The Amp Room, 8pm Hot Club of Cowtown Country/swing act. Free. Gruene Hall, 12:30-4:30pm

CULTURE

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“The Last Waltz 40 Tour” Created by Keith Wortman and led by GRAMMY® Award-winning guitar legend and vocalist Warren Haynes, and GRAMMY® Award-winning producer/musician Don Was. $74.50- $200. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7pm Mike Posner Multi-platinum pop singer and songwriter Mike Posner performs at Paper Tiger. He is joined by Adam Friedman. $25. Paper Tiger, 7pm Ryan Culwell West Texas Americana artist Ryan Culwell performs at Sam’s Burger Joint. $5-$35. Sam’s Burger Joint, 7pm

March 31 - Max Stalling

UNITED WE BRUNCH

SATURDAY, JUNE 10 | NOON - 3 PM

JACK GUENTHER PAVILION AT BRISCOE WESTERN ART MUSEUM

Songwriters in the Round Studio Sessions concert with Roger Blevins, Tom Meny and Moorea Masa. $20. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7pm

April 7 - The Reed Brothers

South Austin Moonlighters Folk/rock act. Free. Gruene Hall, 5-9pm Sunday Evening Picker Circle w/ Bill Lewis Open, acoustic session with Bill Lewis. Free. Luckenbach Dance Hall, 5pm Taylor Caniff 18-year old social-media star turned rapper performs at Korova. $20. The Korova, 2pm

WOODLAWN FABULOUS CASINO NIGHT

THURSDAY, APRIL 13 | 6 PM - MIDNIGHT

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April 14 & 15 - Robert Earl Keen & Randy Rogers Band

MONDAY, APRIL 3 Marshall Hall and Friends American roots act Marshal Hood & Friends perform at Gruene. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-10pm Meat and Metal Mondays Zombies Bar hosts a metal night while serving meat and drink specials. Free. Zombies, 5pm A Night of Classical Music Evening of classical music ranging from baroque cantatas featuring a chamber ensemble to 20th century art songs. Free. The UTSA Department of Music, 7:30-8:30pm

BEST OF SAN ANTONIO 2017 PARTY THURSDAY, APRIL 20 | 7 - 10 PM

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May 12 - Aaron Lewis

Swing Nite w/ Hot Texas Swing Band Western Swing. $9-$10. Sam’s Burger Joint, 8:30pm TUESDAY, APRIL 4 Chris Tomlin Presents Worship Night in America Christian singer Chris Tomlin performs with other Christian artists Big Daddy Weave, Phil Wickham and more. $15-$69.75. Freeman Coliseum, 7pm Jazz on the Rocks Live jazz, happy hour and complimentary small bites. Free. St. Anthony Hotel, 5-7pm Michael O’Connor & Susan Gibson Singer/ songwriter act Michael O’Connor & Susan Gibson perform. Free. Gruene Hall, 6-10pm

TX SALSA FEST SATURDAY, MAY 27

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CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

ETC.

POSITIVE THINKING > Gay guy here. Met a guy online. He came over. We had incredible sex and then a great conversation lasting several hours. But — and you knew there was one coming — he told me that he lied about his HIV status. (I asked him before meeting him, like I do with anyone.) He is undetectable, but he told me initially he was “HIV/ STD negative.” I got very upset — more from the lie than his status. (I know that undetectable is practically the same as negative.) I really like him, but that was a big lie. He told me all about his life and any other secrets after that. Should I swear off him for lying about such a big topic? Or is the fact he did tell me and our connection enough to give him a second chance? I had not been that happy up till the reveal in, well, maybe ever. But I want to be wise. Did Ask, Didn’t Tell Why would he lie? To avoid rejection. Obviously. Guys often refuse to hook up with guys who are honest about being HIV-positive even though a positive guy with an undetectable viral load is less of a risk — at least where HIV transmission is concerned — than a guy who believes himself to be negative because he was the last time he got tested or because he doesn’t think he could ever get infected and so has never been tested. Someone who was recently infected is highly infectious; someone who doesn’t think he could ever get infected — because he doesn’t sleep with older guys, because he only tops, because his ass is magic and he uses unicorn spit for lube — is a fucking idiot, and fucking idiots are higher risk for fucking everything. Sometimes positive guys get sick of being punished for being honest, and so they lie — and it’s particularly tempting to lie to someone you don’t expect to see again, i.e., a quick hookup. HIV-positive people shouldn’t lie to their sex partners. Obviously. People should be honest, informed consent is consent, and lying about your HIV status can be risky for people with HIV. Thanks to stupid laws passed by ill-informed idiots, failing to inform a sex partner you’re HIV-positive is a crime in many areas. There are people in prison today—mostly men, mostly black

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— for failing to disclose. These disclosure laws incentivize not knowing your status — you can’t be punished for not disclosing what you don’t know—putting everyone at higher risk. Why would he tell the truth? It’s possible he lied to you about his status — a lie he regarded as harmless thanks to his undetectable viral load — because he assumed this would be a hookup and nothing more. He wasn’t going to infect you and he wasn’t going to see you again. But after you two hit it off, DADT, he decided to tell you the truth right away instead of waiting weeks or months. The connection you describe is hard to find — this could be the start of something great — but the lie he told was big, yes, but understandable. I think he deserves credit for coming clean right away — and a second chance.

> I’m a teenage girl and I’m really horny. I always think about sex, and I’d like to masturbate sometimes. I can’t live in this way, sometimes I feel physically and psychologically bad because of this terrible need to have sex or stuff. I’m single, and I don’t want to lose my virginity with a random guy. I really need some advice from you! How can I masturbate or quit this exaggerated libido? Don’t Reveal My Name Your libido is your libido, DRMN. It isn’t exaggerated, it simply is. Some people have high libidos, some people have low libidos, some people have no libidos, and an individual’s libido can wax and wane and wax again over the years. You’re at the stage of life when people tend to be at their horniest and consequently think about sex a lot. Women and girls, too. (Don’t let anyone tell you that women aren’t as horny as men.) If you fi nd yourself distracted by sexual thoughts, DRMN, masturbating can help — most people fi nd they can concentrate on other things for at least an hour once they’ve rubbed one or two or three out. As for how you masturbate … Masturbate on your own or with a partner, in private, and whenever you feel the desire or need to. Enjoy!

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RECRUITING PATIENTS NOW • Are you between the ages of 40 and 55 years old? • Can you see distant objects well but need glasses or contacts to see nearby objects? If you answered yes to the questions above and would be interested in finding out more information about participating in this clinical study, please contact:

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Check out fresh daily content at sacurrent.com 60

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com

“Ego Trips”— state your name. ACROSS

1 2009 film set in 2154 7 Backs of boats 11 A.D.A. member’s degree 14 Everybody Loves Raymond star 15 Grade 16 Down Under hopper 17 “Mean ___” (recurring Jimmy Kimmel segment) 18 Frozen kids? 20 ID for a taxpayer 21 Aptly named card game 23 Witty criticism 24 “Entourage” actress Mazar 25 Like some weekend “sales events” 27 Leader of a Russian Doors tribute band? 32 “Look!” to Dora the Explorer 33 It’s a question of time 34 Plucks unwanted plants 38 Took those plums from the icebox (that you were probably saving for breakfast) 39 Lindsay of Mean Girls 41 Bank acct. transaction 42 Go down without power 45 Actor Spall of Life of Pi 46 One’s in a lifetime? 47 Mineral-fortified red wine? 50 Head shop patron, presumably 53 Fargo’s st. 54 Cyrano’s protrusion 55 Like Dick Clark’s New

Year’s Eve specials 58 “Foucault’s Pendulum” author 61 CEO painter? 63 Often-spiked drink 65 Frozen food bag bit 66 Met highlight 67 Christian who plays the titular Mr. Robot 68 Blow it 69 Atmospheric 1990s CDROM puzzle game 70 Chappelle’s Show character who’s always scratching

DOWN

1 Cultural interests 2 They’re often exchanged for rituals 3 “Absolutely!” 4 ___ Bo (workout system that turns 25 in 2017) 5 Spain’s has no official lyrics 6 Big game on January 1 7 The Kite Runner protagonist 8 The 100 percent truth (accept no imitations!) 9 Clandestine meetings 10 If it’s blue, it doesn’t mean you’re pregnant 11 Priest of Stonehenge days 12 Disco diva Summer 13 How some people like their cereal 19 O3

22 Loud sound effect for rappers and morning radio shows 24 “It’s in my ___” 26 “Where do I even begin ...” 27 Computer since 1998 28 Corleone patriarch in “The Godfather” 29 8, for a two-by-four? 30 It’s supposed to be a sobering experience 31 Low 35 Hagman’s I Dream of Jeannie costar 36 Beyond reinflation 37 Full of life 40 Most likely to squee over a Pi Day pie 43 Bone-to-muscle connection 44 Cool with Green Day 46 Sound of a belly laugh 48 Planetarium model 49 Clumsily tall 50 Long-billed marsh bird 51 Cartridge stuff 52 His first line was “Don’t bang on my can!” 56 Milo’s canine pal 57 Socialize in cyberspace 58 Prefi x with parasite 59 Either Barton Fink director 60 Grimm guy 62 Sweet potato lookalike 64 Long-jawed freshwater fi sh

ETC.

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): The dragon that stole your treasure will return it. Tulips and snapdragons will blossom in a field you thought was a wasteland. Gargoyles from the abyss will crawl into view, but then meekly lick your hand and reveal secrets you can really use. The dour troll that guards the bridge to the Next Big Thing will let you pass even though you don’t have the password. APRIL FOOL! Everything I just described is only metaphorically true, not literally. TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): According to legend, Buddha had to face daunting tests to achieve enlightenment. A diabolical adversary tempted him with sensual excesses and assailed him with vortexes of blistering mud, flaming ice, and howling rocks. Happily, Buddha glided into a state of wise calm and triumphed over the mayhem. He converted his nemesis’s vortexes into bouquets of flowers and celestial ointments. What does this have to do with you? In accordance with current astrological omens, I hope you will emulate Buddha as you deal with your own initiatory tests. APRIL FOOL! I wasn’t completely honest. It’s true you’ll face initiatory tests that could prod you to a higher level of wisdom. But they’ll most likely come from allies and inner prompts rather than a diabolical adversary. GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Since I expect you’ll soon be tempted to indulge in too much debauched fun and riotous release, I’ll offer you a good hangover remedy. Throw these ingredients into a blender, then drink up: a thousand-year-old quail egg from China, seaweed from Antarctica, milk from an Iraqi donkey, lemon juice imported from Kazakhstan, and a dab of Argentinian toothpaste on which the moon has shone for an hour. APRIL FOOL! I deceived you. You won’t have to get crazy drunk or stoned to enjoy extreme pleasure and cathartic abandon. It will come to you quite naturally — especially if you expand your mind through travel, big ideas, or healthy experiments. CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Hire a promoter to create gold plaques listing your accomplishments and hang them up in public places. Or pay someone to make a thousand bobble-head dolls in your likeness, each wearing a royal crown, and give them away to everyone you know. Or enlist a pilot to fly a small plane over a sporting event while trailing a banner that reads, “[Your name] is a gorgeous genius worthy of worshipful reverence.” APRIL FOOL! What I just advised was a distorted interpretation of the cosmic omens. Here’s the truth: The best way to celebrate your surging power is not by reveling in frivolous displays of pride, but rather by making a bold move that will render a

fantastic dream ten percent more possible for you to accomplish. LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Endangered species: black rhino, Bornean orangutan, hawksbill turtle, South China tiger, Sumatran elephant, and the Leo messiah complex. You may not be able to do much to preserve the first five on that list, but PLEASE get to work on saving the last. It’s time for a massive eruption of your megalomania. APRIL FOOL! I was exaggerating for effect. There’s no need to go overboard in reclaiming your messiah complex. But please do take strong action to stoke your selfrespect, self-esteem, and confidence. VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Race through your yoga routine so you have more time to surf the Internet. Inhale doughnuts and vodka in the car as you race to the health food store. Get into a screaming fight with a loved one about how you desperately need more peace and tenderness. APRIL FOOL! A little bit of self-contradiction would be cute, but not THAT much. And yet I do worry that you are close to expressing THAT much. The problem may be that you haven’t been giving your inner rebel any high-quality mischief to attend to. As a result, it’s bogged down in trivial insurrections. So please give your inner rebel more important work to do. LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): Research shows that a typical working couple devotes an average of four minutes per day in meaningful conversations. I suggest you boost that output by at least ten percent. Try to engage your best companion in four minutes and 24 seconds of intimate talk per day. APRIL FOOL! I lied. A ten-percent increase isn’t nearly enough. Given the current astrological indicators, you must seek out longer and deeper exchanges with the people you love. Can you manage 20 minutes per day?

certain adventure that you know would be exciting and meaningful? Here’s what I have to say about all that: Stop whining. APRIL FOOL! I lied. The truth is, there will soon be far fewer reasons for you to whine. The discrepancies between what you have to do and what you want to do will at least partially dissolve. So will the gaps between what’s good for you and what feels good, and between what pleases others and what pleases you. CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): You should begin work on a book with one of the following titles, and you should finish writing it no later than April 28: “The Totally Intense Four Weeks of My Life When I Came All the Way Home” ... “The Wildly Productive Four Weeks of My Life when I Discovered the Ultimate Secrets of Domestic Bliss” ... “The Crazily Meaningful Four Weeks When I Permanently Anchored Myself in the Nourishing Depths.” APRIL FOOL! I lied. There’s no need to actually write a book like that. But I do hope you seek out and generate experiences that would enable you to write books with those titles. AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): If you were a passenger on a plane full of your favorite celebrities, and the pilot had to make an emergency landing on a remote snowbound mountain, and you had to eat

one of the celebrities in order to stay alive until rescuers found you, which celebrity would you want to eat first? APRIL FOOL! That was a really stupid and pointless question. I can’t believe I asked it. I hope you didn’t waste a nanosecond thinking about what your reply might be. Here’s the truth, Aquarius: You’re in a phase of your astrological cycle when the single most important thing you can do is ask and answer really good questions. PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): You now have an elevated chance of finding a crumpled one-dollar bill on a sidewalk. There’s also an increased likelihood you’ll get a coupon for a five-percent discount from a carpet shampoo company, or win enough money in the lottery to buy a new sweatshirt. To enhance these possibilities, all you have to do is sit on your ass and wish really hard that good economic luck will come your way. APRIL FOOL! What I just said was kind of true, but also useless. Here’s more interesting news: The odds are better than average that you’ll score tips on how to improve your finances. You may also be invited to collaborate on a potentially lucrative project, or receive an offer of practical help for a bread-and-butter dilemma. To encourage these outcomes, all you have to do is develop a long-term plan for improved money management.

THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): In a way, it’s too bad you’re about to lose your mind. The chaos that ensues will be a big chore to clean up. But in another sense, losing your mind may be a lucky development. The process of reassembling it will be entertaining and informative. And as a result, your problems will become more fascinating than usual, and your sins will be especially original. APRIL FOOL! I lied, sort of. You won’t really lose your mind. But this much *is* true: Your problems will be more fascinating than usual, and your sins will be especially original. That’s a good thing! It may even help you recover a rogue part of your mind that you lost a while back. SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): You say that some of the healthiest foods don’t taste good? And that some of your pleasurable diversions seem to bother people you care about? You say it’s too much hassle to arrange for a sacurrent.com • March 29-April 4, 2017 • CURRENT 61

CURRENT • March 29-April 4, 2017 • sacurrent.com