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sacurrent.com | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | CURRENT
3
in this issue Issue 21-07 /// April 7 – April 20, 2021
with virtual performance
Music Listings
San Antonio Current Publisher: Michael Wagner Editor-in-Chief: Sanford Nowlin
Editorial
Digital Content Editor: Kelly Merka Nelson Contributing Arts Editor: Bryan Rindfuss Food and Nightlife Writer: Nina Rangel Contributors: Ron Bechtol, Chris Conde, Daniel Conrad, Jade Esteban Estrada, Dan R. Goddard, Lance Higdon, Steven G. Kellman, Hannah Lorence, Kiko Martinez, M. Solis, Gary Sweeney, Lea Thompson, Abe Asher Editorial Interns: Emily DiTomasso, Brianna Espinoza, Katie Hennessey, Cristela Jones, Jay Moreno, Dana Nichols, Emily Schmalstieg, Jada Teague
Advertising
Advertising Director: Michael Wagner
Marketing and Events
Marketing and Events Director: Cassandra Yardeni Events Manager: Chelsea Bourque Sales & Event Coordinator: Sky Hawkes Marketing Interns: Julia Bentley Social Media Content Creator: Meradith Garcia
Creative Services
Graphic Designer: Samantha Serna Production Interns: Pedro Macias, Michelle Moreno
Circulation
Circulation Manager: Justin Giles
Euclid Media Group Courtesy of Jeff VanderMeer
15 Feature
Natural Novelist
Jeff VanderMeer’s weird fiction is grounded in a love of Earth’s ecology
09 News
The Opener News in Brief
Glitter Political
Council Candidate Mario Bravo Wants to Share His Passion for Energy Efficiency with City Hall
Current Events Living the Dream
12 Calendar Calendar Picks
15 Arts
The Sound of Silence
‘Twenty-One Silent Stages’ is a pandemic portrait of San Antonio’s music scene
Hot Wells Hike
From the ruins of a celebrity getaway to trails above a call center,
the path leading to the Mission Reach holds many marvels
21 Screens
The Bigger They Are…
Is it mandatory to enjoy eye-popping movies such as Godzilla vs. Kong in the theater?
22 Food
Green in a Glass
How a San Antonio brewery and winery are embracing sustainability
Hot Dish
25 Music
Running on Riffs
Thunder Horse celebrates powerful second album with outdoor live show
a softer focus
Percussionist Claire Rousay celebrates release of new album
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3/5/21 9:22 AM
ASSCLOWN ALERT
The Texas Senate has given its initial backing to a slew of legislation designed to curb abortion access, including a so-called “heartbeat bill” that could ban abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Other proposed bills would ban pill-induced abortions after seven weeks and halt nearly all abortions, should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.
Dressing the Part with Greg and Ted
H
Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
YOU SAID IT!
When play acting, it’s even more exciting when dressing the part. Just ask any kid who dons fatigues when he shoots his cap gun or puts on her sparkly dress when having tea with her dollies. Or ask Texas Gov. Greg Abbott or U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz when they’ve made their recent treks to the border. You know, the ones they took to look like they’re actually doing something about the flood of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the U.S. Both politicos donned spiffy military-looking outfits to look stern and official. And, perhaps more importantly, so they could play to the portion of the Trump base that thinks the U.S. is under attack from brown people crossing the Rio Grande. Abbott did it first, showing up near the town of Mission in a spiffy kaki shirt with a star-shaped logo and military-style epaulets to announce the launch of Operation Lone Star, which would send more Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard personnel to the border. “[President Joe Biden] does not care about Americans. He cares more about people who are not from this country,” Abbott declared against an imposing backdrop of DPS vehicles. Not to be outdone, Cruz made his own visit — and no, we’re not talking about him crossing the border to sip margs in Cancun while his constituents froze their assess off. No, Cruz’s recent jaunt included a photo op of him riding in a Border Patrol boat and a press conference where he told us how bravely he stood up to
“Texas has long been a multiracial state; it has not been a multiracial democracy.”
The Texas Senate last week gave initial approval to a bill that would prevent large social media companies from banning Texans based on their political speech or location within the state. The bill would also require social media firms to disclose their moderation policies and install an appeals process for content they take down. If passed into law, experts expect court challenges.
H H
Four months into the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, city council last week unanimously approved a plan to create a vaccine registry through which people 65 or older can add themselves to a centralized waitlist. The registry is expected to be up and running within four weeks. Video of EDM artist Diplo’s recent San Antonio gig showed people backed shoulder-to-shoulder inside Cowboys Dancehall despite the venue pledging to limit ticket sales and enforce mask rules for the event. Meanwhile, Texas is still reporting thousands of COVID-19 cases each day. Bexar County and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reached an agreement to temporarily house up to 2,400 unaccompanied migrant children at Freeman Coliseum to alleviate crowding at Border Patrol facilities. HHS will work to connect the children with family members or caretakers in the U.S. — Abe Ash
— James Slattery,
Senior Staff Attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project, during his testimony against House Bill 6, a measure that would make the state’s voting laws even more restrictive.
In a move mirroring those of Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country, the Texas Senate passed an anti-democratic bill that would restrict ballot access and give partisan poll watchers increased access to polling sites. SB7 would limit the hours of polling sites and ban municipalities from offering drive-thru voting and other measures designed to increase voter access. Democrats pledged to sue if the bill is signed into law. — Abe Asher
news
That Rocks/That Sucks
Screen Capture / KCBD
the mockery of cartel smugglers. During both, he was attired in a kaki hat with a Texas flag patch and a matching shirt stretched across his paunch. In both cases, the military gear was a cover for their political posturing. Neither has offered real solutions for remedying the humanitarian crisis. Further, their attire plays to false narratives that South Texas is violent and dangerous. In contrast, when Bexar County leaders held their presser to announce Freeman Coliseum would house migrant children while they waited to be placed with relatives, none of those officials felt the need to don kaki, camo or flags to show they were doing their jobs. Nor do the tireless workers at groups such as RAICES and Catholic Charities as they try to better the lives of asylum seekers. That’s because real leaders solve problems, while assclowns play dress-up games. — Sanford Nowlin
UnSplash / Rami Al-zayat
Find more news coverage every day at sacurrent.com
news GLITTER POLICITAL
Council Candidate Mario Bravo Wants to Share His Passion for Energy Efficiency with City Hall BY JADE ESTEBAN ESTRADA
W
hen District 1 council candidate Mario Kelly Bravo greets me through my computer screen for a Zoom call, a colorful art piece on the wall behind him captures my attention. “My parents bought that in Mexico,” he explains. “I have a lot of stuff from Mexico here.” Like his appreciation for art, Bravo’s verve for community organizing also runs in his blood. His maternal great-grandfather organized other East Coast immigrants to stand up to the mafia, who bullied them into paying protection money. “And he got murdered for that,” says Bravo, 45. His maternal grandmother was a World War II soldier who served behind enemy lines, operating a safehouse that helped transport gypsies, Jews and LGBTQ+ people out of the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. “She carried cyanide around her neck in case they were to capture her. That way, she could just commit suicide and they wouldn’t get any information out of her.” Bravo says that family history of community organizing, along with his passion for energy efficiency, put him on the trajectory to challenge District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño in the May 1 municipal election. Indeed, Bravo was raised by parents with similarly aligned principles. “My mom was the neighborhood association president, and she would volunteer us to do stuff all the time,” he recalls. Among other things, his assigned tasks included building the playscape at the neighborhood park and keeping the greenspace mowed. “And my parents raised everybody in the community,” Bravo adds. “All the kids who only had a single parent or had a dysfunctional home called my mom and dad ‘Mom’ and ‘Papa.’” After graduating college, Bravo met a civil rights attorney who mentored him on the political processes needed to improve his community. Armed with those lessons, Bravo managed a campaign for a district judge in Laredo, and over the next two decades, he worked on several political campaigns, including his own. In 2018, Bravo ran for Bexar County commissioner, challenging the late Paul Elizondo for his long-held Precinct 2 seat. The first-time candidate garnered 25% of the vote in the Democratic primary. Though it wasn’t enough to advance to the runoff, he says he did learn how to better communicate with voters. 10
CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
Jade Esteban Estrada
“I have a lot of policy experience, but it’s important to make sure that you really listen to the community and that you’re bringing forward their ideas,” he says. “I love running for office, because I get out and have these meaningful conversations about what people care about and how we can move forward as a community.” Bravo’s activism has also raised local awareness on key issues. For example, a few years ago, he played a part in stopping a proposed increase in campaign contribution limits at City Hall. “I advocated — and I would even say I tried to whip votes — to prevent that from passing,” he says. “Giving more influence to people with deep pockets who can profit off decisions made at City Hall is not the direction we need to go in.” I ask Bravo, a project manager for the Environmental Defense Fund and a climate and air-quality guru, what he wants San Antonians to know about energy efficiency. “[That] Texas is dead last in the nation for energy efficiency,” he replies. “The best thing we can do is stop wasting energy. Weatherizing your house and having more energy-efficient appliances can make a huge difference.” A former board member for the voter-mobilization group MOVE Texas, Bravo also thinks there should be fewer obstacles to voting. “The fact that you have to register 30 days before the election? There’s no reason for that,” he says. “I think we have restrictions in place that are the modern-day version of the poll tax.” Right now, Bravo is focusing his energy on prevailing over the five other candidates in the D1 race. “I’m running because I think we need new leadership at City Hall that works with the community,”
he says. “San Antonio’s stronger when we listen to the community and include them in our decision making.” I ask Bravo what the biggest misconception is that people have about him. “That I’m a radical,” he says after a long pause. “Truly what I am is a reformer — but I’m a practical reformer.” A second fallacy, he adds, is that he’s anti-business. “[I’m] absolutely pro-business [and] pro-workforce development,” he says. “We have a post-pandemic economic recovery that we’re going to go through. Once we’ve stabilized going forward, I want us to incentivize businesses that are going to make us economically competitive in the global economy. I want us to do it in an efficient and an effective way, and I want to make sure that we do it in a way that we bring everybody along.” When it comes to the rolling blackouts that followed February’s winter storm, Bravo says there’s plenty of blame to go around, adding that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) wasn’t prepared and that CPS Energy “didn’t do anything in response to that.” Additionally, Bravo says city council has allowed CPS to self-govern and has not held the utility accountable to the community. That’s why he led the fight to livestream CPS Energy board meetings and open them up to public comment. “My approach has been working with the community, as opposed to when you look at Roberto’s approach, [which] is ‘Try and stop me.’” he says. Bravo says he’s running for the same reason he ran in 2018: “I feel like there’s plenty of reform, plenty of improvements we can make at the local level.”
Sarah Brooke Lyons
CURRENT EVENTS
Living the Dream
San Antonio businesses must stand up against Texas’ toxic voter suppression bills BY SANFORD NOWLIN Editor’s note: Current Events is a column of opinion, insight and analysis.
A
t San Antonio’s annual Martin Luther King Day march, it’s common to see employees from H-E-B, Valero Energy and other locally based companies clustered together wearing T-shirts bearing their company logos, along with quotes from the civil rights leader. In January of last year, USAA even posted a moving video of its workers discussing the importance of keeping King’s dream alive. Given King’s struggle to ensure Black voters had equal access to the ballot box, it’s puzzling to see those same private employers sit on the sidelines as a pair of discriminatory anti-voting measures advance in the Texas House and Senate. Those bills, championed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both Republicans, are part of a wave of GOP-backed legislation in statehouses across the country vying to undo Democrats’ recent gains in mobilizing minority voters. Voting-rights groups have decried the Texas bills as discriminatory, adding that they’re also likely to spur voter intimidation. Among other things, the proposals would limit voting hours, give partisan poll watchers more access to voting sites, and make it illegal for local elections officials to proactively send vote-by-mail applications to residents who qualify for them.
They’re proposals that King, if he were still alive, would condemn and mobilize to halt. After all, Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law seven months after the civil rights leader initiated a campaign to pressure lawmakers to end voter disenfranchisement and intimidation. “Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights,” King said in one of his most famous speeches on voting rights. “Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law. Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will.” The backers of Texas’ voting bills claim they’re not about turning people away from the polls. Instead, they argue, the measures are about “voting integrity” — preventing fraud. That’s because Abbott and Patrick are smart enough to understand that calling the bills what they are is bad publicity. It’s the same tactic the pair used during the 2017 session when they pushed for Patrick’s so-called “bathroom bill,” which would have banned transgender people from using public facilities. They didn’t try to sell that proposal as a discriminatory slap at transgender Texans. Instead, they touted it as a matter of “public safety.” Like the bathroom bill, the voter suppression mea-
sures now before the Lege is a solution in search of a problem — and a bad one at that. There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state. When pushed by the media during a press conference earlier this year, Abbott admitted as much. Certainly, there’s no evidence of widespread fraud on a national scale. The dozens of failed lawsuits the Trump camp filed after the November election are proof of that. In 2017, San Antonio businesses recognized the discriminatory nature of Patrick’s bathroom bill. They also understood the embarrassment, derision and economic damage it would bring the state of Texas. They also had the courage to decry it in loud and uncertain terms. The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Zachry Interests, Beldon Roofing, Broadway Bank and others told the governor and lawmakers to shut it down. Now, the Texas Legislature is poised to pass legislation just as toxic — potentially more so — and bring serious economic damage to the state. Major League Baseball last week announced it’s moving the 2021 All-Star Game and 2021 draft out of Atlanta in response to a similar anti-voting law passed in Georgia. Texas, and San Antonio in particular, has plenty of exposure when it comes not just to sporting events but tourism and convention dollars. One assumes executives at the Alamo City’s big employers are smart enough to realize this. Executives at Dallas-based American Airlines and Austin-based Dell Technologies both grasp the current reality. Last week, those companies issued statements clearly condemning Texas’ bills as a bid to disenfranchise voters. Yet the silence from San Antonio’s business community is deafening. Given the pushback from AA and Dell, the question isn’t so much whether corporate leaders understand these bills’ anti-democratic intent, but whether they have the spine to say so publicly and mobilize to stop them. Otherwise, bussing their employees to the MLK march in spiffy T-shirts bearing King’s words is a hollow, hypocritical gesture. sacurrent.com | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | CURRENT
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Courtesy Image /Heartdrum
Courtesy Image / Ballantine Books
THU | 04.09 SUN | 04.11
Courtesy Image / Farrar,
THU | 04.08 SUN | 04.18
SPECIAL EVEN T
SAN ANTONIO BOOK FESTIVAL
After its sudden cancellation in 2020, San Antonio’s mega-celebration of the written word is back with a stacked deck of nearly 200 authors. This year’s event will take place solely online, with a veritable cornucopia of book discussions and even a live science demonstration, free for all to attend, barring four ticketed events that come with a mailed copy of the guest author’s books. From science fiction heavyweights like Jeff VanderMeer (Annihilation, Hummingbird Salamander) and Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky, Victories Greater Than Death) to best-selling YA authors Nic Stone (Dear Martin, Dear Justyce) and Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief, The Trials of Apollo) — not to mention the late addition of the esteemed Isabel Allende (City of the Beasts, A Long Petal of the Sea) to the already impressive lineup — even the most committed attendees will likely feel some FOMO for sessions they can’t sit in on. (Note: See the Current’s Q&A with VanderMeer elsewhere in the issue.) Panels on new works by bestselling authors abound, including Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds, an American epic set in Texas during the Great Depression ($34, 12:30 p.m. Saturday) and Allende’s The Soul of a Woman, a meditation on what it means to be a woman in the present day ($28, 3:30 p.m. Sunday). Notable YA sessions include musings on tales as old as time from authors Kalynn Bayron (Cinderella Is Dead) and Anna-Marie McLemore (The Mirror Season) in “Not Your Average Princess: Fairytales Totally Retold” (10 a.m. Saturday), and an in-depth look at Trung Le Nguyen’s gorgeously illustrated queer coming-of-age graphic novel The Magic Fish (2:45 p.m. Friday). Those wanting a bit more Texas flair need look no further than a panel on locally published anthology Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico with editor Kathy Sosa and contributors Ellen Riojas Clark and Cynthia E. Orozco (1 p.m. Friday) and a special presentation from Sandra Cisneros in which she highlights four authors who deserve our attention (10 a.m. Saturday). Plus, sports and history align with a look at the power of Texas athletics in “How Texas Changed Sports in America” with The Sports Revolution author Frank Andre Guridy (1 p.m. Friday). Free, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Sunday, sabookfestival.org.— Kelly Merka Nelson 12
CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
Courtesy Photo / Classic Theatre THEATER
ANTIGONE For its second play of the season, the Classic Theatre’s Antigone is returning to the outdoor stage at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. In a socially-distanced performance, audiences are invited to watch Socrates’ classic tragedy, which follows Antigone’s struggle to make the life-threatening choice between her moral values and the laws of man in the aftermath of her brother’s death in battle. The show is directed by Kelly Hilliard Roush, artistic and executive director of the Classic. Initially slated to be the third and final show of the theater’s 13th season, the new season finale will be Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, which was rescheduled from its originally planned dates in February to May due to COVID-19 spikes in San Antonio. Audience members are required to wear masks, and will be seated in pods to ensure social distancing. Cast members and crew will also be masked and physically distanced during the performance. $24-39, 7:30 p.m.
Courtesy Image / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
calendar
mage / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Courtesy Image / Simon & Schuster
Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays through April 25, San Antonio
birthplace in Russia to her childhood in the United States
26,947th point of his NBA career. That allowed him to climb
Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Pl., (210)589-8450 classicthe-
and eventual role as a political leader. She’s best known for
to 11th place on the league’s all-time scoring list, overtaking
atre.org. — Dana Nichols
serving as been prime minister during the 1973 Yom Kippur
Houston Rockets icon Hakeem Olajuwon. Now in his 18th
War. Directed by Susan Hardie and starring Diane Kondrat
NBA season, Anthony has provided a veteran presence in
as Meir, the livestreamed show is running for two weekends.
Portland after forgettable stops in Oklahoma City, Atlanta
$25-35, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m.
and Houston. When the Spurs triumphed over the Blazers
Sundays through April 18, thepublicsa.org. — DN
back in January, veterans proved the difference for San
THU | 04.08 SUN | 04.18
Antonio, with DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay and Patty Mills
WED | 04.14
TH EATER
GOLDA’S BALCONY Broadway’s longest-running one-woman show, Golda’s
WORDS
all scoring at least 20 points in a 125-104 road win. After
a dismal start to their recent nine-game homestand, the Spurs continue their search for stability at the AT&T Center. Glaring home losses to the Charlotte Hornets and Sacra-
by San Antonio’s Public Theater. Golda’s Balcony is a story
ONLINE POETRY READING: NO OCEAN BETWEEN US
of idealism, leadership and strength in the face of political
As it celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, the San
Expect more growing pains as Pop and his charges eye a re-
turmoil. The show tells the story of Golda Meir, the fourth
Antonio Museum of Art is also getting in on National Poetry
turn to the postseason. $35-$402, 7:30 p.m., AT&T Center, One
prime minister of Israel, and her lifelong journey from her
Month. The museum will highlight the literary artform with
AT&T Center, (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com, KENS. — M. Solis
Balcony, is coming to the small screen, brought to audiences
mento Kings have served as timely reminders that this in the youngest Spurs team Gregg Popovich has ever coached.
a reading tied to its current exhibition “No Ocean Between Us: Art of Asian Diasporas in Latin America & The Caribbean, 1945-Present.” Panelists Julia Wong Kcomt, Rajiv Mohabir, J.R. Mahung and Nadia Misir will convene on Zoom and navigate themes of identity, migration and cultural blends
Reminder:
as they pertain to the multifaceted cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean. Pay what you wish, 6 p.m., Zoom, samuseum.org. — KMN
FRI | 04.16 SPORTS
SPURS VS. TRAIL BLAZERS Jeremy Whittington
Earlier this season, Trail Blazer Carmelo Anthony scored the
Facebook / @spurs
Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.
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CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
Jeff VanderMeer’s weird fiction is grounded in a love of Earth’s ecology BY KELLY MERKA NELSON
T
he San Antonio Book Festival’s guest list features a bevy of literary giants, but only one author who’s written a book that literally includes a giant flying bear. From the Southern Reach Trilogy to Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer’s award-winning weird fiction has long captivated readers. After making the jump to the screen with Alex Garland’s film adaptation of Annihilation, he’s now working with AMC on an upcoming television series adapted from 2017’s Borne, and Netflix has optioned his new novel Hummingbird Salamander — which hit shelves on April 6 — as a film. Titled for two mysterious pieces of taxidermy, Hummingbird Salamander sends security consultant “Jane Smith” down a rabbit hole in the Pacific Northwest, as she unravels a mystery associated with a reputed ecoterrorist who also happens to be dead. As part of his Hummingbird Salamander book tour, VanderMeer is making an online appearance at the San Antonio Book Festival on Friday. He’ll be joined by critically acclaimed author Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic), with whom he shares an “absolute fascination with mushrooms and fungus.” If we’re lucky, there may also be a special appearance by his enigmatic tuxedo cat Neo, who’s been known to gallop behind the author during Zoom events. The Current connected with VanderMeer over Zoom to talk technology, ecology and a bit about feline inspiration.
to do a few things for most of the events, when possible, to be in the chat room right before and during introductions. I’m going to have giveaways during the events and all kinds of other things. There’s a special tour website and things like that. So, there’s the aspect of how do we make the virtual world — differentiate it during the book tour from what it usually is. But then on the other side, absolutely, because some of the things that we’re doing I would love to keep for the live events. For example, on a couple of tour stops we’re going to have a local wildlife rehabber with a bird talking about her experiences rehabbing hummingbirds, and there’s no reason why we can’t reverse that and have a live event where we have a screen with somebody coming in for five minutes to talk. So, I think that’s really important. I think it is a really democratic platform in the sense that people can go to all these things that they might not have been able to otherwise for various reasons. So, I really hope that festivals keep this kind of component along with the live stuff. I think there’s a lot of interplay that’s really useful and makes the event better. MCD x FSG
Your Hummingbird Salamander book tour is entirely virtual. One aspect of online events is that they’re highly accessible — do you think you’ll try to maintain some level of digital access for appearances moving forward?
Jeff VanderMeer in Conversation with Silvia Moreno-Garcia
San Antonio Book Festival $32, 8 p.m. Friday, April 9 sabookfestival.org
Well, there’s two different entry points to that question. The first one is that I’ve been trying with the virtual events to figure out what can be done to make them as personal as possible in terms of the interaction. Because there is that live component where I would normally get there before the event — I would be talking to readers who are there early and things like that. So, I’m going
Are there any specific locations in the Pacific Northwest that contributed to the setting of Hummingbird Salamander?
Kelly Brenner’s a friend of mine, and she’s a naturalist in Seattle, so she showed me a lot of urban wildlife places including a really fascinating ecosystem right under a highway bypass. Then Damaris Brisco showed me Roy’s Redwoods, which is farther down toward San Francisco. In the novel, there’s both kinds of places — there’s places that have been destroyed by human beings to some degree and then rebuilt in terms of ecosystems and then places that are pure wilderness. In addition
arts
Natural Novelist
Courtesy Photo / Jeff-VanderMeer
to that, one inspiration is just the drive down the coast. My last book tour was literally before the pandemic hit — in December of 2019 for Dead Astronauts — and I used that opportunity to do research. The main character Jane at one point is actually fleeing down the West Coast, so I method-acted that a little bit. I was going to the same places. There’s nothing that really replaces the tactile detail and actually being in that moment. I think that helped a lot.
You’ve said your cat Neo was an influence for both the cat Chorry in Authority as well as Mord, the giant flying bear in Borne. Can we look forward to a Neo cameo of sorts in Hummingbird Salamander?
I think because the character is on the move so much, I was reluctant to give them a pet because — and this is totally the readers’ fault — so many people emailed me asking if Chorry made it out OK after he had to be abandoned [in Authority]. So, I felt bad, even though I thought Chorry probably made out better than some of the human characters and wouldn’t have done well if he’d gone along with Control. But yeah, I think for that reason I just didn’t, but I’m sure that’ll recur because Neo’s pretty much in everything at this point. For a longer version of this interview, visit sacurrent.com.
Kyle Cassidy
Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com
arts
Nevarez Tevere / BangBang
still need a theory to continue — post-Trump.” One could say that project set the stage for future works by Nevarez and Tevere, who embrace the spirit of collaboration, the fusion of disparate elements and the possibilities of public performance. Their ongoing series Another Protest Song: Karaoke with a Message seeks to turn outdoor karaoke stages into soapboxes where passersby can belt out songs such as the counterculture anthem “War (What Is It Good For?)” For their video piece Layers of the City, the pair penned a 23-minute cumulative song in response to rising rents and displacement in Santa Ana, California. “I think intersections of music and contemporary art. One of their earliest post-nueroTransmitter endeav- the lyrics could relate to any city that’s going through processes of gentrification,” Tevere suggested. ors, 2008’s We need a theory to continue brought the High-concept covers of new wave and post-punk pair to Austin, the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital songs are also something of a hallof the World.” Summed up as an mark for Nevarez and Tevere. They’ve exploration of “civic space, collecenlisted a mariachi troupe to perform tive strategies, dissent and political ‘Twenty-One Silent Joy Division’s “Transmission” amid a theory,” the project entailed NevaStages: A Ballad’ public demonstration in Guadalajara’s rez and Tevere writing song lyrics Free, on view by appointment Plaza de la Liberación; commissioned that they gave to three dissimilar through May 16 the Norwegian Radio Orchestra to Austin bands to musically interpret. Artpace revive Culture Club’s “The War Song”; Held on an outdoor stage at Austin 445 N. Main Ave., and translated the lyrics to Siouxsie City Hall, the resulting concert was (210) 212-4900, and the Banshees’ “Into the Light” into described by the artists as “an eveartpace.org Morse code to be transmitted from a ning of live performative democrasailboat on the Charles River in Boscy in musical form.” During a recent ton. They even started their own label, Zoom conversation, Tevere recalled, Textual Records, to release their musical experiments “We wrote that song in the waning days of the Bush and other sound-based works by contemporary administration, but I think there’s still some releartists. vance to it today.” In agreement, Nevarez added, “We
The Sound of Silence
‘Twenty-One Silent Stages’ is a pandemic portrait of San Antonio’s music scene BY BRYAN RINDFUSS
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ew York-based multidisciplinary artists Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere have a unique and telling “how we met” story. Their first encounter wasn’t at a university, gallery or museum but on the streets of San Diego — while they were protesting the Republican National Convention in 1996. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the work they’ve created collaboratively in the decades since has employed public forums to address politics, dissent and the shifting landscape around them. Within a few years of that chance meeting, Nevarez and Tevere — who hail from Mexico City and Chicago, respectively — were hanging out regularly and pursuing individual art careers. At the request of a curator, they collaborated for the first time in 2001. That meeting of the minds led them to form neuroTransmitter — an artistic partnership exploring communication, radio content and broadcast technology. After seven years of neuroTransmitter, they retired the moniker and began fine-tuning their focus on the
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CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
Earlier this year, Nevarez and Tevere landed in San Antonio in conjunction with Artpace’s International Artist-in-Residence program, which grants participants housing, studio space, a $6,000 stipend and a production budget of up to $10,000. The idea behind the work they produced here had already been percolating in New York. “We were thinking about all the spaces that we spend time in and aren’t able to access — cultural spaces, galleries, museums and music venues as well,” Tevere explained. “Because San Antonio is such a musically rich city, [we thought] this could be an interesting research to do while we were there.” Citing previous work rooted in social spaces, Nevarez added, “We wanted to follow that up with a work that would reflect our engagement with society and culture to a certain degree. And of course, we had to reflect upon it with the scope of the pandemic and this idea of social space being closed at the moment.” After consulting with San Antonio-based friends, conducting online research and driving around the city in the Artpace van, Nevarez and Tevere set out to photograph vacant stages at 20 venues — from joints along the St. Mary’s Strip (Paper Tiger, the Mix, Faust Tavern, the Lonesome Rose) to storied theaters and institutions (the Majestic, the Empire, the Alameda, the Carver, the Guadalupe) and points in between. Beyond capturing stages left dormant by the pandemic, Nevarez and Tevere sought to connect a diverse range of venues within the city limits. “We really wanted to build a bridge across the city
through our photographs,” Nevarez said. With old-school favorites such as Mission Marquee Plaza, the Arneson River Theater and Rosedale Park represented, that bridge looks pretty well-built. Captivating in an almost haunting fashion, their “Twenty-One Silent Stages: A Ballad” appears poised to spark nostalgia from nearly any viewer with a firm history in San Antonio. For the creators, the series isn’t about memory but imagination. “Because we actually haven’t attended any shows in these spaces, it is really just an imagination,” Tevere mused. “So [our] sense [of the spaces] became more architectural … I think people have individual memories … and might be able to project those memories onto the photographs as well. For us, it will have to happen post-pandemic.” As for the 21st stage referenced in the exhibition title? It’s a circular stage Nevarez and Tevere erected in the center of the gallery. Although there are no plans for performances on it, gallery-goers are welcome to sit or stand on the stage. When asked if singing is permissible, the couple replied that it’s “totally fine” so long as you wear a mask. Positioned outside the gallery in the Artpace lobby, a neon sign designed by Nevarez and Tevere gives the exhibition additional context and poignancy. Titled Side Effects, it speaks not only to the empty stages and venues but the musicians, performers and staff on the losing end of the pandemic as it flashes the all-too-familiar words “POSTPONED,” “RESCHEDULED” and “CANCELED.”
Nevarez Tevere / TwentyOneSilentStages
sacurrent.com | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | CURRENT
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CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
arts Hot Wells Hike
From the ruins of a celebrity getaway to trails above a call center, the path leading to the Mission Reach holds many marvels BY BILL BAIRD
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ow more than 50 miles into my attempt to circumnavigate San Antonio on foot, my feet are sore and my is skin burnt, but my eyes are newly opened to huge swaths of the Alamo City. During my last trek, Leon Creek revealed miles of wonderful rocky cliffs and native plants, while the Medina River’s Land Heritage Institute proved an essential — and heretofore unknown to me — destination for local nature lovers. The leg I’m recounting in this installment of my occasional series — connected the Medina River Greenway to the River Walk’s Mission Reach. Past the Land Heritage Institute’s expansive spread, the Medina River Greenway reaches an eventual confluence with Leon Creek at a bridge so pristine and peaceful, you forget you’re in a major city: a fitting end to a wonderful trail. Coming up the Pleasanton Road trailhead, I met an old fisherman with a tiedyed headband living out of his 1968 VW bus. His tattered T-shirt read, “In guns we trust.” He hadn’t caught anything that day. “Doesn’t matter,” he told me, with a smile. Me being the world’s worst fisherman, I tend to agree. From there, a short walk along Pleasanton Road led to Mitchell Lake. Originally called Laguna de los Platos, the lake was first used during the 1700s by Spanish settlers. The family for which it’s named subsequently turned it into a hunting ground, and the body of water became a SAWS sewage treatment facility until 1987, when discharge ceased. It’s now home to more than 300 types of birds, and the Audubon Society maintains a visitor center to facilitate spectacular birdwatching while the lake is open to visitors from Friday through Sunday. And, from what I sniffed while walking by, the smell from its previous life seems to have dissipated. Past Mitchell Lake, the trail ended, and I trudged a mile-long stretch along the littered shoulder of U.S. Highway 281. As cars zoomed past, I felt like an oddball. Proudly so. As I continued, I encountered an unexpected highlight: the network of trails above Cassin Lake. The open space is actually owned by TJ Maxx. The retailer operates a 1,000-employee distribution center adjacent to the lake, but an easement agreement opened the wonderful wilderness for public use. Veering up a rocky embankment just south of the lake, I felt a thousand miles from the city. Wind rustled through the brush, and rocks beneath my feet revealed a many-colored splendor.
Bill Baird
From Cassin Lake, Mission Espada is only a few more miles, skirting old fields, an ancient road and the remains of an acequia. My feet tingled as I walked these pathways, as if the footsteps of the ancient travelers resonated through my shoes. Or maybe the tingling was just my feet falling asleep. From Espada, I headed north along the San Antonio River. Having hiked a fair stretch of the city now, I can say unequivocally that this is a wonderful stretch, especially the water cascade at Padre Park. The mesmerizing water feature, combined with my many miles of meandering, induced a zen-like calm. The busy city’s background noise — buzzing mowers, blowers, traffic and airplanes — blurred to a white noise ocean wave. Past Padre Park, I veered east, taking the Acequia Trail for a short detour. Like other city parks, it’s mowed within an inch of its life. Hopefully, one day parks departments will start seeding their massive lawns with native grasses, wildflowers and trees. Further up the Mission Reach trail, I reached the Hot Wells ruins, another fascinating window into SA history. In 1892, the Southwestern Lunatic Asylum — later known as the San Antonio State Hospital — drilled a well there for its water supply. Rather than potable output, however, the well spewed 104-degree sulfurous water at a whopping 180,000 gallons per day. The asylum moved to a neighboring site, and the Texas Hot Sulphur Water Sanitarium Co. took over. A hot springs resort went up at the site, making advertising claims the waters could cure syphilis,
herpes, indigestion, chronic diarrhea and hair-loss. Celebrities and presidents “took the waters,” including Charlie Chaplin and Teddy Roosevelt, according to historians. In 1910, Star Film Co., one of the largest film studios outside of Hollywood, was founded across from the resort and connected to it via drawbridge. More than 70 silent films were produced on the grounds. Fire plagued the hotel at the hot springs, though, and it burned down at least five times. The last business to occupy the site was a bar called The Flame Room and it too, well, burned down. That time, the flames claimed not only the bar but its collection of taxidermy frogs playing musical instruments, reportedly the largest in the world. The property got a new lease on life in 1999, when it was purchased by Blue Star Arts Complex developer James Lifshutz. He asked Justin Parr, a Blue Star gallery owner, to become caretaker of the site while he worked through details of its redevelopment. “This spot was huge for ghost hunters,” Parr told me as he guided me through a quick tour. Parr has been living on site since 2004 and has organized events showcasing the Hot Wells property. Bexar County turned the ruins into a park and a newly drilled hot water well is slated to become part of Lifshutz’s planned development. I only wish I could have soaked my poor, blistered feet while I was there. I’m sure the original spa purveyors would have touted it as a miracle cure for my malady. sacurrent.com | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | CURRENT
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CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
screens
Warner Bros.
The Bigger They Are…
Is it mandatory to enjoy eye-popping movies such as Godzilla vs. Kong in the theater? BY KIKO MARTINEZ
A
s a film critic, I’ve always considered the “theatrical experience” overrated. Over the past 20 years I’ve been doing this job professionally, I’ve never bought into the idea that certain movies need to be seen on the big screen. Now, is Mad Max: Fury Road more fun when you’re watching it with a big group of strangers in the dark? Sure, I’ll give you that. But the idea that watching that same movie alone at home somehow changes its cinematic DNA is not an idea I’ll ever subscribe to. Once, at a press screening a few years ago for one of the Transformers sequels, a studio representative asked me as I was leaving the theater if I liked the movie. I told her I didn’t, then I gave her a couple of quick reasons why the movie would be receiving a negative review from me. After writing them down in her report, she invited me to another screening of the film the following night, this time at the IMAX, saying I might like it better if I experienced it on a bigger screen. All movie critics are different. Maybe some would have accepted the offer and had a better experience watching the Autobots and Decepticons roll around a city street on a 72foot theater screen. I think most professional critics, however, understand that the content of a film isn’t going to be altered in any way just because you watched it on a cell phone instead of a massive screen. It’s the same exact movie. Once, a fellow film critic scoffed when I told him that I saw director Sam Mendes’
2019 war film 1917 on my modest, 50-inch TV at home. The studio sent me a DVD screener during awards season. Still, the critic asked, how was it fair to the film if I didn’t watch it in the way Mendes intended: on the biggest screen possible. For the record, 1917 ended up No. 5 on my Top 10 Movies of 2019 list. It was an incredible cinematic experience — from my couch. The way we watch movies has never been tested so much as it was over the past year. Chalk that up to the pandemic. It’s been over a year since I’ve stepped into a movie theater, yet I’ve seen hundreds of new movies during that time. In 2020, many studios decided to reschedule big “event” movies such as Halloween Kills, In the Heights and Top Gun: Maverick until this year in hopes they could premiere them in theaters and cash in. Other studios, however, made the film industry’s collective jaw drop recently by choosing to do a hybrid release of their films. When Warner Bros. announced last December that it would release all its 2021 movies simultaneously at theaters and on HBO Max, people started wondering if this was the end of movie theaters as we’ve come to know them. “We’re living in unprecedented times, which call for creative solutions,” Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff said at the time. “No one wants films back on the big screen more than we do. We know new content is the lifeblood of theatrical exhibition, but we have to balance this with the reality that most theaters in the U.S. will likely operate at reduced
capacity throughout 2021.” The new Warner Bros. business model is already underway. Films including The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah and Tom & Jerry already premiered this year at theaters and on HBO Max on the same day. However, the big test began last week with the debut of Godzilla vs. Kong. Would average movie watchers take Warner Bros. up on the offer and see the monster movie in the comfort of their own homes? Or is Godzilla vs. Kong one of those movies that demands a theatrical audience? While some fans will obviously opt to watch the probable blockbuster at the theater, I chose to experience the big gorilla and lizard heavyweight fight a few weeks ago from a front row seat in my living room. Overall, the movie was OK. There’s little in the way of character development and the script is beyond repair, but the scenes where the title monsters pummel each other are entertaining enough, and those are probably the reason most audiences are tuning in anyway. If I had seen Godzilla vs. Kong at the theater, I guarantee I would have come away with the same opinion. No amount of extra screen height or surround sound decibels or applause from fellow moviegoers or tubs of movie popcorn would have changed what I ultimately thought of the final product. Bottom line: Jaws is still a masterpiece when I watch it on my iPhone and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was garbage when I watched it in a packed theater. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get back to the theater sometime this year. It’s been my second home for the past two decades, and I miss it. But if it turns out that the theater industry just isn’t going to hold the same kind of power it did before the pandemic, I’ll be just fine adapting to the change. I’m sure that in the future Fast and Furious 22: Electric Boogaloo will be an equally mind-numbing experience no matter where any of us sees it.
Find more film stories at sacurrent.com
Courtesy Photo / Alamo Beer Co.
Green in a Glass
How a San Antonio brewery and winery are embracing sustainability BY NINA RANGEL
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ustainability has been a buzzword in food circles for some time now — avoiding overfished seafood and choosing to serve local, seasonal crops, for example. But that focus on ecological balance is about more than just what goes on diners’ plates. A growing number of breweries and wineries — including a couple in San Antonio — understand it also involves what goes into their glasses as well. Local outfits Alamo Beer Co. and Re:Rooted 210 produce Texas beer and wine, respectively — and they’re doing it with cutting-edge technology that reduces their environmental footprints.
Carbon recapture Along with a 256-module solar installation atop its roof, Alamo Beer early last year installed equipment to recapture carbon dioxide waste emitted during its brewing process. The technology allows the brewery to safely reuse the emissions to carbonate its collection of craft suds instead of venting the greenhouse gas into the air. The recapture system was provided by Earthly Labs, an Austin-based business that’s been developing carbon dioxide-capture technology since 2016. “Currently, 512 Brewing and Austin Beerworks are customers of ours, and the Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. is a development partner of ours,” Earthly Labs CEO Amy George said. “But Alamo is among the 22
CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
first in the country ... using this tech at this scale.” Yeast produces CO2 during the fermentation of beer, creating not just fizz but some of the characteristic flavors brew hounds crave. At the same time, craft brewers use from 4 to 21 pounds of CO2 per barrel they produce, according to an Earthly Labs industry survey. They use the gas during canning, kegging and cleaning equipment — all crucial steps of the production process. So, if breweries produce CO2 and also need it to carbonate their suds, the solution to eliminating waste emissions seems simple. Why aren’t more of them using technology to reclaim CO2? “Really big breweries like Coors and Sierra Nevada have used this tech, so there is awareness, just not at the craft scale,” George said. “In the early days [of Earthly Labs], craft brewers would pass right by my trade show booth, thinking this tech is a million dollars, just thinking they can’t afford it.” Indeed, the installation of CO2 recapture equipment also seems like it might be an engineering feat beyond small-scale beer producers. But George says Earthly Labs’ system is a plug-and-play solution created specifically for breweries. Using carbon capture science originally designed by NASA, Earthly Labs’ CiCi — that’s short for “carbon capture” — collects, purifies and liquefies CO2. The gas can then be put back into the brewing process, potentially slashing monthly CO2 expenses by 50100% and cutting emissions in half.
Head brewer Gregg Spickler moves fermentation tanks which yield CO2 naturally as a byproduct of beer making.
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“At this point, we’re producing about half of our CO2 needs, though I think we can do better,” Alamo Beer Brewmaster Gregg Spickler said. “It’s taken us longer to get it up and running just because of the ebbs and flows during the pandemic, but recently we’ve had some steady production, and we’ve been able to see what the system can really do. With a little bit of extra storage on our part, I think we’ll be able to produce all of our CO2 if we can dial it in.” Alamo Beer produces some 10,000 barrels annually, so the emissions reductions and savings add up. Beyond its environmental impact, Spickler says the recaptured CO2 produces a noticeably better product. “We like the product we’re getting with this tech,” he said. “We think it has a better mouthfeel, definitely a better quality. And we’re so proud that we’re doing our part to help the environment by reusing something we were producing anyway.”
Reducing waste Hemisfair winery and tasting room Re:Rooted 210 is taking a slightly different approach to reducing its ecological footprint. The business exclusively sells Texas wine, serving it via a draft system. To reduce waste, it only uses kegs made with 100% post-consumer recycled content. Beyond that, it sells its vino by the glass or in reusable steel and glass growlers, which not only reduces spoilage but also limits glass and cork packaging waste. “Sixty-seven percent of the bottles that are opened
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ho’s got time to click through all of the food stories coming out of Countdown City these days? We get it, you’re busy and just need quick tidbits to get you caught up on the latest culinary happenings. Welcome to Hot Dish, where we offer up the latest savory scoops in quick, easy-to-digest servings.
OPENINGS Papa’s Burgers will head back to the West Side this month, roughly a half mile from its original digs. The second location, at the corner of San Pedro Avenue and Oblate Drive, is still pumping out nationally lauded burgers Tuesday through Saturday. The brothers behind popular restaurant La Panadería have opened a new 4,200-square-foot, indoor-and-outdoor location at the La Cantera shopping center. The new spot serves breakfast, lunch, brunch and dinner. Southtown eatery The Good Kind is hosting Monday evening pop-ups featuring newish plant-powered concept Vegan & Sara. The kitchen takeovers occur weekly from noon to 9 p.m. Artisan Brewery and Distillery, the boozery behind Texas Pride Vodka and Bexar Ridge Bourbon, has relocated and expanded, adding an East Side craft cocktail bar to the mix.
food
in a tasting room get thrown away,” said Jennifer Beckmann, Re:Rooted 210’s owner. “It just makes no sense to continue to be a part of that cycle.” Another bonus of the Petainer brand of recycled plastic kegs at Re:Rooted 210 is that they’re 90% lighter than their traditional steel counterparts, cutting transportation costs along with the venue’s carbon footprint. With Re:Rooted 210’s approach, waste — glass bottles, corks, plastic bags and cardboard boxes — is nearly eviscerated for the small, up-and-coming brand’s own line of vino. “We’re able to reduce our environmental impact in general, which is not only important to us, but important to our core clientele as well,” Beckmann said. “People seem to enjoy doing their part, even if it’s a seemingly small bi-weekly change they’re making.” Re:Rooted 210 opened in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and Beckmann believes brand loyalty helped her business thrive through what could have been a bleak startup period. While most of that comes down to customers enjoying the wine, the space and the vibe, she said guests also appreciate her business’ commitment to sustainability. To Beckmann’s point, Amy George — Earthly Labs CEO — has seen proof that folks are more apt to support a business if they know that brand is taking care of their community, employees and environment. “We’ve seen data from a national survey done by a professor at Indiana University where she determined that craft beer consumers are generally pretty green and are willing to pay a premium for beer that is sustainably produced,” George said. “While most of our customers don’t increase their price after we install the tech, we still see the velocity of their sales go up when they communicate their environmentally conscious story to their consumer.”
offering dinner, lunch, brunch and a bar program.
NEWS
The Texas House has approved a bill to make permanent the temporary order instituted during the pandemic that lets bars and restaurants sell mixed drinks for takeout. It will need Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature to become law. Bring on the Tajin! Tex-Mex chain Taco Cabana unveiled an unnecessary new flavor in its frozen margarita lineup: dill pickle.
A swanky new boutique hotel and speakeasy is now in the works for a struggling Best Western property at St. Paul Square. Pearl-area nightspot Hello Paradise has launched Monday wing, dumpling and beer specials. Balcones Distilling’s Straight Bourbon Whiskey will be released via a special edition cask by Lost Lantern, an independent bottler of highly limited, one-of-a-kind American whiskies. New Olmos Park-area eatery Glass and Plate is now serving up daily happy hour items such as fresh oysters and frozen cocktails. Got a Hot Dish you want to share? Send tips to flavor@sacurrent.com.
Chef Elizabeth Johnson’s plant-forward restaurant Pharm Table has opened in its new Southtown digs,
Instagram / veganandsara14 Courtesy Photo / Alamo Beer Co.
Find more food & drink news at sacurrent.com
12th Annual
Open Weekends:
Apr 3 – May 23 + Fri Apr 23 10 AM To Dusk Rain Or Shine | No Pets -Camping Available-
Location
1883 Old Hwy 20 Mcdade, Tx 78650
35 Miles East Of Austin -Or2 Hrs Northeast Of San Antonio
Entertainment
Join Robin Hood & Lady Marian as they host full contact jousting, falconry, swordplay, archery, juggling, comedy, theater & more. Medieval England comes to life in Central Texas.
Artisans + Merchants We host a grand selection of hand-crafted goods in Central Texas. We offer demonstrations like glass blowing, blacksmithing, pottery spinning, leather armor making, weaving, jewelry & art creation, & others.
Song + Dance
You'll find minstrels, bards, storytellers, magicians, jugglers, & all types of performers strolling our lanes & playing on our stages. If you're lucky, you may spot a faery or two!
Food + Drink
From trenchers weighty with tasty fare to tankards overflowing with foamy mead, there's plenty to eat and drink at Sherwood Forest Faire. You'll discover medieval treats & delicacies.
Tickets On Sale Now At Sher woodforestfaire.com | (512)222-6680 | Follow Us On 24
CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
Thunder Horse celebrates powerful second album with outdoor live show BY SANFORD NOWLIN
O
n its newly released second album, Chosen One, San Antonio doom metal band Thunder Horse demonstrates that it grasps a fundamental of its chosen subgenre: it’s about the riffs, stupid. While loads of present-day aspirants to the Throne of Sabbath get the tune down-turn up thing, fewer grasp that the key to rising from the Bandcamp masses lies in crafting guitar lines that are as catchy as they are brooding. With that understanding — one clearly rooted in classic-rock radio — Thunder Horse gallops out front of the doom metal herd, its legs driven by the power of the riff. There’s a timelessness and a simplicity to its approach that explains the raves the band recently racked up from metal pubs including Decibel Magazine and Doomed and Stoned. Fortunately for Thunder Horse, Chosen One’s release on high-profile stoner rock label Ripple Music also coincides with live music’s gradual awakening from its pandemic-forced hibernation. The band will celebrate the new album Saturday, April 10, with an outdoor show at
Courtesy Photo / Thunder Horse
St. Mary’s Strip hangout Hi-Tones. Fans of Sabbath-influenced acts like Trouble and St. Vitus will recognize the musical modus operandi employed for much of Chosen One’s first side, and the lyrical content of songs such as “Rise of the Heathens” and “Let Them Bleed” don’t exactly chart new territory. Still, it’s clear Thunder Horse has mastered the formula. That shouldn’t be a surprise since the band is comprised of veteran players — three of the four members, including singer-guitarist Stephen Bishop, played in the long-running industrial metal act Pitbull Daycare. But, as the album progresses, the band’s varied influences begin to show, much to its strength. With multi-tracked vocals, a Janes Addiction-reminiscent interlude and latesong tempo change, Chosen One’s title track is a clear standout. Little surprise it’s also the first single.
a softer focus
Percussionist Claire Rousay celebrates release of new album with virtual performance BY MIKE MCMAHAN
P
rolific San Antonio percussionist and composer Claire Rousay is dropping a new album, a softer focus, April 23 on American Dreams Records. It’s an appropriate title, since the ambient release features, well, a softer focus compared to much of her previous work, which falls largely in the avant-garde realm. Rousay will celebrate the album release with a Saturday, April 10 livestream show on Bandcamp. The first single from a softer focus, “Peak Chroma,” is one of the two non-instrumental tracks on the record. Featuring lyrics originally written as an iPhone Notes entry, the song is accompanied by a trippy video from Rousay collaborator Dani Toral, who also handled visuals for the release. With its collage feel, the composition isn’t dissimilar to the mid-career work of Aphex Twin, and
music
Running on Riffs
Courtesy Photo / Claire Rousay
it’s already generating buzz, having appeared on Stereogum when it dropped several weeks ago. Rousay aspires to “explore human relationships and self-perception” in her music and performance, and the road to her present work has been varied — fitting for an artist so focused on experimentation. Fitting also is the release’s frequent use of non-instrumental content, much drawn from voicemails and field or environmental recordings. The new album comes out as Rousay’s stock rises with listeners outside of Bexar County. A January story in millennial music bible Pitchfork reviewed a Washington,
“Broken Dreams” takes the band into heavy psych territory and serves as an impressive showpiece for drummer Jason “Shakes” West. “Texas” weaves a melancholy tale of longing featuring just Bishop’s voice and a shimmering strummed guitar. Thunder Horse’s debt to blues-influenced classic rock comes into full play during the album’s finale. The brief instrumental “Remembrance,” featuring Hammond organ swells and country-rock guitar fills, ebbs into a straight-faced cover of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” featuring that most ’70s of homages: a talk-box guitar solo. The band’s release show will run 2-8 p.m. and feature openers Red Beard Wall and Fostermother, along with DJs Smoke and Plata. Saturday, April 10, 2 p.m., $8, Hi-Tones, 621 E. Dewey Place, (210) 785-8777, instagram/ hitones_sa.
DC gig by the percussionist and included accolades for one of her previous releases, it was always worth it. Pitchfork writer Jonathan Williger described the album as being about a breakup and noted that it features a recording of Rousay listening to an Our Lady Peace song, a postmodern touch that gives an idea where she’s coming from. Much of that increased exposure likely comes down to Rousay’s willingness to work the road. She performed 200 gigs in 2017 alone, for example. Of course, during the pandemic, live performance has changed dramatically. Rousay, for example, recently posted a video of herself practicing for the livestream on Twitter, which consisted of herself singing, her voice heavily processed, and backed by a synth. On April 2, she also posted a “sign of the times” moment on her Twitter account. “Tonight, I played drums, in a room with other people for the first time since February 2020 … I wept in my car afterwards,” she wrote, accompanied by a video of her performing with SA quirk-pop stalwarts Buttercup. Saturday, April 10, 5:30 p.m., $10, clairerousay. bandcamp.com/merch/a-softer-focus-album-release.
Reminder:
Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.
music | listings Friday, April 9
players. But call it a tune-up instead of a new engine, as the band remains focused on heartfelt storytelling and a Nashville-fueled country-rock vibe. 8 p.m., $12-$70, Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 2232830, samsburgerjoint.com. — MM
Friday, April 16
Courtesy Photo / Danny and Annie
More than 15% of people in San Antonio live below the poverty line, the highest rate of any of the nation’s top 25 metropolitan areas.
435,000 of our neighbors will face hunger this year. Act to Feed Your Community safoodbank.org
DANNIE B. HARVEY AND ANNIE MARIE LEWIS
This husband-and-wife duo has been called the “rock ’n’ roll version of Johnny Cash and June Carter.” And like that legendary country couple, they each come with impressive pedigrees. Harvey is best known as the guitarist for HeadCat, the rockabilly supergroup formed by Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. Lewis, meanwhile, is the niece of Jerry Lee Lewis and has been opening shows for her famous daddy since she was a teen. Harvey, Lewis and their band are whooping it up as part of a free, outdoor concert series in the St. Paul Square Courtyard. 8 p.m., free, St. Paul Square Courtyard, 1600 E. Commerce St., stpaulsq.com. — SANFORD NOWLIN
Instagram / endpop
ANYTHING BOX + T-4-2
Anything Box began their run as synth-poppers you might remember from their late ’80s hit “Living in Oblivion,” and decades later, the outfit is bringing its dance floorready vibe to the Alamo City. The band has remained active during the ensuing decades, evolving to embrace contemporary electronic sounds mixed with live instrumentation, experimental music and short films. 8 p.m., $25-$100, Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — MM
Sunday, April 18 Courtesy Photo / Ashley McBride
ASHLEY MCBRYDE
McBryde is a Grammy-nominated singer known for her mix of country, blues and Southern rock styles. She’s gigging behind Never Will, an album released roughly a year ago. Catch her before she heads off to open shows for George Strait in Vegas this fall. 7 p.m., $23-$400, John T. Floore Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Road, (210) 6958827, liveatfloores.com. — MIKE MCMAHAN
Saturday, April 10 Courtesy Photo / Dwight Yoakam
DWIGHT YOAKAM AT WHITEWATER AMPHITHEATER
Courtesy Photo / Micky and the Motorcars
MICKY AND THE MOTORCARS 4/30/21
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CURRENT | April 7 – April 20, 2021 | sacurrent.com
These Austin-based road hogs feature brothers and mainstays Micky and Gary Braun along with recently recruited all-new
Yoakam, a beloved country legend, is hitting New Braunfels for a socially distanced performance. Known for his keep-it-real approach to and earnest songwriting, Yoakam is the proud owner of multiple gold and platinum records as well as the record-holder for most appearances by a musical guest on The Tonight Show. The show’s already sold out, but we suspect some of you may want to seek out a scalper for this one. 8 p.m., Sold Out, Whitewater Amphitheater, 11860 FM 306, New Braunfels, (830) 964-3800, whitewaterrocks.com. — MM
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