San Antonio Current - February 7, 2024

THE DANGER OF ABBOTT'S ANTI-IMMIGRANT RHETORIC | IN THE STUDIO WITH MEG LANGHORNE | REMEMBERING VENTRILOQUIST NACHO ESTRADA | FEB 7 - 20, 2024

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Free Disposal Event Drop off products labeled toxic, poisonous, corrosive, combustible, or flammable. San Antonio residents should bring an ID and a recent copy of their CPS Energy bill showing payment of the Environmental Fee. For additional information or a list of accepted materials please visit sarecycles.org.

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Publisher Michael Wagner Editor in Chief Sanford Nowlin General Manager Chelsea Bourque Editorial Digital Content Editor Kelly Nelson Contributing Arts Editor Bryan Rindfuss Food and Nightlife Editor Nina Rangel Staff Writers Michael Karlis Interns Amber Esparza

in this issue Issue 24-03 /// February 7 – 20, 2024

Contributors Abe Asher, Bill Baird, Ron Bechtol, Danny Cervantes, Macks Cook, Brianna Espinoza, Dalia Gulca, Anjali Gupta, Colin Houston, Kiko Martinez, Mike McMahan, Kevin Sanchez, M. Solis, Caroline Wolff, Dean Zach Advertising Account Managers Marissa Gamez, Parker McCoy Senior Account Executive Mike Valdelamar Creative Services Creative Services Manager Samantha Serna Events and Marketing Marketing and Events Director Cassandra Yardeni Events Manager Chelsea Bourque Events & Promotions Coordinator Chastina De La Pena Social Media Director Meradith Garcia Circulation Circulation Manager Justin Giles Chava Communications Group Founder, Chief Executive Officer Michael Wagner Co-Founder, Chief Marketing Officer Cassandra Yardeni Operations Director Hollie Mahadeo Social Media Director Meradith Garcia Director of Digital Content Strategy Colin Wolf Art Director David Loyola Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon chavagroup.com National Advertising: Voice Media Group 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com San Antonio Current sacurrent.com Editorial: editor@sacurrent.com Display Advertising: marketing@sacurrent.com The San Antonio Current is published by Chava Communications Group San Antonio Distribution The Current is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader.

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Stephanie Koithan

14 Feature

Counting the Uncounted

A cold, rainy night documenting the unhoused on San Antonio’s streets

09 News

The Opener News in Brief

Border Brinksmanship

Worries arise Gov. Greg Abbott’s ‘invasion’ rhetoric will spill over into violence

Bad Takes

San Antonio City Council should grow a backbone and discuss a ceasefire resolution

17 Calendar Calendar Picks

23 Arts

Studio Visits

Approved auditor info as required for public notices per section 50.011(1)(e), F.S. Circulation Verification Council 12166 Old Big Bend Road, Suite 210 St. Louis, MO 63122 www.cvcaudit.com Auditor’s Certification:

The Idiosyncratic work of Meg Langhorne explores gods, parables and more

Speaking From the Heart

Remembering San Antonio ventriloquist Nacho Estrada, who inspired kids through humor and wonder THE DANGER OF ABBOTT'S ANTI-IMMIGRANT RHETORIC | IN THE STUDIO WITH MEG LANGHORNE | REMEMBERING VENTRILOQUIST NACHO ESTRADA | FEB 7 - 20, 2024

29 Screens

Boy Meets World

Comedian Nasim Pedrad returns with second season of coming-ofage comedy series Chad

31 Food

Gone Flat?

San Antonio craft brewers adapting to survive inflation, changing trends

35 Music

Shakin’ Street

San Antonio-released MC5 tribute pulls some of the biggest names in punk and hard rock

Critics’ Picks

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n the Cover: Writer Stephanie Koithan documents her night participating in San Antonio’s most recent Point in Time Count of the unhoused on its streets.

Cover photo: Stephanie Koithan.

Cover design: Samantha Serna.

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February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM). The national 2024 theme for TDVAM is “Love Like That.” In San Antonio, we want to focus on promoting that no two relationships look the same, but respect, equality, trust, honesty, communication, and consent must be present for a healthy relationship. Don’t ever accept a “love” that makes you feel less than, because that isn’t love.

“Love Like That,” reminds us

#TDVAM24

While no two relationships look the same, and people may define relationships differently, key elements like respect, equality, trust, honesty, communication and consent must be present in all relationships to be considered healthy.

Conflict is a normal part of any relationship. A healthy relationship does not mean you never disagree. Conflicts or disagreements should never be or feel like personal attacks.

Sometimes, outside influences can challenge what you know and believe about yourself, including your body. These influences include societal messages that cause doubt or shame in ourselves for who we are.

You have a right to a healthy relationship.

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

Learn More.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued five Texas cities to block their ordinances decriminalizing low levels of marijuana possession. Over the last year-plus, voters in Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen and San Marcos overwhelmingly passed ballot measures designed to stop criminal penalties for anyone caught in possession of less than four ounces of cannabis.

Paxton now says those initiatives violate drug laws passed by the Texas Legislature.

Victor Wembanyama’s jersey is among the NBA’s best-sellers for the first half of the regular season, a testament to the extent to which the Spurs rookie has captured the imaginations of fans. The French phenom’s jersey is the fourth most-purchased, trailing only the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant.

The rookie’s presence has also pushed Spurs merchandise into the league’s top 10 sales for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

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San Antonio has the 19th-highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases of any large metro area in the country, according to a new report.

That’s a higher rate than any other major Texas city except Laredo. The report, compiled using 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed a major jump in U.S. syphilis rates, which are up 29% over the prior year.

San Antonio is one of just three U.S. cities joining the Delice Network, a global network of 25 cities dedicated to promoting food and gastronomy. Chicago and Tucson were the other two U.S. cities invited into the network, which will allow chefs from San Antonio to travel on study tours to other affiliated cities including Montreal, Lyon and Barcelona. — Abe Asher

ASSCLOWN ALERT

Putting ‘God back in government’ with Texas Sen. Mayes Middleton Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

For someone who’s spent four years in public office and passed the Texas Bar Exam, State Sen. Mayes Middleton appears to have a piss-poor grasp of stuff most of us learned in 8th grade civics class. Namely, that the United States was never a Christian nation and that the Constitution, beyond never mentioning a higher power, firmly enshrines separation of church and state.

Middleton, a Galveston Republican who also happens to be an architect of Texas’ new state law allowing chaplains in public schools, appeared on a recent installment of Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton’s The WallBuilders Show podcast and admitted the controversial measure is designed to insert religion into secular life.

In comments first reported on by the Friendly Atheist blog, Middleton praised former President Donald Trump for appointing judges that would “put God back in government.” The state senator then went on to explain how having chaplains in schools does the same.

“This allows students, faculty, staff to freely exercise their religion and have this tool available. Someone to talk to from a Godly perspective, because chaplains represent God in government,” Middleton said. “That’s what they do, and that’s what we need more of in this country. … Of course, these atheist groups out of Washington D.C. oppose chaplains in schools, but their legal arguments are now totally meritless,

YOU SAID IT!

“He wants to create fear and blame immigrants for our problems, which really are problems that our governor has been neglecting his entire time in office.”

— U.S. Rep. Greg Casar,

a Democrat representing San Antonio and Austin, on Gov. Greg Abbott’s border standoff.

Shutterstock / Jonathan Weiss

Pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the Mayor’s Dream Ball at the Boeing Center at Tech Port two Saturdays ago, disrupting Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s speech with the demand that City Council vote on an Israel-Hamas ceasefire resolution. The handful of activists who interrupted the event were eventually escorted out of the arena.

news

That Rocks/That Sucks

Twitter / @mayes_middleton

and they won’t win if they try.”

Of course Middleton’s admission comes after he and members of his party engaged in all sorts of ass-backward logic to argue to explain that the chaplain law’s passage had nothing to do with converting kids and everything to do with solving a mental health crisis.

Doesn’t take much head scratching to figure out Middleton’s now admitting to the opposite. But then that’s one of the interesting things about living through the Trump era: it’s emboldened assclowns who don’t give a shit about democracy to say the quiet part out loud.

— Sanford Nowlin

A coalition of healthcare, privacy and technology advocates filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission last week seeking an investigation into Deloitte Consulting over alleged issues with its Medicaid eligibility software that may have affected hundreds of thousands of Texans. Numerous Texans have wrongfully lost coverage because Deloitte has failed to fix long-standing issues with its software that determines an applicant’s eligibility, the suit argues.

SA2020 is dissolving after funders ended their support of the nonprofit following a statement it released asking for ceasefire in Gaza and accusing city leaders of “enabling” Israel’s assault there. The backlash that followed, Executive Director Kiran Kaur Bains told the Express-News, was the most severe the organization has experienced in its 13 years. — Abe Asher

Find more news coverage every day at sacurrent.com

news

Border Brinksmanship

Worries arise that Gov. Greg Abbott’s ‘invasion’ rhetoric will spill over into violence

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

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or all its anti-government rancor and flurry of far-right conspiracy theories, last weekend’s “Take Our Border Back” rally in Eagle Pass remained largely peaceful.

However, extremism experts and Democratic lawmakers caution that the gathering didn’t coalesce in a vacuum.

Indeed, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s repeated descriptions of border crossings as an “invasion” helped fuel the anti-immigrant convoy and rally.

What’s more, those critics argue, Abbott’s rhetoric could prompt fringe actors to resort to violence. They point to the 2019 mass slaying at an El Paso Walmart as an example of such a scenario. A shooter massacred 23 people there in what he claimed was an attempt to fight back against a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

“Governor Abbott understands by now that when he calls this an invasion, that he’s putting a target on people’s back,” San Antonio U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said during a Sunday

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press call by Texas Democrats. “And, it’s not just migrants and asylum seekers, but also Latinos in Texas.”

The far-right convoy, a self-described “God’s Army,” initially planned to roll into Eagle Pass’ Shelby Park, the site of Abbott’s escalating standoff with the federal government over immigration enforcement. Instead, the group held its rally at Cornerstone Children’s Ranch in an incorporated village 21 miles north of the park, according to media reports.

Castro confirmed that roughly 200 vehicles showed up at the ranch — significantly more than the 50 or so that stopped in the Hill Country town of Dripping Springs for a similar rally on Thursday. Still, the turnout was a far cry from the 700,000 initially promised by organizers.

Although Sunday’s primary rally was held outside of Eagle Pass, curious attendees did trickle in to view Shelby Park.

“It’s not what I expected, but then again, I don’t know what I expected,”

Courtesy Photo / Texas Governor’s Office

rally goer Misty Gregory told MSNBC. “I can tell you it’s not as bad as I thought, so that’s kind of eye-opening in itself, too.”

Excuses for violence Gregory may have been caught by surprise because likely Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and others on the right have repeatedly described the border as lawless and violent. They falsely maintain that the Biden White House had flung open the door for illegal immigration, creating the chaos.

During a Sunday press conference at Shelby Park, Abbott — who once erroneously claimed migrants are reaping “carnage” in border communities — continued to painted a similarly sinister image.

Abbott said he and the 13 other Republican governors who attended the presser are standing together to stop an “invasion” of migrants. Texas DPS recently detained a member of criminal gang MS-13 who’s on the terrorist watchlist, along with a migrant who previously served in the Iranian military, he added.

Despite those arrests, Abbott said terrorists and violent gang members have likely crossed the border undetected, putting Americans’ lives at immediate risk.

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the

Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, last week told the Current that the shrill warnings spouted by Abbott and other elected officials are emboldening those looking for excuses to unleash violence and hate.

“Anti-immigrant rhetoric and white nationalist conspiracies are being spread not just by extremists, but by our elected leaders and far-right influencers,” Beirich said. “The mainstreaming of anti-immigrant hatred is animating some of the most dangerous elements in our society: white supremacists, neo-Nazi and anti-government extremists.”

Despite the lack of violence at the Sunday’s border rally, ominous events followed the caravan.

Authorities reportedly evacuated Eagle Pass’ Firefly migrant processing center Friday in response to anonymous threats to burn it down. Three right-wing militia members armed with long guns also patrolled the streets of Eagle Pass Sunday, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said during the Democrats’ press call.

It’s not migrants making the border dangerous but the extremists drawn there over Abbott’s rhetoric, Cuellar added.

“Some of us have lived on the border for a long time, we understand the border, and the border is one of the safest communities in the whole U.S.,” the congressman said. “It has one of the lowest crime rates for murder, assaults, rape and all that. It’s just incredible what’s happening in Eagle Pass right now.”

Cuellar’s sentiments were echoed by one Eagle Pass resident, who said during a counter-convoy press conference on Sunday that she never felt unsafe in her town until the convoy showed up.

“I’ve always felt very safe here, so I would say it’s a good place to raise your children,” said the resident, who declined to be named. “Today, downtown, was the first day that I felt unsafe just walking down the street in broad daylight.”

Political gambit During Sunday’s call, Castro said he worries the intensifying rhetoric suggests another El Paso-style attack may be around the corner.

“The lies about an open border are dangerous when the facts are that we have more Border Patrol than we ever had, more drones at the border than we’ve ever had, more surveillance than we’ve ever had before, and more

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Michael Karlis

law enforcement than we’ve ever had before,” Castro said.

Critics charge that Abbott is willing to risk bloodshed because it’s an election year and he sees political benefit from making voters think the White House has sewn chaos in South Texas.

On Sunday evening, the U.S. Senate released a bipartisan immigration reform package that includes key items on conservatives’ wish list. Among those are stricter asylum requirements, an expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention capacity and a clause requiring Homeland Security to close the border if migrants’ numbers swell beyond certain levels.

Sweetening the pot for Senate Democrats are $60 billion in funding for Ukraine and $14 billion to go towards Israel’s war in Gaza.

Despite Democrats’ generous concessions, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, called the bill “even worse than we expected.” The bill is likely dead on arrival in the lower chamber, according to political observers.

“We are here because [Republicans] want to play games,” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, said during Sun-

Members of the ‘Take Our Border Back’ caravan peddle flags at a rally the group held in Dripping Springs.

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day’s press call. “They are basically spitting in our faces and telling us that it’s raining. They want us to believe that this is the way that it has to be, that we can only have a policy solution if there’s a Republican in the White House.”

Abbott is playing along with House Republicans’ efforts to block the bipartisan bill by turning Eagle Pass into what Cuellar described as a “movie set.”

However, there are costs to his political theater, experts said — namely, that Latinos, whether migrants or U.S. citizens, may end up in the crosshairs.

“We have witnessed and have born the fruit of this type of rhetoric and vigilantism far too many times on this country, and it is time for all Americans to take a stand, united against violence,” Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, said Thursday of the GOP’s anti-immigrant hyperbole.

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

news

Michael Karlis

BAD TAKES

San Antonio City Council should grow a backbone and discuss a ceasefire resolution

BY KEVIN SANCHEZ Editor’s Note: Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.

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ombing civilians began long before the invention of the airplane or drone.

In September 1846, the future shining star of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, then a captain, took off from San Antonio to join the U.S. invasion of Mexico. The following March, the military fired some 6,000 cannonballs into the city of Veracruz, and Lee’s skill as an engineer came in handy.

“I had placed three 32- and three 68-pound guns in position,” he wrote in a letter home. “Their fire was terrific, and the shells thrown from our battery were constant, so beautiful in their flight and so destructive in their fall. It was awful! My heart bled for the inhabitants. The soldiers I did not care so much for, but it was terrible to think of the women and children.”

Mexican leaders requested a ceasefire to evacuate civilians but Major General Winfield Scott refused.

According to historian Glenn Price, the bombardment “was indiscriminate,” and projectiles were “lobbed up with the design of crashing through the flimsy roofs of the adobe houses and exploding among the families after falling inside.” Soldiers recalled the screams of those buried under the rubble.

“The British press was extremely critical of this deliberate destruction of the population, and some American officers on the scene expressed their strong disapproval,” Price noted.

And what of the U.S. press?

“It is certain that non-combatants suffered the

most,” an embedded New Orleans Picayune correspondent wrote.

The New Orleans Delta likewise reported “one half of the city is destroyed,” while New York’s Spirit of the Times weekly relayed the Mexican estimate of up to 1,000 killed and wounded, noting “all agree the loss among the soldiery is comparatively small, and among the women and children is very great.”

For the past four months, the Israeli military has engaged in what experts told the Associated Press is one of the deadliest and most destructive bombing campaigns in the recent history. It’s also talking place in one of the most densely populated places in the world, the Gaza Strip. More than 10 children a day have lost one or both legs, according to a Save the Children report citing United Nations statistics.

More than 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes. Even President Joe Biden, a staunch Israeli ally, has characterized the bombardment as “indiscriminate.”

As Israel impedes humanitarian aid, the UN warns that most Gazans are at imminent risk of starvation.

“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children,” Secretary-General António Guterres warned in November.

To no avail, concerned San Antonio residents have asked City Council to discuss a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire as well as for the release of Israeli hostages. Cities from Atlanta to Chicago to Seattle have already passed similar measures, as has

the Texas AFL-CIO, which late last month became the first state labor federation to do so.

Few circumstances are more frustrating than when elected leaders can’t bring themselves to state what is ethically obvious.

“No politician of any considerable distinction or eminence seems willing to hazard his popularity by an open and unqualified disapprobation of the war” against Mexico, abolitionist Frederick Douglass lamented at the time of that armed conflict. “None seem willing to take their stand for peace,” he wrote, labeling the opposition to U.S. atrocities as “puny.”

He may as well have been referring to all but two members of San Antonio City Council.

Gilbert Garcia, columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, appeared to excuse local leaders’ inaction on his Puro Politics podcast: “It’s always interesting when you have city councils getting involved in what are basically making symbolic statements on issues that don’t really affect the city.”

Setting aside that thousands of people who reside in Bexar County are directly affected because they may have family and friends in the region, San Antonio is a military city in a country that hands $3 billion in aid to the Israeli Defense Forces annually.

Bottom-line: complicity in war crimes affects us all.

Would a resolution stop the war? Surely not.

But neither did Henry David Thoreau’s refusal to pay the poll tax that helped fund the Mexican-American War. It was a symbolic gesture, especially since he spent only one night in jail for his civil disobedience.

However, he understood that sometimes severing our connection to an injustice is all we can do. It adds our voice to a chorus, potentially inspiring future peacemakers — just as Thoreau inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Whatever the confrontational antics of San Antonio’s pro-Palestinian protesters, they have displayed a determination and maturity that puts our local politicians and pundits to shame. sacurrent.com | February 7 – 20, 2024 | CURRENT

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news

Stephanie Koithan

Counting the Uncounted

A cold, rainy night documenting the unhoused on San Antonio’s streets

BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN

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early 400 volunteers convened during one of last month’s torrential rainstorms to conduct a census of those living unhoused on San Antonio’s streets. I accompanied those doing the count, unsure of what I might find in a city with a growing unhoused population and overburdened resources.

Braving the weather, volunteers compiled data used to better understand the state of homelessness in the city and help local officials obtain federal funding to address the issue. Those conducting the count heard the stories of those living on the street, putting faces to hard, cold statistics.

The data, collected Tuesday, Jan. 23, as part of the annual Point in Time (PIT) Count, won’t be available until May, but the night provided snapshots of San Antonio’s unhoused population

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and showed the conditions often faced by those without shelter.

I last participated in a Point in Time Count 10 years ago in New York City, where I worked for a network of homeless shelters. I vividly remember canvassing the subway stations and streets of Manhattan’s Financial District on foot in near-freezing temperatures.

This was my first Point in Time Count in San Antonio.

The nonprofit Close to Home, formerly South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH), organizes the local PIT Count. As required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the count always takes place in the last 10 days of January with the goal of assisting those experiencing street homelessness during winter weather.

“The PIT Count is an opportunity to check on our unhoused neighbors,”

Close to Home Executive Director Katie Wilson said. “Some homelessness is visible, yet other times it is hidden in plain sight.”

Numbers recorded during the San Antonio count were likely affected by the previous day’s record rainfall, during which floodwaters swept away people camped in drainage tunnels, according to eyewitnesses. The heavy rains continued as PIT Count volunteers combed the slick, shining streets, searching for those living unhoused.

Last year’s Point in Time Count recorded 3,100 people experiencing homelessness in Bexar County, a 5% increase from the previous year.

An even more grim statistic: 322 people died in San Antonio last year while living on the street, according to SAMMinistries. Among those was Albert Garcia, a man who lost his legs due to 2021’s Winter Storm Uri before dying in the August heat under a West Side highway off-ramp.

Canvassing and counting Before the Jan. 23 count got underway, Mayor Ron Nirenberg spoke to the volunteers at Corazon Ministries Day Center on the city’s work to improve

Greg Zlotnick (right) shares a tote bag full of supplies with an unhoused woman he encountered downtown during SA’s latest Point in Time Count.

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the availability of affordable housing.

Many of those improvements come through the city’s $150 million Affordable Housing Bond, which includes $31 million for permanent supportive housing.

Activists note that this year’s PIT Count numbers will likely be affected by the city’s ongoing encampment sweeps, which routinely remove unhoused people, throwing away their tents and possessions. While local officials paused the evictions prior to the count, they were scheduled to resume at its conclusion — a fact not lost on some in the audience.

Toward the end of Nirenberg’s talk, one activist shouted him down, calling on the mayor to end the encampment sweeps “if he really wants to help homeless people.”

With the speech over, volunteers dispersed throughout the city, canvassing the streets in teams until midnight.

Each group was assigned a police escort and zone to cover.

Volunteers asked people living on the street if they’d be willing to answer survey questions. Teams also handed out backpacks full of snacks, gloves and toiletries to those they encountered.

Separate from the volunteer-based street canvassing, outreach workers conduct an encampment count in the early morning to catch people before they break camp for the day. Closer to Home also conducts a tally of those living in the city’s shelters. The totals are compiled to provide the most accurate picture of homelessness in San Antonio.

Resources ‘on diversion’ Initially, I followed a team in Northwest San Antonio led by Katelyn Underbrink, a volunteer who works as a project manager in her day job.

A middle-aged man without a coat crossed a rain-slicked Jackson-Keller Road to approach the team outside a fruteria. He said he was suicidal. The team’s escorting police officer drove the man to Restoration Center, a crisis mental health facility run by the Center for Health Care Services (CHCS).

Later, we learned the man had been turned away. Like many programs in the city, Restoration is “on diversion,” meaning it’s full.

The city’s shelter system has been pushed past its limit and now has a waitlist of more than 3,000 households, according to Close to Home officials. That means PIT Count volunteers face difficulty finding immediate shelter and services for those they encounter, jeopardizing one of the purposes of the count.

The city’s Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP) has identified a shortage of 91,000 units of affordable housing in Bexar County. That shortfall produces a cascading effect of systemic failure and maxes out the shelter system, leaving many out in the cold, according to advocates for the unhoused.

Challenges on the street Later in the night, I fell in with a team led by Greg Zlotnick, a visiting clinical assistant professor of law at St. Mary’s University. In addition to serving as a Close to Home board member, he specializes in eviction prevention and landlord-tenant disputes.

Stephanie Koithan

Zlotnick was joined by Michael Ozuna, who works as a Home Depot supervisor by day but said he has personal reasons for helping out.

“I’ve experienced homelessness and addiction, so I know what recovery is and I know what is possible,” he said.

“Anything I can do to help someone going through what I went through.”

Zlotnick’s team combed a zone of downtown bordered by the I-37 access road to the east and the River Walk to the west. It stretched from Brooklyn Avenue to Jones Street.

Over two hours, Zlotnick and Ozuna encountered a dozen or so people living on the street, including Renee Olivarez, a middle-aged man camped under the awning next to a funeral home. He was surrounded by bags of possessions with an umbrella propped up over his pillow.

Olivarez told us he lost his job and became homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic. His felony record made it hard for him to find new work even as the economy picked back up again, he explained.

Nearby, we found a blonde woman named Katrina wrapped in blankets.

One of the blankets moved, revealing a pit bull puppy named Storm, swaddled and sick with a stomach bug. Katrina gently stroked her pet’s face and asked Ozuna if he knew of any free veterinary clinics. Though Katrina was without a bed herself, she had a small, fluffy dog bed for Storm.

A few paces away, twenty-something Josiah Thompson crouched in a hooded camo jacket, organizing a bag of medicine. Once a dishwasher at an

Alamo Drafthouse, Thompson — who goes by “Wolf” — opted out of society and into a life on the street.

When Zlotnick asked him about the challenges he faces, Wolf simply replied, “Isn’t that a rather existential question?”

Many of those we encountered said their lack of IDs and paperwork were major hurdles in obtaining housing and employment. Others listed mental illness and addiction as underlying issues.

Dreams and nightmares Zlotnick’s team entered the River Walk at Brooklyn Avenue and took it north to Jones Street. The warm glow of lights from luxury apartment buildings offered a jarring contrast to the reality of people curled up on the pavement blocks away.

“The American dream and the American nightmare walk past each other,” Zlotnick remarked, remembering the words of an old law professor.

As the night went on and the rain continued, our police escort — an officer and a cadet — urged us to end the night early, citing safety concerns.

“Yeah, and I can’t help but think of the safety of the people who are staying on the street tonight,” Zlotnick countered.

At the recommendation of their sergeant, the officer and cadet turned back for headquarters, and we continued our count without a police escort.

At least one other team was abandoned by its escort that night, according to Close to Home officials.

Judith Andrade briefs police officers who will escort volunteers on the PIT Count.

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When contacted for comment later, an SAPD spokesperson defended the officers’ decision to turn back, saying it’s dangerous for patrol personnel to stray too far from their vehicles.

Even so, the officers participating in the PIT Count had been given the choice to drive or accompany on foot.

San Antonio’s unhoused population has a fraught relationship with law enforcement, especially after the highly publicized incident in which sincefired Officer Matthew Luckhurst was disciplined for giving a feces sandwich to a homeless man in 2016.

Close to Home is addressing the dynamic by working with local law enforcement to incorporate a trauma-informed approach into interacting with the city’s unhoused population.

As midnight approached, the remaining teams returned to the Corazon Center to turn in their flashlights and report back on their experiences.

Judith Andrade, Close to Home’s domestic violence system and training coordinator, said goodnight to her coworkers and left the center with her brother, Ozuna, whom she says she “couldn’t be more proud of” for beating addiction and leaving behind a life on the street.

Ozuna exemplifies what Andrade frequently shares in her training seminars: “homeless is a temporary condition, it’s not what a person is.” sacurrent.com | February 7 – 20, 2024 | CURRENT

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

TH EATER

A RAISIN IN THE SUN In honor of Black History Month, The Classic Theatre of San Antonio is presenting Lorraine Hansbury’s landmark drama A Raisin in the Sun, which will take place at the company’s new home at the San Pedro Playhouse, in the former Cellar Theater space. A Raisin in the Sun first premiered on Broadway in 1959 and tells the story of a Black family living on the South Side of Chicago and its struggle against discrimination and economic hardship. As the family attempts to improve its financial situation through an insurance payout, the individual members must reevaluate their identities and stations in life as their hopes and dreams collide. The play was the first work on Broadway written by a Black woman and remains relevant today for tackling issues of wealth disparity and gender inequality. The play was inspired by the Langston Hughes poem “Harlem,” which asks “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” “I am honored to guide the vision and direction of this sacred, timeless piece,” Director Darcell Andre said in a statement. “A Raisin in the Sun serves as a repository of Black American experiences, difficulties, intricacies and intersectionalities. In this production,

Jaime Monzon

anticipate a supernatural noir that immerses you within the essence of the story and its compelling, reflective characters.” $24-$39, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Classic Theatre at San Pedro Playhouse, 800 W. Ashby Place, (210) 589-8450, classictheatre.org. — Marco Aquino

calendar

THU | 02.08 SUN | 02.25

SAT | 02.10 SPECIAL EVEN T

BUD LIGHT MARDI GRAS RIVER PARADE & CELEBRATION

San Antonians can experience Mardi Gras magic on the River Walk this month with an afternoon of food, music and entertainment worthy of a Fat Tuesday celebration. The city’s annual Bud Light Mardi Gras River Parade & Celebration will kick off at the Arneson River Theatre with live music performances from the Noah Peterson Quartet, Bexar Brass, the Robert Carter Band and Hector Ward and the Big Time scheduled throughout the afternoon. Revelers can catch the 10-boat Mardi Gras-themed parade twice throughout the day — first from 2-3 p.m. at the Museum Reach and downtown from 5-6 p.m. A coronation event at the Arneson River Theatre also will crown new River Walk Royalty starting at 4:15 p.m. Free, 1-6 p.m., San Antonio River Walk, thesanantonioriverwalk.com. — Amber Esparza

THU | 02.08 SUN | 02.25

Times and pricing vary, Feb. 8-25, Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, Freeman Coliseum, 3201 E. Houston St., (210) 2255851, sarodeo.com. — Dean Zach

SPECIAL EVEN T

SAN ANTONIO STOCK SHOW & RODEO A mural outside historic Freeman Coliseum titled Building Life’s Memories colorfully showcases a constellation of different figures — a band performing, a rodeo clown smiling and a bull bucking its rider. For two weeks, the figures in this mural will come to life when the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo boots, scoots and boogies into the Freeman. The annual hoedown promises livestock encounters ranging from bull riding and mutton bustin’ to pony races and pig racing. The fairgrounds offer a wide range of grub options along with carnival rides and more than 175 vendors peddling their wares. Plus, the can’t-miss live music slate features artists as diverse as rockers Cheap Trick, norteño

Reminder:

band Grupo el Duelo and music legend Wynonna Judd. The events calendar on the rodeo’s website provides a comprehensive list of goings-on — $12 in advance serves as general admission to the fairgrounds for adults ($15 at the gate), Darcell Andre

with additional prices for certain rodeo events and concerts.

Courtesy Photo / San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo

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.

improvtx.com/sanantonio | 618 Nw Loop 410, SaN ANTONIO, TX 78216 | 210•541•8805

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© 2021 Worcester Art Museum

TH EATER

ART

BEETLEJUICE

‘THE AGE OF ARMOR: TREASURES FROM THE HIGGINS ARMORY COLLECTION AT THE WORCESTER ART MUSEUM’

Following its wildly successful Broadway debut in 2018, Beetlejuice will haunt the stage of San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre this month, one of many stops on the production’s first ever North American tour. The eight-time Tony-nominated musical, based on the beloved 1988 Tim Burton film, explores an unexpected intersection between melancholy and levity. When a recently deceased couple notices a new family moving into their former home, they decide to give the business of haunting a try, but not before calling on Beetlejuice, an infamously mischievous and prolific demon. One of the home’s residents is Lydia Deetz, a reclusive teenager mourning the loss of her mother and shouldering neglect from her father, a man who pours himself into his work and a new relationship with his assistant, Delia. While hiding in the basement, Lydia meets Beetlejuice and — despite his frightening appearance and crude demeanor — decides to team up with him to chase her father, Delia and their business associates out of the home she feels has been stolen from her. Lydia hopes associating with the dead will bring her closer to her mother while wreaking havoc on her father’s shiny new life. However, what starts as a desire for vengeance has the potential to become more twisted and complex than she could ever predict. $45-$210, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Caroline WolFF

Despite the public’s onging fascination with ancient myths and medieval tales, there are few significant collections of armor available for public viewing in the Americas. But now, thanks to a collaborative exhibition with the Worcester Art Museum’s Higgins Armory Collection, guests can learn about the golden age of armor from more than 80 objects on display, including full suits used to keep combat weapons from dealing damage. The exhibition also features works by contemporary artists that reckon with the violent historical connotations of armor and how personal identity in modern society is informed by the bygone age of armor, conquistadors and soldier-saints. Keep an eye out for special programming running throughout the length of the exhibition, including special lectures, a spring break family day and a thematically appropriate screening of The Princess Bride. $10-$20, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org — Macks Cook

sacurrent.com | February 7 – 20, 2024 | CURRENT

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TUE | 02.20

Courtesy Photo / Majestic Theatre

COMEDY

ALI WONG

As the brains behind Netflix comedy specials Baby Cobra (2016), Hard Knock Wife (2018) and Don Wong (2022), Ali Wong has been all over the place lately. But she hasn’t just focused on stand-up. At the Emmys, she won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role in Beef, the acclaimed dark comedy which she also executive produced. She also picked up Best Actress awards at the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards for the same series. During a recent standup set in San Francisco, she spilled the beans on her divorce and proved she’s still able to deliver edgy material. “Many of the best jokes of the evening were also the most sexually explicit,” SFGate reporter Timothy Karoff noted in his review. “Unfortunately, that means that they’re not well-suited for print.”

Now she’s headed to the Majestic Theatre to give San Antonio audiences a taste of her riveting, revelatory and raunchy comedy. Sold Out, 7:30 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Dalia Gulca

sacurrent.com | February 7 – 20, 2024 | CURRENT

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

arts

Studio Visits

Anjali Gupta

The idiosyncratic work of Meg Langhorne explores gods, parables and more

BY ANJALI GUPTA

S

itting on the studio floor with its back tilted against the wall, Judith Beheading Holofernes (After Caravaggio) offers a grotesque yet darkly humorous insight into the art of Meg Langhorne.

The San Antonio artist altered the Baroque masterpiece depicting the biblical tale of the beheading of an Assyrian general by replacing Judith’s head with that of a doe. Captured midway through the act, the doe is serene to the point of narcotic ambivalence. The glassy-eyed animal’s lack of expression contrasts with the contorted faces of the terrified Holofernes and the malevolent jeer of Judith’s crone-like maid, who seems overtly eager to stuff the invader’s freshly severed head into an outstretched sack.

The work is part of Langhorne’s ongoing series After Caravaggio, which also includes alterations of the Baroque painter’s versions of Bacchus, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas and Medusa, among others. Langhorne grew up in Dallas and first became fascinated with the Italian master as a grad student at the University of North Texas. After graduating

Meg Langhorne shows off both her reimagining of a Caravaggio painting and the original work.

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Artemisia was a woman who painted as an individual at a time when such a practice was all but unheard of, and she’s still considered an anomaly for her time. Caravaggio was she moved around a bit, first to downtown San Antonio, then Austin and back to San An- much more problematic, not just as an artist but as a human being. His tonio, finally settling down open affairs with men while in the early ’90s on a plot simultaneously accepting the with an idyllic 100-year-old patronage of the Roman Cathcottage just outside Helotes. olic Church, his unpredictable Langhorne’s comfortable and psychotic public episodes two-story studio was com— not to mention the taking of pleted in the late 2000s. The a life in a duel and living on the modest space in a bucolic lam for the last few years of his setting belies the aesthetic short life — all make him the oddities contained within. perfectly flawed sort of genius Judging from the work to harness for Langhorne’s on both floors of her work distortions. area, Langhorne’s interest “I want to engage the viewer, in Caravaggio hasn’t waned. not confront them or beat Just the same, it’s been a frethem over the head with my quent point of contention. agenda,” she explained. “Why “People have questioned use baseball bat when a feather me as to why I didn’t choose will do?”

Artemisia Gentileschi as Courtesy Image / Meg Langhorne In Medusa (After Caravaggio), a starting point for this Langhorne uses her own face as the basis for series,” Langhorne said. “She just seems too obvious. She’s unrepentant — as was Caravag- the historically maligned, beheaded Gorgon.

The flip side of the piece features a 25 gio’s Judith — and for good reason.”

Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

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Courtesy Images / Meg Langhorne, except top right by Anjali Gupta

23 doe with the same mane of snakes for hair. However, Langhorne insists that the Gorgon and the doe aren’t antithetical. Nor is the doe the anthropomorphic representation of a woman in peril: she’s a surrogate.

“Women in our society are treated as non-persons — like animals, like prey.

We are persona non grata,” Langhorne said. “The myth of Medusa is a perfect example of this. She was a maiden — a priestess — until Poseidon raped her in Athena’s temple. For the crime of being defiled on sacred ground, Athena turned that girl into a monster, with snakes for hair and a gaze that turned men into stone. She sent Perseus to decapitate Medusa and bring back the severed head. Talk about blaming the victim.”

She added: “After all these years, I’m still enraged about men making decisions about women and their bodies.

Langhorne has applied that rage not just to reworking classical paintings.

Her “bodice buster” series was the first to use the doe as surrogate for the male gaze. Each piece in the series is a reworking of the cover of a cheesy ’60s or ‘70s romance novel, with the doe being sexually overcome by her own carnal desires. Hilarious to view, the series acts

Clockwise from upper left: A painting from Langhorne’s ‘bodice buster’ series, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (After Caravaggio), Medusa (After Caravaggio) and Judith Beheading Holofernes (After Caravaggio).

The last three reinterpret a wellknown Baroque painter’s work.

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as a bridge between Langhorne’s interests in antiquity and pop culture. Our stony-eyed heroine is finally evolving into a femme fatale.

Langhorne’s latest series of gouacheon-board paintings reimagines the covers of ’50s pulp detective novels. The doe now packs a revolver.

Together, the victim and the vixen represent a duality that the artist considers flip sides of the same coin, even interdependent in terms of representation. Like Caravaggio, Langhorne is both a dramatist and naturalist. However, unlike the Italian painter, she’s not a lunatic.

Recently retired, she spends all of her free time working on things that please or anger her — or both.

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

arts Speaking From the Heart

Remembering San Antonio ventriloquist Nacho Estrada, who inspired kids through humor and wonder

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

B

efore the big stage of America’s Got Talent existed, there was the white, linoleum cafeteria floor of Pearce Elementary in the Southside Independent School District.

That’s where I first saw a man by the name of Nacho Estrada make a room full of 6-year-olds, including myself, convulse with laughter.

Estrada was a local ventriloquist, comedian and motivational entertainer who traveled to schools all over the city and state to perform an act focused on dropout prevention, saying no to illegal drugs and the importance of taking care of the environment.

Anyone who went to public school in San Antonio, especially in the ‘80s and ‘90s, likely saw him perform at least once at their elementary or middle school.

Estrada died Sunday, Jan. 28, after a long illness. He was 77.

I first saw Estrada perform in 1986. It was my first year at a public school. I didn’t know what a school assembly was or realize that school time could be spent outside the classroom. The only time I remember leaving my kindergarten class at the private Baptist academy I attended was to go to lunch and chapel. At chapel, our only form of entertainment was watching our elderly teacher fall asleep in the pew.

So, when my first-grade teacher told us we were going to a special presentation in the cafeteria and that we would be skipping our usual handwriting exercises, I was intrigued. “What could be more important than getting the little tail on my lowercase Q to swing up?” I wondered.

Nevertheless, our class filed that afternoon into the cafeteria with other students, plopping down in rows on the cold floor. A large trunk sat on a table at the front of the room. It was the kind of trunk you might find at the top of your grandma’s closet. “Maybe it has blankets in it,” I thought.

Then, Estrada walked up and introduced himself.

He was dressed in a bright vest and tie and sported feathery hair. He looked like he could be my tio. He told us he was a ventriloquist, but I had never heard that word. I had gone to a cardiologist before, so I thought maybe he was some kind of doctor.

After his introduction, he asked the kids if they wanted to meet one of his friends. We all said yes, of course, and he proceeded to open the trunk and fiddle around inside for a few seconds. Members of his captive audience sat up on their knees and lifted their

Courtesy Photo / Nacho Estrada Family

heads toward the trunk, but we couldn’t see anything.

What was he doing?

Finally, Estrada called out to his friend. “Maclovio, come out! There are lot of kids here that want to meet you! Maclovio!”

Then a high-pitched voice that seemed to come from inside the trunk spoke up: “I’m not ready!”

Estrada and Maclovio argued for a bit, our curiosity growing all the while. Eventually, the ventriloquist pulled his friend from the trunk and made a formal introduction. Everyone roared with laughter at the sight of what looked like a small, wooden boy. I had seen Pinocchio before, but this was something different.

Then, as Estrada carried Maclovio upright in his arms, the wooden boy’s mouth moved and spoke. We laughed, spun like tops and did everything else sixyear-olds do when they’re excited.

As Estrada and Maclovio conversed, it took me a while to realized that the man was speaking the words that were coming out of his wooden companion — and all without moving his mouth! I still didn’t understand how he was doing it, though. All I knew was that it was magical.

For the next hour, the pair made us laugh until our stomachs hurt. He would do it again, at least once every year through middle school. Over that time, he introduced us to a whole new cast of characters like the Tortilla Monster, a deep-voiced puppet who liked to steal kisses, and a tiny little red ball that Estrada used to show his ability to throw his voice across the room.

Each time Estrada visited, it was an event. Thinking

back today, it reminds me of that time before the VHS boom when The Wizard of Oz would only be broadcast on network TV once a year prior. If you were absent the day Estrada visited, you missed out.

Years later, in 2012, I served as director of communications at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. One of the first things I wanted to do was book Estrada to perform. I hadn’t seen him in years and was happy to find out he was still going strong. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, so I knew a show would sell out because people like me still thought of him fondly.

I had also had my first child six months prior, and I wanted to take her to the show to share the experience. Sure, I knew my daughter was way too young to understand the jokes or the positive messages Estrada would share, but to hold her in my arms and listen to him again meant the world to me.

Rest easy, Nacho. The happiness you brought to children throughout your career will never be forgotten.

Your voice will carry on. sacurrent.com | February 7 – 20, 2024 | CURRENT

27

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

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If you went to high school with Chad, would you have found anything about him attractive?

Boy Meets World

Comedian Nasim Pedrad returns with second season of coming-of-age comedy series Chad

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

T

he coming-of-age comedy series Chad has faced an uphill climb.

In 2022, hours before the second season was set to premiere, TBS canceled the show as part of the network’s continued attempt to pivot away from original content.

Two years later, the new season has finally premiered at its new home on the Roku Channel. The series stars former Saturday Night Live actress Nasim Pedrad as the title character, a Persian American boy awkwardly maneuvering his way through high school and trying to connect with his cultural identity.

During a recent interview with the Current, Pedrad, who is the creator, co-writer and executive producer of the series, talked about the evolution of Chad as a character and her own high school experiences. She also explained why it’s important to use her platform in Hollywood to speak on issues including women’s rights in her birth country of Iran.

The first two seasons of Chad are available on the Roku app and at therokuchannel.com.

What excites you the most about sharing a second season of Chad with fans, especially after it was unclear what was going to happen to the series?

I love the direction we take the character this season. I love portraying the character. It was

really making us laugh in the writers’ room thinking about giving him a love story and something to focus on outside of himself. In the first season, he’s so much about being popular. I didn’t want to just do that again.

So, we thought, “What if he becomes popular and then it all comes crashing down?”

How do you think Chad has evolved from his freshman to sophomore year?

I think in season one, he’s really bearing the part of him that speaks to his cultural background and the otherness of being an immigrant kid. When he hits rock bottom in season two, he’s forced to spend time with his family, and he grows a little. It’s incremental, but he learns to be just a little more at peace with the fact that he is coming from these two different cultures. At that age, that can feel like a scary thing.

What kind of kid where you in high school?

Did you ever get suspended or go to detention?

I was a good kid. I didn’t really want to rock the boat. I was just trying to survive. I didn’t have the luxury of rebelling. I was pretty much a nerd. I just tried to keep my head down and get good grades, so I could go to college. A lot of that nerdy, awkward sensibility is ultimately what inspired the engine of the show.

Oh, my gosh. I feel so bad that I want to say no. I mean, the part of me that’s rooting for Chad is heartbroken because he’s trying so hard. He’s in such a specific stage of adolescence where he is getting in his own way more than anyone else. It’s not like he’s being bullied by anyone. He just gets himself in trouble because he’s so desperate to belong, which is very relatable. But I don’t know how attractive that is for me. Maybe if he was just a little more comfortable in his own skin, I probably would have had a crush on him.

Over the last few years, you’ve been very vocal about political injustices taking place in your home country of Iran. These days, it seems like actors who speak out on controversial topics lose out on job opportunities. Would you urge them to continue speaking out?

I would implore anyone to be authentic to who they are and to speak from their heart, presuming their message is coming from a place of love. I think if people feel inclined to participate in activism, the way I felt inclined to when there were mass uprisings in Iran, they should. It’s a beautiful thing for people that have a little bit of a public platform to be able to lend their voice to the voiceless. So, in my case, when the people of my homeland were silenced and faced with the brutality of a regime that engages in state-sanctioned violence, I not only felt like it was an honor to be their megaphone, but I felt a real responsibility as a member of the diaspora who’s privileged enough to be able to speak at a time where they’re being silenced by their own government. It felt important and necessary and was very personal to me. So, I threw myself into what little I could do from outside the country to help amplify their voices.

Find more film stories at sacurrent.com

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

food Instagram / longtabbrewing

Gone Flat?

San Antonio craft brewers adapting to survive inflation, changing trends

BY TRAVIS E. POLING

B

eer is flowing in San Antonio brewery taprooms. It’s also heading out to bars, restaurants and store shelves.

Clearly, the city’s craft-beer producers have moved beyond the days of pandemic shutdowns, supply chain nightmares and pleas for customers to keep drinking their products via curbside pickup.

What isn’t behind San Antonio and Texas breweries, however, is uncertainty.

The past year seemed to bring weekly news of a new closure somewhere in the state or warnings that one of its breweries is on the brink of permanently closing up shop.

People are drinking less and moving to other alcoholic beverages. At the same time, inflationary pressures are pinching consumers and brewery budgets. Together, those factors make for a shaky outlook.

Taxes on the east-of-downtown property of San Antonio’s largest brewery, Alamo Beer Co., recently doubled. The business also experienced a 50% increase in the cost of ingredients over the past two years.

Also complicating life for Alamo Beer, the adjustable interest rate on a small business loan to the brewery shot up to 10% from 4%.

“You add all this up and it is making it very, very difficult for craft brewers,” Alamo owner and founder Eugene Simor said.

San Antonio shuffle One thing Alamo has in its favor is excess capacity to make more beer or manufacture and package other beverages. Besides its own brews, from Alamo Golden Ale to Hayz Street IPA, it now produces and sells VIVA Beer thanks to a deal it struck in September.

Alamo also took over the ShotGun Seltzer brand, which produces a variety of fizzy drinks including its take on ranch water, a ubiquitous Texas refresher. Founded in Austin, ShotGun merged with AquaBrew in San Marcos in early 2022 for the capacity to produce its seltzers in-house. That operation has since closed, and Alamo took over the ShotGun brands last fall.

To keep revenue flowing, Alamo also does

Longtab Brewing in Leon Valley keeps serving up the pints, but its owner said he’s heard tales of gloom and doom from other beermakers.

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contract manufacturing and packaging for three local, non-alcoholic beverage companies that include a canned coffee, an iced tea made with olive leaves and a drink made with kava root.

“It was not part of my business plan, but the capacity was there,” Simor said.

Excess capacity at San Antonio breweries is a harbinger of more consolidation. Industry watchers have long predicted a slate of craft brewery mergers, and Simor said the current market forces may make that finally bring that to fruition.

Freetail Brewing Co., the Alamo City’s second-largest brewing operation, could be part of that trend as investors in the 15-year-old enterprise explore selling the company.

With two brewpub and pizza kitchen locations — one of which also serves as a large-scale production brewery and canning line — Freetail had a banner revenue year, according to its recent sales listing by a business broker at BizQuest.com. Management also expects double-digit growth in 2024 and a first-time profit, the listing notes.

Freetail has deep distribution of its canned beer in San Antonio and some other 33

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food 31 Texas markets. It also recently started distributing in Colorado.

For its part, Weathered Souls, a well-known San Antonio brewery with national recognition, has struggled in the wake of its 2022 expansion into the Charlotte, North Carolina, market.

Mike Holt, Weathered Souls’ majority owner, has told other news outlets that he’s searching for someone to buy out his share in a partnership with brewer and co-owner Marcus Baskerville. Because of Baskerville’s minority ownership, Weathered Souls is one of just a handful of Black-owned U.S. brewing companies.

Without a new investor, it appeared the Charlotte location may have faced closure, but Holt wanted to sell his share to an owner who would make it a majority Black-owned business, according to North Carolina outlet QCitymetro.com.

However, at press time, QCitymetro reported that Holt had secured an investor to ensure Weathered Souls’ future.

Stalled demand After years of brisk growth, craft beer demand has finally stalled out.

In 2023, the percentage of people who said they were drinking more craft beer and those who purported to drink less were equal at 25%, according to a Harris Poll. In 2015, the same poll found that 45% said they drank more craft beer, while 11% said they were drinking less from small and independent breweries.

For the craft beer drinkers who said they’re consuming less, the most prevalent reason was that they turned to wine, spirits, flavored malt beverages and hard seltzers and sodas, according to the poll. Fewer cited health or economic reasons. Only about 15% said they were drinking less because they started consuming or increased their use of cannabis, a fear that’s been the boogeyman of the alcohol industry for at least a decade.

The number of brewery closings in the 12 months leading up to last November hit roughly 400, while brewery openings declined to about the same number, according to Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, the trade group representing independent breweries. That compares to 1,200 openings and 250 closings in 2018.

In a recent presentation to association members, Watson said the number of breweries in the U.S. likely won’t increase in 2024, but that doesn’t mean a bursting craft beer bubble. He predicts normal market dynamics and a geographic reshuffling of where the breweries are located will keep the industry strong overall.

To that point, it isn’t all doom and gloom for San Antonio-area brewers.

Longtab Brewing Co. in Leon Valley appears to have found a secret sauce in catering to a fiercely loyal customer base of military members and veterans. The business produces military-themed beers, including several Belgian-ale styles, and its décor celebrates the American armed forces.

Longtab also serves up a chef-driven menu to go

Jaime Monzon

with its brews and has managed to keep expenses in check, said co-owner David Holland, an architect who served as a U.S. Army Green Beret. Since its 2020 launch, the venture has expanded its brewery space three times and its seating space once, he added.

“I hear nothing but bad news about other breweries struggling,” Holland said. “I get spooked, but we are still paying the bills and making payroll.”

Local loyalty Even in January, a slow month for most bars and taprooms, Holland’s brewery posted revenue on par with its busy December. He credits that to a two-day anniversary party that brought out crowds ready to spend.

“We also started BelgianFest two years ago and did great. We did it again and it was an absolute frickin’ blowout,” Holland added.

Holland had looked at moving the brewery, but rents elsewhere and finish-out costs made it prohibitive. Instead, the brewery just took on more space at its location just off Bandera Road.

“Our parking sucks, our layout is very fragmented,

San Antonio’s Weathered Souls may soon undergo an ownership change, according to its majority stakeholder.

M

but people don’t seem to care,” Holland said. “We have a different clientele with veterans. They’re pretty loyal, so every time we have an event we have a big turnout.”

Many of those customers are coming from far North Central San Antonio locales such as Stone Oak. Holland said he’s “actively looking” for a satellite Longtab location that could operate under a different license allowing it to also serve cocktails. He’s surveying spaces in the Stone Oak area that once held restaurants and hoping for a quick turnaround.

Even so, not all brewers have been able to command loyalty which transcends consumer whims.

Like many small businesses, their fortunes are tied to support from local customers, Alamo’s Simor said.

“The ‘support local’ concept really needs to continue to grow in order for the industry to survive,” he said. sacurrent.com | February 7 – 20, 2024 | CURRENT

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music

Shakin’ Street

San Antonio-released MC5 tribute pulls in some of the biggest names in punk and hard rock

BY BILL BAIRD

R

ock tribute albums have proliferated over the past few decades, a phenomenon that allows musical artists to honor their influences while cashing in on music fans’ nostalgia.

Some are inspired, but as with anything that gets overdone, the majority fall into the ho-hum category. Many feature a middling collection of artists perked up by one or two big names, and just as often, it’s a head scratcher whether some of the selected artists really feel much affinity for the material they’re covering.

And then there’s Call Me Animal: A Tribute to the MC5, recently released by San Antonio’s Saustex Records. The double album rates as one the most star-studded tribute rock records ever assembled, full stop. Not to mention, it’s abundantly clear that the artists who contributed owe a serious debt to the punk pioneers at its center.

Here’s a quick rundown of the appearances: Alice Cooper, Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, OFF!), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Cherie Currie (The Runaways), Mike Watt (The Minutemen, The Stooges), J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.), Lydia Lunch.

Beyond that, the sessions included members of The Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Motorhead, Anthrax, W.A.S.P., Concrete Blonde, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Nashville Pussy, Faith No More.

For crying out loud, the album even features Micky Raphael, Willie Nelson’s harmonica player, not to mention Wayne Kramer, one of two surviving members of the MC5 until his death on Feb. 2. Fifteen percent of the album’s proceeds will go to Jail Guitar Doors USA, a nonprofit co-founded by the Kramer to provide musical instruments to help rehabilitate prisoners.

“It’s a dream guest list,” said Saustex honcho Jeff Smith, also a member of pioneering cowpony group Hickoids. “And a testament to the MC5, an important band, not only musically in the development of punk and hard rock but also their political convictions, for which they suffered greatly.”

The MC5 emerged from the fecund musical ground of 1960s Detroit, where the clang of factories and roar of car engines made their way into the city’s trademarked take-no-prisoners, no-bullshit rock’n’roll. It was working folks’ music for a working class town, not unlike San Antonio.

Racial integration was crucial as well, since the city’s Motown artists and hard rockers drew inspiration from one another. That maelstrom gave birth not just to the MC5, but

also the Stooges, Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes and Bob Seger, to name a few.

The MC5 — an abbreviated moniker for the Motor City Five — not only inspired with its full-throttle guitar rock but also its bold politics, laying the foundation for punk’s frantic mix of the two. The group served as house band for the White Panther Party, performing at the ‘68 Democratic National Convention and delivering a musical middle finger to straight society.

Among those inspired by the MC5 was Alice Cooper, who relocated to Detroit after a failed stint in LA. “Playing with Iggy and MC5 was great for us,” Cooper told Uncut Magazine. “The MC5 were just pure Detroit. They were a little bit R&B, they were hard rock, they were politically charged and they were all such good musicians.”

Though released by the Alamo City’s Saustex, the album is the brainchild of Joey Killingsworth and Dik Ledoux of the Memphis band Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre.

The Current spoke with Killingsworth via phone about the project.

How did this come about?

We got to open for [MC5 tribute act] the MC50 in Nashville. We hit it off with [member] Kim Thayil, and I thought, “If I do a tribute to the MC5, I could probably get Kim.” Brandon from Fugazi, he was drumming for the MC50, and he got me in touch, and off we went. With these wacky ideas I get, once I get the first guest, I know I’ve got something.

Once Kim was on board, I knew it would help getting some of the other harder-to-get guests.

Alice Cooper!

He got on board! It’s weird. We were originally trying to do “Rambling Rose” with him, but he wanted “Shakin’ Street.” We said, whatever Alice wants! My whole musician wishlist got on board. It’s crazy.

MC5 is one of those bands.

I had a lot of troubles when I did a tribute to Black Oak Arkansas. Not a lot of Black Oak fans, I found. Like Jeff Smith said, sometimes folks love the guests more than who you’re tributing. But with the MC5, everybody who’s

Courtesy Image / Saustex Records

into hard rock was immediately on board.

Was there any back and forth with it?

Not really. Everybody was stoked. We’re buddies with Nashville Pussy now, so I talk with Ruyter and Jeff Clayton from Antiseen, and now I book them. I’m also a booker, so it’s worked out amazingly.

What does MC5 mean to you?

They’re the template. They did it all. Anything you can think of, they did it. The cussing on the record, the controversy, Sonic Smith and Wayne Kramer with their guitar solos, they just killed it. And the freeform jams.

They were bringing the most radical elements of the ’60s into rock ’n’ roll.

Yeah, with the whole Sun Ra element and Wayne Kramer’s love of free jazz. That’s a big part of it. A lot of folks forget that element, but it’s there. Our tribute has Wayne Kramer on a track with Jello Biafra! What the hell?

We got Wayne on board, he’s helping promote it. It’s the first tribute we’ve done where the folks we’re tributing have really gotten on board.

With all these hard rockers, you managed to include Mickey Raphael, Willie Nelson’s harmonica player.

Black Oak Arkansas used to play with Willie, so he was on that tribute. He was game for this one too.

He’s slumming with us! He’s played with Ray Charles but he’s doing stuff with us. It’s crazy.

You’re worked with Jeff Smith on the release.

Jeff’s great, he knocked it out of the park on his track! We’re doing some shows with the Hickoids on this run in March. That whole scene down in Texas is great, so nice. I love all those folks.

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.

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

critics’ picks Wednesday, Feb. 7

Los #3 Dinners Like long-lost cousins of ? and the Mysterians and Sam the Sham, Los #3 Dinners specialize in wild and rowdy Tex-Mex garage-rock that transcends genres. Originally starting as Los #2 Dinners, the group’s early work channeled the confrontational, anti-disco energy of punk rock.

While the confrontational part may be toned down, the energy remains. Free, 8 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., samsburgerjoint.com. — Bill Baird

Friday, Feb. 9 Portugal. The Man, Snacktime Experimental-minded indie-poppers Portugal.

The Man are among the top-notch acts christening The Pearl’s new and intimate Stable Hall venue. Little surprise this show sold out early.

The Alaska-to-the-Pacific Northwest transplants kicked around for roughly a dozen years before landing the 2017 smash “Feel It Still.” Last summer, the band, working with a variety of collaborators, released the album Chris Black Changed My Life, which spawned the singles “Dummy” and “Summer of Luv.” Sold Out, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com.

— Danny Cervantes

Saturday, Feb. 10 Morat The members of Latin pop-rock sensation Morat have known each other since they were kids growing up in Bogota, Colombia. The group exploded onto the scene with the 2015 hit “Mi Nuevo Vicio,” an early collaboration with Paulina Rubio. Now platinum hitmakers, Morat recently released the EP, Antes De Que Amanezca. $39.50-$249.50, 8 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, boeingcentertechport.com. — DC Los Callejeros de San Anto and Conjunto Heritage Taller Lerma’s, one of San Antonio’s iconic conjunto venues, was spared the wrecking ball and has been resurrected as a West Side community center. In a nod to its conjunto roots, Lerma’s is hosting a free “Be My Main Squeeze Baile” Valentine’s Day show featuring Tejano, cumbia, norteño, etc. band Los Callejeros de San Anto and students from Conjunto Heritage Talle (CHT), an organization dedicated to the preservation of traditional conjunto music. All proceeds from drinks sold at the event will benefit CHT. Free, 6:00 p.m., Lerma’s, 1602 N. Zarzamora St., (210) 449-2231. — BB

Sunday, Feb. 11 Archer Oh, INOHA, The Lemon Trees Garage-rock band Archer Oh was formed in

2015 in Moreno Valley, California, the brainchild of lead singer and guitarist Arturo “Archer” Medrano. Although the reverb-drenched twang of surf music figures heavily in its sound, so do big pop hooks and an easygoing vocal delivery.

Local pop-punk outfit INOHA and sometimes-abrasive dance rock group The Lemon Trees round out the diverse bill. $15, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Dalia Gulca

Lakecia Benjamin

Tuesday, Feb. 13 Shinyribs What better way to celebrate Fat Tuesday than with the swamp-funk party of Austin’s Shinyribs? Frontman Kevin Russell got his start playing the raucous Americana of The Gourds, who recorded with San Antonio legend Doug Sahm before his passing. After The Gourds went on hiatus, Russell’s Shinyribs, previously a side-project, became the main event, and he’s never looked back. Bring your Mardi Gras beads and laissez les bons temps rouler. $26-$48, Brauntex Theater of the Performing Arts, 290 W. San Antonio St., New Braunfels, brauntex.org. — BB

Friday, Feb. 16 Baldemar, Ston, Animal Mood A certain homespun quality ties together the three bands on this all-local lineup. Solo artist Baldemar makes low-fi, cozy pop with inviting chord progressions, echoey guitar, fuzzy synth and a soft-spoken vocal delivery. Ston, another solo act, specializes in folk bursting with wistful, forlorn lyricism. Meanwhile, indie-rock act Animal Mood specialize in danceable tracks that are upbeat and surf-inspired. $10, 9 p.m., The Starlighter, 1910 Fredericksburg Road, thestarlighter.com. — DG

Friday, Feb. 16 Saturday, Feb. 17 Black Pumas, Greyhound The Austin-based duo of singer-songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist-producer Adrian Quesada, otherwise known as the Black Pumas, is another of the high-caliber acts booked into SA’s new Stable Hall, and like the venue’s Portugal. The Man show, these back-to-back performances are sold out. Nominated for a best new artist Grammy in 2020 behind the strength of their soulful psychedelic hit “Colors,” the group has gone on to collect accolades. The Black Pumas released Chronicles of a Diamond in October, and the single “More Than A Love Song” became a No. 1 hit on alternative radio. Sold Out, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — DC

Saturday, Feb. 17

Courtesy Photo / Lakecia Benjamin

Husbands The gauzy indie-surf rock sound of Husbands sounds more tied to the West Coast than the band’s landlocked home base of Oklahoma.

But geographical incongruities aside, the group showcases catchy riffs on the single “Mexico” from its latest album, CUATRO. If you’re into catching something ahead of the curve, Husbands’ bio brags that the band is “considered by many on the internet to be ‘super underrated.’” Can’t beat that ringing endorsement. $18, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC Lakecia Benjamin One of the world’s most in-demand saxophonists, Lakecia Benjamin has earned a stellar reputation with jazz aficionados not only for her instrumental chops but also her work as arranger and bandleader. She’s toured with Alicia Keys, Missy Elliott and Anita Baker, meaning she’s performed in both arenas and intimate jazz clubs. Her past recordings have included radical reinterpretations of works by John and

Alice Coltrane, and her newest album, 2023’s Phoenix, featuring Wayne Shorter and Patrice Rushen, was nominated for three Grammies. $36, 8:00 p.m., Carver Community Cultural Center, 226 N. Hackberry St., thecarver.org. — BB

Sunday, February 18 Gus Baldwin, Grocery Bag, Gult, Inner Alignment How can you go wrong with a free show featuring a stacked lineup of compelling, up-andcoming garage, punk and psych? Gus Baldwin is one of Austin’s most charismatic performers, swimming in the same musical sea as Osees or Ty Segall. The young and legitimately rocking Grocery Bag is proving itself to be one of the state’s best bands. Newcomers Gult are one of the city’s most promising punk acts, while San Antonio’s Inner Alignment fuses math-y guitar precision and heavy riffage. Free, 8 p.m., Lonesome Rose, 2114 N. St. Mary’s St., thelonesomerose.com. — BB sacurrent.com | February 7 – 20, 2024 | CURRENT

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“Strong Suits”--dealing with another puzzle.

by Matt Jones © 2024 Matt Jones Across 1. As of yet 6. Judge’s seat, in law 10. “Ray Donovan” actor Schreiber 14. Jumper cable terminal 15. As well 16. Give the creepy eye to 17. Remove all the dirt and grime from 19. Server operating system 20. Release 21. Three-part vacuum tube in old TVs 23. “___ Little Tenderness” 24. Becomes enraged 25. Double sextet 28. Borrower 29. 2001 high-tech debut 30. Apt answer for this clue 32. It had a hub at JFK 35. Keanu’s “Matrix” role 36. What you may need to do to understand the four sets of circled letters 37. Talking computer in “2001: A Space Odyssey” 38. Slippery tree 39. Inquisition target 40. Clock feature 41. Kicks out 43. Injection also used to treat migraines 44. Gangsters’ headwear, in

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CURRENT | February 7 – 20, 2024 | sacurrent.com

old movies 46. Tiger sound 48. Cider fodder 49. England-Scandinavia separator 53. Golden State sch.

54. They’re unbiased and accepting, and not short-sighted 56. Wine bouquet 57. Expert pilots 58. Rice-___ (“The San Francisco Treat”) 59. Lawyer, for short 60. Put a stop to 61. “The Walking Dead” villain Down 1. Rude response 2. “Falling Slowly” musical 3. Ticonderoga, e.g.

4. Took on grown-up errands, so to speak 5. Like a phoenix 6. Lightweight modeling wood 7. Out of the breeze, to a sailor 8. Hush-hush govt. group 9. In a satisfied way 10. Thelma’s cohort, in film 11. “Disregard what you just saw ...”

12. Avoid some syllables 13. Bewildered 18. Slyly shy 22. Change color again 24. Peasants of yore 25. Feast 26. European car manufacturer

27. Went by quickly 28. “One of ___ great mysteries ...”

30. Locale in a Clash title 31. “Everybody ___” (REM song) 33. Home of Baylor University 34. James Patterson detective Cross 36. Hobbits’ homeland 40. Available to rent 42. Tennis shot 43. Role for Keaton and Kilmer 44. Animals, collectively 45. Disney World acronym 46. “I Only ___ the Ones I Love” (Jeffrey Ross book) 47. Airport code for O’Hare 49. “Great British Bake-Off ” co-host Fielding 50. Make out in Manchester 51. ___ Mode of “The Incredibles” 52. “O ___ Oscar” 55. “His Master’s Voice” company Answers on page 27

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Seniors 2000 is seeking a Director in San Antonio, TX to plan, direct, and coordinate the activities of the Center’s outreach program providing care to disabled veterans and geriatrics. The Director will develop relationships with community groups and agencies for identification and referral of individuals; direct the DAHS program and facility; train facility staff; monitor the facility building and grounds to ensure compliance; maintain all financial and individual records; maintain communication with an individual’s family members or responsible parties; assure the development and maintenance of individual’s plan of care; review and assess individual’s nursing and medical needs; develop each individual’s plan of care; obtain physician’s orders for medication and treatments to be administered; determine whether self-administered medications have been appropriately taken, applied, or used; enter, date, and sign monthly progress notes on medical care provided; provide health education; and maintain medical records. Send resume via email to Tess Cahigas at senadc1@swbell.net and reference job code 25372.

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