San Antonio Current - March 20, 2024

08 Feature Green Line Blues

Still stinging from St. Mary’s construction woes, businesses are wary about VIA’s new bus line

07 News

The Opener News in Brief

CityScrapes

With downtowns drying up, the pressure’s on for city leaders to deliver more than empty promises with a new Spurs arena

Bad Takes

Texas’ attacks on libraries and librarians are attacks on valuable public institutions

16 Calendar Calendar Picks

22 Arts

Starting on Opposite Ends

A shared life and studio space help unify the work of artists Megan Harrison and Jimmy James Canales

39 Music

40 Years of Corn

Long-running country-punk outfit Hickoids celebrating 40-year anniversary with San Antonio gig

Critics’ Picks

Send in the Clown RuPaul’sDragRace star creates beautiful, creepy aesthetic in Jimbo’s DragCircus

31 Screens

Making History

Patton Oswalt takes on Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in Apple TV+ series Manhunt

33 Food Safe Returns

Free Rides Project hoping nocost Lyft and Uber rides can help remedy San Antonio’s drunk driving problem

Hot Spot

Camp Hot Wells’ extensive list of beer, wines and more offers good reason to soak your feet

Hot Dish

On the Cover: A new VIA bus line is promising quicker, more efficient service, but businesses along the route are concerned over the construction that will come with it. Cover design: Samantha Serna.

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HThe 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has voted to uphold a Texas law requiring minors to get parental consent before obtaining contraception. The ruling, which upholds a 2022 U.S. District Court ruling in Amarillo, holds that Texas’ law does not violate federal law that allows teens to confidentially obtain contraception at federally funded family planning clinics. The Department of Justice hasn’t yet said whether it will appeal the ruling.

San Antonio has won a $2.9 million federal grant to study how to better connect the East Side with downtown. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program, established to help address the harm caused by the construction of interstates through historically BIPOC neighborhoods. San Antonio’s historically segregated East Side was further severed from downtown by the construction of Interstate 37 in the 1970s.

HGov. Greg Abbott waded into a conflict between artists and Austin’s annual SXSW convention, attacking artists who are boycotting the event because of sponsors’ ties to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. “Bye,” Abbott tweeted last Wednesday. “Don’t come back.” More than 80 musical acts and panelists have pulled out of the event due to its partnerships with the U.S. Army, Raytheon and military contractors.

A state judge last week blocked Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to subpoena the El Paso migrant shelter Annunciation House. In his ruling, Judge Francisco Dominguez called Paxton’s office “rude and unprofessional,” and questioned the state’s motives for investigating the facility. “There is a real and credible concern that the attempt to prevent Annunciation House from conducting business in Texas was predetermined.” Annunciation House, founded nearly a half century ago, has aided hundreds of thousands of migrants.  — Abe Asher

YOU SAID IT!

“First of all, I don’t want to offend your real baby daddy. But, I would love to, first of all, get you out of the pit so we can put you somewhere safe, like VIP or some shit.”

— Rapper Drake during a San Antonio show at which he gifted a woman $25,000 for childcare expenses after she held up a sign saying, “I’m 5 months pregnant. Will you be my baby daddy?

Doubling down on a racist conspiracy theory with U.S. Rep. Chip Roy

Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican whose district includes parts of San Antonio and Austin, just can’t seem to get a handle on his troubling case of verbal flatulence.

As evidence of his apparently incurable case of noxious mouth farts, Roy once again propagated the racist “Great Replacement” theory. That widely debunked conspiracy theory claims shadowy forces are replacing white U.S. Christians with heathen immigrants in a bid to ensure liberals run the country.

“[Democrats are] flooding the zone, overwhelming the system,” Roy said earlier this month on the conservative Convention of States YouTube show. “They don’t believe that the people will be removed, ultimately. They believe ultimately they’ll be able to get them to be voters, and once and for all they can kind of wipe the slate away from the core values that this country was founded upon.”

The congressman went on to speculate that the 50 million foreign-born U.S. residents would have “20 to 25 million kids.” Because to Roy — or at least to the base to which he panders — all migrants do is breed and look for ways to destroy the country that’s taken them in.

“So, now we have a massive percentage at a moment where we’re not teaching our children

Pornhub shut down its site in Texas last week after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a state law requiring adult-content websites to institute age verification measures. Pornhub, one of the world’s most-visited websites, has fought to block the enforcement of the law since it was passed last year, arguing in federal court that the statute infringes on the right of adults to access protected speech. The company now has the option to appeal.

that America is great, we’re not teaching our children that God exists, we’re not teaching our children the values of the Constitution or Western civilization,” he said.

It shouldn’t warrant explaining, but Roy is so full of shit that his eyes are brown. Resident non-citizens can’t ever vote in U.S. elections, no matter how long they have lived in the United States. Period.

What’s more, it’s a lengthy, complicated and years-long process to become a naturalized citizen — one that involves a biometric screening along with an interview checking the applicant’s willingness to take an oath of allegiance and understanding of the U.S. Constitution. Those applicants also must take tests for their proficiency in English and knowledge of U.S. history and government.

Sounds like the kind of informed, civically plugged-in person we’d want at the voting polls.

Roy is smart enough to know how the process works. However, he’s enough of an assclown to ignore the facts and double down on a racist fantasy appealing to a growing and dangerous white nationalist fringe.

You’d think Roy’s constituents are tired of being forced to inhale his racist hot air. —

Sanford Nowlin

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) is targeting several Texas House races, giving Democratic candidates a boost as the state’s general election campaign begins. One of the candidates receiving that help is 33-year-old progressive organizer Kristian Carranza, who’s running for a seat representing South Side San Antonio. Carranza will face state Rep. John Lujan in November, trying to win back a historically Democratic seat that Lujan flipped in a 2021 special election.

Hearst Media, which owns the San Antonio Express-News, is expanding in Austin. The media company last weekend revealed its purchase of both Austin Monthly and Austin Home from Open Sky Media Inc. Hearst is planning to place both publications under the umbrella of a new, Austin-based media organization called HTA Media. Hearst’s push into Austin comes as the size of the city’s longstanding daily newspaper, the Austin-American Statesman, has been slashed by layoffs. —  Abe Asher

Shutterstock / lev radin

Shutterstock / charnsitr

GREEN LINE BLUES

Still stinging from St. Mary’s construction woes, businesses are wary about VIA’s new bus line

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

nce bitten, twice shy.

Earlier this month, prominent San Antonio business owners — some still smarting from long-delayed construction on the North St. Mary’s Strip — tweeted out fears that VIA Metropolitan Transit’s new Advanced Rapid Transit Plan may end in similar disaster.

VIA’s proposed Green Line will be the transit authority’s first Advanced Rapid Transit, or ART, service. At a total cost of $446.3 million, the route would ferry passengers from San Antonio International Airport down San Pedro Avenue, through the heart of downtown, down Southtown’s St Mary’s Street, then to the South Side.

“I have a really bad feeling about this based on prior performance,” Mr. Juicy owner Andrew Weissman wrote on X, the platform previously called Twitter. “Please pray for small businesses along this corridor during construction.”

Longtime restaurateur Weissman’s burger joint lies along VIA’s proposed Green Line route on San San Antonio restaurant mogul Chad Carey, whose restaurants Double Standard and Hands Down also lie close to the Green Line, tweeted that he wouldn’t trust San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh and Mayor Ron Nirenberg with running a Valero gas station, much less managing another major

Meanwhile, Jody Bailey Newman, owner of Southtown ice house The Friendly Spot, tweeted that small business owners shouldn’t have to fear major construction projects every time they’re announced. The fears of Weissman, Carey and Newman stem from the disastrous

construction delays along the St. Mary’s Strip, a project that went on nearly a year longer than promised and left the thoroughfare impassable for months on end. Affected business owners said the once-thriving nightlife area still hasn’t fully recovered.

“The traffic on the Strip is noticeably smaller than before,” said bar owner Aaron Peña, who closed his St. Mary’s cocktail spot Squeezebox after construction delays bit deeply into his sales. “I’ve driven down there on Friday and Saturday nights, and it’s not like it used to be. You used to see droves of people walking around and going out, and now it’s just different.”

Peña attributed the closures of at least two other businesses — nightclub El Ojo and dining spot Wurst Behavior — to the construction debacle.

Despite those concerns, VIA Senior Vice President of Engagement Jon Gary Herrera said the Green Line project won’t turn into another St. Mary’s Strip fiasco.

“[On St. Mary’s], the city was having to redo the storm sewers, they had to redo the sewer line, they had to redo the water line and those types of things that are under the street,” Herrera said. “We’re not going to do any of that.”

In a major change to VIA’s approach to bus service, the Green Line buses would primarily travel a designated center lane, avoiding regular center-city traffic, which can move at a crawl during peak times. On paper, anyway, that means riders would benefit from quicker travel and VIA would improve its efficiency.

“It’s going to be changing the way San Antonians move,” Herrera said. “Having this type of system as the core piece of our community is just going to be a tremendous asset and tremendous value for everyone.”

Construction on the nearly 12-mile-long project, backed by $270 million in federal funding, is scheduled to begin in early 2025, with construction wrapping up sometime in 2027, according to Herrera.

However big the promised benefits, small business skeptics said they’ve heard it all before.

Strip mining

When the city began a project to widen sidewalks, build bike lanes, add new lighting and repave the St. Mary’s Strip in March 2021, city officials assured business owners including Peña that construction would be wrapped up by October of the following year.

The completion date was moved back to April 2023, which city officials attributed to snags in sewer work and other utility issues. Indeed, 26 days were tacked on due to “conflict with a Google utility line,” Axios San Antonio reported.

Ultimately, the city even fell short of that revised date, and construction wasn’t completely finished until September 2023 — 11 months after the initial deadline. During some of that time, streets were completely impassable, and patrons were forced to walk over rubble to access bars and restaurants there.

“We would have renewed our lease if it hadn’t been for the construction,” Peña said, who ultimately made the tough call to shut down Squeezebox and open a new bar and restaurant, Gimme Gimme, in Southtown.

Following the St. Mary’s Strip shitshow, District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda introduced the Responsible Bidder Ordinance, which puts

greater scrutiny on city-hired contractors. Under that ordinance, which passed early last year, companies unable to meet deadlines and budgets are barred from city work for three years.

Federal oversight

The Responsible Bidder Ordinance doesn’t apply to VIA and its Green Line project since it’s not a city contractor.

“A lot of people, when they think of VIA, CPS or SAWS, they think they can call the city, and the city will help them,” Havrda said. “Most people, I think, don’t understand that the city is separate from these utilities.”

Even so, Havrda, who describes herself as an advocate for both public transit and small business, said she encourages VIA to take a look at the city’s list of so-called “naughty contractors” that have failed to live up the city’s expectations in the past.

“[VIA] should take a look at that list,” Havrda said. “They don’t have to, but we already have a heads up that this could be a company that doesn’t live up to your standards.”

While city rules don’t apply to VIA, Herrera said it will be held accountable by the federal government since 60% of the money for the new line is coming from the Federal Transit Administration.

“Another big partner here is the Federal Transit Administration, and they like to know how their partner is spending,” Herrera said. “These big dollars they’re sending, they don’t just say, ‘Hey, do what you want.’ They send them, and they watch them. They have their own consulting contractors that report to the FTA that are also watching how this project is proceeding and how this project is going.”

In other words, if VIA intentionally delays the project, inflates costs or misses deadlines, it could face serious consequences, including having the feds slam the door when it tries to access future funding.

What’s more, the Green Line work won’t be comparable to the upheaval caused by city projects on St. Mary’s and nearby Broadway, which tore up sections of streets and left them impassable, Herrera pledged. It also won’t include the sewage and utility work that led to deep delays on the Strip and primarily will occur along 26 proposed stations along the route.

“Most of the construction that does occur is going to be around our stations, and we’re going to make improvements to some intersections along the corridor in order to facilitate and push vehicles through intersections at a faster clip,” Herrera said. “This is not going to be a construction project like on the scale that Broadway and St. Mary’s saw, because we don’t need to do any of that for the station work that we’re doing.”

Damaged goods

Work around the stations will included some limited widening of streets, but Herrera said that will be completed in phases, minimizing impact on businesses along the route.

“The VIA commitment is to make sure that they’re not going to lose access to their customers,” Herrera said. ”The driveway access that they have, we’re

going to make sure that those remain open. Even if we might have to do some work at a station that’s in front of their building, it is definitely something we are committed to — to make sure that we’re keeping the flow of their customer base.”

Although the VIA Green Line — including its scope, funding and oversight — is fundamentally different from the city’s work on St. Mary’s Strip, the damage from the latter project is still fresh in business owners’ minds. The distrust isn’t easily repaired.

Indeed, the city’s poor handling of the St. Mary’s project is the primary reason why incumbent District 1 City Councilman Mario Bravo lost to political newcomer Sukh Kaur, San Antonio political strategist Christian Archer told the Current at the time.

“There’s a big, healthy distrust, even with [Kaur], who has been responsive and has worked with us,” Peña said. “But, it’s just after that kind of experience, it’s like the definition of trauma: you don’t trust anybody.”

The ball’s now in VIA’s court to show whether it can stick to deadlines and avoid disruptions to earn the trust of San Antonio businesses and residents who feel burned by city government.

VIA Metropolitan Transit

With downtowns drying up, the pressure’s on for city leaders to deliver more than empty promises with

a new Spurs arena

BY HEYWOOD SANDERS

Editor’s Note: CityScrapes is a column of opinion and analysis.

Our doors are currently being kept locked, but we are open every day,” the sign on the front door of a high-end clothing store in downtown Seattle announced. “Please ring the bell at right during store hours or call the store… .”

In the same city, visitors to Pacific Place — an upscale five-level mall opened in 1998 — were largely greeted by vacant storefronts covered with bright paintings or curtains.

On F Street in Washington, D.C., just a couple of blocks from the Capital One Arena, home of the city’s NBA team, brown paper covered empty storefront windows and “Retail Space Available” signs dotted the landscape. A note on the former home of Pi Pizzeria, whose pies were served at the Obama White House, announced its closure, adding “due to the economic climate and remote work in DC and beyond, it was unsustainable. We did our best.” At the empty and closed restaurant around the corner, chairs and tables remained in place as if awaiting nonexistent customers.

I sighted all of these things in the past month.

There were also vacant storefronts along Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, once home to European boutiques. After I tried the door of a Danish vintage furniture store and found it locked, the owner eventually opened up and shared stories of business failures and street crime.

And there were the trio of empty luxury condo towers in Los Angeles across the street from the Crypto.com Arena, home of the Lakers, Kings and Clippers. Police surrounded all three of the Oceanwide Plaza towers, a $1 billion project of a Chinese development firm. The venture ran out of financing in 2019, and now sits unfinished — multistory canvases for LA’s graffiti artists,

an international news story and an enormous civic embarrassment.

Developers built downtown malls in the 1970s and 1980s, promising that glossy upscale retail would lure suburban shoppers back to the city’s urban core. In St. Louis, St. Paul, Milwaukee and other cities, they flopped within a decade or so, turned into office space. The St. Louis Centre was even converted into parking. Others, like Philadelphia’s Gallery at Market East, went downscale, hoping outlet stores and off-price retail would at least lure less-affluent shoppers.

More recently even once-elegant Water Tower Place on Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue, the “Magnificent Mile,” has been turned back to its lender, which is now floating the idea of filling it with doctors’ offices.

The ongoing collapse of retail activity in big-city downtowns is the result of both long-term trends and recent, more-radical jolts. The rise of online shopping, growing income disparity and continued suburban expansion have altered the retail landscape most everywhere.

Downtowns once were able to count on the patronage of office workers and visitors to insulate them from those shifts, but that’s changed abruptly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Center-city office vacancy rates in cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and New York have reached unheard-of highs as workers who shifted to working from home have stayed.

“Today, Downtown D.C. finds itself at a post-pandemic inflection point … . Without intervention, underutilized commercial space and decreased activity are poised to fuel a self-reinforcing cycle of declining investment, property values and tax revenues,” a recent analysis by Washington, D.C., business

leaders surmised.

That city’s DC Downtown Action Plan calls for more than $400 million in public spending to “kickstart the transformation of downtown D.C.” And that’s in a city that already has — at least for now — a downtown NBA arena.

San Antonio is far from immune to the broad shifts in business and retail activity that have reshaped downtown activity across the nation. We have seen Rivercenter mall, originally touted as the salvation of our central retail sector, turned into a complex of national chain restaurants and entertainment options — and it’s still struggling.

A recent dinnertime walk down West Commerce Street and through Market Square revealed these once-lively places as forlorn and largely empty. Yet the plans for a new downtown arena for the Spurs, perhaps built at a Hemisfair site, seem to be barreling ahead with

no real public input or serious planning and analysis.

Perhaps our business leaders are desperate and our public officials are grabbing for a simple answer. It’s as if everyone involved somehow forgot that the Spurs once played their games at the Alamodome, and the team’s presence couldn’t even revitalize the Sunset Station area, let alone activate all of downtown. Following that, the franchise’s move to the Frost Bank Center promised — and failed to deliver on — a “transformation” of its East Side environs.

Given the stakes facing downtowns everywhere, we have to think and plan better this time around. Empty promises of economic miracles from a new basketball arena won’t undo the damage.

Heywood Sanders is a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Heywood Sanders

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Texas’ attacks on libraries and librarians are attacks on valuable public institutions

BY KEVIN SANCHEZ

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

In 1850, when the British Parliament proposed one of the first public library systems, private booksellers shat a collective brick. Aside from limited experiments in imperial Rome, most all the great libraries since antiquity were reserved for aristocrats, their advisors, religious orders or paid subscribers.

“Who would continue to purchase books when people could simply check books out for free?” went the humbug. But the social reformers won the day, and 175 years later, millions of lending libraries have popped up around the globe, whether for students or the general public. Happily, reports of the demise of the book publishing industry remain greatly exaggerated.

Whether one resides in the suburbs, the city or rural America, whether right-of-center or left-of-center, one of the last items safe majorities of our fellow citizens want put on the budgetary chopping block are libraries. More than 170 million Americans are registered borrowers, the highest number ever, and when the American Library Association (ALA) surveyed voters and parents in 2022, 9 out of 10 believed public libraries held an important place in their communities.

That’s why the last several years in Texas have felt like a blast from the regressive past. Religiously motivated campaigns seek to scandalize and ban literarily significant books. Lawmakers have also tried to saddle school libraries and even independent bookstores with onerous censorship regimes.

And now librarians themselves are under fire.

Spring Branch Independent School District in Greater Houston, which serves 35,000 students, will eliminate all certified librarian positions next year, pleading a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. Half the librarians at the similarly sized Keller ISD outside Fort Worth, won’t have jobs next year. Closer to home, at San Antonio ISD,

which boasts 45,000 students, gave 27 librarians the axe.

And at the largest school district in Texas, Houston ISD, the state-installed superintendent repurposed dozens of libraries into dual-use disciplinary centers. Most of the schools among those targeted for reform “will lose their traditional libraries and librarians,” as Houston Public Media reported.

If we can’t teach kids to read and research, at least we’ll teach them to be quiet. Maurice Sendak help us if this is a harbinger of wilder things to come.

In our state, the buck stops with Gov. Greg Abbott and the GOP-dominated Legislature, the same meatheads who neglected to increase school funding despite a $33 billion revenue surplus. Texas already has the fourth-lowest literacy rate in the nation, with nearly 1 in 5 adults lacking basic prose skills — a perfect compliment to us also having the fourth-lowest number of libraries.

The late great columnist Molly Ivins used to joke that, given Texas’ perpetually ranking near the bottom of every educational metric, our state motto should be, “Thank God for Mississippi!”

Unfortunately, when it comes to literacy, the Magnolia State now has us licked.

Statistics notwithstanding, it’s the personal stories that have been the most heart-rending. At a school board meeting last March, one student from Nathaniel Hawthorne Academy in SAISD — yes, named after that Nathaniel Hawthorne — lamented the layoff of her librarian.

“Please reconsider letting her go, because we love her,” the student begged.

In comments to news site Houston Landing, a parent of two at Terrace Elementary School in that city described their campus librarian as “a magical, real-life Ms Frizzle,” and was moved to tears upon finding out the woman who helped her 8-year-old daughter start a school newspaper would soon be unemployed.

I wish I could tell you getting fired was the worst of it. In a growing group of states, including our own, librarians have found themselves subject to threats of violence and prosecution.

In a must-catch episode of 60 Minutes from earlier this month, Richard Geier — the vice-chair of the Beaufort County Board of Education in South Carolina —  discussed just how desperate the situation has become.

“We’ve had a parent come in and tell a librarian that, ‘You are violating a state statute by providing pornography to a minor, I’m going to the sheriff, I’m going to have you arrested,’ and storm out,” Geier said. “Now, that’s not just happened once, that’s happened multiple times at multiple schools. I even got an email saying, ‘OK, the sheriff has said no, the solicitor said no, I’m going to the FBI!’”

And Beaufort isn’t an outlier. As recently detailed in the New York Times, “librarians — accustomed to being seen as dedicated public servants — have been labeled pedophiles on social media, called out by local politicians and reported to law enforcement officials. Some librarians have quit after being harassed online.”

Nor is the fallout limited to campus. Echoing Bette Davis’ ironic role as a brave librarian in the 1956 film Storm Center — the first Hollywood rebuke of

the censorship of the McCarthy era — the former head librarian at Kingsland Public Library in Central Texas, Suzette Baker, filed suit this month against the Llano County officials who fired her for refusing to remove books tagged as offensive.

A federal judge already ordered the books reshelved early last year. Their titles range from the silly (Larry the Farting Leprechaun) to the pedagogically vital (They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group).

Censorship-mongers are evidently as humorless as they are ahistorical. But what might be motivating them?

American Library Association President Emily Drabinski provided a clue during a February interview with Axios.

”We have to think of this in the context of diminishing public investment in public institutions,” she explained.

From the Second Red Scare to today’s trans panic, perhaps the real target is neither Marxist propaganda nor queer literature but the democratic egalitarian ideal of a shared public good. Modern lending libraries are what sociologist Erik Olin Wright called “real utopias” — and ones worth cherishing.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the San Antonio Book Festival on April 13, of which the San Antonio Public Library is a founding partner.

Shutterstock / wavebreakmedia

Keystone School Food and Drink Festival

Fri. April 5 7-10pm | Ages 18+

Featured Restaurants:

Hot Joy | Double Standard

Barbaro | Extra Fine

Sponsors:

Join Keystone School as we celebrate 75 years of academic excellence!

Beverages by:

Vino del Sol | Becker Vineyards

Devils River Whiskey | Alamo Beer Co.

Ranger Creek Whiskey

THU | 03.21

JIM GAFFIGAN

It’s tempting to write off Jim Gaffigan as that paunchy and pasty-faced “clean comedian” whose favorite subjects are his kids and Hot Pockets. And while he does tend to stick to inoffensive material and avoids words that would make Grandma blush, he’s shown a depth far beyond food and family life. Not to mention a willingness to branch out into more uncomfortable territory. Gaffigan has dropped five streaming specials since 2018, and his progress as a standup is clear over their course, especially in last year’s Dark Pale. In that special, the father of five offered up plenty of Seinfeldian observations about the oddness of life’s mundane subjects. However, he augmented that material with astute, and funny, thoughts about how the pandemic changed us as a society and made him reflect on his own mortality — hence the “dark” part of the show’s name. Gaffigan also got in a few zingers about religion that took him close to being “edgy.” At one point he even wonders, if God’s 10 plagues were each like an album by a musical artist, whether the Almighty is planning a “Best Of” compilation at some point. The title of Gaffigan’s latest tour, Barely Alive, suggests he’ll probably mine similarly fatalistic territory, which is good news for San Antonio comedy fans — even those who aren’t craving Hot Pockets jokes. $29 and up, 7 p.m., Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com. — Sanford Nowlin

BELEN MAYA: YO QUIERO SER HUMANA

Nonprofit performance group Arte y Pasión is presenting flamenco artist Belen Maya in Yo Quiero Ser Humana (I Want to be Human) as part of its 2024 season. All the way from Seville, Spain, Maya stars in a one-woman show that reveals her journey through the world of flamenco through dance and spoken word. In 1995, Maya starred in Carlos Saura’s iconic film Flamenco and has been a symbol of innovation in the

dance world ever since. In the show, Maya reveals the discipline and sacrifice it took to become one of the world’s top flamenco performers. She also divulges the extreme limitations placed on her as a woman and artist by a tradition-bound flamenco dance industry. No two performances of Humana are alike since Maya interacts with the audience, producing different results every time. “Humana is the inspiring story that displays the vulnerability, imperfection and fallibility of the artist … showing that creation is made of common, everyday elements that we can recognize in our own lives,” Arte y Pasión organizers said in a statement. A full list of workshops and events built around Maya’s performances is available at the group’s website. $18-$30, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 21 and Wednesday, March 27, Brick at Blue Star Arts Complex, 108 Blue Star, arte-y-pasion.com. — Marco Aquino

THU | 03.21

COMEDY

KATHLEEN MADIGAN

Kathleen Madigan’s schtick-free, blue-collar take on comedy may not have landed her a sitcom or unending string of Netflix specials, but she’s certainly racked up praise from high-profile stand-ups, Lewis Black and Ron White among them. The Missouri native’s down-to-earth delivery makes her feel like that one wisecracking drinking buddy who keeps everyone else at the bar in stitches. She frequently draws from her experience growing up in a large Irish Catholic family but has also been known to share irreverent takes on her travels to places as far-flung as Paris and Afghanistan, not to mention her own bad habits, including an addiction to whole milk. During a recent TV appearance, she revealed her plan for feeling good about her own body image: go on a week-long cruise. “Lotta drinkers and eaters on those cruises. It’ll drink and eat you into feeling great about yourself!” $39.50-$79.50, 8 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 2263333, majesticempire.com — Sanford Nowlin

Shutterstock / Kathy Hutchins

Courtesy Photo / Arte y Pasión

Courtesy Photo / Kathleen Madigan

THEATER

KINKY BOOTS

San Antonio’s Wonder Theatre is kicking off its 2024 season with a production of the sparkling Broadway hit Kinky Boots, directed by Morgan Clyde. The musical’s opening night will also be Wonder Theatre’s inaugural performance in its new venue at the Wonderland of the Americas. The theater company has moved into the space that formerly housed the Santikos Bijou cinema, which closed in 2022 after 35 years of operation. Kinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price (Nick DeGraw Glavac) after he inherits his late father’s struggling shoe factory. Finding his life completely uprooted, Charlie reluctantly revives the business to show respect to his father. However, he soon falls into a creative rut, downing drinks at the pub nightly in a desperate attempt to spark ideas. One night, in the midst of a bar fight, Charlie meets Lola (Myles Harris), a drag queen with an encyclopedic knowledge of shoes. Before long, the unlikely friendship morphs into an industrious business partnership, and the pair realizes they have more in common than they ever could have imagined. With dazzling costumes, a Tony Award-winning score and a message of unwavering acceptance, Kinky Boots runs the emotional gamut from forlorn to fierce. Tickets for Kinky Boots, as well as passes for the full 2024 season, are available to purchase now on the Wonder Theatre website. Upcoming productions include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wiz, The Prom and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat $18-$32, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, March 22-30, Wonder Theatre, 4522 Fredericksburg Road, Suite A-90, (210) 267-8388, wondertheatre.org — Caroline Wolff

SAT | 03.23

SPECIAL EVENT

COCHINEALA: BIOLUMINESCENCE

Quarterly performance series Cochineala, held along the river in Confluence Park, is named after the cochineal, a small insect that lives on prickly pear cacti. The cochineal produces carminic acid, which is used in making the bright red food and garment dye carmine. Cochineala: Bioluminescence explores the wonders of bioluminescent organisms with an illuminated firefly performance, interactive art exhibitions and educational presentations — all intended to combine the worlds of art and the natural sciences to encourage engagement and conservation. The night will wrap up with the presentation of Lights In Play, a performance by members of the URBAN-15 dance and creative troupe. Guests are encouraged to bring picnic blankets and lawn chairs. Free, 6-10 p.m., Confluence Park, 310 West Mitchell St., (210) 224-2694, sariverfound.org/confluence-park. — Macks Cook

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.

Casey Dunn

Courtesy Photo / Wonder Theatre

SAT | 03.23 +

MON | 03.25

SPORTS

SPURS VS. SUNS

Victor Wembanyama was recently recognized with consecutive Western Conference Rookie of the Month honors after averaging 21 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks in February. The Spurs closed out the month with a raucous win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, where Wemby loomed large on both ends of the court, including a signature block against Chet Holmgren down the stretch. Next up on the schedule are back-to-back home games against the Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant, Wembanyama’s favorite player growing up in France. In a season hindered by injuries, the Suns remain in the playoff mix and would prefer to avoid the play-in tournament to begin a postseason run. Expect another stellar outing from Wembanyama, who scorched the Suns in Phoenix with 38 points way back in November. At his current pace, left shoulder soreness appears be the only thing stopping the No. 1 draft pick from lifting the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy. $15 and up, 7 p.m. Saturday and Monday, Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com, Bally Sports SW-SA. — M. Solis

SUN | 03.31

SPORTS

BRAHMAS VS. DEFENDERS

Springtime football is returning to South Texas as the San Antonio Brahmas of the newly formed United Football League take on the D.C. Defenders in an Easter Sunday season opener. The Brahmas have had a rollercoaster off-season, being one of only eight teams to survive the XFL-USFL merger late last year. The Brahmas also grabbed headlines after signing YouTube star Donald De La Haye, also known as “Destroying,” as kicker. The final roster, released last week, also includes Incarnate Word graduate Kelechi Anyalebechi and quarterback Quinten Dormandy, who grew up in Boerne. $27.50 and up, 11 a.m., Alamodome, 100 Montana St., (210) 207-3663, alamodome.com. — Michael Karlis

Reginald Thomas II / San Antonio Spurs

Courtesy Photo / UFL

Starting on Opposite Ends

A shared life and studio space help unify the work of artists Megan Harrison and Jimmy James Canales

BY ANJALI GUPTA

If one were to look at the creations of San Antonio artists Megan Harrison and Jimmy James Canales as two separate trajectories, it would be nearly impossible to guess they’re a couple. Their practices seem that disparate. Currently working out of their modest home just north of downtown, the couple slips with ease between artmaking, parenting and day jobs. There have been moments over the years in which their individual practices intersect, parallel and complement one another — and right now is definitely one of those moments.

Much of Harrison’s early work is austere and formal, including explorations of form and considerations of positive and negative space. After finishing her studies, her focus shifted to address the tangible push and pull of micro versus macro ways of organizing the world. To do so, she reproduced processes found in nature, including the replication of crystalline structures and the oscillation of fluids in pursuit of a sort of esoteric mimicry.

There’s an alchemy in the way she uses simple materials such as ink and water to create abstract forms that self-organize, resembling galactic events frozen in time. The work simulates scientific processes, yet the results feel philosophical.

“I feel like a scientist in the way that a child is a kind of scientist,” Harrison says, “engaging with the physical world through curiosity, trial and error and mess-making. What comes from this process can be very vague until a set of possibilities that interests me starts to emerge. A chord gets struck, a glimpse of a specific emotion or rhyme with some tangled knot of experience — and then I dig there.”

Harrison is one of a pack of extraordinary artists who happened to attend the University of Texas at San Antonio from roughly 2010 through 2013. That group includes Casey and Tommy Gregory, Joe Harjo and Julie Ledet — also a couple — and Harrison’s partner, Canales.

Initially posturing himself as a performance artist with great success, Canales has staged hilarious scenarios that range from a mock duel in the parking lot of Parchman Stremmel Gallery, courting a potted cactus at a local icehouse and inviting his professors to spit wine onto his naked body at his final grad school critique. His performative works share a heightened sense of theatricality, impracticality and humor, often poking fun at the macho aspects of Latino culture.

Canales’ props grew increasingly complex over time, and his performances became increasingly

MMegan Harrison’s Atramentite is emblematic of her her earlier work, which includes exploration of form and considerations of positive and negative space.

rooted in durational concerns. Another shift — an overlapping one — reveals the limitations of human endurance. One series involved Canales circumnavigating the city multiple times and culminated with the artist walking all the way from San Antonio to Austin, as if setting out on a mock Corps of Discovery expedition to the Great White North.

Charted and tamed

Here is one point in which Canales and Harrison’s practices intersect. In 2015, the duo embarked on a cross-country road trip entitled Re-charting Pre-charted Territory, an exploration of the challenges of making work outside the safety of the studio.

It was an intentionally futile endeavor since the American landscape has already been charted and tamed, and the handful of places that remain wild, such as parks and nature preserves, are highly regulated. That said, the journey wasn’t fruitless. The duo returned to San Antonio some seven and a half months later with thousands of photos, drawings, paintings and objects in tow — enough raw material to keep them both busy for decades.

“I remember the point where I let go of trying to know at the outset what I was doing, what my art was supposed to mean or what it would look like,” Harrison says. “I look back on the stories of the Arctic

Courtesy Image / Megan Harrison

explorers with a much more critical eye now — like, WTF were they doing out there? — and how their ambitions reveal profound privilege, access and hubris. But I am still inspired by moments of unbelievable endurance and the act of giving oneself over to the unknown — to the adventure — and doing the thing that scares you the most.”

Upon the couple’s return, each turned their attention back to their individual studio practices.

Harrison began mining images collected on their journey, creating fanciful landscapes that are alternately real, imagined and combinations thereof. Canales moved away from performance and began to create absurdist objects that enhance the body in some form or fashion. His objects are sculptural but not static, performative and, in some cases, transformative.

“They are proxies, avatars — puppets that stand in for me as the performer,” Canales says. “They satisfy my Geppetto complex, parts of my psyche, the anxiety surrounding obsolescence and outright narcissism. Explorations of the self are inherently narcissistic, but they are also universal and accessible.”

Increasingly autobiographical

Since 2020, the couple’s practices have intertwined in ways no one could have predicted, which began when their second child was stillborn. The lenses through which both artists filter the world shifted completely inward.

Harrison’s work became increasingly autobiographical, and Canales’ objects addressing the limitations of the human body took on new meaning and tragic significance. While still processing the loss, her mother Susan died suddenly and unexpectedly last summer. The couple happened to be in Colorado — Harrison’s home state, where she was doing a residency — and the pair was able to get to the hospital quickly.

In our culture, death is sanitized, ostensibly removed from the realm of “the natural.” When someone passes, it is assumed their remains will be removed immediately, emotionally distancing family and friends from the event. Harrison didn’t allow this to happen. She stayed with her mother for hours, had her IVs and tubes removed, bathed

MAbove left: Megan Harrison’s Notarized Poem. Above right: Jimmy James Canales’ Zuzan.

her and dressed her.

“For me it was a process of caring,” the artist says, “and caring for my mother during that time was a sacred act. I am using the word sacred because all words fall short. Maybe sublime works: an experience of total awe, love, joy, but also total disbelief, terror and grief.”

Her recent exhibition The Visit at Palo Alto College reflects on this experience and the void left by her mother.

‘Less scary to me’

The most unusual act Harrison performed while in the hospital was to ink her mother’s hands and press them onto a piece of paper. From this, she created a print which is the centerpiece of The Visit. It sits on her mother’s desk as a notarized testament to how we position ourselves between the past and the present and how we honor the 25

Courtesy Image / Megan Harrison

Courtesy Photo / Jimmy James Canales

23 importance and memory of individual histories even as they unravel.

“I think in my current work there are a lot of actions with the hands that mimic caring: washing, patting, smoothing, lifting, wrapping, holding … . These actions are physical, intuitive, repetitive, meditative, a nod to the sacred, a way to catch the echo of a sublime experience and a way to exercise my need to keep caring for this woman,” she says. “The exhibition feels like her apartment in her absence — still, dim, unchanging. It is strange that the container of her life is suddenly defined. The end is now set just as firmly as the beginning, and everything that took place within that container is now known.”

The death continues to have a profound effect.

“The thought of her not being here still knocks me over,” says Harrison. “How could this woman who built an entire universe for me disappear? She was a very present person, curious, complicated, unafraid of leaping. Death does seem less scary to me now because she has made that journey. If she can do it, I can do it too. We will share that experience someday.”

She continues: “I think about all of the things I inherited. Slowly, my mother has become the kitchen towel that I dry my hands on, the cup that I drink my coffee from and the sweater I wear when the morning is cool.”

Side by side

In Canales’ most recent exhibition, ZUZSAN, at SITE Gallery in Houston, the central piece is dedicated to his mother-in-law. It’s a larger-than-life Transformer with smaller robots inhabiting the limbs, torso and head.

The artist describes this work as a “monument to the mythology of fragments,” likening it to a golem or Medieval Zodiac Man. In early Western medicine, Zodiac Man formed the basis of how doctors scheduled surgical practices — each limb is ruled by a specific astrological sign — and is related to the four humors then thought to govern the body’s functions. The work also resembles reliquaries, ofrendas to the dead or descansos (roadside shrines). For Canales, the whole remains open-ended.

Both artists are clearly still working through their grief side by side. There is no timeline for such a process.

“As a couple, I think we learned to leap together, and that has been a great theme in our relationship,” Harrison says. “There is a habit of trusting the adventure as impractical as they often seem. As far as collaboration goes, it is not a straightforward process for us. We think very differently as artists and have trouble deciding on a single direction or how to get there, but we do influence each other’s work profoundly. Mostly by bringing thoughts, images, concepts, artists, etc., into each other’s orbit, we expand

Mour universe of ideas and possibilities. Someday we might realize that we’ve been collaborating all along. We just started on opposite ends.”

Jimmy James Canales’ performance pieces include Duel, a mock battle outside the Parchman Stremmel Gallery.

Joe Harjo

arts

Send in the Clown

RuPaul’s Drag Race star creates beautiful, creepy aesthetic in Jimbo’s Drag Circus

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

Dubbed “The Weirdest Show on Earth,” the touring spectacle Jimbo’s Drag Circus springs from the imagination of the internationally recognized drag performer of its title.

Jimbo is best known for competing on the first season of Canada’s Drag Race in 2020 and the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: U.K. vs. the World in 2022. Last year, she won the eighth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

Jimbo’s Drag Circus is now on a North American tour that will include a Thursday, March 21, stop at San Antonio’s Aztec Theatre.

During a recent interview with the Current, Jimbo talked about her personal journey to become a drag performer and why she chose a circus as the theme for her show. She also shared why she believes the conservative crusade against drag shows has expanded in recent years.

What can people anticipate if they buy a ticket to Jimbo’s Drag Circus?

I’m a clown, so I love live performance, and I love entertaining a crowd. Jimbo’s Drag Circus is a combination of my life’s work. So, it’s set within the framework of a classic circus. Then, I kind of twist it through my drag lens. People are going to have an immersive Jimbo experience. They’re going to laugh and see some really funny drag and leave going, “What the hell did I just watch?”

Were you a kid when you started dressing up or did that come later in life?

I started dressing up and trying on my mom’s clothes when I was a kid. When you’re a kid, you love to play with what’s around. My mom put makeup on me when I was little, and I remember just looking in the mirror and thinking, “Oh, wow, Mommy, I’m beautiful!”

You knew right away it was something you enjoyed.

Yeah, and that was a time where, you know, boys like blue, and they play with G.I. Joe, and they play sports. But I had a curiosity about feminine things. My feminine side was certainly not encouraged. My dad was really worried about having a gay son. It wasn’t until much later that I became a performer and a clown and started to explore my interest in drag.

Before you discovered drag professionally, what was your plan?

I got a degree in science. I had a really awesome science-focused education. My dad was a scientist, so

he was really pushing me towards it. But what really interested me was writing and performance and those kinds of things my dad really didn’t see a lot of value in. So, I graduated, and I did what my dad wanted. And then when I moved out west, I focused on art, performance and design.

Did you design the costumes for the show, too?

Yeah, my favorite part of the process is putting together the whole package; coming up with the concepts and collaborating with other artists and designers and sourcing materials to make the looks happen. Jimbo’s Drag Circus is drawing on all my strengths as a designer, costume builder and improv performer. I have a little bit of me in every aspect of the show.

What do you like about the circus?

To me, the circus is a kind of magical place. It’s also nostalgic. I love the aesthetic. I love that sort of beautiful creepiness. I like playing with those ideas and making myself into a freak show.

What is a misconception about drag?

A misconception is that there is some sort of agenda beyond joy, expression and fun. Drag is about claim-

ing your own identity. That’s exciting. When people share that, that’s a gift. When someone feels the courage to show their true self and to share that through artistry, that should be celebrated and not made to be something it’s not.

Why do you think the anti-drag crusade has expanded in recent years?

I think people fear empowerment. That’s what drag is about. It’s about going against social norms. It’s about embracing who we are as individuals. There’s a lot of self-power in that. When you’re talking about politicians who operate through fear, they see that as a threat. They see people being individuals and going against those institutions and structures that have been in place in order to keep certain people in power and certain other people from being visible or heard.

So, drag and the trans movement and movements for POC and gay rights, all these movements are valuable. People are fighting for their right to live full, free, happy, healthy lives. That will never go away. There will always be people to fight for.

$38-$78, 8 p.m., Thursday, March 21, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, livenation.com.

Courtesy photo / Jimbo’s Drag Circus

Making History

Patton Oswalt takes on Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in Apple TV+ series Manhunt

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

Patton Oswalt can do it all. As a stand-up and voice talent, Oswalt has played to his comedic strengths as a stressed-out penguin on BoJack Horseman and a Lady Gaga-loving goblin dog in Neighbors from Hell. As an actor, he’s shown off his serious side with roles in movies including The Circle and TV such as political thriller Gaslit.

It’s amounted to an eclectic 30-year ride in Hollywood.

Following that pattern, Oswalt’s latest project, Manhunt, is a conspiracy thriller that follows the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. The actor plays Lafayette Baker, an American investigator serving the Union Army during the Civil War. After Lincoln’s death, Baker was tasked with leading a team of agents to find the assassin. The series is based on the 2007 bestselling book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson.

During an interview with the Current, Oswalt talked about his character’s motivation and why he thinks people believe in conspiracy theories.

The first two episodes of Manhunt are currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes air every Friday through April 19. Oswalt can also be seen in the supernatural comedy sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which hits theaters March 22.

I can only imagine how much information you had at your fingertips about your character. Was there anything specific about him that intrigued you?

I love the fact that he is at this crucial moment of history — this crucible of democracy — and he’s thinking of the money. He’s thinking about the reward. There was something so human about that. So, I always made sure to keep that in mind when I would play the scenes. I didn’t want that to get lost — that weird juxtaposition of, “Oh, my God, democracy is on the line, who is paying me for this?” I love that.

Was there anything about his life that didn’t make the cut in the series that you wish had?

I mean, there’s way more to his life, but for the time that this took place, they got what they needed from him. Again, there’s so much more, but it doesn’t impact the story

that we’re telling.

Some of the text I read about Baker describes him as a spy master. What kind of mindset do you have to be in to play that type of character?

Well, as a spy master — a true spy — what you need is anonymity and perception. And you need to be able to perceive not only what other people want, but what their weaknesses might be, and then adjust your story and your identity to get what you want. There is a version of play acting and storytelling, even in little micro moments, that is crucial to tradecraft.

Was history a subject you enjoyed when you were younger?

Not when I was young. When I was young, I wanted to be young and live right now. But as I get older, I love history. I love reading the context and perspective that it gives you to get through the time you’re living in now. To me, that’s just indispensable.

Are there any conspiracy theories that you think have legs? A second shooter in the JFK assassination, perhaps?

I feel like conspiracy theories are there to

comfort people. I think it’s way scarier to think that no one is at the controls and that a disgruntled weirdo in Dallas can just shoot JFK from the window of a book depository. It’s way more comforting to go, “Oh, no, this was all part of their plan!” I think the scariest thing is that there is no hidden hand behind the random acts of horror and mishap that occur in history. The scary part is that it truly is random. That’s when people make up conspiracy theories, so they can feel better about stuff.

During an awards ceremony earlier this month, you called out Warner Bros. Discovery and its CEO David Zaslav for killing films like Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme for the tax breaks. Why was that a message you wanted to deliver publicly?

I know the backbreaking work that it takes to even make a bad movie. So, to look at all that creative labor and go, “Oh, wait, we can write it off and just make this much.” It’s billionaires going, “How can we make an extra $2 million?” Like, they have billions. All that’s left for them is to ask, “Can we move a little tick up — just one more tiny bit?” It’s so frustrating.

Apple TV+

Safe Returns

Free Rides Project hoping no-cost Lyft and Uber rides can help remedy San Antonio’s drunk driving problem

BY NINA RANGEL

San Antonio and Texas have a drinking-and-driving problem.

Over the past two years, the number of alcohol-related road accidents in Texas is down slightly, but the number of fatalities attributed to intoxication while operating a vehicle has gone up, according to recent Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) statistics.

Meanwhile, Bexar County ranks third-highest in the state in its number of DUI/DWI crashes, according to TxDOT’s numbers. In 2022, Texas witnessed a 2% rise in drunk driving-related fatalities, with a staggering 1,162 lives lost. That translates to about three deaths a day.

Even more tragic: not a day has gone by since November 7, 2000, that the Lone Star State didn’t record a road fatality.

San Antonio’s newly formed Free Rides Project is working to put a dent in those numbers by encouraging businesses that serve alcohol to offer free ride share services to patrons who need them.

Each partnering bar or restaurant displays a large green sticker noting its participation in the Project. All a patron needs to do is ask for a manager who’s authorized to order them a Lyft or Uber.

Currently, participating businesses — which include El Camino and Besame food truck parks, Dive Bar and Restaurant and Dakota East Side Icehouse — pay for the rides out of pocket. However, the Free Rides Project is in the process of applying for nonprofit status, which will allow it to raise funds to defray or completely cover those costs.

“Of course we want to be able to fund the

Free Rides for the bars through the organization, because so many of these bars are already struggling to keep their doors open,” Free Rides Program Executive Director Azeza Salama said. “A lot of [business owners] can’t afford to sustain such a commitment, but these are bars that are actively investing in protecting their community, so we’re working diligently with the city, state and county to get this initiative off the ground.”

Survivor-Victim

Salama, a bubbly San Antonio native, has good reason for her serious investment in the coalition’s cause. She herself is a victim-survivor of a drunk driving accident.

On a balmy evening just over eight years ago, she, her children and fiancé, Johnny Hernandez, took a drive to pick up tacos for their evening meal. On the way home, an allegedly intoxicated motorist struck Salama’s vehicle head-on.

Hernandez died on impact, as did the driver of the other vehicle.

At the time, Salama worked in the insurance industry, where she’d created an impressive community network of movers and shakers. The life-altering crash prompted her to leave the profession and go to work for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“Drunk drivers really don’t discriminate when they’re behind the wheel. Race, religion, it truly doesn’t matter,” Salima said. “Since then, it’s become very important to me to be out in the community and talking about this.”

Relaunched effort

Salama’s background in fundraising and project management worked in her favor when she made the move to MADD, and then to Free Rides, which launched in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic reached U.S. shores.

At the initial launch, co-founders Albert Cortez — owner of Perfect 10 gentleman’s club — and Henry Avelar had several bars signed up to participate in the program, but many didn’t survive the pandemic.

Undaunted, Salama relaunched the program in 2023 with a newfound verve.

“We want to bring systematic change to the community by having these difficult conversations, and changing the way people look at these businesses,” she said. “I always tell interested parties, ‘You’re not just a bar owner, my friend. You’re a business owner.’”

Once Free Rides reaches its nonprofit status, Salama plans to apply for federal grants to help cover the cost of rides. That will allow the program to offer stipends or reimbursements to participating businesses, lightening the financial burden for both patrons and bar owners.

The cost of a ride share service isn’t the only deterrent partygoers face when they’re out on the town, however. Some worry that if they hail a Lyft or Uber, they’ll return to the next day to find out their own vehicle has been towed, Salama said.

To that end, she and the organization’s founders are encouraging local policymakers to create a city ordinance that would prevent towing companies from removing vehicles left by Free Rides users.

“We’re really trying to mitigate each factor that might deter someone from asking the bar to order them a ride home,” Salama said. “I always say we’re trying to be proactive, not reactive. There can be a stigma surrounding asking for help getting home, and that’s probably the toughest part of this grassroots initiative. But we have to have these difficult, taboo conversations, because they can literally save lives.”

Courtesy Photo / El Camino

Hot Spot

Camp Hot Wells’

extensive list of beer, wines and more offers good reason to soak your feet

BY RON BECHTOL

There’s a hint of more than history at Camp Hot Wells, the glamping-style outdoor spa and almost literal watering hole that sits aside the ruins of San Antonio’s historic Hot Wells Resort.

The hot sulphur well that once supplied the “gents” and “ladies” swimming pools at the late 19th-centruy hostelry was capped during the stabilization of the ruins and the area’s conversion to a to a county park. However, a new one now supplying the facility’s naturally warm soaking tubs provides a reminder of a “taking-the-waters” past: a faint but persistent odor of hydrogen sulfide. Or rotten eggs.

That funk can be a little off-putting at first, depending on the sensitivity of one’s sense of smell, but rest assured that after a glass of wine or a can of beer, any odors are out of mind. If there’s room, you might even want to dip your feet in the free soaking pools outside the camp’s order window. The soaking tubs themselves are members- and reservation-only, so plan accordingly.

Ostrich races are no longer around to divert you, but a refreshing soak makes history tangible and tactile.

There’s a varied and sophisticated list of beverages to choose from at the order window, all put together by artist and resident muse Justin Parr. Who would expect, for example, a single “orange” wine, never

mind three? No, they aren’t shockingly orange. Their rusty color results from extended skin contact of white grapes during fermentation.

Even more surprising, one orange wine happens to be Texan. Soto Vino Wines is a project of San Antonio-born brothers Christian and Dominic Soto, and its focus is on “minimal intervention” wines — sometimes a buzzword for funky, “natural” winemaking that can be a little challenging translated to the bottle.

There’s a whisper of almost cider-like funk — totally appropriate to the Hot Wells ambiance, of course — in the glass of Soto Vino’s Wildflowers, actually a blend of a rosé of red grape Tempranillo and skin-contact Marsanne, a white grape. Put that faint funk together with fruity flavors of ripe melon, passion fruit and the dry cider component, and you have a wine that’s stunning visually and intriguing on the palate. Makes a guy want to taste the brothers’ Once Upon A Time in Texas 100% Counoise, for example.

Marginally more familiar offerings such as a lilting Cremant de Loire Brut — a French sparkler made outside of the delimited Champagne region and thus unable to call itself a Champagne — and the Los Conejos Malditos Tempranillo from Spain, which I’d order just for the name alone, typify the offbeat wine list.

The list also includes seltzers, sakes and actual

ciders, including a by-the-bottle-only Basque label called Isastegi Sagardo Naturala, a little sour and funky as well. And, of course, beers.

Unless you’re a card-carrying cicerone — a beer “sommelier,” that is — you may want to throw seasonality to that same wind that disperses the hot springs aromas and just go for something unfamiliar.

For me that was the Oskar Blues Old Chub Scottish Strong Ale, perhaps thought of by some as a hefty winter brew, but just lively enough to work fine in the setting. And besides, I was admittedly seduced by the ale’s descriptor, “brobdingnagian,” on the menu. Friends of farmhouse sour-style beers might want to go with Untitled Art’s Candied Cantaloupe Sour. Fans of fun could consider Virginia craft brewery The Veil Brewing Co.’s Broz Night Out Hazy DIPA. Closer to most Texans’ experience will be San Antonio’s own Freetail Bat Outta Helles and the creamy Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout out of Colorado.

Camp Hot Wells offers a few snacks, including a charc board you can assemble from available sausages, prosciutto and cheeses. The noshables also include hummus paired with pita, pickled green beans and cookie — maybe pair that milk stout with the latter.

Together, it all adds up to a memorable experience, one that can only be enhanced by strolling around the spa’s ruins and actually reading the explanatory materials on display. You’ll come away with a new appreciation for a unique landmark.

Ron Bechtol

HEARTLESS BASTARDS THE RED PEARS BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEY BEARS BOMBASTA SUNNY SAUCEDA GARRETT T. CAPPS AND NASA COUNTRY NICKY DIAMOND SUN-DAY THE HEROINE HONEY BUNNY + MORE!

PERFORMANCES BY LEGS DIAMOND JOE KING CARRASCO

NEWS

This summer, chef Stefan Bowers’ irreverent burger pop-up Pumpers will open a permanent location on Broadway. It will operate in the same development as the new incarnation of Nola Brunch & Beignets

Just six months after its launch, Pearl-area eatery Ay Caramba Taco Cantina has closed its doors following a change in ownership.

Smoothie and super fruit bowl chain Playa Bowls will open three new San Antonio stores this year. It hasn’t yet revealed their locations or a timetable.

Mexican mineral water brand Topo Chico’s newly launched line of non-alcoholic cocktail mixers have popped up in San Antonio-area liquor and grocery stores.

OPENINGS

Fish City Grill will open a fourth San Antonio location this summer, this one in Alamo Heights. 1907 Nacogdoches Road, fishcitygrill.com.

Lion & Rose British Restaurant & Pub has teased a late spring opening date for its upcoming Dominion location. The launch will mark a return for the business, which once operated three SA locations. 23330 I-10 West, thelionandrose.com.

San Antonio’s Laika Cheesecakes mini-chain has opened a New Braunfels location, this one with drive-thru service. 1430 Unicorn Ave., (830) 3595336, laikacheesecakes.com.

Southtown’s Bar Loretta has launched a bougie onsite market with retail and grab-and-go items selected by the restaurant’s chef, Paul Petersen, and owner, Roger Herr. 320 Beauregard St., (210) 757-3607, barloretta.com.

40 Years of Corn

Long-running country-punk outfit Hickoids celebrating 40-year anniversary with San Antonio gig

BY BILL BAIRD

UHickoids, the pioneering cowpunk band led by San Antonio’s Jeff Smith, is about to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its first show.

For those who remember the outfit’s early years, the notion that it would survive four decades might seem almost unthinkable.

After all, some of its brilliant-but-ramshackle performances from that era seemed like they might blow apart after four songs — and some certainly did.

Be that as it may, Smith and Hickoids will celebrate the anniversary of their live debut with a Thursday, March 28, show at the Lonesome Rose that will include a full performance the group’s debut album, We’re in it for the Corn. Old-school San Antonio Tex-Mex rockers The Krayolas will open.

For those who need a refresher in Texas punk history, Hickoids played its first gig at long-gone San Antonio venue Via Fontana in 1984, sharing a bill with now-legendary acts Black Flag and the Meat Puppets.

“I don’t remember much about the show itself,” Smith said with a laugh. “We’d taken mushrooms and were drinking all day. Went and got flattops at the fucking military barber shop that day. Pretty wild.” He pauses, then interjects with a deadpan drawl, “I don’t know. It wasn’t a very well-considered haircut choice. I’ll put it that way.”

Smith not only played that first show but helped promote it — a testament to his tireless dedication to building a scene while melting audiences’ faces.

“That’s been a running theme, to varying degrees, as time and money have allowed,” said Smith, who also operates San Antonio’s long-running Saustex Records label. “You try to benefit from the synergies that are created by a scene.”

Smith continues to help create that scene with a full slate of releases from his label and the recent formation of the Corn Pound, a DIY compound in Windcrest that packs an outdoor venue, record shop, rehearsal spaces and a recording studio along with the South Texas Center for Popular Culture.

Hardcore punk, hardcore country

Smith, then a teen, experienced the first wave of punk when it hit in the late 1970s. Inspired by its energy and DIY fervor, he fronted bands including the Dwarves (no, not

that one), the Smart Dads and the Bang Gang. By the time of Hickoids’ inception, the musical movement had morphed into numerous subgenres.

“I started the band with a guy named Jukebox in 1983,” Smith said. “He was a guy that sold mushrooms, my drinking buddy. We went to shows and stuff. I didn’t know he really played guitar. He told me he wanted to start a band, and I said, ‘Sure, whatever.’ He liked my band at the time, the Bang Gang, a lot. One day he popped up with this [Fender] Mustang and was playing the shit out of it. We decided to fuse hardcore punk with hardcore country. I mean, there were signifiers of country in there, but it definitely wasn’t country-rock.”

The Hickoids emerged as part of a tightknit Austin scene that included The Offenders, Scratch Acid and other groups unafraid to fuse punk aggression with other forms of music.

After a brief period with shifting personnel — Pat Deason from legendary Austin punk band The Dicks was a member as was Flynn Mauthe of San Antonio’s Mystery Dates — the group settled on a definitive early lineup. Smith and Jukebox were joined by second guitarist Davy Jones, bassist Dick Hays and drummer Arthur Hays.

Still in it for the corn

That lineup recorded the We’re in it for the Corn, a sprawling and often hilarious rave-up that was originally self-released but eventu-

music

Mally picked by U.S. indie Toxic Shock as well as other labels in Europe. Known for chaotic, booze-fueled live shows, the group improbably won the 1985 Austin Music Award for Best Country Act.

“All it really did was piss off people who actually played country music, and we, of course, dug that,” Smith once told music scribe David Ensminger. “Mission accomplished. That award and two bucks would have got us a six-pack of Lone Star back then.”

The band continued touring and releasing records but dissolved in the early ’90s in a haze of substance abuse and chaos. At present, Smith is the only member of the first-album lineup who’s still alive.

A sober Smith reformed Hickoids in 2006 and began performing and releasing material that built on the band’s foundation of strong musicianship, offbeat humor and absence of fucks to give.

The lineup performing at the 40-year anniversary show includes Smith along with keyboardist Harvey McLaughlin, bassist Tom Trusnovic, guitarist Cody Richardson and drummer Lance Farley.

Here’s to 40 more.

$11, 8 p.m. Thursday, March 28, The Lonesome Rose, 2114 N. St. Mary’s St., thelonesomerose.com.

Courtesy Photo / Hickoids

Jeff Smith (center) and the current incarnation of Hickoids pose on a Spanish rooftop during a recent European tour.

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Wednesday, March 20

critics’ picks The Descendants

Descendents, Circle Jerks, Adolescents

Three of the bands that put Southern California on the map as a birthplace of hardcore punk are touring on the strength of that legacy. The catchy and often cheeky Descendents continue to feature vocalist Milo Aukerman and drummer Bill Stevenson from the band’s earliest days. Circle Jerks still feature singer Keith Morris, who left Black Flag in 1979 to form the band, and guitarist Greg Hetson. $39.50-$45, 7 p.m., Vibes Underground, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, facebook.com/vibesunderground. — Danny Cervantes

Saturday, March 23

Black Flag, My War

Black Flag is widely credited as a key originator of both hardcore punk and the post-hardcore evolution. Formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California, by guitarist Greg Ginn, he remains the only constant in a band that’s changed lineups with the frequency at which some people change socks. The band’s critical apex peaked in the early ’80s when Henry Rollins joined tas lead singer. $25, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Saturday, March 23

Ernie Durawa and Murali Coryell

Here’s a free show featuring musical royalty in one of Texas’ most revered venues. Drummer Ernie Durawa cut his musical teeth performing in groups embodying San Antonio’s West Side Sound before studying jazz drumming with famed instructor Roy Knapp. Durawa later drummed for the Texas Tornadoes and on some of Doug Sahm’s iconic singles. Murali Coryell, son of legendary jazz guitarist Larry Coryell, brings his own six-string prowess to bear. Together, the two musicians meld rock and jazz with progressive influences. Free, 1 p.m., Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Road, New Braunfels, gruenehall.com. — Bill Baird

Sunday, March 24

Empty Heaven, Heavy Love, Ston the Band Empty Heaven is the musical project of San Antonio’s Anthony Sanders, who successfully updates elements of emo and mid-aughts indie rock for the modern era. Makes sense, given that one of Sanders’ other projects, Not a Phase, is a cover band known for specializing in “emo’s greatest hits.” Filling out the bill are Heavy Love, currently one of SA’s best indie-pop-whatever bands, and Ston the Band, which deconstructs country music and Texas mythology by filtering it through a decidedly non-macho — dare we say “emo” — lens. $10, 9 p.m., Lonesome Rose, 2114 N. St. Mary’s St., thelonesomerose.com. — BB

Jad Fair

Jad Fair has emerged as one of the great outsider artists of the modern era. His uniquely whimsical songs and delivery, combined with his compelling visual art, make him the complete package. Since starting in the mid1970s with his lo-fi band Half Japanese — Kurt Cobain was a fan — Fair has collaborated with a veritable Who’s Who of modern musicians, including Yo La Tengo. For this show, Fair will play beneath Echo Bridge, SA’s most unique music venue, indoors or out. $20, 6 p.m., Echo Bridge, 2617 Texas 536 Spur, instagram.com/ echobridgeappreciationsociety. — BB

Wednesday, March 27

Indigo de Souza

Indigo de Souza sings well-crafted indie rock with lyrics that are strikingly direct. After starting her career self-releasing music from her teenage years, she caught the ear of Saddle Creek Records, who promptly re-released her indie debut. De Souza has since won praise from the Washington Post, Rolling Stone and more. Her latest album, 2023’s All of This Will End, made a surprisingly high appearance on the Billboard charts and bodes well for what’s next. $25, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St.

Thursday, March 28

Bayonne, Coma Club

Austin’s Roger Sellers is the face behind the electronic music outfit Bayonne. Sellers released three albums under his own name before becoming Bayonne in 2016. The music is a layered dreamy sound of loops with vocals that seem to emerge from the subconscious. Bayonne’s inviting digital soundscapes offer a welcome respite from the daily grind. $22, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — DC

Friday, March 29

Mark Farina

DJ Mark Farina emerged from Detroit’s ’90s techno scene, pulling his weight alongside legends of the genre. He still delivers a groovy dance party, so bring your glow sticks and dancing shoes. For this all-ages and family friendly show, Farina will perform inside Confluence Park’s iconic rain catchment structure. AM Architect, one of SA’s best live-music visualists, will project a special light show onto the distinctive multi-vaulted venue. $30-$500 (kids free), 6 p.m., Confluence Park, 310 W. Mitchell

St., soundsontheriver.org. — BB

Saturday, March 30

NOAHFINNCE, Chase Petra, TX2, Teenage Joans

British singer-songwriter Noah Finn Adams emerged from Instagram and YouTube as NOAHFINNCE, performing alternative rock with a distinctly pop-punk inflection. His 2020 single “Life’s a Bit” serves as springy up-tempo calling card. Adams’ YouTube channel also became an outlet for him to come out as a transgender man and frequently showcases LGBTQ+ topics. $20.50$23, 6:30 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 772-1443, therockboxsa.com — DC

Matt Axton

Matt Axton comes from a veritable line of musical royalty. His grandmother, Mae Axton, wrote Elvis’s first million-selling single, “Heartbreak Hotel,” while his father, Hoyt Axton, penned hits for the Easy Rider soundtrack and Three Dog Night. Building off that musical legacy, the younger Axton brings his own alternately easygoing and red-hot vibe to country-rock. Adding to the appeal, his backup band is stocked with musical slayers. $10, 9 p.m., 502 Bar, 502 Embassy Oaks, (210) 257-8125, 502bar.com. — BB

Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com — BB

Shutterstock / Christian Bertrand

EMPLOYMENT

Software Developer IV – Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio, TX. Performs design, implementation & maintenance of complex, multiple product modules/ sub-systems. Req’d: Bach deg in technology, engineering, or rel tech fld + min 5yrs exp in Sr. Dev/Lead role (OR Masters deg in technology, engineering, or rel tech fld + min 3 yrs exp in Sr. Dev/Lead role). Req’d: Min 5yrs exp w/ Java, J2EE, Spring, Restful API, Apache Camel & Oracle BRM (Billing and Revenue Management.) Req’d: Min 4yrs exp w/Python, JavaScript, Oracle PL/ SQL. Req’d: Min 2yrs exp w/ Docker, AWS, OpenShift & Kubernetes. The position is available for remote work. Send resume to: careers@rackspace.com, Ref. RAXSD4

Cinsa USA Inc. seeks an Accountant (San Antonio, TX). Maintain subsidiary accounts by verifying, allocating & posting transactions. Develop system to account for financial transactions by establishing chart of accounts, defining bookkeeping policies & procedures. Balance subsidiary accounts by reconciling entries. Maintain & balance general ledger by transferring subsidiary account summaries & preparing a trial balance & reconciling entries. Forecast & budget management at end of each accounting month. Support in invoicing process & analysis of price discrepancies, derived from price differences at invoicing process. Regs: BS in Accounting or Bus. Admin. 2% domestic travel to Laredo, TX. To apply: use Job Code ACC1 & email resume to: gloria.deanda@cinsausa.com.

Palenque Management LLC. seeks General and Operations Manager in San Antonio, TX with a min. of four (4) yr. exp. as Operations Manager. Email resume to asolis@palenquegroup.com.

Allograft Regulatory Affair Specialist needed in San Antonio, TX. Review and update standard operating procedures or quality assurance manuals for allografts procedures. Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, business administration, or finance plus 1 year’ experience in the job offered or as Regulatory Affairs Specialist. Mail resumes to Mr. Suarez, 9706 Plymouth Rd, Ste 509, San Antonio, TX. Suarez Associates LLC.

Palenque Management LLC. seeks General and Operations Manager in Helotes, TX with at least three (3) yr. exp. As General/Operations Manager. Email resume to asolis@palenquegroup.com

Navistar, Inc. is seeking a Project Engineer in Elmendorf, TX with the following requirements: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Engineering Technology and 5 years of experience in product design/development OR Master’s degree in Engineering or Engineering Technology and 3 years of experience in product design/development OR Phd in Engineering or Engineering Technology. Required Skills: Apply dFMEA, DVP, and design reviews to design and test electric and mechanical components for heavy truck industry; Establish and oversee design validation plan (DVP) for electric and mechanical system modifications in heavy vehicles, adhering to industry and manufacturer specifications; Plan and oversee multiple heavy vehicle industry projects, adhering to set timelines and budgets for product development; Develop and integrate mechatronic systems using pneumatic systems, motors, and a magnetic field sensor to measure physical conditions and control repetitive mechanical processes, to reduce costs and improve efficiency. 25% travel required; Must live within normal commuting distance of Elmendorf, TX. Apply at https://careers.navistar.com/ jobs. Refer to Job # 56414.

(DE Corp. d/b/a/ DEC has an opening in San Antonio, TX) Civil Engineer: Prepare Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA), including obtaining & analyzing traffic counts data, trip generation, trip distribution, & build-out traffic volumes. Analyze key intersections using Synchro to determine the operations level of service and delay, & identify impacts and determine mitigation measures. Prepare traffic signal designs, traffic projections, illumination designs, & calculations under the supervision of a senior civil engineer. Req. minimal travel within the U.S. to attend technical conferences (6 days per yr.). Req. BS in Civil Engr., or related & 1 yr. exp. 6 months must include exp. with Synchro, VISSIM, & SUMO. Will accept university level research exp. to satisfy 6 month special skill req. Send resume to Elizabeth.alviso@decorp.com and refer to job title.

“One, Please”--no room for any more.

by Matt Jones

© 2024 Matt Jones

Across

1. Jesting sort

4. China, long ago (as seen in an airline name)

10. “Blueberries for ___” (award-winning kids’ book)

13. Chicken ___ king

14. Max for tax calculation

15. Bird that’s not native to Tasmania

16. Radio personality who’s good at archery?

18. With “The,” 1970s musical Oz remake

19. Scorched

20. Notable time period

21. Bionicles maker

22. “Return of the Jedi” princess

23. Actor who’s good at pressing clothes?

26. July in Marseille

27. Pilot-licensing org.

28. Show grief

29. Cardinals’ cap initials

30. ___ nous (confidentially)

33. Ceremony performed by a mohel

36. Actress/TV host who’s good at economics?

39. “SNL” alum Horatio

40. Search site with an exclamation point

41. N, S, E, or W

43. Talk trash about

45. Write-___ (some nominees)

46. Number of three-letter chemical elements

47. Blues rocker who’s good at hauling stuff?

52. Prefix for drama

53. “Roots” author Haley

54. “Anchorman” anchorman Burgundy

55. Colts’ fathers

56. Big wheel

57. Rapper/actor who’s good at holding together documents?

60. Vow words

61. Curse-inducing stare

62. Graceful shade tree

63. ___ Moines, Iowa

64. Picks up for another year

65. “The Waste Land” author’s monogram

Down

1. Sings like a bird

2. Montreal CFLers

3. English actress Wilde of “Carrie” and “Wonder Woman 1984”

4. ___ au vin (French dish)

5. Kwik-E-Mart owner

6. Director Lars von ___

7. Le ___ (French seaport)

8. Starting lineups

9. The Beatles’ “___ Blues”

10. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” setting

11. Fernando’s friend

12. Largest island of the Philippines

14. It’s a blast

17. ___ minute

21. Scales of the zodiac

23. 1998 Wimbledon champ Novotna

24. Food package date, informally

25. Yokels, in Australian slang

27. Andre the Giant’s role in “The Princess Bride”

31. Irish actor Stephen

32. Body of morals

34. Companion that’s great for apartments (and won’t run off)

35. They’re found in the epidermis

37. Alphabetical listing

38. Sound the horn

42. Phrase on tote bags and plastic containers

44. Try hard

47. Michelangelo masterpiece

48. Bypass a vowel

49. Auctioned autos, often

50. “Rise of the ___” (PlayStation game coming out on March 22)

51. Mom’s brother

52. ___ de los Muertos

55. ___-Therese, Quebec

57. To see, in Tijuana

58. “That’s disgusting”

59. Pt. of CBS

Answers on page 25