San Antonio Current - November 2, 2016

November 2-8, 2016

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The Three Artistas

CONTEMPORARY ARTS FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 9-12, 2016

Visual Arts | Music | Dance | Performance | Poetry | Murals

San Antonio, Texas | LuminariaSA.org SPONSORS Bank of America | Stella Artois

COMMUNITY PARTNERS / IN-KIND GIFTS Ella Austin Community Center | Carver Community Cultural Center Mega Light | World Audio & Lights | Robot Creative

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THE 14TH ANNUAL HRC GALA & AUCTION

SATURDAY

NOVEMBER 5

Grand Hyatt Downtown San Antonio 600 E Market St San Antonio, Texas 78205

#SAHRCGALA2016 • WWW.HRCSATXGALA.ORG

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FIRST WORDS

1

What Does Mala Luna Mean For San Antonio’s Shifting Music Landscape?: “Im sorry but that is shifting towards mainliner bullshit and yet again spoon feeding San Antonio into believing this is the real deal.

There are so many people in this city making generic/underwhelming decisions with music selections.” — Steve Ven New Halloween Attraction at SeaWorld: An Orca Graveyard: “Will they have signs that show how many animals Sea World rescues and rehabilitates?” — Dominic De La Garza City’s Domestic Violence Crisis Team Fails to Respond to a Lot of Domestic Violence Crises: “At what point do women start taking responsibility and stop blaming others for their choices?” — Helío Andalucía “Project Alamo”: Lessons From Inside Trump’s SA-Based Digital Nerve Center: “Parscale is NOT a web designer like this article says. He’s just a businessman who hires print designers to make clickable print layouts.

Haha” — Greg Cuellar

IN THIS

ISSUE Issue 16_44 /// November 2-8, 2016

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Murderabilia Could a $750 letter from the “Angel of Death” keep the babykiller in prison?

Slow Response City’s domestic violence crisis team fails to respond to a lot of domestic crises

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FEATURE

Detention, Inc. What the rise of South Texas’ immigrant detention industry means for some of the most vulnerable people seeking refuge on our border

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31

ON THE

COVER As the feds seek to stem the tide of what has at varying points been called a “flood,” “wave” or “surge” of families fleeing violence that has convulsed Central America, advocates fear that immigration officials have sought to quickly deport an increasing amount of them without so much as a review of their claims by a judge or even an asylum officer. In this week’s feature, we explore what that means for asylum-seekers swallowed up by South Texas’ sprawling system of immigrant detention.

ARTS + CULTURE

Our top picks for the week

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SCREENS

35

Hot Take Robert Langdon’s third time on screen is smart action flick

Southern Charm Impressive brisket, sausages at The Well

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NIGHTLIFE

MUSIC

Musica En La Calle Cap your Día de los Muertos week at Hotel Havana

Food Court A name for Fire Station No. 7, a cat café and more

Bring the Noise Health and Deafheaven descend upon Paper Tiger Music Calendar What to see and hear this week

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ETC.

Savage Love Jonesin’ Crossword Freewill Astrology

Gross Out Diarrhea Planet + free show = the shit

47

FOOD

All Hail the Pope of Mope Morrissey fans unite for “November Spawned a Moz Show”

Strait or on the Rocks George Strait, country icon, knows good tequila

Illustration by Andrew Nilsen

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CALENDAR

Kicked Out Straus wants to end arbitrary rule that removed thousands of disabled kids from special ed classes for no apparent reason

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

Art direction by Sarah Flood-Baumann

NEWS

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NEWS

SLOW SLOW

RESPONSE City’s domestic violence crisis team fails to respond to a lot of domestic crises ALEX ZIELINSKI | @ALEX_ZEE

> The San Antonio Police Department team tasked with quickly responding to cases of domestic abuse has failed to do just that.

SAPD’s so-called Crisis Response Team was created in 1996 to help victims of abuse get immediate assistance and protection. However, according to an internal audit presented to a council committee last week, the team failed to quickly respond to nearly 70 percent of 2015 cases reviewed in which people called 911 to report domestic violence.

Out of a random sampling of domestic violence reports, it took crisis response officers between two and 10 days to respond to 52 percent of calls. Sixteen percent of the calls were addressed more than 10 days after the initial report to police.

“That pissed me off to hear,” said Patricia Castillo, director of the PEACE initiative, an organization that advocates for victims of domestic violence. “By the time a victim calls the police, the abuse has already gotten out of control. They are finally opening the door to accept help. And no one is there.”

The audit illustrates a clear disconnect between the rest of SAPD and its response team offi cers, whose job it is to record and report all cases of domestic violence to inform the rest of the department’s investigations.

The team has repeatedly failed to connect victims to urgent care, inform them of their

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rights, and maintain any kind of tracking system to follow up with victims at risk of repeat abuse, according to the audit.

“Untimely follow-up with a victim decreases the likelihood that the victim will utilize the services offered by CRT,” the report reads. It doesn’t mention that delayed responses can also increase the likelihood of more abuse.

“By the time they reach out, you could be dead...you could have already suffered five more beatings,” Castillo said.

Another sample of response team cases found that 84 percent of case files were missing a signed informed consent agreement from the victim. Not only does this leave SAPD defenseless in the face of a lawsuit, this could mean vulnerable victims may have never received that document in the first place.

Auditors also found that half of the 12 response team members had no record of ever completing mandatory training. While this may be a filing error, the audit explained there was no way to know if these team members had ever received crisis training.

Castillo said the audit’s findings only confirmed stories she’s heard from local victims of abuse. Many have told her their experience with the response team varies officer by officer.

Sometimes, victims are paired with an officer who knows nothing about domestic abuse. But,

she added: “When these officers do good work, they do good work. They have saved lives.”

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told the Express-News that changes set into motion on October 1 should correct the gaping errors found in this audit. He said the audit’s results didn’t surprise him.

“We learned exactly what we thought was happening: There were inconsistencies in reporting and there were inconsistencies in training,” McManus told the daily.

This audit comes after SAPD reported a 5 percent increase in domestic abuse cases from 2014 to 2015—a bump Chief William McManus contends only shows that more people are calling in to report abuse than before. The audit outlining the response team’s failures comes after a series of chilling domestic abuse cases— most recently, the stabbing death of a woman who had been documented by SAPD as a chronic victim of violent abuse.

©2016 Goose Island Beer Co., Goose IPA®, India Pale Ale, Chicago, IL | Enjoy responsibly.

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MICHAEL BARAJAS | @MICHAELSBARAJAS

≥

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus is calling for state education officials to suspend their apparently random target for special ed enrollment that, over the past decade, has kept tens of thousands of disabled kids from receiving the special classes and services they need.

Straus’ letter to Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath last week comes on the heels of a bombshell Houston Chronicle investigation that showed tens of thousands of Texas children with disabilities have been kept out of special education over the past decade due to an arbitrary benchmark that state education officials haven’t really been able defend. That rule, which officials rolled out in 2004 and set a target rate of 8.5 percent special ed enrollment for districts across the state, seems to explain why Texas’ rate is not only the lowest in the country but hangs so far below the national average of 13 percent.

Advocates for disabled students say the rule has likely done immense damage to kids that desperately needed, but were left out of, special ed classes as districts pushed their enrollment down year after year to meet the state’s random benchmark. In his letter last week, Straus, a San Antonio Republican, urged the TEA to “either make significant changes” to the rule or suspend it altogether until the legislature and the agency can come up with a fi x next year. As Straus put it in his letter,” students shouldn’t have to wait for the legislative process to run its course in order to get the educational help they need.”

Straus’ letter followed yet another Chronicle story revealing how just how serious the rule’s impact was on individual school districts when state officials rolled it out. In one year alone, according to the paper, the Laredo

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Independent School District kicked more than 700 kids out of special ed classes to meet the state’s arbitrary benchmark. One elementary school speech therapist told the paper, “We basically just picked kids and weeded them out. We thought it was unfair, but we did it.” In San Antonio ISD, which in 2004 saw special ed enrollment of nearly 13 percent, special ed enrollment has fallen two percent over the past decade. South San ISD went from 10.6 percent special ed enrollment in 2004 to around 7 percent last year.

The glaring issues with special ed enrollment is just one of many crises involving vulnerable Texas children that lawmakers will be tasked with addressing when they head back to the legislature in January. Take, for example, the fact that Texas routinely ranks at or near the bottom of states when it comes to child wellbeing. According to one recent report, more than 1.3 million kids in Texas kids live in so-called high poverty neighborhoods, up six percentage points from 2000. Texas still has some of the highest rates of uninsured children in the country. And not only has the agency tasked with identifying and preventing child abuse been forced to undergo fundamental reforms after years of repeat failures, but last week a legislative committee had to order state police to track down nearly 3,000 kids who were at high risk of abuse or neglect but whose cases haven’t followed up with visits by child protection workers because of staffing shortages (some have waited for weeks or even months for a visit).

So it’s no surprise Straus has called for the focus of the 2017 Legislature to be on protecting the state’s many vulnerable children.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick is still very concerned about bathrooms for some reason.

.C OM IONHOUSE

Straus wants to end arbitrary rule that removed thousands of disabled kids from special ed classes for no apparent reason

Could a $750 letter from the “Angel of Death” keep the baby-killer in prison?

MEAU CT

KICKED OUT

MURDERABILIA TRUEC RI

SUZANNE TUCKER

NEWS

MICHAEL BARAJAS | @MICHAELSBARAJAS

≥

In 1981, staff at what was then Bexar County Hospital noticed that babies kept dying from problems that shouldn’t have been fatal. By the time an internal inquiry determined that no less than 10 infants had died from “sudden and unexplained” complications with nurse Genene Jones at their bedside, she’d already left the hospital to work with a pediatrician in Kerrville. As soon as Jones left San Antonio, the “sudden and unexplained” baby deaths stopped; in Kerrville, however, they picked up.

Jones was ultimately convicted of killing one 15-month-old girl and attempting to kill another child. Prosecutors argued that she tried to “play god” with patients, injecting infants with a powerful muscle relaxant called succinylcholine chloride and then attempting to revive them in an effort to look like a hero. Local law enforcement have tried to tie Jones to dozens of unexplained infant deaths that coincided with her time in San Antonio and Kerrville. And while “the Angel of Death,” as she’s been called, was sentenced to 99 years in prison, a now-defunct “mandatory release” law designed to limit prison overcrowding means Jones is eligible for early release on good behavior. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has scheduled her release for March 2018.

All of which really pisses off Andy Kahan, a Houston victims’ rights advocate who’s been on a 15-year crusade to keep notorious killers like Jones from profiting off their dark celebrity status by selling so-called “murderabilia.” So when Kahan, who literally keeps a duffle bag of the stuff, earlier this week stumbled across a letter penned by Jones with a $750 price tag during his routine scouring of murderabilia websites, he thought he may have found the key to keeping her in prison. With some more searching, Kahan says he found another website selling an inmate trust-fund form with Jones’ name on it for $45.

“It was the first time I have ever seen anyone selling anything from the Angel of Death,” he told the Current.

While the trading of murder mementos is legal, Texas is one of a handful of states that prohibits inmates from profiting from murderabilia sales. So Kahan saw an opportunity. He says he’s asked the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to look into whether Jones violated any prison rules in the hopes that they find something that could stall her release.

“If she’s receiving proceeds from the sale of any of this, I’ll go out on a limb and say that it wasn’t approved by prison officials and could stop her release on good behavior,” he told the Current.

Still, proving an inmate directly profited from something sold anonymously over the internet can be tricky, Kahan conceded.

“Right now, unless a miracle occurs and officials can actually charge her with the deaths of more babies, this serial killer could be let loose,” he said. Kahan is hoping that him stumbling across Jones’ letter for sale could be that miracle. He added, “Look, if we’re going to release a serial killer, I’m gonna go down kicking and screaming and fighting anyway I can.”

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THE 14TH ANNUAL HRC GALA & AUCTION

SATURDAY

NOVEMBER 5

Grand Hyatt Downtown San Antonio 600 E Market St San Antonio, Texas 78205

#SAHRCGALA2016 • WWW.HRCSATXGALA.ORG sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 17

FILMS

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A CLASS APART: A MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS STORY Join us for a special screening of “A Class Apart,” the little known story of the Mexican American lawyers who took Hernandez v. Texas to the Supreme Court, challenging Jim Crow-style discrimination. This event will also include Latin Acoustic sounds, Mariachis and Short films written and directed by former students at Harlandale High School. Plenty of food and beverages will be available.

THERE ARE DOZENS MORE COMBO PACKS AT YOUR LOCAL TWIN LIQUORS. AVAILABLE NOW THROUGH DECEMBER 31ST.

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6:00P – 9:30P 3100 Roosevelt Ave, San Antonio Texas, 78214 For more information, call (210) 207-8612 or visit getcreativesanantonio.com/missionmarqueeplaza #missionmarqueeplaza

13 San Antonio Area Locations • Alamo Heights in Lincoln Heights Shopping Center

• Evans & 281

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• Lackland / Westlakes

• Boerne

• Lytle

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No further discount on sale items. No to be combined with Twin Deals or Double Value Daily. Price includes listed bottles. Prices good through 12/31/16 and subject to change. Cocktail combo packs are subject to availability. Selection varies by store. Please drink responsibly.

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FEATURE

DETENTION, INC. WHAT THE RISE OF SOUTH TEXAS’ IMMIGRANT DETENTION INDUSTRY MEANS FOR SOME OF THE MOST VULNERABLE PEOPLE SEEKING ANDREW NILSEN

REFUGE ON OUR BORDER MICHAEL BARAJAS | @MICHAELSBARAJAS

ayra was six months pregnant when she was raped and beaten so badly she had to be hospitalized out of fear she’d miscarry.

A violent partner at home wasn’t the only reason she wanted to flee El Salvador. Mayra (not her real name) finally left after gang members searching for the father of one of her children broke into her house, tore through the inside and destroyed most of her belongings. Many of her family members had already been killed by the gang. “I am afraid that these same gang members might come back to kill me,” Mayra would later say in an immigration court filing.

In 2014, Mayra and her two kids turned themselves in at the U.S. border, part of more than 130,000 families and unaccompanied children from Central America who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border that year, the vast majority of whom came through Texas. Mayra and her children were released with an ankle monitor and allowed to travel to Atlanta to stay with her mother while her asylum case was pending. Soon enough, however, they were forced back to South Texas.

In January 2016, federal immigration officials rang in the New Year with raids across the country, scooping up asylum-seeking families like Mayra’s who they claimed had exhausted their cases in immigration

M

court and lost. They were shipped to a detention camp run by a private prison company situated in the middle-of-nowhere South Texas town of Dilley, about an hour’s drive from San Antonio.

Immigration attorneys and advocates fighting for the rights of asylum seekers say the raids and the detention center those families landed in are an eerie sign of the sustained federal push to detain and ultimately deport some of the most vulnerable people seeking refuge on the Texas-Mexico border. While the detention and deportation of immigrants has reached record heights under the Obama Administration, all signs point to asylum seekers making up an even greater slice of the pie in recent years. And as the feds seek to stem the tide of what has at varying points been called a “flood,” “wave” or “surge” of families fleeing violence that has convulsed Central America, advocates fear that immigration officials have sought to quickly deport an increasing amount of them without so much as a review of their claims by a judge or even an asylum officer.

Many of them end up in places like the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, a complex run by the Corrections Corporation of America, one the private prison corporations that have seen profits soar with the rise of immigrant detention under the Obama

Administration. Detainees inside such facilities have long claimed they suffer from medical neglect, mistreatment from guards, and prison-like conditions that make it diffi cult for them to even communicate with attorneys who are fi ghting to keep them from being deported.

None of this criticism should be news to the federal government. In fact, so-called family detention centers like the one in Dilley have become so controversial that last year the U.S. Department of Homeland Security commissioned an independent advisory committee to conduct a top-down review of the practice. That committee’s overarching recommendation, released in a preliminary report in late September, was that the government should put an end to it. In its report, the committee writes that immigration officials disregarded many of their recommendations for how to fi x a litany of problems with the larger immigrant detention system and even rebuffed several of their requests for basic information.

Meanwhile, the feds this year have sought to continue the practice of detaining asylum-seeking families, shopping – so far, unsuccessfully – for a new location in South Texas for yet another

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FEATURE

facility that would be run by a private prison contractor.

Which is all the more remarkable when you consider the federal prison system this year announced that it would phase out the use of private prisons after concluding they aren’t as safe or even as cost-effective as government-run facilities.

While DHS says it’s studying whether to continue leaning on for-profit prison contractors to house immigrants, it’s unclear whether immigration officials even consider that a viable option at this point. Right now, it’s estimated that roughly 70 percent of immigrants in detention are housed by for-profit prison companies, like in Dilley. Late last month, CCA renewed its contract with the feds to run the center through 2021.

Immigration attorneys insist that instead of ensuring that families with legitimate asylum claims are caught and carefully protected by the system, the feds have instead prioritized those families’ detention and deportation in recent years. Families like Mayra’s have no right to court-appointed attorneys, meaning they must either be lucky enough to score pro-bono help, scrounge up enough money to pay for what can be shoddy work from lawyers unqualified to present complicated asylum claims in court, or they must navigate the country’s labyrinthine immigration system on their own.

Denise Gilman, who directs the University of Texas’ immigration law clinic, was one of the attorneys who visited the women and children caught up in the raids earlier this year. She insists many were never able to fully air their claims for asylum before being thrown into the deportation machine – something underscored by the fact that many of them received 11th-hour stays of deportation after attorneys rushed to file appeals on their behalf.

“When it comes to how we treat asylum seekers, we’re moving in the wrong direction,” Gilman says.

In court filings, Mayra claimed the lawyer she hired never even asked about her abuser and says she never got to fully explain to a judge why she fled her country.

Despite that, immigration officials put her and her two children on a plane and were about to transport them back to the world’s new murder capital when a lastminute court order stopped it.

If you believe the attorneys handling these cases, Mayra might actually be one of the lucky ones.

E

lsa first arrived at the Texas-Mexico border in February 2015, fleeing a violent partner in Guatemala. She spoke an indigenous Mayan language, Mam, and could barely understand the U.S. Border Patrol agents barking orders as they put her into a kind of holding pen that migrants often call a hielera or perrera , Spanish for icebox or kennel.

The American immigration system outlines a specific pathway for asylum seekers like Elsa (not her real name).

First, they have to convince federal agents or border guards to send them to an asylum officer who then conducts what’s called a “credible fear interview.” If they can demonstrate a possible basis for asylum, they’re 20

CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

then bounced to an immigration judge who holds a “merits hearing” to evaluate their claims, where they can present evidence to bolster their case.

Elsa never made it that far. She says she tried to tell a border guard that returning home could be a death sentence. “He didn’t give me an opportunity to explain,” she says. Instead, guards shackled her arms and legs and led her onto a plane, which carried her back to Guatemala.

Congress created the process of so-called “expedited removal” in the mid 1990s with the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, giving immigration officers the authority to remove certain immigrants without virtually any oversight from an asylum official or immigration judge. While the practice has been controversial since its inception, federal immigration authorities have over the years expanded the policy to cover more and more categories of immigrants.

According to one recent federal review, such rapidfire deportations appear to have increased dramatically over the past decade. While in 1998 there were some 23,000 migrants deported via expedited removal, by 2013 that number had skyrocketed to nearly 200,000 – almost all of them from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. In 2014, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called expedited removal part of his department’s “aggressive deterrence strategy” to curb the flow of Central American families seeking asylum in the country.

That’s despite immigration attorneys and advocates who caution that such a strategy is both inhumane and doesn’t really work. “These people know the risks,” says Elissa Steglich, an attorney who works with UT’s immigration law clinic. “The dangers that they face in their home countries are higher than the risk of coming to the United States and all that that entails.” She says the practice of immediate deportation is particularly troubling when you consider recent studies showing that about 90 percent of migrants coming from the so-called “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras pass their initial screenings with an asylum officer – if they get one, that is.

Along with the rise of near-immediate deportation, it appears an increasing amount of immigrants thrown into detention are likewise pursuing asylum claims.

Carl Takei, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project, says that in 2014, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows that officials detained some 44,000 asylum seekers – or, according to his analysis, about 8,170 at any given time. He says that by early this year, there were close to 15,000 asylum seekers in detention on any given day. He suspects that that number is now probably closer to 20,000.

Prior to 2014, immigration officials typically let asylum seekers, particularly those with children, live with family members while their cases played out in immigration court, making it easier for them to find competent attorneys and gather evidence to support their claims.

Takei says he worries about the increased use of detention for asylum seekers because “it makes it harder for them to succeed with their cases. … They’re more

likely to lose when they’re in detention, it’s that simple.”

In mid-October, four representatives from the United Nations investigating what they called “arbitrary detention” in the United States held a meeting on San Antonio’s West Side to hear from immigration attorneys and advocates before touring the sprawling system of immigration lockups in South Texas. In a preliminary report they issued two weeks later, those investigators said they were troubled that the detention and quick deportation of asylum seekers “appears to be implemented as a deterrent to immigration and the continuation of legitimate immigration claims.”

In a statement this week, an ICE spokeswoman said the agency “respectfully disagrees” with the UN investigators’ “characterizations of our detention operations.”

Elsa told those UN investigators how she again fled for the Texas border earlier this year because the violence at home hadn’t subsided – only this time, she says, she landed in federal criminal court for the crime of re-entering the country after having been deported.

Elsa says she was taken before a federal court judge with a group of other women facing the same charge when someone involved with the proceedings – she doesn't know whether it was a lawyer or a guard – told her to just plead guilty so she could avoid any more time in lockup. It was only when she told the judge she was afraid to be sent back that Elsa was finally transferred to asylum officials for an interview. Steglich, whose clinic is representing Elsa, says she’s troubled by the fact that she had to travel to the border, get deported, come back, and face federal criminal prosecution before she could even make it to an asylum hearing.

Even after she passed her initial asylum screening, Elsa wasn’t let out of detention. Instead, ICE detained her at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Central Texas, a facility run by the for-profit prison company Corrections Corporation of America, where Elsa remained for several more months. She says one CCA guard kept asking her why she didn’t just go back home.

She told him, “I don’t want my children to watch me die.”

Then this summer, for reasons that still aren’t clear, Elsa was again transferred, this time to another CCA facility in Laredo where she encountered a whole new set of problems.

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ttorneys and advocates who represent immigrants held in CCA’s Laredo Processing Center say it basically functions like a prison. Heavy metal doors only open when a guard unlocks them from a remote office. There are frequent inmate head-counts and strictly scheduled meal times that interrupt what few face-to-face meetings they can get with attorneys.

There’s a small outside recreation area boxed in by cinderblock walls. Attorneys say detainees only get about 30 minutes of recreation time each day.

Some don’t even bother going outside, saying it’s not worth the invasive pat-downs by guards. “They’d look inside our underwear whenever we want to go out,” says

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FEATURE

Elsa, who was transferred to the facility this summer.

Such complaints aren’t uncommon, according to Luis Ortiz, a student with UT’s immigration law clinic who helps represent women detained in the facility. Unlike in other detention centers where migrants are allowed to wear their own clothes, in Laredo they’re forced to wear prison-like uniforms. Ortiz says the women there only get two pairs of underwear per week, which they claim are sometime stained and tattered. A group of women transferred to the facility this summer complained of vaginal infections soon after they arrived, blaming the used underwear.

Ortiz says the women sleep in pods of about 70 people and all share a toilet. This summer, after one of those toilets broke, some of the women claimed they didn’t have bathroom access for nearly 48 hours and suffered from urinary tract infections as a result. At one point this summer, another broken toilet started spewing black sewage onto the floor of a unit. Some of the women complained of fungal infections on their feet after having to walk through wastewater for two days, Ortiz says.

In fact, it was the detainees themselves who helped clean up the sewage, Ortiz says, working for $1 per shift so they could have money in their commissary account to buy things like bottled water and cups of ramen noodles. Ahead of the UN investigators’ visit to the facility, Ortiz and his team gathered a series of letters from detainees outlining the living conditions inside.

Many complained of inedible food and undrinkable, foulsmelling water. A bottle of water, they said, costs $1.34.

“They have to work just to get drinkable water,” Ortiz says. One of the UN investigators at the San Antonio meeting last month seemed appalled by the notion, asking, “How is this legal?”

In one of those letters, a woman says, “It’s been three months since we arrived but it feels like three years because of the way they treat us.” Another woman wrote, “When we go out for recess, they search us and keep their shotguns trained on us.” When asked for comment, a CCA representative declined “in deference to our government partner.” ICE, in a statement, said it “remains committed to providing a safe and humane environment for all those in its custody.”

ICE released Elsa earlier this year for reasons they never really explained, Steglich says. When Elsa spoke with the UN investigators last month, her recommendations for how to improve the Laredo facility were simple: clean underwear, edible food, drinkable water and adequate medical care. In their report, the UN workers say they found evidence of immigrants being detained in “punitive conditions that are often indistinguishable” from those inside a prison that houses convicted criminals. They also cited “degrading conditions” and “degrading treatment by some authorities and employees at detention facilities.”

Degrading, it seems, to the point that the government’s “deterrence” strategy might actually be working. Steglich says her clinic was representing a client who fled Honduras after one of her sons was killed by a gang member. Instead of being sent to an asylum officer for an interview, she was immediately deported. The woman

came back a year later when another son was shot and killed. The second time, she was able to make it to an interview with asylum officials, which she passed.

Despite having a daughter who lived in the United States and having suffered from serious medical issues (she was recovering from surgery, experienced frequent back pain and sometimes even coughed up blood, Steglich says), ICE wouldn’t release the woman. Then, earlier this year, the woman’s condition worsened when ICE transferred her to Laredo – even further isolating her from her attorneys and family members.

Even though she fled her home country to plead asylum twice, the woman eventually decided to drop her case, Steglich says. “She just couldn’t stomach those conditions,” she says. “She knew she had many more months in there, and ICE clearly wasn’t going to release her. She just couldn’t bear it.”

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ree Bernwanger hasn’t actually seen the conditions inside most of the Dilley compound, where as many as 1,400 asylum seeking women and children are held at any given time. As managing attorney for the CARA Pro Bono Project, which tries to represent all the women and children that flow through the South Texas detention center, she’s only allowed inside the on-site trailer that officials have designated for legal visits.

Bernwanger estimates that between 150 and 200 women and children pass through that trailer on any given day to explain why they fled their countries, to prepare for credible fear interviews and to try to find any way they can to stall their deportation. She says it’s a jarring sight for the volunteer lawyers and legal aides who travel to this desolate corner of South Texas – on their own dime, many of them using what little vacation time they have – to assist with the project. Bernwanger was one of those volunteers until she moved to Dilley two months ago.

“It’s just a sea of faces that comes through, one group after another, for about 12 grueling hours every day,” Bernwanger says. “They all desperately need help and they’re all very afraid. It’s daunting.”

The federal government’s last foray into family detention ended in 2009 when they pulled kids out of the Corrections Corporation of America’s Hutto detention center in Central Texas following a legal battle with attorneys representing families detained inside.

Attorneys described conditions that violated even the feds’ own minimum standards for housing children – kids forced to wear orange jumpsuits, sleeping with the lights on and locked in cells for hours at a time, receiving up to an hour of school every day.

The feds resuscitated the practice in 2014 after large numbers of Central American women and children started showing up on the southwest border to plead asylum. ICE soon tapped CCA to build Dilley, now the country’s largest immigrant detention center, capable of holding up to 2,400 women and children. Dilley’s construction dovetailed with the feds’ “aggressive deterrence strategy” to detain and rapidly deport families in hopes of keeping others from coming in the first place. The committee appointed by the Department

of Homeland Security to review its family detention practices put it this way in a recent report: “As it began scaling up the use of expedited removal for families in response to the ‘surge,’ ICE opened additional family detention facilities to hold the dramatically larger number of detained families.”

Family detention and the rapid-fi re deportation of asylum seekers – one is a symptom of the other.

“They wanted this place to be a deportation mill,” Bernwanger says.

On the heels of yet another federal court ruling condemning the practice last year, advocates had hoped the feds might again phase out large-scale family detention. Then the state of Texas, in a surprise move, swooped in to help out, offering to license Dilley and another privately-run family detention center in Karnes and designate them state-regulated childcare centers. Many fear state licensing could very well help the feds wiggle around the federal court ruling that had threatened to shutter the centers.

Child welfare experts across the state were appalled.

In a hearing before state regulators earlier this year, mental health advocates who’d toured Dilley and Karnes spoke of children losing weight, shedding hair and exhibiting symptoms of anxiety and depression in lockup.

Some of the attorneys and advocates working at the sites claimed health care was so bad that some kids had to be hospitalized once they were released.

Likewise, Bernwanger says she sees an alarming number of sick children come through her trailer at Dilley. For instance, last week she encountered a 6-year-old child with leukemia who’d recently undergone chemotherapy. The attorneys argued unsuccessfully for the child’s release on humanitarian grounds because she couldn’t get the specialized treatment she needed in lockup. “This was an incredibly ill child,” Bernwanger says. “A child with cancer shouldn’t be detained for a single day.” Such complaints aren’t hard to find. Last year, dozens of mothers held at the South Texas detention centers filed affidavits with DHS outlining similar problems. One mother spoke of how her 4-year-old suffered from kidney problems and lost his medication on the treacherous journey north as they fled Honduras.

Without his medicine, the boy started to suffer from stomach pain, fever and vomiting. The solution from medical staff at Dilley: water and Tylenol.

“It’s very rare to see a healthy child in that facility,” Bernwanger claims. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Bernwanger seems most troubled by the signal Dilley sends about the federal government’s priorities when it comes to asylum seekers. Why would the government rather spend resources on immigrant detention than, say, on appointed attorneys to help shepherd people fleeing violence through a convoluted legal system? Her project has a total of four staffers – two attorneys, including herself, and two aides – none of which are paid for by the federal government. The operation would grind to a halt, she says, without the regular rounds of volunteers helping families build their asylum cases.

“It should be frightening to all of us that we don’t have a better safety net for these people,” she says. sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 23

COURTESY OF SAY SÍ

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Día de los Muertos

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▲ Although traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2 (All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, respectively), Día de los Muertos got jumsptarted this past weekend and there’s plenty more on the horizon with offerings ranging from reverent to outrageous. Billed as the “biggest and oldest Día de los Muertos celebration in San Antonio,” Centro Cultural Aztlan’s pioneering event is anchored by “Altares y Ofrendas,” an exhibition of artist-created altars honoring (some say summoning)

CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

the dearly departed with candles, zempasuchitl (marigolds), keepsakes, beloved snacks and other personal favorites.

Promising to illustrate “the artistic, cultural and religious facets of this popular pre-Columbian/ Mexican tradition,” the organization’s 39th annual affair comes complete with pan de muerto, ponche de frutas, an “Avenida de los Artesanos” market and a lively performance from the skeleton-faced drummers and dancers of URBAN-15’s Carnaval de los Muertos. Free, 6-9pm Wed, Centro Cultural Aztlan, 1800 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 4321896, centroaztlan.org. Honoring a trio of heavy hitters who passed away in 2016, the Mexican Cultural Institute unveils altars celebrating the lives and contributions of legendary Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel, preservationist and San Antonio River Foundation co-founder Sally Buchanan, and San Antonio-born Tejano superstar Emilio Navaira. Performances by URBAN-15 and the Guadalupe Dance Company, music by DJ Toko, and tamales, pan de muerto and chocolate round out the reception. Free, 5-9:30pm Wed, Mexican Cultural Institute, 600 Hemisfair Plaza Way, (210) 227-0123, icm2.sre.gob.mx/culturamexsa. Among the veteran San Antonio institutions that elevate Día de los Muertos traditions into the realm of fine art, the Southwest

School of Art annually selects a local artist to create “their own version of la ofrenda.” Often working with themes that touch on “reconnection to indigeny, ancient ritual, de-colonization, rediscovery of the matriarch, and investigation of the self,” featured artist Daniela Riojas is sure to rise to the occasion (free, 9am-5pm Wed-Sat, 11am-4pm Sun, 9am-5pm Mon-Tue, Southwest School of Art, 1201 Navarro St., (210) 224-1848, swschool. org). Aiming to offer “an international perspective on Día de los Muertos,” SAY Sí’s 10th annual Muertitos Fest welcomes members of Kolkata, India-based nonprofit Prayassam for a series of multidisciplinary performances exploring unlikely connections between Día de los Muertos and the Hindu observance of Mahalaya Paksha (aka Pitru Paksha). Following a theme of “Fronteras de la Tierra y Cielos (Borders of the Earth and Heavens),” the three-night fest kicks off with a ticketed fundraiser ($35-$40, 7-10:30pm Thu), opens to the general public on First Friday (free, 6-10pm Fri) and wraps up with a fun-filled Family Day on Sunday (free, noon-4pm Sun).

SAY Sí, 1518 S. Alamo St., (210) 212-8666, saysi. org. Organized by hairstylist, salon owner and out-ofthe-box artist Rene Roberts, the Día de los Muertos Ball adopts a naughty S&M theme this year. Launched in 2010 at Jump-Start and now hosted in the historic confines of the Guadalupe Theater, the spectacle weaves elements of drag, vaudeville, pageantry and performance art into a wild blend that benefits area food pantries, scholarships and organizations ranging from Inner City Development to Metropolitan Community Church.

Hailed by its organizers as “the best Día event in SA,” the costumed shindig includes complimentary grub and Dos Equis beer but also invites “picky” guests to bring their own bottles. $35, 6pm-midnight Sat, Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St., (210) 324-2662, sanantoniodiadelosmuertosball.com.

— Bryan Rindfuss

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WED-SUN

2-6

Fashion Week San Antonio

◀ In a city that’s about as far from a “fashion capital” as one can get, the concept of Fashion Week San Antonio might seem like an oxymoron. Still, there’s a determined contingent of fashionistas determined to “make it work.” Founded in 2009 by the local chapter of Fashion Group International, taken over by producer Tony Harris in 2012 and presented this year by Red Haus Public Relations, FWSA kicked off Tuesday and continues through Sunday with a series of parties and runway shows. Standing out among the week’s highlights are Wednesday’s “Selena: A Salute to an Icon,” featuring apparel from Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters, styling by Suzette Quintanilla and curation by David Melgar ($25-$45, 6-8pm Wed, Centro de Artes, 101 S. Santa Rosa Ave.); Thursday’s charitable presentation of New Yorkbased designer Cesar Galindo’s Fall/Winter 2016 collection, presented in partnership with the local boutique Sloan Hall and benefiting the San Antonio Food Bank ($125-$150, 6-9pm Thu, San Antonio Food Bank Warehouse, 5200 Enrique M. Barrera Pkwy.); and the return of Moda Next: Fashion’s Forthcoming, showcasing emerging local designers Colt Wrangler (menswear), Valerie Perez (womenswear) and Tessa Guerra (childrenwear) ($25, 7-9pm Sat, Brick, 108 Blue Star). Visit fashionsa.org for the full schedule of events. — BR

carpenter. His recently released book Good Clean Fun offers plans for building projects ranging from kazoos to bed frames, and other than the 2014 special American Ham, one of Offerman’s lengthiest starring THU performances is an instructional DVD on COMEDY canoe making. (The other one is, seriously, a 45-minute video of him sitting in front of a crackling fireplace, drinking whiskey in total silence.) An author, comedian, awardwinning actor and capable craftsman who knows when to keep his mouth shut and ▲ He’s best known for portraying surly when to speak out — despite his characters’ small-town alpha male Ron Swanson on often conservative tendencies, Offerman’s Parks and Recreation, and his currently touring one-man show Full Bush consists of spent the latter part of this election cycle comedic songs and stories, but the “Events” trolling Trump on Twitter — the longtime Mr. Megan Mullally is not only a renaissance man page on Nick Offerman’s official website (offermanwoodshop.com) mostly lists dates but maybe one of the best arguments going for the continued existence of the straight for woodworking classes with names like “Stress-Free Glue-Ups and Clamping.” He’s white male circa 2016. $36.50-$49.50, not doing a bit, either: Offerman Woodshop 8pm, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, is a functioning woodworking shop in East tobincenter.org. — Jeremy Martin Los Angeles, and Offerman is an actual

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Nick Offerman

COURTESY OF MANÁ

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COURTESY OF FASHION WEEK SAN ANTONIO

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◀ Not only is Mexico’s Maná the Spanish world’s most successful poprock band ever — it is also the most underrated. Rocanrol purists who accuse them of being too soft may have never seen them live: Cubanborn drummer Alex González is a MUSIC beast who does it all (reggae, metal and, of course, anything Afro-Latin) with the precision and showmanship of Keith Moon (there; I said it); lowprofile bassist Juan Calleros may be from Guadalajara but is as dependable as a Swiss watch; guitarist Sergio Vallín joined the band for Cuando los Ángeles Lloran (1995) and turned the band from an explosive pop act to an arena powerhouse; and singer Fher Olvera (a gypsy version of Sting) is, along with González, one half of one of the most prolific songwriting teams in Latin alternative music. The best thing about Maná is that, instead of playing it safe, they always speak their minds and have loudly and unstoppably condemned racism and the planet’s destruction for years, and they were the first ones to smell Trump’s bullshit. This Latin Power Tour (complete with 80-tons of equipment) comes to Texas four days before the election. Not to be missed. $51-$1,028.70, 8pm, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com. — Enrique Lopetegui

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DANIELA EDBURG

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The School for Scandal

◀ Craving some tawdry entertainment but tired of watching reruns of Keeping Up With the Kardashians? Premiered in 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal features characters that rival the most conspiratorial members of that (in)famous family. Sir Oliver returns from abroad to find his extended family embroiled in rumors of scandal. To cut through the gossip and determine which nephew deserves to inherit his fortune, Oliver engages in some subterfuge of his own, donning disguises and confronting each man with a choice that will reveal his inner nature. Meanwhile, Lady Sneerwell meddles in the nephews’ love affairs, tangling their love triangle into something far messier.

If your interest is piqued but you’re averse to poetic dialect, don’t worry – the play’s dialogue is delivered in plainspoken English. $10-$25, 8pm Fri-Sat, 3pm Sun, The Classic Theatre of San Antonio, 1924 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 5898450, classictheatre.org. — Kelly Merka Nelson

COURTESY OF THE GLASS MENAGERIE

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The Glass Menagerie

▲ The Playhouse San Antonio is putting on Tennesee Williams’ classic memory play with a twist — in their upcoming production of The Glass Menagerie, the setting has been moved “from an apartment in St. Louis to the common area of a mid-century mental hospital.” With this one change, the production is allowed to delve deeper into the play’s central theme, shifting the perspective to further expose the dysfunction and fragility of the narrator’s reality-challenged

James Wilson that flips mundane artifacts of daily life in Texas into objects of mass (and personal) significance; “Beneath Metropolis,” a group show featuring national and international artists who have contributed work that encapsulates the multi-varied emotional responses to city living; “Flexible Foundations,” an exhibit of work

by BSC Berlin Residency alum Leigh Anne Lester that takes an artful, mixed-media look at genetic modification; and “Reclaimed by Nature,” a group show curated by Claudia Arozqueta (of Sala Diaz’s Casa Chuck residency) that ruminates on the important and fraught relationship between humans and the natural world. Free, 5-10pm Fri, noon-5pm & 7-10pm Sat, Blue Star Contemporary, 116 Blue Star, (210) 227-6960, bluestarart.org. — James Courtney

THEATER

family. The script has not been altered at all: Tom Wingfield will still guide the audience through a painful memory of his sister and mother that served as a turning point in his own life. What the production does is simply alter the focus, as if a glass figurine had been shifted so that it scatters prismatic light across the stage. $12-$42, 8pm Fri-Sat, 3pm Sun, The Playhouse, 800 W. Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258, theplayhousesa.org. — KMN

Spurs vs. Clippers

SPORTS ▶ Going into the regular season, the general consensus among NBA aficionados was that the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers ranked a tier below the Golden State Warriors and LeBron’s Cavaliers in terms of title potential.

The Spurs began their campaign one player short, with starter Danny Green sidelined by a left quad strain for at least two more weeks. They’ll get no sympathy from the Clippers who slogged through last season with key injuries to Blake Griffin and Chris Paul.

Much like their showdown in Oakland with the Warriors to tip off the season, Saturday night’s contest against the Clippers offers a stiff challenge for Pop’s charges. If given the green light, don’t be surprised if Patty Mills or gunner Bryn Forbes goes off in Danny’s absence. $50-$1,600, 7:30pm, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com. — M. Solis

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◀ We’ve barely had time to miss Blue Star Contemporary (BSC) as it has undergone its renovation — shuttering up back in June — because the-forward thinking organization has hardly been in repose during facelift operations. Aside from keeping busy putting together exhibits around town, the Blue Star crew has planned a glorious return to its newly updated space.

First Friday and Saturday, you can be a part of the grand re-opening festivities, which include the unveiling of four new exhibitions, a community day (Saturday) full of artsy activities for folks of all ages and an exploration of exhibits from BSC’s 30-year history, and a ticketed Supporters’ Saturday Night soiree ($250 per person).

The exhibitions opening this weekend are “Hold Still,” a photography exhibit by Robert Langham III and Casey

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Diwali ▲ In honor of, and in collaboration with, our sister city Chennai, India, San Antonio, believe it or not, puts on a huge event commemorating Diwali, the Hindu festival that celebrates the victory of light over darkness, of good over evil. Diwali, which for the eighth year in a row will take place at La Villita, is actually the only citysanctioned event of its kind in the nation and draws nearly 15,000 people from all over the state. This year’s familyfriendly fest will feature live music and dance, traditional Diya floats, a fireworks display, a

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smorgasbord of Indian cuisine, and tons of artisan vendors. Aside from a genuine cultural experience and an enjoyable evening, Diwali 2016, occurring just days before the election, provides a perfect time for San Antonians of all backgrounds to come together in the spirit of cultural exchange and celebration. While we’re at it, maybe we can all put our minds to willing an Election Day victory for the forces of good over evil. Free, 5-11pm, La Villita, 418 Villita St., (210) 273-2200, diwalisa.com.

— James Courtney

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DENISE TRUSCELLO

CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE

SUN

6

Olivia Newton-John MUSIC

ART Art opening: “Altered States” & “Goobledeegook” Artist, curator and

musician Hills Snyder presents a series of drawings “based on travels to Nowhere, Oklahoma; Happy, Texas; Lost Springs, Wyoming; Keystone, South Dakota; Recluse, Wyoming; and Opportunity, Montana.” Also on view in FL!GHT’s Salon Room, artist James Smolleck’s “Goobledeegook.” Free, 6-9pm Thursday-Friday; FL!GHT Gallery, 134 Blue Star, (210) 872-2586.

Art opening: ”Borrowed Air” Drawing

inspiration from “places not yet desirable for redevelopment” and working mainly in video and sculpture, artist Ron Lambert investigates the intersection of psychology and the environment. Free, 6-9pm Thursday-Friday; Terminal 136, 136 Blue Star, (210) 458-4391.

Art opening: “Landscape Interpretations” Inspired by travels and “visual episodes,” local artist Richard Mogas’ new solo show encompasses landscapes and compositions on wood panels. Free, 6-9pm Saturday; REM Gallery, 219 E. Park Ave., (210) 224-1227.

◀ To some of us, Olivia Newton-John will forever be Sandy, the preppy teen who transforms into a spandex-clad bombshell in the 1978 musical rom-com Grease. And while that role may have catapulted her into the spotlight, NewtonJohn was already an established singer-songwriter making unexpected waves in the country music industry. Born in Cambridge, England and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Newton-John recorded her first single at the age of 18 and earned a Grammy with the 1973 album Let Me Be There.

Oddly mirroring Sandy’s reinvention in Grease, Newton-John adopted a rockier style for 1978’s Totally Hot, slipped on roller skates for the deliciously cheesy, ELO-soundtracked fantasy Xanadu (1980) and then topped the charts with “Physical,” a sultry aerobics anthem Billboard once ranked as “The Sexiest Song of All Time.” A breast cancer survivor

Art opening: “Lost and Found” Visual

evidence of the high-caliber of artists coming out of the MFA program at the UTSA, Cinnabar’s latest showcases recent grads Sarah Fox and Andrei Renteria. While its title nods to the duo’s shared use of found materials, the exhibition seeks to illustrate ways in which people can lose (or find) themselves though “memories, relationships or ideas.” Free, 6:30-9pm Thursday; Cinnabar Art Gallery, 1420 S. Alamo St., Suite 147, (210) 557-6073.

Uptown Art Stroll Presenting a unique

opportunity to meet artists and purchase one-of-a-kind items, this 15th annual event features the work of 70-plus artists in more than 20 homes and studios. Visit uptownartstroll.org for a map of locations and the complete list of participating artists.

Free, 10am-5pm Saturday, noon-5pm Sunday; Olmos Park Terrace.

FILM A Class Apart Mission Marquee Plaza’s

Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations continue with a free outdoor screening of Carlos Sandoval and Peter Miller’s one-hour documentary built around the landmark 1951 legal case Hernandez v. Texas, which brings to life the struggles of Mexican Americans during the civil rights movement.

Before the screening, guests can enjoy tunes

by Armando Martinez, mariachis, food trucks, short films and giveaways. Free, 6-9:30pm Saturday; Mission Marquee Plaza, 3100 Roosevelt Ave., (210) 207-8612.

Ratatouille Slab Cinema pops up in

Hemisfair Park for a free outdoor screening of the 2007 Pixar film about a talented rat who forms an unusual alliance with a kitchen worker at a famous restaurant.

Free, 7pm Saturday; Hemisfair Park, 434 S. Alamo St., (210) 709-4750.

who’s dedicated to “educating and encouraging women to take a positive role in their breast health,” Newton-John is also a philanthropist and humanitarian who works closely with the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research, and launched National Tree Day, an initiative that’s added 10 million trees to Australia since its inception in 1992. Although her recent releases lean toward adult contemporary, holiday fare and even new age, Newton-John treats concertgoers to gems from her decades-spanning, genre-hopping career, interspersed with endearing anecdotes. Still stunning at 68, the Aussie icon takes a break from her extended “Summer Nights” residency in Las Vegas for a quick November tour stopping at the Majestic on Sunday. $39-$105, 7pm, The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — BR

THEATER Boleros de Mi Alma Accompanied by father-

son duo George Prado (bass) and Dr. Aaron Ellington Prado (piano), vocalist José Rubén De León performs vignettes from his original productions Simplemente Lara, Nosotros, El Corazón del Bolero and The Unforgettable Nat King Cole. $20, 3pm Sunday; Carver Community Cultural Center, 226 N. Hackberry St., (210) 207-2234.

Invocation Billed as “an experiment in

enhanced storytelling,” performance artists Erik Bosse and Laurie Dietrich’s Invocation consists of a pool of short stories paired with photographs and soundscapes. $10, 8pm Friday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; URBAN-15, 2500 S. Presa St., (210) 736-1500.

Our Lady of the Tortilla A riotously funny but nevertheless poignant affair, Luis Santeiro’s Our Lady of the Tortilla zooms in on the Cruz family during a particularly eventful weekend.

Everything is thrown into a disarray of biblical proportions when Dolores, the matriarch’s old-maid sister, sees an apparition of the Virgin Mary on a tortilla. $10-$15, 7:30pm Wednesday-Friday; St. Mary’s University, One Camino Santa Maria, (210) 436-3011.

Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage Dr. Ruth meets Emily Post in

this 90-minute comedy covering everything from kissing techniques to what you shouldn’t mention on a date. $30, 7:30pm Saturday, 3:30pm Sunday; Roxie Theatre, 7460 Callaghan Road, Suite 333, (210) 360-9180.

COMEDY Joe Mande Sound on Sound presents an

evening of stand-up with Joe Mande, a Los Angeles-based comic, actor and writer whose credits include Modern Family, Parks and Recreation and Master of None. $12-$14, 8pm Friday; Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St.

SPECIAL EVENTS Día de los Muertos Celebration Planet K’s

annual Día de los Muertos fireworks show invites spectators to rejoice and celebrate the lives of loved ones passed. Free, 8:30pm Wednesday; Woodlawn Lake Park, 1103 Cincinnati Ave., (210) 207-7275.

eMERGE Part of a cultural collaboration

between Texas A&M, Palo Alto College and the Land Heritage Institute, this full day of programming combines an exhibition exploring the relationship between art and technology, and talks and discussions addressing climate change. Free, noon-5pm Saturday; Land Heritage Institute, 1349 Neal Road, (210) 846-9403.

Equality Forward = Equality for All If

you’re concerned about making a difference and promoting full LGBTQ equality in the United States and worldwide, join gala chairs Julian Tovar, Jackie Urdialez and Sharna Caceres for this 14th annual gala and silent auction. $150-$245, 6pm Saturday; Grand Hyatt–San Antonio, 600 E. Market St., (210) 224-1234.

Tango of the Vines Lambermont Estate plays host to this fourth annual event featuring Texas Hill Country wines, samplings from top local restaurants, craft cocktails, live entertainment and a silent auction. $60$100, 7-11pm Friday; The Lambermont Estate, 950 E. Grayson St., (210) 362-0286.

Wurstfest New Braunfels celebrates its deep

German roots with more than 40 national and international music acts, polka contests, a carnival, Bavarian cuisine, clothing and food vendors, and pitchers of ice-cold German and brews to imbibe. $8-$10, 4-11:30pm Friday, 11am-midnight Saturday, 11am-9pm Sunday, 5-9:30pm Monday-Tuesday; Landa Park, 120 Landa St., (830) 625-9167.

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CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

ARTS + CULTURE

ALL HAIL THE

POPE OF MOPE RIO YANEZ

Morrissey fans unite for ‘November Spawned a Moz Show’

JA M

RIO YANEZ

JAMES COURTNEY

ES ME DR A NO

•

“November Spawned a Moz Show”

Free, opening reception 6-11pm Fri, Nov. 4; before and after Morrissey show 6-11pm Thu, Nov. 17; on view by appointment through Nov. 25, Presa House Gallery, 725 S. Presa St., (210) 573-8947 facebook.com/presahouse.

> As excitement builds for a rare, already sold-out Morrissey show at the Tobin Center on November 17, fans, barely able to contain their delight, are fi nding ways to express their adoration and welcome the emo icon to our neck of the woods.

While the godfather of highly emotive, melodramatic alternative pop-rock has been returning to his wordsmith roots of late — with the release of an autobiography in 2013 and a novel in 2015 — San Antonians and our fellow South Texans, like many around the world who are curiously drawn to Moz’s progressive-macho charisma, remain transfixed by the man’s music. Since making a return to recording in 2004, after a seven-year hiatus, Morrissey has released four solo albums, which have received, on the whole, mixed reviews — though the most recent, 2014’s World Peace Is None of Your Business, is easily the best among them. But none of that music critic noise matters much to any of the impressive number of Moz devotees in this town, who follow their idol with a near-religious fervor.

To be sure, Morrissey is a worldwide star, and has been ever since his days with The Smiths, with staunch supporters and rabid fans spread out across the globe.

But, there’s got to be something to his particularly robust popularity here in South Texas. Some might harshly argue that Morrissey’s popularity in the region is, at least in part, owing to the fact that we are stuck in the past. Viewed through this light, our obsession with Moz is painted as nothing more than nostalgia (at best) or a lack of musical adventurousness (at worst).

Perhaps a more positive and culturally significant reason for the crass crooner’s cult following in the region is the similarity his music bears, at least in mood and emotional depth/vulnerability, to genres that have long been staples here, like ranchera, corrido and even country music. There’s a cry-it-out quality to these types of music that seems to satisfy something deep within the South Texan psyche.

There’s just something gratifying and cathartic, if not particularly productive, in picking at emotional scabs and confessing, along with a favorite song, one’s unworthiness, angst, hopeless longing, or just plain sadness.

As far as proof of his flock of followers here in town, aside from the quickness with which the Tobin show sold out, one need look no further than an art show that’s opening November 4 at Presa House Gallery. The exhibit, entitled “November Spawned a Moz Show” after the Morrissey classic “November Spawned a Monster,” will feature Morrissey-themed work by an impressive roster of 31 artists from across the stylistic spectrum, including James Medrano, Bryson Brooks, Agosto Cuellar, Amada Miller, Christopher Montoya, Danielle Cunningham, and many more. The exhibit will also be on view before and after the Tobin show on November 17, so fans can gather and hold onto the night as long as they can.

sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 31

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DANSKO DAYS! Our Dansko Rep will donate $5 to the Texas Land Conservancy for every pair of Dansko shoes sold at Whole Earth from November 4 – 13.

Thursday, November 10 7:30 p.m.

The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater

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CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

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SCREENS

COURTESY

HOT TAKE Robert Langdon’s third time on screen is smart action flick

Inferno (PG-13) Dir. Ron Howard; Writ. Dan Brown, David Koepp; feat. Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan Opens October 28 ★★★ DAN HUDAK

≥

In Inferno, a billionaire mad scientist (Ben Foster) believes overpopulation will engender the end of mankind in 40 years, so he strives to restart civilization by creating a virus that could wipe out half the world’s population. Not sure about you, but I’d rather have 40 more good years than be dead, or living in a world full of corpses. And how does he know the virus will stop spreading at only half the world’s population?

Logical fallacies aside, Inferno is a briskly paced and smart action pic that keeps your mind and visceral senses fully engaged. Based on the novel

by Dan Brown, and following The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009), Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) wakes in a Florence, Italy, hospital with no memory of the last two days, but jarring headaches and visions he can’t explain.

His doctor, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), is a fan of his work who helps him escape after he’s attacked in the hospital.

They discover a tube in Langdon’s pocket that only his fingerprint can open, and it contains a

painting of Italian poet Dante’s interpretation of Hell.

In the painting are clues to the next clue, which lead to the next clue, etc. A wild goose chase ensues, all in an effort to find the virus within 12 hours and stop it from being unleashed into the world. Trying to find Langdon and Brooks – and maybe help, or maybe kill them – are World Health Organization officials Bouchard (Omar Sy) and Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a private security honcho (Irrfan Khan), and a villainess on a motorcycle impersonating Italian police (Ana Ularu).

Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind ), who also directed the first two films in the trilogy, keeps our mental wheels spinning as he unspools one twist after another. Clearly he’s learned his lesson from the tedious pace of The Da Vinci Code, which took a dynamic page-turner of a book and turned it into a visual slog that fans endured rather than enjoyed.

Like Angels & Demons, only better, Inferno deftly mixes the lore of history with Langdon’s intelligence and ability to wiggle out of perilous situations. This is probably the only trilogy in which the films get

progressively better deeper into the series; usually it’s the opposite, i.e. all downhill after the first movie.

A few weeks ago, I complained that Rachel (Emily Blunt) in The Girl On The Train was not a reliable protagonist because her memory issues and alcoholism distorted truth from reality. The argument was if we can’t trust what we’re seeing, it’s hard to get emotionally invested in the characters. With Langdon here, though, it’s different. His “visions” are clearly in his head – they’re never perceived as his current reality. What’s more, they’re part of a phase he goes through and are soon an afterthought as the plot surges forward. Plus, after two movies Langdon has earned enough credibility with the audience to be believed, regardless of how dubious his thoughts may seem.

Admittedly, when you get home you may find yourself asking questions that start with “How did Langdon…?” And that’s fair, because it’s a complex puzzle of a story. As you’re watching it, though, it makes perfect sense, and more importantly is perfectly satisfying by the time the end credits roll. sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 33

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FOOD

KODY MELTON

The Well 5539 UTSA Blvd.

(210) 877-9099 thewellsanantonio.com

SOUTHERN CHARM

Impressive brisket, sausages at The Well

The Skinny: A Texas-style restaurant, featuring tweaked comfort foods, with beer garden and attached, weekends-only, dance hall.

Best Bets: sausage on a stick, 3 chili rubbed brisket Price: $8-$27 Hours: 11 am-2 am Tue-Sat; 11 ammidnight Sun (full food service not continuous)

RON BECHTOL

≥

The Well is really more like a barn. An awkward looking barn set behind a vast parking lot that was mostly empty on two daytime visits. The restaurant/dancehall’s most appealing spaces are actually outdoors under some live oaks and atop a ground of Astroturf. There are picnic tables, a covered bandstand, ledges to sit at or lean on.

As the weather cools, this is the place to be.

The dining spaces lack charm.

Charm of the Southern/Texas sort was apparently what the menu was aiming for. With their experience at Jason Dady operations, the two chef-partners should surely have been able to pull that off. King Ranch Chicken, pimento cheese, brisket, chicken fried steak, chili … where’s the mystery in all that?

Mostly missing, as it turns out.

It’s not obvious that pimento cheese needs to be majorly fiddled with, but the kitchen gave it a shot, promising the smoke and spice of chipotle peppers.

Not to worry: there is neither. What you do get is a coarsely grated rendition with perfectly fine pimento flavors, served with a cracker-like bread. It’s good with a local beer, but not better than your Aunt Mabel’s.

The house-made bratwurst is likely not better than your Uncle Fritz’s, but, grainy and lightly spiced, it does have an attitude of its own. As cheerfully served in a puffy, house-made pretzel bun with sauerkraut

THE HISPANIC CHAMBER LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INVITES YOU TO

and house-made grainy mustard, the sausage tends to get a little lost, but you can always extract it. Housemade, by the way, is a litany: “everything but the ketchup and mayo,” said one accommodating server.

“These are Texas-sized portions,” intoned every waiter at one time or another.

I was hoping for a good, just-cheffy-enough rendition of chili worthy of Chili Queens in a town that has precious few good examples. Hopes dashed. We could start with the fine grind, which seems more like something one might put on a hot dog, and continue to the lack of any developed chile fl avor, the over-reliance on cheese … In all, it’s perfectly edible, but, despite some good and custardy spoon bread, not worth the drive I made.

Maybe your Texas grandmother made King Ranch Chicken. This classic Texas recipe likely has as many variations as there are abuelas, but there are givens: cubed chicken, sautéed onion and bell pepper, Ro-Tel with chiles, torn corn tortillas, grated cheddar, often both cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup, sometimes a little chili powder … it’s the ultimate potluck casserole. The Well’s version is supremely cheesy/gritsy, and though the flavors are okay, the chicken seems scant, the texture is mushy and unappealing, and the advertised “spicy sauce” mostly gets lost in the shuffle. Like the recent “Rocky Horror”

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remake, why do it if it’s not an improvement? This calls for sweetened iced tea. Spiked.

Any of us could do a decent brisket using a barrel cooker with an offset firebox — assuming we had the rub down pat. This is exactly the kind of “pit” The Well uses, and I didn’t expect more than ordinary out of the 3 Chili Rubbed Brisket. Wrong. Though it’s hard to say that the three chilis count for all that much, the meat is moist, the bark dark and crackling and the barbeque sauce oddly appealing with its undertone of tea. “All the fixin’s” in this case include some, yes, house-made rolls, vinegary cucumbers with dill, pickled chiles and a classic slaw that wasn’t mucked with much at all.

I felt obliged to get there on at least one evening when the Thursday-Saturday dance hall, oddly tucked away at the back of the complex, was open. Thursday is effectively UTSA night, and the lot was decently full.

For my taste, the cocktails are a little overwrought, but the Fancy Free, one of the simplest (bourbon, maraschino, and orange bitters), was decently done, if oddly presented with a thick slab of bitter grapefruit peel. To go with it? House smoked beef jerky seemed natural. Oops — not available. But the substitute Texas Hot Link on a stick may have been about the best thing I had. Snappy, nicely seasoned, and presented with mustard and a boldly boozy onion compote, it sent me out in a Texas state of mind.

SAT· DEC.3

RD

12 6 PM

sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 35

FOOD

FOOD COURT

A name for Fire Station No. 7, a cat café and more

COURTESY OF BATTALION

Bowers will take techniques learned while staging for a year under two sisters from Positano, Italy in San Diego, to create shared plates and interpretations of classics. Expect to see veal saltimbocca, Tuscaninspired T-bone steak, chicken and eggplant parmesan, rigatoni alla vodka, fresh cannelloni and manicotti, hand-made dumplings, spicy lobster ravioli and veggie dishes that embody the field-to-table simplicity of Italy, as per chef’s email. Price points should remain relatively low as Bowers and Goodman hope to keep the restaurant high energy and filled with people “eating a ton of plates,” says Bowers. He estimates they’ll be able to seat 150-200 people.

Battalion — which will include a sizable bar downstairs, a full kitchen upstairs and a patio — is a play on words for several reasons. Though initially announced in early 2014, rezoning and legal battles kept progress on the 5,200-square-foot eatery from really taking off.

Battalion should open by the end of 2016.

Rock en Español Cat-pital Funding

> As Austin’s Blue Cat Cafe turned one (and dealt with some gnarly vandalization), San Antonio’s Cat Cafe launched a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to help open its doors. Casey Steuart, who registered the nonprofit 4 Pawsitive Change Inc. AKA San Antonio Cat Cafe, is hoping fans of cat cafes and kitties will put their money where their mouths are by helping to raise $20,000 through GoFundMe. As of this print, the campaign has $635 pledged through several donors. Steuart, who has met with lenders for the project, says the fundraising goal is high to hit the ground running with a large space off Broadway and 410 across from the San Antonio International Airport complete with an actual cafe. At $20,000, the goal is just a third of Austin’s Blue Cat Cafe’s (which surpassed its goal by just over $2,000), but it is the largest for a San Antonio eatery to date.

Before they opened, Earth Burger fundraised $10,000.

Steuart has spent several years doing TNR (trap, neuter, release) work in San Antonio. She hopes to help take cats and kittens off the streets by fostering them at the SACC, where the cats will hopefully become socialized and accustomed to people. Steuart hopes to turn the industrial space into a large living room-like kitty sanctuary where visitors and potential adopters 36

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

can visit with the cats with programming that’ll hopefully include music, trivia, yoga and more.

“We want to hit the ground running with the right space and right possibilities,” Steuart said.

Cat cafes have been in the states since late 2014 and are springing up throughout the country with Texas now the proud owner of two kitty palaces (Blue Cat Cafe in Austin and The Charming Cat Cafe in Lewisville outside of Dallas).

Incentives range from free admission, snack and a drink for $20 to naming rights for one item, a party for 30, return passes for guests and a lifetime pass for donors that pony up $1,000 ore more. Head over to the San Antonio Cat Cafe’s GoFundMe page right meow to read Steuart’s business plan. Meanwhile, I’m off to find some Zyrtec.

▲ Fire Station Battalion

> We finally know the name of Andrew Goodman and Stefan Bowers’ latest project at 604 S. Alamo St. Bowers (Feast, Rebelle) shared both concept (“The cuisine will be a combination of Old and New World Classics along with numerous contemporary Italian interpretations”) and moniker for the restaurant that will go into Fire Station No. 7. Get ready to spend New Year’s Eve at Battalion, Southtown.

> Broadway gained a new bar this past weekend with the soft opening of La Roca Cantina. Opened by Tony Coss, now-owner of Green Lantern, La Roca Cantina is a chill homage to the cantinas his uncles would frequent in his native Saltillo in the Mexican state of Coahuila.

“It was called La Roca and it was around since my mom was a teenager,” Coss said, while remembering trips inside as a kid to fetch cigarettes for said uncles.

Occupancy for La Roca caps off at 100. The 100-year-old bar was formerly a sports bar in the late 90s and a home before then. The interiors are dim, but welcoming, and sprinkled with comfortable seating lounges and tables within three rooms. The bar, managed by mustachioed Mario Robles (Green Lantern, Edison Experiment) commands the first room and seats around 20 bar-goers. The menu is accessible. There are five tequila-based drinks, but other spirits and cervezas also grace the short drink list.

“We didn’t want to overdo it with the tequila and just have good drinks at reasonable prices,” Coss said. All cocktails are currently listed at $7.

For now, La Roca Cantina will open 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily. Coss and co. expect to hold a grand opening on November 4 with DJ Yevez. Regular hours of operation will then shift to 4 p.m. to close.

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COURTESY OF TEQUILA CODIGO 1530

NIGHTLIFE

STRAIT ROCKS OR ON THE

George Strait, country icon, knows good tequila JESSICA ELIZARRARAS | @JESSELIZARRARAS

•

Photo caption goes here

≥

When the King of Country tells you to sip tequila, you mustn’t argue.

Though I consider myself a fringe country fan, I’m not dumb enough to turn down an invite to mingle with George Strait and learn more about what he’s doing with his days now that he’s stopped touring. Turns out when he’s not doing structured tours, he’s drinking Codigo 1530 tequila.

As a brand partner and investor in Codigo 1530, Strait’s signed on to the not-so-arduous task of getting people to try tequila. Owned by CEO Federico Vaughan, who along with his family helped turn Los Cabos into the tourist hot spot it is today, and co-founder and executive chairman Ron Snyder (formerly CEO of Crocs Footwear), Codigo 1530, is slowly being launched across the U.S. In San Antonio, the tequila can already be found at Los Barrios, JW Marriott, Peggy’s on the Green, Casa Rio and soon Bohanan’s.

As the story goes, Vaughan and Snyder have been enjoying the tequila, five varieties, for just over a decade.

Vaughan would take flip top glass bottles

of the tequila labeled with a demure white sticker and a hand-written designation of either blanco, reposado or añejo to the course for leisurely sipping on the golf course. When Strait purchased a home in the same community, the mutual friendship over golf blossomed over more tequila. Ahuevo.

“We kept asking why we couldn’t buy this stuff in the states,” Snyder said.

For Strait, who was used to chasing the agave spirit with lime and salt, sipping Codigo was easy because of the quality. Though the tequila was distilled and manufactured for decades prior to Vaughan and Snyder getting their hands on it. Vaughan’s wife served as his connection to the jimadores and tequila makers in Amaititán, Jalisco (a short drive east from Tequila, Jalisco) who . After sourcing bottles of the stuff for years on end, the guys decided to commercialize their beverage of choice. Named codigo after old customs and codes, and bearing the year Amaititán was recognized by the Spanish, Codigo 1530, is — brace yourself — pretty damn good.

During Tuesday night’s San Antonio

launch inside Cordillera Ranch’s country chic Clubhouse, Snyder, Vaughan, Strait and other brand members invited a select group to sample the wares: the blanco ($49), reposado ($69), añejo ($119) and extra añejo ($249). The blanco, used in the evening’s Paloma, lacked that signature methanol kick-to-the-back-ofthe-throat most silvers have, while the reposado contained a mild boldness. The añejo is aged in oak barrels out of Napa for 18 months was awarded Platinum Best of Class tequila añejo in 2016’s Sip Awards, and deserves a crystal clear block of ice, if that. The extra añejo, aged six years, comes bearing heavy caramel notes and a general smoothness one would hope for in a $250 bottle.

For his part, Strait, is just trying to bring attention to the brand.

“I told these guys, ‘Listen, I don’t need another job, but I really do believe in this tequila,' I think it’s going to be a great success. I think people are going to love it.,” Strait said. “We just have to get people to try it, that’s what I’m trying to do. If we get people to try it, they’re going to love it.”

sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 39

Beer! Beer! Beer! and all the places to grab one

Local picks of the week

IN HONOR OF

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5619 W LOOP 1604 N, # 109, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78253 The concept behind this locally owned and operated restaurant is to offer great craft beer, wine and modern comfort food. Husband and wife team, Angelo and Kelly Cavazos both have a passion for great food and craft beer.

Chef Jeremy Carolino uses fresh, local ingredients to create a new twist on comfort food.

“Hop & Vine’s menu goes far beyond your typical pub fare,” says owner, Angelo Cavazos, “Our food and drink menus were designed to provide perfect pairings. We want to provide choices that span from the traditional to more adventurous.” The craft beer menu showcases a variety of styles from Texas breweries.

The rotating food and drink menus, as well as the intimate atmosphere make Hop & Vine a perfect date night destination or a relaxing evening with friends.

Tap list is available at www.hopandvinesa.com

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For more visit SanAntonioBeerFestival.com 40

CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

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MUSIC

MUSICA EN LA CALLE

Cap your Dia de los Muertos week at Hotel Havana JAMES COURTNEY

JOSH HUSKIN

> For the fourth annual Musica en la Calle, Hotel Havana will once again turn its parking lot into a mini-music festival over the course of two evenings. Along with artisan vendors and an impressive food and drink menu (provided by Ocho at Hotel Havana), Musica en la Calle 4.0, a sort of tastefully badass capstone to a week of Dia de Los Muertos festivities, boasts an impressive and diverse musical lineup.

Considered as a whole, the six acts that will grace the Musica en la Calle stage represent the union of the future and the past of Mexican-American/Latin-American music. Here’s a quick rundown of what each artist brings to the proverbial mesa:

Friday

FILE

THIRD ROOT

CONRADO GONZALES

LOS TEXMANIACS

PIÑATA PROTEST

BLACKBIRD SING With a punk attitude and a Tex-Mex mood, this San Anto five-piece creates gritty yet harmony-laced alt-country/Americana songs that span the emotive gamut from severe to sappy, from joyful to heartbreaking. In the live setting, the group’s often rollicking numbers seethe and lurch with an arresting sonic intensity seldom wielded by folk-based acts. This year, Blackbird Sing released its sophomore effort Cinco, solidifying the band’s status as one of the best, most original acts in town.

LOS TEXMANIACS Led by bajo sexto master and Flaco Jimenez mentee Max Baca, Los TexManiacs champion the Tex-Mex groove, as established by acts like The Texas Tornados and The Sir Douglas Quintet. By pulling on elements of jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, Los TexManiacs give us an updated take on conjunto Tejano music that, like Tejas itself, is as vibrant, unpredictable, and refreshing as a runaway thunderstorm.

THE LAST BANDOLEROS Plying a self-described “new breed of Tex-Mex,” The Last Bandoleros, which features Tejano legend Emilio Navaira’s sons Diego and Emilio Jr., brings together Brit-pop, Tex-Mex, country/ blues, and rock in its unique music. The band’s sophisticated sonic synthesis smacks of the infl uence of band leaders long-traffi cked in disparate pockets of the music world.

Saturday PIÑATA PROTEST While “mojado-punk” might not be the most politically correct term—certainly uncomfortable for a gringo como yo to commit to print—it’s an apt descriptor of Piñata Protest’s sound, and one that band leader/accordion punisher Àlvaro Del Norte has frequently used himself to denote the band’s furious, border-hopping, sonic fusion.

Regardless of the moniker you give it, Piñata Protest’s Tex-Mex punk music is defiant and full of movement, rage, and instrumental inventiveness.

Plenty of folks have taken note, and the band will play Musica en la Calle a day after playing Sound on Sound Fest and fresh off a largely sold out national tour with Brujeria.

THIRD ROOT San Anto’s Third Root is a dream come true for fans of woke, grassroots hip-hop. One part throwback hip-hop swag, one part Chicanx manifesto, and one part motivational speech por la raza, Third Root, comprised of rappers Mexican StepGrandfather, Easy Lee and DJ Chicken George, makes hip-hop music that celebrates culture and decries injustice.

But, don’t get it twisted: these songs are as easy to bump in your ride as they are to get woke to. Need proof? Look no further than the collective’s recently released album Libertad.

GIO CHAMBA Houston electro-cumbia/nu-cumbia purveyor Gio Chamba is a force of nature. Combining his guitar playing and vocals with samples and electronic elements, Chamba manages an energetic, wholly new, postmodern take on the familiar cumbia style. Despite the electronica and even hip-hop elements in his music, Chamba’s live set feels more organic, and less like a slick tourist trap dance party in Cancún, than you might expect.

•

Musica en la Calle feat Blackbird Sing, Los Texmaniacs, The Last Bandoleros (Friday), Piñata Protest, Third Root, Gio Chamba (Saturday)

42

CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

Free, 7:00pm-11:00pm, Fri-Sat, Nov 4-5, Hotel Havana, 1015 Navarro St, havanasanantonio.com.

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Clark Libbey 4-6pm Kristen Ford 6-8pm Sonic Waves 8:30-10:30 pm

Sunday, November 6

El Westside Sound System and Friends 2-6pm Will Owen Gage Trio 7-9pm

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CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

•

GEORGE CLARKE // CREATIVE COMMONS

ANGELINA CASTILLO

MUSIC

JAMES COURTNEY

GROSS OUT

Diarrhea Planet + free show = the shit > When you think of Nashville music, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re not thinking of Music City’s booming indie scene, or of the rad releases from Opryville’s Infinity Cat Records. But, you probably should be.

Since its start in 2002, the indie label has released music from notable Nashvillian acts like JEFF the Brotherhood (who founded the label), PUJOL, and Natural Child, as well as swell outliers like Peach Kelli Pop and Daddy Issues. In 2011, Billboard Magazine even listed Infinity Cat among its 50 best indie labels in America, and, despite that outlet’s lack of qualifications to comment on anything indie, they weren’t wrong.

One of the latest and greatest Infinity Cat artists is the unfortunately named Diarrhea Planet. I must admit that I initially misread the band as another Burger bro (no offense) copy cat, forgoing originality for fuck-all fuzz and freewheeling flippancy. But this is simply not the case.

Not only is Diarrhea Planet not a garage rock band (though they do

incorporate elements of that nowseemingly-homogenized aesthetic), but the group’s music doesn’t fit neatly into any one of the rock sub-categories.

Perhaps best simply described as rawk music, the band’s sound, which has grown more polished and more ambitious through the course of three LPs and three EPs, culminating in summer’s delightful release Turn to Gold, owes as much to Springsteen as to Nirvana, as much to 1970s-80s cock-rock as to neo-psych a la Thee Oh Sees, and as much to Nugent as to Nuggets.

On stage, where the road-dog sixpiece spends so much of its time these days, Diarrhea Planet is truly in its element, dialing things up with guitar solo bombast and mosh-pit inspiring freneticism aplenty. On Monday November 7, at Paper Tiger, you can experience this rising rock juggernaut for yourself. And, since it’s a free show, there will be no excuse for not being able to say your were orbiting Diarrhea Planet before everyone else knew it was the shit.

•

Diarrhea Planet

Free, Mon, Nov 7, 7:00pm, Paper Tiger, 2410 N St Mary’s St, papertigersa.com.

George Clarke of Deafheaven

BRING THE NOISE JAMES COURTNEY

Health and Deafheaven descend upon Paper Tiger

•

Health, Deafheaven, Ho99o9

$20, Sun, Nov 6, 7:00pm, Paper Tiger, 2410 N St Mary’s St, papertigersa.com.

> Just in time for the ostensibly dark and blustery days of mid-Fall, Paper Tiger is hosting Health and Deafheaven, two of the darkest stars in the solar system of heavy-as-fuck.

Aptly billed as an electronic-infused noise rock outfi t, Health nevertheless, especially on its latest release Death Magic (2015), occasionally skews towards a kind of post-industrial dance sound. It’s a mesmerizing spectrum to be sure, and the work that the Los Angeles-based band does really pushes the boundaries of all of the forms that it labors within.

While Health, which enjoys a cultlike following among noise-heads and electronic music fans alike, usually takes its sweet time crafting its hi-fi battering ram albums, fans have every right to hope that this show might feature some new tunes.

Indeed, the band dropped a new song for the excellent Adult Swim Singles Series back in September, perhaps indicating that more new stuff is in the works, assuming that wasn’t just a random one-off.

Meanwhile, Deafheaven, an increasinglypopular post-metal/blackgaze band from San Francisco, has been quite prolific since its start in 2010, dropping three stellar albums and a few EPs. More traditional in terms of its allegiance to metal tropes, Deafheaven’s shows are supremely highenergy, with frontman George Clarke screaming like a soul in the immortal grips of hell-fire and tossing himself about like a tiny skiff on an apocalyptic seascape.

All of this is to say that, as far as black masses go, this show promises to be one for the ages.

sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 45

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CURRENT • November 2-8, 2016 • sacurrent.com

MUSIC UDAPRUDA

MP

MUSIC PICKS

ABBY MANGEL

▲ Baio (Vampire Weekend) The bass guitarist of Vampire Weekend, Chris Baio is a style icon for many Wayfarer-wearing cool kids.

Ready to strike out on his own after the release of Modern Vampires of the City in 2013, he booked a transatlantic flight to pursue a solo career. After a period of dwelling in the hipper boroughs of London, Baio started crafting dreamy, electro-pop melodies that resemble the shimmering hits of Twin Shadows and CHVRCHES. Two years later, Baio consolidated nine tracks into 2015’s The Names. Not straying far from the literary roots of Vampire Weekend, Baio borrowed the title of a Don DeLillo novel for his personal debut. The bubbly album is dappled with up-tempo tracks like “Sister of Pearl,” a wistful homage to Roxy Music’s glam-rock jam, “Mother of Pearl.” Sweet without being too syrupy, the entire record is a must listen for fans of Vampire Weekend.

Throw on your best pastel polo and cut a rug with Baio at Paper Tiger. 8pm, $13, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. Saint Mary’s THU

3

Evanescence If you identify as a millennial, chances are the first few bars of “Bring Me to Life” are loaded with dreadful memories of a prepubescent emo phase. (If not your own, then someone else’s – the general shame of the early 2000s touched us all.) Usually caked in gothic makeup and lacey Victorian-styled fashions, Amy Lee inspired a rush of hormones for the generation of confused preteens that were exposed to Evanescence’s weird brand of opera-horror-pop music. But speaking objectively, our generational crush on the niche singer is pretty understandable in hindsight. A whole range of Maxim-esque publications ranked the corseted image of Amy Lee alongside Joan Jett, Courtney Love and Liz Phair in lists that itemized the hottest women in rock. More importantly, regardless of her black THU

3

velvet wardrobe, the “Call Me When You’re Sober” songstress has some legitimately impressive pipes. Ditch your ego and revisit the embarrassing blemishes of the past with Evanescence. 8pm, $35-60, Majestic & Empire Theaters, 224 E. Houston More Eaze More Eaze is the performing outlet of Marcus Rubio’s experiment in musical form. Emphatically of no relation to the conservative Florida senator, the Austin-based composer challenges the very definition of music by deconstructing songs into avantgarde collages of noise. Although Rubio spent the greater part of the year collaborating with different artists, he returns to More Eaze recharged and ready to share new material. In h3llo! – More Eaze’s recent October release – the mechanical clatter and din of the Futurists gets a healthy dose of Frank Zappa’s sense of humor in intricately layered tracks like the ascending “r u ok.” Without ever losing control of a song’s composition, More Eaze achieves a kind of postmodern fragmentation that leaves you absolutely mystified. San Diego’s Steve Flato and Alan Jones share the bill with More Eaze as well as local shredders Freebiez and Fierce Deity at Ventura.

8pm, $5, Ventura, 1011 Ave. B THU

3

Creepoid Nocturnal and brooding, the cerebral Creepoid is a post-punk quartet borne off the dirty streets of Philadelphia. Reverting to the melodic noise rock heard in 90’s grunge – remember Sonic Youth’s primordial Goo? – Creepoid waltzes through waves of distortion in a way that evokes the phantasmal presence of Kurt Cobain. Fittingly, the band’s lyrics plunge into the weariness and exhaustion of creative minds, but executes this thematic descent in a FRI

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MUSIC

way that never demands too much of its listener. Although Creepoid often slips into darker moments that feel fractured and detached, the band is able to transcend the doom and gloom of its grungy texture in lush tracks like “American Smile.” What emerges is a blissful arrangement of strange loops that borders on déjà vu. Creepoid enters the void along with Future Museums and Hypersleep at San Antonio’s psychedelic mainstay, K23.

8pm, $8, K23, 703 Fredericksburg Starfucker A band by any other name wouldn’t smell as skeezy. Formed in 2007, synthpop group Starfucker started out as the quasi-joke of founding member Joshua Hodges. While living in Portland, Hodges unwittingly stumbled into a SAT

5

MUSIC CALENDAR

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2 Funk, Oldies and R&B with DJ Plata Free, 21+, 8pm, Tucker’s Kozy Korner Haybaby, Cursus, Harvey McLaughlin and the Bottomfeeders $8, All Ages, 8pm, Paper Tiger Jim Cullum Jazz Band Free, 21+, 10pm, George’s Keep Lettuce’s ‘Sounds Like a Party’ 2016 Tour $20+ Presale, All Ages, 8pm, Sam’s Burger Joint Melted, Whatever? $5, 9pm, Limelight Oh Bleep! Wednesdays $10 Presale, 18+, 10pm, Lush Rooftop Propaganda with DJ Ely Bat Free, 21+, 10pm, The Mix Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band $15-20, 7pm, The Amp Room Rockwave Videos with VJ Andreas Free, 21+, 7pm, The Amp Room San Antonio Symphony: Veterans Day Salute to Service Free, All Ages, 7pm, Majestic Theatre

conversation with someone who openly boasted about their history of sexing up celebrities. Not too charmed by the encounter, Hodges decided to repurpose the term “starfucker” with a tongue-in-cheek twist as the working moniker of his project. As fate would have it, the name stuck. Sometimes stylized as STRFKR, the band produces lively aural confections that are both danceable and thought-provoking. A prime example is the wildly successful “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second.” (If that track sounds familiar, it was probably seared into your brain by a popular Target commercial a few years ago.) With release of the band’s fifth album rapidly approaching, Starfucker’s ironic streak continues to make the band an indie essential. 8pm, $17, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. Saint Mary’s

The Hump-Off Wednesday Nights with DJ Donnie Dee Free, 21+, 10pm, Southtown 101 Tony Braxton $45-125 Presale, All Ages, 730pm, The Tobin Center War on Women, Lemmings, Signalman, The Bastard Son $5-7, 8pm, The Korova Wayne’s World Wednesdays Free, 21+, 10pm, Bottom Bracket Social Club Wednesday Underground - Every 1st Wednesday of The Month 10pm, Brass Monkey Wednesday Evening Picker Circle with Penny Ney Open Unplugged Acoustic Jam Free, All Ages, 5pm, Luckenbach Dancehall Wet Wednesdays with Midnight Swim (Front Room) and Karaoke (Back Room) Free, 21+, 9pm, Phantom Room You Spin Me Right Round Wednesdays with DJ Mighty Iris Free, 21+, 9pm, The Bang Bang Bar

November 5 - Tejas Brothers

November 11 - Stoney LaRue

#SquadUp2K16 Free, 21+, 10pm, Bottom Bracket Social Club 210 Blues Band Free, 21+, 10pm, Soho Wine & Martini Bar

November 12 - John Conlee

Nov 4

Grown & Sexy

Nov 10

Diamond Head

Nov 12

Nekromantix w/ The Loveless, No Way Jose and Los Tejanos Muertos

Nov 20

Ruben Ramo Napalm Death & The Black Dahlia Murder

Dec 8

Metalachi w/ Los Tejanos Muertos & Years Gone

Baio, Verisimilitude, Last Nighters $13, All Ages, 8pm, Paper Tiger Darude $10 Presale, 18+, 9pm, Club Rio Evanescence $40-60 Presale, All Ages, 8pm, Majestic Theatre

November 18 - Shane Smith & The Saints

Jazz/Writers Bloc with Steve Mohacey $10, 730pm, Carmens De La Calle Kool and Together Free, 9pm, Fitzgerald’s Bar and Live Music Let’s Go Retro Thursdays with DJ Mighty Iris Free, 21+, 8pm, Bonham Exchange

November 19 - Bob Schneider

More Eaze, Freebiez, Steve Flato, Alan Jones, and Fierce Deity 8pm, Ventura

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Pennywise, Strung Out, Unwritten Law, Runaway Kids $22 Presale, All Ages, 7pm, Alamo City Music Hall

#Death2genres: Thursdays with the Space Cadets Free, 21+, 10pm, Web House

Queer Y Que: LGBTQIA Thursdays Free, All Ages, 4pm, La Botánica

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Rewind Thursdays with DJ Tech-Neek Free, 21+, 10pm, Groove Lounge Ruben V, Jeff Plankenhorn $10-45, All Ages, 7pm, Sam’s Burger Joint Tejano Thursdays Free, All Ages, 5pm, La Villita Historic Arts Village The Dillinger Escape Plan, O’Brother, Cult Leader, Entheos All Ages, 7pm, Paper Tiger The Ultimate Mix with JJ Lopez (The Soul Spot) Free, 21+, 9pm, The Mix Thursday Night Live! ft.

Rezorwar Free, All Ages, 9pm, Fitzgerald’s Bar and Live Music Thursday Night Picker Circle w/ Bo Porter: Unplugged Under the Oaks All Ages, 5pm, Luckenbach Dancehall

Jack Pledge 5pm, Barriba Cantina

Fitzgerald’s Bar and Live Music

Jazz Fridays with Peter Rosie Free, All Ages, 7pm, Punta Del Cielo Café

Johnny Bush + The Merles Dancehall Show $15, All Ages, 730pm, Luckenbach Dancehall

Kaleo with Bishop Briggs, The Wind + The Wave $2030 Presale, All Ages, 630pm, Aztec Theatre Lesti Huff 9pm, Barriba Cantina MANÁ: Latino Power Tour 2016 $51-196, 8pm, AT&T Center

The Decline, Dead Words, Signalman, Despro $5-7, 7pm, The Korova

Smokehouse Guitar Army 9pm, Barriba Cantina

Wagon Aces Dance Hall Show All Ages, 8pm, Luckenbach Dancehall

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4

Amanda Miguel y Diego Verdaguer $48+ Presale, All Ages, 8pm, Majestic Theatre

Bruce Robison, Nathan Bonnes $15-60, All Ages, 8pm, Sam’s Burger Joint Chase Rice, Ryan Hurd, Lacy Cavalier $25-300, 18+, 7pm, John T. Floore Country Store Diamond Rio $30 GA $6595 VIP, All Ages, 7pm, River Road Icehouse Friday Evening Picker Circle w/Dan West Cowart Open Unplugged Acoustic Jam All Ages, 4pm, Luckenbach Dancehall HUNNY, Sad Diet $12, All Ages, 8pm, Paper Tiger It’s A Groove Thing with DJs Chacho and Donnie Dee Free, 21+, 10pm, Groove Lounge

Saturday’s w/ Dj Malik 10pm, Stone Street Pub Sell Your Soul Saturday’s presents The Stovebolts & Over the Top 10pm, Faust Tavern

Thursday Night Swing Dance $10, Free for Members, All Ages, 7pm, San Antonio Swing Revival

Black Market Brass, Money Chicha, Alamo City Soul Club $5, 21+, 9pm, Limelight

Saturdays with Midnight Swim Free, 21+, 10pm, Bottom Bracket Social Club

San Antonio Symphony - Stewart Copeland: The Tyrant’s Crush $25+, All Ages, 8pm, The Tobin Center

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5

Baby Bangs Cassette Release $5, All Ages, 8pm, Blue Star Arts Complex

PHREE-BASS SAMPULZ XP8 ALBUM RELEASE PARTY $5, 8pm, Movement Gallery

80s, New Wave, Pop Saturdays Free, 21+, 930pm, Jack Rabbit

Cody Canada & The Departed with Mike McClure Band, Mike McClure Band $17-90, All Ages, 8pm, Sam’s Burger Joint Confused, Zero Percent, Belligerency, Force Fed & More $5, All Ages, 7pm, The Korova Davey Schrank Trio All Ages, 1pm, Luckenbach Dancehall Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Butterfly Ballet $28, All Ages, 3pm, Laurie Auditorium Forever Town, Raven Outlaw, and more $5, 21+, 9pm, Zombies Bar and Live Music Green River Ordinance $12 Presale, All Ages, 7pm, Gruene Hall JC Productions Presents: ATX Invades $5, 630pm,

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MUSIC

Circle All Ages, 5pm, Luckenbach Dancehall

8pm, J&O’s Cantina

Sunday Funday with DJ Shawn Jackson Free, 21+, 8pm, Leaky Barrel

Monday Night Picker Circle with Jimmy Lee Jones All Ages, 5pm, Luckenbach Dancehall

Sunday Funday with Rollin Rollin Free, 21+, 9pm, Phantom Room

Jim Cullum Jazz Band Free, 21+, 7pm, Tucker’s Kozy Korner

Sunday Jazz at the Witte With Henry Brun & The Latin Playerz Free for members, All Ages, 3pm, Witte Museum

Swing Nite with Dan Walton & The Jump Swing Imperials $10, All Ages, 7pm, Sam’s Burger Joint

Trade Traffic Light Party $2, 9pm, Brass Monkey

Trapped Out Mondays with DJ Burlo Free, 21+, 10pm, Bottom Bracket Social Club

YOSA: Remembering Bowie $16, 7pm, The Tobin Center

Wurd of Mouth Mondays with DJ Gibb Free, 21+, 10pm, Blue Box

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7 Diarrhea Planet Free, All Ages, 7pm, Paper Tiger Marley Mondays with DJ FantasticDan Free, 21+,

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8 2Play Tuesday: Langton Drive, Wayne Holtz & more $2, 21+, 9pm, Phantom Room

Gen-X Tuesdays: ’80s Night Free, 21+, 8pm, The Amp Room Jim Cullum Jazz Band Free, 21+, 7pm, Bohanan’s Marc Ford And The Neptune Blues Club, The Reed Brothers, Elijah Ford $12-45, All Ages, 7pm, Sam’s Burger Joint Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox $40, 8pm, The Tobin Center Throwback Tuesdays with DJ Ammunition Free, 21+, 9pm, Retox Bar Tuesday Night Picker Circle Free, All Ages, 5pm, Luckenbach Dancehall Turn Up Tuesdays with DJs Ferno, Dennis Loy and Rollin Rollin Free, 21+, 10pm, Bottom Bracket Social Club

502 Bar 502 Embassy Oaks, (210) 257-8125, 502bar.com Alamo Street Eat Bar 609 S. Alamo St., (210) 227-2469, alamostreeteatbar.com Aztec Theatre 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355 theaztectheatre.com Barriba Cantina 111 W. Crockett St., Suite 214, (210) 228-9876, barribacantina.com Bonham Exchange 411 Bonham, (210) 271-3811, bonhamexchange.com Bohanan’s 219 E. Houston St., (210) 472-2600, bohanans.com Bottom Bracket Social Club 1609 N. Colorado Street, (210) 267- 9160, facebook.com/bottombracketsocialclub Blue Box 312 Pearl Pkwy., Suite 2107, (210) 227-2583, blueboxbar.com Brass Monkey 2702 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 480-4722, facebook.com/ brassmonkeytx Carmens De La Calle 320 N. Flores St., (210) 281-4349, carmensdelacalle.com Cave Without a Name 325 Kreutzberg Road, (830) 537-4212, cavewithoutaname.com Club Rio 13307 San Pedro Avenue, (210) 4032582, club-rio.net Esquire Tavern 155 E. Commerce St., (210) 222-2521, esquiretavern-sa.com Faust Tavern 517 E. Woodlawn Ave., (210) 257-0628, facebook.com/thefausttavern Fitzgerald’s 437 McCarty Road, Suite 101, (210) 629-5141 facebook.com/fitzgeraldsbarsa GS 1221 1221 Broadway, Suite 116, (210) 251-3184, gs1221.com Groove Lounge 501 E. Crockett St., (210) 281-8383, facebook.com/groove210 Gruene Hall 1281 Gruene Road, (830) 6061281, gruenehall.com Hi-Tones 621 E. Dewey Pl., hitonessa.com Imagine Books & Records 8373 Culebra Road, Suite 201B, (210) 236-7668, imaginebookstore.com J&O’s Cantina 1014 S. Presa St., (210) 485-7611 Jack’s Patio Bar 3030 Thousand Oaks, (210) 494-2309, jacksbarsa.com John T. Floore’s Country Store 14492 Old Bandera Road, (210) 695-8827, liveatfloores.com K23 Gallery 704 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 776-5635, facebook.com/ k23gallery La Botánica 2911 N. St. Mary’s St., vivalabotanica.com Leaky Barrel 7959 Fredericksburg Road, Suite 131, (210) 577-5470, facebook.com/leakybarrelsa Leon Springs Dance Hall Boerne Stage Road, (210) 226-9881, leonspringsdancehall.com Limelight 2718 N. St. Mary’s St., thelimelightsa.com Luckenbach Dancehall 412 Luckenbach Town Loop, (830) 997-3224 luckenbachtexas.com Moses Rose’s Hideout 516 E. Houston St., (210) 775-1808, mosesroseshideout.com Nite Lite 714 Fredericksburg Road, nitelitesa.com Olmos Bharmacy 3902 McCullough Ave., (210) 822-1188, olmosrx.com Paper Tiger 2410 N. St Mary’s St., papertigersa.com Paramour 102 9th St., (210) 340-9880, paramourbar.com Phantom Room 2106 N. St. Mary’s St. Punta del Cielo Café 115 N Loop 1604, (210) 549-3583, facebook.com/puntadelcielostoneoak Retox Bar 1031 Patricia, (210) 775-2886, retoxbar. net River Road Icehouse 1791 Hueco Springs Loop Road, (830) 626-1335, riverroadicehouse.com Sam’s Burger Joint 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com San Antonio Swing Revival 1717 San Pedro Ave., (210) 504-7812 Soho Wine & Martini Bar 214 W. Crockett St., (210) 444-1000 Southtown 101 101 Pereida St., (210) 263-9880 The Amp Room 2407 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 320-2122, theamproom.com The Bang Bang Bar 119 El Mio Drive, (210) 833-2203, facebook.com/thebangbangbar210 The Cove 606 W. Cypress St., (210) 227-2683, thecove. us The County Line 10101 IH-10 W, (210) 641-1998, countyline.com/countyline10 The Korova 107 E. Martin St., (210) 226-5070, thekorova.com The Mix 2423 N St. Mary’s St., (210) 735-1313, themix-sa.com The Rock Box 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 677-9453, therockboxsa.com The Roundup 531 FM 3351, (830) 428—3231, therounduptx.com Tobin Center for the Performing Arts 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org Tucker’s Kozy Korner 1338 E. Houston St., (210) 320-2192 Ventura 1011 Avenue B, (210) 802-6940, facebook.com/venturasatx Web House 320 Blanco Road (210) 531-0100, webhousecafe.com Whitewater Amphitheater 11860 FM 306, (830) 964-3800, whitewaterrocks.com Zombies Bar 4202 Thousand Oaks, (210) 281-8306, zombiesliveinsa.com

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CUCK EVERLASTING > I’m a 41-year-old male who looks like the tall, strong, professional, alpha-male type on the outside. On the inside, though, I would like to find a strong, confident woman who wants a cuckolding relationship — she sleeps with other men, while I am faithful and submissive to her.

There must be women out there who would love to have a loving, doting boyfriend or husband waiting at home while they go out with other men, but I tend to attract women who want the alpha-male type. What can I do to find — or attract — the kind of woman I’m interested in?

Or should I go in for vanilla dating and then have a discussion about cuckolding after we’ve started having sex?

Another Lad Pursuing Humiliating Action “Most women, even dominant women, are still looking for guys who look like they ‘kick ass and take names’ in every other aspect of their lives,” said FleeMarket (u/flee_market), one of the moderators of r/cuckold on Reddit.

“As for how to find dominant women, I see a lot of submissive guys on various websites — OkCupid, Reddit, Tinder, FetLife — and something they don’t understand is that women looking for sex or love online tend to get buried in unsolicited PMs from thirsty guys. That makes it hard to find that one respectful PM from a guy like our letter writer here.

The signal gets lost in the noise.”

Before we get to some practical advice for ALPHA, a quick word about the term “cuck.” While it has long been an affectionate/horny term embraced by self-identified cuckold fetishists, the alt-right has attempted to turn “cuck” into a term of abuse, hurling it at any straight white man who gives a shit about racial justice, police brutality, and the plight of undocumented immigrants.

In an effort to wrest “cuck” back from the bigots, and to mark the waning days of the Trump campaign, I’m dedicating this week’s column to “cuck” as properly understood: a guy who wants his partner to sleep with other men.

So, ALPHA, how can you attract a woman who wants a cuck?

“What’s worked for me is using the

SAVAGE LOVE

by Dan Savage

internet not to find people but to find kinky events where dominant women gather in real life,” said FleeMarket. “I’m on my second openly dominant female partner in four years, both of whom I met at kinky parties. The events are usually listed on FetLife, and you usually have to attend a munch first to demonstrate that you’re not a dingus who can’t follow the rules or a psycho who doesn’t care about them.”

You will find a lot of advice for wannabe cucks on r/cuckold, most offered in response to men trying to talk their vanilla wives or girlfriends into cuckolding them. But you’re as likely to read stories of failure (she said no, absolutely not, never) as you are to read success stories (she’s fucking other guys, and here, with her okay, is the video).

“As much effort and time as getting into the kinky community takes, it’s still easier than trying to turn a vanilla woman kinky,” said FleeMarket. “He shouldn’t ‘lead with his kink.’ If a woman asks him what his interests are, mention it, but dial down the excitement level. These ladies deal with a lot of creeps, and it’s easy to scare them off. Basically: Be in the right place, treat the women there with respect, and get to know them as people first.” > I just came across the word “wittol.” It means “a man who knows, condones, and even encourages his wife’s enjoyment of coitus with another man or men; a contented cuckold.” Considering the frequency with which cuckolding comes up and your influence on language, I thought you might want to know.

He’s Expanding Lexicon Perpetually Discontent is a big part of the cuckolding kink, HELP, as cuckolds get off on feeling humiliated and jealous. So I’m not sure “wittol” quite works. But if the alt-right white supremacists succeed in making “cuck” synonymous with “race traitor,” maybe cucks will switch to “wittol.”

But don’t give up without a fight, cucks!

On the Lovecast, when fathers come out to their daughters: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter

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1 Crater’s edge 4 Airer of vintage films 7 Cold-weather phenomenon also known as pogonip 13 “What ___ you afraid of?”

14 Paris’s ___ de la CitÈ 15 Juliet’s family name 17 Rowboat implement 18 With 20-Across, Rocky Road ripple full of a nutty animal?

20 See 18-Across 22 Super Bowl on Feb. 3, 2019 23 “Homer came up with the drink, but I came up with the idea of charging $ 6.95 for it” speaker 24 Sang from the hilltops, maybe 28 European sports car marque 32 Love letters?

33 Distinctive historical period 34 Existentialist aquatic animal?

39 “You’re ___ party ...”

40 Tennis’s Bjorn and namesakes (but not the “Star Trek” aliens, plural-wise) 41 “An idea!”

42 Poker hand that beats three field mice of a kind?

45 Common (and unimaginative) first episode title 47 Empty, as a mathematical set 48 It runs between “This American Life” segments 50 Battery terminal 53 Countless centuries

54 Romance/thriller novelist Hoag 55 With 60-Across, anesthesia administered by a small monkey?

60 See 55-Across 64 George Gershwin’s brother and collaborator 65 Like child’s play 66 “As a rule,” in a dict. entry 67 Dart in one direction 68 Final purpose 69 Avery of animation fame 70 Serpentine character?

DOWN

1 Country in Southeast Asia ...

2 ... and in the Middle East ...

3 ... and in South America 4 Actor central to the movie “Four Rooms” 5 Dry red table wine 6 Nothing other than 7 I, Freudian?

8 GoPro product, briefl y 9 Gp. overseeing toxic cleanups 10 Problem for a parker, perhaps 11 Basic skateboarding trick 12 Imaginary surface coinciding with the earth’s sea level 16 Lead-in to light 19 Cagey 21 Nearly twenty-year-old Apple 25 You can’t live without it 26 “And all she wants to ___ dance, dance” (Don Henley lyric)

27 Endo- opposite 28 Classic TV nickname, with “The” 29 Plotting 30 Final purpose 31 “Sounds like a good plan to me” 35 “48 ___” (1982 actioncomedy) 36 Fictional account 37 Website with lots and lots of instructions 38 Lab maze runners 40 Hacking tool 43 Drew in 44 “Could you put that in layman’s terms?”

45 Teen’s rental from a menswear store 46 “I’m ___ hurry ...”

49 Examine carefully 50 Craft tapered on both ends 51 Eugene O’Neill’s “___ for the Misbegotten” 52 Animal on Australia’s coat of arms 54 B’way box office purchase 56 August, in Paris 57 11 1/2 wide, e.g.

58 Dwarf planet that dwarfs Pluto 59 License plates 61 “The Jungle Book” snake 62 European designer’s monogram 63 “Popeye” surname

ETC.

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): I am in awe of your headfirst, charge-forward, no-distractions approach. In fact, I aspire to incorporate more of the Aries-style directness into my own repertoire. But I also love it when, on rare occasions, you flirt with a more strategic perspective. It amuses me to see you experimenting with the power of secrets. Your wisdom often grows at an expedited rate when you get caught up in a web of intrigue that exposes you to dark joys and melodramatic lessons. During times like these, you feel fine about not having everything figured out, about not knowing the most straightforward route to your destination.

You allow the riddles and enigmas to ferment as you bask in the voluptuous ambiance of the Great Mystery. Now is such a time.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): I am pleased to inform you that at least 30 percent of what you think you know about love and lust is too prosaic. Probably too narrow and constrained, as well. But here’s the good news: As soon as you agree to relinquish the dull certainty of that 30+ percent, you will open yourself to a surge of fresh teachings. And soon, I expect, dewy throbs and hot flows will awaken in all the erotic parts of your body, including your heart and brain and soul. If you’re brave enough to respond, generous lessons in intimacy will keep you entertained for weeks.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Over the last two decades, well-meaning Westerners have donated a profusion of clothes to lowincome folks in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

Kind and magnanimous, right? Yes, but their largesse has had an unintended consequence: the demise of the textile industry in those African countries. With this as a cautionary tale, I’m asking you to take inventory of your own acts of benevolence and charity. Are they having effects that you approve of? If not completely, how could you adjust the way you give your gifts and bestow your blessings?

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Is it possible that you might flourish as a topdog after all the work you’ve put in as an underdog? Can you wean yourself from the worried fantasy that you’ve got endless dues to pay, and then harness your imagination to expand your confidence and build your clout? I believe you can. And in the coming weeks I will unleash a flood of prayers to the Goddess of Holy Reversals, asking her to assist you. Now please repeat after me: “I am a creative force of nature. I am a strong song of liberation. I am a wise animal with direct access to my primal intelligence.”

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): The next two weeks could be smooth, peaceful, and bland. Is that the experience you want? Mild satisfactions, sweet boredom, and slow progress? There’s

nothing wrong with any of that. Please feel free to loll and loaf as you explore the healing charms of laziness. Grant yourself permission to avoid conflict and cultivate sunny self-protectiveness.

This is one of those times when silence and stasis are among the best gifts you can give yourself.

Welcome the rejuvenating power of emptiness!

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): It’s time to replace banged-up, dried-out old obsessions with ripe, juicy fascinations. It’s your duty to phase out numbing traditions and deadening habits so as to make room for exciting new rituals, customs, and sacraments. Can you summon the electric willpower to shed influences that are technically “correct” but lacking in soulfulness? I think you can. Do you love yourself enough to forswear pretty but meaningless titillations? I think you do. Now get out there and do the hard work necessary to bring more serious fun into your life. Homework: Write an essay titled “What I Can Do to Be More Playful.”

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): Over the course of his or her life, the average British person says “Sorry” on over 90,000 occasions.

The typical Libran Brit probably utters routine apologies upwards of 120,000 times. Libras from other countries may not reach that heady level, but many do specialize in excessive politeness.

(I should know, as I have three planets in Libra in my natal chart.) But in accordance with the astrological indicators, I am authorizing you to be a bit less courteous and solicitous than usual in the next two weeks. Don’t go overboard, of course. But allowing yourself some breathing room like this will help you get more rigorous access to your authentic, idiosyncratic, soulful urges — which will be very tonic.

or totally victorious will depend as much on the attitude you hold in your heart as on your outward behavior. Be grateful, never resentful, for the interesting challenges. Love your struggles for the new capacities they are building in you.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): The coming weeks constitute the harvest phase of your personal cycle. That means you have the pleasure of gathering in the ripe rewards that you have been cultivating since your last birthday. But you also have the responsibility to answer and correct for any carelessness you have allowed to affect your efforts during the previous 11 months.

Don’t worry, dear. My sense is that the goodies and successes far outnumber and overshadow the questionable decisions and failures. You have ample reasons to celebrate. But I hope you won’t get so caught up in your rightful exaltation that you’ll neglect the therapeutic atonements.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Like England and Spain, the Netherlands has a royal family, including a king, queen, prince, and princesses. They’re an egalitarian bunch.

The young ones attend public schools, and the previous queen’s birthday is celebrated with a nation-wide flea market. The king’s crown is

attractive but quite economical. Its pearls are fake, and other “jewels” are made of glass, colored foil, and fish scales. In accordance with the astrological omens, I propose that you create a regal but earthy headpiece for yourself. It’s high time for you to elevate your self-worth in an amusing and artful way. What fun and funky materials will you use in your homemade crown?

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): In her book, A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman reports on the eccentric methods that professional writers have used to galvanize their creative process. Poet Amy Lowell relaxed into her work day by puffing on Manila cigars.

Novelist Colette plucked fleas from her cat. T. S. Eliot’s poetry thrived when he had a head cold.

Novelist George Sand liked to jump out of bed after making love and immediately begin writing.

Novelist William Gass, who is still among the living, wanders around outside taking photos of “rusty, derelict, overlooked, downtrodden” places. As for D. H. Lawrence: climbing mulberry trees naked energized his genius. What about you, Pisces? Now is an excellent time to draw intensely on your reliable sources of inspiration-as well as to seek new ones.

THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): Until 2007, Scotland’s official slogan was “Scotland, the Best Small Country in the World.” Deciding that wasn’t sufficiently upbeat, the government spent $187,000 on a campaign to come up with something better. “Home of Golf” and “Home of Europe’s Fastest Growing Life Sciences Community” were among the proposed phrases that were rejected. The ultimate choice: “Welcome to Scotland.” I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because you’re in a favorable phase to rebrand yourself. But I hope you will be more daring and imaginative than Scotland. How about “Smolderingly Alarmingly Brilliant”? Or maybe “Safely Risky and Unpredictably Wise” or “Home of the Best Secrets Ever”?

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): I cheer you on as you attend to your difficult but holy duties. I send you my love as you summon the wisdom and resourcefulness you need to weather the gorgeous storm. Here are clues that might be useful: Whether you are partially

sacurrent.com • November 2-8, 2016 • CURRENT 57

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