Issuu

FREE

SACURRENT.COM

JANUARY 27 - FEBRUARY 2, 2016

DANGEROUSLY CUTE PRESENTS:

VDAY

A DAY OF EMPOWERMENT & TRANSFORMATION

02.20.16

STW Krav Maga 100 Crossroads Blvd. #107 San Antonio, TX 78201

210.348.6127

Events: D O O R S O P E N AT 8 A M T O V I S I T W I T H VENDORS AND REGISTER FOR SEMINAR • • • •

Fashion Show Makeup/Make Overs Nutrition Experts Healthy Cooking & Meal Prep • Hair Removal

• Medical Experts in the field of Rejuvenation & Cosmetic Surgery • Breast Health • Dental Health • Essential Oils

S E M I N A R S TA R T S P R O M P T LY AT 10 : 3 0 A M Self-Defense Seminar focusing on parking lot attacks. Getting in & out of your vehicle, with & without your children.

OPEN TO FEMALES 12 AND UP

MARCH 15, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. THE TOBIN CENTER

To purchase tickets Online, visit: www.TobinCenter.org Or call the the Box Office at (210) 223-8624 Tobin Center Box Office | 100 Auditorium Circle, San Antonio, TX 78205 4 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

RAMPAGE HOCKEY

80’s NIGHT

FRIDAY | JAN. 29 | 7:30PM

BEER & FOUNTAIN DRINKS

SEASON PRESENTED BY

GAME PRESENTED BY

DOLLAR DRINK NIGHTS SPONSORED BY

TICKETS TICKETS START START AT AT JUST JUST $10 $10

SARAMPAGE.COM

Spread the love across San Antonio! - A FREE Community Program Join us as we bring back the art of traditional correspondence just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Stop by the Museum from February 2-11 to craft a personal love letter on a vintage typewriter or with calligraphy pens. Recipients in the downtown area will have their letter hand-delivered by bicycle messenger. All others will be mailed on us! Call or visit our website for info on hand-lettering classes; improv poetry group, Typewriter Rodeo; gallery talk; calligraphy demonstrations; and more.

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 5

OUR SEMINARS FOCUS ON: • • • • • •

Cannabis Politics Horticulture & Cooking Advertising & Marketing Science of Cannabis Cannabis Edibles Franchise & Investing

• • • • • •

Legal Rights Ethics History Real Estate Security Profits

• Find Out How To Own Your Own Dispensary • Learn Who Can Become Licensed Cannabis Growers • Understand How Patients Qualify For Cannabis Medication Admission: $250 standard/$400 VIP

Presents

KEVA COFFEE Revitalize

Check out fresh daily content at sacurrent.com

Rejuvinate

Keep Warm 5238 De Zavala Rd.SA,TX 78249 | 315 E. Commerce st #102 SA,TX 78205 | 888.935.2412 | kevasmoothie.com

Put Your Health first!

Open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace ends on Jan. 31, 2016.

Why pick a Community First plan? • Affordable deductibles and plans • Exclusive member benefits • Trusted local service you can rely on

SIGN UP TODAY! Call: (210) 358-6400 Visit: www.CommunityFirstHealth.org In Person: Community Office at 1410 Guadalupe Street, Suite 222 Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 7

Thur., 3. 24. 16 | 7-10PM

A TASTY NIGHT OF LOCAL CUISINE SACURRENTFLAVOR.COM

8 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

Dispose of unwanted medicines.

Saturday, Jan. 30 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. Brooks City Base 2350 Gillingham Drive

P houselus hazardhold wasteous drop-o ff !

No sharps/needles please. In partnership with

Alamo Area Council of Governments | Bexar County Medical Society

Sponsored by

MedDropSA.com WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT? • 5 yr. sealer included • 1 day install • 4 standard edges included • 10 level 1’s to choose from • We also offer Quartz!

GRANITE KITCHEN SPECIAL 45sqft. Materials & Labor installation of level 1 granite, 1 sink cut out

210.885.0444 | 1334 S. General McMullen San Antonio 78237 | agsgranite@me.com

Quality Stone Fabrication

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 9

IN THIS

FIRST WORDS

On “Houston Chronicle Calls on Embattled Texas AG to Resign” // Karen Nordquist Dorofee: He truly should resign. It’s the right thing to do....then again, so many politicians don’t know how to do the right thing. On “Senator José Menéndez Plans to File and Pass David’s Law” // Gregory White: Freedom of speech should not protect people who are purposefully using their words to pick on and hurt others ... I doubt the founding fathers imagined cyber bullying when they made the first amendment ... people tend to think they can be as nasty as they want cause they can hide behind a computer desk and screen name, but words hurt people and if you purposefully harassed someone to the point of suicide then you should also hold a bit of accountability [sic] On “San Antonio Animal Care Services Reaches No-Kill Status” // Peter K Bawa: Before anyone judges them please go spend a day or two in their shoes. I spent several days there in late November / early December. It is heartbreaking work. I have also volunteered with other rescue groups both here and in Houston. Many more animals come into city shelters than can be adopted, rescued, or fostered. I ended up adopting two strays from ACS that had been there 3 days (both were already fixed but neither had any Tags or chips) without being claimed and were going to be put down at the end of that day (I have 5 dogs now). This city has a huge stray, abandonment and animal abuse problem. Every animal cannot be saved, the population numbers are just too high. So please, everyone instead of judging, do what you can to help instead. Volunteer, donate, foster or adopt, and help educate the community. These animals deserve all of the collective help we can give them. [sic] • Send your thoughts, comments or kudos to letters@sacurrent.com

ISSUE

Issue 16_04 /// January 27–February 2, 2015

NEWS

Newsmonger San Antonio is a no-kill city // MLK march exceeds expectations // Mott family sues funeral home

CALENDAR

Our top picks for the week

SCREENS

ARTS + CULTURE

We Got Game Pax South returns to SA for second year Safe Splash Morgan’s Inspiration Island innovates for inclusion

A Tale of Two Marches There was more than one march in San Antonio on MLK day

FOOD

Nostalgia for Sale Is Propaganda Palace a palace of profit?

Caffeine Connoisseur SA native Jesse Garcia brings the beans to Paramour

Digestible Themes Trilogy’s latest flick molds minds for a greater generation

Culinary Calendar 5 ways to get your drink/grub on this week

NIGHTLIFE

Watering Hole Pinks Patio has potential Keeping Tabs Give these red blends a go

Flavor File Meat Week is back

MUSIC

Blakeslee’s Blues Singer-songwriter Guy Blakeslee brings his blues to SA Shaping Grace Potter A conversation on the country chanteuse’s pop transformation Aural Pleasure Albums we love (and hate) this week Music Calendar What to see and hear this week

10 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

ETC.

Savage Love Jonesin’ Crossword Freewill Astrology This Modern World

ON THE

COVER Local gamers like Tyler Lutz and Crissy Baker will get a chance to take in what’s new in the video game industry as Pax South returns to San Antonio this week. Photography by Josh Huskin Art direction by Rick Fisher and Sarah Flood-Baumann

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 11

Join us for the 2nd Annual

BLONDES VS BRUNETTES GAME DAY

BLONDES VS BRUNETTES: A flag football fundraiser to TACKLE Alzheimer’s Disease! Local women working for a common cause: to end Alzheimer’s Disease!

We are recruiting women and men. Ladies play ball but anyone can coach and cheer on this awesome event. Join Team Blonde or Team Brunette, Redheads are free agents!

Tickets: $20 includes game & tailgate after party with live music by Mark Monaco & The Strayhearts Band to purchase your ticket or for more information contact Brooke Craig - bcraig@alz.org | 210.237.1041 Toyota Field | 5103 David Edwards Dr. | SA, TX 78233 Follow us on Blondes vs. Brunettes San Antonio All proceeds benefit the Alzheimer’s Association | alz.org/BvB 12 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

PRESENTED BY

SATURDAY| JAN. 30 | 7:00PM

TICKET + 2 BEER

BUNDLE

STARTING AT JUST $16 REGULAR TICKETS START AT JUST $10

ARRIVE EARLY FOR THE 1ST BLOCKHEAD IN THE 3 PART SERIES!

SARAMPAGE.COM

SEASON PRESENTED BY

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 13

NEWS

•

San Antonio Animal Care Services euthanized dogs and cats at its lowest rate ever in December 2015.

BEXAR-O-METER Checking the temperature of events in Bexar County and beyond

300,000 MARCH FOR MLK DAY Just a few pals out for a stroll

NEWSMONGER San Antonio Is a NoKill City // MLK March Exceeds Expectations // Mott Family Sues Funeral Home San Antonio Reaches No-Kill Status Last week, San Antonio Animal Care Services announced that it had achieved no-kill status for December 2015, reaching a long sought-after goal of the department. No-kill doesn’t mean that all animals that enter the shelter will be spared. For a shelter to earn the no-kill designation, at least 90 percent of the animals it takes in must be adopted or returned to their owners, regardless of their health or temperament. The figure only accounts for animals that are taken into a shelter — not for those found on the street or that are turned away. But hitting the 90 percent mark is a major improvement for San Antonio, which once killed more than half the animals that entered its shelter. And ACS accomplished this while taking in more dogs overall: The department claimed that it brought in 300 more dogs in December 2015 than it did in

KAWHI TO START THE ALL-STAR GAME For once your vote makes a difference

MICHAEL MARKS/@MICHAELPMARKS

December 2014. San Antonio is the largest city in the country to hit the no-kill standard so far, and ACS claims that it is on track to keep that title through January. MLK March Draws Over 300,000 The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. march drew over 300,000 people to the East Side on Monday, January 18. The 2.75-mile walk, touted as one of the largest in the nation, was San Antonio’s 29th annual. The number of people who attended the march exceeded organizers’ expectations. Initial projections were that about 200,000 people would march. The march is organized by the MLK Jr. Commission, which also hosts speeches, symposiums and dialogs based on King’s ideas and ideology for King Week. The commission’s other function is to raise scholarship money for local kids. This year, the commission raised a record $400,000 for Bexar County students. The commission will hold two more events this spring: a speech on Thursday, January 28 by performing artist Chaka Khan at the Tobin Center (100 Auditorium Circle) and a lecture by actor and author LeVar Burton at St. Philip’s College (1801 Martin Luther King

14 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

Drive) on Thursday, February 11. Mott Family Sues Funeral Home The family of Julie Mott filed a lawsuit against Mission Park Funeral Chapels North for “gross negligence” after Mott’s body disappeared from the funeral home in August. Mott, 25, died on August 8 due to complications with cystic fybrosis. Her body disappeared from the funeral home a week later, after her services. “Sometime later that day, after the memorial service but before the body was transferred to the crematorium, Mission lost possession of Julie Mott’s body and to this day has been unable to explain how they lost the body,” the lawsuit alleges. Mott’s body hasn’t been found. The Mott family, represented by attorney Alex Katzman, is asking for $1 million in damages. San Antonio Police Department investigators believe the body was taken sometime between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. on August 15. It’s unclear if the body was stolen, and no suspects have been identified. There is a $20,000 reward for information about the crime. Call (210)225-TIPS (8477) to report any clues. mmarks@sacurrent.com

SA HITS NO-KILL STATUS It’s the largest city to do so

PEE-WEE’S BIG HOLIDAY GETS RELEASE DATE Look for it March 18 on Netflix RODEO OPTS OUT OF OPEN CARRY Horses not handguns, y’all 2015 FOUND TO BE HOTTEST YEAR EVER Nelly was our one true prophet PALIN ENDORSES TRUMP A match made in hell

R DE MORE. SAVE MORE. VIA introduces lower day fares and more savings with a new 7-Day Pass.

Lower-priced Day Pass now just $2.75 That’s 30% savings from 2015 price

New 7-Day Pass for just $12 Save more than half off 2015 fares

Active-duty military now eligible for half-price fares. VIAinfo.net | (210) 362-2020

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 15

CURRENT JOB OPENINGS:

NEWS

MANAGEMENT POSITIONS:

GABRIELA MATA

Night Manager, Assistant Controller, Assistant Banquet Manager, Beverage Manager, Executive Meetings Manager, Catering Manager

FRONT OFFICE:

Front Desk Clerk, Front Desk Supervisor, Door Person, Concierge, Bell Person,

BC Lynd Company benefits include:

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

AM Server, Bussers, Bartenders, Cocktail Servers, Barbacks, Banquet Servers, Banquet Houseperson, Banquet Bartender, Banquet Cooks, Line Cooks, Cafeteria Cook, Garde Manger, Stewards

HOUSEKEEPING

Room Attendants, Housekeeping Houseperson, Public Areas Attendant

ENGINEERING AND SECURITY Engineers, Security Officers

•

A man confronts activists moments before they took over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march.

Competitive Health benefits, Short Term Disability & Long Term Disability, Paid Time Off, Holiday Pay, Bereavement Pay, Apartment Rental Discounts, Discounted Monthly Parking. Apply in person or online at www.thestanthonyhotel.com 300 East Travis San Antonio, TX 78205 EOE

A TALE OF TWO MARCHES

SA’s MLK march matters, but the fight for justice is year-round MARK REAGAN/@210REAGAN

There were two marches in San Antonio on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. One is often billed as the largest in the country. The other was a show of direct action. Organizers say that this year approximately 300,000 people showed up for San Antonio’s annual MLK march, which starts at the MLK Freedom Bridge, travels 2.75 miles up Martin Luther King Drive and ends at Pittman Sullivan Park on the historic East Side. “Each year, hundreds of thousands of people join the City of San Antonio in its commemoration to reflect on the lasting impact of Dr. King’s teachings and why it is important to continue honoring this notable civil rights leader,” Mayor Ivy R. Taylor said in a post-march press release touting its success. “I am proud that our city continues to host one of the largest marches in the country honoring Dr. King.” Taylor, along with a contingent of other VIPs, including Sen. John Cornyn, Chief of Police William McManus, Sheriff Susan Pamerleau and many 16 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

other state and local officials were at the head of the march. Then there was a much smaller group marching, too. A handful of activists from the Black Lives Matter movement — maybe 10 to 15, wearing black shirts that said “I am Marquise Jones. If you don’t know, ask me.” — crept up behind the politicians right before the march started and began chanting while holding a black banner that read “Arrest Robert Encina.” Encina is a San Antonio Police Department officer who was off duty and working security at Chacho’s and Chalucci’s on the city’s northeast side on February 28, 2014, when he shot and killed 23-year-old Marquise Jones in the restaurant’s drive-thru. The vehicle Jones was in had been involved in a fender bender. The police department maintains that Jones displayed a handgun and exited the vehicle while Encina was speaking to the driver. Jones’ family says he was shot in the back, and they allege that the gun police found had no fingerprints

NEWS

Warrick says he had hoped the technology would already be deployed, but it won’t be implemented until April. He says it can’t come quickly enough. Less than a week before the march, there was a rolling shoot-out in the area that left one dead. As Warrick marched with thousands of others, the gap between the parade and the Black Lives Matter activists filled in with people, and it began to look like one march as the route neared its end. Recordings of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a Dream” speech began to blend with chants of “No justice, no peace” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.” The activists asked onlookers to raise their fists if they believed black lives matter. People of all colors raised their fists in solidarity along the route. When they reached the top of a hill where Martin Luther King Drive T-bones into Pittman Sullivan Park, the activists turned and faced the rest of the march with chants as it arrived at its final destination. San Antonio Police Department squad cars that heralded the annual march arrived with flashing lights. A little AfricanAmerican girl in a pink shirt riding in the back of one of the squad cars driven by a black policeman raised her fist out of the window in solidarity while the officer driving smiled. The protestors lingered for about 15 minutes before dispersing into the

park to join others in listening to speakers discuss civil rights and Dr. King’s legacy, while vendors sold food and goods and music blared. The march’s keynote speaker, Hill Harper, an author and actor, called Jones’ family and Black Lives Matter organizer Mike Lowe onto the stage to recognize them and to remember Jones. The public recognition at the media-dense event for the family and the activists at the march was an unusual blend of civics and activism in the Alamo City — a fitting way for both marches to end. But that was just one day out of 365 in 2016. Problems of violence and poverty and disparity in educational systems and in economics exist all year round. “No matter how many celebrations you do and what’s going on, the problem is still there,” Bush said. “They could come out to this type of thing and make it the largest march in the nation, [but] why can’t they come out here and do a large protest against the injustices that are in this city?” Simply showing up once a year to honor MLK is nice, but as Dr. King pointed out, equality and freedom take constant work. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle,” King once said. “And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.” That’s something Jones’ family takes to heart. “No matter what, we’re going to do everything we can to get justice for my nephew,” Bush said. “Even though [Encina] didn’t get indicted, we’re going to try to get a rehearing and that’s exactly what my family is trying to do now.” mreagan@sacurrent.com

GABRIELA MATA

on it. In December, a grand jury declined to indict Encina on any charges. That same month, a grand jury also declined to indict two Bexar County sheriff’s deputies who shot and killed Gilbert Flores during a disturbing incident captured on cellphone video. Standing with the activists and holding onto the banner was Deborah Bush, Jones’ aunt. Many of Jones’ family members, including his mother and father, were at the march. “I totally believe that if MLK was alive today he would be totally against what’s going on here,” Bush said. “There’s black men dying all over the country at the hands of our so-called police departments and they turn this march and stuff into a celebration. This is not a celebration. There’s young men dying and my nephew happens to be one who has died.” Yet the mood of the city-sponsored march was celebratory. Before it started, gospel music blared from speakers at the Martin Luther King Academy, adjacent to the eponymous bridge. There were men selling T-shirts and others selling popcorn. There was a voting drive. People wore shirts advertising whatever candidate or politician they supported. Nonprofits from around town toted signs and shirts promoting their messages. Others wore the logos of the companies they worked for. There were fraternal orders and politicians who mulled through the crowds shaking hands and smiling. Babies were probably kissed. But then the Black Lives Matter activists let the bullhorns rip. They chanted “No justice, no peace” and broke through the VIP ranks. They passed the chief of police, sheriff and mayor, and they marched up Martin Luther King Drive toward Pittman Sullivan Park, leaving the nation’s largest MLK Day parade to drive into the distance behind them. An SAPD officer followed with a video camera. Another officer briefly tried to speak with one of the Black Lives Matter organizers as they marched forward. Yet another officer, in plain clothes, shadowed the protestors throughout the route. The larger march followed about a quarter of a mile behind. Alan E. Warrick II, the councilman who represents the area, marched in front of the larger parade with the city’s first African-American mayor. He’s wholly cognizant of the problems faced in his district, which Taylor used to represent. “We are the most economic and racially segregated city in the country,” Warrick said. Of the 22 elementary schools in his district, all perform poorly. “There’s a disparity in our educational system,” he said. Then there are the 2,200-plus vacant homes. “Of course, we have the highest incidence of gun violence. Not the entire district, but pockets,” Warrick said. “I think it’s unacceptable.” Warrick has lobbied for shot-spotter gunfire technology, which allows police to respond to incidents of shots fired quicker and creates more effective policing, Warrick says, citing Washington D.C., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Miami Gardens, Florida, as cases where the technology helped reduce gun violence.

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 17

CALENDAR

WED

Alyssa Edwards DRAG

Unsurprisingly, celebrity drag queens lead complicated lives. So it was far from earth-shattering when RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Alyssa Edwards missed her flight to perform in SA last summer. Born Justin Johnson, Edwards has collected titles on the drag pageant circuit and trophies as owner of Beyond Belief — a youth dance company prepped for its own World of Wonder reality show. The mother of the Haus of Edwards — which includes fierce fellow Texans Shangela Laquifa Wadley and Laganja Estranja — lands (hopefully) at Heat courtesy of Rey Lopez Entertainment. $10-$25, 10:30pm, Heat Nightclub, 1500 N. Main Ave., (210) 227-2600, facebook.com/reylopezentertainment. — Bryan Rindfuss

FRI-SUN

29-31

Divas of Eastwood THEATER

With its latest offering, SA theater company The Renaissance Guild is here to lay down some swinging and gliding soul upon which to buoy your bored dreams of spring and all it brings. The new musical revue, Divas of Eastwood, is a celebration of the African-American music and culture surrounding what was called The Chitlin’ Circuit. Comprised of SA establishments the Eastwood Country Club, Keyhole Club and what is now the Carver Community Cultural Center, the Chitlin’ Circuit was a cultural beacon and hosted such notables as Dinah Washington, Etta James and Sarah Vaughn. $24, 8pm Fri-Sat, 4pm Sun, Little Carver Civic Center, 226 N. Hackberry St., (210) 207-7211, thecarver.org. — James Courtney

18 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

FRI-TUE

29-2

‘Modern Mexican Masterpieces in Wood’ ART

The new year brings new opportunities for cultural awareness/perspective via great art at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Opening on Friday and running through June 26 is a small but rich exhibit of brilliant works on wood by Nicaraguanborn Mexico City transplant Roberto de la Selva (1895-1957). The painter’s work is hallmarked by his depiction of the joy and melancholy of rural, indigenous Mexican life and by his use of wood as canvas, which serves to dampen his vibrant color palette and lend an uncanny sense of organic life to his paintings. $5-$10, 10am-9pm Fri, 10am-5pm Sat-Sun, 10am-9pm Tue, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org. — JC

SAT

Doug Benson COMEDY

Although it may seem like a real noodle-twister as to why anybody’d have a stand-up comedy show at such a peculiar time as 4:20 in the afternoon, those familiar with Doug Benson’s work (Super High Me, The Greatest Movie Ever Rolled, Getting Doug with High) will probably realize that Benson scheduled it that way on purpose. Benson, an obvious fan of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, is making reference to the four and 20 blackbirds in the pie set before the king in “Sing a Song of Sixpence.” Legend has it, those birds – though totally baked – still managed to put on a pretty good show. $20, 4:20pm, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 5418805, lolsanantonio.com. — Jeremy Martin

CALENDAR

GETTY IMAGES

SUN

The Olate Dogs SPECIAL EVENT

Growing up poor alongside 21 siblings in Santiago, Chile, Richard Olate found his niche for training dogs after adopting a stray off the street. Reinforced with subsequent rescues, he developed a canine circus that toured South America and relocated to the U.S. in 1989. Since earning top honors ($1 million) on America’s Got Talent in 2012, Olate, son Nicholas and their jumping, flipping, rolling, scooterdriving, conga-line-dancing poodle mixes have become touring sensations with starring roles in the #RescueFilm Series produced by Ellen DeGeneres’ holistic pet food company Halo. $35$75, 2pm & 6pm, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — BR

MON

Spurs vs. Magic SPORTS

As one of the youngest teams in the league, the Orlando Magic’s Monday showdown with the Spurs is a steep challenge. Contests like this have become showcases for 7-foot-3 rookie Boban Marjanovic, which should delight Spurs fans. Averaging five points and three rebounds in limited minutes, Marjanovic has displayed a decent shooting stroke, solid skill set and enough mobility to hold his own against NBA talent. When Marjanovic takes the court at home, witness excitement for a big man off the end of the bench not seen in San Anto since the late Jack Haley was riding shotgun with Dennis Rodman. $20-$1,852, 7:30pm, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com. — M. Solis

TUE

Madeon

TUE

MUSIC

Straight from his Facebook bio: “Madeon is a French electronic musician who talks about himself in the third person — what a snob.” Snark aside, that soundbite’s humble for a 21-year-old who spent a chunk of his teens remixing tracks for big-name artists, playing the festival circuit and touring (plus collaborating) with Lady Gaga. Released last year, Madeon’s debut LP Adventure packs in dramatic instrumentals reminiscent of EDM mainstays Deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner alongside poppy collaborations with the likes of Passion Pit, Dan Smith (Bastille) and Mark Foster (Foster the People). $25, 8pm, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — BR

Def Leppard, Styx, Tesla MUSIC

In addition to helping Hugh Jackman commit existential crimes in that movie where he’s conned by David Bowie, real-life science-guy Nikola Tesla famously attempted to transmit highvoltage electrical currents through the air. Sacramento hair-metal band Tesla achieved a similar feat in the late ’80s with the power-ballad “Love Song.” Headliners Def Leppard earned the top spot, however, with “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” its single-note solo so potent it’s practically guaranteed to get any woman within earshot to strip naked, provided she’s paid cash money to do so. Prog-rock heroes Styx round out the bill. $39.95-$99.95, 7pm, AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000, ticketmaster.com. — JM

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 19

20 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

CALENDAR NIGHTLIFE

THU

Chaka Khan

FRI

Considering this event is billed as “An Evening of Music and Conversation,” we spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to avoid a bad joke imploring Ms. Khan to “Tell Me Something Good.” An effort we felt unnecessary after seeing a few of the actual products the singer/entrepreneur has been hawking as of late, including gourmet Chakalates and the scented Khana Sutra candle. Between that goofy sense of humor, her humanitarian efforts and her storied history in the music business beginning with ’70s funk heavy hitters Rufus, this might well be the rare one of these “Evening withs” where the conversation is at least as enjoyable as hearing Khan perform hits like “I’m Every Woman” and Prince cover “I Feel for You.” $68.50-$220.50, 8pm, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Jeremy Martin

Art

Art @ The Broadway featuring Lucy Peveto The Broadway hosts a reception

for attorney-turned-artist Lucy Peveto with food and drinks from Brigid and Blue Box and 10 percent of proceeds benefiting AugustHeart, a local nonprofit dedicated to preventing sudden cardiac death in students ages 14-18. Free (RSVP requested to claire@theprboutique.com), 5-8pm Thursday; The Broadway Residences, 4242 Broadway, (512) 363-5160.

”Lorem Ipsum” Hailed as “a champion of

unabashed visual pleasure,” New York artist Cordy Ryman creates intriguing — and at times humorous — installations, sculptural objects and wall pieces crafted from such non-traditional materials as reclaimed wood, industrial paints, scrap metal, Velcro and Gorilla Glue. Whether roughly assembled or meticulously executed, Ryman’s works bring to mind a carpenter experiencing a stroke of genius — or possibly madness. Free, noon5pm Wednesday-Sunday, Artpace, 445 N. Main Ave., (210) 212-4900.

”The Absorption of Meaning”

Accomplished yet still somewhat under the radar, local artist and educator Christie Blizard built her best-known body of work by embedding herself in crowds assembled for Good Morning America and The Today Show — displaying signs emblazoned with such conceptual messages as “The Absorption of Meaning.” Curated by Anjali Gupta, Blizard’s solo show at Sala Diaz incorporates “works that transpose the effects of her recent performances into new forms.” Free, 2-7pm Thursday-Saturday; Sala Diaz, 517 Stieren St., (972) 900-0047.

Film

Film & Panel: 14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark & Vanessa Lopez Refugee and

Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) hosts a screening of 14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark & Vanessa Lopez, a documentary that examines the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment through the compelling personal stories of three American families who changed history by their courageous challenges to the powerful status quo. $5 (benefiting Texas Civil Rights Project), 6pm Friday; Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St., (210) 544-7811.

Fitzcarraldo Directed by legendary

filmmaker Werner Herzog with a score by avant-garde band Popol Vuh, this 1982 German film stars Klaus Kinski as Brian “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald, a would-be rubber baron and full-fledged opera fanatic intent on building an opera house in his small yet multicultural Peruvian town. Free, 7pm Thursday; McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368.

Theater

Kinky Boots With lyrics and score by pop

icon Cyndi Lauper, and a book by Harvey Fierstein, the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots tells the story of an embattled shoe factory owner, Charlie Price, whose chance meeting with a drag queen, Lola, takes the two characters down unexpected paths. Actor J. Harrison Ghee leads the cast (as Lola/Simon) of the touring Broadway production. $35-$100, 7:30pm TuesdayThursday, 8pm Friday, 2pm & 8pm Saturday, 2pm & 7:30pm Sunday; The Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333.

Oscar-Nominated Shorts

Unless Jada Pinkett Smith starts a campaign to boycott movies that are less than 40 minutes long (#OscarsSoShort), make plans to get to the local art-house theater to watch the short films that were nominated this year for an Academy Award. There are three programs: Documentary Shorts, Live-Action Shorts and Animated Shorts. Doc shorts include Body Team 12, about Red Cross workers in Liberia whose job it is to collect the dead bodies of Ebola victims in West Africa; and A Girl in the River, a film on honor killings in Pakistan. Live-action shorts include Stutterer, which follows a typographer who must face his lifelong speech impediment; and Day One, about a U.S. Army interpreter whose first day on the job doesn’t go as planned. Animated shorts include Pixar’s Sanjay’s Super Team, where a young Indian boy imagines Hindu gods as superheroes; and World of Tomorrow, a sci-fi story told from the perspective of the director’s 4-year-old niece. $7-$9.50, 11:15am & 6:15pm (Animated); 1:55pm & 8:10pm (Live-Action); 4:05pm & 10:30pm (Documentary); Santikos Bijou, 4522 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 734-4552, santikos.com. — Kiko Martínez

Stage Kiss What would be worse than

being forced to share a kiss with your ex? Well, sharing a kiss with your ex in front of an audience, of course. In Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss, a pair of ex-lovers are cast in a revival of a 1930s comedy and dramatic tensions abound once their feigned onstage smooches become real. J. Robert Moore directs Renee Garvens, Tyler Keyes and Nick Lawson in The Playhouse’s production. $12-$30, 8pm Friday-Saturday, 3pm Sunday; The Playhouse, 800 W. Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258.

Zane to Gate 69 In Zane to Gate 69, Kate

Welles is sent back to 1972 to brief secret agent Zane on what could very well be humanity’s last mission; too bad Zane isn’t interested in taking orders from a woman. Packed with high-stakes sci-fi hijinks, the original comedy comes to the Alamo City thanks to a collaboration between the Overtime and New York-based writer C.J. Ehrlich. $10-$14, 8pm Friday-Saturday, 2:30pm Sunday; The Overtime Theater, 1203 Camden St., (210) 557-7562.

Words

Bards and Brew II Facilitated by San

Antonio Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero, this unique gathering welcomes local poets Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, Rooster Martinez, Sheila Black and Laura Van Prooyen into the “Ring of Fire” as spectators sample craft beer from Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling and Freetail Brewing Co. $5, 7:30-10pm Friday; Galería Guadalupe, 723 S. Brazos St., (210) 271-3151.

Wendy Barker and Barbara Ras The Twig

hosts an evening of poetry with University

of Texas at San Antonio creative writing professor and Poet-in-Residence Wendy Barker (One Blackbird at a Time) and Walt Whitman Award winner and Trinity University Press associate director Barbara Ras (The Last Skin). Free, 5-7pm Sunday; The Twig Book Shop, 306 Pearl Pkwy., Suite 106, (210) 826-6411.

Comedy

Andrew Kennedy Raised in South America,

the Caribbean and Asia by a Colombian mother and British father, bilingual entertainer and “Latino in disguise” Andrew Kennedy promotes cultural diversity through comedy that’s taken shape in a Comedy Central special and the CBS pilot Related by Marriage. $16, 8pm & 10:15pm Friday-Saturday, noon Sunday; Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 541-8805.

Monroe Martin Philadelphia native Monroe Martin employs an honest and open approach to stand-up and storytelling surrounding personal experiences and a lifetime of hard knocks. $20, 8pm Thursday, 7:30pm & 9:45pm Friday, 7:30pm Sunday; Rivercenter Comedy Club, 849 E. Commerce St., (210) 229-1420.

Raul Sanchez A former drug addict,

Pentecostal Christian, U.S. Army infantryman and Funniest Person in South Texas Contest winner (in no particular order), Raul Sanchez is distinguished by his “audible contempt for the human race” and a style of comedy he describes as “post-ignorant.” $17, 8pm Wednesday; Rivercenter Comedy Club, 849 E. Commerce St., (210) 229-1420.

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 21

SPRING

22 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

23 CALENDAR

SAT

TXMPA Film Showcase

Texas filmmakers come together to screen their work and raise money for the Texas Motion Picture Alliance. Founded in 2006, TXMPA serves the film, video, interactive and digital media production industry by advocating for more incentives from the state and educating people about the positive impact media production has on the economy. Scheduled to screen are a handful of short films, including two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee Bryan Poyser’s The Fickle. First created for an online series produced by the USA Network, the short follows the failed love affairs of a modern woman in one continuous take. Told through watercolor paintings and stop-motion animation, director Sai Selvarajan’s Sugarless Tea (pictured) concerns two brothers separated by thousands of miles. And Squeezebox, directed by award-winning local filmmaker Sam Lerma, follows a legendary accordion player who comes across a mysterious box that changes his life. Also playing: Away with the Fairies, Peppermint, 3 Incredibly Short Films, Breaking the Curse, Peor es Nada and Empty Calories. $5-$10, 4pm, Alamo Drafthouse Park North, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 677-8500, eventbrite.com. – Kiko Martínez

Special Events

Harlem Globetrotters Currently

celebrating 90 years of hardwood hijinks set to the tune of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” this generation of Globetrotters offers the slick ball-handling, hoopsthemed comedy and incredible trick shots that fans have come to expect — not to mention a healthy dose of elevation and the welcome addition of female ballers TNT Maddox and Sweet J. Ekworomadu. $15-$155, 7pm Thursday; AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Pkwy., (210) 444-5000.

San Antonio Boat & Travel Trailer Show This weekend expo showcases

boat dealers (offering fishing boats, jet boats, kayaks, pontoons and personal watercraft), boating accessories, related services and the Miss GEICO Offshore Powerboat racing team. $5-$10, 4-9pm Thursday, noon-9pm Friday, 10am-9pm Saturday, 10am-5pm Sunday; Alamodome, 100 Montana St., (512) 481-1777.

Thrive Youth Center Benefit Concert

San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Bobby Jo Valentine performs a benefit concert to help Thrive Youth Center combat the epidemic of homeless LGBTQ youth. By donation, 7-9pm Friday; Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Activity Center, 1630 Goliad Road, (210) 333-0460.

ONE OF SAN ANTONIO’S LONGEST STANDING RECORD STORES.

MU S IC CONNECTION EST. 1982

NEW TURNTABLE? WE HAVE ALL THE VINYL YOU NEED! Thousands of vinyl lp’s and 45’s in stock.

For some it’s about the music.

For others it’s about the vinyl. musicconnectionrecordstore.com 7121 Hwy. 90 W. Ste. 140, 78227 • 673-2850 • Est 1982

Huebner Oaks

(210) 462-1705 11745 W. Interstate Hwy 10, Suite 400

Talks Plus

Artist Lab Panel Discussion Inaugural

Artist Lab participants Fernando Andrade, Kim Bishop, Nicole Geary, Daniela Riojas and Luis Valderas speak about their projects on display at Galería Guadalupe. Free, 1-2:30pm Saturday; Galería Guadalupe, 723 S. Brazos St., (210) 271-3151.

Getting the Message Using legendary

figures Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp and One-Eyed Charley as examples, Beth Foulds (the Briscoe’s education and programs manager) discusses how people employed stagecoaches and the Pony Express as methods of message delivery. Free, 6:30-7:30pm Tuesday; Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W. Market St., (210) 299-4499.

History Begins with You: Documenting Your Family History Independent filmmaker, Jezebel Filmworks owner and San Antonio native Ada M. Babino leads a free genealogy workshop on utilizing technology to document and interview elders and family members. Free, 4-6pm Saturday; Carver Branch Library, 3350 E. Commerce St., (210) 207-9180.

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 23

ARTS + CULTURE

KIKO MARTÍNEZ

PAX South 2016 takes gaming culture to next level

24 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

ARTS + CULTURE

It’s a stereotype video game enthusiasts have been trying to quash for decades — the image of an unemployed, single, 35-year-old slob sitting in his parents’ basement, wearing a Doritos-stained Atari shirt and headset, virtually killing aliens or zombies or terrorists with his Xbox controller in hand and yelling upstairs at his mom to ask when dinner will be ready. Truth be told, 42 percent of the U.S. population plays video games regularly (at least three hours per week) and chances are not all of them like Doritos. According to statistics released by the Entertainment Software Association, these 155 million Americans pay into a gaming industry that racked up $22.4 billion in 2014. Finding a comfortable nook in this ever-growing money-making industry is Penny Arcade, a webcomic that debuted online in 1998 and has since developed into a company that includes a podcast, episodic video games, an online reality show and a charity. In 2004, Penny Arcade founders Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik launched a series

of gaming conventions known as PAX (Penny Arcade Expo). Since the inaugural event took place in Bellevue, Washington, PAX has splintered into five different annual expos (PAX Prime and PAX Dev in Seattle, PAX East in Boston, PAX Aus in Melbourne and its newest, PAX South in San Antonio). PAX South debuted in January 2015 and, according to IGN, a games and entertainment media company, broke the attendance record for a first-year PAX convention. A spokesperson for PAX South told the San Antonio Current that although they “don’t release specific numbers” on turnout, attendees last year were “well into the tens of thousands.” PAX South 2016 will take place in San Antonio from January 29-31 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The expo caters to all types of gamers, from those who enjoy MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) to sports-themed games to vintage throwbacks and everything in between. PAX

South will also feature video game panels, tournaments, concerts, a game industry expo hall for video game producers and retail companies, autograph sessions, cosplay and meet-up areas where gamers interested in specific platforms like handheld games, PC games and board/card games can convene. Robert Khoo, 35, president of Penny Arcade, told the Current that before last year’s inaugural PAX South expo, he had travelled around the U.S. for five years looking for a city that could host a fifth expo. It wasn’t until one of their partners suggested San Antonio on a whim that he made a trip to see what the city had to offer. “We knew fans wanted a PAX in the central corridor,” Khoo said. “I was ecstatic knowing I had found our city but upset that I had wasted five years looking in all the wrong places. The tricky part was finding a city that had the right vibe. The hospitality and welcoming culture of San Antonio made it a super easy decision. To be able to facilitate CONTINUED ON PAGE 27 ►

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 25

26 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

ARTS + CULTURE

◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25

something that not only celebrates games but strengthens the love and fandom of them is pretty cool.” It’s the same kind of ambiance Angelus Delacroix, 36, felt when he decided to create his own independent video gaming production studio in San Antonio in 2013. A graduate of the American Academy of Art in Pittsburgh with a degree in video game art and design, Delacroix is the CEO of HEBI Studios. He and his team will attend PAX South this year, along with a number of other gaming conventions around the U.S., to spread the word about their new family-friendly video game RageBall (he refers to it as “Pong on steroids”), which is scheduled to launch for the Nintendo Wii U this fall. Another indie game in HEBI’s catalog is Oop Boy, a 2D, side-scroller puzzle game featuring a “piece of poo” (imagine Super Meat Boy after a long trip through the entire gastrointestinal tract) that has been flushed down the toilet and must now survive the perils of the sewer. Delacroix sees San Antonio as a great place for a convention like PAX South and for a young company like his to reach an underserved gaming community. “We’re excited about PAX South because we actually get to show off our product and let more people know about [HEBI Studios],” Delacroix said. “San Antonio gamers seem to like a little bit of everything. You have people who like retro games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong and then you have younger gamers that like things like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. We’re hoping RageBall is something everyone will have fun playing.”

For local gamer Jonathan Carrizales, 24, who works Jamie Madigan, 44, knows exactly why video games tech support for Time Warner Cable, PAX South will make players feel immersed in imaginary worlds. He be an opportunity to experience an expo exclusively for explains it in one of the chapters of his new book, gaming that won’t break the bank since there is no travel Getting Gamers: The Psychology of Video Games and involved. He hopes to connect with other gamers who Their Impact on the People who Play Them, which appreciate the same video games he does, specifically was published in October 2015. In the book, Madigan, League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena who earned his doctorate in psychology from the game Carrizales has been playing for about three years. University of Missouri in St. Louis, writes about the “I grew up with video games most of my life,” Carrizales nostalgia factor behind retro games, why some gamers said. “What makes me enjoy video games are thoughtcheat and hack their way to victory, and why people provoking situations giving you some insight about life are motivated to play games when they could be doing and how you can experience that through a character and other activities. He said an expo like PAX South is a having the story influence you as a person.” perfect way for gamers to spend time with others who Gamer Michelle McCloud, 24, an online student at share a common interest. Texas A&M University, will travel from Dallas to attend PAX “It’s easy to find people through the magic of the South for the second year in a row. A fan of indie games Internet, but there’s no substitute to being there in but also of mainstream ones like The Legend of Zelda, person and feeling that energy,” said Madigan. “It’s fun to McCloud said she considers herself a gamer because participate wholeheartedly in things like [gaming expos]. playing video games is how she spends most of her free It builds a strong sense of identity and community.” time with friends. Even her non-video game hobbies like For those who don’t consider themselves part of the equestrianism were inspired by her love of games. gaming community but still take it upon themselves to “My fondest gaming memory was in Ocarina criticize gamers about their hobby, Madigan of Time when you win the race with Epona recommends they pick up a controller before PAX South [Link’s steed in The Legend of Zelda series] they pass judgment. $35 one-day pass and jump over the wall with her,” McCloud said. $75 three-day pass “If they’re really interested in understanding “It blew my mind how epic it was and inspired gamers and why we do what we do, the Jan. 29-31 10am-midnight Fri-Sat me to start riding horses. I like the adventure best advice is to simply play some games, 10am-6pm Sun and the way you can be a part of something preferably with gamers,” he said. “What’s the Henry B. Gonzalez much more exciting than real life. It’s an escape Convention Center worst that could happen? It’s not like you’re 200 E. Market St. from reality.” going to turn into some maladapted social (210) 207-8500 Psychologist and self-described gamer outcast or anything.” south.paxsite.com sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 27

Affordable Health Insurance Plans

CALL TODAY

210-800-9710

Open enrollment ends JANUARY 31 SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT!

A NT IQU E S. COLLE CT IBL ES . ODDITIES . 1423 E.Commerce St. • 210.827.5555

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES: Unifirst Corporation, has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for issuance of Proposed Air Quality Permit Number 135584, which would authorize laundering of shop towels at the existing commercial laundry facility located at 3047 East Commerce Street, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas 78220. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper.

28 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

HealthMarkets Insurance Agency is the d/b/a, or assumed name, of Insphere Insurance Solutions, Inc. which is licensed as an insurance agency in all 50 states and ISMEAL, AND BILL the 210-800-9710 District of Columbia. Not all HUNG, agents areBEN licensed to sell all /small products. Service and product availability varies by state. business/ self employed/ 20 somethings Licensed

ARTS + CULTURE

SAFE SPLASH

•

A rendering of one of the park’s five splash pads, Castaway Bay.

Morgan’s Inspiration Island innovates for inclusion MICHAEL MARKS/@MICHAELPMARKS

The attractions at most water parks, fun as they are, are predictable. There are multicolored slides that contort and bend in various ways. There’s some sort of lazy river that ferries bodies and tubes in a slow circle. And there’s probably a log flume, or something similar that aims to soak riders and spectators with a huge splash. But what if many of the park’s visitors are in wheelchairs? Or are blind, deaf or can’t linger in cold water? What does a water park look like then? Those are the questions that Gordon Hartman and others have answered in the design of Morgan’s Inspiration Island, the world’s first splash park for people with special needs. Hartman runs the San Antonio-based Gordon Hartman Family Foundation, which provides grants, consultations and other services to people with special needs and the organizations that help them. Hartman opened Morgan’s Wonderland, the world’s first all-inclusive theme park for people with special needs, in 2010, adjacent to Toyota Field. The park is named for his daughter, who has a cognitive delay. The idea for a water park stems all the way back to the first discussions for Morgan’s Wonderland, but the time and resources necessary to complete such an undertaking just weren’t there at the time. Still, the idea lingered. And as Hartman watched the San Antonio sun scorch the park and its visitors over the years, integrating water started to seem imperative. “We started hearing more and more about how [visitors] wish there was water,” Hartman said. “It’s very hot here ... and every child and every adult likes to enjoy the water. The feeling was that those with special needs, in particular, have a desire to enjoy water as well.” But Hartman wasn’t willing to compromise keeping the park open to all — no matter what their needs. And that meant crafting some one-of-a-kind solutions. The park, which will likely open in the spring of 2017, will cost $12 million to build. Its actual value will be much higher, though, since much of the time, labor and materials will be donated. Together with Morgan’s Wonderland, the new total size of the parks will be just under 30 acres. There’s plenty to do between now and then. While most of the design and planning is complete, the park has yet to be built. It will include five “splash pads,” each

with a different theme and set of activities. Calypso Cove combines splashy play with interactive musical instruments, set within a mystical forest. Another pad, Castaway Bay, includes a treehouse with water cannons and a “Kids Only” fort. The common thread that binds the pads is they’ll be accessible to everyone. The park’s designers have ensured that through an array of creative innovations. People who use wheelchairs, for example, will use a specially modified one to move through the water, provided by the park. There will be special areas where they can transfer from one wheelchair to another in privacy. That goes for electric wheelchairs, too, which will be waterproofed. “A lot of the people in electric wheelchairs, they value their independence. They don’t want to be transferred into a chair that makes someone have to push them around through the park,” said Tracie Ochoa, one of the park’s main designers. One of the splash pads, Rainbow Reef, will have heated water for people who experience muscle pain from exposure to colder water. The pad will feature a giant octopus and seahorses that shoot jets of water, as well as geysers and other water features. The main feature of another pad, Shipwreck Island, is a multilevel pirate ship with water cannons and a slide. Each level of the ship is still accessible to people in

wheelchairs through double-wide ramps. The ramps are concealed by trees and rocks that blend in with the other decorations on the pad. “There are no steps at any of these areas in the park where someone in a wheelchair would say, ‘I’d like to do that but I can’t,’” Hartman said. Attached to the pirate ship is a bucket that slowly fills up with water before dumping its contents onto the ground — and on anyone standing underneath. The buckets are a common water park feature, and a sound typically plays right before the bucket drops. To help hearing-impaired guests, the bucket at Shipwreck Island will also have a visual cue to give them notice before getting soaked. Accommodating any possible need while keeping guests safe is tough enough on dry land. Adding water complicates matters. “There’s a lot of liability. It’s slippery, you’re dealing with people who from time to time may decide to just run,” Hartman said. “But we believe positioning people at certain locations ... that yes, we can manage this.” Eliminating risk entirely is impossible in any park. But officials at Morgan’s Inspiration Island have taken steps to reduce and manage it as much as possible. Except for a river ride where participants won’t actually touch the water, any standing water in the park will be too shallow to submerge in, lowering the risk of drowning. There will also be staff standing by to monitor each of the pads. “There’s a ton of planning and thought and research that goes into all of this, but kids are kids, you just don’t know,” Ochoa said. “We didn’t have a book to go by, we were writing the book.” mmarks@sacurrent.comw sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 29

20 % OFF ALL STETSONS &

RESISTOL FELT HATS

10SQUARE%TOEOFF BOOTS BY NOCONA,ARIAT & DURANGO

10 % OFF LARGE SELECTION OF

KIDS WESTERN BOOTS

LET’S

10 % OFF

ALL LADIES CORAL , DAN POST AND DURANGO WESTERN BOOTS

RODEO

SAN ANTONIO

4522 Fredericksburg Rd.• 210-736-0990 • cowtownboots.com

Wonderland of the Americas Mall | Mon-Sat 10-7p

30 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

SCREENS

NOSTALGIA FOR SALE

•

Owner A.J. Martinez and one wall of his collection. BRYAN RINDFUSS

How S.A. retro video game store Propaganda Palace survives TRAVIS BUFFKIN | @DTBUFFKIN

Starting a business is always a risky venture. Most companies don’t clear a profit for at least a couple years. Obscure business plans, like, say a toe-ring store or a retro video game shop, particularly during the Great Recession, have an even smaller chance of survival. So, what would bring a person to want to invest everything that they have into such a perilous attempt at not only making a living, but thriving? Propaganda Palace, the retro gaming and vinyl store at 2100 McCullough Ave. is one such anomaly; a seemingly thriving business that sells obscure wares to a fraction of the population. I recently talked with owner A.J. Martinez among the walls of rare Nintendo cartridges, controllers for every system in every modification and rows of thousands of vintage vinyl to try to get a sense of not only how someone begins to build such a rare yet successful business, but why? Where do you get your fascination and desire for retro video gaming? I was born in 1972 and the year that I was born was the year that the very first video game consoles came out. A couple of years go by. It’s 1975, my father … started working for this unknown company called Atari and [he] would walk around San Antonio with a Pong machine in a duffel bag, and his job was to convince the TV store owners in town that they should carry Pong. I grew up in his house surrounded by all the catalogs and the brochures and all this really cool electronic stuff as well as the video game stuff and I fell in love with electronics and music and movies and pop culture and video games because of the upbringing that I had. How could you afford all of the costly equipment? Both my grandfathers were pediatricians and so both sides of my family were relatively well-off and as a kid, I literally owned every video game machine you could think of. If grandma number one wouldn’t buy it, grandma number two would. If grandma number two said no, then there was always mom. But one way or another I was spoiled and I had them all and I was really lucky because a lot of people would probably like to

have had that experience. When did you begin your impressive collection? For 27 years I’ve been just amassing this stuff. Some people would say it’s hoarding, but my understanding is that hoarding is something that no one else gets, a lot of people get this now, they didn’t at the time. I remember the jocks in high school wanted to beat my ass because, ‘What a geek, he plays ol’ games, let’s beat him up.’ But now they’re like my best customers, by the way. True story. When and how did you decide to turn a serious collection into a retailer? The business became a business … in 2008, just as the economy was falling apart, housing bubble, financial meltdown … I suddenly found myself unemployed … nobody was hiring and I didn’t know what I was gonna do. A couple of months go by and my wife comes up to me and she says, ‘Other men in your position, this is when they’d sell that Harley in the garage or their golden coin collection or whatever. You don’t have any of that but you have the biggest video game collection I’ve ever seen and maybe you can sell the extra 49 [copies of] Zelda. What do you think?’ And I’m like, ‘Nah. That’s a horrible idea.’ I assume she won that argument? The other 48 got listed on eBay and Amazon and that was the start of the business. It never was meant to be a business but it kind of eventually became one, and I always tell people, and this is true, I feel like I’m the

luckiest bas ... guy in the world ... Everything just lined up perfect and when the economy finally tanked this business saved me. So your inventory is all equipment that you already owned? For a long time. Now, there are some newer items that come in because people will come in here and they want to sell or trade. But, I don’t go looking for it like I used to. People actually come to us now. I had a lot to start with, that kind of gave us the initial inventory we needed in order to take off like we have. The other [stores] don’t touch us because they don’t have a 27-year reserve. Like a fine video game wine. Where did you keep all of the items when you didn’t have a shop? This used to be in my house … I have the most patient wife in the world. She was patient enough to let me keep it and now, of course, it was a blessing. To what do you guys attribute your survival in this economy with all the major corporate competition? We have the best selection, we’re more knowledgeable than they are, I have all that experience. Anybody that gets paid by a corporate place, they end up having to really love games to even know half of what I know. Me, I love it, but I grew up around it, so it’s easy as pie. It’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 33 ►

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 31

SAN ANTONIO’S ONLY PREMIERE POLE FITNESS STUDIO

BEST PARTIES IN ALL OF TEXAS:

BACHELORETTE, GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT, BIRTHDAYS, ETC.

2016 CLASSES POLE FITNESS LEVELS 1-12, ADVANCE-MASTERS 11 YEARS OF CELEBRATING FABULOUS WOMEN!!! GIFT CERTIFICATES • WEIGHTLESS FITNESS • “ART OF STRIP” 1 & 2 COURSE • TWERKING • FULL BODY FRIDAY • MOMMY & ME POLE CLASS • AERIAL YOGA • SEXY FLEXY • ASS-ABS TO TOE • FRIDAY TO TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY MORNING POLE CLASSES

GIRLS NIGHT OUT, SEXY FLOOR WORK, AND LAP DANCE WORKSHOPS STARTING JANUARY 2016 6441 BLANCO RD • 863.3591 • ASK FOR RENE • SOFTSENSUOUSMOVES.COM 32 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

FRIEND US

SCREENS

BRYAN RINDFUSS

◄ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

like growing up around a bunch of muscleheads, right? I mean, you’re just gonna be this huge ripped kid … But, just look around, dude. A lot of people have a vision of a typical gamer. What’s your typical customer? My average customer is a normally 20 to about a 40-year old guy. Not that women don’t game, but it’s more about dudes, right? That’s the stereotype. Right. The 40-year-olds are looking to regain and recapture their youth, same thing with the 30-yearolds. The 20-year-olds, in some instances, grew up with the newest equipment, but they’re bored by it and they go back to the retro because that’s the roots of all the awesome stuff that they love. But, we’ve got clients from five years old all the way up to 45 in here. What items, specifically, are they looking for? It’s all over the map. The Nintendo stuff is very popular, but there are certain machines by Sega, or by Sony, or maybe even Atari that are pretty popular. I would say though that Nintendo is definitely the king of the roost … And the other thing is, I don’t know if you’re gonna understand this, but I have this philosophy that something from 20 years ago comes back. It’s a cyclical thing. Never heard of it. Mind blown. It’s why in the ’90s the ’80s were lame, but the ’70s were cool, because it’s been 20 years. Now that we’re in the 20-teens, of course, now the ’90s are cool again. Stuff from 20 years ago that has fallen out of favor comes roaring back. Look at vinyl. Right. Like Full House, grunge and the high-top fade. The same thing will happen with video … VHS and Beta and laser disc, the older dead formats, they’re gonna come back. When they do it won’t be because the audio quality is better or the video quality is better, it will be because of the added campiness, the extra "shitty" that you get from the VHS tape version of your favorite movie. You

already own every Godzilla movie, but you don’t have it on VHS. You can get the Blu-Ray for less secondhand but it doesn’t have the nostalgia dripping off of it like that tape does. When you put that tape in and you hear that NNEEEaaarrrkkk and you see the blue screen and it says “Play” in digital shitty letters and it finally starts and you get the squiggle in the corner from the auto-tracking and the occasional hiccup as you’re watching it. It makes a shitty B-horror movie … better. Shit equals good, got it. Let’s get even more philosophical. What do you attribute that to in the human mind? What makes us pine for that experience? We love things from the past that remind us of our youth. When you show a 90-year-old man his favorite toy from when he was 10, he cries a little bit. There’s a wonderful feeling that overtakes you when you feel that, and it’s nostalgia. And that’s really what this store is. I know a lot of people think we’re a video game or a music store, we’re really a nostalgia store. Everything here is designed to take you back to another time. dtbuffkin@sacurrent.com

427 N. Loop 1604 W. Building 1, Ste. #105 San Antonio, TX. 78232

N VICTORY R A E S IE V WATCH MO ES AND SUPRIS S D R A W E R EXCLUSIVE 0% FREE 0 1 P I H S FREE MOVIES MEMBER

Visit: Drafthouse.com sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 33

VISIT SANTIKOS.COM FOR SHOWTIMES & MORE

SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS

JANUARY 30 AT 7:30 PM At Palladium | Silverado Rialto | Embassy

FEBRUARY 4 AT 6:30 PM At Palladium | Silverado Rialto | Embassy | Bijou

FREE MOVIE NIGHT FEBRUARY 4 AT 7 PM At Bijou

FEBRUARY 11 AT 7 PM At Bijou | Rialto Embassy

FREE MOVIE NIGHT FEBRUARY 11 AT 7 PM At Bijou

NEW THIS WEEK AT THE BIJOU 2016 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS LIVE ACTION | ANIMATION | DOCUMENTARY

2016’s nominated shorts for the Oscars in three compilations including Live Action, Animation and Documentary.

US /SANTIKOSFAN | FOLLOW US /SANTIKOSTHEATRE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE BY TAGGING #MYSANTIKOS

34 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

New Valentines merchandise ARRIV ING D A I LY !

EARLY BIRD VALENTINE’S SPECIALS

25% off COUPON Exclusions Apply

EXPIRATION OF 01/31/16.

Can NOT be combined with any other offers

6957 SAN PEDRO RD. • 210-348-6902 | 5117 FREDERICKSBURG RD. • 210-348-9401

SCREENS

DIGESTABLE THEMES

A subversive weapon not suitable for elitists BRETT SEAMANS

The invitation to my first press screening came to me in the form of an email from a regional public relations firm representing Dreamworks Pictures. Finally. The elusive digital ticket to a top secret showing of a beloved animated franchise had made its way into my own private domain. A red carpet extravaganza was to be had. I was now an initiate into the film critic Illuminati. I had finally made it. Like Conrad’s Marlow, I, too, had found my Kurtz. I arrived at the nondescript theater on the South Side. I bring my mom as my plus one because my girlfriend would rather shop for dining room tables than bask in the glow of Hollywood insiders. Approaching the entrance doors, I see a line of poor, standing souls who have printed out boarding passes to Kung Fu Panda 3 in the hopes that those invited guests who have already reserved their seats, like myself, would fail to show. There are security guards wearing insignia-adorned blazers patrolling the outside area. I ask one of them where the animated panda movie is screening. “Are you a V.I.P.?” the middle-aged man asks me. My humility beckons me to answer in the negative. I tell him that I am a film critic, the first time I have ever said this to a stranger. The security guard smiles and ushers me into the theater hallway where a handful of important looking people are congregating in anticipation. I ask another blazered individual where I can find the local PR representatives, and he warmly points me toward their direction. I tell the reps my name and they hand me a comment card to be completed after the screening along with two vouchers for free popcorn and drinks. In the time that it took to walk from my car to the theater, it seems that I have indeed become an important person. My mother and I are told to sit wherever we like in the theater. I see one seat reserved for a Dreamworks studio executive, so I pick a spot toward the back row where I can inconspicuously observe the entire proceedings. Everyone is dressed rather casually and I pride myself on not wearing the tuxedo that I had planned to rent. By happenstance, another film critic sits to my left. We introduce ourselves and engage in geek speak about all the movies we’ve recently seen and the inner workings of film criticism. He has brought his daughter, and I laugh to myself when I spot this tiny child covering her eyes every time the film’s villain appears onscreen. Kung Fu Panda 3, like the two franchise films

•

Stretching. Eating. Saving the world.

preceding it, is a delightful, entertaining romp designed and written for both children and adults alike. The beauty of modern animated movies is that they explore mature situations that children are sure to face as they come of age and blossom into adults. These filmmakers are able to include such heavy subject matter because these themes are delivered in a subliminal manner; the topics are touched upon with just a few sentences and then made palatable by a well-timed punch line. In this aspect, modern animation — and Kung Fu Panda 3, in particular — is an artistic act of subversion in that its filmmakers have introduced toddlers to quarter-life quandaries in an attempt to instigate an evolution of consciousness that might result in this younger generation being better equipped to handle life’s multitude of problems at an earlier age than previous generations, effectively curtailing the millennials’ perpetual malady of arrested development. Crippling self-doubt; self-transformation; conforming to predefined archetypes; undergoing an identity crisis; defining family; parental deceit; grassroots community organization; realizing the younger generation can teach its elders — for me, these dense topics are typically reserved for intellectual indie films, movies the Academy

of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences loves to recognize on a yearly basis. And yet, they are just a few of the easily digestible themes that are briefly explored in Dreamwork’s Kung Fu Panda 3. Maybe you are one of those people who doesn’t take modern animation seriously, and that’s OK. Maybe you are too intellectual to stare at vivid colors for 90 minutes, that’s OK too. But, maybe you’re into art, visual art. Maybe you are into painting? If this much is true, then Pablo Picasso has given us, perhaps, the greatest reason to recognize modern animation as one of the highest of art forms. “We should all go through life like children,” he famously stated. So, if you consider Picasso a genius, and if you consider me a genius for quoting Picasso, then become a genius yourself and return to your inherent childlike state by watching a Kung Fu-equipped panda save his village by battling a spirit realm villain who has stolen the life force of the world’s martial arts masters.

Kung Fu Panda 3 (PG) 95 min. Dir. Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh; writ. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger; feat. Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and Bryan Cranston sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 35

HAPPY HOUR

at the Bar & on the Patio Daily 4-7pm and 9pm-Close DRAFTS 12 oz. $2 16 oz. $3 | 25 oz. $4

Michelob Ultra, Miller Lite, Bud Light & Shiner

$1 OFF All Cocktails Wine by the Glass Premium Draft Beers 9818 W. Interstate 10 • San Antonio, TX 78230 • (Corner of Wurzbach & IH-10) • 210-562-3075

TEXAS BARBACOA MEXICAN FOOD

Barbacoa Tacos Enchiladas Breakfast Tamales $9.49/dozen

12932 Bandera Rd. , Helotes, TX 78023 210.695.3501 • tejasbarbacoa.com 36 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

POOL • DARTS • PING PONG ENJOY OUR PATIO AREA

200 10141 Wurzbach, San Antonio, Texas 78230 • (210) 877-2100 wurzbachicehouse.com • Corner of Ironside and Wurzbach

FOOD

LINDA ROMERO

CAFFEINE CONNOISSEUR

SA native Jesse Garcia brings the beans to Paramour LANCE HIGDON

Paramour has continued to collect accolades since opening for business this past fall, seducing Saytown with its heady mix of altitude and urban allure (to say nothing of its gifted mixologists). The rooftop bar at 102 9th Street launched its coffee program this past December with Jesse Garcia at the helm, so I took the opportunity to pick his brain about what’s in store. A San Antonio native, Garcia spent several years as a touring musician. He was plying his trade in Nashville in the mid-2000s when a chai latte from Café Coco showed him the sleep-averting benefits of coffee. It wasn’t until after he journeyed to Austin in 2008, however, that Garcia had a caffeinated epiphany. Genteel poverty forced him to switch from chai lattes to straight black coffee. The change taught him to discern the fundamentals of a great cup — beans, water, heat and time. By the time he returned to San Antonio in 2013, he’d decided to quit his corporate drone gig and follow his bliss — a move that’s kept him behind a coffee bar ever since. Garcia spent the next two years earning his spurs, honing his skills at Halcyon Southtown and Press Coffee, always with an eye to directing his own program. That opportunity came, as so many do, by serendipity. “[It was] the right moment and the right time,” Garcia said in an email to the San Antonio Current. “I’ve always wanted to put together a coffee program with an openminded individual like Chris Ware [the general manager of Paramour]. Chris was looking for someone to put together a coffee program that would work well with his bar, and our goals and vision lined up.” Garcia keeps several roasters in rotation (Heart Coffee Roasters, PT’s Coffee Roasting Company and Sightglass Coffee are among the current offerings), all united by his distinct curatorial taste. “Most people will describe coffee with such adjectives like ‘dark, murky, [and] strong,’” Garcia wrote. “I however, wanted to give the community something new. I chose carefully and wanted to get our customers to say new words like ‘floral, clean, aromatic,’ [descriptors] mostly

•Jesse Garcia is Paramour’s coffee captain. reserved for teas.” To that end, Garcia considers a number of criteria to decide which beans go in the hopper. While technical details matter — regional origin, roasting method, bean classification — Garcia is even more sensitive to the intangibles of the roaster. “I look for companies who love what they do and love educating their community. Do they take themselves too seriously, or just serious enough? Are they roasting killer coffee and humble about it?” he wrote. Garcia holds his staff — Chelsea Burge, Lissette Longoria and Matthew Kusek, all Local Coffee alumni — to similarly rigorous standards. “A barista has to be able to be personable and educate the customer while awkwardly waiting for that slow pour to finish,” he said. “This is where I learned that coffee is not just math and science, but an innate feeling.” Garcia has seen immense growth in San Antonio’s coffee culture since those Halcyon days. “[In 2013], there were maybe four legit coffee shops and two roasters in town. Now we have over 10 and four roasters, with two new roasters coming in mid2016,” he wrote. He also foresees this influx of talent raising coffee standards well above the Starbucks bar citywide.

“The San Antonio coffee scene is exploding, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next few years,” he said. “Time will definitely separate those ‘neighborhood’ coffeeshops [sic] from the ones trying to be inventive.” Humble to a fault, Garcia is quick to praise those who helped him establish grounds for improvement as a barista. “John Lauber from Halcyon has always been the coffee guy I’ve admired. If you’ve ever had a latte or shot of espresso from him, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I would love to share the Slayer with him.” Given the fact that the coffee program has practically doubled Paramour’s hours of operation, I asked Garcia for a day’s worth of drink recommendations. He suggested beginning the day with a honey lavender, then opting for a Mattina (a caffe correcto of espresso cut with fernet) after lunch; if you stick around late enough, he recommended springing for one of Paramour’s vaunted cold brew cocktails for a postprandial sip. There are unquestionable benefits to occupying San Antonio’s most (literally) high-flying coffee shop: no noise pollution, a pan-cosmopolitan view of the city, an unbeatable sunrise view. Surely there must be at least one drawback, right? “Yeah,” Garcia affirmed. “Knowing how good the coffee is and you’re only on the first floor. “

PEARL FARMERS MARKET S AT. 9:00am 1:00pm

saturdays & sundays

SUN. 10:00am 2:00pm

family! IDEAL FOR THE ENTIRE

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 37

1016 N. FLORES | SA,TX 78212 Check out fresh daily conent at sacurrent.com BEST BURGERS & GREAT PEOPLE PET FRIENDLY PATIO! A CHUNKY’S MOCKUMENTARY

BIG PARTY? BIG GAME.

BIG DEALS! Call for our Big

AS SEEN ON

Game Specials!

4602 CALLAGHAN RD. • 210-433-9960 MYCHUNKYSBURGERS.COM

There can only be ONE!

THE GAME IS ALWAYS ON! GAME-TIME DRINK SPECIALS!

3938 S Zarzamora St.•San Antonio, Texas • 210.932.2500 • AlamoPizza.net 38 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & everything in-between! FULL BAR OPENS AT 7AM! Sun: 11 am - 2 am | Mon-Sat: 7 am - 2 am | 5562 Fredericksburg Rd. In the Medical Center

FOOD

CULINARY CALENDAR

5 Ways to Get Your Drink/Grub on This Week

Ladies Night

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS

Saturday, January 30 Yeast & Beer: The San Antonio Cerveceros host their first class of the year, “Yeast Cultivation, Harvesting and Behavior” with everything you •Josh Cross (left) is bringing back Oloroso. wanted to know about this beer essential from Dan Gomez of Mad Pecker Brewing Company. Free, 11am, 6025 Tezel Road, #122, (210) 5623059, facebook.com/sanantoniocerveceros.

JESSICA ELIZARRARAS

Wednesday, January 27 Cocktails & Culture: The Witte returns with an adults-only shindig that explores the Bodies Revealed exhibition (with special pricing). Learn about the body while noshing on food for purchase by The Box Street Social, brews by Alamo Beer and cocktails by Deep Eddy Vodka. $15 per person, 6:308:30pm, 3801 Broadway, (210) 357-1900, wittemuseum.org.

Every Friday

$1.50 DOMESTIC BEER FOR LADIES ALL NIGHT DJ 8pm - 12midnight.

KEEP COOL ON OUR NEW PATIO, AND SEE WHY WE ARE THE BEST IN SAN ANTONIO!

1526 ROOSEVELT AVE • 210.532.4113 (Look for the green building.)

521 E Woodlawn Ave. SA, TX 78212

BETWEEN 8A-2P | 210.737.8646

1810 Blanco road beacon hill 210.320.1018 BEATSTREETCOFFEEco.COM

Sunday, January 31 Oloroso Jr.: It was a sad day in November 2010 when Oloroso, helmed by Josh Cross, closed its doors. Now, five years later, Cross (most recently with Toro Taco Bar) is firing up a familiar Mediterranean-inspired menu for one-night only inside The Old Main Assoc. We can’t wait. $36, 6pm, 2512 N. Main Ave., (210) 562-3440, facebook.com/theoldmainassoc. Monday, February 1 Buckaroo Days: From now through February 27, the storied Josephine Street will host a celebration of all things cowboy. Stop by for a buck off domestic longnecks and Texas T-bones through the duration of rodeo season. Head there on your way to the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo (which kicks off February 11) and preparty the right way. Prices vary, 11am-10pm Monday-Thursday, 11am-11pm FridaySaturday, 400 E. Josephine St., (210) 224-6169, josephinestreet.com. Froyo Freebies: Take it easy on the fixin’s! Menchie’s will offer a free six-ounce cup of frozen yogurt in advance of National Frozen Yogurt Day (which is a thing, somehow) on February 6. No coupons are necessary, and as a bonus, those who stop by will receive a 20 percent off coupon for their next visit, good through February 20. Free, 4-7pm, 5619 W. Loop 1604 N., 8223 Marbach Road, Suite 111, 999 E. Basse Road, Suite 177, menchies.com. Wednesday, February 3 Chinese Take-out Faves: You could call in your usual order, again, or you could try your hand at recreating them at home with tips and recipes from the Central Market cooking school staff. Learn how to make perfect potstickers, hot and sour soup, kung pao chicken and yangchow fried rice. $60, 6:30-9pm, 4821 Broadway, (210) 368-8617, centralmarket.com. Send food- and nightlife-related events to flavor@sacurrent.com. sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 39

• F U E L • R E S TAU R A N T • P R O D U C E • M E AT M A R K E T •

700 N. ALAMO

210.444.0711 1/27 – Wine Pairing, $50

THANK YOU, nio San tiAngnto for us! for vo

Authentic Thai Cuisine

Open 7 Days a Week 226 W Bitters Rd #124 • (210) 545-3354 • saebthainoodlesa.com

214 Broadway NectarSa.com @NectarSAT NOW SERVING SUNDAY BRUNCH • 11 AM-3 PM Web: NectarSA.com

@Nectarsat

– Join us as we travel to the Basque region and savor some great food and wine. Enjoy 6 wines paired with a 4-course dinner. The Basque region is where Spain and France meet and where the food is made with love. Like them, we will make everything farm to table. The dinner is limited to 20 diners, so please RSVP as soon as possible. Course 1: Cheese Plate Course 2: Seafood dish Course 3 (main) : Braised beef • Course 4: Delicious Chocolate Dessert

2/3 Wine Tasting – Tasting Tannin’s

– Tasting Tannin’s. We will be tasting tannin’s in their raw state and then exploring them in wines. This is an educational type of tasting you will not find anywhere else and one that you will remember for the rest of your life. This is a structured event. There will be 2 seatings; one at 7pm and one at 8pm.

Nectar Wine Bar and Ale House

Nectarwinebar

www.TheStripSA.com corner of Main and Evergreen, just North of Downtown

NIGHTCLUB

NEW

San Antnio’s #1 Dance Club

SUNDAY FUNDAY

$2.00 Domestic Bottled Beer and $2.00 Well all day and all Night

Sunday Night

OVER NO C

CLUB SIN with NO COVER

$1.75 Domestics and Well Drinks 40 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

$2.00 Frozen Margaritas till 9 pm $3.00 Fireball all day and Night

1416 N Main Ave, San Antonio, TX78212 (210) 320-5111

FOOD

FLAVOR FILE

Pizza by the slice!

Details for Meat Week, Mardi Gras Celebrations and More JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS

Stop reading now vegetarian and vegan readers — it’s time for Meat Week San Antonio. The fourth local iteration of this nationwide celebration of all things carnivorous is back starting January 31 at 2:30 p.m. with a kickoff party at the new B-Daddy’s BBQ (14434 Old Bandera Road, Helotes). The week will also include stops at Harmon’s Barbecue (100 S. Main St., Universal City) Monday at 6:30 p.m.; followed by dinner at newly opened Burnt Ends (1725 Blanco Road) on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday dinner at Southside Bar B Que (6020 S. Flores St.) at 6:30 p.m.; a stop at Dignowity Meats (1701 E. Houston St.), which recently opened for dinner, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.; and Kings Hwy Brew & Q (1012 N. Flores St.) helmed by Emilio Soliz, formerly of Sweet Christie’s BBQ truck on Friday at 6:30 p.m. The weekend ends with parties at The Point Park & Eats (24188 Boerne Stage Road) with Señor Pinky’s food truck Saturday at noon and a Super Bowl party on Sunday, February 7 at 3 p.m. at Alamo Ice House Brew & BBQ. Meat up (pun intended, of course) with the group for specials and meat-loving camaraderie.

•

Carnivores only.

Mardi Gras is almost upon us and you can start celebrating Thursday, February 4 at 5 p.m. with The Friendly Spot Ice House (943 S. Alamo St.) as they host a pint night with Abita Brewing Company, based out of Louisiana. Visit with reps from the brewery and sign up for a chance to win a Mardi Gras experience in 2017.

Open late! We deliver! Buy 1 large get 1 free with pick up.

s a m y a n i t n ca e e’re th ant to

uw o y t a th eryone

tell ev

! t u o b a

Finally, Austin Food + Wine Festival announced its talent lineup for the April 22-24 dates and it’s a good one. Along with the likes of Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods), Hugh Acheson (Top Chef) and Graham Elliot (MasterChef), the 2016 chefs include dozens of kitchen luminaries from across the U.S. and Texas. San Antonio will have a handful of chefs representing our fair city, including Jason Dady (Jason Dady Restaurant Group), Jeff Balfour (Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery), John Brand (Supper at Hotel Emma), Luis Colon (Folc), Diego Galicia and Rico Torres (Mixtli), and Steve McHugh (Cured). Ticket prices vary, so visit austinfoodandwinefestival.com for more info. flavor@sacurrent.com

628 Jackson St | 210-320-1840 sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 41

SAVE $

Use co de: PL AY

Last game tomorrow night! Thursday, January 28 7:00 PM - AT&T Center *Oﬀer not valid on Courtisde or VIP. Restrictions and fees may apply.

TONIGHT at 7:00 PM

MONDAY at 7:30 PM

Tickets Available at

SPURS.COM

While supplies last. Tickets can be purchased at all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers, including select H-E-B locations, online at ticketmaster.com (all Ticketmaster fees apply). Call 225-TEAM or at the AT&T Center Southeast Box Office.

42 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

NIGHTLIFE

JAIME MONZON

•

The space is neatly curated and kept.

WATERING HOLE

Pinks Patio has good bones JESSICA ELIZARRARAS/@JESSELIZARRARAS

Opening a bar in December is a gamble — even more so if that bar happens to be 60 percent patio. But that’s what the owners of Pinks Patio have to work with. The former bus station and solar panel depot has definitely come a long way from its former digs, and will continue growing into the next lot over, but until then, the weekends seem to be the time to visit Pinks. Here’s how our visit turned out. The Booze: If you’re not about that craft life, you’ll feel right at home at Pinks. The joint carries six beers on draft, only two of which are from Texas — Shiner and St. Arnold.

Otherwise, you’ll find your share of big labels — Dos Equis, Bud, Lone Star, Corona Extra to name a few. Wine drinkers have their pick of nine bottles of vino. Come weekends, Pinks carries micheladas and sangria for your Sunday Funday.

mozzarella and balsamic-doused grape tomatoes from the Luiggi Food Truck. The quesadilla with steak also came with the salted, halved grape tomatoes and balsamic that quickly turned my tortilla soggy, which was a bummer. Tacos Mando was also available with mini tacos and the like.

The Ambience: To be fair, Pinks (named after a bespectacled anthropomorphic buck) only opens four days a week, and the weather has been spotty. We were the only patrons there from the bar’s opening to about 7 p.m. when we left. It’s a shame because the bar has a cute wine lounge adjacent to the main room, clean patio tables, a stage for music and plenty of seating inside the main bar. Though Pinks is technically a food truck park and bar, it’ll make for fun Spurs game viewing come playoffs with the joint’s several flat screens and great sound system.

Patio: Much like The Pigpen, Pinks Patio sits on a bourgeoning corridor, so it stands to reason that once the weather heats up (and I’m writing this as we’re about to hit a mid-70s high for the day), the bar will cater to more people. It’s pet-friendly and spacious, with more room to grow on and plenty of bike parking. The opening of apartments down the way mean that Pinks will have an audience, but it’ll have to capitalize on great food trucks to differentiate itself from other neighboring patio bars, including Stay Golden Social House, which serves cocktails, GS 1221, with its massive lineup of craft beer Sounds: The Sons of Bitches played the patio when and upcoming Down on Grayson, which will also feature Pinks opened in mid-December, but live music has been a sprawling patio whenever it opens. put on hold during the early winter months. It’ll Pinks needs a few tweaks and maybe a return Valentine’s Day weekend with acts focused legitimate happy hour to help get more butts Pinks Patio on rock and pop, according to Pink’s owner. In the 930 Broadway in seats, but otherwise, the bar has a solid (210) 875-3513 meantime, a DJ sets up with Top 40 hits. foundation as a chill, laid-back watering hole facebook.com/pinkspatio that’ll make for prime Fiesta partying come April. 4pm-midnight Thu-Fri; Bites: Trucks rotate regularly. During our 1pm-midnight Sat; noon-7pm Sun visit, we noshed on a simple caprese salad with flavor@sacurrent.com sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 43

– 8pm m p 6 | h t 9 .2 FRIDAY JAN

win tickets!

win Passes to LOL Comedy Club

Brought to you by:

MONTH Y R E V E F O Y LAST FRIDA

FREE PIzZA PATRON!

Open 7 Days A Week • Mon-Fri: 2p-2A • Sat-Sun 11Am • slackerssa.com

44 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

NIGHTLIFE

KEEPING TABS

ROGUE REDS RON BECHTOL

Some of the world’s priciest wines — think the celebrated chateaux and estates of Bordeaux and Burgundy — are red blends whose composition has been fixed for centuries. But times and tastes they are a changin’, and a new breed of winemaker is paying attention to an audience that is less focused on tradition and more on sensation. In this country, the most action in friendly, easy-drinking, low-priced red blends is in California and Washington state. Case in point: 2013 House Red Wine ($10). The consciously crude label is typical of the wines of iconoclastic Washington winemaker Charles Smith, and this one seems to have been customized for Texas. The winery’s website says the red is mostly syrah and merlot, with the remainder being other reds such as cabernet and sangiovese from sources presumably outside the state given the wine’s American designation. Along with prune, the nose is a little weedy (yes, that weed), but there’s bright dark cherry on the palate and enough body to hold up into a second day. A little more money buys you a lot more sophistication as this trio from Washington testifies. The 2013/2014 Hands Columbia Valley Red Blend Hot to Trot ($11-12) opens with saddle leather and dark stone fruit, followed by root beer/ cola notes and more spicy fruit. As is typical with Washington blends, merlot and syrah dominate here and in the 2012 Mercer Canyons Columbia Valley Red Blend ($12), a bottle that offers up chocolate and dark, almost meaty fruit, followed by

velvety coffee, black cherry and baking spice. Syrah is the dominant pony in the 2012 Columbia Crest H3 Les Chevaux; there’s even a little white viognier in this blend, presumably for aromatics. Plum, blueberry, smoke, chocolate … they’re all there and at a price around $14. Cali’s winegrowing regions are more varied than Washington’s and as a result so are the red grape blends. In case you might miss the point of the new trend in reds, Qupé’s Central Coast blend is simply called A Modern Red ($16), and it follows a Rhône formula with syrah, grenache and mourvedre. This one needed time to open up, finally yielding some caramel, blackberry and, oddly, pickled strawberry. Also from the Central Coast, Hahn Winery’s Nicky Hahn GSM ($11.50), takes the same grapes, flips the percentages and results with dark cherry and bacon, followed by a slightly sweet plum, some green olive and, at the end, bright cherry and raspberry. Taking the notion to its logical extreme, and playing to suspicions that many blends are merely opportunistic kitchensink mashups, there is actually a label called Kitchen Sink California Red Table Wine. Genuine winemakers at Adler Fels are behind this non-vintage mélange of grapes and years, and this one tells you what’s in the bottle: zinfandel, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and petite sirah. The wine is light in body, but it yields bushels of mixed fruits — red cherry, currant, raspberry, pomegranate … and it’s only $8. Look for it, and many of the others, at Central Market under the convenient Other Red category. Bottom shelf, of course.

HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS MONDAY

$13 Miller Lite and Coors Light Pitchers $3 Patron Incendio & Skyy Flavors $2.50 High Life

20% off for YS! industry, ALWA

TUESDAY

$3 Pint Night $3 Skyy Flavors $3 Pinnacle Cinnamon Shots

WEDNESDAY $3 USAA Day $3 Patron Incendio $2.50 High Life

THURSDAY

$3 USAA Day $13 Miller Lite & Coors Light Buckets $3 Svedka Flavors

FRIDAY

$2.50 High Life $3 Svedka Flavors

SATURDAY

$2.50 High Life $3 Skyy Flavors $13 Miller Lite & Coors Light Pitchers

SUNDAY

$3.25 You-Call-It (Almost anything!)

OPEN SAT-SUN AT 2pm FOR SUNDAY FUNDAY AND FOOTBALL! sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 45

46 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

MUSIC

ELIOT LEE HAZEL

BLAKESLEE’S BLUES

COMEDY AF!

•

The ghost of Guy Blakeslee

Before the release of to pull the curtain back and Ophelia Slowly, it felt opts for honest, straightforward like it had been forever storytelling. Psychedelic wahsince we had last heard from Guy wahs and meandering guitar Blakeslee. With Ophelia being excursions have taken a backseat his first solo album release in 10 for the LA songwriter. No longer years, it begs the question, “Why the gifted retro bluesman, so long, Guy?” Blakeslee instead favors languid, “You gain your freedom, but you looped synths and minimalistic lose control/ you gain the world, rhythmic sections to serve as but you lose your soul,” sings the backdrop to his anguished Blakeslee on “Smile On,” behind a timbres and reflective stories, looped, minimal beat. He sounds grappling with his own demons. wary and, no question, he’s been But that doesn’t mean the in great pain, but behind the album isn’t reminiscent of mercurial guise, his story offers the cathartic, repetitious and hope amidst the destruction. simplistic roundabout of the Rewind 10 years, Blakeslee blues. Haunting and damned wasn’t the troubled troubadour we lyrics never fall short: “I called find on this record. After calling it for an angel but the devil came,” quits with his first solo rendition, Blakeslee becomes the spiritual under the moniker Entrance, vagabond singing for redemption Blakeslee decided to expand his in “Kneel and Pray.” While in project into the psychedelic rock “Told Myself,” Blakeslee spirals trio, the Entrance Band. Needing downward, battling contradictions a change of pace from being in and whining, “You were true the band for over a decade and and a liar too,” just to end in a recovering from drug and alcohol foreboding memento, “You were addiction, Blakeslee coalesced clean and a junkie too.” Recanting the two in Ophelia Slowly. folklore lines like, “You gain your Gaining many artists’ stamp of freedom, but you lose control/ approval, he toured alongside You gain the world, but you ubiquitous acts like Warpaint, Cat lose your soul,” may seem like a Power, Interpol and Father John condemnation from an old, wise Misty. sage, but are, rather, realizations In Ophelia Slowly, from a guy growing up. Blakeslee no longer Perhaps what is so hides behind a curtain great about the record Guy Blakeslee of shrouded symbolism is that while he delves $8 9pm Sat, Jan. 30 and metaphor as he did into his life of borderline Paper Tiger in The Entrance Band’s hedonism, he never 2410 N. St. Mary’s St. Face the Sun. He decides papertigersa.com explores it with even a hint

Thursday, January 28th Paper Tiger Presents

W/ COMEDIANS: AVERY MOORE, RAUL SANCHEZ, TRAVIS REYES, GEORGE ANTHONY, LARRY GARZA, AND KENNY VAN! 9:00PM ALL AGES Friday, January 29th Paper Tiger Presents

Guy Blakeslee waxes redemptive on Ophelia Slowly ALEJANDRA RAMIREZ

2410 N. ST MARY’S ST. / ADVANCE TIX - PAPERTIGERSA.COM

of crass indulgence. Blakeslee’s subtlety and genuine lyricism is welcomed because the album exudes this sort of sensuality that isn’t overly sexual. It chooses to journey into the challenging and optimistic aspects of love and friendship; it’s wholesome without being absolutely innocent. And while the record can sometimes feel like a whirlpool, churning out sing-song narratives, the album boasts eclectic production that prevents it from falling into kitschy territory. Ophelia’s raw intonations and clarity are not only thanks to Blakeslee’s unbridled emotion, but producer Chris Coady, the producer of Beach House and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “Ophelia Brown” concocts an anecdote of love and pain while accentuating an anti-folk chord cluster. “Cloud” also boasts some of the most impressive guitar work on the record, hearkening to the progression found in the Animals' “House of the Rising Sun.” Perhaps what’s most interesting is also the most unassuming: the album’s title, Ophelia Slowly. Inspired by the tragic story of Ophelia from Shakespeare's drama Hamlet, Blakeslee reinterprets the tragedy and seeks light at the end of the tunnel. He chronicles his own journey out of the darkness amidst the struggles and tumultuous pitfalls of addiction one phrase at a time.

BOAN

W/ MOZE PRAY, DULANG DULANG 8:00PM ALL AGES Saturday, January 30th Paper Tiger Presents

GUY BLAKESLEE 9:00PM ALL AGES Thursday, February 4th Transmission Events Presents

AGENT ORANGE W/ IN THE WHALE 7:00PM ALL AGES Friday, February 5th Do210 & Untapped Fest Presents

NAUGHTY BY NATURE 8:00PM ALL AGES Saturday, February 6th Transmission Events Presents

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA W/ SPECIAL GUESTS LOWER DENS

7:00PM ALL AGES SMALL ROOM AFTERPARTY - LOWER DENS DJ SET! Saturday, February 13th Transmission Events Presents

MURDER CITY DEVILS W/ RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS & CASKETS 8:00PM ALL AGES

2410 N. ST MARY’S ST. / ADVANCE TIX - PAPERTIGERSA.COM sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 47

CLUB SiRIUS 7 Storytellers / 7 Minutes / 7 Dollars Josephine Theater 339 W Josephine tpr.org

7 PM

HAPPY HOUR Mon- Sun: noon-8pm

FEATURING DJ SLIC RIC & DJ NAAWZ • MIXING THE LATEST MUSIC AND VIDEOS ON 5 HD SCREENS

Drinksirius.com • Lesa@DrinkSirius.com

MegaplexSA.com 48 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

@clubsirius

/toosirius

MUSIC

SHAPING GRACE POTTER

J.D. SWERZENSKI

The Nocturnals’ frontwoman bursts the Americana bubble J.D. SWERZENSKI

I reach Grace Potter by phone somewhere in south Alabama, relaxing in the back of Lil’ Wayne’s old tour bus. Well, technically, it’s Potter’s tour bus now, but the signs of its former owner are all over. “There’s seven flat-screen TVs here in the bedroom. It’s like Samsung wallpaper,” she said. “I don’t actually watch much TV, so I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do with them. Watch seven things at once, I guess?” She anticipates my next question, “Yes, this bus is the one that got shot up,” she said referring to the July 2015 drive-by shooting against Wayne, allegedly planned by long-time manager Birdman and disciple Young Thug. “I heard from The Avett Brothers that there was some sort of pistol stash compartment somewhere, but I haven’t found it yet,” she adds. Beyond even the obvious reasons, there’s something deeply weird about Grace Potter — the roots rock singer from Vermont — rolling around the country in Weezy’s old bus. But the image might be as good a metaphor as any in describing the strange turn Potter’s career has taken over the past several months. As Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, the singer and her band spent a decade on the road building a following the old-fashioned way: proving themselves as one of the most impressive roots-rock outfits on the circuit and riding Potter’s stadium-sized voice and considerable songwriting chops to national notice. Then in August of last year, she threw a curveball. Midnight, her first major label release without the Nocturnals, saw the singer trading in Americana for a more polished pop sound. “I’ve always been drawn to Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Eurythmics, all the music from childhood that my mom used to play when we were cleaning the house or driving out to the lake,” she explained. “I wanted [Midnight] to have a fun, effervescent spirit. I didn’t want it to be some seething rock mystery.” Midnight, with its shimmering pop sound, liberal use of synths and studio-glossed hooks, has given Potter new opportunities to showcase her vocal prowess and versatility. However, the stylistic turn took many fans of her work with the Nocturnals off guard, a reaction Potter anticipated. “People get upset when people don’t do what they think you’re supposed to do,” she said, explaining her decision to release and tour without the Nocturnals name. “If I wanna take a risk, I wanna own that risk. I’m not shrugging it off on a random collective at large.”

•The common thread between the sepia and the sunshine: Ms. Potter

The ability to flaunt all sides of her musical personality The material from Midnight is by no means recent; has been a source of liberation throughout this tour, as Potter wrote “Biggest Fan,” the album’s ninth track, back has the expansion of her band beyond the Nocturnals’ set in 2009. However, when she pitched it to her bandmates, five-piece format. they “just didn’t jive with it.” “The live show hasn’t gotten different, but it’s gained “Anything that sounded more like the Talking Heads, muscle tone and dynamic, with new players giving it a B52s, Madonna, the guys didn’t really like it,” she said. “I bigger feel,” she said. didn’t want to let all those freak flags fly within the context Potter leaves no doubt that she takes her craft of this whiskey-soaked roots-rock band.” incredibly seriously. Even then, she talks about life on When she did commit to embracing the new sound, it the road with the giddiness of a college spring breaker. released a rush of pent-up creative energy. “All these other She shares with me her dream of building a multi-level ideas just came pouring out in this sort of flash flood. I was treehouse-style tour bus on which she can travel the just writing like a madwoman," she said. world (the Weezy-mobile will do for now.) And she talks While the singer has grown in both confidence and of the connection she seeks to forge with each town ambition through her recordings, it’s in concert where through which she and her band pass. she’s always made her most immediate mark. The “Getting off the bus and exploring is what makes you a challenge then came in how to present this new side of human when touring. You can easily sleep in until 3 p.m. her musical personality live. everyday, but for me it’s about understanding what about “I was ready for it to be a hot mess. How do you tack each town makes it special. The set list and how these sounds together?” she said. Potter had we play each night is all informed by that.” just one week to put a band together for her first Texas, she points out, holds a particularly solo show (an opening for the Rolling Stones, no Grace Potter important place on her tour itinerary. less.) “I pulled half the material from Midnight, $25-$35 “People always think I’m from Texas, I don’t half from the Nocturnals, and they just fit together 7pm Sun, Jan. 31 know exactly why. Maybe I just have a sort of beautifully,” she explains. “After all, the same brain Aztec Theatre 104 N. St. Mary’s St. connection with it,” she said. “So this will be a wrote it all, and if I’m writing it and singing it, then (210) 812-4355 sort of metaphorical homecoming for me.” theaztectheatre.com I’m the thread between the two.” sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 49

MUSIC

AURAL PLEASURE

// Reviews of some of this week's local and national record releases.

HARVEY MCLAUGHLIN & THE BOTTOMFEEDERS Dragon’s Breath Single // Lost Records Released January 30

→ Live Harvey McLaughlin & the BottomFeeders are

reminiscent of a pair of low-sole Creepers, Army-issue Buddy Holly glasses and a two-tone blazer over a skinny tie. (I’m describing Elvis Costello here). The limber wrists of drummer Mike Chia and the present but non-intrusive bass of Juancho Luna, coupled with McLaughlin and rhythm guitarist Trevor Schultz’s noodle leads and flash distortion, keep the group in Attractions territory. However, their Dragon’s Breath single is a gamey collection of three driving punk ‘n’ roll tunes. A-side, “Dragon’s Breath,” even allows them to sneak into Midwestern planes with several trips through a ’90s-inspired lesson on how to write spirited hook after spirited hook. With an impressive array of emotion, “Dragon’s Breath” is a perfect track for reminiscing on your crush at the library — you both reached for the same copy of The Drunken Boat, you noticed he had a biography of Patti Smith and the Central branch’s CD copy of This Year’s Model tucked between his cardigan-clad arms. By then, the chorus is stuck in your head, “A little bit of dragon’s breath and blah blah blah blah blah blah,” or what sounds like, “A little bit of dragon’s breath is gonna burn this whole place down.” I think I got it. The B-side could be labeled the “night owl side,” if you wrote “night owl side” on it with a marker. The opener, coincidentally titled “The Night Owls,” and “Splashpage” are the more aggressive of the three tracks. Whereas “Dragon’s Breath” is a compelling jaunt through communal, friendly rockage — a station wagon tour anthem — side two is a last call shot-and-beer combo of tightly executed 50 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

drink-rock in the vein of Hot Snakes, The Stooges, MC5 (you gotta spin more than “Kick Out the Jams,” friend) or Denton via Austin’s Riverboat Gamblers. All in all, here are three well-executed, shitty-in-agood-way rock ‘n’ roll tracks fit for wherever you listen to dirty but sincere guitar rock … The library? – Travis Buffkin

JAVIER ESCOVEDO Kicked Out of Eden // Saustex Records Released January 30

→ Javier Escovedo comes from a Mexican immigrant family that, without hesitation, adopted rock 'n' roll as its official tongue. Javier and his three brothers, including Alejandro of The Nuns and The True Believers (also with Javier), all found themselves called to music. After founding the important but short-lived underground California punk outfit The Zeros (1976), Javier played roots-rock with Alejandro and released a slow trickle of The Zeros’ singles until 2012, when he dropped his first solo album City Lights. In January, Escovedo released his second solo affair, Kicked Out of Eden, and will celebrate the album in San Antonio this weekend (Saturday at Hi-Tones with Harvey McLaughlin & the BottomFeeders and Sunday at Tex-Pop). The album is one part boogie-woogie-blues and one part garage-punk sweat and stone. That is to say, the record sounds like it was practically intended for San Anto audiences, with all its vamping bluster and romantic bravado. From start to finish, Kicked Out of Eden is a solid exercise in sharp-edged rock. Album standouts “Beaujolais” and “Gypsy Son” serve as fine examples of the kind of straight-ahead punk-lite swagger that is Escovedo’s real strength. Meanwhile, “Searchin’ for You,” a slow-burning ballad and the album’s closer, is the only moment that let’s up on the gas, but it certainly

doesn’t hold back on the melodrama, which is, for my money, another endearing hallmark of the whole album. — James Courtney

JENNY LEWIS AND THE WATSON TWINS Rabbit Fur Coat (Re-issue) // Team Love Released January 29

→ When Jenny Lewis dropped her first non-Rilo Kiley album back in 2006 fans rightly feared that it signaled the end for the seminal indie rock outfit. Indeed, the glitzy, riff-rockin’ Under the Blacklight, released in 2007, was Rilo Kiley’s final (and worst) album. Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat, with stunning vocal assists from The Watson Twins, thus stands as a musical document of a moment. Nothing Lewis has done since has the righteous fire, the dry wit, the songwriting grace or warmth of this first solo outing. In fact, her two solo albums since seem much more like follow-ups to Blacklight. Rabbit, re-released digitally and on vinyl to commemorate the album’s 10-year anniversary, is really a folk-soul revivalist statement. From opener “Run Devil Run” to the achingly gorgeous and slow-grooving “Happy,” to call to arms “Rise Up With Fists!” and the gospel-indebted send-up “Born Secular,” Rabbit feels very much like an agnostic’s sermon on living the righteous life. This is Lewis stating her terms to life and its expectations, large and small. As such, there are lyrical passages that have been criticized for being a touch ham-handed or inscrutable, but the messages of existentialist free will and feminist refusal to play the good ol’ boys game are indelible and vibrant still. Resplendent with soaring and breathy harmonies, and seething with irony and coming-of-age angst, the album has aged exceedingly well. From where we sit now, Rabbit stands as one of the finest works from one of the finest millennial songwriters. — JC

Single Malt JAN 29 -CROOKS

ENDS SATURDAY!

Sale

JAN 30 -DIRTY RIVER BOYS

OR MORE 750ML BOTTLES OF

SINGLE MALT SCOTCH*

Mix & Match

MAR 25 & 26 - RANDY ROGERS BAND WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

January 18th – 30th

MAY 14 -ELI YOUNG BAND

13 San Antonio Area Locations • Alamo Heights in Lincoln Heights Shopping Center • Alon Center • Bandera & 1604 • Boerne • Evans & 281 • Highland Hills / McCreless • Lackland / Westlakes • Lytle • Marketplace at 281 & Bitters • Medical Center • New Braunfels • Northwoods Center • Seguin

JUNE 12 - HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS

Visit TwinLiquors.com for more information. *Single malt scotch sale runs 1/18/16–1/30/16. Valid on regular priced bottles of single malt scotch. Excludes Twin Deals, Bargain Barrels, or sale items. Please drink responsibly.

14492 Old Bandera Rd Helotes, TX (210)695-8827

For tickets: liveatfloores.com sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 51

52 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

MUSIC

SAT

Lawman and Over The Top

San Antonio’s concert curator of all things heavy, groovy and ghoul-y, Loy Smoak of Faust’s Sell Your Soul Saturdays, consistently brings us some of the rippin’est, carvin’est shredders of head, pool, axe and ass. Saturday will be no exception. From out of the garage fog emerge Lawman, featuring ex-members of Austin’s defunct-but-not-forgotten ganja groovers Ditch Witch, and SA’s own fullthrottle, Stallone-strong rockers Over The Top to gag you on the riffage. Here's the show in 69 words or more: motorcycles, guitars shaped like pizza, big boobs, the swirly amorphous blob of a black-lit lava lamp that trippingly turns into big boobs; Viking hand tattoos on dudes that don’t gel or comb their hair or beards, drugs, bongs shaped like guitars and boobs; mutton chops, the Grim Reaper in cut-off robeshorts, drugs, beating up your boss, bongs filled with whiskey, not water; and drugs. Essentially, the kind of music that should topple the depressing Drake takeover of the soundtrack to the strip club: rock ‘n’ fuckin’ roll. Ready your metal spirit-fingers. With DJs Smoak and Thunder Ratt. Free, 10pm, Faust Tavern, 517 E. Woodlawn Ave., (210) 257-0628, facebook. com/thefausttavern - Travis Buffkin

Wednesday, January 27

Joe Fletcher & the Wrong Reasons

Bandleader Fletcher utilizes his husky baritone to man the helm of his roots band, complete with fiddle, upright bass and lyrics on such topics as saluting widows, finding a good woman and a-rovin'. 502 Bar, 9pm

Maya Guirao Project The mixing and

mingling of the sounds of la frontera run through Guirao's music like wind through an Andalusian's mane. Luna, 9:30pm

Propaganda Break out your best black-

on-black-on-black ensemble, goth kids. It's post-punk, new wave and deathrock night. The Mix, 10pm

Rebel Grrrl Wednesdays with DJ Mighty Iris Come worship at the altar

of Riot Grrrl at SA's newest neighborhood rock 'n' roll bar. Bring quarters for the arcade room! The Bang Bang Bar, 9pm

Thursday, January 28

The BYOB Tour As artists of the Working

Class Music Group, Boog Brown and Yamin Semali are inviting all SA hip-hop crews to jam with them on the Texas branch of their BYOB Tour. The Reggae Bar, 8pm

Comedy AF! I originally had no idea

whether this would be funny but I saw that Avery Moore and Kenny Van are telling jokes and they're funny, so I now have an idea that this will be funny. Paper Tiger, 9pm

Frankie Lava – All Vinyl The flyer has

James Brown on it, thus, it gets press. Hi-Tones, 10pm

King William Jazz Collective A big

band showcase of the finest players San Antonio has to offer. Luna, 9:30pm

Led Zeppelin 2 "How the Midwest Was Won" Tour Robert Plant is so over being

in the greatest folk rock cover band of all time, Bonham's dead and Paige and Plant hate JPJ. Perhaps Led Zeppelin 2 can help ease the pain. Aztec Theatre, 8pm

LE$ Hopefully you can "Settle4les" (his

words, not mine) at the rapper's first concert on his Texas tour. Alamo City Music Hall, 8:30pm

Lincoln Durham Since learning fiddle

in early childhood, Lincoln Durham has sought to learn all instruments of Americana and play them all at once. His one-man band is a stomping parade of rock ‘n’ roll attitude and American tradition. Sam's Burger Joint, 8pm

The Swindles Mitch Webb leads his

band through the Great San Antonio songbook, some of which he penned himself, in their return to Gruene Hall. Gruene Hall, 6pm

Friday, January 29

VISIT NASCIGS.COM OR CALL 1-800-435-5515 PROMO CODE 96669

CIGARETTES

*Plus applicable sales tax

Offer for two “1 for $2” Gift Certificates good for any Natural American Spirit cigarette product (excludes RYO pouches and 150g tins). Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. Offer and website restricted to U.S. smokers 21 years of age and older. Limit one offer per person per 12 month period. Offer void in MA and where prohibited. Other restrictions may apply. Offer expires 12/31/16.

Another De Sade "Ethereal and noisy,

beautifully heavy, soft, dissonantly melodic explosion from the soul," reads Austin band Another De Sade's bio. Cool, guys. With Slowlikefire, Secrent Silent and La Chichada. The Amp Room, 10pm

The Appleseed Collective Armed with

a steel washboard, fiddle, banjo and upright bass, the Appleseed Collective sounds like the Appalachian mountains San Antonio Current 01-20-16.indd 1

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 53 1/13/16 9:22 AM

McNay Contemporary Collectors Forum presents

Fitzcarraldo Thursday, January 28, 7:00 pm Would-be rubber baron and full-fledged opera fanatic Brian “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski), is intent on building an opera house in his small, yet multicultural Peruvian town. Directed by legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo also features a score by the avant garde band Popol Vuh. Germany, 1982. German, with English subtitles.158 min. Color. Rated PG. Werner Herzog Filmproduktion.

Join us for wine outside the Chiego Lecture Hall, 6:30–7:00 pm. McNay Art Museum 6000 North New Braunfels San Antonio, TX 78209 www.mcnayart.org

Special thanks to our media sponsor

GET REEL is free of charge.

January GET REEL 2016.indd 1

1/22/2016 4:36:05 PM

TILL

76 TAPS

7 DAYS A WEEK

CRAFT BREW

FRIENDLY EATS

MIDNIGHT

OVER 400 BOTTLE

KID & DOGGIE

FRIENDLY

ICE HOUSE

CAN CHOICES

943 South Alamo • 210.224.BEER (2337)

Thur., 3. 24. 16 | 7-10PM

A TASTY NIGHT OF LOCAL CUISINE SACURRENTFLAVOR.COM

FRIENDLY FAT TUESDAY! FEBRUARY 9TH, 3PM NOLA style Jazz from Los Blues Notes, Abita Brewing Company, Friendly Beads, Friends & King Cakes from Sweet Chela’s. M O N - F R I 3 P - 1 2 A • S A T - S U N 1 1A - 1 2 A

FRIENDLY GROWLERS AVAILABLE | FRIENDLY EATS TILL MIDNIGHT 54 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

MUSIC

envisioned by city folk from Michigan. 502 Bar, 9pm

Black Tusk The motorcycle accident that claimed the life of bassist Jonathan Athon hasn't stopped the terror of Georgia's bearded metal masters. With Royal Thunder, Bask and Cosmic Behemoth. The Korova, 8pm

BOAN The new post-Medio Mutante project featuring Mariana Saldana and Jose Cota with audio production by Michael Stein. Think the whispery Celtic Moods vibe of Enigma with the pop prowess of Depeche Mode on anti-depressants. With Moze Pray, Dulang Dulang and De Palma. Paper Tiger, 8pm

Crooks Check out the disbanding group

that can play mariachi tunes next to tears-in-my-beer country jams and not alienate fans of either genre. With Mike & the Moonpies. John T. Floore's Country Store, 7pm

Frontage EP Release If you want to get

your emo fix, Frontage is a satisfying dose. With Bloodhound, New Methods, Chewing Stones, Benji and Shadow of a Doubt. The Ten Eleven, 7:30pm

Burger Joint, 9pm

Saturday, January 30

Junkie Purveyors of cowabunga punk,

Junkie play music for pissing in the wave pool and getting stoned on the Lazy River. With Sophisticated Puss and Sure. Imagine Bookstore, 8pm

Mike Buck's Record Riot with Eve & the Exiles Antone's record store owner, accomplished musician and DJ of regal taste spins between two raucous Exiles sets. The Amp Room, 9pm

Sunday, January 31

Danzas De Las Americas As part of

the San Antonio Symphony’s 2016 Las Américas Festival, YOSA presents an electrifying evening of irresistible dance music from the USA, Mexico and Argentina. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7pm

Jimmy Spacek CD Release On Peace &

Distortion, Spacek plays peacemaker, engineers a runaway train and pays homage to the South Side. Sam's Burger Joint, 6pm

Monday, February 1

Murder FM Taking every cliche from the

Bernie Martini The name alone makes me

North by North If Geddy Lee sang garage

Marley Mondays Try to hate Monday with

Tracy Lawrence With a voice that makes

Tuesday, February 2

Marilyn Manson/Nine Inch Nails book on industrial with an added layer of emo cheese, Murder FM is a living goth rock parody. Fitzgerald's, 6pm

blues with a Jack White swagger, North by North is what you'd get. Limelight, 8pm

you want to sit on a speaker and reenact that scene from Private Parts, Tracy Lawrence is a '90s country legend, before they traded in the trailer for the frat house. Cowboys Dancehall, 7pm

Jarekus Singleton It was a logical step

for funk, soul and the blues to meet. Jarekus Singleton welds the three genres together into something all his own; Foulues? Blunkoul? Sunkues? Sam’s

want to take the gun, leave the cannoli, start calling everybody "Paulie" and mix mafia movie quotes 'til the Jersey cows come home. Perry's Steakhouse, 6pm

a Bob Marley-inspired selector at the tables. J&O's Cantina, 8pm

Joshua Bell Often referred to as the "poet of the violin," Joshua Bell is one of the world's most celebrated violinists. Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30pm

Tejana Tuesdays Bust out that bustier and get your washing ma-cheen on point, DJ Es Ay and her guests will be throwing down enough Tex-Mex tunes to get you through the week, until next Tuesday. La Botánica, 10pm

502 Bar 502 Embassy Oaks Drive, (210) 257-8125, 502bar.com Alamo City Music Hall 1305 E. Houston St., alamocitymusichall.com Aztec Theatre 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com Cowboys Dancehall 3030 NE Interstate 410 Loop, (210) 646-9378, cowboysdancehall.com Fitzgerald’s 437 McCarty Road #101, (210) 629-5141, facebook.com/fitzgeraldsbarsa John T. Floore’s Country Store 14492 Old Bandera Road, (210) 695-8827, liveatfloores.com Gruene Hall 1281 Gruene Road, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall.com Hi-Tones 621 E. Dewey Pl., (210) 573-6220, hitonessa.com Imagine Books & Records 8373 Culebra Road, (210) 236-7668, imaginebookstore.com J&O’s Cantina 1014 S. Presa St., (210) 485-7611 La Botánica 2911 N. St. Mary's St., (619) 886-2594, vivalabotanica.com Limelight 2718 N. St. Mary’s St., thelimelightsa.com Luna 6740 San Pedro Ave., lunalive.com Paper Tiger 2410 N. St Mary’s St., papertigersa.com Perry's Steakhouse 15900 La Cantera Pkwy. #22200, (210) 558-6161, perryssteakhouse.com Sam’s Burger Joint 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com 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 Korova 107 E. Martin St., (210) 226-5070, thekorova.com The Mix 2403 N St. Mary’s St., (210) 735-1313 The Reggae Bar 2016 Austin Hwy., (210) 772-9891 The Ten Eleven 1011 Avenue B, (210) 320-9080, theteneleven.com Tobin Center for the Performing Arts 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org

TITANIUM 4000, X AGAIN, BLACK PANTHER, MASTER ZONE, EXTEN ZONE, EXTREME DIAMOND, EXTRA ZONE, RHINO V5, RHINO X, MAX LOAD, MAX HARD, MAX STAMINA, RHINO BIG HORN, PURE, RED ZONE 3000, RHINO 7 (5000), RHINO BLACK 3K, POWER ZONE 3000, FUEL UP, FORBIDDEN TIGER, FIFTY SHADES, TRIPLE XXX, EREKT FOR WOMAN: KANGROO, SPARXXX, GEISHA

8373 CULEBRA STE. 103 • 210.521.4555 1639 BABCOCK RD. • 210.474.6005 sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 55

sacurrent.com/sanantonio/freestuff

TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

NOTICE OF APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION FOR AN AIR QUALITY PERMIT PROPOSED PERMIT NUMBER: 135584 APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION. Unifirst Corporation, 68 Jonspin Rd, Wilmington, MA 01887-1090, has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for issuance of Proposed Air Quality Permit Number 135584, which would authorize laundering of shop towels at the existing commercia l laundry facility located at 3047 East Commerce Street, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas 78220. This application was submitted to the TCEQ on September 8, 2015. The proposed facility will emit the following contaminants: organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants. The executive director has completed the technical review of the application and prepared a draft permit which, if approved, would establish the conditions under which the facility must operate. The executive director has made a preliminary decision to issue the permit because it meets all rules and regulations. The permit application, executive director’s preliminary decision, and draft permit will be available for viewing and copying at the TCEQ central office, the TCEQ San Antonio regional office, and at the San Antonio Central Library, 6oo Soledad Street, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, beginning the first day of publication of this notice. The facility’s compliance file, if any exists, is available for public review at the TCEQ San Antonio Regional Office, 14250 Judson Rd, San Antonio, Texas. CHANGE IN LAW The Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill709, effective September 1, 2015, amending requirements for comments and contested case hearings. This application is subject to those changes in law. PUBLIC COMMENT/PUBLIC MEETING. You may submit public comments or request a public meeting about this application. The purpose of a public meeting is to provide the opportunity to submit comment or to ask questions about the application. The TCEQ will hold a public meeting if the executive director determines that there is a significant degree of public interest in the application or if requested by a local legislator. A public meeting is not a contested case hearing. You may submit additional written public comments · within 30 days of the date of newspaper publication of this notice in the manner set forth in the AGENCY CONTACTS AND INFORMATION paragraph below. RESPONSE TO COMMENTS AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ACTION. After the deadline for public comments, the executive director will consider the comments and prepare a response to all relevant and material or significant public comments. Because no timely hearing requests have been received, after preparing the response to comments, the executive director may then issue final approval of the application. The response to comments, along with the executive director’s decision on the application will be mailed to everyone who submitted .public comments or is on a mailing list for this application, and will be posted electronically to the Commissioners’ Integrated Database (CID). INFORMATION AVAilABLE ONLINE. When they become available, the executive director’s response to comments and the final decision on this application will be accessible through the Commission’s Web site at wvvw. tceq.texas.govjgotojcid. Once you have access to the CID using the above link, enter the permit number for this application which is provided at the top of this notice. This link to an electronic map of the site or facility’s general location is provided as a public courtesy and not part of the application or notice. For exact location, refer to application . .htp://www .tceq.texas.gov /assets/public/hb61 o /index.html ?lat= 29.420281&lng=98.44088g&zoom=13&!;ype=r MAILING LIST. You may ask to be placed on a mailing list to obtain additional information on this application by sending a request to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. AGENCY CONTACTS AND INFORMATION. Public comments and requests must be submitted either electronically at www.tceq.texas.govjaboutjcomments.html, or in writing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Office of the Chief Clerk, MC-105, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087 . Ifyou commun icate with the TCEQ electronically, please be aware that your email address, like your physical mailing address, will become part of the agency’s public record. For more information about this permit application or the permitting process, please call the Public Education Program toll free at 1-800-687-4040. Si desea informacion en Espaiiol, puede llamar al1-8oo-687-4040. Further information may also be obtained from Unifirst Corporation at the address stated above or by calling Mr. Timothy M Cosgrave, Senior Manager EHS at (978) 658-8888. Notice Issuance Date: January 4, 2016

56 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

Weekly prizes include:

check us out at sacurrent.com

FREE TO LISTEN AND REPLY TO ADS

Free Code: San Antonio Current

FIND REAL GAY MEN NEAR YOU San Antonio:

(210) 375-1155

The hottest place to meet Latinos!

www.megamates.com 18+

Try FREE: 210-447-1103 More Local Numbers: 1-855-831-1111 fonochatlatino.com 18+

FREE

Dating made Easy

to Listen & Reply to ads. FREE CODE: San Antonio Current

REAL PEOPLE, REAL DESIRE, REAL FUN.

Open desires... Hidden identities...

Try FREE: 210-933-1103

Try FREE Now: 210-933-1106

More Local Numbers: 1-800-926-6000

More Local Numbers: 1-800-700-6666

Ahora español Livelinks.com 18+

redhotdateline.com 18+

FREE TRIAL

Discreet Chat Guy to Guy

210.320.6103

210.375.1800 San Antonio

Meet sexy new friends

FREE TRIAL

210-933-1113

For other local numbers:

18+ www.MegaMates.com sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 57

ETC.

SOUND MIND AND BODY SAVAGE LOVE by Dan Savage

Down to business: Christmas came and went, and every present I bought for my extraordinary husband could be opened in front of our children. He deserves better, and I have a particular gift in mind for Valentine’s Day. My husband has expressed an interest in sounding, something we’ve attempted only with my little finger. He seemed to enjoy it! But the last thing I want to do is damage his big beautiful dick. So is sounding a fun thing? Is sounding a safe thing? Recommendations for a beginner’s sounding kit? Or should I scrap the idea and just get him another butt plug? Safety Of Sounding P.S. Here is a picture of the big beautiful dick I don’t want to damage. Sounding, for those of you who didn’t go to the same Sunday school I did, involves the insertion of smooth metal or plastic rods into the urethra. Sounding is sometimes done for legitimate medical purposes (to open up a constricted urethra, to locate a blockage), and it’s sometimes done for legitimate erotic purposes (some find the sensation pleasurable, and others are turned on by the transgression, particularly when a man is being sounded, i.e., the penetrator’s penetrator penetrated). So, yeah, some people definitely think sounding is a fun thing, SOS. “But whether or not something is a safe thing depends on knowledge of the risks/pitfalls and an observance of proper technique,” said Dr. Keith D. Newman, a urologist and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. “The urethral lining has the consistency of wet paper towels and can be damaged easily, producing scarring. And the male urethra takes a bend just before the prostate. Negotiating that bend takes talent, and that’s where most 58 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

sounding injuries occur.” Recreational cock sounders — particularly newbies — shouldn’t attempt to push past that bend. But how do you know when you’ve arrived at that bend? “SOS’s partner should do the inserting initially,” said Dr. Newman, “as the bend in the urethra is easily recognized by the soundee. Once he is clear on his cues — once he understands the sensations, what works, and when the danger areas are reached — SOS can participate safely with insertion.” And cleanliness matters, SOS, whether you’re sounding the husband or serving burritos to the public. “Infection is always an issue,” said Dr. Newman. “Clean is good, but the closer to sterile the better. And be careful about fingers. They can be more dangerous than sounds because of the nails and difficulty in sterilizing.” So for the record, SOS: Your previous attempts at sounding — those times you jammed your little finger into your husband’s piss slit — were more dangerous than the sounding you’ll be doing with the lovely set of stainlesssteel sounding rods you’ll be giving your hubby on Valentine’s Day. Moving on … “Spit is not lube,” said Dr. Newman. “Water- or siliconebased lubes are good; oil-based is not so good with metal instruments.” (You can also go online and order little single-serving packets of sterile lubricant. Don’t ask me how I know this.) Using “glass or other breakable instruments” as sounds is a Very Bad Idea. Dr. Newman was pretty emphatic on this point — and while it sounds like a fairly obvious point, anyone who’s worked in an ER can tell you horror stories about all the Very Bad Ideas they’ve retrieved from people’s urethras, vaginas and rectums. Now let’s go shopping! “Choosing the best ‘starter kit’ is not hard: Pratt Dilators are not hard to find online, they’re not that expensive, and they will last a lifetime,” said Dr. Newman. (I found a set of Pratt Dilators on Amazon for less than $30.) And when your set arrives, SOS, don’t make the common mistake of starting with the smallest/skinniest sound in the pack. “Inserting something too small allows wiggle room on the way in and for a potential to stab the urethral wall,” said Dr. Newman. The doc’s next safety tip will make sense after you’ve seen a set of Pratt Dilators: “Always keep the inserted curve facing one’s face, meaning the visible, external curve facing away toward one’s back.” You can gently stroke your husband’s cock once the sound is in place, SOS; you can even blow him. Vaginal intercourse is off the table, obviously, and you might not wanna fuck his big beautiful dick with a sound until you’re both feeling like sounding experts. And when that time comes: Don’t stab away at his cock with a sound in order to sound-fuck him. A quality sound has some weight and heft — hold his erection upright, slowly pull the welllubricated, non-glass sound until it’s almost all the way out, and then let go. It will sink back without any help from you. Your husband’s butt should be plug-free during your sounding sessions, SOS, as a plug could compress a section his urethra. If you’re skilled enough to work around the bend — or if you’re foolish enough to push past it — the sound could puncture his compressed urethra. And a punctured urethra is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.

(Sorry.) Finally, SOS, what about coming? Will your husband’s balls explode if he blows a load while a metal rod is stuffed in his urethra? “Coming with the sound in place is a matter of personal preference,” said Dr. Newman. “There is no particular danger involved.” P.S. Thank you for the picture. My wife and I have an amazing relationship. Our sex life is as hot as it can be given a child and two careers. A couple of years ago, I bought her one of those partial-body sex dolls (it has a cock and part of the stomach). We took videos and pictures while using it. Very hot for both of us. We later got a black version of the same toy. (We are white.) Even hotter videos. I have kept the videos in a secure app on my iPad. Over the past year, I have created Photoshop porn of my wife with black men using screenshots from commercial porn. I haven’t shared this with my wife. We never discussed what to do with the videos and pics we made. I assumed she trusted me not to share these images with anyone. (I haven’t and won’t!) Is it okay that I have a porn stash that features my wife? Is it okay that I have a stash of Photoshop porn of my wife fucking black men? Should I share this info — and my fantasies — with her? I’ve always fantasized about her being with a black man, but I’m not sure either of us would truly want that to happen. Secretly Keeping Encrypted Porn That Isn’t Clearly Allowed Lately You need to speak to your wife about those pics and videos, about the way you’ve manipulated them, and about your fantasies — but that’s a lot to lay on her at once, SKEPTICAL, so take it in stages. Find a time to ask her about those old pics and videos and whether she wants them discarded or if you can continue to hang on to them. At a different time, bring up your racially charged fantasies and let her know what those partial-body sex dolls were doing for you. And finally, SKEPTICAL, if she reacts positively to your having held on to the photos and to your fantasies, ask her how she feels about you creating a few images using Photoshop of her hooking up with a black man for fantasy purposes only. It’s a little dishonest — you’re asking for permission to do what you’ve already done — but you’ll know what you need to do if her answer to the Photoshop question is “No, absolutely not!” (To be clear: You’ll need to delete those Photoshopped pics.) All that said, SKEPTICAL, if the images you’re holding on to — the originals and/or the manipulated ones — could destroy your marriage and/or your wife’s life and/or your wife’s career if they got out (computers can be hacked or stolen, clouds may not be as secure as advertised), don’t wait: Delete all of the images now. On the Lovecast, porn star Bailey Jay on the perils and pleasures of letting your dirty photos out: savagelovecast. com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter

• 227-0044 • Don't rely on luck... List your service in the San Antonio Current’s Service Directory Call 227-0044 TODAY!

Check out fresh daily content at sacurrent.com

NEWS CULTURE FREE

NEED MONEY

NOW?

We want to make you a loan today!

Noble Finance 210.921.0971

o $1,34

! Y A D O T

0t From $4

e* te Ser viec.net u n i M 0 c *3 blefinan www.no

NOW HIRING CALL CENTER REPRESENTATIVES • FULL AND PART-TIME POSITIONS WITH PAID TRAINING • WEEKLY PAY, BONUSES, AND OVER-TIME AVAILABLE • SCHEDULED WEEKENDS OFF FOR FULL TIME STAFF • SPANISH SPEAKING POSITIONS AVAILABLE

CALL TODAY: for an Interview: 210-424-6577or Apply in Person from 12-6pm @ 12746 Cimarron Path Suite 130 (1-10 & DeZavala Area) or Email Contact Information to: wcsinc.jobs@gmail.com

Turn your Natural Talent into a Rewarding Career • Cosmetology • Esthetician • Manicurist • Massage Therapy* Tablet included with Cosmetology enrollment Financial aid for those who qualify Employment services for graduates No High School Diploma or GED? Call Milan, we can help!

MilanInstitute.edu San Antonio

Programs vary by location. *License Number MS1035 – 6804 Ingram Rd., San Antonio, TX 78238. For more information about our graduation rates, median loan debt of students who completed the program and other important information, please visit our website.

Currently Meeting with Interested Applicants for:

T.C N E R UR

KU CHEC

SA T A T OU

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 59

ETC.

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD by Matt Jones

Answer on page 23

JOIN US!

KICKBALL | SAND VOLLEYBALL | FLAG FOOTBALL | SOCCER AND MORE!

Visit www.SanAntonioSSC.com for more info

“It’s E->Z”—but not the other way around. ACROSS

We guarantee the best donor fees in our marketing area! 60 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

1 Optimistic 5 Riding around the city, maybe 11 “La ___” (Debussy opus) 14 Outside introduction 15 City on the Merrimack River 16 “___ seen worse” 17 Possible autobiography title for comedian Horatio? 19 Canceled (with “out”) 20 Chocolate stand-in 21 Hardly Mercedes quality? 23 French numeral 24 Part of IPA 27 Told 28 Some grads of RPI or MIT 29 ___-foot oil 32 Spring harbinger 33 Medium-hot chili pepper variety 35 Uno or Twenty-One, e.g. 36 Cracker you must hand over to get through? 39 Mexican restaurant staple 40 Demographic nickname coined in the 1980s 41 Have ___ with (chat up) 43 Condom material 44 Clerical vestment 47 Submitted 49 “Either you do it ___ will” 50 Falsehood

51 Fuzzy green stuff growing on a former Comedy Central “Dr.”? 54 “Buona ___” (Italian sign-off) 56 Air gun pellets 57 Hip bath in the great outdoors? 60 Pie-mode connection 61 Getting a move on, quaintly 62 Singer of “The Man With the Golden Gun” theme song 63 Daisy Ridley’s “Star Wars” character 64 Conducive to peace 65 Suffixes denoting sugars

DOWN

1 Coast Guard mission 2 Rating at the pump 3 Long looks 4 You may walk the dog with it 5 Guest quarters 6 Constantly criticize 7 Trade org. 8 Bush Labor Secretary Elaine 9 Relatives of nieces 10 Flea market 11 Hodgepodge 12 10 seconds for 100 yards, in running lingo 13 Old Spice deodorant variety 18 Big name in electric guitars

22 Renewable fuel derived from organic matter 25 Colorful sports artist Neiman 26 Load of gossip 30 Thin, fibrous bark (or onethird of a dance instruction for Lisa Simpson) 31 Become sharply attentive 33 Eric of “Pulp Fiction” 34 Basketmaker’s willow 36 Like people on some dating apps 37 “It’s hard to tell” 38 Process of determining gender, as zoologists do 39 Row of buttons on a screen 42 Seoul food 44 Latin for “higher,” as in the Olympic motto 45 Wee 46 Ramona’s sister, in Beverly Cleary books 48 2008 Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown duet 52 “Hook” sidekick 53 Twirl around 55 City that the band a-ha hails from 58 “Here Comes the Hotstepper” singer Kamoze 59 Coin collection appraisal co. (found in COLLECTING COINS)

ETC.

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob Brezsny ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Do you know Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights? At one point, the heroine Catherine tells her friend about Edgar, a man she’s interested in. “He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace,” Catherine says, “and I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine.” If you’re a typical Aries, you’re more aligned with Catherine than with Edgar. But I’m hoping you might consider making a temporary compromise in the coming weeks. “At last, we agreed to try both,” Catherine concluded, “and then we kissed each other and were friends.”

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): People turn to you Tauruses for help in staying grounded. They love to soak up your down-toearth pragmatism. They want your steadfastness to rub off on them, to provide them with the stability they see in you. You should be proud of this service you offer! It’s a key part of your appeal. Now and then, though, you need to demonstrate that your stalwart dependability is not static and stagnant — that it’s strong exactly because it’s flexible and adaptable. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to emphasize this aspect of your superpower.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): When winter comes, pine trees that grow near mountaintops may not be able to draw water and minerals from the ground through their roots. The sustenance they require is frozen. Luckily, their needle-like leaves absorb moisture from clouds and fog, and drink in minerals that float on the wind. Metaphorically speaking, Gemini, this will be your preferred method for getting nourished in the coming weeks. For the time being, look UP to obtain what you need. Be fed primarily by noble ideals, big visions, divine inspiration, and high-minded people.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): We all go through phases when we are at odds with people we love. Maybe we’re mad at them, or feel hurt by them, or can’t comprehend what they’re going through. The test of our commitment is how we act when we are in these moods. That’s why I agree with author Steve Hall when he says, “The truest form of love is how you behave toward someone, not how you feel about them.” The coming weeks will be an important time for you to practice this principle with extra devotion — not just for the sake of the people you care about, but also for your own physical, mental, and spiritual health.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): After fighting and killing each other for years on end, the Roman and Persian armies agreed to a truce in 532 A.D. The treaty was optimistically called “The Endless Peace.” Sadly, “endless” turned

out to be just eight years. By 540, hostilities resumed. I’m happy to announce, though, that your prospects for accord and rapprochement are much brighter. If you work diligently to negotiate an endless peace anytime between now and March 15, it really is likely to last a long time.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): “I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people, to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole.” Author Lauren Oliver wrote that, and now I’m offering it to you, just in time for your Season of Correction and Adjustment. The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to get smarter about evaluating your allies — and maybe even one of your adversaries, as well. I expect you will find it relatively easy, even pleasurable, to overcome your misimpressions and deepen your incomplete understandings.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): In June 1942, the U.S. Navy crushed Japanese naval forces at the Battle of Midway. It was a turning point that was crucial to America’s ultimate victory over Japan in World War II. One military historian called it “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.” This milestone occurred just six months after Japan’s devastating attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor. To compare your life to these two events may be bombastic, but I’m in a bombastic mood as I contemplate your exciting possibilities. I predict that in the second half of 2016, you’ll claim a victory that will make up for a loss or defeat you endured during the last few months of 2015. And right now is when you can lay the groundwork for that future triumph.

will send your life on a course that’s in closer alignment with your pure intentions.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): According to some traditional astrologers, you Capricorns are vigilant to avoid loss. Old horoscope books suggest that you may take elaborate measures to avoid endangering what you have accumulated. To ensure that you will never run out of what you need, you may even ration your output and limit your self-expression. This behavior is rooted in the belief that you should conserve your strength by withholding or even hiding your power. While there may be big grains of truth in this conventional view of you Capricorns, I think it’s only part of the story. In the coming weeks, for instance, I bet you will wield your clout with unabashed authority. You won’t save yourself for later; you’ll engage in no strategic selfsuppression. Instead, you will be expansive and unbridled as you do whatever’s required to carry out the important foundation work that needs to be done.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): “It seems that the whole time you’re living this life, you’re thinking about a different one instead,”

wrote Latvian novelist Inga Abele in her novel High Tide. Have you ever been guilty of that, Aquarius? Probably. Most of us have at one time or another. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the coming months will bring you excellent opportunities to graduate forever from this habit. Not all at once, but gradually and incrementally, you can shed the idea that you should be doing something other than what you’re doing. You can get the hang of what it’s like to thoroughly accept and embrace the life you are actually living. And now is an excellent time to get started in earnest on this project.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): “Even nightingales can’t be fed on fairy tales,” says a character in Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons. In other words, these marvelous birds, which sing sublimely and have long been invoked by poets to symbolize lyrical beauty, need actual physical sustenance. They can’t eat dreamy stories. Having acknowledged that practical fact, however, I will suggest that right now you require dreamy stories and rambling fantasies and imaginary explorations almost as much as you need your daily bread. Your soul’s hunger has reached epic proportions. It’s time to gorge.

THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): Playwright Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) had a lot of friends, and they often came to visit him uninvited. He found it hard to simply tell them to go away and leave him alone. And yet he hated to be interrupted while he was working. His solution was to get naked and write for long hours while in his bathroom, usually soaking in the bathtub. His intrusive friends rarely had the nerve to insist on socializing. In this way, Rostand found the peace he needed to create his masterpiece Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as numerous other plays. I suggest you consider a comparable gambit, Scorpio. You need to carve out some quality alone time.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): “I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn’t.” The preceding reminiscence belongs to a character in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner. I bring it up in hopes that you will do the opposite: Say the words that need to be said. Articulate what you’re burning to reveal. Speak the truths that

sacurrent.com • January 27—February 2, 2016 • CURRENT 61

SAXET GUN SHOW Militaria Ammo Guns Coins Knives

FOR INFO CALL 361-289-2556 • SAXETSHOW.COM

1ST WEEKEND OF EVERY MONTH Sat feb. 6, 9 AM - 6 PM Sun feb. 7, 9 AM - 5 PM

THE BEST GUN SHOW S A N A N TONIO E V E N T C E N T E R 8111 M E A DOW LE A F • LO OP 410 & M A R BAC H

Sign Me Up!

Take part in a clinical research trial and become part of the solution.You may be compensated for time and travel. CURRENT RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

BI5002:

IR3102:

PF1005:

Requirements: Healthy Adults Age: 18 – 60 BMI: 19 – 32

Minimum weight of 110 lbs. Females of non-childbearing potential Males have birth control requirements Compensation: Up to $3,415 for time and travel

Requirements: Healthy Adults Age: 18 – 55 BMI: 18.5 – 30

Help yourself and others. Volunteer for a metabolism study, today! You may qualify for studies that will evaluate how a probiotic (good bacteria) and food composition affect the metabolism. Study participants should be: • • • •

Between 18 and 65 years old Persons with or without diabetes Diabetics not taking insulin or metformin Non-smokers

Study participants will receive: • Blood work • A physical exam • Compensation for time

Select study participants will receive: • Home meals while on study medication

Childbearing females are eligible Non-smokers Compensation: Up to $6,600 for time and travel

For more information, call:

210-617-5243

Requirements: Healthy Adults Age: 18 – 55 BMI: 17.5 – 32

210-949-3706

Weigh at least 110 pounds Compensation: Up to $3,000 for time and travel

210-225-5437

8307 Gault Lane • San Antonio, TX 78209

62 CURRENT • January 27—February 2, 2016 • sacurrent.com

Principal Investigator Nicolas Musi, MD

FUSION LABORATORIES eliver PRIVATE LABEL CONTRACT PACKAGING

We package w hat yo u d

Clear or foil packaging Liquid packaging Custom packs available for quote Retail & Industrial Cosmetics E Liquids Anti-wrinkle creams Vitamins Lotions Fuel additives Sample packets Sanitizers promotional items -

RETAIL AND INDUSTRIAL

Industrial: Gallons, Drums -

MIXING, BLENDING, FORMULATION

Do you have a product to put to market? let us help you!

LABEL PRINTING

Small batch runs Turn key custom labels High quality polymer labels Custom quotes available -

FLAVOR DROPS

Alcohol • Coffee • Drinks

512.489.6979 | www.fusionlaboratories.com Registered FDA Laboratory