Contributors Abe Asher, Bill Baird, Ron Bechtol, Danny Cervantes, Amber Esparza, Brianna Espinoza, Anjali Gupta, Colin Houston, Kiko Martinez, Mike McMahan, Kevin Sanchez, M. Solis, Dean Zach
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in this issue
Auditor’s Certification:
29
20 Years of Raising a Glass
San Antonio Beer Festival returns to Hemisfair, emphasizes German culture for milestone event Issue 25-21/// Oct 16 - 29, 2025
07 News
The Opener News in Brief ‘Off a Cliff’
Former and current Bexar County Elections Department staffers accuse current leader of creating dysfunctional workplace
Cityscrapes
City boosters’ past rhetoric should be a sign to be leery of promises made about Project Marvel
Bad Takes
As the GOP sells off the government, partisans ignore the corruption
16 Calendar
Our picks of things to do powerful
21 Arts
Outsider Point of View
Murderbot Diaries author Martha
37 Music Swinging With Intention
Taking with Ian Astbury of The Cult and Death Cult before both bands play San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre
Critics’ Picks
Wells appearing at San Antonio’s Nowhere Bookshop
Spirited Celebration
San Antonio’s Muertos Fest 2025 adds third day for its 13th anniversary
25 Screens
Unsettling Experiences
San Antonio filmmaker Colin Bressler wants to creep you out with his latest horror movie
31 Food Evolve or Die
San Antonio’s craft beer industry has stabilized, but economic headwinds and changing tastes loom large
A Place to Chill
Newish Pearl addition Otto’s Ice House plays on South Texas history — but with a markup
Cooking Up Conversation
Chef Jaime Gonzalez of San Antonio’s Wok Wey takes a leap of faith
On the Cover: With the San Antonio Beer Festival returning for its 20th installment and plenty of other sudsy activities bubbling over this October, the Current has compiled its annual Beer Issue. Cover design: David Loyola.
Jaime Monzon
That Rocks/That Sucks
More and more Texas children are going to school either without measles vaccinations or armed with vaccine exemptions approved by their parents. A Texas Tribune analysis found that one in five kindergarteners in Austin public schools didn’t provide proof of vaccination or had an exemption on file — a dramatic increase from 2019, when just 1% of incoming students fell short of vaccine requirements. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 25,000 Texas kindergarteners weren’t vaccinated against measles last year.
The Court of Criminal Appeals last week blocked the execution of Robert Roberson just a week before it was set to take place, ruling that the science behind his conviction had been debunked. Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 in the death of his 2-year-old daughter, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome — a diagnosis that’s since come under scrutiny from the medical community. His case now heads back to a trial court.
San Antonio has the highest mortgage-delinquency rate of any major U.S. metro, a new study from software firm Construction Coverage finds. According to the data, more than 4% of area homeowners are more than 30 days behind, and 1% are more than 90 days behind. McAllen and Laredo had the highest such rates for midsize and small metros, respectively.
The new San Antonio Spurs super-fans section has a name: the Spurs Jackals. The dedicated cheering section, which is designed to emulate those of soccer leagues, made its debut earlier this month during the annual Silver and Black Open Scrimmage at the Frost Bank Center. The Jackals name was selected in a fan vote, and the section itself is a creation of team star Victor Wembanyama — Abe Asher
attorneys insist, seems like they’d be happy to shine a light on their legal and completely aboveboard processes, right?
Keeping the Lone Star State’s redistricting plan shrouded in darkness with Texas’ legal team
Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
Talk about wanting to have it both ways.
As federal judges in El Paso consider whether Republicans broke the law in drawing Texas’ new election maps, attorneys for the state have bent over backwards to insist the gerrymandered districts don’t discriminate against Black and Brown voters.
Yet in the same courtroom, the Texas legal team has fought vehemently to share as little information as they possibly can about the process used to create the maps, voting-rights news site Democracy Docket reports.
A three-judge panel is hearing the case on whether the controversial mid-decade redistricting ordered up by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott at the behest of President Donald Trump is racially discriminatory.
Following a 2019 Supreme Court ruling, federal judges can’t shut down partisan gerrymandering. However, districts redrawn to suppress minority voters remain illegal and must be thrown out.
So, if Texas lawmakers didn’t racially discriminate when creating the new maps as the state’s
Wrong.
The Texas legal team has repeatedly shot down attempts to peek under the hood, according to Democracy Docket.
Much of the information the state’s attorneys reportedly sought to keep out of the courtroom relates to Adam Kincaid, director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust and the creator of the state’s map.
In one alarming detail revealed by Democracy Docket, the judges allowed the state to present Kincaid as a lay witness rather than an expert. By doing so, he was able to testify without turning over any of the detailed documents that could have contradicted his claims that maps were created without the intent of suppressing Black and Brown voters.
Further, Texas’ lawyers blocked Kincaid from answering numerous questions during the court proceeding, according to Democracy Docket. Those reportedly included “what instructions he received from the White House when he drew the map, the requests he received from the GOP congressional delegation about redistricting, and what was said when he discussed the DOJ letter with Abbott.”
Considering the case’s high stakes — whether Texas’ congressional delegation swings to the GOP by as many as five additional seats — it seems like the judges shouldn’t be in such a goddamned hurry to let the state wriggle out from showing vital details about its map-creation process.
After all, if these gerrymandering assclowns have nothing to hide, their records should be an open book. — Sanford Nowlin YOU SAID
The governor of Texas should be worrying about Texas. Why he all up in my business? Focus on Texas!
San Antonio may seek an exemption after Gov. Greg Abbott last week threatened to withhold transportation funding from cities whose streets convey political messages, including rainbow crosswalks. Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, whose District 1 includes SA’s Pride crosswalk, said the city will seek approval to keep the colorful markings since they have actually improved safety. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said the city has asked the state for clarification of its policy.
Donors to Gov. Greg Abbott’s PAC received nearly $1 billion in no-bid state contracts between 2020 and 2024, watchdog group Public Citizen found. The pacts were awarded in response to emergency
declarations called by the governor, which allow the state to bypass the normal process of seeking the lowest bidder. Those emergencies have included the COVID-19 pandemic, border security and a variety of natural disasters.
A majority of transgender Texans are considering leaving the state, a Dallas Morning News poll found. Seventy-seven of the 90 people surveyed said they have selected a backup state they might move to, and a majority added they’re actively saving money for a move. The Texas Legislature has passed numerous bills in recent years aimed at taking rights away from trans people, and the Trump administration also is targeting trans rights and healthcare. — Abe Asher
ASSCLOWN ALERT
Shutterstock / Merch Hub
APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION. SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE, 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166, has applied to the TexasCommission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for an amendment to Air Quality Permit Number 43833, which would authorize modification of the Southwest Research Institute located at 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas 78238. AVISO DE IDIOMA ALTERNATIVO. El aviso de idioma alternativo en espanol está disponible en https://www.tceq.texas.gov/permitting/air/newsourcereview/airpermits-pendingpermit-apps. This application was submitted to the TCEQ on November 20, 2024. The facility will emit the following contaminants: ammonia, silicon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hazardous air pollutants, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds, particulate matter including particulate matter with diameters of 10 microns or less and 2.5 microns or less, lead, and sulfur dioxide.
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 opeate. 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 Potranco Library, 8765 State Highway 151 Access Road, 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 Road, San Antonio, Texas. The application, including any updates, is available electronically at the following webpage: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/permitting/air/airpermit-applications-notices.
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 www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/cid. 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. https://gisweb.tceq.texas.gov/LocationMapper/?marker=-98.61,29.452222&level=13.
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.gov/goto/comment, 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. Please be aware that any contact information you provide, including your name, phone number, email address and physical address will become part of the agency’s public record. For more information about the permitting process, please call the TCEQ Public Education Program, Toll Free, at 1-800- 687-4040 or visit their website at www.tceq.texas gov/goto/pep. Si desea información en Español, puede llamar al 1-800- 687-4040. You can also view our website for public participation opportunities at www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/participation.
Further information may also be obtained from SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE at the address stated above or by calling Ms. Amber Chapman, Lead Environmental Scientist at (210) 522-3271.
Amended Notice Issuance Date: October 2, 2025
‘Off a Cliff’
Former
and current Bexar County Elections Department staffers accuse current leader of creating dysfunctional workplace
BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN
As the Bexar County Elections Department scrambles to process a backlog of voter registrations ahead of November’s election, some familiar with the office’s inner workings accuse its chief of creating an unsustainable work environment.
Current and former department staffers who spoke to the Current detailed what they described as a toxic workplace full of retaliation, micromanagement and 90-hour work weeks under elections administrator Michele Carew, who took the job in March.
Amid those complaints, seven Elections Department staffers — or 20% of its workforce — have resigned since Carew’s appointment, according to Winston Crump, the county’s former lead trainer of election judges. Five of those left within her first three months on the job.
“It was a good environment until Michele came along and drove it off a cliff,” Crump told the Current.
Six current and former staffers spoke to the Current for this story, including two who wish to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. All detailed what they describe as an unsustainable environment, adding that they wanted to speak out to protect Bexar County voters.
“You don’t understand the dangers she brings to the people,” said one anonymous former staffer.
Carew declined to be interviewed about the allegations. Instead, she said in a statement that she’s focused on powering through Bexar County’s backlog of unprocessed voter registrations — which stood at 52,000 as of the county’s last public update on Oct. 6 —
as her team works around the clock to prepare for the upcoming election.
“My focus right now remains on the administration of official Bexar County Election business, particularly addressing the voter registration backlog and ensuring smooth election operations,” Carew told the Current.
“[I] don’t believe it would be appropriate or productive to engage on those claims,” Carew said of the allegations leveled by current and former employees. “My priority is continuing to serve the public transparently and effectively through this critical period.”
The search is over
Carew took over as Bexar County election administrator after the retirement of Jacquelyn Callanen, a respected public servant who served two decades in the role.
Staffers who spoke to the Current recall Callanen creating a warm, flexible work environment that enabled staff to bring their kids to work or eat lunch in the break room with family members.
When Callanen retired in November 2024, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai announced that the county would conduct a nationwide hunt to fill the position. The county spent $50,000 to hire consulting firm Robert Half to conduct an executive search, the Express-News reports.
Several of the Elections Department insiders the Current spoke to said Carew wasn’t the county’s first or even second choice after county officials met with five finalists for the position. Two candidates turned down their respective job offers after being “horribly lowballed,” said Brian Nietfeld, who left his position as a GIS and data input specialist at the Elections Department just three weeks into Carew’s tenure.
In the end, Bexar County ended up with Carew, a former elections administrator from North Texas’ Hood County, which has a population of 69,000. In contrast, fast-growing Bexar County’s population exceeds 2.1 million.
“Two of them declined, and then they settled on Michele,” Nietfeld said. “So, they did not do their due diligence in interviewing and finding the replacement for Jacque.”
In 2024, the Bexar County Elections Administrator position was posted online offering an annual salary of $116,352, according to a listing on the site GovernmentJobs.com. In contrast, Callanen earned $163,632 a year at her retirement, according to a report by the Express-News.
The Current reached out to County Judge Peter Sakai and other members of the Bexar County Election Commission about Carew’s selection process but got no response by press time.
The Elections Commission is comprised of four Democrats and one Republican. One of those Dems is Michelle Lowe-Solis, chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party. She also was unavailable for comment at press time on her approval of Carew.
The Elections Commission voted for Carew unanimously.
Staff say that when Carew began, they quickly got the sense that the workplace culture was about to change.
Power moves
“The difference between Jacque and Michele is night and day,” former GIS specialist Nietfeld said. “In some cases, she’s a very hostile boss, highly micromanaging.”
Soon after she began, Carew implemented a slew of rules, including a prohibition on wearing jeans, even though she herself continued to wear them, former trainer Crump said.
Carew also forbade non-badged visitors from entering sensitive areas, although Nietfeld said she would regularly parade vendors without badges past sensitive voter information.
The new administrator also expected long hours with minimal breaks, though former and current staff report she regularly came in late and left early.
“It’s very much ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’” Crump said of the sudden deluge of rules that he described as “dropping
Stephanie Koithan
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October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. A time to raise awareness and take action to support survivors. Domestic violence occurs when one partner uses power and control over another, causing physical, emotional, or psychological harm. It is a serious public health issue that affects individuals, families, and the entire community.
• We can help our neighbors break free from the cycle of domestic violence.
• You are not alone.
• There is help.
The City of San Antonio passed the Domestic Violence Signage ordinance. The ordinance requires all public places to post domestic violence resource signs in restrooms used by visitors or employees. This may be the only private place a person experiencing domestic violence can scan a QR code or memorize a phone number to get help. Domestic violence is increasingly recognized as a public health crisis with deep physical and mental health impacts.
You are NOT alone. Call 2-1-1 or 9-1-1.
To learn more, visit SA.gov/Health.
news
like anvils.”
“It’s the little things, but the little things are morale killers,” he added.
Though staff are currently under pressure to process the backlog of voter registrations, multiple whistleblowers told the Current that long hours and working weekends are nothing new, and that a stressful environment is a constant when working in elections.
Still, they allege Carew made the situation worse.
“There were times where just the environment of the office was so stressful and you just never knew what to expect, it’s like, ‘What version of her are we going to get today?’” said former Assistant Elections Judge Trainer Erika Carter, who said she quit at the end of the summer, partly due to the pay and partly due to Carew’s leadership.
Current and former staffers also accused Carew of stripping away their coping methods for dealing with the stress.
Nietfeld, who has autism, says he left at the end of March, when Carew revoked his disability accommodations, including his approval to wear noise-cancelling headphones.
Nietfeld filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and had a meeting scheduled to discuss his case. However, the government shutdown prevented that meeting, he said, adding that the statute of limitations will likely expire by the time the EEOC resumes operation.
When Nietfeld resigned at the end of March, he also sent an email to Sakai and others on the Election Commission alleging that Carew declined to accommodate his autism.
Nietfeld and other whistleblowers who spoke to the Current assert that Carew moved people’s desks on a whim in what they said was either a display of power, a bid to retaliate or an effort to improve her line of sight and allow her to see what was on employees’ computers.
Election Judge trainers Carter and Crump say they were suddenly informed, via email, that they were required to move desks by the end of the day from their quiet, “closet-like” office. Though they weren’t given a reason, Carter said she believes it was so Carew could keep a closer eye on them.
“It was because she wanted to be able to walk by and see what we were working on,” Carter said.
Multiple whistleblowers who spoke
to the Current said some of the people Carew relocated received word of the plans immediately following a disagreement with her.
Even so, during an earlier conversation with the Current, Carew said she has tried to minimize stress even as the county powers through its voter-registration backlog.
“I’m not breathing down anyone’s necks,” she said during an Oct. 6 interview addressing the backlog.
Whistleblower accounts tell another story, though.
Employees in the Elections Department mailroom were forbidden from locking the door even though there’s often sensitive voter data inside, because Carew wanted access at all times, according to multiple whistleblower accounts.
Employees in all-glass “fishbowl” offices also were forbidden from hanging up posters, which would block Carew’s view into their work areas, according to Nietfeld.
“‘You should always feel like you’re being watched’ is what it felt like,” Carter said.
Further, all six whistleblowers who spoke to the Current accused Carew of chronic absenteeism, stating that she left early to have dinner or drinks with vendors on numerous occasions, something they argue is frowned upon for its perceived conflict of interest.
Indeed, Carew left early with a vendor her first day on the job, according to Nietfeld.
“The optics on that are absolutely terrible,” he added.
Family affair
Over the first week in October, the county’s voter-registration staffers were expected to work 12-hour days and through the weekend to process the steep backlog of voter registrations. However, Nietfield told the Current such long hours are hardly out of the norm.
Around elections, it’s normal for staff to work 80- to 90-hour weeks, he added.
“When it’s election season, it’s all hands on deck, everybody’s there. You don’t see your family,” Nietfield said.
To make election time less taxing on employees who missed their loved ones, Callanen allowed staff members to have lunch with family members in the break room.
“That’s like the only 30 minutes
we get to have with our family,” one former staffer who declined to be named said through tears. “I’m sorry. I’m getting emotional, because this is really frustrating to me because of how amazing Jacque was, and is, as a boss.”
When Carew took over the position from Callanen, the new administrator declared that family visits were over.
“That’s devastating to morale,” Nietfield said.
Best person for the job?
Carew’s LinkedIn shows she doesn’t have a college education, although she is a 1993 graduate of Weatherford High School. Despite the consultant-led nationwide search, the job description by Bexar County only listed a college degree as a “preferred” qualification.
According to LinkedIn, Carew served as deputy of elections for Parker County near Fort Worth, followed by a stint as elections administrator for Aransas County and then as elections administrator for Hood County. All of those counties have populations of fewer than 200,000.
“I think it became very apparent that she had not been the leader of anything very large,” former trainer Carter said. “It was very apparent that she was not used to the scale of responsibility, the scale of decisions, how to lean on a team and it not just be her decisions.”
Multiple whistleblowers told the Current they doubt Carew was ready to handle such a large county with oughly 800 precincts after only having to manage a limited number of voting precincts and a much smaller population.
“Elections do not scale,” Nietfeld said.
Also raising eyebrows, while in Hood County, Carew ran as a “conservative Republican” to serve as county clerk, campaign ads show.
In a letter to the editor in the San Antonio Express-News, longtime Democratic political player Kathy Vale raised concerns about Carew’s political campaign, adding it ”should have auto-disqualified her candidacy.”
“We do not need PARTISAN CANDIDATES (either Republican OR Democrat) in this job,” Vale wrote.
Vale said that when she informed the Bexar County Elections Commission of Carew’s partisan background, she was told they were “unaware.”
Prior to running as a Republican for Hood County Clerk, Carew resigned
from her position as the county’s elections administrator amid MAGA loyalists’ call for her removal as part of the “stop the steal” frenzy following the 2020 election.
Despite voting as a Republican for 11 years prior, Carew wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece about her departure that she was “apparently not Republican enough.”
What’s ahead
Nietfeld, as the former GIS expert, said the department hasn’t found a replacement for his particular skillset since he left.
Without an in-house GIS specialist, he told the Current, he questions whether the county can accurately complete all of the unprocessed voter registration applications in time for the Oct. 20 start of early voting.
“There’s so many of those applications that have incomplete or wrong addresses that [...] would get tossed over to my desk, and I would have to find them,” he said. “So, without a GIS person there to find these incomplete or bad addresses, no, you’re not going to get through 100%.”
Nietfeld cautioned that the situation could lead to a scenario where voters show up at their polling place and find they’re not in the system. In such a case, the voter would have to request a provisional ballot and hope their name can later be found in the system.
Further, Nietfeld said Elections Department higher-ups tasked him with data migration to the Texas Secretary of State’s TEAM system before Carew had even started in the position. Part of the reason for the current backlog — which Carew has attributed to a data-migration issue — is because without Nietfeld, the county no longer has an in-house data-migration expert.
“I don’t believe Michele is a good data steward,” Nietfeld said. “She’s a rather vindictive person. I don’t like having my information in her department.”
Nietfeld said he felt so strongly about the issue that at the end of his resignation letter, he asked that his voter registration be revoked and his data removed from the system. Despite the county being required by law to scrub a voter’s data from the system if requested, he said he’s still listed as a registered voter.
City boosters’ past rhetoric should be a sign to be leery of promises made about Project Marvel
BY HEYWOOD SANDERS
Cityscrapes is a column of opinion and analysis.
From the outset of Project Marvel, it was never clear what real goal the city had in mind for its $4 billion all-this-and-the-kitchensink downtown development project. In addition to a new Spurs arena, the project would include a convention center expansion, a new convention headquarters hotel, an events center, an Alamodome “reimagining,” a land bridge and a “mixed-use district.” All of which city documents claim will have “transformative [and] iconic effects,” raise “quality of life for residents” and bring “enhanced connectivity.”
Yet there didn’t seem to be any unifying strategic purpose, beyond just doing more of the same for the hospitality industry and hoping it would help us reel in more visitors.
But now, thanks to stirring rhetoric from Trish DeBerry of Centro San Antonio, our local downtown organization, and Jeff Webster of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the real intent and purpose is clear.
In a debate with former Councilman Greg Brockhouse broadcast Oct. 10 on KTSA, De Berry termed the proposed Spurs arena “transformational.” She and Webster even went on in an Express-News opinion piece to deem the downtown sports and entertainment district anchored by a new arena “a game-changing move that will define the city’s next chapter.”
“More importantly, it sends a clear message: San Antonio is ready to play on
a bigger stage, both from an economic attraction and retention standpoint … . The time to go big is now,” the two boosters gushed in their piece.
If that rhetoric has a slightly familiar ring to those who have lived in San Antonio for a decade or two or three, it should. Residents have been treated to a parade of big public investment projects and public-private partnership deals over the years that have been promoted with almost exactly the same over-thetop rhetoric.
There was Fiesta Plaza on the near West Side in the mid-1980s, fondly remembered as the “Pink Elephant.” At the time, then-Mayor Henry Cisneros touted it as “an exciting place … filled with specialty shops, restaurants with an international flair, endless entertainment” that would become “a major visitor attraction in a city already ranked third in tourism in America.”
Fiesta Plaza was supposed to be joined by a high-rise office tower, a new hotel and an array of single and multifamily residences “blended into a total community setting,” with the promise that it would “make San Antonio one of America’s most attractive cities in terms of growth, jobs, flair and economic health.”
Today, it’s the site of UTSA’s Downtown Campus, the Pink Elephant long since torn down.
Then, of course, there’s Rivercenter Mall. At the time it was announced in 1980, the head of Centro, the downtown group now led by DeBerry, called the mall “the largest single development ever done in San Antonio in terms of
money … it’s mind boggling.”
And when the “Just Add Water” mall opened in early 1988, Cisneros was on hand to dish out the praise, calling it “the most important addition to the river and downtown — perhaps the entire city of San Antonio — in the last 20 years.” It was termed a “catalyst for revitalization of the downtown area.”
Then of course there were the thousands of new jobs promised by the development of the Alamodome, forecast by economist M. Ray Perryman in a study paid for by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
And the grand prospect of a Houston Street lined with major national retailers such as Bath & Body Works and Barnes & Noble bookstore promised by Federal Realty in the first incarnation of the downtown thoroughfare’s 1999 tax increment zone project.
And the promise of more visitor dollars from the 2001 convention center expansion and from the city’s financing and ownership of the Grand Hyatt hotel. And the promise of a big increase in convention business from the last convention center expansion completed in 2016.
The colorful rhetoric continued flowing through Mayor Julián Castro’s “Decade of Downtown,” which built a great deal of market-rate and luxury housing in the center city, much of it along the river’s Museum Reach.
A quick check online for mentions of San Antonio’s downtown transformation also brought up a May 2015 Express-News editorial headlined “Houston St. projects can transform,” which
offered the judgment that for “too long Houston Street downtown has shouted out neglect.” But change was on the way, the piece proffered, citing news of “major transformational redevelopment on Houston [Street].” The editorial went on that “downtown is on the cusp of something grand if all goes as planned.”
So how is the Houston Street transformation coming along, and the “grand” downtown a decade later?
According to real estate firm CBRE, the third-quarter 2025 vacancy rate for Class A office space downtown is 40.2%. The availability rate, including space available for sublease, is an absolutely unheard-of 43.5%.
Yet the city is planning to persuade some “private developer” — not the Spurs — to build a new 220,000-squarefoot office building as part of its “sports and entertainment district.”
Perhaps our city officials don’t understand what a market is.
With the Frost Bank’s new tower and the shift of city offices to its old building, now dubbed City Tower, downtown offices have emptied out. USAA abandoned One Riverwalk, VisionWorks has left the IBC building, Zachry Group has moved to Wurzbach Parkway, and AT&T is leaving downtown for Westover Hills.
The planned new “private development” next to the Spurs’ proposed arena has no developer or commitment from the NBA team in sight because it makes no economic sense. Neither does a new arena for the Spurs.
Isn’t it time we learned?
Shutterstock / Felipe Sanchez
BAD TAKES
As the GOP sells off the government, partisans ignore the corruption
BY KEVIN SANCHEZ
Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.
Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness. — Hannah Arendt, “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” 1951
Can you remember a time when voters cared less about corruption?
I know we say we care. Around three out of four Americans told the 2025 Chicago Council Survey that government corruption poses a critical threat to the vital interests of the United States. But exactly which questionable acts voters deem unacceptable typically refracts through partisan beer goggles.
So while San Antonio’s Ethics Review Board dutifully investigated, then dismissed, complaints involving an undisclosed Wemby-signed Spurs jersey and the alleged misuse of official city letterhead by the former and current mayors, respectively, a recent report revealed that Gov. Greg Abbott awarded nearly $1 billion in state no-bid contracts to his most generous campaign donors, to minuscule coverage.
Three weeks ago, consumer-advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen connected the dots between 96 contributions worth almost $3 million and 89 contracts valued at $950 million. And one can smell the stench all the way from the woebegone border wall.
Since 2020, for instance, crisis-management firm Gothams LLC received 48 non-competitive emergency contracts from the Texas Division of Emergency Management. That same year, founder Matthew Michelsen poured lavish sums of money into Texans for Greg Abbott, the governor’s personal Political Action Committee. Between August 2022 and October 2024, Michelsen wrote checks totaling some $600,000.
Then, lo and behold, between 2023 and 2024, Gothams came by another 10 state contracts worth a total of $66,248,106.
Similarly, eight days after William Doggett donated $500,000 to Abbott’s PAC, his Doggett Freightliners of South Texas banked the last of two vague contracts labeled “fees” at taxpayers’ expense, together worth $1.6 million.
“This is just another example of something that we see as a trend in Texas government, which is that big-money donors get special favors,” Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office at Public Citizen, told the Current last week.
Still, the predicament goes well beyond the Grifter-in-Chief.
“Anybody who pays any attention to politics knows, as the eternal folklore has always held, that politicians are crooks,” philosopher Paul Mattick said in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.
Early in her 2020 book Systemic Corruption, Chilean political theorist Camila Vergara put numbers to that intuitive populist wisdom. Transparency International, a global nonprofit founded three decades ago to call out public-sector graft, gave only 20 countries out of 170 a passing grade on political cleanliness. Denmark currently sits atop the list, while the oldest democracy, the MadeGreat-Again USA, ranks at No. 28.
But this only conveys a fraction of the story, since corruption isn’t some excisable extraneous distortion of the normal run of things. Rather, it’s an embedded feature of business as usual.
As of press time, Texas’ Republican governor has felt no pressing need to offer so much as a response. And adding to the culture of brazen impunity, according to a Texas Tribune review last summer, normally lawsuit-happy Attorney General Ken Paxton failed to follow up with enforcement legal cases on 93% of the unpaid fines for campaign finance violations which the Texas Ethics Commission referred to his office since 2015.
In a less polarized era, all this might have been big news. But with a president who wipes his gilded buttflap with the Emoluments Clause, the buck effectively stops nowhere.
While the GOP’s base has feasted on dubious tales of $200 billion going to noncitizens’ healthcare, the Trump administration scuttled an IRS crackdown on overseas tax shelters expected to net more than $100 billion in revenue owed us.
Trump’s FTC also surrendered the fight for a ban on noncompete clauses that promised to return $400 billion in suppressed wages, appeasing Big Business.
Maybe I’m too much of an anti-capitalist thought-criminal to even understand why a multi-billionaire real estate mogul needed campaign donations from truck drivers and military veterans to begin with, or why, if they purchased $45 worth of Trump’s meme coin back in January, it’s now worth just $8.
“Instead of looking at the inputs of political corruption (undue influence, which is hard to prove and thus prosecute), we should focus rather on its outputs,” Vergara counseled. “We need to move away from intention and toward the consequences of political corruption to identify and measure its structural character ... [with] increasing income inequality and the relative immiseration of the majority of citizens ... a sign of corruption.”
According to the Institute for Policy Studies’ 31st annual report on CEO pay, at the 100 S&P 500 companies with the paltriest employee wages, average executive compensation hit $17.2 million last year. The CEO of union-busting Starbucks takes home $95.8 million, while the typical barista there earns $14,674 — a disparity of more than 6,500 to 1.
Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks at Goldman Sachs predicted in that company’s annual retirement survey that “55% of workers may be living paycheck to paycheck by 2033, 65% by 2043.”
That’s “relative immiseration” for you. One shudders to contemplate the planetary implications if we have yet to reach the peak mixture of gullibility and cynicism that the great Hannah Arendt bore witness to in the lead-up to World War II. Whether candidates across the party spectrum can credibly win on a platform of anti-corruption remains to be gamed out.
But those who have bought oceanfront property in Arizona could at least spare us the pretense that they can see the sea.
Instagram / governorabbott
SAT | 10.18
SPECIAL EVENT
MUSEO DEL WESTSIDE GRAND OPENING
The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center will celebrate the grand opening of the Museo del Westside, the first Mexican American museum in San Antonio focused on the preservation of the storied culture and history of la gente del Westside. Starting with the humble framework of Ruben’s Ice House — a beloved watering hole and community gathering place until its 1987 closure — activists, historians and residents joined forces to research and acquire a collection of photos and ephemera representative of the neighborhood. Festivities include venerated speakers, musical performances, community workshops and all-day poetry readings. The project is a powerful response by the community to protect a place and way of life that has been methodically absorbed by the machinations of whitewashing and gentrification. Free, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Museo del Westside, 816 S. Colorado St., (210) 228-0201, esperanzacenter.org. — Anjali Gupta
SAT | 10.18
SPECIAL EVENTS
LUMINARIA CONTEMPORARY ARTS FESTIVAL
The 15th annual Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival will hit St. Paul Square with hundreds of visual artists and performers augmenting the revelry. This year, the one-night festival’s footprint extends north to include the San Antonio Street Art Initiative’s Gravelmouth Gallery and D.R.E.A.M Mural District. Expect a wide array of film, dance, performance and installation art along with live music, poetry and more by visual artists from San Antonio to Berlin and Stockholm to the Navajo Nation. Highlights include eye-catching work from both established and up-and-coming artists in addition to a headline-slot tribute to the late and inimitable accordion legend Flaco Jiménez featuring San Antonio actor Jesse Borrego. Free, 6 p.m.-midnight, Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival, St. Paul Square, (210) 721-1670, luminariasa.org. — AG
Courtesy Photo Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
Jaime Monzon
SAT | 10.18
FILM
COCO
San Antonio’s Office of Historic Preservation will bring Disney’s 2017 Día de los Muertos-inspired animated classic Coco to the silver screen in a truly appropriate venue: a real Eastside cemetery. In 2020, the office launched the Cemetery Steward Program, which aims to restore the city’s historic burial places and highlight the beauty and significance through events such as these. In addition to the free movie screening, the event will feature a scavenger hunt and a community ofrenda. Guests are encouraged to bring notes, photos or other meaningful items to celebrate their deceased loved ones. Free, 6 p.m., City Cemetery #1, between South Monumental and South Palmetto streets, (210) 207-3327, saspeakup. com/FM7023. — Malaki Lingg
SUN | 10.19
CLASSICAL MUSIC
GEORGE GERSHWIN: RHAPSODY IN BLUE
San Antonio’s Agarita Chamber Players continue their 2025–2026 season with a free concert featuring George Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue performed by piano, strings and clarinet. Gershwin is largely considered one of the few composers to attempt to integrate the popular music of his time, in this case jazz, into his classical works. This performance at the Botanical Gardens features Russian-born, Fort Worth-based clarinetist Stanislav Chernyshev and continues Agarita’s mission to make classical music accessible to the general public. Free, 3 p.m., Betty Kelso Center, San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Place, (310) 980-4971, agarita.org. — AG
THU | 10.23
SPECIAL EVENT
BEER: AN EXAMPLE OF INDIGENOUS ORIGIN
Presented by Harry J. Shafer, a Texas A&M University professor emeritus of anthropology, this program breaks down assumptions and celebrates Indigenous culinary achievements of the Americas in an informed yet whimsical way. Shafer, who’s also a past curator of archaeology at the Witte Museum, is well versed in pre-conquest Mesoamerican and pre-Columbian societies, their cultures, artifacts and daily practices, including diet and agriculture. Beer, long assumed to be a European import, actually existed in our part of Texas, pre-conquest, and it was central to social gatherings and rituals alike, from this region all the way down to villages in the Andes mountains. Free, 6:30-8 p.m., The King William Association, 122 Madison St., (210) 227-8786, ourkwa.org. — AG
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Courtesy Photo Agarita Ensemble
Courtesy Photo King William Association
TUE | 10.28SUN | 11.02
THEATRE
THE OUTSIDERS
Who’d have thunk S.E. Hinton’s classic coming-ofage novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s cult-classic 1983 film adaptation would spawn a musical that’s racked up four Tony Awards and a dozen nominations? Apparently, The Outsiders’ timeless and sometimes brutal story of self- discovery has the enduring power to “stay gold,” as Johnny Cade tells Ponyboy in the original novel. Set in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma, the story unfolds around a group of working-class outsiders known as the Greasers as they do battle with their affluent rivals, the Socs. Thanks to a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp with Justin Levine, this Broadway adaptation plays on the same thrills and drama that have drawn generations to The Outsiders while adding memorable and compelling songs by folk duo Jamestown Revival and Justin Levine. $52.65$222.00, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Sanford Nowlin
FRI | 10.24SUN | 10.26
SPECIAL EVENT
SPOOKY BOOK FAIR
For those of us who prefer goosebumps to gobstoppers, Nowhere Bookshop presents the Spooky Book Fair, an all-ages event that features juvenile, young-adult and adult fiction— namely horror and dark fantasy. In this twist on the classic grade-school book fair, the young ones can enjoy an age-appropriate experience in the store’s Community Room, while adults can meander the main space, checking out new, genre-specific literary offerings while sipping adult beverages. Consider it a Spooky Season highlight for book geeks of all ages. Free, 4-8 p.m., Nowhere Bookshop, 5154 Broadway, (210) 640-7269, nowherebookshop.com. — AG
Instagram / nowherebookshop
Matthew Murphy
Outsider Point of View
Murderbot Diaries author Martha Wells appearing at San Antonio’s Nowhere Bookshop
BY SANFORD NOWLIN
Texas author Martha Wells has written fantasy and science fiction for three decades, but it was her series The Murderbot Diaries that shot her into the stratosphere.
The seven-novella sf series — which involves a cyborg who hacks its operating system to gain free will — has won four Hugo and two Nebula awards and put the College Station resident on the New York Times Bestsellers list.
This summer, AppleTV released a 10part TV adaptation of Murderbot starring award-winning actor Alexander Skarsgard in the main role.
Wells will appear at San Antonio’s Nowhere Bookshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, to celebrated the release of Queen Demon, the anticipated sequel to her fantasy novel Witch King. Tickets for the event are available online at nowherebookshop.com.
Queen Demon and Witch King mark Wells’ return to fantasy fiction after the runaway success of Murderbot — a series she’s still continuing.
The Current caught up with Wells by phone before her San Antonio appearance to discuss any apprehensions she had about turning over Murderbot to AppleTV, her love for complex protagonists and the writing inspiration she finds in Texas.
Going into the creation of the Murderbot series, what was your biggest apprehension about seeing it brought to the screen? It can go wrong in so many ways. Was there a moment where you finally were able to relax and say, “OK, yes, they’re getting this right?”
Well, the first time I talked to them, I knew they kind of got the material, and then once the contract was signed and everything, and we talked on the phone again, I still felt that way.
We also were in communication a lot, talking about stuff, and they sent me production paintings, and the drawings of what they wanted the sets to look like, and the costumes — all these things.
So, yeah, I never really had that much apprehension. I think the only one I had was that something would go wrong at some point and it wouldn’t get made.
When you first started writing, did you ever think something you published might become a TV or movie property?
Well, I think everybody hopes that at some point, and I know a lot of writers who had stuff optioned and it never got made.
So, you kind of hope it could happen to something of yours. But the idea that it would not only get options, but go all the way through and be on TV, be actually be produced and everything, you want to hope for that, but you just think it’s so unrealistic.
Murderbot was an interesting career trajectory considering you were more known for writing fantasy than science fiction up to that point. Did it ever feel weird that of all the things you’d done, that series would be the one that would blow up?
I don’t think it was weird. It was just … Well, the whole thing was kind of strange. I didn’t really think anything was ever going to blow up like that. As a writer, I don’t see that much difference between science fiction and fantasy. The kind of space opera fantasy that Murderbot
arts
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Lisa Blaschke
Mexican American Folktales of the Southwest
Curated by Rebecca Gomez
South Texas Memory & the Art of Making Home
Curated by Bonnie Ilza Cisneros
Exhibition on View through
February 22, 2026
Centro de Artes | 101 S. Santa Rosa Free and Open to the Public #CentroDeArtesSA | @GetCreativeSA
arts
is — very far future, made up technology and things like that. But it surprises me that it was a novella [rather than a novel] that really went there.
What do you chalk that up to? Is it that people like shorter reads these days?
Well, I think there’s always been a reader’s appetite for works of that length. Because, I mean, science fiction was mostly short novels in the pulp days, and early on, and it only started getting into longer works later. So, I think that probably helped that it was novella length.
But also, I just think Tor.com had really been building up their mailing list and doing really good marketing, and I think I already had an audience from the fantasy books. It wasn’t a huge audience, but it was out there, and so, I think it was right publisher, right story, right time. It was just luck.
With your latest epic fantasy, Queen Demon, the main character’s a sympathetic demon, and Murderbot isn’t exactly a typical protagonist either. You seem to have a fair amount of work where the main character is sympathetic but has a dark backstory.
Yeah, I think I do like to do that. I like to try to write characters that in a dif-
Spirited Celebration
San Antonio’s Muertos Fest 2025 adds third day for its 13th anniversary
BY KAT STINSON
San Antonio’s largest Día de los Muertos celebration is returning to Hemisfair Park this month, bringing three days of art, music and remembrance.
Now in its 13th year, Muertos Fest will take place October 24-26. The free event kicks off Día de los Muertos celebrations — a time to honor those who’ve passed away through ofrendas (altars), art and community.
ferent story would be the bad guy.
There you go. I think you articulated it better than I could. (Laughs.)
Yeah, I like writing a slightly outsider point of view, and just that, I don’t know, it’s not really that bad guys are more interesting, because I don’t think my characters are actually bad guys,
but it’s the perception of their actions, and just the different viewpoints of playing with that, I guess.
The new novel’s gotten a lot of praise, as did its predecessor. Did the publisher have any concern about you jumping from such a hot science fiction property back into fantasy? Not really, because I’ve been writing. I was still working. I still did Murderbot I mean, I have another completed Murderbot novella coming out next May. So, they didn’t seem to have a problem with that at all.
Your publicist from Tor hinted that I should ask you about how you’re inspired by your hometown of College Station. I wasn’t aware College Station had crept into your works, but I’m eager to hear what the connection is.
Well, I have a lot of friends there, and I’ve lived there a long time. I think, mainly, it’s not necessarily College Station, it’s living in Texas and seeing places like Galveston, where so much of the past is still there.
I mean, there are so many towns — and Galveston is just a really good example of it — where you walk down the street, and you can see Victorian buildings along with buildings from
Muertos Fest encompasses all of the above with the largest altar exhibition in San Antonio, a lineup of musical artists all three nights, face painting booths, a children’s stage and two processions — the first taking place at 7 p.m.
Satuday, Oct. 25, and the second at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26.
Friday’s evening celebration has a spe-
the ‘60s and the ‘50s, and the ‘70s and the 2000s. It’s sort of all still there. Our past is so terrible at times, but it’s layered in with all the good things. It just makes the feeling of history, I think, a lot more alive to me. So that is definitely an inspiration.
When you set about to create a world, like the world you created for Witch King and Queen Demon, how much time do you spend developing that milieu before you sit down and start writing the first scene?
Not much, really. I kind of like to develop it as I start writing. Because one of the things I use to try to make it more accessible is really only telling the reader what they need to know to understand what’s going on in that scene, or sentence, or whatever.
I think if I did a lot of development before I started writing, a lot of it would be wasted. It’s actually more fun for me to come up with it as I go along, and then just stop it if I need to look something up, and do that real quick and just put it together, so the world building feels very integrated with the story.
roster of musicians are slated to pay tribute to the five-time Grammy Award winner, including Ruben Ramos, Rick Treviño, Jesse Borrego, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, Lisa Morales and more.
Max Baca and Los Texmaniacs will serve as the house band for Friday evening’s musical tribute. There will also be tributes to San Antonio arts educator Mary Cantu and the legendary late Tejano music icons Laura Canales, Lydia Mendoza and Selena Quintanilla-Perez.
The festival will resume normal hours for Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and noon to 9 p.m. respectively.
cial meaning — it will be dedicated to the late conjunto legend Flaco Jiménez.
The San Antonio-born accordionist, singer and songwriter died earlier this summer at the age of 86, but his legacy and music endure.
Muertos Fest organizers expanded the celebration with the musical tribute to Jiménez, which begins at 8 p.m. A full
The all-star musical lineup for Saturday and Sunday includes Piñata Protest, Kings del Wepa, Llamativa, Los Juanos, Nick Gaitán, The Tiarras, The Guadalupe Dance Company, Erick y Su Grupo Massore, La Doña, The Last Bandoleros and more. A full schedule is available online at muertosfest.com.
Colin Bressler wants to creep you out with his latest horror movie
BY KIKO MARTINEZ
San Antonio filmmaker Colin Bressler credits his interest in horror to his parents, who showed him scary movies that he was too young to see.
“They were crazy horror fans, so I was exposed to a lot of stuff I really shouldn’t have watched at that age,” Bressler told the Current during a recent interview. “I remember I saw movies like Re-Animator and I Spit on Your Grave.”
Bressler’s early introduction to cult horror movies led him to direct his own low-budget projects, including Bloody Drama and The Mummy Murders. His latest horror film is The Demon’s Killer, written by San Antonio native Josh Caza and starring San Antonio actress Rylie Rodriguez (Landman). Rodriguez plays a young woman who begins to do terrible things after she’s possessed by a demon.
During our interview, Bressler talked about the movie that scared him the most as a child and why he wanted to make The Demon’s Killer scarier than anything he’s directed before. He also shared his thoughts about his experience with negative criticism.
The Demon’s Killer will premiere Oct. 29 at City Base Cinemas, 2623 SE Military Drive. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at eventbrite.com.
What’s your earliest memory of a horror movie that stuck with you?
The one I think of immediately is An American Werewolf in London . As a kid, it freaked me out, especially when he turned into a werewolf. I remember thinking I was going to turn into a werewolf too. I was always a very imaginative kid. That was kind of a curse.
How do you describe The Demon’s Killer?
I call it a demon possession/serial killer movie. Initially, the idea for the movie was in my head, but then Josh ran with it. I worked with Rylie on my last movie, Into the Gravel Pit, and I loved working with her. I really think she has star potential. I thought she would be an awesome lead. So, the script was written with her in mind.
What led you to make another horror movie?
To be honest with you, I’m very happy with my past movies, but I don’t think they’re scary enough. That’s a lot of the criticism I’ve gotten from horror fans. I think my instincts are geared more to drama-thrillers. This time, I wanted to service the horror fans the right way. I wanted to make a creepy, off-putting horror movie where horror fans would be satiated.
How are you with negative criticism?
It’s always kind of bummer for a second. But I was told in film school that you have to be able to accept it and take it in. They taught us the difference between good criticism and bad criticism. On Amazon, one person wrote that I should never be allowed to film another movie again. It’s kind of funny on some level, but you can’t help but be like, “Oh, man, geez!”
So, how do you think you made The Demon’s Killer scarier than your earlier horror movies?
I dove deep into recent horror filmmakers who creeped me out or who created a cool vibe and atmosphere and experience. I watched a lot of older movies like Rosemary’s Baby . I put myself through a mini film school watching these great filmmakers and paid attention to what they do and how these movies made me feel and learned from that. Horror is really about pacing.
Besides pacing, what makes a good horror movie?
You know, I think we need to have a symposium on that. The horror genre is funny because there’s a bit of a struggle defining it. There are gatekeepers in the genre. Like, what is a horror movie? Is The Silence of the Lambs horror? In my opinion, I think a good horror movie has unsettling experiences. You want audiences to walk away with that lingering feeling. I think that’s the goal for those of us who try to make scary movies. It’s like a rollercoaster. You want that thrill.
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20 Years of Raising a Glass
San Antonio Beer Festival returns to Hemisfair, emphasizes German culture for milestone event
BY KAT STINSON
Pretzel in one hand, pilsner in the other, San Antonians soon will toast two decades of craft brews, community and good times.
The 20th Annual San Antonio Beer Festival — known as the Ale Fest when it debuted in 2005 — will return to its roots this fall, taking over Civic Park at Hemisfair on Saturday, Oct. 18. As with past gatherings, breweries from around the world will be on hand to pour hundreds of premium, craft and near beers.
“The event has evolved over 20 years,” said festival organizer Cassandra Wagner of the San Antonio Current. “We’ve grown the festival, hosted it at various parks around the city. Now we’re delighted to come back to Hemisfair after the expansion of this world-class parks district.”
Participating breweries this year include
Garage Beer, Boston Beer Co., Beatbox Beverages, Texas Cannon Brewing Co., Star Republic Brewing, Pabst, Flix Brewhouse and Starbase Brewing, to name a few. San Antonio favorites such as Longtab Brewing, Alamo Beer, Wild Barley Kitchen and Brewery, Künstler Brewing and Dos Sirenos Brewing also will be on tap.
For the milestone celebration, organizers are leaning into an Oktoberfest theme to celebrate the area’s rich German heritage. Expect topnotch German beers, clinking steins, festive traditional attire, live polka music and indie tunes, not to mention plenty of Bavarian-inspired bites to soak it all up.
In keeping with the German-themed fun, the event also will host the Qualifying Texas Steinholding State Championship Tournament. Organizers are seeking 20 men and 20 women to test who can keep a beer-filled stein hoisted in front of them the longest — no sloshing, wobbling or bent elbows.
The top male and female competitors will advance to the 2025 Texas Steinholding State Championship Finals at Wurstfest in New Braunfels on Sunday, Nov. 16.
The San Antonio Beer Festival, which started as a modest gathering for craft-brew enthusiasts, has since expanded into a San Antonio institution — one that’s poured thousands of pints, introduced locals to small-batch brewers and helped shape the city’s booming craft scene.
This year’s lineup promises limited-edition releases, local food pop-ups, games, wines, ciders, local vendors and commemorative anniversary merchandise. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to enjoy the fall weather.
And while the event has made stops at Dignowity Park, Maverick Park and other public
spaces over the years, returning to Hemisfair feels especially fitting. The renovated Civic Park offers a refreshed yet familiar backdrop — the same site where San Antonians first raised a glass two decades ago, now surrounded by the hum of new restaurants, live oaks and skyline views.
A portion of proceeds from San Antonio Beer Festival ticket sales will benefit the San Antonio Food Bank, the Current’s nonprofit partner. Founded in 1980 as Texas’ first food bank, the organization provides meals and support for communities in need across San Antonio and Southwest Texas.
The San Antonio Beer Festival also serves as the official closing event of San Antonio Beer Week, a celebration that highlights local craft brewers and their work.
Three tiers of tickets are available for the San Antonio Beer Festival, ranging from $45 general admission to $105 VIP access. VIP ticket holders receive early entry at noon — two hours before gates open — along with a commemorative pint glass and tote bag, a VIP-exclusive T-shirt, access to rare and one-off beers, admission to the Real Ale Brewing Co. VIP zone, dedicated restrooms and more.
All ticket tiers include festival admission and a McIntyre’s Sampling Card with twelve 2-ounce pours, granting access to hundreds of beers and other beverages. Attendees can also purchase an additional 12 samples for $12.
All guests must be 21 years of age or older with valid ID. The San Antonio Beer Festival 2025 will go on, rain or shine.
$45-$105, noon VIP entry, $2 general entry, Saturday, Oct. 18, Civic Park at Hemisfair, 434 S. Alamo St., sanantoniobeerfestival.com.
Jaime Monzon
food
Evolve or Die
San Antonio’s craft beer industry has stabilized, but economic headwinds and changing tastes loom large
BY MICHAEL KARLIS
Whether it be city construction, tariffs or changes in consumer drinking habits, the past few years have been anything but easy for San Antonio breweries.
More than half a dozen Alamo City breweries have closed shop or scaled back operations since the start of last year, and even the survivors and stalwarts are revamping. Longtime presence Freetail Brewing Co. stopped its retail distribution, for example, while Alamo Beer Co., the city’s largest brewing operation, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
“It’s extremely tough,” Alamo Beer owner Eugene Simor told the Current. “It’s always been tough, but what we’re seeing now is kind of all the increasing costs building up to a point where businesses are having to make some very difficult decisions. Increases in property taxes, costs of goods all continue to go up and really haven’t normalized since COVID.”
Indeed, Simor said he’s selling Alamo Beer to a new investor group and will release more details to the public next month.
However, other San Antonio craft brewers said that despite the continued economic headwinds, they’re hopeful the worst is over and the breweries that weathered the storm are likely here to stay.
The ones that have remained in operation survived by evolving with the times, said Dustin Teague, owner of Cactus Land Brewing Co. in the San Antonio suburb of Adkins.
“There was such a boom in the industry between 2012 and 2014. Everybody and their grandma wants to open up a brewery because it was the cool thing to
do,” Teague said. “What happens is that not everybody can either financially do it well or have somebody who knows what they’re doing as far as beer goes.”
It wasn’t necessarily just the saturated market that forced the slew of recent closures, though. A dramatic change in consumer habits followed the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID kind of changed how people spend their money, and they became pickier in the sense that they want more experiences,” Teague said. “People nowadays want more. They’re spoiled.”
Teague calls it the “Amazon effect,” or the sense that consumers want something new and exciting — and they want it immediately. Breweries could no longer just be places where enthusiasts came to grab a craft ale. Instead, they had to become destinations that catered to everybody, including families.
To evolve, Cactus Land now features a playground, live music, food trucks, craft cocktails and frozen wines in addition to its house-made suds.
San Antonio’s Künstler Brewing also evolved with the times.
“When we got into the business, we wanted to just be a brewery and serve
beers and a few snacks. But, I think after 2020, people wanted more,” Künstler owner Vera Duckard said. “I think what keeps us going is that we continuously try to think outside the box and create fun events that people like to go to. More than anything, what lures people out are events.”
Although special gatherings and expanded venues have helped keep some SA breweries in business, owners are also trying to combat new obstacles, including a change in drinking habits and President Donald Trump’s on-againoff-again tariffs.
A 2023 Gallup survey found that just 62% of U.S. adults drink, a measurable decline from 72% two decades ago. What’s more, non-alcoholic beer sales jumped 9% in 2024, according to beverage-industry analysis firm IWSR.
“I do think that we have a generation that’s starting to look for what I call the ‘better for you’ beverages,” Simor said. “As a result, the drinking of all alcoholic beverages, not just beer, is showing stress.”
At the same time, breweries are struggling to make sense of Trump’s erratic trade war and keep costs down while paying more for ingredients.
“It’s been a little more difficult getting European hops,” Deckard said. “So, we’ve had to pivot and find hops that we can substitute that still work in my recipes. Prices have gone up, and it’s difficult for us to pass it on to the consumer, because the consumer doesn’t understand, and I still have to make it approachable for them to come out.”
Both Deckard and Cactus Land’s Teague noted that smaller breweries can pivot more easily than larger ones. Bigger operations need to scale up their production to avoid significant cost overruns.
“I’ve noticed that things have gone up here and there,” Deckard said. “But, it’s not enough to really force a closure or anything. We’re not big enough to see a big impact. If we were mass production, distribution, that kind of thing … then it might be different.”
Although the brewing industry may have bottomed out, the best way folks can ensure that their favorite Alamo City beer producer stays in business is by shopping and drinking local, Simor said. “The best we can do as small businesses is continue to get people to support local and hopefully, at some point in time, we see a dramatic increase in it,” he added.
Instagram / cactuslandbrewing
food
A Place to Chill
Newish Pearl addition Otto’s Ice House plays on South Texas history
— but with a markup
BY RON BECHTOL
From its first appearances in the 1830s, the South Texas ice house evolved from a place to buy block ice to stock the family cooler to a kind of early convenience store selling milk, eggs and butter.
The addition of beer to the mix changed things substantially, encouraging people to hang around, mostly outdoors — eventually, perhaps, with a jukebox playing ranchera music or Western swing. In time, ice, milk and butter made their exit, leaving just the suds and the sense of community.
There are still a few examples in San Antonio paying homage to the historical model — Dakota East Side Icehouse and the Friendly Spot among them — and the city also has more than a few beer gardens less consciously doing so. Meanwhile, a new phenomenon has arisen: places calling themselves ice houses whose focus foregrounds food over beer.
With its $26 asada nachos, Otto’s Ice House is one such place.
At Otto’s, which opened this spring at
OTTO’S ICE HOUSE
the Pearl, the beer list isn’t encyclopedic. Apart from the small draft selection, it contains only one true San Antonio brew, and much of what it serves is in cans, perhaps the better for serving in convivial buckets.
Even so, some convivial stein-clinking might also have been good, given Otto’s location and its naming in honor of the former brewery’s founder, Otto Koehler. Beer is here, but it’s playing sidekick.
On the menu, San Antonio’s brewing history is perhaps best represented by the German soft pretzel. This is a more complex recipe than I imagined, involving barley malt syrup, a bath in a lye solution and, of course beer.
Otto’s version emerges a burnished, deep mahogany spangled with crunchy salt crystals, and it’s a winner, especially
Price range: $5-$26 for smaller plates, $16-$44 for larger ones
The lowdown: Otto’s Ice House is loosely based on the 19th century institution which first sold block ice for home coolers then added beer to the mix. Beer survived, and it’s the best reason for checking out this place at the Pearl — especially on the leafy patio. Otto’s $26 nachos and $36 redfish aren’t exactly true to the original model, but $5 fried pork skins are a relative bargain and a great beer buddy. If in the mood for more history, give the San Antonio chili a try. It comes well-adorned.
have to ask).
To pay even more direct attention to local food history, consider Otto’s San Antonio Chili. It’s surprising that, in the city that can legitimately claim credit for inventing the fiery stew, there are so few really good examples.
Otto’s homage is a decent start but lacks any of the complexity that might be given by using a blend of chiles for both depth and zing, maybe some masa for binding, and, because why not, beer. If any of those ingredients were there, I missed them, but give Otto’s points for keeping the tradition alive.
If asked to name the most traditional Texas dessert, odds are pecan pie would be high on the list. San Antonio was once a giant in the pecan industry too.
dunked in the accompanying “pretzel mustard.” But where grainy is good in the mustard department, it’s perhaps less so with the “house beer cheese,” which proved stiff and unnecessarily salty given the crunchy crystals on the pretzel itself.
Otto’s offers another German food staple, and also a good beer buddy, in the form of its Homemade Bratwurst. This is a sausage that can be stuffed many ways, one of which is pure pork bolstered by an array of warm spices such as coriander, ginger and nutmeg. Otto’s came across as beefier, less fragrantly spicy and denser than many. It wouldn’t be on my best wurst list. Along with the bockbraised onions, it was also served warm at best, not helping its case. An excellent side of bacony borracho beans pointed in another ethnic direction — and more effectively.
During the ice house age, roaming chicharron vendors once plied West Side streets, hawking their wares. Appropriately, chicharrones make three appearances on Otto’s menu: solo with white cheddar “dust” and as an alternative to tortilla chips with both the Cantina Queso and the made-to-order guacamole.
The mound of crisp and convoluted pork skins which arrives is substantially more than needed for the modest serving of chunky guacamole — which in any case was in need of lime (wedge thoughtfully provided) and salt (you’ll
Enter the Goode Company Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie with its crown of flawless pecans and filling that didn’t come across too sweet by half. The problem here is the third, essential part of the equation: the crust. Far from the flaky ideal, it was dense and sturdy. No ribbons here.
When it comes to ice houses, it’s not just about beer and food, of course. The feel of the the place can count as much if not more.
In Otto’s interior, historical décor of heads and horns, beer memorabilia and the odd armadillo could be any Texas roadhouse despite a Pearl bent. However, a vestigial walk-in cooler may not hold ice, but it does keep kegs for the bar. Come more hospitable weather, the exterior experience should be more authentically ice house. A covered porch shelters serious picnic tables. More tables shaded by trees and umbrellas dot the “yard,” which also boasts a separate bar.
Drink it all in, history chaser only a plus.
Ron Bechtol
food
Cooking Up Conversation
Chef Jaime Gonzalez of San Antonio’s Wok Wey takes a leap of faith
BY KAT STINSON
After nearly two decades in the kitchen, Chef Jaime Gonzalez is betting on himself. The Le Cordon Bleu–trained chef left behind a fine-dining career to sling wok-fired comfort out of his food truck, Wok Wey at El Camino.
It’s not just about bold flavor, according to Gonzalez: it’s about bringing back a little human connection to San Antonio’s dining scene.
Name: Jaime Gonzalez
Age: 39
Years in food service: 19
First food job: Hosting at Denny’s. He later helped open the Pearl’s Hotel Emma and cooked at nearby restaurant Carriqui, now slated for closure.
Hometown: Los Angeles. Moved to San Antonio in 2008.
Culinary school: Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena.
Last book read: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
Favorite drink after a long day: Beer Favorite local spots: Frank’s Pollos Asados Los Nortenos, The Esquire Favorite dish to make at Wok Wey: Signature fried rice
Life motto: Do what makes you happy. Money Quote: “I’ve always cooked from a place of connection. For me, going smaller — running a food truck — made sense. Sometimes I think we lose that human connection in dining. I love being able to see guests come back, to build those relationships.”
What was your first job in San Antonio’s food scene?
I worked at Las Canarias for seven years — it was my first job here. I was also the chef de cuisine at Mokara for a time. I also helped open the Hotel Emma.
Tell me about your culinary roots.
I did my internship at my uncle’s Cantonese restaurant in Mexico City. I grew up with both Asian and Mexican cooking in my household. Both hold a great sense of nostalgia for me. San Antonio truly grew on me. In LA, I was a guppy in an ocean of sharks, because everyone there wanted to be a chef. Here, I was able to carve out my own path.
What inspired you to launch Wok Wey?
Nostalgia from my childhood, growing
up experiencing Mexican and Asian cuisine. I always say I work for Wok Wey, not the other way around. I’d love for it to become a brand that expands, but I want it to grow with the same heart it started with.
You recently served as a UNESCO Chef Ambassador. What did that experience teach you?
It really reminded me how much culture and tradition we have in San Antonio — and how important it is to keep those things alive.
What do you love most about the Alamo City food community?
San Antonio still has that small-townin-a-big-city vibe. A lot of what keeps us going are those repeat guests. It’s humbling to see familiar faces and comments from people who truly enjoy what we’re doing.
Was it difficult to leave Carriqui?
The hardest part was leaving my team. I truly treated it like it was my own place. I felt like I had the most beautiful restaurant in town.
Lily Jane Photography
Swinging With Intention
Taking
with Ian Astbury of The Cult and Death Cult before both bands play San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre
BY MIKE MCMAHAN
Every band has an origin story. Even The Cult, who dominated rock radio in the’80s with an arena-ready sound that seemed fully formed.
In reality, a succession of bands led to the post-punk act Death Cult, which morphed into The Cult’s hard-rock-with-goth-trappings approach. Both bands featured the same key members: vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy.
Death Cult has now reformed to dive into those essential early years. And, as only makes sense, it’s touring with The Cult on a tour that
hits San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 21.
We talked to The Cult’s frontman, Ian Astbury, via Zoom from his home in California to unpack what it means to have both bands touring together.
The Cult gained international fame via hits including “She Sells Sanctuary,” “Love Removal Machine” and “Fire Woman.” Despite a few post-punk touches, anthemic rock has always been part of the The Cult’s fabric, and Death Cult makes it clear where the band came from.
So, how do both sides come together? Will two different bands be onstage with different equipment? Beyond Astbury and Duffy, will they have the same members?
Astbury’s answers were so mysterious he might as well have vanished into a cloak when he told us. Man of hype? We aren’t sure, but Astbury knows how to keep the cards close to his vest.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What made you decide to reform Death Cult as a separate entity from The Cult, as opposed to just covering some of the songs at regular gigs?
It just felt like we’ve gone full circle. We’re back to a zero point and in some way being
a little bit retrospective. We’ve got 11 studio albums as The Cult. Perhaps just reviewing the DNA of the band, of the songwriting partnership, of the relationship and then coming across Death Cult, the origins — what we emerged from, our original influences, our original inception — became fascinating for me. Death Cult happened in a particular moment in the UK in the early ’80s, yet those archetypal elements have been with us since, well, throughout millennia. We live in a dystopian and very complex world. (Laughs.) And I felt that Death Cult was coming from a very pure place. When you’re at a certain age, you’re much more impulsive. You know, sometimes too impulsive.
Agreed.
You know, I train in martial arts, so it’s learning technique and learning to rely on your technique, learning to rely upon what you know about yourself, what you’re good at, your skill set. You’re constantly re-evaluating your abilities in that setting, and it’s the same thing with music. I’m not saying it’s true for everyone, but for me, personally, I’m always taking inventory and considering what I’m doing. Sometimes it’s just great to let it flow. Death Cult came through. So, it was, like, this kind of reset, zero point. The rest of the
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Tim Cadiente
music
world’s looking at The Cult like we’re in a renaissance. The band’s definitely in a renaissance, there’s no doubt. But Death Cult just came up, kept coming up. And we thought, “If we’re going forward, let’s grab everything. Let’s look at everything.”
Swing for the fences.
To a degree. I don’t swing for the fences though. I swing for the fences with intention.
That’s good. A slight caveat, but it adds a lot to the— No, it’s a caveat. It is. If you swing for the fences, you have no technique. You’re just going for it.
There are online set lists for the shows that The Cult did in the UK highlighting Death Cult. And it looked like it was a continuous set. Essentially, the site has the songs marked as The Cult playing Death Cult covers. Nonsense.
But that is how the set progressed. A bunch of Death Cult songs and Cult songs with the same group on stage? In this incarnation of what we’re going to be presenting, what we are saying is a Death Cult set.
So, that was all one band, and this is going to be like a physically different thing. Death Cult is going to play and The Cult is going to play, correct? Right.
And is Death Cult playing first, like the opener? I’m using the term loosely, but you probably know what I mean.
No. All these conventional terms, I think we can now disperse with them.
Okay.
I honestly feel we’re in this moment now where everything is gloves-off.
Sounds like all the listeners and attendees are going in with question marks. The Cult and Death Cult are going to be there and beyond that, what’s going to happen? We don’t know.
Yeah. Same for us. It’s not like we’re going to tell a story after every song about what it was like going to school in Northern England when
I was 11 years old listening to David Bowie. No, it’s in the moment. This is in the moment, and this is what we’ve chosen to present. I saw recently a Schubert piece in Berlin at the National Opera. It was written in 1827, with a poem that was written in the 19th century, presented in a very contemporary way with the Berlin ballet. I looked at that and went, “Oh, we can do anything we want.” You can do anything you want. Led Zeppelin could reform to play Black Sabbath’s set. It doesn’t matter.
I don’t want to get too existential, but yeah, I’ve watched the sunset on Everest. I’ve been there. I’ve studied with the Dalai Lama. Saw Mick Jones throw his Les Paul up in the air at a Clash show in 1978. It’s like Roy Batty in Blade Runner. All these memories are lost like tears in rain. It’s about the moment. The frame is Death Cult and The Cult.
The songs are going to be interpreted in the moment, but molecularly different. Every time you step up to the
mic, you’re not getting cookie cutter. It’s not coming out of a digital file. It’s coming out of human beings. So, there is a certain vulnerability and you’re in the moment.
You have all of these wild experiences, right? You mentioned— Not for me, wild. They were just my experiences. They weren’t wild.
They’re wild for us mere mortals. Why is it fair to be wild? They were just my experiences.
You had the survival experience in Tibet. All the way back, you identified with punk rockers, with Indigenous peoples. The Cult, going back to the ’80s, didn’t quite fit in anywhere, but you guys were successful on your own terms. Is this what The Cult is?
All of these, sort of, outlier types? Disenfranchised?
Amalgamation of our experiences. Everyone’s disenfranchised. Billionaires are disenfranchised. Everyone’s disenfranchised. Some of the happiest people I’ve seen in the world are people that have got absolutely nothing materially, but they have everything in terms of community and relationships, family, their health. In India, for example. Phenomenal. “Disenfranchised,” “outlier,” they’re not my terms. I don’t define myself in that way. It may have come out of my mouth at some point, but the core is just, I mean, I was an immigrant kid, came to North America when I was 11. My mindset was, because I was an immigrant, I was an outsider. I was treated like one. I was with Indigenous kids, kids who came from other countries, like most North Americans. And just found my way, and then music came in.
Why do you think that invitation came to sing?
I was homeless. A friend offered me a room in a house where he was staying. And I wanted to be in London. But I was in London. I was in squats. I was on the street. And I thought about this offer to stay in a room. And it was cheap. But it was in Bradford. And I’m like, Bradford? Bradford was kind of depressed at the time. And it’s near Leeds. Between Leeds and Manchester. I had no desire to really be there. Except to get a room in a house, a roof over my head. And
be around other punks, punk kids. So, I thought, “You know, I’ll do that.” And it just so happened that this punk band, Violation, were rehearsing in the basement of the house. And they kicked the singer out. They saw me and they said “Can you sing?” And I’m like, “I don’t know.” “So do you want to jump in? Jump into a rehearsal?” I’m like, “Okay.” And they go, “Do you want to be in the band?” After I’d sang maybe half a Sex Pistols song. It’s like, “What do you know?” It’s like, Sex Pistols? We all knew Sex Pistols. Three chords. It was easy to do. And they just like, said, “You want to be in the band? I was like, okay, cool. It was exciting.”
I thought they were older, cool guys. And I hadn’t been asked to really join anything. You know what I mean? It was exciting. And next thing we know, we’ve got three songs and six songs. By our fifth gig, with six songs, we’re in Sounds We had a review in Sounds. But by gig five, we had six songs. And we had our first review in a music paper. It happened lightning fast. Didn’t even have a chance to catch our breath. I didn’t. Things were happening so quickly. On the cover of NME. Didn’t even have a record out. Shot by Anton Corbijn at 20.
It’s crazy. It seems like all the way through the end of the Sonic Temple tour was just a continuous escalator of success, but also kind of insanity. It just seems like it got crazier and crazier. Maybe for good, and maybe for bad, or both.
I had a conversation with Lars Ulrich about all of that. I was talking about how big Metallica were. And I said, “There’s a difference between being big and being great.”
Does that mean Metallica is big but not great?
In that analogy, in that particular moment, it was a bit of flex. It was a flex. And I was responding with pretty much, on any given night, be the best that you can be. It doesn’t matter if you’re the biggest commercial artist in the world, or this guy playing on the street. It doesn’t matter. Give it everything you got. That’s what it’s really all about. If you’re playing in minor leagues, major leagues, you turn up, you show up. And you give it your best shot.
In what seems like an annual tradition, Texas troubadour Lyle Lovett is visiting with his Large Band in tow. The singer-songwriter’s blend of country, Americana, gospel and jazz is always complemented by his wry wit and engaging storytelling. Indeed, his landmark live album Live In Texas was recorded in San Antonio over three decades ago and is the only thing close to capturing the experience of seeing the Grammy winner in person. $48.19-$182.39, 7:30 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — Danny Cervantes
Friday, Oct. 17
Melvins, Redd Kross
Pounding skulls and eardrums since 1983, The Melvins are a foundational band when it comes to grunge, sludge and noise rock. Frontman Buzz Osbourne and crew have managed to survive decades as an underground phenomenon by avoiding the excesses of some of their peers. Meanwhile, Red Kross is an important group in its own right, having emerged from the SoCal punk scene to create its own sound steeped in psych, garage rock, glam and more. $34, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Bill Baird
Chavela, Kassandra Ayala, Favorite Son Chavela has been recommended many times here, and for good reason. Led by frontwoman Isabel Paillao, the group has grown into an exceptional local act by incorporating a variety of South Texas influences into a soulful mix. The show celebrates the release of the band’s debut album, which is just the stunner one would expect. Two other strong local acts — singer-songwriter Kassandra Ayala and Favorite Son, the groovy songwriting project of Cooper Greenberg — will open. $26, 7 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — BB
Saturday, Oct. 18
Linda Gail Lewis
Linda Gail Lewis’ brother, Jerry Lee Lewis, is one of rock ’n’ roll’s founding wild men, and she’s racked up a proper career in her own right, having collaborated with Van Morrison and Dale Watson, among others. However, she be best known for her 1969 album with her brother, which cracked the U.S. top 10. A recent transplant to Texas, she’s promoting her latest record, Reckless Wild and Crazy, with a no-cover-charge lunchtime show. Free, 11 a.m., Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Road, New Braunfels, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall.com. — BB
Circle Jerks, Adolescents, Negative Approach
LA punk legends the Circle Jerks are
celebrating the 45th anniversary of their landmark album Group Sex . The band, known for its short, angry blasts of satire and politics, includes members of punk rock royalty too.
Vocalist Keith Morris left Black Flag to start the Circle Jerks, and guitarist Greg Hetson played in Bad Religion. Morris and Hetson remain from the band’s original 1979 lineup with bassist Zander Schloss along for the rollercoaster ride since 1984. $40.46, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC
Sat, Oct 25
Paul McCartney
Legendary singer-songwriter member Paul McCartney’s San Antonio stop is the only Texas show on his Got Back Tour, which highlight hits from the Beatles, Wings and his solo career. Recent setlists have focused heavily on Beatles work, including the culmination of the Abbey Road medley, featuring “Golden Slum -
bers”, “Carry That Weight” and “The End.” It’s probably a good idea to see icons like the 83-year-old McCartney while they’re still with us. $78.50 and up, 8 p.m., Alamodome, 100 Montana St., (210) 207-3663, alamodome. com. — Danny Cervantes
Sunday, Oct. 26
All Time Low, May Day Parade, The Cab, The Paradox Pop-punk outfit All Time Low is bringing its Everyone’s Talking! tour to SA. Last month’s EP release of the same name serves as a great point of entry for those wondering what the Baltimore natives are up to. Fans should expect to hear hits such as “Dear Maria, Count Me In” and “Monsters” as All Time Low bring their energetic set and a cavalcade of openers to town. $64.06, 7 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, boeingcentertechport. com. — DC
Paul McCartney
Monday, Oct. 27
Lightnin Luke
Portland, Oregon’s Lightnin’ Luke specializes in a heartfelt style of rootsy folk music coupled with an iconic image. With his beard, mega-hair and ever-present shades, the dude looks a bit like a southern minister of dark justice. And he’s got chops to back up the look: he plays fiddle and guitar with equal dexterity and sings with a sweet voice that defies his appearance. $18, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB
Boris, Agriculture
Japanese band Boris are masters of sludge, noise and drone — and they’re unafraid of experimentation to tug at the confines of those challenging genres. The trio is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its seminal album Pink with this tour, which also includes LA black-metal thrashers Agriculture. Expect beautiful, glorious noise. $31, Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB
17. Sponsored product used only for testing purposes?
19. Ship’s mast
20. Jukebox choice
21. ___ …tats-Unis
22. One-named “Queen of American Folk Music”
24. Ancient Egyptian bird
26. Pair count
27. Rocket’s deviation
28. Weak excuse
31. Lahore’s region
33. Eggs
34. Ornamental plant
36. Floating
39. Exercise units
41. Alleviates
43. “Tomb Raider” protagonist Croft
44. Joints that may get shaky
46. It’s a crowd, so to speak
48. Letters that used to follow
CD
49. Land holdings
51. Result of brushing against wet ink
53. Seer’s skill
55. “30 Rock” star
56. Man-goat creature
57. Purple flower
59. May honoree
60. You, to Quakers
64. Highlight of some musical performances
65. Intermission of a play?
68. Refuse to authorize
69. Bunch
70. Heart stat
71. Docs that use endoscopes
72. Follow
73. Cheesy sandwiches
Down
1. Racetrack transactions
2. “___ Atardecer” (2022 Bad Bunny track meaning “Another Sunset”)
3. Archaeological site
4. Slow movement, in music
5. Hebrew for “hill”
6. Gets stuck
7. Airline approximations
8. Hobby room
9. “Sounds fun”
10. Garden shed implement
11. Chess game with no pieces?
12. 1989 Mazda debut
13. Milkshake insert
18. Cheerful and carefree
23. ___ Cat (“SNL” Season 51 opening musical guest)
25. Ride around town, maybe
26. Ube, for one
28. Stopper
29. Cookie sheet destination
30. The nose of a folded airplane?
31. Overly assertive
32. The whole thing
Named Best Cocktail Bar Two Years in a Row! Cheers, San Antonio!
35. In disrepair
37. Pond dweller
38. Domesticated
40. Perceive
42. Source of some bun seeds
45. Sound’s partner
47. Jazz ___ (comedic musician named for a flightless bird)
50. Releases
52. Not so
53. Get away from
54. Ambulance sound
56. Low-visibility, in a way
58. Big name in chips
59. Lipizzaner feature
61. It’s for children, according to Pat Benatar
62. Oregon-to-New York direction
63. ___ out a victory
66. Key near Q
67. Heart stat, for short
Answers on page 33.
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:
SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE, has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for an amendment to Air Quality Permit Number 43833, which would authorize construction of a Southwest Research Institute located at 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas 78238. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper.
