TEXAS REPUBLICANS CHICKEN OUT | ARTPACE GUEST CURATOR RIGOBERTO LUNA | BAKERY LORRAINE FOUNDERS' SWEET RETURN | SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 13, 2026
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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Publisher Michael Wagner Editor in Chief Sanford Nowlin General Manager Chelsea Bourque Editorial Digital Content Editor Stephanie Koithan Contributing Arts Editor Bryan Rindfuss Staff Writer Michael Karlis
in this issue Issue 26-20/// September 30 - October 13, 2026
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 Advertising Account Manager Parker McCoy Social Media & Marketing Coordinator Jehanna Pena Creative Services Lead Graphic Designer Ana Paula Gutierrez Events and Marketing Events Director Chelsea Bourque Chava Communications Group Founder, Chief Executive Officer Michael Wagner Co-Founder, Chief Marketing Officer Cassandra Yardeni Vice President of Operations Hollie Mahadeo Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon Revenue Operations Manager Rachel Gold Project Manager Megan Nally chavagroup.com National Advertising: Voice Media Group 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com San Antonio Current sacurrent.com Editorial: editor@sacurrent.com Display Advertising: marketing@sacurrent.com The San Antonio Current is published by Chava Communications Group San Antonio Distribution The Current is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Get listed 1. Visit sacurrent.com 2. Click “Calendar” and then “Submit an Event” 3. Follow the steps to submit your event details Please allow 48 hours for review and approval. Event submissions are not accepted by phone. Copyright notice: The entire contents of the San Antonio Current are copyright 2023 by Chava Group LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be emailed to the addresses listed above. Subscriptions: Additional copies or back issues may be purchased at the Current offices for $1. Six-month domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $75; one-year subscriptions for $125.
Wkimedia Commons / Steve Jurvetson
05 Going Nowhere Fast
Elon Musk said he wants to build a tunnel between Austin and San Antonio. That’s news to officials in both metros.
07 News
The Opener News in Brief
About Face
Gov. Greg Abbott orders pause of air permits for data centers. Experts question whether he has the authority.
Bad Takes
Flock Off: The left and right are uniting against license plate surveillance for good reason
Hunger Comes Home
Rising food costs have half of Texas families skipping meals or eating less, new survey finds
19 Calendar
Our picks of things to do powerful
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27Screens
Unapologetically Us
Former S.A. volleyball star featured in We Belong Here: The Story of Team Dream
CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
Fungus Among Us
San Antonio native Lacey Pipkin gives mushrooms a voice in Daughters of the Forest
31Food
Troubled Waters
Seafood spot Aguazul’s sprawling menu casts too wide a net
TEXAS REPUBLICANS CHICKEN OUT | ARTPACE GUEST CURATOR RIGOBERTO LUNA | BAKERY LORRAINE FOUNDERS' SWEET RETURN | SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 13, 2026
Cooking Up Conversation
Bakery Lorraine founders Anne Ng and Jeremy Mandrell talk about their new cookie venture, ButterNubs
35Music
Creative Conflict
Ahead of Floore’s show, The Lone Bellow talks about turning friction into musical fuel
Critics’ Picks
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n the Cover: Billionaire Elon Musk made a surprise announcement that his Boring Co. will build a tunnel between SA and Austin. Who’s he kidding? And why? Cover design: Ana Paula Gutierrez.
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sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
The Bexar County Elections Department last week said that it received 45,000 backlogged voter registrations from the Texas Department of Public Safety, giving the county a tight window to process the registrations before early voting begins Oct. 19. Given the registration processing issues, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones urged voters to check their registration status with the state’s online portal. Voters listed in “suspense” should contact the elections office by Oct. 5. Eight years ago, Team Dream, the first all-Black women’s professional volleyball team, won the Women’s Open Division at the USA Volleyball Open National Championship. One of the members of that team, Carnae Johnson, hailed from San Antonio — and now, her story and those of her teammates are featured in We Belong Here: The Story of Team Dream, a new documentary from the OWN Network. An alarming number of Texas families are skipping meals as a result of rising food costs, according to a new poll from the nonprofit No Hungry Kid Texas. Half of survey respondents said at least one member of their family either skips meals or eats less to save money, and 80% said the price of food is rising faster than their income. A further 40% said they’re taking on debt to pay for food. Since Gov. Greg Abbott blocked state funding for Flock cameras in August, at least 14 cities and counties in Texas have shut off some 900 of the surveillance cameras, the Texas Tribune reports. Some municipalities, including Plano, ended their contracts with Flock entirely. It’s unclear when or whether Abbott may lift the funding block. — Abe Asher
YOU SAID IT!
“This destruction is only the beginning. Seizing land, walling off communities, cutting wildlife off from their only water source, pumping billions of gallons of groundwater without permits, bulldozing archaeological sites, all done in violation of our nation’s most important protections — that’s what’s in store here and for the rest of the Big Bend region if we don’t stop these horrific plans.” —Laiken Jordahl , an environmental advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, on the White House’s construction of a border wall in the Big Bend area.
ASSCLOWN ALERT
Dodging debates — and democratic engagement — with Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark. Texas Republicans have spent decades cultivating the image that they’re tough hombres. They pose with guns. They vow to fight Washington, cartels, socialists, wokeness and whatever else Fox News reports is menacing the republic. And if they’re Gov. Greg Abbott, they’ve even perfected squinting and scowling when they look into the camera. But apparently there’s one thing both Abbott and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton would prefer not to confront: a big, bad Democrat behind a lectern. With Election Day approaching, Abbott has yet to agree to debate his challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, while Paxton hasn’t committed to debating his rival, state Rep. James Talarico. That might be a standard political calculation if both Republicans were cruising toward November with victory in the bag. They ain’t. Recent polls show Abbott’s once-comfortable advantage narrowing, with some even putting Hinojosa ahead. Paxton has even more reason to be alarmed: surveys have repeatedly shown Talarico leading, and some GOP insiders are privately saying primary voters picked the wrong guy. Yet both Republicans remain conspicuously absent from the debate stage. Paxton’s dodge is especially amusing. In July, after Talarico accepted three televised debate invitations, Paxton adviser Nick Maddux declared, “Of course we are going to debate James Talarico.” July passed, then August. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the “of course” part. Paxton rejected a CNN debate, complaining
The Texas Rangers appear to be pursuing a criminal investigation into Camp Mystic, writing in a search warrant affidavit that they believe the camp’s leaders committed crimes including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in 2025. Last week, a Kerr County judge signed off on 14 warrants that will allow the Rangers to search the electronic data of the family that ran the camp and other camp officials. The camp didn’t open this summer. Bexar County has dropped criminal charges against the mother of a child who was allegedly planning a mass shooting at a San Antonio elementary school. Ashley Pardo, 34, was initially arrested last year and accused of buying ammunition, firearm
news
That Rocks/That Sucks
Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
about biased moderators. So Talarico proposed Fox News’ Bret Baier instead. Still no dice. Candidates aren’t legally obligated to debate, and avoiding one can be smart campaign strategy. Why risk a bad answer, let your opponent land a zinger or expose your own propensity for gaffes? But good campaign strategy isn’t necessarily good for voters. Or democracy. Debates are one of the few places candidates, however polished they are at rallies and staged media events, are forced to answer the same questions, at the same time — and without someone editing out all the embarrassing shit. Which is exactly why voters expect to see candidates face off on the debate stage, according to Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson. “Even if voters have decided not to watch, not to pay any attention, at least they’ve been respected enough that the candidates were willing to stand up in debate,” Jillson told the Current. “To simply decline to debate is potentially an insult to the electorate. And I think one of the problems that Republicans have in Texas now is the sense of entitlement on their part. … And that’s one of the reasons I think that these races are close up and down the ticket.” Abbott and Paxton spend plenty of time talking about fighting for Texas. Maybe these two assclowns should put their money where their mouths are and face their opponents. No lawsuits, no National Guard deployments, no threats to shut down Sharia law — just two lecterns, a moderator and a few cameras. Or is showing that level of courage too much to ask? — Sanford Nowlin
magazines and tactical gear for her 13-year-old son as he plotted a school shooting. However the Bexar County District Attorney’s office said it ultimately had insufficient evidence to support the charges. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week rejected a lower court finding that Melissa Lucio, currently incarcerated on death row, is innocent in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old child. Lucio has maintained her innocence throughout 18 years spent on death row, and District Judge Arturo Nelson urged the criminal appeals court to overturn her sentence. Lucio’s attorney said she now plans to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. — Abe Asher
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
news Going Nowhere Fast Elon Musk said he wants to build a tunnel between Austin and San Antonio. That’s news to officials in both metros. BY MICHAEL KARLIS
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ech billionaire Elon Musk has concocted another grandiose stunt. On social media platform X, which he owns, Musk last week teased plans by his Boring Co. to build an 80-mile-long “hyperloop” tunnel connecting Austin and San Antonio. “Boring Company is working on a simple, precursor Hyperloop tunnel between Austin and San Antonio,” Musk said, adding that the transit line would travel at speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour. The news took many by surprise, apparently including officials at Boring Co., which he founded to create underground tunnels and other digging-intensive projects. “TBC would be excited and honored to build this massive infrastructure project,” The Boring Company wrote in response to Musk’s tweet. “Because Loop/Hyperloop is express (i.e. no immediate stops), one could travel from an Austin parking lot to a favorite San Antonio restaurant in ~ 30 min. As long as they both have Loop stations.” Musk’s announcement also stunned San Antonio city officials, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai’s office and the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority — all of whom told the Current that neither Musk nor Boring Co. officials had contacted them as of press time. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, created to oversee transportation projects in Travis and Williamson counties, last week told the Austin American-Statesman that neither Musk nor his company had reached out. That shouldn’t be surprising, though, considering the previous record of Musk and the Boring Co. communicating with San Antonio city officials.
Wkimedia Commons / Steve Jurvetson
Last year, Musk and the company reportedly ghosted the Alamo RMA after the regional mobility authority accepted a bid from his Boring Co. to construct a smaller-scale hyperloop between San Antonio International Airport and downtown’s Henry B. González Convention Center. Given the vagaries of Musk’s tweet and Boring Co.’s past track record, is his San Antonio-to-Austin plan real or an underground pipe dream? At this point it’s tough to tell. But Alex Gibney, the director behind the critically acclaimed, four-hour-long documentary Musk, gave some insight into what the billionaire is all about in a sit-down interview with the Los Angeles Times this month. “I think he’s gone from being a liar, somebody who has to keep track of the truth, to becoming what [author] Sam Harris calls a ‘bullshitter,’ where you just make stuff up, and through the force of confidence of your personality, you make it so,” Gibney said. Hole to nowhere In March 2022, the Alamo RMA, desperate for revenue in a county with no toll roads, unanimously approved
a feasibility study for a proposal from Boring Co. to build a subterranean “public transit” tunnel from the airport to downtown. Despite countless other bids from companies proposing more conventional forms of transit, including trains and a rapid transit bus route, RMA board member Michael Lynd Jr. and Bexar County Director of Public Works Renee Green maintained that Boring Co.’s proposal — a nine-mile underground tunnel that would transport passengers in Teslas from the airport to the Pearl and downtown — was by far the most feasible option among the bids. Years later, no such tunnel exists. “They just kind of ghosted us,” Alamo RMA operations engineer Reggie Fountain told the San Antonio Report last year of Musk and Boring Co. “So, we essentially just assumed that it was dead and didn’t move forward with it.” To get another indication whether Musk’s company is capable of delivering on an 80-mile underground tunnel connecting two major urban areas, it’s also instructive to look at the company’s Las Vegas hyperloop. Smoke and mirrors When Musk proposed his project
beneath Sin City, he prognosticated that a public transit system based on autonomous electric vehicles would hold 16 passengers each and whisk people around on a track system at speeds of 155 miles per hour. What Boring Co. ultimately developed was something more attuned to a tourist-friendly gimmick that fits right in on the Vegas Strip. Teslas, driven by human chauffeurs, ferried visitors on an a five-mile asphalt track in a tunnel between hotels and the convention center. That’s par for the course when you analyze most of Musk’s ventures, Gibney told the LA Times. “I read this book called Ludicrous by a guy named Ed Niedermeyer,” Gibney said. “Basically, he posited that there was a car called a Tesla, but the difference between what it was and what [Musk] promised was ludicrous, and that along the way he had confected all of these stunts to fake people out and make people think that the company was something that it wasn’t in order to get where he needed to go.” When Musk touted self-driving Teslas in 2019, he released a video set to the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” that showed one of his driverless electric cars zooming around the streets of Silicon Valley.
sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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news “There was a kid literally in the trunk with a computer driving the car,” Gibney said. “He couldn’t even tell the difference between a red light or a green light, and it crashed into the fence at the Tesla company headquarters.” Even Tesla’s origin story has been carefully crafted to align with Musk’s vision of self-grandiosity, according to critics. The billionaire is widely described as Tesla’s founder. However, he got that title not by inventing cars, but through a legal fight. Indeed, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning were Tesla’s real founders. Musk was simply an investor looking to park his PayPal money into the next big thing. As part of a corporate takeover, Musk threw Eberhard out of the company, leading Eberhard to sue, according to Gibney’s retelling of events to the LA Times. As part of the lawsuit’s settlement, Eberhard agreed to say Musk was the founder, the director said. “So, here’s a guy who’s literally trying to take reality and turn it into a fiction that benefits him,” Gibney said. “Because if he’s this all-knowing, sort of Leonardo da Vinci-like character, then over time presto changeo, you don’t have to invest in the economic fundamentals of the company, just invest in him.” Survival Even if Musk’s latest tunneling tale turns out to be true, it’s likely to face the same challenges as his proposed — and presumably scrapped — San Antonio hyperloop, said Evelynn Mitchell, a professor of environmental science at St. Mary’s University. Although Mitchell declined to comment on the engineering behind the tunneling, she said that, depending on the route Musk’s Central Texas project takes, it could encounter serious problems with the numerous underground freshwater springs found in San Antonio and the Hill Country. “The route east of I-35 would likely have less impact on water resources, but not being familiar with the work and what depth they would need to drill a tunnel and all those things, I would suggest the U.S. Geology Survey review those plans,” Mitchell said. Indeed, some of the strongest pushback Musk received for his original San Antonio tunnel proposal came from environmental groups worried about the effect it
Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
would have on the Edwards Aquifer and San Antonio’s drinking water. However, according to Gibney’s characterization of the billionaire, it seems unlikely that such environmental concerns are high on his list. Musk and fellow “broligarchs” such as Peter Thiel subscribe to an ideology called “longtermism,” the documentarian explained. “It values lives in the future far more greatly than lives in the present, and out of that came this notion, which Musk publicly proclaimed, that he felt that it was a virtual certainty that we were living in a simulation, played by either aliens or AI of the future,” Gibney said. Clearly, the jury is still out on whether we’re living out the reality of The Matrix. What is concerning, though, is that Musk’s idea of “longtermism” largely derives from science fiction novels, as chronicled in a recent Atlantic investigation of the billionaire. Among Musk’s favorites is one he read when he was 12 or 13: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In an early warning about the limits of artificial intelligence,
the book discusses the Magrathean people, who build a supercomputer they can ask the meaning of life. Spoiler: the computer’s answer was “42,” which left the Magratheans upset. Musk took a very different life lesson from the novel, though. “A lot of times the question is harder than the answer, and if you can properly phrase the question, then the answer is the easy part,” Musk told the Atlantic. Musk’s science fiction-derived outlook that he and only he is capable of leading humanity to the future – and that some may perish along the way for the greater good — explains his politics, University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus told the Current. It also explains Musk’s willingness to announce his San Antonio-Austin hyperloop before discussions with local officials in both metros, the professor said. “His MO as an entrepreneur is to be able to get the impossible done, and he can make these promises in a way that’s consistent with his ability to motivate the world around him,” Rottinghaus said.
“It’s a marketing ploy as much as it is a political ploy. He can basically promote the capabilities of his programs to governments or developers or potential investors. The fact that he has a political profile and a big microphone lets him talk about these projects in a way that other competitors can’t.” Although Rottinghaus’s explanation makes sense from a macro perspective, Gibney told the LA Times that Musk’s political dalliances, including his alliance with President Donald Trump, are more about political survival. “At the end of the day, [Musk] jumps in for Trump because he knows that if Trump doesn’t win, he might go to jail,” Gibney said. “A tremendous number of agencies of the federal government were investigating his companies for all sorts of civil violations, and there was a Department of Justice criminal investigation into fraud at Tesla.”
sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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Shutterstock / JHVEPhoto
About Face
Gov. Greg Abbott orders pause of air permits for data centers. Experts question whether he has the authority. BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN
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exas Gov. Greg Abbott last week directed the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to stop issuing air permits for data centers. The move looked to be the first sweeping crackdown on the controversial computing facilities after a succession of purported crackdowns from Abbott’s office that left plenty of wiggle room for the industry. “Simply put, Texas must come first,” the Republican governor’s Sept. 21 order states. “Data centers must pay their own way, protect our grid and water, and complete the [Electric Reliability Coun-
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cil of Texas] and [Texas Water Development Board] audits. Until they do, TCEQ will issue no permits sought by data center projects.” However, some Democrats see the move as more political theater from Abbott, given that the governor has already accepted $20 million in contributions from the industry, according to campaign finance records. “Anyone that believes Abbott has had a change of heart is ignoring the fact that Abbott has already taken the data center money,” Clayton Tucker, the Democratic candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, said in the caption
CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
of an Instagram post about the order. “He could have done this MONTHS ago not 42 days before the election...” Indeed, months ago, Abbott was singing a different tune. Last November, the governor touted Texas as the “epicenter of AI,” welcoming the industry with open arms and lax regulations. Texas now has 349 operational data centers, 101 under construction and another 156 planned, according to online tracking site US Data Center Map. Bexar County has the third-highest number of data centers of any Texas county, at 33 operational and 13 in the pipeline. The facilities have a total reported electrical demand of 2 gigawatts — enough to power every home in the county. However, many other data centers in the state are popping up in rural areas, places that have long been hotbeds of Republican support. Now, seemingly responding to pressure from his own base during a tough election season, Abbott has made the first real, tangible move to curtail the
industry’s encroachment on the state, according to critics. Still, it’s unclear how many data centers his latest directive will actually put on pause. Projects that may feel the impact include a massive Amazon hyperscaler in the Panhandle called Horizon Junction, which filed for TCEQ permits in August. Can he do that? Environmental activists the Current spoke to welcome any progress at all on the issue from Abbott, even if motivated by cynical political calculus. But some question whether Abbott or the TCEQ are even legally capable of pausing the permitting process. “TCEQ has said before they don’t have the authority to halt all permits for a given industry,” said Adrian Shelley, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office. In April 2024, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked the state to halt new permits for cement kilns in response to fierce public opposition to a proposed 600-acre permanent kiln and limestone quarry Black
news Mountain Cement wanted to develop near the town of Dorchester. “I ask you to immediately pause the permitting processes for all permanent cement production plants statewide until the legislature can weigh in,” Patrick wrote in the letter to the TCEQ. However, then-TCEQ Chairman Jon Niermann responded with a letter saying the commission doesn’t have the authority to halt all permits for an entire industry, according to Shelley. “I tried to find that letter from Niermann to Patrick, but it seems to have been scoured from the Internet,” Shelley said. The Current submitted a Freedom of Information Request with the TCEQ to obtain the response letter from Niermann to Abbott, but the agency is still processing that request. If the TCEQ doesn’t challenge Abbott’s directive, it would be a break from precedent for the agency — and done without apparent legal backing. “I think the things that [Abbott] has said that could potentially have the greatest impact really do require legislative approval,” said Luke Metzger, executive director of advocacy group Environment Texas. “And I think the question remains to be seen: how much is he going to put his shoulder behind those proposals?” The fact remains that the governor — and only the governor — has the authority to call a special session of the Texas Legislature to create the backing from lawmakers needed for such a directive, environmentalists argue. So far, the TCEQ has indicated that it plans to uphold the governor’s directive, regardless of whether it’s legally supportable. Bastrop activists fighting the nearby 2,842-acre Pacifico data center campus emailed the TCEQ for such assurance last week, according to emails obtained by the Current. Silicon Valley AI company Anthropic is in talks to lease the proposed $2.2 billion hyperscale data center campus, which is paired with a 710-megawatt gas-fired power plant, according to the Austin Business Journal. Samuel Short, director of the TCEQ’s Air Permits division, not only assured activists that the Pacifico project was on hold that but his agency plans to uphold Abbott’s directive. “At the direction of Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has paused the
Instagram / governorabbott
issuance of all air and water permits and authorizations related to the construction or development of infrastructure directly supporting data centers while ERCOT completes its comprehensive grid and community impact audit,” Short said in the email. “The agency will ensure its regulatory evaluations incorporate findings from ERCOT’s review and will provide a full update on compliance to the Governor’s Office by October 19, 2026,” Short added in the correspondence. Even if there isn’t a legal precedent for the TCEQ to uphold the directive, Metzger said data center companies may just want to “keep their heads down” and comply with the temporary pause rather than legally challenging the governor, who could soon make all their dreams of Texas expansion come true.
Temporary pause vs. permanent reform Environmental experts told the Current that pausing the issuance of air permits isn’t enough. The permitting process itself must be reformed. “Many companies are using the minor source permit process where they can basically stage the development of their data center, and then each stage can come just under the threshold that would require them to get a major source air permit,” Metzger said. “Which would mean far more public engagement in the public hearings and comment period, as well as potentially tougher pollution controls.” Additionally, Metzger argued that reforming the permitting process through the passage of legislation is a
permanent solution, while the pause is only temporary. Many critics have accused Abbott of only being interested in pausing data center development until the midterm elections are in the rearview mirror. According to Abbott’s announcement, the pause on permits is meant to last until ERCOT and TWDB complete their separate audits of data centers, both of which are expected to conclude sometime in December. “And so basically, this potentially could all come to an end right after the election,” said Metzger. “I think a lot of people are worried that despite all his protestations about data centers as of late, that we could see a change of tune post-election.”
sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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Named Best Cocktail Bar three Years in a Row! Cheers, San Antonio!
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
news
Bad Takes
Flock Off: The left and right are uniting against license plate surveillance for good reason BY KEVIN SANCHEZ Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.
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eldom has the proposition that “politics makes for strange bedfellows” found truer expression than among a bipartisan coalition opposing the ubiquity of Flock cameras. Nationally, the number of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) designed by tech company Flock Safety went from several thousand a decade ago to more than 170,000 today, including 13,000 in Texas alone. And when conservatives such as U.S. Reps. Chip Roy, Lauren Boebert and Thomas Massie find common cause with progressives such as State Rep. James Talarico, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, you’ve got yourself quite an orgy. Part of the reason for the bipartisan pushback is that these aren’t your daddy’s toll-road cams. Flock’s surveillance technology records every car that comes into view, and an artificial intelligence algorithm “catalogs the make, model, color, license plate number, bumper stickers, and even scratches,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union. And where closed-circuit camera systems require a magistrate’s warrant to access, this personal information is uploaded to national database that any law enforcement agency that contracts with Flock can search. There’s also little regulation of how they use what they find. “Modern license plate readers photograph every single car that passes. They never blink. They never sleep,” former Assistant Attorney General Alasdair Whitney testified before the U.S. Senate last week. “They can flag cars that travel together, and they are networked. One vendor alone logs 20 billion photographs of vehicles every single month.” That vendor? Flock Safety. Predictably, scandals involving the abuse of such cameras are piling up. Two years ago, a former cop in Katy, Texas, allegedly stalked his ex-wife using Flock for a period of more than six
months, Houston Public Media reports. In Lufkin, another law-enforcement officer is accused of using Flock more than 10,000 times to track an ex-girlfriend, her relatives and others with whom she had relationships, KTRE News reports. Both men now face criminal charges. Yet a common refrain persists: “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” Tell that to Lindsay Isaacs of PalmCoast, Florida. She was jailed for almost two weeks, facing life in prison, after a Flock camera misidentified her car as being involved in a triple-homicide hit-and-run. Turns out, investigators ignored conflicting eyewitness accounts — the suspected vehicle was maroon, not black — and just put their faith in the supposedly all-seeing machines. “It is better that one hundred guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer,” Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1785. By that ratio, we’re in serious trouble. Although Flock boasts a 93% read accuracy rate “under typical operating conditions,” an independent study published in Police Chief magazine discovered that up to 37% of hits from fixed-position ALPRs were erroneous. Evidently, in the real world, the optical recognition software often fudges similar-looking characters, such as confusing a 7 with a 1. If even a single digit is misread, the plate can accidentally match that of completely different vehicle. Florida has since banned ALPRs from all state-maintained roads. “If you want to get in your car and you want to go down to Buc-ee’s in St. Augustine, it’s really none of the government’s damn business,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during an Aug. 31 press conference. “What we don’t want in the state of Florida is to have a digital AI surveillance state where everything we’re doing is being tracked at all times.” Setting aside the scandals and screwups, total surveillance seems to be the desired goal for some ALPR advocates. In 2023, Miguel Rodriguez, whom
Wikimedia Commons / Tony Webster
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed to chair the Texas Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, told attendees of a San Antonio meeting that he was in favor of photographing motorists, not just their license plates, adding “that would be a perfect scenario right there, if we can cover the whole entire state.” “We’ve already given up the traditional sense of privacy,” Flock CEO Garrett Langley declared, “because we enjoy having Instagram, Facebook and the internet.” Obviously, online advertisers are a different animal from armed agents of the state, but was Langley purporting to speak for all Americans? The venue for his 2024 quote was itself telling: the a16z podcast, produced by Andreessen Horowitz, one of the Silicon Valley venture capital firms that have together poured more than $1 billion into Flock. During last week’s Senate hearing, Missouri Republican Josh Hawley offered a sobering prediction about the technology. “You’ll be tracked by anybody and everybody in the world. You’ll have no privacy whatsoever,” Hawley said. “Flock can tell you if a car has a Trump sticker or a Harris sticker, or a Pro-Life America sticker, or an NRA sticker. You’ll be tracked when you take your kids to school, when you go to church, when you go to the grocery store. My gosh, that isn’t the free society that we’ve known.” None of the CEOs who market ALPRs agreed to show their faces at the hearing. Noting the irony, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, quipped, “Obviously, they’re nervous about being on camera.”
Not content to wait on the constitutional judges and justices to act, more than 150 U.S. municipalities have now rejected or canceled ALPR systems, according to crowdsourced project DeFlock. That includes two dozen in Texas. “Flock cameras have no place in Texas,” Texas lawmaker and U.S. Senate candidate Talarico said. Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Gina Hinojosa and Democratic Texas agriculture commissioner candidate Clayton Tucker both sought to remind voters they were against Flock cameras before it was cool. Last week, the latter cited an article with the headline “Surveillance patent shows Flock spying way worse than advertised” from right-wing news outlet the Daily Caller, founded by Tucker Carlson. Some More News host Cody Johnston theorized why we’re seeing the bipartisan backlash. “This push against Flock cameras goes far beyond concerns about surveillance, but rather also stems from everyone looking around at a country that’s been completely hijacked by billionaire tech CEOs and having enough,” he said. “We have had so much bullshit forced upon us: from the Metaverse to AI and now these god-awful data centers, we’re just done.” If President Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era busted up the railroad and oil monopolies, perhaps our generation could be remembered as the one that finally served Big Tech its comeuppance in the name of protecting our privacy.
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news
Hunger Comes Home Rising food costs have half of Texas families skipping meals or eating less, new survey finds BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN
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exas families are struggling under rising food costs, according to a new poll released by No Kid Hungry Texas. Half of Texas families surveyed said at least one member of their household skips meals or eats less because of food costs. Advocates warn food insecurity could worsen as Congress’ restrictions on food assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) go into effect. No Kid Hungry Texas Director Stacie Sanchez told KERA News that in previous polls parents might have stopped buying specific types of foods that can be expensive, such as meat, but the large number of parents skipping meals is new. “Parents are having to make difficult trade-offs,” she said. “They are having to make really hard choices between paying the electric bill or providing nutritious food.” More than 80% of respondents said the cost of food is rising faster than their income, and some are using solutions that could make things worse in the future. The poll found about 40% of families were taking on debt to cover the cost of food through credit and “buy now, pay later” services such as Afterpay or Klarna to cover necessities. “We saw folks having to take on second jobs or join the gig economy,” Sanchez told KERA News. “Texans are dealing with and experiencing these issues every day. We experience the highest food insecurity rate in the nation and that’s showing up.” Last year, the organization’s poll found a growing number of families reported difficulty maintaining nutritious diets without resources, and that the deficiencies were harming their
Vikvarga
physical and mental health. This year, the poll shows several factors making that problem even worse, Sanchez told KERA News. Historic inflation, rising gas prices, higher utility bills and other factors are causing more than three-quarters of families to choose between food and other essentials. “We want to make sure this perfect storm does not turn into something that is just absolutely devastating for Texas,” Sanchez said. “If you’re [lower or middle class], you are probably experiencing this in some way or some place in your life, and the most vulnerable among us, seniors and children, are the kind of people who are unfortunately being punished by all this.” However, the SNAP program has faced devastating funding cuts over the past year, along with narrowed eligibility criteria.” The most recent state data from Texas, from June, shows the state’s SNAP participation has decreased by more than 315,000 children since the federal tax and spending bill that made sweeping changes to social assistance programs was signed into law last year, according to analysis by the Center on Budget and
Courtesy Graphic / No Kid Hungry
Policy Priorities. There are several programs Texas could utilize to pull federal funding down to the state, but the state hasn’t been participating. These include the Summer EBT (SUN Bucks) program, which Gov. Greg Abbott opted out of, foregoing $450 million in federal funds.
“In a state like ours, it’s not necessarily an issue of capacity,” Sanchez told KERA News. “There’s enough food for everyone. Scarcity isn’t the issue here. It’s political will. We want to make sure our elected officials know this is a top priority to Texans.”
sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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Could you put something together with these 8 shows and let me know if this fits? The ad is due 9/28. Gov't Mule & Ziggy Marley Macbeth Celtic Thunder Rock the 90s Teresa Caputo Rocky Horror Picture Show Black Flag The Stray Cats
ATG E N T E RTA I N M E N T V E N U E S
The Majestic Empire Foundation Presents
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10
TICKETS HERE
Tickets on sale now at us.ATGTickets.com.
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
SCAN FOR TICKETS
TH EATRE
LORD OF THE FLIES
MacArthur High School’s Brahma Theatre Company is presenting a stage adaptation of William Golding’s timeless classic Lord of the Flies, a chilling 1954 novel that follows the attempt by a group of stranded school children to form an autonomous society on a deserted island. What begins with good intentions inevitably spirals into discord, savagery and disaster — a cautionary tale on many levels. To see a story of this caliber play out on a high school stage is nothing short of extraordinary. $8, 7-8:30 p.m. daily, MacArthur High School Theatre Department, MacArthur High School Auditorium, 2923 MacArthur View, (210) 356-7600, neisd.net.
— Anjali Gupta
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ONGOING - SAT | 10.03
Faber & Faber
THU | 10.01 - SUN | 10.31 VISUAL ART
‘I’VE HAD AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE: EPHEMERAL STRUCTURES AND THE HUMAN DISPLACEMENT OF HEMISFAIR 1968’
San Antonio’s HemisFair ’68 promised an idealized future — monumental architecture and technological innovation included — and a city purposefully transformed by the possibility of progress. But before the massive event could open, certain things had to disappear: specifically, a 92-acre neighborhood southeast of downtown. Six decades later, we are still living with the consequences of that decision and its impact on the surrounding residential areas. San Antonio-based artist Ann Enzminger explores the razing of the neighborhood by constructing pseudo-memorabilia, including maps, matchbooks, postcards and apparel, naming them after the structures that were erased in the name of progress. This dark chapter of local history leads some to ponder whether the current day’s Project Marvel is visionary or simply an echo of past complexities that really amounted to failure? Free, Flight Gallery, 112R Blue Star, (210) 872-2586, facebook.com/flightSA. — AG Courtesy Image / Ann Enzminger
calendar SAT | 10.03 COMEDY
JO KOY
Stand-up comedian Jo Koy has never phased out of hustle mode. Since packing rooms at Laugh Out Loud back in 2017, the Filipino American comic has climbed to arena stages, become a sixtime Netflix special veteran and hosted The Koy Pond podcast. Along the way, he’s acted, lent his voice to animated films, picked up Stand-Up Comedian of the Year honors at the 2018 Just for Laughs Festival and even took a swing at hosting the 81st Golden Globe Awards. That last one may have been more miss than hit, but he’s out to prove he’ll try anything — once. Koy’s relentless, high-octane delivery is contagious, and no matter how many stages he graces, he keeps circling back to the family stories that made him famous — whether talking about his Filipino mom or his son’s personal habits. Koy just dropped his latest special, Blue in the Face, on Netflix, so do your homework: watch it, then catch the real thing live, energy dialed all the way up. $45.25-$98.80, 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, San Antonio, frostbankcenter.com.
— Valerie Lopez
Wikimedia Commons / Eagledj
THU | 10.08 SPECIAL EVEN T
Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
THE BEST MUSIC(IANS) YOU’VE NEVER HEARD
Music + nerds = PURE GOLD. True music historians don’t look like those beautiful lanky creatures in the bright blue jeans who jump up on the stage. They are actually much cuter, much meaner and full of interesting stories and factoids about all the bands you love — and many you haven’t heard of yet. They are also responsible for helping draw our attention to some of the best artists in rock history, including Frank Zappa, Devo, Negativland, Butthole Surfers and Ween. During each session of this series, a program facilitator will share tunes and ask the audience for their thoughts and reactions. The audience is also welcome to bring rarities of their own to share with the group. Nothing over 10 minutes in length, please. Free, Molly Pruitt Library, 5110 Walzem, (210) 650-1122, mysapl.org. — AG
calendar SAT | 10.10 SPECIAL EVEN T
JINGU FESTIVAL AT THE JAPANESE TEA GARDEN
How much time have you spent in the iconic Japanese Tea Garden near Brackenridge Park? Perhaps that question is multifaceted: how much time have you spent there by day with family, and how much time have you spent there at night with friends? Either way, you know the appeal. Jingu Festival celebrates the 100th Anniversary of Jingu House, the beautiful structure that serves as the public space’s temple on the mount, so to speak. The gathering also celebrates the Tea Garden’s commitment to making San Antonio unique and beautiful. Free, 5-9 p.m., Japanese Tea Garden, 3853 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 559-3148, saparks.org. — AG
Wikimedia Commons / Maunus
Courtesy Photo / San Antonio Parks and Recreation
SAT | 10.10 SPECIAL EVEN T
WHO WERE THE AZTECS?
The Guadalupe Latino Bookstore presents an interactive workshop by Michael Dominguez titled Who Were the Aztecs? Dominguez, a local Mexican American Studies (MAS) educator, will lead the crowd 500 years back in time to when this massive Mesoamerican empire ruled Tenochtitlan and dominated its surrounding lands. The Aztecs — or, more accurately, the Mexica — were known as great warriors and spectacular farmers who build incredible floating gardens atop the brackish lake under what is now Mexico City. The Mexica were the dominant ethnic group in the Aztec Empire, which stretched 80,000 square miles through many parts of what is now central and southern Mexico and northern Guatemala. Free, 2 p.m., Guadalupe Latino Bookstore, 1300 Guadalupe St., (210) 271-3151, mysapl.org. — AG
sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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Congrats to our newest Artist Grantees!
The next time you see these San Antonio artists, give them a huge congratulations! They were selected through a highly competitive grant process by the Department of Arts & Culture to create new, original work that will be showcased across the city over the next year and a half. Their creativity stood out and now all of San Antonio gets to experience what they’re bringing to life!
Albert Alvarez Alex Casso Alfredo Avalos Amalia Ortiz Carla Santillana Casey Galloway-Metz Celeste De Luna Celeste Guzman Mendoza Chris Suniga Cloud Delfina Cardona & Diamond “MANTÉ” Braxton DeAnna Brown Debra Elana Marcy McChesney Federico Chavez Blanco G. Beatriz “Triz” Rodriguez, Ph.D.
ire’ne lara silva Isaac Bustos Jacob Glombowski Jacob Mena Jennifer Hughes Joe De La Cruz Jose Sotelo Yamasaki Jose Raul Corres George Cisneros Julie Ledet Laurel Luke Christensen Laurie Ann Guerrero Leo Barrios & Reggie De La Garza Marcelino Rodriguez Jr. Marco Vargas Maya Sokovic
See more from these Artist Grantees here: @GetCreativeSA
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
Monica Bosch Bill Baird Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga Nurlan Kinrbayev Patricia Torres Dragonfly (Robin LaVerne Wilson) Chayito Champion Lisa Nigro Saige Thomas Sarah Gonzales Busse sumRset Movement Vincent Valdez Wayne Ching Xelena Gonzalez
arts
Anything but Past Artpace guest curator Rigoberto Luna finds connections across time BY ANJALI GUPTA
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hen the name Artpace San Antonio comes up, a certain caliber of artist springs to mind — Sir Isaac Julian, Mona Hatoum, Félix González-Torres, for example. Same goes for the quality associated with exhibition curators, including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jérôme Sans and Helen Molesworth. And while many great works have graced the halls and walls of this venerated institution, over the past 30 years, Rigoberto Luna is only the second San Antonian to be selected as guest gurator for Artpace’s prestigious International Artist-in-Residence. It’s both an honor and a burden — one he took seriously and approached with his usual DIY determination, experimentalism and whimsy. In his role as guest curator at Artpace, Luna chose Irene Antonia Diane Reece (Houston),
Courtesy Photo / Artpace
Roksana Pirouzmand (Los Angeles) and Chavis Mármol (Mexico City) for the current exhibition, which opened Sept. 17 and runs through Jan. 17. “Time. I’d say time is the only underlying factor between these works,” Luna said. “I wasn’t trying to find an overarching theme and force fit artists into it. I was looking for artists whose work speaks to who they are, and where they are in their individual practice.” To his point, the works on view do share a weird sort of temporal distortion. They vibrate, ripple and create a frequency that resonates through space and generations. Take Reece’s works. A Houstonian by birth, her mother’s side of the family hails from San Antonio. Her grandmother was a migrant worker, a garment factory worker and highly politically active from the early ’70s through the ’90s. Her grandmothers — one Black, one Latina — were, in their own way, at the forefront of the struggle for workers’ rights and the unionization of the textile industry. However, their histories, which parallel the battle for farm workers’ rights, remain largely undocumented. Black and Brown women were literally the lifeblood of this movement. Reece’s piece, hand-me-downs, started as a project centered on familial roots but ultimately became a collaboration with the community and documentarians thereof, asking truly legitimate questions such as who decides what is worthy of recording for posterity? Who determines — or, rather,
MRoksana Pirouzmand’s installation is one of the works now on display at Artpace. predetermines — our history? Anything less than proactivity in this context equates to erasure. The artist reached out to many local institutions. It seems that generational discrimination, fear of retribution, frustration, the looming threat of mass deportation and what equates to a lack of understanding of one’s own power all contribute to a culture of silence. “People were genuinely afraid to talk about this,” Reece said. “My intent was to give voice to women who worked in the industry, be it from factories or prisons, who might have recollections of that period.” It’s a triple fuck. You want your goods wellmade, low-priced and made in the U.S. Sorry, kids: the U.S. is actually an island in the South Pacific, where 10-year-olds’ fingers bleed to satisfy America’s need for planned obsolescence. Rising and falling forms Iranian-born Pirouzmand’s installation is nothing short of stunning. Two massive pieces adorn the right and left walls. What looks like massive painted images on steel are actually the result of a complex oxidation process — a very successful first-time gamble on
Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com
arts the part of the artist. Both works are slightly abstracted human forms that rise and fall from the sea like the poetic backsplash of waves traversing and attempting not to crash against impenetrable rocks and cliffsides. In the center of the room sits a massive rectangular tank of water, also oxidized. In it are two metal flaps, each attached to the back of a rocking chair on opposite sides of the tank. The work is activated when two people — originally intended to be the artist and her mother on opening night — sit down in the chairs. Unable to see one another or otherwise coordinate their movements, the water becomes the primary vector for communication, observed or otherwise. (Guests aren’t allowed to sit in the chairs, however.) The use of water as a means of communication gives it the potential to shift from utterly placid to terrifying C-waves, like those caused by earthquakes. These putative peaks, valleys and crescendos echo the forms on the walls, illustrating, in real time, the difficulty of basic interaction between sentient entities regardless of previous interconnection. It speaks to fracture, to the reality and the complexity of personal relationships, let alone those between strangers, politicians and nation-states. Talking about the lack of opacity in the inactivated, still water has a visible effect on Pirouzmand. But she’s genuinely happy with the outcome, despite the lack of movement and she is especially proud of the monumental scale — although both pose some internal challenges. “Talking about it really flattens the work,” Pirouzmand said. “It’s not miraculous. It’s just image-making, but scale is what makes a difference.” Reality and satire
Anjali Gupta
MLeft: The work of Irene Antonia Diane Reece asks who decides what is worthy of recording for posterity. 24
CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
Finally, in Strange Love, Chavis Mármol parodies the mechanisms of power as they exist in both reality and satire. His installation reimagines the final scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which ends with Slim Pickens riding an atom bomb into oblivion. Mármol approaches site-specific work with an acumen almost unheard of in a not-quite-mid-career artist. Shortly before the opening, the artist ditched bull riding trusses for a handcrafted wooden replica of Little Boy, the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, atop the
arts
Roksana Chavis
mechanisms of a Gilley’s Friday night hay bale, beer-soaked hoedown. Much like with his most iconic piece to date — a public sculpture in which he ceremoniously dropped a replica of an Olmec head atop a brand-new Tesla — Mármol doesn’t rely on subtleties. So why, then, dress a missile up like a bull? That costuming, that subversion of the plot would have been a copout. Hence the pivot. Instead, at the opening, the artist approached his creation like a predator, circling around it as if to tantalize, to seduce. He then mounted and slow-rode it, cowboy hat in hand. Dominance is a recurring motif in Mármol’s work, but not in a purely masculine way. It is more about destabilization — of the image, of the spectacle, of history — and about using the mechanisms of power against themselves to wonderfully theatrical effect. His work is always deeply embedded in the culture of the space that it occupies, and he’s
savvy about that. “Texas is a seat of major power, not just in the area but internationally, and its iconography is potent, deadly,” he said, shaking his head. “You cannot come here and make work and not address that.” It’s clear Mármol fully understands both the iconography and the toxicity embedded in that simple statement. “He’s different,” Luna said with a laugh about Mármol. By “different,” I originally thought the curator meant resolved and just plain weird, except for the implacable fact that Mármol pivoted the entire project just before launch. Dirty hands After years co-helming Presa House, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary, Luna is no stranger to cat herding (aka curating). It’s second nature to him by now. Presa House features emerging artists from the U.S.-Mexico border-
Courtesy Photo / Artpace
lands. Much of this work tends to be visceral and non-academic, edging into the genre of craft. Luna has been a very busy boy, both here and abroad. He was a Cohort 06 Curatorial Fellow at NXTHVN and opened the exhibition “All At Once: Reflected Through Glass” in New Haven, Connecticut, quickly followed by “The Things Left Unsaid” at James Cohan Gallery’s location in New York’s Chinatown, both as part of that project. Shortly thereafter came “Ya Hecho: Readymade in the Borderlands” at the Tucson Museum of Art and “Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art,” which debuted at Centro de Artes in San Antonio followed by time in the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Los Angeles. If Luna treats every residency and opportunity like the one currently on display at Artpace, he’ll go far. To date, I have never seen an Artpace Guest
M Artist Chavis Mármol rides a bucking bomb. Right: Rigoberto Luna is only the second San Antonian to be selected as guest curator for Artpace’s Artist-in-Residence Program. Curator jump in and get their hands as dirty as he did every day. And while he blows it off as mere proximity, it’s much more than that. It’s admirable. It’s unnecessary even by the institution’s own standards. Frankly it’s absolutely unheard of. Most curators select names off a short list they were handed by the institution or already had in mind, watch the dregs of labor from their fully tenured ivory condos and ask a mirror as they pack for the opening, “Do you think I really need to dress up for this opening?” Yeah, you kinda really do.
sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
Former S.A. volleyball star featured in We Belong Here: The Story of Team Dream BY KIKO MARTINEZ
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eam Dream, the first all-Black women’s professional volleyball team, made sports history in 2018 by coming together to compete in the USA Volleyball Open National Championship. In a sport where Black women remained underrepresented, the 12-member team defied expectations, winning the Women’s Open Division championship with a perfect 7-0 record. Among Team Dream’s members was Carnae Johnson, a 2012 graduate of Johnson High School on San Antonio’s far North Side. During her senior year, Johnson was named the Texas Sports Writers Association’s Class 5A Player of the Year and led her team to the first state tournament appearance in program history. She went on to play at the University of North Texas, where she was named Conference USA Player of the Year twice and earned honorable mention All-American honors as a senior. The story of the trailblazing all-Black Women’s Open Division champions is told in the documentary We Belong Here: The Story of Team Dream, premiering at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, on the OWN Network. During a recent interview with the Current, Johnson, 32, who works as a nurse, talked about what she calls a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience playing on the team and how that chapter in her life has shaped who she is today.
When Team Dream played together in 2018, did you realize at the time that you were part of something historically significant?
I think now that it’s resurfacing, it’s kind of brought back a lot of those memories. We really did do something great. At the time, we’re just thinking about playing with friends and people we’ve admired on the court for so long. I was just happy to be a part of it. But looking back now, that was a oncein-a-lifetime thing we did. We broke barriers.
What do you remember about the first time you walked into the gym and realized this team could do some damage in the tournament? They really put in the work to choose the right players. When we walked into the gym,
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Unapologetically Us
Courtesy Photo / OWN Network
it was kind of intimidating. I knew a lot of the girls, but we really didn’t know what we were walking into. A lot of us had been away from volleyball, so we were hoping the muscle memory started kicking in and we’d be able to compete.
Is there a moment during the tournament that has stayed with you all these years?
I just remember the amount of energy in the room – for every game. We were having so much fun. We had joy in our hearts. I remember the hustle and how we left it all on the court. We had this attitude like, “No one can touch us.” We were confident in ourselves and in our teammates.
Why do you think this story needed to be told now?
Women’s volleyball has a lot more work to do to get Black women and people of color in a space where they feel comfortable. Top teams sprinkle Black women in here and there, but we want people to know that we are a force to be reckoned with, and we won’t be silenced. A lot of people try to put us in a box. It’s like, “This Black woman is too much. She’s too hype. She’s got an attitude.” But that’s just our confidence. I think we were able to show that on the court in 2018. We were unapologetically us. We were going to make sure people knew we were there. That’s huge for any Black little girl or Black teenager that’s coming to their own in the sport. They don’t need to water themselves down to play a sport they love.
you hadn’t won it all?
Honestly, no. They would’ve said something like, “They tried, and they failed.” But we went out there and made a statement. We were ourselves, and we were able to beat those teams. It got people talking. We didn’t have to tone it down for anyone, and we killed it. If we didn’t win, it probably wouldn’t have been a huge story. It might’ve been a little whisper, but now, it’s blown up.
Did you know at the time there were people out there rooting against you? One hundred percent. But we just stayed true to ourselves. We knew what we were doing could be something if we pulled it off. We wanted to be the voice for those little girls who were in the stands thinking, “This is so cool!”
What do you tell those people who would argue that if someone put together an all-white team of players, we’d be having a different conversation.
I would say to those people, you haven’t been watching volleyball because then you’d know that there are already all-white teams. So, let’s try to be more diversified. You just have to treat us with respect and treat our culture with respect. We need to feel seen, heard, and to feel like we’re in a safe space.
How has that chapter in your life shaped who you are today?
I’m not the type of person who likes to ruffle feathers, but being with those women at that time gave me confidence. So many times, you get labeled as an angry Black woman or someone will say, “She has an ego” or “She’s not a team player.” But I’ve gotten to a space where I’m going to stick up for myself. I’m going to be who I’m going to be. Our coaches wanted our team to come out and be bold.
Do you think what you accomplished with the team would still be significant today if
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screens documentary that doesn’t follow a traditional template?
Well, [director] Otilia [Portillo Padua] found inspiration in the writing of [author] Ursula [K.] Le Guin, who wrote a lot of science fiction and speculative fiction. Using [Le Guin’s] Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction as a narrative device was essential to this film. Rather than thinking of the story as a linear hero’s journey, the film takes an approach that’s much more related to what someone is picking up along the journey of their life. The film jumps around between past and present and between different voices to create a collective experience.
The film deals with important topics like climate change, but it doesn’t feel like a conventional environmental documentary. How conscious were you of avoiding that?
Fungus Among Us
San Antonio native Lacey Pipkin gives mushrooms a voice in Daughters of the Forest BY KIKO MARTINEZ
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t wasn’t until she moved to Austin in the early 2000s that San Antonio native Lacey Pipkin realized films could stir empathy in viewers. She began volunteering for Cine Las Americas, a film festival showcasing work made by and featuring Latino and Indigenous people from across the Americas. One of the films she remembers seeing around that time was the 1978 documentary María Sabina by Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Echevarría. The movie tells the story of a poet and healer in Oaxaca who became well known throughout the world for her mushroom healing rituals. “It was the film that showed me that you can take a totally different approach to subjects that are difficult to communicate,” Pipkin told the Current during a recent interview. “It has a direct legacy to Daughters of the Forest.” Co-written by Pipkin, a 1997 gradu-
ate of Alamo Heights High School, the documentary, Daughters of the Forest, follows Indigenous mycologists who combine scientific training and ancestral knowledge to explore the vital relationship between mushrooms, their communities and the forests of Mexico. Pipkin’s contribution to the film was writing the internal dialogue of the mushrooms found growing deep in the forests. “It can be hard to thrive,” a mushroom whispers in the film. “We wait for the right conditions. But sometimes we have to seek them out. Traveling far to unexpected places.” During our interview, Pipkin, who now calls Fredericksburg home, talked about what it was like to write dialogue for mushrooms, how to avoid an apocalyptic tone when making a film about climate change, and why she finds fungi so fascinating. Daughters of the Forest screens at the locally organized Raza Cósmica film festival, which runs Thursday, Oct. 8 through Saturday, Oct. 10. Pipkin’s film will screen at Slab Cinema Arthouse at
Courtesy Photo / Oscura Producciones
Blue Star on Friday, Oct. 9. She will do an audience Q&A after the film.
What does it take to write for a mushroom?
In the process of writing the voice of the mushroom – what we dared think the mushroom might say – we tried to bring it back to the essentials. When you’re trying to put words in the mouth of a being that doesn’t talk, you have to get past a lot of your own assumptions. You might want to make it sound poetic or use lyrical language, or you might want to project a lot of your own perceptions of the world. It was helpful to think about what we share with the mushroom rather than just try to impose your conscious or unconscious thoughts and beliefs on this other being.
Did you always consider the mushrooms their own characters in the film?
Yes. It was always meant to be an attempt to understand the relationship between humans and mushrooms, not just between the different humans in the story. We wanted to understand symbiosis – the coexistence and influence we exert on each other.
How did you approach writing a
I think it was a conscious decision to express an absolute urgency of the threats to both humans and the natural world but not be apocalyptic or fatalistic about it. This film draws attention to what we don’t know and recognizes where we’re making assumptions. It was an effort to portray the threats we face … without coming from a fearful perspective.
Do you look at mushrooms differently now? Absolutely! After it rains, when I’m walking around, I might be lucky enough to wander into some undeveloped land out here and get to see the mushrooms at work. I feel a different kind of kinship to them now than I did prior to starting this project. Mushrooms are compelling because the life of that fruit can be so brief, and it only happens in the very right conditions.
What do you hope people who see this film walk away with?
I hope people come away with a sense of appreciation for the way we accompany each other in the world. And perhaps a deeper understanding that we all are exerting an effect on each other all the time as people and as beings that are alive. There is hope and responsibility in that. Raza Cósmica: Daughters of the Forest Free, 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 9, Slab Cinema Arthouse at Blue Star, 134 Blue Star, (210) 212-9373, slabcinemaarthouse.com.
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Seafood spot Aguazul’s sprawling menu casts too wide a net BY RON BECHTOL
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guazul, a new and overtly Insta-ready restaurant on Loop 410, presents coastal Mexican seafood as its focus, with an emphasis on the states of Sinaloa and Nayarit. To me, this meant I could ignore its superfluous — or at least too tangential — menu categories such as burgers, pasta, pizza, enchiladas, quesadillas, fajitas and sushi. Selective elimination made my job as a reviewer much easier, but the remainder was still daunting. The menu includes platters, torres and aguachiles along with ceviches of several seafoods. It also features molcajetes — both calientes and frios — alongside oysters baked, fried and raw, plus a flotilla of seafood soups. The online “full carta” clocks in at an astonishing 37 pages. To provide an antidote to the tsunami of seafood that was to follow, the Mexican Baby Corn seemed like a good and advantageously priced starter. Canned baby corn is more often associated with Asian cuisine, and its imposed ethnicity here is determined by a little queso fresco and a sauce blending mayo and chipotle. Some Japanese togarashi flakes add an international accent to what was a pleasant appetizer I didn’t need to repeat. The Pulpo Con Tripa taco plate — call it a surfand-turf combination — will set you back $17, and it arrives looking promising with colorful marinated onion and more chipotle mayo sauce, all served on decent corn tortillas. Looking on the bright side, it’s a good thing the sauce prevailed, as both octopus and tripa were merely chewy with little flavor of their own. Moving on, the Shrimp Aguachiles Divorciados arrived quicker than a Vegas unhitching. This option — there are 15 in the aguachiles category alone — features two somewhat separated and different marinades. Risking marital incompatibility, I decided to match up maracuya (passion fruit) and salsa negra, a Sinaloan specialty that features soy sauce and blackened chiles. Bam! The passion fruit sauce was floral, fruity and utterly entrancing, though it did tend to dominate the shrimp. Meanwhile, the negra may have favored soy and Maggi over the requisite blackened chiles, but it, too, was proudly assertive, gleefully running rampant over the shellfish. Another salsa negra accompanied the Bluefin Tuna Tiradito. A little chile oil gave this varia-
food
Troubled Waters
Ron Bechtol
tion a slightly different profile, and sesame seeds added toasty sparkle. The bolder tuna should have had a fighting chance over the salsa, but the alpha partner was, again, la negra. Hoping for a look at the kitchen’s fried seafood prowess in a single package, the composite torre category exerted its siren song. La Isla fit the bill perfectly with its chicharrón de pescado, calamari rings, fried oysters and chipotle shrimp. The reveal, with the friendly server slipping the cylindrical mold off the tower with a flourish, was suitably dramatic. But, bedded in a seafoam-like froth of tiny rice wisps and a moat of queso, the visual presentation was disappointing. It was a dud in the taste department too. And the cylinder that surrounds the stack of ingredients does them no favor; all of the coatings just get somewhat sweaty while waiting for the big reveal. Usually chewy chicharron de pescado capped the construction in the form of shreds that presented almost as deeply fried onion, but they were at least a textural contrast to the bland fried oysters and calamari. Chipotle shrimp possessed enough pizazz that I would be tempted to order them on their own. The tab for all of the above, including tip and one cerveza, was just shy of $125 — a figure that’s
not hard to achieve these days. But since price is always a factor, it may be worth considering lunch at Aguazul and its $14.99 specials. If my lunch choice — the Un Poquito de Todo Charola — was at all typical, the unpopulated dining room should have been doing the aquatic version of a land office business. Four items occupy the platter: a small fish soup, a cup of shrimp ceviche, a ribeye taco, and a wildly colorful Corazon Margarita. Fish, potato, celery and carrot bobbed about in the soup’s broth, which was rusty in color and whispering of dried chiles and herbs. Uncharacteristically, the Aguazul shrimp ceviche was finely chopped, but to its advantage, there was un poquito de todo, including green chiles, in each satisfying bite. It seems almost heretical to admit it, but, despite a blistered but tough flour tortilla, the rogue ribeye taco was just fine, especially after adding a little salsa left over from the chips. That leaves the Margarita. Stiffly frozen as it is to start, you might want to think of it as dessert. After all, it’s orangey tart-sweet and spiked by chamoy. I hate to admit that I liked it. And that in a bigger glass it would make a great Instagram prop.
AGUAZUL
2831 NW Loop 410, (210) 809-4466, aguazul.app. Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m., seven days a week Prices: $10.99-$64.99 The lowdown: Aguazul is a restaurant designed for the Instagram experience. Its other focus is Sinaloan-style seafood, although forays into the unrelated likes of pizza, burgers and fajitas stretch the menu to almost unseemly lengths. While simpler soups and ceviches hit the mark, the success of other dishes such as aguachiles depends on the sauce selected. As good as they may be, some tend to tsunami over the main ingredient. A well-priced lunch special, available 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday, is to be recommended for both its price and quality.
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CURRENT | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | sacurrent.com
food baking by keeping up a work-life balance. Jeremy and I realized we loved building things together and this felt like the perfect next step.
Can you speak to your decision to part ways with Bakery Lorraine?
Mandrell: It was an amicable departure. Ng: We’re very proud of the work we did there. It wasn’t just a bakery — it was a community. It’s really showing now in the new business. Loyal customers familiar with our style of baking were eager to try our new cookies. We have more orders than we expected! We have some other flavors on deck, but we’re still trying to get the hang of this new business. It’s just the two of us.
Tell us more about ButterNubs.
Ng: It was serendipity, if you will. Jeremy came up with the recipe. We were working at Petit Coquin one night and he pulled the recipe out of thin air. I had the idea to turn it into a business. He came up with the name ButterNubs. Mandrell: We’re still using the classic pastry techniques we’ve learned over the years, baking the French way. The other side of this: we noticed a real lack of packaged snacks in the grocery store that you could have picked up in a bakery. We didn’t want to skimp on our standards for quality just because this is a consumer packaged good. We also wanted to create something that had a greater reach than a storefront. Ng: As pastry chefs, it was vital to stay true to the high standards we set for ourselves, even though we’ve transitioned to consumer packaged goods. We use real vanilla beans, King Arthur flour and fresh butter. We wanted to put that care into each cookie. No additives or garbage. We bake all of the cookies ourselves, package them, everything. Courtesy / ButterNubs
Cooking Up Conversation Bakery Lorraine founders Anne Ng and Jeremy Mandrell talk about their new cookie venture, ButterNubs BY KATHERINE STINSON
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n 2011, husband and wife duo Anne Lorraine Ng and Jeremy Mandrell opened the first Bakery Lorraine location with business partner Charlie Biedenharn. The French-style boulangerie built a loyal following, racked up national accolades and expanded into six locations. However, in 2024, Ng and Mandrell parted ways
with the business they helped create. While the couple’s latest project, ButterNubs, is rooted in baking, it’s a departure from their brick-and-mortar venture. The new company bakes and packages a French brown-butter sablé cookie akin to a shortbread. The company currently offers two flavors: original and salted chocolate. The style of cookie dates back to 17th-century France, but Ng and Mandrell found a way to modernize the recipe for 2026. Their cookies are baked to order, offering a sophisticated spin on a classic consumer packaged good. They’re available to order nationwide.
How long have you been in the food industry? Ng: 20 years Mandrell: 20 years Ng: So, 40 years collectively.
Why ButterNubs?
Mandrell: ButterNubs was born from a desire to create a business that worked around our lives instead of the other way around. Ng: The bakery was all-consuming. You almost worked like you were on call. This new project helped us continue
Will there ever be a ButterNubs storefront, or do you plan to keep it strictly online?
Mandrell: We have considered a pop-up but not a storefront. Ng: We would be down to do different community events, though. The whole point of ButterNubs was to stay away from the on-call nature of the storefront. Now we can work together and do things at our own pace, on our own terms.
What are your favorite San Antonio restaurants to visit after a long day at work? Ng: We love Pumpers and Leche de Tigre. There’s also Sichuan House and Little Death. All of those spots feel so real and true to us in the food and beverage industry.
Any last thoughts on what it means to work in the food industry in San Antonio?
Mandrell: It’s a tough business. It’s so hard. I want people to keep doing it. We were super lucky with Bakery Lorraine. So my thoughts on that? Support your local businesses, and not just on the weekends. Ng: It’s a tough business, but there’s so much talent in this town. I want to see more homegrown talent. We want more San Antonio chefs showcased. Let’s support local. sacurrent.com | September 30 - October 13, 2026 | CURRENT
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Ahead of Floore’s show, The Lone Bellow talks about turning friction into musical fuel BY DAVE GIL DE RUBIO
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hen one thinks of conflict, it’s generally in negative terms, particularly during these divisive times. But Brian Elmquist of The Lone Bellow has come to appreciate it as an essential element of the creative process. It’s an ingredient he and bandmates Zach Williams and Kanene Pipkin have tapped into since the trio first got together in a Brooklyn diner in 2011. And it’s continued through the release of the group’s new album What a Time to Be Alive, its sixth studio effort. The band’s tour supporting that release will take it to John T. Floore’s Country Store on Friday, Oct. 2, where it will open for singer-songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr. “If you’re going to make art, you’re going to push up against things, and you’ve got to face the fact that it’s hard and awkward,” Elmquist said in a recent interview. “I think that kind of happens. It’s hard taking a song to a band, even after 15 years, and saying, ‘Here are my feelings. I’m just going to let you pick it apart right now.’ It’s still not easy. I write totally different than Zach. I see the world different and interpret it. We both react. We’ve gotten better at it. He may not like a word and I won’t care about that word and just tell him to rewrite the verse. It’s kind of like that.” As The Lone Bellow was wrapping up touring for their previous album, Love Songs for Losers, they wanted to see if the positive vibes of playing together and gelling onstage would carry over to the studio for what became What a Time to Be Alive. Elmquist suggested decamping to Henderson, Kentucky, where their friend Peter Barbee had converted an abandoned firehouse into a recording studio. The DIY setup proved to be fertile ground for inspiration for this batch of songs. “When you’re doing music a lot, you get to a place,” Elmquist said. “We didn’t have to do anything. We’d just jam out with these people and hit record whenever we had some kind of snippet of something we thought was good. People would come in and out. Or the drummer, bass player or myself would sit down at
music
Creative Conflict
Debbie Ewing
the piano and work on something. We would get going, get a little coffee and then just jam out into the night late. Then we’d go to bed, do it again and whenever we got something we liked, we’d put it on a grid and save it. At the end of the week we listened to it and I said, ‘Guys, I think we have a record,’ because we had great hooks and stuff like that.” The week-long improvised band camp was followed by another week in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. For Elmquist, it was a cathartic experience. “I’d been working at this studio in Muscle Shoals, so we decided to take down what we did and deconstruct it and do it on nice mics,” he said. “We kept a lot of stuff. The fun part was thinking about where we were going to find the inspiration to do another record and then we found these songs in the process. These are some of my favorite songs.” While the recording process proved fruitful, external conflict awaited The Lone Bellow after the band’s van full of gear, computers and hard drives containing new recorded material was stolen during a tour stop in Chicago. At a friend’s suggestion, the group set up a GoFundMe to help raise cash to replace the stolen equipment. The fan support was overwhelming, allowing the band to complete the current album. Beyond that, it deepened a desire to solidify the relationship the group had with its loyal fanbase. “That was a bummer, but also a learning moment,” Elmquist said. “I don’t think asking for help is a bad thing, but it’s a hard place to put yourself in. We just asked for $15,000 or maybe less than that when we started doing soundcheck. By the time we were done, it was more like $25,000. It was overwhelming. It literally helped us finish the record. We needed to start letting fans know what was going on. Not to try to get money out of them. I think the fans want to support us. It’s like a family with some of these people I see when we come around. We knew the parts, so we found the
mojo again to finish everything.” The Lone Bellow is touring in support of singer-songwriter Wilson for its current road dates. Elmquist and his bandmates are excited to be on the road with Wilson and to have new material to play. But it does create a welcome challenge — determining the set list from one night to the next. “I love Stephen Wilson Jr. and he’s playing a lot of shows with us,” Elmquist said. “He’s one of my favorite songwriters on the planet and is just an awesome person. We’re going to be playing like we’re opening for him. We’re also going to be playing some new music and trying out the new music soon too. For me, it’s an exciting time. With our last record, we seriously liked every song on it.” Elmquist’s own musical story can be traced to being a kid who grew up poor and was inspired to pick up a guitar when he was around 13 after seeing Slash in the Guns N’ Roses video for “November Rain.” His formative memories include playing guitar at his family’s small country church while watching his grandmother sing harmony from the second pew. Cutting his teeth at state fairs headlined by Clay Walker and Jo Dee Messina also provided key musical moments for the Georgia native. Suffice it to say, he’s grateful to see where The Lone Bellow is in 2026. “For us, there really are no rules. It’s just about what it feels like and I think that’s a really great place to be for an artist,” Elmquist said. “It’s fun. We have a well of songs and are just trying to figure it all out. We’re so inspired in this way and I think we’ll keep making music as long as we’re inspired by what’s going on around us and the music we’re making together. It’s a good time.” $50.18 and up, 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, John T. Floore’s Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Road, Helotes, (210) 695-8827, liveatfloores.com.
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critics’ picks Thursday, Oct. 1 Rodrigo y Gabriela A two-piece acoustic guitar duo that’s achieved world domination? Damn straight. Well, maybe not world domination, but at least global success. Rodrigo y Gabriela have racked up plenty of accolades, but the pair’s biggest achievement is probably being able to fuse genres without things getting awkward. Their take on acoustic music differs from others by incorporating a wider range of influences, from jazz to metal to flamenco and just about anything in between. Side note: they do a killer rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes.” $52, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — Bill Baird gymclassheroes, Lupe Fiasco, B.o.B. The summer hiatus for The Espee wakes up for a hip-hop triple bill. Blending hip-hop, alt-rock and more on hits such as “Stereo Hearts” and “Cupid’s Chokehold,” gymclassheroes rose to prominence in the early 2000s and collaborated with Adam Levine and Bruno Mars. Chicago-born rapper Lupe Fiasco is best known for his hits such as “Superstar” and “The Show Goes On” while working with Matthew Santos and Jill Scott. $43.31-$244.50, 7:30 p.m., The Espee, 1174 E. Commerce St., (210) 226-5700, theespee.com. — Danny Cervantes
Friday, Oct. 2 Very Old Morris, Chavela, Elnuh Jerid Morris’ humorously named alt-country project — he’s not actually that old — soothes the senses and distills decades of creative work. Morris is a busy man, playing with country cover band extraordinaire The Texases and also writing self-published novels. His new LP Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy Shoop was recorded at the Cornpound’s Jett Bass studio with Justin Morris, Jerid’s studio whiz brother at the knobs. Very Old Morris seems more like atmospheric indie-rock than country, but why quibble. It’s warm, catchy and inviting — and this free show also featuring Chavela and Elnuh is a must for fans of independent music. Free, 8 p.m., Merci Jones, 1101 Broadway #101, instagram.com/ mercijonesbar. — BB
Saturday, Oct. 3 Cannons, Jesse Jo Stark Childhood friends Ryan Clapham and Paul Davis formed Cannons with the addition of vocalist Michelle Joy in 2013, and the group has won over plenty of fans since then with their synth-driven dream pop. The 2019 single “Fire For You” caught the buzz and landed the group a deal with Columbia Records. The band’s latest album, Everything Glows, features the chart-topper “Starlight.” $147.50, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — DC
Cannons Courtesy Photo / Cannons
Sunday, Oct. 4 This Wild Life This Wild Life started out as an acoustic duo that approached folk with a punk aesthetic. As with almost everyone in the folk scene these days, they group has added country elements to their sound and their latest video has the tattooed Californians leaning against an old Ford truck. Hey, musicians gotta do what they gotta do to survive. To be fair, they seem to pull it off. $28, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB Of Monsters and Men Icelandic indie folk-rock outfit Of Monsters and Men is back again to show off the interplay between vocalists Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson. While “Little Talks” from the group’s debut album leans into folk roots, songs such as “Crystals” and “Wars” show depth and an ongoing evolution. Of Monsters and Men released All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade last year, which continues to diversify its sound. $61.55, 8 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, boeingcentertechport.com. — DC
Saturday, Oct. 10 Sonic Live in Concert As the name suggests, this is a live band performing music from the iconic Sonic the Hedgehog video game. It’s just bizarre and nerdy enough to be interesting and unexpected. Is it
pure nostalgia and a little gimmicky? Yes. Will it be awesome? Probably also yes. $96-$228, 8 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, boeingcentertechport.com. — BB Journey It’s fitting that one of the original arena rock bands, Journey, visits the house that the Spurs dynasty built. The band’s mega-hit “Don’t Stop Believin’” has become ubiquitous at arenas around the world. Journey has faced myriad lineup changes and plenty of tumult over the years, but fans still keep flocking to the live shows. This tour is billed as The Final Frontier, and longtime member Jonathan Cain is expected to depart when it’s all over. $49.85 and up, 7:30 p.m., Frost Bank Center, One Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com. — DC Ivri New York artist Ivri’s name is pronounced the same as the off-white color and the material that makes up elephants’ tusks. She got her first big break from her viral TikTok track “tower of memories,” which blended elements of punk, pop and electro. Weaving between dream pop, R&B, indie rock and electronica, Ivri leans big into 2000s nostalgia on her latest EP, evidence of you, and does it well. $23.57, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Brianna Espinoza
Tuesday, Oct. 13 Arch Enemy, Crypta, Septicflesh, Thrown into Exile and The Black Dahlia Murder Started as a supergroup, the melodic death metal act Arch Enemy has emerged as a respected metal draw worldwide. With a roster of acclaimed vocalists that includes Alissa WhiteGluz, Angela Gossow and, as of this year, Lauren Hart — who previously fronted the band Once Human — Arch Enemy continues to release anthemic sing-alongs full of dueling guitar licks and harsh vocals. Get there early for this stacked lineup. $53-$86.75, 6 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre. com. — BE Foreigner AOR kingpins Foreigner are touring in celebration of the band’s 50th anniversary — even though none of its original members remain. The last of those, guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, retired from touring in 2023, leaving the act composed of a conglomeration of musicians picked up along the years. But we’re guessing enough folks nostalgic for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band’s inescapable hits such as “Juke Box Hero” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You” are willing to accept them being played by the next generation carrying the torch. $59.78-$1,354.50, 8 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (888) 811-5040, us.atgtickets.com/whats-on/san-antonio. — BE
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Civic Park at Hemisfair
SAve the date Saturday, October 17 BUY TICKETS
LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN! The La ( 210) 224-8200
SHA WNB RO WNLA W. CO M TR US TED & RESPECTED
BENEFITING
“It’s Always Something New”-sounds like an original idea. by Matt Jones © 2026 Matt Jones Across 1. Surrender, so to speak 5. Diner breakfast option 9. “Frozen II” snowman 13. 2023-2024 tour that set multiple Guinness World Records 14. Those not in favor 16. Jail unit 17. Quick burst of house cleaning? 19. Three in a gig? 20. Actor Vigoda 21. Chefs signing a contract before the wedding? 23. Scalawag 25. “Harper Valley ___” (#1 hit of 1968) 26. “Correct!” 27. Studio behind October 2026’s “Wildwood” 30. “___ Amatoria” (Ovid work) 32. State home to Celeryville and Mount Healthy 35. Bottle feature 37. Post-workout soreness 41. Huge statue that can’t lie? 44. Like the former financial backers of LIV Golf 45. Mapo ___ 46. Website with a “Collectibles” section 47. Pepper’s rank 49. Nabisco’s ___ Wafers 51. Relaxing getaway 54. Owns 56. Bind securely 60. Fertilizer for only growing plants in the dark?
64. “Wayward” creator/star Martin 65. “Garfield” canine 66. Green fuzzy stuff on some legumes? 68. Maze divider 69. Per ___ (yearly) 70. Roster-shortening abbr. 71. Took a gander at 72. ___ Club (retail chain) 73. “Breakadawn” hip-hop group ___ Soul Down 1. Moth-repelling closet wood 2. Antilles resort island 3. Places to gather your buds? 4. Superlative suffix 5. Recession victim? 6. One of the BrontÎs 7. Astonish 8. Ask for money 9. Prefix meaning eight 10. Sports artist Neiman 11. Similar 12. Freebie from a dentist visit 15. 58-Down partitions 18. Former name of the film ratings org. 22. Jeweler’s weight unit 24. Overcast sky feature 28. Where Canterbury is 29. Be motivated by 31. 1996 horror film with sequels 32. Chant sounds 33. Condo gp. 34. Shiba ___ (Japanese dog breed) 36. Former U.N. secretary-general Annan 38. Airline’s home city 39. Rideshare app stat 40. Reserved 42. Could possibly
43. Seesaw pivots 48. Lightning’s home 50. Spelling style used by hackers 51. Longtime Maine senator Olympia 52. Math-themed March 14th observance 53. Nimble-footed 55. “Carnival of the Animals” composer Camille Saint-___ 57. Act dramatically 58. Like some vowels in French 59. Unit of magnetic flux 61. Retained 62. “Peter Pan” dog 63. Word on a coin 67. Club ___ (resort chain)
Answers on page 27.
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