Blogs: Author Archive

It’s been nine years since Natalie Portman’s adorably zany character in Garden State insisted that The Shins could change your life. Since that movie and their subsequent surge in popularity, The Shins have released two very good albums and taken one five-year hiatus – during which lead man James Mercer teamed with Danger Mouse...
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The third edition of the popular Échale Series starts with a returning powerhouse: Ozomatli, the nation’s ultimate Latin fusion party band. The L.A.-based combo played at the Pearl in 2011 and they’re back to launch the first of three Échale events for 2013. It should be a terrific party, but make no mistake: their...
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Powered by steam and propelled by switches, levers, and gears, the fictional technology introduced by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells (and taken to the next level by cyberpunk pioneers William Gibson and Bruce Sterling) helped spark the steampunk craze. The sci-fi offshoot thrives in blogs and websites offering everything from Victorian-inspired frocks and...
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A signature Contemporary Art Month component initiated last year, the CAM Perennial is the first ever CAM-sponsored event. Facilitated by collaboration between CAM and the Guadalupe, the Perennial’s second chapter takes shape in an exhibition curated by Bill Arning, Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. After studio visits with 18 local artists, Arning...
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What began as an “art-terrorist” project evolved into an industrial force named after a phrase drawn from a hat. Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid roughly translates to “No Majority for the Pity” but seeped into pop culture as “No Pity for the Majority.” After causing a ruckus in Paris in 1984 with a concert...
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Ana Montoya’s AnArte Gallery celebrates Contemporary Art Month with “Meditations on Paper,” an exhibition pairing accomplished local artists Steven DaLuz and Russell Stephenson. Comprised of “meditative” drawings, the collaborative show explores “the comfort and solace an artist can find through their art making.” At the opening wine and champagne reception: live music by pianist...
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You may have noted a recent pick up in hip-hop and indie-rock shows traveling through San Antone. WHY? represents the continuance of both. This curiously named project of Berkeley musician and wordsmith Yoni Wolf plays a neurotic blend of heady indie-rock and frenetically poetic alt hip-hop. On tour in support of their fourth album...
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Brooklyn-born They Might Be Giants get worlds across in short spurts — evidenced by this year’s Nanobots, an album that packs “25 unreasonable songs in 45 phenomenal minutes.” Originally comprised of John Flansburgh (on guitar), John Linnell (on accordion and sax), and a drum machine, the kid-friendly indie act is now “propped up by...
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Luminaria, San Antonio’s version of the Nuit Blanche (White Night) art event that started began in Paris in the 1982, is happening again this Saturday, March 9 in its sixth annual iteration. Since its inception in Europe, the concept of a night filled with art and light has spread to form events around the...
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Third in a string of collaborations between composer Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring draws from tribal ceremonies and Russian folk music to illustrate the creative power of spring. Discordant and avant-garde, the original 1913 production was so radically modern that the Paris premiere caused a “terrific uproar” with...
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A man-eating shark, a Nagel-esque pinup (think Rio by Duran Duran), and characters reminiscent of ’60s-era Ugly Stickers (made famous by Basil Wolverton and others) are all stars of Give In To The Skin, a key piece from local artist Louie Chavez’s Contemporary Art Month exhibit “Future of the Future.” Opening Thursday at Plazmo...
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San Antonio psychologist and playwright Tova Rubin presents her newest musical In Their Shoes. This fun fable focuses on a young perfectionist, aptly named Goody 2Shoes, whose life is changed for the better when she meets a traveling shoe salesman named Soulman. By giving her the power to walk in the shoes of others,...
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