Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite)
#1 Letter From Paris
foto: Taylor Holland
From expat Taylor Holland, he writes about his foto show in Paris...
america and australia, (mexico and france got a separate email)
i'm having my first-ever photo show this week, and if you make it to the opening on thursday, i'll buy you a drink.
in light of the high probability that you won't make it, i'm sending you a pdf of the show, so you can see for yourself what happens when you set an okie loose around power lines on a mexican hillside.
enjoy... or disregard me to yourself and others using words like "derivative" and "bailout."
well wishes,
taylor
--
#2 Something Wicked This Way Comes
Potter Belmar writes with upcoming newsâ?¦
what: Ann Arbor Film Festival Tour
when: October 9-10, 7pm
where: UTSA Aulu Canaria Room next to the Buena Vista Theater (downtown campus)
who: brought to San Antonio by the UTSA New Media Studio Program
cost: free!!!!!!!!!
The oldest experimental film festival in the States is coming to San Antonio!
Two different programs on two different nights.
Beginning in July 2008 and continuing through January 2009, the Ann Arbor Film Festival will tour the globe visiting theaters, art house cinemas, museums, universities and microcinemas. The AAFF tour is a collection of the finest cutting-edge, independent and artistically-inspired short films from the 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival across all genres: experimental, documentary, animation and narrative.
The tour provides filmmakers the unique opportunity of having their work screened in front of audiences for whom, in some places, the tour venue is their only access to this form of film art.
more information:
http://www.aafilmfest.org/tour/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Arbor_Film_Festival
#3 Tourette's vs. Anger Management
(NSFW — Unless You Sell Used Cars or Work on the Docks)
On the Street California Domestic Correspondent Steve shares this potty mouthed video regarding the Presidential debateâ?¦
Somehow I missed this when watching the debate on Friday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqmGzw-s2G8
steve
http://www.last.fm/user/7-how-7/
87
That was the number of people the Carpenter counted at this month's Downtown Highlife ride. And as like last month, there was a new photographer on hand taking quality images — Emoney, aka Erik J. Gustafson.
All images from the ride are from his flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/emoneytg/
I'm not sure if the number 87 is accurate but it throws into question the number that was guesstimated last time. Numbers. Like any language, it gets lost in translation.
Unlike last time where there was dancing on the River, this ride, like most, was the unraveling of our street system in an attempt to find a new arrangement of previously crossed paths. Also, there was a lot more scenes of public urination for whatever reason.
The goal this time was to make a lap around downtown. We headed up Alamo to Josephine and went past Taco Land Water Park on the way to St. Mary's. A near dangerous encounter at the intersection with Ashby sent us going west uphill towards San Pedro Park.
There was general loitering in the parking lot outside the Playhouse. Once the theater got out it was probably best the two groups didn't intermingle.
From there it was south on Flores, and whereas at 5 Points most expected us to go west or east, we instead kept going south for to skim the West Side. Frio Street was the easiest route and though I wanted to take a diversion down Medina street to really see forgotten San Antonio, we stayed on Frio until we hit Guadalupe, at which point we returned to downtown and made our way towards the East Side and Tucker's Kozy Korner.
Going east on Houston (and again past more theaters which was a weird coincidence) we passed a bike cop writing a ticket to a car on the side of the street in front of the Majestic. I'm not sure if it was a sign on unlikely brotherhood or him being wise not to get involved (as a cop, I know) but he didn't look at us as we made our way past, a goofball parade of people yelling, blowing horns, and in general letting off excess steam.
A Return to the Southeast Side
On Saturday, before artist Mantecatron (loosely translated as “lard robot”) left town to walk the Earth, he told me tales of a fantastic bar he was recently introduced to by Mr. M, the long forgotten musical genius of the forgotten band Funmachine.
Foto of Pecan Valley Park by flickr user: photofritz
This bar was like a virgin grassland — seemingly untouched by outside catalclysmic, evolutionary forces. More than any bar I've seen yet in town, it was a full embodiment, for better or worse, of pure San Antonio rock and roll. In that sense it was a perfect antithesis of Austin. Instead of original music it was only covers from the classic rock canon. Instead of fashion ploys for cheap recognition, it was jeans, tshirts, and bad reebocks. Instead of marginal talent, it was incredible technical musicianship. Instead of unemployable tattoos and mullets, it was short haircuts and a generally presentable appearance.
The best San Antonio music usually emerges when there are little obligations, pressures or expectations. Happy accidents, unlikely results from a laboratory experiment, whatever.
The review will run in next week's print version so unfortunately I can't reveal too much more. For all three of you reading, consider this a tease.
The Flushing Toilet
foto by flickr user: mturro
There is too much to say about the near collapse of the economy. The bailout, however, is a rare of moment of lucidity when the sad truth reveals itself. I was absent from following the story for a day or two when the bailout plan was being thrown around way too quickly. I heard it was shot down. What is surprising, to some degree, is that it was the Republican Party that bucked the line and went against the wishes of the President while the Democratic Party went against the wishes of the People.
It's pretty sad in my opinion but for those that want to believe that national politics is a farce, there is not better moment than this to support that case. Several convincing arguments have been made that the bailout would only help Wall Street save some of their losses but yet would not compel them in the least to go out of their way to save the American economy. If anything, they could easily throw their money into the next bubble, such as commodities and futures markets, which would then only drive up the prices of resources, most importantly, something such as food.
That the Republicans listened to their constituents and voted against it in surprising fashion contorts all ideas about what these two parties supposedly stand for, at least in general opinion. And yes, the vote was more even than I'm making it sound, however, the GOP was supposed to be the party of business and the Democrats the party of the people. How that narrative still holds up is curious to me. And how can one take Pelosi seriously again, assuming we ever did. The last two years of waiting around looks more and more like not a strategy to get into the White House but an ideological policy. Here, in their first big act, they plan to give away the bank to Wall Street before anyone can read the fine print. Great.
Of course we'll see a continuation of that in the debates but here in one of the biggest moments in recent US history, the American people seem to be left to themselves. However, there is another way of looking at this which is that everyone is afraid, most especially the politicians, and to protect their jobs, they might actually listen to what their constituents have to say.
How this unfolds next will have a huge impact for the coming future. Precedent would suggest a predictable flow of action, but after 8 plus years of beating one's head against a wall, and for once, something that actually hits closer to home for most people than the Iraq War (as sad to say as that is), some form of change might actually emerge from this.
And so goes another week on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continuedâ?¦
