Emvergeoning

No audio. Play simultaneously for best effect.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman.

Brooklyn’s Stars Like Fleas (featuring SA-town homeboy Ryan Sawyer on drums and lead beard) play a PopRally event at MOMA on June 8, 2009 – shot and edited by Austin Rhodes.

[hattips to albert flores & cosmo inserra for the first and ryan sawyer for the second.]

3 Comments »

Randomly found a reception last night for a film festival that’s going on this weekend at the Guadalupe Theater. Here’s their website if you’re down for chillin’ out with some movies. Might be 1 or 2 celebrities.

2 Comments »

Did anyone catch Jeff Koons‘ cameo in Gus Van Sant’s highly recommended film ‘Milk‘? His screen time was only about four minutes as San Francisco politician Art Agnos but it was interesting to see Koons actually kinda hold his own against such heavyweight actors as Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Diego Luna, and, of course, Sean Penn. It’s his first featured film (with his clothes on at least) and I’m wondering if this is a new direction for him or how exactly he got the role. I’ve googled around and nothing really comes up. Please comment below if you have any inside info. Oh, did anyone see ‘Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy’? – it’s listed on his IMDb page.

2 Comments »

Go check out the road to the parking lots at the ol’ San Antonio International Airport.  San Antonio local, Gary Sweeney has interjected some good humor into a portion of the drive. I managed to catch him there, hard hat and all..

These are just a few of the signs he placed in the drive space, keep an eye out the next time you go for a spin around the SA Airport to catch the rest.

8 Comments »

(photo by Justin Parr)
Everyone here at Emvergeoning sends our best wishes to local art star Chuck Ramirez, who will be having open heart surgery this week. Doctors discovered late last week that his aorta has swollen to an astonishing 10 cm due to a congenital heart defect. A couple of Chuck’s pieces after the jump for those who aren’t familiar (more here).

Continue Reading »

6 Comments »

Invites have been circulating recently for a reception to mark the opening of the new Linda Pace Foundation offices (adjacent to Pace’s Camp Street residence) that have been quietly renovated over the last year or so.  I noticed on my bike ride to the gallery last week that the big blank wall facing S. Flores had been installed with a new text piece.  After some research, I’m concluding it is one of the new pieces of the Pace collection, mentioned in the reception invite as a Daniel Joseph Martinez.  The invite mentions two new acquisitions for the Foundation, no info as to the other has yet surfaced.

2 Comments »

Ken Littles Rodeo HO HO made its final REGULAR appearance last night.  See for yourself :

a LOT more are available here.  

4 Comments »

Everything got screwed up. Emvergeoning’s calendar editor forgot to post Ms. Southtown, San Antonio’s artsiest drag beauty pageant, to our events listing; last night, when Ms. Southtown was happening, our trusty photographer was out working for The Man; and our amateur backup paparazzo filled up the camera memory right before the trophy was handed to the winner. I guess that’s why we don’t get the big bucks, and why I’m typing this from a cardboard box in an alleyway off Houston St. But here it is: Ms. Southtown in photos.

Continue Reading »

8 Comments »

The crowds in Alamo Plaza (photo by Justin Parr)

Houston Street (photo by Justin Parr)

Chuck Ramirez in front of Bill FitzGibbons‘ Alamo installation holding a Parr mylar sculpture (photo by Justin Parr)

The Mixing Chamber (Stuart Allen / Potter-Belmar Labs) at SAMA (photo by David S. Rubin)

4 Comments »

A little while back we did a series of posts on publicly accessible outsider artwork in San Antonio. One of the artists we covered was the Rev. Seymour Perkins, a controversial figure who lives on the east side of town. While others argue over whether he harbors drugs and prostitutes, and his lawyer battles with the city over the fate of his home, we here at Emvergeoning decided to take another peak at the work that isn’t so publicly accessible — the work inside his home. As Rev. Perkins gave us the tour I tried to absorb all the details, while Justin Parr snapped shot after shot of the inner sanctuary. From what I was able to gather, Seymour Perkins’ daughter, Debbie Jo Christi, was killed in a drug-related conflict on February 22, 1994. Here is a drawing on one of the walls that depicts her murder:

On the same day, the tallest angel in Heaven appeared to Seymour Perkins, revealing to him a tunnel that runs under his home, which is in fact the famous Underground Railroad. This tunnel connects his home to the Alamo and the Menger Hotel, and runs on down into Mexico. After receiving this prophecy (which I am recounting in only a very fragmentary and woefully incomplete way), Perkins founded the Debbie Jo Christi Museum, and Hanging Tough Ministries. Here is a painting of the tunnel running under the Perkins estate:

Here are a few shots inside the Debbie Jo Christi Museum:

The Museum is located in a small building in the back of the house. But within the actual house, where Rev. Perkins delivers most of his sermons, there are a number of fascinating works. In his bedroom, the pieces below are painted on the wall. The first is a self-portrait of Rev. Perkins with his son:

Next to this painting, is a larger work depicting one of his assistants, whose ass is stuck to his ass (i.e. he doesn’t know if he’s coming or going):

Below are a few details of one work painted on a window shade, depicting a man named Timothy Ringer, “the funkiest man in San Antonio”:

In addition to these works, dealing with himself, his family, and other meaningful people in his life, Perkins showed us a few pieces dealing with his relationship with God and History:

Now, this post isn’t intended to rally support around Rev. Seymour Perkins, or to say anything about his proper place in our community. I’ll leave that to his neighbors, his lawyers, and the city’s elected officials. But I did think it would be good for people to see what is inside his home — if it is destroyed in the coming months, this may sadly be one of the most complete documents of what it contained. To see more of his work, please visit the San Angel Folk Art gallery in the Blue Star arts complex.

11 Comments »

exhibit a : Audio from Karen Mahaffy describing the execution.

exhibit b :

(photos copyright Justin Parr 2008)

INTRODUCING NEW EVIDENCE:

exhibit c : futureWorkerGirl reflects on artist as murderer, victim, pimp and ho.

13 Comments »

Back in June I noted that Nick Ut had taken the photo of Paris Hilton (above, right) exactly 35 years after the photo of Kim Phuc (above, left), to the day. Today I came across an article in the Telegraph (via Conscientious) which quotes Nick Ut comparing his relationship to the two photos:

It’s a strange feeling because I know I will never take another photograph that’s as good as this – not as long as I live. When I look at my photograph of Kim and my photograph of Paris Hilton, I think they are both good pictures, in their way. I suppose the big difference is that I grew to love Kim, whereas… well, frankly, I don’t give a damn about Paris Hilton.

Not too surprising, really, considering Ut saved Kim Phuc’s life, and to Paris Hilton he’s just another paparazzo. The Telegraph article uses the strange relationship between these two photos to illustrate changes in culture and the role of photography. The premise is that due to both market forces and government regulation, photographers are increasingly pushed towards a minute but distorted documentation of celebrities and away from realistic documentation of international conflicts. More Britney Spears, less Iraq war.

This reminds me a bit of the Nan Goldin exhibit up at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston right now. There’s a tension in her work between the intimate, gritty realities of chemical and sexual dependency, and stylistic tropes that transform these realities into fantasies. It feels as if she started out as a war photographer, throwing herself into dangerous, chaotic situations and documenting them; but has unwittingly become a servant to the pastime of voyeurism. But I guess the line between truth teller and entertainer has never been terribly clear.

6 Comments »

38 Comments »

So, it depends on who your list is made up of, but to some folks at La Tuna this past Friday night, it reminded them a little bit of of high school when they thought they knew somebody in the crowd..

he looks kinda familiar.. wait.. heres a Bryan De La Garza Polaroid of him :

oh wait.. here he is with Tori Amos.

…

oh!

Now I remember.

what a wierd Friday…

4 Comments »