January 21st, 2011
The Weekend: Bloodthirsty plants, photographs and music

Sarah Villareal and Austin Weber star in San Marcos High School’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” a story about a guy, a girl and a bloodthirsty plant.

BY HAP MANSFIELD
Scene Editor

Boy Howdy, it sure has been windy lately. It got us to thinkin’ that Texas is full of wind — in all senses of the word.

For one thing, there’s the 25 mph winds of this week which liked to have blown the roof off.  We have lived in Chicago, and let’s just say that there’s no comparison, Texas wins hands down.

Wind can also connote powerful speakers, and Texas has always been full of persuasive speechifiers, whether it’s Lt. Col. William B. Travis asking men to stand with him at the Alamo or Lyndon Johnson’s amazing “Great Society Speech” or Kinky Friedman’s run for governor. We grow fellas with oratory skills.

Finally, there’s that fresh wind of music that blows through the state and keeps the place dancing, humming, singing and weeping.

If there are answers blowing in the wind, we’ll find them. We figure Texas will figure prominently in any energy solution that involves wind power. We know which way the wind is blowing.

And it would take a heck of a lot to knock the wind out of us.

There are plenty of things to do this weekend to put the wind in your sails. Here are just a few suggestions (and no more wind cliches).

Friday, January 21

You can unwind from a long busy week by going to the Free Hatha Yoga class at the San Marcos Public Library (625 East Hopkins Street) today at 5 p.m. Tina Baumgartner, a certified Sivananda Yoga instructor will lead you through an hour’s worth of meditative, strengthening and tension-releasing yoga positions. Wear loose clothing and bring a towel, blanket or yoga mat to sit upon. The class is open to everyone.

The weekend’s music kicks off with the southern rockin’ of Shakey Jake at the Triple Crown (2096 North Edward Gary Street) at 6 p.m. They’ll shake your old blue devils out, if you’ve got any.

If bingo is your game, you can’t do much better than the Wimberley VFW (Veterans Park on Jacobs Well Road) and the regular-as-clockwork Friday night bingo game. The early bird game starts at 7:15 p.m. There are snacks, in case you B-Hungry (bingo joke, couldn’t resist) too, sold by the patient women of the Ladies Auxiliary. Best of all, the proceeds go towards many veterans programs

Mark Allan Atwood has a couple of irons in the fire right now with both a duet album on the make at Timbre Lodge Studios with Heath Childs and the announcement last year of a follow-up album to his Texas-rockin’ “How Country.” Mark Allan Atwood and Brimstone will be at Riley’s tavern (8894 FM1102) playing their smooth and smokey Texas roadhouse tunes. Atwood was also the recipient of the “Rising Star” award last year at the Texas Music Awards.

The brilliant singer/songwriter James McMurtry will be at the Cheatham Street Warehouse (119 Cheatham Street) tonight. We don’t think literary talent is genetic, but McMurtry’s got some writing chops every bit as powerful as his dad, Larry. If you’ve ever heard his song “Choctaw Bingo,” that litany of the dirty South, you know he’s got a sharp wit and is an astute observer of life. The music starts up around 9 p.m.

The popular Firewater Sermon will be at the Gray Horse Saloon (1904 RR 12) playing their haunting bluesy stuff. At the Triple Crown you can get down and get Funkotron’s cool beats and hot music.

Saturday, January 22

The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association offers ecological tours at the Jacob’s Well Natural Area (221 Woodacre Drive) every Saturday at 10 a.m. Donations, are, of course, welcome. It’s a nice way to get a perspective on our local ecology.

Speaking of the McMurtrys, by the way, the Wittliff Collections at Texas State (on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library right off Comanche Street) has a Lonesome Dove permanent exhibition. It features costumes, scripts and more from the movie made from Larry McMurtry’s famous novel. Also featured are the astonishing photographs of Kate Breakey. The hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

If you are a fan of ’60s pop sounds, you should head over to the Black Box Theatre at the San Marcos High School Performing Arts Center (1301 North SH 123) tonight at 7 p.m. for the performance of “Little Shop of Horrors.” The musical has something for everyone with fun tunes, a grisly plot and a strange love story. It’s the only musical we can think of based on a Roger Corman “B” horror movie. Tickets are $7 at the door. The box office opens 30 minutes before the show.

If you’ve never heard the Lucky English Band, you are in for a real treat. Based in College Station, these southern rockers can bring it, and they are bringing it to the Gray Horse Saloon tonight. They’ve got a crisp clear sound that will blow you away. They will be joined by Christy Hays and Her Sunday Best. Hays comes from our neck of the woods in Illinois farm country, so we feel we owe her a shout-out. Luckily, her band is worth more than one. This is a stellar night at the Gray Horse, tell you what.

The popular Band of Heathens has a new release due out in March, and if you want to get a little taste of it, head to the Cheatham Street Warehouse tonight. The Heathens were also named to the American Music Association’s Top 100 albums of the year for their release “One Foot in the Ether.” It came in at an impressive No. 7.

The rich voiced Pee Wee Moore will be at Riley’s Tavern tonight. Put on that red dress or that bolo tie and prepare to dance to his infectious tunes. If you don’t want to dance, at least let your feet do some tappin’. They just can’t help it when Pee Wee starts singing.

The Triple Crown features one of its triple threat evenings with Zlam Dunk, Equals and Say Say Say. The roof will be shakin’ tonight. We’re always glad to see the students back in town, too. They give the town a real burst of energy.

Sunday, January 23

We’re going to mention the Wittliff Collections one more time. Admission is free and the collections are open from 1-6 p.m. today. The Kate Breakey Exhibit is photographic poetry. The pictures are a marvel of hand coloring and show her extraordinary eye for subjects. The show encompasses 25 years of her internationally known work.

The San Marcos High School Drama Boosters Club will again present the musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” the musical that has a strange suggestion for plant food. You’ll be singing “Feed Me, Seymour” and thinking of folks who sure look like plant food to you. It’s a fun show, and it starts at 2 p.m. Tickets are $7 at the door at the Black Box Theatre at the SMHS Performing Arts Center.

Well, it’s the last round of playoffs before the Super Bowl. The Green Bay Packers will take on the Chicago Bears at 2 p.m. on FOX and, at 5:30 p.m., the New York Jets will battle the Pittsburgh Steelers on CBS. Should be two very hard-hitting games.

While it was the seventh highest grossing film of all time, there may be some who have not seen Christian Bale in 2008’s Batman film, “The Dark Knight.” It will be on TNT tonight at 7 p.m. and features one of Heath Ledger’s most mythic performances before his untimely death.

The evening is full of bats. If you’d rather see “Batman” (starring Michael Keaton) and “Batman Forever” (with Val Kilmer in the title role), they are on consecutively starting at 7 p.m. on G4.

Ovation features the film “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison” tonight at 8 p.m. Cash is not a bat, but he certainly dresses in the color.  NBC will show the “Sex in the City” movie tonight at 7 p.m. We’ll let you make your own bat joke.