Upcoming album release: 1992 by Justin Hiltner

Banjoist, songwriter, and activist Justin Hiltner announces solo album 1992, available December 9, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Justin Hiltner is a queer, disabled banjo player, songwriter, and music writer known from the Peabody Award-winning podcast Dolly Parton’s America and currently playing banjo with the Broadway national tour of the 2019 Tony Award-winning revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Past releases include Watch it Burn (2018) and Room at the Table (2022) with Jon Weisberger, Silver Dagger (2021), “Hold Each Other Up” (2020) with Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, and “Live and Let Live” (2019) with Bluegrass Pride, Laurie Lewis, Melody Walker, and more. The critically acclaimed instrumentalist and songwriter has announced his debut solo album, 1992 available December 9, 2022. The project’s lead single and title track is a heartbreaking and singular exploration of survivor’s guilt, disability, and embodiment and is available now via streaming platforms, download, and Bandcamp. (Justin Hiltner, 2022)

Premiering on The Bluegrass Situation, Hiltner described the single: “At the time I began writing [‘1992’], I was reading [Randy Shilts’] And the Band Played On and spending a good amount of time studying the movement for queer rights in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. It dawned on me that I was not born after the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I was born into it. And almost certainly there were gay men and queer folks dying of HIV in the very same hospital where I was born.” Accompanied simply by stark, low-tuned banjo, the story within “1992” is entrancing and solemn, a truly original message – especially within the genres and regions Hiltner has called home.

1992 was recorded in September 2020 with Grammy Award winning producers and bluegrass, folk, and children’s music stalwarts Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer engineering and co-producing at their studio in Lansing, North Carolina – the hometown of bluegrass and old-time forebear Ola Belle Reed. The collection’s twelve original songs, each recorded live and the majority tracked in single takes, were captured atop the idyllic and gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains with a panoramic view of Pond Mountain, White Top, and New Pinnacle from Ashe County, NC, a setting that complicates and unspools narratives around where queer folks belong while upending stereotypes of “ownership,” “authenticity,” and placemaking in bluegrass, Appalachia, and the South.

Other songs on the album deal with class issues and social justice, love, loss, and longing, and Hiltner’s journey through cancer – his treatment, recovery, disability, and the traumas of surviving cancer only to land in the COVID-19 pandemic. The banjo playing throughout is technically impressive and challenging, but serves each song tastefully and, often, subtly, reminding of solo pickers and performers like John Hartford and Darrell Scott. “Pieces,” a song about the slow drip of losing oneself in love, was co-written with Rounder recording artist Caroline Spence, a longtime friend of Hiltner’s. “Benson Street,” which was written with flat picker and songwriter Molly Tuttle, is full of pining and the imagery of southern summers.

Hiltner’s highly anticipated solo debut feels strikingly mature and sharp, with a point of view rare even in the fast growing queer country movement, a reminder of why NPR Music called him “A leader in the burgeoning movement to welcome and highlight queer voices in bluegrass.”

1992 will be available wherever you download, stream, or purchase music on December 9, 2022. Pre-order open now.

1992 Track List:
Dark Side
U R the HWY 1 (APT 2)
Everglades
Benson Street
1992
Hannah
Oligarchs
10 Years (Gotta Get Out)
Pieces
I Wanted More
I Cry Every Day Now
Another Way

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Sips and Sounds series returns with Norteño Night at the Briscoe

Briscoe Western Art Museum’s Sips & Sounds of the West series celebrates Hispanic influence on the West with a night of Norteño music featuring Los Callejeros de San Anto. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Let music take you to Northern Mexico as you enjoy a night of music under the stars on the River Walk at the Briscoe’s “Sips and Sounds of the West” Norteño Night on Friday October 28, 2022. With band Los Callejeros De San Anto in the museum’s McNutt Sculpture Garden, the museum will celebrate the Hispanic influence on the America West with a night of tunes perfect for a date night or a night out with friends in the heart of San Antonio. The ticketed event begins at 6:30p.m. (Briscoe Western Art Museum, 2022)

Launched by Pinata Protest front man Alvaro Del Norte with bandmates Jose Morales on bajo sexto, bassist Richie Brown, and Chris Ramirez on drums, Los Callejeros De San Anto blends well known influences of Conjunto and Norteño into the perfect Tex-Mex street band and is “abuela approved.” Sips and Sounds of the West tickets are $10 for museum members and $20 for non-members. The event is for ages 18+ and includes student tickets at $10 each. Food truck fare is available for purchase from Dona Kika’s Tacos & Gorditas and a cash bar will be available.

The Briscoe’s Sips and Sounds of the West series highlights the soundtrack of the West through live music while surrounded by the beauty of the garden’s fantastic bronze sculptures and lush greenery. The museum’s McNutt Sculpture Garden is an oasis featuring a beautiful courtyard surrounded by bronze sculptures depicting iconic figures of the American West. With the lights of downtown in the background and stars overhead, the garden becomes magical at night, making it the perfect spot for a date night or a night out with friends.

From its McNutt Sculpture Garden to the museum’s beautifully restored historic home inside the former San Antonio Public Library building, the Briscoe’s collection spans 14 galleries, with special exhibitions, events and a fantastic Museum Store, providing art, culture, history and entertainment. Museum hours, parking and admission details are available online.

Preserving and presenting the art, history and culture of the American West through engaging exhibitions, educational programs and public events reflective of the region’s rich traditions and shared heritage, the Briscoe Western Art Museum is located on the San Antonio River Walk at 210 W. Market Street in the beautifully restored 1930s former San Antonio Public Library building. Named in honor of the late Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr. and his wife, Janey Slaughter Briscoe, the museum includes the three-story Jack Guenther Pavilion, used for event rentals and programs, and the outdoor McNutt Sculpture Garden.

Briscoe Western Art Museum

Television adaptation: ‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts

The television adaptation of ‘Shantaram’ is available on Apple TV +. Photo: Amazon

Gregory David Roberts, the author of “Shantaram” and its sequel, “The Mountain Shadow,” was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escaped and spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay―where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established a successful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is now a full time writer and lives in Bombay. “Shantaram” is the story of a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from Pentridge Prison and flees to India. The novel is reportedly influenced by real events in the life of the author, though some claims made by Roberts are contested by others involved in the story. It was adapted into a major television series from Apple TV+ starring Charlie Hunnam. (Amazon, 2022)

“Shantaram” – An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city’s poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. Two people hold the keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power. Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas―this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.

PechaKucha San Antonio presents Vol. 41 at the Tobin Center

PechaKucha San Antonio Vol. 41 will take place at the Tobin Center on October 26, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

PechaKucha San Antonio – the global arts and culture series that hosts speakers who share their passions in a unique format – is excited to announce its Volume 41 to wrap up the series for 2022, coming back with two other events in 2023. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts (100 Auditorium Cir, San Antonio, TX 78205). The night begins with a welcome reception at 6:30 .m., followed by presentations starting at 7:30p.m. (PechaKucha San Antonio, 2022)

Vol. 41 will feature a talented group of locals.

Alejandro DeHoyos, Filmmaker
Payton G. Kane, Extrovert (also the Emcee for the evening)
Mike Long, Builder
Madalyn Mendoza, Reporter
Carlos Perez, Small Business Corridor Meme Activator
Laura Terrill, President & CEO
Bria Woods, Photojournalist

The welcome reception will feature music by local artist Juliet McConkey and complimentary bites curated by local chefs and restaurants including Naco 210 Mexican Eatery & Patio, Howdy Kuya!, Cajun con Arroz, and Sierra Diablo. The event will also feature alcoholic beverages available for purchase. Tickets are $7 in advance or $10 at the door. Advance tickets are available here.

PechaKucha San Antonio would not be possible without the support of annual sponsors, including Centro Properties, San Antonio Food Bank, Schroeder Art, Lake Flato Architects, San Antonio River Foundation, Zurich International Properties, Southwest School of Art, RYNO General Contractors, and 500 Sixth.

In-Kind sponsors for the event include Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, Naco 210 Mexican Eatery & Patio, Howdy Kuya!, Cajun con Arroz, Sierra Diablo, Josh Huskin Photography, Libby Morris, Giant Noise, Sprocket Productions, Gary Sweeney, and Alejandro Dehoyos.

PechaKucha San Antonio is presented in partnership with the Las Casas Foundation. More information about PechaKucha is available here.

Pronounced “PEH-chuh KOO-chuh,” PechaKucha is a 20 image x 20 second arts and cultures series. We host speakers who share their passions in a unique format: Each presenter gets exactly 20 images, and each slide advances automatically every 20 seconds (for a total time of 6:40). San Antonio’s first quarterly PechaKucha Night was held in February 2011 and now attracts hundreds of attendees to venues throughout San Antonio. It showcases a broad range of individuals, including architects, artists, makers, academics, community leaders and more. PechaKucha (Japanese for “chit chat”) is an event format developed by Tokyo’s Klein Dytham Architecture to encourage creative professionals to share projects and ideas that they are passionate about. Since it began in 2003, PechaKucha has expanded to more than 1200 cities around the world.

Tobin Center

Documentary film The Computer Accent opens in selected theaters nationwide

The Computer Accent opens this week nationwide. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

The Computer Accent is a documentary following the boundary-pushing pop group Yacht as they try something terrifying and new: handing over the reins of their entire creative process to Artificial Intelligence. Working with technologists and leading AI researchers, Yacht uses cutting-edge data analysis tools, machine learning, neural networks, sci-fi instruments, and generative composition strategies to create a new kind of human-machine album—music, lyrics, artwork, videos, and all. Putting AI to the test in the name of art, Yacht is a guide through the brave new world of machine intelligence. Along the way, they will question their own roles in a future where software anticipates, generates, and synthesizes human work. (The Computer Accent, 2022)

The Computer Accent opens theatrically:

October 21 – New York (Metrograph) (With Live Performance)

November 17- San Francisco (Roxie Theater)

November 17- Los Angeles (Laemmle Theaters)
Including Laemmle Noho, Laemmle Glendale, Laemmle Newhall, Laemmle Monica. Film screenings and performances throughout October and November in major cities including Portland, Bellingham, Austin, Minneapolis, and more.

Documentary, Running time: 83 minutes, USA

Sebastian Pardo and Riel Roch-Decter founded Memory at the start of 2014 and together have produced and distributed award-winning fiction and non-fiction films. They have collaborated with multi-hyphenate filmmakers and artists to bring their debut films to fruition, such as: Celia Rowlson-Hall’s MA, Carson Mell’s Another Evil, Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Fraud, Theo Anthony’s Rat Film, Marnie Ellen Hertzler’s Crestone, and Zia Anger’s My First Film project. In 2016, Memory was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, and in 2020 Memory was awarded the Cinereach Producing Award for their work in “shaping new ways of filmmaking.” Memory’s latest production, Theo Anthony’s All Light, Everywhere won a Special Jury Prize for Non-Fiction Experimentation at Sundance 2021. The Computer Accent, which world premiered at CPH:DOX 2022, is their debut feature film as a directing team.

Yacht began in 2002, as the design studio Young Americans Challenging High Technology, but the group is neither young nor American. For 20 years, Jona Bechtolt, Claire L. Evans, and Robert Kieswetter have shape-shifted through multiple lineups and musical styles, releasing albums internationally on DFA Records and Downtown Records. YACHT has created and sold unplayable compact discs, published a philosophical handbook, built a 62-foot video installation for Dolby, designed an eyewear collection, created a fragrance, campaigned against NSA surveillance, programmed large- scale public art activations, and has been commissioned to speak, curate, and perform by organizations including The Getty Center, Adobe, TEDx, Wired, Moma Lacma, Rhizome, Vice, and more. Their seventh album, Chain Tripping, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album.

Also featuring:
Kenric Allado McDowell, founder of Artists in Machine Intelligence
Research scientists Douglas Eck, Jesse Engel, Adam Roberts of Google Magenta
AI music experimentalists Dadabots
Algorithmic music pioneer Dr. David Cope
Creative technologist and poet Ross Goodwin
AI art curators Luba Elliott and Josette Melchor
Creative Computing researcher Dr. Rebecca Fiebrink

Eddy Lee Ryder’s new single Smoke and Mirrors

Eddy Lee Ryder’s new single finds a home with multiple audiences; it is featured in cult slasher film Terrifier 2, out now. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Singer, songwriter, and free spirit Eddy Lee Ryder creates haunting songs that tell dramatic stories through a slightly warped lens. Eddy’s unconventional, theatrical approach to songwriting explodes and sparkles with ‘70s good-time rock riffs, spiced with complex poetry. Proclaimed “demented pop,” her music is propelled by her charismatic voice and lyrics inspired by an intense bizarre world. “My songs are about a quest for utopia on the open road. Wandering through the world, writing and singing songs about the people I meet.” Her uproarious performances invite audiences to dance with her through the apocalypse. Self-confessed demented-pop artist Eddy Lee Ryder has been writing songs and performing them in quite the nomadic way since she was a teenager, but her new single “Smoke and Mirrors” ended up in a place even she could not have imagined; a hardcore slasher horror film. (Eddy Lee Ryder, 2022)

Through a series of informal introductions to Ryder’s music through mutual friends, Damien Leone—creator, director, and writer of Terrifier 2—ended up using “Smoke and Mirrors” in his film after a search for something that sounded like Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush. “It was actually my friend Jeff Harris, who also was brought into the Terrifier family as a photographer, who messaged me one morning. ‘Can you email Damien? I don’t know why but they are looking for music in your genre, I don’t know how it fits with a slasher flick but that’s what they want!’” remembers Ryder.

The upbeat song itself has a much different backstory. “It’s about friends of mine, amazing independent awesome women, who started doubting themselves or losing themselves after getting married to men who didn’t treat them very well,” says Ryder. “One of the husbands I reference in this song would text other girls but the messages would pop up on my friend’s synced iPad. He once said, ‘Sometimes I wait for her plane to burn in flames.’ That line made it into the song. And this was coming from a guy who would judge me for not being married!”

Fans can hear “Smoke and Mirrors” here. Terrifier 2 is out in theaters and on streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

Television adaptation: ‘The Peripheral’ by William Gibson

The series adaptation of ‘The Peripheral’ will be available on Amazon Prime Video starting October 21, 2022. Photo: Amazon

William Gibson is credited with having coined the term “cyberspace” and having envisioned both the Internet and virtual reality before either existed. His first novel, “Neuromancer,” won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of “Count Zero,” “Burning Chrome,” “Mona Lisa Overdrive,” “Virtual Light,” “Idoru,” “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” “Pattern Recognition,” “Spook Country,” “Zero History,” “Distrust That Particular Flavor,” “The Peripheral,” and “Agency.” “The Peripheral,” a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that takes a terrifying look into the future, has been adapted into a series and will air on Amazon Prime Video beginning on October 21, 2022. The first season consists of eight episodes and stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Gary Carr, and Jack Reynor. (Amazon, 2022)

“The Peripheral” – Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she is trying to avoid. Her brother Burton lives on money from the Veterans Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. She made more as a combat scout in an online game, playing for a rich man, but she has had to let the shooter games go.

Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there are a few have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.

Burton’s been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. He has got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game is not a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad. Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass.

Excerpt available.

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New movies to watch this Halloween season

The Institute will be available this Halloween on Vudu. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

With Halloween right around the corner, here is a list of movies now available or coming soon that are perfect for the season. (October Coast, 2022)

Croc! – Now available on digital/DVD
Lisa and her family unite at a wedding venue, excited for the big day. However, unknown to the family, a nest of hungry crocodiles has been living in the nearby lake. As the crocodiles crash the wedding in a blood thirsty massacre, the remaining family members must survive the night against these Jurassic beasts.

The Mystery Spot – Now available on digital
A number of lost souls find refuge in a small motel in the middle of nowhere, its only distinguishing characteristic being the ruins of an old Mystery Spot—a long-dead roadside attraction with strange metaphysical powers.

Frost – Now available on digital
The story of a young woman and her father who have to fight for survival after being stranded on a remote mountainside during a storm.

The Murder Podcast – Available on October 26 on digital
Two amateur podcasters start investigating a murder in their hometown only to become wrapped up in a terrifying adventure full of supernatural threats.

The Institute – Available on Halloween on Vudu
The acclaimed supernatural horror film hits Vudu for Halloween. Fixes on a young couple who begin to suspect the fertility clinic they have booked themselves into is up to something sinister. They become suspicious when the medical regimen brings on psychological side effects.

Demons at Dawn – Available on October 26 on digital
Starring John Altman, Ben Silver, Amanda Himsworth, Amber Doig-Thorne, Dani Thompson and Chris Sanders, the frightening, thrilling profusion of The Professional and End of Days follows a retired hitman who is blackmailed into taking one last job. During his mission, he uncovers an elite Satanic cult that uses human sacrifice to summon Demons.

New book release: ‘Golden Cookies’ by E’Laiya London-Ashlyn Cuthrell

‘Golden Cookies’ is the new children’s book by E’Laiya London-Ashlyn Cuthrell. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

E’Laiya London-Ashlyn Cuthrell is a twelve-year-old who enjoys making others smile. She is a 7^th grader from North Carolina who developed an interest in writing from reading books, drawing characters, and journaling in her scrapbook. She challenged herself to find the creativity of converting her journals into a short story after completing a writing assignment at school. She realized that her goal to write a short story was possible with hard work, dedication, and words of encouragement. “Golden Cookies” is the story of a wise man who wants to spread positivity everywhere through his very special golden cookies. (E’Laiya London-Ashlyn Cuthrell, 2022)

“Golden Cookies” – The wise man’s cookies make people act and think positively. They bring exceptional changes in even the most mean-hearted people and make their behavior kind and loving towards those around them. He gives these golden cookies out free of cost just to help others and his only reward is seeing the happiness they bring to others. He travels through the woods and hands them out to anyone who would take them and tries to convince those who do not believe in the power of these cookies. Even though some people make fun of him, he eventually manages to turn everything around in a positive way. His efforts are rewarded when people find out that riches, power, beauty, trust, leadership, or recognition cannot bring them happiness, and only eating a golden cookie will bring such change which would give them ultimate happiness. Come join the wise man along a very special path that leads to positive changes, kind words, and happiness. Enjoy the excitement of completing the activity corner worksheets in this book to create your amazing story. Get a bite of the golden cookies as you read this book and all you have ever wished for on the positive side of life may come to you.

“Golden Cookies” is available through Amazon.

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New book release: ‘Silent Whispers of Hope’ by Kimberly Morton Cuthrell

‘Silent Whispers of Hope’ is the new suspense thriller by Kimberly Morton Cuthrell. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Dr. & Atty. Kimberly Morton Cuthrell is an attorney, doctoral-level clinical therapist, suspense author, researcher, mediator, and currently a medical school student. She has a quest to create new inroads in suspense novels with behavioral health twists to destigmatize perceptions. Kimberly is a self-publishing consultant/mentor whereby she paved a landscape as a writing coach, ghostwriter, proofreader, professional editor, and beta reader. Kimberly’s interest to write evolved from reading books, writing proposals for grants and contracts that were awarded, composing corporate compliance and policy/procedure manuals within provisions of state and federal laws, and developing behavioral health accreditation manuals. In her fiction work, Kimberly draws from thought-provoking imaginary situations, the art of wisdom, and diverse viewpoints. She writes to intrigue readers’ minds about potential real-life situations and inspire them to advocate for positive change and make meaningful impacts in their communities. Her new book “Silent Whispers of Hope,” Hope Rankin-Glover is faced with a choice between saving her dying mother or forsaking her by vanishing without a trace with her husband in an effort to evade the FBI. (Kimberly Morton Cuthrell, 2022)

“Silent Whispers of Hope” – Hope Rankin-Glover is thrilled to finally escape her mother’s unstable nest. She tries to navigate the dangers of the unprotected world when she finds solace in the arms of Sloan Glover. Little does she know, Sloan has an ulterior motive for marrying her. As Hope struggles to balance her married life, a new business, and the care of her deaf fraternal twins, she finds joy in learning American Sign Language to open avenues of communication with her children. Torn by her traumatic past, she must come to grips with the odds of reversing her twins’ deafness which depends on her actions and comes with a considerable heart-wrenching truth. Seven years later, Hope’s world comes crashing down. The FBI’s discoveries shed light on Sloan’s darkest secrets. In a spiral twist of suspense, a hurtful betrayal derails Hope. The devastating reality of survival plagued by deception pressures Hope to contemplate venturing into an underworld scheme with Sloan. Not only is the underworld scheme filled with silent whispers, but secrets are exposed and lives are trapped in despair. The only way out will either bring forth a lifetime of despair or bitter peace at last. Not everyone is destined to survive and their survival depends on Hope’s actions which force her to take drastic measures. When silent whispers are all Hope has, will that be enough to survive?

“Silent Whispers of Hope” is available through Amazon. Read an excerpt.