SAY Sí welcomes new co-directors

Stephen Garza-Guzman and Nicole Amri announce first in-person events at Westside location and registration for 2021-2022 school year. Photo: google

Following the recent announcement of SAY Sí’s executive evolution, SAY Sí’s new Co-Executive Directors Stephen Garza-Guzman and Nicole Amri are excited to welcome the community into its new location as they prepare for the return of in-person events and student applications for the 2021-2022 school year. After delays to its official opening due to the pandemic, SAY Sí is excited to open its doors to the Westside for the first time as construction on the first phase of the new location ends. In order to remain accessible, SAY Sí will continue to offer virtual programming to serve as many students as possible throughout the upcoming school year. (SAY Sí, 2021)

“How often does a new leader have such blessings? Our mission is tried and true, and we’ve had the honor of growing up with and around our powerhouse of a staff. All this to serve students, parents and alumni who are truly the energy and power behind our organization. We’re ready.” – Nicole Amri, Co-Executive Director of SAY Sí.

Co-Executive Directors Stephen Garza-Guzman, a nine-year employee of SAY Sí, and Nicole Amri, a SAY Sí alumna and employee, plan to take what they have learned from the organization to build upon existing programs and serve more youth as they transition into their new roles and open the doors of the 1310 S Brazos location this August. As the organization continues to establish its new home in 78207, the leadership team looks forward to making more meaningful connections on San Antonio’s Westside.  

“We are eager to recruit new students again, pilot new creative mediums and deepen our service to new populations,” – Stephen Garza-Guzman, Co-Executive Director of SAY Sí. 

After graduating the class of 2021 and taking a short break this summer, SAY Sí will welcome the return of its students back into its studios starting this August, as well as four major in-person events for the public, including:

  • August: Back-to-School Art Supply Drive
    As part of many efforts to put school and art supplies in the hands of San Antonio youth, SAY Sí will give away free art supply kits to elementary- and middle school-aged students on Saturday, August 21, 2021 from 10 a.m. to Noon at SAY Sí (1310 S. Brazos St. San Antonio, TX 78207).
  • September: The San Antonio Show
    Centered around local artists, both established and emerging, this celebration of San Antonio’s LatinX roots will dig into the past, present and future, and showcase all the things SAY Sí loves about San Antonio. The exhibition will be free and open to the public. Official dates will be shared at a later time.
  • November: Muertitos Fest
    SAY Sí will celebrate both Native American Heritage Month and Día de los Muertos in a slow reopening of in-person events/activities. More details to be announced in the coming weeks. 
  • December: We Are Now: Youth Voices During Challenging Times
    In collaboration with UP Partnership, SAY Sí is taking submissions for this city-wide high school art show. For more information or to apply, contact SAY Sí.

Applications for the 2021-2022 school year will open on August 1, 2021. Updates and more information on the application process can be found online. 

Founded in 1994, SAY Sí is a national award-winning, art-based nonprofit youth development program located in San Antonio, Texas. The goal of the organization is to provide San Antonio area students in grades 6-12 with the opportunity to develop artistic and social skills in preparation for higher educational advancement and career building. SAY Sí programs serve over 200 students from all of San Antonio’s school districts – in addition to serving 4,000 youth in community programs. SAY Sí’s unique approach to education has placed the organization on the national stage, with recognition as one of the top out-of-school-time organizations in the country by The Wallace Foundation, as well as serving as one of seven international youth arts organizations chosen to receive an inaugural Creative Catalyst Award by Adobe Project 1324 in 2016.

 

Mixtli announces grand opening of new Southtown location

The team behind San Antonio’s most lauded restaurant has officially announced opening. Photo: Mixtli, used with permission.

The team behind Mixtli, the nationally renowned progressive Mexican restaurant, has officially announced the opening of the new space located at 812 South Alamo Street in Southtown. Led by Executive Chefs Rico Torres and Diego Galicia, 2017 FOOD & WINE’s Best New Chefs and James Beard semi-finalist nominees for “Best Chefs Southwest” in 2018, Mixtli’s new space features a larger dining room, an open kitchen concept and a new bar. Tickets open one month in advance and are now available here for August. (Mixtli, 2021)

“We are very excited to call Southtown our home,” said Diego Galicia. “The area is a legendary hotspot for restaurants, and we are so lucky to be able to be right in the middle of it. The residents have been incredibly warm and welcoming. We cannot wait to welcome every one of our guests back.”

Like clouds, the menu travels from place to place offering a tour in Mexican gastronomy and will rotate quarterly. If the state has a border with the ocean, the Mixtli team starts the trek on the coast and works inland, bringing dishes specifically from that region or state. After each season, the cloud travels to other lands, and the team begins again with a new menu.

“Mixtli’s mission to rescue, revive, protect, and promote the history and origins of Mexico’s Gastronomy continues to grow as we expand into our new home,” says Rico Torres. “With the addition of the bar program, new team members, and additional space we can curate the guests’ experience in new and exciting ways.”

Now through September 18, Mixtli is currently featuring the Oaxaca menu. Oaxaca is known as Mexico’s most iconic microcosm of food. With endless coasts, mountains, and forests, it is a region that presents some of the most unique and ancient flavors in Mexico. Known as the land of the seven moles, Oaxaca is a powerhouse of regional food. Its folklore and flavors are unique, and it is a state where food and drink are celebrated like nowhere else in Mexico. Guests can expect menu items such as Tichinda cold water mussels and chintestle; Barbacoa de Mariscos seafood barbacoa, seaweed salsa and tortillas and Mole Amarillo grass fed-ribeye with roasted onion and Chilhuacle Amarillo.

The Bar at Mixtli offers a variety of beverage options including cocktails, agave spirits, and a progressive wine list. Paying homage to the traveling food and drink menus, the bar features an 8 ft. cloud that has a mind of its own. The ever evolving cocktail list was crafted by longtime San Antonio mixologist Derik Cortez. Derik has been in the cocktail industry for 22 years and has trained under notable craft cocktail figures like Jake Corney from Jazz TX and Christopher Ware, formerly from Paramour.

Mixtli is located in San Antonio at 812 South Alamo Street Suite #103 and is open Tuesday—Saturday with the first seating beginning at 5p.m. Parking is available at the restaurant.

Helmed by owners and Executive Chefs Rico Torres and Diego Galicia, Mixtli’s menu travels from place to place, offering a tour in Mexican gastronomy. Chef Rico Torres and Diego Galicia were named one of FOOD & WINE’s Best New Chefs of 2017 and James Beard semifinalists for “Best Chef Southwest” in 2018. The current Mixtli is located at 5251 McCullough Ave.

 

Sneak peek at authors coming to the 2021 Texas Book Festival

List of 15 authors coming to the 2021 hybrid Texas Book Festival in October. Photo: google

The Texas Book Festival is excited to unveil fifteen authors joining the weeklong hybrid Festival this fall. The Festival will feature Pulitzer Prize–winning author Colson Whitehead, Michener Center for Writers instructor Elizabeth McCracken, bestselling novelist and 2016 Kirkus Prize finalist Amor Towles, National Medal of Arts recipient and 2005 Texas Writer Award recipient Sandra Cisneros, bestselling children’s author R. J. Palacio, and many more. (Texas Book Festival, 2021)

Starting October 25, the weeklong hybrid Festival will include a robust, diverse lineup of established, emerging, and debut literary talent for readers of all ages. TBF’s full lineup will be completed and revealed later this summer.

The full list of the fifteen sneak peek authors include:
• Rumaan Alam, “Leave the World Behind”
• Benjamin Alire Sáenz, “Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World”
• Sandra Cisneros, “Martita, I Remember You / Martita, te recuerdo”
• Mary Gaitskill, “The Devil’s Treasure”
• Gabriela Garcia, “Of Women and Salt”
• Elizabeth McCracken, “The Souvenir Museum”
• Maggie Nelson, “On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint”
• R. J. Palacio, “Pony”
• Raj Patel, “Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice”
• Don Tate, “Pigskins to Paintbrushes”
• Amor Towles, “The Lincoln Highway”
• Sergio Troncoso, “Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in Between Worlds”
• Colson Whitehead, “Harlem Shuffle”
• Lawrence Wright, “The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid”
• Cecily Wong, “Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide”

With a vision to inspire Texans of all ages, the Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination. Founded in 1995 by former First Lady Laura Bush, Mary Margaret Farabee, and a group of volunteers, the nonprofit Texas Book Festival promotes the joys of reading and writing through its annual Festival Weekend, the Texas Teen Book Festival, the Reading Rock Stars Title I elementary school program, the Real Reads Title I middle and high school program, grants to Texas libraries, and year-round literary programming. This year’s hybrid Texas Book Festival will take place from October 25 through October 31, with virtual events October 25 – 28 and the Festival Weekend taking place on the grounds of the Texas Capitol October 30 – 31, featuring renowned authors, panels, book signings, and children’s activities. Thanks to generous donors, sponsors, and volunteers, the Festival remains free and open to the public.

 

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The Classic Theatre of San Antonio’s next production of Theatre in the Rough

The Classic Theatre’s production of ‘As You Like It’ opens September 9, 2021. Photo: The Classic Theatre of San Antonio.

The Classic Theatre of San Antonio is opening the second season of Theatre in the Rough with ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare. Opening on Thursday, September 9, it will run until Sunday, September 26, 2021. Performed at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, it will be directed by Nick Lawson with performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 7:30p.m. with the exception of a performance on Monday, September 20 and no performance on Thursday, September 23. Tickets are available online. (The Classic Theatre of San Antonio, 2021)

‘As You Like It’ – Rosalind’s uncle rises to the throne and she is immediately banished from court. With her best friend and uncle’s daughter Celia by her side, she runs into the forest of Arden for refuge, only to catch the lovesick eye of another banished youth named Orlando. The result is a hilarious conglomeration of cross-dressing, foolery, melodic songs, questionable poetry, and laughs aplenty. Will love always win or are we merely mad? ‘As You Like It’ is an entertaining and touching exploration of life, death, love, family, and the bonds that tie us together.

Cast includes Kacey Roye, Josey Porras, Eddie Morfin Jr., Hunter Wulff, Randee Nelson, Adam Ochoa, Natalie Blackman, and Emit Quintero.

Star-Base Collectors Con in Brownsville

Brownsville’s inaugural collector’s con is happening August 7 and 8 at the Brownsville Event Center. Photo: google

Star-Base Collectors Con is Brownsville’s first ever Collectors Con and is taking place Saturday August 7 and Sunday August 8, 2021. It will combine the sports and pop culture world with guests from both sides of the spectrum – actors and voice actors for the pop culture fans, and sports stars for the sports fans who collect cards and memorabilia. There will also be special meet and greets scheduled. Vendors from all genres will be selling collectibles like Funko Pops, Star Wars figures and vehicles, Marvel Figures and Statues, DC figures and Statues, Anime Statues and figures, Pokémon Cards, Sports Cards, and more. Cosplay is permitted and encouraged. Hope to see everyone at this inaugural event hosted by Kulture Shock Collectibles in Brownsville. (Kulture Shock Collectibles, 2021)

It will be a weekend filled with artists, vendors, cosplayers, celebrities, gaming, contests, and fun for the entire family. Tickets are available online and range from $3 for children for one day to special two day pricing and VIP meet and greet packages. Children 6 years and under get in for free.

August 7 from 10a.m. to 7p.m.
August 8 from 10a.m. to 5p.m.

Brownsville Event Center
1 Event Center Blvd
Brownsville, TX 78526

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Jackson Melnick’s debut LP Abilene

Jackson Melnick makes bluegrass-tinged music for the brain on debut LP Abilene. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Colorado songwriter Jackson Melnick has long been aware of the struggles of modern-day farmers in the but seeing the cold hard facts directly inspired his new song “Trouble.” “I was reading about the plight of suicides among farmers in America,” says Melnick. “Farmers have a suicide rate that more than three times that of the general population.” Melnick has seen the isolation many farmers struggle with, as well as seeing society at large becoming less tolerant of the demands of farmers and less aware of where their food comes from. In a beautifully heartbreaking, rollicking melody, he wastes no time getting to the point. “10,000 lives gone like the weather / When are we gonna start treating our farmers better?,” sings Melnick in “Trouble.” Bluegrass Today shared a music video for the song, calling it “an interesting mix of folk and bluegrass, with Dylan-esque songs.” In Melnick’s words, “The music video for the song says it all: digging a hole that’ll be your grave but can’t stop digging for the love of it.” “Trouble” is the first single from Melnick’s debut full-length album Abilene, due out September 24. Fans can watch the video for “Trouble” here and pre-order or pre-save Abilene ahead of its release at this link. (Jackson Melnick, 2021)

Produced by esteemed musician Christopher Henry (Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band), the upcoming Abilene positions Melnick as an important new voice in folk music, and also features accomplished bluegrass musicians such as Jason Carter, Matt Combs, Alex Leach, Tuck Tucker, and Cory Walker. Although the arrangements draw on the traditional sound of Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, among others, Abilene is at heart a songwriter’s record. Across these 10 tracks, Melnick combines his reverence for bluegrass with a lyrical point of view that is both mystical and topical.

After a rousing opener of “John the Revelator,” Melnick moves to the aforementioned “Trouble,” which touches on suicides within the farming communities of the Owens Valley in California. It is an epidemic he learned about while attending nearby Deep Springs College during a period of time when he began to hone his songwriting craft. Later, “South of My Soul” offers a sincere testimony about wishing the best for the other person when a relationship dissolves. Written in the moment, it is a cinematic yet poetic song that explores what it means to forgive and to heal. Truly, these emotional perspectives align well with Melnick’s career as a psychotherapist. “Being a therapist requires a lot of presence and raising consciousness, and I think that’s the kind of songwriter I’m interested in being, too,” he says. “I want to write songs that elevate the space to a higher mind of seeing things. I find that the themes in my music tend to be connected to that experience.”

Growing up in Crested Butte, Colorado, Melnick began meditating when he was 8 years old. Within a few years, he learned to play guitar and started busking—first singing John Denver and Steve Earle songs, then moving toward Dylan classics. Through most of his teenage years he hosted a weekly radio show on a local community station, too. But the most transformative moment may have been when he was 17 years old and saw a video of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on stage. “I was watching them, and I felt like I knew exactly what they were doing, and how they did it. It was a transmission, like, ‘I know how to do that,’” Melnick recalls. “It hit me like a stack of bricks. Then I went to my guitar and I wrote three songs. They just sort of poured out and that was the beginning for me.”

Yet, music is just one component of Melnick’s overall goal. “I’m focused on big-project thinking,” he says, “I don’t want to just be a musician. I want to be working toward the healing of our planet.”

Abilene Track list:
John The Revelator
Trouble
I See You
Raghse Zarrat
Spirit Mother
Abilene
San Diego Pt. 2
San Diego
South Of My South
The Rhythm Has No End

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Celebrate National Tequila Day with WB Liquors & Wine

National Tequila Day specials from WB Liquors & Wine. Photo: WB Liquors & Wine

WB Liquors & Wine celebrates Tequila Day with specials on its top-selling tequilas. Tequila Day specials will run at all WB locations from July 19-July 24. (WB Liquors & Wine, 2021)

WB Liquors & Wine is adding sizzling specials to some of their hottest tequilas in celebration of Tequila Day on Saturday, July 24. Tequila started to trend in everyone’s home bar carts during the pandemic in 2020, with its share of liquor sales up 22% over 2019. Plus, while national net spirits sales increased by 15% in Q3 and Q4 of 2020, tequila jumped 80%.

The thirst for tequila continues to grow in 2021, so WB Liquors & Wine is celebrating with the following specials from now through Tequila Day on Saturday, July 24 at all locations.

• $40 Casamigos Blanco 750ML
• $30 El Silencio Espadin Mezcal 750ML
• $30 Jose Cuervo Tradicional Añejo 750ML
• $30 Teremana Tequila Reposado 750ML

Fun fact: Founded by George Clooney and Rande Gerber, Casamigos was the #2 top-selling liquor in 2020 according to Drizly.

WB Liquors has helped Texans across the state celebrate their special occasions for more than 50 years. As a family-owned business, it began with a simple desire: to help customers make the good times even better with convenient locations and an extensive variety of liquor, beer, and wine – along with fast, personalized and expert-level service customers would expect from a neighborhood store. Today, that simple vision still defines their business and it is what keeps customers coming back.

 

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First impression: Amor Y Pan

These pastries are delicious, sugar free, and low carb. Photo: Sandra Cruz

I am definitely loving my weekly trips into town to discover the variety of options, from restaurants, to coffee shops and bakeries. Even though I am vegan, I have no dietary restrictions like low-fat or sugar free but I like to keep track of restaurants and shops that cater to people who do to help out friends and family. My next culinary adventure took me to Amor Y Pan in Brownsville. It is listed as a lifestyle market and bakery that sells breads and desserts perfect for keto, paleo and vegan needs but they also have healthy snacking options.

It was not hard to find, it is along Expressway 77 and there is plenty of parking, which I love. This alone will guarantee that I will keep going back time and time again. Located on Suite 16, the inside is smaller than I expected, but they make excellent use of the space available. As you come in, the wall to the right is fitted with shelves stocked with grocery must-haves like granola, protein bars, avocado oil, chips, and dressings. The refrigerated section stocks pre-packaged almond flour and nopal tortillas, which are raw and ready to be cooked, and other food items. What drew my attention were the baked goods on the counter ready to go home with me: keto sandwich thins, tella cookies, cinnamon rolls, honey butter biscuits, and conchitas. Most of them were sold out by the time I got there, but I am guessing that is a positive sign. They are labeled and designated as keto, low carb, paleo, or vegan, whichever the case may be. This is a major plus. On my next trip I will try definitely try their coffee.

Let it be known that I have already been back twice. The first time I bought the almond flour tortillas, the nopal tortillas, the Primal Kitchen avocado oil, and two tella cookies. The second time I decided to sample more of the baked goods, so I bought a carrot cake cupcake, an assortment of cookies, and a piece of cheesecake. Everything is delicious and it is hard to tell that the baked goods are sugar free and low carb. The prices are reasonable considering that it is a health focused business. I spent $36.77 on my first visit.

A big thank you to Karime, the friendly and helpful cashier who patiently answered all my questions and guided my shopping for the day. This gem of a market has an assortment of products geared towards the health-conscious shopper. Next time you are looking to satisfy your sweet tooth craving without added sugar or carbs, shop small, shop local, and stop by Amor Y Pan. Save a cookie for me.

Amor y Pan
800 N. Expressway 77/83, Suite 16
Brownsville, TX 78520
(956) 443-0607

Business hours:
Monday through Friday 10a.m. to 7p.m.
Saturday 10a.m. to 3p.m.
Sunday Closed

Price range: $ – $$

Rating: 4 out of 5.
  • Partial menu
  • A nearly sold out counter
  • A wide variety of choices
  • Tella cookies
  • My shopping for the day
  • I made tacos with the almond flour tortillas

Matthew Fowler’s new album The Grief We Gave Our Mother

Matthew Fowler’s stunning label debut The Grief We Gave Our Mother due out September 10, 2021. Photo: google

Some people collect stamps or baseball cards or instruments, but born-and-raised Florida musician Matthew Fowler is well on his way to perfecting the art of collecting memories, displaying them not on a shelf but in musical verse and melody for the world to hear. “I moved to Denver. I quit my job. My grandfather died. I fell in and out of love. I toured all over the place. I spent a month living in Mauritius, the island country off Madagascar where my mom grew up,” says Fowler about the ingredients of his upcoming album The Grief We Gave Our Mother—out September 10 via Signature Sounds Recordings. (Matthew Fowler, 2021)

With Fowler, however, the easy-to-recall memories usually represent something more profound under the surface. For example, “I’m Still Trying,” at its root, is an admission of guilt and a shot at reconciliation with a family grown apart. “I lived with my parents for a long time in-between touring and traveling. Returning back to my childhood home after experiencing so much on tour made me take the time to remember lots of things about my past with a new perspective.” Fowler was named Holler’s New Artist of the Week and spoke with them about his music and more. Listen to “I’m Still Trying” at this link and pre-order or pre-save The Grief We Gave Our Mother ahead of its September 10 release right here.

Written over the course of the past several years, The Grief We Gave Our Mother is indeed a profoundly personal work of self-discovery and introspection, but more than that, it is an ode to growing up and chasing dreams. The result is a record that is at once bold and timid, hopeful and anxious, world-weary and naïve, an honest, revelatory collection all about putting one foot in front of the other and forging a life of purpose, passion, and meaning. “This record is the sound of me finding myself and my place in the world,” Fowler reflects. “It’s about real moments and real stories and real people.”

The Grief We Gave Our Mother Track list:
Marianne
Been A Lover
Reprise
Blankets
I Fall Away
Leaving Home, Looking Back
Everything That I Could
I’m Still Trying
Rest
Going Nowhere
Cassie
Rooftops
Beginners

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Brian Yuzna presents Tales of Blood Island

Producer Brian Yuzna presents Tales of Blood Island – serialized horror comics and Tiki-style mugs. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Brian Yuzna, the legendary producer behind the 1985 film adaptation of the zombie horror classic, H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator,® has unveiled a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a serialized comic book and Tiki-style monster mug line called BRIAN YUZNA PRESENTS TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND.  Based on a script by writers David Sehring and Mark Cerulli, Yuzna and Drive-In-Sanity Films plan to adapt the comic books for a filmed reboot of the franchise with Tiki-mug tie ins and ancillary merchandise to complement and elevate the promotional and marketing efforts for the production. (Brian Yuzna, 2021)

Inspired by the successful “Blood Island” zombie and creature feature franchise made in the Philippines by Hemisphere Pictures for the U.S. drive-in market from 1959 through 1970, the comic book incorporates key characters from the original films and more jungle thrills, strange science fiction and fantasy, and over-the-top monsters and gore that were the key ingredients of the Blood Island pictures as well as “Mondo Movies” and exploitation films from that period. 

BRIAN YUZNA PRESENTS TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND, the comic book, is a movie series in the making with storyboard styling that screams “action” from artist Stephen Sistilli and coloring and lettering from Dexter Weeks.  Both Sistilli and Weeks worked on another Tiki-themed comic, Koni Waves for Arcana Comics from 2005 through 2010.  The first issue of BRIAN YUZNA PRESENTS TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND will be 36-pages in full color with three future issues planned for the initial run of the series.  Told in the style of classic cliffhanger serials and tropical tales from Men’s Adventure magazines and pulps, the new comic book features tiki terrors and non-stop monster mayhem, mixing and mashing up myths and folklore from around the world.

To coincide with the release of the comic books, there will also be more “blood in your eye” with a series of “mix-and-match” Tiki-style mugs based on the characters and creatures featured in the original movies and new comics. 

The undying, green-blooded zombie, the Beast of Blood, is the first Tiki Monster mug in the line as sculpted by Tiki-fantasy artist Tom “Thor” Thordarson, who has held numerous executive titles with Walt Disney Imagineering, Universal Studios, Tiki Farm and other theme park and design companies.

BRIAN YUZNA PRESENTS TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND is a comic book re-boot and re-imagining of the classic Hemisphere Pictures’ Blood Island creature feature franchise directed in the Philippines by Gerardo de Leon and Eddie Romero in the 1960s and 1970s.   Romero went on to serve as Associate Producer on Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Like Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, YUZNA’S TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND is set during the end of the Vietnam War, somewhere in the South Seas, on a mysterious, primitive island filled with a multitude of monsters and mutants. There, a soldier-of-fortune and an ex-war buddy team up for a top-secret mission to find and exterminate the murderous war criminal, Dr. Akira Lorca, whose mad experiments with evolution and a jungle plant serum, derived from man-eating trees, create a hideous, head-hunting, body-swapping beast that terrorizes the island population by feasting on and appropriating their blood and flesh.

Produced in association with Bauer Pottery, one of the oldest ceramics companies in the United States, the Beast of Blood mug was designed and sculpted by Tiki fantasy artist Tom “Thor” Thordarson and is two mugs in one.  When stacked, the Beast of Blood Tiki-style mug is approximately 8″ tall.  Separated, the Beast’s disembodied head holds approximately 4 ounces of fluid while the Beast’s headless body holds approximately 8 ounces of liquid refreshment.  More color glazes and more beasts from the TALES OF BLOOD ISLAND comic books will be coming soon to mix and mash up with their fellow Blood Islander who was first made available, in a limited run, for the legendary Polynesian and tiki-themed Mai-Kai Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for their Hulaween 2020 Drive-In event. The mug proved quite popular and was a sell-out.  All new color glazes and “blood splatter” editions will be made available to Kickstarter patrons of the BLOOD ISLAND campaign should it prove successful in reaching its funding goals.

Drive-In-Sanity Films is a production, marketing and distribution company run by David Sehring, a 37-year veteran film, television and creative services executive who has worked for Vestron Home Video, AMC Networks, including Shudder & IFC Midnight, as well as web retailer, Karmaloop.  While at AMC, Sehring won an Emmy for the doc Hollywood Rocks The Movies: The 1970s and created AMC’S Monsterfest (Now FearFest). Sehring also launched the first high-definition horror and creature feature channel, Monsters HD.  Sehring’s other credits include documentaries on the history of horror, sci-fi & fantasy including Behind The Planet of the Apes; The Alien Saga; The Fly Papers and Tales From The Crypt: From Comic Books To Television, among others.   

Courtesy photo, used with permission.