Scott Andrews, arts writer
Scott Andrews has written over 200 critical reviews and feature articles for local and national publications including Art Ltd. and Native Peoples Magazine. He was the Arts Editor for the Phoenix monthly Java Magazine prior to taking the position as arts writer at the Current in February 2011. Andrews’ writing is backed up by 15 years experience as a woodcarver in Boston and New York, numerous seasons painting in Florida, and untold hours staring at shadows. Andrews has also managed several art galleries. When he is not searching for words, Andrews prefers getting lost in strange cities, fields, and studios.
Mike Barajas, staff writer
Mike Barajas, a native of Dayton, Ohio, attended Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism where he graduated in 2009 with degrees in print journalism and French. While in college, Mike wrote for The Athens NEWS, an alt-weekly based in Southeast Ohio. After graduation, Mike flew to the Middle East to intern and report with the Associated Press’ Jerusalem bureau on a John R. Wilhelm Foreign Correspondence Grant. Upon leaving the Middle East, Mike moved to the Rio Grande Valley to report for The Valley Morning Star, where he recently won a Texas Associated Press Managing Editors award for crime reporting.
Greg Harman, editor
From radwaste salt domes under New Mexico’s deserts to the ravaged oil patch of West Texas and the lingering fallout of Agent Orange exposure in Mississippi, Harman has been writing about the state of our environment since his high-school fanzine days. After several years studying the watering holes and truck stops between Texas and Wyoming, Harman finagled an English degree out of Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and began accepting honest pay for wedding words on flickering screens … a long way from his Kaczynskiesque Greyhound-station scribbling days. Since joining the Current as a staff writer in 2007 (after stints at weekly and daily papers in Houston, Las Vegas, Biloxi, Odessa, Pecos, and Alpine), he has been named a print journalist of the year by the Houston Press Club for his series on the border wall (“Muro del Odio”); his work on CPS Energy — particularly worker safety issues — earned him a national public service award from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; and his three-part series on the nuclear fuel chain that ran between 2009 and 2010, starting with “Nukes Mean Mines,” was selected among the best environmental reporting of the year in 2010 by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s OnEarth magazine. He was named editor of the Current in January of 2011, but promises to quit the news-writing business just as soon as victimization and despair cease to be a natural outflow of economic progress. He wants you to be happy and not drive so blinkin’ fast.
Chuck Kerr, arts director
Chuck Kerr is a San Antonio native and was Art Director at the Current from 2006 to January 2010, and again resumed AD duties in December 2010. His covers, graphic design, and illustration work have earned him a 1st Place award for Cover Design in 2007 from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (and an AAN honorary mention in 2011), as well as recognition from the Society of Publication Design and international design blogs coverjunkie.com and nascapas.blogspot.com. Chuck is also an active musician: He began playing drums at age 4 and studied music at St. Mary's University. He has taught at Bulverde Music Academy and the Magik Theatre, and was a founding member of the SA Jazz Workshop. Currently he is drummer for local indie-rock bands Bad Breaks, We Leave at Midnight, and frequently collaborates with Chris Maddin of Blowing Trees.
Enrique Lopetegui, music and film editor
“He was born in Uruguay in 1964, and spent his adolescent years under a right-wing military dictatorship … ” Nah, too bitter. “He came to America in 1981, but his American Dream was shattered when … ” Too sentimental. “A vegetarian since 1985, he writes in two- to three-year spurts until he collapses; then goes to India to recharge and comes right back.” Too personal? Just the facts, ma’am: Lopetegui started writing in Spanish at age 14, moved to the U.S. at 19, and began his English-language career with the LA Weekly in 1992 and the Los Angeles Times in 1993, where he was the Latin pop music critic until 1997. He was a writer and producer of Radio MTV, a weekly syndicated two-hour radio show that aired in Latin America in the ’90s, and his work has appeared in English and Spanish in La Opinión, Billboard, New Times, and other publications. Lopetegui wrote and edited the first three official program books of the Latin Grammy Awards (2000-02) and came to San Antonio in 2004 to be the music editor of Rumbo. He worked there until the paper closed down in 2008. When it comes to film and music, he thinks there’s Chaplin and the Beatles — and then everyone else. A two-time media reporting/criticism finalist with the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (third place, 2010; second place, 2011), Lopetegui is the (usually) undisputed dean of U.S.-based rock en español writers.
Jaime Monzon, web editor
Jaime Monzon is a native of Del Rio and has been living in San Antonio for 19 years. A small-town boy inspired to move to San Antonio to experience the big-city lights, he joined up with several popular S.A. indie-bands in the late ’90s through the millennium. Monzon served as the Current's web editor from 2007-2009 and returned in 2011. He graduated from the Art Institute with a degree in web design, but has also been building and designing web pages through his media and music production company Airport Goodbye. Apart from being a driving force with fancy guitar work for SA's high-energy rock band Ledaswan, Jaime helps organize and educate musicians in the community as a member of Local 782.
Bryan Rindfuss, calendar editor
While attending Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, SA-native Bryan Rindfuss spent one year studying in Italy and six months studying in France. Internships with photographers Richard Avedon and Mary Ellen Mark inspired Rindfuss to stay in New York after graduation. In the 10-plus years that followed, Rindfuss freelanced as a production assistant (producing fashion shows for Kevin Krier & Associates), an archivist (for photographer Steven Klein), a design and research associate (for the fashion line Tocca), and a prop stylist and set fabricator (for George magazine, Sears, L’Oréal, NIVEA, L’Uomo Vogue, and TV Guide). First and foremost a photographer, Rindfuss’ work has appeared in such publications as Interview, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Australia, NYLON, CosmoGirl, Elle Girl, The London Independent, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, EL Tiempo Celeste, Baby Baby Baby, Gothic & Lolita Bible, Tribeza, Austin Monthly, and SPIN. In 2007, Rindfuss exhibited more than 300 of his photographs in Blue Star Contemporary Art Center’s Gallery 4. Since joining the Current as calendar editor in 2009, Rindfuss has reviewed dozens of bars, previewed hundreds of events, and interviewed actresses Holland Taylor and Sandra Bernhard, as well as recording artists Jimmy James, Exene Cervenka, and Peaches — the self-proclaimed “queen of electro-crap,” whom he took out for mini tacos on the St. Mary’s Strip.
