I’ve been a jazz fan for a long time, and a huge fan of the classic Blue Note Records album sleeves designed by Reid Miles. Last weekend was Jazz’SAlive, our annual free jazz festival (not “free jazz” — just free as in “doesn’t cost anything”) held downtown, and so I finally got a chance to do an homage to the Blue Note style with photos of the headliners, Béla Fleck and Marcus Roberts. It was especially fun adding all the little details like the worn circle (from the vinyl inside).

“Queen Tin” by Alex & Felix, part of Fotoseptiembre 2012

This cover was a lot of fun to put together. It’s been a personal goal of mine to create a cover entirely out of Lego (as a kid I used to build my own X-Wings and Batmobiles out of the stuff), and when the Team Better Block story came up, I knew this was a perfect opportunity.

To replicate Alamo Plaza and the surrounding city block, I needed to turn to the experts: The Texas Lego User Group. I saw their amazingly detailed and expansive train build at this year’s Texas Comicon, and knew they could help make it happen. Chris MacDougald, founder of TexLUG-SA (the local chapter in San Antonio), and founding co-chair of Brick Fiesta (an annual fan-run event that draws Lego master builders and thousands of Lego maniacs) created the Lego Alamo from photo reference (called “free build” in Lego terminology) and built up the rest of the city block around it. I had a hand in populating the city with mini-figures: tourists, locals, punks, construction workers … and then we threw in a mummy, Wonder Woman, an Ewok (yep, it’s in there), a gorilla, and other easter eggs. My own personal favorite — a Lego recreation of the Beatles’ Abbey Road cover.

Huge thanks to Chris and Connie MacDougald for their Lego expertise and hospitality, and to Steven Gilmore for the great photos!

My favorite easter egg: a Lego-fied Abbey Road!

An Ewok in the pet store, just because.

Hey, that Lego figure on the left looks … familiar …

Vixy Van Hellen and Jasper St. James, local burlesque performers promoting the city’s first-ever “Burlesque Fest.” Photo by mega-photographer Josh Huskin.

On July 18, 2012, the Current relaunched itself as a glossy-covered, stitched-and-trimmed, full-bleeding, too-legit-to-quit weekly magazine. This is my second full top-to-bottom redesign of the Current — my first was in summer 2007 shortly after becoming Art Director. Not only are the covers slick, glossy, and beautiful (like our previous Best of SA and Drink issues), but the interior pages have been redesigned down to every detail and some things have been re-imagined from the ground up with an eye toward a more magazine-like visuals. This has given me some more leeway to create different kinds of pages, with bolder graphics, more photos, and more playful layouts. So far reaction has been pretty positive across the board. We’ll keep thinking of ways to surprise, delight, and occasionally infuriate our readers week in and week out.

Below are some pages I particularly liked. Enjoy!

It’s summer in Texas, like, nine months out of the year. But June is traditionally “there’s-no-going-back-it’s-going-to-be-hot-for-a-while-screw-it-let’s-go-swimming” weather, and for this the Current is right there with you guys. The Summer Guide cover was shot by the indomitable Josh Huskin, and our model is Jessie Clark, with hair by Cindy Pham and a handmade vintage-inspired swimsuit by San Antonio designer Crissy Baker, whose Nerd Alert Designs is blowing up on the internet. Thanks to everybody who worked on this, see you at the beach!

Behind the scenes video by Javier Gil.

Go Spurs Go. (‘Nuff said.)

This week’s Current is devoted to local music — and SA band Pop Pistol graces the cover this year for being voted Best Indie Rock Band. For this shoot, I thought it would be fun for them to interact with the cover type, so I cut out the words by hand and photog Josh Huskin took care of the rest. I think it’s a lot of fun, and while the winners list always draws mixed emotions (sample comment: “This city sucks balls. That’s why most of the bands on this list are shitty”), I think anything that provokes any kind of reaction from our sometimes-too-apathetic city is better than no reaction at all. I personally like enjoy the music of several bands that did well on the list, and it also showed me a few that I’d never heard before but am now eager to check out. So congratulations to the winners of our little popularity contest … we’ll see you ’round the clubs.