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Photo by Kristin Barlowe

Country Music Hall of Fame member Wynonna Judd is one of the most celebrated artists in Country Music history. She first rose to fame as part of one of the most successful music duos of all time, The Judds. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, holding multiple gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certifications from the RIAA.

The Tobin Center Benefit Concert is thenonprofit performing arts center’s largest fundraiser of the year, supporting their Generation NEXT Arts Education Initiative and Community Engagement programs.

Photo courtesy of Autism Speaks

Autism Speaks presents San Antonio Walk

Autism Speaks Walk is the world’s largest fundraising event to enhance the lives of people with autism today and accelerate a spectrum of solutions for tomorrow. The Autism Speaks Walk brings together people with autism and the parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, relatives and providers who support them. Funds raised help fuel innovative research and make connections to critical lifelong supports and services.

Photo by Waring Abbott Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

San Antonio Zoo presents Zoo La La

San Antonio Zoo presents Zoo La La, their biggest fundraiser of the year, with more than 50 of the area’s premiere restaurants and special performances from Tone Loc and Rob Base.

The all-inclusive evening of food samples, beer, wine, and entertainment also has a VIP experience available with exclusive lounges, specialty cocktails, and early event entry.

All proceeds support San Antonio Zoo and its conservation efforts.

Image courtesy of San Antonio Zoo

San Antonio Zoo presents Education 2 Conservation Celebration Luncheon

San Antonio Zoo will celebrate the community's conservation work at the second annual Education 2 Conservation Celebration Luncheon, highlighting the positive impact on local, regional, and global efforts.

Guests will enjoy a seated lunch on the Rhino Deck as they hear from Keynote Speaker and wildlife filmmaker, Ben Masters. Masters is a filmmaker specializing in wildlife and adventure stories who is most known for writing and directing the feature-length film, Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story (narrated by Matthew McConaughey), directing The River and The Wall, and producing the film Unbranded.

The Education 2 Conservation Celebration Luncheon benefits the Center for Conservation and Research at San Antonio Zoo and the zoo's educational programming and projects

Photo courtesy of Zero Prostate Cancer Run Walk

Zero Prostate Cancer Run Walk San Antonio

The Zero Prostate Cancer Run/Walk aims to raise funds and sharing hope to declare one number above others: Zero. Each participation makes a real difference in the lives of men and families fighting prostate cancer. The run/walk will show the love to patients, and help provide emotional and financial supports for men and families in their time of need.

Photo courtesy of Colon Cancer Coalition

Colon Cancer Coalition presents Get Your Rear in Gear 5K - San Antonio

Colon Cancer Coalition will present Get Your Rear in Gear 5K Run/Walk. The event will include a Kid's Fun Run, and participants can walk through the giant inflatable colon, and support friends and neighbors. Money raised covers colon cancer screenings in San Antonio.

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CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Whataburger weighs in as healthiest cheeseburger in the nation

THEMS EATIN' WORDS

With its love of greasy enchiladas, gluttonous fried steaks, and fat-speckled brisket, San Antonio isn’t exactly known as a healthy eating mecca. But it turns out that one locally beloved dish isn’t as unhealthy as one might think.

Inspired by February’s American Heart Month (albeit belatedly), Gambling.com decided to dig deep into which fast-food burger was best for the ticker and the body overall. What that has to do with online slots is anyone’s guess, but perhaps open-heart surgeries are not conducive to risk-taking.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Local favorite/ food cult Whataburger took the top slot, earning honors with its standby cheeseburger. Assumably, the gambling site considered the mustard-slathered original, eschewing calorie bombs like bacon slices and creamy pepper sauce. Where’s the fun of Whataburger if you can’t get it just like you like it?

To arrive at the rankings, Gambling.com analyzed each burger for sugar, fat, salt, and calorie content per ounce. Each metric was given a one to ten score that factored into the final report card shared with content-hungry food journalists everywhere.

Coming in a close second was In-N-Out’s cheeseburger, a comforting fact for Texans who enjoy complaining about Californians. Rounding out the top five were Checker’s Checkerburger with Cheese, Culver’s ButterBurger Cheese, and Del Taco’s del Cheese Burger.

For those trying to make better eating choices, that list should give some pause. Yes, Whataburger beats out other fast-food faves, but it was competing against a chain that literally toasts all their buns in churned cream. Health is a relative concept.

Elsewhere on the list was another Texas darling, the No. 6 ranked Dairy Queen. Apparently, all that “hungr” is being busted by a hefty dose of sodium. Yes, we will take fries with that.

Disney's Little Mermaid remake goes swimmingly despite new so-so songs

Movie review

The biggest problem with the majority of the live-action updates to classic Disney animated films is that they haven’t been updates at all, choosing to merely regurgitate the moments audiences know and love from the original in a slightly repackaged form. That’s great for nostalgia, but if that’s all viewers wanted, they’d just go back and watch the original.

The Little Mermaid falls into much the same trap, although the filmmakers get at least a little credit for trying to offer something new. The story, of course, remains the same, as Ariel (Halle Bailey) has a fascination with everything above the surface of the ocean. Her rebellious nature, at odds with strict King Triton (Javier Bardem), leads her to spy on a ship with Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) and his crew, putting her in position to save Eric when the ship crashes into rocks.

Now totally enamored of Eric, Ariel is convinced by the sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to give up her voice for a chance to live on land and make Eric fall in love with her. Trouble is, despite the help of Sebastian the crab (Daveed Diggs), Flounder the fish (Jacob Tremblay), and Scuttle the seabird (Awkwafina), Ursula has no plans to let Ariel succeed fair and square.

Directed by Rob Marshall and written by David Magee, the film clocks in at nearly one hour longer than the original, going from 83 minutes to 135. They accomplish this feat with the addition of several songs, including ones “sung” by Ariel while she is without voice, a relatively clever way to get into her thoughts during that long stretch. There are also additional scenes that give Prince Eric more of a backstory, making him more than just a pretty face on which to hang all of Ariel’s hopes and dreams.

The new songs are hit-and-miss; Ariel’s “For the First Time” is a fanciful number that fits in nicely, but “Wild Uncharted Waters,” a solo song for Prince Eric, feels unnecessary, and the less said about “The Scuttlebutt,” a rap performed by Scuttle and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the better. What most people want to see are how the original songs are done, and they come off well for the most part. The actors’ voices are uniformly good and the staging is engaging.

Other changes seem half-hearted, at best. A vague environmental theme broached at the beginning is quickly dropped. The cast is very multicultural, but haphazardly so. The film is obviously set on and around a Caribbean island, making it natural for The Queen (Noma Dumezweni), Eric’s adopted mother, and other islanders to be Black. But giving Ariel “sisters from the seven seas,” allowing for mermaids of several different races and ethnicities, feels odd and forced, and a little creepy given that King Triton is supposed to be the father of all of them.

The fact that Bailey herself is Black, while great for representation, is neither here nor there in the context of the film. Bailey has a voice that is equal to everything she is asked to sing, and her silent acting is excellent in the middle portion of the film. McCarthy makes for a great Ursula, bringing both humor and pathos to the role. Hauer-King, who bears a similarity to Ryan Gosling, plays Eric in a more well-rounded manner.

The live-action version of The Little Mermaid, like almost all of the Disney remakes, never truly establishes itself as its own unique thing. Still, it’s a thoroughly pleasant watch with some nice performances, which clears the bar for success for this era of Disney history.

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The Little Mermaid opens in theaters on May 26.

Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid

Photo courtesy of Disney

Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid.

These 6 San Antonio museums are offering free admission for military families all summer long

spread the museum love

Half a dozen San Antonio museums are honoring active-duty military personnel and their families with free admission through the Blue Star Museums initiative, May 20 through September 4, 2023.

Established by the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and the U.S. Department of Defense, the Blue Star Museums program annually provides military families free access to 2,000 museums nationwide throughout the summer. The program begins yearly on Armed Forces Day in May and ends on Labor Day.

Free admission is extended to personnel currently serving in the U.S Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard (including those in the Reserve), and all National Guardsman. Members of the U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps and NOAA Commissioned Corps are also included in the program.

Those who qualify can use their military ID to bring up to five family members - including relatives of those currently deployed. More information about qualifications can be found here.

There is no limit on the number of participating museums that qualifying families may visit. Admission for non-active military veterans, however, is not included.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts website, the initiative was created to help "improve the quality of life for active duty military families" with a specific focus on children. The site states two million have had a parent deployed since 2001.

"Blue Star Museums was created to show support for military families who have faced multiple deployments and the challenges of reintegration," the website says. "This program offers these families a chance to visit museums this summer when many will have limited resources and limited time to be together."

Here's a look at all the museums in San Antonio that are participating in the Blue Star Museums initiative this year.

For those looking to take a drive around Central Texas, the Sophienburg Museum & Archives in New Braunfels and Bandera's Frontier Times Museum are also participants in the Blue Star Museums initiative.

More information about Blue Star Museums and a full list of participants can be found on arts.gov.