When I arrive at Redland Roadhouse, a country/western pub off of U.S. 281 North, about 80 gay men between ages 30 and 50 are already congregating around the bar. One might immediately ask what factors brought me to tag them as gay. Well, there's no definitive way to verify that. But I pass go with a better question: Would I say these men are straight?

Definitely not.

Public Art San Antonio got its 1 percent from City Council Thursday, following several months of wrangling over what will amount to as little as $7 million for public art over the next five years, provided voters approve the $590 million bond City leaders plan to place on the ballot in 2012. The new ordinance, which increased the percentage of bond and capital improvement projects dedicated to public-art installations from "up to 1 percent," still leaves San Antonio well behind Houston, Austin, and Fort Worth, which invest from 1.75 to 2 percent.

For an update to this story, see: The Museo's New Dream Team.

Thanks to a surprise budget savings of $100,000, the Museo Alameda may get its City arts money yet.

Last month, the Cultural Arts Board recommended a funding level of zero for the Smithsonian affiliate because of low scores for financial stability and programming, a potentially fatal blow to an organization that has struggled to build an audience since its big-deal opening in 2007 and that is currently working under an austerity budget. Although there has been much public praise for new Museo Chairman Rolando Pablos, the progress he's made doubling attendance and building on the critically acclaimed Revolution & Renaissance exhibit was not reflected in the final recommendations CAB approved last night.

But Council must sign off on the numbers, and Museo supporters at City Hall had been eyeing an unused $150,000 in the category that funds eight City tenants, including the Museo and the Witte Museum.

Dennis Miller and Bill Maher are two glorious examples of stand-up comedians whose interest in politics has, at times, overshadowed their careers in comedy. Whether they're "shadow artists" (those with the thirst for conquest but not the strength for battle), who get close enough to politics to smell like they've been there, or cursed politicians trapped in the bodies of talented humorists is anyone's guess. But one thing is certain: they are often welcome guests on the campaign trail as free promotion for candidates, issues and the Constitution itself. It's interesting to recall that Jon Stewart was an industry nobody until he knocked on the welcoming door of political comedy.

San Antonio's local equivalent is Jay LaFarr, whose unpredictable, razor-sharp tongue has made his opinions, onstage and online, so well known that among his peers he's been designated "the Voice of San Antonio Comedy."