S-2012-03-01 by News & Review

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see bites, page 6 see Sound Advice, page 33 see Scene&heard, page 17

OCCUPY

STUDENTS GOT SOLD OUT

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SACRAMENTOSAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION

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occupy

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see Feature Story, page 14

girl Scout FeminAziS see Popsmart, page 16

THE C

knock knock no joke see music, page 32

Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

Volume 23, iSSue 46

thurSday, march 1, 2012

building a

HealtHy Sacramento

“

In college, Williams began working at St. Hope where she developed the school’s first girls after school program. Then in 1996, she took a job with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater

not everybody gets the same chance at achieving a healthy life. But thanks to the California Endowment and the Building Healthy Communities Initiative, many areas including South Sacramento, are getting that opportunity. BHC is managed by a steering committee made up of various community members, city representatives, county representatives and youth. Williams serves as Hub director and said that she works with the steering committee to make sure each of the Sacramento BHC’s 35

We are trying to make streets safer, healthy food more available and schools a more positive place to be! Sacramento where she remained until she joined Hub to begin working on Building Healthy Communities. Through her work over the years, South Sacramento has become very close to her heart and working on BHC gave her a new way to help that community. Building Healthy Communities is a 10-year, $1 billion plan paid for by the California Endowment. It’s taking place in 14 communities across California where they are working to improve employment opportunities, education, housing, neighborhood safety, unhealthy environmental conditions, access to healthy foods and more. Williams knows health doesn’t just happen when you step in to a doctor’s office for a check-up or choose shredded wheat cereal for breakfast instead of bacon. Health is complicated and is shaped by numerous factors: your work, your education, your housing, your neighborhood, etc. In other words, where we live matters when it comes to health. And because of that,

grantees stays on task. These tasks focus on 10 outcome goals that have been designated for each of the 14 communities to attain by the end of the program. Outcome goals center on decreasing child obesity and youth violence as well as increasing school attendance and healthcare for young people and families. Working toward these goals in partnership with Williams over the past year, the BHC grantees have constructed several community gardens, created new job opportunities in the grantees’ organizations and introduced salad bars in local school cafeterias. And according to Williams, this is just the beginning. She encourages the community to get “plugged in” to the change evolving in South Sacramento and shine a spotlight on the work being done under the BHC initiative.

Creating Healthy Communities In 2010, The California Endowment embarked on a new, 10-year strategic direction: Building Healthy Communities. The goal is to support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn, because research proves that health is linked to employment, education, economic opportunity, housing the environment and more. Healthy communities start with healthy people. The Endowment brings a wealth of policy and research experience into partnerships with the community. The year-long planning phase brought everyone to the table – schools, local government, business leaders, neighborhood groups and individuals. Community voices came together to create a vision for 2020 and a plan for getting

there. With grants from the Endowment, the community will work across all systems that impact community health, including schools, human services, economic development, transportation and land use. Together, they will revolutionize the way all of us think about and support health of all Californians.

www.SacBHC.com

Get connected with CalConnect, the online Building Healthy Communities network, at http://www.mycalconnect.org/sacramento. The California Endowment Sacramento North Regional Office 1414 K Street, 5th Floor • Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 443-4355 www.CalEndow.org/HealthHappensHere

paid with grant from california endowment 2 | SN&R | 03.01.12

“

Kim Williams’ commitment to the community in South Sacramento is more than professional obligation – it’s personal. She and her family moved to West Sacramento when she was 3 years old, and she has remained relatively local ever since, eventually going to UC Davis where she studied human development.

TAKE OVER THE DOME

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HERE LIES

PUBLIC

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EDUCATION

BEFORE

19%

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FEATURE

CAPITOL FEATURE STORY

STAGE

ARTS&CULTURE

Local graphic novelist Aaron Nelson drew on Joseph Conrad’s 1903 novella Heart of Darkness for his theme in Marlow, released this week and illustrated in bold, punchy frames by Dario Carrasco (see cover). Who is Nelson and how did he come up with this novel and its loyal band of allies and soul-dead zombies? Also this week: Greg Lucas bails out suburban Greek eats, Knock Knock drops a new album on Jackson Griffith, and Nick Miller spills about Death Grips signing to Epic Records. Popsmart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Art of darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Scene&Heard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

GREEN DAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Greenlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 CO2 trap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 An Inconvenient Ruth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Eco-Hit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Why do I spy?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 This Modern World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Guest Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

NIGHT&DAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Events Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 All I wanna do is bicycle . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Sacramento Beer Week continues . . 21

FEATURE STORY

DISH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Assorted Occupy the Capitol protests are planned throughout California this coming week, complete with mock funerals for public education, a 99-mile protest march from UC Berkeley to UC Davis to Sacramento, and even a proposed “occupation” under the rotunda dome. Protesters say it all marks a new era of collaboration between college students and labor-union members—all of them headed for the Capitol on March 5.

Cosmo Garvin chimes in on the latest Sacramento Kings arena news as citizens weigh the city-NBA-Maloof deal and the council waits for an official term sheet. Also this week: high-speed rail gets a reboot and the head of the California Fish and Game Commission needs to resign. Bites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Rebooting rail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Beats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Bee nice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

FRONTLINES

EDUCATION

GOOD,

N DEBT

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VoÒume 23, Issue 46 | March 1, 2012

UPY THE

Advertising Policies All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message.

BEFORE

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WALL

STREET

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IN STUDEN T

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Streetalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Letter of the Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in SN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. SN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form and to edit them for libel.

GREED

FRONTLINES

JOB MARKET

SACRAMENTOSAVE PUBLIC EDUC

STUDENT LOAN

UC DAVIS

1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815 Phone (916) 498-1234 Sales Fax (916) 498-7910 Editorial Fax (916) 498-7920 Website www.newsreview.com SN&R is printed by The Paradise Post using recycled newsprint whenever available.

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President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Accounting Manager Kevin Driskill Credit and Collections Manager Renee Briscoe Business Shannon McKenna, Zahida Mehirdel Human Resources Manager Tanja Poley Systems Manager Jonathan Schultz Systems Support Specialist Joe Kakacek Web Developer/Support Specialist John Bisignano Operations Intern Giovanni Sumulong

Director of Advertising and Sales Rick Brown Senior Advertising Consultants Rosemarie Messina, Joy Webber Advertising Consultants Rosemary Babich, Josh Burke, Vince Garcia, Dusty Hamilton, April Houser, Cathy Kleckner, Dave Nettles, Kelsi White Inside Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Events Interns Samantha Leos Operations Manager Will Niespodzinski Project Coordinator Anna Barela Sales Coordinators Shawn Barnum, Rachel Rosin Director of First Impressions Jeff Chinn Distribution Manager Greg Erwin Distribution Services Assistant Noe Nolasco Distribution Drivers Mansour Aghdam, Nicholas Babcock, Walt Best, Daniel Bowen, Nina Castro, Jack Clifford, Robert Cvach, Chris Fong, Ron Forsberg, Wayne Hopkins, Brenda Hundley, Wendell Powell, Warren Robertson, Lloyd Rongley, Larry Schubert, Duane Secco, Jack Thorne, Kaven Umstead

CAMPTIO POUTL

OCCUPY

D OUT

Design Manager Kate Murphy Art Director Priscilla Garcia Associate Art Director Hayley Doshay Editorial Designer India Curry Design Melissa Arendt, Brennan Collins, Mary Key, Marianne Mancina, Skyler Smith Art Directors-at-large Don Button, Andrea Diaz-Vaughn

NEW ERA

STUDENTS GOT SOL

ST PROTE DEBT

BANKS GOT OF COLLABORATION BAILED OUT #99 PENCIL

Editor Melinda Welsh Managing Editor Nick Miller Senior Staff Writer Cosmo Garvin Arts & Culture Editor Rachel Leibrock Copy Editor Kyle Buis Associate Copy Editor Shoka Shafiee Calendar Editor Jonathan Mendick Editorial Coordinator Kel Munger Special Sections Editor Becca Costello Editorial Interns Valentín Almanza, Jonathan Nathan, Matthew W. Urner Contributors Sasha Abramsky, Gustavo Arellano, Alastair Bland, Rob Brezsny, Larry Dalton, Josh Fernandez, Joey Garcia, Jeff Hudson, Eddie Jorgensen, Jonathan Kiefer, David Kulczyk, Jim Lane, Greg Lucas, Ann Martin Rolke, Garrett McCord, John Phillips, Patti Roberts, Steph Rodriguez, Seth Sandronsky, Amy Yannello

Our Mission To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages employees to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live.

$ $ $

INSIDE

A RT S & C U LT U R E

Yianni’s Bar & Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The V Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Dish Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Eat It and Reap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Food Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

COOLHUNTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 ASK JOEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 STAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Romeo & Juliet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Legacy II: We Come From Greatness . . 28 Now Playing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

FILM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Pariah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Check out SN&R’s FREE searchable EVENTS calendar online at www.newsreview.com.

MUSIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Knock Knock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Sound Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Eight Gigs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Nightbeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

AFTER

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Adult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Free Will Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 15 Minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

THE 420

AFTER

COVER DESIGN BY HAYLEY DOSHAY

INSIDE

03.01.12

SN&R

STREETALK Asked at Cafe Bernardo at R and 15th streets:

Jimmer vs. Lin?

Camille Elizabeth

V. Sigh

student

unemployed

I don’t know if I can say who is better, because I think you are pretty badass if you can go pro. But I would definitely have to say, with the endorsements, that it would have to be Jimmer [Fredette]. In a fistfight, I would have to go with [Jeremy] Lin.

Lin. He is just a better overall athlete in my opinion: more points, more rebounds, more assists. He is the next best thing to come out since Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

Stacy Pate

Jonathan Bowie

paralegal

bank employee

I would say Lin, of course. I know Carmelo Anthony is out right now, so if I were him in his shoes I would be doing exactly what he is doing. Get it in while you can. I think he deserves it. He is taking advantage of his opportunity.

I think [Lin] is doing good right now. All I know is that he came out of the development league. He’s over here doing good, you know, because of Carmelo. Honestly, I’m proud of him because he is stepping up. It’s [his] time to shine.

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This is what I like about Jimmer: I was a Kings fan when they were second to the worst, back in, like, ’97. What I get when Jimmer hits the floor is that the crowd ignites. It’s like when Jason Williams hit the floor back in the day. There was hope. It got the crowd involved. That’s that feeling you get with Jimmer.

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Are we talking about basketball or in a fistfight? I don’t know who is a better basketball player, but if they had to fight. I think Jimmer would beat Lin down. It’s not Lin’s fault, though. I just don’t think he could hang with Sac.

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LETTERS

Visit us at www.newsreview.com or email sactoletters @ newsreview.com

POS for dummies

FIRST SHOT SN&R reader photo of the week PHOTO BY MARTIN CHRISTIAN

Re “Thinking big for dummies” by Cosmo Garvin and Nick Miller (SN&R Frontlines, February 23): Shame on the sorry souls who wrote this horrid piece of fake journalism. To compare a nonexistent Seattle tax-increase plan to Sacramento’s real, tangible plan is pathetic. I can’t even comment on half of this POS because it looks to be LETTER OF the work of the same idiots who wrote [city Councilwoman Sandy] THE WEEK Sheedy’s push poll. Stick with smoking pot, SN&R writers. That’s probably the only thing you guys are good at. Mike Obad Sacramento

What would Jesus do about birth control? Re “Contraception” (SN&R Editorial, February 23): It is amazing that men who are sworn to know nothing about the subject on which they are pontificating (what does a bishop know from personal experience about conception and birth control?) should presume to speak in the name of God on a subject of personal choice and responsibility. Do the married Episcopal priests who are now accepted in the Catholic Church practice contraception? How large are their families? Refer to Jesus’ description of the Last Judgment, as recorded in Matthew 25:3146. He refers to problems that are with us today, including hunger and homelessness. Does he refer to sex? John Andrew Gold River

Collusion in gas prices Re “True price of gas” (SN&R Editorial, February 23): When it comes to rising gas prices, the problem is not with instability overseas or, as the media like to spout, “supply and demand.” It’s collusion between the auto industry, the oil industry and stock-market speculators that drives prices up to make a fast buck off the working poor. If you watch the movie GasHole, you will see how the industries have stymied motor technology and stolen real advancements. If you’re not angered and brought to tears by the manipulations of these criminals, then you are doomed to suffer at the hands of the rich 1 percent! The time to revolt against these revolting crooks is now! Say “No more” to the Wall Street elite. William Suhar Sacramento

The Supremes and gay marriage Re “Victory for equality” (SN&R Editorial, February 16): You really believe U.S. Supreme Court will be in favor of marriage equality? The BEFORE

FRONTLINES

same Supreme Court that anointed George W. Bush as president? Gary Miller via email

Dump the Sacramento Welfare Kings! Re “Yes, parking for arena” by Tom Ziller (SN&R Guest Comment, February 16) and “Cheerleaders and boiling frogs” (SN&R Letters, February 16): There is no organized opposition to the arena plan because you didn’t organize it. Nor did I, or anyone else, although someone might have tried. The NBA is big business. The Maloofs are rich. The average salary of an NBA player is $3.4 million a year. I don’t resent them for their money. I resent them for expecting us to give them our money— public money—again and again and again. I wouldn’t resent it near as much except for this: “Years of deep budget and staffing cuts have left many (city) departments almost inoperable” (Steve Hansen, candidate for city council). Public pools, parks and community centers have been closed. Fire stations have been closed and police services cut. On top of that, the Department of Utilities plans to raise water and sewer rates by up to 14 percent a year for 15 years to pay for underground-pipe maintenance. What is going to do more to make Sacramento a better place to live for everyone? A new arena for those who can still afford the prices, or public libraries, parks, playgrounds, pools and community centers for everyone; fully staffed fire stations that are open every day, a fully funded and staffed police department? ... How about investing in the present, in the public, in the communities and neighborhoods where people live now! Some say it’s too late for the public to vote on this. Says who, the NBA? They don’t run our city! The city council doesn’t take orders from them, do they? ... While they won’t let us vote on this deal because they know we’d vote it down, they can’t prevent us from voting them out of office. Dump the Sacramento Welfare Kings! Who wants to organize that?

Exploring Sacramento in search of “beautiful doorways,” photographer Martin Christian came upon this one, located on 214 15th Street.

Retirees in poverty Re “No pay hikes” (SN&R Editorial, February 9): The [county] executives and board of supervisors always get while the rest of the people starve. When I retired after 25-plus years of service, I was guaranteed full medical and dental coverage for the rest of my life. Now I pay 100 percent of these costs and am expected to live on $649 per month from the county. With my Social Security, I receive less than $2,000 per month. I would like to see these people live on that amount of money. If something happens to my husband, I will be one of the people living on the river banks or under a bridge. Thanks a lot to our retirement board and the board of supervisors. Kathryn Scott Orangevale

Greek analogy Re “No pay hikes” (SN&R Editorial, February 9): Not only are raises not needed, but reductions are needed. We, the people paying these wages, have been forced to take pay reductions and reduced hours. Most of us work part time with no benefits or retirement. Let me repeat that: The people paying all public-employees wages are making less money and the older generation which had higher incomes and retirements are dying. Just like Greece, we simply cannot afford public employees making six-figure incomes or retirements! This is an excellent example of why nobody should be

Jan Bergeron Sacramento |

FEATURE

STORY

allowed to determine their own rate of pay, especially public employees.

A RT S & C U LT U R E

George Selkirk Carmichael

Men: Keep the putter in your pants

Have a great photo? Email it to firstshot@ newsreview.com. Please include your full name and phone number. File size must not exceed 10 MB.

Re “Women should keep their legs together” (SN&R Letters, February 9): Remind letter writer Tom Orsat that men also have a choice in the decision: Keep their “putter” in their pants except to pee. Sheila Robinson Sacramento

POET’S CORNER Light My Fire Long since dead (Brothers, Sisters, don’t fret death; you have no idea), I watched from a tree limb thru lizard’s eyes as my “Love Street” house burned and while the town called for the arsonist’s head, I praise his dark mind and unfashionable deed. It’s been too long since anyone lit my fire. I drop my tail in ecstasy! Sirens wail. —David Wright

AFTER

Sacramento

03.01.12

SN&R

FRONTLINES #ThinkTwice It sure is hard for Bites to keep from getting excited during this week of arena-pocalypse. But did you know, most Sacramentans don’t much care if the Sacramento Kings leave town? That’s the surprising, though not widely circulated, result from a recent poll by arena by COSMO GARVIN booster group Think Big. The Think Big poll plays up the benefits of a new arena, while leaving out the negatives—like costs. Still, only a very slim majority (51 percent) said the city ought to “proceed with competitive bidding” to see how much money the city could get if privatized city garages to pay for a new arena. About 20 percent were unsure, and 29 percent said no. That’s not even lukewarm support for the privatization deal, that’s lukewarm support for the next step in a possible privatization deal. More troubling is this question: “The Sacramento Kings basketball team may relocate to Seattle or Anaheim. Do you want city officials to fight to keep the Kings in Sacramento? Do you want city officials to let the Kings go? Or does it not matter to you?” Forty-eight percent of those polled said “fight to keep the Kings.” A slim majority said either, “let the Kings go” (26 percent) or “does not matter” (26 percent). Funny that Think Big left that question, and a few others, out of the memo they sent to local press last week.

As this column was going to print, a tentative deal had been struck

with the NBA and the team-owning Maloof family. The city would kick in the lion’s share—more than $200 million—toward funding for the new arena using cityparking revenue; about $75 million would come from the team owners. But the all-important term sheet, explaining just how the city’s general fund would be reimbursed all that money, still had not been released. It was due out about the time this issue of SN&R hits the streets. So, how does the term sheet look, people of the near future? Is it a good deal for Sacramento? Because just four months ago, the folks at Think Big said in a report to the city council that, “Direct private sector investment and user fees will contribute more than half of the development costs,” of a new arena. Four months later, it looks like the city of Sacramento is picking up much more than half of the burden. Four months ago, Think Big said the “public” part of this public private partnership would come to about $94 million to $123 million. Four months later it’s passed $200 million and climbing. What will it be four months from now?

A slim majority in Think Big’s poll said either, “let the Kings go” or that it “does not matter” if they leave.

You’ll recall that a vote on the arena deal got bumped back from February 28 to March 6 in order to, according to a press release from the office of Mayor Kevin Johnson, “ensure adequate time for public and City Council review of any proposed financing plan.” The subsidy plan has brewing for a year, but all of the most important details, like how to backfill the general fund, are only being revealed at the last minute before the vote. A tentative deal has been struck. The NBA’s deadline of March 1 has been met. So if the council can move the vote back to the March 6, it can just as easily move it back to March 13, or later. And it should. There’s not one good reason this deal should rammed through council just four days after it’s been made public. But there are more than 200 million reasons it will be. Ω

SN&R

03.01.12

Gov. Jerry Brown is backing high-speed rail despite its slow and bumpy start.

Rebooting rail Meet Dan Richard, the guy trying to save high-speed rail Dan Richard, incoming chairman of the board for the California High-Speed Rail Authority is not the easiest man to get hold of. by Cosmo Garvin One interview got scuttled when it turned out Gov. Jerry Brown wanted to meet Richard cosmog@ at the same time. Subsequent calls were newsreview.com missed. Voice mails were exchanged—“I’m driving back from Fresno right now, because there’s no high-speed rail. Try you later.” There was more travel and more missed connections, before SN&R finally caught up with Richard by phone in Washington, D.C. It was late on the East Coast, still Richard gamely tackled questions like, “What happened to high-speed rail?” And “What are you going to do to save it?” “Well, I am not the guy who is going to save high-speed rail,” he demurred. “But I know that guy: His name is Edmund G. Brown.” Gov. Brown appointed Richard to the highspeed rail board back in August 2011, to exert more control over the besieged project. Back in 2008, voters approved $10 million in bonds for seed money to build a 240-mile, 220-mile-perhour train system that, if ever built, could whisk riders from Sacramento to Los Angeles in two hours. Richard was voted in as board chairman last month. He served as science and energy adviser back in the first Jerry Brown administration in 1978. Before that he worked as an administrator at NASA. Later, he served on the BART board for more than a decade, helping bring BART to the San Francisco airport. He

ran an infrastructure-finance company, and was a senior vice president at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Brown’s other new appointee to the board, Mike Rossi, is a banker whose résumé includes companies like Cerberus Capital Management and Bank of America Corporation. It’s Brown’s way of rebooting high-speed rail, trying to bring some political stability.

“I am not the guy who is going to save high-speed rail. But I know that guy: His name is Edmund G. Brown.” Dan Richard board chair, California High-Speed Rail Authority The rail project is supposed to break ground this year—beginning the first leg from Bakersfield to Chowchilla. But lawmakers, mostly Republicans, some Democrats too, are demanding “not one more dime” be spent on the system. Public opinion polls show voters turning against the project they (narrowly) supported back in 2008. Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters, for years California’s leading cheerleader against high-speed rail, can almost taste victory. “It’s time to pull the plug,” he proclaimed in January. But Brown has signaled he won’t let California’s high-speed-rail plans go the way

Sac Bee, KHTK feud See FRONTLINES

Put a lid on that CO2 See GREEN DAYS

How much is too much for gas? See AN INCONVENIENT RUTH

Spies like us See ESSAY

Killing mountain lions See EDITORIAL

BEATS

Tale of two occupations of Florida’s, or Wisconsin’s, or Ohio’s, where governors have rejected federal money, killing the idea for years to come. “The governor believes this is something we can do and will do. I believe this is something we can do and will do,” Richard said. “And confounding our critics will be the cherry on top.” But some critics he’ll need to win over. Richard says the authority made its own headaches in the Central Valley, where it was clumsy in handling the concerns of farmers and other landowners along the long, straight spine of the proposed system. Rather than seeing rail as a force for economic development, some Valley communities turned against the project. “We’re talking about someone’s third-generation dairy farm. You can’t just go tromping in with thinly veiled references to eminent domain. I think there’s been a lot that has engendered bad feelings.” Richard also seems sensitive to rail authority’s reputation for pie-in-the-sky promises. For years the rail authority criticized for lowballing cost estimates and overestimated benefits of the system. After Richard and Rossi’s arrival on the board, the CHSRA put out a new business plan that was, in Richard’s words, “a little bit too real for some people.” It was stark, projecting a cost of $100 billion and a completion date of 2033. The previous business plan had promised a cost of just $40 billion or so. “It was something of a double-edged sword,” Richard said of the new price tag. He didn’t want to be accused of being a Pollyanna. But at the same time, “I knew some people were going to get sticker shock.” Sure enough, the new cost estimates set off more cries of “boondoggle.” Gov. Brown again tried to calm anxieties, calling the new estimates “silly” and “way off.” For one, the November business plan made some pretty conservative assumptions— like a high inflation rate and a dragged-out construction timeline. “The governor has said, ‘You guys need to do it better, faster and cheaper,’” Richard explained. So now the board is working on a new business plan, due near the end of March. The details aren’t public yet, but the general idea is to get private investment coming in sooner and to accelerate the construction timeline. Time is money, after all. There’s talk now of a “blended” system in some major urban areas—the Bay Area and Los Angeles in particular. The authority thinks is can save some time and money by using the same right-of-way as existing commuter rail systems in some places. It would also give up controversial BEFORE

FRONTLINES

elements like elevated tracks in some communities where the locals have objected strongly. The new business plan will also likely pump more money into the “bookends” of the system sooner. This may be an effort to smooth relations with lawmakers from Bay Area and Southern California who complained that starting the project in the Central Valley, away from the major population centers, was like building “a train to nowhere.”

“We’ve been surprised that some Democrats want to join tea party governors like [Florida’s] Rick Scott or [Wisconsin’s] Scott Walker and reject this high-speed rail money.” Daniel Krause executive director Californians for High Speed Rail Brown is also considering using some money from the state’s newly approved “cap and trade” system, intended to help curb global warming, to boost fund construction of the rail system. In the governor’s proposed budget, some new carbon fees collected from polluting factories and power plants—estimated to be $1 billion in the first year—would be divvied up to fund a variety of environmental goals, including clean energy, natural-resource conservation and “low carbon transportation.” That last could be a source of high-speed rail money. Call it “cap and train.” Cap and train is already very unpopular with some state lawmakers. Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Marysville) a critic of both high-speed rail and the state’s greenhousegas law, says this idea is doomed. “Cap and trade is designed to bring companies into compliance with emissions laws, not to fund pet projects,” he told SN&R. “It’s illegal.” In fact, Logue says the whole high-speed rail project is “a train wreck” and ought to be ended. “We’re laying off teachers and police. We can’t wrap our arms around a $100 billion project right now. We just don’t have the money.” State lawmakers could decide for now not to spend any of the bond money voters approved for the project. Logue would go further. “Let’s put it on the ballot and let the people vote again. I’m confident voters would kill it.” Brown has argued that high-speed rail is an important part of trying to rebuild and remake |

FEATURE

STORY

California’s economy, and would, like airports or highways in past decades, boost growth. That’s why labor groups and construction companies are ramping up their support for the project. “This is a pivotal moment,” said Jim Earp, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, which promotes public-works projects. “I think the governor has really stepped up.” Daniel Krause, executive director of Californians for High Speed Rail, is also hopeful about the new direction being charted by the governor and his appointees. “People are going to start seeing the direct benefits sooner, and we think that’s going to increase support.” What worries Krause is attacks on the project by some Democratic members of the state Legislature, like Sens. Alan Lowenthal (Long Beach) and Joe Simitian (San Mateo), both vociferous critics of the project. The federal government has so far kicked in $6 billion to match some of the bonds approved by California voters. “We’ve been surprised that some Democrats want to join tea party governors like [Florida’s] Rick Scott or [Wisconsin’s] Scott Walker and reject this high-speed rail money,” said Krause. Richard said in his experience, “No project at this stage knows where all the money is coming from.” The situation in D.C. looks grim now, but “Historically, there’s been a strong bipartisan support for high-speed rail. It’s only recently that there’s been this partisan cast,” said Richard. “My hope is that we will get past this next election and that will settle down.” As for private investment, Richard said there’s plenty of interest from finance groups, but there’s “a lull now, as investors wait to see where California is going.” “We need to show that we’ve got a plan that can garner support and lead to political stability.” When asked, “What happened to highspeed rail?” Richard laughed and said, “That’s a big question.” In a nutshell, “You had this small number of people laboring for years on high-speed rail, keeping it alive.” When the bond measures passed in 2008, suddenly that small group of people was handed $10 billion. “It was like going from this little pick-up football team to being in the NFL,” said Richard. But the folks who nursed the dream of high-speed rail weren’t so great at the business of high-speed rail. Now the project is changing hands, from the boosters to the businessmen. “Nothing like this gets built without the visionaries at the beginning. But at some point, you transition from the people who envision it to the people who make it happen,” said Richard. Ω A RT S & C U LT U R E

AFTER

K Street was triple-krazy this past Monday afternoon. When SN&R arrived, though, the white supremacists had disappeared to wherever white supremacists go, and the cophating Occupy Oaklanders had already fled. Light rail halted, police closed 10th Street and bike cops patrolled as baffled onlookers quizzed each other on what’d happened just minutes earlier. There were few clues. Just a pile of horse crap in the road. The bad smells began hours earlier, though, around noon, according to witnesses. A group of all-white activists—some called them “neo-Nazis”—had registered to protest at the Capitol. Their beef? Stop anti-white violence in South Africa, an effort they call the South Africa Project. Anyway, witnesses say that, at 3 p.m., California Highway Patrol shut down 10th Street and escorted the white supremacists to a parking garage near L Street. Additional officers separated the neo-Nazis from a voracious mob of Occupy protesters, many of whom bussed in from Oakland and were marching on the opposite side of the road. “Then, I guess somebody threw a bottle and it hit an officer,” recalled Tricia Blakeman, an Occupy Sacramento counter-protester who witnessed the event. She says she only saw one bottle tossed amid the hundreds of protesters, although city police officer Laura Peck said that multiple items were thrown, including paint. So, who did the tossing: Occupy Sacto or Oakland? “They said he was from Oakland,” Blakeman answered, “but the other people from Oakland didn’t recognize him and said he was an agent from the police that did it to start something. “We didn’t want to start violence,” she added on behalf of Occupy Sacramento. Fellow Occupy Sacto member “Faygo” said that “it got pretty hectic there for a minute.” Officers on horseback galloped up and down the block. “I look over and I see a guy with a cop on him, then another guy pulled the cop off,” he said. An officer later threatened to arrest Faygo for holding a sign without a permit. At the end of the day, two officers were hurt, and three individuals were arrested. Plus, one big stink. (Nick Miller)

Yolo-Sacto kid crackdown Juveniles are tried in adult court at much higher rates in Sacramento and Yolo counties than in other parts of the state. That’s according to a study by the advocacy group Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, which has long been a critic increasing use of “direct file” by prosecutors to try and send youths accused of serious felonies to adult prison. “How a kid gets treated is determined more by geography than by the actual crime rate,” says Dan Macallair, executive director of the CJCJ. For the years 2003 through 2010, the median number of direct file cases around the state was 10 per 1,000 juvenile felony arrests. Sacramento had nearly 25 per 1,000 and Yolo led the state with more than 30. Sacramento’s high rate is partly due to policies set by Sacramento’s elected DA Jan Scully. For example, any juvenile felony involving a firearm is referred to adult court. Responding to concerns from the NAACP, the Sacramento DA’s office did its own study of these cases in 2008. The report found that 91 percent of the cases referred to adult court in 2006 and 2007 involved a gun. That year 66.7 percent of the juveniles tried in adult court were African-American, 19.6 percent were Hispanic, 5.8 percent were white and 5.8 percent were Asian. (Cosmo Garvin) |

03.01.12

SN&R

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Evaluate staff’s work based on quality of writing and reporting. Not by page views.

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Occasion to work in “green and sustainable” office building that used to be a giant grocery store. (Editorial resides in the former produce section.)

Eat lunch with the publisher anytime; no corporate operations here.

Work with at least three amazing art directors and designers. Three!

Former NBA star and city Mayor Kevin Johnson—a loyal reader?—is rumored to use SN&R’s pages for trash-can basketball.

Chance to boast to friends that every day on your job is different than the one before it.

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FRONTLINES

Bee nice F-bomb missives or bogus prank-call shenanigans? Just another day in the Sac Bee vs. KHTK sports feud. Did a Sacramento Bee sports editor really call and curse-out staff on Don Geronimo’s KHTK radio morning show last week? And did he do by it twice? Nick Miller Or did host Geronimo and his motley colnickam@ leagues fabricate the recording, the latest in a newsreview.com spree of hijinks since the show premiered on air early last summer? The Don Geronimo Show producer Joe Pittman claims that Sacramento Bee sports editor Tom Couzens first phoned into the show last Wednesday morning, February 22, and unleashed an F-bomb laden missive on a screener: “This show sucks. How the fuck is this guy still on the air? Get this guy off the fucking air.” The caller ID was initially blocked, but the screener checked station records and was able to retrieve the cellphone number that made the call. He wrote it down. So, two days later, on Friday, February 24, when the same number called the station again— “This show fucking sucks”—a screener called the number back. It went to voice mail—Bee sports editor Couzens’ voice mail. SN&R spoke with Couzens this past Monday, and he adamantly denied making the calls. “I don’t listen to his show,” Couzens said. “I didn’t make those calls.” Pittman insisted, however, that the calls are real and that KHTK did not fabricate them. Host Geronimo even called the number on air and briefly played Couzens’ voice mail before leaving this message:

YOU ARE HERE

“Are you looking for me big boy? Are you looking for me you piece of crap?” He also trashed Couzens on the air: “Tom, you’re an unprofessional douche bag.” These phone-call shenanigans are just the latest in a nearly eight-month feud between the Bee sports editor and KHTK program director Geronimo. The beef apparently first reared its head last July, when—on the heels of The Rise Guys show’s departure from KHTK to the Bay Area— Couzens wrote a column panning Geronimo’s new show and criticizing his “sophomoric” humor and crude demeanor. The Bee critiques have continued, as recently as December 7, when Couzens picked at Geronimo’s show for not talking about sports enough. Meanwhile, Geronimo often has gone after Couzens. He claims Couzens also has contacted him in the past, such as a one-word email he received that read “Soon.” On last Monday’s show, Geronimo and cohost Carmichael Dave churned the rumor mill some more, alleging that Couzens told other Bee sports staff that his cellphone was “cloned” and that the prank calls were a third-party rouse. Still, Couzens repeated that the calls were not his. “It’s something he made up,” the editor said. “It must be. That’s all I really want to say about that.” Ω

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916-966 -7452 Firefighters battle a two-alarm fire at 108-unit, nine-story The Terraces at Capitol Park this past Monday. The kitchen fire was put out in 10 minutes, and it was reported that no residents were hurt, but smoke engulfed the Capitol Avenue and 18th Street block near Zocalo and Paesanos restaurants. BEFORE

FRONTLINES

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Congress stalls implementation of new bulbs

Locker rooms are incubators of stupid comments. Just last week, speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard by all who were showering and shaving, a gym acquaintance of mine complained about how the mean federal government is interfering with his right to buy regular lightbulbs. In an aggravated “Can you believe it?” voice, he said, “Things have gotten so bad, you can’t even buy whatever lightbulb you want.” Over my lifetime, I have spent quite a bit of time in locker rooms, and I have heard some pretty stupid things said in them. And when you hear somebody say something stupid in a locker room, it is best to remember three things: 1. you are probably naked; REGISTERED DOMESTIC PARTNER SAME SEX MARRIED COUPLES 2. responding to stupid remarks often takes a fair amount of time; and 3. spending time in a small room, while naked, with somebody you just argued with, is usually unpleasant. Phasing out inefficient Therefore, I have made it a CONTACT: lightbulbs will save general rule to stay silent in Code: CFF6C WWW.TAXLEARN.COM situations. 2.5 percent of world energy. these Anyway, my beef is not with my gym acquaintance but with the idiotic congressmen and women who successfully delayed the phasing out of energy-wasting traditional lightbulbs. These bulbs use technology that is more than 125 years old, and only 10 percent of the energy is used to create light. The rest is wasted heat. So, not only do you have to pay $25 a year in electricity costs to keep a 100-watt lightbulb on for six hours a day, but you then have to crank up your air conditioner to reduce the heat generated by these energy-sucking bulbs. This is nuts. Want to find out ways to It is so crazy that 314 members of Congress and Cable Channels 17 & 18 NEWS & REVIEW BUSINES make your home more President George W. Bush saw theDESIGNER logic of phasing ISSUE DATE energy efficient? Visit out these bulbs when they passed the Energy AL 06.18.09 http://energysavers.gov 2007. NAME n e w s & r e v i e w b u s i n e s s u s e o n lfor y tips and ideas. Independence and Security Act ofFILE Television * Radio * Internet But now there are those whoTRINITYCATHEDRAL061809R1 disagree, such as designer MK issUe dATe 05.26.11 ACCT eXeC REM Republican Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas, quoted USP (BOLD SELECTI FiLe nAMe DAVIDALLEN052611R1 reV dATe 03.02.06 in The New York Times explaining that “People got PRICE / ATMOSPHERE / EXPE SHORT FILM PRODUCTION TIPS it when you said, ‘Well, why should the federal please carefully review your advertisement and verify the following: government restrict my freedom on what type of With Nate Schemel PLEASE CAREFULLY REV Saturdays, March 17, 24, 31 light I use?’” ADVERTISEMENT AND VERIFY T Ad size (CoLUMn X inChes) and April 7th speLLing Phasing out traditional lightbulbs 2.5 X INCHES) ADwill SIZEsave (COLUMNS 11:00am - 3:00pm percent of the world’s energy. I can’t think of any nUMbers & dATes SPELLING ConTACT inFo (phone, Address, eTC) other way to save this much energyNUMBERS with such little & DATES effort. Does Mr. Burgess have suggestions for “A Place Called Sacramento” Film Festival tival Ad AppeArs As reqUesTed CONTACT INFO (PHONE, ADDR ApproVed by: better ways to save energy? I don’t think so. ”CALL FOR SCRIPTS” AD APPEARS AS REQUESTED If we could replace all traditional lightbubs with APPROVED BY: Submit your Script Today! new energy-efficient bulbs; nationwide, we would Deadline - April 10th at 5pm save more than $10 billion a year. But no, it’s just Jeff vonKaenel is more important to be free to choose a lightbulb. the president, CEO and majority owner Of course, here in California we implemented Television and Radio of the News & Review the new standard a year early, on January 1. And, newspapers in Production Classes - Join Today! according to Adam Gottlieb of the California Energy Sacramento, Chico For more Information Commission, “There was no lightbulb apocalypse.” and Reno. call (916) 456-8600 ext.0 Of course, Gottlieb hasn’t heard the complaints or online at www.AccessSacramento.org in the locker room. Look out: Lightbulb apocalypse, coming soon. Ω

2012 TAX LAW CHANGES THAT AFFECT YOU! RDP

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SN&R

03.01.12

GREEN DAYS

AN INCONVENIENT

RUTH Big gas

CO2 trap

It’s an invasive, almost personal, question.

Golden State scientists learn how to capture greenhouse gases before they reach the atmosphere

As atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels continue to climb, a team of California scientists has created a new material by that will help reduce the amount Susanne Rust escaping from smokestacks and power plants. The material, called polyethylenimine, or PEI, acts like a carbon-dioxide fly-tape trap, attracting the greenhouse-gas molecules and sticking to them so they can’t escape. Indeed, carbon dioxide is so attracted to the material that the team says it can pull the molecule right out of the air, something other carbon filter materials have not been able to do well. “This is really an important quality,” said Alain Goeppert, a senior researcher at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute at the University of Southern California. In the near future, it will enable small-scale removal of carbon dioxide from air in enclosed Green Days is on the spaces—such as submarines and lookout for innovative manned spacecraft, where carbonsustainable projects dioxide buildup can be throughout the hazardous—or in laboratories, Sacramento region. Turn us on at where carbon dioxide can hinder sactonewstips@ engineering or the chemical reacnewsreview.com. tions of certain products. PEI may have long-term applications, too, for wide-scale removal of the gas from air. In addition, the team says PEI is cheaper and more easily produced than other materials already being used to extract carbon dioxide from smokestacks and industrial flues. Goeppert and co-author G.K. Surya Prakash, also a chemist at USC, say the new material is just part of a vision they have of carbon recycling and a carbondioxide market. One of the advantages of the new material is that it can be reused. Once the material is saturated with carbon dioxide, it is

BEFORE

FRONTLINES

by AUNTIE RUTH

How much must a gallon of gas cost for you to drive less? Five bucks a gallon? Six? What’s the number that will make ya howl “Nada, nada, nada, nada”? The truth is stark: We have to drive less, and we have to have more—and better—mass transit. That is the glorious future. Those who doubt it are misdirected at best, bought off at worst. If you have enough Hamiltons for the gas tank, it’s not a tough question. If you’re low on the ladder of the 99 percent, it can be life or death. Are you willing to curtail your miles yourself, or are you waiting for the free market to rise up and kick your ass? Aunt Ruth is a little of both. Her overall gas mileage is dialed down about as low as she can go: telecommuting three days a week, one car (out of two in the household) How high is a hybird. She’s a bit of a until you drive less? leadfoot—there’s some give there— but everybody still has to get to work at the end of the day. (And why did we build the suburbs so far from the jobs? Eh?) The Sunday drive through farmlands (and such) remains a guilty pleasure, and the bicycle—once Ruth’s vehicle of choice—is no longer practical except for local errands. There’s some give there, too.

A new material, polyethylenimine, also called PEI, can capture carbon-dioxide emissions— which can later be reused to create fuel.

heated to a relatively low temperature of 85 degrees Celsius. At that temperature, the carbon dioxide is released and can be stored. The carbon can then be used to create fuel.

Carbon dioxide is so attracted to the material that the team says it can pull the molecule right out of the air, something other carbon filter materials have not been able to do. Other materials also are able to release carbon for storage, but according to Prakash and Goeppert, those other materials need to be heated to very high temperatures— 700 or 800 degrees Celsius—which requires a great deal of energy and, therefore, a large amount of carbon in the form of fossil fuels. “It kind of defeats the purpose” of recycling the carbon to keep things carbon neutral, Goeppert said. According to Prakash, widespread use of carbon-dioxide capturing

FEATURE

STORY

materials, such as PEI, could provide an environment where “we wouldn’t need to drill or dig for fossil fuels anymore,” he said. The research appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Prakash and Goeppert’s vision for a carbon-neutral future is laid out in their book, Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy. The book also was written by USC’s George A. Olah, a Nobel laureate. Ω

California Watch is a project of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley. Contact the author at srust@californiawatch.org. For more information, visit www.californiawatch.org.

With the Republican’t presidential candidates treating the rise in gas prices as the latest opportunity to spew vitriol— Rick Santorum said that the Obama administration “wants higher energy prices. They want to push their radical agenda on the public”—one can almost imagine their disappointment in an improving economy. That and their rising desperation. Can’t speak for the president, but hell, yeah: Higher energy prices are coming. Coming like death: for Ruth and for you, for Republicans and Democrats. For richer and poorer, in sickness and in health. It’ll be hard, but Europe has been paying it for years. Never mind that Iran is cranking up the cost per barrel, and that that too will be a political football in a country that now plays political football as bloodsport. Ruthie remembers how natural foods just became part of the pantry. Happened over time, not all at once. And now who could have it any other way? Now if only somebody would just move the day job closer to Ruthie’s house. Ω

(Come friend Aunt Ruth on Facebook and let’s hang out.)

ECO-HIT Happy (green) trails

In February, Folsom Lake RV (11373 Folsom Boulevard in Rancho Cordova) began selling EverGreen Recreational Vehicles, which the company describes as “the first sustainable, environmentally friendly” trailers. Its trailers are lightweight, aerodynamic and made from composite materials. These features help improve fuel economy and are part of the reason the company earned the first ever “Emerald Rating” by T.R. Arnold & Associates Inc., an environmental-certification business. EverGreen sells both campers and travel trailers, and its stylish new eco-friendly Element line comes in “fire,” “water,” “air” and “earth” colors. For more information, visit www.goevergreenrv.com.

A RT S & C U LT U R E

An “earth” colored Element RV trailer.

—Jonathan Mendick |

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I’m creeping myself out, just a little bit. We’re not actually friends, after all. We attended the same party and briefly shared our freelance writing experiences, but we haven’t comby municated since our cursory, “It was so nice to meet Alison Rood you!” emails. a freelance writer Which we exchanged months ago. who is getting closer Yet I know a lot about her. I know places she’s going every day to starting her own blog and people she’s seeing, books she’s reading and music she’s listening to. I know her political views, her favorite vacation spot and how she feels about gardening (she hates it). I’d like to think it’s her fault for turning me into a peeping Tom. She’s the one who provided me this window; she’s the one who keeps the curtains flung open; she’s the one who doesn’t mind prancing around in her virtual underwear. But why do I actually look? Am I nosy, am I bored, am I a social deviant? Or a pathetic combination of all three? What satisfaction do I get from learning things about her—especially when she’s learning nothing about me? In other words, if I haven’t made my personal life available on a blog, why am I reading her blog? I try to tell myself that I freely read about David Sedaris’ life, and he doesn’t know me, either. But reading a Sedaris essay in The New Yorker seems more legitimate than reading the blog of a causal acquaintance. Frankly, I’m embarrassed that I know the names of my casual acquaintance’s husband, children and dog. Yes, I know the dog’s name, Why do I actually breed and the fact that he doesn’t like to pee outside look? Am I nosy, in rainy weather. These am I bored, am I a details about my acquaintance’s life are not only social deviant? Or a tedious, they’re none of my business. But she was pathetic combination damn the one who pressed me of all three? with a business card that contained her website. The Facebook experience feels just as invasive. After I succumbed to family pressure to create a Facebook profile, I immediately received several friend requests. Everyone, from a former PTA pal to my exsister-in-law, wanted to be Facebook buddies. The problem is, once I completed my sketchy profile, I never posted anything else. “Where are you?” queried one F.B. friend. “Come out and play! LOL!” But I realized I have zero interest in posting news or photos about my life, so once again I found myself peering into the lives of others without giving them a look in return. I feel just as crummy when I grab a People magazine at my hairdresser’s and immediately flip to the paparazzi shots in the front. Obviously, I’ve got to end this online diary-reading fixation. That is, unless I decide to participate in the process. It’s a daunting prospect for someone who still hides the handwritten journals from her youth in the deepest corner of her desk drawer. They’re safe there—safe from the eyes of people who like to snoop into private lives. People like me. Ω

OPINION

EDITORIAL

THIS MODERN WORLD

BY TOM TOMORROW

Jerry’s strawberries As we’ve written about in this space before, the sweet, juicy California strawberries we love to eat from mid-April straight through July are grown in soil that is often fumigated with methyl iodide, a neurotoxin. The pesticide induces cancer in lab animals and is linked to no less than lung, liver, kidney and neurological damage, fetal defects, and miscarriages. We have high hopes Independent scientists throughthat Brian Leahy, out the country—including those a former organic working for the California’s own Environmental Protection Agency— farmer, will make agree on this chemical’s high levels quick work of of toxicity. They say the pesticide cannot be safely used. banning But none of the science seemed methyl iodide. to matter Mary-Ann Warmerdam, former head of California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation. The Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger-appointed director methyl iodide approved use of the chemical in late 2010. Thankfully, For a good introduction to last March she left state employment. the dangers of Gov. Jerry Brown’s said he’d wait to sort out the methyl iodide, methyl-iodide matter until Warmerdam’s replacement go to www.news review.com and was on the ready line. And now he is. Brian Leahy, former assistant director at the California Department search for the March 2011 story of Conservation, is the state’s new pesticide czar. Like “Strawberry jam” environmental groups across the state, we have high by Sara Rubin and hopes that this former organic farmer will make quick David Schmalz. work of banning methyl iodide. Once Brown signs off, as we believe he must, California’s farmworkers, coastal residents and berryloving consumers will be rid of this hazardous pesticide once and for all. Ω

No fear, just water After reading the piece by Burt Wilson (“More and the California Building Industry Association water propaganda flowing,” SN&R Guest and is supported by a growing number of organiComment, February 9), I’m not at all sure we zations representing business, agriculture, labor were at the same Association of California Water and public water agencies. A complete list of Agencies meeting. Let me set the record straight. supporters is at www.fixcalwater.org. We held a forum for ACWA’s local waterWe also discussed the $11.14 billion water agency members to update them on key plans bond set for the November ballot. The bond was and activities for the year. Among the topics approved by the Legislature as part of a package discussed was the need to of water reforms passed invest in our state’s waterin 2009. Its purpose is to Our entire economy supply infrastructure. We provide a public cost by reported on a recent survey depends on water, yet share for elements of the Timothy Quinn conducted by Field package that benefit the executive director investments in critical Research on ACWA’s public. If approved by of the Association aspects of our water behalf found that a large voters, every dollar of California Water Agencies, a nonprofit majority of Californians authorized by the bond system have not kept statewide association believe we must make would leverage $3 to $4 of public-water pace with our growing major investments to in other funds for a total agencies upgrade and modernize our population and our of up to $40 billion for water system. The survey needed investments. changing needs. is available at While a number of interests are discussing Have a comment? www.acwa.com. We also reported on a new coalition, Clean Express your views the possibility of changes to the specific details in 350 words on Water and Jobs for California, organized to eduof the bond, few are challenging the need to hold a local topic cate the public about the need to invest in the the integrity of the package together and the need of interest. for general obligation bond financing to help Send an e-mail to state’s water system to sustain and grow jobs and finance that package. editorial@ the economy. Our entire economy depends on newsreview.com. water, yet investments in critical aspects of our Neither ACWA nor Clean Water and Jobs for water system have not kept pace with our growCalifornia is mounting a fear-based propaganda ing population and our changing needs. effort. On the contrary: We are working to eduClean Water and Jobs is spearheaded by cate Californians about the real connection ACWA, the California Latino Water Coalition between reliable water infrastructure and jobs. Ω BEFORE

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Resign, Mr. Richards We found news of Daniel Richards’ recent guided mountain lion hunt in northern Idaho more than disturbing. In a state where citizens have twice voted a basic on ban the trophy hunting of mountain lions, we found it blatantly offensive for the president of the California of Fish and Game Commission to have done this. Richards, also an appointee of former Gov. Arnold Daniel Richards Schwarzenegger, is charged with then proceeded to protecting fish, wildlife and the state parks for the entirety of shoot the wild California. And yet he travelled to creature off a limb, Idaho, paid $7,000 for a guided mountain lion hunt and, according then held the to the Humane Society of the United States, chased a cougar up a carcass up, grinning tree with the help of hounds and for a photo op. professional guides. Richards then proceeded to shoot the beautiful wild creature off a limb, then held the carcass up, grinning for a photo op. The photograph is double awful. It disrespects California voters and it disrespects wildlife. We join the call from the Humane Society for Daniel Richards’ resignation. Ω

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Death processions at local colleges, a 99-mile protest march from the Bay Area to Sacramento—whatever happens during this week’s many actions, they definitely mark a new era of collaboration: students, unions and teachers embracing Occupy, and vice versa.

UC DAVISJOB

NEW ERA OF COLLABORATION

STUDENTS GOT SOLD OUT

Artem Raskin UC Davis student

system and outside of it is the most promising thing the Occupy movement’s doing,” he praised. The week’s events break down like this: On March 1, campus groups such as the Associated Students, University of California, Davis throughout the Golden State will be $ the driving forces behind the mock $$ funerals, sit-ins and teach-ins.

“Occupy is probably not going to try to talk to legislators. Occupy is going to try to occupy the Capitol.”

“This year, because of Occupy, it has a lot more energy,” explained Raskin, a political-science major who’s been a lead planner for a “funeral for education” procession on March 1. These days of action aren’t necessarily new. Student governments on most campuses have partaken in March protests dating as far back as the ’60s. In 2010, Davis students attempted to block Interstate 80 and in 2009 many students were arrested during the annual day of action. Artem explained, however, that the scope of this year’s protests aims to be larger, in part to due faculty associations and unions collaborating for the first time with the Occupy movement. “I do think that the strategy of reaching over broad segments within the university

That’s the big, kind of still secret plan, at least, according to student activists at UC Davis and elsewhere. And while the dissenters likely won’t be pitching tents under the rotunda dome—the protest is already on Capitol security’s radar—there will at least be a debate regarding a Capitol occupation this Monday, March 5, during a general assembly planned for inside the building. “Occupy is probably not going to try to talk to legislators. Occupy is going to try to Occupy the Capitol,” explained third-year UC Davis student Artem Raskin, who’s part of a larger group intending to protest higher-education budget cuts this coming week.

This will likely be the first “We’re graduating college time a bystander might witness with a mountain of debt and tweed-clad and tenured univerdim job prospects,” Eaton said. sity professors toeing the “There’s a widespread sentiprotest line with members of ment among students that the youth-driven 99-percent banks got bailed out and we crowd. This along with college got sold out.” students chanting side by side In a way, UC Davis has with labor-union members, and become a de facto headquarters even far-left, anti-war groups for this new Occupy-meets-stusuch as Code Pink, who intend dents movement, and this week to make a cameo on March 5 at will host protesters from all the Capitol. over the state. The campus also This protest will come on finds itself at the forefront of a the heels of March 1 actions at battle against the privatization campuses throughout of higher-ed, after becoming an California, where students will international media magnet hold mock funerals for public upon last November’s incident education and also protest where campus police used ongoing cuts, including last pepper spray on peacefully week’s $149 million hit to seated students. community colleges. Others Planning for this week’s will march from Berkeley to actions actually started taking Sacramento on a 99—there’s place last year. And UCD that number again—mile activists have been meeting protest for free education. twice a week at a fountain next But will they up the ante? to the campus coffeehouse to Will they take over the discuss logistics. Capitol dome? “That is something that you will BANKS GOT BAILED OUT have to come on #99 PENCIL Monday to learn,” teased UC Berkeley graduate student and organizer Charlie Eaton. “What we can say is there will 1% 1% be a general assembly at 3:30 [p.m.], and that will be the 1% kickoff to occupy 1% the Capitol.” The Legislature’s sergeant-at-arms, Ron Pane, who is charged with Capitol safety, said he was actually heading into a meeting to discuss the upcoming protests when SN&R called last week. “We have a policy that we don’t ‘occupy’ the Capitol,” Pane said, perhaps stating the obvious. He added that his approach is to handle these protests on a caseby-case basis and to engage a dialogue with the groups involved. “We always like to have conversations with the folks who head these groups,” he said. The Capitol closes to the public on Mondays at 6 p.m. Most students anticipate a showdown.

rom Wall Street to Walmart, the Occupy movement has taken aim at some major targets during its halfyear existence. And now, apparently, it’s Sacramento’s turn: Occupiers say they might actually try to set up a permanent camp inside the state Capitol this week.

99%

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19%

MARCH 5TH TUITION INCREASE

This Monday’s education protest might end up with activists taking residence under the rotunda dome

Nick Miller nickam@ newsreview.com

“We’ve got the caskets ready,” Artem said. Protesters who chatted with SN&R last week on the UCD campus shared a universal message: Going on about a decade now, students have footed more of the bill for California State University and University of California education costs than the state of California. And this, they say, is backward. CA Davis undergrads, for CAMPTIOL POU instance, were hit T with a 19 percent tuition increase this academic year. The CSU

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where he was going to house all the visitors this week. “They’ll stay on the quad, we’ll give them some food, and on the morning of the fifth we’ll go to Sacramento.” Some protesters say they will walk from UCD to the Capitol that morning. Walking will be a common theme. UC Berkeley’s Eaton says more than 100 people have been regularly attending planning meetings for the protests on the East Bay campus. And he says “hundreds” will begin marching to Sacramento, stopping at community colleges along the way to sleep, this Friday. “I’ve certainly never seen unions and students working together in the scale that we’re working together,” said Eaton, who himself is a member of the 12,000-strong United Auto Workers union. Other union organizations have signed up, too, at www.occupyeducationca.org: SEIU 1021 and nearly a dozen state teachers unions. “It’s time for us to have a budget in California that makes banks and millionaires pay to re-fund public education,” Eaton said, reiterating the movement’s talking point. This protest mantra has evolved a bit from past years. At previous day-of-education actions, people protested to keep their jobs or to end cuts to school funding. This year, though—and in part due to Occupy’s “99 percent” slogan—the focus is directed on California’s billionaires and uberwealthy. People still want to keep their jobs, of course, but they also want the wealthy to pay. The day of action is scheduled to begin Monday, March 5, at 10 a.m., when organizers say tens of thousands will meet at downtown’s Southside Park before marching to the Capitol. Events will go on until early afternoon. And that’s when things might get interesting. Ω

$1 TRILLION

“I think that the pepperspray incident is overplayed a bit,” junior Raskem argued. “As a longer-term strategy, we can’t rely on one sensational incident to bring people in; “We’re we’re trying to show a sysgraduating temic problem. “One rogue officer doing a college with a thing is not going to inspire a mountain of movement to address longerdebt and dim job term issues.” To bring the focus back to prospects. banks and billionaires, a There’s a smaller group of UCD students widespread kicked off a daily blockade of the campus’ U.S. Bank branch sentiment in January. Their goal was to among students highlight what they say is the that banks got company’s sweetheart deal with the university; U.S. Bank bailed out and logos appear on Davis student we got sold out.” ID cards and the branch has a monopoly on student loans and Charlie Eaton accounts, they argue. The UC Berkeley graduate student branch has had to shut down on several occasions, but still remains open. And the UCD administration is resolved to continue IN STUDENT LOAN DEBT its partnership. This week, university officials say they will allow students to pitch tents and re-occupy UCD grounds on March 3, the day before marchers from the Bay Area arrive at the campus to sleep before the Capitol event. “We’re occupiers. We’re just going to occupy the quad,” Artem responded when asked

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to their movement, but did sort of overshadow their cause, some say.

BLIC EDUCATION

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system lost $650 million in total state funding. And, because most public universities are collecting more money from students than from the state, students are looking to banks and the federal government for loans. In 2011, American college students accumulated more than $100 billion in student-loan debt, according to the College Board. The total amount of outstanding U.S. student-loan debt in America topped the $1 trillion mark this past year as well; it now tops consumer credit-card debt in the United States (see “The college bubble”; SN&R Feature Story; October 6, 2011). It was these statistics that partially inspired Occupy UC Davis to set up encampment on the quad this past fall. The November 18 pepper-spraying brought unprecedented attention

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Little socialist brats

Local graphic novelist creates a square-jawed anti-hero in Marlow

A few weeks ago, while out at an all-ages music show, I found myself accosted by a swarming mass of little girls. OK, there were actually only two of them, but right away I could tell they were up to no good. Maybe it was their smugly happy little faces. Maybe it was the impish pigtails. Maybe it was the clipboard with its Girl Scout cookie order form hawking this year’s cash crop: Savannah Smiles. Tagalongs. Caramel deLites. Thin Mints. Oh my god, the Thin Mints—a gateway drug to extremist, radicalized organizing if ever there was one. I don’t know what came over me—fear, self-loathing, brainwashing—but I signed up for four boxes right there on the spot. And, as those two preteen rabble-rousers walked away, congratulating one another, I felt the cold thrill of terror course through my veins. The Girls Scouts of America, after all, share a “close strategic affiliation with Planned Parenthood” and are, clearly, a propaganda tool for all those wack-job liberals who are looking to indoctrinate millions of little girls into a lifetime of slutty sex, man-hating political equality and free abortions for all. It’s Girl Scout Cookie season. Or so thinks Bob Morris, a Republican state Do you know representative from Fort Wayne, Indiana, who where your recently refused to sign a state house resolution daughters are? that recognized the Girl Scouts of America’s 100th anniversary. “I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing,” Morris wrote in an open letter to his colleagues that outlined his beef with the youth organization. “The Girl Scouts of America and their worldwide partner, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), have entered into a close strategic affiliation with Planned Parenthood. You will not find evidence of this on the GSA/WAGGGS website—in fact, the websites of these two organizations explicitly deny funding Planned Parenthood.” Morris, intrepid search-engine wiz that he is, however, uncovered the truth: “[Evidence] proves that the agenda of Planned Parenthood includes sexualizing young girls through the Girl Scouts, which is quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood.” Specifically, Morris says, a Girl Scouts training program that used a Planned Parenthood sex-education pamphlet titled “Happy, Healthy, and Hot,” is all the proof you’ll ever need that the Girl Scouts are trying to get your daughters knocked up. Rep. Morris eventually apologized for his remarks. “I realize now that my words were emotional, reactionary and inflammatory,” he said in a statement in which he praised the organization’s promotion of leadership and community involvement. Coward. Don’t back down in the face of controversy now, Morris. After all, we’re talking about the same organization that allowed a 7-year-old transgender boy to join its ranks because she identified as a girl. It’s the Girl Scouts, people—not the Transgender Scouts. What’s next? Teaching the impressionable young women of our country what it means to be in control of one’s body, to be in charge of one’s financial future, to possess compassion and empathy? Little socialist brats, all of ’em, I tell you. If we don’t act now—if we don’t stop buying their damn cookies—these tiny kneesock adorned sprites will grow up to be feminazis, intent on spreading a party line that espouses the joys of hedonistic, soulless sex and baby killing. Or they could just grow up to be self-confident, self-aware and self-sufficient businesswomen, teachers, doctors, teachers, artists and philanthropists. Which, perhaps in the eyes of certain conservative political groups, is just as bad. Ω For more information on the Girl Scouts of America, visit www.girlscouts.org.

Smarted by Popsmart? Got something to say? Let Rachel know: popsmart@newsreview.com.

SN&R

03.01.12

For more information on Marlow, visit www.aaronthomasnelson.blogspot.com, www.pandaystudio.com or www.arcana.com.

Several years ago Aaron Nelson wandered into a bookstore and experienced an epiphany. There, Nelson saw the space where his own by book would fit—literally and metaphorically. Rachel Leibrock Never mind that he hadn’t actually written it yet; at the time, the 38-year-old was contemplating a rachell@ newsreview.com novel, a mythical fantasy tale inspired by one of his favorite works, The Odyssey. But, he realized, scanning the store’s shelves, there wasn’t really a place for the book photos he had in mind. by Wes Davis Then Nelson walked over to the shop’s graphic-novel section and realized he’d hit upon the perfect niche—his own story would fit perfectly there, right next to Alan Moore’s acclaimed 1980s-era Watchmen comic series. That he’d never attempted comics was beside the point. Here, he says, he recognized a clear void: a comic-book hero based on one of the Greek literature greats. Nelson, who lives in Shingle Springs with his wife and four young daughters, never wrote that particular book. But the moment

did, eventually, lead him to craft another graphic novel, one with a character who drew on various elements of classic literature—most notably Joseph Conrad’s 1903 novella Heart of Darkness. Released this week and illustrated in bold, punchy frames by Dario Carrasco, Marlow reads as a complex yet pulpy adventure rife with comic-book-worthy images—a loyal band of allies, a cold-hearted villain, scheming pirates and a throng of soul-dead zombies— as well political themes that examine, among other subjects, globalism and the war on terror. And, of course, there is the title character, a muscular, square-jawed anti-hero, alternately consumed with self-loathing and a desire to save the world. Think Pirates of the Caribbean meets Call of Duty. So why did a guy who studied a “great books” curriculum in college and counts Homer among his literary heroes envision this story as a graphic novel? “It’s a quick art in visual form—it’s very helpful in conveying literary elements,” Nelson explains. And, he adds, the graphic novel has come into its own. In addition to the Watchmen series, he says, Moore’s V for Vendetta, is a prime example of how

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arresting visuals and strong storytelling can combine for a gripping, stimulating journey.

Marlow reads as a complex yet pulpy adventure with a loyal band of allies, a cold-hearted villain, scheming pirates and a throng of soul-dead zombies. “[As a writer] you have to think about … the interplay of words with images and the density of the page—what’s the relationship of the story to the page [and] to the panel?” he says. “You have to break [the story] down to its most efficient point for each panel.”

Pulp Friction

The story contained within Marlow’s panels is, at times, dizzying. It’s the account of one man’s journey into the abyss of his own soul. Marlow is a former Marine who has been injected “like a lab rat” with a nanovirus that’s now turning him into a zombie. Nupharma, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, is responsible for Marlow’s condition and the firm’s Dr. Arcos holds the key to his survival—via pills that hold off Marlow’s complete descent into the land of the living dead. Marlow’s physical indebtedness to Arcos and Nupharma puts him, of course, at their mercy. The company’s enlisted him as a hit man, a job Marlow unhappily accepts—his survival depends on the death of others. As a result, Marlow’s alienated nearly everyone once dear to him, namely his wife and daughter.

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Eventually, he realizes that this life he’s chosen to live—a loveless, cold existence—is hardly any life at all. Perhaps, Marlow muses, he’s truly a zombie after all. “Marlow is in a double bind,” explains Nelson. “He’s had to do some really bad things but he’s also been able to retain some sense of who he is as a human—if he doesn’t do the right thing, then he becomes this monster.” The graphic novel actually comprises two separate stories—Soul of Darkness and River of Symbols. Nelson wrote the first installation in 2006, intending it as a serialized comic. But Soul of Darkness was a hit, eliciting praise from comic aficionados including Ain’t It Cool News, which lauded Nelson’s story as “[S]urely one that will stick with you, given the war-torn state the world is in today.” And so, at the behest of his publisher, Nelson wrote River of Symbols. Now, collected in one volume, the two stories complete a cohesive story arc but, Nelson says, embody key differences. “[Soul of Darkness] is pretty dark—by the end [Marlow] comes to the revelation that he can’t win either way and decides to stop playing the game altogether,” Nelson says. “But in the second story, he’s turned a corner and become more hopeful. He’s at peace with himself.” River of Symbols’ overall tone and pace is, Nelson says, also lighter, with quick-witted barbs, pirates and a kindly Italian riverboat captain, who guides Marlow on his journey. “It’s a bit more pulpy … it’s more of this jungle adventure that he’s on.” Still, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom it’s not. “[Marlow] is in that milieu of characters,” Nelson says, “in that he’s being chased across the jungle by this band of characters, and it’s fun and adventurous—but he’s [also] fighting some personal issues.”

Aaron Nelson, who lives in Shingle Springs with his wife and four daughters, wrote Marlow, a pulpy zombie-ish adventure. The graphic novel is being released this week.

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Sacramento Kings phone home Zombie crush Certainly, Marlow dives into a venture so volatile and dangerous, that ol’ Indy would likely think twice before swinging his whip within 100 yards of its action. Set in Romania, Marlow draws on Heart of Darkness for inspiration but, rather than paralleling the original’s exact storyline, instead echoes several prevalent themes. In Conrad’s book, for example, a narrator named Charles Marlowe recounts an assignment for a Belgian trading company, on which he served a riverboat captain in Africa. Along the way, Marlowe encounters grave dangers and is witness to the European’s cold, cruel treatment of African natives. “[Heart of Darkness] takes what the British and European empires are doing to Africa and turns it on its head,” Nelson says. “It shows that these justifications based on the idea that they’re savages can be applied to us—that we’re the ones acting in the savage manner. “I liked that, and I wanted to flip it around,” he says. “I wanted to do that with zombies. What is a zombie? Maybe we’re the zombies? Maybe we’re the ones killing to make them more like ourselves.”

“What is a zombie? Maybe we’re the zombies? Maybe we’re the ones killing to make them more like ourselves.”

Aaron Nelson, author of Marlow Oh yeah, about those zombies. If you’re looking for ones of the flesheating, Walking Dead variety, then keep looking. Here, the zombies that Marlow encounters embody a classic interpretation of the term, Nelson explains. “These are more Caribbean/West-African zombies—someone who is under the control of a master—that’s definitely different than the [filmmaker George] Romero zombie.” As such, Marlow finds himself one of the afflicted. “It turned me into a zombie instead of healing the psychological damage inflicted by years of warfare,” Marlow says at the beginning of the book’s second installment. “It’s blackmail. If I don’t work for them, they cut off the supply and I become a freak.” But it’s not just Marlow’s personal dilemma that drives the story. As Marlow tries

Ten bucks. That was the going rate for a game ticket last week between two bargain-basement basketball teams: the woeful Washington Wizards and, of course, the Sacramento Kings. Other than the price, there was little reason for anyone to head out to the arena on a cold weekday evening in Washington, D.C. Sacramento Kings fans, however, had one possible sweetener, or bittersweetener, in this case. Depending on how the Sacramento City Council votes soon, with the team’s future as up in the air as a DeMarcus Cousins’ free throw, it may have been one of the Kings’ many farewell games representing Sacramento as a major-league town. True, the matchup featured two last-place teams in their respective divisions—teams that haven’t been in sniffing distance of the playoffs in recent years. Even so, a long way from home, a handful of faithful Kings fans turned out in D.C., decked out in their purple and black. An informal count on the concourse at halftime, in fact, yielded about 20 fans in Sacramento Kings jerseys, hats and jackets. They were outnumbered, of course, by hardy—or possibly foolhardy—Wizards fans dressed in red and blue, and even some outfitted in Brigham Young University blue (presumably for Kings’ rookie Jimmer Fredette). But still, the Kings’ fans were there, cheering on. Sacramento’s lone major-league team and finding common ground through their hometown colors. “I hope they stay. They help put Sacramento on the map,” said one fan wearing a Kings’ cap, while waiting in line at the concession stand. Added another man behind him in line in a Sacramento jersey, “They kind of let people know Sacramento is out there.” Well, that’s one way of putting it. Meanwhile, over at a condiments station, another fan, this one dressed head-to-toe in purple, waited patiently for a little mustard. “They’ve treated my grandson real well, been real supportive,” Herb Scott said of Sacramento fans. “Which is good, since he is a terrific kid,” he added of his grandson Donte Greene. Unfortunately for Scott, Greene didn’t play in the Kings’ 115-107 victory, one in which the team steadily cruised by the Wizards for a win in front of a twothirds empty arena. And while the Verizon Center, a.k.a. the Phone Booth, may have been mostly vacant, the Sacramento City Council may want to note that the real action occurred outside the venue. There, in a once dead and blighted neighborhood that underwent revitalization after the city’s arena was built 15 years ago, the streets were lively and well-lit. Here, Washingtonians packed neighboring bars and restaurants in what has become a hip and gentrified part of town. Instead of $10 spent on a game ticket, they laid down money on mojitos and pitchers of craft beer. For them, last call happened sometime after midnight. Meanwhile, for Sacramento fans across the street at the Verizon Center, last call for their team happens this month, with the shot clock quickly winding down. —Hugh Biggar

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“art of darkness” continued from page 17

to achieve his mission, he’s faced with resistance in the form of a mysterious figure known only as “The Russian.” “He’s the antithesis of Marlow, he’s not in a double bind, he’s all for what [Nupharma] is doing,” Nelson says. The Russian’s presence elicits tension and dread among Marlow and his allies, and although on one hand, the evil henchman seems like a quaint relic from the Cold War era, he also effectively represents the collective post-9/11 fear of—and fear mongering—that surrounds foreign enemies. To that extent, Nelson adds, perhaps pop culture’s current zombie crush—Walking Dead, the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, et al—may reflect people’s fears about the state of global politics, terrorism and warfare. “Why is zombie culture so popular right now?” Nelson asks, “Maybe it says something about us, about who we are as a society.” Still, Nelson insists he didn’t intend Marlow as a “political diatribe.” “While Conrad has a pointed statement to make about colonization, I was [approaching] this story from a literary standpoint,” he says. “I didn’t have some foreign-policy objective, it was more like, ‘How does it feel to be in this world?’” So far, critical reaction to the book has been strong. Comic artist and critic David Hopkins, for one,

praises Marlow for its smart approach to the genre. “Aaron is a writer with a brain, and he’s not afraid to use it,” Hopkins says, adding that he thinks Nelson is due for a “break-out year.” “His work has commercial sensibility ... yet he maintains his own voice as a writer.” And, although alternately, a few reviews have called Nelson’s writing “clunky” or “cliché,” Hopkins dismisses such criticism as missing the point. “Aaron’s writing often takes common conventions and moves in a new direction, which is the very opposite of cliché,” he says. “He takes timeless archetypes and ideas, then transposes it into a popular medium or genre—it’s not that unlike what Alan Moore does.”

Art of darkness

Of course, no graphic novel, no matter how well-written, can succeed without compelling art. So here’s the funny thing: Nelson has never actually met his creative collaborator, Dario Carrasco—at least not in person. The two, who swap files

Why did a fellow who studied a “great books” curriculum in college and counts Homer among his literary heroes create a graphic novel? “It’s quick art in visual form,” explains Nelson.

20%

via email, first encountered each other on a comic message board and, Nelson says, instantly clicked. “It’s like we’re these kindred twins, everything we do is in sync.”

OF F

“Aaron [Nelson] is a writer with a brain, and he’s not afraid to use it. … His work has commercial sensibility ... yet he maintains his own voice as a writer.”

Cannot be combined with any other offers. expires 3/31/12

Every Second Friday Art Walk 1pm-7pm Shop at Yolo SPCA Thrift Store and Support the animals! 920 3rd St. Davis, CA

David Hopkins, comic artist and critic Before Carrasco, Nelson adds, he had “no idea” how Marlow looked. Carrasco’s rendition of the character has been integral to the overall storyline, he adds. For Carrasco, a 50-year-old artist living in Alberta, Canada, Marlow was an easy venture. “Aaron, even as a newcomer to the comics industry, has a knack for writing cool characters,” Carrasco says. “I [could] easily imagine … the sequences of the panels that I’d put on the page—that’s simply the work of a really good comics writer.” Carrasco, whose résumé includes illustrating Captain America and Alpha Flight for Marvel Comics, is on board for future Marlow projects, including a prequel to the story in which the reader will finally be privy to some of the story’s murkier details. “We want to talk about who Marlow is and learn more about the Russian,” Nelson says. In the meantime, Nelson remains busy. There are plans to write a novel—perhaps, finally, that Odyssey-inspired book. Nelson’s also published another serialized graphic novel online, a “babes-and-ray-guns story” called Kid Lightspeed & The Neutron Women and there are hopes to shop a Marlow screenplay. When he’s not writing, he works as an account manager for a technology and market-research company and, of course, there’s time with the family, including those four daughters, ages 5 to 12. So are the girls fans of their father’s work? Nelson laughs. “They know what graphic novels are, and they know what [their father] does, but they haven’t read my work,” he says. “The oldest one is into Twilight.” Of course. Nelson has a theory about this. “Twilight subverts that classic ‘angry young male’ character— Edward is the feminine version of that, we don’t really have angry young males [in pop culture] anymore.” Perhaps Marlow, although he’s actually 40-something, might help to subvert that trend. Or, maybe not. “Marlow’s a zombie and all of these bad things have happened to him,” Nelson says. “But, really, he’s a very good person at heart.” Ω

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Post your free online listing (up to 15 months early), and our editors will consider your submission for the printed calendar as well. Print listings are also free, but subject to space limitations. Online, you can include a full description of your event, a photo and a link to your website. Go to www.newsreview. com/calendar and start posting events. Deadline for print listings is 10 days prior to the issue in which you wish the listing to appear.

acramento is a hub for cycling. It’s connected to other bike-friendly towns—like Davis and Folsom— by beautiful trails on either side. Plus, on any given day, the central city is full of bike enthusiasts riding all kinds of cycles, like locally made custom road bikes and fixed-gear cruisers. Those who were pissed off that the Amgen Tour of California skipped Sacramento this year can still nerd out this weekend at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. The premier show of its kind, it features some of the world’s best-known and most innovative custom-frame builders. Happening all weekend at the Sacramento Convention Center, the NAHBS kicks off Thursday evening at a sideevent called the Artbike Party, at Hot Italian, 1627 16th Street. Starting at 6 p.m., the two-wheel-friendly pizza place will host a celebration of Sacramento’s cycling community with special guests and raffle prizes. Artbike will also host a parade on Saturday at 2 p.m. It’s a 2.5-mile ride that starts at Fremont Park (1515 Q Street) and ends at the Sacramento Convention Center (1400 J Street). For more information on these and other Artbike events, visit www.facebook.com/ ArtBikeSacramento. Meanwhile, the NAHBS main event happens at the Convention Center all day Friday through Sunday. Highlights of the show include a tribute to local builder Steve Rex on Saturday, which celebrates his 25th year of designing frames. Also on display will be dozens of mountain bike, city bike, road bike and cyclocross frames from international designers. And NAHBS will host a number of seminars on various business- and bike-related subjects. For more information, including a full schedule and a list of vendors, visit http://2012.handmadebicycleshow.com. —Jonathan Mendick

01THURS 02FRI DON’T MISS! THE ETHICS OF HEALTH CARE:

University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in association with the Ethics Across the Professions Initiative will present an event titled “The Ethics of Health Care in Global Perspective” with keynote speaker T.R. Reid. Reid is a correspondent and reporter for both NPR and PBS, as well as the author of The Healing of America. Th, 3/1, 6pm. Free. University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, 3200 Fifth Ave.; (916) 739-7191.

Special Events BEER WEEK BEER CRAWL: This Beer Crawl will feature nine or 10 bars pouring craft beers, all in the Old Sacramento area. Sample brews from Lost Coast Brewing Company, Lagunitas, Sudwerk and more. Th, 3/1, 711:30pm. $15. Old Sacramento, 1002 Second St.; (916) 524-5275; www.BeerCrawlUSA.com.

PETER GREENBERG: Peter Greenberg, travel expert and award-winning journalist and producer, is the fifth speaker in the 2011-2012 season of the Sacramento Speakers Series. Season and prorated subscriptions are available. Th, 3/1, 8pm. $205-$420. Sacramento Community Center Theater, 1301 L St.; (916) 388-1100; www.sacramentospeakers.com.

Film THE FORGOTTEN SPACE: Take a rare look at present-day harbors in this award-winning documentary. Using historic film footage and the personal narratives of port-city workers, renowned photographer Allan Sekula navigates the “forgotten space” of the globalized seas. Sekula will introduce the film and discuss his work after the screening. Th, 3/1, 6:30pm. $6-$12. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St.; (916) 808-7000; www.crockerartmuseum.org.

ISRAEL VS. ISRAEL: View the pre-

Wait, there’s more! Looking for something to do? Use SN&R’s free calendar to browse hundreds of events online. Art galleries and musems, family events, education classes, film and literary events, church groups, music, sports, volunteer opportunies—all this and more on our free events calendar at www.newsreview.com. Start planning your week!

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mier showing of a groundbreaking new documentary called Israel vs. Israel. There will be discussion afterward with filmmaker Terje Carlsson. This event is sponsored by JVP Sacramento and the Palestine Israel Study Group of Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento. Th, 3/1, 7-9pm. Free. Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento, 2425 Sierra Blvd.; (916) 202-4270; www.uuss.org.

03. 01.12

dance lessons, a live concert performance by Grupo Bakkan and dance performances by local dance studios. Th, 3/1, 7:30pm. Free. Sacramento State University Union Ballroom, 6000 J St.; (916) 278-6997; www.sacstateunique.com.

DON’T MISS! BOLLYWOOD SPECTACULAR: The evening will include a showing of a popular Bollywood movie, learning a dance sequence from the film, Indian snacks, freshly made chai and free henna tattoos. F, 3/2, 6:30pm. Free. North Sacramento-Hagginwood Library, 2109 Del Paso Blvd.; (916) 264-2700.

Special Events CONSERVATIONIST JOHN OLMSTED CELEBRATION: Attend a birthday celebration in memory of conservation pioneer John Olmsted, who passed away last year at the age of 70. Performers will include a host of entertainers from the Sierra foothills region of Grass Valley including local dance band Power of Twelve. F, 3/2, 6-10:30pm. $25-$30. St. Josephs Cultural Center, 410 South Church St. in Grass Valley; (530) 265-2520; www.mendo tahoe.org/events.html.

FISHNET FRIDAY WITH THE SIZZLING SIRENS: Join the women from the Sizzling Sirens Burlesque Experience every first Friday at Dive Bar for a new kind of burlesque dance experience. Enjoy live teaser performances on the hour all night from the Sirens, dance with them to their favorite music between performance sets, and take advantage of sizzling drink specials. First F of every month, 9pm-1am through 6/1. Free. Dive Bar, 1022 K St.; (916) 737-5999; www.thesirenshow.com/ fishnetfriday.

FUNNY FRIDAY COMEDY SHOW: Hosted by comedian Daunte Burks, the Funny Friday Comedy Show combines live music, stand-up comedy and an after party at the same location. Headlining Funny Friday will be Shaun Jones, with openers Erik Clark, Jay Rich and Bryan Yang. F, 3/2, 8-11pm. $15-$20. Red Lion Sacramento Inn, 1401 Arden Way; (916) 868-2103; www.funny fridaycomedyshow.com.

Comedy FRANK CALIENDO: Catch a performance by comedian Frank Caliendo, best known for his television show which featured sketch comedy and impersonations of famous celebrities and off-beat television personalities such as Robert Deniro and Charles Barkley. F, 3/2, 9pm. $35.50-$45.50. Thunder Valley Casino, 1200 Athens Ave. in Lincoln; (916) 408-7777; www.thundervalleyresort.com.

LOL COMEDY SHOW: The Cosumnes Community Services District and Sacramento’s Laughs Unlimited bring comedian Joey Guila to headline this night of laughter. Proceeds from the show benefit the Cosumnes Legacy Foundation, an independent nonprofit foundation that supports local parks and recreation and fire safety programs. F, 3/2, 8pm. $12-$15. Laguna Town Hall, 3020 Renwick Ave. in Elk Grove.

Dance CREATING WUNDERLAND: Former New York City Ballet Dancer and up-and-coming national and international choreographer, Edwaard Liang, makes his debut with the Sacramento Ballet recreating his critically acclaimed Wunderland . Watch a preview of the ballet up close in this edition of the Inside the Directors Studio series. F, 3/2, 6pm. $15. The Sacramento Ballet Studios, 1631 K St.; (916) 552-5800; www.sacballet.org.

Literary Events BLOG WHISPERER JERRY KENNEDY: California Writers Club, Sacramento Branch presents “The Blog Whisperer” Jerry Kennedy, who will deliver a speech titled “Blogging for Writers” at its Writers Network breakfast meeting. F, 3/2, 9-11am. Free. IHOP, 2216 Sunrise Blvd. in Rancho Cordova; (916) 213-0798; www.cwc sacramentowriters.org.

Meetings & Groups AMERICAN RIVER LODGE STATED MEETING: American River Masonic Lodge is having its monthly stated meeting. All worthy brothers are welcome. This lodge has proudly served the Rancho Cordova community for 50 years. First F of

every month, 7:45-9pm through 12/7. Free. Masonic Center-

Folsom, 1000 Duchow Way in Folsom; (916) 984-0668; http://americanriverlodge.org.

Now Playing DIAL M FOR MURDER, B FOR BEER: Brew Your Own Adventures is teaming up with the Sacramento Theatre Company to bring you a night of great beer and professional theater. Dial M for Murder is opening and an hour before the show, Brew Your Own Adventures will host a beer tasting in its lobby. F, 3/2, 6:30pm. $49. Sacramento Theatre Company, 1419 H St.; (916) 335-4472; http://brewyour ownadventures.com.

03SAT

DON’T MISS! PIONEER WOMEN: Join a

guide at the historic Old City Cemetery, and learn about the strong and determined women who helped settle the West, as they struggled to maintain a sense of family amidst the challenges they faced. Sa, 3/3, 10am-noon. Free. Old City Cemetery, 1000 Broadway; (916) 264-7839; www.oldcitycemetery.com.

Special Events BASKET-WEAVING DEMONSTRATIONS: View basket-weaving demonstrations by Dixie Rogers. Mesmerizing to watch and fun to learn from, Rogers is a traditional basket weaver from the Karuk tribe and uses a technique called “closed half twist-twined with overlay.” She incorporates a number of native California plants into her intricate and original basket creations. Sa, 3/3, 11am & 1pm;

Sa, 4/14, 11am & 1pm. Free with museum admission. California State Indian Museum, 2618 K St.; (916) 324-0971; www.parks.ca.gov/ indianmuseum.

FRIENDS FOR SURVIVAL GUEST SPEAKER: Friends for Survival is a nonprofit organization to comfort and support friends and families of loved ones lost through suicide. Steve Fugate, a man who brings hope to people who have been or are broken through tragic losses of suicide, will speak at this event. Sa, 3/3, 6:30pm. Free. North Highlands Community Center, 6040 Watt Ave. in North Highlands; (916) 332-7440.

SACRAMENTO FOOD & CULTURAL WALKING TOURS: Explore, eat, walk and talk while stopping at six different restaurants. Go behind the scenes with trained culinary guides to meet chefs and owners, and learn about their menu creations and stories. This is a three-hour walking tour on all-flat terrain. Advanced ticketing required.

Sa, 10:15am through 3/31.

$42-$58. Downtown Sacramento; (530) 863-3159; www.localrootsfoodtours.com.

Comedy THE JOKES ON ME 3.0: Humorist and rock ’n’ roll raconteur Jack Gallagher makes his annual pilgrimage down the corner and around the block from his Land Park home to the 24th Street Theatre in neighboring Curtis Park. It will feature new music and stories with the same band and price. Sa, 3/3, 6 & 9pm. Call for pricing. 24th Street Theatre, 2791 24th St.; (916) 452-3005; www.sierra2.org.

Film THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY SOXER: When bubbly 17-year-old Shirley Temple gets a crush on Cary Grant, he can’t get rid of her. But then he gets help from an unexpected source; her sister, judge Myrna Loy, sentences him to date Shirley until she gets over him. Sa, 3/3, 1, 4 & 7:30pm. Free. Auburn Library, 350 Nevada St. in Auburn; (530) 886-4500.

Kids’ Stuff BLOOMIN’ CRAZY: Visit with gardening clubs and plant experts; get inspired to start your spring gardens. The zoo has a significant plant collection and local organizations will educate visitors about gardening and plants. Some are used as cover or shelter and some—such as bamboo, acacia and mirror plants—are grown as browse (fresh treats) for the animals. Sa, 3/3, 9am-4pm. Free with admission. Sacramento Zoo, 3930 W. Land Park Dr.; (916) 808-5888; www.saczoo.org.

Literary Events LINDA M. POTTER: Author and humorist Linda M. Potter will be at The Avid Reader in Sacramento for a meet and greet and book signing for her latest, If Only God Would Give Me a Sign! Sa, 3/3, 2pm. Free. Avid Reader at the Tower, 1600 Broadway; (916) 441-4400.

Meetings & Groups GIANT PUMPKIN GROWERS’ FORUM: Award-winning growers from throughout California will share their strategies on growing giant pumpkins at the annual California Giant Pumpkin Growers’ Forum. The forum is open to the public and will include a question-andanswer session, a catered lunch, seed swap, seed raffle, seed auction and prize raffle. Sa, 3/3, 10am-3pm. $20-$30. The Pavilion in Elk Grove Regional Park, 9950 Elk Grove Florin Rd. in Elk Grove; (916) 405-5600.

Concerts Foundry is presenting a celebration of the annual Burnal Equinox (a celebration half-way between Burning Man events). Burnal Equinox Nevada City will give Burners and non-Burners alike a glimpse into the Burning Man event, complete with fire spinning, costumes and live music. Sa, 3/3, noon-1am. $20$25. Miners Foundry Cultural Center, 325 Spring St. in Nevada City; (530) 265-5040; www.minersfoundry.org.

HOUSE OF FLOYD: The Bay Area’s House of Floyd performs the music of Pink Floyd, and has gained a strong following for its ability to enthuse both the hard-core fans of the early adventurous Floyd and those who enjoy the soundscapes that later brought Floyd widespread appeal. HOF captures the essence of each of the various Floyd eras. Sa, 3/3, 8pm. $40. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.; (916) 442-7378.

THE VOICE OF THE CELLO: Cellists Michael Lawson and John Lutterman explore the range and intimacy of the cello. The concert includes works by Vivaldi, Somis, Boismortier, Barriere and Geminiani. Sa, 3/3, 7:30pm. $10-$25. St. John’s Lutheran Church, 1701 L St.; (916) 705-3806; www.sacramentobaroque.org.

04SUN

DON’T MISS! WOMEN OF COLOR DAY/DIVERSITY EVENT/JAZZ:

INTERNATIONAL FOLK DANCE: Learn simple to advanced dances from Bulgaria, Israel, Russia, Turkey, Japan and more. Most dances don’t require a partner, are good workouts and mentally stimulating. Su, 7-10pm through 3/18. $25-$35. Davis Art Center Studio E, 1919 F St. in Davis; (530) 758-0863; www.davisfolkdance.org.

Concerts unique and exciting combination of virtuosic musicianship and raw energy that has excited concertgoers across the world. Between the three members of this band, there will be eight instruments played on stage. Su, 3/4, 7-9pm. $13-$15. Village Homes Community Center, 2661 Portage Bay East in Davis; (530) 867-1032; www.timnatalmusic.com.

THE VOICE OF THE CELLO: Cellists Michael Lawson and John Lutterman explore the range and intimacy of the cello. The concert includes works by Vivaldi, Somis, Boismortier, Barriere, and Geminiani. Su, 3/4, 3pm. $10-$25. Rudolf Steiner College, 9200 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Fair Oaks; (916) 705-3806; www.sacramentobaroque.org.

05MON Classes

COMPUTER FUNDAMENTALS: Learn computer basics, including parts of a computer, using a mouse, using the keyboard, managing programs, managing files, moving and copying files, changing the Windows desktop, creating documents, working with pictures, and saving and printing documents. Students must be more than 55 years old. M, 3/5, 9:30am-noon. $30 for six lessons. Rio Americano High School, 4540 American River Dr.; (916) 485-9572; www.seniornet.org.

This basic class is designed for those who are new to theater or are returning after many years off. It will be focusing on theater and acting basics, from a brief overview and history to the use of the voice and body as an instrument, using theater games, exercises and improvisation. M, 7:30-10pm through 3/26. $200. The Actors Workshop through Victory Life Church, 800 Reading St. in Folsom; (916) 207-5606; www.actorsworkshop.net/ the/classes.

GRAND OPENING OF PEREGRINE ELEMENTARY: Peregrine Elementary will have its grand opening and the Davis Chamber of Commerce will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Tour the facility, meet teachers, parents and students, and enjoy a live performance by local band Tha Dirt Feelin’. Food and refreshments will be served. Su, 3/4, 3-5pm. Free. Peregrine Elementary School,

Concerts VIRIGINIA GLEE CLUB SINGS IN SACRAMENTO: The Virginia Glee Club, a 141-year-old musical tradition at the University of Virginia, will perform its first California concert on its Western tour here in Sacramento. This renowned allmale a capella group, with its

FRONTLINES

CROCHET AND KNITTING CIRCLE: Enjoy conversation and companionship at the Fair Oaks Library Crochet and Knitting Circle. All ages and skill levels welcome. This is not an instructional class, but some assistance will be available. Bring your own hooks, needles, yarn and a project to work on.

06TUES

First W of every month, 6:30pm.

DON’T MISS!

Free. Fair Oaks Library, 11601 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Fair Oaks; (916) 264-2920; http://saclibrary.org.

GRAHAM-A-RAMA PRESENTS OMNIBUS: This installment

of Graham-a-Rama features the cast of California Musical Theatre’s latest hit, Forbidden Broadway. Scheduled performers include Marc Ginsburg, Jessica Reiner-Harris, Melissa WolfKlain and GAR favorite, Jerry Lee. OMNIBUS! will be a rare chance to see these actors performing some of their favorite songs backed by the Graham Sobelman Trio. Tu, 3/6, 7pm. $20-$25. The Cosmopolitan Cabaret, 1000 K St.; (916) 557-1999; www.californiamusical theatre.com.

funding symposium brings to Sacramento top research and strategies to develop longterm success right now. Join the conversation on the newest trends and resources available to arts organizations. W, 3/7, 8:30am-5pm. $35. KVIE Public Television, 2030 W. El Camino Ave.; (916) 792-4947; www.sacmetroarts.org.

Classes THE COMPLETE JOB SEARCH: A sixweek course teaching the steps of the modern job search from planning to interviewing. To get the most from this course, you will need basic computer skills, including how to use Windows, Microsoft Word, email and the Internet. First W of every month, 10am through 3/7. Free. Arcade Community Library, 2443 Marconi Ave.; (916) 264-2920; www.saclibrary.org.

FOURTH ANNUAL SEED SWAP: Bring

series of classic movies handpicked by staff who will share the reason for their choice, the historical context of the movie and interesting behind-thescenes facts regarding its production. Drama, comedy, adventure and romance filmed between the 1920s through the 1970s will be screened in the West Meeting Room. First Tu of every month through 12/4. Free. Sacramento Public Library (Central Branch), 828 I St.; (916) 264-2920; www.saclibrary.org.

YOUR PERSONAL BRAND: Learn how to present yourself from your résumé to the interview to stand out from the crowd. W, 3/7, 9am. Free. Antelope Library, 4235 Antelope Rd. in Antelope; (916) 264-2920; www.saclibrary.org.

Kids’ Stuff WETLAND MUNCHERS: Plants and animals of the wetlands are interconnected. Do you know who eats who? Many stages of life cycles can be found in water. Do you know who they belong to? Discover the food-chain gang and more in this science class for the home-schooled titled “Wetland Munchers.” W, 3/7, 10am-noon. $3.50- $7. Placer Nature Center, 3700 Christian Valley Rd. in Auburn; (530) 878-6053, ext. 608; www.placernaturecenter.org.

Literary Events MIROSLAVA CHAVEZ-GARCIA: Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, UC Davis associate professor of Chicano/a studies, will give a talk about her new book, States of Delinquency: Race and Science in the Making of California’s Juvenile Justice System. Tu, 3/6, 1pm. Free. UC Davis Bookstore, 1 Shields Ave. in Davis; (530) 752-6846.

Sports & Recreation WINTER HIKING WITH DOGS: Join author Debbi Preston for a presentation on great winter trails for our area, combining snowshoe routes and foothill paths great for winter adventures. Trails featured will be from both of her books, 48 DogFriendly Trails and Dog-Friendly Trails for All Seasons in California’s Foothills and the Sierra Nevada. W, 3/7, 7-8:30pm. Free. REI Sacramento, 1790 Expo Pkwy.; (916) 924-8900; www.rei.com/sacramento.

07WED

DON’T MISS! DRAKE: Catch a perform-

ance by popular Canadian hip-hop artist Drake, with opening performances by Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky. W, 3/7, 8pm. $60-$80. UC Davis Pavilion, 1 Shields Ave. in Davis; (530) 754-5306.

FEATURE

STORY

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WHERE’S THE MONEY?: This arts-

Special Events your seeds to swap and trade at this event presented by the Sacramento Area Community Garden Coalition. Tu, 3/6, 6:308pm. Free if you bring seeds to trade, otherwise $5. Shepard Garden & Art Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd.; (916) 508-6025.

o t n me

Special Events

CLASSIC MOVIE NIGHT: Join for a

THEATER AND ACTING WORKSHOP:

Kids’ Stuff

conductor from Chanticleer, will sing classical and modern choral works. M, 3/5, 7-9pm. Free. Congregation B’nai Israel, 3600 Riverside Blvd.; (916) 446-4861; www.bnai.com.

Film

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The 27th annual Sacramento Community Women of Color Day, Diversity Event & Jazz Concert features an award ceremony, an organizing forum, live jazz concert, and a tour of the Sacramento Library. Su, 3/4, 4-8pm. $5-$20. Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I St.; (916) 483-9804; www.womenofcolorday.com.

Meetings & Groups

KLEZMER MUSIC WITH VERETSKI PASS: Veretski Pass offers a

BURNAL EQUINOX: The Miners

5BEFORE

1909 Galileo Ct., Building C; (530) 753-5500; http://theperegrineproject.net.

Concerts SACRAMENTO TAIKO DAN: Enjoy a performance by Sacramento Taiko Dan, a traditional Japanese drumming group, part of the ongoing Wednesday Nooner series sponsored by Unique Programs. W, 3/7, noon. Free. Sacramento State Student Union, Redwood Room, 6000 J St.; (916) 278-6267.

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hey called me a douche bag, a bro. In yo’ face! And they even threatened to take a baseball bat to my knees if I mention that one Christian-monikered but hoppy-ashell beer from Santa Rosa again. So I won’t.

Meanwhile, the third-annual Sacramento Beer Week moves into its second week. The party started, uh, February 24—hard to remember— and ends this Sunday, March 4. All the rowdy, circus-tent Beer Week events have passed—still rehabbing from that Cal Expo shuttle slip!—but there are more beer-soaked and possibly bawdy events in the pipe for the next four days, including these five don’t-miss events. Meet the champ: Brewer Jeremy Warren took home the big double-IPA prize this past SF Beer Week. Meet Warren, of Lincoln’s Knee Deep Brewing Co., this Thursday, March 1, at Dad’s Kitchen (2968 Freeport Boulevard; 6 p.m.; $6 for logo pint, $4 refills; go for the award-winning Hoptologist). Rapture is here: Burgers & Brew (1409 R Street) hooked up with Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company to make Rapture 2, a 30 IBU, 8 percent alcohol-by-volume imperial brown ale. Try it—not like you need an excuse, because I know you’re cracking-out on those burgers. Hopping your face off was never so fun: Hot City Pizza, tucked away in East Sacramento at 5642 J Street, is a tiny, unremarkable hole-in-the-wall with shockingly good pizza (or maybe it was the garlic?) and a beer selection tantamount to almost any in town. But all weekend, the joint’s getting hoppy with “Hop Your Face Off”—three days of tasting some 14 IPAs, DIPAs and even a triple. Bring in the funk, bring in the sour: Samuel Horne’s Tavern in Folsom (719 Sutter Street) is great. If you’re a downtowner, just hope on light rail for a breezy ride and step off into a world of 16 sour-beer draughts at the second annual Funk & Sour Festival (Saturday, March 3), from the likes of Ballast Point Brewing Co., Knee Deep Brewing and more. Do some blow: The Pangaea Two Brews Cafe (2743 Franklin Boulveard) Super “Blow” Sunday sounds promising: A mishmash of all the leftover and missed-out on beers during the 10 days of Sacramento Beer Week. It’s like garage-saleing or crate-digging for beers. What could be better? —Nick Miller Find out more at www.sacramentobeerweek.com.

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Conveniently located at the corner of 8th & P

DISH

Gringo-wiches See FOOD STUFF

“One of the

BEST BURGERS IN AMERICA”

A yin to the yang

-Guy Fieri

Yianni’s Bar & Grill 6628 Fair Oaks Boulevard, (916) 482-0796 by GREG LUCAS

Rating:

★★★★ Dinner for one:

$10 - $25

★

FLAWED

★★ HAS MOMENTS

★★★ APPEALING

★★★★ AUTHORITATIVE

★★★★★ EPIC

Still hungry?

Search SN&R’s “Dining Directory” to find local restaurants by name or by type of food. Sushi, Mexican, Indian, Italian— discover it all in the “Dining” section at www.newsreview.com.

BEFORE

Don’t judge a restaurant by its exterior. Sure, Yianni’s Bar & Grill looks like some hoary San Francisco or South Shore haunt, whose bedraggled white sunporch—where the imposing, white-haired owner often holds court—seems several decades overdue for a facelift or five. But the regulars couldn’t care less. Yianni’s neighbors along this aging stretch of Carmichael are primarily auto shops and thrift stores. To label Yianni’s curb appeal as underwhelming is an understatement. Yianni’s looks to be the yin to the yang of Ambience, the ever-so-highfalutin’ eatery a couple of blocks away. But enter Yianni’s main dining room and feel the rush Dorothy must have experienced stepping off Aunt Em’s porch into the Technicolor Land of Oz. Warm polished wood wainscoting lines the walls. A large, L-shaped bar, also of polished wood, dominates the interior, its capacious polished wood storage space filled with spirits. There’s a reason “bar” gets first billing ahead of “grill.” If Yianni isn’t a tip-off, the varieties of high-end ouzo behind lock and key positively shouts “Greek served here.” And indeed it is, at both the bar and the smattering of tables and the trio of booths that fill the rest of the space. This food is prepared by Gerry, just as it has been for more than a decade. Gerry is of Irish descent, says Nadine, the irrepressible waitress. Gerry deflects questions by lunch pal, Amy Palmer, a frequent contributor to Inside Arden, regarding the spice enlivening the prodigious pork loin, which, like nearly all of Yianni’s entrees, is more than capable of feeding two. Sage and oregano are part of the mix, but there’s something more, and Gerry isn’t spilling. Says Amy: “The pork loin was not especially tender, but it was served with a delicious gravy. The asparagus was wellprepared with a traditional yogurt-dill sauce. The fried potato wedges were delicate, garlicky and carbo-licious. I had to fight the urge to gobble up every single one and upped the incline on the treadmill a notch during my post-lunch workout.” The mixed grill showcases Gerry’s abilities with Greek spicing. The chicken drumstick is redolent with lemon, oregano and garlic, but not tart. The two hold-bythe-bone-and-devour lamb chops also exhibit a lemony lilt. They’re pink, but cooked through. The pastitsio, Greek lasagna, is flaky and flavorful. The dolma holds more meat than rice, and the spanakopita, with its spinach filling, is spot-on. Similarly, the avgolemono, rice soup, is lemony, but not sour, creamy but not FRONTLINES

FEATURE

AS SEEN ON DINERS

★ DRIVE-IN’S & DIVES

syrupy. Pert near perfect, which is exactly what Yianni’s Greek salad is. All the traditional ingredients combine seamlessly in a lemony— go figure—dressing that doesn’t overpower. There’s a bit of this and that in the seafood bisque, which has a chocolaty quality to it, almost like Mexican mole. Adds Amy: “Another highlight is the escargot, prepared with to-die-for garlic butter sauce in beautiful golden shells. Yianni’s would be a great place to sample escargot for the first time, with pita bread and tasty garlic toast at the ready.”

The varieties of high-end ouzo behind lock and key positively shouts “Greek served here.” Yianni’s is justified in branding its garlic bread “famous.” The chunky hummus and stack of pita triangles are equally addicting. So is the tsatsiki that accompanies the keftedes, beef and pork meatballs spiced up by Gerry with nowhere to go but down the hatch. Plenty of meatballs and flawless Parmesan french fries to go around—and then around again. There some American offerings at lunch. Forget them. Go with the heaping mound of green-lipped mussels, and save some famous garlic bread to sop up as much as possible of the epic wine-and-butter sauce they float in. Amy sums up nicely: “Unusual flavors and some gems on the menu set Yianni’s apart. It’s definitely worth a try, especially on a Friday night.” Ω

5301 POWER INN RD SACRAMENTO, CA 95820 916.386.8599 www.squeezeinn.com M-F 10-7 | Sat 10-6 | closed Sun

Celebrate Beer with

Food Pairings

THE V WORD Totally baked If ever there had been a moment that you conceded that your former favorite baked goods simply cannot be made vegan, then allow me to introduce you to Veganbaking.net. This website is chockfull of recipes for animal-product free classic treats—crepes, strawberry “pop tarts,” apple pie, “Jell-O” shots—and inventive ones—gingerbread waffles, caramel apple cheesecake, parsnip cake, peanut butter maple ice cream. It’s a community-collaborative site, so you can add your own recipes to its creative and compassionate cache. Its resources also include an international vegan-bakery directory, book and product reviews, cooking tips, and a Q-and-A forum called “Ask a Vegan Baker” with the site’s superstar concocter, Mattie. So get online and into the kitchen.

Sunday March 4th 5-8pm

Saturday March 3rd 3-5pm

Dinner paired with Sudwerk Beer

3 Beers from 3 Breweries paired with 3 Appetizers

Corner of 15th & K 916.444.3633 CapitolGarage.com

1815 K Street 916.444.2423 ThePorchSacramento.com

—Shoka STORY

A RT S & C U LT U R E

AFTER

03.01.12

SN&R

DISH Where to eat? Here are a few recent reviews and regional recommendations, updated regularly. Check out www.newsreview.com for more dining advice.

Midtown

Mati’s There’s a reason “Indian Express” was part of Mati’s previous title. A variety of dishes are offered daily in a buffet, but Mom serves instead of diners slopping stuff onto their own plates. Options are fairly straightforward: A small dish at $6.99 with rice and two items, and a large, which has up to four items, at $8.99. Subtract $1 if going vegetarian. There’s five dishes in the daily veg rotation, most of them vegan. Offerings run the gamut from mild to spicy, although the temperature of spicy is well within tolerance, except for the most heat adverse. This is straightup, nicely prepared Indian food without frills. Mom and daughter make it even more appealing. Indian. 1501 16th St.; (916) 341-0532. Dinner for one: $9-$12. ★★★ The Press Bistro There are flashes of Greece, such as the crisscross rows of bare light bulbs over the front patio. Or the summery small plate of stacked watermelon squares with feta and mint. Even Italian vegetarians get cut into the action with mushroom ravioli and its corn, leek and dill triumvirate. Another special is a colorful small plate of pepperonata—slightly-pickled-in-champagne-vinegar

previous visit. Mexican. 1200 K St., (916) 441-7200. Dinner for one: $12-$20. ★★★★

stripes of peppers awash in olive oil. Speaking of olive oil, it’s all that’s needed to accompany the fluffy, light focaccia, whose four rectangles come neatly stacked. Share The Press with someone you love. Mediterranean. 1809 Capitol Ave., (916) 444-2566. Dinner for one: $15-$30. ★★★1⁄2

Thir13en From the start—and, lo,

Sampino’s Towne Foods

these many weeks hence—the situp-take-notice plate remains the pork tonnato sandwich. It’s the Italian peasant spread or sauce made with tonno—tuna—tonnato that empowers this open-face masterwork. Spread on a toasted half baguette, the tonnato is the foundation upon which the pork rests. Above the pork is an awning of mixed greens, with a generous overhang, sprinkled with not enough crispy onions and paperthin slices of pickled fennel. There isn’t space to wax poetic about the cordon bleu sandwich, the burger, the designer cocktails or the fizzy

Sampino’s Towne Foods turns out to be a bright jewel in a drab Alkali Flat strip mall of paycheck cashers and laundromat. It’s everything an Italian deli should be and more, right down to the Louie Prima on the box and the timpano in the refrigerated display case. Several lobbyists, who elect to drive the six to seven blocks from their offices near the capitol, to pick up sandwiches or—in one instance—five meatballs, begin spewing superlatives when asked their views on Sampino’s. Italian Deli. 1607 F St., (916) 441-2372. Dinner for one: $7-$15. ★★★★1⁄2

water from Wales. See for yourself. Very authoritative. American. 1300 H St., (916) 594-7669. Dinner for one: $12-$20. ★★★★

East Sac

Formoli’s Bistro Formoli’s is the other half of the restaurant swap on J Street that sent Vanilla Bean Bistro (formerly known as Gonul’s J Street Cafe) to Formoli’s old warren and brought Formoli’s into its current high-ceilinged, spare, dark cranberry space of black tables and chairs just six blocks away. Flavor combinations are a big part of the Formoli playbook, and the blend of the tower’s components is the payoff just as it is in the salad of beets—wafer-thin enough to be used interchangeably in the

EAT IT AND REAP

carpaccio—with shaved fennel, frisée, a few orange segments and pistachios laced with a stentorian balsamic vinaigrette. Mediterranean. 3839 J St., (916) 448-5699. Dinner for one: $20-$40. ★★★★

fresh—in many dishes. And the tabbouleh delivers a roundhousepunch flavor combination. Turkish. 3260-B J St., (916) 457-1155. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★★1⁄2

Vanilla Bean Bistro Gonul’s J Street Cafe has moved up the street and evolved into the Vanilla Bean Bistro. Its narrow, lowceilinged coziness is consonant with its understated, whatever-theimpulse-inspires alchemy that owner/chef Gonul Blum, has shown over the past eight years. Blum hails from Turkey. That country’s culinary tradition provides a sturdy foundation, but for her, it serves more as a launching pad. A recurring feature practiced here is the inclusion of fruit—preserved and

Land Park/ Curtis Park

Pangea Two Brews Cafe Tables, tall and short, are large and communal, fostering that casual camaraderie that should be the goal of any self-respecting brewpub. There’s a fairly extensive menu, including breakfast items. Not to put too fine a point on it: Pangaea’s offerings are not beers that will be found at Save Mart or even Nugget. They are nuanced. Brewed with artisanship. In some

by GARRETT MCCORD

Chawin’ time!

Tequila Museo Mayahuel On each visit chef Ramiro Alarcón offers a tantalizing taste of what’s to come. One time it’s a tart, fishladen ceviche that’s neither sugary nor syrupy. Another it’s a cup of albondigas soup. For many years, 524 Mexican Restaurant had cornered the market on meatball soup. Mayahuel’s is superior: a thicker, more flavorful broth and generously sized meatballs. Bookending the meal is a complimentary dessert. The free flan is memorable, but spending $5 on mango cheesecake is a Lincoln well-invested. Mayahuel seems to be benefiting from positive word of mouth. Each time is busier than the

Sugar cane is available now in some of the farmers and Asian markets. If you’re not sure what it looks like, just look for the large, well, canes that are similar to bamboo shoots thickened up on steroids. They can be any color from green or brown, to mahogany red or deep purple. Sugar cane is cheap, fun to eat—and obviously sweet.

Most people just use sugar cane for chawin’. Using a sharp knife, peel off the skin. After that, you can chop it up into sticks or chunks and chew away. When the sorghumy goodness is all gone, then toss it away (the actual fiber of the

sugar cane is fibrous and indigestible). Of course, there are culinary uses for sugar cane. If you have a juicer, you’re all set. The dazzlingly sweet juice is striking on the palate when mixed in cocktails with a bit of gin and tonic, and shaken with rosemary and cucumber. The juice also adds a soft zing to vinaigrettes and marinades. Peel out long pieces of the fibrous cane and use them as skewers for barbecue or as toothpicks for hors d’oeuvres, both of which will be imbued with a hint of sugar.

PEN

MIDTOWN’S NEWEST ICO N

Estelle’s Patisserie is a charming, warmly lit French bakery and espresso bar dedicated to quality and our Sacramento community. Estelle’s uses fresh, local ingredients to make our breakfast and lunch items Croissants, French macarons, tarts, breads, soups, sandwiches, and a full espresso menu. Wholesale orders, catering and delivery are also available. Please call or email for details. Located at the corner of 9th and K in downtown Sacramento Open M–F, 7am–6pm • *Wi-Fi available Contact us at (916) 551–1500 or via email at info@estellespatisserie.com

SN&R

03.01.12

URGERS SQUEEZE B GERS U VEGGIE B R NDWICHES A S EAK SQUEEZEST

TU-THUR 11AM -9PM FRI-SAT 11AM-11PM SUNDAY 11AM-6PM CLOSED MONDAYS

1630 K St • Sacramento • 916-492-2499

North Sac

Enotria Restaurant and

Wine Bar The longtime eatery’s reworked patio cries out for lazing on an amber autumn afternoon. Enotria is an enophile’s dream. The waiters here speak fluent wine and their knowledge is both capacious and definitive. Enotria promises “Food made for wine made for food,” and it delivers on the pledge. The paella remains Enotria’s signature dish. A recent $32 prix-fixe meal begins with a rectangular plate upon which is served an alternating line of caramelized plantains and campaign-button size pork tenderloins. The accompanying wine is a 2008 white burgundy, Olivier LeFlaive “Les Setilles.” The one-two punch here is, obviously, the food and wine. But the knockout punch—at least when all cylinders are firing—is the delivery. American. 1431 Del Paso Blvd., (916) 922-6792. Dinner for one: $20-$40. ★★★★1⁄2

South Sac Sabaidee Thai Grille If the menu at Sabaidee Thai Grille is any indication, pumpkin and other squashes play a major role in Laotian cuisine, which, in turn, plays a major role at Sabaideee. Sabaidee—“hello” in Lao—requires fortitude to find. The khalii khapou, listed as “curried crab stew” on the menu, comes from the hometown of the matriarch who is happy to answer questions about the ingredients and volunteers what is apparent after one mouthful: real crab is used. On the appetizer front, the pumpkin wontons are a new enough addition that they’ve yet to appear on Sabaidee’s website. A word about the freebie salad that accompanies each meal: expect mixed greens, a dash of carrot shreds, cucumber chunks, a quarter of a tomato, a spattering of sesame seeds and what taste like fried shallots. All this with a tamarind emboldened dressing. Now that’s a freebie. Service can be kinda slow and tentative, but certainly part of that is due to the freshness of the fare. Sabaidee isn’t cheap, but it’s a quality meal for the price. Thai/Laotian. 8055 Elk Grove-Florin Rd., (916) 681-8286. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★1⁄2

Arden/ Carmichael

Ambience It’s not surprising the folks at Zagat have done a fair amount of hyperventilating over Ambience, the decidedly upscale eatery on Fair Oaks Boulevard. Where else in Carmichael can you

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find a $222 meal for two—without alcohol? There is coulis and confit and soufflé and brûlée and reductions and stuff that’s sliced wafer thin and, of course, vast white real estate that surrounds the small portions served on the plates. As the meal progresses, the presentation of the food gets better and better, as does the complexity of the offerings. Baked Alaska for dessert is as rich and decadent. It is also the largest item to appear on a plate all evening. Kudos to chef and owner Morgan Song for a truly memorable meal. American. 6440 Fair Oaks Blvd., (916) 489-8464. Dinner for one: $60 and up. ★★★★★

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK STIVERS

cases for hundreds of years. A large number are Belgian. There’s the usual panoply of French dip, hot pastrami, Reuben and so on. Among the signature offerings is The Gobbler. Turkey, natch. Cranberry sauce, natch. Then red onion, several roma tomato slices, a thicket of green leaf and pepper jack cheese, all shoehorned into a big baguette. Brewpub. 2743 Franklin Blvd., (916) 454-4942. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★1⁄2

1608 Howe Ave., Ste. 5; (916) 920-5930. Dinner for one: $20-$40. ★★★1⁄2

Nagato Sukiyaki Nagato Sukiyaki’s website says that it is the oldest Japanese restaurant in Sacramento; its doors opened here 41 years ago. And yet business is brisk. Perhaps part of the attraction is the menu with sushi rolls priced well-below the mid-tohigh teens. Another bright spot is sushi chef and owner Don Kawano, who extolls virtues of simple rolls such as albacore, avocado and jalapeño that are unsullied by myriad sauces. The menu runs the gamut of Japanese cuisine: somen, soba, udon and a variety of generously portioned bento boxes. The warmth of chef Kawano and the familiar feel of a longtime quiet neighborhood fixture are the restaurant’s trump cards. Sushi. 2874 Fulton Ave., (916) 489-8230. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★1⁄2

Arigato Sushi Tucked inconspicuously into a strip mall on Howe Avenue, Arigato’s décor seems skewed to a youngish demographic: One wall is lit with changing colors— blue, green, magenta. The miso is somewhat bereft of the tofu and seaweed flotsam and jetsam found in many bowls elsewhere. The poki, with slices of cucumber and onion, is artfully presented and more than lives up to its “three red chili” billing in the menu with an unrelenting assault on the tongue. The chef recommends the Spanish mackerel (aji) over the mackerel for dessert. He’s right, of course. There are beginner’s sushi samplers, bento boxes, udon, teriyaki and sukiyaki options. But Arigato’s chief attraction is raw fish bits. And if that’s what you crave, then this place’s crowds you should brave. Sushi.

Palenque Cocina Mexicana Palenque’s flautas don’t taste greasy—something of a feat—and are presented on a bed of shredded lettuce with zigzags of cheese and mayo rivaling the handiwork of the Lilliputians on Gulliver. Kinda don’t want to tear into it—for like a second or two. Requests are readily accommodated, like bringing buckets of the habanero miracle salsa, which, based on the minuteness of the dice, must be quite a labor-intensive hassle to create. Mexican. 2598 Alta Arden Expwy., (916) 483-1751. Dinner for one: $6-$12. ★★★1⁄2

Chili out, man As the winter season comes to a close, one cold-weather stew will receive a lively send-off this Saturday. The Sacramento Beer & Chili Festival at Southside Park (2116 Sixth Street), which coincides with Beer Week, celebrates both vegetarian and meat versions of a certain hearty stew called chili. The competition will determine a winner in three categories: individual, corporate and industry. Additionally, attendees can pair their chili with a beer from such regional breweries as Ruhstaller, Sudwerk and Lost Coast. Local band As Yet Untitled will kick out some live jams. The event is run by Sacramento Artists Council and raises money for art programs for at-risk youth. Tickets for chilitasting only are $15.75 in advance and $20 at the door; tickets for chili and beer tasting are $36.50 in advance and $40 at the door. To purchase tickets, and for more information, visit http://sacramentobeerandchilifestival.com. —Jonathan Mendick

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FRONTLINES

FEATURE

STORY

A RT S & C U LT U R E

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SACRAMENTO

1402 Broadway 916.930.0888

CITRUS HEIGHTS

5623 Sunrise Blvd. 916.961.6888

Sun-Thurs 11am-10pm • Fri & Sat 11am-10:30pm

chinabuffetrestaurant.com

PARTY ROOMS AVAILABLE • NOW SERVING BEER & WINE

AFTER

03.01.12

China Buffet

SN&R

E V I T A C O V PRO

PROGRESSIVE

G N I N E T H ENLIG LAST YEAR, WE HAD GANDHI (the Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi)

COOLHUNTING Who’s your sugar daddy? Bissinger’s chocolate-dipped fruit Warning: Do not sample Bissinger’s candies unless you have sizable discretionary income. A well-meaning friend gave me a bag of pricey Bissinger’s chocolateFOOD covered cherries, and now I’ve become accustomed to a confectionery lifestyle I cannot afford. Not mere drugstore cordials, these candies preserve their tart cherry taste inside a generously thick shell of handcrafted chocolate. Bissinger’s also works chocolaty transformations on blackberries, blueberries, apricots, raspberries, strawberries and oranges. If you can swing prices upward of $25 a pound, order the candies directly online, or look for them seasonally at Whole Foods Markets. Otherwise, you’ll need a (literal) sugar daddy. www.bissingers.com. —Becca Costello

Burn notice The Girl Who Was on Fire The Hunger Games movie premiere is still a few weeks away, but impatient fans can get a quick fix via a new book that explores Suzanne Collins’ popular young-adult trilogy. In The Girl Who Was on Fire, edited by Leah Wilson, 13 young-adult authors examine the girl in question—Katniss Everdeen—and the dystopian world she’s trying to survive. Here, essays such as “Your Heart Is a Weapon the Size of Your Fist,” “Team Katniss” and BOOK “Someone to Watch Over Me” take on topics such as teenage rebellion, terrorism and the history of the world as we’ve destroyed it. May the odds be ever in your favor. —Rachel Leibrock

Not so cheap thrills Grey Gardens Boutique Part of the fun in shopping for vintage comes from the thrill of snapping up cheap secondhand-store scores, such as a $10 pristine 1950s Emma Domb cocktail dress or a ridiculously inexpensive Lilli Ann mohair coat. But, even FASHION if your budget is small, it’s still nice to aspire to riches. The Grey Gardens Boutique is an Etsy shop specializing in hard-to-find vintage couture that’s priced a wee bit higher than, say, a Thrift Town half-off special. Browse online and drool over lovely pieces including a black Hanae Mori sweater dress ($450), a white leather fringe jacket ($295) and a gorgeous pair of silver-studded Herbert Levine pumps ($495). Like its namesake fashion icons, the Grey Gardens Boutique can help you find just the right costume for the day—at least in your moneyed dreams. www.etsy.com/shop/greygardensboutique.

THIS YEAR, WE HAVE

TUTU!

(the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu)

—Rachel Leibrock

Hear human rights activist Naomi Tutu at St. Mark’s talk about growing up in the shadow of South Africa’s amazing non-violent revolution.

FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2012, 7:30PM for tickets or more information

www.stmarksumc.com/upcomingmoon or call (916) 483-7848

TICKETS:

$25 $15

general 26

SN&R

03.01.12

students

Grape expectations Wine-appreciation class If you’re one of those people who gets nervous while shopping the wine section, now’s the chance to finally cast off that fear of grapes. On Wednesday, March 8, former Corti Brothers wine merchant Donal Smith takes over Folsom’s Lake Forest Cafe to launch a three-week wine-appreciation course, complete with history, tips and, of course, tastings. Learn about the visuals of wine as well as the allWINE important aroma, mouthfeel and notes. Also on the agenda: A sampling of appetizers and a guide to decoding that ever-intimidating wine glossary. The $89 fee covers all three classes, but registration is limited to 40 students. 13409 Folsom Boulevard in Folsom, www.donalsmithwines.com. —Rachel Leibrock

ASK JOEY Ditch the victim act by JOEY GARCIA

Joey

wants to plant sweet broom.

Got a problem?

Write, email or leave a message for Joey at the News & Review. Give your name, telephone number (for verification purposes only) and question— all correspondence will be kept strictly confidential. Write Joey, 1124 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95815; call (916) 498-1234, ext. 3206; or email askjoey@ newsreview.com.

My wife of 30 years and I have nothing in common except debt. I want a divorce, but I can’t afford one because we are upside down on our house and have a second mortgage, plus huge credit-card bills from living far beyond our paychecks. I hate coming home because I don’t want to deal with my wife. She either nags or ignores me. I can’t see my way out of this mess. Divorce yourself from the belief that you are stuck. Peeling off the victim persona takes courage and persistence. It’s well worth the effort. Once you free yourself from the lie that you are powerless to change your attitude or behavior, you are empowered to see your circumstances as an opportunity and not just as crisis. Begin by finding qualities to appreciate in who you are, in who you have in your life and in the things you chose to surround yourself with. Be grateful for your debt, because it is the path you chose to educate yourself about money and possessions. Be grateful for your habit of living beyond your means, because it reveals how easily you buy into illusions. Be grateful for your wife. Whatever you dislike in her exists in you when you are honest enough to admit it. Consider, for example, her tendency to nag. Isn’t that what you do to yourself? Your brain raises hundreds of complaints daily; your wife utters only a handful. Please don’t dismiss selfcriticism then act surprised when she points out something unkind about you that you have repeatedly whacked your own brain with.

Be grateful for your habit of living beyond your means, because it reveals how easily you buy into illusions. Yes, I know criticism feels different when delivered from someone else. And, yes, I understand how scared and angry you feel. If you take responsibility for the world you created and take action (generate a debt payoff plan, sell BEFORE

FRONTLINES

what can be sold, consciously work on establishing consistent communication with your wife, etc.), you will feel less like a victim and more like a man who knows how to thrive. You can do this. Believe in yourself. I believe in you. My husband cheated and got some woman in his office pregnant. I am proceeding with a divorce. He plans to take a job transfer out of state with her. I know this man: He will disappear on me, because that’s what he did with his former wife when I got pregnant. My problem is our son attends a university that I cannot afford on my own. I need to tell him that he cannot continue. How can I do this? What can I say to my son so he understands? The truth. But when he learns that his parents are not who he thought they were and that his future is not heading in the direction he imagined, expect explosions. His world has come to an end. Your son will be angry and hurt and likely collapse into a depression, temporarily. You cannot save him from his feelings; do not try. These emotions are expressions of grief and need to be aired and experienced. If your discomfort with his reaction is excessive and obvious, he will take care of you and stop tending to himself. That delays the healing process, and his growth may be affected for years, even decades. So don’t put your own needs for reassurance above his. It will be important for him to receive counseling during the remainder of this school year. Help him to access a counselor on campus. You will need a network of support, too, and your son should not be a part of it. Do not rely on him to soothe you. It’s your job to ensure that his transition is as natural as possible. Ω

Meditation of the week: “The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning,” said Ivy Baker Priest, former California State Treasurer. How do you view transformation?

FEATURE

STORY

A RT S & C U LT U R E

AFTER

03. 01.12

SN&R

STAGE Anarchy in Verona Romeo & Juliet The first clues that you’re not going to see the same old Romeo & Juliet at Resurrection Theatre come from the graffiti-covered walls, the Mohawkand-leather attire, and most notably, the ’70s soundtrack. Welcome to Willie-goes-punk, with sword fights and love scenes punctuated by music from the Buzzcocks, the Clash, Iggy Pop and Television. by Patti Roberts Director Nina Collins embraces her selfproclaimed love of the ’70s edgy alt-genre by incorporating the punk-rock scene into Shakespeare’s classic tale of star-crossed lovers. Before you go all “uh-oh,” the concept makes total sense: rebellious teenagers flaunt societal mores. OK, there’s more to Romeo & Juliet than that, but Collins makes the story entertaining and accessible, while at the same time cutting it down to 90 minutes.

Overall, this punked-out production shows off the emergence of Resurrection Theatre as a major player in the community-theater scene, attracting talented local directors and actors while embracing and taking on challenging plays and making it their own. Rock on. Ω

Romeo & Juliet: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; $12-$15. Resurrection Theatre at the Artisan Theatre, 1901 Del Paso Boulevard; (916) 838-0618; www.resurrectiontheatre.com. Through March 17.

4 PHOTO BY GREG ADAMS

Nope, it’s not sunrise. It’s just Romeo’s hair.

1 FOUL

2 FAIR

3 GOOD

4 WELL-DONE

5 SUBLIME-DON’T MISS

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03. 01.12

Let’s get to the all-important make-or-break of a Romeo & Juliet production: Do the lead actors pull it off? The answer is yes, both as lovers and punkers; Brennan Villados in his shocking-pink hair conveys both toughness and tenderness, while Lia Rose, in her combo pixie haircut and old T-shirt, combines sassiness with sweetness—and together they sizzle. The other aspect of this production is the revision of the familiar tale. Collins takes chances that succeed with a gender-bending Mercutio (a mesmerizing Elizabeth Holzman, who is scarily good with a butterfly knife), a feisty Earth-mother nurse (an arresting “don’tmess-with-me” Tara Henry), a minimalistic set (construction scaffolding and graffiti walls and floors—kudos to set designer Brian Watson) and the ultra-modernistic approach, both in sensibility and in costume (another nod to the very creative and period-accurate costume designer and team). The whole team is noteworthy—cast, crew and director. Collins also is daring in the paring down of the script to an hour and a half, no intermission. This trimming comes with both a payoff and a price. It’s fast, furious and fun, with lots of action from ping-ponging fight and love scenes, but some of the societal tensions and emotional pulls are missing.

History in music

Legacy II: We Come From Greatness

This ever-evolving show—an annual effort by Images Theater Company—attempts nothing less than a panoramic view of AfricanAmerican history, in just two hours. Under writer-director Lisa Lacy and musical director Charles Cooper, the show first took shape back in 2004. Some early elements still carry over, including Bill Miller’s performance of “I’m a Man.” Originally, Miller sang it as a janitor, broom in hand. The broom is now gone, but Miller (who radiates personal presence) still sings with dignity and righteous anger at injustice. A newer element is Elaine Douglas in a gutsy, moving scene as The Bones Keeper, who endeavors to remember the countless unnamed individuals brought to America in chains, many of whom perished at sea onboard slave ships, their bones littering the ocean floor. We also glimpse cruel plantation life; segregated seating on a train; a grisly hanging tree; the fury of Emmett Till’s mother (mourning her murdered 14-year-old son, who allegedly flirted with a white woman); and the assassination of civil-rights organizer Medgar Evers. There are upbeat moments, too—a nightclub scene recalls entertainers Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller and Billie Holiday; a 1960s scene recalls Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Black Panther Huey Newton. And, of course, there’s the election of the first African-American president, plus a soulful, rousing finale with 12 actors and a lively four-piece band. This continues to be an emotionally uplifting show. It has also become a valuable community institution. Charles Cooper’s music impresses year after year, and there are many figures from history yet-to-be-included (including pioneering singers like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marian Anderson). I look forward to Legacy each February; hopefully, this local evergreen will be with us for years to come. —Jeff Hudson

Legacy II: We Come From Greatness: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; $12-$20. Images Theatre Company at the Guild Theatre in Oak Park, 2828 35th Street; (916) 428-1441; www.imagestheatre.org. Through March 4.

change

Now Playing

THE DANCE ON WIDOW’S ROW

FORBIDDEN BROADWAY

your

Samm-Art Williams’ comedy about four widows with a reputation for murderous intent and the four men they try to entrap is an absurd comedy. Unfortunately, this production, directed by James Wheatley, suffered from some late substitutions in the cast that led to a rough opening. With time to find their way, the wacky widows should be able to snare their men without stumbling. Th, F, Sa 8pm; Su 2pm. Through 3/18. $8-$15. Celebration Arts, 4469 D St.; (916) 455-2787; www.celebrationarts.net. M.M.

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Good news—the Cosmopolitan Cabaret’s vivacious Broadway spoof possesses “smarts,” energy and attitude. With the ubiquitous Graham Sobelman at the keyboard, singers Jerry Lee, Jessica ReinerHarris, Melissa WolfKlain, and Marc Ginsburg gleefully send up everything from Annie to Cats. W

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OVER 12 TONS LOST! FREE B-12 Shot On Your First Visit

7pm; Th & 7pm; F 8pm, Sa 2 & 8pm; Su 2pm. Through 3/18. $33-$48. The Cosmopolitan Cabaret, 1000 K

St.; (916) 557-1999; www.calmt.com. J.H. PHOTO BY CHARR CRAIL

JERRY EPSTEIN, M.D.

916.454.3668 3939 J St, Ste. 270 Sacramento 95819

Forbidden Broadway: Somebody drop a chandelier, please!

THE IDEA MAN

SPRING AWAKENING

A NorCal premiere of a prize-winning Los Angeles play, The Idea Man pits the 1 percenters against the 99 percenters as Al (Loren Taylor), a machinist, comes up with a billion-dollar idea that Frank (Eric Baldwin) is supposed to make marketable. Pressured by his boss (Charlie Holliday), Frank is torn between giving Al credit—and financial gain—and being a “company man.” Directed by Penny Kline with a talented supporting cast, The Idea Man puts late-industrial capitalism into perspective. F, Sa 8pm; Su 2pm. Through 3/17. $15-$20. The California Stage, 2509 R St.; (916) 451-5822; www.calstage.org. P.R.

need heLp?

The inaugural show at the Grange Performing Arts Center in Oak Park is this edgy pop-rock musical about young people reaching sexual maturity. Christopher Cook directs, with Elio Gutierrez as Melchior, the intelligent, insightful and completely misunderstood hero. This is not your typical musical, which is a very good thing. Suggested for mature audiences. F, Sa 8pm; Su 7pm. Through 3/4. $15-$20. The Green Valley Theatre Company at Grange Performing Arts Center, 3823 V St.; (916) 736-2664; www.greenvalleytheatre.com. J.C.

Is Your Life In BALANCE yet? Self- a lignment with the positive energies of the universe Simple cha nges can bring more meaning to your life Crea te happiness and well being ALWAYS FREE

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Jean Louise “Scout” Finch comes to terms with the reality of life under Jim Crow in Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Sam Williams directs the American River College Theatre production and the company, while a bit slow, succeed in entertaining with this important story. Th 6:30pm; F, Sa 8pm; Su 2pm. Through 3/4. $10-$12. American River College Theatre, 4700 College Oak Dr.; (916) 484-8234; http://web.arc.losrios.edu. M.M.

Sunday Mar. 4th, 12 p.m. Talk* followed by free vegetarian lunch

Sierra 2 Center, 2791 - 24th St., Curtis Hall, Sacramento * Talk given by an authorized speaker

Sant Baljit Singh, the spiritual Master, teaches meditation on inner Light and Sound to anyone who is searching for a deeper meaning in life.

Short reviews by Jim Carnes, Jeff Hudson, Maxwell McKee and Patti Roberts. Longer reviews are available online at www.newsreview.com/sacramento.

w w w.santmat.net |

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Alike (Adepero Oduye), a clever high schooler and closeted lesbian, is learning who she is by ruling out who she’s not. Her name is pronounced “Ah-lee-kay,” or reduced to “Lee,” depending which of her parents has said it, and what claim on her they’ve each made. “Incognegro” is the nickname offered by her out bull-dyke pal Laura (Pernell Walker), with a judicious mixture of affection and contempt. Although not without its fascinations, Laura’s scene—the raunchy strip club, the brash hip-hop chic—seems like too much for Lee, who’s shy and sweet and still a virgin, and certainly it’ll never fly with mom or dad. Her mother (Kim Wayans), a status-conscious medical technician, dotes on Lee with denial couched in repressive religiosity; her father (Charles Parnell), a cop, inclines toward a more supportive stance but can’t seem to help shutting himself off within his own churlish secrets. Lee’s kid sister (Sahra Mellesse) cares less about identity politics than about whether a fraying sibling bond can be shelter enough from the storms of their parents’ shouting matches. With her whole family thus stifled by ingrained homophobia, it should come as no surprise that Lee has a notebook full of poetry.

Inevitably her writing has to do with the anguish of self-categorization—whether to check herself off as butch, femme, bi-curious, or other. Her mother’s attempt to replace the unapproved Laura with a church-friend’s daughter (Aasha Davis) doesn’t go quite as expected, in promising ways, but of course promises among fragile people can be risky. A boiling over ensues, some of which seems forced, some touchingly natural, and viewers’ opinions likely will differ on which is which. Having been developed via the Sundance lab, Pariah seems fated to a certain manner of narrative heavy-handedness. For all the modish shallow focus of Bradford Young’s cinematography, it still has a whiff of indie-style after-school special, and the sense of an individual personality workshopped into weary, festival-slick homogeneity. Yes, Spike Lee is one of the film’s executive producers, but there are 14 others. Thankfully, Rees maintains her generosity and good instincts. She has the sense to explore her themes not just with signifiers but also with personal gestures. Performed alone on a city bus or in a school bathroom stall, Lee’s assimilation-anxious outfit changes seem so shamefully furtive and dignity-depriving—neither a drag liberation nor a superheroic secret-identity shift, but instead and rather grimly the opposite of both. In one forlornly funny moment, she’s reduced to fumbling with a flesh-colored strap-on, the flesh in question being white. Message-movie context aside, Lee’s never-been-kissed routine might easily have turned Barrymore-ishly cloying, but it benefits greatly from Oduye’s powerful, unsentimental presence. It seems miraculous that an actor so comfortable with the camera’s attention could register a character

Alike, a clever high schooler and closeted lesbian, is learning who she is by ruling out who she’s not. so uncertain of how to be looked at. “Luminous” is the word many critics already have used to describe her, correctly, but something about that particular consensus seems borderline bigoted in itself, as if we all need a beam of reassurance when among so many dark movie faces. In any case, the makers of Pariah deserve much credit for their magnanimity, as well as for that which makes any coming-of-age story, or coming-out story, worth being a story at all: the authority of empathy. Ω

Show timeS valid mar 2 – mar 8, 2012

by JONATHAN KIEFER & JIM LANE

A Separation

When an Iranian couple can’t agree on whether to leave the country for the sake of a better life for their daughter or to remain to care for the husband’s Alzheimer’s disease-stricken father, the wife reluctantly files for divorce. This forces the husband to hire a day-care provider for his father, which in turn sets off a chain reaction of misunderstandings, conflicts, charges and countercharges, both legal and otherwise, between two families. Writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning domestic slice-of-life drama seems to meander at first, until it becomes clear that his subject goes beyond a mere marital dispute. There are other separations on view besides this husband and wife; separations of class, of piety, of perspective. Farhadi is talking about Iranians, but with a profound decency anyone can understand. J.L.

Act of Valor

When a team of Navy SEALs rescue a CIA operative from the jungle compound of an international drug smuggler, they learn that she was on to something big: The smuggler was in cahoots with a militant jihadi bent on smuggling a troupe of suicide bombers into 16 American cities. Written by Kurt Johnstad and directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh, here’s an action movie with a twist: The stars are real honest-to-goodness active-duty SEALs, and the combat scenes are filmed with live ammunition. Johnstad’s sometimes stilted dialogue taxes the cast’s acting ability between firefights, so it’s probably fortunate that the bullets never stop flying for long. The battles have a tough documentary realism to them, and McCoy and Waugh keep them blasting along with a conviction that compensates for any awkward lulls. J.L.

The Artist

Writer-director Michel Hazanavicius’ exuberant throwback—a black-andwhite movie, with no spoken dialogue, set in 1927—has the clarity and grace to delight homage-mad nostalgists without alienating everyone else. Framed around the romance between a has-been silent-movie star (Jean Dujardin) and an upstart extra (Bérénice Bejo) at the dawn of the talkies, the structure is slight but sound. More important is the will to entertain, as promulgated through the enduring cinematic values of radiant chemistry and technical precision. Hazanavicius has a light touch and manages sophistication without pretension. This isn’t and needn’t be the best-ever movie about one decisive moment in Hollywood history—and who would even presume to top Singin’ in the Rain? Nor is this a call for reversion so much as a touchingly sincere comment on coping with a forward-lurching world. In that regard, and on account of never being boring, this is highly contemporary stuff. John Goodman and James Cromwell co-star. J.K.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

That flaming-biker superhero from Hell (Nicolas Cage, fervidly chewing the Eastern European scenery) is back, this time protecting a boy (Fergus Riordan) and his mother (Violante Placido), who are being pursued by a diabolical villain (Ciarán Hinds) and his minions for their own nefarious purposes. If the original Marvel Comics antihero has any emotional or dramatic resonance, it has yet to surface on film. The 2007 movie was bad enough, but this sequel is even worse—a shoddier look, cheesier effects, and a less comprehensible story concocted by

BEFORE

Opening Fri, Mar 2

PARIAH

IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY Rated R

A Dangerous Method

The birth of psychoanalysis is traced by director David Cronenberg and writer Christopher Hampton (from his play The Talking Cure, based on John Kerr’s book); their movie follows the relationship of Sigmund Freud (an incisive Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) from mutual respect to ultimate estrangement, catalyzed by Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley)—first Jung’s patient, then his lover, then his and Freud’s colleague and a psychiatrist in her own right. Knightley’s often alarming performance grabs our attention, especially in her early “mad” scenes, but the quiet intellectual intensity of Mortensen and Fassbender’s scenes is an education for any actor. For that matter, so is the way Hampton nimbly distills and dramatizes the give-and-take among these three characters over the years. J.L.

nOw playing

Fri-Sun 11:00 2:00 5:10 8:00 Mon-Thu 5:10 8:00

Held Over 1 MOre day!

THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2012 Not Rated

(2 SeparaTe programS) aniMaTed Friday March 2 2:30 7:30 live aCTiOn Friday March 2 11:30 4:45

Rated R Fri-Sun 12:30 3:00 5:30 8:20 Mon-Thu 5:30 8:20

Opening Fri, Mar 9

The new film from Belgium

BULL HEAD

Wanderlust: Better hippies than a-holes any day.

Wanderlust

Two New Yorkers (Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd) lose their apartment and are forced to move in with his brother in Atlanta (Ken Marino, co-writer with director David Wain); on their way south, they stumble across a hippie commune and decide they’d rather live here than with the obnoxious brother and his liquor-addled wife (Michaela Watkins). Be warned: The script is raunchy, profane and studded with producer Judd Apatow’s trademark frontal nudity, but if you leave your prudery at home, you probably won’t see a funnier movie all year. Aniston and Rudd’s comic rapport, sharpened on Friends and 1998’s The Object of My Affection, hasn’t lost its edge, especially when the good lines come as fast and thick as they do here. Great supporting cast, too: Alan Alda, Justin Theroux, Kathryn Hahn, Linda Lavin, etc. J.L. writers Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman and David S. Goyer from approximately equal parts The Terminator and Rosemary’s Baby. The only real suspense comes from wondering how young Riordan got his American accent growing up in Romania with an Italian mother. J.L.

The Grey

It’s sorta fun seeing Fair Oaksian writerdirector Joe Carnahan make himself at home in a pseudo-philosophical thriller about starving freezing bruiser oil drillers led by Liam Neeson and stalked by wolves in the backwoods of Alaska. Part Budd Boetticher western, part John Carpenter horror thriller, part douchey beer commercial, The Grey was adapted by Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers from Jeffers’ story Ghost Walker, and its literary ambitions are built in, if not fully built out. Running most smoothly as that kind of horror procedural for which characters’ deaths seem more thoroughly engineered than their inner lives, the movie delivers good visceral anguish. Supporting players including Frank Grillo and Dermot Mulroney do occasionally redeem their token parts, but of course the best thing about it is habitual winter-movie action-hero Neeson holding court as a brooding human alpha male. J.K.

Safe House

If only this exasperated second-hand superspy thriller weren’t so earnest, it might have the good self-spoofing grace to say what it really is: The Bourne I Wanna be. Picture Ryan Reynolds as a dutiful young CIA upstart, with Denzel Washington as a fugitive rogue agent. Now imagine them together, reluctantly, in a South Africa-set adventure of lethal mental and physical combat, plus mentoring! With plot threads about confused loyalties and corruptions handled roughly so as to become frayed, screenwriter David Guggenheim and director Daniel Espinosa mostly just pump in an atmosphere of volatility. But Reynolds huffs and puffs like a marathoner who won’t let anything keep him from his finish line, and Washington not working very hard still has a way of doing competent work. Efficiently dignified supporting players, stuck mostly in the obligatory control room full of phones and screens and agitated explanations, include Sam Shepard, Brendan Gleeson, and Vera Farmiga. J.K.

The Secret World of Arietty

Mary Norton’s kids’ books about the tiny Borrowers who live under the floorboards of human houses get the Japanese anime treatment from director Hiromasa Yonebayashi and adaptors Hiyao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. The 1997 live-action The Borrowers took more liberties with Norton’s original, but compensated with a fast-paced story, witty design, marvelous effects and plenty of humor—all of which are missing here. On the one hand, Yonebayashi’s layouts are richly colored, but animation is stiff and jerky, character faces are as immobile as stone, the story is as lifeless as the faces, and the voice work of the American cast (Bridgit Mendler, Will Arnett,

FRONTLINES

1013 K Street - 916.442.7378 join the list - www.thecrest.com

FEATURE

Continues thru March 18th

D E AT H , D AT I N G & S U P E R S T I T I O N . . . A C O M E D Y

By Samm-Art Williams Directed by James Wheatley

Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett) is utterly lackluster. Don’t bore your kids with this limp rag; stay home and rent the 1997 movie instead; they’ll thank you. J.L.

A comic yarn about a group of North Carolina neighbors who have bad luck with husbands. Their men keep dying. The widows are glad to have the pensions, but they miss the companionship and hate the gossip that keeps their street off limits to the town’s menfolk.

This Means War

Two CIA agents and close buddies (Chris Pine, Tom Hardy) find themselves dating the same woman (Reese Witherspoon) at the same time they’re more or less following the case of an international thief (Til Schweiger) who’s out to avenge their having killed his brother. Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg and Marcus Gautesen’s script is a fantasy for stunted adolescent boys masquerading as an action rom-com—too much action, not enough comedy, and no romance at all. Director McG (full name Joseph McGinty Nichol, whose body of work makes Michael Bay look like Woody Allen) manages to waste both Angela Bassett and Rosemary Harris in less-than-nothing roles. For that matter, he wastes Witherspoon too; she serves as a beard for Pine and Hardy’s characters; these two spies are obviously in love only with each other. J.L.

Tickets online: www.mycommunityevents.com

Donate: http://www.gofundme.com/celebrationarts

Celebration Arts Theatre

4469 D Street, East Sacramento 95819 www.celebrationarts.net 916/455-2787 Thurs, Fri & Sat at 8pm, Sun at 2pm Gen $15 Students, Seniors & SARTA $13 Thurs $8

DO YOU WANT TO FIND KEVIN? CHECK OUT HOW YOU CAN WIN PASSES TO SEE:

The Vow

When a young husband and wife (Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams) are involved in an automobile accident, he is virtually uninjured, but she suffers severe brain trauma. She emerges from a medically induced coma with no memory of having married her husband—or even of having met him. “Inspired by a true story,” we are told, and the movie ends with a picture of the couple who supposedly inspired it. Well, maybe so, but in the hands of director Michael Sucsy and writers Jason Katims, Abby Kohn, Stuart Sender and Mark Silverstein, the movie has all the earmarks of a standard Nicholas Sparks tearjerker. As such, it’s slickly efficient, buoyed by excellent performances from (surprisingly) Tatum and (less surprising) McAdams. As McAdams’ parents, Sam Neill and Jessica Lange add a touch of mature class. J.L.

STORY

EMAIL US YOUR ANSWERS TO THE GAME BELOW: PARAMOUNTNORTHERNCAL @GMAIL.COM WITH THE SUBJECT LINE:

The Woman in Black

A London solicitor (Daniel Radcliffe) travels to a gloomy seaside village to close out the estate of a wealthy recluse, becoming embroiled in sinister goings-on involving the apparition of a woman in black and the sudden deaths of local children. Susan Hill’s 1983 novel, already adapted for British television and as a highly successful play in London’s West End (22 years and still running), is turned here into a good old-fashioned horror movie, one that depends more on an atmosphere of dread than on blood and cheap scares. Writer Jane Goldman takes major liberties with the letter of Hill’s book but stays faithful to its grim spirit (no pun intended), and James Watkins directs with a firm sense of foreboding. It’s a virtual oneman show for Radcliffe, with able support from Ciarán Hinds and Janet McTeer. J.L.

2012 Season

FAMOUS KEVINS - SAC NEWS & REVIEW A.

CAN YOU NAM E THE FAMOUS K EVINS? B.

Winners will be drawn at random from the entries with all of the correct answers.

THIS FILM IS RATED R. RESTRICTED. Under 17 Requires Accompanying Parent Or Adult Guardian. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. DUPLICATE ENTRIES WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. WINNERS WILL BE DRAWN AT RANDOM AND NOTIFIED VIA E-MAIL. EMPLOYEES OF ALL PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS, THEIR AGENCIES AND THOSE WHO HAVE RECEIVED A PASS WITHIN THE LAST 90 DAYS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE.

IN THEATERS MARCH 16 |

A RT S & C U LT U R E

AFTER

JeffWhoLivesAtHome.com SN&R | 03.01.12 |

MUSIC Still knockin’ It’s an election year, so Sacramento foursome Knock Knock of course has a new album “My brain, it hurts a lot,” Allen Maxwell sings urgently. “Sometimes it helps to talk. It helps to get it out. It helps to walk around.” by So goes the beginning of “Wild and Blue,” Jackson Griffith the opening track on We Will Raise Your Child, the just-released third album from Maxwell’s band, Knock Knock.

Art from Knock Knock’s We Will Raise Your Child album sleeve.

Buy tickets at livenation.com. To charge by phone (800) 745-3000. Limit 8 tickets per person. All dates, acts and ticket prices are subject to change without notice. All tickets are subject to applicable service charges.

SN&R

03. 01.12

Underscored by chugging chunks of guitar grafted to a four-on-the-floor rhythm, the bassplaying Maxwell’s voice jumps to a falsetto, singing “’til I don’t feel strange” as Mike Cinciripino’s guitar liquefies into something more viscous and supple. The vocal line leaps into a gallop, and the harmonies of rhythm guitarist Heather Conway and drummer Christine Shelley pile on just as Cinciripino’s candy-coated, surf-guitar tones arc skyward. Suddenly, you’re dancing in pure pop-music heaven, not even a full minute into the song. “Wild and Blue” clocks in at 3 minutes on the money. It’s a masterpiece of vintage AMradio, hit-single compression, a seamless construction of verses, choruses and bridges that sounds like what might happen if Fleetwood Mac or the Mamas & the Papas had stumbled through a wrinkle in time and ended up on, oh, the Kill Rock Stars label with Elliott Smith. Like the 10 songs that follow, the song may be a bit too sunny for Pabst-swilling Northwest tastes. But as music from the Golden State, it’s right down the pipeline. However, Maxwell—an amiable and bespectacled middle-school teacher who grew up in Yuba City—isn’t so inclined to agree. “A lot of people feel that way,” he says. “It’s weird, but I don’t always think of it as California music.” Maybe that sunny vibe comes from the timetested, major-chord progressions, with harmonies with lots of thirds and sixths piled on, along with Cinciripino’s Fender guitar sound. “He’s a musical genius in many ways,” Maxwell says. “We’ll all write a song, and he’ll really get something melodic and unique to play on it.”

The sweetness, however, is countered by the album’s darker lyric sense, with themes such as what it’s like to grow up in an environment that may not be all that nurturing—albeit tempered with a bit of mordant humor. “Like a song about stealing children and keeping them in the compound,” Maxwell says, referring to the title track. “We thought that was funny.” Constructing a conscious narrative, Maxwell says, seems to arise when Knock Knock writes its songs, like the band did on this album’s predecessor, Girls on the Run, which he describes as being about the end of the world. “It helps with songwriting,” he says, “because if you come up to a bump in the road, you can think of your theme. On this one, we decided to focus on childhood, and how frightening it can be. It also coincides with Mike and Heather becoming parents at the same time we were writing this album.” Conway is quite pregnant on the album’s cover, and their older daughter is pictured holding a rifle. This, apparently, is not a cabal of skinny-jeans-wearing so-called hipsters. “Three of us are older and, like, have jobs. And now there’s two kids,” Maxwell says, referring to the progeny of Cinciripino and Conway. “So, being in a band is different from when you’re in your 20s. Plus, my job is all-consuming.”

It’s a masterpiece of vintage AM-radio, hitsingle compression, a seamless construction that sounds like what might happen if Fleetwood Mac or the Mamas & the Papas had stumbled through a wrinkle in time. We Will Raise Your Child was released by a joint label: Sacramento Records, operated by fellow local musician Charles Albright, and Phono Select Records, which takes its name from its parent, that Midtown record store on K Street. It’s Knock Knock’s third album, after Warm Fronts, Cold Shoulders from 2004 and Girls on the Run from 2008. Like presidential elections, Knock Knock seems to come up with something new every four years or so. “I think Knock Knock will always be a band,” Maxwell concludes. “I can’t imagine a time when we’re not doing Knock Knock, whether it’s doing an album, or a single or playing a show.” Ω

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Grip that pen and ink up: A little bird—a black crow?—told SN&R a few weeks back that local thrashbeats-rap outfit Death Grips had signed to a major label. This was funny, because that very day I was tipped off, I ran into a member of the Grips crew, who denied the rumor with a coy smile. Well, rumor-now-fact: Death Grips inked to Sony Music’s Epic Records, announced on Monday, and BEFORE

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Will a new arena, err, “entertainment sports complex” bring in “better” touring acts?: Sacramento is a “third world” media market. No changing that. San Francisco and the Bay Area are first to get the so-called big-time music tours—the Radioheads and such that never, ever will play Sacto. And we’re not even second place. We’re last. We get tours after they’ve passed through the likes of San Jose and the East Bay once, even twice. And it seems like even when a blue-chip tour schedules a first-look stop in Sacramento, the plug oftentimes is pulled due to poor ticket sales—or so goes the excuse—such as the case with Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne jaunt cancellation this past fall. This won’t change with a new Sacramento Kings arena, either. The big tours that arena supporters tout will still mostly make their final stops in Sacramento, not their first. Goldenvoice and Live Nation and the major touring outfits surely won’t compromise draw in the Bay Area market just because of a shiny new box by the railroad tracks in the Sacto market. But look at the positive: a new arena will make it quicker to change out the ice—it takes more than 15 hours to move the ice at Arco now. So, that’ll likely mean more Disney on Ice and Stars On Ice. Awesome, right? In the meantime, keep your eyes on the 700 block of K Street, where local developer Bay Miry and the fellows from Shady Lady Saloon plan to launch a mid-sized venue in the coming years. That will draw some new acts—artists that would typically play S.F.’s The Fillmore or Oakland’s Fox Theater. And maybe one day, way further off, even octogenarian-era Radiohead.

ROB QUINN’S

will launch two albums this year, including one next month titled The Money Store. I like that the crew’s second release will have a sly Sacto nod for a title; The Money Store’s corporate operations for years were based out of Sacramento, first in the McKinley Park neighborhood and later in West Sacto’s Ziggurat building. The Money Store will drop on Record Store Day in Sacramento on April 21, vinyl only.

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Dog benefits rule: Want to feel good? Last year, Kevin and Allyson Seconds

held a fundraiser gig for a Labrador named Hank who was about to die. Well, the December 2011 show raised some $2,800, and now Hank is alive and well. So, the couple thought, why not hold another benefit show for animals in need? This time, the gig—called the “Project Hank Benefit”—will benefit the Mercer Animal Hospital, a clinic for homeless pets based out of Loaves & Fishes. The event is Saturday night, March 3, at the Fox & Goose at 9 p.m.; the acts include Two Sheds, Gabe Nelson, Kevin and Allyson, Julie the Bruce, Jay Shaner and others, and $5 is the minimum donation. Don’t hesitate to plop down a 20.

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Who’s Texas bound?: Lee Bannon and C Plus, Ganglians, G. Green, Appetite—there are a lot of Sacramento artists heading to the annual South By Southwest music blowout/fustercluck next week in Austin. I personally wanna know if you’re gonna be out there or not so that I can send some SN&R dispatchers to your Lone Star gigs. Email us at music@ newsreview.com, and we’ll get someone to your show, fo’ sho.

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EIGHT GIGS

02FRI 03SAT 03SAT 05MON Mondavi Center, 8 p.m., $12.50-$49

Benin is a small country in West Africa. Surrounded by the volatile nations of Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger, the democratic republic has a reputation of rare stability for the area. Out of this tiny African country emerged an immensely talented pop diva who has built an audience since she was a teen in the ’70s. She’s like an African Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross or Dusty Springfield, and during her career, she has collaborated with WORLD iconic musicians like Bono, Santana and Peter Gabriel. Kidjo has released 10 full-length albums, and is one of the most widely recognized African artists worldwide. 9399 Old Davis Road in Davis, www.kidjo.com.

—John Phillips

Blitzen Trapper

Joe Louis Walker

Desario

Angelique Kidjo

Harlow’s, 8 p.m., $15

Palms Playhouse, 8:30 p.m., $20

Beatnik Studios, 8:30 p.m., $6 Local indie-rock band Desario celebrates the release of its latest, Mixer, this Saturday with an album-release party at Beatnik Studios. Desario’s INDIE sound is all about mood. The group crafts soundscapes reminiscent of a sleepy city skyline, flooding tracks with a bottom layer of liquid guitar ostinatos and crisp drumming, then topping that with a brooding, but lightweight cloud of vocals by John Conley. If the group’s sound was a place, it might be Victoria Island, Canada, which is incidentally the name of a track off the new album that has already produced a music video. Tremor Low and Hearts+Horses open this party. 2421 17th Street, www.facebook.com/desarioband.

He’s the ultimate blues triple threat: singer, guitarist and historian. Joe Louis Walker performs every role with striking aplomb. Walker grew up in San Francisco and played with many blues, rock and jazz luminaries— Thelonious Monk, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters—as a teen, eventually rooming with Mike Bloomfield for many years. His songs recount those myriad influBLUES ences. Though primarily a Chicago blues player, jazz, soul and swing also inform his sound. He’s a searing player with fluid intricate runs that recall Carlos Santana. The 60-something Walker remains a fine vocalist as well, capable of Howlin’ Wolf roars and smoky soul crooning. 13 Main Street in Winters, www.joelouiswalker.com.

It seems soul music has crept into indierock territory. It has for Blitzen Trapper (and fellow Portland, Oregon, rockers Portugal. The Man). What these bands accomplished is a seamless blend of classic rock and soul music—and in ROCK Blitzen Trapper’s case, mixed with a healthy dose of folk. B.T.’s songwriting style is a clear homage to ’70s rock, but the subtle mixing of genres gives it a fresh spark. Critics have had their eyes on Blitzen Trapper for a couple of years now. Rolling Stone magazine ranked its song, “Wild Mountain Nation,” the 98th-best song of 2007 and “Furr” the fourth-best song of 2008. 2708 J Street, www.blitzentrapper.net.

—Aaron Carnes

—Chris Parker

—Jonathan Mendick

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05MON 06TUES 07WED 08THURS La Sera

Merle Haggard

Former members of the Grateful Dead splintered off into different musical worlds. If you haven’t seen drummer Mickey Hart live outside of his previous band, perhaps a little education is necessary. In addition to playing music, Hart became a JAM BAND member of the board of directors for the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, a nonprofit that uses music as a type of therapy. His most recent project found him trying to meld science and music to make an all-encompassing piece using astrophysical data for composition. His current band features Dave Schools (Widespread Panic) and percussionist Sikiry Adepoju. 3522 Stockton Boulevard, www.mickeyhart.net.

While 311 never achieved the same success of its contemporaries from the ’90s rock and alternative era, it has managed to outlast former heavyweights like No Doubt, Limp Bizkit, Oasis and Matchbox 20—so maybe slow and steady really does win after all. From its rock megahit “Down” to dancerocker “Hey You,” 311 has always given its fans fun— ALTERNATIVE ROCK though often repetitive or derivative—music, and its tone has always been upbeat, even when spurning critics on “Transistor.” The group’s latest, Universal Pulse, is a return to a more raprock sound which permeated 311’s earlier albums and features the reggae-rock single “Sunset in July.” 1417 R Street, www.311.com.

—Steph Rodriguez

—Rachel Leibrock

Colonial Theatre, 7:30 p.m., $30

Ace of Spades, 6:30 p.m., $40

Katy Goodman, known as the melodic bass player driving the momentum of Brooklynbased, indie-rock trio Vivian Girls, is now linked to a new musical DREAM POP venture: her solo project, La Sera. Releasing her self-titled debut album last February with Hardly Art Records, Goodman writes dreamlike renditions of love, death and heartache, sprinkled with pop and a post-punk influence from her time spent with Vivian Girls and All Saints Day. Her second release, Sees the Light, described by Spin as “peppy break-up pop,” is due March 27; hear a sneak preview this Tuesday with Cold Showers oopening. 1819 19th Street, www.hardlyart.com/lasera.html.

What’s there to write about Merle Haggard that hasn’t already been written a million times over? The guy’s a country legend and, frankly, more badass than most performers—country, rock, punk, whatever—less than half his age. An iconic figure of the ’60sera Bakersfield sound that helped define country music’s heyday, Haggard’s music draws on rock, jazz and blues. Throughout his lengthy career, songs such as “Mama Tried,” “The Bottle Let Me Down,” and “Workin’ Man’s Blues” have COUNTRY embodied the best of Haggard’s hardcore country ethos. There’s plenty of hard-livin’, hard-partyin’ and, of course, hard-lovin’. 10 College Parkway in Folsom, www.merlehaggard.com.

Mickey Hart

311

Bows & Arrows, 8 p.m., $6

Three Stages, 7:30 p.m., $49-$79

—Eddie Jorgensen

—Brian Palmer

CELEBRATING OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY ALL YEAR LONG!

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Mar 14 Rock the Mic Mar 15 Sizzlin’ Sirens Mar 16 Robert Schwartzman (of Rooney) w/ brian bell (of Weezer) Mar 16 Doey Rock Mar 17 Girlyman Mar 17 vokab Kompany Mar 18 umphrey’s McGee Mar 20 Cheryl Wheeler Mar 22 Mykal Rose Mar 23 the nibblers and skerik’s bandalabra Mar 24 Joel the band Mar 25 Western lights Mar 27 the lumineers Mar 29 Goapele Mar 30 tom rigney Mar 31 Melissa Corona Mar 31 Hip service apr 5 fireHose apr 6 Jeanette Harris apr 6 Reminisce apr 7 Mazzy Star apr 12 brokedown in bakersfield apr 14 thomas Dolby apr 15 todd snider apr 16 Givers apr 19 Group love apr 20 Mykal Rose apr 25 Midnite apr 27&28 tainted love apr 29 anthony Coleman’s big band May 2 Diego’s umbrella and March fourth Marching band May 3&4 sacramento electronic Music festival

dan reminiSCe 90’s r&b club classics feat dj wrech & dj mario v CurCio from still time

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2003 K St., (916) 448-8790

List your event!

Post your free online listing (up to 15 months early), and our editors will consider your submission for the printed calendar as well. Print listings are also free, but subject to space limitations. Online, you can include a full description of your event, a photo, and a link to your website. Go to www.newsreview.com/calendar and start posting events. Deadline for print listings is 10 days prior to the issue in which you wish the listing to appear.

THURSDAY 3/1

FRIDAY 3/2

Tipsy Thursdays, Top 40 deejay dancing, 9pm, call for cover

Fabulous and Gay Fridays, 9pm, call for cover FAIR STRUGGLE, FRIENDSHIP, MONOMYTH; 9pm, $7

BLUE LAMP

1400 Alhambra, (916) 455-3400

THE BOARDWALK

THE WAR WITHIN, SERPENTERA,

BOWS AND ARROWS

GOLDEN CADILLACS, HOT TAR ROOFERS, NOAH NELSON; 7pm

1815 19 St., (916) 822-5668

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 3/5-3/7

Saturday Boom, 9pm, call for cover

Sin Sunday, 8pm, call for cover

Mad Mondays, M; Latin video flair and Wii bowling, 7pm Tu

JET BLACK POPES, AS YET UNTITLED, SPIDER HEART; 9pm, $7

SAWYER, 8pm, call for cover

EVERY AVENUE, WE ARE THE INCROWD, YOUNG BO, YOUNG KADA, K-OTTIC; 8pm, call for cover

THE GREEN, PASSAFIRE, SIMPLE CREATION, EAZY DUB; 8pm W, call for cover LA SERA, COLD SHOWERS; 7:30pm Tu, $5

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

FATHER JOHN MISTY, JENNY O; 8pm, $20

314 W. Main St., Grass Valley; (530) 271-7000

THE COZMIC CAFÉ

594 Main St., Placerville; (530) 642-8481

CHRIS ZANARDI & HIS HIGH BEAMZ, JONNY MOJO; 8pm, $10

Open-mic, 7:30pm, no cover

DISTRICT 30

1016 K St., (916) 737-5770

Deejay dancing, 9pm, call for cover

DJ David Carvalho, 9pm, call for cover

FACES

Deejay dancing and karaoke, 9pm, $3

Hip-hop and Top 40 Deejay dancing, 9pm, $5-$10

FOX & GOOSE

AVALANCHE, 8-11pm, no cover

PROXY MOON, AMY SCOTT, MANDOLIN AVENUE; 9pm-midnight, $5

TWO SHEDS, GABE NELSON, KEVIN SECONDS, JAY SHANER; 9pm, $5

CHRISJOHN, ROB LOOTCHI, DJ CHRISPIX; 10pm, no cover

SILVARA, EVIL PLAN, EMBODIED TORMENT; 10pm, no cover

1001 R St., (916) 443-8825

G STREET WUNDERBAR 228 G St., Davis; (530) 756-9227

Want to be a hot show? Mail photos to Calendar Editor, SN&R, 1124 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95815 or email it to sactocalendar@ newsreview.com. Be sure to include date, time, location and cost of upcoming shows.

SUNDAY 3/4

9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 UNWANTED DROIDS, THEA SKOTIA; 8pm PLUG IN STEREO; 7:30pm, $14-$15

2000 K St., (916) 448-7798

Hey local bands!

SATURDAY 3/3

Dragalicious, 9pm, $5

ESSENCE OF OCTOBER, KOLORGIZE, PETE NESTERUK; 8-11pm W

THE GOLDEN BEAR

DJ Shaun Slaughter, 10pm, call for cover

DJ Crook One, 10pm, call for cover

DJ Whores, 10pm, no cover

HARLOW’S

DON YUTE, DJ Hype; 10pm, $15

Reminisce with DJ Wrech and DJ Mario V, 10pm, call for cover

ALASDAIR FRASER, NATALIE HAAS; 7pm, $25; CHEESEBALLS, 10pm, $12

JAVALOUNGE

2416 16th St., (916) 441-3945

BLUE OAKS, PATRICK WALSH, THOMAS HATCH; 8pm, $5

THE ARLYN ANDERSON TRIO, ALEX JENKINS’ SOUND IMMERSION; 8pm, $6

ALARMS, BAD ENDING; 4pm, $5; Acoustic punk and storytelling, 8pm

LEVEL UP FOOD & LOUNGE

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

DJ Rock Bottom and The Mookie DJ, 9pm, no cover

Hip-hop and R&B deejay dancing, 9:16pm Tu, no cover

LUNA’S CAFÉ & JUICE BAR

Joe Montoya’s Poetry Unplugged, 8pm, $2

SCARVES, OLLA, KEATON NELSON; 8pm, BANNER MOUNTAIN BOYS, 8pm, $6 $6

Nebraska Mondays, 7:30pm M, $5-$20; Comedy night, 8pm W, $6

MARILYN’S ON K

“Rock On” Live Band Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

ELEMENT OF SOUL, 9:30pm, $7

NO DRAMA, 9:30pm, $5

NAKED LOUNGE DOWNTOWN 1111 H St., (916) 443-1927

THE JACOSA LAVE BAND, NICOLE DUTRA; 8:30pm, $7

CAUGHT IN MOTION, COLD ESKIMO, ADRIAN BOURGEOIS; 8:30pm, $5

BRANCHES, THE KELPS; 8:30pm, $5

Jazz Session, M; LP SESSIONS, AMY OBENSKI; Tu, $5; THOMAS HATCH, W, $5

OLD IRONSIDES

DEKE DICKERSON, 9pm, $10

JENN ROGAR & THE ADORABLES, BRAATA, SONADA MALAY; 9pm, $7

The Lipstick Weekender w/ Shaun Slaughter, Roger Carpio, 9pm, $5

ISAAC BEAR, JILT VS JONAH; 8pm M, $5; Karaoke, 9pm Tu; Open-mic W

ON THE Y

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

SEEKER, FALSE FREEDOM, BALLS, SWITCHBLADE FRANKIE; 7pm, $5

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

2326 K St., (916) 441-2252 2708 J St., (916) 441-4693

2431 J St., (916) 448-8768

1414 16th St., (916) 441-3931 908 K St., (916) 446-4361

1901 10th St., (916) 442-3504 670 Fulton Ave., (916) 487-3731

Ace of SpAdeS Thursday, march 1

AnTheM coventry square - temPest - Bulltrue

the kids we used to Be - a PlaGue uPon her of strenGth & sacrifice

chelSeA gRin

attila - for the fallen dreams chunk! no caPtain chunk – vanna the crimson armada - aleGion

Thursday, march 15

MARTYpARTY BoGGan

friday, march 16

ReSTRAYned some fear none - terra ferno - findinG aPollo BlacksheeP - clockwork hero

SN&R

03.01.12

COMING

SOON

3/19 Boyce Avenue 3/20 Rehab 3/21 Whitechapel 3/24 In Theory 3/25 For Today 3/29 Saw Doctors 4/1 Eligh + Amp Live 4/6 Ozomotli 4/8 Paper Diamond 4/14 Kill The Precedent 4/18 Childish Gambino 4/19 Buzzcocks 4/20 Roach Gigz 4/25 Tech N9NE 4/28 All Shall Parish 5/8 Delta Spirit

saTurday, march 17

5/24 The Real McKenzies

The cheeSebAllS

6/28 Who’s Bad (Michael Jackson Tribute)

2nd annuaL sT. PaTricK’s day ParTy WiTh

Tickets available at all dimple records Locations, The Beat records, and armadillo records, or purchase by phone @ 916.443.9202 |

Karaoke, 9pm Tu, no cover

All Ages Welcome!

devil’s BriGade - old man markley murder the stout

f ShRee oW

friday, march 9

FINE STEPS, TERRORS, GARRINCHA; 8pm W, $5

1417 R Street, Sacramento, 95814 www.aceofspadessac.com

STReeT dogS

a lot like Birds - decoder - i the miGhty the winter formal - overwatch

Plus sPecial Guests

Open-mic comedy, 9:30pm, no cover

Wednesday, march 14

dAnce gAvin dAnce

311

SONS OF HUNS, MAJESTY, ASTRAL CULT; 8pm, $5

raised threshold - Burn this Beautiful city

saTurday, march 3

Wednesday, march 7

BLITZEN TRAPPER, PARSON RED HEADS; 8pm M; GAPPY RANKS, 8pm Tu

TRulY TeRRifYing

hot rain - j*ras & soulifted

friday, march 2

Industry Night, 9pm, call for cover

saTurday, march 10

j boog

Queer Idol, 9pm M, no cover; Latin night, 9pm Tu, $5; DJ Alazzawi, 9pm W, $3

6/17 My Darkest Days

FRIDAY 3/2

SATURDAY 3/3

THE PALMS PLAYHOUSE

THURSDAY 3/1 13 Main St., Winters; (530) 795-1825

KEITH LITTLE, JIM NUNALLY; 8:30pm, $20

JOE LOUIS WALKER, 8:30pm, $20

THE PARK ULTRA LOUNGE

DJ Eddie Edul, 9pm, call for cover

DJ Peeti V, 9pm, call for cover

1116 15th St., (916) 442-7222

SUNDAY 3/4

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 3/5-3/7

Asylum Downtown: Gothic, industrial, EBM dancing, 9pm, call for cover

PARLARE EURO LOUNGE

Top 40, 9pm, no cover

Top 40, Mashups, 9pm, no cover

DJ Club mixes, 10pm, no cover

POWERHOUSE PUB

WHISKEY DAWN, 9pm, $12

SUPERLICIOUS, 9pm, $10

SPAZMATICS, 10pm, $10

KAYE BOHLER, 3pm, call for cover

DJ Alazzawi, DJ Rigatony, 10pm Tu, $3; LESSONS IN FAILURE, 9pm W, $5

Top 40 w/ DJ Rue, 9pm, $5

Top 40 Night w/ DJ Larry Rodriguez, 9pm, $5

Sunday Night Soul Party, 9pm, $5

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March 1, 2012

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California’s Congressional delegation represents about 750,000 medical-cannabis patients and an industry that generates an estimated $1.3 billion in retail sales per year. But most of California’s representatives have been missing-in-action during the four-month-old federal crackdown on dispensaries and cultivators. Since October 2011, four U.S. attorneys have threatened hundreds of landlords with civil forfeiture, which has lead to the closure of dozens of dispensaries in Sacramento. Prosecutors have repeatedly threatened local officials across the state, from Midtown to Mendocino and Chico to Oakland, with prison, fines and forfeiture. Congress’ response to these unprecedented predations? A single letter. In October, some members of Congress sent a letter to President Barack Obama expressing concern that the federal government was violating its own guidelines in coming after permitted dispensaries. “The actions ... directly interfere with California’s 15-year-old medical cannabis law by eliminating safe access for the state’s thousands of medical cannabis patients,” the letter read.

“There’s no chance of anything happening. [Even though] they’re all pretty much appalled by the way the Department of Justice has really patched together a response to this.” Dale Gieringer director of NORML, on Congress’ response to federal crackdown The letter also asked the administration to reclassify marijuana so that it’s no longer considered a serious drug by the federal government, or support a bill to do so. Co-signers to letter were few, however. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein had no love for medical marijuana. Of the 53 lawmakers from California in the House of Representatives, the co-signers included no one from the Sacramento region: Democrats Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Rep. Pete Stark of Fremont, Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Marin, Rep. Mike Thompson of Mendocino, Rep. Sam Farr of Santa Cruz, and Rep. Bob Filner of San Diego, as well as Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach. The silence from the rest of California’s Congressional delegation also flies in the face of popular support among voters for medical pot. Medical cannabis polls above 70 percent statewide, and about 46 percent of voters in 2010 favored legalizing pot outright for adult use via Proposition 19. Yet the view from Capitol Hill is bleak, said Filner, the only one among the co-signers of

letter who agreed to an interview. “People are trying to stay out of it if they can,” Filner said. Filner is running for mayor of San Diego this year, and his platform includes regulating medical marijuana locally. He’s running against San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who has worked with federal agents to eradicate access to cannabis collectives in San Diego. “I think they misread the public on this stuff,” Filner said. “There is widespread support for medical marijuana.” In a written statement, Oakland’s Rep. Lee said she’s a longtime supporter of safe and legal access. Lee wrote that she hopes she can “work with the Administration to find a way for these businesses to continue to operate like any other business and to provide patients the medicine that they need.” Meanwhile, the three medical-marijuana related bills currently in Congress—House resolutions 1983, 1984 and 1985—are expected to languish in committee. “It’s just that nothing is happening in Congress,” Filner said. “The dysfunction is so widespread.” Dale Gieringer, California director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, authored a letter this month to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress, reporting that the crackdown “has so far resulted in the loss of thousands of tax-paying jobs and tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues.” Gieringer said he talked to Pelosi’s staff and to staff members of other Congress members about the federal crackdown, but got nowhere. “They’re not going to do anything,” he said. “There’s no chance of anything happening. [Even though] they’re all pretty much appalled by the way the Department of Justice has really patched together a response to this.” One of the problems in the medical-cannabis community is that many dispensary operators are unfamiliar with politics. A 2011 poll of dispensary operators that found most had been in business for less than a year. “They don’t know how to lobby, apparently,” Filner said. “It’s people that have not had to lobby and don’t know how to do it.” Others, meanwhile, may circumvent the broken system. Colorado and Washington are considering legalizing all adult marijuana use via ballot initiative. And throughout California, local referendums and initiatives have started to regulate dispensaries by popular vote. “I think the politicians are in the 20th century, and the people are in the 21st century on this issue,” Filner said. “I don’t understand the Obama administration—the cautious timidity. It’s a humanitarian issue to these voters. It just perplexes me that more people aren’t on board and the administration is so negative.”

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by ROB BREZSNY

FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 1, 2012

ARIES (March 21-April 19): At one point in

his book The Divine Comedy, the Italian poet Dante is traveling through purgatory on his way to paradise. American poet T.S. Eliot describes the scene: “The people there were inside the flames expurgating their errors and sins. And there was one incident when Dante was talking to an unknown woman in her flame. As she answered Dante’s questions, she had to step out of her flame to talk to him, until at last she was compelled to say to Dante, ‘Would you please hurry up with your questions so I can get on with my burning?’” I bring this to your attention, Aries, because I love the way you’ve been expurgating your own errors and sins lately. Don’t let anything interfere with your brilliant work. Keep burning till you’re done. (Source: “A New Type of Intellectual: Contemplative Withdrawal and Four Quartets,” by Kenneth P. Kramer.)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): If you’ve

been holding yourself back in any way, Taurus, now’s the time to unlock and unleash yourself. If you have been compromising your high standards or selling yourself short, I hope you will give yourself permission to grow bigger and stronger and brighter. If you’ve been hiding your beauty or hedging your bets or rationing your access to the mother lode, you have officially arrived at the perfect moment to stop that nonsense.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the cult

blaxploitation film The Human Tornado, the main character Dolemite brags about his prowess. “I chained down thunder and handcuffed lightning!” he raves. “I used an earthquake to mix my milkshake! I eat an avalanche when I want ice cream! I punched a hurricane and made it a breeze! I swallowed an iceberg and didn’t freeze!” This is the way I want to hear you talk in the coming week, Gemini. Given the current astrological configurations, you have every right to. Furthermore, I think it’ll be healthy for you.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Astrologer

Antero Alli theorizes that the placement of the sign Cancer in a person’s chart may indicate what he or she tends to whine about. In his own chart, he says, Cancer rules his ninth house, so he whines about obsolete beliefs and bad education and stale dogmas that cause people to shun firsthand experience as a source of authority. I hereby declare these issues to be supremely honorable reasons for you to whine in the coming week. You also have cosmic permission to complain vociferously about the following: injustices perpetrated by small-minded people; shortsighted thinking that ignores the big picture; and greedy self-interest that disdains the future. On the other hand, you don’t have clearance to whine about crying babies, rude clerks or traffic jams.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): LA Weekly praised

the music of drone-noise band Barn Owl. Its review said that the listening experience is “akin to placing your ear against the Dalai Lama’s stomach and catching the sound of his reincarnation juices flowing.” That sounds a bit like what’s ahead for you in the coming week, Leo: getting the lowdown on the inner workings of a benevolent source … tuning in to the rest of the story that lies behind a seemingly simple, happy tale … gathering up revelations about the subterranean currents that are always going on beneath the surface of the good life. It’s ultimately all positive, although a bit complicated.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In the coming

days, you could do a lot to develop a better relationship with darkness. And no, I don’t mean that you should do bad things and seek out negativity and be fascinated with evil. When I use that word “darkness,” I’m referring to confusing mysteries and your own unconscious patterns and the secrets you hide from yourself. I mean the difficult memories and the parts of the world that seem inhospitable to you and the sweet dreams that have lost their way. See what you can do to understand this stuff better, Virgo. Open yourself to the redemptive teachings it has for you.

BEFORE

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Sister Jessica,

a character in Frank Herbert’s Dune books, says, “The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can only be outgrown.” I encourage you to use that theory as your operative hypothesis for the foreseeable future. Here are some specific clues about how to proceed: Don’t obsess on your crazy-making dilemma. Instead, concentrate on skillfully doing the pleasurable activities that you do best. Be resolutely faithful to your higher mission and feed your lust for life. Slowly but surely, I think you’ll find that the frustrating impediment will be drained of at least some of its power to lock up your energy.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A few years

ago, the Hong Kong company Life Enhance sold briefs and boxer shorts that were supposedly designed by a master practitioner of feng shui. On the front of every garment was an image of a dragon, which the Chinese have traditionally regarded as a lucky symbol. To have this powerful charm in contact with your intimate places increased your vital force—or so the sales rap said. By my estimates, Scorpio, you’re not going to need a boost like that in the coming weeks. Without any outside aids whatsoever, your lower furnace will be generating intense beams of magical heat. What are you going to do with all that potent mojo? Please don’t use it on trivial matters.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

There are times in your life when you do a lot of exploring in the outer world, and other times when your pioneering probes are directed primarily inward. In my astrological opinion, you’re currently more suited for the latter kind of research. If you agree with me, here’s one tack you might want to take: Take an inventory of all your inner voices, noticing both the content of what they say and the tone with which they say it. Some of them may be chatty and others shy, some blaring and others seductive, some nagging and needy, and others calm and insightful. Welcome all the voices in your head into the spotlight of your alert attention. Ask them to step forward and reveal their agendas.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The

Oxford English Dictionary, an authority on the state of the English language, adds an average of two new words every day. In the coming weeks, Capricorn, I’d like to see you expand your capacity for self-expression with equal vigor. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you’re due for an upgrade in your vocabulary, your clarity and your communication skills. Here’s one of the OED’s fresh terms, which would be a good addition to your repertoire: “bouncebackability,” the ability to recover from a setback or to rebound from a loss of momentum.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): We turn

to Dr. Seuss for help in formulating your horoscope this week. He told a story of dining in a restaurant with his uncle, who was served a popover, which is a puffy muffin that’s hollow on the inside. “To eat these things,” said his uncle, “you must exercise great care. You may swallow down what’s solid, but you must spit out the air!” Drawing a lesson from these wise words, Dr. Seuss concluded, “As you partake of the world’s bill of fare, that’s darned good advice to follow. Do a lot of spitting out the hot air. And be careful what you swallow.” I expect your coming week will be successful, Aquarius, if you apply these principles.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You should

be like a rooster, Pisces: dispensing wakeup calls on a regular basis. You should be nudging people to shed their torpor and shake themselves out of their stupor. What’s your personal version of “cock-adoodle-doo!”? It shouldn’t be something generic like “Open your eyes!” or “Stop making excuses!” Come up with attentiongrabbing exclamations or signature phrases that no intelligent person can possibly ignore or feel defensive about. For example: “Let’s leap into the vortex and scramble our trances!”

You can call Rob Brezsny for your Expanded Weekly Horoscope: (900) 950-7700. $1.99 per minute. Must be 18+. Touchtone phone required. Customer service (612) 373-9785. And don’t forget to check out Rob’s website at www.realastrology.com.

FRONTLINES

FEATURE

15 MINUTES

by JONATHAN

MENDICK PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MAAIKA WESTERN AND BOB VAHN

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Doctor of comedy Dr. Tim Lee grew up near Monterey before attending the University of California, San Diego and receiving his bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolution. He earned a Ph.D. in the same field at UC Davis, before leaving a career in science for stand-up comedy. Lee’s routine often includes comedic PowerPoint presentations which parody scientific lectures. (He can outline a scientific principle and riff on his roommate’s body hair in the same slide.) He’s also a growing star on YouTube, with more than 4 million channel views. During a recent comedy-tour stop in Los Angeles, Lee chatted with SN&R about his unlikely transition into comedy and his time in the Sacramento area.

Why did you leave coastal San Diego for UC Davis? I thought I wanted to be college professor, and that meant leaving behind a very cool situation to hopefully find another. … As it turned out, I loved Davis. It didn’t have the coast or history that San Diego did, but what it had a lot of was character. It’s a great college town, and I loved my time there.

You’re paying off a Ph.D. program with comedy. Do you have another job? Comedy is now my only job. I am almost constantly on the road doing shows. It’s a strange life. I love the time on stage with the audience. That’s the biggest reward to being a comedian. A close second is hanging out with other comics. What I wasn’t prepared for was how difficult this lifestyle makes it to maintain relationships. It’s very easy to meet people now, but difficult to keep them in your life.

Is that why you live with this roommate you make jokes about? Do you really have one? Oh yeah, he’s real. All my close friends already know who he is. They always ask me, “Why don’t you kick him out?” It turns out there’s no law against being disgusting.

Science is analytic and writing jokes is creative. How did you bridge that gap? Science and comedy are actually very tightly related. I used to give talks in front of smart people who’d try to pick apart my logic. Now I give talks in front of drunk people who try to pick apart my jokes. Science is the pursuit of the truth. Comedy is the truth plus absurdity. My job is to add the absurdity to the science, and the humor will flow naturally.

STORY

A RT S & C U LT U R E

Did you start writing jokes during your Ph.D. program? Oh yeah. I did my first PowerPoint joke during a serious talk I was giving. I’ve always loved it when professors throw gag slides into their talks. It relaxes the mind, like a deep breath for the brain. When I started giving talks, I decided I would come up with my own gag slides. About half the people loved them and half were mortified. That was my first lesson in comedy. There is no joke that everyone finds funny.

You worked in Roseville at Hewlett-Packard. What’d you do there? Before I became a comic, I wrote software for the Enterprise Information Architecture division in Roseville. We worked in a converted parts warehouse that lacked even the slightest hint of an artistic touch. Think of a giant box with no windows and a football field of cubicles inside. It’s amazing how that sterility affects your attitude. I think I realized then the value of adding some artistic beauty to your life. I had never thought about it until it was all taken away.

You cut your teeth at San Francisco’s Punch Line Comedy Club. Was that transition easy? No, the transition wasn’t easy. … You have to remember that I had never done any performing arts before. I was never in a highschool play. I was never in the choir. Getting up onstage to entertain was terrifying! I |

AFTER

needed that terror to spice up what had become a very comfortable, boring life. My first set was at a laundromat cafe south of Market Street in San Francisco. I can still see the faces looking back at me as I stood behind a microphone for the first time. Some of my jokes hit. Some of my jokes did not. Inside I was vacillating between moments of sheer terror and moments of mild terror.

What do you miss about the Sacramento area? I miss the summertime strawberries you could pick up at a roadside stand. I miss hanging out at a coffee shop in Davis, having a bagel and a good conversation. I miss watching the river flow through Sacramento at night.

What’s it like having so many people watching you on YouTube? It always feels great to have people appreciate your work. YouTube is unbelievably powerful because it’s a way for me to go right to a worldwide audience without having to go through a TV network. That wasn’t possible 10 years ago. At this point, having an online hit is actually more important than having a TV appearance, because you can stay in touch with the people who find you online. It’s a two-way conversation, and the audience loves that. Ω Tim Lee will perform at 7 p.m., Sunday, March 4, at the Punch Line Comedy Club, 2100 Arden Way. Tickets are $15. For more info, call (916) 925-5500 or visit www.punchlinesac.com.

03.01.12

SN&R