S-2012-12-27

TV haTes

Sacramento see Essay, page 14

REsolutions foR JERRy BRown (and Sutter!) see Capitol lowdown, page 10

PaRty likE it’s almost

2013! see night&Day, page 24

on america’S

gun policy see streetalk, page 4 see frontlines, page 8

CoCktail DaREs,

hangover cureS see arts&Culture, page 22 see Dish, page 27

Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

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51

Be safe Two friends were robbed in Midtown  last Thursday night.

It was early: around 9 p.m., while  walking home after dinner. And suddenly: A man ran at them, brandishing a revolver in their faces, yelling to  get down on their hands and knees,  empty their pockets of phones and  wallets. A nightmare.

This was the 16th reported robbery in the central city in the month  (as of December 20). Merry Christmas. According to data with Sacramento County, about 35 percent of all  robberies involve a firearm. Ugh. What’s worrisome as well is that  six days earlier, at nearly the same  spot, yet another robbery occurred,  this time on a Saturday just before  midnight.  The grid has seen an uptick in  crime recently. Police data confirms  all sorts of hellish transgressions:  Since October 1, there have been  41 reported robberies, including  four within a 400-foot radius of my  apartment, plus 361 thefts; 349 cases  of breaking and entering; 109 crimes  against property; and 75 assaults.  And a homicide. Again, those are just  the reported incidents.

The easy, sane thing to think  when someone harms friends and  neighbors is that it’s just a blip. That  it’s still safe to walk the dog before  bed, or stroll home late after dinner  and drinks.  But is it? The city’s database  doesn’t show a ton of crime in East  Sacramento, Land Park or McKinley  Park. In fact, since October 1, those  hoods have been devoid of robberies—zero!

Yes, the central city’s restaurants and bars and clubs and nightlife are awesome. You’re welcome.  But in 2013, the region needs to come  together to figure out ways to help  out with this crime problem, and not  just in the central city.

Because this sucks. —Nick Miller

nic kam@ ne ws r ev i ew . com

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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. co-editors Rachel Leibrock, Nick Miller Staff writers Raheem F. Hosseini, Dave Kempa, Kel Munger copy Editor Shoka Shafiee calendar Editor Jonathan Mendick contributing Editor Cosmo Garvin Editorial coordinator Deena Drewis Editor-at-large Melinda Welsh Editorial intern Maddi Silva contributors Sasha Abramsky, Christopher Arns, Ngaio Bealum, Rob Brezsny, Joey Garcia, Becky Grunewald, Mark Halverson, Jeff Hudson, Jonathan Kiefer,

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BEFORE

December 27, 2012 | Vol. 24, Issue 37

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“I don’t think the recent events make that much of a change, frankly.”

Asked in Midtown along J Street:

How would you change America’s gun policy?

Jessica Palmer

David Neal

Nicole Perkins

student

recruiter

I don’t believe guns are the reason. If somebody is going to murder somebody, they don’t necessarily have to use a gun. I don’t think guns make the murderer. If you criminalize guns, then people who have guns, they become criminals.

Derek Dahlkamp

student

I would not make guns available. Just get rid of all of the guns. Unless you are an officer or in the military and you need an actual weapon, there is no need for it. Get rid of all of the guns for the general public.

[Make them] inaccessible to the public.

Jacob Alvarado

salesperson

I think it needs to be changed. Our Constitution gives us the right to bear arms in case a government becomes too strong, and we are in a society where the government continues to get stronger. Big Brother gets bigger and bigger, and there may come a time ... where we need our guns.

I don’t think the recent events make that much of a change, frankly. It’s not good people … that are committing crimes. Illegal guns are essentially the ones being used. I think it’s kinda hard to keep those out of the wrong hands.

You can go out and find a gun anywhere—trade shows and stuff.

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Having been in the military, I would encourage people to become more acquainted with weapons. ... We were always taught death comes out of the end of a barrel, and that being the case, you don’t point it at anybody. More of an education issue instead of a [removal] issue. That is like saying to stop accidents, let’s get rid of cars.

I don’t think anybody needs guns. In this day and age, nobody needs to defend themselves except for maybe an occasional Taser.

I don’t think nobody needs to kill each other. Wound the person instead of killing the person and let the law decide if they need to get killed.

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Get your ark ready Re “Sacramento’s Hurricane Sandy?”

by Christopher Arns (SN&R Green Days, December 20): With a few decades of business as usual, we will soon hit CO2 levels last seen when palm trees and close relatives of the crocodile lived on the Arctic Circle. Warnings about dangerous storms in our future and other kinds of harmful changes in climate are always appropriate. The article failed, however, to mention that even before humans had the serious impact on climate they have today, Sacramento was pretty much guaranteed catastrophic flooding whose letter of impacts would the week dwarf those of Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. In the winter of 1861 and 1862, a series of Pineapple Express storms caused extreme flooding in much of California, Nevada and Oregon. Geologists have shown that similar events occurred roughly every two centuries before that.

A brief Internet search turned up the following little tidbits on the 1861-1862 events: “Flood waters transformed the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys into an inland sea some 250-300 miles in length,” according to The Sacramento Bee. And, according to Time magazine,

the United States Geological Survey estimates a repeat could cause $725 billion in damage; and one-quarter of [the state’s taxable] real estate was destroyed, which bankrupted the state government. In a region with lots of people and expensive homes protected by substandard levees, comparing such an event to Noah’s flood is only a slight exaggeration.

Frank Grober

C a rm i c h a e l

Guns aren’t all bad Re “Call to action” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Editor’s Note, December 20): It is disconcerting to see our representatives wince away from acknowledging such a heinous problem at a time when the constituency demands action.

However, I am concerned about the knee-jerk reaction in calling for a ban on assault weapons. The Second Amendment fostered the Civil Rights movement by the Black Panther [Party]. The Fourth Amendment is already being gradually dissolved, as well as the First, and there are privatized police forces emerging to quash protest and dissent. The Black Panthers and human-rights groups can’t protest the way they used to. Now, I don’t own any firearms, but as a gerontologist, I know that guns

This Modern World

work as a sort of equalizer. They help keep the elderly—especially women—safe from bigger, stronger and more aggressive assailants.

Guns aren’t all bad. We want good guys to have guns. Plus, all of these shootings happened where guns were banned. If someone else had a gun, maybe these shooters could’ve been stopped. I’m not asking for more guns. I just would like to see common sense trump legality with sensible reform. I think we agree on that.

Matthew W. Urner via email

Heed Heston Re “Can America bear its arms problem?” by Joshua Holland (SN&R Frontlines, December 20): Nancy Lanza loved stroking her guns—till her son offed her with her favorite [one]. That weapon was legally hers and is not required as evidence in any trial.

So let’s return it to her. [To use] the phrase that drove the [National Rifle Association] convention bonkers when Charlton Heston used it, let’s bury it with her in her “cold dead hands.”

Owen McGowan Courtland Visit us at newsreview.com or email sactoletters@newsreview.com

by ToM ToM orroW

Please drink responsibly.

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PHOTO BY ALEX EMSLIE

Trust in reform Dems creamed the GOP in November.

Now immigrtion policy is poised to change— with Sacramento leading the way.

Look sharp, Sacramento. And brush up on your Spanish: The immigration debate is set to flare up once again in Washington, by Dave Kempa D.C., but the path to citizenship may begin here in the state Capitol. d a vek@ Democratic state Assemblyman newsr evie w.c om Tom Ammiano recently, and for the third time, introduced the TRUST Act to the California Legislature. This bill would limit state law enforcement’s participation in Secure Communities, a system introduced by President George W. Bush and expanded by the Obama administration that allows federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ask local police and sherrif departments across the country to hold undocumented immigrants already in custody for the purpose of deportation.

The TRUST Act passed through both houses of the Legislature last fall before Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the bill. Now, amid rising dialogue on both Independent sides of the aisle over immigration reporting for this reform, it’s back. And Ammiano insists story is funded by a grant from that the governor pay attention.

“This is not something we can shy Sacramento Emergency Foodlink. away from,” the assemblyman told SN&R. “This is bigger than Jerry Brown. This is bigger than me.”

California’s next immigration battle Over the first week of December, California made a statement to the nation: Immigration policy is not working, and we will not take part in a broken system.

On Monday, December 3, Assemblyman Ammiano reintroduced the TRUST Act. The next day, Tuesday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris told law-enforcement agencies that their participation in Secure Communities was no longer mandatory.

And on Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, whose county accounts for almost one-third of undocumented residents in the state deported through Secure Communities, said that he would no longer hand over or detain undocumented immigrants for low-level crimes.

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Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, shown here in October protesting Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of the TRUST Act, recently reintroduced the bill. And this time it could make it, due to bipartisan talk of immigration reform.

Californians have heard talk on immigration reform out in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama has said that he will be focusing on the issue soon after dealing with the fiscal crisis, and the nation’s Republicans, humbled

by November’s results, are now talking seriously about how to attract rising numbers of Latino votes.

But as this discourse builds in Washington, the batalla de inmigración has long since begun in California— home to 27.8 percent of the nation’s Hispanic population and almost 25 percent of all undocumented residents.

“While those conversations are underway in D.C., in California the TRUST Act will be setting a standard,” said Jon Rodney with the California Immigrant Policy Center, a nonpartisan outfit that focuses on immigration policy. “This really is an issue that has national attention.”

The CIPC is one of numerous immigrants’ rights groups putting their weight behind the TRUST Act. Emboldened by the state’s Democratic supermajority in the Legislature, these organizations see California as a harbinger for national immigration reform.

Between its 2008 introduction and August 31, 2011, Secure Communities succeeded in deporting 220,322 undocumented immigrants. More than 82,500 of them, some 37.5 percent, came from right here in California.

Secure Communities has indeed been effective in numbers, but

opponents of the program argue that it has gone far beyond its original focus of deporting undocumented men and women with criminal records.

Of the 82,531 undocumented residents deported from California through August 2011, 20,917—roughly 25 percent—had not committed a crime.

Los Angeles County proved the toughest on enforcing the program, handing 26,030 undocumented residents over to federal officials, almost 6,000 of who had not been convicted of a crime.

“This is not something we can shy away from.

This is bigger than Jerry Brown. This is bigger than me.”

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano on passing the TRUST Act

Here in Sacramento County, 529 of the 1,870 people deported through Secure Communities were not convicted of any crime before their removal.

If passed, the TRUST Act would mandate that California’s law enforcement only have the option to comply with ICE detainment requests if the

undocumented person in custody was convicted of a “serious or violent felony.”

Sacramento politicos don’t see the bill having much trouble passing through both houses again, but it will also have to survive the governor’s desk once more.

In a letter explaining his veto last September, Gov. Brown wrote that “the bill is fatally flawed because it omits many serious crimes,” such as those “involving child abuse, drug trafficking, selling weapons, using children to sell drugs, or gangs.”

Ammiano, however, says the governor was “a bit out to lunch” during the sculpting of the bill the last time around, perhaps due to his focus on passing Proposition 30. But he warns that everyone in the state Capitol, not just Brown, may want to start paying attention this time around.

“The Latino vote is not something that can be dismissed,” said Ammiano.

“It should be on anyone’s mind if they’re thinking about running again.”

Los Republicanos Make no mistake: The message of immigration reform echoes across both sides of the aisle.

Mark Standriff, spokesperson for the California Republican Party, is

“IMMIgRATIon” continued on page 9

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Loaded with guns Ban assault weapons? There are thousands in Sacramento.

KARL DENSON’S TINY UNIVERSE / ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND

THE FAB FOUR

TAINTED LOVE

JONNY LANG

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29

SATURDAY, JANUARY 12

As the nation grieves over the astounding loss of life in Newtown, Conn., lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are resurrecting by Dave Kempa talk of a national ban on assault weapons. That might be hard: Sacramento davek@ County alone is home to almost 6,000 ne w s re v i e w . c o m registered assault weapons.

Today, it is illegal to purchase assault weapons in California. But residents who owned and registered them prior to 2001 have been grandfathered in past the 1999 augmentation of the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapon Controls Act of 1989.

According to the state Office of the Attorney General’s most recent records, there are 5,838 assault weapons registered to some 2,939 people in Sacramento County. Seems like a lot? Well, seven other counties have more assault weapons than we do, and these numbers don’t even speak to the countless unregistered weapons peppered throughout the state.

There are 5,838 assault weapons registered to some 2,939 people in Sacramento County.

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The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence ranks California as the top state in gun-control legislation, yet FBI statistics show that one out of every seven U.S. firearm-related homicides in 2011 took place right here in the Golden State.

In response to the recent tragedy in Newtown, California state legislators are again pushing to strengthen legislation surrounding access to ammunition and gun permits for residents with mental disorders.

But as policymakers work out their gun-control solutions, local law enforcement continues to deal with gun-related incidents as best as it can.

“We’ll get calls of gunshots fired every day,” said Jason Ramos of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. “Without exception.”

According to the California attorney general’s website, Sacramento County was home to 1,491 robberies and 2,423 aggravated assaults in 2010.

Some 494 of the robberies and 707 of the assaults were carried out with the assistance of a firearm.

The county is nearing 50 homicides as 2012 winds down. While data on those carried out by firearm was

not readily available at the time of printing, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime notes that 60 percent of all homicides in the United States involved a firearm.

A majority of the county’s calls regarding gunshots fired do not result in injury or death, said Ramos, and the neighborhoods most heavily afflicted by guns are the most impoverished, where gang and youth violence are of particular concern.

One of the Sacramento County Sheriff Department’s most effective tools against gun violence has been the newly formed Impact Division. Staffed by 28 officers from local, state and federal law enforcement, this division has helped to take some 350 guns off the streets.

Of course, it is legal for California citizens passing background checks to own firearms. In 2011, California vendors put in more than 600,000 firearm-purchase requests to the Department of Justice, with more than 99 percent passing the background checks.

Gun-control proposals by state lawmakers in the wake of the Newtown shooting do not seek to outlaw any more weapons, nor do they look to decrease firearm purchases: They focus on background checks for ammunition purchases and mentalhealth issues.

“Right now in California, there are no restrictions on ammunition purchases,” said Greg Hayes, press representative for state Democratic Sen. Kevin de León of Los Angeles.

“Anyone can buy ammunition, including criminals.”

De León has introduced legislation for background checks and one-year permits for any state residents looking to purchase ammunition.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco is pushing to outlaw the bullet button on semi-automatic weapons in California.

Sacramento officials, meanwhile, seem to be more focused on the mental-health side of the issue, with state Sen. Ted Gaines of Roseville introducing legislation to permanently keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill, and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg pushing the federal government to match the state’s funding to help the mentally ill. Ω

“IMMIgratIon” continued from page 7

Here in Sacramento County, 529 of the 1,870 people deported through Secure Communities were not convicted of any crime before their removal.

GOP Assemblyman Jeff Gorell wrote an op-ed in The Sacramento Bee just after the election urging his party to pick up the banner and lead the way in providing undocumented residents a path to citizenship. And L.A. County’s Sheriff Baca’s decision this month to only enforce Secure Communities on illegal immigrants with serious crimes on their records surprised many Californians.

What has long been a mantra of things to come in Washington, D.C., has been a fact in California for some time now: The Latino vote has arrived. Ω

THINK FREE.

adamant that his party needs to reach out to the rising Latino voting bloc.

“The Republican party has to do it now. We cannot wait,” said Standriff. “We need to get past the obstacles that are there now in order to establish a sense of trust and respect with the Latino community.”

Fresh off a stunning string of defeats across the state, California Republicans have spent the last month poring over demographic data from the election. As is often the case, they did not fare well among the younger, single, more urban voting bloc. Nor did they strike a chord with minorities.

State GOP members note the importance of reaching out to a number of demographics that they have not carried in the past.

Chief among those is the Latino community.

The Pew Hispanic Center reported this month that the nation’s Latino electorate is set to double by 2030, accounting for 40 percent of the growth in eligible voters. Here in California, where Latinos comprise almost 40 percent of the population, these estimates are not to be taken lightly by future candidates.

In two previous state conventions, Republicans have invited Latino business and community leaders to take part in a town-hall discussion. As this year’s spring convention in Sacramento draws near, the GOP looks ready to ramp up dialogue with the Latino community.

“I think that right now everything needs to be on the table in our discussions,” said

Standriff. “I’m sure the immigration issue will be something that will be discussed seriously in the convention.”

Even as the Democraticsupermajority Legislature sends its message to Washington pushing hard for comprehensive immigration reform, some state Republicans are taking strides of their own.

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Elected officials aren’t mutants from an alternate universe sent to infect our world with madness.

They used to be regular folks anonymously striving to meet their monthly nut, not piss off partners (business or otherwise) and navigate life’s pothole-pocked path without major catastrophe.

That means—at least once upon a time—they made New Year’s resolutions like pledgCAS

by GREG LU ing to drop the balance on the caplowdown@newsreview.com Kohl’s credit card to zero and shed 7 pounds—starting right after Super Bowl Sunday—through the miracle of Nancy Pelosi’s kale and dichondra diet.

But now that they’re local, state and federal elected officials, they’re so swamped championing the interests of their constituents and just generally doing good deeds that most don’t have time for formulating frivolous resolutions—let alone fulfilling them.

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Democrats should remember that just before being pancaked by a cascade of shit boulders, every hero in a Greek tragedy first stumbles over their wildly inflated ego.

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10 | SN&R | 12.27.12

Greg Lucas’ state-politics column Capitol Lowdown will appear every-other week in SN&R. He also blogs at www.californias capitol.com.

1. Love my seatmate as myself.

Since two-thirds of the Assembly and the Senate are now Democrats, some of the few Republicans remaining in the Legislature must sit next to odious vermin from the noxious side of the aisle. Ask about their family. Smile benignly. Feign poor hearing. Try listening—it might lead to learning.

2. Get over it.

Mercifully, California isn’t a Nathaniel Hawthorne novella. Even if it were, branding a large “L” on the foreheads of GOP officeholders after the November election would graphically restate the obvious. Whatever Republicans are selling, voters ain’t buying. Find something new and constructive to yammer about or shut the hell up. Democrats should remember that just before being pancaked by a cascade of shit boulders, every hero in a Greek tragedy first stumbles over

their wildly inflated ego. “Hubris,” the Greeks called it: “overweening pride.” Put another way by California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton: “Don’t fall in love with your own bullshit.” It’s a capital offense.

3. Improve comportment.

Jerry Brown’s score on the geniality meter can sometimes reach levels that would cause Dr. Hans Asperger to arch an eyebrow. The Democratic governor says he uses the “Socratic method.” But Socrates was such an annoying pest the Greeks ordered him to hammer hemlock. The governor might be the smartest person in the room, particularly when it comes to declaiming Latin, but lawmakers and decision-makers groove more on back pats and a periodic “non illegitimi carborundum.”

4. Resolve to reduce resolutions.

Resolutions have no effect except wasting valuable legislative time in debating and passing them.

They are glorified letters. Two current examples: urging Congress and President Barack Obama to fix the nation’s “broken immigration system” and proclaiming the last week of January “National School Choice Week.” Enough already.

Democrats bushwhacked Republican Assemblyman Chris Norby of Fullerton in November, returning him to the private sector he claimed to love passionately, so the mantle falls to Capitol Lowdown and others equally impatient to chide lawmakers into ending their oral onanism on these frothy bits of silliness.

5. Deal with some stuff on the Decade-at-a-Glance To-Do List.

Like the caliber of the UC and CSU campuses that have been slashed and cut and then slashed again for five years running—particularly CSU, which gets far more of its money from the cash-starved state general fund than the UC—institutional improvement is not predicated on more fee increases. Also, get the details right, so when the sea change in health-care delivery that is the Affordable Care Act crests in January 2014, Californians don’t get swamped.

Here’s something novel: Treat addiction rather than incarcerating the addict. And pledge to get the governor’s mouthy, stump-legged corgi off Facebook and into some ads pimping spaying and neutering.

As to the coming year overall?

May God have mercy. Ω

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No hard feelings Wayward emails, mayoral manifestos and the best studies money can buy A couple columns ago, Bites wondered if the Sacramento City Council was becoming increasingly the domain of thin-skinned rich guys who don’t like being poked by curious reporters.

No need to have worried. SN&R reporter Raheem F. Hosseini recently emailed a campaign staffer for Allen Warren requesting an interview after Warren’s close election win for the city council in District 2.

ArVIN G Said staffer—apparently hitting “reply” o SM Co by instead of forwarding the message to cos mog@ n ewsrev iew.c om Warren—sent Hosseini back a message reading, “Fuck SN&R but just wanted to pass this along if you wanted to do it.”

Hosseini later got another email from a different campaign staffer, apologizing for the “mixup,” though the first message had seemed straightforward enough.

Warren showed up for the interview, which went down pleasantly enough (see “The Warren retort” by Raheem F. Hosseini, SN&R Frontlines, December 20). Though, notice that he continues to characterize SN&R’s earlier coverage of the facts of his legal and financial troubles as “attacking” him. So, yeah, no hard feelings.

“I love accountability.” That’s the beginning of an email from Mayor Kevin Johnson to constituents back in 2009. The email was a lecture on accountability to his fellow council members. The occasion was a leaked internal memo to The Sacramento Bee, which had the effect of alerting the public to the then-unfolding scandal in the city’s building department.

The lecture was dumb, but that’s not why Bites dug it out. It’s because the email itself is an interesting historical document, a long and detailed manifesto about “accountability” in the mayor’s office.

“Let’s talk about accountability. It’s a subject I understand. I ran for Mayor on a platform of accountability,” Johnson explained at the time. “I demand accountability for myself, my staff, and every employee in the city of Sacramento.”

It goes on like that for quite a long time.

“Accountability isn’t just for front-line city employees. It runs from top to bottom. I must be accountable. And so must my colleagues.”

There’s more. Google it.

But this is why the Lisa Serna-Mayorga scandal is so strange.

The details of the Serna-Mayorga affair are likely well-known to you. She used a city credit card to rack up $19,000 in personal charges—including, depressingly, nearly $4,000 in iTunes purchases (Justin Bieber, Marc Anthony, Lady Gaga)—trips to Disneyland, Bodega Bay, Target, you name it. She bounced checks to the city trying to cover the illicit charges, and now she faces jail time for forgery and grand theft of public funds.

Here’s what Bites doesn’t get: How could someone like Serna-Mayorga—with her long family history in politics and her long BEFORE

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experience at the mayor’s side—go so unaccountably wrong?

Her actions are so surprising because they go so entirely against the culture of accountability that the mayor created at City Hall. We must assume he has done so, because he has told us at length how much he loves accountability.

Back in 2009, the mayor said, “Accountability is not situational. It can’t be used for political convenience. You are either accountable, or you are not.”

So, in his own words, the mayor is accountable—from top to bottom—for the things that his employees did with public money. Or he is not.

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You may know the name Sanjay Varshney.

He’s dean of business at Sacramento State University and purveyor of fine economic studies for discerning patrons.

Well, his survey of Assembly Bill 32, paid for by a business group and used by the oil industry to attack California’s ambitious climatechange law, was called “essentially useless” by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office. But Varshney’s customers, at least, seem pretty satisfied.

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So it was with last week’s white paper on the benefits of the Capital Southeast Connector— a.k.a. the Sprawl Expressway—commissioned by the local governments who want the new roadway built.

To his client’s great relief, Varshney says that the connector is a really good investment. He estimates 25,000 new jobs, $2.5 billion in new regional economic output and $182 million in new indirect business tax revenue—over the next 20 years.

All that for only $450 million in public money to get the thing built. Much of the money will come from local sales taxes, and state and federal funds. But the single biggest source of funds identified, some $230 million, is supposed to come from developer fees generated by future growth in the area of the project.

Boosters insist this major highway connecting the fast-growing suburban enclaves of Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove and El Dorado Hills— and running mostly through pastures—won’t be growth inducing. So it doesn’t promote sprawl, even though it’s mostly funded by future sprawl?

Probably have to be some kind of economist to figure out how that works. Ω STORY

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Banks by the horns America’s first responders fight to ‘save Main Street from Wall Street’ I am not a CEO of a major bank. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of an organization willing to overturn the economy for my own financial gain. Unfortunately, not everyone can make that claim.

In the news this week, United States attorneys have filed criminal charges against local Sacramentans allegedly involved in mortgage fraud totaling $16 million. At the same time, United States attorneys have announced settlements with HSBC bank and Standard Chartered Bank in probes investigating billions of dollars of money laundering for the Mexican drug cartels and Iran. That’s right, there are criminal l

by JEff VOnKaEnE charges in the case involving millions of dollars, and settlements in the cases involving billions of dollars. j e ffv @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m It was against this background that I read former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman Sheila Bair’s recent book. In her gripping whodunit, Bull by the Horns, she gives a blow-by-blow history of what happened during the 2008 financial meltdown. Bair convincingly tells how the free marketers allowed the banks to do whatever they wanted, including but not limited to lying to regulators, paying off I am not now, nor auditors, granting themselves unwarranted and unjustified have I ever been, bonuses—all in all, a story of mismanagement and a member of an incredible arrogance beyond comprehenorganization sion. In the end, the American taxpayer was left footing the bill. willing to overturn As Bair tells it, because her fellow officials the economy for my believedgovernment that the banks were own financial gain. “too big to fail,” they felt that there was no way to punish them without destroying the economy.

So both the Bush and the Obama administrations have allowed bank officials to get away with deeds that would Looking for a put average citizens in jail. You or I could be incarcergripping whodunit ated for writing a bad check for several hundred dollars, about the financial but these banks accused of money laundering are getting meltdown? Read Bull by the Horns: settlements.

Fighting to Save The subtitle of Bair’s book is Fighting to Save Main Main Street From Street From Wall Street and Wall Street From Itself. The Wall Street and FDIC was one of the few agencies advocating for a fair deal Wall Street From Itself by for the American taxpayer. Bair and the FDIC repeatedly Sheila Bair. pushed to punish bank officials, if not with jail, then at least with the loss of their jobs. In her book, Bair talks proudly about her fellow FDIC employees.

I do not know Bair personally, but I do know Linda Ortega, who recently took the position of FDIC’s community-affairs officer for the Western states. She introduced me to the FDIC’s financial-education programs. Its Money Smart program explains the ins and outs of checking accounts, credit cards, home financing and much more. I Jeff vonKaenel found that the best time to reach Linda was to call the San is the president, CEO and Francisco office an hour or two before it officially opened, majority owner of because she would already be there. She and the other FDIC the News & Review employees that I have worked with take their job seriously. newspapers in The FDIC is America’s first responder in this battle “to Sacramento, Chico and Reno. save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from itself,” and we’re lucky to have it on our team. Ω

Good digestions

by Auntie Ruth

New Farm Bill, please

South Sacramento facility converts leftover food into natural gas; could power hundreds of homes and cars Sacramento’s culinary big shots recently launched an ambitious marketing campaign to promote the region’s farm-tofork dining scene. They’re hoping more tourists will by Christopher Arns visit the capital’s urban eateries and farmers markets.

But what happens between fork and landfill? Four newly whitewashed tanks in south Sacramento may be the answer.

Last week, a local company called Clean World Partners unveiled a new methane digester designed to convert organic waste into renewable natural gas. Starting this month, the facility will process 25 tons of food scraps per day and other garbage from Sacramento’s restaurants, supermarkets and schools.

By next year, the digester’s capacity will quadruple, allowing Clean World to begin selling thousands of gallons of natural gas to local government and private vehicles.

The project, located at the long-vacant South Area Transfer Station off of Fruitridge Road, took only six months to finish after the California Energy Commission awarded Clean World a $6 million grant in June, nearly half of the $13 million needed for construction. The digester’s speedy launch “validates the state’s investment and the use of this money,” said Randy Roesser, deputy director of the CEC’s Fuels and Transportation Division.

Officials say the digester will help cut organic waste produced in the city while also reducing fossil-fuel consumption. According to the National Resources Defense Council, food waste makes up 20 percent of landfill waste in the United States. All of that decomposing garbage turns into methane, which is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in causing global warming.

Sacramento’s digester will also produce methane from food waste, but the gas won’t be released into the atmosphere. Natural-gas vehicles will convert the methane into carbon dioxide as they burn off the fuel.

Wait, carbon dioxide is bad, right?

Not in this case, said Ruihong Zhang, a UC Davis professor and the project’s chief technical adviser.

This methane digester, located in south Sacramento, will turn food waste into natural gas.

Green Days is on the lookout for innovative sustainable projects throughout the Sacramento region.

Turn us on at sactonewstips@ newsreview.com.

There’s the “fiscal cliff,” and then there’s the “farmer’s

Plants and agricultural crops remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and when those plants die and decompose, they release carbon dioxide back into the ecosystem. That’s where the digester comes in, Zhang explained.

“If we only burn gasoline or fossil fuel that we take out of the ground and burn it into CO2, that goes into the atmosphere, so there’s a net emission,” she said. “Through our process, because we take in the biomass created from CO2—the trees, food—there’s a closed loop.”

Officials estimate the digester will need about six weeks for gas to accumulate in the facility’s four large tanks. Eventually, the digester will produce 1 million gallons of natural gas per year, enough to power 1,000 vehicles or 500 homes. For now, the only company using the natural gas is Atlas Disposal, a Sacramentobased waste-management company that will also haul food waste to the digester.

Dave Sikich, the garbage company’s president and CEO, said he has upgraded 15 trucks with cleanburning natural-gas engines. They weren’t cheap—the natural-gas engines cost an additional $50,000—but Sikich thinks the investment was worth it.

“It’s probably going to be financially neutral for us in the short term,” he said. “When we can offer our customers that, we can take their waste and we can produce renewable natural gas not only for our fleet, but maybe for their fleet, then it’s just got this huge environmental benefit.”

The city of Sacramento may also use the digester next year for residential composting, according to Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty, who represents District 6 where the Clean World facility is located. Instead of tossing food in garbage cans, under the composting program residents would place organic waste in their green refuse bins.

McCarty said officials will select one neighborhood in 2013 to test the idea before possibly expanding to the rest of Sacramento.

“If we can divert food waste that our residents currently put in their trash can, then one, we’re reducing it, and two, we’re reusing it for creating a renewable fueling source,” McCarty said. Ω

well.” It’s a little $10 trillion hole in the ground that opens up every five years; it’s a place where America goes to fall in and down and out of sight. There are rumors of water down there—watch your step and oopsie doodle and fare-thee-well.

Better known as the 2012 Farm Bill, its roots go back to FDR in 1933, when Congress sought subsidies for Depression-era farmers.

These days, the legislation will cost more than the Affordable Care Act over 10 years. Where the money goes is no mystery: 76 percent of the subsidy dollars distributed between 1995 and 2010 went to 10 percent of the nation’s farms (according to The New York Times).

While the Senate has passed its version—it’s no great shakes, cutting conservation More moo la, please. and food stamps—as of this writing, the House has yet to bring its bill to the floor for discussion. It’s much worse than the Senate’s version, tied up as it is in tea party machinations. If it’s not passed by December 31, federal support reverts to 1949 levels. That’s right—agricultural policy from before the heyday of television. Sort of doing to winter wheat what Mitt Romney would have done to the country.

Auntie Ruth would like to see it go a little differently.

Organic farms could use them some subsidy. Eating locally—it’s a good idea; how might we improve upon it? Farmers markets are growing like weeds, up from 1,744 total in 1994 to 7,864 in 2012, with a 9.6 percent increase since 2011. The most common request from farmers market managers is they need help getting the word out more broadly, meaning they think there’s more growth where that came from. What might a little subsidy do for them? Crumbs from the table is the apt metaphor, crumbs for what might loosely be called the food movement in America. Is any of this too much to ask?

Congress members aren’t all deaf. Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree and Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced in 2011 the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act, which would give small and new farmers greater access to loans, small grants and insurance. The act is meant to be included in the Farm Bill; as of this writing, some elements are—including We bet your aunts aren’t as cool as ours. something called the Farmers Market and Local Friend Auntie Ruth Food Promotion Program. Pick up the phone and on Facebook holler at Congress; operators most certainly are and let’s hang out. standing by. Ω

Tree-cycling It’s free and easy to recycle your Christmas tree—or Hanukkah bush—if you live in the city of Sacramento. All you need to do is place the tree out on the curb any time between now and 6 a.m. on Monday, January 14, 2013. And remember to not just stick it in the trash. If you live in an apartment and want to recycle a tree for free, bring it to the SMUD Corporation Yard ( 6100 Folsom Boulevard), the North Area Recovery Station (4450 Roseville Road in North Highlands), the Kiefer Landfill (12701 Kiefer Boulevard in Sloughhouse), or Elder Creek Recovery and Transfer (8642 Elder Creek Road) during their specific recycling dates listed at http://tinyurl.com/treecycling.

Don’t trash your tree.

—Jonathan Mendick

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TV hates Sacramento On the networks, Sactown is shorthand for lameness I remember seeing Guy Fieri a couple years ago at the Sammies. It was weird.

The albino-haired celebrity chef was by Raheem ushered in, VIP-style, to a beer garden beside F. Hosseini the main stage, where he stood motionless until somebody noticed him. On the few ra h e e m h @ occasions someone did, Fieri activated like ne w s re v i e w . c o m a monkey with political aspirations. It was like his beefy, bowling-shirted body powered down in between each loutish fan encounter.

As wonderfully creepy as this was to me at the time, it was also one of those rare occasions on which our second-banana town humbled pop culture, and not the other way around.

We don’t usually win those battles, as my television can attest.

This past month, a few network shows used Sacramento’s mere mention as a kind of cheeky shorthand for lameness. The November 20 episode of ABC’s Happy Endings was a predictably snarky Thanksgiving-themed installment in which a 1/16th-Navajo character experiences “an authentic Thanksgiving” when he is robbed by pilgrims on their way to a parade, gets hives from a contaminated (with cat hair) blanket and is arrested for scalping tickets to a Rock Bottom Remainders concert.

(This band made up of celebrity authors, unfortunately, actually exists.)

The unspoken gag is that MTV is scraping the bottom of the barrel by setting its aging, increasingly shrill franchise in Cowtown. I mean, what’s next, The Real World: Poughkeepsie?

But what really gave this episode its smarmy ’zazz were the made-up scenes from a never-aired season of MTV’s The Real World, set in Sacramento in 2002. Over an opening credit sequence in which a cast of dim narcissists is introduced, we see glamour shots of the Tower Bridge, the state Capitol building, the downtown skyline (are we really that short?) and, um, our transit system. (Yay, buses!)

It’s hard to take offense, because the parody gets so much right, from the spoton portrayal of 2002 fashion trends (pink hair, goatees, coming out on national TV) to the “woo-hoo!” knavery of 21st-century 20-somethings.

While the fake show-within-a-show never aired because the roommates’ converted

14 | SN&R | 12.27.12

firehouse home burned down (damn Sac Metro firefighters), the better, unspoken gag is that MTV is scraping the bottom of the barrel by setting its aging, increasingly shrill franchise in Cowtown. I mean, what’s next, The Real World: Poughkeepsie?

Similarly, Fox’s screwball-siblings comedy Ben and Kate has sporadically namechecked Sacramento as the town Ben ditched so he could live with his sister and help raise his niece. No overt jokes have been made at our city’s expense (none that I’ve caught, at least), but the way the city’s name is evoked is enough to tell viewers in Middle America, “You don’t want to go there.” (I wonder if this is how the residents of Poughkeepsie feel any time the mainstream media mentions their town.)

And then there’s The Mentalist, yet another Sherlock Holmes retread featuring a brainy rogue helping inept law enforcement crack mysteries they’re otherwise too dumb to solve.

This CBS procedural is also the most popular show that no one I know watches. Who knows? Maybe it gets a huge market share in Poughkeepsie. Anyway, as far as I can tell, the main character “consults” for something called the California Bureau of Investigation, which is supposedly based in Sacramento and probably gets teased by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the show only shoots here when it absolutely has to, like when, say, producers need a walk-and-talk to feature the historic governor’s mansion in the background and a dollhouse isn’t available.

But maybe we should be thankful someone outside of Sacramento is mentioning Sacramento. Other than Mayor Kevin Johnson, who’s always outside Sacramento mentioning Sacramento. (Or so he says.

Maybe he’s traveling to other cities talking about how great Poughkeepsie is.) As the old saying goes, any publicity is good publicity.

Even with the inference being that we’re from the Rodney Dangerfield of major cities. Well, semimajor cities. … OK, a city.

It could be worse. As a half-Iranian, I have to deal with Bravo’s Shahs of Sunset being on the air. The beyond-vapid reality series centers on a Los Angeles troupe of offensively wealthy Persians who “work” in real estate. But their true job seems to be giving America a real reason to impose tough Iranian sanctions.

Honestly, I’d rather have people just go back to thinking we’re all terrorists. At least then I’d have a better shot at being cast on the real The Real World: Sacramento. Fingers crossed. Ω

RECYCLE THIS PAPER.

Sprawl delay The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is as pro-growth these days as it’s ever been. So it was refreshing—and inspiring—to have Supervisor Phil Serna succeed a few weeks back in at least delaying the mammoth Cordova Hills project, a 2,7000-acre “master planned” community proposed for 22 miles southeast of downtown Sacramento.

As proposed, Cordova Hills would extend the county’s “urban policy area” so as to include 8,000 homes, condos and apartments; commercial office space; a mall; and 99 acres of parks. Importantly, the development was always said to include a 7,000-student, 240-acre university—one that was predicted to generate $1 billion in regional economic activity and, basically, put a “there” there for the project.

Except there is no university. There’s no doubt the developer, Conwy LLC, wants one. But it simply doesn’t have one secured, even after all this time.

Cordova Hills was expected to get the pro-growth supervisors’ green light at a board hearing anyway, but thanks to Serna’s intervention, that didn’t happen. Now the matter will come back before the supervisors on January 29, 2013, along with a new “no-university” scenario analysis by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, or SACOG. This review will more accurately outline the project’s impact on traffic, air quality and compliance with state laws that require limits to greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicle travel.

The Environmental Council of Sacramento has long opposed the project, proclaiming it is urban sprawl, pure and simple. We agree, especially with the unlikelihood of it containing a university. Huzzahs to Serna for delaying the project, and we look forward to SACOG’s no-nonsense analysis of this leapfrog development. Ω

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From its inception, California’s stem cell agency lacked credibility due to widespread conflicts of interest between board members and the organizations it funded in the realm of regenerative medicine. So we’re glad that a newly released report on the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has called for stronger protections in the areas of governance and transparency.

Created by California voters in a 2004 ballot measure in the hopes of kick-starting the development of genetic therapies for previously untreatable diseases, CIRM will wind up costing a substantial $6 billion in public funds. The new Institute of Medicine report was released just as the stem cell agency begins, in the years ahead, to wind down the allocation of public funds granted to it by the voters. Now the agency is looking to extend its operations—but it had better get its act together first.

Certainly CIRM has no business receiving any further public money, especially given the state’s budget deficit. But before it seeks new sources of funding from industry and venture-capital firms, CIRM should ensure that California’s $6 billion investment is respected with obligations met. It would be outrageous to have public funds wind up lining the pockets of private investors due to undisclosed conflicts of interest.

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hen 12-year-old Mauricio Perez starts physical education in middle school next year, he and his family know that he will be starting with the same training and background as his peers — even those coming from different classes and different elementary schools.

Two years ago Sacramento City Unified School District implemented a district-wide PE program to not only strengthen existing PE programs, but also to place a stronger emphasis on health in the South Sacramento community. The goal, SCUSD Physical Education Coordinator Heather Deckard says, is having a single curriculum for instructors to use as a base for teaching. These standardized requirements for PE instructors and students make PE just as important as academic courses. Deckard explains that it ensures instructors are doing their jobs and students are getting the best education — to not only understand the activities and exercises they are learning, but set up a healthy, active life.

“THE CURRICULUM IS ALL CENTRALIZED, AND IT REALLY LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD FOR STUDENTS.” Funding through the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Grant makes it possible for Deckard to create requirements for SCUSD PE classes and increase awareness about appropriate levels of exercise and health education in a school district where it was lacking before.

Paul Hein, Perez’s teacher at Camellia Basic Elementary School in South Sacramento, is thankful for Deckard and the PE program since he knows that while he can augment the standard lesson plans, at the very least, his students are getting the same education as students at other schools and he is instilling the importance of fitness in them — and their families. “The curriculum is all centralized, and it really levels the playing field for students because PE really should be taught similarly at different schools,” Hein says, adding it’s also great as a teacher because he can discuss issues and ideas with teachers at other schools.

Perez, Hein says, is a great example of a student who has really embraced the new PE program and benefited from its more structured curriculum. “We sit down at the beginning of each unit and I talk to my students about what we are going to learn,” he says, “then the students know what they are expected to do and even have an opportunity to take the lead. This teaches an all new set of leadership skills.” Perez, Hein says, often steps up to lead the class and has really demonstrated strong citizenship and sportsmanship skills this past year.

and encourages them to try activities.

On Wednesdays, Hein hosts “Walking Wednesdays,” encouraging South Sacramento parents to bring their children on a morning walk at the school. Deckard has even started family wellness nights, open to all community members to inspire them to take charge of their health.

But Perez says the biggest, and best change to him, is having a stronger emphasis on teamwork. “We used to not work together or we would partner up with our friends,” Perez says. “Now, we go with other people and I like that because I get to work with new people and learn about them while they learn about me.”

Hein and Deckard both say one of the best aspects of this program is making PE accessible to all types of individuals by having a variety of different exercises and activities — from yoga to speedball to golf. This variation, Deckard adds, gives students the tools to be healthy for life

BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES In 2010, The California Endowment launched a 10-year, $1 billion plan to improve the health of 14 challenged communities across the state. Over the 10 years, residents, community-based organizations and public institutions will work together to address the socioeconomic and environmental challenges contributing to the poor health of their communities.

SCUSD PE PROGRAM Good health and exercise practices start in youth. Sacramento City Unified School District’s physical education program creates a standardized curriculum to ensure all South Sacramento students are being taught the principles of fitness, nutrition and, overall, health. The district-wide PE program is funded by the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Grant to promote access to activities and education that will foster healthy lifestyles among students and their families.

Paul Hein teaches 12-year-old Mauricio Perez how to do a pushup according to SCUSD PE program standards.

www.SacBHC.org

PAID WITH A GRANT FROM THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT 16 | SN&R | 12.27.12

Photo illustrations by Priscilla Garcia

You need a job.

But 15 years ago, would you have taken one if you had to be available every day, respond to messages from your boss late at night and maintain contact with the office while on vacation?

You need the paycheck, but new technology means that most good employment opportunities are part of an oppressively endless 24-seven cycle. It’s time to break the chains that bind you. by bill ivey

You would probably have taken a pass.

But today, just about any job, especially the good ones, exhibit precisely this oppressive 24-seven character.

It’s a corrosive double whammy: While technology has redefined labor by converting craft and trade occupations into assembly-line piecework, new gadgets have allowed our lessinviting tasks to follow us home, invading our bedrooms, filling family time, distracting us on holidays. This change in the character of work took place very quickly.

As technology critic Jaron Lanier observed, “It’s as if you kneel to plant the seed of a tree and it grows so fast that it swallows your whole village before you can even rise to your feet.”

Americans are suckers for new technologies. We cheerfully purchased the Sony Walkman (how quickly we forget!) and embraced cellphones, LED TVs, smartphones and now iPads. Just as we’ve consumed hightech gadgets at home, we welcome electronic devices in the workplace. “Won’t they save precious time by making us more efficient?!”

But our enthusiasm for innovative machines obscures the truth: All they do is bind us more tightly to our jobs while forcing us to work longer hours. ...

For centuries, work has been the arena of accomplishment in which learning and insight combined skills of the mind and the hand to solve problems and bring forward something useful, beautiful or both. Back when women entered the workforce in big numbers at every level, it seemed the importance of labor as a source of meaning and identity only increased.

But the financial collapse of 2008 produced profound and perhaps lasting changes in American labor markets.

As Financial Times columnist Clive Crook argued, there exists a real “likelihood that lengthening spells of unemployment [will] become self-perpetuating, as skills erode or grow irrelevant.” State governments are attempting to balance budgets by sacking teachers, nurses and police officers, and underwater mortgages have made it impossible for millions of workers to sell houses to relocate in search of new jobs.

“ take this job” BEFORE

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that management controls the pace, process, and output As economist Tyler Cowen writes, “We need to be of your work.” prepared for the possibility that the growth slowdown Lears is right, and the march of management efficiencould continue once the immediate recession is over.”

We know that real wages have been flat for more than cies in the direction of increased productivity cannot be rolled back. Apart from a handful of artistic careers, two decades. And while technology-enabled productivity the sad truth is that deeply satisfying work for pay is increased, this hasn’t helped workers. So, for the past 10 squeezed-out toothpaste that can’t be coaxed back into years, workers substituted charge cards and home-equity loans for stagnant wages to maintain what seemed to be a its tube. middle-class lifestyle.

N E W S &So, R EAmericans V I E W B U must S I N Einstead S S U Srecover E O N L Ythe satisfaction of artisanship by stepping to the side, building the kind That era of self-delusion is over. It’s been replaced byDESIGNER ISSUE DATE ACCT. EXEC. of meaning found in craft work outside doubt, disappointment, pessimism and a deep suspicion AL 06.18.09 REM the office, or factory. More than anything, of financial and political power.

FILE classroom NAME REV. DATE the pursuit of meaning in the contemporary,02.19.09 market-defined environIn an unprecedented development, millions of newlyTRINITYCATHEDRAL061809R1 ment requires time. Technology in the workplace holds minted college graduates are moving directly from the USP (BOLD SELECTION) out the promise of more time. But as we have seen, classroom to the unemployment lines. American workers PRICE / ATMOSPHERE / EXPERT / UNIQUE increased productivity—more output, fewer hours— now compete in the much-touted global market; it is benefits the bottom lines of corporate profits wrung a distinct irony that not Marxists but corporate leaders PLEASE only CAREFULLY REVIEW YOUR from the decreased cost ofTHE labor. urge the workers of the world to unite in a drive towardADVERTISEMENT AND VERIFY FOLLOWING: Unions and concerned, efficiency—and efficiency that can be best defined as AD SIZE (COLUMNS X INCHES) engaged citizens must press for public policies that enable workers to capture time, low wages.

SPELLING benefiting from efficiencies generated by new technolAmerica is stumbling into the abyss of unheard-of NUMBERS & DATES ogy. But the(PHONE, corporate world has exhibited little interest income and wealth disparity. The lack of jobs and the CONTACT INFO ADDRESSES, ETC.) resistingASglobal pressures on hours and wages to give offensive distance between the wealth of Wall Street AD in APPEARS REQUESTED American and the plight of the 99 percent are pressing down on a APPROVED BY:labor a better quality of life.

Here’s an alternative: A properly configured and workforce that includes both displaced industrial labor fairly implemented four-day workweek would shift at and unemployed educated professionals who still feel least some of the time-saving benefits of technology to entitled to lucrative posts. workers. And, given an imaginatively assembled array of possibilities, the extra time attached to a weekend will A four-dAy workweek? offer a pathway to a life of quality and meaning.

It is tempting to imagine—even to recommend—changes Where the four-day workweek has been tried in the in the character of labor and the workplace that would United States, results have actually been encouraging. restore satisfying, meaningful work as a central part of Utah launched a four-day, 10-hour-day week for state life. But that would be naive. As historian Jackson Lears employees in 2008. Seventy percent of workers liked it, said in a recent interview, “Whatever the color of your mostly because the extended personal time facilitated collar, your job may still be ‘proletarian’ to the extent

volunteer work and closer contact within families.

Although the statewide program ended in the fall of 2011 (anticipated savings on energy never materialized), cities such as Provo retained the policy.

Google has established a four-day week for some engineers, specifically to enable opportunity for creative thought.

It’s important to remember that experiments with short workweeks have to date been advanced only as money-saving strategies. (Are you surprised?) However, given the acceptance of these early efforts, it seems certain that a four-day workweek (perhaps featuring nine-hour days) focused not on cost cutting but instead on enriching quality of life would be even more welcome.

And it’s important to a handmade America; extra time in which to connect with politics, new knowledge, community heritage, religion and family will lay the foundation for an American lifestyle less slavishly ensnared in consuming and debt.

OutsOurced jObs, skills, brains Americans have enthusiastically welcomed new devices at home and at work. But today technology is generating powerful imbalances in society and government, transforming the place of Americans in a global economy.

We have both a right and an obligation to challenge the effect of automation, software, robotics and the Internet on how we work and live.

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich gets one thing absolutely right: “Modern technologies allow us to shop in real time, often worldwide, for the lowest prices, highest quality, and best returns.” Unfortunately, “These great deals come at the expense of our jobs and wages, and widening inequality.”

High-tech machines enable fewer workers to do more while transforming complex artisanal tasks into rote manual labor. Americans love to shop for bargain commodities, of course, but corporations also shop for labor, and modern technology and communication force workers to compete with lower-paid counterparts in Singapore, India and China. Even here in the United States, an auto assembly job that pays $28 an hour in Michigan will pay half that in South Carolina.

It’s obvious that the average “working Joe” needs a better understanding of how the workplace is being transformed by technologies deployed by corporations in the pursuit of efficiencies, increased productivity and increased profit. A couple years ago, New York Times columnist David Brooks worried about these effects in a piece cleverly and accurately titled “The Outsourced Brain.” What does it mean for society if we don’t know where we are, where we should eat or whether or not it’s raining without looking at our telephones?

And it’s a special problem in the workplace; a cab driver who can navigate only with a GPS is a qualitatively different professional than the London artisan cabbie who’s memorized streets from Paddington to Elephant and Castle. In addition, “Productivity Hits All-Time High” may be a mogul-pleasing headline, but less in/more out is scarcely good news for workers. And as we’ve seen, automation, digital devices and softwaredriven menus not only displace jobs but change the very character of work itself.

Of course, technological change has been a feature of civilization since before the printing press, and the destruction of the old has always accompanied progress; illuminated calligraphy is pretty much a thing of the distant past. However, the digital age is unusual, if not unique, in that it has been advanced by the tag team of powerful corporate interests aided by massive advertising campaigns, supported by a cohort of intellectual apologists who praise every new device and vigorously attack any Luddite bold enough to question the real value of the newest tablet, phone or online music service.

This combination—big advertising supported by reasonably big minds—is something new, and it’s enabled digital advocates to pretty much have their way in the workplace and at home. Who has critiqued computers in the classroom? Evidence of helpful results is scarce, but the technology is being thrown at parents and students.

Americans need a general understanding of the way efficient technologies affect the availability of jobs and the meaning of labor, and an understanding that society can rightly use the levers of government to blunt the most troublesome transformations in a defining human activity: work.

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new educatiOn balance Early in 2012, National Public Radio aired an All Things Considered piece on the burgeoning Montana firearms industry. The segment interviewed the president of Montana Rifleman, a small manufacturing firm that, responding to a U.S. firearms boom, was then shipping up to 1,000 rifle barrels per day. He indicated that there “are plenty of workers, but he still struggles to fill certain jobs,” adding, “finding skilled machinists is one of the hardest things for us to do right now.” This problem is widespread.

Economist Cowen has identified a “fundamental skills mismatch” in the relationship between school and the workplace. American secondary education has drifted toward precollege preparation for all, an objective memorialized in a commitment to standardized testing.

Yes, we need mathematicians and good readers, but we need high-school graduates skilled in information technology, high-end machining and a variety of other technical manufacturing skills that fit the new economy.

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A properly configured And fAirly implemented four-dAy workweek would shift At leAst some of the time-sAving benefits of technology to workers.

President Barack Obama has underscored the role of community colleges in providing high-end workplace skills. On its face, this seems a good idea; community colleges are affordable, open to just about anyone and often hardwired into the demands of a local economy.

But as Thomas Bailey has written in The American Prospect, community institutions are filled with firstgeneration college students who often work full-time while attending school at night. Their preparation for college work is frequently subpar; it’s no surprise that graduation or certification rates after six years are well below 40 percent.

Community colleges are also especially dependent on state funding and, despite increased federal support, are suffering as states slash budgets in this post-recession decade. Rethinking the high-school curriculum may be smarter, more affordable and more effective than a buckpass to two-year colleges.

“ take this job”

continued on page 21

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12.27.12 | SN&R | 19

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Tell Obama

whaT’s up!

Send us your LetterS to obama and share your vision for the president’s next term.

Email us what you think the president should do this time around during his second stint in the Oval Office. The best letters will appear in SN&R’s letters to Obama issue on January 17, 2013. email Obama at letterstoObama@newsreview.com.

The deadline is Friday, January 4, 2013.

“ take this job”

askeD at Capitol park:

continued from page 19

Arguments that talk about improving education—especially public education—entirely within the context of the economy and America’s workforce make many uncomfortable. The values and needs of corporations have thoroughly invaded the conversation about education, and you don’t have to scratch the surface of most reforms very hard before a narrow agenda shows up: math plus reading plus multiple-choice tests produces graduates perfectly suited to technology-enabled, rulefollowing jobs.

The danger is ThaT alienaTed workers and The unemployed— fearful and disconTenTed—will Turn Toward auThoriTarian, simple-soluTion leaders TouTing isolaTion, xenophobia and conTempT for The basic workings of democraTic governmenT. Despite the desires of corporate leaders, education can’t be only about popping out capable worker bees. Our very democracy depends on the maintenance of a citizenry capable of critical engagement with technology and change. We do not get the wise citizens we need if schools do nothing but train workers for our voracious corporate maw.

We must achieve a subtle, realistic balance between education for craft work and education for citizenship. Even if we rework both the intellectual and the vocational mission of secondary education to align learning with the demands of the economy and our 21st-century democracy, we can never restore the character of pre-industrial labor in which “the worker was presumed to be the master of a body of traditional knowledge, and methods and procedures were left to his or her discretion.”

If work is to enable a life of purpose, we must find meaningful labor outside the office and factory. If the independence, mastery and satisfaction inherent in craft work have been lost, Americans must open up new opportunities to pursue work of consequence.

companies providing art supplies, musical instruments, private instruction and a mindboggling variety of self-help arts instruction DVDs and downloads.

Arts education in schools has been pushed aside by teach-to-the-test math and reading. If we are to fill the four-day workweek’s three-day weekends with activity that brings a sense of achievement, mastery and the joy of creativity, then arts training—in the broadest sense—must be relocated to the center of quality education.

Over the past three decades, Western capitalism forgot lessons the marketplace had learned during the painful leftist rebellions of the early 20th century—namely, that capitalism worked in society only if it was tempered by regulation designed to ensure that everyone got their share. Over the past 30 years, American business grew the unproductive financial services sector, pushed Washington to repeal or ignore nettlesome regulations and failed to warn workers that the glories of globalization would be accompanied by the loss of millions of jobs here at home. The result has been widespread and nearly unprecedented dissatisfaction with our financial establishment.

The danger of our new and unique class of alienated workers and the unemployed is not some kind of revolt but instead the real likelihood that the unemployed—fearful and discontented—will turn toward authoritarian, simple-solution leaders touting isolation, xenophobia and contempt for the basic workings of democratic government.

This is already happening. State legislatures are bearing down on unions and immigrants and advancing bills that secure gun ownership and restrict women’s health services while making it harder for the elderly and poor to vote.

In the run-up to the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich sounded high-pitched “dog whistle” messages that stirred xenophobia and outright racism. One more shock—a terrorist attack; clear signs of a double-dip recession—and Americans could conceivably lurch so far right that infrastructure, foreign relations and the cornerstones of what’s left of our egalitarian social safety net could be permanently disabled.

In the summer of 2011, the Financial Times opined that when it came to solving America’s continuing financial challenges, “further short-term stimulus should be on the table.”

Unfortunately, the obvious short-term fix for a flaccid employment picture—a government jobs program focused on infrastructure and education—is not only entirely off the table but, according to budget-slashing members of Congress, not even in the room. We’re left with no real response to a four-year-old employment crisis that has morphed into a persistent lowgrade flu.

We are living in the sad shadow of unfettered markets, of unquestioned confidence in an unregulated, little-taxed corporate culture to provide a high quality of life for all. Ω

are

americans

kaholics worto a fault ?

jeremy Wills professional musician

As a whole, I don’t really think so. A lot of people my age get a job and end up quitting after a few months. I think [people] in their 30s, 40s and 50s have a better work ethic.

I think it can be changed, something taught in high school.

Before the whole recession, jobs were easier to get. Now, it’s not the kind of market where you can just throw away a job once you get it; still, people my age are kind of doing that.

Michelle Morris office manger

Yes, they [are]! We have to work just to keep food on our plates, [it’s] the way we have to take care of our families.

The way our economy is, we have to work, and the way our [workday] is eight hours is not enough anymore.

Marc Neithercutt retired

No, I would like to see Americans working more. Too many people are out of work. I think [we] do need to be sharing with other countries, but the problem is, well, if you go back to The Ugly American, a book published in the [’60s], people figure out how to take advantage of the generosity of other people. We need to be smarter about that.

audianna Delso dancer

I feel like Americans work too hard, but not by choice.

They work too hard simply because they have to. Most of the people who don’t even have jobs are working too hard to get a job. The economy is so bad right now, there’s nothing else that they can do.

tammie bursiaga state worker

Dangerous shaDows

No, I don’t think they work enough. I think there are This feature is an excerpt from Handmaking America: Americans that are absolutely lazy. They can actually A Back-to-Basics Pathway to a Revitalized American Given what we now understand about the Democracy by Bill Ivey; learn more and purchase the book at be out there doing more. They can better themselves. absence of meaning in most jobs, it should http://counterpointpress.com. Ivey is also the author of Arts, There are a lot of opportunities. There are people of other be no surprise that Americans today spend Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights, countries that come here to do what we could be doing. billions each year advancing informal mastery and Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America’s I think they are taking jobs we could be doing. Granted, of artisanal skills. Right now, personal creative Cultural Life. He is the founding director of the Curb Center for it’s great that they do it. It’s a sad shame that we are lazy.

Art, Enterprise & Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. practice is served primarily by an array of B E F O R E | F R O N T L I N E S | F E A T U R E S T O R Y | A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R | 12.27.12 | SN&R | 21

R e v e n g e of the

cockTail challenge SN&R’s resident drink expert dares local bartenders to mix up a glass of boozy excitement

Hot Italian’s Daytona cocktail, prepared here by bartender Ian Beightler, features rum, Averna and ginger syrup.

by Becky Grunewald photos by s tev en chea

T

his is truly an exhilarating era in Sacramento for boozehounds.

Each year, we get an off-the-hook cocktail week in August, and the city also boasts an increasingly interconnected network of artisan bartenders who are inspiring each other to rise to the next level.

The last few months have also seen the opening of The Golden Bear offshoot Hook & Ladder Manufacturing Co., as well as the whiskeycentric Pour House. Even though it’s only been nine months since SN&R’s last cocktail challenge, the scene’s changed quite a bit since then. In fact, it’s grown so rapidly that it seems natural to take on Cocktail Challenge 2: The Revenge of the Cocktail Challenge. The format is the same as last time: four area bars, two drinks per establishment, bonus points for creativity. And, as always, the ratings and challenges posed here are arbitrary and playful in spirit.

The Golden Bear Challenge No. 1: “I’ve had a terrible day. Make me a cocktail.”

The result: The husky-voiced bartender here is not exactly quick to serve me— she waits on a couple of friends first, but when she does finally get around to me, she happily takes on my request.

She asks if I want The Golden Bear’s interpretation of a Manhattan cocktail— this strong classic is one of my favorites and is sure to take me away better than Calgon ever could. She moves at a leisurely pace, adding the nice touch of singeing the orange peel to bring out the aromatics. However, the sweet vermouth is too prominent here, and the bartender uses Jack Daniel’s whiskey. When I left my 20s behind, that included any desire for Jack Daniel’s or Jim Beam to ever touch my lips again.

Challenge No. 2: “I’ve had a great day.

Make me a cocktail.”

The result: This time, a different bartender is instantly attentive, and laughingly asks my friend if he would

22 | SN&R | 12.27.12

like the same “weird order” that I just put in. She mixes up a drink on the menu called the Kentucky Buck.

The strawberry simple syrup makes it taste like a girly umbrella drink sans umbrella, and it’s way more summery than wintry. Also, it’s made with Jim Beam (see statement above). However, it is exuberant enough to commemorate a good day.

Knowledge of the classics: Yes, with the Manhattan.

Improv skills: Seemed resistant.

Bonus round: Er, negative bonus points for charging me for a drink that a gentleman down the bar bought me.

Order again?: No to both.

Pour house Challenge No. 1: “I hate Scotch cocktails. Make me one I’ll like.”

The result: The bartender makes me a Whiskey Fig. The drink is very light and lemony—with just a hint of Scotch smokiness. Still, it seems a shame to

use 12-year-old Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky when its taste is subsumed by fig jelly and citrus.

Challenge No. 2: “Make me your favorite classic Scotch cocktail.”

The result: The bartender chooses a Rob Roy and makes it with the bar’s house Scotch, Famous Grouse. It’s served in a big martini glass and is oddly watery and not cold enough—as if it had been sitting in the shaker for a bit.

Knowledge of the classics: Good choice with the Rob Roy, not-so-great execution.

Improv skills: Defaulted to a list when handed an open-ended challenge.

Bonus round: Pour House also serves a drink called Burnt Apple, for which they smoke the apple for up to nine hours—a method that gives it a campfire-esque caramel note. They’re not screwing around.

Order again?: Overall, I’d rather just sip a fine Scotch with a single ice cube, and Pour House has the best selection in town.

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Pour House bartender Kai Ellsworth will pour you a new challenge.

HOT ITALIAN Challenge No. 1: “Make me a drink with any amaro (an Italian herbal liqueur) except Fernet Branca.”

The result: I ask for a non-Fernet drink because it’s overused and is the least subtle of the amaros—which are not exactly subtle to start with. The bartender makes a cocktail of his own creation that he calls a Daytona and says if it eventually ends up on the restaurant’s menu, it’ll probably get an Italian name. It’s made of Averna, rum, ginger syrup, Angostura Bitters and a squeeze of lime. The Averna has a strong savoriness with licorice and Worcestershire flavors. I taste the drink and like it but ask for more Amaro, which improves its strength and flavor.

Challenge No. 2: “Make me the most Italian drink you can think of.”

The result: The bartender grabs the Campari and says he was going to go for a Negroni, but since this is at brunch he’s thinking a Campari spritzer instead. He mixes it with Prosecco and another bartender slicing limes nearby suggests peach nectar. Finished with a slice of orange on top, it’s both pretty and refreshing. The peach really softens the Campari flavor, which can often be overpowering.

Knowledge of the classics: Suggesting a Negroni for the ultimate Italian cocktail is pretty spot-on.

Improv skills: Impressive in both challenges.

When I left my 20s behind, that included any desire for Jack Daniel’s or Jim Beam to ever touch my lips again.

Bonus round: The bartender really mixed to the vibe of the two visits: strong aperitif before a pizza dinner; sparkly, light drink for brunch.

Order again?: Yes, and I plan to with the Daytona.

THe ReD RAbbIT KITCHeN & bAR Challenge No. 1: “Make me something creative with tequila.”

The result: The server asks, “Tequila or mescal?” as if she can sense that mescal might be the perfect thing here.

She then brings me the bartender’s take on a classic paloma in a highball glass.

It features a strong, smoky top note of mescal, with grapefruit juice, soda and a lemon twist. It’s a little citrusy and a little sweet, which slightly tempers the mescal but doesn’t totally tame it.

Challenge No. 2: “Make me a tropical rum cocktail that’s actually good.”

The result: This challenge comes with a caveat—“actually good” means “as in, not made with Malibu Rum.” The server replies, almost shuddering, “We don’t have Malibu.” Fair enough.

The bartender mixes me a “classic strawberry daiquiri,” which is simply rum, strawberries and lime. Here, the “actually good” part is found in the wallop it packs. Even better, another bartender starts rhapsodizing about an artisanal whiskey blended with peated Scotch, made by High West Distillery & Saloon in Utah. I call out for one of my own, poured over a single rock of ice.

It’s smooth and smoky.

Knowledge of the classics: Unimpeachable.

Improv skills: Substituting mescal for tequila is a master stroke.

Take the challenge yourself at The Golden Bear, 2326 K Street; (916) 441-2242; http://goldenbear916.com; Pour House, 1910 Q Street; (916) 706-2465; www.pour housesacramento.com; Hot Italian, 1627 16th Street; (916) 444-3000; www.hotitalian.net; and The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar, 2718 J Street; (916) 706-2275; www.theredrabbit.net.

Bonus round: I finally got to say, “I’ll have what he’s having!” when I ordered the High West Whiskey, thus fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Order again?: F@#k yeah.

B E F O R E | F R O N T L I N E S | F E A T U R E S T O R Y | A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R |

Ω

12.27.12 | SN&R | 23

NIGHT&DAY 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.

LUCKY’13 AS STEVIE WONDER ONCE SANG, some people are just “very superstitious.” Many of these people fault the number 13 as unlucky, while others believe it is, in fact, very lucky. After all, it’s just another number. So, no matter how you feel about it, on Monday night, we’re all ringing in the year 2013. Here are 13 awesome events happening in Sacramento—for adults, families and kids—to help celebrate the end of ’12 and the beginning of lucky (or unlucky) ’13.

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—JONATHAN MENDICK

FOR THE ADULTS (21 AND OVER)

FOR THE TEENS (AND YOUNG ADULTS)

‘AN EVENING OF SENSORY FULFILLMENT’ DJ DNA provides beats for District 30’s New Year’s Eve bash, billed as “an evening of sensory fulfillment.” The turntablist from Los Angeles recently spent time in the studio with Justin Bieber and Chris Brown and frequently collaborates with DJ Spider. The party also features a champagne toast, party favors, food, and plenty of balloons and confetti for the countdown.

Monday, December 31, at 9 p.m.; $35-$50.

District 30, 1022 K Street; (916) 737-5770; www.district30sacramento.com.

YEAR-END DANCE EVENT Club Retro hosts a year-end dance event with a safe, all-ages environment, featuring DJ Z Rokk spinning Top 40 and dubstep. There will be prizes and giveaways and a VIP section available. Saturday, December 29, at 7 p.m.; $10-$12. Club Retro, 1529 Eureka Road in Roseville; (916) 791-7555; www.clubretro.net.

NEW YEAR’S EVE EXPRESS Hitch a ride on the Sacramento RiverTrain’s New Year’s Eve Express. The special 18-and-over ride includes a three-course dinner, party favors and live rock and blues music by Lucy’s Bones.

Premium tickets include a bottle of champagne or wine, and roses. Monday, December 31, at 8:30 p.m.; $40-$92. Sacramento RiverTrain, 341 Industrial Way in Woodland; (800) 866-1690; www.sacramentorivertrain.com.

DJ PEETI-V AT THE PARK ULTRA LOUNGE The Park’s resident deejay, DJ Peeti-V, mans the turntables for this party. It also features party favors, confetti cannons, champagne and video of the ball-drop countdown in New York City’s Times Square. Monday, December 31, at 9 p.m.; $40-$50.

The Park Ultra Lounge, 1116 15th Street; (916) 442-7222; www.theparkdowntown.com.

PARTY WITH THE PROFESSIONALS Professionals Guild Sacramento throws its annual party with Groove Thang, Innersoul and a few live deejays kicking the jams in three ballrooms. The 18-and-over event will also have casino gaming, a balloon drop, multiple bars and—judging from photos of past events—a diverse crowd.

Monday, December 31, at 8:30 p.m.; $65-$85. Hilton Sacramento Arden West, 2200 Harvard Street; (800) 838-3006; http://pguild.com/new-years-eve-in-sacramento.

NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION AT THE HYATT REGENCY SACRAMENTO Hear lounge music from Ryan Hernandez and Keys on Plastic and dance music by DJ Rated R and the Cheeseballs. There are also a few different overnight packages if you want to just crash at the Hyatt, post-party. Monday, December 31, at 9 p.m.; $65-$75 general admission, $95-$105 for VIP seating and $299-$499 per couple for overnight packages. Hyatt Regency Sacramento, 1209 L Street; (916) 443-1234; http://sachyattnye.eventbrite.com.

DJ DNA.

THE WHOLE FAMILY NEW YEAR’S EVE SKY SPECTACULAR

CHAMPAGNE BALL DJ Nate Davit will kick beats for revelers at Social Nightclub’s Champagne Ball. Tickets include champagne at midnight and party favors, and DJ Heartworm will be performing on the outdoor patio.

Monday, December 31, at 9 p.m.; $25-$40.

Social Nightclub, 1000 K Street; (916) 443-9001; www.socialnightclubsacramento.com.

A free family celebration in Old Sacramento will feature entertainment for all ages. Highlights include live music, street entertainment, children’s activities, food and drink vendors, and two fireworks shows—one at 9 p.m. and one at midnight. Monday, December 31, at 6 p.m.; free. Old Sacramento, (916) 808-7777; http://nyesacramento.com.

NOON YEAR’S EVE FAMILY FESTIVAL

OLD-SCHOOL PARTY If an old-school dance party is your type of thing, this event is just the ticket. Catch performances by funk and R&B groups Con Funk Shun and the Dazz Band, as well as comedian Mo Jones and DJ Bryan Hawk. Monday, December 31, at 9 p.m.; $60.

Woodlake Hotel Sacramento, 500 Leisure Lane; (916) 922-2020.

Visit the Crocker Art Museum for free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., there will be a family-friendly celebration with music and dance performances, hands-on activities and a danceathon. Monday, December 31, at 10 a.m.; free. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street; (916) 808-7000; www.crockerartmuseum.org.

FREEDOM’S EVE: THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

FOR

Join the California Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association in honoring the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Participants are encouraged to celebrate black culture by wearing cultural attire and gathering at the west steps of the Capitol. Monday, December 31, at noon; free. California State Capitol, west steps, 10th and L streets; (916) 997-2451; www.blackagriculture.com.

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!

HANGOVER CURES AND ALTERNATIVES DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO ICE RINK If you drink a bit too much champagne and want to burn off some of those excess calories on New Year’s Day, head to the Downtown Sacramento Ice Rink Presented by Sacramento Downtown Plaza between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. The rink is also open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on New Year’s Eve—so another option is to boost your metabolism by doing some skating before you start popping bottles. Daily until January 21, hours vary; $8 admission, $2 for skate rental.

Downtown Sacramento Ice Rink, 701 K Street; (916) 442-8575; http://downtownsac.org/events/ice-rink.

URBAN WALKING WITH THE SACRAMENTO WALKING STICKS Instead of hitting a party, bar or club on New Year’s Eve, socialize in a more active and sober group setting. Take a leisurely 5k or 10k walk through the streets of Sacramento with the Sacramento Walking Sticks on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. The NYE walk stops to view the New Year’s Eve Sky Spectacular along the Sacramento River. Monday, December 31, registration from 5 to 6 p.m.; and Tuesday, January 1, registration from 9 a.m. to noon; free, or $3 for Volkswalk credit. Parking lot behind Pioneer House, 415 P Street; (916) 792-1720; www.sacramentowalkingsticks.org.

For more hangover cures, see “Hangover heaven” on page 27.

Con Funk Shun.

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Sacramento’s bar staff and chefs weigh in on their favorite cures to fix a bout of drunken debauchery Imagine it’s New Year’s Day in Sacramento.

You’re probably hungover. So, now what?

Everyone seems to have an idea about cures by and prevention with suggestions that include Jonathan drinking water or eating a greasy meal. Hell, in Mendick Las Vegas, there’s even a service called jonathanm@ Hangover Heaven, where the staff pumps saline newsreview.com solution into your veins. But here in the Sacramento area, Charlie Bamforth, UC Davis brewing-science professor and author of Beer Is Proof God Loves Us, offers what’s truly the only surefire method: “It’s quite simple: Drink responsibly and with moderation,” he says.

OK, fine. But still. In the spirit of the season, SN&R sought other suggestions—ones that assumed the premise of drunken New Year’s debauchery. Here, Sac’s bar staffers and chefs weigh in on their favorite hangover cures.

Keep drinking

If there’s one hangover cure bartenders seem to agree on, it can be summed up in three words by Fox & Goose bartender Mike McClain: “Drink more booze.” His drink of choice? The pub’s spicy bloody mary with wasabi. If that fails, “Drink lots of water and eat greasy food. That usually does the trick,” McClain says.

Fox & Goose, 1001 R Street; (916) 443-8825; www.foxandgoose.com.

The one-drink theory

“Don’t mix your alcohol,” says BarWest bartender Amber Padilla. But if you’re beyond that point already, “just stay up and keep drinking [and] have a little water in between drinks,” she says. BarWest, 2724 J Street; (916) 476-4550; www.mybarwest.com.

Take the ‘B’ train

Streets of London Pub bartender Kristen Germond’s preferred hangover cure is simple: “[A] 5-hour Energy [drink]. It’s got vitamins B-6 and B-12. [Take it] either when you’re drinking or the day after.” Don’t just drink any old energy drink, though: “That’s the only one with those vitamins in them,” she says. Streets of London Pub, 1804 J Street; (916) 498-1388; 2200 Lake Washington Boulevard in West Sacramento, (916) 376-9066; www.streetsoflondon.net.

Go full Irish

“Don’t drink,” says Darren “The Irish Guy,” a bartender at the Midtown location of de Vere’s Irish Pub. But if you’re already worse for wear, he recommends a full Irish breakfast: bacon, sausage, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, black and white pudding. He also suggests de Vere’s bloody mary or a special drink called the Morning Glory, which features orange vodka, triple sec, muddled lime, orange juice and Sprite. De Vere’s Irish Pub, 1521 L Street; (916) 231-9947; 217 E Street in Davis, (530) 204-5533; www.deverespub.com.

BEFORE

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“We’re big fans of the hair of the dog that bit you,” says Shady Lady Saloon chef Kevin Ritchie. To that end, he recommends the restaurant’s signature hangover drink, the Corpse Reviver No. 2, which consists of gin, triple sec, Cocchi Americano, lemon juice and absinthe.

For a hangover meal, he’s also a fan of the kitchen’s Prince Edward Island mussels, served with dry Spanish chorizo, salt, garlic and Murphy’s Irish Stout. Shady Lady Saloon, 1409 R Street, Suite 101; (916) 231-9121; www.shadyladybar.com.

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Tequila Museo Mayahuel bartender Charles Connolly takes a healthy approach. The first step, he says, is to “drink in moderation.” The next morning, he follows it up with a smoothie.

“The fruit definitely has some good vitamins, and I like to include some citrus for vitamin C.” Tequila Museo Mayahuel, 1200 K Street; (916) 441-7200; http://tequilamuseo.com.

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Chances are you’ve heard of this cure: a big bowl of pho. “I always go to a Vietnamese restaurant, like Pho Bac Hoa Viet [at 1827 Broadway],” says Pour House bartender Rich Miramontes. “You get hydrated from the soup, good salt intake and carbs.” Miramontes also suggests drinking a glass of water before bed or drinking a bloody mary in the morning.

Pour House, 1910 Q Street; (916) 706-2465; www.pourhousesacramento.com. Ω

NEW YEAR’S EVE

THE V WORD

✔ ✔

He’s going to kill me My teenage cousin recently asked me to give her motivation to adopt a vegetarian diet—all of the gory details, she keenly assured me. Upon careful consideration, viewing Earthlings with her would certainly fulfill her request. The film, consisting of footage of the common, outrageously inhumane practices that humans inflict on creatures of all ilk is so intensely graphic that it calls itself “One of the most violent films of all time … only it’s real.” Her father would probably kill me, but at least it has more purpose than the gratuitously violent movies he’s allowed her to watch in the past. More significantly, she says she’s ready for the truth. I’ll let her preview the devastating trailer at http://earthlings.com first, then decide. What about you? Are you ready?

bRuNch

diNNER

NEW YEAR’S dAY

✔ ✔ bRuNch

diNNER

—Shoka STORY

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DISH Where to eat?

Here are a few recent reviews and regional recommendations by Becky Grunewald and Greg Lucas, updated regularly. Check out www.newsreview.com for more dining advice.

remember. Grange’s brunch puts other local offerings to shame. The home fries are like marvelously crispy Spanish patatas bravas. A grilled-ham-and-Gruyere sandwich is just buttery enough, and an eggwhite frittata is more than a bone thrown to the cholesterol-challenged, it’s a worthy dish in its own right. American. 926 J St., (916) 492-4450. Dinner for one: $40-$60. ★★★★ B.G.

Downtown

Midtown

Grange Restaurant & Bar You won’t find any “challenging” dishes on this menu—just delicious local and seasonal food such as the Green Curry & Pumpkin Soup, which has a Southeast-Asian flair. A spinach salad features ingredients that could be considered boring elsewhere: blue-cheese dressing, bacon, onion. But here, the sharply cheesy buttermilk dressing and the woodsy pine nuts make it a salad to

Firestone Public House

A sports bar with a focus on craft beer isn’t exactly a groundbreaking concept, but two local and prominent restaurant families, the Wongs and the DeVere Whites, know what Sacramento wants: good beer; solid pub grub; and a casual, unpretentious atmosphere.

Here, the bar is the centerpiece with a full stock of liquor and 60 beers on draught. The menu features savory appetizers—the tortilla soup with poached chicken, avocado and tomato is particularly noteworthy—and a selection of sandwiches and pizzas, including a simple pie with fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce.

American. 1132 16th St., (916) 446-0888. Dinner for one: $15-$20. ★★★ B.G.

GA RC IA

BY PR ISC ILL A

marble tables and light wooden chairs, there’s an airy atmosphere, casual and cozy. Estelle’s offers an espresso bar and a wide assortment of teas and muffins and rolls for the breakfast crowd as well as sweets, including DayGlo macarons.

For the lunch-inclined, there are soups, salads, sandwiches and meat or meatless quiche. One of the authentic touches is the spare use of condiments. The smoked salmon is enlivened by dill and the flavor of its croissant. Its tomato bisque is thick and richly flavored, and, in a nice touch, a puff pastry floats in the tureen as accompaniment.

There’s a lot to like about Estelle’s— except dinner. Doors close at 6pm.

French. 901 K St., (916) 551-1500. Meal for one: $5-$10. ★★★1⁄2 G.L.

ILL US TR AT ION

Estelle’s Patisserie With its

Shady Lady Saloon

So many bars try to do bar snacks, and so many fail. Shady Lady, however, nails it. The fried green tomatoes are punched up with a tarragon rémoulade and the huge charcuterie board is more like a groaning board, stocked with abundant regional meats and cheeses. The pickle plate looks like Peter Rabbit’s dream, all teeny turnips and tangy carrot chunks.

Generally excellent, the saloon’s cocktail list veers from the classics with a list of bartendercreated drinks with unusual, but wisely considered flavor combinations: cilantro and tequila, blackberry and thyme, and the surprisingly

sublime mixture of celery and pineapple. American. 1409 R St., (916) 231-9121.$10-$20. ★★★1⁄2 B.G.

North Sac

Asian Café Asian Café serves both Thai and Lao food, but go for the Lao specialties, which rely on flavoring staples such as fish sauce, lime juice, galangal and lemongrass, lots of herbs, and chilies. One of the most common dishes in Lao cuisine is larb, a dish of chopped meat laced with herbs, chilies and lime. At Asian Café, it adds optional offal add-ons—various organ meats, entrails, et al—to three versions of the dish: beef with tripe, chicken

Giò Cha Duc Huong

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MUST DRINK:

Emily Baime and Darin Michaels of Community Tap and Table are equal parts caterers, tour guides and ambassadors of pairing great food with great beer. They are also gracious hosts and tutors, opening up their kitchen and beer cellar for various cooking classes (starting at $65 per person). These tutorials are planned down to the minute details, yet there is also a laidback, dinner-party vibe, allowing guests to choose their own participation level. Hands-on foodies can assist in meal preparation with Baime, while hands-off beer guzzlers crack brews with Michaels and wait for the dinner pairings to be produced. Among the highlights: roasted raisin chocolate paired with Drake’s Brewing Company’s Jolly Rodger American Barleywine and Mexican-hot-chocolate-glazed doughnuts perfectly offset by the spice of Telegraph Brewing Company’s Winter Ale. www.communitytapandtable.com.

6

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South Sac

Vietnamese egg crepe. Each one completely fills an oval-shaped platter and is served shatteringly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Bánh Xèo also offers nem nuong, or grilled pork sausages on skewers, and chao tom, a grilledshrimp dish that arrives as a flamingo-pink paste melded into a sausage shape around juicy sugarcane. The staff is friendly and and a flat-screen TV emits a constant stream of saccharine Vietnamese love songs. Vietnamese.

7837 Stockton Blvd., Ste. 700; (916) 476-489. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★★1⁄2 B.G.

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with gizzards, or pork with pork skin. The beef salad offers a gentle respite from aggressive flavors, consisting of medium-thick chewy slices of eye of round with red bell pepper, chopped iceberg and hot raw jalapeño. The single best dish here is the nam kao tod, a crispy entree with ground pork that’s baked on the bottom of the pan with rice, then stirred and fried up fresh the next day with dried Thai chilies and scallions. Thai and Lao. 2827 Norwood Ave., (916) 641-5890.

Dinner for one: $10-$15. ★★★★ B.G.

Beer: Baby Tree (Belgian quadrupel) Brewer: Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project Where: Taylor’s Market, 2900 Freeport Boulevard; (916) 443-6881; www.taylorsmarket.com

Beer: Organic Gingerbread Ale Brewer: Bison Brewing Where: Alley Katz, 2019 O Street; (916) 442-2682; www.facebook.com/alleykatzpubngrub

Beer: Trappist Westvleteren 12 (Belgian quadrupel) Brewer: Brouwerij Westvleteren Where: Good luck!

—Daniel Barnes

fried chicken & lumpia filipino cuisine

• fried chicken & gravy • chicken/pork adobo

original coupon only • no copies

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SACRAMENTO

1402 Broadway 916.930.0888

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826 J Street • Sacramento, CA • (916) 444–7454 Please call for reservations

Please drink responsibly.

Vietnamese.

6825 Stockton Blvd., Ste. 200; (916) 428-1188. Dinner for one: $5-$10. ★★★1⁄2 B.G.

La Victoria Mercado y

Carniceria No. 2 If you breakfast or lunch here on a weekend, you’ll likely encounter parties of bleary-eyed men conversing over large bowls of menudo, but La Victoria has plenty of other dishes on offer: breakfast plates, chile verde and roja, tacos, and tortas. In general, the food here has a reliable mid-level heat, but it distinguishes itself with its “normal” tacos, especially the cow-based ones, such as cabeza and lengua, and also its asada, which demonstrates a mastery of the cow: fatty, well-salted steak with a hint of garlic. They are served on tortillas fried in oil— which just adds to the decadence of the piled-up tacos. Mexican.

6830 Stockton Blvd.,

(916) 427-1745. Breakfast or lunch for one: $5-$10. ★★★ B.G.

Tacos & Beer This is one of the area’s best Michoacán restaurants. Of its regional dishes, the enchiladas Apatzingán are unusual, filled with only a smattering of sharp cheese and diced onion, soaked in a vinegary sauce, and smothered in very lightly pickled, shredded cabbage with raw hunks of radish and avocado slices.

Another specialty is the morisqueta—the ultimate comfort dish due to the unique texture of the white rice, which is as soft as an angel’s buttock. Diners also have the option to order hand-shaped, griddled-to-order tortillas. They are warm, soft, taste like corn and barely resemble those cardboard things you get at the store.

Mexican. 5701 Franklin Blvd., (916) 428-7844. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★1⁄2 B.G.

Arden/ Carmichael

Famous Kabob It seems like if you’ve had one kebab, you’ve had them all. But as its name implies, Famous Kabob doesn’t disappoint.

A skewer of juicy steak sports a nice chew to satisfy any craving.

Another of ground beef is flavored with chopped onion and a hint of cinnamon. The braised lamb shank in a tomato-and-saffron sauce tastes best when the sauce has cooled a little bit and the lamb fat coats the meat like a silken sauce.

With deft use of dried herbs and acidic flavors that brighten the dishes and stimulate the taste buds, these are meals that are quietly hearty and nourishing. Persian.

1290 Fulton Ave., (916) 483-1700.

Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★★ B.G.

short, but all is forgiven with the spicy chicken. Here, chopped chicken is heavily sauced with a chili paste, garlic and honey concoction. It’s the kind of meal during which conversation is replaced by lipsmacking, grunts and short murmured exclamations like, “So good!” and “Holy crap!”

Korean. 3631 S. Port Dr., (916) 368-2277. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★ 1 ⁄ 2 B.G.

Davis

Zen Toro Japanese Bistro & Sushi Bar Zen Toro features a large sushi menu, made up of both the steroidal Americanized rolls and traditional nigiri, but it also changes seasonally and features some uncommon offerings: Kinpira gobo with renkon (braised lotus and burdock-root salad) comprises matchstick-sized fibrous pieces of burdock root and juicy slices of lotus in a sweet mirin soy sauce. It also features inventive desserts. The “uji kintoki parfait” (it translates roughly to “Best. Dessert. Ever.”) is served in a sundae glass filled with layers of green-tea ice cream and sweet red beans, and it’s topped with whipped cream, chocolate Pocky candy, salty sesame crackers, peanut clusters, and warm, soft squares of mochi. Sushi. 132 E St. in Davis, (530) 753-0154. Dinner for one: $10-$25. ★★★ 1⁄2 B.G.

Nevada City

The Willo The Willo’s menu is simple, centered on a slab of meat and starchy sides— although the restaurant has added a veggie burger to its lineup. While the thick, smoky pork chop and the tender, butterflied half-chicken suffice, here it’s really all about the New York strip steak offered in small, medium and large portions. If you’re not the designated driver, slip into the bar for a shot to lull you during the long drive home. The sassy bartender will fix you right up as you take in the curving walls of this prefab structure from a long-gone era, the E Clampus Vitus plaques and the regulars’ birthdays listed on the wall.

American. 16898 State Hwy. 49 in

Rosemont

Sarang Bang The servers at this Korean restaurant are courteous and friendly, and each meal begins with small dishes of banchan. There are three types of kimchi, all pretty low on the spice-o-meter, but Sarang Bang’s gul bo sam is the real Korean taco, no food truck required. Lightly steamed napa cabbage serves as a scoop for pork, spicy-and-sweet zucchini, and thin-sliced raw garlic and jalapeño. Some entrees fall

1

$ 39

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DECEMBER

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Marathon mealtime Sure, I’ve consumed a lavish eight-course meal before. But 12 courses? That’s what chef Pajo Bruich is creating for Enotria Restaurant Wine Bar’s (1431 Del Paso Boulevard) special New Year’s Eve dinner in honor of the year 2013. My aforementioned eight-course $110-meal at Morimoto Napa last year featured fish, steak and lobster. Bruich’s meal looks to be similarly diverse, with dishes that include caviar, short ribs, lobster, oysters and buckwheat. The dinner will be priced at $150 per person, and there’s an optional 12-course wine pairing chosen

by Enotria’s wine director Matthew Lewis for $90. If you want one last night of extravagant gluttony before beginning your new year’s diet, you should definitely splurge on this meal.

Bruich is a renowned local chef—recognized for his work at both at Enotria and the now-closed Lounge on 20 in Midtown.

Pro tip: pace yourself. For more information, call (916) 922-6792 or visit www.enotria.com.

—Jonathan Mendick

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And, with its substitution of butter for mayonnaise and the emphasis on pâté, Duc Huong shows a stronger than usual French influence. The small menu is limited to eight sandwiches (mostly pork) and two soups: chicken curry soup and a beef stew called bo kho banh mi, which comes with bread.

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FIND OF THE WEEK

Holidays en pointe

A really fly pie BlackBirD kitcheN & Bar’s BaNaNa creaM pie The banana cream pie ($8) at Blackbird Kitchen & Bar is what pieholes were made for. But this isn’t really a pie—it’s a round disk of a toasty, nutty crust with a big dollop of creamed banana fluff and heavy whipped FOOD cream. Here, banana slices are nicely arranged on the side with rummy caramel.

This is where the action is: First, you think the crust is the big surprise, until you mull one of the caramelized nanner wedges with your tongue. The slices each have a side covered with a brûléed glaze, which leaves the outer edge crisp and rich and the inside soft. 1015 Ninth Street, (916) 498-9224, www.blackbird-kitchen.com.

—Matthew W. Urner

Cup of darkness star wars Death star tea iNfuser Ditch your boring, rounded-screen tea infuser and and step over to the dark side with this stainless steel steel Lucasfilm collectible modeled after one of the most elite spaceships in the galaxy—the Death Star. Now Star Wars DRINK fanatics can warm up with with a cup, courtesy of this dishwasher-safe tea trinket priced at $19.99. Pack the ship chock-full of any variety of loose-leaf teas— teas— green tea is Yoda’s flavor of choice, or perhaps perhaps a steeped cup of strong English breakfast black tea is in order to perk up anyone’s morning. Yes, even Darth Vader dabbles in tea time. www.thinkgeek.com.

—Steph Rodriguez

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There’s no doubt about Philip Pullman’s ability to write a compelling tale—the His Dark Materials trilogy is proof enough. In Fairy Tales From the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version (Viking Adult, $27.95), he takes old stories as gathered by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century and retells them in a way that makes BOOK them even more gripping for the modern reader. What Pullman has done here is on par with Anne Sexton’s poems based on fairy tales, collected in 1971’s Transformations. He doesn’t shy away from the violence at the heart of these tales and n e w s & r e vthe dark worldview. It’s that worldview, in fact, that is i e w b u s i n e s s u s e o n ly the most timeless thing of all, since we’ve retained the issUe dATe 03.17.11 ACCT eXeC clk nasty and brutal bits as our culture has evolved.

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Moscow classical Ballet’s the Nutcracker The Young Ballet, the USSR State Choreographic Company, which launched in 1966, was originally established by the USSR Ministry of Culture as an ambassador troupe whose members brought classical Russian ballet to stages throughout the Soviet Union and across the DANCE globe. Over the years, the company gained worldwide recognition for performances choreographed by the likes of Igor Moiseyev and Asaf Messerer, and it also morphed its style to reflect a more theatrical approach. In 1986, the company was renamed, but that theatrical spirit endured.

The troupe, which regularly performs at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, will wrap up its final North American tour of the year with a performance of The Nutcracker at Three Stages at Folsom Lake College.

From December 27 to December 30, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s timeless Christmas story will be interpreted by a critically acclaimed group of young dancers who, while bringing some modern touches to Clara and her dreamlike wooden toys, nonetheless remain faithful to the classic ballet’s charmingly old-fashioned traditions. Thursday, December 27, at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 28, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, December 29, at 2 & 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, December 30, at 2 p.m.; tickets are $29-$65. Three Stages at Folsom Lake College, 10 College Parkway in Folsom; (916) 608-6888; www.threestages.net.

—Rachel Leibrock

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I’ve had a thriving massage-therapy practice for 25 years and feel it is time for something different. But I am having a hard time letting go of what I have built. My business is successful; why isn’t it enough?

It was enough, and now it is more than enough. Accept this as your invitation to evolve.

As Austin Hill Shaw writes in his brilliant book, The

by Joey ga rcia Shoreline of Wonder: On Being Creative: a s kj o ey @ n ewsreview.c om

Joey

interprets her dreams in a little red journal.

“You are the creative universe. It’s all in you, packed, simply packed, more atoms than all the stars in heaven, a trillion cells that divided from just two, the story of the universe pervading every one of those cells. ... The infinity of your imagination … waiting, just waiting, for your hands upon the clay, your feet upon the dance floor, the song within your throat, the equation in your mind, your fingers on the keyboard, the vision channeled, the message delivered, and voilà! The story of the universe continues.”

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 and I divorced six months ago after a three-year separation.

We don’t have kids, but I kept our two pugs because her work hours don’t permit her to take good care of them. Since the divorce she calls twice a day to check on the dogs and asks questions about every detail of my life. She never seemed to care much before, about the dogs or me. I think her interest is a good thing. My sister says that I should not take my ex-wife’s calls, at least not every day, and I should not share personal stuff with my ex.

Is that true?

Oh, golly, I can’t get between a man and his sister. But I can tell you that your sister is worried about you.

She probably thinks your ex-wife is preventing you from moving forward. Is she correct? Does your craving for attention from your

Your ex-wife offers her friendship when there is little risk you actually need it. She withdraws when you desire her the most. ex-wife that you are grateful for her friendship and that you would like less daily connection. Explain that this is your way of accepting the divorce and shaping a new vision for the future.

If she misses the pups, invite her to dog-sit. If you will miss your pugs too much to share, don’t.

Instead, suggest that she volunteer at a local animal shelter to satisfy her need for puppy love. After nine months to a year, reach out again in friendship to your ex-wife. But only after you discover who you are when not defined by your relationship with her. Ω

Meditation of the Week “What I am playing with is the voyage between perception and understanding,” said Saul Steinberg, the artist who declared himself “a writer who draws.” What is the creative lens that affects your reality?

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ex-wife blind you to the truth? Flip through the files in your mind. See if this is a familiar pattern: Your ex-wife offers her friendship when there is little risk you actually need it. She withdraws when you desire her the most. If that’s true, thank your sister for saving you from another heartache. Then, cut back on responding to the calls. Tell your

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STAGE In between times Broadway Sacramento’s Peter Pan will keep the stage busy the week between holidays The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is an oddity on the local theater scene. The region’s community theaters almost all take a break, and by Jeff Hudson at the Actors’ Equity level, the Sacramento Theatre Company closed A Christmas Carol on December 23, and Capital Stage wrapped up its “radio play” version of It’s a Wonderful Life on December 24. The B Street Theatre’s two holiday shows will linger a bit longer—through December 30—but that’s about it. The area’s musical presenters (the Mondavi Center and PHOTO BY ISAAC JAMES

Three Stages at Folsom Lake College) and large-venue downtown arts producers (Sacramento Ballet, Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, Sacramento Opera) also take holiday. Except for the Broadway Sacramento series, that is, which is bringing back the redoubtable Cathy Rigby in a touring production of Peter Pan for a run December 26-30. The show is in the cavernous Sacramento Community Center Theater, a venue that offers plenty of room for the show’s trademark indoor flying.

Broadway Sacramento, which operates under the wing of parent organization California Musical Theatre (which also produces the summer Music Circus series) has historically done very well when bringing in a touring production during the in-between holiday week, when there is relatively little competition locally in terms of live theatrical entertainment. In fact, Richard Lewis, executive director of California Musical Theatre, was a little surprised when informed that most other local theater companies take a pass on the late December dates.

“The week between the holidays is traditionally a very big week on Broadway,” Lewis said. “So when we booked our first show in that slot back in 1989—Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express—we were relatively confident that we could sell a

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show in that time slot. And that’s exactly what happened.”

“It’s best if a show that goes in the holiday slot is an option to the season,” Lewis added—meaning a freestanding show that ticket buyers can purchase independently, without a season subscription. “That’s what Peter Pan is.” The holiday crowd, after all, is a breed apart. There are people who will go to a musical over the holidays who are unlikely to darken the door of a theater at any other time of year.

And the fact that Rigby has flown through Sacramento before doesn’t seem to deter people. Tours of Peter Pan starring Rigby have visited here in 1990, 1997 and 2004—the last one billed as a “retirement tour.” But Rigby apparently reconsidered, and is giving the role one more try, even though she recently turned 60. She’s told reporters in other cities that the physical aspects of flying through theaters on wires is much less intimidating at a personal level than the prospect of opening up her mouth and singing in front of 2,400 people.

While Broadway Sacramento tends to favor musicals in the holiday slot, it has also gone with a drama on occasion. Lewis said, “There was one year [2001] when we had a play called Proof”—a serious Pulitzer and Tony-winning script about a father-daughter relationship, both of whom were preoccupied with a particularly convoluted mathematical proof involving prime numbers.

“The week between the holidays is traditionally a very big week on Broadway.”

Richard Lewis executive director California Musical Theatre “Traditionally, for us, plays tend to do 15 to 20 percent less attendance than a musical.

But Proof sold very well—and in that holiday slot. It wasn’t holiday oriented, but it was a terrific play.”

“We’re never entirely certain what will be a hit with the folks who buy the tickets,” Lewis said. “We do the best we can, look at all of our options [in terms of touring productions available at the end of December], and bring in the shows that have the best possible chance for success—financially and artistically.” Ω

Please drink responsibly.

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Tell Obama

whaT’s up!

Send us your LetterS to obama and share your vision for the president’s next term.

Email us what you think the president should do this time around during his second stint in the Oval Office.

The best letters will appear in SN&R’s letters to Obama issue on January 17, 2013.

Wherever Hugo Les Misérables A couple of months ago in this paper’s fall movie preview, I speculated about the film of the musical version of Victor Hugo’s epic 1862 novel. “If this turns by Jim Lane out a turkey,” I wrote, “director Tom Hooper ... will deserve never to work again.” Well, the jiml@ movie is here at last, and it’s no turkey. But Mr. ne w s re v i e w . c o m Hooper does make an occasional hash of things.

There is much to respect in the movie, and the musical’s fans will probably be satisfied—on the whole. At the same time, they may find the movie somehow less stirring than the Les Misérables they remember from the stage—although no less impressive, for this Les Miz bristles with all the lavish visuals that CGI can concoct.

3

email Obama at letterstoObama@newsreview.com.

The deadline is Friday, January 4, 2013.

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34 | SN&R | 12.27.12

The casting can hardly be faulted. Hugh Jackman, stretching his Tony-winning musical chops on film at last, plays the fugitive Jean Valjean, imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. Russell Crowe, gamely rasping his songs, is Inspector Javert, Valjean’s implacable pursuer; and Anne Hathaway is the doomed Fantine, whose daughter Cosette (played by Isabelle Allen as a child, Amanda Seyfried as a young woman) will become Valjean’s ward and his means of personal redemption. Rounding out the principal roles are Eddie Redmayne as Marius, the revolutionary student who loves Cosette; Samantha Barks (in an impressive screen debut) as Éponine, who loves Marius in vain; and as Éponine’s parents, the despicable Monsieur and Madame Thénardier, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, in virtual reprises of their Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street performances. (The Thénardiers, by the way, represent the musical’s one major betrayal of Victor Hugo. In the novel, they are the only characters who are truly wicked. The Thénardiers actually go out of their way to do harm to others. In the musical, their unalloyed evil is played for laughs—understandably, since without some kind of comic relief, the story’s constant misery would be unbearable.

But it violates Hugo’s moral universe; it’s like turning Oliver Twist’s Bill Sikes into The Honeymooners’ Ralph Kramden.)

In preview trailers and publicity, the filmmakers boast—and boasting is the only word for it—that the songs were sung live on the set, eschewing the standard practice of lip-synching to prerecorded playback. It’s not the revolutionary innovation Hooper and Co. seem to think it is (it’s been done before), and it’s a bit of a doubleedged sword. While it does allow for more spontaneity in performance, much of Les Miz’s singing is also rather tentative, as if the singers are afraid of drowning out the music. And maybe they were, since the only music on the set was a piano accompaniment piped to them via hidden earpieces. Singers in a stage version of Les Miz are performing with (and responding to) a full orchestra; did the movie’s performers ever even hear their orchestra before they saw the finished picture?

Hooper’s staging is unimaginative: He essentially plops the camera down in closeup and leaves it there in intimate moments, or he moves choppily among seemingly random images in the larger numbers—the Thénardiers’ usual showstopper “Master of the House” is a sloppy mess, the visuals undercutting the lyrics as often as complementing them. The movie is not particularly well-edited, and it never really finds a visual rhythm to match the music. The big anthem, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” begins well but doesn’t build to the climax it achieves onstage— it doesn’t exactly fizzle, but we miss the power director Trevor Nunn gave it on Broadway, with his marchers and moving turntable.

Les Miz bristles with all the lavish visuals that CGI can concoct.

Les Misérables blazes briefly to musical life early on, when Anne Hathaway delivers the show’s most famous song, Fantine’s “I Dreamed a Dream.” Hathaway’s performance is searing, and for once, Hooper’s bland staging is exactly right—nothing stands between us and the harrowing emotion of the song, and when it was over the night I saw it, you could have heard a pin drop 50 yards away (there’s a reason this number is so prominent in all the trailers). Those three or four minutes offered a glimpse of the great musical we might have had, instead of the pretty-good one we got. Ω

For movie titles and show times please go to thecrest.com or call 44-CREST

by JONATHAN KIeFeR & JIM LANe

4

In November 1979, as Iranian revolutionaries overrun the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take the staff hostage, six Americans manage to escape and find refuge in the residence of the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber). A CIA exfiltration expert (Ben Affleck) hatches an elaborate cover story to smuggle the Americans out disguised as members of a Hollywood film crew. Director Affleck and writer Chris Terrio fictionalize a real-life story, the CIA component of which wasn’t declassified until 1997—and is here emphasized somewhat to the detriment of the Canadian contribution, which was considerable and highly risky. Still, it’s a crackling good suspense thriller, told with mounting tension and just the right splashes of humor. John Goodman plays Oscar-winning makeup artist (and CIA contractor) John Chambers. J.L.

3

The Guilt Trip

An inventor (Seth Rogen), off on a crosscountry road trip to try to interest retailers in his latest invention, impulsively invites his mother (Barbra Streisand) to come along, hoping to reunite her with a long-lost sweetheart when they reach San Francisco.

The movie appears to have undergone some post-production tampering (witness the many scenes from the preview trailer that didn’t wind up in the finished picture), but the final result is comfy and enjoyable. Dan Fogelman’s script has a gentle, low-key humor that meshes nicely with Streisand and Rogen’s easy screen rapport, and Anne Fletcher’s unobtrusive direction makes it all go down smoothly. Few surprises, but no glaring mistakes along the way, either. Colin Hanks, Nora Dunn, Adam Scott and Ari Graynor contribute thankless but nicely turned cameos. J.L.

3

Hitchcock

Here’s another defanged Hollywood history, done in the biopic-snapshot style and complete with voguish prosthetic distraction—this time in the fat-suited form of Anthony Hopkins, rolling suspenselessly along as the master of suspense. Adapted by John J. McLaughlin from Stephen Rebello’s book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, director Sacha Gervasi’s film seems slightly afraid of appealing only to a rarefied film-wonk crowd, and settles therefore into broad, easy strokes.

Worried about advancing age and declining reputation, this Hitch bucks all career advice and stakes his house on a self-financed adaptation of Robert Bloch’s novel, which, in turn, derives from the true story of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, who appears to the director in a few misbegotten dream sequences. There’s also some behind-every-great-man mythology, helped along by Helen Mirren as Hitchcock’s wife and unsung collaborator Alma Reville. The net result is companionable but eventually sort of irritating, like a good friend with a bad habit of pantomimed stabbings and a cappella renditions of Bernard Herrmann’s violins. Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel, James D’Arcy, and Danny Huston co-star. J.K.

3

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Having done all right with his Lord of the Rings, director Peter Jackson returns to the fantasy fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien and another planned nine-hour trilogy, beginning with this overlong but eventually appealing first installment. As the eponymous diminutive, Martin Freeman excels at comporting himself with kooky company, particularly by means of selfeffacement. Obediently, the movie also provides not just the requisite CGI spectacles but a few of the previous trilogy’s other human touches: the patient wizardry of Ian McKellen; the elfin nobility of Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving; the moistly sibilant voice and motion-captured form of Andy Serkis. Mercifully, it’s less like watching someone else play a video game (albeit in unprecedented high definition) than it might have been—Jackson’s enhanced digital imagery has a vaguely fluorescent chill, but at least the film it’s in seems like a promising warm-up. J.K.

2

COMING LIVE IN 2013

Argo

Hyde Park on Hudson

In director Roger Michell’s film, from Richard Nelson’s script, Bill Murray shunts his old familiar charm into the role of the polio-stricken POTUS who also played around.

It’s that summer weekend in 1939 when, with English royals visiting for the first time and worrying over war and wiener etiquette, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fifth-cousin mistress finally wised up to his philandering. She’s played by Laura Linney as a mousy dullard, who also narrates. Forgoing

BEFORE

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GrEGG ALLMAN January 16

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Django Unchained

Just know it’s the sort of movie whose premiere gets postponed in the wake of school shootings and whose dialogue contains so many Nbombs that people have glumly gotten down to counting them. Sure, the word was common enough in the 1850s, but Quentin Tarantino is not exactly a paragon of historical verisimilitude. Here, again, the audacious ever-adolescent revisionist just wants us to know how, like, awesome our history would’ve been as one big bloody badass overlong Western-blaxploitation whatsit. Christoph Waltz plays a voluble and worldly bounty hunter who frees the eponymous hero, played by Jamie Foxx, to rescue his wife, played by Kerry Washington, from a brutal plantation lord played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Gangsta vengeance and tedium ensues. All told, good taste might have been more offensive. Waltz is wonderful, Foxx is deliberately less a character than a trope, and DiCaprio a bit of a bore, except in that he seems to enjoy acting again. Maybe the real revelation is Samuel L. Jackson in a career-capping turn as the slaveholder’s elderly houseman, a sort of terrible and riveting Tarantino apotheosis, or at least an antithesis of the actor’s role as Spike Lee’s Mister Señor Love Daddy. J.K.

real intimacy and filling up on dead air instead of humor or tension, this is a much too dainty affair, so obviously aimed at the audience for The King’s Speech as to include a supporting role for that film’s protagonist (played commendably here by Samuel West). Other women in FDR’s life include his mother (Elizabeth Wilson), his personal secretary (Elizabeth Marvel) and his wife (Olivia Williams), yet more sharp actors mired in dull circumstances. J.K.

5

Life of Pi

An Indian youth (Suraj Sharma), shipwrecked while emigrating to Canada with his family, finds himself in a lifeboat mid-Pacific Ocean with the wreck’s only other survivors: a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a tiger. Soon, it’s just our hero and the tiger, both hungry and desperate. Yann Martel’s award-winning novel becomes, in the hands of writer David Magee and director Ang Lee, one of the great adventure movies of all time, while not ignoring the spiritual undercurrents in Martel’s book.

The movie is brilliant in every sense of the word, evoking Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli and Shere Khan one moment, The Story of Little Black Sambo (without the racism) the next, and cradling it all in magical realism. Cinematography (Claudio Miranda) and visual effects (Bill Westenhofer) are beyond superb, as is Sharma, who has never acted before. J.L.

3

Lincoln

Writer Tony Kushner and director Steven Spielberg adapt Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, one of the indispensable books on the Civil War. Alas, they dispense with all but five of Goodwin’s 916 pages, concentrating on the process of guiding the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery) through Congress—a process where Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) leaves the wheeling and dealing to a party operative (James Spader).

This makes Lincoln actually a supporting role, but there’s no making Day-Lewis a supporting actor: He’s Lincoln to the life, and his performance—far more than Kushner’s dramatic fripperies or Spielberg’s reverent listen-to-thesegolden-words staging—is the best reason to see the movie. As Mary Lincoln, Sally Field overacts in an ill-written role. J.L.

4

Silver Linings Playbook

Recently out of a mental institution but far from stable, a man (Bradley Cooper) obsesses about reconciling with his ex-wife, even as he meets a woman (Jennifer Lawrence)

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who is equally emotionally fragile. Writerdirector David O. Russell adapts Matthew Quick’s novel in his usual quirky manner, and the movie takes a while to reel us in. Cooper’s character is at first as exasperating to us as to his harried parents (Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver).

But before we can completely turn off to this annoying nutcase, Lawrence comes along with a fearless performance that not only captures us but, within the story, calms and humanizes this nervous wreck without his even knowing it.

Russell builds this romantic dramedy patiently, and the patience pays off; that inevitable warm feeling at the end is honestly earned. J.L.

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2 5 0 8 L A N D PA R K D R I V E L A N D PA R K & B R O A D WAY F R E E PA R K I N G A D J A C E N T T O T H E AT R E

Skyfall

We’ve had James Bond movies for 50 years now, and this one treats the benchmark like a special occasion. It’s clever how Daniel Craig still is becoming the devilish 007 we’ve always known, even as his third outing in the role applies a framework of fussing over oldness and possible obsolescence. Part of Skyfall’s project is sorting relics from ruins. The movie does right by its major players, including the impeccably tailored Craig and the immortally matriarchal Judi Dench, plus it welcomes franchise newcomers Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris. Its blowback plot involves Javier Bardem delighting in villainy and a rather cheeky British take on Freudian mama’s-boy anguish. Urbane yet never too serious and beautifully shot by Roger Deakins, this all seems a good fit for director Sam Mendes, who’s made his career imposing a sort of British pretense on American movies. The posh popcorn-muncher seems like just what the Bond experience always was all about. Nice to see there’s a future in it. J.K.

“A REFINED TREAT.”- Todd McCarthy, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER WED-TUES: 10:35AM, 12:45, 2:55, 5:10, 7:30, 9:45PM

“ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF 2012.” - Rex Reed, NEW YORK OBSERVER

HITCHCOCK Anna Karenina

“AN INTOXICATING SPECTACLE THAT BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO THE CLASSIC.” - Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

NEED ATTENTION? LET’S NOT GO TO EXTREMES.

3

This “sort-of sequel to Knocked Up” reminds us for better and worse how all Judd Apatow movies start to seem like sort-of sequels to each other. It is perhaps a consequence of siphoning so much material directly from life. This particular domestic farce, which also resembles a home movie, co-stars the filmmaker’s actual daughters and his wife, Leslie Mann, along with Paul Rudd as his proxy, and involves a married couple coping episodically with the onset of mutual middle age. Extended success may have taken off the edge of desperate hilarity in Apatow’s writing; more often than noticing how funny this movie is, you notice how long it is—more nudged than inspired. But maybe that’s just a function of getting older. Co-stars include Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Megan Fox, Jason Segel and Melissa McCarthy. J.K.

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A RT S & C U LT U R E

WED-TUES: 10:30AM, 1:20, 4:10, 7:00, 9:50PM

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35

Son of the blues John Lee Hooker Jr. on his famous father, creative inspirations and the art of telling whoppers for a living Perhaps it’s no surprise that John Lee Hooker Jr. undertook music for a living. His dad, after all, was a famous musician, noted for his trailblazby Rachel Leibrock ing style of country blues. The 60-year-old Hooker’s path to music, however, was fraught ra c h e l l @ with the kind of troubles his father, who died ne w s re v i e w . c o m in 2001, only sang about. Drugs. Prison. He’s lived it all. Hooker, who’s been clean since the mid-’90s, just released a new album, All Hooked Up. He talked to SN&R about his famous dad, songwriting inspiration and how, exactly, he ended up living in Roseville.

How old were you when that started?

About 16—I [eventually] went from juvenile hall to jail to prison.

PHoTo by CHeryL Crow

What helped you turn around?

When you have people who love you, people [for who] you bring tears to their eyes as a direct result of your actions—it makes you want to get out. But you don’t know how to do it, so you have to act with someone who has more power than you do, and for me, that was my creator, the lord God above. I asked the lord to help me, and he did. In 1985, he saved my life. And then I got away from it, [but then started doing drugs again], but my dad asked me to clean up, and I did. I’ve been clean ever since.

“ When I was a kid, I’d tell stories to get out of punishment. Today, I tell tell stories for a living.”

John Lee Hooker Jr.

Every Day

We Have

Blues

the

THU Dec 27 9PM $5

Happy Hour Drink Specials • No Cover Thur: Fri: Sat: Sun: Tues: Wed:

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5:30 - 7:30

Peter Petty

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Mercy Me!

SaT Dec 29 9PM $12

John Lee Hooker Jr.

SuN Dec 30 8PM $5

You wish you could pull off this white suit as well as John Lee Hooker Jr. does.

Island of Black & White

Jimmy & Lew

5:30 - 7:30

Acoustic Johnny Knox

5:30 - 7

Blues Jam

4-7

Closed for New Year’s Day Acoustic Open Mic 5:30 - 8

44 3 - 2797 www.torchclub.net

904 15th St. Btwn I & J Downtown Sac

(Across from Memorial Auditorium)

NEW YEaR’S EVE BaSH! Champagne Toast & Party Favors at Midnight

MoFo Party Band $25

WED Jan 2 9PM $5

36 | SN&R | 12.27.12

Howell Devine

Catch John Lee Hooker Jr. on Saturday, December 29, at 9 p.m. at the Torch Club, 904 15th Street; (916) 443-2797; $12; www.johnlee hookerjr.com.

How much was music a part of your life as a child?

I was influenced by music as a child—not just by my dad but by Stevie Wonder, too, who I met when we were both 12 years old. I grew up around Jackie Wilson and Lou Rawls and my dad—that’s what I came up with.

I was 7 or 8 when I started to sing. My dad used to do interviews on WJBK radio [in Detroit], and he’d take me down to the station and sit me down on his lap and let me sing along—it made me so happy. It all began right there.

When did you first perform onstage?

I was about 17. It was in front of a lot of people—I was scared to death. It was in San Francisco. That was my debut, my on-thejob training.

Did your dad encourage you to go into music?

He never pushed me to do it—I actually had aspirations to become an attorney or a preacher.

What happened?

Drugs. Everything was drug related. You get around a group of people and this is the thing that they do, and all of a sudden, you’re in the mess, and you can’t get out.

What’s your creative process like?

I’m always thinking and creating. I have a lot of drama in my past, and I can reach for and grab that, [but I also] might be watching the news or reading the paper or I might think of something you did. It’s about people, places and things. I carry around a microphone, and [when I come up with a melody] I’ll sing it into the microphone and take it to my bassist and to my drummer and … then we take it to the studio.

How did you end up in Roseville?

I used to travel [to California] just to get away.

I visited a friend here and saw the trees and how close it was to everything. I liked the trees and the nice neighborhoods.

In what ways do you take after your father?

We both like to tell stories. That’s where I got my storytelling skills from. He could share some whoppers. When I was a kid, I’d tell stories to get out of punishment. Today, I tell stories for a living.

In what ways are you different?

My dad was a dancer and an entertainer, but he wasn’t no drug addict. He never went to prison and jail. He used to tell me, “Boy, I don’t know who you take after.” He never saw the inside of a jail cell. Ω

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12.27.12 | SN&R | 37

28FRI

29SAT

29SAT

Mount Whateverest

Frank Jordan

The Brodys

The LURK

Haven Underground, 9 p.m., $8-$12

Blue Lamp, 9 p.m., $8

Nestled in the foothills of Grass Valley, Mount Whateverest crafts tunes that are kind of trippy—but not in a totally stoner way PSYCH ROCK (although if that’s the way you roll … )—and seem to hail from a simpler, groovier era.

Though the band describes its music as an amalgamation of Latin rock, grunge and shoegaze, the songs on its new self-titled album epitomize that Northern-Californiafoothills retro-hippie sound, but with a few twists. Songs such as “Room With No Sound” and “Kiss the Ring” marry Haight Street trip-out sessions with a garage-rock aesthetic that manages to feel fresh, not musty.

The band celebrates with a CD-release party. 226 Broad Street in Nevada City, www. facebook.com/m.t.whateverest.

Old Ironsides, 9:30 p.m., call for cover

Frank Jordan is a band that you either know and love or don’t know and should. Either way, it’s been six years since this group has performed, and it’s reuniting for a special concert with guests Springs and SexRat. F.J.’s Mike Visser (vocals and guitar) is also releasing his debut solo album with his new project, the aforementioned Springs. Devin Hurley (drums) will perform with SexRat, and rounding out Frank Jordan are Matt Ontjes (bass) and Chris Watson (horns). These guys play great, solid rock fused with a bit of jazz, ROCK blues and a whole lot of unique sound. This is a 21-and-over show, so bring that ID. 1400 Alhambra Boulevard, http://tinyurl.com/frankjordan.

G Street Wunderbar, 10 p.m., no cover

Sure, they haven’t released any new music since 2005’s Stuck, but the Brodys don’t need new material to entice you to rock out with them before the year’s end. The local band may have aged, but its pop-punk vibe keeps it young. After all, nostalgia is always better when paired with loud guitars and hard liquor. The group’s nonstop high-energy show will leave you buzzing all the way to 2013. Light Brigade will bring its indie-youth sound to open the show—and attempt to ROCK make you swoon with the jangle of guitars. The Brodys, on the other hand, will attempt to make you dance like a fool—and will most likely succeed. (916) 442-8832, 1901 10th Street, www.brodys.com.

—Trina L. Drotar

pHOTO By HHB pHOTOGRApHy

28FRI

—Allison Mayoral

I never knew there was a cozy place where crazy, anti-folk minimalism and psychedelic garage rock overlapped. This was before I heard the LURK, who has apparently built his home there. The LURK is only one guy. I don’t even know his real name. Maybe “The Lurk” is his real name. Clearly, the LURK plays by his own rules. Unlike most musicians who need other people to spark creativity and get that special magic going, the LURK just bounces weird ideas off of himself. His rendition of David Byrne’s “Home,” for instance, MINIMALIST ROCK has an awkward swagger that is at once charming and unsettling.

228 G Street in Davis, www.facebook.com/ thelurk1manband.

—Aaron Carnes

—Rachel Leibrock

ACE OF SPADES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27

X (ALL ORIGINAL LINEUP) MY JERUSALEM SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29

TURQUOISE JEEP 53ZIPBOYS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 4

PUNK VS. POP PUNK

PUNK: YANKEE BRUTAL - REBEL RADIO - THE LONELY REVOLTS POP PUNK: THE SKY COMMAND - SELF PROCLAIMED - LONELY AVENUE

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

ALL AGES WELCOME!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9

AN EVENING WITH

HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD SATURDAY, JANUARY 12

TRIBAL SEEDS

STICK FIGURE - THE MAAD T-RAY SIMPLE CREATION MONDAY, JANUARY 14

OF MICE & MEN WOE IS ME - TEXAS IN JULY - VOLUMES CAPTURE THE CROWN

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5

THE MOTH ANATOMY FROM CITIES TO SALT - DEAD BY NIGHTFALL

FOR ALL THAT STANDS - THE SUN SETS HERE - BEFORE ME OUR ENDLESS OBSESSION - STRAIGHT UP GRIZZLY

MONDAY, JANUARY 7

REEL BIG FISH

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15

SUM 41

HUNTER VALENTINE & IAMDYNAMITE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 17

SLIGHTLY STOOPID

MARLON ASHER - KARL DENSON

Tickets available at all Dimple Records Locations, The Beat Records, and Armadillo Records, or purchase by phone @ 916.443.9202

38 | SN&R |

12.27.12

COMING

SOON

01/19 01/24 01/25 01/26 01/27 02/01 02/05 02/06 02/07 02/08 02/13 02/15 02/16 02/17 02/21 02/22 02/28 03/01 03/05 03/06 03/20 03/23 03/27 04/02 04/13 04/22 04/24

Down Gojira Roach Gigz Fallrise Action Item Silverstein Nonpoint The Wailers Hot Water Music Andrew McMahon The Green Baby Bash For Today Soulfly Wallpaper & Con Chill Bro Molly Hatchet Testament Meshuggah Reverend Horton Heat Black Veil Brides Rebelution The Road To The Sphinx 2013 Mindless Self Indulgence Tech N9NE The Expendables Queensryche Alex Clare

31MON

Turquoise Jeep

New Jack Fling

Ace of Spades, 7 p.m., $15

pHOTO By Riq HeBeRT

29SAT

31MON

31MON

The Alkali Flats

Tower of Power

Midtown BarFly, 9 p.m., $7-$10

With the highly choreographed dance moves of a mid-’90s boy band and lyrics that would make R. Kelly want to trap himself back in COMEDY/HIP-HOP the closet, the comedy hip-hop artists of Turquoise Jeep Records have carved themselves a niche. Unsatisfied with standard creative parameters, Jeep members Flynt Flossy and Whatchyamcallit struck out to create their own genre, EMB (existing musical beings), and label, Turquoise Jeep Records, to support it in 2009. Three years later, the group has come to represent a unique brand of ironic and obscene lyrical hooks paired with an abundance of fake facial hair that’s rocketed YouTube videos such as “Smang It” to more than 10 million hits.

1417 R Street, www.turquoisejeep.com.

I know you’re itching to bust out stonewashed jeans and a sexy red Members Only jacket on NYE. You know, the outfit that got you laid 20 years ago. Don’t front, you’re in luck: DJ Epik (pictured) and CrookOne’s New Jack Fling will rewind with a night of hip-hop, DANCE R&B and tunes from 1988-’93.

That’s uptempo, dance-friendly De La Soul and Teddy Riley beats and the like, plus small flourishes like In Living Color on TVs, etc. “As a DJ who grew up in that era,” Epik told SN&R, “it’s one of my most enjoyable nights behind the wheels.” And a happy deejay is a happy party. 1119 21st Street, www.facebook.com/midtownbarfly.

The Hideaway Bar & Grill, 9 p.m., $10

Thunder Valley Casino Resort, 10:30 p.m., $54.50-$74.50

Ring in the new year with friends and loved ones while listening to the Central Valley’s prized country five-piece, the Alkali Flats.

Grab your midnight kiss and dance into 2013 with tunes featuring lots of old-time charm, authentic honky-tonk appeal, and, yes, definitely plenty of twang. The guys— and gal—of the Alkali Flats have traveled far and wide. Whether it’s to Europe or the annual Hillybilly Fest in Los Angeles, they’ve COUNTRY logged the miles. Also performing are the Sacto Soul Rebels, providing the rocksteady vibes for the evening. 2565 Franklin Boulevard, www.thealkaliflats.com.

—Nick Miller

—Steph Rodriguez

When I interviewed Tower of Power bandleader Emilio Castillo several years ago, he told me that when he was a kid, his band’s goal was to travel from Oakland to play a topless bar in Sacramento. Forty years SOUL/FUNK later, hopefully no one goes topless when the band visits the area to play a New Year’s Eve party at Thunder Valley Casino Resort.

The group is known for its deep-pounding grooves and hits such as “Soul Vaccination,” “What Is Hip?” and “Diggin’ on James Brown.” It’s the ultimate live dance music, as nearly every song is an open invitation from the band to hit the dance floor. 1200 Athens Avenue in Lincoln, www.towerofpower.com.

—Jonathan Mendick

—Julianna Boggs

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FRI, JAN 4TH Terry Sheets Band 9:00pm • $5 Cover

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B E F O R E | F R O N T L I N E S | F E A T U R E S T O R Y | A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R |

12.27.12 | SN&R | 39

NIGHTBEAT BLUE LAMP 1400 Alhambra, (916) 455-3400

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.

THE BOARDWALK

THURSDAY 12/27

FRIDAY 12/28

SATURDAY 12/29

Skratchpad Sacramento, 9pm, no cover

FRANK JORDAN, SEX RAT, SPRINGS; 9pm, $8

VICTIM’S FAMILY, FUNGO MUNGO; 8:30pm, call for cover

BIG B, PARADOX, KING SCRUB, LUCERO, CAMACAUZ-Z; 8pm

RAS REBEL, SIMPLE CREATION, EAZY DUB, LA NOCHE OSKURA; 8pm

POLARIZATION, DEVASTATED, WRATH

9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 OF VESUVIUS; 7pm, call for cover

Eben E.B. Burgoon comic Kickstarter celebration, 7pm W, no cover

1815 19 St., (916) 822-5668

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

DIVISION THRESHOLD, THIS IS RADIATION, THE DEVILS TRAIN; 8pm, $10-$15

314 W. Main St., Grass Valley; (530) 274-8384

THE COLONY

ANTSY MCCLAIN & THE TRAILER PARK TROUBADOURS; 7:30pm, $28.50

ELVIN BISHOP, 8pm, $25-$28

3512 Stockton Blvd., (916) 267-7576

PRESSURE POINT, MEDIA BLITZ, PLEAD THE FIFTH, GRIM TIDE; 8pm, $6

THE COZMIC CAFÉ

Open-mic, 7:30pm, no cover

JEFFRIES, ANMARIE FIELDING, JULIET COMPANY; 7pm, $7

ATLAS & ARROWS, KYLE SHAFER JAZZ TRIO; 7pm, $7

DDJ XAQ4000, 8:30pm M, $5

1016 K St., (916) 737-5770

VERDUGO BROTHERS, RYAN K, DJs Stylus, Diego Valle, Freddy Silva; 9pm

DJ Jason Davis, 9pm, call for cover

Rouge Tattoo Party, 9pm, call for cover

DJ DNA, 9pm M

FACES

Deejay dancing and karaoke, 9pm, $3

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

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

THE MIKE JUSTIS BAND, 8-11pm, no cover

ICE HOUSE BLUES BAND, ISLAND OF BLACK & WHITE, MAINLAND; 9pm, $5

50-WATT HEAVY, CABALLOS MUERTOS, FOLLOWERS OF SUNSHINE; 9pm, $5

DJ Smilez, 10pm-1:15am, no cover

HOLLOW POINT STUMBLERS, 9pm, no cover

DJ Crook One, 10pm, call for cover

DJ Whores, 10pm, no cover

Industry Night, 9pm, call for cover

SUPER DIAMOND, 10pm, call for cover

ZUHG, 10pm, call for cover

THE TUBES, 8pm, call for cover

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

DISTRICT 30

FOX & GOOSE

1001 R St., (916) 443-8825

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

Hey local bands!

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 12/31-1/2 NEVADA BACKWARDS, 9pm M, call for cover

BOWS & ARROWS

2000 K St., (916) 448-7798

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 12/30

THE GOLDEN BEAR

2326 K St., (916) 441-2252

DJ Shaun Slaughter, 10pm, call for cover

HARLOW’S

2708 J St., (916) 441-4693

LUNA’S CAFÉ & JUICE BAR

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

MARILYN’S ON K

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

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

MIDTOWN BARFLY

1531 L St., (916) 442-8899

NAKED LOUNGE DOWNTOWN

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

Dragalicious, 9pm, $5

MC HAM, DJs Larry Rodriguez and Wokstar, 9pm M, $10; Pub Quiz, 7pm Tu

MIDNIGHT PLAYERS, 10pm M, call for cover

DAVID HOUSTON & STRING THEORY, MOLLY SWANK; 8pm, $6 MOTHER HIPS, 9pm, $18-$20

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

CFR, BE BRAVE BOLD ROBOT, NICE MONSTER, CARLY DUHAIN; 9pm, $5

Get Down to the Champion Sound: reggae and dancehall deejays, 10pm, $5

1119 21st St., (916) 549-2779

MIX DOWNTOWN

STRAIGHT UP GRIZZLY, NIGHTMARE IN THE TWILIGHT, AFRAID OF FALLING; 8pm

New Jack Fling, 9pm M, $7-$10; Salsa, Bachata and Merengue, 8:30pm W, $5

DJ Billy Lane, 9pm, $10, free before 9pm DJ Elliot Estes, 9pm, $15

1111 H St., (916) 443-1927

RAN, DUPRE, JUSTIN SOTELO; 8:30pm, $5

ROSS HAMMOND, JOCELYN MEDINA; 8:30pm, $5

BLAQUELISTED, LAUREN WAKEFIELD, DOUG CASH; 8:30pm, $5

Jazz session, 8:30pm M, no cover

OLD IRONSIDES

Fresh Cuts w/ DJ Krave Deez, 9pm, $5

50 WATT HEAVY, MAGAZINE DIRTY, DEDVOLT; 9pm, call for cover

THE BRODYS, LIGHT BRIGADE; 9pm, call for cover

Fascination w/ DJ Darkstar, 9:30pm M, $12; Open-mic, 8:30pm W, no cover

1901 10th St., (916) 442-3504

THURSDAYS

Follow us /HarlowsNiteclub

nye weekend lineup

Coming Soon

Jan 4 Thom Stockton Jan 10 Anothony B Jan 11 Musical Charis Jan 13 Cat Stevens Tribute Band Jan 17 Sizzling Sirens dec 28 10pm $15 adv Jan 18 Tainted Love Jan 20 Pinback Jan 21 Whiskey & Stitches Jan 24 Led Kaapana Jan 25 Tom Rigney & Flambeau Jan 25 Dead Winter Carpenters dec 29 10pm $10 adv Jan 26 Joel The Band Jan 30 Paul Thorn Jan 31 Nick Bluhm & The Gamblers Feb 01 Arden Park Roots TRIBuTE TO DR. DRE Feb 9 Steelin’ Dan dec 30 8pm $30 adv Feb 10 Portland Cello Project Feb 13 Queen Ifrica Feb 16 ALO Feb 19 NoMeansNo Feb 22 Dean-0-Holics Feb 24 Tyron Wells dec 31 10pm $35 adv Feb 26 Galactic Feb 27 George Kahumoku Mar 02 Blackalicious Mar 03 G. Love & Special Sauce Mar 04 G–Eazy Dress CoDe enforCeD (Jeans are oK) • Call to reserve Dinner & Club tables • all times listeD are showtimes

Super diamond

zuhg

the tubeS

nye with MIDNIGHT PLAyERS

2708 J Street • Sacramento • 916.441.4693 • www.harlows.com 40

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SN&R

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12.27.12

ROCK ON LIVE KAR//AOKE BANDIC ROCK 9PM // FREE ACOUST

celebratIng 77 years same famIly sInce 1934

FRI 12/28

frI dec 28 9pm $5

ROCK // $18 ADV // $20

sat dec 29 9pm $5

MOTHER HIPS GRAHAME LESH LEE AMERICAN JUBI DOOR SAT 12/29

CFR BE BRAVE BOLD ROBOT NICE MONSTER Y DUHAIN BAND CARL ROCK // FUNK // POP // 9PM // $5 FOLK

MON 12/31

’S EVE BASH NEW YEAR , DJ NOCTURNAL, DJ TEDLOS SUPRISE GUEST DJ

HIP HOP // FUNK // REGGAE // SCRATCH CHAMPAGNE TOAST, APPETIZERS & MORE 9PM // $10 WED 01/02

E WAY THE THRE -ROLL // 9PM // $5 ROCK-N

TICKETS NOW ON SALE FOR THESE UPCOMING SHOWS AT WWW.MARILYNSONK.COM $3 TALLBOY PBR

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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908 K STREET • SAC 916.446.4361

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dj dark star & guests tue jan 1 8pm free

karaoke!

Corner of 10th & S Streets

916.443.9751 theoldironsides.com

THURSDAY 12/27

FRIDAY 12/28

THE PALMS PLAYHOUSE

SATURDAY 12/29

SUNDAY 12/30

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 12/31-1/2

ANTSY MCCLAIN AND THE TRAILER PARK TROUBADOURS; 8pm, $28

13 Main St., Winters; (530) 795-1825

ROY ROGERS & THE DELTA RHYTHM KINGS; 9:30pm M, $45

THE PARK ULTRA LOUNGE 1116 15th St., (916) 442-7222

DJ Peeti V, 9pm, $15

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

DJ Peeti V, 9pm M, call for cover

ERIN MCKINNEY BAND, JAMES CAVERN, GORGEOUS GEORGE; 9pm, no cover

Karaoke, 8:30pm-1:30am M; Open-mic, 10pm-1am Tu; Trivia, 9-11pm W, no cover

PINE COVE TAVERN

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41

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Hey, it’s the end of the year. You wanna do a recap of the highs and lows? A top 10 list?

VOted 2nd best physicia n in sac!

—Softball Sammie You got it, Sammie. But 10 seems like a lot of work.

How about a few top three lists? Let’s start with the lows: 1. All these bans on growing medical cannabis in your own backyard. Sacramento may have a workable ordi-

nance, but Fresno and Butte counties and a few other places do not. Prohibiting medical-cannabis users from growing their own medicine in their own backyard is no way to show compassion.

BEALUM

by NGAIO

a sk420 @ n ewsreview.c om

2. The harassment of law-abiding, politically active medical-cannabis dispensaries by the feds. El Camino

Wellness Center in Sacramento was raided and shut down. Harborside Health Center in Oakland is fighting it out in federal court as I write this column. These two clubs have done everything right under California law: They had or have the support of the city they are in, and they provide good jobs and pay taxes to the state and the federal government. Oh, yeah, and they help sick people! This ridiculousness has got to stop.

3. The continued recalcitrance of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. I don’t even want to talk about it.

These people are costing their county money and jobs.

Most of them need to be voted out.

And then, the mids: 1. The re-election of Barack Obama. While he was a better

choice than Mitt Romney, his support of cannabis-law reform has been tepid. He paid lip service to respecting state law, but U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Drug Enforcement Administration have been going after law-abiding California cannabis collectives with a vengeance over the past two years.

2. Oregon and Arkansas. They came so close. Oregon

almost legalized recreational cannabis this year.

Arkansas was the first southern state to get a medicalcannabis initiative on the ballot. It didn’t pass, but it’s a step in the right direction.

3. I don’t really have a third one for this segment.

And the highs: 1. Washington and Colorado. Hell to the yes! Legal weed is

Ngaio Bealum is a Sacramento comedian, activist and marijuana expert.

Email him questions at ask420@ newsreview.com.

here! And, barring any federal interference, weed stores are on the way. This is so exciting! It remains to be seen how these two states will regulate cannabis sales, but people can no longer be arrested for possessing up to 1 ounce of weed. Woo-hoo!

2. The rise of “sun-grown” cannabis. That’s the new brand

name for outdoor pot. Whatever. I don’t care what you call it, I just enjoy it. Well-grown outdoor weed is the best. You indoor people can talk all the smack you want, but plants should grow in real sunlight with real dirt.

The growers in southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley could give Mendocino and Humboldt counties a run for their money. This year’s Emerald Cup cannabis competition had more than 200 entries, and all of them were topshelf. Sun, rain and dirt for the win.

3. 3 Kings. This is my favorite new strain of 2012. It’s a mix

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TODAY

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by ROB BREZSNY

FOR THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 27, 2012

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the sci-fi

film trilogy The Matrix, the heroes are able to instantaneously acquire certain complex skills via software that’s downloaded directly into their brains. In this way, the female hacker named Trinity masters the art of piloting a military M-109 helicopter in just a few minutes. If you could choose a few downloads like that, Aries, what would they be? This isn’t just a rhetorical question meant for your amusement. In 2013, I expect that your educational capacity will be exceptional. While you may not be able to add new skills as easily as Trinity, you’ll be pretty fast and efficient. So what do you want to learn? Choose wisely.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Are you

familiar with the fable of the goose that laid golden eggs? The farmer who owned it became impatient because it laid only one gold egg per day. So he killed it, thinking he would thereby get the big chunk of gold that must be inside its body. Alas, his theory was mistaken. There was no chunk.

From then on, of course, he no longer got his modest daily treasure. I nominate this fable to be one of your top teaching stories of 2013. As long as you’re content with a slow, steady rate of enrichment, you’ll be successful. Pushing extra hard to expedite the flow might lead to problems.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here are

some of the experiences I hope to help you harvest in the coming year: growing pains that are interesting and invigorating rather than stressful; future shock that feels like a fun joyride rather than a bumpy rumble; two totally new and original ways to get excited; a good reason to have faith in a dream that has previously been improbable; a fresh supply of Innocent Crazy-Wise Love Truth; and access to all the borogoves, mome raths and slithy toves you could ever want.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In her

gallery show Actuality, Reminiscence, and Fabrication, artist Deborah Sullivan includes a piece called “Penance 1962.” It consists of a series of handwritten statements that repeats a central theme: “I must not look at boys during prayer.” I’m assuming it’s based on her memory of being in church or Catholic school when she was a teenager. You probably have an analogous rule lodged somewhere in the depths of your unconscious mind—an outmoded prohibition or taboo that may still be subtly corroding your life energy. The coming year will be an excellent time to banish that ancient nonsense for good. If you were Deborah Sullivan, I’d advise you to fill a whole notebook page with the corrected assertion: “It’s OK to look a boys during prayer.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): For years, the

gravestone of Irish dramatist Oscar Wilde was covered with kiss-shaped lipstick marks that were left by his admirers.

Unfortunately, Wilde’s descendants decided to scour away all those blessings and erect a glass wall around the tomb to prevent further displays of affection. In my astrological opinion, Leo, you should favor the former style of behavior over the latter in 2013. In other words, don’t focus on keeping things neat and clean and well-ordered. On the contrary: Be extravagant and uninhibited in expressing your love for the influences that inspire you—even at the risk of being a bit unruly or messy.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 2013, I hope

to conspire with you to raise your levels of righteous success. If you’re a struggling songwriter, I’ll be pushing for you to get your music out to more people—without sacrificing your artistic integrity. If you’re a kindergarten teacher, I’ll prompt you to fine-tune and deepen the benevolent influence you have on your students. If you’re a business owner, I’ll urge you to ensure that the product or service you offer is a wellhoned gift to those who use it. As I trust you can see, Virgo, I’m implying that impeccable ethics will be crucial to your ascent in the coming year.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): After Libran

poet Wallace Stevens won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1955, Harvard University offered him a job as a full professor. But he turned it down. He couldn’t bear leaving his day job as the vice president of an insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut. I suspect that in the first half of 2013, you will come to a fork in the road that may feel something like Stevens’ quandary. Should you stick with what you know or else head off in the direction of more intense and unpredictable stimulation? I’m not here to tell you which is the better choice; I simply want to make sure you clearly identify the nature of the decision.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 2013, I will

try to help you retool, reinvent and reinvigorate yourself in every way that’s important to you. I will encourage you to reawaken one of your sleeping aptitudes, recapture a lost treasure and reanimate a dream you’ve neglected. If you’re smart, Scorpio, you will reallocate resources that got misdirected or wasted. And I hope you will reapply for a privilege or position you were previously denied, because I bet you’ll win it this time around. Here are your words of power for the year ahead: resurrection and redemption.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Based on experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, a team of physicists in France and Switzerland announced last July that they had tentatively discovered the Higgs boson, which is colloquially known as the “God particle.” What’s all the fuss? In her San Francisco Chronicle column, Leah Garchik quoted an expert who sought to explain: “The Higgs boson is the WD40 and duct tape of the universe, all rolled into one.” Is there a metaphorical equivalent of such a glorious and fundamental thing in your life, Sagittarius? If not, I predict you will find it in 2013. If there already is, I expect you will locate and start using its 2.0 version.

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

2013, I pledge to help you bring only the highest-quality influences and self-responsible people into your life. Together we will work to dispel any unconscious attraction you might have to demoralizing chaos or pathological melodrama. We will furthermore strive to ensure that as you deepen and fine-tune your self-discipline, it will not be motivated by self-denial or obsessive control-freak tendencies. Rather, it will be an act of love that you engage in so as to intensify your ability to express yourself freely and beautifully.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Genius is

the ability to renew one’s emotions in daily experience,” said French painter Paul Cézanne. What do you think he meant by that? Here’s one interpretation: Many of us replay the same old emotions over and over again—even in response to experiences that are nothing like the past events when we felt those exact feelings. So a genius might be someone who generates a fresh emotion for each new adventure. Here’s another possible interpretation of Cézanne’s remark: It can be hard to get excited about continually repeating the basic tasks of our regular routines day after day. But a genius might be someone who is good at doing just that. I think that by both of these definitions, 2013 could be a genius year for you Aquarians.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Home is not

just the building where you live. It’s more than the community that gives you support and the patch of earth that comforts you with its familiarity. Home is any place where you’re free to be your authentic self; it’s any power spot where you can think your own thoughts and see with your own eyes. I hope and trust that in 2013 you will put yourself in position to experience this state of mind as often as possible. Do you have any ideas about how to do that?

Brainstorm about it on a regular basis for the next six months.

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.

BEFORE

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FRONTLINES

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FEATURE

15 MINUTES

by

STEPH RODRIGUEZ PHOTO COURTESY OF LARISA STEELE

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

In the company of sharks Larisa Steele often wears a gray hooded sweater emblazoned with the words “Dive girl”—fitting attire for a scuba diver who puts most of her paychecks toward swimming with huge, razor-toothed sharks. Steele credits the ’80s-era television show Oceanquest for instilling in her a lifelong goal to dive with all marine species. She made her first dive earlier this year at Stuart Cove’s in the Bahamas. Now, whether she’s swimming with gray reef sharks during a feeding frenzy or descending 40 feet to say hello to her favorite great whites, the 38-year-old legal secretary says she lives to share her diving experiences. Steele hung up her snorkel and mask long enough to talk to SN&R about her love for water, her most memorable dive and why sharks are just like celebrities.

Were you always drawn to water and sharks?

I was always a water baby. My mom would put me in the bathtub if I was upset. I [was] always happier in the water. When I was a kid, I grew up in a pool and I … would pretend that I was diving with sharks. I had my snorkel and my mask and at 10 years old, [I’d be] pretending I [was] in the water with sharks. It just became a passion, and it’s just taken me a while to get to this point.

What was your first shark encounter?

They were gray reef sharks. You never know how you’re going to feel when you actually get to see one live, in person [and] not behind glass at an aquarium. It was everything I thought I would feel. It was excitement, joy, compassion [and] respect. It felt really natural for me, actually. I had a couple of gray reefs just come up to me while I was descending, and they were just checking me out, and I’m thinking, “Hello, it’s been a long time. I finally get to meet you.” It’s like seeing a celebrity, for me at least.

What’s it take to become a legitimate scuba diver?

You need to get certified to scuba dive. It’s technical. There are gas fixtures that you’re going to be putting on your back. There’s heavy equipment and you need to be trained [on] how to use it. There are standards set; like when you learn how to drive, you go through the course and you learn the skills to do it safely without hurting yourself.

Most memorable dive?

Just last September, [the co-editors from Shark Diver magazine and I] got to cage dive with great whites. [It was] four days of

STORY

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A RT S & C U LT U R E

cage diving off an island off Guadalupe, living on a boat. It’s about 20 hours out [and] it was quite the choppy ride. ... I did get a little seasick going out, but once [I was] there it was calm, it was sunny, it was warm, and there were like 10 to 15 sharks a day just coming up to the cage [and] coming up to the boat, [measuring] anywhere from 8 feet to 17 feet long.

Seventeen-foot great white sharks?!

On the second or third day, one of the cages gets submerged about 40 feet, and [we were] still in the cage. It was a really cool environment down there: It was really clear, and the sharks were just everywhere. I’m filming one and then I’d look, and there was one right next to me—there was always a shark right there. The biggest one was about 17 feet. She was a monster just coming up [to us], and we were like, “Wow!”

Are you always in the company of sharks when you dive?

No. I didn’t encounter sharks in a lot of places: in Monterey, in Jamaica, [and] in Maui even. I’m having to go farther and farther away to remote areas to see them, and that’s unfortunate. I should’ve been able to see sharks in Maui because they’re protected there, but because the |

AFTER

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population is diminishing worldwide, they’re not coming in like they used to.

Are sharks endangered?

They’re being overfished to the extent they don’t reproduce enough to keep up with the way they’re being fished. They’re being fished accidentally by longline fishermen, and they’re being illegally fished for their fins and teeth. Almost 100 million sharks a year are killed either by the finning industry or [via] illegal fishing for trinkets like teeth and boots.

What can people do to change that?

I am contacting my local [state representatives] to ask them to support the [Safety and Fraud Enforcement for] Seafood Act. We need to put pressure on Congress.

[This] will support transparency throughout the entire seafood process to put a stop to seafood fraud. What that means is you can go into a restaurant and they can tell you you’re eating swordfish, but you’re actually eating mako shark.

What people can do is not purchase shark products at all. If we take away the demand, there won’t be a market for destroying a species on the brink of extinction. Ω

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