s-2018-02-15

FR

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eanS + d r i l l i n g roSCe d iS C o u news, 08

+ a bed to die in feature, 14

+ SpangliSh guitar at the CreSt

inside!

music, 30

dining guide

by rebecca hu

escaping y l w o r r e na aster th jail to m s at dessert f o e c n e sci

y e n o M k Mil

Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

p arts&culture, |

Volume 29, iSSue 44

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thurSday, february 15, 2018

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age 18 newSreView.com

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Editor’s notE

fEbruary 15, 2018 | Vol. 29, issuE 44

28 24 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.

Editor Eric Johnson News Editor Raheem F. Hosseini Arts & Culture Editor Rebecca Huval Associate Editor Mozes Zarate Staff Reporter Scott Thomas Anderson Calendar Editor Kate Gonzales Contributors Daniel Barnes, Ngaio Bealum, Alastair Bland, Rob Brezsny, Aaron Carnes, Jim Carnes, Willie Clark, John Flynn, Joey Garcia, Jeff Hudson, Matt Kramer, Jim Lane, Michael Mott, Luis Gael Jimenez, Rachel Leibrock, Kate Paloy, Patti Roberts, Steph Rodriguez, Ann Martin Rolke, Shoka, Bev Sykes

27 Design Manager Christopher Terrazas Creative Director Serene Lusano Designer Maria Ratinova Marketing/Publications Designer Sarah Hansel Web Design & Strategy Intern Elisabeth Bayard Arthur Contributing Photographers Karlos Rene Ayala, Jon Hermison, Nicole Fowler, Jasmine Lazo Advertising Manager Michael Gelbman Sales Coordinator Victoria Smedley Senior Advertising Consultants Rosemarie Messina, Kelsi White Advertising Consultants Mayra Diaz, Mark Kates , Alyssa Morrisey, Michael Nero, Allen Young Sweetdeals Coordinator Hannah Williams Facilities Coordinator/Sales Assistant David Lindsay Director of First Impressions Skyler Morris Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Assistant Lob Dunnica Distribution Drivers Mansour Aghdam, Beatriz Aguirre, Gypsy Andrews, Rosemarie Beseler, Kimberly Bordenkircher, Daniel Bowen, Heather Brinkley, Kathleen Caesar, Mike Cleary, Lydia Comer,

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Let this sink in Tuesday morning, before completing the final draft of an article about Donald Trump’s plan to open the entire U.S. continental shelf to oil drilling (see page 8), I read a New York Times report about the worst petroleum spill in decades, which is taking place right now.

As you may already know, the spill began on January 6 in remote seas 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai, where a tanker collided with a cargo ship.

The tanker, with 32 crew members on board, exploded and burned for more than a week, and then sank. It has reportedly released more than 100,000 metric tons of something called condensate, described as “a nearly invisible toxic liquid byproduct of natural gas production.” The ship now lies 300 feet below the ocean’s surface, still leaking.

Because of the remoteness of the incident, today’s Times article was the first I’d heard of this nightmarish catastrophe. I don’t know whether the story will be on the front page of every newspaper in the world tomorrow, as it should. One reason it might get coverage is tragic: It has likely impacted “an ecosystem that includes some of the world’s most bountiful fisheries.” Fish tested 5 miles from the spill are showing traces of petroleum hydrocarbons. The Chinese fishing industry employs 14 million people.

This tragically illustrates a fact pointed out by several of the folks I spoke with at last week’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hearing: Never mind the profound ecological costs of the petroleum economy, never mind the effects on human health; we have arrived at a moment when this stuff doesn’t even make economic sense. The only ones profiting from oil drilling today are the oil companies.

This shit has got to stop.

—Eric Johnson e r ic j@ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

sn&r is printed at Bay Area news Group on recycled newsprint. circulation of sn&r is verified by the circulation Verification council. sn&r is a member of sacramento Metro chamber of commerce, cnPA, AAn and AWn.

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“There’s been so many.”

asked at the sacramento certiFied Farmers market:

What’s the best cookie you’ve ever had?

Fabi Finocchiaro secretary

A chocolate chip cookie, one that I make at home.

I make sure to always put salt in the batter because it brings out the flavor. And I use a little bit of extra vanilla.

emily lovell farm worker

Frosted animal cracker cookies. They’re lit. You can eat like 75 in a row and then you feel full, and then you feel sad, and then you eat 75 more. I don’t have a favorite frosting color.

That’s like asking a parent which child they like more.

brit ta baskerville landscaper

I like biscotti biscuits, like something that’s more savory than sweet ...

My sister made cookies using maca flour. She kept saying they were cookies and people thought they were terrible, but as soon as she started calling them biscuits people were like, “Oh, this is great!”

brian hughes chef

There’s been so many.

When I lived in Oakland, I worked at a place called Boot and Shoe Service, and they made like a chocolate chip cookie with no chocolate chips.

Just straight up cookie batter, baked perfectly.

That did it for me.

erin baur

christ y Ford

fundraiser

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Chocolate chip From Mrs. Fields. The dough is really good and the cookie is great, straight from the store itself. I really like that it’s got walnuts in it. I like nuts with my chocolate.

It’s a sugar cookie with a butter cream frosting from Sweet Mandy B’s [in Chicago]. It’s rich and delicious and, I don’t know, it’s like the perfect cookie.

02.15.18 | SN&R | 5

Tips for The savvy cannabis shopper

by Ken magri

A

long with recreational sales came new cannabis taxes that pushed the costs up for medical patients as well. We assembled some common-sense tips to make cannabis more affordable at local dispensaries.

Buy with a friend: remember the days of “going in” with a buddy on a pot score? While it’s illegal to resell cannabis, a few friends who are 21 and older can exploit 2-for-1 or 3-for-2 deals by sending just one person to go make their combined purchases. it also pays to look for dispensaries with day-of-the-week discounts on product groups like edibles and concentrates. seniors and veterans are often allowed additional savings, and always compare whether the advertised prices are before or after taxes.

Holiday event days and Demo Days: every april 20, July 4 and during the holidays, dispensaries hold parking-lot events. vendor booths, samples, music,

“When selecting vape cartridges and edibles, calculate the price per milligram. A larger size might be the best value.”

Coupons, event days and group buying strategies can save patients money all year long. Photo by Ken Magri

food trucks and discounts are all on-site in a carnival atmosphere. On other “demo days,” dispensaries invite individual vendors inside to demonstrate their products and offer instant discounts.

The most expensive strains aren’t necessarily the best for you: some strains cost more because of popularity and short supply, not potency. if you need something strong, ask the budtender which strain has the highest tHC percentage. it might cost less. When selecting vape cartridges and edibles, calculate the price per milligram. a larger size might be the best value. remember to always compare whether advertised prices are “before” or “after” taxes.

money throughout the year. it costs $100, plus the doctor’s recommendation and must be picked up in person and renewed annually. But the savings on sales taxes will make it worth the legwork.

Ask your budtender: Budtenders are dedicated to meeting a patient’s medical needs. Tell them yours, and how much you can afford, and trust them to find the best deals.

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02.15.18 | SN&R | 7

Protestors delivered one-minute speeches, hooted and hollered outside California’s only public forum regarding President Donald Trump’s offshore oil drilling plan.

Photo by Nicole Fowler

Oil and water Trump scientists find California hostile to renewed possibility of offshore drilling

by Eric Johnson

An extended version of this story is available at www.newsreview. com/sacramento this story was made possible by a grant from tower cafe.

Brian Jordan, a marine archaeologist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, must have drawn the short straw. Stationed at the first stop in a series of information tables lining the walls in the high-ceiling Galleria of the Sacramento Public Library, he found himself surrounded by angry ocean-defenders.

It had been just over a month since President Donald Trump announced that his administration would revoke an Obama-era ban on offshore oil drilling.

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His Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, vowed to open 90 percent of U.S. coastal waters to energy companies, and to auction leases off the coast of California for the first time since 1984.

This was to be the only public hearing scheduled to take place in California.

That fact alone outraged environmentalists. Many of the folks who were insistently prodding Jordan also expressed frustration at the structure of this hearing, which was billed as an “open house.” They had come to voice their

e r ic j@ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

concerns, yet there was no microphone nor anyone whose job it was to listen.

Instead: a string of information stations, each manned by a BOEM staffer, and tables full of laptops equipped to collect comments.

Megan Robbins, who had traveled from Bodega Bay, pressed Jordan, seeming to want him to explain the reasoning behind the government’s plan.

“There are already so many forms of life that are endangered right now,” she said. “There is already so much chemical

pollution. The oil companies already have record profits.”

But Jordan was not there to address the logic of the president’s decision—his task was to describe his agency’s bureaucratic process and help folks navigate the room.

He explained that the purpose of the meeting was to collect public comments about the “Section 18 factors that that go into the development of the oil and gas leasing program.” These apparently include “eight factors that Secretary Zinke is charged by Congress to take into consideration.” Jordan explained that this was all part of the public scoping process for the National Environmental Policy Act, “and that is actually to solicit information on the environmental impacts and environmental areas that we should be looking at that rise to the level of ‘significant.’” Robbins eventually shrugged and gave up.

Calm but with eyebrows slightly clenched, Jordan faced the small mob, looking and sounding every bit the part of a government scientist. “We have scientists here that work on all sorts of ocean

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Panic rOOms issues,” he said, gesturing toward dozens of folks wearing the same blue golf shirt he wore. Not one person gathered in a tight half-circle around him seemed the least bit satisfied. But what were they to do?

“I’m a fisher, a hunter, a traditional gatherer from the ocean,” she said. “Our tribe depends on the wealth and health of the ocean. We respond to the seasons of the ocean rather than a calendar. When we have events in our tribe—somebody For a marine archaeologist with an who’s passing, or a roundhouse openadvanced degree in wood science (who ing—our culture dictates that we have has focused on wooden shipwrecks for traditional food. We don’t go to Safeway. most of his career), Jordan did a damn You need to have traditional knowledge good job of diffusing an angry crowd’s to go out and get the fish. You need to initial response to what Blake know how to prepare it and Kopcho of the Center for also how to give—a lot Biological Diversity of people don’t even says was a deliberate understand the act of effort to deflect giving from your protest. heart rather than “All of these duty.”

BOEM processes Stevenson was used to be actual disappointed that public events,” the government Kopcho said. representatives “Even the lease would not be John Laird sales were open hearing public California Secretary for Natural to the public. Now comments, but glad Resources they are conduced for the opportunity to with sealed bids decided share her message with behind closed doors.” the hundreds of activists A bit later I asked Jordan at a “citizens public hearing” how it feels as a scientist to be working organized by the Center for Biological hostile to science.

Diversity and other environmental groups.

“I agree that’s the public perception,” Speaking the day after the event, he said, “and I’m not going to weigh in John Laird, California’s Secretary for on that. I can tell you that we have not Natural Resources, said he too was disapbeen asked to curtail any of our science, pointed—if not surprised—by the way or to speak in a certain way. I think the BOEM structured the meeting. Laird is secretary knows that if we don’t provide one of a cadre of lawmakers and activists him with the best available science, then who have successfully fought offshore oil it can be challenged in court. And so leasing since the 1980s. He recalls attendour job is to make sure that he has that ing a public hearing in Fort Bragg in information that he needs.”

1988, while he was serving on the Santa While we were speaking, a group of Cruz City Council. protesters, maybe 30, marched into the “They said they would listen to everyroom chanting and clapping: “Where’s body that wanted to speak,” he recalled, the hearing?! Where’s the hearing?!” “and that meeting went a full 24 hours. I As the crowd grew and the chants remember driving up Highway 1, up the became louder and faster, Jordan ignored Noyo River into town, and there were the bedlam and patiently described a all these schoolkids dressed as starfish process that would open virtually the marching in to testify. It was what yesterentire outer continental shelf, including day should have been.” millions of acres off the California coast, Laird said the arguments that he was to the most profitable and destructive making back then still hold. “I would companies in the world. always say if there was just an increase in fuel efficiency of one mile per gallon, at a protest on the north steps of the it would more than equal anything that Capitol that preceded a march to the could be gotten from offshore on the library, Atta Stevenson stood with a halfWest Coast. And when you fast forward dozen fellow water protectors holding a 30 years, two things that have changed: colorful banner. A veteran of nine months One is that the oceans acidified at a much at Standing Rock, she is a member of the more rapid level than we predicted. And Cahto Tribe in Laytonville, an hour north the other is California has gotten so much of Ukiah. more efficient. We are set to meet our

“California has to prepare itself on every level in opposition.”

goals of getting 33 percent of our electricity from renewables. And that is the place that we need to go, rather than more offshore drilling.”

Laird says that he met Zinke met after Trump appointed him, and offshore oil did not come up. Now, he says, the state must resist.

“California has to prepare itself on every level in opposition,” he said.

“That means legally—laying out every environmental concern in a way that is on the record. And educating people, because this is an issue that does cross party lines in different states. We can bond with other states and municipalities across the country in a way that could build a broad coalition in opposition.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Laird also has hope that the Trump administration might listen to reason. He says Gov. Jerry Brown called Zinke to ask that California be granted the same exemption Florida was given.

“The governor even invited him to come out to California to see for himself, and it sounded like there was interest,” Laird added. “If you’ll recall, 1988 was the last time a Republican carried California. And George H. W. Bush agreed to a moratorium during that period. So that kind of pressure does work.” elise Brewin was the only person i spoke with last week who felt that the open house worked.

“At first I was thrown off—it was like we were being herded around in circles,” she said. “But I feel like I’ve had some good conversations with the people who are going to actually be doing this work.

I would say about half the people I talked to really heard me, and the other half were just doing a job. I think one petroleum engineer was a little irritated.

“I was saying that I didn’t think there was any amount of money in the world that could offset the costs that would result from taking more oil out of the ground—the idea that these leases that would somehow benefit us just seems nonsensical to me. But when I asked him about his children, he was lovely.

“I teach sixth grade, so obviously I’m focused on that. I feel angry at what’s been handed to them. I don’t have a choice about being political. If I don’t pay attention to climate change, I’m political.

If I do, I’m political. There’s no choice to just sit in my little corner and have a happy life.” Ω

After hearing disturbing accounts of sexual harassment from the female hotel workers who survived them, Sacramento County leaders last week adopted the first protections in the state for this vulnerable profession.

The Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve the Sacramento County Hotel Worker Protection Act on February 6, following multiple stories detailing harassment, some going as far back as 20 years. Speaking through a translator, hotel worker Julia Gonzales told supervisors of an encounter on the job that left her shaken.

“I knocked on the door and asked for the guest,” Gonzales recalled. “He told me to come in and just clean the bathroom. He got close to me when I was picking up the towels, and when I looked he was naked.”

Gonzales said she dropped her things and fled the room immediately.

Sacramento County’s new ordinance—set to take effect February 27—will require hotels with at least 25 rooms to arm hotel and motel employees with a portable panic button or notification device to immediately alert security of inappropriate activity. In addition to the devices, subject lodgings are required to develop, maintain and comply with a written sexual harassment policy.

As drafted, the new protections will apply to approximately 24 of the 32 hotels in the unincorporated county.

The hospitality industry has played a central role in the Me Too movement, starting with disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose multidecade run of unwanted sexual advances and assaults often took place in high-end hotel rooms. On the same day that Sacramento County adopted its hotel worker protections, steve Wynn resigned as CEO and chairman of Wynn Resorts amid sexual harassment allegations that also reportedly spanned decades at his Las Vegas hotel empire.

District 4 Supervisor Sue Frost was the lone vote against the ordinance. Although supportive of the concept, she insisted the county should defer until California lawmakers establish a framework at the state level. (Richard Ramos)

ridesHare On tHe cHeaP Transit systems aren’t generally described as fast, convenient and high-tech. Citrus Heights wants to change that.

On February 12, city leaders officially launched a new public transportation system, a ridership experience they hope will be flexible and affordable. The new prototype system is called SmaRT Ride. It will be a joint venture of Sacramento Regional Transit, Citrus Heights and TransLoc, a North Carolina provider of software applications and phone apps.

The prototype service, used in concert with smartphones or computers, allows for pick-up and drop-off via a small shuttle-type van. City leaders say the “demand-responsive” service will be on par with high-tech competitors like lyft and uber, while being delivered for substantially less cost, as fees range from $1.35 to $2.75 per trip.

Users can request a ride through landlines as well.

In a city with limited bus access and no light-rail connections, Citrus Heights leaders hope the experimental service is successful enough to start its own riding revolution. If the initiative takes off, phase two would expand into Orangevale and Folsom. SacRT CEO Henry Li called the service his agency’s attempt to lead the way for “a new frontier in the transit industry.” (Mark Heckey) This story was made possible by a grant from Tower Cafe.

02.15.18 | SN&R | 9

Tamika L’Ecluse spends a morning in South Land Park.

Photo by Scott thomaS anderSon

Next lesson Oak Park’s Renaissance woman makes a run in District 5

by Scott thomaS anderSon

How does one balance being a full-time parent, education innovator, civil rights activist, community health worker and leader in one of Sacramento’s neighborhood associations?

If it were easy, Tamika L’Ecluse probably wouldn’t have been named Assembly District 7’s Woman of the Year.

When L’Ecluse accepted the honor in the state Capitol last March, the 37-yearold mother of two reacted with a modest smile. And while lawmakers that day celebrated what L’Ecluse has done on the regional level, it’s Sacramento City Council’s District 5 where she’s about to make her stand.

L’Ecluse is challenging eight-year incumbent Councilman Jay Schenirer, a man whose feuds with developer Paul Petrovich and watchdog group Eye on Sacramento have garnered enough press to cloud his reputation as a razor-sharp policy wonk and youth advocate. For L’Ecluse, who’s spent her career finding ways to connect with and inspire children, leading through confrontation runs counter to her instincts.

10 | SN&R | 02.15.18

“You have to embrace the fact that people are going to have a different opinion,” she says. “I know it’s something we all struggle with as human beings, but if you’re truly leading in a way that’s fair, just and transparent, you have nothing to be afraid of.”

It’s a point L’Ecluse is careful to make without singling out Schenirer. She wants her campaign to run on positive platforms that make residents feel empowered—not distracted. And living in Sacramento her whole life has convinced L’Ecluse change is needed in the areas that have suffered from decades of neglect and disinvestment. The district is a collage of neighborhoods in varying states of flux, from Oak Park’s gentrification struggles to violence in South Oak Park and increased homelessness in South Land Park.

To her, these communities feel far removed from Schenirer’s backroom development battles and grousing about EOS’ public records requests. She says it’s time to start listening to the people who feel they don’t have a voice—and time to give them one.

sc o tta @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

“Being raised by a single parent on public assistance, living in apartments and not knowing where my next meal was coming from, making that really difficult choice when I was young between going to school or working two jobs to pay the rent, I think all those things bring a fresh perspective and a different look at how to create policy,” she told SN&R. L’Ecluse’s first taste of fighting for a better California came when she was 20. She was working as a downtown server and becoming more aware of the discrimination her friends in the LGBTQ community faced nearly every day.

When the state got embroiled in a clash over Proposition 22, a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, L’Ecluse joined the campaign against it, posting fliers, helping publish op-eds and organizing meetings aimed at mobilizing young voters. After Prop. 22 temporarily became law, she learned there were other ways to make an impact. L’Ecluse hosted a weekly deaf awareness night at the Town House for members of

Sacramento’s gay and lesbian community. Its success prompted her to start taking sign language classes, which serendipitously sparked a passion for early childhood education.

L’Ecluse graduated from the National Center for Montessori Education in 2006 and spent the next 10 years as a preschool teacher. Over time she developed an expertise in positive discipline, a teaching approach that looks to help kids explore their sense of belonging and significance.

Meanwhile, in her free time, she developed the unusual hobby of hauling gloves, buckets and trash-pickers out to McClatchy Park.

“They called it ‘Needle Park’ at the time,” she recalls. “I didn’t want to sit back and say, ‘that’s unfortunate’ or ‘that’s the city’s job.’” With a laugh, she adds, “But people were like, ‘You just go around picking up trash?’”

This self-starting volunteerism got L’Ecluse invited to join the Oak Park Neighborhood Association, where she eventually served as president.

In 2016, L’Ecluse transitioned from teaching children to trying to save their lives. That’s when the Greater Sacramento Urban League hired her to be Oak Park’s program manager for the Black Child Legacy Campaign, a regionwide initiative to address disproportionate infant morality rates. L’Ecluse says she’ll never forget June 24, 2017, when a woman eight months pregnant was caught in a hail of gunfire at Memorial Park. As doctors were inducing labor, L’Ecluse arrived at the hospital to help the family with whatever community outreach was needed. Looking at that tiny baby—a shivering miracle of survival—reminded L’Ecluse of both the city’s tragedy and its communal toughness.

“I think the most profound lesson from the Black Child Legacy Campaign is how deep some of this trauma goes, in some cases generations prior to what we’re responding to,” she says. “But I also learned that there are people here that, no matter how bad or ugly things get, will always be there. And that’s what it takes, us handling these things together. If we’re brave enough to go outside those lines people define for us, then we can really help others.” Ω

wrote to LAFCO in August. “However, given the very large supply of housing entitlements in the rest of the region, and Elk Grove’s current high ratio of housing to jobs, we do not foresee a need for land in the [sphere of influence] for housing for many years.”

Other agencies raised red flags about Elk Grove’s growth, as well.

In letters, the Sacramento County Water Agency indicated its water holdings are already spoken for; the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District said it didn’t have the facilities to handle sewage there; Fish and Jim Pachl and other environmentalists urged LAFCO not to open the door to development Wildlife questioned whether area wildwith existing vacant land in Elk Grove. life conservation goals could be met; and the Sacramento County Farm Bureau Photo by Michael Mott worried that more urban development could drive out existing agricultural businesses.

LAFCO commissioners Ron Greenwood, Susan Peters, Sue Frost and Patrick Hume voted in favor of expandNarrow vote allows city to start considering southern ing Elk Grove’s canvas. Commissioners Angelique Ashby, Rex Harrison and Gay development of farmland, wildlife habitat Jones cast dissenting votes. Hume, an Elk Grove City Council member, said

by Michael Mott this was an opportunity for his city to control its fate.

“Elk Grove has been the whipping post for land use planning for decades,” concerned about Elk Grove’s rapid ‘We need more land,’ it’s a joke.”

A regional body of elected officials and he said at the meeting. “We’re trying to growth snowballing into sprawl. Even Those who supported redrawing Elk residents narrowly approved opening be in charge of our own destiny.” before the annexation, the city possessed Grove’s urban boundary characterize this the door to development that farmers This isn’t the first attempt at expandat least 1,800 acres of undeveloped land. as a local-control issue that could help and environmentalists say could threaten ing Elk Grove’s canvas. In 2013, LAFCO “We’re not opposed to development,” relieve the region’s housing crisis and the wildlife habitats and conservation efforts rejected a bid to bring 8,000 acres into said Jim Pachl, a co-founder of Friends city’s jobs-to-housing ratio. south of Elk Grove. the city’s sphere of influence. The of the Swainson’s Hawk and former Elk “This will allow the city of Elk Grove On February 7, the Sacramento Local governing body suggested the city set its to go to the next step,” developer Gerry Area Formation Commission, or LAFCO, Grove resident. “It has to happen in some sights lower, which ultimately led to last way. But there is unused land.”

Kamilos, who brought the proposal with approved landowners’ bid to expand week’s approval.

Pachl’s group estimated the amount of developer Martin Feletto, told commisElk Grove’s “sphere of influence” by LAFCO also approved Folsom’s undeveloped land in Elk Grove is actusioners last week. “It’s going to be the 1,156 acres, which could lead to a formal request to annex 3,520 acres in 2012. The ally closer to 4,000 acres and includes city of Elk Grove that brings the annexaannexation and development process. city is actively planning to develop the “in-development” projects that have sat tion request [if there is one], not us. It The commissioners’ 4-3 approval came acreage with housing and commercial stagnant for years. will be a community process with with an environmental impact report real estate.

A day before the vote, Pachl many studies that ultimately that warned development could cause “Sprawl is the story gazed over fields home to threatened result in a mitigation “significant and unavoidable impacts” to of Sacramento,” said Swainson’s hawks, a raptor that often program.” wildlife, habitats and groundwater.

Pachl, who has served nests between Sacramento and Modesto.

A different The move broadens Elk Grove’s on the boards of the Elk Grove’s untouched grasslands feed regional planability to expand to its south, near Sierra Club and the predatory bird, whose population ning body, the Highway 99 and Kammerer Road, where Bay Conservation fell from a historic 17,136 breeding pairs Sacramento city officials are bullish about a plan to and Development to 941 pairs in 2009, according to the Area Council of connect Interstate 5 and State Route 99 Commission. “I California Department of Fish and Game. Governments, says south of Elk Grove to Highway 50 in have no idea if they Sandhill cranes, burrowing owls and Elk Grove already El Dorado Hills. The idea is to carve a Jim Pachl actually want to build other species would also be threatened by has enough land to direct highway channel between these co-founder, Friends of the or just sell to the next development, the EIR states. build housing. two distant communities, populating the Swainson’s Hawk guy. Often, projects Gesturing to the site of the proposed “We agree Elk distance between them with hundreds of are approved and later Wilton Rancheria Indian casino near Grove may need land new homes and businesses. sold again and again until a the expanded sphere of influence, Pachl outside the current city limits While no specific annexation or sugar-daddy developer finally builds added, “This is all zoned for developat some point beyond 2036,” Kacey development requests have been made, something.” Ω ment. … When we hear Elk Grove say Lizon, SACOG’s planning manager, the possibility alarmed environmentalists

Expanding Elk Grove

this story was made possible by a grant from tower cafe.

“Sprawl is the story of Sacramento.”

02.15.18 | SN&R | 11

K POP AT

A Sacramento sickness by jeff vonkaenel

je ffv @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

out competitors and using nonprofit tax As I was reading Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal’s book, An American Sickness: advantages to maximize their income.

According to Rosenthal, the “grand How Healthcare Became Big Business master” of a hospital system that has and How You Can Take It Back, I increased rates by consolidating different thought about my dad, who was a family hospitals is Sacramento’s own Sutter doctor in a little town in Northern Ohio Health. until he sold his practice and moved to “The existence of one dominant California in 1964. healthcare system in a region can result Shortly after we moved, I was riding in price increases as high as 40 to 50 in the car, alone with my dad. This was percent,” Rosenthal writes. In 2013, a somewhat unique experience, as there California’s Valued Trust, a public were six kids in our family. Dad told employees benefits provider, found me that the doctor who bought his Ohio that Sutter hospitals “represented seven practice had doubled his income. This of the ten most expensive hospitals in sounded like a good thing. But I saw my California.” According to a June 2017 father’s sad face. So I asked, “How did article in the Sacramento Bee, “The he double the income?” highest-paid nonprofit CEO Just then, we pulled into in the region in 2015 a parking space. My dad was Sutter Health’s looked at me with a Patrick Fry, who very sincere expresThe “grand master” earned about $7.5 sion, put his hand of a hospital system million in pay and on my knee and benefits.” said, “I think you that has increased rates One does not have the flu, but by consolidating different need to be a brain I just want to run hospitals is Sacramento’s surgeon to know some tests to make that America’s sure.” own Sutter Health. health care system Having resisted is screwed up, costing family pressure, I am more than other countries not a doctor. But even I for worse coverage. So, know that if the flu is going what should we do? Rosenthal has around, most people do not need some suggestions for what people can expensive tests. I also know that, if the doctor suggested these tests, the working- do to protect themselves from an out-ofcontrol health care system. The first step class parents of my classmates in Ohio is to have more transparency. Let people would have acquiesced. My dad was know what things cost. Let market forces ashamed that he had sold his practice to do their job. someone who would take advantage of Patients, taxpayers and employers their patients just to make more money. in the Sacramento region pay approxiAccording to Dr. Rosenthal, a mately 20 billion dollars for health care. longtime New York Times senior writer, Rosenthal believes, and I agree, that with America has a $3 trillion health care better information on prices and quality, system made up of doctors, hospitals, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, we would all make better choices.

If your business or organization all using their white coats, campaign would like to utilize N&R Publications to donations, market concentration and educate Sacramento health care consumlobbyists to run the health care system in ers, please get in touch. I would like to such a way as to maximize profit. make my dad proud. Ω Since hospital costs represent 40 to 50 percent of our country’s health care bill, much of Rosenthal’s book focused Jeff vonKaenel is the president, CEO and majority on hospitals. Hospitals can use various owner of the News & Review. methods such as billing practices, buying 12 | SN&R | 02.15.18

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Nutria are 20-pound, 2.5-foot-long rodents with yellow buck teeth, and they’ve been discovered in the San Joaquin Valley. Bad news: These semi-aquatic rats destroy up to 10 times the vegetation they consume, contaminate drinking water with diseases and wreck farms, levees and wetlands. In a year, a female can produce 200 offspring, which can disperse 50 miles. A multi-agency “Nutria Response Team” is formulating an eradication plan, the first step being to determine the spread of these creatures. Keep an eye out. Like the mafia, California will suffer if it’s infiltrated by dirty, stinking rats.

Folsom High School won the 38th Sacramento County Academic Decathlon on February 3. They beat out 19 other teams on a variety of subjects centered around this year’s theme, “Africa,” a very worthy topic of study considering President Trump’s wholesale dismissal of the continent. The state finals are next month, and so, scorekeeper offers the nerd’s blessing: May You Be Tested on Only the Questions for Which You Have Studied, Amen.

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Our extinct biological cousin the Neanderthal hunted Neanderthal hunted tamer, less skittish prey (horses, reindeer, bison) than reindeer, bison) than early humans (zebras, hippo, Cape buffalo), according buffalo), according to a new study by UC Davis. But over 500,000 years,

humans developed bigger, better brains to bring down their more wary and dangerous prey, eventually leading to leading to

S AC RA M E NTO M US I C AWA R DS

our ability to share mental images through drawing, a through drawing, a crucial advantage over our thicker-browed relatives. thicker-browed relatives.

So in short, getting better at violence led to our ability led to our ability to create art. That’s as human as it gets. gets.

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As the MLS continues to play hard-to-get with its final expansion spot, Sacramento Republic FC will host the 2016 MLS Cup Champions, Seattle Sounders FC, on February 15 at 7:30pm in Papa Murphy’s Park. The Sounders are what the Republic could be, if we can come up with the $200-million-plus needed to make the leap to the next level. republic matches are a cracking good time, and the public shouldn’t be forced pay this hefty price. Hopefully, somebody with nine figures lying around attends this game, gets bonked by an errant ball and decides to be Sactown’s soccer savior.

El-Dorado-Hills-based gaming studio AppA11y, Inc., has debuted a voice-assisted platform that allows those with visual impairments to play six mobile games— including one that Scorekeeper calls dibs on as an band name: Battle Cats. Available in seven languages, the games ought to allow the estimated 10 million Americans who are visually impaired to compete against players around the world and fritter away downtime just like anybody else.

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Photo by Jon hermison

“I want to help. … I don’t want to just die.”

John Gay will not be one of the many Sacramentans experiencing homelessness with no place to die.

14 | SN&R | 02.15.18

Joh n Gay

writer-in-residence, Joshua’s house

A

A

fter becoming homeless in his late 50s, John Gay said, he got drunk one night in Denver and fell asleep on a light-rail train to stay out of the freezing winter cold. When he awoke, he was arrested for trespassing, one of six misdemeanor charges against him (four with active warrants), according to the Denver County Court. Facing jail time, Gay said, he ducked out of town and bounced between Sacramento and his home state of Louisiana, looking for a place to stay—all while dealing with a terminal case of multiple myeloma.

A little under two years later, on December 20, 2017, he sits at a board meeting for Joshua’s House, a proposed hospice center for those who are terminally ill and have no place to die. In addition to eventually becoming one of the first residents of Joshua’s House, he’ll also be the honorary “writerin-residence,” documenting his and others’ lives for posterity. As a member of the advisory board, Gay and another formerly homeless person, Dee Marie Chavez, provide the crucial perspective of the population Joshua’s House aims to serve.

“I want to help,” Gay said. “I don’t want to just die.”

Alongside Gay and Chavez, there’s an advertising executive, a Sister of Mercy, an artist and a variety of health-care honchos who have gathered to hear a status report from Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, the tireless engine behind the project. Later in the meeting, von Friederichs-Fitzwater showcases the blueprint for the dormitory that can house 16 to 20 people and allow them to end their lives in a tranquil space with loads of natural light, abundant greenery and 100-year-old wooden trusses that would be the envy of any interior decorator.

After months of work, Joshua’s House has reached a critical point in its development: von Fredrichs-Fitzwater has lined up the political and logistical support to make the project happen. But despite several fundraising endeavors that are either completed or underway, more donations are needed to reach a $903,000 goal that she expects to hit by the end of March. Even if the capital comes through, the almost unprecedented project begs the question: Will those experiencing homelessness use it?

These uncertainties aside, last month’s meeting

home before death This Sacramento coalition wants to build a hospice for terminally ill homeless people was a cause for celebration as von FriederichsFitzwater informed the board that they’re in escrow on the future site of Joshua’s House, at 1501 North C Street, a historic warehouse that was the home of the Sacred City Derby Girls, which has generously ceded the space despite lacking another place to play.

After von Friederichs-Fitzwater answered a peppering of questions, the board unanimously approved the blueprint—like most people do when they hear of her project. Already, she has the support of Congresswoman Doris Matsui, county Supervisor Phil Serna, Mayor Darrell Steinberg, area Councilman Jeff Harris and Sister Libby Fernandez of Mercy Pedalers.

Recently retired after 18 years of teaching health communication at UC Davis, von FriederichsFitzwater has been working 14-hour days in the hopes of making Joshua’s House a nationwide model.

Her reasons for doing so are personal: In 2014, her grandson died on the streets of Omaha, Neb. His name was Joshua.

Names of the dead One day after the board meeting, dozens gathered in the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral to pay their respects to the 112 homeless people who passed away in Sacramento County in 2017.

For people like Felicia, only a first name was known. Another, Buelna, didn’t even make it to her first birthday. Rudy F. Reynoso died outside at 73 years old. In the four years that the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness has convened this interfaith memorial, it was by far the most names ever read, outpacing 2016 by 41 dead homeless neighbors. After each name had echoed off the church walls, Pastor Joy Johnson, board chair of Sacramento Area Congregations Together, contextualized the importance of this ritual.

“It is believed by some that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken,” she said. “That is to say that people only die when we forget them. So if we can remember those who have walked on, off of this physical reality and onto a spiritual one, they will remain with us always.”

Joshua’s House would aim to lower the number of names read in the years to come, but it’s not the first such facility in America. That distinction belongs

to The Inn Between in Salt Lake City.

Started in 2015 by executive director Kim Correa and Deborah Thorpe, a cancer nurse practitioner, The Inn Between opened with the mission of stopping the “tragedy of about 50 people dying on Salt Lake City area streets annually,” its website states.

When guests are first admitted to the hospice, Correa said, they retain the hardened demeanor that was necessary for survival. But as they settle in and realize the true intentions of The Inn Between’s staff and volunteers, they begin to soften and trust.

In addition to providing meals, companionship and emotional support, The Inn Between offers music therapy, acupuncture, salon services and other features. Similar to Pastor Johnson’s goal of keeping a person alive through memory, the staff posts free obituaries on their website for each resident who passes away. But before then, Correa said, she tries to help residents reconnect with family members who may not have heard from them in years.

One man, John Lukaszewioz—a former engineer who Correa said “lost everything” after becoming addicted to painkillers, then heroin—resisted these efforts for months until he instructed the staff to call his 92-year-old mother.

“John could not talk but heard his mother say, ‘I love you and I forgive you,’” Correa recalled. “We told her he loves you, too, although he cannot say it.

We could tell by the look on his face. She had not heard from him in 25 years.”

With stories like this, Correa said, it’s odd to remember that their original proposal to the City

by Joh n F lynn

Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater shows off plans for Joshua’s House. photo courtesy Marlene von friederichs-fitzwater

“A home before death”

Continued on page 16

02.15.18 | SN&R | 15

Continued from page 15

“A home before death”

Council prompted a backlash as local residents imagined a “worst case scenario,” wherein the hospice would act as a magnet for those experiencing homelessness.

This experience led von Friederichs-Fitzwater to secure political support before embarking on the construction of Joshua’s House, but Correa said the concerns of the NIMBYs didn’t end up happening. The Inn Between has operated for two years without a problem, Correa said.

But if Joshua’s House gets built, will homeless people Above and right: come? One of its board members is skeptical.

Before securing housing, Dee Chavez lived for schematics of years in an encampment along the river where she the proposed developed family-like bonds with the residents—who pride themselves on their independence.

Joshua’s House.

Chavez said that many prefer to live in the encampment as a result of growing used to the photos courtesy Marlene von friederichs-fitzwater lifestyle, distrusting formal institutions and finding a sense of belonging among their fellow community members—the people they’d want around them in their final moments.

“How many people do I know would go [to Joshua’s House]? Not many,” Chavez said. “They’d rather just die on the river. Because that’s their home.”

Still, she believes in the project’s merit. And The Inn Between’s results prove a project like Joshua’s House should have a quantifiable purpose.

From its founding to December 2017, the Utah hospice has Je ff Harri s provided 10,960 nights of housing and allowed Sacramento city council member 37 people to experience the end of their lives with dignity, Correa said, adding that their yearly budget is about $500,000.

And if that sum seems high for the moral worth of this work, she noted that financially, The Inn Between saves thousands of dollars by eliminating the need for ambulance rides and expensive hospital stays.

Like The Inn Between, Joshua’s House would ease the morally difficult situation of hospitals having to release terminally ill people to the streets, where their health declines much faster. Loaves & Fishes and Elica Health Center’s street team, which provide direct medical services to those experiencing homelessness, have both tried street-side hospice care, but found it expensive and inefficient.

16 | SN&R | 02.15.18

“Your final crowning

achievement of life is death,

and I don’t think anybody deserves to die really poorly in the bushes, gut-wrenchingly

sick from chemo.”

And yet, even in Salt Lake City, which has a smaller homeless population than Sacramento, Correa said, they’ve been at 99 percent capacity since January 2017 and are seeking a larger space than their 16-bed facility due to the “long” wait list.

For Correa, anything is better than nothing.

“It is inhumane to have someone die on the streets,” she said. “It is inhumane for someone to suffer with a disease where every day it becomes more painful, and they become more afraid and more anxious. Providing a place for individuals who have nowhere else to go is the least we can do as a society.”

Defiantly terminal Von Friederichs-Fitzwater knows how it feels when death is near. After stints at the Los Angeles Times, then Disney, she was working on a master’s degree in journalism when she got a call from her doctor on a Friday afternoon. He told her she had advanced cervical cancer.

“My commute was about 45 minutes, and I have no recollection of how I got home,” she said. “I panicked. There was no one really to raise my kids.

I was the sole breadwinner. I was told I was going to die. And in my head, I’m going, ‘Nope, sorry, can’t die right now. Not on your schedule.’”

A single mother in her late 30s at the time, she started treatment immediately, continuing to grade papers as a teacher’s assistant to provide for her children, even as she was “throwing [her] guts up” from the chemotherapy.

As her prognosis worsened, she grew frustrated as doctors and nurses distanced themselves from her, seeing her worsening health as a failure they didn’t want to reckon with. She said she nearly “decked” her surgeon when he dismissed her preoperative questions. But the visits by her family physician were much more appreciated.

“He made a point to come in and just sit on the bed and talk to me,” she said. “And the first time he did that, when it was looking really, really bad, he took my hands, and said, ‘This is shit, isn’t it?’ And he and I sat there and cried. And that was more comforting and meaningful to me than anything else.”

She vowed that if she recovered, she would devote herself to studying and improving the communication between medical providers and patients. Eventually, due to a combination of surgery, medication and an admittedly out-there meditation technique where she visualized cancer and attacked it in her mind—she survived.

She promptly switched her focus from journalism to the brand-new field of health communication.

She taught at UC Davis for years until her grandson Joshua’s passing gave her a new calling.

To generate ideas for Joshua’s House, she conducted over 150 interviews with people experiencing homelessness, eventually meeting John Gay. Gay became homeless for reasons that he attributes to a combination of circumstances and bad choices. Born in a part of Louisiana nicknamed “Cancer Alley” for the high concentration of refineries, Gay said, he worked as a chef and a foreman for the majority of his life.

“I ran a crew,” he said. “I made motherfuckers hate me because I drove them. And I would take homeless

Sacramento coalition wants to build a hospice for terminally ill homeless people people to a restaurant and feed them and talk to them, but I would never give them money because I bought into all the bullshit stereotypes: ‘I’m not giving some drunk money. I work too hard for mine.’ But not all homeless people [are like] that.”

In 2014, he said, he was struck by a car driven by a woman who didn’t have insurance, leaving him with over $100,000 in medical bills that he “didn’t even try to pay.” This ruined his credit and emptied his savings. Unable to rent an apartment, he recovered in hotel rooms for up to $350 a week. He tried to return to work as a lift operator on a construction site, but eventually the lingering effects from the collision took their toll.

Councilman Harris said he receives dozens of emails and calls a week from constituents upset about the presence and conduct of those experiencing homelessness. He said the gist of these messages is “Councilmember, make it go away, don’t charge me, and don’t put any of them near me.”

Due to the prevalence of homelessness, Harris said, he spends roughly half his time working on solutions, like his Micropad proposal that would build tiny homes. But amid the difficult logistics of resolving the issue, Harris sees Joshua’s House as a necessary piece of the puzzle that he’s “more than 100 percent behind.” For Harris, who said he spent the last three months of his mother’s life as

“My legs wouldn’t let me get out of bed,” he said.

“Tears were coming down my eyes walking home from work. I was in so much pain.”

He then got covered through the Affordable Care Act, which allowed him to pay for the doctor’s appointment where he learned of his terminal cancer. Meanwhile, he rented a bunk at a Salvation Army for $60 a week, working just enough to earn his rent, but sacrificing his disability check. Gay acknowledged these were tough circumstances, but added that if he had been, say, a devout, tithespaying member of the Latter-day Saints, he may have been able to keep his bunk.

“Well, drinking got me thrown out of that place,” he said. “And anyhow … it’s important to realize, if I went to a Mormon church and gave my 10 percent, my life would be a little different.”

Once he lost his spot at the shelter, Gay said, he moved back to Denver where he was arrested for sleeping in public. When he ducked out of town, he eventually found housing thanks to friends and a network of Sacramento service providers.

her hospice worker, Joshua’s House establishes Sacramento’s baseline of compassion.

“Everybody deserves to die with dignity,” he said.

“Everybody. I don’t care what kind of issues you’re packing around. Your final crowning achievement of life is death and I don’t think anybody deserves to die really poorly in the bushes, gut-wrenchingly sick from chemo. It doesn’t work for me at all.”

Something that lives on For years, the future site of Joshua’s House has hosted tattooed women throwing each other around an oval rink. But as the Sacred City Derby Girls merge with the Sac City Rollers and search for a new location, their old home will undergo a dramatic transformation.

Featuring 20 bedrooms, a kitchen, a chapel, a multipurpose living room, a library, a laundry room, treatment spaces and plentiful skylights, Joshua’s House will cater to the requests mentioned in the dozens of

interviews von Friederichs-Fitzwater conducted with those who may one day need a final place to sleep.

Built with assistance from HomeAid and legal counsel from the Thomas Law Group, the facility will have a lobby backed by a burbling waterfall and an interior filled with trees, vines and bushes. The natural touches serve a dual purpose as they ward off the vibe of a sterile hospital, while also catering to prospective residents who said they enjoyed their proximity to nature while living outside.

Located near Friendship Park and Loaves & Fishes, residents will be able to bring their pets, take day trips and host visitors. There will be about six staff members, including an onsite couple that will stay at Joshua’s House overnight. The workers will be supplemented with more than 100 volunteers to do everything from walking dogs to reading books to assisting with some of the minor care needs Joshua’s House will provide.

The advisory board has also assigned a small task force to work out all the specific policies and procedures for operating a basically unprecedented facility. So far, one policy is ironclad: Since the need for housing is so great, prospective residents must be referred by a medical professional who has diagnosed them with a terminal condition.

“This way we know we’re reaching the right people,” von Friederichs-Fitzwater said. “We can’t have somebody off the street going, ‘I’m dying,’ and give them a bed. I wish we could!”

But unlike some other service providers, a prospective resident’s financial situation and history of arrests or substance use won’t factor much into their acceptance (although no alcohol or drug use will be permitted on the grounds). This sort of philosophy is one that Gay wishes was more widespread.

“If it wasn’t for lifelines, we would drown,” he said. “And you can’t be so paranoid to think that everyone you throw a lifeline to is going to hustle you. Then you’re going to quit throwing lifelines and you’re letting a bunch of innocent people drown.”

Using the input from her interviews, von Friederichs-Fitzwater has filled out the facility with features to ensure that her residents’ final days can be full. They’ll offer guest lectures, restful treatment like acupuncture and massages and instruction in music, art and writing to give residents the chance to leave something tangible behind after they’ve passed.

“Homeless people, most of them, feel like they’re invisible,” von Friederichs-Fitzwater said. “That people don’t even recognize that they exist. One of their biggest fears is dying alone on the street and that once they die, they’ll be completely forgotten. So part of what we’re trying to create at Joshua’s House is a way for them to leave a legacy where they won’t be forgotten. They can have something that lives on.”

Some time this year, von Friederichs-Fitzwater said, Joshua’s House should be offering warm beds and more. Hopefully, Gay will be there waiting for them.

“We’re gonna give you a place to die,” Gay said.

“We’re not gonna judge you. We’re gonna love you.

And we’re gonna let you love yourself, in case you haven’t had a chance.” Ω

02.15.18 | SN&R | 17

“I like to play with my desserts, with bitter acidic components that make you get a bite of it and it cleanses your palate and it makes you want to go back in for more.”

Edward Martinez pastry chef, Milk Money

The soon-to-open Milk Money makes funky doughnuts and milkshakes like you’ve never had before 18 | SN&R | 02.15.18

by Rebecca Huval | r e b e c c a h @ n e w sr e v ie w . c om

Milk Money will open up at the Ice Blocks, 1715 R Street, Suite 100.

Follow the shop on Instagram at @milkmoney916.

PRIM AND PROPER PASTRIES See OFF MENU

24

SHAKESPEARE’S WOODS IN WOODLAND See STAGE

27

EMBRACING THAT EMPTY NEST See ASK JOEY

38

51

NATOMAS’ PRINCESS ON ICE See 15 MINUTES

Photos by Jasmine Lazo

T

Queer queen of pop I was not a fan of Laura Pergolizzi, who goes by LP. Before I was invited to see her kick off her North American tour with a sold-out show at Ace of Spades this past Friday, I would have assumed from the name that she was an obscure indie band. But now I’m a super fan: dissecting songs, passing her 100-million-views YouTube videos along to friends and even cultivating more queer pride within myself.

From the minute the crew starts setting up the stage, LP’s diverse sea of fans emits excitement over the slightest lighting shift. And then, 46 chromosomes worth of androgynous perfection, with a gorgeous Bob Dylanesque curly mane, in a burgundy bomber jacket, backed by an incredible band, commits to us instantly. The Long Island-born singer-songwriter has us in her trap.

As she seduces us with her power on “Other People,” the group next to me is sent into a whirlwind of fascination. On “Tightrope,” she offers us hope as the crowd passionately sings along: “Flew down the clouds together, but don’t look down, not ever; don’t ask why, just look out into forever.”

LP grips our attention as she moves from melancholy to utter joy—enchanting lullabies in one song and punk rock pop party in the next. Inciting us to reminisce about an old toxic lover on “Switchblade”: “We were electric, we were wild and free, and I thought you meant it.”

She plays the ukulele intimately, as if it is an extension of her limbs and veins. She’s got moves like Jagger, the heart of a Montague, the wordplay of a young Paul Simon and a femininity all her own. And her voice is like a philharmonic angel you might expect to hear at the pearly gates, but with

enough grit to let you know she’s been through some shit with life and love, and she’s here to tell you it’ll be OK. The sensual, be-yourself anthem “Up Against Me” brings a tone of radical self-acceptance and love. “And don’t believe the government, or anything you read. ‘Cause nothing really matters when you’re up against me.”

“When We’re High” ignites a little THC and invites us to

abandon our defenses and, well, get high.

Her penchant for owning her identity, onstage and in cyberspace, entices her fans, and new ones such as myself, to transmit emotion fearlessly and

Photo by skye cabrera

he ingredient coiling into a pool of powdered “My way of being close to her was to hang out with her sugar and cream is technically banned, but that side of the family,” Martinez says. “The only logical step doesn’t faze pastry scientist Edward Martinez for me was there: gang members, I should become one, because desserts are what saved him from jail.

I should be there, be with them. That’s basically how it Inside Block Butcher Bar’s glass-encased kitchen, happened. It wasn’t the greatest idea.”

Busta Rhymes’ “Break Ya Neck” blasts, and Martinez As a teen, he went to juvenile hall for small-time crimes stirs to the beat like a hip-hop Willy Wonka. The brown like possession of firearms and narcotics. After starting a tonka bean oil swirls into white icing, a tempting snake fistfight with a man flirting with his girlfriend, Martinez that tastes intensely of vanilla and cherry, but it’s a source had two strikes and was staring down a sentence of eight of the deadly chemical coumarin. (So are cinnamon years when he was 20. His dad spent a chunk of money and lavender. Chefs are advocating to lift the on a lawyer, who advised Martinez to give the ban on the bean that’s only as toxic as judge a solid reason to let him out. nutmeg.)

The lawyer asked what brought Mixed with smoked salt and him joy. “I thought about baking maple syrup, the glaze is tinged with Mom when I was little, with citrus but also savory. right before she passed away, The gossamer icing crackles and that’s what made me atop a brioche doughnut happy,” he says. “I told my that’s more like a cake. lawyer, ‘OK, I’ll do the It’s the best fucking culinary school.’ And he doughnut I’ve ever had. was like, ‘Are you seriMartinez jokes, “It’s ous, that’s what you want technically illegal, but to tell him?’” don’t tell people about Martinez spoke it—like drinking and drivhonestly, and the judge ing,” repeating a punchline granted him a shot. he would tell patrons at “He was giving me his previous workplace, the enough rope to hang Michelin-starred San Francisco myself,” he says. “He restaurant Lazy Bear. assumed I was going to get out, Th eB Last year, Martinez moved and I was going to mess up and do ill Mu r ra back to Sacramento from San my years and take those two strikes . s y sp l tze rinkl Francisco to get away from rigid because basically that’s what I was: I d pr e ed with Butterfingers an kitchens chasing after three-star perfection. was a screw-up.”

He was also drawn by the promise of working with Instead, Martinez approached all of his teachers on his friend, chef Brock Macdonald, to run a dessert shop the first week of classes at the Institute of Technology in that could expand to fit the shape of Martinez’s excitable Fresno and asked them how he could be the best. They offered imagination. At the Ice Blocks on R Street, Macdonald to let him come in early and spend extra hours at school. heads up the restaurant Beast + Bouncy, where Martinez “I ended up finishing the top of my class, never missing a serves as the executive pastry chef in addition to LowBrau, single day,” he says. “I never got less than a 98 on anything.”

Block and the much-anticipated “gangster-ass ice cream After graduation, Martinez climbed the restaurant ranks, and doughnut shop” Milk Money. whipping up complicated confections at Napa’s Bistro Ahead of a storefront opening that could be any day Jeanty, Sacramento’s Enotria and Mill Valley’s El Paseo, now, Milk Money has launched a series of pop-ups that among many others. Then, he reached a pinnacle that many have drawn crowds numbering up to 200 people waiting chefs aspire to but never reach. He won a national award in in line on cold mornings. Doughnut hopefuls have been 2016, the StarChefs Rising Star Pastry Chef, before landing driven into a frenzy, sometimes getting frustrated when at Lazy Bear in San Francisco.

Milk Money sells out, as it did in roughly 20 minutes at an Though he enjoyed his success, the city demanded event the morning of the Women’s March. long hours and large sums for rent, and he hardly had “I know our pop-ups are popular, but that was freakin’ time to spend with his children. Martinez had initially ridiculous,” Martinez says. left Sacramento for the Bay Area to learn techniques like His social media followers are drawn by the doughnuts, of fermenting, curing, pickling and “all the classic French course, but they’re also captivated by Martinez’s story. As a stuff.” But even when he was leaving Sacramento, he knew teen, he got cozy with a gang in Fresno and narrowly missed he would come back. going to jail for eight years. Pastry school rescued him.

“In Fresno, I felt like anybody who saw me would automatically judge what I was, and I’d have to blow them away with what I can do in the kitchen off the bat—I UNSAVORY GANG don’t consider Fresno home at all,” he says. “I consider Sacramento home because when I started cooking out here, Martinez says his sweetest childhood memories are of baking Pillsbury boxed cakes with his mother for birthdays. I was accepted right away.”

She died when Martinez was only 7, and his family moved to Fresno to be closer to her relatives who were heavily ARTS&CULTURE CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 involved in gang life.

live far more authentically than appeasing the learned social norms of our genders.

I had read about the moments she spent behind the spotlight, writing songs for artists such as Rihanna and Backstreet Boys and working with the legendary producer Linda Perry. She’s been in the game and

singing her heart out to bi-curious women and their boyfriends for decades. LP is best experienced in the flesh, ’90s style, to comprehend what makes this distinguished talent so valuable.

—Skye Cabrera

02.15.18 | SN&R | 19

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official start time. Ever since his first taste at September’s Sacramento Donut Festival, POWDERED Millard says he’s attended every Milk pop-up.

SUGAR LINES Money “We’ve always been pretty committed The Instagrammers are hungry. For months, to doughnuts,” Millard explains. “These are they’ve watched the #doughnutporn glazing special.” their screens. And now, another pop-up gives Kiniry adds, “Most doughnut places are the crowds just a tease of the funky, funny just the generic batter. Voodoo Doughnut and somehow also sophisticated desserts by [from Portland, Ore.], for example, they Milk Money. use the generic batter and they pile a whole While the Instagrammers are just bunch of cereal on top, there’s nothing rousing from sleep on the Saturday after special with the pastry or the flour itself.

Groundhog Day, Martinez continues to And I think a lot of doughnut shops follow dress up doughnuts at Block. He calmly that model, and this is the only really dips brioche into chocolate ganache and lets unique one where the actual doughnut itself the liquid gold drip. His flow is smooth, is incredibly tasty.” confident, zenlike, as if 100 of his followers With each pop-up, Millard says he’s aren’t about to line up demanding a treat watched the population grow. He theorizes worth waiting an hour for. that fans are responding to the nostalgia, the The name of this particular doughnut ’90s hip-hop playing at each pop-up line, is the Bill Murray, a play on the movie the dessert names like Sonny Bono, Riff Groundhog Day. “You know the scene Raff and John Ritter Apple Fritter. where he’s crushing breakfast and eating Despite the hype, Martinez says, “It’s whatever he wants?” Martinez fucking doughnuts. No one says. On top of the ganache, expects it to be super serihe sprinkles a mixture of ous.” At the same time, crushed pretzels and he wants to expand Butterfingers with people’s ideas about the elegance of that what this no-bigother social media deal dessert can be. phenomenon, Salt “Expect the Bae. unexpected,” he Each doughsays. “I’m trying nut is an edible to blow people’s wink to pop minds with my culture or domestic desserts every time Edward Martinez nostalgia. The day’s they take a bite pastry chef, Milk Money menu includes Tide of something, and Pods that look like it’s just—that’s who the laundry capsules but I am. I want them to go are actually vanilla brioche home and be like, ‘That meal cake covered with a blueberry was awesome, but that dessert glaze. They are the essence of fruit, what was like weird, but I really liked it, I don’t you imagine Veruca Salt must be tasting know what I liked about it.’ Something that when she balloons into a blueberry. He also they’re going to think about for a while.” prepares Maui Wowie doughnuts inspired Co-owner Hargis overhears this and by his trip to Hawaii that ended just days says, “I think I have even more of a man before. Each treat balances the savory with crush on you now.” Hargis helped to coorthe sweet. dinate the Beast + Bounty + Milk Money His dessert philosophy is hard to find in operation.

Sacramento.

“From a restaurateur perspective, you “I don’t want to play up that super-sweet want to work with the best, you want the dessert thing, it’s not my style,” he says. “I culture to be awesome and you want people hate desserts that you can’t eat the whole to have fun,” Hargis says. “I couldn’t think thing, where you take a couple of bites and of two better guys to work with than Brock you don’t want to finish it. I like to play and Ed.” with my desserts, with bitter acidic compoMartinez is not only excited to work nents that make you get a bite of it and it with his friends and spend more time with cleanses your palate and it makes you want his family, but also to have a blank menu to go back in for more.” to rewrite every day. As he bakes odes to Martinez’s scientific approach and quick pop culture from the past, he’s tapping into wit will be on display on Milk Money’s memories of his mother. menu, where he says the doughnuts and “That’s kind of why I play on that milkshakes will change daily. But for now, nostalgic thing,” he says. “Like OK, the Instagrammers wait outside. boxed desserts and crappy frosting At the Groundhog weekend pop-up, and it’s like, how do I make that more Brenna Kiniry and John Millard had driven elevated and more cool?” Ω from Davis to queue up an hour before the

“I’m trying to blow people’s minds with my desserts every time they take a bite of something, and it’s just— that’s who I am.”

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Front office flubs?

Is history repeating with Kings GM Vlade Divac’s latest moves?

by Michael cella

out of three is not a terrible batting average, but “Lord, give me strength.” that’s precisely the point—the draft can be a crapDeMarcus Cousins’ tweet hit timelines on shoot, and it’s been mostly craps for the Kings. To draft night 2016 after the Kings selected another maximize your odds, you need to give yourself as center, Georgios Papagiannis, with the 13th many swings as possible. overall pick. But those four words spoke to Competent organizations understand that much more than the draft. whether rebuilding or sustaining success, you Eighteen months later, Cousins was in the must win on the margins—especially in a small midst of a career year in New Orleans, set to market, where room for error is razor-thin. start the All-Star Game before an Achilles After trading their 2019 first-round pick to injury derailed his season (get well soon, the 76ers, the Kings are attempting to rebuild Boogie!). Nineteen months later, the Kings cut Papagiannis—not even two seasons after he was with one hand tied behind their back. By bungling their salary-cap situation this past offdrafted, and after they’d already picked up his season, they effectively used their free hand to third-year option—meaning they’ll be paying slap themselves in the face.

Papagiannis $2.4 million not to play for them The signings of Hill and forward next year.

Zach Randolph this past summer Cousins’ tweet now reads as the represented an attempt to rush first line of a prayer on behalf of Last the rebuilding process rather the entire Kings fan base, still Thursday’s than augment it. Besides stuck sitting in the Valley of transactions are being obvious overpays, Death, but paying twice as their presence blocked the much for tickets. less worrisome in a development of the team’s Papagiannis was one of vacuum than they are younger players and put three first-rounders selected in the context of a coach Dave Joerger in the

by Kings general manager precarious position of having Vlade Divac in 2016. Just decade-long lack of to allocate minutes to an ahead of last Thursday’s trade direction. oddball assortment of veterans deadline, Malachi Richardson and youth. Beyond that, it was a (picked 22nd overall that year) wasted opportunity to bolster the draft was traded to Toronto. In return, the capital the team so desperately needs. This coming Kings got Bruno Caboclo, a 2014 Raptors offseason presents what may be the last shot this project about whom ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla front office has to get it right. proclaimed: “He’s two years away from being The Kings now have the rest of this season two years away.” Perhaps Divac saw that phrase to give their young players an opportunity to as prophetic rather than pejorative. develop. Vince Carter’s likely buyout should The Kings’ most notable deadline move was free up another roster spot, and they would be shipping veteran point guard George Hill to the wise to explore more two-way contracts. The Cavaliers in a complex three-team trade. on-court product will surely struggle, but the Last Thursday’s transactions are less worriKings are fortunate to own what projects to be some in a vacuum than they are in the context a high lottery pick in a vaunted 2018 draft class, of a decade-long lack of organizational direcand will enter the offseason near the top of the tion, perpetual shifting of goalposts and asset league in available salary-cap space. mismanagement. The good news: The Kings Divac has shown incremental improvement cut bait with a young player and a veteran who in his three years in office, but the team can ill wasn’t working out, and have some financial afford any more missteps. Nail the draft, add flexibility ($8 million this year and $1 million talent around the edges, use the cap carefully, in 2019) and a modest draft asset to show for and, in addition to the young corps already in it. The bad news: It’s the same front office that place, the Kings could be in excellent shape in will oversee the management of these assets. a year’s time. Take the wrong approach, and the In fairness to Divac, he ended up hitting on his team will remain mired in mediocrity, whether third selection in the 2016 draft, Skal Labissiere, those currently in power are around to see it or while also acquiring Bogdan Bogdanovic, now not. Lord, give us strength. Ω perhaps the Kings’ most consistent player. One

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illustrations By analie Foland

Breakfast grains Fried rice, hArry’s cAFe

The “Half & Half” is a peaceful compromise for friends who like it mild and spicy.

Where The Mill at Broadway stands today, there once was a tiny ramshackle diner named the Market Club.

It introduced 5-year-old me to fried rice for breakfast, but got torn down when I went to college.

Harry’s Cafe evokes the same nostalgic vibe, particularly their fried rice ($8.95) complete with two eggs and, for one dollar extra, spam— the poor man’s pâté. Just like at Market Club, it comes out in two seconds and there’s more than enough to take home for a snack later. But if you live with others, don’t leave it unattended long. 2026 16th Street, (916) 448-0088.

—John Flynn photo By stephanie stiavetti

Mongolian for the masses Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot 7271 Franklin Boulevard; (916) 228-4599 https://littlesheephotpot.com Notable dishes: kobe beef combo, half & half pot

$$$

Good for: a fun family soup party

Like most restaurants off Florin Road, the newest location of the international chain Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is nestled in a small, unassuming shopping center that may miss your attention. It opened in August 2017 and quickly amassed “line around the block” status, especially on weekends, when late-evening fans routinely wait 30-45 minutes for dinner.

While the format is your standard hot-pot experience—chopped ingredients dropped into boiling broth—Little Sheeps’ menu changes throughout the week. A weekend visit presents diners with a vast selection of a la carte items to design your own soup, but weeknights will get you the standard menu plus a selection of enormous, colorful combos that are almost as exciting to look at as they are to eat.

For my first visit, I ordered the Kobe Beef Combo in the original mild broth ($13.99, plus $3.90 for broth) and left so joyful I would have happily died in the parking lot, just so I could haunt the kitchen for the rest of eternity. The beef was tender and rich, even after its long stint in the boiling broth, and the veggies, tofu, mushrooms and other combo ingredients were equally fresh.

The original mild broth is ultra-savory and full of free-floating Asian herbs and spices. It’s also very salty. Dinner here will likely put you over your daily sodium limit and then some. Servers stop by to top off

by StePHanie Stiavetti

your broth whenever it’s running low, so there’s never a shortage. In fact, you could easily take home a halfgallon of soup after dinner.

I brought a spice-loving friend for my second visit, so we ordered the “Half & Half” ($7.90), a huge pot split down the middle so that it can accommodate spicy broth on one side and mild on the other. She normally has a pro-level spice tolerance, but the hot broth turned her every possible shade of red and left her gasping in her seat. After seeing my friend’s reaction, our server let on that we could have ordered it “half spicy.”

Let this be your warning: Do not order the hot broth unless you’ve got a Herculean spice tolerance or a Teflon mouth.

The menu also offers a selection of noodles for your soup, and as a noodle lover, I tried two different kinds. The potato starch noodles were a little too rubbery, even after an hour in the hot broth, but the fresh, handmade ramen noodles were excellently tender and flavorful. They are so good, in fact, that they’re worth ordering an extra helping to take home with your leftover broth.

Little Sheeps’ selection of sides and desserts are hit or miss. I loved the lamb dumplings ($7.25) on my first visit, but they weren’t as flavorful the second time around. That said, leftover dumplings are lovely the next day, poached in any extra broth you bring home. The pork-shrimp dumplings were pretty bland, and the Phoenix Yolk Buns ($3.95) were grainy more than anything else.

Little Sheep is perfect for a fun dinner on a chilly night, plus it’s kid-friendly. The combos are where it shines, so I recommend a weeknight visit to guarantee they’re on the menu.

Overall, it’s well worth the drive down Highway 99. Ω

Fruit-basket beer PulP, Fieldwork brewing co.

They’re a favorite for many reasons, but if there’s one thing Fieldwork Brewing Co. does especially well, it’s produce a fine hazy IPA. Its latest, Pulp ($7), is no exception. A take on the brewery’s Pulp Free Westcoast IPA, this is a super-fruity, creamy and opaque brew. With bold notes of peach, orange, grapefruit and mango, it has the look, mouthfeel and utterly delectable aroma of a beer-spiked mimosa. And, at 6.9 percent ABV, it hits just the right balance between a posh brunch beverage and chill beer. Caution, though: This limited-edition brew tends to sell out fast when it’s on tap, so, you know, hurry.1805 Capitol Avenue; https://fieldworkbrewing.com/sacramento.

—rAchel leibrock

Choke on this Artichokes Just as many Americans associate avocados with California, they think we eat artichokes daily. Why wouldn’t we, with hundreds of acres of the spiny thistles growing here? Well, there’s the drudge factor. To get to the tender heart of the artichoke, you must bushwhack through the tough leaves and frilly choke first. Once conquered, the artichoke adds an earthy sweetness to salads and antipasti. Baby artichokes are tender enough to eat whole and taste best roasted with plenty of garlic and lemon.

The Romans revered artichokes, and the Mafia once monopolized it in New York, so show a little respect.

—Ann MArtin rolke

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Manhattan mousse

by Rebecca Huval

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Pastry professor: A delicate little bakery has brought urbane desserts to Folsom.

Pastry chef and former schoolteacher Musarrat Afshan has been educated by some heavy-hitters: She graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan, then worked at New York’s River Café and Water Club. Since moving to California in 2002, she had worked under Ginger Elizabeth at Masque in El Dorado Hills. Eventually, she struck off on her own to bake wedding cakes and other confections out of her home and a commercial kitchen.

On January 12, Afshan opened her jewel of a storefront, Pretty Sweet, in Folsom’s Palladio at the Broadstone.

The white walls are decorated with geometric gold paint that echoes the precision in her elegant desserts. The glass case shows off entremets layered with multiple flavors of mousse made

with fresh fruits, macaroons with a traditional moist center in flavors like rose raspberry and earl gray, and a range of just-so tarts like strawberry gelée with pistachio mousse ($5.50).

“I always wanted to open up right away because I had so many things I wanted to offer that I just wanted people to come to the store and see the stuff and buy it, try it, taste it,” Afshan says. “I like things that are clean looking, simple, yet beautiful.”

Afshan continues to advance her education by flying to New York to take classes with her “pastry idols,” such as Elisa Strauss, creator of Confetti Cakes, and Lauri Ditunno of Cake Alchemy.

She wants to expose Folsom to desserts unlike those on offer in the surroundings: “My cakes, if you try them, they’re not overly sweet,” she says.

r e b e c c a h @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

IPA not far away: This March, Hoppy

Brewing Co. is moving after 19 years at 6300 Folsom Boulevard. Its last day open in East Sacramento will be February 26. But the business will be hopping only 10 minutes away, and it’ll open with a restaurant and taproom in Midtown this April.

Sushi shuffle: Sakamoto Sushi at 2131 J Street has reopened under new ownership as Otoro Sushi & Shabu, according to the Sacramento Business Journal. That’s the third sushi swap at the same location, including the change from Tamaya Restaurant to Sakamoto in 2016.

Taco Trade: Yet another Mexican

restaurant plans to replace the recently shuttered Dos Coyotes Border Café at 1800 15th Street. Mas Taco Bar should be slinging more tacos on the R Street corridor in the near future. Ω

Photo courtesy of borjón Winery

Spring has sorta sprung Sacramento seems to have shrugged off the cold with a string of mostly sunny days that make the groundhog’s prediction for winter seem misguided.

If you prefer not to get your seasonal readings from a rodent, the Vietnamese American Community of Sacramento (VACOS) will be celebrating the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese lunar calendar by hosting its Tet Festival from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on February 17 and 18 outside of SF Supermarket (4562 Mack Road).

President of VACOS, Tido Hoang, said the free-to-attend event will have vendors selling traditional foods like spring rolls, noodle dishes and marinated, then barbecued chicken wings and pork chops.

Adding to the fun? A medley of cultural performances, carnival rides for children and a beauty pageant starring women in striking silk dresses known as áo dài. With plenty to see and hear, it’s a good reason to leave your burrow. But if you miss it, they’re doing it again next weekend.

—John Flynn

Isy Borjón admires his grapes. i

dRiNk

Born to the vine Isy Borjón has turned a family business managing vineyards into a passion

by Laura NeSS

Correcting white chocolate’s errors

by Shoka Why is white chocolate even a thing?

The mere mention of it makes adults turn up their nose, the opposite reaction dark chocolate gets. This may be due to a failure in branding: Because the main ingredient in white chocolate is cocoa butter, the fat byproduct of squeezing cocoa beans. It got tagged as “chocolate,” but since it tastes milky and nothing like the brown stuff, it’s possible the human brain gets pissed at the human mouth whose human eyes promised it a chocolatey treat.

That’s fair. So let’s steal the term soie blanche from the French (it means “white silk”) to rename it.

While we’re correcting its wrongs, know that vegan soie blanche exists.

Find iChoc at www.veganessentials. com and Milkless Polar Dream White Bar at www.premiumchocolatiers. com, or make this easy recipe from One Green Planet: double boil 2 cups cocoa butter, add 3/4 cups coconut oil, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract; cool in a lined tray in the freezer.

Keen as a hawk, Isy Borjón is the kind of person you want taking care of your vines. He calmly takes it all in, silently formulating a plan. There’s a steely confidence tempered by natural inquisitiveness.

There’s a sense of regalness there, too. Named Iscander at birth, Borjón traces his family bloodlines back to France. His great, great grandfather escaped the 1860s French-Mexican war, also know as the Maximillian Affair, and stayed in Mexico.

His parents Jesus and Nora Borjón arrived in Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley more than 30 years ago from the small town of Paracuaro in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Jesus did vineyard work while Nora raised their three children. Eventually, the couple saved enough to start their own small business in 1991, called Borjón Labor Contracting and Vineyard Management.

From the time his dad essentially handed over the family business to him at age 19, in 2005, Borjón has been the man in charge. Fortunately, he is wise beyond his years. Also fortunately, he has a loving and supportive family, almost all of whom are involved in one way or another in the tangled web of the wine business.

Borjón, who manages about 500 vineyard acres in Amador County, has become something of a local rock star. In addition to running a highly sought-after viticulture consulting business, Borjón also has two labels of his own. Borjón Winery focuses on the Italian and French varietals grown in Amador and Napa (where he maintains some vineyards) while Las Portales highlights the Iberian varietals grown in the Amador foothills.

Having a winery with the family name on it had long been a dream of his parents; Borjón is proud to have made it a reality. Borjón’s wife Eliana has helped run the winery tasting room since it opened in 2009.

One of Borjón’s best friends, Joe Shebl, winemaker at Renwood, has made the wine for the Borjón labels from inception, and his excellent renderings from superior fruit has helped the winery develop a reputation for bold sangiovese, barbera, petite sirah and zinfandel. Their reposada series always delivers extra bang for the buck.

It’s the barbera, though, that is the rising star of the region. With only about 30 acres of barbera in the ground, Borjón can’t keep up with the demand and is actively planting more. “It’s the most popular wine in my tasting room, followed by primitivo and sangiovese,” he says. “Italian wines are hot. I would love to plant more barbera for my own brand. It’s our bread and butter” Being involved in a labor-intensive business, Borjón has felt the undeniable pinch of the extreme labor shortage. “We are in a serious bind. There is just no labor to spare,” he says, noting that labor costs have skyrocketed 30 to 40 percent in the last few years.

Consequently, Borjón insists on only installing new vineyards that can be both machine pruned and machine picked. Prudent, as well as wise. Ω

the borjón Winery tasting room is open thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 11270 shenandoah road in Plymouth. (209) 245-3087, borjonwinery.com.

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Reviews

now playing

5

The Nether

Midwinter Midsummer

by Bev SykeS

The Nether is home to an adults-only website where pedophiles can act out their fantasies with android children.

Playwright Jennifer Haley raises many questions about what is morally right and what can be acceptable if it doesn’t hurt anyone.

This is a provocative, disturbing play, beautifully performed. Thu 7pm, Fri 8pm,

Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun 2pm, Wed 7pm. Through 2/25; $17.50$40; Capital Stage, 2215 J

St.; (916) 995-5464; http:// capstage.org. B.S.

5

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One Man, Two Guvnors

Winter’s Waltz

Sacramento playwright Richard Broadhurst reportedly kept this play in a drawer for 15 years. The play presents Ingram Wychoff, a one-time literary celebrity living alone in Manhattan, gazing out a window at the twin towers of the (new) World Trade Center. Wychoff welcomes Jamal, a smalltime hustler currently peddling marijuana on the street. Janis Stevens directs resourceful veteran Loren Taylor and the much younger Tory Scroggins— their tag-team exchange turns Broadhurst’s witty lines into lively comic banter onstage, without diminishing the script’s dramatic mission. Fri 8pm,

It’s the grand opening of B Street’s new midtown location: the Sofia Center of the Arts. A simple, silly plot with this play. An out-of-work London skiffle player finds himself secretly working for two men at the same time. Madness and hijinks ensue with a large cast of B Street regulars.

Thu 8pm, Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm & 9pm, Sun 2pm, Tue 6:30pm, Wed 2pm & 6:30pm. Through 3/11. $42-$46; B Street

Theatre’s mainstage at the Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts, 2700 Capitol Ave.; (916) 443-5300; www. bstreettheatre.org. P.R.

Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm, Through 2/18, $12-$20; California Stage, 1725 25th St. (the R25 Arts Complex), (916) 451-5822, www.calstage. org. J.H.

“My moss brings all the ladies to the yard.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

4

fri 7:30pm, sat 7:30 pm, sun 2pm. through 3/4; $7-$25; Woodland opera house, 340 2nd street in Woodland; (530) 666-9617; http://woodlandoperahouse.org.

From the court of Theseus to the nearby forest, where fairies like to flit about and play tricks on humans (and each other), Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream is delighting audiences at the Woodland Opera House.

Rodger McDonald has directed a lush production with a wonderful cast, a beautiful set and lovely costumes. He also gives a commanding presence as Oberon, king of the fairies.

Jordan Hayakawa is the impish Puck, with a special sparkle and impeccable comic timing.

The plot, as you know, is as complicated as any Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. Theseus is planning to marry Hyppolyta, queen of the Amazons. Lysander loves Hermia, and Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius, who used to love Helena but now loves Hermia. Egeus, Hermia’s father, prefers Demetrius for his daughter. She won’t have him, and her father threatens her with death or the nunnery if she disobeys him and enlists the aid of Theseus to enforce his wishes on his stubborn daughter.

Lysander and Hermia run off to Athens where they can be married, but stop in the forest to rest.

There the fairies, led by Titania, cast spells on them and those who come looking for them.

In the meantime, a group of workmen are rehearsing a play for Theseus’ wedding. They agree to meet in the forest to rehearse and also become victims of the mischievous Puck. All’s well that ends well, as the spells are reversed, the lovers sorted out, plans for the wedding continue and Puck apologizes to the audience if any were offended.

short reviews by Bev sykes, Patti roberts and Jeff hudson.

Photo courtesy of Woodland oPera house

1

4 Cabin fever funnies In Beer for Breakfast, a group of middle-aged buddies (50-ish is middle-aged, right?) reunite for a guys’ weekend in a remote cabin owned by one of the four friends. They plan to eat chili, drink beer, burp and listen to a little disco music as they relive their old college days when beer for breakfast might seem like a fine choice.

Despite unemployment, divorce and a stroke, these three have high hopes—until the guy whose cabin it is doesn’t show up, but his wife does.

A strong cast of age-appropriate actors goes all-out with this funny script that has some serious messages, too. Warren Harrison plays Mark, a newspaper writer who got “unhired” only to be offered freelance work at a per-piece price; Walt Thompson plays a divorced advertising salesman fighting a wife and worrisome work partners; John Walck plays “stroke boy” Richard, perhaps the most difficult role because it asks him to be authentic in movement and speech, and both sympathetic and funny. Julie Thompson plays Jessie, a war-of-the-sexes warrior who was sent by her husband to deliver bad news.

Robert Gerould directs on a small but efficient set designed by Rodger Hoopman. Some awkward lighting delays were troublesome, particularly late in the first act when some in the audience thought it was intermission time.

—Jim Carnes

Beer for Breakfast: fri 8pm, sat 8pm, sun 2pm. through March 4; $19$21; chautauqua Playhouse in the la sierra community center, 5325 engle road in carmichael; (916) 489-7529; www.cplayhouse.org.

foul

2

3

4

faIr

good

Well-done

5 suBlIMe– don’t MIss

Photo courtesy of Brandon hughes

Will travel for applause.

East Bay encore Oakland-based playwright Brandon Hughes brought his one-man show The Absent Father, the Wayward Son to Sacramento last fall for three productions and found such an enthusiastic crowd that he’s back for the whole month of February at the Guild Theater. Though not autobiographical, Hughes says, the 75-minute play does touch on his own multilayered feelings of being a son with an absentee father. Hughes plays the son, mother, father, preacher and poet. Fri 8pm, Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm. Through 2/25; $25; Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street; brandonhughes.net

—Patti roberts

02.15.18

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early man Wild boars really do like their owners.

3

Aardman Animation and director Nick Park’s Early Man is the latest attempt to make an exciting movie about soccer—or “football/futbol,” as it’s known in those parts of the world where what Americans call “football” hasn’t caught on. As for soccer’s potential as thrilling cinema—well, I think it’s safe to say that if Nick Park can’t do it, it can’t be done.

Not that Early Man doesn’t have its pleasures; Nick Park and Aardman may be capable of turning out a downright stinker (who isn’t?), but they haven’t done it yet, and they don’t do it here. And there’s a grain of anthropological truth in the movie, if you think of it as a sort of wacky version of the extinction of Neanderthal humans in the face of the species commonly known as Cro-Magnon Man. Except that in Aardman’s version, the Cro-Magnons invented soccer and the Neanderthals beat them at their own game—with a little help from a giant carnivorous mallard duck.

Eddie Redmayne provides the voice of Dug, our Stone Age hero—and in so doing, Redmayne adds his name to that list of actors who are infinitely more interesting as the voice of an animated character than they are in roles where we can actually see their faces.

In the words of the Bronze Age maiden Goona (Maisie Williams of Game of Thrones), Dug is “really brave. And stupid. More stupid than brave, really.” And that’s his charm. Like Park’s immortal Wallace, Dug has a combination pet-slash-sidekick who is much smarter than he is; in Dug’s case, it’s a pig named Hognob, whose limited vocals are supplied by Nick Park himself.

by Jim Lane

Dug and his fellow cavemen, led by Chief Bobnar (Timothy Spall), are happily ensconced in their wooded valley hunting rabbits when they are routed by the arrival of the technologically superior Bronze Agers, who plan to ravage Dug’s valley for its mineral resources. In a fit of reckless bravado, Dug persuades his fellows to challenge the Bronzers to a winner-take-all match, and the second half of Early Man traces the comical process of training for and playing the big game.

And here, I’m forced into a confession: Soccer absolutely bores me to distraction. I know that’s horribly narrow and provincial, and I feel just awful about it, I really do.

Really. But ever since my fourth-grade teacher sent me and my classmates kicking a ball around a park, it has struck me as an idiotic waste of time. (I know, I know—Pelé, Dave Beckham, Mia Hamm and all that. It doesn’t help.) So when Early Man’s Bronzers and Stoners took the field, the movie lost me.

If you don’t share my peculiar aversion to the world’s most popular sport, feel free to nudge this review’s rating up a star or two.

Even if you do, check Early Man out anyway.

Nick Park and Aardman don’t have an unfunny movie in them.

They could probably even do one about golf. Ω

And here, I’m forced into a confession: Soccer absolutely bores me to distraction.

1 2 3 4 5 Poor

Fair

Good

Very Good

excellent

fiLm CLiPS

BY DANIEL BARNES & JIM LANE

3

12 Strong

In the days following September 11, 2001, U.S. Army Special Forces under Capt.

Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) deploys to Afghanistan, riding horseback into battle with the Taliban. Doug Stanton’s nonfiction book The Horse Soldiers, adapted by Ted Tally and Peter Craig and directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, makes an enjoyable old-fashioned war movie, spruced up with the kind of graphic combat action that couldn’t be done back in the day.

Hemsworth, who grows in stature with every movie, makes a real-life action hero even more stalwart than his comic-book Thor, ably supported by Michael Shannon, Michael Peña and (as their Afghan ally) a scene-stealing Navid Negahban. The movie avoids ruminating on America’s Afghan policy, and ends before things get complicated, making it an upbeat movie about a downbeat war. J.L.

4

Call Me by Your Name

Director Luca Guadagnino (A Bigger Splash) dials down some of his stylistic excesses for this sun-kissed coming-of-age drama set in the Italian countryside. James Ivory adapted the André Aciman book, and the combination of chilly repression and warming desire in Call Me by Your Name make it feel like an heir to Ivory’s A Room with a View. Timothée Chalamet gives a potentially star-making lead performance as Elio, an intellectually precocious but sexually inexperienced 17-year-old nursing a crush on his father’s new research assistant, an enigmatic hunk in white crew socks and shorts named Oliver (Armie Hammer). While Elio fumbles through an awkward relationship with a female peer, his encounters with Oliver grow increasingly flirtatious, finally becoming sexual as the summer speeds toward an end.

Michael Stuhlbarg gives a strong supporting performance as Elio’s compassionate father and Hammer is very well-cast, but Chalamet owns the film with his passionate ambiguity.

D.B.

2

Forever My Girl

A popular but unhappy country music superstar (Alex Roe) returns to his small hometown and the girlfriend he abandoned at the altar (Jessica Rothe)—and a daughter he never knew he had (Abby Ryder Fortson). Director Bethany Ashton Wolf’s story (from Heidi McLaughlin’s novel) is lifted (no doubt unintentionally) from the forgotten 1956 classic Come Next Spring, but the movie staggers under its own clumsiness (also unintentional). Roe tries for tortured angst, but his character comes off as an unlikeable lump, while young Fortson is saddled with college-age dialogue and the kind of twee precocity that moviemakers seem to think is so cute. And the music isn’t all that hot either. If you’re in the mood for this kind of love-lost-and-found story, stay home and watch Come Next Spring on Amazon Instant Video. J.L.

1

Hostiles

This gaseous, pompous, clumsily well-intentioned revisionist Western from writer-director Scott Cooper (Black Mass) offers all the hollow ponderousness of The Revenant without any of the technical exuberance. Christian Bale stars as Capt.

Joseph J. Blocker, an accomplished Indian killer nearing the end of his service who gets ordered to escort an old foe (Wes Studi) and his family to their homeland. Making their way through the blood-soaked moral wasteland that is Blocker’s legacy, the pair slowly reach an understanding while fighting off violent threats from all sides. Cooper made a decent, low-key debut with the Jeff Bridges vehicle Crazy Heart, but ever since then, he has wallowed in pointless violence and thunderously empty drama, and with Hostiles he has hopefully found his nadir. Bale plays hard-bitten terseness in the hammiest manner possible, but as a deranged survivor who joins the caravan, Rosamund Pike delivers the most embarrassing performance of the year. D.B.

Finally, a man takes the backseat as the muse.

2

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Genre journeyman Paul McGuigan (Victor Frankenstein) directs this thoroughly ordinary and unmemorable biopic about the real-life romance between fading film star Gloria Grahame and a much younger British actor named Peter Turner (the script is adapted from Turner’s book of the same name). Annette Bening plays Grahame, an Oscar-winning actress in the 1950s exiled to off-Broadway by the 1970s when she met the struggling Turner. Their hot-and-cold, often alcohol-fueled relationship took them from the Liverpool tenements to the Pacific coast and back again, and they only reconciled as she approached her death. The problem with these sort of ex-boyfriend biopics is that they use a tangential relationship to a celebrity to lowball their story rights, resulting in a story that focuses away from the only character that we care about. Bening is good as Grahame, but it has practically become an annual ritual for her to excel in something forgettable.

D.B.

4

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

Studio Ghibli veteran Hiromasa Yonebayashi adapts Mary Stewart’s 1971 children’s novel The Little Broomstick into this charming, entertaining, just-dark-enough GKIDS import. The story sutures together pieces from Spirited Away and the Harry Potter series: Mary, a bored but courageous orphan with wild red hair, bemoans her adventure-less life in the country, only to get unexpectedly whisked away to a school of magic in the sky. Acquiring short-term “powers” from a magic flower she finds in the woods, Mary bluffs her way through the school gates, but she is forced to become a hero when her lies put other people in danger.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower doesn’t possess the substance and seamlessness of When Marnie Was There, Yonebayashi’s previous effort: the in-scene pacing sometimes feels arrhythmic, and the characters rarely emerge from the plot clutter. However, this is still a compulsively watchable film with a strong female hero and a deluge of gorgeous images. pointlessness. D.B.

5

Phantom Thread

Fractured masculinity and daddy obsessions have served as thematic pillars of the cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson ever since he debuted with Hard Eight in 1996.

But before the formula grew untenable and stale, the control freak Anderson veered off track with his cosmically shaggy detective story Inherent Vice in 2014. Anderson serves as his own director of photography on the impeccably groomed yet quietly unsettling fashion world romance Phantom Thread, and he also created his first true female protagonist (there’s even a mommy obsession in the mix). As the demanding 1950s fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock, the excellent Daniel Day-Lewis may get top billing, but the film belongs to Vicky Krieps as Alma, a beach town waitress who enters Reynolds’ orbit.

Phantom Thread often plays like a reverse Taming of the Shrew, with Alma determined

to preserve her position in the House of Woodcock by cutting Reynolds down to size.

D.B.

3

The 15:17 to Paris

Director Clint Eastwood and writer Dorothy Blyskal tell the story of those three American tourists who helped foil a terrorist attack on a train from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015, with the three heroes (Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler) playing themselves. The young men do quite well, and Eastwood delivers a polished product with a tightly staged climax. Only the inexperienced Blyskal drops the ball; her script (from the book by the three heroes and Jeffrey E. Stern) is slack and tedious, and glosses over the role of French and British passengers in subduing the attacker. Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer co-star as (respectively) Stone’s and Skarlatos’ mothers, and having the heroes play themselves allows for a newsreel cameo

by French President François Hollande awarding them the Legion of Honor. J.L.

1

Winchester

For whatever reason, 2017 was a strong year for movie ghost stories. Most on the nose was David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, but films as diverse as Personal Shopper, Your Name, Get Out and Coco also dealt with post-life presences unable to move on. If the dispiriting Winchester is any kind of bellwether for 2018, though, it won’t be long before the living envies the dead. All the feel-good phantasmagoria of 2017 turns to slime with this deadly dull film about Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), the real-life heiress who created the strange San Jose structure that became known as the Winchester Mystery House. Most of the blame goes to those meddling kids, the writing and directing team of Michael and Peter Spierig (Jigsaw), who spin this tattered yarn with all the gracelessness of an amusement park owner wearing a cheap monster mask. Marlon Wayans has made scarier haunted house films. D.B.

Free introductory class given by a regional speaker followed by optional free vegetarian lunch and discussion Sunday March 4th, 12 noon • Sierra 2 Center, Curtis Hall 2791 - 24th St. • Sacramento

916-492-2671 • www.santmat.net 02.15.18

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String fusion theory Sat feb 17th

Dexterous guitarist Jesse Cook blends the sounds of his world travels

Kevin’s birthDay bash

by Caroline Minasian

FREE pRimE Rib dinnER 7-8pm .50 cEnt pbR $2 jack 7-9pm

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Photo courtesy of jesse cook

plus, win a pair of stagecoach tickets

EvERy FRiday in FEbRuaRy with 93.5 thE bull in thE housE! 1320 Del paso blvD in olD north sac

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Cook always switches up his songwriting process. “If I wrote the same way each time, I’d end up writing the same music,” he says.

His album Nomad focuses on his travels, while The Blue Guitar Sessions are dedicated to a melancholic quietness. For this last one, Cook went into a cottage alone with his guitar to write. Solitude? Check.

Most recently, Cook has been combining the ancient with the modern. “I’ve been tinkering When you don’t know what to do with your with looping technology, mixing hands while traveling, just play guitar. urban sounds with ancient instruments like the Armenian duduk,” Cook says.

The duduk is a double-reed woodwind said to date back 1,500 years. Despite its obscure name, There are two kinds of musicians, according to odds are you’ve heard this instrument: Avatar or Jesse Cook: Those who work to master one genre, Gladiator soundtrack, anyone? and those who learn the rules and break them to Though chances of sighting the duduk are slim create something new. at the Crest Theatre Friday, February 16, Cook will “I am firmly in the second camp,” Cook share the stage with other instrumentalists including says. His cool façade might fool you, but Cook violinist Chris Church—someone he’s played wasn’t always a rule-breaker. Ten albums and with for over 16 years. Cook is also bringing his 22 years ago, Cook stayed within the lines of dexterous finger-picking to the stage. rumba and flamenco. By his third album, “On my records, you’ll find there he was craving something new, so he isn’t a lot of [fingerpicking], but experimented by mixing genres from virtuosity gives an extra pop to all over the world. the show,” Cook says.

Cook’s latest album, 2017’s Let’s just say your Beyond Borders, showcases ears—and eyes—won’t be this adventurous blend. The shocked to know he’s been song “Beyond Borders” is playing the guitar since he reminiscent of a mellowed-out was 6. Cook’s fast fingers Bollywood musical number tell the whole story, and he with a strong flamenco essence, Jesse Cook is excited to bring them back akin to Ottmar Liebert. The singer-songwriter to Sacramento since his last album’s lead single, “Double tour visit in 2016 at the Crest.

Dutch,” features an Argentinian To Cook, the California sun undertone with hand-clapping that’s is a big warm plus coming from upbeat enough for a workout jam. But it’s Toronto, but it’s the way of life that Cook’s effortless finger-picking that displays his draws him: “It is a very amazing and forwardtrue talent. thinking place,” he says. “The way people look at “I was drawing on a fusion of flamenco guitar innovation and experimentation, I really like it.” from Southern Spain mixed together with a Latin So Cook’s style should be welcome. Here’s to and urban groove,” Cook says. breaking and making things. Ω It is no surprise that Cook enjoys mixing

MINUTES

SECONDS

LEFT TO CAST YOUR VOTE

SAMMIES.COM

“Virtuosity gives an extra pop to the show.”

music from different regions. He was born in France and moved to Canada when he was 4. Cook and his wife have lived in Seville, Spain, and he has traveled to record in London, Louisiana, Columbia and Cairo.

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check out jesse cook at the crest theatre 8 p.m. friday, february 16. tickets are $49-$74 and should be purchased in advance at www.ticketfly.com or by calling 1-877-987-6487.

for the week of february 15

By kate gonzales

Online listings will be considered for print. Print listings are edited for space and accuracy. Deadline for print listings is 5 p.m. Wednesday. Deadline for NightLife listings is midnight Sunday.

Send photos and reference materials to Calendar Editor Kate Gonzales at snrcalendar@newsreview.com.

POst eVents OnLIne FOR FRee at

www.newsreview.com/sacramento

KutZ ROCK-n-sWaP: See event highlight on page 32. 10am, no cover. Gold Lion Arts, 2733 Riverside Blvd.

for 2/15. 9:30am, $85-$170. DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 2001 Point West Way.

reveals the history of Oak Park through original music, art, dance, oral histories and film. 3pm, $10. Brickhouse Art Gallery, 2837 36th St.

LunaR FLOWeR Fest anD tet FestIVaL: See

event highlight on page 33. noon, no cover.

Location, 4562 Mack Road.

OuR FOunDIng MOtheR COnCeRt: See event highlight on page 32. 5pm, $5-$15. The Colony, 3512 Stockton Blvd.

MONDAY, 2/19

ROn POPe: Jared & The Mill. 7pm, $18-$95. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.

thu

PHOTO COURTESY OF CARAVAN OF GLAM

15

Queens roll through Blue lamp, 8 p.m., $15-$20 Sacramento has a pretty solid community of drag performers. You can find the glamorous queens On stage calling out numbers during bingo night fundraisers, cracking jokes at comedy nights and hosting weekly dinner and drag shows. This week, some unfamiliar beautiful faces will thrill and fulfill you as the Caravan of GLAM rolls through town. This Portland-based

MUSIC THURSDAY, 2/15 auDIO Muse—PLanet BOOtY: The electrofunk trio plays the Crocker’s new weekly music series. 6:30pm, $8-$14. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St.

FaCuLtY, aLuMnI anD FRIenDs gaLa: Performances by flautist Laurel Zucker, pianist John Cozza, percussionist Daniel Kennedy and the Peregrine Trio. 7:30pm, $10-$20. Capistrano Concert Hall, 6000 J St.

the MaIn sQueeZe: With Joy & Madness. 7pm, $12-$15. Harlow’s, 2708 J St.

MC RaDIO aCtIVe: With Mr. Hooper. 7:30pm, no cover. Sacramento State, 6000 J St.

tune-YaRDs: With Sudan Archives. 7pm, $28.

Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.

FRIDAY, 2/16 FRanKIe anD the DeFenDeRs: The 2018 SAMMIES nominees play with Dyana and the Cherry

Kings. 9pm, $7. Opera House Saloon, 411 Lincoln St. in Roseville.

aDaM BLOCK anD stePhen RuDeRMan: A Simon

& Garfunkel tribute. 9pm, $5. Fox & Goose, 1001 R St.

Jesse COOK: Toronto-based musician comes to Sac. Read about Cook in the music feature on page 30. 8pm, $49-$74. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.

MØ: With Cashmere Cat. 7pm, $28. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.

the PuRPLe Ones: A tribute to Prince. 10pm, $17-$20. Harlow’s, 2708 J St.

the YO’ MaMa shOW: Bring your mom to the

show and she’ll get a free beer. 5:30pm, no

cover. Torch Club, 904 15th St.

SATURDAY, 2/17 KaLI uChIs: Soul/indie artist comes to Sac. 7pm, $65-$99. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.

gOth PROM: DJs playing goth and industrial,

drink specials and more. 9pm, $5. Midtown Barfly, 1119 21st St.

LOOse enDs: Featuring Jane Eugene. 5:30pm, 9:30pm, $35-$50. Harlow’s, 2708 J St.

MeZCaL aCes: With Joseph Kojima Gray. 9pm, $5. Fox & Goose, 1001 R St.

the RIChMOnD sLuts: With Peace Killers, Cheap Tissue. 8pm, call for cover. Blue Lamp, 1400 Alhambra Blvd.

VaLentIne’s sOuL JaM ’18: With Cameo and

more. 7:30pm, $69.95-$79.95. Thunder Valley Casino Resort, 1200 Athens Ave. in Lincoln.

SUNDAY, 2/18 auDIO WaFFLe: With Live Cancer, Chopstick, Eden Mononym and more. Cover includes waffles and coffee as long as it lasts. noon, $8. The Red Museum, 212 15th St.

gLORIaM DRaCOnIs: With Xenotaph, Dearth,

Barren Altar. 8pm, $10. Blue Lamp, 1400 Alhambra Blvd.

aMeRICan heRItage DaY: Take a stroll through history with gold panning, stage coach photo opportunities, an interactive railroad display and appearances from historical figures. 10am, no cover. Mount Vernon Memorial Park, 8201 Greenback Lane in Fair Oaks.

MONDAY, 2/19 DaVe Bass QuIntet: Musicians perform Dave Bass’ new compositions and arrangements as well as old favorites. 7pm, $25. CLARA —Auditorium, 1425 24th St.

FOOD & DRINK

TUESDAY, 2/20

THURSDAY, 2/15

the MInDFuL: 2018 SAMMIES nominees the Mindful blend rock, jazz, funk and Americana.

VaLentIne’s YaPPY hOuR: Bring your pup to

9pm, no cover. Dive Bar, 1016 K St.

the pub for a raffle, a caricature artist, a kissing booth and beer. One dollar per pint will support the Sacramento SPCA. 6pm, no cover. Big Sexy Brewing Company, 5681 88th St., Suite 800.

WEDNESDAY, 2/21 BLaCK LaBeL sOCIetY: With Corrosion of

Conformity. 6:30pm (sold out). Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.

SATURDAY, 2/17

InteRnatIOnaL guItaR nIght: International

troupe has a rotating cast of more than 50 performers from the western United States that represent diverse talents and identities. The Caravan crowd believe in celebrating all bodies, which is reflected in their casting. A little cabaret, a little Cirque Du Soleil, this show will no doubt be a frenzy of music, glitter and glam. 1400 Alhambra Boulevard, www. caravanofglam.com.

will be featured in this family-friendly tradition. noon, no cover. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St.

CaPItaL sWIng DanCe FestIVaL: See event listing

COnVeRgenCe II: An event-based project that

See Isaiah Esquire perform at Blue Lamp.

snr c a le nd a r @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

Guitar Night founder Brian Gore presents a cast of musicians from around the world including Calum Graham, Marek Pasieczny and Michael Chapdelaine. 7:30pm, $18-$48.

Harris Center, 10 College Parkway in Folsom.

2018 KIWanIs CRaB FeeD: A crab dinner along with the famous “wall of wine,” airplane contest and a noisy silent auction. 5pm, $15-$55. Buddhist Church of Sacramento, 2401 Riverside Blvd.

BeeR / BOuRBOn / guMBO Fest: Three floors of

LeYLa MCCaLLa QuaRtet: Music steeped in

fun, games and education in a Mardi Gras celebration for the family. Taste locally crafted beers and bourbons, sample gumbo, meet a fortune teller and earn beads from the Mardi Gras king and queen. 1pm, $10$60. Pagoda Building, 429 J St.

French, Haitian and Creole traditions.

Performances every night through Sunday, 2/24. 8pm, sold out. Mondavi Center, 1 Shields Ave. in Davis.

FESTIVALS

PORt anD ChOCOLate at JuLIetta WIneRY: Sample port wine and chocolate, enjoy live music and grab a lobster sandwich from Cousins Maine Lobster Food Truck. noon, no cover. Julietta Winery, 51221 Clarksburg Road in Clarksburg.

THURSDAY, 2/15 CaPItaL sWIng DanCe FestIVaL: A three-day, four-night festival celebrating West Coast Swing, with workshops, competitions and a choreography showcase. 5pm, $85-$170.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 2001 Point West Way.

VaLentIne’s FORMaL tea: Have a romantic formal tea with snacks, a variety of teas and gift options. 10:30am, $25. Nautilus Tea Company, 11771 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Fair Oaks.

FRIDAY, 2/16

FILM

CaPItaL sWIng DanCe FestIVaL: See event listing for 2/15. 2:30pm, $85-$170. DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 2001 Point West Way.

THURSDAY, 2/15

SATURDAY, 2/17

2018 OsCaR nOMInateD shORt FILMs: A

CaPItaL sWIng DanCe FestIVaL: See event listing for 2/15. 9:30am, $85-$170. DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 2001 Point West Way.

screening of animated short films. 7pm, $14.

Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.

thIs Is sPInaL taP: A satirical portrayal of the wild behavior and musical pretensions of hard rock and heavy metal bands. 7pm, $8.

State Theatre, 985 Lincoln Way in Auburn.

LunaR FLOWeR Fest anD tet FestIVaL: See

event highlight on page 33. 10am, no cover.

Location, 4562 Mack Road.

BeuYs: A documentary about Joseph Beuys,

SUNDAY, 2/18

one of the 20th century’s most influential

BLaCK hIstORY MOnth CeLeBRatIOn: Live performances, activities, music and the Black and Beautiful Community Marketplace

CaLenDaR LIstIngs COntInueD On Page 32

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see MOre events and subMit yOur Own at nEwSREviEw.COm/SaCRamEnTO/CalEndaR

Sunday, 2/18

corners of the imagination. through 2/25.

$22-$45. 2215 J St.

KutZ rock-nswap Gold lion ArTs, 10 A.M., no Cover

COlOnial theatre: Rocky Horror Picture Show Valentine’s Day Edition. A film screening of the cult classic music with a live shadow cast. 10pm Friday, 2/16. $20-$65. 3522 Stockton Blvd.

Crest saCraMentO: Deepak Chopra, MD.

What’s the benefit of having a freeform shOpping radio station in your city? Glad you asked!

It’s radio by the people, for the people, with a focus on reflecting the community and introducing listeners to PHOTO COuRTESy OF PaniC & SwOOn different genres rather than catering to commercial interests. KUTZ, which can be heard on 107.1, is Sacramento’s infant freeform station run completely by volunteers and even if you hate the sound of your own voice, you can help support the station. KUTZ Rock-N-Swap is a chance to shop from vendors selling music, local zines, vintage clothing, comic books and more while supporting the station. Show up so Sacramento can keep tuning in. 2733 Riverside Boulevard, www.kutzfm.org.

Calvin, Jr. 8pm thursday, 2/15. $20. Josef Anolin. Featuring Mike Paramore. through 2/18. $10. Smile Out Loud. Headliner Justin Rivera with Connor Martin, Brad Bonar Jr, hosted by Curtis Newingham. 8pm wednesday, 2/21. $15-$20. 1207 Front St.

Calendar listings COntinued FrOM page 31 and controversial artists. 7:30pm, no cover-$7. Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S St.

luna’s CaFe & JuiCe bar: STAB Five-Year

FRiday, 2/16

Anniversary Show. Writers, stand-up comics and others in a live comedy panel show. 8pm wednesday, 2/21. $5. 1414 16th St.

girl On a biCyCle: A romantic comedy about an Italian Paris tour bus driver who apparently doesn’t think one woman is enough. 8pm, $10. Italian Center, 6821 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Carmichael.

SaTuRday, 2/17

punCh line: Aida Rodriguez. The Last Comic

Standing finalist comes to Sac. through 2/17. $17.50-$22.50. 2100 Arden Way, Suite 225.

saCraMentO COMedy spOt: Sacramento Area Animal Coalition Benefit Show. Sketch and stand-up comedy by Chris Emery, Marco Cabodi, Parker Newman, Stephen Ferris, Brett Cole and Keith Lowell Jensen.

Fundraiser for the Sacramento Area Animal Coalition. 6pm 2/18. $15. 1050 20th St., Suite 130.

the aFriCan aMeriCans: Many rivers tO CrOss: A screening of part of this PBS film presented and written by Henry Louis Gates Jr. 5pm, no cover. SF Johnson Foundation, 6720 Fair Oaks Blvd., Suite 103 in Carmichael

wreCK-it ralph: A screening made comfortable for kids with autism and/or sensory disorders. 10am, no cover. ArdenDimick Library, 891 Watt Ave.

Laugh. A four-part Sunday comedy series that features comics who have competed in the SF Comedy Festival. This week features Jim Short. 2pm sunday, 2/18. $20-$22. 314 W. Main St. in Grass Valley.

and then they CaMe FOr us: A documentary that retells the history of the forced incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. 1pm, $15$20. California Museum, 1020 O St. 1948 Humphrey Bogart classic about the uncompromising dark side of human nature, set in the mountains and back country of Mexico. 12:30pm, no cover. Sacramento Public Library, Central Library, 828 I St.

On STaGE big idea theatre: Becky Shaw. A newlywed couple fixes up two romantically challenged friends and the evening calculated to bring happiness takes a dark turn. 8pm. through 2/17. $12-$22. 1616 Del Paso Blvd.

blue laMp: Caravan of Glam. See event

highlight on page 31. 8pm thursday, 2/15. $15-$20. Nasty Girls. Jezebelle’s Army and

COmEdy

Black Arts Matter host a variety show in tribute to Janet Jackson, with burlesque, live music and a bit of dirty history. 8pm. through 2/16. $10. 1400 Alhambra Blvd.

COMedy spOt: High Anxiety Variety Show.

With Josiah Gathing. 8pm Friday, 2/16. $8$15. 1050 20th St., Suite 130.

Capital stage: The Nether. When a young

laughs unliMited COMedy Club: Say It Loud Comedy. Out of town favorites and top Sacramento comics, hosted by Michael

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CrOCKer art MuseuM: SAYS Grand Slam Finals. The Sacramento Area Youth Speaks presents this popular event featuring youth voices on social change. 5:30pm saturday, 2/17. $15+ museum admission. 216 O St.

the COMMunity Center theater: Sacramento Ballet’s Giselle. The romantic ballet is a story about trust, forgiveness and selfless love. through 2/18. $25-$79. 1301 L St.

williaM J. geery theater: Accessories. Femaledriven monologues that contain touching stories accented with hilarious comedic moments. through 2/18. $26. 2130 L St.

wOOdland Opera hOuse: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One of Shakespeare’s most popular romantic comedies. $12-$25. through 3/4. 560 Main St. in Woodland.

aRT

grant uniOn high theater: Legacy 2.0. A musical that takes audiences from African kingdoms through the civil rights movement to present day. through 2/25. $15-$22. 1400 Grand Ave.

green valley theatre COMpany: Side Show The Musical. A show about the true story of conjoined twins and famed entertainers, Daisy and Violet Hilton. through 3/11. $18. 3823 V St.

guild theater: The Absent Father, the Wayward Son. A one-man show about how a teenager copes with discoveries about the father he’s never met. through 2/25. $30. 2828 35th St.

harris Center: 42nd Street. A celebration of Broadway, Times Square and those who make the magic of musical theater. through 2/18. $15-42. 10 College Parkway in Folsom.

Jean runyOn little theater at MeMOrial auditOriuM: A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer: Writings to End Violence Against Women & Girls. A collection of monologues by world-renowned authors and playwrights. Fundraiser for A Community for PEACE, Sacramento Justice League and Wellspring Women’s Center. through 2/18. $25. The Vagina Monologues. V-Day Sacramento’s annual benefit performance of Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking show that celebrates women’s sexuality and strength. 2pm saturday, 2/17. $25. 1515 J St.

luna’s CaFe & JuiCe bar: Sac Unified Poetry Slam. An unpredictable monthly poetry

penCe gallery: The Consilience of Art and Science. A bi-annual juried exhibit that explores the intersection between art and science. through 3/2. no cover. Corporeal Paintings by Mark Gleason. Works that show a world of dramatic tension by Mark Gleason. through 2/25. no cover. 212 D St. in Davis.

saC state else gallery: Photo Exhibit.

Photographs reveal the intriguing day-today lives of young Palestinians. through 3/7. no cover. 6000 J St.

verge Center FOr the arts: SPACE AND PLACE by Black Salt Collective. An exhibit of multimedia works, including video, sound, collage, performance and painting, that highlights the culture and work of black, brown and indigenous women. through 3/18. no cover. 625 S St.

arthOuse On r: Featured Artist Shirley Hazlett. With Lucia Rothgeb, Rod Williams, Sue Chapman and Linda Heath Clark. through 2/25. no cover. 1021 R St.

CaliFOrnia MuseuM: And Still We Rise: Race, Culture and Visual Conversations. Dozens of story quilts chronicle 400 years of significant events that have transformed social justice for African-Americans. through 5/27. $9. Frederick Roberts Reception and Commemorative Exhibition. A reception that marks the 100th anniversary of Hon. Frederick Roberts being elected as the first African American elected to the California State Legislature. 5pm thursday, 2/15. no cover. 1020 O St.

CrOCKer art MuseuM: E. Charlton Fortune: The Colorful Spirit. An exhibition of work by one of California’s most progressive female artists. through 4/22. $5-$10. Hopes Springing High: Gifts of African American Art. Works by African-American artists will be on display, including Romare Bearden, Beauford Delaney, Hayward Ellis King and Mickalene Thomas. through 7/15. $10. 216 O St.

e street gallery: X-Professors. Works by retired professors Diane Richey-Ward and Mick Sheldon. through 3/4. no cover. 1115 E St.

Kennedy gallery: Send In the Clowns.

Celebrating the whimsy of clowns. through 3/3. no cover. 1931 L St.

muSEumS CaliFOrnia autOMObile MuseuM: Downtown Sunday Drives. Enjoy drives to various spots in downtown Sacramento in vintage cars. 10am sunday, 2/18. no cover-$10. 2200 Front St.

CaliFOrnia MuseuM: Kokoro: The Story of Sacramento’s Lost Japantown. Rare family photos document the one-thriving downtown community devastated first by forced removal during World War II and again by redevelopment in the 1950s. through 3/11. $9. 1020 O St.

CaliFOrnia state railrOad MuseuM: Off The Clock. An exhibit focused on the sports, clubs, teams and competitions that Southern Pacific participated in to pass the time. through 6/1. $10-$15. Snowbound in the Sierra. See a 251,000-pound rotary snowplow and learn the dramatic story of 226 passengers and crew members who were rescued from a luxury locomotive. through 2/28. $6-$12. 111 I St.

CrOCKer art MuseuM: Kingsley Art Evaluation Day. Experienced evaluators offer informal appraisals. Appointments required and can be made at (916) 808-7752 or kingsleyevaluationday@hotmail.com. 10am tuesday, 2/20. $12-$55. 216 O St.

the Center FOr the arts: The People Need to

Sunday, 2/18

the treasure OF the sierra Madre: The

The award-winning author and influential medical thinker speaks. 7pm saturday, 2/17. 1013 K St.

slam. 8pm Friday, 2/16. no cover ($5 to participate). 1414 16th St.

02.15.18

detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment in a virtual wonderland, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest

Sunday, 2/18

Our Founding Mother Concert The Colony, 5 P.M., $10-$15

All too often, lessons and holidays centered on American history de-emphasize the cultures of indigenous people.

In an effort to reshape our understanding of self and community, the Decolonization Project MusiC hosts educational workshops and events to examine perceived social norms, learn from our past and celebrate the values of indigenous people. This weekend’s inaugural Our Founding Mother concert will feature local and visiting indigenous artists, including DJ Novela, ¡Las Pulgas!, Richie Ledreagle and Tzutu Kan in a celebration of mother earth. Organizers will ask for a donation for entry, but in keeping with its inclusive mission, nobody will be turned away because they can’t afford it. 3512 Stockton Boulevard, www.facebook.com/ thedecolonizationproject.

PHOTO COuRTESy OF SHumajER COx

SATURDAY, 2/17-SUNDAY, 2/18

Lunar Flower Fest & Tet Festival LittLe Saigon, 10 a.M., no cover

Most of us love the feelings we get from new beginnings. Those who celebrate the Vietnamese Lunar New Year know that the spectacle of large parading dragons, women dressed FESTIVAL in colorful gowns and a crowd of thousands set the stage for good spirits as we welcome the Year of the Dog. The Little Saigon Lunar Flower Fest and Tet Festival kick off Saturday and includes the Lion Dance, traditional Vietnamese food, performances, carnival games and rides for kids. The celebration continues the following weekend (2/232/24) with the Tet Festival. 4562 Mack Road, www. gsvaac.org.

underwear model Uriel Ramirez. 10pm, call for cover. Badlands, 2003 K St.

by Hilton Hotel—Sacramento, CA, 2001 Point West Way.

CHINESE CELEBRATION: An introduction to the

TUESDAY, 2/20 all women who identify as LGBTQ. 6pm, no cover. Old Soul at The Weatherstone, 812 21st St.

SATURDAY, 2/17

TAKE ACTION

CANNABIS 411: Learn the laws and regulations

regarding marijuana businesses. 10am, $175. Uppal Insurance Agency, 7816 Uplands Way, Suite B in Citrus Heights.

SATURDAY, 2/17

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARTIN VO

DEMOCRACY WALK: Canvass the community SACRAMENTO HISTORIC CITY CEMETERY: African-American History Tour. Celebrate the contributions of Sacramento’s African American Community as they struggled to gain a foothold in often hostile environments. 10am Saturday, 2/17. No cover. 1000 Broadway.

SUTTER’S FORT STATE HISTORIC PARK: By Land & Sea. A part of the Hands on History Program, this event focuses on the different ways immigrants came to California. 10am Saturday, 2/17. $5-$7. 2701 L St.

UC DAVIS DESIGN MUSEUM, CRUESS HALL: It’s Bugged: Insects’ Role in Design. An exploration of the creative relationship between people and insects through this vibrant art and design installation. Through 4/20. No cover. 1 Shields Ave. in Davis.

ALL AGES THURSDAY, 2/15 ART SPOTS WINGDING: An opportunity to play in the museum, where kids and their caregivers can interact with the basic elements of art through play, experimentation and creative collaboration.

10am, no cover. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St.

DISNEY ON ICE PRESENTS FOLLOW YOUR HEART: Many popular Disney stories and characters come together on the ice in this show for the whole family. See an interview with one of the performers on page 51.

Performances through 2/19. 7pm, $19-$120.

Golden 1 Center, 500 David J Stern Walk.

FRIDAY, 2/16 ISLAM—AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE: Brother Mohammed Safillah will give an interactive talk on the topic: How Do Muslims Contribute to America? Included will be Halal-American cuisine, activities for youth and a kids program. 6:45pm, no cover. SALAM Islamic Center, 4541 College Oak Drive.

LEGO MANIA: A monthly free play afternoon where kids can build with LEGO and DUPLO LEGO bricks. 3:30pm, no cover. McKinley Library, 601 Alhambra Blvd.

SATURDAY, 2/17 CHINESE NEW YEAR: Kids can learn how to make noodle salad that’s tossed in the air for good luck. They’ll also learn a few words in Chinese, use chopstick and sprinkle red packets of good luck spice on the salad. 2pm, no cover. North SacramentoHagginwood Library, 2109 Del Paso Blvd.

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

SCHOOL’S OUT PRESIDENTS DAY: Verge hosts a day of art and activities themed around President’s Day. 11am, $10. Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S St.

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Donate to ’s InDepenDent JournalIsm FunD:

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your health and fitness for a lifetime using the Evolving Health techniques. 8am, $145-$495. Larkspur Landing Roseville, 1931 Taylor Road in Roseville.

DSA GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING: A general

FRIDAY, 2/16 68TH ANNUAL O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SACRAMENTO AUTORAMA: A display of customs, hot rods, low-riders, motorcycles and more. Through 2/19. Noon, no cover-$20. Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd.

SATURDAY, 2/17 VOLUNTEER PROJECT: Help improve 11 acres located on the lower American River Parkway with Sacramento Valley Conservancy. 9am, no cover. Camp Pollock, 1501 Northgate Blvd.

SUNDAY, 2/18 SUPREME PRO WRESTLING: Hard-hitting,

high-flying, live pro wrestling action. 5pm, $5-$10. Supreme Pro Wrestling Arena, 6200

McMahon Drive.

memories with your family and dance the night away. 6pm, $20 (+$10 per additional child). Sutter Creek Auditorium, 18 Main St. in Sutter Creek.

EVOLVING HEALTH 2-DAY INTENSIVE: Transform

to discuss and educate about the changes happening in Sacramento County around voting. 9:30am, no cover. Maple Neighborhood Center, 3301 37th Ave. meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America, Sacramento chapter. The group is also collecting winter survival gear. 5pm, no cover. Colonial Heights Library, 4799 Stockton Blvd. experienced educational advocates about educational rights, resources for black families in Sacramento County schools, an equity plan being developed in Elk Grove and more. Includes a lunch, RSVP required.

Noon, no cover. Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento, 2425 Sierra Blvd.

the world of technology, this class covers basic computer skills including how to surf the internet, create an email account, compose emails and attach files. 10:30am, no cover. North Sacramento-Hagginwood Library, 2109 Del Paso Blvd.

WABI KUSA JAPANESE WATER GARDEN WORKSHOP: Learn about these low-maintenance, indoor/ outdoor water gardens before making your own. 2:30pm, $35. Sierra 2 Center, 2791 24th St.

THE WONDERS OF FUNGI AND MUSHROOMS: Learn

GREEN PARTY MONTHLY MEETING: Monthly

how certain fungi and mushrooms can benefit your garden, health and the planet.

In this hands-on workshop, students will learn easy mushroom cultivation methods.

1pm, $30-$40. Soil Born Farms American River Ranch, 2140 Chase Drive.

meeting will include a discussion of upcoming events (Earth Day and March Against Monsanto) and opportunities to volunteer. 1pm, no cover. Grant Union High School, 1400 Grand Ave. epidemiologist Dr. Flojaune Cofer and local author Kakwasi Somadhi for an expertguided discussion of how race affects health. 2pm, no cover. Central Library— Galleria, 828 I St.

LGBTQ

MEET THE COMPUTER: For folks who feel lost in

FREEDOM DAY: Share thoughts and talk to

STORIES OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN HEALTH: Join

SUTTER CREEK FATHER DAUGHTER DANCE: Create

MONDAY, 2/19

essentials of Chinese cooking, including ingredients, techniques and traditions.

Students will make Mongolian beef, Chinese cabbage, traditional fried rice and won ton soup. 6:30pm, $55. Community Learning Center & Cooking School, 2820 R St.

WOMEN’S COFFEE NIGHT: A discussion group for

TUESDAY, 2/20 GARDEN TO PANTRY—PRESERVING MARMALADES & JAMS: A demonstration-style class for

beginners to food preservation. 6pm, $25.

Soil Born Farms American River Ranch, 2140 Chase Drive in Rancho Cordova.

FRIDAY, 2/16 FRIDAYS ARE A DRAG: The popular drag show takes place every third Friday of the month.

This month features Milk from Ru Paul’s Drag Race All Stars season 3. 8pm, $15-$20.

Badlands, 2003 K St.

CLASSES THURSDAY, 2/15 BEGINNER SWING LESSONS: A series of West

SATURDAY, 2/17 8TH ANNUAL BITTER BALL: A post-Valentine’s bash featuring porn star Armond Rizzo and

Coast swing lessons is designed to teach novice dancers to have fun on the social dance floor and feel comfortable dancing with others. 5:30pm, no cover. DoubleTree

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34 | SN&R | 02.15.18

submit your calendar listings for free at newsreview.com/sacramento/calendar THURSDAY 2/15

FRIDAY 2/16

SATURDAY 2/17

SUNDAY 2/18

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 2/19-2/21

The acousTic den cafe

Songwriter in the Round, 7pm, $5

Liz Ryder, Barwick & Siegfried, SideWheeler String Band, 7pm, $6

Belle Francisco & The Clay Dogs, 7pm, $5

Bach to Rock Student Performances, 1:30pm, no cover

Open Mic Wednesday, 6:30pm, W, no cover

Badlands

PopRockz, 10pm, no cover

Fridays are a Drag, 8pm, call for cover

8th Annual Bitter Ball, 10pm, call for cover

Sunday Tea Dance Beer & Bust, 4pm, no cover

Trapacana, 10pm, W, no cover

Legal Addiction, 9:30pm, no cover

Scotty Mac, 9:30pm, no cover

Jezebelle’s Army & BlackArtsMatter Present: Nasty Girls, 8pm, $10

The Richmond Sluts, Peace Killers, Cheap Tissue, 8pm, $10

10271 FAIRWAY DRIVE, ROSEVIllE, (916) 412-8739 2003 k ST., (916) 448-8790

BaR 101

101 MAIN ST., ROSEVIllE, (916) 774-0505

Blue lamp

Caravan of GLAM, 8pm,$15-$20

The BoaRdwalk

Little Stranger, 8pm, $10

1400 AlHAMbRA blVD., (916) 455-3400

Sauce Walka, 8:30pm, $25

Headbangers Ball, 8pm, $7

1500 k ST., (916) 444-3633

Capitol Fridays, 10pm, no cover before 10:30pm

Dinner and a Drag Show, 7:30pm, $5-$25

The cenTeR foR The aRTs

ALO, 8pm, $25

Ryan McKasson & Eric McDonald, 8pm, $19.99

9426 GREENbAck lN., ORANGEVAlE, (916) 358-9116

capiTol GaRaGe PHOTO cOURTESY OF FElIPE Q. NOGUEIRA

Kali uchis 7pm Saturday, $65-$99 Ace of Spades Soul

314 W. MAIN ST., GRASS VAllEY, (530) 274-8384

faces

2000 k ST., (916) 448-7798

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Viewing Party, 5pm, call for cover

Face 2 Face, 9pm, call for cover

Sequin Saturday, 9:30pm, call for cover

faTheR paddY’s iRish puBlic house

Wakins Adams Trio, 6pm, no cover

Retrospecs, 7pm, no cover

Dead Beats, 7pm, no cover

Adam Block and Stephen Ruderman (Simon & Garfunkel tribute), 9pm, $5

Mezcal Aces, Manky, Joseph Kojima Gray, 9pm, $5

Disney On Ice: Follow Your Heart, 7pm, $20-$85

Disney On Ice: Follow Your Heart, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, $17-$101

435 MAIN ST., WOODlAND, (530) 668-1044

fox & Goose

1001 R ST., (916) 443-8825

Golden 1 cenTeR

500 DAVID J STERN WAlk, (888) 915-4647

Disney On Ice: Follow Your Heart, 7pm, $10-$50

Geeks Who Drink, 8:30pm, W, no cover The People Need to Laugh! Sunday Comedy Series, 2pm, $20-$22

Thurston moore Group & Parquet Courts, 6:30pm, $32 Noche Latina, 9pm, T, no cover; Purgatory, 9pm, W, no cover

All-Vinyl Wednesdays, 8pm, W, no cover Disney On Ice: Follow Your Heart, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, $20-$85

Disney on Ice Presents: Follow Your Heart, noon, 4pm, M, $19-$85

halfTime BaR & GRill

Groove Thang, 9pm, $5

Skid Roses, 9pm, $7

Let’s Get Quizzical Trivia Game Show, 7pm, T, no cover

The Purple Ones (Prince tribute), 9pm, $17-$20

Loose Ends Feat. Jane Eugene, 5:30pm, 9:30pm, $35-$50

The Blasters, Nickel Slots, 7pm, T, $15

Cuffin, 10pm, $5

HOF Saturdays, 10pm, $5

The Trivia Factory, 8pm, M, no cover; Geeks Who Drink, 7pm, T, no cover

haRlow’s

2708 J ST., (916) 441-4693

The Main Squeeze, Joy & Madness, 7pm, $12-$15

hiGhwaTeR

With The Seafloor Cinema 9pm Sunday, no cover The Golden Bear

Slashers, Square Cools, Porno Riots, 8pm, T, $10

Ashley Barron, 7:30pm, $5

5681 lONETREE blVD., ROcklIN, (916) 626-3600

shake the baby til the love comes out

Gloriam Draconis, 8pm, $10

Goldfield TRadinG posT 1630 J ST., (916) 476-5076

PHOTO cOURTESY OF JOHN FUlbRIGHT

Trivia Night, 6:30pm, M, no cover; OpenMic Night, 7:30pm, W, no cover

1910 Q ST., (916) 706-2465

holY diVeR

Magic Beans, 7pm, $13-$15

1517 21ST ST.

Marty Grimes, Wes Period and more, 7pm, $15

The Holdup, Riotmaker, 7pm, $14-$16

Last in Line, Nova Sutro, ABEYANCE, 7pm, sold out

Kurt Travis, Amarionette and more, 6:30pm, $10-$12

Flaw, 6:30pm, T, $12-$14; The Darling Clementines Burlesque, 8pm, W, $15-$20

kupRos

Dylan Crawford, 9:30pm, no cover

Native Harrow, 9:30pm, no cover

Soul Providers, 9:30pm, no cover

Trivia, 7:30pm, no cover

Open-Mic Tuesdays, 7pm, T, no cover

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

Sac Unified Poetry Slam, 8pm, no cover ($5 to participate)

1217 21ST ST., (916) 440-0401

luna’s cafe & Juice BaR 1414 16TH ST., (916) 737-5770

Feb 16 legal addiction Feb 17 scotty mac Feb 23 ken koenig Feb 24 dylan crawford

get more, spend less.

live MuSic

Nebraska Mondays, 7:30pm, M, $10; Comedy Open-Mic, 7:30pm, W, no cover

Mar 16 todd morgan

Mar 24 comedy roast 33 Beers On Draft Monday Pint night 5-8 PM, trivia @ 6:30 PM taco tuesday $1.25 tacos noon – close Wednesday oPen Mic – sign-uPs @ 7:30 PM

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Mar 17 groundwave

101 Main Street, roSeville 916-774-0505 · lunch/dinner 7 days a week

fri & sat 9:30pm - close 21+

/bar101roseville

02.15.18 | SN&R | 35

submit your calendar listings for free at newsreview.com/sacramento/calendar THURSDAY 2/15 momo sacramento

FRIDAY 2/16

2708 J ST., (916) 441-4693

Mad Jacky, They Live in the Clouds, 8pm, no cover

old IronsIdes

Open Acoustic Jam, 7pm, no cover

on tHe Y

Open-Mic Comedy, 8pm, no cover

1901 10TH ST., (916) 442-3504 670 FUlTON AvE., (916) 487-3731

Would Be Train Robbers and more, 9pm, $7

Laura Love, 8pm, $20

13 MAIN ST., WINTERS, (530) 795-1825 414 MAIN ST., PlAcERvIllE, (530) 303-3792

Team Trivia, 6pm, no cover

PowerHouse Pub PHOTO cOURTESY OF JUlIAN MENDOzA

brandy robinson

614 SUTTER ST., FOlSOM, (916) 355-8586

tHe Press club

Trash Rock Thursday with Mondo Deco, 8pm, $5

sHadY ladY

Harley White Jr. Orchestra, 9pm, no cover

2030 P ST., (916) 444-7914

with Rachel Wagner 8pm Friday, $8 Shine Soul/Rock

1409 R ST., (916) 231-9121

socIal nIgHtclub

1000 K ST., (916) 947-0434

stoneY’s rockIn rodeo

1320 DEl PASO BlvD., (916) 927-6023

Country Thunder Thursdays, 9pm, no cover

swabbIes on tHe rIver

5871 GARDEN HIGHWAY, (916) 920-8088

tHe torcH club

Elvis Cantu, 9pm, $6

904 15TH ST., (916) 443-2797

SUNDAY 2/18

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 2/19-2/21

Witches Waltz, 9pm, $5

The Switchblade Trio, 5:30pm, W, $8 Heath Williamson & Friends, 5:30pm, M, no cover

Lipstick Dance Party, 9pm, $5 Chaos Mantra, Malcom Bliss and more, 8pm, $5

Palms PlaYHouse

PlacervIlle PublIc House

SATURDAY 2/17

Open 8-Ball Pool Tournament, 7:30pm, $5 buy-in

Open 9-Ball Tournament, 6:30pm, 9:30pm, M, $5 buy-in

Dale Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, 8pm, $28 (sold out)

Rockafellas, 8pm, no cover

Out of the Blue, 8pm, no cover

Bill and Wayne, 1:30pm, no cover

Wonderbread 5, 10pm, $15

Dead Widow Carpenter, 7:30pm, $12; Grooveline, 10pm, $10

Laurie Morvan, 3pm, $10 DJ Larry’s Sunday Night Dance Party, 9pm, no cover

Monday Vibes with MC Ham & Friends, 9pm, M, no cover

Dbaba, 9pm, no cover

Hayez, 9pm, no cover

Fuck Love (with DJ Mez), 10pm, no cover before 11pm

DJ Elements, 10pm, no cover before 10:30pm, $5 after

Alex Jenkins, 9pm, no cover

Hot Country Fridays, 7pm, no cover

Two Steppin’ Kevin’s Birthday Bash, 7pm, $5-$10

Sunday Funday, 7pm, no cover

Third Friday Reggae with Pato Banton Trio, 7pm, $8

Ranell Carpenter, 2pm, call for cover

Spazmatics, 2pm, call for cover

Rebel Soul Revival, 9pm, $10

Dennis Jones, 9pm, $10

You Front the Band Karaoke, 8pm, no cover

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My 35-year-old son’s girlfriend hates me. keep it secret from my ex. I have been I’ve done everything I can do to get along seeing a woman who says that I’m teachwith her because he loves her so much. ing my daughters to be irresponsible. I I was a single mom, and he is all I have. think I’m helping them out, can afford to But she is distant and difficult. Now she’s do it, and enjoy it. Who’s right? pregnant. I’m thrilled and only want to be a supportive, loving grandmother. But The real question is: Why is paying off she doesn’t want me to visit, and tries to your daughters’ debt a secret from your restrict my son from visiting with me. It’s ex-wife? If you’re giving your daughters a difficult situation because I don’t want a clean financial slate because you feel to upset her and chance losing time with guilty about divorcing their mother, or are my grandchild.

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to be included, but experience your son’s partner as intentionally excluding you from the family. If your son isn’t intervening on your behalf, the problem might not be his partner, despite how cold and difficult you say she is. Speaking of her vibe, maybe the cold front is self-protection.

You think you’re being friendly, but she experiences you as over-involved in her relationship. Are you ignoring her boundaries?

Remap your orbit. As a single parent, your son was once the center of your life. But he’s an adult now, and your focus on him is misplaced.

Reorder your priorities. Begin by surrendering your single mother identity.

Discover who you are as a woman. Learn to live as a single adult. Pour energy into creating a foundation to build the dreams delayed while raising a child. Don’t assume that your son’s partner is keeping anyone from you. Find ways to give yourself what you desire without disrupting her life. Like this: Always wanted a grandchild? Expand your concept of family. Volunteer for a program that serves infants or children. Above all, stop complaining about your son’s partner, or he might feel forced to choose her or you.

understand how to manage their money, then stop. If you like the way your daughters behave toward you when you pay their bills and don’t get that same emotional hit from them at other times, then stop. Direct your daughters to LearnVest.com, where they can learn budgeting and saving skills.

Or buy them a copy of the classic, Prince Charming Isn’t Coming: How Women Get Smart About Money,

by Barbara Stanny. Then, find a nonprofit that needs your extra cash far more than your daughters do, and donate those dollars. Ω

Begin by surrendering your single mother identity.

I’m divorced and have four daughters who range in age from 22 to 31 years old.

My two youngest daughters spend a lot on clothes and eating. I bail them out but

MedItAtIoN oF the Week “I found God in myself, and I loved her, I loved her fiercely,” wrote Ntozake Shange, poet and playwright. How do you celebrate your uniqueness?

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 Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815; call (916) 498-1234, ext. 1360; or email askjoey@newsreview.com.

Join Joey for “Love & Reality” at Sacramento Freethinkers Atheists & Nonbelievers’ monthly meeting, March 25 at 1 p.m. at the Reason Center, 1824 Tribute Road.

SN&R’s SN&R’s

What’s What’s inside: inside: The 420 The 420 41

49

Product Review 53 Product Review 45 Capital Cannabis Map 57 Capital Cannabis Map For More deals, updates 47 & Listings Visit

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02.15.16 | SN&R | 39

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Hello, good sir. I just want to throw small intimate cannabis tasting parties in fancy houses and gardens. Would I be breaking the law?

—Backyard Benny Yes. Yes you can. State law says that qualified medical patients can grow up to six plants. Yolo County says you can grow medical marijuana in a space no bigger than 100 square feet, and you can’t combine gardens with another patient. Also, you can’t sell your harvest. You can probably fit six plants into 100 square feet, but if it is an outdoor grow, it may be a tight fit. I am sure you are up to the challenge. Have fun. Ω

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—Martha S. Yes. Yes you would. The current rules only allow for events with on-site consumption and sales to take place at county fairgrounds and other agricultural centers, but who wants to throw an intimate fancy pants dinner at the county fairgrounds? These new rules are a big drag for all the folks that want to produce farmers markets or other kinds of small-scale cannabis events. However, State Assembly member Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) has just introduced AB 2020, which would allow event producers to apply for temporary event permits on all sorts of properties. The fees and stuff aren’t spelled out, and you would still have to get approval for your city or county (Good luck, Fresnans!) but this is a good step toward allowing cannabis events that already exist. Please call your elected officials and tell them to vote “yes” on 2020.

I would also like to say this: So far, all of the regulations have been aimed at larger businesses. Giant cannabis parties and huge farms have gotten the OK from the state, even though Proposition 64 explicitly places a cap on giant farms for the first five years to allow smaller growers to get established before the big corporate farms move in. I kinda get it. Big money makes big moves. But our legislators and regulators need to be mindful of the thousands of smaller cannabusinesses in this state. The cheapest license in Sacramento is $5,000, with most licenses costing at least $20,000, and that doesn’t include the state fees or the costs of getting an architect to draw up a floor plan, hire a lawyer, etc. All these high fees create a barrier to entry which keeps the smaller operators out of the game and almost ensures that some growers will have to remain outlaws. It’s a shame, and I hope the Bureau of Cannabis Control and all the other agencies tasked Our with regulating the cannabis industry legislators and remember to make space for the mom regulators need and pop business owners.

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Content: 82.6 % THC (500 mg cartridge) Price: $35 Uses: Relaxation with a slight boost of creative energy Pros: Flavorful, aromatic, pure and potent Cons: Limited availability

ne of the most exciting side effects that has resulted from the combination of scientific advancement and legal acceptance in the cannabis world is the notion of “top shelf” weed.

Ten or 15 years ago, we would have been happy to have any kind of shelf, much less a top shelf (note to self: sell that joke to Yakov Smirnoff). But in an increasingly competitive and customerfriendly marketplace, people now have the option to pay a little extra for quality, potency, flavor and aroma.

The Vapor J1 Sativa vape cartridge produced by Sacramento-based Himalaya comes in a box marked “top shelf,” and although the retail price for the cartridge is relatively reasonable, it’s not an idle boast in terms of quality. Himalaya triple-distills California-grown cannabis to create the purest oil possible, resulting in one of the more clean and flavorful vape cartridges that we have ever sampled.

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Ten or 15 years ago, we would have been happy to have any kind of shelf, much less a top shelf.

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FRee will aStRology

by Kate Gonzales

by Rob bRezsny

FOR THE WEEk OF FEBRUARy 15, 2018 ARIES (March 21-April 19): At 12,388 feet, Mount

Fuji is Japan’s highest peak. If you’re in good shape, you can reach the top in seven hours. The return trip can be done in half the time—if you’re cautious. The loose rocks on the steep trail are more likely to knock you off your feet on the way down than on the way up. I suspect this is an apt metaphor for you in the coming weeks, Aries.

Your necessary descent may be deceptively challenging. So make haste slowly! Your power animals are the rabbit and the snail.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In 1903, Orville and

Wilbur Wright made a few short jaunts through the air in a flying machine they called the Flyer. It was a germinal step in a process that ultimately led to your ability to travel 600 miles per hour while sitting in a chair 30,000 feet above the earth. Less than 66 years after the Wright Brothers’ breakthrough, American astronauts landed a space capsule on the moon. They had with them a patch of fabric from the left wing of the Flyer. I expect that during the coming weeks, you will be climaxing a long-running process that deserves a comparable ritual. Revisit the early stages of the work that enabled you to be where you are now.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2006, 5 percent

of the world’s astronomers gathered at an international conference and voted to demote Pluto from a planet to a “dwarf planet.” Much of the world agreed to honor their declaration.

Since then, though, there has arisen a campaign by equally authoritative astronomers to restore Pluto to full planet status. The crux of the issue is this: How shall we define the nature of a planet?

But for the people of New Mexico, the question has been resolved. State legislators there formally voted to regard Pluto as a planet. They didn’t accept the demotion. I encourage you to be inspired by their example, Gemini. Whenever there are good arguments from opposing sides about important matters, trust your gut feelings.

Stand up for your preferred version of the story.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ray Bradbury’s

dystopian bestseller Fahrenheit 451 was among the most successful of the 27 novels he wrote.

It won numerous awards and has been adopted into films, plays, and graphic novels. Bradbury wrote the original version of the story in nine days, using a typewriter he rented for 20 cents per hour. When his publisher urged him to double the manuscript’s length, he spent another nine days doing so. According to my reading of the planetary configurations, you Cancerians now have a similar potential to be surprisingly efficient and economical as you work on an interesting creation or breakthrough—especially if you mix a lot of play and delight into your labors.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Poet Louise Glück has

characterized herself as “afflicted with longing yet incapable of forming durable attachments.”

If there is anything in you that even partially fits that description, I have good news: In the coming weeks, you’re likely to feel blessed by longing rather than being afflicted by it. The foreseeable future will also be prime time for you to increase your motivation and capacity to form durable attachments. Take full advantage of this fertile grace period!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 2004, a man named Jerry Lynn tied a battery-operated alarm clock to a string and dangled it down a vent in his house. He was hoping that when the alarm sounded, he would get a sense of the best place to drill a hole in his wall to run a wire for his TV. But the knot he’d made wasn’t perfect, and the clock slipped off and plunged into an inaccessible spot behind the wall. Then, every night for 13 years, the alarm rang for a minute.

The battery was unusually strong! A few months ago, Lynn decided to end the mild but constant irritation. Calling on the help of duct specialists, he retrieved the persistent clock. With this story as your inspiration, and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you Virgos to finally put an end to your equivalent of the maddening alarm clock. (Read the story: tinyurl.com/ alarmclockmadness.)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Was Napoléon

Bonaparte an oppressor or liberator? The answer is both. His work in the world hurt a lot

of people and helped a lot of people. One of his more magnanimous escapades transpired in June 1798, when he and his naval forces invaded the island of Malta. During his six-day stay, he released political prisoners, abolished slavery, granted religious freedom to Jews, opened 15 schools, established the right to free speech, and shut down the Inquisition. What do his heroics have to do with you? I don’t want to exaggerate, but I expect that you, too, now have the power to unleash a blizzard of benevolence in your sphere. Do it in your own style, of course, not Napoléon’s.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Trees that are

slow to grow bear the best fruit,” said French playwright Molière. I’m going to make that your motto for now, Scorpio. You have pursued a gradual, steady approach to ripening, and soon it will pay off in the form of big bright blooms. Congratulations on having the faith to keep plugging away in the dark! I applaud your determination to be dogged and persistent about following your intuition even though few people have appreciated what you were doing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The growth

you can and should foster in the coming weeks will be stimulated by quirky and unexpected prods. To get you started, here are a few such prods. 1. What’s your hidden or dormant talent, and what could you do to awaken and mobilize it? 2. What’s something you’re afraid of but might be able to turn into a resource? 3. If you were a different gender for a week, what would you do and what would your life be like? 4. Visualize a dream you’d like to have while you’re asleep tonight. 5. If you could transform anything about yourself, what would it be? 6. Imagine you’ve won a free vacation to anywhere you want. Where would you go?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You may think

you have uncovered the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But according to my analysis of the astrological omens, you’re just a bit more than halfway there. In order to get the rest of the goods, you’ll have to ignore your itch to be done with the search. You’ll have to be unattached to being right and smart and authoritative. So please cultivate patience. Be expansive and magnanimous as you dig deeper.

For best results, align yourself with poet Richard Siken’s definition: “The truth is complicated. It’s two-toned, multi-vocal, bittersweet.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The posh

magazine Tatler came up with a list of fashionable new names for parents who want to ensure their babies get a swanky start in life. Since you Aquarians are in a phase when you can generate good fortune by rebranding yourself or remaking your image, I figure you might be interested in using one of these monikers as a nickname or alias. At the very least, hearing them could whet your imagination to come up with your own ideas. Here are Tatler’s chic avant-garde names for girls: Czar-Czar; Debonaire; Estonia; Figgy; Gethsemane; Power; Queenie. Here are some boys’ names: Barclay; Euripides; Gustav; Innsbruck; Ra; Uxorious; Wigbert; Zebedee.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Now that you have

finally paid off one of your debts to the past, you can start window-shopping for the future’s best offers. The coming days will be a transition time as you vacate the power spot you’ve outgrown and ramble out to reconnoiter potential new power spots. So bid your crisp farewells to waning traditions, lost causes, ghostly temptations, and the deadweight of people’s expectations. Then start preparing a vigorous first impression to present to promising allies out there in the frontier.

A dream worth fighting for Justine Lopez is a bit like Pocahontas, the first character she portrayed with Disney on Ice. When she has a goal, her determination makes her unstoppable. She’s loyal to her family, but values her independence.

And she’s not afraid to break a rule or two in order to follow her heart.

Lopez, a 29-year-old ice skater who grew up in Natomas, trained with Jayne Meyer Throckmorton at the Capital City Figure Skating Club. Her 10-year career with Disney on Ice has taken her around the globe and, this week, brings her back to her hometown to perform at the Golden 1 Center.

How did you decide you wanted to skate?

I was really young, and I watched the winter Olympics in ’94 and there was something about watching the athleticism of it that really motivated me. … Sacramento is so small. I’ve been skating for 20-plus years at this point right now, and back then there weren’t any skating rinks in our area—Skate Town wasn’t available yet—so I tried looking in the yellow pages by myself. … We managed to find one, Iceland off of Del Paso Boulevard. And I told my mom all the information. … I had written down when the group sessions were, how much the costs were, and what days they were, and so basically I showed it to her, and I said this is what I want to do.

Were you training for the Olympics?

My intentions were to be as good as someone that could go to the Olympics, go to nationals. I really loved skating, like I would ditch school and go to the rink.

I actually got caught, unfortunately. I skipped school one day, I was caught on the Sacramento Bee the next day after I had ditched school for the opening of the skating rink and I had called in sick. I trained and I had to go through a setback where I had two surgeries, which kind of brought us a little downhill, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to compete.

Tell me about the surgeries.

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I found out after an X-ray that I had a really severe case of scoliosis. It was to the point where it was puncturing my spine. I needed to be put into the body brace and things like that for about a year, a year and a half to see how it progressed. I was originally told that I

Justine lopez brings some Disney magic to her hometown.

PHOTOs COURTEsY OF FEld EnTERTainmEnT

was going to have surgery when I was 14 or 15, and unfortunately my spine didn’t improve. … At that point, I was 10 years old, I wanted to fix it. I wanted to skate, and the choice for me to do was surgery.

So I went ahead and did it, and lucky enough I came out of it. I had another surgery after to finish it up, but my spine had improved about 75 percent. I was also advised that I wasn’t going to be skating again, but I kept following my heart and I was really determined. This is something that’s great about this show is … the qualities that our princesses have, I relate to. Our show features female and princess empowerment. … Mulan [represents courage]. I think about the courage that I had to say yes, I’m going to have surgery.

I was very ambitious to come back and skate, and I think this show really relates to me.

Who do you play in the show?

I’m a female ensemble in the ice show, and what’s really great about it is I get to be a part of just about every number in the show, so it’s never just one. But for sure you’ll be able to pick me out as the cheerleader when we open up the show with Riley and the emotions from Inside Out. And you’ll be able to spot me as a citizen that, we take the audience to Arendelle with Elsa and Ana and Olaf and Kristof [from Frozen].

How have Disney princesses changed?

Disney has been really with the diversity in the princesses that have come up recently. For example, we show Mulan and our Tiana in our production, and they have great qualities about female empowerment, and how single-handedly they can make something happen for themselves instead of relying on a prince to help make things happen. What’s really great also about our show is that we have a modern-age story about Rapunzel and how she’s trying to find herself. …

Our show gets to encompass how strong females are, and our princesses can showcase that as well.

If you could be any Disney character, who would you be?

I have a very soft spot for Moana, and I think that’s because I’m a Pacific Islander and she has some of the same qualities as I where, I have a job and I have a place in my family. I try very hard to uphold those traditions but also show them that I’m strong and I’m an individual and I’m growing up and need to do what I need to do and do what I love.

see lopez perform with disney on ice: Follow Your Heart when it comes to the Golden 1 Center February 15-19.

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