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Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

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Volume 31, iSSue 31

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contents

november 14, 2019 | vol. 31, Issue 31

For most vegans, Thanksgiving can be hit or miss at the dinner table.

See SN&R’s guide to some delicious, plant-based options to consider this holiday season.

editor’s note letters essay + streetalk greenlight + 15 minutes news feature arts + Culture musiC stage

04 05 06 08 10 14 22 25 26

29 dish plaCe Calendar Capital Cannabis guide ask joey

28 31 33 39 46

Cover design by sarah hansel

Jeremy Meier, Jenny Plummer, Lloyd Rongley, Lolu Sholotan, Viv Tiqui,

N&R Publications Editor Debbie Arrington Associate Publications Editors Derek McDow, 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 Foon Rhee News Editor Raheem F. Hosseini Managing Editor Mozes Zarate Staff Reporter Scott Thomas Anderson Copy Editor Steph Rodriguez Calendar Editor Maxfield Morris Contributing Editor Rachel Leibrock Editorial Assistant Rachel Mayfield Contributors Ngaio Bealum, Amy Bee, Rob Brezsny, Aaron Carnes, Jim Carnes, Joey Garcia, Kate Gonzales, Howard Hardee, Ashley Hayes-Stone, Jim Lane, Chris Macias, Ken Magri, Illyanna Maisonet, Tessa Marguerite Outland, Lindsay Oxford, James Raia, Patti Roberts, Dylan Svoboda, Bev Sykes, Jeremy Winslow, Graham Womack Creative Services Manager Elisabeth Bayard-Arthur Art Directors Sarah Hansel, Maria Ratinova Art of Information Director Serene Lusano Publications Designer Katelynn Mitrano Publications and Advertising Designer Nikki Exerjian Ad Designers Naisi Thomas, Cathy Arnold

Advertising Manager Michael Gelbman Sales & Production Coordinator Skyler Morris Senior Advertising Consultants Rosemarie Messina, Kelsi White Advertising Consultants Sam Almaguer, Michael Nero, Vincent Marchese, Amy Yang

Director of First Impressions/Sweetdeals Coordinator Laura Anthony

Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Assistant Lob Dunnica Distribution Drivers Mansour Aghdam, Rosemarie Beseler, Kimberly Bordenkircher, Mike Cleary, Tom Downing, Marty Fetterley, Chris Fong, Ron Forsberg, Michael Jackson, Calvin Maxwell, Greg Meyers,

Thea Rood

N&R Publications Staff Writers/Photographers Anne Stokes, Allen Pierleoni

N&R Publications Editorial Coordinator Nisa Smith Marketing & Publications Lead Consultant Elizabeth Morabito

Development Consultant Greta Beekhuis Marketing & Publications Consultants Julia Ballantyne, Chris Cohen, Joseph Engle, Laura Golino, Sherri Heller, Rod Malloy, Celeste Worden,

President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Director of Nuts & Bolts Deborah Redmond Director of People & Culture David Stogner Nuts & Bolts Ninja Norma Huerta Director of Dollars & Sense Debbie Mantoan Account Jedi Jessica Kislanka Payroll/AP Wizard Miranda Hansen Developer John Bisignano System Support Specialist Kalin Jenkins

1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815 Phone (916) 498-1234 Fax (916) 498-7910 Website newsreview.com Got a News Tip? sactonewstips@newsreview.com Calendar Events newsreview.com/calendar Want to Advertise? Fax (916) 498-7910 or snradinfo@newsreview.com Classifieds (916) 498-1234, ext. 5 or classifieds@newsreview.com Job Opportunities jobs@newsreview.com Want to Subscribe to SN&R? sactosubs@newsreview.com Editorial Policies: Opinions expressed in SN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permissions to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. SN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or review materials. Email letters to snrletters@newsreview.com. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form and to edit them for libel.

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

SN&R is printed at PressWorks Ink 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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V

editoR’S Note

voices

Crews work on the extension of Regional Transit’s Blue Line to Cosumnes River College, completed in 2015. RT wants to expand light rail further.

Photo courtesy of sacramento regional transit

Do-over on transit tax

by Foon Rhee

It looks like there will be a second try on a transportation sales tax for Sacramento.

But will the spending plan fit our times, when building more and more highways makes less and less sense? And will more voters be receptive this time?

On Thursday, Nov. 14, the Sacramento Transportation Authority is to get a key update on the potential November 2020 ballot measure. Included are the results of a new poll showing that while voters believe traffic has worsened and are concerned about it, they see homelessness as a bigger problem for the county. And support for a half-cent sales tax hike is short of the two-thirds majority required to pass it.

The authority board plans to discuss the issue at its Dec. 12 meeting, draft a spending plan and decide whether to proceed by year’s end.

The authority also put together Measure B, but in November 2016 county voters narrowly rejected that half-cent sales tax increase, which would have raised $3.6 billion over 30 years for roads, mass transit, bicycle lanes and other projects.

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A lot has changed since then.

Climate change is an even bigger concern, so voters will be more skeptical of new highways that produce greenhouse gases. Environmental advocates are pushing for a spending plan weighted toward transit, walking and bicycling. So is the climate change commission created last year by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, which says the local transportation sector is the biggest producer of greenhouse gases but is not meeting reduction goals.

Regional Transit—which would have received about 30 percent of Measure B money—may have more public support.

During the 2016 campaign, there was lingering anger over service cuts and fare increases during the Great Recession.

Since then, RT has increased service, lowered fares and offered free rides to students, though some are unhappy with a new bus route network.

In 2017, the Legislature and then-Gov. Jerry Brown approved a 17.6-cent hike in gas taxes to fund $5.4 billion a year in road and bridge repairs. Senate Bill 1 doubled

fo o nr @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

the amount going to cities and counties from the state; Sacramento County is getting about $24 million a year.

So supporters will have to convince voters that another local revenue source is needed for transportation, on top of the Measure A half-cent tax that is on the books until 2039. Plus, some voters may be wary of another sales tax hike after passing the half-cent Measure U for economic justice last year, which raised the total sales tax in Sacramento to 8.75%.

Laying the groundwork for a 2020 measure, the transportation authority has reached out to interest groups, held community meetings and compiled wish lists from cities and local agencies. The total in “unmet needs” is a whopping $12.4 billion.

The city of Sacramento estimates $2.5 billion in unfunded needs in the next 30 years, including traffic control technology; bicycle trails, tunnels and bridges; sidewalks and crosswalks; reconstruction of five major interchanges; and a new bus terminal at the downtown train station.

Regional Transit puts its needs at $2.75 billion. Among other projects, it wants to

replace all 97 light rail cars, modernize light rail stations, buy zero-emission buses and extend light rail to Sacramento International Airport.

Also proposed is $331 million to finish the Capital SouthEast Connector between Folsom and Elk Grove, a freeway that was highly controversial in 2016 and is still strongly opposed by environmental groups.

Opponents were vastly outspent in 2016, however, by contractors, business groups and others behind Measure B. While 65% did vote “yes,” that was about 8,000 votes short of the two-thirds needed for passage.

Consultants went on a “listening tour” to learn from the failure. One big lesson: not enough public input. So some advocates and officials are calling on the authority to take more time to involve the public and make sure the spending plan is right.

At an Oct. 29 City Council workshop, Steinberg and others said they want that spending list to reflect the city’s priorities of safety, “green” mobility and neighborhood equity.

But the city has only five votes on the 16-member authority board, and council members acknowledged that support from suburban voters is crucial.

In the new poll, voters put the highest priority on fixing damaged roads first, providing safe routes to schools and making their cities eligible for state and federal matching money. They also want strong accountability provisions to make sure their taxes are spent as promised. The most important projects for voters vary somewhat depending where in the county they live.

Overall, 63% of voters supported a 30-year tax initially, and 65% after receiving more information. A 40-year tax gets support from only 56% of respondents.

“To reach the two-thirds threshold,” the pollsters conclude, “the measure should be refined to include voters’ highest priority spending areas and accountability provisions in the ballot language; of course such a measure would need to be accompanied by a strong campaign.”

It’s never an easy sell to get people to raise their own taxes, and there’s no reason to believe 2020 will be any different. □

letters

Email to sactolEttErs@nEwsrEviEw.com @SacNewsReview

@SacNewsReview

Facebook.com/SacNewsReview

Sac nostalgia Re: “Coffee Capital” by Steph Rodriguez (Feature, Oct. 24): Your Coffee Issue set off a nostalgic wave that had me talking to friends about the 1970s. So here goes: Giovanni’s at I and 21st streets, a busy cafe with music. Juliana’s Kitchen serving great food, coffee and a hippie feel. Earhart’s Cafe, remembered as the first cafe to have monthly art shows and being LGBQT friendly. And the genuine underground place in all of Sac ever—the old, brick building we know as the Weatherstone/Old Soul on 21st street.

In the 1970s it was a different place. The coffee shop was run by a defrocked priest. He lived like a monk with a pot belly stove, a hidden bed and huge bags of coffee. Order the Peppermint Tea and see what happens! I wonder if today’s “scene” will inspire warm memories in 40 years.

BoB Saari S acr am e nt o / v i a e m a i l

Favorite decaf Re: “Decaf deep dive” by Lindsay Oxford (Dish, Oct. 24): Thanks for bringing our “suffering” to light. I avoid caffeine due to high blood pressure. My new favorite decaf is from the beans used by Luchador Coffee in the Country Club Mall. They get their beans from Mexico and roast them locally. The flavor is excellent, with the fruity nature of the bean really coming through.

ErnSt SchnEidErEit Sac rame n to / v i a em ai l

Not about race Re: “‘Copwatching’ while black” by Ben Irwin (News, Oct. 31): Theo Scott-Femenella, a black man, was recently detained and questioned by police on the Sacramento City College campus because he “matched the description of a black suspect reported to possess a rifle.” In response, Scott-Femenella decided to make this yet another racial issue, claiming that he “felt wronged,” that his “civil rights were violated” and that he was “flat-out racially profiled” rather than recognizing that the police were simply doing their job.

Regardless of what the police do to protect us, they are going to be blamed as racist by those who, like Scott-Femenella, already believe “that black men are more likely to lose their freedom—or even their lives—if they come into contact with law enforcement.” The truly sad thing is that SN&R thought this worthy of a full-page story.

roland Brady Sac rame n to / v i a em ai l

Don’t underplay theater Re: “Hound mysteries abound” by Jim Carnes (Stage, Oct. 17): I’m extremely disappointed with your theater review for “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.” The review opens with “perhaps the best show of the year,” and then never attempts to justify that claim. It never does more than touch upon the production itself.

I believe one of the great things Sacramento has going for it is the strength of local theater. As the local arts and entertainment publication, this is exactly something you should be focusing on and possibly expanding. If a production is the best show of the year, people need to know about it, but we also need to know why it is.

Please recommit to in-depth coverage of local theater, and don’t let this become simply a listing of what’s playing. A positive review should mean something, but if I don’t understand the critic’s thought process, I have no way to evaluate it.

Matt czarnowSki S acr am en t o / v i a e m a i l

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5

essay

by Jodi hicks

streetalk

by Graham Womack

Asked At CApitol pArk:

Alternate life aspirations?

Not backing down It is hard to believe that as I begin my tenure leading Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, reproductive freedom is under the greatest assault it has been since the Roe v. Wade decision almost 50 years ago.

An unprecedented number of extreme abortion bans are being enacted across America, many that don’t include exceptions for rape or incest and that threaten to jail doctors simply for providing care, and some that would allow the state to investigate women’s miscarriages. And now the U.S. Supreme Court will review a case that could pave the way for Jodi Hicks is president & CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates the undoing of Roe. of California.

Beyond the restrictions to abortion, the TrumpPence administration implemented the Title X “gag level of government. The 2019-20 state budget rule” this year, making it illegal for providers to tell doubled down on a historic $100 million investment their patients how and where they can access aborin health care. The attorney general defends reprotion safely and legally. ductive freedom in the courts time and time again.

These harmful restrictions on health care are Through the state budget investment, Planned used to stigmatize abortion and criminalize doctors Parenthood has already been able to meet the from providing the full range of health care and urgent, unmet health care needs of Californians by attack the patients and communities who need it opening more health centers, expanding the types of most. These bans are targeted at women, especially services such as transgender care and by increasing women of color, and harm those who are lowwrap-around services that address behavioral income, LGBT+ and immigrants. health and homelessness. We’ve As the new president/CEO of been able to also expand access Planned Parenthood Affiliates of “We know in underserved communities California, I can promise you we by adding longer hours that your right are fighting every hour of every and utilizing tele-health to control your body, day to protect reproductive services. freedom and provide the full your family and your But there are still range of sexual and reprobarriers to care. In future—your reproductive ductive health care services.

California, we’ve seen freedom—should not depend We know that your right patients from every to control your body, your on your immigration status, single state, and even family and your future—your from different countries, your income, your zip reproductive freedom—should who come to our health code, or your race or not depend on your immigration centers to receive critical status, your income, your zip code, ethnicity. care. Unfortunately, we expect or your race or ethnicity. this to only increase with abortion We are caught in the cross-hairs of bans in other states. the GOP’s heinous attacks upon our freedoms.

At Planned Parenthood, we have a At the same time we’re defending and advocating to commitment to care for every patient. And in #StoptheBans as a political organization, we’re also California, we collectively have a commitment to a health care provider committed to serve anyone push progressive policy. who walks through our doors. Planned Parenthood, But we can be bolder. with some of the largest affiliates right here in As a state, as policymakers, as advocates and as California, is proud to be the foremost provider of voters, we have an opportunity and an obligation to sexual and reproductive health care. be steadfast not only in our commitment to protect In California, Planned Parenthood has been and provide health care, but to speak out to shift the fortunate to have a pro-reproductive health care narrative for future generations of patients: Commit Legislature and governor and champions in every to care. No matter what. □ 6

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JunAid rehmAn software engineer

Something wild I would do is to not stay in one place for more than six months. Just continue to travel and travel and travel. But that requires a lot of money.

CArolyn pfister education administrator

I think I would focus more on math. I used to be a math teacher, and I’m involved in math work at the state, and I find it really satisfying.

r AJiv r AmAn auditor

Taking control of [my writing ambitions] and completely switching over to not only just being a writer, but providing content completely free to people.

dAryA Jones corrections worker

Modeling, just ’cause I always like to take pictures and kind of be in front of the camera and express myself in different ways.

dAn Aki master’s student

Cartoonist. I like drawing sometimes.

Ashlyn WitherWA x accounting worker

I guess I want to write math textbooks. So I can teach, but not interact with people.

the importance of test labs Reliable testing needed now mo Re than eveR

A

s legalized cannabis slowly weaves its way into the tapestry of American social norms, testing labs play an important role. Their efforts as honest intermediaries give credibility to the cannabis industry and reassurance to consumers. By working with growers, manufacturers and retail dispensaries, lab-testing insures safety through the entire production process.

Due to California’s rigid test standards, our regulated cannabis products are the safest on the planet. In fact, many Californians who still buy untested cannabis on the grey market are starting to worry more about product safety than lower prices.

“We are just now starting to see the effects from smoking products laced with

“We are just now starting to see the effects from smoking products laced with pesticides ten years ago.”

Julia Innocenzi, Customer Relations Director 2 River Labs California has the country’s toughest test standards for cannabis products.

pesticides 10 years ago,” said Julia Innocenzi, manager at Sacramento’s 2 River Labs, one of California’s 27 official cannabis test facilities. As a result, consumers are increasingly turning to licensed dispensaries to buy tested products.

In the seed-to-sale life of a cannabis product, laboratories test for more than THC potency and terpene profiles. Seventeen different cannabinoids are tested at 2 River Labs, including CBD and CBN. Hemp is also tested to guarantee a low THC potency, which must be 0.3% or less to be legal for commercial use.

Tests for contaminants include pesticides, solvents, molds, microbes like salmonella, and heavy metals such as lead, which can leach in from other sources like soil, water or packaging.

Laboratories don’t just test the final products. Before starting a new crop, growers approach labs to test their soil, water, nutrients and “any building block, anything that product is going to touch,” said Matt Bailey, chief executive officer of 2 River Labs.

This helps insure that growers won’t be surprised with failed test results later when their crops are harvested.

Never smoked tested cannabis? It might be worth a try. “Start smoking stuff that’s been tested,” said Rachel Giffin, lab supervisor at 2 River, “and maybe that cough you had all your life, you didn’t actually have.”

In light of the recent illnesses and deaths associated with vape cartridges, 2 River Labs developed a test for the suspected thinning agent Vitamin E acetate, often added to vape oil. In the near future, they hope to initiate long-term tests on their theory that lead, when used in the manufacturing of empty cartridges, will leach into vape oil over time.

“The longer that the concentrate sits in the cartridge, the more lead is going to leach out from the metal,” said Michael Roman, 2 River’s chief operational officer.

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greenlight

15 minutes

by James Raia

A letter from a battleground state

by Jeff vonKaenel

The 2020 presidential election is now less than one year away. And I know who I will not be voting for (his name rhymes with dump). But who should I vote for?

I’m struggling with that.

And living in deep blue California, I don’t have a sense of what voters are thinking in the important swing states. Polls show nearly all Democratic candidates soundly beating President Trump nationwide, but struggling in the battleground states that could decide who wins the Electoral College.

So I am curious what people are thinking in those pivotal states, especially in areas that supported both Barack Obama and Trump. They are the swing voters who may decide this election.

A long time ago, I lived in Vermilion, Ohio, a very small town 50 miles west of Cleveland, next to Lake Erie. My dad was one of the three doctors in town. They all worked on Saturdays and set their schedules around each other.

Wanting to get a Vermilion perspective on the election, I wrote the following letter to my childhood friend, Henry Kishman, whom I not had spoken to in 55 years.

Hank, I hope that you remember me. We went to elementary and junior high school together until my family moved to California in 1964. One of my fondest childhood memories is spending the night at your house and getting up early in the morning to go milk the cows at your family’s dairy farm.

I also thought you were one of my smartest classmates, so I was not surprised that that you became a lawyer.

I know it has been a long time, nevertheless, I have a favor to ask you.

You live in Ohio, in one of the counties that voted for Obama as well as Trump. So which of the Democratic presidential candidates do you think 8

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j e ffv @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

would most appeal to Vermilion Obama-Trump voters?

Joe Palmer stands next to one of his 14 vintage cars, a 1941 Lincoln.

Photo by James Raia

He replied: Hello Jeff, It was great to hear from you again after all these years. I have fond recollections of your father and his care and concern for his patients. He was one of the last of the old school doctors. I remember him coming to our home to make house calls. The science may have progressed in the medical field but the care of patients and attending to them as individuals has certainly deteriorated.

But on to the question which you asked about the electability of a Democratic candidate. Ohio is trending conservative. In this area, with it still having a strong union presence and a fairly substantial minority community, I would say that Joe Biden or a more centrist type of Democrat would probably stand the best chance. I doubt that someone like an Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders would do very well. The basic profile of a white Democrat in this area is more of a Hubert HumphreyHenry Jackson type of Democrat. I think a very significant number voted for Donald Trump and likely will vote for him again, although they would probably not admit to it.

I do not believe that a Democrat too far to the left would do very well in Ohio. The state is just becoming too conservative. Some of the familiar names, such as [Ohio Sen.] Sherrod Brown, still do well, but I believe it is largely due to name recognition Again, it was great to hear from you.

I wish you the best.

Henry □

Jeff vonKaenel is the president, Ceo and majority owner of the News & Review.

Automania Vintage auto collector Joe Palmer spins the hood ornament of his giant 1941 Lincoln. The vehicle has a hulking 12-cylinder engine, weighs nearly 4,000 pounds and not many were made.

Palmer is fascinated by the workings of vintage cars. But he’s just as appreciative of the Lincoln’s weapon-like chrome appendage and dual horns that blare as loudly as lighthouse fog sirens. He owns 14 vehicles— including a Rolls-Royce, Cadillac and Ford— and many are parked in the backyard of his Midtown home. The 59-year-old real estate businessman and musician is immersed in the history and the stories of vintage vehicle owners. He likes to drive himself and friends in his vehicles, including a two-tone green 1956 Bentley. SN&R chatted with Palmer on a recent late morning at his home while sitting in his 1966 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine.

You basically have a vintage automobile collection in your backyard. How did all of this get started?

I just started with the one, the 1941 Cadillac series 62, and I thought, Well, this isn’t enough. So I just started pulling a few together, and I’ve had more than 30 now. But I have sold a lot of them. I sold one to a guy in Australia, and I’ve sold them in England, Italy, France and Czechoslovakia. They’re all over the world now, so that’s kind of neat.

Often car collectors have a father, brother, or someone who was also a collector and influenced them. Was it that way for you?

My dad used to run moonshine. Have you ever seen the movie Thunder Road? It’s actually accurate. Those were some of the roads he used to drive on. He was always telling me tales about that. I respected my dad a lot. When we invaded the beaches of Normandy, he was there. He was always telling me about different cars he had, and

he tried to buy me a Model T. I didn’t think he had any money, so I told him not to. But now I own a Model A.

As a vintage car collector, where do you look for vehicles—Craigslist?

I like two sites particularly: Classiccars.com—I have some cars listed there—and Hemmings. com. It’s a beautiful site. You just put in what you are after and bam! There they are. If anyone out there has a ’74 or ’75 Cadillac Talisman, I am very interested.

Have you ever had a new car?

I drove a Prius. I lowered my carbon footprint, so if anyone is going to blame me for driving all these old gas hogs, I’ve driven four different hybrids, all Toyotas. Two were Priuses, one was a Camry hybrid and the last one was [an] Avalon hybrid—all good, enjoyable cars.

You mostly have four-door cars, right?

I like for people to have their own doors. Coupes are where it’s at, supposedly, but I like for people to get out of my backdoor without having to crawl over the back seats. The Mustang I have is a two-door. You have to pull the front seat up, and people are scuffing it up. For me, it’s just getting out of your own door, you know?

What are some of the reactions you get, particularly from young people?

Some of them don’t know what’s going on. They’re never seen the cars like I have. But some others are surprisingly into it. They know what their grandpa used to drive, and they’ve seen cars like them at the California Automobile Museum downtown. I’ve had a few cars there.

What’s your favorite old car, maybe one you’ve sold and you could get back?

I’ve got the ’57 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham right now, but had another one. It was a Fleetwood. I sold it to a friend who really wanted it.

Ω

Union apprenticeships

offer leg up

Apprenticeship pays SEIU Local 1000’s apprenticeship program leads to:

Groundbreaking program creates path to a better career

Rapid advancement

By yvOnnE R. WALkER P r e s i d e n t, s e i U L o c a L 1 0 0 0

I

magine how difficult it is with kids, working, saving for their education, while also trying to dream of a different professional life for yourself. When do you decide to give up on your dream?

Or do you find a different way to attain that goal?

One path to achieving that better job is through an apprenticeship, an old-fashioned idea that is gaining renewed relevance for today’s super busy workers. It gives them a second chance to follow their dreams while still bringing home a paycheck.

This is National Apprenticeship Week and, in recognition, I want to share how apprenticeships change lives for the better. Apprenticeships let workers increase their skills and get paid while learning.

Launched in 2016, our groundbreaking LVN-to-RN Apprentice Program – the first of its kind nationwide – has helped scores of workers advance their health care careers.

Seeing a major gap in the upward mobility opportunities for our members, SEIU Local 1000 partnered with state agencies and local colleges and won access to nearly $10 million in grants to create new career pathways and more sustainable careers.

I met someone who had given up all hope and then, through our union program, was able to finally make her dream for herself and her family come true.

Married with two children, Anilyn works at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton. She always knew she wanted to be a nurse, but as a young adult, school was pushed aside when she needed to start working.

After many years as an administrative assistant, she returned to school and, in her 30s, became a Licensed Vocational Nurse or LVN. Her goal was still to be a Registered Nurse, but her family struggled with the cost of returning to school. She learned about the union’s LVN-to-RN Apprentice Program through Delta College. She applied and was among the first selected for the program. As an apprentice, all costs were covered. While working part time and going to school, she still earned her full salary.

Today, Anilyn works as an RN at CHCF. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the union,” she said. “I don’t

Half of the people who registered as Licensed vocational nurses now work as Registered nurses

Greater diversity Of Lvn-Rn program participants, SEIU Local 1000’s LVN-to-RN Apprentice Program is helping health care workers advance their careers.

think I would have gone back to my goal of becoming an RN without the program. I know it helped a lot of us to finish.”

Gursharn is another SEIU Local 1000 member who benefited from the apprenticeship program.

“I had lost hope of being able to complete school and would have days where I would get so sad thinking about it,” said Gursharn, a 2018 apprentice graduate. “But with the apprenticeship program, I was able to go back and attain my goal – to be a Registered Nurse.”

Our LVN-to-RN program has expanded from Delta College and Sacramento City College to Riverside City College. In addition, we now have information technology and financial services apprenticeship programs.

Part of addressing inequality is giving more people a chance to get a better paying job, not just improve salaries of existing jobs. This is what career mobility means to me.

Apprenticeships such as these offer one big step in that right direction.

Yvonne R. Walker President, SEIU Local 1000

SPONSORED by SERvicE EmPlOyEES iNtERNatiONal uNiON lOcal 1000

90% are women

80% are women of color

Better pay

Up to double their previous salary Source: SEIU Local 1000

SEIU LOCAL 1000 1808 14th Street Sacramento, CA 95811 (866) 471-7348

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Richard Scott looks out across the Rancho Cordova apartment complex he’s suddenly being forced out to leave.

The last minute gouge Disabled vet in Rancho Cordova among many hit with no-cause evictions on the eve of new law

by Scott thomaS anderSon

On Halloween, a disabled veteran named Richard Scott sat in his apartment waiting to face something truly frightening—the threat of being forced from his home.

After nine years of being a reliable tenant at the Gold Run apartments in Rancho Cordova, Scott and his longtime partner Joyce Fagget discovered a loose piece of paper laying several feet from their door. It was from the complex’s new ownership and it informed them that they had 60 days to leave their one-bedroom unit. It was the start of a no-fault eviction. If they didn’t comply, they’d be hit with a court order.

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For Scott, the news was jarring. He’d always worked closely with the previous owners, even holding their advertisement signs along the street and helping clean abandoned apartments. It also stung that the new owners had finally replaced a kitchen floor damaged by stormwater.

And Scott had been given a teasing glimmer of hope when he heard of a new state law—Assembly Bill 1482—that is supposed to protect renters in California from no-cause evictions.

That hope quickly vanished when a friend who works in property management informed Scott that he and his partner had been booted on a timeline that meant

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

they’d be out exactly one day before the new law’s protections kicked in.

The notice, which Scott showed to SN&R, was dated Aug. 26 and instructs the couple to be out by Oct. 31. According to numerous tenant advocacy groups, any contested 60-notice eviction served on Nov. 1 or after bleeds into January, thus offering a legal defense under AB 1482, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law also prevents landlords from raising rents more than 5% plus the local cost of living and no more than 10% under any circumstances.

The ownership group that issued Scott and Fagget the eviction notice, Baniqued Guzman Asset Management, is based in

Photo by Scott thomaS anderSon

Pinole. Scott says he kept trying to call the company to see if he could afford the new rent, but no one called him back. Panicked, he and Faggett drove all the way to the Bay Area to speak to the company’s CEO, Marc Guzman. They say Guzman’s staff appeared genuinely surprised they made the trip, and told the couple he wasn’t available.

Guzman could not be reached for comment.

And so Scott and Fagget spent their Halloween making desperate phone calls to apartment complexes across Sacramento County. Scott, a retired laborer and Air Force veteran who uses a nebulizer for lung problems, is on a fixed income. Fagget works as a home health care provider. Together, they have the money to rent a new place— though the local market suggests they’ll pay much more—but their main challenge is coming up with first and last month’s rent. They can’t afford what they see listed.

“I’m unbelievably scared,” Scott said.

He’s not alone. The plight of an entire complex of renters recently hit with a mass eviction spilled into the

When there’s no police video see neWs

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school’s in session see neWs

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K.J.’s fourth reinvention see cover

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beatS

to pimp A fire chief Nov. 5 county Board of Supervisors meeting, as a vote for an emergency ordinance to protect them and others was narrowly defeated.

Lupe Arreola, executive director of the statewide group Tenants Together, told SN&R that her organization’s hotline experienced “a big spike” in calls about people being hit with large rent hikes or 60-day eviction notices to leave after the passage of AB 1482, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Oct. 8.

Elliot Stevenson of the Sacramento Tenants Union said his group is hearing the same. “We’ve been hearing about this throughout Sacramento County, pretty much in every district,” Stevenson said. “The way we’re treating it now is, we’re assuming the timing is in response to the law. … What we’re seeing is a wave of evictions.”

morAtoriums And mAJorities Tenants being hit with no-cause evictions in apparent response to AB 1482 prompted the cities of Milpitas, Daily City, Redwood City, Pasadena and Los Angeles to pass emergency moratoriums that get their vulnerable renters through the holidays and into the law’s effective date.

After news broke that every tenant at the Bell Oaks apartments in Arden Arcade was being displaced on a suspicious schedule, county Supervisor Phil Serna brought a moratorium for the board to consider, saying that greedy landlords were victimizing tenants and “trying to game the system.”

Meanwhile, Supervisor Susan Peters asked Jim Lofgren of the California Apartment Association to contact the owners of the Bell Oaks apartments and “strongly encourage them” to reconsider the mass eviction.

As the emotional meeting got underway Nov. 5, Lofgren reported back from the podium. “The owners of the Bell Oaks apartments are not members of our association,” he began. “I want to make it clear that the California Apartment Association does not condone large-scale terminations on properties for the sole purpose of avoiding the impact of the new state law.”

Peters may have been concerned enough about Bell Oaks to dispatch a lobbying group, but it soon became clear she wasn’t going to vote for the moratorium.

“Honestly, my office has had two phone calls, and that’s all, to complain about this,” Peters told the crowd. “That’s the level of interest.”

But numerous residents had argued against that narrative during the meeting.

10%, and also protects renters with more “This fear of displacement, it’s huge, than 12 months of continuous tenancy from it’s massive,” said Crystal Sanchez of the no-cause evictions.

Sacramento Homeless Union. “I have At that point, Mayor Darrell Steinberg people calling me in fear of becoming said he considered the ballot initiative dead. homeless. … Once these people end up The scores of tenants who showed up to on the streets, there is no ability to recover because most of them work minimum-wage City Hall on Nov. 5 say otherwise.

“The city needs to do its democratic jobs and they don’t have two-and-half times duty,” coalition member Jonah Paul said the rent to put into a new place.” into a microphone. “It’s time they stopped Niko Comtois, a tenant of the Crestview North apartments in Carmichael, told super- listening to their donors and did what’s visors that her rent just went up by 43% and right. … We can’t let their donors decide what’s best for us. There have been almost that she and her disabled mother are now half a million dollars in campaign being encouraged by the ownership to contributions to the City accept a “cash for keys” offer to Council by real estate and vacate the premise entirely.

“The landlord lobbyists.”

“All of this is way we’re And, according to happening so they can a public statement treating it now is, line their pockets,” released by former Comtois said. “But we’re assuming the Housing4Sacramento they’re in a business timing is in response to the leader Michelle where the product Pariset, there does law … What we’re seeing is that they have is seem to be a legal peoples’ lives.” a wave of evictions.” conundrum for the The emergency Elliot Stevenson city regarding the ordinance required a Sacramento Tenants ballot measure, which super-majority of four Union would limit annual rent votes. While Serna and increases directly at inflation, supervisors Patrick Kennedy usually between 2% and 5%. and Don Nottoli voted “yes,” Sue Pariset was one of its three signatories.

Frost, the former owner of a real estate She’s now indicating she refuses to remove company, made it clear that wasn’t to it from the ballot. be. Speaking to the crowd, Frost blamed “There is no scenario in which I would the evictions directly on the state’s new undermine the will of the voters,” Pariset tenant protections, arguing the law took wrote in the statement. away the “flexibility” that allows “good That didn’t appear to phase Steinberg, landlords” to set fair prices. who tweeted shortly after the rally, “The She and Peters were met with a chorus City Council adopted rent control and just of shouts and jeers. cause eviction protections in good faith after extensive negotiations with proponents of nAilinG A note the rent control ballot initiative. We have on city hAll lived by our word. Others who gave their At the same time residents were word should do the same.” imploring supervisors for help, tenant For Jovana Fajardo, Sacramento direcadvocates were also gathering at City tor for the Alliance of Californians for Hall. The new coalition Sacramento Community Empowerment, a legal fight for Real Rent Control hung a huge with the city is worth it, especially if it gives banner on the front of the building tenants the chance to vote for tighter rent demanding that the City Council limits and a publicly elected rent control put the Sacramento Community board. That kind of board could hold Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter unscrupulous landlords more accountable.

Amendment on the March 3 ballot—or As Scott and Fagget sat in their apartsee them in court. ment on Halloween, contemplating the very Some 44,000 registered voters real possibility of becoming homeless, the signed petitions to put that version thought of living in a city with an elected of rent control and no-cause eviction rent control board sounded like a dream protections to a public vote. Council to them. Fagget said that since getting her members, however, struck a comproeviction notice, good dreams have been mise with some backers of the ballot hard to come by. measure, but not others, passing the “I just don’t know the reason for any of city’s own less sweeping version in this,” she said with a sigh. “It’s made me August. The ordinance caps annual rent really emotional. It’s a lot of stress, and it’s hikes to 6% plus inflation, but no more than hard to even sleep.” □

In the grand scheme of firefighter controversies, maybe this one isn’t so bad.

Photos obtained by SN&R show Sacramento fire chief Gary loesch celebrated his second Halloween office party by dressing up in full pimp regalia. Subtle it was not. But in good taste?

The chief no longer thinks so.

“In hindsight, I realize my costume was a poor choice,” Loesch said in a statement to SN&R. “I apologize; it was never my intention to upset any members of the staff or the public.”

Consider the Sacramento Fire Department’s recent history: SFD endured a demoralizing period

of high-profile sex scandals some 15 years ago, which left the Fire Department under a smoke cloud that took years to dissipate.

SFD has been enjoying a

stretch of goodwill and internal stability lately, thanks to its assistance in major wildfires around the state and the appointment of Loesch, sworn in last October after a seven-month search that plucked the veteran from Philadelphia. (That city’s Fire Department was dragged through its own widespread sex scandal in 2015.)

That’s the backdrop for the pimp cosplay photos, which depict the chief posing with an administrative staff including 10 women and one man. In one photo, Loesch mugs it up in front of his office desk, between a woman dressed as a judge and one in a 1950s sock hop outfit.

The chief’s costume prompted someone to lodge a complaint through the city’s whistleblower hotline, which has triggered a human resources review, said City Manager Howard Chan.

“As soon as I was made aware of this complaint, I immediately spoke with Chief Loesch about his costume,” Chan said in a statement. “I was frustrated to learn of this incident. The costume was both insensitive and an error in judgment.”

The timing wasn’t great. The city is currently in contract negotiations with the firefighters union. (Raheem F. Hosseini)

detox center dried out A Rancho Cordova substance abuse center sent out a veterans day sos that it closed its detox center after 23 years due to delayed funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

D&A Detox Inc. is a nonprofit treatment and sober living program that helps a lot of military veterans, says volunteer fundraiser Jordan Kimball. “They had to shut down the detox center unfortunately, which is the heart of the operation,” Kimball told SN&R. D&A would pick up male veterans from the Sacramento VA Medical Center in Mather, enroll them in the weeklong detox program and then transition them to sober living homes for 90 days. Kimball says the program was unique in that it saw substance abusers through the initial process of recovery at more affordable costs than other programs.

“They helped me out in the past,” Kimball said.

Now he’s trying to return the favor.

Kimball says the loss of founder and cfo david troutman spelled the beginning of a tumultuous period in which D&A closed its thrift store and vA payments stalled for the detox part of the program. For the first time, Kimball says, CEO Zelda Troutman, David’s widow, is accepting public help through a GoFundMe campaign and donation pathway on D&A’s website. (RFH)

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Eagan testified at the preliminary hearing that when Dyer was outside of the police car, “It started off as calm and then escalated to where he was getting upset. … He started to make statements towards us that he wanted us to take him to jail instead. And both my suspect and Mr. Dyer were getting amped up and excited about the situation.”

Meanwhile, Nichols spotted a bag of marijuana in Dyer’s pocket. Having elected to arrest Dyer for public intoxication, he went to grab the marijuana and Dyer’s wallet without announcing he was making a search.

Dalton Dyer, 28, stands outside the Auburn Police “Once I grabbed the wallet and Department, whose officers started pulling it out, Dyer spun arrested him Oct. 12, 2018. around with his fists [clenched] and he struck my hand away with his left fist and said ‘Get the fuck out of my Photo by Graham Womack pockets bitch,’” Nichols wrote in a report following the incident.

Nichols said in his report that after Dyer continued to resist arrest, Eagan tased him. Shortly thereafter, Nichols felt a punch, Eagan testified.

Eagan later admitted under cross No footage available of disputed confrontation between Auburn examination that he hadn’t seen Dyer police and inebriated man who requested a ride home strike Nichols. Gonzalez-Valenzuela didn’t see Dyer strike Nichols either.

“When they took him down, all I heard was, ‘I’m not doing nothing,

by Graham Womack I’m not doing nothing,’” GonzalezValenzuela said. “Then, not even like five seconds into it, they tased him.” much the law still favors police officers Sitting in the back of the police car On paper, the odds don’t look great for Dyer’s attorney couldn’t crosswhen such footage isn’t available. with the door shut, GonzalezDalton Dyer. The 28-year-old Auburn examine Nichols at the Valenzuela attempted to man faces a criminal trial for three preliminary hearing, It began with an attempted apology. Dyer ease Dyer’s concerns, felony counts and two strikes related because Nichols testihad had three Coors Light beers he told SN&R. to allegedly punching Auburn police “When they fied via email, which when he called his cousin Martin “He’s like, ‘I’m Officer Matthew Nichols during an took him down, all is allowable under Gonzalez-Valenzuela to drive him home. sorry, I’m sorry,” Oct. 12, 2018 arrest.

Proposition 115.

I heard was, ‘I’m not Unbeknownst to Dyer, his cousin had GonzalezDyer’s voluminous case file Preliminary hearalso been drinking and was pulled over Valenzuela includes Nichols’ medical records and doing nothing, I’m not doing ings are held to by Eagan for DUI around 2:30 a.m. said.

“I’m like, dozens of pages of testimony at Dyer’s nothing.’ Then, not even like determine if suffiUpset that his cousin would be ‘Don’t worry preliminary hearing in June from cient evidence five seconds into it, they going to jail, Dyer asked Eagan if about it.’” another officer, Joshua Eagan. exists to merit he could apologize to GonzalezNeither Perhaps worst of all for Dyer’s tased him.” a criminal trial.

Valenzuela. Eagan agreed and Dyer Nichols, who is defense, evidence that he says could Constitutionally, Martin Gonzalez-Valenzuela approached the vehicle. in the process of exonerate him is nowhere to be found.

Dyer has the right to driver of vehicle “It was just me telling him, ‘I’m retiring, nor Eagan, In recent years, potential police cross-examine Nichols sorry,’” Dyer told SN&R. “It was like, responded to intermisconduct has come under significantly at his upcoming trial. Ω ‘Hey bro, I’m sorry that you’re going view requests, though greater public scrutiny, with the prolifthrough this. Like, what do you want each offered accounts that are eration of body-worn and dashboard me to do?’” included in Dyer’s case file. cameras. But Dyer’s case shows how

Dyer straits

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Is landmark school funding law helping poor students?

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SMOG CHECK

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In its first detailed examination of former Gov. Jerry Brown’s landmark school funding law, the California state auditor sharply criticized the Legislature and State Board of Education for failing to ensure that billions of dollars have been spent on low-income children and other students targeted for additional state money.

“In general, we determined that the State’s approach” to the Local Control Funding Formula “has not ensured that funding is benefiting students as intended,” State Auditor Elaine Howle wrote in a letter with the audit, released on Nov. 5.

Howle issued her findings after examining spending by three districts since the funding formula went into effect six years ago: Oakland, San Diego and Clovis. Her report’s recommendations call for tightening rules for spending money explicitly allocated for low-income children, foster youths and English learners—the students targeted under the formula—and for making it easier for the state and the public to track spending within and across districts.

Gov. Brown had opposed some of those changes and sidetracked legislation that would have imposed what Howle wants: uniform spending codes to give lawmakers information they need to see if the law is working adequately.

The audit may encourage legislators including Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, who pushed for Howle’s report, to reintroduce a bill for tighter controls.

Howle’s conclusion vindicates complaints and lawsuits brought by Public Advocates and the ACLU of California and affirms longtime criticisms of student advocacy organizations such as Education Trust-West and Children Now that spending for high-needs students often isn’t monitored. A recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California found that statewide, “supplemental and concentration” dollars generally were being spent on targeted groups but it took an enterprising researcher exhaustive digging to determine that.

In a statement, Bill Lucia, president of the nonprofit organization EdVoice, said Howle’s report “should be a wakeup call to all the politicians in Sacramento who say they care about closing achievement gaps. This audit uncovered serious control deficiencies lawmakers need to address immediately.”

The 2013 funding formula eliminated dozens of highly restrictive “categorical” funds and instead gave districts more flexibility and authority to decide how to spend money. The formula awards additional funding based on the proportions of “high-needs” students. Districts are to be held accountable for showing progress on multiple measures on the California School Dashboard and to lay out improvement plans in a three-year Local Control and Accountability Plan, or LCAP. The audit found fundamental flaws in the funding law, insufficient guidance by the State Board of Education and a lack of oversight over spending by county offices of education and the California Department of Education.

At a press conference Nov. 5, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said that although he had not read the audit, his department would follow up “when public resources are misused,” while adding that districts are faced with difficult options. “I firmly believe they are frankly underfunded and making choices to manage their financial bottom line.”

The audit said that the three districts and three county offices interviewed agreed that base funding does not cover necessary base costs. The audit found that districts consequently were using supplemental and concentration funds to cover “what appear to be base services,” such as $5.2 million that San Diego Unified used for library services in all district schools.

The funding formula permits districts to use targeted funding for districtwide purposes, whether for staff training or improving library services, if high-needs students make up more than 55% of a district’s enrollment. But districts must justify the use by ensuring that the money would be “principally directed” to those students and shows that the money will be used effectively.

The audit couldn’t find the justification in nearly three-quarters of 53 expenditures of the audited districts’ LCAPs. Ω

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Edsource is a nonprofit provider of information, research and analysis on california education. An unabridged version of this story is available at newsreview.com/sacramento.

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Dear Sacramento, Did you forgive or forget? Or did you never believe the girls at all?

Let’s talk about Kevin Johnson’s return as a celebrity restaurant owner in the #MeToo capitall by raheeM F. hOSSeini anD STeph rODriguez

14 | SN&R | 11.14.19

It’s a late Friday morning inside Fixins Soul Kitchen, and Oak Park’s buzziest new restaurant is steady with early lunch traffic. Scan the crowd: Natty 20-somethings quaff pre-noon beers at the bar because they can; a tentative book club pokes in and settles on the patio; posses of friends and coworkers scarf down waffle stacks, brittle bacon, scrambled egg piles and deep-brined chicken slabs.

The 11 a.m. indicators are that Fixins is a hit—and a solid addition to the neighborhood’s fitful renaissance or sharp-elbowed gentrification, depending on whom you ask.

As for the man who owns this spot, this building, this block—his famous face hasn’t been this visible in a long while: Kevin Johnson.

You remember K.J., Sacramento.

He slunk out of office and out of the spotlight three years ago, amid resurgent allegations that he molested girls. You already knew these stories when you elected the former NBA great to be your

mayor—twice. Johnson’s questionable behavior around young women became such an open secret that City Hall publicly reminded its elected officials to stop giving unsolicited hugs in 2013.

And yet Sacramento remained K.J.’s city, seemingly turning a blind eye to Johnson’s underage accusers so that it could bask in the shadow of its celebrity mayor. Until the national media told the rest of the country what you already knew, and a national audience recoiled.

But now he’s back.

For the first time since he dribbled out the clock on his political career, the retired professional athlete, one-time education reformer and ex-politician is fashioning his fourth reinvention—as the head of a budding restaurant empire. Johnson already has ownership stakes in three dining locations and says he plans to expand that portfolio beyond his native Oak Park.

Yet his latest chapter coincides with growing alarm about pervasive sexual harassment within the restaurant industry, where many workers are young, at the economic mercy of their bosses and lack formal workplace protections.

And you have a choice to make, Sacramento: Do you snap selfies and break bread with K.J. while his accusers hunger for atonement? Can you stomach another comeback?

K Js The prObLeM wiTh

.

’

.

cOMebacK

raheeMh@newSreview.cOM

The pasT is never far enough Johnson was unavailable for comment, according to Fixins front-of-house manager Brian Rhee. But on the subject of sexual misconduct allegations, K.J. and his defenders have been steadfast in their denials—and Johnson has never been arrested, charged or convicted of a crime.

All that means very little to Mandi Koba. Even 3,000 miles away and two decades after the fact, Johnson’s first known accuser can’t escape hearing what he’s up to these days.

Today, Koba is 40, pursuing a master’s degree in social work from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and juggling an internship at a free health clinic with being a mom of three. She has spent much of her adult life trying to be the advocate she wished she had in 1996, when she first told someone that Johnson was touching her inappropriately, including a night when he allegedly disrobed and fondled her inside his Phoenix guesthouse.

Koba’s decision to come forward sparked a police investigation and a controversial decision by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to forgo prosecution on the grounds that it probably wouldn’t win a conviction. It also upended Koba’s life in a city that said nothing of a 30-year-old man spending so much time in the company of a teenager.

“As an adult looking back, one of the things that’s most hurtful was that it was not a secret,” Koba said in a phone interview from her home. “Teachers, friends, friends’ parents, the adults that worked for Kevin, the Suns organization, his teammates saw me at events and nobody said, ‘Hmm, this is weird. This isn’t right.’”

Instead, Koba felt that world turn on her, with kids at school taunting her and one of Johnson’s attorneys and a Phoenix radio personality going so far as to dismiss the girl as “a sick slut” in a story by the Phoenix New Times.

“You can’t get more public than being called ‘a sick slut’ at the age of 17,” Koba said. “I mean, I was 17 and Phoenix was my whole world.”

Koba eventually had to find a new one, while Johnson returned to his old one. A decade passed. Koba thought she was doing well. Then came word that Johnson was running for mayor in Sacramento. The news capsized her recovery. Her story had been public even if her name officially wasn’t. And yet

“I don’t think I was the first one, but it could’ve stopped with me.”

MAndI KOBA

Kevin Johnson accuser

1997

17-year old Mandi Koba signs a confidential settlement agreement in exchange for $230,000 after K.J. allegedly molested her.

nov. 2016

K.J. joins wife, controversial charter school advocate Michelle Rhee, for an education secretary audition with President-elect Trump.

go on the record about anything ever,” he said.

Stymied on that front, Garvin shifted his focus to the way Johnson blurred the lines between his political responsibilities and private ambitions. Garvin investigated Johnson’s controversial use of solicited donations called “behests,” his multiple failed attempts to consolidate power under a “strong mayor” form of governance, the numerous Johnson initiatives that fell short of their promises and how the mayor used city staff in a hostile

Dec. 2016 K.J.’s second mayoral term ends.

Dec. 2017

K.J. represents Sacramento in presenting city’s MLS expansion bid.

was allowed to remain owner of the L.A. Clippers following leaked racist statements. McKenna did a cursory Google search and says he was surprised by how much was already on the record, particularly the Phoenix case involving Koba.

“I was amazed … that he had attained any kind of position just based on what was out there,” McKenna told SN&R. “I found him not only unelectable, but unemployable. I didn’t get how somebody with this track record would be able to show his face in public.”

March 2019 K.J. hosts the Rev. Al Sharpton and Stephon Clark family attorney Benjamin Crump for a Q&A at his Guild Theater.

summer 2019

Oak Park Brewing Co. and Fixins Soul Kitchen open with K.J. at the helm.

TIMeLIne it didn’t seem to matter. K.J. was still his hometown’s hero. What did that make her?

“I had been really, really good until he decided to run for mayor,” Koba said.

“To see people in Sacramento have this information and continue to go and vote and promote him and say, ‘Yeah, this is the guy we want to represent us,’ was incredibly traumatic.”

It wasn’t just Koba that the electorate spurned. During the 2008 campaign, reports surfaced that a 17-year-old student at Sacramento High School, part of Johnson’s St. HOPE Academy, complained to a teacher that Johnson had groped her. The police investigated, but only after Johnson’s private attorney questioned the girl and she recanted.

Cosmo Garvin, a reporter at SN&R then, says local media tackled the story aggressively. As for how the public reacted, Garvin is blunt: “Nobody gave a shit.”

In November 2008, Johnson unseated Mayor Heather Fargo with 57% of the vote. Coverage of the sexual misconduct allegations evaporated, as if there was an unspoken decree that continued reporting would make it look like the Sacramento media had a vendetta against the city’s first African-American mayor.

Garvin would hear new allegations from time to time, but kept running into the same brick wall. “No one wanted to

takeover of a national black mayors association.

But where the local media establishment softened on Mayor Johnson, a Boston-based sports news website came in hard.

DeaDspin To righTs Deadspin reporter David McKenna had heard unsettling rumors about K.J., but didn’t decide to look into them until 2014. That was when Johnson was receiving national accolades for representing NBA players who were threatening to sit out if Donald Sterling

Fixins Soul Kitchen opened in August and marks Kevin Johnson’s second stake in the restaurant business. photo by steph rodriguez

McKenna’s reporting picked up where the Phoenix New Times left off, obtaining video of a police detective’s first interview with Koba, who comes off credible and careful not to overstate or exaggerate her accusations against Johnson. At one point, she tells the

“The problem with K.J.’s coMeBacK” continued on page 16

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“the problem with k.J.’s CoMebaCk”

continued from page 15

16 | SN&R | 11.14.19

locals, including local NAACP chapter president Betty Williams, a candidate for City Council.

Koba says she’s not surprised because she doesn’t think many in Sacramento ever believed her in the first place.

“No. 1, I’ve never felt that Sacramento felt like any of the—as you guys call them—‘allegations’ were credible,” Koba said. “For me, I would hope that if somebody viewed them as credible … they wouldn’t want somebody who preyed on young girls to be their leader.”

Confronting Crass kitChen Culture During a chilly February morning inside the Milagro Centre on Fair Oaks Boulevard, 75 people noshed on breakfast sandwiches and fresh fruit as three female chefs sat on a stage and discussed sexism and sexual harassment within the restaurant industry.

As part of Valley Vision’s “Women on the Line” talk, N’Gina Guyton, who owns South, a Southern-style comfort food joint in Southside Park, revealed that she was 17 when a coworker pulled her into a walk-in freezer and assaulted her. She wants to make sure nothing like that happens under her watch. She says her employees’ wellbeing is her top priority, especially in an industry that still feels like a boys’ club.

“Being in a very male-dominated industry, it’s very important to tell the story of what it’s like to be a black female in this industry and what we go through,”

Guyton told SN&R. “Every day customers see me, they’re going to see a smile, they’re going to see me being outgoing. But I don’t want people to have assumptions that there haven’t been hardships, or that there hasn’t been racism or sexism getting there.”

Bad behavior is widespread in the restaurant industry, according to multiple studies.

In October 2014, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and Forward Together released the results of a survey of 688 past and present restaurant workers in 39 states. Its report found that 60% of female workers said that sexual harassment was a regular part of work life and 50% reported “scary” or unwanted sexual behavior.

The survey said the harassment is made worse by employees’ reliance on tips to make ends meet and is twice as common in states that have a lower minimum wage for tipped workers.

In 2017, Buzzfeed compiled 20 years of federal complaints to show that restaurant employees filed more sexual harassment claims than

“Basically, our attorney says we will still support what we believe in, and if anything happens at Oak Park Brewing Company we’re still going to speak our mind about it—no matter who it is.” geOff sCOtt

brewer, oak park brewing Co.

Above: A shuttered Oakhaus now shows signs that indicate K.J.’s third restaurant is coming this fall.

Below: Oak Park Brewing Co. reopened this summer with help from K.J.’s investment.

workers from any other industry. Again, economically vulnerable workers were more likely to face harassment.

That isn’t news to Jessica Stender, senior counsel for workplace justice and public policy at Equal Rights Advocates, based in San Francisco.

While California doesn’t have a lower minimum wage for tipped workers,

“the problem with k.J.’s CoMebaCk” continued on page 18

photos by steph rodriguez

detective she doesn’t want to ruin Johnson’s life or have him spend “100 nights in jail or anything.” She just wants Johnson to leave her alone and not do it to anyone else.

Koba went public as Johnson’s teenage accuser in Deadspin’s 2015 coverage. She says that was the first time she watched the video or read the police report. She found herself wanting to help that too-thin girl folded into the corner of a windowless interrogation room. She didn’t understand why so many others did the opposite.

Media scrutiny finally reached a tipping point for Johnson in March 2016, which was ironically supposed to be a really good month for him.

ESPN’s acclaimed documentary series 30 for 30 had produced an entire episode devoted to the narrative that Johnson saved the Sacramento Kings from leaving town.

But then another cable sports series, HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, scotched that story with its own K.J.-centered piece—a damning exposé that included interviews with several Johnson accusers, including former St. HOPE students and a mother who accused Johnson of having an inappropriate relationship with her daughter.

ESPN shelved its 30 for 30 profile, forcing Johnson to announce there would be no screening of the episode on stage at his Guild Theater.

And yet some in Sacramento still had a hard time letting go of their mayor.

McKenna recalled the next day’s column from longtime Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton.

“The headline was, ‘No smoking gun,’” McKenna recalled. “I’m like, ‘That’s what you get out of this?’ I mean, it was like different people from different decades, different cities, describing the same evilness and you’re just going to discount this? And that seemed right in line with the coverage he always got in Sacramento.”

Ironically, Johnson is now resurfacing as Deadspin is imploding. As McKenna spoke to SN&R, news was breaking that the entire editorial staff had walked out on new management in protest of a mandate to drop all non-sports coverage.

Which means that the news outlet perhaps most responsible for causing Johnson’s political downfall is crumbling just as the former mayor is rising.

As for Koba, she says her experiences have left her cynical. She’s no longer surprised when Johnson makes highprofile public appearances—meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in November 2016, representing the city’s Major League Soccer hopes the following year in New York, hosting the Rev. Al Sharpton at his Guild Theater earlier this year to discuss the Stephon Clark case or taking selfies in front of his new restaurant with prominent

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“the problem with K.J.’s ComeBaCK

continued from page 16

employees still rely on gratuities and worry about losing hours. “Especially if you’re a low-wage worker, you really don’t have a safety net,” Stender said.

Her group is one of 50 nonprofits in the Stronger California Advocates Network, which seeks firmer workplace protections.

In the past two years, the network has helped push through new laws that extend the filing deadline for harassment claims from one to three years and ban “no rehire” clauses in settlements, which Stender called “inherently retaliatory.”

State Sen. Holly Mitchell helped carry Senate Bill 778, which requires even small employers to offer sexual harassment training and makes training resources available from the state.

“It’s clear that a culture shift needs to happen in the workplace,” the Los Angeles Democrat said.

But not every problem has a legislative solution, Mitchell cautions.

“I have a permanent refrain, and it’s that I cannot legislate moral morality,” she said. “To me, the harassment that occurs is a symptom of a deeper issue—and that’s a power imbalance and inequity in our workplaces.”

Guyton, who opened South in 2014, is doing her part. She’s getting ready to launch the Verity Project, a mental wellness initiative that she hopes will be avail available for local restaurant workers by the end of the year. It will help subsidize the cost of The Oak Park two different treatment Triangle District is options—a 10-week home to a lot of K.J. group therapy program for men, real estate along the Broadway corridor. women and LGBTQ workers at $10 a class; and individual therapy sessions covered up to 60% depending on income.

Guyton’s advice to both women and men who experience harassment is to speak up, keep a journal and confide in someone they trust. Speaking up can help, even if the accused isn’t held legally accountable.

“People talk about ‘cancel culture,’ espe especially after R. Kelly: ‘We’re not listening to

18 | SN&R | 11.14.19

his music,’ ‘We’re not buying his albums,’” Guyton said.

The same could apply to K.J., whose growing restaurant empire concerns Guyton.

“I can’t speak for the entirety of the black community,” she said. “I can’t speak for the entirety of the restaurant community.

I can only speak of my own experiences that I have had, and I am not one that ever forgets. So for me, I just don’t get it.”

“I didn’t get how somebody with this track record would be able to show his face in public.”

DavID McKenna

former deadspIn reporter

InsIde the K.J. trIangle Since celebrating its grand opening in late August, Fixins has boasted a full house most afternoons and evenings. For Oak Park resident Lavinia Phillips, that doesn’t sit right.

“I went once,” Phillips said. “Kevin was in the back in his little hiding spot. It’s almost as if he’s purchased an area where everyone kind of respects him because he’s ‘the man.’ He’s really not. He’s just a person with money that can buy himself into safety.”

Yet at a bustling Wednesday lunch rush last week, diners appeared content. The underlying truth is that residents in Oak Park, or elsewhere, will ultimately decide where they are going to spend their time and their money. New, hip restaurants that offer jobs and revitalize buildings have potential and Fixins’ website says it’s hiring for all positions.

But after her visit, Phillips said she won’t be back. “Absolutely we should not forget.

But, to be honest, there isn’t anything that we can do about it, because in reality, he wasn’t convicted of anything,” she said.

There is no denying that K.J. has put his money where his roots are. And throughout the years, Johnson has acquired a lot of Oak Park real estate.

On the corner of 35th Street and Broadway is K.J.’s retail compound—the 40

Acres Art and Cultural Center, a handsome, brick-and-mural complex that includes the Guild Theater, Underground Books (run

by Johnson’s mother Georgia West), the Old Soul coffeehouse and Twelve Loft Apartments. Fixins, Johnson’s second entry into the local foodie scene, stands just around the corner from Underground Books and down the street from the revamped Oak Park Brewing Co., another K.J. joint with an intriguing back story.

Oak Park Brewing reopened under new management in June, nearly a year after it was forced to close due to several pestrelated health code violations.

Chris Jarosz, co-owner of Broderick Roadhouse and one of Oak Park Brewing’s main investors, approached Geoff and Rebecca Scott, who helped start Track 7 Brewing Co., to brew beer and run marketing and design, respectively.

The Scotts left Track 7 amid complaints that CEO Ryan Graham made inappropriate sexual remarks toward female workers. In February, the Scotts filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Graham, his wife Jeanna and their former investors.

Geoff Scott said he and his wife are sensitive to claims of sexual misconduct and did have concerns about trading one scrutinized partner for an even more scrutinized one.

“It definitely was a concern of ours, and we treaded very lightly on it,” Scott said.

“We consulted our attorney. Basically, our attorney says we will still support what we believe in, and if anything happens at Oak Park Brewing Co., we’re still going to speak our mind about it—no matter who it is.”

In the meantime, K.J.’s empire expands.

SN&R traced 39 properties to Johnson and his holding companies, triple the number he reported when he left the mayor’s office in December 2016. He is also a member of at least three restaurantrelated limited liability corporations, including Broadway Triangle LLC, which owns the land beneath the closed Oakhaus, which is rumored to reopen as a pizza-andbeer joint.

Johnson’s growing restaurant portfolio exists within the confines of his Oak Park home court, making the neighborhood a favorable petri dish to test out his latest ambitions. One thing’s for sure: Johnson will have one of his staunchest lieutenants helping him.

According to California Secretary of State business filings, the listed agent of service for process for Fixins Sacramento LLC is Kevin J. Hiestand, K.J.’s longtime lawyer and business partner. Hiestand also holds that designation for three St. HOPE corporate entities and Kynship

Development Company, a subsidiary of the Kevin Johnson Corp., and has run interference for his influential client ever since K.J.’s Phoenix playing days, even questioning Johnson’s underage accuser at St. HOPE before the police were contacted to investigate, according to reporting by The Sacramento Bee. “The same fixers he had in Sacramento with the sexual assault allegations were the same fixers he had with Mandi in Phoenix,” Deadspin’s McKenna said. “They travel. They travel and fix the same kind of situations.”

The people around Johnson concern Koba, maybe even more than does the idea of Johnson occupying a position of power and influence in an industry with a young, mostly female staff.

“What Kevin did, he’s one person,” she said. “But I think an even bigger issue are the people who enable him and protect him. …

Because it could’ve stopped with me. And I don’t think I was the first one, but it could’ve stopped with me.”

But it’s also not just about K.J. and his helpers or hangers-on, Koba adds. It’s about you. It is, and always has been, about Sacramento.

“I just want people to know that their voice matters,” she said. “Their choices matter, and complacency is dangerous. You all voted him in. You all affirmatively chose him to be your leader for a very long time. And now you could choose something else.” □

If you’ve been the victim of rape or sexual assault, you can contact the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network crisis line at (800) 656-HOPE or CALCASA Rape Prevention Resource Center at (916) 446-2520.

11.14.19 | SN&R | 19

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Associated Sound’s Wally Clark, left, and Brad Clark have supplied many major events and facilities with the perfect sound systems.

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Associated Sound makes events worth hearing Family legacy continues at Del Paso business

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One of Sacramento’s oldest thoroughfares is also one of its most dynamic. Each week, join us on a stroll along Del Paso Boulevard, where you’ll discover new and vintage businesses and organizations, and meet the people who make Uptown Sacramento their home. This new feature is presented every Thursday by Sacramento News & Review in conjunction with the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership.

“I’ve got printer’s ink and sound systems in my blood. Quite a combination, huh?”

Wally Clark was recalling his career path, from working at his father’s printing

company in the Sacramento Public Market Building, to opening Associated Sound on Del Paso Boulevard in 1989 and growing it into one of the most successful small businesses in Sacramento.

Now, Wally Clark is on the verge of retirement and ready to pass on the family business to his son, Brad Clark.

It’s been a journey for both men – an ending for one and a continuation for another.

Wally Clark was 18 in 1968 and working full time at W.G. Clark Printing when he got the chance to go on a national summer tour with a band as its sound man. When he returned, he and close friend Lou Wentworth brainstormed the notion of starting a company that specialized in renting and setting up sound systems. It helped that Wentworth’s dad had been in the audio business.

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b o u l e va r d “We wanted to fill a need we saw,” “In this business, the most important Clark recalled. “The sound technology tool we have is our ears,” he said. “Does at all the (fraternal organizations) was the system sound good? Now I see ancient, so we started setting up new a lot of young people staring at their rental systems for their events.” computer screens and not using their Associated Sound was “just a ears. They think the sound has to be weekend hobby,” sharing space (literally right because the computer says it is.” a closet) in the printing company where Clark continued to work.

Still the sound source When the Public Market closed in 1974, Recently, Brad Clark and his crew Associated Sound followed the print shop spent two straight days setting up the to a building on P Street. “We kept growing sound system for Old Sacramento’s and needed more space, so we moved to upcoming Theatre of Lights extravaganza.

Del Paso Boulevard,” Clark said.

It was one of about 30 rental jobs They specialized in sound-wiring Associated Sound averages each month, events of all types – thousands of in addition to three or four contracting them – all over town. Later they added jobs (permanent installations). a “contracting” department, installing The job was nothing new to him. Brad permanent systems in schools, Clark grew up in the family business, restaurants, churches and halls. coming over full time in 1995 after “In the early days, we did a lot of college. “It’s really self-taught, hands-on the big folk groups coming through learning,” he said. town – Joni Mitchell, Associated Sound’s the Kingston Trio, business model has Peter, Paul and Mary,” been changing and will Clark said. “We did a continue to change couple of rock shows when Brad Clark takes (including Deep over from his father.

Purple), but all those “We’re out of the groups cared about concert business and was being loud.” focused on board Associated Sound meetings, press Wally Clark also wired Hughes conferences and Associated Sound Stadium at Sacramento fashion shows, with City College for Olympic occasional larger trials, and the State events like sports and shows like Theatre Capitol grounds for rallies. Clark supplied of Lights,” Brad Clark said. sound for California governors up to “There will be more contracting, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and presidential designing and consulting and fewer candidates up to Barack Obama. “We did retail sales. We’ll continue going for the Bob Hope a couple of times,” Clark said. “I smaller jobs because they don’t take a met a lot of neat people.” crew of 10.” (Associated Sound is a fourAssociated Sound’s biggest job was in man shop.)

1985, installing the sound system inside In the end, how do they feel about the original Arco Area, a three-month job. the transition?

Soon, Clark and his team realized that “The idea of having it go forward with “everything started to become TV events, family and longtime employees who are especially political campaigns,” he said. like family is a good legacy,” Wally Clark “But we learned that as soon as the said. “Now I can go play with all the old cameras are gone, the world goes back printing equipment.” to where it was.”

“I’m here because I love it,” Brad Clark Of course, the mainstream said. “It’s an honor to take it over.” technology has gone from analog to digital. But Clark isn’t a fan of computers.

“In this business, the most important tool we have is our ears.”

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the Cave: Check out well st., id B st 313 ea Mondayn pe Folsom. O am-10pm.

10 sunday, e Cave: Follow th .com/ instagram res. to thecaves

The

f f u ‘st ’ e r o t s

Inside the Cave in Folsom: Batman, pachinko and ‘dinosaur bones’ 22

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Photos by Ashley hAyes-stone

In October, Andrew Radakovitz (left) and Brian McCulloch opened The Cave, an all-in-one pop culture shop.

S

haring the same parking lot as the DMV on East Bidwell Street in Folsom—at the old 9,000-square-foot space of Dimple Records—is a bold, supposedly new idea.

The marquee spells out the mantra: “Buy-Sell-Trade.” The windows are plastered with the message: WWE, Betty Boop, Neil Diamond and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Inside, DVDs and CDs are center-stage on the racks, but the remaining displays aren’t quite right. There are random things everywhere. Freddy Krueger’s razored glove is next to The Encyclopedia of Jazz. A Jedi doll leans on Bumps and Grinds, a stripdrinking board game from 1967.

A Les Paul guitar is perched next to synthesizers, next to a drum kit, next to Nintendo welcome mats.

Elvis Presley would never imagine himself near Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, but he’s reborn through a new prototype store by some of the folks behind Dimple.

At The Cave, the merchandise—collectible clothes, video games, comic books, toys, music, music equipment and much more—is mostly from the closets and storage spaces of Sacramento-area hoarders and traders and then resold from the buyback counter. There’s no specialty, but it’s not a thrift store.

And it’s all about one thing.

“We’re basically celebrating the greatest decades—the ’80s, the ’90s, even the ’70s and double aughts,” says co-founder Andrew Radakovitz, who was 5 years old when Dimple, the family business, opened in 1974.

“If you’re just a comic book shop, and that’s all you do …

I’m doing all these ideas under one roof, and the synergy is pop culture.”

Dimple closed in September and The Cave opened in October.

On a recent Saturday night, the clothing section’s glass center-counter was piled with heavy metal T-shirts, and the

CDs weren’t fully alphabetized.

But the rest of the disarray is intentional.

“What we do here is chaos,” says Brian McCulloch, The Cave’s other owner and a Dimple manager-graphic designer since 1987 who created Dimple’s logo and its panicked mascot. “We want you to browse. We want you to shop … We don’t have wrestling in one spot. We don’t have all the Pops! in one spot. They’re everywhere. A lot of people are like, ‘Where’s this?’”

The sprawl is meant to dust off memories, drawing customers’ attention to a Joel Schumacher-era Batmobile, then a Sheriff Woody doll tragically preserved in 25-year-old, Burger King-branded plastic.

The owners insist that magic is happening, that they’re tapping into a phenomenon that will overcome Amazon and the death of brick-and-mortar retail—the same factors that helped lead to Dimple’s demise. Indeed, they are already planning to expand.

“It’s the fans, the people who like stuff,” Radakovitz says. “And they just want the stuff. And we’re a stuff store. That’s what we do. We’re all about stuff, and churning stuff.”

But do people really want more stuff? Can The Cave keep the nostalgia trip going?

‘It’s the elephants’ The most expensive items are at the front counter. For $170, you can have an immaculate vinyl of the Lucifer Rising soundtrack, composed by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page for the 1972 short film. An authentic Japanese Pachinko machine (ashtray included) runs $200; a life-size Operation board game, 3D-printed in Auburn, costs $500.

“It’s meant for lying down, but I think it’d be a good

true crime mini-con

See artS & culture

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Seedy hotel

See Stage

“What we do here is chaos.

painting, or piece of art on a wall,” Radakovitz says.

Prices for rare memorabilia can approach fine art. A Metallica T-shirt from 1983, when the band released its first album, can run more than $700, Radakovitz says.

The chaos—and fun—starts at the buyback counter. A recent acquisition included original Dungeons & Dragons character guidebooks for $10 to $20.

New finds are regularly posted to Instagram, and some items—such as a Superman action figure that looks exactly like actor Henry Cavill—fly off the shelves the same day.

But for the younger generation, market trends could be moving toward less clutter. A recent Harris Poll and Eventbrite survey found that 78% of millennials prefer experiences over things, compared to 68% of Baby Boomers.

While the minimalist lifestyle may be trending, Radakovitz and McCulloch say they’re seeing the opposite. The 2019 Las Vegas Toy Con drew 60,000 attendees over three days in March. In Tucson, Ariz., Slobby’s World is a tourist attraction, and the pop-culture store has its own Netflix show.

“Japan’s been doing it for decades … They’re pop-culture fanatics,

See diSh

or lower margin, he says. Dimple survived because of trade-ins, but the legacy lines—CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays— weren’t enough, and seven locations within a small radius meant they were cannibalizing themselves, he says.

Assuming the prototype store in Folsom does well, the owners plan a careful expansion in the Sacramento area, likely only one more local store before reaching into Nevada, Utah and further east.

“Everything we do here is so counter-intuitive to what Dimple did,” McCulloch says. “People came in for commodities, people come here to browse. Every time we buy something, we put pictures on Instagram, and they rush in here. We couldn’t do the same thing with Dimple.”

It’s also more fun. As pop-culture junkies, they’re constantly discovering—and valuing—new treasures.

“You’re going through really cool stuff everyday,” Radakovitz says.

“It’s a good time.” □

Only at The Cave: gospel CDs guarded by killer robots.

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rhea butcher at comedy Spot See calendar

When the blues burn it down From the Mississippi Delta to the Cajun bayous, the sonic language of the American South continues to be sharpened by the blues. It’s a music that keeps cutting to the center— and into the nation’s soul.

On Nov. 5, one of Louisiana’s best-known bluesmen brought his riffs and licks from the cypress swamps to Folsom’s Harris Center for the Arts. Tab Benoit has long been considered a guitar-wielding messenger for the vanishing coastal wetlands he grew up in, and as he performed song after song about those cattails and oxbows, he received loud applause from a region that’s struggled to protect its own imperiled Delta.

Benoit’s appearance marked the second major act from New Orleans to light up the Harris Center this year. In August, the renowned Preservation Hall Jazz Band played to a sold-out audience.

Benoit managed to Tab Benoit. pull nearly the same sized crowd.

The first half of the night was a showcase for Whiskey Bayou Records, which Benoit recently co-founded, partly as vehicle for musicians from Cajun Country. Event-goers arrived to find Benoit parked behind a drum set rather than brandishing his signature Telecaster. The headliner took on percussion duties as songwriter Eric Johanson treated the crowd to his earnest blend of roots-Americana singing and brawny, backwoods guitar grooves.

The combination especially shone when Johanson played “Oh Louisiana,” a track from his new album on Whiskey Bayou, Burn it Down. Benoit stayed on drums during hardcharging guitarist Eric McFadden, who’s also signed to the label. There has always been a little devil legend and mystic distortion in the blues, and McFadden played like a man possessed by both legacies.

After intermission, Benoit finally strapped on his guitar.

He quickly had fans clinging to every stinging and sterling note, the naked intensity of his string-bending laid bare against the rawboned backing of a two-piece rhythm section. The bluesman then launched into the calm, fervent fire of “New Orleans Ladies.” Between drawn-out, sultry chords and the stormy way Benoit sings it, it’s not hard to see how the song became a favorite in the Crescent City.

Benoit poured on the Southern charm as he talked to the audience. At one point, he joked about how different the state-of-the-art and meticulously maintained Harris Center is from those old French Quarter saloons and Baton Rouge honky-tonks where he learned to gig.

Near the end, Benoit erupted into his blistering blues apocalypse, “Shelter Me.” The guitar’s lashing snarl overtook the theater, the ominous toms and bass stomps rumbling just under Benoit’s scorched-earth vocals. It was another example of a pure, bottom-up style of music that easily resonates from one delta to another.

photo by Scott thomaS anderSon

addicts, actually,” Radakovitz says.

He says The Cave is modeled after stores in Japan.

There’s potentially big money in nostalgia; profit margins can be 60% to 90%, Radakovitz says. Most people are nostalgic about something in their childhood: Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Disney, Marvel.

“Why was there a resurgence in vinyl? It’s the elephants,” Radakovitz says.

“They go back to the place they were born, and they go back to the bones of their ancestors, and they grieve over those bones, and they dig into the earth, and that’s what people do here. They want to relive that stuff.”

Danny Miller and his son hobbled to the buyback counter, arms full of about 50 rock T-shirts, only a fraction of his collection. At his Roseville home, a whole bedroom is dedicated to music memorabilia, including thousands of CDs. “At some point, you get so much stuff. … I know it’s worth something to somebody, and I just want it gone,” he says.

He took around $175 for the shirts and used about $60 to buy Fear Inoculum, the new Tool CD. Radakovitz is betting on the buyback counter. Tower Records shuttered in 2004 in part because it only sold expensive, new products at a 30%

We want you to browse. We want you to shop … We don’t have wrestling in one spot. We don’t have all the Pops! in one spot. They’re everywhere.” brian mcculloch co-founder, the cave

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pupuSaS to die for

–SCOTT THOMAS ANDERSON scotta@newsreview.com

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Symposium of sin Sacramento Public Library hosts True Crime Mini-Conference Sacramento isn’t just the capital of California: For decades it has been known to crime aficionados as the unofficial capital for bizarre and prolific serial killers.

In the 1970s, Richard “the Vampire of Sacramento” Chase savagely mutilated his victims in the Arden Arcade area. In the ’80s, Dorothea Puente buried enough bodies behind her charming downtown Victorian to forever brand it “the Murder House.” And the Golden State Killer—allegedly Joseph James DeAngelo, arrested on multiple charges of murder and rape in April 2018—stalked women at night during the ’70s in neighborhoods from Citrus Heights to Carmichael.

Pull the lens back, and nearby Calaveras County had its own notoriety with two separate pairs of serial killers between the 1980s and ’90s. One duo was Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, who lured victims to their hill-hidden torture chamber in Wilseyville, and the other was Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, who targeted women from their base in west Calaveras, leaving a bloody trail that labeled them the Speed Freak Killers.

The capital region has seen some of the best police work meet some of the worst acts of human depravity. For people fascinated with that dynamic, the Sacramento Public Library’s downtown branch will host a True Crime MiniConference on Saturday, Nov. 16 to illuminate

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

true crime storytelling. Preregistration is strongly encouraged on the library’s website.

The one-day gathering is the brainchild of librarian Jennifer Harmonson, a book expert who is an avid reader of the true crime genre. Some of Harmonson’s favorites are Maureen Callahan’s American Predator, about the bewilderingly intricate plots of serial killer Israel Keyes, and the late Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, which partially involves Sacramento’s ties to the Golden State Killer.

With true crime books reaching new heights of popularity, and their authors collectively inspiring a crowded field of co-opting podcasts, Harmonson says she wants to offer Sacramento’s fans an engaging afternoon.

The event will kick off with a talk from Sacramento State University forensic DNA specialist Ruth Ballard on how genetic profiles led to the arrest of DeAngelo.

“When people hear the term, ‘true crime,’ they tend to immediately think of murder and mayhem, but there’s often more under the umbrella than that,” Harmonson says. “There’s a strong scientific component to our first presentation.”

Following Ballard, a panel discussion will feature local and regional authors, including Lloyd Billingsley, Paul Drexler, David Kulczyk and William Burg. The event will close with a presentation from Joan Renner, who writes the popular blog Deranged LA Crimes, and recently authored a book, The First with the Latest!, on the path-finding crime reporter Aggie Underwood.

Renner says her blog is meant to have the look and feel of a vintage, mid-century crime magazine, while enjoying the benefits of modern and basic hindsight.

For the conference, she’ll give a talk about Underwood’s crime coverage in the 1930s and ’40s called Murder is Her Beat.

“I’m just curious about people behaving badly,” Renner says. “I look at these stories and I’m glad I’m not the victim, I’m glad I’m not the perpetrator and I really want to solve the mystery.”

Renner’s obsessive research has led to numerous television appearances, including a series of interviews for Investigation Discovery’s series Deadly Women.

“If it’s evil or dark, they want to talk to me,” she says with a laugh. □ Check out the True Crime Mini-Conference, noon, Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Sacramento Public Library, 828 I St. Early registration is recommended. saclibrary.org/Event/ Special-Events/True-Crime-Mini-Con.

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Take What Ya Like is pure Mondo Deco. The Sacramento band’s newest record, which releases Friday, Nov. 15, still brings flashes of early 1960s, late ’70s glam, garage rock and proto-punk, this time in a raw production that captures the foursome’s raucous live energy.

Its 12 songs (13 if you count a secret track) are an unrelenting party, but Mondo Deco still likes to tickle your brain with thoughtful, political and sometimes cynical lyrics.

Take the opener, “Feed the Rich.” Devil-maycare guitar riffs and swingy rhythms sound like a jam that would wake up a dive bar. But the title is a sarcastic reference to Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s line, “When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich,” and the song critiques mass complacency as powerful people take more control over the world.

“It’s less trying to be divisive,” frontman Jereme Greene told SN&R. “It’s more ... if everyone’s serious about something, the way to make it happen is around true collective change. … But it’s still fun.”

Other songs tackle religious cults, toxic relationships, isolation and technophobia (inspired by the Netflix show Black Mirror). The topics get brighter: “Someday’s Soldier” celebrates young change-makers such as teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg. And you can contrast the track “Hand Me Down,” about a toxic relationship and loosely inspired by the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb,” with the bubble-gum romance of

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Mondo Deco’s “Not a Lot That I Can Do.” “You’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who doesn’t feel existential dread,” Greene said. “But it’s not based around nihilism or defeatism or thinking that we’re all completely screwed.”

Take What Ya Like had a quick turnaround compared to the band’s last album, 2017’s Death Rattle Roll. That album took nearly three years to make, complicated after the 10-yearold band’s former bassist Steve Robinson dropped out to focus on school in 2014.

The lineup is strong now, with Billy Ewing (drums), Kolton James (guitar and vocals), new bassist Shawn Allen and Greene working democratically on new tunes. After rehearsing the songs tirelessly like their analog idols—Iggy Pop, David Bowie and The Hives, to name a few—the band tracked Take What Ya Like over the course of five days last December with local producer Patrick Hills at Earth Tone Studios.

“It’s just basically working within the parameters of what you have available to you,” Greene said. “Why sound like you’re on the radio when you’re playing to college radio or things that are on maybe on like smaller scale? It doesn’t need glitz, gloss and bunch of polish to it.”

The band plans to pair videos with the album, beginning in December. A limited run of vinyls will be available at live shows, including Mondo Deco’s album release show at the Starlet Room on J Street.

The band is planning to tour the Pacific Northwest in April, and Mondo Deco isn’t pulling the brakes on new material: A new EP is slated to release by the time they hit the road.

“We don’t want to wait to put [the songs] out anymore, and we don’t really feel like we have to,” Greene said. Ω Photo courtesy of Mondo deco

How many Mondo Decos did it take to record their new studio album? read more to find out.

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now playing

Reviews

5

Do not disturb

by Patti roberts

Photo courtesy of Ian Wallace

The cast is an enthusiastic one, tackling social issues and their characters’ personal demons with a whirl of conversations and overlapping dialogue. Unfortunately, the play’s the problem, not this production. There’s a reason this play isn’t staged much any more: what we get is a hodgepodge of characters with little insight and few backstories or motivations, leaving us with no real plots or characters to care about.

Despite this, the cast works well with what they are given, providing funny, sad, sentimental and desperate moments set to period-perfect songs, all on a beautiful backdrop of a crumbling, once majestic lobby of the Art Deco Hotel Baltimore. Ω

5

The Outsider

The Humans

The three generations of the Blake family are gathering for Thanksgiving dinner at the new apartment of daughter Brigid (Karen Vance) and her boyfriend Richard (Damien Seperi).

This is a deceptively simple play with no hysterics, no name calling—just a family revealing its weaknesses and struggling with how to carry on. Wed 7pm, Thu 7pm,

Fri 8pm, Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun 2pm; Through 11/17; $27-$44;

Capital Stage, 2215 J St., (916) 995-5464, capstage. org. B.S.

At a time and in a place where a questionable real estate salesman and television contest host can become president, it seems preposterous to think that a man who knows what politics is and how to do it could succeed.

It is preposterous, but that’s what happens in The Outsider, a political satire. Fri 8pm, Sat 8pm, Sun

2pm; Through 11/17; $21-$23;

Chautauqua Playhouse, 5325 Engle Rd., Carmichael, (916) 489-7529, cplayhouse. org. J.C.

1 2 3 4 5 foul

faIr

gooD

Well-Done

4

Water by the Spoonful

Part two of playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes’ “Elliot Trilogy” alternates between family dramas and discussions between Odessa Ortiz and a trio of regulars on an addiction network.

The acting is uniformly strong, and Hudes doles out insight and interactions in small drops, drops that eventually become a torrent of grief and transformations. Fri

8pm, Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm; Through 11/17; $18-$24;

California Stage, 2509 R St., teatroespejo.com. J.C.

short reviews by Bev sykes and Jim carnes

suBlIMe Don’t MIss

Photo courtesy of chrIstoPher Duggan

5 Saying goodbye there’s no place like home at the Hotel baltimore.

The Hot L Baltimore

3

fri 8pm, sat 8pm, sun 2pm; through 11/17; $21-$23; the harris center, 10 college Pkwy, folsom, (916) 608-6888, harriscenter.net.

When The Hot L Baltimore opened on Broadway in 1973, playwright Lanford Wilson was lauded for his edgy portrayal of scruffy residents facing eviction from a once fancy, but now fading, seedy hotel. Wilson’s technique was to magnify the characters instead of plot, and to rely on passing references and interchanges between actors to display the desperation and deterioration of both place and people.

David Harris, theater professor at Folsom Lake College and director of Falcon’s Eye Theatre’s current production of The Hot L Baltimore, zeroed in on this spotlighting of characters and their harsh realities. The play gives his students “an opportunity at creating characters whose aspirations are lost, while presenting acting techniques,” according to Harris.

As with all productions at Falcon’s Eye Theatre, drama students work alongside more seasoned actors to present this story of a sundry hotel staff, down-on-their-luck residents, young prostitutes and pop-in guests.

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‘Night, Mother is the type of play that could easily scare off an audience. An intense—sometimes all-too-real—family drama about depression, loneliness and the ideation of suicide, it can be crushing.

Jessie (Sophie Blackburn) is a divorced mother of an adolescent “hoodlum” son who has moved in with and takes care of her widowed mother, Thelma (Shirley Sayers). Their life is orderly and apparently financially comfortable enough that there are no money worries. Thelma is happy with the way things are. She takes life however it comes—until the Saturday night that Jessie announces her intention to kill herself.

Emotions rise and fall, conflicts ensue and the play, in 90 minutes of real time comes to its inevitable ending. “I say no to hope,” Jessie says conclusively to her mother’s argument for living.

Playwright Marsha Norman brings sympathy, but never pity, to her two characters and she understands that more than just depression or unhappiness contributes to someone deciding to kill themselves. “The man in the White House,”(it was Ronald Reagan then), “The news in the papers and on television”—it can add to an atmosphere of apprehension and uncertainty.

Director Steve Buri gives Jessie and Thelma the same respect as Norman does. He moves the actors skillfully around the small, tidy set and elicits two powerful performances in service to the script that won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

—Jim Carnes

‘night, Mother: fri 8pm, sat 8pm, sun 2pm; through 11/23; $16-$18; thistle Dew theatre, 1901 P st.; facebook.com/errantPhoenix.

stage pick skeletons have always been notoriously skilled dancers.

Candy craniums A Dia de los Muertos musical visits the Harris Center in the corporeal form of Sugar Skull. Vita doesn’t really get why her family wants to spend a day celebrating the spirits of family members who have already passed on. But everything changes when a friendly skeleton whisks her off to sing and dance with the undead. The multicultural performing arts ensemble Mexico Beyond Mariachi presents this colorful adventure that celebrates Mexican tradition and folklore, and has plenty of dancing skeletons, too. Fri, 11/15, 7:30pm; Through 11/15; $11.50$18; The Harris Center, 10 College Pkwy, Folsom; (916) 608-6888; harriscenter.net

—raChel mayfield

OU HEL P

GIFTS

There is still time to get into our

Holiday Gift Guide, a weekly marketplace featuring the hottest jewelry, clothing, home dĂŠcor, toys, electronics and other gift items from local retailers.

RF

T EC

E R R

V I G E S T H R E E D PE A

The Gift Guide will run for the next 5 weeks starting 11/21.

Help our readers give better and cooler gifts, with SN&R’s Gift Guide.

Contact us at (916) 498-1234 to be a part of it.

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illusTrATiOn BY MAriA rATinOvA

Savory street eats beef esfiha, tupi coffee Tupi Coffee deserves some attention, so if you can find it semi-hidden in an office complex in the Arden area, might I suggest you try one of its savory baked pastries? Specifically, the Beef Esfiha ($4) hits the spot as a mid-morning snack. Esfiha is a Brazilian meat pie, and this version has ground beef, minced tomatoes and olives, all packed within a crispy triangle of dough the size of a change pouch. The olives add a briny quality to the lightly spiced beef and give the golden-brown shell a slight vinegar flavor. If you’re a fan of street foods, Tupi’s Esfiha is worth seeking out. 1610 Arden Way Suite 155, tupicoffee.co.

—amy bee These cheesy pupusas aren’t a complete meal without curtido, a fermented, slow-heat cabbage slaw that adds texture and flavor with each savory bite.

PHOTO BY AMY BEE

Come for the pupusas Chévere 3397 Watt Ave; (916) 692-5682 Good for: Authentic dishes, quick meals Notable dishes: Desayuno salvadoreno, weekend Mondoñgo

$$$

Salvadoran, Arden Arcade

When strangers began requesting her mother’s pupusas, Ana Masterson saw an opportunity. Nidia Castro’s delicious pupusas were known all over their neighborhood, as she’d been selling them from her home to friends and family for the last 14 years. But word of the stuffed masa cakes served hot off the grill was getting out to the masses—and the masses were hungry.

Ana saw their chance to open Chévere, a “pupuseria moderna” that would satisfy the growing Sacramento craving and also highlight Salvadoran cuisine.

You’ll find mother and daughter most days at Chévere, Nidia behind the grill, slinging and patting balls of masa into hearty, melty pupusas while Ana handles the customers and cash register. If Nidia suspects you’re new to the place, or to Salvadoran food, she’ll lead you with hand gestures and a mother’s firm tone to the vat of curtido—a fermented, slow-heat cabbage slaw—and encourage you to heap it onto your plate of pupusas. There’s also a watery tomato red sauce to drizzle, which she’ll reluctantly let you get away with not using—if you’re prepared to feel like you’ve let your own mom down.

All pupusas ($2.90) come stuffed with beans and cheese, pork, chicken or a veggie medley. Nidia adds a red pepper for coloring. The result is a thick, stuffed pancake oozing grilled cheese that can be eaten by hand like a snack 28 | SN&R | 11.14.19

by Amy Bee

food, yet is filling and satisfying like the best home-cooked meals.

I’m not sure you can ever go back to the world of well-loved tacos and kid-friendly quesadillas after Nidia’s pupusas. They’re simply that delicious. Chévere’s pupusas are easily veganized, with options such as cashew cheese and jackfruit, a fruit with a meaty consistency.

Alongside Chévere’s pupusa menu are some Salvadoran staples worth trying out, such as the Yuca Frita ($6.60), strips of fried yuca so crunchy and starchy you’ll never want french fries again, topped with chunks of pork (mind Nidia and heap on the curtido and red sauce).

Also enjoy the sweet and sour sensations of platanos, perfectly charred plantains served Frito ($6.60), with beans and sour cream or Canoa ($6.60), covered in milk custard, cinnamon and coconut shavings.

Please be a dear and try Desayuno Salvadoreno ($9.10), a traditional Salvadoran breakfast that puzzled my taste buds with delight: Savory casamiento (think Jamaican rice and peas, but mild) topped with charred plantain, fried egg, chimol (similar to a pico salsa), sour cream and cheese. A gorgeous dish that won me over with its rich and sweet contradictions.

Top off your meal with Chilate ($8), a milky drink made from roasted corn, peppercorn and cinnamon served hot with a plate of nuegado (fried masa dumpling) and candied plantains. Take a bite of nuegado, then a sip of chilate. The watery soup infuses the fried dough with deep, aromatic spices that linger on the tongue long after the dish is over. It’s transcendent.

Nidia is a talented Salvadoran chef, and luckily Ana thought to share Nidia’s pupusas with the rest of us.

Chévere is a Sacramento gem. I almost wanted to keep it all to myself. □

Pucker up Green tea with salted cheese, happy lemon Founded in Shanghai, Happy Lemon is a tea shop chain that recently opened in the new Safeway shopping center near Sacramento City College. Its drink menu is expansive, but the smiley cashier was ready to answer questions, give delicious suggestions and even tasty samples. Feeling adventurous, I ordered the Green Tea with Salted Cheese ($3.95). She advised me to drink it at a 45-degree angle to get both the smoothie-quality green tea flavor, followed by the sharp, sea salty-sweet cream that floats on top like seafoam. Its aroma is a tad stinky like cheese, and it’s the strangest balance of sweet and salty. I drank the entire thing and left as happy as the cute lemon mascot that greets customers inside. 3660 Crocker Dr., happylemon.com.

—steph rodriGuez

PlANeT v

Dating and vegan food Instagram food photos are like Tinder pics: They’re best-foot-forward, highlighting the highs, obscuring the lows and edited within an inch of their lives. It’s an Instagram photo that took me to Suzie Burger for its vegan Philly Fries, an omni analog I never knew I needed. Turns out, they’re off menu and not quite as attractive as the photo that lured me there. Still, the fries were firm enough to withstand the toppings, Impossible crumbles added savoriness and texture and the tomato and jalapeño didn’t suffer the watery gray fate of most fast-food vegetables. Unfortunately, there was significantly less vegan mozz than pictured, rendering a cohesive treat into a jumble of otherwisegreat components I had to reassemble on my fork. The difference between Suzie Burger’s pics and reality wasn’t egregious enough to swear me off Instagram adventures permanently, but in dating and food, it’s worth remembering that photos don’t always match reality. 2820 P St., suzieburger.com.

—lindsay oxford

Photo courtesy of ryan Donahue

BUY 1 GET 1 1/2 OFF Buy any dinner entree at regular price, get the second for HALF OFF! Must present coupon, cannot combine with other discounts.

One per table. Valid Mon-Thu only. Expires 11/26/19.

Happy Hour

Monday–Friday 3–6pm Voted “Best of Sacramento” 3 years in a row!

Don’t want to show up empty handed during Thanksgiving?

Mother is selling sweet and flaky apple pies such as this one for $25.

Thanks-vegan

1315 21st St • Sacramento 916.441.7100

Can’t get enough of our coverage?

CheCk out our new blog sacblog.newsreview.com

by Lindsay OxfOrd

black-eyed pea fritters, mushroom étouffée, cornbread dressing and a pumpkin pie. This menu is available at both the Sacramento and Roseville stores. Order online as late as 48 hours in advance at: holiday. wholefoodsmarket.com.

Meanwhile, less problematic local chain Nugget Markets offers a more traditional spread: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes and cranberryorange relish. The protein on offer is Field Roast’s Celebration Loaf, a vegan love-or-hate choice. This one is also $39.99 for two, but dessert is on you. Order online by Friday, Nov. 22, at: nuggetmarket. com/holiday-meals/collection/ vegan-holiday-meal.

Supermarket chains aren’t your thing? Mother is offering some of its regular menu favorites as a meal for four. Its Chili Verde and Sweet Potato Latkes are top-notch comfort food, and they’re offered as part of a package that also includes a kale Caesar salad, collard greens, roasted carrots and rolls. At $150, it’s pricier than those other two options, but … you’ve had that Chili Verde, right? Cutoff for ordering is Wednesday, Nov. 20 for pickup

the day before Thanksgiving. Order online at mothersacramento.com/ thanksgiving.

If you just need sides or want to cobble together your own pre-made meal, you’ve got no shortage of options, but here are some of my favorites: Pushkin’s offers vegan dinner rolls and apple pie—glutenfree, of course. Place your order at: pushkinsbakery.com/collections/ thanksgiving-menu by 3 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 24. Most of Sellands’ Thanksgiving to-go menu is out of the running, but its maple butternut squash and its cranberry sauce are vegan, and the roasted Brussels sprouts can be ordered without bacon. Place your orders at sellands. com/order-online by 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22.

Finally, if you’re in a bind on the day of, Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. It has a ton of pre-made vegan options in its cooler and buffet including stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, sweet potato casserole, vegetable loaf and jackfruit cottage pie. Plus, pumpkin pie by the slice or whole. Ω

Thai Food & gluten free options

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Red Curry w it

That first line of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, the one about each unhappy family being unhappy in its own way? It’s borne out in Thanksgiving meals. I spent my childhood Thanksgivings in Baltimore, my assigned seat squarely in view of my own family’s unique holiday atrocities: cranberry aspic and ham-flecked sauerkraut.

No wonder I went vegan.

It would be years before courage and conviction would lead me to sneak a Tofurky roast among the meat-soaked everything, its ovular and vaguely plasticine presence unnerving even me. Decades on, there are better fake meats, but nostalgia keeps that goofy little medicine ball on my holiday table.

But mystery no-meats aren’t for everyone. Should you want to avoid cooking this Thanksgiving, or plan on hosting vegan guests and still feel in the dark about what “vegan” means, here are some local options to take out the guesswork: If you’re cool with supporting Jeff Bezos, submit to the Borg and get Amazon-owned Whole Foods’ Creole-themed Thanksgiving meal, $39.99 for two servings. It actually sounds pretty good: braised greens,

’19

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At Ease Brewing Company Nestled in a tree-lined stretch of I

Street, in the heart of Midtown, At Ease is one of the newest breweries to hit the Sacramento craft beer scene – and a perfect choice for this November column, the same week as Veterans Day. That’s because owner/brewer Mike Conrad is a retired U.S. Army colonel who served 27 years active duty in 15 locations, including three overseas: Germany, Japan and Iraq. His last assignment was at the Pentagon. “I come from a big Army family,” he said, as he sat in his sleekly designed pub, the autumn sunlight glinting off the seven-barrel stainless steel brewing system (that also includes three 15-barrel fermenters). “My dad, granddad, uncle were all in the Army – it’s a family thing. I went to West Point right out of high school.”

When he was stationed in Buffalo in the ’90s, some neighbors taught him to brew beer – and he became an avid home brewer. “When we were kids, our job was to bottle his beer,” laughed Taylor Conrad,

his daughter and operations manager. “My parents would always throw parties and serve it.”

About five years ago, the dream of opening a brewery became a solid plan. Mike and his wife eventually left D.C. and settled here, where two of their grown children live, and he and Taylor began scouting locations. Robert Maurer (of the design firm Commuter Industries) helped make this spot their dream pub. “He got everything right,” said Taylor, including the “subtle military theme,” which Maurer achieved with wide dark-wood doors and windows; tan, navy and gray paint; corrugated wall panels; and retro metal chairs.

The theme is reinforced by the clever beer names, such as the hazy IPA “Fog of War,” the seasonal pumpkin spice ale “Basic Training,” or the special Veterans Day release “DD214,” which will raise $1 per pint for the Fisher House at Travis AFB. Also look for trivia night every Thursday, board game day the first Sunday of the month, and frequent food trucks (American River Provisions rolls in regularly). The Conrads are happy to do private events too – think holiday office parties.

By Thea Marie rood

At Ease Brewing Company, 1825 I St., Sacramento, 916-431-7940, ateasebrewing.com. Open every day but Tuesday; dog- and kid-friendly; easy parking.

This column is produced by N&R Publications, a division of News & Review separate from SN&R Editorial.

For more information, visit www.nrpubs.com

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w o r g

PLACE

Return of ‘The Claw’

ss

sine u B r u o y

Leaf season in Sacramento brings back curbside collection

BY DEBBIE ARRINGTON Many Sacramento gardeners welcome the return of The Claw to collect their green waste.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF SACRAMENTO

piles are picked up. Then they start over again.

November and December produce the majority of leaves: 23,000 tons were picked up by The Claw during those two months last year. That was a wet winter, and rain weighed down the foliage like soaked towels. Those same two months totaled about 18,000 tons in 2017, when dry leaves were much lighter.

Most Sacramento residents should expect seven sweeps down their street by The Claw between Nov. 1 and Jan. 26, Treadwell said.

Residents can get a pickup estimate via the city’s leaf season webpage. On the SacRecycle collection calendar link, insert your address and get a target date for your street, within three days. The Claw schedule is updated twice daily.

During light leaf weeks, The Claw crews can complete their citywide schedule in 10 to 12 days.

Wet and windy weather can bring down masses of leaves, especially early in November if there hasn’t been a major leaf drop. That almost doubles the time estimate for completing a city sweep.

Meanwhile, the city continues to pick up residential green waste containers on a weekly basis.

Fill those 96-gallon bins before piling leaves in the street. That helps keep curb space open for parking, the biggest complaint during leaf season.

“If people use their bins first, we can clear the streets faster and there’s more parking,” Treadwell said.

If a heavy rain is expected, move leaf piles out of the street and onto the lawn, Treadwell suggested.

That keeps leaves from clogging storm drains. Keep piles out of gutters and bike lanes, too.

“It only takes four or five well-placed big leaves to clog a drain,” she said.

The biggest contaminant of leaf piles? Poop bags. Please put dog waste in the regular garbage, Treadwell said. “Poop bags are not compatible with leaf piles; why would people think that’s OK?” Ω

Scraaaape! “The Claw” is back and it’s music to my ears.

As a Sacramento homeowner and avid gardener with lots of leaves and bushels of prunings, I’ve come to love The Claw, the unique tractor with the articulated scooper arm. It’s one of the benefits of living in Sacramento: Curbside pickup of garden gleanings that overwhelm the green waste container.

I’m not alone in my appreciation.

“People like The Claw a lot,” said Erin Treadwell, spokeswoman for the city’s Recycling and Solid Waste Division. “It’s definitely a service people appreciate.”

Now through Jan. 26, Claw crews will work the streets of Sacramento six days a week, methodically scooping up the City of Trees’ abundant accumulation of leaves and other green waste.

“It’s one of the unique things about living in the city is The Claw,” Treadwell said. She said while Portland does something similar, it’s only two days a year.

By city code, Sacramento residents have had permission to pile leaves in the street since 1945.

For decades, those piles were collected by hand with street crews using brooms and buckets. A faster method for picking up loads of leaves, The Claw has been in service for about 40 years.

Sacramento uses about 10 Claw crews Monday Debbie Arrington, an award-winning garden writer and lifelong through Thursday and 15 Claw crews Friday and gardener, is co-creator of the Sacramento Digs Gardening blog Saturday, days without regular trash collection. The and website. crews rotate through 93 zones until the entire city’s

Get your business noticed by real estate, home design and gardeningsavvy readers in our PLACE section!

to advertise, call us at 916.498.1234

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home

Sacramento area Dining guiDe Fall/wiNteR 2019-20

Bundle up and start house hunting; winter is a great season for home buying.

Winter is best time to buy Take advantage of traditional slow down It’s a hectic season packed with

On stands!

Find it at SN&R’s newsracks

holiday commitments and unpredictable weather. House sellers tend to wait until warmer, calmer days in spring before putting homes on the market.

But for buyers, the months ahead are full of opportunity. Winter is the best time to buy a house.

According to Zillow, median prices tend to be at their lowest and homes stay on the market the longest during winter months.

January in particular is slow for sellers. That makes winter the most likely season to get a great deal.

Why do sales slow in winter? Cold and wet (or snowy) weather definitely affects home sales in other parts of the country.

Buyers don’t want to house hunt when they don’t want to go outside.

Winter also is the rainy season in Sacramento, although a dry November and December are in the current long-range

forecast. A good thing about house hunting during rainy days: Weather-related issues are easier to spot. You’ll know for sure whether a roof leaks or if run-off is an issue.

Locally, home prices are flat.In its most current report, the Sacramento Association of Realtors noted that the median sales price for a single-family home in the Sacramento area market was $386,000 in September, up $1,000 from August. That’s a 3.3% increase from the median price of $373,700 one year ago.

Active inventory in September remained almost even; 2,457 homes were listed for sale, three less than the month before.

But the market continues to be tight with 24.1% fewer homes listed for sale than in September 2018. That represents almost 800 fewer homes available for sale than this time last year.

That tight market is good for sellers.

Homes continue to stay on the market a relatively short period of time. As it was in August, the median days on market is less than two weeks – just 12 days. “Days on market” is the time between when the initial listing is made “active” to when the sale goes “pending.”

Of the 1,393 home sales recorded in September, about three-quarters were on the market less than a month, another indication of a tight market.

So in Sacramento, this winter may be good for both sellers and buyers.

By DeBBie Arrington

This column is produced by N&R Publications, a division of News & Review separate from SN&R Editorial.

For more information, visit www.nrpubs.com

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foR R the week of Novembe N NovembeR R 14

bY Mozes zarate

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 Maxfield Morris at snrcalendar@newsreview.com.

POST EVENTS ONLiNE fOR fREE AT newsreview.com/sacramento

MUSIC

$18-$20. Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub, 2708 J St.

THE CASUALTiES: American street punk band

THURSDAY, 11/14

celebrating 30 years next year. Strung Out also performs, on its Songs of Armor and Devotion tour. 7:30pm, $18. Holy Diver, 1517 21st St.

LOCAL SHOWCASE: It’s $1 a rock band! Silent Game, Doppelganger, Divine Blend, Stepdad Passport and Downer perform. 6:30pm, $5. Holy Diver, 1517 21st St.

SUNDAY, 11/17

RiNONA WYDER: Not the Beetlejuice actress.

916 fEST ii: Music festival celebrating the

No, this is an alternative rock band from Sacramento. Freature, Your Friends and Pure Trash (the band) perform. 8pm, $8. Cafe Colonial, 3520 Stockton Blvd.

local scene. City Mural, Paper Airplanes and others perform. 6pm, $5-$10 sliding scale. Cafe Colonial, 3520 Stockton Blvd.

MATiSYAHU: The Jewish reggae singer, rapper

SNOW THA PRODUCT: The San Jose rapper-

and beatboxer is known for singles such as “King Without a Crown.” Bedouin Soundclash opens. 7pm, $29.50. Ace of Spades, 1417 R St.

actress is best known for singles such as “Drunk Love.” Check out her mixtape Good Nights & Bad Mornings. 7pm, $79. Ace of Spades, 1417 R St.

fRi

Rhea Butcher

MONDAY, 11/18

FRIDAY, 11/15

COLD WAR KiDS: Indie rock from Long Beach, with hit singles such as “Hang Me Up To Dry and “First.” Check out their latest album, 2017’s L.A. Divine. 7pm, $30. Ace of Spades, 1417 R St.

fiSTER: A night of doom metal and heavy rock.

Larvae and Battle Hag also perform. 8pm, $12. Blue Lamp, 1400 Alhambra Blvd.

HAMiLTON LOOMiS: Blues, soul and rock

WEDNESDAY, 11/20

guitarist playing with a full band. Check out Loomis’ performance of “Slow Lover” on YouTube. 9pm, $10. Torch Club, 901 15th St.

fAiLURE BY PROXY: Local hard rockers perform with Dreams of Madness and the first show of local band Beautiful Blood. 8pm, no cover. Powerhouse Pub, 614 Sutter St., Suite D, Folsom.

MONDO DECO: Album release show for the glam rock, proto-punk band’s newest record, Take What Ya Like. Ani Maul and Las Pulgas also perform. Check out the full story on page 25. 8pm, $10-$12. Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub, 2708 J St.

GHOST LiGHT: An improvisational jazz/rock jam band from Philadelphia. Check out their 2018 song, “Come Apart.” 7pm, $15-$20. Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub, 2708 J St.

SAMMY JOHNSON: Polynesian roots singer

SACRAMENTO COMEDY SPOT, 10 PM, $20 Rhea Butcher will joke about anything— baseball, history, culture, gender and race. The Midwest-born, Los COMEDY Angeles-based comedian has appeared on the show 2 Dope Queens, The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail,

PHOTO COURTESY OF GERSH COMEDY

15

Rhea Butcher is playing Sacramento Comedy Spot—and baseball, apparently.

who mixes reggae, soul and jazz with heartwarming pipes. 7pm, $23. Ace of Spades, 1417 R St.

@Midnight and Conan, and co-created the show Take My Wife. Check out Butcher’s baseball podcast, Three Swings, and their 2016 album, Butcher.

Laugh in-person at the Comedy Spot show Friday. 1050 20th St., Suite 130.

HiRiE: Hawaiian reggae artist with such hits as “She Go.” Pop trio RDGLDGRN also performs. 7pm, $16. Holy Diver, 1517 21st St.

THE MACHETES: Local alt-rock band gigs with Sugar Beast and Joblons. 8pm, $8. Old Ironsides, 1901 10th St.

FESTIVALS

THE O’MULLiGANS: The pizza party pop-punk band performs with Wicked Bears, Lamonta and Rebel Holocrons. 8pm, contact for cover. Cafe Colonial, 3520 Stockton Blvd.

THURSDAY, 11/14 ARTMiX – GOiN’ COUNTRY: Ride a mechanical

SATURDAY, 11/16

TiCKET WiNDOW TRANS-SIbERIAN ORCHESTRA

Get your fix of holiday music with hard rock and a full orchestra, courtesy of this annual performance. 11/29, 3pm, 7:30pm, $46-$76, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.

HObO JOHNSON & THE LOVEMAKERS Tickets are

running low for the Sacramento folkrapper and his band, recently endorsed

by Snoop Dogg on Instagram and on the heels of their third album, The Fall of Hobo Johnson. Ace of Spades, 11/30, 8pm $29.50, on sale now. livenation.com.

SNOOP DOGG Or you can check out

the West Coast rap legend himself. Don’t bother thanking him, that could be redundant. (He’s on his I Wanna Thank Me

bull, take honky-tonk line-dance lessons and enjoy the local music of Ashley Barron at one of Crocker’s monthly, themed arts events. 6pm, $10-$20. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St.

COLLECTiViTY: Bay Area jazz, funk and psychedelic soul. Features members of Fantastic Negrito, Too Short and Boz Scaggs. 9pm, $10. Torch Club, 901 15th St.

Want ticket info? You’ve come to the right place.

THE CHAINSMOKERS HAINSMOKERS It’s that It’s that

New York DJ duo and their electronic duo and their electronic dance music, performing with 5 Seconds performing with 5 Seconds of Summer and Lennon Stella.

Lennon Stella. 12/1, Golden 1 7pm, $26-$154, on sale now.. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com. ticketmaster.com.

ELECTRIC XMAS MAS

Alt 94.7 presents this presents this night of alternative alternative rock, with The 1975, 1975, The Head And The The Heart, Catfish And And The Bottlemen and Local Natives.

Natives.

12/6, 7:30pm, $40$65, on sale now.

Golden 1 Center ticketmaster.com.

SATURDAY, 11/16

iSSUES: Atlanta metalcore, R&B-pop band

Tour.) 12/3, 7pm, $143, resale only only. Ace of Ace of Spades, livenation.com. livenation.com.

Contemplate, Snoop.

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

on tour in support of its new album, Beautiful Oblivion. Hypertechnical jazz-rock band Polyphia and rap-rocker Lil Aaron open. 7pm, $23. Ace of Spades, 1417 R St.

JESSE COOK: A master world-music guitarist

TACO AND MARGARiTA fESTiVAL: Check out the event highlight on page 34. 11am, $9.99-

$370. 1600 Los Robles Blvd.

ViKiNGfEST: A celebration of Norwegian heritage. Check out the event highlight on page 35. 10:30am, no cover. Masonic Center, 5944 San Juan Ave., Citrus Heights.

comes to the Crest. 6:30pm, $49-$78. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.

PARK THE VAN RECORDS SHOWCASE: Check out

the event highlight on page 34. 8pm, $10. The Red Museum, 212 15th St.

SAC UNPLUGGED: Garage punk band Clevers performs at this all-ages Friendsgiving

potluck. Bring food to share. 6:30pm, no cover-$10. Library of Musiclandria, 2181 6th Ave.

FOOD & DRINK FRIDAY, 11/15 ERNESTO’S TURNS 28: Four-day celebration of the downtown Mexican restaurant,

TAiNTED LOVE: A popular best-of-the-’80s TA cover band performs Aerosmith, A-ha, Pat Benatar, Bon Jovi and more. 9pm,

CALENDAR LiSTiNGS CONTiNUED ON PAGE 34

11.14.19 | SN&R | 33

see MOre evenTs anD subMiT yOur Own aT newSreview.com/SAcrAmenTo/cAlendAr

SATurdAy, 11/16

comedy

Park The van records showcase THE RED MUSEUM, 8PM, cALL fOR cOVER

COMeDysPOrTZ: Improv Comedy Show. Two teams compete for points by creating scenes using audience suggestions. 8pm

Friday, 11/15; 8pm saturday, 11/16. $10$12. 2230 Arden Way, Suite B.

CresT THeaTre: Justin Willman. Laugh with the magician, actor, comedian and television personality. He hosts Cupcake Wars and King of Cones on the Food Network, as well as Win, Lose or Draw on Disney Channel. 8pm Friday, 11/15, 8pm. $35. 1013 K St.

Indie-record label Park The Van is hosting an artist showcase at the Red Museum, assembling a bill of mostly local bands. Check out the surreal doo-wop of Tino Drima (pictured), the ’60s-’70s rock revivalism of Honyock, the soul-pop of Madi Sipes & The MusiC Painted Blue and singer/songwriter, multiinstrumentalist Nick Freitas.

Ingest great live music with beer, fancy drinks and pizza

by PIZZAWOOF. 212 15th St., facebook.com/theredmuseum.

CaLenDar LisTinGs COnTinueD FrOM PaGe 33

LauGHs unLiMiTeD: Swizz Comedy Showcase.

A monthly showcase of national talent, including Jordan Quattlebaum, Nick Michelsen, TC Morgan, Ruby Setnik, Shannon Battle and more. 8pm Thursday, 11/14. $10. Ngaio Bealum. SN&R’s cannabis columnist is also a stand-up comedian (and host of the Netflix show Cooking On High). various times Friday, 11/15 thru sunday, 11/16. $10-$20. 1207 Front St.

PunCHLine: Phoebe Robinson. New York Times

PHoTo courTeSy oF SAm yAnG

GainsbOurG – a HerOiC LiFe: A biopic directed by comic book artist Joann Sfar that follows the life of the ’60s pop-star Serge Gainsbourg, beginning with Gainsbourg’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, then his early years as a jazz musician and painter and his stardom as a singersongwriter. 8:15pm, call for cover. Beers Books, 915 S St.

with food and drink specials and live mariachi. 11/15 through 11/18. Ernesto’s Mexican Food, 1901 16th St.

river Dinner sHOw: Enjoy a train ride with a barbecue dinner and a two-and-a-half hour comedy called Three Bodies and a Bride, about an aging rockstar’s wedding with an eccentric actress. 6:30pm, $65. Sacramento RiverTrain, 400 N. Harbor Blvd., West Sacramento.

FridAy, 11/15 Vault. This time, it’s the 1980s comic book movie about the part-man, part-machine, all-cop who takes justice into his own hands. 7pm, no cover. Empire Comics Vault, 1120 Fulton Ave.

saCraMenTO sTeaK anD Prawn banQueT:

SundAy, 11/17 FOrD v Ferrari: Matt Damon and Christian Bale star in a Hollywood retelling of the competition between two automobile tycoons. For this morning showing of the film, the California Automobile Museum is reserving the space for car lovers and museum supporters. 11am. $15. Esquire IMAX Theatre, 1211 K St.

wedneSdAy, 11/20 TOur OF MeXiCO sPiriTs TasTinG: Hosted by the River City Whiskey Society. Small bites accompanied by Mexican liquor: Wahaka Mezcal from Oaxaca, YooWe Bacanora from Sonora, Bonete Racilla from Jalisco and more. 5:30pm, $30. Midtown’s Cantina Alley, 2320 Jazz Alley.

wHO FraMeD rOGer rabbiT?: The live-action/ animated mystery comedy where people and cartoon characters coexist headlines the free-movie night at Urban Roots.

Movie-themed trivia afterward, with a $20 gift card prize. 7pm. no cover. Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse, 1322 V St.

Film

TueSdAy, 11/19

THurSdAy, 11/14 bLaCK TrauMa unCHaineD: A one-hour

saCraMenTO COMeDy sPOT: Rhea Butcher.

Check out the event highlight on 33. 8pm, 10pm Friday, 11/15; 8pm, 10pm saturday, 11/16. $20. 1050 20th St., Suite 130.

sTab! COMeDy THeaTer: Willie Listen. Comedy, nostalgia and music come together in this improv show, where performers listen and discuss personal music choices with guests. 8pm Friday,11/15. $7. 1710 Broadway.

The North Carolina A&T State University grad has a lot of college material and was featured on the MTV shows Wild ‘N Out and Joking Off. 7:30pm, 10:15pm Friday, 11/15. $17-$30. Comedy Festival. Featuring Shaun Grady, Huey Li, Maryam Mossavi and more. 9:15pm saturday, 11/16, $10. 12401 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova.

on STAGe biG iDea THeaTre: The Clean House. A romantic comedy centered on Lane, a career-focused doctor who hires a Brazilian maid, Matilde, who doesn’t like cleaning and instead wants to be a comedian. Lane’s husband, Charles, leaves her for Ana, an older Brazilian woman for whom he recently performed a mastectomy. Through 12/14. $12-$18. 1616 Del Paso Blvd.

brOaDway saCraMenTO: A Christmas Story The Musical. From the songwriters behind Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land, the 1983 comedy comes to life onstage. 2pm Thursday, 11/14. $26-$87. Memorial Auditorium, 1515 J St.

CaLiFOrnia sTaTe universiTy, saCraMenTO: Sac State’s Got Talent. It’s the second year of this talent show featuring Sac State students. Expect a variety of performances, including singing and dancing.

Judges will gift prizes to the top three competitors. Singer-songwriter and Sac State alum Vince Vicari hosts. 7:30pm Thursday, 11/14. no cover. 6000 J St, University Union Ballroom.

CaPiTaL sTaGe: The Humans. Won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play. Explores the ups and downs of family life: Erik Blake brings the folks to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s apartment in New York City. As night falls, the darkest secrets of the Blake family reveal themselves. Through 11/17. $32-$44. 2215 J St.

CresT THeaTre: Bianca Del Rio’s It’s Jester Joke. The sixth season winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race brings a performance of sharp wit and brash commentary. 7pm sunday, 11/17. $42.50-$189. 1013 K St.

Harris CenTer: FLC Speaker Series: Kate White: A talk from the former editor-inchief of Cosmopolitan magazine of 14 years.

In her lecture, “Becoming Fearless,” White shares her strategies for success as a woman in media. 12:30pm Thursday, 1/14. $50. Sugar Skull A musical journey where Vita, a Dia de Los Muertos skeptic, finds the true meaning of the holiday with a skeletal pal. Dances with ancestors and sorceresses and a meeting with the Catrina Calavera present the Mexican tradition onstage. 7:30pm Friday, 11/15. $18.50-$25. The Harris Center, 10 College Parkway, Folsom.

MOnDavi CenTer: Merce Cunningham Centennial. A celebration of the late dancer-choreographer’s 100th birthday. The French ballet company CNDC d’Angers present two of Cunningham’s works, Beach Birds and BIPED, with live music. 8pm saturday, 11/16. $12.50-$65. 501 Alumni Lane, Davis.

saCraMenTO THeaTre COMPany: Deathtrap.

Held on the Pollock mainstage, a dark comedy play-within-a-play in which a Broadway thriller writer tries to overcome a dry spell by stealing an awesome script from a student. Through 12/15. $25$40. Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.

Musical selections from the seven-decade career of theatre, film and television diva Carol Channing. Through 11/17. $25-$35. 1419 H St.

ArT CrOCKer arT MuseuM: Pueblo Dynasties – Master Potters from Matriarchs to Contemporaries. More than 200 pieces by premier Southwestern Native American

rObOCOP: Free movie night at Empire Comics

SATurdAy, 11/16 Dining fundraiser to benefit the California Waterfowl conservation nonprofit. 5:30pm, $45-$1,500. Mack Powell Event Center, 2003 Howe Ave.

best-selling writer, actress and stand-up comedian. Co-creator and co-star of the podcast 2 Dope Queens and the host of the WNYC Studio podcast, Sooo Many White Guys, which interviews celebrities such as Tom Hanks. 8pm Thursday, 11/14. $30$40. LOLGBT+ Presents: Queens of Comedy.

Part drag performance and comedy show held every month at the Punchline. 7:30pm sunday, 11/17. $16. Stay Silly Comedy.

Showcase of local and up-and-coming comedians. 8pm wednesday, 11/20. $16. 2100 Arden Way, Suite 225.

TOMMy T’s COMeDy CLub: Darren Brand.

SATurdAy 11/16

Taco & Margarita Festival 1600 LOS ROBLES BLVD., 11 AM, $9.99-$370

I would have been fine with just tacos and margaritas. But it doesn’t end there, compadre. Live bands, an international FOOD horse show, a taco contest and a whole lot more is promised at this all-day festival in Del Paso Heights. 1600 Los Robles Blvd.

wiLLOw: George Lucas’ 1988 fantasy directed

documentary presented by the Sacramento Children’s Trauma Treatment Center.

Examines intergenerational trauma, with a counselor-led discussion after the film. 10am, no cover. Black Trauma Unchained, 7000 Franklin Blvd., Suite 625.

by Ron Howard, where a humble farmer protects a special baby from a tyrannical queen with ambitions to rule the world. 7:30pm, $10. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.

PHoTo by PArK ciTy cc by-SA 3.0

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11.14.19

SATurdAy, 11/16

VIKING FESTIVAL MASONIC CENTER, 10:30 AM, NO COVER

The Vikings invented a lot of things: the battle axe, the shield, the comb. This dayFESTIVALS long festival is more family-friendly than the History Channel television series. Enjoy Norwegian baked goods and food, including open-face sandwiches, fish soup, waffles and “Vikingon-a-stick.” Traditional Norwegian merch is also for sale. 5944 San Juan Ave., Citrus Heights.

PHOTO by TruLS ErIK dAHL CC by-SA 3.0

potters and their descendants. Through 1/5, $6-$12. When I Remember I See Red. Features arts by the “First Californians” and Native American artists. More than 65 paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, installations and videos. Through 1/26, $6-$12. Cool Clay. Features the work of groundbreaking 20th-century ceramicists, including Rudy Autio, Jun Kaneko, Tony Marsh and more. Through 7/19. $6-$12. 216 O St.

FE GALLERY: Angles and Eaves. Colorful, geometric house art by artists Karen Anable-Nichols, Susan Ballenger, Carolyn Lord and Jim Marxen. Through 11/22. No cover. 1100 65th St.

JAN SHREM AND MARIA MANETTI SHREM MUSEUM OF ART: Landscapes Without Boundaries. Features post-World War II California landscape paintings by artists such as Wayne Thiebaud, Martin Ramirez, Gladys Nisson, Joan Brown and Robert Arneson. Through 12/15. No cover. 254 Old Davis Road, Davis.

KENNEDY GALLERY: Autumn Leaves. Eighteen resident artists showcase their perspectives of the changing seasons. Through 12/8. No cover. 1931 L St.

PENCE GALLERY: Jose Arenas: A Place in Mind.

Paintings by the California artist that examine dual identity, displacement and dislocation in the immigrant experience in the U.S. and Mexico. Through 12/6. Steven Russell Black & Xavier Ortiz: Flora Obscura.

A Bay Area and Sacramento artist pair up for abstract art inspired by comic-book storytelling. Through 11/24. 212 D St., Davis.

SOL COLLECTIVE: Trust Your Struggle. A 16-year

MuSEuMS CALIFORNIA MUSEUM: ¡Murales Rebeldes!. A photography exhibit that shows the forgotten history and erasure of Los Angeles murals and street art by Chicano artists.

Eight Chicano artists are featured in this exhibit. Through 12/29. El Arte De Las Almas – Dia De Los Muertos. Features original and contemporary art that explores the Mexican tradition. Through 12/15. $6.50$9. 1020 O St.

CALIFORNIA STATE AUTOMOBILE MUSEUM: The Great British Motoring Exhibit – From Crown to Commoner. Classic cars and motorcycles used by the British working and upper classes. Bentley, Rolls Royce, Post-World War II motorcycles and more. Through 1/27. $7-$14. 125 I St.

CLASSES THurSdAy, 11/14 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT FOR ARTISTS: Get the word out on your art online. Learn how to set up an Instagram and get tips on how to increase Facebook followers. 6pm, $30$40. Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S St.

WEdNESdAy, 11/20 THE ART & SCIENCE OF CHEESEMAKING – FRESH CHEVRE: Learn to make creamy, fresh goat cheese, or age it into rind. Uses vegetarian rennet. 6pm, $55-$65. Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, 2820 R St.

anniversary exhibit by the Sacramento artist collective, highlighting past works and new works from recent members.

Murals, paintings, video installations, photography and historic prints grounded in social movements. Through 1/2. No cover. 2574 21st St.

11.14.19 | SN&R | 35

THURSDAY 11/14

FRIDAY 11/15

SATURDAY 11/16

The Little Army, 8pm no cover

Bristol to Memory, 8pm, no cover

SUNDAY 11/17

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 11/18-20

Poprockz 90s Night, 10pm, no cover

Fridays are a Drag, 8pm, call for cover

Spectacular Saturdays, 6pm, call for cover

Industry Sundays, 9pm, no cover

After Hours with Apple, 9pm, M, no cover; Trapicana, 11pm, W, no cover

Inanimate Existence, Krosis, Symbolik and more, 7pm, $12

The Numinous, Erik Childs, Fonty and more, 7:30pm, $10

The Frank Hannon Band, The Zach Waters Band and more, 8:30pm, $20

State Faults and In Chaos, 7pm, $10

1500 k ST., (916) 444-3633

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

Dinner and a Drag Show, 7:30pm, $5$25; Karaoke, 9:30pm, call for cover

cresT TheATre

Justin Willman, 8pm, $35

Jesse Cook, 7:30pm, $49-$78

ArmAdillo music

207 F ST., DAvIS, (530) 758-8058

BAdlAnds

2003 k ST., (916) 448-8790

The BoArdwAlk

9426 GREENbAck LN., ORANGEvALE, (916) 358-9116

cApiTol GArAGe

1013 k ST., (916) 476-3356

Geeks Who Drink, 8:30pm, W, no cover

drAke’s: The BArn PHOTO cOURTESY OF MIcHELLE MAvRIDES

Shawn James

985 RIvERFRONT ST., WEST SAc, (510) 423-0971

FAces

2000 k ST., (916) 448-7798

Fox & Goose

with Sam Houston 7:30pm Thursday, $15 Goldfield Trading Post Blues

Justis & McLane, 8pm, no cover

1001 R ST., (916) 443-8825

Absolut Fridays, 9pm, call for cover

Sequin Saturdays, 9:30pm, call for cover

Bad Barnacles and Nice Monster, 9pm, call for cover

Rip & Stomp Rock Show with Whoville & Roa Brothers, 9pm, $5

Bianca Del Rio, 8pm, $42.50-$189

Willow, 7:30pm, T, $10

Katie Knipp Band, 6pm, no cover

Food Truck Tuesdays, 5pm, T, call for cover

Sunday Funday, 3pm, no cover

Every Damn Monday, 8pm, M, no cover Open-Mic Night, 7:30pm, M, no cover; Pub Quiz, 7pm, T, no cover

Golden 1 cenTer

Suns vs. Kings, 7pm, T, $12-$280; College Doubleheader, 5:30pm, W, $20-$52

500 DAvID J STERN WALk, (888) 915-4647

GoldField TrAdinG posT 1630 J ST., (916) 476-5076

Shawn James, Sam Houston and Blk Odyssy, 7:30pm, $15

hAlFTime BAr & Grill

Paint Nite, 6:30pm, call for cover

5681 LONETREE bLvD., ROckLIN, (916) 626-3600

hArlow’s

Hot Buttered Rum, Daniel Rodriguez and Kate Gaffney, 8pm, $20

2708 J ST., (916) 441-4693

Demun Jones and Longcut, 7:30pm, $13-$15

Let’s Get Quizzical, 7pm, T, no cover; Cornhole, 6pm, W, $10 John Craigie and Shook Twins, 8pm, $21-$26

Tim Reynolds & Tr3 and Bonnie Bishop, 8pm, $20-$25

Tainted Love, 10pm, $18-$20

hideAwAY BAr & Grill

Shitshow Karaoke, 8pm, M, no cover; Record Roundup, 8pm, T, no cover

2565 FRANkLIN bLvD., (916) 455-1331

hiGhwATer

holY diVer 1517 21ST ST.

Night Swim with Joseph One, 10pm, call for cover

Local $5 Showcase, 6:30pm, $5

Good Riddance, Sharp Shock, Get Dead and more, 7pm, $20

Strung Out and The Casualties, 7pm, $18

Karaoke Night, 7pm, no cover

Red Voodoo, 6pm, no cover

Snow Tha Product

JAckrABBiT BrewinG co.

8pm Thurday, $79 Ace of Spades Hip-hop

Cornhole Tournament, 6:30pm, call for cover

kupros

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

Live music with Jenn Rogar, 7pm, no cover

old ironsides

Remedy 7, 6:30pm, $5

1323 TERMINAL ST., WEST SAc (916) 873-8659

1901 10TH ST., (916) 442-3504

Trivia Factory, 7pm, M, call for cover; Geeks Who Drink, 7pm, T, call for cover

Cuffin with Good Co., 10pm, $5

1910 Q ST., (916) 706-2465 PHOTO cOURTESY OF ATLANTIc REcORDS

Steve Grand, 7pm, M, $25-$35; Ghost Light, 8pm, W, $15-$18

voted sacramento’s

Anybody Killa, Big Hoodoo and Manic, 7pm, $15

Comedy Night, 7pm, T, no cover; Trivia, 6:30pm, W, call for cover

Triviology 101, 7:30pm, no cover The Machetes, Sugar Beast and Joblons, 8pm, $8

Icon For Hire, 7pm, M, $15-$199; HIRIE, 7pm, W, sold out

Live Music with Robert Kuhlmann, 5pm, T, no cover

Live Music with Heath Williamson, 5:30pm, M, no cover

Lipstick!, 9pm, $5

GET MORE EYES ON YOUR SHOW OR EVENT

best dance club 2017/2018

live MuSic 11/15 RYAN ZIMMERMAN 11/16 TRAVIS ALAN & CROSSBUCK CAVALIERS 11/22 TODD MORGAN 11/23 NITE KATS

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at 7pm • $3 Jack 8-9

saturDays

free dance lessons at 7pm $3 tullamore dew 8-9

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Karaoke nightly Wed- sunday 9pm

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

FriDays free country dance lessons

sunDays

11/30 PART ROBOT

36

thursDays

caleNdaR

salsa or west coast swing lessons and dance

trivia at 7:30, dance lessons at 9 18 & over (prizes)

11/29 CLOSED

fri & sat 9:30pm - close 21+

WeDnesDays

college night dance party $3-$5 drink specials 18 & over

/bar101roseville

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11.14.19

$10 ribeye thursdays 6pm $10 prime rib dinner fridays 6pm $10 filet mignon dinner saturdays 6pm Until they rUn oUt…

1320 Del paso blvD in olD north sac

2 steps from downtown | 916.402.2407 stoneyinn.com for nightly drink specials & events

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suBmit youR calendaR listinGs foR fRee at newsReview.com/sacRamento/calendaR thursdAy 11/14

fridAy 11/15

sAturdAy 11/16

Locked-N-Loaded, 9:30pm, $10-$15

Skid Roses, 9:30pm, $10-$15

13 MAin st., Winters, (530) 795-1825

McKasson, McDonald and McLane, 8pm, $12-$26

Tim O’Brien Band, 8pm, $12-$31

placerville public HOuse

Brian Chris Rogers, 8pm, call for cover

The Fabulous Liars, 8pm, call for cover

Element of Soul, 10pm, call for cover

Opera HOuse salOOn

411 lincoln st., roseville (916) 970-9777

palms playHOuse

414 MAin st., PlAcerville, (530) 303-3792

pOwerHOuse pub

Jessica Rose Band, 9:30pm, call for cover

THe press club

Lightweight, Dino the Girl, Brutal Poodle and more, 8pm, call for cover

614 sutter st., folsoM, (916) 355-8586 2030 P st., (916) 444-7914

sOcial nigHTclub

1000 k st., (916) 947-0434

11-year Anniversary with DJ Elements, 10pm, call for cover

THe sOfia

Kalani Pe’a, 7pm, $40

2700 cAPitol Ave.,

sundAy 11/17

MondAy-WednesdAy 11/18-20

Bruno and the Hooligans, 10pm, call for cover

Cafe R&B, 3pm, call for cover

Karaoke, 8:30pm, T, call for cover; 98 Rock Local Licks, 9pm, W, call for cover

Pop 40 Dance with DJ Larry, 9pm, $5

DJ Larry’s Sunday Night Dance Party, 9pm, no cover

Throwback Wednesday, 9pm, W, call for cover

Al Jardine’s Endless Summer, 7pm, $55

F*ckup Nights—Vol. II, 7pm, W, $27

11-year Anniversary with Skyler Madison, 10pm, call for cover

THe sTarleT rOOm

Nate Grimmy and Cugino, 7pm, $10-$13

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the face of this “apple-like” watch, when removed from its wrist band, becomes a vaping device. this product was purchased by KHN and is pictured on a model.

This hoodie doubles as a vaping device. Users can take a puff of nicotine (or marijuana) through the drawstring. This product was purchased by KHN and is pictured on a model.

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unregulated cannabis products. The outbreak has focused new attention on what federal officials now characterize as an epidemic of youth vaping.

Camouflaged vaping devices are deceiving parents and schools Two states—Michigan and New York—have moved to ban sales of most flavored e-cigarette products, by aNNa Maria Barry-Jester Kaiser HealtH News which are popular among young people; and President Donald Trump said in September that he would launch a similar effort at the federal level. in yet another twist for worried keep their use secret—and according popular devices at her high school. With In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom parents: Meet the vaping hoodie. to parents and teachers, are all but a touch of the finger, the face offers the said that his administration would boost This high school fashion mainstay— impossible to keep out of kids’ hands. time. But when removed from the wrist enforcement efforts against illicit and defined by a hood with drawstrings—is Preliminary federal data released band, it is a vaping device. counterfeit vaping products and fund a $20 now available as a vaping device, ready in September shows more than one“The teachers have learned to recogmillion public service campaign highto deliver a puff of nicotine (or mariquarter of the nation’s high schoolers nize Juul,” Jordt said, “but this just lighting the dangers of vaping. juana) anywhere, anytime, including in had reported vaping in the previous 30 looks like a watch.”

While research the classroom. days, up from 11.7% in 2017. As the The U.S. Centers for continues into the It marks an addition to the fleet teen vaping scene has exploded, adults Disease Control and long-term prospects of discreet—some would say camouhave had a hard time keeping up. In Prevention continues “The teachers have of e-cigarettes as a flaged—vaping devices that have a 2018 survey, the Truth Initiative, an to investigate a learned to recognize tool to help people teachers and parents struggling to anti-tobacco advocacy group, surveyed spurt of vapingquit smoking, monitor the usage of a product that middle and high school teachers on related lung Juul, but this just looks experts say there is has surged in popularity among high vaping and found that fewer than half illnesses, mostly like a watch.” clear evidence that school-aged kids in the past two years, recognized a photo of a Juul, the most affecting young teens should not despite laws in most states that allow Sven-Eric Jordt commonly used device. A palm-size stick people. As of vape. Nicotine can sales only to people 18 and older. (In associate professor at Duke that charges via USB, it’s easily mistaken Oct. 31, the CDC cause changes in the California, it’s 21.)

University for a flash drive to the uninitiated. reported 37 deaths developing brain that Juul, the San Francisco-based Sven-Eric Jordt has seen the chaland 1,888 confirmed make lifelong addiction company that dominates the e-cigarette lenge in his kid’s school. By day, or probable cases. more likely. The liquids in trade, and other manufacturers publicly Jordt is an associate professor at Duke It’s unclear whether a vaping devices contain a range tout their devices as tools for adults University, studying the health effects single device or agent is causing of chemicals that can harm the lungs. looking to get a nicotine fix without the of inhaling various chemicals. By night, those illnesses. Most of the patients have Some schools have banned flash toxins associated with burning tobacco. he educates his children on the potential reported vaping cannabis, according to drives in an effort to keep vaping But the crowded market of devices and risks of vaping. Recently, one of his the CDC, but some patients said they devices off campuses. But new stealth accessories that has sprung up around daughters told him about the “Applehad vaped only nicotine or vaped both. devices offer ways around these vaping is filled with products that like” watch manufactured by Uwell that In California and other states, at least prohibitions. seem tailored to teenagers who want to is quickly becoming one of the more some of the cases are linked to vaping

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In a statement, Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, one of the industry’s largest Some of the devices likely aren’t legal. trade groups, blamed a few bad actors and A decade ago, when vaping devices first illegal sales to ineligible customers, saying hit the market, it wasn’t clear who had that the group “does not approve of youth the authority to regulate them. Numerous use of any nicotine products, including court cases and regulatory shifts later, these accessories.” they fall under the U.S. Food and Drug In absence of more aggressive federal Administration’s purview and are considefforts to keep these devices off the market, ered a tobacco product. parents and teachers are left with the Depending on when they became Sisyphean task of trying to keep them out available for sale, devices generally fit into of kids’ hands. one of three regulatory buckets. Anything Ira Sachnoff has been a youth tobacco marketed before Feb. 15, 2007, is exempt educator in the San Francisco Bay Area for from regulation. Products sold after that decades. He says the skyrocketing popularbut before Aug. 8, 2016, have until May ity of the Juul-era pod systems has made 2020 to submit applications to the FDA for this new generation of nicotine products market authorization and can be sold in the tough to combat. “Schools are freaked interim. Anything that was not marketed out. They don’t know what to do because

by Aug. 8, 2016, needs FDA approval to be they are busting kids like crazy with these sold in the U.S. devices,” he said.

For example, the vape watch, which Some schools are installing vape appears to have become available this July, detectors in bathrooms. Others are sending seemingly would require authorization from students caught vaping to counseling. The the FDA to be sold in the U.S. California most important first step for parents and Healthline was able to purchase it online school staff, Sachnoff said, is to learn what for $34.95. the devices look like.

The FDA has sent warning letters to With a group at Stanford University, six companies about dozens of Sachnoff created the Tobacco products being sold without Prevention Toolkit, a the required approval, and widely used collection less severe notices to a of resources aimed at In absence of more few others. All but a preventing middle and handful pertain to aggressive federal high school students the liquids used in from using nicotine efforts to keep these vaping devices. products. One devices off the market, The FDA did not section includes return a request for parents and teachers are left links for parents and comment on how guardians to familwith the Sisyphean task of it determines which iarize themselves trying to keep them out products are a priority with the devices and for enforcement. of kids’ hands. learn to talk with their Representatives with kids about nicotine.

Uwell, which manufactures But with newer and the vaping watch, did not return smaller devices hitting the a request for comment. market, kids motivated to vape will Enforcement of age restrictions varies, and have the upper hand. That’s why Sachnoff the FDA has sent dozens of warning letters and other tobacco educators train peer to companies for selling products to underage counselors, fellow students who can buyers. Websites take different approaches talk about the risks. They hope they can to age verification. California Healthline convince kids that, like cigarettes, which recently purchased several vaping devices, have fallen out of favor in recent years, and the age verification process ranged from vaping isn’t cool and isn’t worth the a single click where the buyer attests he or gamble. she is at least 21 to external software designed “I’ve been doing this for a long time,” to check the name, address and age against Sachnoff said, “and I’ll be damned if after 25 other databases. years we’re gonna let this happen again.” □ Until recently, Amazon sold the components of products that allowed people to build their own marijuana vapes. Some of these products have been linked to the current deadly outbreak. The online giant removed This story was produced by Kaiser Health News and was them after Minnesota Public Radio inquired first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation. about their sale. “hoodwinked” continued from page 39

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Take a break

I am not a doctor, just so you know.

Now, I suggest tolerance breaks for everyone and for everything.

Too much time at the office? Take a tolerance break. Addicted to social media? Take a tolerance break.

Not getting high like you used to?

Tolerance break!

Your body’s cannabis receptors can only do so much.

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According to David Downs, an editor at Leafly.com (which has an amazing series on the vape crisis) and the author of The Medical Marijuana Guidebook, heavy cannabis use leads the human body to shut down the cannabinoid receptors in your brain, which leads to serious cannabis tolerance. He says that you only need 48 hours for your receptors to start growing back, but longer breaks are probably better. Fortunately, weed isn’t physiologically addictive, so there is no danger in stopping for a while.

Good luck.

iLLuStratioN By katE mitraNo

Do you believe we’ve gotten too concerned with strains rather than overall quality?

Also, I equate dabs to smoking crack, due to the nature of how it’s done. Thoughts?

There are definitely some folks who want to follow the fads. Way back in the day, White Widow was all

the rage. Then it was OG Kush, then Bubba Kush, then Diesel, then Cookies, then cake. Yadda yadda. All these new strains are great, but I would much rather smoke a well-grown cut that I have never heard of than some mass-produced, poorly grown cut of a popular strain. The thing about weed is that the way you grow it (and the way you cure it) has a gigantic effect on the quality of the bud. You could give three different growers the same clone, and you could end up with three vastly different buds. Technique is important. I’m not sure that the general public is ready to embrace full weed nerddom, but it’s up to folks like you and me to make sure that quality grass gets some recognition, regardless of the strain name.

To answer your second question: Meh. I know what you mean, though. Watching a dabhead pull out their mini-torch and their dab rig just to heat up a gooey looking substance? Definitely looks like people are doing hard drugs rather than enjoying a little bit of weed. Here’s the thing though: Dabs are not crack. Dabs are still weed, just in a concentrated form. I used to think that dabheads were giving weed a bad name, but I realized that I shouldn’t be weed-shaming and that the people who want to use concentrates as a reason to keep weed illegal are just looking for any old excuse to maintain harmful and racist prohibition policies.

Plus, dab rigs and all that stuff are just a fancier way to vaporize cannabis products. No one thinks vape bros are crackheads. Do they? Ω

Ngaio Bealum is a Sacramento comedian, activist and marijuana expert. Email him questions at ask420@newsreview.com.

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): If there are any potential

@AskJoeyGarcia

I’m sick of my wife’s pettiness. I can’t their engagement and more about you. say I’m tired without her reciting a list of Your friendship with him is no longer everything she’s done on a day, as though a connection he can enjoy, it’s now I’m not permitted to be tired if she’s something he must manage or end. Is that tired. what is wrong with her? what you want? If not, tuck in your big She’s competitive. Or she doesn’t think feelings and be a true friend. Be happy that you do enough. Maybe she doesn’t think he is in love. you appreciate the tasks she handles that maintain the lifestyle you share. If you want I hate the way social media is used to your wife to stop reciting her list of the catalog every stage of a relationship. It’s ways she’s a total bad ass in the “getting stupid. why should I care about anyone’s things done” department, compliment relationship status? her daily. Name the things she Because those posts are by does, and thank her. Send your friends and you should her texts that show your support them? Hey, it’s appreciation. And, the Ask yourself cool if you tune out, but next time you’re tired, why you waited to if your annoyance is don’t talk about it. Do related to feeling left confess your feelings something: Go to bed out, admit it. Then early. Take a bath. until after he found the get out there and start Meditate. Walk in person he wants to make dating, or hang out nature. Get a massage. more with friends. a forever commitment Take better care of It also helps to accept yourself and your with. that some of those bae marriage will benefit. posts are up seconds before or right after arguments or one of my closest friends just other relationship drama. That got engaged. he doesn’t know that I’m in online post is one moment in time curated love with him and have been for a long to attract attention. You’re never seeing time. Should I tell him how I feel? the entire experience of two people in a No, not if your love is real. Authentic love relationship. □ would mean you’re happy for him. So ask yourself why you waited to confess your feelings until after he found the person he wants to make a forever commitment with.

One possibility is that you prefer fantasy to medItatIoN oF the week reality. Fantasizing about being his partner helped you to create a romantic relationship “To know even one life has in your mind that seems so real you feel breathed easier because you compelled to protect it. That’s a lot of have lived. This is to have confusion to bring into a friendship. succeeded,” said poet and The anticipation of change can be philosopher Ralph Waldo challenging. Your friend may be less Emerson. Who are you living for? available to hang out with you once he’s wed. You may be grasping for a way to prove your value in his life. But rather than pushing for time together, respect the boundary. Invest your energy in getting to know yourself more completely.

Write, email or leave a message for Nothing will slow your desire to Joey at the News & Review. Give spill your secret if you have a habitual your name, telephone number (for verification purposes only) and question—all attraction to chaos. Here’s what that might correspondence will be kept strictly confidential. look like: You tell him that you love him.

Write Joey, 1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA He has to tell the person he’s marrying.

95815; call (916) 498-1234, ext. 1360; or email Their conversations will be less about askjoey@newsreview.com.

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11.14.19

by ROb bRezsny

Aries heroes or leaders or saviors out there, the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to fully bloom and assert your practical magnificence. The lessons you have learned while improvising workable solutions for yourself are ripe to be applied to the riddles that are puzzling your tribe or group or gang. I want to let you know, however, that to achieve maximum effectiveness, you should be willing to do good deeds for people who may not be able to pay you back.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’re entering a phase of your astrological cycle when it’s crucial that your receptivity be as robust as possible. To guide you in this delightful but perhaps challenging work, here are good questions for you to pose. 1. Do you know what help and support you need most, and are you brave and forthright enough to ask for it? 2. Is there any part of you, perhaps unconscious, that believes you don’t deserve gifts and blessings? 3. Do you diligently cultivate your capacity to be refreshed and restored? 4. Are you eagerly responsive when life surprises you with learning experiences and inspirations?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Many people will not be honest because they fear loss of intimacy and togetherness,” writes self-help author Henry Cloud. But the truth, he adds, is that “honesty brings people closer together,” because it “strengthens their identities.” Therein lies the tender paradox: “The more you realize your separate identities, the closer you can become.” Living according to this principle may not be as easy or convenient as being deceptive and covert, but it’s ultimately more gratifying.

Cloud concludes, “Telling loved ones what is really on your mind and telling others what you really think is the foundation of love.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Maturity is having the ability to escape categorization,” said poet Kenneth Rexroth. That’s the opposite of the conventional wisdom. For many people, the process of growing up and becoming a seasoned adult means trying to fit in, to find one’s category, to be serious and steady and stable. Rexroth, on the other hand, suggested that when you fully ripen into your potentials, you transcend standard definitions; you don’t adhere to others’ expectations; you are uniquely yourself, outside and beyond all pigeonholes and classifications.

The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to practice and cultivate this sacred art.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Is there an event from your past that would be empowering for you to remember in detail? Is there a neglected but still viable dream you could resurrect, thereby energizing your enthusiasm for the future? Are there old allies you’ve lost touch with but who, if you called on them, could provide you with just the boost you need? Is there a familiar pleasure you’ve grown numb to but could reinvigorate by visualizing the original reasons you loved it?

The coming weeks will be a favorable time to meditate on these questions.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Catholic saint St. Francis (1181–1226) loved animals and the natural world.

According to one folk tale, he was once traveling on foot with several companions when they came upon a place where the trees were filled with birds. Francis said, “Wait for me while I go preach to my sisters the birds.” He proceeded to do just that. The birds were an attentive audience for the duration of his sermon, apparently captivated by his tender tones. Seven centuries later, author Rebecca West offered a critique of the bird-whisperer. “Did St. Francis preach to the birds?” she asked. “Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats.” In the coming weeks, I encourage you to do the metaphorical equivalent of preaching to both the birds and the cats.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Every now and then I authorize you to shed your polite, tactful personas and express the angst you sometimes feel but usually hide. That’s now! To egg you on,

read this mischievous rant by Libran blogger Clary Gay (claryfightwood.tumblr.com): “We Libras are constantly thinking about how to make everyone else comfortable and happy.

There’s not a minute going by when we’re not worrying about radiating a soothing and comforting aura so everyone can have a good time. If a Libra is cranky, it’s because they snapped! Because of some non-Libra who doesn’t appreciate them! If a Libra is mean to people, it’s their own damn fault!”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Robert Bly tells us that the door to the soul is unlocked. You don’t have to struggle through any special machinations to open it or go through it. Furthermore, the realm of the soul is always ready for you. Always! It harbors the precise treasure you need in order to be replenished and empowered. I bring this to your attention because I think that during the next two weeks, you should abide as much as possible in the soul’s realm—the cornucopia of holy truths and ever-fresh riches.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In my estimation, what you’ve experienced lately has been akin to a fermentation process. It’s as if you’re undergoing a transformation with resemblances to the way that grapes turn into wine or milk becomes yogurt or dough rises before being baked into bread. You may have had to endure some discomfort, which is the case for anything in the midst of substantial change. But I think you’ll ultimately be quite pleased with the results, which I expect will be ready no later than 10 days after your birthday—and quite possibly sooner.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Many books have been written about Joan of Arc, a 15th-century teenage peasant girl whose improbable ascent to military leadership, under the guidance of her divine visions, was crucial in France’s victory over the English. Among the many miraculous elements of her story was the fact that less than a year before she led troops into battle on horseback, she didn’t know how to ride a horse.

She learned by riding around her father’s farm astride his cows. I foresee an equivalent marvel in your future. By this time next year, you will have developed an aptitude that might seem unimaginable now. (P.S. There’s evidence Joan was a Capricorn.)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The Divine Comedy is one of history’s greatest literary works. Its author, Dante Alighieri, was 43 when he began writing the “Inferno,” the first part of his threepart masterpiece. Until that time, he had published just one book and a few poems, and had also abandoned work on two unfinished books.

Early on in the “Inferno,” the not-yet-renowned author presents a fictional scene in which he meets with the spirits of antiquity’s most famous authors: Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan.

Those illustrious five tell Dante he is such an important writer that he ranks sixth, after them, in his excellence. I’m going to encourage you to dare indulging in behavior like Dante’s: to visualize and extol—and yes, even brag about—the virtues and skills that will ultimately be your signature contribution to this world.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Latin word for sea is “mare.” “Flustra” is the calm sea. “Undisonus” means “resounding with waves.” “Caeruleus” is the sea’s deep shade of blue, “aestus” is the tide and “aequoreus” means “connected with the sea.” My hope is that as you meditate on these lyrical terms, you’ll be moved to remember the first lakes, rivers and oceans you ever swam in. You’ll recall your time floating in your mother’s womb and your most joyous immersions in warm baths and hot springs. Why? It’s a favorable time to seek the healing and rejuvenating powers of primal waters—both metaphorically and literally.

Oh, so you want to go to the big city, huh? Fine, go! But don’t come running back expecting a big pile of corn waiting for you.

11.14.19

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