APRIL 14 2014. ALWAYS FREE. ALWAYS.
PEELANDER-Z | ADVENTURES IN THE SCA | TAJ MAHAL
This week at...
PEELANDER-Z FRIDAY 4/18, 9:00PM WITH BLACK FONG
On
Main
UPCOMING SHOWS DOWN NORTH WITH SOFA KING Friday 4/25
(DEEP) SOUTH X SOUTH (OF THE BORDER)
LOST IN CHICO WITH JIVE COULIS, THE RUGS, AND MORE Saturday 4/26
SATURDAY 4/19, 9:30PM
LOS CABALLITOS DE LA CANCION LOW FLYING BIRDS LOS PAPI CHULOS
LYRIX BORN AND GIFT OF GAB Friday 5/2 JELLY BREAD WITH QUICK & EASY BOYS Friday 5/3 ORGONE Friday 5/4 GREAT FOOD! LIVE MUSIC! LESSONS, LEAGUES & TOURNAMENTS!
EAT. DRINK. PLAY. ALL AGES UNTIL 10PM
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FRIDAY
LIVE MUSIC 8PM
Volume 20 Issue 34 April 14, 2014
This Week...
Dillinger Escape Plan It’s always important to have an escape plan when you’re in something as crazy as the business of music. Dillinger’s Ben Weinman gives us insight into how they became one of the most unique forces in metal today— and what it feels like to have seven staples driven into your skull the night before a show. Spoiler alert: it hurts.
For 20 years The Synthesis’ goal has remained to provide a forum for entertainment, music, humor, community awareness, opinions, and change.
Columns Letter From the Editor
Publisher/Managing Editor
by Amy Olson
amy@synthesis.net
PAGE 4
Creative Director
Immaculate Infection
Tanner Ulsh graphics@synthesis.net
by Bob Howard
Madbob@madbob.com
PAGE 5
Productivity Wasted by Eli Schwartz
PAGE 6
Supertime!
by Logan Kruidenier
PAGE 16
Howl
Jessica Sid Vincent Latham
Nerd
Dain Sandoval dain@synthesis.net
howlmovesmountains.tumblr.com
PAGE 17
Exotic Adventures in Smalltown, USA
Accounting Ben Kirby
Director of Operations Karen Potter
Owner
by Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff
PAGE 18
Old Crock
by Jaime O'Neill jaimeandkarenoneill@gmail.com
PAGE 21
Kozmik Debris by Koz McKev
PAGE 19
Arielle Mullen, Bob Howard, Howl, Jaime O’Neill, Koz McKev, Tommy Diestel, Jayme Washburn, Eli Schwartz, Mona Treme, Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff, Jon Williams
Photography
logankruidenier.tumblr.com
kozmckev@sunset.net
Designers
Colin Leiker, Mike Valdez graphics@synthesis.net
Contributing Writers PAGE 7
Exotic Adventures in Smalltown, USA tackles a subject too big for 500 words this week, when Emiliano pays a visit to the SCA: The Society for Creative Anachronism (not to be confused with The Society for Clever Anagrams, or The Society for Caption Ambiguity). What is the SCA, you ask? One way to find out...
Alex Light Alex@synthesis.net SynthesisWeekly.com/submit-yourevent/
Joey Murphy, Jennifer Foti
Peelander-Z
The Mysterious SCA
Entertainment Editor
Deliveries
Preview
PAGE 10
Amy Olson amy@synthesis.net
PAGE 22
Bill Fishkin bill@synthesis.net The Synthesis is both owned and published by Apartment 8 Productions. All things published in these pages are the property of Apartment 8 Productions and may not be reproduced, copied or used in any other way, shape or form without the written consent of Apartment 8 Productions. One copy (maybe two) of the Synthesis is available free to residents in Butte, Tehama and Shasta counties. Anyone caught removing papers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. All opinions expressed throughout the Synthesis are those of the author and are not necessarily the same opinions as Apartment 8 Productions and the Synthesis. The Synthesis welcomes, wants, and will even desperately beg for letters because we care what you think. We can be reached via snail mail at the Synthesis, 210 W. 6th St., Chico, California, 95928. Email letters@ synthesis.net. Please sign all of your letters with your real name, address and preferably a phone number. We may also edit your submission for content and space.
210 West 6th Street Chico Ca 95928 530.899.7708 editorial@synthesis.net
FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 3
PET OF THE WEEK
Sachmo We rescued Sachmo from another shelter where he was out of time-he came to that shelter as a stray, so his history is a mystery. Is his face not adorable, and don’t you want to kiss him all over? When you do just that sweet Sachmo just purrs and purrs.
2579 Fair Street Chico, CA 95928 (530) 343-7917 • buttehumane.org
Now Hear This SYNTHESIS WEEKLY PLAYLIST Sage The Gemini - “Don’t You”
Tanner
Jake One - “Get ‘r Done”
Mike
Sage The Gemini - “Don’t You”
Brandon
Calvin Harris - “Feel So Close”
Dinah
Janelle Monae - “Cold War”
Andrea
Maximum Balloon - “Tiger”
Karen
Fergie - “Glamorous”
Amy
Don Tiki - “Primitiva”
Howl
NIN - “Into the Void”
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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
Escalation GANGLAND CHICO AND NEWS FROM THE NEW MALL It’s a little bit beyond me why anyone would join a gang in such a barely urban area— seriously, what is the point when you live somewhere like Chico, let alone Hamilton City—life isn’t all that rough up here (aside from the gang problem). But, alas, whether I deem it reasonable or not, now and then it rears its ugly head. I’m referring, of course, to the downtown shooting two weeks ago, allegedly involving 16–19 year-olds and some kind of gang dispute. I once saw a documentary about lions, wherein the narrator stated that young, unmated males sometimes form roving gangs, fighting other lions and terrorizing the countryside—killing for the sake of killing. These were the ones who had no place in the pride, and because of the structure of lion society they had no mating prospects and no future (unless something were to “befall” one of the alpha males and leave a power vacuum). In addition to that, they had a lot of raging hormones, and no place to channel their aggression. I sometimes look at people who join gangs through that lens: it’s animal instinct to lash out at the society you feel has excluded you, especially against the people you feel most in competition with for limited territory and resources. For the young misfit beta males, it’s a lion-eat-lion world. I wonder if we can mitigate the problem by becoming a more inclusive society, or if there’s just a percentage of the population genetically programmed to be sociopaths, and we need to better react to
their presence now that there’s so many of them. Not to jump on the whole “this town is going downhill” train; I don’t actually see it that way. New problems are coming up as the population grows, but I think the ratio of amazing to terrible around here is still holding steady. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the amazing people are becoming proportionately more amazing, doing bigger and better things with their talents than I’ve ever seen. On a completely unrelated note, my inbox has been blowing up with people suggesting we write something/hang banners out our windows to celebrate the fact that there’s a Sephora coming to Chico (opening on May 2nd inside JCPenney). I’m only half-kidding about that, it’s seriously been suggested to me by several people. As a female-type person who wears makeup now and then, I suppose it is pretty cool to have access to more of the high-end brands. And God knows JCPenney needs something to get me in the door now that the novelty of riding the NorthNorth State’s only escalator has worn off (I don’t actually know whether that’s true, but when they opened it was totally a thing to go there and ride it while we all told each other it was the only one. Chico history, yeah!).
Letter From the Editor by Amy Olson
amy@synthesis.net
Work is the New Relaxation WHILE TECHNICALLY UNEMPLOYED, I FIND MYSELF WORKING HARDER THAN EVER
I’ve been working up in the mountains lately— real genuine, callous creating, manual labor type business. I use about equal parts shovel and chainsaw, and sometimes I scare myself. There is a lot about forestry that I don’t know. The first day I was up there I nearly trapped myself under shifting logs, but I was being a complete idiot. I’d like to think I’m smarter now, but there is always another lesson in the works. When I’m not working up amongst the cedars, manzanitas, and dogwoods, there is plenty to do down on the farm. Right now it primarily involves cutting grass. After that week of rain followed by the bright sunshine and warmer temperatures, the grass shot up to knee high and taller in some places. I had to break down and buy both a new lawn mower and a new weed whacker. The neighbors were starting to wonder if I was ever going to get to it. Well I finally have, and now my new perfume is eau de cut grass. My pant legs are crusted with the stuff and I itch all over. I finally got around to sowing my tomato seeds. Just yesterday I planted a flat of five different heirloom varieties. I’ve got Brandywine and Black Krims, as well as a massive orange and yellow Russian variety called “Nature’s Riddle.” There are also Zebra Greens and a six-pack of a rare heirloom called “Paul Robeson.” I’m only growing the Robeson’s because they are hard to find. Last year the plants came out anemic and stringy, and what little fruit they produced was watery and not as flavorful as the other four varieties. The Robeson seeds looked kind of mildewed
anyway. If they don’t germinate, I won’t lose any sleep over it. My New Nickname I found out from one neighbor that another neighbor calls me “the hippy.” I asked if it was on account of my long hair. That was a joke, as my haircuts these days generally consist of buzzing my hair down to fine stubble. The real reason is because Trish asked him not to spray poison along the shared fence-line, as we are growing organic vegetables fairly close to the boundary. I suspect he is still spraying, because I’ve never seen weeds turn naturally orange before. It’s alright though, the vegetables are far enough away that I don’t suspect he can do them any harm. It was more of a principled stand than anything.
• Apartment
• Business
The Idiot Box Strikes Again
• Home
• Warehouse
Trish is enamored of the ABC hit drama Nashville, but I find myself strangely drawn to old television shows and movies—reruns airing on ME TV, Antenna TV, and the THIS Network. The old cop drama Kojak set in New York in the 1960s or ‘70s is ranking number one right now, with marathon stretches of Carroll O’Connor in The Heat of the Night coming in a close second. That’s Sunday afternoon and early evening viewing. During the week I’m too wiped out to pay much attention to anything.
• Office
• and more!
Immaculate Infection
by Bob Howard
Madbob@madbob.com
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Gemcraft Chapter Two: Chasing Shadows A CUT ABOVE
CASH! CASH! CASH! We pay cash for your recyclables!! CRV ALUMINUM CANS $2.00/Pound E-WAStE! We pay 5¢ per pound for TV’s , Computers, Monitors and Laptops!! And, as a courtesy to our customers, we’ll accept all other consumer electronics, such as fax machines, printers, VHS players, etc. as a drop-off, with no payments* * Some restrictions may apply Call for more information on getting cash for other recyclable materials.
2565 S. Whitman Place, Chico (Corner of East Park Avenue and S. Whitman Place) 343-5500
Journey with me now to 2008; the terabyte hard drive was spoken of only in whispers, Obama’s Hope Machine loomed upon the horizon, China proved it was massive, frightening, and coordinated in its Olympic Games, and I was a junior high school student shedding a pound a day and growing an inch a week. It was a tumultuous time for everyone, probably, but it was also at this time that games made for free and posted online, called “Flash games” (after Adobe Flash, the program which had a firm monopoly on cheap and easy homemade games) began to grow in ambition. Case in point was a new member of the popular “tower defense” genre: Gemcraft. Gemcraft caught my eye, and the eye of many other bored, young idiots on the internet, because it stood out as having altogether more strategy involved than most cheap, online games. It featured the mechanic of creating and customizing your own towers to defend your base by combining different traits and ideas, added RPG elements of player progression, and by combining the player’s health and tower building resources together, created a game more focused on economy than simple placement. The Gemcraft series stands as part of the elite group of free, online flash games that have pages and pages of user-written guides, unique to every site that hosted them. That, as those of us with calendars and arithmetic skills know, was six years ago. Since then, there have been three more Gemcraft titles, the latest of which came out mere days ago, and is (somewhat confusingly) numbered the second chapter in the series. Since then, the series’ creator and developer, known anonymously only as Gameinabottle, has been hard at work testing, creating, programming, and perhaps most importantly, communicating with their players and following their guides, high score strategies, and feedback closely. The result is Chasing Shadows, and their efforts show. The game contains multitudes
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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
of mechanics, a comprehensive yet easy and aesthetic UI, strategically created levels, game modes, and mechanics. Going through it all, one gets the feeling of a master honing their craft. Chasing Shadows, like its predecessors, is free to play, but I’ve played much, much sloppier games that cost me $60. Everything is tight and orderly and locks into place, and despite being a nearly brand-new release, I’ve had zero bugs in three or four hours of gameplay. I should note that while you can play the game from start to finish to secrets for free, there are some player skills only available to the premium edition, which stands at an exorbitant sum of $4.99. There’s also an in-game currency system that you can exchange your real currency for, because microtransactions can buy a lot of ramen for starving programmers. Even so, the game is optimized to prevent abuse of the currency to make the game too easy, and $5 is outrageously cheap for such a well-made game. And if you’re not satisfied, don’t worry. Player feedback forums are already buzzing, the games developers are sending smiley faces to complaining players, and patches are already in the works. Failing that, you could always wait for it to make its way to Steam; it’s been greenlighted and will be ported over in October. For now, it can be played at its original host: Armorgames.com.
Productivity Wasted by Eli Schwartz
Peelander-Z By Jon Williams
The Chico underground music scene appears to have a knack for attracting the lunatic fringe of punk rock as of late. If you missed absurdist punk legend He Who Cannot Be Named tear up Monstros two weeks ago in all his jockstrapped glory (and shame on you if you did), Lost On Main is hosting the Japanese “Action Comic Punk” band Peelander-Z on April 18th, and it’s going to be a madhouse. Going by the names of PeelanderYellow, Peelander-Red and PeelanderBlue, this costumed troupe of bubblegum-punkers claims they are from the Z-sector of Planet Peelander (or, if you prefer, New York City), wearing color-coded costumes (that they continue to assert really are their skin) and travelling the world with a raucous live show.
Peelander-Z likes to keep it fast, simple and fun: audience participation is a key feature in their stage show, which often comes across as less of a conventional punk show and more of a drunken rock and roll stage production of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The three-chords-played-really-fast reductionism of Ramones and The Runaways immediately come to mind, had they been on a strict hallucinogen regimen. Hardly aligning themselves with debaucherous punk rock transgressiveness, Peelander-Z prefer to write songs about tacos, steak, ninja high schools and guys named Mike. The nonsensical yet hooky, calland-response refrains in songs like “So Many Mike” and “Taco Taco Tacos” crackle with goofy, impish energy at the hands of these space-punkers, and are seemingly tailor-made to be
shouted along to in a sweaty bar. It’s clear that these rock and roll goofballs have a sense of humor that brings to mind the all-inclusive “party as philosophy” attitude of Andrew W.K. Peelander-Z loves their fans, and by all indications will go to extreme measures to bring the party. Dear readers, this is your second chance to treat yourself to an oddball punk rock treat in two months, this time in the form of Action Comic Punk. Even if they’re not actually denizens of a neon-colored planet of rock and roll, Peelander-Z certainly seem to be a group of folks seriously dedicated to throwing one hell of a party, and everyone’s invited.
FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 7
THE BUSINESS OF UNCOMPROMISING ART BY HOWL Heavy music is best when it’s not quite safe. It’s most authentic when it can’t be controlled. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s new album One Of Us Is The Killer delivers another signature plate of reckless creativity that continues to blur the lines that divide metal from rock, experimental ambience from pop, rigid structure from complete chaos. Anything goes, and no musical style is safe from Dillinger’s strange touch. The New Jersey-based group made their start in the underground hardcore scene, playing frenetic, insane noisemetal so dense and jarring as to be nearly indigestible. But if you listen close enough, you begin to glimpse the genius behind the madness: time signatures change at the blink of an eye, multiple times in a two-minute song that’s so complex it seems to contain fifteen different songs within itself. Even their simplest rock riffs are filled with subtle fills and staccato flourishes that keep you perpetually off-guard and slightly confused, as every musical rule you took for granted gets torn apart. Since their full-length debut Calculating Infinity in 1999, Dillinger’s refusal to conform to heavy metal standards has infected most every modern metal act today. Emulated by many, The Dillinger Escape Plan still stands worlds apart from their peers. Most fans divide their lives in two parts: life before seeing Dillinger perform, and life after. There is simply no way to prepare yourself from their live show; they take the energy from 0 to 11 faster than you can say, “Who is this band again?” They’ll jump off tower speakers, they’ll climb on people in the crowd, they’ll breathe fire, and they’ll somehow execute a flawless musical performance along the way. Founder and principal songwriter Ben Weinman gave me some candid insight recently on music, life and business. He makes for a great interviewee: his answers were clear, thoughtful, and lengthy. The intense passion he brings to the stage showed 8
SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
itself here as a lucid wakefulness—he still believes in what he’s doing, even fifteen years into his career, and he knows more clearly than ever his purpose within it. What was the most rewarding song to write on the new album? There are two, for two different reasons. “When I Lost My Bet” was something I immediately wanted to play live. It was written to be played live. Even on the first day we performed it, I felt completely energized by it. Saucy, dark… Immediately brings me to where I need to be when I’m performing. The other favorite was the title track, “One Of Us Is The Killer,” ‘cause it was so simple. At the very end of making the record, Billy Rymer (drums) and I started jamming; we just pressed “Record,” and wrote it really quickly. When Greg Puciato (vocals) got it, all the lyrics came really naturally. It’s cool to have songs you labor over, agonizing over every detail, then have songs where you can just roll downhill and exhale. I think that’s what I love about the band the most: it’s so dynamic, just like life. It’s not like, “Oh, we have to sound like Slayer, every record, every day.” We have the opportunity to put all the feelings and dynamics into the music that we go through in life. My first time seeing The Dillinger Escape Plan was on the Miss Machine tour, in SF. There was a moment where you disappeared off the stage; the band didn’t know what was up and just started the next song. You came back a couple measures into the music, like nothing had happened. Later on, I heard a rumor that you had had a metal plate installed in your head the night before…? Holy shit, I remember that. That was a tough night for me, man. I didn’t have a metal plate installed in my head, I had
seven staples in my head from the night before—in Anaheim I had split my head open; massive concussion; later found out that I’d also broken a bone in my neck. At that show you were at, I didn’t even know about the neck thing yet, I was just really delirious and in a bad place. Sometimes when you have head injuries you just get really angry. I was so out of it… I dunno if you’ve ever had staples, but it’s literally a staple gun shooting into your skull. It’s really violent. So I was going through a lot, and also just trying to step up; trying to not disappoint the band and the fans; I wanted to play. I just got really frustrated… I walked off and had a temper tantrum. I remember thrashing the backstage area, throwing trash cans, kicking the doors in… then walking back onstage to finish the set [laughs]. That was a tough time. Well, that show changed my life, especially after I’d heard about that injury. That’s some hero shit. I didn’t know any of that was made public. Tell me about your recent Music Business workshop in Sydney, Australia. It was quite interesting for me; I’m glad people are so receptive to it. The workshops started with universities asking me to speak to their Music Industry classes, being a founder of a more D.I.Y. kind of band; being a self-managed guy. A lot of what I talk about are business principles that are pretty typical nowadays: Things from marketing books, from strategists who talk to business leaders and founders. They talk a lot about branding. With Dillinger, you’re branding art.
How do you become a successful business when you’re an uncompromising artist? A lot of people don’t think they go together, but that’s not the case; we’re proof of that. So my workshops are about the business of being a true artist. If you know WHY you do what you do, then you’ll be able to figure out WHAT to do to achieve that success. Figure out WHY you do it, HOW you do it, and WHAT it is that you’re giving people. People who start with the “what” before they figure out the “why” aren’t gonna be as impactful. Businesses or artists who start with the “why” of what they do create a scenario of trust with their fans. You want trust; you want people to believe that you care about what you’re doing, that you believe what you say… Dillinger had a cause; a purpose; and it was to NOT be a massmarketed animal. As soon as we defined that as a product, like,
HOW DO YOU BECOME A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS WHEN YOU’RE AN UNCOMPROMISING ARTIST?
cont FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 9
DILLINGER HAD A CAUSE; A PURPOSE; AND IT WAS TO NOT BE A MASS-MARKETED ANIMAL. THIS is who we are. We are NOT Limp Bizkit,” it became very easy for us to market it to people who wanted that alternative. Find out what isn’t being offered out there, and be the best at it. We’ve made it this far; we’re still somewhat relevant, and we’ve been a band since before YouTube and Myspace. We’ve seen all the incarnations of the business. Based on the fact that we have been a D.I.Y. underground band, and have chosen to be more like Vitamin Water than Pepsi, we’ve been able to survive the trends. We’ve never been a part of the big machine. How exactly did you go from being a full-time student and employee to being a successful musician? There’s no magic wand for how to do it. I was in bands through high school... I was the guy in the band who would go get a job at Kinko’s so I could use the photocopier to make flyers for the shows; the guy who would take a web-design course ‘cause the band needed a website. That’s what I was good at. I’m not the best guitar player in the world, that wasn’t what I was good at. I was good at making things happen, and focusing on what I wanted. It became clear early on that no how matter how hard I worked, we were not gonna succeed in making music. It was too hard. We weren’t friends with any record labels or bigger bands; it just wasn’t gonna happen. So I went to college for psychology. I asked myself, “What am I good at? Well, I’m good at daydreaming, pretending I’m paying attention… How do I make money at that? I can be a psychologist—sit and listen to people talk while I daydream about music.” [laughs] I kept playing music throughout school just for fun, and that’s when Dillinger started. We realized we just had to make something we enjoyed, NOT music we thought would do well. We got involved in the underground punk and hardcore scene, ‘cause the metal scene was too difficult; there were only giant clubs and huge bands. The punk scene was attractive because of all this nostalgia around it; you would hear about all these bands who did it without anybody’s help, without anybody telling them how to do it. The kids were putting on the shows themselves, putting out the records themselves… There was nobody saying, “You can’t do this.” So I’d be at school or working all week, then I’d have a show every couple weeks to vent it all out.
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I noticed that all the older punk kids weren’t really paying attention to the bands. There were a lot of bands that sounded like some of the legends, but none of them were really exciting to the older kids, who had been around since it all started. That bothered me. I wanted to see the Black Flag days, where riots were starting, and people were going crazy. I wanted to see the Bad Brains days; where this black singer’s doing reggae-influenced punk music that no one had ever heard before; he’s going totally crazy, and everyone’s all, “What the fuck? I’ve NEVER seen this before.” I wanted that feeling to come back, so I knew that with Dillinger, we had to do something completely different: Something that embodied the spirit of the bands in that time, but didn’t sound anything like them. Sounding like them won’t create that spirit. What will create that spirit is having the attitude, but then creating something different, like they did. So Dillinger’s purpose back then was just to vent out the work-week, and create music that polarized people: Stuff that made people say, “Whoa, I dunno if I like this or hate it, but I’m definitely paying attention.” As soon as we started doing it for those reasons, things started to work out for the first time. At this point I’d already graduated college, had a full-time job at a web company with stock options, and had started a Masters program before I realized, “Man, I’m actually a professional musician. I’ve gotta quit everything. I’m missing school everyday ‘cause we’re getting tour offers, we have a record deal with Relapse… It’s gonna be hard; I’m gonna make less money, I’m gonna sleep on benches, but I have the opportunity now. It’s here. I have to make a choice, and there’s no other choice.” I was probably like 24 years old at that point. How is life as professional musician now, 15 years later? Some things are different. Now, there are times when I’m leaving for tour, and I’m less excited than I was when I was 24. Like, “Man I really wish I could stay home and work on my house, hang out with my dogs…” but I have to go on tour instead. On stage though, I still have the same goal, the same feelings, and I still feel just as nervous. Life has changed around the band for sure, but the reasons are still the same. See The Dillinger Escape Plan perform live at Senator Theatre April 22nd, featuring Trash Talk, Retox, and Shining. Tickets are $15 in advance.
al v i t s e F 3 c i f s o u n M o i t a b r u b l e 0 l C e 2 4 i n C C a n n a b i s versary o nni c A i h h t C 12 l a u n n rd A
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Mon-Fri Happy Hour 12-4PM $3 Sierra & Domestic Pints
Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM Full Bar in Back Room Weds, Fri & Sat Nights! PBR $2.25 Everyday!
Rock Out at The DL! Enjoy Live Music, Great Grub, and 10 9' foot tables Open @11am All ages untill 10pm
10 oz. Tri-Tip Steak w/ Fries or Salad & Garlic Bread $8.99 8pm-Close $4 Jäger $5 DBL Vodka Red Bull $6 Jäger Red Bull $2 Kamikaze shots FREE Pool after 10PM
We open at 12:00pm. Kentucky Bucks are $5 until 5pm! Food Truck Saturday Night Annie's Asian Grill on the Patio Everything from Shrimp Tempura to Korean Tacos
Bartender Specials $3 14oz Slushies $4 20oz Slushies
Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM Full Bar in Back Room Weds, Fri & Sat Nights! PBR $2.25 Everyday!
Rock Out at The DL! Enjoy Live Music, Great Grub, and 10 9' foot tables Open @11am All ages untill 10pm
Baby Back Ribs w/Salad, Fries & garlic bread $10.99 8pm-Close $4 Single/$6 Double Jack or Captain $2 Sierra Nevada FREE Pool after 10PM
Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM PBR $2.25 Everyday!
Super Bowl Sunday: Bronco Burgers and Sea Chicken Tuna melts $8 1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR and Olympia Cans
$5.19 Grad/Garden/ Turkey Burger w/fries or salad Bloodies $3 Well, $4 Call, $5 Top, $6 Goose Mimosas $2/flute, $5/pint $6 Beer Pitchers FREE Pool after 10PM
8PM-Close $2.50 Fire Eater Shots $6 DBL Bacardi Cocktails
$3.50 Soccer moms $6 Dbl Roaring Vodka
Weekend Blast Off!! 8-close $5 Blasters 12-6PM $1 off pitchers
Jager Spiced Promo 10PM - Close Giveaways, Samples & drink specials
WE OPEN AT 12:00PM MIMOSAS WITH FRESH SQUEEZED OJ FOR $5 UNTIL 5PM.
chico’s real biker bar
8PM - Close $3 Single / $5 DBL Bacardi Cocktails
Open at 11AM $5 Bottles of Champagne with entree $4.50 Bloody Mary $5.50 Absolut Peppar Bloody Marys
6pm-Close $4 Grad teas $3 All beer pints FREE Pool after 10PM
duffy’s welcomes
the 2014 wildflower century riders Visit us Saturday, April 26th at the Silver Dollar Fair Grounds from 2-8pm
337 Main St. 12
SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
530-343-1745
Please Drink Responsibly
Go DownLo
BEAR-E-OKE BURGER MADNESS! Bear Burger with fries or salad for $5.29. 11am-10pm.
90's Night! $6 Pitchers $3 Jameson and Skyy Specials $2 Kamis
Go DownLo
BEAR WEAR! 1/2 off while wearing Bear Wear. MUG CLUB 4-10PM
Happy Hour 11-6PM select bottles & drafts $2.75
$2 All Day $2 Select Sierra Nevada or Dom Drafts $2 Kamis -any flavor
CLOSED
$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials Happy Hour 4-8pm
2 FOR 1 BURGERS ALL DAY !! MINORS WELCOME!
$2 Margaritas $3 Cuervo Marqis $2.50 Corona’s & Sierra Drafts Mon-Sat 3PM-6PM $1 Dom draft, $2 SN draft, $2 wells
CLOSED
Happy Hour 4 - 7pm
Progressive Night! 8-10PM $1 Sierra Pale Ale, Domestics, Rolling Rock & well cocktails up 10PM-close 25¢ per hour-close Mon-Sat free pool 6-8PM
Closed
Buck Night 8-close $1 well cocktails, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Rolling Rock, dom draft $3 Black Butte $4 Vodka Redbull
Closed
$1.50 sliders and other cheap eats!
VS WATCH THE GAME
HERE ON TUESDAY Metal Night in the Whiskey Room! $1 Jim Beam $2 cans of beer
Go DownLo
College "House Party" Ladies Night ! $5 Pabst pitchers 1/2 off Rockstar cocktails $2.50 Pink Lemonades $3 Jamo and Ginger
LIVE MUSIC Drink Specials
FIREBALL FRIDAYS!!!!
LIVE MUSIC Drink Specials
TRIKE RACES! Post time @ 10pm. Win T-shirts and Bear Bucks. MUG CLUB 4-10PM
Happy Hour 4 - 8pm $6 pitchers $2 refills after 1st purchase 80's NIGHT!!!
LIVE MUSIC Drink Specials
Happy Hour 4 - 8pm $6 pitchers $2 refills after 1st purchase KARAOKE "INDUSTRY NIGHT" HALF OFF ALMOST EVERYTHING!(Except Red Bull and Premium Liquors)
Call To Rent For Private Party Go DownLo
191 E. 2ND ST • 898-0630
NEW THIS WEEK...
All 16 oz Teas or AMF $3 All Day
1/2 OFF EVERYTHING!!!
$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials Happy Hour 4-8pm
BURGER MADNESS! Bear Burger with fries or salad for $5.29. 11am-10pm.
Happy Hour 11-6PM $2.75 select bottles & drafts
LATE NIGHT EATS! BEAR BURGER AND FRIES FOR ONLY $4.99! Mon-Sat 10pm - 1am.
LATE NIGHT EATS! BEAR BURGER AND FRIES FOR ONLY $4.99! Mon-Sat 10pm - 1am.
BURGER MADNESS! Bear Burger with fries or salad for $5.29. 11am-10pm.
GAME NIGHT 9-11PM $3.50 Sky Vodka Cocktails
Happy Hour 4 - 7pm
Free Happy Hour Food 4PM until it's gone
$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials
Happy Hour 11-6PM select wells, bottles and pints $2.75
PATIO OPEN at 2PM Happy Hour 4-8pm
$4 Sex On The Beach $4 Sierra Nevada Knightro ON TAP $1 Jello Shots 7-10PM $3 Fireball
$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials PATIO OPEN at 2PM Happy Hour 4-8pm Jager Spiced Promo 10PM - Close Giveaways, Samples & drink specials
$4 World Famous Bloody Joe $5 Premium bloodys your choice of vodka
Closed. Happy Easter
$3 Hot Licks $4 151 Party Punch 22oz 8-9PM $1 pale ale and dom draft up 25¢ per hour until close $6.50 Apple Cinnamon Cider
Closed
Happy Hour- 4-7pm $5 Fridays 4-8pm Most food items and pitchers of beer are $5
Power Hour 8-9PM 1/2 off Liquor & Drafts (excludes pitchers) 9PM-Close $3 Pale Ale Drafts $9.75 Pale Pitchers
POWER 102 VIP NIGHT Open at 9PM
Hot "Dawgs" ALL DAY!
Mon-Sat 3PM-6PM $1 Dom draft, $2 SN draft, $2 wells Power Hour 8-9PM 1/2 off Liquor & Drafts (excludes pitchers) 9-Close Pale Ale Drafts $9.75 Pale Pitchers
BOTTLE SERVICE Now Available!
CLOSED
CLOSED
$1.50 sliders and other cheap eats!!
Champagne Brunch and SPORTS!
MONDAY
TUESDAY
wednesday
THURSDAY
$2 MARGARITAS
$1 WELLS, DRAFTS, DOM. & SIERRA NEVADA 8-10PM PROGRESSIVE 10-2AM
$1 WELLS/ROLLING ROCK, PALE ALE & DOM.
$1 PALE ALE & DOM.
UP 25¢ PER HR. UNTIL CLOSE
$3 BUTTE PORTER $5 VODKA REDBULL
$4 151 PARTY PUNCH
$3 CUERVO MARGARITAS $2.50 CORONA & SIERRA NEVADA
$4.50 DBL BACCARDI
$3.50 KAMIS ALL DAY!
BACARDI SPECIALS
PATIO OPEN at 5PM 9pm - Close $2 12oz Teas $3 20oz Teas $2 Well, Dom Bottles & bartender Specials $5 Vodka Red Bull
$2 16oz Wells
$3 SIERRA & DOMESTIC PINTS
WEDNESDAY + SATURDAY
134 BROADWAY ST. | 530.893.5253
BOTTLE SERVICE Now Available! Call for reservation 898-9898
Call for reservation 898-9898 Open at 9PPM
UP 25¢ PER HR. 8PM-CLOSE $3 HOT LICKS CINNAMON WHISKEY $6.50 APPLE CINNAMON CIDER
OPEN THUR-SAT 9PM // 132 E. 2ND STREET // 530.898.9898
FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 13
This Week Only...
BEST BETS IN ENTERTAINMENT
Thursday, April 17th
Friday, April 18th
CAFE CODA
Robert Gillies’ music video “Here With Me,” full of charming animation about longing and exploring the world, sounds like Maroon 5, Disney, and autumn. Tom Rhodes (pictured) brings a more lively indie-folk optimism to his music; “Bread And Roses” sounds like driving home after the last day of a country-wide tour. Also featuring the remarkable talents of Lisa Valentine and Bran Crown. $5, 8pm.
Bay Area-based comedy troupe Pawns Of Comedy are landing in Chico to deliver four 90-minute shows of outstanding outrageousness—two on Friday, two on Saturday. These guys are the real deal; they’re on the frontlines of the comedy fight year in, year out. The Pawns’ leader DNA was an opening act for Ralph Nader, the driver for Timothy Leary, books weekly comedy acts in the Bay, and is launching a comedy festival this fall. $7, Friday & Saturday, 8pm & 10pm.
Friday, April 18th
Saturday, April 19th
CORDUROY JIM
RAIJU, SORIN, IO TORUS, & TAUNIS YEAR ONE
ROBERT GILLIES AND TOM RHODES
PAWNS OF COMEDY BLUE ROOM
1078 GALLERY
229 BROADWAY ST, CHICO, CA
Other new and exciting things!
15 Tuesday
Sierra Nevada Big Room: Dos Duos - Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, Melody Walker & Jacob Groopman. 7:30pm, $22
16 Wednesday
Maltese: Jeff Lee, Danny Cohen, Bob Howard, John Mckinley. Free, 9pm
17 Thursday
Harlen Adams Theatre CSUC: Thank You Concert by the Concert Band and Jazz II. 7:30pm, free
18 Friday
Blue Room: Pawns Of Comedy. 8pm, 10pm, $7 Cafe Coda: Bogg’s Morning Tribute To Joni Mitchell. 11am, Free. Derek Hambek ft. mems of Mossy Creek, Simeren Verma. 8pm, $5 LaSalles: Stay Positive Sound presents Terravita & DJ Amy Robbins
EAT. DRINK. PLAY. 229 BROADWAY ST, CHICO, CA 14
SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
1078 GALLERY
Claiming to draw from diverse influences like Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Genesis, Radiohead, and Peter Gabriel, this solid six-piece jam band sounds like String Cheese Incident, or Phish. I like the fat piano tones in particular. You’ll enjoy rock, soul, funk, Americana, improv, four part harmonies, and mounds and mounds of happiness. Also featuring Chico favorites Swamp Zen. $5, 8pm.
Find Out How you Can Play Pool for Only $1/Day!
The greatest collection of progressive metal that Chico’s seen in at least a week. Diverse, shred-tastic, Berkeley-based metal act Raiju sounds like Protest The Hero, Periphery, and Saosin got human-centipede-d into each other, but in a good way. Their singer’s tasteful crooning will contrast nicely with the demon-growls of Taunis Year One, Io Torus, and the greatest band on Earth—Sorin (ahem). $5, 8pm.
Lost On Main: Peelander-Z (NYC), Black Fong. 9pm Maltese: Sofa King, Motown Filthy. 9pm, $5
19 Saturday
Blue Room: Pawns Of Comedy. 8pm, 10pm, $7 Cafe Coda: Western Divide, Steep Ravine, Michelin Embers. 8pm, $5 Chico Grange Hall: George Souza & The Funk Brothers, Merry Standish Comedy, Pub Scouts. 7pm, $12
Lost On Main: Los Caballitos de la Cancion, Los Papichulos. 9:30pm Monstros: A Tribute To Funk: Heffer Wolf, Aberrance, Disco Church, Epitaph Of At-Risk. 8pm, $5
20 Sunday
Chico Womens Club: 420 Music Festival. $15, free for musicians.12-10pm Lost On Main: Los Caballitos de la Cancion, Los Papichulos. 9:30pm
LESSONS, LEAGUES AND TOURNAMENTS! GREAT FOOD! LIVE MUSIC! 319 Main Street (530) 892-2473
Ongoing Events 14 Monday
100th Monkey: Happy Healing Hour: variety of healing modalities offered to the public. Donations accepted, 5:30pm The Bear: Bear-E-oke! 9pm Cafe Flo: Jazz Happy Hour ft. Carey Robinson Trio. 5-7pm Chico Art Center: Discovery Series 1: New artists, new works by old artists. Chico Womens Club: Prenatal Yoga. 5:30-6:30pm DownLo: Pool League. 3 player teams, signup with bartender. 7pm. All ages until 10pm Maltese: Open Mic Comedy or Music, alternates every week. Signups at 8pm, starts at 9pm. Mug Night 7-11:30pm The Tackle Box: Latin Dance Classes. Free, 7-9pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm Yoga Center Of Chico: Sound Healing w. Emiliano. Breathwork, Meditation, Healing.
15 Tuesday
100th Monkey: Fusion Belly Dance class with BellySutra. $8/class or $32/month. 7pm Cafe Flo: Open Mic with Aaron Jaqua. 7-9pm Chico Art Center: Discovery Series 1: New artists, new works by old artists. Chico Women’s Club: Yoga. 9-10am. Afro Carribean Dance. $10/class or $35/mo. 5:50-7pm. Followed by Capoeira, $3-$10. 7:30-8:30pm Crazy Horse Saloon: All Request Karaoke. 21+ DownLo: Game night. All ages until 10pm Farm Star Pizza: Live Jazz with Shigemi and Friends. 7-9pm Holiday Inn Bar: Salsa Lessons, 7-10pm.
LaSalles: ’90s night. 21+ Maltese: Karaoke. 9pm-Close Studio Inn Lounge: Karaoke. 8:30pm-1am The Tackle Box: Karaoke, 9pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm Woodstocks: Trivia Challenge. Call at 4pm to reserve a table. Starts 6:30pm
16 Wednesday
100th Monkey: Open Mic. All ages. 7pm The Bear: Trike Races. Post time 10pm Cafe Flo: Live Jazz, 5-7pm Chico Art Center: Discovery Series 1: New artists, new works by old artists. Chico Women’s Club: Afro Brazilian Dance. 5:30-7pm DownLo: Wednesday night jazz. 8 Ball Tournament, signups 6pm, starts 7pm Duffys: Dance Night! DJ Spenny and Jeff Howse. $1, 9pm The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm Jesus Center: Derelict Voice Writing Group, everyone welcome. 9-10:30am Panamas: Bar Swag Bingo/Trivia Night. 9-11pm The Maltese: Friends With Vinyl! Bring your vinyl and share up to 3 songs/12 minutes on the turntable. 9pm-1am The Tackle Box: Line Dance classes. Free, 5:30-7:30pm. Swing Dance classes. Free, 7:30-9:30pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm VIP Ultra Lounge: Laurie Dana. 7-9pm Woodstock’s: Trivia Night plus Happy Hour. call at 4pm to reserve a table. Starts at 8pm
17 Thursday
The Beach: DJ Mack Morris. 10:30pm
LIFE IN CHICO
The Bear: DJ Dancing. Free, 9pm Cafe Flo: Delta Blues Project w. Porkchop Holder. 7-10pm Chico Art Center: Discovery Series 1: New artists, new works by old artists. Chico Theatre Company: Shrek The Musical. 7:30pm DownLo: Chico Jazz Collective. 8-11pm. All ages until 10pm The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm Has Beans: Open Mic Night. 7-10pm. Signups start at 6pm Holiday Inn Bar: Karaoke. 8pm-midnight LaSalles: Tyler Duvall. 6-9pm Maltese: Karaoke. 9pm-close Panamas: Buck night and DJ Eclectic & guests on the patio. 9pm Quackers: Karaoke night with Andy. 9pm-1am University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm VIP Ultra Lounge: Acoustic performance with Bradley Relf. 7-9pm. No Cover. Woodstocks: Open Mic Night Yoga Center Of Chico: Ecstatic Dance with Clay Olson. 7:309:30pm
18 Friday
The Beach: DJ2k & Mack Morris. 9pm The Bear: DJ Dancing. Free, 9pm Cafe Coda: Friday Morning Jazz with Bogg. 11am Chico Art Center: Discovery Series 1: New artists, new works by old artists. Chico Theatre Company: Shrek The Musical. 7:30pm Crazy Horse Saloon: Fusion Fridays, the best country, rock, oldies, 80s & top 40. Country dance lessons 9-10:30pm DownLo: ½ off pool. All ages until 10pm. Live Music, 8pm Duffys: Pub Scouts- Happy Hour. 4-7pm
The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm Holiday Inn Bar: DJ Dance Party. 8pm-midnight LaSalles: Open Mic night on the patio. 6-9pm Maltese: Happy hour with live jazz by Bogg. 5-7pm. LGBTQ+ Dance Party. 9pm Panamas: Jigga Julee, DJ Mah on the patio. 9pm Peeking: BassMint. Weekly electronic dance party. $3. 9:30pm Quackers: Live DJ. 9pm Sultan’s Bistro: Bellydance Performance. 6:30-7:30pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm
SICILIAN CAFÉ
19 Saturday
The Beach: DJ Mah. 9pm The Bear: DJ Dancing. No Cover. 9pm Crazy Horse Saloon: Ladies Night Dancing. 10pm-1:30am Chico Theatre Company: Shrek The Musical. 7:30pm DownLo: 9 Ball tournament. Signups at noon, starts at 1pm. All ages until 10pm The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm Holiday Inn Bar: DJ Dancing. 70s and 80s music. 8pm-midnight LaSalles: 80’s Night. 8pm-close Panamas: DJ Eclectic on the patio. 9pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm
20 Sunday
Dorothy Johnson Center: Soul Shake Dance Church. Free-style dance wave, $8-$15 sliding scale. 10am-12:30pm DownLo: Free Pool, 1 hour with every $8 purchase. All ages until 10pm LaSalles: Karaoke. 9pm Maltese: Live Jazz 4-7pm. Trivia 8pm Tackle Box: Karaoke, 8pm
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FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 15
On The Town 16
PHOTOS BY VINCE LATHAM FACEBOOK.COM/VANGUARD.PHOTOGRAPHY
SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
by logan kruidenier - logankruidenier.tumblr.com
One Page, One Line She flipped the page, and another, and then another. She knew what she needed, or at least, she had decided she would glean what she needed from THIS book, and not the others. It was bound in the old style, with pages much thicker than was necessary, and painted gold on their edges. A dignified, beautiful, gold-trimmed, leather-bound book, full of the knowledge of its own importance. In short, just the kind of thing Leiza wished herself to be. It had been that dream again, intruding on Leiza’s morning, imposing its own purpose on an otherwise purposeless Sunday. Lots of water, as always, and a green light coming up from beneath. Friends all around—or at least, a feeling of being watched from all sides, and it was not at all a bad feeling. Pages had been falling down through the water, and Leiza had tried to swim to them, tried to rescue them before they sank, and were lost. She finally clutched a single page in her hands—but it was blank. The sentences were slipping off the page and swimming away, undulating like eels, each sentence phosphorescent with meaning. She tried to grasp one, couldn’t, opened her mouth and inhaled it instead. She immediately had weight; saw the drifting pages rise out of sight as she sank swiftly into deeper waters. The water in her dream was the same as always, the feeling of being watched was the same, but the pages were new. When she’d awakened, the meaning of the one sentence she’d caught was long gone, but the feeling remained. Leiza had a direction now, and so she looked through this slightly gaudy book, skimming pages, now and then reading a sentence by itself, contemplating its relevance when read out of context. They really did stand alone, sentences, if you read them just right, she thought. Who needs the whole story, when this sentence says so much? “Had not that, after all, been love?” A fantastic line! What more is there to be said? Leiza supposed it was necessary for
...a feeling of being watched from all sides, and it was not at all a bad feeling... the sentences to have others on either side for company... but she fancied for a moment writing a book herself, where each page carried, not twenty or thirty lines, but just one: One sentence, standing alone, dignified, alive with meaning, waiting for the right soul to come along and acknowledge it. It’d take a lot of paper, but imagine how fast she could write books! And how fast she could read, if all books were this way—why, the Bible could be leisurely absorbed in a single afternoon! And I daresay, thought Leiza, I’d gather just about as much meaning from it as the proper Bible. I might even remember a verse or two! She closed the gold-trimmed book, and pulled a sheet of paper to herself. “How much more meaningful is a sentence that believes in itself?” she wrote.
Howl howlmovesmountains.tumblr.com
PHOTOS BY VINCE LATHAM FACEBOOK.COM/VANGUARD.PHOTOGRAPHY
On The Town
FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 17
Make, Believe REAL FUN TIMES IN THE BARONY OF RIVENOAK Tournament of the Grail, Wednesday evening, Sir Bjorn’s backyard, Barony of Rivenoak In the final battle of the night, Sir Bjorn slices off Claus de Saarbrucken’s arm with a wicked, whooshing, full-power strike to the lower deltoid. In the name of chivalry, Sir Bjorn puts one of his own arms behind his back. It makes no difference. Claus de Saarbrucken winds of up legless. Then dead. “Epic!” yell the onlookers, including the dozen or so fighters who’ve already been bested. Claus de Saarbrucken does a few twitches, then hops up to embrace Sir Bjorn, their chainmail and steel breastplates clanking. “Epic!” the crowd roars again. We are in the arena—it truly deserves to be called an arena— that fills Sir Bjorn and Hilarie, his Lady’s (and real life wife’s) backyard; a broad, brightly-lit field of playground chips sandwiched between the single-wide trailer that serves as the Armory—full of staffs, shields, swords, chainmail, steel helmets and the ubiquitous rolls of duct tape used for repair—and Bjorn and Hilarie’s home. The home has a covered patio—a gallery—where non-combatants can watch the carnage, out of range from a stray battle-ax blow. “I set this place up to bring everyone up to my level and beyond,” says the 44-year-old 12th century Norse Crusader/ Caregiver with Butte County, after he’s removed his helmet, his brow covered in beads of sweat. Sir Bjorn is a great hulking bear of a man, with a badass beard and a warrior’s visage. His intimidating appearance, though, is charmingly contradicted by a demeanor that’s generous, non-threatening, deeply intelligent; almost theatrical. Though Sir Bjorn consistently slaughters his opponents without mercy, he also speaks to them (and to the boys and girls who look up to him) from the heart about High Values, like empathy, trust and chivalry. I ask Sir Bjorn if what he does is the same as LARPing. His face goes through a series of grimaces and contortions. “To the outside world we look very much like LARPers,” Bjorn says. 18
SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
LARPers, or Live Action Role Players, mostly use “boffers,” which are foam covered weapons, might even cast “spells” by throwing, say, a Nerf ball, and their personas include elves and dwarves. “We’re history people. They’re Game of Thrones, Dungeons & Dragons people. But I’m trying to stop my haterating.” The group that Sir Bjorn and his ilk belong to is the nearly 50 year-old Society for Creative Anachronism, a worldwide organization with upwards of 30,000 current participants. Members of the SCA live portions of their lives in an incredibly complex, hierarchical sub-culture that seeks to replicate life from a period stretching from the fall of the Roman Empire to the death of Queen Elizabeth I (400-1603 AD, roughly). Participants take on “personas” and don historically accurate garb. They become masterful in skills like medieval cooking, embroidery, leatherwork, needlework, calligraphy and Knightly Combat. Occasionally, they have huge Braveheart-like battles with a thousand-plus screaming combatants charging each other. Positions in the society are mostly earned through combat (for women, that often, though not always—there are a few female fighters—means one’s destiny is tied to the fighting prowess of “their Lord”). Some would say it also provides a sense of belonging; a fantasy world for people who find their own reality lacking; for “nerds.” So what? Are we Americans not a people so deeply entrenched in fantasies, in flights from “reality,” in pornography, in media, in arbitrary conventions of style and behavior, that there’s hardly anything about us which we haven’t simply imagined, which we haven’t just made up as we’ve gone along? And aren’t we who think we’re living in “real life” the most delusional of them all? The Fool’s Tourney, a bright blue Sunday at noon, Cedar Grove, Barony of Rivenoak “I have garb for you. So you can get your medieval on,” says Ottilie, the Fool’s Tourney’s “Autocrat.”
“Oh but…” I say. Reluctantly, I put on a pink shawl and blue cotton pants, each of which are about twenty sizes too big. I look ridiculous. There are a few booths and camps set up in a crescent around the blinding grass. In the center of the crescent there’s a large covered area laid with thrones and pillows. In the center of the grove, ropes delineate the field of battle. The Fools’ Tourney is the silliest event the SCA puts on, with extra-spasmodically-elaborate deaths, battles with big fish instead of swords, etc. But rumor has it that Their Majesties, the King and Queen of the West may be in attendance (The SCA has an elaborate geographical system, with Kingdoms [we are in “The Kingdom of the West,” which includes Northern California, Alaska, Japan, and Guam] which are then broken down into principalities [our own being “Cynagua”] and finally Baronies and Shires [ours here in Chico: “the Barony of Rivenoak”]). I wander around, meeting people from all over. I meet Master Gwyn Chwith (pronounced something like a sneeze), a heavyset man in glasses and a broad-brimmed hat. “A lot of us were alienated nerds,” he tells me, stating the obvious, as he keeps his two little white dogs, Miss Muffet and Mister Winston, in line. “I try not to treat them like slaves,” Her Highness, Catriona, The Princess of Cynagua tells me with a little laugh. She’s talking about her ladies-in-waiting, two of whom are shading her with sun umbrellas. Her Highness, who normally works as an office assistant at UC Merced, introduces me to her Lord, His Highness, Prince Walerich of Cynagua. To become Prince, Walerich practiced Knightly Combat three to five times a week and, after much struggle, he was able to capture the crown through a Coronet Tournament, in which 25 others fought. “I didn’t sleep for three nights straight,” the Prince—who is a
maintenance man at a mobile home park in Modesto during the week—tells me, of what it was like to become a Prince. His eyes stare off into the middle distance as he becomes lost in reverie. “I don’t know how to explain the feeling. It’s a feeling I’ve never felt before. Having people look up to you like an actual Prince from the medieval ages. It gives me goose bumps just talking about it.” In real life, their Highnesses have been married for four years. It was a surreal moment for the Princess, too. “He kept saying he would make me princess one day,” she tells me. “And he did. It’s a fairytale.” When The Princess retires to a pile of pillows under the Royalty tent, I talk to one of her ladies, Aderyn. “Real life was kind of tedious,” she tells me. “I went to work. I came home. I went on the Internet. I watched TV.” Now Aderyn is surrounded by fascinating characters, travels all the time, is part of a thriving community, and has a super cool Lord (boyfriend) named Coronado, who is a master rapier fighter, a Don, and a Baron. “It’s not so much that I’m not me,” the office assistant from San Joaquin Valley tells me. “It’s that I’m more me. I’m exactly what I should be.” Battles have begun on the Field of Battle. Kids run to and fro, little swords and shields in tow. People are laughing and making merry. They really are a fun group. The King and Queen of the West are indeed in attendance. Braving the skeptical looks of their guards and servants, I approach. “Hi Your Highness,” I say, sounding like an idiot and feeling particularly self-conscious about my oversized, sloppy garb. “Is it okay if I just kneel at your feet and ask you some questions?” I ask the King. “Yes, don’t worry about it,” he says, forcing a little smile and
allowing me to sit on the ground at his feet, though there are several empty chairs at his side. King Thorfinn the Cruel, a 10th Century Dane, is, it turns out, from right here in Chico, though he now lives in the Silicon Valley, where he works at a microbrewery filling kegs and mixing stuff. His real name is Kelly Long. It must be nice to take a break from having gazillionaire techy people looking at you piteously and be King of Everything, instead, I think. “All of this is mine,” he says, his hands motioning in basically every direction. “My territory is Alaska, Japan, Korea, Northern California and the State of Alaska.” This is his fourth stint as King. He’s basically just really, really good at sword fighting. He seems bored—or maybe just tired—with the whole thing, to me. I can tell the crown weighs heavy. “I was really just fighting for my Lady, here,” he says, gesturing toward the Queen, a pretty, full time student sitting regally by his side. “To make her Queen.” They’ve been dating for about a year. When he met her, she was the bottom of the SCA food chain. She knew he had been a multi-reign King. Did she think about that when he started flirting with her, I wonder? In any event, within months she was Queen, with a retinue of three dozen (!) guards and ladies-in-waiting, who attend to her every need. A couple dozen fighters in heavy armor begin a rendition of YMCA, exclusively for pleasure of the King and Queen, it seems. Their Majesties don’t even smile, and, in fact, the King just turns back to our interview. “I’m the conduit by which my people receive awards,” he explains. Most of what Their Majesties do, I learn, is receive “largesse” and then dole out little gifts and awards. “See, like this, watch,” the King says as he pushes a cheap plastic ring onto my finger. “From the King, there you go.”
Later, I see the Queen doing rapier fighting. It’s cool that she still fights, I think. But I can’t get over how deeply and nonironically she’s wielding her position. She bosses people like crazy. At one point, she takes off her helmet and screams, “Water! Anybody! I need water!” exasperated, it seems, that water is not instantly appearing to quench her Queenly thirst. Within a few seconds four people come running with goblets and bottles. Toward the end of the afternoon, there’s an awards ceremony. Jofrid surrenders his man-at-arms belt, and Sir Bjorn, his kindly eyes twinkling, gives him a red belt, instead, signifying his new status as Sir Bjorn’s second squire. “This belt was cut from the same hide that my own belt was cut from when I was a squire,” Sir Bjorn says, with evident emotion. Jofrid’s new “Brother Squire” gives him one of his own swords—a real one. It’s beautiful, and its blade glints in the sun as he places it into Jofrid’s hands. When it’s the Prince’s turn to speak, he says, “Be true to who you are. You are still the same man, a man of the people.” The crowd looks on with solemnity. Jofred looks like he might cry. I feel like I might, too. “The 21st century doesn’t have ways to genuinely say these sorts of things,” Sir Bjorn tells me later. “How do two men in the 21th century say ‘Hey man, I care about you?’” “Hip Hip! Huzzah!” the gathering cheers (an Elizabethan cheer). “Hip Hip! Huzzah! Hip Hip! Huzzah!” I cheer, too, loudly. And then it’s time to take my leave.
Exotic Adventures in Smalltown, USA
by Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 19
Taj Mahal: A Magical Memory Tour Blues Giant to Play Paradise on April 18th BY JAIME O’NEILL
Taj Mahal and I go back a long way, though he doesn’t know it. That’s how it is with these musicians who take up residence in our lives— hanging out with us late at night, or singing to us through ear buds while we’re hiking. They were up there on stages, working, while we were in the audience, hoping this was a sweet prelude to getting laid. They sang songs that touched emotions deep in us, and they never really knew how far the rippling of their sonic pebbles would travel. I never went fishing without Taj Mahal’s voice in my head, singing, “Betcha’ goin’ fishin’ all o’ da’ time, baby goin’ fishin’ too, bet yo’ life, yo’ sweet wife, gonna catch mo’ fish than you.” That one goes back a long way, to a time when Ry Cooder’s guitar was lending authority to Taj’s singing. They were young, and I was young, and, man, it was all so good. We were going to move up to the country and paint our mailbox blue, take a cakewalk into town, and take a giant step outside our minds. And there’s no way for me to know what it was to have been young without revisiting that soundtrack Taj created to accompany it.
On The Town 20
PHOTOS BY JESSICA SID
SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 14 2014
There were all those parties, with Taj on the turntable as the evening grew late and settled, when we sat around in the mess we’d made, too tired to start cleaning up, too mellowed out to muster the energy even to go to bed, just lingering in the mood until the needle stuck in a groove, forcing us to let the party end.
Then, down from the mountains, at a gig Taj played in Fresno in the early ‘80s, I lingered to offer a fan’s compliments, too high to make much sense as I tried to tell him what his music had meant to me during snowbound midwinter nights, or those spring days with friends on the porch when he sang accompaniment to the glory of the season. I gushed, drunkenly, and he was sober, patient, nodding as I rambled, a giant who stood a good two inches taller than I am. I’m nearly 6’3”, so I’m not used to looking up at people. But it felt right to look up to him. Another two decades down the road and Taj is singing “Moonlight Lady” from a stage in Laytonville, a Hawaiian melody as soft as an ocean breeze. My wife and I dance, stirring the dust, and stirring memories, too, of a hundred nights with Taj Mahal bursting out of our speakers, revisiting the American song book, linking us all with an aural history of shared pain and joy. He’s bringing all of that this way on Friday, April 18th, playing the Paradise Performing Arts Center (get tickets at www.chicotickets. com or call 530 345-8136). That auditorium is likely to fill up with people like me, those who share personal histories Taj helped to create, but that he can never really quite know.
Inspiration in a 12-String Guitar HOW LAURIE LEWIS FOUND A NEW SOUND IN AN OLD SONG Chico has a contingent of bluegrass aficionados. I’m one of ‘em, and I’ve seen some of the greats when they swept through town—Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury, Rhonda Vincent, and a range of others, including Laurie Lewis, who will be playing the Sierra Nevada Big Room tomorrow evening, April 15. Bluegrass produces a lot of angelic voices, but I can’t think of any sweeter than hers. She’s showing up this time with her partner, Tom Rozum, who has a voice that blends with hers like coffee with cream, and they’re going to be joined for the gig by Jacob Groopman and Melody Walker, two younger singer/ songwriters. The first track on the new Laurie Lewis album (An Evening in May) is a cover of the Johnny Cash classic, “Ring of Fire.” Laurie gives a strikingly different musical spin to that familiar refrain—“and it burns, burns, burns, that ring of fire.” The way she sings those words took this listener by surprise, and it’s likely to do the same for you. “Where did that come from?” I asked her in a recent interview. Her answer provides a glimpse of a musician’s inner world. “It’s kind of an interesting story,” she said. “I had a dream one night that I had a twelvestring guitar, I’ve never been drawn to that instrument, but then I thought maybe I should check out 12-string. I’d try ‘em out in music stores sometimes, but every one I played just sounded terrible, just a big jangly mess. But for some reason that dream wouldn’t go away. About a year or two later, I was
Mike Seeger’s house, visiting Mike’s widow, Alexia. Instruments were all over the place. I happened to ask Alexia if Mike had a 12-string, and she said he did, and I should go take a look at it. I did, and it was like a light shining up from this case. It had been made in 1905 in Baltimore, and the sound of it was just wonderful. Alexia wanted me to have it, but I found it too hard too play, so I didn’t take it. But I kept thinking of it, and I finally arranged to get the guitar against everyone’s advice. I didn’t know what to do with it. The neck is so crazy, and I had it tuned low. One night we went to see this little band play and they did “Ring of Fire,” and the band sounded dopey covering that song, but I went home from that gig and wanted to do it myself. I picked up the 12- string, and what came out was the way you hear the song on the new album. It started with a dream of a 12-string, and the sound of Mike’s guitar was what brought that out.” For readers who may not know, Mike Seeger was one of the giants of American folk music, and it’s interesting to think that his spirit, through his old 12-string guitar, is still contributing to the music that people like Laurie Lewis live to perpetuate. That perpetuation continues tomorrow night at the Big Room.
Old Crock
by Jaime O'Neill jaimeandkarenoneill@gmail.com
PHOTOS BY JESSICA SID
On The Town
FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 21
APRIL 14, 2014 BY KOZ MCKEV
Aries
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
This is your grand finale week. We begin with a full moon lunar eclipse in your seventh house. Partnership issues are bound to be affected by this. There is a sense of love and confrontation at the same time. Money and security issues weigh in heavily Tuesday through early Thursday. By Friday you find things improving. You have a sense of adventure and may want to go traveling. Easter Sunday might find you handling extra responsibilities. Rise up to what needs to be done.
Sometimes it’s darkest before the dawn. Focus on helping out where you can, but knowing when to back down from pushing too hard. The full moon eclipse Monday night and Tuesday morning is about making good karma for yourself. Don’t allow your emotions to lead you into doing something unconscious. The sun goes into Taurus Saturday at 8:56pm PDT. You’ll feel a sense of encouragement as well as a sense of adventure. Be ready to look at the world in a new and different way.
Good friends should not be taken for granted. Many people have helped you to move ahead in the world. Seek a new plan to downsize where you have overreached. The eclipse helps you see your creative gifts for all they are worth. You’re able to have a vision toward what your future plans might be. Use caution when indulging in alcohol and other toxins. By the weekend the chances for romance go up. By Saturday night you’ll need to lay low and reflect on your personal karma.
You’ve been subject to pressures that most other signs haven’t had to deal with. You still have growth and good fortune on your side. The full moon eclipse will be between your public life and your personal life. Pay attention to things that affect your family. There may be an urge to relocate or to change residence. Saturday night could be the beginning of a breakthrough in your social life. Be with the people you respect and honor. Carefully choose your social circle.
Exploration and research should go well during this period. Taking on bigger projects is likely. Try looking at things from a different perspective. The full moon eclipse will affect your siblings and close friends as well as the way you communicate. Keep on taking the high road when it comes to conflict. There is no one to blame. By the weekend you’ll be in your heart and ready to get down to being creative. Greater responsibilities as well as a forum for your talents and skills will be coming soon.
You are learning to accept that the things you don’t control may be in some ways controlled by others. Ask for their help and you’ll be surprised as to how willing they are to help you. The full moon eclipse affects the way you view money, food and personal values. Stay calm and peaceful when you need to discuss something. By Saturday night things begin to improve for you. Your focus changes towards travel and higher learning. Be as just as you would like others to be towards you.
Libra
Scorpio
Saggitarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
The full moon eclipse Monday night and Tuesday morning is all about you as it is in Libra. You know where you need to change and where you need to stand firm. It is best not to answer hostilities with more hostility. You are able to rise up as a courageous peace keeper. Partners may be experiencing erratic ups and downs. You have this amazing ability to do the right thing. The weekend looks good for short trips and projects around the house. Be careful with finances.
Be conscious and confident that you can give better service. The full moon deals with personal karma as well as unseen forces. Realize that you are not alone in your dilemma, and that you can offer comfort to the many people that are suffering. The moon will be in Scorpio late Tuesday morning through early Thursday afternoon. Allow acts of kindness and sensitivity to guide you. The weekend looks good for financial advancement as well as practicing the hobbies that you have a passion for.
Creative bliss has been leading you for the last several weeks. If you’re doing art, you may have put more of your focus towards your children. The full moon eclipse affects your social life. This may be the week that you discover your next best friend. You get a powerful glimpse into your future. The moon will be in Sagittarius from late Thursday afternoon till late afternoon Saturday. What you need to make happen you will make happen. By Sunday you may find a new way to earn income.
At times life seems to be moving at a snails pace. Other times you wish things could slow down. Family issues have been the focus the last several weeks. Much of this is being challenged by the full moon eclipse and your career life. Partnership issues are demanding attention at the same time. Keep a cool head while others give in to the pressure. The moon will be in Capricorn Saturday night and Sunday. The sun will be moving into your fifth house allowing your creative side to flourish.
Getting things down in writing is important during this stage of the game. Working with your hands has been a passion for you as of late. The full moon eclipse inspires education, travel and exotic cultures. You may find yourself luckier than usual. Keep the communication honest and fresh. Take time over the weekend to relax and to catch up on sleep. Your friends will show up when you need them. Your family life becomes more of a focus in the days ahead.
Love, imagination and artistic invention are in your presence. The full moon eclipse is a test between personal values and the need to bow down to other peoples agendas. Taking on a difficult job and being expected to do more might be the worst of it. Overblown lust and the inability to accept no for an answer might be another problem. By the middle of the week you will have resolved things. By the end of the week you may be promoted. Saturday night and Sunday look good for socializing.
Koz McKev is on YouTube, on cable 11 BCTV and is heard on 90.1FM KZFR Chico. Also available by appointment for personal horoscopes call (530)891-5147 or e-mail kozmickev@sunset.net
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