Synthesis Weekly – April 21, 2014

MARCH 21 2014. ALWAYS FREE. ALWAYS.

KOREAN MISADVENTURES | BUTTE FRACKING BAN | KIDS’ STAR WARS

This week at...

DOWN NORTH

FRIDAY 4/25, 9:00PM WITH SOFA KING

On LOST IN CHICO

SATURDAY 4/26, 9:30PM WITH JIVE COULIS, THE RUGS, AND MORE

Main

UPCOMING SHOWS SAMMY DREAD Thursday 5/1 LYRIC’S BORN & GIFT OF GAB Friday 5/2 JELLY BREAD WITH QUICK & EASY BOYS Saturday 5/3 ORGONE Sunday 5/4

GREAT FOOD! LIVE MUSIC! LESSONS, LEAGUES & TOURNAMENTS!

EAT. DRINK. PLAY. ALL AGES UNTIL 10PM

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THURSDAY LIVE JAZZ 8PM

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FRIDAY HIPPIE TRAP LIVE MUSIC 8PM

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SATURDAY MUDSTONE LIVE MUSIC 8PM

Volume 20 Issue 35 April 21, 2014

This Week...

Farewell French Reform I can’t decide if I want to eat this cake they’ve offered us, or wipe my tears with it and then eat it. French Reform is ending their all-toobrief reign as Chico’s “best local band,” and they’re breaking my little heart in the process.

Adieu, mes amis (nom nom nom).

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

Exotic Adventures in Smalltown, USA

Tanner Ulsh graphics@synthesis.net

by Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff

PAGE 5

Productivity Wasted

by Eli Schwartz

PAGE 6

PAGE 7

Supertime!

by Logan Kruidenier

PAGE 16

Scene Report PAGE 17

Immaculate Infection PAGE 18

by Jaime O'Neill jaimeandkarenoneill@gmail.com

PAGE 21

Kozmik Debris

by Koz McKev

PAGE 19

Accounting Ben Kirby

Director of Operations

Owner

Old Crock

Nik Burman

Nerd

Karen Potter

by Bob Howard

Cover Art

Jessica Sid Vincent Latham

Dain Sandoval dain@synthesis.net

Star Wars Live!

kozmckev@sunset.net

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

Madbob@madbob.com

Designers

Colin Leiker, Mike Valdez graphics@synthesis.net

Contributing Writers

zooey@synthesis.net

Unless you like micro-quakes and flaming tap water, you may be against the practice of fracking. If so—good news! Frack Free Butte County is drilling into the issue and flooding it with high-pressure protest. Check out what cracks have started to form and what you can do to extract the best possible outcome for our land and water.

Alex Light Alex@synthesis.net SynthesisWeekly.com/submit-yourevent/

Joey Murphy, Jennifer Foti

by Zooey Mae

Fracking Whaaaat?

Entertainment Editor

Deliveries

Comical Ruminations

PAGE 8

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

Cu pe r I am a fun sized dog full of love! I was left out front of the shelter with a note taped to my back saying “Hi I am Cuper,” so now I am looking for a second chance. I am not interested in playing but more sitting on your lap and being a lazy couch potato.

2579 Fair Street Chico, CA 95928 (530) 343-7917 • buttehumane.org

Now Hear This SYNTHESIS WEEKLY PLAYLIST

Chainsmokers - “#Selfie”

Bill

Chainsmokers - “#Selfie”

Tanner

Antarctigo Vespucci - “I’m Giving Up on U2”

Colin

Raphael Saadig - “Just One Kiss”

Tara

Lidsey Stirling - “Crystalize”

Dinah

Draco & the Malfoys - “99 Death Eaters”

Ben

Yusef Islam - “Father & Son”

Amy

Beats Antique - “Tabla Toy”

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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

Earth Day Shmearth Day How come we celebrate Sun-day and Moonday every week, but Earth Day comes but once a year? Doesn’t the Earth do enough for us? Doesn’t it feed us and give us a place to keep our things? What does it have to do to get our attention, team up with Wind and Fire to create timeless hits spanning genres from R&B to disco? Oh, wait, it already did that, and we STILL only give it one day a year—in a week it has to share with 4/20, the Spring Equinox, and Arbor Day, nonetheless. Well, that’s the way of the world, I suppose. (see what I did there?)

One might argue that every day is Earth Day, sort of like how every day is Kids’ Day, and this thing we “celebrate” (if you can call skipping a shower “celebrating”) is just a fear/guilt trip, c/o the 1970 enviro-hippies. One might argue that they just took the name of something people already enjoyed, rebranded it with their lifestyle agenda, and made a day all about themselves. It’s like their version of a Hallmark holiday, but if Hallmark were trying to make you stop eating meat and feel bad about all the trees that died to make greeting cards.

Calm down, I’m just being a jerk. Protecting the environment is important for many reasons, and even small gestures toward that goal are meaningful.

For me, good motivation doesn’t come from guilt though; it comes from love. And there’s a lot to love about nature, from its brutality to its delicate intricacy. I also like knowing how things work, and I’m really grateful that environmental sciences have become such

a robust field. (I guess I have to thank the hippies for that—thanks, hippies! Sorry about what I said earlier.) Anyway, it enriches my experience to take my little bit of knowledge out for a hike now and then, and celebrate the Earth by enjoying it. As a consequence of that enjoyment, I find that it gives me pleasure to do things that help keep it nice.

As much as I believe in education, I don’t like it when people tell me how to live and what my priorities should be, so I’ll try not to get too preachy about how we can honor the Earth. There are, however, some things that really get under my skin: I don’t like it when I show up to a beautiful swimming hole and find piles of dirty diapers and beer cans tucked under the bushes (seriously, who are these drunk babies?). It’s gross, and annoying… although, I do get to feel smug as hell when I pack it out, so I guess there’s that.

My point is, go to the park this week, and as often as possible. Fall in love with the absolute glory that is hardened lava flows worn down smooth over the course of millennia, the trees that cling to the cracks in the creek bed while seasonal floods turn them into living driftwood, the desperately flourishing wildflowers that explode from seed to bloom to seed again before the heat can burn their bodies into straw. And when you leave, please take your garbage with you.

Letter From the Editor

by Amy Olson

amy@synthesis.net

Splitting the Atom WALKING IN CIRCLES, CONTEMPLATING LIFE’S UPS AND DOWNS ON A BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY MORNING My daughter is strapped onto me, her little limbs dangling from one of those kangaroo pouch getups that hippie/yuppie parents use these days. We are swimming upstream through a school of charity walk/runners— shimmery and identical in their matching green tees, their spandex, their day-glo athletic shoes. My daughter points at things, babbles monosyllables, cries intermittently, flails her tiny legs.

This whole charity walk/run thing is an extremely popular thing to do, if you haven’t noticed. People donate a small sum—in the Green-Shirts’ case, for instance, $30—and then they don matching T-shirts and walk and/or run in a large oval around the park. I get the $30, but how does the walking/running part help the cause?

“It gives you a feeling like we’re coming together as a community and doing something,” a sweet-natured woman in spandex and $100 sneakers made by Chinese slave labor tells me. “You get some exercise.

You meet people. It’s really great.”

I drop my sweet baby girl off with her mom, where she suicidally throws herself toward her mom’s bosom, and toward that feeling of oneness that accompanies it. Her mom and I are separating, tearing our selves in two. The pain is almost unbearable. Then I head to the plaza, where the NorCal Yo-Yo Championship is being held. Chico, as you may or may not know, is the National Headquarters of YoYoing and the place where the National Yo-Yo Championships are held, annually. What does it mean about this town that yo-yoing is the one activity in which we serve as its Capital City, its Mecca? (Once, years ago, it was debauchery, but that’s since been displaced.)

Under Sunbrellas, onlookers sit watching as children and adults go through the “Trick Ladder.” The Trick Ladder goes like this: an older gentleman in a Hawaiian shirt, who’s got a great ‘50s radio voice and uses the word “golly,” announces, over a PA system, tricks with names like “Split the Atom,” “Buddha’s Revenge,” and “Candy Rain.” Then the (95 percent male) contestants perform the dozens of ridiculously elaborate feats of hand-eye coordination. They are judged by a panel of yo-yo professionals: four athletic looking young men dressed in bro-clothes

and identical Wayfarer Ray-Bans, their faces masks of grim, judgmental concentration and professionalism. Upon the performance of an especially arduous trick, the crowd of proud parents/grandparents/girlfriend (purposefully singular) erupts into applause, answering, finally, the Zen Koan: “What is the sound of eight hands clapping?” Afterwards, medallions are awarded to the winners, like one happy young boy who took home First in the 10-andunder division (out of one contestant).

“I got bored one day,” 19-year-old Chris Ng, a Chico State chemistry major wearing spectacles and a yo-yo tee, tells me, of how he developed his passion for the yo-yo. “It gives you something to do, something to work toward. It’s really productive.”

“Once I discovered girls, I went the other way,” a kind, loving father of two of the contestants tells me of his brief experimentation with yo-yoing, during his adolescence. He and his family came here all the way from Valley Springs, CA. He’s in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank affixed to it, tubes running this way and that. His yo-yo arm is bound in some sort of sling.

We walk/run from feelings; we walk/run toward others. And even if LOVE is just a feeling in our brain, what other options do we have?

Exotic Adventures in Smalltown, USA

by Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff

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FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 5

Unfinished Business A STUDY OF THE EXPANSION PACK

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

My game of choice and leisure at the moment is 2012’s excellent FTL: Faster Than Light, a highly recommended space ship management simulator that forces the player to constantly make judgment after judgment in managing a spaceship in a galaxy at war, all in a bright, happy, pixelated interface.

Of course, 2012 was a long time ago, maybe even years ago, but the game has had life breathed back into it in the form of a recently released expansion pack.

What is an expansion pack, exactly? It’s a release of additional content, not necessarily (though usually) new, that is considered supplemental to the original game release. It is not a new game, but it is not necessarily a part of the old one. It’s taken a variety of strange and controversial forms over the thirty-ish years of its existence. In ancient times they were large add-ons to computer games like Xanadu, often completely standalone and playable without the base game. Later, in an era dominated by a mass-produced console market, expansion pack was spelled without a C, as seen above, and was a genuine piece of hardware designed to alter the capability of a console device. For some games it was a bonus, for others a requirement.

Time has passed, however, and with new technology comes new acronyms. DLC, DownLoadable Content, has become one of the chief characteristics of the modern expansion. Some are large additions to the story, others standalone adventures, but the modern world of gaming now echoes with whining regarding small DLC. New, bold economic strategies hold together much of the increasingly outlandish overhead of creating massive, ambitious games. The idea of small, cosmetic DLC, additional in-game items and characters, and even in-game currencies laundered through cold hard cash make up the idea of “microtransactions,” which allow large games to be made free to play, or even paying games to make additional bundles of money.

Want some modern examples? Pick up your smartphone (I know you’ve got one, you

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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

monster) and head on over to the app store.

Look under “Games.” Now download some of top rated free ones, and play for about twenty minutes. You’re back? Good. I’m guessing you’ve been propositioned to turn your money into energy points or smurfberries or whatever about thirty times. This is how free games are viable. The cheap among you will resist this with no little bitterness, but the eager, desperate, and downright spendthrift among you will join the cash flow heading to the developers. They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work.

Yet that’s hardly the whole of the modern era. Large expansions in the old style are still being released. Diablo III, largely a disappointment to the zealous fans of its predecessors, has managed to regain a great deal of prestige from its newest expansion Reaper of Souls, and even though it’s $40, it continues to sell and receive strong reviews.

In recent history, games like Civilization V and Don’t Starve have managed to reformat their games with new content that alters the core experience, creating fresh new ideas.

As for FTL’s expansion, it’s notable for being a completely free update applied two years after the initial release.

In some cases the expansion is a cash grab, for some it is an attempt to reorganize and try again, and for others, merely an excuse to finish the game they wish they had made weeks, months, or even years prior.

Productivity Wasted

by Eli Schwartz

Snape Kills Dumbledore Greetings, nerds! Last Sunday I arrived back in California after my eleven day stint in South Korea. Although I had a lot of fun and met some wonderful people, I am really happy to be back. Do you guys have any idea how wonderful it smells in Chico? It smells like jasmine and burritos, and it is magical.

Seriously.

The new season of Game Of Thrones premiered a couple of Sundays ago, and thankfully it lived up to the impressively high bar they’ve set for themselves. SPOILER ALERT! We caught up with Daenerys Targaryen, who is discovering that there are some problems with trying to raise dragons and keep them as child pets. Crazy, right?

Who would’ve thought? A new character (Oberyn Martell) arrives, and I couldn’t really concentrate on his developing storyline, because he feels to me like an obvious attempt by the writers to rise to the challenge of the fans to make the show sexual in a way that’s more equal opportunity for either gender. Basically, we want to see more wangs. More dongs. Dong on dong action.

The ol’ “ding dong,” if you will. Ring a ding dong.

Ahem. Anyway, I’m excited to see how this season plays out, and I can’t wait for Cersei to finally get hers, for Sansa to be less whiney, and for Snape to kill Dumbledore.

In other sci-fi “news,” a Star Wars fan has turned his 74’ Chevy Malibu into a Millenium Falcon. What that actually means is that he just painted his car to kinda, sorta look like the Falcon. It actually looks pretty amazing, but whenever I see someone put an elaborate paint job on their car like that, I can’t help imagining how satisfying it would be to smash their windows with a sledgehammer. Is that normal?

Speaking of normal, when you were a child did you ever tie a message to a balloon, or put a note in a bottle? I did. I used to tie little notes to a balloons, let them go, and watch them soar majestically for about eight seconds before they’d inevitably get tangled in the branches that blanketed the sky around my house, then the balloon

would sadly wilt over the coming months before my dad would finally have to get a ladder and rake and pull it down. I also tried the message in a bottle routine, but the closest body of water near my house was a pond. It took me about a dozen bottles for me to realize I was just littering, so I pulled those bottles out and put them where they belonged—over the neighbors fence. Turns out the pastime of putting messages in bottles is older than one might think, as a German fisherman just found a note in a bottle dating back to 1913. Containing a Danish postcard with a note asking the recipient to send the note back to the sender (postage was included), the bottle and note is currently on display at the Maritime Museum in Hamburg.

Comical Ruminations

by Zooey Mae

zooey@synthesis.net

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 7

A

ON

,

And

Their Final Show

by Bob Howard

message arrives from my editor—ominous.

“Can you interview French Reform? The band is breaking up.” Breaking up. That can’t be right, but I read it three more times, and the words stay the same. A quick scan of the band’s Facebook page confirms the rumor—a Final Show is scheduled.

Jeffries: Yeah, we’re going to have a volleyball team after this.

My head reels. French Reform only hit the scene in 2012. Every show I’d seen was well-attended and fun.

Only last week, they’d been praised at the Cammies as the “Best Local Act.” All signs pointed to a band on the rise. Why are they calling it quits? Personality clashes?

Drugs? Career aspirations, or the ubiquitous “musical differences?” I said I’d do the interview; I had to get to the bottom of this.

A gauntlet? I ask the band about competition.

Contact with the band’s ostensible front-man Aric Jeffries leads me to an underground rehearsal space on the east side of town. There I’m greeted by three of the band’s five members—drummer Nik Burman, keyboard player Kirt Lind, and the aforementioned Jeffries. Not present were guitar player Phil Anker and bassist Elias Nipert.

Inside the space I can sense seething energy and intensity. Musical instruments and recording gear are set up and ready to go. There is also an immense, white dry-erase board pinned to the wall, filled with neatly scrawled text—set lists and show dates—as well as intricate drawings of songs.

Lind: [The board] is my favorite part. Nik draws maps of our new songs so we know how the dynamics play out.

The charted songs run linearly from left to right, and the patterns rise and fall according to the dynamic impact of a particular part. You can almost hear the song swelling and fading in your head as you look at them. A particular number is decorated to look like an elaborate city-scape. My jaw drops.

There are also comfortable couches, on which the present members now sit. I set my recorder on an incongruous element: a green, blue and white volleyball. Jeffries notes my curiosity.

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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

Lind: We’ve challenged Pageant Dads to a volleyball tournament, and they have yet to accept our challenge. I think they’re chicken.

Burman: I think we’re a bit competitive. We’re out to do a good job. We take care of our appearance on stage; we all try and dress nice—to shine. Look good, sound good.

Jeffries: It’s fun—it’s super fun. But I also think what’s unique about this band is that we’ve treated it as a job—we take it super seriously.

Burman: We try to be as professional as possible. It goes along with this whole thing: why, after two years, we’re calling it. We’re not just going to ride this wave and fizzle out. That’s not what we want to do.

Jeffries: Competitiveness is great for growth in any music scene.

AVOIDING THE LONG FADE-OUT; INSTEAD, STRIKE LIKE A METEORITE I’m starting to get a sense of why the band has chosen the path they have. There have to be at least a dozen different trajectories bands can take. Some toil in mediocrity forever, while others achieve a certain level of local or regional success and are happy to keep coasting along on the same sounds and songs, maintaining a creatively numbing sort of status quo.

Some bands rise meteorically, and then burn out just as fast. Some bands play until they can’t stand the sight of each other and finally melt down in bitter melodrama.

French Reform has opted for one of the rarest routes: strike hard and fast, go out in top form, and leave a deep, lasting impression—like a meteorite.

Lind: I really love the idea of going out on a high note.

You know, like having a really great last single that we put out and having a great last show where we’re still in top form.

Burman: There are a lot of bands in town that really go forever and burn out; or just go forever, and that’s what they like to do. But I think we wanted to put something real special together and take it as high as we could, and we gave it a good two years. And we’re going to swing one more time: we’ve got some stuff to release and a last show to have.

French Reform has always struck me as a band that seemingly came out of nowhere—their sound and appearance completely realized before they ever set foot on stage.

Burman: Our very first show at Café Coda was packed. We got the big windows to fog up. It was so sexy in there.

Lind: We didn’t play first either. At our first show, we didn’t open, we went second. I don’t think we’ve ever opened. We’ve never gone first on a bill.

GOOD TIMES, AND ONE SO-SO TIME While they’ve only been together those two years, French Reform has been hitting it hard: playing lots of shows and touring, as well as releasing an EP, with more recordings and a video to follow. I ask the band to detail some of the highlights and lowlights of their time together.

When I ask the band if there was a particularly great show they can recall, Burman answers immediately: Burman: The last two years.

Lind: I think maybe our CD release show last year with our friends Tiny Pyramids.

The three members are thinking now, trying to recall.

Jeffries: That’s hard. That’s hard. We’ve had a lot of really rad shows.

Lind: I like the little ones at Maltese too.

Jeffries: That’s what I’m saying. The first one of this season at the Maltese was crazy.

Burman: So was the Cammies showcase. That was super fun.

Jeffries: The Maltese consistently gives us a great response.

I chime in with my own hazy recollections of the band’s performance during the infamous 2013 Bike Races.

Burman: That was a highlight.

When I ask for a low-light, assuming from my own experience that every band has them, the guys are hard-pressed to come up with an anecdote. Jeffries and Burman mention a haphazard house-party the band played in the forested outskirts of Santa Cruz.

Lind: Really? I loved that one.

Burman: I liked that one better than the one before.

Lind: Oh yeah, Oakland.

Burman: Oakland was kind of… “Phoooof.”

Jeffries: The one in Oakland was kind of rough because we went last and everyone kind of, went to bed.

Continued on pg 10...

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 9

Burman: In Santa Cruz at least we had a whole bunch of people, junkies, bounding around.

French Reform celebrating their recent Cammies win.

Jeffries: That was weird.

Lind: We played this house party in the woods, outside of Santa Cruz, at this weird record-label-slash-commune and they were having a masquerade party and everyone was wearing masks and on acid.

Burman: And no one even knew we were coming except this one guy who was like, “Oh yeah, we’ll take care of you.” We got there and everyone was like, “Who the fuck are you?”

Syn: How’d that go over with the crowd?

Lind: People watched and danced and had a great time.

Burman: It was pretty trippy.

Jeffries: Or do anything men do.

Jeffries: We got back at six in the morning; we drove straight through. It was getting late and we decided, thanks, but no way were we going to stay there.

Burman: “I’m going to buy milk and beer.”

Lind: It got to be towards three in the morning and there were still three bands left to play.

I’m a little irritated; it sounds as though the band has never actually had a bad show. I flip through mental Polaroids of my own various bands and some of the more atrocious shows we’ve suffered through. Rip-offs, shakedowns, puking drummers, and exploding amps come to mind. I shake the thoughts out of my head and get back to business—I’m a professional, after all, with a job to do.

APPEARANCES AND REALITY Music is one thing, and French Reform has that one thing down.

They have a crystallized sound and top-quality musicians who pull it off every time. But music is only one aspect of a good show. The band members understand the importance of dressing to impress—of providing the audience with more than simply the grace of their presence.

Lind: I’m really proud of the way we present ourselves. We want to be confident and look good, but we also want to give something; we want to communicate something to the audience. We want to give them something that they can dance to, that they can sing along with.

We get onto the subject of style and fashion, and I express my disdain for the ever-present tank tops and flip-flops that seem to be mandatory Chico regalia—like some kind of frumpy, halfhippy, half-yuppie uniform.

As the interview progresses I come to realize there is no apparent animosity between the members. It doesn’t strike me that the choice to split is a result of personality conflicts.

Jeffries: I think it’s good to think of it as an expansion. At this point in time we have three different projects coming up.

That’s good for Chico. I don’t think there was anyone else in Chico doing what we were doing and I would love to see more of it—people experimenting with synthesizers, having a whole bunch of synthesizers...

Burman: We’ve seen it start to come alive. There’s no reason for us to ride that horse to death. It’s a growth. As a drummer I’ve been playing since I was twelve, and I’ve been in different bands ever since. I’m always excited to start a new project; it’s a totally open door for something else. And they’re better than the last, every time.

Syn: I think I get it. You’ve got other things you’ve got to get out.

Burman: It’s not a bad thing.

Syn: Bands run their course, but you guys… Two years, that’s not too long, you know.

Burman: More people should do it. More people should be in a band for two years.

Jeffries: Because it’s really fun! We didn’t really have much time, in our two years, to be pissed off at each other. We’re all best friends. Nothing’s changed about that.

Lind: I would never leave the house in flip flops.

[Lind is oddly silent]

Jeffries: I don’t own a pair either—I’m proud of that. I don’t own a fedora, and I don’t own flip flops.

Jeffries: Wow, Kirt doesn’t like us I guess.

Lind: I feel like when men leave the house in flip flops they’re basically saying, “I’m not going to be worth a shit today. I’m not going to be able to run or climb or lift or move...”

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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

Lind: No, I’m just going to cry.

I glance at the band’s white-board and imagine an image that isn’t there—the image of a meteorite moving towards us and

breaking apart into separate pieces. Those individual pieces become larger and more pronounced as they draw closer, even as the meteor itself is no more. This band isn’t so much breaking up as they are breaking out. This is really a chance for a solid group of musicians to re-organize and experiment with different ideas.

Lind: Yeah, Aric’s got his Solar Estates project and I’m going to finally start a band to play my solo songs. I just put out my seventh solo album and I’ve yet to perform any of those songs live. It’s going to happen; in 2014; this is the year. Phil’s got a new album with Shabby Car coming out in the fall.

Jeffries: It’s really hard. It’s really scary, you know. Being in this—it’s been successful, in Chico. It’s scary to go, “Okay, now we’re going to stop this and start from scratch.”

While the members seem to have their eyes clearly focused on future endeavors, French Reform isn’t quite through yet.

Lind: We’re going to shoot [the video] this weekend. We’re going to finish up the last recording on the song tonight, and then work on the video this weekend. So yeah, we’re going to go out with a bang.

Syn: Alright. Any sneak previews?

Burman: It’s going to be pretty fucking nostalgic.

Jeffries: That’s exactly what it’s going to be.

The mood gets somber as the finality of the decision sets in.

Burman: There’s some place up to go from here. We’ve made a good impression, had a good time, party’s over.

Jeffries: I hope we shook things up a little bit. I hope that’s what happened.

Come out and catch French Reform one last time as they take the stage at Duffy’s Tavern on Saturday, April 26th. Burman describes his vision of the evening: “We’re planning on playing for a good hour, hour and a half. Dance party afterwards—DJ the night away.” The band encourages everyone to dress to the nines, and assures me “we won’t be wearing tank tops and flip flops. We’ll do a little better than that.”

Food & Drink come watch the playoffs!

Closed.

We need to drink, too!

Monday

warriors

tues, apr 22 @ kings 7:00pm mon, apr 21 @ clippers 7:30pm Thur, apr 24 @ kings 7:30pm thur, apr 24 @ clippers 7:30pm sat, apr 26 @ kings TBD sun, apr 27 @ clippers 7:30pm

Wednesday

see you this week for the game!

3 4 4 W E S T 8 t h S t | c h i c o, c a | 5 3 0 - 3 4 3 - 2 7 9 0

Thursday Friday Saturday

Angry Mondays!

Angry Orchard specials $6 angry hot wings Happy Hour 2-6pm M-F $1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR & Olympia Pool Rates Cut in 1/2!

$6.50 Pulled pork sand w/ fries or salad 25 cent wings from halftime 'til they're gone!

MONSTER MONDAY SPECIALS 6PM-CLOSE BEER $3/4/5/6 $1 SHOTS FREE Pool after 10PM

Closed

$3 Sierra and Domestic Pints $ 3.50 Kamis ALL DAY!

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Two Dollar Tuesdays! $2 PBRs $2 Tacos!

Happy Hour 2-6pm M-F $1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR and Olympia Cans Pool Rates Cut in 1/2!

Chicken Strip Sand only $6.50 before 6 PM DOLLAR DAZE 6-9pm $1 Beer $1 Wells $2 Doubles FREE Pool after 10PM

Come see our beautiful Patio! Happy Hour 4-6: Menu cocktails $1 off. Sierra Nevada Draft $3 Live music 8-10

Closed

WING WEDNESDAY! $2 for 3 Wings

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM Full Bar in Back Room Weds, Fri & Sat Nights!

PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Chicken Waffle Wed.!

8 ball Tourney 6pm sign-up Happy Hour 2-6pm M-F $1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR and Olympia Pool Rates Cut in 1/2!

Reuben Sand w/ fries or salad $6.50 5pm-Close 1/2 off kids items 8pm-Close Pitcher Specials $6/$9/$12 FREE Pool after 10PM

Come see our beautiful Patio! Happy Hour 4-6: Menu cocktails $1 off.

Sierra Nevada Draft $3

$3 20oz Slushies $2 12oz Slushies $2 Wells, Drafts and Bartender Specials $5 Vodka Red Bull

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Chico Jazz Collective 8-midnight Happy Hour 2-6pm M-F $1.00 off Sierra & Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR and Olympia Pool Rates Cut in 1/2!

Baby Back Ribs $10.99 Philly Cheesesteak $7.50

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 J채ger $5 DBL Vodka Red Bull $6 J채ger Red Bull $2 Kamikaze shots FREE Pool after 10PM

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

Food Truck Friday: Pop's Pizza wood-fired pizza's made to order on the patio, all night!

Happy Hour from 4-6.

Bartender Specials $3 14oz Slushies $4 20oz Slushies

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

S THE FINAL

Please Drink Responsibly

8PM-Close $2.50 Fire Eater Shots $6 DBL Bacardi Cocktails

Open 9PM NO COVER!

IS AT DUFFY'S

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Come see our beautiful Patio! Happy Hour 4-6: Menu cocktails $1 off. Sierra Nevada Draft $3

WE OPEN AT 12:00PM MIMOSAS WITH FRESH SQUEEZED OJ FOR $5 UNTIL 5PM.

Sunday

12

Mon-Fri Happy Hour 12-4PM $3 Sierra & Domestic Pints 6PM - close $1 Off Pitchers

Tuesday san jose sharks

Closed

HOW

Mon-Fri Happy Hour 12-4PM $3 Sierra & Domestic Pints $3.50 Soccer moms $6 Dbl Roaring Vodka

Mon-Fri Happy Hour 12-4PM $3 Sierra & Domestic Pints Weekend Blast Off!!

8-close $5 Blasters 12-6PM $1 off pitchers 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

FRIDAY

4/26 $5/10pm

337 Main St.

530-343-1745

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

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 JAZZ Drink Specials

FIREBALL FRIDAYS!!!!

LIVE MUSIC Drink Specials

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

Happy Hour 11-6PM select bottles & drafts $2.75

CLOSED

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

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

BEAR WEAR! 1/2 off while wearing Bear Wear.

MUG CLUB 4-10PM

$2 All Day $2 Select Sierra Nevada or Dom Drafts $2 Kamis -any flavor

$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials Happy Hour 4-8pm

Happy Hour 4 - 7pm

TRIKE RACES! Post time @ 10pm.

Win T-shirts and Bear Bucks.

MUG CLUB 4-10PM

All 16 oz Teas or AMF $3 All Day

GAME NIGHT 9-11PM $3.50 Sky Vodka Cocktails

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.

$1.50 sliders and other cheap eats!

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

$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

$4 World Famous Bloody Joe $5 Premium bloodys your choice of vodka

vs

$3 domestic pints $6 dbl roaring

$3.50 soccer moms

$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!!

Happy Hour 4-8pm

PATIO OPEN at 2PM Happy Hour 4-8pm

Champagne Brunch 11am - 2pm $3 Champagne with entree

game 3 thurs apr 24

vodka

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

n b a p l ayo f f s

Champagne Brunch and SPORTS!

WEDNESDAY + SATURDAY

134 BROADWAY ST. | 530.893.5253

BOTTLE SERVICE Now Available!

Call for reservation 898-9898

9

Call for reservation 898-9898 Open at 9PPM

Sunday

Champagne Brunch 11am-2pm Every Sunday $3 champagne with purchase of an entrée

177 E 2nd St, Chico (530) 895-8817

OPEN THUR-SAT 9PM // 132 E. 2ND STREET // 530.898.9898

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 13

This Week Only...

BEST BETS IN ENTERTAINMENT

Saturday, April 26th

Thursday, April 24th BOGG FEATURING TYBOX

BIG TREE FALL DOWN CD RELEASE PARTY

CAFE CODA

CAFE CODA

The multi-talented Bogg is using their glorious grooves to frame the stellar MC, Tybox—for a show this week, and for an upcoming full-length record. Go to Bogg’s Bandcamp to listen to their first collaboration with Tybox; the song “Smoke And Mirrors.” It’s trippy, chilled, intelligent, and fun—just like you! Ft. Avant Groove & Playboy Smooth. $5, 8pm

They used to be Boss 501; they used to be Brass Hysteria; but they were always fantastic and fond of great horn arrangements. They won a Cammie for the best Ska/Punk band in town.

They have a fantastic new album.

Get into it. Also featuring Keyser Soze (Reno), BandMaster Ruckus, The Vesuvians, and Furlough Fridays. $8, 7:30pm

Saturday, April 26th

Sunday, April 27th INTRO TO MEDITATION WITH REX STROMNESS

88 KEYS AT CHICO STATE ROWLAND-TAYLOR HALL

APR 23RD 2014 9PM-CLOSE

229 BROADWAY ST, CHICO, CA

Other new and exciting things!

21 Monday

t h g i N e e i d La own the night

thursdays

buck11h:3o0upr m 10:30-

Sierra Nevada Big Room: Mojo Green. $15, 7:30pm

22 Tuesday

Lost On Main: Dillinger Escape Plan, Trash Talk, Retox, Shining. $17, 7:30pm

23 Wednesday

El Rey: Zoso: Led Zeppelin Tribute. $15, 7:30pm LaSalles: Screaming For Silence, Socorro, Girls Drink Free, Bob Goblin, Death Rattle. $5, 9pm Senator: Tyler Farr. $18, 8pm

25 Friday

Avenue 9 Gallery: Reception for Art Guild’s exhibit “Delbert Rupp: Enigma” ft. music by Charlie Robinson.

Free, 5-8pm Blue Room: Twilight Zone Live, two episodes in one show! $10, 7:30pm Chico Art Center: “Creative Fusion” Art Reception. 5-7pm Chico Womens Club: Ebony & Ivory Dance Party. The Amy Celeste Band ft. Jim Schmidt on piano. $12, 6pm Harlen Adams Theatre: “Facts Of Jazz” by Chico State’s Jazz X-Press.

Tix @ University Box Office, 7:30pm Lost On Main: Down North (Seattle), Sofa King. 9pm Monstros: He Whose Ox Is Gored

EAT. DRINK. PLAY. 229 BROADWAY ST, CHICO, CA 14

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

YOGA CENTER OF CHICO

Solo and Ensemble performances from some of Chico State’s brightest keyboard players—including Wade Gess, recent winner of the Paradise Orchestra Symphony Young Artist Competition. Proceeds benefit the Music & Theatre Department’s Keyboard Program. $15 General Admission, $6 Students/Children, add $2 if purchased at the door. 7:30pm.

Find Out How you Can Play Pool for Only $1/Day!

Everyone knows that regular meditation benefits just about every bodily process we’re aware of. Traditionally, meditation (dhyana) is the foundation of all Yoga. You’ll learn techniques to help calm and the focus the mind from a local master of the art: Rex Stromness has studied and practiced Zen and Vippassana meditation since the ‘70s. $25, 3-5pm.

(Seattle), Shadow Limb, Cold Blue Mountain. $5, 8pm Senator: Floater, Lonely Kings, Dr. Luna. $15, 8pm

26 Saturday

Blue Room: Twilight Zone Live, two episodes in one show! $10, 7:30pm Boys & Girls Club: Youth Empowered Leadership Conference 2014.

Free lunch and dinner. Free, 115pm, blacklight dance 5:30-9:30pm Duffys: French Reform’s final performance. 9:30pm El Rey: Floater acoustic show. $12, 8pm Lost On Main: The Rugs, Jive Coulis (OR), JP Gutierrez. $3 before 11pm,

$5 after. 9pm Maltese: Pat Hull, Smoking Flowers, Sean Harrasser. $5, 9pm Monstros: The Secretions, Fight Music, Guerilla Gorilla, We Bite. $5, 8pm

27 Sunday

Blue Room: Twilight Zone Live, actor’s benefit show. $10, 7:30pm Harlen Adams Theatre: “A Choral Potpourri” by the University Chorus, Acappella Choir, and Chamber Singers. Tix @ University Box Office, 2pm Sierra Nevada Big Room: Nor-Cal Jazz Festival. $25, 1:30-6:30pm

LESSONS, LEAGUES AND TOURNAMENTS! GREAT FOOD! LIVE MUSIC! 319 Main Street (530) 892-2473

Ongoing Events 21 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 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.

22 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 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

23 Wednesday

100th Monkey: Open Mic. All ages.

7pm The Bear: Trike Races. Post time 10pm Cafe Flo: Live Jazz, 5-7pm 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 Woodstocks: Trivia Night plus Happy Hour. call at 4pm to reserve a table. Starts at 8pm

24 Thursday

100th Monkey: Chico Story Slam.

Tell a 5-min unscripted personal story for prizes. 7-9pm The Beach: DJ Mack Morris.

10:30pm The Bear: DJ Dancing. Free, 9pm Cafe Flo: Delta Blues Project w.

Porkchop Holder. 7-10pm Chico Theatre Company: Shrek The Musical. 7:30pm DownLo: Chico Jazz Collective.

8-11pm. All ages until 10pm

LIFE IN CHICO

The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm Has Beans: Open Mic Night.

7-10pm. Signups start at 6pm Holiday Inn Bar: Karaoke.

8pm-midnight LaSalles: Free live music on the patio. 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

25 Friday

Avenue 9 Gallery: Art Guild’s exhibit “Delbert Rupp: Enigma” 12-5pm The Beach: DJ2k & Mack Morris.

9pm The Bear: DJ Dancing. Free, 9pm Cafe Coda: Friday Morning Jazz with Bogg. 11am 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

26 Saturday

Avenue 9 Gallery: Art Guild’s exhibit “Delbert Rupp: Enigma” 12-5pm 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. The Molly Gunn’s Revival! 8pm-midnight LaSalles: 80’s Night. 8pm-close Panamas: DJ Eclectic on the patio.

9pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm

SICILIAN CAFÉ

27 Sunday

Chico Theatre Company: Shrek The Musical. 2pm 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

Do you like Life in Chico? So do we! “Like” Life in Chico, CA

facebook.com/ChicoCA

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On The Town 16

PHOTOS BY VINCE LATHAM FACEBOOK.COM/VANGUARD.PHOTOGRAPHY

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

by logan kruidenier - logankruidenier.tumblr.com

Star Wars Live!

Friday, April 25th, 5:30pm Rotary Plaza

BY STEPHANIE DITTY

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... Well, actually, in the near future right here in Chico, comes Star Wars! The local Boys and Girls Club’s award winning program, The Triple Threats, will be recreating one the most exciting movies ever made.

The Triple Threats program was created by local veteran actress Samantha Perry, and focuses on singing, dancing, and theater.

She, with help of fellow instructor Steven McKeever, adapted the beloved movie into a kid-friendly script for stage. Said Perry, “It’s so thrilling to see the next generation of kids just as excited about Star Wars as our generation.”

The Triple Threats introduces the kids to all sorts of new ideas when it comes to performing. Casting isn’t focused on gender roles, but rather who brings the most creative aspect to the character. Luke Skywalker is played by a young lady, and last year’s performance of The Wizard of Oz replaced Dorothy with Dorian. The program tries to focus on teaching the kids understanding of the craft and how to work on their own character development. It’s not just about memorizing lines, but about creating a show.

The program is also intended to get the community involved with the Boys and Girls Club, so every performance has been free and open to everyone (not just parents). The kids have been rehearsing for two months now, and are ready to show the public what they can do.

“Triple Threats means so much to me,” said Cecelia M., a 10 year old club member who plays Princess Leia. “Acting, singing, and dancing isn’t my hobby—it’s my passion!”

Using more modern, fun pieces that the kids are familiar with helps get them excited about what they’re doing. They have something they can relate to and adapt to their own ability and creativity. They don’t have to try to decipher some archaic play and then try to do a convincing performance. They all know Star Wars and understand the intent of the show, so they have more freedom to play around with their characters.

Said Steven McKeever, “It’s such an exciting experience to watch the kids embrace this material and give it their all. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of the work they’ve done.”

The Star Wars performance is free and open to the public, and takes place outside on the Rotary Plaza (at the Boys and Girls Club on 6th St. and Wall) on April 25th at 5:30. “I wanted to give it a ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ feel,” said Perry. Everyone is encouraged to come and enjoy the show.

It’s one day only—you don’t want to miss out.

May the Force be with you.

PHOTOS BY VINCE LATHAM FACEBOOK.COM/VANGUARD.PHOTOGRAPHY

On The Town

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 17

Koreanical Ruminations: Part One

BY ZOOEY MAE I’ve traveled internationally before, but I don’t think I’m what you might call “well-traveled.” Although I’ve been to Mexico, Germany, and France, the idea of South Korea was so far outside of anywhere I’ve been, and anything I’ve ever experienced, that I had some major anxiety going into it. I then made the mistake of watching about 5 combined hours of YouTube videos about the customs in Korea that an idiot American (like me) should be aware of when traveling there.

The main thing I worried about was the extensive gestures and hand motions that can be offensive if not done correctly. For example, in the event of purchasing something and handing money over, you’re supposed to hand it with your right hand, with your left hand touching your right arm, around the elbow area. There’s also a whole litany of customs surrounding drinking; pouring drinks for others, which hands you should be using to drink, and which direction you should be facing to drink the aforementioned drinks. It’s exhausting. My point is that I was really anxious about offending someone. I’m sure that at some point in my eleven days there I probably did, but I’m hoping they just chalked it up to me being a dumb ol’ Merican, and weren’t hurt in any lasting way.

I suppose it bears mentioning that the reason I traveled to Seoul was for a wedding. My brother’s, to be exact. He married a wonderfully nice lady named Mirin a few years ago, but her family wasn’t able to attend the wedding. So we decided to go there to have a wedding so her family could attend, and so that we could all see what my brother would look like in a dress (I’ll get into that later).

The Flight Holy mother of God. The flight there lasted about eleven hours, but it felt more like thirty. There were at least ten babies (including me) on my flight, who wouldn’t stop whining and crying. Why do people bring babies on flights? Don’t they know that it’s awful and everyone hates them for it? I can’t believe there’s no rule about babies on flights. On this flight I learned that apparently the “Please Fasten Seatbelts” sign does not apply to babies or toddlers. During a spot of turbulence on the way there, there were at least four babies roaming the aisles, staring at people with their big dumb eyes and getting their general stickiness on arm rests and people’s pant legs. Not even the flight attendants gave a shit. It was madness. I think 18

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

there should be a rule that you must stow your baby in the overhead compartments, or store it in a crate in the bottom of the plane. If it’s good enough for our pets, why not our children? My mother tells me that this is a terrible thing to say, and how are families with small children supposed to travel?

Steamboats and hot air balloons, obviously.

We arrived in Seoul dirty and bedraggled, collected our luggage and greeted Mirin’s family. It was really sweet to see her parents greet her. In a culture where making an emotional spectacle of oneself seems to be frowned upon, it’s almost clearer to see the weight of the emotions that they do show.

We made our way outside, hailed a cab and rode for about an hour to our hotel.

Seoul is easily the biggest city I’ve ever been to. In every direction you look there’s a city skyline as far as you can see.

In the morning, around 9am, we set out to find some coffee and breakfast. Coffee, as it turns out, was not a problem to locate. I’ve never been anywhere with more coffee shops per capita than Seoul. It was madness. Every third store was a coffee spot, although most of them didn’t open until 11am.

I’m still not sure if that’s because the point of coffee there isn’t to wake you up, but rather to provide a good social entity to gather around, or because their work day doesn’t really start before 11. Breakfast, on the other hand, was a bit trickier.

Again, because nothing really opens before 11, we had trouble finding a restaurant that would accommodate us that early.

Finally we found a little place that hadn’t planned on opening that early, but I think Mirin explained to the owners that her yankee cowboy family needed to eat soon, because we are Americans who need to stuff their faces every hour or so.

The food in Korea was great, but most everything we ate had the same pickled/spicy taste as everything else. Which is fantastic for the first few days, but after a while I started to

long for a salad or piece of regular bread. After breakfast, which consisted of about thirty tiny plates of spicy pickled things, soup and rice, we went to a beautiful little memorial park with a giant statue of a Korean man with a brilliant mustache. We also saw the first evidence of an amazing trend in Seoul, which is free exercise equipment everywhere. Every so often there was a little break in the shops and there would be three or four pieces of exercise equipment set up for people to use. I never actually saw anyone using them (except us, because why not), but they were still pretty amazing.

Walking around I was struck by how much construction is happening there all the time. Literally on every block there were men tearing out sidewalks, renovating stores, or giant cranes tearing off or adding onto the tops of buildings. Nothing really lasts too long here, at least not in the same spot. For the first few days we did a ton of walking, some shopping, and some (semi) adventurous eating, including a visit to a restaurant that served only blowfish. Turns out blowfish tastes like… every other white fish sushi I’ve ever had. It’s good, but not amazing. We also ordered what looked on the menu like steamed dumplings. Apparently my brother and Mirin knew what they were (testicles), but wanted to order them anyway to see if they could get everyone to eat balls. They came out on steamed banana leaves, and the server struggled to get them onto our plates using chopsticks, actually popping two of them in the process. They looked like burnt marshmallows with oozy slime inside with little black dots. Obviously there was no way I was eating that, but I enjoyed watching everyone else try it.

The best part turned out to be when my dad, who is a little hard of hearing, didn’t hear us explain what they were, so ate about a third of his because he was “just trying to be polite.”

That’s all for this week, check back next week to hear about the fancy toilets, blood soup, and my trip to the puppy cafe, AKA Heaven.

Frack is Whack, and Butte’s Stayin’ Clean

Via Emily Teague

Art Review

BY TOMMY DIESTEL In the wake of the recent Board of Supervisors decision to ban the practice of Hydraulic Fracturing in Butte county, local Frack-tivist Dave Garcia sat down with the Synthesis to tell us what the Frack is going on.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to the Synthesis! Could you start by giving me a background of how the Frack Free Butte County campaign started?

FFBC Camp started three years ago. I started showing Gasland at house parties, and really just wanted to make fracking a household word. That progressed into more people getting concerned, and we eventually developed a group called Butte Citizen Action Network, which was a loose group of organizations from B.E.C, to Sierra Club, to Citizen’s Water Watch, California Student Sustainability Coalition, Label GMOs, deciding we wanted to do something about fracking in the county. So we started the Frack Free Butte County campaign in order to get a voter referendum, essentially a ban on fracking in Butte County. Currently there is no fracking in Butte and we’d like to keep it that way. So the campaign is in the process of collecting the minimum of 7600 signatures so we can put that on the November ballot. And that would allow residents of the county to decide whether they want to have it in the county versus corporations making that decision for us. We’re looking at a community rights, community sovereignty type of referendum.

You called me right after you were at the Board of Supervisors meeting where the voted to ban fracking in the county. Can you tell us a little about that?

Yeah! That was very exciting. Not only were we working on a voter referendum, but we were also working other angles for trying to get some fracking regulations in the Butte County general plan. Currently the general plan talks about oil and gas extraction which is not allowed in the County, except in the two agricultural zones and the timber zones under a conditional use permit. But under that language, it doesn’t talk about fracking at all. We were trying to get the board of supervisors to implement so kind of restrictions on fracking within the county.

We were able to do that by first going to the Butte County Water Commission, and we gave a presentation to them and they voted 6-1 recommending the board of supervisors implement some kind of regulations for fracking. When we did our presentation to the board of supervisors we were originally asking for a conditional use permit with special restrictions for fracking, and we were maybe hoping for the implementation of a moratorium through the board of supervisors. Steve Lambert

made the motion to ban fracking, which stunned us because we had no idea they were willing to go that far with the issue, and they didn’t know amongst themselves how much emotion they felt about this issue, and we learned all of that through the discussion.

So now that Butte County has banned the practice of hydraulic fracturing, what does that mean for the campaign? What are the future few months going to look like now?

Weeeelll, it hasn’t quite been banned yet. So they voted to ban it, now county council has to go back and write up language to ban the actual process. We’ve been invited to participate in writing the language, so hopefully in May or June the board will be completing the process. As for our campaign, we still pushing for the voter referendum, because we know we’re up against the richest entity in the world- the oil industry- and they have plenty of money to buy politicians. If we only go with the board’s vote they can easily buy elections and supervisors to overturn that vote. If we can get the referendum through the residents of the county, the only way they could reverse it would be with another referendum or through the courts.

Right now we’re concerned because we’re behind on getting signatures. We’re training people to gather signatures, and are putting out a call to all local residents to assist us in gathering signatures so we can reach the minimum 7600. We’re not out of the woods yet. With the board of supervisors decision, soon big oil will be coming here and tossing money around to overturn what we’ve been doing. We’re the first domino. We’re the first county in California to ban fracking. The oil industry will do whatever they can to make sure this domino doesn’t fall. It’s just starting.

For more information on the Frack Free Butte County Campaign, or to learn how to get involved and sign the petition, check out the group on Facebook: facebook.com/frackfreebuttecounty

PERMEATE

Graphite on Paper by Christina Seashore At Naked Lounge

By Quet’zl

“Mmmmm.. Damn.” Those were my first words upon entering the gallery at Naked Lounge and seeing the new art by Christina Seashore.

This is that goat-feta-cheese kind of art!

Smooth, subtle, very striking, with some nicely textured perspectives. There is something about this exhibition that puts you in a state of limbo, where you are not quite sure if these are pieces of art or little windows into another dimension of human experience. It’s clear that she put a lot of feeling into this show; each piece pulls at some part of the soul.

Seeing each different piece evokes a different kind of consciousness. The abstract mind plays like an enigma; we’re never really sure what was going through the artist’s mind as they were creating the work... What moves behind the realm of the physical body?

What influences the cells that make us up, and combines the two worlds of internal and external? Emotion, I think… and the experience of those emotions creates your perception of reality.

Christina does a great job at illustrating that to the viewer through this 2D expression; her art leaves you with some unnameable insight—something to contemplate as you go about your day…

Be sure to check out PERMEATE at the Naked Lounge, the show is up until April 30th.

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 19

Poetry POETRY GOT ME A PASSING GRADE IN HIGH SCHOOL, FRENCH REFORM CALLS IT, AND RECENT PERSONAL LOSSES STILL WRENCH AT THE HEART. I’ve taken to writing poetry again. I wrote more of it when I was much younger.

I don’t consider the songs I write to be poems, though I would be hard-pressed to explain the difference.

Poetry got me through senior English class, back when I was in high school. I was a dreadful student, but when it came time for the poetry section I was the only kid in my class who chose to compose original works. My writing then was hormonallydriven, angst-filled, and melodramatic, but my teacher Mrs. DeLuca loved it. There is no other reason I merited a passing grade: I couldn’t be bothered to read the assigned books, and my essays were well-worded but complete malarkey. A note scrawled at the top of one such paper exemplified my work. It read: “It is obvious you read little, if any, of this book.” I earned an F on that one.

Poetry saved me, and I ended up passing with a high B, if memory serves. Mrs. Deluca told me I was one of the two best poets she’d ever taught. When I asked what the other one ended up doing with his talent she informed me he composed the phrases inside greeting cards for a living. It seems like that was about the time I stopped seriously writing poetry.

Poetry is a good discipline—every word, every syllable is considered. It is a precise form of language that can tap into ethereal realms wordier forms can’t enter. Poetry bridges the gap between music, dance, and prose. The best poems bring us to the threshold of the vibrating inner core of existence.

Adieu, French Reform

On The Town 20

PHOTOS BY JESSICA SID

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014

The dance floors in Chico will be vibrating a little less these days as French Reform has decided to call it quits. If all goes well, I’ll be sitting down with the band later this week to query them about the decision. Their music takes me back to my youth and the pulsating, manic-melancholic dance of the 1980s. Back then I was all metal, all the time, and would not have abided their style, but I’m happy to say that my tastes have expanded since then.

French Reform captured a sound, sent pulses

The losses hurt, and they leave dark, empty spaces racing, and got crowds moving. Their absence will leave a hole in the scene, but hopefully new bands are being formed—not to take their place, but to serve as further tributaries feeding into the river of music.

Still Working through Recent Losses We lose the ones we love, inevitably; sometimes “on schedule,” other times tragically and prematurely. The losses hurt, and they leave dark, empty spaces. Those spaces never really get filled. They shouldn’t get filled. Pain and grief aren’t emotions to be ignored or avoided. Ecstasy isn’t happiness; it is an embrace of chaos, experiencing all emotions powerfully, at once. Bliss is cellular comprehension of divine order, and an emotion I rarely experience.

Happiness will come in time, as wildflowers emerge when they are ready. The older I get the more I accept the cycles. I understand intellectually that pain will subside and joy will return, but sometimes my heart isn’t buying what my brain is putting down.

Immaculate Infection

by Bob Howard Madbob@madbob.com

The Putin/Palin GOP Dream Ticket for 2016 WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN RUBLES

American right wingers are having an orgasmic love affair with Vlad Putin, the former KGB agent and topless model who currently runs things over in Russia, the place Ronald Reagan thought was the black heart of “the evil empire,” and the place Sarah Palin can see from her house. The Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, which is about the only wing they have if you don’t count the really rich guys whose money and clout provide the never-ending hate-and-fear that keeps so many less-than-bright Americans upset about all the wrong things. Keeping the yahoos stirred up and fearful is a piece of cake for the corporate honchos who control American media and use that forum to warn working people about things like the war on Christmas, and the threat to democracy from voter fraud, a fraudulent issue that keeps old white people convinced that black people are cheating at just about everything from voting to food stamp eligibility. In this Fox-y scenario, lots of retirees spend their golden years resenting how all those darker-skinned people are a) sucking up benefits that should rightfully be theirs, and b) are about to murder them in their beds or on the streets. Only the NRA stands between them and that horde of murderous black thugs in hoodies haunting their darkest nightmares.

And with a black dude in the White House (ain’t that a bitch?) there are easy ways to ensure that fear never lets up, making the job of the Koch brothers and the Walmart heirs easier than it’s ever been when it comes to distracting the inattentive or the stupid from real threats to their well being, or their grandkids’ futures.

more pliable right wingers worked up. There’s also the gay folks who haunt the insecurities of assorted white guys who feel such need for guns and roaring engines between their legs in order to quiet that sneaking suspicion that they might actually be gay themselves.

Y’know, like all those “wide stance” Republican gay bashers who’ve gotten caught with their pants down, literally, in men’s rooms and gay bars where they weren’t supposed to be.

What better manifestation of latent homsexual yearnings than this man crush so many right wing dipwads have on Vladimir Putin, a guy who loves parading around half nekkid to the delight of bully boy right wingers who get pretty horny just looking at this guy’s pec pics as he poses, sans shirt, holding a big gun—a bad ass real men can look up to, though it doesn’t bear much thought imagining what position a real man would have to be in to look up to this strutting little shrimp (Putin’s 5’5”, and he clearly has never gotten over it).

Unlike Barack Obama, Putin’s no pussy, and if they could trade Obama for Putin, they’d take the trade in a hot minute.

Throw in Simpleminded Sister Sarah on the bottom half of the ticket and you’ve got a Republican Dream Team for the 2016 presidential race.

Old Crock

by Jaime O'Neill jaimeandkarenoneill@gmail.com

But it ain’t just dark people who keep the

PHOTOS BY JESSICA SID

On The Town

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 21

APRIL 21, 2014

BY KOZ MCKEV

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Begin the week by finishing up some of last week’s business. Tuesday and Wednesday are good for friends and socializing. Mars continues to move retrograde across your seventh house.

Maybe we need to rethink our wishes about our partner? Focus more on personal values, and let others work on their values.

The weekend looks good for dedicating some time to yourself. Find out what really inspires you and pursue it wholeheartedly. New beginnings are happening.

Taurus season is here with the sun in your sign till the evening of May 20th. Move forward with projects that are personally dear to you.

You become more conscious as of Wednesday when Mercury will enter your first house. Communication becomes easier. Venus in the eleventh house brings creative people and female friends into your life. Monday is a lucky day this week.

Tuesday and Wednesday are strong career days. It’s best to lay low this weekend and to catch up on rest.

I see a big stop sign up ahead. This is the time to focus more on your spiritual life as well as the projects that you never were able to complete. Pay attention to messages in dreams. Find a way to work on your personal karma.

Be sensitive to the needs of your inner life. Help those who are isolated and unable to help themselves.

The weekend looks good for socializing and meeting up with good friends. When you are being good to others you are being good to yourself.

Much of this week has to do with conforming to the wishes of others. The sign of Taurus represents helpful friends to you. Monday looks good for romance.

Thursday and Friday are your luckiest days, with the moon transiting your ninth house.

These are also good days for travel and for education.

The weekend is a good time to show off your talents and skills, along with doing things that spruce up your public image. Be sensitive to other people’s wishes when it comes to invitations and parties.

The beautifier finds ways to express his or her soul according to the wishes of the masses at large. Cooking, gardening, music, and art are ways to express this sort of beauty. Your career is more in focus. Be prepared to take on new challenges in order to get your career off the ground. Accept leadership positions in a humble way.

Make sure you perform the necessary maintenance on the vehicles that you own.

Tuesday and Wednesday are good for relationships, while the weekend looks good for travel.

Your luck changes for the better. Monday you seek to implement your creative ideas. On Tuesday and Wednesday, strive to put effort into team projects.

Thursday and Friday are good for negotiations and romance. This weekend, it may be best to go along with other people’s ideas.

Education, experimentation, and taking the higher road are in order. Go to places that you have never been to before.

Seek to share your wealth of knowledge as you continue to learn more yourself.

Libra

Scorpio

Saggitarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

Service is love, as Venus is transiting your sixth house.

The sun is transiting your eighth house, and sex, birth, death, other peoples property, and occult interests seem to take over. You are not in control even though you would like to be. Part of you needs to hold back.

Career-wise things are going well. Tuesday and Wednesday offer opportunities for you to express your creativity.

Be open to allowing other people to help you whenever you run into a snag or a brick wall. The weekend should be lovely.

We cannot control the activities of others, but we can pray for those who appear to be wishing us harm. Prayers of resolution will bring comfort to your own soul if nothing else.

Your imagination is activated and you are able to engage in many creative works.

Thursday and Friday are heart opening creative days for you. The weekend looks good for spring cleaning, organizing, and working on personal health issues. Be more sensitive to partnerships, as well as to your partner’s needs.

Keep your nose to the grindstone. You may easily be distracted by good weather and fun times, yet the work needs to be accomplished.

Seek out a workable game plan. Ask for help. People are happy to help you.

Cooperation and team efforts should proceed without a hitch. The weekend is filled with a creative, fun loving and productive tone. Be prepared to express yourself in a wild and untamed way.

Make good karma by doing charitable acts and by being giving.

We begin Monday with the moon in Capricorn. Try to get as much accomplished today as you can. The sun transiting your fifth house inspires creativity, leadership, helping children, and having romance. Rediscover your inner clown. Be available for the people you love. The weekend looks good for attending to family, doing housework, and paying attention to memories and history. You’re getting into a flow where resources should begin to improve. Be kind and generous.

One reason we hold back is because we don’t feel that we are powerful enough to do something. When we step out of our self-imposed boxes we are more able to expand our picture of self.

The moon will be in Aquarius on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It’s time to rediscover your personal power and intelligence. Family issues, domestic projects, and being comfortable with your own feelings is a priority. The weekend looks good for working with your hands, taking a small trip, or hanging with the locals.

There is no need to feel inhibited. You have many good things to offer others.

This is a good time to put your thoughts and ambitions into writing. Learn to believe in yourself. You have compassion, artistic imagination, and spiritual sensitivity working in your favor. The moon will be in Pisces Thursday and Friday. This is a good time to practice on projects of passion. Be honest, direct and truthful when it comes to conversation. The weekend looks good for making money as well as taking care of what you already have.

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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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM APR 21 2014