San Diego City Beat 010219

2 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

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UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

The coming storm: Part 3

O

ver the last three issues, I used this space to we can do to make riders safer. The same logic should discuss and preview some of the issues that extend to scooters. The long-delayed, protected bike the city council and mayor will (hopefully) ad- lanes connecting Downtown, Little Italy, Bankers Hill dress in the New Year. So far, I’ve addressed the city and Balboa Park—as well as the announcement of budget, affordable housing, the mayor’s convention the bike/scooter-friendly Normal Street promenade center expansion, homelessness and short-term va- in Hillcrest—are a great start, but San Diego remains cation rentals. I was all set to discuss public transit severely behind other cities when it comes to safe, reand infrastructure in the last issue, but the State Au- liable and functional ways of getting around the city ditor’s report on the hepatitis A outbreak obviously without a car.

The City Council has said they plan to address scoottook precedent. This week, I wanted to devote the entire editorial to public transit since there have been a ers in 2019, but with more injuries forthcoming and a number of recent developments. I will devote the final new statewide law that makes helmets optional (I mean, not that anyone was using them anyway) kickcolumn in the series to infrastructure. ing in on Jan. 1, the council may have to address the Public transit Over the past month, a few things have happened issue and implement new regulations sooner rather that have brought the issue of public transit back to than later. Expect the fist-pumping scooter haters to be the forefront. First, many city officials—as well as particularly loud during the public comments portion SETH COMBS of that meeting, but also expect the most of the members of the San representatives from Bird, Lime, etc.

Diego Association of Governments to be even louder. and the San Diego County RegionSpeaking of being severely beal Airport Authority—seem keen hind, here’s some food for thought: on the idea of a “San Diego Grand San Diego will soon be the only Central.” That is, a public transit major city that doesn’t have a hub that that would connect all functional, terminal-adjacent mass public transit and provide a muchtransit option at the airport. The needed transit line to and from the only major city. Let that sink in. airport. Secondly, construction has There has been a lot of chatter finally begun in downtown on the recently about how to effectively multi-phase, multi-neighborhood implement a public transit option bike (and scooter) lanes that inat the airport, and with City Counclude barriers that protect riders cil President Georgette Gomez also from automobiles. Finally, Decemserving as the Board Chair of the ber ended with two horrific electric MTS, this is an issue that could scooter accidents, one of which rebe addressed in some capacity in sulted in the death of a rider.

Man bleeds on street an upcoming council session. The Prediction: Just when everyone after crashing scooter mayor and council’s roles are limthought the scooter hullabaloo was ited when it comes to the airport dying down, the NIMBYs are again shouting about the evils of electric scooters (quick and MTS’s overall operations, but there are city budhumblebrag: I actually predicted this would happen get actions that can be taken. And with the city lagback in September if the city didn’t get serious about ging on its Climate Action Campaign goals, I’m hopescooter safety). It’s all just yelling at clouds because ful that the more progressive city council, as well as (news flash!) the scooters are here to stay or, at least, a more amenable mayor, will finally deliver on their they should be. No one on the city council is actively promises of a transportation master plan.

Recent developments and changes at MTS (lowering opposed to them, nor is the mayor, and despite misleading headlines from the U-T on the matter, the fares for students, bus-only lanes on the interstate and scooters are not the problem. Rather, they’re emblem- switching to electric busses) are encouraging, but the atic of a larger issue with the way residents view public mayor and council should start getting serious when it transit and how the city is dragging its feet when it comes to having a public transit system that residents are not only proud of, but proud to ride as well. comes to providing safe bike and scooter lanes.

Think of it this way: If someone gets hit by a car while riding their bike, no one ever starts demanding

—Seth Combs “let’s get rid of the bikes!” No, we ask ourselves what Write to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com This issue of CityBeat will miss the underwhelming and unsavory, but nonetheless satisfying lunches at Junz Teriyaki & BBQ. RIP.

Volume 17 • Issue 20 EDITOR Seth Combs WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos STAFF WRITER Andrea Lopez-Villafaña COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer, Ryan Bradford, Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb, Rhonda “Ro” Moore

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JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

SCRAM SCAMS

I read [Ryan Bradford’s] column in the San Diego CityBeat and wanted to thank you for writing about an online scam [“I Got Got!,” Well, That Was Awkward, Dec. 19]. I am a San Diego District Attorney Investigator and investigate Elder Abuse cases. There are several online scams where elderly people are targeted and are defrauded out of hundreds and thousands of dollars. Currently, the most common scam is the “Granny Scam.” The suspect calls the elderly person and pretends to be their grandchild. They tell the elderly person they are in trouble and need money and the payment can only be made with gift cards. The elderly person rushes to help out their grandchildren and immediately become a victim. I give community presentations every chance I get, in hope that I can prevent further victims from this scam. I believe your column will educate the community and hopefully prevent someone from becoming a victim of an online scam.

Thank you!

Felix Salazar Downtown

with @MargaretAtwood so that is really something.

Kristen Arnett @Kristen_Arnett, via Twitter

NOT THE END

Thank you @CombsSeth and @SDCityBeat for this editorial [“We should not move on,” From the Editor, Dec. 26]. The State audit I requested should be the start, not the end, of a post-outbreak conversation that changes our approaches to public health, homelessness and housing.

Todd Gloria @toddgloria, via Twitter

HEADS MUST ROLL

Dude: @CombsSeth & lady: @theaarynb Thanks for calling things out! We have VERY WEAK gov’t. Gov’t willing to let people (CONSTITUENTS) get sick & die rather than do right thing... WHICH WE PAY FOR, either way! Seth, right, heads must roll for abuse & laziness! @CityofSanDiego & County!

FreedomPleaseOrg G+ @PoorLivesMatt3r, via Twitter

REALLY SOMETHING

And thank you to this very generous anticipatory write up at @SDCityBeat [“Most Anticpated,” The Floating Library, Dec. 26]—first time in my life I’ve been in a list

MOVE YOUR BODY

100% agree with this [“Concert resolutions for the New Year,” Notes from the

4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

Smoking Patio, Dec. 19]. I’ve been to shows all over and San Diego has the worst, most talky, generally annoying crowds. I’d add to this list: Dance. You’re at a music show, move your fucking feet and body.

Regular Dave @Mr_DaveK, via Twitter

TABLE OF CONTENTS UP FRONT From the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Letters to the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spin Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Backwards & In High Heels . . . . . . . . . . .

Well, That Was Awkward . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 4 5 7 9

FOOD & DRINK

WE WANT FEEDBACK Did you read a story in San Diego CityBeat that made your blood boil, or caused you to laugh so hard you pulled a stomach muscle? If something inspires you to send us your two cents we welcome all letters that respond to news stories, opinion pieces or reviews that have run in these pages. We don’t accept unsolicited op-ed letters.

Email letters to editor Seth Combs at seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com, or mail to 3047 University Ave., Suite 202, San Diego, CA 92104. For letters to be considered for publication, you must include your first and last name and the part of town where you reside. Note: All comments left on stories at sdcitybeat.com will also be considered for publication.

World Fare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene. . . . . . . . . . 11 Final Draught. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

THINGS TO DO The Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar of Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-13

ARTS & CULTURE Theater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Feature: La Neta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-20

MUSIC Feature: The Casbah Turns 30. . . . 21-22 The Spotlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 If I Were U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Concerts & Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-26

IN THE BACK Astrologically Unsound . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CannaBitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

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JOHN R. LAMB

UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

CYCLE Hep A to Zzzzz...

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

—Robert Louis Stevenson

So what’s it gonna be, Kevin Faulconer? More of the same flacked-up fizzle that highlighted your first four years as mayor?

Or maybe, just maybe, here’s a thought: Do the opposite.

Spin totally gets what you’re thinking, dear reader: Old dog, new tricks. Faulconer wouldn’t know George Costanza from yadda yadda yadda. It’s much more likely that Admiral Bone Spurs will stop toilet tweeting before Mayor Walks-IntoWalls changes his dance routine.

Hard to argue with that, given Faulconer’s track record of decision-making fruitlessness. But the termed-out mayor will have an opportunity in two weeks when he delivers his second-to-last State of the City address. Once there,

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JOHN R. LAMB

he has the opportunity to give San Diegans a thimbleful of hope that the peak failings of 2018—punctuated by dismal Republican election results in November and a scathing state audit in December—will not be repeated.

What are you smoking, Spin?

None of your biz, but the point is valid: This is a mayor whose background is steeped in public relations, a line of work that specializes in taking the edge off bad situations; of propping up old ideas way past their worthiness if a paying client insists, as well as creating doomsday subterfuge when new ideas threaten established convention.

We’ve also come to learn that Faulconer is not one to lead from the front, preferring instead to ride waves already set in motion by others. There’s no crime in that approach, of course, and certainly not unusual for your typical breed of politician.

Hoping to get some sense of any impending spurt of spontaneity, Spin checked in with the mayor’s

Will Mayor Kevin Faulconer reach boldly into 2019 or let 2018’s failures dog him? office to see if Faulconer had any bold predictions for 2019. Perhaps the blue-tinged New Jersey powerplant explosion interrupted communications. Or maybe Faulconer was keeping his prophecies close to the vest until his Jan. 15 oratory.

Either way, no response emerged.

But hey, this column was hammered out days before the New Year, so let’s just assume the mayor is taking some time to reflect on the harrowing year he is exiting before publicly staking out his course of action.

Hard to imagine anywhere to go but up. The state audit released two weeks ago on the abysmal handling of the region’s lethal hepatitis A outbreak in 2017 heaped much of

the blame on county leaders for lacking a “strong sense of urgency” when first informed of the outbreak in April of that year. (Four months, 16 deaths and hundreds of cases later, the county would finally declared a health emergency.)

The county, in its usual infinite wisdom, chose a defensive, PRinfused posture in response to the audit, using words like “innovation” and “agility” to make its shaky case.

But the city was no innocent bystander. Much hand-wringing over hand-washing stations, coupled with the city’s failure to assess what it was doing before the September 2017 county health emergency declaration, had the state auditor concluding that “the city missed an opportunity to identify issues that may have contributed to delays in the implementation of sanitation measures and to develop steps to address these issues in the future.”

The city’s response (which was basically, Hey, message received!) should provide little comfort in a town not known for proactivity. But a March 31 deadline has been set for the city to report on whatever actions it took prior to the September 2017 emergency declaration, so let’s see how that shakes out.

Faulconer may give us a glimpse of that response during this State of the City, but Spin won’t be holding his breath. The mayor’s speeches tend toward the sugary, generally opening with a bit of levity, followed by a recounting of the year’s municipal rankings as determined by far-flung websites. (Presumably absent from the mayoral boastings will be October’s news that San Diego topped the “booziest cities in America” list based on per-capita alcohol expenditures. Cheers!)

The mayor will likely talk about budget belt-tightening for the coming year, when a Democratic supermajority takes control of the San Diego City Council and its agenda. It will be interesting to

see if Faulconer picks up any new dance moves while working with a group headed by newly minted Council President Georgette Gómez, a unanimous choice among her colleagues and who Spin hopes will apply a cattle prod to Faulconer’s hesitant instincts.

And despite public denials, the rumor that Faulconer might bail from the job early to make way for a 2019 special election to replace him—and coincidentally squeeze in an early, low-turnout public vote on his dream conventioncenter expansion ballot measure— has not completely faded into oblivion. Perhaps the mayor will joke about it in his speech, but it’s almost guaranteed local hoteliers won’t be laughing.

Frankly, Spin wouldn’t trade shoes with Faulconer for all the gin in Ginlandia. It’s a thankless job he’s taken willingly, and he has two years left to get something right.

He’s unlikely to get any help from his local party leadership, which he thought was evolving but instead remains hip-deep on the muck-laden Trump bandwagon.

And he endorsed Lorie Zapf and Myrtle Cole right out of existence.

Again, just a thought, Mr. Mayor, but maybe give this opposite thing a try. A New Year’s resolution, perhaps. If your instincts say, for example, tuna salad on toast and a cup of coffee, why not try chicken salad on untoasted rye… and a cup of tea?

To paraphrase Seinfeld, instead of tuna salad and being intimidated by tough decisions, go with chicken salad and embrace the difficult. Otherwise, 2019 might just be more of 2018—and who in their right mind wants a repeat of that?

It’s a New Year, Mr. Mayor.

Get in there and mix it up. There might even be a political future for you somewhere—somehow—if you do.

Spin Cycle appears every other week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

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UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

More goodness in 2019

A

s 2018 began to wind down within a torrent of bad news that left me feeling emotionally bludgeoned and a little bit sad about humanity, I received a DM from a stranger.

“Hi, Aaryn,” it read. “I saw your post from yesterday. Are you guys still searching for housing options? We have an extra room in our house if they want to stay here for a while. We could help out with some meals... I always imagined that the guest room in our house would serve as more than just a temporary place for friends and family to stay when they’re visiting.”

The DM was an inquiry about N&K, the young homeless couple that came into my life in late October (see my last column), and the “post” was a plea I made on Facebook to anyone who might be in a position to open their doors and hearts to my friends. After being in a relationship with N&K for seven weeks, it was clear to my husband and me that what was needed more than anything for our friends—and, in fact, for the 10,000 homeless neighbors on our streets—is housing. Stable, permanent housing.

Today, N&K are settled in with a couple who decided they had something to give. N&K now have a place where they can shower every day on their own schedule; to leave their belongings knowing they won’t be stolen; store healthy food in the fridge; and come and go as they need. This, along with the support of a small network of people invested in their short- and long-term success. The collective hope is that, with a little time, a safety net and some TLC, N&K will get jobs, and save up enough money to move into a place of their own.

All of this happened because two people decided to step into action.

I’ve been tempted to call them angels, but they are actual human beings, and this is a super important distinction because it means what they are doing is possible, attainable, and, really, quite average, in that other mere mortals can replicate it.

In fact, similar acts of kindness and compassion are happening all around us. Other San Diegans just like these two kind-hearted people who have given my friends a place to rest their heads, walk among us not seeking accolades or praise. Good, everyday folks are simply doing what they felt compelled to do because their hearts were broken. They are doing the humanitarian work that many elected officials have no will to do. They are filling the gaps left by the callousness of systems that only function to enrich investors.

I personally know three different families who

have taken in asylum-seeking migrants. None of these families live on estates, let alone have an extra guest room. They’ve nevertheless made space in their modest, loving homes for strangers in need; people fleeing circumstances so untenable, so horrific, that they left their homelands on foot. My friends did this knowing that their guests had endured trauma, and that their stay may be for of an undetermined length of time.

They did this knowing that there would most certainly be an impact to their regularly scheduled programming. Still, they dove in because that is who they are as human beings.

Other friends of mine—some local, some from Los Angeles—have driven repeatedly to secret locations around our city to volunteer at various organizations, helping to sort through donated clothing and supplies that other volunteers will then help deliver to shelters and orphanages across our border.

Another family I know, a family who donated generously to a fundraiser for N&K, has, right this minute, a houseful of people who’ve arrived from around the country to do volunteer work at and across the border. My friends are housing and feeding them, providing a sort of hostel for humanitarian workers.

The message in all this, of course, is that the power of the people is real. Cruelty and meanness may be the constant background noise of this era, and it can be hypnotic. But don’t be fooled. Be louder. And get active, because we, together, can fix this. We must fix this. And if 2018 taught us anything at all, it taught us who we are.

New Year’s resolutions for 2019 should be less about losing weight and more about giving. It should be less about hours logged at the gym and more about hours logged helping those with less.

Let 2019 be the year of getting involved. Whatever, wherever—just make it happen. Attend one meeting—a PTA meeting, a school board meeting, a city council meeting— about something you care about.

Pick your issue: Police brutality, homelessness, immigration, family separation, bail reform, education, healthcare. It doesn’t matter. Just get outside of yourself, pick a lane and move forward in it. Commit to volunteering, to be kind to strangers, to extend a hand, to open a door, to open your heart.

What will come of it can only be good. And we need more goodness all around right now.

Cruelty and meanness may be the constant background noise of this era, and it can be hypnotic.

But don’t be fooled.

Be louder.

@SDCITYBEAT

Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week.

Write to aarynb@sdcitybeat.com.

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

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UP FRONT | VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

Mr. Awkward meets Mr. Bull

I

’m still not exactly sure who Pitbull is on the day before I’m supposed to meet him. I’m not so out of touch that I’m completely ignorant of Pitbull. After all, he’s just so ubiquitous in pop culture that, in my mind, he could be anything and everything at once. He could be a wrestler, a Kardashian-like celebutante, or some kind of reality star. Gun to my head, I’d have guessed he was one of the cast members on The Jersey Shore.

A google search of Pitbull (aka Mr. Worldwide [or as my editor mistakenly referred to him: “Mr. Everywhere”]) reveals he’s either a really big rapper or an adorable hound. Given the amount of publicity surrounding his appearance at the grand opening of Theatre Box San Diego, I’m going with rapper. Also, based on the scowling face he pulls in pictures, I’m certain that I do not like him. A quick sampling of his music reaffirms this fact.

Theatre Box San Diego is a new luxury theater and entertainment complex on the corner of Fifth and G in the Gaslamp—a location formerly occupied by Reading Cinemas.

I doubt that anyone will miss Reading, but it was sort of cool how eerie and abandoned it was despite being in the heart of downtown. I also once saw a movie there about a telekinetic tire that could blow up people’s heads and that, for the most part, is a very pleasant memory.

In addition to the luxurious cinematic upgrade, Theatre Box boasts a dance club, restaurant, candy shop and an arcade. Because why stop at one thing in a building when you can have all the things?

My wife Jessica and I go to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. It’s a big event. Barriers hold back fans. There are spotlights! It’s the first time I’ve ever been this close to spotlights. I take a picture of the spotlights.

The press section is lined with camera people and anchors from big news outlets. I squeeze in as we all wait for Mr. Bull to arrive.

We huddle together like a batallion, pretending that we’re doing something heroic, and as the anticipation swells, so do our feelings of duty and selfimportance. It’s always funny to look back on these sort of events and pinpoint where the fabricated hype tricks you into liking something that you otherwise wouldn’t. Right now though, I’m the same as all these other journalists, salivating over the opportunity to get a good pic of Pitbull. My wife, hungry and wanting to get to the free food, says something along the lines of “someone please let the dog out,” and I give her a look that says: not in front of my fellow Pitbull fans.

When Pitbull does arrive, we all go batshit. He

smiles for our cameras. He wears a tweed jacket and jeans, and he’s not even doing the mean, puckered face that I’ve seen him do in all the pictures. Pitbull signs a couple autographs for the folks who’ve been waiting in the freezing, 60-degree San Diego night.

Pitbull seems genuinely thrilled to be here. I think: That Pitbull, what a swell guy!

“Without the fans, there would be no Pitbull,” he says before unveiling an ice sculpture shaped to say “iLove305”—a reference to Miami’s area code and the name of Pitbull’s signature restaurant, which is set to go on the roof of Theatre Box. It seems strange to me that anyone would go to a Miami-themed restaurant in San Diego, but I guess you don’t earn the nickname “Mr. Everywhere” by thinking inside the box.

Someone hands Pitbull a pair of large, novelty scissors and he cuts a ribbon with gusto. “Now,” Pitbull says. “Pardon my French, but it’s time to motherfucking party!”

Pitbull makes his way down the red carpet, stopping to speak to only one reporter, who asks about iLov305.

“Whatever happens at iLov305, never happens,” Pitbull says. “We have a good time, we put the phones away. No phones, no pictures, no social media—only memory... that way you can have a great night and not worry about what everybody’s talking about.” He winks and does this little smooth-guy nod, which is the most solid way I’ve ever seen anyone end a conversation. A reporter behind me even says, “He’s got the nod down,” before adding, meekly, “I gotta get that down.”

Inside, Theatre Box is futuristic and vaguely frightening, complete with bright decor that seems tailormade for Instagram (sorry, Pitbull, but no one makes memories anymore). I watch people take selfies while I drink complimentary, super-sweet sangria. Everyone seems important—a mix of well-dressed and affluently schlubby. I can’t get comfortable. Wherever I stand, I’m in someone’s way. It’s like one of those nightmares where something easy (in this case, simply existing) seems way harder than it’s supposed to. Jessica comes out of the women’s bathroom and says there’s someone “barfing her brains out” in there. We leave.

I can’t say that I’ll ever go out of my way to visit Theatre Box or become a Pitbull fan, but I don’t actively hate them, which, in my book, counts for a successful grand opening.

My wife, hungry and wanting to get to the free food, says something like, ‘someone please let the dog out,’ and I give her a look that says: not in front of my fellow Pitbull fans.

@SDCITYBEAT

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE

Going back to the Max

O

in the skin. China Max’s salt and pepper squid is utterly addictive and I ate way more of it than I wanted to. Chicken cilantro and shrimp spinach dumplings were both excellent selections as well.

Vegetables, particularly green vegetables, aren’t the first dim sum dishes that come to mind. But Gai lan (Chinese broccoli) is a common classic and China Max’s recitation was quite good, having been boiled with some baking soda and drizzled with a sweet, rich oyster sauce. The leaves and flowers are tender, but the stems and stalks (with their brassica sweetness) are my favorite parts.

ne of the sadder things in dining out is going to that place that has a glowing review on the wall that’s faded over time. Sadder still is the realization the review isn’t the only thing that’s faded; so has the restaurant’s repuMICHAEL A. GARDINER tation.

That’s how it goes for China Max (4698 Convoy St., Ste. C101, chinamaxsd. com). It’s a bit different now.

There was, indeed, a time when China Max offered dim sum and Cantonese cuisine as good as any in San Diego. The fact that China Max eschewed cart service disappointed some, but the quality made up for the lack of romance. Still, the edges began to fray by early last decade and, as a result, the food quality dipped and the standard of service roughened noticeably.

The first dish I tasted on a recent visit—my first in years—showed that some things had changed for the better. The fun gor, half-moon dumplings filled with pork and peanuts, were among the best of this dim sum classic I’d ever tasted. The dumpling wrapping was chewy and soft, while the pork was juicy and savory with Chicken feet, pork sui mai and chicken cilantro dumplings peanuts offering a nice textural contrast.

Another standout at China Max was While China Max is, today, much better than it the congee, a savory Cantonese rice porridge with reputedly powerful hangover-cure properties. The was just a few years ago, it may not be quite back pork and century egg congee arrived at the table to the level of its heyday. Consistency is the relooking like a white bowl of milky white porridge maining issue. Go for dim sum on the weekend and with some herbs on top. And that’s essentially the quality is there. Go on weekdays and it can be what it was, but below the fistful of chopped scal- more hit-and-miss (on my visits, the flavors were lions and cilantro, and below the porridge’s surface, on point on one trip, but lacking in form and flavor lay bits of savory pork and preserved egg (once a on another).

In the end, that yellowed newsprint of that old lengthy process now accomplished in ten days by soaking the egg in a salt and alkaline solution). It review—which seemed an eloquent, mocking symbol—doesn’t seem quite so sad now. China Max was fun to eat and profoundly comforting.

China Max handles many of the old dim sum fa- has shown they’re on track to get back to a place I vorites as well. Their pork sui mai are likely my fa- thought they would never be again: the top. vorite in town: large and juicy with rich pork flavor.

Chicken feet were properly cooked with the flavor The World Fare appears weekly. of the well-balanced braising sauce deeply infused Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

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UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

ANATOMY OF A COCKTAIL SCENE

#48: The Aquaman of cocktails at The LOT

That being said, I am going to tell you about an Espresso Martini I had at The LOT La Jolla (7611 Fay Ave., thelotent. like to think that, at least for most com). Like many during this wonderful of us, there came a point where our season, I found myself lonely and bored on mother(s) turned to us and said some- a wet December night and decided to go to thing like, “If you don’t have anything the movies. With no real agenda in mind, I choose to see something brainless, basic nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

I know mine did, repeatedly, back when and easy. Naturally, I went to see AquaI was a big-mouthed, shitty little kid. I’ve man. I arrived early and went to the thegrown into that way of thinking in my ater bar seeking out a cocktail that would be as equally sedating as the movie I was wise old age. Readers of this IAN WARD about to see. And what to my column will note that I rarely wandering eyes did appear? talk shit about the people, An Espresso Martini listed on places and cocktails I cover. the menu.

My thinking is that I have to The Espresso Martini has write 24 columns every year. been somewhat in vogue That means I have to choose among bartenders as of late.

24 cocktails of note, and if I So, when I see them on a can’t manage to do that in cocktail list, I’m always tipsy the eighth largest city in the enough to lean in that direcU.S., then, well, we are all in tion. trouble.

So anyway, I ordered the There’s also the fact that I Espresso Martini and well, work in two different restaunow I’m not going to say anyrants, which means I often thing mean… how about this spend a good six days a week Espresso Martini weather we’ve had lately? in servitude to the public. I Look, let’s just say the Espresso Martini am fully aware of the strains this kind of was very reflective of the movie. It was the schedule can put on some people, particularly at this time of year. In hospitality, I Aquaman of cocktails. It wasn’t the Justice will always hear one boss or another say, League of cocktails, but the cold brew they “Leave your problems at the door before used gave the cocktail some redemptive you walk in to work.” A statement that is qualities, and the fact that they didn’t add any sweetener made it better. I will also far easier said than done. say that it was not the worst Espresso Martini I’ve ever had. It was slightly bitter, with very dominant and quality coffee ESPRESSO MARTINI notes. In all the terrible Espresso Martinis as prepared at The LOT I’ve had, the cocktail maker always relied on Kahlua for the coffee component and 2 oz. Cold brew espresso added simple syrup to distract from the 1 oz. Tito’s Vodka fact that it is just Vodka and Kahlua with 3/4 oz. Kahlúa Baileys.

3/4 oz. Baileys Irish Cream But anyway, yeah, that shit tasted like Espresso beans Aquaman.

I

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with three espresso beans.

@SDCITYBEAT

BY BETH DEMMON

BY IAN WARD

Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene appears every other week. Write to ianw@sdcitybeat.com.

FINAL DRAUGHT

COURTESY OF CROSBY HOP FARM

Bye bye, beer

O

ver the holidays, I find myself breaking into my beer cellar more than any other time of the year. I love sharing rare and interesting bottles with friends and family—young and old, from near and far—and the camaraderie and conversation sparked over brews is my favorite part of the season. Of all my holiday traditions, the sharing of beers is certainly the one I’d be most devastated to leave behind if beer became an exorbitantly expensive luxury or I lost everything in a human-caused catastrophe.

These aren’t crazy speculations on my part. Whether one believes in climate change or not, the devastating effects of these natural disasters are increasing each year. In California, temperatures have risen 3 degrees Farenheit over the past 20 years and is directly responsible for the increase in wildfires, according to National Geographic. (It’s worth pointing out that although the actual number of wildfires hasn’t risen, they’re harder to control thanks to decreasing precipitation.)

Drier conditions and increased water demand inevitably leads to agricultural strain. In less abstract terms, climate change equals more expensive beer. Scientific American predicts that the average price of beer could rise 15 percent to as much as double the current price in the next century due to climate change. Add to that fact that limited agricultural resources would be prioritized toward more crucial crops like, well, food.

Modern Times Beer (moderntimesbeer.com) isn’t stoked about this calamitous future.

“Fundamentally, we’re just fighting for our own survival, as a business and as human beings,” explained Jacob McKean, CEO/Founder of Modern Times Beer to me in an email. “Anyone who thinks the fight over climate change isn’t that type of fight is in denial.”

In December, the brewery sent a let-

ter to six Congressmembers urging their support of the creation of a Select Committee on the Green New Deal (a progressive movement aimed at curbing economic inequality, as well as climate change).

Modern Times has historically supported a number of local green initiatives like BikeSD, but McKean added that “the recent election created some serious momentum for solutions at the national scale.”

Not everyone’s thrilled with Modern Times mixing politics and beer. In response to Modern Times’ Facebook post about the letter, one commenter quipped: “Please just stick to what you know: making good beer.”

Personally, I’m betting this type of person would be the first to cry foul with any beer price increase due to raw ingredient shortages. Misguided attempts to separate business interests from human interests are ignorant at best and dangerous at worst.

The point of initiatives like these is to (hopefully) help tilt the scales in favor of a more sustainable balance between humans and the earth in order to minimize catastrophes like last year’s Camp Fire. Miniscule attempts like the plastic straw ban are admirable, but largely worthless in the long run. It takes businesses using their platforms to influence policymakers on a large scale to have any effect whatsoever. That’s why, in the New Year, I will pledge to specifically support breweries that participate in progressive movements and charitable drives (the Resilience IPA fire relief campaign is a good example). I encourage and hope every beer drinkin’ human who enjoys life on Planet Earth will join me. Our lives, and our beers, depend on it.

Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com or check her out on Instagram at @thedelightedbite.

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

EVENTS

SHORTlist

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

ESCONDIDO

HATCH MAKERS Here’s a New Year’s resolution for everyone: We should all buy more original art. Really, why on earth would any of us buy some fabricated print at a corporate big-box store when we could instead purchase something from a local artist. Something that will not only look amazing in our home, but is also one-of-a-kind?

And there will be plenty of pieces to choose from once the ArtHatch Art-A-Thon wraps up, but the eighth annual event at Distinction Gallery and ArtHatch artist studios (317 E. Grand Ave., Stes. A and B) takes it a step further. From noon on Saturday, Jan. 5 to noon on Sunday, Jan. 6, patrons can stop by to watch ArtHatch artists working throughout the day and night to produce original pieces. That’s right, studio artists will be working for 24 hours straight and the public is invited to get a glimpse into their artistic process.

“I think people are often shocked that the works were all created within a 24-hour period. Truly, it is mind blowing,” says Distinction Gallery CEO and founder Melissa Walker. “Artists typically get three times or more done during the event than they normally would working in their studio… To bring so many creative people together for 24 hours straight creates amazing energy. Some of them admit they don’t even get tired due to the excitement.”

Over a dozen artists will be participating in the

SOUTH PARK

BURN, BABY, BURN! We’ve long been fans of Verbatim Books in North Park and that includes their flatmates, Burn All Books, a group of awesome art and zine enthusiasts who specialize in risograph printing. Walk into COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Verbatim and there’s a fantastic selection of zines, comics and unique prints from local artists and writers. To celebrate their first year in business, Burn All Books is hosting Left on Read: A Zine & Comics Performance at Whistle Stop (2236 Fern St.) on “Maiden and the Thursday, Jan. 3 from Mole”

by Laurie Piña 7:30 to 11 p.m. Local comic artists such as Hatepaste, Laurie Piña, Ana Carrette and more will be reading from their respective works while incorporating projections, puppets, costumes and other performative elements. The event is free and there will be music from Froggy Tricks and DJ Crushed Peanut after the readings. Check ’em out and also give ’em a like at facebook.com/ burnallbooks.

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

“Celestial Ape” by Victor Roman Art-A-Thon, including some CityBeat faves such as Kelly Vivanco, Victor Roman and Evgeniya Golik.

Once their caffeine-infused art marathon is done, participating artists will display the completed pieces at a Distinction Gallery reception on Saturday, Jan. 12 from 6 to 10 p.m. All the pieces will be up for bid and proceeds benefit ArtHatch’s programs for teen artists.

Artworks will be up through Feb. 2 for bidding and viewing. For a full list of artists and more details, visit arthatch.org.

DOWNTOWN

LOCAL LAUGHS There are certainly plenty of people, places and things to make fun of in San Diego, but most of us are not as witty as we think we are.

That’s why we enjoy a night out at The Come-Up Comedy Showcase at the American Comedy Co. (818 Sixth Ave., americancomedyco.com). The free monthly event is one of the best local showcases of up-and-coming comics in town and the show on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. will feature notable names such as Cameron Frost, Mal Hall and CityBeat fave Dallas McLaughlin, who, in addition to being an excellent editorial and sports writer for local news outlets like Voice of San Diego, also happens to have one of the best names for a comedian ever. Get it? Mc-Laugh-lin? No good? OK, you see this is why we leave the jokes to the experts.

Dallas McLaughlin 12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

@SDCITYBEAT

EVENTS ART

COMEDY

MUSIC

PERFORMANCE

SPOKEN WORD

Frida Frenzy at June Rubin Studio, 2690 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. Rubin pays homage to Frida Kahlo with whimsical watercolors and mixed media pieces including self-portraits, portraits of Frida and more. From 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4. Free. 858-229-4571, junerubin.com

Drew Michael at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. The New York-based comedian has appeared on Conan and Last Comic Standing, and recorded a stand-up special for Comedy Central. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3 and Friday, Jan. 4, and 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 5. $9. 619-795-3858, americancomedyco.com

Quicksilver Baroque: Off the Beaten Track at Samuel M. Ciccati Theatre, 900 Rancho San Diego Pkwy., Jamacha. A performance by the San Diego Early Music Society of early Baroque compositions including works by composers including Wichel, Fontana, Rosenmüller and more. From 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6. $10-$40. 619-291-8246, sdems.org

Long Story Short: What-Evs at Rooted Kava Bar, 1731 University Ave., North Park.

Improvised storytelling show in which participants tell true, five-minute stories without notes related to this month’s theme. From 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3. $5 suggested donation. sosayweallonline.com

HThe Come-Up Comedy Showcase at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Up and coming comics including Dallas McLaughlin, Cameron Frost and more will showcase material at this monthly event. At 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 9 Free. 619-7953858, americancomedyco.com

Sean Hicke at Dizzy’s, 1717 Morena Blvd., Morena. Local jazz bassist will make his debut as a band leader at this debut album release show, which features original contemporary jazz and Sunflower Sutra opening. From 7 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6. $10-$15. dizzysjazz.com

HLeft on Read: A Zine and Comics Performance at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park. An alternative comics and zine reading to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Burn All Books.

Includes readings by Hate Paste, Laurie Piña, Ana Carrete, and Marita, as well as DJ and music performances. At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 3. Free. facebook.com/ burnallbooks

Friday Night Liberty at NTC at Liberty Station, 2640 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. This monthly gallery and studio walk features open artist studios, galleries, live performances, shopping and entertainment throughout NTC’s Arts and Culture District. From 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4.

Free. 619-573-9300, ntclibertystation.com Intersections: A Solo Art Exhibition by T. Jay Santa Ana at Mike Hess Brewing, 4893 Voltaire St., Ocean Beach. First show of the year in a series of solo art exhibitions featuring colorful works by a local abstract artist. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 4. Free. hanaleiartworks.com

Dina Martina: Créme de la Dregs at Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Original drag show with unique comedy, songs, stories, costumes and videos featuring the acclaimed drag performer. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3. $25-$30. ma4sd.com

SPECIAL EVENTS HSan Diego Vintage Flea Market at Observatory North Park, 2891 University Ave., North Park. Hundreds of vendors show off interesting vintage or vintage-inspired treasures including home furnishings, bric-abrac, clothing and accessories, tiki-infused items and much more. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6. Free. 619-239-8836, sdvintagefleamarket.com

HArt-A-Thon at ArtHatch, 317 E. Grande Ave., Escondido. Local artists gather to create art for 24 straight hours. Participating artists include Kelly Vivanco, Victor Roman and dozens more. Resulting works will be auctioned off to benefit Art Hatch’s teen education programs. From noon Saturday, Jan. 5 to noon Sunday, Jan. 6.

Free. 760-781-5779, arthatch.org Sara Makes Art at Sophie’s Kensington Gallery, 4186 Adams Ave., Kensington.

Opening reception for a collection of paintings by local artist Sara Millet, as well as mosaic art made by gallery artists including Deborah Gile, Reg Oberg and Victoria Pires. From 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5.

Free. 619-442-5126, stmsc.org HShiny Things Art Exhibit at Iron Fist Brewing, 1985 National Ave., Barrio Logan. All things shiny will be on display including artworks from over 30 artists accompanied by food and vendors. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5. Free. facebook.com/events/374753459935784 HAbducting Reality at Sparks Gallery, 530 Sixth Ave., Downtown. A new exhibit of painted works by Artist Alexander Arshansky, who combines biomorphic abstraction and cubist styles with intricate designs. RSVP required. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6. Free. 619-6961416, sparksgallery.com Ghibli 6: A Hayao Miyazaki Fan Art Show at Basic Bar, 410 Tenth Ave., Downtown. Exhibition paying tribute to the Japanese animator with urban art and pop surrealism. Artists include Brent Johnson, Lynnet Ochoa, Sinai Wright and more. From 7 p.m. to midnight.

Tuesday, Jan. 8. Free. facebook.com/ events/302044883977754

BOOKS Katherine Arden at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The author of the Winternight Trilogy will sign the newest title in the trilogy, The Winter of the Witch. At 2 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 7. Free. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Andrea Gabor at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author of The Man Who Discovered Quality and The Capitalist Philosophers will sign and discuss her new book, After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 7. Free.

858-454-0347, warwicks.com Sam Halpern at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author of A Far Piece to Canaan will sign and discuss his new novel, A Virtuous Lie. At 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 8. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com

H = CityBeat picks @SDCITYBEAT

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 13

THEATER COURTESY OF WELK RESORTS THEATRE

Take a chance on it

Mamma Mia! runs through Feb. 24 at the Welk Resorts Theatre in Escondido. $59; welkresorts.com

T

he new year marks exactly two decades since Mamma Mia!—the stage musical featuring the sugary pop songs of the Swedish group ABBA—debuted in London’s West End. The show, with a book by Catherine Johnson, would go on to mega-success, including a 14-year run on Broadway, a feature film adaptation and a sequel film that was kind of a prequel (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again). Taken as complete camp, Mamma Mia! is amusing, even hummable. Taken seriously, it’s… well, who takes it seriously?

Welk Resorts Theatre does, and with good reason. Its production of Mamma Mia! is winding up a mammoth six-month run in Escondido. In fact, it opened only a couple of months after Moonlight Stage Productions in Carlsbad presented its own Mamma Mia! This show obviously has staying power.

The Welk staging includes a cast of 17 actors, a five-piece band in the pit and more than enough outrageousness to sustain its nearly two-and-a-half hour running time.

Ironically, the most outrageous moments come after the story ends: The three-song encore concert by Donna and the Dynamos (Natalie Nucci, Nancy Snow Carr and Barbara Schoenhofer) has the entire cavorting cast clad in what could only be described as the best and the worst of ’70s couture.

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Final Draft New Play Festival: The three-day event combines craft beer from Bagby Beer Company with three new productions from local playwrights. It happens Jan. 4 through Jan. 6. $5-$20 at the at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org The Quote: A Fringe Fest encore presentation of Michael Shantz’s fictionalized drama about the Gary Hart scandal of 1987. Presented by The Poolhouse Project, it happens Jan. 5 at San Diego Writers Ink in Point Loma. sandiegowriters.org

Mamma Mia! Besides Nucci (the mamma of Mamma Mia!), Snow Carr and Schoenhofer, the ensemble features the versatile David S. Humphrey as one of the three men invited to the wedding of Donna’s daughter, Sophie. One of those men, she suspects, is her biological father. (Lance Arthur Smith and Mike Bradford are likable as the other two maybe-dads. All three sing better than Pierce Brosnan from the Mamma Mia! movies. Shudder.) The real star of the Welk production, however, is young Olivia Hodson as Sophie. Not only is she a competent ac-

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

tress and a nimble dancer, but she’s also a very promising vocalist.

The roll call of ABBA tunes needs no elucidation. Suffice it to say that some, like “Take a Chance on Me,” function acceptably in context with the narrative. Others, such as “Super Trouper” or even “Dancing Queen,” are there just to escort ABBA fans giddily down Memory Lane. There are plenty of people willing to be escorted down that lane time and again, but even for those who aren’t, or are just curious, rest assured that Mamma Mia! won’t be gone for long.

King Lear: An open reading of the Shakespeare classic about the famous king who infamously divides his land up between his daughters. Presented by the San Diego Shakespeare Society, it happens Jan. 8 at the Veteran’s Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park. sandiegoshakespearesociety.org Moon Over Buffalo: This wacky comedy from Ken Ludwig centers on two washed-up actors who just might get a break when they hear Frank Capra is coming to town to see their play. Directed by Matthew Wiener, it opens Jan. 9 at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org

For complete theater listings, visit sdcitybeat.com

@SDCITYBEAT

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JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 15

ANDREA LOPEZ-VILLAFAÑA

CULTURE | PUBLISHING

From left: Brent Beltran, Chris Zertuche, Soni López-Chávez and Max Bojorquez a Bodega gallery in Barrio Logan is mostly empty with the exception of a table and a few metal chairs. Sitting inside are four individuals who have spent some long nights lately in that same building preparing to embark on a new journey.

Logan Heights resident and community activist Brent Beltran welcomes me inside and introduces me to the team. There’s Soni López-Chávez and Chris Zertuche, co-owners of La Bodega, as well as Max Bojorquez, who owns Diztinta Print Shop. Together they make up the editorial board of La Neta 92113, a monthly magazine that showcases the culture, people and businesses of Barrio Logan and Greater Logan Heights.

The inaugural 32-page magazine publishes this week and although it’s no bigger than a junior sized legal pad, its significance in the community looms large for those who created it. Historically, the media coverage of the neighborhood has been on negative issues, such as gang violence, homelessness and pollution. For that reason, Beltran says, they want to highlight different stories.

“Being able to spread the positive truth about this community is what we’ve been doing in our own separate ways over the past five, six years or longer,” says Beltran.

With La Bodega Gallery, Zertuche and López-Chávez have not only created a space where local artists and others can showcase their work, but also a place where community members can easily access art.

Bojorquez is an artist and an advocate in the area, who has organized demonstrations

for immigrant’s rights. Beltran served as the say time is not an issue.

The magazine is entirely funded by advice chair of the Barrio Logan Community Planning Group, and has sat on the editorial vertisements sold to local business in Barrio Logan and the editorial board made an board of the San Diego Free Press.

All together, La Neta’s editorial board has effort to make sure the advertisements were the experience, and “the heart,” as Beltran affordable so that even the smallest business says, to share untold stories about the com- in the community could afford to be featured. Free copies can be found at different munity.

“At this moment, Barrio Logan is shining. businesses all over Barrio Logan.

“We are just super excited for everyone to There [are] so many beautiful things that have it and to see it because are happening here with all COURTESY OF LA NETA everything that’s in [the of these business that have magazine] is the communiopened, the Barrio Art Crawl, ty,” says López-Chávez. “For La Vuelta, and markets,” says everyone to be able to see López-Chávez. “There’s so their business or themselves much going on that there in this magazine, I think it’s needs to be a magazine that going to be truly incredible.” captures all of this. It’s the While the first issue of perfect time.”

La Neta serves as an introZertuche and Bojorquez duction, the concept is to talked about creating the make future issues unique magazine five years ago, but so people will collect them. it didn’t go past conversaSome months will have spetions. However, they decided cial themes, such as the Febthat with the start of the ruary issue, which will celnew year, they could put out ebrate Black History Month, something that is positive and tells the “truth” about The inaugural issue of as well as the history of the the neighborhood. After all, La Neta African American community in Barrio Logan. “la neta” is Spanish for the There will also be featured artists in each truth.

The team slowly came together after issue. The first person showcased is artist Zertuche and Bojorquez approached Bel- and Chicano Park muralist Hector Villegas. tran and López-Chávez to join the team. Al- The January cover was shot by local photogthough everyone on the editorial board are rapher Mikesumoto (Michael Herana) and busy with their respective day jobs and are there will be a cartoon by Junco Canche (Joavolunteering to work on the magazine, they quin Junco Jr.) every month.

16 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

La Neta will also have columns, gallery maps, featured poets and a recipe of the month created by someone in the neighborhood. Aside from the culture and art, the editors will also include activism pieces in the magazine in an effort to educate those who want to come into the community. In just the last decade, the community has changed and Barrio Logan is seemingly always facing gentrification. And while the editorial board can’t control that change, they hope to at least educate those who want to do business in the neighborhood about its long history of community.

“Business that aren’t necessarily from here, they want to change [the community] and turn it into something that it’s not,” says Beltran. “It’s not North Park, Little Italy, the Gaslamp or Pacific Beach. It’s its own unique separate entity.”

While changes in the neighborhood are not always welcomed, the editorial board is prepared and looking forward to the evolution of La Neta. They hope other communities in San Diego see what they are doing and will want to replicate it so they can also share their own neighborhood’s stories.

They also hope to share the magazine with other communities and visitors.

For now, after some long nights of working on the magazine, the editors are looking forward to holding the copies in their hands and seeing the reaction of residents. “[La Neta] really is a reflection of the neighborhood,” says Beltran. “There is nothing in there that’s not about this community.”

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JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 17

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

@SDCITYBEAT

CULTURE | FILM

Spring fever

Everybody Knows

It’s not all bad when it comes to late-winter and spring movie releases

by Glenn Heath Jr.

W

e’ve rung in the New Year, prayed for more Trump associate indictments, and waited for the glorious moment Democrats take control the House of Representatives. Well, wait no longer! 2019 is officially here!

It also means we can look into the near future and see what new movie releases are on the horizon. This quarter of the year has been unfairly labeled a dumping ground for bad movies. Look a little closer, however, and the release schedule often yields plenty of B-movie gems and foreign treasures. See below for our recommendations.

Glass (Jan. 11): Love him or hate him, M. Night Shyamalan seems to inspire extreme reactions with his hyper-reflexive genre films. Once anointed the heir apparent to Steven Spielberg, the director of The Sixth Sense and The Village fell into obscurity after multiple financial flops. But Shyamalan struck gold again with 2015’s Split, which ended up being a surprise sequel of sorts to his excellent superhero fable Unbreakable.

The final chapter of this trilogy will focus on Samuel L. Jackson’s feeble criminal mastermind.

Stan and Ollie (Jan. 18): John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan play the legendary comic duo at the tail end of their respective careers. This kind of subtle biopic will be catnip for the older Landmark crowd pining for a simpler, more nostalgic version of classic Hollywood.

Cold War (Jan. 25): For those not familiar with Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, this black-andwhite gem about two lovers trying to survive the numbing mechanisms of communism will be a great introduction. While not as philosophically rigorous as the director’s previous film Ida, this decades-spanning romance confronts many of the same themes of jealousy and desire at odds within an ideologically oppressive state.

Cold Pursuit (Feb. 8): It wouldn’t be wintertime without a nasty Liam Neeson action vehicle. Here, he plays a snowplow driver seeking vengeance against the drug dealers responsible for the death of his son.

Longtime Neeson accomplice Jaume Collet-Serra is

@SDCITYBEAT

not involved, which never bodes well. On the bright side, Hans Petter Molland—who directed the original Norwegian thriller In Order of Disappearance in 2014— returns to helm in this English-language remake.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Feb. 8): Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s original building block extravaganza smartly critiqued the capitalist forces that have made product placement so prevalent in modern blockbusters. This official sequel—co-directed by Trolls maestro Mike Mitchell and Lego Batmanalum Trisha Gum—looks to ride the coattails of its predecessor’s success. The lackluster pedigree doesn’t inspire much confidence, but there will be some fun to be had here.

Never Look Away (Feb. 15): Cinephiles will remember German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck for his 2006 art house hit The Lives of Others about a communist surveillance specialist growing increasingly obsessed with the subjects of his investigations. It’s taken him nearly a decade to recover from the 2010 debacle, The Tourist, but now von Donnersmarck returns with an epic character study about an artist suffering from PTSD as a result of his childhood under Nazi rule and time spent in East Germany.

Everybody Knows (March 1): Asghar Farhadi ventured outside of his native Iran to make 2013’s The Past in France. Now the master dramatist behind A Separation and About Elly sets his latest morality tale in modern Madrid. Staring the knockout pair of Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, this tale of deceit and desire will undoubtedly have some sort of twist associated with it, and be one of the season’s must-sees.

Transit (March 1): A saga of stolen identity and intrigue very much in the vein of German master Christian Petzold’s recent string of psychological examinations of WWII trauma (Barbara, Phoenix). While not guaranteed to play in San Diego, we’re including this in the hopes that some adventurous theater chain (hint, hint Digital Gym Cinema) will lock down a local release.

FILM CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

CULTURE | FILM

Ash is the Purest White

FILM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19 Captain Marvel (March 8): Marvel movies typically don’t make the cut for these previews (because they usually suck). But none of them have Brie Larson. The Oscarwinning performer known for dramatic roles in Room and Short Term 12 enters the canon of comic book cinema with this big budget origin story about Carol Danvers, an exfighter pilot turned alien badass who aligns with Avengers head honcho Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to save Earth in the 1980s.

Ash is Purest White (March 15): Jia Zhangke, one of the world’s foremost filmmakers, exposes the falsehoods of gangster machismo and economic distress through the eyes of a woman scorned (played by the magnificent Zhao Tao) in this towering crime drama. Split in two distinct but connected sections, Jia traces the ripple effects of China’s evolution as a world power, focusing intensely on the moral compromises that arise in the process.

Us (March 15): Two years ago comedian Jordan Peele stunned the film world with Get Out, a fantastic horror/satire that dealt with modern day racism in an entirely new way. His sophomore directorial effort, about a Black family terrorized by their murderous doppelgangers, seems cut from the same tonal vein. Dubbed “a new nightmare” during the scary trailer, it will undoubtedly play with issues of identity and perspective as stars Luptia Nyong’o (excellent in everything) and Winston Duke (excellent in Black Panther) try to ascertain what’s real and imagined.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

(March 22): No stranger to peculiar characters or situations, Richard Linklater tackles Maria Semple’s comedic novel about an ago-

raphobic architect who suddenly disappears and leaves her wealthy Seattle life behind. Cate Blanchett stars as the aforementioned gone girl in what looks to be another strange and esoteric character study from the director of Bernie and Boyhood.

Film reviews run weekly. Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

OPENING Escape Room: Six strangers are lured to a mysterious room and must survive madman’s elaborate game. Wait, wasn’t this already called Saw? Opens Friday, Jan. 4 in wide release.

NOW PLAYING Ben is Back: On Christmas Eve, a woman’s estranged teenage son returns home and reveals new truths about his drug addiction. Now playing at Landmark Hillcrest Cinemas and Angelika Carmel Mountain Cinemas.

Destroyer: Nicole Kidman stars as an alcoholic cop chasing down her past demons in this hardnosed Los Angeles crime film from director Karyn Kusama.

If Beale Street Could Talk: Based on the James Baldwin novel, this Barry Jenkins drama follows two young lovers as they encounter the extreme stresses of racism and injustice in 1970s Harlem. Now playing at the Landmark Hillcrest Cinemas and Angelika Carmel Mountain Cinemas.

Maria by Callas: The first film to tell the life story of legendary Greek-American opera singer completely in her own words.

Now playing at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Shoplifters: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s wise drama follows a collective of criminals who live happily off the grid until their temporary harmony is threatened by society’s contradictory rules. Now playing at AMC Fashion Valley Cinemas.

Vice: Adam McKay’s biopic on former Vice President Dick Cheney explores the motivation and means behind a political operative who craved power like no other.

For complete movie listings, visit Film at sdcitybeat.com.

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

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ANDREA LOPEZ-VILLAFAÑA

MUSIC

THE CASBAH HAS CHANGED THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE FOREVER BY STICKING TO WHAT THEY DO BEST

BY SETH COMBS Tim Mays he Casbah is getting a facelift. Kinda.

Thirty years after the Middletown music club originally opened and nearly 25 at it’s current location, not much has changed over the years.

But on a recent daytime visit, circular saws are buzzing and co-owner Ben Johnson points out that they’re installing a projection screen behind the stage and making some general improvements.

In the back office, surrounded by music paraphernalia and setlists from the past, Casbah co-founder Tim Mays stumbles when asked what he would have done had he bought the venue back in the early ’90s.

What started out as what he calls a “hobby”— booking and promoting shows for bands he loved—has since turned into one of the most iconic and beloved venues in the city, as well as a trusted music promotion company. And while nightlife venues come and go all the time in San Diego, The Casbah has survived three recessions with some sort of live music onstage nearly every night of the week. For its 30th anniversary, bands from the present and past—some reuniting for the first time in years—will play at the venue throughout the month of January.

@SDCITYBEAT

Below are excerpts from our conversation with Mays, where he discusses everything from The Casbah’s early days, when he wanted it to be more of a jazz supper club, to finally putting to bed those long-held rumors that a certain rock star secretly owns the club.

CityBeat: Do you ever look back to1989, at that time with [Casbah original co-partners] Bob Bennett and Peter English, and think what would have happened if you hadn’t bought the venue?

Mays: You know, I’ve never thought about it like that. Even when we first bought the first Casbah location, our intention wasn’t to do what we do now. We wanted to do more lighter fare… more Supper Clubtype, Sinatra kind of stuff.

CB: What happened?

Mays: It just kind of quickly morphed, I guess, because there was nowhere else for bands to play.

CB: Had you not done that, what do you think you would have done?

Mays: I have no idea. I started putting on shows as a hobby. Sometimes I banked money and sometimes I’d lose money. It was just kind of an up-and-down kind of thing.

CB: There seems to be a consensus that there was a niche or an audience that wasn’t really being tapped into with local shows in those days. That there were not enough bands coming through town because there weren’t enough places to play.

Mays: Sure, there was that. And then there was the whole thing with the local scene kind of exploding starting in 1990, plus all the national attention from alternative music going mainstream. That created a whole other exposure for local bands that wanted to play here that maybe hadn’t thought about it before.

CB: It does seem like it really was an opportune time to open a club that featured that kind of music.

Mays: It was right place, right time and right circumstance, but it was also about meeting the right people. I guess looking back, we could hand some credit to Spirit Club because they were so difficult to deal with… [Bands] never felt like they got treated fairly. Even though our place was a fourth of the size, they were happy to come and play somewhere they felt like they got respect and paid honestly.

CB: And you were booking bands that no

one else would have. Does that spirit live on now 30 years later?

Mays: Yeah, we take chances, but there are bands that maybe take years before they catch on. We’ll lose money on them three times in a row and keep doing it because each time it gets a little bit better. As long as there’s an upward move in audience awareness, we keep doing it.

CB: What is one of the most understated or frustrating things about running a business like this that people don’t often think about?

Mays: I think the infrastructure of running a club or business or venue, the stuff that breaks... Whether it’s the PA or plumbing or somebody carves up the wood outside or tags it. Things you have to fix on a day-today basis. Nobody sees that.

CB: One of the things that we’ve always really appreciated about The Casbah is the sense of family among the staff. The coowner is behind the bar and the doorman has always been here. The staff seems to stay here. What do you attribute that to?

CASBAH 30 CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

MUSIC

THE

CASBAH 30 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

CB: Who are some local bands that you get that charge from?

Mays: The Schizophonics, I still try and make every show I can of theirs because they never cease to amaze me.

Mays: It’s the management style—the fact that I don’t micromanage them at all. I mean, as long as they’re doing I like Hexa a lot—they’re really good and they’ve gotten the job, we’re pretty hands off… We treat people fairly, we better every time I’ve seen them. Wild Wild Wets has been give them respect. Having people staying that long, the in- around for a while, but they’re another band that just gets vestment you put in them with the little perks you give, it better.

CB: You’ve spoken in the past about an aversion to creates a sense of, well, it makes my job easier.

CB: Obviously The Casbah brand has expanded over the reggae music. Have you ever been tempted to reconsider years into a promotions company with “Casbah Presents” your stance?

Mays: Every once in a while a band will come along or shows at multiple venues. How did that happen?

Mays: Well I think that kind of slowly morphed maybe 10 we get pitched a band to play in that vein and I am happy years or so ago where we would do shows at Brick by Brick to say it hasn’t worked out yet. [laughs] It will happen some day, but usually if I get their press kit and it kind of just kept growing.

TIM PYLES stuff and they mention reggae, it’s a Then we got the ability to do shows tough sell. You look and it’s usually at the Belly Up, which for a long time a bunch of white guys. was under one booker. They didn’t CB: So just for the sake of putting do a lot of indie-type shows. It used the urban legend to rest—tell us to be all roots and reggae, so we about the pool game with [Pearl started booking some stuff up there Jam’s] Eddie Vedder. and that kind of opened the door to Mays: So, Eddie Vedder came being able to do bigger things and to The Casbah to see Jonathon House of Blues and The Observatory.

Richmond. Harland, my partner, So over the last 10 years, it’s just gotwas friends with Eddie from back ten bigger and bigger. There will be when Eddie still lived here. So he some nights where we have four or came in and then afterward, we five shows going on around town on were just hanging around. We used the same night. to hang around a lot and play pool CB: You’ve spoken in the past after hours. Eddie asked me if I about how you’ve built good relawanted to play a game of pool with tionships with musicians. Has that helped expand The Casbah brand?

Vintage Casbah poster, circa 1994 him and I said, “Let’s put up the title to the club versus your Pearl Jam Mays: Yeah, if a band wants to play here and we’re booked that night, and if they’ve never played the Soda Bar royalties.” Good thing for me if I’d won. So yeah, we played before, we will do it over there. They’ll trust that we’re not with a bunch of people gathered around and, well, he’s a really good pool player and he won. [laughs] It was just for going to put them in some sucky room.

CB: So, you lost Bob [co-founder Bob Bennett] three fun, but a few months later, a friend calls me and said they’d years ago. How did his passing affect your outlook on the heard on the radio that Eddie Vedder had said he owned The Casbah and I’m like, “What? No.” I kind of put two and venue and the future?

Mays: I don’t think it has consciously because I’m still two together. He must have been talking to somebody on doing what I was doing when we first started… Just the fact the radio up in Seattle. They were talking about San Diego that he was here from the beginning, from the Pink Panther and Eddie was talking about winning The Casbah in a pool days and all the way up through when he passed, it just in- game. So word kind of just filtered down from people who stills in you that we’re happy to be here, still doing it even listened to it up there and down to people in San Diego or though he’s not. This was a huge part of his life. He took a something.

CB: What do the next 30 years hold? lot of joy in what he did. He did what he loved.

Mays: I’ll do this for at least another five or 10 years. I’m CB: Do you you still get that charge from seeing live mulucky that I got good people who run the club. Like I said, sic?

Mays: Oh, yeah, definitely. Not as often, but there are a I don’t have to be here all the time and the booking part is few bands that I’ll go see pretty much any time they come second nature to me at this point. I like doing it. I like the to town, Bands like the Melvins, I’ll always go see them. challenge of trying to put the best show together, whether Redd Kross played a couple weeks ago, same thing… this is it’s here or another venue in town. I just keep doing what still my favorite place to see a show because you can see the I do. When I get tired of it, then I’ll think about retiring or handing it over to somebody else. band and be right in front or off to the side there.

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

SPOTLIGHT POONEH GHANA

D

Calpurnia

ogstar with Keanu Reeves (why does this exist?). She & Him with Zooey Deschanel (cheesy drivel). The Pizza Underground with Macaulay Culkin (dumbest thing since pineapple on a slice). 30 Seconds to Mars with Jared Leto (please, no, make it stop!).

When it comes to actors starting their own bands, the list is long and, well, not very good. There are a few exceptions such as Juliette and the Licks (fronted by Juliette Lewis) and the unfortunately named (but otherwise decent) Dead Man’s Bones with Ryan Gosling. But mostly, when an actor tries to spread their musical wings, it sounds like an early midlife crisis.

Luckily, Finn Wolfhard—known for playing Mike Wheeler on Stranger Things, as well as one of the kids in Stephen King’s It—is nowhere near the appropriate age for such a breakdown. He’s only 16, which means he’s not so pigeonholed into one particular creative outlet.

This fact shines through on Scout, the debut EP from Wolfhard’s band, Calpurnia. The Vancouverbased quartet of youngsters claim The Beatles as their biggest influence, but they play some solid indie rock in the vein of labelmate Mac DeMarco and Loaded-era Velvet Underground. Tracks like the jangly, multi-faceted “Blame” and the Vampire Weekend stylings of “Wasting Time” are catchy enough to warrant attention from indie rock fans even if their singer is already famous.

Calpurnia play Jan. 5 at House of Blues.

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MUSIC

IF I WERE U

BY CITYBEAT STAFF

Our picks for the week’s top shows

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 2

PLAN A: Robert Allen Shepherd @ House of Blues. To be honest, there isn’t a lot going on this night, but there are worse things to do on the Wednesday after New Year’s Day than see a Willie Nelson tribute act.

THURSDAY, JAN. 3

PLAN A: ‘Yacht Rock Nite’ w/ High Tide Society, DJ Claire @ The Casbah. Emo might be the hot throwback genre at the moment, but yacht rock is a close second. For those unfamiliar, think feel-good ’70s artists like Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross and Steely Dan. Throw on some fresh sailing clothes and come sing-along to the hits.

Just don’t request Toto’s “Africa” more than once. PLAN B: Aviator Stash, Imagery Machine, Belladon @ Belly Up Tavern.

Can’t say we’re huge fans of Aviator Stash, but we’re quite fond of Imagery Machine and Belladon. Both are female-fronted, ‘80sinspired indie rock with Belladon in particular sounding like a synthy throwback to The Bangles. BACKUP PLAN: Volver @ House of Blues.

‘Beat Farmers Hootenanny’ w/ Beat Farmers, Joey Harris and the Mentals, Mike Watt, Jesse Hughes, Nena Anderson, Jack Tempchin, Casey Hensley @ Belly Up Tavern.

SUNDAY, JAN. 6

PLAN A: Quali, Praying, Runs Deep @ Soda Bar. Locals shoegazers Quali made one of the best local releases of 2017 (Awaken the Quietus) so we’re excited to see if they’ll be playing any new material on this night. Either way, they’re dreamy, distorted guitar attack is even better in a live setting. PLAN B: The Rare Forms, Havnaughts, ConTact, Crushed @ Whistle Stop. Taking a page from bands such as X and Bikini Kill, Seattle’s Rare Forms are both fun, ferocious and feature members of The Shivas, VHS and Marion Walker. BACKUP PLAN: T.S.O.L., Forest Grove, Blood Ponies @ The Casbah.

CHERYL ILIRIA

FRIDAY, JAN. 4

PLAN A: Esham, IzZy Projectz, Sylint @ Brick by Brick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Hot Snakes is sold out (you snooze, you lose) and there’s not much else going on tonight.

But there is Detroit-based rapper Esham, who is probably best known, what with his dark lyrics and grimy beats, as a pioneer of the hip hop subgenre horrorcore. Despite his closeness to groups like Insane Clown Posse, this should still be a bumping show.

BACKUP PLAN: Fashion Jackson, Buddha Trixie, Precious Kid, JARA, Lefties @ Che Café Collective.

SATURDAY, JAN. 5

PLAN A: Chinchilla, Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver, Mostly Sunny, Scary Pierre @ The Casbah. One could argue that San Diego math-rockers Chinchilla were way ahead of their time especially considering their 1996 album, 101 Italian Hits, was released long before the rest of the country started salivating over bands like Polvo and Hella. This reunion show, in celebration of The Casbah’s 30th anniversary, is going to be a good one. PLAN B: Calpurnia, Illuminati Hotties @ House of Blues. Vancouver, Canada band Calpurnia has received a lot of attention based solely on the fact that the singer is one of the kids from Stranger Things (see this week’s Spotlight section for more). We also love the “tenderpunk” sounds of Sarah Tudzin (aka Illuminati Hotties), whose 2018 LP, Kiss Yr Frenemies, was one of the year’s best. BACKUP PLAN:

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Quali

MONDAY, JAN. 7

PLAN A: Man Man, Jon Daly @ The Casbah. Known for incorporating all kinds of instruments and noisemakers into their sets, Philly weirdos Man Man scored their biggest hit with their 2013 single, “Head On (Hold On To Your Heart),” but haven’t released an album since. The fact that they’re on tour gives us hope that there will be some new songs to enjoy on this night.

TUESDAY, JAN. 8

PLAN A: ‘David Bowie Birthday Bash’ w/Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Ariel Levine @ The Casbah. Who better to headline this tribute to the legendary Goblin King than local Gary Shuffler (complete in full Ziggy getup and makeup) and his band of Bowie enthusiasts? Singer/ songwriter Ariel Levine has a golden voice as well, so we’re looking forward to hearing him cover “Golden Years” and the rest of Bowie’s coked-out masterpiece, Station to Station. BACKUP PLAN: Gary Wilson, Bryson Cone, Jinx, Kan Kan @ Che Café Collective.

JANUARY 2, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 23

DREW REYNOLDS

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Death Eyes (Soda Bar, 1/13), Anthony Green (Soda Bar, 1/16), Big Head Todd & The Monsters (BUT, 1/24), Steel Panther (HOB, 1/26), Travis Tritt (Balboa Theatre, 1/26), Silverstein (HOB, 1/30), A$AP Rocky (Valley View Casino Center, 1/30), Iration (Observatory, 2/9), The Red Pears (The Irenic, 2/18), Lords of Acid (Brick By Brick, 2/23), Mushroomhead (Brick By Brick, 2/28), Blues Traveler (HOB, 1/28), Creature Canyon (Soda Bar, 3/2), OM (Brick By Brick, 3/3), Gorilla Biscuits (The Irenic, 3/28), Integrity (Brick By Brick, 4/18).

GET YER TICKETS Adolescents (Casbah, 1/19), Via Satellite (Casbah, 1/22),Pinback (Casbah, 1/23-24), Buck-O-Nine (Casbah, 1/26), Corrosion of Conformity (Brick By Brick, 1/26), Bananarama (Observatory, 1/27), No Knife (Casbah, 1/27), Cursive, Mineral (Casbah, 2/1), Gang of Four (Casbah, 2/5), MØ (Observatory, 2/5), KISS (Viejas Arena, 2/7), Louis XIV (Casbah, 2/15), Panic! At the Disco (Valley View Casino Center, 2/16), Albert Hammond Jr. (BUT, 2/24), Sharon Van Etten (Observatory, 2/28), Saves the Day (Observatory North Park, 3/2), CRSSD Festival (Waterfront Park, 3/2-3),Waxahatchee (Soda Bar, 3/3), Band of Horses (Observatory, 3/6), Hatebreed (HOB, 3/7), Action Bronson (HOB, 3/13), Cold Cave (BUT, 3/19), Boy Harsher (Casbah, 3/20), Mike

Doughty (Soda Bar, 3/23), Queensrÿche (Casbah, 3/27), Black Moth Super Rainbow (BUT, 3/31), Vince Staples (Observatory, 4/2), Taking Back Sunday (Observatory, 4/6-7).

Eric Burdon & the Animals at Belly Up Tavern.

JANUARY

The Dragons, Drip Tank at The Casbah.

Dirtwire at Music Box.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 2 Jenny Dee at Tipsy Crow.

THURSDAY, JAN. 3 Aviator Stash Belly Up Tavern. DJ Claire at The Casbah. Lavender Fields at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, JAN. 4 Hot Snakes at The Casbah. The Dan Band at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, JAN. 5 The Farmers at Belly Up Tavern. Illuminati Hotties at House of Blues. The Winehouse Experience at Music Box.

THURSDAY, JAN. 10

FRIDAY, JAN. 11

SATURDAY, JAN. 12 Kaleena Zanders and FriendZ at Music Box. Amen Dunes at Belly Up Tavern. Exasperation at Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, JAN. 13 Young Dolph at House of Blues. A.J. Croce at California Center for the Arts.

Charlie Rae at Music Box.

MONDAY, JAN. 14 Mother Mother at Soda Bar. Beehive & the Barracudas The Casbah.

TUESDAY, JAN. 15 Tamaryn, Cold Showers at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, JAN. 6 T.S.O.L., Forest Grove, Blood Ponies at The Casbah. Leo Kottke at Belly Up Tavern. Quali at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, JAN. 7 Man Man at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, JAN. 8 Gary Wilson at Che Café.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 9 Eric Burdon & the Animals at Belly Up Tavern.

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 16 Bayside at The Irenic. Howlin Rain at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, JAN. 17 The Donkeys at The Casbah.

FRIDAY, JAN. 18 Rob Garza at Music Box. KRS-One at Observatory North Park.

SATURDAY, JAN. 19 Mae at Soda Bar. NAO at Observatory North Park. Sumac at Brick By Brick. As

Pinback plays The Casbah Wednesday, Jan. 23 and Thursday, Jan. 24 It Is at SOMA. Adolescents at The Casbah. Mae at The Irenic. Brendan Kelly at Tower Bar.

SUNDAY, JAN. 20 88 Fingers Louie at Soda Bar. Mustard Plug at The Casbah. Reagan Youth at Brick By Brick.

MONDAY, JAN. 21 Snail Mail at Music Box. The Posies at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, JAN. 22 Via Satellite at The Casbah. Kris Kristofferson and The Strangers at Balboa Theatre.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 23 Trombone Shorty at Belly Up Tavern.

Mozes and the Firstborn at Soda Bar. Pinback at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, JAN. 24 Pinback at The Casbah.

FRIDAY, JAN. 25 Ozomatli at Music Box. The English Beat at Belly Up Tavern. Transfer at The Casbah. Larry And His Flask at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, JAN. 26 The English Beat at Belly Up Tavern.

Whitey Morgan at Observatory North Park. Buck-O-Nine at The Casbah. Corrosion of Conformity at Brick By Brick.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

@SDCITYBEAT

BY CHRISTIN BAILEY

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 SUNDAY, JAN. 27 Bananarama at Observatory North Park.

No Knife at The Casbah. Ana Popovic at Belly Up Tavern.

MONDAY, JAN. 28 Richard Thompson Electric Trio at Belly Up Tavern. Duster at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, JAN. 29 Elton John at Valley View Casino Center.

Sergio Mendes at Belly Up Tavern.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 30 Wild Child at Soda Bar. Hawthorne Heights at House Of Blues.

FRIDAY, FEB. 1 Cursive, Mineral at The Casbah. Okilly Dokilly at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, FEB. 2 Magic City Hippies at Soda Bar. Mineral at Che Café. Drama at The Casbah.

MONDAY, FEB. 4 Still Woozy at Soda Bar. The Toasters at The Casbah. Chris Shiflett at Belly Up Tavern.

TUESDAY, FEB. 5 MØ at Observatory North Park. DaniLeigh at House of Blues. Gang of Four at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, FEB. 7 KISS at Viejas Arena. Marc Anthony at Valley View Casino Center.

FRIDAY, FEB. 8 Tijuana Panthers at Soda Bar. Atmosphere at Observatory North Park (sold out). Katchafire at Music Box.

SATURDAY, FEB. 9 Tijuana Panthers at Soda Bar. The Woggles at The Casbah. Radar State at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, FEB. 10 Radar State at The Casbah. Lee “Scratch” Perry at House of Blues.

rCLUBSr 710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Wed: Open Mic. Thu: Karaoke.

Sat: The Big Lewinsky, Major Interval.

Tue: GHOS7 WAV3, The Feathered Fish.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., Normal Heights. Fri: ‘House Music Friday’. Sat: ‘Juicy’. Mon: ‘Organized Grime’. Tue: J. Lestat.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Sam Morril. Fri: Sam Morril. Sat: Sam Morril. Tue: Open Mic. Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Fri: Kim Ann Foxman. Sat: Hotfire, Sly Turner.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

@SDCITYBEAT

ASTROLOGICALLY UNSOUND Weekly forecasts from the so-called universe ARIES (March 21 - April 19): The New Year is a time for new beginnings and I’m thinking if we get enough people to write letters, we might finally get your lifetime ban from AM/PM lifted.

TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): You are going to recognize a tree in the woods and let’s just hope it’s the one you saw on the hike in this morning and not the tree from a few hours ago when you wandered in a giant circle.

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): It’s possible that animals have an aesthetic sense, or at least it’s not totally impossible that they actually think that your outfit looks nice today. If it makes you feel better.

CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Life is like a beautiful tapestry; your mother probably gave it to you for reasons completely unknown to you and now you have to find something to do with the thing.

LEO (July 23 - August 22): It is true that wherever you go, there you are.

This is particularly true when the only wherevers you go are to the bathroom to take selfies in the mirror.

VIRGO (August 23 - September 22): Nothing in life is fair and you should be prepared for this. I mean, the spider in Charlotte’s Web could read and write in a language of a different species and it was still the pig that ended up famous.

LIBRA (September 23 - October 22): Ignorance is bliss; not in the sense that you won’t get arrested for things just because you didn’t know they were crimes, but in that you can’t get in trouble if nobody knows you committed them.

SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21): This week will be all about balancing the conflicting cosmic energies of not wanting to do stuff, but wanting to be able to complain about having done it.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 December 21): Every day you draw closer to reaching your full potential like a rollercoaster; slowly climbing up to the peak only to drop back down and deliver you back to the beginning.

CAPRICORN (December 22 January 19): After Wolfgang Beltracchi was jailed for using a modern paint on a forged piece that predated it, he was asked what he’d do differently. He replied, “I’d use a different white.”

AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18): If the weather is such a “boring” thing to talk about then please, by all means, why don’t you just talk about the last time you conjured one billion volts of electricity out of the air.

PISCES (February 19 - March 20): Line your hamster cage with this paper.

I’m giving him vocabulary lessons. Today we’re learning the word “beacon,” which means “a fire or light set up as a warning or celebration.”

Astrologically Unsound appears every week. Follow Christin Bailey on Twitter at @hexprax.

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 25

JAIME SHAHEEN

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25

tors. Sat: Mercedes Moore. Sun: Major Interval. Mon: Sue Palmer. Tue: Michele Lundeen.

Beaumont’s, 5665 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Fri: Slower.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Sat: ‘Ascension’.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Thu: Aviator Stash, Imagery Machine, Belladon. Fri: Queen Nation and Erotic City. Sat: Beat Farmers Hootenanny. Sun: Leo Kottke. Tue: Bill Champlin and WunderGround.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., Kensington. Fri: Hardly Human, Cadaver Pudding, Punchcard. Sat: John Cougar Concentration Camp, Tiltwheel, VHS Club.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’. Thu: ‘A “Lil” Hip Hop Party’. Fri: ‘We Are Your Friends’. Sun: ‘Deep Tech SD’. Mon: ‘Blue Monday’. Tue: ‘Techno Tuesday’.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Fri: Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J and Esham, Sylint, Izzy Projectz, FATTBOY. The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Thu: ‘Yacht Rock Nite’. Fri: Hot Snakes, Retox. Sat: Chinchilla, Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver, Mostly Sunny, Scary Pierre. Sun: T.S.O.L., Forest Grove, Blood Ponies. Mon: Man Man, Jon Daly.

Tue: ‘David Bowie Birthday Bash’.

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Fri: Fashion Jackson, Buddha Trixie, Precious Kid, JARA, Lefties, Air-Go. Sat: Dare, Initiate. Tue: Gary Wilson, Bryson Cone, Jinx, Kan Kan. Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Bay Park. Fri: Julian Roel & his 4tet. Sun: Sean Hicke.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Robert Allen Shepherd. Thu: Volver, Volver. Fri: The Dan Band. Sun: Chad & Rosie. Tue: Robin Henkel.

Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: Trade Winds. Thu: Nu Vintage. Fri: The Reflec-

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 2, 2019

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Mon: Open Mic. Tue: Comedy Night.

Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave., Hillcrest. Thu: ‘Creme de la Dregs’.

Tue: Breakthrough Workshop Theatre.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Fri: Aura & Ovation, The Fogels, Dab.

Tijuana Panthers play Soda Bar Friday, Feb. 8 and Saturday, Feb. 9

Mr. Peabody’s, 136 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Thu: The Sickstring Outlaws. Sun: Anthony Ortega Jazz Quartet. Mon: Open Mic.

Rosie O’Gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: Karaoke. Sat: The Naked.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy. Fri: Electric Mud, Mango Habanero, Casual Yak, WET. Sat: The Winehouse Experience.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Thu: Lavender Fields. Fri: Elektric Voodoo, Rally Club. Sat: Stellar Corpses, Hard Fall Hearts, The Writhers.

Sun: Quali, Praying, Runs Deep.

The Office, 3936 30th St., North Park.

Tue: ‘Trapped in the Office’.

Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Sat: Dynamiq.

Pour House, 1903 S. Coast Highway, Oceanside. Wed: Open Mic. Fri: The Night Howls. Tue: DJ Lexicon Devil.

The Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest. Sat: ‘Sábados En FUEGO!’.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: ‘Mischief’. Thu: ‘#LEZ’. Fri: ‘Electro-POP!’. Sat: ‘Voltage’.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz w Jason & Friends’. Fri: Rip Carson. Sat: Blue Largo. Tue: ‘Everything and Anything Jam’.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway.

Fri: Shindigs, BluNites, The Monsoon, ShameFace, Bad Kids, Wizærd. Sat: Miles Bandit, The Galactics, Lunar Hand, Jara, 4BNM, Chutes.

SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights.

Fri: ‘Rituals’. Sat: ‘Hide and Go Freak’.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: Paul Gregg.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Sat: Lord Knows I’m Drinking.

Sun: ‘Pants Karaoke’.

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Fri: The New Normal Band. Sat: Evan Diamond

Goldberg. Sun: Lauren Leigh. Tue: Keep Your Soul.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., Bay Park. Thu: ‘An Evening with Gunhild Carling’. Fri: Bump City Brass. Sat: Full Strength Funk Band. Sun: ‘Gunhild Carling’s Sunday Matinee Soiree’. Mon: ‘Sexy Salsa and Sensual Bachata with DJ Sonero’. Tue: Big Time Operator Orchestra.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Sat: Dead on the Wire, Slaughter Boys, Razor Nights, Baby Hairs.

U-31, 3112 University Ave., North Park.

Thu: ‘Boombox Thursdays’.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park.

Thu: ‘Left on Read’. Sat: ‘80s vs. 90s Dance Party’. Tue: ‘Sketch Party’.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach.

Wed: Open Mic. Thu: Open Jam. Fri: Wise Monkey Orchestra, Modern Day Moonshine. Sat: Big Scary Robot. Sun: Karaoke. Tue: ‘Musical Artistry of Singers & Songwriters’.

@SDCITYBEAT

BY JACKIE BRYANT

IN THE BACK

CANNABITCH Words matter

I

’ve stopped using the word marijuana.

Readers of this column might have noticed that it has never appeared until now. My friends definitely know not to use it around me lest they want a preachy, rapid-fire verbal beat down. Yes, only a skilled killjoy such as myself would do this while everyone else is just trying to have a good time.

Therein lies the problem. While it’s nice to imagine that Prop. 64 ushered in a world in which we’re all just hanging with Dave Chappelle, ripping blunts and getting our wellness on with CBD oil, the truth is far less sanguine.

Many other aspects of the cannabis world have not progressed in the same way the industry would have us believe. Across the state and country, millions—mainly people of color—remain imprisoned on cannabis-related convictions. The recent passage of several California bills designed to help those with non-violent cannabis convictions expunge their records and get released from prison is a step in the right direction. Still, there is a long way to go before the playing field can be considered any kind of level.

It’s a fact that weighs heavy on me, a white woman who gleefully writes about

@SDCITYBEAT

using cannabis in all sorts of situations that, not too long ago, got many people locked up. I never had that problem. I grew up in a very nice suburb of New York City, where my then-boyfriend would score a $20 bag of decent bud he got from a guy in Queens, thus starting my path to the exceptionally accomplished, professional weed smoker I am today.

Smoking pot was fun, mildly rebellious and, most importantly, for me it was safe. I knew I was never, ever going to get arrested for smoking weed; if you had asked me if I was afraid, I would have responded, “I’m a white chick. It’s probably not going to happen.” And I was right. I never did get arrested and now it’s legal where I live. That’s how privilege works.

So, about that word? Marijuana? Its shitty use can be traced back to The Federal Bureau of Narcotics’ first director, Harry J. Anslinger, who went whole hog on the plant in the early 1930s, attaching it to black and Mexican working-class communities. He wanted to turn public opinion against cannabis use by classifying it as foreign and, therefore, dangerous. So, he appropriated the word “marihuana,” a term thought to be used in colonial Mexico

WIKI COMMONS

Reefer Madness poster by indigenous growers who were forced by colonizers to grow hemp for rope. He’s also the guy responsible for the atrocious Reefer Madness films and propaganda.

“Marijuana is the most violencecausing drug in the history of mankind,” Anslinger said. “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music—jazz and swing—result from marijuana use.”

In case it isn’t already obvious, that is some fabricated, racist garbage. What’s sad, though, is that Anslinger’s rhetoric and his policies laid the groundwork for all-out criminalization and the eventual War on Drugs, a fruitless endeavor that continues to drag on and ruin lives all over the world.

It’s important to right the wrongs of those who came before us and little gestures can have large impacts. Since words matter and I can’t lay cultural claim to saying marihuana, I’ll stick to saying cannabis and other less harmful terms like weed, herb, grass and other euphemisms for the beloved devil’s lettuce. Unless you want me to harsh your mellow, I would suggest others do the same.

CannaBitch appears every other week.

Follow Jackie Bryant on Twitter at @jacqbryant.

JANUARY 2, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27