San Diego CityBeat • Jan 11, 2017

2 · San Diego CityBeat · January 11, 2017

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January 11, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

In Need of Supervision

S

ince becoming editor over a month ago, I’ve been playing catch up with a lot of the political intricacies of local government. Needless to say, I’ve had more than my share of Ron Swanson-type “just burn it all down” moments over the past few weeks.

And while I’ve managed to wrap my head around the functions and (dis)functionality of bodies like the mayor’s office, the City Council, and even the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), I’ve found it to be quite the task to find someone who could fully encapsulate what, exactly, is the function of the San Diego Board of Supervisors (abbreviated as BOS because, well, BS would be too apropos). So I began to ask friends and colleagues: Do you know what the Board of Supervisors do?

Answers ranged from “I don’t know” and “Uh, they supervise stuff” to “I think they’re like a local Supreme Court” and “I just skip that part of the ballot.” Keep in mind these are educated, passionate people who really do their best to keep up with local politics. That last quote is particularly troubling and it’s tempting to speculate that other voters may also be choosing to skip that part of the ballot. This theory could also be compounded by the fact that the BOS is allowed to draw their own district lines and, up until a few years ago, had no term limits.

So while it’s safe to say that much of San Diego probably isn’t aware of just how much power the BOS has (FYI, it’s actually quite a bit), or that its five members are all white and all Republican (even though it’s technically a non-partisan office), it didn’t stop constituents from coming out on Tuesday to voice their displeasure with the board’s decision to give themselves a nearly $20,000 raise (they already make $153,000 a year). Dozens of residents spoke out against the raise. Pastor Wayne Riggs of the Interfaith Center for Worker Justice implored the BOS to “give the same scrutiny” to wage raises for county workers that he claimed were “truly struggling.” While most were as respectful as Riggs, some were downright aggressive in their tone.

“You’re not doing your job!” shouted Martha Welch. “I don’t think you’re good people so I don’t think you should get a raise. You work for me, don’t you forget!”

“We are what we do,” proclaimed Susana Juarez, a board member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and an employee of the San Diego Unified School District for nearly 30 years. She went on to recount how hard she worked over the years and how she now struggles in retirement. She also questioned how, exactly, the BOS was working for workers like her.

One woman, the last to speak, even suggested that people would later wonder whether Supervisor Ron Roberts (District 4) was drunk when the board made this decision. She went on to call them“an embarrassment” and “so damn stuNATHAN RUPERT / FLICKR pid.” Roberts was quick to point out the myriad of county positions that make more money than they do and called the raise “fair and reasonable.”

In the end, the BOS voted 4-1 to give themselves a raise. The lone dissenter was Kristin Gaspar, who had just been sworn in as District 3 supervisor the day before.

And yet the question Supervisor Ron Roberts remains, what does the BOS do exactly, and what are they doing to be paid nearly $200,000 a year along with pensions once they’ve retired? Well, the truth is that they are in charge of a lot. They have executive, legislative and judicial powers. They are ostensibly in charge of the nearly 50 county department offices, everything from the registrar of voters and the parks department to the sheriff’s office and the fire authority.

“Their job is to oversee the needs of the county,” ACCE member Lileana Robles told me after the meeting.

I couldn’t have put it more succinctly myself, but it’s worth pointing out that such a job is a lot of responsibility. So is it possible that the BOS do deserve a raise? Sure, it’s possible, but as one woman at the meeting from the Service Employees International Union put it, they “damn well better come with it.”

That is, they better earn it.

—Seth Combs

Write to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com

This issue of CityBeat is offering a five fish bounty to any seal or sea lion who bites a tourist.

Volume 15 • Issue 24 EDITOR Seth Combs

ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos

CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Baldwin, David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Andrew Dyer, Tiffany Fox, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Lara McCaffrey, Scott McDonald, Sebastian Montes, Jenny Montgomery, Jordan Packer, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Jen Van Tieghem, Amy Wallen

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Torrey Bailey

EDITORIAL INTERNS Sofia Mejias-Pascoe

MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford

COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer Edwin Decker Minda Honey John R. Lamb Alex Zaragoza

PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Beau Odom Mark Schreiber Jenny Tormey ACCOUNTING Kacie Cobian, Sharon Huie Linda Lam HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE Kacie Sturek

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4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

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UP FRONT | LETTERS

TABLE CONTENTS OF

REALLY, YOU CAN TRUST THE TIMES

UP FRONT From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Letters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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

At The Intersection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sordid Tales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 5 6 7 8

FOOD & DRINK The World Fare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Dishing It Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Beerdist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

THINGS TO DO The Short List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar of Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-14

ARTS & CULTURE Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 FEATURE: UCSD Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Seen Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-19

MUSIC FEATURE: Marching Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Notes from the Smoking Patio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 If I Were U. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Concerts & Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-26

LAST WORDS Advice Goddess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

ON THE

COVER University of Oregon student Duncan Moore is as studious as they come and was one of the best summer interns to ever come through the CityBeat offices. So studious that he always reaches out to us when he’s back in town to see if we have any work for him. We sent him to shoot UCSD’s University Art Gallery for the story by Jordan Packer (another former CityBeat intern) that details how the 50-year-old institution is still in danger of being shut down. Always great at rolling with the punches, Moore didn’t let an otherwise dreary and rainy day stop him from getting the shot. “I enjoy photographing architecture, but I’ve never been much for the concrete brutalist structures at UCSD,” says Moore. “Combined with an overcast sky and lack of students, the vibe on campus was somewhat depressed when I visited. While it proved for a difficult shoot, I feel it accurately reflected the state of the gallery itself.”

@SDCITYBEAT

It took me until today to begin reading San Diego CityBeat and I send my thanks to you for a New Year present! To know that you are a journalist who believes in verifying facts makes me sooooo happy [“Fake News!!,” Dec. 21, 2016]. I have fretted for years about trying to determine between opinion and fact in what I read. I don’t subscribe to any newspapers only because of this issue. I am thinking about the New York Times, but don’t know if I can trust them.

Judith Piper La Mesa

BULLETIN BOARD MATERIAL

Dear Aaryn, we loved your Aleppo column [“In Memoriam,” Dec. 21, 2016] in the San Diego CityBeat while we were in San Diego over the holidays. A very powerful and heartbreaking tribute. I have it on my office door for my students to read now that I am back in the Midwest. Here’s hoping for a better new year. Thank you!

Carole Collier Frick Professor of History and Chair, Historical Studies Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL

JEFFERSON APPROVED

I’d like to give Mr. Decker a bit of a tutorial in US History and Government. I’ve been both a university and high school teacher in these subjects. Nowhere in the Constitution do we find the words, “separation of church and state.” Nowhere can they be found in the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers. Where does this mythical concept come from? A letter that Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Society. He wanted to assure them that their 1st Amendment rights would be protected under his presidency. Our 3rd President, a unitarian rationalist, procided [sic] over worhsip [sic] services in the Capital Building. He endorsed the Congressial [sic] printing and distribution of the first American Bible. He approved of Congress beginning with a prayer led by a chaplain every session. His memorial is replete with quotes concerning the importance of religion. As an adjunct faculty member at USC, I was denied my freedoms of speech, expression and religion. As a teacher, academic freedoms and the university’s own creed were violated. President Thomas Jefferson would not be happy with this state of affairs. For faith needs to be expressed in the public square as the founders intended. So shout and greet one another with a “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!” Or as Tiny Tim would say, “God Bless us one and all.” Jefferson would surely approve.

Mark A. Peter Solana Beach

WE WANT FEEDBACK

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Email letters to editor Seth Combs at seth. combs@sdcitybeat.com, or mail to 3047 University Ave., Suite 202, San Diego, CA 92104.

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JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

UP FRONT | OPINION COURTESY OF MARLEA DELL’ANNO

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

“Jan is Filner without the touching” I know you lawyers can, with ease, twist words and meanings as you please.

—John Gay

A

ttorney Marlea Dell’Anno prides herself on making the best of challenging situations. But while describing the day back in late 2015 when San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith fired her via email, she fought hard to hold back the tears.

The devastating email arrived while she stood with other parents at her daughter’s volleyball practice. “I’m standing there, and I’m trying not to lose it,” she recalled in a recent interview, her voice quavering. “I don’t want to tell my daughter I just lost my job.”

On a personal level, it had not been a good year for the mother of three—a disintegrating marriage, the death of her father and caring for her mother who was going blind. “The last year has been just

me trying to make sense that everything is going to be OK,” the city’s former top prosecutor explained.

“On the drive home—I’ll never forget—I was just trying everything in my power not to lose it in front of my daughter. So the week before Thanksgiving, I’m jobless.”

Save for “a little teaching” at the local Alliant International University campus, Dell’Anno remains jobless, and she puts the blame squarely on Goldsmith’s shoulders for sullying her reputation. In a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed last week against Goldsmith and the city, the former assistant city attorney alleges that Goldsmith demoted then fired her in retaliation for refusing to play along while “Goldsmith prioritized his political ambitions and interests over his ethical obligations.”

In the suit, Dell’Anno—a former Tulare County public defender and Fresno County deputy district attorney hired by Goldsmith in

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

2009—claims Goldsmith’s political interests were apparent “almost immediately” after he promoted her in 2012 to head the city’s criminal division, overseeing the review of nearly 20,000 misdemeanor and infraction cases annually.

In 2013, Goldsmith “became irate and denigrated” Dell’Anno in front of the management team, the suit alleges, after she attended a City Council meeting to answer questions about the division’s budget— answers that “did not align with Goldsmith’s agenda.” After that, according to the lawsuit, “Goldsmith increasingly limited her contact with the City Council and forbade her at various stretches of time from speaking to councilmembers.”

Hoping to get back in the city attorney’s good graces, Dell’Anno said she sought the advice of Gerry Braun, Goldsmith’s communications director whom she referred to as “the Jan whisperer” for his ability to “calm Jan down when he was ready to flip out. Sometimes his knee-jerk reaction was so volatile.

I’m not the only person he bullied.

He’s a tyrant. Jan is Filner without the touching.”

In her suit, Dell’Anno claims that Braun’s advice was that Goldsmith “wants you to get your hands dirty. If you would just get your hands dirty, they would let you in the room.”

The sign that greeted soon-to-be-fired Assistant City Attorney Marlea Dell’Anno, upon reassignment “I really do want to emphasize that I don’t think Gerry was suggesting that I do anything illegal,” Dell’Anno told Spin. “I just think he was trying to explain to me this is how it works around here, this is the culture. I think Gerry tried to help me where he could, but sometimes he couldn’t help me.”

Braun, now newly elected City Attorney Mara Elliott’s chief of staff, declined comment for this column. But Elliott, in a statement, expressed “high confidence in Gerry’s abilities and professionalism.”

Regarding the lawsuit, Elliott said she had “personally” reviewed it, but also declined to opine, adding, “I think it’s appropriate for the city to respond in court, and not through the media.”

Someone who did respond in a lengthy email was Goldsmith himself, who defended his decision to remove Dell’Anno as criminal division head “due to her harsh treatment of lawyers and others in the division.” He said “pro- and antiMarlea factions” in the division led to “bickering that interfered with operation of the office, impaired working conditions of our personnel and caused good lawyers to quit.”

Goldsmith also attributed his decision to have negative evaluations of two attorneys in the office removed from their files after they filed grievances due to “bickering and management problems.”

“I did disagree with her over the negative evals as the grievance appeal went to me as the head of the office. That’s the process,” he wrote. In her suit, Dell’Anno argues that state record-retention law prevented her from removing one evaluation.

Goldsmith also denied demanding that Dell’Anno file criminal charges against activist attorney Cory Briggs, his legal nemesis, for allegedly using elec-

tronic signatures on court documents. “She was not asked to file anything,” he said in the email.

Briggs declined comment.

The former city attorney also denied demoting Dell’Anno, claiming he instead “reassigned her to head up the Community Court and Homeless Court project that we were working on. It is something that is near and dear to me.” (He said he didn’t know anything about her move from a corner suite to a “dingy” office on the fifth floor with a “DO NOT ENTER” sign posted on the door, which Dell’Anno found “humiliating.”)

By contrast, Dell’Anno contended that Goldsmith had a different attitude toward the homeless. “He has said before that nobody can solve this problem,” she said. “His solution was just lock everyone up.

Well, that’s not going to work.”

Finally, Goldsmith said Dell’Anno was fired “after her successor learned of 50 domestic violence files that had not been timely handled by an attorney working under Marlea…and we learned that Marlea took the files home for some five months, but nothing was done.” Another 50 case files were found later, he said. “It is inexcusable, particularly in domestic violence cases where the victim relies upon our office for help.”

Dell’Anno, in her suit, claims she followed protocol by reporting the highly publicized case bungling, first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune last April, to members of his management team. She said she took them home to conduct her own review.

“They knew I had them,” she said.

“It was not a secret.”

A domestic-violence victim herself in her 20s, Dell’Anno said Goldsmith “went right for my jugular, and he knew it.”

Spin Cycle appears every week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com. @SDCITYBEAT

CULTURE | VOICES

MINDA HONEY

AT THE

INTERSECTION

Casey Affleck, Nate Parker and the Case of the Missing White Feminists

L

ast week, in the latest round of “Why Aren’t Black Women…” tweet storms, some Black men on Twitter seemed to still be in their feelings about Nate Parker and Birth of a Nation. And because Twitter is where all logicians peddle their false equivalence theories, the question was asked, “Why aren’t Black women going after Casey Affleck like they went after Nate Parker?”

In case you missed it, now that Casey Affleck won a Golden Globe and is receiving Oscar buzz for Manchester by the Sea (movie synopsis: White people white-peopling… by the sea), Amy Zimmerman at The Daily Beast wrote a nice little rundown on the sexual harassment allegations made against Affleck by two separate women in 2010 and how no one seemed to be talking about it. What followed was a string of pieces about why this revelation was unlikely to ruin Affleck’s chances at an Oscar, drawing many comparisons between Affleck and Parker.

Yes, Black women on Twitter held Nate Parker accountable, but as Michael Arceneaux at The Root points out, Black women��������������������� were also the majority of filmgoers who saw and supported Birth of a Nation—but of course we don’t get credit for that part (well, I don’t deserve credit for that part because I refused to go see it). Because it’s totally Black women who are known for privileging whiteness over the struggle. #sideeye #tomilahren #trevornoah #charlemagnethegod #taxstone Here’s something to remember: Hollywood would have given zero fucks about the Nate Parker allegations had Black women not pressed him to speak on his past.

So, while most of these Affleck/ Parker pieces are focusing on the Hollywood double-standard around race—which is definitely a thing and definitely a factor—I’m also asking: Where are the white feminists? Zora Neale Hurston got it right in the 1930s when she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God and spoke on society’s expectation that Black women carry the load. But nowadays, Black women are too busy to be the world’s mules.

Things Black Women Were Too Busy Doing To Handle This Mess: • Having a moment of silence on the anniversary of Oscar Grant’s death • Rolling our eyes at Lee Daniels calling #oscarssowhite protestors whiners and Tyler Perry’s claims of reverse racism over the criticism of his new show having an all-white cast • Checking Kim Burrell after her homophobic “sermon” • Binge watching Chewing Gum on Netflix • Bolstering those opening weekend numbers for Hidden Figures and Fences • Grieving the departure of the Obamas from the White House • Putting the final touches on our “Black Girl Magic” vision boards for 2017

• Copping that new Roxane Gay book, Difficult Women • Working through our conflicted feelings over Serena’s engagement to that Reddit dude Things White Women Were Too Busy Doing To Handle This Mess: • Tilda Swinton was dealing with the public disclosure of those Doctor Strange emails she sent to Margaret Cho #whitetears • Lena Dunham was wishing she’d had an abortion so she could be a better feminist • Jennifer Lawrence was destroying sacred spaces in Hawaii with her butt • The founder of Pantsuit Nation was selling out 4 million women for a book deal • Ronda Rousey was getting paid $3 million for a 48 second beating from Amanda Nunes (the Brazilian Nunes, in comparison, only made $200,000) Here are some questions the Internet should be asking instead of questioning Black women: Why aren’t white women with clout in Hollywood putting in the same work to hold Casey Affleck accountable that Black women put in to hold Nate Parker accountable? Why aren’t they agitating for better working conditions for women on set—women who have less of a voice than they do?

White feminists, this is a crusade that you can take on no matter where you’re at on the intersectional feminism spectrum.

Where y’all at? The Oscars are less than two months away. That feels like plenty of time to make some noise. All eyes will be on Hollywood next month so why not leverage that?

In light of the election results that more white women voted for Trump than Clinton (94 percent of Black women voted for Clinton), it’s important to have more discussions around who’s putting in the work for progress and who’s benefitting from that work. It’s been made very clear that most white women cannot be counted on to put gender before race. Yet when discussions of race come up, the signature move of White Feminists is to swing the conversation back around to their comfort zone and focus only on gender. So, we’re going to need to see some action behind that talk before we trust that you’re actually down for the cause versus just out here trying to better your own personal circumstances.

2017 is for boat rocking. White Feminists, if you’re not willing to create some commotion we’re leaving you on shore with all the other people, who are either too afraid of, or just simply against, moving forward.

No more free rides. Don’t worry, if the waters get too choppy, you can jump ship and try to use your white privilege as a flotation device. You might even get a book deal out of it.

White feminists, this is a crusade that you can take on no matter where you’re at on the intersectional feminism spectrum.

@SDCITYBEAT

At The Intersection appears monthly.

JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION

EDWIN DECKER

SORDID

TALES

Real men are very good at throwing and catching things a lot

F

or most of our lives, we males have been hearing about what it takes to be considered “a real man.” These types of comments typically come from friends, family, the media or during some heartwrenching family drama in which a father sits on the edge of his troubled teenager’s bed and sagely delivers one of a series of Real Man Clichés (RMC’s) such as, “A real man stands up for himself, son” or “A real man takes care of his family,” or “A real man carves out his own glory holes.”

I’ve always found RMC’s largely to be a simplistic view of gender identity, as if there was only one way for a male to be. I also think they can be insulting to women, as if women don’t also stand up for themselves and/or take care of their families. So neither RMC trait has anything to do with masculinity.

There are a million of these bogus RMC’s, like the oft-touted fallacies that real men don’t cry, real men don’t ask for directions and real men don’t cross their legs. And I really can’t stand how—whenever I order a Pina colada from the bar—there’s always some nearby Real Man Wannabe to inform me that, “real men should not order foo-foo drinks” when, in fact, real men should order whatever the fuck they want to order and not care what anyone thinks about it.

The list of Real Man Clichés is long and irritating and mostly bullshit. Indeed, as far as I can tell, there really only is one real, true RMC. This is to say, only one observation about men that is always true while at the same time being always not true about women, which is this: Real Men Are Very Good at Throwing and Catching Things a Lot. I’m not talking about throwing and catching in sports. I’m talking about every day inanimate objects: car keys, phones, remotes, knickknacks. Indeed, men learn at an early age that we must successfully throw and catch things back-and-forth if we do not want to be thought a sissy. Like when you’re hanging out with your pals at recess, eating candy and talking sports, and somebody tosses you a jawbreaker and you miss it, or, you throw something badly to someone then, well, every man reading this article knows what happens next. Sure as if your name was Poindexter, they will tear you apart like a pack of wolves.

“Nice throw, Spaz! Does your boyfriend usually do the pitching?

“But, but—but it was a bad catch!”

“Nah, it was way over his head! Get him boys!”

Of course, this scenario only has to happen a couple of times before you vow to never let it happen again. And so—like all men—you master the skill of throwing and catching everyday objects because your manhood—nay your life—depends on it.

Now, as previously mentioned, in order for “Real Men Are Very Good at Throwing and Catching Things

a Lot” to be a bonafide RMC, it must apply to men only, not women. And it is a proven, scientific fact that “Chicks Can’t Catch or Throw Things for Shit.”

Nothing against them mind you. There’s just no social penalty for women who can’t throw and/or catch everyday, inanimate objects. It was only two days ago my friend “Debbie” shattered a bottle of ketchup against the wall. The woman simply cannot grasp the concept of arc—you know, lobbing things high and slow to give the receiver time to adjust. She whipped it hard, with all the arc of a line drive double play, causing it to careen off my shoulder and explode behind me, splattering ketchup on the wall like a CSI shotgun homicide scene.

And then there’s The Mother, who lurches in terror at the mere thought of having to catch something.

It was on Christmas morning that she nearly killed the Baby Jesus.

“Will you pass the remote?”

The Mother asked when we retreated to the living room after our traditional Christmas morning feast. But mom was out of reach. And being that my stomach was over-stuffed from the break-feast, getting up and bringing it to her was out of the question. So I decided to chance a throw.

“No, no—don’t do that,” she winced in terror.

“Don’t worry, mom,” I said.

“I will lob it slow and high for you. You can’t miss.”

But the anxiety rendered her spastic. Instead of waiting for the remote to fall into her hands, she jabbed her closed fist into the air and punched the remote back toward me, over my head and into the ceramic nativity scene blinking on the piano behind me. The remote barreled through the display like a bowling ball, knocking over Mary, Joseph, a lamb, all Three Kings and...

“Gaaack!” The Mother screamed. “You toppled the manger!”

“Me?! Are you for real? It was a perfect throw!”

We approach to assess the damage. The nativity scene is like a bombing aftermath. Broken pieces are scattered about. Joseph is lying on his back, decapitated, The Virgin is bleeding out face first in the hay, and an oxen is munching on the dismembered limbs of the Magi. To our surprise, however, Jesus is unharmed; he’s just sitting beside the upturned manger, smiling and holding the remote in his little baby hands. Yup, apparently Jesus made a diving catch!

And then, with a slow, high arc, he drops a perfect pass into my arms—which I catch without so much as a bobble—because, as the RMC goes, that’s how real men do.

And it is a proven, scientific fact that ‘Chicks Can’t Catch or Throw Things for Shit.’

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

Sordid Tales appears every other week.

Write to edwin@sdcitybeat.com. @SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

Befitting a Malarkey place, Herb & Wood has a great drinks program led by Willem Van Leuven.

Start with the Smoke & Spice cocktail (Del Maguey mezcal, Ancho Reyes chile liqueur, pineapple, agave and lime). The Gin & Lavender (lavender infused Beefeater gin, thyme-honey syrup, lemon A more wear-resistant fabric and soda) would be a close second.

Herb & Wood’s menu is divided into seven seche restaurant business is notoriously fickle. tions that roughly correspond to salads, sea startToday’s empire can quickly become tomorers, small plates, vegetables, mains, pastas and pizrow’s smoking pile of rubble. And you may zas. Of the “salads” the best choice is the roasted not even get a t-shirt to show for it (though you beets with burrata, sherry, walnut pesto and jamon might just get a large tax deduction). Brian MaIberico. Malarkey’s played around with the presenlarkey knows this. He’s lived it. As documented in tations of this dish over time, and the current one this space previously, his “Fabric of Social Dining” may not be the best, but the flavors and textures empire (Burlap, Searsucker, etc.) collapsed around are spot on. him. And that makes Herb & Wood (2210 Kettner Of the pastas, none is better than the gnocchi Boulevard) all the more impressive. and oxtail with roasted garlic, parsley, chive, sherMICHAEL A. GARDINER ry, parmesan and horseradish. One of my dining companions commented she’d always wanted to like gnocchi but never before had until she tried this version. The pillowy gnocchi paired perfectly with the meaty oxtails and the touch of heat from the horseradish played perfectly against the richness of the cheese and the headiness of the sherry and herbs. Almost equally good were the agnolotti (think little ravioli) with rabbit sausage, meyer lemon, burrata and pistachios.

But nothing hit the heights of Malarkey’s speck-wrapped roasted branzino, with lemon herb stuffing and olive-chili tapenade. Branzino is the northern Italian name for a Mediterranean seabass Roasted Branzino with delicate white flesh and a mild, nearly sweet, flavor. He wraps the fish and stuffMalarkey leveraged a long run on Top Chef ing in speck—smoked prosciutto—giving the dish a into a restaurant empire stretching from here to richness and roundness that’s perfectly juxtaposed Uganda, as well as a gig on ABC’s Taste next to Anwith the funk of the tapenade. thony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson. But by then The branzino dish is a perfect metaphor for the cracks were beginning to show. The end would Herb & Wood: dramatic more than beautiful, percome within a year. From there, Malarkey’s play at fectly crafted and surprisingly confident. At the end redemption would be another year and a half in of the day, the restaurant seems to be Brian Malarthe future. key staring at himself in the mirror and pulling out But what a play it is. While Herb & Wood is unhis culinary schlong like Mark Wahlberg at the end mistakably a Malarkey place—big, central bar, volof Boogie Nights. Malarkey, like Wahlberg, seems to ume level to match and a see-and-be-seen scene— be saying, “this is what I am, this is who I am,” and there’s also a tangibly different feel. Where the asking, “why did I ever pretend differently?”

Fabric of Social Dining establishments were distinctly casual, Herb & Wood has a nostalgic, almost The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

Gatsby-era vibe.

FARE T

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JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY JAMES VERNETTE

DISHING IT

OUT

Duck into JSix (mostly for the duck)

U

sually, hotel restaurants are where the bland meets the unadventurous.

It makes sense, really. Visitors in a new place often want to eat something familiar in a new setting. And discerning locals typically avoid hotel eateries unless they’re in the bar trying to hit on tourists.

That’s not the case at JSix (616 J Street) in the Hotel Solamar in the Gaslamp. New chef Anthony Sinsay is putting a new spin on the restaurant’s new American cuisine by including hat tips to his Filipino heritage.

According to the 2010 Census, San Diego County is home to around five percent of the country’s Filipino population, but, other than lumpia and adobo, Pinoy cuisine hasn’t caught on big with the mainstream in the same way as other Asian cuisines such as Japanese, Thai or Vietnamese.

No, JSix isn’t a Filipino restaurant, but a few of the dishes are Sinsay’s riffs on food that he grew up with. But since JSix is an upscale place in the Gaslamp, as opposed to a hole in the wall in National City, this has the potential to be a very big deal in the culinary scene. Filipino-inspired dishes are only part of JSix’s “New American” menu, but those dishes are unique enough to give the place an edge in a crowded food neighborhood.

That is, if the food is good, and for the most part it is.

Of the dishes that are clearly Filipino in tone, the most successful may be the spicy warm beet salad, which is vinegar-braised in a style called paksiw. JSix serves the pickled beets with crispy garlic, Manchego cheese and serrano chile.

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

The pickled beets are definitely bracing in a good way. The puckered result in my mouth got me ready for the rest of the meal.

I wasn’t as much of a fan of the pancit, a rice noodle dish with an egg and fresh seasonal vegetables. It tasted slightly fishy and seemed like something I’d get at Panda Express. I think it works better as a side dish than as an entree.

The two dishes I really enjoyed were both duck.

The duck confit rillette, a sort of pâté usually made with pork, was rich, fatty, decadent and delicious.

The only problem is that we ran out of bread quickly and just ate it by the spoonful. My dining companion liked it so much he was texting his wife trying to find out when they could come back.

We were both big fans of the dry aged duck breast, served with celery root and a red wine reduction. Each bite was as COURTESY OF JSIX juicy and tender as a good steak. My friend heard the dish might be coming off the menu in January and he was begging them to leave it on (yes, he may have had some drinks as well).

We both enjoyed the charred octopus confit, which was served with a squid bolognese sauce.

Octopus can be chewy.

These were crispy and just popped in the mouth. I would get again. My designated driver wasn’t as big a fan of the roasted chicken, which had a nice JSix’s Pancit soy and peanut flavor.

He thought it was dry. I thought it was OK and there was flavor to spare.

I definitely plan a return trip to JSix, even if it’s just for the duck and the beet salad. The more interesting result, however, was how the food got me interested in learning more about Filipino cuisine so I can understand Sinsay’s influences better.

Pinoys might have a different reaction to Sinsay’s riffs on the cuisine than I did. That’s fair. But the mere fact that he’s introducing Filipino food to a mainstream audience at a fine dining restaurant should make them very happy, not to mention the tourists and locals at the bar.

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | DRINK

BY ANDREW DYER

THE

BEERDIST Our canned, crowded future

S

imply walking into a neighborhood grocery or bottle shop for beer is an increasingly taxing endeavor.

So many options are available that it almost requires an academic knowledge of the beer industry just to make the most informed decision. Is this beer fresh? Is the brewery owned by big beer? Which bottle will “wow” them at the bottle share?

What does this stout say about me as a person?

ANDREW DYER

Dominic Aljundi contemplating a can of Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch at Bottlecraft.

This quandary, known as “The Paradox of Choice,” was coined by psychologist and social theorist Barry Schwartz in his 2004 book by the same name. Schwartz found that test subjects were happier with their consumer purchases when there were, paradoxically, fewer options. As local and national brands continue to push the limits of just how much choice consumers can handle, how does a new brewery wedge its way onto the jam-packed shelves?

“Your primary goal has got to be to make great beer every time,” said Grant Tondro, cofounder of Mason Ale Works (2002 South Coast Highway, Oceanside).

Mason Ale Works’ bright yellow cans began peppering shelves at the beginning of the year. The brewery is part of the ever-expanding Urge Gastropub family of businesses that includes the eponymous Rancho Bernardo pub, Brother’s Provisions and the soon-to-be-open Urge Gastropub & Common House in San Marcos.

Tondro said he understood the nature of the market and

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trusted that San Diego consumers knew their beer.

“Patrons are educated enough that they can spot a bad beer a mile away,” he said. “They don’t necessarily fall for the simplest gimmicks like adding the latest citrus fruit to your IPA.” Gene Fielden, manager and beer buyer at Bottlecraft in North Park, said limited space meant he had to be very choosy as to which beers it carried.

“Today’s consumer moves from beer to beer,” he said. “Being new and novel are selling points, but only once.”

The future of packaged craft beer appears to be in cans. Rip Current, 32 North and Mikkeller have all released cans in the last few months.

“We picked canning because it’s a much better package for beer than glass bottles,” said Paul Sangster, Rip Current’s coowner and brewmaster, in an email. “It seemed like the natural choice for us.”

Tondro said data from his distributor suggests that, except for specialty barrel-aged beer and sours, consumers are not grabbing 22-ounce bombers at the rates they used to. He characterized this trend as a potential trap for breweries just getting into the distribution game.

“There are many brewers out there who, in sort of the rush to get to package, are putting their beer into 22-ounce bombers,” he said. “There is so much competition that you have to be conscientious to make this whole thing sing.”

Tasting room sales might be the most profitable for individual breweries, but most beer sales take place in the retail environment. That is, liquor and grocery stores. It remains to be seen just how many more options that market can handle before unsuccessful entrants begin to be picked off. One certainty moving forward is that there will be more options in the store, along with more customers scratching their heads, paradoxically perplexed with what to buy.

The Beerdist appears every other week. Write to andrewd@ sdcitybeat.com

JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

SHORTlist

EVENTS

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

LINCOLN PARK AND KENSINGTON

1

HEAR THEM ROAR

Make no mistake, the next four years (at this online community. The event we’re throwing is least) are going to be rough for women. just another way of inspiring them to throw their The orange guy isn’t even in office yet and the GOP own events where artists can meet, network and is already trying to defund hopefully collaborate.”

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Planned Parenthood. And In addition to artwork on while struggles against the display by Foxine Jay and Sarah proverbial Man often make for Brown, there will also be live inspired artistic statements, art, performances, tarot card it’s also just as likely that bereadings and live music from ing a female artist or musiImagery Machine and Lumas. cian will only become more It goes down on Friday, Jan. 13 of a struggle. As Meryl Streep, at 9 p.m. at the Kensington Club quoting Carrie Fisher, so elo(4079 Adams Ave.). Cover is $5 quently put it recently, “Take and more info can be found at your broken heart, make it tini-ebla.com. into art.”

The spirit of solidarity will There are two events this continue on Saturday, Jan. week that aim to do just that.

14 with Prism: Femme Fest, First, there’s Femme Forme, an all-day festival that will a launch party for the recently showcase local ladies. Hosted launched Tini Ebla, a website by none other than CityBeat’s that hopes to help promote bad-ass feminist-in-chief Alex and bring together female artZaragoza, the event includes ists of all mediums. music from Chulita Vinyl Club “Flesh Tone” by Sarah Brown and Cookie Crew, as well as live “It’s for anyone; poets, actresses, photographers, musiart from S.D.-born, TJ-based cians, even the people that are hard to label,” says Panca. There will also be vendors, crafters and a Foxine Jay, a local musician and visual artist who zine workshop. It happens from noon to 6 p.m. at helped organize the launch party. “The hope is that the Writerz Blok space (5010 Market St.) in Lincoln they tell their friends about it and that it grows into Park. Admission is free. facebook.com/writerzblok

LA JOLLA

2

ESCONDIDO

TRIPLE THREAT

Comic Lea DeLaria first made a name for herself as the first openly gay comedian to perform on late night, making an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1993. And since then, she’s risen to prominence for her portrayal of Big Boo on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Yet DeLaria is flexing her musical chops with a performance at the UC San Diego Mandeville Auditorium on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. In addition to her comic talent, she’s an accomplished jazz singer, having released five jazz albums, the most recent being a series of David Bowie covers titled House of David. She’ll be bringing her unique combination of wit and melody to the stage, and likely some scatting sessions as well. Tickets are $35-55 at artpower. ucsd.edu.

3

READY, SET, ART!

While the artistic process is sometimes notorious for being painstaking and meticulous, the annual Art-A-Thon challenges local artists to set those tendencies aside and just create. Now in its sixth year, the Art-A-Thon takes 25 artists from all around San Diego and has them create actively for 24 hours straight. ArtHatch and Distinction Gallery (317 E Grand Ave.) let the public come to watch the artists take their creative process to the extreme and the resulting pieces are then displayed and auctioned at the opening reception on Saturday, Jan. 14 from 6 to 10 p.m. Some of the artists include CityBeat faves such as Kelly Vivanco, Nicole Waszak and Victor Roman. Admission is free and there will also be beer, wine and live music.

The proceeds are divided evenly among the artists and ArtHatch programs for art education for teens. arthatch.org

ART

MUSIC

HArt-A-Thon at Distinction Gallery and Artist Studios, 317 E. Grand Ave., Escondido. Results from a 24-hour marathon of artistic creation to benefit the nonprofit art center’s program for teens. Artists include Kelly Vivanco, Nicole Waszak, Victor Roman and dozens more. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. 760-7815779, arthatch.org

HTalib Kweli at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The NYC rapper has been killing it for nearly 20 years, performing solo or as one half of the group Black Star (alongside Mos Def). At 8 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 13. $25. 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org

Sandy Swirnoff: Knotted Fiber Jewelry at Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. The famous jeweler will feature approximately 30 necklaces and bracelets that reveal her passion for nature, color and texture. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. Free-$10. 619239-0003, mingei.org HWood VIII at Escondido Municipal Gallery, 262 E. Grand Ave., Escondido. This annual exhibition features over a dozen of SoCal’s best furniture makers, wood turning and marquetry artisans showcasing everything from furniture to outdoor accessories. Opening from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 14. Free. 760-480-4101, escondidoarts.org H Moving Forward at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. The opening of new works by Ellen Salk, Lael Corbin, Kathryn Nova Williams, Griselda Rosas and Brittany Austen Segal. Also on view will be the open studio of current artist in residence Melissa Walter. From 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. Free. facebook. com/events/1780799002244556/

BOOKS HAlice Bag at Por Vida, 2146 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. The legendary Xicana punk singer will sign and discuss Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage-A Chicana Punk Story. There will be records and merch for sale as well. At 7 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 12. Free.

Matt Coyle at Bay Books, 1029 Orange Ave., Coronado. The local author will sign the new book in his Rick Cahill crime series, Dark Fissures, which takes place in San Diego. At 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12. Free.

619-435-0070, baybookscoronado.com Chris Bohjalian at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The New York Times bestselling author will sign and discuss The Sleepwalker, the story of a wife and mother who vanishes from her bed late one night. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12.

Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com

COMEDY HRachel Bloom at La Paloma Theater, 471 S. Coast Hwy. 101, Escondido. The comedian is probably best known for her viral music videos and as the Golden Globe-winning actress from the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. $20-$25. 760-436-7469, lfjcc.org Maria Bamford at Balboa Theatre, 868 4th Ave., Downtown. She’s the creator and star of Maria Bamford: the special special special and of the cult hit web series The Maria Bamford Show, which screened at the Museum of Art and Design. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. $30. sandiegotheatres.org

COURTESY OF ARTHATCH

FOOD & DRINK HSan Diego Restaurant Week at Various locations. More than 180 local restaurants will be offering three-course, prixfixe dinner and two-course, prix-fixe lunch menus. See website for full list of restaurants and offerings. Various times. Sunday, Jan. 15 through Sunday, Jan. 22. $15-$45. sandiegorestaurantweek.com

Lea DeLaria 12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

Art-A-Thon

H = CityBeat picks

HLea DeLaria at Mandeville Auditorium, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. The actress/ comedian featured in Orange is the New Black will showcase her knack for storytelling and jazz singing in front of a live audience. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. $20$50. 858-534-TIXS, artpower.ucsd.edu HBirth of the Cool: A West Coast Jazz Salute at at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. Series curator Gilbert Castellanos celebrates the music that made the “west coast sound,” paying homage to some of the greatest West Coast artists: Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond and more.

At 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. $20-$53.

619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org

PERFORMANCE HOur Great Tchaikovsky at San Diego Repertory Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Acclaimed pianist Hershey Felder transforms himself into Russia’s most famous composer for a time-bending story of culture and politics that explores the mystery around some of the greatest music ever composed. Runs from Thursday, Jan. 12 through Sunday, Feb. 12. Various times. $20-$75.

619-544-1000, sdrep.org

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HThe Foundry Reading Series at Public Square Coffee House, 8278 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. A new literary reading series with writers, known and unknown, performing fiction, non-fiction, poetry and more. Readers include Meredith Alling, Henry Hoke and more. From 8 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 14. $5 suggested donation. 619-501-9989, sosayweallonline.com

SPECIAL EVENTS HFemme Form at Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., Kensington. A launch party for the recently launched Tini Ebla website that will feature artwork, live art, performances, tarot card readings and live music from Imagery Machine and Lumas. At 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13. $5. tini-elba.com HPatches and Pins at San Diego Art Institute, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. An evening of pins and patches that includes live DJ sets and drinks while customizing your gear. Peruse new embellishments being made live on site by local artists or make some new ones. From 6 to 8 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 13. Free-$5. sandiego-art.org HSuds For Soi Dogs at Mission Brewery, 1441 L St., East Village. The Barking Lot and Thailand’s Soi Dog join forces to host an adoption event for dogs rescued from the illegal dog meat trade in Thailand. There will also be fresh beer, a food truck, and a raffle. From 5 to 9 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 13. Free. facebook.com/ events/428791047451936/ San Diego Multi-Cultural Festival at Ruocco Park, 585 Harbor Lane, Downtown. The annual fest showcases San Diego’s rich cultural diversity and traditional heritage through live music, dance performances, storytelling and children’s activities. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 14. Free. 858-524-9108, sdmulticultural.com

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 @SDCITYBEAT

@SDCityBeat

January 11, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

EVENTS COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

BOOKS: THE FLOATING LIBRARY Still life with minibar

I

“Gravitational Waves” by Melissa Walker will be on view at Moving Forward, an open studio event from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, at Bread & Salt (1955 Julian Ave.) in Logan Heights.

EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 HPrism Femme Fest at Writerz Blok, 5010 Market St., Lincoln Park. An all female lineup of graffiti artists, DJs, musicians and vendors, including a performance by rapper Gavlyn, live art by Panca, DJing by Chulita Vinyl Club and more.

From noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14.

Free. 619-288-6013, writerzblok.com HDr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade at Harbor Drive—Embarcadero, N Harbor Drive, Downtown. Join others on Harbor Drive south of Grape St. for this 37th an-

nual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that features floats, high school bands, drill teams, colleges, churches, peace and youth groups, and more. From 2 to 5 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 15. Free. 619-203-2014, alpha-zsl.org All Peoples Celebration at Balboa Park Activity Center, 2145 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. The 29th annual community gathering honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with keynote speaker and civil rights activist Rev. Dr. William J. Barber. From 10 a.m. to noon. Monday, Jan. 18. $50. 619-2691823, alliancesd.org

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

knew a woman who traveled for business with such frequency that the first thing she did when she checked into her hotel room was take the phone book out of the nightstand and put it on the bed. Then, when she woke up the next morning, she would consult it to remind herself which city she was in.

As much as I love staying in hotels, I can’t imagine being that disconnected, but I suspect Joanna Walsh can.

In her book-length rumination on hotels, Hotel, Walsh reflects on the appeal of various types of hotels, from leisure resorts to business hotels to health spas and sanatoriums. In her mediations she makes use of all manner of historical and cultural figures like Freud’s case study of Dora, Mae West’s lips, and Marx Brothers’ scenes set in hotels.

“A hotel’s glamour is its guests.

We must live up to our hotels.

We’re on display. We’re what’s being sold. No need to ask us in like vampires: we invite ourselves. We are paying ghosts.”

Underneath Walsh’s clever wit and wordplay is a vein of melancholy that runs through the book.

For a time Walsh worked as a hotel reviewer and she often found herself staying at expensive hotels alone. This was a relief as she was having marital

problems, but instead of buying into the fantasy of escape, she fixated on what she’d left behind.

“My hotels do not resemble the home I long for, as I do not long for home. They do not resemble anything that can be longed for. They may resemble a longing for home, but they do not satisfy it.”

The more Walsh changes scenery, the less distinct each hotel becomes. It’s as if the brochure copy has conjured up a hotel of the imagination that she is always in the process of leaving.

“I have felt for a long while, maybe forever, that there is something not right about my life. The plot could be better, or maybe the scenery.”

Hotel—which is part of Bloomsbury Press’ Object Lessons series of books about “the hidden lives of ordinary things”— does not endeavor to explore all facets of hotel life. For instance, Walsh has little to say about hotel staff and writes sparingly about the decor; rather, she tells us what a hotel isn’t.

Walsh mixes travel writing, pop culture, and personal narrative to great effect to underscore her own discontent.

“While having sex, I noted that, as the hotel manager had told me, I could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance through the window.”

Write to jimr@sdcitybeat.com.

—Jim Ruland

@SDCITYBEAT

THEATER

KEN JACQUES

Shaina Knox and Lance Arthur Smith in My Fair Lady

All’s “Fair” with Broadway classic

W

hy has Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady been staged locally three times in the last two and a half years? Surely it can’t simply be “a little bit of luck,” as one of the classic musical’s memorable songs goes. Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista (summer of 2014), Cygnet Theatre in Old Town (spring of 2015) and now Welk Resorts Theatre in Escondido have all staged the classic musical. Why? Because it’s as close to perfect as a Broadway show can be even 60 years after it debuted with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews on the Great White Way. Beside its indelible tunes (among them “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” and “On the Street Where You Live”), it delivers witty dialogue, romantic shadings and two timeless characters in Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle.

The Welk’s production capitalizes on all of these built-in assets, even if its stage and its four-piece “orchestra” only adequately accommodate the sweep of this show. Lance Arthur Smith is a more likable than the usual Higgins, which is fine, and Shaina Knox, though her Cockney accent wavers at the outset, beautifully renders Eliza’s signature numbers. The formidable Randall Hickman tends to shout-sing his Alfie Doolittle showstoppers (“With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time”), but like My Fair Lady in general, he can’t really go wrong.

My Fair Lady runs through April 2 at Welk Resorts Theatre in Escondido. $51$72. welktheatersandiego.com ••• ess Wohl’s one-act American Hero, about three struggling workers in a foredoomed sandwich shop, is a hilarious surprise. If patrons haven’t been to the OB Playhouse (4944 Newport Ave.) before, this is certainly a great reason to check it out. Audiences will get wrapped up in the individual stories of these three hapless “sandwich artists,” especially Lydia Lea Real’s Jamie, whose scripted F-bombs can probably be heard by the Pac Shores barflies across the street. Michael Shantz’s insecure Ted is an ideal foil for fiery Jamie, while Claudette Santiago’s little Sheri is the unlikely brains of the trio. This theater space, just a few steps from the bygone Strand, is like Ocean Beach itself: relaxed and unpretentious.

B

@SDCITYBEAT

American Hero runs through Jan. 21 at OB Playhouse. $22; obplayhouse.com.

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Better known as Dangerous Liaisons, this play revolves around a couple of scheming socialites who make a bet that one can seduce a married woman. Presented by New Fortune Theatre Co., it opens Jan. 10 at the Lyceum Space in the Gaslamp. newfortunetheatre.com Bad Jews: Three Jewish cousins feud over a family heirloom at their grandmother’s funeral in this comedy by Joshua Harmon. Presented by Cygnet Theatre, it opens Jan. 12 at the Old Town Theatre. cygnettheatre.com Powers New Voices Festival: The fourth annual fest will feature readings of new plays from established and professional playwrights. It happens over three days from Jan. 13 through Jan. 15 at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. theoldglobe.org The Wiz: The funky reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz with classic songs like “Ease on Down the Road” and “Brand New Day.” Presented by J Company Youth Theatre, it opens Jan. 13 at the Garfield Theatre in La Jolla. lfjcc.org

NOW PLAYING: Waiting for Godot: Samuel Beckett’s classic play about two buddies waiting for a mysterious man that they hope will help them change their life for the better. Directed by Grant Gelvin, it runs through Jan. 29 at the Patio Playhouse in Escondido. patioplayhouse.com Play it Again, Sam: The Woody Allen comedy about a bookish and insecure fella who gets a little help with the ladies from an imagined Humphrey Bogart. Directed by Charley Miller, it runs through Feb. 4 at the OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. onstageplayhouse.info Marjorie Prime: The San Diego premiere of Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play about a future where lifelike robots provide companionship to society’s loneliest.

Directed by Matthew Wiener, it runs through Feb. 5 at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach.

Beau Jest: A comical romp about a young woman who hires an actor in order to convince her parents that she’s engaged to a Jewish doctor. Written by James Sherman, it runs through Feb. 12 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. lambsplayers.org

For full theater listings, visit “Theater”at sdcitybeat.com

JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 15

DUNCAN MOORE

CULTURE | ART

t’s just before the holidays and the University of California, San Diego campus is a flurry of movement, with students rolling suitcases, scurrying to their final classes and preparing for a three-week hiatus from their busy lives. Meanwhile, in the Old Student Center, The University Art Gallery (UAG) is quiet. A few students pop in and out, but for the most part the gallery goes unnoticed. Despite its quiet and seemingly benign presence on campus, the UAG was almost permanently shut down last spring, and there remains a behind-thescenes struggle to keep it open.

2016 was the 50th year anniversary of the UAG, and a year of exhibitions were planned to celebrate this fact. However, the gallery may not exist after the Fall of 2018 if not sooner.

SETH COMBS

Collective Magpie in the University Art Gallery in 2016 Jack Greenstein, the Visual Arts Department Chair and planner of the 50th anniversary exhibition, says Professor Emeritus David Antin was a “phenomenal” director for the UAG in its early stages. Greenstein noted that previous directors worked closely with the department and produced many notable artists such as Philip Pearlstein, Niki de Saint Phalle and Luis Gispert.

Greenstein attributes Antin with fostering the national recognition of the Visual Arts program at UCSD, and says that “having a gallery in relation to a vibrant program is really important.” This was something that Antin promoted, he says.

However, Greenstein believes that the UAG suffered in the mid-2000s because of a lack of continuity. With directors who stayed for only a year at a time, the gallery’s status fluctuated from year to year. Over time, the gallery has lost funding from the University. Greenstein stated that this was particularly difficult for the gallery because “on the one hand you have to raise money, but on the other hand you don’t have the agency to do so.” Greenstein points out that raising money isn’t the same skill as being a good curator, so often the UAG director lacks the skills needed to raise a substantial amount of operational funds.

Greenstein explains that things only

worsened in 2008 with the recession. The director was laid off and the position of running the UAG became supplemental to working as a professor. And in the spring of 2015, the final full-time employee of the UAG was laid off.

Then, last spring, it was decided that the UAG would be closed and would eventually be repurposed for classrooms. The decision was revealed on May 13, 2016, just days before a graduate student show was scheduled for the gallery. The group show was suddenly moved to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Downtown, with little information given to the students. Graduate student artists Collective Magpie were particularly upset by this news. The duo of MR Barnadas and Tae Hwang, who create “site-specific and audience-specific” works, began to explore the root of the problem.

“When we found out the show had moved to MCASD we were kind of alarmed, and when we found out the gallery was closing, we were even more concerned,” Barnadas says. Collective Magpie realized that the university at large was not aware of the closure of the gallery. By speaking to the department, Magpie was granted access to the gallery to host an exhibition. With this freedom, Magpie spray-painted a large, red “X” on the front of the gallery doors and began to call for prayer and protest at the UAG on social media. In the 15 days that followed, Collective Magpie served as what they called “custodians” of the gallery and called for “art as activism” inside the gallery.

The University Art Gallery

SETH COMBS

Art created for the Collective Magpie show at UAG in 2016 Approximately an hour before the last day of activism, the vice chancellor put out an all-campus email blast stating that the gallery would not close. Barnadas points out the email “doesn’t speak to how it is going

16 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

to be preserved, or that there’s funding attached to it.”

Multiple interview requests made to UCSD’s Dean of Arts & Humanities, Cristina Della Coletta, were not returned.

While Collective Magpie’s action took the UAG off the chopping block, there has been no budget allocation to the gallery since.

Simply put, the cost to sustain such a gallery exceeds the budget. Greenstein reiterates that “it was very clear the burden of running the gallery without the resources is totally unrealistic” and “that is the official position of the administration.” What’s more, Greenstein says he is “not optimistic” about the future of the gallery. He says that in order for a gallery to be successful, it must plan two years in advance and nothing is planned for Fall 2018.

Greenstein has brainstormed ways to save the gallery. His initial ideas include crowd funding through a Kickstarter page, buying and selling UAG merchandise and other social media outcries to the public.

However, in order for the UAG to continue permanently, there would need to be a constant stream of money going into the gallery’s fund. Otherwise, the gallery would

face a similar budget issue down the road.

For that reason, Greenstein thinks crowd funding is ultimately not the solution to the financial problem.

Greenstein mentions that the likely only solution would be a more permanent allocation of funds to the gallery. One suggestion he had was for students to pass a fee increase. If students were to raise fees, the UAG would have a permanent stream of funds to stay running. Greenstein draws the comparison to UCSD’s recent decision to create Division 1 sports teams, hoping that something similar could happen for the UAG. “Because the faculty is voting on the Division 1 issue soon, I just got in my head that maybe the way to go is fees,” Greenstein says. “Although it is still hard to see students getting the enthusiasm for a gallery that they have for a basketball team.”

Collective Magpie thinks it is a travesty for the university to lose the gallery.

“It is actually shocking news that a UC would shut down its university art gallery,” Barnadas says.

Hwang adds, “We would be the only school without one in the UC system.”

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CULTURE | ART

SEEN LOCAL

$300, keep their work 12 by 12 inches and fill out the online submission form correctly. The organizers hoped that by keeping the submission criteria simple, more women would be willing to show their work.

“There’s definitely grandmothers who make work in their spare time and people who are exhibiting in museums internationally,” says Reibstein of the he Monday after Donald Trump won the more than 40 received submissions. “I’ve gotten a presidential election, New York City artist lot of questions from artists who are like, ‘does the Roxanne Jackson posted what became a viral work have to be about being a nasty woman?’ The statement on Facebook: “Hello female artists/cura- answer is no. The idea is that you’re just a strong tors! Let’s organize a NASTY WOMEN group show!!! empowered woman and you make art, and so it’s about whatever you make art Who’s interested???”

LARA MCCAFFREY about.”

“Nasty Women,” of course, The show’s organizers hesitate references the #nastywoman to define the term “Nasty Womhashtags, t-shirts and feminist batan.” However, they agree it’s an tle cries after Trump publicly called empowering term for strong, selfHillary Clinton “a nasty woman” identifying women. during the final presidential de“As a woman—just even bebate. Jackson tagged artists and ing a kid—you’re bossy. You’re curators she knew, and soon Nasty not a leader, you’re crazy,” says Women-themed art shows began to Smith, who is also an organizer for be planned nationally and internathe main show in New York City. tionally around inauguration day.

“There’s always a negative spin At press time, shows in 22 different that is rooted because your genlocations had been planned. der, and [Clinton] was just saying San Diego-based Barbara something. She was telling it like it Smith and Sasha Koozel Reibwas, being shameless about it and stein were among the artists and standing up to him and he couldn’t curators Jackson tagged in her handle it, right? So that’s when he Facebook post. With curator Kara West and artist/curator Tara CenFrom left: Barbara Smith, had to try and take a cheap shot Tara Centybear, Sasha Koozel and it backfired I think.” tybear, the four began to organize The Helmuth show wasn’t the Reibstein and Kara West San Diego’s own Nasty Women exonly one inspired by Trump’s nashibition at Helmuth Projects (1827 COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ty woman comment. Curator and 5th Ave.) in Bankers Hill. The show artist Sean Brannan, who hosts opens with a reception from 2 to 8 showcases under the name Viz p.m and will be held the same day Cult, also hosted a Nasty Woman as the Women’s March on Jan. 21. art show on Nov. 29, 2016 at BAThe show closes Jan. 28.

SIC Urban Kitchen + Bar, with 10 Smith, Reibstein, West and Cenpercent of proceeds donated to tybear said they wanted to bring the ACLU. this show to San Diego because it Brannan and the Helmuth exfelt like the proper way, as artists, hibition organizers were unaware to respond to what they felt were of each other’s shows prior to disappointing election results. the planning of their own Nasty “We all had a skill set that we Women event. could bring to make something “It was more of a reaction to tangible,” West says. “I went to a “Pigeon On Brick” seeing a lot of the artists that I folmarch a week after the election

by Tara Centybear low... embrace the nasty woman and... I just wanted to do more.” name,” says Brannan of his inspiOne-hundred percent of art COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ration for the November showcase. sales at the show will benefit Brannan isn’t anticipating Planned Parenthood, The San Dihosting another Nasty Women ego LGBT Community Center and event, but the organizers at the La Maestra Community Health Helmuth Projects exhibition are Centers. The organizers picked oralready looking beyond the Jan. ganizations that support commu21st show. Reibstein is proposing nities they consider to be threata similar exhibition with an emened by the Trump administration. phasis on ceramics in Pittsburgh In their search for a venue, the with Jackson in 2018, and Smith organizers settled on Helmuth Projsees potential in more internaects, an art space run by Josh Pavtional shows as their website (naslick, for a couple reasons: Pavlick tywomensandiego.org) gets hits was able to accommodate them on short notice—Helmuth was in be- “Bloom” by Sasha Koozel Reibstein from abroad.

“I also hope that it’ll connect tween shows—and also because he more women in our town and was supportive of it being a fundraiser. Pavlick is not asking for any monetary compen- hope that it can go forward from here,” West says.

“I think it’s already giving me more hope... instead sation in return for hosting the show.

“It feels good to be able to do anything in these of just complaining and writing another Facebook crazy times,” Pavlick says. “I said yes immediately be- post about whatever, this is an action you can follow cause it’s an important thing to have your voice heard through and there will be a result at the end that will help people for good.” at a time like this.”

Submission criteria was limited: the artist must self-identify as female, price their work between $30- —Lara McCaffrey

GETTING NASTY

T

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JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 17

CULTURE | FILM

Julieta

Quality of life

Pedro Almodóvar’s new melodrama sails through the rocky waters of regret

by Glenn Heath Jr.

T

he jigsaw cinema of Pedro Almodóvar can be Greek tragedy. bombastic and emotionally robust, but it’s alCompared to Almodóvar’s grand masterpieces ways infused with a deep unspoken melancholy (All About My Mother, Volver), his latest might seem that resides underneath the surface. Often focusing quaint. But Julieta is a subtle force of nature, elemenon women trying to make peace with past trauma, the tally connected with its lead character and her battle Spanish director populates his movies with impor- to regain personal and familial balance. Each moment tant details that help craft a singular perspective. Dy- builds upon the last, every inch of the frame reprenamic wallpaper patterns line hallways. Kitchens and senting an important clue. One sculpture becomes a bedrooms are infused with bright splashes of color. recurring motif, created with a sturdy base by its artPhotographs portray memories that could material- ist “so the wind can’t knock it over.” Indeed, Julieta ize at any moment. Initially obscured, these objects often finds endurance and resilience from the relics gain resonance to both story and character. All the of her past. pieces eventually come together.

Relationships, and how they change, ultimately In Julieta, Almodóvar’s sublime new melodrama, dictate the film’s direction. Julieta’s tumultuous conthe titular character played by Emma Suárez reflects nection with Antía comes to exemplify the many on the past while writing an imways pain can manifest thanks to passioned letter to her estranged prolonged repression and silence. daughter. Since the film takes place Antía and her best friend Bea are JULIETA almost primarily from her pointinseparable until they become Directed by Pedro Almodóvar of-view, it unfolds with the furious teenagers. Only years later do we Starring Emma Suárez, anxiety of a broken mother trying find out they had a falling out. to understand where things went Xoan’s decades-long tryst with a Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao wrong. There’s no room for haplocal artist appears to be an afterand Rossy de Palma piness or closure within this headthought until it becomes the film’s Rated R space, just the continuing cycle of most crucial betrayal. desperation and regret.

Julieta, which opens Friday, Jan. Employing a malleable flashback 13, ultimately ponders if forgivestructure, the film cuts from the present day to two de- ness can ever be possible when deceptions are so cades before. Adriana Ugarte embodies the younger Ju- devastating they can enrage the ocean. Almodóvar lieta as a hip and impassioned teacher of Classical Lit- arrives at a balletic conclusion that doesn’t necessarerature, excited about her uncertain future much like ily provide absolution, but the hope that someday it Ulysses viewed his own fateful journey. During a frigid might be possible. In the film’s final shot, the camera cross-country train ride to Madrid she meets her own soars from Julieta’s side up into the air and over the Calypso, Xoan (Daniel Grao), a fisherman who lives by glassy surface of Lake Cuomo. Finally, free as a bird. the coast. The two instantly fall in love, get married This moment parallels the lecture young Julieta and have a baby girl named Antía. gives to her students regarding the definition of ponDespite seeming the model of happiness, Julieta’s tos, a personification of the sea in Greek mythology family isn’t immune to the sinister bouts of fate that describing the road to adventure, the great unknown. tend to malign Almodóvar’s central characters. Ca- Without even knowing it, she’s experienced her own lamity strikes more than once, providing opportu- great odyssey worthy of the ancients. The end of the nities for guilt to spread between characters like a film is just the beginning. virus. The film itself becomes Julieta’s attempt to understand the role she plays along the way, with each Film reviews run weekly. decision or indecision carrying with it the weight of Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com.

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

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CULTURE | FILM

Hunter Gatherer

Treading water

D

esperate men can only outrun delusion for so long. Hunter Gatherer measuredly embodies this process via the lives of two fringe characters that mistake treading water for entrepreneurial ambition. Set in a low-income black neighborhood, the film takes on a low-key tone toward issues of poverty and inequality, occasionally mixing in bits of magical realism. Director Josh Locy’s debut is not your typical American indie, even if it might initially seem to be.

When Ashley (Andre Royo) returns from a lengthy prison stint he finds an unfamiliar world that has already moved on. In the

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opening scene, he frantically calls old friends trying to get them to come over for his welcome home party. Each invite is vehemently rejected. Only Ashley’s mother is present, quietly setting up decorations and putting candles on a cake. It’s a sad scene to be sure.

No one cares that Ashley has resurfaced, not even the supposed love of his life, Linda (Ashley Wilkinson), who’s now shacked up with a new man. While specifics are mostly withheld, it’s clear that Ashley has alienated everyone in his life. Maybe that’s why he jumps at the chance to befriend Jeremy (George Sample III), a fellow roamer whose pleasant demeanor hides a deep sense of anxiety.

Hunter Gatherer, which opens Friday, Jan. 13 at Digital Gym Cinema, charts these two characters as they go from one “fresh start” to the next. Both men find solace and camaraderie during their daily scavenger hunts around the community, even trying to turn a profit by circumventing local dumping policies regarding old refrigerators.

In the moment, Ashley and Jeremy inspire a momentary hope in each other. But that façade eventually wears thin, revealing frayed tatters of broken men who are hanging on by a thread. Royo and Pittman’s great performances both personify this complexity, forming a beguiling odd couple you won’t soon forget.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING Burn Country: James Franco and Melissa Leo star in this thriller about an Afghani reporter who becomes embroiled in criminal activity while covering a story in a Northern California town. Opens Tuesday, Jan. 17, and screens through Thursday, Jan. 19, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Hunter Gatherer: When an ex-con (played by The Wire’s Andre Royo) returns home to find the world has moved

on, his new friendship with a fellow drifter (George Sample III) momentarily inspires hope for the future. Opens Friday, Jan. 13, and screens through Thursday, Jan. 19, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Julieta: In Pedro Almodóvar’s latest melodrama, a beleaguered woman tries to reunite with her estranged daughter by writing a letter that encompasses the many stages of her life.

Live by Night: Ben Affleck’s 1930s-set vanity project steals from every classic gangster film to tell the story of an ambitious criminal who takes a job in Florida in order to get revenge on the kingpin who betrayed him.

Monster Trucks: High school senior Tripp (Lucas Till) builds a monster truck only to have it become possessed by a speed happy creature. Hilarity and havoc ensues.

Patriot’s Day: This adrenaline-fueled biopic from Peter Berg traces the events leading up to and after the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013 through the eyes of various first responders.

Sleepless: In this action thriller, Jamie Foxx plays an undercover Las Vegas detective who gets caught in a web of corruption and violence after his son is kidnapped.

The Bye Bye Man: A group of college students discover that a deadly supernatural force possesses regular people, inspiring them to commit mass killings.

For a complete listing of movies, visit sdcitybeat.com.

JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

MUSIC

ELIZABETH PEYTON

Marching Church: Elias Bender Rønnenfelt (far left) t only takes about 30 seconds of listening to “Lion’s Den,” the second single from Marching Church’s new album, to understand what the Denmark-based postpunk band is all about. It takes shape slowly, emerging from a hazy layer of feedback like Travis Bickle’s yellow-cab headlights through billowing sewer vapors. Shortly thereafter, a dub-influenced, Public Image Ltd-like bassline starts up against ethereal, delay-heavy guitars. It feels surreal and disorienting, slightly drunk and darkly sexy. It sounds like 2 a.m.

For Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, the vocalist and founder of Marching Church, that time of night can be a fertile influence for his creative process.

“I feel like a lot of my life revolves around late nights,” he says over a Skype call from a friend’s apartment in Copenhagen. “Aesthetically, it’s also an inspiring time of night.”

Marching Church is a proper band with a firm lineup and a clearly defined aesthetic, which the band refined on their second album, Telling It Like It Is, which was released

in October via Sacred Bones. Yet it took all of five years for all of the elements to properly fall into place. In fact, Rønnenfelt very nearly abandoned the name Marching Church altogether after establishing it in 2010.

It began as a solo project of Rønnenfelt’s with the noisy At Night cassette, released when he was only 18. Yet in the intervening years, it was mostly relegated to the back burner, and his attention became focused on his more popular post-punk band Iceage. Yet when the opportunity came to translate Marching Church into a proper live band, it led to a question of what the future of the band actually looked like—or if it was better to throw out the blueprint altogether.

“It basically doesn’t really have much to do with what it was when it was just me,” he says. “It just ended up sharing a name with what I did by myself back then. The whole thing started when I hadn’t been doing anything with the moniker for a long time. Then I was asked if I wanted to play a show, without really thinking about it. And it hadn’t dawned on me that I wasn’t really interest-

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

ed in the project. So, feeling uninspired… I ended up just inviting some friends into the band and we started all over.”

Those friends—including members of fellow Danish bands Lower, Contour and Choir of Young Believers—ended up recording a debut album, This World Is Not Enough, out of some loose, improvisational sessions. The result feels relaxed and fun, though the songwriting itself sometimes comes across like a series of rough drafts. In just one year, however, the sound of the band ended up changing considerably.

Telling It Like It Is is a tighter, more cohesive set of songs than its predecessor, influenced heavily by the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Roxy Music. Where standout “Lion’s Den” has a sinister, laid-back groove to it, the manic “2016” stomps and seethes like vintage Iggy Pop. And while “Up for Days” is a slow burner, taking its time to get

off the ground, its climax is one of the most dramatic on the record.

The differences between the two albums are stark, but as Rønnenfelt explains, the second album couldn’t have existed were it not for the experimentation of the first.

“The new one is sort of an immediate reaction to the first one,” he says. “The first record was the product of asking all these musicians from Copenhagen, that I liked and admired for various reasons, to come together in a room. So you put all of us in a room and just await the results of what explosion of sound might come out of these people feeding off of each other...a very uncontrolled, wild product of placing these minds together and placing them against each other. The inspiration for doing it immediately afterwards created a whole new periodic system of elements that you can build on, so what happened is, you have these musicians that build this chemistry together. What happens if you try and pack it into a more fixed format? Telling It Like Is is a reaction to this collective of musicians and trying to do something more strictly written with it.”

Marching Church has been in a state of transformation every step of the way, evolving into something new with each release.

The same goes for Rønnenfelt’s other projects, including synth-pop project Vår and his full-time band Iceage, which went from being a blistering punk band to a more elegant, darkly sophisticated punk-blues outfit. That’s likely just the result of a creatively restless mind. Rønnenfelt, now 24, has been remarkably prolific in his young career, but for how much he’s done already, he’s not interested in repeating any of those ideas­— not deliberately, anyhow.

“To a certain extent, you could argue that I do visit the same idea, and take them into different scenarios,” he says. “Ultimately you’re writing out of your own mind and you have some kind of entity or personality.

So, I’m not interested in repeating myself ever, but it’s not something I have to think about.

Every time I do something, it becomes a motivation for doing something else.”

Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com and follow him on Twitter @1000TimesJeff

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MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO LOCALS ONLY

A

uthor & Punisher has announced a new collaboration with The Satanic Temple of Los Angeles. On Jan. 14, industrial metal artist Tristan Shone will be providing a live score for the Destruction Ritual at its Satanic Mass at Das Bunker in Los Angeles. Shone first got connected to the Satanic Temple through artists in the industrial scene in Los Angeles, and ultimately came to appreciate the goals of the antireligious activist group.

“Satanic is kind of a misnomer,” he says in a phone interview. “They’re basically sort of anti-religion.

They don’t feel that evangelicals should have any involvement in government. They’re also very countercultural.”

The Destruction Ritual is being led by Ali Kellog, head of the Los Angeles chapter of the Satanic Temple, who will be reading an invocation. Shone will be backing her invocation with a dissonant musical backing, which will then transition to a new song he wrote for the ceremony. Though it’s not yet been released, the new track will appear on a split single later in 2017.

“About 15 minutes of it will be the actual cere-

ALBUM REVIEW Weight Of The Sun Vermont (Self-released)

G

rief and loss were inescapable themes in music in 2016, from the unexpected swan songs of both Leonard Cohen and David Bowie, to releases like Touche Amore’s Stage Four, an album defined by a deep, personal mourning. Of course, just because it was so prevalent last year doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been a prominent theme in music, or really all forms of art. Music can be a cleansing and satisfying form of catharsis, and Weight of the Sun’s Vermont proves that holds true with the heaviest forms of music as well.

The band’s sophomore album, Vermont is named after the state where frontman David Martin grew up. It was also mostly written in Vermont, while his mother was being treated for pancreatic cancer. She died only months after her diagnosis, and the grief and sense of rudderlessness that comes with the loss of a loved one defines the album’s four heavy, lengthy tracks. Where debut album Commons leaned heavily on the sludgy dynamics of bands like Boston’s Cave In, Vermont is much more nuanced and

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Author & Punisher mony,” he says. “There will be people dressed up in a ceremonial garb. There will be chanting. And I’ll have this noise swell. [Kellog] will be guiding me with her hand movements.”

Shone, an atheist who agrees with the Temple’s message of separating religious doctrine from governance, says he’s looking forward the opportunity to participate in the ceremony because it should prove to be cathartic.

“I went to Catholic school, but now I’m an atheist,” he says. “I think it’ll be a very powerful event. It’ll be a nice release.”

—Jeff Terich

spacious, more akin to recent albums by Deftones.

The moments of quiet are as prevalent as those in which the band erupts into full-blown metal mode.

The overall effect is a melancholy, mournful one, though it can still be crushingly massive in their most dramatic moments.

The album begins on a somber note, with the restrained, emotional “The Tower,” setting the tone for what ultimately ends up being a series of highs and lows, rises and falls. On “Armadillos,” however, the band crank up the amps and let the riffs fly, Martin going back and forth between a throaty scream and a melodic chorus detailing his “restless nights.” His lyrics turn to clever wordplay in the hazy “Orange,” pivoting off of the word “terminal” as both a reference to the airports and cancer. And “Cardinal,” the 10-minute closing track, packages a lot into one single statement, rising up from Brand New-style emo to an almost Deafheaven-like rush of layered guitars.

As is often the case with metal, the themes of Vermont aren’t always easy to make out simply through lyrics— Martin can definitely scream!—but that’s a secondary concern. No matter what elements you choose to focus on, Vermont will leave an emotional impact.

—Jeff Terich JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11

PLAN A: Country Lips, The Lowland Drifters, People Might Scream @ Soda Bar. By no means would I ever say that Country Lips is even close to a good band name, but their music is a different story.

The group essentially plays old-school, Cash-style country with bigger arrangements: honky-tonk piano, violin, accordion and the like. It scratches that rootsy itch.

THURSDAY, JAN. 12

PLAN A: The Schizophonics, Taken by Canadians, The Paragraphs, Electric Mud @ Belly Up Tavern. It’s always pretty fun to see local bands playing somewhat bigger stages, especially with sound as good as that of the Belly Up. The Schizophonics put on a great live show—you already know that—so a slightly longer drive up the coast is definitely worth it. BACKUP PLAN: Mint Field, San Pedro El Cortez, Yip Yops @ Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, JAN. 13

PLAN A: Winter, Quali, Lavender Blush @ Whistle Stop. Los Angeles’ Winter is a hypnotic, effects-heavy dream pop band that’ll likely remind you of some of the best vintage 4AD bands of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, such as Lush and Cocteau Twins. Get there early for Quali, who are doing similarly cool shoegazey things in town. PLAN B: Le Chateau, Mexico City Rollers, Empty Gods, The New Addiction @ Soda Bar. I remember witnessing the chaos of The Mexico City Rollers firsthand back when Scolari’s was the place to go for a punk rock show in North Park. They’re joining Le Chateau, whose new EP Brutalism is a fine slice of moody synth-pop. BACKUP PLAN: The Little Richards, Alice Bag Band, The Widows @ The Casbah.

but you never know. BACKUP PLAN: Hiroshima Mockingbirds, Imagery Machine, Of Ennui @ Black Cat Bar.

SUNDAY, JAN. 15

PLAN A: Born Rivals, Ash Williams, Castoff, Que Oso @ Soda Bar. Sunday night’s alright for punk rock. Born Rivals play catchy, melody-heavy punk with some touches of emo, so if you need to rock out with your feelings, this is where to do it.

MONDAY, JAN. 16

PLAN A: Entombed A.D., Full of Hell, Turbid North, Poison Headache @ Brick

by Brick. Swedish death ‘n’ roll is an acquired taste, but it shouldn’t be. Entombed A.D., an offshoot of death metal innovators Entombed, manage to pair guttural growls and heavy AF guitars with hooks and rollicking rhythms. A gnarly, fun way to start the week. PLAN B: Lucinda Williams, Aaron Lee Tasjan @ Belly Up Tavern.

Lucinda Williams is a rock and Americana treasure. She doesn’t really need any introduction, but if you haven’t heard her music yet, start with Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

You’ll be glad you did. BACKUP PLAN: Captain Auzmo, Garden Echo, Cochinas Locas @ The Casbah.

TUESDAY, JAN. 17

PLAN A: Filthy, Svelte, DJ Rees Withrow @ Blonde. Texas-based group Filthy are a particularly noisy and chaotic sort of post-punk, with heavy percussion and cacophony bordering on industrial. In short, it is indeed pretty filthy. BACKUP PLAN: Many A Moon, Star Jungle, The Twinfins @ Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, JAN. 14

PLAN A: Grant-Lee Phillips @ Brick 15.

Grant Lee Buffalo had a fairly successful run in the ‘90s, though I’d still say they’re an underrated band. (“Mockingbirds” still gets me every time.) Their singer and songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips continues to perform as a solo artist, and his catalog should provide an evening of gems. PLAN B: Midge Ure Band, Warsaw @ The Casbah.

Midge Ure has been a member of a long list of bands—Ultravox, Visage, even Thin Lizzy— and he’s performing material from both his solo catalog and that of his other bands.

Probably not Thin Lizzy,

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

Grant-Lee Phillips

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January 11, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Sister Speak (BUT, 1/25), Alesana (Soda Bar, 2/9), Anuhea (Music Box, 2/10), Erykah Badu (Observatory, 2/17), La Luz (Hideout, 2/18), Captured! By Robots (Soda Bar, 2/23), Black Marble, Uniform (Hideout, 2/24), Alina Baraz (Observatory, 3/1), Mondo Cozmo (Casbah, 3/2), Chase Rice (HOB, 3/5), The Shins (Observatory, 3/6-7), Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn (California Center for the Arts, 3/15), Teenage Fanclub (BUT, 3/16), Jungle Fire (Casbah, 3/18), Fu Manchu (Casbah, 3/24), Through the Roots (Music Box, 3/25), Newsboys (Civic Theatre, 3/26), Chris Botti (California Center for the Arts, 4/7), A Perfect Circle (Open Air Theatre, 4/11), Foreigner, Cheap Trick (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 4/29), All Them Witches (Casbah, 5/14), Green Day (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 9/13).

GET YER TICKETS Marching Church (The Hideout, 1/20), The Raveonettes (Music Box, 1/21), Pepper, Less Than Jake (Observatory, 1/25), Lydia Loveless (Soda Bar, 1/27), Cold War Kids (Observatory, 1/27), Devendra Banhart (Observatory, 1/28), Ali Wong (Balboa Theatre, 1/28), Blind Boys of Alabama (BUT, 1/29), Mike Doughty (BUT, 2/1), Dashboard Confessional (HOB, 2/3), Alcest (Brick by Brick, 2/8), Austra, The Range (Casbah, 2/8), Juicy J (HOB,

2/8), D.R.A.M. (Music Box, 2/9), You Blew It! (Che Cafe, 2/9), Branford Marsalis Quartet (Balboa Theatre, 2/10), ‘Welcome to Night Vale’ (Observatory, 2/13), Weyes Blood (Soda Bar, 2/16), Billy Crystal (Copley Symphony Hall, 2/16), Cut Chemist (Music Box, 2/17), Reel Big Fish, Anti Flag (HOB, 2/17), Penn and Teller (Harrah’s SoCal, 2/17), ‘You Are Going to Hate This Fest’ w/ The Frights, The Garden, Antwon (SOMA, 2/18), The Coathangers (Casbah, 2/18), Adam Ant (Observatory, 2/18), Surfer Blood (Soda Bar, 2/18), Cheetah Chrome of Dead Boys (Hideout, 2/19), Alejandro Escovedo (BUT, 2/20), Circa Survive (HOB, 2/21-2/22), Tennis (The Irenic, 2/22), Pinback (BUT, 2/23), Vince Staples (Observatory, 2/24), Moon Duo (Casbah, 2/25), Steve Poltz (BUT, 2/24-25), Pinback (Irenic, 2/25), Stevie Nicks (Viejas Arena, 3/2), Senses Fail (Observatory, 3/3), ‘Experience Hendrix 2017’ w/ Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd (Harrah’s SoCal, 3/4), Isaiah Rashad (Observatory, 3/5), Bon Jovi (Viejas Arena, 3/5), Temples (BUT, 3/5), Immolation (Brick by Brick, 3/5), Shiner (Casbah, 3/5), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Valley View Casino Center, 3/5), Sinkane (Soda Bar, 3/5), Mykki Blanco, Cakes da Killa (Soda Bar, 3/7), Six Organs of Admittance (Soda Bar, 3/8), Lady Lamb (Soda Bar, 3/9), Bash & Pop (Casbah, 3/9), Whitechapel (HOB, 3/9), Japandroids (Music Box, 3/11), G. Love and Special Sauce (BUT, 3/11-12), Menzingers (Irenic, 3/12), Julieta Venegas (HOB, 3/17), James Chance and the Contortions (Hideout, 3/18), Common (Observatory, 3/24), Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Casbah, 3/25), Why? (Irenic, 3/30), Electric Six (Casbah, 3/30), Nashville Pussy (Brick by Brick, 3/31), The Old

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

97s (BUT, 3/31), Passenger (HOB, 4/2), Tiffany (BUT, 4/3), The Damned (HOB, 4/7), Green Day (Valley View Casino Center, 4/8), Aaron Neville Duo (BUT, 4/9), Subhumans (Observatory, 4/11), Reverend Horton Heat (BUT, 4/20), The Wedding Present (Casbah, 4/30), Lionel Richie (Viejas Arena, 5/8), Testament (HOB, 5/16), Robin Trower (HOB, 5/19), Rodriguez (Humphreys, 5/23), Brian Wilson (Civic Theatre, 5/24), NKOTB, Paula Abdul, Boyz II Men (Viejas Arena, 6/1), The Primitives (Hideout, 6/6), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Civic Theatre, 6/26), Coldplay (Qualcomm Stadium, 10/8).

JANUARY WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11 Kane Brown at House of Blues. La Santa Cecilia at Music Box.

THURSDAY, JAN. 12 J Boog at Observatory North Park. The Schizophonics at Belly Up Tavern. Protoje at Music Box.

FRIDAY, JAN. 13 MxPx, Five Iron Frenzy, Dogwood at Observatory North Park. Ozomatli at Music Box. Sublime With Rome at House of Blues. The Little Richards, Alice Bag Band at The Casbah. Le Chateau at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, JAN. 14 Sublime With Rome at House of Blues.

Tommy Castro and the Painkillers at Belly Up Tavern. Midge Ure Band at The Casbah. Tig Notaro at Observatory North Park. Snow tha Product at Music Box.

SUNDAY, JAN. 15 Lucinda Williams at Belly Up Tavern (sold out). Born Rivals at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, JAN. 16 Entombed A.D. at Brick by Brick. Lucinda Williams at Belly Up Tavern. Captain Auzmo at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, JAN. 17 DNCE at House of Blues. David Lindley at Belly Up Tavern. Jovi and the Issues at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18 Consider the Source at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, JAN. 19 Daniela Andrade at The Irenic. Zakk Sabbath at Brick by Brick. Tropical Popsicle at The Casbah.

FRIDAY, JAN. 20 Marching Church at The Hideout. Erotic City at Music Box. Homesafe at Che Café. The Schizophonics at The Casbah. Gazebos at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, JAN. 21 Chevelle at House of Blues (sold out).

Cold War Kids at Observatory North Park. Mattson 2 at The Casbah. Fabulous Thunderbirds at Poway OnStage.

The Generators at Soda Bar. Silver Snakes at Brick by Brick. The Raveonettes at Music Box.

SUNDAY, JAN. 22 The Toasters at The Casbah. Robby Krieger of The Doors at Music Box.

Raffi at Balboa Theatre. Daughtry at Belly Up Tavern. Portland Cello Project at California Center for the Arts.

MONDAY, JAN. 23 Jeff Bridges and the Abiders at Belly Up Tavern. Jesse Malin at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, JAN. 24 Timothy Schmit at Belly Up Tavern. Leah Dou at Soda Bar. PROF at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25 Stephen Steinbrink at Soda Bar. Pepper, Less Than Jake at Observatory North Park. Seratones at The Casbah.

B-Side Players at Music Box. Garrison Keillor at California Center for the Arts.

Sister Speak at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, JAN. 26 Powerman 5000, Orgy at Brick by Brick.

Rick Astley at House of Blues. Lemuria at The Hideout.

FRIDAY, JAN. 27 Pato Banton at Belly Up Tavern. Lydia Loveless at Soda Bar. Cold War Kids at Observatory North Park.

SATURDAY, JAN. 28 Hamilton Leithauser at The Casbah (sold out). Ali Wong at Balboa Theatre.

July Talk at Soda Bar. Devendra Banhart at Observatory North Park.

SUNDAY, JAN. 29 Blind Boys of Alabama at Belly Up Tavern. The Winehouse Experience at Music Box. Well Well Well at The Casbah.

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MUSIC MONDAY, JAN. 30

MONDAY, FEB. 6

The Bluebonnets at The Casbah. Run the Jewels at Observatory North Park (sold out). D.A. Stern at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, FEB. 7

TUESDAY, JAN. 31 Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Belly Up Tavern (sold out). Communist Daughter at Soda Bar.

FEBRUARY WEDNESDAY, FEB. 1 Mike Doughty at Belly Up Tavern. Camila at House of Blues. The Dead Ships at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, FEB. 2 Kitchen Dwellers at Soda Bar. Black Violin at California Center for the Arts.

Lotus at Belly Up Tavern.

FRIDAY, FEB. 3 Paul Stanley’s Soul Station at Belly Up Tavern. Birdy Bardot at Soda Bar. Metalachi at The Casbah. Dashboard Confessional at House of Blues. Z-Trip at Music Box.

SATURDAY, FEB. 4

SPOTLIGHT Punk rock purists will undoubtedly scoff at any band associated with Christianity, but as we learned from Beth Demmon’s interview with Christian punkers Dogwood last week, religion often plays little role in their songwriting. And that rings mostly true for MxPx, stalwarts of the mid-’90s Christian punk label, Tooth and Nail. With pop-punk gems such as “Responsibility” and “Chick Magnet” under their belt, we can overlook some of their early, embarrassing songs advocating Creationism (“Creation”). MxPx plays with Dogwood Friday, Jan. 13 at Observatory North Park.

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—Ryan Bradford

Henry Kapono at Belly Up Tavern. Lilys at Soda Bar.

Vokab Company at Music Box. Sweet and Tender Hooligans at Observatory North Park. ‘Banding Together Fundraiser’ w/ Tim Flannery at Belly Up Tavern. Pablo Sainz Villegas at California Center for the Arts.

SUNDAY, FEB. 5 Down by Law at Soda Bar.

Irata at Soda Bar. The Revivalists at Belly Up Tavern (sold out).

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8 Alcest at Brick by Brick. Austra, The Range at The Casbah. Juicy J at House of Blues. Shane Hall at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, FEB. 9 The Lemon Twigs at The Casbah. Joan of Arc at Soda Bar. You Blew It! at The Irenic. D.R.A.M. at Music Box. Alesana at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, FEB. 10 Branford Marsalis Quartet at Balboa Theatre. Legendary Shack Shakers at The Casbah. Anuhea at Music Box. Dead Man’s Party at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, FEB. 11 Wax Tailor at Music Box. The Chain Gang of 1974 at The Hideout. Griffin House at Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, FEB. 12 Falling In Reverse at House of Blues.

Authority Zero at Brick by Brick. David Duchovny at Music Box. The Griswolds at The Casbah. Save Ferris at Belly Up Tavern.

CLUBS CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

JANUARY 11, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 25

MUSIC CLUBS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 MONDAY, FEB. 13 Hot Tuna at Belly Up Tavern. ‘Welcome to Night Vale’ at Observatory North Park. Tyvek at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, FEB. 14 Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra at Belly Up Tavern. Milemarker at The Casbah.

rCLUBSr

and The Painkillers, The Casey Hensley Band. Mon: Lucinda Williams, Aaron Lee Tasjan. Tue: David Lindley, Cindy Lee Berryhill.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave. City Heights. Thu: Uptown Rhythm Makers.

Fri: Bartenders Bible, Stephen El Rey, Low and Be Told. Sat: Hiroshima Mockingbirds, Imagery Machine, Of Ennui.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St. Mission Hills. Fri: ‘Pussy Galore’ w/ The Fresh Brunettes. Tue: Filthy, Svelte, DJ Rees Withrow.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave. Carlsbad.

Thu: Hyper Active Slackers. Fri: ‘Club Musae’.

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave. Pacific Beach. Fri: Saved by the ‘90s. Tue: Electric Elms.

Brick 15, 915 Camino del Mar. Del Mar. Thu: Michaela Anne. Fri: Ed Gerhard.

Sat: Grant Lee Phillips.

AMSDconcerts, 1370 Euclid Ave. Chollas Creek. Sat: It’s A Beautiful Day.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave. Bay Park. Mon: Entombed A.D., Full of Hell, Turbid North, Poison Headache.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St. Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Byrd Bass’ w/ DJ Byrd. Thu: ‘Libertine’ w/ DJs Jon Wesley, 1979. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Chvrch’ w/ DJs Karma, Alice.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St. Downtown.

Thu: Purity Ring (DJ set).

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St. North Park. Thu: The Husky Boy All-Stars. Fri: Goldettes, Alvino and the Dwells, Creepy Creeps.

Sat: The Milkcrates DJs, Bady Watt. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’. Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’ Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd. La Jolla. Thu: Cougar Canyon Duo. Fri: Scratch.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave. Solana Beach. Thu: The Schizophonics, Taken by Canadians, The Paragraphs, Electric Mud. Fri: DSB An American Journey, Generation Idol. Sat: Tommy Castro

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd. Midtown. Thu: Luke Wade. Fri: The Little Richards, Alice Bag Band, Widows. Sat: Midge Ure Band, Warsaw. Sun: The Nth Power. Tue: Jovi and the Issues, Hocus, Kitty Plague.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive. Mission Beach. Fri: Matt Hall Quintet.

The Field Irish Pub, 544 Fifth Ave. Downtown. Wed: Sam Hosking. Thu: Dead Poet’s Society. Fri: Feel Good Band. Sat: Midnight Ride. Sun: Christian Del Priore. Mon: Red Shepheard Tue: Fiore.

Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave. Downtown.

Thu: ‘Night Skool’. Fri: ‘Good Times’.

Tue: ‘50s/60s Dance Party.

The Holding Company, 5040 Newport Ave. Ocean Beach. Wed: Chugboat,

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JANUARY 11, 2017

Chris McKenna & The Imaginal Cells.

Thu: Steve Ybarra, Jill & Julia. Fri: DJ Green T, The Fooks. Sat: Faux Fighters, DJ ManCat, Pat Hilton. Sun: Josh Bierman, Skyfall Music Takeover. Mon: KerryOke. Tue: DJ Green T, Synrgy & the Seed Heads.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave. Downtown. Thu: Live Band Karaoke. Fri: Sublime with Rome. Sat: Sublime with Rome.

Tue: DNCE. Humphrey’s Backstage Live, 2241 Shelter Island Drive. Shelter Island. Wed: Kimberly Jackson. Thu: Backwater Blues Band. Fri: Detroit Underground, Michele Lundeen. Sat: Funk’s Most Wanted, The Fabulous Ultratones. Sun: Jeanette Harris. Mon: Michele Lundeen. Tue: Mercedes Moore.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd. Midtown. Thu: ‘ODDYSSY’. Fri: ‘Progress’ w/ Brian Cid. Sat: ‘Omega Squad: Ghost Ship Benefit’. Sun: Alexus Jones Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave. Kensington. Fri: ‘Tini Ebla Launch Party’ w/ Imagery Machine, Lunas, L1ght Ra1l, Lestat’s West, 3341 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Thu: Julia Lucille. Sun: Luxxe and Weslin.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East.

La Jolla. Thu: Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton.

Sat: Abstrack, The Lique.

Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave. Hillcrest. Thu: Eric Krop in ‘Greater Things’. Fri: Janice Edwards Band. Sat: Tori Roze and the Hot Mess. Sun: Don L & Ria Carey.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave. Coronado. Thu: Northstar. Fri: In Midlife Crisis. Sat: JG Trio. Sun: Gonzology.

Tue: JG Duo

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave. Hillcrest. Thu: ILLVibe. Sat: DAB, Bossfight, Abner, Fuzz Huzzi.

Mother’s Saloon, 2228 Bacon St. Ocean Beach. Wed: ‘Acoustic Showcase’. Thu: DJ Dub B. Mr. Peabody’s Encinitas, 136 Encinitas Blvd. Encinitas. Thu: Jim Allen Band. Fri: Custard Pie. Sat: Rock Whiskey, Rafael Renteria. Sun: Tony Ortega jazz jam.

Music Box, 1337 India St. Little Italy.

Thu: Protoje, Yaadcore, DJ Richie. Fri: Ozomatli. Sat: Snow tha Product. Sun: The Long Run - Experience the Eagles.

The Office, 3936 30th St. North Park.

Fri: ‘After Hours’ w/ DJs Kid Wonder, Saul Q. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’. Tue: ‘Trapped’.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 6th Ave. Downtown. Fri: Tiesto. Sat: DJ Ruckus. Sun: Cash Cash.

Parq, 615 Broadway. Downtown. Fri: Sharps. Sat: Karma. Sun: Rick Ross.

Plaza Bar @ Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave. Downtown. Fri: Gilbert Castellanos. Sat: Allison Tucker. Mon: Julio De La Huerta.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave. Hillcrest.

Wed: DJ Kiki. Thu: DJ Kiki. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Moody Rudy, Wolfgang Alexander.

Sat: DJs K-Swift, Taj. Sun: DJs Cros, Casey Alva.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave. La Mesa. Thu: Chloe Lou & Davies.

Fri: Black Market III. Sat: Podunk Nowhere.

Rosie O’Grady’s, 3402 Adams Ave. Normal Heights. Fri: Rip Carson. Sat: Gino and the Lone Gunmen.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave.

North Park. Wed: Nathan Hubbard Trio.

Thu: Jimmy Ruelas. Fri: Ed Kornhauser Organ Trio. Sat: DJ Tah Rei. Mon: ‘Makossa Monday’ w/ DJ Tah Rei. Tue: Stephen El Rey. Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd. City Heights. Thu: Mint Field. Fri: Le Chateau, Mexico City Rollers, Empty Gods, The New Addiction. Sat: Just In Case, Alive & Well, Hard to Hit, Hardly Human. Sun: Born Rivals, Ash Williams, Castoff, Que Oso. Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave. Normal Heights. Thu: King Taylor Project.

Sun: Tasmanian Brain Exchange.

The Tin Roof, 401 G St. Downtown.

Wed: Lenny Morris Duo. Thu: The Red Hots. Fri: Keep Your Soul, Allegra Duchaine. Sat: Keep Your Soul, Allegra Duchaine. Sun: Kenny and Deez. Mon: Lauren Leigh and Sam. Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd. City Heights. Fri: 13 Wolves.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St. Bay Park. Thu: The Fremonts. Fri: For Love of Rock. Sat: Native Alien. Tue: Clay Colton.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave. City Heights. Fri: The Strawberry Moons. Sat: Supersonic Dragon Wagon, CFA, The Sun Giants.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St. South Park.

Thu: ‘Recommended Dosage’. Fri: Winter, Quali, Lavender Blush. Sat: ‘Booty Bassment’ w/ DJs Dimitri, Rob. Sun: ‘Fantasy’ w/ DJs Ryan Solomon, Andrew Miller, Mario Orduno.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St. Ocean Beach.

Fri: Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds. Sat: Cubensis, the Grateful Bluegrass Boys. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: RA the Rugged Man, A-F-R-O, Atlantis Rizing.

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LAST WORDS | ADVICE

AMY ALKON

ADVICE

GODDESS Meme streets My girlfriend of six years is breaking up with me. My question is: How do I let our friends and my family know? I’m thinking a mass email telling my side of the story. Then I wouldn’t have to have the same conversation over and over with different people.

—Glum Sending a mass email is a great way to get some piece of information out to everybody—from your best friend to 1.4 million people on Twitter.

The ability we have online to dispense a little information to a whole lot of people, immediately, effortlessly, is about the coolest thing ever—and the Frankenstein monster of our time. As I write in Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck, because all the groovy new digital tools are so fun and easy to use, we often “fall back on what’s technically possible” as our behavioral standard. Our chimp-like impulse to just click already derails picky-wicky concerns we

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might otherwise have, such as “Hmm, wonder whether sending that might get me, oh, you know, fired or ostracized.”

Consider that anything you email can be rapidly shared—and shared and shared and shared. For example, novelist and professor Robert Olen Butler emailed five of his grad students the sad (and rather creepy) details of the demise of his marriage, asking them to “clarify the issues” for other students who wanted to know. The email quickly made the rounds in the literary world and ended up in The New York Times and on Gawker, where they “clarified” that his wife had left him to become one of four women in “Ted Turner’s collection.”

But even a less tawdry, less tycoon-filled breakup email may go more viral than one might like. Anthropologist Jerome Barkow, who studies gossip, explains that we evolved to be keenly interested in information that could have some bearing on our ability to survive, mate and navigate socially. As Barkow puts it (and as is borne out by others’

research), gossip about how soundly somebody’s sleeping is unlikely to be as spreadworthy as whom they’re sleeping with.

However, our propensity to spread gossip may be both the problem with emailing your news and the solution to getting it out there.

Consider going old-school: Ask a few, um, chatty friends to put the word out to your circle, answer any questions people have, and let your wishes be known (like if you aren’t ready to talk about it). All in all, you’ll get the job done, but in a much more controlled, contained way—one that reflects this bit of prudence from political writer Olivia Nuzzi: “Dance like no one is watching; email like it may one day be read aloud in a deposition.”

Thinking from the right side of the crotch I’ve been seeing this woman for two months. I really like her. She’s made some mistakes—two bad marriages, some promiscuity, running from debts—but she’s determined to change. My friends think she’s bad news. But our relationship— though mostly sexual so far—has been terrific. Shouldn’t my intuition count more than my friends’ opinions?

—Fretting When you’re deciding how to invest your life savings, you probably don’t say, “I’ll just take a moment to ask my penis.”

Well, your intuition is about as reliable a judge of your girlfriend’s character. Intu-

itions (aka “gut feelings”) are conclusions we leap to—automatically, without the intervention of rational thought. Our mind flashes on this and that from our past experience, and up pops a feeling. The problem is we’re prone to overconfidence that our intuitions are correct—mistaking strong feelings for informed feelings.

Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Gary Klein find that certain people’s intuitions are somewhat more likely to be trustworthy—those who repeatedly encounter the same situation, like a surgeon who only does appendectomies. Her hunches about a patient’s appendix are more informed because they come out of repeated experience and because she presumably gets corrective feedback when she guesses wrong (though, ideally, not from a monitor making that awful flatlining sound).

But Kahneman tells the McKinsey Quarterly, “My general view… would be that you should not take your intuitions at face value.” In fact, you need to go out of your way to look for evidence that your intuitions are wrong. In this case, it will take time and challenges to her character—and your actually wanting to see whether she acts ethically or does what’s easiest. In other words, your hunches can tell you things—things that need a lot of post-hunch verification through applying higher reasoning (which, again, doesn’t simply mean calling upon any organ that’s higher than your knees).

(c)2016, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved.

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