San Diego CityBeat • Feb 6, 2013

Myrtle P.7 Crammers P.20 Soderbergh P.22 Strippers P.24

2 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Dobbs, the Navy and Jacobs Voice of San Diego published the most incendiary piece of local news this week with its wild interview with Stan Dobbs, the new chief financial officer of the San Diego Unified School District.

Among Dobbs’ comments were two crazy-sounding assertions—that, on average, the district’s teachers get $92,000 a year, plus $20,000 in benefits, and that there’s no literature to support the notion that higher class sizes decrease the quality of education.

“As a matter of fact,” he said, “just the opposite.”

So, he’s saying that cramming more kids into classrooms will improve the education experience.

We didn’t have salary information in front of us when we read that, and Voice had vowed to factcheck Dobbs. So, we waited. We were hardly surprised when Voice posted a response by Dobbs’ boss, Superintendent Bill Kowba, correcting several of Dobbs’ false statements, including those two whoppers. The average teacher earns between $65,000 and $70,000, Kowba said, and (in addition to common sense) there’s plenty of studies that say lower class sizes are better than higher class sizes.

He also put into context something that Dobbs was bent out of shape over—that 92 percent of the district’s budget is spent on labor. That high figure is a result of huge non-teacher budget cuts caused by reduced state funding.

We wouldn’t shed a tear if Dobbs were canned— not because he embarrassed the district or because he shouldn’t speak his mind, but because if he speaks his mind, he should speak the truth. He is, after all, representing an educational institution.

Informational accuracy should be a high priority.

But we’re forgiving people, so we’ll settle for a serious reprimand.

•••

In happier news, we were pleased to see that the California Coastal Commission has sued the Navy over its plans to redevelop the Navy Broadway Complex on the Downtown waterfront. As you’ll recall, the Navy chose Doug Manchester, who’s since become the owner of what’s now called U-T San Diego, to build a sparkly new Navy headquarters for free; in exchange, Manchester gets to build a wall of hotel and office buildings on prime real estate.

We long ago made our opinion of this project clear: If the Navy doesn’t need most the land for military purposes, it should revert to public use. As we said more than four years ago, we’d like to see

a grand public park there, maybe even a new City Hall. We think, as does the Coastal Commission, that the Navy should study alternative locations for a new headquarters.

It all used to be public property and was handed over to the Navy, which could hang on to it as long as it was used for military purposes. Wouldn’t it be awesome if that stipulation were still in effect? Sadly, it’s not; the Navy sued awhile back and got that phrase removed from the deed, and the state and city didn’t put up a fight.

Our hope is that the Navy and Manchester eventually grow weary of the delay-causing lawsuits and give up. Maybe someday that land can be something San Diegans can be proud of.

•••

Speaking of pride-inducing property, a judge reluctantly sided this week with opponents of the Balboa Park overhaul aimed at removing cars from david rolland the Plazas de Panama and California. As happened when the City Council approved the project, we have mixed feelings. While the ruling may kill the return of the plazas to pedestrianonly use—a plan we like a lot—at least we won’t be saddled with the bypass ramp off the east end of the Cabrillo Bridge and Irwin Jacobs the parking garage south of the Organ Pavilion, which we didn’t like.

Philanthropist Irwin Jacobs, who was going to fund much of the project, told KPBS’s Maureen Cavanaugh on Tuesday that he’ll be taking his money and going home, even if negotiations on an alternative proceed, proving what critics have been saying—he’s interested in the project only insofar as it’s precisely the one he dreamed up.

Yes, Jacobs should be appreciated for his willingness to spend his own money, and, yes, if he doesn’t want to spend it anymore, that’s his prerogative. But it’s too bad he can’t just acknowledge that he got beat in court, dust himself off and rejoin the effort.

What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

This issue of CityBeat is dedicated to Beyonce’s jelly—the Superdome was clearly not ready.

Volume 11 • Issue 27 Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis senior Staff Writer Dave Maass Music Editor Peter Holslin Staff Writer Alex Zaragoza Events Editor Shea Kopp Film Editor Anders Wright Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Adam Vieyra

Columnists Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb Contributors Ian Cheesman, Derrik Chinn, David L. Coddon, Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan, Scott McDonald, Jenny Montgomery, Kinsee Morlan, Sasha Orman, Jim Ruland, Marie Tran-McCaslin, Jeff Terich, Quan Vu Production Manager Efraim Manuel Senior account executive Jason Noble Advertising Account Executives Sean Eshelman, Paulina Porter-Tapia

Cover illustration by Adam Vieyra director of marketing Chad Boyer Circulation / Office Assistant Shea Kopp Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami Business Manager Angela Wang Human Resources Andrea Baker Accounting Tracy Lowe Alysia Chavez Vice President of Operations David Comden Publisher Kevin Hellman

Advertising inquiries: Interested in advertising?

Call 619-281-7526 or e-mail advertising@sdcitybeat.com. The advertising deadline is 5 p.m. every Friday for the following week’s issue.

Editorial and Advertising Office 3047 University Ave., Suite 202 San Diego, CA 92104 Phone: 619-281-7526 Fax: 619-281-5273 www.sdcitybeat.com

San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2013.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Pee / poop not acceptable Regarding your Jan. 16 editorial about the proposed Homeless Bill of Rights: Public urination / defecation is totally unacceptable! Many of the agencies that deal with the homeless actively encourage and enable feral behavior by their modus operandi. I will suggest that the author rewrite this bill.

Charles Peterson, Madison, Wisc.

heartbreaking, as was every other shooting that has occurred. However, we need to resist the urge for these knee-jerk reactions and keep in sight the true intent of our Constitution.

Misguided gun editorial

Regarding your Jan. 30 editorial: I would suggest that CityBeat’s pal-ing around with Jerry’s Sanders’ amusing and comely press representative Rachel Laing—now a private consultant in a public relations firm—is not the same thing as “open government.”

You are dealing with a much more informed and hands-on strong mayor in Bob Filner, and, yes, you will find him at events and meetings in the neighborhoods around town. Maybe less tweeting and more shoe leather is in order.

There seems to be a basic misunderstanding of the purpose of the Second Amendment on your part [“Editorial,” Jan. 23]. It has absolutely nothing to do with street crime or home defense, although the latter is a beneficial side effect. It was meant to protect we, the people, from our own government.

There are three explicit functions of the Second Amendment. Militias and bearing arms are now gone. There remains one out of three. We are left with the right to “keep” arms. In your second paragraph, you speak of the “hysterical message” of Sen. Mitch McConnell, yet in the very next paragraph you wish that Obama and Congress were coming for our guns. It becomes not so hysterical in the time it takes to read down one paragraph.

Immediately after, you speak of the right cynically trying anything to instill fear of the other side. Then, you insinuate that Second Amendment supporters want grenade launchers, bazookas and howitzers. You’re doing a bang-up job of breaking down your own arguments and employing the very tactics you decry.

Guess who else banned guns? Not just on paper, they came for the guns just like you wish for. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Qaddafi and myriad other murderous dictators. Your shortsighted wishes and blindness to history is truly frightening and misguided.

America is not only a great nation, but also unique. Let us not lose sight of how we became who we are. Newtown was

Justin McGlynn, La Mesa

Pal-ing around with Laing

Frances O’Neill Zimmerman, La Jolla

Thompson’s life and times It was a real pleasure to read D.A. Kolodenko’s feature story on Jim Thompson’s work and the biography, Savage Art [“Art & Culture,” Jan. 30].

Kolodenko clearly devoted considerable time and intelligence to the task of researching Thompson’s life, the context in which he wrote and the literary melieu he inhabited. One seldom encounters that degree of effort on behalf of an author who hasn’t published in 50 years and was considered a “pulp” writer in his day.

It made me reflect on the title of Roberto Bolano’s novel, The Savage Detectives: Might Bolano have been influenced

by Thompson?

Thank you, CityBeat, and thank you, Mr. Kolodenko.

sh enanigans

Laurie Macrae, Golden Hill Proud sponsor:

Black History Mini-Crossword By Dave Maass ACROSS 2. Shirley _______, current Assembly member for District 79.

3. Valencia Park’s public library is named after this leader.

4. Pio _______, San Diegan who became the last Mexican governor of California.

5. In pre-war San Diego, The Creole Palace became known as the “_______ Club of the West.”

Last week, we published the wrong clues to this puzzle.

DOWN 1. Mountain town that was home to many of San Diego County’s earliest black pioneers 2. Leon _______, San Diego’s first black City Council member and county supervisor.

First five people to send correct answers to crossword@sdcitybeat.com will win a $10 gift certificate to Mitch’s Seafood.

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

A

sk John Matherly if he’s a hacker, and he’ll struggle for a moment with the term.

On one hand, he’s a hacker, in the sense that he’s an innovative programmer, arms deep in the information-security industry. On the other, he’s hypersensitive to how his baby—a project called Shodan (shodanhq. com)—is portrayed in the press. In the past year, it’s surged in notoriety and not just in technology publications, such as Ars Technica and Wired. Shodan’s been the subject of multiple Washington Post investigative features, profiled on Dutch television and name-dropped by Sen. Joe Lieberman both in a statement on the Senate floor and in a New York Times op-ed, in which he characterized the site as a “nefariously named” hacking tool that was becoming more powerful and easier to use each year.

“I’m not doing anything malicious,” Matherly, who lives in Encinitas, says. “I’m trying to be a good citizen on the Internet.”

Simply put, Shodan is a search engine. While Google crawls the Internet looking for websites, Shodan is scanning for devices connected to the Internet and recording information about the software running on those devices. What has the press and security professionals worried is that Shodan has revealed wide-scale holes in Internet safety, from somewhat embarrassing privacy oversights to keep-you-upat-night vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure.

Imagine a building. Now imagine a private detective checking out the building, snooping around the perimeter, noting what security company’s sticker is on the window, what kind of locks are on the doors, what kind of sprinkler system waters the landscaping, what brand of air conditioner is mounted on the roof, what electric company services the smart meter around the back. Now imagine that investigator does the same thing for every office, every home, every school, every factory, power plant, hospital and football stadium and uploads it to a publicly available database. That’s what Shodan does, but with IP addresses.

It’s almost like an automated way to digitally case every joint in the world.

“But casing already usually implies some malicious intent,” Matherly says. “Because why are you casing in the first place if you’re not trying to get inside? My intention obviously is not to get inside. For the record, everything I do is 100-percent legal.”

American-born and raised in Switzerland, Matherly, now 28, dropped out of his Swiss high school and moved to San Diego in 2001 to live with his aunt and obtain a GED. He designed the first iteration of Shodan—named after the villainous artificial intelligence from the video game System Shock—while studying at Mesa Community College, but his original goal was to create a way for technology firms to conduct market research. When he formally launched Shodan in 2009, the hacking community quickly realized it had much greater potential; Matherly had created a living database of every insecure machine connected to the Internet, from home printers to large-scale industrial systems.

“The fact that somebody is basically shining a flashlight into a dark room shouldn’t be the part people are afraid of,” says Dan Tentler, a San Diego-based information-security consultant. “The part people should be afraid of is the fact that some genius decided to take, for example, a five-megawatt hydroelectric plant in France, put its control comput-

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dave maass

John Matherly’s search engine Shodan scans the Internet looking for devices, from webcams to ice-rink control systems. er on the Internet and allowed everybody that knew about the IP address to connect to it and make changes to this dam, with no encryption or authentication to speak of.”

In other words, don’t blame the messenger.

During the last few years, Tentler’s been delivering shocking presentations on what he’s discovered using Shodan: security cameras, automated wine-chilling systems, electronic freeway signs, red-light cameras, ice-rink temperature monitors, institutional climate-control systems, fuel cells. In some cases, the systems are left entirely open; other times, the authentication process—such as a pass-

personal storage devices, containing business documents, family photos and downloaded videos.

Shodan, Matherly says, reveals widespread reliance on “security through obscurity”—the misconception that the Internet is so big that you can put something online and, as long as it doesn’t show up on Google, no one will ever find it. That hasn’t been true for at least a decade.

“Bad guys doing bad things don’t use Shodan, they use their own scanner,” Tentler says. “Their scanners are automated, and when they find known vulnerabilities, they will automatically break in and drop malware or do what-

“My intention obviously is not to get inside. For the record, everything I do is 100-percent legal.” —John Matherly word—is improperly configured or set to the default.

“The list goes on,” Tentler says. “It’s insanity. There’s stuff that was connected to the Internet that in some cases I didn’t know existed, like septic systems that are fully automated, that you can connect to with a web browser.”

Obviously, it requires a certain level of technological sophistication to make the most of Shodan, but certain actions are easy enough for a lay person. For example, if a user plugs the term “auther” into Shodan, he will find hundreds, if not thousands, of unsecured web cams whose software was written by a programmer who misspelled “author.” If the user searches for “Iomega,” he can access

ever else attack they feel is necessary. Shodan is our ticket to this party that is 10 years old.”

Yet, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team has had its eye on Shodan since at least 2010, when researchers began reporting how they were able to use it to find a certain type of industry system called SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) on the Internet.

DHS expressed concern that hackers would use Shodan, and in July 2012, the FBI somewhat confirmed that fear.

Shodan CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Law enforcer to lawmaker Former cop Myrtle Cole wants to make policy in District 4

by David Rolland On March 26, voters in the 4th City Council District will replace Tony Young, who recently resigned. It’s an important election because the district represents a swing vote on the council, at least in partisan terms. This is our second in a series of profiles of the leading candidates.

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yrtle Cole is seated in a living-room-style chair just inside the door at The Upper Room gospel club on Imperial Avenue. As she talks about her past and present, her manner is more cautious than carefree—and she successfully avoids revealing her precise age. Cole chose the space for an interview not only because it doubles as her District 4 City Council campaign headquarters, but also because it, along with the storefront next door, has been ground zero for victorious campaigns she ran for her friends Tony Young and the late Charles Lewis.

“I remember the great campaign that I ran for Charles,” she says. “He was a good friend. I love him dearly; I love him to this day.

And he motivates me.”

Though this is Cole’s first run for elected office, she’s not new to politics, having worked for a string of District 3 City Council members—John Hartley, Christine Kehoe, Toni Atkins—as well as stints with Lewis and Young.

Cole’s on leave from her current job as regional director for the United Domestic Workers, the union that represents in-home care providers. She’s been with UDW since 2008 and has been planning a run for the District 4 seat for some time, but Young’s decision to resign the post to take the top job at the local Red Cross hastened things.

After last November’s election made Shirley Weber a member of the state Assembly, Cole’s boss at UDW, Doug Moore, asked Weber

david rolland

to consider Cole for a staff position. Cole says that she and Weber talked about Cole becoming the Assembly member’s district director, and Cole made it clear that her intention was to run for the open District 4 seat in 2014.

“Then, maybe a couple days later,” Cole says, “Tony announced that he was leaving early.”

Cole is the candidate of local unions, having been endorsed early by the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, which made her immediately formidable, despite not having a household name.

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ole grew up in Tucson, Ariz.

Her dad worked as a crew chief at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and her mom cleaned houses and worked in catering. Though her childhood was a time of institutionalized racism, she describes it in idyllic terms. The family home was on a predominantly African-American street, but, because Tucson didn’t have a large African-American population, she and her two siblings went to high school mostly with white kids. Cole was one of the first black cheerleaders at Tuc-

Myrtle Cole at Imperial Barber Shop son High School and, she says, the first black homecoming queen.

“It was a positive upbringing,” she says, “even though when I was younger, we went to a theater and we had to sit in the balcony, but didn’t realize the reason why.

We just thought that the balcony was the place for us. But it was because it was segregated. But it didn’t make a difference.

“It was just not a big deal for us, because we had such positive role models. … And my parents were always positive and loving parents. So, it didn’t affect us at all.

We just knew that we were great, and we were going to succeed, and we did.” Her parents were together for 61 years until her mother died, followed a few years later by her father.

Cole studied psychology and sociology at the University of Arizona but quit school when she got married and moved to Los Angeles. The marriage didn’t last, and she returned to Tucson and to school. During her second stint, she was recruited by the Tucson Police Department, which had a handful of black male officers but no black females. The AfricanAmerican community was tightknit, and she knew the men on the force from church.

She went through the academy and worked as a patrol cop for two years before realizing that directing traffic in full uniform in 110-degree heat wasn’t for her. She headed west to San Diego, and, cautioned against applying with the San Diego Police Department for its bad reputation among female officers, applied for police jobs in places like Coronado and La Mesa before landing with the San Diego Community College District. Her academy training put her on the promotion fast track,

and she was a lieutenant within six months. Cole spent eight-anda-half years there.

Cole went to work for, and attend graduate school at, National University, eventually earning a master’s degree in business, and, from there, she got a job working for Hartley, the District 3 City Council member. She hadn’t been thinking of a career in politics; it just happened. A friend recommended it to her. “Usually, that’s how I got my jobs,” she says, “is by people saying, ‘Myrtle, this is what you would be good at.’”

She soon became an admirer of one of her colleagues, Kehoe; it was obvious to her that Kehoe was on her way to elected office.

Cole found Hartley difficult to work with, and she left the office long before Hartley’s four-year term was up, but not before telling Kehoe that when her time came, Cole wanted to be part of it.

When Kehoe made a bid for City Council in 1993, she asked Cole to run her phone bank. After the successful campaign, making Kehoe San Diego’s first openly gay elected official, Cole worked as Kehoe’s representative in City Heights. She says she stayed for two years and worked alongside another future council member, Atkins, whose campaign Cole ran after Kehoe was termed out. As she had for Kehoe before, she worked for a couple of years for Atkins.

When she wasn’t working for council members, she was running her own community-event business, and when she wasn’t planning events, she was working on or managing political campaigns. Cole ran Charles Lewis’ 2002 campaign, which ended up pitting her candidate against

Cole CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

shodan CONTINUED from PAGE 6

examples, two researchers with the firm InfraCritical used Shodan to identify 7,200 devices linked to critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. In response, DHS is using the data to track down the private-sector owners of the devices to help them lock them down. DHS has also notified more than 100 countries about vulnerabilities identified through Shodan. In January, as The New York Times reported, researchers with Citizens Lab at the University of Toronto used Shodan to confirm that Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had deployed digital censorship software and that 18 nations—including Russia and India—were using digital surveillance and tracking equipment.

The next big development may be in medical devices, particularly as the health industry moves toward digital record keeping, Matherly says. The Washington Post reported on Christmas Day that a hacker had been able to use Shodan to find a wireless glucose monitor in Wisconsin that was vulnerable to hacking.

“I think, eventually, everything is going to be connected in a way, and these devices historically have not been security tested in a way that you would test Windows or something you know will be exposed to viruses or malware, or, speaking in general, random people connecting to it.”

A cyber alert claimed a hacker using the moniker “@ntisec” used Shodan to publicly out businesses that were running a particularly vulnerable system. As a result, hackers allegedly accessed a New Jersey air-conditioning company’s internal climate-control and ventilation systems.

Matherly says that’s an aberration from the norm, and he’s never received a ceaseand-desist letter or subpoena or been asked by the government to shut Shodan down. He’s careful in granting access to the database: Anonymous users are allowed to generate only 10 search results at a time, while registered users can see 50 results; paid subscribers can gain greater access. He estimates the site currently has about 80,000 users, mainly information-security professionals checking the security of their employers’ networks.

“Shodan is being used for good,” Matherly says. “There’s enough evidence for me to unequivocally argue that point…. It’s a tool.

It can be used for both good and bad, but the vast majority of users have used it— historically, empirically, not just anecdotally—for good research that has been used

by DHS and by other people to make the Internet safer.”

Matherly allows academic researchers to use the site for free, and the results so far Write to davem@sdcitybeat.com are astounding. In one of the most recent and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

8 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Cole CONTINUED from PAGE 7 Dwayne Crenshaw in the runoff election; Crenshaw is among the candidates Cole will face in March. After Lewis died unexpectedly while facing corruption charges, Cole managed the campaign of Tony Young, Lewis’ chief of staff, which started in 2005 and ended in 2006.

She served as field director for Francine Busby’s unsuccessful 2006 bid to unseat incumbent Congressmember Brian Bilbray, joined UDW in 2008 and ran Young’s reelection campaign in 2010. Last year, she helped several campaigns: Shirley Weber’s bid for state Assembly, Bob Filner’s run for mayor and the opposition to the anti-union Prop. 32.

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should have 300 more officers than it has.

She wants to hire more cops citywide and fix sidewalks throughout District 4. Those plans will cost money, and she’s not sure yet where the city will get it.

“That’s what I’m going to go in and find out,” she says. “I’m sure we can’t get all 300 officers right now—that’s obvious.

But… can we create revenue? Can we do something to get our police department just up a little bit and continue to climb?”

Cole says she’ll have more answers in the coming weeks.

She also wants to follow up on what she says was Lewis’ vision of a “Gaslamp East” along Imperial Avenue, which, if done right, would bring more dining options for area residents. These would be restaurants “that we could sit down in,” Cole says, “like your Bully’s, like your Acapulco or your El Torito, your Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza.

Not high-scale, but medium restaurants that people can afford. We go out of our districts because we don’t have those restaurants. We go to La Mesa. We go to Mission Valley.”

Chain restaurants?

Yes. “We need options here,” she says.

“We need seafood. We need steak. We need, you know, Chinese food—we need, like, a P.F. Chaing’s.

“I’ll take something that’s different than a barbecue shop any day.”

ole’s been a political operative for the past 20 years, and now she believes it’s her time. District 4 came to her in 2011 when its boundaries were changed and serendipitously included her residence.

However, because the upcoming election is for the remainder of Young’s representation of the old boundaries, she was forced to move, inviting charges of being a carpetbagger.

If she can overcome them, Cole says she’ll make public safety, infrastructure and economic development her priorities.

She says the San Diego Police Department Write to davidr@sdcitybeat.com.

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

edwin

sordid tales

decker Who the hell cares about Beyoncé lip synching? I do!

I must admit, I’m fascinated by the topic of lip synwouldn’t a person who suffers a “severe” case of a ching. I’ve truly enjoyed watching and listening to certain disease at least know how to pronounce it? all the talking heads bicker about whether Barack Katy Perry: She pretended to play the recorder Obama knew that Beyoncé was using a backing (a flute-like woodwind) during her rendition of Jaytrack at the inauguration, whether the band was Z’s “Big Pimpin’.” After being delivered the instrualso faking and whether the story matters at all. ment on a blue velvet pillow, Perry picked it up and And while I’m certainly not one of those Whatbegan to “play” a short solo. Then she turned to the did-you-know-and-when-did-you-know-it? overcrowd with this dumbass, Look-at-me-I’m-a-realreactionistas, I will say that, in the battle between musician-and-not-just-a-pretty-face face. She played the “Who cares” and the “I cares” about lip synchanother string of notes and pulled the recorder from ing, you can color me “cares.” her mouth to receive applause—yet, magically, it kept Don’t get me wrong—I fully get where the “Who playing! Perry hung her head in shame and admitted, cares” camp is coming from: In a world with more “I can’t play the flute.” ongoing wars than needle marks on Lance ArmOnly one problem, Countess Fakey von Fakenstrong’s ass, an economy that teeters like a cartoon meister: It’s a recorder, not a flute! She didn’t even boulder balanced on a pointy ridge and an ozone know what instrument it was she didn’t not know layer that’s dissipating faster than a stripper can how to not play! write her digits down for Charlie Sheen—who the Milli Vanilli: Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan are hell cares if Beyoncé lip synched? the poster band for lip synching, poseur piss-ants.

Answer: I the hell care. Because I am ever-so It wasn’t even their voices on the album! The best weary of living in a world inundated by horseshit. part was how it all came apart on stage, in real I first encountered lip synching while watching time, when the background recording of “Girl You American Bandstand in 1978. Blondie was “performKnow it’s True” skipped and kept repeating, “Girl ing” its monster hit, “One Way you know it’s… girl you know or Another,” and Deborah it’s… girl you know it’s…” as if Harry—being the punk-rock the recording couldn’t bring Only one problem, Countess wench that she was—botched itself to say the word “true” the sync in protest.

Fakey von Fakenmeister: amid such lies.

“What the crap is this!?” I Here’s something else: It’s a recorder, not a flute! blurted in disgust.

Though it largely went un“She’s lip synching,” my noticed at the time, they dad explained. “Everyone were horrible dancers. Seridoes it on Bandstand.” ously. They were stiff and out-of-synch, and their And so began my lifelong obsession with perupper bodies were as fluid as new homeowners afformance deception. To this day, I scrutinize every ter the housing bubble collapsed. They really only had three decent moves, two of which consisted of band I see on TV. And I’m good at it. I take note of them twirling their long, dreamy locks. That’s all how flawless the overall performance is (truly live they were—two totally pretty, buffed out, tight-assperformances are rarely perfect). I look to see if the sporting hair twirlers. And that brings me to the neck muscles on the vocalist bulge and twitch apother reason I loathe lip synching. propriately. I listen to ensure that the vocal volume After the shit hit the fan, the real Milli Vanilli decreases when the mouth moves away from the went on tour. They played actual, live shows, singmicrophone. And I scrutinize singers who are dancing all the same songs in exactly the same way that ing their faces off: Are there any gasps for breath?

Rob and Fab pretended to sing them. And guess Are the sustains and tremolos unlabored? These are what? Nobody gave a damn. They slipped into obthe sorts of things that expose a phony faker fraud. scurity and were never heard from again, which Indeed, catching a lip syncher from the comfort of tells me the music wasn’t that good to begin with. my couch and yelling, “Blaspheme! Blaspheme!” at It tells me that their success came from being the TV has become my life’s work. fronted by two tight-ass-sporting pretty boys with However, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as gorgeous manes. when a performer is busted live, on stage, in real It’s no wonder the record business gave us this time, to the jeers of a nauseated audience. There are lie-namic duo, no wonder they kept the real pertons of examples, but my three favorites are: formers behind the B.S. curtain. We told them to do Ashlee Simpson: Her career splentacularlifousit! Our inability as a culture to appreciate anything ly imploded on Saturday Night Live. Of course, we that isn’t delivered by pretty faces with firm tits and all know why she cheated. Simpson’s singing voice tight asses is why lip synching is so pervasive. is about as pleasing as Gilbert Gottfried auditioning Just like with politicians, I guess we get the pop for the role of Murderous Seagull in a remake of The stars we deserve.

Birds. Yet she perpetuated the deception by making bogus excuses.

Write to ed@sdcitybeat.com and “I have severe acid reflex,” she told Entertaineditor@sdcitybeat.com. This week on ment Tonight. Well, guess what, Madam Fibber “Sordid Tales: The Podcast”: Pony Death Ride.

McPhonyface? It’s reflux, not reflex. So, I gotta ask—

10 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

by jenny montgomery Jenny montgomery

Grab a quarter, half or a whole chicken and dig in.

The chicken is rich, moist and incredibly flavorful.

Most orders come with french fries, but these are no garden-variety mushy chips. Clearly sliced and fried in-house, each slender stick is dense and substantial, with just enough salt to make it impossible to stop snacking on them.

But I highly recommend checking out the sandwich menu, particularly if you’re looking for a lunch option that’s a bit more creative than your average deli or taco shop.

Panca Rotisserie’s popular Chicharron sandwich The menu claims the “Chicharron” is a customer favorite, and it’s clear why it has such a following. Pork is slow-cooked until it’s soft and shredded, although the occasional crispy piece does sneak a caramelized bite or two into your mouth. The meat is piled between two slices of warm, soft ciabatta, along with a layer of thinly Slow-cooked deliciousness sliced roasted sweet potato. The colorful orange discs give sweetness, color and a bit of creamy As it turns out, North County is the place to go if texture. Extra zip is added by a tangle of thinly you’re seeking Peruvian food. Q’ero in Encinitas sliced red onion, pickled in lime juice and cilanand Café Secret in Del Mar are two options for tro: a salsa criolla. an intimate, candlelit and upscale dining expeSlow-cooked meat is where Panca shines, evirience. But if you’re looking for a more relaxed dent in the “Asado” sandwich. Thin slices of beef atmosphere with no diminishment in quality of are sandwiched with just mayo and mustard, but food, grab a casual lunch or dinner at Panca Peit doesn’t need more than those creamy swipes of ruvian Rotisserie in Oceanside. condiment. The meat is so tender, your teeth are Panca is a quiet little bright spot next to a barely needed. dumpy Laundromat at 1902 S. Coast Hwy. Don’t Maybe you’re saying to yourself, But are there judge the location by its rundown neighbors, but any sort of wacky beverages I can order? I’m so feel free to say you’re in North Carlsbad if you’re glad you asked. Order up a bottle of Chicha Mofeeling snobby. The small interior is decorated rada, also known as purple corn juice. Sure, it with bright pictures of Machu Picchu and quirky smells like the inside of a bag of Tostitos, but it’s window coverings made from wood pallets. A sweet and interesting and looks like somebody cheerful chalkboard lets you know that Panca has squeezed Grimace right into a bottle. been around for less than a year; a young couple Peruvian cuisine is quickly becoming my abfrom Lima opened its doors in February 2012. solute favorite. It’s starchy, hearty, colorful and, now, thankfully, much easier to find.

“Rotisserie” is right there in the name, so chicken is a must. Panca is not only the name of Write to jennym@sdcitybeat.com the restaurant; it’s also a Peruvian red pepper and editor@sdcitybeat.com. used as a key flavoring for the bird that’s served.

north

fork

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

BY KELLY DAVIS

cocktail

tales Hittin’ the bottle

“You haven’t had the Arch Nemesis,” Brian Divine says.

I’m at The Propagandist (835 Fifth Ave., Downtown, facebook.com/thepropagandistsd), the bar whose spicy Mango en Fuego cocktail I fell in love with almost a year ago.

Divine, who opened the bar last spring with his wife Jessica, flips off a bottle cap and pours me a glass.

Yep—bottle cap.

If you were to order the Arch Nemesis (actually, The Propagandist switched out menus on Feb. 2, but you can probably get it if you ask nicely), it would be made with habanero-and-cucumber-infused El Jimador tequila, St. Germaine and agave nectar, shaken and topped with Fever Tree ginger beer. But, Divine recently started experimenting with bottling cocktails, the Arch Nemesis being one of them and the Velveteen (Canadian Club whiskey, strawberries, ginger syrup, lime juice and ginger ale) the other. He puts the ingredients (minus the ginger beer) in a glass bottle, adds a little water and carbonates each cocktail, one at a time, using a soda stream.

Divine knows the idea of bottled cocktails might make purists cringe, but the process has been its own adventure in mixology—Divine found out, for instance, that carbonation upped the Arch Nemesis’ spice level to the point where it’s not for the weak. He’s thinking that juicing the cucumbers, rather than including them in the infusion, might cool it down. It’s still a work in progress.

“I don’t want to stop making good cocktails,” he says. “We’ve got to figure out ways where we can continue making good cocktails and get them out faster. In a perfect world, I would like to get the cocktails to be completely enjoyable in the bottles by themselves.”

But that doesn’t mean The Propagandist isn’t a place to go for a well-made cocktail. Topping the new menu is The Gatekeeper, Divine’s homage to the prohibition-era Last Word and the more recent Final Ward, a creation of New York

12 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

bartender Phil Ward, made up of equal parts rye whiskey, Green Chartreuse, luxardo maraschino liqueur and lemon juice.

“It’s good; it’s very tart. I wanted to do something a little sweeter,” Divine says. The Propagandist’s boozy, sophisticated version swaps out the lemon juice with Fee Brothers whiskey-barrel-aged bitters.

Also new to the menu is the ruby-red, aperitif-esque Cardamarier, a take on the Boulevardier, made with Cardamaro—a wine-based amaro akin to sweet vermouth—Buffalo Trace bourbon and Campari. kelly davis

The Gatekeeper And, of course, there has be a spicy cocktail on the new menu. Using the Gold Rush (honey, bourbon and lemon juice) as inspiration, Divine made a syrup using Mikolich honey from Temecula and infused it with habanero chilies. To that he added Bulleit bourbon and, instead of lemon juice, Fee Brothers orange bitters. With bourbon as its base, the cocktail, called The Great Fire, completely changes what you’d expect from a spicy drink.

“It has a really warm heat,” Divine points out.

“The honey tastes like it’s actually hot—it tastes like the honey is not spicy, but actually heated.”

When I stopped by, Divine was working out the final details of the new menu’s last two cocktails, but already thinking ahead.

“I’m so excited about our spring menu,” he says, “I can’t even sleep.”

Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

the floating

library

by jim ruland

Two novels about the sadness of contemporary families During my early 20s, I worked as a night cook at a 24-hour fast-food restaurant in rural southwest Virginia. I met a lot of interesting characters during my time on the grill. There was a felon whose name on his driver’s license read “Bobert,” the unattractive sex addict who enjoyed getting busy in cold storage, the effeminate drug dealer who worked the drive-through window and the fry cook who liked to take LSD during his shift.

As a college student, I brought a lot preconceived notions about my “townie” co-workers. As I got to know them better, I came to appreciate the idiosyncratic ways in which they viewed the world. At first, I thought these quirks were a byproduct of a kind of life that was unavailable to me; but once we got to know one another, our differences melted away like butter on a hot grill.

And so it goes with Oppen Porter, the childlike protagonist of Antoine Wilson’s second novel Panorama City.

After the sudden death of his father, Oppen moves from bucolic Madera to Panorama City—a suburb in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. Though Panorama City is just a few miles from the Hollywood Hills, it might as well be in Fresno—or a strip mall anywhere in California for that matter.

Oppen has been sent to live with his aunt, who gets him a job at an unidentified “fastfood” restaurant. Although Oppen is a grown man, he possesses a naïveté that often gets him into trouble.

He’s a poor judge of character, yet thinks the best of everyone he meets. Predictably, his views are often out of sync with those around him. For instance, he sees his trip to Panorama City as a chance to “become a man of the world,” whereas his aunt believes she’s rescuing him from being Madera’s “village idiot.”

Neither is entirely right or entirely wrong, and therein lies the conflict. Things go relatively well until Oppen gets promoted from “floater,” a job he later discovers is reserved for employees with special needs, to “fry guy,” a move that initiates a new set of problems.

“With great freedom comes great responsibility, someone said once, well, it doesn’t work the other way around.”

When he falls under the influence of a con artist named Paul Renfro, Oppen’s aunt tries to get him back on track by sending him to the Lighthouse Fellowship, a Christian outreach center.

Oppen, confused by the fellowship’s logo, is

swayed by his new friend’s hilarious warning.

“The most perverse message a lighthouse could ever deliver, Paul’s words, is come here and be saved.”

While Oppen’s unconventional outlook takes some getting used to, Panorama City will leave you charmed by its generous humor.

Fast food also plays a prominent role in Jami Attenberg’s latest book, The Middlesteins, a novel about a family in crisis.

The Middlesteins are a big, sprawling messy family filled with unruly kids, helicopter parents, unstable aunts and grandparents with plenty of tricks up their sleeves. It’s the kind of family that feels real and full of life, yet one we seldom encounter in fiction. You know why there are so many orphans in literary fiction? Because writing about families is hard. Attenberg makes it look easy.

In the middle of The Middlesteins is Edie, a larger-than-life character whose largeness is the central problem of the book.

“Edie came and she conquered, laying waste to every morsel….

Eleven seafood dumplings, six scallion pancakes, five pork buns, the pounds of noodles and shrimp and clams and broccoli and chicken.”

In the chapters devoted to Edie, we’re told not how old she is, but how much she weighs. Edie as a precocious, 62-pound kid. Edie at 160 pounds and at the height of her sexual power. Edie in serious decline at a whopping 332 pounds.

One of the most compelling aspects of The Middlesteins is its Dos Passos-like structure. We get to know each family member through a chapter presented from their point-of-view, and then we move on. Edie and her husband Richard are the only characters who rate multiple chapters.

While this one-and-done approach means we only get one glimpse of each character’s point of view, most factor into stories told in other chapters. We get to know Robin, Edie’s daughter, early in the novel as a young woman on her own, but we eventually meet her again as an aunt and yet again as grieving mother.

In a family, one is many things to many people.

A lovable brother is also a reckless son, a feckless husband and a doting uncle. With Edie, Attenberg has created a character who looms large in the imagination and is all but impossible to forget.

Write to jimr@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

the

shortlist

1

COORDINATED BY ALEX ZARAGOZA

Exhuming McCarthy

In a phone interview with CityBeat last Thursday, Eleanor Antin insisted that she couldn’t talk long; she needed to rest her voice.

She had a reading that night at the Brooklyn Museum and another on Friday at The Whitney. Those followed two others, also in New York, where she was born and raised—meaning there were old friends to see and lots of conversations to have.

Not helping is that Antin’s readings go beyond what’s on the page; she’s an engaging storyteller who pulls her audience into her quirky, colorful life. An artist by profession—Antin’s a professor emeritus of visual arts at UCSD and the wife of poet David Antin—her films, photography and installations have been shown at places like L.A. County Museum of Art, Tate Modern, the Chicago Institute of Art and the Venice Biennale. In 2008, the San Diego Museum of Art exhibited her Historical Takes, a series of staged photographs that, via elaborate sets and costumed models, draw parallels between ancient myths and modern issues.

Antin, who’s a young 77, was in New York to read from her new book Conversations with Stalin, her dark-humor memoir about growing up a “red-diaper baby,” the daughter of Jewish immigrant parents who believed that “Comrade Stalin” could do no wrong.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, she’ll be at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s La Jolla location (700 Prospect St., mcasandiego.org). The event is free with $10 museum admission.

Actually, “manuscript” is a better word for Conversations with Stalin’s current form. The book’s not yet been published (though you can find early excerpts online), but will be soon by L.A.-based Green Integer Press, which specializes in subversive, provocative texts. In other words, what Antin’s doing isn’t a book tour.

“I call it a performance reading,” she says. A

2

14 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Selected Works at Susan Street Fine Art, 415 South Cedros Ave., Solana Beach.

Stephen Pentak, Robert Kingston, Nancy Reynolds and Gail Schneider display work chosen for its complexity and serenity. On view through March 28. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. 858-793-4442, susanstreetfineart.com HDynamic Gestures at San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Drive, Room D101, Serra Mesa. Larry Caveney, Silfredo La O and Chris Warr will show works that focus on the human form and movement. On view through Feb. 28.

Opening from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, sdmesa.edu/art-gallery Art in the Park: Women’s Edition 2 at Bluefoot Bar & Lounge, 3404 30th St., North Park. This all-women show includes artwork by Alli Bautista, Jen Fong, Andre Wilson and more plus jewelry and accessories by Inchaurregui and Pavogi Designs. At 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. 619-756-7891, facebook.com/ events/137350486429520 Michael Gunderson at Red’s Espresso Gallery, 1017 Rosecrans St., Point Loma.

Check out Gunderson’s series of nude paintings. From 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. facebook.com/redmudd Kettner Nights The monthly art walk includes gallery shows and other special events on and around Kettner Boulevard in Little Italy. Highlights include Lindsay Duff’s Beyond Now at Kettner Arts and Then and Now featuring drawings and prints by Walter Wojtyla at Meyer Fine Art. From 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8.

trained actor, her art almost always includes an element of theater.

“I think the book will be great for people to read,” she says. “But it is a different experience when it’s performative in this way.”

3

Strings of fire

The string quartet may be a dusty old way of playing music—about as standard-issue as a rock combo—but plenty of young folks have given it new life in recent years. One of them is The Parker Quartet. Regarded as one of the premier quartets in Not everyone discovers a calling early in the country, the Grammy-winning group is known to life. Renowned African-American artist give remarkable performances full of virtuosity and Bill Traylor certainly didn’t. He was a former slave soul, whether they’re playing at a concert hall or in who didn’t put colored pencil to cardboard to create a bar. While some contemporaries have dallied in interesting, primitive illustrations of his daily sur- pop fare, The Parker Quartet mostly keeps it studiroundings in Depression-era Montgomery, Ala., un- ous, balancing the likes of Beethoven and 20th-centil he was in his early tury composers like Béla Bartók and György Ligeti.

80s. The decade be- They’ll perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the fore his death in 1949 Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St. in was a prolific one for La Jolla). Tickets are $45 and include a post-perforthe artist, who drew mance reception. ljathenaeum.org 1,200 pieces during Cameron Wittig that time. More than 60 of them will be on view at Bill Traylor: Drawings from the “Untitled (Man, Woman)” Collections of the

by Bill Traylor High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Art, opening Saturday, Feb. 9, at Mingei International Museum (1439 El Prado in Balboa Park). Come back to Mingei on Monday, Feb. 11, for a performance based on Traylor’s life by Antonio TJ Johnson. mingei.org

Late bloomer

Art

HArt Show at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Barrio Logan. Michael James Armstrong, Thomas Demello, Lee Lavy and Joseph Huppert present four installations in this 40,000-square-foot building. From 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8. facebook.com/ events/151357345018306 Wild Beauty at Main Street 5 Gallery, 124 E. Main St., El Cajon. A dual reception featuring work by Marc Kitaen and Ellary Brandon. From 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8. facebook.com/events/320391551404458 Love Muscle Valentine at Flying Panther Tattoo & Gallery, 2323 Broadway Ste 101, Golden Hill. This art show features new work by El Baby Boy, Keith Zep and Rob Benavides. Refreshments and pizza by Luigi’s. At 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8.

6192385713, flyingpanthertattoo.com Cobra Heart: Kill the Mainstream at Propagandist, 835 Fifth Ave., Downtown.

Share cocktails with local artists while viewing works that complement the prohibition style bar. Performances by Vampire, Pal&Drome and local DJs. From 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, Feb. 8. 619-238-7117, facebook.com/events/200030333473756 Christopher M. at Exclusive Collections Galleries Seaport Village, 835 West Harbor Drive, Ste AB. The artist will showcase new oil paintings from his project, “Feast for the Eyes.” Opening at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8.

800-599-7111, ecgallery.com Till Death Valentine Art Show at Left Hand Black, 1947 Fern St., South Park.

The love-themed show features tattoo art, taxidermy and sculpture. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. 619-546-6555, lhblk.com Rock n Roll Heaven at Santos Fine Art Galleries, 978 N. Coast Hwy., Encinitas.

Check out new works by Patrick Carney.

From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. facebook.com/events/315908071860483 HSolus Voices at Thumbprint Gallery,

920 Kline St., #104, La Jolla. Check out pop-surrealist works by Pamela Jaeger, Brian Dombrowsky and Paul Brogden. On view through March 3. Opening from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, thumbprintgallerysd.com HElectric Sugar at ArtHatch, 317 E. Grande Ave., Escondido. An opening exhibition for new works by Pamela Wilson. On view through March 2. Opening at 6 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 9. 760-781-5779, distinctionart.com/upcoming.html Nasty City Approved at Visual Art Supply, 3524 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. An exhibition of work by Unique, Keemowerks and E.vil. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, facebook.com/events/15179788305256 Waking Life at Brokers Building, 402 Market St., Downtown. Check out art by Stefanie Bales and Maha Comianos. From 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. facebook. com/events/277941062328130 Ray at Night on and around Ray Street in North Park. The monthly art walk features vendors, art openings and musical performances. Highlight: new works by Mayra Navarro at OBR Gallery. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. 619-795-4850, rayatnightartwalk.com HBill Traylor at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. A self-taught artist from Montgomery, Ala., Traylor’s depictions of life in rural and urban Alabama have made him one of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th century. On view through May 12. See museum website for hours and ticket prices. Opens Saturday, Feb. 9. 619-239-0003, mingei.org Artful Conversations: 30x: Three Decades at Central Library, 820 E St., Downtown. Learn about the Museum of Photographic Arts’ history and its latest exhibition, 30x: Three Decades, featuring works by Alexander Rodchenko, Loretta Lux, Thomas Struth, Lee Friedlander, Robert Adams, Marian Drew and others. At 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. 619-236-5800, facebook.com/events/101839153326846 HLos Corazones at Basic, 410 Tenth Ave., Downtown. Viz Cult in conjunction with RE:Gallery Sustainable Fine Art Guild presents a group show featuring work by Lester Corral, Rodrigo McCoubrey, Nick Baltins, Paul Uglow, Karla Leopold, Andrea Holeman, Sean Brannan, Sunshine Carr, Janelle Carter and John Finkbiner. From 7 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. facebook. com/events/561049093908198

Books Elise Sax at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Sax will talk about her book, An Affair to Dismember. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. 858-454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com Brandon Sanderson at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Sanderson will sign the final volume of his series, The Wheel of Time. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. 858268-4747, mystgalaxy.com HEleanor Antin: Conversations with Stalin at MCASD La Jolla, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. A reading and performance

by Antin of her coming-of age memoir. At 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. $8-$10. 858-4543541, mcasd.org E.S. Magill at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Magill reads from her new horror novel, Deep Cuts. At 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Long Story Short: Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East

theater Brotherly love and an epic journey

Henry DiRocco

“Percussive” is the best word for The Brothers Size. Before the one-act play by Tarell Alvin McCraney even begins, you’re immersed in the feverish drumming of onstage musician Jonathan Melville Pratt, who, accompanied by louder, recorded beats, fills The Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre with the singular rhythm of the South. Once the story of two brothers in the Louisiana bayou country kicks in, the vibrations emanate from three young actors in top form: Joshua Elijah Reese and Okieriete Onaodowan as siblings Ogun and Oshoosi Size, respectively, and Antwayn Hopper as the mysterious Elegba. They appear, reappear and square off two at a time inside a circle of white chalk. Oshoosi, just out of prison, wants to forget his past and change his course while in the grip of dangerous impulse and the influence of Elegba. Ogun, who fixes cars, wants to fix his brother but has no idea how.

The Brothers Size, directed by Tea Alagic, is ultimately about love, but it’s difficult to make an emotional connection with Ogun and Oshoosi. It’s Okieriete Onaodowan (left) and possible that the parameters—actors announce Antwayn Hopper in The Brothers Size their arrivals and departures, and they improvise (though inventively) on a stage without props— absences from the drama are sorely felt.

Gem of the Ocean runs through Feb. 24 at the remind us that, as in a Brechtian world, we are watching a play and, as such, we’re not completely Old Town Theatre. $29-$54. cygnettheatre.com given over to these characters.

—David L. Coddon The Brothers Size runs through Feb. 24 at The Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com Old Globe Theatre. $29 and up. oldglobe.org and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

•••

The journey to redemption is a lengthy one in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, the first of his 10-play “Pittsburgh Cycle.” To boot, Cygnet Theatre’s staging of Gem, directed by Victor Mack, is achingly, deliberately paced. To revel in Wilson’s eloquent language and insight into the AfricanAmerican experience requires three hours of rapt attention, and this production does lag. By the time young Citizen Barlow (Laurence Brown) embarks upon his magical sojourn to the City of Bones (the high point of the play, and of this staging, by far), we’re poised to share his catharsis, but there is still so much more to unravel.

Antonio “TJ” Johnson makes a powerful stand as the dauntless former slave Solly Two Kings. His Village. Local writers share five-minute stories of regret. At 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, sosayweallonline.com Weekend with Locals: Adriana Renescu at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. As part of their continuing series of local author events, Warwick’s hosts Renescu, author of The Death of Rafael. At noon. Sunday, Feb. 10. 858-4540347, warwicks.indiebound.com Stephen Blackmoore at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The author signs his novel, Dead Things. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Jojo Moyes at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author of The Last Letter from Your Lover discusses and signs her newest novel. At 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 12. 858-454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com Presentation and Book Signing at Point Loma Library, 3701 Voltaire St., Point Loma.

Opening: People Say You Can’t Live Without Love I Think Oxygen is More Important: A musical revue about love. Opens Feb. 8 at the Broadway Theatre in Vista. broadwayvista.com Punk Rock: This is the West Coast premiere of a drama about seven affluent British prep-school teens getting ready for final exams. It doesn’t end well. Opens Feb. 9 at BLKBOX Theatre in Hillcrest.

Titus Andronicus: A Roman general returns victorious from war, only to be embroiled in a mess of romantic entanglements, revenge and many severed body parts in Shakespeare’s seriously violent and once-controversial tragedy. Presented by the UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance, it opens Feb. 6 at the university’s Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre.

For full listings, please visit “T heater ” at sdcit yb eat.com

Dr. Jon P. Rebman will discuss his book Baja California Plant Field Guide. From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13. 619531-1539, sandiego.gov/public-library

Valencia Park. Eveoke Dance Theater presents this interactive, Afro-Caribbean folk dance show. From 10 to 11 a.m.

Thursday, Feb. 7. 619-527-3405, sandiego.gov/public-library

Comedy

Nations of San Diego International Dance Festival at Coronado High Performing Arts Center, 650 D Ave., Coronado. This three-day festival features dancers from around the world performing traditional dances. At 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, and 2 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 10. $10-$25. 504-3052, nationsdancefestival.com

HNew Best Thing Presents: When She and He Did That at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. This stand-up/sketchcomedy show focuses on sordid tales of awkward love. At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. 619-284-6784, whistlestopbar.com Jim Jefferies at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. The Australian actor and writer brings his irreverent comedy to San Diego. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. $28.50.

619-570-1100, sandiegotheatres.net

Dance I Speak...Dance at Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch Library, 5148 Market St.,

HPGK Dance Performance at Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch Library, 5148 Market St., Valencia Park. This free program focuses on hip-hop in honor of Black History Month. From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. 619-527-3405, sandiegolibrary.org HRussian National Ballet at Copley

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The ballet company performs Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, which opens with a performance of Mikhail Fokine’s Chopinana. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13. $20-$85.

619-235-804, sandiegosymphony.org

Fashion Romantic Rock Fashion Show at ArtLab Studios, 3536 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Fifteen ladies will model outfits themed around Valentine’s Day. Also check out art by Sean Dieitrich and Vincent Gordon. At 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8. $5.

619-283-1199, ext.115, artlabsd.com New Year, New You at ManeTain Salon, 2148 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Vixen Productions presents 20 local vendors selling clothing, accessories, health and beauty products. Enjoy free mini mani pedis, massages, gourmet food and cocktails and more, plus an art exhibit by Thumbprint Gallery. From 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. $10-$15. vixensd.com HHuge Frocking Sale at Frock You, 4121 Park Blvd., University Heights. This three-day vintage sale marks Frock You’s 10-year anniversary. Vendors include DonnaLand Vintage, Medavog Vintage and Friendly Feather Shop. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday, Feb. 8-10.

619-220-0630, frockyouvintage.com

Food & Drink Winter Brew Fest at The Port Pavilion on Broadway Pier, 1000 North Harbor Drive, Downtown. Taste craft brews while enjoying live music and local food vendors.

Proceeds benefit Outdoor Outreach and the San Diego Mountain Bike Association.

From 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8. $50-

16 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

$60. sandiegobrewfest.com Grand Opening at Swoon Dessert Bar, 3139 University Ave., San Diego, North Park. The new dessert spot opens with an art installation. From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. 528-875, swoondessertbar.com Escondido Chocolate Festival at Downtown Escondido. Enjoy beer and wine paired with chocolates. From 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. $25-$35. 760-7400658, escondidochocolatefestival.com Hop Odyssey Black IPA Release at Green Flash Brewing Co., 6550 Mira Mesa Blvd., Mira Mesa. The debut of Green Flash’s new IPA. Enjoy a pairing with toffee by Sweet Bricks. From 3 to 9 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 12. 858-622-085, greenflashbrew.com

Music Billy Lee & The Swamp Critters at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. The troupe plays Zydeco and boogie-woogie. At 4 and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. 760-8394190, artcenter.org/performances North Coast String Concert at Carlsbad Community Cultural Arts Center, 3557 Lancer St., Carlsbad. The ensemble presents its winter concert. At 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 6. $5 suggested donation. museumofmakingmusic.org HRed Fish Blue Fish at Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD campus, La Jolla. The experimental-music ensemble presents Girard Grisey’s Le Noir de l’Etoile for six percussionists. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. $15.50. 858-534-TIXS, musicweb.ucsd. edu/concerts Gil Shaham at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The violinist performs

works by Bach, Beethoven and others. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. $20-$85. 619235-804, sandiegosymphony.org Simon Shaheen at Price Center Ballroom, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Shaheen performs traditional Arabic, jazz and Western classical styles. At 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8. $11-$34. 858-246-89, artpwr.com HPortland Cello Project at Luce Loft, 1037 J St., Downtown. The group that seeks to change your perception of the cello performance with the Alialujah Choir.

At 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8. facebook.com/ events/231101263688801 HSan Diego Symphony: Scheherazade at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. Mei-Ann Chen conducts the classic Rimsky-Korsakov symphony.

At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8-9, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. $20-$96. 619235-804, sandiegosymphony.org HSome of My Friends Are Guitar Players Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave., Downtown. Gilbert Castellanos presents this series of performances. Tonights features Anthony Wilson on guitar and Hamilton Price on bass. At 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8. Free. 619-238-1818. westgatehotel.com HJosh White and David Borgo at Villa Musica, 10373 Roselle Street, Ste. 170, Sorrento Valley. A performance featuring White on piano and Borgo on saxophone. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. $10-$15. 858-5508100, sdcenterforthearts.org/events.html La Jolla Symphony & Chorus at Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Orchestra and vocal soloists perform works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Luciano Berio and Carl Nielsen. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9 and 2 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 10. $15-$29. 858-534-TIXS, lajollasymphony.com

HEmerson String Quartet at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD campus, La Jolla.

The chamber ensemble performs works by Haydn, Mozart and others. At 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. $56-$66. artpwr.com Benjamin Grosvenor at Scripps Ranch Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla. The British pianist plays pieces

by Bach, Chopin, Strauss and others. At 1:45 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. $30. 858-4593728, ljms.org Spreckels Organ Family Festival Day at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park.

This family-friendly concert includes activity booths for kids, performances by young organists and a performance by civic organist Carol Williams. From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. 619-702-8138. sosorgan.org Athenaeum Mini-Concerts at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 108 Wall St., La Jolla. Vocalist Alison Tucker performs a free afternoon concert. At noon. Monday, Feb. 11. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org/ miniconcerts.html HParker Quartet at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 108 Wall St., La Jolla. The Grammy Award-winning quartet will perform selected works. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. $40-45. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org/chamberconcerts.html Mats Eilertson Trio at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 108 Wall St., La Jolla. The jazz trio will demonstrate their abstract, improvisational style. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13. $21-26. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org/jazz.html HLarry Ochs / Don Robinson Duo at Space4Art, 325 15th St., East Village. The drummer and saxophonist perform at part of the Fresh Sound Series. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13. $15. sdspace4art.org

“VIII.VIII.” by Stephen Pentak will be on view in Selected Works, a group exhibition opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at Susan Street Fine Art (200 North Cedros Ave. in Solana Beach).

Performance HAnimal Cracker Conspiracy at Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. The hybrid puppet company performs The Collector, about a lowly debt collector who undergoes a radical transformation of spirit.

Accompanying the performance is a live quadraphonic sound mix by composer Margaret Noble. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. $11-$18. theloft.ucsd.edu HSan Diego, I Love You at Jake’s on Sixth, 3755 Sixth Ave., Hillcrest. Circle Dot Dot presents this modern-day romance and “traveling journey” that takes the audience on a journey through Hillcrest. Runs through Feb. 17—see website for performance times. Performances are every half hour from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and

Sunday, Feb. 9-10. $15-$20. 619-3563682, circle2dot2.com HWalking in the Shadows of Bill Traylor at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. Antonio Johnson will perform an excerpt from his series “Walking in the Shadows,” which focuses on the lives of African American pioneers. At 6 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 11. $8-$12. 619-239-0003, mingei.org

Poetry & Spoken Word New Writing Series: Bob Perelman

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

at Visual Arts Facility Performing Space, UCSD campus, La Jolla. The poet will read from his work. From 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 13. 858-534-3210, literature.ucsd.edu

Politics & Community Silent Spring 50: Lessons from San Diego’s Bees and Bays at Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, Balboa Park. This is the third of a series of panel discussions inspired by Rachel Carson’s environmental book, Silent Spring. At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. 619-238-1233, ethicscenter.net Jump Start Your Heart 5K at Crown Point Shores, Mission Bay. Proceeds support the Children’s Heart Foundation. Ticket includes complimentary bag, jump-rope, T-shirt and socks. At 8 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. $30. jumpstartyourheartsd.com Civilized Conversation Club at Coco’s Restaurant, 10430 Friars Road, Mission Valley. This week’s roundtable discussion topic: “Right to Work” Laws: Who Benefits? From 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11.

858-231-629, Civilizedconversation.wordpress.com

Special Events HLunar New Year Festival at Kearny Mesa Park, 3170 Armstrong St., Kearny Mesa.

The Little Saigon Foundation presents this three-day festival with carnival rides, an arts and crafts exhibition, traditional dance performances, food venors and more. From 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 9-10. $4-$5. lunarnewyearfest.com

18 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Rose Creek Fest at Mission Bay Park, 3000 E. Mission Drive, Mission Bay. The inaugural event features a rubber duck derby, community mural painting, creek cleanup, vendors and more. From 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, earthdayweb.org/RCFest.html

and Saturday, Feb. 8-9. $13-20. 858755-1161, sd.derbydolls.com

H10th Annual Carnevale at Little Italy.

The free event includes live music, dancing, stilt-walkers, mask-making and everything you’d expect from this traditional Italian event. From 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. 619-233-3898, littleitalysd.com

The Bluest Eye at Central Library, 820 E St., Downtown. Dr. Camille F. Forbes, from UCSD’s Literature Department facilitate this discussion about Toni Morrison’s novel about race and self-image. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. facebook.com/ events/286206928168865

Second Sunday Flea Market at Ducky Waddle’s Emporium, 414 N. Coast Hwy. 101, Encinitas. Browse through tables of treasures, everything from vintage clothing, glass, pottery, flatware, jewelry, postcards, etc. at this market, which happens the second Sunday of every month. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. 760632-0488, duckywaddles.com HValentine’s Day Trunk Show at The Handmade Revolution, 3054 Juniper St., South Park. Shop locally made jewelry, art and clothing while enjoying refreshments and treats. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, thehandmaderevolution. blogspot.com Mardi Gras in the Gaslamp at Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown. Four stages will feature acrobatic performances and live music. Proceeds benefit the Gaslamp Quarter Association. 21+. From 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. $40-$50. 619-233-5227, facebook.com/sandiegomardigras

Sports San Diego Derby Dolls at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. The girls take on two teams for a double-header weekend. At 7 p.m. Friday

Talks & Discussions

San Diego Green Scene at World Resources Simulation Center, 188 Third Ave., Downtown. Representatives from Wildcoast, Surfrider Foundation and San Diego CoastKeeper discuss issues related to our coastline. From 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 7. 619-234-188, wrsc.org HThis is Jazz at Schulman Auditorium, 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad. Dick Sutro will trace the history of American jazz in this multi-media event that’s part seminar, part performance and part conversation. At 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. 760-602-2012, carlsbadca.gov Balboa Park: Past to Present History Series at San Diego History Center, Balboa Park. Balboa Park public programs manager Gabe Selak leads a three-part survey course exploring the park’s history and future, and explore archival documents.

From 10 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. $8-$10. 619-232-6203, sandiegohistory.org

For more listings, visit “E ve nt s” a t sd c it yb e a t.c o m

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

d a He

design, and technology,” and The Silent History is the perfect fulfillment of this mission statement. The basic premise follows the history of an epidemic that disables speech in children (or “silents”) and explores the effects of a gradually muted world. The chapters are episodic, usually about 1,000 words long, and told from many points of view—a format anyone who’s read Max Brooks’ World War Z will recognize. However, the most exciting part of The Silent History is that it can use the GPS technology of your iPhone to unlock site-specific chapters in the story. These “field guides” are reader-submitted and can only be read while standing in the target location. So far, there are only five field guides in San Diego, all written by Corinne Goria (whose chapter, “Damage,” located and set in an empty lot in Logan Heights, is extra-creepy).

—Ryan Bradford

it’s awesome. The free app, currently only available for Apple products, allows you to create six-second looped videos that give viewers little snapshots of your life; basically, you can make a gif on the go. To film, you just hold your finger down on the screen.

Once you’ve finished, you can write a caption, tag your location and share on Twitter, Facebook and on the Vine website. It’s already received a ton of buzz on the Internet and boasts some celebrity users, like Sir Paul McCartney, who made a fun game out of it by filming a cute illustration soundtracked by a snippet of a song and tasking his followers to name that tune. Disclosure: No one at CityBeat was able to identify it. Other users are getting creative with Vine, as well, making it a fun time waster for anyone bored while standing in line at the DMV.

—Alex Zaragoza

s r e m Cram Deposit these dynamic developments into your dome

Podcast Author, author!

Whenever my friends ask me what podcasts is well-curated, though the site itself can I listen to, I tell them “other people.” But I’m easily become overwhelming—there’s a lot not being snarky. Other People features inof stuff here. Unless you’ve got, say, a five- depth interviews with contemporary writhour airport layover, Fab can be a time-suck. ers of every stripe. While the interviews are Best to sign up for the daily email alert that ostensibly “about” the author’s latest book, features 18 to 20 new items, ranging from the conversation almost always veers into men’s and women’s clothing to food prod- biography. The host, Brad Listi, a renowned ucts to housewares (like the Hammers and author and publisher of the website The NerHeels pendant light shown here) to art. Give vous Breakdown, doesn’t get caught up in it a glance and see if anything jumps out. Fab criticism. Sometimes it’s clear he hasn’t even read the book. With new hour-long (free) also has apps for iPhone and Android. episodes every Sunday and Wednesday, how —Kelly Davis could he? What matters to Listi is insight and inspiration. He wants to know how they got their start as writers, what they were like in college, what obstacles they overcame. Listi doesn’t dance around his subjects. Were you a fuck-up? A prodigy? A jerk? Eventually, even the most reticent writer opens up. The result is someMega virtual indie mall thing that book culture usuA Wall Street Journal article last November ally is not—lively, timely and noted that Fab.com was a gay social-netincredibly entertaining. working site until Jason Goldberg decided —Jim Ruland the name was better-suited for a flash-sale site—similar to Gilt or Touch of Modern— Silent is golden where folks sign up for email alerts about limited-time deals on retail goods. How The Silent History (thesilenthistory.com) Fab is different is in what it sells—stuff by is a serialized novel for iPhones/iPads by Vine not? smaller, lesser-known designers, some of former McSweeney’s editors Chris Ying, Eli whom you might recognize if you frequent Horowitz and Russell Quinn. According to Wondering what the next Inindie boutiques and others struggling to their website, they strive to develop proj- stagram is going to be? Wonget a foot in the shop door. The selection ects that “organically integrate storytelling, der no more. It’s Vine, and

Website

App

App

20 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Website

Crowdsourcing an invention Some of us like to shop, and some of us like to make things for those of us who like to shop. That’s where Quirky.com comes in, an invention incubator that provides crowdsourced feedback to erstwhile inventors and, if an idea is deemed worthy, kicks in funding, support and a marketplace. It’s sort of like Threadless for inventions. It costs $10 to submit your product idea, which then goes through a rigorous analysis via professionals and amateurs. If you go the distance, your product will eventually be made and sold, and you’ll get a cut of the take. Not all of us are idea types, though, and you’re free just to shop the inventory of things that have already been made, many of which are nifty new takes on old ideas. Travel outlet with both electrical and USB ports? Done. Funky egg separator? Check (and pictured here). Unsurprisingly, there’s no shortage of Apple accessories, but many of them come in ways you haven’t seen before. It’s the perfect place to shop for someone who’s really tough to shop for.

—Anders Wright

seen local Voices in their heads Making art ain’t easy. It can be a lonely life, spent struggling to get what’s in your head onto a canvas. Artists Pamela Jaeger, Paul Brogan and Brian Dombrowsky all know that struggle. This led the trio to collaborate for the exhibition Solus Voices, opening at Thumbprint Gallery (920 Kline St. in La Jolla) from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, and on view through March 3.

Solus is Latin for “alone.”

“We came together with Solus Voices because we were all working with things that have to do with being in your own head,” explains Dombrowsky, whose paintings of animals explore the concept of non-verbalization. “It’s the idea that we’re all alone together, and while we’re alone together, we’re all watching and observing.”

Dombrowsky is a trained sculptor who moved over to painting as his primary medium, translating his ability to manipulate lines and space onto canvas. He’s exhibited alongside both Jaeger and Brogden numerous times; the trio’s pop-surrealist style complements each other despite each having different aesthetics.

Jaeger’s paintings are dream-like and subtly haunting, featuring females who look like prettier, more elegant versions of characters from a Tim Burton film. Brogden’s style, meanwhile, leans more toward caricature. For this show, he’s showing mostly black-and-white works that are accentuated with pops of color and explore the idea of finding a path.

It’s a theme that has a deeper meaning for the artist, who suffered a near-career-ending car accident that left him with limited use of his hands and fingers.

“For the most part, they are a transmission of things that have been on my mind recently,” Brogden says of his new works in an email. “One thing I love about creating is the ability to lay down feelings, things I have seen or heard, or conversations I have had and have them turn into ideas for pieces.”

Dombrowsky describes his new works as “man meets nature,” with animals serving as a proxy for his own observations of the world. “I like to paint stories,” he says. “So, when you get to the canvas, and depending on how you feel about certain things, it will be about how you read it. It can go in different ways.”

“Residue” by Brian Dombrowsky Cine’mation (animation) showcases for the San Diego Latino Film Festival. Before that, he served as chief operations officer at the World Trade Center San Diego. His interests and projects range from the esoteric (he developed a deck of gay tarot cards and a companion book; sales have been documented in 38 states and 11 countries) to the compassionate (he served folks with HIV/AIDS as executive director of Townspeople, a local housing nonprofit).

Asked what attracted him to Space 4 Art, he pinpoints a memory.

“I remember attending Space 4 Art’s opening in 2010,” he says, “and I was so impressed by the energy and the passion of everyone involved. I told myself, I need to keep my eye on this place.

“I came into the picture [at Space 4 Art] out of the need for more structure, to help them move forward, to help support the need to create,” Stillman continues. “Space 4 Art has so much to offer through its focus on education, community outreach and creative principles; and I’m really excited to be a part of that.”

He pauses, looking at his hands. “There are a lot of interesting, creative people born and raised in San Diego,” he says, “but many of them leave. I want Space 4 Art to be like a home to others. You have to stick around to really create something. This is about setting up a nucleus for a future San Diego.”

—Itza Vilaboy Write to alexz@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

—Alex Zaragoza

Stillman in charge “I survived my first day on the job,” says Patric Stillman, the new executive director of Space 4 Art. That was Feb. 1. The resident-artists “have many concerns and desires,” he continues, “and it is my role and responsibility to listen and lead.”

Space 4 Art, the artist-residence and -studio complex in East Village, opened in 2010 and has been holding performances, art shows, film screenings and open-studios events ever since.

Stillman has an artist’s sensibility—he’s worked in acrylics and photography—and a background in business and nonprofits. In his role as innovations and programming manager with the Media Arts Center San Diego, he established the annual Cine Gay and

Patric Stillman

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Better living through chemistry Soderbergh’s new movie is a pharma-thriller

by Anders Wright Throughout his prolific career, Steven Soderbergh has been a master of switching genres. He was an indie god in the early 1990s, a prestige director at the turn of the millennium and a big-ticket guy in recent years.

Not every film’s been great, but some have been tremendous, such as Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Traffic. He’s helped turn good-looking guys like George Clooney and Channing Tatum into respectable actors, with movies like Out of Sight and Magic Mike, and helped Julia Roberts earn an Oscar for Erin Brockovich (though he was nominated for Best Rooney Mara’s the real deal.

Director, he won the award that year for Traffic).

And now, apparently, he’s hanging up his filmmak- get better; they get much, much worse, and the charing spurs, forgoing movies for other ventures. His Lib- acters are forced to consider whether the fault lies erace biopic comes to HBO later this year, but his lat- with the person, the prescription, or the prescriber. est picture, Side Effects, arrives in theaters on Friday, That’s most certainly not all, but to say much more Feb. 8, and will reportedly be his last theatrical film. would be to say too much. Side Effects is a terrifically If true, he’s going out on top with this taut thriller, well-considered movie, and Soderbergh, who handles which has been spoken of as Hitchcockian, because it his own cinematography—giving the movie an off-kilhas so many twists and turns and, more importantly, ter, angled feel—seems to have considered everything. because it’s masterfully crafted. Soderbergh is aided The movie has a sweet, slow burn, and he coaxes excelby Scott Z. Burns, who penned the director’s previous lent performances from his cast—this is the best work films The Informant! and Contagion but who’s bested Law’s done in years. If you were wondering if Mara is both of those with this screenfor real—after all, she was great, play, which keeps you wonderbut barely in, The Social Network Side Effects ing about the nature of the film’s and totally unrecognizable in The Directed by Steven Soderbergh characters without leaving any Girl with the Dragon Tattoo—rest plot holes or loose ends to tie up. assured that she is. Hers is a mulStarring Rooney Mara, In the opening moments, we tifaceted performance, intense, Channing Tatum, Jude Law know that something bad has thrilling and disturbing. and Catherine Zeta-Jones gone down. There’s blood and Soderbergh’s legacy will be Rated R bloody footprints, but learning an interesting one. I’ve felt his the who and the what will have work has been spotty in the last to wait. Flash back three months, where we find Em- decade, but when I look at his canon, I find it extraorily Taylor (Rooney Mara) seeing her husband Mar- dinary. It may be that he’s made too many movies retin (Tatum) released from prison after a four-year cently to really have perspective—Side Effects marks stretch. Martin’s crime was white-collar, and when the eighth film of his I’ve seen in the last five years, the feds took him down, Emily lost her house, cars, and I haven’t seen everything he’s made during that boat and lifestyle, and she’s been suffering silently in period. I think, ultimately, he’ll be regarded as a masa New York walk-up, waiting for her man. ter, though a perplexing one, because his efforts to exTime has taken a toll, and Martin’s release brings plore new kinds of movies weren’t always successful. the return of the crippling depression she’s battled in Side Effects, however, is one of his best in years, the past. After one particularly disturbing incident, the kind of film that almost any director would like she begins seeing Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), to be remembered for. who starts prescribing anti-depressants, which twist Emily to the breaking point. Simply put—and I’m des- Write to anders@sdcitybeat.com perately trying to keep this spoiler-free—things do not and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Cartoonish

The Big Snit

22 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

It’s been 30 years since Craig Decker teamed with Mike Gribble to start showing people cartoons.

You probably know them better as Spike—Decker’s nickname— and Mike, and their various touring shows, the Festival of Animation and the grownups only Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation.

Gribble died in 1994, but Decker’s kept his buddy’s name as part of the animation exploration, including the new Spike & Mike’s

Festival of Animation 30th Anniversary collection, which opens Saturday, Feb. 9, and runs through Saturday, March 30, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s La Jolla location (700 Prospect St.). This is the family-friendly edition, so don’t expect it to be sick or twisted.

“We all know the technological advances that have occurred in the medium,” Decker tells CityBeat via email. “Sometimes the storytelling or character design is lost because of the focus

on technological advances or using the most up-to-date software.

Shows like this are absolute stunning examples of how amazing this medium can be.”

Spike & Mike debuted the work of some notable artists, including Mike Judge, Tim Burton and John Lasseter. Gaining entrance into a Spike & Mike festival, though, is a challenge. Decker, who can be prone to hyperbole, says that in order to fit the bill, a movie must “have humor and charm and be wonderfully dynamic. And then have more humor! Which is what makes this the best collection that could possibly be put together in the world. Period.”

There are certainly some good ones, including an old favorite, 1969’s Bambi vs. Godzilla. Other high-profile shorts include Oscar winner Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase, Nick Park’s Creature Comforts (also an Oscar winner), the gorgeous German film Loom and the ever-popular The Big Snit.

Some high-profile animators will make appearances during the run, including David Silverman—who’s helmed several episodes of The Simpsons, as well as The Simpsons movie and The Longest Daycare, which is currently up for the Best

Short Animated Film Oscar—and Rich Moore, who directed Wreck-It Ralph, currently contending for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. It’s kind of a parade of animated riches.

Get details at spikeandmike.com.

For Decker, though, there’s one thing that would make the celebration better: “I wish Mike was here to see it.”

—Anders Wright

Opening Identity Thief: Jason Bateman hits the road to find out who stole his identity. Not a spoiler: It’s Melissa McCarthy.

San Diego Jewish Film Festival: Still going strong in its 23rd year and now spread out across the county. Find the list of films, showtimes, locations and ticket info at sdjff.org. It runs from Thursday, Feb. 7, through Sunday, Feb. 17.

Side Effects: This thriller is rumored to be Steven Soderbergh’s final theatrical release. If so, he’s going out on top with this one, about a woman (Rooney Mara) whose shrink (Jude Law) prescribes her anti-depressants that end up plunging both of them down a rabbit hole. See our review on Page 22.

Special 26: Bollywood heist movie based on a real robbery that went down in Mumbai in 1987.

Top Gun 3D: The fighter-jet stuff is just fine. It’s that Tom Cruise singing “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” bit that gets creepy in 3D.

One Time Only Bull Durham: Kevin Costner’s romantic baseball comedy is a minor-league miracle. Screens at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, at the Central Library, Downtown.

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life: Life, as we know it, would never be the same after the final Python movie. Screens at around 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, at Sea Rocket Bistro in North Park.

Groundhog Day: Bill Murray’s obnoxious weatherman has to live the same day over and over again. Ironically, it just gets better with age. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Get to Work: Documentary about the local organization Second Chance, which provides unemployment assistance and job training. Screens at noon on Thursday, Feb. 7, at the Central Library, Downtown.

Chicago: The Best Picture winner for 2002 is pretty sharp, but the wave of movie musicals we expected in its wake never really arrived. Screens at noon and 7 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 7, at Reading Cinemas Town Square in Clairemont.

The Collector: This film, which uses puppets and tabletop theater to tell its story of a debt collector who goes through a Grinch-like conversion, was put together by the Animal Cracker Conspiracy, which will be on hand after the film for a Q&A. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at The Loft at UCSD. Mr. Skeffington: Bette Davis accepts a sham wedding proposal in order to save her brother from an embezzlement charge.

Screens at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, at the Central Library, Downtown.

A Clockwork Orange: Kubrick’s dys-

topian nightmare is still seriously creepy.

Not for the kids. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, at Full Moon Drive-In in Pacific Beach.

Faces in the Mirror: Boyd Tinsley, violinist for the Dave Matthews Band, directed this movie about a young musician who returns home to bury his father. He’ll be on hand for the screening and will perform and answer questions afterward. Starts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, at Full Moon Drive-In in Pacific Beach.

Roman Holiday: It’s one of the most romantic movies of all time, and it earned Audrey Hepburn her Oscar. Screens at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9 and Tuesday, Feb. 12, at Reading Cinemas Gaslamp.

Ruby Sparks: The first film since Little Miss Sunshine from co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris stars Paul Dano as a writer whose latest creation, a gorgeous, quirky girl named Ruby, comes to life. Screens at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at the Central Library, Downtown.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman teamed with director Michel Gondry for this bizarre allegory of a breakup, which stars Jim Carrey as a guy desperately trying to get over Kate Winslet. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at Full Moon Drive-In in Pacific Beach.

Casablanca: Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into his. The rest of us are glad she did.

Screens at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at ArcLight Cinemas in La Jolla.

Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West: The title kind of says it all, right? Screens at 6:30 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 11, at the Central Library,

Downtown.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s: In Truman Capote’s short novel, the narrator was gay.

In Blake Edwards’ movie, he’s hetero George Peppard, who somehow ends up with the lovely Holly Golightly. Screens at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, at Reading Cinemas Town Square in Clairemont.

West Side Story: When you’re a jet, you’re a jet all the way, from your first cigarette to your last dying day. Screens at 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 12, at ArcLight La Jolla.

Die Hard Marathon: All five films. Yes, that’s right, five, because it culminates at 10 p.m. with the new one, A Good Day to Die Hard. Starts at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at AMC Mission Valley and ArcLight La Jolla.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Quite possibly the most quoted movie of all time, by geeks. It’s only a flesh wound, after all. Screens at around 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 13, at Sea Rocket Bistro in North Park.

Say Anything: What guy hasn’t wanted to be Lloyd Dobler, holding up the boombox playing Peter Gabriel? And what girl hasn’t wanted her man to be Lloyd Dobler, holding up the boombox playing Peter Gabriel? It’s screening twice on Wednesday, Feb. 13: You can catch it at 7:30 p.m. at ArcLight La Jolla or 8 p.m. at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

For a complete listing

of movies pla ying locally, please see “F ilm S creenings” at sdcit yb eat.com under the “E vents” tab.

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

alex

there she goz

zaragoza A night at Over the Border’s exotic male revue I consider myself a feminist, so when it comes to and grinded the pole using everything they learned female exotic dancers, I’ve always felt a combinafrom that one pole-dancing class they took at 24tion of awe and aw, man. If a woman chooses to do Hour Fitness. When it was an Asian girl’s turn, airborne leg splits on a pole while a bunch of horny the DJ tastefully blasted “Gangnam Style,” and the dudes make it rain dollar bills and it allows her to MC urged her to dance to “her” music. The crowd pay her rent, more power to her. She can dance if laughed. We considered calling the ACLU. she wants to, she can leave her cares behind and she Then the lights came down and the dance mudoesn’t need anyone’s judgment. sic usually reserved for Tijuana nightclubs went Though, can’t you just put on some clothes and up to 11 as the first dancer, Angel, came to the stage take a medical-receptionist course? You’re better dressed in a Navy uniform. He was obviously new than this, sister! to the profession, but still poured baby oil over his On the other hand, I have no issue objectifychest while rubbing up against a woman like he was ing male strippers. I realize that’s hypocritical, but born to do this. those cheesy beefcakes are asking for it. You can’t Once Angel flew back to heaven, the DJ welgrease your body in baby oil, hump the ground to a comed to the stage a former Mr. Mexico whom we Pitbull song and expect women not to lose it. I see called “Mexican Terminator.” He was big and beefy it as reclaiming the objectification that we women like Ahhnold in his Mr. Universe days. Though I prehave suffered for centuries. fer my men slender with the upper-body strength of So, when I learned of a weekly male strip revue an anemic child, I figured it was time to do some called Solo Para Mujeres—which means “for wominvestigative reporting and let the hunk dance up en only” in Spanish—at Over the Border, a scrappy on me. little nightclub in Otay, I made immediate plans to I wasn’t excited, but I was willing to take one in check it out. The club used to be called The Palothe name of journalism. Mexican Terminator sat me mino. I often passed it as a kid on the way to get down and told me not to move. He then grabbed my Chinese food at Café Arizona, hands, shoved them down his looking up from the passenbottoms and rubbed them into ger seat of my mom’s car at his greasy, perfectly waxed One girl even fell down the the statue of a white horse butt. I tried to push my hands stairs after her lap dance. on its hind legs. Its balls had away to avoid full contact, but been painted red. he wasn’t having it. Hasta la He’s that good.

The statue is gone, but not vista, dignity. from my memory, especially He grabbed my hair and when I was in the parking lot of the place with my shoved my head into his crotch as he simulated the friend Michelle, hearing the thuds and booms of movements of fellatio on my face. Baby oil from his club music blasting inside. We were about to see pubic area got on my nose. After that, he shook my some real-life stallions. breasts and sent me on my way, leaving me to tuck Every Thursday night, women in skin-tight my boob back into my bra as I walked to the bathdresses and platform pumps pile into the wareroom to clean him off of me. house-style nightclub to have three sweaty men The headliner—and the guy it seemed every grind on their thighs, chests and even their faces for woman in the joint was there to fawn over—came the low-down price of $5 per lap dance. That’s the to the stage from the DJ booth dressed in Army kind of deal that can get a woman chaffed. fatigues and brandishing a toy AK-47 with a flashMichelle and I stood in the back, she with a Bud light taped to it. Luis seems to be the Magic Mike, Light in her hand, me with a pint of Coca-Cola or Magic Miguel, of Over the Border. Women lined topped with a cherry. The night was touted as beup for the chance to be throttled by his be-thonged ing just for women, but there were plenty of heterojunk, and he gave them their money’s worth. One sexual men there. girl even fell down the stage stairs after her lap We hypothesized about why these fellas were dance. He’s that good.

Women were spun, bent and humped every at a male strip show. “I bet they work here. The which way. At one point Luis piled three women owners make them flirt with girls so they buy into a weird, sexual Rube Goldberg contraption: more drinks.” “Oh, I bet they’re the strippers. The one hump into a behind led to a face thrust into a lights are gonna go down and they’re gonna rip crotch, leading to a grinding against a vagina. The off their clothes.” “They’re probably male escorts. screams of horny women filled the air, and, at one I wonder if they’d bone us for $20, or a marriage point, I had to ask, “Is it my uterus or is it actually certificate.” steamy in here?” It was. It was very steamy.

Turned out they were there to pounce on hotMichelle and I still talk about Luis, the Mr. Darand-bothered women. It makes so much sense: Let cy of our stripper dreams. Every time I see a fiver, I someone else do the titillating, and then swoop in think of his abs and sigh. for the kill. You lazy, bastard geniuses.

The show started with a pole-dancing competiWrite to alexz@sdcitybeat.com tion among five willing women. For the chance to and editor@sdcitybeat.com. win a bottle of vodka, they awkwardly swung from

24 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Robert Sanchez

The Paragraphs work on a song, “Turns to Dust,” at The Lost Ark Studio.

MAKING WAVES J

For months, The Lost Ark Studio used a novel marketing strategy—recording bands for free · by Peter Holslin

esse Lee Hofbauer wasn’t expecting much when The Paragraphs got invited to The Lost Ark Studio last year. Boasting a dizzying collection of vintage gear, the Pacific Beach studio seemed like it would be too pricey for his humble band. Hofbauer figured they’d stop by, look around a bit and then go home.

But when The Paragraphs visited the studio last November, money wasn’t an issue. Working with Mike Butler, The Lost Ark’s in-house engineer, the band spent about three hours recording their song “Turns to Dust.” To play his parts, Hofbauer picked out a black-and-white ’60s Silvertone from a room full of hollow-body guitars.

“I was completely thinking, OK, well, after this session’s over, I don’t even know how much this is going to cost us,” Hofbauer recalls. To his surprise, though, “They didn’t charge us anything.”

The Paragraphs aren’t the only band who’ve gotten a killer deal from The Lost Ark. For months, the studio’s brought in dozens of artists to record singles for free, as part of a compilation series—last year, the studio released a new single each week, featuring a different artist. In the process, The Lost Ark has exploded in popularity, with musicians raving about its sound, equipment and low rates.

“I think anyone that gets to record in a space like that is getting hooked up, even if they’re getting charged a normal rate, because it’s so much better than any other studio, in some ways,” says Brian Holwerda of local country-rockers Blackout Party, who recorded their 2011 album Closed Mouth Don’t Get Fed at The Lost Ark. “They definitely have helped out, I think, every band they’ve worked with.”

But while the studio seems to be helping lots of musicians, some studio owners and engineers have bristled at the novel approach of The Lost Ark’s owner, Paul Cavanaugh. They say The Lost Ark’s low rates have made oth-

really, necessarily have to make money off of this.”

Musicians who record there are urged to help each other—and The Lost Ark—by hyping the music that comes out of the studio. Cavanaugh seems particularly enthusiastic about social media. In December, in a mass email to musicians who’ve recorded there, he urged them to post links to the studio’s Soundcloud page (soundcloud.com/ lostarkstudio) in a final push for the holidays.

“I know you all know about how to reach your fans, build a fan base and such, and that we’re fairly new to it—but if we’ve learned anything, something I’m sure you all know—it’s not just a matter of having fans, it’s a matter of taking care of your fans—and if you feed your fans, they will feed you,” Cavanaugh wrote in the email, obtained by CityBeat. “So if you haven’t ‘fed’ your fans music lately, and more specifically the single we worked with you, well it sure would be great if you could look back, dust it off and send it out there again!”

The recording business can be tough: Overhead costs are high, studios have to compete with home recording technology and the market is unpredictable. While several studio owners and engineers say their businesses haven’t been affected by the rise of The Lost Ark, a couple have been frustrated by the studio’s bargain rates.

“I think Mike Butler is very good at what he does and his arrival in San Diego has had a considerable impact on the overall quality of what gets done in this town,” Ben Moore, a freelance engineer, tells CityBeat in a Facebook message. “Unfortunately, the subsidization aspect of the Lost Ark business model has done significant damage to the low-end and mid-range studios that I frequent with my independent clients. It’s very difficult for a quality facility in Clairemont, for example, to compete with a beachfront recording studio that doesn’t charge its clients for studio time.”

After months of hooking artists up, it looks like The Lost Ark is shifting to a more traditional business model. Last Friday, Cavanaugh emailed Hofbauer, the frontman of The Paragraphs, telling him that the studio is now going with a standard “day rate” like other studios in town, Hofbauer says.

Though it may not have been economically sustainable, The Lost Ark’s free recordings have been a boon for publicity. Hofbauer says The Paragraphs now want to record an album there—even if they don’t get a sweetheart deal.

er studios suffer and wonder whether Cavanaugh’s flashy studio is actually helping the scene.

“What about a tour van? A publicist?” says Brad Lee, a veteran local musician who owns the label Loud + Clear Records and Clairemont studio Stereo Disguise Recording Laboratories (SDRL). “Start a record label and help these bands put out CDs. Pay a booking agent.”

Cavanaugh declined to be interviewed for this story and rebuffed several requests from CityBeat to visit The Lost Ark. But people who’ve been to the studio describe it as a musician’s wonderland, with guitars hanging on the walls, Write to peterh@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com. rooms full of gear and a picturesque seaside view.

John Meeks, a songwriter who helps Cavanaugh recruit bands to record, says The Lost Ark started in early 2011. Cavanaugh opened the studio with former Buck-O-Nine bassist Scott Kennerly, Meeks says, and snapped up loads of vintage equipment when he began working with Butler, who’s known for making roomy live recordings.

Meeks says that Cavanaugh got the money to fund the studio when a software company he founded, DefenseWeb Technologies, was acquired by Humana, a billion-dollar healthcare company, in 2007. The way Meeks describes it, Cavanaugh and Butler are building a musical utopia, where great musicians can achieve their recording dreams without worrying about equipment or money.

“They only want to do records of people who they believe in, who they think are doing music for the right reasons, or who have something special to offer, or who have a lot of drive,” Meeks says. “They don’t want to just do anybody to try to make a buck, because they don’t Paragraphs drummer Mike Hunt

Robert Sanchez

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

notes from the SMOKING PATIO Courtesy: Sam and Joyce Moore

Locals Only Sam Moore is not happy with The Styletones. A former member of the R&B duo Sam & Dave, he’s been in a litigious mood since hearing the local soul-funk band’s take on the 1966 Sam & Dave classic “Hold On, I’m a Comin’” in a “Got Milk?” ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

Moore’s manager and wife, Joyce Moore, told CityBeat on Tuesday that she’s sending a cease-and-desist letter to parties responsible for the ad. It was made by the New York ad agency Deutsch. As U-T San Diego reported last week, The Styletones were hired by Beta Petrol, a music-supervision and -licensing company, to record the song, .

“There is a legacy at stake. There is a 50-year-plus career and an identity and rights at stake,” Joyce Moore says, adding that she thought Styletones singer Stevie Harris sounded “horrid” in the recording. “Hopefully, we can do this in an amicable fashion, rather than having to do it lawyer-ugly.”

Vonda LePage, executive vice president and director of corporate communications at Deutsch, says the agency bought the rights to use the song and fulfilled all the requirements for the deal.

“We did everything legally that we were supposed to do,” she says.

Members of The Styletones declined to comment, as did Brent Asbury, the agent at Beta Petrol who recruited the band.

This isn’t the first time the Moores have gotten up in arms over licensing rights. Last year, a federal judge dismissed their claim that the 2008 movie Soul Men had infringed on Moore’s trademark nickname, “The Legendary Soul Man.”

•••

Coming out of a nearly two-year hiatus, indie-rockers Swim Party will play a reunion show at Soda Bar on Saturday, Feb. 9. Guitarist / vocalist Eric Tremblay has been living in Switzerland, but he’s coming back to town for a couple days.

Up next, the oboe Big changes are in store for Paul Remund. He’s no longer playing in the performance-art group Cathedral X. He’s quit his job and sold many of his belongings, including his guitar and amp. Later this month, he’ll shove off for a new home in New York City.

“I’m totally free right now,” Remund tells CityBeat. “It would be a good opportunity to put my electronic stuff in a suitcase and just fly out there, and just explore the city and have an experience.”

It’s the latest move for a musician who always seems to be evolving. After playing in the indie-rock

26 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Sam Moore combo Tape Deck Mountain and starting his own indie band, the now-defunct Chairs Missing, he ditched the indie-songwriter world last year in favor of Cathedral X’s abstract, multimedia approach.

Working with his girlfriend at the time, Amanda Shoepflin, he laid down complex rhythms and built elaborate sculptures for their visceral live shows.

Remund says he doesn’t plan to pick up the guitar again anytime soon. For now, he’s focusing on a new project, Light Vision (soundcloud.com/light visionsound), in which he uses a Casio keyboard, home-made pedals and Reason music software to make hypnotic, improvisational electronic music in the spirit of German krautrock.

“Everything that I do is just a direct transposition or expression of what I’m going through,” he says about his move toward electronic music. “Now, this is my voice. My voice has just changed. Who knows, maybe after I move to New York and I experience some things, I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, well, now I gotta learn the oboe.’”

When he gets there, he’ll link up with his buddy Travis Trevisan, his former Tape Deck bandmate, and Andy and James Ralph from Writer, who left Paul Remund San Diego in early 2012. Before he leaves, though, Remund will hold a goodbye show at Tin Can Ale House on Tuesday, Feb. 12, where he’ll unveil Light Vision and put up some of his paintings and sculptures. The show is special for him because it’ll be held at the Tin Can, the cozy bar he used to run with Kelsey Breunig.

“It’s kind of, in a way, closure of my past relationships and musical endeavors and the city,” he says.

“Also, [it’s] a way for me to be, like, ‘I exist! I exist as a being!’”

—Peter Holslin Write to peterh@sdcitybeat.com Paul Remund and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

if i were u

BY peter holslin

Wednesday, Feb. 6

Friday, Feb. 8

PLAN A: That 1 Guy, Wolff @ The Casbah. Like a one-manband from the future, That 1 Guy’s Mike Silverman makes quirky, rhythm-intensive tunes on a 7-foot-tall “magic pipe”—an instrument of his own invention that’s made out of plumbing pipes and contrabass strings. Live videos show him doing some crazycool things with it, so expect a visual and sonic treat. PLAN B: Chelsea Wolfe, Amanda Shoepflin, Sarah Jaffe @ The Loft at UCSD. L.A. songwriter Chelsea Wolfe put on an enchanting performance when I saw her in Tijuana recently. Channeling the bleak, brooding vibes of Swans’ Michael Gira, she offered up a witch’s brew of driving post-punk and gloomy folk.

PLAN A: Portland Cello Project, The Alialujah Choir @ Luce Loft. Putting a novel spin on an old instrument, the Portland Cello Project boasts a wildly diverse repertoire (Bach, Kanye West, Pantera, the Super Mario Bros. theme) and collaborates with a wide range of artists (The Dandy Warhols, Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor). PLAN B: Seapony, Rose Melberg, Neon Cough @ Soda ryan c. jones

Sunday, Feb. 10

Bar. You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking for some nice, inoffensive indie-pop. Seapony are as cuddly as a baby’s blankie, boasting jangly guitars and cooing vocals, while locals Neon Cough specialize in breezy, electro-tinged hooks.

PLAN A: Keith Sweat @ California Center for the Arts, Escondido. Step aside, Keith Sweaty: It’s time for the real thing. One of the first R&B singers to adopt the big beats and synthy hooks of New Jack Swing, Mr. Sweat has penned many a sexy jam over the years, and he can still peel your clothes off with his intoxicating voice. PLAN B: Big Freedia, Keith Sweaty, DJ Claire @ The Casbah. If you like jiggling booties, then you will love Big Freedia, star of New Orleans bounce music. As Freedia delivers rapid-fire vocals over crazy-funky beats, a great booty-shaking experience is guaranteed for all. BACKUP PLAN: Tony Suraci as The Highwayman, Lee Koch @ Belly Up Tavern.

Saturday, Feb. 9

Monday, Feb. 11

PLAN A: Spider John Koerner @ AMSDconcerts. This guy is just too amazing to pass up. Back in the early 1960s, Koerner played traditional folk and blues alongside buddies like Bob Dylan. Now in his 70s, he brings a rough, rickety vibe

PLAN A: Gayle Skidmore @ Tin Can Ale House. Even if you made it to Skidmore’s record-release show at The Casbah (see Thursday’s Plan A), it’ll be worth checking her out at this latest edition of the Tin Can’s weekly Country Club, where she’ll likely put on a quieter, more intimate performance.

BACKUP PLAN: Sir Sly, Miner @ The Casbah.

Thursday, Feb. 7 PLAN A: Gayle Skidmore, Goldenboy, Leanna May and The Matadors @ The Casbah.

Singer-songwriter Gayle Skidmore has a special night planned for the release of her lovely new Zombie Heart 7-inch. She’s decorating. She’s baking cookies. And, of course, she’ll touch the marrow of your soul with rich, heartfelt pop. PLAN B: OFF!, Bad Antics, Negative Approach @ Epicentre. With years of experience in bands like Circle Jerks and Hot Snakes, the guys in OFF! certainly know how to dish out the shit-kicking punk fury. But as their hilarious music videos attest, they also know how to hit the funny bone in just the right way. BACKUP PLAN: Nathan Hubbard / Along Came a Spider @ 98 Bottles.

to his tunes, reflecting all the charm of a busted-up pickup truck. PLAN B: The Wailers, Roger Steffens, DJ Carlos Culture @ Belly Up Tavern. Yeah, I know, Bob Marley died more than 30 years ago, but I’d go to this show just to see longtime Wailers bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett, who came up with deep, remarkably expressive bass lines for many of Marley’s songs. PLAN C: Cattle Decapitation, Lord of War, Suntorn, Imbalanced, Nihilitus, Vermin @ SOMA. As their name suggests, local metalers Cattle Decapitation always bring the gut-churning, face-shredding, death-grind goodness. BACKUP PLAN: Gram Rabbit, Hills Like Elephants, Privet, The Midnight Pine @ The Casbah.

Gayle Skidmore

Tuesday, Feb. 12 PLAN A: “Transages” w/ Light Vision, DJ Pigtails, Mystery Cave @ Tin Can Ale House. Before shoving off for a new home in New York City, local musician Paul Remund will put on a multimedia show, unveiling his hypnotic new electronic-music project, Light Vision. Head over to Page 26 to read more. BACKUP PLAN: The Pacific Quartet @ Athenaeum Music & Arts Library.

28 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

HOT! NEW! FRESH! Keith Sweat (California Center for the Arts, 2/10), The Spits (Ché Café, 3/7), Richard Buckner (Soda Bar, 3/17), The Specials (HOB, 3/19), Doldrums, Blue Hawaii, Sean Nicholas Savage (Soda Bar, 3/21), Los Lonely Boys (Casino Pauma, 3/22), Peelander-Z (Soda Bar, 3/28), Esben and The Witch (Soda Bar, 4/6), Angel Olsen, Villages (Casbah, 4/9), The Gaslight Anthem (BUT, 4/22), Black Bananas (Soda Bar, 4/23), SOJA (HOB, 4/24), Marnie Stern (Soda Bar, 4/29), Bob’s Burgers Live (The Irenic, 5/6), The Presidents of the United States of America (BUT, 5/21), She & Him (SDSU Open Air Theatre, 6/21),

February Wednesday, Feb. 6 Chelsea Wolfe at The Loft @ UCSD.

Thursday, Feb. 7 OFF!, Negative Approach, Bad Antics at Epicentre.

Friday, Feb. 8 Simon Shaheen at The Loft @ UCSD. Seapony, Rose Melberg at Soda Bar. Bro Safari, Torro Torro, Tittsworth at House of Blues.

Saturday, Feb. 9 The Wailers at Belly Up Tavern. Gram Rabbit at The Casbah.

Sunday, Feb. 10 Big Freedia at The Casbah. The Brad

Steinwehe Big Band Matinee at Belly Up Tavern. Keith Sweat at California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Monday, Feb. 11 Merauder, Murder Death Kill at Ché Café.

Tuesday, Feb. 12 Ed Sheeran at Spreckels Theatre. 12th Planet at Voyeur.

Wednesday, Feb. 13 In Flames at House of Blues. St. Lucia at The Griffin.

Thursday, Feb. 14 Wallpaper at The Casbah. Toubab Krewe at The Loft @ UCSD. Japanther at Soda Bar.

Friday, Feb. 15 Mouse on Mars at Soda Bar. Ra Ra Riot at Belly Up Tavern.

Saturday, Feb. 16 OM at The Casbah. The Salvator Santana Band at The Griffin. Art Laboe Valentines Super Love Jam feat. The Delfonics, Bloodstone, GQ, Blue Magic, Tierra, Eddie Holman, Sly Slick and Wicked, The Floaters, The Notations at Valley View Casino Center.

Sunday, Feb. 17 LED Anniversary feat. Alesso, 3BLAU, Borgore, Grizzly, Crookers, dyro, GTA, Matzo, Margan Page, Otto Knows at Valley View Casino Center.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

the hit list Another round of jazz Ever since I downloaded Spotify’s Blue Note app, velvet curtain that leads to the lounge and check out which allows you to access the entire Blue Note Along Came a Spider. No, they won’t be screening Records catalog, I’ve been on a major jazz bender. that Morgan Freeman flick. Instead, you’ll get some Sometimes it feels like my headphones are be- cool sounds from Nathan Hubbard, who’ll be joined ing soundtracked by Starbucks, and somehow by Rob Thorsen, David Borgo and Ian Tordella. that makes me more productive at work. And, my Get a double dose of jazz at Grant Grill (326 jazz-filled workdays have led Broadway, Downtown) on to a few jazz-filled nights. If Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8 you’re in the mood for a little and 9, as Ira Gonzalez hits night music, here are some the stage each night. The great jazz nights happening guitarist and singer will get this week. you movin’ and groovin’ to Seven Grand (3054 Unihis jazz-samba fusion that’s versity Ave. in North park) has reminiscent of Stan Getz and been killing it lately with its Astrud Gilberto. There’s even jazz offerings. Among those is a guy playing the flute Ron a weekly show with the hardBurgundy-style. You can’t go est-working trumpeter in San wrong with a whole lot of Gilbert Castellanos gets brassy Diego, Gilbert Castellanos. jazz flute. at Seven Grand.

It seems like you can catch Finally, round out your jazz Castellanos at every jazz joint in town every other week at The Loft at UCSD on Wednesday, Feb. 13, night, but the back room of Seven Grand lends itself with a special concert by Joshua White and SPito his sound. The acoustics are great, and the throw- RAL. The band will pay tribute to jazz legend John back décor and tasty whiskey cocktails make it a fun Coltrane by playing some of his most iconic songs. night out. Check him out Wednesday, Feb. 6.

—Alex Zaragoza The Back Room at 98 Bottles (2400 Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy) is another hot spot for the hep Write to alexz@sdcitybeat.com cats. On Thursday, Feb. 7, pass through the thick and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

30 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Tuesday, Feb. 19 Night Beds at The Casbah.

Wednesday, Feb. 20 B.B. King at Belly Up Tavern. Meklit Hadero at The Loft @ UCSD. RYAT, Rainbow Arabia at Soda Bar. Buke & Gase at The Casbah.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live band karaoke. Fri: He is the Painter, Mad Traffic, Curt Owen, The Calefaction, Throne. Sat: Product, Natural Heights. Tue: Battle of the Bands w/ Full Strength Funk Band, Vicious Phishes, Brothers Gow.

Midnight Pine. Sun: Big Freedia, Keith Sweaty, DJ Claire. Mon: Sir Sly, Miner.

Tue: Oceanside Sound System, The Amalgamated, Unsteady.

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Fri: Entities, Big Bad Buffalo, Tona Grad. Sat: Creative Conspiracy, Some Kind of Nightmare, Denied Youth. Mon: Merauder, Murder Death Kill, Brawl, Halftime, World of Pain. Tue: Spoonboy, Black Panther, Golos Truda, Christy.

Croce’s, 802 Fifth Ave, Downtown. croces.com. Wed: Fuzzy. Thu: SoulJazz. Fri: Lady Dottie and The Diamonds. Sat: Daniel Jackson (11:30 a.m.); Eve Selis (8:30 p.m.). Sun: Elliott Lawrence (11:30 a.m.); The Archtones (7:30 p.m.). Mon: Dave Scott and Monsoon Jazz. Tue: Dave Curtis Quartet.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. dirksniteclub.com. Wed & Sun: Karaoke. Fri-Sat: FX5.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Dr, Downtown. dizzyssandiego.com. Fri: Mike Garson Quartet. Sat: Mikan Zlatkovich and his Jazzmikan Trio plus 3.

El Dorado Bar, 1030 Broadway, Downtown. eldoradobar.com. Wed: ‘Trill’ w/ Joe Kay, Andre Power, Sasha Marie, Sufficient Sounds. Thu: Psychemagik, Adam Salter, Steve McQueen. Fri: ‘Posse On Broadway’ w/ Ill-Literate, AtLarge, KidRiz, Cros1.

Sat: ‘Boom Boom Saturdays’.

Eleven / The Void, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, North Park. elevensandiego.com. Sat: SISU, Some Ember, Cathedral X, DJ Mario Orduno. Tue: Veronica Falls album listening party w/ DJs Mario Orduno, Marco

Gonzalez.

Sun: The HIps.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Thu: OFF!, Bad Antics, Negative Approach. Fri: Buffalo Picnic, The Winders, Vegas Breakdown, The Bassics, Brendan Prednis.

Sat: Nostalgia, In The Midst, Head of the Hydra, Of Changing Tides, A New Challenger Approaches, Morbid Curiosity, All But Broken.

Griffin, 1310 Moreno Blvd, Bay Park. thegriffinsd.com. Wed: Hey Ocean!, Mandarin Dynasty, Aloha Radio. Thu: Brazilian Carnival. Fri: Micah Brown, Katastro, Mergence. Sat: Get Back Loretta, Deadly Birds, Jackson Price. Sun: ‘d’, Roxy Moonslinger, Vignette. Tue: Oliver Trolley, Static Bloom, Noise Floor.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd. com. Thu: Sander Van Doorn. Fri: Ricky Rocks, DJ E-Rock, DJ Este. Sat: Rico DeLargo, Sid Vicious.

Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean Beach. 619-222-5303. Wed: Lady Dottie and The Diamonds. Thu: Roots Covenant, DJ Refah, TRC Soundsystem. Fri: Hunter Green, DJ RM. Sat: Sandollar, DJ Chelu.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Thu: Mikey Beats, Static Promenade. Fri: Zhaldee, Cristyle (207); Gabe Vega, Erick Diaz (Float). Sat: House Rules, Yusef Tarzi, Nino Anthony (Float); Ayla Simone, J Smoove (207). Sun: Dirty Vegas. Tue: Dynamiq, Murphi, Kennedy.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Thu: Nathan Hubbard / Along Came a Spider. Sat: Steph Johnson.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St, Normal Heights. airconditionedbar.com.

Wed: ‘Breezy Bliss’ w/ DJs JoshthebeaR, Volz, Six Mil. Thu: DJ Yaser Aly. Fri: DJ Junior the DiscoPunk. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Noise Agents’ w/ DJs Watch .44, Sunday Sauce.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco.com.

Wed: Slanted Comedy. Thu-Sat: Nick Thune. Sun: The ACC Showcase Showdown. Tue: Gaslamp open mic.

AMSDconcerts, 4650 Mansfield St, Normal Heights. amsdconcerts.com. Sat: Spider John Koerner.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink. com. Wed: DJ Ratstar. Thu: The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble. Fri: Pocket. Sat: The Milkcrates w/ DJs Mikey Face, Angie. Sun: DJs Joemama, Tramlife. Tue: ‘Tiki Tuesday’.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: North Mississippi Allstars, London Souls. Thu: Old Man Markley, Pushin’ Rope, Lexington Field. Fri: The Fabulous Pelicans (5:30 p.m.); Tommy Castro. Sat: The Wailers, Wailers historian Roger Steffens, DJ Carlos Culture. Sun: The Brad Steinwehe Jazz Orchestra (3 p.m.); Tony Suraci as The Highwayman, Lee Koch (7 p.m.).

Mon: Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Euphoria Brass Band. Tue: Unsigned / Unrest Compilation CD Release Party w/ The Howls, Kut U Up, The Shantyannes.

Blarney Stone Pub, 5617 Balboa Ave, Clairemont. 858-279-2033. Wed: The Barmen. Thu: Adam Jones. Fri: Whiskey Fellas. Sat: The Fooks. Sun: Open mic w/ Men of Leisure. Tue: Irish jam.

Bourbon Street, 4612 Park Blvd, University Heights. bourbonstreetsd.com.

Wed: DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Thu: ‘Wet.’ Fri: DJ Woody Woodbeck. Sat: ‘Where’s M.A.N.?’ Sun: ‘Soiree.’ Tue: Open mic, karaoke; ‘Fresh Tuesdays.’

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Sat: ‘Sabados en Fuego’ w/ Jay Valdez. Sun: Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian. Mon: Junior the Discopunk.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave, Bay Park. brickbybrick.com. Fri: Ronny North, Temporal Riff, Cabuloan, Wither Crown.

Sat: ‘Babes on Broadway’ w/ Hell On Heels Burlesque Revue. Sun: Cannon Fire, Joshua Taylor.

Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: That 1 Guy, Wolff. Thu: Gayle Skidmore (record release), Goldenboy, Leanna May and The Matadors. Fri: Hargo, Subsurfer, Gone Baby Gone, Duping the Public. Sat: Gram Rabbit, Hills Like Elephants, Privet, The

February 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave, Downtown. henryspub.com. Wed: ‘Club M.A.W.’.

Thu: DJ Yodah. Fri: DJs Rev, Yodah. Sat: DJs E, Yodah. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: DJs Joey Jimenez, E. House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Fri: Jerry ‘Hot Rod’ DeMink; Bro Safari, Torro Torro, Tittsworth.

Ivy @ Andaz, 600 F St, Downtown. ivyentertainmentsandiego.com. Thu: Tristan D, IDeal, Caliparis, Drew Diddles, Marques Skot, Sanjay and Devoy, Mr. Dee Jay, Angle. Fri: Brett Bodley, Static Promenade, Theorycraft, Dynamiq, Erik Till, Qenoe, Angle, Este. Sat: Loczi, SAT 1, Mikey Beats, Johnny Rayburn, Joey Jimenez.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Thu: Mike Gao, eLan, DJ Pound, DJ Cleancut, Kurly Burrito, Mateo Bambattaa. Fri: Seria Star Second Anniversary Tribal Fusion Dance Performance w/ DJs Samazon, Mark Zabala, Sammy Bliss. Sat: ‘Russ Liquid’ w/ Arkon, Pound, Panda Grass. Sun: Science Fiction, Afro Jazziacs.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave, Normal Heights. lestats.com. Wed: Ivan Cheong, Lisa Olsen. Thu: The Young Romans, Danni Rosener, Jesse Thomas, Jessica Bell. Fri: Jason Manns, Josh Damigo, Louden Swain. Sat: Bosen and Suede, Lucy Michelle. Sun: Exquiste Corps.

Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. theloft.ucsd.edu. Wed: Chelsea Wolfe, Amanda Shoepflin, Sarah Jaffe. Thu: The Animal Cracker Conspiracy: The Collector. Sat: Lover’s Rock Dance Jam. Mon: Bitchy Bingo.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Tone Cookin’. Thu: JG Duo. Fri: Trunk Monkey.

32 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

Sat: 4-Way Street.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. http:// numberssd.com/. Thu: DJ Angel X; ‘Varsity.’ Fri: Harness; ‘Viernes Calientes’ w/ DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Sat: ‘Club Sabbat’ w/ DJs Robin Roth, Linda E.; ‘Femme Fatale.’

Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. officebarinc.com. Thu: Ikah Love, Adam Salter, Old Money Asada. Fri: Saul Q, Kid Wonder.

Onyx Room / Thin, 852 Fifth Ave, Downtown. onyxroom.com. Fri: ‘Rumba Lounge’ w/ Jaes One, Seize, Yogui, Muzik Junkies, Jay Valdez, Martin Kache, Tony V, La Mafia.

Sat: DJ Rags, Mike Zee, Nicky Z, DJ Ramiro V. Tue: DJ Lady Kate, Justin Barnes.

Patricks II, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Thu: 145th Street. Fri: Bill Magee Blues Band. Sat: Len Rainey’s Midnight Players. Sun: Mystique Element of Soul.

Mon: Troy Netter and The Cadillacs. Tue: The Bayou Brothers.

Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Sun: Boondock Brothers.

Propagandist, 835 Fifth Ave, Downtown.

ThePropagandistSD.com. Fri: ‘Kill the Mainstream V. 1’ w/ VAMPIRE, PalandDrome, Keith Sweaty, Synthesis, B.I.D.I., Colour Vision, Eric J. Flynn, Spencer Jaq. Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave, La Mesa. rivierasupperclub.com. Wed: Kice Simko. Thu: The Secret Samurai. Fri: Old Tiger. Sat: Bill Cardinal. Tue: Meagan Flint.

Ruby Room, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Wed: Fontaine Classic, Interrobang, YOVEE, 22 Kings.

Thu: MegaRan, The Megas, Urizen, Dr. Awkward. Fri: Psychothermia (CD release), Warner Drive, Eken is Dead, The Fabulous Miss Wendy. Sat: Ras Kass, Ci-

cum Tomorrow, DJ Billie Knight, DJ Daeta, Norm Rockwell. Sun: Autumn Electric, Podunk Nowhere, Karina Frost. Tue: Sagan and Friends, Amanda Portela, The Face.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd. Wed: Gilbert Castellanos Jazz Jam. Thu: Trio Gadjo. Fri: John Reynolds Band. Sun: Bourbon and Beats.

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Wed: The Booze Bombs, Johnny Deadly Trio. Fri: Nihilist, Great Electric Quest, G.O.D. Sat: Cholos on Acid, Nuclear Tomorrow, Normandie, Nerve Control. Tue: Whenairturnstowater, Cash Crop, Race Against Space.

Side Bar, 536 Market St, Downtown. sidebarsd.com. Wed: Queen of the Scene w/ Kyle Flesch. Fri: Craig Smoove. Sat: DJ Fresh One. Tue: Mardi Gras Party.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: Desert Noises, The Paragraphs. Thu: Hobo Torch, The Bloodflowers, Real Things Are Good, The Stick Figures. Fri: What Made Milwaukee Famous, Little Fowl (6 p.m.); Seapony, Rose Melberg, Neon Cough (9 p.m.). Sat: Swim Party, Sleep Lady, Kalashnikov My Wife. Sun: Buffalo Tooth, The Natives, Harsh Toke. Mon: Badabing, Hot Mustard, SXO. Tue: The Blind Pets, The Paper Thins, Love and The Skull.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Fri: For the Win, Brave Coast, The I In Self, Dayseeker, Cut Your Losses, Welcome to Now. Sat: Cattle Decapitation, Lord of War, Suntorn, Imbalanced, Nihilitus, Vermin. Sun: The Toasters, Mrs. Skannotto, 2000 Tons of TNT, So Far Gone, The Combos.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Thu: ‘Ladies Playground.’

Fri: Black History Month Celebration w/ DJ Gigi, DJ Circle K, DJ Dale da Dred. Sat: DJ Bill Bennett, DJ JD. Sun: Gyptian.

Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: Mark Fisher/Gaslamp Guitars, Bl3ndr. Thu: Van Roth, dubstep DJs. Fri: The Disco Pimps, Timothy H, Cathouse Thursday, Mike Bowman. Sat: DJ Miss Dust, Fingerbang.

Mon: Reggae, Digital Sea, Stephen Finn.

Tue: DJ Von Kiss.

The Flame, 3780 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. flamesandiego.com. Thu: ‘Club ‘80s’; ‘Rockabilly Psychois’; ‘RnR Debauchery.’

Fri: ‘Therapy’; ‘Darkwave Garden.’

Tiki House, 1152 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. tikipb.com. Wed: Giant Mechanical Brain. Thu: Kayla Hope. Fri: The Celebrities. Sat: The Nards. Sun: Open mic w/ Dan. Tue: Sweet Dreams.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Wed: DJ Chuy Fresno. Thu: The Girl is Tough, Memo and Rex. Fri: ‘Beat Kitchen’ w/ Question, Charlie Rock, Freddie Joachim. Fri: ‘Taboo’ w/ Miki Vale, niomiesoulfly. Mon: Karaoke.

Tue: Kim Gordon Comedy Night.

Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com.

Wed: The Junk Poets, Parade of Horribles, Dumest Animals. Thu: Benefit for Southwestern College newspaper ‘The Sun’ w/ The Natives, PL DVNA, Voice Actor.

Fri: The Flowerthief, St. Cloud Sleepers, Katie Leigh and The Infantry. Sat: Merry Problem Child, The Fontaine Classic, Civil People. Mon: Tin Can Country Club w/ Gayle Skidmore. Tue: ‘Transages’ w/ Light Vision, DJ Pigtails, Mystery Cave.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Wed: Bayou Brothers. Thu: Nathan James and The Rhythm Scratch-

ers. Fri: The Ballad Mongers. Sat: Winter Wonder Juke. Sun: Salsa.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Wed: DJ Mikey Ratt. Fri: Old Man Wizard, Mirden, Leather Nun, Cryptic Languages. Sun: Pagan Funeral, Lenore, Gloomsday.

Turquoise, 873 Turquoise St, Pacific Beach. theturquoise.com/wordpress. Wed: Tomcat Courtney, Talia Ceravolo. Fri: Tomcat Courtney, Afro Jazziacs. Sat: Peligroso Caramelo, Tomcat Courtney. Sun: Sounds Like Four, Blue 44. Mon: Ibrahim Senegal, Trio Neo. Tue: Ibrahim Senegal, Afro Jazziacs.

U-31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Thu: DJ Slynkee. Sat: DJ Saul Q, Kid Wonder. Sun: Reggae. Mon: ‘Taking Back Monday.’ Tue: Karaoke.

Voyeur, 755 Fifth Ave, Downtown. voyeursd.com. Thu: Seven Lions. Fri: Helena. Tue: 12th Planet.

Voz Alta, 1754 National Ave, Barrio Logan. vozaltaprojectgallery.com. Thu: Bill Caballero.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Wed: ‘New Best Thing’ w/ Adam Allgood, Pat Regan, Dallas McLaughlin. Thu: ‘Worst Music Ever’ w/ Dimitri. Fri: The Treaties (CD release), The Lovebirds, Robin Roth, Terryn S. Sat: ‘Booty Bassment’ w/ DJs Dimitri, Rob. Tue: ‘Friends Chill.’

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Open mic w/ Jefferson Jay (6 p.m.); Kindread, General Smiley, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Psydecar. Fri: Ocean Beach Comedy (6 p.m.); Back 2 Black, Arizona Bay. Sat: Jetwash (6 p.m.); Revival, Piracy, TRC Sound (9:30 p.m.). Sun: ‘O.B.-o-ke’ w/ Jose Sinatra.

Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Battle of the Bands Week 6.

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34 · San Diego CityBeat · February 6, 2013

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