San Diego CityBeat • Feb 15, 2017

2 · San Diego CityBeat · february 15, 2017

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UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

Sanctuary city council

A

s this issue went to press, most targeting our people. It is targeting San of the CityBeat staff was glued Diegans… It tears at the fabric of the First to their computers watching the Amendment and our communities… Please live stream of the City Council keep San Diego a bright spot in an otherhearing to decide whether or not to file an wise unpredictable map.”

One after another, families, groups and amicus brief in support of the state of Washington’s lawsuit against President Trump’s individuals came up to support the filing of Muslim ban. Cities like Chicago have already the amicus brief. Tears were shed and strong jumped on board with the lawsuit, which words were exchanged, and it may have was upheld last week by the Federal Ninth made a difference.

In the end, the council voted 8-1 (with Circuit Court of Appeals.

We were truly touched by the outpouring Scott Sherman the lone dissent) to supof emotion we saw from our fellow San Di- port Washington’s lawsuit. Sherman’s no egans at the meeting. While there were a few vote was particularly upsetting considering SANDIEGO.GOV he was absent for much supporters of the ban in atof the public testimony. tendance, the vast majority Mark Kersey and Lorie of the dozens of speakers Zapf were also absent for a who addressed the council portion of the testimony, were there to encourage but both did come back to our local representatives listen attentively. to stand up against the And sure, we were a Trump administration. little disappointed to see “It betrays our valsupporters of the brief ues as a nation of immihoot and shout-down the grants,” said Imam Taha speakers who supported Hassane of the Islamic the Muslim ban, but in the Center of San Diego before end, we’re proud of the naming off the vast list of local progressive commusupporters and organizanity for showing up and tions that had co-signed standing up. And kudos to his letter to the council. the council itself for joinThey included the local ing other sanctuary cities chapter of the ACLU, AlCouncilmember Scott Sherman in proudly defying what is liance San Diego, the Climate Action Campaign, the Environmental clearly a racist and xenophobic executive orHealth Coalition, Jewish Family Services, the der. Who says politicians can’t agree?

Who knows if any of the councilmembers New Americans Museum and more.

Council President Myrtle Cole had to re- were swayed by the hours of public testimopeatedly remind the crowd not to clap for ny, but it may have been just enough to turn the speakers, who represented nearly every the other three Republicans on the council. race, ethnicity and age group. At one point, We sincerely hope that Mayor Faulconer will Cole suggested that the speakers wouldn’t also choose to support the brief and present like what she’d do if they didn’t settle down. San Diego as united against any kind of im“These are families just like the ones migration ban. you make promises to every year,” said

—Seth Combs Eva Posner, a supporter of the brief. “It is This issue of CityBeat awkwardly chuckles and looks around when Councilmember Lorie Zapf cracks Oroville Dam jokes.

Volume 15 • Issue 29 EDITOR Seth Combs MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos ASSOCIATE EDITOR Torrey Bailey COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer Edwin Decker Minda Honey John R. Lamb Alex Zaragoza CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Baldwin, David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Andrew Dyer, Tiffany Fox, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Lara McCaffrey

CONTRIBUTORS (CONT’D) Scott McDonald, Sebastian Montes, Jenny Montgomery, Kinsee Morlan, Jordan Packer, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Jen Van Tieghem, Amy Wallen EDITORIAL INTERNS Jamie Ballard, Sofia Mejias-Pascoe, Nicole Sazegar PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Beau Odom Mark Schreiber Jenny Tormey ACCOUNTING Kacie Cobian, Sharon Huie Linda Lam

HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE Kacie Sturek VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS David Comden PUBLISHER Kevin Hellman

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FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

KOOKY DEVOS

Your editorial says that DeVos “alone can’t do all that much damage” [“DeVos was an easy target,” Feb. 8]. True, but the thing is she won’t be alone. With a couple of Supreme Court appointments and Sessions as attorney general, a lot can happen. Aside from her kooky ideas about education and business connections that are potential conflicts-of-interest, DeVos seems to view schools as vehicles for advancing her religious beliefs (google “DeVos God’s kingdom.”).

The bottom line is that education excellence is not as much of a priority for DeVos as it should be.

Dan Jacobs

Mira Mesa

IN DEFENSE OF BIDS

I’m writing in defense of the concept of Business Improvement Districts after your recent article about the East Village Association [“Ring of Upheaval,” Feb. 7]. While I have no direct experience with either of the BIDs mentioned, I do strongly believe that the Adams Avenue Business Association does a great deal of good for the neighborhoods in its jurisdiction.

The organization is probably best known to the public for hosting the Street Fair and the Unplugged festival, but it provides free promotion, advice, and assistance for small businesses on our little local main street year-round. It also manages a large number of mundane but essential tasks like tree trimming, power-washing sidewalks, providing public trash cans, and waging the endless battle against trip-andfall hazards (another round of sidewalk grinding began just this week).

Full disclosure: while I write this letter in no official capacity and all views are my own, I am an officer of the AABA board of directors and the chair of the Business Planning & Development Committee. The latter basically means that I regularly nerd out over the minutiae of city planning, attend a lot of public meetings, and have learned more about things like urban forestry and traffic mitigation design than I ever thought possible.

I promise you, I’m not doing any of this to “feather [my] own nest”, and I’m hardly a “politically-connected business elite”. Furthermore, as a huge believer in transparent government, I have never to my knowledge observed a Brown Act violation (and would raise an alarm myself if I did). I’m a resident as well as a small business owner, and my primary motivation is to help my neighborhood be the best that it can be.

Alison Flynn Normal Heights

4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DIVERSE FEMINISM

Thank you for your comprehensive supportive coverage of the issues of and organizing for the Jan. 21 National Women’s March nationwide and in San Diego.

However, I would like to address some of the not positive writings about previous feminist events and other efforts that pained my heart as an older feminist.

From July 1970 until April 1984, I was an after work volunteer Women’s Liberation Feminist era event organizer. I still have documents showing the class and ethnically diverse group of press conference and rally platform speakers for the New York City Bryant Park August 26, 1980 Women’s Equality Day events I seed funded for the telephone services-one of the many events of that era few have heard of. I can attest by my presence of the similar great intersectionality in population, idea expression, and respectful attention to others among the one hundred and twenty plus people at the November 20, 2017 planning meeting for the San Diego January 21 National Women’s March Nevertheless, media photos of the white (mostly female) sea of faces in almost all January 21 National Women’s Marches will have them go down in history as not very diverse, if not diverse at all. Why this is so is not for me to say. However, it would be great if current and future feminists not malign or discount the organizing efforts of previous generations of feminists for their non-diversity based on similar media coverage.

Lynne Shapiro North Park

WE WANT FEEDBACK Did you read a story in San Diego CityBeat that made your blood boil, or caused you to laugh so hard you pulled a stomach muscle?

If something inspires you to send us your two cents we welcome all letters that respond to news stories, opinion pieces or reviews that have run in these pages. We don’t accept unsolicited op-ed letters.

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

From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . 3

ARTS & CULTURE

Letters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Spin Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

FEATURE: The Artery. . . . 18

Opinion: Homelessness. . . 6

Seen Local. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Backwards & In High Heels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21

Well, That Was Awkward. 8

MUSIC

UP FRONT

FOOD & DRINK

FEATURE: Weyes Blood. . 22

The World Fare . . . . . . . . . . 8

Notes from the Smoking Patio . . . . . . . . . 24

Final Draught. . . . . . . . . . . 10

If I Were U. . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Concerts & Clubs. . . . . 27-29

THINGS TO DO The Short List. . . . . . . . . . . 11

LAST WORDS

Calendar of Events . . . . 11-12

Advice Goddess. . . . . . . . 30

ON THE

COVER We’re happy to feature local artist Pamela Jaeger on the cover this week.

Longtime readers may remember that her work has appeared on the cover in the past and with Ryan Bradford’s cat-centric column this week, as well as Jaeger’s work being sold in the Artery boxes (see this week’s A&C feature), it was a no-brainer to have Jaeger’s “Tim T.” (named after her favorite motorcycle rider) painting on the cover this week. “Animals are always a source of inspiration for my paintings, especially cats,” says Jaeger, who will be participating in a group show Saturday, Feb. 18 from 4 to 10 p.m. at Centro Cultural de la Raza to benefit La Bodega Gallery. “I admire their independence. Lately, I’ve been learning a lot about motorcycles and watching Supercross. The two seemed to fit together well.” Check out more of her work at pamelajaeger.com.

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UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

COURTESY OF JORDAN BEANE

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Team Kevin throws early Beane ball When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.

—African proverb

J

ordan Beane scanned the dignitaries seated next to a makeshift stage under a giant TV screen outside Petco Park at Saturday’s “Celebrate San Diego Rally” and made an interesting observation.

“Huh, no Democrats,” the selfproclaimed progressive noted, as if pining for the opportunity to represent at this gathering.

The midday event—put on by the San Diego Padres as part marketing pitch for local sports clubs and part pep talk for despondent Chargers fans—drew several thousand attendees hungering for something to cheer. To Beane, it seemed the perfect place for some early political flesh pressing.

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To an outside observer, the rally might have seemed an audacious venue for a first-time political candidate, considering the undercurrent of pent-up PTSD (posttraumatic-sports-departure) angst mixed with a generous flow of alcohol. Add the not-so-minor detail that Beane is leaving a job with the Chargers to run for a San Diego City Council seat in 2018, and the choice seemed, well, crazy.

After all, there was Mayor Kevin Faulconer up on stage, head bowed and hands clasped while waiting his turn to say something to the crowd. When his time came, he made it short, sweet and overamplified.

“How are we doing San Diego?” the Padres-jersey-clad cheerleading mayor asked the crowd, which cheered and hooted back, garnering this mayoral retort: “That’s right.

They can hear you up in L.A.!”

Still sounding like a jilted lover, Faulconer blared, “Yeah, a certain someone made the wrong decision about a month and a half ago, right?” That “someone” would be Beane’s last boss, Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos, who decided to move the team north. “But you know what, brother? You can’t replicate what we have here in San Diego!”

Less than a minute of bromides later, the mayor was heading back to his seat, likely grateful that the Bolts fans who blame him for the Chargers leaving chose not to attend the rally.

Despite the perfect lion’s-den backdrop, Beane hailed the experience, saying most people he met that day were encouraging about his pursuits, if not his politics.

Just days before, the Pacific Beach resident had kicked off his 2018 campaign to unseat District 2 City Councilmember Lorie Zapf, the Bay Ho Republican who presumably will seek re-election.

Once rumored to be mulling a run to replace termed-out county Supervisor Ron Roberts, Zapf has apparently been advised by party leaders to lower her sights and instead go for a third council term.

For a virgin candidate only recently elected to the Pacific Beach Town Council, the 32-year-old up-

San Diego City Council candidate Jordan Beane worked for the Chargers. “Bring it on!” he says to his tentacled opponents. state New York native, who moved here from Washington, D.C. five years ago to take a job with the Chargers, would seem to have an uphill battle ahead of him.

But a quick jolt of media coverage last week—likely spawned by his Chargers connection—at least caught the attention of Team Faulconer, whose obsession with losing the Chargers is only eclipsed by the prospect of losing the District 2 seat to a Democrat, thereby creating a veto-proof supermajority of doom for the mayor’s agenda, whatever that may be.

After the San Diego UnionTribune published a story about Beane’s foray into politics, Faulconer Chief of Staff Stephen Puetz sniffed on Twitter, “Dean Spanos’ in house fake news guy wants to be on the city council. Great timing to launch a campaign…”

It got a good chuckle from Beane, particularly that it didn’t mention him by name. “Yeah, I had to go look for it,” he laughed.

“At least tweet at me, man! There’s nothing better than a Republican talking about fake news. That’s delightful.”

Beane said he came to San Diego to help the Chargers organization set up its digital media department, after nine years of similar work with the Washington NFL team. The son of “staunch New England Democrats” who earned a print journalism degree from American University, Beane said he dabbled with the idea of taking the State Department or Foreign Service exam after college in hopes of becoming “an ambassador to some small country,” but he instead “got bit by the sports bug.”

“I come from a long line of educators,” he said, noting that he was never interested in just X’s and O’s. “I’ve never put aside keeping up to date and trying to be fluent in what’s going on in the world around me.”

At his campaign kickoff at the

Pacific Beach Woman’s Club last week, Beane alluded to the NFL owners meeting in Houston last year, when the fates of three franchises were up in the air. “Politics had always been a part of my life, but did I want to make it a career?” he told supporters. “In the end, the NFL helped make that decision for me.”

As co-host of a sports show with former Charger Nick Hardwick, Beane said he knew a move to the Los Angeles market “would have been a blessing for my on-camera career. But my heart was here.”

He met his wife, Molly, in San Diego, takes pride in the milkweed he’s planted on the patio of their modest one-bedroom apartment in hopes that San Diego becomes the “monarch butterfly capital of the world,” and hopes to raise children here who will be able to afford living in the San Diego he’s grown to love.

While others at work pondered their futures after the failure of Measure C (the Chargers hotel-tax-hike initiative to build a stadium complex downtown) in November, Beane found himself more concerned with the country’s choice to replace President Barack Obama.

“There are employees there with deep San Diego connections who’ve worked there longer than I’ve been alive,” he said. “Without the Spanos family, I’m not here. Dean was always incredibly nice to me, but—no surprise—I was not included in a lot of the higher-up conversations. A lower-rung employee spends little time with the CEO.” And with Faulconer’s muted criticisms of the current occupant of the White House, Beane added, “If you’re looking for similarities on political views, I bet the mayor and Stephen are a lot closer to Dean than I am.”

Spin Cycle appears every week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

MICHAEL MCCONNELL

UP FRONT | OPINION

San Diego’s backward approach to ending homelessness

O

n Jan. 12, Mayor Kevin Faulconer delivered the annual State of the City address, in which he discussed the ongoing homelessness crisis in San Diego and the city’s plans to address it.

In his address the mayor said, “Being homeless is not a crime, but drug use, theft and other quality of life crimes cannot—and will not—be tolerated.”

Here’s the problem with that logic: “quality of life” crimes can include everything from sleeping on the sidewalk to public urination, which are life-sustaining behaviors that are often unavoidable for people who don’t have a place to call their own. So while the mayor says being homeless is not a crime, he immediately contradicts himself by including more serious crimes—such as drug use—with basic human needs, effectively demonizing people who are homeless and making it easier to promote stricter enforcement by the San Diego Police Department.

The most common complaints against the homeless are lodged by businesses and residents against an individual or encampment that is in the area. Police warn people to leave—with no appropriate alternative location being offered. If they return, they are often ticketed for encroachment. Those tickets often go unpaid, which then leads to a warrant being issued and eventually arrests. Upon release from jail, the process begins anew.

But, given the numerous challenges of his job, it’s perhaps understandable why the mayor would take an ineffectual approach. Real solutions take real effort, and the creation, coordination and implementation of resources that effectively address a person’s homelessness —like rental assistance and supportive services—require

more than mouth service. It’s much easier to deploy criminal justice resources that already exist and give the appearance of progress than overhaul an uncoordinated, inefficient system.

Unfortunately, this solution only exacerbates the problem, as I saw firsthand a few weeks after the mayor’s address. On Jan. 25, the San Diego Housing Commission held its annual “Project Homeless Connect”—a one-day resource fair which provides all the services and assistance a homeless person would need to start the path out of homelessness. The event is highly touted by the mayor, who regularly attends.

During the two hours prior to opening, I mingled and spoke with some of the 200plus people waiting in line and was surprised at how few I knew from my work on the streets of downtown.

Later, as I drove from downtown through East Village, I noticed the familiar signs signaling an encampment sweep—hordes of police accompanied by garbage trucks and convoys of people moving their belongings.

I detoured to explore further and realized the city had been conducting encampment sweeps throughout the area that morning, hampering the ability of people to attend the resource fair happening just 12 blocks away.

During the sweeps—touted as cleanup and property removal by the city—people are asked to leave a given area with their belongings by 7 a.m. and are often ticketed if they’re still there when the police arrive to clear it. Given most people have a tent and some material possessions, they have to begin the process around 6 a.m., then stay away from the site until the sweeps are concluded. Failure to do so could result in the belongings being thrown away.

Previously, I witnessed this awful scenario when a young man returned to the site

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

of a sweep, where he had neatly stored his belongings, just to watch the final few items he owned being thrown into a garbage truck.

With tears in his eyes, he reached down to retrieve a small item that had fallen on the ground—the only belonging that escaped the sweep.

Cleaning up the area is obviously a good thing, but displacing people week after week and taking the few things they own—when they just come back again—is ineffective and cruel. What’s more, it wastes city resources that could be better spent on real solutions.

The result of the Jan. 25 encampment sweep was that many people—possibly hundreds—in need, did not receive the help that could start a path out of homelessness. In fact, only 1,016 people attended the event— significantly less than the 1,500 predicted by organizers and about 200 less than last year.

Instead, their path was made more difficult, or possibly became a path to jail, thanks to the city and its complete lack of interest in truly helping people.

When I saw the encampment sweeps, my heart sank. It sank because of the darkness and ugliness our city was painted in in that moment. It sank because of all those who were denied the much-needed help that was being provided just across town. And what’s worse, this is just one example of many that show how the mayor and city’s lack of coordination in handling the issue is preventing people from receiving the assistance they need.

Since this event, the city has continued to increase the pressure on homeless people—issuing encroachment tickets and collecting shopping carts that people use for managing their belongings. Perhaps most detrimental to a person’s welfare is an increased effort to rid the city of tents—often the only home people have left and the last

by Michael McConnell

protection against both the elements and those who may want to harm them.

Seattle Councilmember Mike O’Brien, facing the same issues in his city, came to this conclusion last year: “By continuing to conduct sweeps in the same manner, we are expending valuable resources and energy on a strategy that only shifts the problem around and offers a false sense of security for a few people.”

I’m not the only one who takes issue with the mayor’s approach. Since his address, others have weighed in—“Along with being inadequate, much of the mayor’s plan so far is either naive or downright cynical,” said reporter Dan McSwain, who once was homeless himself, in his San Diego Union Tribune column. And Tom Theisen, attorney and former board president of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, compared the mayor’s tax proposal—which, in theory, would fight homelessness with housing and services—unfavorably to much larger ballot measures in five other cities across the state.

In an opinion piece early last year for Voice of San Diego, I explained some of the key changes needed to solve homelessness.

High on the list is fully adopting a housingfirst approach and increasing landlord and housing support. Through these system improvements, we can alleviate the dependence on criminalization and move toward lasting solutions that will leave us with a real sense of safety on our streets.

Whether or not Mayor Faulconer decides to lead us out of this crisis, I certainly hope that he and others will treat our homeless neighbors with more sympathy and generosity. This is the only path forward. People experiencing homelessness are in need of real, effective assistance. Ticketing and locking people up has never—and will never—solve this problem.

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for

I

f, by confirming the remarkably unqualified Betsy DeVos [...], and ‘silencing’ the eloquent Elizabeth Warren [...], Senate Republicans believe they are putting out the fires of resistance, they have a surprise coming.

They are doing the exact opposite. They are fanning the flames. The resistance to Trump and heavy-handed Republican rule is igniting across America. I am surer than ever that we will get our democracy back.”

—Robert Reich Germanwings Flight 9525 had just reached a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet on March 14, 2015, when Captain Patrick Sondenheimer stepped away from his post to use the loo, leaving his co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, in charge. Upon return, Captain Sondenheimer found the cockpit door locked. He tried his emergency access code, but it had been disabled. He began yelling, demanding entry and furiously pounding at the door, eventually prying at it with a crowbar as passengers and crew looked on in horror.

All of this took place across a span of 10-minutes during which the plane raced in nearvertical descent at 3,500 feet per minute—or 58 harrowing feet per second—one wing, then the other, clipping mountaintops; the ground growing closer, until the plane slammed into the French Alps. Onehundred-fifty people from 18 countries watched the process of their own obliteration at the hands of a person tasked with their well-being and safety.

Lubitz, we would later find out, had been treated over the years for varying degrees of mental illness severe enough that he should never have been flying a plane.

Jean-Sebastian Beaud, a recovery worker, discovered the cockpit voice recorder within 30 minutes of rappelling into the crash site that day. But before the data could be analyzed, he stayed in a tent in the Alps that night, thinking of the passengers and haunted by the devastation he’d seen.

“I could imagine what they went through,” he recalled to GQ in 2016, “and it was hard to sleep.”

In my many sleepless nights over the last weeks, I’ve thought a lot about this crash. And it is with the utmost respect for the victims and their families when I say this: I think We, the People are the captain of this plane called America 2017, and we have been locked out of the cockpit.

I’m guessing to some this seems dramatic (and to others, offensive), but to anyone who is paying attention—and a lot of us are—this isn’t hyperbole. This is homegrown American terrorism by those tasked to care for our well-being and safety.

In just over two weeks, we have experienced a precipitous change in altitude and collective drop of the stomach. We are on a very rapid, very dangerous descent thanks in part—though not solely—to 45, as I’m going to call him.

To me, 45 is a sociopathic figurehead with a big title and a little pen. He’s a tantruming three-year-old who scrunches his face and kicks his feet and pounds his fists, hammering out 140 irrational characters at a time, overusing the exclamation point like a child writing a letter to Santa, red crayon in his puny angry fist. #reclaimtheexclamationpoint Forty-five is, if nothing else, a Trojan Horse because with him, we also got the anti-semitic, white supremacist Stephen Bannon, and the conniving, diabolical Mike Pence.

The bigger, more important truth: This is not new.

The duplicitous, sinister, sexist, classist, homophobic, anti-Islamist, white nationalist leaders have been with us long before now.

Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Ted Cruz, Susan Collins—shall I keep going? There are 52 of these folks who are in lock-step with upending American democracy.

These parasites exist on the other side of the aisle, too (Joe Manchin). They are all the same as 45 and Bannon and Pence, they simply do not verbalize it in the they-say-what’s-on-their-minds “honesty” that was ushered in with this administration.

This is obvious by their rubber stamping of the most unqualified Education Secretary in U.S. history; an openly racist person for Attorney General; an oil man as Secretary of State; a rich neurosurgeon at the top of Housing and Urban Development. Each cabinet appointment features an individual who intends to undo, dismantle and obliterate, like flight 9525, the department she/he heads.

Such moves constitute but a trifle of what has been done in the past three weeks, underscoring the fact that ideology is more important to these monsters than the American people and American democracy.

And they are tactical as all get out, bombarding the public with decisions that inflict severe and widespread trauma, flying that plane directly toward the ground. They’re hoping we’ll gasp in awe for a minute and go back to shopping and watching our giant screen TVs. It’s a horrible thing that is happening. It is. But it is also a gift. This great unveiling has allowed more people to see clearly the truth of who our elected leaders are.

Now we get to find out who We, the People are. Like Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said in a speech last weekend to white anti-racist activists at UCLA, “We get to decide the fate of humanity.”

Indeed, we must. We should be crying and wailing and freaking out. Things are dire.

And, too, it’s time to grab the crowbars and tear that fucking door off its hinges before it’s too late.

They’re hoping we’ll gasp in awe for a minute and go back to shopping and watching our giant screen TVs.

@SDCITYBEAT

Backwards And In High Heels appears every other week.

FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

The purrfect antidote to political strife

I

can’t even. I’m, like, so far away from even-ing that it’s not even funny. The amount of even is nil.

In the car, NPR reporters are talking about Trump’s executive order, which bans refugees and immigrants from Middle Eastern and African countries where he has no business ties. It’s not a Muslim ban, not officially, but c’mon! In the following days, protests will shut down airports, and federal courts will challenge it, but right now, it’s just another of Trump’s rapid and devastating blows to humanity.

Progress is futile. My capacity to even is drained. I turn the radio off and drive in silence.

Thirty minutes later, I arrive at the Del Mar Fairgrounds to cover the “Food and Water Bowl XXVI”, which according to the San Diego Cat Fanciers’ Web site is the “largest cat show in the Western U.S.!!”

Normally, this kind of event would make me as excited as when someone busts out the laser pointer, but in light of recent of events, I feel like it’s Monday and I’m out of lasagna.

And even thinking of a (brilliant) Garfield joke right now seems to undermine very real events. As I walk through the fairgrounds’ expansive parking lot, I scroll through Facebook and see friends already organizing at the airport, inducing a toxic spurt of liberal guilt. How can I enjoy a cat show when so many people are affected by this terrifying ban?

The cat show is at the far end of the fairgrounds, tucked away behind a motorcycle rally and a “Home Show” (whatever the fuck that is).

Despite the barracks-like interior of the show room—an environment better suited for gun shows— the faint scent of perfumed-litter-covering-up-catpiss is welcoming. It’s a scent that all cat-people live with. It smells like home. I spend a brief moment standing at the entrance, hands on hips, basking in toxoplasmosis.

If there’s anywhere that’s more apolitical than a cat show, I’ve yet to find it. The atmosphere is politically and contextually neutered, and for that reason, it feels quintessentially American. We live in a country whose love of escapism is made obvious by its pop culture and reaction to current events, and we possess the uniquely American privilege to shut our eyes, plug our ears and pretend things are fine when they’re not.

(Well, unless you’re a Black American, Muslim American, LGBTQ American or Mexican American.)

And if anything, cat people are even more proficient in putting the blinders on. How else could one explain housing a beast impervious to domestication and thinking that it loves us?

(Just kidding, my cats totally love me and every

time they’ve scratched me, it’s because it was my fault and I deserved it.)

I walk among the tables displaying cats. Most of the owners have set up little beauty booths to obsessively pamper, manicure and brush their furry beauties. The cats who aren’t suffering at the hands of their owners are asleep, cranky or just don’t give a shit. Same goes for their owners. The cat ladies regard me with general disinterest or vague hostility when I ask about their cats. It’s been a big day for everyone.

“Are these cats for sale or are they in competition?” I ask an older lady with blue hair.

“Some of them are for sale,” she says, curtly. I bend over and peer into the soft homes of her Persian long hairs—two furry blobs with slight resemblances to Jabba the Hutt.

I ask the blue-haired owner of the Persians what competition her cats are in.

“They’re competing for the championship medal,” she says, and immediately returns to her magazine. I’m pretty sure “championship medal” is a made-up award. I’m also pretty sure she knows I know it’s a made-up award. That’s fine.

They may be jerks, but they’re my people.

Cats, cats, cats! I think, succumbing to the beguiling magic of the place, momentarily forgetting the Muslim ban and the rest of the turmoil in the world.

I meet the Oh Hai kitty, a YouTube star, and also Jin, the cat who starred in the recent children’s movie Nine Lives, which previously held no appeal for me but now—considering that I know the star—seems like a zany, delightful romp.

I pass a group watching a judged cat competition.

Vicki Nye from San Diego Cat Fancier’s Association displays each animal and provides accompanying commentary. “Splendid!” she says, pulling the fur tight around their little faces, and I swear each time she does it, the cat looks directly at me and begs for salvation.

Again, I can’t even, but this time it’s a good noteven-ing.

I leave the cat show in a better mood than when I arrived. During an era where anything but voracious and constant acts of resistance feels like complicity, it’s easy to feel ineffectual or even dismissive. But a strong resistance requires mental stability—a balance between even-ing and not even-ing. And that’s not dismissal: The human soul was not cut out for this presidency, and it’s going to require a lot more healing. And by healing, I mean cats.

I spend a brief moment standing at the entrance, hands on hips, basking in toxoplasmosis.

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com.

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

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UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE

Fast food transformed to art

S

ushi is often treated as either high art or commoditized fast food. Aficionados celebrate the uber-expensive omakase tasting menus of places like Urasawa in Beverly Hills even as a businesswoman grabs uber-cheap supermarket sushi on her way home from the office. No doubt high end sushi and supermarket stuff are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but both are historically accurate. For a glimpse of how that can be, head to Sushi Tadokoro (2244 San Diego Ave.) in Old Town.

Sushi is young, having begun less than 200 years ago as fast food in the streets of Tokyo (then called “Edo”). The city’s people then, as now, were not known for their patience and, by pairing Japan’s much-older raw fish traditions with rice, its national staple, enterprising vendors delivered food-to-go from the bay in front of them. The vinegared rice helped preserve the fish, and wasabi (Japanese horseradish) offered anti-bacterial properties, both useful features on street carts lacking refrigeration. Edomae sushi vendors developed numerous other techniques for extending the shelflife of the fish that also had the benefit of enhancing flavor: curing, marinating in soy sauce, simmering in broth, and more. It was these that allowed the vendors to commoditize the fish and thus serve the Tokyo businessmen on the go.

Sushi Tadokoro chef-owner Takeaki Tadokoro began our omakase (literally “I’ll leave it up to you”) with kombucha-cured halibut, harking back to the original Tokyo tradition. It was a perfect prologue for what was to come: a rectangular “plate,” a ball of gari (pickled ginger) and a single diagonally-placed log of rice topped by fish, its translucent flesh stained by cure and soy. While we often think of sushi as being about fish, it’s really about the rice. Tadokoro’s take was extraordinary: still warm, each rice grain toothsome, the whole

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holding together, and a perfect balance of vinegar and sweetness.

Next up was a classic Edomae offering: kohada (gizzard shad). Americans don’t tend to favor shiny fish, largely because of the oil content and resulting strong flavor. The kohada is cured in salt for about an hour before a bath in vinegar. The result is flavorful richness with a hint of vinegar that, once you get the hang of it, likely becomes “the good stuff” for you.

The art of omakase lies in the progression of dishes, moving classically from lighter flavors to heavier. Tadokoro does this too but in dance form.

He goes from white fish to shiny, playing with offal and unusual ingredients such as baby conger eel, before finishing with anago (broiled and sauced salt water eel). Among the highlights were aji (Spanish MICHAEL GARDINER

Kohada mackerel), the two courses of sardine (first nigiri, then the fried skeleton) and cuttlefish sperm, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, actually did taste creamy.

But my favorite was the zuke tuna in a soy brandy marinade with yuzu pepper garnish. It was a bit of nigiri that brought the meal right back to its Edomae roots: a technique designed to protect the fish and extend its shelf life that also had the happy by-product of enhancing its flavor. That’s what Edomae sushi was—and still is—all about.

And that’s what Sushi Tadokoro is all about: fast food done as art with the lines, both invisible and immutable, connecting the two.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | DRINK

FINAL

BY BETH DEMMON

DRAUGHT stop for those who fancy fermentation without fuss. newenglishbrewing.com Gordon Biersch (5010 Mission Center Road) may look like a tacky chain pub (and it kind of is) n these days of alternative facts and fake news, but opt for one of its masterfully crafted lagers getting called “overrated” is practically a badge instead of an overly-hopped IPA and rediscover of honor. It’s been liberally bestowed upon the the classic cleanliness of what a pilsner can be. illustrious ranks of actors like Meryl Streep and the Yes, it may come paired with trite tavern fare such cast and producers of Hamilton, as well as satiri- as nachos and sliders, but with generally low ABV cal commentators like Jon Stewart and many other (alcohol by volume), it’s easy to eschew that side journalists, artists, pundits, politicians and, inexof fries for another Märzen BETH DEMMON plicably, an architect. It’s as if from brewmaster Doug Hasker being branded overrated is the instead. gordonbiersch.com new underrated.

Finally, Intergalactic Still, there’s something to be Brewing Company (9715 said for the actual underdogs. If Carroll Centre Road #107) we as a society of beer drinkers is one of the rare “small but turn our attention to the mighty” San Diego breweries quietly wonderful breweries that has doggedly hung content to fly under the hype on in the face of extreme radar, there are still plenty of competition. Tucked away in surprises for even the most a nondescript warehouse not hardcore beer snobs to discover quite in Miramar (but not quite and enjoy.

Mira Mesa either), its spaceWhile hometown behemoths themed schtick isn’t enough like Stone Brewing and local to draw in crowds by itself, but legends such as AleSmith its brews have been since 2013.

Brewing Company, Alpine Beer intergalacticbrew.com Company and Societe Brewing I’ll still give credit where Company often dominate credit’s due—flashy places Hazy varietals at Intergalactic the craft conversation, there like Rip Current Brewing, Brewing Company are over 130 other San Diego Modern Times Beer, Coronado breweries fighting for their own space in the Brewing Company and Green Flash Brewing crowded landscape. Some resort to tacky, classless Company continue to top beer tourist “must branding to get tongues wagging, while others visit” lists for good reason. But to stop at those appeal to the dietary restrictions of consumers, but is a disservice to oneself. Venturing out to some there are several content to simply churn out great of the more underappreciated breweries is like beer without cheapening their aesthetic or selling discovering that the geeky art girl in your high their souls to Big Beer-zebub. school is actually super hot when she takes off her Thanks to their somewhat insulated location, glasses. Spend some time with the unpretentious omnipresence in most grocery stores and fairly underdogs (which also include Half Door Brewing, straightforward menu of brews, New English Thorn Street Brewery, Benchmark Brewing and Brewing Company (11545 Sorrento Valley Road ChuckAlek Independent Brewers) and be richly #305) tends to top the list of underrated local rewarded with smaller crowds, more personal beer operations. This award-winning brewery service and, oftentimes, better beers. tends to offer more traditional and English styles such as an ESB (Extra Special Bitter), a coffee- Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com, check her out on infused imperial stout and a brown ale—a vastly Instagram at @thedelightedbite, or via Twitter at underrated style in itself—making it a worthwhile @iheartcontent.

San Diego’s most underrated breweries

I

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

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SHORTlist

EVENTS

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

DOWNTOWN AND POINT LOMA

1

PLIGHT OF PASSAGE

The legacy of slavery in this country is of a new, multi-movement work by UCSD comsomething we should never shy away poser Anthony Davis with text based on the poem from discussing. The topic of how this country’s “Middle Passage” by Robert Hayden. While the first despicable past still permeates our lives (especially part of the program will deal directly in the horrors the lives of our Black citizenry), and while it can of the slave trade, the second half of the program hurt our hearts to talk about it, we should not ever will feature the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir San Diego performing pieces that examine avoid it.

We’d like to think that the arts can be a great cat- slavery times but working up to the modern era.

“They’re going to be telling the story of how the alyst in helping to facilitate these kinds of discusspirituals arrived, desions. The can certainly COURTESY OF SACRA/PROFANA veloped in the slave era be said about Voyage: and about the progress The Slave Journey, a new of that music,” Acosta concert experience from says. “How it really inlocal choral ensemble fluenced everything SACRA/PROFANA (sacrathat we have: blues, profana.org). While the rock and roll, jazz, all of group is mainly known for that was birthed out of classical interpretations the spiritual tradition.” of pop artists, SACRA The concerts will Associate Artistic Directake place at 7:30 p.m. tor Juan Carlos Acosta on Friday, Feb. 17 at says Voyage is a chance the Maritime Museum for the ensemble to show of San Diego (1492 N. off its serious side.

Harbor Drive) and at 7 “What some people Voyage: The Slave Journey p.m. on Sunday, Feb. might call avant-garde classical music or like high-art choral music, that’s 26 at the All Souls’ Episcopal Church (1475 Catawhere I would put this performance in,” Acosta says. lina Blvd.). Tickets range from $10 to $30. Each “The performance features a tonal language that’s performance will be followed by an open discussion and we, naturally, encourage readers to stay going to be pretty unfamiliar to most folks.”

The performance itself will feature the premiere for that.

CLAIREMONT

POINT LOMA

2

SO LIT

Now in its 22nd year, the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University is focusing on “Writing that Resonates” this year with featured authors Robert Pinsky, Shauna Niequist and Tracy Kidder. The written word won’t be the only attraction, however, as Poet Laureate Pinsky will be doing a poetry and jazz event with members of the PLNU Jazz Combo. All three authors will also be offering a behind-the-scenes look at their work in Q&A sessions hosted by symposium founder Dean Nelson. The series begins Tuesday, Feb. 21 with Pinsky, and goes through Thursday, Feb. 23, when it wraps with Pulitzer winner Kidder. All events begin at 7 p.m. in the Crill Performance Hall at PLNU (3900 Lomaland Dr.). Tickets are $5 for PLNU students and $10 for everybody else. pointloma.edu/writers

Robert Pinsky, Shauna Niequist and Tracy Kidder @SDCITYBEAT

3

COMIC RELIEF

Let’s face it: the huge crowds, obnoxious costumes and overzealous nature of some comic conventions can be a bit overwhelming. That’s why Comic Fest comes as a felicitous alternative for comic enthusiasts who prefer a casual atmosphere. Taking place at Four Points by Sheraton (8110 Aero Dr), the four-day fest will feature events like the X-Men Mock Trial on Mutant Rights, a Comic Fest Cafe celebrating comic book artist Jack Kirby and more. Other experiences include the Virtual Reality Comic Demo where special guest Liam Sharp will be speaking about the future PETER CSANADI of comics. The festival runs from Friday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. through Monday, Feb. 20.

Ticket prices vary xx for each day from $7.50 to $50 with discounts for students and activity military. Children under 12 get in for free. Tickets can be purchased online at sdcomicfest.org.

San Diego Comic Fest

HDowntown at Sundown at MCASDDowntown, 1001 Kettner Blvd., Downtown.

MCASD’s after-hours event offers free admission and guided tours of exhibitions at MCASD and the SDSU Downtown Gallery, as well as specials at local businesses and live music. From 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16. Free. 858-454-3541, mcasd.org HEvery Which Way at SDSU Downtown Gallery, 725 W. Broadway, Downtown.

Artworks from students and faculty of the SDSU School of Art + Design interpreting the theme of “movement.” Opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16. Free. 619501-6370, art.sdsu.edu HCuriouser and Curiouser: A Night of Taxidermy and Oddities at San Diego Art Institute, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Peruse bizarre stuffed animals of New York taxidermists Divya Anantharaman and Katie Innamorato. There will also be in-depth taxidermy demos and a live Q&A with Dr. Paul Koudounaris. From 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17. $10. 619-236-0011, sandiego-art.org HSum of the Parts at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Artist David Fobes will curate a selection of artists working in collage. Includes works by artists Daphne Hill, May-Ling Martinez, Allison Renshaw, Joe Yorty and more. Opening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17.

Free. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org HLa Bodega Gallery Fundraiser at Centro Cultural de la Raza, 2004 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. More than 75 artists will showcase works in hopes of raising funds to help get La Bodega Gallery up to fire code. Also includes DJs, live music, photo booth, face painting and more. From 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. $2. facebook. com/events/1152167301529875 HNowhere But Here at The FRONT Arte Cultura, 147 W San Ysidro Blvd., San Ysidro. A 10th anniversary show featuring photographic works from Paul Turounet, Monica Camacho, Manuel Ramos and many more. Includes live music from Air Nandez and Chulita Vinyl Club SD. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 18. Free. facebook.com/ events/359500567767908/ Edge of the Ocean at Sparks Gallery, 530 6th Ave., Downtown. A group show featuring artist interpretations of the San Diego coastline. Artists include Victor Angelo, Julia Rasor, Christina Ilene Thomas, and dozens more. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 19. Free. RSVP required.

619-696-1416, sparksgallery.com

BOOKS HWriter’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University Crill Performance Hall, 3900 Lomaland Dr., Point Loma. Three days of workshops, seminars and lectures from featured authors such as Robert Pinsky, Shauna Niequist and Tracy Kidder. See website for full schedule and times. Various times. Tuesday, Feb. 21 through Thursday, Feb. 23. $5-$10.

619-849-2200, pointloma.edu/writers Seth Lerer at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author and editor will sign and discuss Tradition, his latest political monograph on the importance of literature and reading. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22. Free. 858454-0347, warwicks.com

8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8. $71-$121. 619235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org

DANCE Joy: Collage 2017 at Casa del Prado Theatre, 1650 El Prado, San Diego Civic Dance Company’s acclaimed dance show features dozens of professionally trained dancers performing in various dance styles such as tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, modern and musical theater. Various times through Sunday, Feb. 19. $8$15. 619-239-8355, civicdancearts.org

FILM HSan Diego Jewish Film Festival at various locations. The 27th annual fest showcases filmmakers from around the world and reflects Jewish life and identity. Tons of screenings across multiple venues as well as director Q&A’s, parties and more. See website for full details and times. Takes place through Sunday, Feb. 19. $15.25-$275. sdcjc.org HSan Diego Film Week at Museum of Photographic Arts, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park. A weeklong showcase of notable films from a variety of local film festivals including the Asian Film Festival, Latino Film Festival, and more. Various times.

Takes place through Sunday, Feb. 19. $12-$200. sdfilmweek.com

FOOD & DRINK HSan Diego Winter Brew Fest at San Diego Hall of Champions, 2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park. The fourth annual beer fest will feature more than 30 breweries pouring each night as well as live music from The Fooks and Headshine and Euphoria Brass Band. From 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. $40-$50. 619234-2544, sandiegobrewfest.com Culture Brewing Co. Fourth Anniversary at Culture Brewing Co, 111 S Cedros Ave., Ste 200, Solana Beach. Grab a complimentary pint glass and try up to 30 beers, including casks and rare beer styles at this brewery’s fourth anniversary celebration. From 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. $10-$15. 858-345-1144, anniversaryparty.brownpapertickets.com

MUSIC HVoyage: The Slave Journey at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, 1492 N. Harbor Drive, Downtown. Local choral ensemble SACRA/PROFANA will premiere a new multi-movement work by UCSD composer Anthony Davis about the slave trade. The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir San Diego will also perform.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17. $10-$30. sacraprofana.org Bamberg Symphony at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The acclaimed German orchestra, with guidance from conductor Christoph Eschenbach, performs Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, the Overture to Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. $28-$97. 619235-0804, ljms.org

COMEDY

International Guitar Night at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. Check out pickers Luca Stricagnoli, Lulo Reinhardt and more as they jam on acoustic guitars in celebration of this event that has showcased notable guitarists since 1995. From 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 22. $30-$40. 760-8394190, artcenter.org

HSpend the Night with Billy Crystal at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The legendary actor and comedian performs a night of comedy and humorous stories about his life in show biz. At

Shaloin Warriors at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. A choreographed

H = CityBeat picks

PERFORMANCE EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

EVENTS COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

AFTER DARK: ABOUT LAST NIGHT Rail redux

T

“Kiss and Tell” by Scott Rohlfs is now on view at Made You Look, a solo show up through March 4 at Distinction Gallery (317 E Grand Ave, Escondido).

EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 theatrical production of Kung Fu masters showing off their death-defying martial-arts skills. At 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17. $38. 619570-1100. sandiegotheatres.org

enia Padilla, as well as hosts Ben and Sandra Doller, will read original works. At 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17. Free. facebook. com/events/119003395284588

HFalstaff at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown. San Diego Opera presents Verdi’s classic slapstick opera about a man who can’t resist the ladies, but the ladies sure can resist him.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, Tuesday, Feb. 21, Friday, Feb. 24, and 2 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 26. $45-$235. sdopera.org

Long Story Short: Mis/Understood at San Diego Writers Ink, 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 202, Point Loma.

So Say We All’s monthly improv storytelling night features five minute stories that can be about listening or not listening at all. Everyone is welcome to read.

From 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. $5 suggested donation. 619-696-0363, sosayweallonline.com

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD

POLITICS & COMMUNITY

HNon-Standard Lit Presents: An Evening of Poetry at Verbatim Books, 3793 30th St., North Park. Local wordsmiths like Edwin Torres, David Buuck and Yes-

No Ban No Wall March in Solidarity with Immigrants at Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Hwy., Downtown. A march in support of immigrants and refugees

12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

hrow a dart anywhere in San Diego and you’ll hit a suspender-strapped bartender mixing ice and alcohol in a shaker, and then pouring the sugared up booze into a glass and topping it with some herb sprig or shaven citrus. Spots like Polite Provisions, Seven Grand and Prohibition Lounge have all undertaken an ode to the ‘20s.

Now, the trend has rooted itself in Hillcrest, but just masked as a tribute to the ‘30s.

Starting in August, legendary black hole of a nightclub The Brass Rail began a remodel that finished up the first week of February. Now rebranded as The Rail (3796 Fifth Ave.), it boasts higher ceilings, exposed beams and, of course, Edison bulbs, which is easily the most overdone accessory around.

Neither General Manager Dustin Santillan nor the designer Bailey Bishop are blind to the citywide Prohibition trend, but both believe they have created something unique.

“There’s certain things that you may see like, ‘Oh, I’ve seen a bottle rack somewhere else before, I’ve seen people use Edison bulbs, and I’ve seen artwork and things like that,’” Santillan says. “Yeah, every place has something, but I feel like we did a really good job of making everything our own, and it’s very different from other places.”

The theme is a salute to the club’s first location in downtown, which opened in 1934, a time Santillan says is overlooked.

“The ‘30s is a lost decade for a lot of people...It’s the roaring ‘20s, and then it’s like the Great Depression, World War II,” he says. “There was some time to encourage Mayor Faulconer to stand against Trump’s policies. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. Free. facebook.com/events/1759050077755794

SPECIAL EVENTS HSan Diego Comic Fest at Four Points

by Sheraton, 8110 Aero Drive, Clairemont. The four-day fest will feature panels, vendors and guest appearances by notable names in the comic book industry. See website for schedule and times.

From Friday, Feb. 17 through Monday, Feb. 20. Free-$50. sdcomicfest.org HJunk Bonanza Vintage Market at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. A vintage, swap meetstyle event for shoppers and purveyors of vintage finds, antiques, architectural salvage, artisan-repurposed and handcrafted goods for self and home. Includes signings, crafts, drinks and more. From

The Rail in between. There’s the end of Prohibition where people went nuts and had a good time.”

But with art of a smiling Nat King Cole and Prohibition protesters, little diversity is shown between the decades. The Rail does experiment with splashes of lime green and cobalt paint, but that doesn’t scream ‘30s either. One wooden screen does have a graphic by pin-up artist Zöe Mozert whose fame launched in the targeted decade.

While these Gatsby-inspired joints have proven bankable, the nightclub’s loyalists seemed content pouring in for the ever-popular Latin nights in the sans frill venue anyway. Santillan says the remodel rewards long-time patrons but also aims to broaden The Rail’s audience. A new seven-day schedule and kitchen to cook up gourmet grilled cheeses might attract newcomers, but hopefully not at the cost of steadfast customers who value originality.

—Torrey Bailey

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. $25.

858-755-1161, junkbonanza.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS

5K Paw Walk in the Garden at San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. Guests can bring their pooches to the S.D. Botanic Garden at this third annual 5K which benefits the Rancho Coastal Humane Society and the Garden. From 8 a.m. to noon. Saturday, Feb. 18. $14-$32. 760-436-3036, sdbgarden.org

HImage X Community: Dr. Micha Cárdenas������������������������������� at The AjA Project, 4089 Fairmount Ave., City Heights. The artist and theorist, who studies the movement of trans people of color in digital media, will discuss his work applying technological creativity to advance social justice. At 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16. Free. 619-2237001, ajaproject.org

HTantrums & Tiaras: Battle of the Bar Queens at Observatory North Park, 2891 University Avenue, North Park. The annual, over-the-top drag pageant where contestants with little to no experience in drag “try to strut around the stage in stilettos and not fall over.” Benefits The San Diego LGBT Community Center. At 7 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 19. $25-$100. 619-2398836, tantrumstiaras.org

HFrom Japanese Internment to the Muslim Ban: History Forgotten & Remembered at UCSD Student Services Center, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Part of UCSD’s ongoing “Challenging Conversations” series, speakers will discuss President Trump’s recent executive order to ban travelers from Muslim countries, plus examine previous discriminatory executive orders. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21. RSVP recommended. iah.ucsd.edu

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February 15, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

THEATER

JIM COX

Philippe Bowgen (left) and Justin Long in Picasso at the Lapin Agile

When Picasso and Einstein met

T

he passing of 24 years has not taken the air out of Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile. It is just as light and benignly allusive today as it was when the play premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. It’s still cute, too. Très cute, as they say in Paris, is this imagined meeting between a young Pablo Picasso and a young Albert Einstein. Its fraternal humor is as comfortable as a seat at the Lapin Agile bar, exquisitely realized at the Old Globe Theatre on John Lee Beatty’s designed set.

The Globe’s relationship with Martin has been a fruitful one, including as it does the musical Bright Star, which went briefly to Broadway, and last year’s quirky Meteor Shower. Artistic director Barry Edelstein helms this production of Picasso and it’s a clear audience-pleaser. Justin Long’s Einstein is a bit more fun than Philippe Bowgen’s Picasso, and they’re both overly drawn characters, but they share with the entire cast (especially Hal Linden, in a memorable supporting role) keen comic timing. The discourse on art and science is not as deep as it aspires to be, but neither fans of the play nor those new to it are likely to quibble.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile runs through March 12 at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. $29 and up; oldglobe.org

M

•••

oxie Theatre’s Blue Door is a disquieting yet engrossing drama about race, identity and conscience. In Tanya Barfield’s one-act play, African-American college professor Lewis (stentorian voiced Vimel Sephus) has been divorced by his white wife of 25 years in part because he declined to participate in 1995’s Million Man March on D.C. Wracked by inner torment and in the grip of insomnia, Lewis is visited, like impenetrable spirits from the past, by the black men in his ancestry who were beaten, imprisoned, even killed. Not to mention by the father who beat him. All of the specters are portrayed by Cortez L. Johnson, whose aching gospel-like singing intensifies both the anguish and the hope for salvation of those who suffered.

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

The titular blue door is a portal to salvation. Sephus and Johnson are sensitively directed by Moxie’s Delicia Turner Sonnenberg on a stark bedroom set designed

by Victoria Petrovich. This production was recently extended, and deservedly so, to March 5 at the Moxie Theatre in Rolando. $30; moxietheatre.com.

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Beau Jest: A Jewish girl convinces her parents that she fell in love with a Jewish doctor, but then has to hire a male escort to play the part. Written

by James Sherman, it opens Feb. 17 at the Patio Playhouse in Escondido. patioplayhouse.com The Drowsy Chaperone: This classic musical comedy set in the ‘20s is actually a parody of musical comedies. Yeah, that’s pretty meta, but it won a bunch of Tonys. Presented by Ovation Theatre, it opens Feb. 17 at the Howard Brubeck Theatre in San Marcos. ovationtheatre.org To Kill a Mockingbird: This staged adaptation of Harper Lee’s iconic novel tells the story of Atticus Finch and racial injustice in the deep South.

Adapted by Christopher Sergel and presented by the Pickwick Players, it opens Feb. 17 at Off Broadway Live in Santee. pickwickplayers.net The Matsuya Mirror: Velina Hasu Houston’s adaptation of a Japanese folktale about a little girl who copes with her mother’s death by escaping into the fantasy world of a magic mirror. Directed by Peter Cirino, it opens Feb. 17 at the SDSU Experimental Theatre in the College Area. ttf.sdsu.edu Streamers: The third in David Rabe’s Vietnam War trilogy, this play centers on a group of very different soldiers who are preparing to ship off to the conflict. Directed by Kim Rubinstein, it opens Feb. 21 at the Mandell Weiss Forum at UCSD in La Jolla. theatre.ucsd.edu The Illusion: Tony Kushner’s fantastical play about a 17th Century father seeking news of his son, who is studying under a famous sorcerer. Directed by David Ellenstein, it opens Feb. 22 at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org Three Days of Rain: A staged reading of Richard Greenberg’s Pulitzer-nominated play about two siblings and their childhood friend who are reunited to settle their business partner parents’ estate. Presented by Intrepid Theatre Company, it happens Feb. 22 at the Encinitas Library. intrepidtheatre.org For full listings, visit “Theater”at sdcitybeat.com

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February 15, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

16 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

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FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 17

A new distribution system carries art into San Diego’s social scene

By Matthew Baldwin an Diego’s breweries aren’t exactly known for being epicenters of the local art scene. Sure, one might host the occasional pop-up gallery or arts and crafts show, but more often than not the wares on display are either beer-related or on the walls to contribute to the general atmosphere.

So when a boxy, stilt-legged, self-service vending kiosk labeled the Artery (artery.us) appeared among the silhouette portraits and cask tabletops in Societe Brewing Co.’s tasting room last summer, it immediately stood out. The kiosk was loaded with assorted prints and postcards by local artist Pamela Jaeger, whose pastel-hued surrealism stood in glaring contrast to the rustic Victorian aesthetic of the brewery. While labeling on the cash box built into the unit’s base for the donation-based payment system politely suggested payments of $5 for a print and $1 for a postcard, the final value was left entirely to the customer’s discretion—includple: the kiosk is placed at a convenient loing free, if need be.

Similar kiosks popped up at roughly the cation within each hosting business by Ego same time at the North Park and Ocean Beach id staff, who come by periodically to handle Mike Hess Brewing Co. locations, as well as any maintenance needs and rotate in a new Thorn St. Brewing, also in North Park. There artist’s prints every 30 days. Customers simare now 25 Artery kiosks scattered around ply drop whatever amount they believe their COURTESY OF THE ARTIST purchase to be worth town, all of them in in the cash box. The non-traditional venues addition of digital such as breweries and payment systems coffee shops. through PayPal and The Artery is the Square even allows brainchild of James the cash-strapped to Yuransky, owner and make a donation. proprieter of the Ego Because Ego id id printing company handles the manuin Normal Heights. facturing of the Yuransky, who prophysical merchanduces art under the dise, there is no upname Zee, built the front cost to or time prototype as an easily requirement from transportable means the participating artof displaying prints “Emo Cats” by Pamela Jaeger ists, who receive all at art shows and festiprofits generated by vals. He observed that without the apparent sales.

In exchange for their participation, presence of a salesperson, customers were more inclined to purchase the art. After patron businesses receive complimentary a few modifications and field tests, he re- logo branding on the postcards.

While the nontraditional locations are cruited a stable of artist acquaintances and began approaching local businesses about practical in that they have plenty of space serving as location partners. Societe, Hess and foot traffic, Yuransky is also betting and Thorn St. were among the first to agree. that there’s more demographic overlap than The business model of the Artery is sim- initial appearances might suggest.

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

MATTHEW BALDWIN

CULTURE | ART

Adelaide Marcus, an artist and belly dancer who is one of the more recent additions to the Artery’s stable. “When you’re vending, people feel obligated to buy something.

Here, people don’t feel like they’re being sold something.”

As such, the Artery is a two-part social experiment: Can the art sell itself in these environments, and if left to their own devices, will the public pay what they consider to be a fair price? While the endeavor is less than a year old, after several months the answer so far appears to be a resounding “yes.”

Though the exact sales numbers per item are unclear, the Arteries are generating a profit. Indeed, demonstrated in pay-whatyou-want digital music sales experiments by recording artists such as Radiohead, many customers actually are donating more than the suggested amounts. Marcus recently recouped profits from a single Artery location equivalent to what she makes at one of her hosted studio shows, and the kiosk has led to increased interest in the mandala coloring book she produced last year. Pamela Jaeger sold a $500 painting through her website to someone who originally encountered her work through an Artery.

These results aren’t a given, and different artists sell better at various locations, sometimes for reasons which are unclear.

The public interest Yuransky anticipated is turning up, however, as people seem attracted both by the art and by the uniqueness of the experience.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says Bella Guse, a City College library employee who encountered an Artery while buying a sandwich at Big Front Door in Hillcrest and proceeded to browse. “The price is really good, especially for the quality.”

“We see a lot of engagement with the Artery kiosk at Mike Hess Brewing crowd, especially on a busy night,” says Steve Devlin, a beer server at Mike Hess “These are art-friendly environments, North Park, when asked about its Artery. where people have culture,” he says, “or are “People will buy a beer from the bar, scope gathering places where they socialize.” That out the box, and walk away with a print or is, social locations where customers might two,” often paying with the spare change be interested in art, but may not be inclined from their drink purchase. to wander into a highThough the project COURTESY OF THE ARTIST er-end gallery. remains less of a monFor the artists, parey-making venture than ticipation requires aban experiential means solutely nothing from of distributing art to a them in terms of either wider demographic of time or energy, so they people, Yuransky is constand to earn a little fident that the Artery extra profit without will continue to grow. the hustle of market“The public encouning themselves. All of ters art every day, but the Artery participants it’s all digital,” he says interviewed for this arof the Artery’s appeal. ticle specified the op“These prints are physitimistic nature of the cal, something people project as part of the can touch and hold. This appeal. way art gets out into the “People are genercommunity, and there’s ally good and this sort no need to be wealthy to of system shows it,” own some of it.”

“Open” by Janelle Despot says Scott Saw, a North He’s even more County-based artist. “This isn’t like a gal- pleased with what Artery sales say about San lery system. It makes art accessible to peo- Diego’s community spirit and appreciation ple who wouldn’t normally expose them- of local artists. “People are generally honest, selves to it, which is cool, too.” and this is an opportunity to exercise their “It gets people to create their own per- innate goodness. If we keep doing a good job, ceptions of how they value art,” echoes people will reward accordingly.”

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CULTURE | ART

SEEN LOCAL

zens choose to look at art as decorative investment and rely on brokers, often from L.A. and New York, to guide them. Those brokers are not looking at San Diego, but this may have something to do with the fact that…

• There’s a severe lack of arts marketing: I brought this point up, and I’ll admit that it didn’t really register with the crowd. However, as someone who has worked in the media for over a decade, I know how important marketing and PR can be. San Diego has a ton of boutique PR firms, but none are devoted entirely to the fields of music and visual art.

“A camel is a horse designed by committee.”

Even firms in other cities like Austin and Portland

—Sir Alec Issigonis take on pro-bono clients in order to support the city’s rtists, by nature, are an opinionative bunch. arts community. And while there are a ton of local Stick them in a room or, better yet, let them firms in San Diego, only a handful take on these types air their grievances on a Facebook thread of clients and almost none of them are visual artists.

• Artists need to be more involved: Baza was with a bunch of other artistically inclined people and the likely result will be chaos and disorder however particularly adept at pointing out the need for artists to be more politically involved, especially when it well-intentioned.

Such was the case when Voice of San Diego’s Kin- comes to the purse holders over at the County Board see Morlan posted a rather harmless editorial from of Supervisors. I couldn’t agree more. If artists want artist John Raymond Mireles titled “Why I Left San more opportunities from the city, they have to be poDiego’s Art Scene Behind.” The photographer, who litically involved on a local level.

• We need to look more closely at our relationrecently moved from Logan Heights to New York, cited a number of reasons as to why he left but more ship with Tijuana: This was a point brought up by controversially cited San Diego’s “little opportunity not only Baza, but several attendees as well. While for ambitious artists to grow artistically and succeed I agree in spirit that both art scenes could be better financially.” The response to the piece ranged from served with more bi-national collaboration, the lodefensiveness to agreeable, with dozens of people gistics might prove to be complicated. What’s more, while San Diego’s relationship with Tijuana is fruitwithin the arts community weighing in.

If anything good came out of the original Facebook fully symbiotic, it is naïve and just a bit insulting to post, it inspired James Brown to host a panel discus- both cities to suggest, as one attendee did, that we sion at his Bread & Salt art space in Logan Heights should begin to refer to the scene as some kind of this past Saturday (a link to an audio recording of the combinative “international metropolis.”

• Artists shouldn’t rely solely on a scene to depanel can be found at sdcitybeat.com). With Morlan serving as moderator of the discussion, some notable fine them: As artist Michael James Armstrong eloartists and arts advocates (myself included) sat down quently put it, “Luck favors the prepared.” What he meant was that artists need XAVIER VASQUEZ to work harder to perfect their own craft and spend less time worrying about fitting into a so-called scene. Artist Andrea Chung, who was in the audience, echoed these sentiments during the Q & A portion of the evening. That if you want to be a successful artist, you have to market yourself and not simply wait for a scene to prop you up.

Despite Brown’s request to have “actionable things” result from the conversation, I’d be surprised if anyone in the audience came out with any Panel at Bread and Salt better sense of how to make the local art scene thrive. Sure, to discuss the topic of “What Does San Diego’s Art there were some handy tips peppered throughout the Scene Need to Thrive?” The answers were as varied evening, but most of the panelists seemed defensive and tangential as one might imagine, but here are and self-promotional while much of the audience seemed only to want to relay their personal stories of some of the more pressing points: • Affordable housing is key: “If we do not do struggle. I don’t blame them, really. When the topic something as citizens about the lack of affordable of the discussion is so broad, it can be very difficult to housing, then we’re going to be forced out,” said Cris truly diagnose the problem and prescribe a solution.

Overall, it was a somewhat frustrating evening, Scorza, education curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. However, panelists were hard- but not because of any lack of effort or passion on pressed to point out any local programs that may help the part of the panelists and attendees. Sure, most artists with housing and mostly listed examples of of the people who complained and opined on that original Facebook post didn’t even bother to show up, what other cities are doing.

• Collectors aren’t buying local: “There’s not but what I did come away with was that there should a sufficient base of collectors in San Diego who are be more of these types of panels with more narrow willing to plunk down money and buy art work,” said focuses. There was a suggestion that they have them Larry Baza, a long time arts supporter and chair of every quarter. I know I would attend them, be it as a the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. This panelist or an audience member.

Q: WHAT DOES SAN DIEGO’S ART SCENE NEED TO THRIVE? A: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A

is absolutely true. Most of San Diego’s wealthy deni-

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—Seth Combs

FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

CULTURE | FILM

Sensory depravation

A Cure For Wellness

Gore Verbinski’s latest genre bender is a messy must-see

by Glenn Heath Jr.

G

ore Verbinski’s Rango and The Lone Ranger are floors of glistening tile lead to cordoned-off rooms, brilliant exercises in orchestrated madness. creepy steam baths and archaic chambers for water Both feature mentally unstable heroes who therapy. The patients are all unnaturally happy in thrive on disorder and feverishly tweak genre tropes their quest for “the cure.”

Verbinski pings noticeable abnormalities in the with lightning speed, ultimately revealing convention to be a gateway into the hallucinatory. If the tal- environment while highlighting Lockhart’s obsessive ented filmmaker of Pirates of the Caribbean and The obliviousness and arrogance in completing his misMexican has always displayed an eccentric streak, it’s sion. But these blinders are permanently destroyed his westerns starring Johnny Depp that are genuinely during a brutal car accident involving a deer. Once weird studio outliers that regularly challenge how sequestered with a broken leg, Lockhart is forced to explore the potential horrors of the centuries-old American history is remembered.

With A Cure for Wellness, a devilish and bonkers sanitarium.

At times ludicrous and exhilarating, A Cure for psychological thriller set in the digital age, Verbinski more directly approaches themes of psychosis and Wellness embraces the silliness of its plot without a toxicity. Formally, the film is an antiseptic night- hint of irony. Lockhart’s stumbling pursuit through mare—imposing skyscrapers are serenely stacked up the shadowy corridors and history of the hospital begins as a quest for truth but evenin succession like landing planes tually evolves into a resurrection of frozen in time, layers upon layers of the soul. glass and color inundating the eye A CURE FOR with texture.

The character’s body gets figuWELLNESS ratively and literally disfigured, The opening scene surveys mostDirected by Gore Verbinski calling to mind the constant roughly empty spaces at a major investStarring Dane DeHaan, housing J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) ment firm before lingering over the Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth experiences in Chinatown. DeHaan’s shoulder of a particularly overworked and Harry Groener dedicated performance borders on broker. Death becomes him in the Rated R slapstick—messy, exaggerated and form of a massive heart attack, with determined. On the other hand Verbinski then slyly cutting away to a massive tomb of monitors and stock Isaacs seems to be embodying Vingraphs for his title card. It all might seem serene, but cent Price with his sneering entitlement and charmthis is just the film’s way of implying the damaging ef- ing extremism.

Stricken by an over-stuffed narrative, the film still fects of noise and stress through unnerving quiet.

Trouble has been brewing at this particular com- feels like a brisk descent into a vintage movie world pany for a long time. With a major merger pending, where we are the monsters. This is Roger Corman terblood-sucking board members are scrambling to re- ritory, and Verbinski delights at the chance to pull the store order after receiving an alarming letter from their camera back and watch the world burn. Some of the CEO Pembroke (Harry Groener). The once-capitalist best moments feature fire and water, enraged eleenforcer has shunned corporate life for an indefinite ments erasing both manmade traumas and structures. stay at a cultish sanitarium in the Swiss Alps. The powSome may naturally go looking for political subers that be send in a young hotshot named Lockhart text in A Cure for Wellness, but doing so would misunderstand the film’s intentions. Verbinski is more (Dane DeHaan) to bring their corrupt leader back.

Verbinski embraces picturesque vistas once the interested in stretching the boundaries of our senses film moves to the rarefied air of big sky country. Ex- through cinema, contorting logic to breakdown walls pansive rows of trees and mountains stand in unison of conformity. If we happen to look in the mirror afas Lockhart makes the final leg of his journey up the terward and see ourselves anew, then so be it. hill to a saintly white facility ruled with quiet authority by the suspicious Dr. Volmer (Jason Isaacs). Film reviews run weekly.

Menace ventilates through the air of this crisp space; Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

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CULTURE | FILM

Unsafe confines

M

oral and physical foundations are equally brittle in Asghar Farhadi’s films—at any point a building or relationship can come crashing down. Small compromises act like termites for the soul, festering over time and eventually hollowing people out. The master Iranian dramatist has a knack for portraying the inevitable slow motion dive that follows.

In Farhadi’s The Salesman, Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) are forced to flee their apartment after cracks begin spreading down the walls of the building. With their home rendered derelict, the couple moves into a new abode owned by an

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The Salesman older friend. Mysterious circumstances and sketchy behavior led to the previous tenant’s departure, a revelation that makes both Emad and Rana feel uncomfortable in their new surroundings.

One night Rana leaves the front door open thinking Emad has just buzzed in from down below. By this time, Farhadi has built up enough tension to foreshadow the attack that follows. Less expectant is the grinding swirl of doubt and resentment that bubbles up between the couple as they grapple with thoughts of revenge. This private melodrama eventually begins to impact their participation as costars in a local adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

Parallels between life and art abound, but not in the ways one might expect. Emad’s dizzying obsession with catching the culprit mirrors Willy Loman’s patriarchal stubbornness. Rana complicates the victim role that her on-stage character can’t shake.

The quiet, simmering intensity of The Salesman doesn’t match the full boil of A Separation or About Elly. It’s more about personal humiliation, the kind that flourishes with insecurity and develops into emotional rotgut. Farhadi ultimately sees the character’s turmoil as a byproduct of Iran’s consistently destructive social policies, the effects of which are constantly seeping up through the floorboards.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING A Cure for Wellness: A young investment broker (Dane DeHaan) is sent to a sanitarium in the Swiss Alps to retrieve the CEO of his flailing company only to discover a disturbing secret. Directed by Gore Verbinski (The Lone Ranger).

Antarctica: Ice and Sky: From Oscarwinning director Luc Jacquet (March of the Penguins) comes a stirring portrait of French glaciologist, Claude Lorius, whose groundbreaking research in Antarctica

gave us the first clear evidence of manmade global climate change. Screens through Thursday, Feb. 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Fist Fight: Charlie Day and Ice Cube threaten to duke it out as warring teachers in this raunchy high school comedy.

Ocean Waves: This poignant story from Studio Ghibli charts the teenage love triangle that is created when a new student complicates the lives of two best friends.

Screens through Thursday, Feb. 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

San Diego Film Week: Presented by The Film Consortium, this event seeks to highlight local filmmakers and film festivals. Screens through Sunday, Feb. 19, at venues throughout town.

Saving Bansky: This is the story of one misguided art collector’s attempts to save a Banksy painting from destruction and the auction block. Screens through Thursday, Feb. 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

The Great Wall: Matt Damon takes on the role as white savior when supernatural forces threaten ancient China in Zhang Yimou’s action epic.

The Salesman: In Asghar Farhadi’s latest drama, a married couple must relocate to a new apartment after a near-disaster only to find that the previous tenant has left the space with a bad reputation.

For a complete listing of movies, visit our F ilm section in C ulture on sdcitybeat.com.

FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

KATIE MILLER

MUSIC

S

omething feels a little bit off about the cover of Weyes Blood’s new album, Front Row Seat to Earth. The first thing to notice is Natalie Mering, the sole member of Weyes Blood, reclining in a shiny blue suit and a pair of dirty white sneakers. But step back a bit and scan the landscape behind her and the cheekily glamorous look of it seems a bit more unsettling. It’s a vast, open expanse of mountains and water, pools surrounding the narrow bank where she’s positioned. One way to look at it is as a peaceful, natural setting.

But viewed another way, it might be seen as a barren wasteland: The end of civilization.

It’s not the first time that Weyes Blood (pronounced “wise blood”) has nodded to dystopia. In fact, one track on Front Row Seat—released in 2016 via Mexican Summer—explicitly deals with a rapidly deteriorating society (like the one we’re experiencing now) as viewed through screens.

There’s some humor to it—the chorus goes “y-o-l-o-why,” making a palindromic pun—but through a gentle folk arrangement reminiscent of early ‘70s Joni Mitchell, Mering seeks solace through a period of uncomfortable transition: “Used to think it was bad/That we were all going mad/But now it’s fine to leave... Carry me through the waves of change.” It’s both terrifying and comforting.

In a phone interview from her home in Los Angeles, Mering says that she’s always been fascinated by ideas of apocalypse and dystopia.

“I think it’s happening in our lifetime,” she says. “And it’s always been happening. It’s part of human experience, human civilization. There’s always a dark underbelly. Humans are founded on cataclysm, I think.”

When asked if she’s a pessimist, however, Mering argues that seeing darkness on the horizon doesn’t necessarily mean that she assumes the worst.

“No,” she says, pausing to sort out her perspective. “Maybe a realist? I don’t know. I try not to be too pessimistic, but I think it’s important to embrace the themes of dystopia, because it might be an inevitability. As elastic, evolutionary beings we can

Weyes Blood shift our perspectives and not see something dystopian as the end.”

If Weyes Blood’s music is infused with darkness, pessimistic or not, it’s delivered through beautifully elaborate vessels. While everything that Mering writes is beautiful, sometimes it’s stark in arrangement and sometimes it’s expansive and intricately composed. And sure, she goes to some uncomfortable places, whether it’s the black-screen view of the apocalypse

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

in “Generation Why” or the breakup narrative of “Seven Words,” complete with a somewhat disturbing video featuring a physical altercation in the ocean. But whatever complex emotions Mering aims to convey through her music, she does so via songs that evoke a wide spectrum of classic pop, from Judee Sill to Fleetwood Mac. To hear the production on Front Row Seat to Earth, it’s hard not to come away from it thinking it’s the kind of record that took years to make. And while Mering did spend a few months refining half of the songs on

tour before recording them, she says that most of the songs came to her in spontaneous bursts.

“A lot of them were sort of like lightning strikes,” she says. “I was having very specific emotions and I sat down to write something and they came out fully formed. Others I wrote in pieces, but mostly it’s kind of like a weird moment where it happens all at once.

The words kind of trickle in later. A lot of the record I had been touring before I recorded it. It’s a key point in the process I think.

When you go in and record it, you want to know it like the back of your hand.”

Weyes Blood is a solo project, with each song written by Mering herself. Yet the album features production and drums from Chris Cohen, formerly of Deerhoof, and of late she’s collaborated with other artists.

Last year she made an appearance on Drugdealer’s The End of Comedy, and in January she released a collaborative EP with psychedelic pop weirdo Ariel Pink titled Tears on Fire. Mering says that she has a system for how she likes to make her own records, but working with other artists gives her an opportunity to see a different approach.

“I think because I’ve been a solo musician for so long I do enjoy a collaboration,” she says. “When I get a chance to work with someone else, I embrace the opportunity.

It’s fun. Doing everything by yourself takes a lot of existential strength. You carry all this weight by yourself. But when you collaborate, you can lean on each other.

“I’m pretty set in my ways of what I like, but occasionally I’ll learn to have more of an attitude shift,” she says of the collaborative process. “Generally, I do what I do. But I appreciate seeing another perspective. There’s lots of elements to making a record, so seeing how other people do it is interesting to me.”

Weyes Blood’s songs might have listeners thinking about the world’s end, or they might help nurse a broken heart. Or maybe they’ll inspire some deep, critical thought. But more than anything, Mering just hopes they inspire some kind of emotional reaction.

“I guess if I make somebody cry at a performance or something and they say, ‘I cried it was so beautiful,’ it’s good, it’s a nice release. So yeahhhh,” she says, affecting a wry tone. “I like making people cry.”

Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com.

Follow him on Twitter at @1000TimesJeff

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February 15, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO

KIERSTIN CASTRO

LOCALS ONLY

O

ne-man drone outfit Monochromacy is expanding. Esteban Flores, the sole performer behind Monochromacy, began 2017 with a two-person collaboration featuring Brian Ivan on electronic percussion and keyboards. For their performance on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at Kava Lounge, Monochromacy will feature Ariel Iribe on drums and electronics. This represents a big change in Monochromacy’s sonic approach, and in a phone interview, Flores says that he was ready to make some changes.

“Lately I’ve been wanting to expand the sound more,” he says. “I’ve been playing drone and ambient for seven years now, and I’d been working on devolving the sound and doing shows where I was essentially playing the same chord for 20 minutes. Now I want to do the opposite, and focus more on songwriting. And to do that I wanted to add more rhythm, adding layers of sound, with programmed and live drums.”

So far, there is no permanent change to Monochromacy’s lineup. Ivan and Iribe aren’t permanent members of the band, just part-time collaborators.

However, Flores says that he intends to continue to work with new people going forward, which will allow the project to keep evolving over time.

“I didn’t want to pull people away from their own

Monochromacy projects,” he says. “I’m sort of just bringing friends in from outside bands. I have a few people in mind that I would like to work with after this. I’m just kind of inviting people to put their own spin on the music.”

Flores’ ultimate goal is to record a full-length album with a cast of collaborators, which would result in something potentially much different than the recordings he has released to date. That’s still in the planning phases, but for now, he says that working with new people has revitalized his approach.

“It’s been really good. It’s helping me relearn songwriting and musicianship,” he says. “But there’s still a lot of room for improvisation and experimentation.”

—Jeff Terich

IN EARS WE TRUST

A

recurring feature in which we ask local musicians, promoters and others about the music they’ve been digging lately.

Patrick Erhard, Ash Williams: Narcopaloma by Bangladeafy. “Crazy, hectic over-the-top bassist and drummer. It’ll either drive you crazy or make you fall in love. Fun drinking game: Take a shot every time the bass player plays a single note twice in a row. You might get a buzz, but you for sure won’t get drunk.”

Brad Lee, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects: The complete works of Helado Negro.

“Really sparse yet satisfying grooves, great melodies, interesting beats. Hoping to catch him and his tinsel dancers next time they come through town.”

Blanca Lucia Bergman, Dreams Made Flesh: Warsaw EP by Warsaw. “I can’t stop listening to this EP, especially the song ‘Haven.’ The melody is melancholic and beautiful; Rebecca and Demetrius’ (��� Antuna) vocals are gorgeous; and Rebecca’s lyrics are sincere and intriguing.”

Nathan Hubbard, Skeleton Key Orchestra: Eli and the Thirteenth Confession by Laura Nyro. “I have been a fan for many years, but never owned it on vi-

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

nyl, so when i found a dirty copy in New Orleans for $3, I grabbed it quick. There are many ways to hear this music, with its blend of folk, rock and jazz, but I love how it destructs and re-imagines the girl group tradition of the Shirelles, the Ronettes and the Crystals into something wholly unique. With its quick changes of mood, lush orchestration and catchy hooks, it’s been on repeat since I bought it.”

Heather Nation: The Waterfall by My Morning Jacket.

“The album goes in every direction genre-wise; classic rock, indie, funk, soul. Jim James has the vocal register of a god, and the band backs him up with justification to his singing and songwriting talents. The title track has a mysterious verse, and the hook takes you back to 1969.

The song ‘Compound Fracture’ somehow achieves the impossible, fusing indie rock and disco grooves together in a wonderful way.”

Helado Negro Blaine Factor, Age of Collapse: Neurotic Organization

by Crow. “NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal)-influenced crust punk from Japan. Punk songs shouldn’t be this catchy while also being brutally crushing. On repeat all week.”

—Jeff Terich @SDCITYBEAT

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February 15, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, FEB. 15

PLAN A: Gnawed, Filth, CBN, Monochromacy, Ramirez/Nielsen/Hubbard/Lopez @ Kava Lounge. Stay Strange is presenting a show of noise that should provide a cleansing kind of catharsis for anyone in need of a good explosion of sound. The headliner is Minneapolis power electronics act Gnawed, but make sure to check out Monochromacy as a newly expanded duo. PLAN B: Amigo the Devil, Two Men @ Soda Bar. Amigo the Devil is keeping the murder ballad alive.

The singer/songwriter plays gothic folk that’s inspired by the likes of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash, often with characters who meet grisly ends. It’s creepy stuff, but it’s damn good. BACKUP PLAN: Lucero, Esme Patterson @ Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, FEB. 16

PLAN A: Weyes Blood, Fatal Jamz @ Soda Bar. Read my feature this week on Weyes Blood, whose new album Front Row

Seat to Earth is as beautiful as it is an emotional roller coaster. Apparently she likes making people cry, so bring tissues. PLAN B: Wyatt Blair, Matt Lamkin and the Previous Crush, Spooky Cigarette @ The Hideout. A couple weeks ago I wrote a feature on Spooky Cigarette, who have been a local band to watch over the last year.

They’re opening for Wyatt Blair, whose music is bathed in a similar kind of ‘80s-reminiscent synth neon.

FRIDAY, FEB. 17

PLAN A: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Heart Beat Trail @ Soda Bar. If Amigo the Devil wasn’t enough of a haunted Americana fix for you, then Slim Cessna’s Auto Club should do the trick. They’ve been conjuring ghosts with their gothic alt-country for more than 20 years. And if I’m gonna do Americana, it better be goth AF. PLAN B: Crocodiles, AJ Davila, Keepers @ The Hideout. Crocodiles are no longer a San Diego band, but credit where it’s due, they

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

started their post-punk noise pop thing here, and it’s still a lot of fun.

SATURDAY, FEB. 18

PLAN A: Adam Ant @ Observatory North Park. He’s the dandy highwayman, the king of the wild frontier. Adam Ant was one of the most colorful figures of the New Romantic era (and that’s saying a lot) and he released an impressive number of eclectic and catchy-as-hell new wave hits. He might not be rocking the revolutionary garb anymore, but he’s still got the tunes. PLAN B: The Coathangers, Zig Zags, The Dabbers @ The Casbah. This show would be worth mentioning for the fact that it’s a Planned Parenthood benefit alone. It just happens to have some great bands playing, including one of my local favorites, The Dabbers, as well as scuzzy thrash punks Zig Zags, who you definitely shouldn’t miss. BACKUP PLAN: Surfer Blood, Summer Twins @ Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, FEB. 19

PLAN A: Cheetah Chrome, Zeros, The Widows @ The Hideout. This year marks the 40th anniversary of a lot of important punk records, including The Dead Boys’ debut Young, Loud and Snotty. The band’s guitarist Cheetah Chrome is touring

behind the album, and if there aren’t massive drunken sing-alongs to “Sonic Reducer” I’ll be very disappointed (R.I.P. Stiv Bators).

MONDAY, FEB. 20

PLAN A: Alejandro Escovedo, Jesse Malin @ Belly Up Tavern. Alejandro Escovedo has some pretty strong connections to San Diego; his brother Javier was in The Zeros, and his brother Mario was in The Dragons.

However, he’s a staple of Austin’s music scene, having released a number of excellent roots rock albums since the early ‘90s, including 2001’s standout A Man Under the Influence. PLAN B: Body Void, Beira, Cryptic Languages @ Tower Bar. For something a bit heavier and more intense, the thick sludge of San Francisco’s Body Void should be sufficiently ass kicking.

TUESDAY, FEB. 21

PLAN A: The Hand of Gavrilo, Sights and Sages, Someday Assassin, Of Ennui @ Soda Bar. Tuesday’s a good night to get caught up on some great local music. This is an EP release show for The Hand of Gavrilo, but make sure to get there nice and early for Of Ennui, a Chula Vista band that makes some stunning (and loud!) shoegaze.

Adam Ant

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MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Davina and the Vagabonds (Casbah, 3/13), Wu-Tang Clan (Observatory, 3/20), Omni (Hideout, 3/23), STS9 (Observatory, 4/8), Desiigner (Observatory, 4/9), Generationals (Casbah, 4/10), Vieux Farka Touré (Casbah, 4/24), Leif Vollebekk (Casbah, 4/26), Gabriel Garzón-Montano (Casbah, 5/10), Merchandise (Hideout, 6/9), Drab Majesty (Hideout, 6/16),

GET YER TICKETS Steve Poltz (BUT, 2/24-25), Pinback (Irenic, 2/25), Stevie Nicks (Viejas Arena, 3/2), Bon Jovi (Viejas Arena, 3/5), Immolation (Brick by Brick, 3/5), Bash & Pop (Casbah, 3/9), Ghostface Killah (HOB, 3/10), G. Love and Special Sauce (BUT, 3/11-12), Menzingers (Irenic, 3/12), Matisyahu (BUT, 3/14-15), Anna Meredith (Soda Bar, 3/15), Teenage Fanclub (BUT, 3/16), Portugal. The Man (Observatory, 3/16), Julieta Venegas (HOB, 3/17), ‘San Diego Music Awards’ (HOB, 3/21), Modern English (Casbah, 3/22), Common (Observatory, 3/24), Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Casbah, 3/25), Oathbreaker, Khemmis (Soda Bar, 3/27), Why? (Irenic, 3/30), The Old 97’s (BUT, 3/31), DJ Quik (Observatory, 4/1), Richard Ashcroft (Spreckels, 4/1), Squirrel Nut Zippers (Music Box, 4/1), The Damned (HOB, 4/7), Green Day (Valley View Casino Center, 4/8), The Maine (HOB, 4/8), Aaron Neville Duo (BUT, 4/9), Of Montreal (Music Box, 4/10), Power Trip (Casbah, 4/10), A Perfect Circle (Open Air Theatre, 4/11), Banks (Humphreys, 4/13), Preservation Hall Jazz Band (BUT, 4/13), Preoccupations (Casbah, 4/13), Local Natives (Observatory, 4/17), Steely Dan (Humphreys, 4/17), Reverend Horton Heat (BUT, 4/20), Lila Downs (Humphreys, 4/20), David Crosby (Humphreys, 4/23), The 1975 (Open Air Theatre, 4/25), Willie Nelson (Humphreys, 4/26), Kings of Leon (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 4/28), Foreigner, Cheap Trick (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 4/29), Mariachi El Bronx (BUT, 5/5), Flaming Lips (Observatory, 5/7), Lionel Richie (Viejas Arena, 5/8), Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (HOB, 5/12), Cashmere Cat (Observatory, 5/13), Train (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 5/14), Testament (HOB, 5/16), Rodriguez (Humphreys, 5/23), Brian Wilson (Civic Theatre, 5/24), NKOTB, Paula Abdul, Boyz II Men (Viejas Arena, 6/1), Lady Antebellum (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 6/4), Valerie June (BUT, 6/8), Def Leppard (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 6/16), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Civic Theatre, 6/26), Deftones, Rise Against (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 7/7), 2Cellos (Open Air Theatre, 7/18), Third Eye Blind (Open Air Theatre, 7/21), Diana Krall (Humphreys, 8/8), Sam Hunt (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/10), Green Day (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 9/13), Coldplay (Qualcomm Stadium, 10/8).

FEBRUARY WEDNESDAY, FEB. 15 Lucero at Belly Up Tavern. Jake Shimabukuro at Music Box. Amigo the Devil at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, FEB. 16 Galactic at Belly Up Tavern. Weyes Blood at Soda Bar. Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox at Balboa Theatre. Billy Crystal at Copley Symphony Hall.

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FRIDAY, FEB. 17 Reel Big Fish, Anti Flag at House of Blues. Slim Cessna’s Auto Club at Soda Bar. Crocodiles at The Hideout.

English Beat at Belly Up Tavern. Cut Chemist at Music Box. Penn and Teller at Harrah’s SoCal. Erykah Badu at Observatory North Park (sold out). Kevin Garrett at House of Blues.

SATURDAY, FEB. 18 La Luz at The Hideout. Steam Powered Giraffe at California Center for the Arts. The Coathangers at The Casbah.

Surfer Blood at Soda Bar. ‘Funk Soul Social’ w/ The Routine at Music Box. Jose Feliciano at Poway OnStage.

‘You Are Going to Hate This Fest’ w/ The Frights, The Garden, Antwon at SOMA. Adam Ant at Observatory North Park. English Beat at Belly Up Tavern.

SUNDAY, FEB. 19 Blanks 77 at Soda Bar. Cheetah Chrome of Dead Boys at The Hideout.

Organ Freeman at The Casbah.

MONDAY, FEB. 20 Alejandro Escovedo at Belly Up Tavern.

AFI at Observatory North Park (sold out).

Leon at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, FEB. 21 Cody Canada and the Departed at Belly Up Tavern. Circa Survive at House of Blues. AFI at Observatory North Park (sold out). Adia Victoria at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22 AFI at Observatory North Park (sold out). Circa Survive at House of Blues.

Priests at Che Café. Tennis at The Irenic. Landlady at The Hideout.

THURSDAY, FEB. 23 Pinback at Belly Up Tavern. Captured!

By Robots at Soda Bar. Radical Face at The Irenic. Kim and the Created at The Hideout. Suicidal Tendencies at Observatory North Park. The New Regime, Kut U Up at The Casbah.

FRIDAY, FEB. 24 Black Marble, Uniform at The Hideout. Archgoat at Brick by Brick. Moose Blood at The Irenic. Jojo at House of Blues. The Staves at The Casbah (sold out). Vince Staples at Observatory North Park. Creedence Clearwater Revisited at Harrah’s SoCal. Steve Poltz at Belly Up Tavern. Gavin Turek at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, FEB. 25 Hippie Sabotage at Observatory North Park. Pinback at The Irenic. Hazel English at Soda Bar. Suicide Silence at SOMA. Moon Duo at The Casbah. Steve Poltz at Belly Up Tavern. The Palms at Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, FEB. 26 Elektric Voodoo at The Casbah. Hideout at The Whistle Stop.

MONDAY, FEB. 27 Louie Anderson at Belly Up Tavern.

Susy Sun at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, FEB. 28 Supersonic Dragon Wagon at The Merrow.

MARCH WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1 Alina Baraz at Observatory North Park.

Britton at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, MARCH 2 Mondo Cozmo at The Casbah. Wood Brothers at Observatory North Park.

Stevie Nicks at Viejas Arena. Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real at Belly Up Tavern. Death Valley Girls at The Hideout.

FRIDAY, MARCH 3 Miya Folick at Che Café. Senses Fail at Observatory North Park. Redwoods Revue at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, MARCH 4 ‘Experience Hendrix 2017’ w/ Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Harrah’s SoCal. Laura Stevenson at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, MARCH 5 Immolation at Brick by Brick. Shiner at The Casbah. Temples at Belly Up Tavern.

Sinkane at Soda Bar. Isaiah Rashad at Observatory North Park. Chase Rice at House of Blues. Red Hot Chili Peppers at Valley View Casino Center (sold out).

Bon Jovi at Viejas Arena.

MONDAY, MARCH 6 The Shins at Observatory North Park (sold out). Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Belly Up Tavern.

TUESDAY, MARCH 7 Mykki Blanco, Cakes da Killa at Soda Bar. The Shins at Observatory North Park (sold out).

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8 Mike Pinto at Belly Up Tavern. Six Organs of Admittance at Soda Bar. Social Distortion at Observatory North Park (sold out). Blackalicious at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, MARCH 9 Lady Lamb at Soda Bar. Salif Keita at Belly Up Tavern. Whitechapel at House of Blues. Irish Rovers at Poway OnStage. Bash & Pop at The Casbah.

Social Distortion at Observatory North Park (sold out).

FRIDAY, MARCH 10 Big Thief at Soda Bar. POS at The Casbah. Tchami at Observatory North Park.

Ghostface Killah at House of Blues.

LVL UP at Che Café. Sick Puppies at The Irenic.

SATURDAY, MARCH 11 Darkest Hour at Brick by Brick. Japandroids at Music Box. Neil Hamburger at The Casbah. G. Love and Special Sauce at Belly Up Tavern.

SUNDAY, MARCH 12 Daya at House of Blues. Menzingers at The Irenic. G. Love and Special Sauce at Belly Up Tavern.

MONDAY, MARCH 13 Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness at House of Blues. Davina and the Vagabonds at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, MARCH 14 Adelitas Way at Brick by Brick. UFO, Saxon at House of Blues. Matisyahu at Belly Up Tavern. Meat Puppets at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15 Matisyahu at Belly Up Tavern. Anna Meredith at Soda Bar. Bela Fleck and

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 28 FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27

MUSIC CLUBS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 Abigail Washburn at California Center for the Arts. Truckfighters at Brick by Brick.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16 Portugal. The Man at Observatory North Park. The Cadillac Three at House of Blues. Teenage Fanclub at Belly Up Tavern.

FRIDAY, MARCH 17 Jay And Silent Bob Get Old at House of Blues. The Routine at Soda Bar. Julieta Venegas at House of Blues. California Honeydrops at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, MARCH 18 Jungle Fire at The Casbah. James Chance and the Contortions at The Hideout. California Honeydrops at Belly Up Tavern.

SUNDAY, MARCH 19 Lake Street Dive at Belly Up Tavern (sold out). John 5 and the Creatures at Brick by Brick. Bob Log III at Soda Bar. Umphrey’s McGee at Observatory North Park.

MONDAY, MARCH 20 Maggie Rogers at The Irenic (sold out).

Kate Tempest at The Casbah. Wu-Tang Clan at Observatory North Park.

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 San Diego Music Awards at House of Blues.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Fri: Inna Vision, Steppas, Animo Cruz. Sat: MRKTS, Grim Slippers, Trynket.

Sun: Mon: Tue: Simple Creation.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road.

Spring Valley. Thu: Spirit in the Room, The Great Sadness, Ultima Circo. Fri: Screamin YeeHaws, Downs Family, From Chaos and Heaven. Sat: Reckless Disregard, NSR, Biriuk, Se Vende. Sun: Dirty Reggae Punx, Popshot.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St.., North Park.

Wed: Temple Party. Thu: DJ Ikah Love.

Sat: ‘Neon Beat’. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’.

Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’. Tue: Alvino and the Dwells.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Fri: Klangkuenstler. Sat: Wax Motif.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Lucero, Esme Patterson. Thu: Galactic, The Bright Light Social Hour. Fri: The English Beat, Third Project (sold out). Sat: The English Beat, The Warsaw Poland Brothers (sold out).

Sun: The Infamous Stringdusters, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. Mon: Alejandro Escovedo, Jesse Malin. Tue: Cody Canada & the Departed, The Cordovas, Morgan Leigh Band.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: ‘Latifahtron Funk Fest’. Sat: Action Andy and the Hi-Tones, Johnny Deadly Trio, Santa Ana Knights.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’. Thu: The Lulls, Exasperation, Body Song. Sun:

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

28 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

SPOTLIGHT Even as a fan of ska, I’m fine with letting it stay dead. The world’s a meaner and more anxious place since the mid ‘90s, and the feel-good music of Reel Big Fish just seems naïve. But hey, if ska insists on having a comeback, it could do a lot worse than resurrecting RBF, who were the best band to come out of the Third Wave. Their sense of humor and self-awareness always set them above the rest. Reel Big Fish plays with Anti-Flag on Friday, Feb. 17 at House of Blues.

—Ryan Bradford

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC Gimmick V, RAYE, Mezcal Los Javis.

Mon: RETOX, Wheelchair Sports Camp, Death Eyes.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave., Carlsbad. Fri: ‘Club Musae’.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Fri: Uli Jon Roth, Pet Shark, RDG, Taz Taylor. Sat: Eric Sardinas, The Blitz Brothers, Daytona & The BlueSide Rockers, Taz Taylor. Sun: Contortion, Nightshadow.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Wed: Mustard Plug, Phenomenauts, Oceanside Sound System. Thu: Chad Valley, Computer Magic. Fri: Steve ‘n Seagulls. Sat: The Coathangers, Zig Zags, The Dabbers. Sun: Organ Freeman, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. Mon: Leon, Jacob Banks. Tue: Adia Victoria, Pruitt Igoe, Dani Bell and the Tarantist.

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Thu: Expire. Fri: Fake Tides, Death Lens, The Gnars, Thee Azmatics. Sat: French Vanilla, Sister Mantos, Spirited Away.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Downtown. Fri: The Black Market Trust. Sat: The Joshua White Trio. Sun: ‘Brazil Jazz Festa’.

The Field Irish Pub, 544 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Shoeless. Thu: Blue Jean Simmons. Fri: Ass Pocket Whisky Fellas.

Sat: Clint Westwood. Sun: Coral Bells.

Mon: Chris Del Priore. Tue: Pat Hilton.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown. Fri: DJ Dynamiq.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Fri: DJ Kaos. Sat: Walshy Fire.

Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave., Downtown.

Wed: Ride the Mule. Thu: DJ Yodah. Fri: ‘Good Times’. Sat: ‘Rock Star Saturday’.

Tue: ‘50s/60s Dance Party.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City

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Heights. Thu: Wyatt Blair, Matt Lamkin, Spooky Cigarette. Fri: Crocodiles, AJ Davila, Keepers. Sat: La Luz, Boytoy. Sun: Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys, The Zeros, Widows.

The Holding Company, 5046 Newport Ave., Ocean Beach. Wed: Coral Bells, Valerie Vuolo, Audrey Snow. Thu: DJs Ofier, Drew Colton. Fri: Jonathan Lee Band, Dannie Marie Band, DJ Green T. Sat: Quel Bordel, DJ Chelu. Sun: Slower.

Tue: KL Noize Makerz.

Hooley’s, 5500 Grossmont Center Drive, La Mesa. Fri: The Royal Ts. Sat: The Peter Ray Band.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Ramon Ayala y Banda Machos. Thu: Eli Young Band. Fri: Reel Big Fish, Anti-Flag. Sat: ‘French Quarter House – Carnival of Mardi Gras’. Sun: Lauren Giraldo. Tue: Circa Survive, mewithoutYou, Turnover.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., Kensington. Fri: ‘No Mames Fest’ w/ Vim Furor, Sisster, Hocus, Marujah, Carlos Se, Stars at Night.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. Thu: ELHAE, Kyle Dion, DVC. Fri: Dover Quartet, Avi Avital. Tue: The Aquadolls.

Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave., Hillcrest. Wed: Andy Anderson and Nathan Fry. Thu: Jai Rodriguez. Fri: Janice & Nathan. Sat: The Corvelles. Sun: Don L & Ria Carey.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave. Hillcrest. Wed: Cardiac, Those Darn Gnomes. Thu: Kid Wilderness, Coral Bells, Oskar and Julia. Sat: Rammoth, Nightshadow, Symbolic, The Midas Touch. Sun: ‘Back Alley’. Tue: Sweet Myths, Stray Monroe, Lavish Rascal.

Mother’s Saloon, 2228 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Thu: DJ Dub B. Fri: DJ Billie Knight. Sat: DJ Green T. Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy. Wed: Jake Shimabukuro. Fri: Cut Chemist. Sat: The Routine, Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, Funk Soul House Band. Sun: Escape Plan.

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

Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Mon: ‘Metal Monday’.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Fri: Seven Lions. Sat: Savi.

Panama 66, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Wed: Gilbert Castellanos.

Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Fri: Ikon. Sat: Zoofunktion.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: DJ Kiki. Thu: DJ Moody Rudy. Fri: DJs Drew G, Will Z. Sat: DJs Hektik, Luke Allen. Sun: DJs Hektik, Nick Ayler.

Rosie O’gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Fri: Three Chord Justice.

Sat: Ginger Cowgirl.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave. North Park. Wed: Red Fox Tails. Thu: Jimmy Ruelas. Fri: Ed Kornhauser Organ Trio. Sat: The Peripherals. Mon: ‘Makossa Monday’ w/ DJ Tah Rei. Tue: Second Cousins.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Amigo the Devil, Two Men. Thu: Weyes Blood, Fatal Jamz.

Fri: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, The Heart Beat Trail, Black Oak Hymnal. Sat: Surfer Blood, Prism Tats. Sun: Blanks 77, The Oi! Scouts, Corrupted Youth, Infirmities. Mon: Mindray, The Electric Enzymes. Tue: The Hand of Gavrilo, Sights and Sages, Someday Assassin, Of Ennui.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway.

Fri: John Givez, zae.will, Rossi Rock, Chuuwee, Amon Raps, Kyng$, Lauren Torres. Sat: ‘You Are Going to Hate This Fest’ w/ The Frights, Tijuana Panthers, The Garden.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Thu: Christian Taylor Band, Jackson Price. Sun: Erin Bower & Butch McCarthy, Aaron Brownwood.

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Wed: Scott Porter. Thu: Matchbox Twenty Too. Fri: Keep Your Soul, Scott Porter. Mon: Tay Watts. Tue: Lauren Leigh and Sam. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., Bay Park. Thu: Mercedes Moore. Fri: Funk’s Most Wanted. Sat: Dennis Jones. Tue: Sue Palmer.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Wed: Western Settings, Nights Like Thieves, Atlantic Answers, Ash Williams. Thu: Alive & Well, Luneaux, North

by North, Super Buffet. Fri: Rayner, Sector 7G, Secondhand, Tarolas de Hueso.

Sat: The Hashishians. Sun: Lungs and Limbs, Survival Guide, Chroma. Mon: Body Void, Beira, Cryptic Languages.

Tue: Wei Zhongle, The Vaginals, Svelte.

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

Thu: ‘Thursdaze’. Fri: DJ Chris Freeman.

Sat: DJ Qenoe. Tue: ‘Boom Bap Sweet 16 DJ Tournament’ Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park.

Fri: ‘F-ing in the Bushes’. Sat: ‘80s vs.

90s’. Sun: ‘Not Happy’ w/ Jon Blaj.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Wed: Lizano, Kash’d Out, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: AceyAlone, Atlantis Rizing, Infinite Points, ID the Poet, Seancy.

Fri: Bulervar Descarga, Cumbia Machin, Melapelus, DJs Air Nandez, Viejo Lowbo.

Sat: The Devastators. Mon: Electric Waste Band.

FEBRUARY 15, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 29

LAST WORDS | ADVICE

AMY ALKON

ADVICE

GODDESS

You Deserve A Breakup Today I really appreciated your recent column about people who go through with getting married when they know deep down that they’re making a mistake.

I’m reminded of the common societal admonishment against being a “quitter.” There’s this notion that you’re some kind of loser if you quit anything—even when logic tells you that you should bow out. This sort of absurd anti-logic is used (with the “marriage takes work” notion) to intimidate people into remaining in marriages that are total failures, which prolongs everyone’s suffering.

—Been There

Ideally, “till death do us part” doesn’t lead to daydreams involving a shovel and a tarp.

Granted, there are people in miserable marriages who stay together—sometimes because they believe that a man with horns and a tail would end up chasing them around with a flaming pitchfork if they split up and

married somebody else. Others, in humdrum but not ugly or toxic marriages, stay together—admirably—for their kids’ sake. But many unhappy couples—with no pitter-pattering little feet but the schnauzer’s—don’t split up or are seriously slow to do it out of this notion that quitting is for losers.

I’m not suggesting that couples should scurry off to divorce court at the first sight of a cloud on the marital horizon. But there’s a cost-benefit analysis to be done.

Couples need to consider whether it’s actually possible to work to make their marriage succeed or whether that would require them to be two totally different and actually compatible people.

As for what “succeeding” in marriage means, let’s be honest: In modern society, we have a luxury we never did before— marrying for love and happiness. We then expect that these will continue to some reasonable (or sometimes unreasonable) degree. In previous centuries, sometimes

30 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · FEBRUARY 15, 2017

you lucked out and got love in the marital package. But, as marriage historian Stephanie Coontz points out, for “thousands of years”—until the late 18th century— “marriage was more about property and politics than personal satisfaction.” Two people would get “betrothed” to each other as a way of brokering peace between nations or getting the money to keep land in the family (“marriage is between a man and a potato farm”).

These days, however, if continents or children won’t be ravaged by a couple’s breaking up, maybe there’s no reason to be answering the question “Grandma, how’d you and Grandpa make it work?” with “We didn’t. I just stayed till he died.”

Even so, human psychology doesn’t make it easy to extricate ourselves. Research by psychologist Elliot Aronson finds that we are prone to “self-justification”— believing whatever puts us in the best light.

In other words, we are natural-born spin doctors, driven to protect both our ego and our public persona—to the point where our knee-jerk response when we fail at something is pretending we haven’t, to ourselves and everybody else.

There is a psychological tool you can use to combat this. It’s “self-compassion”—basically, when you’re going through a hard time, treating yourself as kindly as you’d treat someone else who’s struggling. Psychologist Kristin Neff, who studies selfcompassion, finds that an essential element of this is seeing your “common humanity”—

which means viewing yourself as part of a whole population of flawed, fallible humans.

This might help you look charitably on the concept of the “starter marriage.” This is a first marriage for a very young couple without kids or many assets that ends in divorce in five years or fewer. (These are people who went into marriage not knowing themselves or their partner all that well and not really understanding what marriage requires.)

Still, older people, upon hearing about this newfangled “get out of jail free” card, will often grumble the marital version of “When I was your age, I crawled 20 miles to school over broken glass!” (“Um, thanks, Aunt Bessie, but I learn just fine when Mom drops me off in her Tesla.”)

But consider that this “starter marriage” concept is actually helpful—right in line with the notion from self-compassion that you’re not alone in making mistakes. Understanding this can help you view your failures less as shameful embarrassments and more as learning experiences that you can use to make better choices in the future. Seeing failures in this more compassionate, positive light could also help you be a bit faster to admit when you’ve screwed up so you can move on. This is certainly preferable to just sitting there glumly mired in your bad choices like a little kid who peed his pants—and has to stay in those wet pants for the next 50 years, at which point somebody will throw him a big anniversary party to celebrate.

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

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@SDCityBeat

February 15, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 31