San Diego CityBeat • Mar 27, 2013

Bigot P.4 Figment P.18 Soldiers P.22 Iceage P.24

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March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

John Warren is a bigot Have you ever heard of a publication called San DiFor now, we’ll find solace and amusement in the ego Voice & Viewpoint? If you have, it might be befact that, as of Tuesday morning, an election poll on cause you used to hear its publisher and CEO, John Voice & Viewpoint’s website revealed that among 52 Warren, on KPBS radio; until a few years ago, he voters, Crenshaw was in first place with 42 percent. was a regular guest on the station’s Editors RoundThe Taube era begins table program.

Investigative reporter Dave Maass’ byline is back in At times on the show, Warren, who’s also a pasour news section this week, but, unfortunately, no, tor, would reveal his distaste for homosexuality, althat doesn’t mean he reconsidered his move to San though never in a fire-and-brimstone manner; that’s Francisco. What it means is that his CityBeat swan not his style. But be assured that he does not think song, the investigative series on inmate deaths in highly of gay folks; like many black ministers, he’s San Diego County jails that he’s been working on swimming against the tide of the African-American with Kelly Davis, begins this week. Maass cleaned community’s gradual acceptance of homosexuality. out his desk a month-and-a-half ago, and we’ve fiIn his paper’s endorsement last week of Barry nally got him replaced.

Pollard in Tuesday’s San Diego City Council DisStarting as our new staff writer this week is Datrict 4 special election, Warren, who also revealed david rolland vid Taube, who emerged from a that he attempted unsuccessfully heap of more than 100 applicants to bully some candidates out of for Maass’ job. In true alternathe race, essentially argued that tive weekly fashion, young Taube candidate Dwayne Crenshaw is spent the better part of the past unfit for office because he’s gay. week trekking across the counCrenshaw’s “openly confessed try in his Kia Rio from his former gay lifestyle is at odds with a great home in Vermont and making use deal of the District’s African Ameriof the services proffered by couch can residents in spite of his family’s surfing.com in places like Toledo, history in the community,” Warren Des Moines and Denver. wrote, as if being gay is a transgresTaube, who’s from upstate New sion to which one must “confess.”

York, graduated from Syracuse Warren went on to say that CrenUniversity with a degree in magashaw’s “positions of leadership zine journalism and has been a reand advocacy in the Gay commuporter at daily newspapers in New nity does not lend itself [sic] to the Dwayne Crenshaw York and Vermont for the past three building of the kinds of coalitions years, with an emphasis, at different times, on educabetween the religious and civic community that the tion, healthcare and Vermont state politics. He looks Fourth District has enjoyed in the past and needs like he could still be in high school and is thinking he to build on during this critical period of restructurmight really benefit from a hipster beard, though we ing.” In its sections on other candidates, the editorial question his ability to grow one. encourages them to run for the office again in 2014, Taube has settled University Heights and will be when they might be better prepared. Not so in the spotted at local pubs watching Syracuse basketball section on Crenshaw, which concludes, “Mr. Crengames, playing Ultimate Frisbee in Balboa Park, shaw is not our choice at any time for this position.” catching movies at San Diego’s many film festivals, Warren’s views on sexual orientation are repulappreciating art at local galleries and museums or sive, and as long as he owns Voice & Viewpoint, the maybe even learning how to surf, despite his parpaper that aims to specifically serve San Diego’s ents’ recurring nightmares of catastrophe. Having African-American community is likely to retain its no room in his car for his equipment, he’s abanbigoted position. So ironic. doned ice hockey as a pastime.

We can only hope that as prejudice against the We welcome him and look forward to the jourgay community among all populations, includnalistic damage he can do here. ing African-Americans, continues to die off, Voice & Viewpoint’s readership, however large or small, What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com. will increasingly reject Warren’s brand of bigotry.

This issue of CityBeat is psychic. It knew you were going to pick it up.

Volume 11 • Issue 33 Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Peter Holslin Staff Writers David Taube, Alex Zaragoza Events Editor Shea Kopp Film Editor Anders Wright Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Adam Vieyra

Columnists Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb Contributors Ian Cheesman, Derrik Chinn, David L. Coddon, Seth Combs, Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan, Katrina Dodson, Michael A. Gardiner, Dave Maass, Scott McDonald, Jenny Montgomery, Kinsee Morlan, Sasha Orman, Mina Riazi, Jim Ruland, Marie TranMcCaslin, Jeff Terich, Quan Vu Interns Crystal Tellez-Giron, Wilson To, Rees Withrow Production Manager Efraim Manuel Senior account executive Jason Noble

Cover design by Adam Vieyra Advertising Account Executives Sean Eshelman, Beau Odom, Paulina Porter-Tapia director of marketing Chad Boyer Circulation / Office Assistant Shea Kopp Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami Human Resources Andrea Baker Accounting Alysia Chavez, Linda Lam, Monica MacCree Vice President of Operations David Comden Publisher Kevin Hellman

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4 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

The official cause of death: methamphetamine toxicity—the baggie had busted in stomach.

Many questions remain unanswered: Why was Victorianne in an administrative-segregation cell rather than a cell where he could be more closely monitored? When exactly did deputies last check on his welfare? Why was he left unobserved overnight when he was suspected to have swallowed a potentially lethal amount of drugs? Why didn’t guards check to see if he was OK when they first entered his cell that morning?

Perhaps most important of all: Did Sheriff’s deputies bring Victorianne to the hospital for the visit scheduled the day before he died? The medical examiner’s report states only that “it was unknown if he attended.”

That information still isn’t publicly known. The Sheriff’s Department declined to answer CityBeat’s questions about Victorianne’s death.

What is known is that Victorianne was the latest casualty in a jail system with one of the highest mortality rates in California.

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etween 2007 and 2012, 60 people died while wards of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department’s fivejail detention system.

They were 56 men and four women. Thirty-six were white, 15 Hispanic, six African-American, one KoreanAmerican, one Native American and one was a Chinese national. Most suffered from substance abuse and/or mentalhealth issues, and many were transient before their arrest.

Their average age was 46. The youngest was 18—Luis Manuel Lopez from Poway. He was arrested on felony

Part one of a series

San Diego County’s incarceration mortality rate leads California’s largest jails

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ernard Joseph Victorianne was a 28-year-old black male with a ticking time bomb in his stomach.

Victorianne was arrested on Sept. 12, 2012, less than two blocks from the San Diego Police Department’s Mid-City station on suspicion of driving under the influence. A week later, he was found dead in his cell—the 60th inmate to die in the custody of the San Diego County jail system since 2007.

Immediately after his arrest, Victorianne was taken to Alvarado Hospital to be treated for alcohol intoxication.

Even then, police and medical staff believed the suspect— who was on probation for a number of narcotics offenses— likely had swallowed a bindle of drugs. He was observed overnight, then transferred to the San Diego Central Jail.

For the next several days, Victorianne was bounced between

By Kelly Davis and Dave Maass sobriety cells, secure units and administrative segregation (a normal housing unit reserved for problematic inmates who need to be separated from the general population) due to his lasting, agitated behavior. He was prescribed Haldol, a powerful anti-psychotic, and anti-anxiety medication.

According to the medical examiner’s report, Sheriff’s deputies couldn’t say exactly when they last saw Victorianne alive. Deputies checked on him in the “early evening” of Sept. 18. He was left unmonitored through the night.

At 4:30 a.m., guards who brought breakfast into his cell found him lying on the floor, naked, but didn’t check whether or not he was conscious. Two-and-a-half hours later, guards began their morning rounds and discovered that Victorianne hadn’t moved. By the time they entered his cell, rigor mortis had begun in his lower extremities.

vandalism charges in the fall of 2008, around the time other kids his age would’ve been going off to college. He was transferred from one jail to another, ending up at the George Bailey Detention Facility, where he started displaying symptoms of a cold that rapidly grew worse. When his temperature hit 102 and his heart began beating abnormally fast, Lopez was transferred to UCSD Medical Center. His health continued to decline. After almost two weeks in the hospital, he flat-lined and was resuscitated, but his condition continued to deteriorate; his family chose to withdraw care and ease his suffering with pain killers.

Doctors never determined precisely what killed Lopez.

The medical examiner’s report concluded it was “most likely” a bacterial infection that was masked by the antibiotics he received in jail. He death was classified as natural.

The oldest was Thomas Alexander Hough, a senile 72-year-old who was stopped by police for refusing to leave a bus station and then booked into jail for failing to register as a sex offender. Classified as “gravely disabled,” he was first involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital before being transferred to the Vista Detention Center. Hough suffered from diabetes, dementia and alcohol dependency, which combined to leave him subject to periods of confusion, seizures and delirium tremens (“the shakes”). At the Vista jail, Hough was a basket case for three days. He nearly choked on a bologna sandwich, had frequent angry outbursts at staff and refused to go outside during his allotted recreation time. On his fourth evening in jail, he stopped breathing and couldn’t be revived. The medical examiner classified his death as natural due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

Of the 60 deaths, 31 were classified as natural, which is consistent with national ratios for jail deaths. The other 48 percent were classified as suicides, homicides and accidents.

Of the 15 suicides, most inmates hanged themselves, in-

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spin cycle

john r.

lamb Victory for local GOP! “Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colours wave! And either victory, or else a grave.”

—William Shakespeare Imagine a Republican Party victory in San Diego these days minus fanfare. No chest thumping on social media from local party chairman Tony Krvaric that the end days are approaching for “socialists” and “union stooges.” Instead, utter silence.

Well, imagine no more! Now, it wasn’t a big win last week—three seats on the Navajo Community Planners Inc. (NCPI) board, an advisory panel of residents, business types and landowners that deliberates over development affecting Del Cerro, San Carlos, Grantville and Allied Gardens.

But, hey, when you’re hot, etc.

Maybe it was the ease of the election win—a trio of men all tied to the pro-development Building Industry Association of San Diego County, only one facing competition. (As a community member told Spin Cycle, “Show up with your wife, and you’re in!”)

Or maybe it was the use of overkill to secure those spots. Whatever the reason, the episode has a host of folks holding their noses.

From what Spin has pieced together, it began with an email from Mike McSweeney, a familiar face in local political funny pages. A loyal soldier in the local Republican Party, McSweeney gained notoriety in 2008 as campaign manager of then-Mayor Jerry Sanders’ reelection effort after he slipped disparaging material to dreadlocked mayoral candidate Eric Bidwell

6 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

Tony Krvaric to use against Sanders’ rival, Steve Francis. Instead, Bidwell went public, and McSweeney awkwardly stepped down.

This time, McSweeney—the local BIA’s senior public-policy adviser and a Navajo planning board member himself—sent an email to BIA contacts requesting support at the March 18 annual Navajo election for “3 gentlemen” he described as “solid, pro-business Republicans.”

“Mayor [Bob] Filner’s mantra is ‘we’ll be listening to the community’ and he looks for a stronger role from community Planning groups like NCPI,” McSweeney wrote in the March 12 email, which came attached to an official-looking flyer noting the date, time and

location of the upcoming election and urging support for BIA compatriots Matt Adams (his boss and a registered lobbyist), Steve Grimes (head of its subcontractor council) and John LaRaia (chairman and CEO of the BIA’s political action committee).

In his email, McSweeney targets current Navajo chairman Anthony Wagner as “Mat Kostrinsky’s campaign manager and Filner ally,” adding, “Having a business friendly voice on NCPI is critical to balance the far left activists who already sit on the board.”

(Republicans actually outnumber Democrats on the board 3-to-1.)

Kostrinsky is the former union political director who lost to District 7 Councilmember Scott Sherman in last June’s primary.

Kostrinsky recently ended a stint on the planning board.

McSweeney’s email found its way to Sherman’s wife, Norma Mouet, a politically active community member. On March 13, Mouet forwarded McSweeney’s email to her contacts, adding in all caps: “WE NEED YOUR HELP! IT’S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT WE VOTE FOR THESE 3 GENTLEMEN…. SHOW UP, VOTE AND YOU MAY LEAVE. THE ‘OTHERS’ BUS PEOPLE IN---THEY WANT TO TAKE OVER THE PLANNING GROUP, WE NEED TO STOP THEM. BRING A FRIEND OR NEIGHBOR TOO.” Days later, letters from a group calling itself “Navajo Republicans for Better Planning” began dropping in neighborhood mailboxes. Spin could find no one in the community who’d ever heard of the group, but the signatory was all too familiar—GOP honcho Krvaric. So, too, were the included phone number and P.O. Box—local GOP contact listings.

“On Monday, March 18th we will have the opportunity to elect good Republicans to the Navajo Planning Group Board of Directors,” Krvaric wrote, bungling the name. “Too often these boards are run by Democrats who do not share our values.”

“These Republicans,” Krvaric added, “will ensure that our community’s interests are well represented and that you will always have a voice.” He then asks recipients to “join me” in voting for the trio, with a concluding “Hope to see you there, every vote counts!”

No attendees of the March 18 election at Zion Avenue Church contacted by Spin could recall seeing the GOP chairman there.

And why would they? Krvaric, who lives in Scripps Ranch and works in Rancho Bernardo, was

ineligible to vote.

Spin Cycle reached out unsuccessfully to Krvaric and McSweeney for their take on the election antics.

Cindy Martin, an Allied Gardens resident and constructionindustry worker who recently completed nine years on the Navajo board, received the correspondences and had two words to describe them: “offensive” and “disrespectful.”

“How dare these people try to politicize our election process!” she told Spin. “I’ve never heard of ‘Navajo Republicans for Better Planning,’ and I sure don’t need someone telling me, as a Republican, that I need to fall in line with my community-planning-board choices. That really ticked me off.”

Martin said she asked Sherman, who attended the March 18 election, point-blank about his wife’s involvement. “He told me, ‘That was my wife, not me,’” she said.

Reached by phone, Mouet said “I don’t” when asked if she had thoughts about the appearance of undue influence, considering her close ties to Sherman, and defended her involvement as a private citizen exercising her free-speech rights.

Asked about the involvement of the Republican Party in such a low-level election effort, Mouet said, “I could show you all kinds flyers that I get, and letters.” But from a party chairman? “It is not unusual. I’m sorry, I gotta go,” she said, then hung up.

In a statement, Diana Palacios, Sherman’s communications director, echoed the First Amendment defense, arguing that right “is not canceled out by the fact that she is married to an elected official.”

Adams, the only candidate among the three who faced opposition, told Spin in an email that Kostrinsky is alone in making the partisanship claim and hinted at sour grapes for losing to Sherman.

To which Kostrinsky, a Democrat, replied, “Partisan? I voted for Matt [Adams]!” The Navajo group, Adams added, “will be the final arbiter” on complaints Kostrinsky’s filed regarding the unusual electioneering.

That’s not totally correct. Council Policy 600-24, which governs the city’s 42 planning groups, not only prohibits “‘slates’ of candidates” but also places final investigative authority with the Mayor’s office, an intriguing scenario potentially pitting Krvaric and Co. against Filner, the man they love to hate.

If Spin’s planning anything, it’s to keep an eye out for that.

Got a tip? Send it to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

DEAD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

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ixty dead inmates. Is that low or high? How many dead inmates is too many?

In 2000, Congress passed the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) to help address increasing reports of neglect and abuse in U.S. jails and prisons. Under the act, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the research and analytical arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, collects reports from correctional facilities and employs a measurement called the mortality rate to compare facilities. As a formula, it’s the number of deaths divided by a jail or prison system’s average daily population (ADP)—the average number of prisoners in the facility on any given day in a year. This formula allows researchers to accommodate for the high turnover and daily fluctuation in local jail populations. It’s also the metric used by the National Institute of Corrections.

“The reason why we use average daily population is that we want to mirror the method that is epidemiologically sound,” BJS researcher Margaret Noonan says.

In other words, since the Centers for Disease Control and other health organizations use an equivalent mortality rate to calculate deaths for large populations, prison researchers can compare the mortality rates in jails to that of society as a whole. Typically, the mortality rate is expressed in number of deaths per 100,000 people.

For example, in 2010, the United States had a mortality rate of 799 deaths per 100,000 people.

Jails in the U.S. had an average mortality rate of 125 deaths per 100,000 inmates. Jails in California had a rate of 162 deaths per 100,000 inmates.

“Deaths occur far less in jail than in the general population,” Noonan says. “It’s because [ jail] is a microcosm. It’s a smaller subpopulation of the general population and people cycle in and out so quickly, they’re really not in the population long enough to die.”

Deaths per 100,000 inmates

SOURCE: COUNTY DATA OBTAINED UNDER THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT

200 Mortality rates in California’s 10 largest jail systems, 2007–2012 150

100 *2007 ADP IS ESTIMATED

cluding 38-year-old Sean Wallace, who’d been in and out of safety cells at the Central Jail because of numerous suicide threats, including an attempt to slice his wrists with a butter knife. On April 23, 2011, he was moved out of a psychiatric unit to a regular administrative-segregation cell; 47 minutes later, during medicine call, a nurse found Wallace hanging from a sheet tied to a bed bracket.

Others used less-conventional methods. In 2011, Abraham Clark, a 34-year-old man with a history of mental illness, ingested enough water in a short period of time to send his brain into anoxic shock.

In 2009, John Kopkowski, an Ohio man accused of having child pornography on his computer, threw himself head first off the second tier of his unit at George Bailey.

According to the medical examiner’s report, inmates allegedly told Kopkowski he “should end his own life before somebody did it for him.”

There were five homicides in the jail system. In 2010, Jeffrey Dunn, a 23-year-old murder suspect, died of an asthma attack during a fistfight. In 2010, Russell Hartsaw, a mentally ill 70year-old arrested on a probation violation, was beaten to death by other inmates. Three inmates died at the hands of deputies: Two perished—Jeff Dewall in 2008 and Tommy Tucker in 2009—due to oxygen deprivation when guards attempted to restrain them, and a third, Anthony Dunton, was shot to death in September 2012 after breaking free from his restraints during an MRI examination at UCSD Medical Center.

Then there are the accidental deaths. In jail, accidental deaths aren’t accidental like traffic collisions or slipping and breaking one’s neck. All eight of the “accidental” deaths in San Diego’s jails were drug-related, either overdoses or physical complications due to withdrawal. Some inmates obtained drugs in jail or hoarded medications, such as Mark Johnson. The 42-year-old, who’d just been sentenced to 28 years under California’s Three Strikes law, told his cellmate he’d be getting a “shipment of drugs.” Richard Diaz, a 40-year-old addict, died from a stomach obstruction after three days of seizures and vomiting due to heroin withdrawal.

CityBeat obtained and analyzed all 60 medical-examiner investigations. We also compared

those narratives against findings by the county’s Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board and documents from multiple wrongfuldeath lawsuits against the county.

Sheriff Bill Gore denied interview requests, asking for questions in writing, most of which his office did not answer.

In upcoming weeks, CityBeat will publish its findings, which raise significant concerns over whether the San Diego Sheriff’s Department is doing enough to reduce inmate deaths.

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The San Diego County jail system’s 11 deaths in 2010 resulted in a mortality rate of 237 deaths per 100,000 inmates—90 percent higher than the national average for jails that year and 46 percent higher than the average for California jails. But, Noonan says, since the rate can fluctuate year to year, it’s important to look at the mortality rate over a number of years.

“We don’t want [the public] to look at a certain rate and say, ‘Wow,

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that seems really high,’ because what could happen is the following year, San Diego might only have four deaths and then, all of a sudden, their rate is right back to where you would expect it to be.”

San Diego County hit its high in 2009 with 13 deaths, followed by two years each with 11 deaths, then dropping to eight deaths in 2012.

“Deaths can certainly vary dramatically from year to year,” says Dr. Ronald Shansky, a jail health

consultant and former medical director for the Illinois Department of Corrections. “Over time they tend to be fairly stable, and it does help to compare to other facilities.”

But there hasn’t been much variation for San Diego’s jails.

When the BJS released its statistics for 2000 through 2007, San Diego had the second highest death rate of California’s large

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March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

DEAD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 jail systems, with 195 deaths per 100,000 inmates. That rate has increased in the years since. Between 2000 and 2012, San Diego County’s mortality rate was 218 deaths per 100,000, putting the county at the top of the list.

CityBeat independently collected six years’ worth of data— 2007 to 2012—from California’s 10 largest county jail systems and analyzed it using BJS’s epidemiological model. Our intent was to compare the most recent data among facilities that are similar in size, population and institutional framework (in other words, the same state-level criminal statutes and similar funding relationships with the state government). Further, records indicated that 2006 was the last year the San Diego County jail system underwent changes to prevent deaths.

Of those 10 jail systems, over that period, San Diego County had the highest average mortality rate: 202 deaths per 100,000 inmates.

The next closest was Riverside County, with 198 deaths per 100,000 inmates and Alam-

Sheriff Bill Gore eda County with 173 deaths per 100,000 inmates.

How many dead inmates is too many? Here’s one way to look at it: If 17 fewer people died in San Diego County jails over the last six years, that would make the county about average among California’s 10 largest jail systems (or 147 deaths per 100,000 inmates).

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department challenged the mortality-rate method of measuring deaths, specifically with suicides, claiming that it produces “mathematically exaggerated” numbers. Instead, the Sheriff’s Department pointed to a less-

accepted method, the “at risk” rate. Instead of using the average daily population, the “at risk” rate divides the number of deaths by the total number of bookings. The theory behind this formula is that everyone who enters the facility is at risk of dying. However, very little research exists based on this type of measurement, and the Sheriff’s Department did not provide scientific evidence to support its position.

It’s easy to see why the department prefers this method. Using booking data from 2007 to 2011 (2012 has not yet been compiled), CityBeat found that San Diego County’s inmate mortality rate was better than the average large jail system in California.

However, the more people who are booked and released, the better the rate looks, and San Diego County has a disproportionately large number of bookings for a jail system its size. The BJS doesn’t use bookings-related data for this very reason—high turnover skews the data.

“Obviously, there are other people that use admissions, and we wouldn’t say that’s wrong, per se—it’s just not the way that we do it,” Noonan says. “We want to fol-

not express concern about the information we presented to them and did not recognize its validity even though the numbers were based on a model designed by the Department of Justice, the same branch where Sheriff Bill Gore previously worked as an FBI agent.

“You asked if we were aware of [your] statistics as presented,” Sheriff’s spokesperson Jan Caldwell, herself a former FBI agent, says via email. “Our Detentions Services Bureau regularly meets to examine and review all inmate deaths to ascertain the circumstances of death and ensure all of our policies and procedures were followed. The objectives of this assessment are to thoroughly review and learn from the events, make any necessary changes based on these events and ascertain if the events were preventable. The Sheriff’s Department takes each inmate death very seriously, since we are responsible for their safety and well-being.”

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everal agencies are tasked with overseeing jail facilities in San Diego, but few have paid close attention to the mortality rates.

The San Diego County Grand

“Oftentimes I will hear from sheriffs, ‘We’re scratching our head; we’ve had these deaths and we think we have good policies and we didn’t violate our policies,’ and then I go on-site, and I say, ‘Well, you didn’t violate your policies because you have really bad policies.’”

—Lindsey Hayes low a model that is more epidemiology based, because we are dealing with mortality data.”

“The Bureau of Justice Statistics has been using the calculation of average daily population for 20 or 30 years or more, and no one complains about it unless they have a higher rate than the national average,” says Lindsey Hayes, project director at the National Center on Institutions & Alternatives.

Numbers, however, offer only a bird’s-eye view, and many experts are cautious to base criticism on numbers alone.

“Probably the most important thing to determine is: Do they have an effective review program,” Shansky says. “Because that’s the only thing that’s going to impact the possibility of reducing deaths.”

The Sheriff’s Department did

8 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

Jury, a body of citizens who inspect the facilities annually, has rarely mentioned jail deaths in its annual reports. The San Diego County District Attorney reviews all officer-involved deaths in custody, but found that the three that occurred in the last six years were within policy. The main body charged with investigating deaths is the county’s Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB), which examines allegations of abuse in custody.

When an unnatural death occurs in jail, the Sheriff’s homicide division writes up an investigative report, which is then reviewed by the Sheriff’s internal Critical Incident Review Board.

CLERB also receives a copy and decides whether to conduct its own investigation.

“We are finders of fact,” Lt. Glenn Giannantonio of the homicide division tells CityBeat. “We don’t make any policy-issue recommendations. We just say this is what happened and primarily this is why it happened.”

Since 2007, CLERB has completed 24 in-custody-death investigations. Another seven cases are still under review, says Executive Director Patrick Hunter via email.

Hunter says that CLERB doesn’t normally investigate deaths ruled as natural unless there are extenuating circumstances.

The publicly available results of each investigation are little more than a single paragraph; in no cases did CLERB find wrongdoing on the part of the Sheriff. However, CLERB has made a number of policy recommendations, several of which the sheriff has rejected.

In 2008, after the suicide of Adrian Correa, a 21-year-old paranoid schizophrenic who’d threatened to kill himself multiple times, CLERB expressed concern about a breakdown in communication during shift changes.

“Briefings at shift changes in the detention facilities should routinely include information about inmates identified as suicide risks,” wrote Robert Winston, CLERB’s chair at the time, to then-Sheriff Bill Kolender. “A checklist that includes the status of at-risk inmates and the Department’s response plan would enhance continuity of care, monitoring and housing,” Winston wrote.

Earl Goldstein, the Sheriff’s medical director, thanked Winston for his letter but rejected the recommendation, saying that the jail’s suicide rate was low—only four suicides total during the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 fiscal years (July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2009).

“Based on... the low incidences of completed suicides in our facilities, it is not practical to add these systems to the current program,” Goldstein wrote.

But Goldstein’s numbers were wrong. There were actually six suicides during that period, and a seventh that happened on July 3, 2009—three days into the next fiscal year.

When inmate Dewall died in 2008 due to excessive restraint, CLERB took nearly three years to issue policy recommendations. By then, another inmate, Tommy Tucker, had died due to similar excessiverestraint techniques. CLERB did not investigate Tucker’s death.

In 2011, CLERB suggested that the Sheriff’s Department review its training policies and have its

ADAM VIEYRA

SOURCES: SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS

tactical team wear numbers on their uniforms so they can be identified when investigators review videotapes. The sheriff conceded to those changes, but denied others.

In a March 2011 letter to the sheriff, CLERB expressed concern that the department did not have formal policies regarding when it would alert CLERB of an inmate’s death, despite county code endowing the board with clear oversight responsibilities. Per state code, CLERB’s allowed one year to initiate an investigation; there were cases in 2009 and 2010 that the board didn’t find out about in time, Hunter says. CLERB identified five areas where it wanted to be included in the notification process; the sheriff declined all of them.

“We strive to respond with professionalism and a spirit of cooperation to recommendations for improvement to the policies and procedures,” Sheriff’s Department Executive Manager John Madigan wrote in response. “CLERB has significantly contributed to the enhancement [of ] these important documents and we appreciate the Board’s insight.”

But, he concluded: “After due consideration, Sheriff Gore respectfully declines to modify the policies and procedures as suggested by CLERB.” The sheriff did, however, direct the department’s Division of Inspectional Services to notify CLERB of all in-custody deaths.

In questions provided to the sheriff, CityBeat requested further explanation of this decision and how it bodes for transparency and accountability.

“While we appreciate CLERB’s valuable review process, they are

not part of the Sheriff Department’s investigatory process and therefore are not contacted,” Caldwell wrote.

Even more inconsistent may be how families are notified of the circumstances of an inmate’s death. When Tucker died in the hospital due to injuries sustained during physical restraint, it was not the Sheriff’s Department that contacted the family; it was representatives of an organ-donation agency. Only after the family received a letter from another inmate describing the incident did they move to press further through a lawsuit. The family of Shane Hipfel, who drowned himself in his cell toilet in 2012, fought for more than a year for information; only after the threat of a lawsuit did the sheriff allow one of the family’s attorneys to view the video tape of the incident.

“We made several verbal requests through various channels to get the video tape, which supposedly shows the incident, but the sheriff’s office refuses to turn it over,” attorney Vince Colella said in an interview in January.

“They claimed it’s not their jail policy to do so…. If nothing was done wrong or improper, at least get the family the video so they have closure.”

In mid-March, after CityBeat presented its research to the sheriff, a representative of the family finally was allowed to view the video. A lawsuit is forthcoming, Colella says.

A

“Oftentimes I will hear from sheriffs, ‘We’re scratching our head; we’ve had these deaths and we think we have good policies and we didn’t violate our policies,’” says Hayes, a national expert on suicide prevention. “And then I go on-site, and I say, ‘Well, you didn’t violate your policies because you have really bad policies.’”

But, unlike the jurisdictions that invite Hayes in to assess their performance, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has yet to acknowledge that its high mortality rate is a problem. True, inmates are a high-risk group: many are longtime addicts, for instance, with myriad health issues as a result of their addiction.

“The analogy is between jail and an emergency room, and a prison is like a doctors office,” says Marc Stern, a correctional healthcare consultant and former Health Services Director for the Washington State Department of Corrections. “In jails, people are coming and going all the time; it’s very difficult to operate a jail. It’s hectic and it’s high-risk.”

But, Stern says, San Diego’s high mortality rate is a red flag.

“The best news—if I were writing your article, or if I were investigating this—would be talking to the jail and have them say, ‘You know, we noticed the same thing you did; there’s an unexpectedly high number of deaths and suicides compared to other places, and we are investigating it,” he says. “That would be kind of the good-news story—to find out that they really are addressing it.”

s our series continues, we’ll drill down on the specifics of certain deaths to ask Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com, how many of the 60 were davem@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com. preventable.

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

by michael a. gardiner michael a. gardiner

the size of China Max, but it was every bit as busy. I rudely forced my way through a seemingly oblivious, shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and grabbed a menu. I’d never seen most of these dishes on a menu before. A whole section of dishes titled “Preserved Chili”? Offerings based on kidney, eel and pork intestine? I’d found the good stuff! Summoning more enthusiasm than I’d felt since the movie, I said to my wife: “We’ve got to try this place!”

Soon, we did. We started our meal with selections from an excellent cold-appetizer bar. Highlights included a seaweed dish subtly flavored with soy and a beef dish that opened the palette with Sichuan peppercorns. It was a preview of Boiled fish? Yes! Boiled fish! coming attractions.

Next up was Ma Po Tofu, which we ordered to give ourselves a point of reference.

The dish was so wildly different (and superior) to any we’d previously tried that it hardly accomplished that purpose. Where most versions I’d tasted relied upon chili bean paste, here it was those Sichuan peppercorns that stepped to the A symphony of the loud front. And we were still in the previews.

The feature had one of the most uninspiring One of the enduring traditions of American Jewry names imaginable: “Boiled Fish.” Yes. Boiled Fish. is “Chinese food for Christmas.” More specificalBut what boiled fish it was! Little fillets of sweet, ly, Chinese food—and a movie. Reform Jews get to sweet flounder—at once fluffy and dense—floating in choose whether to see the movie first or conform an angry-looking broth garnished with herbs and into the requirement of feeding pre-picture. timidating Japones chiles. And there, hiding beneath And so, last Christmas, three generations of the surface, was a collection of faceless, anonymous my family went to see Lincoln (excellent, by the and utterly delicious choys. The chemical effect of way) and then to China Max for our feast. I have the Sichuan peppercorns revealed a breadth of spicy no problem with China Max most of the time; its flavors that even chili hounds might not ever know dim sum is excellent. But the menu is unadvenwas there. The dish, as a whole, was a symphony of turous, the ambiance lacks and the kitchen seems the loud—even though there wasn’t much talking to go into brain freeze when busy. during the meal, just mews of pleasure.

That’s how it was last Christmas night. The What I saw, looking across the parking lot from lines were five deep and four wide out the door, China Max, was now readily understandable. service slow, execution ordinary and the menu It’s a good thing we found the place. Where last Plain Jane. As we walked out the door afterward, Christmas’ excellent film was somewhat spoiled pushing through a crowd of more Jews than by the ordinary meal afterward, following next Asians, I looked across the parking lot and saw anChristmas’ movie with a trip to Spicy City will insure that the evening ends well. other restaurant with longer lines and a far higher percentage of Asians. I had to see what it was.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com Spicy City (also called Si Chuan Garden, 4690 and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Convoy St. in Kearny Mesa) may be a fraction of

the world

fare

10 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

by ian cheesman

beer &

chees

New-brew review—woo!

The beer reviews you are about to read are true.

The names of the beers have not been changed to protect the innocent.

Stone Old Guardian Oak-Smoked Barley Wine (11.6-percent ABV): Stone Brewing has made a fun tradition of accompanying odd-year releases of the Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine with an odd reformulation of the potent brew. In 2011, we got a Belgian-tinged variant that I rather enjoyed, so I was definitely primed for this year. Imagine my joy when I heard they were doing an “oak-smoked” version that would combine my mutual love of beer and burning things.

The nose definitely has a smokiness to it, but it’s more of a sizzling pork chop than a campfire. However, the subtle smokiness in the aroma escalates into a full-blown structure fire in the first taste. It’s a bit jarring for a barley wine, even taking into consideration that the Old Guardian has never been a shrinking violet with regard to flavor.

The oak-smoked Old Guardian retains its predecessor’s syrupy texture and considerable

cherry and toffee sweetness, but the lingering smoky flavor, in conjunction with the boozy alcohol warmth, is where I hit the wall. It’s likely one of those big, defining flavors that will draw a thick indelible line between its super-fans and detractors, and, unfortunately, I fall in the second camp.

Aleman / Stone / Two Brothers Dayman Coffee IPA (8.7-percent ABV): There are a few simple tried-and-true beer-writer standbys.

One of the surest has been that when faced with a dark beer, you can probably trot out “coffee” somewhere in the description and pretty much be golden. But now, because of one damned collaboration beer, I’m forced to be cognizant of coffee even cropping up in IPAs. Stupid innovation.

Worse still, I’m completely unable to hate it as much as I reflexively desire to.

Its deliciousness is just pummeling the respect right into me. This ruddy amber brew has a nose punctuated by orange rinds with the aroma of someone brewing coffee in an adjacent room. The coffee is similarly an undercurrent of the first sip, allowing bright citrus flavors to initially dominate until the coffee bitterness comes to a crescendo.

It’s like the perfect breakfast hybrid of OJ and coffee without the heavy roasted flavors. It’s certainly unique and most definitely extraordinary.

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

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

by marie tran-McCaslin marie tran-mccaslin

sandwich require the meatballs be the same, so I went for the sliders. Pasta lovers, take note: You can order three meatballs à la carte with a side of spaghetti for the same price ($10), which is a way to have your indecision and pasta, too.

The sliders were simple—a toasted French roll and a lightly sauced meatball in the middle. The chorizo meatball was nicely spicy, with chipotle, while the quinoa meatball was light and served with feta and pesto; it was a great size for a snack or small meal. The chicken The chorizo meatball, the quinoa meatball and the crispy polenta meatball, however, was my favorite. Strips of tender chicken topped with a mushroom cream and provolone, it’s great on its own, but even better with bread. There’s a beef meatball with marinara and mozzarella, for those who like a classic meatball, and a pork meatball that also comes with chipotle. Even friendlier to the indecisive is Small bites for the indecisive the option to build your own.

What I loved best about Soda & Swine’s I’m one of those people who can’t decide what menu was the plethora of small-plate sides for they want for dinner. Soda & Swine (2943 Ad$3 to $5. Trying multiple sides at that price and ams Ave. in North Park, sodaandswine.com) is size make for a minimal impact on your wallet very kind to the indecisive, with small dishes and waistline. The Brussels sprouts were nicely and a flexible menu that facilitates mixing and caramelized with a sprinkling of bacon, and the matching. It’s been generating quite a bit of buzz fries were perfectly crisp with a malt aioli. Yet, with a bar paired with an eatery next door. Soda I noticed a pattern of under-salting with the & Swine is the eatery, while Polite Provisions is sides. The Brussels sprouts and polenta were the bar. You can order from S&S’s menu at Posaved by bacon and arrabbiata sauce, but the mac lite Provisions, but you can’t order PP’s drinks at ’n’ cheese was pretty bland. Al dente macaroni Soda & Swine. Got it? and perfectly molten cheddar didn’t help when I’ll leave the Polite Provisions drink coverthere’s little seasoning and the cheddar is flavorage to Kelly Davis’ “Cocktail Tales” and focus less. I buried my disappointment in the chocolate on Soda & Swine’s food. The menu’s centered coconut soft-serve, which went surprisingly well on meatballs with plenty of sides and a great with the classic apple pie. soda selection ranging from Coca Cola with cane Soda & Swine’s an eatery that caters to the sugar to Reeds Spiced Apple Brew. The meatindecisive and celebrates classic dishes. Enjoy ball “entrées” come as a slider (one meatball), a them in a homey setting with communal tables sub sandwich (two meatballs), à la carte or atop and antique décor or head next door for the same good eats with an amped-up drink menu. spaghetti (three meatballs). If you’re like me, you might want to mix and match the meatballs, Write to marietm@sdcitybeat.com which include pork, beef, chicken and quinoa and editor@sdcitybeat.com. bases. The spaghetti and meatballs and the sub

the wandering

appetite

12 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

urban

scout

by Katrina dodson

Katrina Dodson

Where can I find…

Something old at someplace new?

I recently got invited to a costume party and decided to revisit a few vintage-clothing haunts I remembered from my teenage years. I found the perfect dress, sweater, bag and glasses at a tried-and-true spot in my neighborhood, but it got me thinking about how resale and vintage stores are being revamped for the new millennium. I got online to find the newest stores—open for three years or less—and there were quite a few. Further sleuthing found many of these newbies out of business already, but here are several worth checking out, right now and probably well into the future.

University Heights’ La Loupe (4644 Park Blvd., laloupevintage.com) opened in August 2011. I love this small boutique packed with quality items in a large variety of colors, patterns and eras. The owner scours local fleas, estate sales and private collections for interesting and wearable items. I fell in love with a black-leather, studded motorcycle jacket, circa ’80s Billy Idol, in the men’s section, where I also found a great assortment of both casual and fashion-forward plaid shirts, high-quality pants and denim and some fantastic men’s shoes. The selection of tops and dresses for women ran from sexy to career with a hip edge, along with great old and current jewelry. This is the only shop where I made a purchase on my pilgrimage, buying a seafoamcolored clutch and a pair of matte black sunglasses.

Ms. Vintage (3011 University Ave., msvintageclothing.com) is in the heart of North Park. Focusing on high-fashion vintage, it was mostly dresses, from flirty to business to bridal to everything in between. Its owner has an amazing eye for style, choosing to fill the store with items that are vintage yet modern. I found a white-lace, long gown from the 1960s that could easily be worn to a wedding today and be completely current. I’m still considering a black, beaded bag from the 1950s; it was a bit pricey but would be an “investment” (so I tell myself ). Prices here aren’t for the faint of heart, but I wouldn’t hesitate to go back for something special, original and in perfect condition.

Classy Closet Consignment (1287 Encinitas Blvd. in Encinitas, classycloset.us) is located in—a strip mall. Yep, far from the trendier points of Highway 101, this consignment and resale

One of Ms. Vintage’s high-fashion looks store gets a steady stream of loyal customers. I was there twice on a Tuesday—once in the morning, once in the afternoon—and there were never fewer than three people in the store. Filling the place with brands like Kate Spade, Gucci, Coach, Tory Birch, and L.A.M.B, the owner’s definitely pulling from some good closets in Rancho Santa Fe. A second store just opened in San Marcos Katrina Dodson (1691 Melrose Drive).

Frock You Too is a new addition to Frock You (4121 Park Blvd. in Hillcrest, frockyouvintage.info) and part of the reinvigoration of this great vintage store. It’s also added a shoe palace at the back of the shop, which garnered oohs and ahhs from my shopping companion.

I tried a pair of black-satin kitten heels, while she went for the pink suede sling backs.

Sign up for their newsletter to find out about their “Huge Frocking Sale” that happens every other month.

Goodwill opened a new store recently at 4220 Balboa Ave. (at Clairemont Drive) in La Loupe an old supermarket space. The goods are typical of what you’d find in the organization’s stores, but this location is well-lit and spacious. The round racks at the front of the store display the newest and nicest, so I’d hit those first if I had only 10 minutes to shop.

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

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

the

SHORTlist

1

ART

COORDINATED BY ALEX ZARAGOZA

YOU’RE AN ACCOMPLICE!

Your phone rings. The voice on the other end, a player in a jailbreak plot, gives you the location of the meet. It’s on for tomorrow, in Little Italy. You show up, and your contact gives you the details, plus your first clue on how to proceed in the conspiracy.

You’re immersed in Accomplice San Diego, the latest project of La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls unconventional-theater program. The experience—part play, part game—happens not on a stage, but on street corners and in bars, restaurants and shops.

“The audience gets dropped into the middle of a crime story that’s going to unfold throughout all these locations,” says creator Tom Salamon. “And you have to figure out where to go next based on clues, and you come across actors in all of these spots, and you don’t know who they are, but they know who you are, so it makes you paranoid about every strange person that’s out on the street or in a restaurant or a bar.”

The “audience” is groups of 10 that start every half hour; the experience takes two hours. But what happens if you misinterpret a clue?

“Well, hopefully we track you down,” Salamon says. “But that is part of what happens, and we allow for that. That’s always the best stuff. … All sorts of different things happen: People dig through garbage and they think that they’ve found something that was significant, and they follow it. And they walk up to a random crazy person who’s thrilled to get the attention of 10 people, and they listen to him and they think he’s an actor and they jot down everything he’s saying.”

2

14 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

Spring Pro Party: Art Travels at Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St., North Park. Write on, sign and graffiti each others shirts as a part of this interactive art “on the go” experience.

T-shirts and pens provided upon entrance.

From 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, March 28, arttravelsgogobot.eventbrite.com Beats & Brushes at JT’s, 5821 Mission Gorge Road, Mission Valley. Rips Entertainment celebrates music and art with live painting by Ay-Ar, Enosh, Andre Lupian and Annie Hardy and music by Sufficient Sounds, Beatsmith Resist and others. At 9 p.m. Friday, March 29. 619-280-4698, facebook.com/events/501465009916583 HChop Sticks at Subtext, 2479 Kettner Blvd., Little Italy. Even if you don’t follow graffiti culture, you’ll have noticed the work of Neko and Persue throughout San Diego. See new works through April 26. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, March 29. 619-876-0664, facebook.com/ events/236169386527229 HOvadialand: Half & Half Show at The Spot, 1835 Main St., Barrio Logan. Featuring the psychedelic artwork of Jimmy Ovadia and Matthew Land. At 6 p.m.

Saturday, March 30, facebook.com/ events/138875319622480

Salamon and his sister started Accomplice in New York City in 2004. Actor Neil Patrick Harris experienced it and helped bring it to Hollywood and then to London. La Jolla Playhouse approached Salamon about doing it in San Diego. The San Diego run began in previews on March 26; the official run is from Friday, March 29, through April 21. There are eight performances per day, Thursdays through Sundays. $35-$49. lajollaplayhouse.org/accomplice-san-diego

3

SAY IT, SPRAY IT

In last week’s issue, Seth Combs spent time with local graffiti artist Neko. They toured the city, looking at graffiti art, and talked about the state of the art form in San Diego. Hear more on the subject at Art Pulse (2825 Dewey Road, Suite 103, in Point Loma) on Thursday, March 28, during Graffiti: A Journey from Misunderstood to Museums. From 7 to 9 p.m. local graffiti artists Revered as a saint and a martyr, Thomas will talk about their experiences, the popularity of Becket made a name for himself as Arch- street art and the future of the local scene. At 6 p.m. bishop of Canterbury in the 12th century as he tan- Friday, March 29, round out your graffiti education gled with King Henry II over the rights of the church. at Subtext Gallery (2479 Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy) Eventually, Henry grew with the opening of Chop Sticks, a graffiti-art show frustrated and allegedly featuring pieces by Neko and Persue. artpulse.org, yelled to his underlings: subtextgallery.com “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”

There’s some question as to whether it was a direct order, but the resulting assassination provides the story and title for Murder in the Cathedral, an opera by Ildebrando Pizzetti Ferruccio Furlanetto that opens at the Civic plays Thomas Becket.

Theatre (1100 Third Ave., Downtown) at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 30, and runs through April 7. Based on a play by T.S. Eliot, the opera is sung in Italian with English translations shown above the stage. $45-$275. sandiegotheatres.org.

Persue at work

RIGHTEOUS THRILLER

Ginger Louise at EloS Shoes, 3404 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. The artist displays her handmade handbags and collage-style artwork. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 27. 619-2412201, elosshoes.com

Deja Toy at Re-Gallery, 348 South Cedros, Solana Beach. Exhibition of works by husband and wife team Neil and Tiffany Bociek, whose work is inspired by childhood play and imagination. From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, March. 30. regallery.org La Hermandad at Centro Cultural de la Raza, 2125 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. Anakbayan teams up with the cultural center to present artists whose work focuses on the concept of brotherhood. There will be live music and refreshments. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 30. $5-$10. 619235-6135, centroculturaldelaraza.com Kathrine Brannock and Graham Smith at San Diego Art Institute-Museum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park. The internationally recognized artists debut and sign their art books. There will also be food, drinks and a live music by Man From Tuesday. At 7 p.m.

Saturday, March 30, sandiego-art.org Joy of Art at Allied Artists Association of San Diego, Studio 21, Spanish Village Art Center, Balboa Park. Opening reception for a collection of works by Allied Artists members. From 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 30. On view through April 8. facebook.com/ AlliedArtistsAssociationOfSanDiego HArtist Flea Market at Wonka Gallery, 8871 Balboa Ave. Suite B, San Diego, Serra Mesa. The gallery partners with Giant Canvas Company to allow artists to sell their wares to the public. There will be a BBQ and refreshments. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 30. 858-717-3622, facebook.com/events/360202797427101 HThe Art of Bill Traylor at Central Library, 820 E St., Downtown. Christine Knoke, director of exhibitions and chief curator at Mingei International Museum, presents the drawings of the Depressionera artist. At 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 2. 619236-5800, sandiego.gov/public-library

BOOKS Dana Cameron at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Cameron signs her Fangborn novels, all about werewolves and vampires. At 7 p.m. Thursday, March

28. 858-454-0347, mystgalaxy.com Teen Authors Tell All at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Authors Cat Patrick, Kevin Emerson, Sean Beaudoin and Martha Brockenbrough discuss the inspiration behind their novels about angels, zombies and other fantasy themes. At 7 p.m. Thursday, March 28.

858-454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com Diane Gage Lofgren and Margaret Bhol at Women’s Museum of California, 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16, Point Loma. Authors of Women I Want to Grow Old With discuss the importance of keeping female friends for a lifetime. At 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28. 619-2337963, womensmuseumca.org Rachelle Sparks and Frank Shankwitz at Barnes & Noble Mira Mesa, 10775 Westview Pkwy., Mira Mesa. Co-Founder of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Frank Shankwitz, and author Rachelle Sparks share their new book, Once Upon a Wish.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, March 28. 858-6843166, barnesandnoble.com Jonathan Maberry at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The author and playwright talks about his latest release in the Joe Leger series, Extinction Machine. At 7 p.m. Friday, March 29. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Stacey Jay and Melissa Buell at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The young adult novelists speak about their latest releases, Romeo Redeemed and The Cursed Blessing. At 2 p.m. Saturday, March 30. 858268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Homage to Ray Bradbury at Old Town Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town. Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore and WriteOutLoud host a Big Read celebration of the works of Ray Bradbury with science fiction author, David Brin. Winning student artwork inspired by Fahrenheit 451 will be on display and special guest Charles Harrington Elster speaks about the book At 7 p.m. Monday, April 1, writeoutloudsd.com

COMEDY Conscious Comedy Explosion: Laugh be a Lady at Market Creek Events Center, 404 Euclid Avenue, Encanto. Tuezdae Littleton hosts comedian, Kim Coles, best known for her role on Living Single. From 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, March 29. $25. consciouscomedyexplosion.ticketleap.com Erik Knowles at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. The San Diego native has opened for Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis. At 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Friday, March 29. 619702-6666, madhousecomedyclub.com HNew Best Thing Present: NBT Lite at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park.

Stand-up and sketch comedy in the spirit of summer by local comedians. Hosted

by Sam Wiles and Dan Venti. At 9 p.m.

Wednesday, April 3. 619-284-6784, sosayweallonline.com

FASHION Search for San Diego’s Most Stylish Man at 98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. VIXEN Pop Up Boutique and Details Matter host a fashion and trunk show where 10 guys strut their stuff to a panel of fashion experts. From 7 to 11 p.m.

Wednesday, March 27. $20-$25. 619-2557885, sdmoststylishman.eventbrite.com

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

THEATER

A little nightmare music

Abraham Lincoln wasn’t the only one to have a gun pointed at him in a theater. Should you find yourself in the audience at Cygnet Theatre’s Assassins, you’ll have six or seven guns pointed at you—only nobody pulls the trigger.

The disconcertion is only one byproduct of this moderately subversive musical by Stephen Sondheim (with a book

by John Weidman), which tells the tales of America’s most notorious slayers and wouldbe slayers of chief executives, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley. Cygnet’s Sean Murray directs a vigorous staging that intermittently shocks, amuses and explicates.

That it never finds a consistent tone is not so much the shortcoming of this production as it is of Sondheim and Weidman’s original work, first produced 23 years ago. A few sequences impress and disturb on a profound level (Hinckley’s twisted ode to Jodie Foster and “Squeaky” Fromme’s even more twisted ode to Charlie Manson, “Unworthy of Your Love,” or the other assassins’ enticement of Lee Oswald to join their ranks). But Assassins careens from carnival shooting gallery to, in the case of McKinley assassin Leon Czolgosz (Jason Maddy), haunted gunman of dark conviction to broad comic pratfalls (Melissa Fernandes as Fromme and Melinda Gilb as fellow Gerald Ford stalker Sara Jane Moore).

It’s not until the last half-hour, when the sights are set on Oswald (Jacob Caltrider) and that November day in Dallas that Assassins crystallizes.

The post-assassination “Something Just Broke” brings heartache to what had been a more calculated narrative bent on reminding us that behind every assassin’s malevolence is a troubled or misguided human being. The show’s signature tune, after all, is the Assassins ensemble’s “Everybody’s Got the Right (to be Happy).”

Assassins’ deft cast also includes Braxton Molinaro as the stentorian Booth and Kurt Norby, who’s eerily moving as Hinckley. The invaluable Sandy Campbell is here, too, though other than

COURTESY: CYGNET THEATRE

From left: Melinda Gilb, Braxton Molinaro, Geno Carr and Jason Maddy a brief turn as immigrant anarchist Emma Goldman, she doesn’t get enough to do.

Be prepared: Assassins is a lengthy-one-act musical. The hanging of Garfield killer Charles Guiteau (Carr) would’ve made a dramatic halfway pause, but the show goes on. No rest for the armed and deadly.

Assassins runs through April 28 at the Old Town Theatre. $34-$59. cygnettheatre.com

—David L. Coddon Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler: This comedy shows us the fate of Hedda Gabler and other literary figures after we last left them. Opens March 28 at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. diversionary.org One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: A convict cons his way into a mental institution to avoid prison and tangles with a domineering nurse. Currently in previews, it opens March 30 at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org The Tempest: Shakespeare’s classic comedy, set on a magical island presided over by the iconic Prospero. Opens March 29 at Patio Playhouse in Escondido. patioplayhouse.com

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

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

FOOD & DRINK HBradbury & Dandelion Wine Tasting at San Pasqual Winery Tasting Room, 8364 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. Enjoy wine tastings with Mark Arapostathis and Walter Ritter as they read Laurel & Hardy Love Affair, excerpts from Fahrenheit 451 and discuss other works. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, writeoutloudsd.com Autism Awareness Happy Hour at Gaglione Brothers, 10450 Friars Road, Del Cerro. The restaurant teams up with Ballast Point Brewing and Re-Spectrum Community to honor Autism Awareness Month with draft beer specials, food tastings and music. From 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 3. 619-955-8600, facebook.com/ events/226397627498411

MUSIC New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with Irvin Mayfield at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The Grammy and Billboard Award-winner leads a Creole inspired program with big band scores by Duke Ellington and Count Basie. At 8 p.m.

Friday, March 29. $20-$85. 619-2350804, sandiegosymphony.org HFresh Sound: Rez Abbasi Trio at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East Village.

New York guitarist joins Satoshi Takeishi and Mark Dresser to perform jazz music reflective of his Pakistani heritage. At 8 p.m. Sunday, March 31, sdspace4art.org Gerald Clayton Trio with Mark Turner at The Scripps Ranch Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla. The spring series begins with the trio and a special appearance by tenor and soprano saxophonist Mark Turner. At 8 p.m.

Wednesday, April 3. $32-$37. 858-459-

16 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

“Even the Trees Want to Leave,” by Jimmy Ovadia and Matthew Land will be on view in Ovadialand, opening at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 30, at The Spot (1835 Main St. in Barrio Logan).

3728, ljathenaeum.org/jazz.html

839-4190, artcenter.org/performances

WOW! First Wednesdays at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. David de Alva, the guitarist and Flamenco recording artist, performs as a part of the Center’s free series.

At 4 and 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 3. 760-

HCamera Lucida #6 at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD campus, La Jolla.

Selections from Beethoven, Faure and Mozart on strings and piano. At 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 3. $25. 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org

PERFORMANCE Beauty and the Beast at Casa Del Prado, Balboa Park. Enjoy the timeless story of inner beauty and prevailing love as performed by an all-youth, ballet cast. At 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28, 7 p.m. Friday, March 29, and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 30. $10-$15. sdcyb.tix.com Pirates of Penzance at Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road, Poway. The traveling repertory company, Opera A La Carte stops in San Diego to perform the story of a dashing pirate apprentice. At 8 p.m. Saturday, March 30.

858-748-0505, powayarts.org Murder in the Cathedral at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown.

Based on the T.S Eliot play, the opera covers the last month of Thomas Becket’s life as he struggles with religion and temptation. At 7 p.m. Saturday, March 30 and Tuesday, April 2. $45-$275. sdopera.com

Art Excursion Embark on a private tour of the Taylor guitar factory and the Museum of Making Music. Ticket includes bus travel and lunch at Stone Brewing in Escondido. Pick up at Balboa Park. From 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28. $90-$105. 619-231-2886, mingei.org/ calendar/art-excursion/2013-03-28 Grunion Run at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. Observe hundreds of small silver fish ride the waves onto La Jolla beaches to spawn. From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, March 29. $14. 858-534FISH, aquarium.ucsd.edu Seany’s Showdown Poker Tournament & Casino Night at Co-Merge, 330 A St., Downtown. Play craps, roulette and blackjack to raise money for people affected by cancer. Cocktails and appetizers

provided by Bartini and Tilted Kilt. From 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, March 30. $49. 619255-9040, theseanyfoundation.org/poker

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS

Paranormal Investigation of the Davis House at 410 Island Ave., Downtown.

Team up with San Diego Ghost Hunters to conduct an on-site paranormal investigation of this historic house. Bring cameras, smart-phones, hand-held video recorders and digital sound recorders. From 10 p.m. to midnight Saturday, March 30. $35.

619-233-4692, gaslampquarter.org/ghosttours-investigation-davis-house

HGraffiti: A Journey from Misunderstood to Museums at Pulse Gallery, 2825 Dewey Road, Suite 103, Point Loma.

Graffiti artists Persue, Neko and Surge talk about where they’ve been, how they got there, and what’s next for graffiti. At 7 p.m.

Thursday, March 28, artpulse.org

Sixth Annual Cesar Chavez Day March Join 1000 union members and take to the Downtown streets to march in honor of the Mexican activist. At 10 a.m. Monday, April 1. 619-232-3821, facebook.com/ events/158940694257577

Dialogues in Art & Architecture at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Patricia Watts, ecoartspace founder and West Coast curator, discusses “Getting off the Planet.” At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 28. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org/lectures.html Education of a Designer, Finding Your Own Way at NTC Promenade Command

Center, 2640 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. Join urban planner Ray Senes for the American Society of Landscape Architects’ first lecture of the 2013 series. From 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 28. $10.

6196185986, asla-sandiego.org Musical Milestones at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla.

Violinist Victoria Martino performs music from the Renaissance period and discusses the historical and cultural context.

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 1. 858-4545872, ljathenaeum.org/lectures.html

Fo r m o r e list ings, visit “E ve nt s” a t sd c it yb e a t.c o m

Fairy Tales at Sunset Temple, 3911 Kansas St., North Park. Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks and other fairy tale favorites as told through circus performance. At 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday, March 30. $12-$17. 619-888-4751, otherwiseent.webs.com Cabaret Boheme at Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey St., Mission Bay. A bit o’ Burlesque presents a saucy show that brings together dance, song and comedy. At 8 p.m. Sunday, March 31. $15-35. 858405-9453, abitoburlesque.com

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HMe vs. Me.com at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. Reveal your dirty habits, secret obsessions and all-consuming online neuroses with So Say We All’s Rory Kelly, Patrick Mayuyu, Julia Evans, Nas Helewa, Hanna Tawater and others. At 8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28. 619-2846784, sosayweallonline.com Mercutio, King of Cats at Upstart Crow, 835 West Harbor Drive, Seaport Village.

San Diego Shakespeare Society presents Christopher R. who reads his parody inspired by Romeo and Juliet. At 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 2. 619-232-4855, sandiegoshakespearesociety.org

POLITICS & COMMUNITY Race for Autism at Balboa Park. Money raised supports local programs that benefit thousands of children with autism.

There will be an educational resource fair, children’s activities, awards, prizes, free refreshments and more. At 7 a.m. Saturday, March 30. $20-$40. raceforautism.org Venezuela after Chavez at Institute of the Americas, International Lane, UCSD campus, La Jolla. With Venezuela’s presidential election set to take place on April 14, Institute President Charles S. Shapiro will discuss the country’s economy and share his conversations with former President Hugo Chavez. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 2. $5$10. 858-453-5560, iamericas.org

SPECIAL EVENTS HCollard Greens & Southern Blues at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. Put your swing dance lessons into practice and celebrate the Bill Traylor exhibition with live music by The Fremonts and southern soul food provided from Bonnie Jean’s. From 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 28. $15-$20. 619-239-0003, mingei.org/collardgreens

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

Joanne Jovinelly

The Rose Petal Pool by Neal Gran, a project featured in FIGMENT New York’s 2008 and 2011 festivals

A palette of people First-ever FIGMENT San Diego will showcase the growing trend of participatory art

by Kinsee Morlan

I

nside Little Fish Studios, a new home for comic-book classes and workshops in Ocean Beach, co-owner and comic artist Alonso Nuñez is fighting the urge to finish his superheroes.

“It’s been hard because I want to add a chest symbol here,” he says, riffling through pages of rough sketches and pointing to a blank character with a big, puffed-out chest.

“I’ve started wanting to finish these guys myself.”

Nuñez’s unfinished superheroes will eventually end up on a 16-by-6-foot wood panel that’ll be propped up in Chicano Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, April 7, as part of FIGMENT San Diego (sandiego.figmentproject.org), a participatory art event featuring projects that invite viewers to engage and interact. Nuñez says he and his Little Fish partner, Patrick Yurick, will be there to help people dip their paintbrushes and find supplies, but, otherwise, they’ll be taking a hands-off approach and letting the community finish the work they started.

Nuñez hopes the event’s immediate surroundings— the Coronado Bridge, the bright Mexican murals and the Downtown cityscape—will influence those who step up and fill in the blanks. He also has a theory that creating superheroes is a great way to delve into someone’s psychology.

“I love the idea of these characters being a reflection of the people who are creating them and the times and environment they’re created in,” he says. “Superheroes are these receptacles for our hopes, beliefs and drives. They’re just a fantastic kind of fantasy vehicle for everything that makes people great.”

In a backyard in La Mesa, chickens scurry about in their coops as artist Steve “Stove” Riggs digs through his shed in search of handmade parts, which he’ll piece together to form a large-scale kaleidoscope.

“Here’s the base of the kaleidoscope right here,” Riggs

18 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

world. Everything’s free, no one’s paid, sponsors aren’t allowed and people are encouraged to step outside their comfort zones and act as wacky as they want.

“If you’re looking for something to buy at FIGMENT, you’re going to be disappointed,” says executive producer David Koren, just before boarding a plane to Australia for yet another FIGMENT event that sprouted this year. “It is possible to come to FIGMENT and just kind of look at it, not get it and walk away; we’ve certainly had those responses….

But if you do react, this kind of engagement, I don’t think it goes away. It takes us out of our typical experience of being in a city and having purely or mostly commercial transactions. [Attendees] leave with a smile on their face if they do engage. It really is something magical.”

In 2010, hundreds of people waited hours to simply sit across from and meet the steady gaze of artist Marina Abramovi at the Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective exhibition, Marina Abramovi : The Artist is Present. The eagerness of that unrelenting crowd is a testament to the quick rise and eventual acceptance of participatory art, a genre that, even just 20 years ago, mostly existed at FIGMENT-like events well outside the mainstream art world.

Participatory art breaks through the fourth wall, asking those who encounter it to react rather than simply observe. It can be as uncomfortable for some as it is exciting to others—not everyone wants to be a co-producer or even a medium in an artist’s work.

But if the growing acceptance of participatory art in top-tier museums like MoMA is an indication (even the San Diego Museum of Art, often considered traditional and conventional, has dabbled in participatory art in its lauded Summer Salon Series events), there’ll be a continued swelling of interested venues and an audience ready to take part in the experiments.

Participatory art does have its detractors. In her book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, art critic and historian Claire Bishop says that “quality” is elusive in participatory art. In the book’s intro, she says participatory-art projects “are often more powerful as ideal than as actualized realities.” In other words, when an artist involves people in their palette, the outcome is often too hard to control.

A critic who shows up at FIGMENT San Diego might turn up his nose at the finished superhero mural or call the kaleidoscope “craft,” not art. But FIGMENT fans say he’d be missing the point.

“We’re building community through art,” Hickman says.

“When you’re collaborating with people you’ve never met to create something, you can’t help but bring down your boundaries.”

says. “It’s a recycled shoe-sewing machine.”

Riggs shows off his beautiful, fused-glass discs and explains that he designed the kaleidoscope’s viewing mechanism large enough so someone can stick her entire face into it. He wants the kaleidoscope to be an immersive experience in which viewers spin the knobs and create endless combinations of psychedelic imagery. Riggs, whose sculptural kaleidoscopes have been on view as part of the Port of San Diego’s Urban Trees public-art program, is another of the dozens of artists scheduled to appear at FIGMENT. Alongside the superhero mural and immersive kaleidoscope, FIGMENT San Diego organizer Nicole Hickman says to expect science-fiction performance art, installations, body art, sound art and more projects that will incorporate some kind of participatory element. She and a team Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Kinsee Morlan of volunteers have been working for months to bring FIGMENT to San Diego. So far, the response from the local arts community has been good—they got double the number of artists’ submissions they expected.

FIGMENT started as a one-time art event on New York City’s Governors Island but has since inspired civic- and arts-minded organizers in cities around the globe to start their own events.

At last year’s FIGMENT festival in New York, those who showed up were treated to a mini-golf course with artist-designed holes, a tree house made from recycled materials, a giant Pong video game, a 1:1 scale model of the Statue of Liberty’s face and other interactive art.

The FIGMENT vibe is very Burning Manesque. The event was created as a direct response Alonso Nuñez wants the FIGMENT to material consumption and the commercial art San Diego audience to finish what he started.

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

Sarah Whiting

seen local Wrapper’s delight While San Diego County’s two port terminals stand as symbols of local and international industry, they aren’t very pleasing to the eye.

But that’ll change in March 2014, when temporary, large-scale art installations by Minneapolis, Minn., artist Randy Walker (randywalkerarts.com) will be erected at the Tenth Ave Marine Terminal and National City Marine Terminal as part of a Port of San Diego public-art project.

The WRAP Project (portofsandiego.com/ public-art.html) aims to bring to these spaces art that creatively uses the theme of wrapping, as it pertains to a working port. The project is part of a five-year campaign to bring more public art to San Diego’s waterfront. The port’s Public Art Office sent out a national call for artists and received more than 50 submissions. Walker was chosen at the end of a selection process that included a review each applicant’s body of work and several interviews.

“The selection panel and Port’s Public Art Committee were really impressed by Walker’s ability to work with existing structures as a framework for artistic interventions,” says Yvonne Wise, curator at the Public Art Office, in an email. ”His past projects have not only incorporated elements of wrapping but have been carefully conceived, for very unique site-specific installations.”

Walker, a trained architect who’s previously been commissioned to create public art in Georgia, Wisconsin and Minnesota, has visited each site multiple times. With the Tenth Avenue terminal supplying him with about 100 acres of space and the National City terminal closer to 200 acres, Walker has a huge project on his hands.

“I began to think how some art installation there can work,” Walker tells CityBeat. “It’s a daunting task just because of the sheer size. It’s something that will make an impact. There are a few concepts brewing in my head. What I’m doing is looking at all the aspects of the sites—what goes on there, what are the forms and objects that are there, how they are used.

Something minute there can give me inspiration for something really large.”

Through these installations, the port hopes to bring visually appealing pieces to the waterfront to entice pedestrians, workers and tourists to experience the harbor in a different way. Along with that, the installations will aim to conceal large structures and equipment at each terminal while also shedding light on the everyday activities of each site, Wise says.

“This is the first time artwork will be installed at the Port’s maritime terminals in San Diego and National City,” she adds.

“The two sites are really amazing for artistic exploration. The goal is not only to link the two terminals with one artwork that has primary and secondary components, but to also get the public to think differently about the work that occurs on the working waterfront.”

While Walker will work closely with the port on a design and plan for both installations, he’s hoping the public will also provide input. Folks will have a chance to put in their two cents and learn more about

20 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

Randy Walker the WRAP Project in a discussion with the artist and members of the Public Art Office at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, at Woodbury School of Architecture (2212 Main St. in Barrio Logan).

In Case We Missed It Here in Seen Local, and in “The Short List,” too (Page 14), we like to guide you to interesting art openings around town. However, sometimes we miss good stuff. In this semi-regular feature, we’d like to send you to check out cool exhibitions that we spaced on in the weeks before.

ArtLab Studios (3536 Adams Ave. in Normal Heights, artlabsd.com) recently opened Vice Squad of Passion, a collection of lithographs by local artist Marilyn Mitchell that’s on view through Monday, April 1. Her pieces provide interesting social commentary on a wide range of subjects, including war, love and superstition.

Mitchell’s piece “Prayer” is particularly moving, says ArtLab manager David Rodger. The 1,162-inch piece features drawings on newspaper of 1,000 soldiers who’ve been killed in Iraq. It’s accompanied by a prayer written by the artist.

“We were sitting here nonchalantly thinking, If you could draw each of these in half an hour, you’d have over 700 hours that it took to produce this one piece,” Rodger says. “This and her other pieces are very impactful. It makes people think, and that’s what art is supposed to do. It means something different to everyone.”

—Alex Zaragoza Write to alexz@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

“Prayer” by Marilyn Mitchell

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Kid stuff Child soldiers are at the heart of the Oscar-nominated movie

by Anders Wright There’s one Oscar group that’s criminally overlooked every year. While all the attention is focused on Best Picture, Best Director and the acting categories, the category that has the potential to truly affect a film’s fortunes more than any other is Best ForRachel Mwanza (right) and Serge Kanyinda eign Language Film.

Each country gets just one entry, and with a machete. This is all in the first few minutes of only five are even nominated. Think about it: Each the film, and things continue to be grim from there. country selects what it thinks is its best movie, its Komona is forced to go to war as a rebel, serving own “best picture,” which then goes up against doz- the Grand Tiger (Mizinga Mwinga), a sleepy-looking ens of other selections. The Academy has trouble commandant with a habit of killing his own soldiers. fielding 10 solid Best Picture nominees, but you can He quickly determines that she’s a witch who he can bet that unless there’s some terrible oversight, every use to further his cause. The thing is, he’s not entirenominee in Foreign Language Film is a winner. ly wrong. Komona’s able to see friends and foes who That said, there can be only one winner, and this have died in battle. That’s right: She sees dead people, year it was Michael Haneke’s Amour (which was up and, sadly, she ends up seeing a lot of them and befor Best Picture, too). But just being nominated of- ing responsible for some of their deaths. In her heart, ten guarantees a film a limited theatrical run, and in though, Komona is no soldier, and soon she and anvirtually every case, that means there’s a solid film other teen, the albino Magician (Serge Kanyinda) that you’d otherwise never have seen in a theater have deserted, trying to return to a normal life. But near you. violence has permeated every One such film is War Witch, facet of life in the Congo, and it War Witch made by Kim Nguyen, a Montreisn’t long before she’s dragged Written and directed by Kim Nguyen al resident born to a French Caback into the conflict.

Starring Rachel Mwanza, Serge nadian mother and a VietnamThere is a message of hope ese father. However, the movin War Witch, but it comes at Kanyinda, Mizinga Mwinga and ie—opening Friday, March 29, at a terrible cost. It’s challengAlain Lino Mic Eli Bastien Reading Cinemas Gaslamp—was ing for us viewers to watch as Not rated shot in Kinshasa, the capitol of a child is destroyed by grown the Democratic Republic of the men. This is not a film about Congo, a country that’s produced, to my knowledge, politics, however. There’s no great takeaway, except just one other feature film in recent years (Viva Riva). the knowledge that this abhorrent practice is deciIt’s also produced no shortage of child soldiers for its mating generations of children. Nguyen’s success is long-term civil war; that’s what War Witch is about, to make that point by presenting just one child, and and it’s wrenching to watch. in selecting Mwanza as his lead, he’s found a nonThe film kicks in with a pregnant Komona (Ra- professional actor who’s able to capture the comchel Mwanza, though the voiceovers are performed plexity of innocence lost while still occasionally

by Diane Uwamahoro) explaining to her unborn managing to retain a sense of youth. It’s the sort of child the worries and trepidations she has about giv- performance only found in child actors who haven’t ing birth, especially considering the hardships she’s grown up enough to become jaded. Unfortunately, experienced throughout her life. I should say her though, the subject matter of War Witch should be young life, since Komona is just 14. It was two years jading enough for all of us. earlier that she was kidnapped from her small village and told that if she doesn’t murder her own parents Write to anders@sdcitybeat.com with an automatic weapon, they’ll be hacked to death and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

2 new movies, 1 new theater

K-11

22 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

A pair of films that appeared earlier this month at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, As Luck Would Have It and K-11, are getting theatrical runs here in town.

I haven’t seen As Luck Would Have It, a dark comedy starring Salma Hayek, but I have seen K-11, which is directed by Jules Stewart, who happens to be the

mother of Kristen Stewart.

This jailhouse film stars Goran Visnjic as a Los Angeles record producer who wakes up one day accused of murder. He’s held in K-11, a section of the L.A. county jail that’s set aside for gay and transgendered inmates.

K-11 is ruled by the transsexual Mousy (Kate del Castillo), who has her fingers in everything, including corrupt cop Johnson (D.B. Sweeney).

The film has a tough time de- ing. Seating is limited. Check out ciding whether it wants to be a digitalgym.org for details. camp classic or a hard-edged pris—Anders Wright on drama; it also features appearances by the likes of Jason Mewes Opening and, more enjoyably, legendary wrestler Tiny Lister, who plays The End of Love: A struggling actor has to grow up overnight when the mother of Detroit, a vicious pedophile.

Bigger than either of those two his newborn child dies unexpectedly. Mark Webber wrote, directed and stars in the movies, however, is where they’ll film, which features appearances from a be screened. The Media Arts slew of interesting actors.

Center, which produces SDLFF, A Fierce Green Fire: This documentary, is showing these as the inaugural which features narration from the likes of films for the Digital Gym Cine- Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and Ashley ma, a new 99-seat theater in North Judd, chronicles the environmental movement from its roots in the 1960s through Park. This is really exciting news— the present day. Screens for one week DGC will screen movies regularly, only at the Ken Cinema. bringing in independents, foreign From Up On Poppy Hill: Director Goro films and documentaries; it’s es- Miyazaki’s brother, legendary filmmaker sentially a completely new space, Hayao Miyazaki, wrote the screenplay, programmed by SDLFF artistic about Japanese teens trying to save their school from the wrecking ball as the 1964 director Lisa Franek. There’s an Olympics approach. exciting slate of films ready to go, G.I. Joe: Retaliation: Channing Tatum too, including Destin Daniel Cret- returns as Duke, and this time Dwayne ton’s shot-in-San-Diego I Am Not Johnson and Bruce Willis join him in blowa Hipster and a pair of American ing things up. indies, Paris Manhattan and Fu- The Host: The new movie from author Stephanie Meyer—aka the woman who ture Weather, and several others. the Twilight books—stars Saoirse A grand opening party will be wrote Ronan as a teen trying to save the world held at the theater (2921 El Ca- from some bodysnatching aliens. jon Blvd.) on Friday, March 29—a Lore: German film about a young girl who champagne reception starts at must lead her siblings across the shat6:45 p.m., before the 7:30 p.m. tered remains of her country in the days screening of As Luck Would Have after World War II. It. There’s also a 5:30 p.m. screen- My Amityville Horror: Not yours.

Mental: Toni Collette reteams with P.J. Hogan, director of Muriel’s Wedding, playing a nanny who has to take care of five kids after their mother cracked under the strain.

too “Judd Apatow makes fun of his own midlife crisis.” Screens at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 29 and 30, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

is about two teenage girls, played by Elle Fanning and Alice Englert, growing up in London’s swingin’ ’60s, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Starbuck: A 42-year-old Montreal slacker learns that his secret past as a sperm donor resulted in more than 500 children— and that almost 150 of them have filed a class-action suit to uncover his identity.

Addiction Incorporated: This documentary about Big Tobacco’s efforts to get you hooked on smokes screens at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 30, at Lestat’s West in Normal Heights.

Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor: A marriage counselor ends up in a serious affair with one of her clients. Perry’s not actually in this one; Kim Kardashian, however, is.

A Late Quartet: When one member of a famous string quartet, whose lineup includes Christopher Walken, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener, gets an awful diagnosis, it throws the group into chaos and brings up decades of simmering hostility. Screens at 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 3, at the Central Library, downtown.

InAPPropriate Comedy: A tablet computer full of the world’s most offensive sketches, starring the likes of Adrien Brody, Rob Schneider, Michelle Rodriguez and Lindsay Lohan, unleashes its content upon the world.

War Witch: This Oscar-nominated Canadian film about a 12-year-old girl conscripted as a child soldier in the Congo is as harrowing as it sounds. See our review on Page 22.

One Time Only Garden State: Zach Braff wrote, directed and starred in this cult film about a young man who returns to New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, March 27, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

A Deeper Shade of Blue: Epic surf movie (clocks in at 2.5 hours) about the roots of the hang-10 culture. Screens at several area theaters at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28. Visit fathomevents.com for details.

Gone with the Wind: Tomorrow, as they say, is another day, but this epic Oscar winner only screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28, at ArcLight La Jolla.

This is 40: Judd Apatow spins off the Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann characters from Knocked Up. The result, however, is a little

There’s Something About Mary: The Farrelly brothers at their best. You’ll never look at hair gel the same way again.

Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Now Playing Frequency Film Festival: The inaugural edition of the Ocean Beach festival includes features and documentaries from around the globe. It’s a terrific selection—swing by frequencyfilmfestival.com for details.

Admission: Tina Fey plays a Princeton admissions officer who could blow her career by accepting a student who just might be the kid she gave up for adoption 18 years ago.

The Croods: Animated caveman movie featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone.

Ginger & Rosa: Sally Potter’s new film

Murph: The Protector: Documentary about Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who was awarded the Medal of Honor after his death in 2005.

Olympus Has Fallen: Terrorists take over the White House and take the president hostage before being killed by disgraced Secret Service agent Gerard Butler. It’s ludicrous, for sure, but pretty enjoyable as R-rated action films go.

On the Road: Long-shelved version of Kerouac’s definitive beat novel stars Sam Riley as the writer’s alter ego, as well as Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart as Dean Moriarty and his girlfriend.

The Silence: In this German thriller, a 13year-old girl goes missing, and her bike is found where another girl was murdered more than two decades earlier. Ends March 28 at the Ken Cinema.

Spring Breakers: Harmony Korine takes on the Girls Gone Wild mythos with this violent, exploitative, oddly insightful art film.

For a complete listing

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

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

From left: Johan Surrballe Wieth, Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, Dan Kjær Nielsen and Jakob Tvilling Pless

kristian embdal

Brutal mystique

Iceage’s punk is open to interpretation by Jeff Terich

In this day and age, over-sharing is the norm. Thanks to Twitter, we can memorialize every horny, late-night drunken thought better left to fizzle in a walk of shame, or see via Instagram just how unappetizing everyone’s meal really is. On Facebook, friends and family can now let each other know their true feelings about gun control or gay marriage long before Thanksgiving rolls around.

Some performers choose to embrace such openness, whether it’s Fiona Apple sharing a heartbreaking note about her ailing dog or Grimes challenging a “stifling patriarchy” via Tumblr with thoughts about Mariah Carey and PSY. But others, like SBTRKT or Burial, choose an entirely opposite tack—near-complete anonymity.

And then there’s Copenhagen punks Iceage. Maintaining a healthy level of ambiguity, they never reveal too much at once.

The band—guitarist / vocalist Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, guitarist Johan Wieth, bassist Jakob Tvilling Pless and drummer Dan Kjær Nielsen—has flirted with fascist imagery (Wieth has a tattoo of the logo of controversial industrial band Death in June), and they tend toward conversational

24 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

even features some somber piano.

The members of Iceage are all in their early 20s, and they’ve progressed a lot since their first album.

“We started writing these songs just after we recorded New Brigade,” Pless says. “And we wrote the last couple of songs just before recording. So it was written over a long period of time. We had a lot of plans for the album, but they changed over the year that we were writing it. It just turned out that way.

“Usually when we write a song, we change it a lot over time,” he adds. “It changes a lot when we play it live. And, naturally, the changes are to make it sound better. So we make sure that we have time to play something live first.”

Though the messages are still oblique, the lyrics on You’re Nothing seem to delve into a realm more deeply personal than before. The chorus of “Ecstasy” has Rønnenfelt shouting, “Pressure! Pressure! Oh, god, no.” And there are hints of sexual frustration in “Coalition,” which begins with the line, “She gives me signals / But our hearts are not the same,” and ends with a scream of “Excess!”

It’s a slightly clearer glimpse into the often-hazy mystique of Iceage—but only slightly, and Pless says the band prefers to keep it that way.

“I think our lyrics are open to interpretation,” he says.

“A lot of people ask what our lyrics are about, and it is really just personal stuff—feelings, impressions you get living your life. And we’re not interested in getting any further into it than that.

“We release records so that people listen to them,” he adds, conceding that the band wants listeners to enjoy the music on their own terms. “There’s not anything in particular that people should get out of it. We don’t want to make them feel anything specific.”

What’s important is that Iceage’s music seems to be resonating with audiences and critics—there’s an unhinged, manic energy that erupts at their shows, which always seem ready to erupt into total chaos. Yet the songs contain both strength and nuance, with a melodic sensibility that’s earned the group widespread acclaim.

The success has led them to trade a small indie label (What’s Your Rupture?, which released New Brigade) for a much bigger one (Matador). The band will have spent most of the first half of 2013 on tour. Curiously, it’s in the minutiae of this day-to-day band activity that Pless begins to open up a little, even sounding joyful.

“We only do this because it’s something that we want,” he says. “We like touring, seeing new places, meeting new people. There’s not really anything else I’d rather do at the moment.

“The most important thing about it is doing things with people you care about,” he adds. “The people in this band are like brothers to me.”

brevity: When Pitchfork recently asked Rønnenfelt what he valued most in music, he simply replied, “Honesty.”

In a polite phone chat with CityBeat from his home in Denmark, Pless is careful not to leave himself too exposed.

“I don’t care what it is that makes us write the way we do,” he says, when asked about the external factors that contribute to the band’s songwriting. “It’s hard to explain the way the songs turn out.”

On the band’s new album, You’re Nothing (released in February via Matador Records), the songs are both raucous and melodic. Moving beyond the brutal punk template of the band’s 2011 debut, New Brigade, this effort finds them opening up their fiery post-punk style to incorporate an even broader palette of sounds.

Falling somewhere in the triangle of Wire-style punk minimalism, Wipers-style anthemic abrasion and the artful dissonance of Sonic Youth, You’re Nothing is 28 minutes of precise, cathartic throttling. “Wounded Hearts” features some of the catchiest riffs the band has ever written, while “Coalition” is a careening punk rave-up. “Morals,” inspired Iceage plays with Milk Music at The Casbah on Sunday, by “L’Ultima Occasione” by ’60s-era Italian balladeer Mina, March 31. iceagecopenhagen.blogspot.com

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

notes from the SMOKING PATIO Sonny Kay

Locals Only Fans of The Locust may want to consider booking a trip to the United Kingdom. The sci-fi grind champions recently signed on to perform at I’ll Be Your Mirror, a London music festival curated

by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Grizzly Bear that goes down in early May. The band, on hiatus for four years, doesn’t have any other shows lined up.

“I personally would like to push forward and finish the album we started writing, as well as be active,” bassist-vocalist Justin Pearson says in an email. “But one of the members is not ready to get back into it.”

In recent years, members of the band have been busy with other projects. Pearson’s been touring regularly with his hardcore band Retox, and the quartet recently signed to Epitaph Records. The pioneering punk label will put out the band’s new album, YPLL, on May 7.

Meanwhile, Locust guitaristvocalist Bobby Bray now plays in Innerds, teaches at The Art Institute of California—San Diego and co-curates the “Makeout Weird” series at Whistle Stop Bar (which will hold its final installment on April 18, with a performance by Maniqui Lazer).

Bray, for his part, seems ready to move on from The Locust.

“This show is more of a formal ending rather than a resurgence,” he says in an email, about the festival gig. “The band was pretty active between 1994 and 2008— that’s a decent amount of time for any entity to run its course.

“It’s 2013, and our species is barely going through puberty!” he

26 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

The Locust adds. “It’s time for something new, time to seize the present!”

•••

Keep an eye out for Chess Wars, a new duo featuring guitarist Dustin Lothspeich of Old Tiger and funky drummer Jake Najor of The Styletones. The duo recently banged out an album of dirty blues-rock on Lothspeich’s four-track cassette recorder, and they’ll play their live debut at The Void on Thursday, April 11.

CD Review Heavy Hawaii Goosebumps (Art Fag) Heavy Hawaii has a way of sounding hideous and amazing at the same time. On the band’s 2010 debut EP, HH, frontman Matt Barajas offers up an infectious, warped take on the kind of Beach Boysderived indie music that’s become de rigueur lately. Onstage, though, he and his bandmates have at times resembled the sonic equivalent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, churning out dissonant

surf sludge with pitch-bent vocals and ’60s-style pop beats.

On their new album, Goosebumps, Heavy Hawaii veer more toward sludge than pop. Bizarre and sometimes difficult to listen to, this isn’t the most immediately satisfying effort currently making rounds on the blogosphere. But it’s much deeper and more interesting than most surfy indie efforts, and it has a lot more to say.

While garage bands like AllahLas are content to deliver simple, placating tunes, Goosebumps finds Barajas and guitarist Jojo Keylargo using familiar retro-psychedelic tropes to make something frightfully different. The 28-minute album is full of oooh-ing vocals, languorous hooks and swaying 6/8 rhythms, but it all feels more like a circus freak show than a retro beach party.

Anchored by beefy guitar riffs and a keyboard line that burrows into the skull, “Born to Ride” has an immediate appeal, conjuring thoughts of The Toxic Avenger cruising the waves on a longboard.

But other tracks require a little more patience; “She Gets” sounds like a conventional piece of guitar pop that’s been twisted out of shape.

Throughout the album, Barajas uses pitch-shift effects to tweak instruments and down-tune his voice, making for a smeary, tripped-out aesthetic. With it, you can detect an underlying sense of unease: In the ominous “Boy Season,” a carousel of bright keyboards and murky bass tones evoke what it must feel like to ride a Gravitron on way too much LSD. Indeed, Barajas manages to speak volumes with that pitchshifter. As his deep, cartoonish voice clashes with the album’s sunny tones, you get a sense of what it feels like for a carefree young hipster to grow old, when the lazy, carefree vibes of yesteryear start to go sour in the face of growing responsibility.

It could be that Heavy Hawaii just want to mess around, and they’re applying loads of effects to mask their shortcomings as musicians. But it seems they may have some provocative vision in mind. Whatever the case, Goosebumps works.

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

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

if i were u Wednesday, March 27

Saturday, March 30

PLAN A: Heavy Hawaii, Mothlight, DJ Mario Orduno @ Soda Bar. I’m very much a fan of the warped, psychedelic no-wave surf-sludge on Heavy Hawaii’s new album, Goosebumps, which I review on Page 26.

At their recent CD-release show, the duo performed with the help of a four-woman chorus, and while I can’t even imagine how that sounds, I bet it’s pretty cool. PLAN B: Toots & The Maytals, Tribe of Kings @ House of Blues. More than 50 years into their career, Toots & The Maytals, the legendary Jamaican reggae and ska group, still reportedly put on a solid show full of warm vibes and skankable rhythms. BACKUP PLAN: Brown Recluse Alpha, Indignant Senility, Isolde Touch, Bro Zen, DJ Ian Collins @ The Void

PLAN A1: Icona Pop, Angle, DJ Este, Fresh One, Taylor Michael @ Ivy Nightclub. Swedish duo Icona Pop have one good song to their name, a bass-heavy club banger called “I Love It.” And what a song it is! Anchored by Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo’s cheery vocals and sassy lyrics, “I Love It” explodes with the kind of kinetic, four-to-the-floor groove that seems scientifically engineered to get bodies moving.

PLAN A2: Foxygen, Sam Flax @ Soda Bar. On their new album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, Foxygen distill a sweeping range of rock ’n’ roll styles into a smart, lush, silky-smooth sound. And even when singer Sam France shamelessly imitates Mick Jagger, he masters his own nonchalant vocal style. Chihiro Yamanaka @ Dizzy’s.

Thursday, March 28 PLAN A: Joey Bada$$ and Pro Era, Flatbush Zombies, The Underachievers @ Porter’s Pub. Joey Bada$$ would’ve sounded right at home alongside the likes of Nas and A Tribe Called Quest back in the mid-’90s. Harking back to hip-hop’s Golden Age, the 18-year-old Brooklyn rapper spits hearty, dexterous rhymes over boom-bap beats and soulful samples. PLAN B: Peelander-Z, The Touchies, Marco Polo @ Soda Bar. As a Japanese answer to The Aquabats, punks Peelander-Z dress up in color-coded, Power Ranger-style costumes and bang out simple tunes with goofy, nonsensical lyrics. They’re based in New York City, but they claim to come from planet Peelander.

So, yeah, expect some zaniness. BACKUP PLAN: Daedelus, Two Fresh, Ryan Hemsworth, Samo Sound Boy, DJ Turbo Chops @ The Casbah.

Friday, March 29 PLAN A: Hills Like Elephants, Barbarian, Keith Sweaty @ Bar Pink. As I wrote in last week’s issue, local indie-rockers Hills Like Elephants make smart music for fun people. Tonight, they’re celebrating the release of a new album, Feral Flocks, that’s full of luminous textures and big rave-ups.

Meanwhile, up-and-comers Barbarian split the difference between surfy garage and rootsy rock. PLAN A: Caveman, Pure Bathing Culture, Boy King @ The Casbah. Make sure to bring a date to this one: Caveman’s swooning synth-rock anthems are perfect for a walk on the beach, or a nice, long make-out sesh. BACKUP PLAN: Murs, Prof, Fashawn @ Porter’s Pub.

28 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

BY peter holslin

Sunday, March 31 PLAN A: Iceage, Milk Music, Plateaus @ The Casbah. With so many bands going all soft-rock these days, it’s nice to have Iceage around. As Jeff Terich writes on Page 24, they have a knack for solid composition and catchy melody, but they’re also brutal as fuck. I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few people end up a little bruised and bloody after venturing into the pit tonight. PLAN B: Acid Icona Pop Baby Jesus, Hellshovel, Paint Fumes, Slipping Into Darkness @ The Tower Bar. Not only do Greek garagerockers Acid Baby Jesus have an awesome name; they also sound pretty awesome: Their ramshackle riffs and snarling vocals make me think of a bizarro-world Oscar the Grouch who owns a four-track and does a lot of drugs. BACKUP PLAN: Trinidad James, Black Resume, Ryan Bowers & Ryan Anthony, Bad Karma, Cali Cam @ Porter’s Pub.

Monday, April 1 PLAN A: King Dude, Of the Wand & The Moon, The Story of Rats @ The Casbah.

Seattle songwriter King Dude may be pretty gloomy, but he and his bandmates get a little upbeat on their new 7-inch, putting a dark spin on ’50s pop and brisk folk.

Tuesday, April 2 PLAN A: The Last Bison, Kris Orlowski @ The Loft at UCSD. Next time you find yourself wandering through a forest, put on Virginia folkies The Last Bison to make the experience a bit more enchanting.

HOT! NEW! FRESH! Kurt Vile and The Violators (Casbah, 4/12), Action Bronson (Porter’s Pub, 4/16), DIIV (Casbah, 4/16), Javelin (Casbah, 5/2), Various Cruelties (Soda Bar, 4/26), Helmet (The Griffin, 5/1), Prince (Hard Rock Hotel, 5/3-4), Devendra Banhart (BUT, 5/9), Charli XCX (HOB, 5/10), X-Fest w/ The Offspring, 30 Seconds to Mars, Silversun Pickups, Jimmy Eat World, Wavves (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 5/17), JJAMZ (Griffin, 5/21), Mice Parade (Casbah, 5/28), Crystal Fighters (Casbah, 6/1), Mumford & Sons (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 6/3), Beth Orton, James Bay (The Irenic, 6/15), Pitbull, Ke$ha (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 6/16), Sea Wolf (BUT, 6/20), Baths (Casbah, 6/27), John Mayer, Phillip Philips (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 10/4).

GET YER TICKETS The Evens (The Irenic, 4/10), Slum Village (HOB, 4/19), AraabMuzik (Voyeur, 4/24).

March Wednesday, March 27 Sarah Brightman at Viejas Arena. Toots & The Maytals at House of Blues.

Thursday, March 28 Tiger Army at House of Blues. Daedelus, Two Fresh, Ryan Hemsworth, Samo Sound Boy at The Casbah. Peelander-Z at Soda Bar. Joey Badass, Pro Era at Porter’s Pub.

Friday, March 29 Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Brotha Lynch Hung, Kutt Calhoun, Rittz at House of Blues. Caveman at The Casbah. Murs, Prof, Fashawn at Porter’s Pub. Living Colour at Belly Up Tavern.

Saturday, March 30 The Airborne Toxic Event at House of Blues. Foxygen at Soda Bar. Veronica Falls, Brilliant Colors, Golden Grrls at The Casbah.

Sunday, March 31 Iceage, Milk Music at The Casbah. The Airborne Toxic Event at House of Blues.

Acid Baby Jesus, Hellshovel at The Tower Bar. Rez Abbazi Trio at Space 4 Art. Trinidad James at Porter’s Pub.

April Monday, April 1 Lindsey Stirling at House of Blues. King Dude, Of the Wand and the Moon, The Story of Rats at The Casbah. The Weeks at The Griffin.

Wednesday, April 3 Dark Star Orchestra at Belly Up Tavern.

Phosphorescent at The Casbah. Gun Outfit at Soda Bar.

Thursday, April 4 Soul Asylum at Belly Up Tavern.

Friday, April 5 Big Head Todd and The Monsters at Belly Up Tavern.

Saturday, April 6 Esben and The Witch at Soda Bar. William Beckett, Jillette Johnson at House of Blues. Jarred Benton, Vital Mindz, Ryan Bowers at Porter’s Pub.

Sunday, April 7 Thao and The Get Down Stay Down, Sallie Ford at The Casbah. Tyler, the Creator at Porter’s Pub (UCSD; sold out).

Jaymay, Kayoko at Soda Bar.

Tuesday, April 9 Angel Olsen, Villages at The Casbah.

Local H at Soda Bar.

Wednesday, April 10 Kip Moore at House of Blues. Merle Haggard at Belly Up Tavern. The Evens at The Irenic.

Thursday, April 11 Rihanna, A$AP Rocky at Valley View Casino Center. Ben Howard at Belly Up Tavern. Alexander Balanescu + Ada Milea at The Loft @ UCSD. GWAR, Wilson & Warbeast at House of Blues.

Friday, April 12 The Expendables at House of Blues.

Kurt Vile and The Violators at The Casbah.

Saturday, April 13 Pep Love, Opio, Equipto at Porter’s Pub. XXYYXX, Mister Lies at Porter’s Pub (2 p.m.).

Sunday, April 14 Lucero at The Casbah.

Monday, April 15 Foals, Neighbourhood at Porter’s Pub. Wild Nothing at The Casbah. Franz Ferdinand at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. Survival Knife at Soda Bar.

Tuesday, April 16 Alt-J, Hundred Waters at Belly Up Tavern. J Mascis at The Casbah. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sharon Van Etten at Balboa Theatre. DIIV at The Casbah. Action Bronson at Porter’s Pub.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, jam.

Thu: DJs Mada, Beefam. Fri: CORE, The Big Lewinsky. Sat: Dazed N Confused.

Sun: Chocolate Revolution, Lucky Lucifer.

Tue: 710 Bass Club.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Thu: 22 Kings. Fri: Danny Green Trio. Sat: Cathouse Thursday.

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

Wed: DJs Ese’ and Zain, Strmtroopr, Nicky Valentino, Glorious. Thu: DJ Bala. Fri: DJ Junior the Discopunk. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech. Sun: DJs Watch .44, Sunday Sauce.

Mon: ‘Organized Grime’. Tue: DJs Blackass, Twisted Barbie, Kombat, Mr. Ruxpen.

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

Wed: Slanted Comedy. Thu-Sat: Jen Kirkman. Tue: Open mic.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: ‘H.A.M.’ w/ DJ L. Thu: The Calcutta Kid. Fri: Hills Like Elephants

(CD release), Barbarian, Keith Sweaty.

Sat: Fam Royal. Sun: DJs Joemama, Tramlife. Mon: The Husky Boy All-Stars.

Tue: Adrian Demain’s Exoticatronica.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: Benefit for San Diego Coastkeeper w/ The Barnwell Shift, Big Penny, The Blue Moonies. Thu: The Polish Ambassador, Papadosio. Fri: Living Colour, Shake Before Us. Sat: Benefit for Jose Montano w/ Clay Colton Band (3 p.m.); Who’s Bad, Mandorico (9 p.m.).

Blarney Stone Pub, 5617 Balboa Ave, Clairemont. 858-279-2033. Wed: The Barmen. Thu: Ryan Hiller. Fri: The Fooks.

Sat: The Ryan Hiller Band. Sun: Open mic w/ Men of Leisure. Mon: Trivia. Tue: Irish jam, Bob Tedde.

Block No. 16 Union & Spirits, 344 Seventh Ave., Downtown. blockno16.com.

Fri-Sat: DJ Marc Thrasher.

Bluefoot Bar & Lounge, 3404 30th St, North Park. bluefootsd.com. Wed: DJ Donger. Thu: DJ Mike Face. Fri: DJ Iggy.

Sat: DJ Joemama. Sun: DJs Grasy Noll, Iggy.

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Fri: Glitter Cub Disko is Burning. Sat: DJ Jay Valdez. Sat: DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Mon: DJs Junior the Discopunk, XP. Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave, Bay Park. brickbybrick.com. Wed: SD Music TV Open Mic w/ Big Toe and Double Minor. Thu: Adrenaline Mob, Points North, Nothingmore, Symbolic. Fri: Errol Dunkley w/ The Amalgamated, Queen P, Deseree, Kingston A Go Go, 2000 Tons of TNT, DJ Spanky Kingston, MC Saint Maugua. Sat: Smokey Robotic,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

the hit list Weird-offs, boot beers and a big detour For quite some time now, I’ve been privy to some by DJs Felt 1, Rells and R-Type. They’ll spin hipsalacious Facebook and Instagram posts about a hop both old and new, R&B, soul and funk, so don’t mysterious monthly event at Prohibition (548 Fifth be surprised to see at least three dudes doing the Ave., Downtown) simply known as The Weird-Off. white-man’s overbite. Show up before 11 p.m. and These images would often include men in much- avoid paying a $5 cover, ya cheapskate. too-small underwear shaking a cocktail from atop For three years, Detour SD has brought house a bar. On one occasion, a shirtmusic to the hard-partying less bartender was mixing a masses, supporting the efcocktail with a “dong bong,” forts of local house DJs along a beer-bong-like contraption the way. Celebrate the regular that poured alcohol into a glass club night’s third anniversary via plastic dildo. If these sorts at Kava Lounge (2812 Kettof shenanigans pique your inner Blvd. in Middletown) on terest as much as they do mine, Saturday, March 30. Resident I strongly suggest you make DJs J.P. Richardson, Joe Pea, your way to the cocktail bar Brian Patterson, Marques Scot on Wednesday, March 27, for and Thomaz Nestlehner will what’s set to be the final round spin the oonce-oonce music for of a March Madness-themed all the club rats. As an added Boots full of beer?

Weird-Off between some of Nothing wrong with that. bonus, Arte Fresca will have the city’s best mixologists. Exart by Hill Young and Julia pect things to get wild, and maybe semi-nude.

Gomez on view. Just try not to shake your butt so While there won’t be any dong bongs in sight, El hard that you get the spins. No one wants a barfCamino’s (2400 India St. in Little Italy) Fifth Fri- covered painting. days are usually a decent night out, thanks to a reg—Alex Zaragoza ular lineup of cool local DJs and tasty micheladas served in a boot-shaped glass. Order some boots Write to alexz@sdcitybeat.com on Friday, March 29, and groove to tunes provided and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

30 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

Gabriel Valentine, 2 Bit Radio.

Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: Schitzophonics, Okapi Sun, The NFormals. Thu: Daedelus, Two Fresh, Ryan Hemsworth, Samo Sound Boy, DJ Turbo Chops. Fri: Caveman, Pure Bathing Culture, Boy King. Sat: Veronica Falls, Brilliant Colors, Golden Grrls. Sun: Iceage, Milk Music, Plateaus. Mon: King Dude, Of the Wand and The Moon, The Story of Rats. Tue: Cash Crop, Moosejaw, Cochino.

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Wed: Raw Nerves, Death Crisis, Age of Collapse.

Thu: Of Feather and Bone, A Better Hope Foundation, Days of Struggle, Clarity, One Choice. Fri: Joshua Stephens, The Coldsons, Hotel Books, Sledding with Tigers, Jo-Jo Kitty Blues.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. dirksniteclub.com. Wed & Sun: Karaoke. Fri: Noisy Toys. Sat: The Farmers.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Dr, Downtown. dizzyssandiego.com. Fri: Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Choir San Diego.

Sat: Chihiro Yamanaka Trio. Sun: Evan Christopher w/ Bob Boss, Marshall Hawkins, Harold Mason.

El Dorado Bar, 1030 Broadway, Downtown. eldoradobar.com. Wed: DJs Green Eyes, A-Boogie, Kid Wonder, Saul Q, Beto Perez. Thu: Family Wagon, Crash and The Burns, DJ Cliche. Fri: Charlie Rock, Question, DJ Hyder. Sat: Gabe Vega, Saul Q. Mon: Sly Rexx, French Kiss Collective.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: Robbie Rivera. Fri: DJ Kyle Flesch. Sat: Sid Vicious, DJ Craig Smoove.

Sun: Trinidad James, DJ Brett Bodley.

Griffin, 1310 Morena Blvd, Bay Park. thegriffinsd.com. Wed: Plane Without a Pilot,

Boxdox, Badabing. Thu: Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds, Alan Evans Trio. Fri: Soul Ablaze, The Legacy Pack, Pure Riddim Culture, DJ Black Belt Jonez. Sat: Gap Dream, Kut U Up, VUM, Mini Death. Sun: Jack and the Bear, Android Moon. Mon: The Weeks, Low Volts, The Palace Ballroom.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Wed: Toots and The Maytals, Tribe of Kings.

Thu: Tiger Army, Old Man Markley, Stellar Corpses. Fri: Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Brotha Lynch Hung, Kutt Calhoun, Rittz (sold out). Sat: The Airborne Toxic Event (sold out). Sun: The Airborne Toxic Event.

Mon: Lindsey Stirling; Modern Day Moonshine. Tue: Sam Moshfegh, Nautikal.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Thu: MK Ultra, Divinity, Skandar, Duckberry Crunch, Jon Doss, Cranberry. Fri: The Gore Horseman, The Green Almighty, Thee Swank Bastards. Sat: DJs JP Richardson, Joe Pea, Brian Patterson, Marques Skot, Thomaz Nestlehner.

La Gran Tapa, 611 B St, Downtown. lagrantapa.com. Wed & Sun: Carlos Velasco, Grupo Bohemio. Thu: Dusty Brough Guitar. Fri: Juan Moro, flamenco.

Sat: Pan Am. Tue: Tomcat Courtney.

Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. theloft.ucsd.edu. Mon: Blabbermouth.

Tue: The Last Bison, Kris Orlowski.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: 2 Guys Will Move U. Thu: Big City Shaman. Fri: Ron’s Garage. Sat: Elevators.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. numberssd.com. Thu: DJ Angel X; ‘Varsity.’

Fri: DJs Sebastian La Madrid, Rubin. Sat: ‘Club Sabbat’ w/ Robin Roth.

Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. office-

barinc.com. Thu: Ikah Love, Adam Salter, DJ Old Money. Sat: ‘DJs EdRoc, Kanye Asada. Sun: Tribe of Kings.

Pal Joey’s Cocktail Lounge, 5147 Waring Road, Mission Valley. paljoeysonline. com. Wed-Thu, Sun, Tue: Karaoke. Fri: Trouble with Betty. Sat: Lead Foot. Mon: Vicious Phishes.

Patricks II, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed: Bill Magee Blues Band.

Thu: Mystique Element of Soul. Fri: Johnny Vernazza. Sat: Family Style. Sun: The Kyniptionz.

Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Thu: Joey Badass, Pro Era. Fri: MURS, Prof, Fashawn.

Sat: Ryan Leslie, Kelow. Sun: Trinidad James, Black Resume, Ryan Bowers and Ryan Anthony, Bad Karma, Cali Cam. Propagandist, 835 Fifth Ave, Downtown. facebook.com/thepropagandistsd. Thu: Damian vs. DKC Benefit Show w/ Cuckoo Chaos, Grand Tarantula, Buddy Banter, DJs Iggy Mont, B.I.D.I / F.L.Y.N.N, Mike Delgado, Co. Sat: Anniversary party.

Quality Social, 789 Sixth Ave, Downtown. qualitysocial.com. Fri: DJ Jacques Renault. Sat: DJ Junior the Discopunk. Sun: The Deep End. Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St, North Park. queenbeessd.com. Wed: Firehouse Swing.

Thu: Go-Go Bot Event. Sat: Barb Wire Dolls. Sun: Salsa. Tue: ‘Lyrical Exchange.’

Riley’s, 2901 Nimitz Blvd, Point Loma. rileysmusiclounge.com. Wed-Thu, Sun: Karaoke. Fri: The Traumatics. Sat: Kitten with a Whip.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave, La Mesa. rivierasupperclub.com.

Wed: Kice Simko. Thu: Man From Tuesday. Fri: Sure Fire Soul Ensemble. Sat:

Bart Mendoza and True Stories. Tue: Party Planet Karaoke.

Knottyboy, Gum-B w/ CSD, Delano, MC Ridda. Sat: BreakBot, Ireane.

Ruby Room, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Wed: Love and The Skull, Gooding, The Young Gents, Dead End Friends. Thu: Superunloader, The Bandits, Lord Howler. Fri: Mad Traffic, Lucky and Wild, Seeking Alpha, Neon Cough, Chica Diabla. Sat: The Midnight Pine, The Paragraphs, Second Cousins, The Darrows.

Tue: Slasher Movie Marathon.

Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: Bl3ndr, Mark Fisher/Gaslamp Guitars. Thu: Dubstep DJs, Van Roth. Fri: The Disco Pimps, Vinyl Exam. Sat: Fingerbang, DJ Miss Dust. Mon: Reggae. Tue: DJ Von Kiss.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd. Thu: Comedy. Fri: The Styletones. Sat: Stevie and The Hi-Staxx.

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Wed: Brass Hysteria, Hard Fall Hearts. Thu: Outlaw Country Fest w/ Bob Wayne, T. Junior, Nick Bone and The Big Scene. Fri: Bad Daddies, News from the Front, Castoff. Sat: Secret Fun Club, Forrest Friends, A White Hunter.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: Commune Wednesdays w/ Heavy Hawaii, Mothlight, DJ Mario Orduno. Thu: Peelander-Z, The Touchies, Marco Polo. Fri: Homeless Sexuals, Rebel Rebel, Murrugun the Mystic, Media Control. Sat: Foxygen, Sam Flax. Mon: Bart Mendoza and True Stories, Scott Mathiasen and The Shifty Eyed Dogs. Tue: Dirty Fences, The Lumps, Hoodrat.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Fri: Parkway Drive, The Word Alive, Veil of Maya, While She Sleeps. Sat: The Contortionist, Within the Ruins, I Declare War, Reflections, City in the Sea, Terra Firma.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Fri: Loadstar, MK Ultra,

Stingaree, 454 Sixth Ave, Downtown. stingsandiego.com. Fri: DJs Brett Bodley, Decon.

Sat: Djs Crooked, Dynamiq, Chris Devoy.

The Flame, 3780 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. flamesandiego.com. Fri: DJs Bryan Pollard, DarkAngel, Pnm; ‘Darkwave Garden’ w/ DJs B. Pollard, Draikette.

The Void, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, North Park. http://tinyurl.com/axnjs56. Wed: Brown Recluse Alpha, Indignant Senility, Isolde Touch, Bro Zen. Sat: Shiva Trash, The Electric Healing Sound, The Natives, Buddy Banter, Needle Dick DJs. Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Fri: Miki Vale, niomiesoulfly. Sat: Geezer, Vasoline.

Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com. Wed: St. Cloud Sleepers, And And And, The We Shared Milk. Thu: Dancing Strangers, Voice Actor, Non-Issue. Fri: Grampadrew, Decker, C Gibbs, The Sudden Lovelys. Sat: Shaking Pyramid, Oakland Owl. Mon: Tin Can Country Club w/ Chad Pittman. Tue: The Hero Inside, Solwave, Heavy Empire.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos. com. Wed: Zydeco. Thu: Charles Burton Blues Band. Fri: Harp Fest Blast-Off w/ Cadillac Wreckers. Sat: DJ Mauricio.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Wed: DJ Mikey Ratt. Thu: DJ Heather Hardcore,

Diana Death, Miss Kylee. Fri: Christ Killer, Poontang Clam. Sat: The Bugs, The Moans, Tim Raldo. Sun: Acid Baby Jesus, Hellshovel, Paint Fumes, Slipping Into Darkness. Mon: Hudson Falcons, Rat City Riot, Bad Ass. Turquoise, 873 Turquoise St, Pacific Beach. theturquoise.com/wordpress.

Wed: Tomcat Courtney. Thu: Pan Am. Fri: Afro Jazziacs, Tomcat Courtney. Sat: Todo Mundo, Tomcat Courtney. Sun: Sounds Like Four, Smooth Jazz Inspirations. Mon: Pan Am. Tue: Afro Jazziacs.

U-31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Thu: DJ Slynkee. Fri: Fam Royal Friday. Sat: The Rewind Crew. Sun: Rasta Nation Reggae Night. Mon: ‘Taking Back Monday.’

Vin De Syrah, 901 Fifth Ave, Downtown. syrahwineparlor.com. Thu: DJ Giancarlo.

Sat: DJ Kevin Brown.

Voyeur, 755 Fifth Ave, Downtown. voyeursd. com. Thu: Bondax. Sat: Brazzabelle.

Voz Alta, 1754 National Ave, Barrio Logan. vozaltaprojectgallery.com. Thu: Bill Caballero’s Latin Jazz Jam. Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Wed: ‘Vinyl Snobs’.

Fri: Dash Rip Rock. Sat: Diamonds in the Back.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Open mic w/ Jefferson Jay (6 p.m.); Maiz, DJ Carlos Culture (9 p.m.). Thu: Comedy (6 p.m.); Rebirth Brass Band (9:30 p.m.). Fri: Dave Callans, Bombo Belford (6 p.m.); Radio La Chusma, Chris Murry, Piracy Conspiracy (9:30 p.m.). Sat: Monophonics, Pocket.

Sun: ‘O.B.-o-ke’ w/ Jose Sinatra. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Battle of the Bands w/ Lion Path, Jam Kwest, Burning Up, Stir Crazies.

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

32 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 33

Proud sponsor:

Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig

OCEAN BEACH EVERY

WEDNESDAY FARMERS MARKET 4-8PM

Across

1. Be very single-minded 7. Hurl 11. “Pal” 14. Scrilla 15. Person in a congressional sex scandal, perhaps 16. Gp. that sets up international tours for bands 17. Big name in truffles 18. Doomsday weapon operated by George Michael?

20. Classic anime picture 22. State with controversial ID laws 23. Ancient Greek author’s gig?

29. Vichyssoise vessels 30. Doing much more than cqtm 31. Blue and yellow big-box 32. Feel blue or see red 35. Certain striated muscle, briefly 38. “Arrrr, keep your electroshock weapon away from this here chicken stock!”

42. “That’s the whole story?”

43. Text in any of several Eastern religions 44. State where Paul Newman was born 45. Protested during a national anthem, say 46. Vibe 49. Part of the year marking everything being OK? 53. Smurfette’s old man 54. Genre most white people hated until “Saturday Night Fever” 55. Interplanetary graffiti artist’s action?

58. Epoch with lots of fish 63. Big name in stereo cables 64. Indiana Democrat Evan who retired in 2010 65. More likely to scowl at puppies and such 66. Letters on guns at the ballpark 67. Send from office 68. Mitt Romney’s roof-dog’s name

12. Bolt who ran a 9.58 in the 100 13. Dudes, in ‘90s pop culture names 19. Try to grab, as a cab 21. Be firm 23. Peak for Zeus 24. Golden potato 25. Have a hot hashtag 26. James gang?

27. Plant that’s bad for dogs and cats 28. Stiff area?

33. Article for Marx 34. Reputations 35. Frequent subject for TMZ 36. Like badly hung paintings 37. Egyptian god with a baboon head 39. ___ Bomba (hydrogen bomb nickname) 40. Erotic opening?

41. Fantasy sports league option 45. Obeyed the dentist 47. Big Pun and Lil Wayne 48. J.B. who plays Leon on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” 49. Benjamin Jealous is its CEO 50. Kingmaker of Drs. Phil and Oz 51. Occasions for many Facebook greetings, briefly 52. What dying people might see, with “the” 53. Curltastic ‘80s style 56. “Girls” airer 57. Letter that some feel should have its own day, rather than pi having Pi Day 59. “Argo” org.

60. West ___ (fancy furniture store) 61. Krautrock band that split from Kraftwerk 62. -ists’ relatives

Last week’s answers

Down 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

2010 Usher hit featuring will.i.am Word that might fix a spastic diaphragm Links surface Yale of Yale Columnist Dan who coined “santorum” Frightened Napoleonic blade “For Whom the Bell Tolls” lady Domain ender that UC Berkeley was one of the first schools to adopt 10. Soaked 11. Mexican ass

Two $20 gift certificates to Mitch’s Seafood will be awarded weekly. Email a picture of your answers to crossword@sdcitybeat.com or fax it to 619-325-1393. Limit one win per person per 30 days.

34 · San Diego CityBeat · March 27, 2013

March 27, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 35