San Diego CityBeat • April 16, 2014

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2 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Planning and innovating One of the strongest moves Bob Filner made during 25 years old and 31 percent—nearly a third!—were his short run as mayor of San Diego was to hire Bill more than 30 years old.

Fulton to head up the city’s planning department.

These plans need updating, big-time, and FaulFilner’s predecessor, Jerry Sanders, had essentially coner’s proposal is to spend $900,000 on completneutered planning by folding the function into a ing updates for Grantville, Southeastern San Dideveloper-friendly Development Services Departego (Sherman Heights, Logan Heights, Grant Hill, ment, and hiring Fulton, considered an urban-planStockton, Memorial, Mount Hope, Mountain View, ning rock star, to lead an again-independent planSouthcrest and Shelltown) and Encanto (including ning program was bold.

Chollas View, Lincoln Park, Emerald Hills, ValenBy the time Filner resigned, Fulton was settled cia Park and Broadway Heights) in fiscal year 2015 in downtown San Diego and entrenched as the and Uptown (Mission Hills, Hillcrest, Middledirector of the Planning, Neighborhoods and Ecotown, Bankers Hill and University Heights), North nomic Development. Had he been elected mayor, Park, Old Town, Midway, San Ysidro and Golden David Alvarez would certainly have retained FulHill (including South Park) in the first half of fiston, but what Kevin Faulconer would do was more cal year 2016. of an open question. He’d long been a reliable solIf the city has less than $1 million to spend on dier in the pro-developer, less-regulation Republieither the Civic Innovation Lab or community can Party, but his campaign coopted the Democrats’ plans, then Faulconer is making the right choice.

David Rolland pro-neighborhoods stance.

But $900,000 is a tiny fraction of Faulconer’s been mayor for a the city’s $1.18-billion discretionary month-and-a-half now, and, happily, budget; it’s certainly possible that Fulton is still employed by the city. both can be funded if Faulconer, City On Monday, the mayor announced Council President Todd Gloria and his proposed city budget for the next the rest of the council can stomach fiscal year, and it was a bit of a mixed carrying through with a Filner-era bag when it came to Fulton’s realm. initiative.

Fulton’s been an enthusiastic The City Council will hold public backer of the Civic Innovation Lab, budget-review hearings from May 5 an initiative launched by Filner through 8; long-range planning and aimed at dreaming up cool projects the Civic Innovation Lab will be reto enhance public spaces and making viewed from 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, them reality. But if the City CounMay 7. We urge the council to give Kevin Faulconer the folks from the lab a chance to talk cil approves Faulconer’s plan, the Civic Innovation Lab will be scuttled and its four about their work. The lab was a great idea, and it employees offered different city jobs. The money wasn’t given enough of an opportunity to establish budgeted for the lab—roughly $700,000—would its worth. The council should seriously consider be redirected to Fulton’s department, to be spent giving it more time, so long as its goals are clear and on finishing updates to three of the city’s dozens of measurable, and maybe find some private-sector community plans, continuing work on six other upmoney to help fund its operations, as we’re told is dates and making amendments to the general plan, done elsewhere. the overarching blueprint for the city’s growth.

Faulconer so far seems to be making good on The Mayor’s office says that without the money his vow to be neighborhood-focused, and if his fifrom the Civic Innovation Lab, the city would be nance team is to be believed, things are looking up able to update only one or two community plans in terms of tax-revenue projections. If that’s the this coming year. case, we should be looking at the slash-and-burn Making sure that community plans are up to era of city government in the rear-view mirror and date is hugely important. Neighborhoods and the seizing the opportunity to think creatively and inpriorities that govern how they flourish change novate. A small team is in place, and it’s just gotten over time, and community plans establish the rules started. Let’s not kill it before it’s had the chance to take off. for growth in the neighborhoods. At this time last year, 71 percent of the city’s community plans were What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com. more than 20 years old, 54 percent were more than This issue of CityBeat is dedicated to our dark lord and savior, Blood Moon.

Our cover art is by David B. Cuzick.

Read about him on Page 36.

Volume 12 • Issue 36 Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Jeff Terich Arts Editor Kinsee Morlan Staff Writer Joshua Emerson Smith Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Lindsey Voltoline Columnists Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza

Contributors Ian Cheesman, David L. Coddon, Seth Combs, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Nina Sachdev Hoffmann, Peter Holslin, Dave Maass, Scott McDonald, Jenny Montgomery, Susan Myrland, Mina Riazi, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Jen Van Tieghem, Quan Vu

Circulation / Office Assistant Giovanna Tricoli

Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse

Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami

Production artist Rees Withrow

Vice President of Operations David Comden

MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia

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Accounting Alysia Chavez, Linda Lam, Monica MacCree Human Resources Andrea Baker

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San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2014.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

Unhappy ending While I’m in agreement with the stance in your March 19 “Editor’s Note” regarding the killer-whale controversy at SeaWorld, I thought the tone of your remarks took an ugly U-T San Diego-like turn in your last paragraph.

Reasonable people can disagree on just about any issue, and throughout your piece, I thought you had made a good, cogent argument with respect to SeaWorld’s use of the whales. But in the end, you said you were “inclined” to be disgusted with SeaWorld’s past and thought they were being “obnoxious” at their present.

Those words only add fire and no light to the matter.

Are you suggesting that SeaWorld intentionally wants to harm these animals? Harm may be an effect of how they’re handled, but are the trainers and other staff who work with the whales bad people? And I don’t think you can be inclined to be disgusted by something. You either are or you aren’t. Leave the hyperbole to the experts at the U-T. You’re better than that.

Rob Cohen, Kensington

More enrichment In your March 19 “Editor’s Note,” you said: “I believe you can have the research,

rescue, conservation and education without the exploitation and the gaudy entertainment.” My sentiments exactly.

I’d like to see all of San Diego’s animal “entertainment” venues reworked for research and education purposes—remove restaurants, trinket shops, “shows,” etc., enlarge animals’ living spaces and provide much more enrichment for their lives.

Barbara Walter, Escondido

Spreading the bad word Thanks for spreading the word on the hypocrisy, greed and disregard for animals displayed by SeaWorld. [“Editor’s Note,” March 19].

Janice Bartlett, Leucadia

SeaWorld’s arcane concept I totally agree with what you said in your March 19 “Editor’s Note”—100 percent.

I’ve never been a fan of SeaWorld. It just always seemed so fake and made-up.

Seeing marine animals in small pens, doing tricks to entertain small children and adults is asinine. It’s an extremely outdated and arcane concept from back in the day, several centuries ago, when

man thought it was our god-given right to conquer and control nature. Hopefully, most of us know now that this is not the case. Animals are not here for our amusement—the animals in SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo or any animals in captivity held against their own free will.

I really hope Richard Bloom’s bill passes and SeaWorld is forced to become more conscious of its inhabitants and evolves with a much more environmentally friendly stewardship.

It’s time for SeaWorld to redefine itself or fall into obscurity. There are plenty more tourist attractions to see and do in San Diego besides SeaWorld. I don’t see us losing tourism money if the bill passes; I see the money being spent in other, better areas.

Great article. Let’s keep this discussion going and continue to draw awareness to help these sea mammals that don’t have a voice, like Tilikum.

Denise Milbauer, University Heights

SeaWorld needs to change Many thanks for sharing your take on SeaWorld [“Editor’s Note,” March 19]. I’m a San Diego native who grew up going to SeaWorld, and it’s a part of local culture, but some things need to change. Keeping

orcas captive is one of those things.

So often, the pro-animal side of the argument becomes shrill, and its written attempts at persuasion are laden with exclamation marks and words in all-caps. Your piece makes the argument without the credibility-killing emotion.

Well done.

Yes, let’s see what Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins has to say. After the disappointing unanimous City Council support of declaring March “SeaWorld Month,” it would be a bold move indeed if she came out in favor of Richard Bloom’s heroic legislation.

If Los Angeles and San Francisco come out in favor of the legislation and San Diego remains opposed, it would pit city against city. I hope you’ll keep readers posted on what happens with this legislation. SeaWorld news is hot-hot-hot right now.

Elaine Boyd, North Park Editor’s note: Atkins hasn’t articulated her position on Bloom’s bill, but she’s had positive things to say about SeaWorld while attending the theme park’s 50th birthday party. Meanwhile, last week, the bill stalled for at least a year when it was sent out for further study by the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife.

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

Joshua Emerson Smith

Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez, a member of the transportation agency’s 15person board. “That’s been the sentiment from them for a long time.”

Under the current system, permit holders often lease a vehicle in 12-hour shifts to two drivers a day, pulling in an average of $800 a week per permit, according to a 2013 study from the Center on Policy Initiatives and San Diego State University.

The industry has yet to disclose its average overhead costs, but with permit holders often owning dozens of permits, revenue can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. USA Cab alone, for instance, held 42 permits as of 2012, according to the most recent MTS records available. Eritrean Cab had 35 permits, Unique Cab had 27 and San Diego Cab had 25.

Meanwhile, drivers earn an average of $4.45 an hour, working more than 70 hours a week, according to the report, for which more than 300 taxi drivers were interviewed. A major reason why earnings are so low is that about 40 percent of gross income goes to pay for the cab lease.

This apparently lucrative setup for permit holders has created an unregulated market in which permits are bought and sold for tens of thousands of dollars, according to the industry’s own figures. “[T]he market value of each taxi permit Cab driver Osman Ibrahim Osman, in the middle of a shift of more than 12 hours has many folded [sic] and reached at [sic] record price of $150,000,” reads an internal memo from the San Diego Transportation Association obtained by CityBeat. “Many people have sold their whole lifetime as“It’s an area-specific, cultural-specific issue It would be unfair to fix lease prices across sets to own one Taxi medallion for operatthat they’re just not dealing with.” the board because overhead costs, such as ing their own business and make the living Under mounting pressure to reform the car insurance and maintenance, can signifi- of their families.” system, Mayor Kevin Faulconer is expected cantly fluctuate between permit holders, While Anderson, speaking for the asto soon issue new rules regulating the in- said Michel Anderson, a spokesperson and sociation, said he couldn’t speculate on dustry. However, it’s unclear if his changes lobbyist for the association. permit-holder profits, he denied that drivwill address cab-driver wages.

“All of these variable costs that go into ers were suffering, blasting the CPI report Faulconer declined to comment for this the vehicle cannot be standardized to the as inaccurate. story. But a spokesperson said the mayor extent that a cap lease would be acceptable “I don’t believe that they interviewed 300 supports regulations that would take old- to the owners,” Anderson said. taxicab drivers,” he said. “I dispute that. er vehicles off the road, as well as require “Why would anybody want to be a lease At the same time, taxicab owners lobbyowners to issue and maintain records for ing to maintain the status quo donated gen- driver if they’re making less than minimum lease payments. Such policies are common- erously to Faulconer’s mayoral campaign. wage when you could go to In-N-Out Burgplace in large cities around the state and For example, George Abraham, owner of er or anywhere else and get a minimumcountry. Also on the table is the creation of Eritrean Cab, donated wage job?” he added. a city-run forum to settle wage disputes be- $500 to the mayor in “They do it because “MTS has always taken tween taxicab owners and lease drivers, the the primary and then there’s money in it.” details of which are murky at best.

Last June, former the maximum $1,000 the irresponsible posture However, the Mayor’s office wouldn’t in the general elecMayor Bob Filner dethat they don’t have say if Faulconer supports the taxicab driv- tion. Yellow Cab marclined to renew the ers’ primary demand: setting a cap on how keting director Ancity’s five-year MTS any role in oversight of much money cab owners can charge driv- thony Palmeri injected contract overseeing the taxi situation.” ers to lease a vehicle. the taxicab industry. $1,000 into Faulcon—David Alvarez “This is a common-sense solution for re- er’s primary campaign Rather, Filner issued ducing the dangerously long hours they’re and $500 into his gena one-year extension required to drive to barely make a living,” eral. Tony and Alfredo and set aside $100,000 Saez said. to study whether the city should take over Hueso of USA Cab each gave $500.

Backing the United Taxi Workers of San Right now, the city contracts with the regulating the permitting system.

Diego are more than a dozen groups and Metropolitan Transit System to oversee its That concerned permit holders. Acofficials, including the ACLU of San Diego more than 900 permitted taxicabs. In re- cording to the association’s internal memo, and Imperial Counties, the National As- cent years, taxi drivers and advocates have its top two goals are to “stand firm” against sociation for the Advancement of Colored pleaded with MTS officials to reform in- transferring industry regulation away from People, state Assemblymember Lorena dustry regulations. Now some elected offi- MTS and causing the “dissolution” of the Gonzalez and the Employee Rights Center. cials are increasingly criticizing the agency United Taxi Workers of San Diego.

However, the San Diego Transportation for not taking action.

In the run-up to the association’s formaAssociation, a coalition of taxi-permit hold“MTS has always taken the irrespon- tion, Orange Cab owner Amir Aghassi also ers and cab-company owners formed last sible posture that they don’t have any role year, has vehemently opposed a lease cap. in oversight of the taxi situation,” said San Taxi CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Rerouting the cab industry Taxi drivers fear getting shortchanged on reforms

by Joshua Emerson Smith Last Friday afternoon, taxi driver Osman Ibrahim Osman had picked up only two customers. He started at 7 a.m. and anticipated being on the road until 2 the next morning. If lucky, after gas and a permit fee, he might make about $75.

“I never tried to work taxi, but the situation put me to work taxis,” he said. “There’s nothing. There’s no manufacturing. There’s not another job to work at, only this taxi.”

Granted asylum from Sudan, his home country, Osman moved to the United States more than a decade ago. After being laid off during the recession from two successive security-guard positions, a friend got him a job driving a cab. For the last three years, he said, he’s brought home about $11,000 a year, working 14-hour shifts.

“Working taxi, you’re disconnected with your social [life], with your people, with your family,” said the 41-year-old refugee, who lives in City Heights with his wife. “I don’t like it, but I don’t have choice.”

Osman is subject to a system that critics say enriches taxicab owners by exploiting the city’s roughly 1,850 drivers—about 90 percent of whom are Middle Eastern or African immigrants and lease their vehicles.

“It’s hundreds of refugees that are being affected,” said Sarah Saez, program director with the United Taxi Workers of San Diego, a member organization formed in 2012.

6 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

David Rolland

john r.

spin cycle

lamb Post-election pep talk “I want to make lemonade out of the lemons that were dealt to me.”

—Baron Hill Oblivious to most sun-kissed Balboa Park patrons last Saturday afternoon, a gathering of political dreamers clustered in the iconic El Centro Cultural de la Raza for a forum appropriately titled, “What the Heck Just Happened?

And What Now?” For all cave dwellers, Republican Kevin Faulconer is now mayor of San Diego—congrats to him, enjoy the spotlight, etc. That reality was abundantly clear on the faces of the 60 or so attendees of the forum organized by the Chicano Democratic Association.

Indeed, there was some interesting analysis of the recent special election offered by some sharp political minds, but Spin Cycle also wanted to see how City Councilmember David Alvarez, Faulconer’s narrowly defeated mayoral opponent, was handling the loss. Whispers among some Democrats suggested that he had taken defeat hard.

Casually dressed and unshaven, Alvarez told the audience that he’d spent that morning knocking on doors in support of District 2 City Council candidate Sarah Boot, whose team did the same for him during his mayoral run.

Prior to the mayor’s race, such canvassing might not have engendered much cachet for Boot.

“When I first got into the race,”

Alvarez told the crowd, “the first poll, there was 4 percent of the people in the entire city of San Diego who knew who I was—4 percent of the people!”

A poll he saw a month ago, Alvarez added, put that number at 92 percent of the electorate. “I hope that you all see this experience as I do,” he said. “It was such a positive, well-run campaign.”

Alvarez drew laughs when he talked about attending Faulconer’s swanky inaugural gala on the waterfront after the election. “I was talking to one of my colleagues on the council who’s a Republican, and he said that last week they were”—he paused— “you know, they were really scared, and he thought that maybe we were going to pull it off.”

Alvarez seemed to bristle a little when recounting the head-pat notion of his potential political trajectory. “Yeah, of course they say, ‘David, you’ve got a bright future.’ But I’ve always said that politics is not about an individual.

It’s about a movement and what you believe in,” he said.

On that front, those assembled seemed in agreement. They particularly got a kick when Alvarez proclaimed unequivocally, “San Diego has definitely changed. I believe with no doubt in my mind that after the mayoralship of Kevin Faulconer, Democrats will be in control of the city for a long time to come.”

But, he added, much work lies ahead. Noting the baffling predilection of San Diego’s Democratic

David Alvarez voters who engage during presidential election years but wander away during off-year races, Alvarez said the presumption that campaign mailers and TV ads will drive Democrats to the polls just doesn’t hold water.

“They have jobs. They take kids to school. They work sometimes multiple jobs,” he said. “So it’s a lot more challenging to engage than we’d like, but we were able to do some.”

Contrary to some local punditry, Latinos did vote in impressive numbers, despite the challenge of a shortened election cycle, Alvarez campaign manager Gabriel Solmer told the audience. The drop-

off in voters, she suggested, came from the more white precincts.

Her subtle note was turned to a blast by an Alvarez volunteer in the audience who called it a “strategic mistake” not to focus on voters north of Interstate 8, where Faulconer soared. “We focus too much on putting a lot of blame on the Latinos not turning out,” he said. “No, the whites didn’t turn out north of 8 that turned out on Nov. 19.”

He said he talked to a lot of people who seemed put off by the lack of participation from certain Democratic leaders—he mentioned Nathan Fletcher, Juan Vargas and Lorena Gonzalez.

“They expressed that if they’re

not interested, I’m not going to bother with it,” he said.

San Diego State University political science professor Isidro Ortiz, a panelist at the forum, was the only participant to touch on the subject, noting that “the Democratic elite in San Diego were a house divided amongst themselves. This was evident before the election and increasingly clear during the election…. There was no solidarity, not much unity. How can you expect to win an election when you have one group of Democrats supporting one candidate and others endorsing another. It just doesn’t work.”

Ortiz described the Republican analysis of the election— “better candidate, better team, more compelling message”—as little more than “self-congratulatory.” But he said voters’ growing preference for mail ballots— where the local Republican apparatus shines—should be a focus going forward.

Carmen Lopez, outreach coordinator for the county Registrar of Voters, echoed that sentiment, noting that 85 percent of new U.S. citizens locally now

Spin Cycle CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

Taxi CONTINUED from PAGE 6 released a letter, urging prospective members to charge cabdrivers a $10 a month fee in an effort to raise money for a lobbyist. Anderson got the job. The lawyer and owner of Michel Anderson Associates also donated to Faulconer’s campaign, giving the maximum $1,000 in the general election.

However, taxicab owners may not have needed so much firepower. After Filner resigned in disgrace last year, City Council President Todd Gloria became interim mayor and put the study on ice, telling MTS the city would renew its long-term contract.

“I understand that some drivers agree to leases that are beyond what may be reasonable, and that vehicle and driver safety is a concern,” Gloria said in an email to CityBeat. “Unfortunately, the study that was suggested by my predecessor wouldn’t have addressed those items. Developing regulations to actually improve the industry instead of fighting over who will oversee those regulations that haven’t been written would be more productive.”

Echoing the mayor’s comments, Gloria, an MTS board member and former chair of the

8 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

MTS Taxicab Committee, said he supports reforms that would keep older taxicabs off the road and require records of receipts for lease payments.

The most vocal advocate for drivers has been City Councilmember Marti Emerald, who also sits on the MTS board and whose District 9 has the majority of the city’s immigrant cabdrivers.

In December, she successfully put Gloria’s plan to extend the MTS contract on hold, pushing for more substantial reforms.

“As a member of the San Diego City Council, it is important we create a solution that is in the best interest of the city, the safety of the public, and all of those involved in the taxi industry,” she said in an email to CityBeat. “The core issue: current working conditions for taxicab drivers.”

In March, the MTS board of directors voted to move forward with a new agreement, recommending a contract of up to five years and the city-run forum to settle wage disputes.

The substance of the contract now falls to the Mayor’s office.

The MTS board will consider final approval this summer. The current contract expires on June 30.

Spin Cycle CONTINUED from PAGE 7

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

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

register to vote by mail. Unfortunately, “hundreds” of ballots are tossed out when they arrive late or lack a signature.

“These are people who come from 26 different Spanish-speaking countries where vote-by-mail does not exist,” Lopez said. She suggested that increased voter education, moving early voting from Saturday to Sunday—“A lot of Latino families work six days a week,” she said—and even early ballot drop-off opportunities at polling places would help boost turnout.

Forum participants emphasized in the end that the road to a progressive political future for San Diego will not be an easy ride, but it will come.

As Alvarez put it: “How the city really has not invested in a lot of our communities, how people have been left behind—all of that was brought to the forefront of this campaign. It was centered on that so much so that the other candidate decided to take on the same mantra, right? He talked about the same exact things.”

edwin

sordid tales

decker To be or not to be psychoanalyzed Forty pounds. That’s the amount of weight I’ve eats a lot because smoking, drinking and eating are shaved off my torso, ass, thighs and chins. Forty the fucking funnest things to do on the planet! bona-fide, USDA grade-A pounds since late JanuI don’t know about you, but I don’t need a hole ary—just before W. said she was leaving. I also quit in my life to adore the all-shit out of a cold beer smoking and, for the most part, drinking. and a snort of tequila after a hard day of work.

Let me tell you something: In the beginning, I don’t need to have been neglected by my parthose were some dark days. I ask you: When ents in order to immerse my brain into the endordoes a man need a bottle, a butt and a burrito phin dunk tank that is the first cigarette of the day. more than when the woman he loves packs up And don’t get me started about carne asada burher fluffy pillows and moves out? But as dark as ritos. When I see the glowing yellow and orange those days were, it was the evenings that almost beacon that is a fast-food Mexican joint, and I pull killed me. There’s something about the night that up and say, “Carne asada burrito, por favor,” and I crawls inside a sad man’s soul and coils there like pull that little brown paper bag into the car—the a rotting shadow. steam piping from the opening like a smokestack As badly as I wanted to booze, butt and burrito on top of a factory of awesome—and I get home my way through that despair, I knew I couldn’t let and dive into that half-pound log of meat-amole, myself spiral any further. I was more bloated and all I’m saying is, if there’s a hole in my life, it’s a pale than ever and, as a direct result, depressed. hole of not having a carne asada burrito to bite into It was clear that to further indulge myself would at any given moment. only make me more miserable in the long run.

Indeed, over the years, I have pondered these Not that this was a revelation—but when darkquestions, and I truly can’t think of anything that ness swallows your house and there’s nothing would drive me to my cravings. My parents were but the hum of the refrigerator and a black TV loving and attentive yet mindful disciplinarians. screen (black because every My siblings love and respect me movie, show and commercial as much as can be expected for I don’t need a hole was about a wife who walks out the siblings of an argumentawith her fluffy pillows), knowing tive, controlling blowhard. My in my life to adore your vices are not solutions—and friends seem to enjoy my compathe all-shit out of not succumbing to them—is like ny as much as I enjoy theirs. My knowing to stand your ground job doesn’t suck nearly as much a cold beer and a during a bear encounter and not as most jobs suck. I don’t hold snort of tequila after run away in a sheer, stark panic grudges. I shrug off bullshit fairly when he charges. easily. I’m quite satisfied with the a hard day of work.

So, kudos to me for staring girth of my, um, cerebrum. And down the charging grizzly of the only time I’m depressed or my addictions. It’s not easy to lose 40 pounds and suffer from low self-esteem is when I get fat and quit smoking at the same time. Dare I say, the only pale from eating, drinking and smoking too much. things more difficult are things that are impossible, This is why I’m skeptical about counseling. like time travel, air walking and finding trustworthy Actually, let me rephrase: I’m skeptical about Malaysian pilots. And the next nearly impossible counseling for me. I have no doubt that it’s helpthing I must do is never go back to the way it was. ful to others—I know people who swear by it.

To this end—according to W., my mother and But those people, they do have underlying issues. several of my close friends—I could benefit from They knew that going in, and they knew it even more afterward. seeing a counselor. My wife and mother have esThat said, I’m going to give it a try. After all, pecially been pushing for this because they’re what do I know about what there is to be known? convinced that my addictions are the symptom of Maybe there is an underlying issue and it will be some existential hole in my life that must be aduncovered during some new-age hydro-hypno dressed if I hope to keep the weight off and the transpersonal mud and cucumber aroma-memory cigarettes unlit. therapy. Fine. I am not afraid.

And while I admit to not knowing anything In the meantime, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve about psychology—other than what it says on the been doing. I won’t smoke any more cigarettes. hinternet about being a process of self-discovery And I’ll only booze and burrito up on special occato help people confront such mental ailments as sions, such as when I finish a column. And willya depression, addiction, stress, low self-esteem and look at that? This column is done. So, get ready Exrelationship issues—I remain skeptical. I’ve done istential Hole in my Life Where the Mexican Facmy fair share of self-evaluation over the years and tory Smokestack of Awesome Meat Logs Should honestly don’t believe an underlying issue is fuelBe, you’re about to get filled. ing my vices.

I was never the kind of person who (knowingWrite to edwin@sdcitybeat.com ly) smoked, drank or ate to escape troubles or reand editor@sdcitybeat.com. Listen to place something that was lacking. I’m the kind of “Sordid Tales: The Podcast!” at sdcitybeat.com. person—or so I believe—who smokes, drinks and

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner

chicken-teriyaki taco is unimpressive, and I’m far from convinced that the world really needs another battered and deep-fried fish taco. But the barbecued beef—more galbi than bulgogi—is excellent: tender, sweet with deep umami and just a hint of the thrill of the grill.

Tabe’s burritos work less well. Fusion wraps were novel in the ’90s, less so in the ’00s. In the 20-teens, fusion wraps— Tabe’s barbecued-beef slider and, let’s be honest, that’s what a Korean-Mexican burrito is—are a tired idea. Moreover, instead of adding layers of flavor, adding boatloads of rice just makes the dish a gut buster.

Tabe’s sliders work better. Direct and no nonsense, these are meat on a bun with the addition of cheese. Korean-Mexican fusion? No. East-West fusion, street-food style Korean-American fusion? Check. Here, the beef filling works better than the pork. And It never seemed likely to work, right up until it Tabe’s Chinese five-spice-laced french fries did. Mexican and Korean? Really? Latin Ameriare equally good. They are perfectly fried, and can and Asian? Are you kidding me? And from a the spice enhances the potatoes’ natural flavor roach coach? Only it did work. It really did. without overwhelming it.

Roy Choi was the first to do it with his Kogi If Korean-Mexican fusion is an accident, it’s BBQ Taco Truck in Los Angeles in 2008. The one of Southern California culture and geograTabe BBQ food truck in San Diego wasn’t far phy. Kogi’s Choi didn’t just grow up in Korea behind, patrolling San Diego streets by 2010, ofTown; he grew up in Los Angeles brimming fering its own take on Korean-Mexican fusion with cultural cross-fertilization, if sometimes tacos and burritos curbside (tabebbq.com and by crashing those cultures against one another. @tabebbq on Twitter, with daily locations listed At Tabe, and Kogi before it, that crash proved at sdfoodtrucks.com). to be a happy accident.

The food at Tabe (pronounced “tah-bay”) is In its four-year history, Tabe has been at its best when it’s closest to the core idea: Kothrough a number of incarnations. Personnel rean-barbecue fillings inside tortillas. Perhaps has changed, chefs have changed, locations have Tabe’s best dish is its spicy-pork taco. One bite changed and business plans have evolved to and suddenly that counterintuitive Mexicanadapt to a changing environment. What hasn’t Korean-fusion thing starts to make sense. A changed is the essential idea of combining our deep, full, meaty flavor with hints of heat and a American notion of street food with Eastern, layer of sweetness, it was a flavor profile I imprimarily Korean flavors. And while that Koremediately recognized as more than just a bit an-Mexican idea may seem counterintuitive at like tacos al pastor. Of course it works. first, that impression will likely last only until the first trip to the Tabe truck.

Tabe’s tacos come in flour tortillas, not corn, which is an unfortunate choice. In addition to Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com the spicy-pork version, filling offerings include and editor@sdcitybeat.com. barbecued beef, chicken teriyaki and fish. The

the world

fare

10 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

By Jen Van Tieghem

bottle

Rocket In the white room

One of the first striking features of The Flight Path is its décor—or lack thereof. The stark white walls, tables, chairs and countertops give the new wine bar an almost sterile appearance. While it’s not my favorite aesthetic, it does bring a sharper focus to the wine and food, which seem more brilliantly colorful in the setting.

Another important note here is the reasonable prices, especially considering the prime location (1202 Kettner Blvd., Downtown, theflightpathsd.com), which you’d expect to jack up the cost.

The daily happy hour (4 to 6 p.m.) features three wines at $6, three more at $8 and four small appetizers to munch on.

A friend and I jumped on these items—she started with a glass of jammy 2012 Carmenere by G7 and I chose a refreshing 2011 Pomerols Picpoul de Pinet. The latter has become one of my recent favorites. I’ve never

been well-versed in French wine, but now that I’ve discovered this type—made from Piquepoul blanc grapes—I enjoy it whenever it’s available. This particular glass, with its citrus notes, was an ideal match for the trio of olives lightly coated in lemon juice and zest from the happy-hour menu.

Sticking with my French-wine kick, I next enjoyed a 2009 Bordeaux blend by Chateau Les Gravières, made mostly of Merlot. This smokyscented wine presented a tart cherry flavor that complemented the fig burrata Jen Van Tieghem I was inhaling with pieces of bread—another tasty treat from the food menu that came with enough to share.

For the most part, The Flight Path sticks to the formula of a good wine bar: eclectic menu, well-paired foods and friendly service. Another note on the location: situated just steps from the Santa Fe Train Depot, it’s next to a new Stone Brewing store. Both drinking establishments are part of a larger building seemingly filled with offices.

If I could take a lunch break at these two spots I’d work seven days a week.

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

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

by Mina Riazi mina riazi

One Lucky

Spoon

Go for the green-tea pudding There are no California rolls at Robata-ya Oton.

For dessert, don’t expect tempura-fried greentea ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce and dressed with a paper umbrella. There’s a Shogun for that—and it’s only a parking lot away.

Unlike the multi-roomed behemoth, Robata-ya Oton (5447 Kearny Villa Road in Kearny Mesa) does not self-orientalize. Trust me, you won’t miss the kitsch. The Japanese, home-style fare served at this hole-in-the-wall is gentle and elaborate and free of cartoonish add-ons.

Detailed yet straightforward, the décor follows a similar storyline. There are six private rooms— separated by shoji screens—a modest, albeit somewhat cramped, bar and one wooden booth.

Leaving the sun-blasted parking lot for Robata-ya Oton’s cool and quiet interior is a softening experience, like stepping into a secret hideaway.

A sister restaurant to Wa Okan Dining, Robata-ya Oton offers a long menu that can be difficult to navigate—especially if you arrive hungry, as you should. A second, seasonal menu will add to your confusion. I advise bringing a pen and paper, so that you can map out your meal and savor

12 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

a wide assortment of dishes.

Whatever you do, though, don’t miss out on the buri kama, or grilled yellowtail cheek. Our server, Tokomo, moved from Japan three years ago to work at Robata-ya Oton and now manages the place. She suggested we try the fish dish, saying it’s one of the restaurant’s most popular.

Kama is the fish collar, an oddly shaped, almost hook-like piece that’s richly flavorful, thanks to its high fat content. Oton serves the buri kama with a lemon wedge— the only dressing it needs. Crisped, almost blackened skin gives way to oily, supple meat. I remember being skeptical of comparisons made between buri kama and pork belly.

Now, I totally get it.

A pitter-patter of small plates followed, led by a milky block of chilled tofu topped with green onion and grated ginger. Refreshing in its coolness, the mildly flavored yakko’s main draw is its texture, which brings to mind the cream-based Italian dessert panna cotta.

There are also thin, soft slices of grilled duck served alongside grated wasabi, and coins of lightly seared beef, or gyu-tataki, that you dip into a tart ponzu sauce.

You might find the grilled beef tongue too chewy, though. The skewered, gumball-size pieces are tough and firm and better left alone.

Go for the karaage, or fried chicken, instead: The easy-to-eat, two-bite chunks are addictive and pair exquisitely with a lemony mayonnaise.

Just as I decided I couldn’t eat any more food, I discovered a menu section titled “Closing dishes.” Curious, I asked Tokomo about it. In Japan, she said, diners often stunt the effect of the alcohol they’ve imbibed with a bowl of noodles.

A few minutes later, the buckwheat noodles arrived at our table, swirled with mushrooms and swathed in a hot, silky soup. But the meal didn’t end there. The green-tea pudding is excellent, Tokomo said. Prepared in-house by chef Koichi Yamamoto, the pudding melted in my mouth. In between spoonfuls, I told Tokomo just how right she was.

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

[T echnology ] no life

offline

by dave maass

Before you start up in San Diego It’s official. Because Forbes said so, San Diego is the No. 1 city in the country for startups.

Oh wait. In 2013, we were only No. 20 on the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s startuphotspot ranking. Hmmm, we didn’t even make the “Top Startup Cities by Cost and Taxes” infographic produced by the tax software startup GoodApril last summer.

Notice I still say “we.” Even though I’ve moved to San Francisco, I remain a cynical but dedicated booster of San Diego. When a Silicon Valley entrepreneur asks me for advice (which is never), I tell them that Forbes rules, Kauffman drools and GoodApril—well, who the f-bomb are those fools? Yes, if you’re starting a tech business, you should follow the coast until you hit the border.

While I’m doling out unsolicited advice, I want to share some insight I’ve picked up in the year or so I’ve been in the Bay Area. There’s a bit of a class war underway, or at least an accelerating series of clashes, between local communities and the tech sector. You may have heard of protesters blocking Google buses or online services refusing to pay local taxes. Words like “Tech bros” and “Glassholes” are appearing in news articles. Although it shouldn’t have taken me by surprise, I’m stunned that computer nerds are suddenly the bad guys.

But they don’t have to be.

Here are a few tips for tech companies (whether you’re a brand-new startup a migrating giant) to live in harmony with San Diego: Don’t roll in like a parasitic alien species that takes over and gobbles up all the resources. There’s no shortage of land in San Diego County, so don’t displace rooted communities, whether by buying up property or driving up rents. I’m sure North County and East County would love to have you, but if you do want to build in the city (or any of the cities on either side of the border), make sure you employ and, if necessary, train a significant portion of the local population, rather than just importing recent grads from around the world.

Don’t create a segregated society. It’s one thing to turn a corporate campus into a huge, contained community. That’s kind of cool—except for the people who never get to visit it. A quick way to irritate the locals is to extend your insulated world outside the walls of your company, building your own city on top of the existing city. Mass transit is a good example here: The Silicon Valley giants have created their own complicated private-bus system for their employees, essentially undermining the benefit of the startup boom on

the city’s transit system. Worse, companies have been using public bus stops. If you want harmony, you have to become a part of the community.

That means not pretending that your service innovatively brings down costs of a service—such as vacation housing or car-sharing—when really you’re just pretending that regulations and taxes don’t apply to you.

Solve local problems for free. Include some pro-bono tech work in your business model. As you launch your revolutionary fresh-grocery-delivery service, make sure you’re simultaneously helping solve San Diego’s “food desert” problems. Don’t just offer to help because you think you’ll score a government contract out of it later.

(Quick rant: Awhile back, CityBeat’s Kelly Davis wrote about homeless parolees who have to hide out in bookstores for a couple of hours each day to charge their ankle bracelets. That’s Lindsey Voltoline

A hipster, a glasshole and a bro walk into a bar. no good for the homeless person, worse for the businesses and unsettling for the public. General Atomics can keep a 2,500-pound drone in the air for 40 hours, so how the hell do we still have this problem?)

Don’t be arrogant: A lot of the problem is just the attitude toward those outside the bubble.

San Diego’s got a lot of bros and hipsters, but they usually get along by balancing the generally chill kumbaya California vibe with long-term ambition. You have to do the same. Or, in the words of Deadphones (a San Diego band that I’ll plug for no real reason except that I’m just in love with their new album): “Take it easy. Take control.”

And, c’mon, tech folks, cut the disdain for poor, disadvantaged and mentally ill people. Being in the tech sector doesn’t immunize you from human frailty. There is no shortage of advanced science degrees on the streets and in the shelters.

Don’t wear Google Glass in bars. At least not without asking the bartender first.

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

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

the

SHORTlist

1

HARP OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

“Once, a gentleman gave one of my children a tin whistle—a veritable invention of Satan, sir, and one which I have an unspeakable horror of, and so would you if you had eighty or ninety children in your house,” Brigham Young reportedly told Mark Twain, according to the author’s hysterical travelogue, Roughing It. That brings us to Saturday, April 19, when, at the family-friendly Spring Harp Fest, a seemingly inexhaustible supply of harmonicas will be available. So, pack the kids, rent a dog and dust off that Frisbee.

From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Harry Griffen Park (9550 Milden St. in La Mesa), a lineup of regional and nationally known musicians will blow delicious tunes through their tin sandwiches. And the whole outdoor concert’s free, with a suggested donation of $10.

“It’s a cool party. You never been?” founder and organizer “Harmonica” John Frazer asks CityBeat somewhat incredulously. “Oh, you got to go. Once you go, you’ll never want to miss it again.”

Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the event features Eric Von Herzen, of Social Distortion, with his band Atomic Road Kings. In the afternoon, there’s an audience-participation jam. And the event caps with Chicago bluesman Aki Kumar, backed by Chris James and Patrick Rynn.

If you forget to pack a lunch and get hungry during the event, there’ll be Hodad’s burgers and Hooters wings on site, which, like everything at the festival, are donated. Proceeds partially go to fund the

2

IT’S ALIVE

The new White Box venue is like a big, blank canvas enticing artists to perform.

Since opening the raw space with a twoweek-long performing-arts festival last year, choreographer and San Diego Dance Theater founder Jean Isaacs has dedicated the beautiful building to serving as a home for the live arts. Isaacs is bringing back the spirit of the epic opening shindig with the second annual Live Arts Fest, featuring 10 performances in the next few weeks. The fest kicked off April 15 and runs through Sunday, April 27, at White Box, at Point Loma’s Liberty Station (2590 Truxton Road, Suite 205). Performers like Tijuana dance troupe Grupo de Danza Minerva Tapia, experimental puppeteers Iain Gunn and Bridget Rountree and Collective Purpose’s Ant Black are in the lineup. $20 per show. sandiegodancetheater.org SCOTT BELDING

ART

COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN RACHEL KUMAR

Personal Narratives: Artists’ Talk at SDSU Downtown Gallery, 725 West Broadway, Downtown. Artists Richard Burkett, Maryann Luera, Seth Papac, and Neil Shigley talk about their current exhibition. From 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 17. 619-5016370, downtowngallery.sdsu.edu Graphic Scores: Drawing in Musical Practice at UCSD SME Building, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. The Experimental Drawing Studio features work exploring the idea of the graphic score from musicians Rachel Beetz, Dustin Donahue, Curt Miller and Todd Moellenberg. Closing from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, April 17. visarts.ucsd.edu Spheres of Glass at UCSD SME Building, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. A group exhibition curated by Katrin Pesch and Tim Ridlen featuring multimedia works from Juan William Chavez, Erika Vogt, Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop and more. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, April 17. visarts.ucsd.edu

Harp player Aki Kumar Blues in the Schools program, which gives money and harmonicas to schools around the county.

“It’s just a fun little family event, a nice day in the park,” Frazer says. “Great music. It’s something to do between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It’s a fucking hoot.”

Parking gets tight, so folks are encouraged to use the lot at Grossmont Union High School. If that’s full, park and ride the trolley from the Amaya stop. springharpfest.org

3

SONG FOR ANGOLA

Now through July 8, at the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) in Balboa Park, you can watch Muxima (mu-sheem-AH), artist Alfredo Jaar’s looping 30-minute film about the African nation of Angola. “Muxima” is an Angolan folk song, and the film uses varied recorded versions of it to frame images that refer to Angola’s colonial past and its present. We’ve not seen it, but reportedly, it’s lovely. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, Jaar will be the featured speaker at the annual Axline Lecture, presented jointly by SDMA and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and held at SDMA. The Chilean-born Jaar’s work is largely geopolitical in nature, and he’s known for an installation inspired by the genocide in Rwanda 20 years ago. Lecture tickets are $10. sdmart.org COURTESY: GALERIE LELONG AND ALFREDO JAAR

Grupo de Danza Minerva Tapia

14 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

HArt Collecting 101 at ArcLight Cinemas, La Jolla 4425 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla. Enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while a panel discusses what to look for as you’re building an art collection. Stay for a free screening of Herb and Dorothy, a documentary about New York art collectors Herbert and Dorothy Vogel. At 6:45 p.m. Thursday, April 17.

858-768-7770, mcasd.org

Alfredo Jaar’s “Muxima”

HIntersections of Culture, Fusions of Form at The San Diego Foundation, 2508 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 200, Point Loma. A “Meet the Artists” public event moderated by Robert Pincus and featuring Wu Man, Jamex de la Torre, Whysidro and Miki Iwasaki talking about the hybrid nature of their projects. At 5 p.m. Thursday, April 17. sdfoundation.org Among Giants at Bay Park Press Gallery, 4138 Napier St., Bay Park. Artist Ana Wier shows off large monoprints rooted in the themes of time and space and transience and endurance. Opening from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 18. bayparkpress.com HVerse & Vision at TPG2, 1475 University Ave., Hillcrest. This poetry-inspired art show features works from artists like Amanda Stalter, Espana Garcia, Pamela Jaeger and over a dozen more. Opening from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, April 18. 619203-6030, thumbprintgallerysd.com A is for Art Gala at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. SDSU Children’s Center hosts this 10th annual event featuring work by local artists and children (ages 6 months to 5 years). Proceeds benefit early childhood art enrichment and fund grants for SDSU student-parents in need. From 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 19. childcare.sdsu.edu HMar y Tierra at La Bodega Studios and Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan.

Voz Alta Project presents new works by San Diego favorites Ricardo Islas and Franky Agostino. Opening from 1:45 to 7:45 p.m. Saturday, April 19.

Hjust a little bit longer at Spring Valley Swap Meet, 6377 Quarry Road, Spring Valley. Five female artists have taken an object of personal significance and recreated it in multiples through the lens of their specific memories, only to sell the items at the swap meet. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $1. 619-463-1194 HAxline Lecture: Alfredo Jaar at San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park. The 14th annual Axline Lecture features Chilean-born artist Alfredo Jaar, whose work, “Muxima,” a looping video installation, features multiple iterations of a popular Angolan folk song. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. $10. 619-232-7931, sdmart.org

Peter Frank at San Diego Art InstituteMuseum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park.

The L.A.-based arts critic discusses his participation as a juror for SDAI’s most recent exhibition, Southern California/Baja Norte Regional Awards, as well as the differences between jurying a show and curating one.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. $3 suggested donation. sandiego-art.org

BOOKS Gina Frangello at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author sits down for a conversation with local scribe T. Greenwood to discuss her new novel, A Life in Men, about a woman who travels Europe in an attempt to discover why she lost contact with a friend who has passed away. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16.

858-454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com Phil Jarratt at California Surf Museum, 312 Pier View Way, Oceanside. A “magic lantern slide show” and book signing with Jarratt and his new book, That Summer at Boomerang, which chronicles Duke Kahanamoku’s surfing tour of Australia, Hawaii and New Zealand in the first summer of World War I. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16. surfmuseum.org HSign & Wine: Larry Zeiger and Jack Beddows at Old Venice, 2910 Canon St., Point Loma. Enjoy vino and apps as the local authors sign and discuss Nice Legs!

A Pairing of Wine and Words, a collection of short stories about the two high-school teachers prefaced with wine recommendations from owners and staffers of local wine bars. From 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 17.

619-222-5888, lzeiger.wordpress.com Roger Conlee at Fletcher Hills Branch Library, 576 Garfield Ave., El Cajon. The local author will sign and discuss his latest, Fog and Darkness, a historical novel set during World War II. At 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 17. sdcl.org HPaul Stanley at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Meet the co-lead vocalist and frontman of KISS as he signs his memoir, Face the Music. Tickets include admittance for two adults and a copy of the book. At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17. $31.31. warwicks.indiebound.com Caitlin Rother at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. The truecrime author will sign books, answer questions and discuss our culture’s obsession with violence, Hollywood movies and pleasure reading. From 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Monday, April 21. sandiegolibrary.org Justin Go at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author will discuss and sign The Steady Running of the Hour, a historical novel about a young American man trying to prove he’s related to an English mountaineer so he’ll get a huge inheritance. At 7 p.m. Monday, April 21. warwicks.indiebound.com HDavid Scott Fitzgerald at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, 5998 Alcala Park, USD, Linda Vista. The author discusses Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas.

From 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 22.

619-260-7509, sandiego.edu/peacestudies Michelle Gable at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author holds a launch event for her novel, A Paris Apartment, about a Sotheby’s continental furniture specialist who finds some interesting treasures in a rich hoarder’s repository.

At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. 858-4540347, warwicks.indiebound.com Authors and Readers Roundtable at Coco’s, 5550 Lake Murray Blvd., La Mesa.

Sit down and chat about books and writing with authors Matthew Pallamary, Caitlin Rother, Jennifer Coburn, Arthur Salm and

Laurel Coronoa. RSVP: arrtsandiego@yahoo.com. facebook.com/SanDiegoARRT Hilary Davidson at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The suspense author will sign her latest short story collection, The Black Widow Club: Nine Tales of Obsession and Murder, and her stand-alone thriller, Blood Always Tells. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com HAlfie Kohn at USD Warren Auditorium, 5998 Alcala Park, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall, Linda Vista. Education critic and writer Alfie Kohn will discuss and sign his new book, Performance vs. Learning: The Cost of Overemphasizing Achievement. At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. sandiego.edu Elin Hilderbrand at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The New York Times best-selling author will discuss and sign her novel, Beautiful Day, about a couple’s retreat to Nantucket that goes awry. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. 858-4540347, warwicks.indiebound.com

HSan Diego’s Funniest Person Contest at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Nearly a dozen local comedians compete in the semi-finals of this annual competition for cash prizes and the opportunity to move on to the finals. At 7 p.m. Monday, April 21. $2. 619-702-6666, madhousecomedyclub.com

DANCE HLifeblood Harmony at Mandell Weiss Theatre, UCSD, La Jolla. Malashock Dance and Art of Elan collaborate for three evenings of original choreography set to live music by three of today’s most appealing contemporary composers: David Bruce, Judd Greenstein and Osvaldo

Golijov. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, April 17-19. $15-$45. 619260-1622, malashockdance.org Unidos por Tradicion at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. Grupo Folklorico Tapatio of Oceanside and Grupo Folklorico Nayare of Nayarit, Mexico, present the fourth annual Unidos por Tradicion, a union of traditional indigenous art executed through dance. At 6:45 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $10. 760-839-4190, artcenter.org

FASHION W San Diego Flaunt Fashion Series at W Hotel, 421 West B St., Downtown. Part of Fashion Week San Diego, this event features designer Maralonzo’s women’s

wear collection in a runway show. From 6 to 11:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17. 619398-3100, fashionweeksd.com

FOOD & DRINK Deschutes Brewery Base Camp Week An entire week of specialty brew tastings, beer and food pairings, and appearances by Woody, the giant beer barrel on wheels. See website list of events.

Wednesday, April 16, through Saturday, April 19. 818-761-6870, deschutesbrewery.com/BaseCamp Wild Willow Farm April Potluck at Wild Willow Farm, 2550 Sunset Ave., San Ysidro. Take a farm tour at 5 p.m., enjoy a potluck meal with wood-fired pizze (bring a homemade dish to share and your own

utensils) and live music by the Tinkersmith Trio. From 5 p.m. to dusk. Saturday, April 19. sandiegoroots.org/events HTaste of Hillcrest along Fifth and University avenues. Nearly 40 restaurants in the Hillcrest area are taking part in the 14th annual tasting event. Proceeds benefit the Hillcrest Business Association.

From noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $30-$35. fabuloushillcrest.com HApril’s Green Drinks at Co-Merge, 330 A St., Downtown. In celebration of Earth Day, local nonprofit The 1to1 Movement wants guests to bring their favorite beer or wine, set it on the table, and switch with somebody else. Extra points to local/sustainable/family owned liba-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

HChristopher Moore at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The legendary comic book and graphic novel writer will sign his latest The Serpent of Venice, a tale of greed, revenge, deception, lust, and a giant (but lovable) sea monster. At 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 23. mystgalaxy.com

COMEDY HThe Notebook with Dallas McLaughlin at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla. The Yo! Gabba Gabba! and Upright Citizens Brigade regular, along with a cast of fellow comics and improvisors, reenacts the equally beloved and hated chick flick.

At 8 p.m. Thursday, April 17. $8. 858-4549176, lajolla.thecomedystore.com HHasan Minhaj at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. A regular on Chelsea Lately, he’s also the current host of MTV’s Thursday night talk show, Failosophy. At 8 p.m. Thursday, April 17, and 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19. $18. 619-7953858, americancomedyco.com HWorld According To… Parker & the Numberman at Finest City Improv, 4250 Louisiana St., North Park. A Friday night series where Finest City Improv invites a special guests to tell real-life stories that FCI’s improvisers then use to create comedic sketches. This week’s special guests are local hip-hop act, Parker & the Numberman. At 8 p.m. Friday, April 18. $12.

619-306-6047, finestcityimprov.com H18 Mighty Mountain Warriors at UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas, 7510 Hazard Center Drive, Mission Valley. San Diego premiere of the Asian-American sketch comedy show that features the duo of Michael Chih Ming Hornbuckle and Greg Watanabe. Their irreverent style ranges from slapstick to political. At 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, April 18, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 20. $20. 619-685-2841, moolelo.net/18-mighty-mountain-warriors Dr. Who Live at Finest City Improv, 4250 Louisiana St., North Park. One of the best improv comedy troupes from L.A. will act out a completely made up episode of Dr. Who based on audience suggestions. At 10 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $12. 619-3066047, finestcityimprov.com HZoltan Kaszas at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown.

The recent winner of the inaugural San Diego Comedy Festival and the Seattle Comedy Festival does his thing. At 7 p.m. Sunday, April 20, and Tuesday, April 22. $15. 619-347-0457, madhousecomedyclub.com

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

tions. From 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. 619-2559040, 1to1movement.org HTaste of Morena at Morena Boulevard, Linda Vista. Taste the best of the Morena District with samples from more than 20 restaurants at this seventh annual tasting event. Complimentary shuttles run a continuous loop the night of the event and attendees are encouraged to bring a canned good to support the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank. From 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. $20. mbasandiego.org

EASTER Spring Party with Bunny at San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. Children ages 2 to 6 are invited to visit SDBG’s gentle big Bunny for photos and fun. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $18. 760-436-3036, sdbgarden.org HScout for Easter at Scout @ Quarters D, 2675

Rosecrans St., Point Loma. Scout partners with The New Children’s Museum for a celebration that’ll feature art-making activities, Easter-egg dying and hunt with prizes, Easter basket decorating, a lemonade stand and food truck fare. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $10-$20. 619-225-9925, scout-home.com A Symphony of Grace at Spreckels Theater, 121 Broadway, Downtown. Mosaic San Diego’s Easter celebration with a modern, artistic interpretation of a traditional service with spoken-word, interactive art, a live DJ and string orchestra mash-up, and a special Easter message by Pastor Derrick Miller. At 10:30 a.m.

Sunday, April 20. 619-235-9500, mosaicsd.org

MUSIC HSoweto Gospel Choir at Price Center Ballroom, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Singing in English as well as a number of South African languages,

THEATER Mandates, memories and mystery History, of both a textbook and a personal nature, define Lionel Goldstein’s new play, Mandate Memories, which is having its world premiere at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach under the direction of David Ellenstein.

A postcard-pleasant country house in Britain’s Berkshire County, circa 2009, is the setting for these significant history lessons, which have a deep-seated effect on Holocaust survivor Gustav Frolich (Apollo Dukakis) and the unsuspecting— but increasingly wary—Jane Stirling (Rosina Reynolds), owner and lone inhabitant of the house to whom Gustav pays a visit. Before that visit is over, dark secrets are revealed and Gustav’s and Jane’s lives will have changed in a way that will leave your heart in your throat.

The British Mandate for Palestine, which went into effect in 1923, was designed to administer parts of what had once been the Ottoman Empire. What it became was a dividing of Palestine that established a national home for the Jews.

The mandate and its consequences are embedded in Gustav’s tortured past, and Jane believes that her father, whom she never knew, died a hero in a fight against terror. But what begins as a tense philosophical confrontation between the pair soon becomes chilling human drama as, at an almost achingly deliberate pace, Gustav tells Jane the truth behind her father’s death and the role he himself has played in her life ever since.

Goldstein and Ellenstein, North Coast Rep’s artistic director, previously worked together on the playwright’s Halpern and Johnson, and the seamlessness of their collaboration is clear in Mandate Memories’ effective shifts in tone and in the development of the complex relationship between Gustav and Jane. Dukakis and Reynolds are stalwart in their performances, the latter especially affecting in her stunned silences and internal torment as Gus shares with Jane some gut-wrenching realities.

Ever-present on a table in Jane’s living room, untouched, is the letter Gus has brought to her, written by her father to her mother. Its contents are not revealed,

16 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

AARON RUMLEY

Apollo Dukakis and Rosina Reynolds but by story’s end, you know it’s speaking to Jane’s heart—and possibly to ours.

Mandate Memories runs through May 4 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. $41-$48. northcoastrep.org

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

OPENING 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors: Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company teams with Pacific Arts Movement to present a sketch-comedy show featuring Asian-American actors. It runs April 18 and 20 at UltraStar Cinemas at Hazard Center in Mission Valley. moolelo.net Passion: Ion Theatre closes its eighth season with this Stephen Sondheim musical about a 19th-century soldier caught between his affair with a married woman and a mentally troubled woman’s love for him. Opens in previews on April 19 at BLKBOX Theatre in Hillcrest. iontheatre.com Sister’s Easter Catechism: Will My Bunny Go To Heaven?: A seasonal one-woman comedy starring Kathryn Gallagher. Runs April 21 and 22 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org Things My Mother Taught Me: A comedy about a young couple, who relocate from New York to Chicago and move in together for the first time, and their parents, who show up unexpectedly to help them get settled. Opens April 18 at the Broadway Theatre in Vista. broadwayvista.com Wagner New Play Festival: The annual series of plays—three full-lengths, two one-acts and a staged reading—written, directed and performed by UCSD graduate students. It runs April 16 through 26 on several UCSD stages. theatre.ucsd.edu

For full listings,

please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com

the two-time Grammy Award-winning choir fuses traditional African gospel music with Western songs of celebration. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 16. $12-$30.

858-534-8497, artpwr.com

of Latin dance, Animal Cracker Conspiracy “The Collector” and San Francisco dance company, viv. See website for full schedule.

Through Sunday, April 27. $20. 619-2251803, sandiegodancetheater.org

Ocean Drops Band at San Diego Center for the Arts, 2141 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. The local nine-piece previews songs from their forthcoming album, Rumi’s Hidden Music, which features poems of Rumi, Hafiz and other mystics set to acoustic music. From 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $15 suggested donation.

619-261-8948, oceandropsband.com

this at Expressive Arts Institute, 2820 Roosevelt Road, Ste. 204, Point Loma.

The first in a series of live performances with Liam Clancy and others, who through improv attempt to examine the paradigm of audience as co-creative. There will be a pre-performance salon and after party, both at Solare Ristorante. From 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 17. $5. expressiveartsinstitute.org

Spring Harp Fest at Henry Griffen Park, 9550 Milden St., La Mesa. Not that kind of harp! The family-friendly, 15th annual fest celebrates all things harmonica with over a dozen blues-based bands, including Bubba McCoy, Lance Dieckmann Band, “Harmonica John” Frazer and more. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $10 suggested donation. springharpfest.org Gator by the Bay Kickoff at University Open Aire Market, El Cajon and Park boulevards, Hillcrest. Art, food and fashion trucks with live performances from The Swamp Critters and Friends, The Gypsy Swing Cats, Deeja, April West and more.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 19. universityheightsopenairemarket.com Kendra Shank and John Stowell at Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad. Exploring original compositions, standards and songs generated spontaneously in the studio, the vocal/guitar duo creates a series of arresting soundscapes.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $20. 760438-5996, museumofmakingmusic.org Chris Speed Trio at The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. Part of the Fresh Sound series of concerts, saxman Chris Speed, along with Dave King on drums and Chris Tordini on bass have been a formidable presence on the front line of progressive jazz in NYC for over two decades. At 8 p.m. Sunday, April 20. $10-$15. freshsoundmusic.com Music of Zimbabwe at Smith Recital Hall, SDSU campus, 5500 Campanile Drive, College Area. Part of the SDSU World Music Series, San Diego-based ensemble Zimbeat performs the dynamic village music of Zimbabwe. At 6 p.m. Monday, April 21. $12-$15. 619-594-6031, music.sdsu.edu HQuint Quintet at The Auditorium at TSRI, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla.

The renowned Grammy-nominated violinist Philippe Quint will perform with members of the San Diego Symphony and his all-star band. Together, they will explore the music of Astor Piazzolla and Argentine Tango. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. $30. 858784-2666, sandiegosymphony.org Hauschka at The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. A concert from Volker Bertelmann, who makes his piano sound like an ensemble of musicians and instruments by outfitting the strings or mallets with objects such as ping-pong balls, aluminum foil and leather. At 8 p.m.

Wednesday, April 23. $12-$28. 858-5348497, artpwr.com San Diego Concert Band at Joan B. Kroc Theatre, 6611 University Ave., Rolando.

The SDCB presents its 25th annual spring concert featuring special guest artist Ryan Anthony, the principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. At 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, April 22-23. $12$15. 269-1552, sandiegoconcertband.com

PERFORMANCE Live Arts Fest at White Box Theater, 2690 Truxtun Road, Point Loma. The two-weeklong festival of performing arts continues with five shows this week, including a night

HThe Kings of Silent Comedy at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown.

In the Silent Era of cinema, Lloyd, Keaton and Chaplin were comedy royalty. Watch three films from the legends accompanied

by Russ Peck on the mighty Fox Theatre Pipe Organ. At 8 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $20-$30. 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org Technomania Circus: Bunnies Gone Wild! at Victory Theater, 2558 Imperial St., Logan Heights. Live music, circus acts, blacklight illusion, dance, comedy, magic and more, plus screenings after the show of Donnie Darko on the big screen inside the theater and The Nasty Rabbit on the retro TV outside on the patio. 21+. At 8 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $10-$15. 619236-1971, technomaniacircus.com

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD Janice Steinberg at SDSU Library, 5500 Campanile Drive, College Area, College Area. The author of five novels will present a reading as part of the Spring 2014 Hugh C. Hyde Living Writers Series. At 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 16. 619-594-6054, library.sdsu.edu/events Poetry Ruckus: Roy Mash at Ducky Waddle’s Emporium, 414 N. Coast Hwy. 101, Encinitas. Mash reads from his newest book, Buyer’s Remorse, a collection of poems about the body, mathematics and rationality, adolescence and middleage, love and fear and death. At 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 16. 760-632-0488, duckywaddles.com Year in Ink Vol. 7 Release Party at Old Town Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town.

San Diego Writers Ink spotlights local authors with the release of the seventh volume of A Year in Ink, an annual anthology of local writers in both prose and poetry.

There will be wine and readings from the latest anthology’s contributors. At 7 p.m.

Tuesday, April 22. $5 suggested donation. 619-696-0363, sandiegowriters.org

SPECIAL EVENTS HChicano Park Day at Chicano Park, Barrio Logan. Celebrate the park’s status as an internationally recognized art site with traditional dance performances, live bands, food and a display of classic lowrider cars. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 19. chicano-park.org Record Store Day Record stores throughout San Diego will have exclusive releases, special sales and live performances. Participating stores include Cow, FEELIT, M-Theory, Record City, Off the Record and more. See website for full list and details. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 19. recordstoreday.com Downtown Abbey Ball at The LGBT Center Auditorium, 3909 Center St., Hillcrest. The San Diego Vintage Dance Sociey presents this early-20th-century-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

themed ball. Wear your best 1910-1930s era garb and dance to the sounds of the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra. At 6 p.m.

Saturday, April 19. $20 advance, $25 at the door. 858-414-6515. brownpapertickets.com/event/593753 East County Arts and Crafts Fair at Heartland Masonic Lodge, 695 Ballantyne St., El Cajon. Monthly even showcasing handmade goods. This month’s theme is “Easter and Gardening.” Takes place on the large grassy area next to the parking lot. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 19. 619 444-4197, ecacf.net A Night of Exploration at San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, 404 Third Ave., Downtown. A fundraiser for Ricky Qi, who’s currently directing his first feature-length film Under One Roof, following the Moso people, a small ethnic minority in China, as their homeland in the Himalayan foothills undergoes rapid modernization. From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 19. $20. 619-338-9888, sdchm.org MBA Salon at Andaz Hotel, 600 F St., Downtown. Check out flamenco guitarist David De Alva, paintings by contemporary artist Sarah Stieber and taste craft beer from Modern Times at this new social and cultural event. Admission is free, but all attendees are asked to bring unused art supplies, which will be donated to the Monarch School. From 6 to 8 p.m.

Wednesday, April 23. andaz.hyatt.com/ en/andaz/salons.html

SPORTS Del Mar National Horse Show: Western Week at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. The 69th annual Horse Show kicks off with competitions in

18 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

Trail, Western, Reining, English, Showmanship, Barrel Racing and more. Thursday through Sunday, April 17-20. $10-$19.

858-755-1161, delmarnational.com Night of the Horse at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. This show explores man’s relationship with horses through history. See jousting knights, and Hollywood stuntmen, dressage and cavalry maneuvers and a rare Przewalski’s horse. At 7 p.m.

Saturday, April 19. $10-$19. 858-7551161, delmarnational.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HSan Diego Opera Moves Forward: Alternative Models of Opera in America at San Diego Civic Concourse, Copper Room, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown.

Join the discussion on the future of San Diego Opera by looking at ways other cities’ opera companies have handled financial difficulties. Panelists include Marc Scorca (president and CEO, Opera America) and David Devan (general director, Opera Philadelphia). RSVP: savesandiegoopera.org/register-town-hall-meeting.

At 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17.

Microfinance: Small Loans, Big Change at San Diego Museum of Man, Balboa Park. In conjunction with MOM’s exhibit, Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities, meet people heading up micro-lending efforts in San Diego who’ll share stories of providing micro-loans to women both locally and globally. At 11 a.m. Saturday, April 19. $6-$12.50. museumofman.org Landscape Architecture of the Exposition: 1914 at NewSchool of Architecture

& Design, 1249 F St., Downtown. Friends of San Diego Architecture continues its series on the Panama-California Exposition with a presentation by landscape architect Vicki Estrada. From 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 19. $5 suggested donation.

619-224-8584, friendsofsdarch.com Protecting Yosemite 150 Years Ago: Re-Examining the Origins of “America’s Best Idea” at Tijuana Estuary Visitor Center, 301 Caspian Way, Imperial Beach.

James Newland, supervising historian with California State Parks, will examine recent historical works on the context, roles, and motivations of the people who lobbied for governmental protection of Yosemite.

From 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, April 19.

619-575-3613, trnerr.org/walks-talks Lessons from Little Rock at Cal State San Marcos, 333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Marcos. Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the “Little Rock Nine,” a group of African American students who led desegregation of public schools in the late 1950s, will share his insights and perspectives on social justice. In the University Student Union Ballroom. From 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. $10. csusm.edu/al Dome Discussion with Steve Wood at Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, Balboa Park. Composer Steve Wood has helped score numerous IMAX films. He’ll discuss his career and his creative process. Then stay for a screening of South Pacific. From 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. $15$17. 619-238-1233, rhfleet.org

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Miguel Buenrostro

by Kinsee Morlan

M

iguel Buenrostro is enjoying the morning sunshine at Praga, a nice sidewalk café between Fourth and Fifth streets on the east side of Avenida Revolución, the main thoroughfare of downtown Tijuana. A decade ago, the posh café would’ve stood out amid the gritty Mexican curio shops, pharmacies and cheap restaurants and bars catering to the tourists who once flocked to the street.

Nowadays, spiffed-up spots like Praga are fairly common on Revolución. Plenty of the older touristy businesses remain, but, as the well-known story goes, the drug war in Mexico has seriously damaged Tijuana’s reputation. While tourism in Mexico is making a comeback, according to reports by World Travel & Tourism Council and others, Revolución remains a shadow of the bustling destination of its heyday. Empty storefronts and abandoned eyesores abound.

“The past is the past,” says Buenrostro, who, along with his partners, is in the process of transforming the old Mexicoach Station building, an old bus station, into HUB STN, a co-working space geared toward entrepreneurs working in both Tijuana and San Diego (along with startup business offices and a communal workspace, the place will also house a gallery focused on architecture and urbanism and Kinsee Morlan

Miguel Buenrostro

a multimedia room for film screenings).

Buenrostro, a passionate 30-year-old filmmaker and photographer, says he’s tired of the telling and retelling of Tijuana’s recent history regarding the drug war and the common perception that the city is still mostly seedy and filled with urban decay. He wants people to focus more on the city’s future and the mass of young people like him who are reclaiming downtown spaces and opening businesses catering to locals instead of tourists.

“What is happening right now is that these spaces are being transformed into new purposes that are generating a big impact on the city,” he says as he heads south on Revolución toward Sixth Street and the iconic Mexicoach building, with its eyecatching stained-glass rooftop. “It’s changing…. You can see it.”

Buenrostro walks past the handful of folks on benches at the entrance of the Mexicoach Station waiting for busses.

The building is still a transportation hub, but what once served somewhere around 20,000 people a week now serves just about 200, Buenrostro says.

He blazes by a large, stuffed ostrich, one of the bizarre items for sale at the last remaining curio shop located near the entrance of the large building, and heads back to the stairs leading to the second and third floors. The loud sounds of construction fill the raw space he and his partners are leasing and refurbishing, so he pauses before heading up to the second floor to show off what, come early May, will be HUB STN. “This building, like any other building on Revolución, was focused only on tourism,” he says, pointing to several shuttered storefronts on the first floor. “Tourism stopped…. But, eventually, a new type of tourism will come. In our case, entrepreneurial tourism—the people who are interested in the things that are changing the city, not the things that’ve contributed to the negative cliché of this city.”

Buenrostro is a founder of Reactivando Espacios, the initiative that gained international attention when the group helped negotiate with landlords of Pasaje Gómez, a once-abandoned alleyway, and rebranded it as a vibrant cultural district by documenting the potential of the space with film and photography.

These days, however, unless there’s a big public event, both of the pasajes sit relatively empty. On a recent visit to Pasaje Gómez, just a handful of shops were open and only a few potential customers trickled through. A similar scene played out across

Miguel Buenrostro

Revamped Mexicoach Station is part of a new generation’s battle to reclaim downtown Tijuana

The iconic stained-glass rooftop of the Mexicoach Station building in Tijuana the street at Pasaje Rodríquez, where, thanks to a popular bookstore and a brewery, a few more customers lingered. Buenrostro and a few tenants in the pasajes say the landlords of the alleyway shops began seeing the large number of people at events and raised rents, pushing some tenants out. Another issue is artists renting spaces in the pasajes who refuse to open during normal business hours because there isn’t enough foot traffic.

Buenrostro isn’t ready to write off the alleyways as failures just yet, but he does admit that, with the Mexicoach project, he and his partners needed to take a new and different approach: focusing on binational startup businesses and entrepreneurs in diverse sectors.

“This building will be revitalized from a more economical point of view,” says Buenrostro, who approaches redevelopment as he would approach a documentary film, by first researching the history of the space and then capturing the story of its transformation with film and photos. “We are already leasing spaces, and it isn’t even finished yet.”

Rene Peralta, a professor at Woodbury School of Architecture and the principal of Generica, an architecture firm in Tijuana, is advising Buenrostro and partners Miguel Marshall of Angel Ventures Mexico and Marco Soto of Startup Weekend Tijuana on how to make HUB STN a sustainable venture. While Peralta is supportive of the project, he has some serious doubts.

“Basically, nothing is going to work downtown until you get a critical mass of people living and working there,” Peralta says. “They want to be the saviors of downtown. They have good intentions, and they’re doing everything they can to try to make this work.”

The big challenge, Peralta says, is an older generation of landlords who own most of the property on Revolución—Mexicoach Station included—and can’t see the street becoming anything but a tacky tourist destination. They don’t see the value of lowering rent or redeveloping their spaces for entrepreneurial or creative ventures, he says.

Buenrostro knows that asking property owners to take a chance on new entrepreneurs for the greater good of the city is a hard sell. It was difficult to initially convince the landlords of Pasaje Gómez to lower rents in order to allow creatives to move in, but he thinks startup businesses and entrepreneurs from both sides of the border will help ensure HUB STN’s longterm viability.

“Entrepreneurs want to contribute to the whole revitalization of downtown,” he says. “They know the value of what it’s generating.”

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, 12 architects will give a lecture, “The New Architecture of Tijuana,” at HUB STN (1025 Av. Revolución).

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

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 35

Kinsee Morlan

Seen Local Poster child As a child, David B. Cuzick dreamed of flying so often that he actually learned how to control his flight path. But since lucid dreaming isn’t exactly a science, one night he found himself in uncharted territory— high above the city, and afraid.

The dream stayed with him and eventually became the inspiration for “Flying Dream,” the piece of art on the cover of this week’s CityBeat and one of Cuzick’s new works in Neither Good Nor Bad, his first solo show on view through May 7 at OBR Gallery (3817 Ray St. in North Park).

For the show, Cuzick uses silhouetted graphics on wood, paper and canvas to explore these kinds of childhood themes.

You may know Cuzick’s work from Circles and Squares, his clothing line depicting playful childhood motifs. This new work, however, represents a side he’s only just recently started exploring. Cuzick’s aesthetic may be in its infancy, but his understanding of human nature isn’t. Each of the pieces in the show captures the challenges and insecurities we face. He uses common childhood situations to drive narratives on what it means to be powerful, vulnerable, isolated or, like in “Flying Dream,” alone and free.

“I’m trying to do things that everyone can relate to on some level, either as a child or a human being,” he says.

In “Big Boy,” a gritty, fenced-in playground sets

David B. Cuzick at OBR Gallery the scene for a merry-go-round spin gone wrong. A few kids hang on for their lives as the bully in the center, towering over the rest, whips the thing around and around. The kids are purposely presented as flat, almost generic-looking, while the bully’s shoelaces and back pockets are fully detailed. Small touches like these help set the print’s militaristic, somewhat ominous tone.

“This explores the notion of power and what you do with it once you have it,” Cuzick says. “Do you use it to be benevolent? Assert control?”

There’s a lot to glean from such simple prints. But Cuzick’s works are like that: To a casual observer, they appear nostalgic and playful but, in looking again, you find more powerful commentary on those themes he so vividly dreams about.

Kinsee Morlan

—Nina Sachdev Hoffmann

to be art. But, d’Avignon explains, the thrifty locale is essential to her concept for the show, which sets out to explore the value of objects as things repeatedly change hands.

D’Avignon asked the participating artists to think of an emotionally charged object and then physically remake and reinterpret that object as a series of trinkets that’ll be displayed and sold at the swap meet. Regular patrons might not even recognize the objects as art. Those Angella d’Avignon who do might ask the artists how the objects have meaning. The dialogue that The meaning of things follows is what interests d’Avignon.

Angella d’Avignon uses a vintage camera bag as a “It’s about the way objects are being exchanged purse. She opens it to reveal a name, phone number from hand-to-hand as not just commerce, but more and address written in black marker on the inside about an exchange of value,” explains d’Avignon, flap of the bag. who once worked for an antique dealer and found “I’m connected to this person just by this object,” the process of determining commercial value for says the artist and independent curator, eyeing the family heirlooms to be interesting, emotional and last name, “Couch,” written in large print. “It’s like awkward. a secret porthole, you know. This leads me to more For her own contribution, d’Avignon chose a gold information, but I kind of don’t want to know. I like bracelet left to her by her grandfather. The bracelet the space between the facts and the mystery; you is engraved with the name “Sea Horse,” and no one in can make things up. That’s kind of what the show’s her family knows why. about, too.”

“I love it because my grandpa’s kind of this mythiThat show is Just a Little Bit Longer, an ex- cal person in our family,” she says. “That’s what I’m hibition and ongoing project featuring works by trying to bring to the show. I want people to see d’Avignon, Farrah Emami, Jessica Sledge, Mindy where the objects came from and… bring the story of Solis and Chantal Wnuk, on view from 9 a.m. to 2 the object to the swap meet.” p.m. Saturday, April 19, at the Spring Valley Swap —Kinsee Morlan Meet (6377 Quarry Road).

Yes, you read that right: the Spring Valley Swap Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com Meet, a strange location for anything purporting and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

36 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

Growing pains Pacific Arts Movement’s Spring Showcase comes of age

by Glenn Heath Jr. For me, April’s arrival instantly conjures up excitement for baseball, Easter dinner and Pacific Arts Movement’s Spring Showcase. This year’s compact program includes 11 films from nine countries, beginning with a splashy opening-night screening of To Be Takei, Jennifer Kroot’s fun and engaging documentary about activist and former Star Trek actor George Takei. A series of live comedy performances by 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors will run throughout the event, and the festivities close with a screening of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s lovely Like Father, Like Son. Thanks to artistic director Brian Hu and his Richie Mehta’s Siddharth will punch you in the gut. team, I was able to procure three of the selected films for advanced review. The clear standout among bly confuses both parties to the point of delirium them is Richie Mehta’s Siddharth, a devastating hu- when hints of romance start to flourish. man drama set in the bustling streets of Delhi and, As SMS messages and IM chat boxes pop onto the later, Mumbai. screen, Shift wants to feel edgy by relentlessly displayRight away, you feel the gut punch of separation. ing a mosaic of virtual media at one time. It succeeds Mahendra (Rajesh Tailang) worriedly waves goodbye in highlighting all of the opportunities for miscomto his 12-year-old son Siddharth as the boy departs on munication one can find when living and growing a bus bound for a neighboring city. He’s being sent through social media. But the film’s tepid skewering to a factory to provide his family with extra income of the classic rom-com setup proves that it doesn’t despite strict child-labor laws in have much else on its mind.

India. When Siddharth doesn’t Providing a local angle to this Pacific Arts return home for the annual Diyear’s Spring Showcase is AKA wali Festival, Mahendra and Dan, a documentary about hipMovement’s his wife begin a long and arduhop artist (and former Pac Arts Spring ous search, an investigation that employee) Dan Matthews, who Showcase leads them to multiple institutraveled to South Korea after April 17 through 24 tions for assistance. But none deciding to track down his birth UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas of the groups is particularly family. Adopted by an American helpful, and conflicting reports family when he was less than a about the boy’s whereabouts beyear old, Matthews states early gin to pile up, leading to fears that he may have been on that he has lived a happy life so far. This makes abducted, a rampant problem in modern India. him feel conflicted about the journey, which invariIn its subtle realization of oppressive helpless- ably opens up wounds even as it answers long-gesness and panic, Siddharth reminded me of Vittorio de tating questions about his past.

Sica’s great neo-realist masterpiece, Bicycle Thieves.

While the film is often straggly and unfocused, Both are intricately woven dramas that consider the the importance of Matthews’ journey still resonates. slow breakdown of families stripped of their eco- Themes of identity, guilt and closure all play a role in nomic livelihood. As each family struggles to survive, the young man’s brave attempt to explore a void that we gain a clearer picture of society’s ills. some people might deny existed in the first place.

Depicting a story with far less at stake is Shift, a At the festival (pac-arts.org), I plan to attend a hip Filipino spin on the romance picture that makes screening of Sion Sono’s expectedly batty Why Don’t its obsession with blurred sexuality and technology You Play in Hell? and possibly a few others. I recomreadily apparent from the first frame. Grumpy call- mend you do so, as well. center employee Estela (Yeng Constantino) spends a lot of time hanging out with her gay coworker Trevor Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com (Felix Roco), an odd-couple friendship that inevita- and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Photo op

Finding Vivian Maier

The mystery of Vivian Maier begins with a discovery. Filmmaker John Maloof purchased a few boxes of her old negatives at auction and realized he’d stumbled upon the expansive work of a talented photographer. After Maloof printed some of the more accomplished pieces and published them on his photo blog, interest

in Maier’s work skyrocketed, inspiring him to further investigate her family and background.

Finding Vivian Maier is Maloof’s attempt at a biographical portrait, tracing Maier’s strange and eccentric life as a nanny for households across the country.

All the while, she was shooting pictures, hundreds of thousands,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38 April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 37

in fact. The film breezes through the artistic merit of Maier’s work, content to showcase the gorgeous photos as a banal slideshow. Maloof is far more drawn to the contradictory aspects of her life, including her odd use of a French accent, curmudgeon-like isolation and brutish façade.

Equally tepid stylistically, the film is another example that subject alone cannot carry a documentary. Poorly framed talking-head interviews bounce off each other like pinballs, lazily shuffled around for maximum salaciousness. The sloppy editing further confuses the

linear-timeline approach to telling Maier’s story. What’s lost is the woman herself, replaced by interpretations made by those who supposedly knew her best.

By the end of Finding Vivian Maier—which opens Friday, April 18, at La Jolla Village Cinemas—we realize the title is an exercise in futility. Maier will remain an enigma as a person (if not less so as an artist) because Maloof wants it that way. His film is simply constructed to prolong the myth for the benefit of those eager to cash in on someone’s posthumous fame.

Heaven is for Real: Drama starring Greg Kinnear, whose young son dies on the operating table but is brought back to life. After waking up, the boy confesses to having been to Heaven, sharing his experience with those who are willing to listen.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

Opening

prison after 12 years and sets out to reconnect with his estranged daughter and collect on old debts.

The Railway Man: Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman star in this tense drama about a World War II vet who falls in love with a divorcée after meeting her on a train. In order to move forward, both must confront demons from their past and learn to forgive.

200 Cartas: An aspiring comic-book artist meets a beautiful woman at a New York City club, only to lose track of her after a bar fight ruins the night. Determined to find the love of his life, he flies to Puerto Rico. Screens through April 24 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Afternoon of a Faun: Director Nancy Buirski’s film is about Tanaquil Le Clercq, a celebrated ballerina who influenced all of the great modern dancers, including George Balanchine.

Bears: Narrated by John C. Reilly, this nature documentary follows a family of Alaskan bears over a period of years.

Dom Hemingway: The titular safe cracker, played by Jude Law, is released from

Finding Vivian Maier: While working as a nanny, Vivian Maier took more than 100,000 photographs, which earned her a posthumous reputation as an accomplished street photographer. But her story goes much deeper than that. See our review on Page 37.

Gringo Trails: Documentary that explores the impact that tourism has had on regions as diverse as Thailand, Bolivia and Mali. Screens through April 23 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Haunted House 2: Because humanity needed another sequel to a spoof of a sequel to a bad original film nobody needed.

38 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

Kid Cannabis: A really smart and reasonable teenager drops out of high school to start a drug-trafficking business with his older burn-out friend. This has “success story” written all over it.

Pacific Arts Movement’s Spring Showcase: The series will showcase 11 new films from nine Asian countries, including opening-night feature To Be Takei.

The fourth annual event will run Thursday, April 17, through Thursday, April 24, at UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas. See our story on Page 37.

Transcendence: After working as cinematographer on Christopher Nolan’s Batman films and Inception, Wally Pfister makes his directing debut with this mindbending sci-fi film about a terminally ill scientist (Johnny Depp) who uploads his mind to a computer after a terrorist attack leaves him in a coma.

Watermark: Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky (Manufactured Landscapes) travel the world and document our modern relationship with water, and they include major sequences set at the Hoover Dam and the River Ganges in India. Screens through April 24 at the Ken Cinema. Burtynsky will be on hand

for the 2:30 and 4:45 p.m. screenings on Sunday, April 20.

One Time Only Enough Said: James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star in this straggly comedy about middle-aged characters attempting to find love in sun-drenched Los Angeles. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, at the Scripps Ranch Library.

Superbad: Michael Cera and Jonah Hill made quite the splash in this teen comedy that also introduced the world to McLovin’. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Qualche Nuvola: A young Roman couple’s plans to marry are interrupted when a beautiful young woman comes into the picture. Presented by the San Diego Italian Film Festival, it screens at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 17, at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.

Philomena: Judi Dench plays an elderly woman who sets out to find her son, who was taken away by the British government decades before amid a forced-adoption program. Screens at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 18 and 19, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry) take you on a wild ride through one of the most notorious late-night movies ever. Screens at midnight on Saturday, April 19, at the Ken Cinema.

Sopralluoghi in Palestina: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s rare documentary explores the many contradictory elements facing Palestine in the 1960s. Screens at 2 p.m.

Sunday, April 20, at the San Diego Public

Library in East Village.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Edgar Wright’s magnetic adaptation of the popular comic book stars Michael Cera as a young man hell-bent on wooing the woman of his dreams, no matter the physical harm or emotional embarrassment that comes with it. Screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, at the Point Loma / Hervey Branch Library.

Una Pistola en Cada Mano: Vignettes dealing with multiple characters and themes are woven together seamlessly in this witty drama from Spain starring Ricardo Darin and Luis Tosar. Screens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, at the Hall of Nations in Balboa Park.

I Give it a Year: Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall play newlyweds who seem happy despite what their friends and family think of their relationship. As their first anniversary approaches, attractive alternatives threaten to prove their confidants right.

Screens at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, at the Mission Valley Library.

WALL-E: A kind and adventurous robot living amid the rubble of post-apocalyptic Earth meets an advanced droid and falls in love, then embarks on a journey to save the human race. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, April 23, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

For a complete listing of movies, please see “F ilm S creenings” at sdcit yb eat.com under the “E vents” tab.

alex

there she goz

zaragoza Gooping like Gwyneth Previously on There She Goz, your pal Gozie was floating naked in a sensory-deprivation tank filled with saltwater. As she floated weightlessly in a vessel that looked like Lady Gaga’s old Grammy egg, she contemplated the next step in her relationship, which hit the rocks harder than Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

She also thought about smoking weed with the ghost of Jim Morrison.

your hair of the natural oils it produces to stay clean and healthy. In effect, we don’t need shampoo as we think we do because our hair has the predisposition to not be disgusting. Two months I went poo-less, using a mix of baking soda and water when I needed to cleanse, and another mix of apple cider vinegar and water to soften my hair and get rid of any build-up. By “build-up,” I mean pieces of brie that got stuck in there when I fell One month later, I’m sitting in a booth at Bluefoot asleep on a cheese plate.

Bar repeatedly swiping left at every duck-faced The results varied. One week my hair was heavy dude in a sleeveless hoodie on Tinder. That’s right, and greasy; another week it was dry and itchy. cute, gainfully employed, not creepy men of the Striking a good balance was often difficult, but world and the Internet, the Gozer’s dance card is when I did, it was like a Pantene commercial up in open. Anyone who hates TV or throws up the “hang my bathroom. At one point, I used too much baking loose” hand sign need not apply. soda and irritated the crap out of my scalp. I had to Breakups blow, especially when there are hurt peel red flakes off my dome for days. My shoulders feelings and disappointment involved and that bitch looked like a snow globe exploded on them.

Gwyneth Paltrow steals your breakup thunder.

I eventually caved after chlorine from a swimOnly one of us can be the resilient pillar of evolved ming pool caused a burning sensation usually rewomanhood, Gwynnie, and it’s going to be the lady served for the Pacific Beach Planned Parenthood drinking wine in the shower and scream-singing Express. Still, I’ve barely used shampoo since startalong to every song on a Spotify playlist titled “I ing the challenge, and when I do, I dilute a dollop am Not the One.” Excuse me while I consciously in a Tupperware of water first. I won’t pretend it’s uncouple myself from sobriety while racking up a revolutionized my life. I mean, my taco budget has $500 water bill. grown, which is always a good As it goes with these types of thing, so I’ll stick with it. transitional periods, you want to The no-soap challenge: I I’m trying to rid my change everything in your life. It’s heard about this from my friend body of toxins, not die Bjorn, who stopped using soap not enough to see a relationship you helped build crumble into a about two years ago. He argues with a John Waynepile of sweet text messages, inside that human beings don’t need level turd in my guts. jokes and a shared Netflix account. soap because we went for cenYou also want new bangs or a new turies without it. I was skeptical apartment and you even consider but decided to try it. It was gross. moving to a new city. It’s like we want change to Don’t do this. come in bulk from Costco.

Oil pulling: This fad is Goop-approved and And while my conscious uncoupling isn’t so arconsists of swishing unrefined coconut oil in your rogant as to warrant a term as stupid as “conscious mouth every morning for 20 minutes. It’s meant uncoupling”—and yet is so conceited as to have two to improve your dental health, jaw pain, allergies, columns devoted to it—I took a cue from the insufheadaches and a number of other things by pulling ferable proponent of the new Chris Martin cleanse nasty toxins in your body out from your mouth. and her intolerably unrelatable lifestyle blog Goop: I On my first morning, I dipped my fingers into a attempted a few treehuggery health and beauty fads jar of coconut oil and shoved the contents into my currently burning up the Internet as a means of selfmouth Winnie the Pooh-style. They immediately improvement. Perhaps it was just a distraction, but I fell out onto my chest after I gagged. I persevered really do think transitions like these make you want and swished. The taste wasn’t as overwhelming as to better the way you live and care for yourself. the initial texture, but once I got past that, I was I switched to all-natural, organic products, infine. For a few weeks, I swished as I applied my cluding homemade deodorant and African black makeup and did notice that my mouth and teeth felt soap and started exercising way more than usual, cleaner and fresher after just a day. I kind of fell off by which I mean I started exercising. How come no the wagon after a few weeks, but I still oil-pull from one ever told me exercising makes you feel great? time to time with positive results.

Crazy! I also tried the following: After these experiments, I found myself feelThe no-poo challenge: Thankfully, this isn’t ing and looking better. My skin and my mood were bowel related. I’m trying to rid my body of toxins, brighter—everything was brighter. There are still nasty toxins in my body, both physical and emotionnot die with a John Wayne-level turd in my guts. al, but I don’t mind them. They’re good reminders This experiment, which challenges people to stop that my life is being fully lived. using shampoo and conditioner completely, couldn’t have come at a better time since being bummed out Write to alexz@sdcitybeat.com was affecting my grooming habits, anyway. and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Supposedly, shampoo and conditioner strip

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 39

Kevin Faulkner

The evolution of The Men Brooklyn punk quintet transform again on Tomorrow’s Hits

by Scott McDonald

T

he Men aren’t trying to fuck with anyone. All five members of the Brooklynbased punk outfit claim to “take it pretty easy.” It’s just that they don’t care what you think. The group that Nick Chiericozzi and Mark Perro first founded as a brutal noiserock outfit has progressively, and unapologetically, changed with each new release.

Starting with 2012’s Open Your Heart— their acclaimed third album—feedback began to give way to melody, distortion to twang and skull crushers to barroom raveups. And while the band hasn’t completely abandoned its roots, the ongoing transformation was solidified last year when The Men added lap-steel wizard Kevin Faulkner and longtime recording engineer / collaborator Ben Greenberg.

The Men’s new album, Tomorrow’s Hits—released in March via Sacred Bones Records—is a wild synthesis of all that’s come before it: keys, slide guitar, harmonica and horns over frayed-edge rock ’n’ roll that ends up sounding like Stiff Little Fingers doing honky-tonk karaoke. As with all of their releases, it was tracked live—one of the few things that’s been consistent with The Men in the past five years.

“Rock and roll is live music,” Greenberg tells CityBeat. “I think music benefits the most from the moment, and a record can capture that element if it can be identified.

To me, recording a band live is incredibly important. It’s the only way we’ve ever worked and the only way I ever expect us to work.”

He should know. He was recording the band long before he was ever asked to join.

Although he’s added vocal and bass duties to his work behind the console, Greenberg relishes the chance to create in such an un-

40 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

restricted setting.

“I’m lucky to be in a musical situation like this,” he says. “We all keep the mindset of being open to trying whatever someone else brings in. It creates this environment where everyone is getting stoked on each other’s ideas and motivating one another.

It’s what you make of it, but really cool to have all that space.”

That unchecked creativity has resulted in some non-traditional choices for a band once described as “noise-rock,” “post-punk” and “hardcore.” Tomorrow’s Hits came on the heels of the Americanatinged LP New Moon and the literally titled, acoustic Campfire Songs EP. But being able to jump from a pummeling onslaught of guitar to dive-bar boogie-woogie to an acoustic sing-along is what Greenberg enjoys most about The Men. “I think there are a number of points of consistency for this band,” he says. “But no one wants to make the same song again and again. Repeating yourself in the moment can be very useful and interesting, but, in the long run, it’s disconcerting. My mind is always curious. I’m always looking for something new.”

It would be difficult for The Men—who’ll play The Casbah on Wednesday, April 23—to diversify their recorded output more than they already have, so the band has tapped their back catalog for inspiration. “Always looking for new ways to play old songs” has become a kind of band mantra, and on their current tour, the five-piece has been rearranging songs from the ferocious 2010 selfreleased debut, Immaculada.

Tailoring those rough compositions to the new lineup and instrumentation is something that comes with the territory for

From Left: Kevin Faulkner, Nick Chiericozzi, Mark Perro, Rich Samis and Ben Greenberg a group so consistently in a state of flux. But it’s also part of what has established them as a dynamic rock band that can confidently pursue ever-changing musical whims.

“Playing just feels so natural between us,” Greenberg says. “We switch instruments a lot when we’re rehearsing, and it’s such an open situation. It feels like everyone has a few different voices they can use, and just as many ways they can bring them to the table.”

It wasn’t planned this way, but the band’s been on the one-release-per-year schedule since its inception. The lag between completion of their first album and its release date started a domino effect of annual output that, despite lineup and creative changes, the band has maintained to this day.

“Once you fall into that pattern,” Greenberg says, “it’s hard to break. I think natu-

ral biorhythms govern when your creativity comes and goes, but we’ve still been abiding by that for whatever reason. It’s a funny thing, but really cool it worked out that way. We wind up getting a lot done faster than you’d think.”

While nothing specific is in the works, it’s likely that once the touring schedule slows down this summer, the pattern will start again and work on a 2015 release will begin. But even if it doesn’t, it’s probably a safer bet than what the next album or EP is going to sound like.

“There are a lot of ways to arrive at the music you make,” Greenberg says. “It’s different for everyone. But this feels right for us right now.

“We’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes.”

Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

notes from the smoking patio Locals Only Ben Johnson, a member of Wha? and The Long and Short of It and a rapper under the name Grammatical B, will soon become a published novelist.

Johnson says his first novel, A Shadow Cast in Dust, is an “urban fantasy” that follows three characters—and is told via three different perspectives— through a complex narrative involving an Old Guard that controls webs with shamanistic magic. The book, which is set mostly in Golden Hill and its surrounding canyons, is being published by Grand Mal Press. It took Johnson a year to write.

“It’s a majorly ambitious project,” he says in an interview at Krakatoa café in Golden Hill. “I didn’t outline anything; I just started writing. And it changed so hugely and drastically since I started it.”

Johnson said he got into the habit of writing 1,000 words a day, first in pen on paper, as well as on his phone. He later transferred his work to a laptop. He sent his proposal to Grand Mal in May 2013, and right now, the book is in the proofreading stage.

Johnson slimmed it to a tight 110,000 words through a few rounds of editing.

He says that everyone who’s read his manuscript has given him positive feedback, and he already has second and third volumes planned. Though he doesn’t have a background in creative writing, Johnson says he’s confident about the content of his first book.

“I don’t care if you think I’m a good writer,” he Johnson says he expects the book to be released says. “I only care that you think it’s a good story. I by summer. think it kicks ass.”

—Jeff Terich

Music review Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact (Self-released) San Diego, like most cities, has a bit of an incestuous music scene. It’s been that way since the early ’80s at least, and probably says as much about how small the scene is compared with, say, Brooklyn as it does the collaborative nature of the musicians involved. Just thumb through the liner notes or scan the Bandcamp pages of some of the more recent releases by San Diego bands, and you’re bound to see a lot of names crop up again and again.

This is by no means a bad thing, especially when those musicians are really good. And when you find a half-dozen of the city’s best players working together on one common project, there’s all the more reason to celebrate. Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact is one such project—a soul / funk super-group of sorts and a who’s-who of some of the strongest and most productive musicians in San Diego. The septet features members of The Heavy Guilt, Sure Fire Soul Ensemble and The Styletones, among others, and the collective résumé of those involved is impressive, to say the least. But the

proof of their abilities is in the music.

Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact’s self-titled debut album is a rich and soulful set of songs that echoes the classic sound of Stax Records in the late ’60s and ’70s but still has one foot planted in presentday neo-soul. It has a charmingly vintage sound in its arrangements, but the songwriting doesn’t seem interested in rehashing the past so much as creating something modern that just happens to be immersed in an old-school aesthetic.

A substantial amount of that old-school aesthetic comes from Josh Rice’s and Tim Felten’s keyboards. The thick Rhodes chords and distorted organ riffs provide a driving force behind tracks like “Stranded” and “Cuts Like a Winter.” The major attraction here, arguably, is Rebecca Jade herself, a powerful vocalist with buttery-smooth pipes and an incredible range.

She dazzles on every song, but it’s in highlights like “City of Sin” where everything comes together incredibly: the dueling organs, drummer Jake Najor’s unstoppably funky beats and more groove than most musicians would know what to do with.

—Jeff Terich Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 41

if i were u

BY Jeff Terich

Wednesday, April 16 PLAN A: Chrome Sparks, Pal&Drome, Tiger Milk Imports @ Soda Bar. Chrome Sparks is Brooklyn producer Jeremy Malvin—a cosmic beatmaker, soundscapist and all-around chill dude. The uninitiated would do well to listen to his Sparks EP from last year to get a good idea of the blissfully disorienting electronic sounds he conjures. If it’s a mesmerizing, laid-back show you seek on a Wednesday evening, this is the place to be.

Thursday, April 17 PLAN A: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Shockwave Riderz @ The Casbah. Jon Spencer doesn’t play no blues—he plays rock ’n’ roll. And more than 20 years after first proving that point with raw, bluesy riffs and fiery, garage-rock intensity (and the vocal cadence of a Baptist preacher), the Blues Explosion are still going strong. They’re one of the few Coachella acts you’ll be able to catch in San Diego this week, so take advantage. PLAN B: Cypress Hill @ House of Blues. A lot of ’90s hip-hop legends have

42 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

a hell of a show. (They kinda upstaged Perfect Pussy a couple weeks ago—just sayin’.)

So get on it already and see these dynamic, high-energy indie rockers prove themselves onstage. PLAN B: WL, Colleen Green, Lube @ The Hideout. As far as I can tell, WL is pronounced “well,” and the Portland group does shoegaze that alternates between Friday, April 18 colossally loud and ethereal and gorgeous.

PLAN A: Tropical Popsicle, Wild Wild Either way, you’re going to hear something Wets, The Electric Magpie, Slow White great. BACKUP PLAN: Badabing, JJCNV, @ Til-Two Club. The San Diego Freak Out Sleeping Ghost @ Tin Can Ale House. is back! The event, launched by Wild Wild Wets, offers another set of dark and trippy groups, including local favorites Tropical Sunday, April 20 Popsicle and San Francisco’s The Electric PLAN A: King Parrot, Vattnet Viskar, Magpie. Lava lamp optional. PLAN B: Loma Memory @ Soda Bar. King Parrot are a Prieta, Fucking Invincible, Ghostlimb, pretty ridiculous metal band from MelGriever @ The Che Café. Hardcore punk bourne, Australia, and I’m sure they’re encomes in many varieties, though one that’s tertaining and all, but the band you should been due for a resurgence of late is the really check out is Vattnet Viskar, a North awkwardly titled “Screamo” subgenre. San American black-metal group that has the Francisco’s Loma Prieta are one of the few ambience and the melodies to match its that continue to keep the sound of blister- blast-beat intensity. ing, emotional and rhythmically complex hardcore alive, and for that, I raise my invisible orange. BACKUP PLAN: Marsha Monday, April 21 Ambrosius, Miki Vale @ House of Blues. PLAN A: Deadphones, Kithkin, Tropical Popsicle @ The Loft at UCSD. If you haven’t seen Deadphones live yet, I have Saturday, April 19 to ask: What’s the freakin’ hold-up? Sure, PLAN A: Kids, Michael Vidal, Post-Life, you probably caught them as Cuckoo Chaos French Vanilla, Nimzo Indians @ The sometime in the last couple of years, but Che Café. Kids earned the esteemed “Ex- they’re a lot different now if you didn’t traspecialgood” designation for their entry get the memo. Dark vibes, dreamy atmoin our 2014 Great Demo Review and put on sphere—great stuff. been coming through town lately, from Too $hort to Mobb Deep. Now the perpetually blunted Cypress Hill are making a stop here, and while their most recent material isn’t much to write home about, if they drop “Pigs” into the set, then it’s all good.

Thou

Tuesday, April 22 PLAN A: Thou, Dangers, Cloudrat, Age of Collapse @ The Che Café. There’s heavy and then there’s heavy. And Baton Rouge sludge-metal band Thou is definitely heavy. Their newest album, Heathen, is an epic slab of molasses-speed metal density that blocks sunlight and good vibes with its crushing enormity. I just hope The Che is testing the structural integrity of its building. PLAN B: Ancient Warlocks, Chiefs, Lazy Cobra, Hobosexual @ Tower Bar. If you want something that’s just heavy but not necessarily heavy, then head to Tower Bar for Ancient Warlocks, who offer a more accessible take on melodic stoner metal. Metal shouldn’t always be so terrifying, and if you agree, then here’s where you should be. BACKUP PLAN: Ancient River, Amerikan Bear, Raja Lyon, Sister Juanita @ Soda Bar.

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 43

HOT! NEW! FRESH! Blackalicious (BUT, 5/31), Camper Van Beethoven (Casbah, 6/3), Kelis (HOB, 6/3), Rocky Votolato (Casbah, 6/9), Failure (HOB, 6/15), Cowboy Junkies (BUT, 6/16), Paula Cole (BUT, 6/23), Jackie Greene (BUT, 6/24), Tweak Bird (Soda Bar, 6/24), Venetian Snares (Casbah, 7/6), Jefferson Starship (BUT, 7/10), Wolves in the Throne Room (Che Café, 7/19), Doug Benson (HOB, 7/23), Boris (Casbah, 7/24), The Good Life (Casbah, 8/9), Imelda May (BUT, 8/12), Marc Anthony (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/29), Passenger (HOB, 9/14), Crosby, Stills and Nash (Civic Theatre, 10/1).

GET YER TICKETS George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic (HOB, 5/1), Danny Brown (Porter’s Pub, 5/2), Goblin (HOB, 5/2), Tom Jones (HOB, 5/8), Old 97s (BUT, 5/8), Thundercat (The Irenic, 5/11), Red Fang (Porter’s Pub, 5/18), Against Me! (HOB, 5/23), YG (HOB, 5/24), Eagulls (Soda Bar, 5/28), Lady Gaga (Viejas Arena, 6/2), Guided by Voices (BUT, 6/14), The Both (BUT, 6/15), EMA (Casbah, 6/29), Devo (BUT, 6/30), Deafheaven (Casbah, 7/1), Peter Murphy (BUT, 7/2), Kiss, Def Leppard (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 7/6), Cloud Nothings (Soda Bar, 7/11), La Roux (HOB, 7/12), Chris Isaak (Humphreys, 7/16), The Antlers (BUT, 7/16), Slightly Stoopid (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 7/26), Arctic Monkeys (Open Air Theatre, 8/6), The Sonics (Irenic, 8/16), Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/21), The

44 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

Beach Boys (Humphreys, 10/5), Fleetwood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/2).

April Wednesday, April 9 Kodiak at The Casbah.

Thursday, April 10 Tyrone Wells at The Griffin. Ghoul at Soda Bar.

Friday, April 11 Super Diamond at Belly Up Tavern.

Slaughterhouse at Porter’s Pub. The Dodos at The Loft at UCSD.

Saturday, April 12 Super Diamond at Belly Up Tavern.

Sunday, April 13 Break Anchor at Soda Bar. John Scofield at The Loft.

Monday, April 14 Vertical Scratchers at Soda Bar.

Tuesday, April 15 Mobb Deep at The Casbah. Peelander-Z at Soda Bar. Mogwai at Belly Up Tavern. City and Colour at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay.

Wednesday, April 16 Bonobo at Belly Up Tavern. Chrome Sparks at Soda Bar.

Thursday, April 17 Bombay Bicycle Club at Belly Up Tav-

ern. Cypress Hill at House of Blues.

Bryan Ferry at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at The Casbah.

Saturday, April 19 Caravan Palace at Belly Up Tavern.

Sunday, April 20 40 Oz. to Freedom at Belly Up Tavern.

Leopold and His Fiction at The Casbah.

Monday, April 21 Deadphones at The Loft.

Tuesday, April 22 Thou at Che Café. Gondwana at House of Blues.

Wednesday, April 23 Big Mountain at Belly Up Tavern. The Men at The Casbah. Jeff Bridges at Belly Up Tavern.

Thursday, April 24 The Alarm at Brick by Brick. The Underachievers at Porter’s Pub.

Friday, April 25 CunninLynguists at Porter’s Pub. Night Beats at Soda Bar.

Saturday, April 26 Chinchilla at The Casbah. Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers at Belly Up Tavern.

Dillinger Escape Plan at Porter’s Pub. Ghost B.C. at House of Blues.

Sunday, April 27 Reignwolf at The Casbah. Jim Jones Revue at Soda Bar.

Monday, April 28 DIIV at The Casbah. O.A.R. at Belly Up Tavern. David J at Soda Bar.

Tuesday, April 29 O.A.R. at Belly Up Tavern.

Wednesday, April 30 Howler at Soda Bar. Michael Nesmith at Belly Up Tavern.

May Thursday, May 1 Bleeding Rainbow at Soda Bar. George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic at House of Blues.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live band karaoke. Fri: Casey Turner (5 p.m.); Jelly Bread, Two Day Job (9 p.m.). Sat: Kid Wilderness, Miles Ahead. Sun: Karaoke.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Thu: ‘Beerlesque’. Fri: Whitney Shay. Sat: The Charlie Arbelaez and Matt Hall Big Band.

Sun: Kawan Debose.

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

Wed: ‘Discoteka’ w/ DJs Stereo Dreams,

Andres Arruza. Thu: ‘DIVE’ w/ DJs ALA, Mikeytown. Fri: DJ Junior the DiscoPunk.

Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Sunday Sonic Chill’ w/ DJ Shermz.

Bourbon Street, 4612 Park Blvd, University Heights. bourbonstreetsd.com. Wed: ‘TRW’ w/ VJ K Swift. Thu: ‘Wet’. Sun: ‘Soiree’. Tue: Karaoke.

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

Wed: Dominic Dierkees, Your Mom’s House Podcast. Thu-Sat: Hasan Minhaj.

Tue: Open mic.

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Thu: DJ Simon Taylor.

Fri: ‘Rivalry’. Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA. Sun: ‘Noche Romantica’ w/ Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian La Madrid.

Mon: DJs Junior the Disco Punk, XP.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St, Downtown. facebook.com/BangBangSanDiego.

Wed: Rudimental (DJ set). Fri: Classixx, Contemporary Menswear. Sat: Yogi.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: Stevie and The HiStaxx. Thu: The Heartbeat Trail, The Midnight Pine. Fri: Fam Royal. Sat: ‘Neon Beat’. Sun: Dynamo Fixx, Rags and Ribbons. Mon: The Husky Boy All Stars.

Tue: Old Man Johnson.

Bassmnt, 919 Fourth Ave, Downtown. bassmntsd.com. Thu: Loudpvck. Fri: Alvaro. Sat: EDX, Christina Novelli.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla. brocktonvilla.com/beaumonts.html. Wed: Kayla Hope. Fri: Dave Booda Band. Sat: Jones Revival. Sun: Rob Bondurant.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: Bonobo, Nite Jewel (sold out). Thu: Bombay Bicycle Club, Royal Canoe. Fri: The Wailing Souls, HIrie, DJ Carlos Culture. Sat: Caravan Palace, DJ Wolfgang Von Cope. Sun: 40 Oz to Freedom, Bad Neighborz, with DJ Man Cat. Tue: The Infamous Stringdusters, The Boston Boys.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Thu: Twisted Relatives, Kingzland. Fri: ‘Club Musae’. Sat: Brothers Gow.

Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave, Downtown. cafesevilla.com. Wed: Aro Di Santi. Thu & Sat: Malamana. Fri: Joeff and Co. Sun: Aragon y Royal.

Croce’s Park West, 2760 Fifth Ave., #100, Bankers Hill. crocesparkwest.com.

Wed: Nora Germain. Thu: Gio Trio 1. Fri & Sun: Irving Flores Trio.

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

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Thu: Tom Guarna. Sat: Mundell Lowe.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: Khleo Thomas, Vizion Records, Dirty Gang, HGP, Domi Young, Stone Age, Von Dreaam, KD and X, YNK. Sat: T Mills, Mod Sun, J. Morille, Vizion Records.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown, Downtown. f6ixsd.com. Fri: DJ Dainjazone. Sat: DJ Bamboozle.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: ‘IDGAF’ w/ Lucky Date. Sat: DJs Karma, Ricky Rocks. Tue: Fabolous, Jermaine Dupri.

Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean

CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 45

Beach. 619-222-5303. Wed: Kahgoo, River Up Hill. Thu: The Ragga Tones, DJ Reefah. Fri: Deadly Birds, Gone Baby Gone, DJ Lya. Sat: Pool Party, DJ Chelu.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Thu: Femme, Misun. Fri: Will Hernandez, Exodus. Sat: ‘Elevate’. Sun: ‘Sunday School’ w/ Sid Vicious, DJ Kurch.

Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave, Downtown. henryspub.com. Wed: Johnny Tarr, DJ Christopher London. Thu: ‘Wild Card’. Fri: ‘Good Times’. Sat: DJs E, Yodah. Mon: ‘Kinetic Soul’. Tue: Big City Dawgs.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Thu: Cypress Hill. Fri: Marsha Ambrosius, Miki Vale. Sat: The Expendables, Seedless.

Sun: Ty Dolla $ign, Luminox. Mon: Josh Damigo. Tue: Gondwana.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Wed: ‘Future Wednesday’. Fri: ‘Junglist Friday’. Sat: Woody McBride. Sun: ‘Dangle Zone’.

Tue: ‘High Tech Tuesday’.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Goodall Boys. Thu: Northstar. Fri: Pat Ellis and Blue Frog Band. Sat: Midlife Crisis. Tue: Rick and Jason.

Onyx Room / Thin, 852 Fifth Ave, Downtown. onyxroom.com. Fri: ‘Rumba Lounge’.

Sat: ‘Play Saturday’. Tue: Poetic Ave. Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Thu: Mystique Element of Soul. Fri: The Fuzzy Rankins Band.

Sat: WG and the G-Men. Sun: Johnny Vernazza. Mon: The Groove Squad. Tue: Walter’s Chicken Jam. Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD

campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Wed: Smallpools. Fri: ‘Movement’.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: DJ John Joseph. Thu: DJ Kinky Loops. Fri: DJs Drew G, Will Z. Sat: DJ John LePage.

Sun: DJ Blacklow, Cros.

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

Thu: Man From Tuesday. Fri: Little Kings.

Sat: Bedbreakers.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd. Mon: ‘Motown Monday’ w/ DJ Artistic.

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Thu: ‘Dark Wave Garden’. Fri: Otty Mercer, Mochileros All Stars, Poke Da Squid, Mala Salud, Hungry Liver. Sat: Part Time Punks, Godspeed McQueen, Operation Milo. Tue: ‘Soul Shakedown’.

Side Bar, 536 Market St, Downtown. sidebarsd.com. Thu: ‘Divino Thursday’.

Sat: DJ Slowhand.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com.

Wed: Chrome Sparks, Pal and Drome, Tiger Milk Imports. Thu: The Chop Tops, Hard Fall Hearts, The Gore Horsemen. Fri: Natural Incense, Black Salt Tone, SM Familia, DJ Black Belt Jonez. Sat: Nations Afire, Assuming We Survive, Bankers Hill.

Sun: King Parrot, Vattnet Viskar, Memory.

Mon: Weatherbox, The Deleted Scenes, The Lazulis. Tue: Ancient River, Amerikan Bear, Raja Lyon, Sister Juanita.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Fri: For His Glory, VeniVidiVici, Subject 16, Never Victorious Never Defeated. Sat: Focus In Frame, Hundred Caliber, Seconds Ago, The Hal-

46 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

lowed, Contracts, Just Breathe. Sun: Dance Gavin Dance, Capture The Crown, Palisades, Bleach Blonde, Smarter Than Robots.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. thehideoutsd.com. Sat: WL, Colleen Green, Lube. Tue: The Silver Palms, Teenage Exorcists.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Fri: Serious Goes Hard, James Dymond. Sat: ‘Overdrive’.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. theloft.ucsd.edu. Sun: Chris Speed Trio. Mon: Deadphones, Kithkin, Tropical Popsicle.

Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: Mark Fisher and Gaslamp Guitars. Thu: Van Roth.

Fri: Disco Pimps. Sat: DJ Miss Dust.

Sun: ‘Funhouse/Seismic’.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., San Diego, Normal Heights. sycamoreden. com. Thu: Trio Gadjo, Hillbilly Wolf, Stephen Rey. Sun: Evan Bethany, Saba.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd, Spring Valley. 619-469-2337. Thu: ‘Stratus Soundwave’ w/ DJ Dharma Dolly. Fri: Slutty Hearts, The Royal Shits, Midnight Track. Sat: Maniac, Rooster Milk. Tue: The Anomaly.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: Temples, Drowners. Thu: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Shockwave Riderz. Fri: Bear Hands, Hills Like Elephants, Jesika Von Rabbit. Sat: Soul Clap. Sun: Leopold and His Fiction, The Soft White Sixties, Bad and The Ugly. Mon: Miner, Spero. Tue: Western Setting, DFMK, The Rebound, Reconstruct the Dream.

The Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Thu: Blackbird Raum, Pagan Funeral, Lynched, Winterbloom. Fri: Loma Prieta, Fucking Invincible, Ghostlimb, Griever. Sat: KIDS, Michael Vidal, Post-Life, French Vanilla, Nimzo Indians. Mon: Griswold, Odakota, Africats, Wasted Days. Tue: Thou, Dangers, Cloudrat, Age of Collapse.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Fri: Red Light Radical, Five Time Shag. Sat: Gridlok, Loxy, Indentation.

The Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. officebarinc.com. Wed: ‘Dub Dynamite’ w/ Rashi, Eddie Turbo. Thu: DJ Myson King.

Fri: ‘After Hours’. Sat: DJs Edrock, Huge Euge. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’. Tue: DJ Ramsey.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Fri: Tropical Popsicle, Wild Wild Wets, The Electric Magpie, Slow White. Sat: 2000 Tons of TNT, Sound Lupus, The Blackjackits, The Sequal. Sun: Open mic comedy. Mon: Karaoke.

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

Wed: The Shifty Eyed Dogs, Jeramiah Red, Ben Powell. Thu: The Desolators, Porter-Belles Explosion, Zach Oakley.

Fri: Kodiak, The No Name Gang, Coda Reactor. Sat: Badabing, JJCNV, Sleeping Ghost. Mon: ‘The Tin Can Country Club’ w/ Eric Hankins. Tue: Adam Lipman, Violet Flame Meditation, Gift Machine.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Wed: Christopher Dale. Thu: Mercedes Moore. Fri: Cee Cee James Band. Sat: The Cronies. Tue: Bayou Brothers.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City

Heights. thetowerbar.com. Wed: The Knew, Dustin Lovelis, Spells. Thu: Poontang Clam, Slutty Hearts, Johnny Polygon. Fri: Chris Killer, Pissed Regardless, Ghetto Ghouls, Grave Buzzard. Sat: Bumbklaatt, Fantasy Arcade, Nuclear Tomorrow. Tue: Ancient Warlocks, Chiefs, Lazy Cobra.

Turquoise, 873 Turquoise St, Pacific Beach. theturquoise.com/wordpress.

Wed: Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.). Thu: The Jade Visions Jazz Trio (7 p.m.). Fri: Gabriela Aparicio (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.); Afro Jazziacs (9 p.m.). Sat: Zak Lipton Trio (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (6:30 p.m.); Gabriela Aparicio (9 p.m.).

Sun: Big Boss Bubale (7 p.m.). Mon: Stefanie Schmitz and Choro Sotaque (7 p.m.). Tue: Grupo Globo (7 p.m.).

Ux31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Wed: SomekindaWonderful, Semi Precious Weapons. Thu: Lee Churchill. Fri: DJ Man Cat. West Coast Tavern, 2895 University Ave, North Park. westcoatstavern.com.

Wed: DJ Fish Fonics. Thu: DJ Clean Cut. Fri: DJ Slowhand. Sat: DJ Decon. Tue: Mike Delgado.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Thu: ‘Astro Jump’ w/ Kill Quanti DJs. Fri: ‘F’ing in the Bushes’ w/ DJs Daniel Sant, Rob Moran. Sat: ‘80s vs 90s’ w/ DJs Gabe Vega, Saul. Tue: ‘Kiss and Make Up’ w/ Jon and Kyle.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: SoCal Vibes, Sandollar, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Parker and Numberman, Sojourn, Atlantis Rizing. Fri: Polyrhythmics, Sure Fire Soul Ensemble.

Sat: Sister Nancy. Sun: The Squirming Coils. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Skerik’s Bandalabra.

Proud sponsor: Pacific Nature Tours

Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig

Across 1. Philosopher with a razor 6. Rock tool?

9. Tapioca relative 13. Via ___ (important Roman road) 14. Key and Peele, e.g.

15. Shocking response at the altar 17. *Teddy bear’s quality or, alternately, cooks vases in oil?

19. Slacker’s sin 20. This evening, in ads 22. ___ effort 23. Purrer on a lap 27. *Greek poetry muse or, alternately, trim off some soothing leaves?

29. *Family get-together or, alternately, destroy the career of the co-producer of “Achtung Baby”?

31. Site of English relief 32. Sworn rival 33. Chicago/L.A. rock band famous for viral videos 34. Arrest 36. Arrests 38. Friend of Dorothy 42. Confused 45. Si across the Pyrenees 46. Get old 50. Parking space 51. Fluid deliverers, in the hosp.

54. *Small European warbler or, alternately, a wreath for the rear?

56. *Wart-covered and hungry for flies or, alternately, have a meeting about one of Jon’s pets?

59. Speedy Gonzales exclamation 60. Wiesel who came to the United States in 1955 61. NCAA basketball coach Rick with two national championships 63. Option for those who are anti-Russian and anti-French?

65. *Kid’s trains or, alternately, chocolate snack peddled by Ms. Chanel?

Last week’s answers

70. Word before power or punk 71. “___ Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we’d pick up”: Barack Obama 72. Surprising way to be taken 73. Ice cream known as Dreyer’s on the West Coast 74. Txted word of polite request 75. “Dear me!”

Down 1. One tripping over his own feet 2. Computer part often metaphorized as a brain: Abbr.

3. Course taken before receiving one’s whistle 4. Inspired stuff?

5. Tiki bar beverage 6. Yemeni seaport 7. Genesis creation?

8. Delivery-related, in a way 9. Bro’s counterpart 10. Two-time loser to Dwight 11. *Act the fool or, alternately, act the fool?

12. Straddling 16. Low poker pair 18. Zip, nada, zilch 21. “Xanadu” band 23. Old hand 24. “STEP ON THAT THING!!!!”

25. Jerk 26. Start of a major scale with no sharps or flats 28. “Livin’ La Vida ___” (Ricky Martin song in which he really sells his passion for the ladies) 30. Longtime jazz writer Hentoff 35. Short version of a life story?

37. On the market, in a way 39. Part of a shout-out to Satan 40. Core 41. Oval Pepperidge Farm cookie 42. Tweaks to fit 43. “I already made plans” 44. *Besmirched or, alternately, dressy item for the beach?

47. When you think you’ll be there, for short 48. Feel like garbage 49. Way to go: Abbr.

52. Baller’s lounge letters 53. Mountain top?

55. Defunct oil company with a “76” logo 57. Emulate a compost pile 58. Antiknock fluid 62. Some atoms 64. Pinafore letters 66. “Game of Thrones” network 67. Propeller in a sound, say 68. Anal, casually 69. Kite’s milieu

A pair of tickets for a 4.5- or eight-hour Pacific Nature Tour 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.

April 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 47

48 · San Diego CityBeat · April 16, 2014

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