San Diego CityBeat • April 23, 2014

ying D People in

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by Kelly Davis

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Opera P.9 Detectives P.13 Instagram P.19 Jarmusch P.22 1 San Diego CityBeat June 8, 2011

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2 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

The whole truth It’s election season, and that means we need to be on ready alert for fibs, half-truths, misdirection, misinformation, disinformation, lies, damn lies and statistics.

Here’s one that’s made the rounds since San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced his proposed city budget last week, disseminated so far

by Faulconer himself and Lorie Zapf, the current District 6 City Council member who’s running this year for the District 2 seat (because of redistricting): The city has more money for fixing roads and hiring cops and other nice things because of conservative reforms.

In his budget message, Faulconer gave passing mention of an improving economy, but action by city officials got top billing: “Additional funding for programs that are important to San Diegans was possible thanks to the City’s conservative fiscal policies and long-term financial planning practices.”

Reform of the employee-pension and healthcarebenefits system is the star of the show in Faulconer’s narrative, and his beloved managed-competition program plays an important supporting role. An improving economy makes a cameo.

Zapf parroted that version during a candidates forum last week in Ocean Beach: “So I’ve been [on the City Council] the last three-and-ahalf years working on reforms that have brought a lot more money into our coffers. And you just saw that just this week. Our budget is well above what we had projected. The pension savings, the managed comp savings, the efficiencies from the audits, all of that’s paying off.”

Here’s the truth as we understand it: • A deal between the city and its employee unions that froze “pensionable pay” raises for five years—that means raises that would result in higher retirement benefits—will save $24.6 million in the next year. (However, costly changes in the way the pension system calculates what the city owes to the pension fund essentially knocks those savings down to $11.8 million, when compared with the amount the city paid the pension fund last year.) Listen for people attributing these savings to 2012’s Proposition B; that wouldn’t be accurate. Negotiations with unions led to savings. Union leaders will tell you that pensionable pay was on the table long before Prop. B. The initiative called for a pensionable-pay freeze, but, legally, it couldn’t mandate it. It took

normal negotiations to get it done. Also, the pension-system overhaul in Prop. B—switching from a defined-benefit plan to a 401(K)-style plan—is still a net drain on the city budget.

• Managed competition, a process approved by voters in 2006, under which employee groups are pitted against private companies to provide certain city services, will result in no more than $9 million this coming year, but possibly less. For example, the proposed budget says that the competition for Landfill Operations “may result in up to $3.5 million in annual savings,” and there could be savings of “up to” $4 million in Fleet Services. It’s important to note, however, that, as CityBeat has reported, the decreased Fleet Services budget has resulted in a potentially dangerous reduction in available emergency vehicles.

• The bulk of the money that’s suddenly available for roads, cops and other goodies comes from projected increases in tax revenue, attributable to David Rolland the overall economic recovery. The proposed budget projects propertytax revenues of $13.7 million more than had previously been expected.

Sales-tax receipts should be $13.2 million more than was earlier estimated. Hotel-room taxes should get a $5.2-million boost over the previous estimate. Revenue from franchise fees—which are paid by cable and utility companies—are expected to be Lorie Zapf $2.1 million higher. Finally, the city is planning for an extra $1.1 million in property-transfer taxes. Together, those anticipated revenue boosts add up to a $35.3-million budgetary bonanza.

To sum up, it’s fair to say that some pension reform—the pay freeze—has helped free up a significant amount of money this year, but those gains are offset by a change in how the city’s pension-fund payment is calculated and the short-term cost of Prop. B. It’s fair to say that managed competition has reduced expenses a little bit, but potentially at a cost when it comes to services provided.

But it’s not fair to say those are the things that allowed the city to beef up neighborhood and publicsafety services. If elected officials and candidates leave out the fact that the improving economy is the largest factor in the city’s sudden good fortune, you might want to take everything they say with a grain of salt.

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

This issue of CityBeat has never had sex in the Ken Cinema, unlike a lot of you pervs.

Volume 12 • Issue 37 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

Cover design by Lindsey Voltoline

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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April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Correction In our April 2 “The Short List,” we reported that artist Brennan Hubbell is the grandson of artist James Hubbell. He is his son. We’re very sorry for the error.

Deadbeat dads I intently read Joshua Emerson Smith’s story about the minimum wage in the March 19 issue. Why is it that single moms are always the emotional tug on this issue?

I am tired of reading about single moms who do not receive support from the men who caused them to become moms. Are these moms using legal means to get deadbeat dads to provide child support and, if they are divorced, to provide alimony? If not, then they should not be having society stand in the place of those deadbeat dads either through food stamps or WIC or taking the position that their employers should pay them more than what the market says their job function is worth.

What happened to the trait that families help one another in times of distress?

If a single mom has an extended family, should not that family pitch in to help out that single mom?

The state’s already staked out a position by raising the minimum wage without any reference to all the deadbeat dads.

Why do deadbeat dads always get a pass?

Maybe you should dig deeper into this societal travesty so these bums can be held

4 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

accountable for their cowardly conduct!

Also, I loved Edwin Decker’s ranting and ravings in the same issue [“Sordid Tales”]. I guess the Muslims agree with him, because they’ve banned the film Noah from being shown in nations where they control the levers of power. Decker’s iconoclasm is his defining attribute!

Lou Cumming, La Jolla

Vassiliou’s ‘dying craft’ When I read your story on typewriter repairman Mitchell Vassiliou [“Art & Culture,” March 19], I said, “Hey, I know that guy!” I work at a church, and we had an old typewriter sitting in a storeroom that I paid Mitchell to spiff up for us. But the real value of the article is that it highlights someone who is practicing a dying craft.

Also, my dad and I engage in that oldfashioned practice of handwriting letters, and I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles or news items to mail to him, and this definitely qualifies. How ever did you think to write about a typewriter repairman?

Thanks for writing this. I enjoyed it.

But I do feel a bit guilty that I’m not typing this on that old typewriter.

Kathi Lohry, City Heights

investigation needed I was excited when I saw on CityBeat’s March 26 cover “Fest or fizzle.” Finally, I thought, a newspaper with the courage to expose what is really going on and who is responsible.

But, alas, while the article gave a fairly detailed description of the Balboa Park Centennial Inc.’s (BPCI) plans and told which of those may survive, there was no mention of what happened to the money that appears to have been misspent or, worse, who the responsible parties were, what is going to be done about the disappearance of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money or why someone’s salary was more than doubled to enable giving what is left of the money back to the city where it should automatically go.

A former mayor behaves inappropriately and his misdeeds are publicly aired ad nauseam as he is drummed out of office. An individual steals a cookie-money jar from some Girl Scouts and is sentenced to months in jail and required to repay what he took.

BPCI appears to have committed a criminal act, their chairperson resigns and there is no mention of any formal investigation, or prosecution, if warranted, nor are any other board members’ names printed.

Won’t someone please explain who these people are and why they are being

let off the hook?

Louisiana Dalton, North Park Editor’s note: We turned Ms. Dalton on to Voice of San Diego’s comprehensive story on the BPCI debacle.

The ‘living legend’ Kinsee Morlan’s article on the to-be-ornot-to-be Balboa Park centennial celebration is outstanding [“Art & Culture,” March 26]. CityBeat has delivered another fine piece of investigative reporting— one with some heart-tugging notes about community organizations (e.g. Pascat, Native Americans) eager to know whether they will be included. The original 1915 fair featured an array of ethnic groups—a real portrait of California—and should do so again in the 2015 event.

BPCI’s Gerry Braun, a former muckraking reporter for the Union-Tribune who looked into shenanigans among elected officials, pulled a reported $8,000 a month to serve as a nebulous liaison with the community. But that figure may actually have been $13,000. What is it about folks in San Diego who insert themselves into leadership positions in the arts and then don’t deliver on the mission—but take home BBB (Bacon Beyond Belief )?

Between 1994 and 2007, we produced

three documentaries about Balboa Park, each of which received an Emmy Award.

The one-hour network special for PBS, Balboa Park: The Magic City, was a day in the life of one of the world’s great urban spaces, folding in historical material from the 1915 and 1935 fairs. The late Lionel Van Deerlin narrated, and there were numerous eyewitness accounts on camera.

The half-hour program Postcards from the Fair focused on the 1935 fair and its significance as a civic jobs savior at the height of the Great Depression.

The half-hour “workhorse” production Balboa Park: A Living Legend focuses on both the 1915 and 1935 fairs. It, too, used archival black-and-white and color footage shot during the fairs. In 1994, after obtaining permission from the then-San Diego Historical Society to use the footage, we went to Deborah Szekely for underwriting to restore the decaying nitrate film at our L.A. lab and remaster it, while dubbing to Beta SP for long-term uses. The restored footage has since been used by KPBS and others.

A couple of years ago, to help the community prepare for the centennial, we donated DVDs of Balboa Park: A Living Legend to every branch library in the city and county systems and to several schools.

They are reportedly in constant use. Most recently, we sent a DVD of this program to Mayor Faulconer and the Committee of One Hundred. We will gladly do this for any nonprofit educational institution upon

receipt of a request on letterhead.

Balboa Park is a living national treasure, a major achievement, and it, and the San Diego city and county population, deserve a big birthday party. Here’s hoping.

Jack Ofield and Helen Erawan Ofield, Lemon Grove

More ideas for Balboa Park Regarding your April 2 editorial about how to fix the Balboa Park centennial celebration: I like your idea of past, present and future. The big mistake was trying to create a celebration that had a primary goal of attracting tourists. Balboa Park is San Diego’s treasure, and Balboa Park 2015 should be our party, right down to the flavor of the sheet cake.

One idea I had would be to create a “soap box” in our Plaza de Panama public square where, during certain hours, people could stand on it and talk about whatever they want. Great way to engage the public in civic discourse, and cheap, too. Another idea would be to hold a huge chalk festival and invite our best chalk artists to transform the plaza’s blank concrete canvas with art.

I know that there are many more ideas out there. Thanks for getting the ball rolling.

Felicia W. Shaw, Azalea Park

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

DYing behind bars CityBeat updates its reporting on deaths in San Diego County jails

by Kelly Davis Elaine said that every five years, Dennis seemed to spiral out of control. In the last dozen years, he’d twice—in 2002 and 2007—been committed to Patton State Hospital, an inpatient psychiatric facility, after being found incompetent to stand trial. The 2007 case, Elaine Lane received this note in the mail from her son Dennis stemming from Dennis threatening a the day before he died. friend and the friend’s wife with toy guns, resulted in a stint at Atascadero State Hospital. hen Dennis Lane drove his truck into a concrete On Dec. 13, two weeks before Dennis drove his truck pillar at Grossmont Hospital last December, he into Grossmont Hospital, his mother sent a letter to the told police he’d blacked out. His mother, Elaine, judge who’d overseen his 2007 case. believes her mentally ill son, who’d been taken “You, your honor, are my last hope,” she wrote. “He to a psychiatric hospital in October by friends needs to be in a locked mental hospital.” and again in November by police, was trying to get help.

On Jan. 9, a judge ordered that Dennis be evaluated by a Regardless, he was put in jail for destruction of property psychiatrist to determine whether he was fit for trial. That and died there exactly one month after his arrest. exam was scheduled for Feb. 4. Elaine visited her son at the Lane is one of five people who’ve died in San Diego Central Jail a few days before he died.

County jails so far this year, following 12 deaths in 2013. To “He was screaming, clawing, begging me to get him out put those two numbers into perspective, between 2007 and of there,” she said.

2012, the county jail system averaged 10 deaths a year, reOn Jan. 27, she received a letter from Dennis with a sketch sulting in San Diego having a jail mortality rate far surpass- he’d drawn of himself and this written under it: “25 day no ing the national average and the highest inmate mortality meds. They are killing me. Please call API. Help!!!” rate of California’s 10 largest counties, as we reported in According to his autopsy report, Dennis had Trazodone our 2013 series, “60 Dead Inmates.” in his system, a drug used to treat depression and anxiety.

Lane’s was the second death of 2014, coming 10 days af- Elaine said this wasn’t one of the medications her son had ter a suicide in San Diego’s Central Jail. According to the been taking prior to his arrest. medical examiner’s report, Lane died from an “acute gasAccording to the medical examiner’s report, Lane was trointestinal hemorrhage.” A chronic alcoholic earlier in having seizures two days before he died and visited a jail life, the 62-year-old had been sober for three decades, his doctor less than 24 hours before his death. The report mom said. Alcohol abuse and hepatitis C had done damage doesn’t state the purpose of the visit; it says only that on the to his liver, the autopsy found, but not to the point of it be- way to the appointment, Lane “became uncooperative and ing end-stage disease. was trying to sit on the floor.” When he made a threatening The dinner table at Elaine Lane’s mobile home in Santee move toward deputies, the report says, he was placed in a is strewn with paperwork about Dennis—most of it hand- headlock and handcuffed. written notes detailing her son’s recent mental decline.

Marc Stern, an expert in correctional healthcare and “Dennis taken to Grossmont Hospital,” she wrote on former Health Services Director for the Washington State Oct. 5. “Psychiatrist interviewed, told [Dennis’ friend] Department of Corrections, reviewed Lane’s autopsy Chris she saw all she needed to know. Transferred to for CityBeat. Stern said that the altercation with police API”—Alvarado Parkway Institute, a psychiatric hospital wouldn’t have caused the gastrointestinal bleeding that in La Mesa, where he stayed for eight days. killed him. But, Stern noted that the autopsy doesn’t iden-

W

6 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

tify the source of the bleeding—only that Lane’s intestines were filled with blood.

“There are questions that still need to be answered,” Stern said. “What was the nature of the [medical] visit, and what was the source of the bleeding?”

The autopsy says that the sheriff’s deputy who interviewed Lane’s cellmate told a medical-examiner investigator that the cellmate described Lane as being “in intensive pain” from 4 to 5 a.m. that morning. The report says Lane and his cellmate were seen in their cell at 8:53 a.m. during a routine check. The report doesn’t say what they were doing at that point—whether they were in their bunks or elsewhere in the cell. During another routine check at 9:51 a.m., Lane, who’d been assigned to the top bunk, was found on the cell floor, dead. Lividity—skin discoloration that happens after a person dies—had set in, the report notes, meaning he’d been dead at least 15 to 20 minutes.

Here, information from the cellmate would seem critical: Did Lane fall from his upper bunk? Did the cellmate call for help? Was the cellmate even there? The report doesn’t say.

CityBeat sent questions to the Medical Examiner’s office. In an email, Mike Workman, a county spokesperson, said the Medical Examiner’s office stands by both Lane’s autopsy report and a second report CityBeat asked about.

“They reflect the typical thorough autopsy examinations by our office’s doctors and the on-scene investigations needed to help the office’s doctors make cause and manner of death determinations,” Workman wrote.

That other autopsy report is on Dervin Bowman. The 50-year-old was found hanging in his cell on Nov. 17, 2013, but still alive. He was taken to UCSD Medical Center, where, on Nov. 23, his family made the decision to remove him from life support.

The medical examiner’s report notes that Bowman had been placed in a cell equipped for people with disabilities, though he wasn’t disabled. The cell included a moveable chair. The report suggests that this allowed Bowman, who was nearly 6 feet tall, to affix a bed sheet to an overhead fire sprinkler and hang himself. “Several apparent suicide notes” were found in his cell, the report says.

Jason Shanley, who talked to CityBeat on behalf of Bowman’s family, who lives in Milwaukee, first met Bowman in 2005. Shanley said his friend had a difficult life—he’d grown up in a foster home and later struggled with addiction—and

bonus

news Kelly Davis

Elaine Lane says her son Dennis needed to be in a psychiatric facility, not jail, where he died on Jan. 28. had tried many times to pull his life together. But complicating matters was a 1985 charge for sexual assault—Bowman, then 22 and in prison for burglary, had taken part in the rape of an inmate who’d molested a child.

That crime haunted him for the rest of his life. He was repeatedly arrested for failure to register as a sex offender; he was frequently homeless.

Though it’s not clear from his court file when he was required to start wearing a GPS device, he was arrested in 2011 for removing it, as well as for failing to register.

“Mr. Bowman does not want to live life in and out of prison,” his public defender wrote to a judge, hoping to get her client probation instead of jail time.

Bowman’s last arrest was for a parole violation. He’d told his mom that he was going to stop attending his parole-mandated classes, Shanley said. The last time the two talked, Bowman described a psychological evaluation he was forced to undergo to determine if he was sexually attracted to children.

“He said, ‘I can’t take it. This is crazy. Who do these people think I am?’” Shanley recalled. “He told his mom the night before he went back to jail, ‘I can’t go back to this program. I can’t do it.’”

Sheriff’s Commander John Ingrassia said Bowman had been in and out of jail several times in the past year for parole violations.

“Guys who are coming in a lot, I think they just say enough’s enough.

It’s hard for the staff to recognize.”

He said deputies who knew Bowman took his death pretty hard.

“They had been interacting with him a lot recently, and they didn’t see that one coming.”

If Bowman was intent on killing himself, Ingrassia questioned whether having access to the moveable chair that allowed him to reach the fire sprinkler made a difference—the majority of inmates who commit suicide tie a sheet or item of clothing to a bed post or door handle and lean forward, strangling themselves. Regardless, Ingrassia said he’s been looking into having retractable fire sprinklers installed in the Central Jail, similar to what’s been installed at the new Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee.

Of the more than six-dozen autopsy reports CityBeat has reviewed, Bowman’s is one of only three, and the only suicide, that doesn’t include any information in the section that describes an inmate’s medical and social history. In the case of a suicide, that information, which is based on jail records and interviews with family members, would usually include whether the person had expressed suicidal ideations to family or jail staff, had ever tried to commit suicide or had been prescribed psychotropic medication. For Bowman, the medical examiner’s report says only, “The decedent’s medical history was undetermined.”

Neither was Bowman’s case turned over to the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB)—an independent oversight body charged with investigating deaths in custody that aren’t ruled natural by the Medical Examiner’s office, or natural deaths for which there are extenuating circumstances—until CityBeat asked about it two weeks ago.

Cannabis shops in limbo As folks in the medical-cannabis industry line up for the first time to apply for permits to operate dispensaries in San Diego, officials are attempting to crack down on the dozens of illegal storefronts still open for business.

Neighborhood-code-compliance officers have opened 57 cases against dispensary owners, and four of those dispensaries have shut down, according to the Mayor’s office. All dispensaries in the city are currently considered rogue operations.

“They are operating illegally, and the city is taking steps to close them down,” said Craig Gustafson, a spokesperson for Mayor Kevin Faulconer, in an email. “When a complaint is made, code enforcement officers and/or police investigate.”

If a dispensary owner refuses to shut down after a city warning letter is issued, the case is forwarded to the City Attorney’s office for possible prosecution, Gustafson added.

Meanwhile, the city will begin taking applications on Thursday, April 24, for permits to run dispensaries under an ordinance passed by the City Council in February. While the new rules limit council districts to four legal dispensaries each, a long list of restrictions is expected to significantly reduce that number.

In order to secure the necessary conditional-

use permit, applicants must get approval from the local community planning group, a process that could take months. This transition to a regulated environment has advocates concerned that patient access could be temporarily but significantly limited.

“What’s important is that the city moves forward as quickly as possible with these new rules,” said Eugene Davidovich, co-founder of Alliance for Responsible Medicinal Access. “It’s incumbent upon the City Council to think about the next six to nine months and where patients are supposed to go to get their medicine.”

It’s not clear how long it will take for the city to shut down the illegal dispensaries. Last fall, the Community Planners Committee (CPC) opposed the medical-cannabis ordinance largely because of a “lack of confidence” in the city’s ability to enforce the proposed rules, CPC Chair Joe LaCava said.

“We are short code enforcement and police officers—evidenced by the fact that there are quite a few medical-marijuana facilities open and operating even though they’re currently illegal,” he said.

Of the city’s 33 code-enforcement officers, two are assigned to medical-marijuana dispensaries, according to the city’s Development Services Department.

“We have 20 dispensaries operating illegally within our district,” City Councilmember Ed Harris, who represents District 2, told an audience at last week’s Pacific Beach Town Council meeting.

“That’s something that I’ve already directed staff to get me answers for.”

—Joshua Emerson Smith

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

“Unfortunately, through an oversight on our part, held for attempted murder.

CLERB was not notified,” Sheriff’s spokesperson The Medical Examiner’s office told CityBeat that Jan Caldwell said in an email. “This was not an in- Nesmith’s autopsy report isn’t yet complete. tentional oversight. New parameters have been put Dan Leib, an attorney hired by Nesmith’s family into place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.” to investigate his death, said jail staff knew he was As CityBeat reported last year, there were a num- suicidal. ber of deaths in 2009 and 2010 about which CLERB “The question is, did they provide the appropriwasn’t notified, prompting the board to send the Sher- ate level of safeguards and care?” Leib said. “If you’re iff’s Department a letter, demanding that a notification going to deprive somebody of their liberty and take process be codified in the department’s policies and them into custody, you’re agreeing to certain obligavia facebook procedures manual. The sheriff denied tions to keep them safe.” the request but assured that no more This isn’t the first time the Vista Decases would slip through the cracks. tention Center has been accused of not Bowman’s was the fifth suicide in taking a suicidal inmate seriously. In county jails in 2013. While experts January, the family of Robert Lubsen caution that it’s important to look at filed a lawsuit alleging that jail medical jail-death data over a number of years staff failed to note that the 26-year-old, and not focus on deaths within any one who was struggling with drug addicyear, those five deaths coupled with tion, had ligature marks around his neck the fact that two people have comwhen he was booked, the result of a suimitted suicide so far this year show cide attempt in a holding cell at Califoran alarming trend. According to data nia State University, San Marcos, where we collected for our jail-deaths series, he’d been arrested for trying to steal a Orange County, which has a slightly computer. The lawsuit says that jail staff Kristopher Nesmith “received a tip” that Lubsen “was a risk larger jail population than San Diego County, averaged 1.3 suicides per year between 2007 to himself” but failed to act on it, despite a policy that and 2012. For that same six-year period, San Diego says “all reports of suicidal behavior are to be taken County’s average was double that, or 2.6 suicides seriously.” Lubsen, who was initially placed in a lowannually. To put that into perspective, Los Angeles er-level cell when he was booked, was moved to a County, with a jail population nearly four times the second-floor cell. The next morning, when cell doors size of San Diego’s, averaged only four suicides per opened to allow inmates access to a common area, year between 2007 and 2012.

Lubsen climbed onto a walkway railing, leaned over On March 1 of this year, Kristopher Nesmith and fell, headfirst, to the concrete floor below. hanged himself in the Vista Detention Center. Three months earlier, the 21-year-old former Marine had Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com stabbed a man and attacked another. He was being and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

8 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

aaryn

backwards & in high heels

belfer No curtains for the opera “Crazytown” is the term that comes to mind, and Like most plebeians, however—most working I’m not talking about the “I’m just a 14-year-old stiffs and most parents who rely on babysitters at white girl” who tweeted a bomb threat to American $12 per hour—going to the opera is cost-prohibitive.

Airlines last week. That’s one ding-a-ling of epic I found this out when I decided to buy two tickets proportion, but she can’t help it if her frontal lobe after hearing the incredible reviews of Moby Dick. isn’t fully formed.

But money isn’t the only thing about opera that No, Cray.Zee.Town. is actually the new name I makes the art form inaccessible. Because so many of propose for San Diego, complete with punctuaus aren’t exposed to it, we don’t necessarily undertion so visitors to our little amusement park by the stand it or have an appreciation for it. And let’s just sea can get the emphasis exactly right. Note that it be real about the inherent elitism of an exclusionary should never be said without a big ol’ side eye. medium largely aimed at a particular demographic.

San Diego has had a very special 10 months that, It would take a certain kind of creativity and alone or collectively, are about as disturbing as the long-term commitment—as seems to be embodied aforementioned tweet and as gross as the accidental

by Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel director of education U.S. Airways one that featured a photo of a woman and outreach for the San Diego Opera—to entice with a toy airplane stuffed in her bare vag. It was all and sustain the interest of a new generation of opthere, including her waxed, white asshole puckerera fans. It’s my opinion that the (former?) direcing for the camera. tor Ian Campbell is neither creative nor committed.

I sort of prefer that image to what’s been going But! He’s a white, puckery asshole, which counts on around town. At least the picture is honest about for something in this town. what it is. In good ol’ San Diego, we have a whole In at least one conversation with KPBS culture different brand of waxed, white assholes puckering reporter Angela Carone (full disclosure: She’s a for the cameras in a seemingly endless con game. friend; fuller disclosure: She is killing it on opera Don’t believe me? Just look at our generic and mecoverage), Campbell publicly pooh-poohed the diocre, yet PR savvy, emperor-mayor. kind of innovation that might see the opera not only I stopped paying close attention to the goings survive, but also entice new, younger audiences. on in Cray.Zee.Town. awhile back Despite his protestations, mebecause my jaw had begun to hurt thinks we commoners would flock to from being so frequently agape. My Anna Nicole and other such contemBut! He’s a white, outrage bone was sore. porary productions. I think Blackfish puckery asshole, Since last July, we’ve seen the would make a great new whale opera, implosion of a mayor, the centenniif only there were money to commiswhich counts for al celebration, the Ken Cinema and sion it. The Wire would make for an something in San Diego Opera. And yet, SeaWorld exceptional contemporary tragedy. still beckons the masses despite the Shoot, give us Frozen and an entire this town. wailing mother whales we all cried generation of children would be fans with in Blackfish. Can you stand it? I for life. Give us vulgar-folk Anchorask you: Can you stand it? man in arias. Interest would soar. I’ve got ideas, peoWait a second. We have an opera? ple. Maybe the opera should hire me. I’d only ask for Oh, I kid the opera! I totally know we have one, a fraction of Campbell’s bloated salary. because every major city totally has one. Even miDespite my admittedly limited knowledge of all nor cities have operas. For Verdi’s sake, Boise has an things Puccini, I signed the petition to save the San opera. Billings, Des Moines, Grand Rapids, WichiDiego Opera. But if it can’t be saved in this place— where citizens practically take up arms to save a ta—shall I keep going?—have operas. cross on a hill, where we go to the mat over a reproGood thing ours isn’t, like, closing or anything. duction of a statue that’s a reproduction of a photo— Unlike our opera, which is being driven into the we can always bask in our kick-ass weather reports ground for reasons still unclear by a group of waxy, delivered by wiggling, bandage-dress-wearing metewhite puckering assholes, many others around the orologists who go by names like Aloha and Dagmar. country aim to include new fans. They stage conWe may not have opera, but we’ll have sunshine. temporary operas, do small chamber concerts or Down the road, we peons can take our economisend company members to sing in bars (who knew cal home-packed picnics to the base of “UncondiFort Worth was so progressive?). tional Surrender,” where we’re not forced to look at Many companies perform in schools. According it. There, in its shadow, we can eat our cake while to a friend, the San Diego Opera goes out to district opera staff wait in the unemployment line, while schools, but I’d never know if they came to my kid’s the Chargers play in their new stadium that we will school—or be able to reinforce what they taught— have paid for but cannot afford to sit in, thanks to since her school doesn’t communicate with parthe reign of some white, puckering assholes. ents. But that’s another issue.

That right there is operatic. Bravo. Encore.

Successful opera companies, it turns out, care about reaching the peons who scrimp all year for Write to aaryn@sdcitybeat.com one day with Shamu but not for a single evening and editor@sdcitybeat.com. with Susan Neves. That’s a shame.

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner

bread. The key to a great Cubano—indeed, the key to any great sandwich—is the balance of the various elements. But somehow with such prosaic ingredients— and the ham here is neither prosciutto, jamon iberico nor Southern country ham but, rather, just an ordinary supermarket-grade product—there’s really nothing there to make up for a lack of perfect balance. Andrés’ version, unfortunately, required too much searching for the ham and pickles in the forest of pork and bread.

Andrés’ cheese empanada was even worse. No doubt the cheese inside the dumplings was not Velveeta, but the fact that I could wonder (even for a moment), was damning in and of itself. These empanadas were fried dough Andrés Restaurant’s ropa vieja encasing—perhaps entombing— indifferent cheese. I don’t have time for that and don’t know anyone who does. If so, they’re probably not reading this column.

But the empanadas de pollo were another story altogether. I say an enthusiastic “¡Sí!” to a brilliantly crispy, deep-fried exterior that covers a magnificently moist and savory interior. Dipping As comfortable as old clothes it in an excellent mojo sauce, featuring olive oil, citrus and quantities of garlic that even Emeril If all of the food at Andrés Restaurant in Linda Lagasse wouldn’t have joked about, makes this Vista were as good as the ropa vieja (“old clothes”) an absolutely perfect pairing. dish, the restaurant would be near the top of my Andrés uses the same mojo on the pierna de list of the top 10 ethnic places in town. As it is, puerco asada, taking a simple plate and amping it that dish alone—a deceptively simple stew of up a notch or three. The result is a slowly roasted, shredded flank steak in sauce—is enough to make wonderfully moist product with layers of flavor: the place one not to miss. The caramelization a caramelized exterior and succulent interior set from the sear, the depth of flavor—both from the off by that pungent sauce. The flavor profile of braise and from the sofrito base—yield a plate of the mountain of rice and little cup of black beans food that’s exciting, soulful and speaks deeply of works, though the proportions are out of whack. where it’s from. It’s not a high-end restaurant And that brings it back to that ropa vieja. dish. It’s not perfect in every way. It’s just perfect There may be nothing elegant about the look of in the ways that really matter. the dish, but the wine, the tomato and the deeply But, sadly, all of the food at Andrés (1235 braised flavors all raise the question: So what?

Morena Blvd., andresrestaurantsd.com) doesn’t There is elegance in the flavor and balance to the quite rise to that level. My original reason for dish, and that’s reason enough to go back to the restaurant and enjoy it again. going was a serious jonesin’ for a Cubano sandwich, Cuba’s unique take on the traditional hamWrite to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com and-cheese, featuring ham, roasted pork, Swiss and editor@sdcitybeat.com. cheese, pickles and mustard on pressed Cuban

the world

fare

10 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

BY KELLY DAVIS

cocktail

tales Don’t fear the menu

with coffee cocktails. In between, you’ve got champagne cocktails to pair with oysters, plus apertifs and digestifs. Ultimately, Lecap assures, don’t be afraid to ask.

“A great bartender or server knows exactly what easy-to-identify flavor profiles all of their products have and how to relate them to anyone’s personal tastes.”

The cocktail menu at Ironside Fish & Oyster (ironsidefishandoyster.com), the latest Consortium Holdings (Craft & Commerce, Polite Provisions, Under Belly, Neighborhood) project, is kelly davis A few months ago, Coin-Op’s Ryan rather epic. It’s four times the size of Andrews turned me on to Henebery the dinner menu. (heneberywhiskey.com), a locally Leigh Lecap, who’s been behind the made whiskey that he used to make a bar at Craft & Commerce and Noble tasty whiskey smash with fresh blood Experiment and won El Dorado’s 2013 oranges, mint and lemon. On Thursbartender challenge, is Ironside’s bar day, May 22, Henebery’s the featured manager. He uses “approachable” to spirit at a pairing dinner at Saltbox describe the menu. There are some to raise money for Rachel’s Women’s unfamiliar ingredients, sure, but they Center, a homeless shelter. The meal were selected to pair well with Ironwill include six courses of small bites side’s seafood-focused menu. Use the sections as your guide, he says. “We Ironside’s paired with whiskey cocktails, like categorized the menu with descripGolden Rivet seared sea bass and lemongrass forbidden rice served with a “Mai Thai”— tions that let our guests know when Henebery, toasted coconut, lemongrass orgeat, certain drinks are best enjoyed in their dining curry bitters and lime. Tickets are $35 and can experience,” he says. be purchased by calling 619-515-3029.

Indeed, the menu’s divided into seven sections, beginning with “Cocktails on the Half Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com Shell” (“A single raw oyster served alongside a and editor@sdcitybeat.com. lively drink of restorative qualities”) and ending

•••

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

by jenny montgomery Jenny montgomery

north

fork

More ’tude than food I always go into a restaurant feeling excited, positive and ready to have a great experience. But I’ll admit that when the first thing I notice about a place is style and attitude (from the website alone), I start to worry that more attention was paid to flash than food. This has been my frustration with local “celebrity” chefs—obvious talent being overshadowed by trends and gimmicks— and it’s my frustration with Notorious Burgers in Carlsbad.

The Prohibition-themed burger joint (6955 El Camino Real, notoriousburger.com) has quirky, mafia-adjacent names, servers in old-timey suspenders and overloaded menu items that are intended to be “notorious,” I suppose, but end up muddling up what could have been some simple, exceptional ideas.

How could I resist ordering waffle-cut fries smothered in cheese and crab? I couldn’t, but you should. What a disappointing start to our meal.

The cheese tasted like lukewarm Velveeta at best, and there were just a few anemic little shreds of sad crab plopped here and there among the potatoes. The whole mess came served in a fake castiron pan (plastic) that just added to the reheated

12 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

lameness of it all.

If you’re in the mood for fries, skip the overloaded seafood combos and go for simplicity. Demand the salt and vinegar fries, with its petite dipping cup of crème fraiche. The thick sticks of potato are brined in sea salt and malt vinegar, giving each bite an addictive, puckery tang. These are excellent and way better than the other pile of cheesy nonsense.

Then we moved on to sandwiches. Objectively, nothing was bad; I just felt underwhelmed by the whole experience. “Beef is Boss” is the slogan, and you can either build your own burger or The Capone order one of Notorious’ crazy concoctions. I checked out the Capone, a towering, overloaded creation featuring habanero jack cheese, Sriracha sauce, crispy onions, avocado and the oh-so-trendy (and somewhat polarizing) fried egg. I continue to fall into the trap of trying dishes with a complicated list of ingredients, hoping to find that surprising new taste combination, but it rarely works. I almost always find myself tasting a big bite of who-cares. The Capone could have been a shining example of quality beef and unique flavors. Instead, the meat was dry, the Sriracha overwhelmed, the avocado was under-ripe and nothing shined.

If you’re looking for a non-beef option, there are plenty of unique sandwiches to try. “The Snitch” is not so much a sandwich as it is chicken and waffles on a skewer. The chicken is thickly battered and fried, well-seasoned and juicy. The waffles, however, had no crispness at all and quickly became soggy from sitting in the sweet maple “mayo” drizzled on the bottom of the plate. As far as I could tell, it was just maple syrup making everything sticky and soggy, nothing as nuanced as a maple mayo.

I’ll continue to be optimistic about new restaurants in town, and I hope Notorious smoothes out its rough edges. It’s clearly got the spunk to please most crowds, but I hope it starts paying a little more attention to the finished product than first impressions.

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

the floating

library

by jim ruland

Echoes of True Detective in three recent novels There’s a scene in Repo Man where a car-lot attendant explains to a young repo man how the world operates, a worldview he calls the “lattice of coincidence.”

“Suppose you’re thinkin’ about a plate of shrimp,” he says. “Suddenly someone’ll say, like, ‘plate’ or ‘shrimp’ or ‘plate of shrimp’ out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin’ for one, either. It’s all part of a cosmic unconsciousness.”

Lately, my plate of shrimp has been True Detective. It’s been at least six weeks since the season finale and I can’t stop thinking about the show.

I see it everywhere—even in the books I read. But is it me, or is it the “cosmic unconsciousness”? Because the last three books I read all contained uncanny echoes of True Detective.

Not for Nothing, one of Stephen Graham Jones’ most recent novels (I say “one of” because he has at least four books coming out this year), is a detective novel about a disgraced, alcoholic cop named Nick Bruiseman who “worships at the temple of bad ideas” and is haunted by the past. Sound familiar?

Well, get this: Like Rust Cohle, Bruiseman lives in a storage unit. He even sounds like him at times: “Each box you open in your mind, there’s a smaller box inside it. Maybe this is something all storage unit security personnel eventually have to face at some point of the job.”

Told in the second person, the reader is implicated in Bruiseman’s efforts to solve the crime. The novel begins as a fairly straightforward detective story—damsel in distress, tough-talking gumshoe, vindictive femme fatale, etc.—but is set in a small, shit-kicked town in West Texas where the phone book is short and memories are long.

The result is a story with more twists than Reggie Ledoux’s spiral tattoo.

West Texas is a long way from Louisiana, but Attica Locke’s novel The Cutting Season is set on the banks of the Mississippi River in Ascension Parish at a restored sugarcane plantation called Belle Vie, a place with a dark and violent history that’s now a historical attraction for tourists and rented out for weddings.

What could go wrong?

When the body of a migrant worker is found on the plantation grounds, Caren Gray, whose ancestors worked those same fields, feels as if the plantation is somehow to blame.

“She should have known that one day it would spit out what it no longer had use for, the secrets

it would no longer keep.”

Like True Detective, a miasma of evil that may or may not be supernatural hovers over the investigation. But the most striking similarity is the old red pickup truck— just like the one Rust Cohle drives— that shadows the protagonist.

There aren’t any plantations, or detectives for that matter, in Michael Farris Smith’s debut novel Rivers.

Published late last year, Rivers is a post-apocalyptic story set on the Gulf Coast. Hurricanes have gotten so bad that hurricane season is now a yearround affair and efforts to rebuild have been abandoned. The government has established The Line, a new border beyond which anarchy reigns.

“There was no law. No service. No offering. No protection. Residents had been given a month’s notice that The Line was coming and a mandatory evacuation order had been decreed and help was offered until the deadline and then you were on your own if you stayed behind. The Line had been drawn and everything below was considered primitive until the hurricanes stopped and no one knew if that day was ever coming.”

Rivers is often compared to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and while Smith’s language is well-suited to brooding reflections of a world gone mad, it has an extraordinarily fast pace for a literary novel, and like the water beyond the levee, the stakes just keep getting higher and higher. What’s so terrifying about Rivers is that Smith’s scenario seems entirely plausible. In fact, Rust Cohle predicted as much when he says, “This place will be under water in 30 years.”

So, what the hell is going on? Is Rust Cohle haunting these novels?

I think the more logical explanation is that all of these writers, including True Detective’s creator, Nic Pizzolatto, are tapping not so much into the “cosmic unconsciousness” but the horror that comes with the realization that we live in a world in serious decline. The constants—the sun will shine, the rains will come (and then stop)—are shifting into the realm of the arbitrary. Yet we look for answers beyond human agency, even when the clues lead directly to us and the mess we’ve made here on Earth.

It shouldn’t take a detective, true or make believe, to figure that out.

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

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

the

SHORTlist

1

ART

COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN

ETHICAL SHOPPING SPREE

The handmade revolution continues, producing edibles and items for the socially conscious consumer. Why buy a candle at a big-box store when your neighbor pours high-quality wax? Why buy shirts made in sweatshops when locally made clothes look so much cooler?

These are the questions at the heart of Makers Arcade, a craft fair featuring 25 of San Diego’s finest clothing and accessory designers. Cruise through Glashaus in Barrio Logan (1815 Main St.) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 26, and peruse CT3’s custom-designed bowties, no-tie bowties and hair bows. Or pick up a Southwesternstyle purse or laptop case from Rais Case.

Products (clockwise from top left) made by Built Around Me, “We’re just trying to encourage peoColleen Townend Jewelry, Redstar Ink and Grey Theory Mill ple to think about shopping locally,” says event organizer Jennifer Byard, who owns soul. A lot of our venders are doing this on the side Thread and Arrow, a custom children’s clothing line. because it fills them up.”

“We’re trying to get people away from the big-box thing The event includes live music, an urban craft a little bit and get people to buy things made locally. camp and Daniel and Kim’s DK Local Kitchen food “We really want people to come and spend some truck. There’ll be beer, wine and craft cocktails availtime there, not just come and shop,” she adds. “It’s a able, too, and gift bags for the first 50 guests. Admisvery artistic venue. It’s inspiring just to be in there.” sion is free. makersarcade.com Also on hand will be Mr. B’s Luminaries, offering its handmade candles, as well as Jennafer Grace, with her super-styley handmade clothes. Pick up a pair of leathThe lineup for the inaugural Filmatic er sandals by Pons Avarcas, a new take on the traditionFestival is athdavrazar (that means exal footwear of the Mediterranean island of Menorca. cellent in the fictional language spoken Or buy a painting from local folk artist Lindy Ivey.

Many of these vendors also hold down day jobs by the Dothraki people in Game of Thrones): David and use their side business as a way to express them- Peterson, who’s created two languages for that epic selves artistically, Byard says. “We just like to en- TV series, will host a workshop on the challenges courage people to make things. It’s good for their that come with making up new languages. Exit Through the Gift Shop cameraman Brian Cross will also speak, and those are just the big-name-drops involved in this innovative festival that strives to Adams Avenue has long been a corri- transform “traditional passive film watching into an dor of great live music, thanks partly to active and immersive experience.” Filmatic, which events like the Adams Avenue Street Fair runs Thursday, April 24, through Sunday, April and Lestat’s coffeehouse. On Saturday and Sunday, 27, at the Qualcomm Institute at UCSD in La Jolla, April 26 and 27, the thoroughfare will once again includes interactive film karaoke via a green screen, host some great singer-songwriter performances the debut of new augmented-reality glasses, multiwith Adams Avenue Unplugged. For two days, media exhibitions, installations and more. $5-$175.

PHOTO BY MONKEYBIRD more than 150 acts— filmaticfestival.com including Peter Case, Johnny Fritz, Willie Watson and Chris Hillman & Herb Petersen—will perform in venues ranging from restaurants and bars to galleries and outdoor stages. While you’re soaking in the sounds, get treated to $5 craft cocktails all weekend. The festival Willie Watson takes place along Adams Avenue between University Heights and KensApp, an interactive film paired ington. The event is free, or $10 for reserved seats. with a smart-phone application adamsavenueunplugged.com

3

2

PLUCK-A-THON

14 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

THE FUTURE OF FILM

HAxline Lecture: Alfredo Jaar at San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park. The 14th annual lecture features the Chilean-born artist whose work, “Muxima,” a looping video installation featuring multiple iterations of a popular Angolan folk song, is on view at the museum. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. $10. 619-232-7931, sdmart.org John Cederquist at William D. Cannon Art Gallery, 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad.

Cedaquist discusses his new show, Illusions in Wood, featuring playful wood assemblages and furniture that blur the lines between reality and illusion. At 7 p.m.

Thursday, April 24. carlsbadca.gov/arts HRwanda, 1994-2014: Seven Photographers at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, 5998 Alcala Park, USD, Linda Vista. Reception and panel discussion for the exhibition, which brings together more than two dozen works by photographers who were in Rwanda at the time of the genocide or who’ve visited since. From 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 24. 619260-7618, peace.sandiego.edu HNight Owls: The Darkroom at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. A music and art mixer for 21-40-somethings. This one includes a discussion with photographer Omar Lopez, a DJ playing old jazz records, collaborative art projects and darkroom photography activities. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24. $10. ljathenaeum.org/niteowls Sal Si Puedes at UCSD Visual Arts Facility Gallery, Russell Drive and Lyman Avenue, La Jolla. MFA Candidate Gary Garay presents his multimedia thesis exhibition that explores the intersections of class and representations of high and low art and culture in border regions. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m.

Friday, April 25. garygaray.com Oceanside Days of Art at the corner of Coast Highway 101 and Pier View Way. A fine-art festival featuring over 100 artists from throughout Southern California. There will also be street-chalk artists, face painting and live performances. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 2627. ocaf.info/oceanside-days-of-art/ I’m Gorgeous Inside at Not an Exit Gallery, Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. Last chance to see Lisa Hutton’s graphite drawings of everything from canyon views to formal dining rooms. From 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 26. lisahutton.net HThe Struggle is Real at Gym Standard, 2903 El Cajon Blvd., North Park.

New works from Sergio Hernandez, whose style mixes street art and comicstrip styles of caricature. Live music performance by Gorilla Boxer. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 26. 619-5014996, gymstandard.com Presidio to Pacific Powerhouse: How the Military Shaped San Diego at San Diego History Center, Balboa Park. A countywide collaboration with nine other museum sites tells the story of the military’s impact on San Diego, influencing every aspect of our political, economic and social development. See website for other locations. Opens Saturday, April 26. $4-$8.

619-232-6203, sandiegohistory.org HNostalgia Blue at Disclosed Unlocation Gallery, 1925 30th St., South Park. The next installment of Amorous Abyss, a series of Brian Meanswell’s paintings. From 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 26. unlocation.com HPaintings, Prints and a Fox or 2 at Not an Exit Gallery, Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. Local artist and professor Kathi McCord will debut work centered around anthropomorphism and a stuffed fox she found at a thrift store. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 26.

HMission Federal ArtWalk in Little Italy.

The largest fine-art festival in Southern California will mark its 30th year with a 17-block outdoor exhibition of original fine art, a kids activity area, four stages of live music and dance and more. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27. 619-615-1090, artwalksandiego.org HOff the Wall at Empress Contemporary, 402 Market St., Downtown. A graffiti and street art show featuring renowned street artists Chor Boogie, Mike “Bam” Tyau, APEX and Codak. There will be hosted food and cocktails, as well as music by DJ Young Einstein. Opening from 7 to 11 p.m.

Saturday, April 26. $20. 619-895-3027, empresscontemporary.com HIntersecting Lines: 10th Invitational Drawing Show at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. This exhibition showcases San Diego artists whose work challenges the notion of “drawing.”

Featured artists include Joshua Eggleton, John Halaka and May-ling Martinez. Opening from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 26. 619-236-5800, sandiegolibrary.org MIT Mobile Fab Lab at North University Community Library, 8820 Judicial Drive, La Jolla. Join the local community for this “Micro” Maker Faire. Learn about 3D printing, robots, electronics, laser cutters, and other tools you can use to create unique items.

From 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26. fablabsd.org Stefan Talian at On the Edge Art Gallery, 7317 El Cajon Boulevard, La Mesa. A solo show by Talian, whose work consists of strong contrasting compositions, photorealistic renditions and subtly striking use of color. Opening from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 26. ontheedgeartgallery.com Earthly Delights at Concetta Antico Studio, 1920 Fort Stockton Drive, Mission Hills.

New tetrachromatic oil paintings by Antico.

Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 26. 619-906-0701, concettaantico.com Autism Awareness Art Show at Ballast Point Gallery, 2770 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. Art show and fundraiser for the Autism Tree Project Foundation featuring the art of Joel Anderson, who was diagnosed with autism at age 3. From 2 to 5 p.m.

Sunday, April 27. ballastpointgallery.com Rob Kaz at Chuck Jones Gallery, 232 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Check out work from the gaming and animation artist, one of only a few granted the opportunity and license to paint Disney films. Opening from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, April 27. 888-294-9880. chuckjonesgallery.com There & Back Again at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor’s Center, One Father Junipero Serra Trail, Mission Hills. An exhibition featuring award-winning photographer Dolwain Green, who’ll be on hand to discuss the new collection of images from trips throughout the U.S., Jamaica and New Zealand. Opening from 1 to 4 p.m.

Sunday, April 27. 619-668-3281, mtrp.org Shared Space at Basic, 410 10th Ave., Downtown. Viz Cult presents this exhibition featuring the work of urban figurative minimalist Alex Avila and the abstract pop “graffuturism” art of Jason Gould.

From 7 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, April 29.

HMetaloci: Points of Transformation at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Pkwy., Mission Valley. Group exhibit investigating the elusive nature of transformation through the use of glass, metal, paint and photography. Artists include Jenny Armer, Teresa Chen, Daniele Fratarcangeli, Scott Gengelbach and Joshua Krause. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 30.

Raw: Spectrum House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Enjoy a film screening, musical performances, fashion shows, art gallery, performance art and

a featured hairstylist and makeup artist.

From 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. $15-$20. rawartists.org HMCASD Biennial Art Auction at MCASD La Jolla, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. The ninth annual auction features more than 90 artworks donated by internationally recognized artists and emerging talent. Artists include David Adey, Adam Belt, Shepard Fairey and Manny Farber. There’ll be special-edition auction paddles created by local artist Kelsey Brooks. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. $100-$225. 858-454-3541, mcasd.org

BOOKS HAlfie Kohn at USD Warren Auditorium, 5998 Alcala Park, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall,

Linda Vista. The education critic and writer 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 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. 858454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com Hannah Kent at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The novelist will discuss and sign novel, Burial Rites, about a young woman in 19th century Iceland who finds herself condemned for her part in a brutal murder. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24. warwicks.indiebound.com

Chelsea Handler at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Meet the bestselling author and star of Chelsea Lately as she signs her new book, Uganda Be Kidding Me. Ticket price includes admission for two adults as well as a copy of the book. At 2 p.m. Friday, April 25. $29.16.

858-454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com Dr. Eben Alexander at Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, 404 Euclid Ave., Chollas View. A Q&A and book signing with the neurosurgeon and author of Proof of Heaven. This event is a fundraiser for the American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences and San Diego IANDS. From 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 27. $35.

858-603-1890. ebenalexander.com/events HLiterary Arts Festival at Grossmont College, 8800 Grossmont College Drive,

La Mesa. Poetry, comics, memoir, short fiction: there’s something for everyone at this 18th annual fest featuring authors from around the country offering readings, workshops, signings, panel discussions and more. See website for schedule. Monday through Thurday, April 28-May 1. grossmont.edu/English/Festival

COMEDY HChris D’Elia at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Recently named one of Variety’s “Top 10 Comics to Watch,” D’Elia. At 8 and 10 p.m. Thursday, April 24, and 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, April 25-26. $24.

619-795-3858, americancomedyco.com Helen Hong at Mad House Comedy

Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. A comedian, TV host, matchmaker, and star of Logo Channel’s reality dating series, Setup Squad. At 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 25-26. $20-$30. 619-7026666, madhousecomedyclub.com HAmy Schumer at Harrah’s Rincon Casino, 777 Harrah’s Rincon Way, Valley Center. For those who’ve never seen Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer, the young comedian’s shtick mostly centers on sex, but she crosses the line of appropriateness in exceedingly weird and wonderful ways. At 9 p.m. Friday, April 25. $49-$99. ticketmaster.com HJared Logan at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. You

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April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

JIM COX

THEATER Battling demons in Balboa Park Water by the Spoonful, the second play in Quiara Alegria Hudes’ three-work Elliot Cycle, continues the story of Puerto Rican Elliot Ortiz, an honorably discharged Marine who served in Iraq and returns to America with a fair share of personal demons. The 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning work is now on stage at The Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, a small space that’s conducive to a story that traffics heavily in connections— broken ones and ones aspired to. A prevailing sense of claustrophobia deepens the personal hells of crack addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder and family tragedy.

Still, Water by the Spoonful is uplifting in its moments of forgiveness and courage.

Elliot’s (Rey Lucas) struggles are many: He’s addicted to pain pills and haunted by a specter from his military past, his adoptive mother (his aunt) has died, he wants a Hollywood career instead of one making sandwiches at Subway and his birth mother is a recovering crack head. How much can one angry young man bear?

The play’s parallel plot, which becomes one with the main in Act 2, involves a cyberspace chat site for crack addicts. The site manager is Odessa (Marilyn Torres), who happens to be that birth mother from whom Elliot’s estranged. Conversing back and forth in cyberrecovery are “Orangutan” (Ruibo Qian) and

16 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

“Chutes&Ladders” (Keith Randolph Smith), with a newbie to the site, “Fountainhead” (Robert Eli), fighting a battle of his own against denial. The trouble with this part of the play is that in today’s era of instantaneous texting and tweeting, chat-room conversation seems so slow. Before the Odessa and Elliot stories converge in Act 2, the chat-site scenes in Act 1 feel like an interruption of the more urgent events of Elliot’s tumbledown life. That said, the Globe’s staging of the Internet sequences, with use of laser-like connecting lines on the floor and in the rafters, is inspired, and, to some extent, the fledgling relationship between “Orangutan” and “Chutes&Ladders” is the play’s most satisfying element.

Edward Torres directs a visually powerful production that’s rife with big statements— perhaps too many. Water by the Spoonful will leave you wrung out.

It runs through May 11 at The Old Globe Theatre. $29 and up. oldglobe.org

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

OPENING Jungle Book: In San Diego State University’s adaptation of the classic story, the adventures of Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo and Shere Kahn are set in a secret jungle

see him every week as a cast member on VH1’s Best Week Ever, plus he was also a delegate for Comedy Central’s “Indecision 2012.” At 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. $12. americancomedyco.com Skyler Stone at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Stone has been on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen and Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. $15. 619-7026666, madhousecomedyclub.com

Marilyn Torres and Rey Lucas in Balboa Park. Opens April 25 at SDSU’s Don Powell Theatre. theatre.sdsu.edu Old Jews Telling Jokes: A comedy revue featuring five actors paying homage to classic jokes, inspired by a website of the same name. Opens April 23 at the Lyceum Theatre at Horton Plaza, Downtown. lyceumevents.org Simply Shakespeare / As You Like It: To celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday (and death day), San Diego Actors Theatre will perform a staged reading of As You Like It—right after the actors draw names of characters from a hat. It happens on April 23 in the Crivello Theatre at Francis Parker School in Linda Vista. sdactorstheatre.net Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story: A musical based on the true 1924 story of two young men who murdered a young boy for the thrill of it. Opens April 24 at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. diversionary.org What You Will: Roger Rees (who played Lord John Marbury on The West Wing) presents his own one-man show, a recounting of his more than two decades’ experience acting in William Shakespeare’s plays, with lots of funny anecdotes and performances of the Bard’s speeches. oldglobe.org

For full listings,

please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com

DANCE Dancing Through the Ages at Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road, Poway. The spring repertoire from the Southern California Ballet will include various ballet productions representing classical and contemporary styles from the 1840s to present day. At 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27. $18-$35.

858-748-0505, powaycenter.com HSalon Dances: Dee(a)r Spine at Encinitas Library, 540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas. Rincon Dance’s second performance in a series of four has Sam Mitchell exploring the terrain of the in-between and the connection between heritage, genetics, ancestry and culture from the standpoint of being both Yaqui Indian and American.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27. $10 suggested donation. rincondance.org

FASHION Fashion Week San Diego Spring Showcase at Harrah’s Rincon Casino, 777 Harrah’s Rincon Way, Valley Center.

This event combines fashion, cocktails, music, art, food and shopping. Designers will be featuring looks from their collections in a runway show and there’ll also be

mini-makeovers and sample sales. From 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 26. $30-$60.

619-546-9466, fashionweeksd.com

FOOD & DRINK HTaste of Morena at Morena Boulevard, Linda Vista. Taste the best of the Morena District with samples from more than 20 restaurants. A free shuttle runs a continuous loop; 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 HDining Out for Life More than 80 participating restaurants, bars, coffeehouses and nightclubs in San Diego. The locales will donate a minimum of 25 percent of sales for The Center’s HIV/AIDS services and prevention programs. Thursday, April 24, thecentersd.org/events/diningout-for-life-san-diego.html

formance from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. At 8 p.m. Saturday, April 26. $30-$80. 858-454-3541, ljms.org Mingle @ Mingei: An American Quilt at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. A concert centered around Mingei’s An American Quilt exhibition: a program of American music anchored by two chamber works by John Harbison and David Diamond. At 6 p.m. Sunday, April 27. $30. 619-239-0003, mingei.org HScientific Gospel at San Diego Woman’s Club, 2557 Third Ave., Downtown. Dr. Steve Baird will present a foot-stomping rendition of how Darwin got his ideas. A retired professor of Pathology at UCSD and originator of Scientific Gospel, Baird calls his music “the only musical genre that can raise your science grades in school.” From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, April 27. 619

469-0851, sundayassemblysandiego.org HBeethoven ‘n’ Friends Go Country at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Classics 4 Kids and the Classics Philharmonic celebrates music inspired by cowboy culture. At 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27. $15-$20. 619-570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org Grossmont Symphony Woodwind Quintet at Scripps Miramar Ranch Library, 10301 Scripps Lake Drive, Scripps Ranch. Hear works from the group’s varied repertoire of chamber music, light classics and popular pieces. At 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 27. srfol.org HReflections: On Humanity at San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park. This eclectic final concert of the Art of Elan season pays tribute to the boundless va-

riety of human experience. Performers include Shih-Hui Chen, Brooklyn composer Judd Greenstein and others. At 7 p.m.

Tuesday, April 29. $10-$25. 619-2327931, artofelan.org

OUTDOORS

hands dirty at this fourth annual event.

Pick organic strawberries, enjoy local food truck cuisine (or bring a picnic), participate in hands-on workshops for kids and adults and dance to the bluegrass sounds of Plow and The Big Decisions.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 26. 619-662-1780, suziesfarm.com

San Diego River Park Foundation Clean Up at Cottonwood Grove Sefton Field, 2508 Hotel Circle, Mission Valley.

Join the Clean and Green Team to help cleanup and restore the San Diego River.

All tools and supplies are provided. Volunteers will meet at the west side of Sefton Field located off of Hotel Circle Place.

From 9 a.m. to noon. Saturday, April 26. sandiegoriver.org

HLive Arts Fest at White Box Theater, 2690 Truxtun Road, Point Loma. Two weeks and 10 performances of live arts events featuring dance, film, theater, music, art installations and more. See website for full schedule and details. Through Sunday, April 27. $20-$100. 619-225-

HStrawberry Jam at Suzie’s Farm, 1856 Saturn Blvd., Imperial Beach. Get your

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

PERFORMANCE

MUSIC HHauschka 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. 858534-8497, artpwr.com San Diego Concert Band at Joan B. Kroc Theatre, 6611 University Ave., Rolando. The SDCB presents its 25th annual spring orchestra concert featuring guest artist Ryan Anthony, principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. $12-$15.

269-1552, sandiegoconcertband.com Beethoven’s Fifth at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. Christoph von Dohnányi conducts the Symphony in a performance of Mozart’s first true piano masterpiece (the Concerto No. 9 in Eflat Major), Brahms’ second piano concerto and closing with a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth. At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 25-26. $30-$106. 619235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org HMidori and Özgür Aydin at Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St, La Jolla. The La Jolla Music Society closes the Celebrity Recital Series with violinist Midori and pianist Özgür Aydin. At 8 p.m. Friday, April 25. $30-$80. 858-454-3541, ljms.org HAdams Avenue Unplugged on and around Adams Avenue, between Normal Heights and Kensington. Performance by more than 200 multi-genre acts with headliners, Chris Hillman (The Byrds), Peter Case, Willie Watson, Tom Brosseau and more. From noon to 10 p.m.

Saturday, April 26, and noon to 7 p.m.

Sunday, April 27. 858-454-3541, adamsavenueunplugged.com SDSU Choirs and Orchestra at College Avenue Baptist Church, 4747 College Ave., College Area. SDSU’s Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Choir and Aztec Choir perform. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26. $10-$15. 6195946031, music.sdsu.edu HPeculiar Percussion: An Experimental Drum Extravaganza at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East Village. In response to the San Diego Experimental Guitar Show, Stay Strange has created a new and exciting music series featuring San Diego’s best percussionists breaking the rules and trying new things. At 7 p.m.

Saturday, April 26. $5. 619-269-7230, sdspace4art.org Defining Voices at Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St, La Jolla. The La Jolla Music Society concludes this season’s Revelle Chamber Music Series with a per-

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

1803, sandiegodancetheater.org HVAMP Showcase: #YOLO at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. An evening of writers performing works with audio/visual accompaniment revolving around the theme of “This is a Story About a Time When I Exhibited a Complete Disregard for the Emotional and Physical WellBeing of Myself and Others.” From 8:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 24. $5 suggested donation. sosayweallonline.com

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HArt Speaks: Verse and Vision at TPG2, 1475 University Ave., Hillcrest. An open-mic poetry reading centered TPG2’s new poetry-inspired art show. From 7 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24. 619-2036030, thumbprintgallerysd.com/tpg2.html HThe People’s Choice Poem Performance Award at San Diego Art InstituteMuseum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park.

Co-sponsored by Poetry International, all participants will perform one poem under three minutes long and audience members choose (by secret ballot) their favorite. The winner gets $50. Props, artwork, singing, music, dancing, and/or all accompaniment is allowed. At 7 p.m. Friday, April 25. $5.sandiego-art.org San Diego Storytelling Festival at Encinitas Library, 540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas. Shows and workshops by more than two dozen local storytellers with performances every hour. Events range from “Kids Tell Stories” with students from Park Dale Lane Elementary School, as well as more adult-friendly readings like “Voices at the Water’s Edge: Adult Storytelling Concert.” From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday,

April 26. 760-753-7376, storytellersofsandiego.org Jodie Hollander at D.G. Wills Books, 7461 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The Washington, D.C., poet will read from her new collection, The Humane Society, which paints a family portrait that is a mixture of memoir, ghost story and artistic obsession. At 7 p.m. Saturday, April 26. 858456-1800, dgwillsbooks.com

SPECIAL EVENTS HPublic Squared at MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner Blvd., Downtown. The twoday event celebrating the newly renovated North Plaza and One America Plaza. There will be music and dance performances, exhibition tours, art-making activities, a silent disco and more. See website for schedule.

From 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 25, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 26. 858454-3541, mcasd.org HMakers Arcade at Glashaus, 1815B Main St., Barrio Logan. An artists and crafters event featuring 25 vendors, craft cocktails, live music, food, and swag bags for the first 50 guests. Participants include DK Local Kitchen Food Truck, Urban Craft Camp and Pow Wow Design Studio. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 26. makersarcade.com Linda Vista Multicultural Fair at 6900 Block of Linda Vista Road. Now in its 29th year, a family-friendly fest with live entertainment, informational booths, arts and crafts, activities for kids, ethnic foods and more. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 26. lindavistafair.org HHanamatsuri Festival & Bazaar at Vista Buddhist Temple, 150 Cedar Road, Vista. A Japanese and Buddhist cultural

18 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

festival featuring food, taiko drumming, tea ceremony, tea tasting, ikebana, talks on Buddhism, cultural performances and game booths for kids. From noon to 6 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27. 760941-8800, vbtemple.org Yoga Glow in the Night at Monarch School, 1625 Newton Ave., Downtown.

Join other yoga enthusiasts for a night of fundraising for the Monarch School, a local K-12 that educates kids impacted by homelessness. From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 26. $35-$100. 619-685-8242, onelovesandiego.org Spring Bridal Bazaar at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. San Diego’s largest wedding planning expo returns with wedding professionals displaying their products and services.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 27. $12. 760-334-5500, bridalbazaar.com North County Earth Festival at Downtown Oceanside, Pier View Way and Tremont Street, Oceanside. Activities for all ages including a vintage market, green home improvement area, water-friendly plant sale and a children’s eco zone with an assortment of earth friendly crafts.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 27. greenoceanside.org Multicultural Earth Day Celebration at World Beat Cultural Center, Balboa Park.

The 25th annual Earth Day celebration featuring food and craft vendors, African drum and dance, kids activities and a live concert. From noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, April 27. worldbeatculturalcenter.org Earth Fair 2014 at Balboa Park. The 25th annual fest features exhibitors, the eARTh art gallery, Cleaner Car Concourse and more. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 27. earthdayweb.org

Del Mar Electronics and Design Show at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Peruse design innovations, learn about assembly and manufacturing or sit in on informative workshops that cover all things voltage.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. 858-755-1161, vts.com/delmar

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HPiracy Today: Captain Mark Cedrun on the Rescue of Captain Phillips at San Diego Natural History Museum, Balboa Park. A first-hand account of the rescue of Captain Phillips, recently depicted in the film of the same name starring Tom Hanks, from one of the guys who was there. At 7 p.m. Thursday, April 24. $12.

619-232-3821, sdnhm.org HIs San Diego’s Water Supply All Dried Up? at North City Water Reclamation Plant, 4949 Eastgate Mall, La Jolla. Join expert panelists as they discuss current water diversification and conservation efforts. From 7:30 to 9 a.m. Thursday, April 24. $15. leadsandiego.wildapricot.org Saving the Bees & Harvesting Honey at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, 7445 Mission Valley Road, Mission Valley. Part of the Pop! Talk series, join beekeeper and lecturer Diane Busch, as she sheds light on the disappearance of the honeybee and provides tips on how people can help. From 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 24. $5-$10. 619-574-6909 x116, pacificcollege.edu HAdvertising Design at the Turn of the 20th Century at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. SDSU Professor Emeritus Susan Merritt will dig into Min-

gei’s A Golden Age of Marketing Design exhibit and explore how chocolate maker Huyler innovated packaging and advertising design. Afterwards, enjoy a wine and chocolate tasting with Will Gustwiller from Eclipse Chocolate. At 6 p.m. Thursday, April 24. $15. 619-239-0003, mingei.org The Raw Food World at World Beat Cultural Center, Balboa Park. Meet Matt Monarch, owner of the largest online raw foods and superfoods store in the world plus the host of the online show, The Raw Food World, as he discusses how raw foods can help heal disease and other health conditions. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 29. worldbeatculturalcenter.org Zanele Muholi at Calit2 Auditorium, Atkinson Hall, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Performance and lecture by Muholi, a South African photographer that will focus on her “Black Queen Born Frees” series of photos and explore the visual culture of black LGBTI youth from South African townships. From 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 29. 858-534-9982, cgs.ucsd.edu Context Vol. 1: San Diego Central Library at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. Join the San Diego Architectural Foundation for this first in a series of discussions. Moderated by Darlene Shiley, Dr. Irwin Jacobs and architect Rob Wellington Quigley will discuss the efforts that brought the new San Diego Library to realization. From 6 to 9:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 29. $125-$150. sdaf. wildapricot.org

For full listings,

please visit “E vents” at sdcit yb eat.com

the new standard o

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El Cajon Boulevard entrepreneur thinks it’s time to reinvent the way we market art • by Kinsee Morlan

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Edwin Negado

Sergio Hernandez

t the moment, Edwin Negado and Sergio Hernandez are the two coolest-looking cats at Coffee & Tea Collective on El Cajon Boulevard. They sit shoulder-toshoulder on a bench seat, swapping ideas for a short video promoting Hernandez’s April 26 art show at Gym Standard, Negado’s sleek footwear and design shop that opened last summer near the intersection of 30th Street and El Cajon.

Once the video is shot and edited, it’ll pop up on the Gym Standard (@gymstandard) Instagram feed, a stream of images that Negado has grown into a reliable digital resource for cool art, design, literary magazines, events and music in San Diego. He has more than 4,000 followers, and rather than simply pimping the inventory at his shop— which he does squeeze in—he shares the bigger, more interesting story swirling around Gym Standard by snapping photos of his customers or going out of his way to capture things he thinks are cool about San Diego in general.

“For me, the strategy is: I put myself into the mind of the potential client,” Negado says later, sitting behind the counter of his shop, which is filled with furniture and fixtures on wheels so he can roll everything out when it comes time to transform the space into an art gallery. “I don’t just want to see 20 fucking photos of the same shoe.

I want to see what goes on in the store every day—who’s coming in or what this guy is eating. I feel like those are

a

Edwin Negado

the type of things people fall in love with.” of North Park and the new, creative businesses like Coffee & Negado doesn’t use Facebook, and you won’t see an Tea Collective cropping up in the revitalized stretch of El Caemail signup on his website or much in the way of mar- jon Boulevard between 30th and Ohio streets, he wanted to keting outside of Instagram, but the focused, minimalistic take a chance on opening the shop before he got priced out. tactic seems to be working. He’s gotten a good amount of “I didn’t see the traffic quite yet, but I felt like I wanted press in alternative media, independent product designers to get in early before that transition happened,” he says. contact him through his feed and customers who discover Shoes, ceramics, magazines, art books, clothing and Gym Standard on their own seem to like the underground products geared toward those with an eye for design are element. But while Negado, at least to an older generation, Gym Standard’s bread and butter, but showing art was may seem like he’s purposely trying to keep things rela- always part of the business plan. Negado has hosted sevtively under wraps so he can maintain his cool-kid cred, eral artists in his space since opening nearly a year ago, the 30-year-old says he welcomes mainstream attention. including Dolan Stearns, Julian Klincewicz and a recent “I feel like Instagram is as mainstream as it gets,” he says. poster-art group show benefitting the neighboring Media “It’s so intimate. I mean, I’m looking at Instagram posts in my Arts Center San Diego. bed in my pajamas. That’s every media buyer’s dream to get While the young entrepreneur doesn’t like to call himself into where people don’t have their walls up. That’s way more a curator, he’s managed to sell out most of the shows. That’s effective than if I’m driving and seeing a billboard on the because moving artwork and making sure his artists get paid street. I feel like Instagram, it just is the new mainstream.” is something Negado considers an integral part of his job. He Negado was born and raised in San agonizes over the marketing of every Diego, but he cut his teeth at W + K 12, show and each individual artist, fussThe Struggle is Real a cutting-edge, experimental design ing over every photo or video that ends New work by Sergio Hernandez and advertising school run by Weiden up online. For Klincewicz’s show, for (aka SURGE MDR) + Kennedy, an advertising agency in instance, he borrowed a friend’s drone Gym Standard Portland, Ore., which accepts just 13 and enlisted the help of young filmstudents a year into their competimakers in producing a video for Insta2903 El Cajon Blvd. in North Park tive program. From there, he landed gram that includes compelling aerial 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 26 a job as a product-line manager at footage; in just 15 seconds, it conveys Vans, where he was the middleman the show details while making Klincebetween the marketing department and the shoe designers. wicz look like an artist you might like to get to know.

He wrote design briefs detailing whom a particular shoe was “We always need to be reinventing how we talk about intended for, setting specific goals and objectives for the shoe art and how we market art, because, you know, you need designers. While the gig taught him a lot about marketing more than just a date and a picture of what’s going to be and thinking about what customers want, he started feeling in the show,” Negado explains. “I think there needs to be disconnected from the people he was hired to understand. more storytelling, which is what I learned in advertising: “The Vans thing was really cool because I got to see the You’ve got to get people to fall in love with the art before landscape of business on a corporate level,” Negado says. they even go to the show. If they’re coming here April 26 “But I didn’t like the corporate lifestyle. I felt like I needed and they have no idea what they’re going to see, that means to be back in the wild. I needed to be with real people, not I fucking failed as a promoter of the arts. If you’re shownumbers and not behind a screen.” ing art, you better be fucking working your ass off because Negado says every penny he made at his corporate job your artists are working their asses off, right?” went into opening Gym Standard, which he built with his uncle and dad, carving the space out of the huge storefront Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com that formerly housed ABC Piano Co. Attracted to the energy and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Edwin Negado

Edwin Negado

Gym Standard’s Instagram feed is filled with photos of cool people (like artist Mario Torero, left), sleek products and customers who dig art and design.

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

Kinsee Morlan

Seen Local Igor Koutsenko isn’t selling out There’s a certain stigma that comes with showing art at outdoor festivals like ArtWalk San Diego, which, for the 30th year, will take over the streets of Little Italy from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27. While it’s easy for art snobs to dismiss most of the work at fine-art fairs as too commercial or the type of art casual collectors buy to complement their couches, several artists who show annually at ArtWalk defy those generalizations.

Printmaker and painter Igor Koutsenko is one (Booths 538 and 540). He started training in his craft at age 6 and has made a living as an artist. His work is technically adept and, while some of his pieces are easy on the eye, his subject matter is often dark, challenging and filled with complex narratives.

“Selling art is a business,” says Koutsenko, who’s been showing at ArtWalk San Diego for 14 years.

“At one point, you realize you have to do something that sells, and, yes, because of that, many artists make certain changes and eventually they may limit their work…. But there’s a space for everything. Yes, work can be commercial—designed to sell—but, still, there’s a niche for doing things the way I’m trying to do things.”

Born on the Crimean Peninsula and raised in Ukraine and Russia, the Fallbrook artist’s work features imagery that reflects his multicultural background. While the elongated faces of his subjects reference the Russian icon paintings he studied in art

Igor Koutsenko school, the Southern California landscape—especially mission-style architecture—can be spotted, too.

Koutsenko was in Moscow in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when the Soviet Union was dissolving.

The recent Russian takeover of Crimea is “disappointing” to Koutsenko, and he says his feelings about the politics in his native country will eventually find their way into his detailed woodcuts, linocuts and etchings.

At this year’s ArtWalk, though, expect to see more single-subject paintings than the narrative prints that were more prevalent in years past. As a young artist working in Russia, Koutsenko didn’t have easy access to printmaking equipment, which is why he focused on it for so many years after reaching the United States. In the last year-and-a-half, he felt compelled to pick up his paintbrushes more often.

“I’ve satisfied some hunger in me for printmaking,” he says. “Painting is a totally different means of expression.”

—Kinsee Morlan Kinsee Morlan

Capturing homeless deportees Photojournalist David Maung walks CityBeat through a row of his large-scale photographs hanging through May 25 in the Pastillo de la Fotografia, a hallway-turned-gallery near the box office at Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT).

The exhibition, Faint Light: Yesterday’s Gone and Tomorrow Has Yet to Arrive, focuses on homeless deportees in Tijuana and Mexicali, many of whom are part of the swelling population of destitute people carving out living quarters in the Tijuana River’s concrete riverbed and the miles of storm drains leading to it.

“There’s the canal right there,” Maung says, pointing out the hallway’s eastern doorway. “It’s really close, and yet it’s really far away, isn’t it? See that tent? That’s probably been there for not even a week…. The population is growing incredibly fast.”

Maung has lived in Tijuana for 18 years and makes a living as a freelance photographer for The Washington Post, VICE and other media. He first photographed people living in the Tijuana riverbed a decade ago. He says the riverbed previously served as temporary shelter used mostly by people waiting to cross to the United States. Now, it’s become longer-term housing for those either hoping to return to their homes in other parts of Mexico or South America or those who end up in Tijuana or Mexicali after living in the U.S. for decades and have no family or other connections in Mexico—some barely even speak Spanish. Not all deportees end up homeless, but Maung zeroes in on the small percentage of those who do.

“This guy with his hands up like this, I spent awhile talking to him,” Maung says, referring to a photo of hands set against the backdrop of a graffiti-covered canal and lit only by a candle. “He’s 22 years old, and

20 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

David Maung 20 of his 22 years were lived in the United States.”

Most of Maung’s photos are softly lit and display a sense of pride among the homeless deportees while also capturing their stark, harsh realities. He purposely edited out photos of people shooting up, among other jarring images.

“I tried not to show the really grotesque, crude side,” he explains. “I think it was important to show some sort of dignity.”

—Kinsee Morlan Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Heart-stoppers Love never dies in Jim Jarmusch’s moody vampire film

by Glenn Heath Jr. Dead or alive, the world keeps on spinning in Only Lovers Left Alive. If you’re a melancholic vampire who’s spent multiple centuries watching humanity implode, this might sound like a harsh reality.

Adam (Tom Hiddleston) certainly thinks so, living reclusively on the outskirts of abandoned Detroit in an expansive house crammed with musical inTilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston , rekindling struments and vintage artifacts. At the beginning of Jim Jarmusch’s singular film, Adam has planted lightenment, the best example being Johnny Depp’s himself at the epicenter of economic chaos, brooding mortally wounded accountant traveling deeper into a in isolation about the living “zombies” and their te- Western heart of darkness in 1995’s Dead Man. With nacious knack for death. There’s even flirtation with Only Lovers Left Alive, he subverts this model a bit, suicide by way of a wooden bullet. bringing together two immortal figures that have alEve (Tilda Swinton), Adam’s lanky, blonde, egret- ready achieved a higher consciousness but need each like wife, resides on the other side of the planet in other to rekindle their base human desires. balmy Tangier. Caught in a permanent trance by the Watching them do so is a sublime experience. Jarsalty air drifting in from the Straight of Gibraltar, she musch is a master of grafting emotional resonance appreciates the infinite possibility her immortality from deadpan subtlety, striking a balance between affords. Sensing a disturbance with Adam (a theme laidback moodiness and intense internal feeling. of unspoken interconnectedness that plays out beau- Look no further than the scene when Eve confronts tifully), she hops on a plane and ventures westward Adam about his self-destructive tendencies. After a to the land of the seemingly undead. difficult conversation that calls into question their Once Adam and Eve are reunited, their embrace is relationship, Eve retreats to one of their shared passo intense that their bodies threatsions: vinyl. She flips on Denise en to mold into one. We’re not sure LaSalle’s “Trapped by a Thing how long it’s been since they’ve Called Love” and starts swaying, Only Lovers seen each other, or why they are luring Adam to join her in one of Left Alive living apart. Jarmusch lays out a cinema history’s great dances.

Directed by Jim Jarmusch few hints, but he’s much more eaIt’s here that Eve begins to Starring Tilda Swinton, Tom ger to slyly reference their wealth revitalize Adam’s faith in possiHiddleston, Mia Wasikowska of talents. The script is riddled bility, a theme that plays out in and Anton Yelchin with comedic irony surrounding surprising ways as the film proRated R Adam’s century-spanning music gresses. Jarmusch leans heavcareer (he gave Schubert a key ily on Swinton to personify this symphony movement just “to get ideology, and she does so with the work out there”), but it’s much more sincere about maximum grace and intelligence. For an actor who’s Eve’s complete knowledge of science and history. transformed into monsters and madwomen alike, Heightened awareness is a blessing and a curse in Eve reminds us that Swinton’s an actor equally caOnly Lovers Left Alive. Adam and Eve can sense hu- pable of inhabiting a passionate and humble soul. manity’s self-destruction on the horizon, having seen Despite its dark subject matter, Only Lovers Left it so many times before. Everything is out of whack. Alive—which opens Friday, April 25, at Hillcrest CinNature’s cycles are askew, mirroring the warped so- emas—is not a horror film, but a film about avoiding cial priorities brought on by the Internet age; Eve’s the horrors of loneliness. terror of a little sister, Eva (Mia Wasikowska), ap“I’m a survivor, baby,” Eve says in playful fashion. pears midway through the story to prove this point ad But she understands that living forever would mean nauseam. Not only does she interrupt their peaceful nothing without her one and only. Love is for the nocturnal interludes; the film itself is suddenly struck heartless, too. with a darkly acidic tone. Her presence is toxic.

Many of Jarmusch’s previous efforts track a single Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com character’s tumultuous journey toward spiritual en- and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Flickr / Richard O. Barry

Ken Cinema

22 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

Curtains?

Last week, news broke that the iconic Ken Cinema would close its doors on April 27. In a statement, Landmark Theaters said it “was not able to negotiate an acceptable new lease with the landlord.” A shockwave of panic pulsed through the San Diego film community, inspiring film critics and business owners alike

to rally a last-ditch effort to save the beloved theater.

Whatever happens to the Ken Cinema, for me, the alarming news of its closure brought back memories of growing up in San Diego during the transition from single-screen theaters to the now-standard multiplex. One of my earliest film experiences was seeing Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at the majestic, 1,000-

seat Grossmont Center Theater in 1986. The screen was titanic, a fitting introduction to the all-consuming powers of cinema.

The single-screen Ken doesn’t evoke such classic grandiosity, but its vintage look and dedication to independent film remains a necessary reminder of what film exhibition used to be like before the corporations took over. This is the spot that introduced me to works

by Jean-Pierre Melville, Federico Fellini and Jean-Luc Godard. It’s sad to think that younger generations of San Diegans might not have the opportunity to see these types of challenging films on the big screen.

There seems to be some hope that an agreement can be reached and the Ken will remain a film venue, possibly under the control of another operator. In the meantime, Landmark has programmed a series of classic films to screen during the theater’s final days: Seven Samurai (2:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Friday, April 25), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (midnight on Friday, April 25), Lawrence of Arabia (2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26), The Big Lebowski (midnight on Saturday, April 26) and Singin’ in the Rain (3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Sunday, April 27). It might be the last time that we purists get to feel oldschool again. Let’s hope not.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

Opening Brick Mansions: In the not-so-distant future, an impoverished Detroit neighborhood is sectioned off from the world by a massive containment wall. A volatile detective (Paul Walker) goes undercover to destroy a drug kingpin who holds court over the isolated ghetto.

Dancing in Jaffa: In this documentary, Pierre Dulaine, a world-renowned ballroom dancer, moves back to Jaffa, the city of his birth, to teach Jewish and Palestinian Israelis to dance. Screens through May 1 at La Jolla Village Cinemas.

Hateship Loveship: Kristen Wiig stars in a surprising dramatic role as an eccentric nanny who develops a friendship with her employer (Guy Pearce), a recovering addict. Screens through May 1 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

How to Boil a Frog: Eco-documentary that uses comedy to examine solutions to economic and sustainability issues threatening the planet. Screens through May 1 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Filmatic Festival: The first-annual festival focuses on interactive performances and screenings, gaming, media installations and workshops that all look at the transformative nature of film. Runs Thursday, April 24, through Sunday, April 27, at UCSD. Visit filmaticfestival.com for details.

International Mobil Film Festival: The third annual fest at Grossmont College focuses entirely on movies shot with mobile phones. Runs Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27. Find details at mobilfilm festival.com.

The Big Lebowski: Joel and Ethan Coen evoke the ghosts of Preston Sturges and Raymond Chandler for this wacky, darkly comic labyrinth of mistaken identity and white Russians. Screens at midnight Saturday, April 26, at the Ken Cinema.

Singin’ in the Rain: Gene Kelly tap-dances his heart out in this 1952 masterpiece.

Screens at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 27, at Arclight La Jolla and at 3, 5:30, and 8 p.m.

Sunday, April 27, at the Ken Cinema.

Brick Mansions Only Lovers Left Alive: Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston star as moody vampires who can’t quit each other in the brilliant new movie by master filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. See our review on Page 22.

The Other Woman: Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned. In this case three women—Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton—bound together by one cheating bastard.

Walking with the Enemy: In Hungary during the final months of World War II, a young man steals a Nazi uniform and begins a long search for his missing family.

It’s directed by Mark Schmidt, founder of San Diego-based Liberty Studios.

One Time Only 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 closest confidants right. Screens at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, at the Mission Valley Library.

Four Sisters: This 26-minute documentary by Caley Cook follows four women who each lost a brother to suicide. Screens at 5 p.m. Monday, April 28, at USD’s Warren Auditorium, followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker and the USD Wellness Team.

Better Living Through Chemistry: When a pharmacist (Sam Rockwell) begins a sordid affair with a trophy-wife customer, his life begins to spiral out of control. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 28, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village.

Philomena: Steve Coogan stars as a disgraced political journalist who helps a woman (Judi Dench) search for her son, who was taken away by the government right after his birth. Screens at 6 p.m.

Tuesday, April 29, at the Point Loma / Hervey Branch Library.

Office Space: Damn, it feels good to be a gangster. But it doesn’t feel so good working at a mind-numbing corporate job where you have to come in on Saturdays.

Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Now Playing

Chasing Ice: Jeff Orlowski’s documentary is about photographer James Balog’s use of time-lapse cameras to document the melting of polar ice caps. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, at the Women’s Museum of California in Point Loma’s Liberty Station.

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.

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.

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. Ends April 24 at La Jolla Village Cinemas.

Shatner’s World: The legendary Star Trek actor performs his one-man show.

Screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24, at various theaters. Check fathomevents. com for details.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The King Arthur legend gets skewered by one of the most famous troupes of English humorists. Screens at midnight on Friday, April 25, at the Ken Cinema.

Seven Samurai: Akira Kurosawa’s action masterpiece about a rogue group of ronin who band together to protect a small village from a rampaging horde of invaders.

Screens at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, at the Ken Cinema.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: A lonely photo archivist (Ben Stiller) working at Life magazine daydreams about living a fantastic life, then decides to do so when his job is threatened amid a hostile takeover. Screens at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Lawrence of Arabia: David Lean’s massive biopic of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), an enigmatic adventurer who found himself in the middle of the battle for Arab sovereignty after World War I. Screens at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26, at the Ken Cinema.

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

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.

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.

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

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

Nathan Hubbard’s experimental North County quest

by Peter Holslin

athan Hubbard is up for anything. A prolific composer and jazz drummer, he’s performed in highway underpasses and remote mountain roads. He’s built unconventional percussion instruments and written music for 17-member ensembles. He’s laid down funky beats as the drummer for local indiepop ace Rafter Roberts and crossed doom metal with bossa nova in an abstruse experimental outfit called Ogd_S(11) Translation Has Failed.

But for all the crazy projects this 37year-old musician has tackled, nothing quite matches his latest venture. Since January, he’s been dropping one new album a month, each devoted to the famous landmarks and unknown history of his hometown, Encinitas. The project is called Encinitas and Everything After, and from what I can tell, it’s driving Hubbard crazy.

“I’ve been working on this for 15 years,” Hubbard says with a sigh, talking over lunch at Coop’s West Texas BBQ in Lemon Grove. “I have five hours of music. I was going to put it out entirely on a USB stick.

Just, like, ‘Here you go!’ Then I realized, if somebody did that to me, I would never even plug it into my computer.”

Hubbard, an inventive outlier of the local jazz scene, has released three albums so far as part of the series. He’s got a fourth volume

24 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

coming out before the end of the month, and, assuming all goes according to schedule, he’ll finish the series with a fifth album in May. He’s commemorating each release with a concert at the Taoist Sanctuary in University Heights (4229 Park Blvd); the next one goes down at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 27. (He’ll also put on a performance of solo drumming at Space 4 Art in East Village (325 15th St.) at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 26.)

The jazz of Encinitas and Everything After is decidedly avant-garde—you won’t hear any chill surf licks on these records.

But the lush arrangements, wandering melodic figures and deep, whooshing rhythms capture the reflective vibe of the area, and some songs refer to things only a true-blue Encinitas native would recognize. In “The Greatest Story Never Told,” a cut from Volume 4, Hubbard teams up with members of his old high-school drumline to serve up the school’s marching-band cadence, a trademark rhythm passed down from classmate to classmate.

“I was born [in Encinitas], and I grew up there. I have a ton of family from there that goes back several generations,” Hubbard says. “I think I just realized at some point that I would be a different person if I grew up somewhere else. I would hear things differently.” He certainly looks the part, with his light-blue polo shirt, leather sandals and

scruffy mop of dirty blond hair.

Hubbard now lives in Allied Gardens with his wife and two kids, but he spent most of his life in Encinitas. He grew up in a simple house on a one-acre plot just off Interstate 5, where his parents grew vegetables and raised goats for milk. (“I didn’t drink cow’s milk until I was 12 or 13,” he says.) His father, Don, was—and still is— in the sewer-building business, running a contracting company founded by Nathan’s grandfather in 1947, which laid down some of the first cesspools and waste-management systems in North County.

Reared on nature and industry, Hubbard shows a taste for both in his music.

When he performs solo drums, he explores a range of wild ideas and strange textures, using atonal plumes of noise and a workshop’s worth of wood, metal and skin instrumentation. Underscoring the music’s geographic nature, he sometimes performs in unconventional public spaces—in the mountains, in parking structures, even once inside a bomb shelter.

Hubbard brings more melody and structure to his written compositions, but this music is just as in thrall with the Earth: The most alluring track on the second volume of the Encinitas series might be “San Dieguito River,” in which regal rhythms and murky woodwinds course along over

10 minutes like the winding waterway.

Due to their experimental, occasionally bizarre nature, the tracks on Encinitas and Everything After don’t always conjure stereotypical Encinitas images, like hidden beaches and a salty sea breeze.

This disconnect hasn’t always gone over well with the locals: Once, Hubbard says, an old-timer on an Encinitas Facebook group grumbled about the project, wondering what it had to do with the sleepy beach town.

But Hubbard insists that he fits in with the city’s musical tradition. And as it turns out, Encinitas has been home to a surprising array of artists, ranging from jazz guitarist Peter Sprague to ’90s emo / posthardcore group Boilermaker to 20th-century avant-garde composer Harry Partch.

“Harry Partch fucking lived in Encinitas,” Hubbard says. “He lived down the street from my grandparents in the ’70s.

“Every time I think about Encinitas music, I think about Boilermaker,” he adds.

“I think about Harry Partch. How did Encinitas affect all these people? I don’t really know. I don’t have the answer. But it’s interesting to think that all these people made music and were somehow influenced

by Encinitas.”

Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

notes from the smoking patio Locals Only

A new “Under Cover” event will happen on the last Monday of every month. Mossa says that David Bowie is the most likely candidate to get the covers treatment in May. But there’s a long list of artists on the wish list, including Fleetwood Mac, The Clash, Otis Redding and Tom Waits.

“We really just want this to be a fun party for the musicians and guests alike,” Mossa says. “It has been amazing for me to see how close-knit the San Diego music community really is.”

North Park bar The Office is launching a new livemusic series in which local musicians pay tribute to legendary artists.

The first of the series is an all-Willie Nelsoncovers show, “Willie Nelson Under Cover,” on Monday, April 28. A rotating series of singers in local bands—including Joshua and Jeremiah Zimmerman of The Silent Comedy, Justen Berge of Dead Feather Moon and Calen Lucas of Family Wagon— On Sunday, April 27, Dizzy’s will perform Nelson’s tunes will hold a benefit concert with one backing band, for saxophonist Daniel which includes members of Jackson, who was recently The Silent Comedy. diagnosed with cancer. The Julie Mossa, manager at show will feature an all-star The Office, says that every lineup of jazz musicians, event in the series will pay including Charles Owens, tribute to a different band George Bohanon, Marshall or artist and that the Willie Hawkins, Jacques Lesure, Nelson idea came to mind Joshua White, Charles immediately; it should appeal to fans of both country Willie Nelson McPherson and Sundiato Kato, and all of the proceeds and rock music, she says.

“I wanted to do a country night,” Mossa says. “I’m from the $20 ticket, as well as sales of a DVD of a 2006 a country girl. And the idea just popped into my head. Jackson performance, will go toward helping cover “Willie Nelson’s not so country,” she continues. the musician’s healthcare costs.

“And he’s not as obscure as Charlie Daniels or Mer—Jeff Terich le Haggard. Everybody likes Willie Nelson.”

•••

Tag It and Bag It If you search for albums tagged “San Diego” on Bandcamp, you’ll find some interesting stuff. In this semi-regular column, we sift through recent postings and report on our findings.

Night Drippers, Os Drongos: Os Drongos sound like they’ve done their goth-rock homework. “Breakfast Sand,” the first track on Night Drippers, immediately brings to mind the dark, abrasive sounds of Joy Division and The Virgin Prunes, with just a twist of psychedelia. And while the world might not need another post-punk-revival band, Os Drongos pull it off with enough originality that I might rethink my stance on that. :(, Supermarket: It’s astonishing just how much instrumental hip-hop you’ll find on Bandcamp, and a hefty dose of it seems to come out of our backyard.

Supermarket’s take on the sound is pleasant enough, big on hypnotic synths and twinkly crackles. Nothing revolutionary, but they’ve got my attention. ... And the Beat Goes On, Ash Williams: Ash Williams kick up one hell of a cowpunk dust storm on ... And the Beat Goes On, which immediately brings to mind the likes of Meat Puppets and The Beat Farmers. All of the band’s original tracks are superfun, but also included on this set is an alt-country version of Outkast’s “Hey Ya,” which is the most hoarse and ragged you’ll ever hear that hit song.

Mind, Placid Inc.: With a name like Placid Inc., I’m struck with immediate assumptions about what

Ash Williams I’m going to hear—softened synthesizers, womblike ambiance, etc. That’s only half true; Placid Inc. mostly deals in downtempo beats and trip-hop tunes that are chill but not comatose.

Demo 2014, Drug Control: Drug Control is a straightedge hardcore band, so that should be all the explanation you need about the name. And their music is pretty much par for the course for a straight-edge hardcore band: power chords, slower-paced mosh sections, gang vocals and lots of angry barks. There are literally thousands of bands that sound exactly like this, but one more isn’t going to hurt anything.

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

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

26 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

if i were u Wednesday, April 23 PLAN A: The Men, Gun Outfit, Oliver Trolley @ The Casbah. Last week, Scott McDonald profiled Brooklyn indie rockers The Men, who have a highly un-Google-able name, but also a sound that makes up for their SEO shortcomings. Think The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers as translated by The Buzzcocks and you end up with something close to their newest album, Tomorrow’s Hits. PLAN B: Hauschka @ The Loft at UCSD. German post-rock artist Volker Bertelmann, better known as Hauschka, composes his work on prepared piano. He outfits his piano strings and hammers with all manner of foreign objects, making for a unique, otherworldly listening experience.

It’s amazing the kinds of sonic effects he creates—though never at the expense of a good melody. BACKUP PLAN: Trust, Mozart’s Sister @ Soda Bar.

BY Jeff Terich of Blues. Ghost—or Ghost B.C. as they’re sometimes known because of a conflict with a psych-rock band of the same name—are a group of masked ghouls with a frontman who’s basically a Satanic pope.

But despite the every-day-is-Halloween appearance, they sound pretty much like Blue Oyster Cult or Judas Priest. Supercatchy rock tunes with an added dose of Satanism: What’s not to love? PLAN B: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Trash Talk, Retox, Shining @ Porter’s Pub. If you want to get really heavy, check out The Dillinger Escape Plan, a long-running New Jersey mathcore band that’ll be joined by a lineup of other great hardcore and metal bands. It’s going to get gnarly. BACKUP PLAN: Chinchilla, The Rosalyns, Cryptobebelem @ The Casbah.

Sunday, April 27

Thursday, April 24 PLAN A: Underachievers, Denzel Aquarius, Killa Curry, Dillon Cooper @ Porter’s Pub. Brooklyn’s Underachievers are a young hip-hop group to watch, with both the talent and the good taste to live up to established MCs like Schoolboy Q and A$AP Rocky. Check out their track “The Proclamation,” which samples The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.”

PLAN B: Deep Sea Thunder Beast, Megaton Leviathan, Mega Crane @ Tin Can Ale House. Deep Sea Thunder Beasts’ Justin Cota spends a hefty chunk of his time fronting doom-pop duo Gloomsday, so he knows his way around a hook. That accessible sensibility translates to DSTB’s raw sludge-metal, which is plenty heavy, for what it’s worth.

Friday, April 25 PLAN A: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, White Magic @ The Casbah.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra is a loose, constantly changing collective led by Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Efrim Menuck. They do similarly huge, dramatic compositions, which will seem even more colossal inside a venue like The Casbah. PLAN B: Ilya, Identical Homes @ The Hideout. Ilya recently released their third album, In Blood, which (believe it or not) is even darker and moodier than their past work. It translates well live, bringing an added intensity to their atmospheric shoegaze sound. BACKUP PLAN: CunninLynguists, J-Live, Sadistik, Nemo Achida @ Porter’s Pub.

Saturday, April 26 PLAN A: Ghost, King Dude @ House

Ghost

PLAN A: The Damage Done, Beside Myself, Caskitt @ Tower Bar. I don’t think I need to explain myself when I say that sometimes you just need an intense punk-rock show to make your weekend.

Not that you don’t have other options, but one of the better ones is Seattle’s The Damage Done, who deliver jagged post-hardcore in the vein of At the Drive-In or Touche Amore. Kick ass!

Monday, April 28 PLAN A: David J and The Gentlemen Thieves, Sky Parade, Midnight Pine @ Soda Bar. Goth-rock legend David J just released a strange, noir video (which is sort of NSFW) for his cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” Just chew on that for a moment, then check him out live at Soda Bar. I mean, dude was in Bauhaus—that’s reason enough for me. But if you need more than that, a Britney Spears cover might do the trick. PLAN B: Curren$y @ Porter’s Pub. Most of Curren$y’s songs are about getting high and playing video games, which you think wouldn’t be terribly inspiring. But the New Orleans MC has a gift for laid-back lyrical wordplay, which pairs splendidly with his revolving cast of all-star producers.

Tuesday, April 29 PLAN A: Dana Falconberry, Adam Arcuragi, Soft Limits @ Soda Bar. Plenty of singer-songwriters get by on their handlebar mustaches and foot-stomping rhythms (against their better judgment), but Dana Falconberry plays a more enchanting style of indie folk. It’s dreamy and delicate, with melodies that soar.

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

HOT! NEW! FRESH! Negura Bunget (The Merrow, 5/23), Ben Ottewell (HOB, 5/30), Crash Kings (Casbah, 6/2), Island Boy (Soda Bar, 6/19), Russ Rankin (Soda Bar, 6/20), Ray J (Porter’s Pub, 6/20), Federico Aubele (Casbah, 6/22), Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires (Soda Bar, 6/22), Yuna (BUT, 6/27), Sarah McLachlan (Humphreys, 6/29), Kenny Loggins (BUT, 7/8), Wye Oak (BUT, 7/9), Josh Abbott Band (BUT, 8/3), Arcade Fire (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/5), The Head and the Heart (North Park Theatre, 8/11), Foxygen (BUT, 8/13), Accept, Metal Church (BUT, 9/11), Andrew Bird (Humphreys, 9/19), Shonen Knife (Casbah, 10/7).

CANCELLED Engelbert Humperdinck (Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 9/21).

GET YER TICKETS 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), Camper Van Beethoven (Casbah, 6/3), Kelis (HOB, 6/3), Guided

by Voices (BUT, 6/14), Failure (HOB, 6/15), 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), Wolves in the Throne Room (Che Café, 7/19),

28 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

Doug Benson (HOB, 7/23), Boris (Casbah, 7/24), Slightly Stoopid (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 7/26), Donovan Frankenreiter (Harrah’s, 7/26), Arctic Monkeys (Open Air Theatre, 8/6), The Sonics (Irenic, 8/16), Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/21), Marc Anthony (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/29), Crosby, Stills and Nash (Civic Theatre, 10/1), Blondie (Harrah’s, 10/3), Fleetwood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/2).

April 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. Amy Schumer at Harrah’s.

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.

Friday, May 2 Danny Brown at Porter’s Pub. Goblin at House of Blues. Tokyo Police Club at Belly Up Tavern. Eukaryst at Soda Bar. Circle Takes the Square at The Che Café.

Saturday, May 3 Unwritten Law at House of Blues. Step Brothers at Porter’s Pub.

Sunday, May 4 The Bad Plus at The Loft at UCSD. Manic Hispanic at The Casbah. Dizzy Wright at Epicentre.

Monday, May 5 The Pharmacy at Soda Bar. Mariachi El Bronx at Belly Up Tavern.

Tuesday, May 6 Manchester Orchestra at House of Blues. Loop at Soda Bar.

Wednesday, May 7 Riff Raff at House of Blues. Visage at The Casbah. Jacco Gardner at Soda Bar.

Thursday, May 8 Yoni Wolf at Che Café. Tom Jones at House of Blues. Old 97s at Belly Up.

Friday, May 9 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at The Casbah. ‘Channel 933 Summer Kickoff’ w/ Fall Out Boy, Tiesto, Paramore at Sleep Train Amphitheatre.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live band karaoke. Fri: Jimmy Lewis (5 p.m.); Rockers Island (9 p.m.). Sat: Sunny Rude, Reef Bound Sol. Sun: DJ Artistic.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Thu: Bob Weller Trio. Fri: ‘Ella Fitzgerald Birthday Concert’ w/ Rebecca Jade, Danny Weller.

Sat: ‘Tribute to Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley’ w/ Gilbert Castellanos.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco. com. Wed: Zach Sherwin. Thu-Sat: Chris D’Elia. Sun: ‘Full Throttle Comedy’ w/ Michael Quu. Tue: Open mic.

AMSDconcerts, 1370 Euclid Ave, City Heights. amsdconcerts.com. Sat: Venice.

Sun: Blame Sally.

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

Thomas Jack, Crowdkillers.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: ‘H.A.M.’ w/ DJ L. Thu: DJ W Steele. Fri: ‘Bonkers!’. Sat: Schroeder-Kelley, Moon Honey. Sun: Rat Sabbath, DJ Ratty. Mon: Tori Roze and the Hot Mess.

Bassmnt, 919 Fourth Ave, Downtown. bassmntsd.com. Thu: Congorock. Fri: Mac Miller. Sat: Tritonal.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla. brocktonvilla.com/beaumonts.html.

Thu: Mike Myrdal. Fri: Scratch. Sat: December’s Children. Sun: Kayla Hope.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: Jeff Bridges and The Abiders, Jessie Bridges. Thu: Sarah Jarosz. Fri: The Aggrolites, 2-Tone Sounds. Sat: Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, JD McPherson. Sun: Trampled by Turtles, Spirit Family Reunion (sold out).

Mon-Tue: O.A.R. (sold out).

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Thu: Red Wizard, Chiefs.

Fri: ‘Club Musae’. Sat: Reason to Rebel.

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

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Thu: ‘Opium’ w/ DJ Simon Taylor. Fri: ‘Brown Sugar’. Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA. Sun: ‘Noche Romantica’ w/ Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJs Junior the Disco Punk, XP. Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave, Downtown. cafesevilla.com. Thu: Malamana. Fri: Joeff and Co. Sat-Sun: Aragon y Royal.

Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa

Blvd, Clairemont. thecomedypalace.com.

Fri-Sat: Michael Malone.

Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St, La Jolla. lajolla.thecomedystore.com. Fri-Sat: Mo Mandel.

Croce’s Park West, 2760 Fifth Ave., #100, Bankers Hill. crocesparkwest.com. Wed: Lizzi Trumbore. Thu: Besos de Coco. Fri: Dave Scott and the New Slide Quartet. Sat: Eve Selis Band. Sun: Sene Africa.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. dirksniteclub.com. Fri: Zone 4.

Sat: Nemesis.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Sun: ‘Benefit for Daniel Jackson’ w/ Joshua White, Charles Owens, Chuck McPherson.

El Dorado Bar, 1030 Broadway, Downtown. eldoradobar.com. Wed: ‘The Tighten Up’. Thu: ‘Happy Little Trees’ w/ Contemporary Meanswear, DJ Canvas. Fri: ‘Soul Flexin’. Sat: ‘Good and Plenty’.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: Mike Perez, Nightstands, OMG GENEVA!!!!, Cory Crummel, Shayna Zeigen, Honorable Mentions, Gilbert Anthony. Sat: Farewell My Love, Consider Me Dead, The Venetia Fair, Atris, Playfight. Sun: It’s Getting Weird.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown, Downtown. f6ixsd.com. Fri: DJ Beatnick. Sat: DJ Craig Smoove. Sun: Brett Bodley.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: ‘IDGAF’ w/ Helena. Fri: DJ Brett Bodley. Sat: DJs Sid Vicious, Rico DeLargo.

Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

Beach. 619-222-5303. Wed: Oh No!. Thu: Ishmael and the Peacemakers, Three Finger Lid, TRC Soundsystem, DJ Reefah.

Fri: Funk’s Most Wanted, DJ Arox. Sat: Noize Makerz, DJ Chelu.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Fri: Mr. Brown, Evilone. Sat: Soulja Boy. Sun: ‘Intervention’ w/ Thomas Gold.

Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave, Downtown. henryspub.com. Wed: Johnny Tarr, DJ Christopher London. Thu: Mark Fisher, DJ Yodah. 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: Terraplane Sun, Flagship, Little Daylight.

Fri: Daley. Sat: Ghost, King Dude. Sun: Eric Hutchinson. Mon: Josh Damigo.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Wed: ‘Future Wednesday’. Thu: ‘Liquid Geometry’. Fri: Toombao. Tue: ‘High Tech Tuesday’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave, Kensington. 619-284-2848. Fri: Dead As Dillinger, Bella Novela, Foreign Suns. Sat: Los Sea Finks, 13 Wolves, Shark Blood.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Jackson and Jesus. Thu: Harmony Road. Fri-Sat: Ron’s Garage. Tue: Jason Solo.

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

Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed: The Rayford Brothers. Thu: The Bill Magee Blues Band. Fri: Myron and the Kyniptionz. Sat: Mystique Element of Soul. Sun: The Hit List. Mon:

The Groove Squad. Tue: Walter’s Chicken Jam. Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Thu: The Underachievers. Fri: CunninLynguists. Sat: The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Mon: Curren$y.

Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St, North Park. queenbeessd.com. Thu: Trouble in the Jungle, Leave the Universe, The Miltons, Pulse Liberation, Del Sol, Africats, The Gravities, Machine Liar. Tue: Open mic.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: DJ Marcel.

Thu: DJ Kiki. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Will Z. Sat: DJ John Joseph. Sun: DJs Morningstar, Hektik.

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

Thu: Johnny Deadly Trio. Fri: Rio Peligroso. Sat: Three Chord Justice.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd.

Thu: Comedy night. Fri: Soul Organization. Sat: Jimmy Ruelas.

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Thu: Apache One Tribe, Nikki and the Mongoloid, Emphasize , DJ Admiral Atlas. Fri: Hell on Heels Burlesque. Sat: No Name Gang, Swirl, Decompression, Stone Horse. Sun: Two Wolves, Octagrape, Shake Before Us. Tue: ‘Soul Shakedown’.

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

Fri: DJs Brady Spear, Huy Believe. Sat: Chris Cutz.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: Trust, Mozart’s Sister. Thu: Joey Harris and the

30 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

Mentals, Red Raucous, The Nformals. Fri: Night Beats, Cosmonauts, Shiva Trash, Wild Wild Wets DJs. Sat: Shakey Graves, Crushed Out. Sun: The Jim Jones Revue, The Freeks, Javier Escovedo. Mon: David J and the Gentlemen Thieves, Sky Parade, The Midnight Pine. Tue: Dana Falconberry, Adam Arcuragi, Soft Limits.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Fri: Lion I Am, Milestone, Outlands, We rise the tides, I assailant Brave Coast. Sat: Sacred Cow, John’s Last Ghost, Lobster Party, Vinegar Tom, Chin Chin’s Optometrist. Sun: Augustana, Twin Forks.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Fri: ‘Organized Grime’.

Sun: ‘Reggae Sunday’.

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

Fri: Disco Pimps, Vinyl Exam. Sat: Hott Mess, DJ Miss Dust. Sun: ‘Funhouse/ Seismic’.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., San Diego, Normal Heights. sycamoreden. com. Thu: The Flowerthief, Whiskey Circle.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd, Spring Valley. 619-469-2337. Thu: DJ Dharma Dolly. Sat: Lose Control, Both Barrels Blazing. Sun: Porch, Turbo Lightning, LIFE. Mon: AIDS Benefit w/ DJs Admiral Atlas, Curse, Rob Striker.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: The Men, Gun Outfit, Oliver Trolley. Thu: Okapi Sun, We Are Sirens, 9 Theory, Swambi.

Fri: Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra, White Magic. Sat: Chinchilla, The Rosalyns, Cryptobebelem. Sun: Reignwolf,

The Heavy Guilt. Mon: DIIV, Chris Cohen, Kiki Pau. Tue: Mr Brady, Real J Wallace, Miki Vale, DJs Artistic, Tramlife.

The Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Sat: Soft Lions, Emerald Rats, Technicolor Hearts, The Low. The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. thehideoutsd.com. Thu: ‘Peer Pressure’ w/ DJs Adam Salter, Saul Q. Fri: Ilya, Identical Homes, DJ Robin Roth.

Sat: Tory T and The Jungle, Touch of Class, Chill Clinton, Parker and The Numberman, Daygo Produce.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. theloft.ucsd.edu. Wed: Hauschka.

Fri: The Earful, St. Paul and the Broken Bones. Sat: Allison Adams Tucker. Tue: Chris Garcia.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Thu: Viva Apollo, Fist Fights With Wolves, Santino Romeri.

Fri: The Bloodflowers, Fuzz Huzzi, Viscous, As Obscure As Enoch. Sat: Her Bed Of Thorns, The Chimpz, Eken Is Dead, Throw Logic, Back From Ashes.

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

Sat: DJs Gabe Vega, Kanye Asada. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ w/ Tribe of Kings.

Mon: ‘Willie Nelson: Under Cover’. Tue: DJ Ramsey.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Fri: Sadistic Intent, Infinitum Obscure, Ascended Dead.

Sat: ‘Sleepwalking’. Sun: Open mic.

Mon: Karaoke.

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

Wed: Wild Honey, The Dandelyons, Verner Pantone, Red Wizard. Thu: Deep Sea Thunder Beast, Megaton Leviathan, Mega Crane. Fri: Neighbors to the North, Chinese Rocks, Gloomsday. Sat: River City, Black Sands, Peripherals. Mon: ‘Tin Can Country Club’ w/ Summer Brothers.

Tue: Songs for People, The Bleecker Street Company, Trevor McSpadden.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Wed: Christopher Dale. Thu: Jon and the Nationals. Fri: Joey Harris.

Sat: Kitten With a Whip. Tue: SD Cajun Playboys.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Sat: Man Vs. Man, Beekeeper, Jedi Scum, Venkman, Under 15 Seconds. Sun: The Damage Done, Beside Myself, Caskitt. Tue: The Paper Thins.

Ux31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Wed: Grizzly Business, Joyce, Illuminauts. Thu: Arturo Sierra, Common Ground, Hotfire, Strmtroopr, Nicky Valentino. Fri: Lee Churchill.

West Coast Tavern, 2895 University Ave, North Park. westcoatstavern.com.

Wed: DJ Qenoe. Thu: DJ Clean Cut. Fri: Billy the Kid. Sat: DJ Slowhand. Tue: Mike Delgado.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Fri: The Widows, Grand Tarantula, Atom Age. Sat: DJ Claire (5 p.m.), ‘Booty Bassment’ w/ DJs Dimitri, Rob. Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Vibes Up Strong.

Thu: House of Shem. Fri: Pigeon John, Destructo Bunny. Sat: Cubensis, Moonalice. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: ‘Meeting of the Meyends’.

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

Proud sponsor: Pacific Nature Tours

Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig

Across 1. Trampoline sound 6. Certain white powder, casually 10. Teammate of James and Wade 14. Put in prison 15. State with low alcohol content limits 16. Pronoun from way back 17. November 24, 1963 assassination victim 20. “Dallas” channel 21. ___ arthur mountains pizza (as-described photo-collage Tumblr page) 22. Pick 23. Fix so that everything breaks your way 24. “Found ya!”

25. Pairing with vin 27. Financial crisis designation 32. Car accident evidence 33. Chevron competitor 37. Have a nasty bug, say 38. “Sweet” ancestor 41. Show flow 42. Grabs a snooze 45. One in a dependent relationship?

48. Breakfast in bed, say, that’s almost always eaten in disgust 51. Pop singer born in Barbados 54. Pop singer born in the Bronx, to fans 55. “We ___ the 99 percent!”

56. McKellen in a bromance with Patrick Stewart 57. Ammo in a harmless shooter 58. Test before a Ph.D. program 61. Mated for specific traits 65. ___ one (beer) 66. Site with tech reviews 67. Miscalculated

Last week’s answers

68. Half of the first couple 69. Popular jams 70. Goofily conspicuous

Down 1. Smack hard, as a baseball 2. A black cat carrying a mirror under a ladder, say 3. “Sure seems like it” 4. Expression of disinterest 5. “Don’t let that male thief get away!”

6. Russian republic known for “throat singing” 7. Absorbed, as a cost 8. Axe 9. Deepak with a holistic approach to being very rich 10. “Oh, forgot 2 mention ...”

11. Butler’s bride 12. MLB commissioner Bud 13. Waffle 18. “Star Wars” president 19. Unemotional 24. About to get a Ph.D., definitely, if not this year then sometime in the next five 26. 1051, to Romans in 1051 27. Old autocrat 28. Merle Haggard or Woody Guthrie 29. Some are essential 30. Three, to Romans in 2014 31. Congolese beast that looks like a zebra 34. The Dude, Walter, and Donny, e.g., at least as a bowling team 35. Mouser of Madrid 36. Times piece 39. Ink, as it were 40. Cold sore relief option 43. Lil Wayne’s “___ Carter V” 44. Available for a hearing?

46. Soothed 47. Site of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash: Abbr.

49. Yoink 50. Pressed Italian sandwich 51. Believer decked out in green, yellow, and red, often 52. “According to this article ...”

53. Very, slangily 57. Cats and dogs, e.g.

58. Angry puppy’s sound 59. Be foul 60. It’s totally out of the mainstream 62. Light lumber source 63. One finished with service 64. Fratty sort

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.

32 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 33

34 · San Diego CityBeat · April 23, 2014

April 23, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 35