San Diego CityBeat • April 30, 2014

ing m m a r g pro risons s t r a t ge ia p o n t r o h f s i l u a p Morlan e C e e s n h i o T back int

by K

P. 1 8

Legalize P.4 Diversity P.6 Tutus P.13 Dead P.25

2 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Another reason to legalize it A little after noon last Friday, two men—at least one of them armed—entered a building on Ray Street in North Park, where a medicinal-marijuana dispensary had, just a few days earlier, begun operating in violation of city law. Moments later, one of them, an 18-year-old, was dead, and a dispensary employee lay wounded, a bullet lodged in his gut (he’ll be OK). The second suspect got away with a bag full of weed, police say, likely fleeing on wheels through an alley between Ray and Grim streets. Folks who work on Ray, a thriving visual-arts district located one block from CityBeat’s office, were rattled as police taped off the area to investigate.

The incident occurred the day after people lined up at City Hall in hopes of eventually opening legal medicinal-marijuana dispensaries under San Diego’s recently adopted ordinance, which allows for a ceiling of 36 dispensaries citywide, or as many as four per City Council district.

In other words, the incident occurred while San Diego is still in limbo regarding legal distribution of marijuana for medicinal purposes and while most of the country is still in a prohibition era that, much like when alcohol was prohibited nearly a century ago, has been plagued by violence. An obvious difference is that much of the violence surrounding marijuana prohibition has occurred in Mexico.

Whether the shootout in North Park is a onetime, isolated occurrence or a sign of things to come is an open question, but it certainly doesn’t do much to allay the concerns of people who are worried that medicinal-marijuana dispensaries will be targets for criminals. Advocates for safe access to medicinal marijuana are able to point to studies that show there’s no evidence that dispensaries have increased the frequency of crime, but we don’t know what will happen in the future.

In any case, the incident compels us to repeat our call for the blanket legalization of marijuana. Since the suspect who fled did so with marijuana in hand, police believe the target was product, not cash. Were marijuana legal and easily accessible, no one would commit armed robbery to steal it. This is why we don’t see young men holding up liquor stores for alcohol or convenience stores for cigarettes. They do hold up stores to get cash, however, and because banks are leery of doing business with marijuana dispensaries—thanks to their ambiguous legal nature— dispensaries are liable to have a lot of cash on the premises, potentially making them a target.

Look, we’re not trying to be alarmist; we don’t

David Rolland

The aftermath in North Park believe three-dozen marijuana dispensaries are going to turn San Diego into the Wild West. We’re simply adding the implications of Friday’s event to a long list of reasons why we think California should follow Colorado and Washington’s lead.

The negative impacts of the war on marijuana have been well-documented—mass and racially unequal incarceration, billions upon billions in costs to taxpayers—and the government has nothing to show for it: Demand is sky-high, and supply is plentiful.

Legalization would cut violent Mexican cartels out of the American market and allow the police to devote more energy to more important matters. The money saved by not arresting, prosecuting and locking up offenders of marijuana laws—in addition to the trainloads of money that would be made by taxing a regulated marijuana trade—could be spent on education, social services and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the hemp industry could potentially boom.

Marijuana may come with some health risks, but the unhealthful downsides to alcohol, cigarettes and high-fructose corn syrup are many and welldocumented, but those drugs (yes, we just classified high-fructose corn syrup as a drug) are legal. The situation is loaded with hypocrisy.

Do we think the country would be better off if everyone was high half the time? No. But we don’t believe that would be the result. Anyone who wants it now can get it. According to a 2013 Pew Research Center study, 48 percent of Americans had tried marijuana, but only 12 percent of those people say they’d used it within the previous year. While that number strikes us as low, it tells us that, by and large, if Americans don’t think it’s good for them to do frequently, they won’t.

That same study revealed, for the first time ever, that a majority of Americans think marijuana should be legal.

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

This issue of CityBeat tried beezin’ but just ended up temporarily blinding itself with Chapstick.

Volume 12 • Issue 38 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 illustration 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

Publisher Kevin Hellman

Senior account executive Jason Noble Account Executives F. Scott Berman, Beau Odom

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

Advertising inquiries Interested in advertising?

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

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

4 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

Verging on child porn For a long time, I have questioned your wisdom in printing the American Apparel ads on the back page of CityBeat, where the ads are in full view of anyone in the house. The one on March 6 was truly over the top. It verges on child porn.

I hope you will reconsider running these ads. Not having such pictures displayed might help to keep our children and grandchildren a little safer.

Joan Holland, Downtown

Get in the game!

The “Fest or fizzle?” article about the Balboa Park Centential [“Art & Culture,” March 26] was a call to action. Or, at least it should have been! How long are we going to sit around and just let things happen? If we care, let’s do something about it. I did, and so can you!

There’s plenty of room for creativity. So, get off the sidelines and get in the game! Everyone can help. Be the solution, not the problem.

Christophver R, North Park

Balboa Park road race Regarding your April 2 editorial about the Balboa Park Centennial: The year 1915 was the year of the San Diego Exposition—called

that to differentiate it from the San Francisco Exposition (both had Panama in their names, and San Francisco’s was an international world’s fair).

The 1915 San Diego Exposition Road Race Centennial Event is being planned for Jan. 10, 2015. What was this race, and why celebrate it? Visit the NTC Headquarters Building and read the history behind it: 300-mile race, six-mile track, 18 cars, five finishers, 50,000 paying spectators, 40,000 residents, 65-mph average speed of winning car. The first licensed race course in the Southwest.

The start of Southern California’s car culture. Think “Disneyland Autopia” on its 60th Anniversary, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cars (the movie), The Fast and the Furious and all of the car and motorcycle races that have occurred in the past 100 years, and imagine the potential sponsors if the city were to support a Centennial event that lasted a year.

As of right now, the Mayor’s office isn’t interested. How does this tie into Kevin Faulconer and Todd Gloria’s plans for Balboa Park?

It does not—by their choice. How could it?

Why not, as I have suggested to CalTrans to move forward in discussion with the city over how to celebrate a century of the Cabrillo Bridge, let me put out a call to action for lining up representative vehicles that would have crossed the bridge during its 100 years and have them cross into Balboa Park, then keep the bridge closed except for emergency vehicles and an intra-park shuttle? Throw a party starting that day and continuing through 2015, where classic-vehicle owners

from the last 100 years are invited to show their cars as living history throughout Balboa Park, with temporary shelters and security, on a phased basis.

I could probably get sponsors for this and other activities as outlined at SanDiego2015. com—if the city were to get out of the way instead of having politicians control their sandbox. The truth? They can’t handle the truth.

Meanwhile, I will continue to build collaborative events with people who want to play.

Kevin Swanson, Paradise Hills

No leadership Good work on noodling ideas for a 2015 expo centennial [“Editorial,” April 2]. All of those notions, and others even more promising, have been proposed and tossed about and tried out, sort of, for years. The best result is the one in the picture you included with the story: Traffic has been removed from the Plaza de Panama.

The reality is that the necessary leadership for any major concentrated civic efforts just doesn’t exist. So our best bet is to try to keep everything fairly well-maintained until such leadership emerges. And it’s useful to contemplate who actually got the traffic out of the plaza. That would be Mayor Bob Filner, the one we dumped.

Welton Jones, Middletown

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

Lindsey Voltoline

Behind the shades of City Hall Despite modest gains, civic workforce remains whiter than city populace

by Joshua Emerson Smith A couple of weeks ago, the Latino City Employees Association (LCEA) held its first official meeting in years. The group had been inactive for so long that new membership was surprised to find a few thousand dollars in its bank account. After months of organizing, members coalesced around several goals, including professional development for city employees, increased voter participation and outreach to schools to encourage Hispanic students to consider careers in civil service.

“I am pleased to help re-launch the Latino City Employees Association,” said San Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez in an email to CityBeat. “This group hopes to increase Latino participation in city government, promote leadership opportunities through participation, as well as enhance, educate and support the city’s diversity goals and commitment.”

While LCEA is not the city’s only employee group, its revival could be a harbinger for a growing awareness of City Hall’s ethnic identity. The group’s dormancy mirrors a recession era during which city hiring ground to a halt and the municipal workforce failed to keep pace with an increasingly more diverse city.

As a result, San Diego’s city government is significantly whiter than the population

6 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

it serves, especially when it comes to the city’s top brass, according to a report released April 4.

The city’s top managers and officials— 300 of 10,411 municipal employees—are 70.3-percent white, despite Caucasians making up only 45 percent of San Diego’s population, according to the city’s Annual Employment Opportunity Report.

Only 14 percent of the high-level managers and officials were Hispanic, even though Hispanics comprise 28.8 percent of the population. Those numbers also look troubling for Asians and Pacific Islanders, a group that makes up 16 percent of the population but only 8 percent of top officials. AfricanAmerican managers and officials match the general population at 6.3 percent.

Also underrepresented, the report found, were female managers and officials, at 44 percent despite being 49.5 percent of the city population.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer “wants to do better,” said spokesperson Charles Chamberlayne. “I know that the mayor wants to give every community a seat at the table and to build diverse community boards, commissions and city staff. He’s making it his goal to continue to diversify the staff here.”

Despite these disparities, since 2012, the city has improved its diversity while adding 246 employees to its total workforce. The number of Hispanic employees increased by 125 workers, Asians or Pacific Islanders added 51 workers and African-Americans 34 workers. The number of female employees also grew by 74 people. At the same time, the number of white employees decreased by eight workers.

Workforce development can help counteract systemic issues, such as educational deficits within communities, said Manuel Pastor, professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

“You focus in on pipeline issues,” Pastor said. “If you want more managers, you have to ask the question: Do you have good internship programs so that you get managers five, 10, 15 years from now.”

San Diego’s percentage of top officials who are white is “striking,” he added.

“Looking at the numbers, one would want to wonder if there really are fair opportunities for people to advance.”

The ethnic makeup of the city’s workforce is something that has yet to be publicly addressed, said John Mendivil, president of the Latino City Employees Association.

“I don’t think there’s really been a forum for that discussion,” he said. “I’ve had personal discussions, but there’s nothing that I’m aware of where we’ve had a forum to speak about what can be done. That’s part of what the LCEA is about.”

What’s received some attention is the lack of diversity in the city’s public-safety workforce, including lifeguards, firefighters and police officers. For example, of the city’s 1,254 uniformed police officers, all ethnic minorities were underrepresented, including only 250 (19.9 percent) Hispanic officers, 117 (9.3 percent) Asian or Pacific Islander officers and 72 (5.7 percent) African-American officers. While it’s a maledominated field, the department’s 170 (13.6 percent) female officers fell short of the countywide average of 16.9 percent for women law-enforcement officers.

With half the police department eligible to retire in the next four years, there’s an opportunity to address the situation, said Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman.

“The San Diego Police Department is committed to recruit and hire the most qualified applicants who are a diverse and positive reflection of the community we serve,” she said in an email. “About 50 percent of the last five academies have been minorities and or women. Our recruiting efforts are designed to reach all communities.”

Fire Chief Javier Mainar, whose department was even more underrepresented by minority workers, echoed that sentiment.

“One of my responsibilities as fire chief is to ensure our workforce is reflective of diversity of the community we serve,” he said in an email. “This is not only important from the operational and customer service perspectives, but is simply the right thing for us to do.”

For local governments grappling with workplace diversity, part of the issue is recognizing that populations evolve—and with them, the identity of a region, USC’s Pastor said.

“I think sometimes San Diego’s selfconception has been as a largely white, beachside town,” he said. “But it’s actually a diverse, major metropolitan area with lots of immigrants.”

As a result, the percentage of overall white employees dropped a little more than a percentage point, to 49.3 percent. Hispanic employees saw an uptick of a little more than a point to 24.5 percent. Asian or Pacific Islander employees increased by less than a point to 11.7 percent. The number of African-American workers stayed static at 13.2 percent. Female employees saw a small decrease, falling to 33.8 percent.

“The report indicates that while the city’s overall hiring has seen growth in diversity, we can greatly improve the diversity of hires in some departments,” said Council President Todd Gloria in an email. “As the city adds back some of the positions we cut over the past several years, ensuring our staff appropriately reflects the city it serves and is equipped and educated to perform necessary work must remain a priority.”

Since California voters in 1996 banned affirmative action for public employees and colleges, the city can’t discriminate based on race.

“As important as diversity is, there’s no reason to—and we’d never want to—hire someone because of their gender or ethnicity,” said Deputy Personnel Director Glenn Encarnacion, co-author of the study. “First and foremost, they have to meet the criteria for the job.”

However, the city has mandated diversity on hiring boards and holds job fairs in every segment of the community in hopes of getting a diverse candidate pool, Encarnacion added.

“If people see a Latino firefighter or police officer, then it becomes a viable option Write to joshuas@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com. for them,” he said.

spin cycle

john r.

lamb Message in a bottled mayor “The art of pleasing is the art of deceiving.”

—French proverb California Republicans are drooling. Can’t blame them, really, given the candidate-starvationdiet they’ve endured for so long.

So, Spin Cycle says let the party have its cake. Eat up. Fill your bellies with sugar and flour and eggs, then run around the room on the energy buzz that results.

Frankly, you need the exercise.

However, the question arises: Your new Golden Boy, that Republican who ran as far as he could from the GOP brand to snatch a victory in an off-year election? Yeah, that guy Kevin Faulconer. Well, he seems to be having an issue transitioning from campaign bromides to straight-shooting leader.

During Monday’s KPBS radio’s Midday Edition program, Faulconer still appeared in campaign mode. “The reforms are taking hold, the dollars that we’re saving are real and my commitment was that when we start to see some of this increased growth as our economy gets better, we put it exactly where it should be, which is neighborhood services, library hours, fixing our streets,” he said.

When a caller asked if the city planned to “sell” the Qualcomm Stadium and Sports Arena—er, Valley View Casino Center— sites to pay for a new Chargers stadium somewhere, Faulconer let out a small chuckle, questioned where the gentleman got his information, responded with an emphatic “no” to selling, then hit the sound-bite play button to remark that a stadium deal “has to be a solution that protects us as taxpayers.”

Now, a leader might have suggested that the Chargers have long hinted that new development on those sites would go a long way toward paying for a new stadium. Instead, listeners got a piece of cake. “We’re certainly a ways out from coming up with any solution, but we started interacting with the Chargers….” Faulconer said.

But then program host Mau-

reen Cavanaugh did something enlightening. She returned to a previous question about Faulconer’s campaign pledge to spend $180 million to improve San Diego’s crumbling infrastructure and a lawsuit challenging the legality of $120 million of that amount approved by the City Council.

The lawsuit, filed by thornin-the-city’s-posterior attorney Cory Briggs, contends that those bonds should be approved by San Diego voters. (He’s also challenged the financing plan for the Convention Center expansion on similar grounds.)

“Why not just put these on the ballot?” Cavanaugh asked.

Cavanaugh seemed unsatisfied with Faulconer’s initial response, which was: The City Council backs my plan and it’s unfortunate that a lawsuit was filed against “a proven legal mechanism,” but we’re moving forward.

Later, Cavanaugh returned to the topic, specifically asking why such funding measures aren’t put before voters. “I think the council, who were elected by the voters to make these decisions, and with my support, this is what we’re in the business of doing, is providing infrastructure,” he said, then reiterated, “The unfortunate reality is anybody can file a lawsuit.”

Cavanaugh, clearly having heard enough blather, went for the kill shot, asking, “Is there not the fear that voters will not approve these bond measures and these plans for expansion if it’s going to cost them money?”

“We’re moving expeditiously, and we’ve been open and transparent, and everybody who drives over San Diego roads knows what we’re talking about, and, you know, the fact that other cities are moving forward…. The fact that somebody would want to file a lawsuit now is their ability to do that….” the mayor responded, his talking points seemingly crashing into one another.

“What he’s afraid of is going to the voters and facing a conservative challenge in his own party for mayor if he has hopes to go beyond San Diego,” said Carl

Luna, Mesa College political-science professor and longtime observer of local political behavior. “Because supporting bonds is not something Republicans are supposed to do.”

Let’s face facts, San Diego: We’re on our third mayor in the last eight months, so continuity has not been our strong suit of late. Two years from now, we’ll be facing yet another mayoral election. So, in essence, our mayor has been a blending of three distinct personalities. Let’s call him Mayor Filglorconer. He’s been part passionate scrapper with human-interaction flaws, part middle-ground seeker and part—well, that remains to be determined.

Just who is Kevin Faulconer? “He’s the new-andimproved Tide, the national product you’ve always known,” Luna quipped.

“He’s got his new-and-improved brand. But the policies underneath it, 90 percent of the ingredients, are going to be the same.”

That means strongly opposing Council President Todd Gloria’s push for a hike in the city’s minimum wage, likely pushing

John R. Lamb

“I don’t see Faulconer in a situation to really advance a significant agenda,” Luna said. “He has to dance on issues because he ran a nebulous campaign. And if he fills in the blanks, it affects any other future campaign he wants to do. San Diego voters elected something of a cipher. That worked in 2014.

It’s not going to work in 2016.

A sidewalk here and there probably isn’t enough.”

So, yes, Republican elected wannabes, copy and paste all you want with your newly chosen campaign model.

Let specific solutions fade into the Novocain haze of feel-good sound bites. Try to be bold without an ounce of nutritional sustenance.

Go ahead.

As Luna notes, “At some point, Kevin will get asked a question he can’t answer, like what substantively are you going to be able to deliver? If, in 2016, his record is he defeated a minimumMayor Filglorconer wage hike and the Barrio unions for further concessions, Logan plan, he’s going to have a aggressively seeking outsourced hard time running as that new city services and speaking up for Republican.” businesses over residents in cases like the Barrio Logan Community Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Plan brouhaha.

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

edwin

sordid tales

decker A religious right winger says and thinks stupid shit about atheists and other secularists For the latest edition of “Religious Right Winger of rights, then why are there so many people and Says and Thinks Stupid Shit about Atheists and Othcountries around the world trudging through such er Secularists,” I present the Rev. Michael Faulkner. miserable existences without them? Don’t even try The reverend is a former Republican congressional to say it’s because God only guarantees rights to candidate and pastor of the New Horizon Church Americans or I’ll stab my eardrums and mail you who recently appeared on Fox News to protest a lethe brain bits. If there were truly a deity, it would gal effort to remove the phrase “Under God” from give everyone in the world the same rights. But the Pledge of Allegiance. even if he did prefer Americans, well, I can think “This is so silly,” Faulkner said in his opening of several thousand Japanese-Americans who statement. “It’s not just that the atheists are angry didn’t receive their God-guaranteed rights when at God, but they hate the nation.” Faulkner then they were rounded up and tossed in internment added some more religious fundamentalist baldercamps. What about the millions of African-Amerdash before informing viewers that the purpose of icans who didn’t get their God-guaranteed rights the Pledge of Allegiance is to acknowledge that “it until recently. Lord knows the gay community is is a deity that guarantees our rights and keeps our doing what it can to acquire the rights that God country in order.” guaranteed but didn’t deliver. I mean, honestly, if First of all, if you’re going to dismiss an arguI had to choose between buying a television that ment as being “silly,” the least you can do is not came with a one-year guarantee from The Lord Alemploy even sillier arguments than the argument mighty, or a TV guaranteed by some random bozo you deemed as silly, silly. I mean, c’mon, atheists on Craigslist, I would buy from Random Bozo™ are “angry at God”? Is the reverbecause God’s record on guaranend unaware of the definition of tees is godawful. atheism? Because you can’t be Near the end of the interview, Lord knows the angry at God if you don’t believe Faulkner regurgitated a famous, gay community is in God. though quite silly, quote from Then there was his silly comJohn Adams, who said, “Our doing what it can ment that atheists “hate the naConstitution was made only for to acquire the rights tion” because we don’t want thea moral and religious people. It is istic references in the Pledge of wholly inadequate to the governthat God guaranteed Allegiance. That’s like saying I ment of any other.” but didn’t deliver. hate Mexico because I don’t want Let’s take a moment to absorb any limes in my Corona beer. what’s being said here. Adams And how about the comment (and, by extension, Faulkner) is that it’s a deity that guarantees our rights? Begclaiming that the Constitution cannot adequately ging pardon for the digression, but one of my most govern anyone but religious and moral people, cherished DVDs is the 1976 triple-X-rated, musicalwhich is so silly that it’s wrong twice: It’s wrong becomedy version of Alice in Wonderland. It’s about cause it assumes Americans are moral. To that I say: a prudish young librarian named Alice who finds a Oh yeah? How moral was slavery? How moral was portal to Wonderland, where she encounters, and the Salem and McCarthy witch hunts? How moral is seduced by, all sorts of goofy people, animals were the scumbag financiers who bankrolled the and inanimate objects that break into song before 2008 market collapse or the politicians who were they have graphic, orgiastic sex. Make no mistake, in bed with them? The Constitution is not “made” it’s as pornographic as it is hilarious as Alice fornito govern a moral people! It was made to guide imcates with such fantasyland characters as the Mad moral people toward morality.

Hatter (who boasts the most ample genitalia in all Secondly, that the Constitution is unable to govof Wonderland), the White Rabbit (think Ron Jerern non-religious persons is also flat-out wrong. According to a 2008 Pew Research poll, 20 percent of emy in a rabbit suit), a talking rock (that convinces Americans—roughly 60 million people—do not idenAlice to rub it to orgasm), Tweedledee and Tweetify with any religion. If these 60 million people were dledum, Humpty Dumpty, The Queen of Hearts ungovernable, where are the atheist riots? Where are and a smokin’-hot handmaiden undulating on top the agnostic-fundamentalist acts of terror? Saying of a knight lying in an open field, which, of course, atheists are ungovernable would be highly offensive causes Alice and friends to break into a song called— if atheists were the type of people to get offended by wait for it—“What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing on a stupid shit that religious right wingers say and think.

Knight Like This?”

To most of us, they’re just silly: very, very—slightly This is a movie that’s so preposterous, you can’t frustratingly—hilariously silly. help but wonder if it wasn’t produced by the Lollipop Guild after a three-day opium binge. Yet it Write to edwin@sdcitybeat.com still isn’t as ridiculous as Faulkner’s last comment. and editor@sdcitybeat.com. Listen to “God guarantees our rights”? You must be huffing “Sordid Tales: The Podcast!” at sdcitybeat.com.

Silly String, Reverend! If God were a guarantor

8 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner

fried fish served with chips and, most often, salt and vinegar. Once upon a time, and not so very long ago, they were England’s national dish. Now, few would disagree, that honor goes to curry. But fish ’n’ chips retains a central hold on the English psyche. The idea that our local version is superior is still quite odd to me, and to Martin, as well.

And yet it may be so.

Shakespeare is an oldschool English pub featuring classic pub food.

There’s no modern English Shakespeare’s brilliant fish ’n’ chips gastropub fare here. And, in truth, not all of the classic pub food at Shakespeare is as good as the fish ’n’ chips. The steak and kidney pie was, frankly, leaden. The balance between crust and pie filling was skewed heavily toward the crust. The overall flavor of the filling was mono-dimensional—that dimension being salt. The chicken pot pie and the Best fish ’n’ chips anywhere? curry are better. And there’s no superior drinking food than Scotch eggs (deep fried, of course— “These are the best fish ’n’ chips I have ever tastheck, they deep fry Mars bars). ed!” The words wouldn’t necessarily have meant But the atmosphere at Shakespeare makes up much to me, except that they were spoken by for any minor shortcomings in particular dishes. my friend Martin Nielson in his erudite English The place looks and feels like an English pub. It accent (one defying his Midlands origin) a little certainly does so at night and, if anything, still more than an hour after disembarking from a more so on Saturday morning with the PremierBritish Airways flight from Heathrow. This was ship football (soccer) games on. There’s no betsomeone who knew fish ’n’ chips. These were not ter place than Shakespeare for the gathering of a words to be ignored. tribe of fans of some obscure English team (such And he may very well have been right. as mine, Leeds United) than their rare appearThe fish ’n’ chips at Shakespeare Pub & ance on a stateside telecast.

Grille at the foot of Mission Hills (3701 India St., Shakespeare is clearly the ultimate San Dishakespearepub.com) are clean and wonderfully ego place to watch an England World Cup game, crispy on the outside, moist and nearly sweet though the quaint charms of queuing in the on the inside. If they’d been served in the tradiearly-morning dark might be something lost in tional English style (on newspaper) the newstranslation from English to American. And, no print would have been entirely un-smudged by doubt, eating Shakespeare’s Full Monty breakgrease and completely legible. The chips—what fast (rashers—English bacon—two fried eggs, we call french fries (what we call “chips,” they grilled tomato and fried hash-brown potato call “crisps”)—are nearly as good as the fish and cakes) in front of a game is the next best thing to watching a match in England. at their best when accompanied by English-style brown sauce that’s somewhat similar to A-1.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com Fish ’n’ chips—called “the good companions” and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

by Winston Churchill—are battered and deep-

the world

fare

10 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

by ian cheesman ian cheesman

beer &

chees An ale for all seasons

I’ve never fretted much about climate change.

I’m a flexible guy. The way I figure it, soaring ambient temperatures just means I’ll need to start whittling down my cellar beer supply a little sooner than expected. That suits me just fine, especially since I’ll be sequestered indoors to avoid heat stroke along with the rest of humanity. I just think of it as a vacation, except that the me-time extends into perpetuity, the scenic vistas are obscured by sandstorms and you may have to eat your dog when provisions run thin.

Still, in the interest of preparing for any eventuality, I wonder what beer would pair best with global warming.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that the thirst-curbing nature of a bitter quaff would be the ticket for enduring catastrophic greenhouse effects, but I’m not so sure. Is more bitterness really what a world torn asunder needs? Perhaps, in a broader sense, our gravity toward such extremes is part of what got us into this mess in the first place. (Deep, right? It’s like, whoa.)

No, the more poetic choice would embrace balance, a liquid testimony to the harmony we neglected with Gaia until she got all huffy about dwindling polar ice caps and plunged all coastal cities into a watery grave.

I was scouring store shelves for a suitable altbier or pale ale that might fit the profile of this review when I noticed the Lightning Amber Ale. Actually, if I’m being honest, I noticed the blinding glare from its foil label halfway across the store’s parking lot. Clearly, this is not the beer of choice for ninjas, snipers or anyone engaged in covert operations. On the plus side, being so reflective means that I could upcycle the label into a very tiny solar oven, which would be helpful in any post-apocalyptic scenario. I pulled on my protective welding visor and grabbed a bottle.

The Lightning Amber Ale pours a deep ruddy amber with a thick pillowy head. It has a biscuitlike, almost-caramel smell complemented by soft, flowery aromas. The first sip is bready with

a pronounced apricot sweetness up front. This gives way to a robust flowery, citrus-y bitterness that borders on aggressive but definitely gives it a distinctive pop. The finish is mediumbodied and a little oily, offering a lasting jolt of grapefruit in the mouth.

This didn’t deliver what I expect from an amber ale; however, that comes as no surprise to Lightning. The label describes it as an ESB with more of an American sensibility to the malt / hop balance, which encapsulates it very well. It retains the ESB’s ability to slake your thirst, but the richer biscuit and toffee notes give it fuller presence. So, yeah, the name is a little misleading, but I’ll wager it’s a misunderstanding most would be quite happy to encounter.

If you seek a balanced brew that’s as much ESB as it is amber, Lightning Amber Ale is an excellent companion to a brisk spring evening or life in an interminable dustbowl. It also pairs exceedingly well with rat terrier braised in a dry white wine, should it ever come up.

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

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

by Mina Riazi mina riazi

One Lucky

Spoon A good egg (roll)

It didn’t take long for me to learn what the main attraction is at A-Chau in City Heights. When it was my turn to order, I sheepishly stammered that I didn’t know what to pick. A guy next to me paused from double-knotting his takeout bag and blurted two words: “egg rolls.”

Located in the newly branded Little Saigon district (4644 El Cajon Blvd), A-Chau is a familyrun Vietnamese eatery that sells nearly 5,000 egg rolls a day. The mom-and-son joint offers two varieties: the traditional Vietnamese kind, prepared with rice paper, and the wonton-wrapped Chinese version. Unlike its Chinese counterpart, the Vietnamese cha giò boasts a wrinkled, uneven exterior, which makes it fabulously crunchy. Additional Vietnamese specialties on the A-Chau menu include broken rice and bánh mì sandwiches.

A tired strip mall, home to a cluster of boxy, nondescript suites, houses A-Chau; its corner spot is easy to miss. The interior—with plastic, Cheetos-orange chairs and forlorn wire shelves stocked with potato-chip bags—screams “fast food!”

12 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

But that’s about all A-Chau shares in common with the Subway down the street. Owner Don Lam says that nearly every item on the extensive menu is made in-house. The French rolls and baked sweets are secured through wholesalers, but the mayonnaise and barbecued meats flavoring the bánh mì sandwiches are whipped up in the back kitchen. Lam helms the front counter while his mother oversees the cooking. It’s been this way since 1993.

On an early Sunday evening, an hour before closing time, A-Chau felt decently busy, and nearly everyone in line was awaiting egg rolls. The deepfried morsels are inexpensive: 55 cents for the rice-paper rolls and 70 cents for the wonton variety. I ordered two of each, along with several other treats, and tried settling comfortably into one of the legless, spinning chairs. It wasn’t easy.

A few minutes later, Lam handed me a small paper bag bumpy with egg rolls. There were no plates in sight and no utensils, either. I suddenly realized why the tables around me were empty.

Still, I shuddered at the thought of egg rolls slowly steaming inside their paper bags during my drive home.

Eat the egg rolls while they’re fresh and snappy—that’s when you’ll get a loud, clean crunch with each bite. A mild pork-and-carrot mixture fills each morsel; elevate the flavor with a few bright squirts of Sriracha. I get why A-Chau’s egg rolls draw crowds: Your jangling pocket change will buy a few, and, more importantly, they’re delicious.

Though not as resplendent, the sugar-cane shrimp rolls are worth a try. Ground shrimp gets combined with garlic, shallots and sugar, and is then formed into a sausage-like lump. A wontonwrapped leek adds generous crunch, and the spring-roll wrapper cocooning the whole thing tacks on a textural layer. The delicate balance of flavors and textures makes for a refreshing snack, but I still say go for the egg rolls.

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

urban

by Nina Sachdev Hoffmann

scout Designer spotlight: Cat Ellis of Lucki Lime These days, Cat Ellis spends a lot of time cutting large quantities of tulle at her home office in Poway. She’s perfectly content doing it, because after years of toiling away in the corporate world, Ellis is finally where she wants to be: in the tutu business.

Last month, the avid runner launched Lucki Lime (lucki-lime.com), a line of very bright, high-energy race-day apparel and accessories.

So, from now on, when you see hot-pink compression socks or lime-green tutus and matching shirts at running events around town, they’re probably hers. And Ellis takes great care in designing all of it. The race-day shirts ($38.95), which are custom-made and manufactured in the Los Angeles Garment District, are cut specifically for women. A little longer to cover the hips, a little more fitted to feel less boxy in the waist, they feature a more feminine neckline and cap sleeves. These details are important to Ellis because “when you look good, you feel good.

When you feel good, you have a good run.”

And then, of course, there are the tutus—DIY tutu kits ($29.95), to be exact. Ellis wanted them to be more functional and more customizable for all body types. Not even the guys can refuse a frilly skirt that easily snaps on and off.

Here, Ellis shares her thoughts on running, chafing and the recent tutu scandal heard ’round the world.

CityBeat: You said you’ve been thinking about thematic race-day clothing for years. How did Lucki Lime finally come about?

Ellis: I was ready to move on [from the corporate world], and I’ve always wanted to see if I could run my own business. My husband and I do a lot of races. We love to do the fun runs, and we always loved dressing up. I would always wear a tutu or some crazy outfit. We were starting to have a hard time trying to find things to wear.

Sometimes I would wear crazy Halloween costumes, but I’d get super chafed or I’d get blisters from $5 socks from Target because they’re fun and cute and I wanted to be matchy-matchy. And I thought, You know what? We should do something. So we launched at the St. Patrick’s Day Fun Run that we run every year. There were tutus everywhere, and it was fantastic.

But why is it spelled wrong?

As far as Lucky vs. Lucki, this decision was purely from a design perspective. I really liked the logo not having any descenders in the typeface.

I knew I wanted [the name] to stem from our annual St. Pat’s Day run. That’s where the “Lucki” came from. Lime green is my favorite color, and I

Lucki Lime top, tutu and socks really liked how it made me smile and think happy thoughts when I said “Lucki Lime” out loud.

It had the right personality.

So, tutus are a thing at running events?

[Laughs.] I always wear them, but I wouldn’t necessarily say everyone wears them. But dressing up makes it more fun for me, and for a lot of other people. I think that you get more feedback from the crowd. People cheer for you if you’re dressed up a little bit. I’m not ever going to be a podium winner. I’m out there to do the best I can do, but I’m always there to have fun.

Recently, Self magazine was criticized for calling a San Diego woman and her friend “lame” for wearing tutus while running a marathon.

Turns out, the woman is a cancer survivor and raises money by selling tutus. You wrote about Tutugate on your blog. Could you not believe what happened or could you not believe that there was another local company making tutus?

[Laughs.] Both! I had never heard of the other company, and I couldn’t believe that Self magazine could do something like that. It made me a little sad. Here’s these two girls that are doing something fantastic and having a good time.

Then I come to find out that she’s also undergoing chemo. So, we had to talk about Tutugate. We got a group of runners together, and we went down to support her at a last-minute support run. We are a little bit different [than the other company] because we have a broader assortment and have a different giving-back cause. Ours is primarily focused on dogs, pet-cancer awareness, adoptions and animal rescue.

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

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

the

SHORTlist

ART

COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN

ous Galaxy Books in Kearny Mesa (mystgalaxy.com), The Grove in South Park (thegrove sandiego.com) and the Library Shop in the new San Diego Public Library in East Village (supportmylibrary.org/ library-shop). Each store has special programming planned, all with author appearances (too many to list here) and some with kids’ activities, music performances and refreshments, and every location will have special book releases and literary-oriented artwork that can only be purchased on that Authors Jincy Willett (left) and Scotch Wichmann will appear at day. Check each store’s webthe UCSD Bookstore during California Bookstore Day. site for event hours, schedules and available special releases.

“California Bookstore Day is a day that highlights Since 2008, music fans around the world all the things that an independent bookstore can ofhave flocked to local, independent re- fer their community that an online retailer or a big cord stores on Record Store Day—on one box store can’t,” Seth Marko, a book buyer for the day in April—to celebrate and support the brick-and- UCSD Bookstore, tells CityBeat in an email. “Storymortar shops and pick up special, one-time-only re- time for kids, meeting authors face-to-face, helpful leases. Inspired by the enthusiasm, West Coast inde- booksellers, open-mic readings—all of the scheduled pendent bookstores have now launched California events we’re hosting aim to encourage a healthy, Bookstore Day (cabookstoreday.com), and the first two-way discourse on literature, art, philosophy or one will go down on Saturday, May 3. anything else people want to discuss.”

In San Diego, five stores will participate: the “It’s to create awareness that there are still indeUCSD Bookstore (ucsandiegobookstore.com) and pendent bookstores around—that it hasn’t all gone Warwick’s (warwicks.com) in La Jolla, Mysteri- online. We’re still here, alive and kicking,” adds Anne Mery, owner of The Grove, who’s especially proud that there are several authors who live in South Park on her store’s meet-and-greet schedule. “People are Neko tells it like it is. His paintings are wanting to actually, physically, touch a book someas straightforward and authentic as his times and physically see it.” personality, often depicting his signature May 3 also happens to be Free Comic Book Day; characters, mouths agape as they navigate their urban check freecomicbookday.com for local participatsurroundings with confidence, crassness and a sense ing stores. of humor. Neko is a fixture in the local art scene, and though he’s been out of town recently, his name is synonymous with San Diego street art. His solo show, ParIf you’ve not been to Stone Brewing adiso Perduto, opens from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May World Bistro and Gardens in Point Lo3, at Left Hand Black Gallery (1947 Fern St., Suite 5, in ma’s Liberty Station (2816 Historic DecaSouth Park). See new paintings, drawings on found paper, stickers and other things he’s made in the last six tur Road), you’re missing out on a quintessential San months. For the show, Neko says he focused on skate- Diego experience. The restaurant’s outdoor space is boarding, friends, drinking, partying, women and other almost Zen-like, an ideal spot to enjoy the city’s nearperfect weather. It’s also simple things that once made him happy. lhblk.com the venue for the fourth annual Chef Celebration Artisan Food and Craft Beer Festival, a fundraiser where a dozen local chefs will prepare tasty bites (crab-cake Benedict on a pretzel bun with a smoked tomato hollandaise sauce?

Yum!) that’ll be paired with beers selected by Stone’s cicerone, Bill Sysak. Tickets are $55; proceeds will fund scholarships for young chefs-in-training. The event takes place from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 4. Buy tickets and see the full “Vons at 12 a.m.” by Neko menu at chefcelebration.org.

1

2

THEY’RE STILL ALIVE

STRAIGHT UP

3

14 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

FEAST FOR A CAUSE

HMetaloci: Points of Transformation at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Pkwy.

Curated by the San Diego Mesa College Museum Studies Class, this group exhibit investigates the elusive nature of transformation. Artists include Jenny Armer, Teresa Chen, Daniele Fratarcangeli, Scott Gengelbach, Joshua Krause and more. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 30.

KULT: Desconstructing the Artist Talk at UCSD Art Gallery, Mandeville Center, La Jolla. Students Make Arts Initiative, a student group comprised of undergraduate artists, hosts the first in a series of discussions that investigates and deconstructs the notions of the “artist talk.” From 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 1. visarts.ucsd.edu San Diego Mesa College Spring 2014 Student Art Show and Sale at Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Drive, Clairemont. Close to 100 artworks in a variety of media by students enrolled in studio art and the fashion-design classes. From 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 1. facebook.com/mesacollegeart HVerdant Decay at Low Gallery, 3778 30th St., North Park. Ila Rose explores living and dying with contemplative and sometimes confrontational watercolor portraits.

Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 2.

619-348-5517, lowgallerysd.com HEric Wixon and Nick McPherson at Graffiti Beach, 2220 Fern St., South Park.

Enjoy surrealist lowbrow art from the two local artists along with complimentary craft beer and old-school jams from DJ Professor Shadow. From 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 2. 858-433-0950, shopgraffitibeach.com Women Artists of the West National Juried Exhibition at Women’s Museum of California, 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16, Point Loma. More than 200 works by award-winning, female painters and sculptors. Opening from 5 to 8 p.m.

Friday, May 2. 619-233-7963, waow.org HArtist Talk: Valuable Content at Helmuth Projects, 1827 Fifth Ave., Downtown. An artist talk and closing for Bridget Rountree’s multimedia exhibition, which juxtaposes socio-political and historical imagery. From 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3. 619-770-7719, helmuth-projects.com HBlack Light Art Show at Kensington Gallery, 4186 Adams Ave., Kensington.

Mary Fleener, Amy Davis, Elizabeth Zaikowsky, Andrea Sanchez and more will display their work under state-of-the-art blacklights. Proceeds support autism research. Opening from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 3. kensingtongallery.org HNew School Killers Pop-Up Shop at La Bodega Studios and Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. A pop-up art show and shop featuring artists like Benji Gurrero, Sitting Wulf and Nitro, as well as music from DJ Eyeball, Toshi and The Other 20 Eight. From 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 3. facebook.com/labodegasandiego HA Typical Type at Visual Shop, 3776 30th St., North Park. A group exhibition featuring alphabetic interpretations by artists working in all styles and mediums, including Monty Montgomery, Sean Brannan and Bret Barrett. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, May 3. visualshopsd.com HInchoate at Glashaus, 1815-B Main St., Barrio Logan. Art-Hell presents new work

by Kathleen Mitchell and Rich Stewart in the MAINSPACE Gallery. Their decorative gates are the perfect marriage of glass and metal. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 3. art-hell.com HParadiso Perduto at Left Hand Black, 1947 Fern St., South Park. New works from San Diego street art vet Neko consisting of paintings on unframed canvases, drawings

on found paper and stickers. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 3. lhblk.com HWind Tunnel at Not an Exit, Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. An installation from Richard Gleaves repurposing the gallery into a full-scale wind tunnel. Objects to be studied are placed in the center of the tunnel and exposed to the air flow generated by the fan. The resulting effects can be observed through windows. From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 3. richardgleaves.net San Marcos ArtWalk at Old California Restaurant Row, 1020 San Marcos Blvd., San Marcos. More than 30 North County artists will be showing and selling their work. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4. oldcaliforniarestaurantrow.com Climate Change: Midcentury Modern La Jolla at Wisteria Cottage, 780 Prospect St., La Jolla. To mark the 50th anniversary of the La Jolla Historical Society and the reopening of Wisteria Cottage, this exhibition offers a look at the creative culture of ‘50s and ‘60s La Jolla, when postwar modernists championed new ideas in design, art and architecture.

Opens Sunday, May 4. lajollahistory.org HSan Diego Book Arts National Juried Show at Geisel Library, UCSD campus, La Jolla. More than 50 works of art showcasing a wide range of structures, media and imagination from artists like Anne Covell, Shireen Holman, Woody Leslie and dozens more. Opening from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4. sandiegobookarts.com

BOOKS Tom Leech at Mission Hills Library, 925 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Leech will be discussing Say it Like Shakespeare: The Bard’s Timeless Tips for Communication Success. From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. sandiegolibrary.org HDeborah Schneider at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Dubbed

by Bon Appetit as “the reigning queen of San Diego chefs,” Schneider will discuss and sign the second edition of ¡Baja! Cooking on the Edge. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1. warwicks.indiebound.com HCalifornia Bookstore Day at UCSD Bookstore, Warwick’s Bookstore, The Grove and other participating San Diego bookstores. Enjoy a full day of literary happenings celebrating bookstores.

Events include including a performance

by Scotch Wichmann, a reading by Brian Selznick, appearances by Laurel Corona and more. See website for full schedule.

Saturday, May 3. cabookstoreday.com Susan Union at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The local author will sign and discuss her mystery novel, Rode to Death. At noon Sunday, May 4. warwicks.indiebound.com Daryl Gregory at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The author stops by to sign Afterparty, his near-future sci-fi novel about neuroscience, drugs, crime, and religion.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4. mystgalaxy.com HMothers, On and Off the Page at Barnes & Noble La Mesa, Grossmont Center, La Mesa. Jennifer Coburn, Laurel Corona and Zoe Ghahremani will read passages from their new books, all of which involve mothers and daughters. At 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4. 619-667-2870 HDeena Goldstone at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author discusses and signs Tell Me One Thing, a collection of short stories. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6. warwicks. indiebound.com Natasha Josefowitz at La Jolla Com-

munity Center, 6811 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Join the local author as she talks about her latest book, Living Without the One You Can’t Live Without, a collection of poems about life after loss. At 7 p.m.

Tuesday, May 6. ljcommunitycenter.org John Englander at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. The oceanographer stops by to discuss and sign High Tide on Main Street: Rising Sea Level and the Coming Coastal Crisis. At 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 7. $5. 858-534-FISH, aquarium.ucsd.edu HIngrid Croce at Convivio Center, 2157 India Street, Little Italy. The famous local and owner of Croce’s Park West in Banker’s Hill will be discussing and signing her book with Jimmy Rock, I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 7. 619-573-4140 convivio.yapsody.com Dick Murphy at San Diego History Center, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park. The former judge and San Diego mayor will sign San Diego’s Judge Mayor: How Murphy’s Law Blindsided Leadership with 2020 Vision, the inside story of his administration and the lessons to be learned. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 7. $10-$35. 619232-6203, sandiegohistory.org

COMEDY HGrant Cotter at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. The local comic is the only comedian to perform on the Vans Warped Tour and is one of the stars of MTV’s new prank show, Jerks With Cameras. At 8 p.m. Thursday, May 1. $15. 619-702-6666, madhousec omedyclub.com Jay Mohr at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Folks might remember him from Saturday Night Live or from starring in films like Jerry Maguire and Picture Perfect, but he’s always a stand-up at heart. At 8 p.m. Thursday, May 1, and 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3. $30. 619-7953858, americancomedyco.com Ian Bagg at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. The Canada native has appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Late Show with Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central and more. At 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3. $30. 619-702-6666, madhousecomedyclub.com Sam Tripoli at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla. He’s appeared on Comedy Centrals’ Premium Blend, receiving only one of two standing ovations in the history of the show. At 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3. $20. 858-4549176, lajolla.thecomedystore.com HMark Christopher Lawrence at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The comic vet was a regular on the TV series Chuck, made appearances on Weeds and Seinfeld, and had a starring role in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3. $20. 858-5739067, thecomedypalace.com

day, May 5. $15. 619-702-6666, madhousecomedyclub.com Rick Martinez & Friends at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla. The founder of “Spicy Latino Nights” at the Hollywood Improv stops by with fellow comic Tommy Lucero. At 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6. $15.

858-454-9176, lajolla.thecomedystore.com Adam Ray at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Fans might recognize Ray from the film The Heat or from his appearances on shows like Arrested Development and Workaholics. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 7. $15. 619702-6666, madhousecomedyclub.com

DANCE HThe Mapping Games (Part 1) at Wagner Theatre @ UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Under the artistic direction of choreographer Yolande Snaith, an evening of innovative contemporary dance theatre combining choreography with interactive sound design that explores the presence and absence of others in our living spaces. At 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3. $10-$15. 858-220-3807, imagomoves.com SDSU University Dance Company: Go at SDSU Dance Studio Theatre, 5500 Campanile Drive, College Area. SDSU’s top dance ensemble performs works from select faculty choreographers that explores brevity and the concept of how quickly and thoroughly can we be done, without a trace of what came before. At 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 4. $10$15. 619-594-6031, music.sdsu.edu Tangible Prints: Past, Present & Future at White Box Theater, 2690 Truxtun Road, Point Loma. A dance performance that explores and creates a space where youth share, discover, connect, seek guidance, ignite, and recognize their personal and interpersonal connection to the past, present and future. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 4. $10. 619225-1803, danzaimpulseyarte.com Pasiones De La Danza at Visionary Dance Theatre, 8803 1/2 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. Spencer John Powell will premiere his new work, “Cuatro Mujeres,” Martin Anthony Dorado presents two new works, “Noches Latinas” and “This Thing Called Freedom” and Trixi Anne Agiao presents “Two Legs Only.” At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3. $10-$15.

619-758-8112, visionarydancetheatre.org

FOOD & DRINK Harrah’s Rhythm & Brews Music & Craft Beer Festival at Downtown Vista, 122 S. Indiana St. between Main St. and E. Broadway, Vista. This third annual fest features over 50 craft breweries, three stages of music and a variety of food options. From noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $20-$60. sdrhythmandbrews.com

Patrons of Comedy Cinco de Mayo Comedy Show at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Latin comics like Luis Villasenor and Lil Rob perform a special Cinco de Mayo show.

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 5. $20. 858573-9067, thecomedypalace.com

Gluten-Free Food Allergy Fest at Town & Country Hotel, 500 Hotel Circle N., Mission Valley. Sample gluten-free, allergy-friendly foods, learn from experts and hang out with others who understand the gluten-free lifestyle. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, May 3, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, May 4. $5-$25. 619-291-7131, glutenfreefoodallergyfest.com

HSan Diego’s Funniest Person Finals at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Eight of the best comics in San Diego compete, performing 10 minutes each, for bragging rights and a chance at a huge cash prize. Comics include Jesse Egan, Bijan Mostafavi, Erik Knowles and Mike Kadir. At 7 p.m. Mon-

HStoryteller’s Dinner Experience at Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Drive, UCSD campus., La Jolla. Chef Nick Brune of Eco Caters and Hillcrest’s Local Habit collaborates with Green Truck for a special five-course vegetarian meal. During the dinner, the band BRI will perform five tracks to be strategically paired with the

courses. At 5 and 8 p.m. Sunday, May 4. $50-$62. showclix.com

MUSIC Afro-Latin Jazz Descarga at Casa del Tunel, 133 Calle Chapo Marquez Col. Federal, Tijuana. Pianist Turiya Mareya and Cuban percussionist Yos Vany Cortes will perform with musicians from the U.S. and Tijuana. This week, bassist Dean Hulett will sit in and there will also be vegetarian Caribbean food, wine and special drinks. At 8 p.m. Thursday, May 1. 01152-664-682-9570, culturebeatmexico.com Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. Tchaikovsky’s so-called Polish Symphony is the rare headlining work of this Jacobs Masterworks program. At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4. $20-$96.

619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org Jason Rosenberg Dissertation Concert at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD campus, La Jolla. This dissertation recital features a choral a cappella performance of Rosenberg’s composition, “L.O.S.T.” From 8 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, May 2. musicweb.ucsd.edu/concerts Todo Mundo at Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad. Part of the “Local Flavor Concert Series,” this local band blends rumba, reggae, samba, gypsy and South American and Caribbean rhythms. At 7 p.m. Friday, May 2. $10-$15. museumofmakingmusic.org Bach Again at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. The timeless music of Johann Sebastian Bach sung by the Center Chorale with soloists, strings, oboe d’amore and harpsichord. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $10-$25. 800-988-4253, artcenter.org Priti Gandhi at Shiley Theatre, USD campus, Linda Vista. The world-renowned opera singer performs a mixed repertoire of American Songbook, opera, Indian love songs and folk music. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $10-$15. 619260-2938, sandiego.edu Kartik Seshadri at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD campus, La Jolla. The sitar master performs classical Indian ragas in the tradition of his mentor, Ravi Shankar. At 8 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $10.50-$15.50.

858-534-6503, music.ucsd.edu/concerts HLa Jolla Symphony & Chorus at Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Three 20th-century classics including Heitor Villa-Lobos’ saucy “Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra,” followed by two works about war and peace. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4. $15-$29.

858-534-TIXS, lajollasymphony.com Jeff Pekarek Trio at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor’s Center, One Father Junipero Serra Trail, Mission Hills. The trio will perform excerpts from “Panamerican Shanty,” a radio show which features music from 1915. From 3 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4. 619-668-3281, mtrp.org HAnishka and Maria: Night Music at Sunset Temple, 3911 Kansas St., North Park. The voice and piano duo performs arias and art songs that break down the barriers frequently associated with “classical music.” Featuring works by Poulenc, 20th century American composers and a special appearance from the San Diego Opera Chorus. From 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 4. $10-$15. 619-795-3630 HCantus at St. James by-the-Sea, 743 Prospect St., La Jolla. Recognized as

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

THEATER Passion and obsession on a Hillcrest stage Passion becomes obsession very quickly in the latest from Ion Theatre Company, and when it does, it’s scary. Not Fatal Attraction scary, but the kind of discomfiture that preys upon you in the dark.

The show is Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Passion, which opened on Broadway 20 years ago and is only now making its San Diego debut. Even though Passion won the Tony for Best Musical, it’s understandable why it ran less than a year on Broadway. Though the story, set in Italy during a time of war in the late 19th century, is, to some degree, a standard-issue love-triangle melodrama, it’s chockfull of unsettling desperation. Whatever romance is conveyed in the very opening moments—a tryst between soldier Giorgio (Jason Heil) and his married mistress (Katie Whalley)—is forgotten almost from the instant that sickly Fosca (Sandy Campbell) makes her needy presence felt. That’s when the obsession begins, and as the tale unfolds, her obsession becomes Giorgio’s, as well.

Ion Theatre has proven itself with dark musicals before: Last year’s production of Grey Gardens was one of the year’s best. Sondheim’s operatic score is earnestly rendered by Passion’s large cast, under the direction of Kim Strassburger (piano accompaniment is provided by Mark Danisovszky).

Making her Ion debut, Campbell has the meatiest role, and Fosca seems a strangely haunting bookend to another part Campbell played earlier this year: Lady Macbeth with Intrepid Shakespeare Company. Fosca’s is a different shade of madness, though Lapine’s narrative questions whether her condition is really starvation for love. Giorgio’s transfer of passion from his mistress Clara to Fosca is troubling but inevitable, and Heil is as steady in the role as his wide-eyed character is unsteady.

Memorable among the ensemble are Ruff Yeager as Giorgio’s colonel and Bryan Banville in dual roles as a soldier and the unscrupulous Ludovic, Fosca’s husband in a flashback.

The production is a wearying hour and 45 minone of America’s finest professional vocal ensembles, the group’s program, entitled “A Place For Us,” features folk songs and spirituals as well as music by Bernstein, Dvorak, Stephen Foster and Jean Sibelius. At 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4. $25-$30.

858-459-3421, sjbts.org Cinco de Mayo Concert at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park. Kiwanis Club of San Diego presents a special Cinco de Mayo concert in Balboa Park to benefit the SDSU School of Music and Dance. Performances by SDSU jazz, choir, mariachi and string ensembles. At 5 p.m. Monday, May 5. 619-594-6031, music.sdsu.edu HRegina Carter’s Southern Comfort at The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. The violinist will perform songs from her father’s home state of Alabama, celebrating the music that infused her childhood. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 6. $12-$28. 858-534-8497, artpwr.com HSan Diego New Music Concert at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Soprano Jessica Aszodi and an all-star band of locals will perform George Crumb’s Madrigals (I & III). The program will be complemented with poetry readings by Lorena Santana. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6. $20-$25. 858-4545872, ljathenaeum.org HBruno Leone at University Community

16 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

COURTESY: ION THEATRE

Jason Heil (left) and Sandy Campbell utes without intermission, and the love—or obsession—triangle does unfold more slowly than it should. But take note of the Giorgio we see when the play opens and the one on stage at the end. The price of passion will be all too clear.

Passion runs through May 10 at BLKBOX Theatre in Hillcrest. $33-$39. iontheatre.com

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

OPENING Mud Blue Sky: A teenage pot dealer on his way home from the prom ends up in a Chicago hotel room with three veteran flight attendants in this funny drama about making ends meet.

Opens May 2 at Moxie Theatre in Rolando. moxietheatre.com Suds: The Rocking 60’s Musical Soap Opera: The story of a young woman looking for love in a Laundromat frames a soundtrack of ’60s hits. Presented by the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, it runs May 1 through 4 at the Lyceum Theatre at Horton Plaza, Downtown. sandi.net/ page/25031

For full listings,

please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com

Library, 4155 Governor Drive, La Jolla.

The pianist and entertainer will perform a program entitled, “The Life and Music of Cole Porter.” At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6. 858-552-1655, sandiegolibrary.org The Peter Pupping Band at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. Part of the “WOW First Wednesdays” series of free concerts, this six-piece ensemble has been playing world music, Latin jazz and contemporary acoustic styles for over 30 years. At 1, 4 and 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 7. 800-9884253, artcenter.org WED@7: Chamber Opera at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD campus, La Jolla. This performance pairs music by two Italian composers, Barbara Strozzi and Salvatore Sciarrino. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 7. $15.50. musicweb.ucsd.edu

PERFORMANCE Under the Streetlamp at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Four former cast members of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys provide an electrifying concert delivering classic hits.

At 8 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $57.50. 619570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org Student Shakespeare Festival at El

Prado Promenade, Balboa Park. There’s drama, comedy, music, dance, and fantastic costumes at this annual fest featuring students performing 10-minute scenes from Shakespeare on outdoor stages. From noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3. sandiegoshakespearesociety.org

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD Amina Cain and Lucy Corin at UCSD Literature Building de Certeau Room, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Readings from two talented poets. From 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. 858534-2230, literature.ucsd.edu HNow That’s What I Call Poetry Vol. 4 at Digital Gym Cinema, 2921 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. The return of the spoken-word event features local writers and poets. From 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, May 4.

858-869-7730.

HNon-Standard Lit: A Reading Series at Gym Standard, 2903 El Cajon Blvd. #2, North Park. The second installation of the new spoken-word series also celebrates the release of White Stag, a biannual journal of poetry and prose, with four exciting readers: Clare FitzPatrick, Keith McCleary, Hanna Tawater and Mark Wallace. From 5

to 7 p.m. Sunday, May 4. 619-501-4996, gymstandard.com Jewish Poets, Jewish Voices at Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. Featured poets Myla Lichman-Fields, Lee Ben-Yehudah and Steven Schorr will read for 30 minutes followed by an open mic where anyone is welcome to read. At 7 p.m.

Tuesday, May 6. 858-457-3030, sdcjc.org

POLITICS & COMMUNITY A Place at the Table at Mission Hills United Church of Christ, 4070 Jackdaw St., Mission Hills. A screening of the film A Place at the Table followed by a panel discussion about improving community health by reducing poverty and hunger.

From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. 619-296-2169, missionhillsucc.org

local North County non-profits. From 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $40-$50. 760435-3720, oma-online.org Star Wars Day at the San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., Downtown. The unofficial Star Wars holiday (“May the 4th be with you”) will feature Jedi knights, storm troopers, droids, and possibly even Darth Vader himself. Meet your favorite Star Wars characters, dress up and enjoy fun activities. From 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4. sandiegolibrary.org Fiesta de los Penasquitos at Black Mountain Road, Rancho Penasquitos.

This 19th annual fest will feature over 150 vendors, family fun zone, carnival rides, a rock-climbing wall and a car show with over 100 cars. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 4. 858-848-7782, rpcouncil.com

Battle of San Diego Bay Anniversary at Naval Base Point Loma, 140 Sylvester Road, Point Loma. Celebrating the 211th anniversary of the Battle of San Diego Bay, a skirmish between the Spanish colonial government and a U.S.-registered sailing ship. Speeches by dignitaries will be followed by paella and beverages for purchase, and a program of flamenco music, song, and dance. From noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 4. facebook.com/ NavalBasePointLoma Run for Wildlife Half Marathon/10K at Westfield North County, 272 E. Via Rancho Pkwy., Escondido. Race through the scenic San Pasqual Valley and through behind-the-scenes areas inside the Safari Park with views of animals such as giraffes, rhinos, antelope and cheetahs.

From 5 to 10 a.m. Sunday, May 4. 760-

489-0631, safariparkhalf.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS Coming to America: An Iraqi Immigrant’s Remarkable Journey at H. Lee House, 3205 Olive St., Lemon Grove. A discussion with Warda Yonan, who left Iraq in 2000 to escape the Iran-Iraq conflict and eventually made her way to San Diego County. She now runs a successful bakery in El Cajon’s Parkway Plaza. At 7 p.m. Thursday, May 1. 619-460-4353, lemongrovehistoricalsociety.org HThinking Shakespeare Live! at Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein will offer a 90-minute fast-

paced and funny exploration of the language of Shakespeare so audiences may more easily understand the poetry of the Bard. At 11 a.m. Saturday, May 3. $10$15. 619-231-1941, oldglobe.org Reflections on Being Muslim in America at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. Part of the “Muslim Journeys” educational series, a panel of Muslim men share stories of their experiences and perspectives. At 8 p.m. Monday, May 5. 619-236-5800, bridgingcul tures.neh.gov/muslimjourneys

For full listings,

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

SPECIAL EVENTS Del Mar Antique Show and Sale at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Thousands of square feet of antiques, vintage collectibles and decorator items. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 4. $8. 858755-1161, calendarshows.com HClaremont Zombie Run at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 N College Ave., Clairemont. Run, walk, or crawl through a Claremont Botanic Garden maze of native California plant life at this inaugural undead event. From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $25. 909-6258767, claremontzombierun.com San Diego Ho’olaule’a Hawaiian Cultural Festival at DeAnza Cove, 3000 N Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. Hawaiian entertainment on two stages, along with food, vendors and a cultural village. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 3-4. 619-235-1169, sdhoolaulea.com Spring Craft Boutique at Junipero Serra High School, 5156 Santo Road, Tierrasanta. This outdoor craft fair will feature more than three-dozen local crafters and vendors offering jewelry, home decor, one-of-a-kind gifts and more. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 3. 858496-8342, sandi.net/serra MIT Mobile Fab Lab at North University Community Library, 8820 Judicial Drive, La Jolla. At this ‘Micro’ Maker Faire, learn about 3D printing, robots, electronics, laser cutters and other amazing tools you can use to create a unique gift. From 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3. fablabsd.org Celebration of Compassion at Cherokee Point Elementary School, 3735 38th St., City Heights. This event will feature a variety of activities, including a Native American blessing, rappers on compassion, dances by Caravan of the Lost Road and African drummers, focused on how to make San Diego a “city of compassion.” From noon to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3. compassionconnectionsd.org Ping Pong Tournament & Social at The Pearl Hotel, 1410 Rosecrans St., Point Loma. This annual poolside table tennis tournament benefits the School of Business at San Diego High School, as well as other charities. Show off your skills or just enjoy a hosted lunch, Ballast Point beer and cocktails. From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 3. $35-$65. lwpgroup.com Mingafest at Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. Enjoy wine, beer and food tastings from local artisans at this annual event. There will also be live music, art performances and interactive art making. Proceeds benefit

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

The

push to get arts programming back into C alifornia prisons Story and photos by Kinsee Morlan

aura Pecenco and Kathleen Mitchell by towering electrified fences. They’re led beam with nervous excitement. Armed first to the Receiving and Release building, with art supplies and stacks of con- a holding cell for new inmates and packages sent forms, the two are corralled inside a for inmates. The walls inside R&R are being small administrative office at the Richard colored by a mural in progress, painted by a J. Donovan Correctional Facility, waiting few prisoners who’ve also signed up to be for last-minute approvals before they walk students in the new art class. Spearheaded through the heavy doors of the state pris- by Sgt. Evaristo Alvarez, a corrections offion. They’re about to kick off the first class cer with a background in art, the mural dein what’s been dubbed Project PAINT, a picts the downtown San Diego waterfront new volunteer-run visual-arts program for in the early 1940s. The painting is a small Donovan inmates. gesture in the grand scheme of things, but “There are 12 pencils and 64 colored it’s a signal to Pecenco and Mitchell that pencils,” says Mitchell, a glass artist. “I the warden and some staffers at Donovan thought they might want us to know that.” are interested in getting arts programming “Yes,” agrees Pecenco, a Ph.D candi- back inside the prison walls. date at UCSD and founder and driving alifornia’s Arts-in-Correcforce behind Project PAINT. “I tions program, especially counted the pencils twice.” during its peak in the In a place where everyday ’80s and ’90s, was considered objects can become deadly a model for other states and weapons, a detail like this is recognized internationally important—just one of the for producing results. Studies things the two women have conducted in 2012 and 2013 by learned during the months it’s Larry Brewster, a professor at taken to get the program off the University of San Francisthe ground. co and an advocate for prison Estela Acosta, the temporary reform, show that arts procommunity-resources manager gramming at state prisons has at Donovan, helps the women Laura Pecenco positive benefits for inmates, over the last hurdles. Her drab, institutional office is brightened by an ab- such as reduced disciplinary actions, instract painting, the creation of an inmate creased self-esteem and self-respect, imwho participated in Arts-in-Corrections, proved emotional control and a signifia state-funded rehabilitation program for cantly reduced rate of recidivism. While California prisons that launched in 1980 Arts-in-Corrections wasn’t designed to be but whithered amid statewide budget cuts a job-skills program, Brewster also found in the early 2000s, before being cut en- that many former inmates later used their tirely in 2010. Large-scale paintings that creative skills in their careers as working emerged from the program hang through- artists after release.

Only a handful of California’s state prisout Donovan’s administration building, and a grassy knoll outside the building serves ons still offer arts programming. Those as a sculpture garden featuring artwork programs are run by volunteers and nonmade of aluminum airplane parts, created profits like the William James Association Prison Arts Project, California Lawyers for by former Arts-in-Corrections inmates.

Pecenco and Mitchell walk past the the Arts, The Actors’ Gang, Marin Shakepaintings and metal sculptures and enter speare and Jail Guitar Doors. Brewster’s the prison through a corridor bordered most recent study was based on interviews

L

C

18 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

Prisoners inside Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility are excited to have access to the arts again. and research with students participating in nonprofit-run arts programs, some of whom also took advantage of Arts-in-Corrections instruction.

“Legislators and policymakers want hard data,” Brewster says of his 2013 study, which makes a strong case for arts programming’s evidence-based results. “What we’re trying to do, quite frankly, is get a renewal of state money to once again expand arts in prisons in all state institutions.”

Since 2010, Brewster’s been working with several arts-advocacy groups in pushing for the full-fledged return of Arts-inCorrections, which, at its peak, enjoyed a $3.3-million annual budget and was run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, with the help of contractors like the William James Association.

Arts-in-Corrections employed fulltime professional artists as “artist-facilitators” who provided training in visual, literary and performing arts in every state prison.

The once-robust program has been replaced by a strictly volunteer-run effort that Laurie Brookes, executive director

of the William James Association, calls a “piecemeal approach” that doesn’t reach nearly enough inmates.

“We stand at the ready to get things going again,” Brookes says. “To me, the real heart of the matter is the qualitative research and the story of lives that get changed in significant ways because of the arts. If we divert even just one person and keep them from coming back to prison, we’re saving the state thousands of dollars.

The arts are a catalyst for transformation.”

Brookes says that California’s recent prison-realignment law, which seeks to reduce prison overcrowding by housing lower-level offenders in county jails, underscores the need for programs that cut recidivism. Citing help from state Sens.

Loni Hancock and Ted Lieu, Brookes and Alma Robinson, executive director of California Lawyers for the Arts, say Arts-inCorrections is close to being funded again.

“We’re hopeful,” Robinson says. “We don’t have anything earth-shaking to report just yet, but I hope we will have some news soon…. There may even be money in

A mural inside Donovan’s Receiving and Release area is being painted by inmates.

Donovan inmates have written their own manifesto requesting that Arts-in-Corrections programs be reinstated. next year’s budget, but things aren’t specific enough yet to talk about.” ecenco and Mitchell are eventually led to the gym in Yard D at Donovan. The warehouse-like room is cold and dimly lit, and the loud whirring of the ventilation system makes it hard to hear. But, after weeks of back-and-forth with prison administrators, Pecenco is grateful to have finally found a space for the art classes, which will run for three hours on Monday and Wednesday nights for at least the next six months as Pecenco finishes up her doctorate degree in sociology.

About a dozen students were expected to show up to the inaugural class, but twice that number is here. Just a handful of desks are available; the rest of the inmates either stand or sit on the floor without any fuss. Pecenco makes the introductions and quickly gets the inmates started on sketching or thinking about ideas for the four, large-scale mobile murals that’ll eventually end up in visitation rooms and serve as backdrops for family photos.

The inmates’ enthusiasm is obvious. Once Pecenco and Mitchell are done explaining the concept, the prisoners crowd around the few supplies available (the approval process for getting art supplies inside Donovan has proven to be challenging). A few inmates are so eager, they sit down on the floor as soon as they have their supplies in hand and begin sketching. Others talk excitedly amongst themselves about what the panels will become. Outdoor scenery quickly becomes a common theme.

“Art helps pass the time,” says Chris Mulvaney, who’s serving life without parole for first-degree murder. “It gives you a special feeling of accomplishment. That’s one thing I really miss from being on the streets. I used to work on cars, restore furniture, work around the house, and that gave me a real sense of accomplishment…. In prison, I can’t pick up a screwdriver. I can’t pick up a hammer. I can’t pick up a saw. So, I really just felt dejected for the

P

first few years. Getting into art has brought that back to me—that feeling of accomplishment, that feeling of pride and happiness. Prison can be a dark, lonely and depressing place, even at the best of times.”

Jason Imbach, another inmate with a life-without-parole sentence for murder, describes art-making as an important mental escape.

“Art is a way of not being in here,” he says, thumbing through a portfolio of his artwork. “If I’m drawing a picture of San Francisco, I can feel like I’m standing on the street drawing it versus sitting in my cell looking at a concrete, gray wall…. It allows you to leave prison in your head.”

With the help of a few other inmates, Imbach recently put together what he calls a “Manifesto for Arts-in-Corrections Programming at Donovan.”

Pulling data from Brewster’s studies, he had his mom help him type up the document, which is intended for the warden.

“This is the philosophy of the program,” Imbach says, reading from the manifesto: “Above all else, art, and therefore the Donovan arts project, is about one thing: the secret of how to work.”

He looks up from the paper. “It’s basically about teaching you self-confidence, giving you the skills and letting you know that practice makes perfect.”

Imbach and other inmates are hopeful that Pecenco’s art project and another volunteer-run creativewriting course at Donovan spearheaded by SDSU professor Paul Sutton will help lead the way for more permanent arts programming at the prison. But they know that without significant funding, it’s not likely to happen unless more volunteers step in or the state decides to reboot and refund Arts-in-Corrections.

“California Department of Corrections as a whole, though, is stick, stick, stick,” says inmate Scott Johnson.

“It’s not carrot and stick. They don’t care about that.

They just want you to sit in our cell and be quiet.”

David Beck-Brown, a local artist who headed up Donovan’s former Arts-in-Corrections program as the artist-facilitator, says while he appreciates the efforts of volunteers like Pecenco, he sees it as a temporary solution.

“I wish the best for these programs,” he says.

“But change really needs to come from Sacramento legislation.”

Before the inmates at the art class have to rush back to their cells for the 9:15 p.m. cell count, Mulvaney says he hopes the completed murals will make a big impression on people outside of the prison walls.

“When the public finds out about this, maybe they won’t have such a low opinion of us, because we are still human,” he says. “We’re not treated as such, but we still are.”

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

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

Kinsee Morlan

Seen Local Eye on Public Art A recurring feature looking at new public-art projects in San Diego “Joni Mitchell would be proud,” says Gail M. Goldman walking through the almost-completed Waterfront Park, which surrounds the County Administration Center in downtown San Diego. “They’ve literary torn up a parking lot and put in a park.”

Goldman is the consultant working with the county to insert public art into the new park, which opens to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 10. The $49.4-million project converted eight acres of parking lot around the county building into a community plaza, the centerpiece of which is an impressive interactive fountain that features jets of water shooting in arches. To replace the lost public parking, the county added a large, subterranean garage at the south end of the park.

The main entrances to the parking garage will soon be colored with large-scale reproductions of abstract paintings by two well-known San Diego artists, Harold Cohen and Allison Renshaw. While Renshaw pulls from architecture, fashion and other contemporary culture for her work, Cohen is famous for his abstract collaborations with AARON, a clever computer program he designed to make art autonomously (AARON fills a canvas with line drawings, and then Cohen steps in with paint). Both Renshaw’s and Cohen’s original paintings were purchased, along with the rights for reproduction, and are currently hanging in stairwells inside the County Administration Center near a main entrance.

The genuine effort to get public art in Waterfront Park was undertaken well after design, and even construction, of parts of the project was underway.

Initially, there wasn’t a budget for public art, partly because the county doesn’t require it (the official policy states that an artwork allowance of one-half percent of the estimated cost of the project may be spent on art).

Largely a result of county Supervisor Ron Roberts’ personal interest in getting public art in the park—combined with the popularity of the worldclass collection of art included in the recent construction of the County Operations Center in Kearny Mesa—the county was eventually able to round up $100,000 for art at Waterfront Park.

“Every time I ran into Ron Roberts, he would say,

20 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

Gail Goldman , with Allison Renshaw’s painting ‘I really want to put art at Waterfront Park,’” Goldman says. “When I finally got word that it was happening, I was, like, ‘OK, now, how do we do this? We only have six months. What do we do to make this happen?’”

Despite the relatively small budget and short timeline, Goldman says she was determined to make the most of it. She zeroed in on San Diego painters, and a committee ultimately chose Renshaw and Cohen.

Goldman proposed that rather than commissioning new murals by the artists, the county could buy existing artwork that could be reproduced in a larger, sturdier format suitable for the garage. The challenge was finding a method of reproducing the art that would be respectful of the artists’ original works while still being durable enough to last in a highly trafficked environment. Eventually, Goldman settled on high-resolution photographic reproductions mounted on aluminum panels.

“The result is phenomenal,” Goldman says, pulling out a panel filled with a portion of Cohen’s reproduced painting. “I mean, you can see the brushstrokes in these things.”

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

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Shotgun story New independent revenge thriller is lean and mean

by Glenn Heath Jr. A revenge film with buckshot for a heart, Blue Ruin takes slow burn to another level. Director Jeremy Saulnier’s sophomore effort focuses on an unassuming vagrant living off the grid near coastal Virginia. Cloaked in a burly beard, Dwight (Macon Blair) moves invisibly alongside normal society, never rousing any attention despite breaking into random suburban houses to bathe. That is, until he receives news that the criminal responsible for murdering his parents will be released from prison after a decade of incarceration, initiating an impetuous journey of vengeance that gets bloody messy.

Dwight’s near-lobotomized appearance only Macon Blair is a bloody mess. becomes more apparent when he shaves and dons suitable attire. Just because we can see his face from the second you see them. doesn’t mean we can read his mind any better. Blue While Saulnier’s script lacks emotional resonance, Ruin is a deceptively angry film in this regard, mim- it’s far more concerned with crafting a rigorous cinicking its lead character’s quiet demeanor and fran- ematic landscape based on theme. Blue Ruin posits tic desperation until sudden violence interrupts with a social ecosystem where murder is a private affair, striking force. beholden to warring factions operating out of sight of To its credit, the film respects the finality of death. the regular world. When Dwight questions one of the After a rifle round punctures a vital body part of one Cleland boys about why the man didn’t call the police nefarious character, the shooter tells a distraught after one of his own was killed, he says calmly, “KeepDwight the bitter truth: “That’s what bullets do.” in’ it in-house.” It’s an eerie motif that closes the film Blue Ruin is a nasty piece of as well, with the image of a jogger work, but part of its appeal relates calmly running by an arrow stuck to how expertly Saulnier draws in the grass. Earlier in the film, it Blue Ruin out tension and suspense. Scenes was shot right at Dwight’s throat.

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier creep along at a measured pace, The rural-rage saga didn’t beStarring Macon Blair, Devin extending time in order to flesh gin with Blue Ruin; films like 1955’s Ratray, Kevin Kolack and out the near-suffocating sense of The Phenix City Story, 1977’s RollAmy Hargreaves dread that permeates the film. We ing Thunder and 2007’s Shotgun Rated R get to watch every step of Dwight’s Stories prove it to be a long-lasting clumsy, panicked actions, which often turn bad situations far worse. Most involve standoffs with the Cleland clan, whose oldest son was convicted of the crime that’s inspired such hatred in Dwight. The all-consuming nature of old-fashioned feuds becomes apparent.

It’s a phenomenon that gobbles up multiple family members in a matter of seconds.

Pain has become a fact of life for both Dwight and his estranged sister, who’s trying to raise two children despite the trauma of her parents’ murder still burning deep in her gut. Emotionally crippled, dented and punctured, these siblings are human versions of Dwight’s beaten-up old blue Pontiac, a pulverized but working vehicle that’s riddled with bullet holes and faded by the sun. These people may still be moving forward in life, but the wear and tear is apparent

subgenre. Each explores the rapidly escalating anger that can be seamlessly passed from generation to generation. Blue Ruin is unique in that the collective animosity has already been simmering for nearly two decades, left to rot inside every character. The rest is human nature.

Blue Ruin—which opens Friday, May 2 at Reading Gaslamp Cinemas—is not an especially daring revenge film, but it’s often thrilling. Saulnier understands that not all vigilante characters share the same motivations. Some people think that by pulling the trigger, their problems will be solved; other lost souls, riddled with unbearable fury, just want to see the other guy bleed.

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

Sexual healing

Fading Gigolo

22 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

As far as insane male fantasies go, Fading Gigolo is one of the laziest. In this overtly sunny and tone-deaf morality tale set in New York City, John Turturro plays Floravante, a part-time florist who, in the film’s opening act, decides to change career paths and start sleeping with wealthy women for money. This comes

after his lecherous friend Murray (Woody Allen) convinces him to become a “ho” after a conversation that lasts all of five minutes.

What little conflict the film displays at the sudden shift in occupation and lifestyle it makes up for in tedious banter between the two leads. The men smugly discuss women, sex and, you know, all the other topics guys always talk about. But the cash keeps

rolling in. Things really get bungled when Floravante falls for an orthodox Jewish woman who— get this—is suffering from an extreme bout of loneliness now that her sexless rabbi husband has finally kicked the bucket. A match made in heaven right?

Plot points like these are handled with the subtlety of a falling guillotine. The inevitable culture clash and emotional complications between Floravante and his forbidden love are foreshadowed regularly, leaving very little to the audience’s imagination when it comes to their rocky road toward secular romance.

Turturro, who also wrote and

directed the film, is obviously trying to channel his co-star’s films. Fading Gigolo’s breezy music cues and hop-along pacing scream Wood-man. But it lacks the charm, romance and sense of brutal fate that dominates Allen’s best work.

Instead, we’re left with characters who do exactly what they think and very little else that makes sense. Fading Gigolo— which opens Friday, May 2, at Hillcrest and La Jolla Village cinemas—desperately tries for L’amour fou but fails miserably, thanks to its shapeless, unromantic sense of destiny and desire.

Opening

Blue Ruin: A bearded drifter goes on a precipitous journey of revenge when his parents’ murderer is released from prison after 10 years. Screens at Reading Gaslamp Cinemas. See our review on Page 22.

Amazing Caves: From the Grand Canyon to the coastal waters off the Caribbean, spelunk into the world’s deepest and darkest caves in this mesmerizing IMAX journey that spans the globe. Screens at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.

The Amazing Spiderman 2: Andrew Garfield returns as the high-flying web slinger to battle an assortment of new villains (Dane DeHaan and Jamie Foxx) while trying to save New York City and his beloved Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) from imminent destruction.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

Fading Gigolo: A failed bookstore owner (Woody Allen) convinces his blue-collar friend (John Turturro) to start sleeping with wealthy women for money. Nothing could go wrong with this idea, right? See our review on Page 22.

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden: Documentary about a real-life murder mystery that occurred in the 1930s on the uninhabited Floreana Island, where

settlers found themselves at odds in an undiscovered habitat. Screens through May 8 at the Ken Cinema.

son. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 1, through Saturday, May 3, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America: This loving musical portrait of one of Latin America’s most iconic singers mixes archival interviews and concert footage. Screens through May 8 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Death Metal Angola: A documentary following a group of orphans in Angola’s capitol, Huambo, as they spearhead a heavy-metal movement that serves as a catharsis for youth affected by war.

Screens at 7 p.m. Friday, May 2, at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

Walk of Shame: Elizabeth Banks stars as a rising-star news anchor who gets the job interview of a lifetime, only to find herself stranded in downtown Los Angeles without a phone, car or shoes after spending the night with a strange man.

Water & Power: Two brothers working on different sides of the law in Los Angeles find themselves battling for control of the streets. This is the debut film from Richard Montoya of Culture Clash.

Workers Film Festival: Labor, social justice and human rights will be topics that run throughout this diverse program of 12 new films. Runs Friday, May 2, through Sunday, May 4, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

One Time Only 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.

The Wizard of Oz: A girl and her dog get swept up in a tornado and end up in a magical land full of witches, flying monkeys, tin men, cowardly lions and more. Kansas seems boring by compari-

Rasa Dari Tari: The Soul of Dance: Introduction to the many vibrant contemporary dance movements sweeping across Indonesia. Screens at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village.

The Straight Story: David Lynch shows his lighter side in this brilliant film about an aged farmer (Richard Farnsworth) who rides his tractor cross-country to make amends with his ill brother. Screens at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village.

Shuffle: What happens when you begin to experience your life out of exponential order? Nothing good. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 5, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village.

Air Force One: Harrison Ford’s badass president tells Gary Oldman’s heinous terrorist to get off his plane! Screens at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 5, at Arclight La Jolla.

The Deflowering of Eva van End: An exchange student makes a profound impact on a Dutch family eager to reinvent themselves. Screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at the Point Loma / Hervey Branch Library.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: The beginning of the end for

comic heavyweight Mike Myers, whose swingin’ James Bond-esque alter ego would be both his cultural highpoint and lowlight. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at Arclight La Jolla.

Nacho Libre: Jack Black plays a clumsy altar boy south of the border who decides to become a luchador to prove his worth to his church. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, May 7, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Now Playing 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.

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. Ends May 1 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

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

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

Tommy McAdams

Death by ambition The rise and fall of Deadphones

by Peter Holslin

I

t’s 12:45 a.m. on a Thursday—almost closing time at Turf Club in Golden Hill.

The final slabs of meat sizzle on the grill, and the regulars slowly trickle out. In the back corner of the bar, Jeremy Scott and Jackson Milgaten kick back in a cushy booth. They just left practice with their band, Deadphones, and now they’re sharing a sweet-tea-and-vodka cocktail in an enormous plastic cup, prepping for a new day.

There was a time when Scott and Milgaten might still be in Deadphones’ cramped Mira Mesa practice space, working out guitar parts in another six-hour rehearsal session. But now, they’re just chilling. Scott’s been reading a lot of Carl Jung, investigating a dream he’s had about mythological serpents. Milgaten’s been slinging cocktails at Turf, getting his car fixed, cleaning the house—you know, regular-Joe stuff.

“It’s so fucking easy, man,” he says. “I relax. I sleep. I, like, take care of errands and whatever. And then I come here and I just hang out and pour drinks, and have drinks, and then leave at the end of the night with a bunch of money, and I go home, and I get high, and I work on my website and watch whatever—finish Season 4 of The Walking Dead.”

Scott and Milgaten, who both play guitar in the quintet, know what it’s like to suffer for craft. Last month Deadphones released a masterful new album of sleek, groove-oriented indie-rock. The album, which took two-and-a-half years to make, only cost them about $10,000—a killer deal considering the pristine production quality. And yet, in their quest to make

24 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

the best music possible, they paid the ultimate price.

Members of the band tell CityBeat they’re throwing in the towel. Though Deadphones aren’t “breaking up” officially, they aren’t pursuing new opportunities, either. Most of them are moving on to new things: Bassist Garrett Prange and drummer David Mead are now playing in the band Ditches, and Scott plans to go to school and become a psychologist.

For his part, Milgaten isn’t sure what he’s going to do next. But after a decade playing music—and rising to prominence in the local music scene—he says it probably won’t have anything to do with music.

“I think I just gotta take the wife and just fucking go look for something,” he says.

Deadphones’ sudden fall evokes Greek tragedy. They were some of the most talented musicians in the city; they worked long and hard, and really seemed like they could hit it big nationally. In the end, though, it could very well be that the traits that made them such a formidable, compelling band—ambition, drive, integrity— are the same things that did them in.

Of course, Deadphones have only been Deadphones for four months. Until December, they were called Cuckoo Chaos. The band began in 2007, when Scott first started recording demos with guitarist / vocalist Scott Wheeler. But the current lineup solidified in 2010, and things ramped up in 2011, when Cuckoo signed to powerhouse booking firm The Windish Agency and released their debut EP, Woman.

The ecstatic guitar-pop jams on Woman weren’t exactly groundbreaking, but they gave the band a springboard to explore

From left: Scott Wheeler, Jackson Milgaten, Jeremy Scott, Garrett Prange, David Mead deeper, more original terrain. And as they moved into 2012, they might’ve become a bona fide national buzz band if they’d simply released more songs like “Super Skeleton,” a 2012 single that conjures a lovelorn daydream, with its languid beat and sunweathered melody.

But during practice one day, Wheeler announced that he was sick of their fun songs. He’d gone through a nasty breakup, and he’d started listening to beat-makers J Dilla and Flying Lotus. He wanted music that would reflect his state of mind.

“I was, like, ‘I don’t want to play this anymore,’” recalls Wheeler, who wants to keep some version of the band together. “They were, like, ‘Why? I love it! I’m having fun.’

And I’m, like, ‘Well, I don’t fucking love it, and if you want me to get onstage and sell people, I have to love what I’m playing.”

Holed up in a tiny office space in the bowels of a cold-storage facility, they spent months workshopping grooves and guitar parts, putting each song through a painstaking majority-rules process. Though this might sound like a noble approach to songwriting, the band sometimes went weeks without making progress as they got bogged down in indecisiveness and second-guessing.

“It was awful,” Mead says. “Ultimately, I felt like the thinking was done completely outside of the gut.”

The hard work paid off, though, because the album is superb. Recorded at Big Fish in Encinitas with engineer Stuart Schen— an industry pro with a Zen approach—it’s got a crystal-clear pop finish, with hypnotic bass and drums serving as a centerpiece for understated guitar licks and Wheeler’s Thom Yorke-esque croon.

Late last year, the band made a big todo about transforming from Cuckoo Chaos into Deadphones, which attracted a lot of attention in the local scene. But, by then,

their deal with Windish had shriveled; labels they sent the new album to didn’t know what to make of them. Even Lefse Records, a relatively small label they’d planned to use as a backup—owned by their manager, Matt Halverson, a longtime Cuckoo Chaos supporter—refused to put out the album.

Lefse was now partnering with a bigger indie label, which strictly wanted to sign established touring acts.

When the album finally came out last month, it was as a digital download on Halverson’s tiny cassette label, Waaga. The release came suddenly and unexpectedly, with all the fanfare of a sad trombone. For some members of the band, this was the last straw. They’d wanted a big break; the response was dead silence.

“I felt like fucking George Clooney in Gravity, floating out towards space and my radio cutting out and not being able to get ahold of anybody,” Scott says.

It’s 3 a.m. now, and I’m walking with Scott and Milgaten aimlessly around Golden Hill. Scott is staring off into the distance, a wounded veteran of the music scene.

“I’ve redefined music for myself,” he says. “The meaning, I’ve realized for myself, stops at the writing. I don’t give a shit about playing in a band. I don’t give a shit about playing live—unless it’s really, specifically on my own terms. The music, for me, stops when the song is written.”

The streets are empty. A new day is dawning. Deadphones might be back sooner or later. Who knows? But whatever happens, the way this went down has disturbing implications. If you’re willing to kill yourself for your art—to make something as great as Deadphones—and you still can’t make it in the creative sphere, well, you have to wonder: Who can?

Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

notes from the smoking patio

Erik Canzona

Locals Only Erik Canzona, frontman for The Heavy Guilt, will release his first solo album this year, tentatively titled The Narrows.

The album was recorded entirely in Canzona’s home, and he says in an email that he began writing the songs a few years ago, several of them emerging from collaborations with his roommate and Heavy Guilt bandmate Al Howard, who also provides percussion on the record.

“Al Howard and I share a house, and whenever we’re not

playing shows or practicing with the Guilt, I’d pick up a guitar and he’d sit at his laptop, and we’d write songs,” Canzona says. “After recording and working on it alone in my room over the past year, he is the one that’s really pushed me to finish it and get it out there.”

The album is being mixed and mastered at Audio Design. In addition to Howard, it also features Jake Najor on drums. While Canzona says that The Heavy Guilt is still writing new material, this new effort will be something different altogether.

“I honestly don’t know what you’d consider the style of the record, other than it’s a rock album,” Canzona says. “All I know is that The Heavy Guilt sounds like all five of us, and this album, for better or worse, sounds like me.

“Creatively, it was freeing,” he adds, “but also a little scary, because I didn’t have all of the band to bounce things off of.”

The Narrows will be released in July.

Music review Eukaryst Dreams in the Witch House (Self-released)

San Diego isn’t typically recognized as a metal town, but that doesn’t mean the conditions aren’t right for spawning something unholy from below. All that sunshine and all those smiling people at the beach just beg for a troupe of miscreants to provide a brutal counterpoint via some gnarly, ugly sounds. On Dreams in the Witch House, death metal quintet Eukaryst prove to be just such a troupe.

Formed in 2009, Eukaryst have been holding down the fort in the name of death metal—one of a recent wave of groups that have brought new life to San Diego’s metal scene, along with stoner-rock outfit Old Man Wizard and black-metal ghouls Ruines Ov Abaddon. However, as far as death metal goes, Eukaryst —Jeff Terich are more tuneful than most. Like

Eukaryst Carcass and Skeletonwitch, Eukaryst balance their harsh pummel and blazing technicality with a penchant for hooks and melody that sets them apart from death metal’s most guttural and bloodcurdling bands.

Not that Dreams in the Witch House will be an easy sell for firsttimers. Death metal will always have a high barrier for entry, and those particularly sensitive to raw, full-throated growls might not take so easily to Ben Marotta’s vocals. That’d be too bad, though, because he has a venomous scream that’s perfectly suited to the epic, abrasive sounds the band creates, which span from the galloping thrash-metal riffs in opening track “Born of Blood” to the surprisingly catchy harmonies

of “Witch House” (no relation to the electronic-music genre) to the epic swagger of the nine-minute closer, “Inquisition.”

While they display some noteworthy influences throughout Dreams—Carcass, Iron Maiden, At the Gates—Eukaryst catalyze them into impressive, even refreshing new forms. On Dreams in the Witch House, Eukaryst not only give death metal a powerful update, but they also prove that San Diego can hold its own when it comes to all things heavy.

Eukaryst will play a record-release show at Soda Bar on Friday, May 2.

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

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

if i were u Wednesday, April 30 PLAN A: Michael Nesmith @ Belly Up Tavern. You probably know Michael Nesmith as part of The Monkees, but in the 1970s, he released a number of excellent country-rock albums that proved his mettle as a songwriter, his history in a made-for-TV band notwithstanding. In fact, the entirety of his 1971 album Nevada Fighter is on YouTube—listen to it and you’ll be convinced in no time. PLAN B: Monophonics, Orgone @ The Casbah. Orgone and Monophonics are two of the funkiest bands in the land, and at this special show, each band will do its own individual set, plus a third set together. Free your Wednesday night, San Diego, and your ass will follow. BACKUP PLAN: Howler, Vision, The Paper Thins @ Soda Bar.

Thursday, May 1 PLAN A: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic @ House of Blues. I’m not sure I need to explain why George Clinton is Plan A. He’s a funk legend. Or, rather, he’s the funk legend, and he and Parliament Funkadelic are going to tear the roof off the mother. PLAN B: Pantha du Prince, Queens aka Scott Mou, Mystery Cave @ The Casbah.

Berlin-based Pantha du Prince is just one guy: Hendrik Weber. But on this tour, he’s performing his hypnotic electronic jams as part of a live trio, re-contextualizing his minimalist house music into a whole new form. BACKUP PLAN: Bleeding Rainbow, Northern Tigers, The Kabbs @ Soda Bar.

BY Jeff Terich

Saturday, May 3 PLAN A: 2UP, Batwings, Innerds, Tron @ Soda Bar. Tokyo’s 2UP have a common member with San Diego’s no-wave outfit Dmonstrations, and if you’re familiar with that group’s noisy experimentalism, then you’ll have a good idea of the Beefheart-ian din that 2UP creates. If you want a laid-back show, go somewhere else, because this one’s gonna be nuts. PLAN B: Step Brothers @ Porter’s Pub. Step Brothers are the duo of Evidence and Alchemist—two hip-hop veterans with a long history of underground beats and rhymes. Based on their new album, Lord Steppington, this show should prove to be a cavalcade of skills. BACKUP PLAN: Dan Croll, Panama Wedding @ The Casbah.

Sunday, May 4 PLAN A: Manic Hispanic, The Fink Bombs, Homeless Sexuals @ The Casbah.

Manic Hispanic feature members of legendary punk bands like Cadillac Tramps and The Adolescents and have made a career out of covers of old-school punk songs, remade with jokey lyrics (for example, X’s “Los Angeles” becomes “East L.A.”). This’ll be a Cuatro de Mayo punk-rock fiesta. BACKUP PLAN: Pillar Point, Soft Swells, Rey Pila @ Soda Bar.

Monday, May 5

PLAN A: Mariachi El Bronx, Creepxotica, Los Mysteriosos @ Belly Up Tavern. How better George Clinton to spend Cinco de Mayo than with Mariachi El Bronx, the best (and probably only) punk-band-turned-mariachi-outfit in Southern California? Whether playing hardcore or elaborately arranged Friday, May 2 mariachi songs, The Bronx should always PLAN A: Goblin, Pinkish Black @ House be at the top of your must-see list. of Blues. Italian prog-rock band Goblin are best known for their super-creepy scores to Dario Argento’s horror films, such as Tuesday, May 6 Suspiria and Profondo Rosso, and are only PLAN A: Loop, Tar Halos, Brainticket just now performing in North America. DJs, Operation Mindblow Lightshow @ It’s definitely a bucket-list show for prog Soda Bar. Tuesday night is, apparently, the nerds or horror fanatics. But anyone who’s night when legendary psych-rock bands ever been seduced by drama and darkness descend on San Diego. London’s Loop shouldn’t miss it. PLAN B: Danny Brown spent a couple decades apart, but they re@ Porter’s Pub. Danny Brown’s late-2013 cently reunited and are bringing their surelease Old is hands-down one of the best per-heavy catalog of acid-laced dirges with hip-hop albums of our still-young decade. them. PLAN B: Acid Mothers Temple, Brown nimbly balances gritty realism and Perhaps, OGOD @ The Casbah. Your secparty jams with ease. He’s got an outsized ond space-rock option for Tuesday night personality and a unique style, but, more is Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple, who are importantly, he’s one of the best MCs in the prolific disciples of heavy-psych heroes like game. BACKUP PLAN: Eukaryst, Uni- Hawkwind and Flower Travellin’ Band. It’ll corn Death, Imbalanced, Calamitous In- be epic, disorienting and weird in the best way. Freak out! tent @ Soda Bar.

26 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

HOT! NEW! FRESH! The Bloody Beetroots (Bassmnt, 5/25), M.I.A. (SOMA, 5/30), Cyhi the Prince (Porter’s Pub, 6/1), Between the Buried and Me (HOB, 6/4), Lords of Altamont (Casbah, 6/11), Dead Feather Moon (Casbah, 6/13), Paul Collins Beat (Til-Two Club, 6/13), Souls of Mischief (Porter’s Pub, 6/21), Nightmares on Wax (HOB, 6/23), Wild Cub (HOB, 7/3), Amen Dunes (Soda Bar, 7/5), Behexen (Til-Two Club, 7/12), Natural Child (Soda Bar, 7/20), The Hold Steady (BUT, 7/31), Prince Royce (HOB, 8/3), Lila Downs (HOB, 8/19), Rachael Yamagata (HOB, 10/29).

GET YER TICKETS Thundercat (The Irenic, 5/11), Red Fang (Porter’s Pub, 5/18), Against Me! (HOB, 5/23), Kelis (HOB, 6/3), Guided by Voices (BUT, 6/14), Failure (HOB, 6/15), The Both (BUT, 6/15), EMA (Casbah, 6/29), Sarah McLachlan (Humphreys, 6/29), Devo (BUT, 6/30), Deafheaven (Casbah, 7/1), Peter Murphy (BUT, 7/2), Wye Oak (BUT, 7/9), 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), Doug Benson (HOB, 7/23), Boris (Casbah, 7/24), Arcade Fire (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/5), Arctic Monkeys (Open Air Theatre, 8/6), The Head and the Heart (North Park Theatre, 8/11), The Sonics (Irenic, 8/16), Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/21), Marc Anthony (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/29), Andrew Bird (Humphreys, 9/19), Fleetwood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/2).

28 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

April 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. Eliza Gilkyson at AMSDConcerts.

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 the Epicentre. Hot Club of Cowtown at AMSDConcerts.

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.

Saturday, May 10 Survival Knife at Soda Bar. Roach Gigz at Porter’s Pub.

Sunday, May 11 Thundercat at The Irenic. Earth, Wind & Fire at Harrah’s.

Tuesday, May 13 NYPC at Soda Bar. People Under the Stairs at The Casbah.

Wednesday, May 14 Stephen Marley at Belly Up Tavern.

Thursday, May 15 Journey, Steve Miller Band at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. Early Man at Til-Two Club.

Friday, May 16 Gary Wilson at Til-Two Club. Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger at The Casbah.

Saturday, May 17 Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs at The Casbah. Tim McGraw at Sleep Train

Amphitheatre. Iggy Azalea at House of Blues.

Sunday, May 18 Anti-Nowhere League at House of Blues. ‘Songs of Protest, Songs of Peace’ w/ Indigo Girls at Balboa Theatre. Red Fang at Porter’s Pub.

Monday, May 19 Damien Jurado at The Casbah. Lower at Soda Bar. Band of Skulls at House of Blues.

Tuesday, May 20 Katchafire at Belly Up Tavern. Howlin’ Rain at The Casbah.

Wednesday, May 21 Wayne “The Train” Hancock at The Casbah. Katchafire at Belly Up Tavern.

Shai Hulud at The Che Café.

Thursday, May 22 Papercuts at Soda Bar.

Friday, May 23 Chris Robinson Brotherhood at Belly Up Tavern. Against Me! at House of Blues. Gang Green at Til-Two Club. Negura Bunget at The Merrow.

Saturday, May 24 Hellogoodbye at The Irenic. YG at House of Blues. Matt Pond PA at Soda Bar. Baths at The Casbah.

Sunday, May 25 Suzanne Vega at Belly Up Tavern. Protomartyr at The Hideout. Angelic Up-

starts at Soda Bar. The Bloody Beetroots at Bassmnt.

rCLUBSr 710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live band karaoke. Fri: Charlie Rae (5 p.m.); The Routine (8:30 p.m.).

Sat: The Big Lewinsky, Blink 180True, Under Construction. Mon: ‘Cinco De Mayo’ w/ DJ WHO, San Diego Bikini Dolls.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Fri: The Mosaic Quartet. Sat: Trio De Janeiro. Sun: The Matt Smith Neu Jazz Trio.

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

Wed: ‘The Hump Connection’ w/ DJs Dating Game, @ Large. Thu: ‘DIVE’ w/ DJs ALA, Mikeytown. Fri: DJ Junior the DiscoPunk. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech.

Sun: ‘Undercurrent’.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco. com. Wed: Jared Logan. Thu-Sat: Jay Mohr. Sun: Joe Wengert. Tue: Open mic.

AMSDconcerts, 1370 Euclid Ave, City Heights. amsdconcerts.com. Fri: Eliza Gilkyson. Sun: Hot Club of Cowtown.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St, Downtown. facebook.com/BangBangSanDiego. Thu: Claude Von Stroke, Mikey Lion. Sat: Dave Aude, Boonie Walker.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Thu: Arms Away, Stewardess. Fri: DJ Artistic, NosuckerDJs. Sat: Say Say, Hills Like Elephants. Sun: Rat Sabbath, DJ Ratty. Mon: ‘Monday Night Mass’ w/ Husky Boy All Stars. Tue: Adrian

Demain’s Exotica-Tronica.

Bassmnt, 919 Fourth Ave, Downtown. bassmntsd.com. Thu: Rebecca and Fiona. Fri: Whiiite. Sat: Shogun. Sun: Wiz Khalifa, Taylor Gang.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla. brocktonvilla.com/beaumonts.html. Wed: Trent Hancock. Thu: Aquile. Fri: Lady Dottie and the Diamonds. Sat: Jewel City Rhythm Authority.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: Michael Nesmith. Thu: Noa, Gil Dor, Adam Ben Ezra (sold out). Fri: Tokyo Police Club, Geographer, Said the Whale. Sat: Cinco de Mustache. Sat: Cinco de Mustache, The Young Guns. Sun: MarchFourth Marching Band, Diego’s Umbrella. Mon: Mariachi El Bronx, Creepxotica, Los Mysteriosos. Tue: Valery and Elektrik Tank, Mark Hart, Nick Binkley.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Fri: ‘Club Musae’. Sat: So Cal Vibes.

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: DJ Simon Taylor.

Fri: ‘Deeply Rooted’. Sat: DJs XP, KA. Sun: Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Mon: Robin S. Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Clairemont. thecomedypalace.com.

Thu: The Funny Thing Is. Fri-Sat: Mark Christopher Lawrence. Mon: Patrons of Comedy Cinco de Mayo Comedy Show.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St, La Jolla. lajolla.thecomedystore.com. Fri-Sat: Sam Tripoli. Tue: Rick Martinez & Friends.

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

Wed: Nathan Collins Quartet. Thu: Tripp Sprague. Fri: Dave Scott and the New Slide Quartet. Sat: Allison Adams Tucker Quartet. Sun: Lawrence Upchurch.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Thu: J. Lee. Fri: ‘Dos de Mayo Latin Jazz’ w/ Allison Adams Tucker. Sat: Reka Parker/ Paul Seaforth Quartet. Sun: Michael Feinberg.

El Dorado Bar, 1030 Broadway, Downtown. eldoradobar.com. Wed: ‘The Tighten Up’. Fri: ‘Hickies and Dryhumps’. Sat: ‘Boys and Girls’. Mon: ‘Azucar Live’.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: Sinicle, Empyrean Throne. Sat: Of Hope and Heresy, Chrysalis, Roar Like Me, Lose Control, Exit, Blackcast.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: ‘IDGAF’ w/ dBerrie. Fri: Green Lantern. Sat: DJ Ikon.

Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean Beach. 619-222-5303. Fri: Lexington Field, The Fooks.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Fri: DJ Kurch, Frankie M. Sat: DJs Loczi, Freshone. Sun: ‘Sunday Social’ w/ Pleasurekraft.

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. Wed: Raw: Spectrum. Thu: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. Fri: Goblin, Pinkish Black. Sat: Unwritten Law, Mickey Avalon, Johnny Richter, Big B, Sprung Monkey. Tue: Manchester Orchestra.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Wed: ‘Future Wednesday’. Thu: J.Lately, Beejus, Azure, X.O., Dawk, Coats. Fri: Seria Star.

Sat: ‘Ascension’. Tue: ‘High Tech Tuesday’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave, Kensington. 619-284-2848. Fri: ‘Therapy’.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Steve Brewer.

Onyx Room / Thin, 852 Fifth Ave, Downtown. onyxroom.com. Fri: ‘Rumba Lounge’. Sat: ‘Play Saturday’. Tue: ‘Neo Soul’.

Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed: Mystique Element of Soul.

Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Fri: Danny Brown. Sat: Step Brothers.

Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St, North Park. queenbeessd.com. Tue: Open mic.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: DJ John Joseph. Thu: ‘Lez’. Fri: ‘Dirty Pop’. Sun: ‘Stripper Circus’.

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

Thu: Liz Grace and the Swing Thing. Fri: Chickenbone Slim. Sat: Baja Bugs.

30 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Thu: ‘Dark Wave Garden’. Fri: The Rocketz w/ Gore Horsement, Johnny Deadly Trio, Toothless George. Sun: Raggabond, Six String Samurai, Isleside.

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

Wed: Howler, Vision, The Paper Thins. Thu: Bleeding Rainbow, Northern Tigers, The Kabbs. Fri: Eukaryst, Unicorn Death, Imbalanced, Calamitous Intent. Sat: 2UP, Batwings, Innerds, Tron. Sun: Pillar Point, Soft Swells, Rey Pila. Mon: The Pharmacy, Joyce, Moonpool. Tue: Loop, Tar Halos, Brainticket DJs, Operation Mindblow Liquid Lightshow.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Thu: Bermuda, Animus, Aechoes, Aethere, A Truth Betrayed, Exit. Fri: Betrayal, Thick as Blood, Kublai Khan, Jeremiah Johnson, Impale Thy Neighbor, Felonies. Sat: Chiodos, Emarosa, Our Last Night, 68.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Thu: Comedy night. Fri: ‘Fab Friday’.

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

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

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., San Diego, Normal Heights. sycamoreden. com. Thu: The Heart Beat Trail, The Maybes. Sun: Halcyonaire, Sean Davenport and Greg Theilmann.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd, Spring Valley. 619-469-2337. Wed: Karaoke. Fri: Revenge Club. Sat: Hard Fall Hearts, The Yucks, The Tramplers, Both Barrels Blaz-

ing, Nox Anger and the Jerk Offs. Sun: Seven Days Lost, Black Hole Gypsy.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: Monophonics, Orgone. Thu: Pantha Du Prince, Queens aka Scott Mou, Mystery Cave.

Fri: Grampadrew’s Flim Flam Revue. Sat: Dan Croll, Panama Wedding. Sun: Manic Hispanic, The Fink Bombs, Homeless Sexuals. Mon: DJ Chucuchu, DJ Unite, Viejo Lowbo, Smiley, Rob Moran, Gorilla Boxer. Tue: Acid Mothers Temple, PERHAPS, OGOD. The Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Wed: Survay Says, Vic Viper, Headway. Fri: Circle Takes the Square, Griever, Man vs. Man, La Bella, Dirt Squad. Sun: Tiny Moving Parts, Frameworks, Gates, My Iron Lung.

Tue: Mike Bell and the Movies, Space Missionaries, Ash Williams.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. thehideoutsd.com. Sat: ‘Toca’.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. theloft.ucsd.edu. Sun: The Bad Plus. Tue: Regina Carter.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Fri: The Glenn Thomas, Chess Wars, East Beast. Sat: Dirty Pretty Burlesque.

The Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. officebarinc.com. Wed: ‘Dub Dynamite’.

Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Fri: ‘Nitemoves’ w/ DJs Beatnick, Slowhand.

Sat: ‘Strictly Business’. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ w/ Tribe of Kings. Tue: ‘Trapped in the Office’ w/ DJ Ramsey.

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

Wed: Comeuppance, Damian/Hubbard/ Salazar Trio, Die Missbidungen Des Men-

schen. Thu: Boondock Brothers, Ranger, Diamond Lakes. Fri: Age of Collapse, Fantasy Arcade, I Trust You To Kill Me. Sat: The Palace Ballroom, Noel Jordan, Jason De La Torre. Mon: ‘Tin Can Country Club’ w/ Chad Pittman. Tue: Western Collective, Walking Spanish, Red Willow Waltz.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Wed: Christopher Dale. Thu: Rockin’ Aces. Fri: Karaoke. Sat: Alan Iglesias and Crossfire. Mon: The Agents.

Tue: The Bayou Brothers.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Wed: Charlie Megira, The Nformals, Shiva Trash, DJ Mikey Ratt. Thu: Radioactivity, Suspicious Beast, Dead on the Wire. Fri: ‘Hip Hop Vs. Punk Rock’. Sat: Castoff, New Cold War. Tue: Ten Pole Drunk.

Ux31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Wed: Bulletproof Tigers, We Are Sirens, Inner Wave. Thu: ‘Thirsty Plursday’. Sat: Gabe Vega. Sun: ‘Rump Shaker’ w/ DJ Artistic.

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

Wed: DJ Este.

Whistle Stop Bar, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Thu: ‘Buena Cumbia Social Club’ w/ Saul Q, Viejo Lowbo, Bob Green. Fri: The Amandas.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: ‘Club Kingston’ w/ Simmer Down Riddim Section, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Alley Cat Street. Fri: My Body Sings Electric, KIVEN, Stevie and The Hi-Staxx, Feelgood. Sat: ‘Ocean Boogie’. Sun: Destructo Bunny. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Earl Thomas and the Rhumboogies.

Proud sponsor: Pacific Nature Tours

Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig

Across 1. During 5. Tip off 10. Nitpicker’s need 14. Hairy gay man, as it were 15. Giving type?

16. “Eyes Wide Shut” event 17. Alternate logo for the University of Iowa?

19. Title character in a 2003 Pixar film 20. Beethoven’s Third 21. “Be Somebody... or Be Somebody’s Fool!” singer 23. “It is what it is,” e.g.

27. Ritz alternative 31. West Bank area, once 34. Tool that Superman’s archenemy uses to help hang paintings?

36. Xbox ___ 37. Like a black light poster 39. Rate 40. Spot in the ocean 42. Made a choice 43. Game strategy?

44. Number of starters in the Baseball-Bundesliga 45. Gave out like a library 47. “If You See Something, Say Something” transit org.

48. What you’ll get if you take the correct deductions from the original phrases in 17-, 34-, and 64-Across 50. “Indeed, I see now” 52. Incredible bargain 53. Texas oil company whose name comes from the Spanish for “treasure” 55. Suburban letters 57. Don’s contractor 61. “Do you mind?”

64. Malia’s command to the family dog when it’s time to return to Pennsylvania Avenue?

Last week’s answers

68. Kinship group 69. Volunteer’s phrase 70. It’s a bad sign 71. Dynasty before the creation of the Republic of China 72. Former NFL quarterback Tim whose name became a dictionary-recognized verb in 2012 73. See

Down 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

French cleric Israeli leader Golda born in Kiev He calls jealousy a “green-eyed monster” Halloween special effects agent Common first name in the Stevenson political family 6. Internet acronym rarely meant literally 7. Brian who hasn’t yet joined Neil Diamond in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 8. Be part of a crew 9. Basic barbering request 10. Offense for offending the judge 11. Native metal 12. James Bond movie studio 13. Letters on some party invitations 18. Razzle-dazzle 22. Wu-Tang producer 24. Prepare to share, as an article in the paper 25. Ingredient in solvents 26. Uses, as energy 28. Like a yes-man 29. Beer made by the same company as Dos Equis 30. Colombian snacks 31. They’re rolled before getting baked 32. Move out of Washington?

33. With the works, perhaps 35. Robert Louis Stevenson character 38. Massage deeply 41. Apt to incense 46. Cartoon spun off from “Beavis and Butt-head” 49. Tree on a golf course 51. Phallic conveyance 54. “That is crazy!”

56. IOU 58. Molly, initially 59. “Wanna make ___?”

60. Bar ___ 61. John Wayne film set in Seattle 62. Boxer in the first-ever pay-per-view match 63. Chinese chef Martin 65. Call for Lionel Messi 66. Org. that expanded its use of instant replay this year 67. Freudian concept often misused in everyday language

A pair of tickets for a 4.5- or eight-hour Pacific Nature Tour will be awarded weekly. Email a picture of your answers to crossword@sdcitybeat.com or fax it to 619-325-1393. Limit one win per person per 30 days.

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

32 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 33

34 · San Diego CityBeat · April 30, 2014

April 30, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 35