San Diego CityBeat • May 10, 2017

2 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

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may 10, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

AFL-C U Later

“But now that they aren’t members of this local body that represents over 200 unions… those workers are not going to have that same power anymore.”

They could have, if Kasparian could have just walked away and left UFCW Local 135 and the other unions that now comprise San Diego Working Families Council alone. But, that’s just not the way of a narcissist.

On Monday, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations [AFL-CIO] took control of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, subsequently kicking out its president, Mickey Kasparian, as well as other leaders.

Finally, an ounce of justice was sprinkled into the

—Torrey Bailey shit stew Kasparian had stirred up over the past few months.

Previously, Kasparian was a labor leader applaudUsually when I refer to City Council sessions as circus ed for his efforts. But in December 2016, his former sideshows, I’m being flippant and metaphorical. On employee at United Food and Commercial WorkMonday morning, however, the scene in front of the ers [UFCW] Local 135, Sandy Naranjo, filed a lawsuit City Administration building quite literally resembled against him, citing gender discrimination, physical a sideshow circus complete with jugglers, tightrope disability discrimination and KINSEE MORLAN / VOICE OF SAN DIEGO walkers and buskers. wrongful termination. Then came But it wasn’t just musicians and a lawsuit from another employee, performers who showed up bright Isabel Vasquez, accusing Kasparand early to protest and voice their ian of sexual harassment. Kasparconcerns over Mayor Faulconer’s ian hit the trifecta when a third proposed $4.7 million budget cut employee, Anabel Arauz, filed anto the city’s arts and culture orother case for discrimination and ganizations. Hundreds of people, harassment. Throughout, Kasin fact, and of all artistic stripes— parian stuck to his self-righteous from gallery owners and curators, guns, denying allegations. So, loto theatre directors and choreogProtestors outside the cal union workers and elected ofCity Administration building raphers—came out to the council’s ficials, including former councilcity budget hearing to voice their member Donna Frye and and current councilmember concerns with the cuts. They were joined outside by City David Alvarez, demanded an independent investigaCouncil members David Alvarez, Lorie Zapf and Chris tion, which led to Kasparian’s removal Monday.

Ward, all of whom expressed their support for finding a “To see the way he’s been running the labor counway to keep the city’s arts funding at its current levels. cils come to light, I’m very excited,” Naranjo told Once inside, the chair of the Commission for Arts CityBeat. “[The AFL-CIO] saw his abuse of power and and Culture, Larry Baza, implored the nine-member knew that he had to be removed.” council to see the importance of the funding.

But, not so fast.

“These cuts will severely impact our organizaKasparian’s knee-jerk reaction to the San Diegotions in very large ways as well as our communities,” Imperial Counties Labor Council’s decision was to said Baza, speaking of the nearly 150 arts and culture create a new labor council under his leadership. Enter organizations that would be hurt by the cuts. “These the San Diego Working Families Council. Rather than organizations are contracted through us to provide in taking the fall, Kasparian clawed for power and coneach and every one of your districts.” vinced seven labor unions, including his own UFCW Most of the City Council couldn’t help but crack Local 135 (the largest in the county), to break away a smile when John Highkin, director and co-founder and join his council. of Fern Street Circus, had one of the circus’ perform“Labor is all about solidarity, and he just opened ers walk a tightrope in front of the council. In all, 36 the door for divide and conquer,” Naranjo said. “No speakers got up to voice their concerns to the council way are our workers going to benefit from a division. and while council members like Scott Sherman and There’s no, no way.”

Barbara Bry seemed unimpressed, it is now up to the By branching off, Kasparian maintains a chokehold majority of the council to persuade them of the imon the system while further delegitimizing organized portance of this funding. labor and undermining a union’s mission.

Those who missed the rally can still make their “When your labor union is a member of the local voices heard, as the public is allowed to attend and AFL-CIO labor council, they have power, meaning comment at a spending plan session at 6 p.m. on that if [the union] is going to go on strike, that labor Monday, May 15. council is going to help with resources,” Naranjo said.

Art power

—Seth Combs

After seeing that Tony Gwynn statue in Poway, this issue of CityBeat thinks that Bill Walton statue got shortchanged.

Volume 15 • Issue 41 EDITOR Seth Combs

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble

ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos

CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Baldwin, Jamie Ballard, David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Andrew Dyer, Rachel Michelle Fernandes, Tiffany Fox, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Lizz Huerta, Lara McCaffrey, Scott McDonald, Sebastian Montes, Jenny Montgomery, Kinsee Morlan, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Jen Van Tieghem, Amy Wallen, Ian Ward

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Torrey Bailey

EDITORIAL INTERNS Sofia Mejias-Pascoe

ACCOUNTING Sharon Huie, Alysia Chavez Linda Lam

PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse

HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker

DISPLAY ADVERTISING MANAGER Massey Pitts

VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE Kacie Sturek

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS David Comden

MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford

COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer Edwin Decker Minda Honey John R. Lamb Alex Zaragoza

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Beau Odom, Mark Schreiber Jenny Tormey CONTROLLER Kacie Cobian

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4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

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UP FRONT | LETTERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TIME TO PRIORITIZE

Re: Mayor Faulconer’s proposed Convention Center expansion ballot measure [“If he builds it, will they come?,” April 5]; Unless [Faulconer] agrees to allocate at least as much funding toward homelessness as toward his questionable convention center expansion, I—and hopefully many others—will vote “no.” Faulconer needs to prioritize, act in his constituents’ best interest and be realistic, foreign as he may find those concepts. After all, the city doesn’t even have legal rights to the land where the expansion would be built!

Linda Castaneda North Park/University Heights

HOMELESS PROS

Editor; I read letters and articles on homeless problems and wonder if the “professional” homeless are included in people concerns. Of course, I mean those who came here for the weather and public support with no possibility of gaining employment or rejoining society.

Saul Gritz Hillcrest [Editor’s response: GTFO]

CREEPY COLORADO CITY

While working for a large company, mapping Southern Utah, I had to drive to Colorado City/Hillsdale. I had the same experience your group had [“A family trip to polygamist stronghold,” April 26]. I wasn’t allowed to map streets that were unpaved.

Which most of the side streets in Colorado City are not.

From the moment I arrived, I was followed by two women in a white car. Not knowing the town, I had to stop at every street. They stopped every time I did. Creepy was the thought that came to my mind as well. I was so unnerved, I drove to the sheriff’s office and showed them the company’s mission statement, and told them I would be in their town an hour TOPS! I couldn’t wait to get outta there. Never want to experience that place again.

Thanks for sharing your article. Glad someone can relate.

PUTTING THEIR ARMOR ON

Sharlene Allen-Castro Ocean Beach

Seth, thank God for your cry out to the powers to be in this city to do what is right [“Someone, anyone,” April 26]. To make the solution to homelessness a real priority that warrants monies! Your entire article was on target. I had attended the city council meeting and was shocked it was the first time homelessness was addressed. We are a people of compassion and now is the time to show it, prove it. I will think highly of the politician that grabs hold of this, puts their armor on and courageously fights this battle to restore

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dignity and compassion not only to the homeless but to the people of San Diego. God bless you.

Jean Ryan

Old Town

GREED IS (NOT) GOOD

[The] homeless problem is a symptom and a result of horrific greed and total lack of concern for how they even got there [“Someone, anyone,” April 26].

The problem is that the people who can and should be taking care of all the problems are not doing so because THEY DON’T CARE. Our President, the dear Mr. Trump, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care what the media says about him as long as they keep talking about him. He really DOES NOT CARE. There is no one forcing them to be accountable. How do you force people to care? How do you force Trump to care?

The only way is to shame them, and shame them publicly. But how do you do that?

What we need is to force them into a public forum, with Dr. Phil (or someone just like him and as skillful) as the sole moderator, questioner, televised and live streamed—as it happens—he questions them, stands up to them, doesn’t give them an inch, forces them to answer questions, holds his silence giving them plenty of time to squirm, all for the world to see. Cameras roll with no breaks. No mercy.

That’s what the media should have done to Trump, from the VERY BEGINNING. Kept the cameras and microphones open and live, record every single moment so we all could be witnesses.

Have you ever attended the Board of Supervisors meetings? While speakers are pleading with them to take care of an important public issue, the Board members are whispering to each other—like they have something sooo important that just cant wait ‘til after?? I mean, HOW RUDE IS THAT? Are they doing that on purpose to show how low down the totem pole we poor saps are? How dare they treat us like that. The people who ELECTED them don’t deserve even a few minutes of their respectful attention? I’ve seen TV news coverage of the City Council meetings and their members do the same thing!

The ones who are reaping the benefits of the great recession are the ones responsible for the homeless situation. The middle class was effectively obliterated and that’s how they want it to stay. Why? With a two class system, the rich and the poor, you have an eternal supply of cheap labor. There are, I’m sure, lots of other reasons. The poor are so damned poor they can’t think about their political rights.

How can they fight for their rights when all their rights have been taken away? They live to eat another day. They live to find shelter another day. Families are destitute where once they owned homes, had jobs, kids went to school; basic needs were taken care of. That’s all gone.

When people become wealthy, (certainly not everyone) when they have more than enough money to live comfortably, they become addicted to gaining more wealth because they fear not having more than enough in case something

UP FRONT From the Editor...................... 4 Letters .....................................5 Spin Cycle............................... 6 Backwards & In High Heels....7 Well, That Was Awkward..... 8

FOOD & DRINK The World Fare...................... 9 Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene...................... 10 Final Draught.........................11

THINGS TO DO The Short List........................ 12 Calendar of Events.......... 12-15

ARTS & CULTURE Theater..................................16 FEATURE: Art Moms............18 Seen Local.............................19 Film.................................. 20-21

MUSIC FEATURE: Clark................... 22 Notes from the Smoking Patio...................... 23 If I Were U............................ 24 Concerts & Clubs........... 26-29

LAST WORDS Advice Goddess................... 30

ON THE

symbiotic relationship that mothers have with their children. “At that point in time, I had been a single Using Nicole Waszak’s mother for a few years and “64 Months (Melancholy was reflecting on my relaMommy)” painting for tionship with my daughter SCOTT HARMS and on motherthis week’s cover hood in general,” was a bit of a nosays Waszak. “As brainer. Not only a mother, I am is it a gorgeous naturally a carepiece of art, but it taker for my chilfit with the mothdren, but they erly theme of this are also caretakissue. Waszak is ers of me and I also prominently featured in this week’s mean this in the healthiest Seen Local section thanks of ways.”

The painting will also to GRRRL Art Collective, an international art collective be exhibited at Haven, a she co-founded. Waszak group show at the new says that “64 Months,” Cultura Gallery (6340 El which she painted in 2015, Cajon Blvd.) in Rolando. was meant to convey the nicolewaszak.com

COVER

shappens. For them, there never is enough. They sure don’t want to end up like the homeless.

Public transportation sucks, lack of sufficient medical benefits for everyone who is not wealthy, pharmaceuticals overcharging for medicines, etc. The Union Trib publishes wonderful stories of a single person, or a governor who put a program into motion and effectively and cheaply eliminated homelessness. So why hasn’t our President adopted those programs? Why hasn’t our Governor adopted those programs? Because they DON’T CARE. Why hasn’t the Union Trib publicly called them on their lack of duty to the public good?

Gloria G. City Heights

MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Incumbency interruptus Loyalty is a fine quality, but in excess it fills political graveyards.

F

—Neil Kinnock

or a group of veteran elected leaders tapped to pick San Diego County’s next top prosecutor, the Board of Supervisors opted for defense mode.

“Is this a position we all want to be in?” board Chairwoman Dianne Jacob asked rhetorically last week. “You know, it would be a lot easier just to have the election. We don’t have that choice, according to the charter. We must make an appointment.”

When District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced the worstkept secret last month that she would resign effective July 7, more than a year short of completing her fourth term, you could hear the wheels of back-room maneuvering groan into action.

Dumanis had officially anointed her heir apparent, Deputy Dis-

trict Attorney Summer Stephan, back in January. By that time, Stephan had already garnered the endorsement of the local prosecutors union, the influential San Diego Deputy District Attorneys Association, and its political action committee. Stephan immediately announced she would be running in 2018 to replace Dumanis.

But what to do in the interim?

As Jacob noted, “We must make an appointment.”

So last week, the Board of Supervisors kicked off that process— but in that process they seemed tone deaf to concerns raised by several speakers who fear that next year’s election will be conducted on a tilted playing field.

The speakers urged the board to appoint a replacement who would serve only in the interim, thus avoiding the appearance that the deck of a coming election would be stacked in favor of a Dumanis loyalist.

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

“The voters alone should decide the next district attorney,” former Deputy District Attorney Adam Gordon, who wants the interim job, told the board. “The power of the incumbency is so strong that if this board decides to appoint an individual who is already declared for the district attorney’s race, the voters will be denied a fair and equal opportunity to vet all candidates in the 2018 election.”

Gordon, who left the DA’s office in 2014 to manage the unsuccessful campaign of Dumanis challenger Bob Brewer and now works at a powerful local law firm, said he would pledge not to run in 2018 “regardless of what happens” and urged supervisors to ask the same of other prospective interim candidates.

Andrea St. Julian, an appellate attorney and board member of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association, told the board that the community is watching. “If this board appointed an interim DA that was seeking the permanent position of DA,” she said, “it would give voters the impression that it was really this board, a governmental entity, that had appointed the permanent DA.” St. Julian said such a move would create “rancor among the voters.”

Sean Elo, director of campaigns and policy for the Mid-City Community Advocacy Network

JOHN R. LAMB

Will DA Bonnie Dumanis (left) leave with her hand-picked successor, Summer Stephan (center), crowned by supervisors? Campaign guru to both, Jason Roe (right), likely hopes so. based in City Heights, told supervisors that “at a time when our institutions are being called into question, particularly our justice system, it’s incredibly important that the Board of Supervisors do everything they can to involve the community and restore faith in our institutions and our systems.”

Elo’s organization was among 10 local advocacy groups that took out a full-page ad in the San Diego Union-Tribune two Sundays ago, encouraging county supervisors to choose an interim DA that would not run in 2018 in a “transparent, community-first process.”

“From determining when and what charges to file in individual cases, to making policy decisions that affect local communities as well as county and state budgets, to holding law enforcement accountable for illegal practices, the San Diego County District Attorney holds significant power and responsibility for the protection of our civil rights and freedoms,” the ad proclaimed. “No one candidate for this office should have the advantage of incumbency by coronation.”

But rather than admitting a problem real or perceived, some supervisors instead seemed astonished that their wisdom would be impugned. Jacobs noted that the board might have two public hearings on prospective applicants in June, but certainly one on June 20.

She called the process “very open and very transparent” and urged “all qualified applicants” to seek the position.

“The more the better for us,” she said, “and in the end what I think our constituents expect of us is to appoint the best qualified individual for the position.”

Supervisor Ron Roberts suggested that applicants, like Gordon, could pledge not to run in 2018, but there would be “nothing illegal” for them to renege. “They could say they’re not running,

but as we know from past performance, people sometimes do that and then decide, ‘You know what?

I think I really will run,’” he said.

“We’ve had examples of that.”

A Roberts spokesperson later declined to specify those examples, saying the supervisor didn’t want to embarrass anyone.

In an interview with Voice of San Diego, Stephan pushed back hard against detractors, saying incumbents have lost in the past, but sounded ambivalent about seeking the interim appointment.

But by Monday, the county clerk said she was among three people who had picked up application packets. Gordon and retired longtime prosecutor Greg Walden were the others , but Walden told Spin that he had not yet decided if he wanted the temporary job.

Gordon said the concern expressed by Supervisor Roberts about pledges is “a fair question to ask,” but he added, “I can’t imagine how you’d be a potentially viable candidate after you take this moral stand.”

Meanwhile, Stephan’s campaign guru, Jason Roe, who also lists Dumanis as a client, was unresponsive to a request for comment on Stephan’s next move. Dumanis has hinted she might run to replace Roberts in 2018, spurring speculation that Roberts may resign early to take a post with the Metropolitan Transit System. “He is not going to step down,” a Roberts aide said emphatically.

It’s been nearly five decades since the DA’s post was an open seat. As St. Julian told Spin, the goal should be “to have a free and open election that isn’t influenced by the action of the government.

The Board of Supervisors wholly failed to acknowledge the concerns of the voters.”

There’s still time.

Spin Cycle appears every week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

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UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

Rumors and backroom deals are what our school district is all about

I

am not going to support large, programmatic change that doesn’t include community stakeholder input. I’m not. The days of that happening are over.”

That is what San Diego Unified School District Boardmember Kevin Beiser declared to me last Thursday night during an hour-long phone conversation following a meeting at the Language Academy, a K-8 language immersion magnet school located in the College Area where my kid is in sixth grade. Beiser, who was adorably apoplectic, was one of two district officials to speak to the problem of overcrowding at the Language Academy, one of the district’s most popular schools.

Attended by more than 150 parents, kids, educators and administrators, the meeting on Thursday was one of the largest I’ve ever seen in my seven-plus miserable years dealing with the San Diego Unified School District [SDUSD]. Folks, if you’re doubting whether to have kids given the demise of our society under Trump & Co., this school district really ought to be the final nail in that vas deferens; the final slipknot in that fallopian tube. Trust me on this: Public education in this city is enough to make you want to sterilize yourself.

This is the gist of what’s happening: The Language Academy, a dual immersion French and Spanish school, has reached capacity. Space is limited and, each year, hundreds of students are turned away as there are far more applicants than available spots. This is great, because it’s a terrific school and parents want to enroll. But who wants to destroy a great school?

SDUSD does, that’s who.

The district came up with a solution to the overcrowding without significant stakeholder input, inviting 10-ish parents (a group pliable and amenable to the idea, IMO) to provide feedback, while excluding all others who would arguably be more discerning. Nearly all of the other parent stakeholders were kept in the dark about this yearlong discussion until one week before the Thursday meeting when kids came home saying they heard the school would be splitting up in 2018.

Cue the social media outrage.

Suddenly, word on the school’s cesspool—er— Facebook page was that the middle school would be moved to the John Muir campus on the other side of town in the 2018-19 school year. This move is lightning fast in district terms and, furthermore, the school would be merging with at least one, possibly two other language immersion middle schools. This separating of the Language Academy elementary and middle schools by a great physical distance would fundamentally change the program and very likely destroy the French program.

“The proper process is to have brainstorming meetings with community stakeholders before implementing changes,” Beiser told me.

Indeed, this would be the proper process. But what about SDUSD has ever been proper?

Kevin Beiser, a champion for his schools, had no idea any of this was happening until he learned

“

about the meeting 24 hours prior to its start time. His disdain was clear when the first thing he did was put his personal cell phone number up on the screen.

“Please,” he begged, multiple times. “Take a picture of it. Call me. Text me. I’m here to work together to solve this problem like we’ve solved a lot of other problems over the years.” Hence, my phone call to him. It should raise eyebrows that Beiser, an SDUSD board member, wasn’t informed of a major policy change to one of his schools.

The unfolding Facebook drama underscores what happens when our district acts in secrecy. There is no trust there. Parents, teachers and kids have had to operate on rumor, a hallmark of SDUSD which has a history of making a big show of gathering community input, when in actuality, all decisions have been made in back rooms.

Gangsters: They’re not just in Congress.

But why? What is the real reason for purposely dismantling a desirable and successful school in such covert and immediate manner? After doing my own Sherlocking, here are my Sherlockian conclusions: Mission Bay High School, which is one of very few International Baccalaureate (IB) programs in the city, is apparently struggling to gain students. This is especially bad news for the district since getting IB status takes time and requires specialized training and financial investment. The district does not want to close that school. But where-o-where can they get students?

Most language immersion students seek out the continuation of high-level instruction in their foreign language, and only IB schools can offer that. Because of its proximity to San Diego State University, Language Academy students tend to matriculate to San Diego High School, or out of district to Mt. Helix.

Buuuuuut… John Muir feeds directly into MBHS, so if there were an immersion middle school there, you would have “bodies” (as SDUSD bigwigs like to call our kids) in the MBHS seats. Et voilà! Kids as pawns to save schools. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Oh, and here’s the kicker: SDUSD absolutely needs more language immersion schools, and it needs them fast because enrollment at charters is rapidly increasing—an issue the district created when handing out charters. Every time a student leaves a public school for a charter, that public school must revise its budget and do with less.

(And please don’t write to say that charters are public schools because they are not. They are publicly funded private schools.)

Again, this is my theory, but I’m feeling pretty confident after connecting some dots. Following the money is a pretty great rule of thumb, it turns out.

Without transparency from the district, though, stakeholders are left to discern what the true motives are. It’s time SDUSD level with the families for whom they are supposed to work.

Trust me on this.

Public education in this city is enough to make you want to sterilize yourself.

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Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week.

Write to aarynb@sdcitybeat.com.

MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

Getting stoked at the horror convention

O

n the morning of StokerCon 2017, there’s a brief moment of panic when I realize that all of my black T-shirts are dirty.

Not today, I think. Oh, God, any day but StokerCon day.

I’ve never been to the annual convention put on by the Horror Writers Association—but I know what kind of crowd will be there. Pale skin, patchy facial hair (probably a couple glorious goatee/ponytail combos) and, of course, a sea of black T-shirts. This is the uniform of the horror aficionado.

I hold up a soft, denim-colored chambray buttonup. I wonder what the punishment is for wearing something like this to a horror convention. Death? I hope it’s not too much to ask to get through the day without getting blood on my chambray.

The convention takes place on the Queen Mary, the notoriously haunted ship docked in Long Beach. I hitch a ride with my friend Matt Lewis (co-editor of the great States of Terror horror anthologies). I’m grateful that Matt wears a button-up too. If there’s a black-shirt rebellion, I won’t be the only death.

When we arrive, there’s a relaxed, I-don’t-give-a-shit vibe to everything. The whitehaired woman checking us in can’t find my registration badge, so she writes my name on the back of someone else’s and duct tapes it to my chambray. She mouths the words, “this fucking day.”

The majority of StokerCon takes place in one hall on the third floor of the ship. Matt and I stroll the deck, check out the 12 or so vendors selling books with garish and bloody covers. There’s also an enthusiastic merchant selling H.P. Lovecraft-themed wine, and it looks like he stripped the labels off other bottles and replaced them with his own tentacle-filled artwork.

Still, I keep saying “oh cool!” during his spiel because he’s so stoked and I’m so stoked. Everybody’s stoked.

And that’s the beauty of being a horror writer— we’re generally a pleasant bunch. Unlike other writing conventions I’ve been to, there’s very little pretense at StokerCon. There’s very little of the self-loathing, bitterness and cattiness that characterizes most artistic circles. Perhaps the scariest thing about being a horror writer is not the dismembered body parts or melty things creeping out of our imaginations—it’s how nice we are.

Or, maybe our pleasantness is just due to the sudden influx of vitamin D to our sun-averse bodies.

Matt and I sit in on a reading by Nathan Carson, author and drummer for metal band Witch Mountain,

who reads a disgusting excerpt about a dog food-eating competition from his book Starr Creek. The reading takes place in one of the ship’s wedding chapels, which makes me wish every story told in church was about humans eating dog food.

After the reading, Matt and I walk past a line of people that stretches the entire length of the convention. Everyone’s holding a book, waiting to get it signed by George R.R. Martin, the keynote guest at this Con of Stokes. I pause to look at the line and some eager volunteer mistakes my hesitation for interest.

“This is the signing line,” he says. “You can buy a book for him to sign—just his name, no making it out to anyone. And you may also take a selfie with him.”

Oh, may I? Nothing against the old Grrrrr (as I like to refer to him), but I’ve never read or watched Game of Thrones, and I’m not going to abide that basic shit.

Matt and I head to the bar instead, and end up spending $50 on drinks and nachos to share. Horror plot twist: ‘twas us who were the basic ones all along.

Turnt—nay, stoked—on boat drinks, we stumble into a panel discussing Thomas Ligotti, the reclusive, philosophical nihilist whose work heavily influenced the first and only good season of True Detective.

It’s difficult to fully convey the nerdery of watching a room of 20 people intensely discussing a mysterious (still living, mind you) author, but this is my jam. I’m on the edge of my seat. However, as with most horror discussions, it eventually becomes a dick-measuring contest between Ligotti and H.P. Lovecraft. Nothing makes horror bros excited like the opportunity to circle jerk over Lovecraft, and pretty soon the men are talking over the women, so Matt and I leave.

We idle through the halls of the ship. Things are clearing out in anticipation for the Bram Stoker Awards, or the “Stokies” as we call them. We pass within a few feet of Grrrrr waiting for an elevator, surrounded by four security people. I’m still not going to beg for that selfie—not even going to go for a creepshot. We run into Stephen Graham Jones, author of my favorite werewolf book ever, Mongrels. He recognizes my name and says that he’s read my book, and that, dear reader, is when I hit maximum stokeage. I might as well die and haunt the boat with the rest of the ghosts. Beware the chambray ghost next time you’re on the third floor of the Queen Mary.

The reading takes place in one of the ship’s wedding chapels, which makes me wish every story told in church was about humans eating dog food.

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com.

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UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

At lunch, the domain of Sous Chef Rocio SisoGurriaran, a highlight is the grilled octopus she serves with a caramelized golden raisin purée, chorizo and pistachios over a shaved fennel salad with feta vinaigrette. As the jerked pork belly is to Knibb so is the grilled octopus to Siso-Gurriaran.

Character and perfection Pulpo a la Gallega is virtually the national dish of her homeland, Galicia. ncreasingly, it seems, top restaurants in Los AnNot everything at Nine-Ten works so well or has geles and London, New York and New Dehli, San such a sense of grounding. The Maine lobster salad Sebastian and São Paulo look the same, feel the has “local citrus segments,” a citrus aioli, basil, same and have even begun to taste the same. The sorrel, frisée lettuce and Hawaiian hearts of palm. internet brought ease of access to information and It’s pretty much a trip all over the Western Hemiimages but also a convergence among previously sphere. If there was massive payoff on the palate it disparate parts of the culinary scene. might be worthwhile. There isn’t. It’s ingredients in It is refreshing, then, to see a chef’s individual- search of an idea. ity and heritage on a plate. So it is with Chef JaNine-Ten’s wild striped bass entrée is a different son Knibb at Nine-Ten Restaurant and Bar (910 story. The fish is the star but it is the combination Prospect St.) inside the Grande Colonial Hotel in of English peas (both in pea and tendril form) with La Jolla. morel mushrooms that is the key. A MICHAEL GARDINER brown butter potato purée underlines the earthiness of the morels.

But it is the third appearance of peas on the plate—a pea and herb emulsion—that puts the dish over the top.

If Nine-Ten has a signature protein it’s lamb. Knibb roasts lamb loin leaving it lusciously pink in the middle and pairing it with spice roasted carrots, escarole, black garlic and onion marmalade as well as a sunchoke (aka Jerusalem artichoke) and sunflower seed purée. Or try the lamb tartare: hand chopped lamb tossed with orange chili oil and pickled onion—sprinkled with cured egg yolk—featuring the warmth of Roasted Colorado lamb loin black garlic and served alongside a masa cracker. It’s never a mistake Take, for example, Nine-Ten’s Jamaican jerk to order lamb at Nine-Ten. pork belly appetizer. Yes, the presentation is modThe atmosphere of the restaurant may not be ern—featuring a beautiful block of braised pork the most exquisite, suffering from slightly cramped belly with black-eyed peas seemingly spilling out quarters and a dated sense of luxury that says oldof it and framed by swooshes of sauce and sweet style La Jolla. But what goes on the plate is worldpotato purée, toothsome carrots and a chard gar- class perfection that clearly reflects the character nish. But the signature flavor of Knibb’s Jamaican and personalities of the chefs who brought it into homeland—jerk—owns the dish. That it does so being. while maintaining balance with the other elements is what makes Knibb the caliber of chef he is and The World Fare appears weekly.

Nine-Ten the restaurant it is.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

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MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | DRINK

ANATOMY OF A

BY IAN WARD

COCKTAIL SCENE #5: Flavors of fall at Curadero

hear those ingredients listed together, I immediately picture a bigger, heftier cocktail. Something went to Curadero (1047 Fifth Ave.) to write an viscous and full of baking spices. article that I had already written in my head.

I was, however, facing something entirely difI saw something on its menu about a cocktail ferent in the glass in front of me. It was light, rethat was being served with a chicharrón (that is, a freshing and not overpowered with dried spice. It fancy pork rind), and without regard for the rest of all came together to give the cocktail an umami the menu, I planned on writing about how much I type of richness. Something akin to a fermented love thoughtful, playful garnishes. tea. It was complex, while being approachable.

That was going to be it. I was going to write I tend to find the specific Mezcal that was being about how, when I was a kid, I used to draw faces poured in the cocktail very off putting. It always on my Cheese Nips with a pen before comes off unbearably oily and over the gobbling them down. I was going years I have grown a hard and ceto throw in some adoring imagery mented disdain for it. When I see about being late to school as a result someone pour it into something I of me fiddling with my silver dollar am about to imbibe, a forewarning pancakes, which was going to be a chill runs down my back. Yet again, bridging image into the playfulness of I was surprised at how much the slushy machines in 7-11. And this was sherry and the pecan orgeat absorbed going to segue into in an article about the expected oiliness, and allowed the modern slushy machine fad haponly the desired smokiness to come pening in cocktail bars and other fanciful through. The cocktail was not only childhood memories permeating cocktail perfectly balanced, but I kind of wish I menus these days (snow cones, coloring had another one right now, laying in my book menus, toys as garnishes, etc.). bed, writing this, with the sun beating It was going to be a well-intended arti- Seeds To Greens me down. cle, but it was not going to focus on the hard What I’ve come to realize is that work and care that bar curator Jade Boyd put into nostalgia cuts both ways. As much as it is fun to her entire program. It was going to be shaming, if draw upon childhood memories, it also has a way anything. of blockading new experiences. As a creature of The Seeds to Greens was the first cocktail I habit, and one who wistfully looks to the past, I tasted and it changed my whole perspective. A would certainly have never ordered The Seeds to combination of sherry, Greens normally, due Mezcal, pecan orgeat, to my sentimentality “SEEDS TO GREENS” cinnamon and walnut always forcing me to bitters, the drink is a cling to the flavors of as found at Curadero collection of flavors the seasons like life 11/2 oz. Lustua Fino sherry that I tend to gravitate vests. I would have 1/2 oz. Vida Mezcal to more in the chilling written some silly ar1/2 oz. lime juice days of autumn, then ticle about how I used 1/2 oz. pecan orgeat on a warm spring night. to play with my food, 1/2 oz. cinnamon demerara Cinnamon, pecans, waland I would have been 1 dash walnut bitters nut and orgeat all have all the worse for it. a tendency to not only Anatomy of a Cocktail Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with drag my mind into the Scene appears every ice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass filled fall season, but also other week. Write to with ice. Grate cinnamon on top. Enjoy. tend to give cocktails a ianw@sdcitybeat.com sense of weight. When I

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10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

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UP FRONT | DRINK

FINAL

BY BETH DEMMON

DRAUGHT Happy homebrewing month

Company), Paul Sangster (Rip Current Brewing), Ray Astamendi (Fall Brewing), Peter Zien (Alet’s not quite the world’s oldest profession, but Smith Brewing Company), Ryan Sather and Chris humans have been homebrewing beer since Barry (from the forthcoming Battlemage Brewing around 5000 B.C.E., making it one of the most Company) and many more who haven’t yet made ancient activities still pursued by people today. In the leap to professional brewing, like 2016 National fact, over a million Americans homebrew each year, Homebrew Competition Homebrewer of the Year and that number continues to climb.

Nick Corona.

To celebrate this time-honored pastime, in 1988 Most—if not all—of these homebrewing prodithe American Homebrewers gies have found their footing Association (AHA) lobbied Conthanks to the many homebrewgress to declare May 7 National ing support groups thriving Homebrew Day. It eventually around San Diego. These inexpanded into the somewhat clude the award-winning Qualless official National Homebrew ity Ale and Fermentation FraMonth, centering around the ternity (QUAFF), San Diego Suds AHA Big Brew on the first SaturSorority (the all-female offshoot day of May. of QUAFF), Mash Heads and the Most local and national now (sadly) defunct CHUG. Sevhomebrewing events aren’t limeral brewers have also tenured at ited to the month of May. Nahomebrew shops around town, tional Learn to Homebrew Day including The Homebrewer, Baltakes place every November and last Point’s Home Brew Mart the AHA’s annual convention (5401 Linda Vista Rd #403) and Homebrew Con and National American Home Brewing Supply Homebrew Competition—the (9535 Kearny Villa Rd #104). world’s largest amateur homeIn short? Between the rebrewing competition—occur in a sources available and educadifferent city across the country tional opportunities, it’s a great every June (San Diego hosted the time to give homebrewing a San Diego Suds Sorority whirl. Gary Glass, Director of the event in 2011).

Locally, the annual San Diego Homebrew Festi- American Homebrewers Association, encourages val and Competition kicks off every March, Stone people from all walks of life to try it for themselves.

Brewing’s annual homebrewing contest allows the “Personally, I love homebrewing because it’s winner to brew their recipe on a large scale (pre- an art form that appeals to the engineer in me,” vious winning recipes include the Chris Banker/ Glass says. “On the engineering side, I’m constantly Insurgente Xocoveza Mocha Stout and Juli Gold- tweaking my equipment to ever improve on my enberg/Monkey Paw 24 Carrot Golden Ale), Karl process. On the artistic side, I am crafting beers to Strauss’ Pro-Am competition sends the winner to suit my own personal taste and in doing so creating the Great American Beer Festival as the official new beers no one has ever made before. The best Pro-Am collaboration entry, and The Homebrewer part of homebrewing is the amazing community of (2911 El Cajon Blvd. #2) offers regular Introduc- friendly and sharing people that comes with it [and] tion to Homebrewing classes for beginners seeking celebrating that sense of community.” guidance.

San Diego’s robust craft beer scene is strongly Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com, check her out on rooted in homebrewing. Notable homebrewers- Instagram at @thedelightedbite, or via Twitter at turned-pro include Kelsey McNair (North Park Beer @iheartcontent.

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MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

SHORTlist

EVENTS

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

SAN DIEGO

1

MAMA DIA

Let’s keep it real; mom deserves much Gaslamp (530 Sixth Ave., sparksgallery.com) will more than a yearly brunch where she also have its Artisan Summer Bazaar on Saturday doesn’t have to pick up the tab. So this Mother’s from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. that includes vendors such as Day, we’d like to encourage readers to try something Dixon Rand (apparel), Penny Sparkle (accessories a little different. Take her somewhere unexpected and bags) and Golden Crystal Designs (jewelry).

If mom likes wine and form a new bond or, at KATIE GARDNER (and for real, what mom the least, buy her something doesn’t?), readers should unique. be able to find mom a For example, collaboratgift and drink some nice ing on a piece of art could varietals at the free 40th serve as a particularly nice annual Spring Arts and bonding experience and the Crafts Fair at the BerFIGMENT San Diego fair nardo Winery in Rancho is a nice way to do this. The Bernardo (13330 Paseo free annual celebration of Del Verano Norte, bernarparticipatory art sees Chidowinery.com). On May 13 cano Park in Barrio Logan (Logan Ave.) transformed Jack Boyd Studio turquoise bracelet and Sunday, May 14 from into a large-scale art projat Mingei International Museum 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., there will be over 125 independent ect, with booths and activities appropriate for every age group. It happens vendors as well as live music and a food court.

Finally, celebrate mom and feminism at the Saturday, May 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

If readers are still looking for a gift, the Mingei Phenome‘NOW’ Women & Wine event at the International Museum (1439 El Prado, mingei.org) San Diego Foundation (2508 Historic Decatur Road, in Balboa Park will have a Mother’s Day Jewelry Point Loma) on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. Patrons Sale all weekend long inside its Collector’s Gal- can sip wine while listening to speakers such as lery Shop (open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), as well as State Senator Toni Atkins and Planned Parenta Fiddle Fish Trunk Show (expect sweet-smelling hood’s Nora Vargas. Tickets are $30 at sandiegonow. soaps, candles and body products) from 10 a.m. to org, and include two drink tickets. Proceeds benefit 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 13. Sparks Gallery in the the National Organization for Women.

MIDWAY

LA JOLLA

2 DOWN BY THE BAY

Those who have visited or lived in the American South know that southern hospitality is no myth. As for those who haven’t, this week offers a special opportunity to at least get a taste of that without having to leave the city.

The annual Gator By The Bay will take place at the Spanish Landing Park (3900 N Harbor Drive) and features a four-day celebration of Louisiana themed culture, music and food. Scheduled this year for Thursday, May 11 through Sunday, May 14, the festival incorporates the best aspects of the region: Mardi Gras traditions, savory creole and cajun flavors and good ol’ Southern Blues music.

The music lineup includes a diverse set of soloists and groups ranging from Grammy-nominated blues singer Marcia Ball to local rockabilly band The Paladins. Admission prices range from free for kids and active military to $40 for individual days and $140 for all four days. gatorbythebay.com

3 EYE ON THE PRIZE

For a decade, the San Diego Art Prize has taken a unique approach to recognizing local talent by taking emerging artists and teaming them up with established artists to see what kind of magic results. The annual San Diego Art Prize Exhibition at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St.) is a great way to get familiar with this year’s recipients. CityBeat readers may already be familiar with installation artist Shinpei Takeda from the cover story we ran in March, but the other artists are just as impressive. Multidisciplinary artist Irma Sofia Poeter will have work on display, as will sculptors William Feeney and Richard Keely. The show opens on Friday, May 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and will be up through June 10. ljathenaeum.org COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

NICK ABADILLA

HSan Diego Art Prize Exhibition at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. View works from this year’s Art Prize recipients including Shinpei Takeda, Irma Sofia Poeter, William Feeney and Richard Keely. Opening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 12. ljathenaeum.org SPACE TIME: Strong-Thing and Aggrobatics at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. A night of contemporary found-footage video collaborations including artist and video-art scholar Jon Dieringer, with a live-score performance by Nick Lesley. From 7:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 12. $7. spacetimeart.org HScene of Shipwreck at UCSD Visual Arts Facility Gallery, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. The MFA thesis exhibition of Morgan Mandalay who specializes in large-scale paintings and will have five internal exhibitions from other artists inside the exhibition that use rafts he made. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m.

Friday, May 12. Free. facebook.com/ events/439993469670691 Haven at Cultura Gallery, 6340 El Cajon Blvd., La Mesa. An exhibit featuring fourteen artists’ renderings of places and ideas that make them feel safe, or that provide comfort. Plus, live music, food and drinks. Opening from 5 to 9 p.m.

Saturday, May 13. Free. facebook.com/ events/1793324624318451 HMother, May I? at Thumbprint Gallery, 920 Kline St., La Jolla. A group exhibition featuring all female artists from the GRRRL Art Collective and examining motherhood. Artists include Gigi Chen, Nicole Waszak, Alli Wynn and more.

Opening from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 13. Free. thumbprintgallery.com A Whole Lot of Paper at You Are Here, 811 25th St., Golden Hill. Local artist Brittany Segal will showcase works of pen on paper that feature her own unique language. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, May 13. Free. facebook.com/ events/424192157967664 Jackie Warfield at Gelato Vero Caffe, 3753 India St., Mission Hills. The local artist will showcase new paintings that use skateboard decks as canvases. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 13. Free. facebook.com/events/1386365751429932 Baja’s Wild Side at at San Diego Natural History Museum, 1788 El Prado, Balboa Park. A new exhibition of photography of Baja California’s Pacific coast region from Dr. Dan Cartamil, a shark expert and marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday May 15. $12. 619-232-3821, sdnat.org

BOOKS Amanda Quick at La Jolla Library, 7555 Draper Ave., La Jolla. The bestselling author of ‘Til Death Do Us Part will sign and discuss her new historical romance novel, The Girl Who Knew Too Much. At 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 10. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com HElizabeth Silver at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The writer and journalist will discuss and sign her new book The Tincture of Time, a memoir about her daughter’s mysterious medical condition. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11.

Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com HElizabeth Strout at La Jolla Library, 7555 Draper Ave., La Jolla. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author will sign and discuss her new novel, Anything is Possible. At 7 p.m. Friday, May 12. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com HMat Callahan at D.G. Wills Books, 7461

Gator By The Bay 12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

“Lion and the Lamb” by William Feeney

H = CityBeat picks

Girard Avenue, La Jolla. The San Francisco historian and musician will discuss his new book The Explosion of Deferred Dreams: Musical Renaissance and Social Revolution in San Francisco, 1965-1975.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 17. Free. 858456-1800, dgwillsbooks.com David Callahan at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The writer will discuss and sign his new nonfiction book The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 17. Free. 858-4540347, warwicks.com

FASHION FWSD17 Spring Showcase at Hotel Del Coronado, 1500 Orange Ave., Coronado.

Fashion Week San Diego kicks off its 10th anniversary with a fashion show and party.

From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 13. $20. fashionweeksd.com

FILM HSan Diego Surf Film Festival at Misfit Gallery, 565 Pearl Street, Ste. 100, La Jolla. This annual festival features 25 international surf films, a surf photography workshop with Grant Ellis, surfboard demos and a showcase of featured artist Victoria Huff. Various times from Wednesday, May 10 to Saturday, May 13. $10-$125. sdsurffilmfestival.com Bike-In Movie Night at Fall Brewing, 4542 30th St., University Heights. Bike from the brewery to Bird Park for a picnic dinner, plus a viewing of the mountain bike and lifestyle movie Not2Bad. All donations and proceeds benefit the San Diego Mountain Association Bike Trail Building Initiative.

At 5:45 p.m. Thursday, May 11. Free. meetup.com/urbanbikeandsocialclub/ events/239209898

FOOD & DRINK HAvenue Amps & Ales at Memorial Park, 373 Park Way, Chula Vista. The annual event celebrates the growing craft brewery scene in Chula Vista with unlimited samples of more than 50 beers. Plus live bands, food and proceeds benefitting the Chula Vista Police Foundation.

From 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 13. $35-$45. 619-843-0535, readertickets. com/events/41556421/avenue-ampsamp-ales HChocolate Festival at San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. Taste chocolates from more than 10 vendors and watch demonstrations.

Plus, a chocolate fountain, live music and more. Tasting tickets sold at event. From 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13. Free to $14. 760-436-3036, sdbgarden.org HPhenome‘NOW’ Women & Wine at the San Diego Foundation, 2508 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. Celebrate moms and feminism while sipping wine and listening to speakers like State Senator Toni Atkins and Planned Parenthood’s Nora Vargas. Tickets include two drink tickets and proceeds benefit the National Organization for Women.

From 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 13. $30. sandiegonow.org

MUSIC Jeremy Denk at La Jolla Presbyterian Church, 7715 Draper Ave, La Jolla. The pianist, writer and MacArthur Fellow plays a recital with an eclectic program, ranging from Renaissance and contemporary classical music to ragtime and jazz. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 12. $30-$80. 858-4593728, ljms.org

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 @SDCITYBEAT

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may 10, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

AFTER DARK: ABOUT LAST NIGHT

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 HSpring and Summer at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Gaslamp Quarter.

Up-and-coming German conductor Matthias Pintscher leads a program inspired by the seasons and includes Anton Webern’s Im Sommerwind, Robert Schumann’s Spring Symphony and Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3. At 8 p.m. Friday, May 12 and Saturday, May 13. $20-$96. 619-2350804, sandiegosymphony.org Johnnyswim at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. The American folk, soul and pop singer-songwriter duo kick off the outside Green Flash Concert series that overlooks the ocean and is named after the optical phenomenon. Admission also includes entrance to all aquarium exhibits and parking. From 5:30 to 9 p.m., Wednesday, May 17. $30.95-$154.95.

858-534-3474, aquarium.ucsd.edu

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HNon-Standard Lit: An Evening of Poetry at Verbatim Books, 3973 30th St., North Park. Come listen to some excellent poets including Marine Petrossian, Neelanjana Banerjee and Arthur Kayzakian. Hosted by local poet Hari Alluri. At 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 10. Free. facebook. com/events/1680453458923292 HPalabra at La Bodega Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. CityBeat’s own Jim Ruland will read poems with fellow poet Ted Washington hosting. From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11. Free. labodegagallery.com

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

Feeling cheeky

I

“

t’s a dive bar, the dance floor is super dark, the sound system isn’t great, the lighting isn’t great, but that’s not the point,” says Dimitri Dickinson of Booty Bassment, a hip-hop-heavy night at The Whistle Stop, which he co-founded.

The point, he says, is the music. This year, Booty Bassment turns 15, becoming one of San Diego’s longest-running themed nights, if not the longest-running. But back in 2002, it started as somewhat of a joke when Dickinson and co-founder Rob Moran threw a private, “booty themed” birthday party at The Whistle Stop.

After The Whistle Stop asked them to host Booty Bassment publicly, Dickinson and Moran began spinning independent, Miami bass tracks once a month.

Over time, the night evolved into a consistently packed, sweaty dance hall held on every second, fourth and sometimes fifth Saturday of the month. The night stands out in otherwise mellow South Park. Locals and Whistle Stop regulars often complain about the young partiers wrapping around the block, waiting to get into what they see as a drunken shit-show.

“We constantly have a new crop of 21-yearold people that find out about it,” says Dickinson.

“Then the older people start to think, ‘Oh, it’s too young for me.’”

Dickinson does admit that sometimes he doesn’t recognize a single face in the bar.

“The Whistle Stop at first was mainly just people who lived in the area, and over time, I’ve seen a lot more of an LGBT crowd, a lot more Black kids, a lot more everything, and I really love that about it.

It’s super diverse. Yeah, you’ll have some PB crowd, but it doesn’t ever feel like a downtown club to me.”

He attributes Booty Bassment’s enduring success to their DJ selections, which meld both underground and throwback tracks.

STREET GENERAL “If they feel like they’re in safe hands with you, they’ll endure a song or two that they don’t know because generally the crowd wants to know the lyrics to every song that you play, but I don’t do that.”

In terms of size, Booty Bassment has outgrown the Whistle Stop, but Dickinson says they wouldn’t abandon their Booty Bassment home venue. However, the night has expanded into other cities, including Portland, San Francisco and, most recently, Costa Mesa. On May 13 in San Diego, they’re kicking off their day party summer series at El Camino with their ‘90s counterpart, Hickies and Dry Humps.

Dickinson is also spinning a one-off “Booty Edition” of SPACE’s SEE ART night on May 24.

“It has totally changed my life. I’d probably still be driving a limo or something if it wasn’t for Booty Bassment,” says Dickinson, but adds that he’s also looking ahead. “Do I want to be the 50-year-old DJ playing Lil Jon for 21-year-old girls?”

—Torrey Bailey

@SDCITYBEAT

EVENTS COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

HFiddle Fish Trunk Show at Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. Patrons can peruse sweetsmelling soaps, candles and body products for themselves or for Mother’s Day gifts. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 13. Free. 619-239-0003, mingei.org Spring Arts and Crafts Fair at Bernardo Winery in Rancho Bernardo, 13330 Paseo Del Verano Norte, Rancho Bernardo.

Drink some vino while perusing over 125 independent vendors at this 40th annual event. Also includes live music and a food court. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 13 and Sunday, May 14. bernardowinery.com

HInternational Paella & Wine Festival at Embarcadero South Marina Park, 200 Marina Park Way, Downtown. Sixty teams, including one made up of local and state elected officials, compete to be the best paella in the region. Plus, tapas, Spanish wines and live Flamenco and Spanish Rock. From 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13. $40-$125. 619-565-7015, paellawinefest.com Coronado Historic Home Tour at Coronado Visitor Center, 1100 Orange Ave., Coronado. A tour of six homes that represent life in Coronado, including a a 5,260 square foot English Arts & Crafts style home built in 1901. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 14. $45-$50. 619-4357242, coronadohistory.org

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HAxline Lecture: Catherine Opie at Irwin M. Jacobs Qualcomm Hall, 5775 Morehouse Drive, Sorrento Valley. The world-renowned photographer, known for working between conceptual and documentary approaches, will speak at the Museum of Contemporary Art and San Diego Museum of Art’s annual lecture. At 7 p.m. Thursday, May 11. $5-$10. 858454-3541, mcasd.org

“Scene of Shipwreck”

by Morgan Mandalay will be on view at Scene of Shipwreck, his MFA thesis exhibition opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 12, at the UCSD Visual Arts Facility Gallery (9500 Gilman Drive) in La Jolla.

EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Lisa C. Krueger at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The poet will read from Run Away to the Yard, a unique collection of poems that addresses personal identity within the contemporary culture. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11. Free.

858-454-0347, warwicks.com HThe Good, The Bad and the Ugly at Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Bark Blvd., University Heights. So Say We All’s Long Story Short presents an evening of curated, live, unscripted storytelling with no notes. Storytellers include Kirk Faulkner, Paul Georgeades, Suzanne Hoyem and more. At 7 p.m. Saturday, May 13. $8$10. sosayweallonline.com HThe Velocity of Celebration: An Evening of Storytelling at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park. Comedian, writer and performer Dallas McLaughlin will tell stories from his colorful life. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 16. Suggested donation. 619284-6784, sosayweallonline.com

SPECIAL EVENTS H Gator By The Bay at Spanish Landing Park, 3900 N Harbor Drive, Midway. The four-day celebration of Louisiana themed culture, music and food includes Grammynominated blues singer Marcia Ball and tons of Cajun-style grub. Various times.

Thursday, May 11 through Sunday, May 14. Free-$140. gatorbythebay.com HTiki Trader at Bali Hai, 2230 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. An event for all things tiki, including cocktails, artists, vendors, live music and live tiki carving. Entry fee good toward food and drink inside.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 13. $10. tikitradersandiego.com HFIGMENT San Diego at Chicano Park, Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. The annual celebration of participatory art includes largescale art projects, as well as booths and activities appropriate for every age group.

From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13.

Free. sandiego.figmentproject.org

@SDCITYBEAT

MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 15

THEATER Don’t stop The Music Man

KEN JACQUES

Brooks Theatre in Oceanside. $15-$25; oceansidetheatre.org

F

ood for thought: If Meredith �������������� Will� son had titled his 1957 musical after the home state he grew up in and loved, The Music Man would be called Iowa.

Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?

But this dependable old show still rings true, by any name. Its wholesome towns� folk, likable music (including a barbershop quartet’s harmonizing) and the dynamic con-man protagonist that is Prof. Harold Hill continue to charm.

Welk Resorts Theatre’s production of The Music Man features the tireless (and in the role of the professor, the actor has to be) David S. Humphrey, who on open� ing night only dabbed at his brow once.

His co-star is Charlene (Koepf) Wilkinson as Marian the librarian. Her richly luxuri� ous vocals mask the sugariness of some of Willson’s ballads, though “’Til There Was You,” which even The Beatles recorded, is as engaging as ever. The Welk has switched from a live orchestra to recorded music, and at times it’s too loud. But this is a fullthroated, microphoned cast and The Music Man’s clever lyrics are never washed over.

A little more food for thought, in closing: A year after it opened, The Music Man won the Tony Award for Best Musical, beating out, among others, West Side Story. How in the world did that happen? Must be the lure of and attraction to pure Americana, with which The Music Man overflows.

16 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years: This play presents the real-life memories of the civil rights era as recalled by the two iconic sisters. It opens in previews May 12 at the New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org They’re Playing Our Song: Based on a real-life relationship, this musical comedy tells the story of a composer who falls for a female lyricist. It opens May 12 at the Lamplighters Community Theatre in La Mesa. lamplighterslamesa.com

Charlene (Koepf) Wilkinson and David S. Humphrey in The Music Man The Music Man runs through July 30 at Welk Resorts Theatre in Escondido. $51$72; welkresorts.com ••• n William Inge’s Picnic, we never see anyone picnicking. But we do see a lot of sexual tension, which is really the crux of this 1953 work that became a fa� mous film starring William Holden and Kim Novak. Oceanside Theatre Company’s production doesn’t downplay the sexual heat, in spite of its family-friendly audi� ence. As Hal, the object of almost every

I

female’s desire in Picnic, Adam Daniel struts about shirtless throughout most of the first act, overdoing the bad-boy thing a little. But Carolyn Lupin and Kaitlyn O’Leary give credible performances as the two sisters fascinated by him (Lupin’s Madge is much more than fascinated), and Tracy Williams gets fittingly emotional as Flo, the girls’ tsk-tsking mother. After a sluggish first act, this Picnic cooks up some hormonal drama in its shorter, tighter Act Two. Picnic runs through May 21 at the

The Old Man and the Old Moon: The West Coast premiere of the musical that centers on the mythological tale of an old man who plunges the world into darkness after his wife leaves home.

Presented by PigPen Theatre Company, it opens May 13 at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. theoldglobe.org

For full listings, visit “Theater” under the Culture tab at sdcitybeat.com

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may 10, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

CULTURE | ART

In a manner of speaking, Eva De Leon recently gave birth to two babies. In August, the artist decided to open Sage Sisters (shopsagesisters.com), the mixed floral and gift shop in North Park, but only after trying unsuccessfully to conceive a child. “It wasn’t happening so I just thought it wasn’t in the cards,” remembers De Leon. “I just put getting pregnant on the backburner.”

She found out she was pregnant two weeks after signing the lease. Further complicating things, her business partner pulled out at the last minute. “Everything changed all of a sudden and in a lot of ways I was winging it,” says De Leon, who also works as a sculptor. “I still am.” Thankfully, she says she’s been able to rely on people like her husband and mother to help her balance the responsibilities of being a business owner and, after recently giving birth to a girl on Easter Sunday, her new role as a mother. It’s a little scary for De Leon, but she says it’s important that she finds a way to incorporate both worlds so as to set an example for her daughter. “One of the things I’ve found as a new mother is that the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity that I have was passed down from my mom,” says De Leon. “It’s something I value and wish to pass onto my daughter… I want to make this work so that she has something to look at as an example.

Finding your passion and not losing it while also taking care of your child.”

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

Jackie Warfield has her paintings displayed all over her East Village condo, but she’s much more interested in showing off the works of her two daughters, Della, 4, and Jolie, 9. “You can see they have very different styles already,” she says, pointing out the drawings hanging in the girls’ bedroom.

Just as Warfield works to follow her own artistic dreams, she also wants to support her daughters’ artistic inclinations. The single mother says she’s “always been an artist,” but that her family pushed her to become a doctor. “I went into UCSD as a bio-engineer and left a visual artist,” Warfield says. “I was the child that was going to be the doctor in the family. It’s been very difficult for me to stay authentic to who I am.” She also left UCSD pregnant and admits that, at the time, she’d hoped to be a little more established with her art, but that her children really opened her art up. “It’s like you go from your paintings being your children to your children being your main form of art.” Warfield now teaches painting classes at the La Jolla Community Center and also has a solo show opening at Gelato Vero Caffe on May 13, and whereas she struggled in the past, she now says she’s now found an excellent balance between her own goals and those of her daughters. “Children provide a natural structure to your day and to your life,” Warfield says. “Just as your time with them is important, the time you get to work becomes so important. It’s like a natural harmony.”

In her two decades as a working artist, Claudia Cano (claudiacano.com) has explored, as she puts it, “the invisibility and inequality of women in immigrant culture” and has done so via video, photography and even performance work. Her work often rebels against the notions of her own upbringing in Central Mexico where she says she was raised to be “a mother, a housewife and to have a job just in case.” She had her first two children, her daughters, when she was still in Mexico working as a freelance photographer.

“I was a little girl raising little kids,” Cano says. “It was tough but I always put them first so if I had exhibitions, for instance, I would put them to bed and then I would work until I was done.” After she met her husband 18 years ago, she moved to the U.S. and had her third child, a boy, who is now a teenager.

Cano continued to develop as an artist, even developing two alter egos, Carmencha (“the Rich Girl”) and Rosa (“the Cleaning Lady”) whom she based on her experiences living in places like La Jolla. She recently finished her MFA at SDSU and her thesis exhibition, domestic/a, is up through May 12 at the SDSU University Art Gallery. And while her children don’t directly influence her work, she does say that there is a symbiotic relationship between the two. “They fuel me,” Cano says. “It fulfills me to have both. They come together. I never thought of being one or the other. I can’t be selfish. Well this month, yes, I’m a little selfish.”

“I resisted my calling as an artist well into my 20s because I believed the myth that it’s impractical to be an artist even though I knew in my heart that was what I needed to be,” says Cindy Zimmerman (cindyzimmerman.work), who grew up in Oklahoma the eldest of eight Catholic daughters. She became a mother when she was still in her teens and, over the years, she says she began to gravitate more toward her true calling as a creative. When she moved to San Diego in the early ‘80s to attend graduate school, she says her two sons, Dan and Michael, would often have to come to class with her. “They grew up in art school,” says Zimmerman. “We didn’t have enough money to really make choices about being together or not being together. There were many times when Michael would be at a class with me and have to curl up and fall asleep on my lap.” Kids have always prominently figured into Zimmerman’s work. Her local career began as a muralist at neighborhood rec centers, and she went on to become an educator at the San Diego Museum of Art and the founder of the Fern Street Circus, among other things.

Now a grandmother, she says her role has changed a bit, but only slightly. “If you ask me how I live now, there’s a lot of time I’m missing art because Michael needs me to babysit,” Zimmerman says. “That’s what you do. You just keep on giving, because that’s what matters. Just keep on giving to that family of yours, no matter what.”

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CULTURE | ART

SEEN LOCAL

collective decided it was time for another show, this time here in San Diego. Mother, May I?, the Collective’s sophomore exhibition, opens at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 13 at Thumbprint Gallery in La Jolla. As if readers couldn’t tell from the name, the show is a meditation on motherhood. Waszak recalls approaching the gallery about scheduling a show.

“It just happened to be Mother’s Day weekend and hen women support each other, incred- they asked if we could do a Mother’s Day theme and ible things happen.” These words can be I said sure!” seen in various fonts While the conversation about COURTESY OF THE ARTIST and iterations plastered all over the relationship between mothInstagram feeds and Facebook erhood and feminism is not pages. It’s a quote that seems to necessarily a new one, the artbe missing a source but neverists of the GRRRL Art Collective theless rings true, especially for each have a unique and personal local San Diego painter Nicole viewpoint to express. In fact, Waszak.

Waszak uses her relationship Waszak, along with a few of with her daughter as the basis her international artist friends, for many of her paintings. recently founded an art collec“I try to juxtapose the vultive exclusively for women. nerability and the resilience “It started very casually with seen in childhood. I work a my friend Ashley Gallagher who lot from photographs of my is here locally, in North Coundaughter that have a strong ty… she and our friend Linnea mood and a relationship to my Strid, who lives in Sweden, were own past,” she says, describing just talking and we were like, her work. ‘hey, we should start a collecWhen asked about her tive.’” Waszak giggles with unown relationship to feminism, derstated delight as she finishes Waszak begins reflecting on her her sentence. Her enthusiasm is own mother: “My mom didn’t infectious. overtly raise me as a feminist…

“Beads of Innocence” by Linnea Strid The group grew quickly to but she promoted a healthy diainclude artists from Bahlogue about a girl’s right rain, Peru (Judith Vergara to do what she wants with García), and New York her body. My mom had an City (Gigi Chen), among interest in cultural another locations, and thropology so she would eventually landed upon talk to me about different the name GRRRL Art cultures, the way women Collective (grrrlart.com), were treated in different inspired by the ‘90s femiplaces and the way womnist punk movement, riot en were treated here. All grrrl. these things she slowly “We decided that we educated me about as I wanted it to be a female was growing up made me collective because, as reflect on being a woman women, we are well aware in society and what my that there’s more reprelife and roles would be as sentation of male artists I became an adult. I don’t in galleries,” Waszak exFrom left: Ashley Gallagher, Nicole Waszak, think I realized at the plains.

Jon Jaylo, Linnea Strid and Gigi Chen time that she was raising She hit the nail on the me to be a feminist, but head. According to the COURTESY OF THE ARTIST it’s something that I’ve National Museum of Women in become aware of as I get older.” the Arts, though women earn By exhibiting all new work half of the MFAs granted in the made especially for the show, U.S., only 30 percent of artists Waszak and the GRRRLs hope to represented by commercial galuse Mother’s Day weekend and leries are women. And accordthe subject of motherhood iting to facts gathered by the self to shine a light on the chalrevolutionary art-activist collenges of being female in today’s lective, The Guerrilla Girls, less society. “You can be a mother than 4 percent of the artists in and a feminist at the same time the Modern Art section of New and have a career,” Waszak says.

York’s Metropolitan Museum of “It’s still a constant struggle to Art are women, but 76 percent of balance all of the roles that we the nudes are female. have.”

“Looking at a lot of work on Luckily they have each other line, I feel like I’m seeing paintto lean on, and exhibit with. ing after painting of beauti“We have Facebook mesful women… and don’t get me senger and we’re all on a thread wrong that stuff sells—beauty “Fleeting Moment” by Joanna Bavero that’s constantly going,” Waszak sells. But I wanted to start a colsays. “As we’ve come together lective of artists who represent as a group and talked online, we talk about personal the female form and place it in a context that express- things too. We’ve all become really good friends.” es the female experience,” Waszak says.

—Rachel Michelle Fernandes After a debut show last December in Houston, the

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

W

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MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

CULTURE | FILM

Camelot unchained

King Arthur

Guy Ritchie revamps the classic British folklore

by Glenn Heath Jr.

F

or better or worse, Guy Ritchie is a director who board abs are born: The now grown Arthur (Charlie adores speed. His films are stylized sprints that Hunnam) has become a local powerhouse unafraid to attempt to balance charm and brutality while challenge even the most brawny Viking if they cross challenging linearity. Characters (often cockneys) his family.

Only when the born king begrudgingly pulls sword speak in scattergun dialects that defy traditional boundaries of space and time, the verbal equivalent from stone does he gain unwanted attention from of an Astaire and Rodgers tap-dance routine. Action Vortigern and hordes of devout followers, setting in unfolds through propulsive combinations of fast motion a more familiar series of conflicts about fuland slow motion imagery, helping create misdirec- filling one’s destiny and defeating those who seek abtion at every turn. Remember Brad Pitt’s mumbling solute power. Ritchie seems genuinely torn between gypsy boxer in Snatch? That’s his cinema personi- challenging such tropes through dialogue and indulging them during dramatic mofied: sassy, cunning and full of ments crushed by highfalutin a pent-up rage just waiting to special effects. King Arthur: Legexplode.

KING ARTHUR: end of the Sword suffers mightRitchie’s firebrand formalism THE LEGEND OF ily from this identity crisis, exgoes medieval in King Arthur: hibiting bravura rebelliousness Legend of the Sword, a punchy THE SWORD before caving to humorless conrevisionist take on the legendDirected by Guy Ritchie formity, sometimes within the ary British folklore that’s been Starring Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, same scene. given the big screen treatment Whenever Hunnam and his by everyone from Walt Disney Astrid Bergès-Frisbey and Eric Bana fellow miscreants are given the to Robert Bresson. Strong Celtic Rated PG-13 opportunity to talk shit and dischords reverberate throughout rupt the noble status quo, their the intense opening battle sepersonalities take on more diquence in which valiant King Uther (Eric Bana) singlehandedly defeats the pos- mensional spirit. But too often the film gets bogged sessed armies of a powerful mage gone rogue with his down in otherworldly ruminations and convoluted myth making, pushing forward silly plot points about supernatural sword Excalibur.

The baroque visuals are striking in ways that Zach redemption and revenge that distract from the pure Snyder’s cinema is not. They have an incomplete and virtues of its performances. In the end, King Arthur: mysterious quality thanks to the film’s fragment- Legend of the Sword takes itself way too seriously, ed editing, helping establish an alternate view of chucking the snarky charisma for blatant self-imporCamelot where magic and mankind are in perpetual tance, all in the hopes of becoming a tent pole release. moral conflict. But this total victory doesn’t last long. Ritchie’s devilishly entertaining remake of The Man The King’s scheming brother Vortigern (Jude Law) From U.N.C.L.E never committed this sin.

One could imagne an evil studio overlord sensing uses the dark arts to orchestrate a murderous coup and take power. Uther’s young son Arthur narrowly Ritchie was having way too much fun with this big of escapes death, taking a boat downstream and eventu- a budget and reining him in accordingly. Still, there ally ending up on Londinium where the women of a are plenty of batshit crazy moments in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, revealing glimpses of the film it brothel take him in.

As an origin story, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword could have been. One of the best comes when Arthur begins promisingly enough, mixing smart aleck com- casually turns the table on a royal interrogator: “You edy with quick-witted action to establish Arthur’s can’t keep your questions in a straight line,” he says streetwise upbringing and blue-collar influences. with a telling smirk. If only Ritchie and Hunnam had Ritchie cuts together a mesmerizing decades-sprawl- kept running zigzag. ing montage that shows the beginnings of a neo-English chivalry sprouting from gangland shakedowns Film reviews run weekly. and violent confrontations. From this moment wash- Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

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CULTURE | FILM

Risk

Hide and seek

L

aura Poitras constructs intimate nonfiction portraits that reflect larger institutional and governmental failures in the post-9/11 era. Her incredibly tense documentary Citizenfour charts the secret Hong Kong rendezvous between whistleblower Edward Snowden and investigative journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill leading up to the infamous leak of classified NSA documents in 2013.

Citizenfour unfolds like a spy thriller, with Snowden’s warranted paranoia and anxiety playing out in real time. The global implications can be felt even though Poitras’ camera hardly ever leaves the hotel room. Her new film Risk, a long-gestating examination of WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, is a more sprawling and enigmatic endeavor, seemingly pieced together by spare parts and competing ideas.

Beginning in 2011 with the United States diplomatic cables leak, Risk haphazardly tries to be both breaking news source and intimate exposé, examining the rising infamy of Assange as both a proponent for free information and social pariah. Poitras is given incredible access to meetings with Wikileaks staffers, including conversations where strategic decision-making and arrogant philosophizing often blur together.

Scenes with noted computer hacker Jacob Appelbaum prove that Poitras’ interest also lies in the cyber community that orbits Assange’s star persona.

Risk experiences multiple jarring shifts in direction which give it an unfocused quality. Facing rape charges and extradition to Sweden, Assange is given asylum by Ecuador and holds up in its London embassy. Even in such cramped confines he remains an aloof cipher without a shred of vulnerability to share. Poitras expresses her frustration through candid voice-overs.

During the last few scenes, Risk finally addresses WikiLeaks’ role in publishing DNC emails that invariably affected America’s 2016 presidential election. By this point Poitras has exhausted herself following up so many different leads. Despite the specter of Russia looming, Assange himself fades into the background, successfully avoiding any palatable responsibility for his actions. Risk opens Friday, May 12, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

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—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING After the Storm: In Hirokazu Koreeda’s new drama, a deadbeat father tries to make amends with his exwife and son while battling family demons.

Buster’s Mal Heart: Rami Malek stars in this mystery thriller about a man whose chance encounter with a conspiracy theorist sends him down an apocalyptic rabbit hole.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword: Guy Ritchie puts his patented hyper-stylized stamp on the classic medieval folklore about a poor miscreant who becomes a king.

Risk: Documentarian Laura Poitras profiles WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange throughout various volatile periods in the last few years. Opens Friday, May 12, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Snatched: Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn star in this comedy about a mother and daughter who get embroiled in a shady plot south of the border while on vacation.

The Wall: Two American Marines (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena) become trapped behind a wall after a lethal sniper fires upon their position.

ONE TIME ONLY Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The legendary English comedy troupe takes aim at the King Arthur legend. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 10, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Forrest Gump: Tom Hanks stars as the simple southerner who becomes a stand-in for major American historical events of the last century. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 11 through Saturday, May 13, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

King Corn: This feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. Screens at 1:15 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

The Martian: In this thrilling space adventure from acclaimed director Ridley Scott and starring Academy Award Winner Matt Damon, an astronaut is left stranded on Mars and must use his wits to survive and find a way back home. Screens at 3:20 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Hook: Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Peter Pan fairy tale stars Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman.

Screens at 7:15 p.m. Monday, May 15, at Arclight La Jolla Cinemas.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: Jim Carrey’s iconic animal loving sleuth looks into a case involving the missing Miami Dolphins mascot. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, May 17, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

For a complete listing of movies, visit F ilm on sdcitybeat.com.

MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

TIM SACCENTI

MUSIC

Chris Clark hris Clark doesn’t make pop music. He’s not against it, necessarily, but as an artful electronic producer who incorporates pop elements into an abstract beat-driven framework, rather than the other way around, he’s cautious about the idea of doing something that would come across as an obvious grab for mainstream acceptance.

Yet when Clark was working on the early tracks for his new album Death Peak, released in April via Warp Records, he found himself doing exactly that. The British-born, Berlin-based producer had a vocalist from one of his favorite bands, whom he wouldn’t identify, collaborate on a track that, in the end, sounded much more commercial than anything else Clark had produced for the record. And while he enjoys pop music, he couldn’t help but feel that the track stood too much apart from everything else he was doing on Death Peak.

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

“We had this one song, and I thought it like halitosis. I have a pure love of it and it would work on this techno album. And it always leads me in the right direction.”

The newly released Death Peak doesn’t didn’t fucking work at all,” he says in a Skype call from London. “So I went back to the feature any obvious pop singles, but in condrawing board. It just really stuck out like a trast to much of Clark’s past work, it is actually heavily vocal-centric. Where sore thumb as a pop track. And I like collaboration with one vocalist pop music, but it feels cynical led Clark down an unintendto have one track that you do ed direction, it also inspired that on. an entirely different one.

“It was really a nice moNearly all of the tracks on ment when I ditched that May 12 the new LP feature human idea and had this open Belly Up Tavern voices employed in some space to write a record for way or another, whether me, really, and a record that throttleclark.com as an ambient juxtaposition I felt was really legit and realto the synth pulses in “Peak ly kind of … quite an out-there Magnetic,” ethereal counterrecord in a way,” he continues. points to the danceable groove of “Not pandering. It is quite poppy. I think when I say pop people might squint at “Butterfly Prowler,” or as a lighter contrast that a bit. But there’s a melodic sensibility, to the industrial thump of “Hoova.”

Once Clark found his muse in the human and I’m not one of these IDM (intelligent dance music) producers that treats melody voice, he decided it was necessary to incor-

CLARK

porate the sound of vocals throughout all of the compositions rather than do so more conspicuously as a marketing device.

“It’s just like the piping or the foundation, but not the cherry on the cake. It’s the base of it—the thing that drives it without you seeing it,” he says. “It’s this invisible kind of mesh that’s in the record that adds this human grit.”

At 37 years old, Chris Clark has nine fulllength albums to his name, as well as a long list of EPs and singles. Yet he began making electronic music two decades ago, when he was just a teenager. In that time, he’s built up a massive body of work, a good majority of which will probably never reach the public’s ears. So it’s not necessarily out of character for Clark to abandon one idea and simply move on. In fact, by his own estimation, he’s likely forgotten about many of the ideas saved on a hard drive in his studio.

“I have shit loads and I say that with half pride and half anxiety,” he says. “I want it all to be as good as it can be, but in reality there’s certain tracks that lead you and pull you in more than others. The scary thing is that’s not always the case. On Body Riddle, ‘Night Knuckles’—I wrote that song when I was 19. So sometimes I write music and forget I made it. It’s sort of good, but sort of isn’t, because there are probably albums out there that’ll never happen because I’ve forgotten I’ve made them.”

As a producer, Chris Clark never stops moving, and never stops evolving. But he also sees little benefit of trying to outpace music’s innovators. So while he’s hesitant to make any blatant grabs at pop success, he’s also wary of being avant-garde all the time.

There’s a happy middle ground between making music that challenges and making music that goes straight for the pleasure zone. Clark wants to make music that strikes the right balance.

“I think music that is constantly innovating is tiring. Constant innovation and constantly trying to be not like everything else is tedious,” he says. “Just like trying to be like everything else is also tedious. I don’t want to be aloof to pop music. It’s not a cynical, ironic love. I love melody, and I love groove. But within that I want it enmeshed in these difficult, hard-to-listen-to things, so people kind of grapple with it a bit. That visceral connection is everything.”

Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com.

Follow him on Twitter at @1000TimesJeff

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MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO LOCALS ONLY

C

omposer and musician Steve Flato is hosting a new podcast that features in-depth interviews with artists in the experimental music community. It’s titled Signifying Something, and it’s usually updated every week with a new interview with someone in the experimental community, with episodes released so far including Lea Bertucci, G. Lucas Crain and David Kirby. Flato, who has produced podcasts for other people before launching this one, wanted to start the project because no podcast existed that quite captured this concept.

“I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a show in this area of music with a kind of Marc Maron sensibility?” he says. “I had heard plenty of experimental music podcasts, but none that really focused on conversation.”

Given that the artists featured on the podcast are probably not widely known to people who aren’t already invested in the experimental scene, Flato says that he doesn’t want the conversations to get too esoteric. Instead, he’d like it to be an opportunity for listeners to learn about a musical world they might not already know.

“I want this to be an avenue for people who aren’t familiar with this music to discover something,” he says. “I don’t always get what an artist is trying to do.

But sometimes when I get some background into what an artist is doing, I say, ‘Oh, now I understand how or why you did that.’”

The podcast isn’t strictly focused on local artists, though Flato says that he’ll be featuring plenty of San Diego musicians, including Scott Nielsen and Este-

SALT ARTS DOCUMENTATION

Steve Flato ban Flores (Monochromacy). However, he also has a wishlist of sorts of artists he’d love to be able to talk to on Signifying Something.

“One would be Jim O’Rourke,” he says. “I love his work with Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Wilco. He kind of just does whatever he wants. I really admire that about him. That sort of bridge he created between pop and experimental music... that’s the kind of bridge I want this podcast to be.”

—Jeff Terich

SUMMER ALBUM PREVIEW

S

ummer is gearing up to be a busy season for new releases by San Diego bands. One of the most high-profile releases on the horizon is the selftitled debut album by metal/hardcore supergroup Dead Cross, which includes Justin Pearson of The Locust, Mike Crain of Retox, Slayer’s Dave Lombardo and Faith No More’s Mike Patton. It’s out August 4 via Ipecac.

Another high profile release on the horizon is the sophomore album

by Birdy Bardot, whose self-titled debut was my local album of the year in 2015. It’s being released on June 23 via Redwoods Music, with a record release show taking place that night at The Casbah.

Big Bloom will be releasing their second full-length album as well on July 17. Warsaw, the new darkwave project featuring former members of Ilya, are releasing their debut album later this summer. And doom metal outfit Beira will also be putting out their second full-length.

The prolific John Christopher Harris will be re-

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leasing new material with his projects Mystery Cave, Chill Pill and Trip Advisor, and Joshua Kmak of The Shady Francos will be releasing another album with his darker, heavier Creepseed project. DJ Pnutz, who was one of our ExtraSpecialGood picks in the most recent Great Demo ReSAWA view, is nearly finished with her latest batch of songs. And Zsa Zsa Gabor will be releasing their last album on July 15 through Stay Strange Records, with a release show to coincide featuring some special guest performances.

Other artists with music on the horizon include The Verigolds, Of Ennui, Andy Robinson, Dead Cross Vytear, Cheap Windows, Marujah, The Kabbs, Nothingful, Nite Lapse (releasing their debut EP), Deplorable D (a new political satire project by Danny King of The Palace Ballroom), Alan Jones, Cryptic Languages, Age of Collapse, Morphesia and Sin-Wat. Clear out some room on your hard drive or vinyl shelf, because it’s going to be a busy summer.

—Jeff Terich MAY 10, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 23

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, MAY 10

PLAN A: Gabriel Garzon Montano, Space People @ The Casbah. Gabriel Garzon Montano makes sample-heavy R&B that employs hip-hop beats and a heavy dose of strings. It’s richly layered, quite gorgeous and just a little bit sexy.

THURSDAY, MAY 11

PLAN A: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, Together Pangea @ House of Blues. My lack of enthusiasm about most pop-punk and cover bands is public knowledge, but sometimes an exception is a band that does both. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is unapologetically tongue-incheek, and way too much fun. PLAN B: Gary Wilson, Macula Dog, Jinx Bobby @ SPACE. Need something weirder? Catch the spacey, soulful pop and R&B of Wilson, complete with duct tape, baby dolls and other weird phenomena. BACKUP PLAN: Schizophonics, Jason Hanna and

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

the Bullfighters, Dream Burglar, DJ Josh Kmak @ The Casbah.

FRIDAY, MAY 12

PLAN A: Com Truise, Clark @ Belly Up Tavern. Read my feature this week on Clark, a UK electronic producer who fits pop melodies into tweaked, artful shapes. His music is accessibly askew, and it’s wonderful. PLAN B: Matt Pryor, Dan Andriano, Rooney Anne James @ The Casbah. Matt Pryor is best known for being the vocalist in Lawrence, Kansas emo heroes The Get Up Kids. As a solo artist his music is a bit more folky and rustic, but still catchy and emotionally charged.

SATURDAY, MAY 13

PLAN A: Author & Punisher, Thanatology, Lurid Memory, Cave Bastard @ Soda Bar. One-man metal maker Author & Punisher recently signed to Relapse, and I’m looking forward to hearing his first album

for the label. Not that he doesn’t already have his share of menacing, industrial metal gems. PLAN B: JOY, Loom, Sacri Monti, Petyr @ The Casbah. Another option is a showcase of local psychedelic rockers, all of whom offer their own spin on heavy psych or stoner rock with lots of big riffs and disorienting effects. BACKUP PLAN: Orgone, Henry Pope @ Quartyard.

SUNDAY, MAY 14

PLAN A: All Them Witches, Idle Bloom @ The Casbah. Last year I wrote a feature on All Them Witches, a band whose eclectic blend of psychedelic rock, folk and other, heavier sounds makes for an epic desert wandering mixtape. PLAN B: Conor Oberst, Phoebe Bridgers @ Observatory North Park. Conor Oberst no longer records under the name Bright Eyes, but the now thirtysomething singer/songwriter still has a way of tapping into teenage feelings just like he used to.

MONDAY, MAY 15

PLAN A: Joe Goddard, Goose Mavrk @ The Casbah. Joe Goddard is co-frontman of UK synth-pop outfit Hot Chip, and his solo material doesn’t stray too far from that band’s approach. New album Electric Lines

balances downtempo pop with club-friendly bangers for something fun and hypnotic.

PLAN B: Brother Ali @ Observatory North Park. Brother Ali is a hip-hop veteran, having released seven albums in the past couple of decades. He continues to make soulful and spiritual rap music that’s rooted in old school boom bap, but feels timeless.

TUESDAY, MAY 16

PLAN A: Pallbearer, Gatecreeper, Venomous Maximus @ The Casbah. For our 4:20 issue I wrote about Pallbearer’s new album Heartless, which is already one of MARC SETHI my favorite albums of the year. You don’t have to be stoned to enjoy their epic doom metal tracks, however, which are both complex and badass. PLAN B: Testament, Sepultura, Prong @ House of Blues. Some older metalheads might object to me putting Testament beneath Pallbearer, but it’s a close race. Testament are a crucial thrash metal band that started Joe Goddard in the ‘80s, and combined with Sepultura and Prong adds up to a hell of a metal all-stars show.

BACKUP PLAN: Las Cruxes, Wellness, Los Honey Rockets, Shy Assassin, Marujah @ Soda Bar.

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may 10, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

The Young Wild (Casbah, 6/1), Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place (Casbah, 6/4), Raekwon (Observatory, 6/15), Tuxedo (Observatory, 6/22), Birdy Bardot (Casbah, 6/23), LeAnn Rimes (Del Mar Fairgrounds, 6/29), The Vandals (Observatory, 6/30), Dita Von Teese (HOB, 7/6), The Roots (Observatory, 7/11), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Harrah’s SoCal, 7/14), Super Diamond (BUT, 7/15), Colin Hay (BUT, 7/19), Creature and the Woods (Casbah, 7/22), Steve Earle and the Dukes (BUT, 8/10), Dierks Bentley (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 8/25), Pelican, Inter Arma (Brick by Brick, 8/26), Carbon Leaf (Casbah, 9/5), Perturbator (Brick

by Brick, 9/15), Against Me! (Observatory, 9/16), Linkin Park (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/20), Nick Murphy (Observatory, 10/21), Jimmy Buffett (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/21), Halsey (Viejas Arena, 11/5).

GET YER TICKETS Thundercat (Observatory, 5/19), Modest Mouse (Open Air Theatre, 5/30), Mount Kimbie (Music Box, 5/31), In-Ko-Pah 4 w/ Mattson 2, Zig Zags, Mrs. Magician, Birdy Bardot (Desert View Tower, 6/3), Elvis Costello and the Imposters (Balboa Theatre, 6/5), The Anniversary (Irenic, 6/10), ‘91X X-Fest’ w/ Phoenix, Empire of the Sun (Qualcomm Stadium, 6/11), Ziggy Marley (Humphreys, 6/12), The Body (SPACE, 6/17), (Sandy) Alex G,

Japanese Breakfast (Irenic, 6/17), King Crimson (Humphreys, 6/19), The Revolution (HOB, 6/22), The Game (Observatory, 6/23), Maxwell (Valley View Casino Center, 6/23), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Civic Theatre, 6/26), Future (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 6/27), Melvins (Casbah, 7/5), Deftones, Rise Against (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 7/7), Mutoid Man (Casbah, 7/12), The Sword (BUT, 7/18), Hall & Oates, Tears for Fears (Valley View Casino Center, 7/19), Beach Fossils (Casbah, 7/20), BadBadNotGood (Observatory, 7/20), Dead Kennedys (Brick by Brick, 7/21), Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 (BUT, 7/21), Taking Back Sunday (Observatory, 7/28), Steve Gunn (SPACE, 7/30), Huey Lewis and the News (Humphreys, 8/1), AFI, Circa Survive (Open Air Theatre, 8/1), Metallica (Petco Park, 8/6), 10,000 Maniacs (BUT, 8/6), Incubus, Jimmy Eat World (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 8/11), Hans Zimmer (Viejas Arena, 8/12), Royal Blood (Observatory, 8/15), X (BUT, 8/17), 311 (Open Air Theatre, 8/20), Bryan Ferry (Humphreys, 8/23), Mew (Observatory, 8/24), Sylvan Esso (Observatory, 8/26), Pink Martini (Humphreys, 8/26), The Gipsy Kings (Humphreys, 8/27), Ira Glass (Balboa Theatre, 8/27), George Benson, Kenny G (Humphreys, 9/10), Goo Goo Dolls (Open Air Theatre, 9/12), Green Day (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 9/13), Indigo Girls (Humphreys, 9/13), Steve Winwood (Humphreys, 9/14), Black Uhuru (BUT, 9/15), Future Islands (Open Air Theatre, 9/17), The Beach Boys (Humphreys, 9/23), Sublime With Rome, The Offspring (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 9/26), Jay Som (Soda Bar, 9/30), The Shins, Spoon (Open Air Theatre, 10/1), Father John Misty (Observatory 10/5-6), Depeche Mode (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/6), Coldplay

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

(Qualcomm Stadium, 10/8), The Afghan Whigs (BUT, 10/12), The Black Angels (HOB, 10/17), Café Tacuba (Observatory, 10/17-18), KMFDM (HOB, 10/20), Carla Morrison (Humphreys, 10/22), Luke Bryan (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/27), Hamilton Leithauser (BUT, 11/9), Fall Out Boy (Viejas Arena, 11/15), Blues Traveler (HOB, 11/19), Mogwai (Observatory, 11/20).

MAY WEDNESDAY, MAY 10 Stephanie Brown and the Surrealistics at Belly Up Tavern. Gabriel Garzon-Montano at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, MAY 11 Schizophonics at The Casbah. The Wind Playing Tricks at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, MAY 12 Timber Timbre at Soda Bar (sold out).

Matt Pryor at The Casbah. Com Truise, Clark at Belly Up Tavern. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes at House of Blues. Iration at Observatory North Park.

SATURDAY, MAY 13 Common Sense at Belly Up Tavern. Author & Punisher at Soda Bar. Suburban Legends at The Irenic. Cashmere Cat at Observatory North Park. JOY at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, MAY 14 Train at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Twin Forks at The Irenic. All Them Witches at The Casbah. Conor Oberst at Observatory North Park.

MONDAY, MAY 15 Joe Goddard at The Casbah. Brother Ali at Observatory North Park. Testament at House of Blues.

TUESDAY, MAY 16 Pallbearer at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 17 Marty Stuart at Belly Up Tavern. Six60 at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, MAY 18 Chris Stapleton at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Matthew Logan Vasquez at The Casbah. DIIV at Music Box.

FRIDAY, MAY 19 Robin Trower at House of Blues. Woods at The Casbah. Thundercat at Observatory North Park. Holy Grail at Brick by Brick.

SATURDAY, MAY 20 Back to the Garden at Poway OnStage.

Magic Giant at The Casbah. Sweet Spirit at Soda Bar. Rubblebucket at The Casbah. The Iron Maidens at Brick by Brick.

SUNDAY, MAY 21 Ann Wilson at Belly Up Tavern. The Strumbellas at Observatory North Park.

MONDAY, MAY 22 Bryan Adams at Open Air Theatre.

TUESDAY, MAY 23 Rodriguez at Humphreys by the Bay. Catfish and the Bottlemen at House of Blues. Draco Rosa at Music Box. Ki-

kagaku Moyo at SPACE. Hoops at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24 Brian Wilson at Civic Theatre. Melissa Etheridge at Humphreys by the Bay. Fakear at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, MAY 25 Mono/Poly at SPACE. Giuda at Soda Bar. L.A. Takedown at The Casbah. Jefferson Starship at Belly Up Tavern. Celtic Woman at Civic Theatre.

FRIDAY, MAY 26 John Brown’s Body at Music Box. Foster the People at Observatory North Park (sold out). Paul van Dyk at House of Blues. Los Lonely Boys at Belly Up Tavern. Taake at Brick by Brick. ‘San Diego Freak Out’ w/ Dream Joints at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, MAY 27 CRX at Soda Bar. The Adicts at Observatory North Park. ‘Freedom Concert’ w/ Lifehouse at USS Midway. Shawn P. Rohlf at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, MAY 28 Yngwie Malmsteen at House of Blues.

MONDAY, MAY 29 DLD at Observatory North Park.

TUESDAY, MAY 30 Modest Mouse at Open Air Theatre. Barrows at The Casbah.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

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may 10, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 WEDNESDAY, MAY 31 Mount Kimbie at Music Box. Sam Outlaw at The Casbah. Durand Jones and the Indications at SPACE.

JUNE THURSDAY, JUNE 1 NKOTB, Paula Abdul, Boyz II Men at Viejas Arena. The Young Wild at The Casbah.

FRIDAY, JUNE 2 Little Hurricane at Belly Up Tavern. The Creepy Creeps, The Loons at The Casbah. Dana Carvey at Humphreys by the Bay. Bag Raiders at Observatory North Park.

SATURDAY, JUNE 3 Lewis Del Mar at Belly Up Tavern. In-KoPah 4 w/ Mattson 2, Zig Zags, Mrs. Magician, Birdy Bardot at Desert View Tower.

Animals as Leaders at Observatory North Park.

SUNDAY, JUNE 4 Lady Antebellum at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Voodoo Glow Skulls at SPACE. Michael Franti and Spearhead at Belly Up Tavern. Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place at The Casbah.

MONDAY, JUNE 5 Elvis Costello and the Imposters at Balboa Theatre. Michael Franti and Spearhead at Belly Up Tavern.

TUESDAY, JUNE 6 The Primitives at SPACE. The Wailing Souls at Belly Up Tavern. Whores at Soda Bar. Sheryl Crow at Humphreys by the Bay. Graves at Sea at Brick by Brick.

rCLUBSr

Strawberry Moons. Thu: Sully and the Blue-eyed Soul Band. Fri: Com Truise, Clark. Sat: Common Sense, Psydecar.

Sun: Creed Bratton.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., City Heights. Thu: Uptown Rhythm Makers.

Fri: Stephen El Rey, Lana Rebel, Kevin Michael Mayfield, Matt Strachota, Jesse Lee. Sat: Fistfights with Wolves, Shrub, Latifahtron, Belladon.

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Thu: Ital Vibes, the Riddims.

Fri: Nothing Special, Mochilero All Stars.

Sat: Brewfish, Seedheads, Kng Mkr. Tue: Krooktone Classics.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’. Fri: ‘Harvard Bass’. Mon: ‘80s Tron Party’. Tue: The Roosevelts, Creature & The Woods, The Liquorsmiths.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., Normal Heights. Wed: DJ Byrd. Thu: ‘Libertine’ w/ DJs Jon Wesley, 1979. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ DJ Girth. Sun: ‘Chvrch’ w/ DJs Karma, Alice.

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

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Ron Funches. Fri: Ron Funches. Sat: Ron Funches.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Sat: The Bastards, The Walking Toxins, Revolt-Chix, In the Midst 777, Loose Cannon. Sun: Evergrey, Seven Kingdoms, Ascendia, Need, Ashen Earth, Helsott.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park. Wed: Old Man Johnson. Thu: The Husky Boy All Stars. Fri: Bella Novella, Goldettes. Sat: The Milkcrates DJs. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’.

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

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Midtown.

Wed: Gabriel Garzon-Montano, Space People. Thu: Schizophonics, Jason Hanna and the Bullfighters, Dream Burglar, Dani Bell and the Tarantist. Fri: Matt Pryor, Dan Andriano, Rooney Anne James.

Sat: Joy, Loom, Sacri Monti, Petyr. Sun: All Them Witches, Idle Bloom. Mon: Joe Goddard, Goose Mavrk. Tue: Pallbearer, Gatecreeper, Venomous Maximus.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Fri: Jack Beats. Sat: Pomo.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. Fri: Granite Hill. Sat: Nemesis.

Beaumont’s, 5665 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla.

Thu: Ariel Levine. Fri: Moonage Daydreamers. Sat: Part Time Model.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Downtown. Wed: Charlie Chavez y su Afrotruko.

Fri: Peter Sprague, Jim Plank, Mackenzie Leighton, Matt Smith. Sat: The Finucci Brothers Quartet. Sun: ‘A Celebration of the Jazz Pioneers’.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road, Spring Valley. Thu: Keychain, Taipan, Bangroc.

Fri: Kaliya. Sat: Damsels in Defense.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Stephanie Brown & The Surrealistics, Creature Canyon, The

28 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown. Fri: DJ Rell and Paris Paul. Sat: DJ Vision.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Fri: DJ Amen. Sat: Koko and Bayati.

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

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

Tue: ‘50s/60s Dance Party’.

Hoffer’s Cigar Bar, 8282 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. Sat: Stoney B. House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Barns Courtney, Foxtrax.

Thu: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, Together Pangea. Fri: Adrian Uribe, Imparables. Sat: Icon For Hire, Assuming We Survive, October Sky. Sun: River Oaks, JT Woodruff. Tue: Testament, Sepultura, Prong.

Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: 52nd Street. Thu: Francois Sims and Groove Squad. Fri: Detroit Underground, Fabulous Ultratones. Sat: Party Quake, Backwater Blues. Sun: Marvin Banks and Tightship. Mon: Mercedes Moore. Tue: Missy Andersen.

The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., North Park.

Sun: Twin Forks, Social Animals, Dan Layus.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Thu: ‘Oddyssy’. Fri: ‘Progress’. Sat: ‘Archtetype VI.’ Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Fri: Willa Rae, Tony P, Jasmine Bailey. Sat: The Orangepickers, the Clean Cut Hippies, Anthony Sanchez. Sun: Fashion Jackson.

Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla.

Tue: Party Pupils.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave., Coronado. Wed: JG Duo. Thu: North Star.

Fri: Trunk Monkey. Sat: In Midlife Crisis.

Sun: Ron’s Garage. Tue: Glen Smith.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Wed: The Whiskey Circle, Bradley Palermo, Abandoned Stereo. Thu: ‘All That’. Sat: Mario Esteban and the Blessed Hellhounds, Mala Vida Band, Township Rebellion. Tue: Wish & The Well, Second Cousins, The Lowland Drifters.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy.

Wed: Kranium, Tribe of Kings Sound System. Fri: Livin’ on a Prayer, Paradise City.

Sat: Soul Collective. Sun: Selena Tribute w/ Como La Flor. Tue: E-40.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd., Hillcrest. Fri: ‘Harness’. Sat: ‘Club Sabbat’.

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

Wed: ‘Psych Out’ w/ DJ Unite. Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Fri: ‘After Hours’ w/ DJs Kid Wonder, Saul Q. Sat: ‘Strictly Business’ w/ DJs Kanye Asada, Gabe Vega. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’. Mon: ‘Nevermind the ‘90s’. Tue: ‘True Bass’ w/ DJ Ramsey.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Cheat Codes. Fri: Tritonal. Sat: Fashen.

Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Fri: DJ Mustard. Sat: Joe Maz. Plaza Bar at Westgate Hotel, 1055 2nd Ave., Downtown. Fri: Gilbert Castellanos. Sat: Allison Tucker. Mon: Julio de la Huerta.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: DJs Kiki, Kinky Loops. Thu: DJ Kiki.

Fri: DJs Drew G, Will Z. Sat: DJs K-Swift, Taj. Sun: DJs Cruz, Jesus Montanez.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32 Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz’ w/ Jason Hanna. Thu: Big Jon. Fri: Tori Roze and the Hot Mess. Sat: Electric Mud. Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave., North Park. Wed: The Waylon Hicks Project.

Thu: Jimmy Ruelas. Fri: Miss Erika Davies and The Men. Sat: Lead Pony. Mon: ‘Makossa Monday’ w/ DJ Tah Rei. Tue: Trio Gadjo.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Half Eaten, Battery Point, The Shed. Thu: The Wind Playing Tricks, Stray Monroe, Of Ennui. Fri: Timber Timbre, Wooden Sky (sold out). Sat: Author and Punisher, Thanatology, Lurid Memory, Cave Bastard. Sun: Alex Dezen and His Band, Mike Dunn. Mon: Las Cruxes, Wellness, Los Honey Rockets, Shy Assassin, Marujah. Tue: Tow’rs, Matthew Haney, Blind Mountain Holler.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway.

Fri: Upon A Burning Body, Within The Ruins, Kublai Khan, Coldcasket. Sat: Real Friends, Have Mercy, Tiny Moving Parts, Broadside, Nothing Nowhere.

SPOTLIGHT I think the only logical explanation for Train’s enduring popularity is some form of inception. Think about it: You’ve never bought a Train album, yet you know every single word to their hit “Drops of Jupiter.” Years from now, when it’s been revealed that we’ve been subjected to some form of mind control, we can look back on the early ‘00s as the point where it all started. We are through the looking glass here, people. Train plays Sunday, May 14 at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre.

—Ryan Bradford

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SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Thu: Gary Wilson, Macula Dog, Jinx Bobby. Fri: Handsome Ghost, Frances Cone. Sat: The Shag Rats, Los Sweepers.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., Midtown. Fri: Ed Rush, Optical. Sat: Minnesota, Dimond Saints, Doorly, M!NT. Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Thu: Ginger Cowgirl, Podunk Nowhere. Sun: The Big Decisions.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Thu: Justin Symbol & The God Bombs, Our Frankenstein, Shaolin Signal, JASONxVOORHEES, Decompose.

Fri: ‘Trojan meets Hometown Oldies’.

Mon: Nebula Drag, Vampyre, Oozer, Condor.

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Wed: Stacy Antonel. Thu: Keep Your Soul. Fri: Coriander, Keep Your Soul. Sat: Keep Your Soul, Chad and Rosie. Sun: The Savage Young, Allegra Duchaine. Tue: Lauren Leigh and Sam. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., Bay Park. Thu: Whitney Shay, Netto Rockefeller. Fri: The Siers Brothers. Tue: Sue Palmer.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: Western Settings, DFMK, Se Vende, The Waste Aways. Tue: Bosswitch, Gorm.

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

Wed: ‘Wayback Wednesday’. Thu: ‘Thursdaze’. Fri: DJ Junior the Disco Punk. Sat: DJ Freeman. Tue: ‘Boom Bap Sweet 16 DJ Tournament’.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park.

Wed: Nexus, Bomb Squad. Thu: ‘Under the Groove’. Fri: The Creepy Creeps.

Sat: Grampadrew’s Flim Flam Revue.

Mon: ‘Electric Relaxation’. Tue: Dallas McLaughlin.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach.

Wed: Empress Akua, DJ Carlos Culture.

Thu: Boostive, TV Broken 3rd Eye Open.

Fri: ‘OHM’ w/ DJ Headlux, Bassmechanic, DJ Miss Dust. Sat: The Devastators. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Na’an Stop.

MAY 10, 2017· SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 29

LAST WORDS | ADVICE

AMY ALKON

ADVICE

GODDESS Don Yawn

I’m a 40-year-old man who can’t seem to keep a relationship going for more than a year. There’s never bitter fighting or betrayal. I just gradually lose interest. I can’t blame my girlfriends—most of whom are pretty exciting people. I’m the problem, but why? And can I change?

—Frustrated Ever gotten new carpeting? The first month, it’s “No shoes and no drinks whatsoever in the living room!” A few months after that: “Oh, we don’t use glasses anymore. Just splash red wine around and drink right off the rug.”

In the happiness research world, the psychological shift behind this is called “hedonic adaptation”— “hedonic” from the Greek word for pleasure and “adaptation” to describe how we acclimate to new stuff or situations in our lives. They rather quickly stop giving us the buzz (or bite) they did at first, and we get pitched right back to our baseline feeling of wellbeing (Yeahwhatevsville).

Bummer, huh? But there’s an upside. Psychologists Timothy Wilson and Dan Gilbert explain that hedonic adaptation is part of our “psychological immune system,” helping us recover from all the kicks in the teeth and boys’ bathroom swirlies of life.

There’s another possible bummer at work here, per your longing for love that does not wilt over time. You may be more “sensation-seeking” than most people. Research by psychologist Marvin Zuckerman, who coined the term, finds that this is a personality trait with origins in genes, as well as experience, reflected in strong cravings for novel, varied and intense sensations and experiences.

If this is driving you, basically, you want it new, you want it now, and all the better if it’s a little lifethreatening. In other words, some benefits of a committed relationship, like deeply knowing another person, may end up being deeply boring to you. Still, part of your problem may be a hopeful approach— simply hoping your relationships don’t die instead of taking steps to prevent that.

Research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky finds that three “intentional activities” help keep hedonic adaptation from overtaking a relationship—appreciating, injecting variety, and incorporating surprise.

Appreciating simply means regularly reviewing and “savoring” what’s great about your partner and what you have together. (Even better if you also express it to them). Bringing in variety and surprise means filling the relationship with “unexpected moments” and “unpredictable pleasures,” big and small.

Be honest with women about your befizzlement problem. When you find one who’s up for the challenge, get cracking with her on keeping the ex-

citement alive. Be sure to do this both in romantic day-to-day ways and, say, with the perfect romantic weekend for a guy like you—one that starts with the valet at the spa opening the trunk, removing the hood over your head, and cutting the zip ties so you can go take a sauna.

Backup To The Future

Two years ago, I met this beautiful, intriguing girl. I gave her my number, but she never called.

Last week, she texted out of the blue. Weird! My friend said she probably had a boyfriend until now. Do women really hoard men’s info in case their relationship tanks?

—Wondering Consider the male BFF. A woman may not consciously think of hers as her backup man. But should her relationship go kaput, there he is—perfectly situated to dry her tears. Um, with his penis.

There seems to be an evolutionary adaptation for people in relationships—especially women—to line up backup mates. It’s basically a form of doomsday prepping—except instead of a bunker with 700 cans of beans and three slightly dented Hellfire missiles, there are two eligible men on the shelves of a woman’s mind and the phone number of another on a crumpled ATM receipt in the back of her wallet.

Evolutionary psychologists Joshua Duntley and David Buss explain that in ancestral times, even people “experiencing high relationship satisfaction would have benefited from cultivating potential replacement mates” in case their partner cheated, ditched them, died or dropped a few rungs in mate value. A woman whose partner left or died “would have suffered a lapse in protection, mate investment and resources for her children, much like people who transition between jobs in the modern environment sometimes suffer a lapse in insurance coverage.”

Duntley and Buss note that female psychology today still has women prepping for romantic disaster like they’re living in caves and lean-tos instead of condos and McMansions. For example, in research on opposite-sex friendships, “women, but not men, prioritize economic resources and physical prowess in their opposite-sex friends, a discrepancy that mirrors sex-differences in mate preferences.”

Getting back to this woman who texted you, she probably saw something in you from the start but was otherwise encumbered. So, yes, she’s likely been carrying a torch for you, but for two years, it’s been in airplane mode.

But should her relationship go kaput, there he is—perfectly situated to dry her tears. Um, with his penis.

30 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · MAY 10, 2017

(c)2017, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. Got a problem?

Write Amy Alkon, AdviceAmy@aol.com (advicegoddess.com).

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may 10, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 31