Our detailed manual for the intrepid camper begins on Page 15.
2 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 3
Deep problems at Veterans Affairs Barack Obama’s spokesperson said Monday that the president would “soon” address the scandal in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in a meaningful way. We hope those comments—and any ensuing action—are not limited to who did what at various VA offices around the country, where appointment records were allegedly falsified to hide the egregious time veterans have been waiting to get medical care. We hope his attention will be on why administrators felt the need to cook the books in the first place. The most recent hubbub surrounding the VA emerged three weeks ago, when an investigation into books-cooking by the department’s inspector general led the VA to place three administrators at the Phoenix office on leave. In the days that followed, similar allegations surfaced regarding VA systems in Fort Collins, San Antonio, Cheyenne and St. Louis. That’s at least five distinct VA healthcare systems around the country where there have been accusations of secret waiting lists, destroyed documents and threatened retaliation against potential whistleblowers. The Los Angeles Times published a good story on Sunday detailing how the long wait times—of six months or more—had affected a handful of elderly veterans. The mess has fallen into the lap of Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, whose resignation has been called for by some Republicans in Congress, as well as the American Legion. We’re certainly not opposed to seeing heads roll over this sort of thing, and if Shinseki and others have to go, they have to go. But what appears to be happening around the country is a symptom. The first order of business must be to identify and attack the root cause, which we can only assume is a dire need for more doctors in the VA system. Let’s be clear: Ineffecient care in the VA system has long been a problem. Obama himself vowed to fix it when he was a candidate for president. Last year, the VA made the decision to require that patients requesting care be seen within 14 days; the date of a patient’s call would be logged and tracked so that administrators could be held accountable. According to a May 14 story in The New York Times, “A major factor behind long waiting periods for care, outside experts and department officials agree, is that demand for primary care has risen sharply in recent years, fueled not only by younger veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, but
Jim Greenhill / Flickr
Eric Shinseki also a tide of Vietnam-era veterans, many with complex health problems relating to both their age and their military service.” A letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times, written by Joey Liu of Newbury Park, put it another way: “As for the VA, it’s a crime that Congress, which talks about cutting spending, dumps countless patients from endless wars on an underfunded healthcare system, and then acts shocked when the infinite demand for healthcare isn’t met.” Liu added later: “Because it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to get one of these [medical] degrees, many new doctors go into higher-paying specialties. As a result, burned-out primary-care MDs who get nothing but scathing criticism either go into limited concierge medicine or retire early, reducing access even more.” The New York Times reported that according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, “the number of primary care visits in the system rose by 50 percent over the past three years; the number of new nurses and other staff members increased a similar amount, but the number of full-time primary care doctors rose by only 9 percent.” These are the bigger-picture issues Obama needs to address, and he shouldn’t let Congress off the hook while he’s doing it. As Liu says, Congress can’t be righteously indignant if it doesn’t give the VA enough money to provide adequate care for the American service members whom Congress keeps sending into war. What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.
This issue of CityBeat is dedicated that D_CKH__D Pat Sajak (can we buy some vowels?)
Volume 12 • Issue 41 Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Jeff Terich Arts Editor Kinsee Morlan Staff Writer Joshua Emerson Smith Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Lindsey Voltoline Columnists Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza
Cover design by Lindsey Voltoline
Contributors Ian Cheesman, David L. Coddon, Seth Combs, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Nina Sachdev Hoffmann, Peter Holslin, Dave Maass, Scott McDonald, Jenny Montgomery, Susan Myrland, Mina Riazi, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Jen Van Tieghem, Quan Vu
Circulation / Office Assistant Giovanna Tricoli
Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse
Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami
Production artist Rees Withrow
Vice President of Operations David Comden
MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia
Publisher Kevin Hellman
Senior account executive Jason Noble Account Executives F. Scott Berman, Beau Odom
Accounting Alysia Chavez, Linda Lam, Monica MacCree Human Resources Andrea Baker
Advertising inquiries Interested in advertising? Call 619-281-7526 or e-mail advertising@sdcitybeat.com. The advertising deadline is 5 p.m. every Friday for the following week’s issue.
Editorial and Advertising Office 3047 University Ave., Suite 202 San Diego, CA 92104 Phone: 619-281-7526 Fax: 619-281-5273 www.sdcitybeat.com
San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2014.
4 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Take off the money goggles I just recently reviewed your March 19 issue and wish to thank David Rolland for his candid “Editor’s Note” on SeaWorld and all of the recent issues in the media. I could not agree more with Rolland’s take and wish there were tens of thousands more of us out there who felt the same way. I’m frustrated by the politics and the money and greed at SeaWorld and among the San Diego City Council whose members can’t see beyond who pads their political pockets. I guarantee that if anyone would just take off the money goggles and do a little bit of research into orcas, they would support the position that Rolland and I do and do anything possible to fight SeaWorld and stop the “exploitation and gaudy entertainment.” Thank you again for your support. Lisa Vargas, Imperial Beach
Little Italy: what not to do The irony in Kinsee Morlan’s April 2 “Seen Local” piece on self-proclaimed snob Louise Girling’s comical lament about the potential of development sapping “the feel” out of Little Italy is just too much. I was a longtime resident before the city yet again let greedy developers paint their vapid Disney brush across this San Diego gem. Little Italy (and San Di-
ego in general) sold its soul long before her concept of selling overpriced home furnishings came to fruition. It pains me now to have to spend even a minute in the very place I spent years enjoying. The quaint view of the harbor, easy strolling and cycling down appropriately populated sidewalks and architecture appropriately scaled to fit its locale are all memories now. This should be a mandatory first-year architecture-school class on what not to do to a community. Brad Beidler, Golden Hill
Better off dead? I applaud your series of stories on deaths in San Diego County jails [the latest of which was published on April 23]. The question I have is whether or not the severely mentally ill are better off dead or alive. I’m sure that varies by person, but if living is torture, then what? I’m familiar with how abusive our mentalhealth system is and the fact that no real help is available for anyone, anywhere— just stuff that sounds good and gets good press. We have many illusions of help. Should those who choose to die rather than face a lifetime of continual psychiatric abuse be permitted to do that? Suicide is selfish, as it deprives your friends and family of you. Far more selfish is their not
allowing you to get out of living, if you wish, however. I write this as a psychologist myself and would love to tell the whole story in an article but would need to get into both the societal and religious secrets to do an adequate job of that, so nobody would publish it for fear of angering their advertisers. John Kitchin, Downtown
Forget it! Regarding your April 2 editorial on the Balboa Park Centennial: Forget the whole thing; this is a non event. On nice days, the park is jammed with citizens enjoying its endless venues. We don’t need more people in San Diego—too crowded now. A biotech month, featuring all the firms and what they do would be most informative for locals, however. David S. Foley, Middletown
Belfer’s home-run column I have never been a consistent CityBeat reader, but Aaryn Belfer’s April 23 “Backwards & in High Heels” column has turned me into one. “No Curtains for the opera” knocked it out of the park. Thank god for writers like Belfer. Thanks for re-
minding me not all of us San Diegans are of the white-puckering-asshole variety. Suzy Perkins, La Mesa
‘Refreshing’ editorial I just wanted to say how refreshing it is to see a paper conclude that marijuanadispensary violence is actually a reason to legalize marijuana [“Editorial,” April 30]. We work with the excellent Joshua Emerson Smith on occasion, and I don’t know if this is his clever influence, but thank you. I shared the story with our 27,000 Twitter followers. Darby Beck, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Editor’s note: Yes, Joshua Emerson Smith is indeed excellent, but that editorial was not the product of his excellence.
Shakespeare’s fish ’n’ chips OK. I’ll try Shakespeare Pub & Grille for fish ’n’ chips [“The World Fare,” April 30]. If they’re as good as you say and better than Studio Diner on Ruffin Road, then we’ll all be happy. Fun to read. Thomas Shess, North Park
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 5
A screen shot from a No on B and C ad
A war over B and C Industry digs deep into its pocket to defeat Barrio Logan Community plan by Joshua Emerson Smith “Proposition B and C, it’s just a bad plan,” says former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders in a recent television commercial attacking a city-approved zoning-plan update for Barrio Logan, which goes before voters on June 3. Ominous piano music plays over an image of shipyards with red text reading, “Wrong Place for Housing.” “Putting people right next to an industrialized facility is really a bad plan,” retired Navy Rear Admiral Len Hering proclaims, followed by retired Navy Rear Admiral Jose Luis Betancourt, who chimes in, “You’re
6 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
losing not only the shipyard; you’re losing the jobs that come with it.” While the shipbuilding and repair industry has long expressed concern about residential encroachment, after watching this ad, it might be strange to learn the community-plan update would actually prevent housing from being built next to the shipyard—something that’s unlikely but possible under the current zoning. Also, despite what Hering and Betancourt say in the ad, the Navy has remained neutral on the plan, expressing no apprehension. This attack ad is just the latest in a series of moves paid for by the shipyard industry’s well-financed campaign, which last winter funded a referendum signature drive marked by widespread allegations of deceit. “Yes” votes on Propositions B and C would affirm the updated plan. If the “no” votes win, the city will have to redo the plan update, which
was negotiated over five years, costing several million dollars. Or officials could wait a year and reapprove the plan update. Behind the attack ad is “a group of highpowered, well-moneyed individuals who are used to always getting their way, and they want to get their way at all costs,” said City Councilmember David Alvarez, whose District 8 includes Barrio Logan. “There is no other issue. It’s just the fact that they want to show that they’ve got enough money to do what they want.” While the shipyard industry has bankrolled the campaign to defeat the community-plan update, grassroots supporters of Props. B and C would have no funding if not for a few high-profile donors, including the campaigns of state Assemblymembers Toni Atkins and Lorena Gonzalez and City Council President Todd Gloria. To pay signature gatherers and finance commercials and mailers, the independentexpenditure committee opposing the plan update—No on B and C—raised more than $1.1 million, according to campaign-finance
disclosures. Supporters of the plan update— Yes on B and C—have collected just $56,500. “Every community in San Diego should be alarmed at the setback to the fundamental planning process that is playing out in Barrio Logan if the all-or-nothing approach of a wealthy special interest can so easily derail a sensible plan that was years in the making,” Gloria said in an email. “Ballot-box planning isn’t new to San Diego,” said City Councilmember Mark Kersey, an opponent of the plan update. “It’s unclear if and what type of precedent this could set because each community and community-plan update is different.” Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the shipyard industry initially claimed the updated plan threatened to eliminate about 46,000 jobs, even though city planners estimated that it would likely create about 4,800 jobs. While continuing to claim the updated plan threatens the viability of the shipping industry, opponents of the plan backed down from that hyperbolic jobs number after significant scrutiny. “This bad plan represents the first step toward the closure of San Diego’s shipyards, threatening the loss of more than 7,000 good paying jobs,” said Chris Wahl, spokesperson for No on B and C, in an email. “Adding 2,000 more homes, including six-story high-rises, in Barrio Logan will limit the future expansion of the industrial base that supports the shipyards and the U.S. Navy.” Georgette Gomez, associate director of the Environmental Health Coalition, which supports the plan update, said if shipyard vendors’ and suppliers’ expansion needs were so great, then wouldn’t Barrio Logan see far fewer vacant lots and empty warehouses? She pointed to a car-storage company that recently moved into a warehouse space adjacent to a shipyard supplier. “They could have fought it and kept [the warehouse] empty, yet they didn’t oppose it,” she said. “They want to continue protecting these empty lots.” The three shipyard giants—General Dynamics NASSCO, BAE Systems and Continental Maritime of San Diego—have expressed concerns that as the neighborhood grows, homeowners and renters will increasingly complain about noise and pollution from industry. Community residents have long voiced concerns about pollution from industrial businesses located next to homes.
In response to both concerns, Alvarez helped broker a deal that included a buffer zone restricting residential use located next to the shipyards along Harbor Drive and Main Street between Sigsbee and 28th streets. The rules would grandfather in the fewer than a dozen maritime-related businesses located in the zone, allowing them to expand by up to 20 percent without a new permit. New industrial businesses in that area would have to go through a permit process. Despite concern on both sides, compromise seemed imminent. The San Diego Planning Commission unanimously approved the updated plan, and the City Council passed it on a 5-4 vote. However, amid the public process, the industry abruptly pulled its support and launched a campaign aimed at controlling the buffer zone. “The primary blocks in front of the shipyards are currently zoned for heavy industrial use,” Wahl said. “We believe these blocks should continue to allow maritime suppliers to locate and expand by right, without politically charged permits, to ensure that the shipyards can continue to grow and support the U.S. Navy’s continued expansion on the West Coast.” If voters rescind the community-plan update, Alvarez said, it’s not only a bad deal for people suffering from industrial pollution; it also sets up potential residential encroachment at the shipyard. “If this fails, and there’s a developer out there that wants to build some residential development in Barrio Logan, he’s going to have a blank slate of where he can go, and I’d be interested in hearing their proposal,” Alvarez said. In a recent twist, the shipyard industry has started expressing concern about residents’ health. Hemmed in by the maritime industry to the west and Interstate 5 to the east, Barrio Logan’s children are hospitalized for asthma at 2.5 times the county average. “We believe it’s important that voters understand
that cancer rates will increase in Barrio Logan if this plan is approved because it adds 2,000 new homes next to Interstate 5, which is the true source of pollution in the community,” Wahl said. Housing development resulting from the updated plan would increase air pollution, according to a 2012 study contracted by the city. The version of the plan that the shipyard industry supported would have caused less, but still significant, increases in pollution. “The city did not fully disclose the results of their Air Quality and Health Risk Assessment prepared for the Barrio Logan Community Plan Update,” Wahl said. The full study was publicly available during the plan-update process and is currently on the city’s website. Joy Williams, research director with the Environmental Health Coalition, isn’t buying the industry’s concerns about pollution. “It’s clear that their concern seems to be specious,” she said, “because if they were really concerned about impacts to the community from pollution, they would not be arguing to include industrial land uses in the transition zone.” Throughout the planning process, the industry has changed its reasons for opposing the plan “multiple times,” Alvarez added. “Now, apparently they’re concerned about health, which they’ve never been concerned about. It just shifted every single time.” If Props. B and C don’t pass, Alvarez said, he’s prepared to push forward an even more aggressive community-plan update. “If this fails, everything remains the same in Barrio Logan,” he said, “and if they’re so concerned about people’s health, we’re going to have to find a way to eliminate some of those uses that are in the community so we can protect people’s health.” Write to joshuas@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 7
the
SHORTlist
COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN
San Diego Jazz Fest performers Brian Culbertson, Maxwell, Jill Scott and Charlie Wilson
1
SOME R&B WITH YOUR JAZZ?
Brian Culbertson doesn’t just play his keyboard—he kind of seduces it. The contemporary-jazz musician takes his genre decidedly less seriously than did his traditional-jazz forefathers. He’s a skillful musician; there’s no question about that. But he wants people who show up to his live performances to have fun. If that means being a bit wacky and weird while he plays, then so be it. “I really try to make the live experience much different than listening to a record,” says Culbertson, who recently released a new album and is crisscrossing the globe on his 20th-anniversary tour. “I’m changing the arrangement and making them much more exciting and interesting to the audience…. I’m
2
BRING ON SUMMER
CityBeat throws some great parties, if we do say so ourselves, and few have topped the annual TikiBeat shindig at the Lafayette Hotel in North Park (2223 El Cajon Blvd.). The throw-down, a celebration of the Summer Guide issue you’re reading right now, features live music from Creepxotica and Ivan & The Divine Lights, tiki music by DJ Old Man Johnson, a summer-fashion show, a burlesque show, a spanking booth (!), Polynesian dancers and drummers, a Tiki Oasis art show and a mini-arcade courtesy of Coin Op North Park. It goes from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 23. The cover is $10 at the door. Go to facebook. com/sdcitybeat and click on “Events.”
8 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
extremely animated when I play, and there’s plenty of other creative ways to keep people interested.” Culbertson will be playing the San Diego Jazz Fest along with R&B and contemporary-jazz stars like Jill Scott, Maxwell, Charlie Wilson and Robert Glasper. The two-year-old fest will happen at Omni Resorts La Costa (2100 Costa Del Mar Road in Carlsbad) from Friday, May 23, through Sunday, May 25. Billed as more than a straight-forward music fest, the weekend includes after-parties, a Gospel Sunday Brunch, casual poolside shows, hotel-lobby performances and more. While the name of the festival suggests a lineup of mostly jazz, Culbertson, who played the inaugural San Diego Jazz Fest last year, says the event packs in more R&B than expected. “Mixing those genres is really working, and I think they totally fit,” Culbertson says. “A lot of the music I play, if you put vocals on it, it’s R&B. And if you take the vocals in an R&B song and replace them with a sax solo, suddenly it’s contemporary jazz.” Tickets start at $50. Check sandiegojazzfest.com for the full lineup and all the details.
3
BEST ESTUARY EVER
Despite its name, the Tijuana Estuary isn’t in Tijuana. Nope—it’s in Imperial Beach, and, according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, it’s the “largest coastal wetland in Southern California.” The visitor center there (301 Caspian Way), designed by architect Rob Wellington Quigley—the same guy who designed the snazzy new central library—opened 20 years ago and, from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, will be the site of a 20-yearanniversary celebration and rededication. Light refreshments will be served, and you can check out the restored watershed-map mural by artist Robin Brailsford, Wick Alexander’s paintings of Dulzura (which is in the eastern part of the watershed) and explore the estuary’s stunning biodiversity. trnerr.org
ART The Sky Calls to Us at UCSD Visual Arts Facility Gallery, Russell Drive and Lyman Avenue, La Jolla. Work by MFA candidate Nichole Speciale featuring collaborative pieces with musician Curt Miller. The show touches on ideas about capturing the intangible. Closing from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 22. visarts.ucsd.edu HThe Art of Survival: Personal Stories of Mental Illness at Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St., North Park. Members of The Meeting Place Clubhouse, which offers services for folks with mental illness, took to planting symbolically resilient succulents in repurposed objects to create pieces of art. These living sculptures, along with an exhibition of photography exploring mental illness, will be on view and auctioned off with proceeds supporting TMPC’s programs. From 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday, May 22. facebook.com/The MeetingPlaceClubhouse
Civic Center Park and the Vista Library. Saturday, May 24. vistapublicart.com HNew World Border at Casa del Tunel, 133 Calle Chapo Marquez Col. Federal, Tijuana. Voz Alta and Tijuana Rumble Fest team up to curate a night of art and music. Over 30 artists from across the U.S., U.K., and Mexico are showing screen prints made in response to the U.S./Mexico border. Featured artists include Francisco Dominguez, Frank Lapena, The Roots Factory, Nancy Hom and more. Music by IOB, Donkey Chow and Luke Redfield. Opening from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 24. facebook.com/vozaltaproject Seven: Our World Through Colored Pencil at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor’s Center, One Father Junipero Serra Trail, Mission Hills. An exhibition
featuring seven artists displaying natureinspired drawings using colored pencil. Artists include Rhonda Anderson, Bobbie Bradford, Deb Gargula and more. Opening from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 25. 619-668-3281, mtrp.org
BOOKS HJennifer George at Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. The author stops by to sign and discuss her bio book, The Art of Rube Goldberg (a) Inventive (b) Cartoon (c) Genius. At 7 p.m. Thursday, May 22. $10. 858-457-3030, sdcjc.org Tess Masters at Williams-Sonoma Fashion Valley, 7007 Friars Road, Fashion Valley, San Diego. A book signing and cook-
ing demo of her debut cookbook, The Blender Girl: Super-Easy, Super-Healthy Meals, Snacks, Desserts, and Drinks 100 Gluten-Free, Vegan Recipes. At 1 p.m. Saturday, May 24. 619-295-0510, face book.com/healthyblenderrecipes Tom Hom at Gaslamp Museum at the William Heath Davis House, 410 Island Ave., Downtown. Lecture, book signing and reception for Rabbit on a Bumpy Road, a autobiography by Hom who, in 1963, made history by becoming the first minority ever elected to the San Diego City Council. There will be an introduction by City Council President Todd Gloria and a reception with light refreshments. From 1 to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 25. 619-2334692, gaslampquarter.org John Adrian Tomlin at Warwick’s Book-
store, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Part of the ongoing Weekend with Locals program, Warwick’s hosts John Adrian Tomlin, author of The Imaginarium World, the sci-fi dystopian sequel to Imaginarium Machine. At noon Sunday, May 25. 858454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com HEllen Gustafson at Cafe 21, 802 5th Ave., Downtown. Book-launch party for the food policy advocate and author’s first book, We the Eaters: If We Change Dinner, We Can Change the World. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. 619-795-0721, ellengustafson.com Jim Butcher at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The steampunk fiction writer stops
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Open Studios at Brokers Building, 402 Market St., Downtown. A one-night-only open studio and gallery space exhibition featuring local artists like Dan Camp, Madeline Sherry, Helena Espinoza, Anna Zappoli and more. From 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 23. 619-992-9684,facebook. com/thebrokersbuildinggallery Candela Casado Sastre at Nadine Baurin Fine Art, 996 N. Coast Hwy 101, Encinitas. The Argentina-based artist will be presenting a select group of paintings from two of her newest series. From 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 23. 760-683-9499, nadine baurin.com/candela-casado-sastre S, M, L at The Studio Arts Building, 2400 Kettner Blvd., Little Italy. A fundraiser and art show featuring the works of some great local artists like Will Barton, Fred Najera and Susan Snyder. Proceeds benefit the Southwest Traumatic Brain Injury Fund. From 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 23. Suggested donation. HSnake in the Grass at Subtext, 2479 Kettner Blvd., Little Italy. Toronto-based Sarah Joncas’ first solo exhibition features noir-inspired pop-surrealism reminiscent of the 1940s, filled by long shadows and melodramatic narratives with themes of mystery, troubled relationships and betrayal. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 23. 619-876-0664, subtextgallery.com HSummer C-Note at San Diego Art Institute-Museum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park. Buy original artwork right off the wall for $100, $200 or $300 to raise funds for the museum’s education programs. From 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 24. You can preview the work from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, May 23-24. sandiego-art.org HCHROMO | CHRONO at theRowCollective, Flower Hill Promenade, 2690 Via De La Valle, Ste. D150, Del Mar. New work by Brooklyn artist Jesse Harding. The works on display explore overlaid patterns that create new sympathetic systems through color, rhythm, motion, form, vantage and light. Local shoegazers Idyll Wild will also perform. Opening from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, May 24. 619-2182737, shipinthewoods.com Betwixt at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. New paintings from local professor and artist Leslie Nemour, who translated her artistic vision as it exists on TV, not in real life. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 24, facebook.com/ pages/Bread-Salt Kites Over Vista at Vista Library, 700 Eucalyptus Ave., Vista. Eight new sculptures have been installed as part of Vista’s public arts program. The sixth installation officially kicks off Memorial Day weekend and includes a total of 15 sculptures that are displayed throughout the Vista Village,
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 9
by to sign and discuss Skin Game, the newest addition to his bestselling Dresden Files series. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com J. Elke Ertle at Lemon Grove Library, 8073 Broadway, Lemon Grove. The author stops by to sign and discuss her memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, about what it was like to grow up in West Berlin during the aftermath of World War II. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. sandiegolibrary.org
COMEDY Comicazi Comedy Crew at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The local laugh crew will feature over half a dozen comics in one night including Maria Herman, Lynne Goodman and local up-and-comer Zoltan. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 21. $20. 858573-9067, thecomedypalace.com HSteve-O at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Prepare to be either thrilled or grossed out by the hijinks of Steve-O from MTV’s stunt-based reality show, Jackass. At 8 p.m. Thursday, May 22, and Sunday, May 25, and at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 2324. $28. americancomedyco.com Rick Martinez at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. He runs the Spicy Latino show at all of SoCal’s Improv Comedy Clubs and has been on VH1’s When Comics Ruled The World. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 23-24. $20. 858-5739067, thecomedypalace.com Don Friesen at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. This comic’s credits include Live at Gotham, The Lewis Black Christmas Special and Comics Un-
leashed. At 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 23-24. $20-$30. 619-7026666, madhousecomedyclub.com
for costumers and offer specials and free gifts. From noon to 2 p.m. Friday, May 23. 858-456-8134, freshproduceclothes.com
Euphoria Brass Band and Theo and the Zydeco Patrol. From 11 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 25. $10-$65. lsusandiego.org
tions’s artistic partner, Stephen Prutsman. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22. $35$65. mainlymozart.org
HOwen Smith at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla. He was writer and producer for shows like Are We There Yet? and Everybody Hates Chris, and recently appeared on Comedy Central’s Russell Simmons Presents the Ruckus. At 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 23-24. $20. lajolla.thecomedystore.com
IT Fashion Show at The Headquarters at Seaport District, 789 West Harbor Drive, Downtown. The annual fashion show will feature mini-collections by students at The Art Institute of California San Diego and will raise funds for The Education Foundation, a non-profit scholarship foundation. At 8 p.m. Saturday, May 24. $25. theitfashionshow.com
Latin Food Wine Fest at Harrah’s Rincon Casino, 777 Harrah’s Rincon Way, Valley Center. Receive unlimited food tastings from local and celeb chefs, plus unlimited sips of Latin influenced wines at this inaugural festival. There will also be music from Emilio Modern Gypsy and Todo Mundo. From 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 25. $60. ticketmaster.com
San Diego Jazz Festival at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa, 2100 Costa Del Mar. Notable jazz and R&B talent will be performing at this second annual music fest, including Maxwell and Brian Culbertson (Friday), Charlie Wilson and Mint Condition (Saturday) and Jill Scott and Boney James (Sunday). See website for lineup and details. Various times. Friday through Sunday, May 23-25. $50-$750. 619-231-6664, sandiegojazzfest.com
HThe Funny Thing Is at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. This night features some of the best talent from L.A. to San Diego. Mateen Stewart headlines along with the rest of the gang from the “Well Spoken Comedy Tour.” From 8 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 25. $10. 6193470457, thecomedypalace.com Jeff Richards at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. He was a featured player on Saturday Night Live and his high-energy stand-up is a mix of his growing arsenal of impressions and outrageous original characters. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. $15. 619702-6666, madhousecomedyclub.com HJoe DeRosa at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. He’s appeared on Louie and Chelsea Lately, and is known for his unique brand of comedy mixing brutal honesty and frustration at the workings of the world. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. $12. 619-7953858, americancomedyco.com
FASHION Elly Preston Trunk Show at Fresh Produce, 1147 Prospect St., La Jolla. The jewelry designer will stop by the La Jolla boutique to show off some of her latest designs, make color and style suggestions
10 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
FOOD & DRINK HDay Bar Tacos Perla at The Pearl Hotel, 1410 Rosecrans St., Point Loma. Each Saturday, the Tacos Perla crew will be by the Pearl pool making authentic tacos. Inside, the bar is open with 10 taps of local craft beer and even craftier cocktails. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 24. tacosperla.com HEthnic Food Fair at House of Pacific Relations International, 2191 West Pan American Road, Balboa Park. Sample food from 33 different countries at this 34th annual event. Free admission, small fee per dish. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 25. sdhpr.org HVista Strawberry Festival at 127 Main St., Vista. The annual fest features a Strawberry 5K run followed by a pie-eating contest, strawberry costume contest, “Strawberry Idol” and more. From 7:05 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 25. 760-7261122, vistastrawberryfest.com HSan Diego Crawfish Boil at Qualcomm Stadium, 9449 Friars Road, Mission Valley. Head to the Chargers’ old practice field at Qualcomm for fresh crawfish boiled by Cajun chefs, seasoned corn and potatoes, ice cold beer and live music from
Nicky’s Week at Ra Sushi, 474 Broadway, Downtown. The 10th annual fundraiser where RA Sushi will donate all proceeds from popular food items and cocktails to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Sunday, May 25. 619-3210021, rasushi.com/Nickys-Week-2014
MUSIC HJoan Osborne at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. The blues and soul singer performs at the Green Flash concert series, which pairs live music with ocean views on Birch Aquarium’s outdoor Tide-Pool Plaza. From 5:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, May 21. $28-$36. 858-534-5037, aquarium.ucsd.edu Alexander Gourevitch and Freilachs at Encinitas Library, 540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas. The popular klezmer clarinet virtuoso charms audiences with his lively performances of Jewish and Klezmer classics. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 21. sdrep.org HUrban Rustic at The Abbey, 2825 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest. Part of Mainly Mozart’s Evolution series, Todd Palmer, Squid Inc., the Hausmann Quartet and more present a program of cool, cutting-edge hybrids of traditional fiddle music, jazz and rock with a couple of original pieces by Evolu-
HVadim Repin at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The San Diego Symphony’s 2013-14 season finale brings the great Russian violinist Vadim Repin to town to perform Sergei Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 2.” Jahja Ling opens the program with Carl Maria Von Weber’s overture from “Oberon,” and closes with Brahms’ “First Symphony.” At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 23-24, and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 25. $20-$96. 619-235-0804,sandiegosymphony.org HNew Vocables at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East Village. Stay Strange presents the third installment of this annual series featuring solo vocal experimentation used to create unworldly sounds. Participating musicians include Aedwyrrde Lancsaubre Al-Hazred, Karl Blau and more. At 3 p.m. Saturday, May 24. $5. sdspace4art.org Brit Floyd at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. The “World’s Greatest Pink Floyd Show” returns for this threehour musical journey spanning the entire recording career of Pink Floyd. Includes a new light and laser show. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25. $45.10-$64.30. 619-570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org
The Divas of Klezmer at Encinitas Library, 540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas. Elizabeth Schwartz, who’s celebrated for her uniquely dusky timbre that resembles Edith Piaf and Maria Tanase, is joined for this special library concert with two of San Diego’s leading musical divas, Kathy Robbins and Debby Davis. At 2 p.m. Sunday, May 25. sdrep.org San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory Chamber Music Recital at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. See San Diego’s most talented young musicians at this performance by SDYS’s advanced Chamber Orchestra String Quartet. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. 619-233-3232, sdys.org Pierrot Lunaire: Melodrama for Reciter and Five Instrumentalists at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Tiffany Du Mouchelle per-
forms a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg about an artist who lives in a world of his own creation. From 8 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. 858-534-3230, mu sicweb.ucsd.edu/concerts Yom Yerushalayim with Moshav at Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown. One of Jerusalem’s most popular Jewish bands, Moshav are one of the first groups to combine Jewish music with alternative rock, folk, funk and reggae. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. $12-$15. 619-544-1000, sdrep.org H#HACKINGIMPROV at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East Village. Composer/performer Blair Robert Nelson explores over a century of audio technology through his generative song cycle. At 7 p.m.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
THEATER After decades, Annie still hits her mark It’s not too late to catch San Diego Musical Theatre’s fine, likable production of the beloved Annie Get Your Gun. The show runs through Sunday, May 25, at the North Park Theatre. As this effort directed by John Todd, with music direction by SDMT’s Don Le Master, reiterates, the play is beloved for a reason. Yes, it’s fluff, but it’s also pure Irving Berlin, who wrote some of his most enduring tunes for Annie Get Your Gun. Roll call, please: “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “They Say It’s Wonderful,” “Anything You Can Do,” “The Girl That I Marry,” “I Got the Sun in the Morning.” Even Annie Oakley’s cornpone “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” is hard to resist. Of course, it takes more than Berlin’s songs, memorable as they are, to propel a show from start to finish, especially one that’s been done a jillion times and is familiar to just about anybody who ever set foot in a theater. You’ve got to have the right Annie, for starters. This production does. Beth Malone is a natural comedian, animated of expression and athletic of movement. She’s paired with Steve Blanchard, whom you may have seen doing stellar work as the Grinch at The Old Globe the last couple of holiday seasons. Compared with that cartoonish duty, he’s practically playing the straight man to Malone in this show. But he gets to flaunt his comic chops well enough, notably in the “Anything You Can Do” duet near the end of the evening. A character actor’s dream, Annie Get Your Gun also lets John Polhamus have a ball as impresario Buffalo Bill, and Debbie David cracks wise as the pretty but petty Dolly Tate. The less said about the un-P.C. character of Sitting Bull (and that’s no reflection on actor Sean Tamburrino), the better. The story, by the way, of Annie Oakley becoming the star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show is predictable but entertaining. Naturally, Annie and the previously unchallenged “champeen” shooter on Earth, Frank Butler (Blanchard), fall in love, split on account of a misunderstanding and then reunite. Whoops, gave it away. But is there anyone out there who’s
KEN JACQUES
Steve Blanchard and Beth Malone never seen Annie Get Your Gun? Well, if you haven’t, you’ve got a few more days to join the Wild West Show. Get a move on. It runs through May 25 at the North Park Theatre. $26-$56. sdmt.org
—David L. Coddon Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
OPENING All the Rooms of the House: A site-specific musical performance about three siblings who return to their family home, which is no longer there. Presented by The Trip, it runs May 22 through 25 at Barracks 2 in Point Loma’s Liberty Station. thetriptheater.org Bell, Book and Candle: A reading of the play about a (mid-century) modern witch living in New York City, part of the inspiration for the 1960s sitcom Bewitched. Presented by San Diego Writers, Ink, it happens May 25 at The Ink Spot in Point Loma’s Liberty Station. sandiegowriters.org The Book of Mormon: In the acclaimed musical by the creators of South Park, two Mormon missionaries are sent to Uganda to convert the locals, who are not the slightest bit interested in being converted. Presented by Broadway San Diego, it runs May 27 through June 8 at the Civic Theatre, Downtown. broadwaysd.com There’s No Place Like Home: A world-premiere musical about a young disabled woman who has to learn to cope with homelessness. Presented by Circle Circle dot dot, it opens May 23 at Ocean Beach Playhouse. circle2dot2.com Twelfth Night: In Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, much love is professed and identities are mistaken after a shipwreck on the Adriatic coast. Opens May 27 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. lambsplayers.org
For full listings,
please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 11
Wednesday, May 28. $10. 619-2697230, sdspace4art.org Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell at AVO Playhouse, 303 Main St., Vista. Russell has been chief soloist with operas around the country and has created a repertoire exploring the common tones of Jewish music and African American spirituals. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. $8. 760-643-2888, sdrep.org
OUTDOORS Fiesta Island Cleanup at Fiesta Island, E. Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. San Diego Coastkeeper hosts a beach and street cleanup at Mission Bay’s Fiesta Island. From 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, May 24, sdcoastkeeper.org
POETRY & SPOKEN WORD Poolhouse Project Play Reading at The New Ink Spot, NTC at Liberty Station, 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16, Ste. 204, Point Loma. Local theatre group Poolhouse Project will be reading Bell Book and Candle by John Van Druten. From 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, May 25. Suggested donation $5-$10. 619-696-0363, sandiegowriters.org
POLITICS & COMMUNITY Participatory Budgeting: Your Neighborhood, Your Money, Your Decision at UDW/AFSCME Local 3930 Sanctuary, 4855 Seminole Drive, City Heights. Learn more about a new approach to democracy how it is being used in other cities and ways participatory budgeting can be used in San Diego. From 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 22. facebook.com/ events/286541668188011 March Against Monsanto at World Beat Cultural Center, 2100 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. Meet at the fountain by the Reuben H. Fleet Museum to march against the biotech corporation. The march will conclude at the World Beat Center for organic veggie food, workshops and live music by. At 11 a.m. Saturday, May 24. worldbeatcul turalcenter.org Vigil and Rally for Anastasio Hernandez Rojas at Civic Center Plaza, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown. Community organizations will gather to mark the fourth anniversary of the lethal beating of San Diego resident Anastasio Hernandez Rojas by Customs and Border Protection officers. At 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. revitalizenotmilitarize.org
SPECIAL EVENTS HTikiBeat at Lafayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. CityBeat’s annual start of summer kick-off party featuring DJs spinning tiki tunes, Polynesian dancers, a fashion show, burlesque performances, music from Creepxotica and Ivan & the Divine Lights. From 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, May 23. $10. 619-296-2101,sdcitybeat.com American Freedom Festival at USS Midway Museum, 910 N. Harbor Drive, Downtown. World Classic Rockers performs a concert in honor of veterans and those in the armed forces. This year’s event will benefit San Diego ASYMCA, Wounded Warrior Support Network, REBOOT Workshops and Nice Guys Victory Fund. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 24. $39-$69. 619-544-9600, midway.org Warrior’s Code Motorcycle Poker
12 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
“Season of the Witch” by Sarah Joncas is part of Snake in the Grass, her solo show opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 23, at Subtext Gallery (2479 Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy). Ride at Biggs Harley-Davidson, 717 Center Drive, San Marcos. Riders can spend the day cruising to four designated spots where card games, cash prizes and bragging rights await. The third annual ride and poker tournament benefits Wounded Warrior Homes. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 24. $15-$35. 760-4833553, stayclassy.org HSan Diego All-American Soap Box Derby at Sherman Heights, 25th Street between Market Street and Imperial Avenue, Sherman Heights. Watch locals race their handmade derby cars for a chance to go on to compete in the World Championship Finals in Akron, Ohio. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 24. aasbd.org German American Game Day at Cabrillo Elementary School, 3120 Talbot St., Point Loma. As part of Deutsche Spielwoche (German Game Week), the German American San Diego Foundation will host this family-friendly event where kids can play German-style board and card games, as well as learn about the German language and culture. From 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. germana mericansandiego.org
TALKS & DISCUSSIONS Jacquelyne Silver: Hooray for Hollywood! at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Part piano concert, part lecture series, Silver uses music and film clips to explore the story behind Hollywood’s larger-than-life men and women. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22. $19. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org/lectures 10 Years at the Helm of the San Diego Shakespeare Society at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. San Diego Shakespeare Society president Alex Sandie discusses the group’s accomplishments including events such the annual Student Shakespeare Festival, Celebrity Sonnets at the Old Globe
and the Shakespeare Musicale. From 12:30 to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 24. sandi egoshakespearesociety.org Christians and Atheists. Friends? at Humanist Fellowship, 3855 Ruffin Road, Kearny Mesa. David Smalley of the Dogma Debate podcast, and author of the recently released film, My Week in Atheism, will discuss “Loving Your Enemy, A Respectful Intervention.” At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 24. $10. meetup.com/ humanistfellowship Satan: The Personification and Projection of Evil at Joyce Beers Community Center, 3900 Vermont St., Hillcrest. Rebecca Moore, professor of religious studies at SDSU, will examine a number of historical, philosophical, religious and moral issues in her discussion about Beezlebub. At 7 p.m. Sunday, May 25. sdari.org What’s Wrong with this Picture?: The Problem with Participation at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. The third in a series of talks, art history lecturer Derrick Cartwright discusses strategies employed by artists and institutions to deepen audience engagement and what this means for our everyday encounters with objects. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. $19. 858454-5872, ljathenaeum.org HEast Meets West: Memories of Chinatown & the Changing Face of Downtown at San Diego History Center, Balboa Park. Part of the “In the Neighborhood” lecture series, this talk will look at the evolution of the Chinese experience in Downtown, the diaspora of Logan Heights and the introduction of Barrio Logan. At 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 28. $12. 619-232-6203, sandiegohistory.org
For full listings,
please visit “E vents” at sdcit yb eat.com
Seen Local Art Pulse scales back Since Art Pulse hit the scene in 2007, the nonprofit seems to have a hand in just about everything. Executive Director April Game and her team of contractors operate Pulse Gallery at Bread & Salt, which hosts visual-art exhibitions. They run a mentor program that provides career training for local artists. And then there are the media outlets: April Game, with artists Mario Torero (left) and Victor Ochoa Culture Buzz, an online website that runs art reviews by the likes of former U-T San Diego arts quality is there, but we didn’t get the sponsorships.” critic Robert Pincus; Snorkl, a regional arts-events Art Pulse’s mentor program didn’t receive enough website and email newsletter; and Art Pulse TV, an applications that met the criteria this year, so it, too, arts-focused television program that started online in is on hiatus. 2009 and aired briefly on NBC 7 San Diego last year (a “Culture Buzz is thin but alive,” Game says, indicatprogram to which I once contributed). ing that Snorkl will continue with a few cuts, as well. In 2012, Art Pulse even came close to purchasing To keep the organization afloat, Game says she’ll the Encinitas Union School District’s Pacific View pursue grant opportunities this summer and is acElementary site for more than $7 million in hopes tively fundraising. of turning it into an arts center, but zoning issues One of Art Pulse’s main objectives with its artscaused the deal to fall through. advocacy programming has been the creation of a Game says that Art Pulse has been scaling back countywide arts council that would act similarly to significantly since late last year, noting that Henry the city of San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Moon the organization’s co-founder and main fund- Culture, but with a countywide focus. At one time, ing source, has had to dramatically and suddenly cut Game thought Art Pulse could be that entity, but now his contributions. she says she has hope that a county Board of Super“It’s the same old story for nonprofits,” Game says. visors initiative called Live Well San Diego could “We’re being forced into maturity before we’re ready.” eventually result in the creation of a new agency for Art Pulse TV aired its last episode in Decem- the arts. ber. The show, which Game estimates cost roughly “After four years of talking about this, we finally $6,000 weekly, was never able to pick up enough fi- do have warmth from our Board of Supervisors,” nancial support. Game says. “The good news in all of this is there’s “It’s sad,” she says, maintaining that the show is momentum toward what we’ve always wanted.” on hiatus and could return if funding is found. “We —Kinsee Morlan were just nominated for four regional Emmys. The
Salazar slows down In 2011, CityBeat called gallerist and art dealer Alexander Salazar the “Energizer Bunny of the local art scene.” He regularly made appearances on these pages and on our Canvassed arts blog with announcements of new gallery spaces, new residency programs and general expansion of his empire. “I was holding seven leases,” says Salazar, who, at one point, operated two gallery storefronts Downtown, a gallery in La Jolla, two residency spaces, storage and office space and exhibition walls in high-end hotels. However, earlier this year, Salazar cut back his operations, closing almost everything. He’s now focusing on his flagship gallery at 1040 Seventh Ave., Downtown (which was called White Box Contemporary but now serves as a “gallery inside a gallery” as Alexander Salazar Fine Art Gallery with White Box continuing as a portioned area inside the space). “I had expanded quite fast,” Salazar says. “This area was sort of slated by the city to get a lot of money for rehabilitation, but, unfortunately, all that went to waste.”
Salazar, who says he’s now looking to expand to markets outside of the United States, once envisioned Seventh Avenue at C Street as an emerging arts district. While a few artists moved their studios to nearby spaces, his vision never materialized. He partly blames the state’s retaking of redevelopment money (the C Street corridor was slated for major Kinsee Morlan redevelopment, but the project has been delayed). “Everything I thought would support my investment fell through on the city’s side,” Salazar says. He’s also scaled back the number of exhibitions he’s hosting, and his gallery is now open only by appointment. Currently, he’s fixing up his main gallery with new lighting and an improved storefront façade, which includes a new Alexander Salazar mural by local artist JFeather. “I want to do more with the one bigger space instead of running around all the time,” Salazar said. “The Energizer Bunny no more.”
—Kinsee Morlan Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 13
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H
?A summer camp when you were a kid ow much do you miss going off to it? lot, right? Don’t you want to relive Oh. p? cam No? You hated summer ries, how about creating new ones? Well, then, if those are painful memo r camp, s like you’re in one long adult summe How about living the next few month older on s she homesickness, the awkward cru filled with fun activities, without the the mean kid two bunks over? counselors and being victimized by Great! s (Page off on adventures to urban canyon In the next 27 pages, we send you treat kcountry wine tasting (Page 26) and bac and 20) ge (Pa es hol in’ mm 18), swi re to get . Plus, we have helpful tips on whe you to an ice-cream social (Page 30) away at ’re you le keep the real kids busy whi useful gear (Page 22) and ways to drink and d foo e of good stuff on summertim cool camp (Page 23). There’s also lots t hou wit Beat Summer Guide is complete (Pages 24 through 29), and no City . event listings (Pages 32 through 42) the sunscreen and bug repellant. et forg ’t don Have fun at camp, and
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 15
16 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
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summer guide
Canyoneering
for a better tomorrow Joshua Emerson Smith
San Diego’s hidden escape from the urban environment by
Eric Bowlby in Manzanita Canyon, one of dozens of canyons in the city that residents can explore
18 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Joshua Emerson Smith
“I’m doing a story on San Diego’s 13 canyons,” I said over the phone to Eric Bowlby, executive director of nonprofit San Diego Canyonlands, hoping to cull some basic information. I had recently found a list of the canyons on the city’s website, I explained. It was like summer-camp hiking for adults, with some trails leading straight to brewpubs. I wanted to tell people about these natural resources woven right into the urban landscape. “Thirteen canyons!?” he said incredulously. “That’s a good one. Thirteen canyons.” I could almost see him shaking his head on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “I’m doing a—.” “There’s dozens of canyons in San Diego, dozens,” he said with an abrupt chuckle. Despite, or perhaps because of, my ignorance, he agreed to meet me the next day to give me the full lowdown. It turns out, San Diego has roughly 150 canyons, all part of a complex watershed. Rainwater flows from storm drains into the canyons, which are connected by a series of culverts and pipes, and eventually empties into the ocean. Several decades ago, Bowlby got involved with the canyons as a clean-water
activist. He advocated for proper maintenance of these open spaces, including restoration of native plant species, as a way to regulate pollution from storm-water runoff. With open space being paved over, canyons have become increasingly more valuable, not only for recreation, but also as a natural floodplain. “Water that’s able to spread out and absorb into the ground drops its sediment and pollutants, and it gets broken down by vegetation and the soil ecology, and that cleans the water,” Bowlby told me in his North Park home, out of which he runs the four-person nonprofit. Its website (sdcanyonlands.org/ maps) has links to resources for folks looking for canyon trails to hike, including the city’s list of 13 canyons and Google Maps’ list of all canyon trailheads in the area. Staring at countless maps covering Bowlby’s dining room, I thought about having recently hiked nearby Switzer Canyon. I had a blast traipsing through the lush trails, popping up on little neighborhood streets and diving back into the slightly damp nature that acted as an extended backyard for some area homes. However, I’d never imagined the envi-
ronmental or political implications of these recreation resources. The idea that swimming warnings for the ocean 72 hours after a rainfall were connected to the health of our canyon system had completely escaped me. “If you think about it on a citywide basis, with dozens of canyons scattered throughout each one of our watersheds, that’s an opportunity to solve our water-quality problem, or certainly help it,” Bowlby said. Throwing on some sunglasses, Bowlby suggested we drive over to Manzanita Canyon in City Heights—not one of the 13 listed on the city’s website—and see firsthand some of the work his group had accomplished. While the city’s canyons could still benefit from significant maintenance, Bowlby’s had some major victories in his time. “It could have been a lot worse,” he said from behind the wheel of his Prius. “The bottoms of our canyons could be a mess with pavement, and the wetlands wouldn’t have any chance to filter the urban runoff.” More than a decade ago, the city planed to pave over parts of the Manzanita Canyon floor to allow easier vehicle access for the publicutilities personnel who regularly do maintenance on buried water and sewer lines. At the time, Bowlby worked as the canyons campaign coordinator for the Sierra Club’s local chapter, a position that eventually morphed into his Canyonlands project. Organizing residents, Bowlby secured an agreement with the city that limited the paving. Then, between 2007 and 2012, he successfully lobbied the city to dedicate as parkland
13,100 acres of identified open space, including several canyons. Most recently, Canyonlands secured a $365,000 state grant to launch a canyon-enhancement planning program. The pilot project will be in of four City Heights canyons— Manzanita, Swan, Hollywood and 47th Street. We pulled up to Azalea Park, which, he explained, connected to Manzanita Canyon by a wood staircase his group installed with the help of residents. Part of Canyonlands’ mission is to organize people into “friends groups.” Friends of Manzanita Canyon, he said, had been active for several years now. “I’ll bring this map with us,” Bowlby said, stepping out into 90-degree heat. “Yeah,” I said. “We don’t want to get lost.” “Just for the record, we’re not going to freaking get lost,” he grinned. “I’m bringing it so I can show you various things in the canyon for reference.” Walking across the park’s grassy field, we descended the staircase, which sliced down into the canyon along a fence to the west, separating the trail from an embankment and Highway 15. Immediately, Bowlby sprung into action, indentifying every plant species in sight as either native, such as fat mule or sumac, or nonnative, such as ice plant, or, as he referred to it “the green carpet of death.” “Look through here and you can see the ice plant, and you can see the erosion, too,” he said. “It’s totally destabilizing the soil.” At the bottom of the staircase, the trail opened up to a wide, brown canyon, flanked by bushes and tall trees and marked by a dry
creek bed. As we hiked, he pointed out several native species that Canyonlands had planted and protected with rock circles. “This is a native right here,” he said. “This guy’s doing good. This is buckwheat. He’s doing really good.” The native plants have deeper roots and promote water absorption, he said. Nonnative plants tend to have shallow roots and create fuel for fire as they dry in the summer months. The fewer native species, the faster the nonnative invasive plants move in. Turning a corner, we stumbled onto a rumbling utility truck and five guys getting ready to work on a broken water line. Bowlby wasted no time pointing out that the vehicle had been able to access the unpaved road. “Hey guys, what’s up today,” Bowlby greeted them. “You see this hawk right here just yanked this little mouse right there,” said one of the burly workers pointing up into a eucalyptus tree, which Bowlby pointed out was nonnative. “Oh, where is it?” asked another man. “Right there in the tree,” said the first. “He swooped down. Bam.” For a moment we all stood transfixed on this reddish hawk picking apart an afternoon snack. It was a gorgeous feeling to watch such raw nature right smack in the middle of City Heights. If these canyons could purify our storm runoff, they surely could, if perhaps only for select moments, also clear my mind. Write to joshuas@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 19
summer guide Ryan Bradford
Wet
spots
Swimming holes in San Diego County are rare, but worth the effort by
Ryan Bradford
I hate to break it to you, San Diego, but y’all are what I call “city folk.” Where I come from, we don’t have graffiti sprayed across our hiking trails. We don’t have to look for parking to enjoy the wilderness, and we especially don’t have to buy memberships to go swimming. Before you rush to your fancy, big-city computers to rabidly inform me that we have access to a great, free-of-charge ocean to swim in, let me remind you that the ocean actually hates us. Sharks, undercurrents, territorial surfers and sharknados are only a few of the factors conspiring against the casual ocean swimmer. I’m also certain that all swimming pools are actually thinly veiled urine baths. I suspect this because I know what I do in pools. Swimming holes, on the other hand, not only epitomize the summer-camp experience; they also provide some of the most scenic, enjoyable environments in which to swim. And they fulfill city folks’ desire to shed their bourgeoisie anchors, since anything described as a “hole” is undoubtedly country. (P.S. I’m pronouncing the “g” in “swimming” as a formality here.) However, swimming holes in San Diego County aren’t common, so I entrusted my friend Nathan Young to help me find some. He’s earned the honor of being my appointed outdoor guru because he practically knows Jerry Schad’s invaluable guide Afoot & Afield by heart. And he’s got a pretty good beard. The Cedar Creek Falls trailhead is at the end of a suburban street in Ramona (about an hour drive from North Park). We arrived around 10 a.m., and the temperature was already in the 80s. Groups of college kids huddled in the parking lot, lathering sunscreen on the parts that their neon muscle-tanks or trucker hats didn’t cover. A sign informed us that we needed a $6 permit to access the falls, which we purchased by phone, although it’d probably be easier and more convenient to take care of that beforehand at recreation. gov. Once we had the permit, the super-intimidating old-lady volunteer let us through the metal corral that led to the trail. Suffice to say, our adventure didn’t start off as the ruff ’n’ tumble country adventure I had hoped for. The 2.5-mile hike leading down to the falls was deceptively
20 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Nathan Young at Cedar Creek Falls simple. The trail was well-maintained and remained at a steady grade the entire time. Apart from some spectacular views, one might even find it dull. But as we got closer to the falls, distant shouts of jubilation quickened our pace. We emerged from the trees to the most picturesque swimming hole I’ve ever seen: Sheer cliffs surrounded the forest-green water, creating a natural amphitheater, similar to that scene in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves when Robin Hood’s bathing nude in the waterfall—a reference I’m sure only my mom will appreciate. By then, the temperature had risen to nearly 100 degrees, making the frigid water feel like Heaven. Families and people of all ages paddled around in the water or sunbathed on the rocks. A couple of brave souls jumped from surrounding cliffs, despite warnings not to. It was a laid-back atmosphere, and even the teenagers seemed quietly reverent of this private oasis. Despite the fun of the swimming hole, the hike out was totes the suck: all uphill with little shade in brutal heat. Add our exhaustion from swimming and it was, like, “STFU, nature” by the end. There’s an ominous, bullet-riddled sign at the Three Sisters Falls trailhead in Descanso that warns of rugged terrain and strenuous hiking conditions. Considering that Nathan had to cancel on our hiking date, this is exactly the sign I didn’t want to see while attempting the hike solo. Given that I’d just traversed eight miles of harrowing gravel road in my ill-equipped, bigcity Toyota Corolla, the sign seemed like a bad omen. I asked myself: Was risking my life to research a puff piece for a CityBeat special issue worth it? The answer to that, my friends, will be determined by how many Facebook likes this story receives. Now, that sign was not kidding with all its scare-talk: The hike to Three Sisters Falls was rough. It was using-ropes-toscale-dirt-cliffs-rough. The trail disappeared during the last third of the hike, leaving it up to me to find my own way around boulders the size of cars. I even saw a fox. It scared me. But the struggle was worth it. Smoothedout valleys surrounded the three levels of pools, each connected by a jaw-dropping waterfall. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I dove into the middle pool, so awed by its great majesty that I didn’t even pee in it. Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 21
summer guide by Nina Sachdev Hoffmann
urban
scout Loaded
up
Snacks, packs and more to take to camp Whether you’re going camping or shipping off (or getting shipped off ) to camp, summer’s the time to sit back, relax and stop complaining about these things I keep hearing about called “May gray” and “June gloom.” Because, as I write this, it’s 94 degrees, and my cat is licking droplets from the bathtub. Besides, your random partly cloudy days are no match for the impending deluge of Daisy Dukes (of Hazzard) and Shutter Shades (oh, you know, those stupid-ass sunglasses that Kanye wears). Here’s a way better list of summer essentials that are perfect for wherever the road takes you.
Pack it Enamelware has a great reputation for standing the test of time—and heat. Made of porcelain and steel, people like the fact that enamelware retains its color throughout its lifetime. You can pretty much do anything to it (except maybe drop it— even then, it still wouldn’t break), which is probably why it’s making a comeback. Falconware’s limited-edition tumblers ($9.50 each) at Pigment (3801 30th St. in North Park, shoppigment. com) are stackable and surprisingly lightweight. While you’re there, grab a foldable barware set from Henley Brands to ensure proper (de)-hydration if you get lost while trekking through the woods.
The Wilder bag by Bradley Mountain preservative-free meat sticks made of 100-percent grass-fed beef. OK, my interest is piqued. Oh, and they have a line of alcohol-infused jerky that uses local beers? I’m in! If you’re a fan of IPAs, you’re going to dig how the malty flavor of the Craft Beer jerky ($7.99) really develops as you chew. Chipotle Tequila ($7.99) packs way more punch and is definitely the more adventurous choice if you’re looking for something different. Perfect for traveling, these things really stand up to extreme conditions like heat and sweaty gym bags.
Sling it
Speaking of bags, but not sweaty ones, you simply can’t head out on the road without something durable and large enough for all your snacks and accessories. Men, San Diego-based Bradley Mountain (bradleymountain.com) has your back, Eat it literally, with a couple of options that Back in the day, choosy moms chose should totally help you with that—and Jiff. Now that I’m all growns up, I’m with the whole looking sexy and rugged choosing not to fill myself or my kid thing. The Scout ($150) is a versatile with sugar and artificial preservaday pack made of heavyweight canvas tives. Yes, I take peanut butter very that should last through the ages. The seriously. I’ve recently pushed my Wilder ($450) is a bigger, badder, love of nut butter to a new level by put-everything-you-could-possiexploring locally made options—Pably-need-to-live-like-a-nomad type cific Beach Peanut Butter (pbpea of bag. Put one of these bad boys on, Boutonne’s Reverse Mills nutbutter.com) being one of my new and you’re all, like, “I just tamed a Tote and Falconware faves. For a protein-packed, sugar-free crocodile in the outback—would enamelware tumblers snack, go with the Organic Valencia anyone care for a meat stick?” blend ($8.99). No need for a delivery system (bread) The ladies would benefit from getting to know here—eat it right from the jar. Pick it up at a farmBoutonne (shopboutonne.com)—also San Diegoers market and eat it while you walk. Seriously. The based—specifically its line of leather-bottomed consistency is a little different than the Jiffs and tote bags. Every woman I’ve shown this bag to has Skippys of the world. It’s just ground nuts (a mix of wanted it immediately. The Reverse Mills Tote salted and unsalted), after all. But it tastes real. ($149) is totally handmade—as is every single prodBeef jerky isn’t really my thing; I’m usually imuct you order—and its combination of oiled leather mediately turned off by the insanely high sodium and reverse denim makes it a sophisticated, lightweight option for summertime adventures. content. Jerky’s Gourmet of San Diego ( jerkysgourmet.com), a mainstay at farmers markets Write to ninah@sdcitybeat.com around town, was acutely aware of this problem and editor@sdcitybeat.com. and has created a line of low-sodium, artificial-
22 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
aaryn
backwards & in high heels
belfer How to keep little campers happy and busy this summer When schools closed last Thursday due to all the for kids age 6 to 17. Art materials are provided, but wildfires, a whole lotta parents grabbed their kids don’t be surprised if your little Monet comes home and headed for the beach—my daughter and I looking like she walked straight out of 1982. Stopamong them. motion animation and spoken-word poetry are As one mom in our gaggle packed up her sandamong the options for the older set. This one will covered crew while seeking a missing flip flop, she run you between $150 and $260 per week. Ask about sighed in exasperation. “School better not be closed scholarships or stipends if you’re feeling pinched. tomorrow,” she said. “I am not ready. I need to save If your kid likes to sing until your ears bleed, up all my patience before summer.” $200 will get her out of the house and directly to ’Tis is the season of parental existential crisis. Camp Glee Club (campgleeclub.com) in Chula VisWe wish desperately for an end to the school year ta. There are only two one-week sessions offered (is there a person among us who hasn’t started this summer, with workshops led by Disney singers blowing off classroom obligations? Do you even and choreographers. That sound you just heard? It care about that unit on crayfish?). And yet, we also was every Frozen fan passing out with delirium. hold the looming dread of the coming school-free Another hit for the creative shorties is the Summonths, when the words “I’m bored” make the most mer Youth Media & Tech Camp (digitalgym.org) compassionate person want to take a giant cleaver, offered at Digital Gym Cinema. Founder and genius à la Game of Thrones, to a hand that should be playEthan van Thillo has hit it out of the park with this ing with Legos rather than picking a nose. place. Camps run all summer, and kids from 7 to 14 The planners among us have lined up a plethora collaborate and see an idea from storyboard to movie. of camps for our babes. But many of you are still deOh, what they can do with a green screen! Kids learn signing the Spirograph Venn diagrams of summer, to use cameras, iMovie, iStopMotion and Garage trying to maximize your dollars while splicing toBand. The cost is $245 a week, unless you’re a memgether travel and dentist appointber, which you should be. Then it’s ments. For all you lollygaggers, less. But it’s worth so much more. here are a few camp ideas: If you have a girly girl who preDon’t be surprised if Topping my kid’s Favorite fers a more intimate setting, check your little Monet Camps list is the program offered out Kamp Kids Kreations (kids at the Elementary Institute of kreationssd@gmail.com). Owncomes home looking Science (eisca.org). Teacher Tom er Joanne Shaddinger provides like she walked Watts started EIS in 1964 with a popular art activities to schools straight out of 1982. handful of curious kids and “an throughout San Diego, but in the old 40-gallon aquarium that had summer, she opens the doors of been home to a couple of snakes.” her North Park home. These are The hands-on program grew, and with the backing only half-day camps at $160 per week, but kids will of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation dig in the garden, make their own dolls and spend a and The Kresge Foundation, among others, EIS week cooking foods from around the globe, with a now has a state-of-the-art building at the corner of lot of personal attention from Ms. Joanne. Euclid and Market streets. Instructors are all young Kids who need to get their yayas out, as we say academics whose excitement for science is contain our home, should turn their gaze toward Roots & Wings Global Arts Camp at the Centro Culturgious. EIS offers summer camps, but also weekend al de la Raza in Balboa Park. In its fourth year, this and after-school enrichment programs, for kids age camp is for kids age 5 to 15 and focuses on dance 7 to 17. Though the program is open to children of and music from around the world. This full-day all backgrounds, there’s an unapologetic effort to camp costs $200 a week, with scholarships and make it accessible to those who might not othersibling discounts. wise have such opportunities. At $75 a week (that’s Finally, UCSD offers the incomparable Knock not a typo), EIS is the best bargain in town. Around Camp. It’s currently full, and there is Don’t fret if EIS is full. SDSU is launching Aztec a waitlist, but I’m including it here so that it’s on Science Camp for Kids this summer with three your radar for future needs (they have Thanksgivconcurrent weekly sessions for kids age 6 to 11. ing, winter and spring-break camps, too). Yes, it’s a Conceived and developed by SDSU professors, here drive to campus, but at $180 per week and running kids will engage in scientific discovery while hangas it does from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, it’s great ing out on a university campus, which makes them for working parents. Also, they employ the best smarter by osmosis. See? Science! The cost is $275 counselors in the city, who’ll wear your kids out. per week, with a discount for siblings. They’ll fall asleep in the car on the way home. Maybe art is more your child’s thing. If so, there And when they’re sleeping, they can’t complain are several great opportunities for them to get all about being (insert “b” word here). Jackson Pollack on something other than your living-room walls. Beginning July 7 and running See the online version of this column at sdcitybeat. through Aug. 15, the San Diego Art Department on com for all the links. Write to aaryn@sdcitybeat. Ray Street in North Park is offering Summer Art com and editor@sdcitybeat.com. Camps (sdad-sdai.org), both full-day and half-day,
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 23
summer guide by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner
the world
fare
But for smoked fish, my choice was Point Loma Seafoods (2805 Emerson St. in Point Loma, pointlomasea foods.com). Where Catalina grew out of the commercialfishing industry, Point Loma Seafoods grew from the sportfishing trade. It features a sparkling array of fresh fish and prepared seafood sandwiches, soups, salads and cocktails. The lunchtime lines are long. But I was there for the smoked fish. The different types of smoked fish are all quite good, but the “squaw candy”—sweet smoked salmon belly—is outrageous. I left with tuna jerky, a perfect camp snack, meaty and lightly smoked. Yes, it was fish, but it was also definitely jerky. The question was what to Seared albacore by the lake do with that amazing albacore. Simplicity and ease-of-preparation were the guiding principles:
‘F ishing’ at Big Laguna Lake My first time was the best. None since has been nearly as good. We were at 11,451 feet at a campsite on Hartenstein Lake at the base of Mount Yale in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. After a 4-mile hike from the Denny Creek Trailhead, we’d just set up camp when Nancy—now my wife—said, “Let’s do it” and pulled out a fishing rod. It seemed to come naturally. I fumbled a bit with my first cast, but the second went long and deep. Incredibly, the wait did not last long before a beautiful trout exploded out of the water on the end of my line. Even more incredibly, three more followed in short order. Fishing was not nearly as fruitful the next day, or the one after that, or—frankly—ever again. Basically, I suck at fishing. And so, as we planned our recent trip to the Laguna Campground in East County, we chose to do our “fishing” in town, the old-fashioned way: at the fish mongers’. My first stop was to see Tommy Gomes at Catalina Offshore Products (5202 Lovelock St. in Linda Vista, catalinaop.com). Gomes grew up in San Diego’s tuna industry, a third-generation fisherman / fishmonger. His father and grandfather helped build Bumble Bee Tuna and ran commercial fishing boats as part of a fleet that now trawls different waters. Gomes is, to say the least, a passionate evangelist for his message that fish is not fungible. “If you want to buy cheap tilapia or Vietnamese swai from polluted waters, that’s fine,” he says. “But then you have to put it in your body.” He makes no bones about the fact that Catalina is not the cheapest place in town to buy fish and doesn’t want it to be. He wants to sell fish he wants to eat. That’s why I left Catalina with a fresh pound of gorgeous albacore.
24 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Seared Albacore with Lime-Soy-Sriracha Sauce Serves two gluttons 1 pound spectacularly fresh albacore Kosher salt Freshly ground pepper 1/2 cup lime juice (from approximately 10 key limes) 2/3 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons Sriracha sauce (or to taste) 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil Cilantro leaves (for garnish) Skin the albacore, slicing it in half lengthwise, leaving two thick chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk together the sauce ingredients and taste the results. Adjust the acid-heat-salt balance as desired. Add the oil to sauté pan (or foil-lined camping grill) and heat until extremely hot. Sear the fish on one side until a quarter-inch to a halfinch becomes opaque, about two to three minutes, then flip with a spatula and repeat on the other side. Place each piece of fish on a plate alongside steamed white rice. Drizzle with the sauce and garnish with a cilantro leaf. This was a wonderfully easy dish to make al fresco. It was even better eating it to the sound of wind whistling through mountain treetops. If I’d worried that my lack of fishing prowess would be a limiting factor in our ability to enjoy fish at Big Laguna Lake, I needn’t have. While swallows flew inches over the lake and ducks floated on it, no fish were visible in its clear waters and none were likely to be pulled out. It was, in retrospect, a good thing we didn’t count on fishing and instead went “fishing” at Catalina Offshore. While nothing beats cooking fish you just pulled out of a mountain lake, Gomes’ albacore certainly came close to that first time. Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
by jenny montgomery Jenny montgomery
and pork, but not for novelty’s sake; this is a full-service butcher shop with beautiful cuts of meat and unique, house-made sausages. I dug the havarti and jalapeño combination, with bright, juicy chunks of peppers throughout a creamy, warm sausage. Looking for something more traditional? The cheddarand-onion bratwurst will put a smile on any beer-drinking, flag-waving pal at your backyard cookout.
north
fork F rankly,
it ’ s time to eat
Hey campers, it’s time for a weenie roast! Put down your tie-dye kits and stop looking for coyote scat on the hiking trails, because I’ve got your guide to the best wiener slingers in town. Read on for the best tube meats for tonight’s campfire. Siesel’s / Iowa Meat Farms: Same company (iowa meatfarms.com), two locations: Bay Park (Siesel’s, 4131 Ashton St.) and Grantville (Iowa Meat Farms, 6041 Mission Gorge Road). You don’t have to be a whole-animal hipster to know this is where everyone in San Diego has gone for good quality meat for decades. And if you have a hankering for franks and brats, start here. The meat counter is glorious, and the bratwursts are delicious, including one version with bacon ground into the filling. The bourbon brat is tender and sweet but needs a bit more spice and heat. Stick to the classics at this granddaddy of meat and you can’t go wrong. Vine Ripe Market: Not a butcher shop, but an independent market in La Mesa (8191 Fletcher Pkwy., vineripefarmersmarket.com), specializing in food and delicacies from the Middle East and Mediterranean. What makes it unique when looking for sausages is that they sell many halal products (foods considered permissible under Islamic law). There’s a fun mortadella made from all beef and blended with pistachios, and a dried and cured sausage called sujuk laden with spices, with a dense texture reminiscent of the best, most exotic piece of Hickory Farms Summer Sausage you’ve ever eaten. Bisher’s Quality Meats: Would you like a side of alligator or ostrich with your summertime sausages? Bisher’s Quality Meats (bishersmeat.com, with locations in Poway and Ramona) is your nirvana. Sure, they sell kangaroo along with beef
Tip Top Meats: This Carlsbad place (6118 Paseo del Norte, tiptopmeats.com) is fantastic and King Ludwiginsane, from the breakfast menu packed with all that is gravied, fried and schnitzeled, to the frozen butcher case in which I found a headless pig wrapped in plastic and ready to take home. Pick a type of sausage and Tip Top has it. Polish “kishka,” English “bangers” and every variation of “wurst” you’ve ever heard of (knock, knack, bock, beer, brat). Two standout links are the Hungarian and the Bavarian Bockwurst. The Bockwurst, made with pork and blended with spices and milk powder (yes), is creamy and smooth (one friend of mine compared the texture to that of a matzo ball) with a mild but wellrounded flavor. Consider boiling this one over your campfire; ours kept exploding on the grill. The Hungarian is exceptional: warm with spice without burning your taste buds and a casing with snap and flavor that says, “We know what we’re doing.” T&H Sausages: My personal fave. Sausage “meister” Jacob Kappeler cranks out amazingly flavorful and juicy sausages for the Regal restaurants (Beagle and Seagull), sells meat wholesale and has a retail market in San Marcos you can visit three days a week (735 East Mission Road, tandhsausage.com). Like Tip Top, T&H has a spectacular selection of sausages from around the world. Check out the Danish “Medisterpolse” or the delicate Swedish sausage filled with herbs and potatoes. Locavores will enjoy the Cherry Bomb, a sausage made with Julian Hard Cider and chunks of dried cherries. Cape Town Pub: This wildcard isn’t a butcher; it’s a restaurant, pub and the best location (7580 Miramar Road in Miramar, capetownpub.com) to get South African boerewors. Boerewors is a totally different sausage than you’ve ever had and one that will make you the envy of the coolest counselors in camp. The all-beef version is deep and rich with cloves and coriander making it spicy and fun for summer, but with a warming flavor reminiscent of winter holidays. Now let’s all rub each other down in Calamine lotion and talk about how the sausage is made! Write to jennym@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 25
summer guide Kinsee Morlan
Earn
your wine badge
Ramona is turning sunny, backwater hillsides into wine by
Dog paraphernalia and red wine abound at Wolf ‘n Rose Winery.
26 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Kinsee Morlan
They may be winding, but the roads leading from urban San Diego to Ramona aren’t as long as you might think. Take Highway 67 and you’ll hit the rural town within 35 to 45 minutes (from North County, Highway 78 will get you there in just under an hour). The drive itself is beautiful. The road climbs and twists north and east through a landscape peppered with scrub oak and boulders and home to some of the county’s best hikes. The moment you leave Lakeside, you feel free and far away from city life. But taking a drive to Ramona isn’t high on most folks’ bucket lists. Outsiders tend to think of the place as weird, or just a backwater town without much to offer. However, campers looking to earn their wine badge this summer will find that the grape-rich region is far more than just a pit stop on the way to somewhere else. “What we’re trying to focus on is making Ramona a destination, as opposed to what it has been in the past, which is the town you have to
go through to get to Julian,” laughs Marilyn Kahle, an owner of Woof ’n Rose Winery and Vineyard, one of Ramona’s many wineries. Driving up the narrow, dirt roadway leading to Woof ’n Rose (17073 Garjan Lane, woofnrose.com), a barking yellow lab or Shepherd mix will likely be the first indication that you’re in the right place. The smell of roses wafting through the hot, dry air is the second clue. Kahle and her husband Stephen have been growing grapes on their gorgeous swath of land on a hillside in western Ramona since 2005. They opened their modest winery and tasting room in 2007 alongside several other local grape growers who set up shop around the same time. In 2006, Ramona Valley was officially designated as an American viticultural area, opening up permitting options and setting the basic groundwork for what’s become a budding wine region that’s home to more than two-dozen wineries—a number
that continues to grow (check ramona valleyvineyards.org for a map and details about the wineries and vineyards). “We’ll hit 30 before too long,” Kahle says, pouring a peppery, estate-grown, award-winning red wine as she notes that she knows of at least two or three more Ramona wineries set to open this summer. “We all get along here. I think the majority of the winemakers and owners in Ramona realize that if there’s only one winery up here, the public won’t come up. So, the more of us there are, the more the public will come. They can make a day of it.” Ramona’s winemakers seem to know, accept and even celebrate their place in the wine world. They’ll never be Temecula, where some big wineries boast helicopter landing pads on their front lawns. Instead, Ramona has staked claim on the type of cozy, rustic boutique wineries where the person growing the grapes and making the wine is the same one pouring your glass. While Los Angeles socialites have claimed Temecula as their wine-fueled SoCal party city of choice, Ramona wineries have set their sights on San Diegans.
Kinsee Morlan
Joe Cullen of Cactus Star Vineyard “You have to remember that Temecula is in Riverside County, not San Diego County,” Kahle says. “Most of the folks from San Diego that do eventually come here say, ‘We used to go to Temecula, but now we come here.’” A few minutes’ drive on the dusty roads surrounding Woof ’n Rose will get you to Cactus Star Vineyard at Scaredy Cat Ranch (17029 Handlebar Road, cactusstarvineyard. com), a quaint place that owner Joe Cullen proudly describes as “what might be the smallest winery in California.” Like many of the winemakers in Ramona, Cullen has a day job, and he considers making wine his passion project. A small patio outside his home doubles as his tast-
ing room. Visitors can meet the very dogs and horses that inspired his wife’s artwork featured on his wine labels. “I make everything here,” Cullen says. “In fact, we’re standing on my crush pad right now.” Cullen, known for his tasty Estate Tempranillo, says that Ramona’s mom-and-pop charm is what makes it a unique wine region. “I truly believe that at the small wineries, you meet the winemaker, and I think you get a better grasp of what the wine is,” he says. “Wine really is the character of the winemaker in a glass.” Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 27
summer guide by ian cheesman
beer &
chees Beerfest
or forest ?
Some of the clearest memories I have from my childhood are of family camping trips. We’d pile into the van and head into parts unknown, abandoning creature comforts for a fleeting moment of communion with Mother Nature. God, did it suck. Now, just because I didn’t relish the experience, that’s no reason to shit all over John Muir’s grave (which, while offensive, he would appreciate as the ecologically sensible alternative to flushing it). Reveling in nature may well be an essential part of the human experience, but that doesn’t mean we need to actually go there. When an Oculus Rift can immerse us in high-definition alien landscapes, are we really beholden to a treacherous drive up ramshackle mountain roads just to see some trees? Of course, technology will only get you so far. To really connect with more visceral aspects of the outdoors, we’re going to need beer. One defining aspect of the Great Outdoors is its unique scent: a mélange of earthy must from detritus underfoot, the heady notes of evergreen from pine and spruce and a delicate soupçon of squirrel shit. Many beers can capably simulate two out of the three aromas (and sometimes all of them if brewing sanitation is lax). I’d go with the AleSmith Winter YuleSmith, a beer whose aroma approximates a nasal rinse with the water from the Christmastree stand. Since that’s tough to come by right now, anything that prominently favors simcoe
28 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
or Chinook hops should get the job done. No excursion into the wilderness would be complete without a brush with the wild. Part of the allure of being outward bound is the primal thrill of knowing some sinewy mass of fur and claws could come snarling out of the brush at any moment. Since no local breweries have captured that essence in a Help, I’m going to die! ale, we can pay tribute to sizeable fauna with a Helm’s Brewing Messin’ with Saazsquatch. It’s a Belgian-style pale ale with an herbal, musty aroma that could well smell like sweaty Bigfoot—in a good way, if that’s possible. The flavor is bright and citrus-y with a healthy dose ian cheesman of white pepper and funk that accumulates as the glass empties. There may be no more vital aspect to camping than the grub that accompanies it (assuming you’re not the sort of sellout that dines on reconstituted coq au vin in a foil pocket). Camping cuisine is hearty, charred and immensely satisfying after the rigors of starting a fire without a gallon of lighter fluid. A rauchbier or a roasty porter would emulate most anything you could cook on a stick, but if you really want a worthy, beer-tinged substitution, Waypoint Public’s S’morelaska dessert has few peers. The combination of toasted marshmallow, graham cracker crust and chocolate ice cream make it a worthy s’more analog, but the infusion of the smoky High Water Campfire Stout into its ice cream and caramel is what transports you fireside. If you still haven’t shaken the bug to be with nature, compromise and set up a tent on the outskirts of Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens. It’s more or less the same thing, but the tap list is better than Yosemite’s. Write to ianc@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
BY KELLY DAVIS
cocktail
tales Campfire
on the rocks
Next time you’re mixing up an Old Fashioned by the campfire—assuming you’d even do such a thing—try trapping a piece of smoking charred wood under your glass for a few minutes. That’s assuming, too, that you’re burning some nice, aromatic wood and not, say, Duraflames. Or, skip all that and hit up Cusp at Hotel La Jolla for head bartender Chris Burkett’s Smoke on the Water. To make it, he lights a small piece of apricot-flavored tobacco in a cast-iron skillet, extinguishes the flame and traps the smoke under a chilled rocks glass for about three minutes before adding rye whiskey, apricot liqueur, Amontillado sherry and bitters. Sip it slowly and you’ll notice the cocktail evolving, Burkett says. “So, you’ve got that strong apricot smoke right off the bat, and as that smoke dissipates and dissolves into the spirit itself, it imbues the cocktail with more flavor,” he says. Smoky flavor in cocktails can come from spirits, like Scotch or mezcal, or technique—a smoke-infused ingredient, smoked ice cubes or smoke itself. Here are seven drinks that capture a little campfire aroma in a glass:
Hola Y’all at JSix: Here, Del Maguey mescal gets hopped up on Tito’s vodka that’s been infused with chef Christian Graves’ terrifically spicy barbecue rub. Agave, fresh lime juice and cilantro round out the cocktail. Hell or High Water at Ironside: Head bartender Leigh LeCap describes this drink, made with Islay Scotch, Averna, Galliano and mole bitters, as a “smoky, full-bodied play on a Manhattan [that’s] great for winding down after a meal.” The Gringo Verde at Noble Experiment: It’s not currently on the menu, but Noble Experiment’s Anthony Schmidt says it can be made by request (or, if you’ve got the goods, try it at home): 2 ounces mezcal 1/2 ounce Banane du Bresil Dash habanero shrub Lime wedge Add all ingredients, except lime wedge, to a rocks glass. Add ice. Squeeze lime wedge over ice. Stir briefly. Boulevard of Ashes at Lion’s Den: This take on a Boulevardier is made with with bourbon, Carpano Antica and smoked Campari. El Catador at Sycamore Den: This twist on a daiquiri combines mezcal, white rum, Velvet Falernum, cane syrup, lime, Angostura bitters and allspice dram. It’s a way for mezcal-wary drinkers to ease into the spirit’s warm smokiness. Penicillin #9 at Coin-Op: Part of Coin-Op’s beer-cocktails menu, it’s made with Famous Grouse and Black Grouse Scotch whiskeys, lemon and honey and topped off with Almanac Golden Gate Göse sour beer. Fuego y Color at URBN: Appearing on the menu in June, this concoction involves browning pineapples in a coalfired oven, juicing them and mixing the juice with tequila, Cointreau Noir, lime juice, crème de cacao and a Thai-chili tincture. “The oven brings out a caramelized smokiness in the pineapples that’s really cool,” says Blind Tiger Cocktail Co.’s Jason O’Bryan.
Preparing Smoke on the Water
Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 29
summer guide Michael A. Gardiner
Ice-cream
social
14 places to get your frozen-dessert fix
ing chocolate as peanut butter’s soul mate, but here the sweet cream makes a pretty strong case. 3004 Juniper St. in South Park
—Ryan Bradford
Gelato Vero: Arguably the OG (original gelato) of San Diego gelato spots, GV celebrated its 30th birthday in April. If you’re looking for something light, go for the coconut sorbetto. But since you’re here for the gelato, try the spumoni and pistachio— flavors you might have shied away from at other shops, but here they’re both outstanding. 3753 India St. in Little Italy, gelatoverocaffe.com
—Kelly Davis
A Niederfranks cone
W
hat’s summer without ice cream? And what’s summer camp without an ice-cream social? In homage to the joy of stuffing your face with all sorts of sweet, chilled creamy goodness, here we bring together in one place some of the best spots to hit for some tasty frozen desserts. Bubby’s Gelato: There’s very little style to this Encinitas outpost, and service ranges from warm and charming (the grandmotherly owner) to apathetic and surly (teenagers). But delights abound at this corner shop. On a hot day, dive into the lemongrass sorbet—its citrusy, barely sweet tang will cool you down by at least 10 degrees. Be warned: It’s cash only. 937 S. Coast Hwy 101 in Encinitas
—Jenny Montgomery
Cow-A-Bunga: You know what’s better than watching a San Diego sunset and contemplating all of life’s mysterious ways? Doing it with Cow-A-Bunga’s House Special: a shot of espresso plus a scoop of ice cream plus whipped cream. Peanut-butter brownie is a flavor attempted by many but perfectly executed only by this micro ice creamery; it’s as much of a must-eat as the Imperial Beach pier is a must-see. 10 Evergreen Ave. in Imperial Beach
—Nina Sachdev Hoffman
Daily Scoop: This shop’s specialty is sweetcream-and-peanut-butter ice cream, which tastes spectacular in a cinnamon-y waffle cone. It’s difficult to imagine anything beat-
30 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Mariposa: A Normal Heights fixture, this little hippie ice-cream parlor moved to San Diego in 2000 from the foothills of Yosemite National Park. These fourth-generation former dairy farmers use a batch-freezer method that duplicates the traditional hand-cranked method, resulting in good, old-timey ice cream. The best here is coconut. Try it on a hot day for a refreshing blast of raw flavor. 3450 Adams Ave. in Normal Heights, mariposaicecream.com
—Joshua Emerson Smith
Matcha Love: The small chain—which opened an outpost in Kearny Mesa’s Mitsuwa Marketplace in April—was started to introduce folks to Japanese green tea (matcha), but it’s earned an almost cult following for its soft-serve ice cream. Ask for a swirled mix of the namesake earthy-andsubtly-sweet matcha and black sesame, which has a nutty flavor reminiscent of peanut butter. 4240 Kearny Mesa Road in Kearny Mesa
726 A Ave. in National City
—Michael A. Gardiner
Ocean Rainbow: Flavors range from tropical to traditional at this hidden gem in a strip mall near Mission San Luis Rey. Burnt Milk is nutty and mild, while the cheese flavor has a polarizing, curdled texture. Check out the chamoy-flavored ice cream, made from the pickled, spicy, fruity condiment, which freezes up nicely into an unexpected, cooling treat. 3784 Mission Ave. in Oceanside, with other locations in San Marcos and Vista, lamixteca-icecream.com
—Jenny Montgomery
Real Food & Spirits: This delightful Solana Beach bistro has a great little gelato freezer filled with treats from Bottega Italiana. The rich panna cotta flavor is out of this world, and the chocolate is fudgy and near perfect. Oh-so-trendy salted caramel is good, but a bit too salty, but the fresh strawberry with chocolate chunks is a summer standout. 124 S. Solana Hills Drive in Solana Beach, realfoodandspirits.com
—Jenny Montgomery
Rita’s: Rita’s isn’t a traditional ice-cream parlor; technically, it doesn’t even serve ice cream. It serves something more elusive in San Diego County: Frozen custard. It’s extra-rich and -creamy, and even in simple vanilla is absolutely delicious. Or: Pair the vanilla custard with cookie-dough Italian ice for a fun take on a chipwich. 1463 East H St. in Chula Vista, with locations in Carlsbad, Encinitas and Escondido, ritasice.com
—Jeff Terich
The Baked Bear: This place has taken the beach by storm, sandwiching your choice of ice cream in between your favorite cookie, brownie or waffle. It’s hard to improve upon the perfection of a chocolate chip cookie, but hugging a scoop of ice cream with two of them? Pretty simple, and pretty great. 4516 Mission Blvd. in Pacific Beach, thebakedbear.com
—Jenny Montgomery
Tocumbo: This family biz has grown since opening its first location in Market Creek Plaza nine years ago. The newest location in Barrio Logan, with its easy parking, nearby interactive water fountain and shaded outdoor seating, is ideal for summertime. Try the handmade exotic-fruit ice cream, like the refreshing guanabana (made from soursop fruit). For a real treat, pair it with an authentic Mexican coke. 1900 Main St. in Barrio Logan, tocumboicecream.com
—Kinsee Morlan
Lighthouse Ice Cream & Yogurt: Depending on your mood and impulses, you might be tempted by signature flavors like Caramel Daze and Birthday Cake (it tastes just like birthday cake!), but when you learn that the house specialty is ice cream in a hot waffle, your decision is made for you. The cookies-and-cream inside an applecinnamon waffle is amazing, with or without bacon and maple syrup. Just take your first bite while it’s still hot. 5059 Newport Ave. in Ocean Beach
—David Rolland Kinsee Morlan
—Kelly Davis
Mr. Frostie: This isn’t artisan ice cream, it’s soft-serve. But the friendly folks at this beach shack have been making the sunsoaked residents and visitors of Pacific Beach happy since 1949. Grab a banana split, a yellow-cake-batter milkshake or just a swirl cone dipped in chocolate. Then head down to the pier with your sweets to soak in the sunny vibes. 1470 Garnet Ave. in Pacific Beach, mrfrosties.com
—Jenny Montgomery
Niederfrank’s: In geology, the term “type location” means the place where a particular rock type is first identified. The “type location” of an old-style ice cream shop, at least in San Diego County, is Niederfrank’s, there since 1948, making spectacular, creamy, classic American-style ice cream in both common and uncommon flavors, like the excellent macadamia-nut toffee.
Junior, grandson of Tocumbo patriarch Gerardo Ramirez
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 31
2014
calendar
La Jolla Festival of the Arts • UCSD Warren Field, La Jolla • lajollaartfestival.org An elegant outdoor affair featuring nearly 200 artist booths, stages packed with performances and a restau-
21-22
The Fab Fair: San Diego County Fair • Del Mar Fairgrounds • sdfair.com This year, the fair’s theme celebrates the 50th anniversary of the British Invasion. Expect the usual odd fried foods, concerts, exhibitions and festivals like the Locally Grown Fest and a wine fest. Through July 6.
7
Historic Home Tour Weekend • North Park • soho sandiego.org Save Our Heritage Organisation is partnering with the North Park Historical Society to show off the ’hood’s charming historic architecture. Walking tours are at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, with home tours from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
June JUNE 6-8
FilmOut San Diego 16th LGBT Film Festival • North Park Theatre • filmoutsandiego.com The fest includes 25 LGBT-focused films plus Q&As, moviemaker meet-and-greets, parties with the stars and more. Through June 1.
30
Tower After Hours: World Cup Brazil • Museum of Man, Balboa Park • museumofman.org The museum’s signature cocktail event focuses on the 2014 World Cup tournament with live soccer demos, music and dance performances and traditional Brazilian food. 6 to 8 p.m.
MAY 29
events
summer Comic-Con International • San Diego
LGBT Pride 2014 • Hillcrest and Balboa Park • sdpride.org The best annual parade in San Diego returns (11 a.m. to noon Saturday), followed by a two-day festival in Balboa Park with live music, vendors booths, food and more.
19-20
Les Miserables • Lamb’s Players Theatre, Coronado • lambsplayers.org Victor Hugo’s 2,000-plus-page novel about personal redemption and the French Revolution was turned into a musical three decades ago, and its popularity hasn’t wavered. Through Aug. 24.
18
IB Sun & Sea Festival • Imperial Beach • sun andseafestival.com The two-day event includes a sandcastle competition, parade and international food fair. Noon to midnight Friday, and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
18-19
Del Mar Races Opening Day • Del Mar Racetrack • dmtc.com Opening day is about more than donning fancy hats and making bets. Among other events during racing season (through Sept. 3) are the Summer Concert Series and the Del Mar Beer Fest.
17
Surf Dog Competition • Imperial Beach Pier • un leashedby.petco.com/surfdog Fifty dogs, big and small, will ride the waves at this hilariously entertaining annual affair. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
13
Fiesta del Sol • Logan Avenue, from Cesar Chavez Parkway to 26st Street • fiestadel solsandiego.org The annual two-day festival returns with cultural performances, live music, plenty of food and activities for the kiddos. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days.
12-13
Festival of Sail • North Embarcadero, Downtown • sdmaritime.org The largest tall-ship festival on the West Coast includes historic ships, battle reenactments, a twilight sail, activities for kids and libations for adults.
29-Sept. 1
Tiki Oasis • Crowne Plaza Hotel, Mission Valley • tikioasis.com “Beat Tiki” is the theme for the 14th incarnation of this annual event that includes live music, burlesque shows, a “Beyond Squaresville” art show and an “Exotica” emporium.
14-17
Once • San Diego Civic Theatre, Downtown • broadwaysd.com Broadway San Diego presents the Tony-award-winning story of a Dublin street musician and his muse.
12-17
Iron & Wine • Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, Shelter Island • humphreysconcerts.com Humphrey’s intimate outdoor venue is ideal to catch singer-songwriter Samuel Beam, who’s been compared to Nick Drake and is touring in support of his latest album, Ghost on Ghost. 7:30 p.m.
AUGUST august 11
La Jolla Music Society Summerfest • La Jolla Cove • ljms.org The annual fest kicks off with a free outdoor concert at the cove and continues through Aug. 22 with more than a dozen concerts featuring world-class musicians.
30
Convention Center, Downtown • comiccon.org Tickets are beyond sold out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of satellite happenings like Gam3rCon, Hop Con (beer), w00tstock and more (see outside comiccon.com for a longer list of events).
24-27
Gaslamp District • 430 5th Ave., San Diego, CA 92101 • (619) 544-1950
San Diego International Fringe Festival • Downtown San Diego • sdfringe.org The second annual festival promises cutting-edge performances ranging from dance to music to theater in several Downtown venues. This year’s event includes visual-arts installations at Spreckels Theatre.
July 3-13
Figment San Diego • Chicano Park, Barrio Logan • sandiego.figmentproject.org A budding annual festival featuring participatory projects by San Diego artists. People are encouraged to touch and interact with the art. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
28
OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off • Newport Avenue, Ocean Beach • oceanbeachsandiego.com The popular party showcases homemade chili (but get there early) and boasts an artist alley, vendor booths, stages with live music, life-sized interactive board games and more. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
28
San Diego Symphony Summer Pops • Embarcadero Marina Park South • sandiegosymphony.org Popular music gets the classical treatment. The annual outdoor concert series kicks off with a tribute to Elvis Presley and continues with ABBA, Ray Charles and others. Through Aug. 31.
27
Summer Shakespeare Festival • Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park • theoldglobe.org See Shakespeare al fresco. Othello runs June 22 through July 27; The Two Gentlemen of Verona runs Aug. 10 through Sept. 14.
22
rant row with fine wine, craft beer and food. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
34 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
summer guide
B acon -
and sausage - infused
summer Death for Food invites you to kill your own dinner— plus two-dozen other fun things to do
E
ating organic is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce. These days, a truly conscious foodie is one who knows exactly where every morsel originated. Death for Food is a hybrid event that stirs together food-advocacy photography by Jaime Fritsch, an immersive architectural installation by Manuel Martinez, craft beer by Monkey Paw Brewing Company, farm-to-table dining and the actual slaughter of an animal. The jam-packed event goes down Sunday, July 13, at Finca Altozano (Km. 83 Carretera Tecate), famed Tijuana chef Javier Plascencia’s restaurant and farm in Valle de Guadalupe, the wine-rich stretch of land in the outskirts of Ensenada, Mexico. Guests with guts will be given the chance to kill part of their own dinner. The ultimate goal is to encourage eaters to take ownership of their food by looking their dinner in the eye before putting it in their mouths. Tickets, which include a bus ride to the restaurant, will be available in June. The price has yet to be determined. deathforfood.com
The summer months will bring even more fun stuff to do in San Diego. What follows is a curated list of events, including a few featured happenings that gave us a chance to tie in our summer-camp theme, just for kicks. Summer Remix Thursdays at Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park. Not content to just throw the occasional Thursday-night party every month or quarter, the folks at MOPA are staying open ’til 9 p.m. every Thursday—and not just so patrons can view the new After Ansel Adams and Aperture Remix in a dimmer light. A mix of entertainment will be provided weekly, from lectures and movie screenings to musicians and DJs. There’ll also be wineand-cheese pairings on select nights and dinner packages from the neighboring Prado restaurant. Runs May 29 through Aug. 28. mopa.org Egyptian Bazaar & Movie Night on Park Boulevard, between University and Robinson avenues, Hillcrest. Catch a screening of Finding Nemo and a pop-up sidewalk sale in what’s been dubbed Hillcrest’s Egyptian Quarter for its architectural style. Bring your own chair or blanket; hot cocoa, popcorn and food will be available for purchase. At 5 p.m. Saturday, May 31. fabuloushillcrest.com Hotel Poolside Jazz Series at The Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave., Downtown. No doubt countless San Diegans will be making an effort to beat the heat this summer by taking a dip in the pool, but why not chill out with some cool jazz as well? The Westgate is hosting a weekly poolside jazz series featuring performances by artists including Gilbert Castellanos, Joshua White and Steph Johnson. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays, June 5 through July 31. westgatehotel.com
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May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 35
36 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 37
summer guide
A rts n ' crafts
Mass Creativity at the New Children’s Museum, 200 W. Island Ave., Downtown. Free food- and art-themed workshops led by San Diego artists like Marisol Rendon and Perry Vasquez are currently being held at locations throughout San Diego. The workshop series, which seeks to bring art-making to communities that don’t often experience it, will culminate in an all-day, outdoor celebration at the museum that includes hands-on arts and crafts, music, food trucks and more. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 28. thinkplaycreate.org/masscreativity Art Around Adams on two miles of Adams Avenue in Normal Heights and Kensington. This annual event, in its 11th year, is that rare community gathering that seemingly has it all. There are nine stages packed with live entertainment, family-friendly arts and crafts, 75-plus participating businesses and, if you don’t feel like walking, a “comedy trolley” that will shuttle you back and forth. Oh, and it’s all free. From 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 7. artaroundadams.org El Henry at SILO at Makers Quarter, 753 15th St., Downtown. San Diego Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse team up for a Without Walls production written and starring Culture Clash’s Herbert Siguenza, who plays the title character, a futuristic version of the lead from Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays, set in 2045 in the corrupt Aztlan City (formerly San Diego). Runs Saturday, June 14, through Sunday, June 29. $10$25. lajollaplayhouse.org/el-henry
Spenser Little That Mean I Won’t: Spenser Little solo show at Thumbprint Gallery, 920 Kline St., La Jolla. If you’ve seen one of Spenser Little’s wire-art sculptures hanging on street signs or other random places around town, you know the artist is a local gem. His work is whimsical, filled with dark and light humor and, when hung in the right light, casts shadows as interesting as the pieces themselves. Opening from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 14. thumbprintgallerysd.com Twilight in the Park at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park. The series kicks off with the Japanese Navy Band, continuing more than three decades of free, live outdoor performances in the park. This year’s lineup includes a wide variety of genres, like traditional country, Chicago-style blues, Cajun Zydeco and Motown, as well
38 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
as an Elvis Presley tribute band. From 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. Tuesdays, June 17, through Aug. 28. balboapark.org Surf Craft at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. From what we can tell, this is the first exhibition devoted entirely to the craft and design elements that go into making surfboards. And (surprise!) it opens on the first day of summer. Focusing on designs from the late ’40s to the present day, there’ll be a range of board designs represented, from the alaia boards of ancient Hawaii (super thin and square-tailed) to obscure surf bathing boards of England, Japan and Africa. There’ll also be special lunchtime lecture on June 27 by exhibition curator and surf historian Richard Kenvin. Opens Saturday, June 21. mingei.org Paper Cities at La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive. Iain Gunn, co-founder of the alternative puppet-theater troupe Animal Cracker Conspiracy, will spearhead a collaborative workshop performance that uses puppetry and other media to explore the growth of urban development. Performances start at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 19, through Saturday, June 21. Free. lajollaplayhouse. org/paper-cities Old House Fair in South Park. This annual event highlights the historic architecture found in the hip ’hood. Take guided home tours (tickets are $25 and include a shuttle), a trolley tour of South Park, Golden Hill and Burlingame ($10) or check out the free street fair featuring live entertainment and vendor booths of antiques, artwork, home-restoration services and more. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 21. theoldhousefair.com Mexican Seas | Mares Mexicanos at Birch Aquarium at Scripps, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. This exhibition features Scripps scientist Octavio Aburto’s underwater photographs that explore four biodiversity “hot spots” in the waters off Mexico. Free with aquarium admission. Opens Saturday, June 28. aquarium.ucsd.edu TNT & Shore Thing at Museum of Con-
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May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 39
summer guide
W eenie roast
Sausage Fest at LOUNGEsix, 616 J St., Downtown. Part outdoor community cook-off, part chef competition, 10 local chefs will, ahem, show off their sausages and let the public decide the tastiest one. For $10, you can sample their goods and wash it down with brews from Lost Abbey, which will be unveiling its new The Road to Helles golden lager at the event. There’ll also be music from local soul band The Tighten Ups, followed by a vote to see who’ll be declared the Abe Froman of San Diego. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 16. sdsausagefest.com
temporary Art San Diego, Downtown and La Jolla. The museum’s reliably cool Thursday Night Thing is back at the Downtown location this summer. The event will celebrate the upcoming, massive James Drake installation, and you can expect the usual booze, bites, live music and art activities. TNT will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 10. Shore Thing, the La Jolla location’s TNT equivalent, will happen from 5 to 8 p.m. every Thursday in July and August. Free with $10 museum cover. mcasd.org Culture & Cocktails at San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park. It’ll be the “Summer of Sorolla” at SDMA during the next few months. Programming will focus on Sorolla and America, an exhibition opening May 31 that showcases the paintings of Spanish great Joaquín Sorolla. This nighttime, DJfueled soirée will include Spanish-themed cocktails, music and more. From 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 10. $20. sdmart.org Jade Heart at Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Rolando. Will Cooper’s play explores the mother-daughter relationship by focusing on a Chinese girl who was adopted as an infant by an American woman, jumping backward and forward to different points in the child’s life. Lower-price previews start Friday, July 11, and performances run through Aug. 10. moxietheatre.com Heroes Brew Fest at Embarcadero Park North, 500 Kettner Blvd., Downtown. A
40 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
M ovie
night
Flicks on the Bricks at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Grab a seat on the Athenaeum’s patio for the film series that runs for four Thursdays, at 7:30 p.m., in August. First up is Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (Aug. 7), followed by To Kill a Mockingbird (Aug. 14) and Singin’ in the Rain (Aug. 14). The series wraps up Aug. 28 with The Thomas Crown Affair. Tickets are $22 for each or $80 for all four. ljathenaeum.org Summer Guide event roundup wouldn’t be complete without at least one craftbeer festival. This one’s particularly cool, because beer geeks and Comic-Con geeks will sip brews side-by-side. As the name suggests, people are encouraged to show up in costume. There’ll be costume contests and prizes. From 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 16. $45 general admission, $55 VIP. heroesbrewfest.com Rita Rudner at North Park Theatre, 2891 University Ave., North Park. There’s a reason why Rudner, a glass-ceiling shattering stand-up comedian and actor for more than four decades, has the longest running, one-woman show in Las Vegas. Hilarious, humble and filled with nuggets of wisdom, she brings to the stage the same kind of
Singin’ in the Rain self-effacing sass and charisma that she brought to her non-fiction bestsellers Naked Beneath My Clothes and Rita Rudner’s Guide to Men. At 7 p.m. Saturday, July 19. thenorthparktheatre.com. The Nerdist Live at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Über-hipster-comedian Chris Hardwick brings his shtick to San Diego and the Comic-Con crowd for two nights during one of the city’s busiest weekends. A live version of Hardwick’s Comedy Central show @midnight comes to the theater at 10:30 p.m. Friday, July 25. Then The Nerdist Podcast Live hits the venue at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, July 26. $37.50. sandiegotheatres.org
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May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 41
summer guide
C ampfire songs
Bayou Brothers and Robin Henkel at Bird Park, where Pershing Drive meets Upas and 28th streets in North Park. Gather ’round, campers, for a good oldfashioned outdoor sing-along, with nature as your backing band. Local zydeco favorites Bayou Brothers and blues guiSummer of Bacon Everyone’s favorite salted and cured pork product is seemingly everywhere this summer. First up is the Bacon & Barrels Food Festival at Embarcadero Marina Park South (1 Marina Park Way, Downtown) on Saturday, May 31. The allday, outdoor festival challenges local chefs to create imaginative dishes using bacon, while the drink selection will focus almost exclusively on craft barrel beverages such as wine, bourbon, beer and Scotch (baconandbarrels. com). Save room for the Big Bite Bacon Fest at the San Diego County Fair (2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar) on Saturday, July 5. The event features a range of bacon dishes from SoCal chefs, plus there will be more than 40 local craft beers to help wash down that second helping of bacon cupcakes (bigbitebaconfest.com). And as odd as it might sound, there’s also the second annual Inter-
42 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Bayou Brothers tarist Robin Henkel will perform a free show as part of the Bird Park concert series. Bring the family, a picnic and some sunscreen. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9. northparksd.org national Bacon Film Festival at the U.S.S. Midway (910 N. Harbor Drive, Downtown) on Friday, Aug. 29—part of San Diego Bacon Fest’s Bacon Week. On the flight deck of the Midway will be screenings of short films inspired by the porky strips, along with bacon and bacon-inspired bites and an open bar (sdbaconfest.com). Stage Coach Days: A Taste of the Past at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, 4002 Wallace St. The self-guided tour celebrates the meals of bygone days with exhibitions of historical food preparation from the mid-1800s, including canning and a Dutch-oven cook-off. Folks will also have the opportunity to taste the dishes that sustained early San Diegans. $15. From noon to 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31. oldtownsandiegoguide.com
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 43
French dip
Glenn Heath Jr.
On the ground at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival by Glenn Heath Jr. The Cannes Film Festival looks a like a hurricane of frenetic energy from afar, but on the ground, it can only be described as controlled anarchy. Film professionals (media, production, exhibition) from around the world descend on this seaside town for 11 days of madness, clogging the streets and charming cafés around the iconic Palais theater complex like a swarm of locusts. Local folk head for the hills, renting out their posh apartments to out-of-towners at unspeakable monetary rates. But this is the festival’s façade. For me, Cannes is an annual opportunity to clear my head, catch up with old friends and meet new ones. I also attend for multiple professional reasons, writing film pieces for publications and scouting what’s the latest on the Latino-film front. This is my fourth year attending the iconic festival that stretches along the balmy Croisette on the French Riviera, and each experience has been strangely unique. The first day of any Cannes Film Festival is always the hardest, especially for anyone flying in from west of the Mississippi River. This year was no different. After traveling for nearly 24 hours, delirium sets in almost immediately, leaving you in a strange mental fog. To make matters more complicated, everyone attending the event must fly into neighboring Nice and then fight for one of the few seats on a press shuttle bus bound for Cannes. Once in town, you find yourself immersed in a labyrinth of interlocking streets bisected by racing traffic lanes. Small cafés, bakeries and restaurants percolate with activity, only outdone by the incessant cries of seagulls flocking in from the Mediterranean. Cannes may be quite peaceful when not engulfed in the chaos of festival fever, but I’d never know. It takes a few days to get used to the surreal bubble that is Cannes. Your body must adjust to the rigorous screening schedule, the long wait times standing in line and the singular hierarchy system that informs it all. Press outlets receive their badges based on clout, meaning that we’re segregated by level of importance. This means each group gets to watch those who are “worthier” be admitted into the movie first. It’s a masochistic system that only the French could have perfected. The venues themselves are a marvel. The Grand
Waiting in line for a screening Lumiere Theatre can hold more than 2,000 patrons, and it’s packed each morning for the daily press screening. When the screenings begin and the lights dim, one can hear a symphony of coughs that never stops. After a while, these annoying noises drift into the background, going unnoticed in favor of whatever film is being presented. The Debussy Theatre, which screens the Un Certain Regard sidebar films, is slightly smaller but no less majestic. They are my home for the duration. The real challenge for the committed film critic is finding enough time to do your job and remain healthy. Staying fed and hydrated might seem like an obvious priority, but amid the adrenaline-pumping sprints that are sometimes necessary between screenings, it’s easy to forget to graze. That’s why you have to lean on your friends. Saving seats, grabbing a snack, discussing the latest controversial film: These are the realities of Cannes that are far more joyous when you’ve got a legion of compatriots with whom to experience them. I still remember waiting out in the rain for two hours during the 2012 festival to see the premiere of Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Someone in Love. It was only tolerable thanks to the great conversations. This year’s edition of Cannes is already into its fifth day, and I’m just getting used to it. That’s the great irony of this place: The second it starts to feel normal, you have to pack up and go back home to reality. I already can’t wait for next year. Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
The graduates
Dazed and Confused
44 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
“School’s out for summer / school’s out forever.” Alice Cooper’s lyrics feel more resonant when the calendar turns to May. Education institutions around the country unleash hordes of students for their annual vacation, so it’s fitting that 1992’s Dazed and Confused will screen at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at The Pearl
Hotel in Point Loma. Richard Linklater’s classic high-school film is the perfect summation of what it means (and feels like) to graduate. Set on graduation day in rural Texas in 1976, Linklater’s mosaic hinges on the life-changing experiences of Mitch Kramer (Willy Wiggins), an unassuming incoming freshman who gets a wild introduction to the roller-coaster
world of high school. It’s a whirlwind night for Mitch, who witnesses the goingson with naïve but inquisitive eyes. We watch him gain strength in challenging social situations as the movie progresses, establishing a sense of individuality despite various conformist obstacles. But he’s just one of the many characters transitioning from a familiar experience into an alien and uncertain one. Showcasing memorable early roles from the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey and Milla Jovovich, just to name a few, Dazed and Confused offers a brilliant collage of subversive archetypes and per-
sonalities. Jocks, nerds, sex kittens and political cynics are all given a notable depth often lacking in the genre. Also, by exploring a variety of different cliques, the film deftly examines the social traditions that define high school’s hierarchy. Linklater infuses the whimsical narrative with an all-star soundtrack of ’70s rock classics (including Cooper’s anthem), making the proceedings seem both overwhelming and seductive. Through Mitch’s eyes, we remember our own graduation day and how it’s impacted every moment since.
Opening
our obesity epidemic originated from corporate misconduct.
Anita: This investigative documentary tells the story of Anita Hill, the young lawyer who accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual misconduct. Screens through May 28 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.
The Immigrant: A Polish emigre (Marion Cotillard) arriving at Ellis Island is separated from her sickly sister and must trust a shady theater owner (Joaquin Phoenix) in order to get on her feet in early-20thcentury New York City. .
Blended: Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore try to rekindle their box-office magic with this fish-out-of-water comedy about dumb Americans causing havoc while on vacation in Africa.
In Bloom: Two teenagers growing up in the Eastern European country of Georgia come to grips with cultural and social contradictions regarding gender roles and sexuality. Screens through May 29 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.
Fed Up: This documentary addresses America’s obsession with food and how
—Glenn Heath Jr.
X-Men: Days of Future Past: The lat-
est installment of the popular Marvel franchise finds Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) going back in time to recruit his colleagues’ younger selves in order to save mankind from the evil Sentinels. Young and Beautiful: A gorgeous young Parisian woman decides to become a prostitute despite her financial privilege. Screens through May 29 at the Ken Cinema.
One Time Only In a World: Attempting to prove her arrogant father wrong, a lowly voice coach competes for a film-trailer voice-over with a young rival. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, at the Scripps Ranch Library. Caddyshack: All hell breaks loose on an executive golf course when an irreverent new member starts challenging the old guard. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Tiny: A Story about Living Small: Members of a subsection of society decide to downsize and live in smaller houses. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park. The Princess Bride: A classic fairy-tale movie that winks lovingly at the absurdities of fairy-tale movies. Starring Cary Elwes as the dashing prince and Robin Wright as the damsel in distress. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 22, through Sunday, May 25, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills. Monty Python and the Holy Grail: John Cleese and the Monty Python team rewrite the King Arthur legend in hilari-
ously anarchic fashion. Screens at 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 23, at the Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista.
young girl after her family’s murdered by his bosses. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at Arclight La Jolla.
También la lluvia: Gael Garcia Bernal stars as a hotshot director who gets involved in a community revolt while shooting his next film. Screens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, at the Hall of Nations in Balboa Park.
Dazed and Confused: On the last day of school in 1976 rural Texas, a group of teenagers goes on a wild night of drinking and sexual promiscuity. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. See our review on Page 44.
The Art of the Steal: Kurt Russell stars as a reformed art thief who decides to pull off one last heist. Of course, things don’t go according to plan. Screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, at the Point Loma / Hervey Branch Library. Tropic Thunder: During the filming of the most realistic war movie ever made, four actors are mistaken for actual soldiers and get tangled up in real combat. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, at Arclight La Jolla. The Hedgehog: Fed up with life, an 11year-old decides to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Screens at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at the Mission Valley Library. Battle in Outer Space: Part of the Schlockfest series that pays homage to cult classics and campy films, this one’s about small creatures that wield antigravity weapons and mind-control devices. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village. Babies: A documentary that looks at one year in the life of four babies from different backgrounds. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at the Women’s Museum in Point Loma’s Liberty Station. Leon: The Professional: Jean Reno plays a master hit man who befriends a
Now Playng Belle: An illegitimate, mixed-race daughter (of a Navy admiral) being raised by aristocrats finds herself in a precarious social position in Victorian England. Chef: Jon Favreau returns to comedy filmmaking with this story of a well-respected chef who opens a food truck after being fired by a posh restaurateur. The Double: Jesse Eisenberg plays a government clerk whose already-failing confidence is shattered when his exact physical double starts working in the same office. For a Woman (Pour une Femme): A writer delves into her family’s history, including her parents’ time in a concentration camp, their ties to communism and a mysterious uncle no one wants her to know about. Ends May 22 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park. For a complete listing of movies, please see “F ilm S creenings” at sdcit yb eat.com under the “E vents” tab.
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Motor City murk Protomartyr’s post-punk is darkly satirical by Jeff Terich Some people start bands because of an overwhelming passion for music. Some strap on a guitar because of the conventional wisdom that being in a band creates an irresistible appeal to the opposite sex. When asked why he got into music, Protomartyr vocalist Joe Casey attributes it to one simple thing: “Boredom.” “In Detroit, there’s not much to do,” Casey tells CityBeat. “So, you go to a couple shithole bars and see what band is playing.” It seems oddly fitting to hear Casey describe the group’s origins in such unglamorous terms. To outsiders, Detroit is famous for three things: the auto industry, music and dysfunction. The city has seen a continuous decline in population since the 1950s, as well as diminished economic vitality—highlighted by the U.S. government bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. Detroit has been insolvent since 2007 and, last year, became the largest U.S. city in history to go bankrupt. Yet, since the 1960s, Detroit has also been one of the most important cities in the coun-
try in terms of musical exports. It’s famous for giving birth to Motown, the legendary R&B and soul label that rose to prominence in the ’60s, as well as for artists ranging from Parliament to Alice Cooper to Ted Nugent. More relevant to the music that Protomartyr makes are noisier acts like The Stooges and MC5, whose meaty guitar riffs essentially created the template for punk rock. Still, as Casey tells it, very little of Detroit’s musical heritage has consciously entered Protomartyr’s sonic makeup. “Growing up, you’d always hear Motown stuff everywhere, but it got to a point where it’s really annoying,” he says. “If you’re in a waiting room [at] a doctor’s office, it’s Motown. But I remember the radio in the early ’80s being really amazing— they’d mix new-wave stuff with electro. “For other people, [Detroit] has an immediate connotation, a certain sound,” he continues. “There’s definitely more bands in Detroit that are more… Detroit than we are.” Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard and bassist Scott Davidson
certainly play a style of music that’s informed by punk rock, but more akin to the sort that was born in Manchester, England (Joy Division), or Cleveland (Pere Ubu). There’s a dark and eerie streak that runs through their unique brand of post-punk on their second album, Under Color of Official Right (released in April via Hardly Art). A propulsive standout like “Scum, Rise!” carries a touch of horror-film atmosphere in its chilling riffs, while “Maidenhead”—inspired by a story about a person who slowly drifts into insanity—carries a quiet tension before exploding into a noisy and raucous chorus. There’s a drive and momentum to the recordings that feels both intense and effortless, and with good reason: The album was recorded in a single weekend at Keyclub in Benton Harbor, Michigan. That’s nothing, though, compared with their debut, No Passion All Technique, which was tracked in a scant four hours. Protomartyr works fast. “We do [work quickly], and that’s a good thing, because I’m worried that one day it’s going to stop and [we] wouldn’t know what to do,” Casey says. “We already have enough songs for the next album.” The band’s combination of abrasive distortion and reverb-laden post-punk riffs is complemented by Casey’s vocals, which range from a deadpan sing-speak to a more dramatic, melancholy croon. And his lyrics tend toward the darkly absurd, whether it’s the horrific imagery of “Scum, Rise!” or the laundry list of items to be thrown off a giant rock on “Tarpeian Rock.”
Angel Ceballos
From left: Joe Casey, Greg Ahee, Scott Davidson and Alex Leonard
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Protomartyr Sunday, May 25 The Hideout facebook.com/protomartyr soundcloud.com/protomartyr Detroit itself is a principal character in Protomartyr’s songs. Under Color of Official Right takes its title from the Hobbs Act, a federal corruption and extortion law. That phrase reappears in “Bad Advice,” which is about former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who pleaded guilty to felony obstruction-of-justice charges in 2008. More scathing is “Come and See,” which begins with the line, “Have you heard the bad news / We’re being saved by both coasts.” Casey’s tone is satirical, but it comes from a very real place. “It’s an interesting time to be in Detroit,” Casey says. “We’re being run by an emergency manager, and we’re bankrupt, and the city’s falling apart—has been falling apart for 50, 60 years. Meanwhile, there’s also the other side where there’s people parachuting in to write op-ed pieces for East Coast magazines. There was a big story a couple years ago where people did a Kickstarter where they’re, like, ‘Gonna move to Detroit and fix it up.’ “It’s the idea that the future’s out of your hands, and you’re up to the whims of outside forces.” Protomartyr may not necessarily be a product of any particular Detroit sound, but they’re not ones to shy away from their hometown’s troubled or sordid past. Yet, amid the darkness or cynicism that permeates many of their songs, Casey shrugs off the idea that they’re an overly dark or serious band. “I’m not necessarily a dark person,” he says. “Even at my most depressed or thinking about the most disturbing things, there’s a vein of humor running through it. It’s a good way to deal with things—to kind of lighten it. “Nothing’s more annoying than listening to an album with 14 dark, depressing songs.” Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com
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notes from the smoking patio Locals Only Alfred Howard is documenting his lyrics, inspirations and experiences as a musician in a new book, The Autobiography of No One, a compilation of elements including anecdotes from the road and working in record stores, comics, photographs and other things inspired by his life as a musician. Howard—who currently performs with The Heavy Guilt, The Black Sands, The Midnight Pine and Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact—has a particular way of describing this unique literary volume. “It’s like a book of distractions,” he tells CityBeat. Al Howard is writing a book of lyrics and stories behind his songs. Howard began putting together the elements of the book in 2006 and has been slowly Howard’s entire discography, and for $50 more, he’ll adding to it ever since. He’s finished writing it, and write you a song. it’s been edited, but he’s still waiting for a few illusAnd while the book will lean heavily on humortrations to be finished before it can be released. ous writing, Howard makes it clear that he takes his “I’ve been kind of working on it off and on since music very seriously. my old band, The K23 Orchestra, existed,” he says. “All the music stuff I’ve done is dead serious,” “I always wrote these really long-winded band mail- he says. “But then all the prose I’ve ever written—I ers from the road. Sometimes I would include sto- think most of us want to be stand-up comedians, so ries behind the lyrics. I mean, I always want to know that’s my attempt at that.” what shapes the songs by bands I’m interested in.” Also, Howard’s band The Midnight Pine will reAn IndieGogo campaign has been launched (indie lease a new album, Buried, in June. The band will gogo.com/projects/the-autobiography-of-no-one) play a record-release party at The Hideout on Satto both help distribute the finished book and to urday, June 14. gauge interest. A $10 pledge will get you a download—Jeff Terich able e-book, while $200 will get you the book plus
Music review The Burning of Rome Year of the Ox (Surfdog) There are great live bands, and there are bands who make great albums—and the two don’t cross over as often as you’d expect. In the studio, an artist has access to a wide array of equipment that can make a recording sound a specific way, which can be extremely difficult to replicate live—not to mention the hassle of having to bring more equipment on stage. Meanwhile, an intense live dynamic can be tough to capture in a recording. Even the best live acts sometimes can’t fit all that lightning into such a little bottle. The Burning of Rome have a reputation for being a great live band, and they live up to it every time, with an infectious energy and largerthan-life songs that practically demand to be heard in person. To date, their recordings haven’t quite lived up to their live performances. They’ve been good, certainly—especially 2012’s With Us—but something still felt missing. Such is not the case with the band’s fourth album,
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Year of the Ox. It’s an ambitious and sprawling album, as big as the band’s ever sounded. From the opening rise and eventual, explosive climax of the title track, The Burning of Rome send a clear message that they’ve graduated to another level. To be clear, Year of the Ox still sounds like The Burning of Rome—they’ve just amplified and enhanced their strengths and embraced a much brighter and expansive studio sound in the process. After the intense rush of the title track, the band proves its mettle at melancholy art pop on “God of Small Things,” which is built on big, gothic hooks and dreamy effects— and the occasional addition of vocoder. There are still some oddball flights of fancy, like the spaghetti-western rock of “Terrible Tales from Tocqueville” and the sea-shanty prog rock of “Space Age Stockholm Syndrome.” But all it takes is a spin of “Better Than He” or closing track “Animal” (featuring The Melvins’ Dale Crover) to hear the kind of power the band wields. I’ll bet these songs sound great live.
—Jeff Terich Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
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if i were u Wednesday, May 21 PLAN A: El Monte Slim, Brawley @ The Casbah. Local Americana group El Monte Slim have the honor of receiving one of our coveted “EXTRASPECIALGOOD” designations in this year’s Great Demo Review. So, what does that mean? It means you should drop whatever you’re doing on Wednesday and sing along with their hand-clapping, foot-stomping alt-country tunes.
Thursday, May 22 PLAN A: Papercuts, The Blank Tapes, Line & Circle @ Soda Bar. San Francisco’s Papercuts have been releasing beautifully arranged indie-pop records for more than a decade. Sometimes they veer closer to psychedelic rock, other times baroque pop. But one thing’s pretty much constant: The songs are always good, and their newest album, Life Among the Savages, keeps up that streak with nine more. BACKUP PLAN: Archons, Thrones, Cryptic Languages @ Til-Two Club.
Friday, May 23 PLAN A: Against Me!, Tony Molina, Big Eyes @ House of Blues. Against Me!’s newest album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, is both a concept album about a transgender prostitute and a semi-autobiographical reflection on singer Laura Jane Grace’s own experience with sexual-identity issues. It’s also one of the most intensely cathartic and personal punk albums to be released in a long while, and the band will put that into practice with its blistering live show. PLAN B: Their/They’re/There, Creative Adult, The Down House, Big Bad Buffalo @ The Che Café. Their/They’re/There aren’t just a band for grammar sticklers; they’re (not their or there) a solid band of indie rockers who should remind you of those halcyon days before Braid broke up the first time, or before Death Cab for Cutie lost the plot. BACKUP PLAN: The Burning of Rome, Hell or Highwater, Eukaryst, Fairy Bones @ The Casbah.
BY Jeff Terich Young Fathers, P. Morris @ The Casbah. I saw Baths last year at The Casbah, and it pretty much turned into a mega-fun dance party. There’s a pretty solid chance of that happening again, so limber up and bring your A-game when they bring the beats back. BACKUP PLAN: John Meeks, The Midnight Pine @ Black Cat Bar.
Sunday, May 25 PLAN A: Protomartyr, Viv Vates, Lube @ The Hideout. See Page 46 for my feature on Protomartyr, a Detroit post-punk band that combines abrasive melodies with a dark sense of humor. One of my favorite acts right now. PLAN B: SOHN, Mr. Littlejeans @ The Casbah. London’s SOHN has, first and foremost, a great design aesthetic. But that’s not why you’re going to see him. You’re going because his sultry and atmospheric electronic productions find the perfect middle ground between avant-garde pop and R&B slow jams. Bring your sweetheart and get close while he does his thing. BACKUP PLAN: Angelic Upstarts, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, The Generators, PSO @ Soda Bar.
Monday, May 26 PLAN A: Blood Red Shoes, Radkey, Soft Lions @ The Casbah. The key to making a two-person band a success is distracting you from the notion that something’s missing. Listening Papercuts to the U.K.’s Blood Red Shoes, you don’t get the idea that anything is being left out. They have a meaty, rich sound that’s equal parts shoegaze and classic alt-rock. It’s not fancy, but it definitely does the trick.
Tuesday, May 27
PLAN A: Nothing, Whirr, Youth Code @ Soda Bar. The members of Philadelphia’s Nothing have a background in metal, but you wouldn’t know it to hear their debut album, Guilty of Everything. It’s pretty much classic shoegaze, with gauzy layers of guitars and dreamy vocals. They can certainly get loud, but it’s much prettier than you’d expect Saturday, May 24 from the revered Relapse label. PLAN B: PLAN A: Matt Pond PA, The Lighthouse Jacques Greene, Samo Sound Boy @ The and the Whaler, Gary Hankins @ Soda Loft at UCSD. Montreal’s Jacques Greene Bar. My favorite Matt Pond PA album has is part of an elite class of bass producers that always been The Nature of Maps, but 2004’s create a forward-thinking sound while payEmblems comes pretty close. And you might ing reverence to classic house music. Plus, have noticed this year is its 10th anniversary, it’s funky as fuck and way more danceable so to commemorate, the group is performing than, say, Burial or James Blake. Take part the album on tour. Hear how lush chamber in this innovator’s sure-to-be dance-a-thon folk is supposed to sound. PLAN B: Baths, and shake your ass—into the future.
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HOT! NEW! FRESH! Next, Shai, All-4-One (HOB, 6/13), Ronnie Spector “Behind the Beehive” (North Park Theatre, 7/3), Nipsey Hussle (HOB, 7/4), Ringo Deathstarr (Soda Bar, 7/4), Matt Pryor (Casbah, 7/23), Guttermouth (Soda Bar, 7/25), Foxy Shazam (BUT, 7/29), Rx Bandits (HOB, 8/10), Owen Pallett (Casbah, 9/14), The Afghan Whigs (BUT, 10/24), Bonobo (HOB, 10/26), Ira Glass (Balboa Theatre, 11/22).
GET YER TICKETS Guided by Voices (BUT, 6/14), Failure (HOB, 6/15), The Both (BUT, 6/15), Nightmares on Wax (HOB, 6/23), Deafheaven (Casbah, 7/1), Wye Oak (BUT, 7/9), Cloud Nothings (Soda Bar, 7/11), La Roux (HOB, 7/12), Chris Isaak (Humphreys, 7/16), The Antlers (BUT, 7/16), Dwarves (Soda Bar, 7/18-19), Wolves in the Throne Room (Che Café, 7/19), Doug Benson (HOB, 7/23), OK Go (BUT, 7/24), Boris (Casbah, 7/24), Tori Amos (Humphreys, 7/24), The Hold Steady (BUT, 7/31), Arcade Fire (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/5), The Head and the Heart (North Park Theatre, 8/11), The Sonics (Irenic, 8/16), The Naked and Famous (North Park Theatre, 8/20), Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/21), Marc Anthony (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/29), Andrew Bird (Humphreys, 9/19), Pixies (Humphreys, 9/27), Crosby, Stills and Nash (Civic Theatre, 10/1), The Beach Boys (Humphreys, 10/5), The Horrors (BUT, 10/13), The Black Keys (Viejas Arena, 11/9), John Waters (North Park Theatre, 12/1), Fleet-
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wood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/2).
May Wednesday, May 21 Wayne “The Train” Hancock at The Casbah. Katchafire at Belly Up Tavern. Shai Hulud at The Che Café.
Thursday, May 22 Papercuts at Soda Bar.
Friday, May 23 Chris Robinson Brotherhood at Belly Up Tavern. Against Me! at House of Blues. Gang Green at Til-Two Club. Negura Bunget at The Merrow.
Saturday, May 24 Hellogoodbye at The Irenic. YG at House of Blues. Matt Pond PA at Soda Bar. Baths at The Casbah.
Sunday, May 25 Suzanne Vega at Belly Up Tavern. Protomartyr at The Hideout. Angelic Upstarts at Soda Bar. The Bloody Beetroots at Bassmnt.
Monday, May 26 Blood Red Shoes at The Casbah. Jeremy Jay at Soda Bar.
Tuesday, May 27 Crystal Fighters at The Irenic. Nothing at Soda Bar. In the Valley Below at The Casbah.
Wednesday, May 28 Backstreet Boys, Avril Lavigne at
Viejas Arena. Eagulls at The Casbah.
Thursday, May 29 The Meatmen at Soda Bar. Pink Mountaintops at The Casbah. The Green at Belly Up Tavern.
Friday, May 30 Potty Mouth at The Che Café. Merle Haggard at Belly Up Tavern. Ben Ottewell at House of Blues. M.I.A. at SOMA.
Saturday, May 31 Kill Holiday at Soda Bar. Blackalicious at Belly Up Tavern.
June Sunday, June 1 Pete Yorn at The Casbah. Cyhi the Prince at Porter’s Pub.
Monday, June 2 Lady Gaga at Viejas Arena. Crash Kings at The Casbah.
Tuesday, June 3 Camper Van Beethoven at The Casbah. Kelis at House of Blues. Rodriguez at North Park Theatre.
Wednesday, June 4 Between the Buried and Me at House of Blues.
Friday, June 6 Nashville Pussy at Soda Bar. T-Pain at Fluxx.
Saturday, June 7 Lionel Richie at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. Wanda Jackson at The Casbah. Little Hurricane at House of Blues.
Monday, June 9 Rocky Votolato at The Casbah. The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band at Belly Up Tavern.
Tuesday, June 10 King Buzzo at The Casbah.
Wednesday, June 11 Lords of Altamont at Casbah. Dave and Phil Alvin at Belly Up Tavern.
Thursday, June 12 Les Claypool’s Duo de Twang at Belly Up Tavern.
Friday, June 13 Dawn of MIDI at Soda Bar. Dead Feather Moon at The Casbah. Paul Collins Beat at Til-Two Club. Next, Shai, All-4One at House of Blues.
rCLUBSr
lanos. American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco. com. Wed: Sammy Obeid. Thu-Sun: Tue: Open mic. AMSDconcerts, 1370 Euclid Ave, City Heights. amsdconcerts.com. Sun: Chuck Mead. Bang Bang, 526 Market St, Downtown. facebook.com/BangBangSanDiego. Fri: Yo Bill, Kevin Brown. Sat: Animal Riot. Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: Stevie and the HiStaxx. Fri: ‘Bonkers!’. Sat: Dry River Yacht Club, The Palominos. Sun: Doe Eye, Sleeping Ghost. Mon: Tori Roze and the Hot Mess. Bassmnt, 919 Fourth Ave, Downtown. bassmntsd.com. Wed: Rusko. Thu: ATB. Fri: Michael Woods. Sat: Stafford Brothers. Sun: The Bloody Beetroots. Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla. brocktonvilla.com/beaumonts.html. Wed: Kayla Hope. Thu: Aquile and Bryan Keith. Fri: Mike Myrdal Band. Sat: Jones Revival. Sun: Joe Cardillo. Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: Katchafire, Maoli, Thrive, DJ Emmanuel. Thu: The Marshall Tucker Band, Moonalice (sold out). Fri: The Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Sun: Suzanne Vega, Megan Combs. Tue: Stephen Stills (sold out).
710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live band karaoke. Fri: Dan the Blue Grass Hole (5 p.m.); Bad Neighbors, Isleside, KNGMKR (9 p.m.). Sat: Counterpoint Culture, Ease Up. Sun: Karaoke.
Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Thu: Inspired and the Sleep. Fri: ‘Club Musae’. Sat: The OSS.
98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Thu: The Klay. Fri: The Curtis Taylor Quartet. Sat: ‘Tribute to Tito Puente’ w/ Gilbert Castel-
Bourbon Street, 4612 Park Blvd, University Heights. bourbonstreetsd.com. Wed: VJ K Swift. Thu: ‘Wet’. Sun: ‘Soiree’. Tue: Karaoke.
Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Thu: ‘Opium’ w/ DJ Simon Taylor. Fri: ‘Brown Sugar’. Sat: DJs XP, KA. Sun: ‘Noche Romantica’ w/ Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave, Downtown. cafesevilla.com. Wed: Aro Di Santi. Thu: Malamana. Fri: Joeff and Co. Sat-Sun: Oscar Aragon. Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Clairemont. thecomedypalace.com. Wed: Comicazi Comedy Crew. Fri-Sat: Rick Martinez. Sun: The Funny Thing Is. Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St, La Jolla. lajolla.thecomedystore.com. Fri-Sat: Owen Smith. Croce’s Park West, 2760 Fifth Ave., #100, Bankers Hill. crocesparkwest.com. Wed: Ryan Shaw. Thu: Gilbert Costellanos and the Park West Ensemble. Fri: Sue Palmer. Sat: Eve Selis Band. Sun: Patrick Berrogain. Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Fri: Dave Negrete. Sat: Joe Marillo. El Dorado Bar, 1030 Broadway, Downtown. eldoradobar.com. Wed: ‘All Things Rad’. Thu: Jon Dadon. Fri: Charlie Rock, Marsellus Wallace. Sat: Dolla Dolla DJs, Gabe Vega. Sun: Mustache Party. Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Wed: Electric City, Jo Jo y Los Dinos, The Bends, Whatever. Sat: Ocean Hands, inthebackground, Scarlet Canary. F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown, Downtown. f6ixsd.com. Fri: DJ Rags. Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxx-
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May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 55
sd.com. Thu: ‘IDGAF’ w/ Sidney Samson. Fri: DJ Brett Bodley. Sat: DJ Karma. Sun: Too Short. Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean Beach. 619-222-5303. Wed: Hot Blood Orchestra. Thu: Ottly Mercer, DJ Reefah, TRC Soundsystem. Fri: Noise Makerz, DJ R2. Sat: Funk’s Most Wanted, DJ Chelu. Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Thu: Martin Roth. Fri: Kaos, Delatorre. Sat: Lil Jon. Sun: Eric Prydz. Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave, Downtown. henryspub.com. Wed: Johnny Tarr, DJ Christopher London. Thu: DJ Yodah. Fri: ‘Good Times’. Sat: DJs E, Yodah. Mon: ‘Kinetic Soul’. Tue: Big City Dawgs. House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Wed: Devildriver, Whitechapel. Thu: ‘Beatles vs. Stones’. Fri: Against Me!, Tony Molina. Sat: YG (sold out). Mon: Josh Damigo. Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Wed: ‘Future Wednesday’. Thu: ‘Blood Pressure’. Fri: Toombao. Sat: ‘Revolve’. Sun: Abstract Rude. Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave, Kensington. 619-284-2848. Sat: Downs Family, Behind the Wagon. Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave, Normal Heights. lestats.com. Wed: The Moves, Alex Rathje, Trent Hancock. Thu: Geoff Baker, Mike James, Leslie Lowe. Fri: Cara, Tony Ferrari, Billy Shaddox. Sat: The Gregory Page Show. Sun: The Robin Henkel Band. Mon: Open mic. Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Ron’s Trio. Thu: Harmony Road. Fri: Upshots.
Sat: Northstar. Sun: Joey Harris (5 p.m.); Glen Smith (8 p.m.). Tue: Gene Warren. Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. numberssd.com. Thu: ‘Varsity’. Fri: ‘Viernes Calientes’. Sat: ‘Club Sabbat’. Onyx Room / Thin, 852 Fifth Ave, Downtown. onyxroom.com. Fri: ‘Rumba Lounge’. Sat: ‘Play’. Tue: Dwele. Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed & Fri: Fuzzy Rankins Band. Thu: Bill Magee Blues Band. Sat: Mystique Element of Soul. Sun: Trey Tosh. Mon: The Groove Squad. Tue: Walter’s Chicken Jam. Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: DJ Marcel. Thu: DJ K Swift. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Will Z. Sat: DJs Taj, Nikno. Sun: DJ Hektik. Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave, La Mesa. rivierasupperclub.com. Wed: Westside Inflection. Thu: Tacos Deluxe. Fri: Three Chord Justice. Sat: Little Kings. Tue: Karaoke. Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd. Wed: Gilbert Castellanos jazz jam. Thu: Ilya, LIFE. Fri: Euphoria Brass Band. Sat: David Dondero, Songs for People. Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Fri: Almon Loos and The Hoop n’ Hollers, The Firecrackers! Tue: ‘Soul Shakedown’. Side Bar, 536 Market St, Downtown. sidebarsd.com. Thu: ‘Divino Thursday’. Fri: Euro Beard, Jason Whitmore. Sat: Kyle Flesch. Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: The Unlikely Candidates, Wild Party. Thu: Papercuts, The Blank Tapes, Line and
56 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
Circle. Fri: Nathaniel Rateliff, Carly Ritter. Sat: Matt Pond PA, The Lighthouse and the Whaler, Gary Hankins. Sun: Angelic Upstarts, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, The Generators, PSO. Mon: Jamestown Revival, The Whiskey Circle. Tue: Nothing, Whirr, Youth Code. SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Thu: For the Fallen Dreams, Obey the Brave, I the Breather, Reflections, Sylar. Sat: The Frights, Death Lens, Groms, Seminole, Hydrogen Jukebox, Plane Without A Pilot. Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: Mark Fisher and Gaslamp Guitars. Thu: Superbad. Fri: Disco Pimps, Vinyl Exam. Sat: Hott Mess, Western Midwest, DJ Miss Dust. Sun: ‘Funhouse/Seismic’. The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd, Spring Valley. 619-469-2337. Wed: Karaoke. Thu: Gigan, Idols Plague, Memory. Fri: The Widows, Toy Guitar, Los Mysteriosos. Sat: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lexemes, Riververb, Actuary, Monochromachy, Funeral Dirge, Desert Amethyst. Sun: Father Murphy. Tue: SNFU, Fantasy Arcade, DFMK, At Fault. The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: El Monte Slim, Brawley. Thu: The Rosalyns, The Diddley Daddies, The Grim Imperials, Two Wolves. Fri: The Burning of Rome, Hell or Highwater, Eukaryst, Fairy Bones. Sat: Baths, Young Fathers, P. Morris. Sun: SOHN, Mr. Little Jeans. Mon: Blood Red Shoes, Radkey, Soft Lions. Tue: In The Valley Below, Mercy Beat, Tiger and the Teller. The Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Wed: Shai Hulud, Seeker. Fri: They’re/Their/There,
Creative Adult, The Down House. Sat: La Bella, Moon Bandits, For Every Action, Maladjusted, Left Eye. The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. thehideoutsd.com. Fri: Emily Reo, Wizard Woes, Cuddle Formation, HGWND. Sun: Protomartyr, Viv Vates, Lube. The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. theloft.ucsd.edu. Tue: Jacques Greene, Samo Sound Boy. The Merrow, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Wed: Open mic. Thu: Death by Snoo Snoo, The Great Okra play, DP3, The Joint Chiefs. Sun: Karaoke. The Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. officebarinc.com. Wed: Addis Pablo. Thu: DJ Myson King. Fri: DJs Adam Salter, Kid Wonder. Sat: DJs Kanye Asada, Gabe Vega. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ w/ Tribe of Kings. Mon: ‘Under Cover: David Bowie’. Tue: DJ Ramsey. Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Thu: Archons, Thrones, Cryptic Languages. Fri: Gang Green, Attitude Adjustment, Christ Killer, DJ Little Fists. Sat: ‘Sleepwalking’. Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com. Wed: Will Rice, Triumph of the Wild Boy, Eric Curiel. Thu: Arc, Steel Cranes, The Anomaly. Fri: Cody Jasper, Just Like Jenna. Sat: Mittens, Babes, Void Lake. Tue: Uniform Victor, Danger Granger, The Swift Beats. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Wed: Christopher Dale. Thu: The Fremonts. Fri: Rising Star. Sat: Karling and the Kadavers, Johnny Deadly Trio. Tue: The Mud Bugs.
Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Wed: The Ratt’s Revenge, DJ Mikey Ratt. Thu: Die Trying, Ghost Police, Dead on the Wire, Hammered. Sat: Rebels and Traitors, Parachute on Fire, Dudes Night, Western Settings. Mon: Bud Bronson and the Good Timers. Tue: The Junk Poets, The Lewer. Turquoise, 873 Turquoise St, Pacific Beach. theturquoise.com/wordpress. Wed: Kevin and Eduardo (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.). Thu: Mark Hall (4 p.m.); Jade Visions Jazz Trio (7 p.m.). Fri: Gabriela Aparicio (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.); Afro Jazziacs (9 p.m.). Sat: Zak Lipton Trio (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (6:30 p.m.); Santana Pa Ti (9 p.m.). Sun: Sounds Like Four (4 p.m.); Middle Earth (8 p.m.). Tue: Stefanie Schmitz (4 p.m.); Grupo Globo (7 p.m.). Ux31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Wed: Glass Spells, Diatribes, Tiger and The Teller. Thu: The Hunt, We Are Sirens, DJ Adam Salter. Fri: DJ Man Cat. Sat: DJ Junior the DiscoPunk. West Coast Tavern, 2895 University Ave, North Park. westcoatstavern.com. Wed: DJ Slowhand. Thu: DJ Qenoe. Fri: DJ Billy the Kid. Sat: Mr. Deejay. Tue: DJ Clean Cut. Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Wed: ‘Kiss and Make Up’ w/ DJs John Blaj, Kyle Badour. Fri: Northern Tigers, Artifact. Sat: DJ Claire (5 p.m.), ‘Booty Bassment’ (9 p.m.). Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: SimmerDown Riddim Section, Kindle to Ember. Thu: Agua Dulce. Fri: Brothers Gow, Quactus. Sat: JGB Band. Sun: Rick Holmstrom.
May 21, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 57
Proud sponsor: Pacific Nature Tours
Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig
Across 1. Roman love god 5. SportsCenter feature 10. Randall Munroe web comic rich in math arcana 14. Clean with water 15. Assembly area in Athens 16. Soup in Sapporo 17. They may ask you to keep things formal 19. Way off the highway, for an SUV 20. With a certain ease 21. Letters before a name on a letter 23. Number for soccer legend Andriy Shevchenko --at least, when he played for an Italian club 24. Places to live, to Jorge 26. Weird Al’s second parody of a hit by Michael Jackson 29. Site that calls itself the front page of the internet 31. Squirt of soda 33. Actress Lupino who lived in Malibu 35. Aging process for sherries and ports 37. Not anti 38. Peña or de Lucia of Spanish guitar playing 40. Critically acclaimed Scottish actor Williamson who died in the Netherlands 41. Norse god associated with magic 42. Lacking water 43. Marker for Fido 45. Cooler cubes 46. Lower a lawyer’s status 48. Alternative to a word like shucks or aw 50. Pal of Frodo 51. Causes to veer 53. Could 56. Buyer of snow 57. Slangily, bill featuring Queen Elizabeth II 58. Actress Lena who made her first film while still in drama school 61. “Jackass” daredevil 64. Microscopic 65. Like some spicy cuisine
Last week’s answers
66. Supermodel host of the version of “Project Runway” shown in Canada 67. Boomers’ kids 68. They’re ground for joe 69. There is an important one spelled out by the last characters of this puzzle’s clues, starting from the top
Down 1. Robert and Alan, each with a stage career 2. Tussaud who sculpted both a young and an old Marlon Brando 3. Content of Cliven Bundy’s last widely televised screed 4. Put in a new milieu 5. A bit pornographic 6. Massage target 7. Black ___—fancy name for sablefish at many a deli 8. Calculations a high school math student might do 9. Dish brought along on an outdoor excursion 10. Magneto, Wolverine, and Magma 11. Cereal from General Mills 12. TV procedural that’s had some episodes directed by Quentin Tarantino 13. Colon half 18. Wintertime conveyances for, I guess maybe, LL Cool J 22. Qty. at hospitality school Le Cordon Bleu 24. Sensory organelles in a cell 25. Was humbled publicly 26. Animated film partly set in the office of a dentist 27. It’s pretty much always high 28. Facial section, in marketing language, most vulnerable to facial pizza 30. Turkish snack made with lamb or chicken 32. Brazilian city with a “Christ the Redeemer” landmark 33. Devices that recently added Retina display 34. Animated Morgendorffer partly based on Janeane Garofalo 36. Philip who studied at Bucknell and Eli who studied at NYU 39. Late Wu-Tang member known for being a bit off 44. One obsessed, perhaps, with Nintendo 47. Rear 49. Welcome, in a sense 52. Get rid of, as a show you saved from TV 54. Ancient Afghan province 55. Nickname of a noted ‘60s jazz bandleader 56. Operating system developed by AT&T originally 57. Gets dark in the light 58. Mild online oath 59. Certain kind of alibi 60. Traveler’s destination 62. Rapper who got into a high-profile feud with journalist Lynn Hirschberg 63. “This has been amazing!” - !
A pair of tickets for a 4.5- or eight-hour Pacific Nature Tour will be awarded weekly. Email a picture of your answers to crossword@sdcitybeat.com or fax it to 619-325-1393. Limit one win per person per 30 days.
58 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
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60 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
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62 · San Diego CityBeat · May 21, 2014
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