San Diego CityBeat • May 28, 2014

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, $550 000?

What it will take to keep ProjEct 25, a proven chronichomelessness program, a li v E

by Kelly Davis

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Community P.7 Cross P.9 Chairskater P.18 Coppola P.22

2 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

May 28 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

June 3 election endorsements For those traditionalists who like to vote in-person on Election Day, below is our clip-out guide that you can take to the polls. Since we published our detailed endorsements on May 7, some new information has come to light: First, Voice of San Diego ran a story about Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood, whom we endorsed for the District 5 seat on the county Board of Supervisors. Turns out he’s super-creepy when it comes to interacting with women. So, we’re pulling our endorsement. It’s really too bad, because he’s running against incumbent Supervisor Bill Horn, who’s just the worst kind of awful.

Next, former CityBeat investigative reporter Dave Maass revealed on Facebook that Donna Woodrum, one of the candidates running for San Diego Community College District’s governing board, is a leader of an organization that “believes that homosexuality can be cured with treatment, climate change is a hoax, and that Muslims are the greatest threat to America.” In our May 7 issue, we didn’t make endorsements for the college district board, but we do here.

Please vote on June 3. And please convince your friends to vote—we need people to turn out, particularly to vote yes on Propositions B and C.

Governor

Superior Court Judge, Office 9

Jerry Brown

Lieutenant Governor

Ronald Prager

Gavin Newsom

Superior Court Judge, Office 19

Michael Popkins

Derek Cressman

Superior Court Judge, Office 20

Carla Keehn

Controller

Ashley Swearengin (ha!)

Superior Court Judge, Office 25

Brad Weinreb

Treasurer

John Chiang

Superior Court Judge, Office 44

Joseph Adelizzi

Secretary of State

Attorney General

Kamala Harris

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Tom Torlakson Insurance Commissioner

San Diego Community College, District A

Dave Jones

Board of Equalization, District 3

Maria Nieto Senour

San Diego Community College, District C

Rich Grosch

San Diego Community College, District D

Lewis Da Silva (R) or Nader Shahatit (D)

Peter Zschiesche

U.S. Representative, District 49

No endorsement

U.S. Representative, District 50

James Kimber

U.S. Representative, District 51

No endorsement

U.S. Representative, District 52

SCOTT PETERS!

Board of Supervisors, District 4

Ron Roberts

U.S. Representative, District 53

Susan Davis

Board of Supervisors, District 5

No endorsement

State Senate, District 36

No endorsement

State Senate, District 38

San Diego Unified School, District B Kevin Beiser San Diego Unified School, District C Michael McQuary

Assessor / Recorder / Clerk

Susan Guinn

District Attorney

Fotios “Frank” Tsimboukakis

Bob Brewer

Treasurer / Tax Collector

Dan McAllister SARAH BOOT!

State Senate, District 40

Ben Hueso

San Diego City Council, District 2

State Assembly, District 71

Tony Teora

San Diego City Council, District 4 No endorsement

State Assembly, District 75

No endorsement

San Diego City Council, District 6

CAROL KIM!

State Assembly, District 76

Rocky Chavez

San Diego City Council, District 8

David Alvarez

State Assembly, District 77

Ruben Hernandez

State Assembly, District 78

Toni Atkins

San Diego Proposition A

Yes

San Diego Propositions B and C

YES and YES!

State Assembly, District 79

Shirley Weber

State Proposition 41

Yes

State Assembly, District 80

Lorena Gonzalez

State Proposition 42

Yes

This issue of CityBeat is dedicated to men’s-rights advocates everywhere. LOL. Just kidding. Really, you’re all awful.

Volume 12 • Issue 42 Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Jeff Terich Arts Editor Kinsee Morlan Staff Writer Joshua Emerson Smith Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Lindsey Voltoline Columnists Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza

Cover illustration by Lindsey Voltoline

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

Circulation / Office Assistant Giovanna Tricoli

Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse

Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami

Production artist Rees Withrow

Vice President of Operations David Comden

MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia

Publisher Kevin Hellman

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

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

Advertising inquiries Interested in advertising?

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

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 28, 2014

Homeless exhibit I just read several letters to the editor about Balboa Park’s 2015 anniversary [April 23 and 30]. I have a grand idea of sequestering part of the park to house homeless individuals that already live there. They could be fed 24 hours a day and live and sleep in full view of the public at large. This would remove any danger or threat visitors to the park may feel from homeless individuals during the event.

Unfortunately, what will most likely happen is 30 or 40 days before the anniversary celebration, San Diego police will be forced by higher powers to sweep the park to remove any dangerous element that may be loitering leading up to the event, thereby temporary displacing people who use the park as a safe place to sleep. They will not be seen by anniversarygoers, but they will just be homeless somewhere else and, most likely, not very far away.

Many people may find the idea of a homeless exhibit or onsite temporary shelter offensive. However, ignoring the problem and expecting authorities to tidy it up quickly before tourist dollars arrive is even more repulsive.

Benny A. McFadden, Downtown

Should’ve picked lee Regarding your May 7 endorsements issue: CityBeat should be endorsing politically independent local Mitz Lee to fill the new District 6 San Diego City Council seat.

Unique among three candidates, Lee has lived in Mira Mesa for many years with her retired Navy husband, Jeff. Lee has raised and educated two kids to adulthood in this community and at SDSU, has successfully run for political office and been elected to the San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education, where she pushed for high academic standards, parents’ voice, fiscal restraint and civility. For good and ill, she knows San Diego, the issues and the players, and she believes deeply in responsible community service.

Everybody else running for the District 6 seat is a carpetbagger recipient of big money put up by special interests and both major political parties. I don’t understand why you would photo-feature one of these untested and unqualified candidates here.

(I also wonder why you didn’t endorse the guy running for attorney general who wants to execute corrupt politicians. That’s a bold new idea!)

Frances O’Neill Zimmerman, La Jolla

white-boy production.

Interesting passive-aggressive dig at the city by a semi-newspaper that has a staff that is almost all white. The city has black employees equal to city population percentage CityBeat seems to have none, certainly not on its contributors list. In fact, when you examine the list of editorial staff and contributors on its masthead, what you find is one Hispanic named female (but does she even speak Spanish?) and one Asian male.

Other than that, it’s all white folks. The big majority of them male (generally 20- to 30something middle-class semi-hipsters with scraggly beards, dark glasses and other Spielberg look-alike attempts). Should they really being tossing stones?

Linton Robinson, Tijuana Editor’s note: Yes, columnist Alex Zaragoza speaks fluent Spanish. So does multimedia advertising director Paulina Porter-Tapia. So, there are two Latinas.

‘White-boy’ newspaper

Decriminalize it

The April 30 CityBeat had an article all about how the city-employee demographics are not the same as the city population’s racial breakdown. But the thing is, how does CityBeat compare with what they apparently deem an important assessment? Well, like most hipkid publications, it’s pretty much a strictly

We live in New York State, but we agree with your April 30 editorial about legalizing marijuana. We are encouraging our federal legislators to legalize it nationwide.

Linda and Ken Mitchell, Newburgh, N.Y.

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

Kelly Davis

Go t a spar , $550 000?

E E

Project 25, which houses homeless folks and saves taxpayers money, needs new funding to stay alive

by Kelly Davis

I

Douglas “Hutch” Hutchinson was well-known among police and emergency-medical providers when he was living on the streets in East Village.

t wasn’t that Douglas “Hutch” Hutchinson was a disruptive homeless drunk; it was that he was a homeless drunk with serious health issues. He can tell you stories about mishaps with the colostomy bag he ended up needing a few years ago, and so can the police.

“He’d be laying on the street; he’d just be a mess,” says Sgt. John Leining, who works with the San Diego Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team. “And there’d be numerous radio calls. Officers would get there and not know what to do because this guy’s a disaster.”

Leining helped start the Serial Inebriate Program, which gives homeless chronic drinkers the option of treatment instead of jail. He’s used to tough cases like Hutch. But the difference here was that even if Hutch was willing to try a recovery program, there was no place for him to go, at least long-term, because of the severity of his health issues.

“Nobody wanted to take this guy,” Leining recalls. “From the Homeless Outreach Team’s side, we had done everything we can do. Nothing with Hutch was easy.”

Hutch was what’s referred to as a “frequent user”—a homeless person whose addiction problems or physical- or mentalhealth issues repeatedly land him in the hospital, emergency room or jail, where he could end up costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The program that eventually took Hutch in, Project 25, didn’t exist until 2011. It began as a three-year, $1.5-million pilot, part of the United Way of San Diego County’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. The goal of the program was to work with hospi-

6 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

tals, law enforcement and emergency medical services to identify people like Hutch— folks who were not only a drain on taxpayer dollars, but also were at risk of dying on the street—and get them housed and hooked up with services. The housing came with almost no strings attached—a model known as “housing first” that says permanent shelter is the necessary first step to helping a person deal with issues like addiction and mental illness.

“If I walked up to some of my severe alcoholics on the street when we were doing outreach, and I would have said, ‘OK, if you quit drinking, I’ll give you an apartment,’ they would have told me, ‘No,’” says Project 25 director Marc Stevenson.

Even then, housing was a tough sell for Hutch. Stevenson says they found him on the corner of 10th Avenue and B Street, wrapped in a blanket.

“We engaged him probably for four months,” Stevenson recalls. “We started providing medical care to him right there on the sidewalk. The doctor would come and see him there.”

It took four months to convince him to get off the street. His first night in his apartment, Hutch got drunk, made a mess and was asked to leave. “But we stuck with him,” Stevenson says. “And we got him into another unit after that here in this building”— Villa Harvey Mandel at Father Joe’s Villages—“and he’s survived ever since.”

Less than three years later, Hutch, who says he once hoped to drink himself to death, decided to get sober. He gave up alcohol a little more than a month ago, after Stevenson, whom Hutch calls “the boss

man,” worked with him to slowly scale back the drinking—from vodka to beer and then down to one 12-pack of beer per week.

Asked what pushed him to quit, Hutch says it just seemed like the next step.

“Let’s just quit for awhile so I can see what’s going on in the world,” he says.

T

he pilot phase of Project 25 ended in April. The hope had been that the program—enrollment eventually grew to 35, and a new client was recently added—would show such impressive cost savings that additional funding would materialize. Looking at 2013 alone, the 35 Project 25 participants took 600 fewer ambulance rides, were in the ER 1,100 fewer times and spent nearly 1,000 fewer days in the hospital compared with the year before they entered the program, saving more than $2 million.

The model of saving money by getting people off the street isn’t new to San Diego. The Serial Inebriate Program was launched in 2000 after a 1997 study showed that during an 18-month stretch, 15 homeless chronic alcoholics cost taxpayers $1.5 million in hospital and jail visits.

“When we started this, we wanted to show the community that the problem could be solved for less money,” says Shaina Gross, a vice president at the United Way, “that we could address this issue certainly in a more humane and more economical way, and we feel like we did that.”

Since the pilot ended, Project 25’s staff has been whittled down to two caseworkers, Stevenson and Jose Zaragoza. The United Way has granted St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP), the contractor that runs the

program, with an additional $100,000, and they’ve been able to secure $29,000 from another unnamed source.

No one currently in Project 25 will end up homeless if money runs out. Their housing is paid for with Section 8 vouchers, which will be theirs for as long as they need them. Twenty Project 25 clients are receiving mental-health services through a county contract that’s in place through 2016, Gross says. The remaining clients are being taken care of by Stevenson and Zaragoza.

Stevenson says the current Project 25 clients are pretty stable. It’s taken nearly three years, but he’s no longer receiving aroundthe-clock phone calls; now, they’re most likely to call simply because they’re lonely and want to chat. Stevenson attributes the program’s success to the flexibility they were given to work with such a difficult population.

“United Way didn’t govern how we did this, how we approached it,” he says. “This was not a group you have outcomes for. This is a group that gets missed. We got to approach them as a new group that we didn’t know anything about. We learned, No. 1, to build relationships; No. 2, to address crisis as it came up; No. 3, to get them to access preventative [medical] care at all costs, including if it meant taking up our time sitting in the waiting room with them. A lot of our folks now have a relationship with the doctor and, based on that relationship, they’ll go on their own.”

No one’s dropped out of Project 25 or been asked to leave. Two participants died, but from natural causes and in their own

Project 25 CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

John R. Lamb

john r.

spin cycle

The Barrio imbroglio

Pacific Command location and the hope of low voter participation in the June 3 election.

Supporters of the community plan—with maybe a tenth of the money being spent by Prop. B and C opponents—have been limited in their citywide outreach efforts: a couple of mailers, some phonebanking and an anticipated getout-the-vote effort. But it may not be enough.

Some local political leaders have put money where their mouths are—Council President Todd Gloria donated $5,000 in campaign funds to the cause, state Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins $10,000 and Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez $2,500.

But when a single major industrial player like shipbuilder General Dynamics NASSCO alone can drop nearly half a million dollars into opponents’ coffers, how does a community compete?

“The bottom line is, if lying and money trump the truth, then they win,” Takvorian said. “And our hope is that they overplay their hand and voters say, ‘Yeah, I’ve just heard a bit too much about this, and it seems opponents are going a little too far.’”

Stepner couldn’t recall a similar ballot measure, although San Diego has seen its share of ballotbox planning dating back to the 1960s, when developers eyed the potential of Mission Valley, then a bucolic stretch dotted with dairy farms, a two-lane road and horse trails.

“We’ve had Walmart, and Proposition A in the 1980s limiting growth in the northern future urbanizing area, but I’ve never seen anything like this, where a plan has gone through the process and suddenly we’re at a flashpoint where the whole city is voting one way or the other,” Stepner said.

Architect Mark Steele, who’s worked on his share of community plans over the years and runs an office in Barrio Logan, said he just can’t fathom what shipbuilders and their supporters are seeking. “People worked on this plan for five years. It’s a plan that works,” Steele said. “It just seems to me that the whole referendum idea is a dangerous

lamb “The best time to listen to a politician is when he’s on a stump on a street corner in the rain late at night when he’s exhausted. Then he doesn’t lie.”

—Theodore H. White The odds seem stacked against the residents of Barrio Logan.

A new mayor, an old mayor and several ex-“Navy mayors” have all ganged up on the neighborhood’s community-plan update that was five years in the making. And no one seems able to pinpoint exactly why.

Mike Stepner, San Diego’s former city architect who recalls working to create an agreeable buffer zone between residents and the neighborhood’s heavy shipbuilding and repair industry 25 years ago, is a sharp cookie, but even he’s baffled by the overthe-top flailing by opponents of Propositions B and C on next Tuesday’s ballot.

“My personal opinion is that the discussion is way out of whack with reality,” he said, “and now everybody has gone to the extreme edge on this. Watching the TV ads with the retired admirals and the retired mayor, Jerry Sanders—I just don’t get where they’re coming from. What it does indicate is a lack of real dialogue.”

That would seem strange, given the length of time devoted to the process that most probably figured had ended with San Diego City Council approval of the community-plan update last October. But for the monied, powerful interests in town, apparently it was only the beginning.

“Five years, 50 meetings, $4 million,” Environmental Health Coalition executive director Diane Takvorian kept repeating.

“Opponents say we need a compromise. We kind of thought all of those ideas came up. It wasn’t a closed-door process in any way.

Industry says they have a better idea. Well, let’s hear it.”

Instead, community-plan opponents seem content to spend upwards of $1 million on a campaign fueled by fear, with outlandish, sky-is-falling predictions of a departing U.S. Navy from its

The Jerry Sanders steamroller thing. Does that mean 50 community plans face the same fate?

It’s all baffling to me.”

Steele will take part in a press conference on Wednesday, along with other local influence peddlers, to offer his support of the propositions and the communityplanning process. Among those attending will be Richard Ledford, a former mayoral chief of staff who regularly wanders the hallways of power as a pro-development lobbyist.

“Community plans—you can love them or hate them,” Ledford said. “But you have to honor the process. I know this won’t make me popular on the 11th floor at

City Hall”—the Mayor’s office— “but I think the compromise the council agreed to was exactly the right call. What Sanders and his friends are doing, I think, will have a chilling effect on the public process. Sometimes you have to stand up and say, ‘We need to protect the process.’”

If the measures are defeated, what then? Without substantial changes, the plan would be shelved—by law—for a year. Steele said that confuses him because, as he put it, the status quo “allows for more residential-housing construction than the councilapproved plan update.”

Takvorian noted that while

the shipyard interests participated in the process, their executives seemed most interested in building office space and parking for their workers. (NASSCO executives, for example, are currently found not in the barrio, but in Mission Valley.)

That seems like a logical use for a proposed buffer zone that would keep heavy industrial uses away from residents.

Spin’s guess? Communityplan opponents simply find Barrio Logan residents a burden who have no business living near toxic industrial businesses. “I think you’ve hit the nail on the head,” Steele agreed. “The irony, of course, is the plan update reduces residential zoning.”

Added Takvorian: “Opponents say they agree with 95 percent of the plan. My view is there is no 5 percent—that we’re not close. If industries can repeal this plan, then what happens in the next community? Will it be an issue like height in Clairemont? If someone’s not happy, somebody will have the money to put out this kind of referendum.

“So, if Sanders and his backers succeed, I think it means the end of planning as we know it.”

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

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

Project 25 CONTINUED from PAGE 6

kind of support that seems to work for sustaining her in housing.”

A

aron McBride isn’t one of the Project 25 apartments. clients Stevenson worries about—not that Ruth Bruland, St. Vincent de Paul’s executive diMcBride’s time in the program has been rector, says the initial hope was for hospitals to em- without incident. He was the second person housed brace Project 25’s cost savings and help expand it. and No. 21 on the list in terms of cost. McBride has But that was before the Affordable Care Act. neurofibromatosis, an incurable, debilitating disease “With healthcare reform, they now actually make of the nervous system that causes tumors to grow on money on Project 25 clients. They’ve got kind of a nerve tissues and the surface of the skin. Before Projhard sell to their CFO,” she says. “At this point, what ect 25, he was constantly in and out of the hospital; in we’ve heard from them—historically, anyway—is, 2010 alone, his hospital stays cost roughly $200,000.

‘You’re saving us money we haven’t lost.’”

McBride was initially placed in an apartment in Now they’ve shifted the focus to insurance com- Clairemont. He had been there for only two months panies. “Had we had a crystal ball, we would have when police received a call from a woman who said started talking to the insurance companies much McBride had hit her. CityBeat interviewed McBride in sooner,” Bruland says. jail shortly after that for a 2011 story. He said he’d tried In the last few weeks, they’ve seen some prog- to help the woman by giving her a place to stay, but she ress. One insurance company identified a frequent became irate and threatened him when he told her it user and brought the name to Bruland, and that per- was time for her to leave. He was arrested on a domesson’s now enrolled in Project 25. tic-violence charge and spent nine months in jail.

“Every week, we feel like we’re moving in the Other programs would have asked him to leave. right direction,” she says. “It’s just getting that final But when McBride was released from jail, a Project commitment.”

25 case manager was there to pick him up.

It’s not known how many of San Diego County’s “If every time someone made a mistake, you just roughly 4,500 unsheltered homeless people would disregard them, then I would have been a statisneed something as intensive as Project 25. But the tic,” McBride says. “I would have been right back police department’s Leining says he can easily think on the street.”

Kelly Davis of 20 people.

The living room of “I know it’s expenMcBride’s one-bedroom sive to put people into apartment near Market programs like that,” he Creek Plaza in Lincoln says, “but… if we don’t Park is purposely sparse, do something with with just a TV and an upthem, they’re just going right chair covered in a to die on the street. And blanket. The day before, that doesn’t seem—what Stevenson had joked with are we, the eighth largMcBride about his lack of est city in the nation?— furniture. “You’ve got two the way to approach it.” lawn chairs sitting up in Of the initial list of your new living room because you don’t want nofrequent users compiled body to get comfortable?” back in 2010, which he laughed. included roughly 70 After jail, McBride lived names, far more than Aaron McBride in his Lincoln Park apartment in an apartment in East Project 25 could accommodate, several died on the street before outreach Village run by Father Joe’s Villages. People still on the street knew that if they hit him up for a place to stay, workers could find them, Stevenson points out.

Bruland says $550,000 a year would allow them he couldn’t say no. Stevenson’s had to educate his clients on not being taken advantage of, as difficult as it to sustain the current group and add 20 to 25 more.

Stevenson says it takes a couple of years to get may be for them to cut themselves off from their forfolks who’ve been chronically homeless “addicted to mer life.

“The culture of most folks who live on the street, being in housing,” as he puts it. “Everybody’s traditional idea about service is you make people better if you have something, you share it,” he says. “And and take new people in. Well, our people don’t get with our folks, when they get into an apartment, people, as soon as they’re invited in, they feel like better,” he says.

“We’ve had to redefine success for these folks: re- they’re at home, they want to put their stuff there. ducing frequency of use and cost of emergency ser- All of a sudden, they’re there all the time.”

Telling people no was tough for McBride—“I vices, getting them stabilized in housing.”

Stevenson tells the story of one Project 25 client know what it’s like to be out there on the street, sick, with a severe personality disorder who lashed out at homeless cold, nowhere to go”—he says. But, he her landlord—Project 25 clients are placed in regu- knew he had to cut himself off from his former life lar apartments throughout the city—when he tried and focus on his own stability.

“I’ve been getting to change other things in my to make repairs to her unit. Maintaining a good relationship with landlords who rent to Project 25 ten- life and just decided to change the scenery where I ants is key to the program’s success, Stevenson says. was at,” he says.

“Life is good,” he says frequently during his interHe had to come up with a creative solution to make view with CityBeat. sure his client didn’t get evicted.

Even with his ongoing health issues?

“So, we worked out a way for our case manager Sure, he says, “I have no complaints. I’m here, I’m and our facilities person to come over and do all the repairs,” he recalls. “And the landlord was willing to go above dirt. Thanks to Project 25.” along with it.

“That has been successful for us, and the land- Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com lord’s working directly with us now to provide the and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

8 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

edwin

sordid tales

decker The context and history of the Mt. Soledad holy-torture-device The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowthe cross. Please note the word “effect.” Because, as ing government meetings to open with prayer has the 9th Circuit correctly noted, “The Memorial’s caused many to speculate about how the court physical setting amplifies the message of endorsewill decide the Mt. Soledad Memorial cross issue, ment” and “contributes to its sectarian effect.” should the court choose to review it.

The point is, no matter how many times you say For those who don’t know, the Mount Soledad it’s a war memorial, no matter how many deadMemorial Association (MSMA) petitioned SCOTUS soldier placards you put up there, the net effect to in March, hoping to overturn the 9th Circuit Court the millions of people who look up that mountain of Appeals ruling that the gigantic, sacred torture is that a giant, Christian cross is looming over them device is in violation of the First Amendment. like a sword that had been plunged into the bald “What matters is context and history,” declared spot on top of a blasphemer’s head. the MSMA in the opening statement of its petition.

More context? Cross supporters say it’s a multi“[And] the context and history of the Memorial religious site, yet there’s no record of any non-Chrismake clear that its primary purpose and effect is tian denomination having a religious service there. not to endorse religion, but to honor veterans.”

Supporters say a cross is often placed on other First of all, can we please get real? The “memoveteran memorials, referring to the famous rows of rial” is nearly 30 feet tall, perched atop a 14-foot base, crosses at Arlington and other military cemeteries. on the summit of an 800-foot mountain and towers But those are markers for individual soldiers, not a over La Jolla like an enormous nightstick of the Jesus gaudy, bloated centerpiece. In fact, according to the police. Saying its primary purpose is to honor veter9th Circuit, “There is no comparable memorial on ans and not endorse Christianity is like saying the public land in which the cross holds such a pivotal primary purpose of a Coors billboard is to honor the and imposing stature.”

Rocky Mountains and not endorse beer drinking.

Finally, there is this most damning bit of But it’s the part of the petition that refers to “context”—actually it’s both context and history, as “context and history” that is it refers to what was going on in most confounding. I can’t think La Jolla in 1954, when the cross The documentation is of anything more damning to was erected: It was at that time the MSMA’s argument than the abundant, but it was in that the village of La Jolla harmemorial’s context and history. bored a persistent, institutional the housing industry What follows is a little of both: contempt for Jewish people. where these sniggering History: The current cross The documentation is abundant, is actually the third incarnation, but it was in the housing induspigs oinked the ugliest. built in 1954. The first was erecttry where these sniggering pigs ed in 1913, some 37 years before oinked the ugliest. the Korean War, which it supposedly memorializes.

It was called “The La Jolla Covenant,” a pact The legal name of the monument, on guides and among real-estate firms and home sellers not to sell maps and such, was the Mt. Soledad Easter cross, not or rent to Jews. It was a full-on conspiracy adminischanged to its current, secular moniker, the Mt. Soletered by the La Jolla Real Estate Brokers Association, dad Memorial, until 1989—after a lawsuit was filed which would notify local real-estate offices when a against the city that same year—making one wonder descendant of Jacob was perusing the market. if the name was changed for the benefit of lawyers, Yup, that’s what was happening at the time not veterans. There were no markers identifying the when the good citizens of La Jolla mounted their site as a war memorial until 1990, also after the cross “Get bent” cross on top of the highest mountain in ScrewJewland. There’s your history and context case was filed. In fact, for the majority of its existhat supposedly confirms that the cross is, and was tence, the memorial consisted of the cross alone. always meant to be, a war memorial.

As pointed out by the 9th Circuit Court of ApSo, what gives? Does the MSMA think it’s going peals in its 2011 ruling, the original cross was put to get one over on the Supreme Court? That maybe on Mt. Soledad because “it was considered ‘a fitting SCOTUS isn’t going to check the history and context? place on which to erect an emblem of faith.’”

More likely, the Mount Soledad Memorial Association In 1954, when the MSMA asked the La Jolla doesn’t know the history of the goddamn Mt. SoleTown Council for permission to construct yet andad Memorial! In any case, can we all agree on what other bombastic cruciate of divine torture, the orthe dang thing is not? It’s not a bird feeder. It’s not a ganization cited the site as being “worthy as a setcoat hanger. It’s not a bungee platform. It’s a cross. A ting for this symbol of Christianity.”

Latin cross. The shiny, golden idol at the end of the At the dedication ceremony on, naturally, Easter Pope’s staff and the top of Laura Ingraham’s cleavage.

Sunday 1954, the president of the MSMA said the A symbol of the sacrifice Jesus made to mankind. If cross was dedicated to “Our Lord and Savior Jesus that isn’t an endorsement of Christianity, then talking Christ” and the program defined the cross as “a geckos don’t endorse car insurance. gleaming white symbol of Christianity.”

Context: Remember now, according to the Write to edwin@sdcitybeat.com MSMA, history and context confirm that honoring and editor@sdcitybeat.com. war veterans is the “primary purpose and effect” of

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner

pepper) or zucchini and cactus. From that list, you choose three per plate.

Perhaps the best of these is the zucchini-and-cactus taco, consisting of nopales (sliced and blanched cactus paddle), the zucchini plant’s flower, a wrap of crispy melted cheese and a tomatillo salsa. The acidity of the salsa and the nopales balance perfectly the richness of the cheese.

The carnitas and conchinita pibil are good, but The conchinita pibil, chicken al pastor and zucchini-and-cactus tacos they lack the down-anddirty authenticity of the original, and nothing really elevates them. The same might be said of the Baja fish taco. Frankly, there are better ones in town. The filet mignon taco, on the other hand, is an obvious play at luxury, featuring beef’s most tender cut. But it achieves that tenderness at the cost of flavor. It’s From the street to the Headquarters fanciness at a price. A more successful step upmarket is the lobster taco. The fried lobster sitting Is the highest and best role of street food to be on black beans evokes Puerto Nuevo—both downenjoyed on the street or as the inspiration for and-dirty and elevated at the same time—with higher-end cuisine? Puesto (789 W. Harbor the cilantro crema echoing the lobster’s inherent Drive, Downtown, eatpuesto.com) tries to split sweetness and the salsa lending a slight kick. the difference.

Puesto’s ceviches are not quite as good as its Much of what we think of as “Mexican food”— tacos. The ceviche de Acapulco was, frankly, and envision Mexicans eating for their main meal overly acidic to the point that the mahi mahi was of the day in their homes—is really street food, rendered flavorless and helpless. The same fish or antojitos (“little cravings”). These dishes are fared only slightly better in the mahi mahi cevimore mid-commute snacks eaten at street-side che verde. At least the cucumber and the crema stands. Tacos, tamales, tostadas, tortas, quesagave the fish a fighting chance. The spicy shrimp dillas, gorditas, ceviches and salpicons form the salpicon is Puesto’s best seafood antojito. In addicore of one of the world’s most developed streettion to sweet and rich, perfectly cooked shrimp, food scenes. the dish includes brunoised onion, tomatoes and The idea of bringing that scene across the carrots and tiny watermelon gherkin cucumbers, border and putting it in restaurant form is not as well as serrano chile and avocado. Unlike the new. Many have sought to bring classic Mexico two ceviches, it’s a well-balanced dish.

City (or Tijuana) street food here, and some have Puesto’s Headquarters location is more updone it well. Puesto has taken this classic idea scale than the La Jolla original, which hewed and dragged it upscale. closer to its street-food origins. The inherent Where Puesto shines brightest is with its tacos. conflict of street tacos in a swank atmosphere The restaurant, in the new Headquarters at Seacould be off-putting. But Puesto’s flavors, ultimately, carry the day. port District, offers 10 different street tacos, ranging from classics like carnitas or conchinita pibil Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com to more luxurious stuff like lobster or filet mignon and editor@sdcitybeat.com. to vegetarian options like rajas (roasted poblano

the world

fare

10 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

By Jen Van Tieghem

bottle

gnon Blanc, made with grapes from Monterey, is a shining example of the array of flavors one could miss by drinking too frosty a glass. The Paso Robles winery calls this one “a true Sauvignon Blanc drinker’s Sauvignon” and I have to agree. The herbaceous grass up front is perfect Chill out (but not too much) for fans of crisp tang, but it mellows into smooth tropical-fruit essences. Faint notes of everyOne rule I learned early on about wine, but thing from banana to guava to melon are present Jen Van Tieghem fought hard against, was the corthroughout the lengthy finish. rect temperature at which to serve While there are a multitude of white varietals. I preferred my tastes, each is very light and none whites chilled to an icy degree, but, too overpowering. If the wine were alas, my first wine instructor scoldtoo cold, it would be easy to miss ed me for this time and again. all these characteristics and thus His admonishment came with miss what makes this a truly deligood reason; while it can be recious wine. I’d recommend it all on freshing, an over-chilled glass of its own for the complex makeup wine (or anything, for that matter) or with a delicate fish to match its mutes the flavors. And there’s no subtleties. better case for this rule than a great Bianchi’s long been a favorite Sauvignon Blanc, with its delicately brand, and with its use of Monterey layered and nuanced flavor profile. grapes, it’s blended its way into my A big fan of this grape, I gave up heart yet again. Plus, this can be my frigid ways and now let whites ordered up for only $16 per bottle warm up several degrees from online—reasonable for this caliber fridge temperature before drinkof wine. Just make sure you don’t ing. I struggle when our fair San ice it down too much, no matter how hot this summer gets.

Diego weather reaches into triple digits like earlier this month, but Write to jenv@sdcitybeat.com my evolution in wine drinking has paid off. and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Bianchi’s 2012 Signature Series Sauvi-

Rocket

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

by Mina Riazi mina riazi

munching but never once threatened the crust’s flaky crunch.

On a sticky, sweaty Sunday, Island Spice’s shady outdoor patio offered an escape from the sun-blasted afternoon. It turns out a bottle of ginger beer also pairs well with triple-digit temperatures. The sweetand-spicy drink’s nose-burning tang requires some getting used to, but once you’ve moved past the initial sting, you’ll discover it’s a fine complement to your Island Spice meal.

A half-chicken, rice, veggies and fried plantains—all for $12—arrived at my table soon after I ordered.

Island Spice’s jerk chicken is marinated in a blend of pimiento, grated Island Spice’s barbecued-chicken plate nutmeg and sugar before getting coated in the iconic sauce. Sadly, the owners aren’t revealing their top-secret formula, but a few online recipes highlight the same ingredients: Scotch bonnet peppers, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic. It makes sense, then, that the end result is sweet, spicy and smoky all at once. The bone-in chicken pieces are tender and The spice is right moist, but watch out for the bones, which can get weapon-like if you don’t approach with caution.

I first sampled jerk chicken years ago at the HolMomentarily forget everything you’ve learned lywood Farmers Market, lining up with several about high-fructose corn syrup and take a long, others for a taste of the Jamaican specialty. Mindecadent gulp of the ginger beer. The sweet, efutes later, while hunched over a steam-breathing fervescent drink combines beautifully with the takeout box—unapologetically ravenous and jerk chicken’s slow, warm flavors. sporting a sauce-stache—I experienced the simAlthough I visited Island Spice for its jerk ple satisfaction of devouring chicken, rice and chicken, the barbecued chicken impressed beans in between swigs of bubbly ginger beer. I me more. The flavors are quick and sharp and recently tried recreating that moment during a tangy—there’s nothing dull or soft-spoken about visit to Island Spice Jamaican Restaurant. the dish. Plus, the sauce gets layered on thick, so The aptly named eatery (2820 Market St. in you can use it to enliven the lackluster rice and Grant Hill, islandspicejamaicansandiego.com) veggies. Meanwhile, the Island Spice plantains doesn’t skimp on spices. Even the beef patty—a are borderline addictive, thanks to their cakey chubby, golden pastry that looks harmless—packs texture and sweet-yet-tart flavor. enough sinus-clearing heat to get you through two After our server broke the bad news—they’d colds. Or maybe I’m just a spineless ninny when it run out of rum cake—the plantains doubled as comes to spicy foods, having grown up eating Iradessert. Which reminds me: Plan an early visit to nian fare, which never ventures into heated terIsland Spice, as many of the drool-worthy eats are ritory. Still, I couldn’t put down the patty. Stuffed long gone by the end of the day. The dumplings, with ground meat, the pastry shell flaunts a mild also gone by 5 p.m., top my must-try list. Which means only one thing: I’ll be back soon. cheddar-cheese flavor. My grub buddy looked confused when I mentioned this, but I promise Write to minar@sdcitybeat.com I detected cheesy undertones. Meanwhile, the and editor@sdcitybeat.com. ground beef stayed juicy throughout my focused

One Lucky

Spoon

12 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

[T echnology ] no life

offline

by dave maass

Privacy, Bitcoin and Soundcloud’s role in the June 3 election A few months back, as voters were going to the polls in the San Diego special mayoral election, I set out to write a column about all the wacky items I noted on the various candidates’ websites.

Before I even put down a word, I was derailed by the realization that not a single one of the sites included a privacy policy. This time around, I ran into the reverse problem: I’d planned to preview the June 3 election with a comprehensive examination of privacy in the races but was totally sidetracked by all the weird minutiae. I was also daunted by the novella-length manifest of riders on the 2014 campaign train. Holy Jimmy McMillan, the list is too damn long.

In the end, I decided to cram it all together.

Read, consider, vote.

Political privacy: To explain why candidates should have privacy policies, I contacted Beth Givens, who leads the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

“Privacy is one of the top public policy issues of our time,” she wrote in an email.

“A candidate who has a privacy policy shows that he or she is at least aware that privacy is an issue that matters to people. Further, candidates and their campaign teams typically handle a great deal of voters’ personal information. Their attention to the security of such information, as well as restricting its use to legitimate purposes, says a great deal about how they will manage personal information when they are in office.”

On a positive note, the three top candidates for governor—Jerry Brown, Tim Donnelly and Neel Kashkari—each have policies publicly displayed on their sites. As you move down the ballot, it becomes less common. Incumbent Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and his challenger, David Fennell, have them, as does secretary of state candidate Pete Peterson (although it’s weak). An earlier draft of SOS candidate Derek Cressman’s site also had one, but I couldn’t find one on the current iteration. On the local level, district attorney candidate Bob Brewer and City Council candidates Sarah Boot and Mitz Lee each have privacy policies.

While something is better than nothing, a lot of those policies are boilerplate and vague. U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa’s, however, really stands out as a thorough, thoughtful document that not only clearly explains what information he collects and how it’s used, but also breaks down the technology itself, including cookies, third-party ads, log files and clear GIFs. Although it’s a little disappointing to learn that his campaign will share certain personal information about you with “other persons or entities that share common goals or beliefs,” at least Issa’s honest about it. It’s

also nice to see that Issa covers election laws that require his campaign to make some personal information (name, employer) public.

I also used Mozilla’s Lightbeam tool to examine the number of third parties you connect with when you visit a candidate’s website by browsing all of the links in the San Diego County Democratic and Republican parties’ endorsements. The Republican slate of candidates across 38 candidate website front pages connected me to 57 third parties; the Democratic slate of 42 sites (which in some cases was just a link to information on a government webpage), connected me to 50 third parties. These numbers varied a little each time I ran the tool, so keep in mind that this isn’t wholly scientific. Nevertheless, it’s still a Roy Allmond pretty significant gap.

Money in politics: The impact of campaign donations remains a hot issue, but this cycle, two candidates are exploring novel ways of leveraging money in their favor.

On May 8, the Federal Election Commission approved Bitcoin—the popular electronic crypto-currency—for political donations. Newsom was prepared and almost immediately added a “Donate Via Bitcoin” button to the very top of his website. I’m a little skeptical of how much that will actually raise, but there are quite Roy Allmond a few techies out there sitting on small fortunes and with nowhere to spend it.

Then there’s secretary of state candidate Roy Allmond, whose sole campaign advertising strategy seems to be stamping the backs of currency (from $1s to $100s) with his website URL, runroy run.org. You can get one at the Dollar Counts store in Sacramento, where you can meet Allmond (and his star-spangled suspenders) most weeknights.

“I figure candidates spend a lot of money on flyers, and they just become waste in a landfill,” Allmond says via email. “Voters are not likely to throw my ‘flyer’ away.”

The sound of politics: My biggest props of the election cycle go to Media Arts San Diego for working with the county Registrar of Voters to record audio recitations of each and every one of the candidates’ statements in five languages— English, Spanish, Filipino, Vietnamese and Chinese. They’re available on Soundcloud (soundcloud.com/rov_sd/sets), which means a voter can play them one after another like a podcast.

Dave Maass works for Electronic Frontier Foundation, which deals with electronic-privacy issues, although this piece is not a statement of EFF’s position on this matter. Write to davem@ sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

the

SHORTlist

1

ART

COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN

PIGGING OUT

Growing up in Morocco in a house that doubled as a hostel, Ibn al-Presto was raised around the art of conviviality. Despite limited resources, his mother took pride in entertaining guests by using found materials to continually transform the aesthetics of their home. The late matriarch was famous for saying, “You can’t polish a turd, but you can pour glitter all over it.”

While continuing to run the hostel, al-Presto started sharing this legacy of quirky hospitality by catering house parties for his friends. Then several years ago, a traveler from San Diego landed at the hostel and befriended the budding culinary artist and mixologist.

Maintaining that friendship, al-Presto recently flew to California. As it turns out, his chance acquaintance works in the local art scene and invited al-Presto to host an event at the Disclosed unLocation Gallery (1925 30th St. in South Park).

“I’ve done these things before for people, but never as a show like this,” he said. “To me, it’s not strange, but to these people, it’s strange. It’s just my way of thinking or doing this.”

Transforming the art space into an Arabesque gastropub, al-Presto calls the event Orange Blosomm Special. Celebrating the intersection of the organic and the processed, the menu includes a pig molded

HConversations with the Artists at TJ in China Project Room, Av. Revolucion No. 1332, Tijuana. Closing reception and artist talk with Hugo Crosthwaite and Luis G. Hernandez, whose work is on view in the current exhibition, Urbanscape from a Bizarre Present. From 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, May 29. tjinchinaprojectspace.com She’s All That at 98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. A night of art and music to celebrate female artists. Live music by Melody Ebner, Stacey Murray and Christine Parker, with visual art from Michelle Ferrera, Jenna Bogorad, Hankrajewel and over a dozen more. From 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, May 30. $5. 619-2557885, bettinatime.com/shesallthat HBetter Off Now at Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Drive, Clairemont. Mesa’s annual undergrad art exhibition highlights talented young artists from UCSD. The works show facets of distortion and isolation within contemporary society. Artists include Lawrence Chit, Yerrie Choo, Tanner Cook and more.

Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 30.

619-388-2829, sdmesa.edu/art-gallery

Ibn al-Presto and his chocolate chorizo pig head

out of bacon, Velveeta and chocolate; a salad made from locally grown veggies and Cheetos; and a flower-and-herb-suffused beer.

“It’s just fun,” he said. “In Morocco, we have living room where we sit and talk and drink tea. Here you have bars. This is a mix. We’ll have the pig and beer and people will come and drink and talk.”

Doors open at noon and close at 9 p.m. for this The LGBT Film Festival is easily San one-day-only event on Saturday, May 31. It’s doDiego’s sexiest cinema shindig. There’s nation based, but folks do have to RSVP at ibn. some erotica-lite (Little Vulvah & Her al.presto@gmail.com. unlocation.com Clitoral Awareness) and films featuring hot dudes (and ladies) falling in love. There’s the broaching of taboo topics (Gerontophilia) and, of course, sexy The trick to having an awesome time at musicals. Like the community it represents, the fest Tower After Hours at Balboa Park’s is diverse and inclusive, offering something for all Museum of Man is showing up early. The makes and models of filmgoer, whether gay, straight or something in between. It runs from Friday, May food and booze tastings at the adult-only soirées are 30, through Sunday, June 1, at the North Park The- great, but lagging Lucys will be left waiting in line, atre (2891 University Ave.) and includes screenings SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF MAN their growling bellies overwhelming the cool sights of a dozen feature-length films, most of them paired and sounds generated by with a short, plus opening- and closing-night parties. the live entertainment.

Tickets range from $10 for a single film to $125 for an From 6 to 8 p.m. Thursall-access pass. filmoutsandiego.com day, May 29, the next installment of Tower After Hours celebrates Brazil.

What makes the event extra-exciting is that, alongside Brazilian food, beverages and entertainment, there’ll be soccer demos Brazilian performance (Brazil’s hosting the 2014 group Sole e Mar FIFA World Cup). The event is also a chance to check out Empowering Women, the museum’s exhibition featuring female artisan cooperatives and the folk art they create to help supGerontophilia port their families. $15-$30. museumofman.org

2

FABULOUS FILMS

3

14 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

HElective Affinities at UCSD Art Gallery, Mandeville Center, La Jolla. An exhibition featuring 16 students graduating from the Visual Arts MFA program.

Mediums include film, video, sculpture, installation, photography, painting and drawing. Opening from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 29. uag.ucsd.edu

GOOOOOOAAAAAAL!

HLIFE2 at La Bodega Studios and Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan.

Following the success from its first two shows, LIFE2 is back with its third installment of Instagram art featuring some of San Diego’s more creative mobile photographers. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m.

Friday, May 30. 619-721-7207. facebook.com/la.bodega.1 Shana Demassi: Graceful Interstices in a Pale Landscape at UCSD Visual Arts Facility Gallery, Russell Drive and Lyman Avenue, La Jolla. Last chance to see the MFA candidate’s exhibition focusing on the human experience of touch.

Closing from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 30. visarts.ucsd.edu/graduate-facilities HArtist Talk: Rizzhel Mae Javier at Planet Rooth Design Haus, 3334 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest. The artist will discuss her interactive photo-sculptural show, Move(meant), a study of memory, what we remember, how we store these memories, what they mean to us, and how these meanings change over time. At 2 p.m. Friday, May 30. 619297-9663, barrellymadeit.com HSorolla and America at San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park. An exhibition of Spanish painter’s Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida’s most famous works. Opening Saturday, May 31. On view through Aug. 26. There’ll be a symposium on the exhibition at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 31. 619-2327931, sdmart.org HUntil Our Last Breath at Chicano Art Gallery, 2117 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan.

View artwork that captures decades of struggle in Barrio Logan against polluting industries. Includes work by Victor Ochoa, Mario Torero and Mario Chacon.

There’ll also be music and a presentation

by Georgette Gomez from the Environmental Health Coalition. From 6 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, May 31. facebook.com/pages/ Chicano-Art-Gallery HBarrio Art Crawl at Barrio Logan Arts District, 1878 Main St., Barrio Logan.

Come enjoy art, live music, food, and vendors at places like La Bodega Gallery & Studios, Roots Factory, Union Barrio Logan, Glashaus and more. At 6 p.m. Saturday, May 31. barrioartsdistrict.com

The Artistic Lens at Gallery 21, 1770 Village Place, Balboa Park. Local shutterbug Lacy Lewis will showcase new work of “photofabulistic” fine art photography with an emphasis on natural landscapes, wildlife, rocks, water, caves, coves and mountains. Opening from noon to 6 p.m.

Saturday, May 31. 619-233-9050 HOrange Blosomm Special at Disclosed Unlocation Gallery, 1925 30th St., South Park. Artist Ibn al-Presto will transform the gallery into what he calls an Eden of organic material and plastic, where participants are encouraged to lounge and socialize in a hybrid of the traditional Arabic majli (parlor) and the local foodie gastropub. From noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 31. Suggested donation. unlocation.com Grand Opening at Negulescu Fine Art, 2360 India St., Little Italy. Help break in this remodeled home for the captivating art of Irina Negulescu. There’ll be refreshments, a fashion show, live music, body painting and more. From 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 1. 619-278-8410, negulescu.com Wide Open Spaces at Foundry Studios at New Village Arts, 2787 State St., Carlsbad. New works from artist Tamara Moody along with live music and an allage interactive community art project at the monthly Artists Market night. Opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 4.

760-433-3245, NewVillageArts.org Acton Standard at Co-Merge, 330 A St., Downtown. New works from Jason Acton, a colorblind artist who uses primary colors to create an organized, clean and geometric balance to his 3-D screenprints, acrylic on canvas and upholstery pieces. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 4.

619-255-9040, actonstandard.com

BOOKS Tom Hom at San Diego History Center, Balboa Park. Join a lecture, book signing and reception for Rabbit on a Bumpy Road, the autobiography of Tom Hom who, in 1963, made San Diego history by becoming the first minority ever elected to the San Diego City Council. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29. $5. 619232-6203x129, sandiegohistory.org Matthew Quirk at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Quirk stops by to sign and discuss The Directive, the sequel to his debut, The 500, about heist master Mike Ford. At 7 p.m. Friday, May 30. 858-2684747, mystgalaxy.com Science Fiction Writers of America Reading Series at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The Sci-Fi/Fantasy community can gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors such as Nalo Hopkinson (The Chaos), Vernor Vinge (The Collected Stories) and Cecil Castellucci (Tin Star). At 2 p.m. Saturday, May 31. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Lynne Cox at Del Mar Library, 1309 Camino Del Mar. The world-renowned swimmer and bestselling author will be reading from her new children’s book, Elizabeth Queen of the Seas, an inspiring story of an elephant seal who knew exactly where she belonged. At 10 a.m.

Saturday, May 31. sdcl.org Joseph Finder at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The thriller writer stops by to promote Suspicion, about a single father who, to protect his daughter, makes a choice with dire consequences. At 7 p.m.

Monday, June 2. mystgalaxy.com Sarah Lotz at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The screenwriter and novelist with

a fondness for the macabre signs and discusses The Three, in which the world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other. At 7 p.m.

Tuesday, June 3. mystgalaxy.com HCourtney Collins at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author stops by to discuss and sign her debut, The Untold, a spirited and haunting novel set in Australia’s rugged landscape and savage past. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. warwicks.indiebound.com Daniel James Brown at Point Loma Branch Library, 3701 Voltaire St., Point Loma. Brown discusses The Boys in the Boat, the story of nine working-class boys who shocked the world in the 1936 U.S. Men’s Olympic rowing team in Nazi Germany. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 4.

619-531-1539, adventuresbythebook.com

COMEDY Super Drunk with Gordon Downs at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla.

An evening of stand-up comedy featuring Gordon Downs, Jimmy Wolpert, James Schrader, Matt Warburton, Adam Wasserman, Sami Sutker, Andrew Deans and more. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. $8. lajolla.thecomedystore.com HRon Funches at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Recently featured as LA Weekly’s “Number One Comic to Watch in 2013” and Esquire’s “Best New Comedians List.” At 8 p.m.

Thursday, May 29, and Sunday, June 1, and 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 30-31. $22. 619-7953858, americancomedyco.com HSarah Tiana at Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Tiana’s act emphasizes the ups and downs of a Southern childhood while peppering in her opinions of dating and sports, or the sport of dating. At 7:30 and 9:45 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, May 30-31. $20$30. madhousecomedyclub.com Superbuds: Jeff Bilodeau & Jesse Egan at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The local comedy duo will be joined by Joe Charles, Bijan Mostafavi, Barbara Thomason and Cameron Dyson. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 30-31. $20. 858-5739067, thecomedypalace.com Ali Wong at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla. The stand-up was named one of Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch” in 2011 and has appeared on Chelsea Lately and hosted the VH1 comedy series Best Week Ever. At 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 30-31. $20. 858-4549176, lajolla.thecomedystore.com HNew Best Thing: Conspiracy Theory at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park. Live and video sketch comedy from San Diego and L.A., all revolving around a theme. This month’s comedians are Whitmer Thomas and CJ Toledano. At 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. 619-284-6784 HLegends Series: Jann Karam at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The comedian, actor and writer’s credits include Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show and HBO’s Young Comedians Show. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. $20. 858-5739067, thecomedypalace.com

DANCE H(in)Joy at Visionary Dance Theatre, 8803 1/2 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. The San Diego premiere of the isadoraNOW dance company. The first act will be a traditional Isadora Duncan, salon-style performance, featuring live piano music, played by Anna Juliar; the second act

Isaias Crow’s “The Soul Plan of Aztlan” will be on view in a group exhibition opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 31, at Chicano Art Gallery (2117 Logan Ave. in Barrio Logan). features new choreography by Elyssa Dru Rosenberg. At 8 p.m. Friday, May 30, and Saturday, May 31. $10-$15. 619758-8112, visionarydancetheatre.org/MP New Directions at Mandell Weiss Theatre, UCSD, La Jolla. Dance, theater and interdisciplinary collaborations that highlight UCSD undergraduate choreographers as they reimagine the boundaries of what dance and theater a can be. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, June 4-7. $10-$20. theatre.ucsd.edu

FASHION HGraffiti Beach Trunk Show at Graffiti Beach, 2220 Fern St., South Park. Enjoy a complimentary mimosa as you shop the new 2014 Fleet Collection line with the designers themselves. Plus, get a chance to score exclusive deals. From 1 to 4 p.m.

Saturday, May 31. 858-433-0950

FOOD & DRINK HCumbia Fronteriza Festival at San Ysidro Civic Center, 212 W. Park Ave., San Ysidro. A special pop-up barra y cocina courtesy of The Front and The Roots Factory featuring crafty cocktails and carne, along with performances from musicians like Viento Callejero, Cumbia Machin and Los Rikacha. From 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Friday, May 30. $10. cumbiafronteriza. brownpapertickets.com HBacon & Barrels at Embarcadero Marina Park South, 111 W. Harbor Drive, Downtown. Visit over 140 food and libation booths to nibble on imaginative bacon recipes from San Diego chefs and sip whiskey, scotch and tequila from some of Santa Barbara’s hottest boutique wineries and small-batch purveyors. From 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 31. $75-$300. 619686-6200, baconandbarrels.com Expo Cerveza Artesanal at Hamilton’s Tavern, 1521 30th St., South Park. Travel down to Baja for this beer fest showcasing over 35 breweries as well as 15 local restaurants, live music and more. Ticket price includes round trip transportation on a charter bus, entrance to the fest and a four-course lunch at La Justina. At noon Saturday, May 31. $75. 619-238-5460, squareup.com/market/lets-go-clandesti no/expo-cerveza-artesanal Urban Farm Cooking Class at Coral Tree Farm, 598 Park lane, Encinitas. Start with a tour of Coral Tree Farm (including the cute and cuddly animals) followed by a cooking demo and tasting by Chef Jenn Felmley; the menu will be determined by Mother Nature. From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 1. $36. 951-445-2342, coraltreefarm.com

MUSIC 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. In collaboration with violinist Kristopher Apple, a series of six mainstage performances at Space 4 Art reveal our relationship with musical memory and how we adapt to emerging discoveries. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. $10. 619-269-7230, sdspace4art.org Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell at AVO Playhouse, 303 Main St., Vista. One of the country’s most gifted and unique Yiddish vocalists, 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 WED@7 Palimpsest at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD campus, La Jolla.

“Renga,” a new collaboration between UCSD percussionist and conductor Steven Schick and San Diego Symphony violinist Kat Hatmaker, is featured at this special KPBS Night, with free admission for KPBS members. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. $15.50. 858-534-6503, music.ucsd.edu/concerts Jacquelyne Silver: Hooray for Hollywood! at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Part piano concert, part lecture series, the dynamic pianist presents this new, four-part series inspired by Hollywood. At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 29. $19-$70. 858-4545872, ljathenaeum.org/lectures Asi Matathias with Victor Stanislavsky at Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown. An elegant classical concert featuring the works of Saint-Saens, Sarasate and Bloch, and starring two of Israel’s most acclaimed young musicians, violinist Asi Matathias and pianist Vicrot Stanislavsky. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29. $30. 619-544-1000, sdrep.org Sunrise at Dusk: A Fusion of Sight and Sound at Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian Church, 17010 Pomerado Road, Rancho Bernardo. The San Diego Master Chorale joins with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s Soloists Ensemble in a unique performance of the Ola Gjeilo’s “Sunrise Mass.” At 7 p.m. Friday, May 30. $10$15. 858-581-2203, sdmasterchorale.org HTom Griesgraber & Bert Lams at Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad. A concert and album release show showcasing the harmonic fusion of acoustic guitar and the instrument

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

THEATER You don’t have to be a Chekhov scholar You need not be well-versed in the work of the venerable Anton Chekhov to appreciate Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Even if you don’t know a cherry orchard from a neighborhood playground, you’ll enjoy the madcap antics of Durang’s delightfully dysfunctional characters.

It’s by and large over-thetop comedy, with sight gags and shameless Chekhov allusions to spare. But it’s easy to see why this show, now on stage at The Old Globe Theatre, directed by Jessica Stone, was Tony-nominated on Broadway. Besides, there’s just enough heart in the script—especially in the case of wallflower Sonia (Marcia DeBonis)—to ensure that the broadly behaving characters are well-rounded ones. Well, maybe not Spike (Tyler Lansing Weaks), who’s supposed to be shallow, but what he does during a striptease with the belt of his trousers makes up for his shallowness.

The story finds a brother and adopted sister, Vanya (Martin Moran) and Sonia, living contentedly (though they bicker a lot) in the peaceful Bucks County, Pennsylvania, home owned by their sister Masha (Candy Buckley), who’s an extremely neurotic actress—and can she ever emote.

When Masha and her boy toy, Spike, show up, the tirades and recriminations and verbal barbs (all played for laughs) get ramped up and all peacefulness is gone. Whether Masha will sell the house that’s been her siblings’ only home is a key plot point, but it’s not really what the play is about. It sounds corny, but it’s ultimately about family.

Stone directs these four (along with Haneefah Wood, who has a blast overplaying the futureforecasting cleaning woman, Cassandra) with a deft hand. Even at the play’s most outrageous moments—and there are many of them—VSM&S never degenerates into slapstick. Buckley just about rules the stage as Masha, as she should, and DeBonis brings keen sympathy to Sonia’s lot in life. And Moran’s Act 2 appreciation for the simpler time known as the Chapman Stick. At 7 p.m.

Friday, May 30. $15-$20. 760-438-5996, museumofmakingmusic.org Presidio Brass at Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road, Poway. By combining a brass quintet, piano and percussion with fresh, original arrangements, the band creates a unique sound that has made them audience favorites. At 8 p.m. Saturday, May 31. $13$48. 858-748-0505, powayarts.org HOpera’s Greatest Moments at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. Nicolas Reveles of the San Diego Opera will host the program, which will feature a cast of five international soloists, a full orchestra and the Center Chorale conducted by Joe Stanford. At 4 p.m. Saturday, May 31. $20-$34. 800-988-4253, artcenter.org Coyote Music Festival at Cuyamaca College, 900 Rancho San Diego Pkwy., El Cajon. The sixth annual all-ages fest on the campus Grand Lawn features seven

16 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

that was the ’50s is breathless.

It all unfolds on a sumptuous set by David Korins. The house and environs are the kind you wouldn’t mind settling into yourself. Minus the family chaos. Or maybe you’d like the family chaos because it reminds you of your own family.

JIM COX Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike runs through June 22 at The Old Globe. $29 and up. oldglobe.org

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

OPENING Dog and Pony: In this world-premiere musical comedy, things get complicated for a team of screenwriters when one gets a divorce and the other realizes she wants something more than a professional partnership. Opens May 28 at The Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. oldglobe.org Faded Glory: A world-premiere comedy based on a real-life Congress member and Civil War general who nearly lost the war for the Union forces. Opens in previews on May 28 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org

Candy Buckley

Milvotchkee, Visconsin: Billed as “a comedy about a tragedy,” it’s about a woman who works as a park docent in Wisconsin and is suffering from dementia. Presented by Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company, it opens May 29 at the 10th Avenue Arts Center in East Village. moolelo.net The Miss Firecracker Contest: A 24-year-old Mississippi woman seeks to shed her reputation for promiscuity by entering and, hopefully, winning the titular competition. Opens in previews on May 30 at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org My Son the Waiter, a Jewish Tragedy!: A one-man show written and performed by Brad Zimmerman, who went to New York to try to make it as an actor and then waited tables for nearly 30 years. Opens May 28 at the Lyceum Theatre at Horton Plaza, Downtown. lyceumevents.org The Sunshine Boys: CBS asks a retired Vaudeville duo— who split after a year’s worth of not speaking to each other off the stage—to reunite for a TV special. Opens May 31 at Scripps Ranch Theatre. scrippsranchtheatre.org

For full listings,

please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com

bands in a variety of genres including acoustic, rock, folk and pop. Some of the bands featured include Flower Animals, Mockingbird and Rabbit Fever. From noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 31. 619660-4275, coyotemusicfest.com HBach Collegium at San Diego History Center, Balboa Park. Their 11th season closer, featuring Handel’s first Oratorio, composed during his first year in Rome, 1707. At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 31. $10$25. 619-232-6203, bachcollegiumsd.org Mainly Mozart Festival Chamber Players at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, 6628 Santa Isabel St., Carlsbad.

This concert features Mainly Mozart’s Festival Orchestra members and their extended family of musicians, including Cindy Wu on violins, Mark Holloway on viola and Ronald Thomas on cello. At 2 p.m. Sunday, June 1. $25. 619-2390100, mainlymozart.org New City Sinfonia at Church of St. Mary Magdalene, 1945 Illion Street, Bay Park.

The 40-member orchestra presents a colorful program featuring “Symphony No. 2” by Alexander Borodin. At 2 p.m.

Sunday, June 1. Suggested donation. newcitysinfonia.com Klezmer Summit: My Yidishe Mambo at Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown. An exciting concert where klezmer meets Latin jazz, and shtetl culture meets salsa as performed by the all-star bands of Yale Strom and Gilbert Castellanos. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 2. $18. 619-544-1000, sdrep.org HJeff Denson Trio at The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. The trio joins forces with Danny Green for an evening of two performances, which includes the album release show for I’ll Fly Away by Jeff Denson and Joshua White. At 8 p.m.

Wednesday, June 4. $6-$12. artpwr.com

PERFORMANCE VAMP Showcase: Do It Yourself (DIY)

at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park.

An evening of writers performing works with audio/visual accompaniment on the theme of taking initiative. Featuring Jennifer Derilo, Dave Callans, Ed Farragut and more. At 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29. $5 donation. sosayweallonline.com Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin at Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Felder plays the role of the iconic composer in a story spanning 100 years and featuring songs like “God Bless America,” “White Christmas,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and more.

At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 1. $55. 619544-1000, sdrep.org HJune of Journeys at Rebecca’s Coffee House, 3015 Juniper St, South Park. A special concert from Storytellers of San Diego.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. 619-8502130, storytellersofsandiego.org

nroll.competitor.com San Diego Polo Club Opening Day at San Diego Polo Club, 14555 El Camino Real, Rancho Santa Fe. Divot stomps, fashion shows and a Chukker After Party.

Oh, and there’s two polo matches as well.

At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, June 1. $10-$25. sandiegopolo.com Hillcrest Egyptian Bazaar & Movie Night at The Lot at 3811 Park Blvd., 3811 Park Blvd., Hillcrest. Enjoy crafts and farm-to-table food along the sidewalks of Park Boulevard. Bring a blanket for a screening of Finding Nemo on the pop up movie screen. From 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, May 31. fabuloushillcrest.com HSummer SOULstice Celebration at San Diego Unified School District Education Complex, 4100 Normal St., Hillcrest.

Local artisans, veg-friendly vendors, live music, interactive wellness workshops, electronics recycling and more. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 31. sandi egovegfestival.com HJulian Gold Rush Days at Julian Town Hall, 2129 Main St., Julian. This fest offers entertainment including gold panning, historic skits, candle dipping, an arts and crafts market, food and drink, a petting zoo, children’s pioneer games and more.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 31, and Sunday, June 1. julianca.com Palm, Cycad, Bamboo and Tropical Plant Sale at San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. Get planting tips from experts and peruse equatorial flora and fauna as well as other unusual species. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday, May 31. $8-$14. 760-436-

3036, sdbgarden.org HOver the Border Tijuana Bike Ride at Bottlecraft, 2161 India St., Little Italy. A 30-mile tour that will include a stop at the sixth annual Bug Fest in Zona Rio, a new art show from Tijuana social art collective Coyote and Clinika Magazine and more.

Leave from Bottleccraft at noon Sunday, June 1. 619-487-9493, turistalibre.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HAfter Ansel Adams at Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park. MOPA’s In conjunction with the current exhibition, After Ansel Adams, a discussion about Adams’ legacy as well as the present state of landscape photography. From 7

to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 29. $6-$8. 619238-8777, mopa.org What Happens in Detroit at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. The final lecture in the “What’s Wrong with This Picture? Some Problems of Art in Our Time” series with Derrick Cartwright looks at art communities under financial distress and offers a cautionary outlook for future growth of museums. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 3. $19. 858454-5872, ljathenaeum.org/lectures

For full listings,

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

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD Dolores Dorantes and Jen Hofer at UCSD SME Performance Space Room, UCSD campus, La Jolla. A special night of poetry featuring Dorantes, whose oped pieces have been published in numerous Mexican newspapers. L.A.-based Jen Hofer is the co-founder of the language justice and literary activism collaborative Antena. From 4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 28. 858-534-2230, literature.ucsd.edu HBorder Voices Poetry Fair at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village.

Readings by established and up-and-coming poets. Featured poets include Brendan Constantine, Celia Sigmon, Veronica Cunningham and Seretta Martin. From 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 31.

619-236-5800, sandiegolibrary.org

SPECIAL EVENTS HTower After Hours: World Cup Brazil at San Diego Museum of Man, Balboa Park. The event brings the World Cup and Brazil to the museum with soccer demonstrations, performances of Brazilian music and dance and the vibrant flavors of traditional Brazilian fare. From 6 to 8 p.m.

Thursday, May 29. $15-$30. 619-2392001, museumofman.org HBike to Work Day at San Diego County.

Join thousands of riders throughout the San Diego region. Stop by one of more than 90 pit stops conveniently located throughout the county to pick up a free t-shirt, snacks, and encouragement. All day Friday, May 30. 619-546-5390, icommutesd.com/events/bike-to-work-day HCelebrating the Next Chapter: Stories that Matter at Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., Downtown. Fundraiser for Girls Think Tank, a homelessness education and outreach organization. The evening includes tastings from San Diego restaurants, hosted beer and wine, a raffle and silent auction. All proceeds support GTT’s programs. From 7 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, May 31. $150 girlsthinktank. org/2014-gala-fundraiser HSantee Street Fair & Craft Beer Festival at Santee Chamber of Commerce, 10315 Mission Gorge Road. More than 300 food and vendor booths, live entertainment, family-friendly fun zone and carnival rides. From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 31, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sunday, June 1. santeestreetfair.com HRock ‘n’ Roll Marathon at Balboa Park.

Run to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, cheer on runners or just check out the bands at this marathon and 5K run that features live bands performing along the course. See website for who’s playing where. At 6 a.m. Sunday, June 1, runrock

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

Kinsee Morlan

No

skateboarding

wheelchairs allowed Robert Thompkins will continue riding the Lakeside Skatepark despite a skateboards-only rule

by Kinsee Morlan

A

group of little kids on razor scooters swarms around Robert Thompkins and Angelo Sanchez.

Even with the abundance of wheeled apparatus zipping around the new Lakeside Skatepark, they’re the only two in wheelchairs. Their helmets and gloves indicate that they won’t be sitting on the sidelines.

“Are you gonna drop into the bowl?” one curious youngster asks.

“Is that a special wheelchair?” another asks.

Thompkins answers the questions without a hint of annoyance. Yes, he’ll likely drop into the steep skate bowl.

And, yeah, he’s in a special prototype chair, one he’s helping a company design specifically for the emerging sport of chairskating, or adapting skateboard tricks and riding techniques to wheelchairs. Sanchez is just 5 years old, so he shyly stays to himself and lets Thompkins, his chairskating mentor and coach, field the questions.

The two guys are at the skate park to protest a rule that states that the park is just for skateboards.

“Park is for skateboarding only,” reads a big green sign that’s already been defaced by those who disagree with the rule. “Bicycles, rollerskates, scooters, motorized vehicles or other wheeled devices are not permitted in the skate park,” it continues.

Thompkins says he heard about the skateboard-only rule on KUSI-TV and immediately wanted to ride the skate park despite the risk of being cited.

“I find it ridiculous,” Thompkins says, pointing out the obvious mixed traffic at the park and the gobs of local kids on bikes and scooters who seem to agree with him.

Thompkins plans to hold a chairskating-awareness event at the park, located on the southwestern edge of Lindo Lake County Park, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14. The event is part of an ongoing series he calls “Looking Beyond the Wheels.” He’s held about a half-dozen similar events

18 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

to have at least one of the codes amended. For now, though, the rule stands, and wheelchairs, along with wheeled devices other than skateboards, aren’t allowed.

“I’m committed to working with the community to come up with solutions to broaden the use of Lakeside Skate Park,” Jacobs says in a written statement. “I’m certain those discussions will include bikes, scooters and even wheelchairs.”

Thompkins rolls his way to a set of stairs in the skate park; it takes him just a few seconds to decide that he’ll be able to build up enough speed to jump them. He unbuckles his seatbelt and pulls himself out of the chair, scooting up the steps one by one and picking up the chair and moving it to the top of the steps.

“I get along with skateboarders, bicyclers, scooters,” he says as he reaches the top and lifts himself back into his chair.

“It’s a community. I mean, skateboarding is a brotherhood, and I want Lakeside and the county to know, hey, I’m here to fight it.

You want to tell me I’m not allowed to skate in your park? Well, here I am. I’m going to, and I’m not going away, and I don’t think anyone else is, neither.”

T

hompkins was confined to a wheelchair after breaking his back in a cliff-jumping accident at a swimming hole on the outskirts of Julian. The date—Sept. 10, 2005—is burned into his brain as the day everything changed, but details are vague. He was 23 at the time and out partying with friends. He did a cannonball into what turned out to be very shallow water and woke up in a hospital, unable to Robert Thompkins skates the bowl at Lakeside Skatepark. move his legs.

“I don’t even remember jumping,” he across the region in hopes of inspiring kids and other folks says. “But I’m grateful things turned out the way they did. in wheelchairs to take up the sport and push their limits. If I had dived in head-first, I’d be dead.”

The tattooed, 32-year mechanical-engineering techniThis one will also advocate for opening public skate parks cian grew up in San Diego. He started skateboarding when to wheelchair athletes.

“I mean, I no longer have the privilege to get on a skate- he was a kid, mostly taking advantage of the street-skatboard or a bike or a scooter and say, ‘OK, I’m going to do ing spots in North Park. He kept skating until the day at this,’” he says. “The wheelchair is it. And for someone to tell the swimming hole. He’s says the sport in his blood, and us we’re not allowed in a public skate park is unjustifiable.” there’s no way he could quit.

Two years after the accident, he took up chairskating, County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose district includes Lakeside, is currently working with the community something only a handful of folks were doing worldwide to make the park more inclusive. The rule, however, was back in 2007. Even now, he says he’s one of just a few athput in place due to a recommendation from the County letes serious about the sport. He’s the first chairskater he Counsel’s office, which cited two state health-and-safety knows of to do both a 50/50 grind on a stair handrail and codes that create liability issues when it comes to people a manual 50/50 grind, essentially balancing and sliding riding anything other than skateboards. Jacob would like along a thin rail in his wheelchair.

Kinsee Morlan “The popularity is growing,” he says. “But when I started doing what I do, I was the only one in San Diego.”

Through his chairskating, Thompkins has garnered multiple sponsorships from skateboard shops, shoe and clothing companies and Colours Wheelchair, the manufacturer he’s working with to design a chair better suited for the sport.

But even if he isn’t able to carve a full-time career in chairskating, he says the sport will always remain his passion and the best way to keep him from feeling sorry for himself.

“For me, it’s how I find my peace,” he says. “It’s my meditation. It’s how I get away from it all…. Finding yourself in a wheelchair not thinking you’ll be able to do what your passion was, and then finding out you can—it’s heartwarming, it really is.”

Robert Thompkins (left) and Angelo Sanchez

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

May 28 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

Seen Local

Kinsee Morlan

Veteran art made public When Matt Peace unexpectedly got discharged from the Navy due to downsizing in 2012, he wasn’t ready to be a civilian again. The most difficult aspect of the transition, he says, was adjusting to a lessregimented lifestyle.

“You wouldn’t think it’s such a big deal, but it really is,” Peace says, standing in front of a work of mosaic art he’s making as part of his paid internship at The Rainforest Art Project, a Barrio Logan-based program that develops arts projects for schools and community organizations. “You’re so used to the crazy grind of it all…. It’s so hard to be calm about situations because you’re just so used to being busy.”

Peace, though, is unique among young veterans—a population known for being difficult to engage. Unlike most ex-military men and women his age, upon discharge he immediately tapped into reintegration programs. He scored the internship at Rainforest Art by hooking up with the Travis Manion Foundation, which also introduced him to Combat Arts San Diego, which provides art classes and other cultural programs to post-9/11 veterans.

Peace, a talented painter, recently collaborated with Combat Arts founder and artist Elizabeth Washburn and other vets in creating a large-scale canvas mobile mural that travels to outreach events hosted by the organization.

Washburn—who started Combat Arts by offering free art classes to vets after being motivated by a story about Camp Pendleton Marines who died in the Iraq War troop surge of 2007—loves the way the public responds to Peace’s painting and other works created by vets.

“I get such a strong positive public response,” she explains. “The art is like an intermediary to under-

SDMA’s warm welcome

Matt Peace stand what these guys are going through without them having to have sensitive conversations with people they don’t know.”

Wanting to expand public access to the art created in her program, Washburn recently launched a fundraiser (fundrazr.com/campaigns/ajfG5) for the Veteran Mural Project, a program that, like the popular Murals of La Jolla project, will work with communities to mount vinyl, billboard-style murals on walls of local businesses.

From 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 6, at Barracks 17 Event Center (2710 Historic Decatur Road in Point Loma’s Liberty Station), Washburn will discuss the work of Combat Arts alongside other organizations taking part in a public symposium focused on providing arts-and-culture programs to veterans. Washburn hopes both the symposium and the Veteran Mural Project will help erase stigmas surrounding vets.

“It shows the public, these are just regular dudes,” she says. “Look at Matt—he’s such a great, high-energy guy. They’re all just people who want the same things you do. They’re not crazy. They’re not going to fly off the handle. Having that intimate interaction between the public and their art is a good thing— people can get rid of some of the stereotypes.”

—Kinsee Morlan

ple to explore what museum curators, registrars and Balboa Park’s San Diego Museum of Art will unveil educators do behind the scenes. That piece includes a The Welcome Gallery to the public on Saturday, May BuzzFeed-like quiz that helps people find out which 31, to coincide with the opening of Sorolla and Ameri- job they’d most enjoy. ca, an exhibition featuring paintings by Spanish paintThe Welcome Gallery, Benito says, is meant to Kinsee Morlan er Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. give folks a free glimpse of the “It’s a free public place where museum, its permanent collecpeople can wander around, sit tion and the temporary shows down, read and explore,” says (a documentary film on Sorolla, Sandra Benito, the museum’s for example, will screen in part deputy director of education and of the new gallery while the public engagement, as she gives exhibit’s on view). The idea, of me a preview of the new space, course, is to get people to want which is accessible through SDto see more of the museum.

MA’s main entrance.

Architect James Brown of Benito and her education Public Architecture + Planteam walked me through The ning and the Bread & Salt alterWelcome Gallery, showing off native art space, helped SDMA the hands-on exhibits. There’s a build The Welcome Gallery. He Sandra Benito (right) and SDMA’s looping video on the museum’s restored the room to its original education and public-outreach team Open Spaces project, which architecture and enlisted muhelps create public art in underserved neighborhoods ralist Mario Torero, who painted a map on the ceillike Lincoln Park. There’s a replica of “Quince, Cab- ing, and furniture designer Jason Lane, whose sleek bage, Melon and Cucumber” by Juan Sánchez Co- modern designs can be spotted throughout. tán, the most famous piece in the museum’s collec—Kinsee Morlan tion, which people are invited to touch and feel while listening to audio clips. And there are other interac- Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com tive experiences, like the installation that invites peo- and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

20 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

May 28 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Bay Area haze The ‘me first’ generation gets the film it deserves

by Glenn Heath Jr. Despite the various ways people can connect in our social-media-driven world, isolation thrives like never before. Finding emotional satisfaction outside the digital realm seems especially difficult for today’s young adults, denizens of a virtual culture in which gratification and self-worth are judged by likes and retweets.

Gia Coppola’s debut, Palo Alto, doesn’t address these facts of life in alarmist ways; instead, the film Fragile young person Emma Roberts sees teenage loneliness and disaffection as quiet personal experiences, hidden and unmentioned to peers ships, either; Fred is a hurricane of manipulation and or family members. The lack of melodrama (save for a spite with both Teddy and a gorgeous young woman few key scenes) confirms this as a narrative interested named Emily (Zoe Levin) suffering from terrible selfin forcing members of the “me first” generation to see esteem issues. The weakest of us deserve better. themselves as something beyond special.

Coppola explores in interesting ways the power Three very different high-school students reside at struggle between those who lead and those who folthe center of Palo Alto: April (Emma Roberts) is a sweet low. Early on, Fred controls Teddy’s every move, presbut reserved soccer player who isn’t above attending suring him into situations that are stupid and dangerrowdy parties even though she looks completely out ous. April’s clique of popular girlfriends dictates their of place. Teddy (Jack Kilmer) and shared social gospel. Both of these Fred (Nat Wolff ) spend their time characters understand the power smoking pot and hanging out, takof individuality but fear the solace Palo Alto ing part in petty vandalism and it would bring. If either deviated Directed by Gia Coppola pranks; the former appears to be a from the proverbial party platform, Starring Emma Roberts, good kid heading down the wrong it would be an act of subversion.

James Franco, Jack Kilmer path while the latter is in the early But that’s exactly what’s needed and Nat Wolff stages of psychopathic behavior. in order to transcend the vicious Rated R We get a sense of Coppola’s incycle of teenage life. So, what’s re-

tent early on when Teddy and Fred muse about random rhetorical situations in a deserted parking lot. The boredom of being a dissatisfied teenager feels stripped down as the two young men casually bicker over who would be the “king” of their imaginary scenario. Seconds later, Fred punches the gas pedal and sends his car slamming into the cement median a mere two feet away.

Why? Because “it felt so good!”

Like many films, Palo Alto—which opens Friday, May 30—suggests that high-school life is akin to butting one’s head repeatedly against the wall. But it makes this appeal so effortlessly that we almost forget these fragile characters are still mired in the process of growing up. They feel too adult for this stage of their existence, too silently troubled with concerns that shouldn’t matter like they do.

Sometimes others take advantage of their vulnerability, like when April’s lustful coach (James Franco) begins to make inappropriate advances during their study sessions. She likes the attention but knows it feels wrong. It’s not just adults who corrupt friend-

ally at stake in Palo Alto is wisdom; everything boils down to the relationship between mentors and disciples and the motivations that help mold a young person’s mind. When April and Teddy realize how much power they have as human beings separate from their online presence and social standing, it enables both to start listening to the right people for a change.

Adapted from Franco’s novel Palo Alto Stories, Coppola’s film isn’t above trite rationalizations. The ending to Fred’s one-note narrative is overtly symbolic and a bit simplistic. Still, he may represent a teenager so far removed from reality that no punishment will ever make him realize the finality of his actions.

April’s and Teddy’s arcs are more cohesive, not only because they’re attracted to each other but also because they experience the failures of miscommunication in ways that have tangible consequences.

They are the beating heart of Palo Alto.

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

Hair trigger

Cold in July

22 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

Jim Mickle’s Cold in July lives at the dusty crossroads between film noir and crime drama. It’s a sweaty morality tale about a regular guy who chooses violence during a split-second standoff to protect his family, a decision that leads him down a dark and sometimes hazy path seeking redemption.

The incident comes immedi-

ately: Middle-class homeowner Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) wakes up in the middle of the night to find a burglar slinking through his living room. One pull of the trigger and the intruder is wearing a bullet wound for a headdress, making Richard the talk of his small Texas town. Soon, the victim’s ex-con father (Sam Shepherd) begins making threats against his family, insinuating that

another showdown is imminent.

From here, Cold in July takes a wacky right turn, a shift that sends Richard toward pockets of narrative quicksand that become increasingly convoluted. It also creates an unwanted deviation in tone—what starts as a tight, suspenseful potboiler blooms into a full-fledged exploitation movie, often to its own detriment. Nuanced performances by Hall and Don Johnson, as a flashy private investigator, are eventually overwhelmed by the insane plot twists.

After exploring the subversive aspects of horror in Stake Land and We Are What We Are, two very different films about fringe communities with appetites for seedy things, Mickle shifts his focus to patriarchy with Cold in July. Richard’s flaws speak volumes about Mickle’s intention: The character self-righteously moves away from his responsibilities as a father after growing more infatuated with clearing his name.

But Cold in July—which runs for one week starting Friday, May 30, at the Ken Cinema—is ultimately too messy and hackneyed to make a convincing statement about any of its themes. Instead, it’s an enjoyable genre diversion with plenty of teeth but too little brains, at least the kind that aren’t splattered on the wall.

Por las Plumas: A deadpan comedy from Costa Rica about a security guard who develops a strange, endearing friendship with a rooster. Screens through June 5 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

Chinatown: A disgraced private detective (Jack Nicholson) sinks his teeth into a murder case that reveals a wider government conspiracy involving water rights in 1930s Los Angeles. Screens at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 31 and June 1, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Opening A Million Ways to Die in the West: Seth MacFarlane’s follow-up to Ted is a star-studded satire that lays waste to the classic Western. There are sure to be a few penis jokes.

Cold in July: A middle-class homeowner (Michael C. Hall) kills a burglar during a home invasion, only to have his life turned upside down as a result. See our review on Page 22.

The Hornet’s Nest: Using real combat footage, this immersive war film experiences some of Afghanistan’s most hostile valleys through the eyes of the soldiers fighting against Taliban insurgents.

Ida: Anna, 18, is about to become a nun in 1960s Poland. But a family secret dating back to the days of Nazi occupation threatens her faith. It’s directed by acclaimed filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski.

Maleficent: Angelina Jolie stars as the infamous sorceress who sets her sights on the nubile young Princess Aurora in this big-budget reboot of Sleeping Beauty.

One Time Only The Hedgehog: Fed up with life, a precocious 11-year-old decides to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Screens at 6 p.m.

Wednesday, May 28, at the Mission Valley Library.

Babies: 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.

Fed Up: This documentary addresses America’s obsession with food and how our obesity epidemic originated from corporate misconduct.

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. .

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. Ends May 29 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

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.

Ends May 29 at the Ken Cinema.

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. Ends May 29 at Hillcrest Cinemas.

Godzilla: The gigantic mutant lizard is back and bigger than ever, ready to decimate a city near you.

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

Leon: The Professional: Jean Reno plays a master hit man who befriends a young girl after her family is murdered by his bosses. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at Arclight La Jolla.

Dazed and Confused: On the last day of school in 1976 in rural Texas, teenagers go on a wild night of drinking and sexual promiscuity. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, May 28, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

The Philadelphia Story: George Cukor’s classic Hollywood farce stars Kathryn Hepburn as a rich woman who learns a lot about herself after two unexpected guests show up the night before her marriage. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, May 29 and 30, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

San Diego LGBT Film Festival: A festival that celebrates the best of LGBT cinema, including San Diego premieres of narrative, documentary and short films with themes of social equality and gender awareness. Screens May 30 through June 1 at the North Park Theatre.

Labor Day: Josh Brolin’s escaped convict takes a suburban mother and her son hostage over the holiday weekend. They bake pies and fall in love. Screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 3, at the Point Loma / Hervey Branch Library.

Jaws: A killer shark has a real territory complex that threatens to devastate a beach town on the eve of the Fourth of July weekend. The movie that invented the summer blockbuster gets the bigscreen treatment. Screens at 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, June 3, at Arclight La Jolla.

Almost Famous: Young music journalists beware: Don’t make friends with the rock stars. Cameron Crowe’s masterpiece stars Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Patrick Fugit and Billy Crudup. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 4, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Now Playing

Next Goal Wins: After suffering a devastatingly one-sided defeat at the hands of Australia in 2001, the American Samoa soccer team attempts to make a comeback and qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Screens through June 4 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Anita: This investigative documentary tells the story of Anita Hill, the young lawyer who accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual misconduct. Ends May 28 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Palo Alto: In Gia Coppola’s debut film, disaffected teens living in the titular Bay Area community grapple with social alienation and sexual confusion on the eve of graduation. See our review on Page 22.

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.

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

MANDY-LYN ANTONIOU

hazy pop of 2009’s Outside Love, the new album—Pink Mountaintops’ first in five years—is packed end-to-end with shaggy, endearing rock jams rooted in McBean’s weathered record collection and aimed squarely at the nostalgia of Everyman.

“I think it’s a bit of a love letter to youth and teenage romance and all that, hopefully not in a sappy, sentimental way,” he says. “Joe was good with—on certain songs— keeping things a little heart-on-sleeve.”

That motif is front-and-center on the album’s second track, “The Second Summer of Love,” a thumping rocker that finds McBean revisiting 1987: boys and girls, making out, smoking, skateboards and roaming the streets of his hometown at night. On “Sixteen,” a punk number colored with Hold Steady-style keys and E Street Band saxophone, McBean sings about smashing glass (“just for kicks”) and “the underground” before admitting that all his youthful protagonist wants “is to fall in love ’neath the midnight sky.”

Elsewhere, “New Teenage Mutilation” is a beautiful roots-pop tune that laments our current state of “computerized segregation,” while “Wheels” sounds like dusky, Smiths-inspired new wave dipped in an acid bath. And the first song on Get Back is arguably its best: a buzzy jam called “Ambulance City” that moves along at a motorik pace and occasionally ascends into a snarling chorus. The lyrics are nonsensical (outside of McBean’s head, at least), but the groove is entrancing.

And right in the middle of the album is a song called Pink Mountaintops capture a feel-good “North Hollywood Microwaves,” an eye-popping garagerock-meets-free-jazz hodgepodge that features Giant psychedelic sound • by Ben Salmon Drag’s Annie Hardy rapping a squeaky, explicit verse about, among other things, bear semen. It’s bizarre and Stephen McBean, the singer and songwriter behind Pink Mountaintops disjointed and out of place. And that was the point.

“I think he wanted to do the record, so he kinda pushed Stephen McBean doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d “I love it,” McBean says of the song, noting that he and me to just start,” McBean says. “I was, like, ‘I dunno. his record label, Jagjaguwar, decided to put it out ahead of let a lack of rehearsal get in the way of making music.

The hirsute rock ’n’ roll savant plays in a whole bunch What?’ And he was, like, ‘Pick who you wanna play with, the album, “maybe to fuck with people a bit.” of bands, from thrash powerhouse Obliterations to psy- and let’s start.’

But “North Hollywood Microwaves” also embodies “When I met Joe… we got along good, talking music the album’s loose, unencumbered charm, a quality Mcchedelic slow-burners Black Mountain to his doom-folk collaboration with guitarist Imaad Wasif, Grim Towers. and stuff. And his studio was cool,” he continues. “And Bean attributes to the cast of characters who “wanted to Making music is what McBean does, going all the way back he was good as far as saying, ‘Oh, that’s a cool take’ and play on it and were available to play on it.” That cast inkeeping things loose. It was also cool making a record cludes members of Darker My Love, Dead Meadow, Brian to his 2000s cult-fave oddball band, Jerk with a Bomb.

But Get Back, the fourth album by McBean’s experi- with him, knowing The Icarus Line’s Jonestown Massacre, Clawhammer mental pop-rock project Pink Mountaintops, was pushed trail of destruction and all that. He PINK MOUNTAINTOPS and Cat Power, plus modern guitar back for years while McBean—now in Los Angeles after would hear me doing vocals and say, hero J. Mascis, whose contributions years of living in Vancouver, Canada—tried to find the ‘Just sing it, man. Don’t worry about to Get Back are “a little bit of a surreal Thursday, May 29 right players and environment to not only make it, but to it.’ So, it probably turned out a bit dream,” McBean says.

The Casbah more aggressive and rock ’n’ roll, as actually be properly prepared to make it.

“Loose is a good word. We kinda “Before making a record, you’re, like, ‘Oh, it’s not re- well, working with him.” just learned the songs as we recorded pinkmountaintops.com Since 2004, Pink Mountaintops hearsed. We’re not prepared,’” McBean says in a phone inthem, which gave new life to some of has existed on a shimmering paralterview from the road. “It’s, like, ‘Let’s just start.’” ’em,” he says. “You want people just on McBean didn’t get to that devil-may-care place on his lel plane alongside Black Mountain, though the former’s the spot, playing, and playing from the gut and not thinkown, mind you. He was helped along by Joe Cardamone, path has been more crooked and subterranean. Get Back— ing about it too much.

“At least for rock ’n’ roll, that’s the best way to go.” frontman of Los Angeles post-hardcore band The Icarus produced by psych / doom knob twiddler Randall Dunn Line and a producer with a vested interest in the creation (Sunn0))), Earth)—could change that. After the lush, spiritual visions of 2006’s Axis of Evol and the expansive, Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com. of a new Pink Mountaintops album.

SUMMER

JAMS

24 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

notes from the smoking patio Locals Only The Che Café is facing closure after the UCSD University Centers Advisory Board (UCAB) voted to cut the venue’s maintenance costs from its 2014-2015 budget.

UCAB—the student-run board that oversees how student fees are spent—voted 9-4 in closed session Friday afternoon not to pay for the more than $722,000 in repairs to bring the Che in compliance with fire regulations. The vote likely means that after 34 years as a venue, The Che Café will no longer be able to function as it currently does.

The $722,000 figure comes from a report from ISES Corporation—a facilities engineering and management consultant— that recommends several upgrades, including installation of a sprinkler system. The university’s obligation to make repairs to the facility is included in its so-called Master Space Agreement with student-run cooperatives, but without the funding allocation from UCAB, the university won’t allow the Che to use the building any later than September.

The Che Café opened in 1980 and has hosted countless bands over the years, including At the Drive-In, Green Day and The Locust. Its potential closure sparked a campaign to rescue it, including a Save the Che Facebook page and a Change.org petition that now has more than 10,000 signatures.

At four recent UCAB meetings where the Che was discussed, dozens of speakers made their case to save the venue, including Pinback’s Rob Crow,

A summer playlist

Ratt

Memorial Day is behind us. You’ve already read our Summer Guide cover to cover. Summer is basically here—June 21 be damned. And when summer comes, you need a good soundtrack. For me, a good summer jam is bright and catchy and captures that intangible feeling of being totally free for three months. For your enjoyment, I’ve assembled eight songs by San Diego artists past and present to keep you grooving all summer: “Fuzzy” by The Incredible Moses Leroy: A pretty big hit in 2001, and for good reason. Ron Fountenberry’s warm, crackly pop delight, built around a bubbly sunshine-pop sample, is just too charming not to love.

“Mr. Wilson” by Optiganally Yours: Rob Crow and Pea Hicks recorded two albums entirely using

The Che Café who said that when he started going to the Che in the 1980s, he “was inspired by the people and everything around it.”

And Che volunteer Davide Carpano, who organized the Change.org petition, put the Che’s mission in simple terms: “We are here to do public good.”

The Che is disputing that the $722,000 in repairs are legally necessary to keep the venue open.

“We have yet to receive requested information and answers from administration or legal counsel as to whether these repairs are necessary,” the Che’s attorney, Andrea Carter, says in an email.

After the vote on Friday The Che Café, which is still open and operating, tweeted, “WE’RE NOT DONE FIGHTING.”

—Jeff Terich ’70s-era optical organ the optigan, and this is one of their best tunes, in which Crow yelps to the title character, “Let’s talk about peace and love!”

“City Heights” by The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble: I like my summers to get a little funky and soulful, and few bands bring deeper funk than Sure Fire.

Plus, the song’s named after my neighborhood!

“Jail La La” by Dum Dum Girls: This catchy little tune about getting thrown in jail is as fun as committing crimes gets. Don’t even bring up Jane’s Addiction right now. Just don’t.

“Answer to Yourself” by The Soft Pack: Some Soft Pack to go with your Dum Dum Girls? Another surf-inspired, garage-rock gem, this one’s pretty much nothing but hooks—as it should be.

“When You Walk Into My Dreams” by Gary Wilson: A smooth synth-funk jam with a weird and jittery frontman—just what your summer shindig needs. It’s danceable and just ever so slightly off.

“Round and Round” by Ratt: Maybe it’s just nostalgia for the video with Milton Berle in it, but this song’s definitely a highlight of the hair-rock era—no joke.

“Monkeys Attack” by The Stalins of Sound: Sure, it’s noisy and disturbing, but it’s also a danceable tune about a monkey attack. Win-win!

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

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

if i were u Wednesday, May 28

BY Jeff Terich

PLAN A: Eagulls, Twin Peaks, Ditches @ Soda Bar. I’ll freely admit that I’m a sucker for all things post-punk, so if a gloomy group of Brits comes around with a set of jagged tunes inspired by Joy Division, count me in. Eagulls write better songs than most Ian Curtis disciples however, so they get an extra favorable endorsement from me. BACKUP PLAN: The Touchies, Javier Escovedo, The Nformals @ Tin Can Ale House.

you’ll get to hear both. How many times have you been able to say you saw a band reunite twice in one show? PLAN B: Blackalicious, Lifesavas, The Soul Rebels, DJ Emmanuel @ Belly Up Tavern. Positive rap can be pretty corny, but Blackalicious have always had the skills to make it work. Their 2000 album Nia was an eye-opener for me, and still sounds solid 14 years later. BACKUP PLAN: Punk Rock Karaoke, Widows, The Touchies @ The Casbah.

Thursday, May 29

Sunday, June 1

PLAN A: Pink Mountaintops, Giant Drag @ The Casbah. See Page 24 for Ben Salmon’s feature on scruffy psychedelic-pop outfit Pink Mountaintops, who know their way around a good hook but aren’t averse to fucking with the audience when the mood strikes them. PLAN B: The Meatmen, Black Fag, The Fink Bombs, Vyper Skwad @ Soda Bar. Old-school punks The Meatmen have a cult anthem called “We’re The Meatmen and You Suck!”

They’re loud and fast and ornery and pretty much a blast. San Diego’s lucky enough to be a favorite destination for punk legends, so make some time in your schedule to welcome these hardcore curmudgeons.

PLAN A: CyHi Da Prince @ Porter’s Pub. CyHi the Prince (pronounced “sigh-high”) got a big break in 2010 when he appeared on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. And while he’s yet to release a proper debut, his mixtape releases and more work with Kanye prove that he’s an MC to watch. So why not watch him right here, while he’s in town? PLAN B: Incan Abraham, Inspired and the Sleep, Joyce @ Soda Bar. Los Angeles neo-psych outfit Incan Abraham specialize in trippy pop melodies with a laid-back, dreamy sheen.

They’re comfortably nestled between Tame Impala and Beach House, and that’s just alright with me.

Friday, May 30 PLAN A: M.I.A. @ SOMA. M.I.A. has a high publicity-stunt factor, whether it’s flipping the bird during the Super Bowl or having Julian Assange open her shows. But when you get past all that, she still puts on a pretty good performance. I’ve seen her twice, and both times it’s been a fantastic dance party. No reason to believe this’ll be anything less.

PLAN B: Perfect Pussy, Potty Mouth, DivaCup @ The Che Café. I caught Perfect Pussy the last time they came to San Diego ( just a couple months ago), and they were about as much chaotic fun as you can imagine from a young punk band. Their new album Say Yes to Love suggests that their best work is still ahead of them, but the loud and messy time they offer is still one worth having. BACKUP PLAN: Ben Ottewell, Buddy @ House of Blues.

Monday, June 2 PLAN A: Pinata Protest, Mochilero All Stars, Johnny Deadly Trio @ M.I.A. Soda Bar. It’s not every day you hear a band like Pinata Protest.

Billed as “Tex-Mex-punk,” the group combines high-speed power-chord punk rock with the accordion melodies and bounce of border music. They’re one of a kind and, more importantly, a whole lot of fun.

Tuesday, June 3

PLAN A: Kelis, Son Little @ House of Blues. Kelis is most famous for “Milkshake,” but since that 2003 hit, she’s taken a variety of new directions with her career, including—most recently—a cooking show. She also has a new album called Food that’s funky as all get-out and features local drummer extraordinaire Jake Najor.

PLAN B: Camper Van Beethoven, Curtsy @ The Casbah. You’ll still hear “Take the Saturday, May 31 Skinheads Bowling” or the band’s cover of PLAN A: Kill Holiday, I*Wish*I @ Soda Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men” Bar. Kill Holiday are reuniting for a spe- on the radio now and then, but Camper Van cial show, during which both lineups of the Beethoven have a pretty consistent and unband will play individual sets. They began as derrated catalog—all the more reason to a post-hardcore group and ended with more catch the band now, with an extensive set of a Britpop / shoegaze sound, and here of songs to pull from.

26 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

May 28 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

HOT! NEW! FRESH! tUnE-yArDs (The Irenic, 6/4), Silver Snakes (Soda Bar, 7/9), Brad Paisley (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 7/10), The Growlers (North Park Theatre, 7/11), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Viejas Arena, 8/3), He Is Legend (Porter’s Pub, 8/9), Those Darlins (Soda Bar, 8/10), The Life and Times (Casbah, 8/13), Broncho (Soda Bar, 8/25), Il Sogno del Marinaio (Casbah, 9/10), Blockhead (Soda Bar, 9/10), Joyce Manor (The Irenic, 10/2), Allen Toussaint, Preservation Hall Jazz Band (BUT, 11/16),

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), Doug Benson (HOB, 7/23), 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 Naked and Famous (North Park Theatre, 8/20), Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/21), Owen Pallett (Casbah, 9/14), 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 Afghan Whigs (BUT, 10/24), Bonobo (HOB, 10/26), The Black Keys (Viejas Arena, 11/9), Ira Glass (Balboa Theatre, 11/22), John Waters (North Park Theatre, 12/1),

28 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

Fleetwood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/2).

May Wednesday, May 28 Backstreet Boys, Avril Lavigne at Viejas Arena. Eagulls at Soda Bar.

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. tUnE-yArDs at The Irenic.

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.

Saturday, June 14 Pato Banton at Belly Up Tavern. Guided

by Voices at Belly Up Tavern.

Sunday, June 15 Electric Six at The Casbah. The Both at Belly Up Tavern. Blackbird Blackbird at Soda Bar. Failure at House of Blues.

Monday, June 16 Cowboy Junkies at Belly Up Tavern.

Social Club at The Casbah.

Up Tavern.

Friday, June 27 Yuna at Belly Up Tavern.

Tuesday, June 17 Sage Francis at Belly Up Tavern.

Thursday, June 19 Island Boy at Soda Bar.

Friday, June 20 Russ Rankin at Soda Bar. Ray J at Porter’s Pub.

Saturday, June 21 Jessica Lea Mayfield at The Casbah.

Souls of Mischief at Porter’s Pub. Dr. Know at Soda Bar. Toni Braxton at Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Sunday, June 22 Milk Carton Kids at Belly Up Tavern.

The Menzingers at The Irenic. Federico Aubele at The Casbah. Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires at Soda Bar.

Monday, June 23 Paula Cole at Belly Up Tavern. Nightmares on Wax at House of Blues.

Tuesday, June 24 Jackie Greene at Belly Up Tavern.

Tweak Bird at Soda Bar.

Wednesday, June 25 Pure X at The Hideout.

Thursday, June 26 A-Trak at Fluxx. Sly and Robbie at Belly

rCLUBSr 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.); Factory Seeds, Comfort in Chaos, Wet (8 p.m.).

Sat: Sunny Rude, Upfull Rising, Tunnel Vision, Elemental Roots, Dantes Boneyard. Sun: Karaoke.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Wed: Rob Deez and Kenny Eng. Fri: She’s All That.

Sat: Jazz to Gospel Concert. Sat: Brandon Primus and Daneen Wilburn.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco. com. Wed: Joe DeRosa. Thu-Sun: Ron Funches. Tue: Open mic.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St, Downtown. facebook.com/BangBangSanDiego. Fri: Halo, Jon Dadon.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: ‘H.A.M.’ w/ DJ L. Thu: Cheers Elephant, We Are Sirens. Fri: Mimi Zulu, Soul Ablaze. Sat: The Husky Boy All Stars.

Bassmnt, 919 Fourth Ave, Downtown. bassmntsd.com. Thu: Villains. Fri: Etc.!

Etc.!. Sat: Arty.

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

Wed: Chris Jamison. Thu: Simeon Flick Duo. Fri: Fish and the Seaweeds. Sat: December’s Children.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: Stephen Stills (sold out). Thu: The Green, The Movement. Fri: Merle Haggard (sold out).

Sat: Blackalicious, Lifesavas, Soul Rebels, DJ Emmanuel. Sun: AJ Croce, Nat Donnis Trio. Tue: The Allah-Las. Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Thu: The Great Electric Quest. Fri: ‘Club Musae’. Sat: SM Familia.

Bourbon Street, 4612 Park Blvd, University Heights. bourbonstreetsd.com. Wed: VJ K Swift. Thu: ‘Wet’. Fri: Jareb Liewer.

Sun: ‘Soiree’. Tue: Karaoke.

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Thu: ‘Opium’ w/ DJ Simon Taylor. Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA. Sun: ‘Noche Romantica’ w/ Daisy Salinas. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJs Junior the Disco Punk, XP. Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave, Downtown. cafesevilla.com. Wed: Aro Di Santi. Thu & Sat: Malamana. Fri: Joeff and Co. Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Clairemont. thecomedypalace.com.

Thu: Vincent Oshana. Fri-Sat: Superbuds: Jeff Bilodeau & Jesse Egan.

Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St, La Jolla. lajolla.thecomedystore.com. Wed: Super Drunk with Gordon Downs. Fri-Sat: Ali Wong.

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

Wed: Elijah Deslouches Quartet. Thu: Gilbert Castellanos and The Park West Ensemble. Fri: Dave Scott. Sat: Agua Dulce.

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

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

Sat: The Farmers.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Fri: Gonzalo Bergara and His Quintet. Sun: Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine.

El Dorado Bar, 1030 Broadway, Downtown. eldoradobar.com. Wed: ‘Dub Dorado’. Thu: The Lumps, Arctic, DJ Tyrone Taylor. Fri: ‘The Beat Kitchen’. Sat: ‘Everyone DJs Everyone Cries’.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: ‘San Diego Reggae Fest’ w/ Seedheads, Triloc, LIVN. Sat: Cardboard Truckers, Model Talk, Negative Kreepz, Crosswalk Heroes.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown, Downtown. f6ixsd.com. Fri: DJ Louis. Sat: DJ BA.D. Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: ‘IDGAF’ w/ Sandro Silva.

Fri: Kyle Flesch. Sat: Sid Vicious.

Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean Beach. 619-222-5303. Wed: Drop Joy, Sister Speak. Thu: Synergy, DJ Reefah, TRC Soundsystem. Fri: Danny and the Tramp, DJ Lya. Sat: Deadly Birds, DJ Chelu.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Thu: Big Data, Birds of Tokyo.

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

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Thu: Stu Larsen, Adam Burrows. Fri: Ben Ottewell, Buddy. Tue: Kelis, Son Little.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Mid-

town. kavalounge.com. Thu: Pumpkin.

Fri: ‘Junglist Friday’. Sat: Marques Wyatt. Sun: Fully Patched. Tue: ‘High Tech Tuesday’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave, Kensington. 619-284-2848. Sat: Batlords, Swift Beats, Telling Lies, Ramp Locals, Midnight Track.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Goodall Boys. Thu: Sophisticats.

Ron’s Garage. Sat: Pat Ellis and Frog Band.

Ave, The Fri: Blue

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. numberssd.com/. Thu: ‘Varsity Drag’. Fri: ‘Viernes Calientes’. Sun: ‘Joe’s Gamenite’.

Tue: Karaoke Latino.

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

Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed: The Rayford Brothers. Thu: Myron and the Kyniptions. Fri: WG and the G-Men. Sat: Mystique Element of Soul.

Pepe’s Abandoned Factory in Flamingos, Dist Caracol Zona del Rio 9011, Tijuana. Sat: Tijuana Rumble Fest.

Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Thu: Swollen Members. Sun: CyHi Da Prince.

Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St, North Park. queenbeessd.com. Fri: Rhythm and the Method.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: DJ Kiki. Thu: DJ Moody Rudy. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Will Z. Sat: DJ Taj. Sun: ‘Stripper Circus’.

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

30 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

Wed: Westside Inflection. Thu: Man From Tuesday. Fri: Chickenbone Slim. Sat: Black Market III. Tue: Karaoke.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd. Wed: Gilbert Castellanos jazz jam. Thu: Comedy.

Sat: Jimmy Ruelas.

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Wed: 13 Scars, Church of Confidence, Wet Brain. Fri: Dowager, Red Wizard, Black Prism, Ghoulgotha. Sat: Gamblers Mark.

Sun: Reckless Disregard, Midnight Track, Los Homeless, Milo.

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

Fri: DJ Kurch. Sat: DJ Craig Smoove.

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

Wed: Eagulls, Twin Peaks, Ditches. Thu: The Meatmen, Black Fag, The Fink Bombs, Vyper Skwad. Fri: Thousand Watt Stare, Implants, Castoff. Sat: Kill Holiday, I Wish I. Sun: Incan Abraham, Inspired and the Sleep, Joyce. Mon: Pinata Protest, Mochilero All Stars, Johnny Deadly Trio.

Tue: Salton Seizures, Surly Bonds, Processor, China Clippers.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Fri: M.I.A. Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: Mark Fisher and Gaslamp Guitars. Thu: Superbad.

Fri: Disco Pimps, Jetpack Mojo. Sat: Hott Mess, Digital Lizards of Doom, DJ Miss Dust. Sun: ‘Funhouse/Seismic’.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., San Diego, Normal Heights. sycamoreden. com. Thu: Noel Jordan.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd, Spring Valley. 619-469-2337. Fri: Apache One

Tribe, Preacher vs Choir, Emphasize and Kaus, Grizzo Zee, DJs Admrial Atlas, Geneticz. Sat: Sound Lupus, Apex Realm.

Sun: Bi Polar Express.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com.

Wed: Wildcat!Wildcat!, The Chain Gang of 1974. Thu: Pink Mountaintops, Giant Drag. Fri: Chet Faker, Sweater Beats.

Sat: Punk Rock Karaoke, Widows, The Touchies. Sun: Pete Yorn (sold out).

Mon: Crash Kings. Tue: Camper van Beethoven, Curtsy.

The Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Fri: Perfect Pussy, Potty Mouth, Diva Cup. Sat: The Mob, Diatribe, Man vs. Man, Trash Axis.

Mon: Coke Bust, Crime Desire, Impulse, MethxBreath, Leechbath.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. thehideoutsd.com. Wed: Local H, Bad Veins.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. theloft.ucsd.edu. Sat: Dead Winter Carpenters, Western Collective, Craig Marker.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Wed: Open mic.

Sun: Karaoke. Tue: James Dean, The Wild Young Hearts, Rick Perry Blues Trio.

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

Fri: The Hrdy Byz, Kanye Asada, Don’t Go Jason Waterfalls. Sat: DJs EdRoc, Virusss. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ w/ Tribe of Kings. Tue: DJ Ramsey.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Fri: Shattered Eyes, Calamitous Intent, Trashaxis. Sat: Rat City Riot, Pissed Regardless, Dead on

the Wire, Para Elite. Mon: Karaoke.

Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com. Wed: The Touchies, Javier Escovedo, The Nformals. Thu: Sensory Station, Hot Mustard, Eardrum Gluttony. Fri: Grampadrew, Alice Wallace, Gary Hankins. Mon: ‘Tin Can Country Club’ w/ Shawn Rohlf. Tue: Super Buffet, Luke Sweeney, The Young Wants.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos. com. Wed: Christopher Dale. Thu: Bill Magee. Fri: Wild Nite. Sat: Full Strength Funk Band. Tue: Michele Lundeen.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Wed: Loom, Old Man Wizard, Zach Oakley. Thu: Matt Woods, Matthew Strachota, Swingchimney. Sat: Decry, Out of Tune, Systematic Abuse, D.E.A., Die Raldo.

Ux31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Wed: French Horn Rebellion, Hey Champ. Fri: DJ Bacon Bits.

Sun: DJs Artistic, Tramlife, Artform, L. West Coast Tavern, 2895 University Ave, North Park. westcoatstavern.com. Wed: DJ Fish Fonics. Thu: DJ Coltron. Fri: DJ Slowhand. Sat: DJ Taylor Michael.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Thu: VAMP Showcase. Fri: Wages, Manuok. Sat: DJ Franceypants.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Tadesse, Seven Seal Dub Band, Carlos Culture. Thu: Luckyiam, Lana Shea, DJ Nykon, Atlantis Rizing. Fri: Psydecar, Mafard. Sat: Poor Man’s Whiskey. Sun: ‘Sherry’s Healing Spirit’ benefit concert. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Roman Watchdogs, GlobaLies, Changos Psychotic Garage, Dante’s Boneyard, I Trust You to Kill Me.

Proud sponsor: Pacific Nature Tours

Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig

Across 1. Latina actress/singer who started out as a breakdancer 4. “CrazySexyCool” trio 7. A bit cold 12. Long stretch 13. Skater Oksana who was in “Blades of Glory” 15. Checked out, in a way 16. Position for insect fetishists?

18. Displays very clearly 19. Synagogue, during Yom Kippur?

21. It needs oxygen 23. Magic, since the late ‘80s 27. Item under a dress 28. “CSI” material 31. Ready for gifting, perhaps 32. Stand at the mall 34. Latin 101 verb 36. Chutzpah 37. Young rink employee who works exclusively outside the skating area?

40. The state or quality of being former New York governor Spitzer?

42. Court plea, informally 44. End of the dinos?

45. Currently hitting 50. Soothers 52. Govt. benefits provider 54. Certain quality 55. Throw-in 57. Fire truck attachment 59. TV spot for a black tie event featuring the music of James Taylor?

62. Trendy diet of questionable historical verisimilitude 65. Time during which one is expected to haunt?

68. Holder of secret sauce?

69. They may be offered hot or cold, in Japanese restaurants

Last week’s answers

70. Working name letters 71. They may get signed after a break 72. Small songbird 73. We, as a species, have to have it

Down 1. Bush transplanted to Florida 2. Velvet Underground lead singer Reed 3. Rob Ford’s province 4. Sat in the sun 5. It’s not fair, it’s said 6. Actor Robert of “I Spy” 7. Peggy of conservative speechwriting 8. “Later, y’all” 9. Texted word of entreaty 10. Go, in a way 11. They’re lost after a sack: Abbr.

13. Dummy 14. City near Beaujolais 17. Corvette roof types 20. Waders with curved bills 21. “Don’t even ___” 22. “The Book of ___” 24. Auction site that explicitly forbids the selling of souls 25. Steve Case’s former company 26. Roman 1040 29. Agreement that created a bloc during the Clinton years 30. 90, usually 33. East Asian carp 35. Laptops from Taiwan 38. Person behind the times, as it were 39. Org. that prohibits gay adults from holding leadership positions 40. Fashion magazine with a palindromic name 41. Mutually adulatory exchange 42. Agcy. that supports research in economics and geology 43. Paddle relative 46. Exclamations of achievement 47. Subjects of many Tibetan religious paintings 48. “Who do you think you ___?”

49. La Brea pit substance 51. Nook purchases 53. “Ready to go?”

56. Rhythm recorders: Abbr.

58. PC keys 60. Indian caste known for working as genealogists 61. Isao of the Golf Hall of Fame 62. Sgt.’s underling 63. Just like 64. ___ Cruces, New Mexico 66. Prez known for building interstates 67. TV channel that eventually became Ion

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.

May 28, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

32 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

May 28 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 33

34 · San Diego CityBeat · May 28, 2014

May 28 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 35