San Diego CityBeat • June 21, 2017

2 · San Diego CityBeat · June 21, 2017

@SDCityBeat

UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

San Diego is not a sports town “

T

his is not a city known for its collective brainpower.

These people are easy marks. We’re talking about a city that has all the grace and charm of a Margaritaville chain restaurant on its best day. They took literal paradise and turned it into a paved-over Navy base, filled with aggressive douchebros in pooka shell necklaces grabbing asses outside a bunch of overpriced Gaslamp Quarter fusion restaurants. This place is Colorado Springs on the Pacific… God dammit, now I’m mad.

Think of all the good tacos wasted on these imbeciles.”

If readers have never caught Drew Magary’s annual NFL previews on Deadspin, I highly encourage that they do so immediately. Not-so-lovingly titled “Why Your Team Sucks,” Magary rants and raves about the atrociousness of all 32 professional football teams while also throwing in his own salty commentary like the quote above. This particular rant was about how San Diegans would inevitably bow down to Dean Spanos and the NFL overlords in order to keep the Chargers.

However acerbic the columns may be, they are almost always filled with some LOL-worthy moments. While it’s certainly easy to get defensive when it comes to commentary like this, it’s immensely satisfying that we, as San Diegans, ended up proving Magary wrong.

We did not bow down to Spanos and company. We stood up to the NFL and rightly rejected the deeply flawed and highly deceptive 2016 Chargers stadium measure despite Mayor Faulconer’s somewhat tentative endorsement.

So why am I bringing up all this ancient history? Because on Monday, I had to sit through nearly four hours of face-burning, eye-glazing testimony and public endorsements for the SoccerCity development. Despite the fact that the City Council had already made up its mind to reject the mayor’s call for a special election in November of this year (instead, voting unanimously to hold it in 2018), citizen after citizen after citizen got up to the podium to plead, plod and even verbally punish the council for being so short-sighted.

There was Diane Scavuzzo, a transplant from New York and the editor of the Goal Nation website, who showed a video montage of soundbites from, among others, the mayor of Portland professing the huge success of the city’s MLS team.

“I urge you to give this opportunity a chance. MLS cannot wait for San Diego. We need to size this opportunity and not kick a gift horse in the mouth,” said Scavuzzo, echoing the spin that SoccerCity support-

ers have claimed that if the city doesn’t vote in 2017, then MLS will not come to San Diego.

“You should do it now. I’ve seen first hand what a team can do for a city. For its citizens, it offers a sense of belonging, camaraderie and a place to come together. It’s a source of civic pride,” said Judith Olson, a Chicago transplant and lifelong Cubs fan.

Look, I don’t doubt that an MLS team would be a great thing for San Diego (especially if we go with that Footy McFooty Face nickname), but let’s be clear about something that this city has been in denial about for a long time: San Diego is not a sports town.

We’re not known nationally for our sports teams, and we’re certainly not known for our sports enthusiasm.

Yes, we have some diehard Padres fans and, up until recently, some true (powder) blue Chargers fans, but when stadium plan after stadium plan is rejected, it has to sink in that that the vast majority of the city just doesn’t care.

What’s more, we’re a city made up of a lot transplants. According to a 2016 study on talent migration conducted by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, the San Diego region added 161,000 migrants from 2013 to 2014. Of those migrants, 41,710 moved from a different state and 28,391 moved from a different county in California. It’s not unreasonable to assume that these people who moved here also bring their sports alliances with them. Been to a Cubs/Padres game recently? Remember when the Chargers would play a team like Green Bay or the Raiders? Qualcomm may as well have just been renamed Lambeau Field 2.

This isn’t a new trend. Meeting someone who was born and raised here happens about as often as a chupacabra sighting. So yes, so while there are certainly plenty of born-and-bred San Diego sports fans, most locals are fans of another team. Need further proof?

I’m a Braves fan. The editor before me was an Orioles fan. Before him? A Dodgers fan.

But in the end, we are leaving a much more important sports legacy. One where we are standing up to greedy NFL owners and rejecting half-baked MLS stadium measures. We are setting a benchmark that regular citizens will not be bullied by corporations such as the NFL and MLS. By having the SoccerCity election in 2018, we are allowing everyone, transplant or not, to have their say.

That’s just smart. Must be all the tacos.

—Seth Combs

Write to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com

This issue of CityBeat is too fat for press briefings.

Volume 15 • Issue 47 EDITOR Seth Combs MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos ASSOCIATE EDITOR Torrey Bailey COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer Edwin Decker Minda Honey John R. Lamb Alex Zaragoza

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

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS David Comden

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble

PUBLISHER Kevin Hellman

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Beau Odom, Mark Schreiber, Jenny Tormey

EDITORIAL INTERNS Victoria Davis, Vitta Oliveri

CONTROLLER Kacie Cobian

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.

PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse

ACCOUNTING Janet Kirk, Alysia Chavez , Linda Lam

DISPLAY ADVERTISING MANAGER Massey Pitts

HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker

DIGITAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Megan Kennedy

VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE Kacie Sturek

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

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 2017.

@SDCITYBEAT

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

SOOOO FUNNY… NOT!

UP ON MAIN STREET

Talofa Mr. Decker, My own euphemism for “phoning it in” is “going on kruze kontrol” [“The Sword of Deadline-ocles,” May 31]. As a native who is occasionally printed in local rags, I can certainly appreciate how tough it can be to put something together regularly worthy of print, however, I’d have to say you are guilty of “phoning it in” now and then. One example, your column on a colonoscopy—so original, sooo funny? Not! Right down there with a Nick Canepa column.

It’s OK, as I’ve written before, for columnists to skip a column or two when confronted with a paucity of material. The Reader’s Barbarella reminding folks that she’s medicated, her “beh-beh” is an exhibited photographer, and they vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and France, or even the CityBeat’s own potty-mouthed Barbarella, Alex Veragoza [sic].

That all being said, I still regularly read your columns. Just try not to become an Oprah, Dr. Phil, Shaun Styles, Kevin Acee, or someone gettin’ too big for de britches!

Mike Loflen Clairemont

I read your article on the San Diego CityBeat regarding the Members of Main Street Alliance San Diego [“We work too damn hard, but who’s working for us?,” May 31]. It was a very interesting and truthful article. I myself opened my own small business in Pacific Beach. Getting capital has been very hard for me ever since. I cannot expand my business without it. I’ve been reaching out to local newspapers and magazines if they were interested in publishing a story about my business and I. I’m a 24-yearold Afghan/Mexican fighting a chronic illness (Crohn’s disease) and was born and raised in San Diego. My business partner is a 25-year-old Iraqi refugee.

[Editor’s response: We don’t know who Alex Veragoza is, but she sounds like a rad lady.]

4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

Saira Roshnaye Pacific Beach

WE WANT FEEDBACK Email letters to editor Seth Combs at seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com, or mail to 3047 University Ave., Suite 202, San Diego, CA 92104.

For letters to be considered for publication you must include your first and last name and the part of town where you reside. Note: All comments left on stories at sdcitybeat.com will also be considered for publication.

UP FRONT OF THE WEEK

From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spin Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Backwards & In High Heels. . . . . . . . . . .

Well, That Was Awkward . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 4 5 6 7 8

FOOD & DRINK The World Fare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene . . . . . . . . 10 Final Draught. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 This week, Javier Velazquez spotted a pothole fit for a swim next to Westfield UTC Mall.

“It uniquely combines broken asphalt with a swimming-pool size hole,” Velazquez says of the crater near the intersection of Genesee Avenue and La Jolla Village Drive. “It could be a great location for a pool, so people can relax after a tiresome day of shopping.”

Clearly, the streets are prepping for summer’s onset as much as a certain weekly publication that works on the second floor of a non-airconditioned building. And while it’s nice of Faulconer to consider us in the coming heat waves, we’ll stick to our own pools in favor of getting this filled.

Have a pothole in your neighborhood or on your commute that has you fuming? Tell us about it.

Send location and pics (but really, only if it’s safe to do so) to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com.

THINGS TO DO The Short List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-14

ARTS & CULTURE Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 FEATURE: San Diego Art Institute. . . . . 18 Seen Local. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21

MUSIC FEATURE: Nick Waterhouse. . . . . . . . . 22 Notes from the Smoking Patio. . . . . . . 26 If I Were U. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Concerts & Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-29

LAST WORDS Advice Goddess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 COVER PHOTO BY TORREY BAILEY

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | NEWS PHOTOS BY TORREY BAILEY

What the doctor didn’t order

Allison Benavides

Frustrated with mainstream prescriptions, parents push to normalize cannabis treatments for epileptic children

By Torrey Bailey

I

“

t was like I was watching my life on TV,” said Rancho Santa Fe citizen Sharon Glassey of seeing CNN’s documentary, Weed, in 2013. Weed skyrocketed the world’s knowledge of medical cannabis after it subsided seizures for Charlotte Figi, a young Colorado girl with epilepsy.

Before Weed, Glassey’s daughter was prescribed more than 10 medications in an unsuccessful trial-and-error pharmaceutical approach. Both Figi and Glassey’s daughter have a type of epilepsy that is unresponsive to traditional medicine, which occurs in one-third of cases, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. But Figi’s seizures subsided after trying CBD oil, which is made with the non-psychoactive marijuana compound cannabidiol, more commonly known as CBD. Glassey said she knew she had to track some down, even though at the time it was only available in Colorado and illegal to ship across state lines. That’s when she reached out to Chula Vista resident Allison Benavides.

“This random woman that I’d never met, but I knew her son has epilepsy, shows up at my park playdate… with this cake pan where she’s made this oil,” Glassey said of the CBD oil Benavides self-made in a Crock-Pot. “We didn’t use it or try it or anything like that, but I instantly knew I had a connection with her.”

Benavides said she researched and created the CBD oil herself because, back in 2013, there were minimal resources and access to

@SDCITYBEAT

it. The plant she used to make CBD oil had been smuggled in from Arizona. And while access to CBD has increased, Benavides says families like hers are still facing gaps in medical and educational services.

The Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County, the local branch of the national non-profit, informs families about research on CBD as treatment, but refrains from recommending it.

“We know that there’s many promising new treatments out there and epilepsy research is desperately needed,” said Dr. Kim Tallian, who is on the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County’s professional advisory board. “The bottom line though, however, is that even though there are anecdotal reports of positive effects of marijuana derivatives, specifically cannabidiols, there’s still a lack of information out there, so research is needed.”

The organization tells parents to consult their doctors, but Benavides and Glassey said that route often leads to dead ends.

“Organizations and doctors seem to fall on two sides,” Benavides said. “Everyone seems to support it, but it’s a matter of if you’re going to support the artisanal path or if you’re going to toe the line and wait for the FDA and encourage Epidiolex,” noting that she believes the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County falls into the latter category.

Epidiolex, a plant-derived cannabidiol product created for pediatric epilepsy by GW

Pharmaceuticals, is moving through clinical trials to attain Food and Drug Administration approval. Considering it will obtain the

Seven-year-old Robby Benavides medicates with CBD oil. only FDA-recognized cannabis, GW has been accused of creating a temporary monopoly.

The company and its American offshoot, Greenwich Biosciences, opened up an office

in Carlsbad and have sponsored one of the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County’s largest annual events, Sharon’s Ride.

Benavides said waiting for Epidiolex to be put on the market, especially at a reasonable price point, isn’t an option for children like her son Robby, who continued to have 25 seizures per day on traditional medication before using CBD oil.

But doctors aren’t always willing to discuss CBD as an option. And hospitals can invoke policies against physician-patient conversations regarding marijuana, or leave the decision to discuss it to the physician’s discretion, as is the case at the Naval Medical Center San Diego.

“One doctor in Orange County told me that I was killing my daughter if I didn’t keep putting these pharmaceuticals into her,” Glassey said.

But when doctors are willing to discuss CBD treatment plans, they typically aren’t equipped with appropriate knowledge, says Dr. Michelle Sexton, a local naturopathic doctor.

“Often the doctor may say you should try cannabis, and [the patients] have to find somewhere to go get this recommendation,” Sexton said. “Then doctors give them no guidance on how to use it, and they wind up in the hands of laypeople trying to tell them how to use cannabis and sometimes what they tell them is really inappropriate for that patient.”

As a reaction to the repeated scrutiny and obstacles Benavides faced, she created the group Pediatric Cannabis Support in 2014 based off of what she had learned by treating her own son. The group consists of 1025 families who attend monthly meetings, but Benavides has other families worldwide following the resources she provides online.

However, the Pediatric Cannabis Support has remained an outlier to the traditional medical field.

“We are clinicians, we follow what the evidence shows—clinical, scientific evidence— and that group is made up of, well I’m not sure what the composite is, but they’re not researchers and physicians, pharmacists, nurses,” said Tallian.

Sexton also advocates for physician-assisted CBD treatment plans, but says California’s medical model makes it more difficult than in Washington, where she previously practiced.

“There aren’t a lot of naturopathic doctors here,” she says. “They aren’t really integrated into the health system here, and so [the members of the Pediatric Cannabis Support] have turned to each other and personal experience to get their guidance and knowledge, and I think the social support aspect of it is really important for those families…

Their lives are very stressful so for them to be with other families that understand, that, I think, is medicine.”

Benavides says that while the CBD has healed Robby, Pediatric Cannabis Support healed her.

“If you’re wanting to make movement or make traction to get this going and get started, your doctor is not going to be the one to do that,” she said. “I wish that it was them, but it’s not. So in the meantime, it’s us. It’s families.”

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Reviver in chief There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

H

—Mark Twain

is dream of a special election this year on life support, Mayor Kevin Faulconer probably didn’t need to hear what someone shouted during last week’s commencement ceremony from the Dalai Lama at UC San Diego.

No, the phrase “Dalai Lama for mayor!” likely didn’t sit well with a city leader down in the policy dumps these days. The day before Faulconer greeted the Tibetan spiritual leader on his arrival to town, the mayor’s chief of staff, the ever-loyal Stephen Puetz, had announced that he would be

leaving his post in July to return to where some believe he is best suited—the campaign trail.

But fear not, for in traditional San Diego political fashion the revolving door has been activated, and in his place will return Aimee Faucett to a position she held during Faulconer’s City Council days, which now seem like eons ago.

It is unknown if the mayor asked His Holiness for any professional advice, since no details of the Lindbergh Field photo-op emerged other than the requisite self-inflated niceties. “As a City that celebrates its diversity, spirit of collaboration and environmental leadership, we are proud to welcome one of the world’s great champions for peace and understanding to San Diego,” the mayor said in a prepared statement.

Perhaps behind closed doors, the Dalai Lama pulled out this old

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

chestnut: “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”

Spin hopes he also hit the mayor with this wisdom: “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”

One could speculate for millennia whether Puetz’s recent media attention over a seemingly sweetheart wedding-venue deal with a prime mayoral benefactor greased the skids for a chief-ofstaff shuffle. Let’s just say within the political class, it is never ideal when a staffer is grabbing headlines rather than his or her boss.

Reince Priebus anyone?

But in chatting with a few former chiefs of staff, they will tell you privately that second-term switch-outs are not uncommon.

As one put it, “high-level people” often transition out midway through a second term “because if they are going to a lobbying role they still have ‘juice’ with the sitting executive.”

What it could also signal, others suggested, is the mayor’s intent to seek higher office. After all, the last time Puetz departed City Hall in 2013, he popped up as then-Councilmember Faulconer’s mayoral campaign manager, a role for which he won top honors

JOHN R. LAMB

As Chief of Staff Stephen Puetz departs, Jerry Sanders disciple Aimee Faucett hopes to provide a jolt to Mayor Faulconer’s political fortunes. from the American Association of Political Consultants. (Yes, there’s such a thing.)

Sure, readers might be quick to point out that Faulconer has flatout denied any aspirations beyond his current job that doesn’t run out until 2020. Indeed, that has been the go-to sentiment when pressed by the media on his future plans.

Is it a coincidence that the domain names faulconerforgovernor.com and faulconer4governor. com have been privately registered? Sure, some web entrepreneur may have cleverly claimed those addresses in hopes of a coming payday, but that seems like a lot of trouble to go to for such a low-return gamble.

The political lords know that Faulconer’s recent setbacks on the special-election front may weigh heavily on plans for 2018. Some may even have noticed a Trumpian tenacity emanating from the usually even-keeled Republican mayor in recent weeks as the City Council Democratic majority find their footing to push back on Faulconer’s big-projects-focused agenda.

But Team Kevin alluded to none of that in announcing the mid-July transition.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the residents of San Diego and help implement Mayor Faulconer’s vision of an inclusive city government that creates opportunities for San Diegans and delivers results for every neighborhood,” Puetz said in the official mayoral press release.

In a Facebook post, Puetz, who will be rejoining the Missouribased right-wing political consulting firm Axiom Strategies, wrote that “I’m excited to return to one of my passions—running high profile campaigns. I’ll also help the firm expand their growing corporate affairs division.”

While Axiom has no local office, Puetz emphasized, “To be clear, I will be staying in San Diego.”

“Stephen has been my trusted

advisor for many years,” Faulconer said in the mayoral statement. “He will be deeply missed, and I thank him for his leadership.”

But the mayor practically beamed through the page in describing the return of Faucett to City Hall. The chief operating officer for the politically influential San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce since 2013, Faucett previously served as Faulconer’s chief of staff from 2009 to 2011 while on the City Council. Following that stint, Faucett moved up to deputy chief of staff for then-Mayor Jerry Sanders, who now heads the local chamber.

“Aimee is one of the most respected civic leaders in San Diego,” Faulconer gushed, “and her love for public service shines through everything she does. We have a lot of things to get done for our city, and I know Aimee is ready to get started.”

For her part, Faucett—at least in the prepared statement— seemed eager to reinvigorate Faulconer’s slumping fortunes.

“I look forward,” she said, “to helping Mayor Faulconer get the expansion of the Convention Center across the finish line, tackle the homeless crisis, make housing more affordable, grow our economy and deliver excellent city services to every community.”

That is indeed a heavy, heavy plate for a To-Do List on a short timetable, but the optimists of the world will suggest that Faucett is a policy wonk at heart, rather than the political strategist that Puetz embodied. The skeptics, however, will continue to wonder how a supposedly ambitious mayor will win the hearts of council Democrats still stinging from a budget fight over Faulconer’s specialelection wishes.

But as the Dalai Lama once said, “Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”

Spin Cycle appears every week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

Vaguebooking at its finest

I

dreaded making the call to my mother in Seattle, but after reading two cryptic Facebook posts by my brother, I knew I had to involve her. I also knew that I’d be ruining her day.

“I’m thankful for my band mates,” began a status update posted one day earlier. “Life is hard, I’m blessed to have you Jared Moonshine, Donovan Pfeifer and Scotty Summers. It would be a shame to leave this world and not say I love you. I love you guys, and all the great musicians I’ve had the pleasure to be around.”

The general tone of the graph and specifically the past tense in the last sentence gave me pause.

My brother has been down from time to time. A guitarist and vocalist in the Seattle-based “gruntry” band, Red Heart Alarm, Corey is an artist and a creative. He’s a kind, easy-going, deep and gentle guy whose cellular structure, like mine, isn’t built to adequately deflect the pain and injustice the world. Knowing this, and having myself been in a state of despair in recent months, I was concerned.

I navigated directly to his timeline to find another, more recent post added earlier that morning: “The thing about depression is that often, the people closest to you don’t even realize you are having problems.

Its [sic] hard to explain the feelings because the source seems to come from nowhere.”

Jesus Christ. My heart alarm was clanging as I scrolled through a series of comments from other family and friends, many of whom also had the same rising panic. Comment after comment reminded Corey not to do anything stupid. That he was loved and that he wasn’t alone. That there was help and that there was a way forward. I added my own two cents, urging him to seek help; I called his cell phone and when he didn’t pick up, that’s when I called The Gaydi Project to try to track his ass down. (For new readers, The Gaydi Project is sometimes how I refer to my mom.)

Once she was on notice, we texted back and forth as she tried to reach her son, then his boss, then his girlfriend. I started a series of frenetic texts, spaced out in an effort to be as annoying as possible, blowing his phone all the way up so that he couldn’t possibly ignore me.

“Dude.”

“Please send me a text that you’re alive.”

“Mom and I are trying to reach you.”

“I saw your FB posts. We are so worried. You are loved. Deeply.”

“By many people.”

“You do know you’re the hot one in RHA, right?”

For over an hour, it was crickets and tumbleweeds from him.

I felt sick to my stomach. I postponed my run to get groceries because I didn’t want to receive bad news in the cheese aisle at the brand new Trader Joe’s in my neighborhood.

I wandered around my house, trying to occupy myself amid the text-messaging flurries with my mother who, in a similar mindset, bailed on a much-needed hair appointment and instead grappled with both the wanderings of her imagination and her grey roots. The struggle is real.

“This is bad,” my mom texted. “This is really bad.”

@SDCITYBEAT

I thought about putting on some music to drown out the hum of the refrigerator as I swept eddies of dog hair and rubber pellets that fall out of my daughter’s shoes after she runs on the artificial turf at her school.

My mind had no diversions and immediately spun out to worst-case scenarios. My brain is the 12-time International Champion of Catastrophizing.

I needed music to settle me, but couldn’t settle on what tunes I’d want to ruin for the rest of my life if it turned out my brother had taken his own. I felt sicker.

I moved around in the caustic silence, trying to remind myself not to panic, before finally deciding to play The Eagles since I already hate them.

As I was searching Glenn Frey on Pandora, my mother texted to let me know the police were headed to do a well-check. And I reached my brother’s girlfriend at the salon where she’s a stylist.

“He seemed fine this morning when I left him,” she said calmly, clarifying that she left for work first. We hung up so she could try to reach my brother and when that failed, she called back. She was in tears, saying she was headed toward home. I urged her to take a Lyft rather than drive, because she was so upset. I pictured her fleeing the salon, leaving behind a client in foils, blonde hair sprouting from the ends.

This entire whirlwind of worry took place to the complete obliviousness of my brother, who was totally fine and alive and busy at work where he’d shut off his phone. He eventually sat down to enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—isn’t that quaint?—and found no small number of missed calls and frantic text messages.

“Dude,” he said, laughing, when he called me. He was utterly himself: Laid back, thinking it was all pretty funny and also feeling bad that everyone was so worried. “I was just making reference to Chris Cornell.”

Both vaguebook posts were in reference to the Soundgarden frontman who died by suicide days earlier and not about my brother at all. Quite honestly, it made me resent Chris Cornell for no logical reason whatsoever.

I wanted to punch my little Jack Tripper in the neck.

“How about a little fucking context?” I said to him.

“You know, maybe an intro that says ‘The death of Chris Cornell has me reflective today…’ or something to that effect?”

On the other side of this Three’s Company miscommunication spectacle, my brother went merrily on his way back to work, his girlfriend slapped him (I hope) and then sighed with relief. I got on with my trek to the grocery store where Don Henley happened to be playing (true story). And my mother whipped out her dark red lipstick while bitching about the inconvenience of being forced to cancel the dye job in the first place.

Ours was not the upending tragedy that it could have been.

Which makes it vitally important that I mention this: If you are suffering from depression, there are folks in your corner. While vaguebooking blows, and needs to stop, it’s better than saying nothing. If that’s all you can do, type away and pay attention to the comments you receive. Whatever you do, please, please, many pleases—all the pleases—reach out for help. And you can always call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

The road to recovery is tough, but somehow, I’ll pull through

W

ednesday, June 7, 2017: Wake up at 5:30 a.m. to drive my wife Jessica to the hospital to have a cyst removed from her wrist.

Jesus, I didn’t know there even was a 5:30 a.m. We arrive at the parking structure before the attendant, so I don’t have to pay for parking. At least I have that going for me.

The surgery is a success. The nurse hands me something to sign before they release her into my care. “Are you the responsible party?” he asks. “Well, that’s a loose term,” I respond. He laughs. I laugh. I quietly congratulate myself on bringing levity to this serious situation.

On the way home, I take Jessica out to breakfast for some recovery French toast. Because of the sling on her dominant hand, it’s difficult for her to eat, so I help spread hazelnut on her toast. I bask in her gratitude and tell myself that not all heroes wear capes.

Thursday, June 8, 2017: Jessica asks if I can get out of bed to make coffee. I’m delighted to do so! Exclamation points hide my slight irritation! I also feed the cats, which is normally her job, but who’s keeping score, right?!

I spend the day searching for and sending condolence emojis to let Jessica know that her recovery is on my mind.

When I get home—mildly exhausted from a day looking at a computer screen—Jessica is antsy with cabin fever, eager to get out of the house. Looks like I’ll rest later. No biggie.

We take a gentle stroll around the neighborhood, not really able to talk about our days because she’s been on vicodin and talking about my job is pretty much like, “hey this happened on the internet today.”

That night, I want to watch A Cure for Wellness—a movie that I’ve heard shows a surgical torture scene. I briefly consider that maybe it’s too soon for Jessica, but I’ve really wanted to watch this movie for a while, and after such an exhausting day, I decide that it’s only fair to treat myself.

Friday, June 9, 2017: So many jars to open. Before Jessica’s surgery, I didn’t realize our lives consisted mostly of opening up food containers. Jars of pasta sauce, cans of black beans, jalapenos, green smoothie, diced tomatoes, beers—who even knew that we had this much food?

I get a haircut after work. It’s not my fault that Friday afternoons at the barbershop are particularly busy—an hour wait, at least. This is definitely not an excuse to get out of opening more jars.

When I get home, I find Jessica in that same state

of medicated restlessness that settles in during any extended recuperation period. There’s a mess burned onto the stove from when she made pumpkin-spice oatmeal. I clean it up with very little complaint! Then, I make dinner by microwaving a frozen lasagna. I know, I know: I spoil her, but she’s worth it.

Saturday, June 10, 2017: I work in the yard, digging trenches with our landscaper. For some reason, I have a lot of pent-up aggression, and destroying the earth is incredibly satisfying. However, my shoveling skills are a little rusty, and it doesn’t take long for me to rub the knuckle of my thumb raw. I pull off my work gloves and reveal a dime-sized wound. It’s super painful! In that moment, I’m certain no one has ever suffered as much as me.

That night, I attend a literary reading. Jessica doesn’t want to go because her arm begins to hurt when she strays too far from her blanket cocoon, but she insists that I go.

“Are you sure?” I ask, halfway out the door.

At the reading, people ask where Jessica is, and I regale them with the story of her surgery. When they express concern, I accept it by nodding and giving a look that’s says, “but we’re fine. We’re making it through this. Together.” And then I show them my landscaping wound.

When the reading ends, all the authors and my literary chums discuss where to go next—bar? Restaurant? I get a text from Jessica. She’s bored and asks if I can come home to hang out with her. I text back: No problem! Be home soon! I loudly express to my friends that I won’t be able join them.

I find Jessica looking out the window when I get home, certain there’s some unsavory activity going on in the road in front of our house. This gives me an idea: We should watch Alfred Hitchcock’s classic tale of bedridden paranoia, Rear Window. Every time it cuts to Jimmy Stewart’s cast, I look at her and go “it’s you!” Jessica thinks none of this is funny.

Sunday, June 11, 2017: Jessica and I get fancy donuts and an afternoon beer. We sit by the window at Fall Brewery and let the soft breeze comfort us.

The gauze of her cast flaps gently in the wind. “This is exactly what I needed,” Jessica says. I agree. The past few days have been full of adversity, but it seems there’s an end in sight. I know, somehow, I’ll pull through.

For some reason, I have a lot of pent-up aggression, and destroying the earth is incredibly satisfying.

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE

The beauty of Hunan

N

ot so long ago San Diego’s most prominent Food Network star, Troy Johnson, confirmed the generalization “there’s no good Chinese food in San Diego.” An “Elite Yelper” went there as well, saying “I’m on a mission to find decent Chinese food in SD, but I’m losing...” San Diego, no doubt, doesn’t offer many good New Yorkstyle Chinese restaurants and isn’t the San Gabriel MICHAEL GARDINER

Valley’s equal. But quietly, San Diego has grown a vibrant, diverse array of restaurants offering Chinese regional cuisines. One of the latest is Beauty Hunan (8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Suite S1).

The oddly named spot is at its best when it delivers what it says above the door: Hunan food. The cuisine of this South Central Chinese province reflects the fact it was an enthusiastic adopter of that import from the Americas, the chili pepper. While Sichuan cuisine has a reputation of offering fearsome heat, the power of Sichuan’s fires is somewhat tamed by the numbing effect of Sichuan peppercorns (prickly ash) creating a compound flavor called “mala” (numbing and spicy). Hunan food is far more la than ma. In addition to pure, dry heat,

@SDCITYBEAT

Hunan cuisine is also characterized by seasonality, fresh vegetables, greater use of vinegar (particularly black vinegar) as well as smoked and cured products.

Perhaps Beauty Hunan’s best example of this is the smoked pork with garlic chives. It doesn’t take more than a first glance to see at least three types of chilies on the plate. After even a single nibble of the pork belly both its richness and smokiness wash over you. But somehow, with all of those big flavors, it may be the garlic chives that own the dish. Perhaps it’s the restraint in the smoking or maybe it’s the way those garlic chives balance everything else out.

Another absolute winner of a dish at Beauty Hunan is the stir-fried pork kidneys. Again, there’s no shortage of chilies on the plate, not in number of varieties and not in overall quantity. And yes, I did say “pork kidneys.” While the funkiness of those pork kidneys was somewhat tamed (likely by marinating in rice wine), it was this very aspect of the dish—exactly what would seem to be most offputting—that seemed to bring the entire dish together, balancing the chilies’ fire.

Like so many regional Chinese restaurants, some of the best dishes were the cold appetizers. Unlike many in town, the Sichuan peppercorn oil did not feature prominently here. Sliced pork ear was a standout, but the black fungus mushrooms with bamboo shoots Mao Xue Wang was my favorite.

Unfortunately, like a number of other regional Chinese restaurants in town, it also offers a number of non-Hunanese dishes (likely out of fear “there has to be something for everybody”). One, the Mao Xue Wang—blood cube stew with, essentially, housemade Spam—was excellent. Others were less so, and I was not about to try its separate “American Chinese Food” menu (General Tso’s chicken, beef broccoli, etc.).

But when Beauty Hunan sticks to what it’s really about—Hunan cuisine—it is beauty in the eye of this beholder.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | DRINK

ANATOMY OF A

BY IAN WARD

COCKTAIL SCENE #8: Feeling touched at TRUST

something altogether new, and deceivingly simple.

It is a combination of Old Harbor San Miguel Gin t’s easy to like TRUST Restaurant (3752 Park (locally distilled, this is a wonderfully intense herbal Blvd.). The design is open and welcoming. The gin, with strong notes of cilantro, sage and corianstaff is friendly and attentive. The food is, at its der), lime, aloe and Bonal. All flavors that effortlessly worst, consistent, and at its best, work together.

IAN WARD alarmingly impressive. Most imWhen combined, the cockportantly, to me, the ownership tail comes out savory. Not a and management always seem to vegetal savory. Not a spicy or express genuine concern about fat-washed or salty savory. An your experience, which is often herbal, almost tree-sappy sashockingly missing in this city’s vory. However, it is not sweet restaurant scene. or sticky, or even overly citrus The guest check-ins, or “tadriven. Something that, like the ble touching,” are unnoticeably restaurant itself, is easy to like. frequent, and in my experience, However, when it hits the table, never off putting. The most skillit is perfectly executed and more ful of all table touchers have to intense than expected. reinforce to the guests that they When most bartenders make are having a good time, without a cocktail with egg, they tend to appearing to be on the hard sell. finish the top of the cocktail with Suggestive enjoyment. It sounds some version of aromatic bitters easy, right? to offset any smell that the egg TRUST There’s a certain art to table gives. The TRUST Cocktail #10, COCKTAIL #10 touching, but how many times on the other hand, comes garas found at Trust have we seen it fail? More times nished with a rosemary sprig, than we realize. placed gently on top of the foam, If readers have a memory of which not only acts to rebuke 1 1/2 oz. Old Harbor some restaurant manager talkany egg smell but contributes “San Miguel” Gin ing to them, at all, that in itself immensely to the cocktail. Actu1/4 oz. Bonal is a failure. Good table touchers ally, had the rosemary not been 1/4 oz. Chareau Aloe Liqueur leave patrons either without any there to combine my senses of memory of the interaction and both smell and taste, I don’t 3/4 oz. Lime Juice great experiences incepted into know if I would have enjoyed the 3/4 oz. Simple Syrup their brain. That is the essence of cocktail as much as I did. It still Egg white good table touching. Seemingly would have been balanced and Sprig of rosemary as garnish. so easy, yet, it requires balance skillfully made, but it would not and skill to pull off. The managehave been so subtly thoughtful ment at TRUST do it incredibly or aesthetically pleasing. It did Combine the Old Harbor San well, but, then again, so does the what all cocktails visually aim to Miguel Gin, Bonal, Chareau, kitchen there. do, but not all pull off so gracelime, simple syrup, and egg The same can be said for fully. That is, artfully, incept enwhite, in a mixing tin. Shake the bar and the cocktails themhard, without ice, for around joyment. selves. Take the TRUST Cocktail 20 seconds. Add ice and shake hard again. Strain into a Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene #10 for example. At its core, it is chilled cocktail glass. Garnish appears every other week. Write a straightforward gin sour with with rosemary sprig. to ianw@sdcitybeat.com egg whites, but upon delivery, is

I

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | DRINK

FINAL

BY BETH DEMMON

DRAUGHT

Feel good sip of the summer

G

rapefruit beers are terrible. Beers with watermelon are an affront to respectable beer drinkers everywhere. There are a few exceptions when fruity beers are palatable—krieks, lambics or the very occasional wheat beer—but overall I tend to avoid “fruity” brews whenever possible.

My sole deviation? For the most glorious of summer beverages: the shandy.

Shandies are also known as radlers, but the names are nearly interchangeable. Both are half beer (usually a lager), half lemonade or soda (often grapefruit, lemon, lemonlime or ginger beer) mixes.

Radlers are usually infused with more citrus-forward fruits like grapefruit, while shandies tend to contain more muted flavors such as apples or even ginger ale and is a slightly more universally used term. The carbonated juice-to-beer ratio may differ slightly, but overall these delightful concoctions represent the best of summer without the hangover that accompanies highly alcoholic beverages, thanks to their 2-4 percent ABV average range.

There are a few nationally distributed radlers from non-craft breweries like Leinenkugel’s in Chippewa Falls, WI (owned by SABMiller) but Austria’s Stiegl Grapefruit Radler (2.5 percent ABV) is emblematic of the style and available nearly everywhere. Radlers aren’t technically beer—they’re actually malt beverages thanks to their high sugar content—but plenty of breweries here and abroad have jumped on the shandy train for summer sipping.

ChuckAlek Independent Brewers often has a few radler variations on draft at its North Park Biergarten (3139 University Avenue, Suite B). The options vary, but I’ll start with its Helles lager and come with either lemon-ginger soda, ginger-lime

@SDCITYBEAT

soda or house elderflower-hop soda (known as the “Yodeler”).

Eppig Brewing (3052 El Cajon Blvd., Suite C) offers a trio of radlers, none of which rank higher than 18 IBUs—ideal for those seeking a respite from pervasive hop bombs. Choose between the “Glitz and Glam” Berliner Weisse with raspberry and cherry (4.1 percent ABV), the “Elegant Solution” Berliner Weisse (4.2 percent ABV) or the “Kottbusser” Pink Boots Society collaboration, a Northern German wheat beer (5.8 percent ABV). Each one comes mixed with fresh lemonade for a refreshingly light and slightly tart experience.

BETH DEMMON Toolbox Brewing Company (1495 Poinsettia Avenue, Suite 148) prefers to play off of the style, brewing seasonal selections loosely based off of the blend that still fit into its focus on barrel-aged wild ales. “Bog Sauce,” a San Diego Weisse ale with raspberries and cranberries, isn’t mixed with soda or juice, but its higher carbonation will likely appeal to radler fans looking for variety.

Of course, there’s always the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) option. Anything light, low ABV and not gratuitously hoppy will work just fine Steigl Radler (think pilsners, kölsches, or even certain blondes or witbiers. Or get really crazy and try a gose). Gordon Biersch’s Golden Export lager (5 percent ABV) is a decent place to start, as is Coronado Brewing Company’s Seacoast Pilsner (4.9 percent ABV). I recommend seeking out any fruit soda with real sugar (not high fructose corn syrup), but a fruity San Pellegrino, splash of uncarbonated Simply Lemonade or even a Squirt soda will do just fine. Start with a 50/50 beer to soda (or juice) split and experiment until the perfect balance is struck.

Final Draught appears every other week. Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com, check her out on Instagram at @thedelightedbite, or via Twitter at @iheartcontent.

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

SHORTlist

EVENTS

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

SAN DIEGO AND TIJUANA

1 ON THE FRINGE

Still, there’s plenty to see, with dozens of For readers who’ve never been to a fringe festival, think of it this way: Whatever shows scheduled to take place between Thursday, kinds of performing arts locals might be interested June 22 through Sunday, July 2. Another special in, they can find it at a fringe festival. Now held distinction of the San Diego fest is that it’s the in dozens of cities all over the world, these fests only one that takes place in two countries at once.

That is, both here and offer patrons everything in Tijuana. Highlights from puppetry to poetry, from across the border cabaret to comedy. As if include Incandescent, the “fringe” distinction a dance performance didn’t give it away, at the Centro Cultural these types of fests are Tijuana (Paseo de los showcasing works that Héroes 9350, Zona are decisively underUrbana Rio), as well as the-radar. the American premiere Inspired by a trip of the ’80s themed a fringe fest he saw musical, Allergic to in Scotland, Kevin Love: Curse of the ’80s.

Charles Patterson Closer to home, it’s started the San Diego worth checking out the International Fringe Festival five years ago.

Allergic To Love: Curse of the ’80s romantic drama To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do Patterson says he’s seen the fest grow by leaps and bounds, but is quick to This at the San Diego Art Institute Project Space (141 Horton Plaza), and Tubman, the one-woman point out that the intimacy remains.

“We have had the opportunity to expand, but story of Harriet Tubman at the WorldBeat Cultural have wanted to keep it somewhat small so that Center (2100 Park Blvd.).

Times, prices and venues vary for the fest, but we all the artists get exposure. If we got too big, too fast, it could make it to where some of the artists encourage readers to grab a three, five or 10 show pass ($27-$72). See sdfringe.org for full details. wouldn’t get exposure.” Patterson says.

BAY HO

2

DIAMOND DISTRICT

BEER BASH

It’s no secret that San Diegans love their craft beer and, in its own way, Karl Strauss has certainly helped build up the craft beer scene. The company extends that logic when it comes to music and the arts with its free (with RSVP at karlstrauss.com) Arts & Amps series of events at the Karl Strauss Tasting Room & Beer Garden (5985 Santa Fe St.). The event will, of course, feature local beers and will include music performances from local indie-rockers The Donkeys and Well Well Well.

There will also be live mural art from Cohort Collective and an art show from Creative Souls.

It all happens Saturday, June 24 from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.

COURTESY OF KARL STRAUSS

3

VOICES CARRY

It’s a rare moment to witness every type of artist gathering together in the same habitat. But the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation sent out a call to the masses and boy, did they answer. This is the second year for the Poets & Painters art festival and it actually does have something for everyone. The day kicks off at the Market Creek Amphitheater (310 Euclid Ave.) with live neo soul, hip-hop and a cappella music and dance performances.

There will be a graffiti arts competition featuring Writerz Blok graffiti artists Jose Venegas and Sergio Gonzalez as well spoken word by award winning artist/playwright Gill Sotu. The event concludes with a poetry slam competition. The festival is free and will take place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 24. For more information, visit whatsnewinthediamond.com.

COURTESY OF JACOBS CENTER

HPop Up Group Show at Little Dame, 2942 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. New and selected works from three local artists including embroidery artist Danielle Weir, ceramicist Mindy Krai and sculptor Michael McAlister. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m.

Friday, June 23. Free. littledameshop.com Reflections on Monet at San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park.

A special viewing of Claude Monet’s 1904 painting “Waterlilies or The Water Lily Pond (Nymphéas)” alongside four Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works of art from SDMA’s permanent collection. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 24. 619232-7931, sdmart.org Erin Hanson: Coastal California at The Erin Hanson Gallery, 9705 Carroll Centre Road, Miramar. The contemporary impressionist will showcase coastal-only paintings featuring shores from Monterey to La Jolla and Torrey Pines. Opening from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 24. Free. 858324-4644, erinhanson.com HDark Energy at 1805 Gallery, 1805 Columbia St., Little Italy. A new installation exhibition from Melissa Walter, who explores the mysterious force behind the expansion of the universe. Opening from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 28. Free.

1805gallery.com Murals of La Jolla Walking Tour at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. The Athenaeum will host this walking tour led by project curator Lynda Forsha. View murals by Kim MacConnel, Ryan McGinness, Kelsey Brookes and more. At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 28.

Free. 858-454-5872, muralsoflajolla.com

BOOKS HWrite On, Oceanside! at various locations, Oceanside. The public can meet local writers of multiple genres, attend stage readings and panels where they hear from authors like Brit Bennet who wrote The Mothers, a New York Times best seller. Various times. Thursday, June 22 through Saturday, June 24. Free. 760435-5600, ocaf.info HEmily Silva at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. As part of Warwick’s ongoing Weekend with Locals program, Silva will sign and discuss Moonlight Gratitude: 365 Nighttime Meditations for Deep, Tranquil Sleep All Year Long. At noon Sunday, June 25.

858-454-0347, warwicks.com Kiersten White at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The New York Times bestselling novelist will sign and discuss her latest, Now I Rise, the sequel to her 15th Century vampire novel, And I Darken.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 27. 858-2684747, mystgalaxy.com Paula Poundstone at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The veteran comedian will sign and discuss her new book, The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness.

At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 28. 858454-0347, warwicks.com

COMEDY HTrevor Noah at at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar. The host of The Daily Show gets back to his stand-up roots with a politically charged set at the San Diego County Fair. At 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, June 27. $21-$102. sdfair.com

DANCE Prism at Visionary Dance Theatre, 8677 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. San Diego

Arts & Amps

12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

Gill Sotu

H = CityBeat picks

choreographer/dancer Tanya Lewis presents an evening of contemporary dance that explores the crossroads between inner self, social interactions and group identity. At 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 24. $10. 618-758-8112, visionarydancetheatre.org

FOOD & DRINK HDistilled San Diego Spirit & Cocktail Festival at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar. Sample hundreds of different spirits and mixers from local and national distillers while listening to live music. Ticket includes admission to the San Diego County Fair.

From 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 24. $33$125. distilledsandiego.com HTaste of Adam’s Avenue at various restaurants, Adams Avenue, City Heights.

Over 40 eateries in the area, varying from cheescake factories to sushi joints, invite visitors to taste samples of their food. Wineries and breweries will also open their doors. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sunday, June 25. $35-$40. 619-2827329, adamsavenuebusiness.com

MUSIC Michael Francis and Augustin Hadelich at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Grammy Award-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich makes his Mainly Mozart Festival debut in a program that includes selections from Mozart, Ravel and a performance of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 22. $15-$58. 619-5701100, sandiegotheatres.org Diggers, Super Squirrel, Sin-Wat at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave, San Diego. Featured audiovisual artist Eric Drasin’s project will perform alongside an electronica musician and a new project.

From 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, June 23. $5.

619- 851-4083, breadandsaltsandiego.com Victoria Martino at Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, 1008 Wall Street, La Jolla.

Baroque Violinist performs “Fantasia” in honor of the 250th anniversary of the death of the innovative German composer Georg Philipp Telemann. At 2 p.m.

Sunday, June 25. $30-$35. 858-4545872, ljathenaeum.org

PERFORMANCE HSan Diego International Fringe Festival at various locations, San Diego and Tijuana.

Experience multiple performances, ranging from theater to music to art and more at this annual event that gives artists the opportunity to perform in a festival setting. See website for showtimes, locations and prices. Various times. Thursday, June 22 through Sunday, July 2. Free-$72. sdfringe.org

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HPoetry & Art at San Diego Art Institute, 1439 El Prado, San Diego. Editors and authors of the San Diego Poetry Annual will read poems from this year’s edition.

Readers include Anthony Blacksher, Judy Reeves, Adam Greenfield and Jimmy Jazz. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, June 23. $5. 619-236-0011, sandiego-art.org

SPECIAL EVENTS HOB Street Fair and Chili Cook-off Festival at Ocean Beach Pier, end of Newport Avenue, Ocean Beach. In its 38th year, the fair welcomes visitors to try over two-dozen chili tastings and enjoy beachfront art and live entertainment.

From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 24. oceanbeachsandiego.com

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 @SDCITYBEAT

@SDCityBeat

june 21, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

AFTER DARK: ABOUT LAST NIGHT

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 HMass Creativity Day at The New Children’s Museum, 200 W Island Ave, Downtown. With the theme centered around cultural diversity, this annual event will include a series of hands-on art workshops, performances and food. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 24.

Free. 619-233-8792, thinkplaycreate.org

HPoets & Painters Spoken Word, Music & Graffiti Art Festival at Market Creek Amphitheater, 310 Euclid Ave, Diamond District. A celebration gathering together artists and includes music and dance performances, graffiti arts competitions and poetry slams. From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 24. Free. whatsnewinthediamond.com HArts & Amps at Karl Strauss Brewing Company, 5985 Santa Fe St., Bay Ho. The second installment of the brewery’s summertime event series features live music by rock band Well Well Well and The Donkeys, as well as art from Creative Souls and the Cohort Collective. From 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 24. 858-2732739, karlstrauss.com HPachanga de Frida at Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, 404 Euclid Ave., Diamond District. The annual Frida Kahlo birthday benefit party includes Latino art exhibits, vendors, food and tequila. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 24. $40. 619-692-2077, jacobscenter.org.

”The Mighty Quinn” by Michael McAlister will be on view at a pop-up group show opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, June 23, at Little Dame Shop (2942 Adams Ave., Normal Heights).

HSan Diego Night Market at Kearny Office Park, 8304 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Convoy District. Inspired by the night markets found in Asia, the event showcases diverse food and beverages like Asian inspired street food, as well as cultural performances with live music and dance. From 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. Saturday, June 24 and from 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday, June 25. $3-$7. sdnightmarket.com HLove City Heights Block Party at 3945 University Ave, City Heights. This celebration of the residents, businesses and community services of City Heights will feature live bands, vendors, food, games and interactive art. From 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 24. 619-404-7544, facebook.com/events/243141562828586

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

Killa attitude

I

“

t’s hard to find time for happy hour with your meet me on a Thursday night anyways.”

Often, Wall wakes up to progress, rather than a friend,” says Courtney Wall, who created Lady Killas, a monthly happy hour that brings to- hangover.

“The day after I’ll see some [social media] acgether 75 to 100 entrepreneurial women in their counts pop up or something. They got so inspired 20s and 30s.

“We will go out to a bar and kind of have a from our speakers, the community and vibes, and chilled-out networking,” Wall continues. “We say they are just like, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to start somebad words, we learn and we get inspired to kind of thing.’”

To coincide with its one-year anniversary this grow our community together.”

On the last Thursday of every month, there’s month, Lady Killas is launching something new too—a clothing and accessoan hour of networking, folKURT OLSEN / OUR CAMERA YOUR STORY ry line. Walls says the line’s lowed by a discussion with components are representatwo female speakers with tive of the group. complementary professions.

“It’s sometimes snarky, The group has held events at it’s definitely feminist, it’s a places as varied as Park & Rec go-get-them attitude.” and Pigment. Wall says she The group is also throwing doesn’t let speakers off easy a launch party for the clothand often grills the panelists ing line on July 28 at Moniwith questions. ker Warehouse, which will “Social media rules everyWall moderates panel at Lady Killas include food vendors, DJs, thing, and everyone is a little bit happier or prettier on social media than they are female bartenders and, of course, the merchandise.

“We have one shirt that says ‘Queens get the in real life,” Wall says. “It’s this whole thing like you have to be cool, and you can’t just be real with your money’ another one that says ‘Another day, another slay.’ So we are tapping into that darker and edgier, friends, so we get really real.”

On June 29, the female duo behind design com- but still fun, girl group.”

Not to say that men aren’t invited. pany San Diego Letters will take the hot seat at “We are talking about this problem of sexism, FruitCraft Fermentery and Distillery (1477 University Ave.) to discuss turning a side gig into a main and I think all the ladies understand that pretty well,” Wall says. “So invite the boys, give them our hustle. And then, it’s back to drinking.

“When there is alcohol people tend to let their perspectives and let them help.” guards down more, and [a bar] is where you would —Torrey Bailey

@SDCITYBEAT

THEATER JIM COX

Tory Kittles (left) and Robert Sean Leonard in King Richard II

Men who would be king

F

rom then-President-elect Trump’s insistence last November that theater be a “safe” place to the recent right-wing excoriation of a New York production featuring a Trump-like “Julius Caesar,” the theatrical stage has been in the crosshairs of the new presidency’s disregard for, and even rancor over, the arts.

While the Old Globe announced its 2017 Summer Shakespeare Festival season before The Donald was elected, it’s nonetheless providential that the opening production happens to be King Richard II. A grim but poetical play immersed in questions of power, entitlement and betrayal, King Richard II is a fitting and topical vehicle for this Summer of Bob Mueller.

Even without making contemporary correlations, King Richard II is cracking good political theater. Written in verse, this Shakespeare history (an anchoring point for the subsequent Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V) pits King Richard II (Robert Sean Leonard), who believes he wears the crown by divine right (or mandate?), against his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (Tory Kittles), who with righteousness and an army of rebellious allies seeks to depose the weak king. The future not only of England but of those bound to either man by blood or loyalty is at stake.

Erica Schmidt directs a production on the Globe’s outdoor Lowell Davies Festival stage that rightly focuses on the inevitability of Richard’s fall and, more so, the damage from his usurpation to his faith and to the very core of his inner self.

This is clearest and most profound late in the second act, with Leonard intuitively portraying a man, not a ruler ordained by God, whose fate is foredoomed.

Kittles’ Bolingbroke is much more measured, though he projects little cha-

@SDCITYBEAT

risma. But both Charles Janasz’s fiery John of Gaunt and Patrick Kerr’s excitable Duke of York enliven each scene in which they appear.

From a visual perspective, John Lee Beatty’s monolithic castle-wall set is apt and imposing, and Andrea Lauer’s costumes are evocative down to the finest detail.

With its lone duel in armor aborted early, the language-heavy King Richard II can be plodding. Its conflicts are those of conscience—not always the loudest but often the most searing.

King Richard II runs through July 15 at the Old Globe’s Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in Balboa Park. $30 and up. oldglobe.org

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: San Diego International Fringe Festival: The fifth annual performing arts showcase includes over a dozen independent theatrical productions. It opens June 22 at various venues across San Diego and Tijuana. sdfringe.org El Nogalar: A reading of Tanya Saracho’s new adaptation of Anton Checkov’s class-fueled play, The Cherry Orchard. Presented by Amigos del Rep, it happens June 26 at the Lyceum Space in Downtown. sdrep.or The Grotesques: An open reading of Omri Schein’s new play about the holocaust. Presented by the Roustabouts Theatre Co., it happens June 27 at the Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. theroustabouts.org

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

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 15

38th Annual

SATURDAY, JUNE 24 • 10AM–8PM MAIN STAGE

92107 STAGE

Beer Garden/OB Pier Parking lot at foot of Newport Ave 11:00 - 12:00 Falling Doves 12:30 - 1:20 The Gringos (Featuring Cody Sherman, OB Surf Icon) 1:45 - 2:30 The Verigolds 3:00 - 3:50 Behind the Wagon 3:50 - 4:20 Chili Cook-Off Winners Announcement 4:20 - 5:20 The Electric Waste Band 5:45 - 6:30 Psydecar (Reggae) 7:00 - 8:00 DJ Williams featuring members of Karl Denson Tiny Universe

Bacon Street at Santa Monica Ave OB Music, Roots, Rock, Reggae

Bacon Street a Alternati

10:00 - 10:40 Guiro Grass

10:00 Millionaire B

OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival

11:00 - 11:40 Captain Viejo 12:00 - 1:00 The Stolen Hubcaps

BACON SU

11:00 Stone 12:00 Jefferson

1:30 - 2:30 Country Rockin’ Rebels

1:30 True S

3:00 - 4:00 Bad Science Fiction

3:00 Jeff Be

4:30 - 5:30 The Moves Collective 6:00 - 7:00 Dubbest

4:30 Cardina

6:00 The Ro

M • OCEANBEACHSANDIEGO.COM

UN STAGE

ARTISTS ALLEY STAGE WONDERLAND STAGE

at Niagara Ave ive, Rock

Cable Street between Niagara & Newport Acoustic, World, Rock

- 10:40 Beach Bums

10:00 - 10:45 Alyssa Walker

- 11:40 Horse - 1:00 Jay Band

11:00 - 11:45 Ryan Staniszeski 12:00 - 1:00 The Skinny Dippers

- 2:30 Stories

1:30 - 2:30 Ass Pocket Whiskey Fellas

- 4:00 erkley

3:00 - 4:00 Temple of the Dad

- 5:30 al Moon

4:30 - 5:30 Mango Habanero

- 7:00 outine

6:00 - 7:00 Lexington Field

Newport Ave between Cable St & Sunset Cliffs Blvd Americana, Surf, Rock ‘n Roll 10:00 - 10:45 Gemini Junction 11:00 - 11:45 Hoedown on the Hill 12:00 - 12:45 Cairo Beats 1:00 - 1:45 The Sea Monks 2:00 - 3:00 Lead Pony 3:30 - 4:30 Dave Gilbert Band 5:00 - 6:00 Markland

OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival

TORREY BAILEY

CULTURE | ART

Lissa Corona and Marina Grize issa Corona and Marina Grize are having their moment in the sun.

Through a combination of hard work, creativity and a confluence of events, the two artists and art administrators are temporarily positioned at the helm of the San Diego Art Institute (SDAI), an institution on the forefront of contemporary art in a city that always seems late to the proverbial art party.

However, their moment may be fleeting.

Upon the recent departure of the San Diego Art Institute’s attention-grabbing executive director, Ginger Shulick Porcella, Corona, then the education director, somewhat reluctantly accepted the leadership position in the interim.

“At first there was talk of bringing in someone from the outside as interim director, and Ginger would jokingly say, ‘or maybe Lissa could just do it,’” Corona recounts.

“And I was like ‘hell no, I don’t want that!’ because I would see how stressed she would get… But then I was like, OK—when opportunities come, you have to just seize them, and even if this only lasts for six weeks, it’s going to be our time to make things happen.”

The result has been what she gleefully refers to as a “love fest” with Grize, who is SDAI’s Creative Director, as well as with the rest of the staff, all of whom are working artists themselves.

“I have issues with hierarchical leadership, especially in the arts,” Corona says.

“Right after Ginger left the first thing we did was have an offsite staff retreat. We talked about what kinds of things we would want to see happen, and what are all of our goals for the space and for our programming. How can we function as more of a collective? How do we build each other up and support each other and make decisions as a team?”

“The idea of a collective is really appeal-

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

ing to me because we were already working that way, but none of the ideas were allowed to come to fruition that were our own,” says Grize, who has been with SDAI for over three years and has done a lot of the heavy lifting.

“Lissa values all of us and realizes that we have our own ideas and can create our own programs. There’s this mutual trust and, honestly, love amongst all of us.”

This inclusive, celebratory mood is evident in the kind of programming that’s been going on inside the Balboa Park space as of late. Events such as a panel discussion about intersectional feminism, improvisational experimental music jam sessions, gatherings for the group Rebel Quinceanera (which empowers latinx teens to embrace and love themselves), and the end-of-year UCSD critical gender studies party have all been highly successful.

“I’m kind of blown away by how many amazing people I meet on a regular basis in our community that are actively making really engaging and thoughtful work,” Corona notes. “There’s no reason why our space can’t be supportive of all of these different groups to create a better sense of community, one that is inclusive and one that really challenges preconceptions of what the San Diego art scene is.”

But with the search actively underway for a new executive director, this dream team is wondering if their collective love affair will be short lived. Will fear by the board of the organization’s fiscal health overshadow the current team’s organic harmony and collective productivity? Will Corona’s more inclusive leadership and the creative boom that the museum is experiencing continue if the board chooses an outsider to steer the ship?

And is it even an option for the interim solution to become more permanent or, at the least, be given more of a chance to prove its functionality?

“I don’t think it would be a smart choice,” says board member Susanna Peredo Swap.

“We need someone who can hit the ground running and is familiar with the enormous task of being the executive director of a non-profit. It’s not just getting to do the fun curatorial stuff… It’s about fundraising and donor acquisitions. It’s really important fiscally that whoever that leader is has COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

“Thighs and Ferns” by Carlitos Galvan those strong qualifications under their belt.

Our number one responsibility is the fiscal health of the organization.”

“I think the search for a real development person would be way more interesting,” Grize responds. “How about someone that’s winning every single grant that this state offers? Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

“We as a board are very understanding and very appreciative of all that the staff has done to carry the institution and we want to ensure its longevity just like they do.” Says

board member Ryan Jefferies. “We don’t feel that creating chaos or putting someone in charge that has the potential to create chaos is in anyone’s best interest.”

When asked if Corona was being considered for the position due to her recent success as leader, Jefferies claimed that the search is “confidential” and that it wouldn’t be fair to the others candidates to share that information, adding, “we need to find someone to fill the position in all its caveats. Being an executive director is a very complex position and requires many hats. We’re looking for someone who can wear as many of those hats as possible.”

In the meantime, Corona and Grize are trying on all the hats, earning grants such as the California Art Council’s Artists in Schools grant (based on the proposal that Corona wrote) and getting to put on what promises to be one of the most progressive exhibits in the history of the San Diego art scene.

“It’s called Millenial Pink. It’s all about the evolution of queer aesthetics,” explains Corona. “We’re coming at it from a place of observing how our queer community is making art that is celebratory of identity, questioning gender constructs and embracing sexual fluidity.”

When talking about the opening on July 29th Corona adds, “It’s going to be so glam and we’re going to have so much fun, and I’m probably going to cry.”

Grize talks with immense pride about co-curating the show—which will feature work from Carlitos Galvan, Erica Cho and Mauricio Muñoz, among others—and how the amazing roster of artists fell in line so smoothly.

“All Lissa did was be her genuine self and people reacted well to it,” Grize says. “She’s a really easy person to talk to and that goes a long way. Maybe further than people think we need here.”

@SDCITYBEAT

CULTURE | ART

SEEN LOCAL

ics. She didn’t leave her fascination of the universe behind in Cambridge, however, and her Bread & Salt exhibition—a mix of sculptural, illustrated and painted works—was a fascinating study of the astronomical phenomenon known as dark matter.

Walter continues with her artistic study of science (or is it a scientific study of art?) with Dark Energy, which is up through July 9 with a viewing reception scheduled for June 28 from 7 to 9 p.m. The piece on display explores the equally perplexing theory of the In this semi-regular department, Seth Combs reviews energy field that is hypothesized to be the main cona notable new art show or exhibition. tributor of the universe’s expansion. A small space within 1805 has been walled off for the installation hat is that?” asked a passerby, stopping mid- where Walter has installed four fanning thread pieces, stride to look inside the window of the 1805 each representing one of the four SETH COMBS Gallery in Little Italy. theories of what dark energy is It was a rather apropos quesmade up of. tion considering what she was Just as with the theory of looking at: a series of encompassdark energy itself, Walter’s piece ing thread sculptures that proseems to repel and bend gravity trude from the wall and prismatiin extraordinary ways, each thread cally extend out over the small galseemingly situated in just a way lery space. An early evening during so as to represent both the chathe solstice was the perfect time to otic and prescriptive nature of the see it. The rays of the setting sun universe. The four pieces do not blocked by surrounding buildings, touch, but walk around the outside the dwindling light of day comlooking in (no choice but to do so, pleted and complimented the rays as viewers can’t go inside) and one of artistic energy that were being gets the sense that they are physiblasted out of the walls and onto cally connected. As one famous any person that happened to be stargazer once uttered, “Your eyes walking by. can deceive you; don’t trust them.”

The question of “what is that?”

Theories aside, Dark Energy has is a fitting, if not somewhat gener- “Dark Energy” by Melissa Walter proven as fact that Walter is one of alized, encapsulation of the work the most fascinating and prolific of local artist Melissa Walter. artists currently working in the local art scene. A sciFresh off a highly successful artist residency at Bread entist’s work is one that often takes them to wherever & Salt, she’s landed another residency at 1805 Gal- their work is needed most, but I’m hoping she continlery. Before devoting herself full-time to art, Walter ues to work and theorize in San Diego for a long time. previously worked as a graphic designer at NASA and at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophys —Seth Combs

TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE: DARK ENERGY

“

W

MOVING NORTH

S

an Diego’s annual contemporary art fair Art San Diego (art-sandiego.com) is relocating from the Balboa Park Activity Center to the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The four-day event—which has primarily been held in the city since it began in 2009—is known for showcasing regional and national atists and galleries in hopes of attracting collectors and artists to a city that is often overlooked when it comes to visual art. The move to the fairground’s Wyland and Expo Center, a 30,000-square-foot exhibition space, is a clear signal that organizers wish to expand the appeal of Art San Diego.

“We had just outgrown the Activity Center in Balboa Park,” says Linda Mariano, who is the Executive Director of the Ohio-based Redwood Media Group (RMG), who owns and organizes Art San Diego. “There just aren’t that many places that are large enough.

The Wyland Center is in a great location demographically and geographically. One of the things we’ve always wanted to do was attract Orange County and Los Angeles people to not only attend the show, but exhibit as well.”

Mariano goes on to emphasize that the move will also allow Art San Diego to attract the Del Mar and La Jolla market of collectors. She also adds that there has been some naysaying when it comes to the move, but points out that the expanded space will also give RMG more room to include local artists, which has always been a main emphasis when Ann Berchtold first started Art San Diego. Ironically, the first one was held in

@SDCITYBEAT

Art San Diego Del Mar before it was moved to the Hilton San Diego Bayfront in Downtown and then to Balboa Park.

“I’m hopeful that maybe the low cost will encourage them to do more innovative things,” says Berchtold, who is not longer involved with Art San Diego after selling it to RMG in 2014. “You’ve got to have more experimentation in spaces. It can’t all just be, you know, interior design art. And maybe if they can create a zone where they don’t have to pay high rent then that will bring some new energy to the show and, again, serve higher purposes because we’re trying to provide more opportunities for artists to show their stuff.”

Art San Diego takes place from Sept. 28 through Oct. 1.

—Seth Combs JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

CULTURE | FILM

Okja

Home grown Bong Joon-ho’s ambitious Okja depicts the symbiotic nature of friendship

by Glenn Heath Jr.

T

he great distribution war of 2017 waged be- sprawl of Seoul to save her pet from slaughter. In the tween the Cannes Film Festival and Netflix kinetic chase scene that follows, she jumps aboard a inspired countless industry thinkpieces about transport vehicle and becomes entangled with corpohow and why and where we should watch movies. Lost rate goons and animal rights activists driven by conin the kerfuffle (or perhaps the covfefe?) were the two trasting ideological agendas. Bong’s nimble camera movies themselves: Few major critics dedicated ex- seems caught in a slipstream behind her persistent tended wordage on Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja or Noah Ba- propulsion. Having grown up in the wilderness, Mija umbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), doesn’t understand limits or rules; her brazen pursuit crashes through barriers both literboth of which seemed damned to al and figurative, surprising many streaming-only release platforms of her male supporting characters. at the time.

Okja is at its best when centered Nearly a month later, Netflix OKJA firmly on Mija’s singular quest, but has thankfully relented on its puDirected by Bong Joon-ho Bong seems determined to proritanical business model, at least Starring An Seo-hyun, vide a larger critique of corporate in the case of Okja. This ambitious Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano greed and mindless consumption. and resilient children’s parable will The youngster ultimately becomes receive a dual theatrical/digital reand Jake Gyllenhaal a pawn in the international chess lease in South Korea and the UnitNot Rated game between militant activist Jay ed States on June 28. Los Angeles (Paul Dano) and Mirando’s widetheaters will provide the closest ranging swath of evil surrogates, opportunity to see it big.

Bong’s film takes place in a profit-over-people both sides trying to appropriate her cuteness in difworld not unlike our own—the monolithic Mirando ferent ways. Satirical overtures regarding the evils of Corporation has decided to rebrand their dire pub- big business and police brutality are messily handled, lic image by taking on global hunger, concocting a giving the film a spastic quality that is very unlike long-game marketing ploy around the breeding of Bong’s previous work.

Still, the director’s trademark eccentricities and visuper pigs. CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) touts the company’s organic-friendly strategy in the loony tal humanism remain intact. Jake Gyllenhaal’s genuopening sequence, a barrage of verbal hype and visual inely unhinged portrayal of a squawky hack zoologist color that’s about as substantial as a Trump rally. The is a shorts-wearing demon beckoned from the mind of gist? Farmers from around the world will compete to novelist Hunter S. Thompson. On the flipside, scenes see who can raise the largest genetically enhanced between Mija and Okja transcend dangerous sentimentality, achieving a sublime sense of harmony. livestock after a decade’s time.

Quickly flashing forward to that deadline, the Bong ably balances these competing tones.

Fleet-footed and vital, Okja challenges the normalfilm introduces young Mija (the unstoppable An Seohyun) romping through dense forest and underbrush ized cynicism proliferated by Lucy’s demented twin: with her best friend Okja, a majestic super pig that has “If it’s cheap, they’ll eat it.” Like Mija, Bong’s strange, the girth of an elephant and the kind demeanor of a beguiling work carves out its own place in a world that puppy. Bong shoots these mostly wordless interac- often makes little sense. In doing so, the earsplitting tions with tender efficiency, establishing a symbiotic noise of partisanship and profit are drowned out by affection between girl and beast that feels rooted in the joyful laugh of a hellion who won’t stop pushing the thick mountain soil. Mija has no frame of refer- forward. ence regarding Mirando’s plot, making her sudden and inevitable separation from Okja all the more crushing. Film reviews run weekly.

Furious and defiant, Mija descends onto the urban Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

@SDCITYBEAT

CULTURE | FILM

The Big Sick

Love struck

A

t this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Amazon reportedly purchased the distribution rights to The Big Sick for 12 million dollars. It was a shockingly high amount for a modest romantic comedy with no bankable stars. But this gamble makes perfect sense after viewing the film, which is both a subversive take on the responsibility of emotion and very, very entertaining. That sort of combination is a rare bird.

Actor Kumail Nanjiani and producer Emily V. Gordon co-wrote the screenplay, which is based on their real life rollercoaster relationship that survived deep cultural challenges and one bafflingly long illness. Fittingly, the sharp dialogue functions like a shield for the constant state of anxiousness that follows.

When struggling stand up com-

@SDCITYBEAT

ic Kumail (Nanjiani) and graduate student Emily (Zoe Kazan) meetcute in a bar, neither really wants a long-term commitment. But the sparks fly nonetheless. Lust turns into genuine affection, complicating Kumail’s relationship with his traditional Pakistani family who are incessantly trying to negotiate an arranged marriage. Things get even murkier after Emily falls prey to a mysterious infection, forcing doctors to place her in a medically induced coma.

From here, The Big Sick, which opens Friday, June 28, quickly evolves into strangely paced narrative about the pressures of family and casual racism, not to mention the adult decisions that invariably interrupt romantic fantasy. Director Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name is Doris) frames the action in standard set-ups with flat lighting, relinquishing most of the creative control to his talented performers. Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, who play Emily’s distraught parents, are particularly adept at personifying gradations of grief.

Despite the seemingly downer subject matter, The Big Sick is indeed very funny and moving, if slightly bloated. Many of the best jokes help complicate the social

purgatory first generation Americans may experience while trying to break free from the limitations of tradition.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING Burden: Timothy Marrinan and Richard Dewey’s documentary looks at extreme artist Chris Burden’s works and private life with an innovative mix of still-potent videos of his 70s performances. Opens Friday, June 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary: This thought-provoking, uplifting and powerful film looks at the life and work of jazz giant John Coltrane, an outside-the-box thinker whose boundaryshattering music continues to impact and influence people around the world. Opens Friday, June 23, at Ken Cinema.

Family Life: In this Chilean dramedy, a distant relative house sits for a couple while they vacation in France. During his stay, he makes the house his own and falls for a local woman. The two develop a domestic routine that is threatened by the impending return of his family. Opens Friday, June 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Hearing is Believing: This uplifting documentary film introduces the world to musical prodigy Rachel Flowers, a young woman who lost her eyesight as a newborn but has perfect pitch. Opens Friday, June 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Okja: Bong Joon-ho’s new adventure film follows a young South Korean girl who descends from the mountains to save her best friend, a genetically enhanced super pig created by a corrupt multi-national corporation using the world hunger crisis to make huge profits. Begins digitally streaming Wednesday, June 28 on Netflix.

The Big Sick: Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan star in this subversive romantic comedy about a Pakistani-American stand up comic whose girlfriend falls prey to a mysterious disease and is placed in a medically induced coma.

The Exception: A German soldier played

by Jai Courtney tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the home of Kaiser Wilhelm (Christopher Plummer) in Holland during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman during his investigation.

The House on Coco Road: This film tells the story of a young family that moves to Grenada to escape racial tensions of Oakland only to become embroiled in the US mandated military invasion. Opens Friday, June 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Transformers: The Last Knight: Michael Bay returns with his fifth installment of the mega blockbuster series about a group of shape shifting robots who help Mark Wahlberg save the world from other shape shifting robots. Sounds fun right?

For a complete movie listings, visit F ilm at sdcitybeat.com.

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

ERIN RAMBO

MUSIC

ick Waterhouse resists. These days, that can mean a lot of things— particularly when it comes to politics.

But for the 31-year-old singer, songwriter, musician and producer, it means refusing to budge on any part of his very specific creative vision.

“Music is taken for entertainment instead of art now,” Waterhouse says in a phone interview. “The Internet has turned it into content along with the notion that it’s a consumable good versus an experiential thing. But this isn’t a brand. This is my entire inner life laid bare. And I’m going to follow where it takes me.”

This is nothing new. He’s been following it since fronting his first band out of Edison High School in Huntington Beach when he was only 16. Part of the same scene that produced Ty Segall and Burger Records, a four-piece called The Intelligista was Waterhouse’s first attempt at distilling the pure analog sound of his favorite mid-century R&B, rock and pop acts.

His obsession with pristine production only intensified after relocating to San Francisco and working as both a DJ and record store clerk. He returned to Orange County as a 23-year-old solo performer in 2010, and recorded his debut single, “Some Place,” entirely in analog on hand-pressed vinyl, later signing with Hanni El Khatib’s Innovative Leisure Records the next year.

Continuing on his path, Waterhouse meticulously refined the spirit of bygone eras on all three of his full-length albums: 2012’s Time’s All Gone, 2014’s Holly and 2016’s Never Twice. But when listeners combine the extravagance of large-scale production with the reality of today’s music industry, it doesn’t always add up.

“The business is really unforgiving for people whose vision involves a lot of manpower,” he says. “Now, more than ever, is a scary and uncertain time for musicians. It’s sort of like we’re functioning in a Mad Max landscape where everyone’s fighting it out for scraps.”

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

Because the singer/guitarist doesn’t yet have big industry money behind him, he’s chosen to get creative instead of duking it out or compromising. That means producing for other artists like one-time label-mates the Allah-Las. It means doing the writing for Never Twice with old Intelligista bandmate and Louisiana resident Tony Polizzi mainly through iMessage.

It also means that despite the personnel portion of his record sleeves reading like a football team roster, a leaner, meaner version of the band hits the road. And perhaps in the greatest tell of all, it means that even though Time’s All Gone features photos of Waterhouse’s first area appearance at the Soda Bar, his upcoming performance at the Belly Up will be the first time he’s returned to San Diego’s small market since those pictures were taken in 2011.

It also means that he calls on friends for help, as he did with Texas-based soul-man Leon Bridges on the Never Twice single, “Katchi.”

“That song is really just an expression of us both in confrontational jubilation,” says Waterhouse. “We wrote a song that has a nonsense word in it, along with a long, doowop head and a sax solo. It felt good!”

Of course it did. Not only is “Katchi” a burner, the bandleader always relishes going against the grain to follow his vision. And for those who might call bullshit on his lofty aesthetic because he licenses his music to be used in TV and video games, Waterhouse has no problem calling bullshit right back.

“There’s not a lot of glamour in the things that I’m really interested in,” he says. “So it’s funny to me when someone thinks I’m commercially motivated because I have a song in an ad. I managed to con a corporation into putting a mono recording with saxophone on a national ad campaign. They don’t understand. That’s like anarchism to me.”

And Waterhouse will continue to fight the good fight as long as he can make records completely on his own terms. That seems likely to continue for a little while.

The bespectacled crooner is finishing a record with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste and also is working on a forthcoming series of 45s set for December release. And after he wraps up his 2017 touring, the fall is reserved for writing and recording a new album. The only remaining question is where.

“This two-year cycle I’m on infuriates me,” says Waterhouse. “Both of the last records should have been one-year cycles. And if the Distillery, where I made my first record, hadn’t shut down, I’d have five albums out by now. Maybe six. But every record so far

has been this weird, conceptual struggle of finding a place, assembling a band and then nothing but logistics, logistics, logistics.”

Regardless of where it ends up getting recorded, the next record undoubtedly will be another dose of equal parts style and substance, all of it with very little regard for anything other than how Waterhouse sees it in his own head.

“For better or worse,” he says, “I don’t always think people appreciate me resisting the way I do. I’m like a protective den mother making sure my cubs don’t get harmed while they’re still young and vulnerable.”

@SDCITYBEAT

@SDCityBeat

june 21, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21

PLAN A: !!!, Sego @ The Casbah. Seeing !!! is too much fun. Even if you’re not a fan of their studio albums (though you should love at least a few of them), the group makes some sweet disco funk that gets a room full of people moving until the place is full of sweat. Gross, yes, but also insanely fun.

PLAN B: Black Lips, Timmy’s Organism, Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates @ Belly Up Tavern. The Black Lips are also a very fun band to see, but for different reasons.

They play high-energy garage rock with a live show that often includes zany antics.

BACKUP PLAN: Girlpool, Snailmail @ The Irenic.

SUNDAY, JUNE 25

PLAN A: Golden Animals, San Pedro El Cortez, Dream Joints, DJ Daily Vacation @ Soda Bar. If you don’t want your weekend to wind down with a whimper, seek out this show featuring Tijuana garage rockers San Pedro El Cortez. They’re super loud.

You’ll see. BACKUP PLAN: Dopapod, Natural Sounds Trio @ The Casbah.

KERRY BROWN

THURSDAY, JUNE 22

PLAN A: The Revolution @ House of Blues. Yes, that Revolution. As in “Prince and...” After Prince died last year, it felt like a part of all of us died. But the closest we’ll get to reclaiming that feeling of hearing his music is checking out his band from the ‘80s (the band behind the iconic Purple Rain), perform it live. PLAN B: Nick Waterhouse, SadGirl @ Belly Up Tavern. Read Scott McDonald’s feature this week on Nick Waterhouse, who has a soulful old-school pop sound that’s perfect for summertime listening. BACKUP PLAN: Chron Gen, Generators, Corrupted Youth @ The Casbah.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23

PLAN A: Birdy Bardot, The Heavy Guilt, The Dead Ships, Dani Bell and the Tarantist @ The Casbah. Now this is a pretty big deal. Birdy Bardot will be releasing her second album, following up one of my favorites from recent years. And The Heavy Guilt will be playing their first show in three years. Those alone should be reason enough to want to be here. PLAN B: The Family Stone, Johnny Tarr @ Belly Up Tavern. Yes, that Family Stone. As in “Sly and...” While Sly Stone himself not too long ago started making public appearances after years of seclusion, his band will be playing a set full of old school jams that still feel poignant after all these years. BACKUP PLAN: Aldous Harding, Midnight Sister @ Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, JUNE 24

PLAN A: Supersuckers, Jesse Dayton, The Andrew McKeag Band @ The Casbah. It’s one of those weird weeks where Saturday is relatively chill. So you can take advantage of the night off, or you can go see The Supersuckers, who’ve been known to bring the house down with their fiery roadhouse punk.

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

Nick Cave

MONDAY, JUNE 26

PLAN A: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds @ San Diego Civic Center. This is Plan A for the month. Or the year. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are one of the greatest bands of all time, with a catalog that spans from post-punk darkness to tender balladry.

They also put on one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. PLAN B: Ron Gallo, White Reaper, Naked Giants @ Soda Bar. A less theatrical but still worthy show is this one featuring White Reaper, who are essentially a power pop group but much noisier. They’re catchy and lots of fun, but not without a hell of a lot of distortion. BACKUP PLAN: Horseneck, Griever @ Brick by Brick.

TUESDAY, JUNE 27

PLAN A: Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Gloomsday, Spooky Cigarette @ Soda Bar. Quintron and Miss Pussycat are the kind of band you’ll either love immediately or find incredibly confusing. It’s rowdy, fuzzy rock ‘n’ roll played with dirty organ and a puppet show on the side. Yes, a puppet show. BACKUP PLAN: Streetlight Manifesto, Jenny Owen Youngs @ House of Blues.

@SDCITYBEAT

@SDCityBeat

june 21, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO LOCALS ONLY

I

n the span of just one week, John Reis of Hot Snakes and Rocket from the Crypt had his guitar stolen and then recovered.

The gold Gibson Les Paul initially was stolen the weekend of June 11 outside of Singing Serpent Studios on Adams Ave. However, on Friday, Reis’ guitar showed up on the OfferUp app, which is a Craigslist-like platform for selling secondhand items. With the help of Brandon Madrid, The Night Marchers’ Tommy Kitsos and Exasperation’s David Mead, Reid was able to get it back from “two ultra-sketch, haggard, tweek aficionados,” according to an Instagram post from Reis.

“Big thanks to everyone who spread the word about my guitar getting ripped off,” the post IG post read. “Soooo happy to have my guitar back!!! So happy to have so many rad friends all over the world that chimed in, spread the word and offered hope.”

Shortly after the guitar went missing, a long list of other musicians helped spread the word, including many local bands as well as some notably big-name artists such as Jimmy Eat World and Cedric Bixler-Zavala of At the Drive-In. “A musician will always rally to take down the thief of an instrument, even if that instrument doesn’t belong to them, personally,” says Mead. “Seeing how happy John was to get that guitar back was a super validating feeling.”

These kinds of thefts, unfortunately, are not uncommon. In fact, musicians are frequently victims of theft, most likely as a result of carrying a high volume of valuable material in one vehicle. Mitch Wilson of No Knife recalls two separate incidents in the same week more than 15 years ago.

“No Knife parked in front of a cafe with people sitting on the patio 10 feet feet from our van in New York City,” he says. “We walked around the corner and came back to a broken window, and they stole my Gibson SG, the bass head, our roadie’s camera and my bag with all my clothes in it. We got the window fixed the next day on the way to New Jersey. We played in New York City a few nights later and whoever was supposed to do van duty that night decided to go upstairs and party. Someone broke the same window and stole all our records and drum stuff. Two thefts in one week—both broke the same window.”

Gear theft is by no means a new problem, nor one unique to any one region or country. Last fall, Vancouver stoner rock group Black Mountain were the victims of theft on the first day of a European tour in Gothenburg, Sweden. The thieves managed to take a hefty amount of equipment, including three guitars with vintage electronics and several synthesizers, the combined value of which could easily total tens of thousands of dollars. And in 1999, Sonic Youth memorably had seven of their guitars stolen, all of which had custom modifications that made them one of a kind, and therefore irreplaceable.

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

But sometimes bands catch a lucky break. Sonic Youth had recovered all of their stolen guitars by 2012, thanks to diligent fans who kept an eye out for the stolen guitars on eBay or other secondary markets.

And earlier this year, a Metallica cover band had all of their gear stolen, only to have all of it generously replaced by none other than Metallica themselves.

Then again, sometimes you have to take a more proactive approach in order to recover the stolen gear. In 2012, someone stole a bass from Pinback right off the stage, and drummer Chris Prescott took it upon himself to chase the culprit on foot.

“Zach’s bass was stolen off stage during a Pinback show a few years ago,” he says. “I ran after that fucker and got it back. It was a hectic 30 minutes!”

CANDICE ELEY

From left: David Mead, Brandon Madrid and John Reis, with his recovered guitar There are safeguards that bands can take in order to avoid taking a loss on stolen equipment, including getting gear covered by renters’ or homeowners’ insurance, or use a device called TrackR, which allows users to find missing items via an app. There’s also a much simpler method of avoiding gear theft, as Patrick Erhard of Ash Williams explains.

“One time this drugged out dude in Oakland started punching the van window while we were inside the venue,” Erhard says. “Luckily our merch guy, Jeffery was in the van. Then the two of them talked for about 5 minutes and the guy decided that he really didn’t want to break into the van after all.”

The moral of the story, according to Erhard? “Always have someone stay with the gear!”

—Jeff Terich

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Wanda Jackson (Casbah, 7/15), The Gloomies (Soda Bar, 7/29), Frankie Rose (Soda Bar, 9/23), The Toadies (BUT, 9/23), Kali Uchis (Observatory, 9/30), Chelsea Wolfe (BUT, 10/2), Obituary, Exodus (Observatory, 10/8), JR JR (Irenic, 10/20), Son Little (Soda Bar, 11/4).

GET YER TICKETS Melvins (Casbah, 7/5), The Roots (Observatory, 7/11), Pharmakon (SPACE, 7/11), Mutoid Man (Casbah, 7/12), Cymbals Eat Guitars (Casbah, 7/16), Hall & Oates, Tears for Fears (Valley View Casino Center, 7/19), Beach Fossils (Casbah, 7/20), BadBadNotGood (Observatory, 7/20), Rodrigo y Gabriela (Humphreys, 7/31), Metallica (Petco Park, 8/6), Steve Earle and the Dukes (BUT, 8/10), Incubus, Jimmy Eat World (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 8/11), Hans Zimmer (Viejas Arena, 8/12), 2 Chainz (HOB, 8/12), Royal Blood (Observatory, 8/15), YOB, SubRosa (Brick by Brick, 8/16), Matthew Sweet (Casbah, 8/16), X (BUT, 8/17), Dead Cross (Observatory, 8/19), 311 (Open Air Theatre, 8/20), Atmosphere (Observatory, 8/20), Bryan Ferry (Humphreys, 8/23), Mew (Observatory, 8/24), B-Side Players (Music Box, 8/26), Pelican, Inter Arma (Brick

by Brick, 8/26), Ira Glass (Balboa Theatre, 8/27), Stiff Little Fingers (BUT, 9/6), Goo Goo Dolls (Open Air Theatre, 9/12), Green Day (Mattress Firm Am-

@SDCITYBEAT

phitheatre, 9/13), Kaaboo Festival w/ Tom Petty, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers (Del Mar Fairgrounds, 9/15-17), Against Me! (Observatory, 9/16), Future Islands (Open Air Theatre, 9/17), Glass Animals (Humphreys, 9/19), Zola Jesus (Casbah, 9/21), U2 (Qualcomm Stadium, 9/22), Swervedriver (Casbah, 9/22), The Beach Boys (Humphreys, 9/23), Ben Folds (HOB, 9/23), Sublime With Rome, The Offspring (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 9/26), Bleachers (Observatory, 9/27), Imagine Dragons (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 9/28), Benjamin Booker (BUT, 9/29), Jay Som (Soda Bar, 9/30), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Loft, 9/30), The Shins, Spoon (Open Air Theatre, 10/1), Sheer Mag, Tony Molina (Soda Bar, 10/2), Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nas (OAT, 10/3), Father John Misty (Observatory 10/5-6), Depeche Mode (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/6), Coldplay (Qualcomm Stadium, 10/8), Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile (HOB, 10/11), The Afghan Whigs (BUT, 10/12), The National (Open Air Theatre, 10/12), The Black Angels (HOB, 10/17), Torres (Casbah, 10/17), Café Tacuba (Observatory, 10/17-18), Arcade Fire (Viejas Arena, 10/18), Mastodon (HOB, 10/19), City of Caterpillar, Thou (Soda Bar, 10/19), Linkin Park (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/20), The Kooks (Observatory, 10/20), KMFDM (HOB, 10/20), Tegan and Sara (Balboa Theatre, 10/20), Jimmy Buffett (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/21), Carla Morrison (Humphreys, 10/22), Iron and Wine (Balboa Theatre, 10/28), Black Heart Procession (Casbah, 11/4), Halsey (Viejas Arena, 11/5), Hamilton Leithauser (BUT, 11/9), D.R.I. (Brick by Brick, 11/10), Fall Out Boy (Viejas Arena, 11/15), Blues Traveler (HOB, 11/19), Mogwai (Observatory, 11/20), New Found Glory (HOB, 11/25).

JUNE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21 Switchfoot at Del Mar Fairgrounds. Mad Caddies at Brick by Brick. !!! at The Casbah. Girlpool at The Irenic. Black Lips at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, JUNE 22 Tuxedo at Observatory North Park.

Nick Waterhouse at Belly Up Tavern.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at Del Mar Fairgrounds. Chron Gen at The Casbah. The Revolution at House of Blues.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23 The Mowgli’s at Music Box. The Family Stone at Belly Up Tavern. Birdy Bardot at The Casbah. Maxwell at Valley View Casino Center. Gordon Lightfoot at Humphreys by the Bay. The Game at Observatory North Park.

SATURDAY, JUNE 24 Supersuckers at The Casbah. Peter Bradley Adams at Soda Bar. Tengger Cavalry at Brick by Brick.

SUNDAY, JUNE 25 Blind Pilot at Humphreys by the Bay. Kevin Nealon at Belly Up Tavern. Golden Animals at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, JUNE 26 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at Civic Theatre. Ron Gallo, White Reaper at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, JUNE 27 Day Wave at The Casbah. Quintron and

Miss Pussycat at Soda Bar. Future at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre.

Easy Wind at Belly Up Tavern.

FRIDAY, JULY 7

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28

Thee Commons at The Casbah. Deftones, Rise Against at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Anarbor at Soda Bar.

M.O.D. at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, JUNE 29 LeAnn Rimes at Del Mar Fairgrounds.

She Keeps Bees at SPACE. Iliza Shlesinger at Observatory North Park.

Jessie James Decker at House of Blues. Jacuzzi Boys at Soda Bar. Silent at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, JULY 8 Stitched Up Heart at House of Blues Voodoo Room. Three Bad Jacks at Soda Bar. Band of Gringos at Belly Up Tavern. Brian Karcsig at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, JULY 9

FRIDAY, JUNE 30 Tijuana Panthers at Belly Up Tavern.

The Vandals at Observatory North Park.

‘Blink Fest’ at The Casbah.

JULY

Band of Heathens at Belly Up Tavern.

Prince Royce at Open Air Theatre. Flying Hair at Soda Bar. Stokka at The Casbah.

MONDAY, JULY 10

SATURDAY, JULY 1 The Aggrolites at Music Box. Cat Power at Observatory North Park. The Pynnacles at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, JULY 2 DIANA at Soda Bar. The Commodore’s Ball at Belly Up Tavern.

Flood Coats at The Casbah. Junior Brown at Belly Up Tavern.

TUESDAY, JULY 11 The Roots at Observatory North Park.

Pharmakon at SPACE. Sports at Soda Bar. Ottopilot at Belly Up Tavern.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 12 Mutoid Man at The Casbah. Phora at Observatory North Park. Joan Shelley at SPACE.

MONDAY, JULY 3 Santoros at Soda Bar.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 5

THURSDAY, JULY 13

Rosie Flores at Soda Bar. Melvins at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, JULY 6 Rozes at SPACE. Soft Lions at The Casbah. Dita Von Teese at House of Blues.

The Temptations, Four Tops at Humphreys by the Bay. Cheetah Chrome’s Dead Boys at The Casbah.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 FRIDAY, JULY 14 Dead Heavens at Soda Bar. Lynyrd Skynyrd at Harrah’s SoCal. Schizophonics at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, JULY 15 Super Diamond at Belly Up Tavern.

Derv Gordon of the Equals at SPACE. Joshua Radin and Rachel Yamagata at Observatory North Park. Wanda Jackson at The Casbah.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Fri: Inspired and the Sleep, Grizzly Business. Tue: Steal Away.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Love Notes’ w/ DJs Blackbelt Jonez, Dr. Birdski. Thu: ‘Libertine’ w/ DJ John Wesley. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Chvrch’ w/ DJs Karma, Alice.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Karl Hess. Fri: Adele Givens. Sat: Adele Givens. Sun: Adele Givens.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road, Spring Valley. Fri: Toxic Kid, Infinite Signal, Nights Like Thieves, Rebels and Traitors. Sat: The Functional Lunatics, Sideshow, Steeltoe, BDSM. Sun: GREX, Nathan Hubbard & Steuart Liebig duo. Mon: Bloody Waters, Brothers Beard, The Tiki Touch, Color Til Monday, Rogue Stereo.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park. Wed: Hey Ho! Let’s Go!. Thu: Half Car Garage, Micelves. Fri: K. Emeline & the Fellas.

Sat: Overload Pop-Up Afterparty. Sun:

‘Rat Sabbath’. Mon: Moth & Sons. Tue: DJ Marshall Islands.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Fri: Mad Zach, Alexander Lewis. Sat: Zimmer.

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

Thu: Sam Bybee. Fri: Cougar Canyon Band. Sat: Greasy Petes. Sun: Sam Bybee.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Black Lips, Timmy’s Organism, Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates.

Thu: Nick Waterhouse, SadGirl. Fri: The Family Stone, Johnny Tarr. Sat: ‘Switchfoot Bro-Am Afterparty’ w/ Tom Curren.

Sun: Kevin Nealon, Kirk Fox. Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., City Heights. Thu: The Resonant Rogues, Fanny and the Atta Boys. Fri: Sweet Myths, Miss Rissy and the Rifftones. Sat: The Schizophonics, Hiroshima Mockingbirds.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’. Thu: Mystic Braves, LA Witch, The Creation Factory, Cheap Tissue. Fri: ‘Through Being Cool’.

Sat: ‘Eden After Party’. Tue: Alive & Well, The Montell Jordans, Doc Hammer, Ramonda Hammer, Cave Clove.

Katchafire

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave., Carlsbad.

Thu: Shane Hall, Writer Prima. Fri: ‘Club Musae’.

SPOTLIGHT

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Wed: Mad Caddies, The Happys, Oceanside Sound System, Strike Twelve, Surface Report. Fri: Sprung Monkey, BOSSFIGHT, Roman Watchdogs, Punchcard, Let’s Face It. Sat: Tengger Cavalry, Felix Martin, Helsott. Sun: Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow, THE THRILL KILLERS,

The future of the Qualcomm Stadium property remains as purgatorial as ever, and that status makes it the perfect venue for Island Vibe Music Festival. I can’t think of a more appropriate road stop on the property’s way to hell than a reggae music festival. Featuring acts Katchafire and Spawnbreezie (I want to meet the person who’s really excited to see Spawnbreezie), there’s no way that this won’t be four hours of laid-back damnation. Island Vibe Music Festival goes down on Saturday, June 24 at Qualcomm Stadium.

—Ryan Bradford

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

28 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 Steeltoe, Greenskull. Mon: Horseneck, Griever. Tue: Wednesday 13, Once Human, Gabriel and the Apocalypse, Stökka.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Wed: !!!, Sego, DJ Velvet Touch.

Thu: Chron Gen, Generators, Corrupted Youth. Fri: Birdy Bardot, The Heavy Guilt, The Dead Ships, Dani Bell and the Tarantist. Sat: Supersuckers, Jesse Dayton, The Andrew McKeag Band. Sun: Dopapod, Natural Sounds Trio. Mon: Hawk Auburn, Of Ennui, Shane Hall Trio. Tue: Day Wave, Blonder, Dear Boy. Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. Fri: FX5. Sat: Nemesis.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. Fri: Nathan Collins Jazz Quintet.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Mr. Brown. Fri: Borgeous. Sat: DJ Politik.

Panama 66, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Wed: Gilbert Castellanos. Sat: Sue Palmer. Sun: ‘Sundays in the Park’.

Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Fri: Direct. Sat: Zoofunktion. Tue: Future.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: DJs Kiki, Kinky Loops. Thu: DJs KSwift, Kiki. Fri: DJs John Joseph, Moody Rudy. Sat: DJs K-Swift, Taj. Sun: DJs Hektik, Casey Alva.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz’ w/ Jason Hanna. Thu: Brennan Orndorff. Fri: Rip Carson. Sat: Ginger Cowgirl.

Rosie O’gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Nor-

mal Heights. Fri: Heymarket Squares.

Sat: Reina Mystique and the Dynasty.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave., North Park. Wed: Miss Erika Davies and the Men. Thu: ‘Anniversary Party’ w/ Jimmy Ruelas. Fri: Finnegan Blue. Sat: Jimmy Ruelas. Mon: ‘Makossa Monday’ w/ DJ Tah Rei. Tue: Trio Gadjo.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Sweet Crude, JARA, Sempra Sol. Thu: Hot Flash Heat Wave, Inner Wave, Lightning Cola, DJ Andrew McGranahan. Fri: Aldous Harding, Midnight Sister. Sat: Peter Bradley Adams, Anna Tivel. Sun: Golden Animals, San Pedro El Cortez, Dream Joints, DJ Daily Vacation.

Mon: Ron Gallo, White Reaper, Naked Giants. Tue: Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Gloomsday, Spooky Cigarette.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway.

Fri: Opt Out, Shotgun Leslie, Sitting On Stacy, Buddha Trixie, Junkyard Pharaohs, Alex Lievanos. Sat: DG, Tyler Chase, Garrett Lewis, Ethan Uno.

SMD, Systematic Abuse, Pathetic Society. Sat: Calles, War Fever, Bastardsect, New Crimes. Sun: The Cry, Dead on the Wire, Ignorados Comediantes, The Dodges.

SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Thu: ‘Slappers Only’.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park.

Wed: ‘Retrograde’ w/ DJ JC Harris. Thu: ‘Cure Night’ w/ DJ Jon Blaj. Fri: The Kabbs, Creepseed, Pretty Vacant. Sat: ‘Booty Bassment’. Sun: ‘Not Dead Yet’ w/ DJs Andres, Boogieman. Mon: ‘Electric Relaxation’.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., Midtown. Fri: Dance Spirit. Sat: ‘Eden After Party’.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Thu: Mojo Jackson. Sun: Corey Leal, Shane Shipley.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Fri: ‘Rollin’ wit tha Funk’. Sat: Bedpost Buzzard, Inciting Riots, Black Levve, The Yucks. Sun: ‘Pants Karaoke’.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: Verbal Abuse, Diatribe,

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Wed: King Schascha, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Jefferson Jay and Twin Fins. Fri: Kaminanda, Knowa Luzion, Kompozart. Sun: Earl Thomas Band.

Mon: Electric Waste Band.

The Field Irish Pub, 544 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Shoeless. Fri: The Upshots.

Sat: Clint Westwood. Sun: Fiore. Mon: Vic Moraga. Tue: BJ Jezbera.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown. Fri: DJ Dynamiq. Sat: DJ Vision.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Fri: Beatnick. Sat: Reflex. Tue: Migos.

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

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

Tue: ‘50s/60s Dance Party’.

Hoffer’s Cigar Bar, 8282 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. Sat: Eric French.

The Holding Company, 5046 Newport Ave., Ocean Beach. Wed: Quantum Beings of the Miraculous. Thu: Warren G, DJ Mancat, Bandcat, Ofier, Oren, Nick Gray, DJ OMZ. Fri: Aaron Markland, Skyler Lutes, No King, DJ Mancat. Sat: DJ Mancat, QUEL BORDEL, DJ OMZ, Ofier, A Perfect Tool.

Sun: Punk Yacht Club, PRVLGS, Scrap Yard Aces, Donna Larsen, Skyler Lutes, Shoeless, Electric Elm. Tue: Zaboomba.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Groves, La Bouquet, Plane Without a Pilot, Field Medic. Thu: The Revolution. Sat: The Cured, Planet Earth. Tue: Streetlight Manifesto, Jenny Owen Youngs.

Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: 52nd St. Thu: Kim Jackson. Fri: Detroit Underground. Sat: Full Strength Funk Band.

Sun: B.I.G. Mon: Mercedes Moore. Tue: Michele Lundeen.

The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., North Park.

Wed: Girlpool, Snailmail.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Thu: Bass Mechanic. Fri: ‘Archetype’. Sat: ‘Rollin’ Dirty’. Sun: ‘Ritual’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., Kensington. Fri: Giant Surprise, Iris Jupiter, Runs Deep.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Sat: Ben Allen, Bad and the Ugly.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Wed: Sourvein, Deep Sea Thunder Beast, Gorm. Thu: Anger As Art, Zafakon, Malison, Eukaryst. Fri: ‘DLOD House Party’. Sat: Taken By Canadians, Creature and the Woods, The Bad Vibes. Sun: ‘Back Alley’. Tue: The Serotonin Experiment, The BeatJackers, Of Ennui.

Mother’s Saloon, 2228 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Fri: The Big Decisions. Sun: Skyler Lutes.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy. Thu: El Fantasma. Fri: The Mowgli’s. Sat: Galactic, Con Brio.

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

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

Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Fri: ‘After Hours’. Sat: ‘Strictly Business’. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’. Tue: ‘Trapped’.

@SDCITYBEAT

JUNE 21, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 29

LAST WORDS | ADVICE

AMY ALKON

ADVICE

GODDESS The Great Wall Of Vagina

Falling In Leave

My girlfriend of two years had me help her download photos from her phone, and I found about two dozen close-ups of her private parts.

She said she was “just curious.” Well, okay, but why not use a mirror? Besides, she’s in her 30s.

Surely, she knows what her parts look like without a photo shoot. Do you think she took these to send to another guy?

—Disturbed

My relationship ended recently, and I asked my ex not to contact me. But just as I’d start feeling a little less sad, I’d hear from him and fall apart.

I’ve now blocked him on my phone and social media. This seems so immature. Why can’t I be more grown up about this?

—Incommunicado

Men aren’t used to women being preoccupied with their girlparts. Even in Redneckville, you never see a woman hanging a rubber replica of hers off the back of her pickup.

The truth is, not all women went for a look-see down there with a hand mirror at age 14. Recently, some women may have gotten inspired to do some cameraphone sightseeing thanks to the increased visibility of the ladygarden via free internet porn, the mainstreaming of the waxed-bald vulva and giant ads for labiaplasty (aka a face-lift for your vagina).

Though it’s possible that your girlfriend is texting these to other guys, consider what anthropologist Donald Symons calls the human tendency “to imagine that other minds are much like our own.” This can lead us to forget about biological sex differences, like how men, who are in no danger of getting pregnant from sex, evolved to be the less sexually discriminating half of humanity. Note that women don’t have to text photos of their naked bits to get sex; they just need to text their address and tell the guy not to dawdle.

It’s hard for many people to tell whether another person is lying, especially when they’re invested in believing otherwise. Borrowing from research methodology, a way to figure out whether a lone ambiguous event might be meaningful—like whether the panty hamster pictorial might mean what you dread it does—is to see how much company it has. (In other words, is it part of a pattern?)

Look back on your girlfriend’s behavior over your two years together. Does she act ethically—even when she thinks nobody’s looking? Does it, in fact, mean something to her to do the right thing? Being honest with yourself about whether she has a pattern of ethical corner-cutting will allow you to make the best (that is, most informed) guess about whether you have something to worry about—beyond coming home to a, um, new addition to the framed photos of her parents’ anniversary and your nephew with his Little League trophy.

For you, breaking up but staying in contact makes a lot of sense—about the same sort as trying to drop 20 pounds while working as a frosting taster.

Sure, there’s this notion that you “should” be able to be friends with your ex. Some people can be—eventually or even right away—especially if they had a relationship that just fizzled out instead of the kind where you need a rowboat to make it to the kitchen through the river of your tears.

However—not surprisingly— clinical psychologists David Sbarra and Robert Emery find that “contact with one’s former partner … can stall the emotional adjustment process” by reactivating both love and painful emotions. For example, in their survey of people who’d recently gone through a breakup, “on days when participants reported having telephone or inperson contact with their former partner, they also reported more love and sadness.”

It might help you to understand how adjusting to the new “no more him” thing works. In a serious relationship, your partner becomes a sort of emotional support animal—the one you always turn to for affection, attention and comforting. This habit of turning toward him gets written into your brain on a neural level, becoming increasingly automatic over time.

Post-breakup, you turn and—oops—there’s no boo, only a faint dent in his side of the bed. Your job in healing is to get used to this change—which you don’t do by having him keep popping up, messing with your new belief that he’s no longer available for emotional need-meeting.

That’s why, in a situation like yours, breaking up with your boyfriend should work like breaking up with your couch. When the thing gets dropped off at the city dump, it stays there; you don’t come out on your porch the next morning to it saying, “Hey, babe…was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d bring over some of your stuff—36 cents, a pen cap and this hair elastic.”

Note that women don’t have to text photos of their naked bits to get sex; they just need to text their address and tell the guy not to dawdle.

30 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JUNE 21, 2017

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

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

@SDCITYBEAT

@SDCityBeat

june 21, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

32 · San Diego CityBeat · June 21, 2017

@SDCityBeat