San Diego CityBeat • July 5, 2017

UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

Clenched fist of truth

C

ity Council proclamations are rarely controversial, but when locals caught wind that the council had signed a proclamation to declare May 6 “San Diego County Gun Owners Day,” the council had to pull the proclamation in order to hear public discussion and vote on it. On June 13, the council heard about 15 minutes worth of public testimony against the proclamation, many of whom thought that such a day was in poor taste, given that it came mere days after the recent UTC shooting.

Ultimately, Councilmember Barbara Bry decided to vote against the proclamation.

Fellow Dems Georgette Gomez and David Alvarez, the latter of whom once called on federal and state lawmakers to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, said they would support the proclamation because it is merely a “ceremonial item.” In the end, the motion passed and “San Diego County Gun Owners Day” was officially official.

The very next day, James Hodgkinson opened fire on a group of Republican members of Congress while they were practicing for a softball game in Alexandria, Virginia.

I’ve struggled a long time with my feelings about guns. I’d consider myself to be a liberal, but a liberal that also happens to have been raised by two Republicans, one of whom was a proud hunter and gun owner. I understand the logic and need for more responsible gun laws, but I do stop short of supporting certain

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bans and arbitrary laws that will ultimately be struck down as long as the Second Amendment is on the books.

One of my fondest CityBeat memories was working late one night with former staff writer Dave Maass. I was the arts and music editor at the time, and Dave’s desk was across from mine. So this one night, I was going through a huge pile of mail and opened a package to find a promotional copy of Ted Nugent’s new cookbook, Kill It & Grill It. Always quick with a quip, Dave naturally said something sarcastic before launching into a rant about the evils of guns. I was silent for a bit (strange for anyone who knows me) before I decided to just come out with it.

“I own a gun,” I said.

He made a face that looked like what I imagine a child’s face looks like just after they’re told that Santa isn’t real (sorry if there are any kids reading this, but really though, why would they be?).

I’ve stood firm in my support of responsible gun ownership for years, but sometimes, something happens that makes you rethink everything. Think Sandy Hook. Think Aurora.

Think Columbine. Think Orlando. Think San Bernadino. Hell, think Santana High School.

Then it came in the form of the reprehensible, ignorant, jingoistic and downright dangerous ad that the National Rifle Association originally posted in April, but only recently got attention in the mainstream media. In it, conservative media personality Dana Loesch basically invites anyone with a gun and a penchant for right-wing policies to

run out and shoot anyone who dares protest against things like homophobia, xenophobia and racism. Oh, and those “protestors” also include Hollywood actors, President Obama and, naturally, the media.

“The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom is to fight this violence of lies with a clenched fist of truth,” says Loesch in the ad.

When America’s longest-serving defender of the Second Amendment comes out and calls for their members to “fight” kids in the

streets protesting police violence, then, I’m sorry, they’ve lost me.

And while I also initially agreed with the majority of the City Council that a “San Diego County Gun Owners Day” was largely ceremonial, I now find myself agreeing with councilmembers Bry and Chris Ward, who were the only members to oppose it. After all, the only way to fight the gun lobby’s violence of lies is with a clenched fist of truth, ceremonial or otherwise.

—Seth Combs

This issue is dedicated to Marlowe, one of the coolest terriers to ever grace the CityBeat offices.

Volume 15 • Issue 47 EDITOR Seth Combs MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos ASSOCIATE EDITOR Torrey Bailey STAFF WRITER Jamie Ballard COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, Minda Honey, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza CONTRIBUTORS Christin Bailey, David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Andrew Dyer, Rachel Michelle Fernandes, Tiffany Fox, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Lizz Huerta, Lara McCaffrey, Scott McDonald, Kinsee Morlan, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon,

CONTRIBUTORS (CONT’D) Jen Van Tieghem, Amy Wallen, Ian Ward EDITORIAL INTERNS Victoria Davis, Vitta Oliveri PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse DISPLAY ADVERTISING MANAGER Massey Pitts DIGITAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Megan Kennedy MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Beau Odom, Mark Schreiber, Jenny Tormey CONTROLLER Kacie Cobian

HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE Kacie Sturek VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS David Comden PUBLISHER Kevin Hellman

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San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2017.

JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

SAN DIEGO IS A SPORTS TOWN Just because we are smart enough to know when we are getting ripped off (Spanos-Chargers and Spanos-lite Minor league soccer) does not mean we aren’t a sports town [“San Diego is not a sports town,” June 21]. SDSU built its basketball arena and a practice facility and sells out 12,414 nearly every game. They outdraw USC & UCLA combined!

Voters paid for Petco Park and while the team has struggled, the park was named best in MLB by USA Today and they draw quite well. We are sports fans, not sports lemmings. Give us a fair deal, and we will vote for it. Wonder if you consider the Bay Area a sports town... each of their five major sports teams has won MULTIPLE championships (no minor league soccer) and the voters told the A’s, Giants, Raiders and 49ers to pound sand when they wanted absurd public subsidies.

PacBell/ATT was privately financed and is at least the equal of PETCO. Raiders went to Vegas...oh well.

Craig Nelson

via sdcitybeat.com

BUT REALLY, SAN DIEGO IS NOT A SPORTS TOWN, WE’RE A SMART TOWN

I would agree. Sports is a business that is out to make a profit, well and good. The problem comes when sports teams want public money to finance their business. Public money is a scarce resource. When a city like San Diego that has failing schools, lousy roads, a huge pension debt, environmental needs that are not being met, and many other issues is asked to pump large amounts of public money into a for-profit business, the citizens are most likely to say “NO.” You want to build a stadium in San Diego? Great! Finance it yourself just like any other for-profit business has to do with their start up costs. If decisions like this means that San Diego is not a sports town, I would agree. It means that we are a smart town. We look after our own before we finance a palace for billionaires.

4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

Bruce Higgins via sdcitybeat.com

OF THE WEEK

UP FRONT From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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

News: Solar Panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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

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

3 4 6 7 8

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

THINGS TO DO This week’s pothole comes from Erik Johnson, who sent us this rather clever picture of a toy cop car in a pothole near his home. “In Linda Vista, our potholes have potholes,” says Johnson. It does indeed appear as if the pothole—located near the intersection of Eastman and Fulton streets, not far from where a new skate park is being built—is growing another pothole inside the original, with yet another spawning out of that one. It almost resembles some kind of archaeological excavation. “I came upon it when these two tiny cops had gotten their cruiser stuck in this pothole,” jokes Johnson. Let’s a hope a real police cruiser doesn’t meet the same fate once the pothole’s babies start having babies of their own.

Have a pothole in your neighborhood or on your commute that has you fuming and your suspension screaming uncle?

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

The Short List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-13

ARTS & CULTURE Nightlife: About Last Night. . . . . . . . . . . 13 Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 FEATURE: Del Mar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-19 Seen Local. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-22

MUSIC FEATURE: Mutoid Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Notes from the Smoking Patio. . . . . . . 24 If I Were U. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Concerts & Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-29

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

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july 5, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

UP FRONT | NEWS

Powering up

GRID Alternatives brings a nonprofit mindset to affordable solar energy

By Jamie Ballard

W

riter and activist Jan Phillips said she has always been environmentally conscious, so it was disappointing when she was rejected by three different solar companies in her pursuit to have panels installed on her home.

“Each of those solar companies said ‘it’s not worth it financially for you,’” Phillips said. “I consciously don’t use a lot of electricity, meaning my electric bills were already low... I wanted them to understand that it’s not always about the money. It’s about making good choices for the earth.”

GRID Alternatives is a nonprofit which installs free solar panels for low-to-moderate-income houses, to provide sustainable energy and lower energy costs. Residents who qualify for the program don’t pay for the panels or for the installation cost.

After being rejected by the three

for-profit solar companies, Phillips eventually discovered GRID Alternatives and was able to have the coveted solar panels installed at her home.

“I’m amping up my game,” the 68-year-old said. “This political administration has me worried. I think there are some ruthless decisions being made about the environment that have to do with profit. So I’m making sure I do what I can.”

Whether customers are motivated by money or environmental impact (or both), residents and businesses in California have made the state a key player in the solar market. Last year, 13 percent of the state’s electricity came from solar energy, more than any other state, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Solar energy costs far less than conventional energy, sometimes by hundreds of dollars a month. But the challenge is often affording the panels in the first place.

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

San Diego in particular has made it a point to promote solar energy solutions. The city’s Climate Action Plan includes the goal of having San Diego become 100 percent reliant on renewable energy, including solar power, by 2035.

The city also was recently ranked number one for solar energy capacity nationwide by the Environment California Research and Policy Center. Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate from the organization, noted that the city has a good deal of untapped solar potential. ��������������������������� But solar energy may be experiencing some growing pains in California.

A report from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association forecasts a 10 percent drop in the number of gigawatts being added to the state’s solar grid this year, compared to 2016.

In ������������������ San Diego, the Climate ����������� Action Plan has been met with some criticism from advocates who say the mayor’s office should have devoted more than $200,000 from last year’s budget toward public renewable energy research.

And while San Diego Gas & Electric previously offered rebates for customers switching to solar, it no longer does as “rebates have been exhausted and the program is

Jan Phillips closed,” according to the California Solar Initiative.

While installations may be slowing down as some of the benefits fade away, solar energy is still an attractive option, if still an implausible one for many people.

While prices vary, the cost of installation in San Diego is around $10,000, making solar energy unattainable for most low-income families—the demographic that perhaps most needs a cost-effective energy solution.

“In a city as sunny as ours, it seems like such a ridiculous waste to not be harvesting the sun and solar power,” Phillips said.

Phillips’ home is one of about 100 houses that GRID Alternatives will provide free solar panels for this year in San Diego. The panels on her home cut her energy costs in half, from around $180 a month to about $90.

Many of the people who have solar panels installed by GRID Alternatives or other nonprofit solar companies are people in near-dire financial straits, for whom $100 a month could make a huge difference.

The amount of money people typically pay for traditional electricity varies, but a 2016 report from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy found that low-income houses pay nearly twice as much proportionally for energy as their middle-income peers. �������������������������������� This isn’t only due to lower incomes altogether, the report concludes, but also because of inefficiencies in the home: older devices and systems, poor insulation, leaky roofs or inadequate air sealing, for example. ������������������������������ Thanks to these and other factors, an average household in the U.S. devotes about 3.5 percent of its monthly income to energy costs, while a low-income house devotes 7.2 percent.

GRID ��������������������������� Alternatives’ Development & Communications Officer Emma Higgins said she often meets clients who are paying around $400

per month for electricity.

“That kind of energy bill can be a real burden for some folks, it can mean they could face foreclosure, or they’re having to borrow money or charge credit cards to make those payments,” she said.

Those high costs which can unduly burden an already struggling demographic is partially what inspired founders Erica Mackie and Tim Sears to begin GRID Alternatives in 2001.

They both came from commercial electrical engineering backgrounds, but had always wanted to find a way to make sustainable energy solutions available to a wider demographic, Higgins said. ������������������������������ For the first few years, progress was slow. They did only two installations in their first year, and it wasn’t until 2007 that the company received a series of grants as part of an environmental justice settlement and was able to flourish. The company has opened branches around the country and now installs about 1,600 systems every year.

GRID Alternatives is one of several nonprofit solar companies focused on making renewable energy more accessible to low-income families.

New Vision Renewable Energy has a similar initiative to provide low-income families in West Virginia with solar power, and the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) promotes the same type of program in the midwestern U.S. as well as Liberia.

GRID Alternatives also offers workforce programs to train lowincome or otherwise disadvantaged individuals for solar energy careers, which the Environmental Defense Fund reports are growing 12 times faster than the U.S. economy.

Phillips said she’s pleased to be a part of the contingent using solar power.

“I’m happy to be doing the right thing. There’s not a lot we can do, but this is one thing that helps.”

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UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

Learning not to be cold

“Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”

I

—Kahlil Gibran

t’s four o’clock in the morning and I’m laying in the wind tunnel that is my daughter’s room, my hair whipping around my face and my fingers stiff with cold. I’m reminded of the ‘80s commercial for Maxell High Fidelity cassette tapes, a sound so powerful that it blows back the mullet—and a tie and lamp shade and glass of wine on a side table—of a man seated in a black leather chair. I am that guy right now, only where he’s cool, I’m stone cold. Literally.

Ruby, the ladychild who is mine and yet utterly her own, sleeps with a fan set on high blasting directly at her bed. She likes it frosty in there, my kid, and dare I say the white noise is not nothing to a child with fears.

Each night as part of her bedtime ritual, Ruby drags the fan from her closet, swivels it backand-forth until it’s positioned precisely where she wants it, and then turns it to 11. She then ties her sleeping cap at the nape of her beautiful neck and burrows her entire self under all the bedding so she can’t feel so much as a whisper of her manufactured arctic tundra.

Which raises the question: What’s the point?

Seems like she could just set the fan on low and sleep with a sheet like her dad and I do. But what do I know?

Not much, it turns out (my pre-teen reminds me of this in nearly every conversation these days, sometimes tossing in an eye roll that I thought was the cutest thing when she first did it around age three). I do know that I’m over here on the less-windy side of Bed Island, just outside the direct path of the gale forces, and nevertheless am getting all kinds of windburn because over the course of the last few weeks, Ruby has called out for me in the night. The kid, who was a baby just a few minutes ago but is now on her 13th trip around the sun, still needs her mama. And despite being a know-nothing, I go to her.

Immediately. I go because a.) her childhood is waning; b.) this is basically the only way I am allowed

to get physically close to her; c.) I love and adore her, and; d.) I’m trying my super hardest to be a good mom—the best mom—even though I often fall short and simply don’t know what the hell I’m doing.

I really don’t know what I’m doing. If it weren’t for Frances Jensen’s life-altering book The Teenage Brain, the wheels would be coming off. As hard as it seemed at the time, the toddler and grade-school years were so much easier.

Back in the wind tunnel, I warm my legs with my child’s as she’s twisted them around mine, her body that of an adult now. I’m reflecting on the prior 12 years that have delivered me to this daunting moment of what it means to be parenting an almost-teen and then teen, the two nearly indistinguishable for now.

I recall with no small amount of sentiment the Snack Traps and trips to the zoo and picnics in the park. I can touchback easily to blowing raspberries on my baby’s stomach, her unrestrained happiness at the sight of bubbles, her glee of playing “This Little Piggy” over and over again.

There were the skinned knees I could bandage and kiss better, and the sweet yet inconsolable anguish at that first lost balloon floating toward the clouds.

It’s sort of how I feel now: My child is that balloon, floating away from my reach, soaring against the blue and into her own atmosphere. Not to be lost forever, but certainly moving solidly into her own orbit.

Maybe I’m just trippin’. Being overly sentimental. Because the truth isn’t a Pottery Barn catalog. I was also exhausted— and not infrequently exasperated—during those early years.

All of my back problems began when Ruby was a baby, lifting her in and out of the car for years, and wearing that stupid Baby Bjorn. Are those even still a thing? The many sleepless nights— chronicled here to some degree of hilarity—about broke my spirit, and the school battles have nearly put me in a straitjacket.

In my darker, least proud moments, I’ve lost my temper and succumbed to yelling at the child with few-to-no defenses. Despite my best efforts and intentions, I at times fell into patterns I learned from my mother, and she from hers, and she from hers, and so on, and so on.

I constantly work on being better, on doing better, on fortifying myself for what is coming. The blast of cold air on my face is keeping me awake. I feel like I’m in training and learning how to be cool under pressure.

My child is that balloon, floating away from my reach, soaring against the blue and into her own atmosphere.

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Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week.

Write to aarynb@sdcitybeat.com.

JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

I considered buying a $600 rock at the Gem Faire

B

efore attending the Gem Faire [sic?] in Mission Valley, I do some half-assed research on the properties of gemstones. On one hand, rocks are dope. Crystals are dope! Who doesn’t want to see some dope crystals?

On the other hand, I’m about the most skeptical person when it comes to mystical bullshit. With so much pseudo-science and anti-intellectualism propagating our culture, it almost seems irresponsible to give any credence to anything that’s not hard science.

This is also my attitude toward astrology, but as a Libra, I also don’t want my opinions to come off as too aggressive.

I find a site that lists nine of the most common gemstones and their healing abilities. I get the impression that quartz crystal is a beginner stone, and make a mental note to stay away from that. Imagine the embarrassment of strolling into the faire [sic?] and looking like a complete gem noob!

But rose quartz—now that’s a stone. According to the web, the properties of these pretty, pink gems include dispelling negativity and creating a calm atmosphere, making it the hella chillest stone of them all, bruhs. It also says these stones are commonly used as apology gifts, and since I live in a constant state of apologizing, they’re perfect.

There’s an 18-wheeler parked in front of the Scottish Rite event center in Mission Valley, displaying a banner that reads “GEM FAIRE [sic] THIS WEEKEND ONLY.” Surely it takes all the willpower of everyone driving past on Interstate 8 to not turn off the road, crash through the fence and scramble over each other to get to those sweet, sweet gems.

The parking lot is a madhouse—I’ve never seen so many people at the event center. Perhaps I was wrong about people violently driving their cars off the highway, but the fervor is there nonetheless. I have to park in the over-overflow lot.

I meet up with my friend and former CityBeat associate editor Kelly Davis, who serves as my gem faire [sic] guide. She’s in the market for materials to fix some jewelry, but the first room we enter is dedicated to beads, and, as we all know, it’s easy to lose all sense of purpose and time when confronted with a shitload of beads. There are beads of every shape and color, plus miniature figurine beads. And because both Kelly and I are rabid cat people, it soon becomes a game to see who can find the cutest cat-shaped bead.

One room flows into the other, and bead world gives way to rock town. There’s a disorienting—almost insidious—sameness to each room, making it

feel slightly like a hall of mirrors. I can see how it’s easy to get worn down and beguiled into buying something. Due to my unfortunate track record of getting caught up in fads (see: Pokemon GO, fidget spinners and pumpkin spice lattes), my wife had warned me not to bring my wallet to the gem faire [sic?]. Of course, I didn’t listen because c’mon, give me a little credit. Still, heeding her warning becomes increasingly difficult with room after room of sexy stones, even though I wouldn’t know what to do with them in the first place.

I strike up a conversation with a man working behind a glass case displaying an assortment of stones that look like miniature Fortress of Solitude crystals from the old Superman movies.

“So, um,” I say hesitating, “What... are… these… for?”

“Excuse me?” the man says.

“What do people do with these? Who are these for?” And then (probably insulting his profession) I add: “Like, are they paperweights?”

“People collect them. They have value,” he says. I ask him if he’s into mystical or healing properties of gems, to which he says no.

I move onto another booth and see a magnificent rose quartz carved into the shape of a skull. Hello, beautiful! I pick it up and the weight feels powerful. I could definitely wreck up some shit Libra-style with this thing.

“How much does this go for?”

I ask, reaching for my wallet.

“I can sell you that for $600,” the man says.

I actually laugh out loud.

Six-hundos? For a rock?! I put it down. I notice the booth is a company located in Mountain View, and ask the man about it. “Oh yeah, I can practically see Google from my house.”

“Oh really?” I ask. “Are these popular with Google employees?”

“No.” I catch up with Kelly and ask if I can borrow $600 for the rose quartz skull. She says no. Some friend.

I quickly get my fill of the faire [¯\_( )_/¯], but Kelly wants to continue browsing. On my way home, she texts me a picture of a box of pearl-colored fish stones with a handwritten sign that reads: “Genuine Mother of Pearl Fetish—$1 each or pc. for $5.” Neither of us can tell if the word “fetish” is intentional. Honestly, it makes me a little uncomfortable (probably the Libra acting out). If only I had that rose quartz skull to soothe the discomfort.

It also says these stones are commonly used as apology gifts, and since I live in a constant state of apologizing, they’re perfect.

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

all items aren’t available everyday. The real menu is the guisados and grilled items Ley says are available (usually in choice of taco, burrito or torta form).

Carne asada tortas (Mexican sandwiches) are usually available, but why have that when there are tortas of beef short rib braised with guajillo chiles for the asking? They’re savory, deeply flavored and Think outside the ‘berto’s as comforting as if mom—or abuelita—slaved over t’s a running joke told when someone suggests them for hours. And that’s exactly Corazon de Torgoing out for take-out tacos: “Roberto’s, Rigo- ta’s concept.

The best items tend to be those you tend not berto’s, Adalbertos? Which ‘bertos?”

And it’s not all in the name: they all seem to to see elsewhere like, for example, the doraditos de have the same menu. Corazon de Torta (2490 chicken birria. They’re tacos deep fried to golden Commercial Street, Sherman Heights), on the other brown (hence the name) and stuffed with chicken hand, does not. It’s not a ‘berto’s and doesn’t have a stewed in sweet spices, vinegar and chiles (likely guajillos and anchos). They’re crunchy and play ‘berto’s menu. It is far, far better than that. with flavors more commonly asMICHAEL GARDINER sociated with red meats such as beef and goat but done in the key of chicken.

Not every dish at Corazon de Torta is spot on. While the overall flavor profile of the albondiga torta en chipotle—basically a Mexican meatball sub—was good, the execution of the meatballs themselves was less so. The chipotle sauce was both smoky and spicy with a hint of sweetness, but the meatballs fell asleep on the job.

Instead of juicy and tender meatballs, these were dry.

A much better choice is the vegan option: grilled cauliflower tacos with mole. Vegetables and mole are Torta de Albondigas en chipotle not an intuitively obvious combination, and that is precisely what Instead of gut-busting burritos, rolled tacos, makes this dish such a wonderful surprise. The quesadillas and chimichangas—which, frankly, have fresh cabbage-like flavors of the cauliflower cononly a passing similarity to cuisine found south of trasts with the depth of the mole and the caramelthe border—Corazon de Torta offers the guisados ization of the vegetables both parallels the mole’s and grilled fare Mexican moms and grandmas tra- inherent sweetness and brings the taco together.

It may be that vegan option that highlights ditionally make from what’s on hand on a given day. Go to a tacos de guisados stand in Mexico and what Corazon de Torta is not: another ‘bertos. It’s there’ll be six heater trays filled with various stews a glimpse into a side of Mexican food—even antoand braises to choose from. That is the entire menu. jitos—that we don’t see on nearly every San Diego It’s largely the same at Corazon de Torta, which street corner. It’s the food your mother would have is co-owned by Antonio Ley (Anthony Bourdain’s made if she was Mexican and the stuff you probably “fixer” for his Baja episode) and Jose Rodrigo grew up with if she was.

Figueroa Sanchez (chef of the La Carmelita food truck at Tijuana’s remarkable Telefónica Gastro The World Fare appears weekly.

Park). There’s a handwritten white board menu, but Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

FARE I

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JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | DRINK

ANATOMY OF A

BY IAN WARD

COCKTAIL SCENE #9: Summer breezes at Wheat and Water

H

onestly, as a person who has made his career as a somewhat forward-thinking bartender, I have to confess that I have never truly been sold on the idea that cocktails and food, in general, pair well together. Beer, wine and spirits are all perfectly suitable dinner companions. Cocktails, on the other hand, often tend to muddy the whole thing up.

Maybe this is because I am somewhat of a purist. On a hot, sweaty, summer day, I seek out a cold bowl of Vichyssoise and a glass of Chablis, or a crisp papaya salad with a chilled Riesling. On a cold winter evening, it’s hot decadent cassoulet and calvados that I crave. In between, it’s burgers and beer or oysters and rosé. Rarely does a cocktail and food pairing come in to the picture.

I am not saying that there are no modern classic pairings that work incredibly well together. Tacos and margaritas, for example, are perfect bedfellows.

As is a dry aged porterhouse and a rye manhattan.

But outside of those norms, though, it always seems like a bit of a stretch.

When I was handed a cocktail menu at Wheat and Water (5737 La Jolla Blvd.) I was dismissive.

Again, knowing that I was certainly going to eat pizza, it made no sense perusing the cocktail menu, since I was most likely going to order beer. After all, what maniac drinks cocktails with pizza? No judgment, but… pizza and beer are as close to a modern classic pairing as you can get. They are both made from yeast… Wheat and water, right? It’s the name of the restaurant!

However, one cocktail kept jumping off of the page, for some reason: The Summer Solstice, a combination of mezcal, orgeat, lime and kumquat.

Maybe it was the heavy, hot summer night that had something in me calling out for a citrusy and refreshing beverage. Perhaps it was the open-air

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

space, with the smell of the ocean, pulling me toward something with agave and Orgeat. Whatever the causality, I succumbed.

The pizza and the cocktail arrived at about the same time, both aromatic, aesthetically pleasing and begging to be consumed. I IAN WARD expected to be happy, but I did not expect to be surprisingly ecstatic at how well the pizza (summer squash pie) and the roasted zucchini paired with the cocktail. The Orgeat and mezcal playfully bounced off of the herby hints of the dish’s mint leaves. The lime from the cocktail almost seemed necessary to balance out the heaviness from the béchamel and the mozzarella.

I had known going in that one of Wheat and Water’s ownSummer Solstice ers had previously come from URBN, one of the only places that I have been to where the emphasis on the cocktails is as stated as the pizza. So it should have come as no surprise that Wheat and Water would have a great bar program. What did surprise me, however, was how totally wrong I was about not pairing cocktails with pizza earlier.

Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene appears every other week. Write to ianw@sdcitybeat.com

SUMMER SOLSTICE As found at Wheat and Water 1 1/2 oz. Tequila Blanco 1 oz. Re:Find Kumquat liqueur 1/4 oz. Licor 43 1/4 oz. orgeat 3/4 oz. lime juice Combine, shake and double strain into a coupe glass. Float with Kemo Sabe Joven Mezcal and garnish with a pickled kumquat.

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UP FRONT | DRINK

FINAL

BY BETH DEMMON

DRAUGHT

In Mother Russia, imperial stouts drink you

meets-dark-chocolate aroma that starkly contrasts the hoppier brews they tend to be known for.

Lightweights, haters and losers need not attempt Rip Current Brewing’s Rescue Buoy (11.2 percent ussia’s influence isn’t just limited to hacking ABV), an intoxicating take on the style with a toasty elections. Russian imperial stouts are one of molasses finish. Stone Brewing’s simply named the most complex and (dare I say it?) bigly Russian Imperial Stout (10.8 percent ABV) is as styles in beer. They tend to be somewhat fluid in synonymous to the style as one could expect from definition when it comes to strict style guidelines, the irreverent bunch up north, and New English but generally boast a yuuuge alcohol content that Brewing’s Zumbar (9.3 percent ABV) remains a ranges between 8 and 18 percent ABV. Most fall in velvety, malty approach that earned a gold medal the 10 to 12 percent ABV range and thickly pour at the Great American Beer Festival in years past. like the great, great oil we’re Somewhat newer to the BETH DEMMON tapping here in America. scene is Bitter Brothers’ Developed in the 18th Little Sister, a bourbon barrelcentury, Russian imperial aged 11 percent ABV available stouts’ popularity hasn’t in bottles. It's the color of diminished and likely won’t the coal that's definitely anytime soon—especially now going to save our country’s that we live in a country where economy. Vista’s Mother it’s totally chill to be best Earth Brew Company’s friends with a misogynistic cheeky “Quit Stalin” barrelauthoritarian. Still, that’s not aged Russian imperial stout is terrible news for beer drinkers.

10.5 percent ABV and avoids Old Rasputin from North the overly sweet finish that Coast Brewing Company in plagues a few others with a Fort Bragg, California remains smoky, smooth mouthfeel. arguably the best-known At 9 percent ABV, Burning representation of the style, Beard Brewing Company’s but locally there are plenty dystopian INGSOC imperial of options with which to pay stout packs a roasty wallop homage to our soon-to-be for unsuspecting proletariats. overlords.

There are still even more Bottlecraft North Park’s Karl Strauss Brewing seasonal iterations to seek selection of stouts Company’s Wreck Alley (9 out from Port Brewing (Sanpercent ABV) is available ta’s Little Helper, 10.5 percent ABV), Intergalactic year-round, unlike many other iterations that tend Brewing Company (Planet Invader, 11.6 percent to be brewed during cooler months (like Hillcrest ABV) and AleSmith Brewing (Barrel-aged SpeedBrewing Company’s Long and Stout, a hearty 11 way Stout, 12 percent ABV). With so many options, percent ABV stout released each November). With San Diego stands prepared to welcome Putin’s cocoa nibs and Ethiopian coffee, it’s perfect to pair whole convoy of comrades coming to make craft with a “beautiful” chocolate cake. beer great again.

Additional year-round imperial stout releases include Mission Brewery’s 9.8 percent ABV Final Draught appears every other week. Write to Dark Seas, an award-winning variation with dark bethd@sdcitybeat.com, check her out on Instagram at fruit and coffee notes that would have made the @thedelightedbite, or via Twitter at @iheartcontent.

R

czars proud. Societe Brewing’s The Butcher (9.6 percent ABV) evokes a luscious roasted-coffee-

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JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

SHORTlist

EVENTS

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

SAN DIEGO

1 SHE-POWER SATURDAY

That Wonder Woman movie sure got us ket. Also on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m., the event excited. But just as we were all set to get will feature both boutiques selling wares from local back out there to fight the patriarchy, we found out vendors such as Casa Gitana Vintage, CrimsinClover, Georgina Trevino and more just how devastating the GOP COURTESY OF SAN DIEGO PRIDE with a portion of proceeds benhealthcare bill in the Senate (the efitting the local female homeone written entirely by old white less outreach efforts of Rachel’s males) would be for Planned ParWomen’s Center. Check out faceenthood, maternity care and conbook.com/littledameshop for traception coverage. Talk about more info. taking the wind out of our sails.

Finally, top off a great day Lucky for us and CityBeat with a visit to City Gallery (1508 readers, there’s a number of C St., AH 314) at San Diego City events on Saturday, July 8 that College for the opening recepwill get us all back in the spirit of tion of the Don’t Shut Up! exhistanding up for women’s rights. bition. Curated by the Feminist First up is the pre-Pride SheFest Image Group (fig-art.blogspot. (sdpride.org/shefest), a free, ancom) and opening from 5 to 8 nual fest dedicated to fostering p.m., the show focuses on “raisconnections between women no ing women’s voices” and will matter their sexual orientation. showcase over 20 female artIn addition to music and spokenists. The evening also includes word performances, there will be health workshops, activism SheFest a dance performance by Blythe Barton, artist discussions and a seminars and even some yoga and zumba. It happens from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at North panel that includes writer Emily Jaworski, NOW San Diego president Anne Hoiberg and CityBeat’s own Park Community Park (4044 Idaho St.).

Next up, the women-friendly Normal Heights Alex Zaragoza.

Go to one or go to all, but whatever we do, let’s boutiques Maven and Little Dame (2942 Adams Ave.) are teaming up for the Fem Block Flea Mar- keep fighting back.

LITTLE ITALY

2

SOUTH PARK

PEDALS AND PINTS

In the past, we’ve had to wait until September for the Tour de Fat to roll through town. The traveling party from New Belgium Brewing Company visits over 33 cities promoting not just good beer, but bicycling culture in general. This year’s fest will have a variety of performers, including music headliners The Naked and Famous and local rockers The Verigolds, as well as comedians, circus performers and vaudeville acts. There will also be bike-powered rides, fashion shows, dance parties and a parade.

It happens at Waterfront Park (1600 Pacific Hwy) on Saturday, July 8 from 4 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $25, but proceeds benefit nonprofits such as the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and San Diego Mountain Bike Association. For more details visit newbelgium.com.

COURTESY OF TOUR DE FAT

3

TABLE SALT

Storytelling has been the foundation and heart of every culture since the dawn of time. Well, maybe not the dawn since it’s unlikely dinosaurs ever told stories to one another, but still the movie Jurassic Park brought the dawn of time back to the silver screen. Now, Riff Comedy, in partnership with Tabled, is bringing the film’s original script to the comedian’s stage. Tabled is a sort of play series that features some of the best comedians in San Diego reading iconic screenplays in their original forms. It’s like watching it played out on a live stage, except way more entertaining. In the past, the series has read drafts from movies such as Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What’s best, it’s free! It all happens Whistle Stop Bar (2236 Fern St) from 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, July 12. riffcitycomedy.com

HWhat We Carried at the New Americans Museum, 2825 Dewey Road, Liberty Station. A new exhibit by photographer Jim Lommasson looking at the life-changing decisions made by Iraqi and Syrian refugees through examination of the objects they brought back. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 7. Free. 619-756-7707, newamericansmuseum.org HRainbow: Prismatic Series at Iron Fist Brewing, 1985 National Ave., Barrio Logan. The grand finale exhibition of the Prismatic’s 2017 series of shows. Live art from Cayce Hanalei and CJ Martinez, as well as music, workshops, DJs, illustrators and spoken word. Opening from 4 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, July 8. Free. 619-255-5818, facebook.com/events/1874428192825021 HCalifornia Connections at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. This collaborative exhibit presents art from the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s permanent collection and features works by local artists. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 8. $5-$8. 800-988-4253, artcenter.org HAnthroMorphoCene at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave, Logan Heights. A group exhibition that examines perspectives on human and animal relationships, morphing and more. Features work from Lee Lavy, Jason Sherry, Angella d’Avignon and more. Opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Free. 619-851-4083, breadandsaltsandiego.com HDon’t Shut Up! at City Gallery, 1508 C St., East Village. An event created to elevate women’s voices, hosted by Feminist Image Group. Features art from female artists, a panel discussion and artist talks.

Opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Free. 619-338-3400 sdcity.edu Frida Kahlo Art Show at La Bodega Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. Dozens of artists pay tribute to the iconic Mexican artist. There will also be a Frida lookalike contest for both adults and children. Opening from 4 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, July 8. Free. facebook.com/ events/265798803886398 HNostalgia at Thumbprint Gallery, 920 Kline St., La Jolla. A group exhibition featuring works that are culled straight from the artist’s memory. Features work from Andrew McNamara, Jacki Geary, Somaramos (she’s so cool) and dozens more.

Opening from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Free. 858-354-6294, thumbprintgallerysd.com Andreas Englund: Superlife Uncut at Distinction Gallery, 317 E Grand Ave., Escondido. Englund will display his well defined and realistic paintings. ArtHatch will also have open studios featuring other artists. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Free. 760-707-2770, distinctionart. com

BOOKS HGrant Ginder at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The acclaimed author and writer will sign and discuss his new novel, The People We Hate at the Wedding. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 6.

Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Julia Walton at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The buzzed about new novelist will sign and discuss her debut, Words on Bathroom Walls. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 7. Free. 858-4540347, warwicks.com

COMEDY DanTDM at San Diego Civic Theater, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown. The world-renowned YouTuber, known for his coverage

Tour de Fat

12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

Jurassic Park

H = CityBeat picks

of video games, presents a family-friendly show on his first ever tour. At 3 p.m. Saturday, July 8. $39-$59. 619-570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org HTabled: Jurassic Park at Whistle Stop Bar, 2236 Fern St, South Park. Riff City Comedy collaborates with Tabled to present a humorous live reading of the iconic ‘90s film about dinosaurs gone wild. From 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, July 12. Free.

619-284-6784, whistlestopbar.com

FOOD & DRINK HModern Times 4th Anniversary Jamboree at Modern Times Fortress of Raditude, 3612 Kurtz St., Midway. The anniversary party will feature a list full of craft beers and taco trucks. Tasters included with ticket. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 8. $45. 619-5469694, moderntimesbeer.com San Diego Beer and Music Festival at Liberty Station, 2751 Dewey Road, Point Loma. Rockstarbeer Productions and local breweries come together with beer and headlining bands to raise money for San Diego’s Coastal Conservation Association. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 8. $35-$50. sandiego-beerfestival.com

MUSIC Herb Alpert + Lani Hall at Embarcadero Marina Park South, 200 Marina Park Way, Downtown. The “Tijuana Taxi” trumpeter and his vocalist wife team up for a romantic, Bayside Summer Nights Special Concert by the marina. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 6. $33-$113. sandiegosymphony.org HLeslie Odom, Jr. at Embarcadero Marina Park South, 200 Marina Park Way, Downtown. The Tony Award winning star from Broadway’s Hamilton will perform some jazzy tunes. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 7 and Saturday, July 8. $25-$97. sandiegosymphony.org The San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival at Embarcadero Marina Park North, 400 Kettner Blvd, Downtown. Jazz musicians such as Eric Darius, Monty Seward and Brian Culbertson perform a variety of smooth jazz ranging from vocal-based songs to instrumentals. Various times.

Friday, July 7, Saturday, July 8 and Sunday, July 9. $65-$250. 562-424-0013, rainbowpromotions.com

PERFORMANCE Dita Von Teese’s The Art of the Teese Burlesque Revue at House of Blues San Diego, 1055 5th Ave, Downtown. The burlesque dancer and costume designer presents her live show, a re-staged performance of “Lazy” from her residency at Crazy Horse Paris this past year. From 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Thursday, July 6. $40-$105. dita.net

POLITICS & COMMUNITY SURJ SD Workshop: CA’s Racist Practice of Gang Documentation at Peace Resource Center of San Diego, 3850 Westgate Place, Fairmont Park. A discussion of the negative effects the CalGang Database and Gang Suppression Units are having on communities of color. Hosted by Standing Up for Racial Justice San Diego. From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 12. Free. 619-263-9301, facebook.com/events/316088212154838

SPECIAL EVENTS Gym Standard Takeover 2855 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. The local clothing design company takes over the monthly Boulevard Market. This summer’s Americana-themed block party will feature a classic car show,

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 @SDCITYBEAT

EVENTS | ABOUT LAST NIGHT

EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

Buzz kill

C

horus Karaoke & Bar owner Scott Na opened Hive (4428 Convoy St.) in February, advertising its 13 private karaoke rooms, arcade space, craft cocktail menu and an anticipated nightclub area. But a few months after opening, Hive still is incomplete and lacking an identity.

The self-proclaimed “megarestaurant” sits in a strip mall, as is par for the course in Kearny Mesa.

Exposed brick frames a tall doorway that leads into the 8,000 square foot former Office Depot space. Floor-toceiling bookshelves stripe the walls of the open-format restaurant.

It’s supposed to feel like a library, but arcade games and projection screens showing sports highlights disrupt the supposed theme.

booth and bottle service on the weekends.

“One thing that doesn’t exist in Convoy is real nightlife,” says Unwin. “It hasn’t existed here for a really long time, so we’re trying to be the spot for that.”

That statement rings true, but trying to be a speakeasy, luxury nightclub, multi-cultural restaurant, craft cocktail bar and karaoke destination stretches the venue too thin. This is Kearny Mesa, after all.

Not Vegas.

—Torrey Bailey

craft beer showcase and a launch ramp contest for skateboarders. From 6 to 10 p.m.

Friday, July 7. Free. theboulevard.org HSheFest 2017 at the North Park Community Park, 4044 Idaho St., North Park. A day of women-centric workshops, music, games and activities, as part of San Diego Pride. The day is centered on uniting communities, creating connections and celebrating diversity. Open to all genders.

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 8.

Free. sdpride.org/shefest HFem Block Flea Market at Little Dame Shop, 2942 Adams Ave., Normal Heights.

Local boutiques Maven and Little Dame team up for a pop-up marketplace full of local vendors selling jewelry, clothes, crafts and more. From 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Free. 925-457-1020, littledameshop.com

HTour de Fat at Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Hwy, Little Italy. The Naked and Famous headlines this annual beer and bicycling tour which also includes circus performers, vaudeville acts, magicians and comedians. From 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Free-$25. newbelgium.com Romantic Rock Pool Party at Lafayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Blvd, North Park.

Headliner Authentic Sellout will be performing at this event, which also features bikini fashion shows and a poolside marketplace.

From noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 9. $5$15. 619-296-2101, lafayettehotelsd.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS Artist Talk: Brenda Biondo at the San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. Photographer Brenda Biondo

will discuss her exhibition Brenda Biondo: Play. From 11 a.m. to noon. Saturday, July 8. Free with museum admission.

619-232-7931, sdmart.org Perspective Lecture: Baja’s Wild Side at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. A presentation of photos taken from marine biologist Dr. Daniel Cartamil’s new book which illustrates the region’s remote landscapes, wildlife and cultural treasures.

From 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 11. Free$8. 858-534-5771, aquarium.ucsd.edu

WORKSHOPS HZine Workshop: Bridging Our Stories at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., San Diego. California Latinas for Reproductive Justice hosts a workshop on reproductive rights and social justice. From 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 9. Free. 619-851-4083, breadandsaltsandiego.com

TORREY BAILEY

Hive The karaoke rooms don’t play into the design scheme either. Instead, each room is sponsored by a spirit brand, such as Cutwater, Tullamore Dew Whiskey or Buffalo Trace. And these brands have control over the decor.

“That’s the one thing that our bar manager is great at, getting the brands to work for us,” says bar comanager Ram Unwin. “He knows the system and gets them contributing for some advertising space.”

The Fireball-sponsored room is painted red and features its trademark logo. The Cutwater room has blue and white walls, a laser-cut metal brand sign, plus a few pufferfish hanging from the ceiling. The advertising also seeps out of the karaoke rooms and into the main space, meaning that aside from the bookshelves, Edison light bulbs (go figure) and a small model ship in the middle of a room, much of the décor boasts brand names. A Buffalo Trace Whiskey statue perched on a table passes as ornamentation, as does an XXL white skull from El Jimador tequila. Free advertising also undermines the sliding bookshelves that lead to Hive’s adjacent speakeasy, Honeycomb. Instead of being stacked with books, empty liquor boxes line the shelves.

Honeycomb opened the first week of May, but recently had to close for improvements and will remain shuttered for an indeterminate amount of time. Aside from being a speakeasy, it has also been marketed as Convoy’s “Vegas-style nightclub,” equipped with a DJ

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JULY 5, 2017· SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 13

THEATER JOHN HOWARD

Reeling in the years

E

verything about Big Fish is, well, big: The number of characters. The number of costume changes. The number of songs in the musical score. The climax, which packs a big emotional punch.

To some extent, Big Fish is too big for its theatrical britches, frolicking on and on long past when it probably should end. It’s an audacious affair, packing in high school cheerleaders, a giant who lives in the forest, a traveling circus, the Old West, a small-town flood, and the fraught relationship between a father and son.

Yet Big Fish—served up for audiences in multiple mediums and multiple iterations— has won over audiences. The 2013 stage musical written by John August, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, is based on the 1998 Daniel Wallace novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions and a 2003 Tim Burton movie (written by August), which was very cool. Now we get at Lamb’s Players Theatre’s leaner “12 Chairs” version of the musical, with half the size cast of the production that was mounted two years ago in Vista on Moonlight Amphitheatre’s larger stage.

Besides the wondrous costume design of Jeanne Reith (arguably the star of this show), it’s Brandon Joel Maier in the lead role of Edward Bloom who buoys this Big Fish, directed by Deborah Gilmour Smyth.

It’s Bloom’s signature songs (“Be the Hero,” “How It Ends”) soulfully rendered by Maier

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

Big Fish runs through July 30 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. $24$74; lambplayers.org

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Spring Awakening: The acclaimed musical featuring music from Duncan Sheik tells the tale of a group of teenagers discovering themselves and each other. Directed by Teri Brown, it opens July 7 at the OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. onstageplayhouse.org Women in Jeopardy!: A new comedy about two divorcees who try to get to the bottom of whether their friend is dating a murdering dentist. Written by Wendy MacLeod, it opens July 7 at the Lamplighters Community Theatre in La Mesa. lamplighterslamesa.com

Gavin Reid August (left) and Brandon Joel Maier in Big Fish that rise above what can be at times silly in this tale of how a quirky dad’s fish stories alienate then ultimately endear him to his upwardly mobile son (Michael Cusimano), an expectant father himself.

Among the cast��������������������� members playing multiple roles, John Rosen has big fun as both a solemn family doctor and as a ringmaster/ werewolf (not making that up, by the way). As

Edward Bloom’s loving wife, Sandra, Kelsey Venter is as warm as her balladry. Cusimano is just fine as the principled son, too.

Two Big Fish productions in two years is enough already for San Diego County theater audiences. It’s a good show—not a great show. Still, for a story dealing in large part with mortality, Big Fish on the stage is unashamedly and joyfully alive.

For Honor: A world premiere staged reading of Lee Sankowich’s docudrama about of the young heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during WWII. Presented as part of the Lipinsky Family Jewish Arts Festival, it happens at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla. sdcjc.org At This Evening’s Performance: The San Diego premiere of Nagle Jackson’s comedy about a theatre troupe that find themselves performing in an Eastern European police state. Directed by Andrew Barnicle, it opens July 12 at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org

For full Theater listings, visit sdcitybeat.com

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@SDCityBeat

july 5, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

TORREY BAILEY

DEL MAR

I

n 1882, the seaside village of Del Mar caught the attention of a New Yorker who was plotting railroad tracks between San Diego and Los Angeles. His wife named the city after the poem “Fight of Paso Del Mar” by Bayard Taylor. In the poem, Taylor wrote, “No sound was heard but the dashing of waves on the sandy bar, when Pablo of San Diego rode down to the Paso del Mar.” Flashforward to the 1920s and ‘30s, when Hollywood’s best consumed the North County spot’s tranquility while vacationing in hotels along current-day Camino Del Mar. This county highway now holds the city’s downtown, and its crossing with 15th Street marks the start. Here, Stratford Square’s Tudor-style architecture sits kitty-corner from the ivy-coated, high-end Del Mar Plaza where store after store retails high-end resort wear. Neighboring real estate agencies cater to a market where more than 60 percent of household incomes were greater than $100,000 in 2015, according to CityData.com. In summer, tourists and non-Del Martians infiltrate the San Diego County Fair, temporarily shaking up the city’s overwhelmingly white demographic (more than 90 percent, according to 2010 Census data). For a couple months, they gorge on obscure fried foods, and then the space clears out for Opening Day at the Del Mar Racetrack, which attracts elite horsemen, gamblers and hat-wearing socialites. The grounds overlook the coastline, which is dotted with nature trails offering a break from the scene.

16 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

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COLORFUL CHARACTERS “It’s not really a hat town other than Opening Day,” says Carol Bader, the owner and designer of Del Mar Hat Co. (1555 Camino Del Mar #313). Despite the beachside town’s cap culture, she’s made an international name for herself here. During the past 22 years, Bader has designed, hand-dyed and sold couture hats out of her shop for patrons hoping to look fab at Del Mar Racetrack’s Opening Day. She’s made enough of a name for herself that she also designs hats for the Kentucky Derby, among other notable events. “People know my look, and that’s what a designer does. A designer has a look.” Using self-blended colors, she dyes fabrics to obtain an ombré effect. This, she says, is her signature. Over the past five years, Bader says she’s had a hand in elevating the style of the Turf Club, the racetrack’s exclusive and high-priced members club. Often, she picks the right hat for the customer on her first try, she says. “This is a very personalized luxury product, and my job is to make them look good, not just to pick a black hat that they came in for.” With bolder colors, statement headpieces and standout details, Bader encourages a more contemporary look locally. “I love the Del Mar flavor. I feel I can push the envelope on some pieces here.”

—Torrey Bailey

“I understand the plight of people going out and trying to win money at the horses without knowing what anything means, what a racing form is or anything like that,” says Bruce Andrews, or Deuce Bruce as he’s known at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. He’s there to ease newcomers’ confusion with his tip sheet, the Deuce Bruce Gold Card. Since 1979, Andrews has practiced predicting longshot bets. “The first time I went it was kind of like destiny. Everything came up right, every horse that I bet on won, and so I was hooked from that point on.” In 1987, he began professionally producing tip sheets for races nationwide, but committed solely to Del Mar in 2008. Andrews and his father, Bruce Sr., sell the yellow-printed pamphlets for $3 out of a booth at the track. Inside the card, their daily picks are listed, but the day’s hot shots often aren’t named. “The key to making money is to find the upsetters that will pay good money.” It’s worked out pretty well. His picks once helped a regular customer win $25,000. But overall, Andrews says he feels accomplished if he hits the four races of the day that he’s most confident in. “It’s hard not to lose at this game, believe me.”

—Torrey Bailey

“For me, looking at birds and working for them is kind of a religion,” says Lauren Cooper, educational and outreach coordinator at Free Flight Exotic Bird Sanctuary (2132 Jimmy Durante Blvd.). “To me, it’s seeing something so splendid in nature that’s been misunderstood and let down by humans as a species.” Cooper decided to volunteer after photographing parrots at the San Diego Zoo. “Everything clicked and I said, ‘I want to work at Free Flight and just make people laugh and think twice about what they do in life.’” The sanctuary provides a space for 28 different species of exotic birds whose past homes could no longer care for them. The staff resocializes the birds, which Cooper says are emotional, chaotic and fun, but also educates visitors on the birds’ needs and plays matchmaker for potential adopters. Cooper says that by keeping her mind clear and meditating, she can best do her work. “I have to get my mind and energy right to approach these birds because if I can’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of them,” she says. “No matter what other stuff is going on, you have to be able to get in the moment with another living being and focus on it.”

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—Vitta Oliveri

JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 17

GRANDSTANDING

…AND JUSTICE FOR MALLS

Going to concerts at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Del Mar Racetrack is a summer institution in San Diego. Whether it’s seeing a bigname act on the fair’s Grandstand Stage or catching a 4 O’Clock Friday show after the races (and after a few drinks, naturally), no doubt most of us have made at least one drive up the coast to catch one of our favorite bands. I’ve certainly seen my share, and while I regret not seeing Carly Rae Jepsen or Kendrick Lamar(!) when I had the chance, I’ve ranked five Del Mar concerts from worst to best.

5. The Vines (2002): I’m not really sure why I went to this show; the band wasn’t great and we got pelted with a two-liter bottle of soda. It was free, though, and you don’t pass up free entertainment when you’re in college.

4. Stone Temple Pilots (2000): I saw this show shortly after graduating from high school, right around the time their hit “Sour Girl” came out. The band was solid, Scott Weiland sang through a megaphone about half the time. Not a bad show overall.

3. Rocket from the Crypt (2013): Rocket is usually at the top of most of these lists, which says a lot about the top two. This was one of the band’s first post-reunion shows,

According to Credit Suisse—a big time, hoity-toity financial services holding company— malls are on their way out. A 2017 report predicts that one in four malls will close in the next 20 years. It’s a pretty dire situation for traditional commerce, and If I had to guess, one that we can definitely blame on millennials. (If you haven’t blamed something on millennials lately, I highly recommend it!)

However, there’s nothing about Del Mar Plaza and its surrounding shopping district that even suggests it’s trying to appeal to young ‘uns. My recent visit felt like a dream where, yes, it appeared to be a mall, but nothing looked recognizable. I saw an art gallery that sold expensive ocean paintings, and Logham’s, a jewelry store that made Tiffany’s look pedestrian.

Where was the Hot Dog on a stick?

Where was the goddamn Hot Topic? Even teenagers—the traditional backbone of mall culture—seemed to be rare. I did, however, see an elderly couple wearing matching tracksuits.

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

Sonic Youth and they definitely rocked, even though John Reis said he didn’t like playing “Ditch Digger.” They did it anyway.

2. Sonic Youth (2002): Thurston Moore had a brief faux pas when he said “how are you doing Orange County?” but redeemed himself by playing a bunch of Sonic Youth songs. That usually solves things.

1. Brian Wilson (2016): The legendary singer/songwriter of the Beach Boys played Pet Sounds in full. I could barely keep it together when he played “God Only Knows.”

It was a whole thing.

—Jeff Terich

JESSICA BRADFORD

“Where are all my fellow teens?”

I wandered into Urban Girl Accessories, which seems to have the wine-loving woman market down. I lost count of novelty mugs declaring some variation of “I wish it was bring your wine to work day” written on them.

Maybe Del Mar Plaza holds the key to mall survival: if you never cater to young people in the first place, it’s a market you can’t lose.

—Ryan Bradford

@SDCITYBEAT

OFF THE BEATEN PATH

CAT CALLING ERIK EVANS

The house was already hot at 8 a.m. when my husband and kids said they wanted to hike at Torrey Pines. Despite being the coolest place to hike on a hot day, there’s something about Torrey Pines that makes me feel hateful, and that something is the crowds.

However, there’s a hidden corner of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve: the Extension, known mostly among the rich wives of Del Mar (three of whom we saw on the trail that morning. They all said hello). Officially opened in 1974, the extension is the result of a lengthy grassroots effort by residents to protect the untouched land from threatened development.

Rooted in Del Mar, it spans from the other side of Los Penasquitos Lagoon, north of the main park, up to Del Mar Heights Elementary. It’s a haven for native San Diegan plants, and there are panoramic views of the beach, the lagoon, and of all those distant suckers elbowing and on-your-left!-ing through the regular park.

Well, supposedly there are views. Despite it being insufferably hot everywhere else in town that day, it was 69 degrees and overcast when we parked the car.

We began our hike from the end of Mar Scenic Drive, just south of Del Mar Heights Road, though there are several other cul-de-sac trailheads to choose from. Even on a Sunday morning, parking was no problem.

We covered about two round trip miles on the

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Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve Mar Scenic and Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) trails, with gentle climbs, sometimes narrow and technical, sometimes wide and sandy. Lush and varied flora: laurel sumac, sage, buckwheat and plenty of pretty blooms (purples, reds, and yellows). Many of the plants encroached upon the trails. We saw more lizards than other humans. The whole place felt like a secret.

—Julia Dixon Evans

I used to work for this particularly boujee local mag where part of my duties consisted of covering to all the highfalutin charity galas and swanky parties from here to Rancho Santa Fe. If I learned anything from my days there, it’s that North County is a hotbed of cougars. Don’t get it twisted though; I’m not making fun of them. I think cougars are something like a pinnacle of feminism; hot, empowered, independently wealthy, middle-aged ladies sipping $20 cocktails and shaking what their mamas (or a team of doctors) gave ‘em. Yeah, ladies, do you!

Del Mar in particular has become well known for being a cougar den, and I’ve had some run-ins over the years.

Here are a few of my favorite spots rated from to .

Jimmy O’s (225 W. 15th St.): This is one of the few, eh, clubs in Del Mar so it gets pretty lit and filled with mature women acting all kinds of immature.

Catch ’em by the bar or on the dance floor throwing shade at the twentysomething blonde trying to steal their thunder. Rating:

En Fuego Cantina & Grill (1342 Camino Del Mar): This place is always a good time and likely where you’ll meet a cougar pre-gaming before meeting up with friends. The food is good and drinks are affordable, and it’s casual enough to where you could meet a new friend. Rating: Enoteca Del Fornaio (1555 Camino Del Mar): A wine bar and Italian restaurant inside Del Mar Plaza, the seaside views are only eclipsed by the view at the bar where ladies sip glasses of buttery Chard while oh-socasually showing off blinding engagement rings (hmmm… now moved to the right hand). Rating: Red Tracton’s Steakhouse (550 Via De La Valle): The unofficial after party spot after a day at the Del Mar Racetrack.

The vintage and otherwise quiet steakhouse turns into an absolute shitshow of bros cruising for a companion for the night. Or, wait? Is it the cougars who are cruising the bros? I could never tell.

During race season: Rest of the year:

—Seth Combs

JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

CULTURE | ART

SEEN LOCAL TORREY BAILEY

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

S

izable chunks of amethyst are relatively unimpressive compared to other items within Gladys Collins’ museum-like shop, The Dinosaur Gallery (1327 Camino Del Mar). In the store, a 15-million-year-old Megalodon tooth rests on one shelf.

Fossilized algae that’s more than two billion years old sits on another. There’s also rows of sparkling geodes, coral and petrified materials.

“Not enough people recognize that our earth is made up of all these beautiful things,” says Collins.

“They think our earth is just made of dirt.”

The small store does not have an online presence and is tucked away from the street, but large glass windows expose her top-tier, hand-selected collection.

There are bracelets and earrings made from minerals, large insects displayed in frames and model dinosaur heads hanging on the wall, which were made by an artist who worked on the set of the original Jurassic Park. The popular films were being released in the gallery’s earlier years, and its name was the result of heightened interest in dinosaurs. Over time, interest in the prehistoric lizards declined, but traffic again swelled after Collins’ customer offered to put up a sign that read “Crystal Energy.”

“There’s more and more people who are willing to explore it now, but there didn’t used to be. They used to think you were kind of nutty,” Collins says But when families come into her store, which they often do, she prefers to guide the young ones away from crystals.

“I have a lot of stuff for the kids, and it’s really raw stuff rather than just the polished stuff. That isn’t really how they should see them, because they should be in those raw forms,” she says. “If you saw it in the ground, that’s what it would look like.”

While the supposedly healing aspects are not her specialty, she thinks crystals have inadvertently taught a new demographic to respect the ground from which they were derived. Her lack of expertise in their metaphysical qualities also offers a chance for customers to build upon her knowledge.

“I still know where they’re all from, what they are and I can look up a lot of things, but when it comes to the metaphysical, I’m just a little shy on it.”

Instead, she’ll direct them toward educational books on the topic so they can study up, much like she started doing when she bought The Dinosaur

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

The Dinosaur Gallery Gallery. She admits that when she bought the store, she knew next to nothing about fossils and minerals.

Over the years, she collected books on the various contents of her store, but largely amassed information at trade shows and from miners themselves. As Collins’ geological knowledge surged, so did her appreciation for nature.

“Eventually, someday, all our TORREY BAILEY fossils are going to be gone and so, we really need to regard them as being very special.”

Collins experienced this firsthand during a trip to the Grand Canyon 10 years ago when she expected to dig for fossils, but was told only shells remained.

“I know that Morocco is taking down their mountain left and right to sell it.”

But she thinks other areas are beginning to treasure their raw materials.

“We used to take a lot of things from China, and we don’t anymore.

I’m not saying they’re conserving it, but they’re saving it for their Gladys Collins own people, I think. Canada is another country where they have a lot of fossils up there, but they don’t sell them. They keep them… In Utah, management has come in and said we can’t use any big machines to dig [geodes] anymore.”

While this limits her potential product selection, she speaks fondly of the resource preservation.

“Even though kids love the geodes and I would love to have them, I just think that what we need to do is support our earth and make sure that it’s preserved properly at least. It’s nice to get the things out, but we can’t just dig it away and throw it away.”

—Torrey Bailey @SDCITYBEAT

CULTURE | FILM

Idiocracy

Patriot acts Reassessing how American ideals are portrayed on the big screen

by Glenn Heath Jr.

P

atriotism is something Americans love to argue about. It’s commonly defined as having devoted love, support and defense of one’s country.

But the meaning behind these words is invariably shaped by an individual’s ideals and belief systems.

Many Ku Klux Klan members felt they were acting in the country’s best interests while terrorizing blacks in the Jim Crow south. However, such destructive nationalism actually operates in direct contrast to true American ideals, something our toddler of a President will never understand.

Our divisive political climate and the Independence Day holiday got me thinking how this same battle over definition has been waged on the big screen too. Google search “patriotic movies” and a long list of titles appear that deal in war, sacrifice and honor.

Some of those films are unforgivably jingoistic (Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor, Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy’s Act of Valor), while others employ fascist aesthetic techniques to lionize white male saviors (Roland Emmerich’s The Patriot).

The following list of American films combats such rigid ways of thinking. You won’t find a lot of flag waving or “oorah” salutes here. Instead, these lasting works embrace the openness, honor, levity and social justice that make America great. What fuels their artistry is a true understanding that democracy should be an art form representing the masses, not an elitist tool defined by economic status or power. Each of them are messy, human and compassionate, but most of all, truly patriotic.

Magic Mike XXL (2015): Crazy, sexy, cool. All skin colors, all lifestyles, all the time. Director Gregory Jacobs followed up Steven Soderbergh’s cold and political original with a freewheeling road trip sequel about a group of despondent male strippers who rediscover the organic excitement of gyration. Taking place over an enthralling weekend romp, this American dream envisions a society where masculinity is no longer destructive or egotistical, but strong, passionate and always ready to serve the finer sex.

Selma (2014): Ava DuVernay’s engaging historical document follows Martin Luther King’s (David

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Oyelowo) campaign to secure equal voting rights by launching an epic protest march. Portraying the best and worst of human nature with equal fortitude, the film looks at the strategy behind the headlines. It’s a humanist procedural at heart, a work of ideas and compromises that glimpses what’s often left out of textbooks: real people’s nuanced emotions. Ever the activist, DuVernay has since used all mediums (including Twitter) to champion women’s rights and equal representation.

Idiocracy (2006): A prescient cult film of the George W. Bush era, Mike Judge’s bracing satire hunkers down with a disaffected soldier (Luke Wilson) who volunteers for a top secret hibernation program only to wake up hundreds of years later and find an America of the morons, by the morons and for the morons. The future it depicts (appalling reality shows, monster truck gladiator matches, a wrestler president) contains enough disturbing parallels with 2017 that we should all be worried. But Judge doesn’t promote apathy; instead his film believes that humanizing the opposition and listening carefully can eventually turn the tide.

Spartan (2004): When the President’s daughter is mistakenly kidnapped by sex traffickers, government meddlers send in Val Kilmer’s shadowy operative to execute a faux rescue. David Mamet’s cunning antithriller challenges normal genre patterns and expectations. It paints the American political machine as rotten to its core, but believes that culpable patriots can make a difference by finding their conscience and subverting from within.

All the President’s Men (1976), Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977), Blow Out (1981): A trio of paranoid, angry, forceful, smart, eclectic potboilers. Each embodies the resistant and resilient spirit of the individual American pressed to the brink of madness by institutional rot. Unfortunately, they are all as relevant today as they were upon release.

Film reviews run weekly.

Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

CULTURE | FILM

The lusty nuns

A

s horny nuns who are bored silly by convent rules and routines, Alessandra (Alison Brie), Genevra (Kate Micucci) and Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza) sigh and pout their way through The Little Hours with the skill of eyerolling millennials. Except the year is 1347, and there aren’t any smartphones to save them from their spiritual despondence.

Set in the Garfagnana region of Italy, the film loosely adapts Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron but feels closer in spirit to a Diablo Cody journal entry. Trapped in cycles of disappointment and

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

The Little Hours repression, each of the central female characters act out in various ways. When heartthrob farmhand Massetto (Dave Franco) shows up posing as a deaf/mute, everyone’s hormones start to fire on overdrive.

Jeff Baena’s sassy farce stands out for its strange collision of period detail and stylized modern dialogue. In one scene, the camera calmly tracks a trio of robed sisters only to watch them violently berate a kind peasant for making eye contact. All that pent-up aggression stems from glaring gender inequalities promoted by oppressive institutions. Even kindly Father Tommasso (John C. Reilly)

hides his own inhibitions due to the church’s strict doctrine.

The Little Hours, opening Friday, July 7, at Digital Gym Cinema, could have devolved into renaissance fair gimmickry. Some short vignettes do feel strained by the film’s cheeky premise, but others succeed in revealing the unspoken violence hidden beneath established social norms and cultural stereotypes. Refreshingly, fringe characters shamed by devout establishment figures end up being the bravest warriors for change.

Love finds a way, religion be damned.

Not since Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights put a braille Playboy in the hands of a blind servant has there been a film this dedicated to skewering the grueling absurdities of medieval times.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING Buena Vista Social Club: Adios: The iconic Cuban band reflects on their remarkable careers and the extraordinary circumstances that brought them together.

Opens Friday, July 7, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Maudie: Aisling Walsh’s drama tells the true story of artist Maud Lewis (Sally

Hawkins), who worked as a housekeeper in Nova Scotia before eventually becoming a beloved figure in her community.

The Journey: Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney square off as warring Irish politicians trying to find common ground before their country descends into chaos. Opens Friday, July 7, at the Ken Cinema.

Spider-Man: Homecoming: Peter Parker (Tom Holland) tries to balance his life as a high-schooler and secret member of the Avengers.

The Little Hours: Set in the 14th century, this period farce starring Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza follows three nuns as they battle hormones, contradictory religious doctrine, and each other. Opens Friday, July 7, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

ONE TIME ONLY Top Gun: You can be my wingman anytime. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Pulp Fiction: Quentin Tarantino’s narrative-bending masterpiece mixes up multiple vignettes about killers, boxers and cinema-obsessed lovers. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, July 6 and 7 at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

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

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MUSIC conversation with Mutoid Man guitarist/vocalist Stephen Brodsky and his bass-playing bandmate Nick Cageao is a bit like being dropped into the middle of an improv comedy routine and being forced to keep up with people who can finish each other’s sentences.

Early on in the conversation, Brodsky begins to explain how Mutoid Man went from a casual project into something more serious, but it doesn’t take long for the explanation to start veering into an absurd direction.

“When [drummer] Ben [Koller] and I first got together to jam, I thought we were just making some rad tunes in his rehearsal space,” he says. “When you have a project with your buddy called Narcoleptic Beagle, you’re really not seeing any signs of…world domination.”

Koller—who also drums in the influential hardcore band Converge—wanted to push things a little further toward a “real” band.

And later, the two men connected with Cageao, the self-described “main dude” at well-known Brooklyn metal bar St. Vitus, where Mutoid Man also serve as the house band for metal talk show Two Minutes to Late Night. And this is the point in the story where things go off the rails.

“I had to pay an initiation fee to join the band,” says Cageao. “So essentially, it was like joining Boy Scouts or Rotary Club. And I still pay…Ben and Steve just to be a part of it.”

Brodsky interjects: “The tricky part is that we only accept payment in fedoras.”

“Yeah,” says Cageao, “I can only pay them in fedoras. And they then have to go the Fedora Exchange in Midtown and get some cash out of it.”

Here, I ask the only question that seems reasonable in the moment: Does Cageao buy the very fedoras he uses to pay for a spot in Mutoid Man from the Midtown Fedora Exchange, thus closing this fictional hatbased economic loop?

“No, no, no,” he says, as if it’s a silly question. “I buy them at the Douche Flute Emporium in south Brooklyn.” Which, says Brodsky, “is kinda hard to see because it’s usually covered in a cloud of vape smoke.”

So there you have it: The official origin story of Mutoid Man, a punchy heavy metal

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moves even faster, teetering on the edge of chaos but never quite spinning out of control. And album closer “Bandages” is an unabashed ‘80s-style power ballad (with guest vocals by Chelsea Wolfe) that skillfully walks a line between cheesy joke and impressive genre exercise, proving Mutoid Man can conquer just about any style it wants, tongue-in-cheek or not.

Elsewhere, “Kiss of Death” comes with a shuddering low end and some unsubtle lyrical innuendo, which continues on a prickly roller-coaster rager called “Date with the Devil,” one of many songs where Mutoid Man gets a little risqué.

“Came inside of Satan’s daughter,” Brodsky sings, “Nine months later, who’s the father?”

These moments work within the band’s overall aesthetic, but for metalheads who spend much of their time listening to songs about death, destruction, dimly lit dungeons and/or darkness in the heart of man, these kinds of lyrics will inevitably cause a double-take. And that’s exactly how Brodsky, Cageao and Koller like it. The men of Mutoid Man came together to deliver a healthy dose of heavy metal. If they can challenge the genre’s status quo at the same time, that’s even better.

“Within the world that we exist in terms of playing music, rock ‘n’ roll, punk rock, loud, crazy, wild, screaming—all the things that are great and fun about From left: Stephen Brodsky, Nick Cageao and Ben Koller music—I think perversion is welcome,” Brodsky says. “We celebrate that sort of trio with serious riffs and a not-so-serious of-the-century post-hardcore giants Cave thing and it seems to be kind of a tough approach that flies in the glowering face In, Mutoid Man’s insistence on having fun thing for bands to pull off these days. It’s of so many of their contemporaries. These is less about bucking heavy metal trends and almost like the world of heavy music has three men are not here to sneer and scowl, more about making sure the fun lasts for a gone celibate or something. So we’re just having a little fun with it.” but to play catchy, crunchy hard rock ‘n’ roll long time.

“I think having a sense of humor about and have a hell of a good time doing it.

“When I see a band that is not having fun… what you do is a way of taking it seriously,” that is taking themselves too seriously… he says. “Because if you really are interested that thinks that they have to be 100-percent in doing it for the long haul, you’ve got to serious in order to be successful, I think figure out how to put a smile on the faces that’s the most obnoxious shit in the world,” of the people you’re playing for, the people Cageao says. “It’s stupid, man. If you can’t you’re playing with, and yourself.”

Mission accomplished. In early June, have fun with what you’re doing, and people can’t see that you’re having fun, and you Mutoid Man released their second album can’t look at your bandmates on stage and War Moans, a fist-pumping, fantastical slab laugh at them or flip them off, you’re doing of throwback metal that’s as hooky as it is heavy. Opening track “Melt Your Mind” is it wrong.”

For Brodsky, who is best known in heavy a pedal-to-the-metal thrash chugger with music circles as a founding member of turn- an irresistible groove. “Micro Aggression”

JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 23

MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO LOCALS ONLY

D

izzy Spells, a newly formed booking on the compilation, such as The Strawberry and design outfit, has just launched a Moons, Traffic Bear and CJ Boyd. Part of the new, 46-track compilation titled Dizzy group’s ultimate goal is to encourage more Spells Vol. 1. The compilation mostly features people to see live music and to offer a boost bands from San Diego, including Schizo- to bands just getting off the ground.

“We just want to engage people,” says phonics, Big Bad Buffalo, Hexa, Shades McCool, Bit Maps, Spooky Cigarette, Gloomsday Linton. “We really want to foster a feeling and Polish, as well as groups from San Fran- of community. That was really important to cisco (Faux Foe Fox, Whiteborzoi) and Denver us. We also hope to have more compilations released in the future with (Whole Milk). The compilation new tracks.” was released as a way to introDizzy Spells has not yet duce Dizzy Spells, which helps announced any more live bands with booking tours and showcases this summer, local shows, design and other though Krimston and Linneeds. ton say that they’re working “A lot of the bands are on putting some together, friends from San Diego, and as well as focusing on other some of them are friends projects with bands, includfrom our travels,” says Jordan ing photo shoots and videos.

Krimston, who runs Dizzy Dizzy Spells Vol. 1 In the meantime, Dizzy Spells Spells with Sarah Linton and Kelsey Kohler. “We thought it would be a Vol. 1 has a lot for new listeners to explore cool way to help bands be heard by putting without any risk: The compilation is free.

“That’s partially because we don’t have a them on the compilation, but it also gets our physical release,” says Krimston. “But mostname out there as well.”

Dizzy Spells has recently been putting ly we just want this to be accessible to any together showcases in San Diego at venues potential new fans.” such as The Merrow and The Casbah, some of

which have featured bands that have tracks

—Jeff Terich

IN EARS WE TRUST

A

recurring feature in which we ask local musicians, promoters and others about the music they’ve been digging lately.

This time, we focus on the bands in their own backyard that local bands are digging lately.

Brian Strauss, Of Ennui: Loud As I Can by Spooky Cigarette. “It’s an intense menagerie of influences from all the weirdest corners of music. Waves of synthesizers wash over the listener, over drums punctuating the bliss at a breakneck pace, accompanied by frenetic, percussive guitar playing.

Frank [Mindingall]’s voice is one of the most unique I’ve ever heard, and the off-kilter strangeness of his voice perfectly encapsulates the feelings of otherness one feels while listening to them.”

Carrie Gillespie Feller, Hexa: Vakoum.

“Vakoum makes electronic pop music that is ethereal, experimental, complex and engaging. I think they have the best live show in San Diego at the moment. It seems strange that they landed here instead of Los Angeles or San Francisco, but we are very lucky to have them.”

Martin Arguelles, Cryptic Languages: Xhendrix I by xhendrix. “This band dubs themselves ‘Psychedelic Powerviolence.’ Listening to it, the term makes sense, but more

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

importantly how they composed themselves on their debut just sounds completely effortless. Every element of the band’s dynamic range comes right when it needs to be. Live, this band is just out of this world. I saw them at Zine Fronteras last summer, and they did more with a 15 minute set than I see most other bands doing.”

Craig Schreiber, The Verigolds: S/T EP by Small Culture. “This sunny San Diego summer of ‘17 is in full swing, or rather full indie/pop bliss, thanks to the Small Culture EP. If you want to add a little island spice Vakoum to your backyard BBQ, fire up ‘Too Late’ or if you find yourself cruising the glassy waves of the bay, I recommend ‘Apartime’ or Small Culture’s fresh remix of ‘Tide Pools’ (by Splavender).”

Daniel Schraer, The Redwoods/Nervous Wreckords: No Wrong, No Rights by Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects. “One of the best records I’ve ever heard out of San Diego. It simultaneously feels alien and experimental while still somehow reminding me of the beach, warm weather and palm trees. The horns, the basslines, the weird synths all keep me coming back to this album, especially during the summer.”

—Jeff Terich @SDCITYBEAT

@SDCityBeat

july 5, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, JULY 5

PLAN A: Melvins, Spotlights, Lo and Be Told @ The Casbah. Legendary grunge/ sludge metal band Melvins have played many a show at The Casbah, and have wrecked many an eardrum in the process.

They’ve got a lot of records, many of them classics, and they’re going to make one hell of a ruckus. PLAN B: Rosie Flores, Ginger Cowgirl, Trevor McSpadden @ Soda Bar. Rockabilly artist Rosie Flores has been making twangy, honky-tonk brawlers and bawlers for decades, and they still sound great. Boots and hats are optional. BACKUP PLAN: Froth, Moaning, Sixes, Spooky Cigarette @ SPACE.

THURSDAY, JULY 6

PLAN A: Soft Lions, Big Bloom, Some Kind of Lizard @ The Casbah. Still recovering from the 4th of July weekend? (Or The Melvins?) Get back in the live music game with this roundup of solid local bands.

FRIDAY, JULY 7

PLAN A: Rise Against, Deftones, Thrice, Frank Iero and the Patience @ Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. I owe a lot of my interest in heavy music to Deftones. I saw them as a young lad of 15, and while I’ve grown and expanded my palate since then, I still have a soft spot for the group. If you don’t like The White Pony at least a little bit, then I’m not sure what to say. PLAN B: Thee Commons @ The Casbah.

Self-described “psychedelic cumbia punk” band Thee Commons sound like summer. They combine a lot of styles, yet it’s a fluid mixture that never sounds awkward or forced. Their songs are a lot of fun, and remarkably, sound like few other bands right now.

SATURDAY, JULY 8

PLAN A: Shades McCool, Koi Division, Mr Vacation and the Torta Sharks @ Tower Bar. Shades McCool are a band we’ve been watching for a few years, ever since they got our coveted endorsement in the Great Demo Review, and you should be watching them too. This show also features “fish goth” band Koi Division. Wait, what?

PLAN B: Lord Dying, Eukaryst, Raise the Guns @ The Merrow. Lord Dying is a kind of sludgy, kind of doomy band that’s heavy without losing their sense of fun. Think High on Fire, with just a touch of Red Fang.

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

SUNDAY, JULY 9

PLAN A: Flying Hair, San Pedro El Cortez, Dream Burglar @ Soda Bar. Flying Hair put an appealing spin on garage rock by making it louder, heavier and weirder, having previously been described as “Black Angels meets Black Sabbath.” That’s the kind of rock ‘n’ roll mashup that I can get into. PLAN B: Stokka, Glam Skanks, Pleasure Fix @ The Casbah. Stokka simply call themselves “rock ‘n’ roll,” which is pretty much true. They’re a little glam, a little punk, maybe even a little ‘80s metal, but at the end of the day they play catchy songs with big guitars: Rock ‘n’ roll.

MONDAY, JULY 10

PLAN A: Dead Meadow, Amerikan Bear, Summer Knowledge @ Blonde. Psychedelic stoner rockers Dead Meadow made a transformation from a fuzzy Sabbath-like band to one more atmospheric and weird.

No matter what form they take, their sounds are always immense. BACKUP PLAN: Flood Coats, Rainstorm Brother, Exasperation @ The Casbah.

Melvins

TUESDAY, JULY 11

PLAN A: The Roots @ Observatory North Park. Hip-hop legends The Roots are another band I saw as a teenager who left a big impression on my still-developing brain.

They opened for Rage Against the Machine and blew them out of the water. They’re still killing it, with a whole catalog full of great records. PLAN B: Pharmakon, Die Missbildungen Des Menschen, Monochromacy @ SPACE. For more adventurous listeners, check out Pharmakon, a New York-based industrial-noise artist who has released three consistently devastating albums of terrifying electronic dirges. It’s amazing stuff, but it’s intense. BACKUP PLAN: Sports, YEEK @ Soda Bar.

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MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Moses Sumney (Irenic, 9/22), WAND (Casbah, 9/24), Jo Koy (Humphreys, 9/27), Rainer Maria (Casbah, 10/13), Chad VanGaalen (Soda Bar, 11/16), Angus and Julia Stone (Observatory, 12/5), Flesh Eaters (Casbah, 1/18).

GET YER TICKETS Wanda Jackson (Casbah, 7/15), Hall & Oates, Tears for Fears (Valley View Casino Center, 7/19), Beach Fossils (Casbah, 7/20), Rodrigo y Gabriela (Humphreys, 7/31), Steve Earle and the Dukes (BUT, 8/10), Incubus, Jimmy Eat World (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 8/11), Neon Indian (BUT, 8/14), 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), Quicksand (BUT, 9/11), Goo Goo Dolls (Open Air Theatre, 9/12), Green Day (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 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,

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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), Algiers (Soda Bar, 10/1), The Shins, Spoon (Open Air Theatre, 10/1), Chelsea Wolfe (BUT, 10/2), Sheer Mag, Tony Molina (Soda Bar, 10/2), Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nas (OAT, 10/3), Father John Misty (Observatory 10/56), Depeche Mode (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 10/6), Coldplay (Qualcomm Stadium, 10/8), Obituary, Exodus (Observatory, 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), Roky Erickson (Casbah, 10/27), 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), Gary Numan (Observatory, 11/15), Ariel Pink (BUT, 11/16), Boris, Torche (Casbah, 11/17), Mogwai (Observatory, 11/20).

JULY WEDNESDAY, JULY 5 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.

Easy Wind at Belly Up Tavern.

FRIDAY, JULY 7 Thee Commons at The Casbah. Deftones, Rise Against at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Anarbor at Soda Bar.

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 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 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. Noble War at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 12 Mutoid Man at The Casbah. Phora at

Observatory North Park. Joan Shelley at SPACE.

THURSDAY, JULY 13 The Temptations, Four Tops at Humphreys by the Bay. Cheetah Chrome’s Dead Boys at The Casbah. AmirSaysNothing at Soda Bar.

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. Grizzly Business at Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, JULY 16 Cymbals Eat Guitars at The Casbah.

Palm at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, JULY 17 Moon Honey at The Casbah. The Fresh Brunettes at Soda Bar. Jim Breuer at Observatory North Park.

TUESDAY, JULY 18 2Cellos at Open Air Theatre. The Sword at Belly Up Tavern. Playboi Carti at Observatory North Park. Natalie Merchant at Copley Symphony Hall.

Belladon at The Casbah. Uncle Lucius at Soda Bar.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 19 Khalid at Observatory North Park. Hall

& Oates, Tears for Fears at Valley View Casino Center. Colin Hay at Belly Up Tavern. Birdtalker at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, JULY 20 Colin Hay at Belly Up Tavern (sold out).

Beach Fossils at The Casbah. BadBadNotGood at Observatory North Park. The Delta Riggs at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, JULY 21 Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 at Belly Up Tavern. Third Eye Blind at Open Air Theatre. Ministry at House of Blues.

Dead Kennedys at Brick by Brick. Tribal Seeds at Del Mar Racetrack. Rozwell Kid at Soda Bar. Fleetmac Wood at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, JULY 22 La Luz at Soda Bar. Creature and the Woods at The Casbah. Reggie Watts at The Irenic.

SUNDAY, JULY 23 Maggie Koerner at Soda Bar. Buddy Guy at Belly Up Tavern (sold out). Phenomenauts at SPACE. Digital Lizards of Doom at The Casbah.

MONDAY, JULY 24 Yowie at SPACE. Post Animal at Soda Bar. Blackberry Smoke at Belly Up Tavern.

TUESDAY, JULY 25 Delta Rae at Belly Up Tavern. Josh Harmony at Soda Bar.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27

MUSIC WEDNESDAY, JULY 26 The Dabbers at The Casbah. Night Drive at SPACE. John Waite at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, JULY 27 David J at The Casbah. Bush at Open Air Theatre. Reckless Kelly at Belly Up Tavern.

FRIDAY, JULY 28 Schizophonics Soul Revue at The Casbah. Violent Femmes at Del Mar Racetrack. Taking Back Sunday at Observatory North Park.

SATURDAY, JULY 29 Robert Cray at Belly Up Tavern. The Gloomies at Soda Bar. Kitten at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, JULY 30 Steve Gunn at SPACE. Maxi Priest at Belly Up Tavern. Cayetana at The Casbah.

MONDAY, JULY 31 Rodrigo y Gabriela at Humphreys by the Bay. Tobin Sprout at The Casbah.

AUGUST TUESDAY, AUG. 1 Unsane at The Casbah. AFI, Circa Survive at Open Air Theatre. Huey Lewis and the News at Humphreys by the Bay. Marshall Tucker Band at Belly Up Tavern.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Fri: d*fRost, Thicker Than Thieves, DANG, Wonka Bar. Sat: Etana, Layne Tadesse and 7 Seal Dub. Tue: The Tones.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Greg Santos. Fri: Dray Davis. Sat: Deray Davis.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road, Spring Valley. Thu: Kill Your Name.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Fri: BlackGummy.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park. Wed: ‘Joke-e-oke’. Thu: DJ Chris Freeman. Fri: DJ Artistic. Sat: The Milkcrates DJs. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’. Mon: DJ Thug Wave. Tue: The Fink Bombs.

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

Thu: Mark Fisher. Fri: Modern Day Moonshine. Sat: The Rhythmatics.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Thu: ‘Dead Heads to the Rescue Fundraiser’ w/ Easy Wind. Fri: The Pettybreakers, The Wilburys Experience. Sat: Band of Gringos, Stripes & Lines, Aviator Stash. Sun: Band of Heathens, Shane Hall Trio. Mon: Junior Brown, Adrian Demain Trio. Tue: Ottopilot, WYO, Shaynie Roads.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Thu: Oasis vs. Blur vs. Stone Roses tribute. Fri: CAPYAC. Sat: Sun: Mon: Dead Meadow, Amerikan Bear, Summer Knowledge.

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

Thu: Hard Fall Hearts. Fri: ‘Club Musae’.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Fri: Divad, Kodasounds, Ruderalis, The Killing Word, Hand Drawn Tree, Head-

28 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

phone, Brian Jones Rock’n’Roll Revival, Sleepless Under the Earth, Everything Undone, The Cat Chasers, LightYears Ahead.

Sat: Adrenaline Mob, The Wild, Dolan Brotherhood, Nightshadow.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Midtown.

Wed: Melvins, Spotlights, Lo and Be Told.

Thu: Soft Lions, Big Bloom, Some Kind of Lizard. Fri: Thee Commons. Sat: ‘The Life of Brian’ w/ Brian Karscig, Buckfast Superbee, Mittens, The Paragraphs, DJ Lou Niles. Sun: Stokka, Glam Skanks, Pleasure Fix. Mon: Flood Coats, Rainstorm Brother, Exasperation. Tue: Noble War, Nite Lapse, Ignant Benches.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. Fri: Dmitry Matheny. Sat: The Rob Thorsen Group.

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.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Dita Von Teese’s ‘The Art of the Teese’. Thu: Dita Von Teese’s ‘The Art of the Teese’. Fri: The Regrettes, The Paranoyds.

Sat: Stitched Up Heart, Hell or Highwater.

Tue: Robin Henkel.

Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: Tradewinds. Thu: Hit List. Fri: Detroit Underground. Sat: Sara Petite. Sun: Edwin McCain. Mon: Mercedes Moore. Tue: Backwater Blues.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Wed: ‘Producers Social’. Thu: ‘Psilo’.

Fri: ‘Dust’. Sat: ‘Kittens and Creeps’. Sun: Mandapa. Tue: Substantial and Marcus D. Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., Kensington. Fri: Zombie Surf Camp, Fuzz Junkies.

SPOTLIGHT For musical hipsters, listening to smooth jazz may sound akin to the Muzak pumped through a dentist’s waiting room. And that definitely could be the case with The San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival, but it could also be a sexy blast of funky grooves. Headliner Eric Darius definitely has a couple sax riffs that will make even the most musically elitist bro get hot under the collar. The San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival goes down July 7 through July 9 at Embarcadero Marina Park.

—Ryan Bradford

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: Planewreck. Thu: Trace Bundy, Mike Dawes. Sat: Roni Lee. The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Wed: Spirit In The Room, True Ghouls, Ultima Circo, Lizifer And The Tree. Thu: War Fever, Vietnam Hardcore, Bossfight, Surface Report. Fri: Kirby’s Dream Band, Livin Alive, The No Name Gang, Railgun, Meltdown.

Sat: Lord Dying, Eukaryst, Raise the Guns. Sun: ‘Back Alley’. Tue: People Might Scream, Headwaves, Cooper Horton.

Mother’s Saloon, 2228 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Fri: Temple of the Dad. Sun: Kayla Hope.

Mr. Peabody’s, 136 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Wed: Society Big Beat Band. Thu: Stacy Antonel. Fri: Custard Pie. Sat: Jerome Dawson and Wazabe Blue.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy. Fri: Boombox, Goose ^ Mavrk. Sat: Boombox, Bang Pow.

Swing Thing. Fri: The Rosalyns, Gone Baby Gone.

Sat: Blue Largo.

Rosie O’gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Normal Heights.

Thu: Roving Marauders.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Rosie Flores, Trevor McSpadden, Ginger Cowgirl. Fri: Anarbor, Sundressed, Crooked Teeth. Sat: Three Bad Jacks, The Sleepwalkers, Johnny Deadly Trio. Sun: Flying Hair, San Pedro El Cortez, Dream Burglar. Tue: Sports, Yeek, Modern Me. SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway. Fri: Grove, Opt Out, Sacred Cow, Sitting On Stacy, Be All End All, Mainsail. Sat: Cardboard Boxer, The Thens, Effe Emme, Pueblo, T Rexico.

SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Froth, Moaning, Sixes, Spooky Cigarette. Thu: Tiger and the Teller, Rozes, Bandcat. Tue: Pharmakon, Die Mißbildungen Des Menschen, Monochromacy.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., Midtown. Sat: Lucent, John 00 Fleming.

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

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Sat: Gloomsday, The Two Tens, The Darts, Hiroshima Mockingbirds.

The Office, 3936 30th St., North Park. Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Fri: ‘Nite Moves’ w/ DJ Beatnick.

Sat: ‘Strictly Business’ w/ DJs Gabe Vega, Kanye Asada. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’.

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Wed: Scott Porter.

Thu: ‘80s Night’ w/ Manic Fanatic. Fri: Coriander, Scott Porter. Sat: Coriander, Scott Porter. Sun: Chad and Rosie. Tue: Chad and Rosie.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Fri: Rainman. Sat: BRKLYN. Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Fri: Craig Smoove.

Sat: Karma.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Sat: Shades McCool, Koi Division, Mr. Vacation and the Torta Sharks. Sun: Fastplants, Wooly Mammoth and the Eggplants.

Plaza Bar at Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave., Downtown. Fri: Gilbert Castellanos. Sat: Allison Tucker.

Mon: Julio De La Huerta.

U-31, 3112 University Ave., North Park. Thu: ‘Boom Boxx Thursday’. Fri: Kid Wonder. Sat: Camron Zibaie.

Tue: ’31 Flavors’.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest. Wed: DJs Kiki, Kinky Loops. Thu: DJs K-Swift, Mxyzliplix, Tyler Rouse. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Moody Rudy. Sat: DJS K-Swift, Taj. Sun: DJs Hektik, Nick Ayler.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Wed: Shocks of Mighty, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: D-Frost, Mix Mob, Dang, Thicker Than Thieves. Fri: Poor Man’s Whiskey, Hunter and the Dirty Jacks. Sat: Superunloader, Eagle Rock Gospel Singers. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: DJ Williams and Shots Fired.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz’ w/ Jason Hanna. Thu:

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JULY 5, 2017 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 29

LAST WORDS | ADVICE

AMY ALKON

ADVICE

GODDESS Plenty of dead fish My girlfriend and I broke up recently, so I’m back in the dating pool. Do you think online dating is a good way to meet people? If so, which are the best dating sites?

—Diving In Asking “Which dating site is best?” is like asking, “Is pro basketball a viable career?” That question can only be answered by asking other questions, such as: “Aren’t you a 47-year-old, 5’2” Ashkenazi Jewish woman with 20/80 vision and bad knees?”

To put this another way, context matters, which isn’t what they tell you in Datingsiteville. Save for specialty sites—like those for farmers, the disabled, and people who relish a good flogging—the advertising for these venues tends to be context-free: “Hey, everybody in the entire galaxy, get your lasting love here!”

Annoyingly, though most of us have a sense of what context is, nobody’s done a very good job of defining it—either in the dictionary or in Researchville, where I found a herd of dueling definitions, all so unhelpfully worded that they seem to be in secret code. So here’s my definition: Context is a combo platter of the particular situation at hand—like pro basketball, online dating, being a bad dancer, or being sexually attracted to woodchucks—plus the details relevant to it that affect how you understand or experience the situation.

In the context of online dating, the relevant details include age, sex, the quality of the competition, and one’s desired situation, as in: Do you just want casual sex, or are you holding out for something a little more, uh, black tie?

There are sex differences in when people are at their most appealing, because men and women tend to be at their highest “mate value” at different ages. This comes out of how male sexuality evolved to be visually driven (because the features men find beautiful— youth being the biggie—are associated with fertility).

Women, however, evolved to go for “providers”—men with high status and earning power. So, online dating tends to be more fruitful if you’re a hot 23-year-old female espresso jockey or a 43-year-old male VP of a successful startup, but it can have some challenges for the 43-year-old female startup star or the 23-year-old dude who’s the senior vice barista.

So the question is not whether dating sites work but whether the qualities you have and the situation you’re seeking add up to more than a few tumbleweeds blowing around in your inbox. Because online dating success is shaped more by personal context (and plain old luck) than by the particular site you’re on,

you might experiment with two or three. If things go poorly, use online dating as a supplement to meeting women the retro way, like at cocktail parties, where you won’t be competing with the 362 more genetically blessed males within a 35-mile radius. This vastly increases your chances of dazzling the ladies with your personality—distracting them from how Mother Nature zoned out when she was handing out necks to your family.

Man on the flake This guy asked me out and suggested we meet up after his dentist appointment. He said he’d call around 2 p.m. Well, at 9:30 p.m., I got a “Hey” text from him and didn’t respond. A friend said I shouldn’t write him off so fast. Am I being too harsh?

—Dependability Fan Individual bits of behavior are like cockroaches.

You might see just one lonely roach twerking atop the toaster oven, but its presence suggests a whole colony of the buggers…gluing sequins to their exoskeletons and practicing their moonwalk behind the baseboard.

No, you can’t always judge someone by a single thing they do, but this guy’s one-word text—seven hours after he said he’d call—speaks volumes: “Holy moly, wouldya look at the time. It’s 9:30, and I could use some sex.”

How a person behaves is driven by their personality traits, which social psychologist Brent Roberts describes as habitual patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that are relatively consistent across time and situations. Granted, there are occasions when impulse gets the best of us, and we’ll say something like, “That wasn’t really me.” But, at least in some way, it really was, because even impulsivity is part of personality.

A person can resolve to act more conscientiously, but personality has a strong genetic basis, so they’re unlikely to be as motivated to be conscientious as someone whose genes make them feel icky when they aren’t. In other words, you were probably wise in nixing this guy, who couldn’t even be bothered to fake respect for your feelings by supplementing that “Hey” with “Carjacked!” “Carried off by a raptor!” or “Still high on anesthesia in my blanket fort, having a tea party with G.I. Joe and my dog Steve.”

Context is a combo platter of the particular situation at hand—like pro basketball, online dating, being a bad dancer, or being sexually attracted to woodchucks...

30 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 5, 2017

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

Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or e-mail AdviceAmy@aol.com (advicegoddess. com).

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july 5, 2017 · San Diego CityBeat · 31