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2 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 3
Council leads the way on minimum wage Wow! Did you see that? The six Democrats on the en that the primary complaint from opponents is San Diego City Council went big and bold Monday that the higher wage will put San Diego businesses evening, rejecting a public vote to raise the city’s at a competitive disadvantage against companies in minimum wage and instead doing it themselves. neighboring cities, the more modest increase was And it was made possible by the election of Kevin smart. Should opponents try to overturn the law, Faulconer to the Mayor’s office. How ironic. Gloria and Co. can say they came way down on the After Faulconer, a Republican who opposes the dollar figure while the other side wasn’t willing to wage increase, won the special election in February, compromise at all. the City Council appointed Ed Harris, a Democrat, as Speaking of the other side, have you noticed that his temporary replacement, giving the nine-member whenever progressives try to enact policy, businesscouncil a short window of time with a super-majority favoring conservatives say something like, “That’s a of Democrats—March through November. Current laudable goal—we all want to reduce poverty—but District 6 Councilmember Lorie Zapf, a Republican, this is not the right way to do it.” Why is it that we will take over Harris’ District 2 seat in December. never hear them proposing anti-poverty policies David Rolland There’s a good chance Republican Chris until they feel threatened? Could it be Cate will win the November election in that they don’t care? District 6, leaving Democrats with a slim We understand that small business5-4 council majority in 2015. That’s imes are afraid of the unknown. Running portant because Faulconer can veto counan independent company is scary and cil ordinances and it takes a six-member stressful. We get it. But we can’t let fear super-majority to override a mayoral keep us locked down in a status quo that veto. The minimum-wage issue has fallen isn’t working. The rich have been getting along party lines every step of the way. richer, the poor have been getting poorer The Monday vote was a victory for and the middle class has been shrinking. low-wage workers who’ve rarely had Something has to be done. As Gloria has champions in elected office, but it was said, raising the minimum wage won’t Todd Gloria fix it all. In fact, we don’t claim to know also a victory for democracy. As we saw with the maddening defeat in June of the sensible exactly what will happen. But we believe, as Gloria Barrio Logan Community Plan at the ballot box, does, that it’s a step in the right direction. when important issues are put to a public vote, they get run through a gauntlet of lies and distortions, and CityBeat wins a big award the side with the most money has the loudest voice Saturday was a grand day for CityBeat. That day, in in the debate. Representative democracy, in which Nashville, Tennessee, we took home a first-place we trust the people we elect to make decisions, is far award for investigative reporting given out by our from perfect and surely vulnerable to the influence national trade organization, the Association of Alof money, but there’s a better chance that results will ternative Newsmedia (AAN). be based on intellectually honest debate. The honor went to associate editor Kelly Davis In any case, the lowest allowable wage in San Diand former staff writer Dave Maass for their outego will rise to $9.75 on Jan. 1, 2015; then to $10.50 standing coverage of the high mortality rate in San on Jan. 1, 2016; and then to $11.50 on Jan. 1, 2017. Diego County jails, which began in 2013 with a fiveFuture increases will be tied to the Consumer Price part series, “60 dead inmates,” and is ongoing. In Index staring in 2019. For comparison, the state fact, the coverage continues in this issue with Daminimum wage is now $9, and it’ll go up to $10 in vis’ interview with Dr. Alfred Joshua, chief medical 2016. Additionally, the ordinance mandates five officer for the Sheriff’s Department’s Detentions paid sick days a year for workers. Services Bureau. Advocates for raising the wage wanted more, and This is a big deal for us. We bested entries from for good reason: It takes far in excess of $11.50 an excellent papers across the country, and an investihour—$23,920 per year for a 40-hour work week— gative-reporting plaque is our journalism holy grail. to afford a basic living in San Diego. City Council We couldn’t be prouder of Davis and Maass. President Todd Gloria, who spearheaded the effort along with the liberal think tank Center on Policy What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com. Initiatives, initially proposed $13.09 per hour. GivThis issue of CityBeat prefers the purple stuff over Sunny D.
Volume 12 • Issue 49
Arts Editor Kinsee Morlan
Contributors Ian Cheesman, David L. Coddon, Seth Combs, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Nina Sachdev Hoffmann, Peter Holslin, Dave Maass, Scott McDonald, Jenny Montgomery, Susan Myrland, Mina Riazi, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Jen Van Tieghem
Staff Writer Joshua Emerson Smith
Intern Natalie Eisen
Web Editor Ryan Bradford
Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse
Art director Lindsey Voltoline
Production artist Rees Withrow
Columnists Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza
Vice President of Operations David Comden
MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia
Publisher Kevin Hellman
Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Jeff Terich
Senior account executive Jason Noble Account Executives F. Scott Berman, Beau Odom, Kimberly Wallace Circulation / Office Assistant Giovanna Tricoli Accounting Alysia Chavez, Linda Lam, Monica MacCree Human Resources Andrea Baker
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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 2014.
4 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 5
Correction In last week’s “Seen Local” story about The Front art gallery, Kinsee Morlan misspelled Linda Caballero-Sotelo as “Caballero-Sopelo.” We’re sorry about the mistake.
Wanted: moral foundation The editorial in the June 18 CityBeat, “The psychos are back,” notes that some of the main PNAC (Project for the New American Century) neo-con figures who pushed hard for the U.S. Iraq invasion—Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Tenet, Wolfowitz, Feith, Bremer, others—are now back on the boobtube, claiming yet more troops and treasure should be flushed down the toilet on this absurd “cause.” Your editorial refers to this group as “idiots,” “liars,” “psychopaths” and “war criminals.” JFK was the last president who wanted to use U.S. foreign policy in constructive and responsible ways. This is why he was killed, alongside his decision to “end the Fed” (google “Green Hilton” and “Executive Order 11110”) and “Smash the CIA into a thousand pieces” (after learning the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a false-flag event and that the CIA was running heroin out of the Golden Triangle on Air America flights). Jesse Ventura recently published a book on the JFK assassination. Folks, please turn off your TV sets awhile and read it. While it’s taken the public 50 years to develop the courage to face the truth about the
6 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
JFK assassination, mainstream America still has not had the courage to address the real motives for the Iraq occupation (nor look into “9/11 truth”). Note: If you allow a Banana Republic coup to take over the highest office in the land, do not be surprised if the plotters decide to run the whole show, no Big Lie being too outrageous. Most of the “liars” and “war criminals” mentioned in your editorial, along with hundreds of others, should be in prison for life. Public officers knowingly lying to the public about the reasons for large-scale war—especially given the unspeakable harm that’s resulted, in Iraq and here at home—should result in many prison sentences. Also, huge financial penalties should be assessed against the main defense-contractor rogues gallery, long involved in looting the treasury under assorted false-flag agendas. While justice delayed is justice denied, better late than never. Your editorial mentions the death of “countless Iraqi civilians.” Actually, the count was said to be over 1 million, a decade ago, with the number displaced far greater. Meanwhile, the trillions from our national treasury flushed down the toilet in all this absurd hell-making could have done such wonderful things here: huge retraining and infrastructure building, mortgage and unemployment relief, free healthcare and adult education, etc. These things finally need to be faced. We need to reestablish a moral foundation for our nation. We cannot continue permitting major criminals—white collar or
“war criminal” types—to run our major institutions, parade around boldly perpetuating lies, misleading our society and making fools of our nation. We must finally have the courage and integrity to act. Any who’ve received paychecks from the defense sector or military have many multiples the responsibility of others, to finally see things set to rights. It is to the unspeakable disgrace and dishonor of our mainstream military and foreign policy participants that so many, for so long, have allowed dishonest agendas to direct their careers.. James Wallerstedt, North Park
Same ol’, same ol’ Regarding your June 18 editorial, “The psychos are back”: The more things change the more they stay the same. Obama is caught between Iraq and a hard place. (Pun intended.) Damned if he does something and damned if he doesn’t. Unfortunately, he’s decided to act by sending 300 special-forces “advisers” into Iraq. Anyone old enough to remember Vietnam remembers that the first boots on the ground were labeled “advisers.” The psychos never left; they just keep changing parties. Dan Adams, Bay Park
Kelly Davis
Dr. Alfred Joshua has been on the job since last November.
The doctor is in Sheriff’s Department’s chief medical officer talks jail-policy overhaul by Kelly Davis On July 3, 36-year-old Hector Lleras hanged himself in San Diego County’s Central Jail, the fifth inmate to commit suicide this year. With his death, 2014 tied 2013’s five inmate suicides—itself a high number for a jail system that, since 2007, has seen three suicides a year, on average. Last year, 12 inmates died in custody, a number that’s nearly been matched by this year’s 11 deaths. Last November, Dr. Alfred Joshua became the chief medical officer for the Sheriff’s Department’s Detentions Services Bureau, replacing Dr. Earl Goldstein, who retired in 2013 after more than a decade in the position. Joshua, who declined to give his age, attended medical school at State University of New York, Syracuse, and earned an MBA from UC Irvine. Prior to joining the Sheriff’s Department, he was the senior medical officer in charge of healthcare reform at Tri-City Hospital and served as medical director for Volunteers of America. He’s board certified in emergency medicine and, to maintain his skills, picks up four to six shifts a month at a local emergency room (he declined to say which one). Joshua came in not only amid an increasing number of in-custody deaths, but also facing the challenges of AB 109, the state law aimed at reducing prison over-
crowding by sentencing certain offenders to county jails instead of state custody. Prior to AB 109, the average stay for a San Diego County jail inmate was two months, the maximum stay one year; now, some inmates are serving sentences of three to four years or longer. Last week, Joshua sat down with CityBeat to talk about policy changes he’s made and strategies he’d like to implement to not only reduce the number of inmate deaths, but also improve inmate welfare overall. Shortly after being hired, Joshua undertook a review of “all clinical policies, clinical programs, disease management, hospitalizations and mortality data,” he said. His review of inmate deaths had him pulling files going as far back as January 2004. He wouldn’t say whether the number of suicides—or number of deaths overall—indicate a problem, only that each case gets a thorough review with procedural changes in mind. “Every death is taken very, very seriously,” he said. “We have a very stringent process of reviewing how these events occurred and what we can do to prevent anything going into the future.” Since March 2013, CityBeat’s run a series of stories on deaths in San Diego County jails. A 2012 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)—the research and analysis arm of the U.S. Department of Justice—revealed that the county had the second-highest inmate death rate among California’s large jail systems. Using the same formula as the BJS, which allows for comparisons with other populations (the annual number
of deaths divided by a jail system’s average daily population and expressed as per 100,000 inmates), CityBeat found that between 2007 and 2012, the county’s inmate death rate had only increased. In our initial story, the Sheriff’s Department took issue with our use of the BJS formula, arguing that we should have used annual bookings and not the average daily population because, theoretically, each person who enters the jail is at risk of dying. Using this metric, San Diego County fares much better, because, for various reasons, the jails here book a disproportionately high number of inmates—annual bookings are close to 90,000. By comparison, Los Angeles County booked roughly 137,000 inmates last year but had an average daily population (ADP) three times the size of San Diego’s. Orange County’s 2013 ADP was 6,690, compared with San Diego’s 5,556, but O.C. booked 61,801 inmates, compared with San Diego’s 89,577. “The more people who are booked and released,” we wrote, “the better the [mortality] rate looks.” And, as Lindsey Hayes, an expert on jail suicides, has noted, jail systems tend not to complain about the BJS formula until their mortality rate comes under scrutiny. Joshua took issue with CityBeat’s use of the BJS methodology for the same reason as the department did last year: It’s not just who’s in jail on any given day, but whom the jails are going to see that year that needs to be considered. And, it’s a group of people who, largely, haven’t taken care of themselves. “So, you’re looking at that many people that are cycling through our system every given year with a whole myriad of past medical problems, past psychiatric problems and then all the other issues,” he said.
This week, the county Medical Examiner’s office released its annual report, showing that suicides are up countywide. Since 1988, only twice has the suicide rate been higher. Joshua said this could explain the uptick in suicides in county jails. Jails are a microcosm of society, he said, and folks who suffer from the things that might lead to suicide—mental illness, addiction—are more likely to end up in jail. San Diego, though, isn’t the only county to see a recent increase in general-population suicides. There were no suicides in Orange County jails in 2013 and only one each in 2011 and 2012, despite that county seeing an increase in its overall suicide rate. Trends are similar in Riverside County, which also had no suicides in its jails last year. Joshua emphasized that his focus is bigger than what happens to folks while they’re in custody. Incarceration is associated with an overall reduced life expectancy, and inmates, research has found, are at a higher risk of death—from suicide, drug overdose and chronic health conditions— shortly after they’re discharged. “I’m, like, let’s take a much more longterm view on these individuals,” Joshua said. “Let’s look at a lot more integrative potential into the community. Let’s try to make them as successful on the front end as the back end.” One area that Joshua’s overhauled is when and how inmates are prescribed medication. Last November, 100,000 narcotic pills were dispensed in San Diego County jails. In June, that number was 42,000. “And that was with aggressive physician education; that was with a policy that basically said that they’re counseling the inmates, asking about substance-abuse history, all that stuff. That was about making sure that if [inmates] were caught trying to sell it to somebody else, those behaviors were stopped immediately.” Of the 72 inmate deaths CityBeat looked at between 2007 and 2013, 10 were the result of either intentional or accidental drug overdose. In many of those cases, prescription drugs were involved, either alone or in combination with illegal drugs. One example is Christopher Blenderman, a 40year-old with a history of psychiatric issues who was found dead on Sept. 7, 2012, from a lethal combination of meth, heroin, antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, some of which had been prescribed to him while some hadn’t. His cellmate told a deputy that Blenderman had been hoarding medication. And in its September 2009 review of the death of James Phillips, the county’s Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, which investigates suspicious in-custody deaths, found that other inmates had helped Philips hoard the antidepressant Doxepin. The jail has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to hoarding and selling medications, Joshua said, and will discontinue a medication, or find another method of delivery—liquid form or crushed pills—if an inmate’s caught. “It’s not that they’re completely going
Joshua CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 7
Lindsey Voltoline
There are two ways to measure a jail system’s inmate-death rate: using the average daily population or using total annual bookings. This chart shows how San Diego County fares among California’s seven largest counties using both formulas for the year 2013. Counties for which there is only one bar had no suicides. cold-turkey,” he assured. The revamped drug policy also takes into account what happens when inmates leave jail, especially those with mental illness who receive psychotropic medications in custody—more than one-third of the jail population—but then discontinue taking them after discharge. “Most of these individuals, when they’re off their
8 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
medications, they’re likely to get into trouble,” Joshua said. “And then we see them, we stabilize them, they go right back out.” Making sure inmates get hooked up with community clinics so there’s continuity in care is something Joshua’s working on with the county’s Probation Department. “For inmates, it should be simple regimens; they
should have the least amount of side effects... and then cost is another thing,” he said “You put them on very expensive medications in here—great, we stabilize them and they can’t afford them when they get out.” Joshua said that suicide-prevention policies are also being examined. Currently, when an inmate expresses the intent to commit suicide, he’s put into a safety cell. The restricted environment and constant monitoring means that inmates often won’t admit suicidal thoughts to jail staff, or will claim to be doing better when they’re really not. Since 2008, at least two inmates killed themselves shortly after being removed from suicide watch, CityBeat found Joshua said the Sheriff’s Department is looking at whether there can be an intermediate step in that process—“like a step-down unit,” he said, between an inmate being placed in a normal cell and a safety cell. In 2008, CLERB’s investigation of the suicide of 21-year-old Adrian Correa—a schizophrenic who’d threatened suicide in the past—identified significant gaps in how information regarding at-risk inmates was being communicated between guards and support staff. The board advised the Sheriff’s Department to include briefings during shift changes and implement a checklist system so deputies could better keep track of suicidal inmates. It took the Sheriff’s Department nearly two years to respond to CLERB’s recommendation. When it did, Goldstein, Joshua’s predecessor, dismissed CLERB’s findings and downplayed the problem of suicides, saying that during a two-year period—July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2009—only four inmates had killed themselves (his count was off by two). “It is not practical to add these systems to the current program,” Goldstein wrote.
Joshua declined to comment on policies under Goldstein, but said that better communication among staff—not only deputies, but anyone who comes in contact with an inmate—is one of the suicide-prevention strategies he’s focusing on. “One of the triggers for further evaluation by mental-health providers would be when an inmate deviates from what they normally do,” he said. “So, housekeeping, those who pass out meals, would be trained to recognize those behaviors.” Staff would also be trained to look for triggers— an inmate who seems troubled after a phone call, family visit or a bad day in court. Joshua also wouldn’t discuss specific cases with CityBeat but emphasized that the Sheriff’s Department is examining “all aspects” of suicide prevention, down to the sheets that inmates fashion into nooses—hanging is the leading method of jail suicide. “But I think the most important thing from a medical standpoint is: How do we get them away from the moment that they feel hopeless?” he said. In his review of inmate deaths, Joshua found that for every completed suicide, there were 11 attempted suicides. “So, in 11 cases, our deputies are successful, our medical staff are successful in stopping these individuals and identifying these individuals—and these 11 attempts don’t go into how many people we’ve pre-identified and taken out of that whole equation,” he said. “We always know we can get better. In every situation and every month I’ve been here, that’s what we’ve been driving towards.” Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 9
by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner
(4768 Convoy St., fuangarden.com). Instead of ’80s-style Szechuan-bychile, these restaurants feature spiceby-layer—heat from chiles interacting with numbing Sichuan peppercorns (a different ’80s sensation), allowing otherwise mind-blowingly hot food to be enjoyed with a wide-open palate. Meals start well at FuAn. The coldappetizer bar offers some of FuAn’s best food. Cold beef, pig’s ear, tripe, cucumbers, bamboo shoots or the seaweed—it really doesn’t matter which three dishes you pick; they will all be excellent. Soy, chile oil and Sichuan peppercorns conspire to simultaneously prepare you for what’s to come and preview it. In reality, I’d be more than satisfied sourcing the entire meal from that bar. Not everything at FuAn is that good. The boiled fish, a revelation at A few of FuAn Garden’s cold appetizers Spicy City, was just wrong at FuAn. Our waiter said it was swordfish. It wasn’t. For that matter, it wasn’t fresh. Far too much cornstarch in the sauce produced a disturbingly viscous texture. It was not a good dish. The frog in green-chili hot sauce was not quite as bad. The frog itself was flavorful (and, yes, it tasted like chicken). But the sauce was so A numbing burn imprecise, so muddled in its flavors, that it detracted from the dish’s focus rather than enhancThe history of Chinese food in this country is ing it. The home-style lamb seemed more Hunan rife with mislabeling. The first “Chinese” food to in style than Sichuan, but the interaction of sweet gain popularity on these shores was “chop suey” garlic shoots and layers of chiles was addictive. which, of course, was never truly Chinese. Next Better still were the spicy fried spareribs. At came “Mandarin” cuisine that had little to do one level, frying spareribs certainly sounds grawith the food actually served in the Forbidden tuitous. What in the name of Jenny Craig is with City; it was, instead, a repertoire of dishes origithe concept of taking such legendarily fatty meat nating in Fujiian Province in China’s southeast— and frying it? Why, flavor, of course. It just tastes the source of a major wave of Chinese immigragood: caramelized on the outside and supremetion—presented as that which it was not. ly moist and tender on the inside. Frankly, why So, when “Szechuan” cuisine hit San Diego in would you ever want to eat ribs that weren’t luxthe early 1980s, the food, not surprisingly, hardly uriously, stupidly fatty. What would be the point? resembled that of Sichuan Province. Rumor had That’s the message of this particular dish. it the stuff was supposed to be really spicy, and The food at FuAn is, in the end, uneven. Its this stuff certainly was. But it was not Sichuan in best dishes are excellent. Many others—most, style. Adding a bunch of arbol or Japones chiles to perhaps—are not nearly so good. But, frankly, Fujiian dishes does not make them Sichuan. even those dishes are vastly superior to that which used to go out under the label of “Szechuan.” But in the last half decade, real Sichuan cuisine has arrived. There are now at least four Sichuan Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com restaurants on Convoy Street alone—Spicy City, and editor@sdcitybeat.com. Spicy House, Szechuan Chef and FuAn Garden
the world
fare
10 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
BY KELLY DAVIS kelly davis
cocktail
tales Tea time
Here’s something I didn’t know until I started doing research for this column: A few years ago, the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) started cracking down on bartenders who were “rectifying” spirits. Rectifying, according to ABC, was “any process or procedure whereby distilled spirits are cut, blended, mixed or infused with any ingredient which… changes the character or nature of the distilled spirit.” This was an interpretation of an antiquated state law, and it almost put the kibosh on doing things like, say, infusing Campari with passionfruit tea, which means we’d never have Bankers Hill restaurant’s sublime Roman Pipeline cocktail, made with white rum, passion-fruit-tea-infused Campari, pineapple, lemon and orgeat. Given that enforcement was focused on San Francisco—California’s craft-cocktail hub at the time—Sen. Mark Leno quickly introduced legislation to allow mixology wizards to work their magic unimpeded. As a result, there are some mighty good teainfused cocktails showing up on menus around town. In addition to the Roman Pipeline, Bankers Hill’s also got the whiskey-sour-inspired Golden Thrill (bourbon, clove-green-tea-infused Amaro Meletti, lemon and honey). Just up the street, Bertrand at Mr. A’s offers a caffeine buzz in the form of the simple-but-elegant Royal Tea (black-tea-infused gin, spiced orange honey and fresh lemon). On the Westgate Hotel’s newish “Tipsy Teas” menu, you’ll find Rumbling Tins Cocktail Co.’s trio of tea-infused cocktails. My favorite was A Royal Affair, a take on a margarita but with Green Chartreuse and tequila infused with cinnamon tea. It was a totally unexpected flavor that totally worked. If you want to try to infuse your own spirits, there’s no end to online how-tos. Steeping time depends on what kind of liquor you’re using and how much. Or, skip the infusing and simply use tea like you’d use a mixer. Either way, Coffee & Tea Collective in North Park is the place to get
The Westgate’s Tipsy Teas your product. I asked co-owner Michael Spear what he’d recommend. “A nice black tea tends to work best with bourbon-based drinks,” he says. Coffee & Tea Collective’s black tea, for instance, blended with orange peel and cloves, “gives a nod” to Southern iced tea without being overly sweet, Spears says. Folks use chai tea for a take on a hot-toddy (keep that in mind for fall and winter). And the green and herbal teas go well with lighter spirits. In fact, Coffee & Tea Collective’s herbal tea— organic chamomile, spearmint from New Roots Community Farm, organic blackberry leaf and Cascade Hops from Star B Ranch in Ramona—is kind of begging folks to get creative. For something quick-and-easy, try Owl’s Brew (available at Pigment in North Park). The tea-based mixer—small-batch, made in Vermont—comes in three flavors: Pink & Black (darjeeling, hibiscus, lemon, strawberry and agave), The Classic (English Breakfast tea with citrus) and Coco-Lada (chai, coconut and pineapple). You can’t go wrong with any of them. Pink & Black works really well with bourbon (or white wine for a twist on sangria). Try Coco-Lada with vodka or spiced rum for a less-sugary pina colada. The Classic works with both vodka and gin— at least that’s what my husband tells me. He and a friend finished it during a World Cup match. The empty bottle smelled really nice, though. Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 11
by jenny montgomery Jenny montgomery
to the fruit preserves and the Dijon mustard. Maybe it’s because one of my first experiences with a crêpe was from a little cart in Paris on a chilly January morning, but there are few food delights more magical in their simplicity. There are both sweet and savory options at French Corner, but go humble and opt for one filled with just preserves (apricot was fresh when I visited). Grab a baguette for something a bit more toothsome. The bread is like what you’d find in any European bakery: Alexandra Long, on the job one-day bread. It’s crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and only at its perfect freshness for one, preservative-free day. I loved the jambon et beurre, a French classic with tender, thinly sliced ham, sliced-to-order gruyere and delicately tangy cornichons. Ask for it heated a bit to melt the cheese, but they’ll make it for you Authentic and passionate hot or cold. Although Long’s tiny little outpost isn’t big Snarky jokes about the French aside, there are enough to do all of the bread baking (that’s done few among us who’ve traveled to France and by a local French baker who meets Long’s righaven’t been awed by their joie de vivre, especially orous standards), she does manage to crank out when it comes to food. So much of “good living” some extraordinary pastries. The orange-scentin France comes from good food. And, no, it’s not ed madeleines are spongy and moist and utterly fussy, fancy, gourmet food. It’s the best bread, perfect. They make the plastic-wrapped vercheese and in-season, organic produce you can sions at your local coffee shop taste like baking find. It’s not rocket science, but it’s taking awhile abominations. for our own food culture to see that good eating And please try the macarons. You’ve probably doesn’t come from fads or large quantities. Reseen pictures of perfect, hyper-colored ones in training our tummies to eat smaller portions of trendy New York bakeries, but know those are better food (yes, for possibly a few dollars more) probably machine-made. Macarons are temperais an uphill battle, but one that we might just be mental and challenging to bake, so a few cracks catching onto. and imperfections (and you’ll see them at French French Corner Café & Bakery in Leucadia Corner) are usually a sign of being handmade just (1200 N. Coast Hwy. 101, frenchcorner101.com), for you. The outer cookies are puffy and crisp, helmed by chef / owner Alexandra Long, is trying sandwiching a rich, delicate swipe of ganache. to bring a little bit of that authentic French eating I’ll take just one of these elegant, sweet treats experience to our everyday lives. over any cloying cupcake any day. Long insists she’s not trying to educate or “Authentic” is the watchword at French Corpreach that her way is better, but, like most ner, and that joy and passion for good food, eating French people, she’s passionate about good, simply and living well is infectious. quality food and believes the bit of extra effort Write to jennym@sdcitybeat.com it takes to produce it is absolutely essential. She and editor@sdcitybeat.com. makes almost everything in-house, right down
north
fork
12 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 13
the floating
library
by jim ruland
Shadowy author gets his moment in the sun When I graduated from college with a degree in English, I had ambitions of setting the literary world on fire. My plan was to move to Hollywood and become a James Joyce scholar who also wrote novels and screenplays. There was just one problem: I didn’t know how to write. Shortly after graduation, a friend turned me on to a slim little crime novel called Recoil by Jim Thompson. It had lots of hardboiled dialog and plenty of action, but it was psychologically slick and more than a little strange. I was hooked. Recoil was published by Barry Gifford’s Black Lizard imprint that reissued forgotten crime novels from the 1930s through the ’60s. I read all of the Black Lizard books I could find, and while I came to appreciate Thompson’s weirdness, my favorite of these novelists was David Goodis. Goodis’ stories were straightforward, and his characters tended to be working-class people on the fringes of respectability, but his prose was more lyrical and highly stylized. These novels were as entertaining as they were instructive. I’d breeze through a novel in an afternoon and reflect on the author’s creative choices. It was all right there: setting, character, story and voice. Those Black Lizard novels taught me more about storytelling than four years of college did. Thanks to Black Lizard, Thompson enjoyed a level of acclaim that he never experienced during his lifetime, but the same could not be said of Goodis. Goodis was a writer from Philadelphia who, despite having worked in Hollywood—most notably adapting his novel Dark Passage, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall—remained largely an enigma. In a genre that thrives on mystery, one of its most important writers was cloaked in one that’s taken decades to unravel. In Goodis: A Life in Black and White (Black Pool Productions) Philippe Garnier answers many of the questions that have surrounded the shadowy figure. Who was he? What drew him to such dark material? What happened to him in Hollywood? Goodis being Goodis, even his biography has a curious publication history. Garnier is a French writer and filmmaker who got on Goodis’ trail in 1982, when he was making a short documentary about the writer, and published his findings in 1984. Now, 30 years later, it’s finally been published in English. In 1982, all of Goodis’ novels were out of print
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in the United States, but he was widely read in France, where his novels were published alongside James Cain, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett in the famous Série Noire, which predates the term “film noir.” Goodis’ work gained cultural currency in France in 1960, when Francois Truffaut adapted the novel Down There in his whimsical gangster flick, Shoot the Piano Player. Garnier set out to discover why his countrymen were fascinated with what he describes as a “little known and lightweight American author,” and the results are fascinating. It also helps that Garnier’s biography reads like the case file of a private detective: “After my return from Philadelphia, I started getting phone calls and letters from all over: Florida, New York, New Jersey, even Barcelona. Most of these people didn’t know much about Goodis, but they all knew someone who knew.” Sleuthing around from coast to coast, Garnier uncovers a lot of fascinating material: Goodis was hardworking, ambitious and thrifty. Aside from a long stint in Hollywood, he lived with his parents and his mentally ill brother, who died amid mysterious circumstances. In Hollywood, he shunned the company of other writers. He had lots of friends but never talked with them about his writing or the movies he worked on. Although he made a lot of money working in Hollywood, he was infamously tightfisted. He took labels from expensive tailors and had them sewn into second-hand suits. He drove around Hollywood in an ancient Chrysler convertible. Rather than live in an apartment or hotel, he rented a couch from a friend and would go days without bathing. Most curious of all Goodis’ proclivities was his nightlife. He was a masochist who preferred the company of large African-American women—or, as one source confides, “David liked them big and black, but they had to be mean, sullen, bitter and brutal.” That sounds a lot like the kind of prose you’ll find in Goodis novels like The Moon in the Gutter and Street of No Return. Thanks to Garnier’s pitchperfect mix of persistence and panache, the dark alleys of Goodis’ past are well worth revisiting. Write to jimr@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
the
SHORTlist
ART
COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN
nual events in the county, and, aside from the masked leather daddies, no one’s covering his or her face. Pride pre-parties are already happening, but the event officially kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday, July 18, with the Spirit of Stonewall Rally and Flag Raising at the intersection of Normal Street and University Avenue in Hillcrest. Laverne Cox, the transgendered actor who plays Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black and a strong advocate for the LGBT community, is the keynote speaker. She’ll be joined by other notables, including San Diego City Council President Last year’s Pride Parade had folks feeling friendly. Todd Gloria. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, July 19, the Pride Parade takes off at Normal Street in Hillcrest, heads west down University Forty years ago, San Diego Pride was a Avenue, hangs a left at Sixth Avenue, veers over to small-but-fierce protest. Fernando Lo- Balboa Drive and ends near Laurel Street where the pez, the organization’s spokesperson, Pride Celebration and Music Festival is happensays that only a few dozen people marched through ing from noon to 10 p.m. and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. downtown San Diego in the city’s first Pride event. Sunday, July 20. “Many were active service members who had paThis year’s fest, tickets for which cost $20 for per bags over their heads, since homosexuality was both days, includes tons of themed stages featuring still considered a mental illness and they were afraid live music, DJs and other performances. New this of the persecution they would face,” Lopez says. “So, year is a beach-themed area, the Big Gay Wedding it’s become quite a different Pride from 40 years ago.” Expo and an official NASA information and outIn the four decades since, San Diego Pride has reach booth. grown tremendously. It’s now one of the largest an“We’re thrilled to have NASA,” Lopez says. “The more LGBT people in STEAM fields”—science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics— “the better.” Visit sandiegopride.org for a list of all of this year’s Pride events. Admit it: You’ve lived in San Diego a long time, and it gnaws at you that there are certain parts of the region that you’ve never explored. ImThere will be craft beer at Craft / Art, perial Beach is one of those places, isn’t it? Mm-hm. a comic-book art show and auction this We thought so. Guess what: Saturday, July 19, will week at the Stone Brewing Tap Room. be a great day to finally head over to the weird little seaside enclave. That’s when the Sun & Sea Festival Coinciding with Preview Night of the 2014 San Dihappens, highlighted by teams of expert sand sculp- ego Comic-Con, many artists are expected to drop tors creating master works in the Original Imperial by and do live sketches Beach Sandcastle Competition. If you can get there for sale. Already conby 7 a.m., there’s a pancake breakfast, followed by firmed are Jeromy Cox, a community parade, a farmers market, an interna- creator of “Zombie Love” tional food fair, kids’ sandcastle building and live and “Sonámbulo” artist Rafael Navarro. Fans of music. Get all the details at sunandseafestival.com. comic art can swing by the venue (795 J St. in East Village) from 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, and perhaps acquire one of these fresh sketches or take part in a silent auction that’ll feature artwork, books and other comic-centric merch. Proceeds benefit Media Arts Center San Diego and its Summer Youth Media & Tech Camp. Suggested donation is $5 to $10. Search for Craft/Art on Facebook.
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Saturday, July 19. $5-$10. mcasd.org
Shore Thing at MCASD La Jolla, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. MCASD galleries will be open late every Thursday and guests to enjoy cocktails on the terrace, live music, tours of current exhibitions and more. From 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, July 17. 858-454-3541, mcasd.org HTARPS | CHAINS | PHOTOS at A Ship in the Woods, Row Collective, 2690 Via de la Valle, Del Mar. Frank Van Duerm’s first solo show outside of Chicago is comprised of several yarn-dyed linen tarps that’ve been bleached, marbleized and affixed with various chains and small objects. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 17. 619-218-2737, shipinthewoods.com HOur Soul Group at TPG2, 1475 University Ave., Hillcrest. A collection of six artists that guest curator Isaias Crow personally admires—including Armando de la Torre, Dina Bedenko and Jill Marie Holslin. Opening from 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 17. 619-203-6030, TPG2.net Art in Bloom at Spanish Village Art Center, 1770 Village Place, Balboa Park. The fourth-annual event combines the talents of area artists and floral designers. Artworks in various media will be displayed alongside floral interpretations. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday, July 18-20. svacartinbloom.blogspot.com Dogs and One Robot at San Diego Art Institute-Museum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park. San Diego artist Dan Adams shares new paintings of one of his favorite subjects: dogs. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 18. $3. sandiego-art.org HParanoia, Mind Control And The Art Of Suggestion at 1150 Seventh Ave., Downtown. A group art show focused on conspiracy, paranormal, occult and the fringe. Artists include Felicia Martinez, Robert Preston, Ryan Campbell and dozens more. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 18-19. Email ryan@wonkaGallery for more info. The Cutri Gift: A Summer Celebration of Recent Acquisitions at Founders Hall, 5998 Alcala Park, Linda Vista. More than 30 works including California landscape prints; early linocuts and lithographs by Belle Baranceanu and images by European artists associated with Art Noveau. Opening from noon to 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 18. sandiego.edu/galleries HArt of Pride Reception and Awards at Balboa Park. Inside the gates of the Pride Festival, the annual reception and awards show showcases the best art submitted for this year’s Fest. Artists include Eric Cantrell, Nora Middleton, David Russell Talbott and nearly a dozen more. From 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 18. artofpride.weebly.com HLast Breath of Summer at Subtext Gallery, 2479 Kettner Blvd., Little Italy. International artist collective PRISMA capture fleeting images of summer. Participating artists include Kelly Vivanco, Kaspian Shore, Casey Weldon and Edith Lebeau. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 19. subtextgallery.com HArtists of North Park Reception and Talk at Expressive Arts, 3201 Thorn St., North Park. View a selection of works and hear from the artists who created them. Artists include Stuart Burton, Paula Thomas, Dan Landrum and over a dozen more. From 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 19. expressiveartssandiego.com HAn Artist’s Perspective: Tim Youd at MCASD La Jolla, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. Gain a deeper understanding of Tim Youd’s performance art piece, “The Long Goodbye,” where he’s undertaken the task of retyping Raymond Chandler’s classic novel in MCASD’s Krichman Gallery. At 2 p.m.
HCreature Feature at Left Hand Black, 1947 Fern St., South Park. A collection of one-of-a-kind creatures from the minds of 40 top artists including Mike Bukowski, Sara Edison, Steve Ferrera and more. Includes tattoo art, sculpture art, fine art and even taxidermy. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 19. lhblk.com HStoryLINES: Portrait of a Changing Community at The AjA Project, 4089 Fairmount Ave., City Heights. Two years in the making, the project called on City Heights residents to produce artwork that speaks to their personal journeys. Opening from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 19. facebook.com/events/794763663874946 ZERO° at Bella Vista Social Club & Caffe, 2880 Torrey Pines Scenic Drive, La Jolla. A collection of work from third generation San Diegan and fine metal artist, Michael Leaf, with a portion of proceeds benefitting the Autism Tree Project Foundation. Opening from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 19. 858-534-9624, bellavistacaffe.com HCreative Economies at Helmuth Projects, 1827 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Mixedmedia works by Joshua Pavlick and Alexander Jarman, where the economic links between art and commerce are made highly visible. All proceeds from the exhibition are earmarked to support the show that directly follows. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 19. helmuth-projects.com Horses in Motion at Nativa Interiors Solana Beach, 143. S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. An exhibit of equine-inspired artwork by 10 artists (Joseph Moscoso, Darlene Katz and Donna Bernstein, to name a few) with a portion of the proceeds benefitting thoroughbred charity After the Finish Line. Opening from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 19. nativafurniture.com Photographs of the Great Wall at San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, 404 Third Ave., Downtown. World-renowned photographer Chen Changfen visits from China to present his awe-inspiring photographs of the Great Wall, which he’s been photographing since the ‘60s. Opening from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 19. 619338-9888, sdchm.org HCRAFT/ART at Stone Brewing Tap Room, 795 J St., East Village. Live sketching by some of the top artists in the world of comics. Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase one-of-a-kind themed sketches as well as to bid in a silent auction with proceeds benefitting Media Arts Center San Diego. From 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. $5-10 suggested donation. 619-727-4452 EMPOWER Art Music Show at La Bodega Studios and Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. Artwork by A Reason To Survive (ARTS) Empower students, with a musical performance by Stephanie G. featuring Dr. Funk and the Quickhands. From 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. areasontosurvive.org
BOOKS HCraig Harwood at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. Harwood discusses Quest for Flight, the story of San Diego-based inventor, John Montgomery. At noon Thursday, July 17. 6192365800, sandiegolibrary.org Erika Johansen at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The debut novelist will discuss and sign Queen of the Tearling, about a young princess who must reclaim her dead mother’s throne from malevolent sorceress. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17. warwicks.indiebound.com
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HSam Halpern at Rancho San Diego Library, 11555 Via Rancho San Diego, El Cajon. The author, retired UCSD physician and the dad from Shit My Dad Says will read from his novel, A Far Piece to Canaan, inspired by his childhood in rural Kentucky. At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17. The author will be also be at Branch Library, 4275 Cass St. in Pacific Beach at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 22. pblibraryfriends.org HCharlie Musser at Barnes & Noble Escondido, 810 W. Valley Pkwy, Escondido. Join the local author as he discusses and signs his new book, Images of America: San Marcos, a new pictorial history focusing on the “Hub of North County.” At 6 p.m. Friday, July 18. arcadiapublishing.com Allie Burke at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The novelist stops by to sign the third and final book in the “Enchantress Series,” Amber Passion. At 2 p.m. Saturday, July 19. mystgalaxy.com Helen Pruden Kaufmann at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Part of Warwick’s ongoing Weekend with Locals program, Kaufmann will discuss and sign White Gloves and Collards: A Memoir, set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement. At noon Sunday, July 20. 858-454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com HAlan Mindell at Upstart Crow, 835 West Harbor Drive, Seaport Village. The local author will sign and discuss his new novel, The Closer: A Baseball Love Story, the heartwarming story of a knuckleball pitcher who finally gets his chance to play in the Majors. At 4 p.m. Sunday, July 20. 619-232-4855, upstartcrowtrading.com Ellen Sussman at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Sussman will discuss and sign A Wedding in Provence, a novel of love, forgiveness and trust, set among the beaches and vineyards of southern France. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. warwicks.indiebound.com HSteve Breen at Unicorn Books and Gifts, 738 Main St., Ramona. Meet the Pulitzer-winning cartoonist and author who’ll be there to sign his new book, Unicorn Executions and Other Crazy Stuff My Kids Make Me Draw. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. 760-788-3700, unicornbooksandgifts.com
COMEDY HBroken Lizard at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme, two members of the Broken Lizard Comedy Group and creators of films such as Super Troopers tell funny stories. At 8 p.m. Thursday, July 17, and 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 18-19. $20. 619-7953858, americancomedyco.com HImprov Wars at Twiggs Bakery & Coffeehouse, 2804 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Join Roar Theatre Improv for a completely improvised comedy show that draws inspiration from Star Wars yet will be based off of audience suggestions. From 8 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, July 18. $5. 619-296-4077, roartheatre.com HSome Magnificent Thing! at Finest City Improv, 4250 Louisiana St., North Park. Through improvisation, Finest City Improv performers created an irreverent, socially charged romp through some of San Diego’s beloved landscapes. At 8 p.m. Saturday, July 19. $10. 619-3066047, finestcityimprov.com HRita Rudner at North Park Theatre, 2891 University Avenue, North Park. The glass ceiling-shattering comedian and The New York Times bestselling author is also an award-winning television personality, screenwriter, playwright, Broadway dancer, and actress. What can’t she do?
THEATER
This Orphan finds a home in La Jolla Luminous and artfully staged, La Jolla Playhouse’s The Orphan of Zhao, presented in association with American Conservatory Theater, is an epic story of sacrifice, revenge and self-reclamation that dates back to 4th Century B.C. in China. This adaptation was written by English poet and journalist James Fenton and is directed by Carey Perloff, who’s American Conservatory Theater’s artistic director. So, thematic weightiness and major professional credentials abound here. Yet, The Orphan of Zhao is a long and winding story (and a lengthy show) that satisfyingly surprises in its technical ingenuity on stage but not so much in its narrative. Most of the play’s turns are predictable, for it’s a rather traditional premise: Innocent baby loses his birthright, is spirited away from sure death and raised not knowing his true identity until the point at which, as a young man, he learns it and takes revenge. BD Wong, playing the part of the doctor who saves the orphan from execution, is The Orphan of Zhao’s life-giving force on stage. Having previously played the role at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, Wong gives a thoroughly absorbing performance and anchors the play to our emotions like nothing else does—not the bloodless but breathless murders nor the thoughtfully employed live music and percussion. Wong, last seen at the Playhouse five years ago in a production of the musical Herringbone, personalizes a tale of grand scope, giving The Orphan of Zhao an intimacy that might otherwise be lost in all its spectacle. Back to music for a moment: There are places in the play where actors break into song, but many of these seem expository rather than lyrical expressions of emotion. This production has operatic tendencies, and they certainly are intentional, but they lack a certain seamlessness. The bamboo scenic design by Daniel Ostling At 7 p.m. Saturday, July 19. $35-$75. 619-239-8836, thenorthparktheatre.com The Filipino Comedy Tour at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. The national tour stops by with the full cast of Ron Josol, Joey Guila, Kevin Camia, Keith Pedro, Justin Rivera, Michael Quu and Rembrandt Sabelis all set to perform. At 8 p.m. Sunday, July 20. $25. 619-7953858, thefilipinocomedytour.com HThe He and She Show Newlywed Tour at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Enjoy a stand-up and situational comedy experience with the married duo of Doug and Teresa Wyckoff. It’s an interactive show using marriage advice drawn from the audience while weaving in stories, jokes and experiences. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 22. $10-$15. 858-573-9067, thecomedypalace.com HDoug Loves Movies Comic-Con Special at House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Comedian Doug Benson stops by with a team of other funny folks to record a special Comic-Con episode of his popular weekly comedy podcast. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. $35-$45. 619-299BLUE, houseofblues.com/sandiego
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and Linda Cho’s elaborate costumes are nothing less than exquisite, and the stage fighting and “sword” play are enthralling time and again. The Orphan of Zhao also boasts what any winning epic tale should: a villain to despise, and Stan Egi’s KEVIN BERNE Tu’an Gu enjoys his fiendish villainy to the absolute max. The Orphan of Zhao runs through Aug. 3 at La Jolla Playhouse. $35 and up. lajollaplayhouse.org.
—David L. Coddon Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
OPENING The Full Monty: The stage version of the 1997 British film has six unemployed Buffalo steelworkers putting on a strip show to raise money—and their spirits. Opens in previews on July 18 at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org Here Lies Jeremy Troy: In this farce, a painter hires a model to pose as his lawyer friend’s wife when the lawyer’s boss comes to dinner. Opens July 18 at PowPAC in Poway. powpac.org
BD Wong
Les Miserables: In this classic musical, a poor Frenchman spends 19 years in prison after stealing a loaf of bread, only to escape and get caught up in a revolution under an assumed identity. Opens July 20 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. lambsplayers.org Mary Poppins: A musical about a mysterious flying nanny who arrives to help two out-of-control children and their unhappy parents. Opens July 16 at the Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista. moonlightstage.com Out on a Limb: Scripps Ranch Theatre brings this festival of new works by local playwrights back for a third year, with three plays by Lisabeth Silverman, California Jack Cassidy and Jake Edmondson. Runs July 18 through 20 and July 25 through 27 at the Legler Benbough Theatre in Scripps Ranch. scrippsranchtheatre.org
For full listings,
please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com
DANCE Dance Explosion 2014 at Mira Costa College Theatre, 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside. Students from the MiraCosta College Dance Department perform works choreographed by both students and faculty. From 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, July 17-18. $10$15. 760-754-9686, miracosta.edu/buytix
FASHION HThe Oblong Box Shop’s Pinup PopUp Shop at PreFAB San Diego at The Headquarters, 789 West Harbor Dr., Suite 252, Downtown. A day of pinup shopping and styling featuring vendors for all shapes and sizes of women including Retro Ruthie, Fables by Barrie, Ceci Punch Designs, Blooms for Betties and more. There will also be professional hair and nail artists. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 19. 619-795-9268, theoblongboxshop.com
FOOD & DRINK HSausage Fest at LOUNGEsix, 616 J
St., Downtown. Ten chefs present their favorite sausage recipes to the public. Attendees enjoy live music by The Tighten Ups, Lost Abbey’s “The Road to Helles” beer and a take home mug. From 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 16. $10. 619531-8744, sdsausagefest.com Taste of the Pacific Islands at Bali Hai, 2230 Shelter Island Drive, Point Loma. Local restaurants offer a sampling of Pacific Island food. There will also be a silent auction and entertainment from Taupou Samoa and Brandon Cruz. From 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 17. $25-$40. 619222-1181, tasteofpifa2014.eventbrite.com Foodie Friday at La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla. Patrons attending a performance of The Orphan of Zhao or Ether Dome will have access to two food trucks, Green Truck and Red Oven. In addition, Stone Brewery will be offering free craft beer samples. At 6 p.m. Friday, July 18. 858-550-1010, lajollaplayhouse.org Padres Tailgate & Fire Fighter Chili Cook-Off at Embarcadero Marina Park South, 111 W. Harbor Drive, Downtown. Come chow down at the 34th annual cook-
off, with proceeds benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Purchase of admission also includes a ticket to the Padres vs. Mets game at Petco Park later that day. From noon to 4:45 p.m. Saturday, July 19. $20-$50. 619-686-6200, facebook.com/mdasandiegoimperialvalley HMike Hess Brewing Anniversary Street Party at Hess Brewing, 3812 Grim Ave., North Park. Enjoy unlimited samples from 30 different beers and tasters from participating eateries, along with live entertainment from Sandollar and The Routine. From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 19. $40. ticketsauce.com/e/hess-fest HBest Damn Bourbon & Beer Night III at Beer Co., 602 Broadway, Downtown. A night of fancy bourbons and single malts along with great craft brews. Admission gets you 10 pours. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 19. $50-$60. TicketsRevolution.com/bourbon3 Beer Camp Across America Southwest Edition at Embarcadero Marina Park North, 1 Marine Way, Downtown. Sample more than 170 craft beers at the second stop of the cross-country series of beer festivals. Breweries from Southern California, Southern Nevada, Arizona and Texas will be serving up to two beers apiece. From 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 20. $65. beercamp.sierranevada.com Hop-Con 2.0: The w00tstout Launch Festival at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens-Point Loma, 2816 Historic Decatur Rd #116, Point Loma. Join Stone for a festival of geekery, both craft-beer and standard varieties. Admission includes 10 four-ounce pours, a commemorative glass and edibles. From 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. $62. 619-269-2100, brownpapertickets.com/event/680025
MUSIC Funk in the Woods at The Row Collective, 2690 Via de la Valle, Del Mar. A special concert at the art space featuring performances from Sloslylove, Walkie Talkie, Pier.Point, Shy Wolve and an album release set from Winter Inter. From 9 p.m. to midnight. Thursday, July 17. $5$10. 619-218-2737, shipinthewoods.com Kendra Shank at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Part of the 25th anniversary season of the Athenaeum’s jazz program, a return performance by New York-based vocalist Kendra Shank, with Geoffrey Keezer on piano, Hamilton Price on bass and Zach Harmon on drums. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17. $26. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org HJoshua White Trio at Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave., Downtown. Part of The Westgate Poolside Sunset Jazz Series, local pianist White performs with Kevin Higuchi on drums and Justin Grinnell on bass. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17. 619-238-1818, westgatehotel.com HThe Music of ABBA at Embarcadero Marina Park South, 111 W. Harbor Drive, Downtown. “Dancing Queen” and more returns with one of today’s most popular tribute bands. At 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 18-19. 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org HSummersun Fest at Oceanside Amphitheatre, Mission Ave. West, Oceanside. A new summer festival concert featuring performances from The Wailers, Nico Luminous, Upfull Rising, Mikey Lion and Loose Nutts. From 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 19. $25-$30. 619-291-9797, summersunfest.com Summertime Super Chill Fest Freak Out at Roots Factory, 1878 Main St.,
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Barrio Logan. A cool music fest in Barrio Logan featuring performances from Wild Wild Wets, Slow White, Soft Lions, BRUIN and The Swift Beats. From 2 to 11 p.m. Saturday, July 19. HAria Marathon at Palisades Presbyterian Church, 6301 Birchwood St., Allied Gardens. Twenty-four singers and 24 arias. Get to know the Opera NEO Young Artists of 2014 as they perform a variety of famous tunes. At 7 p.m. Sunday, July 20. 619-582-0852, operaneo.com Robert Plimpton at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park. San Diego favorite Robert Plimpton, San Diego Civic Organist Emeritus, will play along with special guest tenor Marco Labastida. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 21. sosorgan.org San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory’s International Youth Symphony at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park. Gifted conservatory musicians from around the world will perform a selection of orchestral pieces as part of the Twilight in the Park series. At 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, July 22. 619-233-3232, sdys.org I Wanna Be Loved at Saville Theater @ San Diego City College, 1313 Park Blvd., Downtown. Written by Barbara Morrison and Michael Cormier, this musical theatre production is about the life and times of Dinah Washington. Morrison will reflect on the legend of the “Queen of the Blues” supported by the 18-piece BMPAC AllStars. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 22. $10. 619-388-3037, jazz88.org H#HACKINGIMPROV at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East Village. Composer and performer Blair Robert Nelson explores over a century of audio technology alongside violinist Kristopher Apple that attempts to reveal our relationship with musical
memory and how we adapt to emerging discoveries. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. $10. 619-269-7230, sdspace4art.org
ary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd., University Heights. Showcases the works of LGBT poets, writers and visual artists as well as the history that informs art by LGBT people of color. Authors in attendance include Myriam Gurba, Tom Cho and Ryka Aoki. From 1 to 5 p.m. Friday, July 18. 619220-0097, sdliteraryfoundation.org
Michele Lunde at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park. The blues musician will play a set as part of Balboa Park’s Twilight in the Park Summer Concerts series. At 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, July 23. , balboapark.org
HSouth Park Walkabout at 30th & Juniper, South Park. A seasonal, fun-filled evening festival to introduce you to South Park’s unique and independent boutiques, cafes and taverns. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 19. southparkscene.com
PERFORMANCE HYour Song, Your Story at Embarcadero Marina Park South, 111 W. Harbor Drive, Downtown. The completion of a two year S.D. Symphony project where over 300 local artist submissions were narrowed down to 18 culminating in a powerful performance piece that highlights the diversity and vibrancy in San Diego. From 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 16. 619-6866200, yoursongyourstory.org HDamaged Goods at White Box Theater, 2690 Truxtun Road, Point Loma. Three So Say We All writers share their stories in a multi-media evening, co-directed by Jean Isaacs and Justin Hudnall, that weaves together dance, video, text and spoken word. At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 18-19, and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 20. $20. 619-225-1803, sandiegodancetheater.org
SPECIAL EVENTS HDel Mar Thoroughbred Club Opening Day at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. This year marks the track’s 75th season of thoroughbred sport. This day’s not only about big bets and fast horses, but fashion-minded guests can participate in the 20th annual Opening Day Hat Contest. At noon Thurs-
“Nest” by Kaspian Shore is on view in PRISMA Collective’s group exhibition, opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 19, at Subtext (2479 Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy). day, July 17. 858-755-1141, dmtc.com Paris is Burning Ball at Low Gallery, 3778 30th St., North Park. Come in costume for a pre-Pride, Paris is Burningthemed costume party. All funds from the door will be donated to the Hillcrest Youth Center. From 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 17. $5 suggested donation. 619-348-5517 HThe Pride of Hillcrest Block Party at The Hillcrest Pride Flag, Normal Street and University Avenue. The official kickoff party for San Diego Pride, this third-annual event takes over the streets of Hillcrest with celebrity performances, local DJs, giant LED screens and Go-Go dancers. From 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, July 18. $25$75. 619-299-3330, fabuloushillcrest.com
Urban Mobile Market at The Headquarters at Seaport District, 789 West Harbor Drive, Downtown. Food trucks, fashion trucks and mobile businesses hanging out every Friday. There’s also outdoor games, musicians, pop-up places for you to sit and enjoy your food, and more. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 18. 619-339-9314, urbanmobilemarket.com HSan Diego LGBT Pride at Fifth and University avenues, Hillcrest. Now in its 40th year, the annual celebration will feature an always festive parade through the heart of Hillcrest and music festival on Saturday and Sunday. See website for details. Saturday and Sunday, July 1819. Free-$20. sdpride.org HExpressions of Pride Multicultural Literary and Art Festival at Diversion-
HAerosolympics at Qualcomm Stadium, 9449 Friars Road, Mission Valley. See live graffiti art battles, body painting, music, drag racing and more. From 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 19. aerosolympics.com HSun & Sea Festival at Portwood Pier Plaza, 10 Evergreen Ave., Imperial Beach. This fest will feature award-winning sandcastle builders fashioning some of the best sand creations in a fast-paced, fivehour build. It will also include a community parade, pancake breakfast, live music, children’s activities and more. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 19. sunandseafestival.com Empowering Women Folk Art Market at San Diego Museum of Man, Balboa Park. Peruse beautiful fair-trade goods available for sale including baskets, beads, buttons, paintings, silk scarves, sequined purses and more. Meet artists from across the globe and learn about the cooperatives featured in the Empowering Women exhibit. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 19-20. $6-$12.50. 619-2392001, museumofman.org Butterflies and Camels at SMARTS Farm, Corner of F Street and 15th Avenue, East Village. A family-friendly event with pizz-aking, butterfly wings for children to wear as well as live camels. Guests will learn about nature, the environment and creativity within the garden. From 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 19. $10. 866737-3330, makersquarter.com Extreme Autofest at Qualcomm Stadium, 9449 Friars Road, Mission Valley. See hundreds of show cars, bikes, trucks and SUVs competing for cash and prizes. There’s also a “Hot Bikini Contest,” drag racing, motorcycle stunt shows, drift competitions and a concert performance from Too $hort. From 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 19. Free-$20. extremeautofest.com
SPORTS Over-The-Line-Tournament at Fiesta Island, E. Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. The annual beach game tournament that combines elements of beach baseball, softball and cricket is celebrating its 61st birthday with more teams, more matches and special permitting so fans can BYOB. From 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 19-20. ombac.org
TALKS & DISCUSSIONS From Handcraft to Industrial Craft at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. In conjunction with the Mingei’s show Surf Craft, curator Richard Kenvin will moderate a discussion on the technology and production of surfboards with Daniel Tomson (Tomo Surfboards) and Mark Price (Firewire Surfboards). At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17. $5-$8. mingei.org
For full listings,
please visit “E vents” at sdcit yb eat.com
18 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
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Kinsee Morlan
When
impact Odd artistic collaboration puts trauma on stage, bringing together words and movement by Kinsee Morlan omedian Brian Simpson is the kind of exuberant guy who immediately energizes a room, typically by making people laugh. At this moment, though, he’s standing in the middle of a dance floor and, as the true tale he’s telling draws closer to the moment when he grabs a gun, the handful of folks watching the rehearsal aren’t even close to giggling. They’re rapt. A plane rumbles over the White Box Live Arts performance space in Point Loma as Simpson recounts the vivid, tragic story of his life as a foster kid. “It started at the age of 5,” he says. “My mom disappears, leaves us with her mother. A year later, my brother and I are taken away from our grandma for being left home alone. We moved in with our aunt who couldn’t take care of us. We were then put into foster care.” In rapid fire, Simpson lists the homes he was moved in and out of; meanwhile, three dancers match the solemn mood with quick, sharp movements that convey the chaos and coldness he experienced as a child. When the story reaches important points, the dancers often freeze, which brings the attention back to the storyteller. Choreographer Jean Isaacs of San Diego Dance Theater sits behind a small table, taking notes on a clipboard as Simpson and the dancers do their thing. Justin Hudnall, executive director of So Say We All, a literary performance and education troupe, is making mental notes. “Brian, stop moving so much,” Hudnall says during a break in the rehearsal. “You’re just pacing. Just plant; move with purpose.” Isaacs agrees and works with her dancers to slow their movements to better convey a sense of unfolding nightmare. Isaacs and Hudnall are just weeks away from their upcoming “Damaged Goods” performance—happening Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20, at White Box. The collaboration stems from Isaacs catching Hudnall and artist Margaret Noble’s performance at last year’s Live Arts Fest. Isaacs was impressed by the quality of the piece and approached Hudnall to talk about working together. Those conversations ended up focusing on the idea of intense, personal trauma. “We just decided, you know what, instead of just trying to dance around it, why
Justin Hudnall (center) tells his personal story about PTSD while Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater artists interact with him. don’t we just challenge ourselves and make The video and the dancers’ movements an entire show based around stuff you’re are subtle when it’s important for the audinot supposed to say in public?” Hudnall ence to listen. For fans of dance, Isaacs and says. “STDs, PTSD, foster care.” Hudnall have allowed for a few moments “This is a naughty show at times,” Isaacs to highlight just the movements. adds later. Combining dance and text is nothing “Damaged Goods” includes So Say We new, but Isaacs is quick to note that the All storytellers Hudnall, Simpson and combination can sometimes be horribly April Ventura and San Diego Dance The- cheesy, particularly when the dancers are ater artists Liv Isaacs-Nollet, Zaquia Sali- reciting the lines. Isaacs and Hudnall have nas, Trystan Loucado and Rachel Holdt. worked hard to make their art forms merge Holdt is also creating a video component. in a way that seems less forced. Each storyteller takes center stage as the “Ira Glass was doing a collaboration in dancers and the video work to convey the New York with a Los Angeles contempoemotion behind the stories. Every so often, rary-dance company, and his sound bite the dancers interact with the storytellers. about his show was, ‘Storytelling and dance: “I said my genitals two art forms that have no looked like Flaming Hot business being together,’” Cheetos,” Ventura says Hudnall laughs, employduring her rehearsal as the 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, ing is best voice impresJuly 18 and 19; dancers behind her frolic sion of the host of the 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 20 with an industrial vacuum, public-radio storytelling White Box Live Arts using the phallic hose to show This American Life. 2590 Truxtun Road, Suite 205, further sexualize the piece “But we always use visuin Liberty Station and eventually blow air— als in VAMP”—So Say We $20 Marilyn Monroe-style—up All’s ongoing performance sosayweallonline.com, Ventura’s skirt. series—“to extenuate sandiegodancetheater.org “Movement suggests rather than compete…. So, something while words we’ve learned to be symare real concrete,” Isaacs explains. “So, we biotic with visuals. Now it’s like stepping try to get the feeling, you know? Otherwise, back and allowing the narration to happen we’re just pantomiming—musical theater while the dancers essentially tell the emodoes that. For us, it’s about figuring out the tional content of the story. It works.” mood and the temperature and the texture Near the end of the rehearsal, Simpson and the restraint.” approaches Hudnall with an excited burst
Damaged Goods
of thoughts. The performance has him working outside his comfort zone, he says, but it’s awesome and he’s digging it. He tells Hudnall that he’s been flabbergasted by watching the creation of an original dance piece unfold in front of him. “The dancers don’t realize how brilliant they are,” Simpson says. “Watching them work, it was like they have one brain…. They’ll say something like, ‘You know that twist—that one where you move your right leg? This time, move your left leg.’ And they know exactly what they’re talking about. They remember every move.” The dancers, too, have gained insight into the craft of storytelling. The new appreciation for the disparate art forms among the performers is something Hudnall and Isaacs hope transfers to the audience, possibly expanding both their patron bases. Hudnall and Isaacs themselves have each learned a lot about the other’s world. “Dance is so much more intense,” Hudnall says to Isaacs. “Storytellers get away with so much shit as artists; we’re just judged for so much less.” “Well, we have nothing to work with aside from our bodies,” Isaacs answers. “Dancers are constantly breaking themselves down physically,” Hudnall says. “And we’re breaking ourselves down emotionally, trying to get to that one true sentence.” Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 31
Kinsee Morlan
Seen Local Paranoia on display Inside a long, dark, hidden hallway behind Downtown’s Yoga One studio entrance at 1150 Seventh Ave., artist Bret Barrett, Wonka Gallery owner Ryan Campbell and Paranoia magazine owner and publisher Ron Patton are gazing at paintings, prints and sculptures submitted for the upcoming collaborative pop-up exhibition that the threesome is putting together. Conspiracy theories, aliens, the occult and any other subject deemed “outsider” by mainstream culture are the focus of the show, Paranoia, Mind Control and the Art of Suggestion, which opens in the hallway from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 18 and 19, with other events scheduled for July 25 and 26 and Aug. 1 and 2 (search for “Wonka Gallery” on Facebook for details). “The more you dig into conspiracy theories—say, the JFK assassination,” Barrett says, “the more questions you have. The more you look into UFO sightings or Bigfoot or any of those topics, the more questions you end up with instead of answers. I don’t know that I believe any of it. I’m just fascinated by all of the possibilities, and I think, for me, that’s what art is about. It is pushing your consciousness, pushing the possibilities of what is happening. No one on the planet has an answer for why we’re here, what we’re doing, what our purpose is. So, I love to constantly kick around all the weird possibilities.” The show will feature more than 30 artists, including Barrett, Leticia Martinez, Tom Fox and Kelly Orange, kicking around weird possibilities and exploring themes not often included in gallery shows. Barrett unwraps a few pieces shipped to the show by New York artist Robert Preston. The Miles Sager
Creating opportunities
Vicki Walsh
Artists Leticia Martinez and Bret Barrett (center) with Paranoia magazine publisher Ron Patton work is from Preston’s “Lone Nut” series, and the first painting Barrett uncovers is a portrait of James Holmes, who shot and killed 12 people at a movie theater in Colorado in 2012. “Creepy stuff, but interesting at the same time,” Barrett says. “I think it’s interesting to keep these people in mind, because we need to figure out why this is happening.” Campbell, who’s editing together clips of instances of paranoia and mind control from movies, for a video-art piece he’ll include in the show, says some of the work in Paranoia might make people angry. But most of it, he says, is educational, eye-opening or, to those who apply a healthy dose of doubt to everything, at least an opportunity for discussion. “That’s one reason why I really like outsider art,” he says. “It’s not necessarily, ‘Here’s a pretty picture; buy this and hang this on your wall.’ It’s, ‘Here’s something that makes you think.’”
—Kinsee Morlan Gallery, which moved locations last year before the arts nonprofit recently announced plans to close. Artist Vicki Walsh is the first to rent out Opportunity Gallery. Last week, she opened Mostly Mortal, an exhibition of portraiture by her and six other emerging artists. The show is up through July 30, with a talk (full disclosure: It’s moderated by me) featuring Rabbi Lemore Bohm, the Reverend Eleanor Ellsworth and art critic Robert Pincus happening at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, July 26. “What’s my alternative?” Walsh asks, standing in the gallery, just moments after she and her friend, artist Stephen Curry, finished hanging the show. “I can’t get a gallery for anything. They say people won’t buy paintings of other people, but they do, because I sell paintings all the time. It’s a battle I’m tired of fighting.” Walsh says she’s aware of the negative connotations that come with paying to show her work, but she’s willing to risk it. Besides, Walsh says, this feels like her only option, noting that the space’s recent past is an indicator that local galleries are closing faster than opening. “I am part of the gallery system, but I do feel kind of like it’s a dying breed,” agrees Curry, who’s represented by Quint Contemporary Art. “I think this is a model that has to work, to a certain extent, because I don’t think the other model is working.”
A 1,380-square-foot space inside Point Loma’s Liberty Station is being marketed to artists as an art gallery available for monthly rent. Long considered by the arts community as the “vanity gallery” option that very few serious artists would consider, the somewhat controversial business model—cutting out the gallery owner who takes up to 50- or 60-percent commission on artwork sold and, instead, renting a gallery to show and sell one’s own work—is being mulled by a growing number of artists unable to find traditional gallery representation. Dubbed Opportunity Gallery by Alan Ziter, executive director of the NTC Foundation, the space (2825 Dewey Road, Building 202, Suite 103) was formerly the headquarters of the New Americans Mu—Kinsee Morlan seum (it will be again this fall when the museum is set to reopen). When the museum went on hiatus in 2010, Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com Art Pulse used the space from 2011 to 2013 for Pulse and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
32 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
F
‘ eeling Richard Linklater, the writer and director of the new film Boyhood, talks about family, parenting and coming-of-age
It
by
Glenn Heath Jr.
takes a long time to grow up. I’m not sure the process ever ends. Our physical bodies may peak at a certain age, but new experiences continue to present themselves as the years pass. We go to the grave still molding our identity and shaping our souls, and this ongoing renaissance of self-reflection may even cascade into the afterlife. Wouldn’t that be something? Infinite maturation. Richard Linklater’s new film, Boyhood, captures the reverie and conflict of neverending growth. It’s an epic coming-of-age film about family, parenting, longing, desire, confusion, joy and memory. But it’s also an intimate drama about how we witness time, how we see things from different angles and how these variations produce a multitude of impressions. Shot over the span of 12 years using the same actors, it provides a unique experience of human development. We literally watch the actors get older over time—particularly the two children at the movie’s center, youngsters who transition into their pubescent skin almost seamlessly through the power of editing. “It was fascinating,” Linklater tells CityBeat as he sits down in a Los Angeles hotel room during a promotional tour for the film. “There was no precedent for me or anyone else involved with the project. It
Richard Linklater sets up a shot with Ethan Hawke on the set of Boyhood.
was about so many things. I knew the well hibits adults, recklessly inquiring about ideas would never run dry.” and themes that are often difficult for people When chatting with the Texas-born au- to discuss. Boyhood encapsulates this same teur, it becomes abundantly clear that he’s an tenacious curiosity, following young Mason artist who’s completely at ease with himself. (Ellar Coltrane) from his mop-haired adoInstead of being afraid of the world’s many lescence all the way through his high-school mysteries and challenges, he embraces them. graduation. We see the good, the bad and the “Life’s not always going to go your way,” ugly of his life through what Linklater calls “a he says, “but you can control your own field.” privileged seat for perceiving the world.” Yet Possibility surrounds us at all times, the film never sentimentalizes any of Mason’s however hard we try to ignore it. Linklater experiences. The camera stands as the tranunderstands the personal sit and the filmmaker acts nature of this realization, as the surveyor. Distance Boyhood maybe more so than any means everything. Directed by Richard Linklater other American director. Throughout the movie, Starring Ellar Coltrane, Ethan That’s why so many of his Mason and his older sister Hawke, Patricia Arquette films—including 1993’s Samantha (Lorelei LinklatDazed and Confused, the er, the filmmaker’s daughand Lorelei Linklater Before trilogy (Before Sunter) witness only the edges Rated R rise, Before Sunset, Before of adulthood, fragments of Midnight) and 2003’s their single mother’s (PaSchool of Rock—revolt against the crippling tricia Arquette) various failed relationships power of fear. They highlight driven young and absent father’s (Ethan Hawke) journey to people who embrace the opportunity to feel become a man. They’re privy to only sections something new, giving themselves over to of their parents’ lives, and, in turn, we are a wave of fresh experiences with only the privy only to sections of theirs. This produces slightest hesitation. It’s apparent in Boyhood, a slightly jarring timeline where private and as well, when one character says, “You don’t public experiences intersect. Boyhood asks us seize the moment; the moment seizes you.” calmly to fill in the gaps. Children spend much of the day letting “Your parents’ lives don’t always make new moments seize their attention. They sense as a kid, but maybe later it does,” Linlack the doubt and insecurity that often in- klater says. “These characters are only see-
ing pieces. They witness the inconsistent behaviors of adults and only realize later what was going on.” This motif is apparent during Mason’s younger years, when he spends a lot of time watching and observing, soaking up images and sounds like a sponge. The film’s opening shot cuts from a vast blue sky to the 6-year-old lying down on a grassy knoll looking up, making friends with the passing clouds. It’s clear from the beginning that he’s a collector of visual images. As a teenager, photography becomes his medium of expression. Boyhood remains aware of the cultural shift toward technology in the new millennium that’s created a generation of children who stare endlessly at screens. Yet Mason’s artistic inquisitiveness is never compromised. “Mason’s observing life in a certain way,” Linklater says. “It’s hard to say what he’s learned, but you feel, I hope, that he eventually comes to some realization about where he’s been and where he’s going.” As Mason gets older, eventually becoming a quiet, caring and sometimes brooding teenager who questions the world at every turn, Boyhood becomes increasingly philosophical. It’s a natural progression for a thoughtful film centered on openness, discovery and heartache. Many of the most important conversations unfold with Mason’s father. Pegged early on as a potential deadbeat who shows up only sporadically, Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) slowly but surely becomes a key mentor in his son’s life. In fact, father and son rely on each other to evolve. This proved to be an essential structuring device for Boyhood. “Ethan and I are both kids of divorce,” Linklater notes. “We thought it would be really interesting to see a father learning on the job. That’s how it always feels parenting, though, regardless of your marital status.” If Mason and Samantha spend much of the film sprouting—both emotionally and physically—their parents learn the restrictive boundaries of being an adult. When asked
Ellar Coltrane as Mason, daydreaming at age 6 and shaggy-haired at 18
CONTINUED ON PAGE 34 July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 33
about a specific line in the film when Mason Sr. tells his son that “life is expensive,” Linklater addresses the quote’s double meaning: “From the kid’s perspective, it’s all about looking outward, growth and maturity, but from the adult’s, it’s just about negotiation and compromise. That’s what the adult world lays on you.” Linklater says that this is especially true for the kids’ mother, Olivia. “She’s giving, but not necessarily getting. She realizes parenting is often a one-way thing.” Raising the children by herself, Olivia spends much of Boyhood in the proverbial shadows, struggling to improve her family’s life by going back to school and preserving the family dynamic, no matter how many times it fails. During a pivotal scene immediately before Mason sets out for college, Olivia declares, “This is the worst day of my life.” It’s one of the
most complex moments in the film because it reveals that both parent and child are facing very different crossroads at the same time. “She’s earned that moment,” Linklater says. “She’s put out so much more. Mason Sr. was kind of a weekend dad. He was there for them, but it was a different game. It seemed fair that she had earned that emotion. That line is very heavy, but it’s true for a lot of parents.” Taking into consideration Boyhood’s timecapsule vision of the recent past, the film will mean something different to a different people. Parents, teenagers, senior citizens— everyone will have his or her impression. For Linklater, the filmmaking experience was “cathartic and pretty amazing, a way of looking back on my life and my kid’s life. I like to think it made me a more aware parent.” Such sensitivity is abundant in the narra-
Twee and me
Wish I Was Here
34 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
Zach Braff means well. I truly believe that. How else can one rationalize the actor-turnedfilmmaker’s insanely sincere view of the world. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Braff’s work feels dangerously delusional, a simplification of complex emotions into a safe, Bon Iver-sealed package. It all started with 2004’s Garden State, Braff’s first effort that clicked with audiences’ thanks in large part to Natalie Portman’s
tive, most noticeably after Mason suffers his first great disappointment at the hands of his high-school girlfriend. Like so many times before, he seeks advice from his father. Mason Sr. doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but he unloads the film’s essential thesis in one charming jolt of wisdom: “You’re feeling stuff, and that’s a good thing.” I certainly felt a lot of stuff watching Boyhood. It was a flashback to the magical possibilities of childhood and the unspoken panic of impending adulthood, but also a foreshadowing to the family-oriented future that hasn’t quite arrived. But most of all, it was a reminder that if I’m living life to its fullest, the growth spurts will never end. Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
charming performance and a popular soundtrack. Ten years and one successful Kickstarter campaign later, the Scrubs alum returns with his sophomore film. Wish I Was Here packs in enough twee melodrama for a Garden State trilogy, suffocating the viewer into feeling something, anything, everything. Braff stars as Aidan, a struggling actor facing a series of crises involving finances and his family. Each problem revolves around responsibility. Aidan home-schools his two children,
Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) and Grace (Joey King), after his cancer-stricken father stops fronting the money for a private Jewish education. This puts more pressure on his wife, Sarah (Kate Hudson), the family’s sole provider, who works a dead-end job at the local water district. The angst provides Aidan with the necessary inspiration to finally become a man. Big surprise. In the process, Braff decorates each frame with precious details: There’s a swear jar, a colorful wig that holds special
meaning (doesn’t everything?) and a few sci-fi dream sequences to appease the Comic-Con crowd. The final act amounts to a massive puddle of tears. Certain moments resonate, thanks to Hudson, who manages to rekindle some of that starry-eyed Almost Famous magic. But, mostly, Wish I Was Here—which opens Friday, July 18, at Hillcrest Cinemas—proves that, without a doubt, Braff cares only about his view of the world, no matter how cloying it has become.
—Glenn Heath Jr.
Opening Boyhood: Richard Linklater’s epic drama follows the life of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from age 6 to 18, charting all the highs and lows in between. See our feature story on Page 33. Closed Curtain: Under house arrest, a filmmaker (Jafar Panahi) hides his beloved dog from the authorities while interacting with some of the characters from his previous films. Screens through July 25 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park. Planes: Fire and Rescue: This sequel to the 2013 animated hit film finds lead race plane Dusty (Dane Cook) forced into working with a fire-and-rescue unit after his engine is damaged. The Purge: Anarchy: It’s that time of year again to murder, murder, murder, all for the benefit of the good ol’ United States of America. Let freedom ring. Siddharth: A desperate man searches for his missing son in Mumbai, fearing that he’s been kidnapped for slave labor. Screens through July 24 at the Ken Cinema.
Thursday and Friday, July 17 and 18, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills. Honour: Paddy Considine stars as a bounty hunter searching for a Muslim runaway who’s disgraced her family in West London. Screens at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 19, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park. How to Steal a Million: Audrey Hepburn stars in this romantic comedy about a young woman who must steal a statue from a museum in order to hide her father’s long career as a forger. Screens at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Come celebrate the mad genius of Tim Curry. Screens at midnight on Saturday, July 19, at the Ken Cinema. American Freethought, Part 4: The rise of Roman Catholicism is the focus of the fourth part of Rod Bradford’s expansive documentary about religion and atheism. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 21, at San Diego Public Library in East Village. London River: Two strangers are thrust together after bombings in 2005 align their fates. Screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, at the Point Loma / Hervey Branch Library. The Lego Movie: The building blocks of your childhood come alive in this rambunctious and hilarious comedy by directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Screens at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Point Loma’s Liberty Station. The Grand Budapest Hotel: Wes Anderson’s latest takes place in an opulent hotel set in a fictional Eastern European country right before World War I. Screens at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, at the Mission Valley Library.
Video Games: The Movie: The documentary every gamer’s been waiting for with bated breath. Just in time for ComicCon. Screens through July 24 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.
Batman: Michael Keaton stars as the caped crusader as he battles the evil Joker (Jack Nicholson) in Tim Burton’s gothic version of the famous comic. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, at Arclight La Jolla.
Wish I Was Here: Zach Braff stars as a struggling actor attempting to overcome the avalanche of problems that face his family and parents. See our review on Page 34.
The Endless Summer: Two young surfers travel the world, following an everlasting summer, in Bruce Brown’s legendary documentary. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, at Hillcrest Cinemas.
One Time Only Grand Piano: The worst malady for a concert pianist has to be stage fright, and Elijah Wood’s impresario suffers from it mightily. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, at the Scripps Ranch Library. Pete Seeger: A Song and a Stone: A portrait of folk singer and political activist Pete Seeger, who spent decades speaking out against the Vietnam War, pollution and inequality. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park. Big Gay Love: A successful new homeowner meets the man of his dreams, only to screw up their relationship almost immediately. Will his friends and family be able to get him back on track? Screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 17, at Hillcrest Cinemas. Grateful Dead: Beat Club 4/21/1972: Dead Heads rejoice, one of your beloved band’s most famous concert tours is coming to a theater near you. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17, at various theaters. Visit fathomevents.com for details. The Big Clock: John Farrow’s classic film noir follows a magazine editor who discovers that his boss is trying to frame him for murder. Screens at 8:30 p.m.
Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music: A documentary that uses photos, concert footage and interviews to look at the life and legacy of the famous singer. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.
Now Playing Begin Again: When a forlorn singer / songwriter (Keira Knightley) breaks from her cheating superstar boyfriend (Adam Levine), she finds newfound success with a disgraced record executive (Mark Ruffalo) willing to take a chance on an unknown talent. Le Chef: An aspiring chef faces off against a celebrity food star in this French comedy by director Daniel Cohen. Coherence: Old friends gets together for a dinner party, only to see the night descend into chaos after a comet creates a disturbing celestial phenomenon. For a complete listing of movies, please see “F ilm S creenings” at sdcit yb eat.com under the “E vents” tab.
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 35
alex
there she goz
zaragoza Thirty, dirty and striving I’m 30 years old. It’s official. That milestone birthand failed several times, so now I just date musiday’s been lurking, and when it finally arrived I cians. It’s easier. welcomed it as I’d welcome a never-ending nacho 3. See the world. This one is going to take a platter—drunkenly and without fear. while, but I’ve slowly made some progress. The big 3-0 doesn’t feel all that big, but I still cel4. Become independent from my parents. See ebrated its arrival by hot-boxing a hotel bathroom No. 3. and getting drunk on Kirkland Signature brand al5. Be rich and famous but never forget who cohol with some of my favorite people. If there’s one I am. I was very concerned about character in my thing growing up has taught me, it’s that becoming an youth but clearly not enough to stop myself from adult isn’t as boring or scary as you thought it would fame-whoring. As I’m an adult with strong moral fibe when you were a kid. You don’t actually change all ber now, I’m willing to forego fame and integrity if I that much; you just evolve into a smarter, bill-paying can have an increased taco fund. I really love tacos. version of the asshole child you once were. At least 6. Give money to my high-school drama dethat’s been my experience. Even so, five of us ended partment. Get in line behind my mom, my ex-boyup napping at 6 p.m.—a sign of true adulthood. friend, Chase Credit Services, Nelnet Student Loan Ten years on, I’m 25 pounds heavier and OK Services, my divorce mediator, AT&T, Netflix, Hulu with it, in a functional relationship, living alone in Plus and about 14 others, Montgomery High School. a 600-square-foot apartment, working four jobs 7. Write a book. Working on it. and currently not wearing pants. The other day, I 8. Learn to dance ballet, tap and/or jazz. Fuck set up automatic payments for all my bills, knowing off. Too tired. I’ll just watch Dance Moms. that when they were deducted from my account, 9. Do a show on Broadway. I live on Broadway I wouldn’t have to hit up Buffalo Exchange with a in Golden Hill, and I perform a regular show around bunch of ratty Forever 21 clothes in the hopes of 2 a.m. called “Try Not to Get Murdered Walking getting $15 so I could buy enough wine to forget Home from The Turf Club.” That counts, right? what a loser I am. It was one of the proudest mo10. Become a cast member or guest on Saturments in my life: So this is what it’s day Night Live. Ah, that was my like having it all! Someone get me dream. I’ve settled with becoming a multivitamin and a savings acan almost-award-winning columI’m willing to forego count, because I’m finally an adult. nist who writes tons of dick jokes. fame and integrity These major birthdays have a 11. Find the love of my life and way of making you #tbt on your keep him. Keep him? Like locked if I can have an life. You look back and think, Did I up in a cage? What a creep. Anyincreased taco fund. accomplish anything worthwhile? I way, my divorce is in the works, was hit with this bout of nostalgia and I have an awesome boyfriend who’d probably let me lock him in particularly hard after finding my a cage if I ask nicely. I’ll take it. high-school notebook buried in an old box. 12. Win an Oscar, Tony and literary acclaim. It was filled with god-awful poetry (the word Can I change it to winning some sort of eating con“despair” made way too many guest appearances), test? I mean, I haven’t won one of those yet, but it drawings that someone could easily interpret as seems more likely. coming from a serial killer and collages of and lyr13. Get a tattoo and piercing. No piercings; ics by artists like The Stone Roses, The Smiths and multiple tattoos. Sorry, Mom and Dad. Fiona Apple. Before I undeservingly give myself too 14. At least once, do something I’d usually nevmuch hipster cred, I found a Korn lyric in there, er do. Not only have I already done this—I made a too. Yikes. Also, there were a few quotes from the career out of it. Air-punching in triumph right now. movie Steel Magnolias, though, that I am proud of. 15. Get into a fist fight. No thanks. I’ve been Clairee Belcher is forever my spirit animal. in a pillow fight and might be Jell-O wrestling While flipping through this embarrassing teensoon, though. age angst, I found a list: “Things to Do before I Die.” 16. Paint and draw. Man, I must have been I’d completely forgotten that I’d done this. The list running low on ideas. These hobbies have been reis a snapshot of what the 17-year-old me aspired to, placed with “watch TV” and “watch more TV.” and for the most part it’s fucking stupid and igno17. Keep a best friend forever. I love my friends rantly lofty. However, it made me happy to see that and look forward to growing old with them, grabI’d actually accomplished some. Here’s that list: bing hot, young dude butts at restaurants until all 1. Sing in front of a large audience. Check. I sang the wine we drink finally does us in on the same in a Misfits cover band called The Mistits. My friends day, The Notebook-style. / bandmates and I played only one show, Halloween Good work, me. May the next 10 years bring 2008, to a packed crowd at Bar Pink. We dressed up even more fun and productivity—and, hopefully, a as the Kennedy assassination and had a human sacbit more sleep. rifice on stage that left every face in the front row splattered with fake blood. It was awesome, and I’m Write to alexz@sdcitybeat.com sure my teenage self would be impressed. and editor@sdcitybeat.com. 2. Learn to play a musical instrument. Tried
36 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
Amplifier worship
Tokyo trio Boris obliterates expectations
F
by Jeff Terich
or musicians, there are few rewards to be reaped from presenting something truly challenging to the listener. Nobody ever went platinum by following her or his most avant-garde instincts. Post-modernism doesn’t bring in the licensing royalties, and choosing the path of most resistance generally doesn’t put asses in the seats. The current state of the music industry only complicates matters. Thanks to streaming services like Spotify, it’s easier than ever to access all the music you could possibly ever want. So without that catchy hook to grab the listener’s ear, there’s less incentive for a consumer to exercise patience. Between the instant-satisfaction music economy and the unusually homogenized Billboard charts of the moment, there just isn’t much demand for artists on 2003’s Akuma No Uta, or the diverse and hook-laden who don’t offer easy answers or points of entry. That’s all the more reason why I’m thankful for bands highlights of their greatest achievement to date—2005’s like Boris. Named after an epic track by The Melvins, Bo- Pink—to hear what happens when a group this powerful ris isn’t a band that entirely makes sense on paper. Their tears into some honest-to-god songs. From there, things get a lot more confusing. In a recent albums don’t have a lot in common, and many of them are released as two different versions, with different track lists interview with the website The Quietus, a member of the and different mixes, released in different markets. And as band said, “I think we’re definitely one of the hardest bands they evolve and mature, the distance between the styles of in the world to define.” And looking back at the course of their catalog since 2006, they’ve certainly made good on each of their records only seems to grow more vast. The easiest and most glib way to describe the type of mu- that promise. First, the group collaborated with Japanese sic the Tokyo trio plays is to refer to the title of their fourth noise titan Merzbow and drone ghouls Sunn0))), released album, Heavy Rocks. Boris covers a broader spectrum of an unusually mellow psychedelic-rock record called Rainheavy rock than just about any other band performing to- bow and briefly formed super-group BXI with The Cult’s Ian Astbury. And then things got really weird. day, and from the beginning, their approach to In 2011, Boris released a trio of albums Marshall stack-blowing volume hasn’t in any that didn’t just catch fans off guard; it also way resembled ordinary. Their debut album, very likely rubbed a few of them the wrong 1996’s Absolutego, is one 60-minute track of Thursday, July 24 way. The first, titled Heavy Rocks ( just like feedback and bowel-distressing low end that The Casbah their fourth album, you’ll recall), lived up to set an intense tone for nearly two decades of its name. Attention Please, however, tossed amplifier-driven wizardry to follow. borisheavyrocks.com aside their colossal rock and metal sound Absolutego only scratched the surface of in favor of a sultry, dark disco and dream their psychedelic, colossal, double-necked, shape-shifting aural assault, however. Indeed, the band pop—and a very good one at that. But this didn’t go over has been known to indulge in sprawling flights of distorted well with fans of their heavier material. Scene Point Blank atmosphere, which reached a peak of sorts on their four- called it “unexpectedly terrible” and Dusted described the part opus, Flood. But when Boris rocks, they fucking rock, songs as “drowsy, forgettable, head-nodding throwaways.” and one only need listen to the Stooges-inspired anthems Weirder still was the third of the batch, New Album, which
Boris
reconfigured songs from Attention Please and Heavy Rocks into hyperactive, exclamation-addled J-pop anthems. Boris isn’t just a band that’s interested in innovating—it’s one that obliterates expectations. After charting a path of only left turns, the band’s new album, Noise, finds them returning to the “heavy rocks” sound that earned them a cult following in the first place. It’s a much more straightforward album than Boris has released in some time. It has hooks, choruses, meaty riffs and plenty of melody to spare. Hell, it’s even catchy. But it’s also not a repeat of Pink or Akuma No Uta. Its opener, “Melody,” is much closer to Sunny Day Real Estate than The Melvins, whereas its 18-minute centerpiece, “Angel,” is a slowly moving post-rock monolith akin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. And toward the end, the band races headfirst into an epic hardcore sound on “Quicksilver.” Noise sounds like Boris alright—if only because what Boris sounds like has such a loose definition. In an interview with Echoes and Dust, drummer Atsuo said, “Each album for Boris makes a new world for Boris individually.” And each of those new worlds is part of an ever-expanding galaxy that has no conceivable boundary. It seems fairly safe to say that once you hear a Boris album, you’ll never hear them record something quite like it again. There’s something comforting about that. Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 37
Brick by Brick co-owner Nick Hipa (second from left) says the venue will have an improved sound system.
notes from the smoking patio Locals Only Six months after being closed down due to a suspended liquor license, Brick by Brick is reopening this month under new ownership. Former owner Max Paul sold the venerable Bay Park venue to Jordan Mancino, Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hipa, all formerly of As I Lay Dying and currently in the band Wovenwar. On July 24, the venue will reopen with a performance by Drum Wars, followed by a headlining show by The Burning of Rome on July 26. Hipa tells CityBeat that part of the motivation to buy the venue came from his own positive memories. “We’d go to shows there all the time,” he says. “I’ve seen everyone from Death Angel to High on Fire to Cat Power. We’re pretty big fans of the place. It has a long history.” Hipa, Sgrosso and Mancino invested time and
Music review Erik Canzona The Narrows (Self-released) For an artist in a popular band, going solo presents a bit of a conundrum: Just how close should one’s individual project sound to that of his proper band? There’s no wrong answer, or right one, really. And if the songs are good enough, it shouldn’t matter. However, history has shown that, most of the time, it does. Iggy Pop, for instance, carried enough of the darkness and edge of The Stooges on his debut album, The Idiot, to start off strong in the second chapter of his career. Lou Reed, however, didn’t fare so well on his selftitled debut, which had neither the artful touch of The Velvet Underground, nor enough character to be all that memorable on the whole. The Heavy Guilt aren’t The Stooges or The Velvet Underground, but as local bands go, they’ve got more name—and song—recognition than most. And, for that matter, frontman Erik Canzona boasts one of the most recognizable voices in San Diego, his soulful pipes being one of the most powerful instruments at the band’s disposal. So, Canzona’s first proper solo album, The Narrows, might be met with certain expectations, or at least one specific
38 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
money into upgrades, including improvements to the venue’s sound and appearance. It’s a work in progress, and Hipa says there are plans for further enhancements. “We aspire to make it an ideal place for bands to play,” he says. “We’re redoing the sound system, cleaning stuff up and making it a nicer and bettersounding environment. And hopefully what it does is become another spot people think of when you want to see great live music.” Hipa says the plan is to try to book shows four or five nights a week. Being a musician, however, Hipa notes that one of their goals is to make it a place that bands want to play. “When we go to certain venues, we get excited,” he says. “We would love if Brick by Brick became one of those venues.”
—Jeff Terich one: Does it sound like The Heavy Guilt? The answer is both yes and no. The constant is Canzona’s songwriting, which remains tuneful and bluesy throughout The Narrows, and just about everything here stands up to his material with The Guilt. Likewise, his voice is a powerful element on the album, and though he operates with more subtlety and within quieter confines, a little goes a long way, making climactic moments like his intense rise in volume at the end of “Your Plan” all the more effective. All the sounds on The Narrows were made by just Canzona, his Heavy Guilt bandmate Al Howard and drummer Jake Najor, though it’s a surprisingly rich and full set of songs. This isn’t so much a stereotypical singer / songwriter folk album as one of gothic blues in the vein of Mark Lanegan or Neko Case. On tracks like “Anchor Me” and “Forced My Hand,” Canzona explores darker terrain and more varied atmospheres, and he showcases a side of his songwriting that he doesn’t necessarily get to explore with his other band. The Narrows is a powerful example of how some subtle changes can make a big difference.
—Jeff Terich Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
if i were u
BY Jeff Terich
Wednesday, July 16
Saturday, July 19
PLAN A: The Antlers, Thus Owls @ Belly Up Tavern. New York’s The Antlers have been making dreamy indie rock for nearly a decade and grow more interesting with each release. Their new album, Familiars, is particularly ambitious, bringing to mind the expansive post-rock symphonies of Sigur Rós, but with bigger hooks. Still, their song “I Don’t Want Love” is all you need to hear to know this is a show to see. PLAN B: Chris Isaak @ Humphreys by the Bay. Whenever I hear a song with a similar chord progression as Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” I pretty much love it instantly. And it happens without fail. The only conclusion I can draw from that is that “Wicked Game” itself is a pretty stellar song. And Isaak’s got plenty more where that came from. BACKUP PLAN: Fat History Month, Dust from 1000 Years, Nothingful, Crooked Rulers @ Til-Two Club.
PLAN A: Bob Log III, Badabing, The Department of Descriptive Service @ The Casbah. Bob Log III is the weirdest man in blues rock. He sings through a modified fighter pilot’s helmet with a microphone inside, provides his own stomping, Rube Goldberg-device drums and once recorded an album using a pair of breasts as percussion. I’ll bet Jack White would never have thought of that. PLAN B: Dwarves, Queers, Masked Intruder, The Atom Age @ Soda Bar. It’s easy to understand why Dwarves have such a fervent cult following. They’ve got a fun, sleazy sound that has a tendency to erupt with violent intensity— not to mention some pretty tightly written tunes—and a penchant for nudity. As lowbrow goes, it’s some of the best around.
Sunday, July 20
PLAN A: Zongo Junction, Afrolicious, Tori Roze and the Hot Mess @ The CasThursday, July 17 bah. Afrobeat shows in San Diego are rare PLAN A: Some Ember, Body of Light, DJ enough that when a good one comes along, Mario Orduno @ Whistle Stop Bar. Oak- it’s almost guaranteed to be Plan A—like land’s Some Ember are this one! Zongo Junction the first non-cassetteare a massive ensemble only signing to Mario that pack a whole lot of Orduno’s boutique label, funk into their Fela KutiDream, and they’re defiinspired jams. nitely going to be a band to watch. They have a Monday, July 21 hypnotic, synth-laden PLAN A: Kawehi @ sound with gothic overSoda Bar. Until this week, tones, not unlike Cold I had no idea who Kawehi Cave or Future Islands, was. But look her up on but with some even YouTube, and you’ll find more sinister underpina wealth of videos of her nings. PLAN B: Planes covering a variety of songs Mistaken for Stars, with little more than her All Eyes West, I Wish The Antlers voice and a loop pedI @ The Casbah. Planes Mistaken for Stars are one of the most curi- al—often recorded in her apartment. And ous punk bands of the early ’00s, blending they’re all surprisingly good. Just a warning: the melodies of emo with the burly thunder Her take on Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” might of metal, not to mention post-hardcore’s make your blood pressure, um, rise. angularity somewhere in between. They’re back, and there aren’t too many bands like them, so get on it. BACKUP PLAN: Glass Tuesday, July 22 Spells, Avid Dancer, Bulletproof Tiger, PLAN A: Cayucas, Hands, Idyll Wild @ Letters from Readers, Cobra Kills DJs @ The Casbah. I don’t always believe that summer calls for summer-y music, but sometimes Soda Bar. you just have to go with the flow. And music doesn’t get more breezy and laid-back than Friday, July 18 Cayucas. They may be playing at The CasPLAN A: Craft Spells, The Bilinda bah, but it should be easy enough to imagine Butchers, Wizard Woes @ The Hideout. yourself on a beach with a daiquiri in your It might seem a little confusing that a band hand. PLAN B: Emerald Rats, Witness 9, called Craft Spells is playing in San Diego a Vegetarian Werewolf @ Soda Bar. Emerday after Glass Spells, but names are getting ald Rats is the solo project of Wild Wild Wets scarce these days. Anyhow, Craft Spells is singer Mike Turi, and it’s pretty damn fun. an excellent Seattle-based band with a pen- Heavier on electronics than his other band, chant for multi-layered shoegaze sounds, Emerald Rats is like a one-man Joy Division heavy on ethereal production and wonder- or Echo and the Bunnymen filtered through ful melodies. BACKUP PLAN: Pinback, a sampler. And, yeah, there’s a little bit of the Wets’ trippy aesthetic in there, too. LIFE @ The Casbah.
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 39
HOT! NEW! FRESH! The Burning of Rome (Brick by Brick, 7/26), Ex-Cult (Til-Two Club, 8/6), Chrome (Tower Bar, 8/15), The Angry Samoans (Brick by Brick, 8/16), The Fresh and Onlys (Casbah, 8/18), Jason Mraz (Civic Theatre, 8/23), Corrosion of Conformity (Brick by Brick, 8/26), Sean Hayes (BUT, 9/10), Macy Gray (BUT, 9/17), The Breeders (Casbah, 9/17), Interpol (HOB, 9/24), King Tuff (Soda Bar, 9/25), Sir Sly (The Irenic, 9/28), Paul McCartney (Petco Park, 9/28), Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band (Soda Bar, 9/28), Merchandise, Lower (Kensington Club, 9/28), Pinback (HOB, 10/4), Ought (Soda Bar, 10/6), Beach Fossils (The Irenic, 10/7), Saintseneca (Soda Bar, 10/8), Mark Gardener (Casbah, 10/8), The Rural Alberta Advantage (Soda Bar, 10/30), O’Death (Soda Bar, 11/2), Shovels & Rope (BUT, 11/5), We Were Promised Jetpacks (The Irenic, 11/8), Death From Above 1979 (HOB, 11/12), Blonde Redhead (HOB, 11/15).
GET YER TICKETS Arcade Fire (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/5), Grouplove, The Zombies (HOB, 8/20), Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/21), Future Islands (The Irenic, 8/22), Built To Spill (The Irenic, 8/23), The Murder City Devils (The Irenic, 8/25), Buzzcocks (HOB, 9/18), Lykke Li (North Park Theatre, 9/22), Temples (BUT, 9/27), Colbie Caillat (Humphrey’s by the Bay, 9/28), The Gaslight Anthem, Against Me! (HOB, 9/30), DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist (HOB,
10/1), Joyce Manor (The Irenic, 10/2), Chromeo (SOMA, 10/8), Twin Shadow (BUT, 10/9), The Horrors (BUT, 10/13), Washed Out (North Park Theatre, 10/16), The New Pornographers (BUT, 10/18), Metronomy (BUT, 10/19), Charli XCX (HOB, 10/21), Tinariwen (BUT, 10/21), The Afghan Whigs (BUT, 10/24), Daryl Hall and John Oates (Open Air Theatre, 10/25), Bonobo (HOB, 10/26), Matisyahu (BUT, 10/26), New Politics (HOB, 10/30), The Black Keys (Viejas Arena, 11/9), The Misfits (HOB, 11/16), Psychedelic Furs, The Lemonheads (BUT, 11/17), Bastille (Viejas Arena, 11/19), Ira Glass (Balboa Theatre, 11/22), John Waters (North Park Theatre, 12/1).
July
Saturday, July 19 Dwarves at Soda Bar. Bob Log III at The Casbah. Wolves in the Throne Room at The Che Café. Rita Rudner at North Park Theatre.
Sunday, July 20 Natural Child at Soda Bar. X acoustic at Belly Up Tavern.
Tuesday, July 22 The Neighbourhood at Open Air Theatre. Doobie Brothers at Humphreys. Cayucas at The Casbah.
Wednesday, July 23 Doug Benson at House of Blues. Matt Pryor at The Casbah.
Wednesday, July 16 Chris Isaak at Humphreys. The Antlers at Belly Up Tavern. Robert Francis and the Night Tide at The Casbah.
Thursday, July 17 Planes Mistaken for Stars at The Casbah. The Chain Gang of 1974 at Hard Rock Hotel.
Thursday, July 24 Tori Amos at Humphreys. OK Go at Belly Up Tavern. Boris at The Casbah. The Aquabats at House of Blues.
Friday, July 25 Goo Goo Dolls at Harrah’s Resort. Guttermouth at Soda Bar. Jason Cruz and the Howl at Porter’s Pub. The Cult at Del Mar Racetrack.
Saturday, July 26
Dwarves Friday, July 18 Dwarves at Soda Bar. Craft Spells at The Hideout. Jurassic 5 at Del Mar Racetrack.
40 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
Say Anything at House of Blues. Donavon Frankenreiter at Harrah’s Resort. Slightly Stoopid at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. Kevin Gates at Porter’s Pub. The Muffs at The Casbah. Emily’s Army at House of Blues. The Burning of Rome at Brick by Brick.
Sunday, July 27
Municipal Waste at The Casbah. Dierks Bentley at Sleep Train Amphitheatre.
Monday, July 28 Au Revoir Simone at The Casbah. Thee Oh Sees at Belly Up Tavern.
Tuesday, July 29 Foxy Shazam at Belly Up Tavern.
Wednesday, July 30 John Hiatt at Belly Up Tavern. Kidz Bop Kids at House of Blues.
Thursday, July 31 The Hold Steady at Belly Up Tavern. Blu at The Casbah.
August Friday, Aug. 1 Devin the Dude at Porter’s Pub. Neon Trees at Del Mar Racetrack. Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects at The Casbah. The Coathangers at Soda Bar.
Saturday, Aug. 2 Miniature Tigers at Soda Bar. Xeno & Oaklander at The Hideout. Weezer at Del Mar Racetrack. The Budos Band at The Casbah.
Sunday, Aug. 3 Prince Royce at House of Blues. Josh Abbott Band at Belly Up Tavern. Shannon and the Clams at The Casbah.
Tuesday, Aug. 5 Arcade Fire at Sleep Train Amphitheatre.
rCLUBSr
710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live band karaoke. Fri: Casey Turner (5 p.m.); Hirie, Piracy Conspiracy, Kush Country (9 p.m.). Sat: Back to Black, Deeper Purple. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Battle of the bands. 98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Thu: Nina Francis. Fri: Black Mambo. Sat: Darryl Walker. Sun: The Matt Smith Neu Jazz Trio.
American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco. com. Thu-Sat: Broken Lizard. Sun: The Filipino Comedy Tour. Tue: Open mic. Bang Bang, 526 Market St, Downtown. facebook.com/BangBangSanDiego. Thu: The Young Wild. Fri: Oliver $. Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: Stevie and the HiStaxx. Thu: Jimbo Trout and the Fishpeople. Fri: ‘Turn It Loose’. Sat: ‘Neon Beat’. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’ w/ DJ Ratty. Mon: ‘Monday Night Mass’ w/ Husky Boy All Stars. Tue: ‘Tiki Tuesday’ w/ DJ Old Man Johnson. Bassmnt, 919 Fourth Ave, Downtown. bassmntsd.com. Thu: Luke Skyy and Johnny Rayburn. Fri: Cash Cash. Sat: Swanky Tunes. Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla. brocktonvilla.com/beaumonts.html. Wed: Kayla Hope. Thu: Adam Block Duo. Fri: John Stanley King. Sat: Slower. Sun: Adam Block.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 42
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 41
Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: The Antlers, Thus Owls. Thu: Henry Kapono, Kevin Miso. Fri: Tony Suraci as The Highwayman, The Tilt. Sat: Don Carlos, Daniel Bambaata Marley, C-Money. Sun: X Acoustic Sean and Zander, O. Mon: ‘Moonlight Music benefit for Paul Kimbarow’. Bluefoot Bar & Lounge, 3404 30th St, North Park. bluefootsd.com. Wed: ‘Records With Roger’. Thu: ‘Thursday Groove’ w/ DJ Peso. Fri: ‘The Hangtight’ w/ DJs Profile, Uncle Junie. Sat: ‘Over Easy’ w/ Virusss. Sun: ‘The Spinning Plates’ w/ DJs Grassy Noll, Iggy. Tue: ‘Bruin Jams’. Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Thu: Inspired and the Sleep. Fri: ‘Club Musae’. Sat: P.O.B., Wasted Noise. Bourbon Street, 4612 Park Blvd, University Heights. bourbonstreetsd.com. Wed: Open mic. Thu: ‘Wet’. Fri & Sat: ‘Pride’. Sun: ‘Soiree’.
Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Fri: ‘Junglist Friday’ w/ Fury. Sat: ‘Boogie’. Tue: ‘High Tech Tuesday’. Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave, Kensington. 619-284-2848. Fri: Alter Der Ruine, Mr. Kitty, Daimon. Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Harmony Road. Thu: North Star. Fri: Mystique. Sat: Trunk Monkey. Sun: Glen Smith, Joey Harris. Tue: Glen Smith. Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed: Christina. Thu: Myron and the Kyniptionz. Fri: WG and the G-Men. Sat: Len Rainey’s Midnight Players. Sun: Mystique Element of Soul. Mon: The Groove Squad. Tue: Walter’s Chicken Jam. Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Sat: Jay 305, RJ, Polyester The Saint.
Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Thu: ‘Muscle’. Fri: ‘Rivalry’. Sat: DJs XP, KA. Sun: ‘Noche Romantica’ w/ Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJs Junior the Disco Punk, XP.
Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: DJ Marcel. Thu: DJs Kinky Loops, Von Kiss. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Drew G, Will Z. Sat: DJs John Joseph, Michael Paul. Sun: DJs Kitty Glitter, Cros.
Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave, Downtown. cafesevilla.com. Wed: Aro Di Santi. Thu: Malamana. Fri: Joeff and Co. Sat-Sun: Oscar Aragon.
Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave, La Mesa. rivierasupperclub.com. Fri: Jimbo Trout. Sat: Tornado Magnet.
Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Clairemont. thecomedypalace.com. Wed: Frances DiLorenzo. Fri-Sat: Tyler Boeh. Tue: The He and She Show Newlywed Tour. Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St, La Jolla. lajolla.thecomedystore.com. Fri: Cort McCown. Croce’s Park West, 2760 Fifth Ave., #100, Bankers Hill. crocesparkwest.com. Wed: Marc Encabo. Thu: Gio Trio. Fri: Curtis Taylor Quartet. Sat: Irving Flores. Sun: Patrick Berrogain. Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. dirksniteclub.com. Fri-Sat: FX5. Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Fri: Youth jazz ensembles. Sun: Freddy Lanuza. Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: Look Up Here, Cardboard Truckers, Soul Juice, Future Age, Aqua Rhythm. Sat: Calibrate Me, Eye the Realist, Ramona’s Flowers, Radio-active, Nightmare’s Riot. F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown, Downtown. f6ixsd.com. Sat: DJ Dynamiq. Sun: DJ Brett Bodley. Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: ‘IDGAF’ w/ Justin Prime. Fri: ‘SHIFT’. Sat: DJ Brett Bodley. Tue: Chromeo (DJ set). Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean Beach. 619-222-5303. Wed: The Trackdown Band. Thu: Hazmatt, DJ Reefah, TRC Soundsystem. Fri: Andy Mauser, Ass Pocket Whiskey Fellas. Sat: Noize Makerz, Kahi Lofa, DJ Chelu. Sun: So Cal Vibes. Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Thu: The Chain Gang of 1974, Empires, Nicky Venus. Fri: Kaos, Johnny Rayburn. Sun: ‘Intervention’ w/ Dash Berlin. Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave, Downtown. henryspub.com. Wed: Johnny Tarr, DJ Christopher London. Thu: Mark Fisher, DJ Yodah. Fri: ‘Good Times’. Sat: DJs E, Yodah. Mon: ‘Kinetic Soul’. Tue: Big City Dawgs. House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Fri:
42 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
Marisela, Angel Lopez. Sat: Andy Grammer, Kris Allen. Tue: Shaggy.
Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd. Mon: ‘Motown Monday’ w/ DJ Artistic. Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Wed: Among the Giants, Foreign Suns. Thu: ‘Darkwave Garden’. Fri: RF7, Riotgun, Los Brigands, Masaker 69, Brutus PunkBand, Massakro, Subject to Citation. Sat: Aether Kora, Kulteir, Death Measure, Daemos, Til All Are One, Cult Vegas. Sun: Doc Jam 2014. Side Bar, 536 Market St, Downtown. sidebarsd.com. Wed: Kyle Flesch. Thu: Erick Diaz. Fri: DJ MP. Sat: Epic Twelve. Sun: DJ Slowhand. Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: Babes, Jara, PRGRM. Thu: Glass Spells, Avid Dancer, Bulletproof Tiger, Letters from Readers, Cobra Kills DJs. Fri: Dwarves, The Queers, Masked Intruder, The Atom Age. Sat: Dwarves, The Queers, Masked Intruder, The Atom Age. Sun: Natural Child, The Abigails, The Paragraphs. Mon: Kawehi. Tue: Emerald Rats, Witness 9, Vegetarian Werewolf. SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Fri: Pullman Standard, Leave The Universe, The Shallow End, H-Street, The Young Gents, Paper Days. Sat: So This is Suffering, Wrath of Vesuvius, A Truth Betrayed, Hannibal, Zone 7. Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Thu: IZAN. Sat: DJs Tristan Jaxx, Nina Flowers. Sun: ‘Pride Closing Party’. Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Thu: Superbad. Fri: Disco Pimps, Friction Monster. Sat: Hott Mess, DJ Miss Dust. Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., San Diego, Normal Heights. sycamoreden. com. Thu: Pete Stein, Matt Strachota, Luke Andrew Johnson. Fri: The Midnight Pine. Sun: The Liquorsmiths, Travis Hayes. Tue: The S/ashes. The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd, Spring Valley. 619-469-2337. Wed: Karaoke. Thu: The Swank Bastards, Midnight Fiend, Rip Carson. Fri: Robin Hill, High Anxeity, Bobby Joe Ebloa and the Chil-
dren MacNuggets. Sat: On the Ground, Super Nothing, Sculpins, Unit F, Evacuate. The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: Robert Francis and The Night Tide, Vikesh Kapoor, Maxim Ludwig. Thu: Planes Mistaken for Stars, All Eyes West, I Wish I. Fri: Pinback, Life. Sat: Bob Log III, Badabing, The Department of Descriptive Service. Sun: Zongo Junction, Afrolicious, Tori Roze and the Hot Mess. Mon: Nightmare and the Cat, Kristeen Young. Tue: Cayucas, Hands, Idyll Wild. The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. thehideoutsd.com. Fri: Craft Spells, The Bilinda Butchers. Mon: Cool Ghouls. Tue: DJ Handsome Skeleton. The Merrow, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. theMerrow.com. Wed: Open mic. Thu: ‘Pride Kickoff Party’ w/ DJs Heabnasty, Mixed Up Mike. Fri: ‘Bearracuda’. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: I Am the Albatross, Dropjoy, Foreign Suns, Jaaaws. Tue: Gunner Gunner, Dirk McGregor. The Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. officebarinc.com. Wed: ‘Dub Dynamite’ w/ DJs Rashi, Eddie Turbo. Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Wed: Fat History Month, Dust from 1000 Years, Nothingful, Crooked Rulers. Thu: El Moto a Un Policia Motorizado, Dorotheo, Glasmus, Eric Curiel. Fri: DJs Mila Ruiz, Mighty Rulers, Sir Skankalot, Go-Go Guillermo, King Dutty. Sat: Bad Cop Bad Cop, The Bombpops, Western Settings, News From the Front. Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com. Wed: Trevor McSpadden, Scott Rankie, Clint Davis. Thu: No Name Gang, Memory, Axis of Death. Fri: Needledick DJs. Sat: Birdzilla. Mon: ‘Tin Can Country Club’ w/ Jimmy Ruelas. Tue: Badabing, Late Night Racket, Lucky Lucifer. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Thu: The Fremonts. Fri: Detroit Underground. Sat: Gino and the Gunmen. Tue: Bayou Brothers. Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Fri: Ghetto Blaster, Peace Creep, Old Man Wizard, Wayfarer, Dreadnought, Man vs. Man. Sat: Idols Plague, Hemorage, Feral Depravity. Sun: Daikaiju, Round Eye, Dinosaur Ghost. Turquoise, 873 Turquoise St, Pacific Beach. theturquoise.com/wordpress. Wed: Vera Cruz Blues (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.). Thu: Talia (4 p.m.); The Jade Visions Jazz Trio (7 p.m.). Fri: Gabriela Aparicio (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.). Sat: Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.); Gabriela Aparicio (9 p.m.). Sun: Sounds like Four (4 p.m.); Big Boss Bubale (7 p.m.). Ux31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Wed: Island Boy, Emerald Rats, Citrus. Thu: Pro K, Casa Nouva, Dirty Prado, Fr3nzy. Fri: Kid Wonder. West Coast Tavern, 2895 University Ave, North Park. westcoatstavern.com. Wed: DJ Qenoe. Thu: N-Vious. Fri: Mr. Dee Jay. Sat: DJ Impakt. Tue: DJ Clean Cut. Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Thu: Some Ember, Body of Light, DJ Mario Orduno. Fri: ‘F#ing in the Bushes’ w/ DJs Daniel Sant, Rob Moran. Sat: ‘80s vs 90s’ w/ DJs Gabe Vega, Saul. Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Rian Basilio and the Roosters, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Luminaries, Kiyoshi, Atlantis Rizing. Fri: Norris Reid. Sat: The Heavy Guilt. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: ‘SUBDVSN’.
Brendan Emmett Quigley
Across 1. Sudoku constraints 5. Booty 9. Guitarist with a 2014 #1 album “Lazaretto” 14. Closing words? 15. Note with a national face 16. Seal, as a victory 17. Big name in canned fruit 18. Emperor’s reigns, e.g. 19. “___ Gabler” 20. Event to get rid of unwanted goods 23. Fruit used in gin drinks 24. Moscow’s location: Abbr. 25. Scroogean cry 27. Rover’s belts 31. Enjoy the winter outdoors 34. Light reading? 36. Almost fat-free 37. Enjoy the winter outdoors 38. Become pale 41. Regarding, in legalese 42. Something that hangs over you for good? 43. Zoo creature that’s obviously laughing at you 44. Casual “states” 45. Gun ___ 47. Cribbage piece 48. “Oysters ___ Season” 49. What a lens is behind 51. Admits defeat 57. Wine type named after a river in western German 59. “I am so ___ that” 60. Touch cousin
Last week’s answers
61. Made of wood 62. Syrian singer Souleyman 63. Guatemalan president ___ Pérez Molina 64. Harmless stories 65. Squat 66. “The Fault in Our Stars” fan, likely
Down 1. Basketball star turned so-called diplomat 2. Musical instrument in phonetic alphabets 3. Only recipient of a degree in enigmatology 4. Reinforcement material 5. “You made a funny” 6. Healthy glow? 7. Farsi-speaking nation 8. Oceanic Flight 815 series 9. Crusades against the Great Satan 10. It provides many cars to New York City 11. Give up 12. Give someone the business 13. Tropical devil ray 21. Music played on an accordion 22. St. Catherine’s hometown 25. Software versions still being tested 26. Bully’s tactic 28. Fact checker’s well-worn book 29. Black Panther Bobby 30. Wears 31. Refuses to come to? 32. New Hampshire city with an annual Pumpkin Fest 33. Suitcase attachment 35. Her website is imaginepeace.com 37. Unable to pay 39. Sign that extra care went into the cleaning 40. Native American poet/author Alexie 45. Peps (up) 46. ___ Nevada 48. Indian princess 50. Plan B lead-in 51. Often-vandalized Internet page 52. “It’s coming, okay?” 53. “Girls” rating 54. Beer foam 55. Couple of chips, e.g. 56. “You were saying?” 57. The Eternal City resident 58. Movie villain who said “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 43
44 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 45
46 · San Diego CityBeat · July 16, 2014
July 16, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 47