San Diego CityBeat • July 18, 2018

2 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

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JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 3

UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

Short-term stupidity

O

n a whim, I went on the Airbnb app on Sunday night to see just how many places were available to rent during Comic-Con. While some of the offerings and prices verged on ridiculous, there were certainly plenty to choose from despite San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott declaring short-term vacation rentals [STVRs, for short] illegal last year.

Still, on a passive glance, I did get the sense that the prices for a STVR were much more affordable than a downtown hotel room where the average price during the Con was over $300-a-night.

As I write this on Tuesday afternoon, that’s all changed.

On Monday, the San Diego City Council voted 6 to 3 to drastically overhaul the city’s laws on short-term vacation rentals. In a nutshell: Unless residents live on-site or in the property, they can’t rent it out as an STVR. Period. End of story. Mic drop.

Airbnb has already come down hard on the council’s decision to the U-T on Tuesday.

“San Diego has been a vacation rental destination for nearly 100 years and today’s vote all but ensures activity will be forced underground and guests will choose alternative destinations.”

Well, damn, tell us how you really feel.

In many ways, Monday’s vote was both a huge surprise in just how drastic the new restrictions will be, but it was also a bit anticlimactic. After a nine-hour session back in December, the council rejected two proposals, both of which were far less restrictive than the one passed this week. It seemed at the time that despite the hair-pulling, eyeroll-inducing impasse that was derailed at the last minute, the council would eventually find a compromise. Would that compromise be similar to the one Mayor Faulconer proposed and then re-proposed after Mission Beach residents—arguably the community most hard hit by STVRs—came down hard on the mayor’s plan of unlimited rentals in the neighborhood?

The answer was decisive thumbs down to the mayor.

In what was arguably the most surprising “yes” vote on the proposal that actually passed, Councilmember Chris Ward seemed to contradict past statements he’s made on the issue.

“Vacation rentals have been around for decades, and with the evolving sharing economy, it’s clear these rentals are here to stay,” Ward told Voice of San

Diego back in November 2017. “Outright bans or severe limitations only further an underground economy that is already present, and those renting homes will creatively adapt and make it difficult for city regulations to be effective in achieving their purpose.”

Well, so much for that logic. This time around, Ward kept it short and sweet.

“This is a starting point that will allow the City to finally form the regulatory measures necessary to address constituent concerns, provide enforcement for recurrent bad actors, and provide a structure that leaves the window open to revisit in the future once investor loopholes are addressed,” the councilmember said in a statement.

Still, Ward’s original comment back in 2017 still carries weight. STVR services like Airbnb will only “creatively adapt” to the council’s new patchwork of provisions. It’s widely speculated that the service will even sue the city. What’s more, it seems like common sense to have a regulatory system already in place to enforce such tight restrictions, no?

Yes, it’s a “starting point” but the council has had nearly four years to come up with something that the mayor would sign off on. Sure, this is certainly an issue that brought out the passions in people and one could certainly see the council’s vote as them respecting the wishes of the community’s most directly affected. But I can’t help but feel that all the NIMBYists who came out to speak at these council sessions are in for a rude awakening and in more ways than one.

Make no mistake; this is a huge win for those $300-plus-per-night hotels in downtown. The hotel lobby was heavily involved in this process and pretty much got everything it wanted. It doesn’t happen often, but I can’t help but agree with Councilmember Chris Cate when he told the U-T on Monday that “the Council chose a path that is not only unenforceable and subject to legal challenge, but would drive the activity underground, resulting in the loss in millions of dollars in revenue that funds public safety officers and the repairing of city streets.”

Not to make a bad comic book pun, but it might be time again to go back to the drawing board.

—Seth Combs

Write to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com

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4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

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UP FRONT | LETTERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CIRCUS VARGAS I would like to comment on Aaryn Belfer’s article published in CityBeat on July 4 [“Dirty money times 10”]. It was eye opening and excellent and I could not agree with her more.

I feel very frustrated about Congressman Juan Vargas’ handling (or rather not handling) of the issues we have been plagued with, from keeping quiet on the Big Oil’s exploitation of the citizens in the gas pump, to his foreign trips outside the U.S. Maybe this would be a good time if Vargas told us who paid for his and his wife’s trip to Israel to be wined and dined while staying in luxury hotels, when at the same time, the innocent citizens were being killed in the street.

Roxanne Pedley Lemon Grove

DIVISIVENESS IS NOT FEMINIST In “No time for TERFdom” Alex Zaragoza complains about being unfairly characterized as being divisive, but that is exactly what she is doing here.

Rather than find common ground between transwomen and females in fighting the male violence and discrimination that plagues both groups, she trivializes the oppression of females and disparages the feminists dedicated to fighting it.

Make no mistake that whatever its origins, “TERF” is a slur, and an attempt to silence discussion and a form of hate speech that is usually accompanied by threats of violence that targets feminists, many of whom are lesbians. A recent example was the bloody

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T-shirt recently on display at the San Francisco Public Library that said “I punch TERFs.” It shouldn’t be necessary to point out that while transwomen experience discrimination and violence, so do females. Women Count USA has documented that from January through May of 2018, 819 females have been murdered by males in the U.S. Meanwhile, the global income gap between males and females is actually increasing, with average income of $12,000 for women and $21,000 for men.

Lesbians in particular experience high levels of job discrimination in the U.S.—they are 30% less likely to receive a call-back from potential employers, and 58% report having experienced some form of employment discrimination. (Bailey, Journal of Homosexuality, 60-873-894, 2013.)

Recognizing that females are oppressed based on our sex does not “reduce a set of people to our reproductive abilities.” Rather it allows females to fight for our full humanity.

Oppression is not a competition. Rather, real solidarity between oppressed groups is a two way street—it can only be created in an atmosphere of mutual respect that recognizes the separate rights and needs of each group. Our intersectionality and inclusiveness should not come at the expense of females’ ability to organize separately as needed in order to fight most effectively against our own sexbased oppression. As Ninotchka Rosca, a Filipina feminist, author and human rights activists recently declared, “If your intersectionality does not center females, it is not feminist.”

Ann Menasche and Rochelle Glickman Golden Hill

UP FRONT

ARTS & CULTURE

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

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

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

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

Well, That Was Awkward . . . . .

4 5 6 8 9

FOOD & DRINK World Fare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Revenge of a Beer Nerd . . . . . . . 11

THINGS TO DO The Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar of Events. . . . . . . . . 13-15

ON THE

COVER

Perry Vásquez

Theater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 FEATURE: Comic-Con. . . . . 17-25 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-27

MUSIC FEATURE: Metal Comics . . . . . 28 Notes From The Smoking Patio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 About Last Night . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 If I Were U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Concerts & Clubs . . . . . . . . 33-36

IN THE BACK Astrologically Unsound . . . . . . 26 CannaBeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Local artist Perry Vásquez (perryvasquez. com) graces our cover this week. Longtime CityBeat readers will remember he’s been on our cover before, but for this Comic-Con-centric issue, we naturally wanted to sit down with Vásquez to discuss his long-running Gates of Heck series (see feature on page 18). We used the main painting from the series for the cover, which depicts familiar comic book characters at a Dante-esque gate in the afterlife. “I can put a certain amount of stress on them that might lend a new insight to the characters,” says Vásquez. “You’re putting bodies under stress… one of things I love about comic artists is that they’re always asking, ‘what new things can we do with the human figure?’”

JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

JOHN R. LAMB

UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Lessons from the campaign trail You’ve got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.

—Arthur Ashe

I

t’s a safe bet that the coming showdown between former county District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and former state Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher to replace termed-out District 4 Supervisor Ron Roberts will be bloodier than a Sweeney Todd production.

Local Republican leaders froth at the mouth at the thought of a Fletcher victory come November.

Picture Trump and Putin, but back in the day when the GOP wasn’t tripping over itself in its feelings about a long-time nemesis like Russia. To them, the former Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat is simply a traitor.

Meanwhile, San Diego Democratic strategists like to point out that Dumanis effectively walked

into the November general election relatively untouched and unscathed. That, Fletcher told Spin Monday, will change in the coming weeks.

“You should see something soon,” was all the candidate would say.

So before the battle axes begin to fly, Spin reached out to North Park resident Omar Passons who, despite finishing fourth in the primary with nearly 19 percent of the vote, remains active in the District 4 race albeit behind the scenes.

Spin would argue that Passons certainly exceeded the expectations of many and now has the ear of his top rivals. He said that he has met with both Fletcher and Dumanis.

“Both meetings went well,” he said.

As if reading Spin’s mind that such meetings might be awkward given the bumpiness of the campaign trail, Passons added, “I don’t

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

While Nathan Fletcher and Bonnie Dumanis prep for three months of war, Omar Passons prefers to think long term. live in a world of enemies, and I didn’t take the cheap shots that are often part of politics. So I think it made it easier to sit down in earnest.”

Fletcher confirmed the meeting and called Passons “a great guy.” But when Spin noted how well Passons did against three better-known candidates, Fletcher suggested Passons benefited from having his name appear first on the ballot.

“That probably accounted for two percent of his total,” he said.

Passons didn’t dispute Fletch-

er’s claim, but noted, “I can’t worry too much about that. There is a bigger progressive picture for people in need.”

“I was driven to run by a set of values and a desire to have someone who would take a position that is well thought-out and based on the facts as they exist and a guiding value system, and then stick with it,” Passons added.

A land-use attorney by trade, Passons unveiled a host of detailed positions during the campaign, but the overriding theme of his run was simple: The County of San Diego can do a helluva lot more to make life better here.

For example, Passons drilled home the need for greater attention to the county’s youth and seniors.

On the latter, he warned, “We have the worst fiscal calamity around our senior-citizen population in San Diego than just about anywhere else in the country because of the age gap in our population, the spike in Alzheimer’s” and our ever-persistent housing squeeze.

Fletcher, on the campaign trail, basically conceded that he will need more Democrats elected as county supervisors to push a progressive agenda. But Passons makes a valid point that on some issues, perhaps common ground can be found. He says he would have looked forward to working with some of the four Republicans who dominate the county Board of Supervisors. He pointed to Supervisor Greg Cox’s recent elevation to the presidency of the National Association of Counties, as well as Cox’s “long understanding” of the challenges facing young children in the South Bay, as an opportunity to “move the needle” on programs benefiting children and young families.

Passons also suggested that Supervisor Dianne Jacob, with a “strong record on some senior issues,” could have been a likely partner as well.

“We’re doing some things, but we need to do more,” he explained.

“You have to be able to say, ‘Hey, you’re the supervisor who fought for this massive Alzheimer’s study and outreach, and the problem’s not getting better. It’s getting worse. So let’s work together because seniors are the fastest-growing homeless population.’”

Asked what his future plans are, Passons was admittedly vague about not only his endorsement plans (“There will be some point when it’s appropriate to make some sort of public statement about this race,” he said), but professionally as well. He knows he wants to tackle “big issues,” but he also wants to increase the seats at the power table.

“I hope to be helping to create a path for people who are not just entrenched political insiders,” he said, adding he hopes to provide the tools that were not available to him for future candidates, both Republican and Democrat. He claims the local Democratic Party was clearly in Fletcher’s corner from day one, but that they should provide basic assistance to all party candidates. Passons said he had to hire an attorney to figure out how to properly pay campaign staff when the local party provided no guidance.

“That should be part of what a responsible political apparatus provides,” he said.

Still, Passons prefers to talk about the positives. “Having a parent stop me on the street with their little one to say how excited they are about your candidacy and saying my little girl wants to tell you what’s important to her, that’s really important. I was happy to present that option for people.”

Spin Cycle appears every other week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

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JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

White protest privilege

L

ike so many good white people over the past few weeks, Jonathan Verk and his wife Staci had reached their tipping point. News of the separation of children and parents seeking asylum at our southern border compelled the Verks to take action and inspire others to take action. And this matters.

Make no mistake: What is happening on our watch is an American atrocity. Full stop. This is not a left or right issue; a Democrat or Republican issue. It is a moral issue, one that a loud contingent who comprise the very worst of America refuses to understand.

These folks have no compassion for anyone unlike them, or any interest in acknowledging the desperate plight of their fellow human beings. By and large, the immigrants caught up in this catastrophe are refugees who have fled something so unimaginably awful, that walking hundreds of miles and crossing deserts on foot, only to face possible separation from their babies, is somehow less awful than the reality they face in their home country.

Yet, for so many others like the Velks, this barbaric moment is resonating on a cellular level. Our tolerance for existential pain has been breached. We have finally had enough. White people—and yes, this is about race, which is why I’ve said “white people” three times and might say it a whole bunch more— have passed the point of head-inthe-sand obliviousness. It seems our handy-dandy skill set of generational amnesia and willful ignorance, honed over centuries of blissful autonomy and freedom, is finally breaking down. Goodbye to all that.

And so it is that the Velks did what white people (four! Say it with me!) need to be doing in this critical moment and have a responsibility to do every day: They used their political, social and financial capital to organize.

Several weeks ago and over the course of five days, they put on a rally of 1,500 people and collected hundreds of comfort items—stuffed animals, books, soft blankets—for separated and detained children. They also chartered two buses that transported a caravan of 75 predominantly white people from the West L.A. Federal Building to San Diego. It was there at an adult detention facility that they joined other protesters, all young people of color from local activist group Generation Justice, seven of whom were arrested later that night for peaceful actions. Later, despite requests from longtime local immigration activist Mark Lane, who works inside with detainees, the caravaners stopped on their way home to deliver their collected goods to a separate children’s detention facility nearby.

So, here’s the thing: Taking action is good and white people absolutely need to be in the fight for justice on all levels. Change will not come without us.

But it is imperative that those who join the work know

how to become co-conspirators. And this requires getting out of our own way.

White folks have a habit of making things about us.

In fact, it is a typically white thing to step into spaces and take over. We are used to leading, to having a platform, to fixing things, to being respected and lauded and praised, because white supremacy has vaulted us to the top rung of value in society.

Dropping in to deliver goods without coordinating with a local community is highly problematic, no matter how well-intentioned, and contains a whiff of activist tourism. There is no higher example of white privilege and benevolence than the caravaners being asked by a person on the ground not to do something (visit the children’s detention center) and doing it anyway.

Further, wipipo should not seek gold stars for being “allies.” This isn’t about us.

Sure, it’s important to use connections and get media coverage, but being a good ally means directing that spotlight toward those who have been in the fight for years, who generally tend to be people of color.

Those of us with access to power and platforms must use them to elevate marginalized voices.

To be very clear, none of this is to say the caravaners did a bad thing or are in any way bad people.

That is nonsense. It is to say that we all must be more mindful and more purposeful to educate ourselves as to what it means to be an ally and how best to make use of our whiteness.

And in a moment of growth, the caravaners did this. When the local experienced activist explained with calm and compassion why protests were being discouraged at the children’s detention center (it frightens the kids, and they get put on lockdown and lose privileges when protests happen), the caravaners were captivated and changed their approach. They still went to the location. But instead of everyone getting off the buses and protesting outside, two people walked to the front door, rang the doorbell, and delivered the items they’d collected that morning at the rally.

All in all, this action begun by the Velks were a success and will hopefully serve as an inspiration for more people to take action. Caravaning and protesting are not for everyone, but there are a million ways to plug in and to be part of the majority who reject what is happening in our name. But to be most effective, we must decenter our whiteness, defer to the experts, ask how we can best be of help, and take our cues from those who have fought this fight the longest.

White folks have a habit of making things about us. In fact, it is a typically white thing to step into spaces and take over.

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week.

Write to aarynb@sdcitybeat.com.

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UP FRONT | VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

Fever pitch, don’t kill my vibe

W

hen I was 11 or 12, my family had Utah Jazz season tickets. This was the golden age of the Jazz basketball. I’m talking John Stockton and Karl Malone and Jeff Hornacek (good ol’ Horny). Jerry Sloan’s strict coaching had made them a tight, unstoppable team. When they made it to the NBA Finals—thanks to a historic three-pointer provided by Stockton—my little preteen self felt an emotion that I would later recognize as love.

The trouble, however, is the Jazz were set to play the Chicago Bulls for the championship. If there was ever one team more unstoppable, it was the those ‘90s Bulls squads. And, like every other tween during that time, Michael Jordan was one of my heroes. How could I reconcile my love for the home team with devotion to my hero?

I remember those games as some of the loudest experiences of my life. The Utah crowd didn’t fuck around. Apparently, repressing all desire for vice and sin makes your cheer-game on-point.

When the Bulls won, the conflicting emotions proved too strong for me. My brain broke. Not only did I stop caring about basketball, but all sports. It has remained that way for the rest of my adult life. For the the most part, I would say the effects have been beneficial. I still get little pangs of jealousy whenever championships roll around and I no longer have a team to cheer for, but I usually shove those down to make room for my smug self-righteousness.

I didn’t expect to catch World Cup fever on my family trip to England. Not only am I a rec league soccer drop-out, but I’m among the Americans who call football “soccer.”

On my first night in England, I drink with my British brother-in-law, Lewis. We’re drinking snakebites— a delightful combination of lager and cider—at a pub called the Purple Bear in the heart of Newcastle.

Above the taps, there’s a sign that says “It’s okay to cry if England loses.”

I ask—perhaps a little asshole-ishly—if he’s going to cry if England loses to Colombia.

“I did cry in 1998 when Michael Owen scored,” he says, referring to a legendary World Cup goal against Argentina. “I was just overcome with emotion. It was such a beautiful goal. I told my dad how beautiful it was, and he patted me on the back, saying,‘There, there, lad. Yes it was.’”

I realize that this is just one year after the Jazz’s overwhelming beauty caused me to fall away from sports. Maybe if I’d had a stronger constitution, I’d still be a fan.

••• We watch England play Colombia in Liverpool.

The vacation itinerary has taken us south, and we

watch the game in the hotel lobby, just up the street from the famous Cavern Club where the Beatles got their start.

The game’s tense. There’s a foosball table right in front of the TVs, and when I joke to Lewis if he thinks it’d be funny if I started playing a game, he doesn’t even laugh.

At the end of the game, the score is a draw. They go to extra time, and and after that, there’s penalty kicks.

“Anyone have any anti-anxiety meds?” Lewis asks.

He’s standing up, pacing.

England wins the shootout. The lobby erupts. Even I feel the electric rush of the moment. I look over to Lewis, and he’s got tears in his eyes.

“In all my 31 years, I’ve never seen England win during penalty,” he says.

I think I’m beginning to turn into a football fan.

••• The day England are set to play Sweden, we’re in Brighton and it’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

This is considered a “heatwave.”

Newspaper headlines warn people to take four-minute showers, and the boardwalk is full of burnt people who don’t really know how to be in the sun. Everyone is drunk on lager—not only to hydrate (I’ve never drunk so little water during a 10-day period)—but to also prepare for the game.

Most pubs around us have lines of people out the door, but we eventually find a place that has a projector set up in the back. We crowd into the awkward space—pushed up against the staircase to the loo and constantly trying to see around the pillars decorating the bar.

It’s an easy win for England. It’s still daylight when we emerge from the bar. I see so many people pissing in corners. All around us, people sing the 1996 Lightning Seeds hit, “Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home).” One fella stumbles down the street with his pants around his ankles, but lifts them when he sees my mother-in-law. What a gent. For the first time ever, I’m surrounded by drunk sports fans and I don’t hate it.

••• I’m back in the U.S. when England loses to Croatia, but I still feel the sting in my heart, transmitted from across the Atlantic. I think of all the sad, drunk, sunburnt people, and feel their pain (well, emotional pain, at least, because I know how to use sunscreen).

But there’s no denying that the lads played well.

Football might not be coming home this year, but at least something was returned to me.

England wins the shootout.

The lobby erupts. Even I feel the electric rush of the moment. I look over to Lewis, and he’s got tears in his eyes.

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Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

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JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE

A revamped and reimagined icon

C

harles + Dinorah (1410 Rosecrans St., thepearlsd.com/dining) is, first and last, the revamped and reimagined restaurant at the iconic Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. “Icon” is a tough word. Yes, it connotes a certain grandeur, but it’s laced with a hint of yesterday’s news.

And the Pearl definitely was, at one point, yesterday’s news: a midcentury modern masterpiece of a boutique hotel set in the heart of Point Loma (just where it starts to get good). It had seen better days when its original owners, Charles and Dinorah Gehring, sold it in 2006. Another transaction later, its poolside restaurant has received an infusion of ambition, attention and talent with new chef Andrew Santana (ex-Campfire) and bar manager TJ Majeske (ex-Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant). The results offer promise, another tough word.

There’s no better way to start an early dinner than with one of Majeske’s cocktails.

Take, for example, the Marie Antoinette, which features champagne, plum vodka, grapefruit juice and lavender syrup. There’s nothing Mad Men-era about it, with a flavorprofile tilting to the sweet, but fully in balance and with just enough kick to take the edge off the workday. It also makes tackling Santana’s menu a pleasure, which is short and ambitious. Asian touches abound, in a sort of David Chang way, suggesting contemporary edge more than Ming Tsai-era East-meets-West. It’s sort of like the Pearl itself: The midcentury architecture is there but it doesn’t feel as if it’s past its use-by date.

Santana’s most successful dishes are the starters.

Try the kushiyaki, Japanese grilled meat on skewers.

The chicken hearts—savory, caramelized and just a bit edgy—are also a particularly good choice.

The best starter, though, is roasted fennel and beet with honey curd, puffed quinoa and smoked almonds.

It may be the best dish at the restaurant. It’s a wellbalanced, precise symphony of flavors, with textures, temperatures and a tight presentation that would suggest a happy accident, but is more likely carefully composed. It’s Charles + Dinorah’s “must” dish.

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

The cavatelli with mushroom conserva, leek fromage and lemon zest sounded great, but was a near miss. Creamy and rich with lemon zest providing balance, it was comforting and delicious, but the flavors flowed together creating a muddle where there should have been precision and definition.

The star of the cioppino was supposed to be fried soft shell crab, but it was dreadfully undercooked.

Was this cioppino a soup or a red sauce? Even if the latter, it was drastically over-reduced. The shishito peppers were a nice touch but couldn’t salvage the affair.

MICHAEL A. GARDINER

Roasted fennel and beet with honey curd, puffed quinoa and smoked almonds The fried calamari was a better dish. It was all about the way the terrific squid ink aioli interacted with the citrusy notes of kumquat kosho, the whole somehow avoiding being overly salty. The perfectly fried calamari and kale felt unaccountably light.

In many ways that calamari dish summed up Charles + Dinorah. It was, at once, classic but also refreshed. The architecture of the dish was old, but gussied up with some hip touches that made it feel renewed. Consistency is an issue and staff knowledge is as well, but with time Santana and Majeske appear to have the talent and ambition to achieve a fresh grandeur, iconic status notwithstanding.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

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UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

ANATOMY OF A COCKTAIL SCENE

BY IAN WARD

#36: Contemplating insanity at La Puerta

ioned at lunch? Not as bad, but still suspect.

The margarita, on the other hand, comes with no such time restraints or stigmas. It’s had a friend in high school that used one of the drink’s charms. One can drink to drink Pepsi every morning. This a margarita at any point in the day, and disturbed me. I know I’m a bit of a tra- rest easy knowing that they are not being ditionalist and, at times, it can be a hin- secretly judged by anyone. Well, actually, drance upon my life, but at other times, it that’s not entirely true. The margarita order just makes sense to conform to the norms. one gives the bartender might have certain professional stigmas attached Drinking coffee and orange to it. So, seeing as how it’s juice in the morning are exbeen grotesquely hot amples of when it feels good lately, I figure now would to conform. But drinking be a good time to flesh Pepsi first thing every day is out any margarita preferjust downright insanity. ences for those planning on imI feel the same way about bibing the world’s most popular certain cocktails as well. For tequila cocktail this summer. those of you out there that “Oh man. There are lots of drink Bloody Marys after 5 great tequila for a marg, but I p.m. and wonder whether the love Tapatio 110 Proof in a marg. bartender thinks it’s downright I also love using Fortaleza blanco insane... We do. It’s weird. with 2 dashes of orange bitCertain things just feel Whole Lotta Love ters,” says Kate Owca, bar manright at certain times. A beer Margarita ager of La Puerta (560 Fourth before bed? Totally normal.

A mimosa before bed? Eh, it’s a very odd Ave., lapuertasd.com).

La Puerta is one of my two go-to spots decision and would make me question the drinker’s ability to make rational choices. in San Diego when I actually want a marI mean, who the hell drinks orange juice garita. It’s one of the few cocktails around and champagne before bed? That’s crazy that I crave. As for the Whole Lotta Love talk, but I’m sure some sociopath out margarita at La Puerta, Owca says “El Charro is a nice highland tequila at a great there does.

Actually, most cocktails are attached price. We offer the choice of blanco, reto some hourly stigma. Manhattans at posado or anejo. There’s nice agave notes, brunch? Again, very peculiar. An old fash- with some clear citrus hints and brightness in the blanco. With reposado, you still get nice cooked agave with a pleasant spice.

WHOLE LOTTA The anejo is a bit richer with subtle vanilla LOVE MARGARITA while still showcasing cooked agave.”

I tend to go blanco when ordering a as prepared at La Puerta margarita. As far as other margarita eti1 1/2 oz. El Charro tequila quette type questions, I’m sure salt comes 1 oz. Fresh-squeezed lime to mind. Go for a pinch in the drink rather 1 oz. agave nectar than a rimmed glass. I know, it sounds insane, but it’s the way.

I

Combine all ingredients in a shaker, shake and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.

Garnish with a lime wedge.

@SDCITYBEAT

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

BY DAVEY LANDEROS

REVENGE OF THE BEER NERD Beer drinking pet peeves

I

t’s a personal struggle for me to see people drink beer incorrectly. Yes, I’ve heard the cliché maxim “don’t-let-anyone-tell-you-how-to-enjoy-your-beer” but craft beer is expensive. Isn’t it obvious that people should maximize their beer drinking experience? Why pay for a concert and watch it through an iPhone?

It only takes a few small adjustments to make a huge difference. Thankfully, I was able to sit with Chris Manzi, a homebrew advocate and manager of the Homebrewer in North Park to help clarify some of these nuances.

For starters, slow down. A pint should take 25-to-45 minutes to fully enjoy. If it tastes like piss unless it’s ice cold, then it probably is piss. But craft beer isn’t a race. Rather, it’s a story that needs time to unfold. Let the beer warm to a toasty 55 degrees. Yes, beer should be stored and served below 40 degrees to protect the flavors and integrity, but it needs to warm once it’s poured. As the beer warms, it will open and flavors will begin to change.

“Volatilization of aromatic compounds happens at warmer temps,” Manzi says. “It brings out the aromas and tingly things that make beer great.”

Also, use a real beer glass that’s cleaned and rinsed. Manzi noted that an ideal beer glass will “control and concentrate flavors and aromas, while also regulating gradual increases in temperature. I like to change my glass to match the beer.” In general, thin, effervescent beer is best in tall, narrow glassware while wide, open glasses are perfect for full-bodied, rich beer. My

personal go-to is a Belgian tulip glass, which is a decent catch-all for most beer.

After growing up and getting real glassware (that’s clean), it’s important to rinse it out with room temperature water just before pouring your beer. Rinsing will flush the glass of dust or residual detergent while making the glass slippery to promote good head formation (I’ll get to the importance of beer foam in just a sec).

When you’re pouring the beer, don’t ever let the bottle, can or faucet touch the inside of the glass or the beer. It’s gross, unsanitary and DAVEY LANDEROS can leave weird flavors in your beer.

Finally, stop being afraid of a big, frothy head.

“It helps release and deliver aromatic compounds while simultaneously protecting and trapping them in,” Manzi says.

The science that goes into beer foam can be baffling and some brewers will obsess about head retention and foam Chris Manzi formation. I like to think of beer foam as the suspenseful soundtrack for an important movie scene; it sets the tone for the action that’s about to go down.

Some people might think I’m full of shit and that I’m simply over-complicating beer (actually, I don’t deny that). However, these few alterations can radically change a beer drinking experience from normal to extraordinary. Since people love cliché maxims, let’s remember: life is too short to drink bad beer. To that I add: might as well do it correctly.

Write to Davey at daveyl@sdcitybeat.com or check him out on Instagram at @daveythebeernerd.

JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

EVENTS

SHORTlist

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

LA JOLLA

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTISTS

When it comes to documentation of known these artists,” Spencer recently told KPBS. the local visual art scene, there isn’t much to go “I’ve tried to capture the essence of the artist when on aside from word-of-mouth stories of exhibi- I went to their studio, but through that I’m hoping tions from artists who’ve helped nurture that scene that the viewer will actually begin to better understand what the artist is all about.” throughout the years. What’s COURTESY OF JENNIFER G. SPENCER Along worth pics of artists more, the best we can hope for such as Cindy Zimmerman, Jim when it comes to visual documenHubble, Anne Mudge and more, tation is finding some photos onSpencer includes portions of her line or info on an artist’s CV. diary entries at the time (hence, Luckily, there’s Jennifer G. the “memoir” distinction within Spencer’s new book, The Artist the title of the book). The result Portrait Project: A Photographic is a portrait of a time and place as Memoir of Portrait Sessions with told by photographic portraits. Or, San Diego Artists. Within the as another legendary art enthusibook, Spencer documents 10 years ast succinctly puts it: worth (2006-2016) of local artists “We can view and contem(over 50 in all). The result is an inplate these portraits in the prestimate look at not only the people ent tense, but they will likely have behind the work, but of the prohistorical value as time passes,” cess of creating itself.

Jean Cornwall says esteemed art critic Robert L. “What I hope to get across to the audience is the fact that not only are these art- Pincus in the introduction of the book.

Spencer will be on hand at to discuss and sign ists unique in our community—because it’s very difficult for artists to make a living here—but also they The Artist Portrait Project at Warwick’s (7812 Girard have persisted. That persistence of creative spirit has Ave.) at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 19. Full details existed here for some time and has lasted since I’ve at warwicks.com.

LOGAN HEIGHTS

THE L WORD It’s time we all stop being so scared of it. It’s also time we realized how much it is changing and evolving in our society every day. Love, Sex & Relationships, a conversation and social event presented by local literary org The New Narrative, will explore the everchanging nature of these topics, while also looking into a new idea of love: one that is inclusive toward different races, cultures and identities. On Saturday, July 21, guest speakers including Ada Powers, Evita Sawyers, Nawal Adams, Kisha Lynn Elliott and more will open up about their own stories and experiences in an attempt to help participants uncover what they want their relationships to look like in their new narrative. It happens at Bread & Salt (1955 Julian Ave.) from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $15-$20 at thenewnarrative.org.

COURTESY OF NATHAN YOUNG

The New Narrative 12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

ENCINITAS

BUG LIFE When it comes to bugs, our instinctive nature is sometimes to just scream and run away. The Insect and Ladybug Festival at the San Diego Botanic Garden (230 Quail Gardens Drive) takes a more educational approach, and one that may leave some patrons leaving with a newfound appreciation for our multilegged friends. Aspiring entomologists of all ages are welcome to attend this event that includes local experts and thousands of species of insects including Madagascar hissing cockroaches. OK, yeah, maybe that one isn’t so great, but there will also be snakes, lizards and a Galapagos tortoise, plus various varieties of cooked mealworm larva.

Hey, if you can’t stand ’em, eat ’em. The event is free with admission (Free-$18) and goes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 21 and Sunday, July 22. sdbgarden.org RACHEL COBB

Insect and Ladybug Festival @SDCITYBEAT

EVENTS ART HSummer Nights at Museum of Photographic Arts, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park.

A weekly event during the summer celebrating the museum’s 35th anniversary.

Includes photo talks, film screenings, photography workshops and more. At 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, July 19. Free. 619-2387559, mopa.org Nat at Night at San Diego Natural History Museum, 1788 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Take advantage of half price admission every Friday night and enjoy immersive exhibitions, new 3-D nature documentaries, pop-up experiences and a new rooftop bar featuring trivia nights. From 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays, July 20. Free-$9.50. 619232-3821, sdnhm.org HPapercuts at Hill Street Country Club, 530 South Coast Hwy., Oceanside. The third annual zine show will feature a variety of vendors and collaborators inclusing TJ Zine Fest and SDSU Zine Club. Music provided by DJ Lexicon. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 21. Free. thehillstreetcountryclub.org

and aliens to cults and serial killers. At 10:30 p.m. Friday, July 20. $34. 619570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org

DANCE HDancerPalooza at the San Diego Convention Center, 111 W. Harbor Drive, Downtown. The nation’s largest dance festival will bring top choreographers and dancers to San Diego for six days of performances in all styles, as well as classes for all skill levels. Plus vendors and giveaways.

At various times. From Tuesday, July 24 through Sunday, July 29. Free-$1,050.

818-432-8498, dancerpalooza.com

FILM International Fashion Film Festival at Price Center Ballroom UCSD,

9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Hundreds of fashion filmmakers from around the world will gather to celebrate film and fashion. Includes seminars, panels, film screenings, red carpet events, after parties and more. At various times.

Thursday, July 19 through Saturday, July 21. Free with RSVP. 619-889-3238, ljfff.com

FOOD & DRINK HSan Diego Beer & Music Festival: Pizza & Beerfest Edition at Liberty Station NTC Park, 2455 Cushing Road, Point Loma. Local breweries including Ballast Point, Thorn Street and Mike Hess will offer unlimited tastings of over 100 craft beers to raise money for the San Diego Hunger Coalition. Includes a performance by rapper Petey Pablo. From 6 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, July 21. $35-$50. sandiegobeerfestival.com HBurgers & Brews at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. A craft beer and burger tasting event that includes unlimited food samples and five tasters of beer. Price includes admission to the racetrack. From 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, July 21. $37-$42. 858-7551141, dmtc.com

MUSIC HThe Movie Music of John Williams at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. On the eve of Comic-Con, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra will perform music composed by John Williams from popular films like Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Plus Star Wars-

themed cocktails, a costume contest and cosplay will immediately precede the concert. From 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 18. $30-$45, 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org Nelson Mandela’s Centenary Concert at WorldBeat Cultural Center, 2100 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. Celebrate the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela with a live performance by Grammy-nominated international youth choir The Peace Train. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 18. $10. 619230-1190, worldbeatcenter.org HThe Psychedelic Furs at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. The British post-punk band behind hits like “Love My Way” and “Heav-

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

BOOKS HJean Guerrero at La Bodega Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. The official launch party for the KPBS reporter’s new book Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir.

Includes a live reading, signing, art exhibit, tarot readings, drinks and live music. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 19. Free. facebook.com/events/1673333072720690 HJennifer G. Spencer at Warwick’s, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Local artist and photographer will sign and discuss her new book, The Artist Portrait Project: A Photographic Memoir of Portrait Sessions with San Diego Artists, which consists of portraits of 50 San Diego artists. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 19.

Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke at Ignite Bistro, 6996 El Camino Real, Carlsbad.

Heavy appetizers, drinks and a discussion with bestselling authors Fenton and Steinke. Tickets include a signed copy of their newest novel, Girls’ Night Out. From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, July 19. $37. adventuresbythebook.com Scott Miller at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The baseball columnist and analyst will sign and discuss his new book, Ninety Percent Mental, a book he co-authored with all-star pitcher Bob Tewksbury. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 23. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Kelly Link and Gavin Grant at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The two publishers will discuss their respective publishing houses (Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House), as well as sign their own books.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 25. Free.

858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com HJean Guerrero at The Book Catapult, 3010-B Juniper St., South Park. The KPBS reporter will sign and discuss her new book, Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 25. Free.

619-795-3780, thebookcatapult.com

COMEDY HBrian Posehn at The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Downtown. The comedian, actor and writer will be performing his acclaimed stand-up comedy. At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, July 19. $25. 619-232-4355, casbahmusic.com Last Podcast on the Left Live at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. A live comedy podcast investigating spooky and violent events in history, from demons

H = CityBeat picks @SDCITYBEAT

JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 13

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

@SDCITYBEAT

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 23. $20-$25.

858-481-1055, northcoastrep.org

en” kick off the Del Mar Summer Concert Series. At 6 p.m. Friday, July 20. $5-$30.

858-755-1141, dmtc.com

PERFORMANCE

HA New High at The Studio Door, 3750 30th St., North Park. Formerly known as High Street, the local San Diego band is reuniting after 30 years. Hear Jon Jones, Kent Lawrence and Brian Baxter perform live once again. At 1 and 6 p.m.

Saturday, July 21. Free. 619-255-4920, thestudiodoor.com Iration at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. The Santa Barbara-based reggae band will play on the Seaside Stage as part of the Del Mar Racetrack’s Summer Concert Series. At 6 p.m. Saturday, July 21.$5-$50. 858-7551141, dmtc.com

HLight Within the Cracks at Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Gaslamp. transcenDANCE Youth Arts Project presents this dance theatre production with live music, spoken word, video and original dance pieces that explore mental health, trauma, and resilience. At 7 p.m. Friday, July 20 and Saturday, July 21. $15$30. 619-474-4903, tdarts.org

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HBlack Xpression at La Bodega Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. A weekly open mic event featuring poetry and spoken word primarily highlighting the Black experience. The event also showcases art and jewelry for sale. At 8 p.m. Friday, July 20. $5. facebook.com/ events/1976604805941178

now. At 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 18. $24.95-$29.95. 619-238-1233, rhfleet.org

urday, July 21 and Sunday, July 22.

Free-$14. 760-436-3036, sdbgarden.org

Encinitas Cruise Night at S. Coast Highway 101, between D St. and K St., Encinitas. A monthly display of vintage vehicles along the historic Route 101. July’s focus will be on classic VW buses, and there will be live music with an emphasis on oldies to recapture the zeitgeist of the ’60s and ’70s.

From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 19.

Free. 760-943-1950, visitencinitas.org

HBenefit for August at Lhooq Books, 1/2, 755 Carlsbad Village Dr., Carlsbad.

A fundraiser for Erik “August”, a San Diego local who is fighting stage four cancer. The event will feature live music from The Oxen, The Gift Machine, Nowhereland and more. From 5 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, July 21. $5. facebook.com/ events/519256088490061

Nuclear Blast After-Party at House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Heavymetal label Nuclear Blast will team up with Sideshow Collectibles’ comic series Court of the Dead to present a thrashing ComicCon get-together. Performances from metal bands Testament and Carnifex. From 7 p.m. to midnight. Thursday, July 19. $35. 619299-2583, houseofblues.com/sandiego

HSouth Park Summer Walkabout starting at Juniper & 30th St., South Park. An evening celebrating some of the unique businesses in South Park, with free food samples, live music, and unique wares. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 21. southparksd.com

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Backyard at the San Diego Natural History Museum, 1788 El Prado, Balboa Park. An exhibit geared to children ages five-and-under, immersing them in the vibrant world of nature that can be found in their own backyards and gardens. From 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Opens Friday, July 20. Free-$20. 619-232-3821, sdnhm.org

Liberty Station Concerts: Earl Thomas at Arts District Liberty Station, 2848 Dewey Rd., Point Loma. The free outdoor concert series is returning with R&B and soul artist Rebecca Jade & the Cold Fact and acclaimed blues singer Earl Thomas. From 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, July 22. Free. 619-5739300, libertystation.com

Del Mar Racetrack Opening Day at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Fast horses, big hats and even bigger bets means it’s once again time for race track’s inaugural day. Watch the races, participate in the Opening Day Hats Contest and more. At 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 18. $15-$30. 858-755-1141, dmtc.com

Harry Potter Cosplay at Children’s Park, 326 West Harbor Drive, Downtown.

Starburner Galactic Courier Service will be hosting a meet-up for muggles, witches and wizards at this Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts cosplay event. From 10 a.m. to noon. Friday, July 20. Free. facebook.com/events/216175309130915

Peter Sprague Trio at the North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive D, Solana Beach. The jazz maestros will perform their take on baby boomer hits from artists like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder and Cream, before turning to classic tunes by Cole Porter and jazz standards.

HAn Evening with the Mythbusters at Fleet Science Center, 1875 El Prado, Balboa Park. From the popular TV show, Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara will make a special appearance to share behind-the-scenes stories from the show and give updates on what they’re doing

HInsect & Ladybug Festival at San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. The event is crawling with thousands of bugs, reptiles and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Plus, bug collecting, barbequed mealworm and local experts. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat-

Coral Bells at Beach House, 3125 Ocean Front Walk, Mission Beach. Beach House at Belmont Park continues its summertime Beach Concert Series with the Imperial Beach-based indie folk band.

From 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 22. Free.

858-228-9283, beachhousesd.com

@SDCITYBEAT

South Bay Salsa Festival at J Street Marina, 550 Marina Pkwy., Chula Vista.

A huge festival and party featuring live music by the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Adalberto Santiago, the Chévere All Stars and more. From noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 21. $25-$50. Facebook.com/ events/153823672058988 HH2O Heroes & Villains at WorldBeat Cultural Center, 2100 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. A Comic-Con inspired outdoor party featuring live music by DJ Christian Martin and Nick Monaco, along with live artists and vendors including Camilo Rojas, Soul Plane Crystals, Seabrook Ink and more. From 2 to 10 p.m. Sunday, July 22. $18.50-$22.50. facebook.com/ events/380464905771050

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HWater Resilience in San Diego at Amplified Aleworks, 4150 Mission Blvd.

#208, Mission Beach. Risa Baron, Principal Public Affairs Representative with the San Diego County Water Authority, will discuss how San Diego prepared for the last drought and the next one, as well as the long-term efforts by the Water Authority to ensure a safe and reliable water system. From 6 to 8 p.m.

Thursday, July 19. Free. facebook.com/ events/2170624613224436 HThe Business of Books at the Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. A panel of local independent bookstore owners and managers will discuss the role of their stores in the community and the changing landscape of independent bookstores. Includes a happy hour with drinks, snacks and hands-on paper marbling activities. From 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 20. Free-$5.

619-704-7507, mingei.org HLove, Sex & Relationships at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights.

The New Narrative presents a conversation and social event exploring these themes, featuring guest speakers Ada Powers, Evita Sawyers, Nawal Adams, Melissa Tucker and more. From 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, July 21. $15-$20.

619-851-4083, thenewnarrative.org

WORKSHOPS HDIY Zine Zone Summer Camp at the San Diego Art Institute, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. A week of zine-making for students between the ages of 10 and 18 with any interest in the visual arts and a desire to explore the possibilities of media. Led

by Luisa Martinez and David Peña, founders and organizers of the Tijuana Zine Fest. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, July 23 through Friday, July 27. $250-$300.

619-236-0011, sandiego-art.org

JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 15

THEATER AARON RUMLEY

Funny Romans and serious transients

The Zoo Story runs through July 29 at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. $18-$35; backyardrenaissance.com

U

sually the scene-stealer in a supporting comedic role, the prodigious Omri Schein deservedly gets the lead role in the farcical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the storied 1962 Broadway musical (and later a film) that closes North Coast Repertory Theatre’s 36th season. Schein plays Pseudolus, the Roman slave who is the instigator of every ruse, machination and hapless deceit in this no-holds-barred comedy. He remains hilarious even when the deadpanning and slapsticking gets redundant (which, eventually, they do).

The cast of 13 is the largest ever for a show at North Coast Rep in artistic director David Ellenstein’s 16-year tenure. Besides Schein, the Forum cast includes many familiar comic pros in San Diego theater including Andrew Ableson, David McBean and Melinda Gilb. After 56 years, Forum is rife with obvious antics, characters and situations, and Stephen Sondheim’s score is relatively serviceable beyond the classic “Comedy Tonight.” What we’re left with, bottom line, is vaudeville in togas. Nothing wrong with that if that’s what floats your Roman barge, and Schein’s worth the price of a ticket.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum runs through Aug. 12 at North

16 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Juneteenth: A world premiere reading of Clarence R. Cuthbertson’s two-character play that centers on American slaves finding out they were emancipated.

It happens July 19 at the Malcolm X Library in Valencia Park. facebook.com/AfricanAmericanWritersArtistsIncSanDiego Legally Blonde: The Musical: A musical adaptation of the hit film about a co-ed who leaves an entitled life in Malibu to chase her boyfriend to Harvard Law School. Directed by Kristianne Kurner, it opens in previews July 20 at the New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. $45-$56; ncrep.org ••• dward Albee’s first work was the oneact The Zoo Story, and it certainly foreshadowed the tense, often-uneasy dramatic canon that was to flow from this great American playwright. In 55 anxious minutes that unfold in real time, a “permanent transient” (as he calls himself) named Jerry makes contact with and proceeds to unload every tortured emotion and neurosis upon Peter, a mild-mannered publishing-compa-

E

ny exec with a wife, two daughters and two parakeets. Directed by Rosina Reynolds for Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company, the action is a slow boil of human drama.

Francis Gercke’s Jerry is manic and calculatingly menacing for most of the one act, while Phil Johnson’s Peter endures in quiet anguish on the Central Park bench where Jerry has interrupted his routine of quiet reading. When Peter can stand no more and boils over, Johnson and Gercke become two desperate men at odds where anything can happen. It does.

A Man of No Importance: Stephen Flaherty’s dramatic musical about a Dublin bus conductor who obsesses over Oscar Wilde and who longs to be in the theatre. Directed by Manny Bejarano, it opens July 20 at the Coronado Playhouse. coronadoplayhouse.com Annie: A redheaded orphan sings and dances her way to a better life. Presented by Patio Playhouse, it opens July 25 at the Kit Carson Amphitheatre in Escondido. patioplayhouse.com

For complete theater listings, visit sdcitybeat.com

@SDCITYBEAT

CULTURE

COURTESY BLACK MASK OF XXXXXXXX STUDIOS

CityBeat: After the election, I started to think of California as the sanctuary that was going to save everybody. But your version of California in the future is much difropolitan cities and its ferent. Tell me about more conservative subthat vision. urbs and exurbs, plungPizzolo: CALEXIT takes ing the state into civil war. place two years into the secMateo Pizzolo ond term of an autocratic U.S. Calexit presents a very bruPresident’s administration. The setting tal and violent version of of California. is a war-torn California under military occupation by National Guard soldiers who’ve There’s a lot of cynicism from everyone been deputized by Homeland Security to en- who lives there. Does this come from a force the president’s new, draconian policy place of love or is it a sense of resentof deporting all immigrants. Sacramento ment?

The book very much comes from a place refused to enforce it and declared California a sanctuary state—but that lit a fuse in the of love for California. We try and make a tensions between California’s liberal met- complex portrayal rooted in admiration for

@SDCITYBEAT

empty strip mall on Imperial Avenue. One day, all of the other shops in the mall are rented out by Homeland Security and are used as a detention center for people who are caught trying to jump the border out of America into Mexico. This is a much smaller and contained story, but we hope that it will be evocative because she’s a very cool character and it’s about facing fascism in your personal life, and not necessarily picking up a gun and shooting at fascism. Oh, and I’m donating the profits from the San Diego exclusive to the San Diego Rapid Response Network.

You end every issue with a section called, “Conversations With People I Find Interesting.” Is it a hard sell to devote so many precious pages to interviews?

The book celebrates the spirit of resistance, and that’s actually difficult to do in an episodic setting. Sometimes they have to end with cliffhangers, where readers are left wondering if resistance is going to win out.

We want to make sure no one would ever put the comic book down more depressed than when they picked it up. So we interview people that we think are doing really exciting and inspiring real world action. We try and have at least one takeaway of “this is something you do right now.”

PHOTO OF MATEO PIZZOLO BY DON LE

lthough it’s set in a brutal nearfuture, CALEXIT is a comic book struggling to outpace the vicious present.

Conceptualized by creators Matteo Pizzolo and Amancay Nahuelpan in 2016, the comic introduces a world in which the American public has elected an autocratic president, forcing California to secede and fracture into independent and occupied territories. Meanwhile, in the real world, America did elect an authoritarian president and, in November, Californians may vote to crack the state into thirds.

“It’s a very weird time because it’s really, really challenging to keep our dystopia a step ahead of the real world,” Pizzolo tells CityBeat. “The real world just horrifyingly keeps catching up to us.”

The protagonists are Zora, a merciless rebel with a robotic prosthetic leg, and Jamil, a no-questions-asking courier who posts his sexual conquests to social media.

Meanwhile, the villains represent all matter of white supremacy: from a Steve Jobslooking murdercrat to a neo-Nazi gang that does his bidding.

At Comic-Con, publisher Black Mask Studios will debut new CALEXIT content, including a volume collecting the first three issues and an exclusive one-off issue CALEXIT: All Systems San Diego, the title of which is inspired by a Rocket from the Crypt album.

Although Pizzolo says the story emphasizes the characters and not polemic, the comic is, indeed, a form of political activism: Each issue includes interviews with progressive candidates and community organizers.

During Comic-Con, he’ll join a few of those subjects—the team at San Diego Indivisible—for a special panel open to the public.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In the most recent issue you interview Pam Hughes and Kathy Stadler from Indivisible San Diego. How did you hook up with them?

They helped organize a really fascinating campaign in the 50th congressional district.

I was following it through Indivisible, which is one of these groups that formed to support progressive candidates in the primaries and local election midterms, and I was impressed with what they managed to do in terms of forming a coalition. We’re going to work together at Comic-Con to register voters at our booth and give away a Calexit #1 variant with a voter registration-themed cover. We’re also doing a panel together on comics and political organizing at Comickaze, a local comic book store.

CALEXIT the sensibility of California. You know, California is one of the few American states that already has seceded—from Mexico. That’s woven into the DNA of this state, this sense of resistance. You see that even contemporarily in the type of exports that California sends around the world whether, it’s Star Wars or Apple computer or N.W.A. San Diego hasn’t shown up much in the story so far. But it sounds like we have a special issue to remedy that.

This one is about Emmie, a teenage girl who runs a little vinyl record store in an

CB: Is CALEXIT going to have a happy ending?

MP: I think I can say it’s a story about a war, and it is inspired by things like the film Battle of Algiers and a film about the Warsaw Uprising, called Kanal. It’s tough to give a war story a happy ending, but I think that CALEXIT will have an inspiring ending.

Pizzolo appears on the “Black Mask: Debuting Tomorrow’s Legends” panel at Comic-Con at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 19 in Room 32AB. Nonbadge holders can attend an off-site event at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 21 at Comickaze Comics, Books and More at Liberty Station.

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it would have advanced in the way it has today,” says Vásquez, who cites the progression of recording and film editing technology as things that have helped evolve the series.

A quick look around Vásquez’s home reveals clear early influences and a window into just how much his work has progressed over the years. One of his early pop-art works, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

“The Gates of Heck” by Perry Vásquez “Plan 9 From Aztlán,” hangs above his dining room table. As if the title didn’t give it away, the painting is meant to look like a vintage B-movie poster and combines Mexican culture with San Diego-centric imagery and descriptive taglines (“Who Killed Shamu?”). The painting could be seen as one of Vásquez’s first forays into art-as-statement commentary (it was a direct response to 1994’s California Proposition

187, which was approved and made undocumented immigrants ineligible for state services).

In many ways, Vásquez is a product of not only his time spent growing up in Escondido, but as an undergrad at Stanford University as well. There, he soaked up counter-cultural humor while working as an art director at magazines like the Stanford Chaparral before coming back to San Diego in 1987 when he says he really “was ready to be an artist.”

Vásquez stuck with painting while at grad school at UC San Diego, but he also began dabbling in comic books, penning a book titled Sperm Guns about a group of born-again Christians who want to start an anti-abortion punk-rock band. He also began exploring the comic book works of Daniel Clowes and regularly attending Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation.

“In many ways, it was me really getting away from academia by indulging in popular culture,” Vásquez says. “I was fed up with the academic frame of what art was supposed to be.”

In many ways, that defiant spirit continues in The Gates of Heck, parts of which have been displayed everywhere from the Canvas Gallery to the San Diego Museum of Art. Sparks Gallery in downtown now represents the whole series. Within the series, Vásquez explores themes of “divine justice, punishment, temporality and redemption,” and although that particular series happens to be centered on a super-hero centric universe, the themes extend into his recent series, Under the Perfect Sun, which “La Jolla Shores” is named after a 2005 book by Perry Vásquez that explores San Diego’s rather disturbing history of corruption and oppression, which runs counter to its reputation as a tourist-friendly paradise.

“It’s not so much a historical takedown, but rather a taxonomy of icons that represent the region,” says Vásquez, who has reworked the themes of the paintings into a new series titled WRONGLANDIA, which he’ll debut in a solo show opening Sept. 22 at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. “It’s landscape, but they’re surreal landscape paintings that are focused on the image of the palm tree as it relates to the California dream or the California myth.”

In addition to WRONGLANDIA, Vásquez plans on continuing The Gates of Heck project and anticipates a dance and theatre performance somewhere down the road.

“As I got older, I developed more of a ‘I can do this attitude,’” Vásquez says. “Really, what’s stopping me?”

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COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

or as long as I can remember—or at least as long as I’ve lived in San Diego—I’ve been fascinated with Perry Vásquez’s fascination with comic books.

That’s not to imply that he’s in any way limited in his styles and influences, as they extend well beyond comic books. A brief look at his nearly three decade-long career revels an artist who not only continues to evolve, but doesn’t limit himself to a particular style or medium.

Still, his use of iconic characters continues to fascinate me.

“One of the reasons I work with pop culture idioms or symbols or figures, is that people automatically understand super-heroes. They know their attributes and their backstories,” says Vásquez (perryvasquez.com) inside his San Carlos home and studio.

Vásquez’s career has seen him tackle everything from border politics (the pro-immigrant, Robert Crumb-influenced Keep on Crossin’ series), to the more recent Under the Perfect Sun series, in which he turns a more nuanced, discerning eye toward the underbelly of San Diego via a series of paintings depicting burning palm trees and fighter jets.

Then there’s his Cuerpos Transformados series of works, in which Vásquez created a series of collage prints that incorporated everything from anatomical art and technical illustrations, to 19th Century wood engravings and, most noticeably, comic book characters. Some of the pieces explore topics such as Aztec deities and the way Native Americans are depicted in mass media.

One of standout pieces from Cuerpos Transformados, “The Gates of Heck,” was inspired by French sculptor Rodin’s “La Porte de l’Enfer” (“The Gates of Hell”), which depicts a scene from Dante’s Inferno. In Vásquez’s interpretation, iconic characters such as Spider-Man and members of the Fantastic Four strike uncomfortable poses at the mythical gate, while a sordid cast of faces (Darth Vader, Osama Bin Laden and Voldemort, to name a few) line the gate’s facade. Vásquez says he’s been haunted by “La Porte de l’Enfer” since first seeing a version of it in front of the Cantor Art Museum at Stanford University while a student there in the ’90s.

“I just remember being very impressed by it,” Vásquez says, who cites Max Ernst and Salvador Dali as influences when it comes to the Gates series. “It’s very confusing. Just a lot of chaos and pain, but beyond that, I just couldn’t decode it.”

That fascination continued as Vásquez, around 2008, soon turned “The Gates of Heck” into a painting and then into a series unto itself. Rather than simply continue in the collage vein of the original Cuerpos series, the last 10 years have seen Vásquez turning The Gates of Heck into a multi-pronged, multi-faceted and multimedia project that includes the original painting as its centerpiece, but includes videos, performance monologues, a concept album and even a live projection in 2016 onto the original “La Porte de l’Enfer” piece at Stanford.

“It keeps advancing and eight years ago, I don’t think

CULTURE

t’s July, and that means San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) will momentarily take over downtown (I’ll be in the book aisle at 1116 selling books and heckling passersby, BTW), but I’m most excited about the third annual Black Heroes Matter (BHM) flash mob photo on Friday, July 20.

In 2016, comic writer David F. Walker (Power Man & Iron Fist, Cyborg, Shaft) organized a flash mob to honor Black Lives Matter during SDCC. The meet-up took on a new energy when indie comic creator Uraeus (Jaycen Wise, Indigo) arrived wearing his Black Heroes Matter T-shirt. The flash mob, T-shirt and its message soon garnered media attention. The two creators joined forces and the Black Heroes Matter movement (blackheroesmatter.biz) took off.

During the 2017 Comic Con, the second flash mob photo, much like the first, was a moment of community, visibility and joyful solidarity. I missed the photo by a few minutes (I hate pictures of me, my avoidance is practically Pavlovian), but still walked away from the group with a greater sense of belonging. “[This year] BHM looks to grow the group,

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and make an even more powerful statement by showing our collective power and numbers to the world,” Uraeus told me recently.

He teased things to come adding, “We’ve invited several special guests to join us this year, so it should be a lot of fun.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BLACK HEROES MATTER

Black Heroes Matter T-shirt You can be sure I, and many other blerds, nerds of color and friends will be at the Convention Center’s Grand Staircase at 6 p.m.

Nerds of color aren’t unicorns by any means, but it’s entirely possible to spend SDCC without any real face time. It’s an isolating feeling despite the size of the crowds.

For me, knowing the BHM flash mob photo

is returning for another year goes far toward combating that feeling. As an added bonus, on Friday and Saturday evening attendees can head to the Afrofuturism Lounge at the Broker’s Building Gallery from 7 to 10 p.m. for another chance to mingle with creators and purchase books and merchandise. Uraeus called it “a celebration of Black artists and writers in comics, full of music, art and drinks.” “[BHM] is a label for a movement that’s been taking place in Independent Black Comics for decades in some shape, form or fashion,” Uraeus explained in an interview with pop culture blogger Karama (aka the blerdgirl). He added that it’s about “urging Black content creators to develop a new narrative; construct new heroes; design new universes; and to give a holistic and balanced representation of Black people and Black culture for the world to consume.

Not some skewed second-hand version of who we are based on stereotypes and racist tropes designed to destroy our self-image and self-esteem.”

When I asked about the people to look out for this year, Uraeus replied, “I will be at the show all four days, networking and

Black Heroes Matter flash mob walking the halls with a bag full of gear and swag. I’ll be wearing a Black Heroes Matter tee, can’t miss it. Ryan Benjamin (Batman Beyond, Star Wars, Vampire Hunter D) will be in artist alley promoting his amazing work, and selling Black Heroes Matter tees as well.

David Walker will be on hand promoting his new Image Comics title, Bitter Root, as well.”

I first saw the Black Heroes Matter T-shirt during the Black Panel in 2016. I immediately went hunting for one, but came up empty.

I won’t lie; I eye-balled someone with a shirt hard. But it was more than the utter coolness of the T-shirt. It’s the message. Representation matters.

Anyone reading this can bet I won’t be leaving Con this year without one.

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ver the years, Comic Con has morphed from a Convention Center-focused event to a citywide celebration. For non-badge holders, there are a ton of local breweries, art galleries, theaters, music venues and even libraries that have put together events for nerds of all stripes. For more, check the CityBeat events calendar, the SDCC Unofficial Blog (sdccblog. com) and the Outside Comic-Con (outsidecomiccon.com) website.

Nerdvania Pop-Up Shop at Atomic, 762 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. A hub of autographed

comic books, collectibles and memorabilia for purchase, plus prizes and giveaways. Also benefits POPS! For Patients, providing young hospital patients with Funko POP! toys. At various times.

Wednesday, July 18 through Sunday, July 22. 619-732-6373, nerdvania.net Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians at San Diego Central Libraary, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. A series of panels and workshops focusing on comic books, nerd culture, publishing and how to integrate comics into classrooms and libraries. At various times. Wednesday, July 18 through Sunday, July 22. Free.

619-236-5800, sandiego.gov/ccel Superhero Summer Fest at Buster’s Beach House, 807 W Harbor Drive, Downtown. An after-hours party featuring food, drinks, live music and special guests including comics artist John Romita Jr., TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman and more. Benefits Music Saves Lives. From 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 19. $60-$80.

Sdccblog.com/event/super-herosummer-fest Comic-Con Art Show at the Grand Hyatt, 1 Market Place, Downtown. The annual art show will bring together for-purchase comic-themed work in various media by amateur and professional artists, with a special emphasis on this year’s Eisner Award nominees and winners. At various times.

Thursday, July 19 through Sunday, July 22. Free. comic-con.org/ cci/art-show HNerdist House at Sparks Gallery, 530 Sixth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. An open house with non-stop programming, including live tapings of Nerdist, Geek & Sundry and Alpha shows, a plethora of meet and greets, as well as happy hours and fan parties. At various times. Thursday, July 19 through Sunday, July 22.

Nerdist.com HRotten Tomatoes’ Your Opinion Sucks at the Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. If you’ve ever disagreed with a Rotten Tomatoes movie review, this is your chance to air your grievances and debate a panel of Rotten Tomatoes’ critics, livestreamed for the whole world to see. At 5 p.m. Thursday, July 19 through Saturday, July 21. 619702-3000, rottentomatoes.com HHop-Con 6.0 at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, 2816 Historic Decatur Road #116, Point Loma. A festival for beer nerds with tastings from Stone, Modern Times, AleSmith and many more.

Tickets include 15 three-ounce

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CULTURE | COMIC-CON DANIEL J. SILVA / GIRLSDRAWINGIRLS.COM

MITCHELL MCPHERSON / FLICKR

include unveilings of exclusive art and memorabilia. At various times. Thursday, July 19 through Sunday, July 22. Free. sdccblog.com HWicked Wizards: A Potter Parody at the Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Turning Tydes Theatre Company will unveil their annual mash-up of theater and popular culture. This year’s performance will spoof the musical Wicked and the Harry Potter series. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, July 19 through Sunday, July 22. $30.

619-544-1000, lyceumevents.org

Girls Drawin’ Girls tasters and commemorative glassware.

From 7 to 11 p.m. Thursday, July 19. $35$75. 619-269-2100, stonebrewing.com

Rave of Thrones at OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. The annual Comic-Con after-party features a DJ set by Kristian Nairn, more ubiquitously known as Hodor from Game of Thrones. From 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday, July 20. $20-$50. 619-5449500, omniaclubs.com

HGirls Drawin’ Girls Comic-Con Extravaganza at the Bell Marker, 602 Broadway, Downtown. Committed to showcasing female animators and reinterpreting female sexuality through pin-up art, Girls Drawin’ Girls will host a cocktail party with food, drinks and meet and greets. From 7 p.m. to midnight. Thursday, July 19. Free-$30. 619756-7598, girlsdrawingirls.com DC Universe Experience at Hilton Gaslamp, 401 K St., Gaslamp Quarter. Interact with dozens of activations and installations featuring characters such as Titan, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Young Justice, Watchtower and more. The event will also

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tume-making, superhero piñata smashing, tacos and live music. From 1 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 20 through Sunday, July 22. Free. facebook.com/events/2054843611460069 Marvel Comics Art with James C. Mulligan at the Chuck Jones Gallery, 232 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. The Marvel, Disney and Warner Bros. artist will unveil his most recent work and limited editions, featuring characters like Deadpool and Dr. Strange. From 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, July 20. Free. 619-294-9880, facebook.com/events/1772178706204014 HNot Stan Lee’s Comickaze Artist’s Alley at Comickaze, 2750 Historic Decatur Road #101, Point Loma. Join artist Rob Guillory, director Matt Pizzolo, representatives from Zenescope Entertainment and more at this art event also featuring Kit’s Designs and Jasmine Dragon Tea Co. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 21. Free. 619-363-0004, facebook.com/events/212505946139936 HThe Aquabats at House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. The Southern California ska-ish band and five-member team of heroes is returning to Comic-Con alongside rapper Foggy Fresh. At noon.

Saturday, July 21. $18-$45. 619 299-2583, houseofblues.com

Rave of Thrones HChicano-Con at Border X Brewing, 2181 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. Family-friendly gathering of Latinx artists and comic enthusiasts. Plus comic book giveaways for kids, cos-

Graffiti and Looney Tunes at the Chuck Jones Gallery, 232 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. Acclaimed local street artists Sake, Krown One and Brisk One will paint a Looney Tunes-inspired, three-paneled artwork live in the gallery. From 4 to 7 p.m. Satur-

The Aquabats day, July 21. Free. 619-294-9880, facebook. com/events/218461038803079 Marvelous Art Exhibit at La Bodega Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. Experience an all-ages exhibition inspired by Marvel characters from the acclaimed comics and movies. From 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 21. Free. 619255-7036, labodegagallery.com HWinC Comics & Cocktails Party at Monello, 750 W Fir St., Little Italy. Women in Comics Collective International present the annual Comic-Con inspired event with food, drinks and a celebration of women in comics. From 7:45 to 10:45 p.m. Saturday, July 21. Free, donations encouraged. Womenincomicscollective.org HComicsOnline After-Party at Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Performances by musician Stan Bush, known for his hit “The Touch,” as well as local musical comedy group Random Gibberish and local metal bands At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 21. $15$20. 619-276-3990, brickbybrick.com

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nce again, the ass-end of summer is upon us and, alongside it, movies that cater to an audience that has developed a tolerance to spectacle. It’s a strange period between the highprofile summer releases (Avengers, Deadpool) and the darker, artsier fall movies, so audiences need some cinematic methadone to transition between the two.

The result? Usually a wide variety of films that veer between batshit awfulness and bonkers amazingness.

But how can one determine between the good and bad ones? Well, dear reader, thankfully you have me, a highly-trained professional*, to watch their trailers and decide for you!

*not a professional

The Meg Observed plot summary: A movie about a big motherfuckin’ shark. Like, maybe you think you know how big a shark can get, but you don’t! This meg (short for “megalodon”) is so big that when it sits around the house, it sits around the house, if you know what I mean. And guess what: Jason Statham and his ragtag team of scientists are going to fight it. Hells yeah!

Bradford analysis: Sweet baby, Jesus, why do I have such a soft spot for shark movies? Look, I know this isn’t going to be a good movie, but tell that to the goosebumps I felt when Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” kicks in among all the shark carnage. On that note, I will say that there is a nice tongue-incheek quality to the trailer, which gives me hope that The Meg will be more like the self-aware and endlessly-entertaining Deep Blue Sea than all the other super-serious shark films to come out since Jaws.

Should you spend money on this: You’ll probably regret it, but sure.

Observed plot summary: Honestly, I don’t know—the trailer is so disjointed and random that it almost feels like an avant-garde film (which is probably giving it too much credit). Still, that won’t matter to fans of the most famous creepypasta (which is shorthand for internet-based urban legends/horror

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Slender Man stories). For those who don’t: Slender Man is a tall, well-dressed faceless boogeyman who haunts the dark parts of the internet. The cult surrounding him is so rabid that two 12-year-olds stabbed their friend in 2014 and claimed that Slender Man told them to do it.

Bradford analysis: Even if we can ignore the Slender Man-related crime, there doesn’t seem to be one redeeming thing about this trailer. Beat for beat, it feels like it’s trying to be The Ring, even down to the strange black and white footage. Plus, having a movie studio co-opting the coolness of this creepypasta feels heavily like Steve Buscemi in 30 Rock saying “How do you do, fellow kids”.

Should you spend money on this: Hell no.

Christopher Robin

Observed plot summary: The titular kid from author A.A. Milne’s series is all grown up. He’s lost the spark of youth, works too much and ignores his family.

But after a visit from Pooh Bear—his childhood stuffed animal, friend and inadvertent philosopher—Christopher discovers, as is the case with these types of movies, what really matters.

Bradford analysis: It’s hard to hate on anything about Pooh and the rest of the characters in the Hundred Acre Wood. Milne’s creations still inspire by personifying the difficult feelings associated with being young (Eeyore = sadness; Piglet = fear; Tigger = excitement). Disney did a pretty good job of upholding these qualities when it adapted the stories into car-

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CULTURE | COMIC-CON toons (which are the definitive adaptations for most people), so I assume they’ll do a similarly good job with this live-action film. Although live action Pooh looks sort of creepy, I’m down.

Should you spend money to see this: Does a bear Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood? Yes.

Observed plot summary: A true story about a cop in the ’70s and his quest to infiltrate the Colorado Springs chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. The catch? The cop (played by Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington) is Black. Set amidst racial division and political tension, this film looks like a wacky romp within a bygone era. Good thing we don’t live like that anymore, right? Eh, right?

BlacKkKlansman Bradford analysis: Spike Lee joints are hit and miss, but you can never fault him for not being ambitious, and this movie looks like his best in years. The trailer is simultaneously hilarious, poignant and energetic as hell. I think at this point, no artistic message is going to be blunt enough to say something that thinking people don’t already know, but a scene with

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Klan members chanting “America first!” does strike a lasting impression. Plus, Jordan Peele’s on board as producer, and he’s worth his weight in gold.

Should you spend money on this: Hell yes.

Down A Dark Hall

Observed plot summary: A bunch of girls with behavioral problems are sent to live in a boarding school-like mansion that looks straight-up like a leftover X-Men set. Then, spooky shit starts to happen: creaky sounds, flocks of birds, and Uma Thurman with a busted-ass Transylvanian accent. Is the house haunted? Or is it one of the girls? Is this actually an X-Men movie? Who knows?!

Bradford analysis: Between this, The Darkest Minds and the upcoming X-Men horror film, The New Mutants, how can anyone tell the difference between any of these movies? Are we sure this isn’t an X-Men film, or at least part of a shared cinematic universe?

Maybe now is the time to ask bigger questions: How long before all movies share the same universe? How long do we have before every troubled kid and every haunted house are in every movie?

Should you spend money on this: Nah. Looks lame AF.

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Cry laughing

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot

Gus Van Sant returns to form with cartoonist John Callahan’s biopic

by Glenn Heath Jr.

P

ortland-based filmmaker Gus Van Sant has nosis makes him more self-destructive. It’s not until he spent the better part of the last decade in an starts attending AA meetings and develops trust with artistic funk. Unforgivably twee, his rote weepie his new sponsor Donnie (a mesmerizing Jonah Hill) that Restless thoroughly wastes Mia Wasikowska with a John quiets his mind enough to see a worthwhile future.

The film’s serpentine narrative never forces things. plot so manipulative, it made The Notebook look like Robert Bresson. Then came Promised Land, his fraud- John’s brain seemingly processes memories (both ulent attempt at Recession-era topicality in which good and bad) out of order, and Van Sant lovingly waits the destructive practice of fracking awakens the con- as his character begins to see the confidence forged by science of Matt Damon’s corporate lackey. Sea of Trees applying one’s self to the 12-step program. Much of represented the disastrous nadir of this period in Van Don’t Worry, He Won’t Go Far on Foot focuses on this Sant’s career, emblematic of his worst tone-deaf ten- process of forgiveness and humility. John’s self-deprecating artistic humor flourdencies about human trauma. ishes within this timeframe.

What makes this toxic track The crude drawings, often partrecord so frustrating is that Van DON’T WORRY, nered with satirical or ironic Sant remains one of indie cinHE WON’T GET text, form a sort of road map to ema’s great innovators. He’s John’s eventual recovery. the man behind two bona fide FAR ON FOOT For the first time in years, masterpieces about tormented Directed by Gus Van Sant Van Sant seems relaxed with identity (My Own Private Idaho, Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, his material, no longer trying Elephant), as well as multiple suJack Black and Rooney Mara too hard to make a statement perbly crafted experiments that Rated R or to make his audience feel explore vast reaches of modern something. Resonance comes alienation (Gerry, Paranoid Park). from listening to John and Van Sant’s lates—the kindspirited biopic about controversial cartoonist John Cal- Donnie confront the difficult realities of their situalahan entitled Don’t Worry, He Won’t Go Far on Foot— tions through humor and friendship.

Less convincing are John’s heightened dalliances doesn’t exhibit the poisonously saccharine attributes of his worst work, nor the ambition and profound to- with love interest Annu (Rooney Mara), a Swedish nalities of his best. In fact, the director seems to have flight attendant who comes and goes with very little reached a serene equilibrium, which is striking consid- to do other than to smile and inspire. Maybe problemering this 1970s-set film delves deeply into Callahan’s atically so, Van Sant’s heart obviously belongs with life-long battle with alcoholism and critical issues re- the film’s male relationships, which pushes many female characters to the brink of inconsequence (Beth garding identity and self-worth.

Played with deep affection and emotional tumult Ditto’s Reba being the lone exception).

Gender inadequacies aside, Don’t Worry, He Won’t by the great Joaquin Phoenix, John spends much of Don’t Worry, He Won’t Go Far on Foot trying to figure Go Far on Foot (opening on Friday, July 20, at Landout how best to tell his own life story after becoming mark Hillcrest and Angelika Film Centers—Carmel paralyzed in an alcohol-related car accident. Van Sant Mountain) proves to be the rare biopic that lets someemploys non-linear editing to match his subject’s one’s life messily unfold rather than trying to control emotional and physical setbacks, an approach that every detail for dramatic effect. Van Sant recognizes positions the audience as another support surrogate that complexities about John’s relationship with disappointment and redemption can be revealed more for someone making peace with their failures.

Early segments find John stumbling through his thoroughly with such an approach, and his charming days in a booze-induced haze. It’s hard not to think of new film is all the better for it.

Phoenix’s burnt out turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. Not surprisingly, being a quadriplegic Film reviews run weekly. doesn’t alter John’s bad behavior. If anything, the diag- Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

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CULTURE | FILM

The King

All shook up

E

lvis Presley meant many things to many different people. White audiences enshrined him as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and he was arguably the first musician to really crossover into movies. Black America, however, had a much more complicated relationship with the singer, whose backbeat-heavy music borrowed liberally from blues icons like Big Mama Thornton. Eugene Jarecki’s new documentary, simply titled The King, wrestles with this problematic dichotomy regarding the

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intersection of cultural imperialism and race.

That loaded topic would provide enough content for most feature films, but Jarecki doesn’t stop there. The director sets out on a road trip across America in Elvis’ famed 1963 Rolls Royce, interviewing actors, writers and musicians while visiting towns such as Tupelo, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee. These cities have their own complicated histories that crucially overlap with the King’s rise to stardom and eventual fall from grace.

In doing so, Jarecki tries to position Elvis as a metaphor for America during the tumultuous 2016 presidential election. Sometimes this ambitious association reveals striking anecdotes about race, appropriation, and social responsibility.

Public Enemy’s Chuck D is an especially astute voice on these matters.

But more often than not, Jarecki’s approach fails to take a consistent shape. Often, he can’t fathom all the social and historical overlaps at play, and at one point even asks Road Crew Chief Wayne Gerster, “What do you think I’m doing with this movie?” The man gruffly replies, “I don’t know what the hell you’re doing with this movie,” which sums up the film’s chaotic confluence of contradictions and tangents.

Some may find the messiness a fitting parallel to the panic and divisiveness caused by Trump’s rise. But the film reeks of a missed opportunity to analyze more coherently how the phenomenon of Elvis aligns and the current crisis of American democracy. Musician Bud Welch sums up both sides with his brilliant description of the blues as a genre: “It’s nothing but a good man feeling bad.”

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING 1945: Set just after the end of WWII, an Orthodox Jewsish man and his adult son visit a village in Hungary while the villagers prepare for a wedding. Opens Friday, July 20, at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot: Gus Van Sant’s biopic tells the story of controversial cartoonist John Callahan (played by Joaquin Phoenix), who discovered the power of drawing after suffering a life-changing accident. Opens Friday, July 20, at Landmark Hillcrest Cinemas.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, and Colin Firth return for this musical sequel about a family with a complicated romantic past.

Opens in wide release Friday, July 20.

The Equalizer 2: Denzel Washington reprises his role of Robert McCall, a lethal killer who protects the weak and hunts down evil men. Opens in wide release Friday, July 20.

The King: In this documentary shot during the 2016 Presidential election, director Eugene Jarecki constructs an allegory for America using the life and death of Elvis Presley. Opens Friday, July 20 at Landmark’s Ken Cinema.

Unfriended: Dark Web: When a teenager comes in possession of a mysterious laptop, he discovers the previous owner has nefarious plans for getting it back. A sequel to the 2014 horror film.

For complete movie listings, visit Film at sdcitybeat.com.

JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27

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t’s something of an open secret that metalheads are also massive nerds.

They obsess over the things that they love, build up huge collections of rare vinyl and memorabilia, and have heated arguments about things that mainstream audiences just wouldn’t understand. Not to mention the fact that there’s little in the known world that’s nerdier than listening to a metal guitarist shred.

Except maybe Rush, which most metalheads also fucking love.

There’s a deep connection between metal and comic books, from obsessive fan behavior to the actual art itself. While one could argue the connection begins with the late ‘70s comic book/fantasy magazine Heavy Metal, it became more pronounced in the ’80s, where a look at the cover art for any major metal release could easily be mistaken for comic book art. There’s Iron Maiden’s ghoulish mascot Eddie and the vengeful demon on Dio’s Holy Diver, not to mention Alien designer H.R. Giger’s art for Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion. Likewise, comics have inspired a long list of metal bands, including Megadeth, whose “Holy Wars... the Punishment Due” was inspired by Marvel vigilante The Punisher.

And lest we forget the more theatrical metal acts such as Ghoul, Gwar and King Diamond, whose live performances are like watching the panels of a comic book come to life.

Both are such diverse worlds, but what connects the two is often a sense of escapism, depicted in an over-the-top manner.

Yet that escapism is often a vessel for more

28 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

complex themes of disaffection, grief or even Ian. Since the ’80s, the iconic New York political statements or satire. Still, comics thrash metal band has been open about and metal are both a lot of fun, and fans tend their love of comics, most fato begin their obsessions with both as kids mously including the song “I or teens. Naturally, there’s a lot of overlap Am the Law”—inspired by British comic book Judge Dredd— between both fanbases.

Comedian Brian Posehn is a lifelong fan on their 1987 album Among of both comic books and metal, and both the Living. When asked by The topics come up frequently in his standup Quietus what he’d be doing if material. He’s even released two not playing metal in Anthrax, albums through long-running Ian said, “I think I’d be writing metal label Relapse, 2006’s Live comic books for a living full In: Nerd Rage and 2010’s Fart time... I find it much easier to and Wiener Jokes. In one segment write comic books than lyrics, from the former titled “Yelling actually, because it’s a natural Stuff,” he points out JENNIFER ROGERS / FLICKR dialogue.” He’s that the best way actually already to get a nerd updabbled in that set is to get their area, having obsessions wrong, written a few like making fun of issues of D.C. Star Trek: The Next Comics’ Lobo.

Generation’s Cap“One of the tain Picard in front things that drew of a line for a me to Anthrax Star Wars movie. as a fan was that And in the latthey were readBrian Posehn ter, Posehn turns ers and wore their the tables on the absurdity nerdiness on their sleeves,” of metal fandom with a song Posehn says. “Like the fact that called “More Metal Than You,” they had a Judge Dredd song in which he is backed by a when most people in America band comprising members of didn’t know who Dredd was Anthrax, Testament and Lamb at that point. These guys were of God. wearing Public Enemy T-shirts and readPosehn says that he ended ing the same things as me. They had a sense up getting into metal not long of humor and read books and comics, and after he discovered comics, and I was like ‘oh my god.’ When we became it became a similar kind of ob- friends, it was bonding over all that stuff.” session.

Ian isn’t the only metal musician to ac“The first time I heard Iron Maiden, my tually get involved in the process of making head exploded,” he says. “I couldn’t be- comics. In 1994, Marvel launched Alice Coolieve how fast it was compared to the other per: The Last Temptation, which was penned stuff. Then a few years later Metallica came by The Sandman legend Neil Gaiman. Likearound, and I ate it all up.” wise, Rob Zombie’s been involved with a It’s not coincidental that one of Posehn’s number of comics released by Dark Horse, friends and collaborators is Anthrax’s Scott Image and San Diego-based publisher IDW.

And then there’s Glenn Danzig, whose Verotik titles blend horror with scantily clad (if at all) heroines. Like most Danzig music videos, come to think of it.

Attendees of Comic-Con this year shouldn’t be surprised if they see metal well represented at the Convention Center, as recent years have found that to be the norm. Metallica, Slayer and Exodus, to name a few heavyweights, have all made appearances in the past five years. And that’s likely because, by and large, metal fans are comic book fans. Whether they’re wearing patches on a battle vest or going all-out with X-Men cosplay, they’re two sides of the same coin.

Posehn, who’s attending Comic-Con this year and performing at The Casbah on July 19, can attest to the crossover between fans of metal and comics (and horror and sci-fi). In fact, he says that’s typically who makes up his audiences.

“A lot of my fans like the same things as me, which is super cool,” he says. “One of my favorite parts of the show is the hang afterwards, and someone comes up with a Christine T-shirt that I haven’t seen before, and we end up talking about John Carpenter.”

Posehn briefly pauses to ensure he’s right about John Carpenter being the director of Christine, because that’s something any proper nerd would be embarrassed to get wrong.

“Comic books and heavy metal, especially in the completist aspect, they are close,” he adds. “I can see how a personality would completely immerse themselves in both.”

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JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 29

MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO LOCALS ONLY

Where the first Records Collecting Dust film focused on West Coast punk bands, the follow-up features interviews he documentary film Records Collecting Dust debuted with musicians from New York, Boston and Washington, three years ago. In the film, a number of influential D.C., including Ian Mackaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi), Walter punk musicians discussed the records that influSchriefels (Quicksand) and Page Hamilton (Helmet). Blackenced them and their music. And in August, its sequel, Remore adds that he has ideas for more potential installments, cords Collecting Dust II, will make its premiere. The film but that he needs to give himself a break for the time being. will be showing at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park on “I went straight from the first one into the second,” he Aug. 23, 24 and 25, with Q&A sessions with director Jason says. “Any sane person would have given ERIC HOWARTH Blackmore after each screening. Additionthemselves a break. This has been five years ally, Blackmore will be joined by Clif Croce of my life that I’ve put into it.” of The Freeze (who appears in the film) on Because the nature of the film is such that Friday, Aug. 24, followed by an after-party at it could continue indefinitely, Blackmore sees The Whistle Stop with The Freeze and Blackit as having potential for more beyond the more’s band, Death Eyes. two finished documentaries. In fact, he even Blackmore says that once he started worksays it could potentially translate to a differing on the first film, he just kept on going, ent format. which is how he ended up with a sequel.

“Everyone that I interviewed and met Roger Miret and “It just sort of snowballed once I started Jason Blackmore for this was so awesome,” he says. “It’s been working on it, really,” he says. “I knew I wanted great just getting to know and learn from so to talk to record collectors, and then I thought it would be many people. It hit me at some point that it could even make cool to talk to musicians. And then I realized I wanted to a good TV show. Someone on the Internet said ‘This would focus on musicians in the punk and hardcore scene of the be a great show on Viceland’. That’s what I’ve been saying!” ’80s. A lot of them had a huge impact on me as a teenager, being exposed to bands like Black Flag and Minor Threat.”

—Jeff Terich

T

A GUIDE TO LIVE MUSIC DURING COMIC-CON

Jurassic Park and the Indiana Jones series. Dr. Ian Malcolm cosplay is an option for anyone planning their attire. ne of the fun things about Comic-Con every year is Japanese band The Pillows will also be making their that it brings a lot of comic-, film-, video game- and nerd-friendly live music to San Diego. This year’s no way to San Diego this week. The band, famous for having exception, with a lineup of music events that cater to fans music featured in anime series FLCL, will be performing at Adult Swim on the Green behind the Convention Center on looking for a little more escapism in their live shows.

Saturday, July 21. And earlier that day, cosOn Friday, July 20, Galactic Empire is playing tumed, family-friendly ska superheroes The at Brick by Brick, performing a set of music from Aquabats will be playing their annual show at the Star Wars films in a theatrical, heavy metal House of Blues. style, complete with Darth Vader, Boba Fett and Those who like their comedy rife with plenStormtrooper costumes. They’re joined by Super ty of metal references would do well to see BriMadNES, who blends video game music with ‘70s an Posehn at The Casbah on Thursday, July 19. and ‘80s hard rock. Those nostalgic for ‘80s car(See my feature this week for more on Posehn toons might also want to check out Stan Bush and metal.) Alternately, those who just want to on Saturday, July 21 at Brick by Brick. Those old do some dancing in their Sexy Deadpool cosenough to remember will know that Bush is the Galactic Empire tume should head to The Merrow on Saturday, musician responsible for “The Touch,” as feaJuly 21 for Club Sabbat Cosplay X. One way or tured in 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie.

For a more traditional interpretation of the Star Wars another, there should be something to satisfy every taste and score, head to Copley Symphony Hall on Wednesday, July fandom during the week of Comic-Con. 18, where the San Diego Symphony will be performing the

—Jeff Terich music of John Williams, whose catalog includes the music of

O

30 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

AFTER HOURS: ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Geek out!

A

s Comic-Con’s popularity continues to soar, scoring a badge is like winning a golden ticket to the Wonka Factory. But even if attending the actual Con isn’t in the cards, there are plenty of after-parties for readers to get their geek on. Naturally, the Gaslamp Quarter is the obvious choice for thematic drink specials and club crawls at the ready, but the good stuff, as in any decent video game, requires a bit of a quest.

Take to Mission Hills’ Blonde Bar (1808 W Washington St.) for Chocolate, a Black Panther/Wakanda-themed event on Comic-Con’s opening night, Thursday, July 19.

The night’s headliner is Montreal-based Akpossoul, a DJ who spins soulful Afro house. He’ll be supported by CHRISTIAN VILLAREAL locals Oscar P, Eric Medina and more. There will also be visuals and live art by Mike Mireles and Cale mc, respectively, plus tribal face painting by local henna artist Eli Sarai.

Hillcrest will also bring it on Thursday with It Came From The Void at Rich’s (1051 University Ave.).

Techniche resident DJs will spin techno throughHeroes vs. Villains out the night, and come equipped in cosplay since there will also be a costume contest with prizes. Dressing up or carrying a Comic-Con badge also doubles as a free entry ticket before 11 p.m.

Over in Middletown on Friday, July 20, The Kava Lounge (2812 Kettner Blvd.) will be taken over by The Great Escape II. This event brings together DJs from various house music families, such as Andy Gomez and Ryan Bauer from Dance Klassique, Pro-K from Chocolate and John Pabulum from Mind Fruit, for a night of fewer BPMs. Aside from the beats, there will be organic cocktails, food and, of course, cosplay.

Comic-Con weekend rounds out on Sunday, July 22 with H2O: Heroes vs. Villains, a feat curated by Flatline Presents, Staybad, The Deep End, Post Script and more favorite local crews. Christian Martin and Nick Monaco, both of Claude VonStroke’s infamous Dirtybird Records, will be on hand, and there will also be live art and vendors, including Camilo Rojas Art, Elena Marie Tenaglia and more. Attendees are encouraged to tap into childhood nostalgia and conjure costumes of their most beloved super villain or hero.

Who knows how long the city can entertain ComicCon, so let’s let the freak flags fly while we still can.

—Torrey Bailey

About Last Night appears every other week.

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JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 31

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JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, JULY 18

PLAN A: Holy Wave, Spooky Cigarette, COMMANDc @ Whistle Stop. COMMANDc were supposed to have their debut show a couple weeks ago at Helmuth Projects. Unfortunately police officers shut it down before they could play, so here’s a new first chance to catch their psych-drone brand of rock. BACKUP PLAN: Rosa’s Cantina, Everforward, Lucyanna, Calamity @ The Casbah.

THURSDAY, JULY 19

BACKUP PLAN: Covet, Vasudeva, The Illustrative Violet @ Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, JULY 22

PLAN A: Slares, Bomb Squad, Chug Boat @ The Casbah. Tijuana’s Slares are a super funky group committed to getting asses moving. This doesn’t mean they’re not topical—last year they released a track titled “Donald Funk,” a protest disco jam about the president. I can get behind that. Get there early for even more funk from Bomb Squad.

KRISTY BENJAMIN

PLAN A: Rhye, Lawrence Rothman @ Observatory North Park. There’s nobody making sexier music right now than Rhye, a duo that learned all the right lessons from Sade.

If anyone’s looking for an excuse to go out in their sexy cosplay, this is a good event to show it off. PLAN B: Brian Posehn @ The Casbah. Read my feature this week on the similar fandom between metal and comics, for which I spoke to comedian Brian Posehn.

He’s hilarious and a nerd, and this is technically not music, but you should go anyway.

PLAN C: Testament, Carnifex @ House of Blues. Plan C?! Yep, it’s a busy night! But if you’re going to hear some jokes about metal (see Plan B), perhaps consider also seeing some metal, namely thrash metal pioneers Testament, an essential to any headbanger’s collection. BACKUP PLAN: Paramore, Foster the People, Jay Som @ Mattress Firm Amphitheatre.

FRIDAY, JULY 20

PLAN A: Worshipper, Old Man Wizard @ Til-Two Club. Worshipper play some heavy stoner rock with lots of big riffs and heroic melodies. It’s definitely the kind of thing that demands a custom van with an airbrushed wizard on the side of it. PLAN B: New Skeletal Faces, DJs Camilla Robina, Javi Nunez @ Bar Pink. Club Hemlock returns this week at Bar Pink, and that includes a performance

by L.A.’s New Skeletal Faces, who have a dark and abrasive sound reminiscent of Alien Sex Fiend and Christian Death.

SATURDAY, JULY 21

PLAN A: Car Seat Headrest, Naked Giants @ SOMA. Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo went from being a kid making lo-fi demos in his house to the biggest thing in indie rock, though it took a few years for him to get there. Their latest album, Twin Fantasy, is one of the year’s best, so be ready for some anthems. PLAN B: Wild Wild Wets, Well Well Well, Creepseed, Ethics, DJ Andrew McGranahan @ The Casbah. Two great local bands whose initials are WWW are holding a joint release show that promises its share of psychedelic rock jams. And Well Well Well are technically releasing two records, so plan on bringing a lot of music home as well.

32 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

Car Seat Headrest

MONDAY, JULY 23

PLAN A: Con-tact, Other Ways, Asmodeus, Good Time Girl @ Soda Bar. Local group Con-tact are a band on the rise, as they specialize in taut, high-energy indie rock with heavy use of vocal harmonies. It’s not super complicated, but I also haven’t heard much that sounds quite like them.

TUESDAY, JULY 24

PLAN A: Goon, Battery Point, Sustains @ Soda Bar. L.A.’s Goon make some gorgeous dream pop with infectious hooks. They’re in good company with local shoegazers Battery Point, who should be on the radar of anyone who digs a great pop song smothered in guitar effects. BACKUP PLAN: Now Now, Wens @ The Casbah.

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MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Butcher Babies (Brick by Brick, 7/30), The Struts (Observatory, 8/11), The Vandals (Observatory, 9/1), Azealia Banks (Music Box, 9/12), Kyng (Brick by Brick, 9/21), Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel (Casbah, 9/28), Adult. (Soda Bar, 10/2), Marissa Nadler (Casbah, 10/14), Caamp (Soda Bar, 10/31), Anthony Jeselnik (Balboa Theatre, 11/1), Dia de los Deftones w/ Deftones, Future, Rocket from the Crypt (Petco Park, 11/3), Paper Kites (HOB, 11/7).

CANCELED ‘X-Fest’ w/ Beck, Death Cab for Cutie (SDCCU Stadium, 8/11).

GET YER TICKETS The Decemberists (Humphreys, 7/30), American Football, Phoebe Bridgers (Observatory, 8/3), Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam (Open Air Theatre, 8/3), Hop Along (Irenic, 8/5), SOB x RBE (SOMA, 8/9), Boris (Casbah, 8/15), Deafheaven (Brick by Brick, 8/17), Red Fang, Elder (Brick by Brick, 8/20), J. Cole (Viejas Arena, 8/22), The Alarm (BUT, 8/23), Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson (Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, 8/24), Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (Soda Bar, 8/25), Napalm Death (Brick by Brick, 8/27), Smashing Pumpkins (Viejas Arena, 9/1), B-Side Players (Music Box, 9/1), Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (Copley Symphony Hall,

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9/1), Leon Bridges (Open Air Theatre, 9/5), The Original Wailers (BUT, 9/6), Lee Fields and the Expressions (BUT, 9/8), Ms. Lauryn Hill (Open Air Theatre, 9/9), Murder by Death (BUT, 9/11), YOB (Brick

by Brick, 9/14), Nothing (Soda Bar, 9/22), Grizzly Bear (Observatory, 9/24), First Aid Kit (Observatory, 9/25), Deep Purple, Judas Priest (Mattress Firm, 9/26), Loudon Wainwright III (BUT, 9/27), Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band (Humphreys, 9/27), Natalie Prass (Casbah, 9/30), Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (Observatory, 10/1), Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee (Observatory, 10/3), Chelsea Wolfe, Russian Circles (Music Box, 10/3), Roky Erickson (Casbah, 10/5), The B-52’s (Humphreys, 10/6), Ozzy Osbourne (Mattress Firm, 10/9), Mew (Observatory, 10/9), Shannon and the Clams (BUT, 10/10), Graham Nash (Humphreys, 10/13), Alkaline Trio (HOB, 10/15), Sting and Shaggy (Harrahs SoCal, 10/16), The Joy Formidable (Casbah, 10/17), St. Lucia (Observatory, 10/17), D.R.I. (Brick by Brick, 10/20), Simple Minds (Humphreys, 10/22), Jay Rock (SOMA, 10/25), Dawes (Observatory, 10/29), The Selecter, The English Beat (Casbah, 11/2), Lucero (Observatory, 11/7), Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin (Irenic, 11/7), Khruangbin (Observatory, 11/10), Ghost (Spreckels Theatre, 11/12), Blitzen Trapper (BUT, 11/12), Neko Case, Destroyer (Observatory, 12/8), Fleetwood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/8), Kurt Vile (Observatory, 12/9), Ministry (HOB, 12/18).

JULY WEDNESDAY, JULY 18 Toad the Wet Sprocket at Belly Up Tavern. Hobo Johnson at Music Box. Rosa’s Cantina at The Casbah. Kauf at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, JULY 19 Paramore at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre.

Rhye at Observatory North Park. Toad the Wet Sprocket at Belly Up Tavern (sold out). Brian Posehn at The Casbah.

Foster the People at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, JULY 20 Brad Paisley at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Humphreys by the Bay. Wye Oak at Soda Bar (sold out). Dennis Quaid and the Sharks at Belly Up Tavern. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks at The Casbah (sold out). Psychedelic Furs at Del Mar Racetrack. Pinback at Music Box. Galactic Empire at Brick by Brick.

SATURDAY, JULY 21 The Adicts at Observatory North Park.

Juliette and the Licks at Music Box. Car Seat Headrest at SOMA. Covet at Soda Bar. Thirty Seconds to Mars at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Surf Curse at The Irenic. Iration at Del Mar Racetrack. Stan Bush at Brick by Brick. Well Well Well, Wild Wild Wets at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, JULY 22 Reckless Kelly at Music Box. X at Belly Up Tavern (sold out). Cicada Rhythm at Soda Bar. Slares at The Casbah. Graveyard Witch at Brick by Brick.

MONDAY, JULY 23 George Thorogood and the Destroyers at Humphreys by the Bay. Fashion Jackson at The Casbah. Con-tact at Soda Bar.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

JULY 18 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 33

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33 TUESDAY, JULY 24 Logic at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre.

Judith Owen at Music Box. The Teskey Brothers at Belly Up Tavern. Now, Now at The Casbah. Goon at Soda Bar. Roger Hodgson at Humphreys by the Bay.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25 Jenny and the Mexicats at The Casbah.

Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore at Belly Up Tavern. Dent May at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, JULY 26 Joe Bonamassa at Humphreys by the Bay. Stephanie Brown and The Surre-

alistics at The Casbah. Henry Kapono at Belly Up Tavern. Tennis System at Soda Bar. Juice WRLD at SOMA. Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra at Music Box. Battery Point at Brick by Brick.

FRIDAY, JULY 27 Weirdos at The Casbah. Joe Bonamassa at Humphreys by the Bay. Steel Pulse at Del Mar Racetrack. Mrs. Magician at Soda Bar. Rob Vicious at The Irenic.

Brume at Brick by Brick.

SATURDAY, JULY 28 Brian McKnight at Harrah’s SoCal. Playboi Carti at SOMA. OFU at Brick by Brick.

Swindle at The Casbah. Wayward Sons at Belly Up Tavern. Sleeping With Sirens

at The Irenic. Swindle at The Casbah (sold out). Night Nail at Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, JULY 29 Adam Ant at Humphreys by the Bay. Faust at The Casbah. The Body at Soda Bar. Taipan at Brick by Brick.

MONDAY, JULY 30 The Decemberists at Humphreys by the Bay. The Modern Appliances at Soda Bar. Butcher Babies at Brick by Brick.

TUESDAY, JULY 31 The Faceless at Brick by Brick. Corey Leal Duo at Belly Up Tavern. Cobi at Soda Bar. ‘Loudspeaker Anniversary Show’ w/ Low Volts, Rob Crow at The Casbah.

AUGUST WEDNESDAY, AUG. 1 Dentist at SPACE. G-Eazy at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Givers at Soda Bar. River Whyless at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, AUG. 2 Wimps at Soda Bar. Supersuckers at The Casbah. Femi Kuti at Belly Up Tavern. Vansire at House of Blues.

FRIDAY, AUG. 3 American Football, Phoebe Bridgers at Observatory North Park. Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack. Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam at Open Air Theatre. Rebecca Jade and the Cold

Fact at The Casbah. Buyepongo at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, AUG. 4 Trinidad Cardona at House of Blues.

Hall & Oates, Train at Viejas Arena.

Vacationer at The Casbah. Levitation Room at Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, AUG. 5 Gipsy Kings at Humphreys by the Bay. Hop Along at The Irenic. Beach House at Observatory North Park (sold out).

Morricone Youth at The Casbah. The Chairman & The Board at Belly Up Tavern. Whiskerman at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, AUG. 6 Cody Johns at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, AUG. 7 Toto at Humphreys by the Bay. Them Evils at Soda Bar.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 8 Shooter Jennings at Belly Up Tavern.

Zac Clark at The Casbah. Jesse Marchant at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, AUG. 9 Paul Cauthen at Harrah’s SoCal. Ace Frehley at Belly Up Tavern. KRS-One at Observatory North Park. SOB x RBE at SOMA. Forest Grove at The Casbah.

Matthew Logan Vasquez at Soda Bar. The Ataris at SPACE.

FRIDAY, AUG. 10 Pato Banton at Belly Up Tavern. Aloe Blacc at Del Mar Racetrack. Ben Nichols at The Casbah. Tenshun at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, AUG. 11 Ziggy Marley at Del Mar Racetrack. ‘XFest’ w/ Beck, Death Cab for Cutie at SDCCU Stadium. Weezer, The Pixies at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Lemuria at The Casbah. Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas at Soda Bar. Super Diamond at Belly Up Tavern. The Struts at Observatory North Park.

SUNDAY, AUG. 12 Pyrrhon at SPACE. Shawn Colvin at Belly Up Tavern. The Redwoods Revue at Loew’s Coronado. Giraffes? Giraffes! at Soda Bar. Paty Cantu at Observatory North Park.

MONDAY, AUG. 13 Between the Buried and Me at SOMA. Jess Williamson at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, AUG. 14 Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang at Humphreys by the Bay. OhGr at House of Blues. Lead Pony at Soda Bar. Mimi Zulu at Belly Up Tavern.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 15 Summer Salt, Hot Flash Heat Wave at The Irenic (sold out). SALES at Music Box. Boris at The Casbah. Knox Hamilton at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, AUG. 16 American Aquarium at The Casbah.

Chris Stapleton at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Brandi Carlile at Humphreys by the Bay. Sneaks at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, AUG. 17 David Cross at Observatory North Park (sold out). Deafheaven at Brick by Brick.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 35 34 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

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MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 34 Tribal Theory at Belly Up Tavern. Audio Karate at Soda Bar. Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats at Del Mar Racetrack. Snow Patrol at Harrahs SoCal. Set It Off at The Irenic.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Wed: Open mic. Thu: Karaoke. Fri: Ballyhoo, Bumpin Uglies, Tropidelic. Sat: The Big Lewinski, Soundwave.

Sun: Karaoke. Tue: The Noms, Kathryn Cloward Band.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Hip Hop House’ w/ MC Kahlee. Thu: ‘Chulita Vinyl Club’ w/ DJ Moni Loca. Fri: ‘House Friday’ w/ DJ Matthew Brian. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech.

Sun: DJ Andre Escobar. Mon: ‘Organized Grime’. Tue: ‘Kizomba’ w/ DJ Bugsy.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Jay and Silent Bob Get Old (sold out). Fri: Mark Ellis. Sat: ‘Hollywood Babble-On’ (sold out).

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road, Spring Valley. Wed: Karaoke. Thu: Withholder, Mr Atomic, Smarter Than Robots.

Fri: Two Reverends One Sinner, The Great Smoking Mirror, Nobody But You, Corre Diablo. Sat: Nightmare, Desolator, Solv, White Boy Scream. Sun: Lethal Injection. Tue: Karaoke.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Fri: SNBRN. Sat: Autograf.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park.

Wed: Hey Ho Let’s Go!. Thu: DJ Mike Delgado. Fri: ‘Hemlock’ w/ Skeletal Fac-

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es, DJs Camilla Robina, Javi Nunez. Sat: Scary Pierre, Then In-Itself. Sun: Chloe and the Lidells, Farm Truck. Mon: Fresh Veggies. Tue: The Garners.

Beaumont’s, 5665 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Thu: Mike Myrdal. Fri: PK. Sun: Slower.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Toad The Wet Sprocket, Megan Slankard. Thu: Toad The Wet Sprocket, Megan Slankard (sold out). Fri: Dennis Quaid and the Sharks.

Sun: X (sold out). Tue: The Teskey Brothers, Shane Hall.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: Zander Schloss, Andrew McKeag. Sat: Cardiac Kidz, Social Spit, Ganjawitch.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’. Thu: ‘Black Panther/Wakanda Party’. Fri: ‘Tron ‘80s New Wave Party’. Mon: ‘Blue Monday’. Tue: ‘T is 4 Techno’.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave., Carlsbad. Fri: ‘Club Musae’.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Fri: Galactic Empire, Super MadNES, Sight Unscene, Mandala. Sat: Stan Bush, Random Gibberish, Wither, The Midas Touch. Sun: Graveyard Witch, Follow Coffins, Butt Candy, Vuture.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. Wed: Rosa’s Cantina, Everforward, Lucyanna, Calamity. Thu: Brian Posehn, Derek Sheen, Dan Telfer. Fri: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Dommengang (sold out). Sat: Wild Wild Wets, Well Well Well, Ethics, Creepseed, DJ Andrew McGranahan. Sun: Slares, Bomb Squad, Chug Boat.

Mon: Fashion Jackson, MDRN HSTRY, Secret Lynx. Tue: Now Now, WENS.

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Fri: Miles Bandit, Death Lens, Los Shadows, Effe Emme, Buddha Trixie, 3LH, T. Rexico, Indigo State, Former, Vic& the Narwhals, The Grinning Ghost, Endo Sol, Violent Dreams, Asmodeus.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Downtown. Fri: Sacha Boutros. Sat: Ian Buss and His Quintet.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown. Thu: ‘Fort Nite Party’ w/ DJ Al Beats. Fri: DJ Isaac B. Sat: DJ Bootleg Kev. Fluxx, 500 4th Ave., Downtown. Fri: DJ Dynamiq. Sat: DJ Slowhand.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Anthony Green, Good Old War. Thu: Testament, Carnifex. Sat: Easton Corbin, The Aquabats. Sun: Graham Gillot. Mon: The Cadillac Three, 7horse. Tue: Robin Henkel.

Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: Len Rainey. Thu: Rosy Dawn. Fri: Detroit Underground. Sat: Wildside, Tradewinds. Sun: Southtown Generals, Jason Brown. Mon: Backwater Blues Band. Tue: Chet Cannon.

The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., North Park.

Sat: Surf Curse LunchLady, P.H.F. Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. Thu: ‘Archetype XII’. Fri: ‘The Great Escape II’. Sat: ‘Techno Sabbath’.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Fri: OK Shore, The Rinds, Steal Away. Sat: Arcata, Jahnathan Nerette. Sun: Stray Monroe, Street Surfers, Foxtide. Mon: Open mic.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave., Coronado. Wed: JG Duo. Thu: Ron’s

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

JULY 18 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 35

BY CHRISTIN BAILEY

ASTROLOGICALLY UNSOUND Weekly forecasts from the so-called universe ARIES (March 21 - April 19): This week you will begin a new journey.

Only time will reveal if you can carry it through to completion and finally finish an entire tube of lip balm without losing it first.

LIBRA (September 23 - October 22): Wet clay is forgiving and can be

TAURUS (April 20 - May 20):

SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21): There is no such time as “the perfect time to start.” There are noise ordinance laws that prohibit this kind of behavior after 10 p.m.

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Everything is a matter of perspective.

Sure, you might look like a colossus to an ant, but the real perspective is that an ant would never bother to look at you at all.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 December 21): All the laws of the universe are malleable except for the one that says if you have to explain a joke, then that means it’s not funny.

There are no two ways about it: You’re going to have to find a way to enjoy yourself in the lines if you want to have a good time at the theme park.

CANCER (June 21 - July

22): Through fables and folktales you can learn valuable lessons, or you can act reckless with spindles and just see how well it works out for you.

reworked endlessly, always growing closer to the ideal. However, a mound of wet clay is useless to just about everyone no matter how perfectly it’s shaped.

CAPRICORN (December 22 January 19): Trying to manage other people’s perspective of you is like trying to catch a greased pig on a bowling alley lane.

Even if you momentarily succeed, you still look ridiculous.

LEO (July 23 - August 22): This week you walk through the world with the confidence of a person who has just been asked to see the manager, but you are the manager.

AQUARIUS (January 20 - February

VIRGO (August 23 - September 22): You cannot adjust the situation to

PISCES (February 19 - March 20): You don’t have to look at a majestic mountain range to feel your own small place in the world. You can just imagine the piles of discarded VHS rewinders in landfills.

fit yourself, and you must adjust yourself to fit the situation in all situations.

Except when you’re trying to buy jeans.

All you can do is suffer in that situation.

18): You experience your life linearly with every event dutifully following the event that preceded it. It’s the simplest possible way, and most of the time it’s still too confusing.

Astrologically Unsound appears every week. Follow Christin Bailey on Twitter at @hexprax.

MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35

Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Fri: Tyga. Sat: Sourmilk.

Stella Perish. Sun: ‘Pocari Sweat’. Mon: ‘Eloteria’. Tue: Karaoke.

Trio. Fri: Mystique. Sat: Stand Up Guys.

Sun: Ron’s Garage. Mon: Bob Wade.

Tue: Gene Warren.

Proud Mary’s, 5550 Kearny Mesa Road, Kearny Mesa. Wed: Michele Lundeen.

Thu: Tomcat Courtney. Fri: Fred Heath.

Sat: Robin Henkel.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., Midtown. Fri: Christian Smith, Wehbba. Sat: ‘DISTRIKT’. Sun: Rooftop Riots, Lubelski, Kevin Anderson.

The Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest. Fri: ‘Hip Hop Fridayz’. Sat: ‘Sabado En Fuego’. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJ Junior the Disco Punk.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Fri: Worshipper, Old Man Wizard. Sat: Shocktroopers, System Restore, Curbside Funeral, The Writhers. Sun: Pants Karaoke.

Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave., Hillcrest. Thu: Branden and James.

Fri: Janice & Nathan. Sat: Janet Hammer.

Sun: Ria Carey and Don L. Mon: Andy Anderson and Nathan Fry. The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Thu: ‘Boylesque Cosplay Show’.

Fri: ‘Trick: Cozplayed Out’. Sat: ‘Club Sabbat: Cosplay X’. Sun: ‘The Playground’ w/ DJ Heather Hardcore. Tue: Erick Fayard, Garth Lagrone, Nina Francis, Corina Rose.

Mr. Peabody’s, 136 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Thu: Steelhorse Country. Fri: Mirage. Sat: Tower 7, Adrienne Nims. Sun: Tony Ortega jazz jam.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy.

Wed: Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers, Ashe. Thu: divaDanielle, Omega Squad, Fleetwood Smack, Pocket Underground, Sprankles. Fri: Pinback. Sat: Juliette and the Licks, Schizophonics. Sun: Reckless Kelly, Nancarrow. Tue: Judith Owen.

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

Wed: ‘Instant Crush’ w/ Nastea, Miss Lady D. Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Fri: ‘After Hours’ w/ DJs EdRoc, Ayla Simone. Sat: ‘Strictly Business’ w/ DJs EdRoc, Kanye Asada. Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’. Tue: ‘Trapped’ w/ DJ Ramsey, AmbroseOM. OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: ‘After-Con’ w/ Kristian Nairn. Fri: Gryffin (DJ set).

Panama 66, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Wed: Gilbert Castellanos. Thu: Boss Riot. Fri: Uptown Rhythm Makers. Sat: Michael Borowski. Sun: Besos Trio.

36 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: DJs Kiki, Kinky Loops. Thu: ‘LEZ’ w/ DJs K-Swift, Mxyzliplix. Fri: ‘Dirty Pop’ w/ DJs Drew G, Moody Rudy. Sat: ‘Heroes & Villains’ w/ DJs Hekitk, Taj. Sun: ‘Stripper Circus’ w/ DJs Hektik, Nick Ayler.

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Wed: ‘The Corner’. Thu: Manic Fanatic. Fri: Coriander, Kenny and Deez, Chad & Rosie.

Sat: Coriander, Kenny and Deez. Sun: Lauren Leigh, Chad & Rosie. Mon: Evan Diamond Goldberg. Tue: Jake and Corey.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz’ w/ Jason Hanna. Thu: Brennan Orndorff. Fri: Clinton Davis. Sat: Zapf Dingbats.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., Bay Park.

Thu: Mercedes Moore. Fri: Funk’s Most Wanted. Sat: Bump City Brass. Tue: The Tourmaliners.

Rosie O’Gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Fri: Acoustic Revolt. Sat: The Naked. Mon: Monday night jazz jam.

Tue: Analog Lizards of Doom.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: Bloody F Mess, Divine Dirt, Facelift, Krisben-Wah. Sat: Breakout, Slaughter Boys, Stokka, Raag. Sun: Cardiac Kidz, The Executives, My Revenge.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Kauf, Wsprgrl. Thu: Foster The People, Almost Monday, Ignant Benches. Fri: Wye Oak, Madeline Kenney (sold out). Sat: Covet, Vasudeva, The Illustrative Violet. Sun: Cicada Rhythm, The Whiskey Circle. Mon: Con•tact, Other Ways, Asmodeus, Good Time Girl.

Tue: Goon, Battery Point, Sustains.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway.

Fri: Fashion Jackson, JARA, Kid Cadaver, PVKE, Disco Shrine, Nikola, WIZÆRD. Sat: Car Seat Headrest, Naked Giants.

Tue: Streetlight Manifesto, Mephiskapheles, Kitty Kat Fan Club.

SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Thu: Foodman, Meishi Smile,

U-31, 3112 University Ave., North Park.

Thu: ‘Solace’. Fri: Kid Wonder. Sat: Camron Zibaie. Sun: SM Familia. Mon: ’31 Flavors’.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park.

Wed: Holy Wave, Spooky Cigarette, COMMANDc. Thu: ‘The New Right Now’.

Fri: ‘F-ing in the Bushes’. Sat: ‘Booty Bassment’ w/ DJs Dimitri, Rob. Tue: ‘Videodrome’.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Wed: Roots of a Rebellion, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Silent Vice, Authentic Sellout, Mezzoa. Fri: Simpkin Project, New Leaf. Sat: Dynohunter. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Electric Waste Band.

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JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 37

BY CULTURE STAFF

IN THE BACK

CannaBeat Smoke studies A semi-regular feature where we review the latest strains, products and cannabis-related merch.

cal benefits as well and was useful in treating pain relief.

the strong side, tasting a lot like the zest of a lime, with deep earthy flavors as well. The effects take hold in as little as 30 minutes for some, or up to an hour for others. The effects lasted for several hours, but experiences will vary depending on tolerance and dosage. therapytonics.com

skin feels baby-soft and hydrated. With wedding season in full swing, the Gypsy Magic Love Spell CBD Bath Bomb also makes a great engagement or wedding gift.

Available at Deeply Rooted San Diego in Mission Valley (420 Mission Center Road, deeplyrootedsd.com).

Linacene 125 Once again, Therapy Tonics & Provisions (8863 Balboa Ave., KeFor the latest canarny Mesa) has come through Gypsy Magic Love Spell nabis news and lifewith a top-shelf product.

Healing CBD Bath Bomb style trends, please Linacene 125 contains The Gypsy Magic Love pick up our sister 60mg of CBD and 300mg Spell Healing CBD Bath Bomb magazine CULof THC. This balance of contains real rose petals and TURE every month whole plant therapy was 40mg of CBD that is derived or visit culturemagacerebrally calming, putfrom industrial hemp cultizine.com. ting the reviewers’ minds vated in Kentucky. It is also a at ease long enough for rewarding and indulgent way a midday meditation. It to unwind after a long day. The is organic, vegan, glubomb relaxes and soothes sore Linacene 125 ten-free, non-GMO and muscles, melting away any leftdoes not contain soy or over tension. It is also a sensual palm oil, which makes it a great way to add a little cannabis to your roproduct for many consumers who mance routine. Once it begins to fizz, have dietary restrictions. Aro- this bath bomb will make the immedimatically, it is reminiscent of the ate area smell like a beautiful bouquet freshly picked citrus booth at the of fresh roses without the potent scent farmers market, being crisp, bright of artificial perfume. After a nice, warm Gypsy Magic Love Spell Jordan’s Oil and slightly sweet. The flavor is on half-hour soak (or longer if you prefer), Healing CBD Bath Bomb

Jordan’s Oil Jordan’s Oil was created for its namesake to treat a debilitating seizure disorder. Thanks to this proprietary blend, Jordan, a La Jolla resident, is able to surf, dive and generally live life to the fullest.

Available at Lifely Wellness (1115 Wall St.), a store specializing in hemp-infused products located in downtown La Jolla, Jordan’s Oil contains only premium MCT oil, activated hemp +ISO and natural flavors. Simply put, it is simplicity at its best. The blueberry flavor is fresh and naturally tastes sweet, but with no artificial aftertaste. It’s reminiscent of a fresh, homemade blueberry muffin. Jordan’s Oil not only passes the taste test, but it also gave reviewers physi-

38 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 18, 2018

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JULY 18, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 39