San Diego CityBeat • Sept 3, 2014

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2 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Jerry’s war In July, we used our Comic-Con issue to have some fun with San Diego’s political figures by matching them up with characters from Star Wars. We cast San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO and former Mayor Jerry Sanders as Darth Vader and U-T San Diego publisher Doug Manchester as the Emperor. It was meant as a wee bit of whimsy, but we really seemed to have reached the core of the matter—or the center of the Death Star.

Manchester’s newspaper published a Q&A with Sanders last Friday, the day after Sanders’ Chamber of Commerce announced that it was launching a new offensive to turn San Diego into the most business-friendly region in California. In the Q&A, Sanders laid out the strategy for a war that’s already begun: partner with conservative, business-oriented political action committees and spend as much money as possible getting Republicans elected to the San Diego City Council and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

The endgame is to return control of San Diego to the region’s business-industrial-Republican empire.

By the end of Sanders’ term in the Mayor’s office, in 2012, the only reliable allies he had on the City Council were Republicans Kevin Faulconer and Lorie Zapf and rogue Democrat Tony Young (then-Councilmember Carl DeMaio couldn’t be considered a Sanders ally). As he began his new gig with the chamber, he lost Young to resignation (replaced by the liberal Myrtle Cole), a new ninth council district went to the Democrats and Sanders himself was replaced by ultra-liberal Mayor Bob Filner, but he gained two new allies in Republicans Mark Kersey and Scott Sherman. The Democrats held a 5-4 advantage on the council and occupied the Mayor’s office, and when Filner imploded, City Council President Todd Gloria, the Democrats’ emboldened new leader, took control of the city and rode an impressive wave of popularity among both liberals and moderates. Gloria laid out a bold legislative agenda for a newly progressive San Diego.

The Democrats lost the Mayor’s office when Faulconer beat Councilmember David Alvarez, but they replaced Faulconer on the council with a Democrat, Ed Harris, and they’ve used their temporary 6-3, vetoproof supermajority to enact a series of progressive policies, such as a beefed-up fee on developers for affordable housing, a Barrio Logan Community Plan

update that was hailed as a win for neighborhood residents and the big one—a higher minimum wage.

But the Empire struck back. Using well-funded direct-democracy campaigns, Darth Sanders and friends defeated the Barrio Logan plan and the affordable-housing fee, and they fought off an electoral challenge to key henchwoman Zapf and appear primed to take one of the Democrats’ council seats in November as they put everything they have behind Republican Chris Cate. The intense skirmish right now is over their attempt to repeal the minimum-wage increase. Then they’ll turn their big guns on Gloria’s plan for San Diego to do its part in the fight against climate change.

If Cate wins, they’ll have enough votes next year to defeat progressive policies by sustaining Faulconer’s vetoes. Then they’ll set their sights on District 1, where Democratic Councilmember Sherri Lightner will be termed out in 2016. If they take that seat, San Diego’s powerful business interests will occupy the Mayor’s office and have control of the City Council and the legislative agenda.

Lindsey Voltoline So, the minimum-wage battle being fought in front of San Diego’s grocery stores is a microcosm of a larger war for the city’s soul.

Sanders and the chamber (along with representatives of the building and restaurant industries, among others) believe it’s better for business if the lowest-earning San Diegans don’t get a raise and industry lobbyists walk hand-in-hand with policymakers through the halls of power. If regulation costs business any amount Darth Sanders of money, they’ll spend as much as they can on a propaganda campaign to convince you that it’s a job-killer—whether it’s a legally required fee to close a housing-affordability gap that they helped create, or cleaner air in asthma-plagued Barrio Logan, or a forward-thinking plan to help slow the rate of climate change, or a modest increase in the minimum wage in a city with a very high cost of living.

San Diego is at a crossroads. Sanders and his friends want San Diego to go backward because they believe that’s what’s best for them. If you want to go another direction, volunteer for Carol Kim in her campaign against Cate and be skeptical of anything Darth Sanders or Emperor Manchester (though his newspaper) say.

What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

This issue of CityBeat “leaked” its own nudes, and nobody cared.

Cover photo by Simon Witter Design by Lindsey Voltoline

Volume 13 • Issue 4

Arts Editor Kinsee Morlan

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

Staff Writer Joshua Emerson Smith

Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse

Web Editor Ryan Bradford

Production artist Rees Withrow

Art director Lindsey Voltoline

Intern Narine Petrosyan

Columnists Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza

Vice President of Operations David Comden

MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia

Publisher Kevin Hellman

Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Jeff Terich

Senior account executive Jason Noble Account Executives F. Scott Berman, Beau Odom, Kimberly Wallace Circulation / Office Assistant Giovanna Tricoli Accounting Alysia Chavez, Linda Lam, Monica MacCree Human Resources Andrea Baker

Advertising inquiries Interested in advertising?

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

Editorial and Advertising Office 3047 University Ave., Suite 202 San Diego, CA 92104 Phone: 619-281-7526 Fax: 619-281-5273 www.sdcitybeat.com

Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami

San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2014.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

You been to New Orleans?

Regarding Mina Riazi’s recent review of New Orleans Creole Café [“One Lucky Spoon,” Aug. 6]: It’s great to see this type of cuisine done right anywhere outside of New Orleans, since it’s very hard to pull off—especially here in San Diego, which has a budding food scene. As a foodie living in New York City for the past 12 years and moving to the area nine months ago, I found that a food mecca like New York only had one decent creole place. Like I said, it’s tough to pull off. Having a place that does creole in San Diego is pretty exciting.

In her review, she keeps mentioning the bread over and over, as if she had an idea of what the bread should be like and no other options would suffice. That leads me to my question for Ms. Riazi: Have you ever been to New Orleans?

Have you ever had a real New Orleans Po Boy? The french bread they use is not supposed to be a baguette, which is hard on the outside and chewy in the middle.

They use French bread, which has a thin, slightly crunchy crust and soft, pillowy middle. They use it as a side for their gumbo and etouffees, as well. If that’s what they served, then they are spot on.

In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a baguette in any restaurant in New Orleans.

I’d love some clarification on this because if they are using a soft, pillowy french bread, then I believe your review does them an injustice.

One bonus question: Why didn’t you have the gumbo (or write about it)? It’s the signature dish of any creole restaurant.

Aaron Brand, Del Mar

Give us more The selection of serious articles appearing in your publication just makes me look forward to the next week’s issue. “No standing ovation” by Kinsee Morlan [“Art & Culture,” Aug. 6], which was followed the next week by a second article, is another example of my opening sentence.

What would be of interest on this topic is the follow-up accounting the county mandates from the cultural organizations receiving this taxpayer largesse to ensure that the funds bestowed via the CEP and NRP vehicles have, in fact, been used as the organizations stated in their applications. It would also be informative to your readers if the author could detail what the parameters are for an organization to make an application—in other words, how long in existence, level of individual donor funding in relation to total expenditures, what level of financial statements must accompany the application, how many years of federal income-tax returns must be attached to the application, a list of board members and whether all board members are required to make a mini-

mum dollar gift to the requesting organization, inter alia. Is this possible?

Lou Cumming, La Jolla

Good riddance, Fulton Having read your Aug. 6 editorial on Bill Fulton leaving, I confess it’s confusing to me why many of you think Fulton is so wonderful and such a loss. In fact, records and newspapers will show that the communities of Ocean Beach and Bay Park, just to name two, were strongly against the growth ideas that Fulton brought down from Ventura.

His mentality about blocking coastal views by changing the building height limits was laughed at. Fulton wanted to do this in order to increase density of these areas with more apartments and condos, and his ideas were strongly opposed by the community. Meeting halls were packed with angry citizens who clearly and loudly voiced their opposition to his height-limit changes. At a time when we’re threatened with water rationing and our SDG&E bills are going up and “flex alerts” are threatened, Fulton and many local politicians think building more high-density apartments is a brilliant idea.

The following is a quote from Fulton’s 2001 book, The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles

(Page 341): “Once inside their cocoon, the suburbanites see no butterfly-like value in emerging. They only seek to stay inside forever, petrified in their tracts, like ancient fossils. So removed are cocoon citizens from the totality of metropolitan life that they can no longer see the full range of activities a metropolis encompasses, or that they are part of it no matter what they do. All they can do is try to define the breadth of metropolitan life by what they’ve observed inside their cocoon.”

I must assume that this is how Fulton sees us all—just sitting around in our community cocoons, afraid of change and unable to have opinions worth hearing; thus, the city and imported “planners” need to tell us what is best for us.

Despite Todd Gloria weeping because of his “rock star” leaving, I think you would find that a great number of San Diego citizens are glad to see Fulton going. We hope he takes his wonderful ideas with him. We wish that the politicians who found him so wonderful would go to Texas with him and help make those communities better. We hope that the mayor and City Council will start listening to the citizens and not just sell out to developers and short-timer imports like Bill Fulton.

Indeed, many San Diego citizens do not see Fulton’s leaving as a big loss to the city.

Richard S. Pavelec, Bay Park

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

Kelly Davis

At Home Depot, a woman (right) counters an effort to get enough signatures to overturn San Diego’s minimum-wage increase.

A tale of two cities What San Jose’s minimum-wage increase can tell us

by Kelly Davis In April 2013, a few months after San Jose voters passed a measure to increase the minimum wage from $8 to $10, patrons of some restaurants noticed a surcharge on their tab. One woman took to a Yelp forum to complain, posting verbatim the message at the bottom of her bill (she wouldn’t name the restaurant): “In order to support San Jose’s New Minimum wage increase, we have included a surcharge of $2.50 added to your bill. Our employees thank you!”

Others weighed in until someone finally pointed out the obvious: “It almost seems like they’re blaming the extra fee on the new minimum wage. It’s almost a ‘hey, San Jose raised [the] minimum wage so we have to charge you more.’”

In the run-up to the November 2012 vote to increase San Jose’s minimum wage, opponents predicted significant job loss, mainly for restaurants, and, despite some workers getting more money in their paychecks, no economic benefit to the city.

But, so far, any negative effects of San Jose’s minimum-wage increase have been largely anecdotal.

“Modest, at most,” is how Jim Reed, policy director at the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, described the impact of the wage increase to a USA Today reporter in June. Asked by CityBeat to elaborate, he said he’s heard from businesses that have had to cut staff, a couple that say they’ve closed because of it and, like the

Yelper pointed out, restaurants that have added a new line to the bill, “passing the cost directly along to the consumer.”

“Overall, we are fortunate,” he says. “Our local economy is strong enough that we’re doing well even with the wage hike.”

Newspaper articles quote San Jose restaurant and shop owners who’ve had to raise prices or cut staff but also business owners who’ve seen no negative consequences. An Aug. 28 story by NPR’s Planet Money found what’s perhaps ground-zero in getting a real sense of the impacts of the wage increase: the Westfield Valley Fair mall, half of which is in San Jose and the other half in Santa Clara, which pays the lower state minimum wage. A shop manager on the Santa Clara side of the mall found it “a struggle” to keep good employees, lamenting that he’s left with “the bottom of the barrel,” while on the San Jose side of the mall, a business owner had happier workers but had to bump up prices and take home less in profits.

In July, the San Diego City Council passed a phased-in minimum-wage increase that would start at $9.75 in January 2015—75 cents more than the state minimum—and go up to $11.50 by 2017, when it would be $1.50 higher than the state minimum. In 2019, wage increases would be indexed to the local cost of living. San Jose’s wage increases are indexed to inflation, and the wage there went up to $10.15 on Jan. 1.

Citing a negative impact on small busi-

6 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

cent reduced staffing. Read the small print and you see that the survey was based on responses from only 163 restaurants out of an initial list of 1,209 provided by the California Restaurant Association. And even of those 163 restaurants, the results are a mixed bag: The majority of respondents didn’t reduce employee hours or staffing levels or scale back expansion plans.

Michael Reich������������������������ , a professor and director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley, is a go-to guy for minimum-wage-increase supporters and has authored a number of studies showing that while raising the minimum wage might increase a business’ operating costs, those costs are partly offset by the benefits of a happier workforce: increased productivity and lower employee turnover.

Reich is wrapping up a study on San Jose’s minimum-wage increase and shared some preliminary findings with CityBeat.

Data collected from 1,000 restaurants in San Jose and neighboring cities showed that San Jose restaurants increased their prices by 2 to 3 percent compared with those nearby, which, Reich says via email, “is, a) modest, b) in line with their payroll cost increases and c) consistent with my previous research showing that minimum-wage increases of this magnitude are absorbed mainly by modest restaurant price increases, with no negative employment effects.”

The average household income in San Jose is $18,000 more than San Diego’s, raising the question of whether price increases, especially at restaurants, would be less noticeable to consumers than in San Diego.

“There was a report that entry-level engineers at Google are approaching $200,000 in salary. That’s a lot of McDonald’s meals or dining out, pushing up demand for restaurant employment,” says Erik Bruvold, president and CEO at San Diego Institute for Policy Research.

Bob Brownstein, director of policy and research for Working Partnerships USA, a progressive political-advocacy group, counters that San Jose’s higher cost of living instead means many folks have less disposable income. Not only that, but a recent study by the U.S. Conference of Mayors showed San Jose has a large disparity between high-wage and low-wage workers with not much in between.

“The high San Jose median [income] conceals a huge low-income population,” he says. “Yet no significant changes in consumption due to price [increases] have been discovered.”

Peter Brownell, research director at the Center on Policy Initiatives, a labor-backed think tank, says one needs only to look to San Jose’s tourism industry to get a sense of how San Diego might fare.

“I don’t think anyone would argue that [San Jose’s] leisure and hospitality industry is stronger than ours, yet it has weathered the increase without job loss,” he says.

“Rather, they have added over 4,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry since the… minimum wage went up.”

nesses, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer vetoed the ordinance, but the City Council’s Democratic majority voted last month to override the veto. That prompted a referendum drive, spearheaded by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the California Restaurant Association, who will need to collect nearly 34,000 signatures by Sept. 17. If they’re able to do that, it’ll put the wage increase on hold pending the outcome of a June 2016 ballot measure.

In the debate over raising San Diego’s minimum wage, supporters point to San Jose as an example of a city that raised wages while maintaining a strong economy. But is San Jose a fair comparison?

You’re not going to find an apples-to-apples comparison, says Mark Cafferty, president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation.

City Council President Todd Gloria “goes around and says things like, ‘Call the Chamber of Commerce in Silicon Valley; the sky didn’t fall.’ It’s a very cute line, but our recovery right now in San Diego is far, far weaker than the recovery that they’ve experienced in Silicon Valley,” Cafferty says. “I don’t feel like it’s a great comparison because of the context, but it’s as good as any comparison.”

So far, there’s been only one report that claims to measure the impact of San Jose’s wage increase, published by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), a research group run by Washington D.C. lobbyist Richard Berman, whom 60 Minutes once dubbed “Dr. Evil.” Recently, EPI launched a campaign to, as its website badideaca.com puts it, “[Hold] activists accountable for minimum wage consequences.”

According to an EPI survey, 66 percent of San Jose restaurants raised prices, 45 Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com percent cut employee hours and 42 per- and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

David Rolland

john r.

spin cycle

lamb ‘Conveniently dead’ “When the game is over, the king and the pawn go into the same box.”

—Italian proverb The attorney who kicked sand into the gears of the San Diego Convention Center expansion plans says he’s just getting started.

Cory Briggs, the aircraftcarrier-size thorn in the side of City Hall, is many things to many people, in much the same vein as was former City Attorney Mike Aguirre—defender of the taxpayer and environment to some, publicity-hound and shakedownartist supreme to others.

In contrast with Aguirre, however, Briggs seems to maintain a rather levelheaded public persona.

But when an opposing attorney in a related case involving the San Diego Tourism Marketing District (TMD) referred to the late activist Ian Trowbridge as “conveniently

dead” in a legal brief, Briggs admitted he went “ape-shit.”

“If anyone in my firm had written something that insensitive— even about opponents,” Briggs told Spin, “that person would have been in the unemployment line before I had turned the page.”

The Los Angeles-based attorney representing the TMD in that ongoing case, Michael Colantuono, told Spin he “meant no disrespect” to Trowbridge or the bereaved. He said that “it can be difficult to convey complex ideas in a 15-page limit.” What he was trying to say, Colantuono said, was how frustrating it is to determine whom Briggs represents, given how he fights “tooth and nail” to protect the identity of his clients, in this case the makeup of the group San Diegans for Open Government (SanDOG).

While it’s clear that Briggs can crawl under the skin of adversaries, he can also offer praise when

he deems it worthy, as he did to frequent nemesis Jan Goldsmith on the Convention Center financing deal, which the city attorney considered a legal crapshoot from the get-go. Voice of San Diego even suggested a “bromance” was emerging.

That ain’t happening, folks.

Last month, the Fourth District Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the muchballyhooed expansion-financing plan, through a special hotelroom tax, was unconstitutional because it sidestepped a public vote. Instead, former Mayor Jerry Sanders convinced hoteliers themselves to vote on the tax by turning over convention booking and marketing duties to the hotel-dominated San Diego Tourism Authority, which relies on TMD funding for its existence.

But with the ruling, those duties may now be in question.

Gil Cabrera, an attorney who sits on the Convention Center Corporation board of directors, has requested that the board discuss the relationship at its Sept.

24 meeting. (Convention Center officials have long detested the transfer of duties.)

In an Aug. 15 letter to board Chairman Nico Ferraro, Cabrera notes that the transfer of sales and marketing duties from Convention

Cory Briggs Center staff to the Tourism Authority “was entered into as part of the overall funding scheme.’

“Given that the recent decision invalidates the special tax,” Cabrera continued, “I believe we have a responsibility to review this agreement to determine whether it is still in the SDCCC’s interest going forward and explore our options within the contract.”

He further requested that the board’s legal counsel “opine on whether the appellate decision changes the conditions of the agreement and our consideration for entering into it….”

Ask Briggs, and he’s happy to throw more sand: “I think the Tourism Authority, if it doesn’t go away, gets a serious haircut with the TMD withering and dying.”

Of course, the TMD croaking isn’t a foregone conclusion just yet—that portion of the lawsuit is still winding through the discovery phase, “conveniently dead” references and all—with a likely court date in December.

Briggs said he’s making the same argument that brought down the Convention Center financing scheme, just aimed at the TMD. Briggs also has a lawsuit pending that challenges the city’s reliance on lease-revenue bonds— without voter approval—to attack its growing list of deferred-maintenance projects, which city officials acknowledge will cost more than the $898-million figure that it’s frequently relied on.

What Briggs wants to know is: Do bond underwriters know exactly how much higher those costs will be into the future?

In a letter mailed last Friday to the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Briggs, on behalf of SanDOG, requests “any and all records… that disclose the City of San Diego’s liability for deferred maintenance of the San Diego Convention Center from September 1, 1998”—when

the city took over financial responsibility of the center—“to the present,” as well as the city’s “liabilities for retiree health-care expenses through 2036.”

Briggs argues that while various city financial reports make “veiled” references to those liabilities on a year-to-year basis, nowhere can he find in the city’s annual financial reports or financial statements to the bond market any reference to the fully anticipated liabilities for either retiree healthcare or necessary repair work at the Convention Center, Petco Park and Qualcomm Stadium.

Spin couldn’t get a comment by press time from the office of Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who formerly chaired the City Council’s Audit Committee. Other city officials, speaking privately, pointed to mentions of the expected $30 million in deferred maintenance in Convention Center audit statements and a lengthy discussion of healthcare matters in financial statements approved by the City Council in March.

The battle over public acknowledgement of the city’s deferredmaintenance situation is not a new one. Former City Councilmember Donna Frye frequently refused to sign off on disclosure statements, fearing that not all information had been disclosed.

“These statements make clear the city knew the extent of the deferred-maintenance liability,” Briggs said. “The question is, has the city accurately accounted for those liabilities as required by law?

From what I can tell, the backlog does not take into account the Convention Center, Petco Park or Qualcomm Stadium. That’s some serious deferred maintenance not to lay out in detail.”

Without some straight answers, count on Briggs returning to sandkicking mode really soon.

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

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

aaryn

backwards & in high heels

belfer Ice buckets and social justice During the first two weeks after the killing of MiI’m for water conservation, too. But I’d like to chael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, as I compulknow whether these water warriors—incensed sively filled my Facebook feed with nothing but stoas they are by the Ice Bucket Challenge—are also ries related to those events, my home page became fighting alongside the United Nations on behalf of a locust-like infestation of—wait for it—people takthe roughly 19,000 poor (largely black) residents in ing the Ice Bucket Challenge. The dissonance was Detroit who have had their water cut off in recent somewhat traumatic for me for two reasons. months due to outstanding bills of $150 or more.

First was the near-complete absence of any diaThis, even as the top 40 commercial and industrial logue or reflection about what was happening in that businesses in the city collectively owe back water Missouri suburb I’d never heard of. And this wasn’t bills in the amount of $9.5 million; Chrysler and just tumbleweeds blowing around my feed. There was other companies go right on businessing as their so little similarity between Facebook and what was water flows. Also: golf courses. unfolding on Twitter that widespread comparisons of Incidentally, someone did add up how much wathe platforms called into question various Facebook ter has been wasted during the last six or so weeks. algorithms that decide who sees what. This was too At first, it seems like an astonishingly large amount, easy on Facebook users who, if their mental houses approximately equivalent to 19,000 homes’ daily were in proper order, should have posted about police water usage—which, oddly enough, is the same brutality against blacks with the same despondency amount of one day’s worth in the homes of the and grief they dug up for Robin Williams. There no-longer-served Detroiters. Some might call that should be enough humanity to go all around. a wash. For this calculation of wasted ice-bucket But the second reason for my inner conflict came water to be truly meaningful, it must be compared from the fact that, in my day job, I’m part of a team with the corporate water waste around the country. working to find a cure for ALS, a disease that is nonAnd in that light, the ALS fundraising water usage discriminating in its ruthlessness. is a drop in the proverbial bucket.

Though my daily tasks run the As of Aug. 27, ALSA had reregulatory gamut, I do at times ceived $94.3 million, compared Fortunately, work directly and, by default, inwith $2.7 million during the same Jimmy Fallon and timately with patients and their time last year. That’s an unprecfamilies. Because of this vantage edented sum of money to flow into The Roots changed point, people began asking me for an organization in such a short pemy attitude by getting my thoughts on the trendy, in-theriod of time. Detractors are already everything right. moment-silly-and-lighthearted outraged by the amount of ALSA’s Ice Bucket Challenge that belies funds dedicated to research (27 the darker truths of what happens percent), how much the CEO when your motor neurons die. makes (six figures) and whether the organization is When I was finally able to turn my focus to the prepared to handle such large sums of fast money. fundraiser, I didn’t have high hopes for it. Either Talented CEOs have to be paid, and these critdump water or write a check as a strategy seemed ics fail to highlight that 79 percent of ALSA’s anmisguided. Why isn’t it both? I thought. In a blog nual expenditures facilitate their three-pronged post at Time.com, Jacob Davidson, whose father mission: Research is one part of this, but so, too, are died from ALS, wrote that “the viral nature of this care service for patient quality of life and patient fad appears centered around an aversion to giving advocacy. The necessity of those pieces cannot be to money.” And while some seemed to be doing it overstated, especially because there is currently no just for laughs, nobody captured the essence of the cure. Furthermore, ALSA CEO Barbara Newhouse gimmick in its most superficial form as well as a has acknowledged the organization’s effort to be smug Matt Lauer, who spent an entire six minutes purposeful in determining how the generous donabuilding up to his dousing without so much as a tions will be used, and with more money, more research can, and likely will, be subsidized. mention of charity, donating or ALS. I’m convinced Hopefully, ALSA is figuring out how to repeat the man is dead inside. this phenomenon again in the future. Because Fortunately, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots what people suffering from ALS desperately need changed my attitude by getting everything right. beyond support and resources is a scientific breakFallon repeatedly mentioned ALS and the ALS Asthrough. Each time a person lifts that ugly orange sociation (ALSA), posted ALSA’s website on the Home Depot bucket in the air and tips it to let all screen (alsa.org) and decided to listen to a member that precious water pour over their heads, patients of his band, who—when Fallon explained to his auand family members are given hope, something dience the either / or thing—said, “Nah, nah, man. I that, even when we tap into our humanity—turning think we should do both.” our gaze to charity or racial justice or both—can be Not either / or, but both. Oh, humanity, I love thee. pretty tough to come by.

Of course, you can’t get anything past certain water conservationists, who came running out of Write to aaryn@sdcitybeat.com their houses with their hair on fire. (No dumping and editor@sdcitybeat.com. buckets on them; they’re against that.)

8 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner

multiple levels, and the dish’s textural contrasts are fun.

Another of the Patio’s small bites highlights the question of whether the restaurant is succeeding because of or despite the menu.

Flavored hummus is cliché. I know that because I can get stuff bearing that description (but not necessarily the flavor to go with it) in the supermarket. The Patio’s hummus trio offers roasted The Patio’s delicious fish tacos red pepper, white bean with bacon and serrano-cilantro versions. It’s wellexecuted, if not adventurous, and very clearly (a) hummus, (b) flavorful and (c) enjoyable.

The Chop Chop Salad, another holdover from Lamont, is more interesting. It reads, visually, as anything but a salad. Ring-molded chopped roCapturing cool—again maine, bacon, avocado and tomato sit at one end of a Russian dressing swipe topped with onion When I heard that The Patio on Lamont was openrings. It looks impossibly dense and appears to ing another location, my first thought was: Uh contain far more avocado than it actually does—a oh. While The Patio had earned a reputation as bit of trickery in a satisfying lunch salad. “trendy” and “cool” while serving surprisingly soMore impressive is the abalone picatta, a seaphisticated food for Pacific Beach, what works in food play on the Italian veal classic. Atop a sunPacific Beach is hardly a blueprint for success in dried-tomato mash with roasted string beans, Mission Hills. And if capturing that “it” vibe once the lemon-caper beurre blanc sauce plays off the is difficult, doing so a second time is even more so. richness of the panko-breaded abalone discs.

But The Patio on Goldfinch (4020 Goldfinch The abalone seemed slightly tough, but the flavor St., thepatioongoldfinch.com) has managed to combination was enough to carry the dish. make much of what worked in P.B. work better Without a doubt, though, my favorite dish was in Mission Hills. The design looks familiar. From the grilled sardines with an arrabiata sauce (think the trademark patio, the contemporary feel and spicy tomato) on ciabatta with lightly dressed not one but two living walls, the Goldfinch verarugula. This is not a dish for everyone: Sardines sion is not so much a knock-off of the original as have a bit of the “fishy” flavor that’s so off-putting a variation on a theme. to the pescaphobes among us. But grilling brings Beyond specific holdovers from Lamont, the out their inherent sweetness, and while the arnew menu retains a tangible pan-global vibe and rabiata might not be necessary for the fish (a farm-to-table ethos. But with pan-global easily squeeze of lemon does it), it soaks wonderfully sliding into “fusion” and farm-to-table having longinto the grilled ciabatta. since slouched into meaninglessness, does this new The sardine dish, perhaps, explains the apPatio succeed because of or despite those things? peal of chef John Medall’s food. Global? Yes. The Patio’s version of fish tacos, for example, is Farm-to-table? Yeah. But, ultimately, it’s all about not remotely like the San Diego classic; rather, it’s what needs to be on the plate and where it should Hawaiian ahi poke in fried wonton skins. It’s also go. And on Goldfinch, Medall seems to have captured lightning in a bottle—again. delicious. The fresh fish and cleanly fried wontons look like an old-school hard taco. The garnishes of Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com pickled ginger and wasabi seem a bit gratuitous, and editor@sdcitybeat.com. but pickled cucumbers atop the fish worked on

the world

fare

10 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

by ian cheesman

beer &

chees Walking tall

When plotting out a brewery marathon, it’s tempting to look at the paltry distance between two and gauge them as walking distance. This line of thinking is sadly typical of a mind clouded by sobriety. The problem is that Sober Me is the sort of optimistic rube that believes LessSober Me will care about things like physical fitness or fresh air after a couple tall, cool glasses of apathy have passed my lips.

That said, my recent foray to Miralani Drive in Miramar uncovered a rare exception to that rule. Even at my most lethargic, I can hardly justify the 100-foot cab ride between 2kids Brewing (two kidsbrewing.com) and Pacific Brewing Co. (pacificbrew ing.com).

The “kids” tend to favor a lighter hand with their flavor palate, embracing more of a British motif in their style selection and intensity. That’s a harder sell in San Diego and, frankly, with me, but craft brew is a big tent. As my liver will eagerly testify, we cannot live on triple IPAs alone.

This philosophy actually made for some surprisingly satisfying beers. The Unusual, an amber lager (5.4-percent ABV), offered a notable grainy and bready character that still managed to finish pleasantly crisp, making it a wonderful accompaniment to the toasty day. In the same way, the cereal and subtle apricot fruitiness of the One Twenty Three cream ale (4.6-percent ABV) was highly quaffable. I was even a convert with the Winning chocolate stout (6.2-percent ABV), whose blend of chocolate, coffee and licorice flavors made me overlook how unmistakably

12 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

lean it was. However, other similarly tuned offerings (Pirlie Winkie Scottish ale and Obligatory Too American IPA, for example), felt anemic relative to their styles.

The only head-scratcher of the 2kids bunch was the Belgian golden ale Asterix (8.9-percent ABV), which seemed to be having a bit of an identity crisis. Its aroma was bright with lemon and floral notes that I would expect, but the flavor was more reminiscent of a Belgian pale ale.

Between that and the slightly sour finish, this one may need a little more dialing in.

Pacific Brewing Co served as a something of a counterpoint to 2kids, favoring styles more ian cheesman aligned with West Coast sensibilities. This was no more apparent than in the Sticky Icky strong ale (7.8-percent ABV), a brew as mighty as its redwood hue suggested. Its spicy nose and hefty stickiness in the mouth gave it real presence, a solid stage for its boozy, pine-y flavors. In a similar vein, the Rodan Red IPA (7.3-percent ABV) adeptly melded disparate styles from its caramel popcorn and red-pepper aromatics to the bready and flowery flavors that emerged from it.

Of course, with big flavor comes big responsibility. The Bombora IPA (7.2-percent ABV) wasn’t shy with the dank hop character, but the finish had a vegetal bitterness that was a little abrasive.

I much preferred Pacific’s Cook’s IPA (7.5-percent ABV), a fruit-forward IPA without tons of resin to it.

All my nitpicking aside, there’s no denying that this corner of the northern San Diego brewing ecosystem not only provides ridiculously convenient proximity for brew touring, but also merges complementary brewing philosophies and tremendous variety on a small stretch of blacktop. In either direction, it’s worth the walk.

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

by Mina Riazi mina riazi

and grilled gyros served simply with pita bread and tzatziki.

For those who need reminding, tzatziki is the versatile Greek yogurt sauce flavored with olive oil, garlic and dill. I consider it the ketchup of Greek cuisine; used as both a sauce and a dip, it accompanies almost every dish.

Tzatziki played a supporting role in my friend’s chicken souvlaki entrée: Marinated and charbroiled skewered chunks of meat—“souvlaki” means “little skewers”— join chewy pita bread, red onions and slippery cubes of fresh tomato.

Without the yogurt dip, the souvlaki would have felt incomplete. Barleyanfigs’ version is especially excellent—rich and Barleyanfigs’ pikilia appetizer tangy with chunks of cucumber adding generous crunch. The mildly seasoned chicken pieces need an extra punch of flavor, and the tzatziki provides it.

Tzatziki also makes an appearance in the pikilia appetizer, which features four dips. “Pikilia” means “variety,” and at $11, the dish is more than reasonably priced, as it flaunts a fat scoop of each My big fat Greek lunch dip. Though less well known than the beloved yogurt sauce, the patzari, tarama and melitzana are My first experience with Greek food starred sevjust as delectable. eral smiling, aproned servers who—in between Nicknamed “tarama,” taramasalata is a palerehearsed explanations of the meze arriving on pink paste made from fish roe. Though both my cobalt blue dishes—shouted “Opa!” with tireless friend and I relished its smoky-salty flavor, I enthusiasm. Later that evening, a belly dancer could see it being a polarizing player due to its twirled into the dining room, shedding glitter briny taste. The patzari—with its easier-to-stomwith each undulation. ach ingredient list of beets, walnuts, yogurt and At the time, my teenage palate could not disgarlic—is much more of a crowd pleaser. cern between Greek and “Greek” fare. I happily The melitzana completes the quartet. You’ll be gorged on wads of the reheated, store-bought surprised to discover that eggplant—and not appita bread while taking in the restaurant’s wall ple—is the main ingredient here. That’s because murals, each depicting hackneyed Greek landBarleyanfigs’ version is slightly sweet and even scapes in Jolly Rancher shades. looks more like the crunchy, pomaceous fruit.

Fast-forward several years and I’ve graduScooped over a slice of lightly toasted pita bread, ated to a kitsch-free, sophisticated-but-not-preit almost mimics dessert with its fragrant flavor. tentious Greek dining experience. The newly Unfortunately, tzatziki did not attend the mouopened Barleyanfigs in La Jolla feels refined and saka party—but I understand why. After all, there’s also slightly austere (6830 La Jolla Blvd., barley no room for the yogurt dip in mousaka, an ovenanfigs.com). On a recent afternoon, I opted for an baked dish consisting of eggplant, ground beef and outdoor table, as the dining room—with its dark béchamel sauce. Still, as I set aside my fork, unable walls, tables and chairs—felt starved of light. to polish off Barleyanfigs’ ample portion, I couldn’t help but think that something was missing.

Husband-and-wife duo Constantine and Sofi Coss opened Barleyanfigs this past JanuWrite to minar@sdcitybeat.com ary. Chef Sofi helms the kitchen, preparing clasand editor@sdcitybeat.com. sic Greek fare like spinach-stuffed spanakopita

One Lucky

Spoon

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

urban

by Nina Sachdev Hoffmann

scout

Designer spotlight: Heather Barnes, Stoneywear Designs It’s not every day you go to your hair salon with a fabu� and leave without gray hair and ������������ lous pair of earrings. That is, unless your sa� lon is Disconnected in North Park. I’d been eyeing the jewelry display for months but didn’t bother to take a real look—it was al� ways in the corner, on the far end of the front desk—until I saw my stylist wearing a huge silver-and-turquoise statement necklace that I needed to know more about.

Now I’m totally hooked on Stoneywear Designs (stoneyweardesigns.com), the hand� made jewelry line by Heather Barnes, whose skills in silversmithing and spotting the next big trend make her a go-to for great jewelry.

Barnes has a knack for simple yet striking de� signs that are feminine and edgy, sophisticated and romantic. Her jewelry is the signature piece to any outfit, whether you’re rocking a blazer to the office or throwing on your fave Sunday Tshirt. The best part? You’ll go home with some� thing for less than $20. You can find her jewelry at Disconnected Salon, Low Gallery and Hunt & Gather (all in North Park) and La Loupe Vintage in University Heights. I chatted her up: You said one of your biggest motivators for starting Stoneywear in 2002 was seeing simple yet unaffordable statement pieces in fashion magazines. You’re doing the exact opposite—affordable yet striking statement pieces—with great success. But you didn’t really get going fulltime until 2012. Why? Stoneywear became a full-time deci� sion when I finally was fed up with working so hard for others. One day, I was thinking how busy Stoneywear was getting and made a plan to get out of my current job and do Stoney� wear full-time. I took a year of sav� ings and a lot of help from family and friends and took the dive.

Turquoise bracelet me to find my style and encouraged me to pursue metalsmithing, even after I graduated.

You call yourself a “mood designer” who makes pieces based on how you feel at any given moment. How does that manifest itself in your work?

I often look at other jewelry designers or even other artists, and I see they all have a very dis� tinct look or style. It’s either Native American in� fluence, minimalist or they use the same material or design. My thing is that I like almost all trends, even classic designs. I want to make all of it or try.

For instance, I see geo-shaped jewelry and I get inspired and make my own version of it. Or, one day, I can’t even stand the idea of wiring a piece of jewelry so I will smith something, or vice versa.

Your pieces are so striking and always seem to embody the latest trends. How do you do it?

I feel like I have always had an eye for unique style and fashion. Before Pinterest and Facebook and all so� cial media, I loved fashion and design magazines and would get most of my How did you get into silversmithQuartz necklace inspiration from that. But today, a lot of my work is researching blogs, Tum� ing? You mentioned that someone blr, Pinterest. I love people-watching, especially at in your college days steered you in that direcfestivals like Burning Man, and traveling keeps my tion and away from interior design, which is mind filled with new ideas and upcoming trends. what you had actually gone to school for.

I got into silversmithing because I had one more elective to take at SDSU. I was an interior-design major and needed one more workshop class to graduate. I was always obsessing over very large turquoise rings and knew that I had to learn how to make them, so silversmithing seemed the obvious next step. After taking that class, I knew I wasted the last three years in the interior-design program.

My teacher in the smithing class never graded me on my horrible craftsmanship, but instead guided

14 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

What kind of metal / stones / media do you like the best?

I never tire of turquoise—there are just so many variations. Brass and silver are my favorite met� als. As for stones, whatever looks beautiful at the moment.

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

the

SHORTlist

ART

COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN

MOLINA VISUALS

most of the performances this year and even next. The real, big, bold programming changes won’t really start to take effect until 2017.

“So, stay tuned,” says San Diego Opera spokesperson Edward Wilensky. “By then, you’ll definitely see a version of the new and nimbler San Diego Opera.”

Still, there have been some significant structural improvements already. The most noticeable—and necessary, in frugal CityBeat’s opinion—is a drop in ticket and subscription prices. Also, a few more alternative opera performances have been squeezed in this season, including Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez smaller recitals and a mariachi opera that sounds really fun.

The new season’s kickoff performance isn’t a huge departure for the opera, but it does signal some of the directional changes the company’s making by Due to overwhelming fan and community support, featuring slightly hipper performers in a more intithe San Diego Opera is back from the brink of death mate venue, with ticket prices that start at $20. and rumored to be better than ever. The company’s At 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5, the young and lauded 2014-2015 season—which coincides with its 50th an- Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello will perform a niversary—was called off earlier this year amid for- recital at the Balboa Theatre (868 Fourth Ave, Downmer Executive Director Ian Campbell’s attempt to town), launching the promotional tour for their new shutter the institution, citing dire fundraising and album, Love Duets. They’ll perform favorites from financial difficulties. operas and musicals like La Bohème, The Elixir of But before folks start inspecting the opera’s new Love, West Side Story and more. season for dramatic changes, it should be noted that “They’ve been called the Beyoncé and Jay-Z of the company was already contractually bound to opera by many media outlets,” Wilensky says with a laugh, adding that the powerhouse operatic vocalists are also married in real life. “They are some of the hottest singers out there today.” sdopera.com You might know about the popular San Diego Greek Festival in Hillcrest, but do you know about the Cardiff Greek Old Town isn’t without its kitsch; it’s the Festival held at Saints Constantine and Helen only hood in San Diego where you can Greek Orthodox Church (3459 Manchester Ave.) in have a souvenir sepia-tone picture takCardiff-by-the-Sea? No? Maybe you should check it out. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, en while wearing kooky cowboy duds. But a differand 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, the church ent kind of kitsch will roll in when Old Town goes grounds will be transformed into a mini Greek Vil- old school with the Kustom Kulture car, bike and lage, with a marketplace of shops selling all sorts lowbrow-art show. Now in its fourth year, the event of Greek stuff, three areas for live-music and dance gathers together lowbrow artists like The Pizz and performances (and instruction) and tons of food— Sonny Boy, vendors selling apparel and car-related all the souvlaki, spanakopita, gyros and baklava merch, live music and, most importantly, a wide aryou can shove into your Greek-for-a-day face. Did ray of vintage hot rods and lowriders that are works we mention the loukoumathes booth? That means of art in their own right. The show takes place from honey-dipped donuts! Admission is $3, free for kids 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, along San Diego Avenue. It’s open to all ages, and admission is free.

11 and younger. stsconstantinehelen.com fiestadekustomkulture.com

1

2

THIS OPERA’S NO PHANTOM

ALL GREEK TO YOU

3

KITSCH, PLEASE

Our Legacy: The People & The Places at Foundry Studios at New Village Arts, 2787 State St., Carlsbad. Karla Mulry and Phyllis Swanson explore connections across generations and nostalgia for a bucolic past. Opening from 5 to 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 3. 760-433-3245 An Intimate View at Hera Hub, 9710 Scranton Road, Sorrento Valley. Watercolorist Lola Juris shows off new paintings exploring nature, animals and landscapes. Opening from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 4. herahub.com HFaculty Exhibition Fall 2014 at Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Drive, Clairemont. Mesa’s faculty exhibition features artwork in a variety of media created by the studio arts faculty. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4. 619388-2231, sdmesagallery.com HPencils & Pixels at Southwestern College Art Gallery, 900 Otay Lakes Road, Building 710, Chula Vista. This exhibition explores where state-of-the-art motioncapture imagery overlaps with the backto-basics drawing. Opening from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4. swccd.edu Friday Night Liberty at NTC at Liberty Station, 2640 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. A special “Back to School” edition of the First Friday art walk featuring open artist studios, galleries, shopping and entertainment. From 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5.

619-573-9300, ntclibertystation.com HMr. Benja at Graffiti Beach, 2220 Fern St., South Park. New works from the L.A.based graphic designer and low-brow artist. RSVP for complimentary craft beer or soda. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5. facebook.com/graffiti.beach Beacons of Beauty at Women’s Museum of California, 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16, Point Loma. Concetta Antico will showcase new paintings. A recently diagnosed tetrachromat, her rare genetics provide a fourth color vision receptor, which she channels into dynamic, colorful works. Opens Friday, Sept. 5. On view through Sept. 28. womensmuseumca.org HFasntasmas at Low Gallery, 3778 30th St., North Park. New works from Tijuanabased artist Toni Larios, who creates an imaginary world rooted in the gritty urban landscape that’s both beautiful and grotesque. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5. 619-348-5517, lowgallerysd.com HSalon de Refuses at Brooks Theater, 217 North Coast Hwy., Oceanside. The Gallery at Brooks exhibits “refused” artwork by some of Southern California’s premier career artists. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5. oceansidetheatre.org HAnti-Analogy at The Hill Street Country Club Gallery, 212 N. Coast Hwy. Suite D, Oceanside. Paintings, drawings and sculptures by Matt Dunn, who weaves words into his work in abstract, interesting ways.

Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5.

760-917-6666, thehillstreetcountryclub.org Duchamp’s Palettes at Not an Exit Gallery @ Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. San Diego artist Bob Matheny channels Marcel Duchamp with this series of art-palette, Duchamp-inspired “readymades.” From 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept.

6. Email almost@cox.net for info.

Galaxy of Glass at Fallbrook Art Center, 103 South Main, Fallbrook. This 17th annual exhibition showcases art glass sculptures, vessels, functional ware and more by 15 regional glass artists. From 5 to 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. fallbrookartcenter.org Open House Spanish Village Art Center, Balboa Park. Meet the artists of Spanish Village and enjoy their work. From 5 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. spanishvillageart.com

Aquamarine at San Diego Sculptor’s Guild, Gallery 36, 1770 Village Place, Balboa Park. A sculptural exhibit and fundraiser. There’ll be a large-scale sculpture unveiling, raffle, live music, a wine and cheese reception and more. Opening from 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. 619-2380522, sandiegosculptorsguild.com HHiding in Plain Sight: Eight Voices in Contemporary Photography at New Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. An exhibition showcasing San Diegobased artists using the medium of photography to create diverse and conceptual approaches to image-making. Opening from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6.

619-236-5800, sandiegolibrary.org Fundamental Annual Fundraiser at Promising Futures Art Studio, 145 E. Lexington Ave., El Cajon. Promising Futures Art Studio‘s annual fundraiser and art show will feature new work by studio artists. There’ll also be food, raffle prizes and face-painting for the kids. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. Donation suggested. promisingfutures.net HPaintings, Pen & Ink, Drawings at Taylor Branch Library, 4275 Cass St., Pacific Beach. Christine Albert, winner in the San Diego Art Institute’s Southern California/Baja Norte Regional Exhibition, showcases new work. Opening from 2 to 5 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. pblibraryfriends.org HYe Hongxing at Lux Art Institute, 1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas. The Beijingbased artist uses stickers and crystals to create large-scale collages on canvas that juxtapose traditional Chinese imagery with the psychedelic. Opening from 1 to 5 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. On view through Nov. 1. $5. 760-436-6611, luxartinstitute.org Into the Matrix at WSOHOIDPS, 2690 Via De La Valle, Del Mar. A collection of mixedmedia collage works by Ginger Louise, whose metaphysical observations layer past and present imagery to map her personal journey from illness to health. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6.

619-218-2737, shipinthewoods.com Celebrating the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration at William D. Cannon Art Gallery, 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad.

This traveling exhibition celebrates its 33rd year as a showcase for children’s book illustrators. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. web.carlsbadca.gov In My Footsteps... at 3rdSpace, 4610 Park Blvd., University Heights. A photographic art show featuring the natural landscape images of Jennifer Magallon.

Opening from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. 619-255-3609 San Marcos ArtWalk at Old California Restaurant Row, 1080 W. San Marcos Blvd., San Marcos. Artists from all over North County showcase their talents in a variety of mediums. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. 760-518-8578, oldcaliforniarestaurantrow.com That Place We Go at Basic, 410 10th Ave., East Village. Viz Cult artist showcase presents Ry Beloin’s solo show featuring her new and recent work. Opening from 7 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. 619-865-6210

BOOKS Ron McElroy at Real Office Centers, 600 W. Broadway, Suite 700, Downtown. The entrepreneur, motivational speaker and author will discuss and sign Wrong Side of the Tracks, and conduct a writing workshop. At 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4. $25. 949-6292500, adventuresbythebook.com Jonathan Maberry at Mysterious Galaxy

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The creator of the Joe Ledger series will sign and discuss his new zombie thriller, Fall of Night. At 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Karna Small Bodman at Schulman Auditorium at Carlsbad City Library, 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad. Ronald Reagan’s deputy press secretary discusses her political-thriller novels and tells stories about life in the White House. At 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 4. karnabodman.com Anna Francesca Celestino at Expressive Arts Institute, 2820 Roosevelt Road, Ste. 204, Point Loma. Celestino discusses and signs Igniting Change, about three powerful steps to get control of life’s changes. At 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5. 619251-8474, expressiveartssandiego.com

Margaret Coel at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The writer will sign and discuss the newest installment of the Wind River Reservation Mysteries series, Night of the White Buffalo. At 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com HTerry Turchie, Jim Freeman and Max Noel at Barnes & Noble Mira Mesa, 10775 Westview Pkwy., Mira Mesa. The authors will discuss and sign Unabomber: How the FBI Broke Its Own Rules to Capture the Terrorist Ted Kazcynski. At 6 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 5. barnesandnoble.com Steph Cha at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The author and contributing food writing for L.A. Times signs and discusses the second Juniper Song mystery

novel, Beware Beware. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. mystgalaxy.com Kathy Aarons at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Aarons discusses her debut mystery novel, Death is Like a Box of Chocolates, about a truffle chef who becomes a suspect in a small town homicide. At 4 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. mystgalaxy.com David Laskin at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author of The Children’s Blizzard will present his latest, The Family, the story of one extraordinary Jewish family. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8. warwicks.indiebound.com John Scalzi at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The award-winning writer and

bestselling author will sign and discuss, Lock In, his newest novel set 15 years in the future, which finds the population split by a nasty virus. At 7 p.m. Monday, Sept.

8. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com David Zeltser at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The launch event for Lug, Dawn of the Ice Age: How One Small Boy Saved Our Big, Dumb Species, a children’s book about the world’s inaction on climate change. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. warwicks.indiebound.com David Bajo at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The acclaimed author of Panopticon will be discussing and signing his new novel, the medical thriller, Mercy 6. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9.

858-454-0347, mystgalaxy.com Kiersten White, Natalie Whipple and Stephanie Perkins at Barnes & Noble, 2615 Vista Way, Oceanside. Meet the acclaimed teen authors who’ll be signing their newest novels. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. barnesandnoble.com Tom Hom at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author signs his memoir, Rabbit on a Bumpy Road. In 1963, Hom made history by becoming the first minority ever elected to the San Diego City Council. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10. warwicks.indiebound.com

COMEDY HJoel McHale at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. He’s best known as the host of the E!’s The Soup and as Jeff Winger, the lead character on Community. At 8 and 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4. $25. americancomedyco.com HNikki Glaser at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. She first gained notoriety as a semifinalist on Last Comic Standing and has since been profiled in The New York Times magazine.

At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5-6, and 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. $18. americancomedyco.com Off the Clock at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. An uncensored stand-up comedy show with the staffers of TMZ. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5-6. $20. thecomedypalace.com HErik Knowles at Legends Comedy Club, 9200 Inwood Drive, Santee. The San Diego native has opened for Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis. At 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5-6. $15. legendscomedyclub.com Rick Martinez at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla. The founder of ”Spicy Latino Nights” at the Hollywood Improv performs.

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. $15. 858-4549176, lajolla.thecomedystore.com HAmir K at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Part of ACC’s Breakout Artist Series, Amir is currently on the cast of the MTV prank show, Jerks With Cameras. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10. $12. americancomedyco.com

FOOD & DRINK HEclipse Chocolate 10 Year Anniversary Celebration at Eclipse Bar & Bistro, 2145 Fern St., South Park. A month’s worth of celebrations kick off with a Build-A-Bar Workshop ($10), where patrons design their own chocolate bars, from noon to 4 p.m. and a “Chocolate Threeway,” where guests get a guided chocolate, cheese and beer tasting, benefiting The Living Coast Discover Center at 4 p.m. ($50). See website for more event details. Saturday, Sept. 6. $10-$50. eclipsechocolate.com Super Tasty 5K at Solana Beach. At this

16 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

walk/run event, follow a map to 20 different Solana Beach eateries where you can sample food. Finish up at the Bike and Fitness Expo. Proceeds benefit Promises2Kids. Start time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. $35. girodisandiego. com/event-info-taste.html Green Flash Treasure Chest Fest at Green Flash Brewing Company, 6550 Mira Mesa Blvd., Mira Mesa. The brewery’s fourth annual rare beer festival raises money for Susan G. Komen in San Diego.

There’ll also be beer and food pairings, a marketplace, pin-up gals from Fables by Barrie and more. From noon to 6 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. $20-$40. treasurechestfestsd.eventbrite.com HSausage & Beer Extravaganza at Salt & Cleaver, 3805 5th Ave., Hillcrest. Salt & Cleaver joins forces with Green Flash Brewing Company for a five-course dinner and beer-pairing event. From 7 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. $50. 619-7566677, enjoysausage.com

MUSIC Charlie Chavez Quartet at Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave., Downtown.

The Afro-Cuban jazz band will perform on the Westgate’s pool terrace as part of the Sunset Poolside Jazz Series. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4. 619-2381818, westgatehotel.com HToy Piano Festival at Geisel Library, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Hear new works for toy piano and peruse the Toy Piano Collection, which consists of actual instruments, audio recordings, extant literature and commissioned works. At noon Friday, Sept. 5. libraries.ucsd.edu HAilyn Perez and Stephen Costello at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. An exclusive recital with piano featuring soprano Ailyn Perez and tenor Stephen Costello, dubbed America’s fastestrising husband-and-wife opera stars by the Associated Press. At 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5. $20-$170. sandiegotheatres.org HSan Diego Blues Festival at Embarcadero Marina Park North, 1 Marine Way, Downtown. The two-day blues fest features performances by Eric Burdon & the Animals, R.B. Stone, Tommy Castro & the Painkillers and others. Benefits the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank. From noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 6-7. $20-$30. sdbluesfest.com Thollem McDonas and Alex Cline at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. Part of the Fresh Sound series, the percussionist (Cline) and pianist (McDonas) will play a concert of improvised, spontaneous music that ranges from the subtle and sensitive to the majestic and cathartic. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. $10-$15. freshsoundmusic.com

OUTDOORS Lake Poway Fall Camping Series at Lake Poway, 14644 Lake Poway Road, Poway. Set up your tent and explore Lake Poway at your own pace. Hike the many trails, fish, cruise the lake on a motorboat or relax by your campsite. From 1 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 5. to 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. $25. 858-668-4772, poway.org

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HJoe Safdie at D.G. Wills Books, 7461 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The poet and assistant professor of English at San Diego Mesa College will read from his newest book of poems, Scholarship. At 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. 858-456-1800, dgwillsbooks.com

THEATER

Regrets Only makes a point and a ruckus Regrets Only looks like what they used to call an old-fashioned “drawing-room comedy.” The setting is actually a Park Avenue penthouse living room, but the actors moving about it are glib, sophisticated and well-attired, as befits the genre. Why wouldn’t everyone be so natty? After all, the central character of Paul Rudnick’s play is a fashion designer whose gowns supposedly make Vera Wang’s look like something hanging at a neighborhood yard sale.

The designer, Hank Hadley (Andrew Oswald), is also the catalyst for both the comedy and the dramatic moments of Regrets Only: He’s lost his lover of 36 years to cancer, and now his best friend Tibby’s (Kerry McCue) buttoned-up husband is drafting an amendment for President George W. Bush that would define marriage strictly as an institution between a man and a woman.

As Hank, Oswald is not only the center of this play’s universe, but he’s also the most restrained among the six-member cast. This Diversionary Theatre production, actor Jessica John’s directorial debut, is loud. Though they can be funny, McCue, Charles Maze (as Tibby’s husband), Rachael VanWormer (their snooty daughter Spencer), Dagmar Krause Fields (dipsomaniacal Grandma Marietta) and Teri Brown (the maid, Myra) seem to be in volume competition. Brown also pops in and out of the action to make wisecracks, often employing different ethnic accents, and Fields’ first appearance on stage is while dressed in trash bags and a traffic cone.

The screwball antics are in competition, too, with the play’s weighty questions: What defines marriage, and if a Dubya-administration amendment would deny gays and lesbians the right to marry, what would happen if they just took a day off from society and showed not just New York City but also the nation what life would be like without so many people who contribute to its functions and its joys? So, the tenor of the production goes up and down, not just between Act 1 and Act 2, but also within the second act itself. Only Oswald, most recently at Diversionary in Boys and Girls, navigates the choppy waters smoothly. Everyone else would be wise to take it down a notch.

Regrets Only runs through Sept. 21 at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. $25-$50. diversionary.org.

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

POLITICS & COMMUNITY HHomelessness in San Diego: What Makes Good Neighbors at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, 5998 Alcala Park, USD, Linda Vista. Father Joe’s Villages teams up with USD’s Trans-Border Institute to present this panel of experts debating the impacts of homelessness on the bi-national region, Moderated by KPBS’ Mark Sauer. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 3. 619-260-7509, my.neighbor.org/good-neighbor-month HSupreme Court’s War on Women at California Western School of Law, 225 Cedar St., Downtown. The National Lawyers Guild and Women Occupy San Diego discuss recent Supreme Court cases such as Hobby Lobby, voting rights, labor and workers rights and Citizens United. From

DAREN SCOTT

From left: Andrew Oswald, Rachel VanWormer and Kerry McCue

OPENING Fallen Angels: In Noël Coward’s 1925 farce, two women stuck in boring marriages anticipate the impending arrival of a passionate man whom both dated before they were married.

Opens in previews on Sept. 3 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org Kingdom City: A world-premiere play about a New York theater director who stirs things up in a small, conservative Missouri town when she directs a high-school production of The Crucible. Opens Sept. 4 at La Jolla Playhouse. lajollaplay house.com Legends (in ten minutes or less): The cast in this evening of seven very short plays includes CityBeat editor David Rolland, and dessert is included in the ticket price. Presented by New Play Café, it opens Sept. 6 on the back patio of DeMi Café Café in University Heights. newplaycafe.com Our Town: Thornton Wilder’s classic story about life and death in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Opens Sept. 5 at Patio Playhouse in Escondido. patio playhouse.org The Pianist of Willesden Lane: Actor and pianist Mona Golabek tells the story of a 14-year-old music prodigy whose promising career is imperiled by war in Europe in 1938. Presented by San Diego Repertory Theatre, it opens Sept. 3 at the Lyceum Theatre at Horton Plaza, Downtown. sdrep.org Postmortem: It’s 1922, and an actor famous for playing Sherlock Holmes has reassembled a group of people who were present a year earlier when someone allegedly committed suicide. Presented by Scripps Ranch Theatre, it opens Sept. 6 at the Legler Benbough Theatre in Scripps Ranch. scrippsranchtheatre.org

For full listings,

please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com

7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4. 619-5319300, WomenOccupySanDiego.org

SPECIAL EVENTS HTower After Hours: Mexico at San Diego Museum of Man, Balboa Park. Celebrate the rich cultural heritage of our neighbors to the south with colorful performances of Mexican music and dance, authentic cuisine, craft beers and tequila. From 6 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3. $15-$30.

619-239-2001, museumofman.org HACD Gallery Grand Opening at ACD Gallery, 2923 Upas St., North Park. Check out the new space’s curated selection of fashion, accessory, art, travel and design goods. There’ll also be music from Addison Groove, BlendHe and Questions & Freddie Joachim. From 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5. 619-208-2082, acdgallery.com

HGrape Day Festival at 321 N. Broadway, Escondido. Take part in a 5K fun run then enjoy a parade, grape stomping, live entertainment, rides and contests for the kids, vendors, tours of the Escondido History Center and more. From 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. $25 5K, free parade and festival. escondidohistory.org HCardiff Greek Festival at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 3459 Manchester Ave., Cardiff-bythe-Sea. Now in its 36th year, the grounds of the church will be an open marketplace of Greek crafts, food, dance and music.

From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept.

6, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. $3. cardiffgreekfest.com HFiesta de Kustom Kulture at MotorCult Old Town, 2474 San Diego Ave., Old

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

Town. An annual custom hotrod, motorcycle and lowbrow art festival that will also feature live entertainment, kitschy vendors, live painting and pinstriping by some of the best lowbrow artists. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. 619299-1369, fiestadekustomkulture.com

serving up traditional Brazilian fare and, of course, a Carnival-style parade full of extravagant costumes and floats. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. braziliandaysandiego.com HPints for a Cause at Coin-Op Game Room, 3926 30th St., North Park. Enjoy a beer and play some games for a good cause. Money raised benefits the Friends of Scott Foundation, whose mission is to help children with cancer and their families. From 5 to 10 p.m. Monday, Sept.

8. Suggested donation. friendsofscott.org

HSDSA Robo Expo at Hall of Champions, 2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park.

Robots of all shapes, sizes and functions will be on display from local companies, student clubs and global organizations.

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. sdsa.org/programs/robotics HSoCal Etsy Guild Market at The Headquarters at Seaport District, 789 West Harbor Drive, Downtown. Vendors will be selling their handmade artisan goods. The event includes live art, food, music and free children’s activities. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. 619235-4014, theheadquarters.com HJulian Grape Stomp Festa at Menghini Winery, 1150 Julian Orchards Drive, Julian. An annual harvest festival with a real, old-world-style grape stomp. There’ll also be Italian music, wine tastings, dancing, arts and crafts and more. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. $5-$50. 760765-2072, julianca.com North Park Historical Society Car Show at Morley Field, North Park. Held in the parking lot in front of the Balboa Tennis Club at Morley Field. Peruse dozens of classic models and stick around for the awards ceremony. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 6. northparkhistory.org HSurf Dog Surf-a-Thon at Del Mar Dog Beach, 3006 Sandy Lane, Del Mar. Watch water-happy dogs catch some waves at this annual competition, which will also feature vendors, food, costume contests.

18 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS “Espectros” by Tijuana artist Toni Larios is on view in a solo show opening from 6 to 10 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 5, at Low Gallery (3778 30th St., North Park).

Proceeds benefit the Helen Woodward Animal Center. From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. 858-755-1556, animalcenter.org Regrets Only Wedding Fair at Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd., University Heights. To highlight the marriage equality themes of Diversionary’s new play, Regrets Only, the theater is hosting a Gay Wedding Fair before that night’s performance. From noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. $15-$50. 619-220-0097, diversionary.org HBrazilian Day San Diego The seventh annual festival along Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach is the largest Brazilian fest on the west coast. Enjoy music, vendors

HBDSM Unbound at Ducky Waddle’s Emporium, 414 N. Coast Hwy. 101, Encinitas. Local sex educator, researcher and former professional dominant Tessa Ayden explains how the world of BDSM really works. This is the first in series of interactive classes. From 7 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. $10. duckywaddles.com How Does El Nino Affect California? at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. Join climate scientist David Pierce to learn what El Nino is, how it affects the weather and water supply and how scientists use models to forecast the likelihood of El Nino events. At 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 9. $8. 858-534-3474. aquarium.ucsd.edu

For full listings,

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

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

Kinsee Morlan

Bessie and I, we could’ve been besties.

For others, it would seem, their work was their life: Her work is done and the setting sun has sealed her life’s request. Though the past is gone she will still live on in memory of all who loved her.

Served 43 years with Pacific Bell Telephone Co. 1922-1965 Rest in Peace.

Willa Josephine 1903-1986.

Tomb of the

u nknown

celebrity

My death obsession uncovers weird, mysterious and fascinating life stories

I

by Amy Wallen

’d been reading obituaries as a staple with my morning coffee long before I came across Jeanette Schmid, Austria’s last professional whistler. Schmid’s obit was posted in the San Diego Union-Tribune in April 2005. The paper reported that she was better known as “Baroness Lips von Lipstrill,” was born a man, underwent gender change surgery in 1964 in Cairo and started her whistling career during a visit to Tehran to perform for the shah, where her costume as a dancer was deemed too skimpy, so she ended up whistling a Johann Strauss Jr. pol-

ka instead. She became a popular performer on cruise ships, the brief obituary ends.

Over the years, my morning ritual introduced me to a ceramicist to the stars, a gentleman who played in a mariachi band during JFK’s inauguration, the woman who invented the poodle skirt and many other unknown celebrities.

I drive past the adjacent Mount Hope and Greenwood cemeteries on Market Street regularly. I don’t know anyone buried there, but one day, I made the fateful turn toward Mount Hope and Greenwood and

20 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

began what have become regular visits.

At first I just drove around the winding roads. I loved the old mausoleum buildings, some with broken stained-glass panes, a motorcycle hearse parked out front. Something enticed me to park the car and amble across the grassy knoll, farther inside the cemetery.

Turns out, reading tombstones is to obituaries what Twitter is to Facebook.

What I found at the cemeteries is that many graves, like the obits, are not about death, but about life.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal: Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

Bessie Tanzer 1870-1915.

Forty-three years with PacBell; I hope Willa Josephine received a good pension.

Nearby lies, or rather stands, the tombstone of George Joe, a granite four-sided pedestal as tall as I am that states: “King of Food.”

Born in China in 1907 – died 1981.

The graveyard itself doesn’t give me the heebie-jeebies, but the graves with impending inhabitants do. A double tombstone, a spouse deceased, birth and death dates etched on one half, then, carved on the other half of the same tombstone, the surviving spouse’s name and birth date.

The date of death is left blank. A grave with her name on it, literally, is waiting for her.

Occasionally, on one of these doublegrave markers, the life expectancy of the “expected” has run its course, the date of death left blank for eternity. Is the survivor now planted with her new soul mate?

Did that waiting grave cause her any guilt or grief? Was “Till death do us part” all she signed up for? Maybe she never had any intention of being buried with that old geezer. Mom had been thinking, Eternity?

I put up with the guy for 55 years! I’m getting my own plot. The guy in the ground, who thought he’d found a way to keep her even beyond death, will be waiting still.

To visit Jim Morrison’s grave at Pére Lachaise cemetery in Paris, or any of the countless celebs at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills, has no appeal. All those celebrities who’ve been adored in life and in death don’t need any more fans. Mount Hope has only one celebrity. Raymond Chandler is buried with Cissy Pascal, his wife, 18 years his senior, but to whom he was married for 30 years. When she died

in 1954, he fell into despondency and alcoholism until his own death in 1959. He never completed the paperwork to have her ashes interred next to him, and they instead sat in a mausoleum. In 2011, a local group of fans succeeded in getting the court order necessary to have Cissy buried with Raymond, more than 50 years after their deaths.

At the back of the cemetery, by the railroad tracks, is the quietest part of the graveyard. Large, gnarled pepper trees drape the hillsides, where I find: Beloved Daughter Armalene Marie d. 1935-1961 “Sheltered and safe from sorrow”

rant a tombstone with only Dad’s love imprinted?

My cruising of cemeteries extends beyond San Diego to the East Coast—to the kind with moss-covered tombstones, some chipped or fallen over. SevAmy Wallen enteenth-century Gothic script etched into one granite slab in a Vermont cemetery tells the story of a burning death in a barn. TMI! Across that old graveyard, Mr. Solomon speaks the bitter truth to all of us from his grave: In memory of mr Solomon hinds Who died April 28 1798 aged 28 years and 17 days All you who read with little care And go away & leave me here Should not forget that you must die And be mtombed as well as I

What kind of sorrow is she safe from now? I worry about this 26year-old, what she had to endure Brandon, vt while alive.

The graveyard’s saddest part to Touché, Mr. Solomon. walk through is the baby section.

It’s peaceful, in a cemetery.

Mr. Solomon reminds us The math too easy, some just a few Like a park without people, at that everyone must die. years old, some only a few days, least alive ones. Memories jotted some the date of death and birth are the same. on marble. I’m like an anthropologist of sorts. I’ve never believed in an after-life, but if I did, I’d have Steven Glen F. to say that it truly exists in cemeteries. Lives are Sept 28 1966-Mar 29 1967 imprinted on tombstones. Even if it’s just dates— doesn’t that tell a story, as well?

“Dad’s love” What about Mom’s love? Did she die in childbirth? How, in six short months did this child war-

Amy Wallen (amywallen.com) is the author of Moon Pies and MovieStars. Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Kinsee Morlan

Seen Local The large look Big is what’s big in photography right now.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Eight Voices in Contemporary Photography, opening Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Central Library Art Gallery in East Village, includes several oversized images—up to 3-by-4 feet. They are immersive pieces that once would’ve been extremely difficult to make. This large scale is one way curator Scott B. Davis connects the exhibition to what he calls “the global dialogue” in the art form.

“Artists are exploring historic materials and really understanding the history of photography, so that their work starts to build on that language in a way that they’re not repeating, but pushing against or expanding on earlier ideas,” he says. “Digital technology has done so much to unleash a whole new realm of thought, creative capacity, abilities and output.

Photographers are starting to do things that were just not easily possible 10, 20 years ago.”

Plain Sight features Andy Cross, Amanda Dahlgren, Judith Fox, John Brinton Hogan, Michael Mulno, Han Nguyen, Scott Polach and Rebecca Webb. Davis handpicked the group based on his experience as founder and director of the Medium Festival of Photography and his 13 years at the Museum of Photographic Arts. He wanted people doing smart, cutting-edge work, emphasizing artists who might not be known to the region.

Some of them play with expectations: the idea that the process ends when the print is made or that materials have to be used as they were intended.

Scott B. Davis For example, Nguyen lays plants on light-sensitive paper and exposes it to daylight. This produces a photogram—a technique dating back to the 1800s— but he blasts them with an hour’s worth of blazing sun instead of 10 seconds from a low-wattage bulb.

Davis describes it as going from a whisper of light to a nuclear winter. The results are delicate pastels and textural, an image that looks rippled by heat.

Polach draws on his personal history. The son of land surveyors, he places landscaping flags and tape in public spaces to convey demarcation and territory, documenting the process in nonlinear video and adding a patriotic twist.

The show is timed to support the Medium Festival of Photography, which runs Oct. 23 through 26 at North Park’s Lafayette Hotel. It opens with a reception from noon to 2 p.m. on Sept. 6 on the Ninth Floor of the San Diego Public Library (330 Park Blvd.). It will remain on view through Jan. 12, 2015.

—Susan Myrland

Just doin’ it

Kinsee Morlan

could inform the artist who’d previously painted the Jason Gould, owner of Visual, the art-supply store box. Before starting on a box, Gould was told to await and gallery in North Park, is constantly reminded of North Park Main Street’s final approval.

Gould did that at first, but the process was slow, and the relative lack of art and artistic opportunities in the neighborhood, which is considered one of the the enthusiastic response he was getting by posting city’s cultural hubs. Tourists often stop by his shop photos of the completed boxes to social media inspired to ask where they can see street murals or public art, him to just move forward, guerilla-style, and paint and while he can point them to a few nearby alley- more boxes without waiting for official approval.

North Park Main Street eventually got on board, ways, he’s usually left without much to say. too, and, so far, more than 15 boxes have been repaint“There’s just nothing substantial ed with fresh designs by local artists here compared to other cities,” he says. like Christopher Konecki, Jaclyn Artists, too, often approach Gould Rose, Carly Ealy, Nick McPherin hopes of finding opportunities to son, Alex Avila and Don’t Trip. get their art up in North Park.

Gould started calling the venture Earlier this summer, tired of the Visual Public Art Project, and turning both tourists and he’s selectively curated the artists artists away, he approached involved, hoping to soon host an exthe nonprofit business ashibition and fundraiser to earn monsociation North Park Main ey for bigger public-art projects.

Street and asked if he could “At least it’s a start; it’s somepartner up and help get pubthing,” Gould says, standing near lic-art projects going. two freshly painted boxes at the The organization’s recorner of 30th Street and North sponse was an emphatic yes, Park Way. “There was just no mobut it had no money. It pointed mentum toward public art…. I don’t Gould to the area’s electrical know how much this will help, but boxes and told him he could you just got to do it. It’s better than help repaint them. First, not doing anything.” though, he’d need to photograph each box before it —Kinsee Morlan was repainted and email the photos to the folks at North Jason Gould, in front of a box Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com painted by artist Nick McPherson and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Park Main Street so they

22 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

Under the influence The roller-coaster life of baseball pitcher Dock Ellis

by Glenn Heath Jr. Like movie stars and politicians, sports figures are molded early on to fit a certain type of persona. After all, it’s much easier to sell memorabilia and garner corporate advertising deals if people feel comfortable rooting for you. Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis challenged this process at every turn during a 12-year career that spanned the 1970s, speaking freely about controversial issues while exhibiting a flashy and highfalutin sense of style. He destroyed the façade Dock Ellis, photographed while pitching for the Pirates that most athletes present on the field, revealing a revolutionary personality that had its share reality: “There were a lot of things that, when you of demons to go along with all that exuberance. looked at a baseball game, you didn’t see.”

No No: A Dockumentary traces Ellis’ roller-coastOne of Major League Baseball’s most notorious er life, spending a good deal of time exploring the secrets hiding in plain sight was its players’ drug use. consequences that drug addiction had on his career. No No interviews many of Ellis’ teammates, includThe film’s symbolic center occurs on June 12, 1970, ing slugger Al Oliver, who confirms that, at the time, when Ellis threw a no-hitter against the San Diego upwards of 90 percent of baseball players took some Padres while apparently high on LSD. kind of enhancing substance. In this sense, the 1970s Director Jeffrey Radice never sentimentalizes or stands as a mirror to the cocaine epidemic that hit demonizes his outspoken and troubled subject, in- athletes in the 1980s and the steroid years to follow. stead positioning Ellis as a focal point in a grander tri- Radice finds blame both with the players and league angular study of baseball’s troubled history with nar- field managers, general managers and owners for cotics, societal tension and identity. Within this spec- profiting off a culture of denial and culpability. trum, his personal and professional lives intertwine Considering the film’s journalistic dive into the seamlessly, one informing the way baseball reflected some other at every rocky turn. of the shifting cultural trends No No: Ellis grew up in Compton, in America at the time, it’s California, before rising to impressive that Radice’s A Dockumentary fame with the Pirates as an style sways more personal Directed by Jeff Radice intimidating hurler. His childin the final act. Retiring after Starring Dock Ellis, Donald Hall hood isn’t of huge importance the close of the 1979 season, and Al Oliver to Radice; aside from a few Ellis struggled with alcohol Not Rated talking-head interviews with and drug addiction before family and neighborhood sobering up and working as friends, this time period in Ela counselor for youth offendlis’ life gets mostly a surface-level treatment. What ers until he died in 2008. Hearing from the many can be gleaned from this early section is the man’s people whom Ellis helped in his final stage of life is fearless and volatile personality, a desire to “stir shit a moving experience. up,” as one outspoken interviewee notes. Look no furNo No: A Dockumentary—which opens Friday, ther than when Ellis would wear curlers in his hair, Sept. 5, at Reading Gaslamp Cinemas—walks a fine subverting dress-code regulations while also provid- line between portrait and historical record, leaving ing ample amounts of saliva for his infamous spitball. room for revisionism between the lines. Ellis, consisBut this act of defiance had more to do with chal- tently a player and man who destroyed the limits of lenging the way minorities were presented by Major control placed on him by his given medium, would League Baseball. It was a strategic (and savvy) effort have admired the film’s openness to the way history to stand out from the crowd and diminish the cook- reflects the present day, and vice versa. ie-cutter view of black athletes. Early in the film, Ellis’ first wife, Paula Hartsfield Johnson, touches on Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com this pervasive contradiction between perception and and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Soft focus

The Last of Robin Hood

Errol Flynn (Kevin Kline) always gets what he wants in The Last of Robin Hood, another drowsy biopic that treats history as if it were a clear, linear timeline. Set in the late 1950s, the once classic Hollywood star seduces a 15year-old actor, Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning), beginning a torrid love affair that’s kept un-

der wraps until Flynn’s death a few years later.

Not quite salacious or prudish, the film resides in a strange tonal space somewhere in between. Familiar show-business themes of manipulation, ego and desire are explored with no ingenuity. Still, the actors manage to carve out an interesting (and

CONTINUED ON PAGE 24 September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

sometimes dangerous) space for themselves. Fanning, in particular, stands out as a combination of youthful volatility and haggard grace. The once-sweet Beverly grows increasingly acidic as Flynn’s promises of stardom turn out to be hollow. She’s essentially a femme fatale waiting for her film noir to begin, to no avail.

Visually, The Last of Robin Hood is born from the same droll and safe aesthetic of 2012’s Hitchcock. Every banal composition comes with its own complimentary soft lighting, as if the filmmakers were hoping to nab a primetime slot on the Lifetime Network rather than the big

Opening A Letter to Momo: After her father dies, a young Japanese girl moves to a seemingly tranquil island off the coast of Japan, where she encounters supernatural occurrences. Screens through Sept. 11 at the Ken Cinema.

Innocence: Boarding school turns out to be a horrifying experience for a traumatized young woman looking for solace after her mother is killed.

K2: Siren of the Himalayas: A group of mountaineers tries to climb one of the world’s most dangerous mountains in this documentary about world-class alpinists Fabrizio Zangrilli and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. Screens through Sept. 10 at Digital

screen. I’m not even sure there’s a close-up in the whole film.

By stripping the story of any and all psychology, the filmmakers do their actors and story a disservice. The seedy exploits of classic Hollywood deserve a lot better than paint-by-numbers cinema, yet it seems like that’s all we’re getting these days.

The Last of Robin Hood—which opens Friday, Sept. 5, at La Jolla Village Cinemas—never aspires to be anything bordering on complex; it simply leans on the Cliff’s Notes of its potentially fascinating subject matter to appear substantial.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

Gym Cinema in North Park.

May in the Summer: A bride-to-be and her mother clash over the groom’s religion, placing the looming wedding in doubt.

No No: A Dockumentary: Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while high on LSD in 1970. This documentary explores his rise to stardom, drug addiction and eventual sobriety. See our review on Page 23.

San Diego International Kids’ Film Festival: Enjoy the best in child-appropriate short films. Runs Friday, Sept. 5, through Sunday, Sept. 7, at the AMN HealthCare Theater in Carmel Valley. Get details at sdkidsfilms.org.

The Congress: In this psychedelic sci-fi film from Ari Folman, an aging actor (Robin Wright) preserves her digital likeness in order to retire from Hollywood forever.

Screens through Sept. 11 at Digital Gym

Cinema in North Park.

The Identical: Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta star in this drama about twin brothers who are separated at birth, then reconnect as adults involved in the music business.

The Last of Robin Hood: Errol Flynn (Kevin Kline) begins a torrid love affair with an underage girl (Dakota Fanning) in the waning years of his life. See our review on Page 23.

The Remaining: A wedding celebration is suddenly disrupted by apocalyptic events that have religious implications.

One Time Only Rushmore: Max Fisher (Jason Schwartzman) is the president of every club at school, but he’s also the worst student.

What gives? Wes Anderson’s breakout comedy tries to find out. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 3, at The Pearl Hotel.

Roman Holiday: William Wyler’s classic romantic comedy stars Audrey Hepburn as a bored princess swept off her feet

by Gregory Peck’s American newsman.

Screens at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, through Saturday, Sept. 6, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Short Films from Beyond: This collection of horror and sci-fi short films will surely take you out of this world. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center in East Village.

This is Spinal Tap: One of the world’s loudest bands gets the mockumentary treatment by a nosy film director.

Screens at midnight Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Ken Cinema.

After Tiller: Late-term-abortion providers are few and far between in America.

This documentary examines those still left practicing the procedure after the 2009 assassination of Dr. George Tiller. Screens

at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village.

mission to help the endangered lemurs of Madagascar.

Breathe In: The arrival of a foreign exchange student in a small upstate New York town creates friction in a suburban family. Screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Point Loma / Hervey Branch Library.

Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller return with another noir mash-up about killers, corrupt politicians and gorgeous women.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Spicoli and Mr. Hand: one of the great couples in cinema history. Check out their courtship in this classic high-school comedy.

Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Now Playing As Above / So Below: Note to self: Don’t venture into the underground catacombs of Paris. It’s bad for one’s health.

Frank: A fragile musician (Michael Fassbender) wearing a gigantic papier-mâché head leads an eccentric rock band all the way to the SXSW music festival, where all hell breaks loose. Screens through Sept.

4 at the Ken Cinema.

Love is Strange: Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been a couple for nearly 40 years. But when George loses his job, the two are forced to separate and live with friends in cramped New York City apartments, forever altering their relationship.

Manuscripts Don’t Burn: Subversively shot in Iran, this drama centers on a desperate father who makes his living as a contract killer and a group of aging writers being harassed by the government.

Ends Sept. 4 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

The Dog: Documentary about John Wojtowicz, whose 1972 robbery of a Brooklyn bank inspired Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon. Ends Sept. 3 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

The November Man: Pierce Brosnan returns to super-spy duty, this time as a top CIA assassin facing off against his best protégé. Opens Wednesday, Aug. 27.

The Trip to Italy: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon gallivant around Italy, eating and yapping wise in Michael Winterbottom’s new comedy.

War Story: Catherine Keener stars as a war correspondent who risks everything to rescue a young refugee from a battlescarred country. Ends Sept. 4 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

If I Stay: After a car accident, a young woman has an out-of-body experience that leads her to a life far different than she ever imagined.

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar: Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this documentary follows Dr. Patricia C. Wright’s

24 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

When the Game Stands Tall: Jim Caviezel plays high-school football coach Bob Ladouceur, who took the De La Salle Spartans from obscurity to an amazing 151-game winning streak.

Calvary: One day a troubled Irish priest (Brendan Gleeson) is threatened during confession, sending him into a downward spiral of sin and doubt.

Expendables 3: The 1980s have officially reassembled for the third time to blow explosions into your face.

Let’s Be Cops: Two goofball friends posing as cops for a costume party get sucked into a night of debauchery and danger.

The Giver: Lois Lowry’s classic youngadult novel about a not-so-utopian future gets the big-screen adaptation starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep.

What If: Young people sit around and talk about love and friendship and wonder why nothing makes sense. It stars Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan.

The Hundred-Foot Journey: The proprietor of a famous French restaurant (Helen Mirren) clashes with the family running a new Indian eatery down the street.

Into the Storm: An onslaught of unprecedented tornados touches down and causes havoc in the Midwest. Global warming is a real bitch.

Step Up: All In: Get your grove on, again.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Watch out for Raphael. He’s a party dude.

Get on Up: The James Brown biopic we’ve all been waiting for from the director of The Help.

Guardians of the Galaxy: American pilot Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his rowdy alien crew become objects of a manhunt after stealing a valuable orb that belongs to a diabolical space villain.

Magic in the Moonlight: Woody Allen’s latest cinematic confection follows an English debunker (Colin Firth) brought in to unmask a possible swindle involving a wacky astrologist (Emma Stone).

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

Simon Witter

r e P pe

by

Jeff Terich

ion M ot

l M a u t

San Diego Music Thing

headliners

never stop moving

forward

hin ac e

Angus Andrew (left) and Aaron Hemphill of Liars have been consistently reshaping their sound for 15 years.

T

here’s nothing easy or orderly about the music that Liars make. Since forming in 2000 in Brooklyn, the band has been consistently on the move—both figuratively and literally. In the past 14 years, they’ve relocated from New York to Berlin and eventually Los Angeles, where members Angus Andrew and Julian Gross met in the 1990s.

Even more interesting is the musical journey the band’s taken since releasing their 2001 debut, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument On Top. That version of Liars was a quintet that played a danceable yet abrasive form of post-punk akin to groups like The Rapture and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But Liars didn’t stay that way. Every album since has essentially found the band hitting the reset button hard, taking radical steps to avoid repeating anything they’ve done before.

To wit: Liars’ latest, Mess—released in March via Mute Records. It’s a heavy and chaotic album, built largely around synthesizers. It still feels very much like a Liars album, but mostly through its intense atmosphere and harrowing mood rather than any particular musical technique. Compared with its predecessor, 2012’s more ethereal and brooding WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”), Mess is aggressive and immediate—the product of making a complete 180-degree turn from the strategy they used on their previous album.

“We decided early on that we wouldn’t allow our decision making to get too cerebral,” frontman Andrew says in an email, sent while en route to China. “Everything we made was immediate and visceral, without any concern or doubt about the outcome. It was an exhilarating and exciting process.

“I’d describe [the process of making] WIXIW as laborious and frightening, but in a good way, if that makes sense,” he continues. “We took an incredibly long time to make that record, mostly because we were such novices with software and technology. Having learnt so much in that department, I wanted Mess to be made in the opposite

way—fast and from the gut.”

“Mask Maker,” the first track on Mess, is a prime exFast and from the gut—that’s exactly the kind of adren- ample of how uncomfortable a realm Liars inhabit. Over aline-rushing, beat-heavy vibe that Liars create on Mess. a jarring EBM backing, a distorted voice reads off a series Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Gross—who’s taking a break of increasingly troubling commands: “Eat my face off / from touring with the band because of a back injury—build Take my face / Give me your face / Give me your face!” up a nightmarish, yet curiously hedonistic, underworld on This is far from the first time the band has used troubling their seventh album, recalling the sounds of classic late-’80s imagery to shock the listener out of a state of passivity. industrial records by the likes of Ministry and Nitzer Ebb. Take 2010’s “Scarecrows on a Killer Slant,” for instance, “Pro Anti Anti,” the newest single to be released from on which Andrew chants, “Why’d you kill the man with a the album, combines a simple Hammond organ hook with gun?” before punctuating it with the punch line “’Cause a buzz-saw synth bass line and disco stomp that could’ve he bothered you.” been plucked from an early Nine Inch Nails track. MeanThis tendency toward the eerie or ominous is an eswhile, “Mess on a Mission” feels like a game of demonic sential part of the band’s identity and, as Andrew suggests, table tennis, its bouncy melody repelling off bizarre echo ef- unlikely to change anytime soon. fects and layers of disorienting vocal treatments. It’s a noisy The dark themes “must be attributed to our integral record, but one that doesn’t require guitars to arrive there. character traits and, similarly, the state of our surroundings It’s a significant shift away from the distorted art-rock of and the world at large,” he says. “I know that if we tried to make a happy, celebratory record or song, it would 2010’s Sisterworld or the visceral punk of their selffail from being completely disingenuous.” titled 2007 album. But Andrew says the band Just as unsettling conceptual threads are hasn’t completely turned its back on making an essential part of Liars’ music, so is the guitar-based rock. need for change, and to begin each new “It’s the idea of moving on from somephase of their creative path with a blank thing we spent a good chunk of time Sept. 12 slate. They’re based in Los Angeles now, working with, and asking ourselves what but they could just as easily pull up stakes else is possible,” he says. “It certainly North Park Theatre next month and start fresh somewhere doesn’t mean we’ve banned the manipunew.

And as much material as they’re curlation of rock tropes. That genre of music liarsliarsliars.com rently able to produce with only synthesizis still exciting to me, and so I could defiers, there’s no guarantee that they’ll create nitely see us returning to that way of worksomething with similar methods the next time ing at some point in the future.” they enter the studio.

There are, however, some common threads And that’s exactly how Andrew likes it. that run through each of the band’s albums, no matter “I prefer to live in a state of impermanence,” he says. how disparate the sound: anxiety, terror, menace and danger, just to name a few of Liars’ more reliable themes. And “It keeps things interesting by not allowing for mundane notions of familiarity and ease.” that’s been a constant since day one.

Familiarity and ease? For Liars, don’t count on it.

“I can see a strong connection between Mess and our very first album,” Andrew says, highlighting the elements Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com. that form the connective tissue in their catalog.

Liars

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

notes from the smoking patio Locals Only The documentary It’s Gonna Blow: San Diego’s Music Underground 1986-1996 is finished and ready to be screened. On Thursday, Oct. 9, the film will have its first showing at the Victory Theater in Grant Hill.

This is just the first of many screenings of the film to come, but director Bill Perrine says that he felt strongly about hosting the first screening at the historic theater (2558 Imperial Ave.), which opened in 1913.

“I love the Victory Theater because it’s got a history that goes back 100 years and because it seems to be run by weirdos for weirdos,” Perrine says in an email. “It’s got character, so I jumped at the chance to do something there. We’ll have screenings at other venues in town, as well, but I wanted to start out scrappy. We’ll keep it loose.”

In addition to San Diego, Perrine says the film will screen in other cities, like New York and Portland, but he was surprised to learn that there was interest in hosting it in other, unexpected cities—including Montreal, Barcelona, Nashville and Detroit.

“I’m open to taking the film wherever it needs to go,” he says.

As the title indicates, the film highlights notable bands that were active between 1986 and 1996, including Pitchfork, Tanner, Crash Worship, The

Music review Space Heat Happy Birthday EP (Field Trips / Bleeding Gold) Back in April, indie-rock quartet Trips—formerly Jesus A.D.—announced the launch of their own label, Field Trips. To christen the new imprint, each member of the group would introduce his own solo project, and all of them would eventually be collected as a two-LP compilation.

The first of the band to introduce new music, singer / guitarist Jakob McWhinney, has adopted the name Space Heat, and his record, the three-song Happy Birthday EP, is a fun and jangly introduction to a new musical persona. It’s not a drastic transformation, by any means; where Trips is a danceable, guitar-driven indie-rock band with surf and punk influences, Space Heat is dreamier and more atmospheric. At the end of the day, though, it’s still a project characterized by the use of similarly shimmering guitar leads and bright, catchy melodies. If it ain’t broke— and so on and so forth.

Happy Birthday is short—just around 12 minutes long, which makes it the perfect length to fit on a

26 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

Pitchfork is one of the bands featured in the documentary It’s Gonna Blow.

Locust and blink-182. Perrine says he filled up an 8-terabyte hard drive with raw material while working on the 85-minute film.

He says he has quite a few favorite moments: “There are parts of the film that make me giggle every time I see them, even after watching them hundreds of times. But I’m a total fucking weirdo, so it will be interesting to see how other people react.”

—Jeff Terich 7-inch single. But the three songs featured cover enough melodic ground to make for a compelling enough preview of things to come. The first track, “Porn,” is also the strongest. It’s the longest and most spacious of the three, driven by a dub-influenced rhythm and scratchy post-punk / dreampop guitars. And it’s those guitars—lightly treated with reverb and delay—that make the song such a delight, though McWhinney’s own double-tracked vocal harmonies are a fine complement to the song’s arrangement.

The other two songs, “Starsign” and “Place Inside,” are a bit faster and a lot more straightforward. The former is two minutes of surf-punk hedonism, kicking up the tempo and turning up the fuzz, while the latter splits the difference between the other two songs, itself a perfectly good, if unremarkable, slice of beach indie. And almost as soon as it begins, Happy Birthday fades out, following one of show business’ most cardinal rules: Leave the audience wanting more. Though there are only three songs here, and plenty of growth ahead for Space Heat’s songwriting, as a first EP, Happy Birthday isn’t too shabby.

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

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

if i were u

BY Jeff Terich

Wednesday, Sept. 3 PLAN A: Odd Nosdam, Trance Farmers, Jeans Wilder, Chill Pill, DJ Psychopop @ The Hideout. Oakland producer Odd Nosdam rose to prominence as part of the avantgarde Anticon collective, but he’s an interesting artist in his own right. He does trippy beats and heady sound collages, and it’s pretty much always weird and wonderful.

are sometimes euphonious, sometimes jarring, but always innovative and altogether fascinating. One way or another, you’ll get an exciting performance. BACKUP PLAN: Matthewdavid, M. Geddes Gengras, Illuminauts, DJ Mateo Silva @ The Hideout.

Sunday, Sept. 7

PLAN A: She Keeps Bees, Shilpa Ray, Diatribes @ Soda Bar. She Keeps Bees are a PLAN A: Strand of Oaks, Christopher band definitely worth keeping your eye on.

Denny @ The Casbah. If you like beards, They’ve got the intimate, bluesy sensibility reverb, jangly guitars, piano or earnestness, of Cat Power, the haunting, atmospheric then you’re probably going to like Strand of sound of Beach House and some truly gorOaks. The Philly outfit covgeous songs in their reperers the spectrum between toire. I predict they’ll be big, My Morning Jacket and Iron so see them in a small venue & Wine, with catchy songs while you can. PLAN B: and just enough Springsteen Merit, Days of Light Gravinfluence to put these tunes ity, Sledding with Tigers, on a higher pedestal. PLAN American Rifle @ Donut B: The Baseball Project, Panic (in Grantville). As Dressy Bessy @ Soda Bar. far as I’m concerned, any The Baseball Project is kind live music that happens of a super-group—and kind in the vicinity of donuts is of a goofy one at that. The worth recommending. So, Dream Syndicate’s Steve put this on your calendar, Wynn, The Young Fresh Feland may the sprinkles be lows’ Scott McCaughey and plentiful! BACKUP PLAN: Strand of Oaks R.E.M.’s Peter Buck formed Rough Francis, Spencer the band roughly six years ago as a way to Moody, Grand Tarantula @ Bar Pink. generate lighthearted, fuzzy pop songs about baseball. It’s a little gimmicky, but it’s fun.

BACKUP PLAN: Bhorelorde, Heathen Monday, Sept. 8 PLAN A: The Last Internationale, Reason Washington, Lazy Cobra @ Tower Bar. to Rebel @ The Casbah. The Last Internationale have earned an endorsement from Friday, Sept. 5 Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, PLAN A: The Donkeys, Tropical Popsicle, and given their left-wing politics, that’s not Ditches @ The Casbah. Friday looks like a too surprising. But the band certainly rocks, great opportunity to catch up on some of San and their singer might even remind you of Diego’s best bands. Here’s one solid lineup Grace Slick in her prime. There’s nothing that’s stacked with three of the best lightly necessarily innovative about their sound, psychedelic, albeit melodic, indie-rock but they rock hard enough for that not to groups in town. PLAN B: Life, Manuok, matter too much.

The Darrows @ Tin Can Ale House. But if you prefer things a bit more on the atmospheric or technical side, then check out Life, Tuesday, Sept. 9 which features members of Sleeping People PLAN A: Tele Novella, Heatwarmer, The Killer Hz @ Soda Bar. Austin’s Tele Noveland lots of cool instrumental techniques. la are twee enough to have contributed to a tribute album to Wes Anderson (no, really), Saturday, Sept. 6 but they’re the good kind of twee, as in K PLAN A: The Burning of Rome, Gram- Records twee, not ukuleles-in-appliancematical B, Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, commercials twee. In fact, their new single, Melt with Me @ The Casbah. Only in San “Trouble in Paradise,” was recorded at CalDiego could a show like this happen—a vin Johnson’s Dub Narcotic Studios and has drummer / rapper / published sci-fi author a lo-fi, torch-song charm. Indie pop can be and a professor / robot duo opening for one charming without being cloying. PLAN B: of the best live alt-rock bands touring right Idyll Wild, Tiger Milk Imports, Splavnow. Come for the hard-rocking anthems; ender @ The Merrow. But don’t forget stay for the kooky costumes. PLAN B: Thol- the talent in our own backyard, including lem McDonas and Alex Cline @ Bread and catchy math rockers Idyll Wild and vibrant Salt. The fall “Fresh Sound” series launches prog-rock outfit Tiger Milk Imports—the with this unique piano-and-drums duo, who combination should guarantee an eclectic bring together improvisational sounds that and fun Tuesday night.

Thursday, Sept. 4

28 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

30 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

HOT! NEW! FRESH! Arsis (Porter’s Pub, 9/21), Jacob Whitesides (HOB, 10/1), Watsky (Porter’s Pub, 10/17), Writer (Soda Bar, 10/18), Neon Hitch (Porter’s Pub, 10/19), Bear’s Den (Casbah, 11/9), Single Mothers (Hideout, 11/12), Water Liars (Soda Bar, 11/16), The Ready Set, Metro Station (HOB, 11/22), Captured by Robots (Soda Bar, 11/28), Celtic Woman (Civic Theatre, 12/10), College (Casbah, 12/14), Buddy Guy (Balboa Theatre, 4/11).

CANCELED Twin Shadow (BUT, 10/9).

GET YER TICKETS Hot Snakes (The Irenic, 9/10), Liars (North Park Theatre, 9/12), The Tree Ring (The Irenic, 9/17), Buzzcocks (BUT, 9/18), Andrew Bird (Humphreys, 9/19), Drake, Lil Wayne (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 9/20), Lykke Li (North Park Theatre, 9/22), Unwritten Law (Porter’s Pub, 9/26), Thievery Corporation (BUT, 9/29), DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist (HOB, 10/1), Boys Noize, Baauer (SOMA, 10/2), Pinback (HOB, 10/4), Chromeo (SOMA, 10/8), The Horrors (BUT, 10/13), Washed Out (North Park Theatre, 10/16), Perfume Genius (Soda Bar, 10/17), Yellowcard (North Park Theatre, 10/17), The New Pornographers (North Park Theatre, 10/18), Metronomy (BUT, 10/19), Charli XCX (HOB, 10/21), Tinariwen (BUT, 10/21), Carcass (Brick

by Brick, 10/24), Daryl Hall and John Oates (Open Air Theatre, 10/25), War-

32 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

paint (North Park Theatre, 10/25), Jenny Lewis (HOB, 10/25), Phish (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 10/25), Ab-Soul (SOMA, 10/26), Iceage (Casbah, 11/3), Rhye (North Park Theatre, 11/6), The Black Keys (Viejas Arena, 11/9), Hot Water Music (Irenic, 11/12), Death From Above 1979 (HOB, 11/12), Blonde Redhead (HOB, 11/15), The Misfits (HOB, 11/16), John Waters (North Park Theatre, 12/1), Dick Dale (BUT, 12/21), Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven (BUT, 12/30).

September Wednesday, Sept. 3 Senses Fail at House of Blues. Kid Wilderness at The Casbah. Blondie at Harrah’s.

Thursday, Sept. 4 Strand of Oaks at The Casbah. Atmosphere at House of Blues (sold out). The Baseball Project at Soda Bar.

Friday, Sept. 5 Dave Matthews Band at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. Joey Cape at Soda Bar.

Saturday, Sept. 6 Blake Shelton at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. The Donkeys at The Casbah. The Burning of Rome at The Casbah. John Mellencamp at San Diego Convention Center.

Sunday, Sept. 7 Colin Hay at Belly Up Tavern.

Tuesday, Sept. 9 Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks at Belly

Up Tavern. G.B.H. at The Casbah.

Wednesday, Sept. 10 Blockhead at Soda Bar. Sean Hayes at Belly Up Tavern. Hot Snakes at The Irenic.

Thursday, Sept. 11 Accept, Metal Church at Belly Up Tavern. Hot Snakes at The Casbah (sold out).

Friday, Sept. 12 Metalachi at Belly Up Tavern. Chicago at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. Slaughter and The Dogs at Til-Two Club. Deap Vally at The Casbah. Liars at The North Park Theatre. Styx at Harrah’s

Sunday, Sept. 14 Passenger at House of Blues. Owen Pallett at The Casbah.

Monday, Sept. 15 Chuck Ragan at The Casbah.

Wednesday, Sept. 17 The Breeders at The Casbah. Macy Gray at Belly Up Tavern. The Tree Ring at The Irenic.

Thursday, Sept. 18 The Young Dubliners at House of Blues.

Luis Miguel at Viejas Arena. Gardens and Villa at The Casbah. Buzzcocks at Belly Up Tavern.

Friday, Sept. 19 The Avengers at The Casbah. Andrew Bird at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. Big Mountain at Belly Up Tavern.

Lil Wayne and Drake Saturday, Sept. 20 Drake, Lil Wayne at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. Sole at Soda Bar.

Sunday, Sept. 21 Kaiser Chiefs at House of Blues. Arsis at Porter’s Pub.

Monday, Sept. 22 Lykke Li at North Park Theatre. Better Than Ezra at Belly Up Tavern.

Tuesday, Sept. 23 Allen Stone at House of Blues.

Wednesday, Sept. 24 Rival Sons at Belly Up Tavern. Interpol at House of Blues (sold out).

Thursday, Sept. 25 King Tuff at The Irenic. Jason Aldean at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. Fat Tony at Soda Bar.

Friday, Sept. 26 Slim Cessna’s Auto Club at The Cas-

bah. Unwritten Law at Porter’s Pub.

Saturday, Sept. 27 Pixies at Humphreys by the Bay (sold out).

Gov’t Mule at Balboa Theatre. Foster the People at RIMAC. Temples at Belly Up Tavern. Gortuary at Brick by Brick.

Sunday, Sept. 28 Colbie Caillat at Humphrey’s by the Bay. Sir Sly at The Irenic. Paul McCartney at Petco Park. Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band at Soda Bar. Merchandise, Lower at Kensington Club. Demi Lovato at Viejas Arena.

Monday, Sept. 29 Paolo Nutini at House of Blues. Thievery Corporation at Belly Up Tavern.

Tuesday, Sept. 30 The Gaslight Anthem at House of Blues.

Felice Brothers at Soda Bar. Finch at The Casbah.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live band karaoke. Fri: Britt Doehring (5 p.m.); Battle of the bands (8 p.m.). Sat: SM Familia, Hourglass Cats, No Kings, Positive Company. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Battle of the bands. Tue: ‘Haus Party’.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Sun: The Matt Smith Neu Jazz Trio.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco.com.

Wed: Chris Porter. Thu: Joel McHale. FriSun: Nikki Glaser. Tue: Open mic. Wed: Amir K. Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: DJ Grand Masta Rats.

Thu: DJ Girth. Fri: DJ Artistic, NosuckerDJs. Sat: DJ Mike Delgado. Sun: Rough Francis, Spencer Moody, Grand Tarantula. Mon: DJ Old Man Johnson.

Bassmnt, 919 Fourth Ave, Downtown. bassmntsd.com. Fri: Etc.! Etc.!, Kennedy Jones. Sat: Aly and Fila.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla. brocktonvilla.com/beaumonts.html. Thu: Simeon Flick Duo. Fri: Fish and the Seaweeds. Sat: Slower.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: J Boog, Hot Rain, Mike Love. Thu: Michael Rose and Reggae Angels, DJ Carlos Culture.

Fri: Terraplane Sun, Stripes and Lines, Sister Juanita. Sat: The Spazmatics, DJ Emmanuel. Sun: Colin Hay, Cecilia Noel.

Mon: Shiny Toy Guns, NO, Nicky Venus.

Tue: Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Thu: Dead Frets, Divided Heaven, Akrobatic. Fri: ‘Club Musae’.

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

Sun: ‘Soiree’. Tue: Karaoke.

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Fri: ‘Deeply Rooted’.

Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA. Sun: Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian La Madrid. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJs Junior the Disco Punk, XP. Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave, Bay Park. brickbybrick.com. Thu: Thank You Scientist, AJ Froman, Dialog Project. Fri: Monarch, Fallen Hero, Hexxen. Sat: Electra Mustaine, Kyle Setter, Morgan Leigh Band.

Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave, Downtown.

cafesevilla.com. Wed: Aro Di Santi. Thu & Sat: Malamana. Fri: Joeff and Co. Sun: Oscar Aragon. Tue: Noches Bohemia.

Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Clairemont. thecomedypalace.com.

Wed: Cathy Ladman.

Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St, La Jolla. lajolla.thecomedystore.com. Fri-Sat: Brian Scolaro. Tue: Rick Martinez.

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

Wed: Chans Valdez. Thu: Chaz Cabrera Quartet. Fri: Besos de Coco. Sat: Bill Shreeve Jazz Quartet. Sun: Todo Mundo.

Mon: Ruby Duo. Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. dirksniteclub.com. Fri: FX5.

Sat: DJ Dizzy D. Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Sat: Michael Chapdelaine.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: Drake Bell, Diamante, Single City, Tommy and the High Pilots. Sat: Flying Minus Machines, Danger Field, Remembering Sunday, Dark Tide.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown, Downtown. f6ixsd.com. Fri: DJ Kaos.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: ‘IDGAF’. Fri: Bamboozle.

Sat: Sid Vicious.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Sun: Anthony Attalla.

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

Tuesday. Fri: Three Chord Justice. Sat: Baja Bugs.

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

Side Bar, 536 Market St, Downtown. sidebarsd.com. Wed: Kyle Flesch. Thu: ‘Divino Thursday’. Fri: Deejay Al. Sat: DJ Dynamiq. Sun: ‘FIVE/TEN’.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: Mother Falcon, Kan Wakan. Thu: The Baseball Project, Dressy Bessy. Fri: Joey Cape, Chris Cresswell, Brian Wahlstrom, Noel Jordan. Sat: Patrick Sweany, The Record Company, John Meeks. Sun: She Keeps Bees, Shilpa Ray, Diatribes. Mon: Bandalier, Kernels. Tue: Tele Novella, Heatwarmer, The Killer Hz. SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Thu: Feed Me. Sat: Eyes Set to Kill, Nuclear Sunday, Never Victorious Never Defeated, Leave the Universe.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Thu: Izan.

Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: The Sinnerz, Thomas Connor. Thu: Superbad.

Fri: Disco Pimps, DJ Slynkee. Sat: Hott Mess, DJ Miss Dust, Ruby Clouds.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd, Spring Valley. 619-469-2337. Fri: Nature Boys.

Mon: Blood of Kings, Hessian.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: Kid Wilderness, The Streethearts, Space Heat. Thu: Strand of Oaks, Christopher Denny. Fri: The Donkeys, Tropical Popsicle, Ditches.

Sat: The Burning of Rome, Grammatical B, Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, Melt

With Me. Sun: The Weirdos, Death Eyes, Homeless Sexuals, Records with Roger.

Mon: The Last Internationale, Reason to Rebel. Tue: GBH, Bumbklaat, Revolutchix, Sculpins.

The Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Wed: Perpetual Motion Machine, Left Astray. Sat: Chili Banditos, Temple, Throne, Latin Praise, High Tension.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. thehideoutsd.com. Wed: Odd Nosdam, Trance Farmers, Jeans Wilder, Chill Pill, DJ Psychopop. Sat: Matthewdavid, M. Geddes Gengras, Illuminauts, DJ Mateo Silva.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. theMerrow.com. Thu: Big Sam’s Funky Nation, The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble. Mon: Open mic. Tue: Idyll Wild, Tiger Milk Imports, Splavender.

The Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. officebarinc.com. Wed: ‘Dub Dynamite’ w/ DJs Rashi, Eddie Turbo. Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ w/ Tribe of Kings.

The Tin Roof, 401 G Street, Gaslamp. tinroofbars.com/Home/SanDiego. Wed: Rock out karaoke. Thu: Southern Caliber.

Fri: Sirens Crush, Kenny and Deez. Sat: Random Radio, Blaise Guld. Sun: Kris Bradley Duo. Mon: The Kracker Jax. Tue: ‘G Street Sessions’.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Thu: Divided Heaven, Dead Frets, Swingchimney. Fri: Rebel Rebel, Diatribe, Tartar Control, Undercover Monsters, Idols Plague. Sat: ‘Sleepwalking’. Sun: Open mic comedy.

Mon: Karaoke.

Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com.

Thu: Open mic. Fri: LIFE, Manuok, The Darrows. Sat: Joyce, Arms Away, Lutherans. Mon: ‘Tin Can Country Club’ w/ Matthew Strachota.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Thu: Mercedes Moore. Fri: Leon’s Old School Karaoke. Sat: Full Strength Funk Band. Tue: Joe Fontenot.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Wed: DJs Mikey Ratt, Tiki Thomas. Thu: Bhorelorde, Heathen Washington, Lazy Cobra. Fri: ‘Hip Hop Vs. Punk Rock’ w/ Bat Lords, Trust One, Odessa Kane, Nutstache. Sat: Moonshine, Swift Beats, The Cardielles.

Sun: Heartsounds, Point of View, Londons Falling, Just In Case.

Turquoise, 873 Turquoise St, Pacific Beach. theturquoise.com/wordpress.

Wed: Vera Cruz Blues (4 p.m.); Tomcat Courtney (7 p.m.). Thu: Talia (4 p.m.); The Jade Visions Jazz Trio (7 p.m.). Fri: Gabriela Aparicio (4 p.m.); Afro Jazziacs (9 p.m.). Sat: Vera Cruz Blues (4 p.m.); Salsa Veracruzana (9 p.m.). Sun: Sounds Like Four (4 p.m.); Bviolin Mystic Groove (8 p.m.). Mon: David Hermsen (4 p.m.); Locked Out of Eden (7 p.m.). Tue: The Trio (4 p.m.); Grupo Global (7 p.m.).

Ux31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Wed: Tech Heart, Circuit Freq, Casa Nouva, Damn JVLZ. Thu: J Louis, NVious, A-Lo. Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Wed: New Best Thing.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Ital Vibes, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Mafard. Fri: Psydecar, Inna Vision, Bad Neighborz. Sat: Stranger. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Wil Baldes.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Wed: Senses Fail. Thu: Atmosphere, Prof, Dem Atlas, DJ Fundo (sold out). Fri: Gone Baby Gone, Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, Dinosaur Ghost. Sat: ‘San Diego Rock and Roots Festival’.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Wed: ‘Fully Patched’. Fri: ‘S.H.A.F.T.’. Sat: ‘Ascension’. Tue: ‘High Tech Tuesday’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave, Kensington. 619-284-2848. Sat: Hell on Heels Burlesque Revue.

Legends Comedy Club, 9200 Inwood Dr, Santee. legendscomedyclub.com.

Sat-Sun: Erik Knowles.

Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave, Hillcrest. martinisabovefourth.com.

Tue: Vickie Shaw, Jenny McNulty.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Ron’s Trio. Thu: Jackson and Jesus. Fri: Mystique. Sat: Ron’s Garage. Sun: Upshots.

Tue: Gene Warren.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. numberssd.com/. Thu: ‘Throwback Thursday’.

Fri: ‘Uncut’. Sun: Joe’s Gamenite. Tue: Karaoke Latino.

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

Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Sat: Compton AV. Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: ‘Mischief With Bianca’. Thu: ‘LEZ’. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Will Z. Sat: DJ Taj. Sun: ‘Stripper Circus’.

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

Wed: Westside Inflection. Thu: Man From

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 33

Brendan Emmett Quigley

Across

Feeling sheepish

1. Giants’ conf.

4. Tex-Mex chain with a pepper in its logo 10. Floor of a three-family house, maybe: Abbr 13. Actor Stonestreet of “Modern Family” 15. Stand for 16. Prefix with liberalism 17. Castrated sheep losing all its clothes?

20. Easy bits of a jigsaw puzzle 21. Lays down the lawn 22. Sicilian backdrop 23. “See that mama sheep over there?”?

25. Talks to the man upstairs 26. “Check out ___ selection” 27. Hit man’s target (likely for what he has done) 28. It can help you see the picture clearer 31. Where a Barbary sheep hangs its hat?

38. “I’ll take that as ___, then?”

39. Quarter kegs of English beer 40. Send flowers and love letters, say 41. Female New World sheep?

43. Rather interested 44. YouTube revenue source 45. Columbus inst.

47. Bulldog features 50. Soft sheep that’s an expert in judo?

56. Morales of “Criminal Minds” 57. Best Picture between “The Artist” and “12 Years a Slave” 58. Control tower device 59. Advice to use young sheep as a means of moving?

62. Barely make out 63. Scratch 64. What you were in medieval times 65. Did a charity 5K

We screwed up!

Last week in this space, we published a new set of puzzle clues but repeated the puzzle grid from the week before, so there was no way for you to answer the clues. That must’ve been terribly frustrating. We’re super-sorry for the error—that’s no way to run a weekly crossword puzzle. This week, we give you a brand-new puzzle. Let’s put all that ugly business behind us, shall we?

We promise to be more careful.

34 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

66. Totally trashed 67. Really strange

Down 1. Handrail support 2. A Corleone brother 3. Petroleum company with a famous sign seen from Fenway Park 4. One can hold about 700 MB of data: Abbr.

5. “Steppenwolf” author 6. Following closely behind a truck?

7. “Team” singer 8. “Definitely” 9. Classical Music Mo. 10. Author Shreve 11. Small change 12. Senate robes 14. Ensign from Russia in the original “Star Trek” 18. Hairy hunter of Genesis 19. Australian city where the band Tame Impala hails 24. Classic stereotypical boy toys 25. Football player’s protection 27. Price of freedom?

28. Consumed 29. Swab test stuff 30. Hanks who made the app Hanx Writer 32. TV planet where “Shazbot” is a profanity 33. Twee indie instrument 34. Word repeated when unloading an automatic weapon on a group of zombies 35. Have an outstanding figure?

36. Rapper Kool ___ Dee 37. Time between ice ages 39. Twerking and Candy Crush Saga, for two 42. Elm City collegian 43. Journalist Charles who was “On the Road” 46. Dried up 47. Athlete in the Nike ad “Re2pect” 48. Home to the Japanese baseball team Orix Buffaloes 49. Stir 50. Unmanned flight 51. Vice president who said “nattering nabobs of negativism” 52. ___ Dame 53. Lake Coeur d’Alene state 54. Called 55. Shaped like a ball 57. Working hard 60. They’ll help you get into work 61. Ton of bricks carrier

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 35

36 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 37

38 · San Diego CityBeat · September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 · San Diego CityBeat · 39