San Diego CityBeat • Sept 26, 2018

2 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

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UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

Mike Levin for the 49th

T

he first time CityBeat ever ran into Mike Levin was in March 2017 shortly after he announced his candidacy for the democratic ticket in California’s 49th congressional district (which covers most of coastal North County and parts of Orange County).

And when we spotted him, he was waving a book around at a packed Oceanside town hall for then-Rep. Darrell Issa. The book was Global Warming for Dummies.

“It was tongue-in-cheek to a certain degree with Issa, but it’s actually not a bad book,” said Levin when we asked him about the town hall. “And while I was only partially kidding with Issa, he really needs to read that book.”

While we doubt Issa ever read the book, that exchange between Issa and Levin—an environmental attorney and clean energy advocate—certainly resonated with the people in attendance.

It resonated with us as well. We can pat ourselves on the back in that we were the first local publication to write about Levin’s candidacy, but even we were surprised when he pulled off what many considered to be an upset victory in the primaries over more high profile Democrats. Now, with the margin of error taken into account, the race between Levin and State Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey is very close, with Levin holding a slight lead in what has historically been a reliably Republican district. We spoke with Levin at length about some of the issues he plans to address if he’s elected in November.

On his support of universal healthcare: “We need to have a dialogue about our values and priorities as a country. Do we find it morally acceptable that millions of people cannot afford or get access to quality healthcare, including things like mental health care and women’s healthcare? What do we value as a society? For me, it comes down to a basic moral issue.

That everyone in the United States should have access to quality and affordable healthcare.”

On taking care of veterans: “Republicans like to talk a good game, but we have a ton of active duty, reserve, retirees, vets in our district, and what I hear a lot are people that are serving and then coming back and they’re having a tough time making it and finding work or being able to afford housing. Or they’re being buried in debt and the Trump administration has

actually made it tougher for veterans, not easier, by removing some of the protections against predatory lending against veterans… I want to see increased housing through the VASH voucher program for our veterans… I have pledged that I will have a full-time veteran with local military experience who is part of our district’s staff and whose responsibility is to be a liaison with the veteran, active duty, retiree and reserves community.”

On immigration and DACA: “Dreamers are hard, extremely hard-working, extremely smart contributing members to our economy and to our society.

And for us to treat them so poorly… and my opponent, my opponent [Harkey] wants for them to never get a path to citizenship, even the Dreamers… Let’s take back the House, take back the Senate and let’s revisit comprehensive immigration reform. I’ll be honest, that probably won’t be Trump as president who signs that, but in the near term, let’s get the DREAM Act done.”

Still, it’s Levin’s commitMike Levin ment to bringing environmentalism back to the forefront that, in our opinion, should make him the most appealing candidate for progressives and independents. In our interview, he became visibly agitated when talking about the ongoing issue of what to do with the nuclear waste at San Onofre, but it was easy to discern that the agitation was mainly due to the lack of action to solve the problem. His work as an environmental attorney and advocate, not to mention his diplomatic assertiveness, could serve to hopefully convince other Congressional legislators that climate change and environmentalism is, and has historically been, a bipartisan issue and should be again.

“I didn’t see nearly enough discussion about climate change in the 2016 election, either on the federal level or in the district. I was committed from the beginning and will continue to be committed to making it a core element of my service.”

We fully endorse Mike Levin for Congress in the 49th District and encourage everyone from La Jolla to Dana Point to vote for him. To read the full interview with Levin, head to sdcitybeat.com.

—Seth Combs

Write to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com

This issue of CityBeat is dedicated to Jeff “Hollywood” Terich, who has dutifully practiced extreme witchcraft on these pages for over five years.

Volume 17 • Issue 6 EDITOR Seth Combs MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos STAFF WRITER Andrea Lopez-Villafaña COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer Edwin Decker John R. Lamb Rhonda “Ro” Moore Alex Zaragoza

CONTRIBUTORS Christin Bailey, Torrey Bailey, Jackie Bryant, David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Julia Dixon Evans, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Lizz Huerta, Davey Landeros, Tigist Layne, Jonathan Mandel, Lara McCaffrey, Scott McDonald, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Ian Ward EDITORIAL INTERNS Sara Harmatz PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES RIchard Diaz CONTROLLER Ora Chart ACCOUNTING Perla Castillo, David Garcia Linda Lam, Yiyang Wang HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS David Comden

PUBLISHER Kevin Hellman

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3 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

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UP FRONT | LETTERS

GIVE US OUR PULITZER

WHAT ABOUT THE BUSES?

I just want to thank you and the professional staffers there at CityBeat for the piece on the Hepatitis A outbreak in our community [“Hepatitis A: One year later,” Aug. 22].

The analysis made by your competent and skilled reporters brought a simplistic clarity to the news story that made it intelligible, comprehensible, understandable, outstanding work! Your thorough coverage of that deadly emergency in San Diego is worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. Keep up the good work in keeping our county educated, informed and aware of critical events that matter to all of us. Thanks again CityBeat for a job well done.

Sincerely,

Jacob Regal Downtown

I agree that scooter safety is important [“There will be blood,” Sept. 19], but I must point out that public bus safety is as well.

At present there are some drivers that won’t pull up to the curb. Not with the whole bus. So should you have limited mobility—arthritic knee for instance—you face the possibility of injury trying to disembark from a rear door on the bus. The day will come when we start hearing about injuries and even death happening when people try to get off the bus from a rear door. And it’s likely to happen before someone dies in a scooter event.

Alan Kellogg San Diego

WE WANT FEEDBACK Did you read a story in San Diego CityBeat that made your blood boil, or caused you to laugh so hard you pulled a stomach muscle? If something inspires you to send us your two cents we welcome all letters that respond to news stories, opinion pieces or reviews that have run in these pages. We don’t accept unsolicited op-ed letters.

Email letters to editor Seth Combs at seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com, or mail to 3047 University Ave., Suite 202, San Diego, CA 92104. For letters to be considered for publication you must include your first and last name and the part of town where you reside. Note: All comments left on stories at sdcitybeat.com will also be considered for publication.

4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS UP FRONT

WE HAVE A

PODCAST!

Yes, it’s time for our weekly plug of Show in Progress with Matt Strabone, CityBeat’s first foray into sponsoring a podcast. On this week’s episode, Strabone shares his thoughts on the housing crisis and interviews homeless advocate Michael McConnell (@homelessnesssd on Twitter and facebook.com/HomelessNewsandEvents on Facebook). If McConnell’s name sounds familiar, it’s likely regular readers have seen him quoted in these pages before. He’s even written some blistering editorials for us and was named Voice of San Diego’s 2017 Voice of the Year. So it’s not surprising that his criticisms of the city’s handling of the ongoing homelessness crisis are on full display in this week’s podcast. Show in Progress is available pretty much everywhere podcasts are available (iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud) or readers can simply head to our website (sdcitybeat.com) to check it out.

From the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Letters to the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Spin Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Backwards & In High Heels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Well, That Was Awkward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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

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

ARTS & CULTURE Theater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 FEATURE: Kelsey Brookes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-19

MUSIC FEATURE: San Diego Cassettes. . . . . . . . 20 Notes From The Smoking Patio . . . . . . . . . 22 About Last Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 If I Were U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Concerts & Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-26

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

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

UP FRONT | NEWS ANDREA LOPEZ-VILLAFAÑA

Over the line

Marcela Dominguez

Future uncertain for Chula Vista Dreamer after she accidentally crossed the border

By Andrea Lopez-Villafaña

L

ate night on July 14, Marcela Dominguez woke up in the backseat of a friend’s car only to find herself in Tijuana. She was scared, her palms were sweaty, and her heart raced as she found herself overwhelmed with panic.

“A lot of things were going through my mind. Of course, I knew I was in big trouble and I didn’t know what was going to happen to me,” Dominguez said. “My life was pretty much going upside down.”

Dominguez, a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program was mistakenly taken across the border by a friend who had offered to drive her home.

After a night out in Little Italy, a friend who lives in Tijuana offered to give Dominguez a ride to Chula Vista.

However, with Dominguez asleep in the backseat, the friend drove straight to Mexico.

A short while after crossing into Mexico, Dominguez woke up and the pair immediately attempted to return to the United States. According to Dominguez, a border official told her that if she could provide a picture of her work authorization card given to DACA recipients he would let her through.

However, despite being able to contact her sister through text, Dominguez did not receive the picture her sister sent.

With that, Dominguez, 32, was arrested on July 15 by border officials at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and spent nearly two months in the Otay Mesa Detention Center before being released on Friday, Sept.14.

“I missed summer in there,” she said as she stepped out of her attorney’s office in the afternoon. “It’s getting cold now.”

For DACA recipients, travel outside of the U.S. without approved travel documentation means the “automatic termination of deferred action,” a policy that has been in place since the Obama-era program started.

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

While in detention, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) mailed a letter to Dominguez’s home notifying her that her DACA and employment authorization were “terminated automatically as of the date of (her) departure from the United States.”

Dominguez, originally from Mexico, was brought to the U.S. as an infant and joined the DACA program in 2013, which allowed her to receive temporary protection from deportation and a work permit.

Dominguez graduated from Point Loma High School and although she had dreams of pursuing a higher education, she believed it was more important to help her parents pay for her sisters’ education.

“I always had a dream to go to school,” Dominguez said, she pauses because her voice breaks. “But my parents needed help. So after high school I didn’t continue college and then I helped out my parents with money.”

Dominguez is a manager of a business in Coronado and although she has been placed on leave of absence, her employer has been understanding of the situation.

“I told him, now it’s your decision. I understand that you need someone to take care of the place but if you need to make that decision, if you need to hire someone else, I understand,” Dominguez said. “And he said, ‘that has never gone through our minds and you know you’ll always have a job here.’”

Kirsten Zittlau, Dominguez’s attorney, said they have submitted three letters to USCIS to request that it reinstate her DACA status. They have not received a response.

“It’s just wading though all this bureaucracy,” Zittlau said. “Meanwhile she’s actively in deportation proceedings, and thankfully she’s in the non-detained docket now but she’s in removal proceedings.”

Dulce Garcia, an immigration attorney, said cases like Dominguez’s are difficult because once DACA is revoked,

the individual is considered “deportable.” Garcia, who is not involved in Dominguez’s case, is currently working with a DACA recipient from San Diego who was “involuntarily” taken out of the U.S. and has also had his grant revoked.

The problem, according to Garcia, is that the decision to grant, revoke or reinstate DACA is completely discretionary.

“DACA recipients don’t necessarily have other forms of relief, otherwise we would have pursued them already,” Garcia said.

Earlier this year, in a similar incident, DACA recipient and UC San Diego student Orr Yakobi made national news when he was detained at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and placed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after unintentionally leaving the U.S. In January, Yakobi and his roommate Ryan Hakim were leaving Las Americas Premium Outlets in San Ysidro when Hakim made a wrong turn that forced them to cross the border into Mexico.

Yakobi’s DACA and work authorization were never revoked, according to his attorney Jacob Sapochnick.

According to Lauren Mack, ICE public affairs officer in San Diego, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is responsible in determining whether information provided by an individual with DACA at a port of entry is valid to admit them back into the U.S. However, if the individual is not found credible, the person is placed into immigration proceedings and into ICE custody.

Maria Elena Upson, a public affairs officer with USCIS, confirmed in an email that the DACA grant itself is revoked

by USCIS. Upson wrote that the agency does not keep track of the number of recipients who have lost their DACA grant as a result of accidentally leaving the U.S. But while Yakobi’s case gained national attention through the help of media stories and elected officials who spoke in support of his case, the stories of people such as Dominguez and Garcia’s client have gone under the radar.

According to CBP public affairs press officers in border states like New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, they were not aware of cases like the ones reported in San Diego at their ports of entry. Garcia, who is also a DACA recipient, said she has never heard of cases like those of Dominguez or her client but it could mean that, “maybe other people in other states are just not reporting it or covering the stories.”

For now, Dominguez is hopeful that her DACA status will be reinstated but she added that the experience of spending nine days in “la hielera” (the freezer, a term detainees have used to describe the border holding cell) and nearly two months at Otay Mesa, has changed her life.

According to Dominguez, out of the nine days she was at “la hielera,” she was only allowed to shower three times and had to wear the same clothing. She also alleged that because she could not shower every day, she contracted lice and had to ask the officers for treatment.

“It’s crazy how they have you in there, they just throw you in that room like an animal,” Dominguez said. She added that the women were not given shampoo, soap or deodorant, and that “it was just maxi pads and water.”

According a CBP national standards document, “reasonable efforts” to provide showers, shampoo and clean towels to detainees who are approaching 72 hours in detention will be made, and according to the standards, “detainees should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours in CBP hold rooms or holding facilities.”

After she was transferred to Otay Mesa, Dominguez said she remembers crying so much every day that her head hurt and, at times, she wondered if she would lose her mind.

“Your life changes, it changes completely, 100 percent,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez is currently waiting to see if USCIS will reinstate her DACA and work authorization.

“It has always been helping out in the family so (my sisters) can have an education,” Dominguez said. “I know that I wasn’t able to actually go to college and everything but I want them to make something in life. Work is 100 percent the thing that scares me of not having, because I won’t be able to support my family.”

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UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Growing pains Walk the street with us into history.

Get off the sidewalk.

S

—Dolores Huerta

an Diego City Council members last week got a heaping earful from beach and downtown residents who’ve had enough of the ride-sharing electric scooter craze. Whether the city can come up with a solution is anybody’s guess.

“I will have this room cleared!”

Councilmember Chris Cate admonished the predominantly silverhaired crowd who booed during last Wednesday’s meeting of the Public Safety & Livable Neighborhoods Committee, which Cate chairs.

The catcalls came when a representative of Mayor Kevin Faulconer read a statement in support of “the addition of motorized scooters to our mobility landscape.”

“Like many new technologies,”

@SDCITYBEAT

mayoral spokesperson Greg Block told the committee, “these scooters are not without their disruptions to our status quo and certainly pose some quality-of-life issues in our neighborhoods. And like all forms of transportation, there are publicsafety issues associated with them.

However, we do believe the benefits outweigh the negatives.”

Block was vague on specific plans to rein in the latest mobile phenomenon and even vaguer on a timeline for proposed solutions, saying only that the mayor would propose something “very soon.”

Asked later what that meant, Block would only say “as quickly as possible. May take 2 to 3 months.”

That news will not sit well with opponents of the e-scooters, including Councilmember Lorie Zapf, who was the most animated of the council speakers last week and waved reams of printed emails while sput-

tering through a rant over delays in dealing with scooters. It’s perhaps coincidental that she finds herself in a tight reelection race in a beach district teeming with the controversial scooters, but Zapf seemed miffed that it had taken this long to address residents’ concerns.

Councilmember Zapf remained steamed four months after a majority of her colleagues rejected her call, despite backing from numerous city public-safety departments, to prohibit motorized scooters on waterfront boardwalks such as the ones in Mission Beach and La Jolla. Instead, Zapf grumbled, “we went forward with the Wild West out there.”

The three companies at the center of the debate—Bird, Lime and Razor—defended their efforts to get people out of their polluting cars and onto environmentally friendlier devices in a town desperate to make inroads with its legally binding Climate Action Plan.

Representatives from each company said they are working on improvements to their platforms.

These improvements include “geofencing” to prevent or slow down scooters in certain pedestriancentric areas, as well as improved in-app educational features and, potentially, sensors that they hope will discourage scooter usage in places they don’t belong, particularly sidewalks.

JOHN R. LAMB

Councilmember Chris Ward loves e-scooters. Colleague Lorie Zapf, not so much. Will Mayor Kevin Faulconer ride to the regulatory rescue?

But those promises did little to quell the anti-scooter sentiment displayed at last week’s committee meeting.

“Believe me, I know marketing bovine excrement when I hear it,” said retired marketing professor Jonathon Freeman, who moved to the Marina District last year.

Freeman, an otherwise wellmannered Brit, formed a group known as The Promenaders in June in hopes to “restore safe walking on the Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade” in downtown. He received a standing ovation from residents after concluding that the only real, “immediate” solution is to reduce the number of ride-share e-scooters permitted in San Diego.

There are currently no set limits.

While the scooter-providing companies have been hesitant to disclose numbers, Freeman estimated that there could be 20,000 scooters blanketing the city, a figure he said he’ll stick with until corrected.

In a later interview with Spin, Freeman said he had a rude awakening to the scooter craze after older residents in his building began to tell him they were afraid to take strolls on the promenade across the railroad tracks from the San Diego Convention Center.

“One woman said to me, ‘If I’m hit by one of these things and I break a hip, that’s a death sentence,’” he recalled, adding that he at first considered the thought an over-exaggeration.

But a run-in with what he called a scooter “driver” while exiting the San Diego Earth Fair last year in Balboa Park convinced him that the concerns were warranted. Noticing a squirrel, his dog, River, darted into the path of a silent, oncoming scooter. The scooter struck River in the head, somehow not seriously injuring him.

“If it had been a second later, he’d have hit the dog in the side, and he’d be dead,” Freeman said, petting his companion. “And this is the best dog in the world.”

He said he talked to the scooter driver, who admitted it was his first time on one and was using it because he had to park far from the event. Freeman said he asked the man to walk his scooter the rest of the way, but he rode off instead.

“That to me was a lesson,” Freeman said, “and the impetus to start the group.”

The Promenaders membership is now 70-plus, and Freeman said he’s done his best to provide data, rather than anecdotal evidence, to make the case that the city needs to do more to address some of the issues with the scooters.

With River tagging along, Freeman strolled the promenade with Spin on a day late last week that featured very little scooter traffic.

But when scooters approached us, Freeman was quick to point out politely that riding on the promenade is illegal. Despite small, poorly visible signs lining the walkway, the sentiment of riders was the same.

“Oh, we didn’t know,” said one woman from Los Angeles, a city where she acknowledged “people hate scooters.” But after Freeman filled her in, she and her companion zipped off along the promenade anyway.

Freeman could only shake his head. “There was one very powerful remark a young man made when he tried out a scooter,” he recalled. “‘It was like flying.’ Wow, how do you compete with that?”

Councilmember Chris Ward, a regular scooter user who is seeking solutions and who has felt the wrath of Freeman, said he understands the frustration.

“I just really want to believe in San Diegans,” he told Spin, “that we can all shape up and start to use these things more responsibly.

Right now, I don’t understand how to control a lot of people who are acting poorly without throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

Spin Cycle appears every other week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

On behalf of women everywhere…

F

uck. This. Shit.

Fuck all this motherfucking bullshit.

Maude help me, where to start with the fire hose of rage?

How about here: Fuck you, Brett Kavanaugh, you entitled prepschool liar. We know you tried to rape Professor Christine Blasey Ford because she said so and because we believe her and because you’re not fucking credible, Biff. And because even at 51, you still look like every beneath-the-bleachers high school predator we conjure in the recurring nightmare of what you did to us.

Fuck you and your blackmail, Chuck Grassley.

You’re an abuser, too. Gonna show the little lady who’s boss, huh, limp dick? “It’s Monday or never.” Right-o, you fucking hypocritical schoolyard bully. I hope your prostate keeps you up at night and leg cramps slow your roll to the toilet.

Fuck you Mitch McConnell with your perma-frown and internal rot so consuming it’s sucking your face in through that putrid hole you call a mouth. You’re a fucking ghoul.

Same goes for you, John Kennedy, you mealy-mouthed pretender. Take your soft-spoken grampa demeanor and shove it up your ass. Stick your draconian wet dreams up there, too, while you’re at it.

And a gargantuan fuck you to you Jeff Flake. You’re the worst fucking kind of man because you think you’re enlightened and independent, but you’re just another weakling among weaklings. The only difference is that you don’t have a clue what you stand for. You want to be a hero sooo bad that you flirt with doing the right thing. Newsflash, fuckface: You can’t be a hero if you don’t have courage.

Go fuck yourself and your finger-in-the-air performative patriotism.

Fuck you Orrin Hatch. Fuck your dismissal of Professor Ford as “mixed-up” and “mistaken.” Twentyseven years after Anita Hill and you haven’t evolved at all, not a millimeter. BTW: Ask your daughters and granddaughters how it feels to be sexually assaulted.

You’ve been so prolific in procreating and since one in four girls is assaulted in her lifetime, statistically speaking, it’s happened to at least one of them.

I’d like to send a very special fuck you to Joe Biden. No, I didn’t stutter. Unlike MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell who seems to think the bad behavior during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings only came from the right, we saw what you did to Anita Hill 27 years ago, Joe, and it is not fucking OK with us. Like all the rest, your misogyny was showing. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself. I’m gonna go ahead and put this right here, Joe: Don’t think for a fucking second about a presidential run. Time’s up, my fucking friend.

Of course, middle fingers up to the self-proclaimed pussy grabber himself. He better watch out

or someone might go all Lorena Bobbitt on his Mario Kart mushroom dick.

Fuck the whole lot of you good ol’ boys who want nothing more than to don your white hoods and send us all hurtling to a new old era inside your congressional Way Back Time Machine. That you think you deserve to decide what our daughters and granddaughters will do with their bodies is a fallacy.

You’re delusional. Fuck you and fuck no. This will not be Gilead, sirs.

Fuck every single last rape apologist, the scourge of the earth that you are.

And fuck those of you town criers with your “he was just a kid”-isms, because so, too, were we!

Fuck off all who would dismiss any verbal or physical violence with a “boys will be boys” or a “that means he likes you” statement of complicity. And a double-triple with a cherry-on-top fuck you to everyone who takes the “we don’t want to jeopardize his bright future” stance.

We are the ones with the bright futures, you motherfuckers. We are so bright, you will go blind if you dare look at us; if your giant circle jerk doesn’t blind you first.

Fuck you to all the victim blamers and the she-shouldn’t-havebeen-wearing-that-ers and the shewas-asking-for-it-ers. Fuck you to any who want to point to our sexual lives. That’s none of your fucking business unless your business is to take us seriously and protect us at every turn.

Fuck you to every insecure psychopath who can’t handle your own failings and shortcomings and who choose, instead, to slash to pieces women who are golfing or jogging or working or studying or sleeping.

Fuck each one of you pathetic, lowly incels who stalk us from the shadows and even in the sunlight. We know you’re there. We fucking see you in the grocery store or in the library or the gas station or the bar because you won’t fucking leave us alone. We feel our stomachs unsettle when you brush by us daily.

Many of us have been taught to ignore that feeling that ends up being correct every fucking time. Many of us have been taught to be polite, to smile and to not make a scene at the wedding, the birthday party, the reunion…

But fuck that. Fuck your loneliness, your emptiness, your wants, your needs.

Fuck all you dudes and all you bros and all you dudebros with your whoo-ahhs! and your fuck-yeahs.

Fuck all y’all line-butters and corner-cutters and cheaters and liars and deep-thought pontificators.

Fuck every last one of you from the highest positions of power to the lowliest muck under a viaduct. We have fucking had enough.

We have fucking had enough.

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week.

Write to aarynb@sdcitybeat.com.

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

AND I’M FREE... FREE FALLING (down a spiral of fear)

T

he email in my inbox is an invitation to attend the 2018 Swoop Freestyle FAI World Championships. The subject line explains it all: Want to Take a Helicopter Ride? Skydiving Championships Happening this Friday/Saturday.

The promise of a helicopter ride does strange things to a person like me. For one, the idea that I’d be important enough to ride in a whirly-bird floods me with delusions of grandeur. Additionally, it feels like symbolic validation: Not only do I get to graduate to the league of famous journalists who get to cover things from an aircraft, but it’s literally me above— and therefore better than—everyone else. And let’s not forget the element of danger. The way I’ve built it up in my mind, covering a bunch of skydivers is no different than war correspondents flying (via helicopter, obvi) into combat.

However, the dream is short-lived. A couple days after accepting the glorious invitation, Nancy Koreen, the Director of Sport Promotion for the United States Parachute Association (USPA) has the nerve—the nerve!—to send me this: “Apologies, we’re sorry to have to tell you that helicopter ridealongs won’t be available for the event due to space restrictions.

We’d still love it if you came out, though!”

Oh, you’d love it if I came out? I think. Well, let’s just see how much you love when the world knows of your broken promises. Hahaha! (Yes, I think the laughter, too.)

The Swoop Championships— which I begin to refer to as “The Swoopies” (and encourage everyone else to do so)—take place on the Embarcadero in Downtown.

I pass a DJ playing music to an empty courtyard—her tunes mixing harshly with some unseen announcer’s excited, Australian accent. I continue toward a group of people looking out over the water, gazing across in the direction of the Coronado Bridge.

Suddenly, everyone’s looking up. I follow suit, squinting against the sun. A speck twirls in the blue sky. The announcer is screaming something. The dot becomes a parachuter, spinning, looping—their bright canopy fanned out.

Before the parachuter hits the water, they swoop forward like an airplane about to land, floating parallel to the water. They recline in mid-air, heels splashing against the water, and then they spin around and skip over the water surface, Superman-style. By now, their momentum is sapped and they fall short of hitting the target point: a large white, inflatable pontoon. And even though they failed to hit the marker, the spectacle is fucking incredible. Even my heart is racing. During my preoccupation with the helicopter, I never once considered what actually went down at a

parachuting championship.

Then a father with a child on his shoulders points to a helicopter transporting the next jumper. Both the child and I express some form of longing. Ah universe, you truly are the best buzzkill.

After watching a couple more competitors, I meet up with Nancy Koreen. I gotta say: witnessing sheer displays of human excellence has dulled my desire to bring up my helicopter blue balls. In fact, Koreen’s pleasantness makes me feel bad for even considering that as a course of action in the first place.

I ask Koreen what exactly the rules are for competitors. It’s difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that someone would willingly throw themselves out of a plane while also adhering to a set of rules in order to achieve a desired score. If it were me, my desired score would be: “I SURVIVED? COOL!” I’m all for the occasional adrenaline rush, but I only remember the stories of people who die while skydiving—not any of the millions who survive every year. “[The competitors] are judged on their approach, which is how they turn and come down to the water,” Koreen says. “As they drag the water, they’re supposed to do two tricks.” She refers to the reclined move as the “La-Z-Boy” and the superman move as, well, “The Superman.” Makes sense, I think, writing them down.

Koreen herself has been a skydiver for 24 years. Although she doesn’t compete in tournaments, she specializes in freefalls, which involve jumps from over 13,000 feet—more than twice as high as the 5,000 feet from which these competitors are jumping.

I keep asking questions like: “how do you even do that?” and “what if the parachute doesn’t open? (Koreen explains that there are two parachutes) and “How do you get over your fear?” That’s when I realize that, hell, all my questions are about fear. Who am I to think that I could ride around in a helicopter without being scared out of my wits? I’ll stay on the ground, thank you very much.

After speaking with Koreen, I head over to the VIP lounge where spectators sit in shade and sip free beer.

The bartender, pouring my complimentary, landbased beverage, sees my press badge.

“What are you going to write about?” he asks.

“How batshit these people are?”

We laugh. “Exactly,” I say. I turn around to watch the rest of the competition from the safety of the ground, but then catch sight of another helicopter taking a jumper up, and it sure looks fun.

It’s difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that someone would willingly throw themselves out of a plane while also adhering to a set of rules in order to achieve a desired score. If it were me, my desired score would be: “I SURVIVED? COOL!”

@SDCITYBEAT

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE

Manna BBQ toils in middle

I

meat used in Italian guanciale—is like a better marbled and more tender version of pork belly.

It’s not, though, the variety of offerings that are the issue at Manna. The real problems start with the service. On four visits it was less than extraordinary each time and seriously deficient on three.

Banchan (the signature small side dishes of Korean cuisine) were rarely refreshed even after repeated requests. The banchan themselves mostly seemed like nothing more than items that could easily be purchased at Zion Market, though a somewhat atypical Western-style cabbage pickle was particularly refreshing (as long as it lasted).

t’s a classic business conundrum: go for high quality and high margin or, instead, go for high volume at lower margins. Manna BBQ (4428 Convoy St., Suite #210, mannabbq.com) is challenging that notion.

Korean barbecue (K-BBQ) tends to come in two forms. There are places like Dae Jang Keum, MICHAEL A. GARDINER which feature high-end ingredients and live fuel grills, or there are all-you-can-eat places like Roadem BBQ, with passable ingredients and cheap gas “grills.”

But while lunch at Roadem is $11.99 for all-you-can-eat, DJK is a la carte with one order of galbi clocking in at $24.99.

Manna, though, tries a third road: the one in the middle.

Manna offers all-you-can-eat with prices ranging from $15.99 at lunch to $27.99 for the premium package. The prices have actually dropped since opening.

The difference between Manna’s various options is the number and varieties of proteins available. Manna’s lunch features K-BBQ classics like brisPork belly and brisket on the grill at Manna BBQ ket, pork belly, bulgogi and other marinated meats. All are good, with the brisket At the end of the day, though, what really made being a particularly enjoyable choice. It is savory a difference is that Manna BBQ was neither as and the thin slicing is perfect for quick cooking, cheap as Roadem, nor as good as DJK. It offered while also offering opportunities to try the meat at somewhat better quality ingredients—not quite various temps. The lunch menu also features some good enough to revel in pure carnivorous delight, decidedly more unusual offerings, such as the veal but better than just a meat fix—but did so for a small intestines and large intestines. The former 25-percent upcharge. The premium package costs are tasty with a pleasantly minerally element that about as much as half a meal at DJK, but for lower doesn’t overwhelm. The latter, not so much. quality proteins cooked over gas instead of coals.

The premium option offers a significantly wider That’s the choice; those are the compromises. selection of proteins and cuts ranging from seafood And, in the end, it’s the questionable service and options such as squid, octopus and shrimp to more the price/quality compromise that shows Manna’s sexy meat cuts such as rib beef and galbi, to beef third road runs straight down the middle. tongue and pork jowl. The latter two are particularly good. Beef tongue plays like a more flavorful The World Fare appears weekly. form of brisket and the pork jowl—the same cut of Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

ANATOMY OF A

BY IAN WARD

FINAL

COCKTAIL SCENE #41: Foodie feelings at Fernside

or a maître d’, or a sommelier, or (like me at the time) a bartender.

Let me reiterate one thing, I love alremember the first time that I heard most everyone that comes into my bar. the word “foodie.” I also remember It’s truly an honor to serve them and the feeling the word invoked, as it left hopefully make them happy, but the word a mild distaste in my mouth and my ears. foodie drives me mad.

Even those who work within the serOccasionally new words come knocking on my door, and I treat them with the vice industry have a tendency to leave it same suspicious manner. Think of the first eventually. Very few can stick it out. Liftime someone muttered the words “lit,” or ers, however, commit and dedicate themselves to the craft. I can “woke,” or, here’s a good one, “cray cray.” call Christian Siglin one of I’m not sure about readers, but they set off these lifers. some strange alarm within me.

He recently opened up Foodie, on the other hand, his own place, Fernside brought with it something (1946 Fern St.), in South else. It was more than just Park. To those of you who the discomfort that comes have not gone through the with an inauthentic new opening of a restaurant, let word. It was almost an attack me just say, it is a fucking on my way of life. I know that nightmare.

It’s emotionally, sounds exaggerative, but at the physically and financially draintime I was working in restaurants ing. It breaks people. It bleeds so whenever someone would sit people. And all we ask from it in at my bar and define themselves return is the opportunity to serve as “foodies,” it felt like there was Woo Bob the community gracefully. always a belittling factor to it. I The photo above of the Woo Bob would hear guests tell me how they were a foodie, and how their entire lives cocktail is taken in a plastic cup because on revolved around food, which is a bit of a the night of Fernside’s soft opening, there stretch. If their entire life revolved around was no glassware. It didn’t matter to me good food, then they’d likely be working in the slightest, but, I’m sure it bothered as a career server, or a line cook, or a sous Siglin, as it would any perfectionist. And chef, or an executive chef, or a manager, that, in a word, is what we want to put forth when opening a restaurant/bar: perfection.

The Woo Bob cocktail is a banger and a fine representation of what Siglin is WOO BOB known for. It’s balanced, nuanced, efferas prepared at Fernside vescent and refreshing. The rhubarb of1 1/2 oz. Angelisco blanco tequila fers sourness while the cucumber brings vegetal comfort and a soft, sophisticated 1/2 oz. Giffard rhubarb liqueur roundness.

3/4 oz. lime juice It was certainly enough for this foodie 1/4 oz. simple syrup to wish Mr. Siglin and Fernside the best 2 oz. Cutwater cucumber soda water of luck on their new venture.

Pinch of salt

I

Shake all ingredients into a mixer and strain over fresh ice. Top with Cutwater cucumber soda water and garnish with cucumber slices.

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

BY BETH DEMMON

DRAUGHT Beer for basic bitches

“Cinderella’s Midnight Ride.” Goses are low ABV brews that are typically tart and ecently, Jeff Terich (the music edi- somewhat salty, therefore making them tor at CityBeat), unsuccessfully at- fairly odd to mainstream beer drinkers. To tempted to dissuade me from publicly unite the two eternally maligned cranking up Christmas tunes before Hal- beverages for a wholly new concoction alloween. Much love to Jeff, but I will fight together struck me as ballsy and even poto the death on this one. I refuse to set tentially disastrous. rules for seasonal enjoyment. I’ll drink “Most of my colleagues hate pumpkin in barrel-aged stouts in July and pale ales beer, but they are usually just over spiced,” BETH DEMMON remarked Doug Pominville, at Thanksgiving. If it were up to me, every basic bitch head brewer of Thorn. “I who yearns for sweatwanted to change everyer weather would have one’s minds when they their pumpkin spice latte think of pumpkin beers.” dreams come true all year The 4.7 percent gose round, haters be damned. contains lactose (it is inI will never understand spired by a latte, after all), why there are so many freshly roasted organic pumpkin beverage hatJapanese pumpkins, El Miers out there. As is the rador coffee, vanilla, sea case with lattes, naysayers salt and spices. The initial come out en masse every aroma struck me as decepfall to whine about the tively tartless; I actually atrocity that is, in their Cinderella’s Midnight Ride wrote down “not very goseopinion, pumpkin beers. at Thorn Brewing Company y on the nose-y,” laughed So much inevitable shitto myself, and then hung talking means there are hardly any local my head in shame. It reminded me of a cold ones to be found, much to my chagrin. I morning on a salt-sprayed beach, but evenlove a well-crafted festbier, but a spicy, tually evolved into fresh hay and chilled cinnamon-hinted, brown sugary brew pumpkin pie. invokes autumnal nostalgia for my East The flavor was, in all honesty, pretty biCoast upbringing. I look forward to this zarre. Pumpkin is a fairly mild flavor, so this time of year specifically for the flavors is more of a squash-esque soda than an authat come out of it, and if they arrive “ear- tumnal ale. As it warmed, the carbonation ly,” so much the better. (Here’s a “well, and lively gose character tempered someactually” fact: Oktoberfest always starts what, which lent it a smoother mouthfeel in September, so it’s not even early. Take that served its personality better. Those who that, Terich!) despise the nutmeg and allspice of “stanI recently set off on a quest to find these dard” pumpkin beers may very well find elusive brews while the weather still lin- themselves begrudgingly getting basic with gered in the eighties. Only one was to be this beer. If not, Thorn makes a Märzen too. found, but oh, what a pumpkin beer it was! Both pair nicely with Mariah Carey’s Merry Thorn Brewing Company (1745 National Christmas album and taste just as good beAve., thorn.beer) in Barrio Logan appar- fore Halloween as they do after. ently thought that making a pumpkin beer wasn’t weird enough so it decided to make Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com or check a “pumpkin latte-inspired gose” dubbed her out on Instagram at @thedelightedbite.

R

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

EVENTS

SHORTlist

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

SAN DIEGO

‘TIS THE SCARY SEASON

Whether it’s a result of our puritanical boa Drive and Juniper St.) and The Haunted Hohistory or just a general attraction to the occult, tel in the Gaslamp (424 Market St.). The former is there’s no doubting that Americans love them some a mile-long trek through the park where patrons Halloween. The holiday itself is a billion-dollar in- will be scared and often chased by scary icons dustry and the U.S. unsurprisingly has more haunt- such as Freddy, Jason and Pennywise. The Hotel is ed house-type attractions than any other country. pretty iconic at this point and includes scares such as the “Hellevator” and the “MuSan Diego is no exception. There are COURTESY OF THE HAUNTED HOTEL tant Mine Shaft.” Both begin plenty of options when it on Friday, Sept. 28 and tickcomes to getting scared on ets for either range from $20 purpose, most of which begin to $37 at hauntedhotel.com. this week.

Times vary.

First, there’s The Scream Finally, while those hauntZone at the Del Mar Fair-, eh, ed activities are fairly well Scaregrounds (2260 Jimmy known, we’d be remiss to not Durante Blvd.), which seems recommend one that’s a bit to expand in scope every year. more indie and under the The Haunted Hayride is a radar. Such is the case with wagon-led ride through the The Haunted Hotel Savage Productions’ Backfairgrounds while the House of Horror is a walk-through experience that fea- woods, which begins Thursday, Oct. 4 at Westtures medieval butchers and killer clowns. There’s field Mission Valley (1640 Camino Del Rio North). also a Karnevil area, as well as a Spirit Lounge area Rather than pull from established horror movies, and food vendors for those who can keep their food Savage creates its own original story, with this down. It all starts Friday, Sept. 28 from 7 p.m. to year’s theme revolving around a cannibalistic midnight and runs through Halloween. Tickets family living in the remote country. This is for a slightly older crowd. It runs from 7 p.m. to midrange from $21 to $34 at thescreamzone.com.

Longtime locals should be well familiar with night every night but Thursdays and prices start The Haunted Trail in Balboa Park (corner of Bal- at $18 at savageproductions.org.

LOGAN HEIGHTS

ZINE SCENE

GRANT HILL

BABEL ON

Ever since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, humans have not grown tired of designing and distributing their own literature. And while the technology has certainly evolved over the years, the DIY ethos of tangible reading material remains alive and well at events like the sixth annual San Diego Zine Fest, which brings together hundreds of regional and international independent publishers. We’d look out for the work of Laurie Piña and Nicholas Danger, as well as the closing night performance from Adam Gnade and Demetrius Antuña (more info on page 22). The free event includes zine-related panel discussions, workshops and a scrap lounge for making on-site zines. There will also be DJs, food and drinks from Guayakí Yerba Mate. It all happens at Bread & Salt (1955 Julian Ave.) from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 and Sunday, Sept. 30. See sandiegozinefest.com for full details.

Readers who picked up our Fall Arts issue hopefully caught the mention of Beyond Babel. And for those that did, there shouldn’t be any questions as to why we’re excited about the new urban dance take on the classic story of Romeo & Juliet. The immersive performance was created by local dancers Keone and Mari Madrid with help from Hideaway Circus, and deals in real-life contemporary issues (borders, division, and government-mandated walls). Most interesting, however, is how the company set up its own theatre space (2625 Imperial Ave.) so that the orchestra sections move throughout the performance, offering multiple views of the show, art and sets. Performances start Thursday, Sept. 27 and run through Sunday, Nov. 18. Times vary and tickets start at $35 at beyondbabelshow.com.

CARLO ARANA

LAWRENCESCOTTDESIGN

Canvas Meets Camera at Ravean Aaron Gallery, 1020 Prospect St., La Jolla. This gallery exhibition will showcase Krista Schumacher’s oil on canvas paintings alongside Ravean Aaron’s fine art photography. Opening from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28. Free. 858-3494929, raveanaaron.com HD.Y. Cameron: Mystic Beauty and Sacred Space at USD Hoehn Family Galleries, Founders Hall 102, 5998 Alcalá Park, Linda Vista. This exhibition of over 50 works represents the first time that the career of the beloved Scottish artist, Sir David Young Cameron, has been surveyed in depth in California. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27. sandiego.edu/galleries HFibonacci, Waveforms and Capsid Symmetries at Quint Gallery, Q4, 5171 H Santa Fe St., Bay Ho. Local artist Kelsey Brookes will debut new sculptural works that explore the Fibonacci sequence and other mathematical and scientific concepts.

Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept.

29. Free. 858-454-3409, quintgallery.com HSloth at Quint Gallery, Q3, 5171 H Santa Fe St., Bay Ho. The Baja-based De La Torre Brothers will debut a new installation piece that includes a lenticular print, an LED light panel and a wallpaper element. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 29. Free. 858-454-3409, quintgallery.com Detour at Quint Gallery, Q2, 5171 H Santa Fe St., Bay Ho. Local artist Christopher Konecki will showcase new sculptural works.

Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept.

29. Free. 858-454-3409, quintgallery.com HGroup Identity: The Nun Project at The Museum of _____, 5171 Santa Fe St., Suite A, Bay Ho. An exhibition of photographs from the collection of artist Barbara Sexton that explores the lives and sacrifice of those devoted to god. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. Free. 858-4543409, quintgallery.com HDavid Antin: Sky Poems at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. In collaboration with the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, MCASD La Jolla presents this day-long tribute to the creator of Sky Poems, David Antin. His poem will be written across the Southern California sky in a single day. From 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. Free$10. 858-454-3541, mcasd.org 38th International Exhibition at San Diego Watercolor Society Gallery, 2825 Dewey Road, Liberty Station. Watermedia art collected from around the world will be on display at this exhibit curated by John Salminen. Artists include Maggie Metcalf, Joe Cibere, Anne Abgott and more. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1. sdws.org

BOOKS HBarry Edelstein at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The Old Globe stage director and educator author will discuss and sign the newly revised edition of Thinking Shakespeare, a guidebook to the Bard’s language. At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 27. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Neil Patrick Harris at Shiley Theatre, 5998 Alcala Park, Morena. The Emmy Awardwinning actor, producer, director and host will discuss his new book, The Magic Misfits: The Second Story. From 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. $18.31. 858-4540347, warwicks.com HWriters Resist Panel at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. A panel of authors will sign and discuss Writers Resist: Anthol-

San Diego Zine Fest 12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Beyond Babel

H = CityBeat picks

ogy 2018, a collection of writings critical of the current political atmosphere. At 2 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 30. Free. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Jocko Willink at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The former Navy SEAL and co-author of Extreme Ownership will discuss and sign his new book, The Dichotomy of Leadership. From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1. $31.24. warwicks.com Marie Miranda Cruz at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The author of the So I Don’t Do series will sign and discuss her new middle grade novel, Everlasting Nora. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2. Free. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com HDr. Jeffrey Carr at San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., Downtown. The recipient of the 2017 Martin Luther King Legacy Award and 2018 Higher Education Trailblazer Award will discuss the graphic novel March: Book One and related topics.

From 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Free. 619-236-5800, sandiego.librarymarket. com/events Kiersten White at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The bestselling author will sign and discuss her new novel, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, a retelling of the Mary Shelley classic. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3. Free. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com

DANCE HBeyond Babel at 2625 Imperial Ave., Grant Hill. A new urban dance take on the classic story of Romeo & Juliet that deals in real-life contemporary issues and performed in an immersive theatre space. Times vary.

Thursday, Sept. 27 through Sunday, Nov. 18. $35. beyondbabelshow.com

FILM Dreams at San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. A screening of the series of vignettes inspired by the dreams of famed Japanese cinematic master Akira Kurosawa. From 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, Sept.

28. $5-$10. 619-232-7931, sdmart.org HThe Secret Morgue: 13 Hour Horror Marathon at Comic-Con Museum, 2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park. Join Film Geeks SD for a showing of six horror films from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Includes a horror survival pack, personalized tote tag, Modern Times Cold Brew and more. From noon to 1 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. $25. facebook.com/TheFilmGeek

FOOD & DRINK HSan Diego Restaurant Week at various locations. Over 180 restaurants throughout San Diego will offer prix-fixe menu options to introduce patrons to their cuisine.

Various times. Through Sunday, Sept.

30. $15-$50. 619-233-5008, sandiegorestaurantweek.com HParktoberfest at North Park Beer Co., 3038 University Ave., North Park. The second annual Octoberfest kickoff party will feature special steins of limited edition beer as well as German fare, games and pretzels from Mastiff Kitchen. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m Through Sunday, Sept. 30. northparkbeerco.com H2018 Chef Throwdown at Hotel Del Coronado, 1500 Orange Ave., Coronado.

Try plates from more than 25 chefs from San Diego and Baja region as they compete for the coveted ‘People’s Choice’ award. Benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. From 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28. $50-$350. hoteldel.com/events

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 @SDCITYBEAT

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

28 through Wednesday, Oct. 31. $21-$34.

858-755-1141, thescreamzone.com

HKarl Strauss Oktoberfest at Karl Strauss Brewing Company, 5985 Santa Fe St., Bay Ho. An annual party for the release of the brewery’s seasonal Oktoberfest beer.

There will be more than 20 beers on tap, plus traditional foods. Lederhosen encouraged. From 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. $20. 858-273-2739, karlstrauss.com

HThe Haunted Hotel at 424 Market St., Downtown. Voted one of “America’s Best Haunted Houses,” make your way through a Hellevator, a Hillbilly Swamp, a Clown Subway and more. From 7 to 11 p.m. starting Friday, Sept. 29 through Tuesday, Oct. 31. $20-$29. 619-231-0131, hauntedhotel.com

Bayside Brew & Spirits Fest at Pepper Park, 3299 Tidelands Ave., National City.

Celebrate the bi-national culture of the South Bay community with beers, wines and spirits from over 30 local San Diego and Baja California purveyors, as well as food and music. From 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. $12.50-$50. baysidebrewfest.com HGreen Flash Treasure Chest Beer + Food Fest at Green Flash Brewing Co., 6550 Mira Mesa Blvd., Mira Mesa. This fundraiser for a local breast cancer charity will feature tastings of exclusive brews alongside paired plates prepared by local chefs. From noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept.

30. $25-$55. greenflashbrew.com

HALLOWEEN HThe Haunted Trail Of Balboa Park at Balboa Drive and Juniper St., Balboa Park.

A mile-long trail featuring a haunted old plantation, creepy clowns, live scenes of horror and more. From 7 to 11 p.m. starting Friday, Sept. 28 through Wednesday, Oct. 31. $25-$37. hauntedhotel.com HThe Scream Zone at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. One of San Diego’s largest Halloween attractions featuring a huge House of Horror with rooms filled with scares, as well as a Haunted Hayride and more. From 7 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays from 7 to 11 p.m. every other day. Friday, Sept.

@SDCITYBEAT

Sacha Sings Sinatra at La Jolla Community Center, 6811 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla.

As part of the Fourth Friday Jazz Series, Grammy nominated jazz singer Sacha Boutros will pay homage to Frank Sinatra by singing the hits and favorites. At 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 28. $18-$25. 858-459-0831, ljcommunitycenter.org CRSSD Festival Fall at Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Highway, Downtown. This two-day music festival features several EDM artists and includes three stages, craft beer and sunsets on the bay. From noon to midnight Saturday, Sept. 29 and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. $100$165. crssdfest.com HStyx at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. No, not the mythical river. The sweet band behind hits like “Lady,” “Come Sail Away” and “Mr. Roboto.” At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. $45-$165. 760-839-4190, artcenter.org HJazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. The nine-time Grammy winning trumpeter leads the worldrenowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3. $30-$97.

619-570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org HVoices of Our City Choir at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. The beloved local choir made up of former and current homeless

residents will perform as part of the Center’s First Wednesday series. At 6 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 3. Free-$12. 760-8394190, artcenter.org

SPECIAL EVENTS HCulture & Cocktails: Art of the Body at San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. SDMA’s end of summer bash will include themed cocktails, contortionist performances, treats and themed activities in celebration of the new exhibition from sculptor Javier Marín. From 6 to 9 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 27. $5-$35. 619-2327931, sdmart.org HRemember Me Thursday at Balboa Park, 6th Ave. and El Prado, Balboa Park.

Light a candle while others do the same across the world to honor the millions of pets who lost their lives without the benefit of a loving home and shine a light on the millions of healthy pets who are still awaiting adoption. From 5:45 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27. animalcenter.org HLa Mesa Oktoberfest at La Mesa Village, 8401 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. Enjoy three days of October-themed festivities including music, food, games, speakers and demonstrations as well as a kid’s carnival, craft beer and spirit garden and vendor market. Times vary each day. From 4 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. Free. lamesaoktoberfest.org Oktoberfest at German American Societies of San Diego, 1017 S. Mollison Ave., El Cajon. Participate in two weekends of German-themed festivities including entertainment from a German band, folk dances, games, vendor booths, craft stands, food, beer and more. Times vary each day. From 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, noon to 10

p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. Free-$10. 619-4426637, oktoberfestelcajon.com

ey for victims of child abuse and other traumas. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. $20. rockinghorseranch.org

HAIDS Walk & Run at Hillcrest, Fifth and University Avenues. Commemorate the 29th anniversary of AIDS Walk & Run San Diego and honor the community’s commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS and raise funds for those impacted by the disease.

From 6 to 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. Donation based. aidswalk.org

HEmpowered Women Change the World at Museum of Photographic Arts, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park. Women’s Empowerment International hosts a benefit celebration with a presentation by photojournalist and author Paola Gianturco. Includes hors d’oeuvres, wine and private access to MOPA galleries. From 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. $75. 619-3330026, womenempowerment.org

HAdams Avenue Street Fair at Adams Avenue between 30th and 35th streets in Normal Heights. The 37th annual street fair will feature hundreds of performing artists on seven stages along Adams Avenue. Also includes beer gardens, carnival rides, and more than 300 exhibitors. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. Free. 619-7083543, adamsavenuestreetfair.com HSan Diego Zine Fest at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Barrio Logan. This annual family-friendly festival features DIY literature presented by over 100 regional and international publishers accompanied by live music and entertainment. From noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 and Sunday, Sept. 30. Free. 619-851-4083, sandiegozinefest.com San Diego Cabrillo Festival at Naval Base Point Loma, 140 Sylvester Road, Point Loma. Witness a reenactment of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s landing on the shores of San Diego Bay and participate in educational activities, cultural demonstrations and more. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. Free. cabrillofestival.org Rockin’ the Ranch Fundraiser at Rocking Horse Ranch, 10310 Circa Valle Verde, El Cajon. This event will feature live music, speed painting and ranch tours, as well as Mexican and vegetarian bites to raise mon-

HHarvest for Hope Fundraiser at BRICK, 2863 Historic Decatur Road, Liberty Station. Annual fundraiser for the Emilio Nares Foundation, which helps the families of children with cancer. Enjoy food from local restaurants such as Harry’s Coffee Shop, Thorn Brewery and more. From 2 to 5 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 30. $145. enfhope.org Encinitas Oktoberfest at Mountain Vista Drive and N. El Camino Real, Encinitas.

Enjoy entertainment from a German band and Bavarian dancers, as well a ceremonial parade, 200 vendors, and a family food tent serving authentic German food and beverages. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 30. Free. 760-753-6041, encinitasoktoberfest.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HBecoming Art Exhibit/Artist Salon Talk at Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. Local artist Kelly Mellos will exhibit and discuss 47 original oil paintings created as illustrations for her book, Becoming. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. $20-$30. kellymellos.com

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 13

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 15

THEATER DAREN SCOTT

Home. Again.

T

he “fun home” in Alison Bechdel’s childhood is what she and her siblings call their father’s funeral home—his side business when he wasn’t teaching English. On the surface, there’s a lot of fun going on in the family’s actual home. What neither young Alison nor her siblings know is their dad is gay and that he’s having secret relationships outside the home and his marriage. In Fun Home, the acutely thoughtful musical by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron, and based on Bechdel’s award-winning graphic novel, the grown Alison (Amanda Naughton) tells the story not only of her father’s tortured double life but of her own journey to come to terms with her sexual identity and eventual coming out.

Alison is also seen as a child (on opening night played

by Taylor Coleman) and a college student (Claire Adams), giving Fun Home a three-pronged, multidimensional narrative, with Naughton as the omnipresent narrator.

Aside from Naughton’s steady performance and equally penetrating turns from Jim Stanek as father Bruce and Bets Malone as mother Helen, Fun Home successfully makes a personal story feel universal. Its score is up and down, and the kids’ dance scenes are little more than distracting, but there’s no missing Fun Home’s declarations on love and messages of being true to oneself.

Fun Home runs through Sept. 30 on the Lyceum Stage at Horton Plaza in downtown, $23.50-$77; sdrep.org

A

•••

lice Birch’s experimental Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again is a fiercely feminist affirmation. Staged in the Diversionary’s Black Box theater, home to InnerMission Productions, the play inundates the little space

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Diversionary’s black-box theater in University Heights. $25; innermissionproductions.org

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: The Glaspell Project: Two one-act plays by Susan Glaspell: Trifles, about two women who understand a local murder better than the male investigators, and Woman’s Honor, a comedy that takes down chivalry.

It opens Sept. 28 at the SDSU Experimental Theatre in the College Area. ttf.sdsu.edu Guadalupe in the Guest Room: The West Coast premiere of Tony Meneses’ play about a recently widowed gringo attempting to bond with his Mexican mother-in-law while they’re both mourning. Presented

by Teatro Pueblo Nuevo, it opens in previews Sept. 28 at the New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org

Fun Home with sound and fury. As much performance art as it is theater, Revolt is technically a one-act, but is divided into six vignettes, each performed with tireless commitment by a cast of six (five women and one man). Bravest of them all is UC San Diego student Kirstiana Rosas, delivering a desperately forthright monologue that’s so uninhibited, it’s as though she were standing in front of a mirror.

The searing hour and a half explores a woman’s right to her own body choices, as well as issues such as equal treatment at work. There are also questions of reproduction and exploitation, and even rape. And while it turns a bit loud and excessive in the last 10 minutes or so, its ardency never wanes.

Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again runs through Sept. 29 at

Young Frankenstein: The musical adaptation of the classic Mel Brooks spoof of the legendary tale of a doctor bringing a corpse to life. Presented by San Diego Musical Theatre, it opens Sept. 28 at the Horton Grand Theatre in the Gaslamp. sdmt.org Beautiful: The Carole King Musical: The touring Broadway production of the musical about one of the most iconic singer/songwriters, who penned countless hits in the ’60s and ’70s. Presented by Broadway San Diego, it opens Oct. 2 at the San Diego Civic Theatre in the Gaslamp. broadwaysd.com Hir: Taylor Mac’s acclaimed comedy about an Afghanistan veteran who returns home to find his parents, as well as his transgender sibling, at war with each other. Presented by Cygnet Theatre, it opens in previews Oct. 3 at the Old Town Theatre. cygnettheatre.com

For complete theater listings, visit sdcitybeat.com

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JULIA DIXON EVANS

CULTURE | ART

Kelsey Brookes uses Fibonacci numbers and deadly viruses to create art

BY JULIA DIXON EVANS Kelsey Brookes

“

t just looks random, right?” Kelsey Brookes asks, pointing to a potted plant in his sunny North Park studio. “Why these leaves are then here, and are then here, and are then here, turns out to adhere to this number set. It’s not as if that creates the world, it just shows up all the time.”

Brookes is referring to the Fibonacci numbers, which are found in everything from the human nervous system and the way trees branch, to coral reefs and the spiral of pinecones; from the unfurling of a fern and storm clouds, to the number of petals on flowers and the arrangement of seeds in the many flower heads. Even the mating patterns of rabbits is an example of Fibonacci numbers. They’re arranged with increasing intervals, in a numerical sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…, where each sum is added to the number that precedes it to build sequentially: 1 + 1 is 2, 2 + 1 is 3, 3 + 2 is 5, 5 + 3 is 8, et cetera. Named after an Italian mathematician from the Middle Ages, the sequence approaches the idea of a “golden ratio.”

“If the natural world uses this number set so much to organize itself, why shouldn’t I use this same number set to organize artwork?” asks Brookes, pointing towards the large, nearly-completed sculptures he’s preparing for his upcoming show, Fibonacci, Waveforms and Capsid Symmetries which opens Sept. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. and runs through Nov. 10 at Quint Gallery (5171 H Santa Fe St., quintgallery.com) in Bay Ho. The works use number sequences, waves and viruses to create designs cut into medium-density fiberboard and painted with bright, squiggly and almost psychedelic patterns.

Brookes, a former Centers for Disease

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Control microbiologist, has been using his background in biological and empirical methodology in his art for years, creating molecular paintings and interpretations of chemistry. Fibonacci, Waveforms and Capsid Symmetries is his fourth solo show at Quint Gallery since 2009 and since that first one, Brookes has become one of the more high-profile and esteemed artists from San Diego. His signature combination of hallucinogenic aesthetics and scientific concepts has landed him shows in Los Angeles, New York, London and Berlin, not to mention pieces added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, among others. He recently installed a massive, 19-feet diameter circular piece, “Golden Ratio,” in Detroit. His work was also featured as the cover art for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ I’m with You Singles Collection, as well as surf clothing, but his style has become almost singularly focused on pursuing the relationship between empiricism and the visual arts.

“I had made paintings about these [scientific and mathematical] concepts for five years, and I was looking to either abandon the concept and start a new one, or go into a new medium” says Brookes, when asked how his work has evolved over the years.

But where Brookes was working almost entirely in 2-D paintings before, the extrusion of his artistic concepts and waveforms through the Fibonacci sequence enables him to try something new: three-dimensional sculpture.

“Sculpture seemed like a place where I could express some ideas that I was trying to express two dimensionally in a much easier fashion.”

Brookes seems somewhere between teacher and mad scientist as he paces around

his studio, slamming textbooks down atop stacks of graph paper, excitedly talking me through his process and the math, interrupting himself mid-sentence to switch gears and try explaining things a little differently.

His work skirts the threshold of understandPHILIPP SCHOLZ RITTERMANN

Detail of “Andenovirus (icosahedron)”

by Kelsey Brookes ing, but Brookes thrives on showing how mathematics and biology can be interpreted and understood. He literally turns the science into something tangible.

“So I took this graph paper, and I took this same number set, ending at 8, and I passed a wave through it. This little wave goes up and down in the space of 1. Then 1 again. Then 2. It goes up 2 and then the same, doubling the distance, and then 3, it goes up 3, and

it triples the distance compared to this,” he says, then spins on his heels and points to a large, circular wall hanging. The sculpture swells in bumps that mirror the wave on the graph paper; the peaks and valleys are measured distances apart in accordance with the Fibonacci sequence.

“It’s this idea of dimensionality, where you have something that exists just in empiricism. It’s just numbers. It’s perfect. And then we create form with it, and then that form can be shaped in so many different ways to create volume.”

His virus-based sculptures similarly combine concept and dimensionality, using the microscopic shapes of smallpox, rabies and tobacco mosaic viruses to create wall hangings that precisely outline the the shell of the virus (a capsid) where the genetic material is stored.

“We’re tracing the silhouettes of all these viruses that are deadly—some of the world’s deadliest viruses in the case of smallpox and rabies—but we’re turning them into these really beautiful things, at least colorful and bright and hopefully happy things. I don’t know if they’re beautiful yet.”

Brookes revisits this notion several times as he discusses the scope of his work: His sculptures are scientifically fascinating and conceptually innovative, but what about the aesthetics?

“Human beings are attracted to biological life because we always see it. So historically, evolutionarily, our ancestors saw trees, and they saw lakes, and natural systems, and they were attracted to it because that’s what sustained you,” he says. “So my feeling was there’s something that is inherent, something that is attractive because of nature.

This idea of biophilia. And these numbers rule nature. These numbers should then create artwork that is interesting to us.”

When asked what he finds attractive about his work, Brookes laughs and stumbles a little. “I’m not 100-percent sure I do find it attractive yet. I’m just making it right now,” he says. “I guess that maybe gets a little bit to that idea of concept versus aesthetic.”

The way Brookes’ mind works as he translates science into art is, in and of itself, also a study. He pits empiricism against the abandonment of rules and structures in order to create different results.

“I’m not very comfortable with variables,” he says. “That’s why I think I became a scientist. The variability, the unknown: It’s exciting but it’s not very comforting. The things that you can know and prove are, I guess, comforting.”

Brookes is constantly working and ideating, and by the time work is ready to show, he is already moving on, conceptually, to new projects. It’s impossible to say how long it will take him to create a piece, because from the point of genesis, an idea may sit in a stack of graph paper (his “pile of ideas”) for years, steeping, waiting for Brookes to decide which ones stick and inspire new work.

“After I work on a show, I come up with, what, 15 ideas,” he says. “All of them are usually shit.”

Despite his scientific aversion to variables, finding surprising ways to translate new ideas into the next project ultimately motivates him.

“I like the unknown, because I fundamentally believe there is stuff to know inside of there.”

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 17

CULTURE | FILM

The accused

I Am Not a Witch

Rungano Nyoni depicts a panicked, overly suspicious Zambia in crisis

by Glenn Heath Jr.

F

ilms with titles that double as declarative state- immediately. Shula experiences more indignities at ments are typically overt in nature. Not so in the the hands of Mr. Banda and is even threatened by rancase of I Am Not a Witch, Rungano Nyoni’s strik- dom strangers due to her newfound celebrity status, ing debut feature, which packs a subtle gut punch by all while being paraded around for someone else’s effortlessly mixing absurdist social critique and magi- profit. Other women in the community are forced to cal realism. The jarring tonal synergy suggests an ide- sit on display for white and black tourists alike. The ological and spiritual space in crisis, one in which mob film’s most horrifying scene involves one fair-skinned mentality flourishes while individual identity suffers. woman’s attempt to photograph Shula while hiding in Economic depression, extreme drought and cor- the darkness of an enclosure.

I Am Not a Witch provides a ruthless indictment of rupt government institutions have left the citizens of modern day Zambia with very little reason to be- rotten government policies by revealing the cowardice lieve their future prosperity lies with progressive ide- and desperation that underlines their fear mongering ologies. Instead, most rural communities still rely on tactics. While Mr. Banda and his flunkies turn Shula into fundamentalist religious beliefs and archaic super- a living testament to their inhumane practices, Nyoni presents her more as a witness, stitions to enact law and order. one whose unspoken testimony Accusations of witchcraft are defines the subtext of every crisp commonly lobbed to incite fear, I AM NOT image. settle a grudge or expel outsidA WITCH Visually, the film uses slow ers from everyday society.

Directed by Rungano Nyoni long takes and tracking shots to A nameless eight-year-old suggest a ghostly nomadic qualgirl (Maggie Mulubwa) suffers Starring Maggie Mulubwa, Henry ity. Vulnerable characters are ofthis exact fate thanks to unB.J. Phiri, and John Tembo ten stuck in place while the camproven hysterical claims made Not Rated era drifts by them through space, by multiple villagers. As punishmaking any sort of movement a ment, she is exiled to a colony of symbolic and privileged gesture. indicted women marked by facial scarring and bound to massive spools by lengthy flut- Pops of sharp color juxtapose with wide screen vistas tering white ribbon. According to the opportunistic of dead foliage and trees, which only serves to further municipal official named Mr. Banda (Henry B.J. Phiri), complicate what’s real and subjective.

Music also plays a crucial role in establishing furiwho oversees the encampment, the fabric prevents ous shifts in mood. Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” harthe “witches” from flying away.

The older women of the colony quickly become pro- ken from the heavens above during key transitions, tective of the child, who they christen as Shula, a name and Estelle’s “American Boy” filters through muted that implies being physically and emotionally uproot- earphones during the heartbreaking finale. Both ed. Before long, Mr. Banda also takes an interest, cart- tracks come to represent a slight breach of Western ing the girl around the country like some mystical zoo culture into Zambia’s traditional façade, suggesting animal. Shula presides over kangaroo courts acting as that the government’s persistent manipulation of the judge and jury, even making live television appearances old ways is entirely self-serving.

Throughout I Am Not a Witch (opening Friday, to promote commercial products on behalf of the state.

Nyoni films these segments mostly from Shula’s Sept. 28, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park), Shpoint-of-view, calling attention to the gross miscon- ula mostly complies with the fallacies preached by duct by adults against an innocent child. Her stoic her captors, while never uttering the film title’s deexpressions remain defiantly aloof until Mr. Banda’s fiant words. The dispassionate system has rendered wife, herself once a captive of the witch colony, ex- her completely voiceless, so the film must speak loud plains the potential virtues of conforming to this new enough for them both. reality. For one moment, Shula smiles and acts like a child freed of any trauma or burden.

Film reviews run weekly.

That sense of freedom and ease evaporates almost Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

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CULTURE | FILM

Mandy

Unleash the beast

N

icolas Cage has made a career of going nuts onscreen, but in the last decade he’s become far less discerning about which loony roles to accept. The immensely talented actor of Face/ Off and Raising Arizona fame has diluted his particular brand of crazy by starring in countless throwaway direct-to-video action films and thrillers. Still, every once in a while Cage will team up with a visionary director who knows how to channel that relentless energy into something profound.

With Mandy, an overstuffed psychedelic revenge fantasy destined for midnight movie cult status, director Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow) does just that. During the film’s highly lucid and uncomfortably stretched first hour, Cage rarely speaks as the ominous narrative unfolds.

Early scenes find his burnt out logger Red Miller listening and fawning over girlfriend Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) while the two live peacefully in their remote cabin in the mountains. That all changes once a religious cult leader (Linus Roach doing his best Alice Cooper) and a band of otherworldly metal meth heads come knocking. Bound and gagged with barbed wire, Cage’s character is forced to endure lengthy, torturous diatribes from a victim’s perspective.

Of course, most viewers will find Mandy’s second half—ripe with madness, revenge and bloody power tools—to be the more impressive visceral experience. But Red’s frozen pain proves to be a far more heartbreaking experience. Once Cage goes all badass and hunts down the perpetrators, it just seems like Cosmatos is freebasing off derivative genre revisionism.

Even so, it’s hard not to admire the overall relentlessness of Mandy (which hit all VOD platforms on Sept. 14). Cage, Cosmatos and the always-excellent Riseborough manage to capture an unspoken bond between two characters that are brutally separated without

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much backstory. Only in the flashback-heavy final moments does it fully become clear how much they have lost by not being together.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival: Providing a platform for artists all over the world, this event will showcase more than 70 new films that merge dance and cinema.

Screenings run through Saturday, Oct. 6, at various San Diego venues including the Museum of Photographic Arts and Digital Gym Cinema. For more information visit 40northfest.com.

Hell Fest: Set at a horror-themed amusement park, this slasher flick finds a masked serial killer stalking a group of friends even as everyone else thinks it’s part of the act.

Opens in wide release Friday, Sept. 28.

I Am Not a Witch: An eight-year-old Zambian girl is falsely accused of being a witch by fellow villagers in Rungano Nyoni’s magical and absurdist debut film. Opens Friday, Sept. 28, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Kusama: Infinity: Director Heather Lenz’s documentary profile of Yayoi Kusama traces her early life in Japan through her ascent as a world-renowned artist.

Opens Friday, Sept. 28, at Landmark’s Ken Cinema.

Mandy: An enraged logger (Nicholas Cage) enacts revenge on the religious cult members who kidnap his girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) in an alternate 1983 backwoods America. Currently available on all VOD platforms.

Night School: Tiffany Haddish stars as a merciless teacher who makes Kevin Hart’s life utterly miserable in this new comedy from Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee. Opens in wide release Friday, Sept. 28.

Science Fair: This doc focuses on nine high school students from around the globe as they navigate rivalries, setbacks and more on their journey to compete at The International Science and Engineering Fair. Opens Friday, Sept. 28, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Smallfoot: Warner Bros.’s latest animation follows a Yeti who is convinced that the elusive “human” really does exist. Features the voice talent of Channing Tatum and James Corden. Opens in wide release Friday, Sept. 28.

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

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

ELENA MARQUES

MUSIC

ll the way back in 2010, when an upsurge in vinyl proved to be one of the brighter spots in yet another bleak year for the music industry, Mario Orduno saw firsthand the makings of a rising trend in music. At the time, Orduno was running the label Art Fag, through which lo-fi indie bands such as Best Coast, Colleen Green and Crocodiles released some of their early recordings. So when the label issued a set of music from one buzzed-about local artist on cassette tape, the audience for it proved to be a lot bigger than expected.

“Right before Dum Dum Girls signed to Sub Pop, we collected everything they released and put it all out on a cassette compilation,” Orduno says. “It sold out in a couple of days.”

A couple years after that, Orduno launched Dream, a new label that specializes more in releasing synth-pop, post-punk and experimental music. The other main difference, however, is that now most of the label’s releases are cassettes. In fact, while Dream has been around for six years, it’s now one of many labels based in San Diego that regularly release cassettes. In 2013, Sam Lopez’s noise music showcase Stay Strange began releasing tapes, and late last year Jon Blaj launched Sensitive, which issued shoegaze band Quali’s Awaken the Quietus. Blaj also regularly holds Sensitive pop-up shops at craft fairs and swap meets, where music lovers can usually find a selection of inexpensive new wave, grunge or hip-hop tapes.

Another label that just launched in early 2018 is Speed Creamer, a punk and hardcore label run by Dionna Bell, Bridget McGee and Therapy guitarist Sean Slingerland. And

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

deaux, a musician who runs the label It’s Okay I’m Crying, says that buying tapes means the listener is probably less likely to listen to it passively, and that there are benefits to it beyond being a cost-effective means of releasing music.

“I like holding things,” he says. “I like experiencing objects. It’s so convenient to download a song, but with physical media, it’s a more involved experience.

“With a CD you can do cool art, but you can customize a tape a little more,” Burdeaux adds. “You can couple it with a digital download, so people don’t even really have to listen to it if they don’t have a tape player. But it’s a lot more fun.”

As Burdeaux suggests, the prevalence of download codes with cassette releases almost renders the idea of an analog format moot. Listeners can have both, and at a reasonable cost. As Sam Lopez of Stay Strange told me back in 2013 when he launched his label, “It’s a cool piece of artwork. To me, that’s what it is—it’s art.”

There is, however, another less practical reason why more labels are releasing a format whose heyday was predominantly in the ’80s.

“There’s a level of nostalgia about it,” says Slingerland.

“That’s not why we got involved, but it certainly helps.”

Considering the affordability of tapes as a means for underground or indie musicians to release their music, it raises another question: Why start a label? The cost is low enough that a band could self-finance and be able to recoup the costs pretty quickly. Yet a label with a more carefully cuTwo releases from It’s Okay I’m Crying rated roster of artists and releases can offer something that an entirely DIY operation doesn’t: establishing a brand.

“A release on a label has some weight to it,” says Slingwithin just the first couple months, they saw firsthand how high the demand for cassettes can be. Its inaugural release, erland. “We want to be enriching the local punk scene. It’d El Odio Me Hizo Hacerlo from Tijuana band Violencia, al- be nice to get to a point where we’re a label that people can trust.” ready sold out its first batch and is now in its second run.

Each label that I spoke with brought up the idea of help“There was a huge demand for it,” says Bell. “And people ing to foster a community, and to bridge the distance bejust kept asking, ‘When can I get the Violencia tape?’”

When asked why someone would begin a venture spe- tween artists and listeners, or for that matter, artists and other artists. Launching a tape cifically to release a format that’s OSCAR ARANDA label is often an inexpensive no longer the standard method of way of bringing together people consuming music, Orduno sucin the music scene. The novelty cinctly summarizes: “It’s quick, might very well wear off, but for it’s cheap and it’s easy.” And as the time being, it feels safe to say Slingerland adds, they’re virtually more San Diego-based cassette indestructible. labels are likely to start up in the In 2018, the dominant music coming months. medium is digital, and arguably “There’s definitely a commuthe easiest way to release music nity aspect to it,” says Burdeaux. is simply to upload it to download “It’s special when someone else and streaming services. But it’s also easy to get lost in a vast sea Speed Creamer cassettes wants to put out your music. It’s more than just uploading all your of online-only releases. The next obvious choice is vinyl, which has seen consistently rising music to Bandcamp. It’s a way to hopefully connect more sales over the past decade. Unfortunately, because the num- people with your music.”

“There’s something to being part of a curated family ber of plants that can press vinyl is extremely limited, the wait for having vinyl made can be up to six months, and cost that’s encouraging for a band,” Orduno adds. “Releasing muthousands of dollars. With tapes, however, the turnaround sic with other people who have similar goals and interests— time is weeks rather than months, and the cost is $1 to $2 you’re part of something greater.” per tape.

There’s also the idea that physical media is, psychologi- Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com. cally, more valuable to the person who owns it. Sean Bur- Follow him on Twitter @1000TimesJeff

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

MUSIC

AFTER HOURS: ABOUT LAST NIGHT

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO LOCALS ONLY

a mostly improvisational piece. But with two performances having taken place, the next performance will be more arlier this year, Warsaw’s Demetrius Antuña and structured. Still, Antuña says that it’s still likely to continue writer Adam Gnade released a collaborative EP evolving. through Three One G titled Voicemails from the “The music has been slightly modified,” he says. “It’s Great Satan. The work is a dark ambient collaboration still an ambient, all-encompassing drone. But we’re tryfeaturing music composed by Antuña and REBECCA ANTUÑA ing out certain parts that are intended to a spoken word narrative from Gnade. The translate better for the ‘sound bath’.” duo will be performing the piece together This next performance is inspired by the in what they’re billing as a “dark soundIntegratron space near Joshua Tree, which bath” for just the third time on Sunday, regularly holds sound baths as a therapeuSept. 30 at Bread & Salt. The performance tic, holistic experience. As such, attendees will serve as the closing ceremony for the will be encouraged to get comfortable and San Diego Zine Fest. sit or lie down while the music is being perThe collaboration between Antuña and formed and let it wash over them. It’s a litGnade has its roots back in the early ’00s, tle different from the usual rock show, but when one of Gnade’s spoken-word pieces Adam Gnade and a test run in Tijuana last weekend proved ended up on a remix album for The DropDemetrius Antuña successful. science, Antuña’s band at the time.

“Bread and Salt is pretty acoustically “After we did that, we were both saying ‘Let’s do an resonant,” Antuña says. “It’s basically a massive reverb album together,’ but as time went on it just never hapchamber. But we don’t play that loud. The bar in Tijuana pened,” he says. “But then many years later, Adam hit me got really quiet when we played. But the outside world in up and said ‘I have this idea, it’s a really dark story,’ and Tijuana is still very loud—we could hear car stereos and so he sent over the words and I just kept on playing with sirens and everything.” it and came up with the music.”

—Jeff Terich When the duo debuted the piece back in winter, it was

E

ALBUM REVIEW Mr. Foxx Improvement Among Guests (Self-released)

A

s frontman of the band Of Ennui, Brian Strauss spends a lot of his time making music that’s loud and heavy. The band’s sound is dense and physical, a hybrid of effects-heavy shoegaze music in the vein of Slowdive and crushing doom metal influenced by the likes of Boris. It’s exactly the sort of band that I like to see live, in person, with the volume cranked.

But Strauss has an alternate musical persona: Mr. Foxx. And Mr. Foxx is, in many ways, the polar opposite to Of Ennui. It’s meditative electronic music by a sole musician rather than a band, and it’s best experienced in a quiet space, perhaps in solitude. Yet doom metal and ambient music have a lot in common that might not be obvious on the first listen—they’re both genres that rely on creating an enveloping atmosphere of sound. While with doom metal it can be loud and intense, the effect isn’t that different from a spacious electronic composi-

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

tion. So while the two projects don’t sound anything alike, it makes perfect sense that they’d come from the same musician.

Improvement Among Guests is the third Mr. Foxx release in 2018, and it’s an unconventional release in that it’s a single track that spans the length of an album. This isn’t all that unusual for electronic music—Brian Eno’s done the album-length composition a few times, while Tangerine Dream used to routinely fill an entire side of vinyl with one track. But Improvement Among Guests feels, at times, like a series of pieces rather than one continuous work. Strauss worked in breaks and pauses between the waves of synthesizer to give moments of rest.

And that’s not a bad thing to have with a piece of music this massive.

Then again, it’s not overwhelming in the slightest.

The album is essentially a series of moody, melodic synthesizer patterns overlapping and creating melancholy melodies. It’s finite but boundless, the composition giving the feeling that it could go on forever and still sound just as hypnotic and lovely. It’s the perfect comedown after being obliterated by doom metal, come to think of it.

—Jeff Terich

CRSSD off

“

T

he Friday before CRSSD Festival tends to be a night where safe spaces are most at risk of mainstream takeover,” says Marcel Reyes-Vermillion of Bouquet., a San Diego-based event company and label co-founded by Bailey Rogers and Jordan Marrone.

Reyes-Vermillion is referring to the two Fridays per year when CRSSD Festival sets up in San Diego, and a majority of the city’s nightlife venues are booked through the weekend with pre- and post-parties associated with the festival. But as CRSSD grows, so does the demand for alternatives.

“We’d like to offer an alternative space for those who would be overwhelmed by CRSSD and its crowd—to those who crave a closer connection to the music and to the artist,” says Reyes-Vermillion.

At the upcoming Bouquet. event, the special DJ guest will be Massimiliano Pagiliara, known for performing at underground clubs in Germany. Bouquet. takes places Friday, Sept.

28 at an arts venue that will revealed the day of the event.

Bouquet. will follow that with another event called FRIyay!, which takes place at Quartyard (1301 Market St.) earlier in the night and also aims to provide a vibe unlike that of CRSSD. “My vision for FRI-yay! is for it to be the best backyard birthday party from your childhood,” says Quartyard General Manager Justin Navalle.

At the FRI-yay! event, local spinster Dat Phat of Ego Trip/ BassTribe will offer more of a throwback vibe without conforming to any particular genre. The event is also free, with the goal of making it accessible to everyone.

“With big festivals, everyone gets hyped up,” Navalle says. “It’s a good hype, but it’s a lot of stress, and it can be scenester-y. We want to alleviate the stress and accentuate the fun of just playing music without the labels. It’s not just hip-hop, it’s not just house, it’s just fun.”

Saturday, Sept. 29 brings Art of Sound Siesta 22nd Anniversary, which celebrates the Siesta music label’s enduring tenure. The night will include performances by Doc Martin, Bert Paluka and Cris Herrera, plus live visuals by Mark Johns.

“We’re celebrating how much our scene, the electronic music scene, has grown,” Herrera says. “We embrace everyone that comes for that, and we want to show them that there’s other things happening in the city.”

Siesta’s 22nd Anniversary is also taking place at an undisclosed location, which Herrera says is an essential component of the event’s feel.

“You’re going to hear great music all over town, but the vibe is really what separates it,” he says. “This is for mature dance enthusiasts who are going to behave and have done the drill before. They’re looking for this alternative. It’s the most underground thing happening in town, and the ones that find out about it, they have an amazing time.”

—Torrey Bailey

About Last Night appears every other week.

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26

PLAN A: Deep Purple, Judas Priest @ Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Judas Priest are metal gods. They even wrote a song about it, and that was back in 1980. Yet they still sound amazing. Their new album, Firepower, is one of their best in years. Plus, if they play “Breaking the Law” or “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” that’s worth the price alone. PLAN B: Ben Howard, Wye Oak @ Open Air Theatre. Ben Howard’s art-pop is atmospheric, moody and pretty, like a somewhat folkier Radiohead. And paired with Wye Oak, the consistently great indie rock duo, this should prove to be a solid show from beginning to end. BACKUP PLAN: The Vaginals, The Oxford Coma, Nebula Drag @ The Merrow.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 27

PLAN A: Jay-Z and Beyonce, DJ Khaled, Chloe x Halle @ SDCCU Stadium. The Lemonade/4:44/Everything Is Love saga has been a wild ride, but it’s resulted in some truly compelling material from this pop power couple.

@SDCITYBEAT

servatory North Park. Devotchka’s always been a tricky band to classify, as they take influence from a wide range of sounds, from contemporary indie rock to Eastern European folk music. It’s a one-of-a-kind sound, and it’s very cool. BACKUP PLAN: Revocation, Exhumed, Rivers of Nihil, Yautja @ Brick by Brick.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 29

PLAN A: Adams Avenue Street Fair w/ Plus they have more hits combined than, well, Wild Wild Wets, The Schizophonics, The just about everybody. PLAN B: Miss New Loons, Madly @ Adams Ave. There’s only Buddha, One I Red, Shoot the Glass, Ome- one festival in San Diego that’s free, all-ages ga Three @ The Casbah. Speaking of wild and features two days worth of TONJE THILESEN rides, Miss New Buddha’s live great music, including a long shows are always pretty intense list of the best local bands. It’s and animated. Their heavy this one, and it’s always a good post-hardcore sound makes time. PLAN B: The Presets, for a loud, rowdy time every Leftwing & Kody @ Music time they’re on stage. BACKUP Box. I first remember hearing PLAN: The Pharcyde @ ObThe Presets about a decade servatory North Park. ago when they released their single “This Boy’s In Love.”

And that song holds up pretty PLAN A: A Bowie Celebrawell, now that I’m listening to tion: The David Bowie it again. Regardless, the AusAlumni Tour @ Humphreys Natalie Prass tralian electro outfit should by the Bay. Musicians who provide a satisfying dance parhave toured and recorded with David Bowie ty. BACKUP PLAN: Oddisee and Evidence, over the years have embarked on a tour to Warm Brew @ Observatory North Park. do his musical legacy justice. If we’re to hear someone play the Thin White Duke’s music, it’s best to hear it from the players who PLAN A: Natalie Prass, Stella Donnelly shared the stage and studio with him. PLAN @ The Casbah. I became an instant fan of B: Devotchka, Orkesta Mendoza @ Ob- Natalie Prass after hearing her self-titled de-

FRIDAY, SEPT. 28

SUNDAY, SEPT. 30

but album, and her follow-up, The Future and the Past, is even funkier and more diverse.

Lady’s got soul. PLAN B: Adams Avenue Street Fair w/ Dirty Sweet, Euphoria Brass Band, The Slashes @ Adams Ave. Those who missed the first day of the street fair, or those who want a second full day’s worth of local artists on outdoor stages, should definitely make a point to catch some sets on Sunday. It’s one of the better festivals this city puts on.

MONDAY, OCT. 1

PLAN A: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band @ Observatory North Park.

Conor Oberst doesn’t use the Bright Eyes name much these days, but there’s a good reason for that. He’s grown up quite a bit since that band started, and he’s eased into a warmer, richer style of singer/songwriter folk-pop.

TUESDAY, OCT. 2

PLAN A: ADULT., Plack Blague, O/X @ Soda Bar. Detroit’s ADULT. have a pretty ample catalog full of synth-pop that recalls the early days of industrial music. It’s dark, danceable and often pretty intense. Wear black. PLAN B: Dale Watson and His Lonestars, Wayne Hancock, The Sea Monks @ The Casbah. Dale Watson is a little bit Buck Owens, a little bit Dwight Yoakam, and a whole lot of fun. Just make sure to take your hat off inside The Casbah; it’s standing room only.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 23

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Growlers (SOMA, 10/17), CKY (Brick

by Brick, 11/4), Musiq Soulchild (Music Box, 11/7), English Beat (BUT, 11/16-17), Bongzilla (Brick by Brick, 11/16), Eyehategod (Brick by Brick, 11/20), Thou (Che Café, 12/13), Mother Hips (BUT, 2/22), Marshall Tucker Band (BUT, 3/3), Metric (Open Air Theatre, 3/5).

GET YER TICKETS Chelsea Wolfe, Russian Circles (Music Box, 10/3), Roky Erickson (Casbah, 10/5), Ozzy Osbourne (Mattress Firm, 10/9), Patterson Hood (Music Box, 10/12), Ozomatli (BUT, 10/13), Graham Nash (Humphreys, 10/13), Prayers (Observatory, 10/13), Alkaline Trio (HOB, 10/15), Sting and Shaggy (Harrahs SoCal, 10/16), The Joy Formidable (Casbah, 10/17), St. Lucia (Observatory, 10/17), U.S. Girls (Soda Bar, 10/17), The Lemon Twigs (Music Box, 10/19), D.R.I. (Brick by Brick, 10/20), Thievery Corporation (BUT, 10/23), Jay Rock (SOMA, 10/25), Dawes (Observatory, 10/29), Jim James (BUT, 11/1), Cloud Nothings (Casbah, 11/1), Wolfmother (Observatory, 11/1), Maxwell (Humphreys, 11/2), Dia de los Deftones w/ Deftones, Future, Rocket from the Crypt (Petco Park, 11/3), Lucero (Observatory, 11/7), Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin (Irenic, 11/7), Milo (SPACE, 11/8), Little Dragon (Observatory, 11/8), Morrissey (Copley Symphony Hall, 11/10), Ghost

(Spreckels Theatre, 11/12), Blitzen Trapper (BUT, 11/12), J Mascis (Soda Bar, 11/15), Billie Eilish (SOMA, 11/17), Joywave, Sir Sly (Observatory, 11/18), Every Time I Die (Observatory, 11/20), Cat Power (Observatory, 11/24), Municipal Waste (Brick by Brick, 11/25), How to Dress Well (Casbah, 11/27), Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus (Observatory, 11/29), Godflesh (Brick

by Brick, 12/1), Old 97s (BUT, 12/2), Fucked Up (Soda Bar, 12/5), Squirrel Nut Zippers (BUT, 12/6), Pale Waves (Irenic, 12/7), Neko Case, Destroyer (Observatory, 12/8), Fleetwood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/8), Kurt Vile (Observatory, 12/9), Amine (Observatory, 12/11), Middle Kids (Soda Bar, 12/13), The Soft Moon (BUT, 12/17), Ministry (HOB, 12/18), Donavon Frankenreiter (BUT, 12/28-29), Jefferson Starship (BUT, 1/910), Bananarama (Observatory, 1/27).

SEPTEMBER WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26 Houndmouth at Observatory North Park.

Boxer Rebellion at The Casbah. Deep Purple, Judas Priest at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Fat Nick at The Irenic. Mustasch at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 27 Loudon Wainwright III at Belly Up Tavern.

The Real McKenzies at Soda Bar. Miss New Buddha at The Casbah. Jedi Mind Tricks at Music Box.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 28 The Wombats at House of Blues. Devotchka at Observatory North Park. Revocation at Brick by Brick. Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel at The Casbah. The

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Early November at The Irenic. Terror at SOMA Sidestage. Assuming We Survive at House of Blues Voodoo Room. Alice Insane at Music Box. No Duh at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 29 Orgy at Brick by Brick. Little Hurricane at The Casbah. Ignite at Soda Bar. Oddisee and Evidence at Observatory North Park.

Creepxotica at Broadstone North Park.

Marc Broussard at Belly Up Tavern. Wild Wild Wets, The Loons, Schizophonics at Adams Ave. Street Fair.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 30 Natalie Prass at The Casbah. Lost In Society at Soda Bar. Guttermouth at Observatory North Park. Infinite Floyd at Belly Up Tavern. Dirty Sweet, Euphoria Brass Band, Stephen El Rey at Adams Ave. Street Fair.

OCTOBER MONDAY, OCT. 1 Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band at Observatory North Park.

TUESDAY, OCT. 2 Ghostland Observatory at Music Box. Adult. at Soda Bar. Vonda Shepard at Belly Up Tavern.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 3 Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee at Observatory North Park (sold out). The Coronas at The Casbah. Ulrika Spacek at Soda Bar. Chelsea Wolfe, Russian Circles at Music Box. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, OCT. 4

THURSDAY, OCT. 11

Flatliners at Brick by Brick. Rebel Souljahz at Observatory North Park. Warsaw at The Casbah. Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets at Belly Up Tavern. Future Generations at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, OCT. 5 Roky Erickson at The Casbah. Satan at Brick by Brick. America at Humphreys by the Bay. Yoke Lore at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, OCT. 12 Patterson Hood at Music Box. The Jackets at Soda Bar. Hobo Johnson at House of Blues. Decrepit Birth, Arsis at Brick by Brick. The Highwayman Show at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, OCT. 13

SATURDAY, OCT. 6 The B-52’s at Humphreys by (sold out). Keller Williams at Tavern. Shonen Knife at The Graham Bonnet Band at Brick Bullets and Octane at SPACE.

Hinds at The Irenic. Ex-Cult at SPACE. True Widow at Soda Bar.

the Bay Belly Up Casbah.

by Brick.

SUNDAY, OCT. 7 Tennis at Belly Up Tavern. Grieves at The Casbah. Bells Atlas at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, OCT. 8 Jupiter and Okwess at Soda Bar. Armed For Apocalypse, The Lion’s Daughter at SPACE.

TUESDAY, OCT. 9 Mew at Observatory North Park. Brant Bjork at SPACE. Langhorne Slim at Belly Up Tavern. Ozzy Osbourne at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre. Lawrence at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10 Shannon and the Clams at Belly Up Tavern. Polyphia at Music Box. Mothers at Soda Bar. Basement at Che Café (sold out). The Twilight Sad at The Casbah.

Screaming Females at The Casbah.

Ozomatli at Belly Up Tavern. Mat Kearney at House of Blues. The Sheepdogs at Soda Bar. Graham Nash at Humphreys by the Bay. Prayers at Observatory North Park. Jeremy Zucker at The Irenic (sold out),

SUNDAY, OCT. 14 Clutch at Observatory North Park. Marissa Nadler at The Casbah. John Paul White at The Irenic. Gregory Alan Izakov at Music Box (sold out). Mayday Parade at House of Blues. ToomanyZooz at Belly Up Tavern.

MONDAY, OCT. 15 The Dodos at The Casbah. King Khan and the Shrines at Belly Up Tavern. Hozier at Observatory North Park. We Came As Romans at The Irenic. Alkaline Trio at House of Blues.

TUESDAY, OCT. 16 Monster Magnet at Brick by Brick. Sting and Shaggy at Harrahs SoCal. SYML at

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 The Casbah. Cut Worms at Soda Bar. Mason Jennings at Belly Up Tavern.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17 St. Lucia at Observatory North Park.

Thievery Corporation at Belly Up Tavern.

U.S. Girls at Soda Bar. The Joy Formidable at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, OCT. 18 FIDLAR at Observatory North Park. Bret Bollinger and the Bad Habits at Belly Up Tavern. Genitorturers at Brick by Brick. Le Butcherettes at The Casbah. Chase Atlantic at The Irenic. StayLoose at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, OCT. 19 hed(p.e.) at Brick by Brick. Metalachi at Belly Up Tavern. The Lemon Twigs at Music Box. Maggie Rogers at Observatory North Park (sold out). The Silent Comedy at The Casbah (sold out). Abolishment of Flesh at SPACE. Devon Welsh at Soda Bar. Slow Hollows at Che Café.

SATURDAY, OCT. 20 Allen Stone at Humphreys by the Bay (sold out). Michael Nau and the Mighty Thread at Soda Bar. Roast of Ronnie Radke at The Irenic. D.R.I. at Brick

by Brick. Alex Clare at Music Box. Tom Misch at Observatory North Park. Welshly Arms at Belly Up Tavern. Orgone at Music Box. Motopony at Soda Bar. Vinyl Theatre at House of Blues Voodoo Room.

SUNDAY, OCT. 21 Whethan at Observatory North Park.

KT Tunstall at Belly Up Tavern. Tamia

@SDCITYBEAT

at Music Box. Michaele Graves at Brick

by Brick. Madeline Kenney at Che Café.

H2O at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, OCT. 22 ZHU at Observatory North Park. Matthew Sweet at Belly Up Tavern. Simple Minds at Humphreys by the Bay (sold out). The Magic Numbers at The Casbah. Ingested at Brick by Brick. AJ Froman at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, OCT. 23 Basia at Humphreys by the Bay. Thievery Corporation at Belly Up Tavern. Jesse and Joy at Music Box. Insane Clown Posse at Brick by Brick. Deap Vally at The Casbah. Billy Strings at Soda Bar.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Wed: Open mic. Thu: Wade Preston Band. Fri: Latex Grenade, Gorm, Approaching Fiction. Sat: Pacific Dub, The Ries Brothers, The Good Tones. Sun: Karaoke. Tue: Pullman Standard, Crown the Yeti.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Hip Hop Wednesday’ w/ DJs Root, Tec, Kahlee. Thu: ‘Subdrip’ w/ DJ Damon Millard. Fri: ‘House Friday’ w/ Matthew Bryan. Sat: DJ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Church’ w/ DJs Karma, 2 Bit, Alice, Will Lavin.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Shane Torres. Fri: Shane Torres. Sat: Shane Torres.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road, Spring Valley. Wed: Karaoke. Thu: Shawn Butzin, The Wag. Sun: Red Room Tease, Hot Brass Injection. Tue: Karaoke.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park. Wed: Featherpusher, DJ Milky Wayne. Thu: Husky Boy All Stars. Fri: Western Star, The Phantoms. Sat: Action Andy and the Hi-Tones. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’.

Beaumont’s, 5665 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Thu: Mike Myrdal. Fri: Scratch. Sat: Emotional Rescue.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Sister Speak, Jimmy & Enrique, The Veronica May Band. Thu: Loudon Wainwright III, Cindy Lee Berryhil. Fri: No Duh, Fooz Fighters, Pearl Jammed. Sat: Marc Broussard, The Dales. Sun: Infinite Floyd - A Pink Floyd Experience. Tue: Vonda Shepard.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: MC3, Inure, Scary Pierre.

Sat: Dan Dimonte, Pinkeye, Francesca and Anahide.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’. Fri: ‘Dance Punk’. Sat: ‘Atomic Disco’. Mon: ‘Blue Monday’. Tue: ‘T is 4 Techno’.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Fri: Revocation, Exhumed, Rivers of Nihil, Yautja. Sat: Orgy, Darky Dark and The Junkie Bunch, Warpath, The Bastard Saints, Brand of Julez, The Crowned.

Sun: Angra, Scarlet Aura, Novareign, Nightshadow, Sentinel.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. Wed: The Boxer Rebellion, Sup. Thu: Miss New Buddha, One I Red, Shoot the Glass, Omega Three. Fri: Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel, DJ Vaughn Avakian.

Sat: Little Hurricane, Trouble In the Wind, Small Culture. Sun: Natalie Prass, Stella Donnelly. Tue: Dale Watson and His Lonestars, Wayne Hancock, The Sea Monks.

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla.

Thu: Wound Man, Deadbeat, Violencia, BOBXROSS, Philistine.

JG. Fri: Alternatives. Sat: Ron’s Garage.

Sun: Ron’s Garage.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Downtown. Fri: Paul Combs Quartet. Sat: Fred Benedetti and George Svoboda.

Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave., Hillcrest. Wed: ‘Trailer Park Trophy Wife’. Thu: ‘Mormon and the Meth Head’. Fri: Janice and Nathan. Sat: Joanne Baduria and Soul Fire. Sun: Keep It On the DL.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown. Fri: DJ Bar1ne. Sat: DJ Vision.

Fluxx, 500 4th Ave., Downtown. Fri: Jon B. Sat: Dre Sinatra.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: In Real Life, JAGMAC, Spencer Sutherland. Thu: Patrick ‘Bluefrog’ Ellis. Fri: The Wombats, Barns Courtney, Roman Lewis. Sat: Black Tiger Sex Machine. Sun: Chuponcito. Mon: Amy Shark, Tyler Hilton.

Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: Blue Largo. Thu: Kim Jackson. Fri: Beta Maxx.

Sat: Funk’s Most Wanted, Tradewinds.

Sun: Groove Squad. Mon: Whitney Shay.

Tue: Mercedes Moore.

The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., North Park.

Fri: The Early November, The Dangerous Summer, Jetty Bones, Save Face.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. Wed: Dan Hekate, Fire At Work, N-rgle, Tenshun, Caligears, Otherr. Sat: ‘Tech Support’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., Kensington. Fri: Deathboys, Mandoshanks, Filner Headlock, Corporate Citizen, Grave Misfortunes.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Thu: Tom West, Sadie Hart. Fri: Kalina and Kiana, Austin Gatus, Andrew Barrack. Sun: Fashion Jackson, Buddha Trixie, The Happy Fits, Love Glow.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave., Coronado. Wed: JG Solo. Thu: Fish and

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Wed: Nebula Drag, The Oxford Coma, Vaginals, Mass Delete. Thu: Planewrecks, Wine, Strange Creature, Life in Discord. Fri: The Montell Jordans, Ready Set Survive, Avenue Army, Nights Like Thieves. Sat: Retra, Misc Ailments, Yujin13. Sun: ‘The Playground’.

Mr. Peabody’s, 136 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Thu: Dayna Lane. Fri: Dirty Taxi.

Sat: Blue Light, Scott West. Sun: Tony Ortega jazz jam.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy.

Wed: ‘All White Party’. Thu: Jedi Mind Tricks, G-Mo Skee, 2UGLi, Knowledge Over Money. Fri: Anesthesia, Rage Again, Alice Insane, Wicked Tongues, DJ Professor CC. Sat: The Presets, Leftwing & Kody. Sun: Bob Moses (DJ set), George Fitzgerald. Mon: A Celebration of Jack ‘Mr. Bongo’ Costanzo. Tue: Ghostland Observatory, Gibbz.

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

Wed: ‘Instant Crush’ w/ DJ Nastea.

Thu: ‘No Limits’ w/ DJ Myson King. Sat: ‘Strictly Business’ w/ DJs EdRoc, Kanye Asada. Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’. Tue: ‘Trapped’ w/ DJ Ramsey.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Fri: Benny Benassi. Sat: Gryffin.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 25

MUSIC

BY CHRISTIN BAILEY

ASTROLOGICALLY UNSOUND Weekly forecasts from the so-called universe ARIES (March 21 - April 19): It is true that everyone is fighting their own battle. However, you will still get in trouble if you use a door marked Emergency Exit for a personal crisis.

LIBRA (September 23 - October 22): When someone tells you they have a cold it is just common courtesy to say, “yeah, it’s been going around,” even if no one knows if that’s true or not.

TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Beneath your placid exterior you have many roiling emotions, most of which are probably caused simply by being dehydrated.

SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21): All of the hard work you have been doing will be rewarded like a beaver finally resting in its dam. Unfortunately, just like the beaver, all your hard work will also be unpaid.

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): If you’re not happy with the way things are then change them.

I know, easier said than done.

That’s why I’m in here just saying it.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 December 21): There are no rules that are written in stone, but the warning label on the cord that says don’t unplug by yanking should be followed as if it were.

CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Just like microplastics in the ocean, love is all around you, and if you open yourself up to it then you just might find yourself as full of love as a fish’s belly is full of plastic.

CAPRICORN (December 22 January 19): Life goes on and on like an improperly discarded piece of chewed up gum that’s stuck on the wheel of a golf cart spinning around and around in an unchanging landscape.

LEO (July 23 - August 22): What an enormous relief it must be that you don’t have to worry about your legacy since the world is ending so soon after all.

VIRGO (August 23 September 22): Your powerful intuition will guide you to realize that you’ve attempted to carry too many objects in your hands at the precise moment after it’s too late.

AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18): If the sound of the dog barking is moving further away from you then you’re safe. But if the backyard barking is growing louder then something’s coming straight toward you.

PISCES (February 19 - March 20): Be wary of anything that seems too good to be true. Actually, it might not be and then what are you gonna do when you don’t have anything to gripe about?

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

MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 Panama 66, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Wed: Gilbert Castellanos. Thu: Mad Hat Hucksters. Sun: Chris Murray Combo.

Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown.

Thu: DJ Khaled. Fri: Gashi, Ikon. Sat: Bassjackers.

Pour House, 1903 S. Coast Highway, Oceanside. Thu: Of Ennui, Grey Illusion, Meadow. Fri: Creature and the Woods, Coral Bells. Sat: Bumpasonic, The Tighten Ups. Sun: Shane Hall. Tue: DJ Lexicon Devil.

Proud Mary’s, 5550 Kearny Mesa Road, Kearny Mesa. Wed: Gilbert Ardilla. Thu: Tomcat Courtney. Fri: Blue Largo. Sat: Ben Powell.

The Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest. Fri: ‘Filter Friday’ w/ K-Swift. Sat: ‘Sabados en Fuego’.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: DJs John Joseph, Kinky Loops.

Thu: DJs K-Swift, Taj. Fri: ‘Electro-Pop’ w/ DJs Dirty Kurty, Will Z. Sat: Richard Vission, DJ Irene. Sun: Yotto.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz’ w/ Jason Hanna. Thu: Trains Across the Sea. Fri: Tiki Tronic. Sat: Three Chord Justice.

Rosie O’Gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: Karaoke. Fri: Obtuse

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Goose. Sat: Matt Dibiase Quartet. Tue: Shayna.

mal Heights. Wed: Paul Gregg. Thu: Burlesque Boogie Nights.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave., North Park. Thu: Jimmy Ruelas. Fri: Shane Hall. Sat: Jimmy Ruelas. Mon: ‘Makossa Monday’ w/ DJ Tah Rei.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Thu: ‘Original Stylin’. Fri: ‘Night Terrors’. Sun: ‘Pants Karaoke’.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Mustach, Beitthemeans.

Thu: The Real McKenzies, The Downs Family, Grids. Fri: Slapshot, Countime, Drug Control, Christ Killer. Sat: IGNITE, Skipjack, Hit The Switch, Bossfight. Sun: Lost In Society, Stay Wild, Plane Without A Pilot. Mon: Death Cab for Karaoke. Tue: Adult., Plack Blague, O/X. SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway.

Thu: For the Fallen Dreams, Obey the Brave, Of Virtue. Fri: Terror, Harms Way, Backtrack, Year Of The Knife, Candy.

SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights.

Wed: Ancient River, The Ghost Dance, Los Feliz. Thu: Hearts Like Lions, Loyals, LENA. Fri: ‘Cholo Goth Night’ w/ Dave Parley. Sat: War of Ages, Capsize, Ghost Key, A Hero Within. Tue: Vitamin X, Drug Control, Skullcrack, Rod Of Correction.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., Midtown. Fri: Layton Giordani. Sat: Nina Kraviz, Helena Hauff, Wade, PTU. Sun: Mind Against, Matador, Magdalena, Melé.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Nor-

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Wed: The Corner. Thu: Hexatones. Fri: Kenny and Deez. Sat: Paging the ‘90s, Kenny and Deez. Tue: Keep Your Soul.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., Bay Park. Thu: Nathan James and the Rhythm Scratchers. Fri: Gruvmatic.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Thu: Post/Boredom, All Beat Up. Fri: Let’s Face It, Divided Heaven, Square Shapes. Sat: Frenetic Trio, Midnight Track, Busted Coffins, Delma.

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

Wed: DJ Mo Lyon. Thu: ‘Boom Boxx Thursday’. Fri: DJ Freeman.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park. Thu: ‘Vamp’. Fri: Soft Kill, Underpass, In Mirrors, DJ Jon Blaj. Sat: ‘Booty Bassment’. Sun: 40 North Dance Film Festival. Mon: ‘Electric Relaxation’.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Wed: Treehouse, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Tape Heads, Audic Empire.

Fri: Electric Waste Band. Sat: Gene Evaro Jr., Boostive. Sun: Karaoke.

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BY JACKIE BRYANT

IN THE BACK

CANNABITCH Packing the essentials

M

y phone buzzed as I crested the final mountain of my 20-mile hike.

“Wine, Ibuprofen and water. That should be your regimen,” a friend of mine wrote, imparting her own advice for the same hike, which she completed last year.

“Yes, wine, Ibuprofen and water... and edibles, a vape pen, oil and lotion,” I replied.

I’m writing this column from Spain, where I’m walking the last section of the ancient Camino de Santiago hike. The hike is five days, 70 miles, and the route is both physically and mentally challenging. It’s a religious pilgrimage that has also turned into a type of modern day soul-searching excursion for the thousands that make the trek each year. To me, a relatively inexperienced hiker who is also not exactly in shape, one thing topped my packing list: cannabis.

I tried to anticipate what I’d need and came up with the following: San Diego-based KB Pure Essentials (KBPE) CBD lotion and CBD oil (kbpureessentials.com), a gold Kurvana ASCND vape pen battery with an accompanying ASCND oil cartridge (kurvana.com) and District Edibles blue raspberry gummies (districtedibles.com). If that sounds like an aggressive regimen, try walking 20 miles a day without it and see how that goes.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that cannabis is a hiker’s dream. During the day, I have periodically administered around three droppers of the KBPE CBD oil, which I use at home for anxiety. It comes in a small bottle containing

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JACKIE BRYANT

What I will swear by is the KBPE lotion, which is scented with sandalwood and rose and provided a much-needed muscle relaxant at the end of each day. It also worked to convince my fellow hostel mates that I smelled good.

What also helped come nightfall were the blue raspberry edibles, which are an Indica product. For the uninitiated, Indica cannabis strains are responsible for the classic “stoned” feeling, including a deep body relaxation.

I was still jet lagged, so these edibles helped with sleep, while also providing pain relief and at 10 milligrams, they were the perfect dose.

During the daytime, I supplemented the KBPE CBD oil with pulls from my Kurvana vape pen, which was stocked with the ASCND Candy Jack oil. This oil is Sativa-heavy with a high THC content and tastes sweet KB Pure Essentials CBD oil and Kurvana vape pen with citrus and pine notes. The Candy Jack strain also happens to be known for aiding in creativity, energy 0.5 fluid ounces, 125 milligrams of CBD as well as olive and pain, three key criteria needed for a successful souland peppermint oils. searching hike. The high from this oil is great—it’s like And considering I was woefully unprepared for this turning on a light switch in the brain where all senses hike, anxiety needed to be managed. So did the pain, electrify. Birds chirp louder, eucalyptus leaves display which emanated from my multiple, grapefruit-sized more silvery and the feet feel a bit lighter. One or two blisters, as well as my hips, knees and ankles. CBD is small pulls results in an enhancement, rather than a touted as an anti-inflammatory pain management tool high, too. All in all, exactly what one would want on a and I made it through some rough patches on the trek, long, grueling hike.

I’m no doctor, nor am I an athlete, but cannabis while so maybe it worked after all, though I’m honestly not sure. But the mental effect of having something in hiking? It’s something to text home about. my pocket I knew I could reach for made me feel like the master of my pain-filled destiny, so the oil at least Cannabitch appears every other week. Follow Jackie Bryant helped settle my nerves. on Twitter at @jacqbryant.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27