San Diego CityBeat • Oct 12, 2016

2 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

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UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

VOTER GUIDE: From presidential to city council races

R

ESEARCHING THE CANDIDATES to endorse for political office (this page), and which state propositions (page 5) and local measures (page 6) to support, was like studying for back-toback-to-back SAT tests. You could say it was a welcome distraction from the tabloid-and-reality-TV-smeared presidential race—though that’s where we’ll start:

pen for Dean Spanos and the Changers).

State Senate, 39th District: Toni Atkins We’ve been fans of Atkins since her days on the San Diego City Council (2000-2008) and up to her recent time spent as Speaker of the state Assembly. It was a tumultuous path around Marty Block on the way from state assembly to state senate, but Atkins’ career record of standing tall and fighting for social justice issues such as homelessness and LGBTQ equality is spotless.

President of the United States: Hillary Clinton Four more years of an Obama presiden- State Assembly: Todd Gloria (78th Discy? Yes, please, and make it a double. Let’s trict); Shirley Weber (79th District); Loskip the jokes about avoiding having a U.S. rena Gonzalez (80th District) president who’s the color of a circus peanut Weber and Gonzalez (who asks that and seems lost or stuck in a world of teen- you not confuse her with Loretta Sanchez) age locker room banter and prep school are incumbents who should slide to reputdowns of nonwhite males. Besides being election wins. Former “iMayor” Gloria is the adult in the race with national and inter- termed out of his San Diego City Council national political experience, Clinton repre- spot and should be a lock to take over the sents a chance to move 78th District seat (forWIKI COMMONS forward in a country that merly held by his city has made small but discouncil mentor/former tinct strides forward on boss Toni Atkins). social issues like LGBTQ equality, and stand poised San Diego County Suto get across the bridge on pervisor: Dave Roberts immigration, healthcare, (District 3) gun control and other Roberts has kept a important topics. She’ll low profile since beating keep abortion legal, will Encinitas Mayor Kristin work to bring diverse Gaspar in the June pricommunities together mary (but not by a wide and considers climate enough margin to avoid a Hillary Clinton runoff ). The incumbent change a legitimate threat that needs to be recognized and dealt with. Democrat will need every vote he can get Undecideds: If you need one visual to force to top 50 percent of the vote against his Rea decision, picture Trump getting ready to publican challenger. meet your sister while he pops Tic Tacs into his O-shaped mouth.

San Diego City Attorney: Mara Elliott Elliott was the surprise top vote getter Unites States Senator: Kamala Harris in a primary chock full of fellow DemoWould that all Senate races were like crats. The city’s chief deputy city attorthe one for the open seat vacated by Barba- ney made a good move recently by calling ra Boxer—between two liberal Democrats. on the San Diego Police Department to Though cautious in public, State Attorney analyze all previously untested rape kits General Harris articulates her ideas better they’ve collected from past cases. General than Orange County congresswoman Lo- election opponent Robert Hickey was the retta Sanchez. Extra points go to Harris for lone Republican who started off in this not “dabbing”—as Sanchez did—at the end race and is not likely to build on his priof their only senatorial debate. mary vote count.

U.S. House of Representatives: Doug Applegate (49th District); Patrick Mallory (50th District); Juan Vargas (51st District); Scott Peters (52nd District); Susan Davis (53rd District) Col. Applegate is a hard-nosed Democrat who has the first legitimate chance in a decade and a half to boot incumbent Republican Party lapdog Darrell Issa—the wealthiest member of Congress—from office; Mallory would be a welcome relief from vape-smoking and Trump-backing Duncan Hunter; Vargas, Peters and Davis are stalwart Democrats and deserve to be re-elected, despite the backing by Vargas and Peters of San Diego’s Measure C (the hotel tax grab to build a new stadium play-

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San Diego City Council: Barbara Bry (District 1); Georgette Gomez (District 9) Business maven Bry nearly got enough votes to avoid a runoff election. Challenger Ray Ellis dropped out after a strong showing by her in the primary—nonetheless, remember to fill in Bry’s bubble.

In District 9, Georgette Gomez, who came in second in June, has stronger street cred and would seemingly represent working people on the city council over runoff opponent Ricardo Flores, the top vote getter in the primary and the hand-picked successor who seems cozier with the status quo.

—Ron Donoho Write to rond@sdcitybeat.com

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

THE BREAST OF THE STORY

I’ll have to admit when I was a teenager, like most teenage boys, I was a titty aficionado in the ’50s and early ’60s [“Thinking outside the boobs,” Sept. 28]. I’ll never forget meeting Jayne Mansfield in person at Johns Hopkins University and those “beautiful voluptuous boobs just stood there and smiled at you!”

Whew!

Actually Jayne had a much prettier face in person than she photographed. But when I met Jayne, I’ll have to admit she probably was thinking to herself as I occasionally unavoidably looked down according to Amy [Alkon]: “Sir [Dirty young man]...are you ready for my areolas to take your order?” I must sheepishly admit in recollection I was probably licking and smacking my lips in stark adulation!

What caused me to abruptly change my opinion/perspective of women’s breasts? I have to blame Dr. Bentley Glass, chairman of the department of biology at Hopkins at that time during his famous [infamous] sex lecture when I was a sophomore. Why? Once and for all he punctured my balloon concerning perky, perfectly proportioned tits! He blithely indicated from his lectern that women’s breasts were nothing more than modified sweat glands.

As so often has been the case in my life I just couldn’t contain myself, however, and I shouted audaciously from the audience “Viva la modification!” to the boisterous laughter and kudos of my masculine Hopkins classmates. [Hopkins at the time was an all-male bastion.] Parenthetically, there were a few visiting gals who were from Goucher College [our sister college at the time] who obviously didn’t share my sense of humor! Dr. Glass managed a wry smile, too, but I

TABLE OF CONTENTS

could tell he wasn’t pleased at/ appreciative of my facetious comment either.

UP FRONT From the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Letters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Voter Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6 Backwards & In High Heels. . . . . . 8 Well, That Was Awkward. . . . . . . . 9

Fred Harden III, San Diego

TRUMPING

Kudos to Ed Decker on the Trump dissection [“I would never say Donald Trump is an apophasizer,” Oct. 5]. Insightful, accurate, darkly humorous…more praise, etc. How this man ever got to this place in our political history is mind boggling. Sadly, many people still support him—very disturbing, Glad you are on the CityBeat staff, keep up your good work!

FOOD & DRINK The World Fare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Dishing It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Final Draught. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

THINGS TO DO Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Calendar of Events. . . . . . . . . . 13-14

ARTS & CULTURE Theater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 FEATURE: Stolen Lives. . . . . . . . . 18 Seen Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Films. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21

Nicholas Kennelly, San Diego

CORRECTION

Being a longtime resident of La Mesa, I enjoyed your article very much [Neighborhood Watch, Oct. 5]. However, I have to make a correction to James Vernette’s column, “La Mesa Rocks.” He writes the Chico Club “...is a classic dive bar, but in the 1950s and ‘60s, it was the Cinnamon Cinder...”

Well, no it wasn’t. The Chico Club has been around since the ‘40s and never was the Cinnamon Cinder. The Cinnamon Cinder was a few blocks east at the corner of Comanche Drive and El Cajon Boulevard. I was in a band in 1965 named The Contrasts and we played there many times. But just to be sure I did some serious research by stopping by the Chico Club (a dark and cool joint) this afternoon and had a beer and a chat with the bartender. I asked about this and she concurred, saying she used to go to the Cinnamon Cinder. I think I remember her.

Jan Tonnesen, La Mesa

[Editor’s note: Thank you. We stand corrected.]

MUSIC FEATURE: Bit Maps. . . . . . . . . . . 22 Notes from the Smoking Patio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 If I Were U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Concerts & Clubs. . . . . . . . . . 27-29

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

ON THE

COVER

Art director Carolyn Ramos’ cover illustration of this year’s California Voter Information Guide reflects the weightiness of the races as well as the actual heft of the hard-copy editions that explain who’s running for what and the pros and cons of the dozens of state and local proposals and measures in the Nov. 8 general election. Whew. We needed three pages (3, 5, 6) to present this year’s endorsements.

This issue of CityBeat respects the pussy but not the Bush.

Volume 15 • Issue 11 EDITOR Ron Donoho MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich ARTS EDITOR Seth Combs WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos STAFF WRITER Torrey Bailey COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, Minda Honey, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza

CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Baldwin, David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Andrew Dyer, Tiffany Fox, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Peter Holslin, Lara McCaffrey,Scott McDonald, Sebastian Montes, Jenny Montgomery, Michelle Poveda, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Tom Siebert, Jen Van Tieghem, Amy Wallen

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Beau Odom Mark Schreiber Jenny Tormey ACCOUNTING Kacie Cobian, Sharon Huie Linda Lam HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker

EDITORIAL INTERNS Jordan Packer, Sofia Mejias

VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE Kacie Sturek

PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS David Comden

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia

PUBLISHER Kevin Hellman

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Interested in advertising?

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

EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICE 3047 University Ave., Suite 202 San Diego, CA 92104 Phone: 619-281-7526 Fax: 619-281-5273 www.sdcitybeat.com

San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2016.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

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UP FRONT | OPINION

2016 VOTER GUIDE CALIFORNIA PROPOSITIONS

NOVEMBER 8

CityBeat’s statewide endorsements for the November 8 election PROP 51 (Funding for K-12 school and community college facilities): NO California’s K-12 schools and community colleges are in dire need of infrastructure improvements, but we don’t think this proposition adequately addresses the financial problem. The money would be delegated to schools on a first-come-first-served basis and likely favor wealthy districts with more staff. Plus, this proposition was written and sponsored by stakeholder construction companies prioritizing their own interests, and it could increase state debt.

PROP 52 (Federal Medi-Cal matching funds): YES Since 2009, the state has taxed private hospitals everyday through the Hospital Quality Assurance Fee. This increases Medi-Cal payments, which sounds counterproductive, but it allows public and private hospitals to receive more federal funding. Even with the fee, public hospitals are still losing money. Making this fee permanent allows the system to continue and expand its care for the 13 million low-income Californians who rely on Medi-Cal for primary care and emergency room visits.

PROP 53 (Statewide voter approval on revenue bonds): NO Although it sounds like a legitimate way to slow state spending, this prop is a no-go because all Californians would vote on local projects (like new toll roads or bridges) they probably know next to nothing about. This would be the large-scale version of San Diego County voting down the Barrio Logan Community Plan. Even though the California “WaterFix” project and the bullet train might be affected, few projects meet the $2 billion threshold.

PROP 54 (Online posting of legislation and proceedings): YES This is a no-brainer. Prop 54 would put to rest the classic gut-and-amend move, where laws are discussed in meetings but then completely reworked to benefit special interests just before being put to a vote. Once rewritten, they often have nothing to do with the original version. Unless you want to encourage governmental corruption, let’s require that laws be posted online 72 hours before a vote for the legislators, public and press to review.

PROP 55 (Tax extension to fund education and healthcare): YES This prop increases the income tax on the highest-paid individuals and couples, roughly the top 1.5 percent of taxpayers, and directs the money to K-12 schools, community colleges and health-care programs. It already exists thanks to Prop 30, but that expires in 2018. Prop 55 is good for an extension until 2030.

PROP 56 (Cigarette tax): YES Unless you like yellow teeth, bad breath and black lungs, this is an easy choice. Maybe knowing that tobacco kills

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about 480,000 Americans every year is enough to convince you to up the tax on cigarettes. E-cigs, cigars and chewing tobacco aren’t exempt, either. Hiking tobacco taxes is a proven way to deter smoking habits, so guess which industry is against it.

PROP 57 (Criminal sentencing and parole proceedings) YES Although opponents tout this as an “early release” for many criminals, that’s not the case. The prop would put prisoners before a parole board sooner, but that doesn’t mean anything unless they’ve earned it. It also gives nonviolent offenders the chance to reduce sentences by succeeding in rehabilitation programs. Non-violent crimes are not always peaceful; but these people are going to be released one day regardless, and the goal is for them to leave prison a better person than when they entered.

The proposition also lets judges (not prosecutors) decide whether juveniles should be tried as adults.

PROP 58 (Multilingual education): YES Under Prop 227, which was passed in 1998 and is still in effect today, non-native English speaking students must go through an unnecessarily difficult process to enroll in bilingual classes. This means 22 percent of California public school students are told to sink or swim in English-only classes. With growing globalization, it only makes sense to facilitate this process and encourage multilingual programs.

PROP 59 (Overturn Citizens United act advisory): YES This is a statewide poll assessing California’s stance on Citizens United. The prop doesn’t actually do anything, except indicate whether voters want to overturn the Citizens United decision in the future. But since we don’t support corporations funneling money into campaigns, we stand by the California Democratic Party in voicing opposition to Citizens United in the hope that something is done in the future.

PROP 60 (Condoms in porn): NO We’re all for safe sex. But this proposition is a front by “activist” Michael Weinstein, who’s trying to drive the pornography business out of California. The porn industry is against Prop 60 because performers already undergo frequent testing—otherwise nobody would hire them. If passed, any Californian could cry wolf if they didn’t see condoms used in an adult video (even though the law wouldn’t require the condoms to be visible). As a result, performers and producers would be called into court where their privacy would be compromised.

PROP 61 (State prescription drug prices): NO First, matching the Veterans Administration’s lowest-paid prescriptions requires knowing what those prices are, which are sometimes confidential and could be inaccessible. The measure doesn’t require drug manufacturers to comply either, enabling them to refuse to sell certain drugs

to the state. And to salvage profits, they could increase VA prescription prices, anyway. Plus, these price cuts only apply to 25 percent of Medi-Cal patients.

PROP 62 (Repealing the death penalty): YES Capital punishment is broken beyond repair; the state has failed to execute anyone in 10 years. Taxpayers shouldn’t waste tens of millions on this system with the hope that it deters criminals. Keeping them locked up for the rest of their lives is equally effective in keeping them off the streets, but at a fraction of the cost.

PROP 63 (Restrictions on firearm and ammunition possession): YES This is common sense. Everybody should undergo a background check before buying ammunition, and those purchases should be tracked by the Department of Justice. Nobody should be sold large-capacity ammunition magazines.

And anyone who steals a gun shouldn’t be allowed to have one. While this could be costly, it’s money well spent.

PROP 64 (Legalization of recreational marijuana): YES State-governed regulation of marijuana will increase safety by decreasing business in the streets. Plus, the state will make more than one billion dollars annually and save tens of millions on criminal justice costs. It’s about time California lit up (if you’re 21 and over).

PROP 65 (Directing bag proceeds to environmental fund): NO This is a misleading prop put on the ballot by the plastics industry. The environmental fund is a vague proposal that would create a bureaucracy to regulate a small amount of money. Plus, grocers need the 10-cent cost tacked onto paper bag purchases so they can afford to supply the bags.

PROP 66 (Reforming the death penalty): NO While we would be willing to make valid repairs to the death penalty, this is an expensive, empty promise. Speeding up a complex system should render hesitation, and the proposed timeline is unrealistic. Also, there’s no clear path to obtaining lethal injection drugs right now. These changes aren’t worth the chances of executing an innocent person.

PROP 67 (Plastic bag ban): YES The City of San Diego, and other cities around the state, have already implemented single-use plastic bag bans on their own, so the measure will have relatively no impact on us. But, eliminating plastic bags in the state will impact California’s environment as a whole. Just don’t listen to the plastics industry, which is trying to tell you otherwise.

2016 VOTER GUIDE - CITY AND COUNTY ON PAGE 6 October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

UP FRONT | OPINION

2016 VOTER GUIDE COUNTYWIDE

county, which had sought to get Accretive Developments to help build a new school and fire station, MEASURE A (SANDAG and improve roads. None of that is transportation tax): NO tied to Measure B, and its passage This is a proposal to raise the would set a bad precedent for desales tax by half a cent over the velopers who want to get around next 40 years and direct that traditional zoning disputes. money ($18.2 billion) to transportation and infrastructure (public transit, highway improvements, CITYWIDE open-space preservation, pedesMEASURE C trian and biking projects). It’s nearly a good plan—supported by (Chargers Stadium): NO moderates but opposed by left- The wealthy Spanos family, ownleaning progressives, including a ers of the San Diego Chargers (valQuality of Life Coalition of envi- ued at over $2 billion), wants the ronmentalists and labor groups city of San Diego to raise its hotel who believe Measure A doesn’t room tax from 12.5 percent to 16.5 do enough to sustain the region percent to collect more than a bilover the long haul or provide lion dollars that would go toward enough guarantees for project construction of an East Village stalaborers. A two-thirds vote is re- dium structure that would include annexed convention center space. quired for passage.

Do we know exactly what this stadium would look like or how the MEASURE B (Lilac Hills financing responsibility would development): NO shake out? We do not. It’s time to Developer Accretive Investments put an end to corporate welfare has been trying for 10 years to get for NFL owners, especially one the permitting required to build a with a long track record of lies and 1,700-home development in Valley broken promises. Requires a twoCenter in a location zoned for 110 thirds vote for passage. houses. The plan was denied by the

6 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

H CITY AND COUNTYWIDE MEASURES H

MEASURE D (The Citizen’s Plan): NO

practiced law in California for 10 years.

This seemingly well-intentioned but somewhat convoluted plan would raise the city’s hotel tax and clear the way for the possibility of a downtown or Mission Valley stadium, while placing roadblocks in the way of a contiguous convention center expansion. The measure aims to allow the city to sell Qualcomm Stadium land to local universities and create parkland in Mission Valley. There are solid ideas here, but a waterfront convention center expansion is a good business move. A two-thirds vote is required for passage, but that threshold may be argued in court.

MEASURE F (Deputy city attorney probationary term): MEASURE K (General election runoffs): YES YES

MEASURE E (Removing city officials): YES You could call this the Bob Filner Measure. Passage would cause the mayor, city attorney and city councilmembers to lose their posts if convicted of a felony or found liable for fraud. Measure E also includes a new process to remove city officials convicted of misdemeanors; and it requires a city attorney candidate have

sion Bay Park commercial leases and spread the money around seems to require more scrutiny.

As San Diego election law now stands, any candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the vote in a June primary election wins outright and doesn’t continue on to a November general election.

That doesn’t align with state and federal elections, where the top two candidates must compete in MEASURE G (Citizens’ Rea runoff no matter what the vote view Board on Police Praccount. Proponents of Measure tices): YES K want to get local elections in Changes are necessary on police alignment with state and federal oversight and passage of Mea- races, and point to the fact that sure G should be followed up with more people vote in November even more policy tweaks that add elections than in June elections— more teeth. As written, this mea- and the more citizens that comsure changes the group’s name pete in the process the better it is to the Community Review Board for a democracy. on Police Practices and gives the panel the authority to investigate MEASURE L (Initiatives officer-involved shootings, as well and referendums in general as grant the city council oversight of the board, rather than just the elections): YES This is a companion issue to Meamayor having that authority. sure K, and the same argument stands that it’s better to have initiaMEASURE H (Purchasing and contracting process): NO tives and referendums in front of the electorate when more people Little has been made of this mea- are participating in the process. sure, backed by city staff. It calls Passage would put all such items for public contracts to be awarded on November general election balaccording to rules adopted by the lots, unless the city council votes city council. However, it elimi- to put them up in June primaries. nates the requirement for the city to advertise some contracts MEASURE M in a local newspaper, at about a $50,000 per year savings. No to (Raising affordable housing unit caps): YES less disclosure.

Affordable housing is a priority.

Measure M raises the cap so an MEASURE I (San Diego additional 38,680 housing units High’s Balboa Park lease): involving public agencies can be YES built for low-income citizens. The Schools aren’t supposed to be built current limit is 3,247. on parkland, but San Diego High School sits within the boundary MEASURE N of Balboa Park. The school’s 50year lease expires in 2024. A yes (Taxing marijuana): YES vote extends the lease and allows Measure N’s call for a 5-percent the high school to remain in place. local tax on recreational-use Some park conservationists op- marijuana is contingent on the pose extending the lease, but a passage of state Proposition 64, majority of the city council and which would legalize the drug San Diego Unified School District beyond just medicinal use. The administrators realize there’s no- state would also tax recreationalwhere else in the downtown area use pot, but the local tax advocatwhere a school could be relocated. ed for in Measure N could raise $22 million per year. The tax— which is moot if Prop 64 fails— MEASURE J (Mission Bay Park and parks funding): NO is a good idea as long as the city council shows restraint in the Balboa Park and other regional future and doesn’t tax the city’s parks do need monetary support, legitimate cannabis dispensaries but Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s plan out of business. to pull even more funds from MisNot the most pressing issue on this huge ballot. Nonetheless, it makes sense and could eliminate politically based firings by reducing the probationary period for deputy city attorneys from two years to one.

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UP FRONT | OPINION

How would Measure C affect homelessness?

It may not be too late to get a positive impact from a Chargers stadium

by Michael McConnell

A

s the Nov. 8 election approaches, San Diego is engaged in a debate over whether to raise the hotel tax in order to pay for a new Chargers football stadium in downtown’s East Village. I’ve been asked many times for my thoughts on how a new stadium would affect homelessness downtown—and particularly East Village, an area in which more than 1,000 people live on the streets and many more live in shelters and transitional housing.

It’s important to remember that only one thing will help resolve chronic homelessness—getting people into the kind of permanent housing that comes with supportive services. Over that, there is no debate. Permanent supportive housing has been proven to work; it gets people off the street and saves taxpayers money.

That said, we can look at potential negative and positive effects of a new stadium in East Village.

Historically, as San Diego has developed in the urban core and new residents, business owners and visitors have poured into downtown, civic leaders have simply hoped that people living on the streets would somehow just disappear.

When Petco Park was built in East Village, there was still room to the east for displaced homeless people to go, such as the area around 15th and 16th streets. But no longer is there a buffer before homeless people begin to enter the residential neighborhoods to the east of downtown—Sherman Heights, Logan Heights, Barrio Logan—especially if the blocks just north of the stadium site are further gentrified, as has been promised by stadium supporters.

There is also a large presence of homeless services in the area. Father Joe’s St. Vincent de Paul Village is located right across Imperial Avenue, just to the south of the stadium site, and the Neil Good Day Center—where people can get temporary respite from the streets, send and receive mail, take a hot shower and do laundry—is a block east of the site on 17th Street. In the future, the Neil Good Day Center will be relocated to the St. Vincent de Paul Village.

Unless the St. Vincent de Paul Village moves, which is highly unlikely, homeless people will still need to access the area around the stadium, but it will be harder for them if they’re dispersed into neighborhoods such as Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, Golden Hill, Bankers Hill, Hillcrest, Little Italy and points beyond. And those who are able to reach these services will find an altered landscape that is much less friendly to them.

Meanwhile, tensions between residents and businesses and homeless people in those nearby communities—which already exist—will intensify.

So, unless we want to encourage all of that displacement and the messes that result, we’re left with the challenge of dealing with the issue where it sits. It would be a huge positive if that were the direction the city takes: Let’s finally deal with this issue head-on.

If voters approve a stadium, it will be a few years

before it’s built—plenty of time to resolve homelessness in the area if we can get all the interested parties on board. We know what to do: create the needed permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness, rapid rehousing for those with lessor needs and outreach teams to connect the people in need to the resources. This approach should have happened long ago, but our city has failed to deliver, and instead, has invested heavily in Band-Aid approaches such as shelters and transitional housing that have left so many of our neighbors on the street. Our leaders just need to muster the will to make the right investments.

A new stadium in East Village could be that catalyst. It would have been nice if a comprehensive plan to end homelessness had been included in Measure C, the stadium proposition. That sort of added public benefit might have even improved the Chargers’ odds of winning on Election Day. I was recently in Denver learning about the efforts there to move homeless people out of the downtown area. But instead of solving the problem in a humane, meaningful way, the city has merely spread people out—with many of them moving into the shopping districts and parks during the day and hiding out by the river at night.

Denver is a good example of what not to do.

If voters approve Measure C, San Diego must explicitly attach “solutions to homelessness” to the plan to build a new stadium—real solutions that balance quality of life for housed residents with pathways out of homelessness for those who are on the street.

When we implement effective pathways out of homelessness for many of our most vulnerable neighbors, we can also balance with law enforcement policies that are good for everyone. That means eliminating the current ongoing practice in San Diego of criminalizing homelessness.

The San Diego Police Department, with the implicit backing of Mayor Kevin Faulconer, essentially finds reasons to issue citations to people with no choice but to live on the street, such as blocking the sidewalk with a tent. Those citations come with court dates, which homeless people often miss, leading to arrest warrants for failure to appear in court, and jail time.

When people are enmeshed in that criminal-justice cycle, it becomes much harder to escape homelessness.

It’s too bad that the severe problem of homelessness in East Village hasn’t been a larger part of the discussion surrounding Measure C. But it isn’t too late to make it so.

A new stadium in East Village could be that catalyst.

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Michael McConnell is a philanthropist and advocate who serves on multiple local and regional homelessness advisory committees. He can be found on Facebook at Homelessness News San Diego and Twitter at @HomelessnessSD.

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

HIGH HEELS

Police had no reason to dismantle Olango memorial

W

hen Alfred Olango’s sister called 911 two weeks ago, she was seeking help for her brother, whom the media reported was mentally ill and the family has said was having an emotional crisis in reaction to the suicide of a friend. These details are beside the point: The police recorded the call as a 5150, or a psychiatric issue, and as such, should have dispatched the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT). This team being unavailable, officers untrained to handle a mental health crisis were dispatched instead. They arrived 50 minutes after the call, aggressively approached Olango and immediately cornered him, something mental health professionals say is the exact opposite of any de-escalation protocol.

In less than two minutes, one officer had tased Olango while the other shot and killed him. Neither officer attempted to talk to the victim’s sister who can be heard on cell phone video pleading that her brother was having a breakdown. Someone even tells her to “shut the fuck up!”

In a video posted to Facebook five days later, dozens of police officers in riot gear can be seen moving in on a small group of peaceful mourners holding vigil at the spot where Alfred Olango died. This shield-wearing, baton-wielding state-sponsored militia arrived after days of peaceful protests (“don’t, don’t, don’t believe the hype”) and declared that this also-peaceful gathering—which included at least two children—comprised an “unlawful assembly.”

The officers gave everyone 10 minutes to leave and then proceeded to move in slowly like a boa constrictor choking its prey, compressing the space from several directions until they’d boxed in the citizens who remained.

The children can be heard crying. Police arrested 17 people, including the mother of the kids on bogus charges.

And then. Then they began to dismantle

8 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

the memorial that had been built over several days, desecrating the memory of the man they killed.

I have been down in El Cajon, have participated in a faith-based gathering and march and have spent time at the exact spot where Alfred Olango died. It was while I was standing quietly at the restored memorial the day after the dismantling—looking at photos of Olango and his family, survivors of war and genocide, reading the handwritten messages left by friends and strangers alike—that I thought of Chelsea King.

For those who have forgotten, King was a beautiful, young high school student who was murdered while out on a run one day in Rancho Bernardo. Following the discovery of her body in a shallow grave, San Diegans came out by the thousands to mourn her loss.

There were vigils all across this city and up and down the coast. Memorials were erected to honor all the promise that had been snuffed out in one horrific, despicable and inexcusable act.

Elected officials and community leaders everywhere publicly mourned; Arnold Schwarzenegger, our governor at the time, came to Balboa Park in support of a law in King’s name.

There is a freeway bridge named after her, an annual 5K run and a foundation to honor her legacy.

“When our daughter Chelsea went missing, and we learned the terrible truth of our loss,” her parents write on the Chelsea’s Light Foundation’s homepage, “we struggled to find air to breathe.”

Those words. They are the words of a movement and make me feel some kind of way.

The grief of Chelsea’s parents is beyond imagination. But it is not unique to them, or to all who felt their loss so acutely as to be moved to show up, be visible, and then take action to make something good come from something despicable; to transform their feelings into policy change.

And during that time of such darkness and sorrow, anger and outrage over King’s senseless death, not one police department sent out militarized officers to break up the assembly of so many mourners and vigil-holders. There was not one single unlawful assembly declaration that I can remember. There were no ultimatums given to, or arrests of, folks gathered to contemplate the state of our humanity while peacefully lighting candles, holding hands, wrapping arms around one another, whispering memories and wiping away tears of grief for this life that had been snuffed out in one horrific, despicable and inexcusable act.

And there certainly, definitely, absolutely was no removal by police officers of candles or signs or flowers or stuffed animals from any memorial.

Some will write to tell me I’m comparing apples and oranges. And I will argue that I’m comparing black and white.

As I see it, Chelsea King and Alfred Olango were both loved by their families, friends and the communities in which they lived. As I see it, each were the now-unfulfilled promise of their parents. As I see it, the only real difference is that King was killed by a civilian monster while Olango was killed by a deputized one.

And that deputized one? He didn’t take a single moment to speak to Olango’s sister or hear what she had to say before he pulled his trigger four times at close range. Because she didn’t matter to him, and Olango didn’t matter to him. And the mourners at the taco shop where Olango died, who are still out there each night to alleviate this trauma and grief, do not matter to them, vividly underscoring without doubt and with punctuation, that all lives definitely, definitely do not fucking matter.

Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week. Write to aaryn@sdcitybeat.com.

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UP FRONT | VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

Understanding anxiety through horror films

A

scene from John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978): Laurie Holden sits in the back of a classroom. Given her prudish, overachieving personality, her placement within this educational environment seems unlike her. The camera slowly zooms up the rows of desks populated by her high school classmates, all defocused in the peripheral, and we understand her placement in the frame: she is a target. Apart from and a part of her environment.

Laurie looks out the window and sees a brown station wagon parked across the street. Behind it stands the ghostly figure of Michael Myers. She doesn’t know it’s Michael Myers—it’s just a shape. In fact, that’s how the character is credited—not Michael Myers but “The Shape,” an unstoppable, amorphous force of evil.

The teacher calls on Laurie to answer a question. Laurie answers. When she looks back out the window, both the car and The Shape are gone.

In October 2013, my heart starts to race. I place a hand against my chest and feel the heavy thumping of that knotty muscle. An ample pressure has been rising in my chest for the past couple months and I’m scared that it’s going to blow. I look around at my coworkers working quietly and try to decide on whom I want to aim my chest toward when the sucker erupts.

Who do I spray with viscera?

My boss talks to me. He looms over my desk like he’s 20 feet tall. I don’t know what he’s saying, but I grit my teeth and nod. How can he not hear my heart? I like him, but right now he’s a threat. My place of employment has become a terrifying environment, just like Laurie’s classroom.

In 2013, my surroundings become terrifying. I feel like a target in everyday life. It’s a feeling that’s always been with me, but now it hits a fever pitch. The Shape has come for me, but a mask-wielding character does not personify it—just illogical, amorphous forces that cause fight-or-flight physical reactions.

I sit at my desk and quietly wait for the panic attack to go away.

A scene from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead (1981): Evil has possessed Shelly. She lumbers toward her former friends, Ash and Scott, white-eyed and reaching to claw the life out of them. Ash holds an axe, but he cannot bring himself to strike Shelly. Scott screams out “Hit her! HIT HER!...HIT IT!” Scott grabs the axe out of Ash’s hands and savagely dismembers Shelly until blood pours down the screen.

Afterwards, Ash and Scott step back and watch Shelly’s body parts shiver in puddles of blood. They can’t even look in each other’s eyes. Ash asks, “What are we gonna do?”

Scott says, “We’re going to bury her.”

“We can’t bury Shelly,” Ash says. “She—she’s a friend of ours.”

Ash wants to maintain normalcy. To him, Shelly is

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still their friend, not the monster laying in pieces at their feet. He doesn’t yet know that things will never be normal again.

I become despondent. The stress of work, health, family, life—everything a healthy person should be able to balance—becomes too much. One night, my wife tells me she misses “the old Ryan.” I do, too.

I agree to see a psychologist. It feels like admitting defeat after a seemingly healthy upbringing, after following the right steps to—if not succeed—at least tread water in normal society. This is the bitch of mental illness: doing everything right and still feeling wrong. Feeling like you’ll never be normal again.

I see the psychologist three times. He asks what my interests are and I say horror and “dark stuff.” He lifts an eyebrow and writes something on his notepad.

I stop going after the third visit.

A scene from David Cronenburg’s The Fly (1986): Scientist Seth Brundle has fused himself with a fly, a slow and monstrous physical transformation, but doesn’t understand his love interest’s disgust. “The disease has just revealed its purpose,” he says. “It wants to turn me into something else. That’s not too terrible is it? Most people would give anything to be something else.”

I tell my doctor my symptoms, and she prescribes 300 mg of bupropion. During that first week, I feel alert, happy, carefree. I lose a little weight. This is amazing.

After some time, however, I notice my jaw clenching. I sweat like a goddamn madman. A twitch appears in my right eyelid. Certain songs and commercials begin to make me cry. I don’t feel in control of my feelings anymore. These are the transformations that are turning me into something else.

A scene from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982): MacCready sits alone in an office, drinking J&B scotch. An alien with the ability to take on human and animal form has infiltrated his Antarctic research station and a raging blizzard has isolated them from the rest of the world. The scene is lit blue, accentuating the bleakness. He speaks into a tape recorder: “Nobody... nobody trusts anybody now, and we’re all very tired.”

He stops the recording, rewinds and plays it again.

I watch horror movies in October 2013, the year I’m diagnosed with anxiety. I’ve watched them every year leading up, and will do every year following.

It’s one of the few occasions where my anxiety feels natural. Horror has been a method by which I can understand my own illness, and what incubates me from the awkward glares, the societal stigmas and the frightening unknown. It’s lonely, sometimes, sitting in the darkened theater by myself, but it’s the type of fear that I can handle.

Well That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com.

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE The wow factor

B

efore I noticed the painted “wall” ringing the top of the dining room, I thought it might just be a silly name. But was “Great Wow” really a politically incorrect pun on “Great Wall?” Had Trump already been elected and I just failed to notice? In fact, the Chinese characters actually spelled out “wall.” Then I tasted the food at the latest addition to the Convoy District’s collection of regional Chinese restaurants. Wow. Great Wow (3860 Convoy St.) is a Beijing-style Northern Chinese dumpling and noodle house. Dive right into the noodles with its take on zha jiang mian (Beijing fried sauce noodles): Great Wow noodles with meat. A bowl of noodles is topped with sections of julienned cucumbers and carrots as well as chopped celery and bean sprouts, appearing like a Chinese, noodly take on bibimbap. The real action lies in the sauce of pork cooked down slowly in its fat with bean paste and soy, almost a Chinese version of pork rilletes or confit. You combine it all at the table for one of the most satisfying bowls of noodles anywhere.

At the heart of Great Wow’s menu are a variety of jiaozi, Chinese boiled dumplings. These aren’t the delicate steamed affairs of dim sum nor are they hearty, nearly Eastern European pierogi-like dumplings. They’re hand-rolled wrappers filled with a variety of meat, seafood and vegetable fillings. Every table has little bottles of soy, black vinegar and chile oil (along with a white pepper shaker) that diners can use to mix their own dumpling sauce.

My favorite was the bok choy, dried-shrimpand-egg-filled boiled dumplings. The wrappers are thin with a toothsome, almost stretchy texture. The filling features a burst of savory flavors with the shrimp coming to the front and the egg

10 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

rounding things out. Other great dumpling options at Great Wow include the pork, chive-andshrimp and the beef-and-mushroom.

Great Wow’s “bao wow”–think smaller versions of dim sum buns along the lines of char siu bao—are also good choices. On one trip, the braised pork buns were excellent: a delicious, savory and meaty explosion of flavor inside a doughy bun. On another trip, however, the filling was nothing more than heavy. Its version of xiao long bao (soup dumplings) was excellent if unusual, with a deeply porky flavor.

MICHAEL A. GARDINER

Cucumber and tofu skin cold apps The cold appetizers are a mixed bag. While the tofu skin dish seemed light on the soy and heavy on the chile oil, the cucumber appetizer was both dramatic (whole cucumbers spiral cut to take the pickling) and delicious with an unexpected sweetness. But it was the tripe appetizer that really stood out, the balanced ma la spicy marinade managed to bring out all of the meatiness of the tripe without even a hint of residual minerality.

We’ve gotten used to regional Chinese food in San Diego. We’ve gotten used to the idea that Chinese doesn’t have to mean the Cantonese Top 40 or dim sum. But the wow factor at Great Wow is its completely unique—at least for San Diego— take on the theme of noodles and dumplings.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

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UP FRONT | FOOD

BY JAMES VERNETTE

DISHING IT

the heat of the sauce and the spiciness of the sausage blended very nicely. So nicely that we ate them before I remembered to take a photograph.

My dining companions and I also enjoyed the fried squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and goat cheese and served on the plate with pesto Globally-influenced aioli. Alternately crunchy and soft, the tanginess of the cheese was nicely complemented by the American food earthiness of the basil in the pesto aioli.

By comparison, the grilled shishito peppers lorent Restaurant (672 Fifth Ave.) is one of were too salty. Of course, it was an excuse to those places that locals often pass by while order more drinks, so let’s call them a push. going to other places in the Gaslamp. It just I am trying to eat more low-carb foods these looks like a place that is made for convention days, and I am happy to say that Florent has a goers and not for locals. But, after eating there, lot of creative side dishes that fit the bill. I was I have to eat the words I wrote in the previous especially impressed by the presence of spaghetti sentence: Florent has a lot to like for locals, as squash, which is a good substitute for potatoes or well as visitors to the Gaslamp. rice, and cucumber-wakame salad, COURTESY OF FLORENT an Asian-influenced salad with a soy sauce-type dressing.

The sides played together nicely with the seared big eye tuna. Mine consisted of about five large chunks that were seared on the outside, nice and rare on the inside.

My friend’s pan-roasted chicken was a surprise. Usually, chicken at a restaurant can be bland, something for people afraid of food. Florent’s chicken was moist, tender with a mustard sauce that hit the spot.

For dessert, there is one thing to get and it could make your whole meal: The Cravory Cookie Seared big fin tuna Sandwich. They take cookies made by the Cravory in Point Loma and The name Florent sounds vaguely European, put them with ice cream. but the emphasis is on American fare with a Simple? Yes! Delicious? Uh huh! They rotate global influence. San Diego is a multi-cultural the cookies. I enjoyed the chocolate fudge. city and the menu reflects that in a way that feels I wasn’t a fan of everything we tried. Florent American. has a watermelon-cucumber mojito, but my There are some refreshing cocktails here. I other friend had a regular mojito. It was just OK. went there on a very hot Sunday and wanted She got the Restaurant Week steak and something cool. For that, I recommend the thought it was just OK. That must have been Pimm’s & Gin, a variation on a popular daytime tough, considering how I was enjoying my tuna drink in Britain with angostura bitters, lemon and her husband was enjoying his chicken. and ginger beer along with the gin and Pimm’s, a Although not everything was a home run at liqueur made from gin. It’s definitely a good go-to Florent, there was enough good stuff that I will cocktail for global warming. probably go back again, even if it’s just for drinks For appetizers, go for the Brussels sprouts and dessert. which have the cultural cross pollination thing going by grilling them with Spanish chorizo and Asian chili sauce. The bitterness of the sprouts, Dishing It Out appears every other week.

OUT F

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October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

UP FRONT | DRINK BETH DEMMON

FINAL

BY BETH DEMMON

DRAUGHT The state of San Diego cider

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ariations of apple cider have existed for at least a millennium, making it one of the oldest types of fermented libation the world has ever seen.

Since its Paleolithic inception, cider has undergone huge swings in popularity that range from being the beverage of choice for early American settlers to the cloyingly sweet “alco-pops” favored by sorority sisters.

While hard cider still has a ways to go to shake off its “girly” beverage stigma, there are a few cider devotees proselytizing its potential. Brian Trout—San Diego’s indisputable champion of all things cider, educator at the Homebrewer and for Half Pint Ciders, and one the first people to become a (CCP) Certified Cider Professional— filled me in on the state of what he calls “gorgeous drinks.”

“Following the years after Prohibition, craft cider was all but dead,” says Trout. However, in the past decade there’s been a resurgence in demand. “Over the past 10 years, craft cider has seen…over 70 percent growth per year every year [in America].”

Cider’s creation process is similar to winemaking, but “it has a humble ‘drink of the people’ feel to it the same as craft beer,” claims Trout. “According to apple historian Dan Bussey, there are 16,468 apple varietals in North America alone.” That means there’s quite a bit of variety

12 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

when it comes to cider flavor profiles, many of which may appeal to craft beer drinkers.

“Craft cider might come across like saisons, pilsners, old ales, wild (sour) ales, lambics, gueuzes and even IPAs,” Trout says. There’s also overlap when it comes to the yeasts used in craft beer and cider. White Labs has multiple strains in their vaults that can be used to brew both, depending on the end result brewers hope to achieve (dry, neutral, fruity or even spicy).

Trout recommends two local craft cideries for their “American Farmhouse rustic quality”—Julian Ciderworks, where they grow, ferment and process their cider onsite, and 101 Cider House in the Los Angeles area, which focuses on one-off blends that are never pasteurized or filtered, and thanks to their wild fermentation, contain three times the probiotics as kombucha.

Since Southern California’s climate and terroir aren’t ideal for apple growing, many “local” ciders are actually made from orchards in the Pacific Northwest. However, Trout assures me that several cideries are leading the charge to plant more orchards in the region, which will feature more cider-appropriate varieties and eschew the common “eating” apple cultivars such as Cripps Pinks, Fijis, or Granny Smiths.

Trout predicts that within two years there will be at least one or two cider bars in San Diego, and with two local cideries already in the works—Serpentine Cider and

Julian apples Raging Cider Co.—we may already be on the cusp of a craft cider revolution. And that’s just fine with him.

“I’m seeing more restaurants, bars and bottle shops (like Bottlecraft, Bine & Vine, Chris’s Liquor & Deli, and Holiday Wine Cellars) offering craft ciders and expanding the varieties, [as well as] more adventurous beer drinkers and wine drinkers not as cider-shy... which creates an environment for craft growth all over.”

Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com, check her out on Instagram@thedelightedbite and on Twitter at @ iheartcontent.

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SHORTlist

EVENTS

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

BALBOA PARK

1

RALLY TIME

We’ve long been proponents and promoters of a simple philosophy: San Diegans need to buy more art from local artists. End of story. Mic drop.

OK, well, obviously we have more to say on the topic. We believe one of the best ways to get in the spirit of buying art is to start small. A $50 painting here, a $20 drawing there, and soon enough our homes start to look like modern art museums. It’s like a bag of Lay’s potato chips. Once you start, you can’t have just one.

in the same place at the same time. Second, they’ll all be diligently producing live art in a variety of mediums, all of which will be on sale for $60.

“It’s gotten so big that we have a waiting list of artists who want to participate,” says SDAI Executive Director Ginger Shulick Porcella. “The artists are making the work on-site so the people aren’t just getting an amazing and original piece of art, they’re getting to talk to the artist and seeing the work in progress. They’re getting to know these people so they’re so much more invested in that piece of art.”

EMILY CORKERY Given the name of the event, it’s easy to assume that all of the art will be of spooky things, but the “monster” descriptor is much more representative of the pace and quantity of artists in attendance. The artists will work in four one-hour shifts with the results going up for sale after that shift ends. There will also be live music from bands, such as Mankinda, Big Bloom and HEXA. If we had to choose a few artists to look out for, some of our favorites include Addison Stonestreet, Bhavna Mehta, Monster Drawing Rally Eva Struble and CityBeat art director Carolyn Ramos.

That’s one of the reasons the third annual It all goes down Friday, Oct. 14, from 6 to 11 Monster Drawing Rally at the San Diego Art In- p.m. Admission is $5 and proceeds from the art go stitute (1439 El Prado) is so great. First off, it’s rare directly to the artists and to SDAI. sandiego-art. to see this many great local artists (more than 70!) org

2

SAN DIEGO

NORTH PARK

WHAT A PAIR

PARK PALATES

If there’s one thing San Diegans love more than craft beer, it’s boobs.

So it makes sense that San Diegans would combine the two treasures for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. First up, pink pedalers can bike around Shelter Island at Bike for Boobs, the 4th annual ride supporting The Breast Cancer Fund. Meet at The Wine Pub at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16, for the ride and after, the Pub (thewinepubsd.com) will have live music, food and drinks. There’s a suggested donation of $25. If you’d rather skip the exercise and jump straight into drinking, check out the Brews and Food Save Boobs beer fest at Barons Market. From 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, Barons’ three San Diego locations will provide snacks and brews from brewery The Lost Abbey, with proceeds benefitting Susan G. Komen. $15. komensandiego.org

JOHN CALLERY

3

Fall doesn’t initiate much seasonal change in San Diego considering the minimal deviation from the average 75 degrees.

Nevertheless, autumn does promise the arrival of the much-anticipated Taste of North Park.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, more than 50 of the neighborhood’s most beloved restaurants will be dishing out bites of some of their signature dishes: from the delicacies of Heaven Sent Desserts and the scrumptious sandwiches of Pete’s Seafood, to the pan-French cuisine of The Smoking Goat and the, well, those delicious tacos at City Tacos. Along the way, 15 local breweries will be set up in participating galleries and boutiques to quench your thirst with crafty creations. The self-guided tour begins in the heart COURTESY NORTH PARK MAIN STREET of North Park at 30th Street and University Avenue, and tickets can be purchased online for $35. n o r t hp arkmainstreet. com

*Lucas Coffin: PEMDAS at UCSD Visual Arts Facility Performance Space, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Coffin’s M.F.A. thesis exhibition explores the physical and metaphysical power relationships between material, people, institutions and unsolved visual teaching philosophies.

Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. Free. 858-534-2230, visarts.ucsd.edu *Why We Collect... The 20th Century at Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Dr., Clairemont. An exhibition based on a love for collecting original works of fine art. Includes samples of Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and more styles. Includes a panel discussion with Debby Kline, Larry Kline and others. Opening from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 13. Free. 619-388-2829, sdmesa.edu/art-gallery *Monster Drawing Rally at San Diego Art Institute, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Over 70 artists will create full-fledged artworks on site that will immediately be made available for $60 each. Artists include Addison Stonestreet, Bhavna Mehta, Eva Struble and more. Music performances by Mankinda, Big Bloom and HEXA. From 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14. $5. sandiego-art.org *Tom Driscoll: Drawings at Ronis & Associates, 1946 Broadway, Golden Hill.

A small survey of drawings and sketches from the iconic local artist spanning the last 25 years. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14. Free. 619-232-1266, facebook.com/events/1634624770169606 *Never Not Working at Subtext, 2479 Kettner Blvd., Little Italy. The Mexicoborn, L.A.-based artist, illustrator and muralist will present new work of his signature shapes and designs. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. Free. 619-876-0664, facebook.com/ events/678572115625001 Open Studios San Diego at The Studio Door, 3750 30th St., North Park. A selfguided artist tour of greater San Diego where attendees will become familiar with local studio artists and see the variety of work available. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 15 and Sunday, Oct. 16.

Free. openstudiossandiego.com *Revelations of the Chattering Ether...

Revealed at Helmuth Projects, 1827 Fifth Ave., Bankers Hill. New work by artist Jefferson Eisenberg is being staged in celebration of work done by Helmuth Projects and contributing artists. From 7 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 15. Free. 619-265-6842, sayingtheleastandsayingitloud.com

BOOKS *Brit Bennett at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The writer of the lightning-rod essay, “I Don’t Know What to Do With Good White People,” will be discussing and signing her debut novel, The Mothers. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Melissa Hartwig at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The bestselling writer and sports nutritionist will speak about and sign Food Freedom Forever: Letting Go of Bad Habits, Guilt, and Anxiety Around Food. At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 13. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Leslie Duval at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. As part of Warwick’s ongoing Weekend with Locals program, Leslie Duval will sign and read from her children’s book, Too Big to Lose. At noon. Saturday, Oct. 15. Free. 858-4540347, warwicks.com Derek Taylor Kent at Mysterious Galaxy

Bike For Boobs

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Ranchos Cocina

H = CityBeat picks

Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The multi-genre kids author will discuss and sign his new adult thriller, Kubrick’s Game. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16. Free. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Callista and Newt Gingrich at Barnes & Noble Mira Mesa, 10775 Westview Pkwy., Mira Mesa. The two people will be signing copies their respective new ventures, the children’s book Hail to the Chief (Callista) and the novel Treason (Newt). At 7 p.m.

Monday, Oct. 17. Free. 858-684-3166, barnesandnoble.com *Jane Alexander at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The actress and author will discuss and sign her new book, Wild Things, Wild Places: Adventurous Tales of Wildlife and Conservation on Planet Earth. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Jodi Picoult at Marriott Hotel and Marina, 333 W. Harbor Drive, Downtown. The bestselling author of Leaving Time will present her newest novel, Small Great Things, at this annual author’s luncheon hosted by Sam the Cooking Guy. At noon. Wednesday, Oct. 19. $20. wordsalive.org

DANCE Jump Jive at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. The California Ballet dancers will perform a program infused with ‘60s rock, ‘40s Big Band swing and the syncopated rhythms of the Roaring ‘20s. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14 and Saturday, Oct. 15. Friday, Oct. 14. $40. 619570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org *Swan Lake at Spreckels Theater, 121 Broadway, Downtown. The acclaimed Russian Grand Ballet will present Tchaikovsky’s classic story of a prince who works to free a swan maiden from an evil spell. At 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 15. $25-$80. 619-2359500, russiangrandballet.com

FILM La Costa Film Festival at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa, 2100 Costa Del Mar Road, Carlsbad. The fourth annual festival will show films ranging from documentaries and features to short films. Takes place from Thursday, Oct. 13 to Sunday, Oct. 16. Various times. $15-$350.

760-438-9111, lacostafilmfestival.org *40 North Dance Film Festival at various locations. The second annual fest will feature 36 dance-related films that will screen in three events, each in a different location, over two weekends. See website for list of films and locations. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, Thursday, Oct. 20 and Saturday, Oct. 22. $15. 40northfest.com

FOOD & DRINK *Dine Out for the Cure at various locations. Dozens of San Diego restaurants will give a percentage of the day’s proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. See website for full list of participating restaurants. From 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 13. Prices vary. 619-2335008, komensandiego.org/dineout/ *Taste of North Park at North Park, Various addresses, North Park. The seventh annual tasting event will feature more than 50 participating restaurants, craft-brewery stops, wine bars, shops and art galleries.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. $35. 619-555-5555, tastenorthpark.com Tijuana Taco Tour at Turista Libre Meeting Spot, 727 E. San Ysidro Blvd, Tijuana.

Trek to the edges of Tijuana in search of the city’s most authentic incarnations (mmm... carne), the Mexican taco. From 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. $55. 858754-9406, turistalibre.com

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

MUSIC *Sean Dowgray at UCSD Conrad Prebys Music Center, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla.

The UCSD graduate student and percussionist Sean Dowgray will perform his first D.M.A. recital with a program that includes selections from Josh Levine, Richard Barrett, and more. At 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. Free. music.ucsd.edu/concerts The Mersey Beatles at David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre, 4126 Executive Dr., La Jolla. The all-Liverpool-born Beatles tribute band was the house band for over a decade at the world-famous Cavern Club. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. $25-$55. 858-362-1348, lfjcc.org Bed Club: Skin Lies, Slum Summer and Russian Tremors at Sleep Bedder, 2855 El Cajon Blvd., Ste. #4 , Live performances from kosmische band Skin Lies, as well as local garage-prog-punkers Russian Tremors and the new halfBritish/half-Californian indie rock quartet Slum Summer. At 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14. $5. 619-892-7412 , facebook.com/ events/1583079185330211 *Opening Weekend with Gil Shaham at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The Grammy Award-winning violinist performs Felix Mendelssohn’s popular concerto in this season opener for the San Diego Symphony. At 8 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 14, Saturday, Oct. 15, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16. $25-$72. 619235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org Jazz Diego at Qualcomm Stadium, 9449 Friars Road, Mission Valley. This jazz festival includes performances from Paul Brown, Marc Antoine, Gregg Karukas, Jessy J and DW3, as well as an indie artist showcase. From 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. $50-$100. jazzdiego.com Magic Under the Stars at Qualcomm Stadium Practice Field, 9449 Friars Rd., Mission Valley. Funk legends Lakeside, responsible for “Fantastic Voyage”, will perform at the Qualcomm Stadium practice field. Also performing: Klymaxx, Club Nouveau and Funk’s Most Wanted. From 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. $35-$85.

619-407-4180, magicunderthestars.com Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Anderson, known as the frontman for the classic rock band Jethro Tull, reimagines the band’s namesake with a narrative concert set in the near future. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17. $50. 619570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org Alessia Cara at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The R&B singer behind the monster hit “Here” will stop by on her current Know-It-All Tour. At 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 18. $20-$50. 619-2350804, sandiegosymphony.org *Sandbox Percussion Quartet at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights.

The foursome made up of four drummers takes chamber music to new and interesting levels. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19. $10-$15. freshsoundmusic.com

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD *UCSD New Writing Series: Anselm Berrigan and Karen Weiser at UCSD Visual Arts Facility Performance Space, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Two poets will recite some of their latest works. Anselm Berrigan is known for his books Come In Alone and Primitive State, while Karen Weiser is recognized for her second collection of poems Or, The Ambiguities. At 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 12. Free. 858-5342230, hh-literature.ucsd.edu *Now That’s What I Call Poetry Vol. 28

14 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

“Night & Day Party” by Richard Allen Morris will be on view at Why We Collect: the 20th Century..., a group exhibition opening from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, at Mesa College Art Gallery (7250 Mesa College Dr.) in Clairemont. at Tiger! Tiger!, 3025 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. The monthly poetry showcase will feature Lizz Huerta, Sarah Ciston, Kimmy Walters, and more. From 7:30 to 10 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 16. Free. tigertigertavern. blogspot.com

POLITICS & COMMUNITY *#SchoolsNotPrisons Arts & Music Tour at Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, 404 Euclid Ave., Lincoln Park.

The traveling tour features musician Aloe Blacc and community leaders calling for an end to overspending on prisons and more investment in education, health and community-based safety. From 5:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14. Free. 619-5276161, schoolsnotprisons.vote

SPECIAL EVENTS *Orchids & Onions Awards Ceremony at Spreckels Theater, 121 Broadway, Downtown. The San Diego Architectural Foundation presents this year’s crop of design awards acknowledging the best and the “could be better” of San Diego’s built environment. From 5 to 11 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 13. $20-$105. 619-2359500, sdaf.wildapricot.org/ *Urban Solace Pop-Up Shop at Urban Solace, 3823 30th St., North Park. Local brands will be selling home goods, hand-made crafts and more with some proceeds donated to culinary charity Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center. Bites will be available, as well as drinks. From 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. Free. 619-295-6464, facebook.com/ events/1209239789126519 *Fall Plant Sale at San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. The sale features plants come from over 100 local growers and nurseries, including an extensive selection of houseplants and succulents. There will also be a used book sale, homemade jams and jellies and more. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 15 and Sunday, Oct. 16 and 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Oct. 17. Saturday, Oct. 15. $8-$14. 760-436-3036, SDBGarden.org *San Diego Modern Home Tour at various locations. View five of San Diego’’s finest modern and mid-century homes in this self-guided driving tour benefitting the San Diego Architectural Foundation.

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. Free-$40. mads.media *Bike for Boobs at The Wine Pub , 2907 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Pink pedalers can bike around Shelter Island at the fourth annual ride supporting The Breast Cancer Fund. The Wine Pub will have a post-race event with live music, food and drinks. At 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16. $25 suggested donation. thewinepubsd.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS *San Diego Candidate Forum on Policing Issues at East African Cultural Community Center, 4061 Fairmount Ave., College Area. The National Action Network of San Diego and Women Occupy San Diego cohost a candidates’ forum for City Attorney and City Council District 9, focusing on police accountability, racial justice and criminal justice issues. Moderated by Kelly Davis. From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12. Free. facebook.com/events/237890269946148 *Crossover: Where Comics and Science Meet: Orphan Black and the Science of Cloning at San Diego Comic Art Gallery, 2765 Truxtun Road, Barracks 3, Point Loma. Enjoy a local brew and a discussion addressing the creative and scientific sides of comics. Speakers include Denton J. Tipton, editor at Orphan Black comics, and Jody Houser, writer at Orphan Black comics. From 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14. $15. 858-270-1315, rhfleet.org *The New Narrative Presents: Identity at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. Speakers from the arts, academia, science, spirituality, business and neighborhood communities share their stories on the theme of identity. Featuring Omar Passons, Ozzie Monge, Syra Evans, Gabi Schaffzin, and more. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. $15-$20. thenewnarrative.org

WORKSHOPS *Physique Live Painting Demonstration at Sparks Gallery, 530 6th Ave., Gaslamp. Local artist Anna Stump will perform a live painting demonstration with a model from Blue Jeans and Bikinis Gaslamp. Includes a chat with Stump about her style and works currently on display at Sparks Gallery. From 6 p.m. to midnight Thursday, Oct. 13. Free. 619-696-1416, facebook.com/events/1751961198392972/

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THEATER INTREPID THEATRE CO.

Three friends come close to losing it in ART.

Intrepid presents an artful comedy

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RT is smart. It’s also funny as hell, which makes braving the Gaslamp traffic to see this urbane one-act comedy well worth the effort. The play

by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hamptom and directed by Christy Yael-Cox, is the inaugural production in Intrepid Theatre Co.’s seventh season, its first as permanent resident of the Horton Grand Theatre. Yael-Cox, a truly gifted director, has a literate, witty script and three indefatigable actors (Daren Scott, Jason Heil, Jacob Bruce) to work with.

When the pseudo-intellectual Serge (Heil) brings home a monochromatic (that’s being kind) painting that he paid 200 grand for, he unwittingly (well, maybe not) ignites a series of combustible conversations, some of which even turn physical, between himself and his best friends Marc (Scott) and Yvan (Bruce).

All three guys’ posturing, neuroses and insecurities come to the fore in delightfully shuddering put-downs, wisecracks and gamesmanship. The actors’ grimaces and expressions of affront and selfrighteousness add to the thorough hilarity, which never lapses into silliness.

ART is one of those rare plays you just might go see a second time.

ART runs through Nov. 6 at the Horton Grand Theatre, downtown. $38-$58; intrepidtheatre.org *** enjamin Scheuer’s personal emotional catharsis is expressed less by the lyrics of his songs and the brief soliloquies in between them than by the way he plays one of the six guitars on stage with him. This is how Scheuer’s one-man show The Lion is best absorbed.

Listen, and let the strumming, whether it be plaintive or incendiary, carry you where Scheuer wants to take you. The Lion traffics in the disconnect between father and son, Scheuer being the son.

This in itself is a timeworn theme, though The Lion is an autobiographical story. In the long run, Scheuer’s solo show on the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White stage is more about his coming to terms with his father’s mortality by confronting

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his own. The lion metaphors are out of the bag early, and a few of the songs feel unfinished, but Scheuer’s commitment to sharing his painful lessons learned is undeniable.

The Lion runs through Oct. 30 at the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. $29 and up. oldglobe.org

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Equivocation: A playwright named “Shagspeare” is forcibly commissioned by the King to write the definitive history of the Gunpowder Plot in Bill Cain’s acclaimed who-done-it. Directed by Deborah Gilmour Smyth, it opens Oct. 14 at the Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. lambsplayers.org God of Carnage: In Yasmina Reza’s comedy, two sets of parents tussle after their kids get into a playground fight. Directed by Jessica Bird, it opens in previews Oct. 14 at the New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. newvillagearts.org Mulan Jr.: The kid-friendly musical based on the Disney movie about a young woman who poses as a boy to help fight the Huns. Presented by Patio Playhouse Youth Theatre, it opens Oct. 14 at the Patio Playhouse in Escondido. patioplayhouse.com Something Inside is Broken: A Native American opera about the Nisenan tribe of Northern California. Presented by On Native Ground, it opens for two performances Oct. 14 at the Center Theatre at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. artcenter.org El Cipitío: A dark comedy based on a novel about a three-foot El Salvadoran who eventually becomes the President of the U.S. Presented by Amigos del Rep, it happens Oct. 17 at the Lyceum Space in the Gaslamp. sdrep.org The Year of Magical Thinking: A staged reading of the one-woman-show based on Joan Didion’s bestselling memoir about the sudden loss of her husband and daughter. Presented by Intrepid Theatre Company, it happens Oct. 17 at the Encinitas Library. intrepidtheatre.org Laughter on the 23rd Floor: Neil Simon’s comedy about his early days in live television working with the likes of Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. Directed by Tom Markus, it opens Oct. 19 at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org For full theater listings, visit “Theater”at sdcitybeat.com

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

16 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

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October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

CULTURE | ART

COURTESY OF AARON LEAF

Selections from Aaron Leaf’s “San Diego Stolen Lives” series CTIVIST AND ARTIST AARON LEAF has been relentlessly organizing the community since 38-year-old Ugandan refugee Alfred Olango was shot and killed by El Cajon Police. It’s Sunday afternoon and protests haven’t started yet, but he and fellow United Against Police Terror (UAPT) activist Catherine Mendonça, who is also Leaf’s girlfriend, are working away in their City Heights apartment. Leaf is editing video footage from Saturday’s protests while Mendonça updates the organization’s social media. They expect more protests later on especially since 12 protestors—including a member of UAPT—were arrested earlier that morning.

“This should be happening every time someone is killed by police,” Leaf says of the community uproar.

For years, Leaf has been using art to document the lives of Olango and others killed by San Diego police with various graphic designs, including a series of portraits he calls “San Diego Stolen Lives.” The 37-year-old Leaf started UAPT with Mendonça about five years ago. They met through the Occupy City Heights movement and bonded over activism.

“We noticed there isn’t a lot of people involved in police accountability,” says Leaf. “There are organizations that are doing other things in San Diego but police accountability is something that is definitely lacking.”

Leaf and Mendonça decided on a mission for their grassroots watchdog organization: Document police and support families of individuals killed by law enforcement.

Besides filming police interactions for their Copwatch YouTube series, UAPT’s documentation includes an ongoing list of San Diegans killed by law enforcement called San Diego Stolen Lives: Killed by San Diego Law Enforcement.

The list includes details of 602 police-related deaths dating back to 1980. Inspired by the Stolen Lives Project created by the anti-police brutality group October 22nd Coalition, Leaf and Mendonça gathered information for their own list by reading relevant news articles and speaking with families of victims. Leaf began creating graphic designs of some of the victims on the San Diego Stolen Lives list.

“To get the names and pictures out there and let them know that they’re human beings,” says Leaf of the project’s purpose. “They’re normal people. Just because they got shot by a cop—guilty or not—they have a life, they have a family, they have kids. We think about the other side.”

The designs look like a stencil with the victim’s face shaped out of bold white lines against a black background.

18 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

They’re each labeled with the person’s name, the date they died and the San Diego police department involved with the death. To create the portrait, Leaf finds photographs for his portraits through his research for the San Diego Stolen Lives list. News articles, online obituaries and sometimes families will provide a photograph he can use.

He then uploads the victim’s photograph into a program similar to Photoshop and changes the threshold until the image looks like a black-and-white photocopy.

Leaf then uses a paintbrush tool to smooth out lines and highlight details until he has a clear image of the person’s face. The simplicity of the design allows for the portraits to be easily printed onto various mediums, such as t-shirts and banners.

“We have also done fundraisers with those designs,” says Leaf. UAPT sometimes sets up an online campaign where people can buy the t-shirts and have the profits sent to a victim’s family.

Leaf created such a campaign for his late friend, Victor Ortega. Before making a portrait he usually gets permission from the family of the victim.

“Some of them are from back in the day, so we don’t have contact with all the family,” says Leaf.

“We actually have families that don’t mind the work that we do, but they just kind of want to be left alone because it’s a touchy topic.”

The portraits are bold, upfront, raw and unforgiving about their political message, much like Leaf’s other artwork. Creating under the name IRATE Productions, there’s images of cops with scythes à la the Grim Reaper, police clashing with protestors, revolutionaries and portraits of people killed by police. All are done in black, red and white—UAPT’s colors. Leaf draws influences from graffiti artists such as Shepard Fairey and Banksy, as well as propaganda art.

Looking at Leaf’s artwork hung in their apartment,

Mendonça describes his style as dark. “The edges are hard and it’s very raw,” she says. “It highlights what is necessary. It’s not soft. When you look at these pieces you don’t say it’s just a soft photo, you see the action happening. He emphasizes what you need to see, what is the injustice.”

His artistic style, color choices and subject matter reflect Leaf and Mendonça’s activism style: upfront, confrontational and anarcho-syndicalist. Leaf, Mendonça and the handful of activists that make up UAPT are often on LARA MCCAFFREY the ground filming police interactions for accountability purposes, and they are unrepentant about the harsh language they use regarding the San Diego Police Department (e.g. see their “San Diego Killer Cop” list) and they don’t look to bigger organizations for direction.

This type of aggressive messaging has provoked many a response—some good and some bad. Last year, UAPT received hate mail sent from the office of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. UAPT was able to trace the IP address used to send the email to the sheriff’s office. The department launched an internal investigation into the email, but did not report on taking any action.

With the “San Diego Stolen Lives” portraits and all his designs, Leaf has enough material Aaron Leaf for an art show but he isn’t interested in that. At this moment and into the future, he reiterates that all his creative endeavors will be devoted to activism and that the best use for his art is to communicate the desire for more police accountability.

“I think it’s a way to really get it out there and to burn an image into somebody’s brain,” says Leaf.

Olango is only the most recent portrait. Leaf has created more than 50 portraits of victims and plans to make as many as he can.

“The more that we show, the bigger message it makes.”

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CULTURE | ART

SEEN LOCAL

“Yes, it was for the Jews and was created because Jews were banned from other places,” says Scheinfeld.

Scheinfeld moved to San Diego from New York in 2002. She began working on the Borscht Belt project while she was a graduate student at San Diego State University. This work resulted in a solo exhibition at hotographer Marisa Scheinfeld (marisa- the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla. scheinfeld.com) has had the cops called on She eventually moved back to New York in 2011 to her a number of times over the last few years. finish the project. The Borscht Belt book is comShe all but admits to being a perpetual trespasser posed of 129 original photos of nearly 40 properties.

The 35mm pics are accented with varying ephemwhile working on her recently released book, The (L) CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS / (R) WALTER BRISKI JR. era such as vintage photos and quotes from the likes of Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Mel Brooks and Larry King, Remains of America’s Jewamong others. ish Vacationland, which Scheinfeld covered evdocuments the abandoned erything from flocks of birds hotels and resorts of the living in hotel suites to swimCatskills Mountains ming pools that had been takin upstate New York. en over by the forest. “What’s “I certainly prereally interesting is that what ferred to get permisoccurred in this space, in this sion, but I did tresJewish vacation land. It impass,” says Scheinfeld, pacted and spilled over into from her home near Marisa Scheinfeld mainstream popular culture.

Katonah, New York.

Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, “The police would they all polished their chops in the showrooms there.” come to arrest me and Scheinfeld will be coming back to San Diego to ask me what I was doing there. I’d tell them I was promote the book on Thursday, Oct. 20, at 7:30 p.m. working on a project, and they’d just look at me like, ‘What? What are you doing here? There’s nothing the Athenaeum. She’ll also appear as a guest speaker at the Medium Festival of Photography on Saturday, here.’”

There most certainly was something there. Oct. 22, at 3 p.m. at the Lafayette Hotel in North Park.

“Yes, I made the work in the Catskills, but for a Scheinfeld says there were 538 hotels and properlot of this work, I was living and editing in San Dities in the area. Between the ’20s and ’60s, the area became known as the Borscht Belt or “Jewish Alps” ego,” Scheinfeld says. “You might not see it, but San thanks to the influx of Jewish vacationers who Diego has a lot of presence in this book for me.” flocked there.

—Seth Combs

BELOW THE BELT

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AROUND THE EDGE

The group started meeting on the first Monday of every month and worked primarily in Brookman’s ith a name like On the Edge Art Collec- foyer. Around this time, Hyde read an article about tive, one might expect a posse of 20-some- people in New York doing pop-up apartment and thing hipsters posted up in a Barrio Logan garden shows and decided that it would be a good fit warehouse painting on discarded pieces of plywood. for On the Edge. For their first group show on SunInstead, I’m standing in the San Carlos home of On day, Oct. 23, titled Dirty Brushes, Brookman says to the Edge member Bebe Brookman listening to more expect varying kinds of SETH COMBS than a dozen women art in every corner of her discuss everything from house (located at 6378 their grandchildren to Lake Athabaska Place) who made the delicious and the backyard garden. potluck potato salad.

Ultimately, the hope is “I’d love it if someone that the shows will catch considered my work to be on and inspire others to edgy,” jokes Sandee Bass. do the same.

In reality, the collec“I ultimately envision tive of 15 female artists it as people coming and got their name from the seeing the gardens and On the Edge Art Gallery wanting to do a show in in La Mesa. Previously, their own garden,” says On the Edge collective On the Edge Art Collective Brookman, who adds member Midge Hyde that there are already had curated the gallery. She said she started the col- plans for hosting future arts shows in gardens all lective last year in hopes that they’d help each other over San Diego. be better artists.

The collective is open to new members, but the “When we work together, we can push ourselves women giggle when asked if men are welcome. and each other to the edge a little bit,” Hyde says.

They’d be open to it, but for now, they’re just hapWhile the meetings were originally held in py to have a place where they’re free to create with Hyde’s home, it wasn’t long before the group needed other women. more space.

“It’s hard to show at many galleries, because they “I sort of recruited Bebe because her house was so can be so constraining for individuals,” says Gegna. big,” says Hyde jokingly. “We really wanted to make it “The fact that we are so diverse is one of our greatest where we could get together, make art and, well, eat. strengths.”

At my house we would have just have been eating.”

—Seth Combs

W

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October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

CULTURE | FILM

Long Way North

Sea legs Rémi Chayé’s bold animated film balances adventure and self-discovery

by Glenn Heath Jr.

C

ourage seems to skip a generation in Long Way by scrupulous men who’ve momentarily lost their North. The film’s determined teenage heroine way. There are no standard villains to hate, just Sasha (Christa Théret) has always wanted to the danger of indecision and hubris punctuated by follow in the footsteps of her explorer grandfather, Mother Nature’s fury. At the center of it all is a young Oloukine (Féodor Atkine). He was the stoic and woman who continues to improvise and problem brave captain of a lost government expedition to solve (practically and scientifically) no matter the the North Pole that has left a shameful mark on the circumstances. family name. Sasha’s socialite parents have political Like Sasha, Chayé’s visuals are most in harmony aspirations and would rather she lead the life of a with the horizon at their back. The film’s breathtakdebutante than dredge up past failures. ing Artic imagery inspires respect and awe; massive Set in 1882 Russia, this beautifully paced French- ice blocks cascade downward toward a helpless veslanguage animation values resiliency above all else. sel; windswept blankets of snow leave zero visibilDirector Rémi Chayé paints Saity; the titanic size of a polar bear sha’s quest as a series of choices makes humans seem like rag dolls. between compromise and action, All of it reminds that those parlor LONG WAY silence and bravery. Immediately games of politics and reputation NORTH before her first formal ball, new are ultimately inconsequential. evidence is uncovered that OlouLong Way North preaches Directed by Rémi Chayé kine might have gone a differthat family legacy is something Starring Christa Théret, ent route than initially expected, to cherish rather than admonish Féodor Atkine and giving hope that he and his crew or forget. Sasha’s fond childhood Rémi Caillebot might still be alive. Between memories of Oloukine are not reRated PG waltzes Sasha tries to convince the placed by some somber new reTsar’s arrogant new science counality or fate. Instead, she learns selor to mount a new rescue misto appreciate the ways in which sion. These pleas fall on deaf ears. these past experiences shaped her strong, confiOnce Sasha decides to leave the safe confines of dent personality in a world of so many weak-willed St. Petersburg and head north to mount an odyssey brutes. of her own, Long Way North becomes a brazenly Yet Chayé doesn’t turn the story into forum for adventurous runaway story. But things don’t come man hating. Speaking of his dirty cabin mates, one easy—her initial attempts to stowaway on a frigate of the kind sailors Sasha befriends says, “They may are thwarted by bad luck and betrayal. This leaves smell bad but they are not bad guys.” This shows a Sasha stranded in a rural community with no money, unique understanding of how daily pressures can lodging or clothing. mold perception and character over time, and that A salty innkeeper named Olga takes notice and nobody’s perfect. gives her the opportunity to work as a barmaid, leadIn a year that’s seen so much nasty rhetoric and ing to the film’s most important montage depicting vitriol, Long Way North, opening Friday Oct. 14 at Sasha’s transition from delicate rich girl to agile ser- Digital Gym Cinema, feels like a wise palette cleansvice worker. It’s more of a natural metamorphosis er from a bygone era that reminds us how to lead a of spirit than a change in character. The newfound fulfilling life. The process of self-realization doesn’t durability heeds her well once aboard a creaky ship happen overnight, despite what social media and with an all-male crew bound for the same icy waters online participation promises you daily. Nothing can Oloukine sailed years before. replace hard work. For those of us long unimpressed Unlike many mainstream films about adoles- with Disney’s simplistic brand ambassador Frozen, cence, Long Way North refuses to question Sasha’s we finally have a wintry fable to champion. persistence. It’s not abnormal that she feels more comfortable on the open water than in high-heels. Film reviews run weekly.

Much of the film’s conflict stems from the panic felt Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com.

20 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

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CULTURE | FILM Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Desierto: A group of people trying to cross the border encounters a racist man who begins tracking their every move.

Kevin Hart: What Now?: The latest taped comedy special from Kevin Hart gets the big-screen treatment.

La Costa Film Festival: Actor Chris Noth (Law and Order) will be honored at this year’s annual even in North County, which will also showcase feature and short films from San Diego and around the country.

Closet Monster

Nightmares of self

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s a child, Oscar Madley (Connor Jessup) witnesses a brutal hate crime against a gay classmate and the breakdown of his parents’ marriage.

The horror and guilt from both experiences manifests itself in many different ways throughout Closet Monster. Director Stephen Dunn’s Canadian character study examines the trickle-down effects of trauma, how it can fester over time and eventually hollows out the most creative of individuals.

Now 18, Oscar is determined to leave his broken family and small town life behind and attend college for cinema makeup in New York City. While designing elaborate fantasy tableaus for his portfolio he experiences nightmares that blend horror imagery with frightening visuals from his past. Such a hyperdream state directly correlates with Oscar’s own burgeoning sexual awakening that causes an even deeper rift with his homophobic father (Aaron Abrams).

Closet Monster puts its lead character through the ringer.

Oscar isn’t so much confused about his sexuality—the second he meets a new co-worker named Wilder (Aliocha Schneider) sparks fly—but tortured by the changes such a revelation might bring to his life.

Jessup’s dedicated and honest performance manages to sidestep

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pitfalls usually associated with the classic suffering teenager, but the film itself stylizes his mental instability in conflicting ways. One second Oscar will be speaking with his pet hamster (voiced by Isabella Rossellini), the next he’ll be imagining a piece of rebar protruding through his stomach.

With its surrealist treatment of gay identity and hothouse take on familial melodrama, Closet Monster, which opens Friday, Oct. 14, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park, inevitably feels like a precious carbon copy of Xavier Dolan’s work. The film shows its reductive true colors in the final moments when Oscar’s absent mother delivers a strangely insensitive hot take: “You’ve never had it easy.” Jessup’s tormented character deserves worthier parents, and a more singular movie.

Long Way North: A determined Russian debutante decides to escape the safe confines of her palace life for an adventure to the North Pole in search of her missing explorer grandfather. Screens through Thursday, Oct. 20, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Passage to Mars: A group of NASA astronauts live for six months on an experimental training vehicle in the Arctic to prepare for an eventual mission to Mars.

Screens through Thursday, Oct. 20, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

The Accountant: Ben Affleck’s brilliant numbers man considers the complexities of our tax code while doubling as a hit man for the government.

The Battle of Algiers: One of the most important political films of all time traces the assassinations, political jockeying and terrorist attacks that define Algiers under French colonial power. This is a 50th anniversary restoration presented by Rialto Pictures.

For a complete listing

of movies, visit “F ilm” on sdcitybeat.com.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING American Honey: Andrea Arnold’s sprawling drama follows a group of disaffected youth who travel around the United States selling magazines and causing havoc.

Closet Monster: During his senior year of high school, Oscar (Connor Jessup) confronts the realities of his past and how it relates with his burgeoning sexuality. Screens through Thursday, Oct. 20, at

October 12, 2016 • San Diego CityBeat · 21

MUSIC

T’S LESS THAN 15 MINUTES into a conversation with Drew Andrews, frontman of Bit Maps, before the chat takes kind of a dark turn.

“Apocalypse is always on my mind,” he says with a laugh.

Andrews’ quiet, idyllic Lemon Grove backyard isn’t the most natural setting for a talk about the end times. It’s downright pleasant outside on a Sunday afternoon in October, a 30-foot-tall tree covering the patio in a soothing shade as a hammock gently sways in the breeze. Still, it’s hard not to entertain the possibility that the earth is teetering precariously on the precipice of disaster. The concept of a President Trump, for instance, is terrifying enough. But Scripps Institution of Oceanography also announced that the earth’s atmosphere has passed the carbon threshold of 400 parts per million, which is likely to make the planet inhospitable to humans much sooner than anyone is prepared for.

For the usually upbeat and gregarious Andrews, however, the concept of the end of the world—if not necessarily a belief in the inevitability of it—has always been a fascination.

“Growing up as a kid in Evangelical Christianity, especially in a strain that was fixated on apocalypse, as I made my way through that and out of that, I realized all cultures have apocalypse narratives,” he says. “It seems more frightening now because we have more knowledge in our hands, but regardless it’s always been a thread through humanity.”

You and Me and Dystopia, Bit Maps’ second album, reflects that fascination with impending doom, albeit rendered in abstract, emotional snapshots. The songs are melodic and pretty, subtle in the way that they allow Andrews to deliver his dark, albeit catchy prophecies without beating the listener over the head. Blink and you might miss that he sings “Nuclear fallout won’t tear us apart” on “I Keep Bringing It Up.” It’s less easy to overlook the carnage that opens “Don’t Stop Summer,” which begins with a car accident, prompting Andrews to croon, “Everything black and blue/Tie up the tourniquet, if you want.”

The prevailing theme on You and Me and Dystopia isn’t explicitly, “We’re fucked,” but rather that we all deal with a changing world very differently, and each song is like a piece in an anthology, with different characters observing different situations, many of them quite dark.

“You and Me and Dystopia,” he says, meditating on the

22 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

Bit Maps title of the record, briefly. “It’s a larger world pressing in.

You can approach that in different ways. You can cave in or go with the flow or savage each other, or choose to make a coexistence that is for better things, or hopeful. Not all the lyrics are hopeful, but just trying to capture that, the interrelational aspect in a kind of frightening world.”

Andrews, who also explored an apocalypse narrative in his 2014 debut novel The Shepherd’s Journal, says that in writing You and Me and Dystopia, the concept actually

ended up being secondary to the musical performances.

The album—the band’s second full-length since coalescing out of Andrews’ solo work three years ago—is a richly arranged work that was made with the sole purpose of capturing the band’s live dynamic. Andrews, guitarists Josh Carlson and James Zzyzzyx, bassist Erik Norgaard and drummer Matt Bennett balance a soulful approach to songwriting with the energy of a well-seasoned rock band.

There’s a dense juxtaposition of electronic beats and atmospheric guitars on “The Séance,” while closing track “Guadalajara” has the most badass groove of the bunch.

For Andrews, a veteran musician and songwriter who has previously played in San Diego bands Via Satellite and The Album Leaf, it was important to showcase the group’s instrumental abilities as strongly as possible, especially in an age when it’s often easier to simply program them.

“For me, it’s a language, and you’re always learning new vocabulary,” he says of playing music. “The goal is to learn more words—more techniques and more tricks. And to always be challenging yourself. But there’s this trend to

always be making it easy, and technology’s been like that for a long time. I love electronic music—it’s part of my lifeblood. But…one thing I appreciate about Jimmy [LaValle] from Album Leaf, the mantra was ‘as much live as possible.’

Don’t let this stuff do it for you. You as the artist control the machine. Don’t let it control you.”

True to Andrews’ mantra of keeping Bit Maps’ music reflective of the people that make it, instead of an algorithm, he has a garage full of analog instruments, some of them more than 100 years old. His standard instrument is the Rhodes piano, which has a prominent presence on You and Me and Dystopia, and surrounding it are vintage synthesizers and organs, the newest of which is a pump organ that dates back to the 1880s, formerly belonging to a friend’s father. “This pump organ was just going to go to Goodwill,” he says. “It just doesn’t seem right. That shouldn’t go away, to maybe never being really appreciated.”

Andrews’ approach to preserving a musical history is not unlike the ideas of decay that keep him preoccupied. It’s about saving something that deserves care and protection.

So here’s the punchline: Andrews is an optimist. Apocalypse may be on the horizon, but we have the ability to fend it off.

“I think all this is in our control,” he says. “But it feels lonely. Sometimes, I can see how people don’t have much hope. Or just cave in to the will that everything’s going to go to shit, so why should we fight? So that’s something we’re trying to put out there: It’s important to stand together and be connected when everything’s so disconnected.”

Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com and follow him on Twitter at @1000TimesJeff

#SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO LOCALS ONLY

H

eavy post-punk outfit Hours are getting ready to release their debut single. The group—which features members of Hexa, Nylon Apartments and Bleak Skies—is preparing to release “Different Executions” and “See the Way,” which will coincide with a show at Whistle Stop on Nov. 11 with Nocturnal Habits and Sleeping People.

The band has played a handful of shows already this year, but took some time off during the summer because drummer Rostam Zafar was out of town working as Cattle Decapitation’s tour manager. So, while they’re a new band, they have a few shows under their belts.

“We’ve been a band for a little over a year.

We’ve always had the same taste in music so it made sense,” says guitarist and vocalist Carrie Gillespie Feller. “It happened really fast—we put together a set really fast, and we played a handful of shows.”

The new digital single will offer a first chance for listeners who haven’t heard the band live to hear

what they’re about. Gillespie Feller cites influences ranging from local heroes Drive Like Jehu to postmetal group Marriages, with an emphasis on heavier sounds.

“When Scott and Ross and I started the band, our influences were in the noise-metal side of things,” she says. “At that time we were drawing from projects that we were in. Josh [Quon] being in the band CARI VEACH draws from more of a San Diego sound. I hear Jehu and all these post-punk sounds in his playing.”

Since Hours’ first few shows, the group has evolved a little bit. Zafar, Gillespie Feller and her husband and bassist Scott Feller have since welcomed guitarist Joshua Quon as the fourth member of the band, who Gillespie Feller says has brought a new dyHours namic to the group.

“We started to build out our sound a little bit,” she says. “It wasn’t quite coming together, but then we started talking to Josh.

He was really looking to get back into playing guitar, and his guitar playing was just perfect for the band.”

—Jeff Terich

TAG IT AND BAG IT If you search for albums tagged “San Diego” on Bandcamp, you’ll find some interesting stuff. In this semiregular report, we sift through recent postings and relay the findings.

With Flowers, With Flowers: Anything tagged as “shoegaze” is something I’m going to be interested in listening to. I won’t always love it, but I’ll at least be intrigued. With Flowers is definitely intriguing, in part because they’re a slow and mournful sort of shoegaze. The EP mostly comprises hazy dirges that carry a little bit of goth in their lo-fi melodies. It’s a little too overwrought, but there’s promise.

This could be something very cool with a little more tinkering.

Instrumentals, Vol. 2, KLYNTAR: Sometimes, when I select local Bandcamp releases to highlight, it’s based on the cover art.

This one happens to feature a pencil drawing of a bartender in a thong, serving an alien(?) with some kind of sexual act happening in the background. So, I expect some wild shit here. It’s not, really—perfectly pleasant instrumental hip-hop that sounds cool and makes for good mood music. No more, no less. Alien orgies not included.

Hover Over, Cheap Windows: It’s a little hard to

24 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

classify Cheap Windows, who by their own account make “solitary music for solitary people.” It’s mostly instrumental, based around electronic beats and dreamy guitars, with some spoken-word samples over the top. It’s not unlike a slower The Books or a lo-fi Mark McGuire, and as such definitely sounds interesting and evocative. It’s just a small sampling, but I’m certainly interested in hearing more.

Demo, The Neanderthals: There’s a certain combination of elements to The Neanderthals’ music that I, under ordinary circumstances, wouldn’t like. They have a bar-band sensibility, but there’s a rowdy punk edge to what they do that sounds a bit like The Replacements at times.

At others, there’s a bit of psychedelic blues, and all around there’s a whole lot of groove. Nothing groundbreaking, but it sure is fun.

Thee Body Electric, Dread Monochrome: This release is just a two-track single, but it’s pretty spectacular all the same. Dread Monochrome embody a moody, intense synth-wave sound similar to that of S U R V I V E, with some seasonally appropriate goth-rock vocals. Perfect sounds for a late night dancefloor haunting.

—Jeff Terich #SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12

PLAN A: Lowlands, Keepers, Hexa, Vyper Skwad @ Soda Bar. Lowlands features Mrs. Magician’s Tommy Garcia, albeit in a much more goth-friendly context.

Lowlands do ominous, gloomy pop that gets my spidey sense tingling. BACKUP PLAN: The Hand of Gavrilo, Sights and Sages @ The Casbah.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13

PLAN A: Legendary Pink Dots, Orbit Service @ Soda Bar. Psychedelic gothrock group Legendary Pink Dots are legendary in underground circles for their darkly disorienting innovations in postpunk. They’re a prolific, gloomy and peculiar bunch, which is what makes them well worth investigating. PLAN B: Driveby Truckers, Lydia Loveless @ Belly Up Tavern. Drive-by Truckers have been through some lineup changes, but over the years, they’ve released a lot of excellent altcountry albums with an emphasis on rock.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14

PLAN A: Danny Brown @ Observatory North Park. My favorite hip-hop album this year is Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition, which is saying a lot considering Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples each released some amazing new records. The Detroit emcee pursues a more darkly experimental sound, and in an already strong career appears to be at the top of his game.

PLAN B: Bit Maps, Hexa, Chill Pill @ Bar Pink. Read my feature this week on Bit Maps, who evolved from Drew Andrews’ solo project to a strong full-band unit. This is the release show for their new album, which is both soulful and dystopian, and you can feel good singing along to the dark visions. BACKUP PLAN: Ryley Walker, Circuit des Yeux, Dominick Joseph Gambini @ Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15

PLAN A: Tobacco, High Tides, Odonis Odonis @ The Casbah. A former member of psychedelic electronic weirdos Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco infuses his danceable beats with a good dose of unsettling surrealism. His music doesn’t always make sense, but he brings the nightmarish jams, guaranteed.

PLAN B: Pall Jenkins, Hun-

26 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

gers, Foreign Bodies @ Tower Bar. Pall Jenkins has been playing cool, dark music for a couple decades in San Diego, both with Three Mile Pilot and Black Heart Procession. His solo material is subtler and a bit more laid back, but just as moody and great. BACKUP PLAN: Helado Negro, 9 Theory, DJ Andrew McGranahan @ Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16

PLAN A: The Julie Ruin, Allison Crutchfield @ Music Box. If you’ve done your riot grrrl homework, then you know that The Julie Ruin is fronted by Kathleen Hanna, frontwoman for punk legends Bikini Kill.

She’s still writing awesome, politically charged songs, albeit in a broader stylistic range. PLAN B: Flock of Dimes, Your Friend @ Soda Bar. Flock of Dimes is Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak, only with this project she leans less on loud guitars and employs more dreamy electronic sounds. Gorgeous stuff. BACKUP PLAN: Cruz Radical, DFMK, The Grids @ Whistle Stop.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 17

PLAN A: Hocus, The Screamin’ Yeehaws, Desert Suns @ The Casbah. It’s pretty much always true that, even on a relatively quiet Monday night, there’s going to be a local show worth seeing. I recommend fuzzy punk rockers Hocus who have more than a little grunge in their crunchy sound.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18

PLAN A: Demilich, Hooded Menace, Vastum @ The Merrow. It’ll be a while yet before “Death Metal Tuesday” replaces “Taco Tuesday,” but who says you can’t have both? This death metal Tuesday features veteran death-art innovators Demilich, along with the relatively new (and awesome) Vastum. PLAN B: Screaming Females, Moor Mother, Toothpick @ Soda Bar. I’m not necessarily all about shredding, but if you find the right guitar player, then sign me up. Screaming Females’ Marisa Paternoster can shred some guitar, and even more than that, their indie rock anthems are awfully catchy. BACKUP PLAN: Quantic, Sure Fire Soul Ensemble @ Music Box. Danny Brown

#SDCityBeat

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Nobunny (Hideout, 11/4), ‘Rob Machado Benefit’ w/ Pepper, Tristan Prettyman, Chris Shiflett (BUT, 11/15), Screaming Lord Stax and the Savages (Casbah, 11/20), Method Man and Redman (Observatory, 11/21), Hirie (Music Box, 11/25), Queen Latifah (Harrah’s, 12/2), Miike Snow (Observatory, 12/5), X (Casbah, 12/15-18), Cash’d Out (Casbah, 12/31), Metalachi (Casbah, 2/3), Legendary Shack Shakers (Casbah, 2/10), Wax Tailor (Music Box, 2/11), Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra (BUT, 2/14), UFO, Saxon (HOB, 3/14), Coldplay (Qualcomm Stadium, 10/8).

GET YER TICKETS The Faint, Gang of Four (Observatory, 10/18), Alessia Cara (Copley Symphony Hall, 10/18), Wild Nothing (Music Box, 10/21), Tricky (BUT, 10/21), Violent Femmes (Observatory North Park, 10/23), Jackson Browne (Balboa Theatre, 10/24), Ziggy Marley (BUT, 10/2425), Preoccupations (Irenic, 10/26), Kongos, Joy Formidable (Music Box, 10/26), Damien Jurado (Irenic, 10/27), Dillinger Escape Plan (Brick by Brick, 10/28), Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Death from Above 1979 (HOB, 10/28), M83 (SOMA, 10/29), Suicide Machines (Irenic, 10/29), Psychedelic Furs (BUT, 10/30), Rocket from the Crypt (Lafayette, 10/31), Buzzov-en (Brick by Brick,

#SDCityBeat

10/31), Andra Day (Humphreys, 11/2), Tory Lanez (Observatory, 11/3), Tony Bennett (Harrahs, 11/4), Diamond Head (Brick by Brick, 11/5), Bush (Observatory, 11/8), Protomartyr (Soda Bar, 11/9), Death Grips (Observatory North Park, 11/9), Diarrhea Planet (Soda Bar, 11/11), Sleigh Bells (Observatory, 11/11), HEALTH (Music Box, 11/11), Slightly Stoopid (Observatory North Park, 11/12), SubRosa (Soda Bar, 11/12), Car Seat Headrest (Irenic, 11/12), Lupe Fiasco (HOB, 11/14), Rae Sremmurd (Observatory, 11/16), Trash Talk, Antwon (Soda Bar, 11/18), Gogol Bordello (Observatory North Park, 11/19), Neko Case (Poway OnStage, 11/19), Warpaint (Observatory, 11/22), Red Fang (Casbah, 11/22), Hirie (Music Box, 11/25), Kool Keith (HOB, 11/27), Porter Robinson, Madeon (Valley View Casino Center, 11/29), Peter Murphy (Observatory, 11/29), Seu Jorge (Balboa Theatre, 11/30), Lee Fields (BUT, 11/30), Daughter (Observatory, 12/1), Helmet (Casbah, 12/2), Two Door Cinema Club (Harrah’s Resort, 12/3), Amy Schumer (Valley View Casino Center, 12/3), The Album Leaf (Irenic, 12/9), Pylon Reenactment Society (Hideout, 12/10), Mr. Carmack (Observatory, 12/10), Pere Ubu (Casbah, 12/10), Henry Rollins (Observatory, 12/27), Mannheim Steamroller (Civic Theatre, 12/28), Donovon Frankenreiter (BUT, 12/28-29), Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven (Music Box, 12/29), Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot (BUT, 12/30), Brian Setzer Orchestra (BUT, 12/31), The Devil Makes Three (Observatory, 1/4-5), Blind Boys of Alabama (BUT, 1/29), Adam Ant (Observatory, 2/18), Steve Poltz (BUT, 2/24-25), Reverend Horton Heat (BUT, 4/20).

OCTOBER WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12 Colbie Caillat at Humphreys by the Bay. Halestorm at House of Blues. Lowlands at Soda Bar. The Hand of Gavrilo at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, OCT. 13 Legendary Pink Dots at Soda Bar. RJD2 at Observatory North Park. MOTHXR at House of Blues Voodoo Room.

Killswitch Engage at House of Blues.

FRIDAY, OCT. 14 Beartooth at House of Blues. Danny Brown at Observatory North Park. Foreigner at Harrahs Resort (sold out). The Helio Sequence at The Hideout. Ryley Walker at Soda Bar. Goblin Cock at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, OCT. 15 Schoolboy Q at Observatory North Park (sold out). The 1975 at Open Air Theatre.

Stryper at House of Blues. Tobacco at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, OCT. 16 Prophets of Rage at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. Yellowcard at House of Blues.

The Julie Ruin at Music Box. Flock of Dimes at Soda Bar. The Temper Trap at Observatory North Park. Poncho Sanchez at Belly Up Tavern.

MONDAY, OCT. 17 Jethro Tull at Balboa Theatre (sold out).

Yawpers at Soda Bar. Hocus at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, OCT. 18

MONDAY, OCT. 24

The Faint, Gang of Four at Observatory North Park. Quantic at Music Box. Screaming Females at Soda Bar. Alessia Cara at Copley Symphony Hall. Brujeria at Brick by Brick. Young the Giant at House of Blues (sold out). Demilich at The Merrow. TV Icon at The Casbah.

Jimmy Buffett at Humphreys by the Bay (sold out).

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 19 Young the Giant at House of Blues.

Holy White Hounds at The Casbah.

Willie Nelson at Humphreys by the Bay (sold out).

THURSDAY, OCT. 20 Tracy Morgan at Humphreys by the Bay. Vapors of Morphine at The Casbah.

FRIDAY, OCT. 21 Majid Jordan at Observatory North Park.

Kero Kero Bonito at House of Blues.

The Dear Hunter at The Irenic. Felipe Esparza at Humphreys by the Bay. Gorguts at Brick by Brick. Wild Nothing at Music Box.

SATURDAY, OCT. 22 Saint Vitus at Brick by Brick. Niykee Heaton at Observatory North Park.

Capitol Steps at Poway OnStage. Wild Child at Belly Up Tavern. Lemaitre at Music Box.

Yuna at Music Box. Ziggy Marley at Belly Up Tavern. Jackson Browne at Balboa Theatre.

TUESDAY, OCT. 25 Ziggy Marley at Belly Up Tavern. Parkway Drive at House of Blues.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 26 Bon Iver at Copley Symphony Hall (sold out). Preoccupations at The Irenic.

Kongos, Joy Formidable at Music Box. Maceo Parker at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, OCT. 27 Balance and Composure at Observatory North Park. Damien Jurado at The Irenic.

FRIDAY, OCT. 28 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Death from Above 1979 at House of Blues. Ingrid Michaelson at Humphreys by the Bay. Alice Cooper at Harrah’s Resort.

Dillinger Escape Plan at Brick by Brick.

Dead Feather Moon at Music Box.

SATURDAY, OCT. 29 Blind Pilot at Belly Up Tavern (sold out).

Martin Lawrence at Harrah’s Resort.

Sweater Beats at Soda Bar. Suicide Machines at The Irenic. Jo Koy at Humphreys by the Bay. M83 at SOMA. Soulection at Observatory North Park.

SUNDAY, OCT. 30

SUNDAY, OCT. 23 D.R.I. at Soda Bar. Violent Femmes at Observatory North Park.

Run River North at House of Blues.

Psychedelic Furs at Belly Up Tavern.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 MONDAY, OCT. 31 Buzzov-en at Brick by Brick. BoomBox at Observatory North Park. Rocket from the Crypt at Lafayette Hotel. ‘Halloween Spooktacular’ w/ Stalins of Sound, Wild Wild Wets at Soda Bar. Andre Nickatina at Music Box.

NOVEMBER TUESDAY, NOV. 1 Ms. Lauryn Hill at Copley Symphony Hall (sold out). Mexrissey at California Center for the Arts. The Adicts at Observatory North Park.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 2 Elephant Stone at The Hideout. Andra Day at Humphreys by the Bay. G Burns Jug Band at California Center for the Arts.

THURSDAY, NOV. 3 Tory Lanez at Observatory North Park.

Three Dog Night at Belly Up Tavern.

Bob Moses at Music Box.

FRIDAY, NOV. 4 Pansy Division at Soda Bar. Tony Bennett at Harrahs Resort. Nobunny at The Hideout.

SATURDAY, NOV. 5 Cave Singers at Soda Bar. Sum 41 at House of Blues. Diamond Head at Brick by Brick. Katt Williams at Viejas Arena.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., San Diego. Pacific Beach. Thu: Liquid Courage Karaoke. Fri: SoCal Vibes, Tape Heads.

Sat: Dirty Taxi, Copy Cat Killers. Tue: African Postman, The Rockaway Kings.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, San Diego. Little Italy. Fri: ‘Tribute to Amy Winehouse’ w/ Whitney Shay. Sat: Citrus & Katie, Adeumazel, The Babes.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., San Diego. Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Byrd Bass’ w/ DJ Daniel Byrd. Thu: ‘Libertine’ w/ DJs Jon Wesley, 1979. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Chvrch’ w/ DJ Karma.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Thu: Stone Brewey Co. Showcase Showdown.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd., Spring Valley. Thu: Darlington, The Rockin Ramblers, Horsefly. Fri: Abnormal, Hocus, MondoShanks, BOSSFIGHT, the Infidelz.

Sat: Thanatology, Temblad, Lurid Memory, Harlequin, Morphesia.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., San Diego.

Downtown. Fri: Kill Frenzy. Sat: Midland.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., San Diego.

North Park. Wed: Taurus Authority. Thu: The Husky Boy All-Stars. Fri: Bit Maps, Hexa, Chill Pill. Sat: ‘Neon Beat’. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’. Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’. Tue: Alvino & the Dwells.

Basic, 410 10th Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Tue: Compact Creatures: A Pokemon Fan Art Show.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Thu: Pat Dowling. Fri: Marc and the Casuals. Sun: Blaise Guld.

28 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: The Palms, Birdy Bardot, Grim Slippers. Thu: Drive-by Truckers, Lydia Loveless. Fri: ‘The Purple Party’ w/ Erotic City, Ziggy Shuffledust and the Spiders from Mars. Sat: Eric Hutchinson, Magic Giant, Anya Marina. Sun: Poncho Sanchez.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., San Diego. City Heights. Thu: Uptown Rhythm Makers. Fri: Big Flavor, Black Oak Hymnal.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington Street, San Diego. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’ w/ Matthew Brian. Thu: Dead Kids Get Up, Lizvfer, DimeUhDuzen. Fri: ‘Pussy Galore’ w/ The Dabbers. Sat: Justin Van Der Volgen. Sun: ‘Teenage Kicks’ w/ Mike Delgado, Eric Flynn. Mon: Tomorrows Tulips, Minor Gems, Some Kind of Lizard.

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

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA, K-Swift. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJ Junior the Disco Punk.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., San Diego. Bay Park. Wed: Mushroomhead, SUNFLOWER DEAD, Unsaid Fate, Contortion, The No Name Gang. Fri: ‘Rock 4 Autism’ w/ Fred Barchetta, Lords of Sabbath, Up The Irons, Get Groovin’. Tue: Brujeria, Cattle Decapitation, Piñata Protest, BeeKeeper.

Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Sat: Flamenco Dinner Show.

Sun: Buena Vista Sundays.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Midtown. Wed: Hand of Gavrilo, Sights and Sages. Thu: The Selecter, DJ Queen Rocksteady (sold out). Fri: Goblin Cock, Systems Officer, Blood Ponies.

Sat: Tobacco, High Tides, Odonis Odonis. Sun: He Is We. Mon: Hocus, Screamin’ Yeehaws, Desert Suns.

The Che Cafe, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Thu: Atocene, Fingerprints, Stray Mother, Nightstands. Sat: Dangers, Graf Orlock, Griever, La Bella.

Chico Club, 7366 El Cajon Blvd, La Mesa. Wed: DJ Harvest Karaoke. Thu: DJ Harvest Karaoke. Fri: DJ Harvest Karaoke. Sat: DJ Harvest Karaoke. Sun: DJ Harvest Karaoke.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. Fri: Serious Guise. Sat: DJ Alex.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, San Diego. Mission Bay. Sat: The Benedetti Trio. Mon: Joel Harrison Quintet.

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown., San Diego.

Downtown. Fri: DJ Playboi. Sat: Dre Sinatra.

The Field, 544 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Wed: Brandon Joshua. Thu: The Naked I, Skylar Lutes. Fri: The Diddley Idols. Sat: The Diddley Idols. Mon: Fiore. Tue: Pat Hilton.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Fri: DJ Kaos. Sat: Schoolboy Q. Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: Ride the Mule.

Thu: ‘Night Skool’. Fri: ‘Good Times’.

Sat: ‘Rock Star Saturday’. Tue: ‘50s/60s Dance Party.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Wed: ‘Boogie Down’ w/ MNDSGN, Funk Freaks, Cookie Crew.

Fri: The Helio Sequence, Genders. Sat: Trails and Ways. Sun: Pants Karaoke.

The Holding Company, 5040 Newport Ave., San Diego. Ocean Beach. Wed:

Baby Gow. Thu: DJ Reefah, Hazmatt.

Fri: DJ Girth, Jonathan Lee Band. Sat: DJ Chelu, Headphone, Choirs, Allessandra Christine. Sun: Soul Ablaze. Tue: DJ Tramlife.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: Halestorm, Lita Ford, Dorothy. Thu: Killswitch Engage, Act Of Defiance, Xibalba, Poison Headache; MOTHXR, Lost Boy Crow (Voodoo Room). Fri: Beartooth, Every Time I Die, Fit for a King, Old Wounds. Sat: Stryper, Christian Taylor. Sun: Yellowcard, Like Torches, Dryjacket. Mon: Vanna, Capsize, To the Wind, Atris, Lords & Wolves.

Tue: Young the Giant, Ra Ra Riot.

Humphrey’s Backstage Live, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego. Point Loma. Wed: Bayou Brothers. Thu: Kimberly Jackson. Fri: Beta Maxx, Trade Winds. Sat: Funk’s Most Wanted, Michele Lundeen. Sun: Reggie Smith, Jason Brown. Tue: Mercedes Moore.

Java Joe’s Normal Heights, 3536 Adams Ave., San Diego. Normal Heights.

Wed: Veronica May. Fri: Elizabeth Hummel. Sat: Noelle Pederson, Hilo. Sun: Gaby Aparicio, Fast Heart Mart, Corina Rose.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Midtown. Wed: Security Culture.

Thu: Tramlife Presents. Fri: ‘Benefit For Brotherhood’. Sun: ‘Superstitious Sunday’. Tue: ‘Tribe Night’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., San Diego. Kensington. Fri: Lenguas Largas, the Resonars, Octagrape, RPC. Sat: Kitty Plague, The Touchies, Hocus, Chingadera, DJ Dyno.

Lestat’s West, 3341 Adams Ave., San Diego. Normal Heights. Fri: Home, Lankin, Ben Varela, Joshua Damian. Sat: Camp-

#SDCityBeat

MUSIC fire Cassettes, Alice Wallace, Jake Loban.

Sun: Amanda Adams, Raena Jade.

ray. Sat: The Casuals. Sun: The Red Fox Tails.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. Wed: HONNE, Rayvn Lenae. Thu: Shawn Wasabi. Fri: The Moves Collective, All Kyle Choir.

Parq, 615 Broadway, San Diego. Fri: Salvatore Ganacci. Sat: DJ Karma.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Coronado. Wed: In Midlife Crisis.

Ron’s Trio. Fri: Manic Bros.. Sat: tique. Sun: Pat Ellis and Blue Band.

Ave., Thu: MysFrog

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., San Diego. Hillcrest. Wed: Twin Blades, Alexis Lillian G, 45 Revolutions. Thu: Hot Mustard, Super Buffet, Wild Animal, Kitty Plague. Fri: Brian Ellis, Glitter Wizard, Loom, Petyr. Sat: ‘Subwoofer’. Tue: Demilich, Hooded Menace, Vastum.

Mother’s Saloon, 2228 Bacon Street, San Diego. Thu: DJ Dub B. Fri: The Surf Birdz. Sat: The Fooks. Mon: Kayla Hope.

Mr. Peabody’s Encinitas, 136 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Thu: Sickstring Outlaws.

Fri: Santanaways. Sat: Atomic Blondes, Adrienne Nims. Sun: Tony Ortega jazz jam.

Music Box, 1337 India St., San Diego.

Little Italy. Thu: Jon McLaughlin, Jon McLaughlin, Marc Scibilia. Fri: Grupo Canaveral. Sat: Damage Inc. Sun: The Julie Ruin, Allison Crutchfield. Tue: Quantic, Sure Fire Soul Ensemble.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Thu: ‘Tagged’. Fri: ‘Uncut’. Tue: Karaoke Latino.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 6th Ave, San Diego. Thu: Shaun Frank. Fri: Ghastly.

Sat: Lema.

Panama 66, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Wed: Gilbert Castellanos. Fri: Chris Mur-

#SDCityBeat

Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: The Upshots.

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

Mon: Julio De La Huerta.

Proud Mary’s @ The Ramada Hotel , 5550 Kearny Mesa Road, San Diego. Kearny Mesa. Thu: Tomcat Courtney. Fri: Mercedes Moore. Sat: Len Rainey.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Wed: DJ John Joseph. Thu: DJ K-Swift. Fri: DJs Kiki, Moody Rudy. Sat: DJs Hektik, Luke Allen. Sun: DJs Cros, Nick Ayler.

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

Fri: Rip Carson. Sat: Jason Hanna and the Bullfighters.

Rosie O’Grady’s, 3402 Adams Ave., San Diego. Normal Heights. Thu: DJ L. Fri: Rio Peligroso. Sat: Johnny Tarr Quartet.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Wed: Lowlands, Keepers, Hexa, Vyper Skwad. Thu: Legendary Pink Dots, Orbit Service. Fri: Ryley Walker, Circuit des Yeux, Dominick Joseph Gambini. Sat: Helado Negro, 9 Theory, DJ Andrew McGranahan. Sun: Flock of Dimes, Your Friend. Mon: The Yawpers, 4onthefloor. Tue: Screaming Females, Moor Mother, Toothpick.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Thu: Mojo Jackson. Sun: Rosewood and Rye, Howl at the Moon.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Fri: Genocide Skin, Temblad, Cave Bastard, Bastardsect.

Sat: Bowcat. Tue: Kikagaku Moyo, Hong Kong Fuzz, Sacri Monti.

The Tin Roof, 401 G Street, San Diego.

Gaslamp. Wed: Kenny and Deez. Thu: ‘Spin Roof’. Fri: Cassie B Project, Allegra Duchaine. Sat: Allegra Duchaine, Diana Ferrer. Mon: Chad Lada Duo. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., San Diego.

Bay Park. Thu: The Fremonts. Fri: Santana Brothers. Sat: Detroit Underground.

Sun: Colour. Tue: Blue Farm.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., San Diego. City Heights. Thu: Rebuilder, Ramona, Squarecrow, Old News. Fri: Rebel Rebel, Fantasy Arcade, Midnight Track, Darlington. Sat: Pall Jenkins, Hungers, Foreign Bodies. Sun: Doc Hammer, Nebula Drag, Amigo, Mother, Beira, Supersonic Dragon Wagon.

Ux31, 3112 University Ave., San Diego.

North Park. Wed: DJs Artistic, Cros1.

Thu: ‘Throwback Thursday’. Fri: DJ Camron Zibaie. Sat: DJ Qenoe. Sun: Sandollar, Rubbish, DJ Red. Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, San Diego.

South Park. Wed: ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’.

Thu: ‘Recommended Dosage’ w/ DJs Mike Turi, Andrew McGranahan, Gargoyles. Fri: Black Marble, The Victoriana, Chasms, Nylon Apartments DJs. Sat: ‘80s vs 90s’ w/ DJs Gabe, Saul. Sun: Cruz Radical, The Grids, DFMK. Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., San Diego.

Ocean Beach. Wed: Dub Siders, DJ Carlos Culture. Fri: Band of Heathens, Greg Loiacono. Sat: Dani Bell and the Tarantist, Jimmy Ruelas, Cardinal Moon.

Sun: The Chrome Domes. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Pink Talking Fish.

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

LAST WORDS | ADVICE

AMY ALKON

ADVICE

GODDESS Wealth Care Crisis A female friend of mine just broke up with her billionaire boyfriend. She told me she wasn’t happy. The guy is super-picky about whether you put things back in exactly the right spot and doesn’t have the greatest sense of humor. Still, I think she’s making the biggest mistake of her life.

Doesn’t she know how hard it is to find a decent and wealthy man? I’m a happily married woman, so why does this make me so mad?

—Irate The way you see it, your friend found that mythical leprechaun with the pot of private jets and beachfront property—and she was all, “Too short!

Too green! Next!”

Okay, you concede, she was a little miserable, but hey—happiness can’t buy money! And no, money isn’t unimportant—and it’s especially vital when you don’t have enough to get lunch from the grocery store instead of from the dumpster. But even money is subject to what economists call “diminishing marginal utility.” This is a term for how the benefit (“utility”) we get from each “unit” of a thing we’re consuming—like a good or service— decreases for us once we’ve filled our basic need for it. Norman Li, an evolutionary psychologist who started out in economics, explains this pretty simply: “Enough oxygen to breathe is a lot better than no oxygen, but extra (“marginal”) oxygen is not much better than enough. Thus, oxygen has diminishing marginal utility.”

Li, helpfully, took an economist’s look at mating preferences, meaning he didn’t just ask the open-ended question, “So…what would you like in a mate?”— which leads people to shoot for the moon (“Oh, ringer for Hugh Jackman, funnier than Chris Rock, annual earnings matching the GDP of France.”)

Here in the real world, most of us have to settle—at least somewhat. So Li tested which attributes people would consider necessities (versus luxuries) in a long-term relationship by giving subjects either a tight budget or a generous one to “spend” on various qualities they’d want in a partner.

When women (the childbearers and carers of the species) had limited mate-shopping dollars, they allocated most of them to having a Mr. Provider—a man with status and resources—saying “Oh well!” to hunkaliciousness and other qualities. Men on a tight budget disproportionately allocated their mating dollars toward hotitude—not surprising, because beautiful features are like a flashing “Fertile Myrtle!” sign. However, even on a constrained budget, women and men each saw kindness as a must-have— ranking it a close second to their top priority.

Getting back to your friend, who’s dumping what you see as a perfectly serviceable billionaire, consider that his pickiness and humorlessness may play out as unkindness. Apparently, for her, having, oh, 100 bedrooms on four continents to cry herself to sleep in doesn’t make up for that. And consider the view from diminishing marginal utility: “Okay, a billionaire is nice, but maybe I could make do with a funny, easygoing millionaire.” To stop being mad, focus on what you have to be grateful for instead of what she’s, uh, squandered—a lifetime of 26-hour arguments about how she failed to use the micrometer calipers to return the loofah to its rightful position.

Plenty Of Fishing I’ve been with my girlfriend for over a year, and I love her and think she’s beautiful. However, she is very insecure about her looks, and she asks me all the time whether I think she looks pretty. It’s getting tiring constantly reassuring her. Is there some tool I could be using to help her feel more secure?

—Stumped

Here in the real world, most of us have to settle— at least somewhat.

30 · San Diego CityBeat · October 12, 2016

I’m sure it’s exhausting doing the daily “Hi, gorgeous!” skywriting and cleaning up after the rented elephant that pulls the “You’re beautiful, baby!” billboard.

Only—oh, wait…you’re actually just tired from verbally “reassuring her,” which, admittedly, probably takes at least several words and a whole 10 seconds—if you include the time it takes for her to beam and go, “Reeeeally?!”

Yes, it is important for you to reassure her—but, in doing that, motivation counts. Social psychologist Shelly Gable finds that relationships tend to be happier when those in them are guided by “approach” rather than “avoidance” goals. In normalperson terms, this means striving for positive outcomes rather than trying to avoid negative ones. In this case, an avoidance goal would be telling your girlfriend she’s beautiful in order to keep her from nagging you, but taking the “approach” approach would be doing it because you want her to feel good.

And here’s a secret: Break out the compliments before she asks and you might keep her from starting to worry that she needs “extra-coverage” makeup— the kind that involves scaffolding, three workmen, and $200 worth of drywall. (c)2016, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved.

Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or e-mail AdviceAmy@aol. com (advicegoddess.com). Weekly radio show: blogtalkradio.com/amyalkon

#SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

October 12, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 31