San Diego CityBeat • Oct 24, 2018

2 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

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UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

Short-term stupidity, part deux

E

t tu, Bry? That was my first thought when, on Monday, I watched Councilmember Barbara Bry give her reasoning as to why she was changing her mind on the very short-term vacation rental [STVRs, for short] restrictions she helped pass back in July.

Mind you, this was mere hours after I listened to her on the Show in Progress podcast (shameless plug, CityBeat is a sponsor of the podcast) speaking with Matt Strabone about the “coalition” she’d built to get the restrictions passed.

“My major concern was that we were losing thousands of housing units to investors who were buying up homes in residential neighborhoods and turning them into mini-hotels,” she said on the podcast. “The goal of the measure we passed was to stop that… I prioritize housing for San Diegans. We have a housing crisis as you know and to lose several thousand units out of our housing stock is more than we can afford to lose at this moment in time.”

A quick primer on that July vote: Back in 2017, City Attorney Mara Elliott issued a memo stating that short-term STVRs were illegal in any part of the city. This memo served to light a fire under the collective asses of the mayor and city council to address the issue. So in July, the council voted 6-3 in favor of changing the city’s laws on STVRs, the biggest change being that only residents who lived on-site or in the property could rent out a unit as an STVR. A few grandfathered-in exceptions would be made, but it was, indeed a massive overhaul.

Companies like Airbnb were naturally very upset about the regulations and immediately went into action and collected signatures from five percent of registered voters. What does that mean? Well, it means the council had to either rescind what they passed (which would have gone into effect in July 2019) or place the restrictions on a future ballot. The overwhelming decision to vote for the rescission (the vote was 8-1, with Councilmember Lorie Zapf—who represents the STVR-ravaged neighborhood of Mission Beach—as the only nay), was seen as a massive victory for home-sharing companies. Needless to say, many did not expect the vote to be so overwhelming in support of rescinding the regulations.

“This is a really sad day for our city,” Councilmember Bry said at Monday’s session, railing against those who called the July restrictions a “de facto ban.”

“I’m disappointed that a corporation reportedly

valued at $31 billion dollars descended on our city with their unlimited millions of dollars and used deceptive tactics to force us where we are today,” Bry added. “If this goes to the ballot, this large corporation would spend millions of dollars and since the next regular election isn’t until 2020, our city would endure a two-year freeze on any progress on this issue. So today, I will support the repeal of the ordinance.”

Just when you think something is done, it becomes clear that it’s not that simple. But I get it. That is, had the council voted to keep the July regulations in place, they would have had to let the voters decide whether or not to keep them in a future election. And when faced with the prospect of an electoral battle between the city and STVR companies, the choice by Bry and the council to rescind the regulations and start over from scratch makes a lot more sense.

So while the July ordinance did represent a legislative breakthrough, Monday’s rescinding of those regulations—while certainly annoying and eye roll-worthy—was simply a matter of the council seeing the writing on the wall.

But what now?

According to the Union-Tribune, the mayor’s office is already at work on a compromise proposal. Still, it’s naïve to think that companies like Airbnb are just going to go along with any future compromise. This is now David vs. Goliath, and it’s hard to believe that Goliath is interested in compromises.

It’s a ridiculous feeling when Councilmember Scott Sherman is the voice of pragmatism.

“What I’ve always said is a good compromise is where you find yourself where neither side is totally happy,” said Sherman on Monday. “What we had with this was that one side was totally happy and one side that was very unhappy… a ban on one side isn’t going to work and unlimited, Wild West isn’t going to work.”

But will companies like Airbnb ever be satisfied with anything less than the Wild West?

Councilmember Zapf may have summed it up best when she said just before the vote to rescind the ordinance: “I know the direction it’s going to go… There is no guarantees. They’re hoping it will continue to be the Wild West out there. There is no guarantee that a compromise will be reached anytime soon or ever.”

—Seth Combs

Write to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com

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OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

DOWN WITH ISSA

I have been an avid reader of CityBeat since it was called something else so long ago that I can’t remember what that was. Tom Tomorrow’s political cartoons, columnists Aaryn Belfer and Edwin Decker are pure gold. I especially appreciate the election special editions, which are extremely helpful and the result of an obvious tremendous amount of commendable research.

In the most recent primary election last June [May 23, 2018] there was one minor gaffe, for lack of a better word. CityBeat rec���� ommended voting for Doug Applegate for the 49th District instead of Mike Levin, as Applegate’s military background would be a strong suit to challenge Rocky Chavez and his military background. Surprisingly, neither Applegate nor Chavez did well in the election.

Mike Levin, on the other hand, came out as the top Democratic challenger for Rep. Darrell Issa’s seat. Now, as the midterms approach, I trust CityBeat will come out strongly for Mr. Levin [Editor’s note: We did and we have as evidenced by our Sept. 26 editorial and endorsement in the Oct. 10 issue], who has an excellent opportunity to flip Issa’s seat in Congress.

I’ve been voting against Issa since 2001 and we finally have an outstanding candidate with a solid chance of winning and preventing corrupt, wealthy Diane Harkey from continuing Issa’s Republican reign. It is our chance to be part of The Blue Wave, challenge Trumpism and make America civil again.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEPRESSING WINTER MORNINGS

I don’t think Prop 7 has been presented clearly [“California General Election Voter Guide and Endorsements,” Oct. 10]. Currently, California could stop adhering to Daylight Saving Time at any time. We simply would never change our clocks, just like folks in Arizona and Hawaii never do. Prop 7 would make it so California’s only future options would be to stick with the federal time change schedule or to switch to DST yearround. While it looks like Prop 7 doesn’t do anything directly, it does remove the option of simply not changing clocks at all. That wasn’t clear to me when I first read about it.

I hope this clarifies it for CityBeat readers, and I hope they’ll vote no because an extra hour of darkness on winter mornings seems really depressing.

Christopher Keach University Heights

[Editor’s note: The writer of this letter sent a follow-up email stating, “I thought about this again and my explanation isn’t quite correct.

If Prop 7 passes, and the federal government ended national DST, then California could go along with that and have ‘natural’ time still. I think.” Which is all the more reason we gave this Prop and endorsement of “yes” with a side of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯].

John Ross Carlsbad

4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

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

FOOD & DRINK

WE HAVE A

PODCAST! Please check out the new episode of Show in Progress with Matt Strabone, our first foray into sponsoring a podcast. This week’s episode might just be the best one yet, as Strabone discusses net neutrality and also sits down with San Diego City Councilmember Barbara Bry. In the interview, Bry candidly shares her thoughts on homelessness, her electoral priorities for 2018, electric scooters and her commitment to workplace equity. Oh, and there’s some humorous chatter about a possible mayoral run in 2020. Show in Progress is available pretty much everywhere podcasts and podcast apps are available.

World Fare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene. . . . . . . . . 10 Final Draught. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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

ARTS & CULTURE Theater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra. . . . . . . . . . . 17 Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-19

MUSIC Goth Nights in San Diego. . . . . . . . . . . . 20 If I Were U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Concerts & Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-25

IN THE BACK Astrologically Unsound . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CannaBeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 COVER PHOTO BY AREM BILDERBACK

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OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

UP FRONT | OPINION JOHN R. LAMB

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Spookytown Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

P

—Edgar Allan Poe

olitical campaigns rarely deliver candy to the trickor-treat bags of a yearning electorate. We’d be lucky if we get a bruised apple, a box of raisins or some other wrinkly dried fruit more suitable for a lunch box.

But the promises made on the campaign trail typically pale in comparison to the venomous, dry-iced accusations flung about like startled bats in a cave. Maybe it’s just Spin, but this year’s pack of prevaricating platitudes seem particularly batty. And there’s still nearly two weeks to go before the big day.

The mainstream narrative is

that Nov. 6 will be some sort of Ultimate Trump Takedown Test Day, wherein Democrats will see if they have painted a bleak enough future picture to rouse enough voters to the polls to overcome the revvedup red meat backers of a president who likes to break things. Things like treaties, or world records for lies per tweet.

But one does not have to travel to Washington, D.C., or the latest presidential golf course of choice, to track down choice cuts of bullshit; the spooky scary kind of bullshit that makes one wonder if the particular purveyor of such bloviating ever truly looks in the mirror for something other than hair perfection. No, dear San Diegans, our own backyard is rife with menacing manure.

Take Diane Harkey, the current

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

reigning Queen of Entitlement Ooze, as an example. A former California Assemblymember now waging an uphill battle to replace Darrell Issa in Congress, Harkey may be many things to many people. But subtle she ain’t.

Last week at a rally in support of the gas tax-repealing Prop. 6, Harkey didn’t even attempt to mask her disdain at the notion that some of the 12-cent-per-gallon tax bump would benefit, of all people, mass-transit users!

After one state senator greased the skids by sketching a bleak future of mandatory walking, biking and bus rides, Harkey threw hydraulic fluid on the truthiness bonfire. As first reported by Andrew Bowen of KPBS, Harkey howled about the gas tax.

“This is just fraud. It’s forcing you to take bikes, get on trains, hose off at the depot and try to get to work,” Harkey aggressively lamented. “That does not work. That does not work with my hair and heels. I cannot do that and I will not do that.”

Spin (by disclosure an avid taker and enjoyer of said transit) is heartened to know that the paths of my travel will never intertwine with a person who apparently thinks sharing transport with fel-

Duncan Hunter Jr., Diane Harkey and Gary Kreep: the dried fruit of this haunted election season.

low citizens requires a subsequent hosing off. As someone astutely noted on Twitter, “It’s like she confused taking a bus with ‘being’ a bus.”

It’ll be a day to click the heels and muss the hair if this Trumpendorsed trainwreck is sent packing. Even the Union-Tribune, in endorsing her Democratic opponent Mike Levin, called Harkey “unsuitable for public service.”

Punch her scary-ass ticket to Nowheresville.

Equally frightening is the everdesperate reelection campaign of indicted Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr., who has seemingly hopped off the campaign stage like a well-traveled bunny and let his aging father take over the “dirty work,” as U-T columnist Michael Smolens put it.

For a decorated Marine, Duckin’ Duncan Jr. isn’t doing himself any favors. But then again, if anyone deserves dried fruit in their candy bags, it’s this guy. If there were a Vegas line (and heck, maybe there is), the odds against Hunter losing his Republican-dominant congressional seat remain low. This, even after blaming his wife for a laundry list of indictments that alleges he used his campaign war chest as a personal piggy bank.

And clearly, defending oneself against such charges isn’t as easy as Hunter claiming his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, is part of some nefarious plot by Muslims to “infiltrate Congress.”

For the record, Campa-Najjar, is a Christian raised in the county by a Mexican mother and Palestinian father.

Even the mainstream U-T, which has well-documented Junior’s penchant for personal extravagance over political decorum, said Hunter’s ramped-up smear campaign against Campa-Najjar “continues to demolish his own reputation.” And frankly, it does

so for his father as well, who spent eons in Congress as a military hawk and, at one time, briefly pondered a run for the presidency. Talk about scary.

And finally, let’s not forget the guy whose name is synonymous with the Halloween spirit: Superior Court Judge Gary Kreep.

As the pages of this fine publication have noted over several years—and most recently last week—there may be no one more ill-suited for a judgeship than Kreep. And yet, here he is, seeking reelection to a seat he first won in 2012.

There would not be room in five columns to run down the horror string of flashing red lights surrounding Kreep. There’s his apparent continuing belief that former President Obama hailed from Kenya. There’s the well-documented creepy abusive behavior in court.

Oh, and there’s the numerous ethics code violations that resulted in his censure last year.

But even if Spin readers are ambivalent about wading into the muck of judicial races, just think for a moment about the female attorney who was told by this throwback wolfman that she’s “a pretty girl, you know you can smile.” Let that sink in. Again, this is a judge talking. Not even apparently one who’d had too much beer.

Spin agrees this only scratches the surface of the scary nature of the 2018 election cycle. Will a spike in voter registration necessarily translate into a voting boom? Michael Vu, the county registrar of voters, told Spin he believes voter turnout will approach 65 percent.

Let’s hope that’s the case, otherwise CityBeat readers should prepare for more dried fruit in their plastic pumpkin.

Spin Cycle appears every other week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

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UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

Separate ways

HIGH HEELS

B

agencies/professionals/attorneys do not prioritize inary choice.”

That is the latest buzz phrase of the Trump re- family preservation in any manner, including kinship gime. A deceitful expression referring to the adoption (adoption by a family member). Instead, choice between two alternatives leading to different they make value judgments about who is more fit and outcomes, “binary choice” is a term common to math- more qualified to parent.

Who can forget Devonte Hart and his siblings? ematics, computer science and statistics. Based in logic, it’s diabolical that White House white supremacist Their aunt was trying to adopt them, but social serStephen Miller should steal it to frame debate about vices instead placed them with two women who would family separation as something that’s reasonable. later murder the whole family.

Furthermore, the notion that intentional and While Trump claimed to have ended his zero-tolerance policy back in June (he didn’t), “binary choice” voluntary relinquishment by women who “make an makes this topic palatable around the water cooler. It’s adoption plan” for a child, is largely a narrative adoptive parents have been told so many times, it has bethe same way racists reframed Nazi as “alt-right.”

“Binary choice” is a PR move. It’s makeup on a pig. come a widely accepted societal “truth.”

As a society, we are married to the idea of adoption As is the administration’s idea of putting immigrant children up for adoption. It’s important to note being a win-win-win: It’s good for the first mother, that adopting children who have parents willing and the baby and the adoptive parents.

But this is an oversimplification at able to parent them is not adoption. best, and, at worst, a perpetuation of It’s kidnapping. It’s baby stealing. It’s What is happening a broken system that further marginchild snatching. now—tearing alizes the most marginalized among Of the many horrors 2018 has immigrant children us. We judge first mothers harshly, brought, I have been particularly stereotyping who we think they are: haunted by this policy of family sepafrom their parents; Common tropes include the “unwed” ration. As an adoptive parent, I am scurrying them into mother, the teen mother and the both a beneficiary and a perpetrator concentration camps drug-addicted mother. The shame of a system built on the separation of by the light of the and stigma created by such categochildren from their parents.

I can attest that the trauma of such moon—is our unethical rization is necessary to the system of relinquishment. separation, even under the very best of system on steroids.

And here we come full circle: Even circumstances (and it is debatable what when adoption is not done out of coercion; even when that even means) is deep, complicated and lifelong.

Here is what I know: Separation of a child from a it is done with full consent and empowerment of first parent should only ever be done as a last resort. And parents; even when it is done in the most ethical way while this isn’t how the business of adoption has ever possible; even when adoptive parents understand the been carried out in this country, family preservation loss and grief from the very beginning; even when we should be paramount. If we were humane and con- as adoptive parents work purposefully and with great cerned not with wealthy couples facing fertility is- intention to help our kids be whole; even with love sues, but with what is best for children, then we would and money and resources and mentorship and opporunderstand and mitigate the underlying reasons par- tunity and privilege; even with all of this, separation ents lose their children to the system of adoption in from first parents and the birth family is a trauma that endures throughout that child’s life. the first place.

What is happening now—tearing immigrant chilOn June 23 of this year, while at the Families Bedren from their parents; scurrying them into concen- long Together protest, someone slipped a yellow tration camps by the light of the moon—is our uneth- bracelet bearing that slogan on my wrist. I took it off ical system on steroids. It’s despicable. It’s barbaric, a short time later. I couldn’t wear it and I couldn’t ask inhumane and amoral. my kid to wear it. Our family is a family because her It is also, at its core, racist (yep, here I go again), as family was separated. is the world of adoption and foster care.

It’s worth remembering that the children at the Now, given the American appetite for happy end- center of this man-made humanitarian fiasco are fleeings, some may say I’m comparing apples to orange- ing atrocities and traumas in their home countries. faced tyrannical leaders. They will point out that They’ve lost their homeland, their culture, their lanadopted children are placed in “forever” homes with guage and their families. And those who survived the loving parents. Some may argue that, in adoption, journey are now living in makeshift orphanages. All of women relinquish their children for placement volun- this is going to have major, lasting, negative impacts tarily, lovingly and bravely. on the outcomes of their lives, whether or not they are But these Disney-esque narratives are a fiction that reunited with their parents/families. And those adoptmakes adopters comfortable. The reality is, voluntary ed by American families will have more trauma, still. placement isn’t universal and it isn’t the whole story The Trump regime will steamroll on. But we have for many women who sign relinquishment papers. to fight back. And potential adopters have a binary There is a lot of coercion—overt and less so—in choice: Either don’t adopt or steal a child. adoption. Most agencies/professionals/attorneys do not help women with unintended pregnancies figure Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week. out how they could possibly parent their child. Most Write to aarynb@sdcitybeat.com.

“

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OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD

24 Hours of Streaming Horror V: The Revenge

T

he best horror doesn’t require explanations.

Why does Michael Myers kill babysitters? Who cares! Likewise, there’s no reason to watch 24-hours worth of back-to-back horror films besides the fact that it’s totally badass.

This is my fifth year of curating CityBeat’s 24-hour horror marathon, so this year I’ve decided to pull out all the stops with a bunch of relentless picks. Also, any true horror fan should get on Shudder due to Netflix’s and Amazon’s increasingly lackluster selections. They offer a free week trial, which gives viewers more than enough time to damn their souls with these selections.

4–6 p.m.: Satan’s Slaves (Shudder) In this Indonesian film, a family loses their mother to a fatal disease, setting off a series of increasingly frightening paranormal encounters. This film—which is almost goreless (good for dinner prep!)—has some of the scariest setpieces I’ve seen in a long time (there’s never been a more terrifying use of a bell).

6–8 p.m.: Ghostwatch (Shudder) This mockumentary is about a news crew investigating a family who’ve been haunted by a ghost named Pipes (due to the mother’s initial explanation for what caused the scary noises). The BBC aired this slow-burner on Halloween night in the UK in 1992 without giving any warning that it was fake, and it legitimately gave kids PTSD. Whoops.

tissue between the hauntings, it still doesn’t make sense, but the sheer audacity of Terrified makes it an instant horror classic.

4–6 a.m.: Channel Zero, “Candle Cove” (Shudder) Channel Zero is a show on Syfy that takes creepypastas (internet urban legends) and fleshes them out into miniseries that are scarier than most movies. The first season, “Candle Cove,” is about a man who returns home to investigate a fucked-up children’s show that may be causing kids to murder.

6–8 a.m.: Revenge (Shudder) Another rape-revenge movie made by a woman, but this one ramps up the gore and action to whiteknuckled extremes. A rich bro takes his mistress to an isolated getaway, but when his hunting buddies show up a day early, things turn horrific. To cover up their crimes, they throw her off a cliff. Unfortunately for them, she lives. Director Coralie Fargeat goes all out with this hallucinatory flick, and the final showdown made me whisper “holy shit” a couple times.

8–10 a.m.: The Beyond (Shudder) Lucio Fulci was a genius who made movies as unforgettable as they are incomprehensible. The Beyond is vaguely about a house built on the portal to hell, but the brilliance of this movie is due to its unnerving dream-logic and gruesome deaths, including a super slow and excruciating death by spiders. Tarantulas are still trying to recover from this blow to their reputation.

Tarantulas are still trying to recover from this blow to their reputation.

8–10 p.m.: M.F.A. (Prime) Horror cinema is still largely a sausage fest, but that’s changing as evidenced by movies like Natalia Leite’s complex and nuanced M.F.A. The film is about Noelle, a shy art student who—after a sexual encounter turns non-consensual—goes on a revenge-fueled killing spree, avenging rape survivors whose assailants never faced consequences. Trigger warning for rape on this one, obviously. If the historically prevalent horror enacted on women’s bodies didn’t make viewers uncomfortable, then they’d be a lost cause. Or Republicans.

10–12 a.m.: Mon Mon Mon Monsters (Shudder) I can’t imagine anything scarier than t-t-t-teens for when the clock strikes midnight. When a group of no-goodniks finds an injured, cannibalistic humanoid creature, they capture it and perform increasingly sadistic acts of torture on it. This Taiwanese film nails the cruelty of youth in a way that few other movies manage.

12–2 a.m.: Terrifier (Netflix) A movie about a silent clown that stalks a woman on Halloween night. Scary clown movies are kinda basic, but I was high when I watched this and had a really good time, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t solely because of the drugs.

2–4 a.m.: Terrified (Shudder) This Argentinian film about a haunted suburban block begins with three different stories—each of which contain an instantly iconic scare (if the first death doesn’t shake readers to the core, there’s no hope). Even when the film explores the connective

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

10–12 p.m.: Society (Shudder) I always love me a horror commentary on the ’80s class disparities, and this one might be the grossest. Wealthy, attractive high schooler Bill is about to be admitted to an elite, Skull & Bones-type society, but it turns out the society is made up of aliens who feast off the less fortunate (a ritual known as The Shunting). The fleshmelding practical effects were created by Japanese artist Screaming Mad George, who did the surreal effects in Big Trouble in Little China.

12–2 p.m.: Jacob’s Ladder (Prime) Spoiler alert: I’ll go to bat as this being the best horror film of the ’90s (it also ruined subway trains, hospitals and house parties for me). Director Adrian Lyne created something simultaneously heartbreaking and terrifying in this tale of a dying man caught between heaven and hell. Fans of Silent Hill and even David Fincher will likely notice this film’s influence.

2–4 p.m.: Return of the Living Dead (Prime) End all horror marathons with a little bit of laughter, and there are few greater horror-comedies than Return of the Living Dead. Funny or not, after 24 hours of watching horror, anyone would want to scream regardless.

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com

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UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE

Game-changing dim sum

W

hat’s that ominous sound San Diego’s dim sum restaurant owners are hearing?

Well, it’s the drumbeat announcing the arrival of Din Tai Fung (4301 La Jolla Village Drive, dintaifungusa.com) at Westfield UTC. And it’s letting those owners know it’s time to step up their game.

Din Tai Fung isn’t exactly a mom-and-pop spot, though that’s precisely what it once was. Now a worldwide chain with restaurants in 13 countries (a dozen in the U.S. alone), they began as a Taipai retail cooking oil shop. As tinned oils took over that market, owner Yang Bing-Yi and his wife started selling xiaolongbao, steamed pork soup dumplings, out of their storefront.

When the dumplings outsold the oil, a restaurant, which eventually became a chain, ensued with the Hong Kong location earning a Michelin star.

Din Tai Fung’s marquee item is truffle xiaolongbao, and rightly so. The aroma, standing alone, is worth the hype. Facing East Noodle & Bar in the Convoy District riffs on it, but Din Tai Fung’s is the original and uses thick slices of the pricey tuber, not just truffle oil.

Frankly, though, their simple pork version may be better, featuring a deep, profoundly rich and savory flavor profile.

Din Tai Fung’s shrimp and pork wontons with spicy sauce is a pile of perfectly formed dumplings (when are pork and shellfish not good playmates), topped with sliced scallion greens and sitting in a pool of spicy, sweet, sour and savory sauce that has a hint of five-spice. It hits all the flavor notes while managing to maintain balance.

As is the case at many regional Chinese restaurants, it would be a mistake to pass up the appetizers. The cucumber salad is a must. It’s a pyramid of Persian cucumber sections doused in chili-sesame

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oil and topped with single slivers of garlic and red pepper. The soy noodle salad—a riff on a typical Sichuan tofu skin appetizer—is a great choice too.

Wood ear mushrooms in vinegar is a classically Chinese choice, focusing more on texture than flavor.

Siu mai (or shumai) is a dim sum classic. Din Tai Fung offers a pork and shrimp version, but also a far more unusual sticky rice and pork one. The flavor and texture are showstoppers (rice in a dumpling!), but so is the form: a convex tower. It looks as good as it tastes.

One dish that might not be expected in a dim sum setting is Shanghai rice cakes with pork. The star of the dish is flat ovals of pounded sticky rice. It’s easy to MICHAEL A. GARDINER

Shrimp and pork wontons with spicy sauce get the texture of the rice cake wrong. In fact, wrong may be the rule, not the exception, but Din Tai Fung gets it right. Fresh greens, slivered pork and a sauce featuring chili bean sauce complete the picture.

There’s so much more at Din Tai Fung: great vegetables and sticky rice dishes. After sampling half the menu on multiple visits I’m looking forward to trying the other half. What I wouldn’t be looking forward to is being a San Diego dim sum restaurant operator trying to figure out how to match Din Tai Fung on quality, much less consistency. Even in its soft opening period, they’re clearly playing in a different league.

If we’re really lucky, other San Diego spots will figure out how to adapt accordingly.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

ANATOMY OF A

BY IAN WARD

FINAL

COCKTAIL SCENE #43: Feeling at home at Aero Club

it and turned into something else. Something kind of shiny with reflective surfaces that you don’t want to look at when you or a while now, I’d heard the own- are in a dive bar.

I was truly fearful they were going to ers of The Waterfront had purchased do the same thing with Aero Club.

Aero Club (3365 India St., aeroclubTaking a seat at Aero Club, it felt the bar.com) and that worried IAN WARD same as it always had. The me. I may have mentioned place looked the same. this before here, but for a Head bartender Eric Zufall long time I was a severe was smiling and truly hosalcoholic, trying poorly to pitable. “Genuine” was the cope with depression while word that came to mind at living aboard an old Catathe time. It was a relief. lina 27 docked in Shelter I asked Mr. Zufall to Cove. make me something that During this time, I he felt embodied the Aero spent almost every single Club, and he responded night in the seat of one bar with the Vieux Carré or another. Still, the only cocktail. He told me that place I truly felt at home in whenever someone who a sense was at Club Marina. appreciates spirits asks The Vieux Carre Every other bar that I used him for a cocktail, he preto frequent made me more describes them a Vieux Carré. pressed in some way. But at Club Marina, “It’s not something everyone knows to the depression kind of leveled out. There’s something about a true dive bar that al- order on their own, unless you’re in the leviates expectations, and at times that industry, but if you’re not, you typically can be a good thing. At a true dive bar, wouldn’t order it,” Zufall said. “But when there’s no faking where you are, what you they have it for the first time, they experiare about to do, or lying to yourself about ence the balance of the sweetness and the spiciness from the rye. There is a uniqueyour social and spiritual status.

And there are very few true dive bars ness that sets in.”

New Orleans bartender Walter Bergeron left. Club Marina, for instance, is kind of gone. The Waterfront people purchased supposedly created the Vieux Carré in the late 1930s at the Carousel Bar inside the Hotel Monteleone. It is comprised of equal parts rye, cognac and vermouth. At Aero THE VIEUX CARRÉ Club, Zufall makes it with James Pepper as prepared at Aero Club Rye, stating that he prefers to use higher proof ryes that have spent considerably ¾ oz. rye more time in the barrel. ¾ oz. cognac Anyway, all cocktails have history, ¾ oz. sweet vermouth and what is history if not a bunch of non1 tspn. Bénédictine sense stories. Or in my case, a series of bi2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters monthly rants.

F

Stir all ingredients together and serve in a rocks glass with ice.

Garnish as desired.

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

10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

BY BETH DEMMON

DRAUGHT Better red than dead

where witches dance with their Mephistophelian master. As for flavor, it’s not love candy corn. I understand this even close to candy corn’s cloying sweetmakes my palate suspect at best and ness, so readers who’ve judged me by my identifies me as a tasteless trash per- previous damning admission can calm son at worst, but everybody has their own down. Instead, the sweet bite comes from guilty pleasures when it comes to Hal- a caramel-smooth malt backbone that’s loween candy. (How anyone enjoys black richly bready and a bit toasty—perfect for licorice, I’ll never understand.) But when sipping on a crisp Halloween night. it comes to Halloween beer, AleSmith recommends COURTESY OF ALESMITH I’m pretty confident in my pairing the beer with “tofability to identify what’s a fee, caramel apples, or your treat and what’s a trick. favorite horror flick,” and I Evil Dead Red ale by can’t think of a better way AleSmith Brewing Comto spend Halloween than pany (9990 AleSmith Ct.) by watching El Orfanato for qualifies as a treat. Some the 100th time and cracking people consider the appearopen one of these bad boys. ance of skeleton decoraThe only major flaw I tions and bite-sized candy find with Evil Dead Red at grocery stores to signal is its formatting. It’s only the start of the Halloween available in 22 oz. bombers season, but I know it’s that and on draft at the brewery time of the year when this as well as a handful of lo6.66 percent ABV concoccal spots. Packaging-wise, tion hits shelves. That, and bombers are out. Cans, when decorative gourds crowlers and 12 oz. bottles show up in the produce are in. I know AleSmith is aisle. I refuse to apologize old school, but a shift in for my ongoing and very serving size would signal basic obsession with these an immediate upgrade miniature pumpkins. to the 21st century. But Amber and red ales fall this personal bias aside, I in an awkward in-between haven’t found a Halloween Evil Dead Red area of beer styles. They brew that beats it yet. haven’t really caught on in the U.S. with Since this year is one of those annoynearly the same fervor as IPAs or, on the ing Halloween-falls-on-a-weekday years, opposite end of the spectrum, barrel-aged AleSmith is kicking off the frightenporters or stouts. I think the oversight is ing festivities early for Night of the Evil a damn shame. I can’t explain why beers Dead… Red on Friday, Oct. 26 from 6:30 that strike a balance of malts and hops to 11 p.m. at their Miramar brewery tastseem to be out of fashion nowadays. But ing room. The event is free, but tickets are for the moderately-minded beer lover available for food, beer and candy pairwith an affinity for zombie-branded prod- ings. Costumes are encouraged. No word ucts, AleSmith nails it with Evil Dead. on whether they’ll have candy corn.

Not only does it taste great, but it looks spooky as hell. It’s blood-red and smells Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com or check her like a pine forest bathed in moonlight out on Instagram at @thedelightedbite.

I

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THE BEST OF SAN DIEGO 2018

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OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

EVENTS

SHORTlist

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

SAN DIEGO

HALLOWINNING It’s (finally) the season for haunted hap- John Hijatt and open to the public. Attendees are penings: Hallowe’en, Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve, All encouraged to bring a small token or photograph Saints’ Day, All Souls Day, Dia de los Muertos, etc., of the departed to add to the altar. Psychic readings but overall, it’s a time of mischief, remembering the will also be available from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Entry dead, and (of course) trick-orCOURTESY OF BRUJITXS DEL BARRIO is $5 and info can be found at treeoflifestore.com. treating. There are lots of local The San Diego Area Pagans events this week ranging from & Witches Network invite the supernaturally spooky to “witches, wizards and sprites, more family-friendly fun. elves and dragons to honor this This year, Dia de los Muernight” at the All Hallows Eve tos begins on Wednesday, Oct. Magickal Masquerade Ball 31 and lasts until Friday, Nov. on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at Queen 2. On Saturday, Oct. 27, ChiBee’s Art and Cultural Center cano Art Gallery (2117 Logan (3925 Ohio St.) in North Park.

Ave.) in Barrio Logan is hostThe closed-door Samhain/All ing a Dia de Los Muertos Art Hallow’s Eve ritual is from 7 to Show & Community Altar 8 p.m., but the public party will reception that’s open to the run from 8 to 11 p.m. Tickets public. Be sure to stop by nearstart at $25 and are available

by Brujitxs Del Barrio (2185 on eventbrite.com.

Logan Ave., Space #18) during Finally, this is the last this time of remembrance to weekend for Write Out Loud’s stock up on magical and sacred Brujitxs Del Barrio PoeFest. The annual fest feahealing products. More info tures live readings of scary about the weekend’s festivities stories written by Poe and other spooky authors. It can be found at instagram.com/chicanoartgallery.

On Sunday, Oct. 28 at 5 p.m., Ocean Beach’s happens at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 through Sunday, Tree of Life (4870 Santa Monica Ave., Suite 1A) Oct. 28 at the Adobe Chapel (3963 Conde St.) in Old metaphysical bookstore will put on a public Sam- Town. Tickets are $20 and full schdule of readings hain Ritual and Celebration, headed by diviner can be found at writeoutloudsd.com.

LA JOLLA

IN THE ZONE At some point in our lives, we might feel the need to go on a quest for truth and inner peace, but how far are we willing to go to reach it? And what if it all goes wrong? Local Renee Linnell, serial entrepreneur and author of The Burn Zone, will discuss our vulnerabilities to mind control and how she found herself severely brainwashed as a Buddhist cult member for nearly seven years.

Her memoir is an inspiring read, but is also a cautionary tale about what we give up for what we think is spiritual enlightenment. The discussion, followed by a book signing will take The Burn Zone place at Warwick’s (7812 Girard Ave.) at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29. This event is free and open to the public. Only copies purchased at Warwick’s will be signed.

12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

LA JOLLA

SALK IT UP No one disputes that the Salk Institute (10010 N. Torrey Pines Road) is an architectural wonder, but it’s not often we get a peak inside or get to meet the hard-working scientists toiling away on life-changing experiments. Luckily, there’s the annual Explore Salk, a community open house that includes a variety of activities. In addition to a self-guided tours, there will be opportunities to speak with some Salk scientists, as well as hands-on experiments for kids. There will also be a film screening of The Shot Felt Round the World, about the institute’s namesake Jonas Salk, who developed the Polio vaccine. Explore Salk happens from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 and while the event is free, registration is required at salk.edu/exploresalk or at 858-597-0657.

REX BOGGS / FLICKR

ART

DANCE

HeXit pARTy: Homegrown at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 1100 Kettner Blvd., Downtown. Inspired by the new exhibition, Being Here with You/ Estando aquí contigo, this event will feature hands-on activities, performance art, cocktails, and live music. From 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. Free-$25. 858454-3541, mcasd.org

World of Dance Live at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Gaslamp. The best dancers from NBC’s hit show will perform in a variety of styles. At 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 30. $39.50-69.50. 619-5701100, sandiegotheatres.org

HPressure Field: Calzada at Gallery@ Calit2, Qualcomm Institute Auditorium, UC San Diego, 3390 Voigt Drive, La Jolla. An exhibition by the artist collective AUDINT, who attempts to reconstruct the perplexing sounds, reported in several mysterious sonic attacks on diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba in 2017. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. Free. qi.ucsd.edu/events

HSan Diego Mac n’ Cheese Fest at Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Hwy., Downtown.

Local restaurants will showcase their best takes on gourmet mac n’ cheese at this fourth annual festival, which also includes craft beer and wine pairings. Ages 21 and up. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. $40$70. sandiegomacncheese.com

HRainbow Valley at Art Produce, 3139 University Ave., North Park. This exhibition from Remi Dalton, named after the northeast ridge of Mt. Everest, presents dead climbers painted in the romantic landscape tradition as well as nontraditional mixed media pieces. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26. Free.

619-500-2787, artproduce.org HTEXTURAS at Vanguard Culture @ IDEA1, 895 Park Blvd. #124, Downtown.

A pop-up exhibit featuring texture-centric works by mixed media artist Becky Guttin.

Opening includes wines from the Valle de Guadalupe and food by Chef Daniella de la Puente. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 26. $10 suggested donation.

Registration required. vanguardculture. org HI Eat People III: Children’s Monster Art at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Pkwy., Mission Valley. Opening reception presented by Stay Strange for a collection of kid’s monster art along with crafts, a costume party and more. Opening from 3 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. Free. 619818-6419, staystrange.com HMonster Drawing Rally at The FRONT Arte Cultura, 147 W. San Ysidro Blvd., San Ysidro. Dozens of artists will create monster drawings in front of patrons and sell them for $70 and under. Includes music, snacks and drinks. From 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. $3. 619-4281115, casafamiliar.org/thefront

BOOKS HLou Berney at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The fiction writer will discuss his process with Don Winslow and sign copies of his new novel, November Road. At 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 25. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Yotam Ottolenghi at Chino Farm, 6123 Calzada del Bosque, Del Mar. The celebrated chef and author will discuss and sign his new cookbook, SIMPLE: A Cookbook, accompanied by bluegrass music, fresh produce and drinks. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27. Free. goodearthgreatchefs.com HRenee Linnell at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The local author will discuss and sign her new memoir, The Burn Zone, about her time living in a Buddhist cult. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Neal and Jarrod Shusterman at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The father and son writing duo will sign and discuss the latest novel, Dry, which explores a world without water. At 7 p.m.

Monday, Oct. 29. Free. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com

The Salk Institute

H = CityBeat picks

FOOD & DRINK

HALLOWEEN HTrick-or-Treat on India Street at Little Italy, Little Italy. Businesses along historic India Street open their doors to pass out Halloween treats for little ones dressed in their favorite Halloween costumes. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26. Free. littleitalysd.com EVOL at the Prado V: To Hell With You at The Prado, 1549 El Prado. A hell-themed party featuring multiple rooms and live music from DJ Three, Fur Coat, Gene Farris and more. From 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, Oct. 26. $59. venno.com/event/evol-prado-v HalGLOWeen at San Diego Zoo, 2920 Zoo Drive, Balboa Park. A three-day, familyfriendly event where the zoo will glow under black lights. Includes a bubble dance party, animal encounters, acrobats and more.

Halloween costumes encouraged. From 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, Saturday, Oct. 27 and Sunday, Oct. 28. $44-$60. 619231-1515, sandiegozoo.org HNightmare on Normal Street at University Ave. and Normal St., Hillcrest.

Hillcrest’s Halloween block party celebration includes live entertainment, a costume competition, food trucks and two bars. From 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. $20-$45. fabuloushillcrest.com H Art After Dark: Classic Halloween Bash at Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. Artwork by Ragnar serves as inspiration for this Halloween carnival, which will include live entertainment, music and art. Ages 21 and up. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. $40-$125. 760-435-3720, oma-online.org HHaunted Tales at Maritime Museum of San Diego, 1492 N. Harbor Dr., Downtown.

A Halloween event with lantern-led tours on the Star of India that include ghostly tales of crewmembers past. The museum will also be open until 8 p.m. From 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. $8-$18. 619234-9153, sdmaritime.org Halloween Family Day at Balboa Park Conservancy, 1549 El Prado, Balboa Park. More than two dozen museums, cultural attractions and community partners will set up shop in Balboa Park for a day of crafts, costume contests and other surprises. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 27. Free. 619-331-1920, balboaparkconservancy.org HWCKD Village Halloween Bash at East Village, Downtown. Formerly known as the San Diego Monster Bash, this event will see six blocks of downtown transformed into a haunted village with four stages and DJs including Cheat Codes, Michael Calfan, Young Bombs and more. From 6 p.m. to midnight. Saturday, Oct. 27. $10-$180. wckdvillage.com HSpooktober-Fest

at

The

Lafayette

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 @SDCITYBEAT

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 Hotel, Swim Club & Bungalows, 2223 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. The Halloweenthemed party includes costume contests and musical performances from Pinback, Gods of Mt. Olympus and Buckfast Superbee. At 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. $40-$50. lafayettehotelsd.com.

HHouse of Freaks: An Old Bread Factory Halloween Party at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights.

This 21+ Halloween party features live art, entertainment and a costume contest.

From 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Saturday, Oct. 27. $22. 619-851-4083, breadandsaltsandiego.com Halloween at the Station at Liberty Station, 2750 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. Liberty Station’s annual event includes live music, an all-ages costume contest and more. From noon to 4 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 28. Free. 619-336-0004, libertystation.com HCreatures of the Night: A Queer Halloween Dance Party at Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Linda Vista.

Dance along to drag performances by The Infamous Boom Boom, Felony Dodger, Hollow Eve and more as well as DJ sets

by DJ Jon Doss and DJ Filoso. From 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday, Oct. 29. $15-$20. brickbybrick.com HAll Hallows Eve Magickal Masquerade Ball at Queen Bee’s Arts and Cultural Center, 3825 Ohio St., North Park. This Halloween party will feature witches and spells, spooky rituals, magical costumes, dancing, food, festivities and performances from Sin & Seraphin and Quel Bordel. From 7 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30. $15-$45. magickalmasquerade.eventbrite.com

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Paranormal Investigation of the Davis-Horton House at Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House, 410 Island Ave., Downtown. This tour and investigation of the historical museum led

by San Diego Ghost Hunters will present evidence to support the claims that there are supernatural spirits present. $40. From 10 p.m. to midnight. Wednesday, Oct. 31. 619-233-4692, gaslampfoundation.org BOOmont Park & Fall Fest at Belmont Park, Mission Blvd. & W. Mission Bay Drive, Mission Beach. For the sixth year, Belmont Park transforms into a Halloween-themed beachfront amusement park featuring a family-friendly haunted house, Zombie Laser Tag, Spooky Coaster and more.

Through Wednesday, Oct. 31. Prices vary. belmontpark.com HThe Haunted Trail Of Balboa Park at Balboa Drive and Juniper St., Balboa Park. A mile-long trail featuring a haunted old plantation, creepy clowns, live scenes of horror and more. From 7 to 11 p.m.

Through Wednesday, Oct. 31. $25-$37. hauntedhotel.com HThe Scream Zone at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. One of San Diego’s largest Halloween attractions featuring a huge House of Horror with rooms filled with scares, as well as a Haunted Hayride and more. From 7 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays from 7 to 11 p.m. every other day. Through Wednesday, Oct. 31. $21$34. 858-755-1141, thescreamzone.com HThe Haunted Hotel at 424 Market St., Downtown. Voted one of “America’s Best Haunted Houses,” make your way through a Hellevator, a Hillbilly Swamp, a Clown Subway and more. From 7 to 11 p.m.

Through Tuesday, Oct. 31. $20-$29. 619231-0131, hauntedhotel.com

MUSIC HMariinsky Orchestra and San Diego Symphony Orchestra at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The renowned orchestra from St. Petersburg, Russia combines forces with the San Diego Symphony for a program of music from Glinka, Borodin and Shostakovich.

At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24. $25-$109. sandiegosymphony.org Taiwan Philharmonic and Stephen Hough at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. Shao-Chia Lü will conduct this show with Stephen Hough on lead piano for a program featuring works by Gordon Chin, Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy and more. From 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. $25-$200. 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org

PERFORMANCE HThe Marriage of Figaro at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Gaslamp.

The San Diego Opera opens its new season with Mozart’s classic, comical opera about a matchmaker who falls in love, but not without complications. At 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28. $21$302. 619-533-7000, sdopera.org HInheritance at UCSD Prebys Experimental Theatre, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. This multimedia chamber opera about gun violence, led by Steven Schick and Cara Consilvio, tells the story of Sarah Winchester of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 28. $9-$25. artpower.ucsd.edu C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Gaslamp. Acclaimed actor Max McLean portrays C.S. Lewis in this

one-man show about the Christian writer’s life and career. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28. $42.50. 619570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org HThe Capitol Steps presents Make America Grin Again at Spreckels Theater, 121 Broadway, Downtown. The politicalmusical-satire troupe will perform a comedy show with a mix of song and stand-up that satirizes modern political leaders and takes on major issues of the day. At 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 27. $39-$59. capsteps.com

POETRY AND SPOKEN WORD HVAMP: Creep at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park. So Say We All’s monthly storytelling showcase will feature spooky and scary tales that are based in reality. From 8:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. $5 suggested donation. 619-2846784, sosayweallonline.com Poetry & Art at San Diego Art Institute, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. Michael Klam will host this poetry event for youth and adults. Readings will be followed by the People’s Choice Poem Performance Awards. At 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26. $6.

619-957-3264, poetryandartsd.com HPoeFest at Adobe Chapel, 3963 Conde St., Old Town. Write Out Loud will present staged performances of works by Edgar Allan Poe and other authors with similar styles and themes. At 7 and 8:30 p.m.

Through Sunday, Oct. 28. $20-$75. 619297-8953, writeoutloudsd.com

SPECIAL EVENTS HExplore Salk at the Salk Institute, 10010 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla. A community open house that includes self-guided tours,

opportunities to speak with Salk scientists, hands-on experiments for kids and film screenings. Registration required. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. 858-5970657, salk.edu/exploresalk HOut of the Darkness Community Walk at Liberty Station NTC Park, 2600 Cushing Road, Point Loma. Join others to raise awareness about suicide and funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

From 8 a.m. to noon. Saturday, Oct. 27.

Donation drive. afsp.org/sandiegowalk HCity Heights Dia de Los Muertos Celebration at City Heights Community Park, 3700 Fairmont Ave., City Heights.

There will be dancing, singing, music and community altars to celebrate Day of the Dead. Includes face painting, mask making and a contest for the best Catrina and Catrin. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. Free. cityheightsba.org HHistorias Tenebrosas at Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Gaslamp. Amigos del Rep presents this annual Dia de los Muertos community event that includes performances of short plays, screenings of family-friendly spooky films, and a craft area to make calaveras (sugar skulls) and bean collages. At 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29. Free.

619-544-1000, sdrep.org

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HUN DAY 2018 | Human Rights, Close to Home at The Lot, 2620 Truxtun Road, Liberty Station, Point Loma. Mike Beard, Global Health Director for the Better World Campaign at UN Foundation, will give a keynote speech on Sustainable Development and Human Rights. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. $70. hnasd.org

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 13

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

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OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 15

THEATER What ‘Actually’ happened?

JIM CARMODY

A

mber (Emily Shain) and Tom (DeLeon Dallas) are freshmen at Princeton. Once Tom recognizes that Amber’s been eyeing him from afar, they share a flirty meet-up followed by an innocent-enough first date at an ice cream joint. But when a subsequent rendezvous ends up in Tom’s dormitory bed, matters take a grave turn.

What happened there depends on who you believe later, when Amber and Tom wind up at a disciplinary hearing over whether or not he raped her. Amber says yes. Tom says no.

This is Anna Ziegler’s one-act drama, Actually. The title echoes the word Amber speaks to Tom in the middle of their sexual encounter—one not shown onstage—to let Tom know that she’d changed her mind about the whole thing. Tom heard the word, he says, but didn’t take “actually” as a “no.”

With Brett Kavanaugh’s and Christine Blasey Ford’s testimonies still fresh, Actually’s he said/she said narrative couldn’t be more timely. San Diego Repertory Theatre’s production of Ziegler’s 2017 play is tense and frank. Most of the 90 minutes is presented in twin monologues, with Shain’s stricken, stammering Amber recounting events before and leading up to the night in the dormitory, and Dallas’ overly confident but anguished Tom doing the same. Both dwell heavily in each character’s excessive backstories. Amber has body issues and a mother who insults her, plus there’s the implied complications of her Jewish faith. Meanwhile, Tom is an African-American man at a predominantly white Ivy League school. His best male friend keeps trying to kiss him and it turns out his beloved mother is very ill. It’s possible these looming circumstances are designed to

16 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

in references to kegs and Jello shooters. Actually has a verdict but, as in the reality of the times, there’s no clear reconciliation between truth and conscience.

Actually runs through Nov. 4 in the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Space, Horton Plaza, Downtown. $25-$69; sdrep.org

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: Stop Kiss: Two lesbians grow closer after they become the victims of a hate crime. Presented by the University of San Diego Department of Theatre, it opens for five performances Oct. 25 at the Vassiliadis Family Black Box Theatre at USD. usdtheatre.eventbrite.com The Laramie Project: A staged reading of Moisés Kaufman’s stirring play about a Wyoming town reeling from the murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man. Presented by the La Jolla Theatre Ensemble, it happens Oct. 28 and Oct. 30 at the La Jolla Rifford Library. facebook.com/ljtheatreensemble

Actually explain both Amber’s and Tom’s distraction and lack of judgment (along with just being college freshmen), but Actually is a very busy script.

Presented on a bare stage but for two chairs, the actors openly confront themselves and the life-changing seriousness of their situation. When they do clash, the play finds its passion, having occupied itself too much before then in name-drops of Kierkegaard and Nabokov or, less nuanced,

Rest, in Pieces: A staged reading of Steve Bluestein’s play that is made up of three one-acts that center on how families deal with the death of a loved one. Part of the New Works Reading Series, it happens Oct. 29 at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. northcoastrep.org Wicked: The Broadway production of the Wizard of Oz prequel that tells the story of the two witches long before Dorothy arrives. Presented

by Broadway San Diego, it opens Oct. 31 at the San Diego Civic Theatre in the Gaslamp. broadwaysd.com

For complete theater listings, visit sdcitybeat.com

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AREM BILDERBACK

CULTURE

SPO-20 and Mike Buchmiller (a.k.a Professor B. Miller)

“

f you look at all the things the band has done and stands for—the name, the styles of music, the off-putting robot—none of it is really done with listeners in mind.”

So says Mike Buchmiller, a.k.a the mad scientist known as Professor B. Miller. Buchmiller and his robot—known professionally as SPO-20—are the founding and only members of San Diego’s premier robot-fronted band, Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra (satanicpuppeteer.com).

“As a kid, I was always drawn to Misfits or Iron Maiden, or stuff that would really upset your parents just by looking at the cover,” Buchmiller says. “I always enjoyed that part of music, the sort of danger. But then, if you actually listen to Misfits, it’s all just like, distorted 1950s oldies with horror-themed lyrics.”

From those drawn-to-danger roots, Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra (SPO) emerged around 1996 as somewhat of a critique on the music industry.

“We just sort of made a list of all the unwritten rules and just set out to break every single one that we could think of.”

For example, SPO’s debut was a four-disc box set, and they include the word “satanic” in their name for no actual Satan-related reasons.

There’s also the robot. The group’s frontman is made of hundreds of pounds of steel and seemingly controlled by a mysterious brain encased in glass. His metallicyet-soothing voice is created using ancient text-to-speech software that went out of business in 1997. In order to program SPO20’s vocals, Buchmiller has to somehow virtualize Windows XP or another old operat-

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ing system just to open the software.

“It’s quite a complicated matter,” Buchmiller says. “And because of its age, it’s just not very sophisticated. Text-to-speech has come a long way since then, but I haven’t bothered with any of it, because in my mind, that’s kind of the robot’s voice.”

The cadence of the robot’s singing voice is often a surprise to Buchmiller and to listeners alike. Buchmiller types the lyrical text phonetically and often records words individually to control spacing and rhythm, but otherwise, the shape of the melody is at the mercy of mid-90s tech.

“Sometimes they’re kinda happy accidents,” Buchmiller says of his robot co-writer’s speech, “where it matches up with the music in ways I didn’t expect.”

The band’s influences also include conceptual visual artists like Claes Oldenburg or Marcel Duchamp. Buchmiller admires the way such visual art treats the mundane.

“They take every day objects and distort them or enlarge them or change them in some way that forces you to re-confront them as this new thing that you’ve never experienced before.”

To achieve this in their music, SPO’s next 20 EPs (“Yes, 20,” Buckmiller exclaims) will focus on a robot singing about mundane elements of human life. In the first of those forthcoming EPs, Stop by the Supermarket (there will be a release show Saturday, Nov. 24, at 2 p.m. at Lestat’s West), each track dives into the grocery store and its role in human existence. In spite of—or in some cases because of—their robot messenger, the lyrics range from astute (“No bags for me, these dozen soup cans stack super snugly... six in each hand”) to absurd (“A gallon of milk / A

loaf of bread / A keychain shaped like Winston Churchill’s head”) to profoundly ironic commentary on modern life (“Technology failed me when they scanned the UPC”).

And others have recognized the artistic worthiness of Buchmiller’s project. For three semesters now, Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra has enjoyed a spot on the syllabus for an English class at San Diego State University. Taught by (real) professor WilRACHEL BRADLEY

SPO-20 and Professor B. Miller liam Nericcio, English 220 is a study of the robotic, the erotic and the electric, covering texts ranging from Phillip K. Dick and Mary Shelley to, yes, SPO. Treating the band as a work of satire and multi-media performance art, students study lyrics, conceptualism and eventually enjoy an in-class performance by the band.

Buchmiller excitedly geeks out about the significance of Sci-Fi literature and film in his work. “[Phillip K. Dick’s writing] is all sort of an allegory about humanity or modern times,”

he says. “A lot of his work deals with what makes us human.”

That allegory is extended into his own work, particularly in the idea that technology can create vocal lyrics in a meaningful way.

“When you do hear a robot making music, you start analyzing what it is that’s different about it being a robot than being human. Is it just an instrument?” Buchmiller says.

The merging of technology and voice is not unique to Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra.

Voice programs like Auto-Tune were once hotly debated, but are now largely accepted by pop music fans. So, in a way, SPO’s robot isn’t entirely different from much of what else is out there. The forced contrast of human-created work and robot-created work evokes a sense of futurism, for better or for worse. What is it that makes humans human and can a robot not achieve this as well?

A longtime fan of Sci-Fi, what Buchmiller loves most about the genre is the ability to see inside of the creator’s imagination, discovering “the minutiae of the things—like what does the dashboard on a car look like?

And what does their kitchen look like?” To see inside Buchmiller’s imagination reveals not just the absurd and fantastical, but also the way the unusual stuff interplays with benign human facts.

“I can still make it weird or surreal or interesting or confusing or arresting, or something like that, with juxtaposition,” he says.

One young fan approached Buchmiller and the robot after a show with perhaps the most astute summary of the way satire, humor, science fiction and technology interplay with SPO. The fan asked, simply, “Did you guys used to be a cartoon?”

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 17

CULTURE | FILM

Little big screen

22 July

Two Netflix originals represent different paths filmmakers can take in the streaming age

by Glenn Heath Jr.

O

Together their stories paint a very simplified picver the course of 2018, Netflix will release over 80 original features on its worldwide ture of modern European democracy in crisis. That streaming service. Some of the these films, it does so entirely though the lens of a white male like Alfonso Cuaron’s ROMA and the Coen brothers’ perspective speaks to the film’s limitations. Women The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, will even receive Oscar- and people of color are denied much of a voice outside qualifying theatrical runs in the hopes of expanding supporting roles.

22 July also feels more purposefully conventional the company’s newly minted influence on an industry than Greengrass’ best work, even culminating with a that has resisted technological change for so long.

With this deluge of content, there’s no doubt many courtroom showdown between two ideologies fightof these productions will be duds on par with Holly- ing for control of Europe’s future. One has to imagine wood’s worst. But plenty of exciting indie and art film there’s more nuance to this multi-faceted story than simply good triumphing over directors have flocked to Netflix evil through the power of huhoping to take advantage of a man resiliency. rare opportunity to create with22 JULY By contrast, Evans’ Apostle is out the constraints of traditional Directed by Paul Greengrass a far more kinetic and diabolimarketing, budgetary, and pubStarring Anders Danielsen Lie, cal exploration of religious funlic relations concerns that comdamentalism wielding power promise their artistic vision.

Jon Øigarden and Jonas Strand Gravili over an unsuspecting citizenry.

Paul Greengrass (United 93, Not Rated Dan Stevens plays Thomas The Bourne Supremacy) and Richardson, the disgraced son Gareth Evans (The Raid: ReAPOSTLE of a wealthy businessman who demption, The Raid 2) are two Directed by Gareth Evans is sent to rescue his kidnapped such filmmakers with new work Starring Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen sister from the clutches of an that’s premiered on Netflix in and Mark Lewis Jones island-dwelling cult.

October. Both emanate from the Not Rated Brutal violence, debilitatUK (the former is English, the ing jump scares, and a genuine latter is Welsh) but European identity has rarely featured heavily in their work. Only mean streak make this horror thriller, set in Britain Greengass’ Bloody Sunday, a blistering account of the circa 1905, one of Netflix’s most adventurous releases 1971 Bogside Massacre in Northern Ireland, explores to date. Evans submerges much of the current Eurothe violence produced by cultural repression and so- pean malaise about tradition and economic disenfranchisement underneath a vicious cat-and-mouse game. cial injustice.

Thomas, a disgraced and traumatized priest himWith 22 July, Greengrass returns to his favorite genre—the docudrama—to portray a tragic event from self, grapples with his own hypocrisy of faith while multiple human and institutional vantage points. In trying to survive the brazen corruption and false profthis case, it’s a 2011 terrorist attack by a right-wing iteering of a new age sect that’s destroying the enviextremist named Anders Behring Breivik (hauntingly ronment one throat slash at a time.

Both 22 July and Apostle expose the permeating played by Anders Danielsen Lie), who coordinated dual attacks on Oslo’s city center and the island of Utøya, rage and maliciousness of arrogant white men without which was hosting hundreds of students from a liberal power, each trying to reshape the modern world in their youth camp. In the end, the attacks claimed 77 lives. own archaic image through suppression and violence.

The film doesn’t draw out the massacre with un- The one key difference is that Evans’ apocalyptic riff on needed tension, but the scenes on Utøya are neverthe- The Wicker Man has the guts to also indict those that less very difficult to watch considering the ruthless- hide behind the best of intentions. In the character of ness and magnitude of the attack. Greengrass then Thomas, the director finds the perfect tormented soul splinters the story to focus on three separate par- to personify a nation’s collective internal bleeding. ticipants, including Breivick himself, his lawyer Geir Lippestad (Jon Øigarden) and a survivor named Viljar Film reviews run weekly.

Hannsen (Jonas Strand Gravili).

Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

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CULTURE | FILM

Black ’47

Under the knife

I

reland’s infamous Potato Famine of 1845 began as an environmental disaster made worse by the corruption and brutality of English rule. Lance Daly’s vicious revenge thriller Black ’47 picks up two years after thousands of poor have either immigrated to America or died of starvation and fever.

Having spent years abroad fighting for the crown in places like Afghanistan, a veteran soldier named Feeney (James Frecheville) returns home to find his entire family tree in tatters. The only remaining survivors are sister-in-law Ellie (Sarah Greene) and her three children who are currently squatting in an abandoned cabin off the grid.

Mere days after Feeney settles in, soldiers and land agents come knocking to forcibly evict his clan.

The ensuing conflict leaves innocents dead and a trained killer simmering with rage. Starting at the bottom, Feeney begins slicing his way up the food chain toward the hateful bureaucrat (Jim Broadbent) who’s calling the shots.

Some disquieting violence in Black ’47 happens off screen, but much of it unfolds in plain sight.

Daly depicts Feeney’s rampage as necessary retribution for the injustices befallen on all Irish by the uncaring and arrogant British, a symbolic precursor to the I.R.A. One pompous young military captain (Freddie Fox) and a disgraced police investigator (Hugo Weaving) are tasked with hunting down Feeney; the duo becomes representative of Britain’s split personality toward Ireland’s independence.

For much of Black ’47 (opening Friday, Oct. 26, at the Digital Gym Cinema), the Irish are passive sufferers awaiting an inevitable demise. But Feeney’s actions change the tide, at least in the small territory where the film takes place.

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Stephen Rea plays a local translator who joins the posse so he can “see how the story ends.” Bearing witness to revolutionary acts seems just one step removed from following suit. That’s Celtic pride.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex, Fashion & Disco: This documentary looks at the life and career of Puerto Rico-born Bronx native Antonio Lopez, who became an icon of the fashion world during the 1960s and ’70s. Opens Friday, Oct. 26, at Landmark’s Ken Cinema.

Black ’47: A man returns home to Ireland in the midst of a devastating 1847 famine and decides to enact revenge on those responsible for grave injustices. Opens Friday, Oct. 26, at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Hunter Killer: Gerard Butler plays a submarine captain who must team up with some Navy SEALs to save the Russian president from terrorists. Opens in wide release Friday, Oct. 26.

Johnny English Strikes Again: Rowan Atkinson reprises his role as the bumbling British super agent who comes out of retirement to track down an infamous hacker. Opens in wide release Friday, Oct. 26.

Mid90s: A young skaterboarder spends his summer navigating the streets of Los Angeles and the troubled confines of his home life. Directed by Jonah Hill. Opens at the Angelika Carmel Mountain Cinemas on Friday, Oct. 26.

The Samuel Project: A young artist discovers that his Jewish grandfather, a San Diego dry cleaner, was heroically saved as a boy from Nazi capture in Germany by a young woman. Opens Friday, Oct. 26, at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

What They Had: Michael Shannon and Hillary Swank star as siblings who try to save their parents’ failing marriage in this indie drama from director Elizabeth Chomko. Opens Friday, Oct. 26, at Angelika Carmel Mountain Cinemas.

For complete movie

listings, visit Film at sdcitybeat.com.

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

OSCAR ARANDA

MUSIC

After we’re done at Bar Pink, I ask Avakian if he’ll accompany me to True North, the current bro bar that used to be Shooterz and which hosted Avakian’s beloved Club ’80s.

“To revisit the ghosts of goth past, if you will,” I say.

Outside True North, we hear a techno remix of a Santana song.

“This hurts my soul,” Avakian says.

A large bouncer ushers us in, past attractive patrons drinking fancy liquor and craft beer. We stand by a long table. “The bar used to extend along that wall,” Avakian says, describing the layout of Shooterz. Another bouncer interrupts, telling us to move because they’re setting up a game of beer pong. It’s so not goth.

Suddenly, Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science” comes on over the speakers. It’s not goth, but goth-adjacent, or how Avakian describes some of his favorite songs from the MTV era: “dark lite.” It almost feels like True North is suddenly haunted by its goth past. It also gives me hope for the scene. If darkness can endure in True North, it can survive anything.

Club Hemlock man in a bondage-style, pleather duster, hood and gas mask thrashes around to the tribal drums of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Happy House.” Nearly every inch of him is covered in shiny black plastic. That he remains standing—let alone dancing—seems like a miracle.

Halloween costumes were encouraged at tonight’s Club Sabbat, one of San Diego’s most popular goth nights. Still, I get the feeling this is how the crowd dresses all the time.

It’s like a scene in the movies, something straight out of Blade Runner or The Matrix: cool, dystopian, fashionable... and just a little scary. Lasers shoot through fog, two go-go dancers gyrate on stage, and behind everything is Vaughn Avakian, the DJ fueling this delightfully dark party.

Club Sabbat turned 20 this year and if it’s continuing popularity is any indication, goth nights are having a bit of a, eh, ressurection in San Diego—crawling out of the grave to take a bite out of a club scene that has been saturated with disposable music for too long. Bar Pink’s Hemlock, Whistle Stop’s Black Friday and Club Manhattan’s Rumors are just a few examples of this goth resurgence. For Avakian—who’s been DJing for over 20 years—the surging interest in dark music has been a godsen—I mean Satansend.

“My DJ career was over, to be honest with you,” Avakian says. We sit in a booth at Bar Pink during a quiet night—a dramatic contrast compared to Sabbat’s spectacle—but it’s still dark and spooky and just the type of environment where Avakian thrives.

20 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

“I started losing all my gigs... I mean, I’d be playing some place in the Gaslamp and someone would request Justin Bieber and that was the day when I was like, ‘It’s over.’”

But that all changed when Sabbat promoter Robin Roth asked Avakian, a self-described music nerd (“seriously, I’m a freak about it,” Avakian says), to guest DJ at Sabbat—an experience that sparked an intense and immediate nostalgia.

“I was like, ‘Fuck, this is the music that I grew up on as a teenager!’” Avakian says. Armed with a collection of over 10,000 records and a lifetime of knowledge, he set out to recreate the goth nights of his youth: Piranha Club (now InCahoots in Mission Valley), Soil (now an apartment on Hancock Street) and Club ’80s, the goth-ish night that went down Thursday nights at Shooterz (now True North).

“People still talk about Club ’80s. There’s not a day that goes by where I go on Instagram and someone from the goth community will post a picture from there.” He shows me an example on his phone and then compares it to a recent picture from Hemlock. The makeup, leather and sinister glee in both are practically the same—just separated by three decades.

“The music is interesting, but it’s also visually interesting... It’s not a costume, it’s a way of life.” Avakian says. “The music has always been popular, but I feel like there’s this new love for the classic goth stuff. When you got some 24-year-old asking for songs from D.A.F. (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft)...” Avakian pauses in happy disbelief. “How do you even know about this band?”

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO ENDORSEMENTS FROM THE MUSIC SCENE

W

been playing corporate compromiser for way too long (like decades!). Vote Duncan Hunter out and vote for Ammar Campa-Najjar in District 50. Please, please, please don’t let a law-breaker continue to be a law-maker. In La Mesa, vote no on Measure V, the cannabis business tax. I know firsthand that the dinosaurs that have been living out here their entire lives are so protective Jacob McWhinney (Spooky Cigarette, New of this town that they actually end up creatMe, Field Trips): “Well the race for District 50 ing problems from nothing. By trying so hard to has been pretty jaw-dropping. Watching Duncan block something that is legal [cannabis], they are Ammar Hunter veer from blame shifting and damage creating problems. Also in La Mesa, vote for Dave Campa-Najjar control regarding his federal indictments, to full Myers and Dr. Akilah Weber for City Council beblown xenophobia with his [Ammar] Campa-Najjar ads cause, like I mentioned, the dinosaurs need to go take a really demonstrates the skewed perspective the nap and let the rest of us progress into the future.” right thinks will win them elections. Campaign Peter Bolland: “I’ve known Ammar Campaads are now full-blown conspiracy theories and Najjar for ten years. He is a rare human bepropaganda, because if you muddy the waters ing, a collection of paradoxes. Hard working enough, no one will be able to tell. And when yet relaxed, professionally polished yet down they are proven to be horseshit, the right conto earth, intellectually formidable yet deeply sistently just does not seem to care.” heart-centered. Ammar is a mensch—the minDrew Douglas (grampadrew, Flim Flam Reute you meet him, you like him, trust him and bevue): “Amid the nightmare of national politics, I lieve him. I know it’s a cliché, but he got into this have been trying to get more involved on a local Paloma Aguirre race for one reason: to serve this community which level where we have the most power to change he so dearly loves. He is a man of integrity, comthe world directly around us. Paloma Aguirre passion, and honor—qualities that his opponent has worked tirelessly to clean up the waters in has obviously lost along the road somewhere.”

Imperial Beach and I support her run for I.B. Tim Mays (co-owner, The Casbah): “I’m City Council. Judges are always the toughest really behind Beto O’Rourke in Texas. Started to parse on the ballot, but local Judge Gary hearing about him during a May visit to AusKreep is rated as “lacking qualifications” by tin. My friends had attended a fundraiser for the County Bar Association and has been cenhim the weekend we were out there and they had sured by the Commission on Judicial Perfornothing but great things to say about him. Watchmance dozens of times for ethics violations. He’s also a conspiracy theorist, a general nutjob and a Beto O’Rourke ing his discourse on issues that we should all be fighting for is truly inspiring and I’m hoping that bigot. This is a no-brainier. He has to go.” he can unseat Ted Cruz, who epitomizes everything Diana Death (BBQT, Razor Nights): “I already bad in this country, to put it politely. That Duncan voted via mail-in ballot to yes, positively repeal Hunter Jr. is even still in the running for Conthe gas tax [Proposition 6]. Private companies gress is an insult to the electorate… He is the like Domino’s Pizza are already showing how face of all that is wrong in this country: smug, infrastructure can be repaired without reliself-righteous, corrupt, greedy, dealing in lies ance on government. Also, I like the sound of and half-truths. People in his district need to [John] Cox.” just take a look at the 47-page indictment to understand what the man is really all about.”

Demetrius Antuña (Warsaw, KATA): “Vote for

Kevin de León for US Senator because Feinstein has Kevin de León —Seth Combs e asked some people in the music scene what races and measures they’re following closely in the midterm election. From the House race in the 50th District (that one was particularly popular), to the proposition to repeal the gas tax, some of the responses might surprise readers.

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AFTER HOURS: ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Party like hell

W

ith Halloween falling on a Wednesday this year, the hell-raising will begin on Friday and run through midweek. Here is a schedule of hand-selected, electronic-music-driven events for those who want to keep wearing their costumes.

Start off with Lovelife’s EVOL at The Prado V: To Hell With You, which happens Friday, Oct. 26 at The Prado at Balboa Park. Much less innocent than Balboa Park’s daily activities, To Hell With You encourages devilish costumes and dancing late into the night with a stacked lineup, including sets by DJ Three, Fur Coat, Gene Farris and Oona Dahl, to name a few. Local music collectives Staybad, The Deep End and Music is 4 LovCOURTESY OF LOVELIFE ers team up for this event, which boasts three stages.

Tickets range from $49 to $59 at facebook.com/ lovelifeparty.

Saturday, Oct. 27 offers a slew of options for those ready to start early. There’s the Reptile EVOL at the PRADO Society’s Annual Halloween Conquest (facebook.com/reptiliansociety) happening from 1 until 10 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park (1449 Cesar E. Chavez Pkwy) in Barrio Logan. This is the first time the local collective is hosting their All Hallow’s Eve event in San Diego, so come in costume and be prepared for house and tech-heavy music by Andy Shaw, Bruno Da Mata and more. Carry on the night with beats by more local talent, including Arielle Z, Christopher James and more, at Spin Nightclub’s (2028 Hancock St., spinnightclub.com) Haunting from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

There are options on Sunday, Oct. 28 as well. Spin’s Haunted Rooftop will feature BOT, who was previously half of the DJ duo, Crookers. Haunted Rooftop will take place on the open-air, third level of Spin from 3 to 9 p.m.

Or, opt for a more underground and minimalistic musical route at Danza Sol at El Camino (2400 India St., elcaminosd.com). Russia’s Krane will spin, with support by DJs from the local collective Bouquet. It happens from 3 to 10 p.m. Costumes are encouraged at both events.

Take Monday and Tuesday nights off to recuperate before Halloween itself, when Bang Bang (526 Market St., bangbangsd.com) will host Lost Souls Halloween from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The event features Tel Aviv’s Guy J, who will be playing a four-hour set, weaving between trance and techno genres to wrap up a week of partying like hell.

—Torrey Bailey

About Last Night appears every other week.

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

MUSIC

IF I WERE U

BY CITYBEAT STAFF

Our picks for the week’s top shows

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 24 PLAN A: Exploded View @ Whistle Stop.

Exploded View’s music kind of freaks us out, but in a good way. It’s dark, moody, discordant at times, and hears like Nico fronting Suicide. It’s a bi-national project (the singer is from Berlin, the producers are from Mexico City) and touring isn’t always easy, so this is a rare chance to see them in an intimate setting. PLAN B: Saintseneca, Trace Mountains @ The Casbah.

Speaking of being freaked out, the male covocalist in this group looks like a witch or something. But this Columbus, Ohio-based group is reminiscent of vintage Bright Eyes and the new album, Pillar of Na, is packed full of folk-rock gems. BACKUP PLAN: ‘Night Sector 3’ w/ Glitch Black, Thrillsville, Dredd @ SPACE.

EXPLODED VIEW

Exploded View

THURSDAY, OCT. 25

SUNDAY, OCT. 28

PLAN A: Mouse on the Keys, Montalban Quintet @ The Irenic. Tokyo-based instrumental trio Mouse on the Keys are known for their highly technical blend of jazz, post-rock and electronic music, which basically means it’s not for everyone. Still, there’s no denying the talent, which can also be said for local jazz greats, the Montalban Quintet. PLAN B: Molly Burch, Jesse Woods @ Soda Bar. Singer Molly Burch is from Austin, but don’t immediately assume she has some Texas twang in her delivery. Her gorgeous voice is much more akin to a classic jazz chanteuse and when mixed with her band’s mature, altcountry sound, the result is truly unique.

BACKUP PLAN: Troye Sivan, Kim Petras, Carlie Hanson @ Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre.

Jesse Colin Young @ Belly Up. Young isn’t a household name and is probably best known for fronting the ’60s group, The Youngbloods, who were responsible for the wretched flower power anthem, “Come Together.” But his solo catalogue is worth revisiting and his voice has held up surprisingly well over the years. BACKUP PLAN: Michigan Rattlers, Ypsitucky @ Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, OCT. 26 PLAN A: The Luxembourg Signal, Bit Maps @ Whistle Stop. The Luxembourg Signal make some excellent alt-rock gems that combine elements of post-punk, Brit pop and shoegaze (full disclosure: former CityBeat associate editor Kelly Davis and her husband, Brian, are in the band). CityBeat once described local musician Drew Andrews’ solo project, Bit Maps, as “blissful cyborg pop,” but it can also be beautiful and intimate at times. BACKUP PLAN: The Donkeys, Lens Mozer @ Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, OCT. 27 PLAN A: The Creepy Creeps, The Schizophonics, Babydoll Warriors, Scary Pierre @ The Casbah. A night of Halloween fun with the best local garage rock bands in the city. The Schizophonics slayed at our annual

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

“Night at the Besties” party and we’ll have no doubt they’ll do the same here. Pro tip: This is gonna get sweaty so plan your costume accordingly. BACKUP PLAN: ‘Spooktober Fest’ w/ Pinback, Buckfast Superbee, Gods of Mt. Olympus @ The Lafayette Hotel, Swim Club & Bungalows.

MONDAY, OCT. 29 Y La Bamba, Kera and the Lesbians, Marineros @ SPACE. Hopefully readers caught last week’s feature on Luz Elena Mendoza, the immensely gifted frontwoman of Portland-based indie-folk band, Y La Bamba.

Whether she’s singing in English or Español, her lyrics cut to the core. PLAN B: Dawes @ The Observatory North Park. Dawes play the millennial equivalent of yacht rock. It’s pleasant, harmless alt-pop with just a wee bit of white boy grooves. You might read that and think it’s a dis. It’s not. Yacht rock has its uses. BACKUP PLAN: Joshua Hedley, Kelsey Waldon @ Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, OCT. 30 Still Corners, Ruby Haunt @ The Casbah. If there were any justice in the world, London duo Still Corners would be just as popular as Lana Del Rey, as both specialize in that brooding mope-pop that appeals to anyone who likes their emoness a little more nuanced. Still Corners are a bit more synthy, which is perfect for some Halloween Eve goth dancing (basically just swaying our arms dramatically). BACKUP PLAN: Hikes, Ruler, Fistfights With Wolves @ Soda Bar.

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Mac DeMarco (Music Box, 12/4), Beach Fossils, Wavves (HOB, 12/7), Earthless (BUT, 12/16), Eric Burdon & the Animals (BUT, 1/9-10), Adolescents (Casbah, 1/19), Still Woozy (Soda Bar, 2/4), MØ (Observatory, 2/5), Aurora, Talos (Observatory, 2/22), King Tuff (Casbah, 2/22-23).

CANCELED Derez Deshon (Music Box, 11/2), Thundercat, JID (Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, 11/3).

GET YER TICKETS Dawes (Observatory, 10/29), Agent Orange (Observatory North Park, 10/28), Jim James (BUT, 11/1), Cloud Nothings (Casbah, 11/1), Wolfmother (Observatory, 11/1), Maxwell (Humphreys, 11/2), Dia de los Deftones w/ Deftones, Future, Rocket from the Crypt (Petco Park, 11/3), Lucero (Observatory, 11/7), Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin (Irenic, 11/7), The Offspring (BUT, 11/7), Milo (SPACE, 11/8), Little Dragon (Observatory, 11/8), Morrissey (Copley Symphony Hall, 11/10), Ghost (Spreckels Theatre, 11/12), Blitzen Trapper (BUT, 11/12), Black Lips, Iceage (HOB, 11/13), J Mascis (Soda Bar, 11/15), Billie Eilish (SOMA, 11/17), Joywave, Sir Sly (Observatory, 11/18), Every Time I Die (Observatory, 11/20),

@SDCITYBEAT

Eyehategod (Brick by Brick, 11/20), Cat Power (Observatory, 11/24), Municipal Waste (Brick by Brick, 11/25), How to Dress Well (Casbah, 11/27), Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus (Observatory, 11/29), Godflesh (Brick

by Brick, 12/1), Old 97s (BUT, 12/2), Fucked Up (Soda Bar, 12/5), Squirrel Nut Zippers (BUT, 12/6), Pale Waves (Irenic, 12/7), Neko Case, Destroyer (Observatory, 12/8), Fleetwood Mac (Viejas Arena, 12/8), Kurt Vile (Observatory, 12/9), Amine (Observatory, 12/11), Middle Kids (Soda Bar, 12/13), Thou (Che Café, 12/13),The Soft Moon (BUT, 12/17), Ministry (HOB, 12/18), Donavon Frankenreiter (BUT, 12/28-29), Jefferson Starship (BUT, 1/9-10), Bananarama (Observatory, 1/27), Sharon Van Etten (Observatory, 2/28).

OCTOBER WEDNESDAY, OCT. 24 Alina Baraz at Observatory North Park, Exploded View at Whistle Stop.

THURSDAY, OCT. 25 Alina Baraz at Observatory North Park.

Mad Caddies at Brick by Brick. Goldfish at Belly Up Tavern. Mouse on the Keys at Irenic. Jay Rock at SOMA. Molly Burch at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, OCT. 26 Tribal Seeds at Observatory North Park.

The Donkeys at Soda Bar. Dead Man’s Party at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, OCT. 27 Tab Benoit at Belly Up Tavern. The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band at Soda

Bar. The Creepy Creeps at The Casbah.

Børns at Observatory North Park.

SUNDAY, OCT. 28 Agent Orange at Observatory North Park. Jesse Colin Young at Belly Up Tavern. Michigan Rattlers at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, OCT. 29 Real Friends at The Irenic. Joshua Hedley at Soda Bar. Y La Bamba at SPACE. Dawes at Observatory North Park. Tech N9ne at House of Blues. Real Friends at The Irenic.

TUESDAY, OCT. 30 Still Corners at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 31 In Flames at House of Blues. Caamp at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, NOV. 1 Lea Michele, Darren Criss at Humphreys.

Mac Ayres at Soda Bar. Jim James at Belly Up Tavern. Cloud Nothings at The Casbah. Anthony Jeselnik at Balboa Theatre. The Meteors at Brick by Brick. Wolfmother at Observatory North Park.

FRIDAY, NOV. 2 Maxwell at Humphreys by the Bay. Lil Pump at SOMA. Rozwell Kid at Che Café. The Selecter, The English Beat at The Casbah (sold out). Gorgon City at Observatory North Park (sold out). Mr. Twin Sister at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, NOV. 3 Clan of Xymox at The Casbah (sold out).

The Internet at Observatory North Park (sold out). Dia de los Deftones: Deftones, Future, Rocket from the Crypt at Petco Park.

Pepper at Del Mar Fairgrounds. Morrissey at Copley Symphony Hall.

SUNDAY, NOV. 11 Digital Lizards of Doom at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, NOV. 4 The Menzingers at Music Box. CKY at Brick by Brick.

MONDAY, NOV. 5 MC Chris at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, NOV. 6

MONDAY, NOV. 12 Ghost at Spreckels Theatre. Tacocat at Casbah. Blitzen Trapper at Belly Up Tavern. Jesse Dayton at Soda Bar. Rex Orange County at Observatory (sold out).

TUESDAY, NOV. 13

Suffocation at Brick by Brick.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 7 Paper Kites at House of Blues. Lucero at Observatory North Park. Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin at The Irenic. Vundabar at House of Blues. Musiq Soulchild at Music Box. The Offspring (acoustic) at Belly Up Tavern.

THURSDAY, NOV. 8

Rex Orange County at Observatory (sold out). Paula Abdul at Copley Symphony Hall. Black Lips, Iceage at House of Blues.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 14 Todd Rundgren at Belly Up Tavern. Mutual Benefit at Soda Bar. The Selecter at the Casbah.

THURSDAY, NOV. 15

Film School at Whistle Stop. Goo Goo Dolls at House of Blues. Kuinka at The Casbah. Goatwhore at Brick by Brick.

Three Dog Night at Belly Up Tavern.

Little Dragon at Observatory North Park. Milo at SPACE. Birdtalker at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, NOV. 9 Greensky Bluegrass at Observatory.

Kyle Craft at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, NOV. 10 The Crystal Method at Music Box. All Them Witches at The Casbah. Khruangbin at Observatory North Park (sold out).

Billy Gibbons at Belly Up Tavern. J Mascis at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, NOV. 16 Tokyo Police Club at Casbah. Lil Xan at House of Blues. Bongzilla at Brick by Brick. English Beat at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, NOV. 17 English Beat at Belly Up Tavern. Gallant at Observatory. Billie Eilish at SOMA (sold out). The Helio Sequence at The Casbah. This Will Destroy You at Brick

by Brick.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 23

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 SUNDAY, NOV. 18 98 Degrees at Balboa Theatre. Joywave, Sir Sly at Observatory North Park. Yndi Halda at Soda Bar. Southern Culture on the Skids at The Casbah.

MONDAY, NOV. 19 Steady Holiday at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, NOV. 20 Ian Sweet at Soda Bar. Every Time I Die at Observatory North Park. Eyehategod at Brick by Brick.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Wed: Open Mic. Thu: ‘Liquid Courage Karaoke’. Fri: Third Project, The Steadians. Sat: ‘HalloFREAKinween’. Sun: ‘Sunday Funday Karoake’.

Tue: Cherry Road, Sweet Myths.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., Normal Heights. Wed: ‘#HipHopWeds’.

Thu: ‘SubDrip’. Fri: ‘House Music Friday’.

Sat: DJ Fingaz. Sun: Marko Darko. Mon: Organized Grime. Tue: ‘Trance Tuesday’.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Finesse Mitchell. Fri: Finesse Mitchell. Sat: Finesse Mitchell. Tues: Open Mic.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road, Spring Valley. Wed: Karaoke. Fri: Strawberry Fist Cake, Los Homeless. Sat: Carnage the Executioner. Sun: The Tale, Two Reverends One Sinner, Collie. Tue: ‘Halloween Karaoke Part 1’.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Wed: Thu: Fri: Bixel Boys, Hot Fire.

Sat: Justin Jay. Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park.

Mon: Julia Sage and the Bad Hombres.

Tue: ‘Terror on Tiki Island!’.

Beaumont’s, 5665 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Fri: The Nineteen90’s. Sat: The Voices.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Pink Talking Fish, The Higgs. Thu: Goldfish, CARLO X

OFIER. Fri: Dead Man’s Party. Sat: Tab Benoit, Bayou Revue. Sun: Jesse Colin Young. Mon: Eric Hutchinson & The Believers.

of Jovi. Sun: ‘Creatures of the Night: A Queer Halloween Party’. Tue: Dance with the Dead, Daniel Deluxe, Street Cleaner, Syntax.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: Forest Grove, The Chavez Ravine, Strange Ages.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. Wed: Saintseneca, Trace Mountains. Thu: Cleopatrick, Beldum.

Fri: Vernon Reid’s Band of Gypsys Revisited, The Andrew McKeag Band, Loosen the Noose. Sat: The Creepy Creeps, The Schizophonics, Babydoll Warriors, Scary Pierre. Sun: Jakubi, Jumbotron. Mon: Mac Sabbath, Franks & Deans. Tue: Still Corners, Ruby Haunt.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’.

Thu: ‘The Low End’. Fri: ‘We Are Your Friends’. Sat: ‘San Diego’s Original Emo Night’. Sun: ‘Chvrch’. Mon: ‘Blue Monday’. Tue: ‘Techno Tuesdays’.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Wed: Amigo the Devil, Harley Poe, Blind Mountain Holler. Thu: Mad Caddies, The Amalgamated, Jon Gazi. Fri: Ready Set Survive, Fallen Monuments, Hardly Human. Sat: Blackout, Blaze

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Fri: Thra, Shred Bundy, Falcon Punch, Infinite Crisis. Sat: ‘Punk Rock Halloween at the Che’.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Bay Park. Thu: Bill “The Doctor” Hurd. Fri: ‘Benedetti celebrates Lennon’.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., Downtown.

Wed: Trey Songz. Fri: DJ ESCO. Sat: Twista.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Palaye Royale. Thu: The Devil Makes Three. Fri: Boo Ball. Sat: Chris Lane. Sun: Beartooth. Mon: Tech N9ne. Tue: The Adicts.

Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: Puro Feeling. Thu: Kim Jackson. Fri: ‘Funk’s Most Wanted’. Sat: ‘Full Strength Funk’.

Sun: Groove Squad. Mon: Lady Dottie & The Diamonds. Tue: Cadillac Wreckers.

The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., North Park.

Wed: Thu: Fri: Mouse on the Keys, Montalban Quintet. Sat: Noah Kahan, Dean Lewis. Mon: Real Friends, Boston Manor, Grayscale, Eat Your Heart Out. Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., Kensington. Wed: Dreams Made Flesh, Voodoo Boogaloo, XIV. Fri: H3, The Birth Defects, The Gay Agenda, Flaunt, All Beat up.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Thu: Chris Barron. Fri: Kahlil Nash, Getaway 95. Sat: Concepts, 87. Mon: Open Mic. Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. Fri: The Marias.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave., Coronado. Wed: Harmony Road. Thu: Wild Heart. Fri: Electric Mud. Sat: Ron’s Garage. Sun: Ron’s Garage. Tue: 3 Guys Will Move U. The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Sun: ‘The Playground’. Tue: Hyper Active Slackers, Wolves of Eden, Mainsail.

Mr. Peabody’s, 136 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Thu: Three Chord Justice.

Fri: PRI. Sat: The Walking. Sun: Tony Ortega Jazz Quartet. Mon: Open Mic. Tue: Karaoke.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy. Wed: Lisa Stansfield. Thu: Lucky Chops, One Hot Planet. Fri: Beats Antique, Balkan Bump. Sat: The California Honeydrops. Mon: ‘Measure E: SoccerCity’s Rock the Vote’. Tue: Stryper, The Rock.

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

Wed: Aretha Franklin Tribute. Thu: ‘No Limits’. Fri: ‘After Hours’. Sat: ‘Strictly Business’. Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Fri: Sikdope. Sat: Dada Life.

Panama 66, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. Wed: ‘Wednesday Jam Session’.

Fri: Mad Hat Hucksters. Sat: Jake Najor and the Moment of Truth. Sun: Funk Jam.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

@SDCITYBEAT

BY CHRISTIN BAILEY

ASTROLOGICALLY UNSOUND Weekly forecasts from the so-called universe ARIES (March 21 - April 19): You’re really doing this to yourself right now? You really got ready and went all the way to a restaurant just to sit down at a table and tell the server you want mac and cheese?

LIBRA (September 23 - October 22): Watching too many crime procedurals might lead you to believe that you will die by the hand of someone dubbed the Beach Ball Reaper when, realistically, it would just be a copycat killer.

TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Pulling the sword out of the stone is easy. What’s difficult is coming up with excuses to get out of all the work that comes with being the chosen one.

SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21): It’s illegal to open the zoo cages but it’s perfectly fine to spend years helping the animals acquire human language and then explaining how they can get out themselves. Loophole.

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Saying yes to one thing is, in effect, saying no to over one billion different things. But saying no to that one thing is saying no to the two billion things that would follow.

CANCER (June 21 - July 22): What comes after Gemini? I know there is another sign here—the one that comes before Leo—but I just can’t, for the life of me, remember what it is.

LEO (July 23 - August 22): If you do not constantly toil at developing a rich inner life then you’ll soon find that whenever you close your eyes, you will only see a Windows screensaver.

VIRGO (August 23 - September 22): Life is like a bingo hall: there are only a finite amount of possibilities chosen at random and dictated to you by someone with arbitrary authority.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 December 21): After you have spent hours rehearsing the wisest sounding answer to the question, “What’s your favorite color?” you might realize no one even asked at all.

CAPRICORN (December 22 January 19): Lava can kill you in many ways, but the most dangerous way is through dedicating your life to volcanology at the expense of all other relationships.

AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18): You can’t win the lottery if you don’t play. And you probably won’t win it if you do play. So I guess it’s fine to do whatever you want.

PISCES (February 19 - March 20): You cannot possibly conceive of how many individual choices you made in your life to arrive where you are now, but I can and it has only been seven. Surprise!

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

MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Fri: Crooked. Sat: Stafford Brothers, E40.

Pour House, 1903 S. Coast Highway, Oceanside. Wed: Open Mic. Thu: Dirty Dragon, The Night Howls, Stephanie Brown. Fri: The Night Howls, Supra Summus, Sabbath Buddy Sabbath, Monolith. Sat: The Tighten Ups, Dark Alley Dogs, Monarch.

Proud Mary’s, 5550 Kearny Mesa Road, Kearny Mesa. Wed: Scott Mathias & The Honey Combs. Thu: Tomcat Courtney. Fri: Mercedes Moore. Sat: Nathan James.

The Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest. Sat: ‘Sabados en Fuego’.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: ‘Mischief Wednesday’. Thu. ‘#LEZ’. Sat: ‘Rich’s Halloween Massive’.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: Jason Hanna & Friends. Fri: Joey Harris & The Mentals.

Sat: Nathan Hubbard Quartet. Sun: ‘Acoustic’. Tue: ‘Everything and Anything Jam’.

Rosie O’Gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Karaoke Night’.

Fri: ‘Acoustic Revolt’ with Timothy Joseph. Sat: The Devil’s Due, Dreadnotz.

Tue: Israel Maldonado.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave., North Park. Wed: James E Pepper with Brian Lee Whiskey Society.

@SDCITYBEAT

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Netherfriends, Parish Seyclouds, ZAE (fka TAC XII). Thu: Molly Burch, Jesse Woods. Fri: The Donkeys, Lens Mozer. Sat: The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Lexington Field. Sun: Michigan Rattlers, Ypsitucky. Mon: Joshua Hedley, Kelsey Waldon. Tue: Hikes, Ruler, Fistfights With Wolves.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway. Thu: Jay Rock with Reason. Fri: Chutes. Sat: After the Burial, The Acacia Strain.

SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Glitch Black, Thrillsville, Dreddd. Fri: ‘Cholo Goth Night’.

Sat: ‘Broken Beat’. Mon: Y La Bamba, KERA, Marinero. Tue: Karaoke.

mond Goldberg. Tue: Tehila Duo. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., Bay Park.

Wed: Jux Trio. Thu: Johnny Deadly Trio. Fri: ‘Musicology Halloween Party’.

Sat: ‘The Crypt Keepers Ball’. Mon: ‘Sexy Salsa and Sensual Bachata’ with DJ Sonero. Tue: ‘Jazz-oween Affair’ with Leonard Patton and Scary Sue Palmer.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Wed: ‘Wild Wednesday Garage a Go Go’. Fri: Hellmarch, Pig City, Research. Sat: Midnight Track with Delma, Good Time Girl & Making Incredible Time. Sun: ‘No Space For Hate’. Tue: The Floor Is Lava.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., Middletown.

Fri: Chris Lake. Sat: ‘Haunting’. Sun: ‘Haunted Rooftop’.

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

Wed: DJ Molyon. Thu: ‘Boom Box Thursdays’. Fri: DJ Freeman. Sat: Junior The Discopunk. Mon: ‘#31 Flavors’. Tue: ‘Tuesday Night Beer Pong’.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: Paul Gregg. Thu: ‘Burlesque Boogie Nights’. Sun: King Taylor Project, Daniel Crawford & The Unkind Ravens.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park. Wed: Exploded View, Exek, Witness 9. Thu: VAMP. Sat: ‘Hip-Hop Club Night’. Mon: ‘Electric Relaxation’. Tue: Riff City Comedy.

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

Tue: ‘Rock Night’.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Wed: ‘Club Kingston’. Thu: AceyAlone & the Return of Destructo Bunny and Atlantis Rizing. Fri: KUNG FU and Tracorum. Sat: Southern Avenue with Fresh Veggie Brass. Sun: Jose Sinatra hosts O.B.-o-ke. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: M.A.S.S. - Musical Artistry of Singers & Songwriters.

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Wed: ‘The Corner’. Thu: DJ Man Cat. Fri: Jaw. Sat: ‘Skulls & Skeletons Halloween Bash’. Sun: Tony P. Mon: Evan Dia-

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 25

BY JACKIE BRYANT

IN THE BACK

CANNABITCH Sour grapes

W

hile driving from my apartment in Ocean Beach to Sorrento Valley dispensary Torrey Holistics a few weeks ago, I had one of those meme-worthy thinking marathons, during which I tried to figure out how on earth a SoCal-based winemaker managed to bring cannabis wine to market. It wasn’t until after I arrived, with a bottle of Rebel Coast marijuanainfused sauvignon blanc (rebelcoast.com) securely in my clutches, that I realized the wine has no alcohol whatsoever.

Of course it doesn’t. The Tax & Trade Bureau, which “in the biz” is referred to as the TTB, has strict laws about that, as does the FDA and other federal entities. Simply put, it is illegal to sell alcohol and cannabis in the same product. In the case of Rebel Coast’s wine, its alcohol was removed by reverse osmosis. The result is a low-calorie grape elixir infused with 20 milligrams of water-soluble THC. A standard glass from this 750-milliliter bottle will give the drinker a moderate five-milligram Sativa dose along with just 35 calories—an amount that pales in comparison with a standard glass of sauvignon blanc, which clocks in at around 150 calories depending on its alcohol by volume (ABV) percentage.

By full admission, I expected to hate it. In my notes I wrote, “I knew it would suck but not this badly.” A friend, who is also a San Diego-based salesperson for a prominent national wine portfolio, likened it to an “old Arizo-

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · OCTOBER 24, 2018

na iced green tea.” Together, we settled on a slightly grapey bong water. Cloudier than a typical glass of filtered white wine, the high was pleasantly mellow and fast acting.

The verdict? As just another way to ingest cannabis, it works. As a wine, it most certainly does not do the trick. And at $60, there are cheaper and more efficient ways to get stoned. Still, I couldn’t help but think the wine could be ideal for people in recovery for alcoholism, but who still use cannabis.

Wine really is the sum of its parts. A glance, whiff and taste can reveal a lot about a particular bottle, like the type of grapes used and where they were grown. They can also reveal which winemaking, aging and storing techniques were employed. The alcohol level, in particular, plays a huge role in the overall profile of a wine—it can betray a poorly skilled winemaker or indicate what kind of climate the grapes were grown in, to give two examples. I drink wine to get buzzed, yes. But I am also a nerd who romanticizes wine. I drink it to learn the philosophy of a farmer and craftsperson, and to access a physical manifestation of a specific place. I just can’t get the full picture if wine is dealcoholized.

To be fair, anyone producing products with either cannabis, alcohol or both is hemmed in by absurd, overreaching restrictions nominally intended to benefit the consumer, but mostly to protect larger corporate and governmental interests. If the winemakers of Rebel Coast had it their way, I’m sure they’d be making wine fully loaded with both alcohol and THC. But we live in the real world with real laws, and while there are plenty of California winemakers passing around hush-hush bottles of THC-infused, adequately-alcoholized wines, spirits, vermouths and more, if we want legal weed wine, this is as good as it gets. I hesitate to call it a gimmick because I know Rebel Coast is just following the rules, but it seems like an idea that should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Cannabitch appears every other week. Follow Jackie Bryant on Twitter at @jacqbryant.

Rebel Coast cannabis-infused sauvignon blanc

@SDCITYBEAT

@SDCITYBEAT

OCTOBER 24, 2018 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27