San Diego CityBeat • Nov 25, 2015

MUSIC Bakkuda bucks stereotype of San Diego sound, look

NEWS Water rate increase unfair to those below poverty line

2 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

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November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Up Front | From the editor

Playing politics with Syrian refugees

R

ep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, and 46 other Democrats joined House Republicans late last week in voting for the American SAFE Act. The bill is a rushed response to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and aimed at imposing tougher rules on the United States’ policy of screening Syrian refugees. On the surface, voting for the SAFE Act seems like a cautious response to the horrible deaths that occurred in France. But the reality is different, and it appears many House Dems voted in a way that helps cover their flanks come election time next year.

Peters doesn’t want to look soft on terrorism out on the campaign trail. Unfortunately for him, though, voting for the SAFE Act essentially has him throwing in with the Republican governors and reactionary presidential candidates such as Donald Trump and Ben Carson, who want to completely halt the federal program that would resettle Syrian refugees in the U.S. Many in the GOP say terrorists could sneak into the country by trying to seek asylum.

If you based your response to this notion on sound bites and not an analysis of the situation, admit it, you’d agree.

After the House vote, Peters released a lengthy statement explaining his break with the Obama Administration, which considers the bill a cumbersome and knee-jerk response that would severely restrict young and old political refugees who are attempting to flee atrocious circumstances in the Middle East.

“The Administration has not made the case to me that today’s bill will shut down or unduly delay our existing process,” Peters statement reads. “It is not too burdensome for federal agencies to certify that admitted refugees will not endanger our communities…This bill does not close our borders, halt our acceptance of refugees fleeing violence and oppression, impose a religious test or otherwise undermine the values and freedoms that make our country so great.”

Experts, however, say the bill would most definitely halt the acceptance of those refugees. Syrian

refugees are already the most heavily screened and vetted categories of people entering the U.S., Jana Mason, senior advisor to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, told Time.

The vetting process now takes an average of 18 months to two years to complete. Half of all applicants pass a screening process that involves the State Department, The FBI, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. Of the 1,800 Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. over the past year, half were children. A quarter of them are adults over the age of 60.

It’s unlikely the SAFE Act would pass a Senate vote, and the president has vowed to veto it if it reaches his desk. Given that, scottpeters.house.gov maybe this is how a Congressman who is a minority Democrat in a swing district ought to vote on a terrorist bill— with an eye on what will get him re-elected. If the thing’s not going to pass anyway, why hang a dead weight around your neck? Oh, wait a minute.

That dead weight represents real people who are targets of political persecution and victims of sexual violence and torture.

“Unfortunately, the rhetoric, in particular by the Republican presidential candidates, has emotions on both sides running extremely high and we understand the anger and frustration people have Rep. Scott Peters with this vote,” Peters’ district chief of staff Mary Anne Pintar wrote in an email.

“The Congressman has a long-standing relationship with the Muslim community in San Diego, great compassion for these refugees…It is also his job to keep Americans safe and acknowledge the very real fear that exists.”

The House of Representatives doesn’t need another Republican joining its ranks. But California’s 52nd District does need a Democrat willing to stand up for the traditional beliefs of the party, and to vote with a conviction for human rights rather than cowardly political expediency.

—Ron Donoho

Write to rond@sdcitybeat.com

For Thanksgiving, this issue of CityBeat once again tips its hat to France, origin country of sweatpants.

Volume 14 • Issue 16 Editor Ron Donoho Music Editor Jeff Terich Arts Editor Seth Combs Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Carolyn Ramos Columnists Aaryn Belfer Edwin Decker John R. Lamb Alex Zaragoza

Contributors David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Andrew Dyer, Tiffany Fox, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Peter Holslin, Jessica Johnson, Scott McDonald, Jenny Montgomery, Susan Myrland, Chad Peace, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Tom Siebert, Jen Van Tieghem, Amy Wallen

Senior account executive Jason Noble Account Executives Beau Odom, Kimberly Wallace, Isaac Aycox Accounting Kacie Cobian, Sharon Huie, Linda Lam

editorial Interns Torrey Bailey, Nancy Kirk

Human Resources Andrea Baker

Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse

Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami

Production artist Rees Withrow

Vice President of Operations David Comden

MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia

Publisher Kevin Hellman

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San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2015.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

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November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

Up Front | Letters

HELP HOMELESS VETS Thank you for your article on our homeless vets [“Political will and homeless veterans,” Nov. 11]. I do think the problems run much deeper and are more systemic.

I do think it is essential that we talk more about the “negative externalities” that homelessness wreaks, not only on the homeless but also the community.

And I am sincere in my belief that until both sides give up the shield of anonymity, we will not see the problem(s) each side has in this critical matter, nor the opportunities that can help solve it!

Alan Bennett,

San Diego

HOMELESS DEATHS Kudos to editor Ron Donoho for covering “The homeless death toll spikes” in CityBeat on Nov. 4, with an excellent analysis of the situation. The conventional news media in San Diego have rarely, if ever, written about the deaths resulting from homelessness, so it’s good to see the alternate media do so. Several hundred eventually lost their lives over the years to build Petco Park, when their homes were torn down and they had nowhere to go.

Without the rubber tents, this year could be even worse. Many homeless are found dead in dumpsters every year, too, a victim of direct or indirect suicide. Homeless lose the will to live, being insulted hundreds of times daily, despised, hated, victimized by hate crimes, given tainted food and gawked at like a zoo exhibit—the human animal on the sidewalk. Once you’ve lost the will to live, you no longer care and will not seek shelter from rain, or see a doctor when sick or get out of the way of a truck.

I call that indirect suicide, the most common end to being homeless. I criticize the nonprofits for their failure to change anything. Thanks.

Dr. John Kitchin,

San Diego Homeless News

NOT OVER JUDY GARLAND Your CityBeat story about Judy Garlandrelated local events [“A dark End of the

Rainbow,” Nov. 11] brought back some lovely memories.

In the early 1950s I lived in Long Branch, New Jersey (the real Jersey Shore), and was a true theater buff. It was only an hour train trip to New York City, so I got to indulge my passion regularly.

I don’t remember the exact date, but I was in the theater district in NYC without a plan and came to the Palace Theatre. It was the last night of Judy Garland’s most successful run and on a whim I asked at the box office if there was even a slim chance of getting a ticket. Aha—the clerk was delighted—they had kept aside a first-row ticket for a friend who was unable to use it. It was mine!

The show was, of course, incredible. I was in a fan’s daze throughout. Naturally, the audience was wonderfully supportive, and Judy did a few encores. Then she announced that she would do only one more number. The proverbial hush fell over the house, she quietly sat down at the edge of the stage, facing me, and without taking her eyes off me for the entire piece, sang “Over the Rainbow.”

I’m still “out there” with you, Judy.

Ona Rita Yufe,

Chula Vista

McMANSION TAKEOVER Amy Wallen’s story, “Hot Air: Are homesharing sites a cancer? Or is it just my neighbors?” from Oct. 7 is well written.

But your ending stated, “Sharing. Now, that’s what neighbors should do,” is a good thought, but there is another side of the vacation rental market that wasn’t discussed in your article that is much different than the two cases you’ve mentioned.

In both cases you mention you as the resident with an Airbnb tenant, and your neighbor who has tenant(s) who are partying and you know the homeowner. Which no one I know objects to.

A third situation that is becoming entrenched and threatens to change R1-A zoned properties, and possibly weaken the job market for those who work in the hotel industry, and could literally destroy the idea of neighborhoods zoned for residential use. I am talking about residential properties being bought by corporations or numbers of investors who will never live

6 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

on the property but will rent them out to large numbers of vacation renters. These are mini-hotels.

I have three I can see on a cross street, and on my street, south of me are eight more. Our street is about seven blocks long and a man who has recorded and tracked these hotels on our street has good evidence that there are about 20 total (on ONE street).

They are quickly taking over R1-A zoned neighborhoods. The problem is a major La Jolla and Bird Rock developer is building what has been dubbed McMansions. These are large, sometimes five, six, seven or up to 10,000-square-foot homes on small city sized lots (5,000- to 6,000-sqare-foot lots).

Because most families or retired couples (or pretty much very many average residents) can’t afford a mortgage of $3 million to $5 million dollars and because the size is huge, meaning large numbers of people can sleep there, it is fast becoming a cheap buy in for a very profitable operation of running a hotel in a residential neighborhood. I am speaking of the area north of Pacific Beach called Bird Rock, which is zoned primarily R-1A (as I’ve checked with city zoning).

The two I can see from my property have routinely 10-20 people each weekend. These groups are more often than not large groups generally celebrating something. One time it was advertised on the car parked in the garage as specializing in bachelor parties. I saw one such “gathering” of a group’s caterer pull up in the driveway and unload a truckload of food.

As I mentioned earlier, if this continues and becomes a larger problem (which it will), it will start to impact local hotels and local hotel workers. Hotel workers’ jobs are part of the economy and a major income for many families. As the major hotels lose business in the next 10-15 years, it will also take away jobs from people in the hotel industry.

What is a resident definition in order to qualify for a zoned property which is R1-A? I think it is that the property is the residence of someone who lives there. Whether it is the owner or the tenant. The resident uses the property as their address for the DMV, schools, voting, tax bills, etc. The people staying in these mini-hotels and the legal corporate owners have another resi-

On the

Cover

It’s a long-standing tradition for Encinitas artist Scrojo to illustrate the winning story in our annual Fiction 101 writing contest. And here is the camera-shy and prodigious poster king’s work once again, on the cover.

His depiction of the Fiction 101 winning story about a distrustful old man with a questionable past has an extra reveal on page 16, so check it out. Meanwhile, anybody who goes to concerts at the Belly Up can check out Scrojo’s style on the myriad show posters he produces for the venue.

One conservative estimate places the number of Scrojo posters in existence worldwide at more than 2,000. See his work at scrojo.com. dence that is their official residence and it is not the house they are using to conduct a business.

I hope you will consider the other side of the issue. When you say, “Now that’s what neighbors should do,” I don’t think you meant they should be weekenders who are from out of town and aren’t even neighbors at all…but a corporation running a business in our neighborhoods which is not what a residential neighborhood should have to put up with.

Avalee Cohen,

La Jolla, CA

#SDCityBeat

Up Front | opinion

spin

cycle

john r. lamb

Democrats’ gobble-gobble squabbles If you get 15 Democrats in a room, you’ll get 20 opinions.

—Patrick Leahy

A

t the end of a freewheeling, 90-minute conversation last week with Francine Busby, Spin Cycle urged the chairwoman of the county’s Democratic Party to “keep swinging.”

“I try to keep people from swinging,” Busby said with a laugh.

As the 2016 election cycle begins to heat up, Busby once again finds herself in the crosshairs of some of the party’s more progressive ideologues. It’s a position she’s grown accustomed to.

“I believe in what I’m doing, and I know that not everybody has the same opinions,” Busby said. “But I do think it’s my job

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to try to keep everybody positive and moving forward. We’re doing the best we can to meet our mission. That’s why I do this. That’s my goal.”

From a surprise Democratic mayoral contender to stacking club memberships to inviting a monopoly to speak before party leaders, Busby addressed all this with her usual chipper aplomb.

The local party chairwoman since 2013, Busby oversees a political organization that continues to see its voting ranks swell.

The latest figures from the San Diego Registrar of Voters back that up, with Democrats leading Republicans by more than 23,000 registered voters countywide.

“Every month we’re registering 1,000, if not more, Democrats than Republicans right now,” Busby said.

While this voter advantage would seem like good news—Busby likes to boast that 64 percent of endorsed candidates won last year—losses in local city council races and the big-ticket mayoral battle from which Republican Kevin Faulconer emerged victorious raised serious questions about the party’s ability to drive voters to the polls.

This year, Busby has witnessed the leading Democratic hopefuls—San Diego City Councilmember Todd Gloria and state Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins— shy away from a Faulconer challenge in 2016 with mixed results.

Gloria is considered a shoe-in to succeed termed-out Atkins, who has chosen an intra-party scuffle with state Sen. Marty Block as her next run.

Busby is perpetually upbeat, but Spin could hear her wheels grinding on mention of the Atkins/Block race. “Do I have any thoughts as party chair?” she said with a laugh. “It would be better if we weren’t seeing two of our most popular and accomplished legislators running in the same race.

But the good news is one way or the other, we will have a very accomplished and experienced candidate running and winning that

Dem Party spats? Par for the course, says Chairwoman Francine Busby seat.”

Still, Busby expressed hope that “there’s a way that they will work this out” prior to endorsement caucuses in January.

That race led to a discussion about recent efforts by supporters of Atkins to pay for memberships to various political clubs in San Diego in hopes of gaining their endorsement. Several clubs have reported returning those checks, but Busby shrugged off the episode as politics as usual.

She recounted how a Democratic club in North County had emerged back in the day when she ran for Congress that “never met one time,” had “13 members from one family” and wound up endorsing another family member.

“So people are claiming that this has never happened? It happens all the time.”

Busby did note, however, that in this “particular instance with those checks, it really rubbed people wrong, and they were very vocal, and they let Toni know that they were very unhappy about it.

The only difference is they went to the press.”

Busby said so far this year she has already dealt with “nine different clubs with nine different issues,” from questionable agenda noticing to quorum debates. Most of the “hubbub,” as she described it, could be attributed to “new leadership” within the clubs, over which she said she has no direct control.

“They’re autonomous,” she said. “They have their own leadership, their own boards and they make their own rules. We’ve done everything possible to make sure they have clear, accountable and fair processes in place. My job is really educating clubs to assure their processes are transparent.

It’s not to our benefit to get in fights with our clubs. We want them to grow. They are our base.”

Busby also felt some pushback recently when she invited a representative of utility giant Sempra Energy to speak at a Central Committee meeting on the controversial issue of net metering. Envi-

ronmentalists argue that changes the company is seeking from the state Public Utilities Commission will cripple solar-power adoption in the state and efforts to combat climate change.

Busby acknowledged that SDG&E, a Sempra subsidiary, was a sponsor of the party’s recent convention in Escondido and has in the past contributed to the Democrats’ annual Roosevelt Dinner. But she said environmentalists were also well represented at the Central Committee meeting.

“This was a relevant issue,” she said. “It will impact every single person who turns on a light in San Diego, and it’s an issue that people feel passionate about. We had a very vigorous, civil and informative debate, and people went away knowing more but also having more questions. It’s what we do.”

Added Busby: “I think it’s important to establish relationships.

If we want to work together toward a better San Diego, we need to be informed and communicating. It doesn’t mean we agree on everything.”

Asked about the chance of a competitive mayor’s race in 2016, Busby said “there are still other people who are considering getting into the race,” but she did have positive things to say about the recent surprise announcement from Ocean Beach Town Council President Gretchen Newsom.

“I admire her for her courage and her decision to do that,” Busby said. “I really like Gretchen, and I know she would be a really strong standard bearer for us in a very challenging race.”

Busby’s term runs through next year, and she said she’s “not really sure” if she’ll seek the position again in 2017. “I believe in what we do,” she said. “We as Democrats have differences of opinion, but this job is about bringing people together and to remember that we have so much more in common than we have that’s different. I really believe that.”

Spin Cycle appears every week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

Up Front | Opinion

Aaryn Belfer

Backwards & in

high heels

Unintended water consequences

J

ust one day after San Diego City Councilmembers donned their selective-thinking caps and voted 7 to 2 in favor of jacking up water rates for residents, a headline in The San Diego UnionTribune told the part of the story our electeds aren’t super keen on addressing. “Poverty in a land of plenty,” it read, striking an ominous tone as we move closer to 2016.

This important article detailed how California has added jobs over the last four years at “a rate faster than all but six other states.” During the same time period, the poverty rate has climbed.

According to 2014 census data, this swift increase in both categories gives California the distinction of having the fourth-largest gap in the country (after Nevada, Florida and New Mexico) between those who have and those who do not. Included with this story was an interesting graphic detailing San Diego’s “official poverty rate” as 14.4 percent. But the quotes around “official poverty rate” are a visual double-entendre; a second graphic showed the poverty rate as calculated when cost of living is factored in.

That number—21.7 percent—is the more accurate poverty rate.

Without question, it is officially devastating that more than one-fifth of San Diegans live in poverty.

But who has time to tackle that? Certainly not the city council, and not the strange coalition of businesses and environmental groups that lobbied for the water fee increases. The environmentalists were definitely on the wrong side of this decision, ignoring, as they frequently do, the reality that conservation and attention to environmental issues is a luxury of the privileged classes.

Despite the best efforts of Councilmembers David Alvarez and Scott Sherman to coax some complex thinking out of their counterparts, the poor in San Diego—which includes the elderly and the disabled—are going to be stung with each bill as water rates skyrocket 40 percent by 2019.

But fear not. This is 1 percent less than what Mayor Faulconer and the water folks had asked for. Those City Councilmembers went rogue when they didn’t approve that 1 percent, citing a desire “to soften the burden on ratepayers.” Isn’t that nice of them? They deserve a plaque for such conscientious unburdening.

Perhaps we should hold off on a ticker-tape parade until we find out whether these burdensofteners will want that 1 percent to build a new, fandangled stadium for our horrible football team and its horrible world-populating quarterback. I wonder how much water Philip Rivers and his family of 10 use every day.

In a cruel, Shakespearean, wholly American, stick-it-to-the-little-guy, capitalistic kind of twist, this water-billing fiasco is a consequence of citizens

doing precisely what was asked of us. Hundreds of thousands of us cut back on our water usage in small and big ways.

We quit washing our cars and hosing down hardscape spaces. We filled buckets while shower water warmed. We took shorter showers (some of us did anyway), did more efficient dish-and-clothes washing, more mindful teeth brushing, and lived by the if-it’s-yellow-let-it-mellow rule of an earlier era.

Those with the means purchased more efficient appliances; those with lawns cut back our watering; those even better off replaced water hungry yards with drought tolerant plants.

Some of the best off among of us went ahead and gobbled up public subsidies initially intended for the little guy, and used it to replace their thirsty acreage.

Rancho Santa Fe, one of the wealthiest communities in our state, received the top five incentives for landscape replacement for a total of $288,000. Many other wealthy residents there took huge grants before the Metro Water Authority put a $6,000 cap on subsidies. Even the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club—where the “initiation fee” is $50,000 and monthly dues are $5,800 per year—put a Guccigloved hand out and was awarded $1.6 million to make changes. In this manner, corporations drained millions of rebate dollars almost overnight.

But it was many not-rich people who made the biggest collective difference that resulted in the water wallet coming up $73 million dollar short. Oopsies!

San Diego Public Utilities claims that rate hikes could shrink or be cancelled if the drought ends or “circumstances change.” But we are no fools. One need only look to the so-called energy crisis of 2000 (remember that false emergency created by illegal activity and market manipulations?) to see exactly how increased utility rates did not shrink or were not cancelled once said emergency was resolved. Of note: look for higher bills from SDG&E in the coming months as well.

And this is how the little guy—you and me and the one-fifthers—are being rewarded for our contribution to the betterment of our larger community.

Given that we live in a desert and import our water, it isn’t reasonable to think we aren’t going to have to pay. But Alvarez and Sherman were right to advocate for a tiered fee schedule, and their colleagues were wrong to conflate equal with equitable. Under their mandate, the burden will be disproportionately leveled on those with the least means, the same as it ever was.

We need to keep this in mind when election time rolls around and use our votes to subsidize the walking papers of certain council members.

“

We quit washing our cars and hosing down hardscape spaces.

“

8 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

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

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Up Front | Food

by michael a. gardiner

the world

canine companion. You may be able to find another one that will worm its way into your heart, but “that’s not to say it will be the same.”

It won’t. “I suspect it will be hard to replace Steak Diane smothered in Amaretto and fresh mushrooms,” he says, “or a slab of slow roasted Losing a living legend prime rib with a loaded baked potato and those sugar sweet carrots.” t’s tough to lose a legend. Lubach’s and its And that may be some of what makes this mock turtle soup is gone. So is Piret’s, its pâtés sting. Often when a classic restaurant goes away and tourte au chou. Star of the Sea Room closed it does so because time passed it by. Even if the years ago and Anthony’s is following suit. Hilllocation’s the same, the feeling isn’t. The food crest’s Pernicano’s: gone. Soon, we’ll say goodbye isn’t. Walking into the Anthony’s space, for exto Albie’s Beef Inn (1201 Hotel Circle South). ample, brought back memories but the food was More than 50 years after the Rat Pack-era not what I remembered. The food soiled that steakhouse opened in Mission Valley, Albie’s will memory. serve its last prime rib on Dec. 23. According to Not so at Albie’s. There may be nothing trendy restaurant owner Ted Samouris, after the propabout a block of prime rib, but there is nothing erty was sold last year, new landlord Cathy Herwrong with it, either. Pink, luscious, a savory rick (who did not respond to attempts to contact bomb of meaty umami, perfectly paired with rich au jus and bracing Michael A. Gardiner horseradish. That glorious slab o’ meat was exactly what I remembered, exactly what I wanted.

Surrounded by those paintings I felt like my grandfather looking at his old World War II photographs.

Albie’s let me live that memory and taste it one more time in real time.

If time has not passed Albie’s by, perhaps the real estate market has.

And real estate markets Dining with PSA stewardesses are not known for their her) demanded a sharply increased rent and an sense of nostalgia. Nor are they known for their “update” of the interior. Herrick told Samouris it sensitivity to the value of history. was part of her goal “to re-gentrify Mission ValNot everything old in San Diego is gone. The ley.” And yet that interior—featuring painted porRed Fox is still around, as is Old Trieste. Peking traits of naked PSA stewardesses, deliciously poRestaurant and Las Cuatro Milpas remain. Fillitically incorrect as they are—may be even more ippi’s is still there if you like its act (I don’t). But beloved than the food. the past is disappearing before our eyes. As BarStepping in to Albie’s is like stepping back in ron says, “there’s not a ton of culinary history here time. Local chef Andrew Spurgin describes it as as told through the restaurants that have been “a great portal into the past.” As James Beardhere.”

And now there will be one less. nominee Daniel Barron says, “it is not exactly something you can just open tomorrow.”

The World Fare appears weekly.

Local culinary legend Jack Monaco analoWrite to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com. gized the loss of Albie’s to the loss of a beloved

fare I

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November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

Up Front | Food

by jenny montgomery

north

fork

Casa del Q’ero is magical and colorful

T

here are plenty of good restaurants and there are a smaller number of great restaurants, but only a few manage to combine exceptional food with a sprinkling of something magical. Casa del Q’ero (815 Birmingham Drive) in Cardiff is one of the few.

Q’ero Restaurant, its sister restaurant up the road in Encinitas, is a tiny little jewel box of color and spice serving amazing Peruvian fare to those who can manage to get a table. It’s popular for good reason. And with the just-as-beautiful second location, more of us will be able to taste what’s so special about this kitchen.

The second location doesn’t have quite the same fancy real estate as the original Pacific Coast Highway spot (it’s tucked in the back of a Chevron parking lot, overlooking the freeway), but that doesn’t matter once you’re seated under the brightly painted ceiling.

Now is the season of warm spices and nothing starts off an autumn feast at Casa del Q’ero better than a cup of chicha morada. This traditional Peruvian drink is made from purple corn and can be served icy cold or hot like tea. I opted for a cold glass of the vibrant punch. The color is beyond gorgeous, a bloody violet like nothing you’ve seen in a drink.

Cinnamon and clove punch up the sweetness and apple chunks offer an occasional crunchy treat.

When it comes to eating, I’ve yet to find an item on either restaurant’s menu that disappoints. The traditional lomo saltado (tender beef ) simmered in a rich sauce of tomatoes, peppers and spices is one of my last-day-onearth meals. I can’t get enough of it. But don’t miss out on the seafood offerings.

Ceviche is the national dish of Peru and there

10 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

are a multitude of variations. I dug into the “Don Cucho,” a tangle of just barely “cooked” fish and onions served over buttery leaves of lettuce. The fish is meltingly tender, broken down by its citrus bath, with a slightly underdone texture that manages to avoid being rubbery. Puckery citrus juices dominate, bracing and wonderful, with paper-thin red onions giving a warm and grounding contrast.

A side of sweet, mashed yuca soaks up the juices and shatteringly crunchy canchita (fried corn kernels) make for a delightful garnish.

Although it’s a versatile and perfectly lovely super food, I don’t get too excited about quinoa.

But in the hands of Casa del Q’ero, I could get obsessed. The autumn quinoa salad showcases the Peruvian staple, a mainstay long before we became obsessed with its healthful benefits. The autumn salad takes the grain and tosses it with roasted squash and apples, delicately cooked spinach and crispy bits of fried sage. Everything jenny montgomery

Casa del Q’ero’s ceviche is dressed with an herbed brown butter making a dish that tastes both healthy and decadent. A sprinkling of pomegranate seeds not only polka dots the dish with bright color, it gives each bite of warm, cooked grains a punchy pop of bright juice. Casa del Q’ero excels at these contrasts.

Some dining experiences stay with you. Casa del Q’ero’s warm, evocative flavors magically linger in your memory.

North Fork appears every other week.

Write to jennym@sdcitybeat.com

#SDCityBeat

Up Front | Drink

final

by beth demmon

draught 4. Tabula Rasa Toasted Porter from Second Chance Brewing Company (15378 Avenue of Science, #222) in Rancho Bernardo. With have a lot to be thankful for this year. For startlocal legend Marty Mendiola behind the kettles, ers, I’m pretty thankful my liver hasn’t given Second Chance barely qualifies as the new kid on out on me yet—a very real occupational hazard the block. Its 6.2 percent ABV toasted porter is alin my line of work. That being said, the thing that ready a runaway favorite coming out of the fledgI’m most ungrateful for around Thanksgiving is ling brewery and invokes whiffs of dark chocolate, the horrifying offshoot “shopping holiday” known toasted nuts and just a hint of smooth caramel. as Black Friday.

5. 2015 Stupid Stout from Coronado BrewIf you’re looking for a way to avoid this aning Company (170 Orange Ave.) in Coronado. nual putrefaction of the human race, there’s no There’s a reason that Stupid Stout is considered better option than imbibing some delectable one of the best stouts Beth Demmon local beers while waitbeing brewed anying for the stampedes where. At 9.0 percent to subside. There are ABV, it’s bold, smooth plenty of extraordinary and will put a fire in dark brews representyour belly—perfect for ed across San Diego to these harsh San Diego help evade or simply winters. If you can find forget Black Friday, and the oak bourbon barrelhere are my top five. aged variety, snag that 1. Scripps Pier Oysas well. ter Stout from South Runners-up include Park Brewing ComRescue Buoy from Rip pany (1517 30th St.) in Current Brewing South Park. If there’s Company (Russian another oyster stout beImperial Stout, 11.2 pering brewed around San cent ABV); The Butcher Diego, inform me immefrom Societe Brewing diately. This wildly unCompany (Imperial derappreciated style is Stout, 9.8 percent ABV); South Park Brewing Company hard to find but easy to Home Brewing Comenjoy, and at 5.2 percent ABV, you can even enjoy pany’s Schwarzbier (5.5 percent ABV); Benchseconds or thirds of this outstanding beer from mark Brewing Company’s Oatmeal Stout (4.8 brewmaster Cosimo Sorrentino. percent ABV), and Enjoy By from Stone Brewing 2. Speedway Stout from AleSmith Brewing Company (Black IPA, 9.4 percent).

Company (9990 AleSmith Ct.) in Miramar. BarWhile I lament the absence of exceptional barrel-aged? Vietnamese? Hawaiian? Get whichever leywines and bocks from this season’s standouts, Speedways are on tap at the gorgeous new tasting every single one of these brews is a reason to join room. Don’t leave until you’ve tried them all and the dark side. I don’t know about any of you, but take as many bottles home as you can afford. when the darkness comes knocking this Friday, 3. Bacon & Eggs Imperial Coffee Porter I’m ready to say “no” to sales and a resounding, from Pizza Port Ocean Beach (1956 Bacon St.) “Hell yes,” to my local tasting room. in Ocean Beach. If you do get roped into bargain hunting early in the day, this deceptively smooth Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com or follow her 9.5 percent ABV breakfast beer will help ease your on Instagram at @thedelightedbite. pain and hopefully erase your memory.

Sipping, not shopping

I

#SDCityBeat

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

Up Front | places

hidden

by jessica johnson

san diego

photos by jessica johnson

Exotica Rare Fruit Nursery tasting table

The lush factor in Vista

W

hile wandering through the Exotica Rare Fruit Nursery in Vista, one could easily imagine being someplace besides Vista. Hawaii, for instance. Or, some other lush tropical paradise where you might expect to be surrounded by rare and delicious fruits.

As it turns out, owner Steve Spangler started his concept in Hawaii by collecting a variety of exotic seeds. Those seeds were ultimately planted on this four-acre farm in North County.

If you’re a plant lover and have a special spot in your heart for exotic fruits, like I do, this place is heaven on earth. Spangler planted the first trees on the site more than 30 years ago, working side by side with his mother, Jeanette. They took advantage of a local climate that allows a variety of fruit trees to thrive. Today the site supports more than 1,000 distinct varieties of fruit.

trees, 10 varieties of bananas, seven different passion fruits, and on and on. Like to try new things? There’s a fruit-tasting table where you can sample all the fruits that are in season.

Persimmon During my visit to the nursery I asked Spangler what advice he would give the world, given that he appears to be so in tune with the universe. I loved his response.

“How much love and devotion we put into any artistic activity, whether you are a poet, musician, mother…will determine how we form our community and nature around us,” he said.

Spangler believes that sharing one’s home with even one plant benefits the household. “Plants breathe our breath and we breathe their breath,” he says. “That is why they are so healing.”

Pear To see more off-the-beaten path places in San During a visit to the nursery you’ll find Diego, go to hiddensandiego.net. fruits native to places such as Mexico, Hawaii, Guatemala, Ecuador, Fiji and Burma, Exotica Fruit Farm among others. Of the 1,000 varieties of 2508 E Vista Way # B fruit trees here, 200 are varieties of pomeVista, CA 92084 granate. There are also 20 different guava

12 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

#SDCityBeat

EVENTS

SHORTlist

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

NORTH PARK

1

WATERS RUNS DEEP

John Waters loves to take the piss out of things. Even himself.

When asked about a popular meme that features a picture and quote from the legendary director about not sleeping with people who don’t have books in their house, he’s quick to brush it off.

“I’m lying,” Waters says on the phone from his office in Baltimore. “If they’re cute enough, who’s looking at the book shelves?”

We’ve come to expect that kind of razor-sharp wit and sass when it comes to the man behind cult classics like Pink Flamingos, Hairspray and CryBaby, and audiences should expect it in bulk at the annual A John Waters Christmas, which happens at 9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30, at the Observatory in North Park (2891 University Ave.).

The annual show works like a combination of stand-up and storytelling, with Waters speaking about topical issues while also entertaining audiences with his personal stories about the holidays. For him, the

show can almost serve as a how-to guide to surviving the holidays.

“People can love Christmas or hate Christmas and still feel really great at my show,” Waters says.

“You have to have a defensive plan for Christmas and that’s what I think my show is: A hopefully happy, defensive, practical GREG GORMAN plan on how to get through this holiday. If you’re rich or poor, if you’re schizophrenic, no matter who you are, I think I can help you get through it.”

This is the 11th year he’s done a touring Christmas show and says, given current events, it’s never hard to come up with new material. And while the show is hilariously crass and politically incorrect, Waters says it still keeps with the familial spirit of the season.

“I’m most touched when mothers and fathers bring their angry, fucked-up teenage kids to a show in a last-ditch effort to bond with them,” laughs Waters.

“I’m always touched by that.

John Waters That’s very different from when I was young. When I was young, parents would call the police when they found their kids with my movies.” Tickets start at $45. observatorysd.com

NORTH PARK

2

HOLIDAY SPIRITS

Peppermint schnapps, forced small talk and inescapably NSFW secret Santa gifts— holiday office parties are always an exercise in futility. In Finest City Improv’s It’s FHHking Christmas, troupers such as Kat Brown, Jesse Suphan and more than a dozen others will spoof the search for the Christmas spirit(s) after Santa shows up at their mock seasonal soiree. A Biblethumping accountant, a Jersey Shore party planner and the douchiest of CFOs are just a few of the characters that make up the show’s fictional ad agency staffers. With an interactive approach, audience members could risk the naughty list, but everyone still gets cookies and prizes. Ugly Christmas sweaters and antlers are encouraged. It happens at 8 p.m. each Saturday from Saturday, Nov. 28 to Dec. 12. at Finest City Improv’s stage (4250 Louisiana St.). Tickets are $15. finestcityimprov.com COURTESY OF FINEST CITY IMPROV

Finest City Improv

#SDCityBeat

SOUTH PARK

3

LIGHT IT UP

The cliche of a community tree lighting event gets a funky revamp at South Park’s second Luminaria. Local artist Todd Williams built the event’s custom-made holiday tree. He used recycled scrap metal and wood from a torn down fence to complete the three-week-long art project. The new neighborhood tradition is organized by the South Park Business Group and will feature decorated storefronts, as well as music from the San Diego Mandolin Orchestra and refreshments from Target Express. There will also be a hot chocoLUCY DUMAS late station, live ice sculpting, a snow globe photo booth and So Childish will have holidaythemed crafts for youngsters.

The lighting of the tree begins at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 29, at Grape Street Square on Grape and Fern streets. southparksd.com Luminaria

HEast Coast, West Coast, and In-Between: Harry Sternberg and America at San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. Character studies, industrial landscapes, socially focused satires, self-portraits and prints that combine realism, abstraction and surrealism from the late Escondido artist’s 75-year artistic career. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27. Free-$12. 619-232-7931, sdmart.org HLasters’ Medicine Wagon Sideshow at Low Gallery, 1878 Main St., Barrio Logan. Lickskillet, Kentucky-based artists CM and Grace Kelly Laster showcase new folk art works. Includes a musical performance from Nothingful and a West in Motion pop-up shop. Opening from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27. Free. 619-3485517, lowgallerysd.com HBarrio Art Jam III at La Bodega Studios and Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan. The third annual event will showcase art from over 20 artists centered on the theme of music. Includes performances all day from Latin jazz bands. Opening from 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. $10 suggested donation. facebook.com/la.bodega.1 Emoji Art Show at Hess Brewing North Park, 3812 Grim Ave., North Park. Local artists present original pieces based on the popular texting ideograms and symbols.

Artists include Amber Dawn Gomes, Carrie Anne Hudson, Tayler Shaw and more.

Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2. Free. mikehessbrewing.com

BOOKS

day, Nov. 27. $26-$58. 619-570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org HA John Waters Christmas at Observatory North Park, 2891 University Avenue, North Park. The legendary director of films like Pink Flamingos and Hairspray presents his comedic takes on current events and the holiday season. At 9 p.m.

Monday, Nov. 30. $45-$100. 619-2398836, observatorysd.com

DANCE The Nutcracker at Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Rd., Poway. New West Ballet presents their performance of the classic ballet featuring family friendly dancing with both professional and student performers. At 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29. $25$45. 858-748-0505, powaycenter.com

FOOD & DRINK HRendezvous Pop-Up Speakeasy at U.S. Grant Hotel, 326 Broadway, Downtown. A pop-up event that includes unlimited Prohibition-era cocktails and live jazz.

At 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27. $60. 619-2323121, usgrendezvous.eventbrite.com HAdams Avenue Spirit Stroll at various locations. The inaugural festive sip, stroll and shop event will feature some of the most popular independently owned businesses in University Heights, Normal Heights and Kensington offering up drinks and specials. See website for full list of participants. From 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. $18$20. adamsavenuebusiness.com

HIndies First Day at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. As part of Small Business Saturday, authors such as Kathy Aarons, Lisa Brackmann, Vernor Vinge and more will work in the store. Patrons also receive a $5 gift card for every purchase over $5. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 28. Free. 858-2684747, mystgalaxy.com

Fall Beer and Cider Fest at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Sample from more than 100 top San Diego craft brews, special seasonal beers and a variety of ciders. Price includes five 7 oz. tastings and full-sized beers may also be purchased. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. $20.

858-755-1141, dmtc.com

Toddler Storytime: The Grinch at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The Grinch himself stops by to read the Dr. Seuss classic that bears his name.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. Free. 858454-0347, warwicks.com

HOLIDAY EVENTS

Julie Dillemuth at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. As part of Warwick’s ongoing Weekend with Locals program, Dillemuth will sign and discuss Lucy in the City: A Story about Developing Spatial Thinking Skills. At noon.

Sunday, Nov. 29. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com HKate Morton at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The New York Times bestselling author will present her newest novel, The Lake House, a suspenseful tale of a writer trying to solve the decades-old mystery of her missing brother. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30.

Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Robert Crais at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author will sign and discuss his new Elvis Cole and Joe Pike mystery, The Promise. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1. Free. 858-4540347, warwicks.com

COMEDY Last Comic Standing Live at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown.

Contestants from the hit NBC show will perform stand-up comedy. Scheduled performers include Ian Bragg, Dominique, Clayton English and more. At 7 p.m. Fri-

H = CityBeat picks

HDel Mar Thanksgiving Family Mile Fun Run at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Kick off Thanksgiving with a one-mile run on the racetrack with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Helen Woodward Animal Center and their equestrian therapy program.

From 8 to 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 26. $10-$20. 858-755-1141, delmarfunrun. webconnex.com HFather Joe’s Villages Thanksgiving Day 5K Run & Walk at San Diego Museum of Man, 1350 El Prado, Balboa Park. The 14th annual 5K is the biggest Thanksgiving run/walk in San Diego, with proceeds going to help your homeless neighbors in need. Includes a postrace festival featuring live music, a beer garden, costume contest and award ceremonies. From 7 to 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 26. $25-$44. 619-239-2001, fjvthanksgivingday5k.squarespace.com HRun for the Hungry Race at Horton Plaza, 324 Horton Plaza, downtown. The annual 10K and 5K benefits people who face hunger in the community. All profits from the race are donated to the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank and hunger-relief programs. From 7 to 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 26. $27-$54. 619239-8180, sdrunforthehungry.org HSkating by the Sea at Hotel Del Coronado, 1500 Orange Ave., Coronado.

Now in its 10th year, the outdoor ice rink

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

THEATER

EVENTS CAROL ROSEGG

Adina Verson (left) and Katrina Lenk in Indecent

Playhouse premieres Paula Vogel’s powerful indecent

P

aula Vogel’s Indecent stokes the emotional fires on multiple levels, not the least of which is sheer anger—especially about the quashing of freedom of artistic expression. Anger about intolerance and bigotry.

Anger that a gifted Yiddish playwright’s spirit was just about broken, that dark unrelenting forces sought to subjugate, to erase, the Jewish culture.

Yet Vogel’s one-act play with music, a co-production

on the Windsor Lawn features views of Coronado beach. Skating sessions will be offered daily from Thanksgiving day through January 3, 2015 and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Price includes skate rental.

From 3:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 26. $25. 800-468-3533, hoteldel.com/ Thanksgiving Dinner Cruise at Hornblower Cruises & Events, 1800 North Harbor Dr., Celebrate the holiday onboard a yacht on San Diego Bay that features a full traditional Thanksgiving buffet, DJs, champagne and more. From 2 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 26. $91.95$111.95. 619-686-8700, hornblower.com HPMCU O’side Turkey Trot at Oceanside Civic Center, 300 North Coast Highway, Oceanside. Come “move your feet before you eat” at this annual 5 mile, 5K or kids run/walk to benefit Oceanside schools and charities. There will also be costume contests, largest teams contest, live entertainment and medals for all who finish. At 6:45 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 26. osideturkeytrot.com USO Giving Tree Lighting at The Headquarters at Seaport District, 789 West Harbor Dr., Downtown. The Headquarters at Seaport Village will light its 25-foot holiday tree. Benefits USO San Diego and features complimentary hot cocoa, cookies, photos with Santa and a performance

by The All American Boys Chorus. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27. Free. theheadquarters.com Surfin’ Santa Arrival at Seaport Village, West Harbor Drive, downtown. Children, teens and adults are welcome to meet and pose with Surfin’ Santa on his surfboard and giant six-foot wave. There will also be a parade, holiday crafts, street performers and live music throughout the day. From 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28.

XXXXXXXXX

EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

Indecent runs through Dec. 10 at La Jolla Playhouse. between Yale Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse, is constructed upon quiet, thoughtful reflection more $41-$80; lajollaplayhouse.org than anger. It’s a sad, sensitive work created for the stage

—David L. Coddon

by Vogel and by director Rebecca Taichman that even in that sadness never loses sight of the resolve and life force Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com. of the Jewish people.

Right away, the narrative tells us that Indecent is a play about a play: Sholem Asch’s 1906 God of Vengeance, OPENING: which affected and challenged audiences in Europe be- Almost, Maine: Residents of a small New England town mysteriously fore coming to America and ultimately, in 1923, to Broad- fall in and out of love with the appearance of the Northern Lights. Writway where it was shut down and its cast charged with ten by John Cariani, it opens Nov. 27 at the OnStage Playhouse in obscenity. The “obscenity” was the depiction of a lesbian Chula Vista. onstageplayhouse.info relationship, a Jewish brothel and the renunciation and A Christmas Carol: The mean and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge gets visited by three ghosts and, well, you probably know the rest. Adapted ill treatment of the Torah. to be a musical by Sean Murray for Cygnet Theatre, it opens Nov. 27 at Indecent’s seven-person ensemble (plus three mu- the Old Town Theatre in Old Town. sicians, also immersed in the action) brings to life the Laugh Stories: San Diego playwright Michael Shames presents a staging of God of Vengeance, both in a Polish attic and on 90-minute collection of comedic one-acts centered on a character the (ahem) Great White Way. Yet in spite of the elabo- named Gloria. It opens Nov. 27 at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center in rate staging of and absorption in the lesbian lovers’ “Rain downtown. splashstories.com Scene” in God of Vengeance, it is Indecent’s offstage sto- Orson Welles Presents… A Christmas Carol Radio Show: A ries—those of embattled playwright Asch (Max Gordon live reenactment of the famous director’s 1939 radio broadcast of the Moore), of two actresses (Katrina Lenk and Adina Ver- Charles Dickens’ classic complete with Christmas carols and sound effects. Directed by Robin Pollock, it opens Nov. 27 at Lamplighters son) in love, of immigrant stage manager Lemml (Rich- Community Theatre in La Mesa. ard Topol), the soul and conscience of the play—that reThe Cherry Orchard: Anton Chekov’s classic play about an aristoverberate. cratic Russian family who are forced to sell their family estate. Directed Each cast member plays multiple roles, which can be by Emilie Whelan, it opens for five performances Nov. 29 at the UCSD distracting until you get used to it, and Vogel to some ex- Sheila & Hughes Potiker Theatre in La Jolla. tent has stacked ending upon ending upon ending (albeit Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights: In Gertrude Stein’s poetic reieach of them is poetic and penetrating in its own way). magining of the Faust myth, an inventor sells his soul to the devil for light. Presented by the SDSU School of Theatre, it opens for Still, the constant presence of the musicians (Lisa Gutkin, electric five performances Dec. 2 at the Don Powell Theatre in the College Area.

Aaron Halva, Travis W. Hendrix) and the choreography

by David Dorfman that doesn’t call undue attention to itFor full listings, please visit self portray a microcosmic world where art thrived for its own sake. A people stood resolute amid torment and “T heater ” at sdcitybeat.com oppression, and sought to live life with joy.

Free. seaportvillage.com The Grinch at Central Library, 330 Park Blvd, East Village. Dr. Seuss’ Grinch will be at the library for a festive holiday event featuring family holiday music from Little Catbird, photo opportunities and a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

From noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28.

Free. 6192365800, libraryshopsd.org HLuminaria South Park Community Tree Lighting at Grape Street Square, Grape & Fern St., South Park. South Park kicks off Luminaria, a month-long season of holiday lights, with a tree dedication and lighting ceremony. Includes arts and crafts, refreshments, store specials, and more. At 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29.

Free. southparksd.com Holiday Festival… A Family Celebration at Hotel Del Coronado, 1500 Orange Ave., Coronado. In addition to the Hotel Del’s outdoor ice rink, there will be hot cocoa and libations, a fireworks display, performances, photo opportunities with Santa and holiday booths with games and prizes. From 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2. Free. 800-468-3533, hoteldel.com

MUSIC HSan Diego Jazz Fest at Town & Country Hotel, 500 Hotel Circle N., Mission Valley. A gathering of dozens of jazz bands from all over the world representing a wide variety of styles: traditional jazz, Dixieland, ragtime, swing and rockabilly.

From 7 to 11 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25 and Thursday, Nov. 26, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27, 9 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29. $20-$50. 619291-7131, sdjazzfest.org

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

14 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

SPOTLIGHT In a weekend full of indulgent holiday shopping at big-box corporate stores, it can be refreshing to support the little guys. The grand opening of alternative retail boutique Little Dame Shop (2942 Adams Ave.) in University Heights provides such an opportunity. The event includes a pop-up style showcase of Brooklyn-based Animal Sleep Stories’ storybook-like drawings and silkscreens, as well as San Francisco-based Young in the Mountains’ desert-inspired silver-and-stone jewelry. The celebration starts at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 27 and will end at the nearby craft-cocktail bar Polite Provisions (4696 30th St.). littledameshop.com

—Nancy Kirk

#SDCityBeat

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Víctor Manuel at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. The Bronx-born Latin music artist has had 42 charting singles on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart and comes trough town on his Que Suenen Los Tambores Tour. At 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 25. $45-$65. 619-5701100, sandiegotheatres.org Sublime with Rome at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. The band known for their reggae take on punk and folk play a show after the last race as part of the Bing Crosby Season Fall Concert series. From 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. $6. 858-7551141, delmarscene.com The Sun Harbor Chorus at Casa Del Prado, Balboa Park. The chorus’ 38th annual Christmas show features holiday music in the barbershop style of singing along with performances from the San Diego Chorus, the San Diego Women’s Chorus and the Tremble Clefs. At 2 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 28. $10-$20. sandiego. gov San Diego Symphony Cellos at Rancho San Diego Library, 11555 Via Rancho San Diego, El Cajon. A cello quartet with San Diego Symphony musicians Chia-Ling Chien, Yao Zhao, Xian Zhuo and Andrew Hayhurst will play a selection of classics. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1. Free. 619-660-5370, sdcl.org Leah Panos at University Community Library, 4155 Governor Drive, La Jolla. Learn about and listen to the soothing sounds of the harp played by the SDSU Artistin-Residence. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2. Free. 858-552-1655, The Choice Entertainers at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. The group known for their trademark harmonies and street corner doo-wop will perform as part of the Center’s First Wednesdays concert series. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2.

Free. 760-839-4190, artcenter.org

OUTDOORS Thanksgiving Childrens’ Camp at Living Coast Discovery Center, 1000 Gunpowder Point Dr., Chula Vista. This children’s camp explores nature and wildlife through hands-on activities such as microscope observations and shark and bird feedings. One to three day options available. From 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 25. $24-$137. 619409-5900, thelivingcoast.org

PERFORMANCE HTurkey Calling Show at Geisel Li-

#SDCityBeat

brary, UCSD campus, La Jolla. The annual event is presented in the style of an oldtime live radio broadcast and discusses how the American turkey became popular in European art. Features live music by Teeny-Tiny Pit Orchestra. From noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25. Free. library. ucsd.edu HIt’s FHHking Christmas Show at Finest City Improv, 4250 Louisiana St., North Park. A politically incorrect, interactive, improvised comedy extravaganza centered on a holiday office party gone wrong. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. $15.

619-306-6047, finestcityimprov.com

SPECIAL EVENTS Bark Friday at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Admission to the racetrack is free for each person who brings a donation of unopened pet food to benefit the Helen Woodward Animal Center. At 12:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27. 858-755-1141, dmtc.com HLittle Dame Shop Grand Opening at Little Dame Shop, 2942 Adams Avenue, University Heights. The alternative retail and art space specializing in taxidermy, feminist art and handmade goods opens its doors.

Features a pop-up shop with jewelry from Young in the Mountains and Sleep Stories.

From 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27. Free.

925-457-1020, littledameshop.com/ Aquarium Gift Shop Trunk Show at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla. Local art company Living Air Ware will be onsite for this annual trunk show for the Birch Aquarium’s gift shop. From 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28.

858-534-FISH, aquarium.ucsd.edu HSmall Business Saturday at Various locations. The yearly event encourages consumers to shop and support local businesses as opposed to the big chain stores. See website for details. Various times. Saturday, Nov. 28. americanexpress.com/us/small-business/shop-small HSmall Business Saturday at the Library at Central Library, 330 Park Blvd, Support the San Diego Public Library system and keep dollars in the community by doing your holiday shopping at the Library Shop. Includes warm drinks, gift wrapping with $50 purchases, and special deals all day long. From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. Free.

6192365800, libraryshop.org H#GivingTuesday Now in its fourth year, a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration that encourages patrons big and small to give to their preferred organizations. All day. See website for full details. Tuesday, Dec. 1. givingtuesday.org

“Creators and Critics” by Harry Sternberg will be on view in East Coast, West Coast, and In-Between: Harry Sternberg and America, which opens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 27 at the San Diego Museum of Art (1450 El Prado) in Balboa Park.

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS

tots can experiment with new colors and textures. From 10 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 27. Free-$10. thinkplaycreate.org

Discours: Kati Cowan at Escondido Municipal Gallery, 262 E. Grand Ave., Escondido. The natural world photographer will discuss her work and her artistic process. From 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28. Suggested donation. 760-480-4101, escondidoarts.org

Poetic Parallels Between Buddhism and Native American Spirituality at The Ink Spot @ Art Center Lofts, 710 13th St., Ste. 210 , Downtown. Join San Diego Writers, Ink author Jim Moreno (Dancing in Dissent) for this four-hour writing workshop exploring the parallels between Native American spirituality and Buddhist teachings. From 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29. $60-$72. sandiegowriters.org

Mary Beebe at UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. The UCSD director will give a presentation entitled, “The Stuart Collection: Stories & Histories,” as part of the Design@Large Lecture Series. Takes place in CSE 1202. At 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2. Free. 858-534-2230, designlab.ucsd.edu

WORKSHOPS ScholarShare’s Toddler Time: Finger Painting Friday at New Children’s Museum, 200 W. Island Ave., Downtown.

It’s a paint party as patrons and their

Story Structure at Inspirations Gallery, 2730 Historic Decatur Rd. Suite 202 , Point Loma. Mark O’Bannon will discuss thefundamentally different techniques that professional writers use to separate their stories from the pack. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30. $45-$54.

619-255-9483, sandiegowriters.org How to Edit Your Own Writing at Inspirations Gallery, 2730 Historic Decatur Rd. Suite 202, Point Loma. Kirsten Imani Kasai will lead a workshop on how to

switch from the creativity of the writer to the critical eye of an editor. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1. $45-$54.

619-255-9483, sandiegowriters.org Evolving Out Loud at Seaside Center for Spiritual Living, 1613 Lake Drive, Encinitas. Comedy Central headliner Kyle Cease combines the art of standup comedy and transformation to help audiences move past their old stories and into a new vision of what is possible in their lives. From 1:15 to 3:45 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 29. $20. 760-738-0089, seasidecenter.org Modern Calligraphy Holiday Workshop at Bash! Event Boutique, 3821 32nd St., North Park. Learn the basics of calligraphy strokes and styles with Katherine Wehde, owner of Weeds & Whimsy.

Get a jump on your holiday packaging and leave with a toolkit to help you perfect your penmanship. From 6 to 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 2. $95. 619-363-1336, weedsandwhimsy.com

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

Culture | Fiction 101

scrojo

Mr. O was yelling blue murder as Evan stepped onto the ward. Morning meds. Evan went right over, careful to keep his face away from the spittle as the hunched old man turned to him.

“I don’t trust! I don’t trust!” Mr. O screamed in his thick accent, eyes rheumy and bulging with fear.

Evan patted Mr. O’s hand. “I know, buddy, I know.” It was easy to be patient with a Holocaust survivor.

Kim handed Evan the little pill cup. “You do it.

Hey, did you hear? His records came from Napa. He wasn’t a prisoner, he was a guard.”

Hunter Gatewood Point Loma What a devilish contest. The annual Fiction 101 Challenge asks entrants to paint a scene or tell a story using no more than 101 words (title not included). It’s tougher to write short than it is to write long. But dozens of contestants were up for the task and we’re happy to present the winners.

Point Loma’s Hunter Gatewood impressed our panel of judges and took first place. Rico Gardiner of Mission Hills took second and third place went to Linda A. Warren of City Heights. We’ve also included four entries that earned honorable mention.

And that’s a 101-word introductory paragraph.

It was hot in the Tenderloin, there was no elevator, the stairwell was narrow, the furniture was heavy. The disgustingly stained mattresses a clear indication that no tip would be forthcoming. Mr. El Cheap, the fat, smug owner sat in an easy chair and smiled, unaware of the hatred.

“So what goes first,” he asked on the sweating factotums. “The back, right? Or the legs and shoulders?”

“The mind,” replied the last honest mover.

No tips were received. Some items never made it to the final destination.

Rico Gardiner

Mission Hills

Shelley likes champagne at fancy parties. Frank prefers beer in sports bars. That’s their marriage; constant conflict, total opposites except for one thing: their mutual craving for fresh flesh.

The counselor tells them to think and act like newlyweds.

Frank brings home two dozen red roses.

“What’s this?”

“Flowers, my love.”

“You never bring me flowers.

I knew it. You’re having an affair you adulterous bastard.”

“No, wait. This is just another worthless suggestion from our extortionate counselor.”

Shelley smiles. “Perhaps it’s time to have him for dinner.”

Afterwards, they scrape the remains into their incinerator.

Bill Fuhrer

Bay Park

Jackboots clack the cobblestones outside. Pounding thumps the door. “Show us your papers.”

16 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

For so many years, I lived in a hallway—a six-by-eight foot midsection of the house trailer Mom, Dad and I called home that was more thoroughfare than bedroom.

A built-in bed sat across from two slim closets separated by a pair of Formicatopped drawers. Dissecting the space was a hallway so narrow adults brushed against my bed as they passed from the living room to the bathroom beyond.

In all the years since, I have lived large, medium and small—but never again so narrowly that bodies brush against me unbidden in the night.

Linda A. Warren

City Heights

“Makeup applied?” I ask Juanita. “Hide the brown children.”

She nods and instructs them under their bed.

Another round of pounding and shouting.

“I’m coming. A moment, please.” I open the front door.

Flashlight beams sweep the room, examine papers. The uniforms consult. One passes his beam to illuminate my wife’s face.

“Everything seems to be in order.”

The other applies white paint outside. “We’re done here.” His hand goes up in the familiar

salute. “Long live President Trump.”

Jeff Curtiss Welch University Heights

It was raining hard the night I met her. She was wearing that red scarf she likes so much. Just a stranger on the bridge, but then I saw myself in her eyes and everything changed.

It wasn’t magic words but my strong, confident demeanor that changed her mind. She fell in

love with that strength and confidence. I fell in love with her.

But sometimes I wonder what will happen when she realizes what I was doing that night on the bridge in the pouring rain. I dread the day she realizes that her strong, confident man needed saving, too.

Brendan Hart

Bankers Hill

Not her.

So many buildings and I chose

#SDCityBeat

Culture | Fiction 101 this one. This apartment. Next to hers. With a year lease.

She didn’t recognize me when we passed in the hall. No surprise in her eyes. No shame. Maybe I should say something—she deserves to be uncomfortable. She deserves worse.

Our hallway encounter replays in a loop. Her face. Her smell. Her voice brushing against me: Sorry.

But she never was.

She’s everywhere. In this building, in my head. So maybe I should think about everything.

The worst things. Enough to still hate her.

Then maybe we won’t fall in love again.

Katherine Memmel El Cajon

Ash: Please don’t.

Ash: Spoke to Heather and Jen. You and Ezra are out of playgroup.

She’s obsessed with locks: deadbolts, chains, combination locks; doors, windows, car (even while driving). There are nights she wakes up screaming and nights she doesn’t sleep at all.

She flinches when I touch her and it’s been three months since we made love. I can’t tell her I understand how she feels because I don’t. I don’t tell her I’ll make it better because I can’t. I want to hold her to me and protect her from the bad people in the world.

But when she needed me I wasn’t there. I’m useless to her. It’s like he raped our marriage.

DEATH appeared to a man whose wife was upstairs, preparing for bed.

“Tonight you will die. Your wife will wake up with a dead man.”

“Can I say anything to prepare her?”

“Tell her whatever you wish.”

That night, deciding he had nothing to lose, he revealed all of his deceptions and betrayals; everything he never dared to share before.

In the morning he awoke, bewildered and ashamed. He asked his wife if he’d said anything while drifting off the night before.

She ignored his question, and said his breakfast was ready.

Jess Goodman Pine Valley

Tara: Hey, girl, sure it was upsetting when u came to get Hannah and I was upstairs away from kids.

Tara: So sorry, sister.

Ash: Doing drugs. During playgroup. When supposed to be watching 5 kids. Plus your own!

Ash: You are not my sister.

Tara: It wasn’t like that! No! I was cleaning up from last night.

Ash: By putting it up your nose??

Please!

Ash: From now on, it’s best if you don’t contact me.

Tara: What? Wait, I’m calling you now.

#SDCityBeat

Hunter Gatewood Point Loma

Brendan Hart Bankers Hill

“Oh my gosh! Can I take a picture with you?”

Smile. “I’m not Kevin Faulconer. Also, he doesn’t seem to be the type who frequents bars.”

Her shoulders slumped disappointed. The trio whispered with each other and glanced at me throughout the evening.

At closing time, I stood up and announced, “BY THE WAY, I AM YOUR MAYOR!” I walked over to the woman, gave her a Singapore kiss, threw everyone the peace sign and ran out of the bar.

Claire Tilton East Village

What happens at the lake stays at the lake. Right? Right?

You know that I consider myself a serious person, predictable, not frivolous, with a strong sense of propriety. A quirky sense of humor, maybe, but not inclined to impulsive behavior. Actually quite dull.

The lake in the fading twilight was enchanting. The soft evening air, thickening with the rising dew under a sliver of moon, the calls of the loons in the distance. Our murmuring voices mingled with the slapping of the waves on the edge of the dock. Lovely!

What happens at the lake stays at the lake. Right?

Jerome Neumeyer

Mission Hills

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

18 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

#SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

Culture | Art

Seen Local bag men Leading up to the holidays, we’ll use this space to profile five local crafters whose wares we think would make excellent gifts.

M

ichael Rogacion is looking forward to traveling during the holiday season. Sure, he’s excited about getting a nice vacation and seeing family, but he’s also looking forward to mixMichael Rogacion and Daniel Nguyen ing in a little business.

“I like any opportunity to beat up my bags,” says Rogacion started Private Henley after returning Rogacion. “Whether it’s water being dumped on it or to San Diego from New York City where he went TSA tossing it around, it makes me happy to know it to design school and studied under one of the city’s can sustain a beating.” most notable pattern makers. He says he always had Whereas most travelers go out of their way to Private Henley on his mind as a creative project, and make sure their fancy designer bags that he’s glad he started it here inaren’t scuffed or sullied, Rogacion stead of New York. and his partner/boyfriend Daniel “The rent is one thing, but we have Nguyen want their handmade Primore resources here,” says Rogacion, vate Henley bags and backpacks pointing out the company’s logo to last. Started in 2011 and created which has “Made in America’s Finin a Mission Hills studio, the bags est City” inscribed prominently unare geared toward fashionable men, derneath the Private Henley monibut given the meticulous design and ker. “It’s easier to get our products in contemporary styling, either genlocal stores, whereas you can get lost The Hysen Duffle in New York.” der could easily sport one. Whether it’s at the airport or in the gym, both While the bags are still the compasay they get stopped all the time with people asking ny’s most popular product and were recently featured them where they got their bags. on Nylon Men, Rogacion and Nguyen are also begin“The brand is an extension of our lives,” says ning to offer ceramic wares and manly smelling canNguyen, who also works on the sales and marketing dles. The bags start at $100, but Rogacion says they’re side of Private Henley. “It’s an extension of what we all a bargain given how long he thinks they’ll last. want to use and what we’re looking for in a bag. The “We don’t just test them for a week or a month,” English bridle leather, the water-repellent canvas and he says. “I take these bags everywhere and I think everything down to the rivets, it’s all made here. Even others will, too.” privatehenley.com the cloth companies we use have a storied legacy.”

—Seth Combs

to see or not to see

They finished installing Irwin’s piece even though they knew they wouldn’t be paid. Why? As the artist plainly put it: “Because it’s him. I’m not sure we would have done that for anyone else.”

I thought about that story a lot while viewing here are plenty of stories out there about local installation artist Robert Irwin. One of the Light and Space. I thought about a lot of things that didn’t have anything to do pioneers of the ’70s Philipp Scholz Rittermann with art. The enormous Light and Space movelight installation has a way ment and arguably San of metastasizing around Diego’s greatest living artthe eyes, spreading into ist, there’s no shortage of the viewer’s brain to where accolades and referential whatever they were thinkmaterial out there on the ing about before is suddennet so I’ll spare you the ly gone and replaced with a history lesson. drift of incoming and outHowever, there was one going thought. story I heard recently that The installation has I found myself thinking also been thoroughly covabout while viewing Irwin’s Light and Space inRobert Irwin: Light and Space ered by the media. It was originally installed for a stallation at the downtown Museum of Contemporary Art. It came from a local MCASD La Jolla show in 2007 so while it isn’t a new artist who also worked as a professional installer at work, anyone who knows Irwin’s work will tell you several museums and galleries. As he told it, not only that seeing any piece by him is like seeing it for the did he find Irwin’s work to be inspirational, but the first time. The industrial surroundings of the downartist also shared a story about an Irwin installation town location provides a much different setting, during the height of the recession. In the middle of with the geometric light shapes resembling snowassembling the show, the story goes, the staff was in- flakes falling in an 8-bit video game. Each light gives formed that they wouldn’t be paid for the installation off an aura and every shape competes for dominance. and that they were all ostensibly being laid off effec- Squint. Stare at it. Walk around it. Lay down in front of it. Just look at it and get lost. tive immediately.

In this semi-regular department, arts editor Seth Combs reviews notable new art shows or exhibitions.

T

20 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

—Seth Combs #SDCityBeat

Culture | Voices

ryan bradford

well that was

awkward

Hoverboarding through your issues

I

stare at the Groupon. My brain tells me that saving five dollars is not that good of a deal.

I move to close the window, but hesitate.

It’s a five-dollar savings.

I send the link to my wife. I ask if she wants one, too.

No reply.

I wait until the end of the day, when we’re cleaning up dinner, to bring it up.

“Did you get my email?”

It takes her a minute remember what I’m talking about.

“Oh, the hoverboard Groupon? I didn’t think you were serious.” *** I may be going through a mid-life crisis. I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking of ways to stay young. I listen to the same poppunk music I listened to in high school. I’ve bought way more clothes at Pac Sun lately than what should be legal for a man of my age. I try to pinpoint when all our interests became so lame: dinner parties, potlucks, mixers, drinking expensive beer, food connoisseurship, shouting about politics on Facebook. What happened to skateboarding, playing in punk bands, drinking on the cheap, keeping secrets, getting hurt, battle wounds, doing something for the thrill rather than the likes?

This carpe diem rabble-rousing ebbs and flows. I get all worked up until I remember that good food, friends and beer are pretty dope. But still, there has to be a middle ground between my lame current interests and the perpetual image of 16-year-old me flipping off current me.

Hence the hoverboard Groupon. Not exactly the flaming symbol of youthful rebellion, but, hey, baby steps.

Also, I know they’re not actually hoverboards, but more like Segways with the handles removed. (None of this is helping my call for rebellion, is it?) I’ve heard people call them hoverboards, Segways and soar boards. I’ve been obsessed with them ever since I saw a kid riding one down Fairmount Avenue one night. My resulting “WHAT THE FUUUU---” lasted the entire ride home. Then I watched Missy Elliott ride one in her new video and that sealed the deal.

The company that sells the Groupon—Let’s Go— calls them “self balancing two-wheel E-scooters.”

But, c’mon. (Mimes jerk-off motion.)

This isn’t the first red flag against Let’s Go. Its site looks like a sham. Grammar errors and SEO nonspeak litter the pages. It says it has nine locations around San Diego, but I crunch the numbers and conclude that, if that were the case, the city would be overrun with hoverboarders. I pick the address listed for Balboa Park because I’ve seen a lot of douchebags on Segways there, and at least I will be with my kind. Plus, Panama 66 is there, and there’s no harm in having 16-year-old me wait a hot

second while current me gets tipsy on adult-ass craft beer beforehand.

It’s eerily quiet for a Friday evening in Balboa Park. There aren’t flocks of hoverboarders zooming around, regaling everyone with hoverboard joy. This isn’t a good sign. In fact, there’s no sign of anything resembling a hoverboard rental business. I call the number on its site. A guy answers, and I begin the conversation with “Is this the hoverboards?”

“Yes.” “I’m at the Balboa Park address listed on your site. I bought a Groupon.”

“Oh, you need to make a reservation.”

I don’t say this, but I want to: “But bro, I’ve got like a 6.0 percent stout buzz going on and if I wait any longer I’m going to lose my confidence.” Instead, I give him my email for him to give me directions on how to make a reservation.

That night, I text a friend to see if he wants to join me: “Any interest in renting a hoverboard tomorrow?” This also happens to be the same night of the terrorist attacks in Paris. It might be the dumbest text I’ve ever sent. *** Perhaps the greatest disappointment of getting older is realizing your actual abilities stop living up to how you perceive them. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do a kick-flip. I can no longer drink really anything without feeling it the next day. And the first thing I think of when stepping onto that hoverboard is this is really hard.

Ana from Let’s Go holds both my hands. She’s great and patient and doesn’t make fun of the way my legs spasm when I’m on the board. The way she holds me, it’s like we’re dancing.

My legs acclimate. Ana passes me off to my wife.

“Just be back in an hour,” Ana says. We begin our slow journey through the park, wife leading me like I’m an old man.

Going up inclines is tough, and each approaching crack in the sidewalk instills in me the fear of broken wrists.

“Sorry, can you hold onto my shoulder? You’re hurting me,” my wife says. She removes her hand from mine and wrings the sweat off of it.

Soon, I’m hovering with no assistance. No doubt, I look like an a-hole, especially considering that I’ve found placing my hands at my hips, Missy Elliottstyle, helps my balance. Strangers stop and ask me about it. Most just give me the “are you fucking kidding me?” look.

But I can’t deny how fun it is, and looking like a moron is no small part of it. I tell my wife I want one for Christmas. We finish up and return the board.

Walking on two legs sucks. The next day, my calves are sore. They’re the lamest battle wounds I’ve had in long time, but they’re still battle wounds.

“

I may be going through a mid-life crisis.

“

#SDCityBeat

Well That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com.

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Culture | Film

James White

Drifting away in James White

Christopher Abbott and Cynthia Nixon shine in Josh Mond’s sad, powerful debut drama

by Glenn Heath Jr.

J

ames White (Christopher Abbott) and James force one would expect from a modern malcontent.

White are both aimless, tormented and em- His relationship with a high school girl named Jayne battled creations. The young man often wears (Makenzie Leigh) is expectedly rocky, a desperate a black hoodie and listens to ear buds while roam- last stab at some kind of meaningful future. They ing the streets of New York City, closing himself off meet in Mexico during an impromptu vacation, but from the world in order to avoid the inevitability of upon their return home to New York City the relachange. He inhabits dark clubs, listens to trance mu- tionship splinters. Mond purposefully detonates the sic, occasionally gets into fights, and hooks up with idea that a romantic relationship will save James, girls before retreating home to his sickly mother and this realization leaves a sting.

(Cynthia Nixon) who’s suffering through a final bout As the film progresses, James’ mannerisms and of cancer. expressions become more vulnerable and broken.

The film follows James relentlessly with hand- We begin to understand that James is not a monheld cinematography, hovering over his shoulder, ster, but a man whose purpose has never been dewatching and waiting for him to combust. But most fined. His present is completely weighed down by surprisingly, he rarely does. The a traumatizing past. During a explosions that do happen are devastating final scene with almost entirely internal. We see his mother, James paints an him stewing and complaining, imaginary future they might james white withering away from anger and share living in Paris. It’s a stagDirected by Josh Mond regret after spending years cargeringly frank admission of Starring Christopher Abbott, Cynthia ing for his mother. This provides failure transcribed through a striking emotional juxtaposihopeful fantasy.

Nixon, Ron Livingston, tion to the physical decay he’s Nixon’s turn as Gail White and Scott Mescudi witnessed over that timespan. is equally devastating. Her Written and directed by firstcharacter’s fragility and deRated R time filmmaker Josh Mond, generation are never played who produced the equally taut up for sentiment, but instead anti-thriller Martha Marcy May framed as a gut punch of realMarlene in 2011, James White is an unnervingly per- ity that James has been trying to hide from for years. sonal character study about alienation and self-pity Whenever they are on screen together, Mond’s film in the millennial age. Its compositions are closed becomes a potent two-hander of great power and off, tight and suffocating, matching the character’s weight. emotional perspective on life. Conversations unfold James White, which opens Friday, Nov. 27, at without any hint at closure.

Arclight La Jolla Cinemas, paints a dire picture of Unlike the characters in the work of Lena Dun- young adulthood that doesn’t provide us with any ham or Alex Ross Perry, James is not an intellectual, hint at an easy answer. Ambiguity defines almost but a middle class child of divorce forced into adult- everything except the finality of death, something hood at far too young of an age. He has talent as a James cannot quite fathom even as Gail drifts writer, or so says some family members and friends. away.

But when he goes to a job interview with a family Despite its bleak melodrama, the film does flirt friend (Ron Livingston) who works at a newspaper, with the idea of James getting his act together. The he provides handwritten scribble as an example of magnitude of its final scenes just might shake this his work. This shows the true disconnect between foreboding character to his core. Whether or not you James’ reality and the reality of being a working pro- believe this will happen says a lot about your own fessional. outlook on life.

The real revelation here is Christopher Abbott’s performance as James. At first he seems to embody Film reviews run weekly. your normal angry young man with the kind of brute Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com.

22 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

#SDCityBeat

Culture | Film

Rosana Sullivan

True to form

R

osana Sullivan was on her way to becoming a biologist. Then she took at internship at Pixar University during college and the rest was history. “I loved drawing my whole life, but I didn’t realize you could do animation as a career until that moment.”

Now a story artist at Pixar, Sullivan has spent the last few years working tirelessly on the studio’s latest animated film The Good Dinosaur, to be released on Wednesday, Nov. 25.

#SDCityBeat

So what distinguishes The Good Dinosaur from the rest of the Pixar canon? “It’s a deeply emotional and quiet film compared to the others,” says Sullivan. “It’s dedicated to telling a story simply and beautifully, and only has about 20 percent dialogue.”

Sullivan’s passion for animation runs deep. She cites The Lion King and The Land Before Time as key influences. “Growing up in the suburbs of Texas, these movies transported me to another time and place,” she says.

Jurassic Park also left a mark. “I was drawing dinosaurs all the time. Science has always been a big part of my life since my dad was a biology professor at university. I actually grew up hanging out in the biology lab.”

This love for nature and animals provided Sullivan with the perfect foundation for her work on The Good Dinosaur, which tells the story of a friendship between a young boy and a lost Apatosaurus.

“Understanding anatomy, musculature, and structure really helps,” she says. “You have to observe animals very carefully, and learn how something moves, how something behaves.”

Story artists like Sullivan are essential to Pixar’s production process. “We draw up a scene and try to sell it to the director.

We try to flesh out a vision early on. It’s a very organic process.”

So what makes Pixar so special? “They hire people who care about story,” says Sullivan, who is cut from that cloth. “Every movie is a miracle when it’s finished,” she laughs.

I think audiences would agree.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

Opening Creed: Michael B. Jordan stars as the son of boxing legend Apollo Creed who gets mentored by an aging Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in this unique spinoff to the Rocky film series. Opens wide on Wednesday, Nov. 25.

James White: A modern young man angrily confronts his insecurities and doubts about the future as he watches his mother whither away from cancer.

Kingdom of Shadows: Bernardo Ruiz’s documentary offers multiple perspectives on the U.S.–Mexico drug war. Screens through Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Las Oscuras Primaveras: Two lovers entangled in a scorching affair begin to feel the guilt and doubt associated with their forbidden relationship. Screens through Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Legend: Tom Hardy stars twin brothers who become gangsters in London during the swinging 1960s. Brian Helgeland directs.

Songs from the North: By weaving together footage from three separate visits to North Korea, director Soon-Mi Yoo creates a unique perspective on this enigmatic country. Screens through Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

For a complete

listing of movies, please see “Film Screenings” at sdcitybeat.com under “E vents.”

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

Music

lex Capella doesn’t blend in easily in Pacific Beach. She’s wrapped up in a long black coat and clad in matching black boots at Cafe 976, just a block from Garnet Avenue and three blocks from the ocean. It’s not totally unwarranted—it’s one of the coldest mornings of the year, which is not to say freezing by any means. This is San Diego,

Eartha Hubbell

after all.

It’s not lost on Capella, who previously lived in Connecticut and upstate New York, that, at least from an aesthetic standpoint, she stands apart from a typical San Diegan.

“It’s so funny being here, by the beach especially. I’m in all black and boots, and everyone’s in sandals, bleached hair. I don’t fit in,” she says, with a laugh, between sips of coffee.

Capella performs and records under the name Bakkuda. She also stands apart from much of the music that characterizes San Diego. In a scene heavy on guitar-based indie rock, Capella is a performer who specializes in an ethereal, albeit soulful style of electronic pop. This summer, she released new EP Rule This Space, which explores an atmospheric, yet richly textured sound that sometimes recalls the eclectic dance-pop of Grimes, or the haunting R&B of FKA Twigs, both of whom she cites as influences on her music.

Bakkuda didn’t start out that way, though. Five years ago, Capella launched the project as a rock band along with several friends. At the time, she was influenced by an entirely different set of artists.

“I wanted us to be Paramore,” she says. “And it was really great. We had a lot of fun, and the band that I formed, we’re still all friends and stuff. But everyone had other priorities, jobs and school and such, and I really wanted to take this all the way.”

After two years, that version of Bakkuda came to an end, but Capella started dabbling in electronic production. She’s entirely selftaught, her sound growing in sophistication as she’s adopted new and more versatile sampling and sequencing tools. Before long, the style that you hear on EPs such as Rule This Space began to take shape.

“I kind of jumped right into it,” she says. “I started working with a program called Studio One. And then I got Ableton, because I wanted to be able to play live and I know everyone uses Ableton. I just found some YouTube tutorials... then tried it out. Just kind of trial and error.”

The more complicated task for Capella has been parlaying her music into a dynamic live show, since being a solo performer puts the burden entirely on her. Over time she’s developed

24 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

a compelling presence. She’s been flanked by dancers in the past. She currently employs the use of colored lights. The dominant element of Bakkuda’s performances is her powerful voice, though, which she backs with booming electronic beats. Capella is both comfortable and in her element on stage, though it often comes as a surprise to those who meet her that she’s introverted and soft-spoken. Yet she says that both her on- and offstage demeanors are two aspects of the same personality.

“People come up to me after a show and will say ‘you’re so much different in person,’” she says. “I’m not a very loud personality, but performing is totally me still. It’s just…it’s sort of like the side that I don’t have the energy to maintain on a daily basis. But it’s important for me to have that outlet.”

There’s drama and darkness in Bakkuda’s music, both of which are on full display on Rule This Space. There’s a buzzing, quasi-industrial undercurrent to EP highlight “Skills,” while the title track features almost voicelike darkwave synthesizers and throbbing bass. While Capella explores a wide range of shades and textures via her music, she’s motivated by more positive forces. Bakkuda is a Korean word that has several meanings, one of which is “change.” Capella says that she’d like to see her own music be a catalyst for positive change.

Capella also hopes Bakkuda can be a positive influence for other women and girls interested in production, but who might be put off by a field dominated by Y chromosomes.

“I take a lot of pride in being a female producer,” she says. “I want to be an inspiration for a lot of women and girls who are interested in music and be like ‘you can do it too, even though it’s a bunch of dudes.’ If you shy away from it because it’s a boy’s club, then it’ll always be a boys club.”

While providing a positive influence for women and girls is important, Capella is ultimately more universal in her aims. If people take something positive away from listening to her music, or are inspired to take on a project of their own, then she’s accomplished what she set out to do.

“I hope people are inspired to push themselves,” she says. “I don’t know, I just hope to inspire people to be the best version of themselves.”

To hear a track, go to sdcitybeat.com and search for “Bakkuda.”

#SDCityBeat

Music

notes from the smoking patio locals only

M

embers of The Locust and Retox have started a new band with former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. The band is called Dead Cross, and their first show is lined up for Tuesday, Dec. 1, at The Casbah. Bassist Justin Pearson, who plays in the band along with Lombardo, guitarist Mike Crain and vocalist Gabe Serbian, says in a phone interview that the band came together more or less at the last minute.

Pearson and Crain were doing some session recordings with Lombardo and producer Ross Robinson, when Lombardo mentioned that his band Philm had broken up. The band had some unfulfilled tour dates at the time they broke up, and Lombardo felt an obligation to help touring band Descartes A Kant, with whom the shows were scheduled.

“He just said, ‘Wanna start a band and play some shows?’” Pearson says.

Dead Cross is literally just a couple weeks old, so to date there are no recordings of the band. In fact, they’re still working on finishing enough songs to fill a full-length live set. But Pearson says fans of The Locust and Slayer will probably like it.

“It’s kinda like thrash,” he says. “It’s hard to tell what it is, to be honest. Some of it is definitely like Slayer. Everyone’s style shows in their playing.”

Justin Pearson of Dead Cross/Retox Writing an entire live set’s worth of music in less than a month is stressful enough as it is, but Pearson notes that there’s also the added complication of having to drive from San Diego to Los Angeles in order for all four members to rehearse in the same room. He says that it’s the shortest amount of time he’s had to get a project going, but it’s happening one way or another.

“We’re gonna have a full set,” he says. “No one really knows what we’ve gotten into. We gotta get it off the ground first.”

“It’s pretty intense. A couple of times I said ‘We shouldn’t have done this,’” he adds. “But it’s fun, and we’re stoked on it.”

—Jeff Terich

tag it and bag it

Push, Retra: The opening whirr of white noise that begins “London, Idaho,” the first track on ReIf you search for albums tagged “San Diego” on Band- tra’s Push, has a similar effect to that of Radiohead’s camp, you’ll find some interesting stuff. In this semi- “Planet Telex,” so you’ll forgive me if I was half regular report, we sift through recent postings and expecting the band to erupt into a similar kind of relay the findings. spacey alt-rock. It doesn’t, obviously, but the band’s moody sound does have a little bit of Radiohead’s Astronaut Campfire Hymns, Hospital Birthday melancholy, blended with the gothic atmosphere of Cake: Both the name of the artist and the album The Cure and the mainstream muscle of Incubus, sound like random strings of nouns, but with female vocals. It’s OK. but despite the seemingly Dadaist aesthetic of Hospital Birthday Act Your Age, Bad Kids: Of the 11 Cake’s presentation, the music is songs on this release, five are less actually quite stunning. A mixture than two minutes long, and not a of found-sound samples and dark single one of them crosses the three ambience, the album is rich in eeminute mark. That’s just as well, rie atmosphere, warm textures and because Bad Kids play surf-inspired crackly samples. “We Went to the punk that works best in small doses.

Park and Fed the Ducks” is alterIn their best moments, they recall nately terrifying and comforting, the Pixies, but most of the time they while “Obliviates” is dense and come across like your neighbor’s gahypnotic. This isn’t immediate murage band with a little more reverb. sic, but it’s certainly captivating.

Post Modem, russy: Every time I do this exercise, I Shutdown, Streetcleaner: Based on the artist’s find more beatmakers in town that I’ve never heard name, I was expecting something more like indus- of before. Even more impressive is just how many trial metal outfit Godflesh. Instead, Streetcleaner of them are actually really good. Like russy, for inmakes a stylish and high-energy kind of synthwave stance, whose new full-length is an ominous and that’s inspired in equal parts by ’80s EBM-industrial richly textured set of IDM and glitch that has all the music and Nicholas Winding-Refn’s Drive. It’s dark- conceptual weirdness of Oneohtrix Point Never with ly romantic, and fit to become a soundtrack to a noir the eerie sensibility of Aphex Twin. Didn’t take long film yet to be made. to win me over.

#SDCityBeat

—Jeff Terich November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

Music

Jeff Terich

If I were u A music insider’s weekly agenda Wednesday, November 25

Friday, November 27

PLAN A: Maruta, Vattnet Viskar, Temblad, Fermentor @ Til-Two Club. Vattnet Viskar’s Settler is one of the year’s best metal albums, hands down. It didn’t get as much hype as, say, Deafheaven, but it’s comparable in its mixture of ambition, emotion and, of course, heaviness. PLAN B: X, Mike Watt and the Secondmen @ The Casbah. This show’s a little pricier for a Casbah show, but X are punk rock legends, and they’re being rejoined by founding guitarist Billy Zoom, who is back after undergoing cancer treatment. BACKUP PLAN: Thursday, November 26 PLAN A: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Darwin Deez, Charly Bliss @ House of Cranberry Sauce @ Your House. It’s Blues.

Thanksgiving. You’re not going anywhere, except to the dinner table, the couch, and Saturday, November 28 eventually bed. There will be feasting, and PLAN A: Fuck the Facts, Doesn’t Matter, maybe a parade, but you can take the night Santa Clause, Cave Bastard @ The Merrow. If you want to get an early start on workoff from live music. It’ll be OK. ing off the Thanksgiving bloat, get gnarly PLAN A: Wand, Octagrape, Clean Room @ Soda Bar. Los Angeles psych rockers Wand have released a handful of tripped-out, effects-heavy rock ‘n’ roll records that balance catchy fun with cosmic heaviness. They’re contemporaries of Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees, with good reason: They rock the fuck out. BACKUP PLAN: Exmortus, Desecrate, Eukaryst, Voices of Ruin, Ratt Black @ Brick by Brick.

26 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

with grindcore veterans Fuck the Facts. It’ll be loud, fast and insane. The pounds’ll just melt away. PLAN B: No Parents, Plague Vendor, Shady Francos @ The Irenic. If it’s a great punk rock show that you’re looking forward to this week, this is where you should be. No Parents do great, snotty punk, while Plague Vendor mixes theirs with a shade of eccentric weirdness. Plus local favorites Shady Francos are always a good time. BACKUP PLAN: Wild Moth, Quali, Causers @ The Hideout.

Monday, November 30

Sunday, November 29

Tuesday, December 1

PLAN A: Intronaut, Weight Of The Sun, Sensory Station @ Soda Bar. I’m genuinely trying not to overload this week with metal recommendations, but I can’t help it.

San Diego is being taken over by awesome metal bands, including California progmetal titans Intronaut, who get even better with each release. BACKUP PLAN: Noface Shadowmen, Stone Horse, Podunk Nowhere @ The Casbah.

PLAN A: Dead Cross, Descartes a Kant PLAN A: The Bird and the Bee, Alex Lil@ The Casbah. Justin Pearson and Gabe ly @ The Irenic. I remember first hearing Serbian of the Locust have started a new The Bird and The Bee after several glasses band with Dave Lomof champagne on a bardo of Slayer. Yeah, New Year’s Eve. Mayyou heard right. This be it was the alcohol, is their first show, and but the L.A. duo’s it’s going to be insane. dreamy, whimsical For more info, read pop sounded sweet Notes from the Smokto my ears. PLAN B: ing Patio on page The Peach Kings, 25. PLAN B: Nikki Smoke Season, Lane, Clear Plastic Toothless George Masks @ The Ireand His One Man nic. Nikki Lane plays Band @ The Casbah. country, but it’s more The Peach Kings play The Bird and The Bee of a rough ‘n’ tumble, rock ‘n’ roll. But it’s an w h i s ke y- a n d - f i s textra sultry, extra swampy kind of rock ‘n’ fights kind of country. I hesitate to call it roll that’s heavy on blues and maybe some “alt,” but it’s definitely not what you’re goadult situations. It’s the kind of sound that’s ing to hear on KSON. perfect for after-hours troublemaking.

#SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

Music

Concerts HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Dead Cross (Casbah, 12/1), Crocodiles (The Hideout, 12/17), Duke Dumont (Observatory, 12/28), Luna (Casbah, 12/29), Crazy Town (Soda Bar, 12/29), Ziggy Shuffledust and the Spiders from Mars (Casbah, 12/31), Tim Heidecker (Casbah, 1/7), Devotchka (BUT, 1/17), All Them Witches (Casbah, 1/23), Julia Holter (The Irenic, 1/28), Childbirth (Soda Bar, 2/1), The Donkeys (Soda Bar, 2/11), Rihanna (Viejas Arena, 2/26), Wolfmother (HOB, 3/23), Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place (Casbah, 3/27), Alex G (Che Café, 4/1), Thao & the Get Down Stay Down (BUT, 4/28).

GET YER TICKETS Nikki Lane (The Irenic, 12/1), Snoop Dogg (Observatory, 12/6), The Bad Plus (Music Box, 12/8), The White Buffalo (HOB, 12/10), Three Mile Pilot (Casbah, 12/10), Finch (The Irenic, 12/11), The Maine (Irenic, 12/12), Common Sense (BUT, 12/12), Ghostface Killah (Observatory, 12/17), Bone Thugs N Harmony (Observatory, 12/18), Vince Staples (Observatory, 12/19), Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven (BUT, 12/27), Ozomatli (BUT, 12/28), Chet Faker (Observatory, 12/29), Donavon Frankenreiter (BUT, 12/29-30), The Academy Is… (Observatory, 12/30), Los Lobos (BUT,

28 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

12/31), Ty Segall (But, 1/13), Christian Death (Soda Bar, 1/17), Josh Ritter (Observatory, 1/18), Ladysmith Black Mambazo (BUT, 1/19), Steel Panther (HOB, 1/23), Shigeto (Soda Bar, 1/23), Killing Joke, The Soft Moon (BUT, 1/26), Richard Cheese (HOB, 1/29), G. Love and Special Sauce (BUT, 1/29), The English Beat (BUT, 2/5-6), Aaron Neville (Balboa Theatre, 2/11), Cradle of Filth (HOB, 2/18), At the Gates (HOB, 2/19), Dr. Dog (Observatory, 2/20), Anti-Flag (Observatory, 2/25), Ani DiFranco (BUT, 2/25), Joe Satriani (Balboa Theatre, 3/1), Lewis Black (Balboa Theatre, 3/3), Galactic (BUT, 3/3), Eleanor Friedberger (Hideout, 3/11), Gary Clark Jr. (HOB, 3/11), Junior Boys (Casbah, 3/18), High on Fire, Skeletonwitch, Tribulation (Observatory, 3/26), Prong (Brick by Brick, 4/22), Twentyonepilots (Viejas Arena, 7/24), Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/14), 5 Seconds of Summer (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 9/9).

November Thursday, Nov. 25 Cash’d Out at The Casbah.

Friday, Nov. 27 Darwin Deez at House of Blues. Robert Delong at Music Box. Maruta, Vattnet Viskar at Til-Two Club. Nashville Pussy at The Hideout. X, Mike Watt at The Casbah.

Saturday, Nov. 28 X, Mike Watt at The Casbah. Venom Inc. at Brick by Brick.

Sunday, Nov. 29 Silverstein, Senses Fail at Observatory North Park. James Bay at Belly Up Tavern (sold out).

Monday, Nov. 30 Intronaut at Soda Bar. John Waters at Observatory North Park.

December Tuesday, Dec. 1 Grouch & Eli, Chali 2na at Observatory North Park. Nikki Lane at The Irenic.

Dead Cross at The Casbah.

Thursday, Dec. 3 Charlie Hunter Trio at The Loft. The Avengers at The Casbah.

Friday, Dec. 4 Little Hurricane at The Casbah. Slightly Stoopid at Observatory North Park (sold out).

Saturday, Dec. 5 Little Hurricane at The Casbah. Pale Chalice at Soda Bar. Mythbusters Unleashed at Civic Theatre. Warren Haynes at Observatory North Park.

Soulfly at Brick by Brick.

Sunday, Dec. 6 Faster Pussycat at Brick by Brick.

Snoop Dogg at Observatory North Park.

Monday, Dec. 7 White Reaper at The Hideout.

Tuesday, Dec. 8 The Bad Plus at Music Box.

Wednesday, Dec. 9 Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox at House of Blues. Nik Turner’s Hawkwind at Til-Two Club.

Thursday, Dec. 10 Zappa Plays Zappa at Belly Up Tavern.

The Dustbowl Revival at Music Box. The White Buffalo at House of Blues.

Friday, Dec. 11 Mike Krol at Soda Bar. The Highwayman at Music Box. Finch at The Irenic.

Saturday, Dec. 12 Agnostic Front at Til-Two Club. The Maine at The Irenic. The Dears at The Casbah.

Common Sense at Belly Up Tavern.

Sunday, Dec. 13 That 1 Guy at Soda Bar. Reverend Horton Heat at Observatory North Park.

Lights at House of Blues.

Tuesday, Dec. 15 Cheap Trick at Belly Up Tavern. (sold out) The 1975 at Observatory North Park (sold out).

Wednesday, Dec. 16 Poison Idea at Soda Bar.

Thursday, Dec. 17 Ghostface Killah at Observatory North Park. Macy Gray at Belly Up Tavern (sold

music CONTINUED ON page 29

#SDCityBeat

Music music CONTINUED from PAGE 28 out). Flotsam and Jetsam at Brick by Brick. Crocodiles at The Hideout.

Friday, Dec. 18 Wayne Hancock at Soda Bar. Rick Springfield at House of Blues. Bone Thugs N Harmony at Observatory North Park. El Vez at The Casbah.

Saturday, Dec. 19 Strung Out at Brick by Brick. Vince Staples at Observatory North Park.

Sunday, Dec. 20 Littler at Soda Bar. Slow Magic at Observatory North Park.

Monday, Dec. 21 Anuhea at Belly Up Tavern. Creepers at Soda Bar.

Wednesday, Dec. 23 ‘Country Christmas’ w/ Nancarrow at Belly Up Tavern. Dave Koz at Balboa Theatre.

Saturday, Dec. 26 Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects at Soda Bar.

Sunday, Dec. 27 Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven at Belly Up Tavern.

Monday, Dec. 28 Ozomatli at Belly Up Tavern. Duke Dumont at Observatory North Park.

#SDCityBeat

Tuesday, Dec. 29 Chet Faker at Observatory North Park.

Donavon Frankenreiter at Belly Up Tavern. Luna at The Casbah. Crazy Town at Soda Bar.

Wednesday, Dec. 30 The Academy Is… at Observatory North Park. Donavon Frankenreiter at Belly Up Tavern.

Thursday, Dec. 31 The Sess at Soda Bar. Los Lobos at Belly Up Tavern. Ziggy Shuffledust and the Spiders from Mars at The Casbah.

January Thursday, Jan. 7 Tim Heidecker at The Casbah.

Saturday, Jan. 9 Tommy Castro and the Painkillers at Belly Up Tavern. Tool, Primus at Viejas Arena (sold out).

Sunday, Jan. 10 Tool, Primus at Viejas Arena (sold out).

Wednesday, Jan. 13 Ty Segall at Belly Up Tavern. Dave Mason at Music Box.

Thursday, Jan. 14 Paula Cole at Belly Up Tavern.

Friday, Jan. 15 Jerry Seinfeld at Civic Theatre (sold out).

rCLUBSr

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave., Carlsbad.

Fri: ‘Club Musae’.

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., San Diego. Pacific Beach. Wed: Ryan Zimmerman. Thu: Karaoke. Fri: Slower, Miles Ahead. Sat: Karaoke. Sun: Karaoke.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., San Diego. Bay Park. Wed: Exmortus, Desecrate, Eukaryst, Voices of Ruin, Ratt Black.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, San Diego. Little Italy. Fri: Aysha. Sat: ‘Tribute to Thelonious Monk’ w/ Gilbert Castellanos. Sun: The Matt Smith Neu Jazz Trio.

Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Wed: Aro Di Santi. Thu: Malamana. Fri: Joef & Co. Sat: Malamana.

Sun: Aire. Mon: Perla Negra.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., San Diego. Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Future Disco’ w/ DJs Le Deuce Compas, El Dawg, Great White, ROCK the Discotech, Booger B, Oso, Los Yanez. Fri: DJ John Reynolds. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ DJ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Church’ w/ DJs Bass Exotic, Vinnassi.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: Doug Benson. Fri: Piff the Magic Dragon. Sat: Piff the Magic Dragon. Sun: Piff the Magic Dragon.

Croce’s Park West, 2760 Fifth Ave., #100, San Diego. Bankers Hill. Wed: Pat Dowling. Fri: Blue Largo. Sat: Eve Selis.

Sun: Todo Mundo. Mon: Hank Easton.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. Fri: FX5.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, San Diego. Mission Bay. Fri: Brian Levy with the Mikan Zlatkovich Trio.

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

Downtown. Sat: DJ Kurch. Sun: ‘Pole-aPalooza’.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., San Diego.

Downtown. Wed: Justin Jay. Sat: Lisbona Sisters.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: Twista. Fri: Deejay Al. Sat: DJ Brett Bodley.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., San Diego. North Park. Wed: ‘Midweek Boogie’ w/ DJ L. Fri: ‘80s vs. 90s’. Sat: Diablo Dime, Ypsitucky.

Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’. Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’.

Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Wed: AOK Musik. Fri: ‘Good Times’. Sat: DJs E, Yodah. Mon: DJ Antonio Aguilera. Tue: Big City Dawgs.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Wed: Adam Block Duo. Fri: Luke Daniels Band. Sat: The Voices. Sun: Daryl Johnson.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Arise Roots, Gonzo, Revival. Fri: Abbey Road, Jumpin Jack Flash. Sat: Wayward Sons, Way Cool Jr. Sun: James Bay, Cloves (sold out).

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: Unwritten Law. Fri: GTA and K Camp, Darwin Deez, Charly Bliss. Sat: Allen Stone. Sun: Handguns, Roam, Broadside, Sudden Suspension, Turn It Around.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Midtown. Sat: ‘SHAFT’. Sun: ‘For

music CONTINUED ON page 30

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

Music the Love of Hip Hop’.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave., Coronado. Fri: Mystique. Sat: Bat. Sun: Ron’s Garage.

Music Box, 1337 India St., San Diego.

Little Italy. Fri: Robert Delong, Coleman Hell. Sat: El Debarge.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Thu: ‘Wet’. Fri: ‘Uncut’. Sat: ‘Club Sabbat’. Tue: Karaoke Latino.

Onyx Room / Thin, 852 Fifth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Sat: ‘Rumba Lounge’.

Tue: ‘Neo Soul’.

Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: The Upshots. Fri: RedWave, Lauren Leigh. Sun: The Fuzzy Rankins Band. Mon: The Groove Squad.

Tue: Paddy’s Chicken Jam.

The Balboa, 1863 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Bankers Hill. Fri: Little Heroine, Giant Surprise, The Anomaly. Sat: Redder Moon, Astral Touch, Die Missbildungen Des Menschen.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd., Spring Valley. Spring Valley. Wed: Karaoke. Fri: Spyder 130, Collage Menage, Bastard Saints, Bedpost Buzzards. Sat: Blessed Hellhounds, Daemons, Peacot Rock.

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

Hillcrest. Wed: DJs John Joseph, Moody Rudy. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Hektik. Sat: DJs K-Swift, Nikno. Sun: DJ Hektik.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Midtown. Wed: Cash’d Out, Nancarrow. Fri: X, Mike Watt and the Secondmen. Sat: X, Mike Watt and the Secondmen. Sun: The Peach Kings, Smoke Season, Toothless George and His One Man Band. Mon: Noface Shadowmen, Stone Horse, Podunk Nowhere. Tue: Dead Cross, Descartes a Kant.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz’ w/ Jason Hanna. Fri: Harmonica John. Tue: Karaoke.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Fri: Nashville Pussy, The Whale, Chica Diabla. Sat: Wild Moth, Quali, Causers.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Wed: Wand, Octagrape, Clean Room. Fri: Guttermouth, Blacklist Royals, Skipjack, Strike Twelve. Sat: Naked Aggression, Systematic Abuse, Sculpins, Midnight Eagle. Sun: LEX, Emily Afton, Lila Rose.

Mon: Intronaut, Weight Of The Sun, Sensory Station.

The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., San Diego.

North Park. Fri: Copeland, Eisley, We Are the City. Sat: No Parents, Plague Vendor, Shady Francos. Sun: The Bird and the Bee. Tue: Nikki Lane, Clear Plastic Masks.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego. Midway. Wed: The Chainsmokers, Cheat Codes, Matt Dimona.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., San Diego. Hillcrest. Fri: Lyrans. Sat: Fuck the Facts, Doesn’t Matter, Santa Claus, Cave Bastard. Tue: Giant Surprise, Melvus, Adeumazel.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., San Diego. Midtown. Fri: Fine Cut Bodies, Supersillyous.

Sat: DJ Josh Whitaker.

30 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., San Diego. Normal Heights. Sun: Tim Mudd, Podunk Nowhere.

The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. Mon: Family of the Year, Kaleo.

Tue: Daniel Bachman.

North Park. Wed: ‘Jive Turkey!’ w/ DJs Heminguey, Ikah Love. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’. Mon: ‘The Clash Under Cover’.

Tue: ‘Trapped’.

The T Lounge, 1475 University Ave., San Diego. Hillcrest. Thu: Stanza.

The Tin Roof, 401 G Street, San Diego.

Gaslamp. Wed: Pat Hilton & Mann. Fri: Coriander, Nate Donnis. Sat: Coriander.

Tue: Diana Ferrer Band.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Fri: Maruta, Vattnet Viskar, Temblad. Sat: ‘Sleepwalking’.

Sun: Open mic comedy.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., San Diego. Bay Park. Wed: Gino & The Lone Gunmen.

Fri: Chet Cannon & The Big Blue. Sat: The Profit Heist.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., San Diego. City Heights. Sat: Wilderness Dream. Sun: Department of Descriptive Services, Slowdraw, The Hungry Eskimo, The 105ers.

Ux31, 3112 University Ave., San Diego.

North Park. Fri: DJ Bacon Bits. Sat: DJ Junior the Disco Punk. Sun: DJ Carlos Culture. Mon: DJ Kid Wonder. Tue: Karaoke.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, San Diego.

South Park. Wed: ‘Fantasy’ w/ DJ Mario Orduno. Fri: ‘Blam Blam Fever’ w/ DJ Rob Moran. Sat: ‘Booty Bassment’. Sun: Spooky Cigarette.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., San Diego.

Ocean Beach. Wed: Raging Fyah, DJ Carlos Culture. Fri: AOK, Crown Rootz, Special Blend. Sat: ‘Ocean Boogie’.

Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Electric Waste Band.

The Office, 3936 30th St., San Diego.

#SDCityBeat

Last Words

Brendan Emmett Quigley

Clear your calendar Across 1. Half-and-half pet 5. Drinks might be on them 9. Cry of pain 13. Sign up for 15. Prefix with business and forestry 16. Some are inflated at red carpet events 17. Love to bits 18. Hit powerfully, as a home run 20. European monarch who held the longest reign: 72 years and 110 days 22. “Money’s coming later,” briefly 23. Christmas list entry, often 24. Ticker test: Abbr.

27. Padre’s hermano 29. Bubble bursting noise 30. Head down?

33. “Cheers” go-with 36. Senator Ernst 37. Big name in chips 38. Punching tool 39. Wedding dress material 40. Prefix with Australian and European 41. Mötley Crüe’s genre 43. Old name lead-in 44. Left-winger 45. Pen name?

46. Crosses out 47. “Gotham” channel 48. Foot unit 50. Official start of the Christmas season, according to protesters ... or, homophonically, an explanation of this puzzle’s theme 57. “Trust me” Last week’s answers

#SDCityBeat

59. “Gotham,” e.g.

60. Frigate frame 61. Application entry 62. ___ minute workout 63. Slick 64. Looked over 65. Holiday fun run

Down 1. Thanksgiving ___ 2. Nix 3. Cheek covering 4. Japanese gateway 5. Faux-lesbian Russian music duo 6. Muslim honorific 7. Champagne word 8. Bad in like the opposite of amazeballs way 9. Kanye West, familiarly 10. Big brute 11. Ailment 12. Thing taken on a vision quest 14. Maseru’s country 19. Wide receiver’s flub 21. Pack it in 24. Like Santa’s helpers 25. Burrito meat 26. Museum employee 28. Big name in toothbrushes 29. Schoolroom with mice 30. Shot in the face?

31. Chilling 32. Silent flirts 34. Pontiac muscle car 35. Slack-jawed reaction 36. Peanut butter purchase 39. Extra helpings 41. Like Larry Bird or Kevin Durant, heightwise 42. Tubular pasta 44. Puzzle maker god Sam 47. Completely 49. Wadding bird 50. Utter nonsense 51. Nivea rival 52. Magazine with a red border 53. Follow 54. Drummer Grohl 55. “I’ll drink to that” 56. Quick tug 57. Disease outbreak agcy.

58. Response to the question “more brie?”

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

32 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

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#SDCityBeat

November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 33

34 · San Diego CityBeat · November 25, 2015

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November 25, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 35