San Diego CityBeat • Dec 30, 2015

2 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

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Up Front | From the editor

Resolutions for San Diego public figures

S

cottish theologian Carl Bard nailed it when he said: Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

So true. In that vein, this last Editor’s Letter of 2015 focuses on helping local public figures look ahead to inspire better endings with New Year’s resolutions. Offered here are pragmatic endings to starts that have missed the mark or have veered way off course.

Bonnie Dumanis: Start believing in yourself.

Few in the public believe in you right now. For months, you, San Diego’s District Attorney, refused to allow the public to see a videotape of an officerinvolved shooting. On the brink of a legal decision calling for release of the tape you held a press conference and narrated the video, added audio and tried to explain why you weren’t pressing charges against the officer. We all can see it was a bad shooting; questionable at best.

Believe in yourself. Dig down and speak the truth. New endings.

Shelley Zimmerman: Be more sharing.

Millions of dollars of public funds paid for body cameras for your whole SDPD team.

Your officers now seem to have learned the rule is to turn them on before engagement. But we want to actually see the footage.

When things go wrong, like the over-reactive shooting by Officer Neal Browder of Fridoon Nehad, it’s our right to get a look. Okay, now you’re involved in forming a committee that’ll determine who gets to see what. Put public members on this committee.

Be Shelly the Sharer.

SDPD: Manage stress better.

Most of you are awesome. But not all cops are perfect. Chillax out there. Thanks for your service.

We appreciate you getting the bad guys. But manage your stress better and don’t take it out on the rest of us. Serve and protect, don’t shoot and misdirect.

Kevin Faulconer: Prioritize your goals.

People like you. They really do. You put a lot of time, money and effort into trying to keep the Chargers in town with a new stadium. The overtime and elbow grease that went into that can be funneled

into a new direction. How about aiming at eradicating homelessness? Prioritize your goals. Other mayors have gotten all their city’s homeless veterans off the streets. And they’re making progress on all their unsheltered homeless. It takes political will. Will you?

Marne Foster: Get a new job.

A new year is the time for fresh starts. A career switch can get you out of the doldrums, away from the public eye and may be just the thing that causes independent investigators to stop rifling through your online accounts. School board president is a boring title that can cause a person to hold nepotistic fundraisers and file fraudulent quarter-million-dollar claims again the San dumanishq / twitter Diego Unified School District.

It’s time to Teleport Your Job. There are exciting opportunities awaiting in Dubai and Australia. Get a new job.

Mark Fabiani: Stop worrying what people think of you.

You’re certainly smarter than Dean Spanos for having him pay you for 14 years to be his mouthpiece on all things Chargers. But you’re a sensitive guy.

So stop worrying about what people think of you and gas up your new Gulfstream V-SP, book a vacation at Sheldon Adelson’s Macau casino resort and dream about the loot piling up in your offshore accounts. Stop worryBonnie Dumanis ing—it leads to grey hair.

Dean Spanos: Create special times with those closest to you.

Treasure those sons of yours who are helping you run the Chargers organization. Create special times with them—because nobody else wants anything to do with you. It’s obvious you’re a greedy, absentee, selfish, backstabbing, soulless dullard.

You really suck! In Carson, Angelenos will learn to loathe you. If you stay in San Diego for another year, or whatever, have fun in your stadium alternately filled with Raiders, Broncos and Packers fans. Meanwhile cherish quiet afternoons corn holing with your boys.

—Ron Donoho

Write to rond@sdcitybeat.com

This issue of CityBeat will spend New Year’s Eve drinking Kenyan coffee and binge watching Making A Murderer.

Volume 14 • Issue 21 Editor Ron Donoho Music Editor Jeff Terich Arts Editor Seth Combs Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Carolyn Ramos editorial assistant Torrey Bailey 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 Human Resources Andrea Baker

editorial Intern Nancy Kirk

Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami

Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse

Vice President of Operations David Comden

MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia

Publisher Kevin Hellman

Advertising inquiries Interested in advertising?

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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.

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December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Up Front | Letters

CZAR YOU KIDDING? In [“Baby, it’s cold outside,” Dec. 16] your quote is: “If San Diego’s mayor isn’t going to personally champion a movement to eradicate homelessness then a czar with muscle is the next best shot at jumpstarting the effort.”

My comment: And if the mayor lacks interest why would he appoint someone to bring about significant change?

This strategy that has been used in San Diego to successfully talk a subject to death while ensuring no substantial action or outcome is achieved. I was first made aware of this practice, and you can track this back to the days of Rodney King when the city chose a “blue ribbon” committee, hired an executive director (me) and talked for almost two years without accomplishing anything. Eventually the interest level and concern dwindled and nothing changed.

Now, the approach toward homelessness is beginning to affect not only compliance with HUD regs but is changing the approach to produce successful action items that are changing how things are being done and reported. And what you get from all that is that the mayor that has traditionally been uninterested in homeless issues throughout his political career “might be choosing a czar” to “fix” the issue? Color me doubtful!!

Sharon Johnson, retired, Homeless Services Director City of San Diego

THE HOMELESS SHUFFLE First we had a Homeless Commissioner (under the wing of The United Way), who was Brian Maienschein after he was termed out on the San Diego City Council, and after a relatively short period of time as the “commissioner” he shuffled on to the State Assembly. Now we’re going to have a Homeless Czar?

I’d like to see Mr. Maienschein compile a file documenting exactly what he did as the Homeless Commissioner to earn whatever compensation he received (probably six figures, I bet) so the new czar when appointed by the mayor doesn’t have to start from scratch. Is that too much for us taxpayers to ask? I have to wonder if Mr. Maienschein accomplished anything of merit since the homeless problem continues to fester!

Lou Cumming,

La Jolla

4 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

On the

Cover Week to week, the cover of CityBeat comes together in varying ways. We may decide a particular musical artist deserves the cover, or it may be that an arts feature or news story comes with a great photograph. Other times, our editorial brain trust may deem that an illustration is the best route. Usually when this happens we can confidently turn to art director Carolyn Ramos.

She lays out all our pages but is also a gifted illustrator. For the last cover of the year, and the first before 2016, she hit on an hourglass theme.

Somewhere along the way the idea developed to have New Year’s resolutions slide through the hourglass and morph into Baby New Year, spilling the remnants all over the place.

we want

feedback Did you read a story in San Diego CityBeat that made your blood boil, or caused you to laugh so hard you pulled a muscle in your stomach?

If something inspires you to send us your two cents we welcome all letters that respond to news stories, opinion pieces or reviews that have run in these pages. We don’t accept unsolicited op-ed letters.

Email letters to editor Ron Donoho at rond@sdcitybeat.com, or mail to 3047 University Ave., Suite 202, San Diego, CA 92104. For letters to be considered for publication you must include your first and last name and the part of town where you reside.

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Up Front | opinion

spin

cycle

john r. lamb

“Urban acupuncture” for 2016, San Diego style One who does not look ahead remains behind.

—Brazilian proverb

I

f you didn’t hear champagne corks popping last week when the San Diego City Council adopted a nationally recognized, aggressive Climate Action Plan, you weren’t alone. Much like a piece of divinity, the achievement seemed heavy on sugar, light on substance.

But hey, that sounds so negative, so…well…2015. In a year that was dominated by acidic talk of a mediocre NFL team pulling up 50-plus years’ worth of stakes and potentially moving the circus tent to a landfill just south of Los Angeles, the concept of action seems like some quaint notion of a bygone era.

By year’s end, what really was

there to cheer about as a San Diegan? What tangible accomplishment jumps out? For Spin Cycle, 2015 in the rearview mirror appears as a blur, a time of promise that seemed intent on settling for mediocrity.

Can we do better in 2016? The coming slap fights between dominant political parties in a presidential election year might suggest that our leaders will be too busy burnishing their own credentials, offering more promises with long shelf lives. Does it have to be this way?

Perhaps San Diego should take a page from Seinfeld’s George Costanza and “do the opposite,” in other words, take our usual molasses pace ethos and flip it on its head. A recent conversation with San Diego’s former city architect, Michael Stepner, got Spin Cycle

thinking about 2016 and what can be accomplished short-term.

Stepner, now a professor of urban design at East Village’s New School of Architecture & Design, suggested that San Diego might think about adopting the philosophy of Brazilian urban planner Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba, a city once considered third world in nature that is now the envy of many seekers of municipal sustainability.

His TED conference bio page lists him as “city evangelist,” an apt description of a man who transformed a traffic-choked commercial street “into a spacious pedestrian mall over a long weekend,” his bio notes. He also implemented a program that allows citizens to swap bags of trash for bags of groceries, introduced an effective rapid-bus system and employed sheep to maintain the city’s expanded parkland.

Call it “blitz urbanism” or his preferred “urban acupuncture,” the concept comes down to a simple notion: Make small “pinprick” improvements in communities that inspire residents, build trust with government leaders and lift spirits.

In 2007, Lerner described it this way: “I believe that some medicinal ‘magic’ can and should be applied to cities, as many are sick

John R. Lamb

and some nearly terminal. As with the medicine needed in the interaction between doctor and patient, in urban planning it is also necessary to make the city react—to poke an area in such a way that it is able to help heal, improve, and create positive chain reactions.”

Spin decided to reach out to some smart local people in hopes of discovering some “pinprick” ideas that could be implemented in 2016—projIs Jaime Lerner’s “urban acupuncture” ects that could bring the remedy San Diego needs? residents back to the street level and away be used for emergency housing, from the tiresome rari“somewhat like a bivouac…orgafied air of what billionaires want.

Some ideas seem less than nized and laid out like a military easy. Stepner, for example, touted camp with central kitchen/mess, an effort he and a group of design and sanitary facilities.”

Perhaps even low-performing professionals are kicking around that they call “Heal the Gash.” The hotels and motels could gain tax idea is to deck over sections of In- breaks by providing transitional or terstate 5 that would reconnect even permanent housing for miliEast Village to Balboa Park, Sher- tary veterans, Morales suggested.

Spin also asked for ideas from man Heights and Barrio Logan.

This is not a new idea, Step- City Council offices, and two— ner acknowledged, and the price those of Marti Emerald and Shertag for such endeavors are said to ri Lightner—responded.

Emerald’s office pointed to stretch into the hundreds of milseveral past and ongoing projects lions.

But he and artist/designer Roy that would qualify as “urban acuMcMakin, who now calls San puncture,” including canyon-land Diego home, both echoed a simi- restoration in City Heights, establar sentiment—plant more trees. lishment of community gardens, “How about planting more street construction of the Ocean Distrees in every empty, existing tree covery Institute Living Lab next hole?” McMakin wondered. “In to Joyner Elementary School in other words, no need to do any City Heights, and various “take concrete infrastructure work. back the alley” efforts.

Lightner’s office noted that Just dig holes and water. Then how the old Central Library you have a prettier, more pedesdowntown is reused could be a trian and bird-friendly city.”

Urban planner Howard Black- vital “pinprick” project. A spokesson suggested the city could ad- person said the council presidress its growing homeless prob- dent’s “top choices would be an lem by entering into a “memo of educational use or something for understanding” with local home- high-tech/innovation, such as a less-advocacy agencies to provide maker’s space.”

In her district, Lightner is also “basic human services” like “portable restrooms, bathing and shel- monitoring a proposal to create an ocean-view public plaza at the ter facilities” on public streets.

“This simple paper agree- intersection of Prospect and Giment,” Blackson argued, “is in- rard in La Jolla.

These are all great ideas for a tended to transform our first response to homelessness from town that could surely use some being a crime into a humanitarian great ideas. But Spin wants to effort”—similar to efforts post- hear more—looking at you, dear Katrina in New Orleans and post- reader! For 2016, Spin won’t Sandy in New Jersey—“in order to promise to be any less prickly, get our people off the streets and but perhaps a little “urban acuinto homes in a streamlined and puncture” among friends will morally responsive, rather than help us rinse 2015’s relative year of inaction and ineptitude from combative, manner.”

Gregory Morales, who is run- our psyches. ning a low-budget campaign for mayor, also suggested that publicly owned land and buildings could

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Spin Cycle appears every week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

Up Front | Opinion

Sordid

Edwin Decker

Tales

Defending the honor of “Baby It’s Cold Outside”

I

’ve been thinking about the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and the allegations that have surfaced in recent years about it glorifying date rape. The more I think about it, the more I disagree.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” (BICO for short) was written in 1944 by Frank Loesser and his wife, Lynne Garland. It is a call-and-response duet between a man and a woman retiring from a date to his bachelor pad where he tries to convince her to stay because, well, “Baby it’s cold out there.”

My feeling is that it’s just an innocent ditty about the push/pull game of seduction—as ancient as the first mammoth bone a cave-babe ever used to bonk the nose of a persistent Cro-Magnon suitor. But other people—let’s call them BICO Truthers—disagree. They call this “the date rape song” because the woman repeatedly declines his requests and at one point even says the word “no” three times in a row; such as we see in the following lyrics (her lines are in parentheses).

(My sister will be suspicious) Gosh your lips look delicious / (My brother will be pacing the door) Waves upon a tropical shore / (My maiden aunt’s mind is vicious) Gosh your lips are delicious... / (I ought to say ‘no, no, no, sir’) / (“Mind if I move in closer?”).

Did you catch that? She said she “ought to” say no, which is the same thing as not saying no.

I mean, saying “I ought to go to the gym today” doesn’t mean I’m going. Not once in this song does she state or imply that she doesn’t want to stay because she doesn’t want to. She is only concerned about what her neighbors and family will think. Remember, we’re talking 1944 here—a time when staying overnight with a man (sex or no sex) would be devastating to the rep of a young lady, but you know what? Screw those prigs and their repressive morality fascism. It is the same old double standard that has plagued women for centuries and if I were the guy in this song I’d have responded like this: “(My sister will be suspicious) / That prude don’t even know what a kiss is / (My brother will be pacing to and fro) / The phony gets his handies from a pro / (My aunt can be so very vicious) / ‘cause she hasn’t been laid and she’s fifty / (Oh my God you’re so right, what buffoons) / Meet you with the drinks in my room.”

But the lyric that really gets the BICO Truthers’ gonads a-gaga is her line, “Say, what’s in this drink?” which Truthers believe to mean that he spiked her cocktail with a Cosby-esque narcotic. Again, we have to consider the era in which this song was written.

“‘Say, what’s in this drink’ is a well-used phrase that was common in movies of the time period,” writes Slay Bell of the women’s periodical Persephone Magazine. “The phrase generally referred to someone saying or doing something they thought they wouldn’t in normal circumstances...But the joke is almost always that there is nothing in the drink. The drink is the excuse. The drink is the shield someone gets to hold up in front of them to protect from criticism.”

It’s just a theory, but it seems more plausible than the idea that these husband-and-wife composers inserted a line about drugging and raping a woman into their silly, romantic ditty which, by the way, won an Oscar for Best Original Song without anyone seeming to notice that it was about drugging and raping a woman.

One last remark. At the end of every version (that I know of ), the man and the woman harmonize the title lyric—“Baby it’s cooold out siiide”—twice before fade out. The fact that she harmonizes this line with him, instead of retorting it, signifies to the listener that she’s going to stay. The harmony, in this case, represents consent. Not necessarily consent to sex, but she does consent to staying. Indeed she always consented to stay. I mean, she was free to go whenever she wanted. And the fact that she didn’t—the fact that she stuck around to pettifog about it—simply means she wasn’t ready to go and that this is one of those rare cases when “no”— oh God I can’t believe I’m going to say this knowing the shit storm to follow—legitimately does not mean “no.”

Now—of course—the minute he blocks her exit, or uses some form of duress (like if he’s her boss and holds a promotion over her head) well then yes, may Satan drag the bastard by the phallus through seven levels of Hell before dumping him into a pit of molten Nazi flesh in the bowels of the eighth. But this ain’t that. Because let’s not forget what date rape is. Date rape is rape. The fact that it has the word “date” in front of it doesn’t diminish it. Therefore, saying BICO is a song that glorifies date rape is the same as saying it glorifies rape and that is not only an insult to the song, its composers and those of us who love it, it is an insult to real rape victims whose attacks probably didn’t sound anything like “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

“

My feeling is

that it’s just an innocent ditty about the

push/pull game

“

of seduction.

6 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

Sordid Tales appears every other week.

Write to edwin@sdcitybeat.com.

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Up Front | Food

by michael a. gardiner

the world

fare

Best Sandwich on the Planet, Part 8: Pete’s Seafood

L

obster: luxury ingredient or prison food?

Not so long ago it was primarily used as fish bait, fertilizer or prison food. Nowadays, $9 per pound at an Asian market is quite a deal.

The one place lobster still approaches “foodof-the-people” status is New England seafood shacks. The closest we get to that in San Diego is Pete’s Seafood and Sandwich (3382 30th St.) in North Park. Riffing on places such as Woodman’s of Essex, Pete’s offers the dishes Pete DeCoste knew from growing up on Boston’s North Shore.

The place to start at Pete’s is the lobster roll.

Essentially, it’s a sandwich filled with lobster meat. Pete’s version is a classic Massachusetts take on the dish. It’s cold chunks of cooked lobster meat filling a toasted hot dog bun (with the sides flattened so the lobsterfilled side faces straight up and the outsides can be toasted in butter) and no evidence a celery stalk or drawn butter was ever in its vicinity.

At Pete’s, the lobster is presented in all its glory with an absolute minimum of adornments; lobster with just enough mayo to bind it. It screams, “I am lobster!” and is just what you need and not what you don’t. There are fancier lobster rolls in town. There are ones that “justify” their price with a brioche bun, garnishes and decor. And if that’s what you want, go there. The ambiance may be spectacular. The lobster roll? At best it’s no better. Or just go back to the 1960s for some Lobster Thermidor.

There is nothing more North Shore than fried

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Ipswich clams. Soft-shelled clams harvested from muddy tidal flats in Northern New England are dipped in evaporated milk, coated with flour and deep-fried, both neck and belly. Again, it’s nothing fancy and they’re no less brilliant for that. Ipswich clams are guilty pleasures that, once you taste them done right, can never be satisfactorily faked again. Pete’s gets it right.

Neither the lobster roll nor clams are cheap.

One can make the case, given the expense of ingredients, that they aren’t bad value, but they’re not cheap. And, to be frank, I can’t imagine Pete’s will stay in business given the amount of lobster it heaps on its rolls.

But you can’t find better bang-for-the-buck than the chicken cutlet Parmesan sandwich.

Michael A. Gardiner

Lobstah Roll, Baby!

It’s a behemoth. The chicken-to-bread ratio approached two-to-one in favor of the chicken. And it’s tasty chicken, though the marinara sauce is a tad sweet, and the bun is ordinary at best. The latter might be said for the Italian cold cut sandwich, too.

Pete’s is the essence of New England seafood.

It’s not luxury. It’s not an upscale take on the New England seafood shack. It is the San Diego version of the place a middle class New England family would go for seafood. No more. No less. And there’s a reason I went there four times to review the place.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

Up Front | drink

bottle

By Jen Van Tieghem

Rocket Bubbles are great for NYE and beyond

W

hile the impending New Year’s Eve holiday puts sparkling wines on shopping lists everywhere, for me they’re an anytime staple of my wine rack. Bubbly is palatable on its own, pairs well with a variety of foods (try it with potato chips) and makes you feel fancy.

Plus there are many to choose from: Champagne (France), Cava (Spain), Prosecco (Italy) and many good ol’ domestics.

I recently went in search of some to celebrate with or pop open on a rainy day. I tried nearly 20 sparklers at two tastings—hard work, but I was up for it.

At Village Vino in Kensington I sampled many Blanc de Blancs—which translates to “white of whites.” Made entirely from Chardonnay grapes, these ranged in flavor with some presenting citrus and others featuring more yeasty qualities.

But I was waiting to be struck by something— especially with price points mostly between $50 and $60. The one that did it was R.H. Coutier Grand Cru Brut—made from 70 percent Pinot Noir and 30 percent Chardonnay.

It had an intense nose with fruit and floral elements. The flavors were mouth filling and rich despite the light dance of bubbles on the tongue. It was so tasty I bit the bullet on the $40 price.

Vom Fass in Hillcrest also had bubbles on its mind with a tasting that presented five very diverse wines. Two Champagnes by Henriot were particularly stunning. Its Brut Souverain—made mostly from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with a

8 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30 , 2015

photos by jen van tiegham

touch of Pinot Meunier—was deliciously creamy with a faint honeysuckle note. Also in the lineup was Henriot’s Blancs de Blancs—decidedly different than what I expected with its concentrated nuttiness. Though I fell in love with these, my budget called me back to Sophora—a sparkling rosé from New Zealand. At about half Pinot Noir and half Chardonnay, this under-$20 wine presented a floral nose with a touch of strawberries an d light berry flavors to match. And with its romantic pink color, I may save it for Valentine’s Day—if I can hold out that long.

Shopping for sparkling wine can be confusing. Attending tastings like these will help you learn what you like and allow you to ask questions of professionals. Just make sure you set a budget first.

Write to jenv@sdcitybeat.com

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Up Front | Drink

the

by andrew dyer

beerdist Is sour the next IPA?

E

very brewery between Highway 78 and the border is trying its hand at newly popular wild ales like farmhouse saisons and sours.

Vista’s three-year-old Belching Beaver Brewery (980 Park Center Drive) appears to have struck gold in tapping former Toolbox Brewmaster Peter Perrecone to head its sour beer program.

“I worked at Trader Joe’s for ten years and I hated it,” he said. “I took the plunge into the beer world four years ago.”

Perrecone was brought on as brewmaster at Toolbox in April 2014, helping owners Spencer Peters and Amanda Elders build the brewery from the ground up. Perrecone was also instrumental in shaping the brewery’s identity as a sour and saison powerhouse.

“That’s where I took them,” he said. “At first they wanted to do regular beers like everyone else, but we were getting a better reaction on the sours. That was me pushing. I always loved making sour beer.”

As a contract brewery, some Toolbox beer was brewed at Belching Beaver, so Perrecone spent a lot of time at its facility. It helped make the eventual transition a smooth one.

“I was already brewing here and hanging out with these guys a lot,” he said. “That’s why it worked out.”

Perrecone is going to have a lot of room to explore the possibilities of Brettanomyces yeast and Lactobacillus bacteria, the ingredients that give sours their distinctive flavor. He said breweries are just scratching the surface of a revolution in wild ales.

“I’ve been thinking for about three years that

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sour is going to be the next IPA,” he said. “And just like the IPAs, we’re going to go through that realm of a lot of bad sours, which I think we’re in right now.”

He said certain kettle sours might be at the root of some people’s aversion to the style.

“I’m not anti-kettle sour,” Perrecone said, “but a lot of people are brewing those beers and trying to charge a premium, like a barrel-aged sour, and they’re pretty mediocre.”

Belching Beaver has invested in a new and larger facility in Oceanside. Once online, all its core andrew dyer beers will shift production there, leaving the brewery in the hands of Perrecone.

“We’re going to get more into that specialty game,” he said. “We’ll kind of be that think tank for newer beers, new recipes and a big portion of sours will come from here.”

Perrecone was dismayed at the steep price of sours, and said Belching Beaver was aiming at a slightly lower price point.

“I think we’re going to try to come in a little bit cheaper than what the prices were at Toolbox,” he said. “Some of the breweries, I mean, $30 for a bottle of beer is a lot.”

Despite a cooled relaPeter Perrecone tionship with the brewery he helped put on the map, Perrecone has landed in an ideal situation. With Belching Beaver moving core production elsewhere, the mad scientist of sours will be free to innovate and experiment while the brewery expands its footprint beyond their core stouts and IPAs. Look for Perrecone’s first Belching Beaver saisons to begin rolling out by the end of the first quarter of 2016, with more sours and one-offs to follow.

The Beerdist appears every other week.

Write to andrewd@sdcitybeat.com

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

Up Front | books

The floating

by jim ruland

library One last look at 2015 books

I

n 2015 I read exactly 91 books: 45 were authored by women, 45 by men, and one was a collaboration. While I covered a great many in the pages of The Floating Library, here’s a look at a few of my favorites that I haven’t already written about: The Pledge by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1958) This slender little novel was published in Switzerland in 1958 but has had a lasting impact. The story concerns an obsessed police detective who is assigned a case—the murder of a young girl— shortly before he is set to retire and finds he cannot let it go. This scenario can be found in hundreds of crime stories, each more reductive than the next, but there is something about Dürrenmatt’s story that sets it head and shoulders above the rest, and he seemed to know it, too.

(Its subtitle is Requiem for the Detective Novel.)

Sean Penn adapted it for his directorial debut and it was a huge influence on True Detective (Season 1). (We won’t talk about Season 2.

Ever.)

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (1989) This is one of those books that I’ve been carrying around with me for decades. My late aunt gave it to me after I graduated from college in the early ’90s. Even though she passed away not long afterward, I was reluctant to read it for reasons I can’t explain.

My aunt was very clever but she could be cruel, too, and I didn’t know quite what to expect from the book. She acquired it at a sale at her local library in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and the book is stained and worn by people who thumbed its pages more than 20 years ago. I knew Geek Love was strange—it’s about a family of freaks in a traveling circus—but I wasn’t prepared for how delightfully, wickedly perverse this little monster of a book is.

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (2015) Valeria Luiselli’s second book of fiction may have been the most surprising book I read all year. Ostensibly, it’s about an auctioneer named Gustavo “Highway” Sanchez with an incredible gift for persuasion and can sell absolutely anything, including his teeth. Luiselli’s Highway en-

10 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

ters the great tradition of unreliable narrators in a book that is itself unreliable. With each chapter my sense of what I was reading changed and kept changing all the way through the end. If The Story of My Teeth were a movie, the trailer would ruin it, so the less said about the book’s mechanics the better, but it can safely be said that, with this wildly inventive tale, Luiselli has achieved something that no novelist has done before, which in itself is an achievement. Beautifully illustrated and laid out in lavish style, The Story of My Teeth is a feast for the imagination.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (2015) To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t think I was going to like this book. I’m familiar with the author and his work and know him to be a sharp, funny and genuinely likable person, but I didn’t think Kitchens of the Great Midwest was for me. The book tells the story of a remarkable chef’s rise to fame told through the point-of-view of several different characters that interact with the chef at various stages in her life. I didn’t have a problem with the structure; it was the words “Kitchen” and “Midwest,” that I struggled with. It might as well have been called Sappy and Sentimental as far as I was concerned.

The book has recipes in it for crying out loud—a strong indicator that this book simply wasn’t for me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I loved this book. It reminded me of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad in its power to make me feel a wide range of emotions. It’s funny, it’s sad, and it’s very, very smart. What it is not is sappy or sentimental. That for me was the biggest takeaway: that an artist can mine the most nostalgic material of his youth and transform it into high art. I did cry reading Kitchens of the Great Midwest—while reading a fucking menu. I don’t know how he did it, but vStradal can set his next novel in a nursery or nursing home or a farm with talking animals and I will read it.

Thank you for reading The Floating Library.

I look forward to embarking on many more journeys with you in the coming year.

Write to jimr@sdcitybeat.com.

#SDCityBeat

UP FRONT | PLACES

BY JESSICA JOHNSON

HIDDEN

SAN DIEGO

Kwaaymii Point

Stunning mountain views in San Diego

K

waaymii Point is an ideal spot to get away and clear your mind. At an elevation of 6,000 feet, it offers one of the most stunning, if not the most stunning views in San Diego. It’s located on the border of the Anza-Borrego State Park and the Cleveland National Forest, and at the edge of the Laguna Mountains.

There’s a very short hiking trail here—about half a mile. But the stretch of trail that leads to Kwaaymii Point is part of the Pacific Crest Trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. And 40 years ago, this part of the trail was known as the Sunrise Highway. The old roadbed was chiseled into the cliffs. It used to be a narrow and dangerous drive with a steep drop directly below.

I’ve never seen such a vast, endless mountain scape anywhere in San Diego. You can see the Anza-Borrego Desert to the east, and if the clouds aren’t out you can see Mount San Jacinto to the north. During my trip in October it was windy and chilly. It gets even windier and colder in the winter months, so come prepared so you can appreciate your visit. (I wish I’d brought a beanie to protect my ears from the wind.)

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JESSICA JOHNSON

Because of the thousand-foot drop-offs and the high winds out here, it’s a popular spot for hang gliders. At certain points you can feel strong updrafts.

You can look down from the top of Kwaaymii Point and see a tiny “town” where hang gliders can land.

This can be a dangerous spot. There are a lot of memorial markers placed all around. These aren’t gravesites, but death markers. Some are remembrances of people who lost their lives hang gliding, and some are memorials for people who thought Kwaaymii Point was their special spot.

It is a special spot—and that is why some of the crappy graffiti on some of the rock walls is such a shame. But nothing can spoil the views.

To see more off-the-beaten path places in San Diego, go to hiddensandiego.net.

Kwaaymii Point Julian

(near the Mount Laguna visitor center)

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

EVENTS

SHORTlist

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

ESCONDIDO

1 EXTREME ART

Watching someone do live art at a gallery opening can be a fantastic glimpse into the artistic process. But as any artist will tell you, most pieces of art take many hours and are obsessed over endlessly. Sleep is lost and food is often an afterthought when an artist is in the zone.

Distinction Gallery CEO and founder Melissa Walker is an artist and knows the feeling all too well. So five years ago, she started the ArtHatch Art-A-Thon, an art-creating marathon where local artists gather inside ArtHatch (317 E Grand Ave., arthatch.org) in Escondido to create art for 24 straight hours. Yep, that’s right. From noon on Saturday, Jan. 2 to noon on Sunday, Jan. 3, artists such as Kelly Vivanco, Victor Roman, Olga Tenyakova and dozens more will create for an entire day.

“January tends to be a slow month for art shows so I was trying to think of something fun to get everyone out,” Walker says. “A lot of the artists have done the event every year for five years. They prep for weeks so they can create for the full 24 hours.”

While Walker says that participants are “mainly painters,” there will be artists working in a variety of mediums at the event, including sculpture and tintype photography. The works created over the 24-hour period will be auctioned off at a special exhibition on Saturday, Jan. 9 from 6 to

GASLAMP QUARTER

2 GOING NUTS

No one wants to see The Nutcracker after Christmas, but we’d make an exception for the Culture Shock Nutcracker. Playing from Friday, Jan. 1 through Sunday, Jan. 3, the local modern dance studio’s original take on the holiday classic stays true to E.T.A. Hoffman’s story and Tchaikovsky’s score, but also features hip-hop inspired dance theatrics. Set in present times, the performance includes lavish sets and costumes, including a Drosselmeyer character modeled after Prince circa Purple Rain and a “Rat Queen” who resembles the Poison Ivy villain from Batman. What does the actual Nutcracker look like? See for yourself. Tickets for the four performances at the Spreckels Theatre (121 Broadway), including two matinee showings, start at $18 at cultureshockdance.org COURTESY OF CULTURE SHOCK DANCE CENTER

Cameron Canales 9 p.m. Proceeds benefit ArtHatch’s free teen art programs, which includes an exhibition space, unlimited art supplies and workshops for local youth. Walker says patrons are welcome to stop by the Art-A-Thon at anytime, but some times are certainly better than others.

“People come in at all times, but definitely come within the first 18 hours,” Walker says. “If someone comes at 9 or 10 at night, the artists are probably super excited still, but if someone comes at 6 o’clock in the morning, then don’t be surprised if the artists are a little grouchy by that time.”

Duly noted.

GASLAMP QUARTER

3 SPLIT PERSONALITY

They say that when one door closes, two more open. But, then what? In the Broadway original If/Then, Wicked and Frozen star Idina Menzel gets to explore two paths her character’s life could take when she’s faced with new opportunities. Watch newly divorced, Elizabeth (Menzel) run off to New York, giddy about a new job and potential romance, wondering whether she can have both (spoiler alert: she can’t). The musical splits Elizabeth’s life and simultaneously follows their leads, panning out into the life she leads and the life she could have led. In the musical’s first stop on a seven-city tour, cast members LaChanze, Anthony Rapp and James Snyder join Menzel at the San Diego Civic Theatre (1100 Third Ave.) from Tuesday, Jan. 5 to Sunday, Jan. 10. Times vary by day with both matinee and evening options starting at $22.50. broadwaysd.com JOAN MARCUS

Culture Shock Nutcracker

12 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

Idina Menzel in If/Then

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EVENTS ART HArt-A-Thon at ArtHatch, 317 E. Grande Ave., Escondido. Local artists gather to create art for 24 straight hours. Participating artists include Kelly Vivanco, Victor Roman, Olga Tenyakova and dozens more. Resulting works will be auctioned off to benefit Art Hatch’s education programs. From noon Saturday, Jan. 2 to noon Sunday, Jan. 3. Free. 760-7815779, arthatch.org HMoto Moto at La Bodega Studios and Gallery, 2196 Logan Ave., Barrio Logan.

Voz Alta teams up with local motorcycle shops for an artful show celebrating twowheel machines. Includes live performances from The Flams, Gloomsday and more. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2. Free. https://facebook.com/ La-Bodega-Gallery-1112052638809191/

award-winning columnist and author will discuss and sign her new novel, Stars Over Sunset Boulevard, about two women working in Hollywood during the ‘30s. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5. Free. 858454-0347, warwicks.com Roddy Carter at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The local doctor and life-coach will discuss his first book, BodyWHealth: Journey to Abundance, which purports to help others achieve health, happiness, and prosperity. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 6.

Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com

DANCE

Into the Wood at Basic, 410 10th Ave., Downtown. Artists like Andrew Alcasid, Erica Putis and James E. Watts will showcase new works connected by wood. Opening from 7 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5. Free.

619-531-8869, facebook.com/viz.cult

HA Culture Shock Nutcracker at Spreckels Theater, 121 Broadway, Downtown. Culture Shock’s modern reinterpretation of the Tchaikovsky classic stays true to the basic story, but is set in the present amidst a fusion of contemporary music, dance and fashion. At 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 1, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 3. $16-$35.

619-235-9500, cultureshockdance.org

BOOKS

MUSIC

HAdam Lewis Schroeder at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The novelist will discuss and sign his comedic new book, All-Day Breakfast, about a high school teacher whose students are turning into a bunch of bacon-craving zombies. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2. Free. 858-2684747, mystgalaxy.com Susan Meissner at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The

H = CityBeat picks

#SDCityBeat

nese waltzes including selections from Die Fledermaus and The Merry Widow. At 2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 1. $25-$75. 619235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org Berkley Hart Selis Twang at New Village Arts Theatre, 2787 B State St., Carlsbad. Berkley Hart and Eve Selis & Marc Twang will each perform their harmonyladen brand of folk. The evening will feature music from their new album, Berkley Hart Selis Twang. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2. $30-$35. newvillagearts.org Hullabaloo at Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. This popular children’s musical act will perform tunes that get both kids and parents tapping their toes and clapping along. At 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2. Free. 619-236-5800, sandiego.gov/public-library/ Sara Petite at Rancho San Diego Library, 11555 Via Rancho San Diego, El Cajon. Singer Sara Petite performs an earthy fusion of folk, bluegrass, country, and mountain music with flashes of pop and rock. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Free. 619-660-5370, sdcl.org

NEW YEAR’S

HSpreckels Organ New Year’s Day Concert at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, 1549 El Prado, Balboa Park. Civic Organist Dr. Carol Williams and the Spreckels Organ Society present a fun, hour-long concert to celebrate the new year. From 2 to 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 1. Free. 619-7028138, spreckelsorgan.org

A Vintage New Years Eve at The Pearl Hotel, 1410 Rosecrans St., Point Loma.

Ring in 2016 with a three-course prix fixe menu and stay for a no-cover after party, party favors and complimentary champagne toast at midnight with DJ Jon Wesley spinning. From 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Thursday, Dec. 31. $54.95-$69.95. thepearlsd.com

Salute to Vienna at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The San Diego Symphony’s 16th annual New Year’s Day concert features the Strauss Symphony of America performing traditional Vien-

HBig Night San Diego at Hilton Bayfront, One Park Blvd., Downtown. This allinclusive New Year’s Eve party provides various-themed areas, dance floors and unlimited eats and booze. Includes live

performances from Lady Dottie & The Diamonds and DJ sets from Brody Jenner, Devin Lucien and more. From 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. $114.99$279.99. bignightsandiego.com HParty With the Stars at Harrison Serenity Ranch, 18187 Nate Harrison Grade Rd., Palomar Mountain. Camp out at the Harrison Serenity Ranch on the western slope of Palomar Mountain east of Temecula. Hosted by the performance troupe Technomania Circus, the evening includes musical acts, a bar, bonfires, DJs and a killer view. From 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Thursday, Dec. 31. $40-$55. partywiththestars.weebly.com RMD Group New Year’s Eve at Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave., Downtown.

Party on three floors and across five venues with tons of bars and 20 DJs. Performers include Laidback Luke, Diamond Pistols and rapper E-40. From 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. $110-$489. rmdnye16.com HStone Brewing Co.’s New Year’s Eve at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens-Point Loma, 2816 Historic Decatur Rd #116, Liberty Station. The evening sports dance floors, live music and food stations with a wide variety of high-end bar grub. There will also be a midnight toast with a special, limited-release Stone beer at midnight. From 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Thursday, Dec. 31. $79-$99. 619-2692100, stonebrewing.com HBellamy’s NYE Dinner at Bellamy’s Restaurant, 417 W Grand Ave., Escondido. Enjoy an eight-course or ninecourse tasting menu featuring smoked wild salmon, foie gras torchon, coquille Saint Jacques, filet mignon and truffle puree, cheese, chocolate and blood orange macarons. Call for reservations. At 5 and

7:15 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. $80-$120.

760-747-5000, bellamysdining.com HCoasterra NYE Dinner at Coasterra, 880 Harbor Island Dr., Harborview. Enjoy a three-course tasting menu from chef Deborah Scott and get a front-row seat for San Diego’s various New Year’s firework shows. From 5 to 11 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. Call for pricing. 619-814-1300, dinecrg.com The Wellington NYE Dinner at The Wellington Steak and Martini Lounge, 729 West Washington St., Mission Hills.

Enjoy a three-course tasting menu that includes a smoked duck prosciutto amuse bouche, Beef Wellington and dessert. From 5 to 11 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. 619-295-6001, thewellingtonsd.com HOB New Years Eve 2015 Block Party at House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Partiers can choose from up to three celebrations including Night Shift in the Delta Lounge, hiphop from DJ CROS1 in Salvation Alley or headliner Amy Pham on the main stage. From 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. $45. 619-299-BLUE, hobblockparty.com HNoche Cubana at 98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. A night of live Latin jazz from the West Coast Mambo All-Stars, a band that includes the likes of Tommy Aros, Gabriel Garcia and trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos. Includes free champagne at midnight and party favors for all. From 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. $50-$60. 619255-7885, 98bottlessd.com NYE on the Bay at Port Pavilion on Broadway Pier, 1000 North Harbor Dr.,

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 Downtown, Downtown. The night features performances from Tony Toni Toné, SWV and Dru Hill, as well as DJs DRock and Legend. Also includes food trucks, a cigar lounge and free champagne toast.

From 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. $76.50-$300. nyeonthebayuptownsd. splashthat.com HOn With the Show: Mystère in the French Quarter at Lafayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. A New Orleans-themed NYE party featuring jazz performances from Miss Erika Davies, Crooked, Trio Gadjo and more. A portion of ticket sales benefit Generate HOPE, which helps women who have suffered abuse. From 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday,

Dec. 31. $37.92-$211.99. 619-296-2101, lafayettehotelsd.com

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD

PERFORMANCE

Open Shakespeare Reading at Upstart Crow, 835 West Harbor Drive, Seaport Village. San Diego Shakespeare Society’s regular open reading where anyone can join in the reading or just come along to listen. This night’s play: Romeo and Juliet. From 6:45 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 3. Free. 619-232-4855, sandiegoshakespearesociety.org

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin at La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla. Felder plays the role of America’s most iconic composer in a story spanning one hundred years and featuring America’s greatest songs, from “God Bless America,” “White Christmas,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” and many more. At various times Wednesday, Dec. 30, Thursday, Dec. 31, Saturday, Jan. 2 and Sunday, Jan. 3. Wednesday, Dec. 30. $75-$85. 858550-1010, lajollaplayhouse.org

SPECIAL EVENTS Bumble Bee Seafoods 5K Run/Walk at Harbor Drive and Ash Street, Harbor Drive and Ash Street, Downtown. Athletes will run past 100,000 spectators just before

the Big Bay Balloon Parade. There’s also post-race party near Tuna Harbor Park with live music and lots of extra munchies including muffins, bagels, juice, fresh fruit and much more. At 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30. $30-$40. holidaybowl.com HPort of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade at Downtown San Diego, North Harbor Drive, Downtown. In conjunction with the Holiday Bowl, “America’s Largest Balloon Parade” is presented annually in the bayside streets of Downtown San Diego. The parade features marching bands, floats, drill teams, and balloons. At 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30. Free-$20. sandiegobowlgames.com San Diego Chinese Historical Museum Fundraising Banquet at Pearl Restaurant, 11666 Avenue Place, Rancho

Bernardo. The SDCHM celebrates its 20th Anniversary with a fundraising banquet.

The mission of SDCHM is to collect, preserve and display art and artifacts relevant to Chinese and Chinese American history and to provide educational programs. At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30. Various prices. sdchm.org Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals at Harbor Drive and Ash Street, Downtown.

San Diego’s most skilled and talented dachshunds will compete in races, runway costume contests and other creative competitions at this annual event. At 9:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 30. holidaybowl.com San Diego International Auto Show at San Diego Convention Center, 111 W Harbor Drive, Downtown. The annual showcase of all things automobile features a variety of new vehicles under one roof, including over 400 vehicles from 40 global manufacturers, as well as expanded exotics salon and much more. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31 and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 1 through Sunday, Jan. 3. $8-$12. 619-525-5000, sdautoshow.com Cannon Battles at Maritime Museum of San Diego, 1492 N. Harbor Drive, Downtown. This popular three-hour reenactment features booming cannons, closequarters maneuvers, and a taste of 18th century maritime life aboard tall ships.

From 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2 and Sunday, Jan. 3. $47-$91. 619-234-9153, sdmaritime.org HPajama Jam: New Year’s Family Night Out at New Children’s Museum, 200 W. Island Ave., Downtown. Jam out in your jammies while enjoying a dinner from local restaurants at this annual fundraising party. Also includes New Year’s-themed art making activities, a balloon drop and live music. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2. $15-$35. thinkplaycreate.org

SPORTS National Funding Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium, 9449 Friars Road, Mission Valley. The USC Trojans take on the University of Wisconsin Badgers at the 38th annual college football bowl game. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30. $45-$145. sandiegobowlgames.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS Tales from the Crypt at Grossmont Healthcare Center Auditorium, 9100 Wakarusa St., La Mesa. ArtWorks is a San Diego-based company that stores and ships fine art for museums, auction houses, and galleries. Owner Wendell Eckholm relates some of the firm’s more exciting projects.

At 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 4. Free. sdmart. org

WORKSHOPS Family Drop-In Day: Exploring Instrument Making at San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. Family Drop-In Days feature family friendly, docent-led tours, gallery games and art projects for families to complete together. Activities are suitable for all ages and skill levels, and center around a specific theme. At 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 3. Free$12. 619-232-7931, sdmart.org Brainstorming with Kim Keeline at Ink Spot, 710 13th St., Downtown. This workshop for writers of fiction and nonfiction alike is designed to make you create lots of content without critiquing yourself, and to look at topics or plots in new ways.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5. $30$36. sandiegowriters.org

14 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

#SDCityBeat

THEATER

KEVIN BERNE

Jenn Colella and the cast of La Jolla Playhouse’s Come From Away

Looking back on 2015 theater

T

he year 2015 in San Diego theater— one to remember—challenged the mind, the senses and the heart.

Here are the best of the best: Come From Away, La Jolla Playhouse: No offering in 2015 packed the power and poignancy of this co-production between La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theatre. The Playhouse’s Christopher Ashley brilliantly directed the world-premiere musical that immersed audiences in the experiences of the passengers of 38 airliners who were forced to land on 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, and those of the townspeople who cared for them.

Spouses Irene Sankoff and David Hein wrote the show, which deserves a Broadway run someday.

The Twenty-Seventh Man, Old Globe Theatre: Can a performance be a tour de force for three actors at the same time? Such was the case with Hal Linden, Ron Orbach and Robert Dorfman in Nathan Englander’s trenchant one-act play about three Soviet Jewish writers— victims of “The Night of the Murdered Poets” under Stalin’s regime. Tragic and intelligent, The Twenty-Seventh Man told an all-too-little known story with penetration, nuance and dignity—a rare combination indeed.

The Quality of Life, Intrepid Theatre Company: Another sterling cast—this one featuring Jeffrey Jones, DeAnna Driscoll, Tom Stephenson and Maggie Carney— embraced Jane Anderson’s remarkable script with complete commitment, thereby burrowing its messages about life’s preciousness into our souls. Though the central plot point is that Jones’ Neil is dying of cancer and that he and his wife (Driscoll) have decided to “go” together, The Quality

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what possibly you’d not seen before. This immersive experience, part of La Jolla Playhouse’s biannual WoW Festival, was so unforgettable that it must be on this list.

Big Fish, Moonlight Stage Company: Perhaps no production in 2015 was as thoroughly imaginative as Moonlight’s Big Fish, a stage musical every bit as worthy as its predecessors—Daniel Wallace’s 1998 novel and Tim Burton’s 2003 film. The incredible set pieces included a circus, an Old West town, the cave of a giant and a field of daffodils so bright you had to wear shades…well, not really—the Moonlight summer musicals are staged after dark.

But this marvelous show boasted tremendous heart, too, welcome at any time of day or night.

Sylvia, New Village Arts Theatre: How popular was this howling production of A.R. Gurney’s play about the codependent relationship between man and dog? So popular that Carlsbad’s New Village Arts is bringing it back for a return engagement Jan. 7-24. As the play’s eponymous pooch, Samantha Ginn delivered one of the year’s choicest comedy turns, while Daren Scott exemplified midlife neurosis with aplomb as Sylvia’s owner. NVA’s Kristianne Kurner directed this bow-wow evening of escapist entertainment.

RICH SOUBLET

of Life was far more searching in what it strived to tell us.

Dogfight, Cygnet Theatre: An “ugliest girl” dance contest betokened psychological and emotional metamorphoses for a young, Vietnam-bound Marine (Patrick Osteen) and the resilient woman (Catie Grady) he regretfully humiliated in Cygnet’s engrossing presentation of a play based on a 1991 film that starred River Phoenix. Dogfight’s interiority, most dramatically explored by the intuitive Grady, overpowered the specters of the ’60s and Vietnam, but its commentary on the personal tolls humans take on each other required no battlefield.

KEN JACQUES

Patrick Osteen and Caitie Grady in Dogfight ’night, Mother, ion theatre: Disturbing and claustrophobic, Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning (in 1983) drama finds a disconsolate but resolute Jessie (Yolanda Franklin) telling her mother (Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson) of her intention

to commit suicide—and she won’t be dissuaded. Ion’s production in its tiny blackbox theater was awash in tension and the nervous apprehension that accompanies the unspoken questions “When?” and “How?” The answers were at once numbing and shattering.

Twelfth Night, Old Globe Theatre: Director Rebecca Taichman has helmed three of the finest productions seen in San Diego the last year or so, including 2014’s Time and the Conways at the Old Globe and this year’s Indecent at La Jolla Playhouse. The Taichman-directed Twelfth Night during the Globe’s outdoor Summer Shakespeare Festival was beautifully conceived and staged, a showpiece for the scenic design of Riccardo Hernandez and Christopher Akerlind’s lighting. If only every Shakespearean comedy done to death could be as sublime as this one was.

Uncanny Valley, San Diego Repertory Theatre: Part of a rotating, four-theater world premiere that included the San Diego Rep, Uncanny Valley demonstrated that a cerebral and cautionary tale with sci-fi trappings needn’t be oppressive. Rosina Reynolds starred as a neuroscientist overseeing the transformation of a “nonbiological being” into a dying man’s body.

Nick Cagle shared the stage with the formidable Reynolds and held his own, while the play itself (by Thomas Gibbons) both probed and engaged.

Ojo: The Next Generation of Travel, La Jolla Playhouse WoW Festival: You’re blinded by a mask, compelled to rely upon your other senses, then transported everywhere from a Mumbai marketplace to a wild party. Along the way you meet those whose blindness is real and, before the 75-minute journey ends, you “see”

Daren Scott and Samantha Ginn in Sylvia Honorable Mention: North Coast Repertory Theatre’s Betrayal, Cygnet Theatre’s My Fair Lady, La Jolla Playhouse’s Indecent and Healing Wars, Old Globe Theatre’s In Your Arms.

—David L. Coddon Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: If/Then: Idina Menzel (Glee, Frozen) stars in this hit Broadway musical that simultaneously follows two distinct storylines about an NYC city planner after a major life decision. Presented by Broadway San Diego, it opens for eight performances Jan. 5 at the Civic Theatre in the Gaslamp. Dec. 26 at the Lyceum Theatre in the Gaslamp. cyctheatre.com

For full theater listings, please visit “T heater ” at sdcitybeat.com

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

CULTURE | ART

16 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

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#SDCityBeat

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

Culture | Art

Seen LocaL

March

courtesy the artist and lehmann maipin, new york and hong kong

Do Ho Suh Locals may already know Do Ho Suh’s work from his contribution to the 2016 preview Stuart Collection of public art works on the UC San If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to see more art Diego campus. Entitled exhibitions (it should be), there are already plenty of “Fallen Star,” it consists of shows you can add to your calendar. Here are just a a cottage hanging off the few of our picks of the must-see openings in the first Jacobs Hall Engineering six months of 2016.

Building and is arguably the most whimsical and awe-inspiring of the siteJanuary “Specimen Series: specific works. Expect Aren Skalman: Singing Machines Stove, Apartment A CityBeat readers should remember Aren Skalman the same kind of whimsy 348 West 22nd Street, (arenskalman.com) from our Seen Local section ear- at Suh’s solo show at the NY 10011, USA, 2013” downtown Museum of lier this year. If not, the title of this solo show at the

by Do Ho Suh Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St.) Contemporary Art (1001 Kettner Blvd., mcasd.org). in La Jolla pretty much says it all. Skalman creates site-specific sculptural pieces that are designed to Opening Friday, March 18, and running through the acoustics of the room. Opening in conjunction Monday, July 4, the show sees Suh taking over with the Athenaeum’s soundON Festival of Modern MCASD’s Jacobs Building to install a maze-like Music (more on that in next week’s issue), as well sculptural work made from translucent fabric and built to resemble the New York as fellow sound artist Margaret courtesy of aren skalman artist’s apartment building, alNoble’s Incorporeal Things to beit with a decidedly surrealist Control exhibition, we fully extwist. pect this to be one of the more sonorous shows of the year. It opens Friday, Jan. 9, from 6:30 April to 8:30 p.m. and will be on disGloria Muriel play through Saturday, Feb. 13.

While she’s mainly known around town for her colorful Flor Garduño: Trilogy mural, Gloria Muriel (gloriaFor more than three decades, muriel.com) is also known for Mexico City-based Flor Garduño her nature-themed, pop-surre(florgarduno.com) has been one alist portraits of her trademark of the most proficient and profemale character. She’s also done lific photographers in the world. her fair share of installation art She’s known primarily for her Singing Machines by Aren Skalman so we expect a mixture of both black-and-white nudes and porat her first solo show at Sparks traits, and Trilogy is a decadesGallery (530 Sixth Ave.) in the Gaslamp. Opening spanning survey at the Museum of Photographic Saturday, April 9 and on the walls through SunArts (1649 El Prado) in Balboa Park centered on the day, June 5, the show is a much-deserved survey themes of “Bestiarium,” “Fantastic Women” and “Siof an up-and-coming local who’s just beginning to lent Natures.” The images themselves are the photohit her stride. graphic equivalent of a car on fire, equal parts haunting and hypnotizing. The exhibition opens Saturday, Jan. 30, © Tara donovan, courtesy pace galLery May and June and will be on display through San Diego Art Prize Sunday, May 29.

The S.D. Art Prize (sdvisualarts.net) has long been a great February visual overview of local talent.

In the past, local established artTara Donovan ists would pick an “emerging” A longtime favorite of Mark artist to work with and mentor.

Quint, Tara Donovan’s work has To shake things up in 2016, Art been displayed numerous times Prize directors decided that this over the years at Quint’s nameyear the up-and-comers would sake gallery (7547 Girard Ave., choose the established artists. quintgallery.com) in La Jolla.

Patrons can see the results of However, it was Donovan’s solo last year’s Art Prize collaboraexhibition at the Museum of tions (Wendy Maruyama with Contemporary Art in 2009 that Untitled by Tara Donovan emerging artist Peter Scheidt, really made an impression with and Roy McMakin with emerglocal art lovers. Known primarily for her large-scale sculptural work constructed ing artist Kevin Inman) at a show at the Athenaeum out of everyday objects, the Brooklyn-based Don- Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St.) in La Jolla ovan has a way of shaping and contorting the fa- on Thursday, May 7. Then, on Saturday, June 18, miliar into something truly bewitching. And while the new pack of emerging Prize nominees will parher solo show at Quint Gallery, which opens on ticipate at a special show at the downtown City ColSaturday, Feb. 6, will surely be quaint in compari- lege Gallery (1508 C St.). son to MCASD, we expect the works (there will be

—Seth Combs Slinkys!) will be just as extraordinary.

18 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

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Culture | Film

Real force inhabits the Best Films of 2015

The Assassin

Diverse crop includes genre films, Hollywood blockbusters and art house oddities

by Glenn Heath Jr.

W

hile most of the world has Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the mind (and rightfully so, it’s fun), I’ve been thinking back to the various forces inhabiting my favorite films of 2015.

Some are thrilling visual feasts that do all their talking with abs and swords of steel, while others rely heavily on the power of language and miscommunication to convey their intent. What binds them is their vitality.

Blockbusters lacking in strangeness drifted from my memory almost immediately, but some claimed an idiosyncratic identity and remained potent. Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland, a beguiling and beautifully flawed space opera about legacy and genius, remains one of the few Hollywood epics to actually say something about the future. Jon M. Chu’s oddly affecting adaptation of Jem and the Holograms also tested the limits of narrative logic, but did so with such reckless abandon and joy that it provided the social media landscape with a jolt of tenderness and humanity.

It was a great year for female protagonists (more on The Assassin, Clouds of Sils Maria and Mad Max: Fury Road later). Ricki and Flash showcased the great Meryl Streep in a role that on paper looked wafer thin yet, under the guidance of Jonathan Demme, examined the complexities of maternal compromise and guilt. Todd Haynes, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Phyllis Nagy all collaborated to make the 1950s-set lesbian melodrama Carol a quietly sublime meditation on longing and separation.

Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers’ Fort Tilden, a nasty piece of work sporting two complicated young women at its center, is both a daring and discomforting look at millennial comeuppance. Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s fleet-footed Mistress America could be seen as the rosy counterpoint.

As usual, there were plenty of damaged men to go

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around. Josh Lucas’ and Stephen Plunkett’s ornery brothers in John Magary’s The Mend struggled to break free from the genetic and psychological chains handed down from their father. Bertrand Bonello’s intoxicating Saint Laurent complicated its central subject by envisioning history as a tormented series of gaps and ambiguities.

Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu each balanced the political and personal in deft ways while also exposing the consequences of institutional breakdown after prolonged isolation. Denis Villenueve’s Sicario and Paul Feig’s Spy both used virtuoso aesthetics and contradictory gender dynamics to deconstruct what it means to wield power over others.

Blackhat If the above titles and a few more (including Tangerine, It Follows, The Hateful Eight, Phoenix and Inside Out) form an Honorable Mentions list, the next 10 are my choices for the best of 2015. In a world where so many films are comatose, they are defiantly alive.

Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien spent seven years making (1) The Assassin, a textured, abstract, and lush Wuxia film about a young killer who refuses to adhere to the radicalized boundaries of her training.

Lush details of time and place, costume and character fill every powerful composition. Speed and agility are

best films CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

Culture | Film

Magic Mike XXL

best films CONTINUED from PAGE 19 swift communication methods, but are augmented by the unspoken melancholy of someone pining for an alternate path. Most essentially, Hou’s film sees acts of non-violence as a way to combat the hierarchies of power and corruption that can tear us apart.

It was only a few weeks ago that I dedicated this very space to Frederick Wiseman’s (2) In Jackson Heights, a three-hour documentary masterpiece observing the sights and sounds of the titular neighborhood in Queens, New York. My fondness for its patience and powerful resolve has only grown since then, proving this kind of objective and empathetic community building is priceless.

Anurag Kashyap’s five-hour crime opus, (3) Gangs of Wasseypur, traces the decade-spanning history of gangster life (and death) in India during the 20th century.

To put it simply, this is madness incarnate. If you were lucky enough to catch the wild film theatrically during its brief run at a local AMC, you were treated to a mosaic of bloodshed, betrayal and sacrifice, equal parts intimate and epic, intricate and raw.

Our digital world is crumbling in Michael Mann’s brilliantly strange and frayed techno thriller (4) Blackhat—and the only way to move forward is by embracing an analog existence.

Jafar Panahi’s latest documentary/fiction (5) Taxi is a love letter to cinema, endurance and courage under the pressure of governmental oppression. It’s also sly, entertaining and indelibly playful.

Come for the protest art, stay for the director’s infectious smile.

The cinematic equivalent of Wile E. Coyote, (6) Mad Max: Fury Road is the speedy, messy and relentlessly directional blockbuster America needed to wake up from its franchise fatigued nap.

A feminist yarn that mixes action, suspense and social critique, the boomerang narrative changes

20 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

directions on a moment’s notice, following Charlize Theron’s Furiosa and her coven of badasses into the desert abyss.

(7) Jauja, Lisandro Alonso’s gorgeous art-western that played at this year’s San Diego Latino Film Festival, stars Viggo Mortensen as a Danish military man whose daughter is kidnapped while traveling through Patagonia. Shot on 35mm in 4x3 aspect ratio, it compresses the frame to intensify the sharp detail and texture of landscape, costume and facial expressions.

What a ravishing and mysterious ghost story.

What is performance? The two leads of (8) Clouds of Sils Maria, played to perfection by Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart, tango over this question throughout.

Olivier Assayas’ meta-narrative about an aging movie star who’s reeling from the death of a famous friend never admits to finding an answer.

The joyous, playful, and politically relevant (9) Paddington is 2015’s biggest surprise. Paul King’s breakneck and tender adaption of the popular cartoon character mixes animation and live action to regain the power of community and diversity from the clutches of colonialism.

Last, but certainly not least, is the most seamlessly enjoyable film of the year, a version of sweaty utopia where everyone can participate in the process of pleasuring others. (10) Magic Mike XXL finds Channing Tatum doing his best Fred Astaire and director Gregory Jacobs invoking the smarts and sass of Preston Sturges. Bliss. If this is torture, chain me to the wall.

Film reviews run weekly.

Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com.

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

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December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

Music

notes from the smoking patio The seven best San Diego albums of 2015

T

he year’s just about over and I listened to a lot of albums, one of my absolute favorites of which is included on this week’s feature page.

But I also listened to a lot of great local releases, as well. Here are seven of my favorites.

7. Mystery Cave - Ausarian Comforts: Mystery Cave’s John Christopher Harris already has plans for more new music in 2016, but I’m still marveling at the gloriously psychedelic beatscapes he’s offered up this year on his disorienting and grooveheavy Ausarian Comforts LP. 6. Le Chateau - s/t: Le Chateau became my favorite new band of the year, thanks to their blend of taut songwriting with heady electronic atmosphere. I’m already eager to hear what’s next.

for at least twice as long without wearing out their welcome.

3. Author and Punisher - Melk en Honing: Recorded with Pantera’s Phil Anselmo, Author and Punisher’s fourth album was weirder, heavier and more intense than past efforts.

While Tristan Shone mostly cast aside catchier mid-tempo numbers, this white-knuckle ride of punishing industrial metal is well worth enduring.

2. Wild Wild Wets - 14th Floor: I, for one, was eagerly waiting for Wild Wild Wets to release their debut album, and the noisy, psychedelic rock favorites didn’t disappoint. Equal parts Deerhunter, The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Zombies, it’s a journey through several generations of amazing, guitar-driven head trips.

5. Brian Ellis Group - Escondido Sessions: Astra’s Brian Ellis took it to the next level with this richly 1. Birdy Bardot - s/t: It’s a thrill to be caught entirearranged and gorgeously executed set of jazz fusion. ly off guard by an album, and Birdy Bardot’s debut album—which features contributions from countless 4. Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - s/t: Local purveyors of amazing musicians—maintains a stunning balance cinematic soul The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble cooked between modern indie sensibilities and vintage, reup a dozen delectable nuggets of funk on their self- verb-laden charm. titled debut, ranging from laid back Stax-style soul to

—Jeff Terich Afrobeat-inspired groove sessions that could go on

Seven concerts to see in 2016

Wave is one of my favorite discoveries of 2015, a rowdy but tuneful punk band in the vein of Hot Snakes y two cents in our year-end, resolutions- or Metz. They rock hard, but with melodies that get themed issue is a roundup of seven shows lodged in your head for days. that are absolute must-sees in the new year.

Protomartyr at Soda Bar (Wednesday, March The Redwoods Revue at The Casbah (Saturday, 2): Protomartyr swung through San Diego in 2014 Jan. 9): I see no better way to kick off a year in live (which you probably missed, but it was great). And music in San Diego than with a showcase featur- now they’re returning in support of new album The ing the talents of local label The Redwoods Music. Agent Intellect, which is one of my favorite records Recent cover star Birdy Bardot will be performing, of the year. Prepare yourself for a dark and moody along with The Midnight Pine, Rebecca Jade and the good time.

Cold Fact, and Dani Bell and Abbath, High on Fire, the Tarantist.

Skeletonwitch, Tribulation at Observatory (SatKilling Joke, The Soft urday, March 26): TribulaMoon at Belly Up Tavern tion were absolutely amaz(Tuesday, Jan. 26): Killing when they opened for ing Joke are one of the lonDeafheaven in October, and gest running bands to have they’re kicking off a jamemerged from the post-punk packed metal showcase as era, and they endure because their music evolves with the Protomartyr part of the Decibel Magazine tour. You’ll get metal four times. They still carry the danceable darkness of early years, but with an even ways, from Skeletonwitch’s party thrash to Abbath’s classic black metal. heavier edge.

M

Modern English at The Hideout (Tuesday, May 17): UK post-punk group Modern English are famous for their new wave hit “Melt With You,” and at this special show they’ll be performing the Mesh and Lace album in its entirety. A classic band, a classic album, an intimate venue—sounds amazing.

Meat Wave at Soda Bar (Saturday, Feb. 13): Meat —Jeff Terich Julia Holter at The Irenic (Thursday, Jan. 28): Artpop singer/songwriter Julia Holter makes ethereal, complex compositions that’ll have you mesmerized.

And just imagine how much more intriguing they’ll be in this converted church venue.

22 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

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December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

Music

Jeff Terich

If I were u A music insider’s weekly agenda Wednesday, December 30

reason its charm never goes out of style.

Don your best Nudie suit and pompadour and start the year with some Western swing. PLAN B: Dead on the Wire, The Paper Hearts, Chamber Sixx, Dethsurf @ Tower Bar. If you’d rather opt for denim than your best Nashville tailoring, get your first fix of punk rock in 2016 with Dead on the Wire, whose three-chord approach is informed by classic, fuzzy favorites such as The Damned and The Undertones.

PLAN A: Hot Chip (DJ set) @ The Casbah. I’ve seen Hot Chip perform live, and they know how to get a dance party going.

Members of the band will be DJing at this show, instead of playing their own songs, but something tells me a dance party’s going to happen one way or another. PLAN B: Tijuana Panthers, The Soaks, Spooky Cigarette @ Soda Bar. Tijuana Panthers, despite their name, are from Long Beach and couldn’t sound more Southern California if they tried. Garage rock fidelity, surf rock riffs and punk attitude are what Sunday, January 3 they’re all about, and it makes for some PLAN A: Whiskey Shivers, Goodnight Texas, Lexington Field @ Soda Bar. This campy, scuzzy fun. week is going to be pretty heavy on country, rockabilly, folk, bluegrass and Americana.

I didn’t really plan it that way, but apparThursday, December 31 PLAN A: The Sess, Drug Wars, Keepers, ently banjo pluckers and upright bassists Vyper Skwad, DJ Slump @ Soda Bar. I’m are winter animals. Come down to hear this not one to tell people they absolutely have Austin trashgrass band and have a kneeto go out on New Year’s Eve, but this show slapping good time.

is extra tempting. Local punks The Sess are playing their first show in seven years after a long breakup, and if history repeats, it’ll be a rowdy rock ‘n’ roll party. PLAN B: Los Lobos, Hamish Anderson @ Belly Up Tavern. Los Lobos have been playing eclectic rock music with varying styles of Southwestern influence for longer than I’ve been alive, which is something you can say about only so many bands. The ticket price for Hot Chip this show is a little higher than Plan A, but it’ll be a damn good show.

BACKUP PLAN: Ziggy Shuffledust and Monday, January 4 the Spiders from Mars, Electric Warrior, PLAN A: The Gloomies, Whiskey Circle @ Soda Bar. The Gloomies haven’t been TV Eye @ The Casbah. around, long but they’ve already gotten some press from across the pond in NME. Friday, January 1 Pretty impressive, though it’s not hard to PLAN A: Water, Aspirin, A Burrito @ see why: They’re a great psychedelic pop Your House. If you do go out on New Year’s band. They’re also playing a monthly resiEve (and a lot of you probably will), the next dency at Soda Bar, and this show (as well as morning is probably going to be rough. Use the others this month) is entirely free. this opportunity for restoration and health, sleep in, rehydrate and get back to it once the throbbing stops. It’s not like much else Tuesday, January 5 is happening.

PLAN A: Frankie Boots and the County Line, G Burns Jug Band, Raf Deza @ Saturday, January 2 Soda Bar. Three nights in a row at Soda PLAN A: Big Sandy and His Flyrite Boys, Bar? Sure! Why not. Improve your TuesFanny and the Atta Boys @ The Casbah. day with some sweetly folky sounds from Big Sandy’s take on country and rockabilly Sebastopol’s Frankie Boots and the County is definitely of another time, and for that Line. No actual boots required.

24 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

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December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

Music

Concerts HOT! NEW! FRESH!

PWR BTTM (The Hideout, 1/28), Metric (HOB, 2/25), Coeur de Pirate (BUT, 2/29), John Hiatt (BUT, 3/7-8), Wolf Eyes (Casbah, 3/12).

GET YER TICKETS The Game (Observatory, 1/10), Ty Segall (But, 1/13), Earthless (Casbah, 1/1415), Christian Death (Soda Bar, 1/17), Devotchka (BUT, 1/17), Josh Ritter (Observatory, 1/18), Ladysmith Black Mambazo (BUT, 1/19), Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek (Observatory North Park, 1/22), Shigeto (Soda Bar, 1/23), Killing Joke, The Soft Moon (BUT, 1/26), David Cross (Observatory, 1/26), Julia Holter (The Irenic, 1/28), Wanda Jackson (Casbah, 1/28), Richard Cheese (HOB, 1/29), The Hood Internet (Casbah, 1/29), G. Love and Special Sauce (BUT, 1/29), Childbirth (Soda Bar, 2/1), Steel Pulse (BUT, 2/2), The English Beat (BUT, 2/5-6), Supersuckers (Casbah, 2/10), Aaron Neville (Balboa Theatre, 2/11), Tiger Army (Observatory, 2/11), STRFKR (Observatory North Park, 2/12), Thee Oh Sees (BUT, 2/12), Meat Wave (Soda Bar, 2/13), Logic (SOMA, 2/14), The Growlers, Jonathan Richman (Observatory, 2/16-17), At the Gates (HOB, 2/19), Dr. Dog (Observatory, 2/20), Steve Poltz (BUT, 2/20), Lee Ann Womack (BUT, 2/22), Anti-Flag (Observatory, 2/25), Ani DiFranco (BUT, 2/25), Rihanna (Viejas Arena, 2/26), Julien Baker (The Irenic, 2/27), Joe Satriani (Balboa Theatre, 3/1), Protomartyr (Soda Bar, 3/2), Lewis Black (Balboa Theatre, 3/3), Galactic (BUT, 3/3), Wavves, Best Coast (Observatory, 3/4), Eleanor Friedberger (Hideout, 3/11), Junior Boys (Casbah, 3/18), Dwarves, Queers (Soda Bar, 3/20), Glassjaw (Observatory, 3/24), Abbath, High on Fire, Skeletonwitch, Tribulation (Observatory, 3/26), Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place (Casbah, 3/27), Alex G (Che Café, 4/1), Steve Miller Band (Humphreys, 4/14), Prong (Brick by Brick, 4/22), Thao & the Get Down Stay Down (BUT, 4/28), Modern English (The Hideout, 5/17), The Cure (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 5/30), Leon Russell (BUT, 5/31), Twentyonepilots (Viejas Arena, 7/24), Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/14), Journey, The Doobie Brothers (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 8/30), 5 Seconds of Summer (Sleep Train Amphitheatre, 9/9).

26 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

December 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 Saturday, Jan. 2 Big Sandy and His Flyrite Boys at The Casbah.

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).

The Game at Observatory North Park.

Nobunny at Soda Bar.

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

Thursday, Jan. 14 Paula Cole at Belly Up Tavern. Earthless at The Casbah.

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

Saturday, Jan. 16 Tower of Power at Belly Up Tavern.

Andy Rourke (DJ set) at The Hideout.

Sunday, Jan. 17 Devotchka at Belly Up Tavern. Christian Death at Soda Bar.

Monday, Jan. 18 Josh Ritter at Observatory North Park.

Tuesday, Jan. 19 Martin Courtney at The Casbah. Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Belly Up Tavern.

Thursday, Jan. 21 Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Belly Up Tavern.

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Music Friday, Jan. 22 Never Shout Never at House of Blues.

Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Belly Up Tavern. Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek at Observatory North Park. Kottonmouth Kings at SOMA.

Saturday, Jan. 23 Shigeto at Soda Bar. All Them Witches at The Casbah. JD McPherson at Belly Up Tavern. Steel Panther at House of Blues.

Sunday, Jan. 24 Europe at Music Box.

Tuesday, Jan. 26 Killing Joke, The Soft Moon at Belly Up Tavern. David Cross at Observatory North Park.

Thursday, Jan. 28 Wanda Jackson at The Casbah. Julia Holter at The Irenic.

Friday, Jan. 29 Richard Cheese at House of Blues. G. Love and Special Sauce at Belly Up Tavern. The Hood Internet at The Casbah.

Saturday, Jan. 30 Pato Banton at Belly Up Tavern. The Silent Comedy at The Casbah. Mike Gordon at Observatory North Park.

February Monday, Feb. 1 Childbirth at Soda Bar.

Tuesday, Feb. 2 Steel Pulse at Belly Up Tavern. Bullet for My Valentine at House of Blues.

Thursday, Feb. 4 Enforcer, Warbringer at Brick by Brick.

Friday, Feb. 5 The English Beat at Belly Up Tavern.

Saturday, Feb. 6 The English Beat at Belly Up Tavern.

Wednesday, Feb. 10 Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra at Belly Up Tavern. Supersuckers at The Casbah.

Thursday, Feb. 11 Tiger Army at Observatory North Park.

The Donkeys at Soda Bar. Aaron Neville at Balboa Theatre.

Friday, Feb. 12 STRFKR at Observatory North Park.

Thee Oh Sees at Belly Up Tavern.

Saturday, Feb. 13 Meat Wave at Soda Bar.

Sunday, Feb. 14 Beats Antique at Observatory North Park. Built to Spill at The Casbah.

Monday, Feb. 15 Built to Spill at The Casbah.

Tuesday, Feb. 16 The Growlers, Jonathan Richman at Observatory North Park.

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Wednesday, Feb. 17 The Growlers, Jonathan Richman at Observatory North Park.

Thursday, Feb. 18 The Toasters at The Casbah. Cradle of Filth at House of Blues.

Friday, Feb. 19 At the Gates at House of Blues. Radiation City at The Casbah.

Saturday, Feb. 20 Dr. Dog at Observatory North Park. Steve Poltz at Belly Up Tavern.

Monday, Feb. 22 Lee Ann Womack at Belly Up Tavern.

Wednesday, Feb. 24 Lake Street Drive at Observatory North Park.

Thursday, Feb. 25 Ani DiFranco at Belly Up Tavern. AntiFlag at Observatory North Park.

Friday, Feb. 26 Rihanna at Viejas Arena. The Infamous Stringduster at Belly Up Tavern.

Saturday, Feb. 27 Diane Coffee at The Hideout. Julien Baker at The Irenic.

Monday, Feb. 29 Fetty Wap at House of Blues (sold out).

Vance Joy at Balboa Theatre.

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

Music

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., San Diego. Pacific Beach. Wed: Open mic.

Thu: The Devastators, SM Familia.

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

North Park. Thu: DJs Junior the Disco Punk, Vaughn Avakian.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Thu: Jones Revival.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Donavon Frankenreiter, Tom Curren. Thu: Los Lobos, Hamish Anderson. Fri: Nahko & Medicine For The People, The Routine. Sat: Nahko & Medicine For The People, Hirie.

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Wed: Karaoke. Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJs Junior the Disco Punk, XP. Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., San Diego. Bay Park. Thu: Alice and the Cooper Gang, Lords of Sabbath, Blaze of Jovi. Mon: ‘Metal Monday’.

Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Wed: Aro Di Santi. Thu: Malamana Croce’s Park West, 2760 Fifth Ave., #100, San Diego. Bankers Hill. Wed: Stacy Antonel Duo. Fri: Charlie Patrone Quartet. Sat: Marc Coleman. Sun: Besos de Coco. Mon: Keahi. Tue: Steph Johnson and Rob Thorsen.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, San Diego. Mission Bay. Sat: Kyle Myers Quartet w/ Charlie Arbelaez.

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

Thu: RedWave.

Side Bar, 536 Market St., San Diego.

Downtown. Thu: Side Bar NYE 2016.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., San Diego.

Midtown. Thu: RJ & TeeCe4800.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Midtown. Wed: Hot Chip (DJ set).

Thu: Ziggy Shuffledust and the Spiders from Mars, Electric Warrior, TV Eye. Sat: Big Sandy and His Flyrite Boys, Fanny and the Atta Boys.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Thu: ‘New Year’s Eve Funk Party’.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., San Diego. Hillcrest. Wed: The Palmer Squares, Atlantis Rizing, KoolBeef Productions.

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

North Park. Wed: ‘Smiths Night’ w/ Still Ill, Saul Q. Thu: DJs Myson King, Kanye Asada. Mon: ‘Joy Division vs. New Order’ w/ DJs Saul Q, Mike Delgado. Tue: ‘Trapped’ w/ DJ Ramsey.

sPOTLiGHT

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., San Diego. City Heights. Sat: Dead on the Wire, The Paper Hearts, Chamber Sixx, Dethsurf.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., San Diego. South Park. Thu: ‘Booty Bassment’ w/ DJ Dimitri.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., San Diego.

Ocean Beach. Wed: Simpkin Project, DJ Carlos Culture. Thu: Brothers Gow. Fri: Thrive, Ital Vibes. Sun: Karaoke.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Thu: Flosstradamus.

28 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

Before you celebrate New Year’s Eve with a big, danceable blowout or just a lot of champagne, get in touch with adolescent feelings a night earlier with The Academy Is. The Chicago-based band has been playing emo and pop-punk since the early ‘00s, and they’re celebrating 10 years of debut album Almost Here, which is likely to have a special place in the hearts of twentysomethings today. They’re playing on Dec. 30 at Observatory North Park. observatorynp.com

—Jeff Terich

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Last Words

Brendan Emmett Quigley

I blacked out Across 1. Schoolyard declaration 6. Like red Spanish wine 10. Condo meas.

14. Oakland Athletics executive Billy 15. PokerStars pro Hershiser 16. Surrounding light 17. Dimin.’s opp.

18. Ration (out) 19. Call center heads?

20. Pre-telegraph means of communication 23. Lines up 26. Ito of crosswords and jurisprudence 27. 1914 Booth Tarkington novel 28. Work involved in heavy lifting?

31. Closest star 32. It’s a wrap on the set 33. Big bone 34. Blog feed format 35. Naive 39. ___ Wayne 41. The 1975 lead singer Matthew 42. Sputnik letters 45. Letters for green jobs 46. About 47. “For example ...”

49. Did nothing with (for a while) 51. Dances in 3/4-time 52. Actor who played Dr. Mark Green on “ER” 56. Blood type, briefly 57. Large and hairy man, in gay slang 58. ___ Allen (furniture company) 62. “Welcome to the Jungle” singer 63. Big name in luxury hotels Last week’s answers

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64. Not hurting for space 65. Bachelor’s conclusion?

66. Sci-fi character whose last words are “There is ... another ... Sky ... Sky ... walker.”

67. Pummeled, Biblically

Down 1. TV channel whose slogan is “More Colorful” 2. Anthem contraction 3. ___ Bo (fitness craze) 4. With left and right channels 5. Music genre founded in Detroit 6. No contests?

7. “Milk’s Favorite Cookie” 8. Ebony 9. QB Smith 10. Back bones 11. Band with the 1990 #9 hit “Silent Lucidity” 12. Wall art 13. Parts of a belly dancer’s costume 21. 15:40 at Charles De Gaulle, e.g.

22. Beg and then some 23. Make a decision 24. Creator of the New Yorker’s typeface ___ Irvin 25. Psychologist’s tool 28. Auto document 29. Follow closely 30. Atlantis was found here, once 33. Figure in a 1917 revolution 36. Animal with a horn 37. Burn slightly and superficially 38. Familiarize 39. Bygone Buick sedan 40. “None for me!”

43. Puma or lion 44. Written afterthoughts 47. Honorary title for both Bill Gates and Rudolph Giuliani 48. Some NFL bets 50. “Golly” 51. Educator Montessori 53. Richard Wright’s autobiography 54. Bands recording to get gigs 55. Airport-security tool 59. ___-ha 60. Tbsp.

61. 12/31, initially, or what is blacked out in this puzzle

December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

30 · San Diego CityBeat · December 30, 2015

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December 30, 2015 · San Diego CityBeat · 31