San Diego CityBeat • Dec 31, 2013

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2 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Turds & Blossoms for 2013 In honor of former staff writer Dave Maass, who left CityBeat this year for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, we’re resurrecting his Turds & Blossoms idea as a way of assessing 2013 in local politics. The year was really about Bob Filner, but not only because of his personal implosion; his downfall created a ripple effect for several other San Diego politicians. Let’s get to it: Bob Filner: The first modern-era progressive mayor of San Diego put the city, and his own political legacy, in a creepy headlock and eventually cut a deal with prosecutors that ended his career. He gets 1,000 turds for every woman he’s ever skeeved, which means his total poop count is incalculable.

Donna Frye: Along with attorneys Marco Gonzalez and Cory Briggs, former San Diego City Councilmember Frye set Filner’s downfall in motion with a call for his resignation in July, and most San Diegans will be forever grateful. We lavish Frye with 117 magnolias—one of her favorite flowers—for every day she had to work in the Mayor’s office.

Nathan Fletcher: After his unsuccessful but exhilarating bid for mayor in 2012, Fletcher became a Democrat and was well-positioned for 2016, but then Filner crapped all over that plan, forcing Fletcher to run again before his new political identity could ripen, and his vague campaign couldn’t withstand the fire he took from all sides. After his defeat in November, he announced he was leaving politics. Fletcher earns three turds, one for each percentage point he finished behind David Alvarez for a spot in the February runoff.

David Alvarez: The youthful, liberal City Council member waited to make sure Frye wouldn’t run for mayor and then jumped in. No one thought he had a chance against Fletcher, but with the help of labor and conservative business interests that were afraid of Fletcher, he finished second in November and now has a chance to be San Diego’s first Latino mayor. He also brokered a deal between Filner and tourism officials, was quick to call for Filner to resign and shepherded a new community plan for Barrio Logan to passage. We deliver 65 native San Diego sunflowers to Alvarez, one for every 1,000 votes he received.

Kevin Faulconer: The year’s luckiest pol was Faulconer, who didn’t run for mayor in 2012 because he had no chance and became the Republican golden boy by default in 2013 when a GOP cabal voted Carl DeMaio off of Mayor Island. With everyone’s attention

on Fletcher, Faulconer got a free ride in the primary election and emerged in first place. For being so fortunate, he gets 42 fistfuls of flowering clover, one for every percentage point he received in the election.

Carl DeMaio: Runner-up to Filner in 2012, DeMaio announced his campaign for Congress but then was widely expected to switch to the mayor’s race after Filner went down. However, when a bunch of muckety-muck Republicans met to decide who would be their candidate, former mayor and Faulconer backer Jerry Sanders’ forces bested U-T San Diego publisher and DeMaio supporter Doug Manchester. DeMaio had to quash his mayoral ambitions and keep his campaign anchored in the 52nd Congressional District.

That’s why he gets 52 toilet floaters.

Jerry Sanders: For starting a lucrative new job at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and getting his horse in the mayor’s race, we hand him three carnations, one for every $100,000 he reportedly pockets every year in his new gig.

Todd Gloria: The biggest beneficiary of the Filner scandal in 2013 was Gloria, the City Council president who managed the unprecedented feat of leading both the legislative and executive branches of San Diego government when he became interim mayor.

Though it’s reasonable to criticize Gloria for overstepping his placeholder, unelected (as mayor) status, we’ll let him off the hook because of his recent affirmative swing votes on some big issues for us progressives. We’re planting a single lilac in each of his two gardens.

Myrtle Cole: We reluctantly give blossoms to Cole for winning a crowded race to replace Tony Young in San Diego City Council District 4—reluctantly because she did it with sickening, false attacks on opponent Dwayne Crenshaw. But, we can suffocate those flowers with a wheelbarrow full of doo-doo for her reluctance to call for Filner’s resignation.

Mark Kersey: The San Diego City Council member from District 5 gets a bouquet of roadside poppies for largely staying above the political fray while keeping his focus on what lots of city residents care most about: fixing the public infrastructure.

Toni Atkins: For Atkins, 2013 was her first full year as majority leader in the state Assembly, and she’s impressed enough influential people that she’s now the frontrunner to be named speaker of

Editorial CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

This issue of CityBeat is hopped up on Harvey Wallbanger cakes and double shots of chocolate milk.

Volume 12 • Issue 21 Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Jeff Terich Arts Editor Kinsee Morlan Staff Writer Joshua Emerson Smith Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Lindsey Voltoline Columnists Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza

Contributors Ian Cheesman, David L. Coddon, Seth Combs, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Nina Sachdev Hoffmann, Peter Holslin, Dave Maass, Scott McDonald, Jennifer McEntee, Jenny Montgomery, Susan Myrland, Mina Riazi, Jim Ruland, Jen Van Tieghem, Quan Vu Production Manager Tristan Whitehouse Production artist Rees Withrow MultiMedia Advertising Director Paulina Porter-Tapia Senior account executives Jason Noble, Nick Nappi Account Executive Beau Odom

Cover illustration by Lindsey Voltoline Circulation / Office Assistant Giovanna Tricoli Intern Connie Thai Accounting Alysia Chavez, Linda Lam, Monica MacCree Human Resources Andrea Baker Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami

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

Editorial and Advertising Office 3047 University Ave., Suite 202 San Diego, CA 92104 Phone: 619-281-7526 Fax: 619-281-5273 www.sdcitybeat.com

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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 2013.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

Right again In your Dec. 18 editorial, you lament that the Sandy Hook tragedy did not spur Congress to pass a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as enact universal background checks on gun sales—as hoped for in your Dec. 19 editorial a year ago.

In response to that editorial, I wrote a letter (which was printed) that said, in part, “Don’t expect much from our leaders; most of them place selfish interests above principles and are therefore easily divided and conquered by special interests that use deep pockets or squeakywheel tactics to hold sway.”

Though I’m one to say, “I told you so,” in this instance, I hate being right.

Dan Jacobs, Mira Mesa

unhoused trajectory I liked your Dec. 18 article “Rethinking the route”; it correctly points out that the disadvantages inherent in transitional housing help to prevent access to permanent housing, plus the fact that San Diego has 800 too many tran-

sitional beds and 3,700 too few permanent ones. Good work.

My one criticism is that alcohol is being blamed, which is something that the conventional media try to convey—the blaming of alcoholism, drug abuse and mental illness for causing the homelessness problem, not real-estate price fixing, vendettas by corporations and lack of jobs. Most people become homeless by an economic loss, such as their employer goes out of business, and then they become homeless by having to leave a nice home or apartment, put their appliances, good clothing and furniture into storage and move into the roach motel.

They are then “homeless with housing” (a house but no home) and develop their drug, alcohol, mental illness and suicide problems at that time.

Eventually, they then become un-housed homeless (on the streets). The news media like to mention the drug abuse or alcoholism but leave out the first part—the becoming homeless with awful housing, which precedes it. This allows us to blame booze and not Wall Street. We like to mention the substance abuse and mental

illness “causes” but must also figure that those problems had a cause, too—their original homelessness. Homelessness causes alcoholism, which then causes people to become unhoused homeless.

John Kitchin, Downtown

Editorial CONTINUED from PAGE 4

the Assembly, one of the two most powerful positions in the state Legislature, next summer. For her boldness and increasing political mojo, we bestow her with 80 bold dahlias, one for every member of the Assembly that would be under her rule if she’s named speaker.

Darrell Issa: Benghazi and the IRS—two “scandals” that Congressmember Issa tried to trump up in order to damage Barack Obama’s presidency. Issa’s misleading claims about Benghazi, in particular, earned him a place on the Washington Post’s list of “The biggest Pinocchios of 2013.” We’ll just leave two steaming piles of poo on his congressional doorstep.

What do you think? rite to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

censor this word from Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance 30. The Navy bribery scandal unfolding in San Diego revolves around a guy nicknamed “Fat ______” 33. The former mayor’s other signature move: “The Filner ________” 34. Six-month-old son of Prince William and Duchess Kate 37. Jeff Olson was prosecuted by the city for using this substance to draw on the sidewalk in front of banks 38. Robin Thicke song that UT-TV turned into a spoof on Filner 39. Restaurant that put up a sign barring service to Filner

DOWN

The 2013 news crossword From Miley Cyrus’ twerk to Bob Filner being a jerk, here’s a puzzle for San Diego’s news junkies

by Dave Maass In San Diego journalism circles, there’s a common trope that all national stories have some sort of local tie to our city. This year was no exception, from San Diego turning up in the NSA scandal and kicking off an interstate manhunt to Bob Filner becoming the butt of every late-night host’s monologue. For readers obsessively following along, here’s our annual roundup crossword puzzle to test your current-events knowledge.

ACROSS 4. This San Diego tech giant announced that Steve Mollenkopf would succeed Paul Jacobs as its next CEO

6 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

6. The adopted name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the new Pope 8. Weather phenomenon that killed between 20 and 25 people in Moore, Okla., in May 9. Toronto has a mayor who smokes this 12. Anthony Weiner’s online identity: Carlos _____ 14. It lasted from Oct. 1 through 16 15. One of two of the former mayor’s signature moves: “The Filner _____” 17. They asked what the fox says 18. Inspectors found 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in this country 20. Supreme Court justice who wrote the majority opinion upholding Prop. 8 21. After receiving a 35-year prison sentence, Bradley Manning changed his first name to this 22. For the second time, he came in third in the San Diego mayor’s race 29. MTV didn’t block the twerking, but they did

1. Funny first name of Chargers’ coach who was fired this year 2. The group behind the hit “Get Lucky” 3. San Diego-area representative who held hearings on the Benghazi and IRS “scandals” 5. Ex-Mayor Maureen O’Connor allegedly blew a nonprofit’s money on this casino video game 7. NSA contractor turned whistleblower, currently in asylum in Russia 10. Local nonprofit media organization whose employees voted to unionize 11. Last name of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan, the (alleged?) Boston Marathon bombers 13. Gloria ____, who represented one of the highest-profile women suing Filner 16. Month during which San Diego held the carfree event “CicloSDias” 19. “Justice for _______” is a poster you would’ve seen at a march after George Zimmerman was acquitted 22. Network that fired Paula Deen for using the Nword to describe African-Americans 23. A San Diego woman almost fainted while standing behind the president during a press conference about _______.gov 24. Former Homeland Security chief who became president of the University of California 25. An ultimate Frisbee team recorded a “____ Shake” video on a plane heading to San Diego 26. Neighborhood where El Take It Easy and Sea Rocket closed and Jack in the Box renovated 27. Devastating CNN documentary about orcas at SeaWorld 28. Architectural feature of Rob Quigley’s centrallibrary roof 31. The visiting team in the only local NFL blackout this season 32. In a new film, Idris Elba plays this South African leader, who died in December 35. The San Diego Film Critics Society named Alfonso Cuarón “Best Director” of 2013 for this film 36. San Diego kidnapper James Lee DiMaggio was found and shot dead in this state

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

aaryn

backwards & in high heels

belfer 2013 was out of this world Thanks to data collected by NASA’s Kepler Spaceemy. The school handbook states that “hair must be a craft, astronomers recently announced that there natural color and must not be a distraction.” And we are an estimated 40 billion Earth-like planets in all know that black-girl hair is a distraction. Essence our solar system. The New York Times reported that magazine said that VanDyke’s hair hadn’t been an isthese planets fall into a “Goldilocks zone—not too sue until she reported being teased for it. At which hot, not too cold.” Lucky for us: When we humans point, the good Christian school did WJWD and are finished bludgeoning this planet (and each othmade VanDyke the victim. Maybe the child should er), we can rocket our way to another one where consider becoming a Catholic. I hear they welcome we’ll find a sturdy chair, a warm bowl of oatmeal gays, atheists and pro-choicers these days. Why not and a Sleep Number mattress. “Earth 2.0” awaits. black girls who rock what God gave them?

Meanwhile, the realities presented on Earth 1.0 While I’m ruminating on black-girl victims and haven’t made me particularly hopeful; 2013 had its 2013 letdowns, I have two words: Renisha McBride. share of disappointments.

Best not be in crisis mode seeking a good Samaritan In a year when the unique and talented recordin the dark of night if you’re a black female. Definitely ing artist Janelle Monae released a sensational album don’t have alcohol or weed in your blood that can be with an empowering anthem (“Q.U.E.E.N.”) for womdiscovered upon autopsy after you’re shot in the face, en—black women, in particular—the spotlight and adbecause that is all the media will talk about as they set ulation went to Robin Thicke, a nepotistic misogynist America up to sympathize with your murderer who who blatantly co-opts other artists’ intellectual propwill likely walk, à la George Zimmerman. (And that’s erty and treats women like property. Meanwhile, R&B all the space I’m going to give that prick, the biggest genius and known rapist-slash-pedophile R. Kelly is elephant in the 2013 Disappointment Room.) making a comeback with his new album, Black PantMcBride is not the only “strange fruit”—as the ies. Lady Gaga is a fan, as are the fist-pounding, selfwebsite Hip Hop and Politics frames it—of the year. proclaimed feminists over at Jezebel There’s Jonathon Ferrell, who met a who say his new album is “a magnifisimilar fate as McBride under simiBest not be in crisis cent ode to pussy.” lar circumstances a few weeks earBut why should we ladies limit mode seeking a good lier. And then there’s poor Kendrick ourselves to denigration by recordJohnson, a teen whose body was Samaritan in the ing artists when we can rely on our found rolled up in a gym mat at his elected officials for abuse? While dark of night if you’re high school with other kids present.

Texas Sen. Wendy Davis, now a guBut, somehow, nobody saw anything. a black female. bernatorial candidate, was a filibusInvestigators could hardly be bothtering beacon in her famous pink ered to come up with so much as an tennis shoes, the Ol’ Boys Network employed proceempty, “Huh,” and ruled his death an accident. His dural shenanigans to take her down a few notches. parents had his body exhumed in order to challenge They eventually passed the bill she opposed, creating the coroner’s office, only to find his organs missing a bevy of abortion regulations. But it’s not enough to and his body stuffed with newspaper. This, in 2013. take away a woman’s right to choose what she does As noted in these pages recently, the lack of any with her body, so these same lawmakers took away move on gun control was two big thumbs down this her right to choose in the voting booth: A new voteryear. We have failed ourselves. Just take a look at the Gun Death project at slate.com to get a sense of ID law is going to disenfranchise an estimated onethe Wild West that we continue to be. third of female voters.

In other depressing cultural shifts, twerking is The closer you look at it, the more 2013 looks now widely credited to Miley Cyrus and is socially like 1964. Or 1864, for that matter. acceptable in a way it absolutely wasn’t when Big This past summer, a National Book Award-winning Freedia was doing it. Following the lead of the young-adult novel was removed from the sixth-grade Scripps Ranch high-schoolers who got in so much summer reading list in a New York City school. The trouble this past spring, Twerk Flash Mobs have Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Shercropped up around the country, and, truly, I can’t man Alexie mentions—wait for it—masturbation, as think of a single thing as adorable as a little white well as other grownup-y topics that one parent, Kellygrannie being all “ghetto,” am I right? Ugh. Ann McMullan-Preiss told the Huffington Post, are In 2013, we enjoyed affluenza, the Filner Head“[n]ot appropriate for my child to learn at 11.” Clearly, lock and Anthony Weiner, the Reprise. We had Kelly-Ann McMullan-Price doesn’t know 11. Also, too Obamacare computer glitches—really? That had to many hyphens in a name can make one priggish. happen?!?—and the abominable iOS7. We had the If it isn’t books that are offending, then there’s death of Nelson Mandela. hair to contend with, specifically that of young black Forty billion Earths out there, people. We are a girls. In September, 7-year-old Tiana Parker of Tulsa, diseased gift to the universe. With that: Here’s to Okla., was sent home from Deborah Brown Commu2014! nity School because her dreadlocks violated school policy. In Orlando, Fla., 12-year-old Vanessa VanDyke Write to aaryn@sdcitybeat.com was told in November to do something about her big and editor@sdcitybeat.com. natural or face expulsion from Faith Christian Acad-

8 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

by michael a. gardiner Michael A. Gardiner

ear mushrooms, sliced scallions and dried nori. The latter, while visually appealing, detracts from the central porcine theme.

Other toppings can be added.

Some of the best ramen in San Diego is at Ramen Yamadaya (4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. in North Clairemont, ramen-yamadaya.com).

This outpost of a small, Los Angeles-based chain specializes in tonkotsu-style ramen featuring a deep-flavored, thick and rich pork broth. The Yamadaya experience is not entirely unlike a long hard draught off a bowl of melted pig, and that’s not withRamen Yamadaya’s tonkotsu kotteri out good reason. To make that broth, 24 pounds of pork bones are boiled hard for 20 hours until they collapse from their own weight. It not only tastes like the essence of pig; it is the essence of pig.

The best dish at Yamadaya is the tonkotsu kotteri, featuring a brilliant broth with a hit of extra fat from the pig’s back and drizzles of slow24 pounds and 20 hours charred black-garlic oil (both earthy and ethereal). These additions lend still more depth to Momofuku Ando is either the best thing that a broth already unfathomably endless. Halfway ever happened to ramen or the worst. As the inthrough a bowl of kotteri, the overall impression ventor of instant noodles and founder of Nissin is of an umami bomb having detonated inside Foods (with its iconic Cup Noodles and Top Rayour head—and yet you don’t want it to stop. men brands), no doubt he brought ramen to the Also excellent at Yamadaya is the spicy tonkotsu. masses. McDonald’s may seem to be the ultimate It’s less spicy than the name might suggest but with industrial-food success story, but that title more the flavor of the chile coming through and serving rightly belongs to Ando: Instant noodles boasted as a foil to the rich broth. Another excellent option more than 100 billion served in 2012 alone. is Yamadaya’s gyoza, a Japanese version of Chinese But something darker can be laid at Ando’s pot stickers with one side fried and crispy, the other doorstep: His products’ success has co-opted the sides steamed and pillowy. There are other broths word “ramen.” The sum of our collective ramen and other dishes, most of them excellent, but it’s the experience derives from his instant stuff in our tonkotsu that I want at Yamadaya. hungry college days rather than real ramen. Yet, True ramen is the anti-Ando. Variations on instant ramen has about as much to do with the the ramen theme are only limited by the numgenuine Japanese article as Chef Boyardee ravioli ber of permutations of the three basic elements: does with the authentic Italian dish. broth, noodles and toppings. Regional variations Real ramen is a deeply soulful Japanese soup abound. It’s more akin to American barbecue consisting of wonderful, Chinese-style alkathan the instant ramen ever could be. And Yamaline noodles served in a meat (pork or pork / daya’s passionate tonkotsu may be the ultimate proof of that. chicken) broth (sometimes flavored with soy sauce or miso), garnished with toppings such as Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com chashu (sliced pork, soy-marinated soft-boiled and editor@sdcitybeat.com. egg), menma (pickled bamboo shoots), wood-

the world

fare

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

BY KELLY DAVIS

cocktail

introducing new flavors in 2014.

In May, I attended a cocktailpairing dinner at PrepKitchen and was introduced to Caffe Borghetti, an Italian liqueur made from espresso.

I’m still on the hunt for a bottle of the stuff.

The year in booze It took me awhile to get to Sycamore Den, which opened in June. Lead barSince this issue’s filled with reflections on tender Eric Johnson let me try the love2013, I figured I’d use this space to look ly Dovetail Julep (gin, cognac, peach bitback at some memorable drinking: ters, mint, absinthe), a summery drink The year started with a visit to The that’s not on the bar’s current winter Propagandist, where owner Brian Dimenu but hopefully will return when vine was experimenting with bottled the weather warms up. Till then, that cocktails and rolling out a new menu. winter menu’s well worth a visit.

Unfortunately, The Propagandist closed In August, I hung out with Jen in April, though Divine said at the time Queen, who was putting the final that he had plans to re-open something touches on her new menu for Saltin the future. Not sure when that’ll box, which combined whimsy—with be, but here’s hoping the menu incocktails like the Cinnamon Toast cludes the Mango en Fuego.

Punch (Makers Mark, gingerFebruary marked the opening snap liqueur, cereal-sweetened of what’s become one of my familk and chocolate bitters)—and vorite cocktail spots, Polite ProQueen’s masterful use of tequila visions (conveniently located and mescal, like the Mexican across the street from my favorMonk (Del Maguey Vida mescal, ite Mexican restaurant, Cantina yellow chartreuse, peach bitters Mayahuel). On my first visit, I hit and angostura bitters). it off with two drinks, the Ocean The Cat Eye Club had been Side (London dry gin, lime juice, open a few months by the time I mint, celery bitters and a pinch made it over there in September; of sea salt) and Attorney Privithe Downtown location (parklege (bourbon, orgeat, lemon ing) is the only reason I haven’t and bitters), but my favorite Pobeen back. The menu’s all claslite Provisions cocktail was the sics, like the Vieux Carre, WhisHatori Hanzo (Auchentoshan key Smash and Corpse Reviver, Three Wood whisky, lemon, vioall exceedingly well-made. I’m lette and absinthe), which apstill thinking about that Sazerac. peared for one evening only, on The year rounded out with a a special menu for a fundraiser. couple of lovely discoveries: the I’d love to see this one make an“mini” ($5) cocktails at Great other appearance.

Maple (try the Sweet PamplemIn April, I wrote about ousse) and the transformative RX Bitters, a local compapower of smoked ice—which you ny started by Brett Winfield can make at home! (Melt ice in a (Seven Grand), Ryan Andrews smoker, then refreeze it.)

(Coin-Op) and Eric Lockridge So, cheers to 2013, and here’s (PrepKitchen), which had just to 2014. Maybe I’ll finally find The elusive Borghetti that Borghetti. finished a successful Kickstarter campaign, exceeding their $8,000 goal by Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com $5,000. You can now find RX Bitters at a numand editor@sdcitybeat.com. ber of fine bars around town, and they’ll be

tales

10 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

by Mina Riazi mina riazi

If you’re not a fan of lamb, though, you needn’t worry. A black-bean veggie burger, steak ’n’ chips, quinoa salad and beef sliders are some of Queenstown’s many other menu offerings. There’s also the tantalizing “Triple”: a rich smattering of fried finger foods— calamari, zucchini and asparagus—served with rosemary aioli and cocktail sauce. My fried-food cravings steered me toward the fish ‘n’ chips, which our server named as one of Queenstown’s most popular dishes.

My grub buddy ordered the Bare Lil Lamb burger, reportedly another crowd favorite.

But first, before exploring the entrées, dedicate a moment to the “family style” section. It’s all hearty, stick-to-your-ribs stuff. The raw veggie platter is the only exception, but it’s tough to even ponder radish and jícama when there’s a soft pretzel to consider. The plate-sized pretzel arrives hot and oily and glittery with salt. The first Queenstown’s fish ’n’ chips plate few bites are close to perfect, especially when decked in jack mustard or jalapeño cheese. But then the knotted carb begins cooling down and ditches its chewy, cakey texture. I suggest splitting the pretzel among three or four friends so that it doesn’t live to see the back of your fridge in a grim to-go box.

Queenstown’s fish ’n’ chips plate boasts a genThe newest kiwi in town erous slab of haddock, beer-battered and deepfried. The crunchy, light-golden shell gives way Queenstown Public House is rooted in the pecuto moist, flaky fish. It’s even more wonderful with liar. Located right across from the San Diego Firea shot of lemon juice. The classic dish wouldn’t house Museum, the antiquated building (1557 Cobe complete without chubby, thick-cut fries, and lumbia St. in Little Italy)—with its faded wooden Queenstown’s spuds balance a light, crisp extefaçade and sprawling porch—seems better suited rior with a soft, meaty interior. for a bucolic setting. Jars of honey-colored “sun From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, tea” brew on the patio. Watering cans double as Queenstown serves brunch. Standard breakfast vases and a welcome message—“stayawhile”— fare—like granola and French toast—sidles up to adorns a porch step. The restrooms are labeled less familiar options, including prawns and grits “Womans” and “Humans.” But even more odd and mac and salmon. There’s even a fried-chickenis the synthetic turf ceiling. A scattering of wire and-waffles offering, dubbed the “best fried chicken sheep hangs from it, upside down, supplanting the in town.” I’ll bet it’s good, but I doubt it’s the best. chandelier that you’d expect to find.

Much likes its décor, which, although charmSheep inspire more than just ceiling decoraing and trendy, feels affected, Queenstown’s tions at the New Zealand-themed restaurant menu might benefit from a sharper focus. I ap(queenstownpublichouse.com). The menu feapreciate the variety of dishes, but I also think it’s tures rack of lamb, lamb skewers and a lamb much more remarkable when a restaurant does a few things really, really well. burger. After all, for more than a century, sheep farming was New Zealand’s chief agricultural inWrite to minar@sdcitybeat.com dustry. So it makes sense that the new eatery pays and editor@sdcitybeat.com. homage to the ruminant mammal.

One Lucky

Spoon

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

no life

offline

Top Internet fails of 2013

by dave maass

Jimmy Kimmel Live

There once was a tradition in journalism in which a writer had the power to deem himself the Great Arbiter and publish definitive rankings of people, places and events. The headline formula went something like this: [Arbitrary Number] [Superlative] [Plural] of [Current Year] Then Buzzfeed came along and ruined the listicle format for everyone. If a post doesn’t have 40 animated gifs, as the newsprint version of this column obviously doesn’t, how can it compete? My solution: a heaping pile of sarcasm and no shame.

These are what I noted as the biggest fails on the Internet this year, defined as major backfires or anything just totally lame that primarily occurred online. Although my methodology amounts to little more than scribbling notes between rounds of Assassin’s Creed IV, this list is official and exhaustive, because I said so, and my arrogance knows no limit: Jimmy Kimmel punked everyone on the Internet.

10. Google Reader shuts down: Hi, my name is Google, and I had a product that everyand I so enjoyed leaving Congress after getting one loved and relied upon to keep them informed caught sending gross pictures to women online about the world around them. I discontinued the that I decided to put my family through it again service in June, because I don’t care about you. with a run for mayor of New York. Can you do me 9. People who fell for Jimmy Kimmel’s a solid and hard-delete this top-10 list?

Worst Twerk Fail video: Hi, I’m everybody on 4. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford: Hi! I’m Rob the Internet, and I’ve never heard of the word Ford, and I smoke crack! I also try to hire hackers “skepticism.” I automatically share anything I to cover it up and get caught on all counts. You see on Facebook, even if it looks too perfect to be can eat me. real, then I complain that it’s someone else’s fault 3. Reddit: Hi, I’m the self-proclaimed “front for undermining trust on the Internet. page of the Internet,” which means I’m an ama8. Manti Te’o’s hoax girlfriend: Hi, I’m teur-sleuth clusterfuck. I’ve totally forgotten that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, and I’m a creepy, creepy I mistakenly told the world that Sunil Tripathi, dude who thought I wouldn’t get caught if I a suicidal Brown University student, was one of posed as a young woman with leukemia, seduced the Boston bombers. a famous linebacker, then pretended I died in a 2. National Security Agency: Hi, I’m General NSA.gov car accident.

Keith Alexander*, and I can’t 7. Justine Sacco’s racist yell loud enough about how tweet: Hi, I’m a corporate PR Edward Snowden irrevocably professional who tweeted a damaged our national security, racist joke about AIDS before and, yet, I don’t really think any getting on a plane to Africa. heads should roll for creating an Then I was totally shocked intelligence infrastructure that when I landed to discover I could be totally undermined by was out of a job and the Inone computer nerd. ternet hates me. I’ll spend the 1. Healthcare.gov: Hi, I’m next year apologizing to every Kathleen Sebelius and I had single person on Twitter. one job to do: make a website 6. AngelHack CEO’s to fulfill President Obama’s rant on the homeless: Hi, promise for affordable healthI’m Greg Gopman, and, as a care. I’m never going to be tech entrepreneur, I’d feel a able to run for president. lot better if the homeless and mentally ill kept to the shitty * Full disclosure: My day job parts of town, rather than im(that is, the author’s) is at the NSA Chief Keith Alexander pact my walks in downtown Electronic Frontier FoundaSan Francisco. What’s even better is that I didn’t tion, which is suing the NSA over its mass telephone-records-collection program. see anything wrong with ranting about this on Facebook. I’ve since apologized, but, you know, I Write to davem@sdcitybeat.com secretly still think they smell. and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

5. Anthony Weiner: Hi, I’m Carlos Danger,

12 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

the

SHORTlist

1

ART

COORDINATED BY KINSEE MORLAN

COURTESY: RALPH LOVUOLO PHOTOGRAPHY

BREAKIN’ TRADITION

Culture Shock founder and Executive Director Angie Bunch loved seeing The Nutcracker every holiday season with her mom. The Sugar Plum Fairy, the Nutcracker Prince, Russian Candy Cane dancers— she ate it all up.

Decades later, Bunch would take her own daughter to see the beloved holiday tale. Her kid was just 5 years old when she stood up and walked out of The Nutcracker, literally bored to tears.

“I thought, Oh, no, there goes my dream of sharing this experience,” Bunch says.

From that moment on, Bunch toyed with the idea of putting on a hipper, more contemporary version of the classic that would involve Culture Shock’s talented hip-hop dancers. But because the performance is so The Nutcracker and his army prepare to battle the rats. long and demanding, the production was something of a pipe dream until grant funding and Bunch says the battle scene will be epic. Other a successful Kickstarter campaign recently fell cool elements include a guest appearance from into place. breakers The Body Poets, relevant pop-culture refFrom Friday, Jan. 3, through Sunday, Jan. 5, erences and a score that includes about 40 percent Culture Shock will present The Nutcracker—A Hol- Tchaikovsky and the rest a mix of old-school and iday Hip Hop Dance Theatrical at the Birch North new-school hits.

Park Theater (2891 University Ave.). Bunch says the “It’ll be entertaining, I promise that,” Bunch says. basic narrative is in place, but everything else—from “There will be no snoozing.” the gender of major characters to the context of the Showtimes are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and tale—was up for reinterpretation.

2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $10 to Bunch enlisted the help of 25 choreographers for $20. cultureshockdance.org/sandiego the show. The diversity in the talent pool means just about every style of hip-hop dance and culture will be represented.

To augment its current Women, War, and “We’ll have locking, popping, voguing and whackIndustry exhibition, the San Diego Muing,” Bunch says. “We’ve got some crumps, some maseum of Art in Balboa Park has chosen jor athletic breaking and martial arts…. We’re throwSo Proudly We Hail for its Friday, Jan. 3, installing it all in there—everything but ballet.” ment of First Friday Films. The 1943 movie stars Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake and Claudette Colbert as American nurses sent to the Philippines to serve in World War II and was part of a spate of films depicting a certain interpretation of the war.

Repetition, rhythm and pattern—how At 7 p.m., producer / director Gregory Cooke will artists use those three things often defines an era. discuss his documentary Invisible Warriors: AfriThis is especially true of modernism, with its rather can American Women in WW II. So Proudly We Hail meditative simplicity in everything from music to ar- begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10, or $5 for museum chitecture to visual art. But is it really that simple? members, military, seniors and students. You can Opening with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, also go big and order a wine-and-charcuterie packJan. 4, at Space 4 Art (325 15th St. in East Village), age for two for $60. sdmart.org Repetition, Rhythm and Pattern features works by 10 artists, from San Diego, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh and Jackson, Miss., brought together by curator Lindsey Landfried (San Diego is the traveling exhibition’s first stop). Their art appears to be influenced “I Love you Helen” by modernism but, when

by Megan Cotts you dig deeper, often reveals complex layers of meaning. The show, a great chance to see up-and-coming talent, will be on view Colbert, Goddard and Lake through Jan. 25. sdspace4art.org

3

2

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

WOMEN AT WAR

Friday Night Liberty at NTC at Liberty Station, 2640 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. Welcome the New Year with new art at this monthly night of open studios, galleries and museums. See free dance performances and more including a preview performance of San Diego Dance Theater’s “There is the Dance.” From 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3. 619-573-9300, ntclibertystation.com HA Swift Look Back: 5 Years of the Martha Pace Swift Gallery at Swift Gallery, 2820 Roosevelt Road, Point Loma.

To celebrate their fifth anniversary, Swift Gallery will display the latest work from an impressive group of local artists including Larry Caveney, James Watts, Ellen Dieter, Shahla Dorafshan, Ana Zappoli, Phillip Petrie, Diane O’Connor and Warner Varno. From 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3.expressiveartsinstitute.org HRR&P: Repetition, Rhythm, and Pattern at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East Village. Lindsey Landfried curated this group showcase revisiting the reductive aspects of modernist abstraction and exploring its impact in a contemporary context. The 10 participating artists critically digest the visual tools repetition, rhythm and pattern. From 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4. sdspace4art.org HPop Art Inked at ArtLab Studios, 3536 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Closing reception for this exhibition of work by more than two dozen San Diego tattoo artists.

From 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4. artlabca.com Art-A-Thon at ArtHatch, 317 E. Grand Ave., Escondido. More than 20 local artists will create artwork for 24 hours straight to raise money for ArtHatch’s teen program.

Stop by and see what they’re up to. An opening reception takes place on Jan. 11 and the artwork will be auctioned off in February. From 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, to 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5. arthatch.org SDMAAG 2014 Invitational Exhibition at Gallery 21, Spanish Village, Balboa Park.

Curated by Mark-Elliott Lugo, this exhibition includes 40 works by San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild members. On view through Jan. 13. Opening reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5. sdmaag.org Hostel Takeover Art Show: The Finale at Hostelling International, 521 Market St., East Village. Hostelling International presents this final in their series of exhibitions, featuring works by more than over 40 local artists. The evening includes music, food, interactive workshops, and more. $3 suggested donation. From 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Jan 5. facebook.com/ events/268805459938096 HNo Laughing Matter at Basic, 410 10th Ave., Downtown. Dozens of local artists showcase works based on the funny and unfunny side of comedians. There will also be music from DJ Garvinski. From 7 p.m. to midnight Tuesday, Jan. 7. 619531-8869, thumbprintgallerysd.com Landscapes Expressed at San Diego History Center, Balboa Park. A roundtable conversation with curators and artists involved in the museum’s current exhibition, Nature Improved. Hear about contemporary landscape painting and the collaboration between Oceanside Museum of Art and the San Diego History Center. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7. $10. 619232-623, sandiegohistory.org

BOOKS Janet White at Yellow Book Road, 7200 Parkway Drive, La Mesa. Meet the author of An African ABC, an illustrated alphabet book. Proceeds from the book go to support Kitenge Africa Foundation’s work to

educate and care for street children in Kampala, Uganda. From 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4. yellowbookroad.com Ernie Cowan at Rancho San Diego Library, 11555 Via Rancho San Diego, El Cajon. Photographer Ernie Cowan, author of Anza Borrego: A Photographic Journey, shares highlights of his work and discusses how to take breathtaking desert photographs. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7. 619-660-5370, sdcl.org HTom Clavin at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Clavin, the New York Times best-selling co-author of Halsey’s Typhoon and The Last Stand of Fox Company, will discuss and sign his latest book, The Heart of Everything That Is, the untold story of Native American legend Red Cloud. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8. 858-454-347, warwicks.indiebound.com

COMEDY Craig Shoemaker at Mad House Comedy Club, 52 Horton Plaza, Downtown.

The comic known for his character “The Lovemaster” was the winner of Best Male Comic on ABC’s American Comedy Awards, and has a special on Showtime right now called Daditude. At 10 p.m.

Tuesday, December 31. $20. 619-726666, madhousecomedyclub.com HPaula Poundstone at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. The legendary comic and regular panelist on NPR’s weekly news quiz show, “Wait Wait! Don’t Tell Me” performs a special New Year’s Eve show. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, December 31. $25-$42.50. 619-570-1100, sandiegotheatres.org Robert Kelly at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Not to be confused with R. Kelly, Robert recently played Louie CK’s brother Robbie on FX’s Louie and will soon be seen on CBS’s new drama, The 2-2. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 2, and Sunday, Jan. 5, and 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 3-4. $18.

619-795-3858, americancomedyco.com Esther Povitsky at Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St., La Jolla. While other children watched cartoons and played video games, Esther was watching Saturday Night Live at age 2. Her obsession with improv paid off, as she’s considered the next big thing in theatrical comedy. At 8 and 10:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, Jan. 3-4. $20. 858454-9176, lajolla.thecomedystore.com HAllison Gill at Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Voted San Diego’s funniest woman, and then funniest comic, Gill performs regularly at the major clubs including the Improv, The Comedy Palace, and hosted the now legendary Blarney Stone Pub open mic.

At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 3-4. $20-$25. 858-573-967, thecomedypalace.com

DANCE HA Culture Shock Nutcracker at Birch North Park Theater, 2891 University Ave., North Park. Fusing beloved tradition with hip-hop’s contemporary sound, the unique production reimagines Tchaikovsky’s vision in present day. At 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 3-4, and 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 4-5. $10-$20. 619239-8836, birchnorthparktheatre.net Spiritual Healing Dance Class at Centro Cultural de la Raza, 2125 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. The class guides you to understand deeper connections between body, mind and spirit. Learn how to explore movement and discover new ways to connect into an expanded spiritual level. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7. $10. 619-235-6135,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

COURTESY: MOXIE THEATRE

THEATER

The best San Diego plays of 2013 Stirring drama and exhilarating musical comedy capped a memorable year in theater in San Diego.

Here’s a look at the best of the best: The Bluest Eye, Moxie Theatre: A co-production with Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company, this adaptation of Toni Morrison’s first novel tells the heartbreaking story of little Pecola Breedlove (Cashae Monya), an African-American girl in 1940s Ohio starving for friendship and love. Moxie’s Delicia TurnerSonnenberg directed a faultless cast in a potent production that demonstrated restraint in its most unspeakable moments without sacrificing the impact of the play’s indictments of racism, incest and domestic abuse.

Tribes, La Jolla Playhouse: The sound of silence was unforgettable in the Playhouse’s production of Nina Raines’ 2010 play. A family scrupulously portrayed by Jeff Still, Lee Roy Rogers, Thomas DellaMonica, Dina

Thomas and Russell Harvard wrestles with questions of communication and “normalcy,” with deaf son Billy (Harvard) at the center of onerous, life-changing decisions. The engrossing, multilayered play had as much staying power as anything on stage locally this year.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, The Old Globe Theatre: Now on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre, this laugh-riot understandably wowed Globe theater-goers in the spring.

Just as he did in Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife a decade earlier, Jefferson Mays brilliantly inhabits multiple characters in Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak’s zany show, a cousin to the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets. No musical comedy in town all year was as inventively produced or as entertaining.

The Federal Jazz Project, San Diego Repertory Theatre: The poetry of Culture Clash co-founder Richard Montoya KEN JACQUES and the musicality of jazz trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos XXXX were made for each other.

(Castellanos’ lush playing provided the backdrop for a memorable Montoya monologue in Culture Clash’s Bordertown back in the ’90s, also at the Rep.) A southof-Broadway San Diego nightclub was the setting for this intrepid show, one bold enough to cast two women as “San Diego” and “Tijuana” and to cut away from Larry Raben (left) and the narrative for a Randall Hickman in Young Frankenstein foot-tapping jazz jam

session.

Grey Gardens, Ion Theatre Company: Linda Libby’s rendering of the soul-searing “Another Winter in a Summer Town” is just one devastatingly beautiful moment in this production of a 2006 musical (by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, with book by Doug Wright) based on a 1975 documentary about the Bouvier Beales, “Big Edie” and “Little Edie.” Ion’s little theater in Hillcrest was just the right setting for this claustrophobic telling of the disintegration of an American royal family.

Extraordinary Chambers, Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company: Mo’olelo’s Seema Sueko is moving on to the Pasadena Playhouse, but she leaves an estimable legacy behind, including directing the thoughtful Extraordinary Chambers in the summer. The extent of the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia is, sadly, little known to so many of us—at least 1.7 million people died in the ’70s. David Wiener’s play is shocking and enlightening, and Greg Watanabe’s Dr. Heng was one of the most chilling figures on stage locally in 2013.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Old Globe Theatre: The two Shakespeare productions in this year’s summer festival at the Globe (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice) were outshone by the Adrian Noble-directed Rosencrantz, which starred Jay Whittaker and John Lavelle, each superb. Tom Stoppard’s three-act deconstruction of Hamlet never flagged, and its comic existentialism provided just the right change of pace for open-minded summer audiences.

Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo, Ion Theatre Company: Ron Choulartan’s truth-seeking tiger

Cashae Monya in “The Bluest Eye.” got most of the buzz, but it was Brian Abraham’s topiary artist, Musa, who best inhabited the volatile spirit of Rajiv Joseph’s play set in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Ion’s Claudio Raygoza directed and also appeared as Saddam’s son, Uday, and Evan Kendig and Jake Rosko portrayed U.S. soldiers immersed in the chaos in Iraq. An ongoing search for answers, and for God, fueled the raw tension.

A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, San Diego Repertory Theatre: Herbert Siguenza, artist-in-residence at the Rep, wrote and starred in this delightful oneman show about the great master from Malaga, Spain. Not only does the likable Siguenza quip, philosophize and rant throughout; he also creates a body of Picasso-like paintings and sketches. Music and stage projections add to the entertainment, and by the time it’s over, you really feel as if you indeed spent a weekend with the man who said, “Art

washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

Young Frankenstein, Moonlight Stage Company: Who saw this coming? A production of Mel Brooks’ 2007 musical-stage adaptation of his own film that was just as much howling fun as the movie.

Yes, the songs are only so-so and the sight gags obvious, but it’s hard to see how anyone could fail to have a good time. Jessica Bernard even managed to pull off the impossible, to rival the late, great Madeline Kahn’s performance as Dr. FronkIn-Steen’s madcap fiancée.

Honorable mention: North Coast Repertory Theatre’s Time Stands Still, The Old Globe Theatre’s Other Desert Cities, Intrepid Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Venus in Fur.

—David L. Coddon Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING Beauty and the Beast: A jerk-face prince is turned into an awful-looking creature, and the only way he can reverse it is to claim the heart of a woman using only a newfound winning personality. Presented by Broadway San Diego, it runs Jan. 7 through 12 at the Civic Theatre, Downtown. broadwaysd.com In the Time of the Butterflies: The true story of four sisters who challenged Dominican dictator Generalissmo Rafael Trujillo in 1960. Presented by San Diego Repertory Theatre, it opens Jan. 4 at the Lyceum Theatre at Horton Plaza, Downtown. sdrep.org

For full listings,

please visit “T heater ” at sdcit ybeat.com

14 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

facebook.com/events/1439321519613434

FOOD & DRINK Whisky & Cheese at Venissimo at Headquarters, 789 West Harbor Drive, Seaport Village. Find out the best duos at this class that will pair six whiskies and six cheeses.

From 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8. $60. 619-358-9081. venissimo.com

MUSIC New Year’s Concert: Salute to Vienna at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. A festive New Year’s Day concert featuring more than 75 musicians and European singers and dancers in beautiful costumes. Enjoy a light-hearted blend of popular Strauss waltzes, polkas and

famous operetta excerpts from Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow and more. At 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1. $25-$85. 619615 - 3942, sandiegosymphony.org Carol Williams: Happy New Year Concert at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park. San Diego’s civic organist will perform a concert benefiting Reins, a therapeutic riding program where children and adults with disabilities. At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1. Williams also performs on Sunday, Jan. 5, at 2 p.m. sosorgan.org San Diego Clarinet Quintet at Carmel Valley Library, 3919 Townsgate Drive, Carmel Valley. The quintet will perform music

by Giovanni Gastoldi, Claude Debussy, J R Morton and Paquito D’Rivera. From 7 to 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8. carmelvalleylibrary.org

PERFORMANCE

SPORTS

A Prairie Home Companion at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown. Garrison Keilor brings his popular public-radio old-timey-style variety show to San Diego. At 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4. $38-$88. broadwaysd.com

San Diego Resolution Run 15K & 5K at Fiesta Island, Bay Park. Race through Mission Bay Park’s De Anza Cove, looping around Mission Bay on a 5K or 15K course. Saturday, Jan. 4. $15. sandyfeetevents.com

SPECIAL EVENTS

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS

San Diego International Auto Show at San Diego Convention Center, 111 West Harbor Drive, Downtown. Check out more than 400 vehicles from three dozen manufacturers, including 2014 models and an “exotics vault.” From 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, Jan. 1-4, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5. sdautoshow.com

Central American Women, War, and Immigration at Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown. Salvadoran writer, artist and scholar Beatriz Cortez will discuss the impacts of exile, memory and the role of women in the history of Central America as part of the Rep’s “Surround Events” series providing context for the

January running of the play, In the Time of the Butterflies. At 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4. 619-544-1000, sdrep.org Art & Architecture Distinguished Lecture Series at Oceanside Museum of Art, 74 Pier View Way, Oceanside. This lecture series will offer insight into art history from the Renaissance to modern times. Ann Hoehn will discuss topics such as Impressionism in France, Spain and Scandinavia; hidden symbolism in 17th century Dutch paintings and German Expressionism.

From 10:30 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Jan. 8. $10. 760-435-3720, oma-online.org

For full listings,

please visit “E vents” at sdcit yb eat.com

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

Art with impact 13 exhibitions and public artworks that made a mark on San Diego in 2013 • by Kinsee Morlan

A

nytime anyone puts together a best-of-theyear list, people get upset. Inclusion means exclusion, and, inevitably, those who get left out aren’t happy. For this list, I asked artists, curators and arts advocates to either submit their own artwork and exhibitions or recommend others. I got such a huge response that I was ultimately forced to whittle things way down and only include bigger exhibitions and more public types of art.

To those artists who submitted work, I promise your efforts weren’t in vain—you are officially on my radar and in a folder I use to help find story ideas and awesome art for CityBeat’s cover. Much of this list, which is in no particular order, is a result of my personal opinions and impressions of the past year. CityBeat contributor Susan Myrland filled in some major gaps since I spent a good chunk of 2013 under a rock otherwise known as motherhood.

Philipp Scholz Rittermann

credit for the tasteful collection of works sprawled across the county government’s new Operations Center. This year, the county unveiled fascinating new historical pieces in Jay Johnson’s “Artifact Display Project” and sleek large-scale sculptures by Jun Kaneko.

Robert Irwin’s “Hedge Wedge”

•••••

Karen Morrison

Product Etcetera designs | COMMunity@ Joy | 4484 Illinois St., North Park: Can you purposefully manufacCourtesy: Product Etcetera ture a cool community? Maybe. LWP Group Inc.’s COMMunity@ brand of real-estate development is thoughtful and unflinchingly hip. LWP makes visual art a big part of Product Etcetera’s portrait of every new developCharles and Ray Eames ment and its latest edition, COMMunity@ Joy in North Park, is no exception.

The remodeled apartment building features rad pop-art designs by local studio Product Etcetera.

Public-art commissions | San Diego Public Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village: The new central library is a hotbed of awesome art. Several stunning permanent public-art pieces can be found throughout the ultramodern, nine-story building. And that’s on top of the rotating exhibitions in the library’s Art Gallery and the works from the Civic Art Collection on view. One of the most striking and memorable works is “Corpus Callosum,” the whimsical site-specific elevator installation

by Einar and James de la Torre.

John Durant

“Corpus Callosum” by Einar and James de la Torre

•••••

Jay Johnson’s installation in the new Registrar of Voters building Public-art collection | San Diego County Operations Center | 5510 Overland Ave., Kearny Mesa: Public-art consultant Gail Goldman gets a lot of the

16 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

•••••

•••••

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Robert Irwin and Kim MacConnel | Federal courthouse | Broadway and Front Street, Downtown: The public artwork at the new Downtown courthouse is sophisticated, larger-than-life and helps to humanize and soften a serious and intense building. Robert Irwin’s “Hedge Wedge” installation in the outside courtyard is a testament to his ability to carefully craft and reshape negative space in the real world. Inside, Irwin’s 33-foottall prism piece elegantly catches light and reflects the images of those who’ve just entered through security.

Just around the corner, Kim MacConnel’s large-scale mural is lively, quirky and playful.

thing by artists Larry and Debby Kline, Raul Guerrero’s portraits featuring faces from San Diego art history and James Watts’ beautiful Kokeshi-doll sculptures.

San Diego artists | Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair 2013: There’s a lot to criticize at art fairs, which often include more commercial, sellable art. While that type of work was surely present at Art San Diego, there was plenty of more challenging work.

Among the outstanding pieces was nearly every-

Franz Krachtus

Philipp Scholz Rittermann

“The Real Deal” by Robert Irwin and Philipp Scholz Rittermann “The Real Deal” by Robert Irwin and Philipp Sholz Rittermann | 7611 Fay Ave., La Jolla: The Murals of La Jolla project has produced an astounding amount of public art in a very short time. The La Jolla Community Foundation commissions public-art projects on private property, avoiding much of the burdensome red tape of public art. Five new murals went up in 2013, the most remarkable of which is the photograph of a reality-altering Robert Irwin installation by photographer Philipp Sholz Rittermann. Rittermann has the skills and knowledge it takes to effectively capture and communicate the experiential nature of Irwin’s work.

••••• Ken Kondo

Please Be Seated | Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park: Chairs serve a simple function but come in wildly diverse forms.

The very good Please Be Seated exhibition, which is on view at the Mingei through March 30, is more a smattering than a survey, but the carefully selected samples give viewers a fun, interesting and educational whirlwind tour of seats, both historical and contemporary, from A chair from the English or around the world.

American aesthetic movement

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“The Candy Store” installation by Larry and Debby Kline

ICE Gallery artists installations | Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights: Early in 2013, the artists behind ICE Gallery—Michael James Armstrong, Lee Lavy, Joseph Huppert and Thomas Demello—were essentially given free rein inside the Bread & Salt warehouse. The result was four extraordinary, polished,

site-specific installations that breathed new life into the California light and space movement of the 1960s.

Michael James Armstrong

Lee Lavy’s untitled installation

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Pablo Mason

Tommy McAdams

works by some of San Diego’s top artists, who were allowed to take over different rooms inside a soon-to-berenovated building.

Next up was Warehouse 1425, a great show with a similar concept that featured many of the same artists. Sezio and Yeller Studio curated the first, artist Christopher Konecki the second.

Anonymous artists sent CityBeat Christopher Konecki’s instalemails, calling Warelation at Parachute Factory house 1425 a blatant rip-off of Parachute Factory. The supposed controversy seems pretty silly now, and all that remains is the fact that two killer shows left a lasting impression by displaying work by great artists like Dave Persue, Exist 1981, Neko, Surge, Christina Liu, Carly Ealey, Saratoga Sake, Brian Hebets, Tocayo and Bradford Lynn.

•••••

MIKESUMOTO

Cindy Sherman

um of Contemporary Art San Diego and Timken Museum of Art: We’re surely going to miss the excellent shows organized by former San Diego Museum of Art project curator Amy Galpin, who recently left for a similar position in Florida. She left a mark on San Diego with Behold America!, an excellent selection of works Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled” made in the United was on view at MCASD States, from the coas part of Behold America! lonial period to the present. Galpin got three major museums on board for the show, which was a walk through art history and included works by Cindy Sherman, Agnes Martin, Andy Warhol, Robert Henri and Eastman Johnson. The show opened in late 2012 but remained on view through early 2013. Galpin also curated SDMA’s interesting Women, War, and Industry exhibition on view now through Feb. 18.

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Installation view of The Very Large Array: San Diego / Tijuana Artists from the MCA Collection The Very Large Array: San Diego / Tijuana Artists from the MCA Collection | Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 1001 Kettner Blvd., Downtown: This show served as a reminder that the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego supports local artists. The Very Large Array pulled work from the museum’s collection, highlighting artists working in San Diego and Tijuana. The salon-style show included art by the best of the best, including David and Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Doris Bittar, Tania Candiani, Hugo Crosthwaite, Roman de Salvo, Brian Dick, Glenna Jennings, Italo Scanga, Anne Mudge, Perry Vasquez, Jaime Ruiz Otis and Victor Payan.

••••• Warehouse 1425 and Parachute Factory | Temporary site-specific exhibitions: First came Parachute Factory, a mind-blowingly good exhibition featuring site-specific

The opening show at TPG2 TPG2 opening exhibition | 1475 University Ave., Hillcrest: Paul Ecdao and Johnny Tran, the two curators behind Thumbprint Gallery, have clearly hit their stride.

The Nov. 15 opening exhibition of their new Hillcrest gallery, TPG2, hosted a blowout crowd and solid work. Artists featured in the group show included Eric Wixon, Brian Dombrowsky, Ricardo Islas, Dan Allen, Jack Stricker, Paul Brogden, Matthew Land and Pamela Jaeger.

••••• Behold America!: Art of the United States from Three San Diego Museums | San Diego Museum of Art, Muse-

Object Object!: A Selection of Smaller Works | Helmuth Projects, 1827 Fifth Ave., Bankers Hill: Helmuth demonstrated how a Philipp Scholz Rittermann small, alternative gallery can put together a compelling, museum-quality show with Object Object!, a group exhibition featuring small works by 71 artists. Curated by Good Good Things, a project of artists John Oliver Lewis and Jessica McCambly, the roster included highly respected local and international artists “10 Inches” by including Sean BranBrian Goeltzenleuchter nan, Tom Driscoll, Steve Gibson, Brian Goeltzenleuchter, Matthew Hebert, Jeff Irwin, May-Ling Martinez, Ingram Ober, Joe Yorty, Allison Wiese and Keri Oldham.

Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

No safety net The best films of 2013 were all uniquely daring

by Glenn Heath Jr. Long live the daring and dangerous films of 2013!

Despite claims to the contrary, a whole lot of movies mattered this year. The most audacious of the bunch challenged audience expectations and traditional narrative forms in complex ways.

The screen stories that interested me most this year were those that lived on the edge. Why else would it be worthwhile to—to steal a quote from Abbas Kiarostami’s masterpiece Like Someone in Love— “spend all my time looking through the window.”

As with most critics, I’ve been tasked with looking back at the last 12 months of film with some kind of clarity, as if that were coherently possible. Please consider this less a grand summation than a personal reflection on the pivotal works that dared to tackle difficult themes and emotions without the benefit of a safety net. Each played San Diego theaters for various lengths of time, some for merely a week: 1. Like Someone in Love: Iranian filmmaker Kiarostami’s Tokyo-set drama centers on the reflections and refractions of repression inside a culture dominated by formality. Long dialogue sequences weave together like poetic verse, unveiling the subtext in an emotional web that envelops the lives of a young escort (Rin Takanashi), an elderly professor (Tadashi Okuno) and a volatile young mechanic (Ryô Kase). Its luminous style suggests an unbridled elegance, but a knot of unspoken tension quickly tightens before suddenly being released in a violent crescendo of rage.

2. Museum Hours: A lovely and mysterious movie about camaraderie, art and ideas. With the utmost attention to detail, Jem Cohen directs the story of a Viennese museum guard (Bobby Sommer) who befriends a Canadian woman (Mary Margaret O’Hara) visiting a sick relative. The long, serpentine hallways of the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum become a nerve center for two lively people engaging the world in all its sublime and grotesque glory.

3. Drug War: Johnnie To is one of the most exciting directors in the world, and his no-holds-barred action film about an elite vice squad tasked with taking down an untouchable organized-crime ring proves exactly why. Buried under all the shoot-outs, methodical procedures and elaborate double-crosses is a thematic grenade lobbed directly at modern-day Chinese institutions that favor contradiction and corruption over humanity.

4. Before Midnight: The final section of Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy’s “Celine / Jessie” trilogy is a fitting close to one of the great collaborations in film history. It works perfectly as a sharp and nuanced exploration of a couple on the verge of a nervous breakdown, one that’s punctuated further by the past weight of its previous two entries. That remnants of romance and lust remain makes the final fight sequence even more potentially devastating.

5. To the Wonder: Looked down on by Terrence

18 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

Rin Takanashi in Like Someone in Love Malick devotées and haters alike, this swooning haloed melodrama is unabashedly non-narrative and lyrical. A love affair between an Oklahoma environmental scientist (Ben Affleck) and a French single mother (Olga Kurylenko) is the catalyst for a swooning saga that never stops spinning ideas and bodies into a tornado of emotion.

6. The Wolf of Wall Street: As nasty as movies come. Martin Scorsese’s brilliant shakedown of capitalism gone wild compares Jordan Belfort’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) heinous actions to that of a homegrown terrorist. His wake of destruction comes not from greed but from the desire to compromise everything and everyone with unabashed glee.

7. Inside Llewyn Davis: Lonely are the brave— and the resentful. Oscar Isaac’s lethargic folk singer spends much of Joel and Ethan Coen’s breezy 1960s tale mixing up the two emotions. He’s a man of constant sorrow, an artist coming to grips with his own diminishing returns. Incredibly written and shot, the film is a spry yet painful exploration of a man dealing with a single harsh reality: The world will keep spinning without his genius.

8. The Lone Ranger: I’ve been defending Gore Verbinski’s brilliant mega-western ever since it was released in July, and I might have to do so for the rest of my life, considering how potently it pisses people off. Not only is it a gorgeous example of Hollywood filmmaking; it’s also a frank and often dark deconstruction of American mythmaking. For proof, look no further than Johnny Depp’s Tonto, who recounts the story of the titular cowboy (Armie Hammer) to a young child while posing in a diorama of lifeless Old West artifacts. Talk about a brazen revisionist statement.

9. Spring Breakers: Harmony Korine’s glow-stick To the Wonder nightmare suggests that in our current acid-wash 21stcentury world, some of us have lost the ability to register rock bottom. Those who refuse accountability spiral deeper into the neon abyss, documenting their own demise by way of pop culture, ego and delusion. If the film has one pronounced credo, it’s that we are what we lust after, and we are lusting after self-destruction.

10. Gravity: Alfonso Cuarón’s death-defying leap from space, a pure cinematic adrenaline rush, gave me the most joy of any film at the multiplex this year.

Some have argued it’s all style and no substance, but I can’t help but feel those objections miss the film’s real achievement: the seamless meshing of Dr. Ryan Stone’s (Sandra Bullock) physical journey with a

spiritual and emotional reckoning where past trauma is revealed in its purest form.

For good measure, 10 superb honorable mentions: Woody Allen’s heartbreaking Blue Jasmine, Sarah Polley’s moving Stories We Tell, Abdellatif Kechiche’s yearning Blue is the Warmest Color, J.C. Chandor’s grand All is Lost, Brian DePalma’s kinky Passion, Joshua Oppenheimer’s horrific The Act of Killing, Steven Soderbergh’s crafty Side Effects, Steve McQueen’s harrowing 12 Years a Slave, Walter Hill’s fierce Bullet to the Head and Rob Zombie’s mind-melting The Lords of Salem.

Finally, five great theatrically released films that failed to reach San Diego: At Berkeley, Leviathan, Bastards, The Unspeakable Act and In the Fog. Seek them out at all costs.

Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Opening Open Grave: An amnesiac (Shalto Copley) wakes up in a pit of dead bodies with no memory of his identity or reason for being there. Screens at Reading Gaslamp Cinemas.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones: A young man (Andrew Jacobs) begins experiencing strange phenomenon before realizing he’s been marked by an evil spirit. It’s the latest entry in the popular found-footage horror series.

Sleeping with the Fishes: Gina Rodriguez (Filly Brown) and Ana Ortiz (Devious Maids) star in this rambunctious romantic comedy directed by Nicole Gomez Fisher about two sisters navigating the dynamics of their crazy immediate family. Screens through Jan. 9 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

One Time Only So Proudly We Hail: Director Mark Sandrich’s Hollywood WWII-propaganda film stars Claudette Colbert and Veronica Lake as nurses who recall their experiences of combat and love after returning from the battle-plagued Philippines.

Screens at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3, at the

San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

Find details on Page 13.

Walk on Water: A brutal Mossad agent goes undercover as a tour guide to infiltrate the life of a Nazi war criminal hiding in Germany. Screens at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village.

The Day I Saw Your Heart: Justine (Melanie Laurent), an aspiring artist with commitment issues, goes through boyfriends at a rapid pace. When she finally finds a keeper, her neurotic father’s midlife crisis threatens to ruin her happiness. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6, at the San Diego Public Library in East Village.

All is Bright: Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd play Canadian thieves trying to go legit by selling Christmas trees in Brooklyn, which turns out to be harder than they imagined.

Phil Morrison (Junebug) directs. Screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7, at the Hervey Branch Library in Point Loma.

Now Playing 47 Ronin: After their master is killed by a ruthless shogun, a band of samurai set out for revenge. Why they asked Keanu Reeves for help is still a mystery.

Grudge Match: Two aged boxers (Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro) are coaxed back into the ring in order to capitalize on their longtime rivalry. Call us crazy, but we don’t think this film will live up to Rocky or Raging Bull.

Justin Bieber’s Believe: Yep, you read that correctly. Yet another behind-thescenes documentary about the young pop star who can’t help but find trouble wherever his pompadour lands.

in the 1990s.

American Hustle: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence star in David O’Russell’s retelling of the infamous Abscam sting established by the FBI in order to capture corrupt politicians and gangsters in the late 1970s.

Anchorman: The Legend Continues: Infamous San Diego newscaster and lothario Ron Burgundy (Will Farrell) brings his motley crew of wacky colleagues to New York City in hopes of making it big on a national television channel.

Inside Llewyn Davis: Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest odyssey is set in 1961 Greenwich Village, where a struggling folk singer (Oscar Isaac) comes to grips with his failure as an artist and a human being.

Saving Mr. Banks: Marry Poppins scribe P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) travels to Los Angeles to discuss a potential film adaptation by Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) in this whimsical biopic about two artists struggling to compromise.

Out of the Furnace: The hills of Appalachia are alive with the sound of violence in this mountain noir starring Christian Bale as a blue-collar worker attempting to find his kidnapped brother (Casey Affleck), who’s being held by a local gangster (Woody Harrelson).

For a complete listing of movies, please see “F ilm S creenings” at sdcit yb eat.com under the “E vents” tab.

Khumba: An animated film about a zebra marked as an outcast after he’s born with only half his stripes. His herd blames him for the current drought, forcing Khumba to embark on a journey to find a magical watering hole. Screens through Jan. 2 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Maidentrip: Laura Decker, a daring 14year-old girl, embarks on a two-year voyage, hoping to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone.

Screens through Jan. 2 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Ben Stiller revamps the 1947 Danny Kaye classic with a bigger budget and a bigger emphasis on the healing power of corporate products.

The Wolf of Wall Street: Martin Scorsese’s sprawling comedic look at the rise and fall of Wall Street huckster Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who became an infamous figure in New York City

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

The best albums of 2013 Seven writers pick their favorites fter 12 months of listening to new music and being buried alive by promo CDs, we’ve selected our favorite records of the year. Here are seven albums that made the top of our list:

A

Brown Bird, Fits of Reason (S&D): Composed of real-life couple David Lamb and MorganEve Swain, Rhode Island’s Brown Bird often gets lumped in with the Americana revival for their stripped-down compositions. But the duo’s folkmetal stylings are more akin to something medieval. The sixth track, “Iblis” (Islamic for “Devil”), is an instrumental tune that sounds like something one might dance to at a witch burning. Yet, the song’s subtle electric guitar, tambourine and fiddle feel contemporary, even avant-garde. The album’s title was inspired by the Thomas Paine quote, “Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it,” and the citation fits neatly with the band’s cerebral songwriting, which exposes listeners to harsh, morally ambiguous themes often ignored and obfuscated by popular culture.

—Joshua Emerson Smith Chance the Rapper, Acid Rap (self-released): Chance the Rapper has the voice of a Looney Tunes character and the narrative prowess of Marcel Proust. He has an endless thirst for music—with exuberant productions featuring vintage soul, Chicago juke, elegiac boom-bap and weirdo bedroom experimentation—and a reputation as one of the nation’s next great hip-hop artists.

On Acid Rap, the 20-yearold Chicago MC is baptized by LSD, frolicking in the rain with his jacket as a cape and umbrella as a cane. He raps about love and sex, childhood memories and gang violence and evokes all five senses with his indelible imagery: cocoa butter kisses, diagonal grilled cheeses, cigarette-stained smiles, phantom screams. This is only Chance’s second mixtape (available for free download on his website); it isn’t even an “official” album. But in emotion and execution, it’s nearly perfect.

—Peter Holslin Deafheaven, Sunbather (Deathwish Inc.): Listen to Sunbather with your eyes closed. Block out everything, ignore the critics who say it’s too heavy or, conversely, not metal enough. This is an album that skirts redundancy by

20 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

simultaneously sounding like a band losing everything and having nothing left to lose. It’s a perpetual swan song. It’s music made by desperate people for desperate people. Fire your therapist; listen to this album instead.

The 7:24 mark on the first track, “Dream House,” is the soundtrack to falling into a bottomless pit, while 7:55 of the final song, “The Pecan Tree,” releases you into infinite sky. Now, with your eyes still closed, look at the sun, because it’s only possible to view such brightness from this darkness.

—Ryan Bradford Disclosure, Settle (CherryTree / Interscope): At 19 and 22, respectively, U.K. duo Howard and Guy Lawrence have constructed a debut so well-produced, so well-thoughtout, so nearly perfect that it’s hard to classify. Is it a pop record? A dance record? Who cares when it’s this good.

Settle has it all: impeccable sequencing, expertly crafted melodies and unrelenting, infectious beats. Not to mention the duo pulling off a minor miracle by successfully incorporating eight guest vocalists without losing cohesion. But the fact that this Mercury Prize-nominated album is their first attempt at a fulllength release is the most mind-boggling. If musicians this young can produce a debut this polished and compelling, what can they possibly do for a second act?

—Scott McDonald The Knife, Shaking the Habitual (Mute): If you thought The Knife couldn’t possibly create a piece of music longer and more unwieldy than their 2010 “opera” made in collaboration with Planningtorock and Mt. Sims, Tomorrow in a Year, then I’d like to have seen your face when the Swedish brother-sister duo dropped the noisy, industrial-art triple-album Shaking the Habitual. Political in nature, frequently terrifying, occasionally danceable, at times quite hilarious and consistently captivating, Shaking the Habitual is an album seemingly without precedent. Only occasionally does The Knife hit a groove that sounds like any of their previous work,

swapping out electronic beats for polyrhythmic arrangements and disorienting layers of sound. They still mangle their voices and craft wonderfully ornate nightmares, but this time, their haunted, haunting soundscapes incorporate dick jokes, Salt-n-Pepa references, calls to arms against the 1 percent and even interpretive dance. Every revolution should be so spectacular.

—Jeff Terich Starlito, Funerals and Court Dates (Grind Hard): Author James Baldwin once claimed (with greater eloquence than I can) that an artist’s job is to express pain in order to connect with, and ease, others’ pain. Nashville rapper Starlito certainly seems to take this to heart. His raspy drawl has likely been abused by weed, but it sounds like it’s taken more lumps from life itself, even when he’s snapping about how fly he is. He makes gangsta rap with a conscience and explores the dark side of running the streets. On the title track to Funerals & Court Dates, that dark side means dying in a cycle of street violence before coming back as a ghost and apologizing to your unborn son for using him as an excuse to stay involved in shady dealings. Few do repentance like this.

—Quan Vu Veronica Falls, Waiting For Something to Happen (Slumberland): The best chorus on Veronica Falls’ Waiting for Something to Happen—an album packed with amazing choruses—perfectly captures the fluttery feeling of spending time with someone you wish was a special someone: “Driving late at night, I let you listen to the music you like,” Roxanne Clifford sings through the album’s ever-present echo. “Then I drop you home.” At that moment, you can practically hear the car door slam and see our protagonist exhale and break out in a huge grin. Waiting is full of these little turns of phrase set to irresistible melodies, submerged in a haze of melancholic, jangling guitars. On their sophomore album, Veronica Falls are taut and focused and stick to their strength: C86inspired indie pop, which they do better than just about anyone these days.

—Ben Salmon Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

notes from the smoking patio Glenna Jennings

Top 10 local albums of 2013 I set a goal to listen to more than 300 albums in 2013, and though I lost track, I have a feeling I at least came pretty close. A lot of those were by local musicians, and a lot of those were excellent. Here are my 10 favorite albums by San Diego artists this year: 10. Kodiak, Kodiak (self-released): It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for a furiously intense punk or hardcore record, and that’s precisely what Kodiak delivered on their raw, unrelenting new self-titled album. It’s fast, it’s loud and it’ll kick your ass.

Author & Punisher OK, technically, this seven-track EP was released at the end of 2012. But a late-December release might as well be folded into the next year, and, as such, dynamo MC Odessa Kane’s newest seven-track EP is a powerful entry for local hip-hop. Produced by Odessa’s brother, Infinity Gauntlet, Cuetes is a dark and intense set of political hip-hop that hits hard and goes for the jugular.

4. Gloomsday, Paradise Tossed (self-released): I’m not sure there’s a band in San Diego right now that’s as much fun as doom-pop duo Gloomsday.

Justin Cota and Lori Sokolowski carve up heavy, hip-shaking rhythms with plenty of meat on their bones in spite of the stripped-down set up. I doubt they’re the first band to recall Black Sabbath and The B-52s simultaneously, but they certainly show how genius that is.

9. Monochromacy, Cement Cathedrals (Stay Strange): The inaugural release on the Stay Strange label, Esteban Flores’ new EP as Monochromacy is a blend of atmospheric darkness, shoegaze-like density and hypnotic experimentation. It’s gorgeous, slow- 3. Barbarian, City of Women (self-released): At any moving and often-unsettling stuff—and proof that our given moment throughout this six-song EP, Barbarcoastal burg can still produce eerily affecting music. ian can evoke a late-summer melancholy, an ethereal 8. Gayle Skidmore, Sleeping Bear (self-released): dreaminess or disorienting hallucination—all with San Diego produces an alarmingly high number of some great hooks to back it all up. And they’ve got singer-songwriters, so it takes a lot to make a sound more on the way in 2014.

2. Tropical Popsicle, Dawn of Delight (Volar): The first full-length showcase for Tim Hines’ trippy songwriting, Tropical Popsicle’s debut displays staggering versatility. They nimbly leap from paisley 7. The Heavy Guilt, The Heavy Guilt (self-released): jangle-pop on “The Age of Attraction” to hypnotic I’m pretty wary of a lot of blues-influenced rock mu- new wave on “Ghost Beacons.” Though the group sic; very little of it stands out from the flock. Such isn’t has clearly done its ’80s homework, they catalyze it the case with The Heavy Guilt, who not only continue into exciting new sounds. to be one of the best live bands in town, but also re- 1. Author & Punisher, Women and Children (Sevleased a killer third album this year. The band knows enth Rule): In a year full of great music, one record its way around a riff, a groove and a melody and puts that I inevitably kept coming back to is the third a lot of sweat and muscle into showing that off. That’s album by doom-metal artist / engineer Tristan Shone. Shone manages to keep finding new, richly what rock music’s all about, Charlie Brown.

6. Retox, YPLL (Epitaph): Any band that features textured spaces to crawl into, slowly and with an both Justin Pearson and Gabe Serbian is guaranteed impending sense of danger and terror. Yet, Women to rip, and Retox keep making that case on new album and Children is also quite beautiful in parts, despite YPLL. Even more direct than members’ previous how crushing and violent it gets. This is what the bands, such as The Locust or All Leather, YPLL is a future of metal sounds like. that rises above the others. Gayle Skidmore has the songwriting chops and instrumental talent to pull it off; however, her new album, Sleeping Bear, is a marvel of gorgeously produced chamber pop.

streamlined set of no-nonsense hardcore that seethes, snarls and compels the body to jerk in ecstasy.

Write to jefft@sdcitybeat.com 5. Odessa Kane, Cuetes & Balisongs (self-released): and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

22 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

—Jeff Terich

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

if i were u

BY Jeff Terich

Wednesday, Jan. 1 PLAN A: Aspirin, Fluids, Regrets @ Your House. New Year’s Eve is perhaps the most debauched night of the year, so if you did go out last night, there’s a good chance you’d prefer to spend the day sleeping it off, or at least just playing it low-key. Nothing wrong with that—if you’re lucky, there’s a Law and Order marathon on USA. PLAN B: Butler, Nothingful, 100 Onces, Junior Bob @ Soda Bar. If you sober up in time, check out Butler, whose mathematical prog-rock is best experienced after the hangover subsides.

this rowdy show—not if you know what’s good for you. PLAN B: Zongo Junction, In Motion Collective @ Soda Bar. Brooklyn Afrobeat troupe Zongo Junction feature five horns and a six-piece rhythm section, and, to be honest, I’m not sure how they’re all going to fit on the Soda Bar stage. But it’s worth coming to the show to see how they work it out (and to revel in their furious grooves). BACKUP PLAN: Terry Malts, Tiltwheel, Boats!, Roxy Jones, New Rome Quartet @ Til-Two Club.

Thursday, Jan. 2

Sunday, Jan. 5

PLAN A: Matthew Sweet, Cardielles @ Belly Up Tavern. While it’s been heavily overshadowed by grunge, the ’90s was a great time for power-pop, and one of the musicians responsible for that is Matthew Sweet, who continues to pen upbeat, melodic pop treats. PLAN B: Neil Hamburger, DJ Douggpound, Grammatical B, Pony Death Ride @ The Casbah. The Casbah celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, and it’s lined up some incredible bands to celebrate. The first big show is comedian Neil Hamburger, whose so-not-funny-it ’s-highart schtick is legendary.

Laugh at the absurdity and join the party. BACKUP PLAN: Mafard, Taken by Canadians @ Soda Bar.

PLAN A: Califone, Little White Teeth @ Soda Bar. Check out last week’s feature on Chicago experimental folk group Califone, who’ve undergone lineup changes and relocations but still create mesmerizing, space-age alt-country. PLAN B: Bells Atlas, Idyll Wild, Colocelot @ The Griffin.

Familiarize yourself with Bells Atlas, a Bay Area band that blends indie rock, soul and Afrobeat in a way that recalls the likes of The Dirty Projectors. Local math-rock outfit Idyll Wild is opening, so get there good and early.

Monday, Jan. 6

PLAN A: Corrections House, Author & Punisher, Wrekmeister Harmonies @ Soda Bar. A supergroup of sorts that features members of Neurosis, Friday, Jan. 3 Eyehategod and Yakuza, PLAN A: Chain and the Corrections House have Gang, Tropical Popsicle, metal in their background Chain and the Gang but specialize in more The Shivas, DJs Michael Zimmerman, Josh Quon @ Til-Two Club. experimental, industrial sounds. It’s only Helmed by Ian Svenonious, legendary fitting, then, that San Diego’s own indusfrontman of bands like Nation of Ulysses trial architect, Author & Punisher, is openand The Make-Up, Chain and the Gang is a ing. BACKUP PLAN: Ed Ghost Tucker, stripped-down, danceable and beyond-cool Neighbors to the North, Pleasure Fix @ garage-rock outfit. The man knows how to The Casbah. put on a show, so don’t miss this one. PLAN B: Poison Idea, Attitude Adjustment, Dissension, Out of Tune, D.E.A. @ Brick Tuesday, Jan. 7

by Brick. Portland hardcore heroes Poison PLAN A: Three Mile Pilot, Tit Wrench, Idea have influenced countless metal and ANA @ The Casbah. Of the many notable, punk bands, and with good reason: With must-see reunions happening at The Casbah all their power, volume and ferocity, few this month, one particularly fun show will hardcore bands in the ’80s wrote songs as be the return of Three Mile Pilot, who regood as theirs. BACKUP PLAN: Nostalgic emerged in 2009 when the club turned 20 People, Proud Moon, Inspired and The and then sorta went quiet again. But they’re back, so don’t miss their moody indie-rock Sleep, Meraki @ The Che Café. tunes this time. PLAN B: The Lonely Wild, The Heavy Guilt @ Soda Bar. Twangy Los Saturday, Jan. 4 Angeles indie rockers The Lonely Wild are PLAN A: The Dragons, The Creepy taking up residence at Soda Bar on Tuesday Creeps, Phantoms, Black Hondo @ The nights throughout January, so this won’t be Casbah. Sure to be one of the highlights of your last chance to see them. But on this The Casbah’s month-long party is the return night in particular, they’re joined by The of The Dragons, one of this town’s greatest Heavy Guilt, giving you all the more reason no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll bands. Don’t miss to see them early.

24 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

HOT! NEW! FRESH! Ab-Soul (Porter’s Pub, 1/31), Los Lobos (BUT, 2/13), Touche Amore (Epicentre, 2/13), The Lawrence Arms (Casbah, 2/15), Quilt (Soda Bar, 2/16), Ringo Deathstarr (Soda Bar, 2/19), Van She (Soda Bar, 2/20).

GET YER TICKETS No Knife (Casbah, 1/8), Janelle Monae (HOB, 1/13), Switchfoot (Casbah, 1/15), X (Casbah, 1/16), The Penetrators (Casbah, 1/17), Skinny Puppy (HOB, 1/25), OFF! (Casbah, 1/29), Mayer Hawthorne (HOB, 1/30), The Menzingers (Che Café, 1/30), Oneohtrix Point Never (The Irenic, 2/8), Young The Giant (SOMA, 2/9), Brandon Boyd and Sons of the Sea (HOB, 2/11), New Politics (HOB, 2/17), Marissa Nadler (Soda Bar, 2/23), The Wailers (BUT, 3/2), Gary Numan (BUT, 3/5), The Ataris (HOB, 3/7), St. Vincent (HOB, 3/19), G. Love and Special Sauce (HOB, 3/21), Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings (HOB, 3/22), Xiu Xiu (Soda Bar, 3/25), Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks (Casbah, 3/29), Cut Copy (HOB, 4/2), Tiger Army (HOB, 4/16), Lady Gaga (Viejas Arena, 6/2).

January Thursday, Jan. 2 Matthew Sweet at Belly Up Tavern.

Friday, Jan. 3 Pato Banton at Belly Up Tavern. Poison

Idea at Brick By Brick. The Paladins at The Casbah

Saturday, Jan. 4 Tower of Power at Belly Up Tavern. The Dragons at The Casbah.

Sunday, Jan. 5 Califone at Soda Bar.

Monday, Jan. 6 Corrections House at Soda Bar.

Tuesday, Jan. 7 Three Mile Pilot at The Casbah.

Wednesday, Jan. 8 No Knife at The Casbah.

Thursday, Jan. 9 No Knife at The Casbah. Sea Wolf at Luce Loft.

Friday, Jan. 10 Jonny Lang at Belly Up Tavern. The Rugburns at The Casbah. Mobb Deep at House of Blues.

Saturday, Jan. 11 The Dickies at Soda Bar. Beat Farmers at Belly Up Tavern. Sweet and Tender Hooligans at The Casbah. Nipsey Hussle at Porter’s Pub.

Sunday, Jan. 12 Tennis at Soda Bar. David Lindley at Belly Up Tavern.

Monday, Jan. 13

Janelle Monae at House of Blues. Pinback at The Casbah.

Tuesday, Jan. 14 Pinback at The Casbah.

Wednesday, Jan. 15 Martha Davis and The Motels at Belly Up Tavern. Switchfoot at The Casbah.

Thursday, Jan. 16 X at The Casbah. Crooks on Tape at Soda Bar.

Friday, Jan. 17 Johnette Napolitano at The Griffin. Gungor at House of Blues. The Penetrators at The Casbah.

Saturday, Jan. 18 Parquet Courts at Che Café. Buck O Nine at The Casbah.

Sunday, Jan. 19 Volcano Choir at House of Blues

Monday, Jan. 20 Weedeater at Soda Bar.

Tuesday, Jan. 21 3 Doors Down at House of Blues

Wednesday, Jan. 22 Mint Condition at Jacobs Center. Dent May at Soda Bar. Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects at The Casbah.

Thursday, Jan. 23 The White Buffalo at Belly Up Tavern.

Kisses at Soda Bar. Sound Tribe Sector 9 at House of Blues.

Friday, Jan. 24 Creedle at The Casbah. Pure Bathing Culture at Soda Bar.

Saturday, Jan. 25 Smile at The Casbah. Wooden Shjips at Soda Bar. Skinny Puppy at House of Blues. Islands at The Griffin.

Sunday, Jan. 26 Mutual Benefit at Soda Bar. Hot Tuna at Belly Up Tavern.

Wednesday, Jan. 29 OFF! at The Casbah. Reggie and The Full Effect at The Irenic.

Ab-Soul will be at Porter’s Pub on Jan. 31.

Monday, Feb. 3

Thursday, Jan. 30 The Blasters at Soda Bar. Mayer Hawthorne at House of Blues. Wild Cub at The Loft. The Menzingers at The Che Café.

Into It. Over It. at The Che Café.

Thursday, Feb. 6 Delorean at The Casbah.

Friday, Jan. 31 DJ Z-Trip at Belly Up Tavern. MXPX at The Irenic. Frankie Rose at Soda Bar. Rocket From the Crypt at The Casbah.

Ab-Soul at Porter’s Pub.

February Saturday, Feb. 1 Cate LeBon at Soda Bar. Ash at The Casbah. Futurebirds at The Griffin.

Friday, Feb. 7 A Minor Forest at The Casbah. Ramon Alaya at House of Blues.

Saturday, Feb. 8 Ras Kass at Porter’s Pub. Oneohtrix Point Never at The Irenic.

Sunday, Feb. 9 White Denim at The Casbah. Young the Giant at SOMA.

Sunday, Feb. 2 Yuck at The Casbah. Japanther at Soda Bar.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

Tuesday, Feb. 11 Brandon Boyd and Sons of the Sea at House Of Blues.

rCLUBSr 710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: ‘Rock Out Karaoke’. Fri: No Kings, 2000 Tons of TNT, Dewey and The Peoples. Sat: Zen Robbie, Sunny Rude, Two Day Job. Tue: ‘710 Bass Club’.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Fri: Tony Suraci. Sat: Allison Adams Tucker.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco. com. Thu-Sun: Robert Kelly. Tue: Open mic.

Basic, 410 10th Ave, Downtown. barbasic.com. Tue: No Laughing Matter.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla. brocktonvilla.com/beaumonts.html.

Thu: Phil Carillo. Fri: Sky Held Sun. Sat: Jones Revival. Sun: Sando.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Thu: Matthew Sweet, The Cardielles. Fri: Pato Banton, Hirie. Sat: Tower of Power, Jimmy Woodard. Sun: The Pettybreakers.

Tue: James Durbin, Kelley James.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. boarcrossn.net. Fri: ‘Club Musae’. Sat: JAM Kwest.

Bourbon Street, 4612 Park Blvd, University Heights. bourbonstreetsd.com.

Wed: ‘Awe Snap! I Love the 90s’ w/ VJ K-Swift. Thu: ‘Wet’. Fri: ‘Go-Go Friday’ w/ VJ K-Swift. Sun: ‘Soiree’. Tue: Open

mic karaoke.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave, Bay Park. brickbybrick.com. Fri: Poison Idea, Attitude Adjustment, Dissension, Out of Tune, DEA. Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Clairemont. thecomedypalace.com.

Fri-Sat: Allison Gill.

Comedy Store, 916 Pearl St, La Jolla. lajolla.thecomedystore.com. Fri-Sat: Esther Povitsky.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, Mission Bay. dizzyssandiego.com. Fri: Mikan Zlatkovich and Brian Levy. Sat: Sharifah and the Good Thing.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mira Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: The Hallowed, Felonies, A Deadly Wish, We the Collectors, Glass Dimensions, Mayfair, Nothing Haunts Me. Sat: ‘Typhoon Haiyan benefit show’.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Fri: Kyle Flesch. Sat: DJ Brett Bodley.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Wed: JJ Flores, Jack da Ripper. Fri: Freshone, DJ Spinatra. Sun: ‘Sunday School’ w/ DJs Sid Vicious, Kurch.

Henry’s Pub, 618 Fifth Ave, Downtown. henryspub.com. Wed: Johnny Tarr, DJ Christopher London. Thu: Mark Fisher, DJ Yodah. Fri: DJs Rev, Yodah. Sat: DJs E, Yodah. Mon: DJs Yodah, Joey Jimenez.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Fri: SIN. Sat: Reel Big Fish, The Pietasters, Suburban Legends, The Maxies.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Mid-

26 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

town. kavalounge.com. Wed: ‘Future Wednesday’. Thu: ‘Night Shift’. Fri: ‘S.H.A.F.T.’. Sat: ‘Ascension’. Sun: Modular, Jon Noble.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave, Normal Heights. lestats.com. Mon: Open mic. Tue: Comedy night.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. numberssd.com. Thu: ‘Varsity Gaymer’.

Fri: ‘Viernes Calientes’ w/ DJs Sebastian La Madrid, Rubin. Sat: ‘Bear Night’ w/ DJs Jon Williams, Candy. Sun: ‘Joe’s Gamenite’. Tue: Karaoke Latino.

Onyx Room / Thin, 852 Fifth Ave, Downtown. onyxroom.com. Tue: ‘Neo Soul Tuesday’.

Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed: Mystique Element of Soul. Thu: Johnny Vernazza. Fri: Bill Magee Blues Band. Sat: Len Rainey’s Midnight Players. Sun: The TNT Band.

Mon: The Groove Squad. Tue: Paddys Chicken Jam. Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St, North Park. queenbeessd.com. Tue: ‘Lyrical Exchange open mic’.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: DJ Marcel. Fri: DJs Dirty Kurty, Will Z. Sat: DJ Taj. Sun: ‘PUMP!’ Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave, La Mesa. rivierasupperclub.com. Fri: Three Chord Justice. Sat: Baja Bugs.

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Sat: Nuclear Tomorrow, Gore Horsemen, Red Devil Squadron.

Side Bar, 536 Market St, Downtown. sidebarsd.com. Thu: ‘Divino Thursday’.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City

Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: Butler, Nothingful, 100 Onces, Junior Bob. Thu: Mafard, Taken By Canadians. Fri: Danny and the Tramp, Spero, Duping the Public. Sat: Zongo Junction, In Motion Collective. Sun: Califone, Little White Teeth. Mon: Corrections House, Author and Punisher, Wrekmeister Harmonies. Tue: The Lonely Wild, The Heavy Guilt.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Fri: Moonshine, Africats, Act Natural, Woolly Mammal, Trouble in the Jungle, Seminole. Sat: Seconds Ago, Deadweight, Head of the Hydra, A Truth Betrayed, Hospice, Fly by Night.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Sun: ‘Reggae Sunday’.

Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: Mark Fisher and Gaslamp Guitars. Thu: Van Roth. Fri: Jester’s Fate (8 p.m.); Disco Pimps (10:30 p.m.). Sat: Hott Mess (9:30 p.m.); DJ Miss Dust (10:30 p.m.).

Sun: ‘Funhouse/Seismic’. Mon: ‘Fettish Monday’.

The Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Thu: ‘Boyz Club’. Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA. Sun: ‘Noche Romantica’ w/ Daisy Salinas, DJ Sebastian La Madrid.

Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJs Junior the DiscoPunk, XP. The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Thu: Neil Hamburger, DJ Douggpound, Grammatical B, Pony Death Ride. Fri: The Paladins, Big Sandy and His Fly Rite Boys, The Bedbreakers.

Sat: The Dragons, The Creepy Creeps, The Phantoms, Black Hondo. Sun: El Vez Punk Rock Revue, Schitzophonics, Diana Death. Mon: Ed Ghost Tucker, Neighbors

to the North, Pleasure Fix. Tue: Three Mile Pilot, Tit Wrench, ANA. The Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Thu: Bobby Meader. Fri: Nostalgic People, Proud Moon, Inspired and the Sleep, Meraki.

The Griffin, 1310 Morena Blvd, Bay Park. thegriffinsd.com. Fri: Blacktop Royalty, The Young Romans, Steff and the Articles. Sat: Neveready. Sun: Bells Atlas, Idyll Wild. Tue: Reason to Rebel, Flaggs, Mrs. Henry.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Fri: Chain and the Gang. Sat: Terry Malts, Tiltwheel, Boats!, Roxy Jones, New Rome Quintet.

Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com.

Thu: Tori Roze and the Hot Mess, Chocolate Revolution, Tiffany Jane. Fri: Jagged Lines, Robin Hill, Strangely Strange. Sat: Old Man Wizard, North, Griever. Mon: ‘Tin Can Country Club’ w/ Shawn Rohlf.

Tue: Hanging From the Rafters, Lavender Mirror, Bakkuda.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Fri: Karaoke. Tue: DJ Greg Zydeco.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Fri: ‘Hip Hop vs. Punk Rock’ w/ Maniac, Flatline and Kognia, Suga Bear, DJ Unite.

U-31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Sat: ‘Wavy House Party’ w/ DJ 1979.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Open mic. Thu: Raja Lyon, Tan Sister Radio, Olde Jesus.

Fri: Viento Callejero, Cumbia Machin.

Sat: ‘Ocean Boogie’. Mon: Electric Waste Band.

Proud sponsor: Pacific Nature Tours

Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig

Across 1. Sarah McLachlan hit covered by Avril Lavigne 5. Load separate from colors 11. “Gangnam Style” singer 14. Endure 15. Beat on a course 16. “So that’s your game” 17. “Sleepless in Seattle II: We Need to Get to the Hospital Now”? (Happy New Year to baby Hildegard of Bingen!)

20. Like some stockings or boots 21. Moves leaves 22. Letters addressed to an airplane, perhaps 23. Dad’s rackful 25. Thanksgiving? (Happy New Year to President-elect George W. Bush!)

31. President after U.S.G. 32. Crude shelter 33. Duke’s daughter 36. Bases’ opposites 38. Hair slickener 39. Important means of communing with Jah 40. “Anchors Aweigh” readiness gp.

41. Go to a higher court, say 43. Trent Reznor’s band, briefly 44. Sequel to a 2013 3D film in which Manny Pacquiao spars in space? (Happy New Year to adolescent Jesus!)

47. Coax 48. Personal ad abbr.

49. Verdi baritone aria 52. Start, as a club?

57. Off-the-cuff riffs about old-timey clothescleaning devices? (Happy New Year to Emperor Justinian I!)

Last week’s answers

60. Heavenly sphere 61. 36-Across neutralizer 62. “In the Valley of ___” (2007 Tommy Lee Jones film) 63. Burns of PBS docs 64. Make straight 65. Song word repeated after “Que”

Down 1. “Madonna: Truth or Dare” director Keshishian 2. Put through hell?

3. “Crystal clear” 4. Doing nothing 5. Old-style emo expression 6. Like one who has to manage a large staff?

7. Vexing problem when your arms are restrained 8. Have a go at 9. Injured body part in a 2013 “Girls” episode 10. Was loud in bed?

11. Fill a suitcase, say 12. Half of many a Zappos delivery 13. Orange tubers 18. Grave robbers and such 19. Indian spice mix 23. British tea name 24. One-on-one offense, in basketball slang 25. ___ Farbissina of the “Austin Powers” films 26. Foundational skills 27. Either of two “The Cat in the Hat” characters 28. Crow relative 29. Like Charlie Brown 30. One-named New Age pianist 34. Spirit in a bottle: Var. 35. Up the ying ___ 37. “Sex for Dummies” author 39. Appeared positively postcoital 41. Hitters attempt to keep it up: Abbr.

42. Keep it in one’s pants 45. Oranjestad dweller 46. Show that influenced “Lost,” with “The” 49. Small, furry Rebel Alliance ally 50. Bloody, perhaps 51. Amazon.com ID 52. Hot dog alternative 53. Doing nothing 54. Its Egyptian name simply means “river” 55. Transport on a slope 56. Worker protection agcy.

58. Cry for Argentina, perhaps 59. Alias preceder

A pair of tickets for a 4.5 or 8 hour Pacific Nature Tour will be awarded weekly. Email a picture of your answers to crossword@sdcitybeat.com or fax it to 619-325-1393. Limit one win per person per 30 days.

December 31, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

28 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

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30 · San Diego CityBeat · December 31, 2013

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