s-2012-09-13 by News & Review

GRID NEWS GETS A HOME see Midtown&Down, page 10

PROSTITUTES AGAINST PROP. 35 see Frontlines, page 7

YES, THEY ARE

DEVO see Music, page 34

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2012 | Vol. 24, Issue 22

Call the doctor The two 20-something young women visit urgent care just after 2 on Saturday afternoon. Dressed in shorts, T-shirts and sneakers, both give off a healthy, athletic vibe—except that one is gingerly nursing her right arm, which hangs in a makeshift sling. “How much does it cost?” she asks the woman behind the counter. “I think I broke my arm.” “For a co-pay? What’s your insurance?” the receptionist asks, pushing a form across the counter. But the young woman doesn’t have insurance. “It’s $220 just to see the doctor,” the receptionist says. “That doesn’t include any tests or treatments.” As the young woman winces and she and her friend shuffle off, I watch, thinking hard about health care and choices and money. Several days after the close of the convention season, I’m also thinking about one of this its prominent themes: Are we better off than we were four years ago? It’s a question that even President Barack Obama supporters seem to have trouble answering with anything other than a wishy-washy “I guess.” Job growth remains stagnant. Unemployment rates still disappoint. Housing prices are barely starting to tick upward. Yet as I sit in the doctor’s office, I can’t help but think that, yes, we are better off. As someone who once dealt with the crazy high costs of unsubsidized insurance, I can definitely say I’m better off. This little ailment? Nothing that a $40 co-pay and a $10 prescription can’t fix. I can thank my full-time employment for that luxury, but for everyone else, Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which will be fully implemented by 2015, should provide the kind of viable insurance options that means no one will be forced to leave a doctor’s office untreated again. —Rachel Leibrock

04 05 07 13 15 16 20 22 25 29 30 32 34 47

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There is a song that’s sticking in my head right now. It is an Italian art song “Sebben, Crudele.” It has a beautiful melody. You know, those old Italian love songs are so old, I don’t know if it’s by anyone. It comes from a repertoire of classical music that voice teachers use to teach their students.

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Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” No matter how down you are, when you think of the man in the mirror and [understand that] if you can make a change in him, then you can make a change in society.

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LETTERS

Visit us at www.newsreview.com or email sactoletters @ newsreview.com

Wrong rail for California

FIRST SHOT SN&R photo of the week PHOTO BY NICK MILLER

Re “The right track” by Max Pringle (SN&R Frontlines, September 6): In his article on the California high-speed-rail project, Max Pringle hints at why this effort is in deep trouble and unlikely to get built in its current guise: It is simply the wrong rail project for this state. LETTER OF The studies that led to the passage of Proposition 1A in 2008 THE WEEK were rigged to satisfy specific parochial concerns, foremost an alignment across Pacheco Pass to serve San Jose and then up the [San Francisco] Peninsula to terminate in San Francisco. The resulting system is at least twice as expensive and less useful than a sensible, more direct alignment utilizing Altamont Pass in the north and Tejon Pass (Interstate 5) in the south. The cost of an initial system linking the Bay Area to the Los Angeles Basin should have been capped at $30 billion, which the current plan cannot deliver. The current effort is almost certain to collapse within a couple of years. The initial segment between Bakersfield and Fresno has become politically toxic at the national level (“a railroad to nowhere”), and Congress is unlikely to follow through on appropriating federal funding for it. Perhaps this eventuality will allow a less expensive alternative to be pursued. In particular, the California [high-speed-rail] system should be built from south to north, starting with a link across Tejon Pass from the Los Angeles Basin to Bakersfield. This segment alone generates over half of the full “Bay to Basin” ridership, at a cost of less than $12 billion. Moreover, it provides the missing rail link joining Northern and Southern California. No other 100-mile initial segment comes anywhere close to this performance. John Deeter Sacramento

High-speed puff piece Re “The right track” by Max Pringle (SN&R Frontlines, September 6): Another puff piece on high-speed rail. We don’t even get a chance to enter the article with a deep breath before the first line provides the first distortion: “Opponents of high-speed rail contend that it’s a boondoggle because of its $68 billion price tag.” Uh, no. Most informed opponents don’t believe that $68 billion will come anywhere close to the budget required for system build out. Worse, there’s no tied funding source available to complete the project’s capital needs, let alone the operating subsidies which will be required to keep the system running once it’s built. And everywhere HSR has been successful to date, it has required an operating subsidy to do so. Given the current fiscal environment, moving forward with such a large and unfunded project with little more than a hope that somehow the funds will materialize when needed simply seems insane. As for the claims about HSR being environmentally less harmful than air [travel] or ... auto driving, I have no doubt that they are true, on a per-passenger basis. But making HSR “a major engine in battling climate change”? If only that were true, too. The problem with this line of argument is that the vast majority of auto traffic is local rather than intercity; and HSR simply can’t provide any significant diversion of local traffic. What’s being clogged are the urban segments of the highway system; and what’s doing the clogging is rush hour, not long-distance leisure or business travel between cities, BEFORE

FRONTLINES

Eight cities from the region faced off in the annual Hoops and Alley Oops Regional Celebrity Basketball Tournament, a three-on-three tournament held Monday at Sacramento State University. Even Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (center) hooped it up.

which HSR can handle. We’ll be lucky in the end if the amount of hydrocarbons offset by our current proposal is even measurable within the context of total transportation hydrocarbon production, let alone a comprehensive count of the hydrocarbon output from all the ways we use fossil fuels in the state. I am a rail fan and would love to see a successful HSR—if we had the means and a management team which could add, subtract and then tell us the truth as to what they—and we—have got here. Instead, our HSR boards have more resembled a quickly revolving door with an ever-changing roster of political hacks tossing spin. Pieces like this one provide no help for the serious public discussion of the issues which will be needed to complete the project, and that’s too bad.

It’s not just stand-up Re “A comic walks into a festival ...” by Steph Rodriguez (SN&R Arts&Culture, September 6): I find the title of this article misleading. Well, maybe not; it does just say “A comic walks into a festival,” an event that is hardly mentioned in this article. As a fan of the Sacramento Comedy Festival, I can tell you that if you only go to the “stand-up shows,” you will miss 80 percent of a festival that includes improv, sketch, variety shows, a game show and podcasts, all of which were grossly overlooked in this article. Stand-up comedy is an important component but hardly the only focus. If Steph Rodriguez wants some more info on the stand-up scene in Sacramento, I am sure there are about 100 articles in the SN&R archives.

Bill Reany via email

A little more for your elders

FEATURE

STORY

POET’S CORNER

Faulty reasoning on nuns Re “Don’t mess with the nuns” by Fran Fisher (SN&R Guest Comment, August 30): The guest comment by ex-Sister Fran [Fisher] came across as a very cleverly devised piece; well-written, too. It’s very pro-revolutionary and, obviously, rather anti-Catholic. Specifically, she thinks it’s a good idea for women to put themselves forward (“mountains will move”). On that score, why should I believe her, rather than non-ex-Sister Faustina,

Jack Kashtan Sacramento

A RT S & C U LT U R E

Have a great photo? Email it to firstshot@ newsreview.com. Please include your full name and phone number. File size must not exceed 10 MB.

John Reed West Sacramento

M. Schreuder Sacramento

Re “Numb is dumb” by Nick Miller (SN&R Editor’s Note, September 6): Hey, young whippersnappers: Pay no attention to Nick Miller. As a recently retired baby boomer, my message to you is: “Stay home on Election Day, because they’re all the same.” That way, my generation can keep electing politicians who pander to us so we can take what little there is that we don’t already have and leave you a few scraps.

who famously aspired to put herself last? Is it because Catholic doctrine is generally invalid because some Catholic priests sexually molest some children? The reasoning seems to be a little thin. It actually looks more like an attempt at attaching the badness of one idea to another for the purpose of making the target idea seem bad or at any rate unacceptable. How is that different from the observation, that might also be made, that since some members of the Israeli Defense Forces sexually molest some Palestinians, that Israelis are bad and Judaism false? Nobody is going to buy that attachment—especially if it’s stated plainly, rather than insinuated. Why did she use this technique? She’s a Ph.D.—certified reasoner. Maybe it’s because she believes reasoning is not the strong point of SN&R’s readership, whereas susceptibility to psychological technology is.

Herds on the Move long silhouettes on tall shoes the only shape visible in the dark sets of legs. courageously the teetering tip-toeing stilettos cross the pavement for pizza. all is right in the city. everything is in its place. —Amanda Gohl

AFTER

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FRONTLINES Yielding to traffic Proposition 35 would get tough on human trafficking. Yet the very prostitutes the measure purports to help are speaking out against it. Few people are publicly lining up against a ballot initiative that purports to get tougher on human traffickers—even though it may end by Raheem F. Hosseini up being a well-intentioned boondoggle. Supporters of Proposition 35 (known raheemh@ as the Californians Against Sexual newsreview.com Exploitation, or CASE, Act) say their measure will provide greater voice to people like Leah Albright-Byrd, a victim of coerced prostitution when she was a teenager on the streets of Sacramento. Last month, the 28-year-old told the state Legislature’s joint committee on public safety that a drug dealer manipulated her into the illicit sex game shortly after she ran away from a physically abusive household at the age of 14. “I was punched, I was slapped, I was kicked, I was dragged from cars, spit in my face and told that I would ‘always be a ho,’” she recalled through tears. “That’s what I was told. Law enforcement was not an ally.” Architects of the initiative, including former Facebook privacy chief Chris Kelly, say CASE would change this paradigm by requiring new training for police officers and preventing victims’ illicit sex work from being used against them in court proceedings. The proposition would also increase prison sentences and fines for human trafficking, require traffickers to register as sex offenders, and direct sex offenders to disclose all Internet identities, including username and password information for a wide array of websites, including social media, news outlets and online shopping. Critics, like the American Civil Liberties Union, contend the latter requirement is both untenable and a violation of protected free-speech rights. Others say the measure’s definition of “human trafficking” is so broad, that it

BEFORE

FRONTLINES

Proposition 35 is a ballot initiative aimed at getting tough on human trafficking. But some California sex workers say it actually commodifies their industry.

would require sex-offender registry by people whose crimes aren’t remotely sexual in nature. State Sen. Mark Leno noted this possibility during his pointed questioning of a Legislative Analyst’s Office representative at the August 14 informational hearing.

these things in it, there are certain to be unintended consequences,” Leno said. Kelly, a 2010 candidate for California attorney general who donated $1.86 million to the Prop. 35 ballot drive, argued that he and others repeatedly sought remedies from the Legislature, “and it failed to act.”

Maxine Doogan says Proposition 35 provides cash-strapped public agencies, nonprofits and law enforcement an economic incentive to widen the human-trafficking net beyond reason. He said there would now be “the opportunity to further frighten the public” when they go to a sex-offender registry and see someone living near them, even though that person was possibly convicted of, say, extortion and not a sex offense. Such issues could have been avoided if proponents of tougher human-trafficking laws went through the legislative process, Leno and other legislators added. “But when you just go to the ballot because you’ve got a deep pocket and you put all

FEATURE

STORY

Despite mixed feelings about how to deal with the crime of forcing people into prostitution or labor, few of them interviewed by SN&R deny it’s a serious problem. According to the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative task force, Sacramento is among 18 medium-sized U.S. cities identified as a hub for human trafficking. In the Sacramento region, more than 150 children have been rescued from trafficking in recent years, the task force states.

A RT S & C U LT U R E

In June, for instance, a domestic sex-trafficking operation resulted in the recovery of six children who were being prostituted in Sacramento, the FBI’s local field office announced. Six pimps were also arrested during the three-day operation. Since most of these cases end up being prosecuted in federal courts, only a few people are sent to state prisons each year for human-trafficking offenses. As of March, there were 18 such offenders in state prisons, according to Lia Moore of the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The LAO was unable to estimate how California prison populations would be affected. While members of the Legislature’s public-safety committee expressed grave concerns about the measure’s “overbroad” definition of human trafficking and its indifference to current legislative proposals—as many as eight bills were considered this year—the only organized opposition thus far comes from a loose conglomeration of sex workers known as the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project.

“TRAFFIC”

continued on page 9

AFTER

09.13.12

SN&R

FRONTLINES

Driving in circles Auto-insurance proposition returns—but does it aim to punish bicyclists, public-transit riders? If approved in November, Proposition 33 would allow auto insurers to offer “loyalty discounts” to new customers that have by Catherine Zaw had continuous coverage for the past five years. Sound familiar? It should. The initiative is a reincarnation of Proposition 17, which was shot down by a narrow margin in June 2010. It now rises from the dead, equipped with some changes that proponents hope will sway voters. Opponents, meanwhile, argue that Prop. 33 is just like its predecessor and will negatively impact people who use public transit or bike, among other nondrivers. The measure would allow insurance companies to raise rates for people who have clean records but stopped driving over the past five years. The rewritten Prop. 33 does now allow exemptions for military personnel, individuals who have been unemployed for up to 18 months and children living at home with their parents. And the initiative would provide currently uninsured drivers a discount proportional to the number of years they have had insurance in the previous five years.

“We’re talking at least a 35 to 40 percent increase in insurance rates.” Carmen Balber spokeswoman, Consumer Watchdog “Proposition 33 … gives more power to the consumer with the power to shop for insurance companies,” spokeswoman Rachel Hooper explained, likening it to the ability to switch mobile-phone carriers. As with its predecessor, 33’s main proponent is Mercury Insurance Group, whose founder George Joseph has personally provided more than $8 million to fund the proposition. Going bumper to bumper against the initiative is California-based advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. The proposition will negatively affect millions of California drivers, said spokesperson Carmen Balber. In previous years, according to Balber, Mercury Insurance had illegally surcharged customers without prior coverage by 40 percent. Additionally, in states where Mercury had been legally allowed to add the 8

SN&R

09.13.12

surcharge, rates rose from 35 to more than 100 percent. “We’re talking at least a 35 to 40 percent increase in insurance rates; in the standard family, that could easily increase rates by a thousand dollars a year or more,” Balber said. The two opponents have been driving up each other’s walls since 1988 with the passage of Proposition 103, written by Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield. Prop. 103 made illegal the practice of determining auto-insurance rates based on a person’s history of insurance. Before 103, insurance rates were set by companies without approval from an insurance commissioner. “Proposition 33 is trying to make legal what is currently illegal: placing a surcharge on people that, under the current law, wouldn’t have had to pay extra,” said Balber. “If voted to pass this year, Proposition 33 would overturn the central protection that Proposition 103 provides.” Mercury is currently the secondlargest provider of car insurance in the state, and other providers are wary of their competitor’s actions. “We believe in our own loyaltydiscount program, which provides our customers with an incentive to continuously maintain coverage,” stated Sevag A. Sarkissian, spokesperson for State Farm insurance, which has taken a middle-of-the-road position on the initiative. He added that if the proposition is passed, State Farm will analyze it to determine how it can be used to benefit its customers. Balber said this is a fight most insurance companies don’t want to take on. “This is a measure that [Mercury Insurance] has tried and has failed to pass for the last 10 years. If I were another insurance company, I wouldn’t want to throw my money away,” she said. Though wording has been altered to address military personnel and the unemployed, opponents point out that many other populations would be negatively affected by the initiative’s passage. Those who consciously decide not to drive a car for five years would be ineligible, as would those who choose alternate forms of transportation, like riding a bike or taking public transit. Those who simply couldn’t afford a car would be punished, too. Ω

FRONTLINES â&#x20AC;&#x153;TRAFFICâ&#x20AC;?

continued from page 7

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a small outfit with an even smaller board of directors. Members of this group are said to include prostitutes, exotic dancers, webcam and adult-film performers, phone-sex operators, dominatrixes, submissives and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;support staffâ&#x20AC;? that goes along with such professions. President Maxine Doogan, a working adult escort herself, said less than a hundred members belong to the union arm of her organization.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;When you just go to the ballot because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a deep pocket and you put all these things in it, there are certain to be unintended consequences.â&#x20AC;? California state Sen. Mark Leno

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;a scenario which may sound outlandish,â&#x20AC;? the Prop. 35 opponent acknowledged, but she said the proposition provides cashstrapped public agencies, nonprofits and law enforcement an economic incentive to widen the human-trafficking net beyond reason. Under the ballot initiative, convicted traffickers could be forced to pay as much as $1.5 million in new fines, 70 percent of which would go to public agencies and nonprofits, with the remainder going to the law-enforcement agencies in that investigated the crimes. On the other end of the fiscal spectrum, the Legislative Analystâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office has been unable to provide an estimate for how much the measure would cost the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s general fund, guessing â&#x20AC;&#x153;a couple million dollars annuallyâ&#x20AC;? for an increased number of prosecutions and incarcerations, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;a few million dollarsâ&#x20AC;? for the required training. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t often that the Legislative Analystâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office says a ballot measure is so ambiguously written that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even put an estimate on the general fund,â&#x20AC;? Sen. Leno noted sharply. Problematic or not, what scant polling data is available suggests overwhelming support for the ballot initiative. According to a joint survey conducted last month by Pepperdine Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School of Public Policy and California Business Roundtable, 86.6 percent of those surveyed are in favor of Prop. 35. Only 6 percent said they were opposed. Opponents acknowledge their uphill battle convincing the public to vote against something that bills itself as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ban on Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to end up voting yes on this, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not going to know what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re voting on,â&#x20AC;? said Veronica Monet, a certified sexologist and anger-management specialist who counsels couples. Monet, a former adult escort, drew comparisons to a 2003 Supreme Court case in which a Texas gay couple was selectively prosecuted for violating the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s archaic antisodomy laws. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If nobody has it in for youâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re white, Christian and heterosexualâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;then you may have nothing to worry about,â&#x20AC;? she said pointedly. ÎŠ

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Even with a small cadre of unapologetic â&#x20AC;&#x153;sex workers,â&#x20AC;? Doogan and her colleagues have made it their mission to decriminalize prostitution altogether. Without equal protections, they say, illicit sex workers become victims on and off the job, unable to turn to the police when theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re raped, robbed or kidnapped, and are constantly in danger of being used as a commodity by moneychasing law-enforcement agencies and beggarly nonprofits. This dynamic would only grow worse under Prop. 35, Doogan and others told SN&R. They â&#x20AC;&#x153;continue to rely on the criminalization of our labor as a means to identify and rescue trafficking victims,â&#x20AC;? said Doogan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The public may think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good thing to do,â&#x20AC;? she added, but Prop. 35 amounts to legalized entrapment, Doogan said, where the courts will be forced to prosecute anyone who accepts money from a prostitute, including landlords, spouses and even children. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Under their definition, they would all be considered traffickers and have to register as sex offenders,â&#x20AC;? Doogan claimed.

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Gas-station parties? Sacramento usually shuts down the good times. This time, it’s building a fence.

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Rowdy, unmanageable crowds at the popular Thursday Night Markets on K Street? Shut down the party. Mobs of revelers drinking too much—and a murder— on Second Saturday? Send in the cavalry, over-regulate with permits and curfews. And, in essence, shut down the party. When good times go bad, city officials have a track record of pulling the plug. R E So when 32-year-old L IL by NICK M Joseph A. Long lost his life just after midnight last month near nickam@newsreview.com the popular clubs and bars on J Street’s 2700 block, my initial reaction was apropos of how city officials always deal with tragedy: They’d shut down the party. But this time, for some reason, police and Midtown leaders aren’t ending the good times—even though they’ve gone horribly bad. They’re not going after BarWest and its brewsoaked patrons, who’ve stirred fights, and some nearby resident’s ire, this past summer. This time, the city is doing something different. This time, they want to build a fence.

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Here’s the deal: City police say that Long was a victim of a bizarre new party scene in Sacramento, one where kids loiter near local gas stations as the bars let out, drink cheap swill, show off their whips, fistfight and, sometimes, pop off guns. Long was an innocent, killed in an alleged gun battle early Saturday morning, August 18. He was murdered near the popular Midtown entertainment district, but police Capt. Ken Bernard told SN&R that his investigators “cannot attribute the homicide to the bars.” What Bernard does see as an issue, however, are the parties at gas stations such as the AM-PM Minimart near the Interstate 80 off-ramp on J Street, and the adjacent parking lot. Too much good stuff in the form of crime and troublemakers at the AM-PM this summer, he and neighbors argue—and its a problem at service stations and mini-marts citywide. “That’s kind of a problem all over the city, on Friday and Saturday nights,” Bernard said. “Gas stations out on Arden [Way] and in south Sacramento. Anywhere there’s a club scene.” One Midtown business owner, who preferred to remain anonymous, called

the phenomena “gas-station pimping.” Such events are disconcerting, according to police and residents. So, law enforcement and neighbors have asked AM-PM—which they say is cooperating and has already closed its business between the hours of 1 and 2:30 a.m. on the heels of the shooting—to construct a fence around its perimeter to separate it from the rest of Midtown. They hope this fence and the new hours will prevent crime, such as what went down, according to police logs, on an early morning this past May just after 2 a.m.: a man fired a gun into the passenger side of a dark-blue Nissan Maxima in the Midtown station’s parking lot, then fled the scene. There also have been repeated complaints about loud tire screeching, brawls and partying. And then, on August 18, Long was shot down. Investigators found empty shells in the middle of J Street. And residents say the police are looking for a black Chevy Corvette, which allegedly sped off from the AM-PM just after the shootout and into the night. “I think the fence is a good idea,” said Julie Murphy, co-chairperson of the Marshall School/New Era Park Neighborhood Association. She also told

SN&R last week that, ever since the Carrows Restaurant was torn down at J and 28th streets a few years back, there’ve been problems. City police now get this. It has ratcheted up its presence in the area on busy nights, Thursday through Saturday. City code enforcement have also updated all the lighting on the block—plus allowed for a self-powered police light for added after-hour visibility. That costs money and resources, however, so Capt. Bernard hopes the fence will be a more affordable fix. But residents say there’s a tussle over who should pay for the fence— owners of the parking lot, St. Anton Partners, or AM-PM—even though both city police and the neighborhood association have requested that AMPM erect the perimeter barrier. (SN&R called AM-PM’s owner last Friday, but he said its his policy not to speak with media.) In the meantime, the bars and clubs and neighbors are working together to ratchet down the partying. “It’s an ongoing process,” said Murphy. Ω

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A lot to rethink Now is time to push for reform at City Hall The Sacramento Bee’s Ryan Lillis moved the story of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s nonprofits forward in a big way last week. He discovered that one of those groups, Think Big Sacramento, failed to report $350,000 in donations from the Sacramento Kings when it was legally required to because of a “clerical error.” For weeks the mayor’s office has mostly refused to answer SN&R’s questions about the nonprofits, not ARVIN by COSMO G returning phone calls and sending out cosmog@newsreview.com nonresponses like, “The Sacramento Public Policy Foundation and Sacramento Public Policy Forum comply with all city, state, and federal laws and regulations for disclosure.” Yeah, except when they don’t. Meanwhile, Johnson’s lawyer Fred Hiestand says only “nosy people” with “nothing better to do” want more disclosure about the groups. After getting busted for not disclosing the Kings cash, perhaps Hiestand should add, “And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids.”

And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids. Some citizens have responded to the hinky business with the K.J.’s nonprofits with a Recall Mayor Kevin Johnson campaign. It’s happening mostly on Facebook. The recall-K.J. page has about 100 friends. Just up the road in Oakland, the Recall Mayor Jean Quan Facebook page has almost 3,670 likes. Johnson is no doubt concerned that Oakland is a much more world-class city in this regard. The anonymous recall K.J. organizers here aren’t circulating a real recall petition; it’s one of those Change.org jobs, the favored tool of discontented but not terribly serious people everywhere. Were someone to attempt an actual recall, Bites certainly wouldn’t begrudge them the tools handed down by our progressive forebears to root out corruption and cronyism. Unlike the recalls of, say, Govs. Gray Davis or Scott Walker, there may have been at least a couple actual laws broken here. But a recall is not going to happen—not based on the facts before us right now. Instead, it might be more productive to grab this moment and push for reform at City Hall. After all, Johnson is probably not the last mayor of Sacramento who is going to struggle with ethical questions, like, “Should

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I use city funds to pay for my campaign literature?” Or, “What’s the difference, really, between the mayor’s office and my personal property?” And since he is likely to be in office for four more years, he may benefit from a little more structure. City Council candidate Steve Hansen knows the time is right for reform—sort of. He’s taken as one of his slogans “Repairing public trust in government,” and says council members ought to give up perks like cellphones and free parking. He also wants to see an independent auditor with subpoena power to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by city officials. Not bad. But how about an ethics commission, like they have in Los Angeles, which can give advice on ethical issues, thus preventing problems and also enforce rules, push for greater transparency and investigate whistle-blower complaints? How about a useful system for public financing of elections to diminish the power of special-interest money in City Hall? Perhaps it’s time to consider some rules governing growing use of nonprofit groups by council members to raise unlimited money from donors who have business before the city? These are all ideas that could be taken up by a Sacramento Charter Commission. But lots of people think the Charter Commission is a waste of time. In fact, in an interview on www.ransackedmedia.com, Hansen compared the Charter Commission candidates to the cast of The Real World. Yes, those citizen-commission people do get involved in all sorts of unnecessary drama, don’t they, Steve Hansen?

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Bites recently talked to Sacramento Charter Commission candidate Derek Cressman about how to deal with money in local politics. Cressman is western states director of the national good-government group Common Cause. He suggests we “rethink how political campaigns work in Sacramento”—starting with the old-school printed voter guide. This election, candidates have to pay $2,100 just to have a brief statement printed in the guide. “What about an information hub that voters can go to to see a bunch of debates and four or five 30-second YouTube ads and candidate statements and résumés, none of which would require any money being spent by candidates,” Cressman said. “You could somewhat reduce the need for financing these campaigns, by changing the ways voters get information about the candidates,” he added. There’s a lot to rethink—and to reform. Let’s take the opportunity. Ω

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Jim Crow 2012

I have never spent a day in jail, even though I have committed felonies. During my college days at the University of California, Santa Barbara, along with the majority of Americans and nearly everyone I knew, I regularly smoked marijuana and took drugs. Yet very few of my fellow students were ever arrested. I thought this was because we were lucky. But Ohio State University associate professor Michelle Alexander, in her brilliantly argued book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, has a different l by Jeff Vonkaene explanation for my lack of jail time: I am white, and I live in an upper-income neighborhood. My j e ffv @ne wsr e v ie w.c o m other advantage: I am old. I committed my felonies before the war on drugs. In the early 1980s, after President Ronald Reagan announced the war on drugs, many police departments naturally questioned why they should take valuable resources away from more serious crimes such as murder, rape, grand theft and violent assault. Reagan had an answer: We will give you extra money and equipment. First, local police departments across the country were given excess military equipment, including 253 aircrafts, 7,856 M16 rifles and 181 grenade launchers, all to use for the war against drugs. But this was just the beginNext, they were given We should not have ning. special federal grants for drug one set of laws for enforcement. Then, in 1984, the Comprehensive Drug whites and another Abuse Prevention and Control for minorities. Act of 1970 was amended to allow local police agencies to keep cash, cars and homes taken from people suspected of drug use and sales. And they did. According to a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. drug task forces seized more than $1 billion in assets NEWS & REVIEW BUSINES between 1988 and 1992. In Michelle Due primarily to increased drug arrestsDESIGNER and longer ISSUE DATE AL has grown 06.18.09 Alexander’s The prisoner sentences, America’s prison population New Jim Crow: FILE NAME from 300,000 before the war on drugs to more than 2 Mass Incarceration TRINITYCATHEDRAL061809R1 in the Age of million today. This incarceration rate is six to 10 times USP (BOLD SELECTI Colorblindness, higher than any other industrial country. But if everyone she writes, “More who took drugs was arrested, almost half the PRICE / ATMOSPHERE / EXPE population African American would be spending time in jail. adults are under CAREFULLY REV Even though the incidence of drug use andPLEASE drug trafcorrectional control ADVERTISEMENT AND VERIFY T today ... than were ficking is nearly identical for whites and blacks, arrests AD SIZE (COLUMNS X INCHES) enslaved in 1850, a are not. Citing Human Rights Watch’s “Punishment and decade before the Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War onSPELLING Drugs” report, Civil War began.” NUMBERS & DATES Alexander reported that black men have been sent to state INFO (PHONE, ADDR prison on drug charges more than 13 timesCONTACT more frequently AD APPEARS AS REQUESTED than white men. APPROVEDrate BY: for And this problem is growing. The incarceration black men in 2000 was 26 times what it was in 1983. At this Jeff vonkaenel rate, one in three young African-American men will serve is the president, time in prison for engaging in the same behavior that goes CEO and on in white neighborhoods and on white college campuses. majority owner of This is a national disgrace. We should not have one the News & Review newspapers in set of laws for whites and another for minorities, either in Sacramento, statute or in practice. I should have avoided prison because Chico and Reno. I was lucky, not because I was white. Ω

Research on the go

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KATE MURPHY

Researchers say that using smartphones for studies will improve accuracy and participation.

Smartphone apps help scientists collect data and learn about patients’ environments Does oversleeping make you depressed? Do certain types of patients do better on new medication? Which streets worsen asthma symptoms? by Tia Ghose Right now, answering those questions is beyond the scope of most medical studies. Clinical trials determine whether new drugs are effective on average, but usually aren’t large enough to look at different subsets of people. Observational studies expect participants to accurately remember what they ate or how often they exercised weeks, months or years later. And the studies are expensive and time consuming. The ubiquity of smartphones—and the incredible amounts of data they collect—might change all that. Several California researchers, including some at UC Davis, are building infrastructure to conduct clinical trials and manage health via smartphones. “People are walking around increasingly with smartphones,” said Deborah Estrin, a UCLA computer scientist and founder of Open mHealth, an UC Davis’ Richard infrastructure for medical Kravitz is hoping that apps. Because it is easier to an individual patient get people to download suffering from chronic pain an app than to enroll in a traditional clinical can systematically record trial, apps can attract which medicines work thousands or tens of of users best for him or her thousands relatively quickly and in a smartphone. cheaply. Smartphones also can prompt people with health questions in real time, so they aren’t struggling to remember how often they exercised or ate blueberries over the last month. Combining health information with other Tia Ghose is a writer data streams, such as location or weather, may reveal for California Watch. underlying connections that a traditional trial could Read more stories at never uncover. www.california Estrin’s project, Open mHealth, is being used in watch.org. pilot studies on post-traumatic stress disorder, weight loss and other health conditions, she said. Richard Kravitz, an internist and health researcher at UC Davis, is collaborating with Open mHealth to develop an app to help doctors treating chronic pain to Green Days is on the tailor medications. lookout for innovative “Usually, the way they’re handled in clinical sustainable projects practice is a patient will say, ‘I have this symptom or throughout the this pain,’” he said. After giving the patient a drug, Sacramento region Turn us on at the doctor asks if the patient is feeling better and sactonewstips@ prescribes a new drug or the same one based on a newsreview.com. single office visit. “It’s all done very informally,” Kravitz said. “It could be that the patient did better on that medicine relative to some other one based on chance.” In addition, checking at just one time point isn’t a reliable measure of how well pain is controlled, he said. BEFORE

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Instead, Kravitz is hoping that an individual patient suffering from chronic pain can systematically record which medicines work best for him or her in a smartphone using a medical trial for just one patient, called an “N-of-1 trial.” Studies like these have been around for decades but are rarely conducted because of how cumbersome they are to do with paper and pencil, he said. But smartphones make N-of-1 trials much easier. The phone can randomly alert individuals to take one of two medicines, or a medicine or placebo on different days, then automatically prompt users about their response to the drug in real time, Kravitz said. After several cycles, a doctor can see how a patient fares on treatment and then tweak medication almost immediately. If thousands of patients use the app, the resulting information can be combined and analyzed to find hidden patterns, such as what types of patients do better on one drug compared with another. But because so many patients use the app and smartphones already track real-time location data, the app can combine lung data with location-specific weather, pollen or air quality measurements. One such app, AsthmaMD, can identify unknown environmental triggers (such as smog or diesel exhaust) and eventually could warn users before they are exposed, said Salim Madjd, an entrepreneur who wrote the code for the app. Smartphones also might improve the accuracy of case-control studies, which try to find diseases’ causes by comparing one population with a medical condition with healthy patients, Estrin said. “Instead of asking how many times a week did you eat broccoli, you can ask very quickly, ‘What did you eat in the last three hours?’” she said. Ω

by Auntie Ruth

Slow Dog Not every dog founds a movement.

All apologies to Auntie Ruth’s friends in the slow food movement: Aunt Ruth’s dog was the founder of the slow dog movement. “We have to recover slowness, reflection and togetherness. There we will find real renewal,” said Guttorm Fløistad, the Norwegian philosopher. Our Slow Dog was a big, black shepherd, dead set on helping the humans to savor the minutes of the day and how slow they tick when in the presence of Slow Dog. Slow Dog would walk just in front of Aunt Ruth as she took out the recycling—slow, slow, slow steps just in front of Ruthie, reminding her to relish the sacred act of recycling, the creation of a better planet, an uplifting vision that would help take Auntie Ruth’s mind off how damn slow Slow Dog was moving and how heavy the recycling had become, because Slow Dog had to eat expensive low-fat canned food for every meal.

For before she was Slow Dog, she was an old dog. And by the time she started the slow dog movement, she was an incredibly old dog; 17 years old and still enjoying life, despite hips of brittle bones and arthritis of the spine. Beloved, no doubt. And geezerly to the nines. In the kitchen, Slow Dog’s favorite room in the house—where theoretically the slow food movement and slow dog movement could have come together, except Auntie Ruth likes to cook really, really fast—Slow Dog would stand silently, diRuthie misses Slow Dog. rectly behind Aunt Ruth as she was cooking. Ruth wouldn’t know Slow Dog was there until, turning quickly to the refrigerator, Ruthie would nearly fall on her ass. And there was Slow Dog, looking at Ruthie with love in her eyes: “Savor the moment,” said Slow Dog. “You are preparing organic sustenance for you and the other human. What an act of eco-stewardship,” said Slow Dog. “Why, if I could cook, I’d cook all day and just for myself. But you—you can cook for others. And for me, too, if you think about it a little harder.” “Savor,” said Slow Dog. “Savor.”

It hasn’t been long, and the wounds are still fresh; we had to put Slow Dog down. Hers was a good, long life, we miss her awful. And as the inevitable acceleration into fall begins, Auntie Ruth maybe misses what her dog knew about the power of slow most of all. Ω

We bet your aunts aren’t as cool as ours. Friend Auntie Ruth on Facebook at www. facebook.com.aunt. ruth1, and let’s hang out.

California sun California Independent System Operator Corporation—or more commonly, California ISO—the state power grid’s main operator, announced a new milestone in August: California produced more than a gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) of solar power—on the public grid alone. Several new records came during a heat wave in late August, helping generate 1,052 megawatts on August 23; 1,064 megawatts on August 27; and 1,076 megawatts on August 31. A gigawatt is approximately the power created by two large gas-fired power plants. Already the nation’s largest solar producer, California will quickly eclipse these records as it strives to obtain one-third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

F E AT U R E S T O RY

—Jonathan Mendick It’s always sunny ... and gridlocked. |

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Reunion with Diego On a chance meeting halfway around the world after half a century

Lo ok fo r di sc ou nt s on

It is 1962 at the San Diego Zoo’s Children’s Zoo. My husband, David, is 6 years old, and he is riding Diego, a gigantic by Dianne Heimer tortoise, who stretches his long, wrinkled neck and lumbers about a local writer and chair of the journalism the pen. He grabs tightly to Diego’s department at hard shell, scored and burnished. He Sacramento City wishes for a wild ride to somehow College fulfill the promise of the red cowboy hat that sits up on his head, but the ride is slow and steady. Diego, with his hollow eyes and a weak chin, strikes a pose of indifference and plods on. Childhood dissolves, time passes. About a half-century later, another chance meeting occurs between the two.

The ride is slow and steady. Diego, a gigantic tortoise with hollow eyes and a weak chin, strikes a pose of indifference and plods on.

— James Syhabout, Michelin Star Chef/Founder of Commis Restaurant Discover what’s new in Oakland. From emerging restaurants to tried-and-true culinary classics, you’ll find your favorite eats in this food-loving city. The faire is as culturally diverse as our neighborhoods. It’s refl ective of a city that welcomes innovation as well as tradition. When you’re in town catch a fl ick at one of our Art Deco movie palaces. Show your spirit at sporting events. Enjoy the vistas from our scenic hills and bayside shoreline. It’s all here-ready for you to discover.

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14 | SN&R | 09.13.12

It is 2006 in a different hemisphere. My husband and I are 500 miles off the coast of Ecuador on the tiny island of Isla Santa Cruz in the even tinier town of Puerto Ayora in the Galápagos Islands. We are visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station, which displays tortoises in pens for visitors to see. We walk above them on boardwalks and watch their toothless mouths rip at lettuce leaves. They are as large as 6-feet long. Their geometrically stenciled shells spread 4 to 5 feet across and protect wrinkled torsos and legs that end in ferocious-looking nails. They are sullen and prehistoric. Our guide stops in front of a large male tortoise and points. “Diego here was taken from his native island to the San Diego Zoo, and children rode him for years until he was returned to the Galápagos.” I turn to my husband when I hear the reference to San Diego. His face is frozen: He has heard it, too. To no one in particular and almost imperceptibly, he says: “I rode that turtle when I was little.” The word little

comes out long, high and loud, an ode to his childhood. The tourists in the group, mainly Brits, turn toward David as he speaks. Now a little louder and with more composure, David utters, “I rode that turtle when I was little at the San Diego Zoo.” They smile a few bemused smiles. I look again at David, who is engulfed in the bewildering wonder of encountering Diego again in a place halfway around the world, nearly a half-century later. The timing could not be more perfect. David has just turned 50. The week before, we had celebrated in Quito with cheap wine and good friends. We had joked about David hitting the “big five-O.” At the time, his childhood seemed far away. But now, Diego has brought it back. Tortoises live as long as humans. Sometimes longer. At 50-plus, Diego is still going strong. We watch him mount a she-tortoise in the breeding pen. He is doing what he is supposed to be doing: courting and breeding. But, as with everything tortoise, the process is slow. We watch for a while and move on. Before we exit, we pass an enclosure with rows of small plastic incubators. Hundreds of tiny tortoises, only a few inches long and a few years old, scramble around in a baby-tortoise nursery. Perhaps Diego’s children are here. Some will reach adulthood and outlive their father—and us, most assuredly. Childhood dissolves and time passes. The notion seems more natural and fitting than it ever has to me as we leave the grounds of the Charles Darwin Research Station. I have always wrestled with the pull and tug of life, the comings and goings, the endings. “Don’t fight it,” I tell myself. “This is how it works.” David and I are silent as we walk hand in hand into the cobbled streets of Puerto Ayora on our way to the boat. David is basking in the marvel of reconnecting with Diego. I feel humbled and small, but expansive inside from my new revelation of the connectedness of all things—brought on by an old tortoise halfway around the world. Ω

THIS MODERN WORLD

BY TOM TOMORROW

Fluoride fail Undercover as a “dental health” ad, First 5 Sacramento damage. Forty-one percent of children now used misinformation to promote water have white spots on their teeth—called dental by fluoridation in a recent full-color insert in fluorosis—according to a 2005 Centers for Brian Lambert this paper. In it, the writers lament the lack of Disease Control and Prevention report. a freethinking bicycle dental care in California and go on to make In the 60 years of water fluoridation, activist and commuter various positive claims for water fluoridation. there has never been a study of the results who has studied water Let’s look at the facts. How can we ignore of fluoridation of the quality required by the fluoridation for 14 the negative effects of fluoride on the whole U.S. Food and Drug Administration for other years and is the body? Recent studies drugs. If water fluoridation webmaster for Fluoride Free link fluoride to bone works at reducing cavities, Sacramento How can we cancer, bone fractures, why do nonfluoridating thyroid disorder, countries (97 percent of ignore the lowered IQ and tooth Europe) have about the same damage. negative effects levels of cavities as the few The bones are fluoridating ones? of flouride on effected in three ways: When it is pointed out skeletal fluorosis, bone that administering fluoride the whole body? brittleness and cancer. as a “mass medication” Skeletal fluorosis is is a violation of our right readily confused with various forms of arthri- of informed consent, proponents cloud the tis. Long-term consumption of fluoridated waters by insisting that fluoride is not a water results in increased hip-fracture rates in medicine or drug, but a nutrient. No, it’s not the elderly, and a Harvard University study a nutrient. No disease will result from a lack found a significant relationship between of fluoride. fluoride exposure and osteosarcoma (bone Many young children swallow more than Have a comment? half of the toothpaste used during teeth brushing, Express your views cancer) among boys. Findings indicate that fluoride can particularly candy-flavored varieties. Research in 350 words on a local topic contribute to a subclinical, if not clinical, shows that some children swallow more fluoride of interest. hypothyroid condition. Two decades of from toothpaste alone than is recommended Send an e-mail to research has shown fluoride exposure is from all sources combined. See the full story at editorial@ www.fluoridefreesacramento.org. Ω newsreview.com. associated with various indicators of brain BEFORE

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It’s our future, not fantasy football It’s that season again—though it’s starting to feel like a season that never ends—when politics and the future of the nation devolves into a contest of who’s winning and who’s losing. It’s a time when tempers flare, and Facebook unfriendings are on the rise. But now that the conventions are past and the debates loom, perhaps we can finally move past sound bites, bumper stickers and online memes to a more substantive discussion of issues: jobs and the economy Afghanistan and other foreign-policy matters the social safety net budgetary assistance for the states tax policy, etc. This is not to mention the failed war on drugs, immigration and amnesty, education, and climate change and the environment. There’s a lot to talk about. Unfortunately, if the experience from the conventions is any indicator, the political dialogue will be more of the same: a discussion filled with platitudes and attacks, vacant of actual proposals, and The question we with ensuing analysis by pundits and reporters who would be right ask after a debate at home on ESPN. should not be The question we ask after a debate should not be “Who “Who won?” won?” That sort of thinking casts political campaigns in the same mold as NFL games with winners, losers and also-rans. Like the rivalry between sports teams, it creates a hyperpartisan atmosphere. We almost expected to see convention delegates stripping their shirts and painting their bodies with candidate’s logos. It’s one thing to be tribal about sports teams; that’s what athletic competition is all about. If we can’t act like a fan at a game, when can we be fanatic? But by allowing this ultracompetitive, winners-vs.-losers mindset to take over our political conversation, we’ve made sure that the real losers will always be U.S. citizens. Sure, politics as bloodsport keeps the 24-seven news cycle running. But it’s also turning off the very people who need to be involved: those who will be effected by policies that journalists and pundits are most loathe to discuss. All elections are important, but this is one in A good place to see through the smoke is which actual policy differences could not be more FactCheck.org. Run stark. To treat it as if it’s just another season-playoff by the nonpartisan series does a disservice to voters, to candidates and Annenberg Public to the future. Policy Center of the University of Regrettably, past experience has shown that Pennsylvania, writers attack ads and sound bites work. In this post-Cition the site regularly zens United era—when anyone with money in the fact-check national bank can spend it supporting a candidate or a policy political speeches and claims. They also of their choosing with little or no disclosure—voters provide a section, will be bombarded with campaign ads and op-eds Viral Spiral, to deal that make wild claims about one candidate or with chain emails and another, one proposition or another. social-media memes. That makes it crucial to take time to investigate. The only reason the campaigns—and the deeppocket donors—engage in this sort of high-dollar electioneering is because it works. We can stop it, even without overturning Citizens United, if we all commit to discussing policy, not personalities. Here at SN&R, we’ll try to do our part. We hope you’ll join us. Ω |

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Check out Mike E. Winfield video clips at www.mikewinfield.com. For more information on his new show Off Beat, visit www.fuse.tv/shows/off-beat. Catch Mike E. Winfield at 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 4, at the Punch Line Comedy Club, 2100 Arden Way. Tickets are $15; see www.punch linesac.com for more information.

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Mike E. Winfield, onstage at the Punch Line Comedy Club, says he’s influenced by rappers and NBA stars, but his set centers on the things about which he’s most passionate: his wife, kids and life at home.

It’s 8:30 on a recent Friday night when the kid grabs the mic at the Punch Line Comedy Club on Arden Way. Dressed in loose pants, a slouchy cardigan and T-shirt, he’s fresh-faced, boyishly skinny and compact— save a huge, toothy grin and a halo of tightly coiled black hair.

across the space with elastic energy—they come alive, peppered with a mix of pathos, studied observations and sophisticated bite; the kind of jokes that pit men against women in broad comical farce, yet are also nuanced with precision-cut details and commentary. Arguably, Winfield just might be the funniest comic in Sacramento. Certainly, he’s one of the city’s smartest. And now, after a decade on the scene, he’s also one of its most successful: This week, on Friday, September 14, Winfield’s new cable show Off Beat, a comedy-clip program in the vein of Tosh.0, debuts on the Fuse network. Still, Winfield can’t help but to wonder if he’s doing this whole comic thing right. His jokes are family friendly—a detail that pits him in stark relief against other comics. Americans, after all, like their raunch—jokes that push at the decency envelope: Louis C.K. riffing on masturbation, Sarah Silverman deadpanning about rape, Chris Rock dropping more F-bombs than one would think is humanly possible. Where, exactly, does Mike E. Winfield fit in? At the Punch Line show, for example, he’s sandwiched between a guy who tells cringeinducing stories about strippers and date-rape drugs, and seasoned comedienne Danielle Stewart, whose act includes so many bits about sex, that she feels compelled to check in with the audience before launching into a tirade on blow jobs. Maybe he should rough it up a bit, he wonders. You know, throw in some swearing—an oral-sex joke or two. Then again, playing it clean’s worked out pretty well so far. The TV show, after all, is just a recent uptick of big moments, including

But Mike E. Winfield, married 10 years and father to four sons, is no kid—and his routine reflects that. Rather, the 30-something comic’s set is built upon a foundation of relationship narratives. There’s the bit, for example, about going to the grocery store and buying a different brand-name product than his wife wrote on the shopping list. “I guess these will do,” Winfield says. Then his voice pitches a shade higher, his lips purse in domestic indignation and body contorts into wifely outrage to get the point across: The missus is pissed. “‘Can’t you at least get this one thing right?’” On paper, they’re everyman jokes, relatable and mildly funny. But as delivered by Winfield—lanky frame pulling and snapping

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a semifinalist slot on Last Comic Standing, a stand-up appearance on Late Show With David Letterman and a notable bit part as a warehouse worker on The Office. And, by all accounts, it all couldn’t have happened to a nicer, harder-working guy. On this night, some of Winfield’s jokes fly, a few fall flat. Later, he’ll get down to the real business of being funny, combing through material and parsing crowd reactions. It’s this attention to detail, his dogged work ethic and near-compulsory need to write and rewrite that sets him apart. Abe Taleb, Punch Line’s general manager, has seen the comedian fine-tune his craft over the last seven years, watching him mature from an open-mic novice into a seasoned headliner. “He’s grown leaps and bounds,” says Taleb. “He’s matured into doing more grownup comedy. In the beginning, it was easy stuff—comics start by doing whatever they think is relevant.” Now, Taleb says, Winfield’s work is built on complex narratives. “Now, it’s just not about his observations,” Taleb says. “He writes real stories.”

OF MENTOS AND MERCY LAUGHS Mike E. Winfield—“Mike E.” to his friends—was born and raised in inner-city Baltimore, where he lived with younger brother Drew and their mother who worked in the medical field.

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Winfield remembers it as a tough time—a constant struggle to get by on very little. For a few years, even, they lived with an aunt and a gaggle of cousins; the three of them crammed into one upstairs bedroom with a broken window. “There were always people outside—it was loud,” he says, digging into a plate of garlic noodles a few hours before the start of the Punch Line set. “[One] New Year’s Eve, people had guns [outside], so we slept on the floor just to play it safe.” Throughout, Winfield kept busy. He liked school well enough but loved basketball; in the sixth and seventh grades he and friends spent every afternoon playing hoops, even during Baltimore’s frigid winters, donning gloves, mufflers and earmuffs to stave off the icy cold. Back then, he says, he hadn’t figured out what he wanted to do, but he was pretty sure about what he didn’t want. “I wasn’t even thinking about comedy, but I didn’t think Baltimore was my place to succeed,” he says. “It felt constricted.” After high school, Winfield moved to Sacramento to live with his dad and study English at Sacramento State University. He also got a job bagging groceries at a local grocery store, bought his aunt’s car—a 1984 bronze BMW rocking a tape deck—and spent his weekends partying. A lot.

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It was all fun and games until Winfield enrolled in an undergraduate speech class. “I was very serious about this class,” he says. “I wanted to get a good grade, but every time I got up there, the whole [class] cracked up laughing.” “So, this one time …” Ha-ha ha! “I went to the zoo …” Ha-ha ha-ha ha! Distressed, Winfield went to his professor. “It’s not my fault,” he told him. “They just keep laughing.” “I know, I understand,” the professor said. “But have you ever considered doing stand-up?” Winfield hadn’t. But, intrigued, decided to give it a shot.

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He can still see that first gig at Laughs Unlimited clear as day: The lights shining bright and hot in his face, the audience stonefaced, just waiting for this kid to make them laugh—even once. “All the stuff I’d planned on saying— nothing, no laughs,” he says. “It was horrific.” Somehow, Winfield endured the entire excruciating five-minute set, getting back in return, exactly one pitiful mercy laugh. “I had this one joke that I’d [planned] on doing if it wasn’t going well—I’d pull out a roll of Mentos like they do in the commercial, and it’d save the day, and the crowd would explode,” he says. That’s not how it actually went down. Winfield pulled the Mentos out of his pocket only to have a mint fall from the pack. The candy dropped, landing with a tink that echoed throughout the church-quiet club and started rolling. Someone, somewhere, laughed. A quiet nervous little laugh—but a laugh, nonetheless. And then, again, silence. “We all just stood there watching it roll across the floor in slow motion,” he says. “That Mentos upstaged me.”

Still, after the set, Winfield says he got a bit of encouragement from another comic who told him to keep at it. “You have to stick with it,” the guy told him. “You’ve got the look.” So, he honed his set, distilling it down to punchy stories centered on life with his wife and sons, as well as bits that poked fun at his look—a routine that riffed on his big, toothy grin and trademark Afro: “Today, this lady reached and tried to grab my Afro. I had to hair block on her. I understand, who doesn’t want to touch on that. It’s so mysterious!” Or: “It’s hard to be a thug when you got big-ass teeth. People are like, ‘Mike, you so positive about life. Is that the reason you always smiling?’ No, I close my mouth, it’s uncomfortable. It hurts.” Mostly, however, Winfield’s set revolves around relationship foibles. “When she tells you she’s pregnant, she doesn’t tell you the day she found out. She’s known about this for weeks, she’s had discussions with her friends—‘Who do you like more? Ray or Steve?’ ‘Ah, Steve.’ ’Cause when a woman feels the dad is incapable, she’s going to find a father. A dad will supply sperm, a father will supply the mortgage.” To say marriage and family are important to Winfield is a bit of an understatement—“I don’t have enough kids … I love kids”—but it helps, at least, to put the fundamentals of his act into perspective. It also explains, perhaps, why he tends to keep it clean. How he once even toured as a “Christian” comic along with an atheist, Muslim and others in The Coexist? Comedy Tour troupe. Although Winfield eventually quit Coexist because he didn’t want to be known as the comic who only talks about God (“I’m still spiritual,” he says), he’s nonetheless known for largely keeping his jokes safe for audiences of all ages. There are no explicit sex jokes, very little politics, nothing to embarrass you in front of Mom or Grandma. And it’s not an act.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him upset or pissed off. If he ever is, he hides it really well,” says Key Lewis, a Sacramento comedian and longtime friend of Winfield’s. And that’s at least part of the reason he’s been so successful, he adds. “He’s clever, and he’s precise, [but] a lot of [what makes him] funny comes from his appearance and his likeability. That’s what got him on Letterman,” Lewis says. “I don’t know any other local comics who’ve done that.”

THE DARK SIDE Maybe, Winfield thinks, it’s time to change things up a bit. Go for the racier jokes and sharpen the edge. Sure, people like the family-guy persona, he says. But they’d learn to love the more adult version of Mike E. Winfield, too. “If you sell anything with passion, I think people would jump on board,” he says. “It’s trial and error. It’s fun to experiment—maybe I’ll reach for that dark side at some point.” And, rest assured, there is one. In his early days of stand-up, Winfield regularly dropped sex jokes and swearing throughout his set. “That’s the polar opposite of who I am now,” he says. And while Winfield put the brakes on the raunch because “there’s nothing wrong with being the guy [that] families bring their children to see,” that evolution was also rooted in ambition. “When I started, I was told that the cleaner you are, the more jobs you’ll get,” he says. “Now, I’m this clean-cut guy who smiles a lot. “[But] there’s that inside part of me that wants to give them contrast; I’m just choosing not to let it come out.” Taleb, the Punch Line manager, doesn’t think Winfield needs to go that route. “Working clean … definitely sets Mike apart—especially since he’s an AfricanAmerican [comedian],” Taleb says. “He’s not just another urban comic; all demographics can enjoy him.” Winfield’s wife, Kisha, also wishes he’d keep the jokes PG rated. “I can do without the cussing,” she says. “It’s the easy way out.” Her husband’s talent, she adds, lies in his cleverness—the carefully crafted story, the just-so punch line. “His writing is so different than other comedians; his way of thinking is completely different.” Still, even clean doesn’t come without some messy complications. In the beginning, Kisha admits, she didn’t particularly like seeing her marriage played out in her husband’s act. “It was hurtful. I’d go to a show and see [our relationship] onstage,” she says. “I asked, ‘How come every time you write a joke [about our marriage] it has to be negative?’” The punch line almost writes itself. Indeed, the next time Kisha caught his act, she found out Winfield had listened to her concerns—and dealt with it accordingly. “You’re absolutely right,” her husband “ said, repeating the complaint onstage. “You have to change.” Ba dum ching. Today, Kisha just laughs it off. “I know [our relationship] will end up onstage, and I’m fine with that,” she says.

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Offstage, the Winfields’ marriage is no family show centered on life with Winfield’s joke. Not only does she run the household, 18-year-old stepson and another one he can’t she’s also a major part of his career, stepping discuss except to say he’s in the process of in to offer advice and give strong direction. negotiating a deal to sell it. “We’re a team, we’re best friends, we’re He wants to do it all: TV, comedy co-workers in the business of me,” he says. specials, movies. As such, Winfield says he’s fairly happy “I am armed with ideas,” he explains. with his current station in life. He’s fine— “That’s what successful people have done. really—being that guy who does the funny They have well-equipped themselves with jokes about married life and kids. routes and avenues, so when you get in a It’s not, he stresses, that he doesn’t like room with someone, you can say, ‘Oh, you his own comedy persona. don’t like that? Well, take a look at this.’” “I [do jokes] about the things I’m passionAlthough he grew up watching old Eddie ate about—relationships, experiences in the Murphy comedy specials on VHS tapes, home,” he says. Winfield says he’s most influenced by He pauses and thinks about the topic for a rappers—all that energy is motivating—as moment. well as some of basket“Generally, I’m just ball’s biggest names. LP nice,” he says a little “I love watching MIKE E. WINFIELD CAN’T HE woefully. “But I don’t LeBron [James] and think nice sells.” BUT TO WONDER IF HE’S DOING Kobe [Bryant],” he says. “I like Kobe’s personality.” G IN THE NICE-GUY TH Winfield pauses for IC M THIS WHOLE CO a split second. HUSTLE “I don’t like him in RIGHT. MAYBE HE SHOULD ROUGH interviews,” he says by Winfield’s done his time way of clarification. as a struggling comedian, “But on the court—that IT UP A BUT, HE PONDERS. YOU taking the show on the showmanship, the arroroad, touring college gance—I’m attracted campuses and clubs KNOW, THROW IN SOME to that. I’m drawn to across the nation. He’s cocky people.” also appeared on numerBut Mike E. SWEARING—AN ORAL-SEX ous cable-TV specials. Winfield is anything And, in the true hallmark but cocky or arrogant. for an aspiring comedian, Mike E. Winfield is a JOKE OR TWO. finally got that Letterman really nice guy. gig in 2010: “It’s weird that “Man, at the grocery store, I saw a guy I admire that,” he admits. “I think there’s steal a pregnancy test. That’s gangster. I don’t this part of me—I’ve never been an arrogant know the potential mother, but I know she’s person, but maybe that’s why I like those not getting child support.” guys—all those stories I hear about Michael Last year, Winfield also appeared on two Jordan talking crap. I love that; it fires me up. episodes of The Office. It was just a small The rappers, too—all that bravado.” part as a would-be warehouse worker, one Of course, Winfield doesn’t really possess in which he logged only a few lines, but it that bravado, that capacity to talk shit. got him noticed by casting agents, which, in And so far, that’s working out just fine turn, netted auditions for movies, such as the for him. Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis flick The “It’s probably why doors are opening: Campaign, and, finally, last February, the People like me,” he says. “It’s like, ‘Don’t just chance to try out for Off Beat. turn into a dick because you want to be a dick.’” Winfield headed to that audition fully Back at the Punch Line, however, Winfield prepared. seems to have a change of heart. His time, All he had to do, really, was show up, almost up, caps a joke and then hesitates. stand in front of the green screen and read “I’m tired of this nice, wholesome image,” jokes producers had already written. Instead, Winfield tells the audience with a sly smile. Winfield wrote his own lines, too, and “I’m going to say a bad word.” peppered them throughout his tryout. He left A dramatic pause, a laugh from the producers laughing. somewhere deep in the audience, and then “I think they were laughing because they Winfield brings the mic to his mouth and says were hearing new material,” Winfield says. the word so softly it’s almost a whisper. “They told me after, ‘We knew it was you the “Pussy.” moment you left.’” It’s just two syllables, but Winfield can’t It only reinforced Winfield’s approach to even keep a straight face in the second it comedy, and to life in general: takes to utter them—he’s laughing even “Always go all out. Never flatline. Never before the audience breaks out into a twitter play it safe.” of giggles and chuckles. Now that he’s finished recording Off Later, he’ll laugh again, with a note of Beat’s first season (12 episodes in all), he’s boyish triumph, explaining that Danielle back to touring and writing. A lot of writing, Stewart, the raunchy comedian armed with actually: new jokes, rewriting old jokes, blow-job jokes, egged him on. tackling new projects and ideas. “She bet me that I couldn’t do it,” he says “Mike writes more than any comedian I after the show as a handful of fans swarm, know,” Lewis says. “He’s always been really clamoring for photos and autographs. “I focused. Every time I see him, he’s trying out did—but I was cracking up.” something new.” Maybe being a nice guy’s not so bad It’s all part of the hustle. Right now, after all. Ω future projects include two sitcoms. One is a

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It’s dawn of the dead for Jane (left) and Eryn Ikelman.

CIT Y OF LOST SOULS THE MYSTERY ZONE PRODUCTIONS FILM CREW REACHES BEYOND SACRAMENTO’S LIMITS, FINDING ART IN ZOMBIES, DETECTIVES AND THE AREA’S GRITTY CHARM 20

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story and photos by

LOVELLE HARRIS

he Sacramento region has long played a role in the moviemaking business. From Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., filmed here in 1928, to Rob Marshall’s 2005 release, Memoirs of a Geisha, which featured the railroad station in Old Sacramento, the River City has been regaled as the “Hollywood of the North.” Looking to make good on this moniker, Sacramento independent film production company Mystery Zone Productions just released its latest short film, Dance Step of Death. Its members

say they hope the film—along with an upcoming project inspired by life in Sacramento—will serve to unite the local film community into a movieindustry powerhouse. Dance Step of Death screens Saturday, September 22, at Blacktop Comedy in Roseville; the film also airs later this month on the Davis Community Television and Sacramento Access Sacramento cable networks. The film, which premiered last month at the Sacramento Film & Music

Festival, epitomizes the MZP ethos: Carved from the vast network of artists, performers, choreographers, hair stylists and designers that form Sacramento’s artistic community, the production company’s cast and crew is looking to prove that you don’t need to be in Hollywood to make quality cinema. “I want A-plus players on my team to ultimately put a mark on Sacramento and say, ‘We’re doing films here,’” says Aaron “A.K.” Long, MZP founder, writer and director. “It’s crazy—this is the damn state capital.

Ruffled feathers See DISH

Yes, San Francisco and Los Angeles are big cities, but this is a big city, too, and there really needs to be a film culture here.” He should know: Long relocated from Southern California to attend UC Davis in 2007 and says he instantly fell in love with the city’s gritty charm on his daily commute from Davis to his then-job in Sacramento. It was on these trips, in fact, that Long found inspiration for his latest project Ambition, the studio’s upcoming full-length feature film, which draws heavily on the characters of Sacramento. “I was taking the bus from Davis to Arden Fair every day when I was working at Apple, and we went through downtown, and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is rough!’ There [are] people everywhere,” Longs says. “Then I started exploring the American River area on the bike path, and there [are] so many people down there, too, and I realized that Sacramento is broken in a lot of places, and it’s a little sad, but people are still soldiering on and really showing ambition.” Long plans to film in Sacramento, and the project, as its name might imply, aims high in its scope. An ode to film noir and grindhouse flicks, Long’s vision involves weaving the story line of main character Roy Styllz, a detective in the tradition of such iconic fatalist characters made infamous by the films of Billy Wilder and Orson Welles, into two distinct films— one short and one feature-length. The shorter film, Roy Styllz in: The Shadows, will be released first and serve as a teaser to its feature-length counterpart in Ambition.

Mystery Zone Productions founder Aaron “A.K.” Long wants to bring Sacramento’s film community to the global masses. BEFORE

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“[The short film] is basically the prelude in the book that the author is writing in [Ambition],” Long says. “The short is like the beginning of the story of who the detective is, [and] Ambition is a story of everybody I know—myself and the people who are here in Sacramento.” After graduating from UC Davis in 2011, Long convinced college friend and filmmaking partner in crime, Sam Laughlin, to turn their longtime passion for movies and filmmaking into a full-on production studio. A few short weeks later in February, MZP emerged. “It’s a learning process, so we’re all working together. It’s very open; we have different ideas, [so] everyone does what they’re best at,” Laughlin says.

Devo keeps it weird

Dance Step of Death, written and produced by Ed Fletcher, a reporter for The Sacramento Bee, premiered in August at the Sacramento Film & Music Festival, and in the weeks before its debut, cast and crew scrambled to finish the flick’s remaining scenes. For zombie-flick fans and Dance Step of Death extras Erika Brabec, 27 and Natasha Varner, 26, the chance to get ghoulish and shuffle around like zombies was a no-brainer. “Erika [and I] were at a zombies-vs.superheroes party … and heard about this movie,” says Varner, who made the trek from Santa Cruz to participate. “We tracked [Long] down in the crowd and [said], ‘We want to be zombies in your movie.’”

“SACRAMENTO IS BROKEN IN A LOT OF PLACES, AND IT’S A LITTLE SAD, BUT PEOPLE ARE STILL SOLDIERING ON AND REALLY SHOWING AMBITION.” Aaron Long Mystery Zone Productions founder Watching the pair work together on set, it’s clear the collaborative nature of their relationship is an exercise in patience and mutual respect. “I’m mostly cinematography, so when the camera starts rolling, that’s when my job really starts,” Laughlin says. “I just try to get every shot that we’ll need and think about everything that the film’s going to need, and make sure that we get it.” To say that the projects have been produced on a shoestring budget underplays the sacrifices made by the MZP family: All cast and crew members donate their time and talents sans pay. While the films that have been funded under the MZP flag have largely been selffinanced, the studio’s zombie short benefited from a budget Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission grant—to the tune of a whopping $210. Even that small amount, however, proved crucial, Long says. “The one thing that’s good about getting budgets, finally, on a film is that we can take time with meetings and preparation and getting props and having things together,” Long says. “More importantly, having the budgets allows me to give the people I trust the power to direct their own departments, so that I can worry about my direction of the actors.” |

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Long’s infectious spirit for filmmaking also convinced actress Jillian Leeman to move behind the camera for Dance Step of Death. “I acted in one of his films … [but] when he found out I did stage makeup, he [asked me to switch],” Leeman says. “Now I’m backstage—which I actually like better. Watching it all go on is the best part.” In the end, Long says, he’s been pleased by audience reaction to the film. “When directing a comedy, your one goal is to make people laugh,” he says. “At the [festival], I got to hear some great ones.” Now, with three shorts and a music video in the bag, a documentary in production and a full-length feature on the horizon, Long says he aspires to reach beyond Sacramento. “The goal is to make feature films and to partner with a distributor, or other production companies,” Long says. Eventually, Long and the rest of the MZP crew hopes the Sacramento film community establishes a national—if not wider—presence. “I think there is an interest in movies that are about Sacramento made by Sacramentans,” Long says. “I’m doing a movie about real-life situations and real hard times that people need real ambition to overcome. That’s the story I’m going to tell about the streets of Sacramento.” Ω Catch Dance Step of Death at 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 22, at Blacktop Comedy, 7311 Galilee Road in Roseville; www.blacktopcomedy.com. For information on when the film will air on local cable channels, visit www.facebook.com/DanceStepofDeath. Learn more about Mystery Zone Productions at http://mysteryzoneproductions.blogspot.com.

Horn of plenty See 15 MINUTES

Baseline of cool It’s close to 11 p.m. on a Wednesday when Jesse Phillips and his group ESS take to the stage at Harlow’s on J Street—the first of three bands heralding Chelsea Wolfe’s reluctant return to Sacramento for one night only. Call it dark wave, doom folk, apoca-pop or goth rock, the mood for the night is grungy and gritty— representative of this looming side to the Sacramento scene that’s finding its way increasingly into the spotlight. Tonight, the room is crowded with denim shirts and long hair but is mercifully devoid of flannel. The band’s first chords push its way through the room quietly at first, and then gather strength as a dense wall of noise, dark and rumbling and almost intolerably loud, before settling into an agreeably down-tuned rhythm. Phillips cranes his neck down to the microphone and looks out at the beer swilling, head bobbing crowd and delivers a mixture of Gregorian chant-turned-Interpol, or maybe it’s the other way around. Screature takes the stage next, a psychedelic outfit with a kiss of punk rock as fronted by Liz Donner. This is a set in which nothing much is happening but not much needs to happen to meet its clever minimalist aesthetic. Donner kicks around the Chelsea Wolfe’s homecoming stage in a schoolgirlshow hurt so good. sweet dress and saddle shoes, flipping her hair to hide one eye or the other as the rest of the band concentrate on practiced threechord progressions for two-minute intervals. By this point, Harlow’s main room has grown more crowded, and its inhabitants progressed from modest head bobs to limited side-to-side boogies without ever abandoning the baseline of cool. It’s after midnight when Chelsea Wolfe and band finally take the stage, the room brimming to accommodate what has been an epic turnout for the local and reticently ex-local band. While the group begins performing a set of well-worn songs as intricately and exactly as ever, hardly noticeable technical problems seem to occupy Wolfe’s mind as she takes an opportunity to betray the casual vibe. “This is the last Sacramento show we are ever playing,” she tells the audience to a scattering of boos, claps and a cry of “Rude!” from somewhere in the back. Still, the audience stays close and appreciative despite the ever-loved front woman’s delicate and recalcitrant mood whose tide eventually turns for the positive some halfway through the show. A handful of new songs prove heavy, strong and progressive, hinting the group is more likely to explode than burn out or fade away. At the end of the night, Wolfe and her band even emerge to satisfy the crowd’s eager calls for encore. “This is really great, thank you all for coming out,” she says, speaking into the microphone, even though her eyes glance up into the room for only a moment. –Julianna Boggs

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NIGHT&DAY 13THURS 14FRI DON’T MISS! CALIFORNIA JOURNALISM AWARDS: The California

Journalism Awards recognize, encourage and reward excellence in reporting about California state government, policy or issues. The event is sponsored by the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State and the Sacramento Press Club. Awards are given for print, radio, television, photo and student journalism. Th, 9/13, 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St.; (916) 278-6906; www.csus.edu/ calst/california_journalism_ awards.html.

List your event! Post your free online listing (up to 15 months early), and our editors will consider your submission for the printed calendar as well. Print listings are also free, but subject to space limitations. Online, you can include a full description of your event, a photo and a link to your website. Go to www.newsreview. com/calendar and start posting events. Deadline for print listings is 10 days prior to the issue in which you wish the listing to appear.

Special Events CRAIG KARGES, MENTALIST: Mentalist Craig Karges performs a show that combines the art of magic with the science of psychology and the power of intuition. The event is sponsored by the University Union Unique Programs and the First Year Experience Peer Mentors. All ages permitted. No alcohol sold or permitted at venue. Th, 9/13, 7:30pm. Free. Sacramento State University University Union, 6000 J St.; (916) 278-6997; www.sacstate unique.com.

Art Galleries MARIPOSA HALL: Exploring Sac States art treasures, Former chairs of the Sac State Art Department come together for a panel discussion about the University’s own collection of art treasures in Mariposa Hall 1000. Prize works from the collection are on display in Lost & Found: Selections from Sac State’s Art Collection through September 27 in the Else Gallery. Th, 9/13, 6:30-8:30pm. Free. Sacramento State University, 6000 J St.

DON’T MISS! SACRAMENTO AREA EMERGENCY HOUSING CENTER FUNDRAISER:

The 20th annual After Hours event benefiting the Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center brings together a good time with food, wine, live music and a silent auction. Fifty Sacramento restaurants, wineries, breweries and other beverage providers showcase their creations. Advance ticket purchase is required. F, 9/14, 5:30-8:30pm. $60. Fairytale Town, 3901 Land Park Dr.; (916) 454-2120, Ext. 302; www.saehc.org.

Special Events BOOK PROJECT PLEDGE PARTY: Enjoy delicious food, music and raffle prizes while learning more about the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for Fringe: On the Edges of the Mainstream Gay Community, a new book project by Sacramento

City College psychology professor Gayle Pitman. Fringe focuses on marginalized groups within the LGBTQ community— people who face discrimination. F, 9/14, 5:30-7:30pm. Free. ThinkHouse Collective, 1617 18th St.; (916) 595-0866; www.activevoice press.com.

GREAT BOOKS SEMINAR: The Cameron Park Great Books Seminar presents Searching for Democracy, an event featuring the reading and discussing the United States Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Th, 6-8pm through 9/27. Free. Cameron Park Library, 2500 Country Club Dr. in Cameron Park; (530) 676-8435; http://engagedpatrons.org/Eve ntsExtended.cfm?SiteID=7839& EventID=140368.

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full-day workshop, award-winning business speaker Brian Sharp will share with you, step by step, what he did to build a six-figure consulting practice almost exclusively from speaking onstage and online. Learn realistic and relevant techniques that will immediately help you get ready, get booked and get more clients. F, 9/14, 9am-5pm. $97. Hyatt Place, 220 Conference Center Dr. in Roseville; (916) 558-7805; www.bizjournalevents.com/ microphonemarketing/ microphone2012.htm.

Literary Events CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB OPEN-MIC: California Writers Club, Sacramento Branch hosts an open-mic for writers. Signups begin at 6:45 p.m. Readings are limited to 10 minutes per person.

together to solve mysteries and save our planet. F, 9/14, 3-7pm. Free. Roseville Utility Exploration Center, 1501 Pleasant Grove Blvd. in Roseville; (916) 746-1550; www.roseville.ca.us/explore.

Concerts BLUEGRASSIN’ IN THE FOOTHILLS:

COMIC BOOK LAUNCH EVENT: Whether you’re new to comic books or a longtime fan, you’re going want to get your hands on all four of these limited edition Planet Protector books. Illustrated by Bernard Chang, a freelance artist and regular contributor at DC and Marvel Comics, each of the four stories features the Planet Protectors—Danica, Brandon and Johnny—three extraordinary kids working

Join a three-day bluegrass music festival in the Sierra Nevada wine and gold country featuirng world-class bluegrass bands from throughout the the United States, including the James King Band, The Bluegrass Bros., Nu- Blu, Red Dog Ash, the Get Down Boys and more. F, 9/14, 10am-10pm. $20-$30. Amador County Fairgrounds, 18621 Sherwood St. in Plymouth; (209) 785-4693; www.landspromotions.com.

15SAT

DON’T MISS! KINGS & QUEENS POETRY NIGHT: Kings & Queens

Poetry Night features one of Sacramento’s hottest lineups. It features The Poet I, Sean King, Leah Albright-Byrd, Anna Marie, Emmanuel Sigauke and M.E. Miller. It’s hosted by poet Terry Moore and also features an open-mic. Sa, 9/15, 7-10pm. $10. Sekou’s BBQ, 455 Bercut Dr.; (916) 208-7638; http://kingsand queenspoetrynight. eventbrite.com.

Special Events HANDS ON HISTORY HARVEST TIME: During Hands on History: The Real Gold in California event, visitors to Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park will participate in corn shucking contests, threshing, winnowing and grinding wheat. Sa, 9/15. $5-$7. Sutter’s Fort, 2701 L St.; (916) 445-4422; www.suttersfort.org.

JONATHAN ME NDICK

ALL CLASS, NO CRASS

OPEN REEL: 3 MINUTES IN 30 DAYS:

Classes

MICROPHONE MARKETING: In this

Listeners are welcome. The California Writers Club is an educational nonprofit corporation dedicated to educating writers of all levels in the craft of writing and in the marketing of their work. F, 9/14, 7-9:30pm. Free. Barnes & Noble, 6111 Sunrise Blvd. in Citrus Heights; (916) 344-5778; www.cwc sacramentowriters.org.

Call for Artists The public is invited to participate in the second annual Open Reel film competition, presented by CCAS in conjunction with the Capital Artists’ Studio Tour. Participants must submit work that is 3 minutes or less in duration and must have been completed in 30 days or less. There are no other restrictions. Th, 9/13, 7pm. $15 entry fee per submission. Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, 1519 19th St.; (916) 498-9811; www.ccasac.org.

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ENVISIONING CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE: Sponsored by the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento, Connected (or Disconnected)? California’ s Culture, Technology and Politics features a keynote address by American historian Kevin Starr, closing remarks by journalist Greg Lucas and a celebration of the Center’s 30th anniversary. Registration requested. F, 9/14, 9am-3:30pm. Call for pricing. Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St.; (916) 278-6906; www.csus.edu/ calst/envisioning_california_ conference.html.

acramento’s rivers have seen plenty of out-of-control parties this summer (see “Rage over troubled water” by Raheem F. Hosseini, SN&R Feature Story, August 23). Whether it’s the binge-drinking and brawl-filled Rafting Gone Wild, or the bro- and floozy-filled Rage on the River, there’s no shortage of ways to party on the river. And then there’s this weekend’s Rollin’ on the River—pretty much the polar opposite of the aforementioned events. Sponsored by the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation, Rollin’ on the River features—in lieu of beer and stripper poles—a champagne toast for the I Street Bridge’s 100th anniversary and a silent auction. The event happens aboard the Empress Hornblower cruise boat vs. a speedboat or raft. And, instead of modern binge-drinkinggame classics such as “chugalug” or “show your tatas,” it features 1850s-style casino games such as faro, chuck-a-luck and shut the box. Note: An optional precruise reception— emceed by former news anchors Dave Walker and Lois Hart—celebrates Sacramento community leader and restaurateur Lina Fat. It happens from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Sacramento History Museum (101 I Street).

Basically, what you need to know is this: Don’t expect a wild, drunken frat party. Expect to learn a little bit about the history of the I Street Bridge. And probably some top hats, Victorian dresses and frock coats. Plus, all of the event’s proceeds benefit the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation.

Friday, September 14 (reception from 5 to 6 p.m.; cruise from 6 to 8:30 p.m.). $75 for cruise, $125 for reception and cruise. Hornblower Dock, 1206 Front Street; (916) 808-7108; www.historicoldsac.org.

NATIONAL MEDICARE EDUCATION WEEK: UnitedHealthcare is hosting a hands-on educational event in Sacramento as part of National Medicare Education Week. The event is designed to help baby boomers, Medicare beneficiaries, their families and caregivers learn more about Medicare and how to find the coverage that’s best for them. Sa, 9/15, 10am-3pm. Free. National University, 9320 Tech Center Dr.; (916) 780-2233; www.nmew.com.

PROFESSIONAL BANKED TRACK ROLLER DERBY: The San Francisco Bay Bombers return to the capitol city to take on the rugged Brooklyn Red Devils in the only Sacramento game this season. Enjoy the excitement that banked track roller derby can offer. Sa, 9/15, 8pm. $10. Memorial Auditorium, 1515 J St.; (916) 808-5181; www.sacramentoconvention center.com.

PUPS IN THE PARK: Dogs in costumes parading in the park and competing for top costume prizes are only a small part of this event. Enjoy the emcees Uncle Matty and Steve Cohn, visit vendor booths, take a photo in the Pup Photo Booth and spend time with Bodie, Sacramento’s K9 hero. There will be food, musical entertainment by the Kyle Rowland Duo and more. Sa, 9/15, 9am. $5-$25. McKinley Park, 601 Alhambra Blvd.

TOP OF FOLSOM: The Folsom Historic District presents Top of Folsom, featuring fine art, performances, food and wine—all

served up on a scenic rooftop in the heart of Historic Folsom. The event will benefit both the Folsom Zoo Sanctuary and the Folsom Historic District. Sa, 9/15, 6-9pm. $75. Historic District Parking Structure Rooftop, Leidesdorff and Reading streets in Folsom; www.topoffolsom.com.

WHISKERS & WINE FUNDRAISER: The Sacramento County Animal Shelter will be filled with several hundred animal lovers. The event will include a grilled dinner by Chops Restaurant, music by the Beth Duncan Jazz Trio, auctions, raffle prizes, beer and wine tasting and a pet food drive. Sa, 9/15, 6pm. $30-$40. Sacramento County Animal Shelter, 3839 Bradshaw Rd.; (916) 875-5848.

Poetry UP POETRY: Lawrence Dinkins Jr. (aka NSAA) hosts this UP Poetry event featuring spoken word artist and author Tallam Acey. The event also features live band Inside Story. Sa, 9/15, 7-10pm. $5. Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th St.; (916) 441-7395; www.facebook.com/ events/410507752343422.

Sports & Recreation 5K RUN FOR OVARIAN CANCER: Run or walk to raise funds for the early detection, treatment and cure of ovarian cancer. The event is organized by the Ovarian Cancer Education & Research Network. Join at 5:30 p.m. for the run and stay afterwards for the celebration featuring a barbecue, live band, awards and survivor recognition. Sa, 9/15, 5:30pm. $37. UC Davis Medical Center,

Kids’ Stuff

45th and X streets; (916) 441-1751; www.letsrocrun.org.

CHILDREN-FRIENDLY CARNIVAL:

Volunteer

Summer Splash is a familyfriendly event with unlimited swimming, carnival games, music, entertainment, arts and crafts, water slides, a fitness challenge and outdoor laser tag. This event is geared towards elementary school children. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Su, 9/16, 12-4pm. $8-$10. Natomas Racquet Club, 2450 Natomas Park Dr.; (916) 790-6442; www.summer-splash.com.

A DAY OF HOPE: The Sacramento Convoy of Hope is a collaborative effort between dozens of local churches, businesses, social service organizations and local government to provide food for the hungry and relief for people in crisis. This all-volunteer event mobilizes hundreds of area residents to serve and make a difference in their community. Sa, 9/15, 10am-3pm. Free. Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd.; (916) 549-9922; http://sacramento coh.org/church_info.php.

years of international touring and recording, the Boston Brass will perform their signature blend of classical, jazz and popular repertoire at the Crest. The quintet is consistently noted for humor and audience interaction as it easily navigates styles ranging from Baroque to big band. Su, 9/16, 3pm. $25. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.; (916) 442-7378.

THE BEST OF DOO WOP: Born in the ’40s, Doo Wop—tightly harmonized rhythm and blues—characterized the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll. Gathered for one performance, the Tokens (“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”), Bobby Hendricks’ Drifters (“Remember When”) and Dodie Stevens (“Pink Shoelaces”) all perform, backed by the Billy & the Corvettes Band. Sa, 9/15, 8pm. $35-$59. Three Stages at Folsom Lake College, 10 College Pkwy. in Folsom; (916) 608-6888.

GOOD VIBES: A MUSICAL MYSTERY TOUR: Hear an interactive classical concert, involving you, the audience, and three performers: harpist Beverly Wesner-Hoehn, harpsichordist Nancy Metzger and organist Scott Nelson. Get up close and personal with these performers and their instruments. Learn how the instruments work while enjoying the music. Su, 9/16, 4pm. $10. All Saints Episcopal Church, 2076 Sutterville Rd.; (916) 455-0643; www.allsaintssacramento.org.

16SUN

Special Events BATTLE OF THE BLUES BANDS: This is a preliminary competition for blues bands to win a chance to compete in the 29th International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Come on out and cheer for the next group of hopefuls heading to Memphis. Su, 9/16, 2-6pm. $5. The Couch, 7431 Madison Ave. in Citrus Heights; (916) 961-3342; www.thecouch.net.

Are you interested in blogging about your family history research or other aspect of genealogy? Learn how to get started in this presentation by Craig Siulinski. This free program will be held in the West Meeting Room at the Central Library. Street parking near Central Library is free on Sundays. Su, 9/16, 1:30-3pm. Sacramento Public Library (Central Branch), 828 I St.; (916) 264-2920; www.saclibrary.org.

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RCC 2012 DINNER GALA: The Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce dinner gala benefits the Rainbow Chamber Foundation and LGBT Youth Services. The keynote speaker is Diana S. Dooley, Secretary of California Health and Human Services Agency. Secretary Dooley will speak about the Affordable Care Act. Tu, 9/18, 6-9pm. $125. Woodlake Hotel, 500 Leisure Ln.; (916) 266-9630; http://rain bowchamber.com/events-2.

WOMEN AND MONEY: TAKING CONTROL: Women and Money is a workshop presented by Robin C. Bevier. As women working in the financial industry, the organizers of this event want to empower women to take control of their financial lives. Join and get answers to questions from those who understand the unique financial situations women face. Tu, 9/18, 3-5 & 6:30-8:30pm. Free. Citrus Heights Community Center, 6300 Fountain Square Dr. in Citrus Heights; (916) 858-0904; www.robinbevier.com.

DR. DAWN MCGUIRE POETRY READING: Dr. Dawn McGuire,

a neurologist and a poet who lives in the Bay Area recently launched her new book of poems called The Aphasia Cafe. Her poetry is inspired by her years of treating people with aphasia. Through roughly 50 poems inspired by her patients, McGuire opens the hazy world of aphasia, which leaves millions of people unable to speak or find the words that accurately articulate their thoughts. M, 9/17, 7:30pm. call for cover. Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th St.; (916) 441-7395.

wheelbarrow and join the after-work mulching party at McKinley Park. Volunteers are needed to help care for the park by applying mulch rings around the park trees. The event is supported by the City of Sacramento Parks and Recreation Department and the Sacramento Tree Foundation. Mulch is provided by the City of Sacramento Urban Forestry Service. Bring your own, or use provided wheelbarrows, gloves and rakes. Tu, 9/18, 5:30-7pm. Free. McKinley Park, 601 Alhambra Blvd.; (916) 974-4333; www.sactree.com.

discussion on the problem of misinformation in the electorate—when citizens believe political “facts” that are not true. What are the patterns, explanations and possible solutions? Original research on California will be presented, with examples from the 2012 campaign. Tu, 9/18, noon. Free. Sacramento State Student Union, Redwood Room, 6000 J St.; (916) 278-6267.

DON’T MISS!

BUILD YOUR OWN GENEALOGY BLOG:

MULCH MADNESS: Grab your

MISINFORMATION IN AMERICAN POLITICS: Join a lecture and

The Hohlax trio was formed in 2007 on the Greek island of Amorgos. It has relocated and is currently based in Athens. The group has played in almost all of the music venues on Amorgos and has also enjoyed performing in Athens, Cyprus and California. Su, 9/16, 7-9pm. $13-$15. Village Homes Community Center, 2661 Portage Bay East in Davis; (530) 867-1032; www.timnatalmusic.com.

17MON

Volunteer

Special Events

A NIGHT OF GREEK REMBETIKO:

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SACRAMENTO BURGER

BATTLE: Fifteen local restaurants cook up their best burgers on National Cheeseburger Day as they compete for the judges vote and the People’s Choice vote for Best Burger in Sacramento. Attendees will enjoy burger samples from restaurants, craft beer, cider and wine tastings as well as live music from Hero’s Last Mission. All proceeds from this event will be donated to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. Tu, 9/18, 6-10pm. $55. Raley Field, 400 Ballpark Dr. in West Sacramento; (916) 668-9182; http://sacburger battle.com.

BOSTON BRASS: Celebrating 25

Concerts

The Placer County Honey Festival has relocated to Rocklin and features an expanded list of activities including a pancake breakfast, honey sales (of course), lots of honey-based food, bee exhibits and seminars, a kids area, beer and wine garden and more. Su, 9/16, 10am-4pm. Free. Johnson-Springview Park, 5480 Fifth St. in Rocklin; www.pchoneyfestival.com.

DON’T MISS!

Concerts

PLACER COUNTY HONEY FESTIVAL:

BEFORE

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60-minute class each week for 6 weeks. Tu, 9/18, 6:30-7:30pm. $165 for six classes. WAG Hotel, 1759 Enterprise Blvd. in West Sacramento; (916) 373-0300; http://waghotels.com/ wag-university-dog-trainingclasses.cfm.

DOG TRAINING CLASS: This is a small group class for the adult dog that has never been through training and needs some basic doggy manners. The majority of this class is spent working on capturing and keeping your dog’s attention, basic commands, leash-management, listening skills, and relaxing techniques. The class is limited to 6-8 participants and consists of one

AFTER

DON’T MISS! SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FORUM: Featuring City Council candidates Steve Hansen and Joseph Yee, this Forum will highlight homelessness and affordable, accessible housing. Other topics may include hunger, land use and community equity. Additional questions will be developed by audience participants. W, 9/19, 7-8:30pm. Free. Pioneer Congregational Church, 2700 L St.; (916) 455-4900, ext. 301; http://sachousing alliance.org/news-andupdates.

Special Events YMCA SENIOR HEALTH FAIR: Learn about important senior resources: insights into nutrition, health, diabetes, housing, legal, emergency and transportation services. More than 35 community services will participate. In addition, the Y will provide blood pressure checks, balance and agility exercises and demonstrations. W, 9/19, 9:30-11:30am. Free. Sacramento Area YMCA, 2021 W St.; (916) 452-9622, ext. 101; www.ymcasuperiorcal.org/ ymca/index.cfm.

Concerts WEDNESDAY NOONER: ANGELS LANDING: As part of its ongoing Wednesday Nooner series, University Union Unique Programs presents Angels Landing, an indie-pop rock band. All ages permitted. No alcohol sold or permitted at venue. W, 9/19, noon. Free. University Union Serna Plaza, 6000 J St. Sacramento State University; (916) 278-6997; www.SacStateUNIQUE.com.

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Wait, there’s more! Looking for something to do? Use SN&R’s free calendar to browse hundreds of events online. Art galleries and musems, family events, education classes, film and literary events, church groups, music, sports, volunteer opportunies—all this and more on our free events calendar at www.newsreview.com. Start planning your week!

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Blackbird Kitchen & Bar 1015 Ninth Street, (916) 498-9224, http://blackbird-kitchen.com The saying goes it takes a village to raise a child, but apparently this also applies to waiting on a two-top table. During a meal at Blackbird by Kitchen & Bar, it often feels as though one’s Becky being waited on by almost everyone in the Grunewald restaurant. There’s the bartender, for example, who comes out to my table on a recent visit to ask if it’s OK that he gave me Lillet Blanc aperitif wine in response to my order, and he brings me a taste of the Lillet Rouge, just in case. There’s the manager, who pops up like the jack-in-thebox tableside while my friend and I are chatting, simply to make conversation. There’s the somRating: melier, who pours me a taste of a 22-year-old ★ ★ 1/2 Riesling and points out the notes of petrol and leather in the marvelous golden liquid. Dinner for one: These are largely welcome intrusions, but $25 - $50 they also start to add up after a while. On another visit, however, I’m seated in the expanded upstairs area, and my server forgets my forgettable grilled bread with roasted-tomato tapenade (why roast a tomato at the height of the season?) and brings the beer just as we are ready for the check. The beer, he tells us, is on ★ the house, but we feel like jerks for being picky. POOR I watch a server at the next table apologize to a ★★ diner for forgetting the crab in her crab soup FAIR and offering her a small bowl on the side. ★★★ D’oh. GOOD Many of the restaurant’s dishes need small ★★★★ tweaks, as well. The mound of scallop and infant EXCELLENT squid in the “ceviche” is lacking in citrus flavor ★★★★★ both times I sample it. It’s oceanic and tender, EXTRAORDINARY but too mild to hold up against the thick corn chips it’s meant to be scooped with. The menu also promises Thai basil in this dish; I hunt high and low and find mint and baby cilantro, but no basil. Indeed, quite a few dishes on the menu play fast and loose with the listed ingredients. I order the green-bean starter and instead get the pan-blistered shishito peppers, many of which are near raw and in need of some further blistering. After apologies, the bean dish with fried quinoa finally appears, but the beans are Still hungry? overblanched and the nutty, crunchy quinoa Search SN&R’s doesn’t integrate with the dish. “Dining Directory” to There are some higher points. The raw bar, find local restaurants heaped with ice, is the visual center of the by name or by type of food. Sushi, Mexican, restaurant and the strongest element of the Indian, Italian— menu. Separated from my bar-side stool by discover it all in the only a pane of glass, I watch a young man “Dining” section at www.newsreview.com. shuck bivalves and deftly fillet raw scallops with intensity; he even gives a surreptitious sniff to my clams before sending them out. What a treat to find raw clams on a Sacramento menu; they are intensely briny and chewier than oysters. Out of an array of oysters, both local and localish, the server’s recommendation proves true: The Washington-farmed Shigoku are the sweetest, with a hint of cucumber finish at BEFORE

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the end. The poached shrimp are pricey at two bucks each, but they are elegantly served and snappy. An entree of braised pork belly, prawns and peaches offers a challenge to the dainty diner. The skin on the pork belly outmatches my butter knife, and the oily shrimp is difficult to shell without making a mess. The prawns have a bland, floury coating that begs a dusting of salt. In contrast, the fried-chicken main course has been oversalinated and is served a bit undercooked; the dark meat is like chicken jelly, but at least the breast is cooked to perfection.

5641 J Street, Sacramento, CA 916-457-5600 www.cl arkscornerbar.com

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Quite a few dishes on Blackbird Kitchen & Bar’s menu play fast and loose with the listed ingredients. Blackbird’s wine and beer program is sophisticated, and the head bartender, Patrick O’Neill, is a sensei, but his cocktail list is oddly small—it makes little use of his many jars of pickled and infused ingredients. Best to just let him recommend something and enjoy. A delectable Gibson with house-pickled red onion is an astonishing $5 at happy hour, but after sampling every dish on the list of discounted snacks, only the oysters are worth reordering. Here, the elements for an elevated dining experience are all present, and the talent in the kitchen and bar is apparent, but currently, this Blackbird is struggling to fly. Ω

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THE V WORD Party animals Vegan events in this region are few and far between, so when one appears on the horizon, it’s kind of special, like Music in the Meadow at Animal Place, where party animals can party with animals. It’s on Saturday, September 22, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the nonprofit sanctuary (17314 McCourtney Road in Grass Valley). There’ll be several bands, so feel free to rock out with the cows to the surf-band sounds of Hiwatters, or chill out with the rabbits to the songs of Joan Hall’s harp. There’ll also be a silent auction, an appearance by author John Robbins, and vendors of goods and good eats—all totally vegan. Tickets are $25 for adults, $12 for kids (not the baby-goat kind). See http://animalplace.org for details.

2968 Freeport Blvd Sacramento, CA 95818 916-447-3237 ilovedadskitchen.com

—Shoka STORY

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Downtown

Estelle’s Patisserie With its marble tables and light wooden chairs, there’s an airy atmosphere, casual and cozy. Estelle’s offers an espresso bar and a wide assortment of teas and muffins and rolls for the breakfast crowd as well as sweets, including DayGlo macarons. For the lunch-inclined, there are soups, salads, sandwiches and meat or meatless quiche. One of the authentic touches is the spare use of condiments. The smoked salmon is enlivened by dill and the flavor of its croissant. Its tomato bisque is thick and richly flavored, and, in a nice touch, a puff pastry floats in the tureen as accompaniment. Everything is surprisingly reasonable. Half a sandwich and soup is $7.25. A caprese baguette is $5.25. Ham and cheese is $5.75. There’s a lot to like about Estelle’s—except dinner. Doors close at 6pm. French. 901 K St., (916) 551-1500. Meal for one: $5-$10. ★★★1⁄2 G.L.

Midtown

Firestone Public House A sports bar with a focus on craft beer isn’t exactly a groundbreaking concept, but two local prominent restaurant

The Porch The Porch is light and white with a vibe that suggests the airy sweep of an antebellum Charleston eatery. One can only envy the extensive on-site research conducted by chef Jon Clemens and business partners John Lopez and Jerry Mitchell, creators of Capitol Garage. The most enjoyable menu selections are salads or seafood sandwiches or entrees. Slaw on the barbecue pork sandwich elevates its status, and its pickled vegetables are sweet and tart, adding an additional dimension. The shrimp and grits dish, while laden with cheddar and gravy, is a synergistic mélange—perhaps The Porch’s trademark dish. Also in the running is the purloo, the low country’s version of jambalaya, with andouille, crunchy crawfish appendages, and the same DO SH AY N BY HAYL EY

Here are a few recent reviews and regional recommendations by Becky Grunewald and Greg Lucas, updated regularly. Check out www.newsreview.com for more dining advice.

families, the Wongs and the DeVere Whites, know what Sacramento wants: good beer; solid pub grub; and a casual, unpretentious atmosphere. Here, the bar is the centerpiece with a full stock of liquor and 60 beers on draught. The menu features savory appetizers—the tortilla soup with poached chicken, avocado and tomato is particularly noteworthy—and a selection of sandwiches and pizzas, including a simple pie with fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce. American. 1132 16th St., (916) 446-0888. Dinner for one: $15-$20. ★★★ B.G.

ILLUSTR AT IO

Where to eat?

sautéed bell peppers and onions that also appear in the grits. Southern. 1815 K St., (916) 444-2423. Dinner for one: $20-$30. ★★★ G.L.

The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar Resistance is futile when it comes to Red Rabbit’s desserts. The berryinfused ice-cream sandwich is bright and refreshing with a chewy shell that dovetails neatly with the smooth fruity interior. But there’s less effusiveness for the entrees. The Bastard Banh Mi doesn’t improve on the original. A number of items from the “Farm to Plate,” “Tasty Snacks” and “Buns” sections of the menu land high in the plus column, however. Any place that offers chimichurri rocks hard. Here

it enlivens the Farm Animal Lollipops snack—particularly the lamb—and the mayor-of-Munchkin-Citysized lamb bocadillas. American. 2718 J St., (916) 706-2275. Dinner for one: $20-$40. ★★1⁄2 G.L.

Sampino’s Towne Foods Sampino’s Towne Foods turns out to be a bright jewel in a drab Alkali Flat strip mall of paycheck cashers and laundromat. It’s everything an Italian deli should be and more, right down to the Louie Prima on the box and the timpano in the refrigerated display case. Several lobbyists, who elect to drive the six to seven blocks from their offices near the capitol, to pick up sandwiches or—in one instance—five

meatballs, begin spewing superlatives when asked their views on Sampino’s. Italian Deli. 1607 F St., (916) 441-2372. Dinner for one: $7-$15. ★★★★1⁄2 G.L.

Shady Lady Saloon

So many bars try to do bar snacks, and so many fail. Shady Lady, however, nails it. The fried green tomatoes are punched up with a tarragon rémoulade and the huge charcuterie board is more like a groaning board, stocked with abundant regional meats and cheeses. The pickle plate looks like Peter Rabbit’s dream, all teeny turnips and tangy carrot chunks. Generally excellent, the saloon’s cocktail list veers from

the classics with a list of bartender-created drinks with unusual, but wisely considered flavor combinations: cilantro and tequila, blackberry and thyme, and the surprisingly sublime mixture of celery and pineapple. American. 1409 R St., (916) 231-9121.$10-$20. ★★★ 1⁄2 B.G.

Thir13en From the start—and, lo, these many weeks hence—the situp-take-notice plate remains the pork tonnato sandwich. It’s the Italian peasant spread or sauce made with tonno—tuna—tonnato that empowers this open-face masterwork. Spread on a toasted half baguette, the tonnato is the foundation upon which the pork

BREW THE RIGHT THING Sacto’s no San Diego

MUST DRINK:

Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s Double Jack may be available in every bar and most corner stores in town, but Sacramento’s beerdistribution scene continues to lag behind San Diego, Calif. On a recent trip, I relished the chance to sample beers from unheralded and locally undistributed San Diego-area breweries, including the savorysweet fruitcake flavors of Alpine Beer Company’s glorious FiringsQuad and Societe Brewing Co.’s excellent Every Man’s IPA. Beyond that, I also found beers from Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Founders Brewing Co.—its Dirty Bastard is the only Scotch ale I’ve ever loved—at the San Diego chapter of the Toronado pub. Even the shabbiest of corner stores offered the opportunity to score a bottle from Boulder, Colorado’s Avery Brewing Company, in this case, its Belgian quadruple ale, The Reverend, which was earthier and hoppier than Alpine’s version.

Beer: Puja (English IPA) Brewer: Thornbridge Brewery Where: Pangaea Two Brews Cafe, 2743 Franklin

Boulevard; (916) 454-4942

Beer: Propaganda Pils

Brewer: Berryessa Brewing Co. Where: The Davis Beer Shoppe, 211 G Street in

Davis; (530) 756-5212

Beer: White Oak (wheat wine in bourbon barrels and golden-ale blend)

Brewer: The Bruery Where: Samuel Horne’s Tavern, 719 Sutter

Street in Folsom; (916) 293-8207

—Daniel Barnes

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Formoli’s Bistro Formoli’s is the other half of the restaurant swap on J Street that sent Vanilla Bean Bistro (formerly known as Gonul’s J Street Cafe) to Formoli’s old warren and brought Formoli’s into its current high-ceilinged, spare, dark cranberry space of black tables and chairs just six blocks away. Flavor combinations are a big part of the Formoli playbook, and the blend of the tower’s components is the payoff just as it is in the salad of beets—wafer-thin enough to be used interchangeably in the carpaccio—with shaved fennel, frisée, a few orange segments and pistachios laced with a stentorian balsamic vinaigrette. Mediterranean. 3839 J St., (916) 448-5699. Dinner for one: $20-$40. ★★★★ G.L. Juno’s Kitchen & Delicatessen To quote Gov. Jerry Brown from his first iteration as California’s chief executive more than 30 years ago: “Small is beautiful.” Juno’s proves this axiom in spades. The menu is fairly compact and slanted more toward lunch than dinner. Juno’s macaroni and

cheese, which comes with rock shrimp on rigatoni, a Grana Padano, Gruyère and cheddar trio and a dusting of paprika, is a creative take on a comfort-food classic. In the traditional-sandwich realm, all start out with the advantage of Juno’s homemade sour—but not sourdough—bread with its crunchy crust and soft interior. In the soppressata salami sandwich, the bread amplifies the tartness of the pepperoncini while the turkey sandwich with provolone, tomato, arugula and pesto requires several napkins as the oil in the pesto seeps inexorably through the airy bread slices. American. 3675 J St., (916) 456-4522. Dinner for one: $5-$10. ★★★★ G.L.

Mamma Susanna’s Ristorante Italiano

narrow, low-ceilinged coziness is consonant with its understated, whatever-the-impulse-inspires alchemy that owner/chef Gonul Blum, has shown over the past eight years. Blum hails from Turkey. That country’s culinary tradition provides a sturdy foundation, but for her, it serves more as a launching pad. A recurring feature practiced here is the inclusion of fruit— preserved and fresh—in many dishes. And the tabbouleh delivers a roundhouse-punch flavor combination. Turkish. 3260-B J St., (916) 457-1155. Dinner for one: $10-$20. ★★★★1⁄2 G.L.

fresh the next day with dried Thai chilies and scallions. Thai and Lao. 2827 Norwood Ave., (916) 641-5890. Dinner for one: $10-$15. ★★★★ B.G.

South Sac

Giò Cha Duc Huong Sandwiches With banh mi, it’s the bread that sets the tone. Giò Cha Duc Huong Sandwiches goes against the grain with bread that’s more football shaped than submarine shaped, garlic bread, and a selection of premade grab-and-go sandwiches right by the counter. And, with its substitution of butter for mayonnaise and the emphasis on pâté, Duc Huong shows a stronger than usual French influence.These details may seem trivial, but with banh mi, such small variations make all the difference. The small menu is limited to eight sandwiches (mostly pork) and two soups: chicken curry soup and a beef stew called bo kho banh mi, which comes with bread. There’s a thick float of chili oil on top of the yellow, turmeric and lemongrass-laced curry soup, which, at first, is off-putting until you realize it can be dipped into the yeasty, crusty, fluffy bread. Vietnamese. 6825 Stockton Blvd., Ste. 200; (916) 428-1188. Dinner for one: $5-$10. ★★★ 1 ⁄ 2 B.G.

North Sac

Asian Café Asian Café serves

Most commonly referred to by its patrons as the neighborhood restaurant, there is no shortage of options on the menu with nearly a dozen or so pastas, even more types of pizzas, a smattering of salads and various entrees, including the piccata chicken or veal dish that Mamma Susanna’s counts as one of her specialties. Of the pastas and pizzas, the norcina tastes like and looks like an orangey vodka sauce with roasted red-pepper slices and sausage rounds tossed in a bed of penne. While the menu claims spicy, some red chili flakes do the trick. Italian. 5487 Carlson Dr., (916) 452-7465. Dinner for one: $12-$20. ★★★ G.L.

Vanilla Bean Bistro Gonul’s J Street Cafe has moved up the street and evolved into the Vanilla Bean Bistro. Its

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK STIVERS

rests. Above the pork is an awning of mixed greens, with a generous overhang, sprinkled with not enough crispy onions and paperthin slices of pickled fennel. There isn’t space to wax poetic about the cordon bleu sandwich, the burger, the designer cocktails or the fizzy water from Wales. See for yourself. Very authoritative. American. 1300 H St., (916) 594-7669. Dinner for one: $12-$20. ★★★★1⁄2 G.L.

both Thai and Lao food, but go for the Lao specialties, which rely on flavoring staples such as fish sauce, lime juice, galangal and lemongrass, lots of herbs, and chilies. One of the most common dishes in Lao cuisine is larb, a dish of chopped meat laced with herbs, chilies and lime. At Asian Café, it adds optional offal add-ons—various organ meats, entrails, et al—to three versions of the dish: beef with tripe, chicken with gizzards, or pork with pork skin. The beef salad offers a gentle respite from aggressive flavors, consisting of medium-thick chewy slices of eye of round with red bell pepper, chopped iceberg and hot raw jalapeño. The single best dish here is the nam kao tod, a crispy entree with ground pork that’s baked on the bottom of the pan with rice, then stirred and fried up

Tour de food festivals This week, Sacramento hosts a tamale festival, a burger battle and a harvest festival. Even better, they’re all a few days apart, so you can turn it into a three-day foodie tour. Here’s your itinerary: Stop 1: 102.5 KSFM’s Tamales Festival. This event features a variety of tamales representing different regions of Mexico, chef demonstrations, drinks and a tamale-eating contest. It’s on Sunday, September 16, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Plaza (910 I Street). Tickets are $5. Stop 2: Sacramento Burger Battle. The inaugural battle will serve up burgers, beer and wine tasting. It will also crown the Best Burger in Sacramento. It happens on Tuesday, September 18, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Raley Field (400 Ballpark Drive in West Sacramento). Tickets are $55. Stop 3: Native Harvest Festival. Celebrate the fall harvest with Native American-inspired dishes such as buffalo chili, potato cakes and chocolatecorn tamales. It’s on Friday, September 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 24K Chocolat Cafe and Theater (inside Ancient Future at 2331 K Street). Tickets need to be purchased in advance and are $30. —Jonathan Mendick

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COOLHUNTING At your fingertips Richard Blanch nail polish Michelle Obama did liberals a solid last week with her speech at the Democratic National Convention. But it wasn’t just the first lady’s words that left people atwitter. Watchers took to social-media sites in droves to inquire FASHION about her eye-catching sparkly “greige” nail color—a mix of gray and beige with a hint of purple. Nails, apparently, are such a major political statement that the campaign is selling a patriotic trio of Richard Blanch colors—Red-y to Win Red, Victory White and Bo Blue—as part of its Runway to Win designer shop. Each set costs $40 and comes in a keepsake bag. Don’t stop at your fingertips: The online store has wares from the likes of Tory Burch (tote bag), Marc Jacobs (doggy T-shirts) and Tracy Reese (sweatshirt), too. https://store.barackobama.com/richard-blanch.html. —Rachel Leibrock

Girls, gurus and generational drift Lola, California A couple of decades back, Lana Mahler’s father was an adored philosopher at UC Berkeley, the object of fascination, celebrity and even worship. After all, everyone’s looking for a guru. Lana and her best friend, Rose, called themselves Lola One and Lola Two and invented a perverse version of freedom. Now, Mahler’s father is days away from being executed, Rose has become a lawyer and is trying to get him a stay of execution, even as Lana BOOK refuses to help. The dynamics of one dysfunctional family stand in for the California approach to life as a long search for answers, and with lush, poetic language, Edie Meidav has created in Lola, California (Picador, $17) a new way of seeing tragedy. —Kel Munger

FA ST NEED O ? Y A D T H S A C

Garden of free eating Colonial Heights Seed Library Libraries aren’t just for books, anymore. The Colonial Heights Library, in fact, offers patrons a chance to grow a garden, courtesy of its organic heirloom-seed library. Visit the branch GREEN to browse a card catalog (naturally) stocked with seed packets for tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and whatever else you need to make the most awesome salad ever. The branch even offers an online system for checkout and returns. It works something like this: You’re not technically “borrowing” the seeds—and rest assured, there are no due dates or late charges. Rather, plant ’em up, and once your bounty arrives, bring a few seeds back to the library (labeled, please!) so that the circle of life may remain unbroken. 4799 Stockton

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—Rachel Leibrock

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Judge the cover Better Book Titles blog Comedian, writer and blogger Dan Wilbur works at a bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. Fittingly, he created a Tumblr blog called Better Book Titles. The site describes itself as being “for people who have trouble slogging through the information on book jackets or feel intimidated by the title and cover itself.” Catering to those too lazy to read book summaries or reviews, the digitally altered book covers on this site serve to summarize an entire book in one hilarious catch phrase (examples: Edith Wharton’s The Age WEBSITE of Innocence becomes Emotions Are for Poor People; Earnest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea becomes The Ocean Is a Real Puta). Wilbur also recently wrote How Not to Read, which provides “helpful” tips on sounding well-read—without actually ever reading. www.betterbooktitles.com. —Jonathan Mendick

Sexual revealing My boyfriend of one year asked me to marry him. I surprised myself by saying I needed time to think about it. The problem is sex. He is nearly 60 and had prostate cancer before we met. He is not a turn-on in the sex department. Everything else is so good, that I have tried not to think about this issue. But when faced with little or no sexual pleasure for the rest of my life, I know by JOEY GA that is not what I want. I am RCIA in my 40s, divorced and never a skj o ey @ ne wsreview.c om met someone that I click with so well except sexually. Am I crazy to think of breaking up Joey when everything else is so perfect? recommends Celeste Of course not! Crazy is living a and Jesse Forever at life of regret. Slowing down the the Tower Theatre. decision-making process about a major commitment is admirable. Whether you ultimately settle more deeply into the relationship or keep seeking, the final choice must align your needs and values.

Love always includes risk. If you remain and marry, approach sex as an adventure. Someone once said that if a couple is having sex, then sex is 10 percent of their relationship. But if a couple is not having sex, sex is 90 percent of their relationship. Translation: An unsatisfactory sex life becomes a fixation. For many couples, it’s the proverbial elephant in the room. Denial about the desire for a playful, passionate, mutually pleasurable sex life can permanently erode emotional intimacy. When one or both members of a couple refuses to talk about the problem directly, that pattern of dishonest communication flows into other areas of their life together. So, what are your options? If you stay, regret about that choice could lead to resentment. That’s deadly to the friendship you cherish with your man. If you leave, you will likely mourn the loss of your closest friend. Of course, you might meet a man who can offer all that you desire. But you will eventually discover that all committed relationships require some compromise. The bottom line is this: Love

Got a problem?

Write, email or leave a message for Joey at the News & Review. Give your name, telephone number (for verification purposes only) and question—all correspondence will be kept strictly confidential. Write Joey, 1124 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95815; call (916) 498-1234, ext. 3206; or email askjoey@ newsreview.com.

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always includes risk. If you remain and marry, approach sex as an adventure. Forget what you think you know about what excites you sexually. Explore new territory with your husband. Talk to medical professionals, read and uncover new techniques and then practice, practice, practice. My wife was married before and has three children from that relationship, plus we have one child together. Her ex-husband pays child support for two of the school-age children, and they share custody. Their eldest son is 23 years old. He is on our auto insurance and cellphone plan. We pay his health insurance and help him out when he overspends to the extent that the month lasts longer than his paycheck. He works full time, but my wife flips out every time I talk about cutting him off financially. I am sick of paying for him. How do I get her to understand this? Unpack her guilt. At some point, she decided that her eldest suffered too much as a child. If her first marriage was volatile, she may blame herself for how it affected him. But by treating him like a dependent, she unconsciously stunts his growth. He contributes to the drama by running out of money and letting her bail him out. Of course, you participate, too. Don’t allow your wife’s tantrums to intimidate you. She overreacts to avoid facing her motivations. I suggest that you tell her you need to speak to her and ask when she is available. At the appointed time, acknowledge her intention to be a good mother. Explain that coddling her son negatively affects his financial acumen. Tell her that you would like to redirect funds from him and into a retirement dream you share. Help your wife to see a new future. Eventually, the past will become less important. Ω

Meditation of the Week: “Come live in my heart and pay no rent,” wrote the artist and songwriter Samuel Lover. What do you charge the people you say you love?

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Support the Sacramento County Animal Shelter! Saturday, September 15, 2012 • 6 –10pm $30 advance • $40 at the door

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Sing out, sister Mahalia: A Gospel Musical

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including many tunes Mahalia would sing at Carnegie decades later.) Supporting performers Renee Clark (who primarily portrays Mahalia’s pianist Mildred Falls, and also serves as music director) and Willis Hickerson (a pastor from Solano County) work the keyboards; Sacramento actor Anthony D’Juan, a B Street Theatre company member, does dramatic cameos. Director Elisabeth Nunziato, who clearly “gets it,” keeps the momentum going as the show flows from song to song. Ω Mahalia: A Gospel Musical, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday; $15-$48. The Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street; (916) 520-0827; www.mahaliasacramento.com. Through September 23.

PHOTO BY CHRIS MUELLER

THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY.

Before rap or Motown, before the Beatles or Elvis, there was Mahalia Jackson—a black gospel singer with such power and presence that her 1947 recording of “Move on Up a Little Higher” sold an astonishing 8 million copies, with appeal for listeners of all races. In 1950, she became the first gospel singer to appear at Carnegie Hall. Her vocal talent—and her message of hope and joy—got her numerous by high-profile gigs on national television; she Jeff Hudson performed at JFK’s inaugural ball; and she sang “How I Got Over” at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom just before Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. She died in 1972—40 years ago—and since, traditional gospel typically gets short shrift on the airwaves nowadays, the star status she achieved in life has not entirely passed down to the present generation.

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Here, take my hand, precious Lord!

Mahalia: A Gospel Musical, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday; $15-$48. The Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street; (916) 520-0827; www.mahalia sacramento.com. Through September 23.

All of these factors will make Mahalia: A Gospel Musical both a delight and a revelation for many viewers. It’s part concert, part biography (with a light touch). Actress Bernardine Mitchell of Atlanta pumps out energy on a continuous basis for more than two hours, leaving the stage only briefly as she sings—in character—many of the gospel standards and Negro spirituals that form the core of Mahalia’s songbook. “Elijah Rock,” “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” “Deep River,” “Keep Your Hand on the Plow”—it’s an impressive list of American musical landmarks. (And don’t forget, when the great Czech composer Antonín Dvorák visited New York and conducted at the then-new Carnegie Hall in the 1890s, he surprised his hosts by saying “The future music of this country must be founded upon what are called the Negro melodies,”

A blessing on your head Fiddler on the Roof

It might be a bit of bad scheduling to follow the outstanding production of the classic—and possibly most perfect—musical Fiddler on the Roof at Music Circus with a community production less than a month later. Nonetheless, Bob Baxter throws on his prayer shawl and his drayman’s cap and belts out “Tradition” with gusto and flair in Runaway Stage Productions’ latest show. And it doesn’t disappoint. Of course, the compelling story of Tevye the milkman (Baxter) and his family—and its toe-tapping songs—put Fiddler on the “more’s the merrier” list. And if a handful of performances here are a little underpar, the outstanding work by Baxter and Ruth Phillips as Tevye’s wife, Golde, pull it all together. They are assisted greatly by the comic gold from Anne Mason (as Tzeitel, their eldest daughter); an incredibly lovely performance of “Far From the Home I Love” by Jessilee Windhaus (Hodel, the second daughter); and intense vulnerability courtesy of Karen Harris (Chava, the third daughter). RSP uses a simple but effective management of the dream sequence, and really good and ghostly performances from Grandma Tzeitel (Melissa Solley) and Fruma-Sarah (Caitlyn Shannon). And, of course, the live orchestra—complete with an expanded woodwinds section, which really elevates the traditional Eastern European elements of the score—always adds to the fun. In all, RSP has a solid and well-done production of a show worth the time and energy—and not just because it’s a tradition. —Kel Munger

Fiddler on the Roof, 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; $15-$22. Runaway Stage Productions at the 24th Street Theatre, 2791 24th Street; (916) 207-1226; www.runawaystage.com. Through September 30.

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This Tony-winning play by John Logan gets top-notch production under the direction of Jerry Montoya as legendary painter Mark Rothko (Brian Dykstra) initiates his young assistant, Ken (David McElwee) into art, intellect and ego while working on his famous series of paintings. Tu, W 7pm; Th 2 & 7pm; F 7pm; Sa 8pm; Su 1pm. Through 9/23. $23-$35. B Street Theatre, 2711 B St.; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org. P.R.

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A “flatfoot in high heels” (Joelle Robertson) is on the trail of a pinko conspiracy in this Cold War farce, which features some hysterical multitasking from Elizabeth Holzman and Jouni Kirjola in several roles. Directed by Benjamin T. Ismail. Th, F, Sa 8pm; Su 2:30pm. Through 9/15. $13-$15. Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Boulevard; (916) 960-3036; www.bigideatheatre.com. M.M.

SEMINAR

If writers are like feral cats, this play by Theresa Rebeck proves that the world is their litter box. An extremely well-done play about smart, funny and unpleasant people.

T 6:30pm; W 2pm & 6:30pm; Th, F 8pm; Sa 5pm and 9pm; Su 2pm. Through 9/25. $23-$35. The B Street Theatre, 2711 B Street; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org. K.M.

Short reviews by Jeff Hudson, Maxwell McKee, Kel Munger and Patti Roberts. BEFORE

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09.13.12

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2 5 0 8 L A N D PA R K D R I V E L A N D PA R K & B R O A D WAY F R E E PA R K I N G A D J A C E N T T O T H E AT R E “SHREWDLY PLEASURABLE.”

“DELICIOUSLY UNEXPECTED.”

“[SOLONDZ’S] GENTLEST TRIUMPH.”

ARBITRAGE DarkHorse FRANK - Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

STARTS FRI., 9/14

FRI-TUES: 10:45AM, 1:05, 3:25, 5:45, 8:05, 10:25PM

- LOS ANGELES TIMES

- RICHARD CORLISS, TIME MAGAZINE

ROBOT&

Not like the others before For a Good Time, Call …

WED/THUR: 11:00AM, 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50PM FRI-TUES: 11:30AM, 1:40, 3:50, 6:00, 8:10, 10:20PM

STARTS FRI., 9/14

FRI-TUES: 5:45, 8:00, 10:00PM

“MESMERIZING MIND-BENDER.” “RISES ABOVE THE ROM-COM HERD.”

“DON’T MISS THIS ONE.” - Rex Reed, NY OBSERVER

BEASTS SOUTHERN WILD OF THE

WED/THUR: 11:15AM, 1:30, 3:45, 6:00, 8:30, 10:35PM FRI-TUES: 11:00AM, 1:15, 3:30PM

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CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER

WED: 2:30PM THUR: 2:30, 9:55PM

WED: 12:00PM THUR: 12:00, 5:05, 7:30PM

ENDS THUR., 9/13

F O R A D V A N C E T I C K E T S C A L L FA N D A N G O @ 1 - 8 0 0 - F A N D A N G O # 2 7 2 1

show times valid sePt 14 – 20, 2012

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2 days iN New york Rated R Co-Presented by Sac French Film Fest Fri-Sun 12:25 3:00 5:25 8:35 Mon-Thu 5:25 8:35

Now PlayiNg

sleepwalk with me

I want you to know I felt like a creep lurking alone at a Sunday-morning matinee of For a Good by Jonathan Kiefer Time, Call …. And although this occurred in San Francisco, probably the American city most conducive to solo church-hour viewing of movies full of moaning women, something about the experience seemed to need that disclaimer. Maybe it’s that I actually sorta liked it. Weird, right? At first blush, this is just some shabby romantic-comedyish confection, and not the first film with the idea to inflate an

oPeNiNg sePt. 21!

Matthew McConaughey & Gina Gershon In William Friedkin’s

killer Joe Rated NC-17

Not Rated Fri-Sun 12:45 3:20 5:45 8:10 Mon-Thu 5:45 8:10

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ostensible sitcom to feature length mostly by filling it with filthy talk. The premise is that two reluctant Manhattan roommates start a phone-sex business together, and the result is another possibly degrading female reclamation of the raunchy romp, more advanced than a mere smirking 90-minute loop of Meg Ryan in the diner from When Harry Met Sally, yet still below the bar set by Bridesmaids. But if For a Good Time, Call ... can’t transcend innate limitations, it can and does coast smoothly on the essential odd-couple chemistry between its stars, Lauren Miller (who co-scripted with Katie Anne Naylon) and Ari Graynor. So, about the founding of fictive 1-900-MMM-HMMM. Funny story? Here and there, yes. At times, very dully paced, it does convey an understanding that charging customers by the minute means stretching the minutes out. The movie lumbers to establish the circumstances by which prim, business-minded Lauren (Miller) came to live with Katie (Graynor), that blowsy twit who during college once got blotto and spilled a cupful of her own pee in Lauren’s face. Years later, at about the same time Lauren’s boring lawyer boyfriend (James Wolk) tells her she’s boring and leaves to sew his wild oats in Italy, Katie discovers herself financially unable to live alone in her late-grandmother’s vast Gramercy Park apartment. The ladies’ longstanding mutual enmity proves no match for the administrative zeal of their mutual gay pal (Justin Long, loving it), and voilà, they’re roomies; foul-mouthed frenemy frolic ensues. It’s Katie who has the phone-sex thing going, just as a sporadic gig. “This is New

York City,” she explains. “Most people need more than one job.” Lauren’s the one who turns it into their own private business. She’d wanted a career in publishing, but that doesn’t seem to be working out. These suggestions of economic hardship, by the way, should not imply any resemblance to reality. Even as it evolves into a sort of gender-reversed bromance, the movie is laden with genre clichés, not least a core of gold-hearted chastity. Yet it is at least perceptive enough to recognize the irony of verbal explicitness as communicatively inadequate, and to see how the difficulty of intimacy might give rise to a sex-as-joke defense mechanism. The makers of For a Good Time, Call ... might not seem immediately familiar, but they are sufficiently credentialed. Certainly Canadian director Jamie Travis has departed from the highly designed dreamtime of his festival-favorite The Patterns Trilogy of short films, but it seems telling that one essential image from that series is a dryly coquettish woman fielding an intimate phone call in a bathtub. Now, Travis has two briefly tubsituated young women to work with, and one of them, the co-writer, happens also to be Seth Rogen’s spouse and to have played the part of “Moaner and Groaner” in Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. (Rogen and Smith both make funny but overlong cameo appearances here, as call-in clients.) The other happens to be a natural at playing a tacky, sweetly vulnerable spaz. Summoning the brassy oddity of a young Bette Midler and turning it loose in a Tina Fey world, Graynor conquers self-consciousness by repurposing vernacular ironic commentary as some new kind of sincerity. It’s hard to describe but easy to enjoy, and Miller is its perfectly encouraging foil.

For all its obviously contemporary vulgarity, the movie’s doubleentendre-intensive finale isn’t just a cute payoff but clever. Maybe I liked it because the vibe turned out more classy than creepy, after all: For all its obviously contemporary vulgarity, the movie’s double-entendre-intensive finale isn’t just a cute payoff but clever enough to seem like something Billy Wilder might have liked to do, before it was possible. And in the right light—on a Sunday morning, say—For a Good Time, Call ... looks downright subversive. This is a movie whose most obscene gesture might be the sudden whipping out of a crucifix. Ω

by JONATHAN KIEFER & JIM LANE

“

HILARIOUS, SMART, FRESH AND FULL OF HEART!”

Celeste & Jesse Forever

SCOTT MANTZ, ACCESS HOLLYWOOD

Director Lee Toland Krieger’s soulfully soundtracked romantic comedy stars Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg as young Los Angeles lovers who struggle to move on, and to maintain their friendship, after divorcing each other. It gets silly and messy, as you’d expect. Also sad and funny and true. Jones co-wrote the script (with actor Will McCormack, who appears here in a supporting role), and has, of course, flattered herself; more precisely, she’s created an opportunity to affirm not just her beauty and on-screen appeal, already obvious, but also the range of her emotional intelligence. Authentic, self-aware and clearly aspiring to the highest standards of its genre, the movie is easy to like without seeming cheap—as generous to its audience as to its characters. Co-stars include Chris Messina, Emma Roberts, Rebecca Dayan, Ari Graynor and Elijah Wood. J.K.

The Cold Light of Day

The 3-D rerelease of Pixar’s 2003 undersea saga may or may not be a bid from director Andrew Stanton to make back some of the cash his John Carter lost at the box office, but in any event, it still holds up. Set in a beautifully animated Great Barrier Reef, it’s still just the tale of an overprotective clownfish (voiced by Albert Brooks) on a quest to rescue his son (Alexander Gould) from a dentist’s office aquarium, and it didn’t need a 3-D retrofit to deserve another run on the big screen. Costarring Ellen DeGeneres and Willem Dafoe, among others, and agreeably preceded by the short Partysaurus Rex, which segues characters from the Toy Story series into an aquatic context of sorts, Finding Nemo fits the bill for that increasingly rare cinematic treat: a big room full of oohing and ahing and laughing and sniffling kids. J.K.

Farewell, My Queen

Adapting Chantal Thomas’ novel, with Gilles Taurand, French director Benoît Jacquot delves into the uneasily gradual onset of the French Revolution, as observed from Versailles. It’s hard not to read this, for better and worse, as a reclamation from Sofia Coppola and consequent restoration to the presumed dignity of sumptuous, periodaccurate detail. This Marie Antoinette, played by a gleaming Diane Kruger, preens herself into a triangle with a reader servant (Léa Seydoux), from whose increasingly alert perspective the film plays out, and a very special friend (Virginie Ledoyan). After a few nonverbal raptures and some slinking, candlelit

BEFORE

camera moves, the heat of libidinous sensuality dissipates into lukewarm suds. What’s left is Jacquot’s discretion, his delicate way with impending doom. J.K.

preachy as a finger-shaking lecture from a purse-lipped school counselor. J.L.

A girl buys an odd little box at a yard sale that turns out to contain a dybbuk, a demon of Jewish folklore, who takes possession of her body, to the dismay of her divorced parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick). Juliet Snowden and Stiles White’s script is supposedly inspired by a Los Angeles Times article. The article (“A jinx in a Box?” by Leslie Gornstein; July 25, 2004) is easily available online, and even a cursory reading shows the movie up for what it is—a stale and shameless rip-off of The Exorcist, into which director Ole Bornedal manages to inject not one whit of scares or suspense. Sedgwick stands out (or rather, sticks out) in a largely unknown cast. Did she lose a bet? Blackmailed? Need the money? J.L.

Hit and Run

A former getaway driver for bank robbers, now in the Witness Protection Program (Dax Shepard), risks blowing his cover to drive his girlfriend (Kristen Bell) to a job interview in Los Angeles; he also risks falling into the clutches of the friend he ratted out (Bradley Cooper), while his inept parole officer (Tom Arnold) and her ex-boyfriend (Michael Rosenbaum) follow in hot pursuit. For Shepard, this is almost a one-man show—he also wrote, co-directed with David Palmer and co-edited with Keith Croket. The result is a wacky trailertrash farce with careening and crashing cars instead of slamming doors—and in its raunchy, lowbrow way, it’s surprisingly funny much of the time. The supporting cast is also strong, with well-turned cameos from David Koechner, Beau Bridges, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. J.L.

Lawless

In the Virginia backwoods during Prohibition, three brothers (Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Shia LaBeouf) have a good moonshine business going, until a crooked “special deputy” (Guy Pearce) wants his cut—and takes sadistic pleasure in not taking “no” for an answer. Speaking of sadistic pleasures, director John Hillcoat indulges some of his own in flesh-and-blooding out Nick Cave’s script (from Matt Bondurant’s novel about his own grandfather). It’s unrelentingly violent and not for the squeamish, but if you can take it, there’s good stuff here: Hardy is a tower of inarticulate strength, and LaBeouf (as a sort of hillbilly Michael Corleone) matches him as his callow kid brother. Good work, too, from Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska as their respective sweethearts, and Gary Oldman as a Chicago gangster. J.L.

ParaNorman

A timid, bookish kid (voice by Kodi Smit-McPhee), bullied at school and punished at home because he talks to ghosts, tries to save his town from a witch’s curse dating back 300 years, his mission complicated by an invasion of zombies. Directors Chris Butler and Sam Fell dress Butler’s script up with a visually inventive mix of stop-motion puppet animation and CGI, aiming at the delicious creepiness of The Nightmare Before Christmas or Coraline, but evidently that sort of thing is harder to pull off than Tim Burton and Henry Selick make it look. Here the effect is not so much creepy as simply unpleasant, and Butler’s basic theme—be nice to people: Today’s schoolyard bully is tomorrow’s witch-hunting bigot—becomes as dreary and

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Sleepwalk With Me

An aspiring stand-up comic (director and co-writer Mike Birbiglia) tries to cope with his piddling penny-ante career, a girlfriend (Lauren Ambrose) who’s losing patience with his commitmentphobia and a sleep disorder that drives him to sleepwalk into some truly dangerous situations. Birbiglia himself suffers from the same disorder, and the unmistakable aura of autobiography, the sense that we’re seeing the barely veiled story of his real life, saves the movie (expanded from a one-man stage show) from being a shameless ripoff of Annie Hall, one of Birbiglia’s favorite movies. Birbiglia is likeably self-effacing, and the supporting cast helps: Ambrose is an unexpected pleasure—beaming, vivacious and a charming singer—and James Rebhorn and Carol Kane are fine as Birbiglia’s nerve-wracking parents. J.L.

STORY

Facebook.com/ForAGoodTimeCall

Watch the trailer at ForAGoodTimeCallMovie.com

The Possession

A Manhattan bicycle messenger with superhuman reflexes and no brakes (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) undertakes a delivery for the ex-roommate of his ex-girlfriend (Dania Ramirez)—but whatever he’s carrying is also sought by a menacing stranger (Michael Shannon), who turns out to be a dirty cop with a gambling problem and poor impulse control. Director David Koepp (who co-wrote with John Kamps) takes an outlandish and far-fetched premise, gussies it up with slow-mo, freeze-frames and a timeshifting narrative flow, and turns it into a lightning-paced, hyper-adrenalized entertainment. Koepp and Kamps add a Looney Tunes in-joke—the hero’s nickname is Wilee and he works for Road Runner Messenger Service—but they never explain why he (or anyone) would want to be identified with that hapless, incompetent coyote. J.L.

Answer the Call Friday, September 14

EVERY THURSDAY.

Finding Nemo 3D

A would-be novelist (Bradley Cooper) finds a typescript in an old used briefcase and realizes it’s far better than anything he could ever write. Before he can stop himself, he passes the work off as his own and becomes a bestselling sensation—then the real author (Jeremy Irons) turns up. In a framing device, a famous novelist (Dennis Quaid) reads the tale of the young plagiarist aloud as his latest work, quickening the pulse of a young student (Olivia Wilde). Writerdirectors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s movie is one that stays with you, a more complicated “The Lady or the Tiger?” with stories-within-stories that provoke thoughtful questions and rumination. One of the meatiest movies of the year; beautifully written and well acted. Irons is a trifle miscast, but who cares? It’s Jeremy Irons. J.L,

YOU’RE WELCOME, FILM GEEKS.

For his next trick, writer-director Todd Solondz provides this portrait of a tubby 35-year-old loser (Jordan Gelber), still living with his parents (Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow), nursing malaise, collecting action figures and blasting too-peppy pop from behind the wheel of his yellow Hummer. Even his occasional fantasies seem aggressively banal, but at least there’s the overmedicated depressive (Selma Blair) who agrees to marry him out of surrendered selfrespect. It’s neither as misanthropic nor as laugh-out-loud funny as it might sound, and that’s to the filmmaker’s credit. Solondz tempers his tone, allowing for something natural—if also unfortunate and irresolute—to emerge from the pairing of Gelber’s shrewd ingenuousness with Blair’s inherent poutiness. It’s a modest effort, all the more lifelike for its nagging lack of fulfillment. J.K.

#ForAGoodTimeCall

The Words

REEL

Dark Horse

Lose your hang-ups. Find your calling.

Looks depressed. That’s how you know he’s a writer.

REVIEWS.

A vacationing American in Spain (Henry Cavill) becomes a desperate fugitive when his family—father, mother, brother and brother’s girlfriend—is kidnapped; it turns out Dad (Bruce Willis) was CIA, and may have gone rogue—or are the rogues the ones after our hero now? Writers Scott Wiper and John Petro never even try to answer that question; their script is a hunk of shapeless nonsense, and director Mabrouk El Mechri makes no effort to sort things out. Don’t be fooled by the presence of Willis or Sigourney Weaver as Cavill’s sinister antagonist: This is exactly the kind of shoddy, low-rent stinker the robots on Mystery Science Theater 3000 used to enjoy ripping to shreds. (Where are they now when we need them?) Cavill stars in Man of Steel, next summer’s Superman reboot. He’d better be damn good. J.L.

“If you don't go you can't complain about there being no inspired movies.” JUDD APATOW, TWITTER

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SAM ADAMS, PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER

JUSTIN BARTHA SELMA BLAIR MIA FARROW JORDAN GELBER DONNA MURPHY CHRISTOPHER WALKEN

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Hooked on the process Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh feels no whiplash It’s been 40 years since a group of Kent State University art students formed an early version of the arty punk band Devo. The band’s by Rachel Leibrock name is taken from “de-evolution” and the concept that mankind is regressing, not ra c h e l l @ evolving. Devo embodied this aesthetic via ne w s re v i e w . c o m eye-popping visuals, social commentary and songs that challenge and energize listeners with herky-jerky rhythms and earworm melodies. The band’s biggest hit is, unarguably, the 1980 classic “Whip It,” but over the years, it has established itself as nothing short of an iconic cult band. Founding member Mark Mothersbaugh talks TV, corporate logos and making art in the Internet age.

repeat the process. The most exciting part of that process for me is writing the songs. With [Pee-wee’s Playhouse] the [producers] would send me a tape of the show on Monday, I’d write an album’s worth of music on Tuesday, record it on Wednesday ... and by Saturday I’d watch it on TV. The instant gratification—the adrenaline is gratifying. Over the years, I’ve [expanded] into film.

PHOTO BY JOSHUA DALSIMER

How has all this other work impacted Devo? Devo is at the center of everything in my life, no matter what else [I’m] doing. When we were earnest young men in Akron, Ohio, trying to make sense of the world, [Devo] gave us a vehicle and a way to articulate the thoughts going on in our heads. And that’s definitely still the case, whether I’m working on [TV or films]— it all has some basis in the way I created in the earliest days.

One of these guys is Mark Mothersbaugh—at least that’s what they tell us.

Devo performs Friday, September 14, with Blondie at Sunrise MarketPlace, 5912 Sunrise Mall Road; $39.50-$82.50; www.sunrise marketplace.com.

34 | SN&R | 09.13.12

Hey, how’s it going? Great. I’m sitting in [my studio] on the Sunset Strip … working on a score for the TV show Enlightened. You do a lot of film and TV scores. How did you get into that line of work? Devo signed a bad record deal back in the ’80s. We let that run its course and then signed a deal with Enigma Records, but three months into it, they went bankrupt. My friend Paul Reubens asked me to score a film for him [the year before], and the timing wasn’t right, but then, the next year I said, “Yeah, I can do that.” [Enigma’s] bankruptcy jettisoned me into working in TV [on Reubens’ Pee-wee’s Playhouse]. I got hooked on the process. What about it did you like? The downside of making a proper album is you do one a year: You spend three months writing and then one month recording, then you rehearse and go on tour, and then come back and

Warner Bros. Records dropped Devo from the label in the 1980s but then signed with them again in 2009 only to part ways in August. What happened? We put out a record with Warner Bros. [2010’s Something for Everybody]. I attribute that to early onset of Alzheimer’s [disease]. It was really not pleasant before [in the ’80s] when I’d say stuff like, “We [should] put a corporate logo next to each song on the album to designate who sponsored it.” Then, everybody said, “Mark’s crazy.” But now, it makes more sense. And it also makes more sense to finance things independently. I celebrate the demise of that industry, because it’s giving birth to new possibilities. What kind of possibilities? I remember sitting in Ohio, looking at pictures of the Beatles and thinking, “How do you get through that gate, over that drawbridge?” It seemed like an insurmountable problem, and I never had any idea how to overcome it. Now, a kid can be inspired by something, and there’s more power in their cellphones than the Beatles ever had at Abbey Road Studios. How did you first envision Devo? We thought we were going to create art and make theatrical shows and put bands out. When we were sitting in that crummy house in Ohio, I remember dreaming we’d have our own TV network, and we’d send [other] Devo bands out on the road—not unlike Menudo. We imagined five or six Devos touring the road at a time, playing the truth of de-evolution. That was a hard sell. Ω

SOUND ADVICE

The price is right Five-dollar rant: There’s a new trend in the local music scene: promoters and bands not disclosing a show’s cover charge on posters, handbills, ads or Facebook event pages. This, of course, isn’t as alarming as, say, a rise in east county neo-Nazi grindcore acts. But, as one local promoter recently stated, it indeed “gets my goat.” There are two reasons. First, it’s a protocol to have the date, time, location and price on a show poster. That’s what people want to know— why leave the fundamental 411 off?—and that’s how show posters have always been since the beginning of damn time. From Bill Graham to Asbestos Press, how dare you mess with such rich tradition, Sacto! Secondly, folk here at SN&R, myself included, spend a good chunk of the week scouring the Internets for show info. We like to include a gig’s cost in our listings and stories. When we can’t find that information, it invariably frustrates the readers—“Why did they leave the price out?” they ask. And I also sometimes get a choice email from the copy editors (and you never want to piss them off). So, are promoters not posting the gig price because they don’t want people to be discouraged by the fact that music actually costs money? Or did they forget? Or do they not know what they’re going to charge until the very last minute? Or maybe is this a conspiracy. Against me. Because I spend too much time looking at show ads? This phenomena of the mysterious cover charge has been mentioned a few times in recent Sound Advice columns. But this week, I finally got off my ass to ask around (well, actually, I remained sedentary and just poked around on Facebook). And, turns out, the music scene actually has some reasonable excuses. Sometimes, for instance, the person making the poster doesn’t know the price, but is on a deadline—and I can sure empathize with crunch-time prioritizing as a deadline looms.

Another promoter said the price doesn’t matter; if it doesn’t say “free,” it’s probably between five to 10 clams. Hmm, perhaps—but wouldn’t it be nice to know for certain? But I think local promoter and deejay 7evin hit the nail on the head: Sacto is cheap. “Sacramento is one of the only places that people decide to go to a show based on price,” 7evin wrote, “even though cover here is cheaper then any where else in America. “People here fudge on a show if it’s $3.” I won’t disagree; there’s a strong contingent in town that scoffs at cover charges, and with a certain entitlement: “I’m not paying to get in.”

There’s a strong contingent in town that scoffs at cover charges. I would like to think this attitude exists elsewhere in other cities. And I’d also like to think that it does not prevail here. But it might. Anyway, let’s agree to agree, right Sacto music scene? List the dang price. It’s a common courtesy. And it’ll save me 10 minutes each week, which I can now spend finding something else petty and trivial to whine about.

Are you A true

SAleS Guru?

Sammies voting begins: If you’re like hundreds of others, you might have already gotten your Sacramento Area Music Awards

voting out of the way this past week: The ballot went live on September 6. That’s right: You can vote for your favorite winners right now at www.sammies.com through Thursday, October 4. Things are a little easier this year—you can log in to vote using Facebook—but also a little more challenging— who to choose, who to choose? Winners will be announced at the 21st annual Sammies party and awards show on Friday, October 12, at Ace of Spades downtown. Ticket prices (cheap) and lineup (awesome) to be announced next week. —Nick Miller

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09.13.12

SN&R

13THURS

14FRI

15SAT

Aesop Rock

Anthrax

Bat Guano Fest

Sacramento Taiko Dan

Ace of Spades, 7 p.m., $19

Luigi’s Fun Garden, 8 p.m., $5

Ace of Spades, 6:30 p.m., $35

Aesop Rock’s pioneering style of narrative hip-hop has influenced artists including Das Racist, El-P and even Sacramento’s own Death Grips, but it doesn’t stop there. He also does haircuts. Touring in support of Skelethon, his first release in five years, the San Francisco rapper continues his tradition of audience participation, this time sitHIP-HOP ting eager fans onstage to get haircuts as he performs. Get to Ace of Spades early and sign up at the merch table for your chance to get buzzed. The only catch, according to Aesop’s Twitter feed: You can’t pick the style, and it’s guaranteed to be really bad. 1417 R Street, www.aesoprock.com.

Throughout three decades of existence, Anthrax has consistently defied convention. As the lone East Coast representative of METAL the Big Four of thrash metal, Anthrax has introduced elements of rap, comic-book lore and humor into the genre. Recently, band leader and rhythm-guitar beast Scott Ian was a walkon zombie on the hit show The Walking Dead. But it’s Ian’s masterful riffology and Charlie Benante’s pounding drums that have persistently defined the band over time. Anthrax remains big in Europe, and this is a rare chance to see the group in a small venue. Testament and Death Angel open the show. 1417 R Street, www.anthrax.com.

—Julianna Boggs

—Paul Piazza

Crest Theatre, 7 p.m., $20

We’re going to implode with the amount of festivals happening in Sac as of late. This Friday and Saturday, Bat Guano Fest features punk-rock bands such as the Left Hand (pictured), Cold Heart Re-Press, the Walking Dead, and Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits. Many others round out the weekend, thanks to festival organizer Ken Doose. Deemed by his punk-rock peers as a music archivist, Doose produces local compilations and collects fliers and memorabilia older than some of the youngsters stepping into the scene. It’s also Doose’s birthday and the release FESTIVAL day for his latest compilation, Batshit Crazy, featuring many bands performing at the festival. 1050 20th Street, http://batguanoproductions.blogspot.com.

If you’ve never experienced Sacramento Taiko Dan, now’s your chance. Its 23rd-anniversary concert at the Crest Theatre should be well worth your time and the ticket price. Spirit, music and the ancient form of the Japanese taiko drum lives on in the men and TAIKO women who collectively create a choreographed performance of music and movement. Prepare for an explosion of thunder, and look for the largest nagado daiko drum in North America that weighs nearly 800 pounds and is 9-feet tall on its stand. Feel the strength and empowerment that comes from performing with these instruments—an ancient form in a modern setting. 1013 K Street, http://sactaiko.org.

—Trina L. Drotar

—Steph Rodriguez

Ace of SpAdeS thursday, september 13

AeSop rock with rob sonic & big wiz - dark sunshine friday, september 14

AnthrAx & teStAment death angel

saturday, september 15

quiet riot

maxxx - force of habit - force multiplied tuesday, september 18

flobotS astronautalis - forrest day

1417 R Street, Sacramento, 95814 www.aceofspadessac.com

All Ages Welcome!

friday, september 21

beyond All endS dead by nightfall - engraved in armor the sun sets here - afraid of falling before me - without conclusion

saturday, september 22

the uSed plus special guests

monday, september 24

kreAtor

swallow the sun - black mackerel blessed curse wednesday, september 26

gzA

sweet valley - killer mike bear hands

thursday, september 27

through the roots - simple creation street urchinz - island of black & white

whitechapel - all shall perish - deez nuts

hAtebreed

Tickets available at all Dimple Records Locations, The Beat Records, and Armadillo Records, or purchase by phone @ 916.443.9202

36 | SN&R | 09.13.12

SOON

9/28 9/29 10/5 10/6

Ozomatli Dead Rabbits J Boog Zion-I

10/7 10/10 10/11 10/13

Iwrestledabearonce Steve Vai D.R.I Morbid Angel

10/14 Abandon All Ships

thursday, september 20

tomorrowS bAd SeedS

COMING

10/16 Matisyahu 10/17 The World Alive & Born of Osirus 10/20 Del The Funky Homosapien 10/23 Motion City Soundtrack 10/24 Alesana 10/27 11/3 11/6 11/8

Groundation Colt Ford Gwar Miss May I

11/9 Blue October 11/14 Minus The Bear 11/16 The Faint 11/18 11/19 12/7 12/8 12/11 12/14

Pierce The Veil Woe, is Me Streetlight Manifesto Motionless in White Blood On The Dance Floor The English Beat

16SUN

WED

20THURS

Los Straitjackets

Mat Marucci

Zee Avi

Judgement Day

The Palms Playhouse, 7 p.m., $20

JB’s Lounge, 5 p.m., $10

Reason to go to Winters No. 30: Los Straitjackets is coming. It’s the best surfrock band around today. No offense to the Mermen, but Los Straitjackets has it all: showmanship, Mexican Lucha Libre wrestler masks, grooves tighter than a Republican’s ass and an all-around cool vibe. And it does all its between-song banter in Spanish. Flip out to the hilarious and irreverent cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Dig the upbeat “Space Mosquito” from its newest album, Jet Set. Added bonuses: The group is performing at The Palms Playhouse SURF and Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys will be there as well. Dress up. Rock out. 13 Main Street in Winters, www.straightjackets.com.

Bows & Arrows, 8 p.m., $8

When jazz drummer Mat Marucci performs live, I show up to not only witness his amazing chops, but also to check out his JAZZ latest high-caliber co-conspirators. For this show, Marucci’s aptly named Moment’s Notice Quartet includes saxophonist Mike McMullen, organist Chet Chwalik and bassist Rob Lemas. These longtime friends, who can readily play at the drop of any downbeat, will be conjuring up standards by such jazz giants as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, as well as performing original cuts from Marucci’s last two CDs, Why Not? (recorded live at JB’s Lounge) and Live at the Jazz Bakery. Red Lion Hotel, 1401 Arden Way; www.matmarucci.com.

—Ngaio Bealum

Her voice is a gauzy treasure: a textured, lustrous instrument that floats like a feather, wafting lightly over a breezy blend of torchy adult pop, jazz swing and tropicalia. Zee Avi’s backstory is as heartening as her gentle music. The ukulele-playing Malaysian singer-songwriter posted some videos on YouTube, which spread far and wide, eventually attracting an offer from Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records. There’s a sweet, languid FOLK setting-sun vibe to her music, which dances on the wind and shimmers off the breakers. With help from producer Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys, Bebel Gilberto), Avi’s second LP, Ghostbird, is even perkier and more intoxicating. 1815 19th Street, www.zeeavi.com.

—Mark Halverson

—Chris Parker

G Street WunderBar, 8:30 p.m., $10

What’s most impressive about Judgment Day isn’t brothers Anton and Lewis Patzner’s incredible chops—on violin and cello respectively; it’s how much they sound like a normal metal band. Along with drummer Jon STRING Bush, the trio pounds through instrumental metal songs. Surprisingly, a distorted violin isn’t as different from an electric guitar as might be expected. Sure, the timbre and the fretless slides add subtle differences, placing them a few notches off from the standard metal sound, with perhaps “math rock” being a more appropriate label. Anyway, the Patzner brothers have no shortage of heavy-metal gusto, giving Kirk Hammett a run for his money. 228 G Street in Davis, www.stringmetal.com.

—Aaron Carnes CELEBRATING OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY ALL YEAR LONG!

RESTAURANT ss BAR BAR COMEDY CLUB CLUB ss RESTAURANT COMEDY

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SEPTEMBER 16 & 20

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THURSDAY 9/13 - SUNDAY 9/16 OVER 40 APPEARANCES ON LETTERMAN!

OCT 23 – HARLOWS

mindFlowerS grounded

JOE KLOCEK, JOHN ROSS

indie // 60’S revival // $5

THURSDAY 9/20

SAM BAM’S COMEDY JAM

SaT 9/15

chucK’S annual pirate and wench coStume dance party

SPECIAL EVENT, NO PASSES

FRIDAY 9/21 - SUNDAY 9/23

CHRISTOPHER TITUS

8:30pm // $15 TUES 9/18

mrq happy hour muSic SerieS

TUESDAY 9/25

FROM THE AXIS OF EVIL COMEDY SPECIAL

DEAN OBEIDALLAH

FOR VICE PRESIDENT THURSDAY 9/27 - SATURDAY 9/29 FROM THE COMEDIANS OF COMEDY AND THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM

BRIAN POSEHN

MIKE DRUCKER, JOHNNY TAYLOR

SUNDAY 9/30

jazz // blueS // americana 5:30pm // Free

mic acouStic open // 8pm // Free talent ShowcaSe wEd 9/19

terraplane SunS gliS mow 9pm // $8

FLIPS & BEANERS COMEDY JAM FRIDAY 10/5 - SUNDAY 10/7 FROM Z ROCK AND LOUIE!

BIG JAY OAKERSON ROB F. MARTINEZ, KIRK PAPPAS

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CALL CLUB FOR SHOWTIMES: (916) 925-5500

2 DRINK MINIMUM. 18 & OVER. I.D. REQUIRED.

GUITARIST FROM THE MARS VOLTA

FrI 9/14

JAKE JOHANNSEN

2100 ARDEN WAY s IN THE HOWE ‘BOUT ARDEN SHOPPING CENTE

OMAR RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE CLUB BOX OFFICE WITH NO SERVICE CHARGE.

ticKetS now on Sale For these upcoming shows at www.marilynsonk.com $3 TallbOy Pbr

MING EVENTS: UPCO chris zanardi and his high beamz

old screen sexrat steel toed slippers dirty clergy

JAKE SHIMABUKURO

NEEDTOBEATHE

OCT 30 · FREEBORN HALL, UC DAVIS

OCT 25 · SAC CITY COLLEGE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

CHRIS TRAPPER & HANS EBERBACH

ZACH DEPUT Y

K ATIE KNIPP

STORM LARGE

SEPT 20 · SHINE COFFEEHOUSE

OCT 24 · HARLOWS

CD RELEASE PARTY SEPT 22 · HARLOWS

STEELIN’ DAN

A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF STEELY DAN OCT 20 · HARLOWS

OCT 30 · HARLOWS

CLOSE TO YOU

A TRIBUTE TO THE CARPENTERS NOV 2 · HARLOWS

SAVOY BROWN OCT 21 · HARLOWS

TEMPEST

NOV 3 · POWERHOUSE PUB

908 K Street // 916.446.4361

++Free parking aFter 6pm with validation @ 10th & l garage+

09.13.12 | SN&R | 37

NIGHTBEAT

THURSDAY 9/13

FRIDAY 9/14

2003 K St., (916) 448-8790

Tipsy Thursdays, Top 40 deejay dancing, 9pm, call for cover

Fabulous and Gay Fridays, 9pm, call for cover

BLUE LAMP

SCOTT H. BIRAM, 9pm, $10

HELL BOUND GLORY, FOREVER GOLDRUSH, 50 WATT HEAVY; 9pm, $8

THE BOARDWALK

BRUTHA SMITH, FOOTHILL FAM,

BOWS AND ARROWS

GOLDEN SHOULDERS, DANA GUMBINER; BRETT SHADY, 8pm, $5

THE CAVE

SET TO REFLECT, COMMON CROOKS; 9pm, $5

BADLANDS

1400 Alhambra, (916) 455-3400

9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 CHERRY RED, GOOD OL BOYZ; 7pm 1815 19 St., (916) 822-5668

3512 Stockton Blvd., (916) 267-7576

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, DRIVE-THRU MYSTICS, JOSH ROSENBLUM; 8pm, $5 FATHER JOHN MISTY, AARON EMBRY; Tu, $20; Todd Cirillo, Iven Lourie, W, $5 DRY COUNTY DRINKERS, 7pm, no cover

18398 Old River Rd., West Sacramento; (916) 371-2277 Deejay dancing and karaoke, 9pm, $3

Hip-hop and Top 40 Deejay dancing, 9pm, $5-$10

1001 R St., (916) 443-8825

LUCKY LASKOWSKI, MARK BADOVINAC; 8-11pm, no cover

MARTIN PURTILL, SPANGLER’S, MAD CAPS; 9pm-midnight, $5

RAMBLIN’ ANDY, KEVIN SECONDS, BRIGHT FACES; 9pm-midnight, $5

THE GOLDEN BEAR

DJ Shaun Slaughter, 10pm, call for cover

DJ Crook One, 10pm, call for cover

DJ Whores, 10pm, no cover

Industry Night, 9pm, call for cover

HARLOW’S

GROWLERS, THE COSMONAUTS, GUANTANAMO BAYWATCH; 8pm

GOAPELE, 10pm, $30

NEW MONSOON, 9:30pm, call for cover

MASON JENNINGS, 8pm, $20

LUNA’S CAFÉ & JUICE BAR

Joe Montoya’s Poetry Unplugged, 8pm, $2

JIM JEFFERIES, XOCHITL HERMOSILLO, FOX COLTON; 8pm, $6

WESTERN LIGHTS, 8pm, $6

Nebraska Mondays, 7:30pm M; ACLU meeting, 4:30pm Tu; Comedy W, $6

MARILYN’S ON K

“Rock On” Live Band Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

MINDFLOWERS, GROUNDED; 9pm, $5

Pirate and Wench Party w/ DJ Bryan Hawk, 8:30pm, $10-$15

MRQ, 5:30pm Tu, no cover

DJs Mike Diamond, My Cousin Vinny, Chrisupreme, 10pm, $5

Sactown Swings, swing dance lessons, 8pm-midnight Tu, $6

2326 K St., (916) 441-2252 2708 J St., (916) 441-4693 1414 16th St., (916) 441-3931 908 K St., (916) 446-4361

MIDTOWN BARFLY

1119 21st St., (916) 549-2779

NAKED LOUNGE DOWNTOWN

SOUTH SAC JOOKS, FREEBADGE SERENADERS, GIMMIE 5; 8:30pm, $5

JUSTIN FARREN, KARMEN BUTLER, DEAN HAAKENSON; 8:30pm, $5

Jazz session, M; BILL BUCKMAN; 7:30pm Tu, $5; JILT VS JONAH, 8:30pm W, $5

OLD IRONSIDES

SHADY REST BAND, OLLA; 9pm, $5

MUSICAL CHARIS, LIGHT BRIGADE, GOLDENER; 9pm, $5

SOUTHLOT, BARREL FEVER, MOOSE KNUCKLE; 9pm, $5

THE NUANCE, 7:30pm M; Karaoke, 9pm Tu; Open-mic, 8:30pm W, no cover

ON THE Y

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

C.A.F., MIND INFECT, SEDATED, SEEKER; 9pm, $5

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

Open-mic comedy, 9pm, no cover

LEE OSKAR, KENNY NEAL, JAMES HARMAN, LITTLE CHARLIE BATY; 8:30pm

LOS STRAITJACKETS, BIG SANDY AND HIS FLY-RITE BOYS; 7pm, $20

THE PALMS PLAYHOUSE

13 Main St., Winters; (530) 795-1825

thu sept 13 8pm $12 adv

THe grOWlers WITH COsmOnauTs and guanTanamO BaYWaTCH

fri sept 14 10pm $30

gOaPele sat sept 15 9:30pm $12.50adv

thu sept 20 9pm $12

Coming Soon

sIzzlIng sIrens PresenT

BaCk TO sCHOOl

sept 24 The features (nashville) w/Wrings

CaTHerIne russel

Oct 11 saint Vitus/Weedeater

fri sept 21 7pm $27.50

WITH mInd x4 feaTurIng sean leHe

sun sept 16 8pm $20

MASON JENNINGS

sept 25 matt schofield sept 28 Coyote grace Oct 9&10 The lumineers Oct 12 nick gravenites & david laflamme Oct 17 star f***er Oct 19 Tea leaf green / stone foxes

nYC jazz / Blues

Oct 20 steelin’ dan

fri sept 21 10pm $15

NEW OrgOne & ruBBleBuCkeT MONSOON sat sept 22 7pm $10 katie knipp sat sept 22 10pm $12

mIdnIgHT PlaYers

THURS 9/13 – SUN 9/16

NGAIO BEALUM WITH SPECIAL GUEST

SHEA SUGA

Live Music in the Legends Lounge: Saturday 9/15 at 4pm

Oct 23 Omar rodriguez-lopez group

Sunday 9/16 at 3pm

Oct 25 Trailer Park Troubadors Oct 26 red fang / Black Tusk Oct 27 Busdriver / Open mic eagle Oct 29 Other lives Oct 30 storm large nov 2

Close to You: Carpenter’s Tribute

nov 3

robert glasper

dec 10 The sword

2708 J Street • Sacramento • 916.441.4693 • www.harlows.com 09.13.12

September 13 – 16

Black Rose - No cover

Oct 24 zach deputy

BLESSED CURSE, REMOVAL OF A TENTH, PDP; 9pm M, $5; Karaoke, 9pm Tu

2 FOR 1 WITH THIS AD

Oct 21 savoy Brown

Dress CoDe enforCeD (Jeans are oK) • Call to reserve Dinner & Club tables |

Open-mic, 7:30pm M; Pub Quiz, 7pm Tu; Traditional Irish jam session, 8pm W

GARAGE JAZZ ARCHITECTS, ALLONS-Y, BLAKE MACKEY; 8:30pm, $5

670 Fulton Ave., (916) 487-3731

SN&R

Queer Idol, 9pm M, no cover; Latin night, 9pm Tu, $5; DJ Alazzawi, 9pm W, $3

Dragalicious, 9pm, $5

1111 H St., (916) 443-1927

1901 10th St., (916) 442-3504

JACKA, PLAYAH K, MARK SNIPES, J DUB, RICK MO, R-DOT CARTER; 8pm ZEE AVI, SEA OF BEES; 8pm W, $8-$10

ELKHORN SALOON

FOX & GOOSE

Sin Sunday, 8pm, call for cover

314 W. Main St., Grass Valley; (530) 274-8384

2000 K St., (916) 448-7798

Hey local bands!

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 9/17-9/19 Mad Mondays, 9pm M; Latin video flair and Wii bowling, 7pm Tu

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

FACES

Want to be a hot show? Mail photos to Calendar Editor, SN&R, 1124 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95815 or email it to sactocalendar@ newsreview.com. Be sure to include date, time, location and cost of upcoming shows.

THE KENNEDY VEIL, SOMA RAS, GARY BUSEY AMBER ALERT; 6:30pm, $10-$12

Saturday Boom, 9pm, call for cover

SUNDAY 9/16

Liquorsick - No cover

Tuesday 9/18 - 8pm Open Mic Showcase

Wednesday 9/19 - 8pm Karaoke with KJ Ryan and Jenny and Jeff the Singing Bartenders

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT: Laughsunlimited.com Call Club for showtimes, prices and reservation (916) 446-5905 • 446-8128 Two item minimum - 17 and over 1207 Front Street in Old Sacramento

Best

List your event!

Post your free online listing (up to 15 months early), and our editors will consider your submission for the printed calendar as well. Print listings are also free, but subject to space limitations. Online, you can include a full description of your event, a photo, and a link to your website. Go to www.newsreview.com/calendar and start posting events. Deadline for print listings is 10 days prior to the issue in which you wish the listing to appear.

SATURDAY 9/15

o n n e w s s ta n d s

september 20

THURSDAY 9/13

FRIDAY 9/14

THE PARK ULTRA LOUNGE 1116 15th St., (916) 442-7222

SATURDAY 9/15

SUNDAY 9/16

Itty Bitty Mini w/ DJ E rock, 9pm-2am, $15

DJ Politik, DJ Peeti V, 9pm-2am, $15

Asylum Downtown: Gothic, industrial, EBM dancing, 9pm, call for cover

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 9/17-9/19

PISTOL PETE’S

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

MIDLIFE CRISIS, 9pm, $5

HONEY WILDERS, 9pm, $5

PJ’S ROADHOUSE

DJ Marina, 9pm, no cover

DJ Trent, 9pm, no cover

ELEMENT OF SOUL, 4pm, $10

POWERHOUSE PUB

DAVE RUSSELL, 9:30pm, call for cover

THE DECADES, 10pm, $10

SPAZMATICS, 10pm, $10

MARSHALL LAW, 3pm, call for cover Sunday Night Soul Party, 9pm, $5

140 Harrison Ave., Auburn; (530) 885-5093 5461 Mother Lode, Placerville; (530) 626-0336 614 Sutter St., Folsom; (916) 355-8586

Karaoke, 9pm W, no cover

THE PRESS CLUB

OLD FIRM CASUALS, CITY OF VAIN, 8pm, call for cover

Top 40 w/ DJ Rue, 9pm, $5

Top 40 Night w/ DJ Larry Rodriguez, 9pm, $5

SHENANIGANS

705 J St., (916) 442-1268

Comedy Night and DJ Selekta Lou, 9pm, $5

CORE, 8pm, call for cover

Viewing of Chavez Jr. vs Martinez, 6pm, call for cover

SHINE

THE MAPLETONES, 8pm, $5

SLY PARK, DAWNS, J. WONG, THE WHEELS; 8pm, $5

CHAD WAGONER, 8pm, call for cover

KEVIN CORCORAN, 7pm, no cover

SWAIN, SOOSH E, SKY HIGH, UCE JUICE, TBC, J. GOOD, CHUUWEE; 8pm

THE DEFIBULATORS, THE DRIFTWOOD SINGERS; 9:30pm, $5

AGESANDAGES, TUMBLEWEED WANDERERS; 9:30pm, $7

ERICA SUNSHINE LEE, 8pm, $5

AMANDA GRAY AND WHISKEY SAVAGE, 8pm, $5

JT HODGES, THE BUCK FORD BAND, JASON BUELL; 7pm, $10-$15

NOTHIN PERSONAL, 6-10pm, $5

CHERRY BOMB, 4-9:30pm, $8

ROAD 88, 3-7pm, $5

2030 P St., (916) 444-7914

1400 E St., (916) 551-1400

SOL COLLECTIVE

2574 21st St., (916) 832-0916

SOPHIA’S THAI KITCHEN 129 E St., Davis; (530) 758-4333

STONEY INN/ROCKIN RODEO 1320 Del Paso Blvd., (916) 927-6023

BUCK FORD PURE COUNTRY BAND, 10pm, call for cover

SWABBIES

5871 Garden Hwy, (916) 920-8088

Country Karaoke, 9pm M, call for cover; DJ Alazzawi, DJ Rigatony, 10pm Tu, $3

Karaoke, 8pm W, call for cover DELAYED SLEEP, CHIKADING!; 7:30pm, $5

Open jazz jam w/ Jason Galbraith & Friends, 8pm Tu, no cover Microphone Mondays, 6pm M, $1-$2

Comedy open-mic, 8pm M; Bluebird Lounge open-mic, 5pm Tu, no cover

TORCH CLUB

X TRIO, 5pm, no cover; CANDYE KANE, 9pm, $8

PAILER AND FRATIS, 5:30-7:30pm, no cover; CON BRIO, 9pm, $7

JOHNNY KNOX, 5pm, no cover; SISTA MONICA, 9pm, $15

Blues jam, 4pm, no cover; THE GOLDEN CADILLACS, 8pm, $5

DIPPIN’ SAUCE, 9pm Tu, $4; Open-mic, W; MARK SEXTON BAND, 9pm W, $5

TOWNHOUSE LOUNGE

YOGOMAN BAND,STORYSTORYTEYOGOMAN BURNING BURNING BAND, LLERS, SACTO SOUL TELLERS, SACTO SOULREBELS; REBELS;9pm, 9pm,$5$5

DJ special guests,Slaughter, 9pm, $5, DJ Roger Roger and Carpio, DJ Shaun no before DJcover Whores, 9pm,10pm $5

Pop PopFreq Freqw/ w/DJ DJXGVNR, XGVNR,9pm, 9pm,$5 $5

BLACK GREASE, STRANGE TONGUES, WELL RED; 9pm, $5

Open-mic, 9pmGrimey M, no w/ cover; Eyewitness Open-mic M; DJ Whores, Tu; Wednesdays, 9pm W, no cover Eyewitness Wednesdays, W

904 15th St., (916) 443-2797 1517 21st St., (916) 613-7194

All ages, all the time ACE OF SPADES

AESOP ROCK, ROB SONIC, BIG WIZ, DARK TIME SUNSHINE; 7pm, $19

1417 R St., (916) 448-3300

ANTHRAX, TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL; 6:30pm, $35

CLUB RETRO

Chuuwee with Swain, Soosh E, Sky High, Uce Juice, TBC and J. Good 8pm Saturday, call for cover. Sol Collective Hip-hop

QUIET RIOT, MAXXX, FORCE OF HABIT, FORCE MULTIPLIED; 7pm, $20

Goapele 10pm Friday, $30. Harlow’s R&B and soul

FLOBOTS, ASTRONAUTALIS, FORREST DAY; 6:30pm Tu, $13

TAYLOR CULLEN, JOE MILLWARD, SHELBY & THE SQUARES; 6:30pm, $5

1529 Eureka Rd., Roseville; (916) 988-6606

LUIGI’S SLICE AND FUN GARDEN

LEFT HAND, MAD JUDY, THE COMMUNITY, COLD HEART RE-PRESS; 8pm, $5

SUPPORT THE RABID, THE CROISSANTS, STRANGE PARTY; 3pm, $7

ZUHG LIFE STORE

GROUNDED, MIKE JAMES; 6pm, no cover

NEXT TO THE TRACKS, REGGIE GRAHAM & THE GROOVE SOLUTION; 1pm

1050 20th St., (916) 552-0317

545 Downtown Plaza, Ste. 2090, (916) 822-5185

MIKEY JAMES & THE ADVENTURE OF FUN SQUAD, MR. R, MO; noon, no cover

GET INKED BY THE BEST! ALL STYLES TRADITIONAL BLACK & GREY

JA PA N E S E

CLEAN & STERILE

ENVIRONMENT

EVERYBODY

GYPSY FISH, 6pm Tu, no cover

HAPPY HOUR ALL DAY SUNDAY!

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I’m seeing this woman, and just like in Annie Hall, she only likes to have sex when she’s high. I haven’t used marijuana since college and have a lot of anxiety about trying it again. But she’s great, the sex is great, and I don’t want to come across as some old fogy. Help? —Horny Weed Your girl is smart. Sex and weed go together like, well, sex and weed. Since marijuana helps people relax and M LU A E can heighten the senses (especially the sense of touch), B IO by NGA many people find that a toke or two will get them to a higher level of sensuality. The “smoky-pokey” is one of my favorite games. And the cool thing, H.W., is you don’t have to a s k420 @ ne wsreview.c om smoke a lot. A ceremonial toke with your girl to get the festivities started shouldn’t get you too high to enjoy yourself. I called Lisa “Mamakind” Kirkman, author of the book Sex Pot: The Marijuana Lover’s Guide to Gettin’ It On, and this is what she had to say about the best kinds of cannabis for carnal pleasure: “I would recommend different strains for different kinds of sex: an intimate lovemaking session might benefit from an indica-dominant strain, like Blueberry, to relax the body and mind, but not put you to sleep. Pre-rolling for an orgy? Try Blueberry’s mostly sativa sister, Flo. She’ll get you going, energizing your body and mind, without making anyone all freaky-deaky.” You probably aren’t gonna have an orgy, but it’s good stuff to know just in case. I would also suggest looking into a high-CBD strain like Harlequin, as it has been shown to decrease anxiety. Cottonmouth is the only drawback. Lisa recommends fruit and water; I like Starbursts and Tootsie Rolls. Have fun. My 70-year-old uncle is going through chemotherapy. He and his son recently asked me to get him some pot. I don’t smoke pot anymore, and I don’t want to buy pot for other people or get a doctor’s scrip. But I feel compelled to help them out. —Sober Grandson Good luck to your grandfather. Chemotherapy sucks ass. He is going to need all of the help and support you can give him. You get props for being willing to help, even though you seem to have an unnatural aversion to cannabis. Would you be just as uncomfortable if Grandpa had asked you to go to the pharmacy and pick up his pills? It’s exactly the same thing. Marijuana is a medicine for many people. Check out the documentary Clearing the Smoke: The Science of Cannabis (you can watch it for free here: http://watch.montanapbs.org/video/1825223761). The good news is you don’t need a doctor’s scrip to get cannabis in California. Take Grandpa to the doctor to get his letter of recommendation, and then take him to your local medical-cannabis dispensary. While he signs up as a patient, you sign up as his primary caregiver. That will allow you to purchase (you are going to have to get over your discomfort—this is your grandfather we are talking about) and carry marijuana legally without having to sign up as a cannabis patient yourself. I have a feeling that once you see how cannabis helps people, your attitude will change. Ω

Ngaio Bealum is a Sacramento comedian, activist and marijuana expert. Email him questions at ask420@ newsreview.com.

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ERAPISTS

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by ROB BREZSNY

FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You will never

be able to actually gaze upon your own face. You may, of course, see a reasonable likeness of it in mirrors, photos and videos. But the real thing will always be forever visible to everyone else but not you. I think that’s an apt symbol for how hard it is to get a totally objective view of your own soul. No matter how sincere you may be in your efforts to see yourself clearly, there will always be fuzziness, misapprehensions and ignorance. Having said that, though, I want you to know that the coming weeks will be an excellent time to see yourself better than ever before.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I’ve got four

related pieces of advice for you, Taurus: 1. The most reliable way for you to beat the system is to build your own more interesting system. 2. The most likely way to beat your competitors is not to fight them, but rather to ignore them and compete only against yourself. 3. To escape the numbing effects of an outworn tradition, you could create a fresh tradition that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning. 4. If you have a problem that is not only impossible to solve but also boring, find yourself a fascinating new problem that will render the old problem irrelevant.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Dear Doctor of Love: My heart is itchy. I’m totally serious. I’m not talking about some phantom tingle on the skin of my chest. What I mean is that the prickling sensation originates in the throbbing organ inside of me. Is this even possible? Have you heard of such a crazy thing? Could it be some astrological phenomenon? What should I do? —ItchyHearted Gemini.” Dear Gemini: I suspect that it’s not just you, but many Geminis, who are experiencing symptoms like yours. From what I can tell, you have a lot of trapped feelings in your heart that need to be identified, liberated and dealt with.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): If you make

a conscious decision to combine plaids with stripes or checks with floral patterns or reddish purples with greenish oranges, I will wholeheartedly approve. If, on the other hand, you absentmindedly create combinations like that, doing so because you’re oblivious or lazy, I will soundly disapprove. The same holds true about any hodgepodge or hybrid or mishmash you generate, Cancerian: It’ll receive cosmic blessings if you do it with flair and purpose, but not if it’s the result of being inattentive and careless.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Should we boycott

the writing of Edgar Allan Poe because he married his 13-year-old cousin when he was 27? Should anti-drug crusaders stop using their iPhones when they find out that Steve Jobs said, “Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life”? Should we stop praising the work that Martin Luther King Jr. did to advance civil rights because he engaged in extramarital affairs? Those are the kinds of questions I suspect you’ll have to deal with in the coming days, Leo. I encourage you to avoid having knee-jerk reactions.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Arthur Turner,

a Virgo reader from Austin, is upset with my recent horoscopes. In his email, he wrote the following: “You’re making me mad with your predictions of non-stop positivity, Brezsny. I need more dirt and grit and muck. I’ve got to have some misery and decay to motivate me. So just please shut up with your excess projections of good times. They’re bringing me down.” Here’s my response to him and to any other Virgo who feels like him: I’m afraid you’re scheduled to endure even more encounters with cosmic benevolence in the coming week. If these blessings feel oppressive, try to change your attitude about them.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The humorous

science journal Annals of Improbable Research published a paper titled “The Effects of Peanut Butter on the Rotation of the Earth.” Signed by 198 Ph.D. physicists, it came to this conclusion: “So far as we can determine, peanut butter has no effect on the rotation of the earth.” If possible, Libra, I suggest you summon a comparable amount of high-powered expertise for your own purposes. But please make sure that

BEFORE

those purposes are weightier than the question of peanut butter’s role on our planet’s movements. Round up the best help you can, yes, call on all the favors you’re owed and be aggressive in seeking out brilliant support; but only for a truly important cause.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): September

16 is the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. So begins 10 days of repentance. Whether or not you’re Jewish, Scorpio, you are entering an astrological phase when taking stock of yourself would be a brilliant move. That’s why I invite you to try the following self-inventory, borrowed from the Jewish organization Chadeish Yameinu. 1. What would you like to leave behind from the past 12 months? 2. What has prevented you from living up to your highest standards and being your very best self? 3. What would you love to bring with you into the next 12 months? 4. Who served as a teacher for you in the past year? 5. Were you a teacher for anyone? 6. Is there anyone you need to forgive? 7. How will you go about forgiving?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

If I’m accurately interpreting the astrological omens, the coming months will be a soulful feast in which every day will bring you a shimmering revelation about the nature of your soul’s code and how best to activate it. Reasons for grateful amazement will flow so freely, that you may come to feel that miracles are routine and naturally occurring phenomena. And get this: In your dreams, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty will get married, win the lottery and devote their fortune to fostering your spiritual education until you are irrevocably enlightened. (I confess there’s a slight chance I’m misinterpreting the signs, and everything I described will be true for only a week or so, not months.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

A reader named Marissa begged me to insert a secret message into the Capricorn horoscope. She wanted me to influence Jergen, a guy she has a crush on, to open up his eyes and see how great she is. I told her I wouldn’t do it. Why? For one thing, I never try to manipulate people into doing things that aren’t in alignment with their own desires. For another, I faithfully report on my understanding of the tides of fate and refuse to just make stuff up. I urge you to have that kind of integrity, Capricorn. I suspect you may soon be invited or coaxed to engage in what amounts to some tainted behavior. Don’t do it. Make an extra effort to be incorruptible.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “The far

away, the very far, the farthest, I have found only in my own blood,” said poet Antonio Porchia. Let’s make that thought your keynote, Aquarius. Your assignment will be to search for what’s most exotic and unknown, but only in the privacy of your own heart, not out in the great wide world. For now, at least, the inner realm is the location of the laboratory where the most useful experiments will unfold. Borrowing from novelist Carole Maso, I leave you with this: “Make love to the remoteness in yourself.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): It would be

an excellent time for you to elope, even if you do so with the person to whom you’re already mated. You might also consider the possibility of wearing a wedding dress everywhere you wander, even if there is no marriage ceremony in your immediate future, and even if you’re a man. And if neither of those ideas appeals to you, please at least do something that will symbolize your intention to focus on intimacy with an intensified sense of purpose. Fling rice at yourself. Seek out someone who’ll give you lessons in how to listen like an empathetic genius. Compose and recite vows in which you pledge to become an utterly irresistible and reliable ally.

You can call Rob Brezsny for your Expanded Weekly Horoscope: (900) 950-7700. $1.99 per minute. Must be 18+. Touchtone phone required. Customer service (612) 373-9785. And don’t forget to check out Rob’s website at www.realastrology.com.

FRONTLINES

FEATURE

15 MINUTES

by MARK

HALVERSON PHOTO BY RYAN DONAHUE

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

A touch of brass Jeric Rocamora, a 16-year-old Roseville resident, only started playing trumpet about five years ago. Now, the Rio Americano High School junior practices approximately 11 to 12 hours a week outside the classroom and also takes private lessons from the likes of notable local jazz musicians Larry Lunetta, Tom Peron and Steve Roach. The teen’s also performed in a variety of state and regional honors ensembles and won several outstanding soloist awards. Recently, Rocamora was selected as a member of this year’s Mondavi Center SFJAZZ High School All-Stars ensemble and premiered one of his original big-band compositions in Davis at the Commissions in Concert 2011 event. Rocamora appears Sunday, September 23, at the Monterey Jazz Festival in an arena setting when he performs with the prestigious Next Generation Jazz Orchestra on the Jimmy Lyons Stage. That same day, Rocamora will also perform with the Rio Americano High School AM Jazz Band on the more intimate Night Club stage (Bill Perry Stage).

Do you remember the first time you put trumpet to lip? I was 11 or 12. I had to pick an elective for junior high school, and it was either band or study hall, so I went with band. And then I had to get an instrument. Trumpet was the first one I picked up.

Did you struggle with playing?

What have you been listening to lately?

Trumpet’s definitely a hard instrument. There’s a lot of work that goes into playing it—just trying to get a good sound out of the instrument [and] a lot of air through it. I think every trumpet player struggles a little bit with range and a little bit of technical studies, because there [are] some awkward movements between notes and fingers.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Blue Mitchell and actually some foreign pop. I listen to a lot of soundtracks and TV shows. If I’m in the mood, I listen to classical [and] a lot of soundtracks from Japanese movies. Howl’s Moving Castle has a really good soundtrack. There [are] a lot of thematic references. And the soundtrack from Cowboy Bebop is pretty cool. I love the composer from that, Yoko Kanno.

What’s your primary strength as a trumpet player?

How was the audition for the Next Generation band?

I get a lot of compliments on my tone sometimes, but I think of myself as being more of a writer than anything else.

It was a live audition. Not any sight-reading at all. They just had us play a prepared piece. I played a solo transcription from one of my favorite trumpet players, Woody Shaw. It was a solo [from] “There Will Never Be Another You” on the album Solid.

How’d you get interested in jazz? The junior-high-school jazz band needed trumpets. I was pretty good for my age, so my band director just picked me for it. And I started listening to [ jazz], because we were playing it and I loved it.

Which jazz trumpeter did you really dig when you started? Maynard Ferguson.

STORY

A RT S & C U LT U R E

How many trumpets do you own? Do you have a particular favorite? Three. [My favorite is] definitely the one that I most recently got. It was kind of designed by my … teacher Larry Lunetta. It’s got really nice valves. It plays really well, and it’s really open for a trumpet. The feeling when you play it, there’s no wind resistance coming from it.

AFTER

You’ve won several outstanding soloist awards. Any highlights? That would be at the Reno Jazz Festival [where I received] the outstanding juniorhigh-school trumpet-soloist award. That’s for the entire festival. It was improvised.

Any humbling music experiences? My first jam session definitely was. It was at the Capitol Garage. They don’t hold jam sessions there anymore. I went in there and we played a tune, and I did OK on it, I guess, and the next tune they called, I didn’t know it, but I stayed up there and I totally just (laughs)—you could totally just [tell] I didn’t know what I was doing.

Where do you plan on going after high school? I’ve been looking at some schools [on] the East Coast, like Manhattan School of Music or Berklee [College of Music].

Ever serenaded a lady with your trumpet? Yeah, a couple of times.

How did that work out? Ω

Um, not too great. For information on the Monterey Jazz Festival, visit www.montereyjazzfestival.org/2012.

09.13.12

SN&R

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