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Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

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Volume 27, iSSue 17

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Two Mexican classics in one.

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AUGUST 13, 2015 | Vol. 27, ISSUe 17

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38 Our Mission To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages employees to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live.

Co-editors Rachel Leibrock, Nick Miller Staff Writers Janelle Bitker, Raheem F. Hosseini Assistant Editor Anthony Siino Editorial Coordinator Becca Costello Editor-at-large Melinda Welsh Contributors Daniel Barnes, Ngaio Bealum, Alastair Bland, Rob Brezsny, Jim Carnes, Deena Drewis, Joey Garcia, Cosmo Garvin, Blake Gillespie, Lovelle Harris, Jeff Hudson, Jim Lane, Garrett McCord, Kel Munger, Kate Paloy, Patti Roberts, Ann Martin Rolke, Shoka

44 Creative Director Priscilla Garcia Art Director Hayley Doshay Associate Art Director Brian Breneman Ad Design Manager Serene Lusano Production Coordinator Skyler Smith Designer Kyle Shine Design Services Manager Anne Lesemann Contributing Photographers Lisa Baetz, Evan Duran, Wes Davis, Luke Fitz, Taras Garcia, Michael Miller, Bobby Mull, Shoka, Darin Smith, Lauran Worthy Chief Marketing Officer Rick Brown Advertising Manager Corey Gerhard Senior Advertising Consultants Rosemarie Messina, Olla Swanson, Joy Webber, Kelsi White Advertising Consultants Joseph Barcelon, Meghan Bingen, Teri Gorman, Dusty Hamilton, Dave Nettles, Matt Richter, Lee Roberts, Julie Sherry Sales Assistant Matt Kjar Director of Et Cetera Will Niespodzinski Custom Publications Editor Michelle Carl Custom Publications Managing Editor Shannon Springmeyer Custom Publications Writer/Copy Editor Mike Blount Custom Publications Writer Brittany Wesely

05 07 10 17 18 35 38 42 44 46 56 63 75

STREETALK LETTERS NEwS + BEATS SCOREKEEPER FEATuRE STORy NighT&dAy diSh + off mEnu STAgE FiLm muSiC + Sound AdvicE ASK JOEy ThE 420 15 miNuTES

COVER dESigN By hAyLEy dOShAy COVER PhOTO By wES dAViS

46 Executive Coordinator Jessica Takehara Director of First Impressions David Lindsay Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Services Assistant Larry Schubert Distribution Drivers Mansour Aghdam, Daniel Bowen, Heather Brinkley, Mike Cleary, Jack Clifford, Lydia Comer, John Cunningham, Lob Dunnica, Chris Fong, Ron Forsberg, Garry Foster, Joanna Gonzalez-Brown, Craig Hays, Brenda Hundley, Greg Meyers, Kenneth Powell, Gilbert Quilatan, Victoria Prunty, Lloyd Rongley, Lolu Sholotan President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resources Manager Tanja Poley Business Manager Grant Rosenquist Accounting Specialist Nicole Jackson Accounts Receivable Specialist Kortnee Angel Sweetdeals Coordinator Courtney DeShields Nuts & Bolts Ninja Christina Wukmir Senior Support Tech Joe Kakacek Developer John Bisignano System Support Specialist Kalin Jenkins

COVER mOdEL iS JAySON wiLdE, CO-OwNER OF BOTTLE & BARLOw

1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815 Phone (916) 498-1234 Sales Fax (916) 498-7910 Editorial Fax (916) 498-7920 Website www.newsreview.com SN&R is printed by Bay Area News Group.

Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in SN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. SN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form and to edit them for libel.

Advertising Policies All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message.

Yay, Sacramento Instead of unleashing a bitter rant about The New York Times’ recent profile of my hometown—a.k.a. that paper’s Kings arena puff piece from this past Tuesday—I’m going to highlight some 916 goodness in this week’s issue. See, I don’t resent the city’s newfound spotlight; I’m straight shining it!

Let’s begin with what Sacramentans do best: drink. Conveniently, the annual Sacramento Cocktail Week kicks off on August 17 and keeps rolling for five days. Events and pop-ups go down every night—visit http://sacramentococktailweek.com for the skinny—and, as this week’s Feature Story scribe Rick Kushman might attest, rubbing elbows with local bartenders is chummier than shark-infested waters. (Read more on page 18.)

Did you notice that SN&R recently got some work done? With all this national attention, we felt the need for a facelift. Our Dish section (see page 38) is a great example of our new pages, and I urge you to chow down on the food-scene reporting.

When it comes to entertainment, Sacramento’s theater scene is often overlooked. This week, reviewer Patti Roberts appears to have discovered something quite special at a Midtown production company. A hint: Muppets (find out more on page 42).

And, finally, Raheem Hosseini’s look at how prosecutors used social-media videos to enhance prison sentences for a local rapper isn’t a touchy-feely Sacramento story, but it is critical (see page 10). Lavish D may have been dangerous, but he didn’t even shoot a gun or throw a punch. Is law enforcement unfairly targeting the hip-hop community, again?

Thanks for reading.

—nick m illEr

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“We are not the tree capital of america.”

Asked At WAtt AVenue And FAir oAks BouleVArd:

Which misconception would you like to correct?

AdAm VAronA

Jon BAce

musician

waiter

I love Sacramento, however Sacramento is not the capital of and the only city of trees. The title is given to a bunch of cities in America.

Boise is the city of trees.

So is Visalia, Portland, etc.

Unfortunately, we are not the tree capital of America. It is not the second urban forest behind Paris, France. I hear people say this all the time.

Research what our government is. It is set up to appear as a democracy, but it was never set up to be a democracy. It was set up to be an oligarchy, which is that the few will rule. The misconception is that money is getting to the people. It’s getting to the politicians.

Bruce k Aiser

shAron dAVis

bike shop owner

women’s ministry leader

Some people think cyclists don’t belong on the road.

We have every right to be on a city street just like autos and trucks do. I think Sacramento is ahead of most cities and we are a very bike-friendly area, but people buzz and honk and drive deliberately close to us. We help cut down on pollution and traffic.

“People who are devoted to God don’t think outside the box.” We are seen as very narrow-minded and only think one way and that we don’t accept different people.

In the name of religion, some people have thought that way … but people who are devoted to God don’t have a box; we do love deeply and accept all.

mike WoodWArd

Andre A mitchell teacher

florist

Since Donald Trump has said what he thinks of Mexicans, I think there is a misconception that the Mexican people are only meant for one kind of job.

As a people, they are not seen as smart and I don’t know if that is a judgment or what, but it is wrong.

Sending flowers is expensive and actually they are not.

The reason flowers are sent the most is “just because.”

People think they have to spend a lot of money to make someone happy, but no, you don’t. It is not the flower that counts, but rather the thought.

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Email lEttERS tO SactOlEttERS@NEwSREviEw.cOm.

Sex and the city’s problem Re “Sexual harassment and the city” by Nick Miller (SN&R Editor’s Note, August 6): There is a solution to this folly. A page out of Sacramento County’s playbook would stop a lot of this “I can’t be touched” attitude by our city officials. The county board of supervisors are policed by our grand jury, whereas the city crew is under the unwatchful eye of the Political Fair Practice Commission. Our grand jury packs a much meaner bite on this crap. We the voters will have to get this on the ballot, as you will find no support for from the city officials on this—kinda like Kryptonite and Superman.

Woody Boyd S acr am e nt o

Don’t drink gun Kool-Aid Re “The new Wild West” by Alastair Bland (SN&R Feature Story, July 30):

Thank you for this article!

It’s about time some common sense was heard loud and clear on this—front page, no less. It’s painful to read all of the opposing comments, but there are so many of us who

agree 100 percent and know how irresponsible it is to use the public as back-up vigilante law enforcement. Most of us are less impassioned as we’re not paranoid and haven’t drunk the wild west Kool-Aid, so we don’t chime in as loudly, but we need to.

If you’re one of the meek who are tired of living in fear and of being policed by a bunch of bullies, get active. Please join your local movements to help pass and enforce sensible gun control laws. No one is taking anyone’s guns away, but common sense needs to be restored. This article is right on the money!

Laura Boosalis Sacramento

Disgusted by gun violence

Like most Americans, I am disgusted with the gun violence that is gradually destroying our country. We cannot expect the powerful NRA and its political supporters to ease up on their beliefs that “the people” have a constitutional right to bear arms. I can guarantee you that when the framers of the Constitution wrote and supported the Second Amendment, their intent was to permit the colonists to possess single-shot pistols and muskets to help form a standing militia to defend primarily against tyranny. In this case, a tyrannical England. To apply the Second Amendment to today’s world is ludicrous.

Jose Gonzalez Roseville

ONLINE BUZZ

on Senator Bernie SanderS’ groWing appeal in hiS Bid for the preSidency: Resentment of the wealthy is popular right now. The problem is, supporting Bernie Sanders is not going to help reduce the power of these “evil” billionaires. It would only make them more powerful.

Keeping ahold of that power might cost them a bit more money, but that’s not their biggest worry. They have spare cash.

Facebook.com/ SacNewsReview

Jim freeman @SacNewsReview

on the Sac Bee’S Shaky StatuS: It means that newspapers aren’t relevant any longer, it has zero to do with Sacramento.

Scott mac

The demise of print media all over the world is, to me, both sad and a loss to the information cycle.

Re “The new Wild West” by Alastair Bland (SN&R Feature Story, July 30):

@SacNewsReview

Online Buzz contributions are culled from SN&R’s Facebook page and are not edited for grammar, spelling and clarity.

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Authorities used Lavish D’s 2012 video “My Niggas Do” to portray him as the leader of the Starz street gang. photo illustration by brian breneman

That’s a rap Notorious south Sacramento rapper Lavish D sentenced to six years—and it was the lyrics, not the crime, that did him in

by Raheem F. hosseini

The music career of Donald “Lavish D” Oliver was rocked by a different kind of beat on June 26—the kind a gavel makes when it punctuates a six-year prison sentence.

That’s how long the rapper will disappear for after pleading no contest to gun and assault crimes that were said to benefit the reputation of the Starz, a notorious street gang that germinated in a local housing project in the late 1990s.

In prosecuting Oliver and his co-defendants, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office consolidated two cases: In the first, Oliver was a passenger in a car where police found a handgun 10 | SN&R | 08.13.15

in November 2013. In the second, less than four months later, Oliver filmed the assault of a gang member inside of a mall and uploaded the video to social media, where he’d also posted dozens of his rap videos.

Prosecutors used these music videos to identify members of the gang and characterize Oliver as their leader. Videos like “King of the City” and “My Niggas Do,” where a boastful Lavish ridicules his enemies and refers to his “boss status.”

“That was a bad video for us,” acknowledged Isaac W. Choy Jr., the defense attorney who represented Oliver during his sentencing phase.

@Ra h e e m F H

r a h e e mh @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

It’s not a new story: A rapper is accused of living out his rhymes with too much fidelity and pays the price.

Sometimes the results make sense, like when X-Raided was tried in 1992 for a home invasion that resulted in a Meadowview woman’s death. And sometimes they don’t, like the FBI’s decree that fans of Insane Clown Posse constitute a criminal street gang. But the phenomenon is unique to hip-hop, pointed out Coop D’Vill, a podcast host on The Siccness website and one of the few people to interview Lavish D.

After all, Frank Sinatra never had to contend with tougher sentences because of gang enhancements.

“That’s the penal code that they set up for us,” D’Vill said of the rap community. “A lot of stuff, to me, within the law is crazy. Lock somebody up for what they did.”

Like Sinatra, the 30-year-old Lavish D is no model citizen, with priors for possession of an assault weapon and marijuana for sale. Still, he never threw a punch. He didn’t fire a bullet. Yet he caught more time than those who did.

And it was the music that stamped his fate.

“That was huge,” said Alin Cintean, a defense attorney who represented one of Oliver’s co-defendants, Donte Edwards “Tizzle” Young. “The DA’s office turned over so many YouTube videos and CDs and music” during the discovery phase.

In an evolving music landscape, where an artist’s career depends on his social-media output, the music carries real weight. In Oliver’s case, six years of it.

PBIDs rule see GreenlIGht

12

K.J. lawsuIt uPDate see eDItorIal

13

truly DefectIve clIcKBaIt see scoreKeePer

17

beatS

ethIcs test In ’16 In response to a question from Masuda, to officer michael rinehart of the Rinehart confirmed that Oliver never Sacramento Police Department, Oliver was wavered from his stance that he knew nothjust another suspect trying to evade arrest. ing about the gun.

On a November 2013 afternoon, Then the defense attorney came to Rinehart responded to Evergreen Shopping his real point. “And in between all those Plaza in south Sacramento to back up denials, he said that he’s a rapper, right?” officers who had detained several subjects Masuda asked. in the parking lot. Officers told him they “Yes,” Rinehart said. stopped the group because its members were dressed in red and displaying hand to understand the role lavish D’s music gestures while one recorded the poses on a played in his prosecution, consider the cellphone. When officers first approached, testimony of Detective Joseph Ellis, a they said, Oliver quickly entered the liquor gang expert with the Sacramento Police store, ignoring their commands to stop. But Department.

Oliver eventually was seated on the curb On the witness stand last October, Ellis like the rest. cited police reports and jail classification According to court transcripts from notes that speculated Oliver’s leadership an October 2014 preliminary hearing, status within the Starz, as well as tattoos Rinehart recalled that he was putting one and photos of Oliver displaying gang signs. subject in the back of a squad car when he But above all else, there was the December heard a female officer’s voice say “stop.”

2012 song, “My Niggas Do.” He turned to see Oliver running.

It’s a typical Lavish D track in many Rinehart gave chase, calling out to ways, with bare-bones production and the Oliver, who dashed into the intersection of rapper’s slow-flow taunts: “I ain’t gotta Mack Road and Center Parkway, then east fight ’cuz my niggas do. I ain’t gotta toward Providence Place Apartments. ride ’cuz my niggas do. I ain’t Entering the complex, Oliver gotta move ’cuz my niggas fell, got back up, then tripped do. And I ain’t gotta shoot over a raised curb, allow’cuz my niggas do.” ing Rinehart to get close Frank Sinatra It’s what Lavish enough to wrap him never had to contend refers to in the song’s up from behind. Oliver intro as “boss status.” continued to struggle with tougher sentences And it was enough for until another officer because of gang Ellis. “He’s saying: ‘I’m arrived to help put him enhancements. the boss. I don’t have to in handcuffs. Inside his do all these things. I have pocket, officers found a people to do them for me,’” small amount of marijuana. the detective testified.

Word came over Rinehart’s Things like beating up on radio that a search of the car proved Billy Dee Smith. fruitful. In the rear pouch cushion of the Smith, a validated member of the Oak driver’s seat, officers discovered a Norinco Park Bloods, was returning shoes last 9 mm handgun with a round in the chamMarch inside of Arden Fair mall on the day ber and seven in the clip. he got jumped. His crew had been quarrelProsecutors portrayed Oliver’s ing with the Starz for months, both in the attempted escape as proof he knew about streets and online. Ellis testified that, a few the gun. Oliver’s pretrial attorney, Donald days prior to Smith’s mall visit, a video by Masuda, said he ran because of 3 grams Bay Area rapper Philthy Rich insinuated of weed in his pocket and because of an “that members of the Oak Park Bloods outstanding misdemeanor warrant. were responsible for the homicides of two Masuda also pointed out that video different Starz gang members.” surveillance from the shopping center It’s what Ellis believes prompted five or revealed Oliver to be seated behind the six Starz members to ambush Smith in the front passenger seat when the car slid into Foot Action shoe store. its space. Co-defendant Young sat in the By all accounts, it was a clumsy beatseat closest to where the gun was hidden, down, with surveillance video showing though both men exited on Young’s side. multiple guys lunging at Smith and mostly Masuda also contended that the car was hitting walls or themselves. Not participatregistered to someone who was in the ing was Oliver, who filmed the scrum on armed services, and driven by at least two his phone. In the shaky footage, he can other people, implying any one of them be overheard giggling and muttering “get could have stuffed the gun behind the that nigga,” though it’s unclear whether the driver’s seat.

combatants could hear him, Ellis admitted.

Oliver later posted the recording to social media under a title that made it clear he was responding directly to Philthy’s video.

Later that night, there was a shooting that authorities believe was its own rebuttal.

Oliver fled town and was later arrested in another state, and brought back to Sacramento.

Masuda argued the string of events wasn’t enough to implicate his client as anything more than a jerk. “He’s only thrown in under the theory that he’s the leader of a gang and he’s instigating this fight or encouraging it,” Masuda said in court. “Now, he was dumb enough to put it on the Internet and label it and so forth. But the bottom line is … he had nothing to do with the fight.”

Oliver’s sentencing attorney, Choy, was less demonstrative about that fact. He told SN&R that the DA’s offer of six years to Oliver was low enough to be an acceptable resolution. Co-defendants Anthony Wayne Jacob, Efrem “Scarface” Wandick and Young, who were more hands-on in their involvement, accepted plea agreements that resulted in significantly less prison time, between 16 months and 32 months. a week before speaking with sn&r, D’vill conducted a half-hour phone interview with Oliver, who touched on his recent tribulations. But mostly they talked about music.

“I know of Lavish D through music, not because of street rumors or gangster fairy tales,” D’Vill said. “My honest opinion is that he’s a rapper first.”

And a prolific one, at that.

Oliver had recorded an album’s worth of songs before he went away, and was submitting an original track to a compilation D’Vill is arranging.

Asked for his take on Lavish’s music prospects, D’Vill said the rapper was building the required buzz to be known outside of Sacramento. “Lavish was on his way up.

It just so happened that the street life got involved,” he said.

When they got to the end of their time, D’Vill asked whether Oliver had a message for the young boys and men who emulated him. Yeah, Oliver said: Get your money, but avoid the drama. “He’s definitely a different dude,” D’Vill said. “He was not acting like he was still the king of Sacramento.”

That recorded message to his followers may be the last track he lays down for a while. Ω

Sacramento City Council members who don’t embrace true ethics reform may be in trouble next election, according to the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County.

Kerri Asbury said the topic will be on the questionnaires the political group uses to evaluate potential candidates for endorsement, and that each council member’s position “will be taken into consideration.”

It appears near-monthly allegations of elected chicanery— regarding both sexual impropriety and a lack of distinction between public and private emails—compelled the local affiliate of the California Democratic Party to call for an independent commission last week, just two days after a former staff aide filed a sexual harassment claim against Vice Mayor Allen Warren.

Councilman Steve Hansen recently joined the chorus, by asking for a probe into the city’s stale sexual harassment policies and calling on Warren and Mayor Pro Tem Angelique Ashby to step down from a “Good Governance” ad hoc committee the mayor formed last year, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Hansen, Warren and Mayor Kevin Johnson, who endured his own sexual harassment claim earlier this year, are all up for reelection next year.

The Sacramento Integrity Project, a nonpartisan political reform group, last week released ethics reform guidelines that specifically call for indefinite retention of digital records, public access to all written or electronic records and for a clear separation of public and private communication via emails and cell phones, among other proposals.

Thus far, the council has pursued softer internal reforms.

Johnson’s Good Governance committee has come under criticism for being a less-than-sincere attempt at its namesake. For example, the panel meets privately and is not subject to government transparency laws.

At the August 6 council meeting, Johnson asked Ashby to take charge during what he called the final stretch of the ad hoc committee, calling ethics reform a “hot topic.” Ironically, Warren had been the committee’s chair since it formed in November.

(Brooke Purves)

DePartment of nePotIsm To some, the city of Sacramento’s Department of Utilities is starting to feel like a family business. And that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

The City Auditor’s Office looked into an allegation that the Utilities Department was engaging in inappropriate hiring practices that created concerns of nepotism. The office substantiated the claim, and determined that there are at least 40— and possibly more—utilities employees who would get along just fine at a family barbecue.

That translates into approximately 8 percent of the staff in a department with 522.4 approved full-time equivalent positions as of last year.

As for what kind of risks are created when relatives work together, City Auditor Jorge Oseguera told SN&R there can be perceptions of unfairness, especially when it comes to promotions or disciplinary measures. “Preferential treatment and conflicts of interest are the two biggies,” he said.

The report recommends the implementation of a citywide nepotism policy, which doesn’t presently exist. (Raheem F. Hosseini)

08.13.15 | SN&R | 11

“THERE IS SO MUCH HEART, HUMOR AND

UNQUENCHABLE GOOD SPIRIT.” –NEW

YORK TIMES

—3—

Chipping in How PBIDs help Sacramento neighborhoods

INCLUDING

BES BE ST REV EVIV IV IVAL VAL OF A MUSI MUSI US CAL CAL

by jeff vonkaenel

In a time when so many business owners are attacking government, complaining about regulation and claiming that businesses are so much more efficient than government, a group of business property owners in the North Watt Avenue area recently voted overwhelmingly to assess themselves an annual tax to form the Watt Avenue Property and Business Improvement District.

With an annual budget of around $450,000, the nonprofit WAPBID will provide enhanced security, area maintenance, marketing and other services for the district.

The WAPBID is one of nearly two dozen PBIDs in the Sacramento area.

There are 1,500 PBIDs in the United States and Canada.

One of the Watt Avenue PBID’s main supporters, Recycling Industries General Manager David Kuhnen, told me, “This has been a blighted area. This area has a history of drug trafficking, prostitution, crime and homelessness. The property owners, the businesses and the county have formed a partnership to identify and fund solutions to the problem.”

Kuhnen was delighted that more than 75 percent of the property owners agreed to a five-year assessment to fund the PBID. After five years, it can be renewed by a vote of the property owners. Half of the money will go to security, 16 percent for maintenance, 11 percent for advocacy and image enhancement and the rest for capital improvements, administration and contingency. The area will clearly benefit.

Kuhnen should be delighted. A PBID can make a real difference. Our Chico paper is a longtime member of the Downtown Chico Business Association, where I once served as a board member.

When SN&R’s office was in Midtown,

je ffv @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

our newspaper joined the Midtown Business Association PBID, and we are now members of the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership PBID. Earlier this year, the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership property owners had to renew their PBID. This is the same process that the WAPBID will go through in five years. Before the vote, Del Paso Boulevard Partnership Executive Director David Plag asked me if I was supporting the renewal.

I asked, “Do you think I am crazy?”

Of course I supported the renewal. And it passed overwhelmingly. We at SN&R really appreciated the additional security, the boulevard maintenance and the marketing.

And the price.

Without the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership, I would have to pay on my own for these same services. Now the businesses in our neighborhood pay only a small fraction of the cost, because everyone is chipping in. Obviously, it is way more efficient to have a single company providing security, marketing or street cleanup and maintenance services for a group of neighboring businesses.

I am surprised that there are not more PBIDs in Sacramento. They are a very effective way for business and government to partner to improve a neighborhood, and these partnerships have proven to be so valuable that businesses are willing to raise their taxes to pay for it.

That’s an incredible endorsement. Ω

I asked, “Do you think I am crazy?”

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Read Sacramento County’s news story about the Watt Avenue PBID at tinyurl.com/WattAvePBID. For more information about PBIDs in the city of Sacramento, go to tinyurl.com/SacCityPBIDs.

Jeff vonKaenel is the president, CEO and majority owner of the News & Review.

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Earlier this summer, Mayor Kevin Johnson sought an injunction from the court. He wanted a judge to stop the city of Sacramento from releasing emails and records pertaining to the National Conference of Black Mayors to SN&R. The mayor named his own city and this paper as defendants. The public’s response: Yikes!

Welcome to business as usual at City Hall 3.0.

Johnson, of course, had no ground to sue this paper.

The editorial staff here at SN&R enjoys a legal right to do newsgathering. It’s our job as journalists, and it’s protected under California and U.S. law. The mayor and his attorneys should know this. Yet K.J. went ahead and sued us, anyway.

It’s crazy.

Originally, there were fewer than 100 emails that K.J. considered shielded because of attorney-client privilege.

But, on the heels of an afternoon in court in early July, that number ballooned to nearly 500. The city said that it was flagging additional emails out of an “abundance of caution.”

It may be of little surprise, then, that the city was a smidge too cautious.

Johnson’s attorneys at Ballard Spahr recently provided SN&R with a list These of all the emails and documents that emails are the mayor now considers private. not private And, after all the legal threats and abundances of caution, they now conversations say only 158 of the 475 records between the mayor should be kept secret. That’s a vastly and his legal smaller number.

And yet we still disagree. counsel.

After SN&R’s review of a list detailing the emails, it’s clear that dozens of “K.J. Inc.” players—aides, volunteers, PR experts, even interns—were privy to these so-called privileged emails.

Nearly everyone on staff—plus more than a dozen workers who are not employed by the city—has seen them.

These emails are not private conversations between the mayor and his legal counsel. They’re not protected. These emails are public records.

And so, SN&R will continue to fight this legal fight.

We’re challenging the mayor’s claim that these remaining 158 emails and documents are private. This paper is also teaming up with Gawker Media, the parent company of Deadspin, which will be intervening in this case as part of the opposition.

This fight isn’t cheap. SN&R isn’t The McClatchy Co. (thankfully), but incurring tens of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees during this legal action isn’t our idea of making it rain. It’s a hit to our editorial budget.

But the fight is crucial: City Hall is host to a severe infection of good government and ethics policy. Reform is needed now. The mayor needs to cease using secret Gmail accounts for city work. He needs to stop doing campaign and private work on city time.

There must be a return to accountability. Hopefully, this legal battle with serve as a blast of sunshine on 915 I Street.Ω

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by S u S a n W I n loW

“S

nick” went the lock as the young offender entered the juvenile detention center after being convicted of a crime on the streets of Sacramento.

Behind the locked door the youth’s life is regimented under watchful eyes.

But what happens after the lock is “unsnicked” and the youth walks free?

“A lot of time they seem so lost,” says Yvette Rodriguez, a program manager with the nonprofit La Familia. “(They don’t) know where to go to get services. If we don’t pave the way and provide (support for) them, they’re just going to return to what they know.”

Preventing recidivism by improving rehabilitation for young offenders is the primary goal of a new partnership between three nonprofits — La Familia, Always Knocking and the East Bay Asian Youth Center — in conjunction with the juvenile probation department. The partnership’s pilot youth detention facility transition program began in June and was made possible by a grant from The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative, a $1 billion plan to improve 14 challenged California communities, including South Sacramento.

Help begins inside the detention facility with weekly interactive workshops co-facilitated by each organization. The workshops focus on

how to meet probation commitments, such as community service work, restitution, drug and alcohol counseling and mandated classes like anger management and parenting, plus where to find the resources to accomplish these mandates.

“If we don’t pave the way and provIde (support for) them, they’re just goIng to return to what they know.”

will be completed and life skills learned in order to live a positive life.

Creating that connection and sense of community so youth, many without family support, know where to go for help is important, Rodriguez says.

“These are our young men and women who are in our community,” she says. “It breaks my heart because we don’t pay attention to our youth until they do something wrong.”

BuIldIng HEalTHy COmmunITIES In 2010, The California Endowment launched a 10-year, $1 billion plan to improve the health of 14 challenged communities across the state. Over the 10 years, residents, community-based organizations and public institutions will work together to address the socioeconomic and environmental challenges contributing to the poor health of their communities.

Representatives from three local nonprofits work with juvenile offenders in the Sacramento County youth detention Facility to connect them to services before they are released.

Photo by laura marie anthony

Yvette Rodriguez, La Familia

“Our workshop is based on how and where to get those services,” says Greg King, founder of Always Knocking.

With services scattered throughout Sacramento, lack of follow through is common with those released on probation, according to both King and David Kakishiba, executive director of the East Bay Asian Youth Center.

The workshops are designed to “intercept” the roadblocks.

“What’s critical for us is to develop, establish and sustain a mutually accountable working relationship … between our staff person and the young person,” Kakishiba says.

The goal for the young person, once released, is to seek hands-on support available through each nonprofit with the hope that probation

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The latest symptom of Sacramento’s inferiority complex: all the talk about being the “next great american city.” No. Just stop. We’re fine. Nevertheless, a puff piece on the arena, which was published on Tuesday by none other than the new York times, reinforced this path-togreatness narrative. Ugh.

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Sacramento men aren’t so gross, according to a gross dating website. seeking arrangement, the site that unites sugar daddies (shudder) and sugar babies (shudder), polled (heh) 56,000 of its male users to determine which American cities were the “most promiscuous.” San Jose ranked first, with 74 percent of surveyed users saying they hit and quit seven or more different people in a year. By comparison, Sacramento ranked 41st. Seeking Arrangement’s founder linked promiscuity with happiness and economic prosperity. All the more reason to build that arena, right?

artist candidates for up to four other public art installations at the new Kings arena. A list released last week revealed 17 finalists, including nine from the Sacramento region.

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sacramento metropolitan arts Commission announced

08.13.15

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17

COCKTAIL ISSUE 2015

the

COCKTAIL issue The secreT To sacramenTo’s highly respecTed scene? amazing drinks, zero preTense and crazy-friendly barTenders.

by Rick kushman

I

t was a hot Saturday afternoon in Midtown, and the best place to be was inside a bar. Watch the world. Stay cool. Have a cold wine or a frosty beer.

That’s what Calveanor and Nancy Claiborne were doing at the old Capital Dime (soon to be Saddle Rock) on L Street. Sort of.

Bartender Elli Fischer handed them pale white cocktails in old-school, flat Champagne-style glasses called coupes. The sides of the glass had condensation beads.

“Try this,” Fischer said. “I’ve been working on it. Help me out. Tell me what you think.”

The Claibornes sipped. They looked at each other, then sipped again. Nancy nodded.

Calveanor looked surprised.

“I’m more of a sweet-drink guy,” he said.

“I felt the tart at first, and was anticipating the bite—but it never came. It was smooth all the

18 | SN&R | 08.13.15

photos by wes davis

way, and something herbal and citrus-y finished it off great.

“I would never think to order this, but I will now.”

That right there is a snapshot of Sacramento’s ballooning, enthusiastic, oddly intelligent and surprisingly deep cocktail scene. It seems like everyone plays along. Young people have old-fashioned interests. Folks have sophisticated home bars. Even beer and wine drinkers are engaged. And, maybe most of all, it’s welcoming to beginners, nondogmatic and toweringly unsnooty—far more than any recent culinary drinking trend, including coffee, beer, juices and probably even bottled water.

The local cocktail scene is also getting big national attention, yet it remains almost under the radar here. That’s partly because it evolved in step with the rest of the region’s culinary awakening, and partly because cocktail folk aren’t chest beaters or selfpromoters—not any more, not the good ones.

And they are surely not “mixologists.” Do not

call them mixologists. They are, simply and stupendously, bartenders.

More on that, but first back to the main point: Sacramento’s cocktail scene has taken off like an Atlas rocket. Or maybe the better metaphor is a Cal Expo fireworks display.

“It’s a full-scale explosion,” said Jayson Wilde, who runs the bar at the new Bottle & Barlow on R Street and managed the highly regarded Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco.

“It’s unrecognizable from what it was just a few years ago,” said Joe Anthony Savala, former general manager at Zocalo and co-founder of Sacramento Cocktail Week. “It’s also got a very Sacramento personality.”

Some of that personality was there at the soon-to-be Saddle Rock bar. Almost any spot in the city with a bar has some version of craft cocktails, with bartenders constantly trying to improve and inventing new drinks (Fischer’s used absinthe, aromatics and other secrets for the moment). The noncocktail regulars talk comfortably about what they’re tasting. And it is sooo friendly.

Jason Wilde and his crew at Bottle & Barlow, the new cocktail spot at the WAL Building on R Street, are snobby-serious about drinks. But not too serious.

Read an interview with Wilde on page 75.

COCKTAIL ISSUE

21

continued on page

08.13.15 | SN&R | 19

S P E C I A LT Y C O C K TA I L S ARTISAN PIZZAS CLASSIC ARCADE

908 K ST “9TH & K” 916.661.6983 FA C E B O O K . C O M / C O I N O P S A C 20

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cOcKTAiL iSSUe 2015 continued from page 19

Service. Service. Service.

Here’s another example, from a recent Friday night at Shady Lady Saloon, ground zero for Sacramento’s cocktail culture: Two relative beginners—OK, me and my wife, Deborah Meltvedt— were at the busy bar. Bartender Anna Schaubach came to help. We put ourselves in her hands. I asked for something savory; Deborah wanted refreshing but definitely not sweet.

Schaubach came back with a Cilantro Smash for me in a lowball glass—parts tequila, yellow Chartreuse, lime juice, ginger syrup, orange bitters, a pinch of salt and a sprig of cilantro. It smelled fresh and herbal, wove through layers of fruit, herbs and umami; and the salt at the end spiked all the flavors just like with food.

She gave Deborah a Horse’s Neck in a tall glass, a ragingly popular drink at Shady Lady that included bourbon, bitters, ginger syrup and a lemon peel. Even before I noticed, Schaubach was back talking to Deborah.

“I can see you’re not loving your drink,” Schaubach said. “Try this one.”

She gave her a new drink, something called a Ward Eight, with bourbon, orange juice, lemon and grenadine. Schaubach chose a bourbon that added a dusty, almost malty undertone with no hint of sweet. This one Deborah was loving.

So, you imagine the perfect bar service— perceptive, attentive, creative and totally approachable, even for novices—and that’s what you find at Shady Lady and many other spots around town.

Welcome to Sacramento.

“That’s our job as bartenders,” Schaubach said.

“We want you to have a good time. You don’t

have to know anything. We love it when we can walk you through the history of a cocktail, or when someone says, ‘Choose something for me.’ But we know lots of people just want their drink.”

That same night, Greg Hayes, a longtime Sacramento public relations guy, and Argelia León, a communications pro, were at the bar ordering drinks from Carl Wenger, the general manager.

Hayes is a gin man and wanted a martini. Wenger offered tastes to choose the gin, but Hayes waved him off. He explained why.

“I have so much confidence in Carl,” Hayes said. “I defer to him on the gin. He’s the craftsman.”

A few minutes later, Hayes and León got their drinks. Hayes sipped his martini. For a moment, he disappeared somewhere, a distant, happy look on his face. “That’s why I trust him,” Hayes said when his consciousness settled back at the bar.

But Wenger and Hayes earlier had talked about another gin. Wenger moved back and forth behind the bar serving drinks, and when he passed the group, Hayes said to him, “I’ll try that one later.”

Maybe a minute passed. Wenger zipped over and handed Hayes a taste, anyway.

“See that,” León said. “Where else do you see that? They asked what I like and don’t like, they even asked my name.”

That moment is another snapshot. That kind of service is what defines the region’s cocktail culture, though locals almost take it for granted.

“People don’t really think about it here, but Sacramento’s reputation is for a fun and very hospitable cocktail scene,” said Brad Peters, the

beverage director of the Paragary Restaurant Group. He’s also the president of the Sacramento chapter of the U.S. Bartenders Guild, which in 2014 was the fastest-growing in the nation.

That rep includes praise from the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunset magazine, Playboy, Chilled magazine, Thrillist and a major story in Imbibe magazine, a bible of America’s drinks culture.

Paragary’s cocktail master Brad Peters says anyone can mix a drink, so don’t use “mixologist.” Ever. He's a bartender. (Pictured is his Vieux Creole, with strawberry rhum agricole, Creme de Cacao, green Chartreuse, lemon, mint and sparkling wine.)

“Peo P le d o n ’t r e al l y th in k abo u t it here, b u t Sacr am e n to ’S r e Pu tatio n iS f o r a f u n an d ve r y h o SPitabl e co cktail Sce n e .”

Brad Peters beverage director, Paragary’s Restaurant Group

Esquire magazine called Shady Lady one of the top 25 bars in America. There’s more. Over and over, besides the general kudos, the recurring theme was, “Holy hospitality, Batman, these people are friendly.”

“It fits who we are,” Peters said. “This is a grown-up, urban city, but we still slow down and pay attention to everything food and drink.

We’re an artistic community, and we’re craftsman oriented. Also, we’re a genuinely friendly place.”

cOcKTAiL iSSUe continued on page

22

08.13.15 | SN&R | 21

COCKTAIL ISSUE 2015 CoNtINued fRom pAge 21

factor comes from the house-made ginger syrup, which Castleberry— who’s been tending bar for just eight months—says is a hassle to make, what with its 8 pounds of ginger! Good thing it lasts a couple of weeks. Now, stop your whining, winner. 1409 R Street; http://shadyladybar.com. (Nick Miller)

meaningful and life-affirming

cocktails

s a c r a m e n t o

a SPiritual Guide to eaSinG tHe Pain oF tHiS quotidian exiStence

T

he SN&R staff is stocked with whiskey-lovers. So, when we decided to dust off the expense account and divvy up who was going to write about what drink for this year’s cocktail guide, it got nasty. No details—but let’s just say red pens were involved. Anyway, peace has been made and we’re ready to present 10 great Sacramento cocktails—driven by 10 different spirits—plus one tasty mocktail for when just don’t feel like hurting your liver. If ever. Cheers!

#1

Pilot program

Winning pour

Strawberry Sky Pilot at GoldField tradinG PoSt

HorSe’S neck at SHady lady Saloon

It’s one of Goldfield’s most popular cocktails, and understandably so. Served in a Champagne coupe with a strawberry fixed to the rim, the Strawberry Sky Pilot ($9) is a sweet, summery refresher that absolutely delivers on its name: strawberries, strawberries, strawberries!

There’s nuance, though, thanks to the BarSol Pisco, a Peruvian brand of brandy that’s crisper, smoother and more floral than usual oak-aged varieties. Shaken up with lemon, mint and hibiscus, the finish is tart and herbal. 1630 J Street;

http://goldfieldtradingpost.com.

(Janelle Bitker)

22 | SN&R | 08.13.15

My bartender, Houston Castleberry, is a goddamn winner. The dude took home top prizes at last month’s Bastille Day Waiters’ Race in Midtown and this month’s Fernet Branca-sponsored barback competition at Goldfield. He’s also tall and young-looking and probably gets a lot of babes. “I guess I’m on a winning streak,” he tells me. OK, great—now quit the boasting and pour me some bourbon. Which he does very well, in form of the popular Horse’s Neck ($9): Four Roses Bourbon, ginger syrup, angostura bitters, soda water and lemon rind. This concoction is for bourbon babies who need a little sweetness. That

coconut, lime, Fidencio Mezcal and green Chartreuse, the Machete! ($12) successfully transports you to paradise.

Richness, sweetness and bitterness play nice here, but the dominant kick is smoke, thanks to that generous pour of mezcal. Instead of egg whites, coconut cream rises to the top of the glass and creates a similarly luxurious mouthfeel. And instead of an umbrella, this drink is garnished with a simple sprig of mint—because this ain’t a resort town in Mexico. 1120 R Street; www.bottleandbarlow.com. (J.B.)

Holidays year-round Harvey Milk PuncH at tHe red rabbit Simultaneously craving dessert and a nightcap? Red Rabbit’s riff on milk punch ($9)—the egg nog-like, holiday favorite from the South—is dangerously delicious year-round. It’s sweet—but not cloyingly so—and creamy, with freshly grated nutmeg on top. Galliano liqueur provides a hint of vanilla; aged rum mellows things down. But the Korbel Brandy—yes, Korbel like the champagne—leads this booze-trifecta with rich, oaky, butterscotch flavors. 2718 J Street; http://theredrabbit.net. (J.B.)

A touch of rum tHe Hold FaSt at Hook & ladder ManuFacturinG coMPany The Hold Fast ($9) brings together Mount Gay Rum, ginger beer, angostura bitters and a strawberry shrub for a more full-bodied summer cocktail.

The sweetness is complex, the ginger bites and the touch of rum smooths the edges while filling out the body. Like an Italian soda, the Hold Fast is sweet, dense and refreshing in a way that lands definitively on the palate. 1630 S Street; http://hookandladder916.com. (A.S.)

Fruit garnish for life

www.grangesacramento.com.

(Anthony Siino)

MacHete! at bottle & barlow Earthier than tequila, mezcal makes for a bold tropical cocktail choice. With

Flavor flav inFuSed MarGaritaS at centro cocina Mexicana

Centro’s unique approach to tequila is offering infused variants of white for straight shooting or mixing into margaritas ($7). You can choose from a wide stock of fruit for the infusions, such as pineapple, kiwi and raspberry. If you’re looking for something a bit more intense, you can also choose an infusion of chilies to add a bit of heat to your marg.

Whatever your taste, get there a little earlier in the night for the first crack at the most popular flavors. 2730 J Street; www.paragarys.com. (A.S.)

Sophisticated sipper tHe alliance at block butcHer bar

Made with Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey and angostura bitters, the Alliance ($12) is a modern take on the Manhattan, only with a pair of fancy European liqueurs—the Italian Averna Amaro and the French yellow Chartreuse—in place of the traditional vermouth. Not surprisingly, this cocktail is decidedly more syrupy than the one your grandmother used to order at the bar. It also boasts a heady herbal profile not found in the classic Rat Pack-era drink. Downside to all this newfangled-ness: no maraschino cherry. Upside: Its grown-up complexity makes for one lovely and sophisticated sipper of a nightcap. 1050 20th

Street; www.blockbutcherbar.com.

Sacramento isn’t Cancun … .. yet

On paper, Pour House’s Whiskey Fig ($10) reads like a twist on that favorite childhood cookie: Fig jelly, aromatic bitters, simple syrup and lemon with scotch. To the eye and taste buds, however, it makes for a different story.

Blended, the drink is pink and frothy but, thankfully, not at all froufrou.

Rather, it exhibits a lovely balance of sweet notes and a citrus-y tartness.

Not like that cookie at all, actually.

1910 Q Street; http://pourhouse sacramento.com.

(R.L.)

SHrub at GranGe reStaurant & bar Grange’s latest option for a vinegar-infused cocktail, simply called Shrub ($14), is lighter and more crisp than other shrubs around town. A blend of 209 Gin, basil, lemon, Mionetto Prosecco, pink peppercorns, strawberries and champagne vinegar, the taste is much more delicate on the taste buds than the ingredients might suggest. It goes down like the best pink lemonade that you’ve ever had. Plus, who can say no to a cocktail with artfully arranged bits of fruit on top? 926 J Street;

Not froufrou wHiSkey FiG at Pour HouSe

(Rachel Leibrock)

Classy drunk elderFlower GiMlet at ella dininG rooM & bar I have strong, painful associations with vodka. You understand. Yet Ella’s Elderflower Gimlet ($12)—a staple on its ever-changing cocktail list—makes me feel classy as hell. And sure, it’s a simple, classic combination of vodka, elderflower and lime. Sometimes, simple is just what you want. Especially if simple translates to an impeccable balance of sweet and sour, with a lingering finish that’s fresh and floral. 1131 K Street; www.elladiningroomandbar.com.(J.B.)

py p a h r o f s join u nd -a-halmf a 0p r 0 : u 6 o 0 h 4:3 i•

r mon-f

No booze, no problem Elixir at lucca rEstaurant and Bar While most bars will happily find you something to drink if you’re the evening’s designated driver, few actually carry full-scale mocktail menus.

Ella Dining Room & Bar, Iron Horse Tavern and Cafeteria 15L are in the latter camp. But not all mocktails are created equal; often they’re too sweet, or just plain boring. Just because you’re not imbibing doesn’t mean you want a straight-up fruit soda.

Some of the most enticing, buzz-free concoctions are found at Lucca. Take the Elixir ($4.50), which arrives with bright pink pomegranate juice sunken to the bottom of bubbly ginger beer.

It’s sweet and tart with a gentle whisper of green tea. 1615 J Street; www.luccarestaurant.com. (J.B.)

The Red Rabbit’s Matt Nurge makes his popular Krakow Salt Mine: Zubrowka Vodka, apple cider, lemon, ginger beer, simple syrup and Kosher salt.

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COCKTAIL ISSUE continued on page

25

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08.13.15 | SN&R | 23

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SN&R | 08.13.15

CoCKTAil issUe 2015 continued from page 23

The hisTory: slow, Then boom!

America’s modern cocktail culture—after Prohibition, the Depression and a World War— was relatively simple for decades.

The 1950s and ’60s were pretty much what Mad Men showed, minus the volume. Bourbon and martinis ruled the bars, and flair most often translated to olives, lemon or a maraschino cherry.

Come the ’70s and ’80s, American drinkers developed a collective sweet tooth. It was an era of daiquiris, Long Island iced teas, piña coladas and bartenders who wanted to be Tom Cruise from Cocktail. The ’90s and into the next century, the drink style was lemon drops, flavored vodka drinks and the Cosmo. Plus, there was the mighty margarita. That’s the launch pad for Sacramento.

By the early 2000s, America’s foodie fascination had begun (pushed as much by the Food Network as any other force, as ignoble as that may be), and a few restaurants competed for curious eaters with more than just good wine lists. They also offered creative cocktails with fresh ingredients. In 2000, in Sacramento, there was precisely one doing that: Centro Cocina Mexicana.

Chris Tucker, a Sacramentan who also worked in the Bay Area, took over as bar manager for what was one of Sacramento’s trendiest restaurants.

“Randy [Paragary] and Kurt [Spataro] had already established a bar program when I got there,” said Tucker, who now runs the bar at Hook & Ladder Manufacturing Co. “They’d opened with great fanfare [in 1996], but some attention had dropped off. So they embraced fresh juices and top tequilas and, later, infusions

“We Were learni ng to g ether. it Was li ke g rad scho o l. ” Chris Tucker manager, Hook & Ladder Manufacturing Co., on the city’s unique bartender community

(fruit, or savory foods like bacon, macerated in spirits). That was a huge commitment, and we were the only ones doing it.”

The drinks, especially the margaritas, were hugely popular.

Restaurant and bar insiders noticed. Next came Zocalo in 2004. When Joe Anthony Savala took over that bar, he and his star bartender, Eric Castro, added another layer to the complexity of their drinks.

“It started with the Mexican restaurants in town,” said Peters,

who worked for Tucker for a time. “Was it because they were Mexican restaurants, or was it Chris and Joe Anthony? Either way, it worked.”

Then came Ella Dining Room & Bar in 2006, with people like bar manager Chris Dooley and bartender Rene Dominguez.

That became another spot where bartenders could learn from each other and work on their craft.

“A few of use were driving down to San Francisco on weekends to get educated,” Savala said.

“The group of people who were learning was starting to grow here, but it was slow at first.”

By then, the term “mixologist” had worked into the culture, and some bars around the country were stepping up the quality and variety of spirits and ingredients. But Sacramento had only a few.

One reason was that Sacramento had no profit motive for craft cocktails. Alcohol sales were already profit centers for restaurants, and bars in the region were doing fine. “It was the classic, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” Tucker said. “Owners didn’t want to invest in something that would just sit there. That’s a lot of money on the shelf.”

But there were a few. L Wine Lounge & Urban Kitchen opened in 2007, with Tucker behind the

Chris Tucker, now at Hook & Ladder, was a craft-cocktail pioneer at Centro. “There was a huge commitment, and we were the only ones doing it,” he said of the scene circa 2000. (Pictured is the Lazy Summer peach-and-bourbon cocktail at Hook.)

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Anna Schaubach at Shady Lady reminds that it’s all about good customer service. “That’s our job as bartenders. We want you to have a good time.” (Pictured is the lavender and grapefruit vodka Spring Fling.)

bar. Lounge on 20 opened in 2008 with a cocktail focus led by Russell Eastman.

That’s when Savala and Castro hit on creating Midtown Cocktail Week. It was less a marketing device than a chance to bring in great bartenders, have them run classes for Sacramento folk and stage competitions to push everyone and spread the culture.

“It made lots of people aware of what we could do,” Tucker said. “And it got a lot of our customers interested.”

Then came two parallel forces that turned this slow cocktail evolution into that explosion. The broad one was Sacramento’s food sensibilities. In the past decade, diners here have really, really gotten into food, and the farm-tofork mentality was surging before it became an official title.

If this region runs behind the San Franciscos and New Yorks in hypermodern cooking techniques, it’s as focused on quality products—food and drink—as anywhere in America, something even Alice Waters has said a number of times.

“Cocktails grew on the coattails of slow food and the foodie interests,” Tucker said.

So foodies caused the business need for restaurants to invest in quality spirits and cocktails.

Customers responded to that, then demanded it. At first, quality cocktails, just like wine and, more recently, craft beer, were a way to stand out. Then, as more and more restaurants performed behind the bar, others didn’t want to get left behind.

That’s the slower, environmental push on the cocktail scene.

The other force was more of a big bang, and it came from one spot on R Street: Shady Lady.

“We planned it for about two years,” said Garret Van Vleck, who owns Shady Lady with Jason Boggs and Alex Origoni.

“We traveled up and down the West Coast. We wanted to see emerging trends, what worked, what wasn’t cool. We did lots of research looking at old cocktail books.”

In 2009, pure bars in Sacramento tended toward neighborhood-y, dive-y or clubs.

Van Vleck and his partners were planning to open a very large bar that was, well, a bar.

“Plenty of people told us we were stupid,” he said. “We couldn’t necessarily argue with them.”

They opened in March 2009.

“I thought we’d be this quiet cocktail place,” Van Vleck said.

“The first night we opened, there was a line around the corner.”

Maybe the people who were most excited were other bartenders.

“It gave me a chance to work with Ryan Seng [now at Grange], Matt Nurge [now a partner in Red Rabbit], all kinds of great, creative people,” Tucker said.

“We were learning together. It was like grad school.”

Bartenders came in hours before their shifts or on days off to concoct new cocktails and experiment on each other.

“I’d get there midafternoon, and we would have a crowd behind the bar,” Van Vleck said.

Many of those bartenders are now spread throughout the grid and the region. And they’ve spread that collegial, incubator mentality of bartenders teaching bartenders.

“The cocktail scene is really just helpful,” said Nikki Muth, a Zocalo veteran now tending bar at Tank House. “It’s not conceited, it’s not contentious, it’s not boisterous. Everyone in it is friends.”

“We came up in the same places,” Van Vleck said. “We all want each other to do well. It really is a community.”

That community contributes to the calling card of Sacramento’s cocktail culture: service.

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ThE SECrET’S bEhInd ThE bAr “We’d get two drinks orders at Bourbon & Branch,” said Wilde.

“One would be gin, one would be vodka, and some guys would make them both gin.”

The worst of them just refused to make some drinks, like, say, Long Island iced teas.

“How dumb is that?” Tucker said.

“Someone wants to buy a $10 drink from you, shut up and serve them.”

When Wilde began managing Bourbon & Branch three years ago, he got a figurative face slap, as did lots of bartenders around then. They heard the “P” word.

“People said to me, ‘Oh, you work at the pretentious bar,’” Wilde said. “I said, ‘They just care about what they do.’ But people were right. I talked to staff and said, ‘We’re bartenders, the last thing we ever want is someone to say we’re pretentious.’”

“That mixologists, startender thing was growing pains,” said Red Rabbit’s Matt Nurge. “People forgot their roots. But it didn’t last, because that’s not what good bartenders are.

“A really great thing has been that, along with the growth of craft cocktails, there has been the rebirth of service and the pride in being a bartender. It’s not our customers’ job to know everything, or anything, about cocktails. That’s my job.”

COCKTAIL ISSUE

If the Food Network helped kickstart America’s culinary fascination, food media’s ever-escalating quest for flash has also done some psychic damage to the culture. It gave us celebrity chefs, ultra-minutia-oriented food judges, and, maybe most horribly, its pumped-up notion of “mixologists.”

The name goes back to the 1800s, but by the turn of this century, it mixed equal parts Hollywood wannabe, self-important circus act and wine-snob-type elitist. That was then. Now, all bartenders worth their bitters cringe at the word.

“In the bar world,” said Peters, “that’s below bartender. Anyone can mix drinks. Where Sacramento excels is we have a lot of good bartenders.”

“Mixologist sounds so puffy and so easy,” Tucker said. “They’re not tending bar, not making a guy feel comfortable after a rough day, not putting someone in a cab at the end of the night, not helping people have a good time.”

The mixologist prototype went through a fairly fast evolution, from club-scene bombast at the start of the cocktail rebirth to a too-hip-forhipsters mode more recently. Part of that act was to roll their eyes at some drink orders, especially drinks made with vodka. Vodka was considered uncool because it has less taste than other spirits and because it was popular.

Joe Anthony Zavala, pictured at Zocalo, is one of Sacramento Cocktail Week’s founders.

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COCKTAIL ISSUE 2015 continued from page 29

COCKTAILS, EvErywhErE! When Bottle & Barlow opened last month, the crowd of enthusiasts at one of the celebrations was surprisingly varied. There was, for instance, Alina Cervantes. Her husband is Simon de Vere White, an owner of de Vere’s Irish Pub. “I’m married to an Irishman with a pub. For years, I’d never seen most of these drinks,” Cervantes said. “The first time I saw someone light a flame to get smoke into a drink, I thought, ‘Is it some kind of ritual?’ But now I love it all.”

Amber Stott was there. She’s the founder of the Food Literacy Center.

She had an Old Fashioned in her hand.

“One of my favorites,” she said. “It’s fun that we’re drinking my grandma’s drink. It’s a little nostalgic, and it’s a great cocktail. It’s not just me, I talk to so many people who like the connections of their drinks just like with food.”

And Stott, one of the region’s leading food educators, admits to a long-held jones for good spirits. “When we got married,” she said, “one of first things we did was stock the bar.”

Simply enough, the cocktail culture is widespread and woven deep, though it may be the quietest piece of Sacramento culinary zeitgeist, maybe because many people, like Stott, dived in at home.

“Customers are way more savvy than they used to be,” said Muth at Tank House. “Sometimes they teach me things. And people want to know where everything came from, what’s the story on all the spirits.”

That’s why craft cocktails are also a key piece of so many restaurants’ menus. It’s not just Ella. It’s Grange and Lucca and Press Bistro and Hock Farm and Goldfield and everywhere.

Dan Mitchell, one of the region’s most respected bartenders, has been a stalwart for years at the small bar at Mulvaney’s B&L, a place better known for wine.

The list goes on.

And it’s not just the grid. In spots like Berkley Bar at Pavilions, bartender Tim Rogers is as enthusiastic about the craft of drinks, and is as eager to talk about spirits and cocktail history as any bartender in town.

At Hilltop Tavern in East Sacramento, the dictionary definition of

a neighborhood bar, there’s a craft-beer focus, but still people want their cocktails to have top-grade spirits.

“This is more a shot-and-a-beer place,” said Amy Anderson, there for happy hour on a recent Thursday. “But they have a great whiskey selection and it better be a shot of something good.”

The shot-and-beer order is still big everywhere, as are margaritas and other nationally popular drinks like Negronis, Manhattans, Moscow Mules and, sorry mixologists, vodka drinks and Long Island iced teas. Sacramento’s particular tastes, bartenders said, include martinis from top-grade gin, Tiki drinks—“It’s instant vacation,” said Tucker, “and it fits our weather.”—and the Old Fashioned, a canon of a drink, as Peters called it.

Two particularly high-profile drinks were born here. One is the legendary White Linen featuring elderflower liquor and gin. It was invented by Dominguez at Ella and is now found nationwide. The other is the Krakow Salt Mine, which combines bison grass vodka, apple cider and ginger beer. Red Rabbit’s Nurge invented that one.

“We get people in who tell me, ‘We had this great drink in Roseville.

Do you know how to make a Krakow Salt Mine?’” Nurge said.

At Red Rabbit on a recent Thursday night, bartender Rob Mason kept getting variations on that question, with requests for changes and tweaks or something entirely new. Regulars Jake Massa and Coco Currie said “dealer’s choice” at one point and got one of Mason’s inventions, a gin-based cocktail he called Tickle Your Fancy. Clyde Moore, a longtime friend of Mason’s, wanted something like a Pimm’s Cup, but different.

“Make me something unique,” he told Mason.

When Mason delivered the drink, Moore sipped slowly and sat still for a moment.

“Pretty much perfect,” Moore said.

“Just let me know,” Mason said, “if you decide that doesn’t work for you.”

And there you have one last snapshot of Sacramento’s cocktail scene: Everyone talks about the drinks, but it’s really about the bartending.

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PAID ADVERTISMENT BRITISH SINGERSONGWRITER JAMES BAY IS STORMING AMERICA WITH FESTIVAL APPEARANCES AND HITS LIKE “HOLD BACK THE RIVER.”

Bay Watch UK singer-songwriter has his sights on America

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“If you don’t have a good song, no matter how much you dress it up with synths and hi-hats, people are not going to come back.”

JAMES BAY

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t wasn’t long ago that James Bay was playing open mics in Brighton, England, where the 24-year-old songwriter was studying. Two years later Bay has a successful debut fulllength “Chaos and the Calm,” and just played to massive North American audiences at Lollapalooza and Canada’s Osheaga Festival.

Bay is still somewhat unknown here in the States, but judging by the response he received during those hot afternoon timeslots, he feels things could change.

“It was a great weekend of festivals,” Bay says about playing to larger crowds. “It excites me. I’m hungry for it. It gets my juices flowing.”

Music got Bay’s juices flowing more than a decade ago, after the young man heard a song from another British guitarist named Eric Clapton. It was Derek and the Dominoes’ hit “Layla” that captured Bay’s imagination, and essentially set his path.

“It was a huge influence initially,” he says. “It blew my 11-year-old mind away.”

by Mark Lore

Bay played guitar along to Stones records, before taking his guitar to open mics to hone his playing and performance chops. He released his first EP, “The Dark of the Morning,” in 2013, and followed up with three more in just over a year. “Chaos and the Calm” garnered him a couple of Top 10 singles in the UK with “Let It Go” and “Hold Back the River,” which hit No. 8 in the U.S. on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart.

While Bay’s music has reached more ears in a relatively short time, he still believes a good song should be able to translate even when stripped down to an acoustic guitar, like his days playing the Brighton open mics.

“One thing at the core — and it’s sort of my ethos — if you don’t have a good song, no matter how much you dress it up with synths and hi-hats, people are not going to come back. They’re not going to sing along,” he says.

PAID ADVERTISMENT

Rock Reform New Politics creates music with no rules

by Mike Blount

W

hen a band has been together for a few years, Trees. Boyd says he’s looking forward to playing it’s natural to want to evolve the sound. It some of the new tracks at the festival. Though it becomes a delicate balancing act between changes constantly, Boyd says his favorite new track keeping it interesting to attract new listeners and not right now is “50 Feet Tall.” alienating current fans by changing too much, “It was inspired by a classic movie poster too quickly. Lucky for New Politics, the I saw in a store in L.A.,” Boyd says. members never had any rules for “It was for ‘Attack of the 50 Foot making music to begin with.

Woman,’ and I just thought it Lead singer and guitarist was a great concept — how David Boyd says the band incredibly empowering for a has always been open woman. I came up with the to experimenting in the first line and we made the studio. You can hear that song around it.” experimentation on the New Politics has played band’s breakout hit “West in Sacramento once before, DAVID BOYD End Kids.” but Boyd says he’s looking Lead vocalist and guitar “Our music is very diverse,” forward to coming back and Boyd says. “Sometimes, we winning over some new fans in a capture a raw and live sound on festival environment. tape. On another song, we might want “I’m excited to play in Sacramento,” [an electronic drum machine]. Our music kind of Boyd says. “It’s not a market we’ve had a lot of reflects the possibilities of new technology. We’re opportunity to play in. I just hope that the people not afraid to try new things. We don’t have rules.” of Sacramento give us a chance. It’s going to be Fans can expect more experimentation on the fun. We have a party and just let go. There will band’s new album “Vikings,” which comes out be guitars thrown in the air and breakdancing. It’s Friday, the day before the band performs at City of going to be a good time.”

“We’re not afraid to try new things. We don’t have rules.”

New Politics will perf orm at City of Tre es on August 15, 2015.

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FOR THE WEEk OF AUgUST 13

Chris Hardwick: The Funcomfortable Tour Friday, august 14 That comedian Chris Hardwick has time to go on tour at all is hard to believe. Four nights a week you can catch him on the late-night show @Midnight, he follows AMC’s The Walking COMEDY Dead with The Talking Dead during the season and then he produces The Nerdist podcast, which sees 5 million downloads a month. His coming to Sacramento is clearly some nerdy feat of bending the space-time continuum, but that’s Chris Hardwick for you. $37.50, 7 p.m. at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street; http://nerdist.com.

—deena drewis

Time Travelers Bazaar saturday, august 15 Looking for a chance to nerd out with tons of other like-minded science and culture geeks? As luck would have it, this weekend’s shindig delivers on multiple fronts. Whether you love Dr. Who, steampunk, science fiction or even CULTURE fantasy, there’s something for everyone at this free event. Bring money to buy books from the authors themselves—including M. Todd Gallowglas, Allie Dra Caena and Candy Tutt—and peruse the many unique vendors as well. Free, noon at Great Escape Games, 1250 Howe Avenue; www.greatescapegames.com.

—eddie Jorgensen

Ice Cream Safari saturday, august 15 If you’re seeking a bacchanalian outing for the entire family, check out the Sacramento Zoo’s 31st annual Ice Cream Safari. You’ll be able to gorge on all the ice cream cones, sundaes and floats you can handle— plus endless Coca-Cola drinks to wash down FOOD all that frozen dairy. Proceeds benefit general maintenance and animal care at the Sacramento Zoo. $15-$20, 4 p.m. at the Sacramento Zoo, 3930 West Land Park Drive; www.saczoo.org.

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ugust never gets the love it deserves. Sure, the heat is borderline unbearable, your armpits are at peak sweatiness and you see way more pasty male feet than is desirable, but if you think about it, the timing of August is perfect: Our chihuahua-like eagerness about the arrival of summer has worn off, and the encroaching dread that summer is over hasn’t yet settled in. It’s a month made for relaxing and enjoying life, if sweatily.

It’s also rife with occasions to drink beer in Sacramento—even more than usual, that is. First up, on Thursday, August 13, the

Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op at 1900 Alhambra Boulevard is hosting “Bites and Brews.” Track 7 Brewing Co. is teaming up with chef Dionisio Esperas for an evening of beer tasting and nibbling on crispy salmonskin sushi, pizza with burrata and heirloom tomatoes, and chorizo-andpotato empanadas. Tickets are $55.

On Friday, August 14, the Sacramento Beer Train (www.sacramentoriver train.com) pulls out of the station at 400 North Harbor Boulevard in West Sacramento for a three-hour trip, during which riders will sample eight different beers. Tickets range from $25 for a designated driver (so, no brews

for you) to $65 for VIPs, which includes a meal and two bonus tastings.

Just over the causeway, the third annual Davis Bike and Brew Fest takes place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 15, at Central Park, 401 C Street in Davis. Tickets range from $10 to $45 and attendees will have access to unlimited samplings from over 60 breweries, plus food trucks and live music from the Stone Foxes. It’s a celebration of bikes too, because it’s Davis. Be safe out there, and be sure to stay hydrated; August in Sacramento is no joke.

—DeenA Drewis

—Jaime Carrillo

Supreme Pro Wrestling sunday, august 16 Sacramento’s only source for top-level grappling action returns this month with a five-way elimination brawl for the heavyweight belt. The indomitable current champ, “God of SPORTS War” JR Kratos, will have to fend off foes like the preening “Golden Boy” Dylan Drake to retain the title. A taste from last month: Michael Hayashi moonsaulted off the top rope, slamming an opponent through a table onto the linoleum floor outside the ring—and the crowd launched into Pentecostal hysterics. $5-$10, 4:30 p.m. at SPW Arena, 6200 McMahon Drive; www.supremeprowrestling.yolasite.com.

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Newsworthy snack lentil chips, the dAily crAVe The Daily Crave’s bags make me laugh, what with their “Breaking News” in bold and Sacramento Bee-esque formatting. Regardless of quirky design, though, the Daily Crave’s new lentil chips are damn tasty. They’re light, crunchy and, unlike so many “healthy” chips, actually chip-like. And with 3-4 grams of protein per 1-ounce serving, I can’t believe a handful can kinda count as a meal. Find the Folsom-based company’s 5-ounce bags in area supermarkets—Nugget Market, Save Mart, Whole Foods—for $3.99. All four flavors satisfy, but the Spicy Sriracha wins. www.thedailycrave.com.

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Drink up

by Janelle Bitker

Watering holes: With all this Sacramento Cocktail Week coverage, we do not need to tell you again to get your drink on. But if you’re not so interested in Midtown bars and crowded events, there are a couple of other new options for you.

Twelve Rounds Brewing Co. is now open at 866 57th Street in East Sacramento. The long-awaited spot is currently just serving two beers— a pale ale and a hefeweizen—but plans to build up to five or six before a grand opening celebration later this month. Eventually, there will be 12 beers on tap, as well as a full-fledged kitchen run by John Bays of the Red Rabbit. But again, for now it’s just those two beers.

Further north, the Cinders is also now open at 5340 Auburn Boulevard.

Rok will be a tiki-themed, tropical cocktail-focused destination.

jan el l e b @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

This is the bar-in-former-strip-club in part opened by prominent Oakland restaurateur Tom Schnetz. Schnetz’s Oakland bar team trained the Cinders’ bartenders, so expect simple cocktails made with precision, along with an outdoorsy decor, fireplaces, pool tables and darts.

And by the end of the year, we should have another brewery and another bar to try. That brewery is Big Sexy Brewing Co., which was supposed to open in Auburn last year. Clearly that didn’t happen.

Now, according to Sactown Magazine, the brewery will open in a south Sacramento warehouse at 5861 88th Street. Find the new bar Rum Rok, meanwhile, at 15th and H streets. From the same owner as Pour House and Republic, Rum

Menu overhaul: We’ve been waiting for a big menu change from Block Butcher Bar ever since chef Allyson Harvie settled into her role as culinary director over Block, Lowbrau and, eventually, the Barn in West Sacramento. It’s finally here and it is quite different. The organization is much more intuitive and clear-cut, with separate sections for snacks, salads, sandwiches and fixed boards.

No more jargony terms like “planks” and “presses.” I do appreciate the preselected meat and cheese boards by region (Spain, Italy, France, local), but also that Block hasn’t taken away the option to build your own. Sadly, the nostalgic almond butter and bacon jam sandwich is gone. New sandwiches sound much more, well, normal: meatball sub with peppers; pastrami with pickled beets; tuna salad with egg. You get the idea. Many meats are still smoked and cured in-house, though, and the photos still do look awfully delicious. Ω

Sacramento gained yet another organic, raw, cold-pressed, etc. juice option last month.

WholeHearted Juice Co. opened its first storefront at the MARRS building.

OK, it’s not so much a storefront as a permanent stand, with an aesthetically pleasing mini-lounge, in front of Asha Yoga. Try the Strawberry Fields 4EVER ($11 including $1 deposit for the 16-ounce bottle), which delights with almonds, strawberries, cacao butter, dates, vanilla, ocean minerals and sea salt. It’s slightly sweet, salty and nutty with a quiet reminder of chocolate-covered strawberries. Sounds like dessert, but I’m calling it lunch.

1050 20th Street, Suite 110; www.wholeheartedjuice.com.

—JAnelle bitker

Gift from above Figs Ah, figs. Is there a more sensual fruit? It’s clear we live in a Mediterranean climate when you see trees dripping with figs. They’re sublime halved and wrapped in prosciutto, then briefly grilled. Blue cheese loves them, too.

Actually an inverted flower containing tiny fruits within, the fig has a long history of lore surrounding it.

From Africa to Asia, the fig tree is revered as the Tree of Life and the Bodhi tree that inspired Buddha. The Greeks and Romans considered it a gift from the gods, and Egyptian kings required figs in their tombs. Often relegated to a cookie filling in the U.S., figs deserve a renaissance. Join deities and royals worldwide, and sup on a fig.

—Ann MArtin rolke

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In case you haven’t noticed, a huge metal skeleton has descended on downtown in the form of the growing arena. With construction and road closures, it’s become a deterrent to visitors in the area. Some nearby businesses are soldiering on, though, just waiting for the future payout of descending hordes.

Foundation Restaurant & Bar is one such place.

It occupies the former 4th Street Grille space, across the street from Macy’s. Despite all the construction mess, however, there are plenty of nearby hungry office workers seeking lunch and after-work libations.

Foundation opened almost two years ago, with the former 4th Street general manager as an owner and the same chef, Jeramie Smith, in the kitchen.

The pair bills its fare as “Simple Classic American Food & Drinks,” and that’s pretty much what you get.

While there are some real standouts, the menu listings aren’t there to challenge diners.

Instead, they have what you’d expect to find at any after-work bar.

Isn’t that what most people want anyway? They want to know there’s a burger and some fried stuff, maybe a pizza and a few salads.

To be fair, Foundation does have a fresh sustainable fish offering each day and a gorgeous old wood bar with an extensive drink list. There are also three large-screen TVs. That’s where Kings fans can get a fix till the arena opens.

At lunch, we ordered grilled Castroville artichokes. Halved and crusted with Romano cheese and garlic; the chokes were lovely but a bit overcooked.

It was hard to get a lot of edible food out of them.

The fritto misto consisted of fried calamari, fennel and sweet onions, with a side of spicy aioli. While they were just a wee bit undercooked, the calamari tasted fine. The veggies fared better, since they have more inherent flavor. Since then, the chef has also added shishito peppers to amp up the dish.

A chardonnay-poached salmon niçoise salad survived a recent menu update. It’s a generous toss of lightly dressed mixed greens with chunks of potato, hard-boiled egg, green beans, capers and some lovely cherry tomatoes. Mixed throughout are shreds of salmon that seemed a bit mushy. They’d likely be much better grilled and left medium-rare.

At dinner, the atmosphere is louder, with liquor-loosened shouts bouncing off the room’s hard surfaces. We joined the party and sampled the Foundation Sazerac. Made with Galliano instead of absinthe, it was more floral than the classic, but chock full of whiskey.

One of the real winners is Foundation’s Big Ol’ BBQ burger. There are four burgers on the menu, but the waitress assured us this was a good one. She was right: Topped with sharp cheddar, caramelized onions, two big strips of bacon and house-made barbecue sauce, it was a winner. The beef flavor came through well and the bun held up despite the oceans of sauce and juice that poured forth. Stock up on napkins for this one.

The pork tenderloin didn’t do as well. It was overcooked and dry, but served atop a perfectly good apple risotto with a surprisingly nice goat cheese crisp.

The pappardelle was better, prepared that night simply and generously with olive oil and shaved Romano.

Another item not to miss is the freshly fried doughnut hole dessert. You get a bowl of cinnamon-sugar-dusted bites with sides of chocolate and powdered sugar sauces. I’ve rarely had better.

Skip the crisps, though. The apple version we tried was a bit gluey and lacked any hint of crisp.

Foundation is perfectly fine, if a bit uneven in execution. It’s a good option for lunches and drinks and, come 2016, or whenever the arena opens, it should be packed to the rafters. Ω

The Big Ol’ BBQ burger’s bun held up despite the oceans of sauce. Stock up on napkins for this one.

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Wings and things Whether you’re an adventurous eater or prefer classic pub fare, there’s a fabulous event to go to this weekend. Let’s start with the familiar: the second annual Sactown Wings festival goes down Saturday, August 15, at Cesar Chavez Plaza. There will be—and yes, you’re reading this correctly—more than 40,000 chicken wings up for gorging on, prepared by Adamo’s, the Sacramento Natural Foods Coop, Broderick Roadhouse and others. A $10 ticket gets you entrance to the festival.

Now, if you crave the likes of organs, feet, tongues, ears and other typically discarded parts of animals, note the third edition of Have An Offal Day on Sunday, August 16, at Mulvaney’s Next Door. A dozen of Sacramento’s top-tier culinary talent—including Patrick Mulvaney, Brian Mizner and Brenda Ruiz of Biba—will prepare offal in interesting ways, and you will probably love it. Tickets cost $68. Visit www.sactownwings.com for tickets to the former and search Eventbrite for tickets to the latter.

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ReviewS

Bad kids

By Patti RobeRts

C A l i f o R n i A S tA g e P R e S e n t S

Angel in the night

Directed by local favorite Michael RJ Campbell | Playwright Joanna Kraus

Aug 2 1 Sept 13

“eat it up.”

Shockheaded Peter Ticket prices are $20.00 for general admission; $15.00 for military, students, SARTA members and seniors; and $12.00 for groups of six or more. Tickets can be purchased at calstage.org or by calling 916-451-5822.

California Stage in the R25 Arts Complex 25th & R St, Midtown • Easy free parking available • 916-451-5822

5

Shockheaded Peter; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday; $18. Green Valley Theatre Company at the Grange Performing Arts Center, 3823 V Street; (916) 736-2664; www.greenvalleytheatre.com.

Through August 30.

4 Mary Poppins The odd musical Shockheaded Peter delivers a grim fairy tale in the most dark, delightful way. This creepy, colorful and marvelously creative show is a musical adaptation of an 1845 German children’s book “Der Struwwelpeter” (“Slovenly Peter”) by Heinrich Hoffmann, who wrote cautionary bedtime tales where misbehaving children meet gruesome comeuppances.

While Shockheaded Peter debuted back in 1998, this musical isn’t produced very often because it’s hard to get the rights, according to Green Valley Theatre Company’s director, Christopher Cook. But thankfully Green Valley pursued and won.

And the win also goes to the audience, who gets to witness this fanciful, imaginative and wonderfully wicked show—clearly one of the most memorable and artistic productions to hit the area in a long time.

Let’s make it clear from the start: This is not a production geared toward children, though it is aimed at the inner child who is titillated by dark tales filled with madness and monsters. It’s a descent into a colorful Tim Burton-esque nightmare, and Green Valley hits every note with strong performances and a marvelous Victorian-era inspired production, complete with playful and artistic puppets, beautifully rendered dioramas, and creative gothic costumes, makeup, sets and lighting, all accompanied by a live four-member band.

This is a short, intense show—a little over one hour without an intermission. But during that hour, you are sucked into the morality stories of misbehaving children—a thumb sucker, a picky eater, a heartless bunny hunter, bullies, all of whom meet morbid ends.

The talented 11-member cast, who cleverly capture the overdramatization found in Victorian theater, is

42 | SN&R | 08.13.15

captained by the memorable and impressive Victoria Timoteo as the Emcee who playfully and sinisterly leads the audience through this world of wicked delights. Ω

Even fussy Mary Poppins herself would have to admit that the Woodland Opera House’s production of her namesake musical was spit-spot, from the massive moveable sets to the opulent costumes.

Jori Gonzales is a delightful Mary Poppins, the enigmatic nanny who arrives just in the nick of time to help the Banks family. She has a warm relationship with the children, takes no prisoners in the discipline department, yet kicks up a heel or two with chimney sweep Bert (F. James Raasch).

Raasch is new to Woodland and a great addition to the company. He has a powerful voice and dances up a storm, particularly in the show-stopping “Step in Time” on the rooftops of London with the other chimney sweeps.

Real life brother and sister Marley and D.J. Michel play the Banks children and are on stage almost all the time. Parents George and Winifred are played by real life husband and wife Jeremy and Tamalisa Carlson.

Special mention to Lenore Sebastian as Miss Andrew, Mr. Banks’ old nanny, with a face scary enough to frighten adults and a voice loud enough to rattle the opera house walls.

This is a big, big show, but handled skillfully by the Woodland Opera house, under the direction of Angela Baltezore.

—Bev SykeS Mary Poppins; 7:30 p.m. Friday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; $15-$25, children $7-$12. Woodland Opera House, 340 Second Street in Woodland, (530) 666-9617; www.woodlandoperahouse.org. Through August 30.

Now playiNg

3

The Fantasticks

The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival’s take on this 1960 musical revue about young lovers boasts chemistry between its lead actors, giddy dialogue and zippy production.

There’s lots of Shakespeare spoofing (by the superannuated character Henry, an old actor spouting a mishmash of famous lines by the Bard, played with overripe grandeur by M.A. Taylor) but, alas, this show’s better suited to a cozy cabaret than a 1,100-seat amphitheater. And while the show scores some points about life and love, its message is undercut (at least for today’s audiences) by the fact that adult life is represented entirely by men—the only female with lines is a dizzy teenage girl (nicely rendered

by Clare Howes Eisentrout).

A few ethnic generalities that didn’t raise eyebrows in 1960 seem dated now. Th, F,

Sa 7:30pm. Through 8/22.

Warren Edward Trepp Stage, Sand Harbor in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, 2005 Hwy 28 in Incline Village, Nev.; http://laketahoe shakespeare.com. J.H.

1 FOUL

5

Grounded

Alicia Hunt, as The Pilot, exudes confidence and pride that she is an Air Force top gun in a profession which does not welcome women easily. Grounded, by George Brant, tells The Pilot’s struggle to fit in as one of the guys in the air and below. This gripping onewoman tour de force, directed by Lyndsay Burch, explores in intricate detail the effects on the bomber of our modern war. Hunt is masterful as a woman who slowly succumbs to the mental pressures. She gives a performance that will long be remembered.

Th 2pm & 8pm, F 2pm; Sa & Su 1pm; T 2pm. Through 8/8.$15-$35. B Street Theatre B3 Stage, 2711 B St.; www.bstreet theatre.org. B.S.

4

My Children!

My Africa!

The play consists mainly of dialogues and long monologues, occasionally becoming uncharacteristically teachy-preachy, but the play strongly advances South African playwright

Athol Fugard’s belief in the power of hope and the potential of youth. It took 10 years, but a decade after this play was first performed in 1989, apartheid ended in South Africa. Th, F,

Sa 8pm, Su 2pm. Through 8/29.

Celebration Arts Theatre, 4469 D St., www.celebration arts.net. J.C.

4

Next to Normal

The subject of mental health, particularly grief and depression, gets a thoughtful—and more entertaining than you might expect—examination in this production. It’s a rock musical with a message and the talented cast, led by Andrea Thorpe as the troubled mother and Michael Roivas as the son she can’t let go of, is excellent. F, Sa 8 pm; Su 2pm. Through 8/16. $18-$25.

Runaway Stage Productions at the West Sacramento Community Center Black Box Theatre, 1075 West Capitol Ave. in West Sacramento; (916) 207-1226; www.runaway stage.com. J.C.

Short reviews by Jim Carnes, Jeff Hudson and Bev Sykes.

2

3

4

FAIR

GOOD

WELL-DONE

5 SUBLIME– DON’T MISS

The cast may dress down —but bring a jacket to this outdoor play.

And so on Main Street Theatre Works is staging the contemporary comedy Vanya and Sasha and Sonia and Spike in the foothills. Christopher Durang’s script won the 2013 Tony Award for Best New Play. The cast includes veterans Julie Anchor, Allen Pontes, Georgeann Wallace and others. The attractive grassy amphitheater sits atop a gold mine. Bring a picnic, lawnchairs and jackets. 8 p.m., Friday through Saturday; $12-$17.50. Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre, 1127 North Main Street in Jackson; www.mstw.org. Through September 5.

—Jeff Hudson

08.13.15 | SN&R | 43

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and Kuryakin work at cross purposes, the two are instructed to work together to get Gaby close to her father and his captors—and both are secretly ordered This Guy Ritchie film turns out to be a stylishly pleasant to come out of the operation with the professor’s surprise. Baby boomers who spent their Monday nights research, killing the other if necessary. in the 1960s enthralled by the NBC TV series The Man This is the basic story—with a number of twists from U.N.C.L.E. may prefer to console themselves with and turns that it wouldn’t be sporting to reveal— DVDs of the original, however, for this is not the series which Ritchie molds into a retro-’60s spy drama they remember. of the sort that audiences of a certain age cut their It’s more in the nature of the origin story the series cinematic teeth on—and that drove John le Carré to never had. The top-secret organization known as the write his gritty, squalid espionage thrillers in protest United Network Command for Law and Enforcement of their glamour and exciting adventure. isn’t even mentioned until the closing credits, and agents Ritchie and Wigram manage this with an uncharNapoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Illya Kuryakin acteristic light touch—and, thankfully, with (Armie Hammer) begin as CIA and KGB more regard for their source material than adversaries forced to work together they ever showed for Arthur Conan Nailing in what they hope will be a one-off Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. The Napoleon Solo operation.

Man from U.N.C.L.E. is actually a The operation involves Gaby doesn’t buy you tongue-in-cheek pastiche of ’60s spy (Alicia Vikander), an East Berlin auto movies, just as the original series a pass for mechanic. “East Berlin” because this is was a pastiche of James Bond (Bond botching the early ’60s, with the Cold War at its creator Ian Fleming even contributed hottest—a touch of fidelity to the origiSuperman. to the series’ development before a nal and a bold move on the part of Ritchie heart attack finished him in 1964). and co-writer Lionel Wigram (with story As the movie’s twin heroes, Hammer assists from Jeff Kleeman and David Campbell and Cavill add to the general charm. Hammer is Wilson) in these days when the average moviegoer more amusingly stolid and less the boyish heartthrob hardly remembers the USSR. than the original David McCallum, but Cavill is Besides her interest in auto repair, Gaby is the daugh- almost a revelation. He plays Solo with a dash and ter of a German atomic scientist who has fallen into the elán that might have livened his neurotic, colorless hands of a sinister international organization that threatClark Kent in the wretched Man of Steel. ens to put his weapons knowledge to use for purposes of Perhaps it’s intended as an act of atonement. its own. (This organization goes unnamed, but devotees Sorry, Henry: nailing Napoleon Solo doesn’t buy of the TV series may detect the hand of T.H.R.U.S.H., you a pass for botching Superman, especially when and their suspicions may be confirmed if Ritchie and you’re poised to do it again. But keep trying. Ω company ever get the chance to make any sequels.)

Hence the unprecedented East/West cooperation in extracting Gaby from her East Berlin garage; both nations have an interest in obtaining Gaby’s father and Poor Fair Good Very excellent his research. After an initial episode in which Solo Good

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Best of Enemies

A breezy but didactic documentary about the decades-long rivalry between leftist writer Gore Vidal and right-wing scion William F. Buckley, Best of Enemies features a cornucopia of period footage, although the “expert” interviewees mostly speak in insipid, let-me-explain-the-1960s generalities. Scheduled by third-ranked ABC News as desperate counter-programming, their political debates during the 1968 conventions quickly devolved into personal attacks, culminating with Buckley calling the closeted Vidal a “queer” on the air.

Best of Enemies shows how Vidal and Buckley were ideologically opposite sides of the same coin—self-made intellectuals and frustrated politicians who behaved like old-money elites— but they also commit some unforgivably annoying sins, like using scenes from the bowdlerized movie version of Myra Breckenridge to convey the character of Vidal’s novel. Still, it goes down easy enough, and in this day and age, waiting until the end credits to include the obligatory Jon Stewart clip classifies as restraint. D.B.

3

Dark Places

Adapted from a novel by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, writer-director Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s fitfully compelling murder mystery Dark Places stars Charlize Theron as Libby Day, the lone survivor of a family massacre. Only a child when the murders occurred, Libby’s testimony was instrumental in convicting her devil-worshipping older brother, and she’s been able to coast off the resulting notoriety for most of her adult life. When the sympathy money finally starts to run dry, though, she accepts an offer from a group of true-crime fanatics who want to exonerate her brother, forcing Libby to reexamine the events of that night for the first time in decades. Dark Places certainly has the feel of a page-turner, so densely packed with red herrings and coincidences that it’s absurd (this story probably would have worked better as a True Detective-style short-form series), but the white-hot Theron grounds her withdrawn character in something recognizable and relatable. D.B.

3

Fantastic Four

A reckless trip to another dimension transforms four friends into mutations who can stretch (Miles Teller), turn invisible (Kate Mara), burst into flame (Michael B. Jordan) and be indestructibly strong (Jamie Bell). Marvel Entertainment takes another stab at screening its first big comic-book success; the last one got off to a bad start in 2005 and flamed out (pun intended) after one sequel. This one starts off better (not hard), with a reasonably intelligent script (by Simon Kinberg, Jeremy Slater and Josh Trank), sprightly direction by Trank, a great comic-book noir look, and pleasant rapport among the stars (especially Teller and Bell). A 2017 sequel is already afoot; after that, we’ll see if it catches on. The quartet’s nemesis Dr. Doom (Toby Kebbell) is dispatched here, but he’ll surely return. J.L.

2

The Gift

Joel Edgerton stars in (and directs) this intermittently effective but ultimately revolting domestic-horror film as Gordon, a poorly goateed, socially awkward misfit who weasels his way back into the life of an uninterested high school classmate named Simon (Jason Bateman). Now a cutthroat yuppie squeezing the life out of his psychologically shaky wife Robyn (Rebecca Hall), Simon refuses the creepily obsequious attempts to make friends, turning the mild-mannered Gordon malevolent and making Robyn suspicious.

Despite an overreliance on ear-splitting jump scares, Edgerton the director makes a competent debut here, but Edgerton the actor is all wrong for the part of Gordon—he’s a cool kid doing his impression of a nerd. Even worse, the final reveal is pretty repellant for the way that it turns the heroine—up to this point, the eyes,

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Shaun the Sheep Movie

The sheep from a small English farm, joined by their sheepdog, set out to rescue their farmer from amnesia in the big city. The smashhit TV cartoon show from quirky Aardman Studios makes the leap to the big screen with surprising ease, considering how well the show’s eight-minute TV format fits its farm-animal-life premise—and considering how many of today’s crummy animated features seem to be expanded from mediocre ideas for eight-minute cartoons. Writer-directors Mark Burton and Richard Starzak eschew dialogue—the only vocals we hear are chuckles, grunts, mutters and such—with the result that this droll, sweetly hilarious movie plays like the triumphant return of the silent comedy of Buster Keaton. Throughout its modest 85 minutes, the movie never loses its ingenuity or its focus on pure visual comedy. J.L.

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1

Irrational Man

A college philosophy professor (Joaquin Phoenix) considers life not worth living—he can’t even get it up for sex—until he finds a perfect stranger who deserves to die; this suddenly gives purpose to his life. Oh dear, Woody Allen is getting all serious again. Or maybe not. This may just be a deadpan satire on the narcissistic pretensions of academic sociopaths. Still, Allen’s never before had trouble letting us know when he was kidding; if this really is one of those times, the joke isn’t funny, it’s pompous and banal. All the Allen trademarks—bright dialogue, quirky characters, vintage music, big-name casts—are missing here. In the cast, only Phoenix, Emma Stone and Parker Posey have names; otherwise it’s a parade of forgettable nobodies, and Allen gives them all not one interesting word to say. J.L.

4

Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation

With the possible exception of the Alien series, the Mission: Impossible movies might be the most auteur-driven multidirector film franchise going. So what Christopher McQuarrie-esque qualities does new writerdirector Christopher McQuarrie bring to the latest installment, Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation? Other than a Jack Reacher-y highgloss grit and a cat-and-mouse design to the central plot, hardly any. Rogue Nation is practically a greatest-hits collection—fake latex faces are ripped off for dramatic effect, an impenetrable fortress is penetrated and the globe is trotted to dazzling effect. It’s familiar and fun and expertly packaged, and it settles into an eminently watchable formula that’s reminiscent of a Roger Moore-era Bond movie.

Leading the way is star Tom Cruise, still ageless and graceful and yet increasingly hard and terse. Cruise has always been a remarkable physical actor, and the Mission: Impossible franchise continues to offer an ideal showcase for his talents. D.B.

3

Ricki and the Flash

An aging rocker (Meryl Streep) returns to Indiana, and the ex-husband she ran out on years before (Kevin Kline), in order to help her estranged daughter (Mamie Gummer) through a messy divorce. Diablo Cody’s script glosses over its own ironies—for example, that the runaway husband is only doing what the mother did, and for similar selfish reasons, or that this aging diva’s dream of rock stardom amounts to fronting a third-rate cover band in a string of sleazy dives across the San Fernando Valley—and in the end Cody opts for a facile, fuzzy embrace of that most cherished myth of pop culture, the healing power of rock ‘n’ roll. What salvages the movie is the raw honesty of the acting, especially Streep and Gummer (mother-daughter in real life)—that, and the fact that the music really is pretty cool. J.L.

3

Trainwreck

It’s a sad commentary on the current state of the cinema that funny women do their edgiest work on television, but have their edges sanded off whenever they stray into movies (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are prime examples). If anyone could buck the trend, it would be the hilarious Amy Schumer, the rare comedian with the talent to be simultaneously self-deprecating, empowering and raunchy as shit. But even though Schumer wrote the screenplay for Trainwreck, giving herself an in-the-wheelhouse lead role as a sexually active men’s magazine writer whose anti-monogamy worldview gets challenged when she falls for Bill Hader’s sweet sports doctor, this uneven comedy is guided more by director/buzzkill Judd Apatow’s bourgeois moral compass than by Schumer’s anarchic satire. In a film filled with cameos by comedy legends and SNL cast members, LeBron James and Jon Cena get by far the biggest laughs, which is maybe a problem. D.B.

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sacramento asian sports foundation presents an evening with

hiroshima

Chaos theory Making sense out of Garble’s fuzzed out post-punk

by AAron CArnes

photo by shoka

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Tickets available through www.ticketfly.com or the Crest Box Office (Convenience fees will apply)

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amed to the 2014 top 20 cD char ts by smooth Jazz.com. hiroshima continues to be a force in the industr y and continues to top the charts. with a musical career spanning 3 decades, gold records and 4 million in sales worldwide, hiroshima continues to make their unique mix of east meets west - their signature sound.

Hiroshima Website: www.hiroshimamusic.com facebook: www.facebook.com/hiroshimamusic

for mor e in f o , v i s i t s as f q u e st. or g 46 | SN&R | 08.13.15

Garble: “rock ’n’ roll has gotten soft.”

The Espinosas, who are married and previously played together for nearly a decade in Gonzo, formed Garble after they started writing songs together.

Most of Garble’s debut EP, Encrypted Zebra, Bassist David Adams and drummer Frank Tuna released earlier this year, rides a delicate line between complete the band. noisy, abrasive post-punk and hooky pop melodies— Jaime and Stephanie trade off on lead vocals, and except for a hidden track, which sounds just like along with Adams, create a lush, sometimes dissonant plain chaos: a collage of psychedelic, structure-free, wall of vocal harmonies. The resulting sound is simidissonant sounds. lar to Gonzo’s fuzzed out, jangly post-punk sound but The local band shot a video for the song, more nuanced and sophisticated. giving it the name “What Do You See?” In a way, In its enthusiasm to get off the ground, the band this song—even more than any of the record’s decided to self-release its EP, which it recorded last so-called proper cuts—makes for a window September in the Espinosas’ basement. It into its unhinged, unpredictable live also launched a label, Eat Some Music, set: Garble opens every show with and Adams produced Garble’s aforeCrafting an improvised noise-jam that’s mentioned video and is currently brand-new, improvised and, like a vibrant, working on other clips. the hidden track, chaotic. aggressive edge is Although the band only “We are kind of feeling the formed last year, it’s already the band’s top priority. room, feeling out everybody,” forged a clear vision. says singer-guitarist Stephanie Well-written songs are “We treat it like work. We Espinosa of the tradition. “It important, but the music want to be able to make money cleanses the room, It gets everyoff of the band so … [it] can also needs to grab one in a good place.” continue to grow and grow in Garble’s other songs are attention. popularity,” says Adams. “We feel more contained within traditional so confident about the music and the punk and rock ’n’ roll beats, but still band, and our ability to play—that we push at the boundaries of feedback and have the potential to go on from here, and play tone in a manner similar to bands such as Sonic internationally.”

Youth and Fugazi. Live, the sound is high energy, There’s nothing chaotic about that ambition, abrasive and vigorous. actually. Ω Crafting a vibrant, aggressive edge is the band’s top priority. Well-written songs are important, but the music also needs to grab attention.

“Rock ’n’ roll has gotten soft in the last 10 years.

This crap you hear on the radio is super soft and lullaby-ish. I’m sick of that shit,” says singer-guitarist Jaime Espinosa. “We use a lot of fuzz and push it as far as we can go.”

Catch Garble at 8 p.m., Monday, august 17, at press Club, 2030 p street. aJ Davila y terror amor, plastic pinks, Ghost pines and the azeotropes are also on the bill. Learn more at www.facebook.com/garbletheband.

Dirty pizza and vibe kills

—Janelle Bitker jan el le b @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

—nick Miller n i ck a m @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

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M.A.A.D. times: Kendrick Lamar kicked off his Saturday night set with “Money Trees”—yet it was festivalgoers who were throwing shade, directed at the Outside Lands organizers. And I too have a bone to pick: They screwed up, in epic fashion, by scheduling the Black Keys on Saturday night’s main stage and relegating Lamar to a smaller B stage. Tens of thousands, a vast majority, converged on the rapper’s performance, and his nearly two-hour set was at once powerful, inspiring and really damn uncomfortable.

Lamar, to my surprise, spent the first hour playing hits, instead of the complex tracks from his latest record, To Pimp a Butterfly. Hits are great, but they elevated the crowd’s chaos quotient. Like when he jumped into his verse from “Fuckin’ Problems” and lit a fire under the night sky. Only to then throw gasoline on it all with “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe.”

It was around this time that the scene on the ground began feeling unsafe. That’s when I decided to use my journalism skills and sneak backstage! Good call: Standing on a curb, 50 yards from Lamar, delighted as he snatched the torch from the world’s hip-hop elite.

He covered Tupac. His full band grooved on “i.” And, by the night’s end—10 minutes past curfew—he assured that things would be “Alright.” And, oh yes, they were.

SN&R

(6) That hot chocolate from Charles Chocolates. Wow. Just wow.

(7) Who else could pull off a royal blue suit with silver sparkles and the word “Fantastic” emblazoned on the back? Sir Elton John closed out Outside Lands with a hit-filled set, standing up after each song to bow and wave.

(8) Of course, not everything was great. A Sunday attempt to catch Odesza and Caribou was squashed by the tidal wave of fans marching in the opposite direction for Grammywinning crooner Sam Smith. We tried to sneak through, then we tried to wait it out, but it was no use. We were forced by the Outside Lands higher powers to see Sam Smith. With his sappy speeches, sullen ballads and proliferation of covers, we found ourselves at a loss. And bored.

w w w. n e w s r e v i e w. c o m

Go play Outside: Tickets for the eighth annual Outside Lands sold out in a crazy 45 minutes. The festival boasts a well-earned reputation as the best in the Bay Area—and as one of the greatest in the country. Here are some highlights: (1) Remarkably, people kind of listened to the computerized voice before St. Vincent’s set: “In order to maximize your enjoyment, please refrain from digitally capturing your experience.” This wasn’t just St. Vincent’s Annie Clark being clever, and then exhibiting her excellent songwriting, singing and guitar shredding. This was a cohesive piece of performance art tackling the role of technology in our lives. With postmodern choreography and a smirk, the queen of indie rock turned into the robot queen—she owned the stage and owned us all.

(2) Up until the unexpected release of Black Messiah in December of 2014, D’Angelo had been on-hiatus since 2000. Black Messiah quickly earned a spot on just about every music critic’s top 10 albums of the year list. With his new band the Vanguard, D’Angelo sounded and looked in prime form— a truly triumphant comeback. But I was honestly surprised the crowd, though mostly fervent, wasn’t larger.

Were most choosing Mumford & Sons instead? Really?

(3) Crazy to think Leon Bridges was washing dishes in Texas just a year ago. Now he’s a star, bringing an enormous crowd to a 2 p.m.

Friday set.

(4) The GastroMagic stage returned with an undeniably less frenzied energy—and far fewer big audiences—than last year. Still, it delighted in its silliness. Example: After Pizza Rock’s Tony Gemignani threw some pizza dough, DJ MoPo spun Hot N Ready’s ridiculous song “Do the Dirty Pizza,” while four dancers in aprons threw down some equally ridiculous moves. Then one threw some stretched-out pizza dough at an innocent bystander’s head. Oops.

(5) We so appreciate Outside Lands’ tiny stages scattered around with unannounced sets each day. A favorite was catching Los Angeles folk group the Wild Reeds quietly harmonizing inside a yurt-slash-tealounge in Camp Grounded, the digital detox area where you can paint pet rocks and such.

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Sacramento News 08-13-15.indd 1

08.13.15 | SN&R | 47 8/10/15 1:38 PM

48

|

SN&R | 08.13.15

The 26th Annual

Sierra BrewFest

An epic afternoon of sun, suds and fun A unique, unlimited microbrew tasting experience with more than 100+ microbrews Delicious food from some of the best local food trucks and restaurants Featuring music from Power of 12 | Bagg-O Tournament

Saturday, September 25 3:00 pm to 6:30 pm, Nevada County Fairgrounds, Grass Valley

A benefit for

Music in the Mountains Produced by the MIM Alliance

Tickets and Info: www.MusicintheMountains.org or call (530) 265-6124 Additional ticket outlets at SPD Markets and BriarPatch

Unlimited Tastings $35 in advance $40 at the door $10 non-tasters Kids Free

Sponsored by:

08.13.15

|

SN&R | 49

15

14

15

15

FRI

SAT

SAT

SAT

Kool John and P-Lo

Cake

Orgy

The Phantom Jets

The Boardwalk, 11 p.m., $18

GiBson ranCh, 1:30 p.m., $49.50

Neither Kool John nor P-Lo are the most famous rappers in East Bay’s HBK Crew.

Iamsu! and Sage the Gemini have that honor, and do so because their solo records are more ambitious in concept and their styles are more over-the-top. Kool John HIP-HOP and P-Lo stay faithfully low-key and subtle on their recent collaborative mixtape, Moovie. Their easy swagger is a perfect accompaniment to the weed-soaked beats.

The duo keeps the verses consistently fun.

Moovie is packed with head-bobbing, streamof-consciousness party anthems that never resort to overproduced single-line hooks.

9426 Greenback Lane in Orangevale, www.hbkgang.com/moovietour.

The Boardwalk, 6:30 p.m., $15

I don’t know about you, but I plan on wearing a “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” at Radio 94.7’s first-ever City of Trees mini-festival. No, it ain’t at “Arco Arena,” but there will probably still be a “Long Line of Cars.” “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” I’ll get there early to see BØRNS, James Bay or Of Monsters and Men as well. That’s probably wise if I want to get “Up So Close” for Cake’s set. After all, Cake is the Sacramento alternative rock ROCK band and, eventually, the dudes will retire from their “Rock ’n’ Roll Lifestyle.” …

Sorry, I thought this would be funnier but it definitely “Ain’t No Good.” 8556 Gibson Ranch Park Road in Elverta, http://cityoftrees.com.

—Janelle BiTker

—aaron Carnes

Fox & Goose, 9 p.m., $5

Jay Gordon may be the only original member left in the electronic rock band Orgy, but instead of continuing the group’s “indefinite hiatus” in 2005, Gordon decided to ROCK reform the group in 2010 with a completely new lineup. Orgy, best known for its popular cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday,” now welcomes former Deadsy lead guitarist Carlton Bost, Bobby Amaro on drums, Creighton Emrick on rhythm guitar and synthesizer and Nic Speck on bass. Orgy’s latest single, “Wide Awake and Dead,” was released last March and fueled by the band’s latest EP, Talk Sick. Now, Orgy is on the road with its Sick Talk Tour. 9426 Greenback Lane in Orangevale, www.orgymusic.com.

Were it not for my lifelong fear of stepping on a crab, I definitely would have been a worldchampion professional surfer. But I can still dream of a world of gnarly waves and bogus wipeouts, courtesy of veteran Sac garage rockers the Phantom Jets.

SURF ROCK Sarah Hudson’s Farfisa drops you right in the pipeline on “Phantom Stomp,” while Frank Temmerman’s propulsive, energetic drumming puts the horsepower in cuts like “Doom Buggy” and “Drag Queen Race.”

Check out their album The Phantom Jet Set on iTunes. This show could be just the thing to help you forget about that bully who kicked sand in your face and stole your best girl.

1001 R Street, foxandgoose.com.

—sTeph rodriGuez

—Brian Breneman

Motorcycle Charity Ride

Registration begins at 8 a.m. at Folsom Harley Davidson

SEPTEMBER 17 at 8 p.m.

OCTOBER 8 AT 7 P.M.

800-822-WINN 800-822-WINN JACKSONCASINO.COM 800-822-WINN ••• JACKSONCASINO.COM JACKSONCASINO.COM TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW at the Casino Cashier’s Cage or JacksonCasino.com.

Management reserves the right to modify or cancel any promotion or event. Problem Gambling? 1-800-GAMBLER 50 | SN&R | 08.13.15

“yoU MighT hAvE NighTMArES.”

16

15

16

16

SAT

S UN

S UN

S UN

Throwdown

Acrylics

Mac Sabbath

Primitive Man

Midtown Barfly, 10 p.M., $10-$20

the colony, 7 p.M., $5

This party celebrates two years of Saturday dance nights behind the old Bacon & Butter spot on 21st Street. I’ve gone twice. Which means I go about once a year, in case your fried gulliver is really that bad at math. More math chat: The fun quotient at these parties is so exponential that you’ll be sleeping in to the nth degree on Sunday. That’s a good thing. Bonus: Lighting, artwork, lasers—the mise-en-scene by Requiem Events is EDM probably unequaled in town. Double bonus: Casino Gold (pictured) performs. They were so fresh at THIS Midtown earlier in the summer. Definite second-viewing material.

Buy your tickets for this in advance. 1119 21st Street, https://requiemevents.queueapp.com.

harlow’s restaurant & nightcluB, 8 p.M., $12-$15

Santa Rosa’s Acrylics played with Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine and brought down the house with their raucous brand of sloppy, angst-driven punk. Although they describe themselves as “Not That Shitty East Coast Band,” it’s fairly obvious PUNK a proper introduction is needed.

If you’re a fan of Victims Family (yes, no apostrophe), Alice Donut, Sonic Youth or the Butthole Surfers in their heyday, this band is not to be missed. If you’re still buzzing from drinking too much coffee on a Sunday afternoon, the only logical play is to continue the party so you’re miserable at your shitty job on Monday. 3512 Stockton Boulevard, www.facebook.com/acrylicsfreekpunk.

—nick Miller

Admit it, McDonald’s characters are kind of creepy. There’s Ronald, the “happy” clown, that one guy with an entire cheeseburger for a head, and don’t even get me started on that purple blob. Appropriately, someone had the brilliant idea to marry the insane McDonaldland characters with the music of Black Sabbath. The PAroDy four-piece dresses up like scary versions of these popular characters and sing faithful renditions of Sabbath songs, though changing all the words to be about fast food. The act is technically comedy, but it does get kind of spooky at times. You might have nightmares. 2708 J Street, www.facebook.com/macsabbath.

—eddie Jorgensen

ALL AGES WELCOME!

MONDAY, AUGUST 31

CAM

THE EARLY NOVEMBER - BETTER OFF

BERNER

DEMRICK – J-HORNAY - ANONYMOUS THAT DUDE

BAYSIDE

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6

GET UP KIDS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 SUNDAY, AUGUST 23

SAXON

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27

FUNK VOLUME 2015 TOUR HOPSIN - DIZZY WRIGHT - JARREN BENTON - DJ HOPPA

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

WATSKY

ATREYU

A-1 & MIKOS DA GAWD FRIDAY, AUGUST 28

MOONSHINE BANDITS JELLY ROLL - PRUNO - OM3N THE GOOD SAMARITANS

—eddie Jorgensen

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19

FRIDAY, AUGUST 21

Talent buyer Chris Lemos recently asked his Facebook friends why many of his amazing shows at Starlite were grossly underattended. The answer was Sacramento DooM was suffering from having too many shows. People don’t have the extra cash they once did and have to pick and choose these days. If that’s true, then I’m making a decision for you. You must see Denver’s Primitive Man, even if you have to pay the rent late or forgo a meal. These lads released a nauseatingly heavy EP earlier this year, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, that simply blows doors off of every like-minded release of the last year. 1517 21st Street, http://primitiveman doom.bandcamp.com.

—aaron carnes

ACE OF SPADES AARON WATSON

starlite lounge, 8 p.M., $10

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21

SNARKY PUPPY

COMING

SOON

08/13 09/23 09/25 09/26 10/15 10/17 10/18 10/19 10/21 10/24 10/31 11/01 11/02 11/10 11/15 11/17 11/18 11/20 11/22 12/09

Pre-Trees: City of Trees pre-party Against Me! Cinderella’s Tom Keifer A Thousand Horses Gang Of Four The Airborne Toxic Event Mastodon Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls Common Kings Creative Collab Tour Feat.

Matthew Espinosa Parkway Drive Dave Davies of the Kinks Machine Head The AP Tour Featuring Mayday Parade Mayhem/Watian Yellowcard & New Found Glory The Charlatans Blind Guardian Misfits Reverend Horton Heat

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ALL DIMPLE RECORDS LOCATIONS AND ARMADILLO RECORDS

08.13.15 | SN&R | 51

BADLANDS

2003 K St., (916) 448-8790

THURSDAY 8/13

FRIDAY 8/14

#TBT and 5 Card Stud with throwback video requests, 8pm, call for cover

Fabulous and Gay Fridays, 9pm, call for cover

SATURDAY 8/15

SUNDAY 8/16

Spectacular Saturdays top 40 and high energy dance, 9pm, call for cover

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 8/17-8/19

Sunday Tea Dance and Beer Bust, 4-8pm, call for cover

Feel Good Mondays happy hour all night, M; Trapicana, W, call for cover

BAR 101 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.

Trivia Night, 6:30pm M, no cover; Open-mic night, 7:30pm W, no cover

101 Main St., Roseville; (916) 774-0505

BLUE LAMP

RYDAH J KLYDE, BOBBY HOOPER; 8pm, $15-$18

OFF THE WALL Pink Floyd Tribute, 8pm, call for cover

BROTHER GRAND, NYLON LYONN; 7pm, call for cover

THE BOARDWALK

KOOL JOHN & P-LO of HBK GANG, 7pm, $18-$45

ORGY, THE ALPHA COMPLEX, GRAVESHADOW; 6:30pm, $15

MOB FIGAZ, J STALIN, JOE BLOW; 7pm, $20

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

LEON RUSSELL, 8pm, $57-$67

1400 Alhambra, (916) 455-3400 9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley; (530) 274-8384

COUNTRY CLUB SALOON

’80s music, 9pm, no cover

THE COZMIC CAFE

Open-mic, 7:30pm, no cover

4007 Taylor Rd., Loomis; (916) 652-4007 594 Main St., Placerville; (530) 642-8481

DISTRICT 30

1016 K St., (916) 737-5770

Hey local bands!

TINARIWEN, 8pm, $37-$42

PARADOX, 9pm, no cover

NXTA KIN, 9pm, no cover

Just Dance with Billy Lane, 10pm, call for cover

Glowball with Ron Reeser, 10pm, call for cover

THE WAIFS, LEE BOB AND THE TRUTH; 8pm, $47-$57

LOOSE GRAVEL, 4pm, no cover

Endless Summer beach party, W, call for time and cover

FACES

Everything Happens karaoke, dance and swim; 9pm-2am, no cover

Absolut Fridays dance party, 9pm, $5-$10

Deejay dancing and Sequin Saturdays drag show, 9pm, $5-$12

FOX & GOOSE

MARTY COHEN AND THE SIDEKICKS, 8pm, no cover

JAMES ISRAEL, DR. ROC AND THE STUFF; 9pm, $5

PUNCH OUT!, THE PHANTOM JETS; 9pm, $5

Open-mic, 7:30pm M, no cover; Pub Quiz, 7pm Tu, no cover

HIGH NOON, 9pm, no cover

WESTBOUND 50, 9pm, no cover

Open mic, M, no cover; Tacos and Trivia, 7pm Tu, no cover Trivia night, 7:30pm Tu; Bingo, 1pm W

2000 K St., (916) 448-7798

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.

Open mic, 8pm M; Moxiecrush Variety Show, 8pm Tu; SNATCH’N GAWP, 8pm W

1001 R St., (916) 443-8825

GOLDFIELD TRADING POST 1603 J St., (916) 476-5076

HALFTIME BAR & GRILL

College Night glow bowling, 10pm, call for cover

Karaoke, call for time, no cover

POPARAZZI, 9pm, $5

HARLOW’S

JOEL ORTIZ, 6:30pm, $15-$20

JELLO BIAFRA AND THE GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, 9pm, $15-$18

JESSE ROYAL, DANIEL BAMBAATA MARLEY; 19pm, $15-$20

5681 Lonetree Blvd., Rocklin; (916) 626-6366 2708 J St., (916) 441-4693

THE HIDEAWAY BAR & GRILL 1414 16th St., (916) 441-3931

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PAID ADVERTISEMENT Jon Daily, founder and co-director of Recovery Happens, says there is hope for adolescents who experiment with substance use.

Photo by Louise MitcheLL

Keeping Adolescents Safe and Sober

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ine out of every 10 people who meet the criteria for addiction began smoking, drinking or using other drugs before age 18, according to a 2011 study by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columia University.

As founder and co-director of Recovery Happens, Jon Daily says that while adolescent substance use is a major public health concern, there is hope.

At Recovery Happens, Daily and his team provide outpatient treatment for adolescents and young adults with drug abuse, addiction and mental health issues.

Daily says talking to children early on about the dangers of substance use is important, but it is crucial for

parents to maintain a zero-tolerance approach.

“Families that hold strong to those boundaries around alcohol and drug use are families less likely to have kids that use.”

Jon Daily Founder and co-director of Recovery Happens “Set clear boundaries that any [substance] use is risky,” Daily says.

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boundaries around alcohol and drug use are families less likely to have kids that use.”

It’s also important for parents to relate to their children, to reiterate they’ve been young before and that they understand the power of peer pressure.

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“When I got sober at age 20, I devoted my life to teaching people how bad this can be,” Daily says.

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“Have an agreed-upon code word that your child can text you if they’re ever with friends who try to pressure them,” Daily says. “When you get that text, you call and act out a staged pick-up so that they can get away safely without losing face.”

Should adolescents begin to experiment with drugs, there are a variety of programs, like support groups and inpatient and outpatient treatment programs, that can help.

“The fellowship for young people in recovery is huge in Sacramento,” he says. “You don’t have to be isolated.”

by Lexi brister

Sacramento News & Review and California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP) have partnered to tell sponsored stories that share the joys of recovery, break down the barriers of stigma, and employ individuals, families and the community to form a united front against the disease of addiction. To find more about recovery and resources offered in the community, visit www. newsreview.com/sacramento/ ccapp.

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Breakups and blowback I am literally covered in tears after crying for the past two hours. I am breaking it off with a great guy because I’m not in love with him. There is another man I’ve known forever, who has been pursuing me and he seems to be a great fit. No way am I telling my soon-to-be-ex that I am leaving him for someone else. But how do I break up gently? Men get so mad when you break up with them. How can I get this guy to understand that breaking up hurts me more than it hurts him?

The dialogue we have with ourselves during a personal crisis rarely seems as wise when seen in print. That’s one reason why journaling is useful. Dump drama on to the page, return hours, days or even years later, and it’s easier to see our illogical or unkind thinking patterns.

Here’s one of yours: Men shouldn’t get angry about breakups.

Honey, people have all kinds of reactions to breakups. Anger is common, but so is confusion, and even relief.

We can’t control other people’s emotions.

I do understand that facing someone’s anger can be awful, but I can’t condone your investment in wound comparison.

Believing that your hurt exceeds your boyfriend’s pain lets you feel sorry for yourself. Don’t use him to throw yourself a pity party. Set a timer for 15 minutes.

Feel sorry for yourself. Then, pick yourself up and move on to another activity.

And please don’t tell your boyfriend that your hurt is bigger than his. It’s manipulative. Don’t be that girl.

You might also rethink your planned launch into another relationship. Your new man could be perfect for you. But right now he’s shiny in comparison to the man you’ve been dating. If you want a love that will last, slow down. Here are instructions for a gentle, compassionate breakup: Meet face to face in public, share three things you appreciate about the time spent together and say you need to end the relationship. Thank him and exit. If you choose to stay and chat, be prepared to face any of his emotions, from anger to curiosity.

I haven’t been sexual with any guy except my boyfriend. We broke up for one weekend over something stupid. We got back together again and everything is perfect.

The only weird thing is that I have had a personal issue that I can’t figure out. I searched online and found information that seems like I have an STD. But I know I can’t because I’ve only been with my boyfriend. What is going on?

When we talked by phone, I asked if you or your boyfriend had sex with someone else during your three-day breakup. You insisted that both of you had been faithful. I pushed you to push him for the truth. He later admitted that he went to a party, and had sex with a girl he met. After some soul-searching, you forgave him because you were broken up at the time. But now you both have an STD that you will have to live with forever. There’s an old saying: You can’t get over someone by getting under someone else. Hopefully, your boyfriend has learned not to overreact to a breakup and you’ve learned that he will lie when he’s scared of losing you. Proceed accordingly. Ω

Honey, people have all kinds of reactions.

MeDITaTIoN of THe Week “What fascinates me about addiction and obsessive behavior is that people would choose an altered state of consciousness that’s toxic and ostensibly destroys most aspects of your normal life because for a brief moment, you feel OK,” says Moby.

What consciousness are you choosing: addiction or grace?

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 Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815; call (916) 498-1234, ext. 3206; or email askjoey@newsreview.com.

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What’s up with the California Legislature and comprehensive statewide medical-cannabis regulation? Anything happening?

—Jim Quisitive Nothing on the Assembly Bill 266 front (I think the Legislature is on summer recess, so debate should resume when they get back), but Gov. Jerry Brown has just signed two new bills and I am not a fan of either. Senate Bill 212, introduced by Senator Tony Mendoza, adds “proximity to schools and residences” as an “aggravating factor” during sentencing for people found guilty of manufacturing BHO or hash oil. You do realize that it is already illegal to make cannabis concentrates using chemicals (butane, CO2, propane, whatever) in the state of California, yes? It’s part of the law against making meth.

Anyway, if you are caught, you get three, five or seven years in jail plus a fine of up to $50,000, depending on the aggravating factors. So all you folks making butane hash in the backyard of your apartment complex need to cut that shit out immediately. In an interesting twist, this same law uses 200 feet as the limit for adding an aggravating factor to a meth-manufacturing conviction, so as long as you are caught making BHO and not meth, some of you may catch a break. This part of the bill doesn’t bother me at all because I think people who make hash using chemical solvents should do so in an industrial area using the proper safety equipment. I do have a quibble with Section E of this bill, however— “Except as otherwise provided by law, every person who offers to perform an act which is punishable under subdivision (a) shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for three, four, or five years.” If I am reading it right (see the whole thing for yourself on this photostatic copy: http://tinyurl.com/sb212), offering to make hash oil is now punishable by three to five years in jail. You can go to jail just for offering? What if you had no intention of making hash oil but said you would just to be polite? This is a bad law.

SB 165, introduced by Senator Bill Monning, imposes a whole new set of fines for people growing cannabis on public and private lands. You can now be fined for growing medical cannabis on private property even if you have the landlord’s permission. This is ridiculous. I get wanting to discourage people from having gigantic 40,000-plant grows, but this law won’t do anything but cause headaches and backlogs when everyone goes to court to fight their gigantic fines. The same thing is already happening in Fresno (www.fresnobee.com/ news/local/article23926342.html), and there’s no need for this sort of overreach to go statewide. It’s a shame that California, once the leader in cannabis-law reform, can’t get it together enough to have effective and proper cannabis regulation. I hope we do better in 2016. Ω

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FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 6, 2015 ARIES (March 21-April 19): Charles de Lint is a

novelist whose stories are influenced by folklore, myths and science fiction. In his book Yarrow, a wizardly character named Toby is skilled at conjuring. He can make small objects appear and disappear, for example. But Toby yearns for more. “I want to be magic,” he says. “I want to be a friend of elves and live in a tree. I want to marry a moonbeam and hear the stars sing.

I don’t want to pretend at magic anymore. I want to be magic.” If you have ever wished for a comparable upgrade, Aries, now is an unusually favorable time to work on it.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): An imaginative

Welsh man named Liam Bennett has developed a “dausage,” which is a blend of a doughnut and sausage. One of his most requested treats is pork meat stuffed with strawberry jelly. Even if this novel blend doesn’t appeal to your taste buds, it serves as a good prompt for my advice: The coming weeks will be a favorable time to expand your notion of what types of nourishment are fun and healthy for you. I mean that in the metaphorical as well as the literal sense. Experiment with new recipes, both with the food you provide your body and the sustenance you feed your soul.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the woods, living

matter isn’t segregated from the decaying stuff.

Rotting tree trunks are host to teeming colonies of moss. Withered stems of ferns mingle with cheerful saplings. Audacious mushrooms sprout up among scraps of fallen leaves. The birds and beetles and lizards and butterflies don’t act as if this mix is weird. They seem to be at peace with it. I suspect they thrive on it, even exult in it. That’s the spirit I suggest you adopt as you enjoy the paradoxical mélange of your life in the coming weeks, Gemini. Celebrate the mysterious magic that emerges as you simultaneously fade and flourish, decline and increase, wind down and rise up.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here are some

tips on being the best Cancerian you can be: (1) cultivate your sensitivity as a strength. Regard your emotional vulnerability as a superpower, (2) nurture yourself at least as much as you nurture others, (3) learn to know the difference between your golden hunches and the glimmering delusions that your demons stir up, (4) be kind, but don’t be exorbitantly nice, (5) remember that others’ unhappiness is rarely your fault or responsibility, and (6) keep reinventing the way you love yourself.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “What are the best things

and the worst things in your life, and when are you going to get around to whispering or shouting them?” This question was posed by Leo author Ray Bradbury in his book Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity. Even if you’re not a writer yourself, you will benefit from responding to his exhortation. It’s one of the best things you could possibly do to activate your dormant creativity and intensify your lust for life. This is one of those times when working with your extremes is not only safe and healthy, but also fun and inspirational. So do it, Leo! Get excited and expressive about the best and worst things in your life.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): It’s time to leave

behind the golden oldies. You’d be wise to tiptoe away from tradition, and give the ghosts of the past one last kiss goodbye and wean yourself from nostalgia for the good old days. Frankly, my dear, you’ve got numerous appointments with the future, and it would be a shame to miss them because you’re mucking around with memories.

In the coming weeks—for that matter, in the coming months—you’re most likely to thrive if you become an agent of change. And the most important thing to change is your relationship to the person you used to be.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In Indonesia, the term

gotong-royong is defined as the “joint bearing of burdens.” In practice it means that you and I and our allies get together voluntarily to help each other achieve a shared goal. It may also be an agreement to provide mutual aid: I help you do what you need to have done, and you help me with my task. Gotong-royong also implies that we enjoy working together. The emotional

tone that we cultivate is affection and care. By sharing a burden, we lighten the load that each of us has to bear. I bring this to your attention, Libra, because it’s the gotong-royong season for you and yours. Be the ringleader who initiates and sustains it.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In one of his poems, Jack Gilbert mentions “the incurably sane,” who are “uncrippled by beauty” and “unbutchered by love.” When I read those lines, I felt a surge of protest. Is there a single person on the earth who fits that description? No! I was miffed by such starry-eyed idealism. Later, though, as I studied the astrological omens for you Scorpios, my attitude softened. I realized that the coming weeks may be a time when many of you will at least temporarily be incurably sane, uncrippled by beauty and unbutchered by love. If you’re one of these lucky ones, please use your blessed grace to spread an abundance of blessed grace everywhere you go.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): If you’re not

skirting the edges of the forbidden zone, you’re playing it too safe. If you’re not serving as a benevolent mischief-maker for someone you care about, you’re shirking your duty. Your allegiance should be with x-factors and wild cards. You will thrive to the degree that you cultivate alliances with mavericks and instigators. Are you shrewd enough to mess with time-tested formulas? Are you restless enough to rebel against habits that stifle your curiosity?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): How to be a

Capricorn, according to my Capricorn reader Sadie Kennedy: When you are younger, take yourself too seriously. Look and act older than you actually are as you serve what’s most practical. Sacrifice fun and frivolity, working doggedly to achieve the goals you yearn for, until you reach some level of accomplishment. Then realize, as if struck by a thunderbolt, that fun and frivolity have practical value. Begin to age backwards like Benjamin Button as you balance work with play and discipline with leisure. Enjoy the fruits of your intense efforts as everyone tells you how relaxed and supple and resilient you are becoming.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Cracking open

the shell of a soft-boiled egg is a tricky task. You must be firm enough to break the shell, but sufficiently gentle to avoid making a mess. If you live in Germany, you have access to a metal instrument that provides just the right measure of soft force. It’s called an Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, translated as “soft-boiled egg shell cracker.” Your assignment in the coming weeks is to cultivate a talent that is metaphorically similar to an Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher.

I believe you will need that blend of sensitivity and power on numerous occasions.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Americans often

regard Cuba as impoverished and backwards.

There is an element of truth in their prejudice, primarily because the United States has imposed a stifling embargo on the Caribbean nation for over 50 years. That’s why, for example, many Cubans drive cars that were manufactured in the 1950s. But I wonder how my fellow citizens would respond if they knew that in some ways Cuba’s health-care system is better than America’s. The World Health Organization recently congratulated Cuba for being the first country on earth to eradicate the transmission of syphilis and HIV from mothers to babies. Can you identify a metaphorically similar situation in your personal life, Pisces? Are there people you regard as inferior or undeveloped who could teach you an important lesson or motivate you to grow? Now is a perfect time to benefit from their influence.

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.

Figuratively speaking Action figures may be made with children in mind, but we all know that adults love to get some toys of their own. And as people recognize that there’s more to figurines than youthful playtime, bootleg resin toy makers have come to make some art of their own. Robert Rodriguez, who works under the name Scraped Resin, is a local figurine maker who breaks down old toys and reconfigures them with his own parts to craft Mexican wrestlers, retro video game characters and just about whatever else he feels like creating.

We asked him about what drove him to join the resin toy scene, the inspiration in lowbrow art and why he decided to make Mayor Kevin Johnson into a toy.

Why figurines over any other medium?

I definitely collected and played with action figures later than most people. I’ve always just been completely fascinated with them.

Even in my early 20s, when KB Toys was going out of business, we’d buy all of their 99-cent Marvel and wrestling toys and smoke a blunt and stand them all up. When I could see that I could make my own, just something as simple as making a G.I. Joe figure that was clear, I had to try it. Once I did try it, I wished I would have found it years ago.

How much original sculpting goes into your toys?

Generally, they are almost all repurposed toy parts, but I’ve started to incorporate sculpted elements in my latest projects. The godfather of the resin movement, a New York artist who goes by the name The Sucklord, started by making bootleg hip-hop Star Wars figures, and one of my favorite aspects of his work was how good he was at mixing parts from different toy lines together into something that was both familiar, but completely new. He used toy parts as a language, which resonated with a lot of people, especially those of us who grew up in the ’80s. Inspired by him, I put a ridiculous amount of thought into kitbashing [repurposing commercial figures] and troll eBay regularly looking to uncover an old toy line or figure that works for something I’m trying to do, and that hasn’t been used yet. That said, I’m trying to teach myself to sculpt, which is tough, but I’ve started experimenting with a new sculpting wax that I’ll be incorporating on my next project. 3-D printing has also become a recent obsession.

PHOTO by Lauran fayne wOrTHy

Did The Sucklord popularize the kinda janky look of many figurines?

And is that what your Kevin Johnson figurine is about?

When he first started, there was no one else doing it. He had to teach himself, and his first toys really were bad. They were extremely shoddy, and when he put them out, he put them out with this sort of pride, saying, “These are really crappy, I’m The Sucklord because my toys suck.”

I’d say a lot of people, including myself, were really inspired by him.

He’s one of the few local figures that actually had a plastic version of them made in the ’80s. [Johnson was featured as a figure while playing for the Phoenix Suns.] I started with figures that I thought would look cool, like Mexican wrestlers wearing suits and that sort of thing, but as I’m progressing, I want to put a lot more thought into what I’m doing and at least attempt to make art. I thought about the fact that Kevin Johnson is our mayor—I’m definitely not very political, but the fact that Sacramento elected him, it seemed a little bit like that movie Idiocracy. … I wanted to make this figure that captures that idea of, “Is he really the best guy to be leading our city?”

I don’t know. I look at his Wikipedia page and there’s a lot of crazy stuff in there. Obviously, he was really cool in the ’90s. I remember my dad watching him the playoffs, and he’s in NBA Jam !

That’s supercool. But I just don’t know if that necessarily translates to being the best leader for the city that I live in.

And maybe he is, I don’t know. I called the piece “Keeping Score,” because we definitely need to make sure that we’re thinking about this. Ω

So there’s some jank in your own stuff, then?

You know those types of toys you run across at flea markets? You see, like, a four-pack with Batman and Spider-Man, and whatnot? I love those, I always have loved those. The parts are wrong, the paint’s weird, Superman’s eyes are all bugged out—I think a lot of that goes into the resin scene.

It seems like an elevation of all things lowbrow.

Part of the resin scene, the fact that it’s lowbrow, it’s this pride—we all consider it art. When you go to most art galleries, if you see a piece that you like, it’s gonna cost hundreds of dollars. Most people just don’t have money for that, can’t afford to have art in their living room. These toys are generally put out for under $100 and we try to make as much as possible, 10 or 12, and the idea is that this is art, and that this is affordable.

Learn more about Scraped resin and order “Keeping Score” at www.scrapedresin.com.

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