S 2015 12 17

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Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

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Mickey Avalon & Dirt Nasty Geoff Tate’s Operation: Mindcrime STRFKR / Com Truise Keys N Krates Brian Fallon & The Crowes Cradle of Filth Neck Deep / State Champs Nick Carter Mute Math Mike Stud Tonight Alive & Set It Off Ciara Julieta Venegas

EditoR’S NotE

dEcEmbER 17, 2015 | Vol. 27, iSSuE 35

36 27 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

35

63

Design Services Manager Anne Lesemann Art Director Hayley Doshay Associate Art Director Brian Breneman Production Coordinator Skyler Smith Designer Kyle Shine Marketing/Publications Design Manager Serene Lusano Custom Publications Designer Sarah Hansel Contributing Photographers Lisa Baetz, Evan Duran, Wes Davis, Luke Fitz, Taras Garcia, Michael Miller, Bobby Mull, Shoka, Darin Smith, Lauran Worthy

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, Greg Meyers, Kenneth Powell, Gilbert Quilatan, Lloyd Rongley, Lolu Sholotan, Mark Shelton, Jonathan Taea

Director of Sales and Advertising Corey Gerhard Senior Advertising Consultants Rosemarie Messina, Olla Swanson, Joy Webber, Kelsi White Advertising Consultants Joseph Barcelon, Meghan Bingen, Angel DeLaO, Stephanie Johnson, Dave Nettles, Lee Roberts, Elena Ruiz, 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 Writers Kate Gonzales, Anne Stokes Executive Coordinator Jessica Takehara

05 07 08 13 14 16 22 25 27 35 36 38 45 49 63

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President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resources Manager Melanie Topp Business Manager 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

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The here and now The posts started popping up in  my Facebook feed, in astonishing  number, sometime Sunday after the  Los Angeles Times published Melinda  Welsh’s essay in print and online.

Melinda is SN&R’s founding editor.  Her essay, “The Time I Have Left,�  detailed with extraordinary insight  and grace her journey with cancer.  The diagnosis, the decisions, the  treatments and, then, news the  cancer had not retreated. The word  “terminal.�

On Facebook, friends and colleagues shared Melinda’s essay,  praising the longtime editor as a  wonderful journalist, mentor and  friend.

She is all of those things to so  many people. She is all of those  things to me. I’ve known Melinda for  more than 20 years. She helped me  start my career and through the  years she’s been a wonderful colleague, mentor and friend.

But it’s too easy to slip into the  “was.� She is a wonderful colleague,  mentor and friend. And right now she  is still here, doing important work.  Just last month, she brought the Letters to the Future project to fruition.  The collection of essays by notable  writers, scientists, artists and thinkers tackled climate change in advance  of the United Nations Climate Change  Conference in Paris. Published in this  paper on November 19, it was a collaboration between more than 40-plus  media outlets. All because of Melinda.

Read a longer version of Melinda’s  essay in this week’s SN&R on page  14. Feel sad (OK, devastated) and,  then, please, continue to celebrate  Melinda in the here and now.

She’s not done yet.

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Dance. I go out in the rain and dance in the rain. When it rains, I love to dance.

When it rains, I get really happy. I do the happy dance from the heart because I am just thrilled to see it rain.

I go grab my daughter and we do—especially during the drought.

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Stay inside with a good book. I like all of the classics, Dickens and Austen. I read them multiple times. Right now, I am reading mysteries such as Agatha Christie’s.

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I curl up on the couch.

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I like to wait it out and then look for the rainbow.

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RIP, Matthew Caquelin Re “Gun violence claimed 62 lives in Sacramento  County this year� by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R  News, December 10): Sadly, my nephew, Matthew Caquelin, age 26,  is mentioned in this article. Our family is trying to raise funds  to cover expenses at www.gofundme.com/c3cn4sfd. I know our  family is in shock and grief over the tragic loss of my nephew’s  life. But I don’t think you can blame the Second Amendment. Guns  don’t just kill someone without a heinous individual behind the  trigger. We need to get to the root of why so many people have no  respect for another human life. The end result is the destruction  of two families, the victim, and when captured, the killer. Except  the victim’s family can never see their loved one again in this  world! Miss you and love you, Matthew!

Geoffrey Caquelin via email

Gun-control questions Re “End the end-around�

(SN&R Editorial, December 10): Your editorial fails to define what exactly you mean by “assault rifle.� Could you please outline the differences

between a common ranch rifle and an “assault rifle�? Are those differences mainly cosmetic?

Aren’t all guns sold today pretty much semi-automatic? You note the AR-15 style weapons used in San Bernardino were “modified,� but you fail to note there is

already a law against that. What additional specific legislation are you supporting that would be both constitutional and effective in stopping what happened there? Do you really think that the bad guys of any stripe give a rat’s ass about gun control laws?

Thank you.

Christine Craft Sacramento

More substance, please Re “The dinner game� by Nick Miller (SN&R News, November 2): In Miller’s article, he is obviously trying to connect with the foodies of Sacramento, because peppered throughout are terms like “farm-to-fork spirit� and “Instagram foodie pics.�

Now, while I think the idea for this piece is great, I find fault with the article’s ability to do anything of substance for the people of Sacramento suffering

from hunger. If anything, all I think this piece accomplishes is to give Miller a boost in his readership, and maybe give him some semblance of an idea of what people on food stamps go through.

I think in the future, if you are going to publish pieces like this, they should show more respect to the subject at hand and not seem cobbled together at the last minute. Miller laments how hard it is to live on food stamp budget, which consists of only $5 a day, but in the end only asks people to make changes in the coming year. Miller doesn’t say how this experience has changed him, what changes this experience has inspired him to make and most importantly what his readers can do to help. At the end of the day, what is the point of this article? It does nothing for the people of Sacramento on food stamps and only makes Miller look good.

Sophie Sinclair via email

ONLINE BUZZ

on the port-a-potty that was delivered to City hall as part of ‘anti-homeless’ law protests: smh. come on people be   professional or go out into the fields  and make a difference there are a  lot of organizations that need public  support with donations and time to  help the homeless so invest ur time  there not at govt meetings.

@SacNewsReview

tony prakash Are they considering all the people  still stuck smack dab in that  diaper shame stage of maturity?  Meanwhile homeless people who  actually survive suffer day after  day under a cruel and unusual  social policy, hoping from the  depths of their souls that all the  people who actually empathize  and don’t want them damaged by  psych treatments will find a way  through the agents of the cruelty  in between

Facebook.com/ SacNewsReview

@SacNewsReview

Online Buzz contributions are not edited for grammar, spelling or clarity.

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Magic in the air Forget Downtown 3.0—upstart and established businesses flocking to new-look Broadway

BY GRAHAM WOMACK

It’s the day before the soft opening of the new Joe Marty’s Bar & Grille and co-owner Jack Morris barely has time to talk. Morris and partner Devon Atlee have spent the past four months restoring the historic Broadway sports bar and grill, gutted by a 2005 fire, and while it’s come a long way, work isn’t complete. A scoreboard purchased from nearby Little League park Dooley Field leans against a wall, waiting to be hung. Contractors and freshly hired staff mill about.

Finally, with a little lobbying, Morris acquiesces, starts to discuss his business—and gets excited. He ushers SN&R over to a wall with pictures of a barren room. “This is four months ago,” Morris says. There’s been plumbing, electrical, and sewer work, total rewiring for the iconic neon sign out front.

“Everything’s new.”

The new life at Joe Marty’s mirrors the resurgence going on up and down Broadway. The city is gathering feedback for a Complete Streets Project, which could transform Broadway into a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly corridor, and the long darkened bar at 15th Street finally reopened on December 3.

Morris told SN&R he and Atlee chose to reopen the bar partly because of everything the city is doing along Broadway. “It’s a slow process for ’em, it’s going to be a long process for ’em, but I think this is the first step, really,” Morris said. “If you think about it, Joe Marty’s is the first step. … It’s what everybody sees coming back into Land Park.”

It isn’t the only prominent new business on Broadway. Sac Republic

8 | SN&R | 12.17.15

FC, which recently finished its second ideas and I wanted to be a part of the season, has its team offices on 17th change.”

Street, one block off the boulevard.

Morris and Atlee began talking Near Sac Republic, New Helvetia three years ago about reopening Joe Brewing Co. celebrated its third anniMarty’s, around the time the Urban versary on Black Friday, doing business Land Institute finished a study of out of the old Casa Grande Tortilla Broadway that led to a $284,000 state Factory. grant to do the initial planning for the Then there’s the stuff that city’s Complete Streets Project. It’s could come to Broadway. One of similar to the city’s Grid 2.0 project Sacramento’s highest-rated restauthat aims to make the central city rants, The Kitchen, has more pedestrian-, bike- and announced it will transit-friendly. move to Broadway.

Jeff Goldman of Nearby, mixedthe Urban Land use community Institute said The Mill at that early in Broadway his group’s is in the study, it works. Tina identified Reynolds street told SN&R improvethat her ments visual the city commuhad been nications making Dave Gull firm, Uptown along owner, New Helvetia Brewing Co., on how to Studios, will Broadway implement traffic calming on Broadway relocate to 23rd as the start of and Broadway in a more comprethe spring, operating hensive look at the in the former Bob’s Glass corridor and a chance to warehouse. bring back infill projects scuttled “I chose to move my business to by the economic downturn Broadway because I feel that I am a of 2008. change agent for a neighborhood,” “It’s like someone’s smile and Reynolds wrote in an email. She said having some gaps between the teeth,” she hopes to host events, speakers Goldman said. “There’s a lot to work and art gatherings, and use her new with along Broadway, but you still have building’s open space for community a few gaps like those that have great experiences. “Broadway is currently potential to fill in.” affordable and ready to explode with One of the dangers with infill new energy—new people and new development is gentrification, raising

“I’ve mentioned this to the city before: We could fix most of this with a can of paint.”

property values enough that lower income residents get displaced. At the very least, something about a neighborhood’s character can change in the process.

Take Joe Marty’s, which probably couldn’t have been recreated as it was before the 2005 fire, but has a distinctly cleaner, brighter and more family-friendly look now. Morris and Atlee have a nine-year lease and have trademarked the name Joe Marty’s, too.

“We stepped it up a little bit, but it’s still got the same feel,” Morris said of his business. “It’s got a big bar. It’s just different. It’s a new Joe Marty’s.”

The founder and namesake of the old Joe Marty’s was a Major League Baseball player from 1937 to 1941 whose career derailed due to injuries and World War II. Accordingly, the most memorable thing about the old Joe Marty’s was history: Monthly lunches for old-time local ballplayers, now held at Old Ironsides, and numerous baseball photos. Firefighters formed a bucket brigade to save those photos, and they might still be in storage somewhere.

But they’re not in the new Joe Marty’s, which features recreated photos from memorabilia collector Alan O’Connor.

Some things about Broadway are less likely to change. Broadway might be the best spot in Sacramento to get international food, with restaurants for a variety of countries clustered between 16th and 19th streets. Greater Broadway Partnership Interim Executive Director Michelle Smira Brattmiller said her group is considering holding an international food festival.

“One of the things we’re looking at doing is trying to utilize the resources that are already here,” she said. “We don’t want to try to create something that doesn’t exist, but we have so much diversity in the food makeup, in the restaurants that we have here.”

So far, businesses along Broadway seem pleased with the city’s improvements. Water-main work along Broadway over the summer made it difficult for customers to get into the Avid Reader’s parking lot. But the streetscape work and traffic calming measures are perhaps long overdue.

CITY HALL’S PORT-A-POTTY see NEWS

10

THANKS, MELINDA see GREENLIGHT

12

SUSPEND RONDO MORE see SCOREKEEPER

13

BEATS

GUN SILENCED

Preservation Sacramento President William Burg said that the traffic planning on Broadway dates to a 1930s approach of creating brisk auto corridors. “A lot of Complete Streets is reclaiming the public realm,” Burg said.

New Helvetia owner David Gull called Broadway “flat-out dangerous.”

He’d love to see bike lanes, anything to prevent drivers from going 40 miles an hour.

“I’ve mentioned this to the city before: We could fix most of this with a can of paint,” Gull said. “But they insist on having studies and planning traffic studies and engineering reports and all these other things. But, ultimately, they’re just going to go out there and restripe it, even before any hardscaping happens.”

Funding to implement all the changes on Broadway could be a challenge, a common issue with transportation projects. The city will be on the hook for most of the costs and pursue state and federal grants to defray them.

The Greater Broadway Partnership, which gets its money through a parcel tax in its area, has an annual budget of $245,000.

“That’s not enough, obviously, to do any major construction projects, but it is money that they can put toward actively seeking grant funding and working with our partners at the city and [the Sacramento Area Council of Governments] to see, if there’s funding available, how can we work together to go try to get that?” Smira Brattmiller said.

But for Greater Broadway Partnership board member and Sac Republic FC marketing and communications vice president Erika Bjork, the neighborhood’s already shining. She noted that Colin Hanks’ documentary about Tower Records, All Things Must Pass, which premiered in October at Tower Theater, has brought national attention to the district.

Bjork told SN&R, “I think there’s something to be said about a multitude of things coming together at one point.” Ω

Two more young men joined Sacramento County’s growing roll of gun homicide victims this past week, bringing the total to 64, according to an SN&R analysis of available data.

The victims were both 25-year-old males, according to law enforcement reports, though the county coroner hadn’t released the identity of one of them as of print deadline.

Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies located that victim on the floor of his Carmichael apartment a little after 11 p.m. Saturday.

According to the sheriff’s department, witnesses reported hearing sounds of a scuffle before a gunshot. A sheriff’s release says two males were seen running from the scene, while an unidentified vehicle was heard fleeing the complex a short time later.

Two nights earlier, police officers in the city of Sacramento found a victim who had suffered what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds in the Old North Sacramento neighborhood. Isaiah Rodarte was pronounced dead at the scene. Like most of the county’s victims of gun homicide, the African-American Rodarte was a young man of color.

In both cases, investigators have yet to identify a motive or suspects. Information on either shooting can be submitted through Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP (4357), or by texting 274637. For the police shooting, enter “SACTIP” followed by the tip information. For the sheriff’s homicide, enter “SSD” first. (Raheem F. Hosseini)

GONE TO POT

Jack Morris (left) and Devon Atlee give thumbs up to the new Joe Marty’s. The bar is part of new business excitement along the Broadway corridor.

PHOTO BY LISA BAETZ

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s chief of staff is leaving City Hall—and passing on K.J. for Mary J and a kush new gig.

On Tuesday, Daniel Conway announced he’s exiting the mayor’s office after three years to kickstart a new medical and recreational marijuana business.

“I’m excited to be plunging into the emerging marijuana industry,” Conway wrote in an email from his “daniel.omkj@gmail.com” account.

He’ll be partnering with Ross Haley, CEO of Santa Rosa-based General Hydroponics, on a new medical- and recreational-pot project.

In an interesting twist, Haley’s company was bought up earlier this year by Scotts Miracle-Gro. The Kush new gig for mayor’s chief of staff. mayor’s wife, Michelle Rhee, is on the Miracle-Gro board.

Taking Conways’ place, as expected, is Crystal Strait, former Sen. Richard Pan chief of staff and political director for the California Democratic Party.

Conway also took the announcement of his departure to reiterate old talking points pertaining to the mayor’s decision not to run for re-election. “Following the defeat of Measure L, it was clear that Mayor Johnson wasn’t going to run for a third term,” he wrote. “My goal was to stay until the end of this year to ensure that OMKJ was set up for the Mayor’s final year.”

The big question now, of course, is whether Conway’s new weed biz will advertise in SN&R’s back pages. (Nick Miller)

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This port-a-potty arrived at city Hall on a Tuesday night and was removed by the city the next day before noon.

A flatbed truck backed onto a City Hall sidewalk, then dumped off a large port-a-potty. So it began: protesters’ indefinite occupation of 915 I Street.

The portable toilet grabbed most of the attention. But this action, which started on Tuesday, December 8, just before the evening’s council meeting, was about more than bathroom breaks.

It was about protesting the city’s homelessness policies.

That night, protester James “Faygo” Clark spoke to a crowd waiting in line for the weekly Community Dinner Project meal about the laws he says discriminate against homeless people. Then, he asked people to join him and occupy or “camp out” at City Hall until the laws were overturned.

Activist say they deserve a right to rest without police harassment, in addition to access to clean drinking water and public restrooms. They also say the Department of Justice is on their side, and cite a recent ruling that said “anti-camping laws” are unconstitutional.

“The anti-camping ordinance criminalizes individuals who have no place else to go,” Clark, who is also homeless, told SN&R last week. “If you lay down and go to sleep [outside], that’s illegal. If you have a sleeping bag to keep warm, that’s illegal.”

By day six of the occupation, foldout tables topped with loaves of bread and protesters in chairs overtook a small strip of dead lawn along Ninth Street. Activists chatted and smoked, wrapped tightly in blankets and coats to keep the morning freeze at bay. Food donations arrived regularly, they said, and a pile of more blankets

nic k a m@ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

and sleeping bags beneath a tree had grown to more than 3 feet tall.

The occupation clearly was settled in for the long haul. But the game plan had evolved, according to protester Steve Handlin.

“We’re not going to escalate things or get in the police’s face,” he explained. “We’re just offering services that the city does not.”

Handlin, a 38-year-old computer engineer who isn’t homeless but is occupying in solidarity, said the protest had become more about helping others than pitching tents at City Hall and making a scene.

He told the story of Joan, a homeless woman in her 50s who she says can’t sleep through the night because she’s constantly harassed by police. This means Joan doesn’t take her wet shoes off, which means her socks and feet often remain soaked. She complained to fellow occupiers about soreness.

“I used to be in the Army and I recognize trench rot,” Handlin said. He treated her feet and got her new socks. “And she can sleep here, through the night, without the police rousting her.”

There’s also Jimmy, in a wheelchair because doctors amputated his leg last month. Jimmy gets to sleep peacefully at the occupation, too.

“He also gets tucked in each night by a couple of hard-looking dudes, big bearded guys: ‘We gotta get Jimmy in bed,’” Handlin said, laughing. “It’s a community here.”

He and others say city police have not taken action against the occupation, which has included up to two-dozen campers on some nights.

“At first police had a negative attitude, but after the third day, they come around and ask, ‘Is anybody harassing you, is everything OK?’ They’re nice and friendly.”

Police did remove the port-a-potty less than 24 hours after its arrival. They also allegedly cited and towed one of the activist’s trucks, according to activists.

In 2014, city police issued 1,030 citations for illegal camping.

Clark and others say that’s unacceptable— and they won’t be leaving City Hall grounds until it stops. “We need to make sure our voices get heard,” he said. Ω

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Sacramento County is isolating too many jail inmates in small cells for prolonged periods of time, sometimes for 24 hours a day, and may be headed for a class-action lawsuit.

That’s the substance and threat of a scathing review, first released in August, by two groups that examined the treatment of inmates at the main jail downtown and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, both of which are operated by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

Attorneys with Disability Rights California and the Prison Law Office conducted tours of the facilities in April. Together, the two jails hold about 4,300 people.

PLO staff attorney Kelly Knapp says attorneys found widespread abuse and neglect, like inmates being confined in small cells for 22 to 24 hours a day, and sometimes “They’re crammed two to a cell designed for looking at classone. “We saw these issues applied systemwide,” she said, adding that the action litigation.” issues were consistent with many jails Kelly Knapp around the state. staff attorney, Prison According to the resulting 33-page Law Office report, inmates with mental-health disabilities weren’t exempted, either, and the “harsh conditions” may have “resulted in two recent deaths,” DRC says in a release.

Specifically, the double-celling of inmates with mental-health disabilities may have contributed to a December 2014 homicide in which a bipolar inmate warned staff he was going to “beat up” his cellmate, a mentally ill sex offender who harassed him and soiled himself. The DRC report states: “Custody staff took no action, and the second prisoner was found dead the next day.”

Five inmates have died in jail custody this year so far. That matches last year’s total, which was the most since 2008.

The report also found inadequate mental-health care, overcrowding and violations of disabled inmates’ rights. According to DRC, Sheriff Scott Jones agreed to address some of the Americans with Disabilities Act violations. And the sheriff’s department was poised to let two consulting firms evaluate housing and mental health concerns at its jails. The agreements with Puget Sound Mental Health PS Inc. and Eldon Vail total $75,000 for a one-year period, beginning January 21, 2016, according to a county staff report, and were due for a procedural vote by the board of supervisors on Wednesday. The action won’t further reforms so much as gather a year’s worth of additional information. Puget Sound will provide written evaluations of the jails’ mental health care, while Vail will evaluate all housing units.

The county says consultants will be given “reasonable access” to the jails and inmate records, and allowed to conduct “confidential and voluntary interviews” with inmates and staff. “This is a much less expensive way to address problems than defending litigation,” Knapp said. “If they don’t make the reforms, then we pursue litigation. And they’re looking at class-action litigation.”

A sheriff’s spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment before print deadline. Ω

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12.17.15 | SN&R | 11

Melinda One person’s tough love makes all the difference by jeff vonkaenel

As soon as we are born, it is certain we will die. Our life falls between these two points. That is the subject matter of SN&R founding editor Melinda Welsh’s essay, found in this week’s issue on page 14. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, she asks herself, “Now what?”

Melinda’s answer is not surprising to those of us who know and love her.

She plans to live life fully engaged, fully present, until she cannot. And I know I speak for many of her colleagues when I say, “We have been so blessed to be part of that life.”

I am a newspaper publisher, or put more simply, I am a salesperson—who reads.

When I look back on my career, there are two times I closed a deal that changed my life forever. The first was in 1977, when I persuaded my colleague (now wife), Deborah Redmond, to go out with me. The second was in 1988, when I convinced Melinda to be the founding editor at the startup SN&R. The three of us had key roles at the paper. My job was finding money.

Deborah kept everything running smoothly. And Melinda focused on making her editorial vision a reality.

And what a vision. She was known to describe it as tough love for Sacramento.

Tough love is not boosterism and it is not cynical. It is criticism mixed with caring, saying, “You can do better.”

When we started the paper in April 1989, Sacramento was still a blank slate, struggling to find its identity. But there was a lot here. It just needed to be found, to be written about, to be developed. It needed tough love. It needed Melinda.

As our editor, she was fully engaged in telling the stories that helped our readers understand what Sacramento was, and what it could be. She wasn’t afraid to expose Sacramento’s flaws and corruption, but was happy to report

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

when this city got it right. She had Sacramento’s back, and knew we could always do better.

The breadth of coverage under Melinda’s editorial leadership has been wide, varying from investigative pieces to in-depth reporting about all facets of our community and extensive entertainment coverage. Under her direction, we began traditions such as the Sacramento Area Music Awards (Sammies), along with our Best of Sacramento and Summer Guide issues that continue to this day.

Melinda also organized several national projects, most recently the Letters to the Future project, which published in more than 40 newspapers and websites nationwide last month.

Over the last 26 years, every week the SN&R has come out with a new edition inspired by Melinda’s vision. Approximately 75 million copies of our paper have landed in the hands of our readers, helping to start conversations, illuminate the darker corners of our city and shine a spotlight on Sacramento’s diverse and developing cultural scenes.

Melinda is a beautiful example of how one person can truly make a difference. At the end of her essay, Melinda says she takes solace in the idea that she will live on in the hearts of those who love her most.

But those of us who’ve worked with her at SN&R know she will live on in so many more ways, through the small and big changes she has helped create in this city, and at our paper. And I’m excited for her next project, her next cover story, her next words in SN&R. Thank you, Melinda, for everything. Ω

Thank you, Melinda, for everything.

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

’S mento SacraerS and winn S—with loSer ry pointS ra arbit

roNdo iN the wroNg

PaPer tiger for maYor

Kings point guard rajon rondo unleashed a tirade of anti-gay slurs at NBA official Bill Kennedy after being ejected from a game in Mexico City on December 3. On Monday, Kennedy told Yahoo! Sports he is gay.

Rondo was suspended for one game—the same suspension DeMarcus Cousins receives for too many technical fouls. Weak.

The Sacramento mayoral race got another contender last week: tony “the tiger” lopez. A three-time boxing champion, Lopez is the first Republican candidate and is casting himself as a nonpolitician. Scorekeeper likes that: Why not stay a nonpolitician instead of being a paper tiger?

- 2015

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touChÉ, Paul Paul Petrovich, whatta guy. He doesn’t get a fuel center for his new “transit-oriented development” Curtis Park Village. So, he changes the name to Crocker Village Shopping Center—and then announces two fabulous chains going in: Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree.

illuStration by Serene luSano

‘NothiNg to do here!’

-1

YamaNee love?

Charles Barkley trolled Sacramento on live TV last Thursday. After denouncing CNN’s political coverage of Donald Trump, Barkley blamed his diatribe on Sacramento. His reasoning? “Because there’s nothing to do here!” Sir Charles neglected to mention that, earlier that day, he spent the afternoon at Mustard Seed School, buying pizza for and delivering presents to children in need.

+ 48

Scorekeeper’s more than a little worried about Yamanee, the proposed high-rise luxury lofts on J and 26th streets, and how it will tower over the existing Midtown topography. But, last week, the city Planning and Design commission didn’t sound any alarms. Is Sacramento so desperate for any housing that we’ll just take what we get? Criminy!

- 16

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The time I have left ‘Letting go will be difficult’

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w w w. n e w s r e v i e w.c o m 14 | SN&R | 12.17.15

co de

X M AS 2 0 1 5

The enormity of the news didn’t sink in fully, not at first, even after my doctor uttered the words: “I’m sorry, we did find cancer.” My husband, Dave, and I had only the faintest sense that evening that someplace off in the distance our lives had been hijacked forever.

Early 2014 brought major head and neck surgery, then six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. Eight months later they found cancer again, so it was Christmas surgery and more of the same. When a scan last June showed new tumors, the outlook turned bleak. The cancer—a rare type called metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck of unknown primary—had gone systemic.

Like all doctors, oncologists want to offer patients hope—who can blame them? But with a little prodding, I was able to learn the approximate truth. A Stanford specialist gave me six to nine months to live. “But there are people who do a lot better,” he said. My surgeon told me, “Months to a year.” My University of California, San Francisco, oncologist said, “The average is a yearish … but nobody’s average.”

So there it is. I’m 59. I have terminal cancer. And I’m dying in a yearish.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, schooled at UC Davis, and fortunate member of the team that brought SN&R to town in 1989, it might have been natural for me to write or blog about all this as it was unfolding. I’d reported about end-of-life issues before, especially after my brother Marty Welsh, a physician from Placerville, died of Lou Gherig’s disease five years ago. But I just couldn’t bring myself to write about my cancer, however much I admire the people who find the voice to go public with their tales. I didn’t feel I had anything new to offer.

But I’ve turned a corner on that somehow and feel ready to explore

me lind a w@ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

some of the questions that emerge for people who face a grim diagnosis. Like this one: How do I best spend the time I have left?

I feel perversely well right now— having recovered from the worst side effects of treatment and not yet experiencing the corporeal failure that is to come. I’m continuing to work part-time until I can’t anymore. I love what I do and am lucky enough to have purpose, supportive colleagues and employers who are good friends, and a job where I feel I can make a difference.

Besides writing, I plan to spend much of the time that remains with Dave, my friends and our big crew of a family. We have arranged gatherings with various people of importance in our lives. My sister and brothers and our clan joined for a summer family reunion on the Monterey coast; we checked into the same hotel and laughed and celebrated one another’s company. My niece came over from France, bringing her young daughter and new baby. We sobbed quietly in each other’s arms as farewells were said, both knowing we’d likely never see each other again.

Dave booked us a cruise to Alaska in late August, and we luxuriated in the beauty and expansive time together. And we’re planning a few other special trips.

But mostly we’ve just become devoted to taking pleasure in the small things. We read and laugh. We work.

We walk and watch movies. I was told: “Don’t skip dessert”—so we don’t. We play the Neville Brothers and dance around the living room.

We’ve taken to getting up early a few mornings a week and driving out to see the sunrise over the flatlands of Yolo County. Our dog, Scout, thrusts her head out the window from the backseat, passionate on behalf

of the here-and-now. We’ve become startling aware of how differently the sun announces itself into the world each day.

In her famous essay “Illness as Metaphor,” Susan Sontag wrote about “the night-side of life,” a kind of parallel universe that opens up when a person moves from the kingdom of the well into that of the sick. I didn’t know it at first, but I’d immigrated to that new place the moment I was diagnosed with cancer.

I’ve been lucky enough to have friends and loved ones escorting me to and from the hospitals, clinics, chemo infusion rooms, scanning stations and radiation lobbies. But many who arrive unexpectedly in cancer’s kingdom have come alone. The rail-thin man in the corner with the clogged IV, the elderly woman in the stunning purple hat waiting for her turn on the radiation table, the state bureaucrat who took his chemo wearing a tie, the university student who arrived at the infusion center in a taxi. The solidarity I feel with the other cancer patients is almost overwhelming.

Like me, they probably weren’t aware this “night-side” even existed until they arrived in it.

I’ve told my team of doctors, who have been skilled and caring, that I’m not interested in “maintenance chemotherapy” since, for me, the possible benefit would not make it worth the downslide to my quality of life and would give me little extra time anyway. I am a “do not resuscitate” person—desperate to go on living but against prolonging my dying once that process is in full swing. As an extension of this belief, I fully support California’s new “right-to-die” law, though it does not go into effect until 90 days after the current special session on healthcare closes.

My UCSF oncologist, a skin-cancer specialist doing cutting-edge work in personalized medicine, is now attempting to extend the time I have left by getting me in clinical trials that don’t come replete with debilitating side effects. I am utterly grateful for his efforts. I’ve started gene therapy—injections of pIL-12 with electroporation—that have shown promise in other patients. If I’m fortunate and push hard enough, I might also get access to the breakthrough immunotherapy

drug pembrolizumab (the “Jimmy Carter drug”), though it is not yet FDA approved for my type of cancer. Any of these might net me more months, maybe even years before the decline … and boy, would I take that time!

Still, my basic trajectory is unswerving.

I sometimes worry about my ability to exit life with grace and humor. And what if I’m bad at suffering? I admit I can fill up with fear. But what’s the point? For counsel, I turn to my favorite philosopher, Lao Tzu: “Be content with what you have / rejoice in the way things are / When you realize there is nothing lacking / the whole world belongs to you.”

Then, I try to focus on the present and my gratitude for having lived a charmed life that includes Dave, my family and devoted friends, and work that has always held meaning for me. In the big picture, I see the universe as brilliant and the fact of life on earth as extraordinary.

But I know my teeny, tiny piece in it all is coming to a close. Still, it’s impossible for me to imagine going to sleep and then … nothing.

But I will not awaken that next morning and drive out to see the sunrise.

And I will not walk with my husband on our daily stroll with Scout out onto the greenbelt behind our home. And I will not marvel at the news of the world as my iPad streams its conflicting arguments for hope and despair about the fate of humanity. And I will not share further moments of warmth and joy with my cherished friends and family. And I will never ever hold Dave again.

Letting go will be difficult.

But death has its own clock. So I will take solace in the idea that, once gone, I may come to occupy a small space in the hearts of the people who loved me most. And perhaps from that breach, I will continue to radiate a few simple reminders: Time is limited. Life is miraculous. And we are beautiful. Ω

So there it is. I’m 59. I have terminal cancer.

And I’m dying in a yearish.

Melinda Welsh is the founding editor of the Sacramento News & Review and served as its editor for the better part of two decades. A shorter version of this essay appeared in last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times.

12.17.15 | SN&R | 15

RENT GONE WILD

Sacramento’s one of the hottest rental-housing markets in the country.

Can you still afford the 916?

BY NICK MILLER • NICKAM@NEWSREVIEW.COM

You

come home from work to discover mail from the landlord. Bad news: The rent is going up. In 60 days. A lot. An extra $325. Every month.

This is what happened this summer to longtime Midtown resident Kristina.

She’s called the artist lofts at Pensione K on K and 17th streets home since 2000, when she moved from the “vanilla suburbs,” as she called them, to her new urban digs. Back then, she was inspired by the loft’s quirky blank slate, its roll-up garage door, minimalist vibe and how it beckoned innovation.

Over the years, the building’s owners, San Diego-based Barone Galasso & Associates Inc., increased the rent by $50 more or less annually. But the letter stated that her rent, higher than the regional average $1,250, would be surging up to $1,575 a month.

“I feel gouged,” said Kristina, who requested to keep her last name private.

“I feel that [the landlords] are jumping on the bandwagon.”

That bandwagon is the newest surge in local monthly rent costs. Midtown is

16 | SN&R | 12.17.15

the hot spot for this uptick; real-estate analysts say rents there are up 16.9 percent over the prior year, an increase more than three times the national average.

But it’s not just a central-city phenomenon. They’re up in Fair Oaks— 13.4 percent over 2014. Rosemont and south Rancho Cordova jumped higher at 14.9 percent.

In November, Sacramento was the third-hottest rental-housing market in the entire country, according to real-estate analysis firm Yardi Matrix.

The River City trails only Portland and San Francisco—two cities notorious for brutal housing demand and eyebrowraising rents.

Why is Sacramento on the rise? So many factors. Economic recovery and modest job growth. A sexy restaurant scene. The Kings arena. Ex-Bay Area types wanting more affordable living in the Valley. Millennials rejecting home ownership. Baby boomers ditching the burbs for smaller-footprint living in the urban core. And people scarred by the

recession and fearful of locking into a mortgage, or who prefer the flexibility of renting.

But experts agree the foremost influencer in Sacramento is basic: too much demand, not enough supply.

Advocates for low-income renters worry this is driving old-school residents out. That people can ill-afford these new rents. Residents like Kristina.

“If I can weather this storm, I’ll stay as long as I can,” she said of her art loft.

“But there can’t be another one. They can’t come to me with one more increase, not one more thing. I’d have to leave Midtown.”

HELLO, DETROIT! The average Sacramento rent increased more than $100 a month during the past year. How did boring-old Sacto become this nationally recognized, sizzling hotbed of urban living?

Consider a damning statistic: Last year, Sacramento was the second-worst major market in the entire country when

it came to the number of completed new housing units (as a percentage of total overall housing stock), according to analysis by Yardi. Which big city was in last place? Not San Francisco, not Portland.

Detroit.

Ouch.

Sacramento is home of the Kings, so we’re accustomed to cellar-dwelling.

Still, this is the reddest of red flags. And there remain endless rungs to climb until Sacramento can even nip at the construction booms in cities such as Denver, Austin and Seattle (see chart on page 19).

So goes Sacramento’s unique misfortune: It’s a high-demand market, yet construction of new housing units remains pitiful.

The mayor says he’s on this, that there are thousands of new units in the pipeline. But developers still lament City Hall’s inflated fees and copious red tape. “We’ve got to figure out how to provide incentives for developers to build housing, to build rental housing,” said Jim Lofgren with the Rental Housing Association, a local group that represents property owners.

“The scarcity is what’s driving the prices up.”

But don’t underestimate the demand.

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released a report on December 9 that looks at demand for rental housing in the United States. “The decade-long surge in rental demand is unprecedented,” the study begins. So there’s that.

It also reports that, since 2005, the total number of families and individuals in rental housing jumped 25 percent, up to 43 million. A larger percentage of Americans rent now than during any period since the 1960s.

Harvard’s forecast in the 44-page report is grim: “[T]hese trends have led to record numbers of renters paying excessive amounts of income for housing, with little prospect for meaningful improvement.”

UNSETTLING AND FRIGHTENING When Barone Galasso & Associates raised Kristina’s rent this past September, she banded together with her loftmates and visited the property manager. They asked him to relay a message to the owners: Please do not increase the rent by $325 a month. Do half of that total now, and half in six months, instead. Please.

Barone Galasso & Associates rejected the appeal. In fact, BG&A raised the rent even more.

In November, Sacramento was the third-hottest rental-housing market in the entire country.

The property manager at Pensione K did not return multiple phone calls to discuss Kristina’s claims. BG&A’s CEO did not return SN&R’s phone calls, and emails sent to info@baronegalasso.com and pensionek@baronegalasso.com bounced back.

Kristina, who recently found herself unemployed, loves her art loft. She says her landlords never performed any significant tenant improvements, not even new paint, but she made significant improvements to it herself—new fixtures and lighting and more—over the years.

“So, I paid [for] it, because—oddly enough, as most of my family and friends from the Bay Area will tell me—you don’t know how good you have it [with Sacramento rents],” she said. That’s true: The median rent for an S.F. apartment is a skull-numbing $3,880 a month.

But that’s no silver lining for Kristina.

“I find it, frankly, really unsettling and

Percentage rent increase over prior year

frightening,” she said of Sacramento’s rental-housing trajectory.

She did look at other properties before re-upping at the Pensione K art lofts, including apartments on Q Street near the Fremont Community Garden, where she was once a board member. “I was aghast that those were $2,500 a month for a one-bedroom.”

Her rent increase is legal under state law. BG&A provided a 60-day notice for their bump of more than 10 percent.

Lofgren sympathizes with renters subject to the hardship of excessive increases. “What we would all prefer is slow, steady predictable rent increases for everybody’s sake,” he said. But he also explained that the landlord-tenant relationship is fluid.

“We go through these cycles,” Lofgren explained. “We all forget about a few years ago when it was the other way around: It was a renter’s market, and owners were upside-down and were panicking.”

With all this rent drama, you’d think there’d be more numbers, more statistics on ZIP codes and rental costs and trending. But neither the city nor the county collects comprehensive data on rental pricing, so it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much people paid pre-recession and what they’re paying now. But there’s no denying that Sacramento was significantly more affordable for renters in recent years (see page 18 for testimonials on people’s first Midtown rent).

According to websites that collect local real-estate data (such as Zillow, Zilpy and Rent Jungle—none of which are considered nearly as reliable as Yardi), the average Sacramento rent was less than $900 for a one-bedroom as recently as the spring of 2014. At this same time last year, rent prices were ticking upward at a modest 5.5 percent, nearly on par with the national average.

Beginning in the summer of 2014, rent steadily bolted upward, all the way to the current 10.9 percent increase over the prior year, regionwide.

“And now Sacramento is beating out some major markets when it comes to rent growth,” said Yardi data analyst Dana Seeley.

Seeley says she attends real-estate conferences all over the country, and the No. 1 conversation at those gatherings is about millennials: How they are waiting to buy their first homes, and in turn pushing up rental-housing costs, because

“RENT GONE WILD” continued on page 18

16.9%

14.9%

13.4%

12.5%

12.5%

Midtown

South Rancho Cordova/ Rosemont

Fair Oaks

Citrus Heights

South Land Park

THE RENT GOES UP

WHO RAISED THE RENT?

Highest rent increases in 2015 versus the previous year in the Sacramento region (according to Yardi Matrix).

SACRAMENTO VS. THE NATION Sacramento’s experiencing the fifth-highest rent increases of any city in the nation over the last year, according to Yardi Matrix. The following chart looks at average rent increases, quarter two of 2015 compared to quarter two of 2014.

Percentage rent increase over prior year

On November 1, the landlord informed residents that it would be adding another $75 a month to their rent in the form of charging for parking spaces. Kristina says that these outdoor spots—no garage, not even a carport—had been free for the previous 15 years. When Kristina complained, BG&A told her that “other loft spaces around you charge $150 a month for parking,” she said.

Her new monthly rent was now $1,650, up 32 percent in just 90 days.

That’s an extra $4,800 annually in payments.

13.2% Portland

12.3%

12%

San Jacksonville Francisco

11.7%

10.6%

9.1%

Denver

Sacramento

Seattle

12.17.15 | SN&R | 17

“RENT GONE WILD”

#MyFirstMidtownRent Readers share how much they wrote that rent check for back in the day It’s not always about Midtown. (At least it shouldn’t be.) But there’s no denying that Sacramento’s central city is a hot lil’ housing market. The average rent for a one-bedroom in Midtown is north of $1,000 a month. Oh, for the good ol’ days of $500 one-bedroom apartments. Our readers on Facebook and Twitter hopped aboard the way-back train and shared what they coughed up for their first Midtown rent: $125 at 21st and Q, a 6br house split 8 ways, 1993.

William Burg

$675, studio in a building that was leaning forward on P and 16th.

Nicole Miller

$400, in 1988. Two bedroom 1880’s shotgun at 9th between E and F. 6 units, I lived on the top floor

Daniel Neeland

$595 for 2 bedroom 2 bath with washer and dryer in apartment

Anita Jones

$650 with utilities included on 14th and G in 2013 Erica Kittle

$650, tiny one bedroom, hardwood floors, beautiful backyard - 2009, 26th and O

Melody Stone

$725. One bedroom, 23rd and Eish.

Wonder what it goes for now...

Joe Espena

$925 two bedrooms, hardwood floor.

25th and N.

Estevan Damian

500 on J across from the hospital. It was a cool studio with a murphy bed.

Annie Darling

$525 at G & 14th

Madge Smurtz

18 | SN&R | 12.17.15

$980 2x1 on 22 and N

continued from page 17

of too much student debt, or that they’re hesitant because of the recession, or that they just want to live in the urban core and not Rocklin. “There seem to be more reasons to rent in this day and age than to buy, and that [millennial] demand is driving up rent prices,” she said.

And Sacramento 2015 is a millennial city. According to the latest census data, the median age now edges into millennial territory, 34.1 years old.

Another issue driving the marketplace: There’s year-round demand for housing California. People don’t just move in the spring and summer, and this contributes to Sacramento’s climb.

“And some of [the demand] could be coming off of Silicon Valley,” Seeley said, especially for Midtown and downtown units. So, blame Google and Twitter, too.

Sacramento actually saw a 0.3 percent dip in demand for “lifestyle,” or luxury-apartment housing such as lofts, in November, according to Yardi.

That statistic isn’t out of line with national trends. But it also speaks to developers’ reluctance to build more market-rate units in the urban core: There’s still not huge demand to rival primary markets in the Bay Area and Southern California.

And yet, the city—the region—clearly needs more housing.

John Foley, executive director of Sacramento Self-Help Housing, a group that helps find places to live for lowincome renters, reminded that demand is not just in the urban core. “You see [rent increases] everywhere. You see it in South Sac, you see it in Rancho Cordova, you see it in Citrus Heights,” he said.

He explained that our “tight” market has well-off renters looking for the same housing as poorer tenants. “Folks that do

Alex Greene

995,split 3 ways.

3 bedroom 27th and N Jeramie Clark

Fremont apts at 15th & P = $250 in 1997.

Jim Reilley

“How do people expect us to live when minimum wage doesn’t go up but my apartment rent does?”

850 two bedroom, 28th and S

Andrew Bristow

$425 on F & 13th 2 bedroom with garage in 1999.

JAMIE LAKE • PROSPECTIVE RENTER

Carmen Marie Hirkala

$300 for a 2/1 with parking at 18th and F. 1994.

Sarah Singleton

450 1br (huge) at 22nd and N 1998

Sasha Lynch

600 for a cute 1950’s era 2 bedroom at 17th & P. 2000.

Laura Matranga

$350 1 br 1 ba with parking. 1992.

Steph Baker

$675 G and 25th 1br

Ashley Atilano

On Craigslist this past week, there were few options for prospective tenants.

SN&R found only two Midtown onebedroom apartments for less than $1,000 a month on the site’s listings—and most options hovered well north of $1,400.

There’s this perception that the higher prices are being driven by new market-rate housing and “luxury lofts,” such as the Legado de Ravel apartments on 16th Street (one-bedrooms start at $1,675) or the 16 Powerhouse lofts on P Street (with unit prices into the mid-to-high $2,000s).

But it turns out that Sacramento is actually far below the national average when it comes to attracting well-paid renters with discretionary income, a.k.a. “choice renters,” who could easily afford a single-family home but prefer to live in urban abodes.

have the income to pay the rent are, in a sense, being pitted against poorer folks,” Foley said. Landlords choose people with more income, of course. “And they’re pushing out the lower earners.” People end up moving out of their familiar neighborhoods to cheaper parts of town.

“And it’s not the American Dream to be downwardly mobile.”

BUBBLES AND FEES Are these soaring rents a new normal, or is it all just a bubble?

“We thought that three years ago,” Seeley said of the bubble factor. “And it’s only inflated more.” She added that, unlike San Francisco or Denver, there are opportunities for infill and expansion in Sacramento, which means the current rental-housing surge might just be a beginning.

Completions as percentage of total housing stock

Her educated guess? “I would say that Sacramento’s going to keep going up, because it has the room for it.”

The region has yet to experience a truly booming job market as well, only simmering sectors. When job opportunities are more intellectually stimulating and matched by rousing cultural opportunities, housing demand tends to climb further. For instance, if Sacramento’s health-care sector continues to expand, what with the new Kaiser Permanente hospital coming to the downtown railyards, experts say that could further increase rents.

Lofgren seemed to think, however, that Sacramento wouldn’t be able to sustain this level of rent increases. “We’ll cool off, and I think that cooling-off cycle is coming,” he told SN&R. He said that once a rental-housing market is tagged as hot, it’s already on its way back down.

Or maybe not.

Consider the situation up north in Portland, arguably the most explosive rental-housing market in the country for years now. Rip City’s vacancy rate is below 3 percent—Sacramento’s is about 8 percent, according to the most recent census data—and city government there actually intervened to assuage the trend of hasty evictions and stark rent increases.

Portland passed an ordinance this fall requiring 90-day notices for any rent increase of more than 5 percent. Property owners were outraged, calling the new law a form of rent control, and a lawsuit was even filed against the city last month.

Housing developers in Sacramento would like to see the city intervene— but in a different way.

Josh Wood, the political firebrand and executive director of Region Business, a group that represents Sacramento developers, said the city needs to “get moving” and step up to the challenge of housing demand. He cited three major things the city could do to spur new development.

The first, lower city and impact fees for projects. “City fees are 30 percent too high,” he argued. And he said lowering fees, even in the short term, by as much as 50 percent, would spark new construction.

Second, come up with a way to help subsidize costs for central-city infrastructure improvements. The only ways to do this are by sales tax, bonding or an improvement district that taxes property owners—all far-off solutions.

“But we’re not going to get large downtown development unless we get an infrastructure sales tax. I’m not advocating for it. I’m just being real for what it would take.”

0.9% 8%

7.1%

Charlotte Madison

6.9% 6.7% 6.2% Denver

Austin

0.35%

Seattle Sacramento Detroit

NO SUPPLY Completions of multifamily housing are “soaring” across the country, according to Yardi Matrix. Except, for some reason, in Sacramento: In 2015, we’re the second-worst major city in the country for completion of new multifamily housing units.

Finally, he’d like to see the city complete what is called a “programmatic EIR,” or an environmental-impact report for an area, such as Midtown, so that a developer can tailor a project to the report without having to go through the costly and often litigious environmental-review process.

The city did not respond to email requests to discuss these concerns by deadline.

Wood wasn’t terribly optimistic that the city can fix this “very slow” development process. “There’s not even a goal,” he said.

A HOME YOU CAN’T AFFORD Jamie Lake lived at the Cherry Blossom Apartments in the Arden-Arcade area for nearly a year when she got the news: The complex had been sold, and the new owners were kicking everyone out and raising the rents.

“They just sent me a statement, that they transferred ownership, and they decided to evict all the tenants who didn’t renew their leases” at the higher rates.

(Cherry Blossom Apartments did not return SN&R’s call by deadline.)

Lake says her two-bedroom, at $775 a month, was wildly more affordable than what she discovered out there as a prospective tenant. “It sucked. It was terrible. And I looked and looked for an apartment, but it was so hard,” she said.

“Anything for $775 or less wasn’t in too good of an area.” She’s tried for six months, but still hasn’t found a new place.

And now she’s left Sacramento to live where it’s more affordable, in Vacaville with family. “I’m saving up my money so I can have a little bit more to start,” to pay down-payments and higher rents.

Lake’s goal is to finish her paralegal studies, which she says will take another eight months of school in Sacramento.

There’s growing concern in the city and across the country that, because

wages have not kept up with the cost of renting, more and more people won’t be able to ink that rent check at the first of the month.

A study released in October by Apartment List claimed that 54 percent of Sacramentans spend more than onethird of their net income on rent—and more than half of these renters are “severely burdened” and spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent.

The Harvard University study echoed these findings. It also reported that households with children or seniors are disproportionally cost burdened.

Minorities are also severely burdened: 33 percent of blacks and 30 percent of Hispanics pay more than a third to half of their income on rent, compared with just 23 percent of whites.

“The difficulty they have in getting enough money together each month is an increasing difficulty,” Foley with Self-Help Housing said of the disparity between people’s income and housing costs. “The increased gap over the last several years is now a chasm.”

He explained how more and more people are calling his office with rentincrease related issues. From June 2014 to June 2015, 170 of 1,173 callers in the unincorporated county dialed SSHH for help with rent-increase issues. But in just five months, from July to November of this year, 466 of 1,159 calls were about increases in rent.

“I was surprised at the large percentage increase in rent increase related calls!” Foley wrote in an email.

During this period, both the city and county of Sacramento eliminated a requirement that all new developments include a percentage of units for lowincome tenants. Instead, developers now pay into a fund that officials say will help finance new affordable housing.

But Foley and other critics are dubious. He says this fund will not bridge a gap. And he’s asking that the mayor do more. “He’s a pretty creative guy. Maybe he and others can figure out ways to raise quite a lot of money to deeply subsidize [affordable] units,” he said. “I don’t know if you tax basketball seats or [what], but you’ve got to do something.”

Until then, prospective renters such as Lake keep toiling away at low-paying gigs and watching the Sacramento rents surge higher.

“It’s really bad, because I wanted to finish school so bad,” Lake said.

“How do people expect us to live when minimum wage doesn’t go up but my apartment rent does?” Ω

12.17.15 | SN&R | 19

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By raheem F. hosseini raheemh@newsreview.com

Sacramento resident Jhonny Florez died in a wingsuit accident after shooting the Point Break remake, which will be released Christmas Day. Wife Kaci Florez (pictured with Jhonny in bottom right photo), is planning a celebration to honor what would have been her husband’s 33rd birthday.

photos courtesy of Kaci florez

22 | SN&R | 12.17.15

Peace at 1,400 feet With Point Break, audiences can exPerience the droP zone via the late sacramento chamPion Wingsuit Pilot Jhonny Florez

W

hen Point Break premieres Christmas Day, holiday moviegoers drawn by its promise of airborne stunts will learn, almost literally, what it was like to be in Jhonathan Florez’s head.

The Sacramento resident and world-champion aerial athlete died in a wingsuit accident July 3 in Switzerland. But a full year before the 32-year-old’s death, Florez strapped a 15-pound RED Digital Cinema camera to his helmet and leaped off peaks to record a dizzying midair action sequence for the movie, a remake of the 1991 action flick starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze.

“It’s so spectacular that it doesn’t look real,” says Jeb Corliss, who

served as the film’s technical adviser to the wingsuit flying unit. He stresses no wires or digital trickery were used to shortcut the peril. “You fear for them for real.”

For the audience, the kinetic scene is meant to deliver a “you are there” jolt to the adrenal gland.

For those closest to Florez, it’s one more chance to commune with a man who found peace and purpose high in the drop zone.

“It wasn’t the adrenaline,” says wife Kaci Florez, who lives in the couple’s Land Park home. “It was the complete presence in the moment that was required when he was doing it.

“It’s interesting to say now, but skydiving saved his life.”

A native of Medellin, Colombia, Jhonny started launching himself from high things at a young age, remembers his sister, Diana Cerri.

Muppets alert! see NIGHt&DaY

25

She broke bones and learned her lesson.

But not Jhonny. Trees, rooftops, balconies, “he would jump from everywhere,” she emails from Zurich, and never a scratch: “he never broke anything and he was never scared.”

Kaci says her husband, as a kid, would stare up at the birds with envy, already plotting ways he could join them. Jhonny told the Guardian something similar in a 2014 interview. “I’ve been obsessed with birds since I was 6 years old,” he told the newspaper. At the age of 13, he skydived for the first time.

After high school, Jhonny followed his sister to Florida, where he became serious about the sport. Cerri says all of her younger brother’s rambunctious and sometimes reckless energy tightened into focus. The skydiving Jhonny, the one who woke up early and didn’t party or drink, “was with out questions the better Jhonathan.”

Kaci met Jhonny at the Parachute Center in Lodi on March 21, 2010. (Yeah, she remembers the exact date.) He had moved to California to join a skydiving team and lived in Petaluma at the time.

She remembers feeling one of those gravitational attractions that sometimes happens.

A day after they parachuted back down to earth, Jhonny asked her out. Less than two months later, the couple lived together.

“The weird thing is, I never was nervous,” she says. “It was never wrong.”

Jhonny’s professional ascent was similarly quick. In 2012, he was invited to participate in the inaugural World Wingsuit League competition in China, placing fifth. For those who don’t follow the constellation of aerial disciplines that knit skydiving, base jumps and wingsuit flights together like Orion’s Belt, just know that it’s a big deal. He nabbed the gold medal the following year, then placed second in 2014.

“Everyone in our world knew Jhonny Florez,” says Rex Pemberton, a friend and fellow athlete who participated in this year’s WWL Grand Prix. “He came a really long way really fast. It was inspiring.” corliss was the one who lobbied filmmakers

to hire Jhonny to the stunt crew. At the time, Corliss says, Jhonny was one of the top three wingsuit videographers in the world, and the other two had already been hired. “Wingsuit cameramen are the best wingsuit pilots on earth,” he says. “They have to be.”

It’s like that line about how Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backward and in heels. Except in this scenario, Ginger Rogers is ripping through

VINtaGe Meat see DIsH

28

the atmosphere at triple-digit speeds with a “heavy and weird-looking” contraption on her head. “It’s the hardest job there is,” Corliss says. “I wouldn’t jump with it.”

This means that moviegoers won’t see Jhonny during the movie’s harrowing climax, which required more than a year of advance training and 60 jumps to shoot.

His job was to be the audience’s eyes during a sequence in which the audience might want to look away. Think of it as a high-speed pursuit, in midair, involving men outfitted like flying squirrels.

Filmed in Walenstadt, Switzerland, in an area imposingly known as “the crack” because of its steep, narrow cliffs, stunt divers in tight formation—“wingtip to wingtip,” Corliss says—descended to subterranean levels, where they zipped through tree croppings and flared hard when they were 1 foot above the ground.

“Nothing has ever been more dangerous.

Nothing has ever been more precise,” Corliss says. “It was truly a spectacular stunt.”

“It’s InterestIng to say now, but skydIvIng saved hIs lIfe.” wife, kaci florez “It’s cool for me, because I get to see what Jhonny saw when he was flying,” says brother-in-law Clinton Reed. “He had a gift, and that’s probably the only way I’ll ever get to experience his gift.”

While Jhonny specialized in a dangerous sport, Kaci remembers her husband as a stickler for safety.

His personal Facebook wall includes frequent posts about near misses and how they could have been avoided, as well as at least one personal plea. In October 2014, he posted the following: “Im tired of friends dying, I want to see more videos of people just having fun and maybe less hardcore flying. Hardcore no margin flying is sooo 2009” In August 2014, Jhonny’s friend Brian Drake died in a wingsuit diving accident in the Swiss Alps. In May, another friend, base jumper Dean Potter, died at Yosemite.

When these incidents occurred, Kaci says her husband wrestled with his chosen profession. “I watched him question it and then I watched him jump anyway,” she says. “What kept me from being angry … is jumping made him a better person.”

VeGaN butcHers see tHe V WOrD

29

That person, she says, “was always the one making jokes, always asking questions, always saying something inappropriate and getting away with it.”

Including just moments before his death, apparently.

In July, Jhonny and his friend Scotty Bob Morgan arrived in Lucerne, Switzerland, where they met a guide and prepared for a wingsuit dive off Mount Titlis. All through the cable car ride and hike up the mountain, Kaci heard, Jhonny would say, “She may be Titlis, but she has a nice ass.”

That’s the Jhonny that Cerri and Pemberton remember, too, a gallant goofball who loved to needle friends but always stuck up for the little guy. The consummate little brother, in other words.

“He was and is the biggest gentleman I know,” Cerri says.

It’s not fully known what happened atop Titlis. Because Jhonny and Morgan had never base jumped from there, the plan was to keep it basic, with the three launching from the exit point in quick succession. Because he was going to record the dive with a helmet-mounted camera, Johnny jumped last.

A Swiss rescue team found Jhonny’s body close to the exit point, Kaci says.

They never did find his helmet. The best guess is that he slipped at the exit and struck his head.

A few days after his death, 14 mourners took small clumps of Jhonny’s ashes and scattered them in the Engelberg valley. Kaci is planning another celebration for what would have been his 33rd birthday in April. There will be feats of daring and athletes painting the sky with cremains as they fall.

“Ash days.” They’ve become a tradition in the sport.

Kaci has to pause the conversation.

DeVotchKa’s “Till the End of Time” is playing through the speakers inside Insight Coffee Roasters in Midtown. The instrumental is probably most recognized from Little Miss Sunshine. But it’s also the song her late husband chose as the soundtrack for a video in which he and Drake added a new twist to an already breathtaking stunt: Here a parachutist sails the back of a descending wingsuit diver while a plane barrel-rolls around them.

But in this moment, Kaci isn’t thinking legacies. “Jhonny speaks to me through music,” she says, smiling. “Every once in a while, a song will come on and it’s like, ‘I’m here, listen to me.’”

She does just that for a moment. Then, nodding slightly, she carries on with her favorite subject. Ω

63

HaN sOlO Vs. Jar Jar bINks see 15 MINutes

science of creativity I’ll start with your first question. No, Vince Gilligan didn’t know exactly how he’d end Breaking Bad. In fact, it took a long time to figure it out, to realize just how that machine gun would come into play. A writer coming up with the perfect finale, Gilligan said, “is like a monkey with a rubik’s cube.”

Gilligan, the award-winning creator, writer and producer of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and the X-Files, spoke at the Mondavi Center last week. (For SN&R’s interview with Gilligan, check our Page Burner blog at www.newsreview.com.)

The audience was somewhat less populated than anticipated, but it was plenty fervent. To many, Gilligan is a god.

But Gilligan shattered some illusions about his greatness.

He spoke with a classic Southern drawl, laughed at himself and launched into rambling tangents. He often apologized for spoilers and interjected, “if you watched the show,” as if anyone in the room wasn’t there for that very reason. His cadence was that of a totally normal guy, genuinely amazed that so many people keep wanting to hear him talk.

It was a stark contrast against moderator Colin Milburn, an English professor with a clear love for science fiction. Milburn’s questions were often lofty, theoretical and so completely academia. He asked about the role Gilligan’s shows have played in the world of science and representation. Gilligan responded: “I have to cop to something. I’ve never taken a chemistry class.”

Milburn talked about the importance of colors in Breaking Bad: Walter White, Skyler, Marie’s purple wardrobe, Gray Matter Technologies.

Why is the meth blue? There must be some scientific reason in such a well-researched show, or some grand thematic statement? Gilligan responded: “That’s a bit of an artistic license.” He merely wanted it to look distinctive. No science or greater meaning behind it.

Milburn brought up fan engagement: people rip every episode apart and develop elaborate theories. Surely, some of those details were planted? Gilligan noted an example: In the finale of season four, drug lord Gustavo Fring dies in an explosion and half his face gets blown off, which fans assumed referenced that pink teddy bear with the half-burnt face floating in Walter’s pool. “My first reaction was, ‘Damn, I wished I had done that on purpose,’” Gilligan admitted. “My second reaction was, ‘Damn, I should have kept that to myself.’”

As it turns out, in the vast majority of films and television shows, 99 out of 100 connections are happenstance. Talk about a stunner for film theory majors. “I feel bad,” he said.

“I kind of just revealed how the sausage is made.”

Similarly, writers don’t always know how a character ticks. With Better Call Saul, Gilligan and his crew are intimately learning more and more about their lead character as they continue to produce episodes. After the conversation with Milburn, Gilligan fielded lots of questions from nervous and nerdy white dudes.

The most representative response to those general questions: “These are things you’d think we know already,” Gilligan said. “We don’t.”

Boom.

Why is the meth blue?

—Janelle Bitker ja ne lle b @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

12.17.15 | SN&R | 23

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For the week oF DeCeMBer 17

As

we enter prime holiday-party time in mid-December here, a friendly remember that if you start to feel the urge to do the stanky leg at your company party after four or five eggnogs, don’t. The vast majority of us should only attempt this (and any other dance move appropriated by Miley Cyrus over the last few years) on two occasions: (1) In front of your bedroom mirror, by yourself, after a bottle-anda-half of wine; and (2) in a dim, vaguely damp room filled with likewise hot-toddied individuals who aren’t paying attention to you one way or another. Luckily, this week is chock full of opportunities for the latter, should you feel the need to blow off some holiday steam.

ravioli workshop

On Friday, December 18, two varied options: The ladies of Sister Crayon are manning the turntables for homegirl Dance Party at Dive Bar (1016 K Street) starting at 9:30 p.m. and will be spinning ’90s hip-hop and R&B; admission is free. If you’re feeling more of an electronica vibe, Shaun Slaughter and San Francisco’s MyKill present Das haus, an evening of house music at LowBrau (1050 20th Street) starting at 10 p.m.; admission is also free.

The next night hit up Feel Good Saturdays at Capitol Garage (1500 K Street) for a mix of new hip-hop and R&B with DJ Epik and DJ E-Mix; the night starts at 10 p.m. and there is a $5 cover after 11 p.m. For some Christmas Eve action on Wednesday, December 23, Youth Cult is a

Beatnik Craft Fair

Food Not Bombs

new-wave dance party at the Press Club (2030 P Street). It starts at 9 p.m. and there’s no cover.

If you’re looking to cut a rug in a more structured fashion and/or are still looking to fulfill your dream of emulating that Gap commercial circa 1998, the Capital Swing Dancers are teaching a beginners lesson at the Fair Oaks Community Clubhouse (7997 California Avenue) on Saturday, December 19, at 5:30 p.m. No partner is necessary and the lesson is free, but if you want to stick around and test out your new moves, stay for the social dance session that follows, which is $15. Visit www.capitalswingdancers.org for more info.

—DEENA DREwiS

the Muppet Christmas Carol

Art Carts

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22

While it may be the case that one doesn’t necessarily think of raviolis when one thinks of CookING the holidays, is there ever a bad time for stuffed pasta?

Of course not. Students will learn to make savory and sweet raviolis alike, accompanied with simple sauces. Italian cooking expert Lucia Oliverio leads this class, which will utilize vegetarian ingredients. $40-$49, 1 p.m.-3:30 p.m. at 1900 Alhambra Boulevard; www.sacfoodcoop.com.

The best Christmas gifts are the ones you make yourself. The second best gifts are one-of-a-kind handmade gifts that other people make—but you find and buy. The Beatnik Craft Fair is the kind of the place where one can start (and finish) his or her Christmas shopping—and feel proud about the gifts purchased.

ShoPPING There will be local vendors selling the likes of hats, jewelry, toys, clothes, etc. $2, 11 a.m. at Beatnik Studios, 723 S Street; www.beatnik-studios.com.

For the better part of 20 years, volunteers for the Davis chapter of Food Not Bombs have been filling the emptiest stomachs in the region. They do this by serving food that doesn’t get sold in local grocery stores and eateries such as the Davis Food Co-op, FooD Village Bakery and Delta Of Venus. The group is actively accepting volunteers for the set up of makeshift kitchens and cleanup duties. Get involved. Free, 1 p.m. at Fourth and C streets in Davis; http://foodnotbombs.net/ new_site/contacts.php.

Museum visits don’t need to be all pensive staring all the time; dive deeper into your art-viewing experience with the Art Carts event at the Crocker Art Museum, which provides activities Art and games designed to encourage further interaction and closer examination as part of the Family Adventure Guide. An excellent opportunity to take in the Al Farrow sculpture exhibit before it closes on January 3. $5-$10 for general admission, 10:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. at 216 O Street; www.crockerartmuseum.org.

—DEENA DREwiS

—AARoN CARNES

—EDDiE JoRgENSEN

—DEENA DREwiS

wEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23 The Muppets are cool again. First there was that surprisingly amazing 2011 Jason Segel led FIlM reboot The Muppets, and now the little felted people are back on TV. Stay in the spirit and Muppet-ize your Christmas with the 1992 holiday flick The Muppet Christmas Carol. It’s got Kermit, Miss Piggy and the like, and it’s awesome. $9.50, 6:30 p.m. at Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street; http://crestsacramento.com.

—AARoN CARNES

12.17.15 | SN&R | 25

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IllustratIons by serene lusano

Tea-riffic pAnnA CottA, kru It’s easy to fall into the financially deep pitfall of an omakase haze over at Kru. One minute you’re shooting an oyster when suddenly four hours, 12 dishes and one empty bank account later, you’re having dessert.

It’s hard to pluck out any one dish that stood out the most, but one of the most memorable bites was the green tea panna cotta served with a bit of fresh mandarin. Elegant. Sweet. Seasonal. Don’t worry, the dessert is also on the regular menu: $9 for a large, $6.50 for a small. After payday, I may well go back to indulge once more. 2516 J Street, http://krurestaurant.com.

—GArrett MCCord

Stream it netflix And Chill, shAdy lAdy sAloon

IllustratIon by Mark stIvers

Act two

By JAnelle Bitker

The comeback kids: More than a decade ago, the beloved and roughly 70-year-old Joe Marty’s Bar & Grille (1500 Broadway) burned down and stayed down. Now, new owners have brought it back to life. The revamped Joe Marty’s maintains that dedication to historic baseball memorabilia, but it’s updated with HD flat-screen televisions and a less divey atmosphere.

Food? Basic pub fare, such as sweet potato tots ($4.95), a linguica hot dog ($10.50) and pulled pork street tacos ($2.25).

Also, Blackbird Kitchen + Beer Gallery (1015 9th Street) is finally back open after water damage closed the restaurant in May. The space’s new pièce de résistance is one long, continuous bar crafted from a fallen redwood tree. Currently, it’s just open for happy hour and dinner

well, just don’t all go flocking there at once, OK?

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

Wednesday through Saturday with live DJs every night.

Menu returns: The wildly popular Broderick Roadhouse (319 Sixth Street in West Sacramento) got its start as a wildly popular food truck slinging Primanti Brothers-style sandwiches. But Broderick has since done away with its original hits, the enormous sammies stuffed with fries, slaw and meat. Last week it brought back its Pastrami ’Wich, so you can finally feel full again.

Magpie Cafe (1601 16th Street) also brought back a menu item, sort of. Remember SN&R’s burger issue?

And how we adored Magpie’s firstever burger? And how as soon as the story ran, Magpie removed its burger?

Well, I don’t want to curse the new $12, more petite “diner burger,” but,

Umbrella drinks: Rum Rok (805 15th Street) officially opened last week with the slogan “tiki with ’tude.”

Tiki bars have taken off recently all over the country; I expect at least a couple more in Sacramento soon. Start getting used to various combos of rum, pineapple juice and coconut by glancing at the Rum Rok menu, which boasts both classics and originals.

Here’s a sampling of the latter: the Smoke Signal with mezcal, lemon, pineapple and ginger beer; Muddy Water with black rum, coconut, lime, Averna and Angostura bitters; and Cast Away with aged white rum, black rum, Fernet, falernum and lemon. Most drinks cost $7-$10.

Ice, ice, baby: Perhaps Vampire Penguin’s rapid expansion across Northern California happened a bit too quickly after all. The local shaved snow minichain has closed its Davis location, which opened at the start of the year. Ω

The past four years, there’s been a holiday hot toddy bartender competition at the Golden Bear. And, the past four years, Travis Kavanaugh lost. But this year the Shady Lady bartender took the big prize, $800, with his traditional hot toddy: bourbon and scotch; a housemade syrup of vanilla, cinnamon, clove, brown sugar; hot apple juice and ginger beer; and lovely lemon and pine aromatics. “A nice modification of something simple,” he says of his winning concoction. Sadly, you can’t get it at Shady, but they do have two toddy variants, Hot Buttered Rum and the popular “Netflix and Chill”: coffee, caramel liquor, Jameson, housemade angostura whipped cream, kosher salt, for $9. 1409 R Street, www.shadyladybar.com.

—niCk Miller

Trendiest cabbage Brussels sprouts Native to—you guessed it—Belgium, Brussels sprouts are minimembers of the cabbage family. They grow on stalks in a beautiful spiral that’s worthy of centerpiece status. Don’t just look at them, though.

These sprouts are best roasted or pan-seared to bring out their sweet nuttiness. They’re a natural with bacon, but also pair well with toasted hazelnuts and caramelized onions.

Halve them for roasting or separate the leaves and eat them raw in a salad or quick sauté. Several places now serve them quick-fried with a buttery sauce—deliciously decadent.

—Ann MArtin rolke

12.17.15 | SN&R | 27

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Another clever appetizer is the living butter lettuce salad ($9) with tangy green goddess dressing.

When was the last time you had that at a restaurant?

Other throwback dishes include bone marrow 1013 K Street, (916) 662-7694, with escargots ($16) and steak tartare ($13). http://empresstavern.com The entrees require diners to share or hoard.

Dinner for one: $20 - $25 Rotisserie plates, such as the half-rack of lamb ($36), Good for: retro comfort food and family dining proved to be more than enough for two when ordered Notable dishes: Brussels and burrata, market soufflé with a side of sage-roasted delicata squash ($6).

The garlic-seasoned lamb oozed jus from its barely cooked tender meat.

For a generous, but single-serving choice, order the short rib stroganoff ($26), which will send Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the you reeling back in time to the ’70s and its era of world, Empress Tavern is a beauty. Located below unapologetically creamy meat sauces. A 3-inch-thick the Crest Theatre on K Street, it’s a subterranean pork chop with beans ($29) was another recent trip to the past. offering. It was light on beans, but rich in flavor and The long-anticipated Empress opened in perfectly cooked to medium-rare.

September, with its sister restaurant, the vegetarian All sides are priced separately at $6 a plate. Try Mother, having already paved the way above ground. old-school creamed spinach, silky whipped potatoes Proprietors Michael and Lisa Thiemann have with gravy or a gooey orecchiette and cheese that’s once again picked an offbeat theme and exceeded completely kid-friendly. expectations.

In fact, children eat free with a “happy meal” Empress is an “American carvery” of the ’50s of simple, healthy choices such as roast turkey era at heart. With its imposing brick ceiling and a bar and potatoes. As parents themselves, the stocked with gin, this is an updated old-boy’s Thiemanns encourage diners to bring club. Meat dishes dominate the menu, children, and the somewhat boisterand the lighting is subdued.

The short ous atmosphere makes kid noise Even the menu looks retro, rib stroganoff no issue. with its swirling font and art-deco will send you reeling It can get very loud, though, designs. It’s a bit confusing at as we experienced one night first, but ask the well-schooled back in time to the when there was a group mixer servers to explain all the different ’70s and its era of at the bar. All the brick and hard categories. Sharing is encouraged, unapologetically surfaces amplify voices to someespecially with the whole animal what uncomfortable levels. We and family dinner ($80-$160) creamy meat found it a bit chilly down there, too, options intended for at least four sauces. unless you sit very near the kitchen. people.

Desserts are no afterthought, since Begin with snacks, each for $5.

Chef Matt Masera excels at them. The cloudThe onion-y pimento cheese with fresh light market soufflé ($10) recently came with caramel vegetables comes with the surprise crunch of crème anglaise and cinnamon apples. Another fun dehydrated beets and pistachios. The warm option is the seasonal pie ($8) table service, with a gougères are cheesy pillows of warmth that will variety of toppings on offer. make your grandmother proud.

Don’t miss the inventive cocktails and “tea Order several shared apps, such as the stelservice” ($21) drinks. If you sit at the bar, you can lar Brussels and burrata ($11). It’s a wonder of even get a double burger with pastrami and cheese contrasts: warm and cold, bitter and sour, crunchy ($16). Humphrey Bogart would approve. Ω and soft. Roasted Brussels sprouts and pickled onions mingle with thinly sliced tart apples and salty bacon over meltingly soft, warm burrata cheese.

BfraomktehedHeart Crawl on

hand-squeezed meyer lemon bar

Whether you find most bar crawls too pedestrian, there are two alternative versions that might suit your needs this week. At 7 p.m. on Friday, December 18, join the Fancy Winter Cocktail Crawl: a prime excuse to wear your most elegant gowns and bow ties and feel positively fabulous.

That means sipping on seasonal concoctions in appropriately formal settings. Where better to start than Grange Restaurant & Bar (926 J Street)? The following destinations aren’t set, but are likely to include Empress Tavern, Ella Dining Room & Bar, the Grand, Vanguard and the Mix. If that all sounds way too stuffy to you, you’re more likely to join Saturday’s event, the second annual Onesie Pub Crawl. Don your snuggliest onepiece—ideally with a cute animal hood—and head to Alley Katz (2019 O Street) at 5 p.m. Drink specials and cozy silliness will ensue at Kupros, LowBrau, Der Biergarten, the Golden Bear and the Distillery—in that order— until 11 p.m.

available at:

Broadway Coffee Co. (3200 Broadway) holiday catering orders?

call (916) 803-5452

t a e r T n Froze acramento!

Best

SN&R

—Janelle Bitker

in S

VAMPIRE PENGUIN

907 K STREET (SAC)

S H AV E D S N O W & D E S S E R T S

No Evil Foods in Asheville, North Carolina, wouldn’t dream of slaughtering a darling little calf, but it will butcher the hell out of plants to make delicious faux meat products—El Zapatista, NEF’s take on Mexican chorizo; The Prepper, a “chickenesque roast”; and The Stallion, an Italian sausage. The company ships six-packs and 12-packs of its plant-based meats, which could be perfect for a lastminute holiday gift or meal idea.

Shipping is going to be around $30,

so it’s a splurge, but the products can last in the freezer for up to six months, and they have around 100 calories per serving, no cholesterol and 20 grams of protein.

Plus, NEF was a finalist for Martha Stewart’s American Made Awards, and everybody knows Martha doesn’t mess around, so you know it’s good. Once the shipment arrives, get cooking with the stash of recipes at www.noevilfoods. com, like Nearly Famous Conscious Chicken Salad.

Gift certificates to local merchants for up to 50% off

By Shoka

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

The vegan butcher shop

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12.17.15 | SN&R | 29

SN&R

Saturday december 19 1pm – 5pm downtown Ice rInk St. roSe of LIma park 7th & k StS The fir Santa Stops: 500 peo sT will ge ple kbar free g T a Sapporo if and of T bag aLLey katz f capItaL garage sn&r s icial a 3 fIreS Lounge crawl nTa haT! StreetS pub & grub the coconut mIdtown federaLISt pubLIc houSe tequILa muSeo mayahueL

Sn&r’S 2nd annuaL Santa crawL IS a charIty pub crawL to Support 30

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SN&R | 12.17.15

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SN&R

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SN&R | 12.17.15

L St.

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The first 500 revelers to check in at our SN&R booth at the Downtown Ice Rink will receive a free limited edition SN&R Santa Crawl Santa hat and a gift bag loaded with freebies from local merchants including Corona, Shriner’s Children’s Hospital, The Daily Crave, IMAX and Downtown Sac.

R St.

5

80

C OME SEE ME FOR

32

SN&R Booth

2

10th St.

SANTA CRAWL • DEC. 19 • 1-5PM

1

7th St.

HOLIDAY CHEERS!

J St.

Grab your buds, don your most festive duds and head to SN&R’s booth at the Downtown Ice Rink. Pick up free swag (while supplies last) and make a voluntary donation to Shriners Hospitals for Children — Northern California.

Then enjoy drink specials at our Santa Crawl stops until the reindeer come home!

y, 12/19, 1-5 PM

N W

•

E

1

START HERE: SN&R Booth @ Downtown Sacramento Holiday Ice Rink 7th & K streets

S

•

G St.

7

4

10

K St.

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8 9

Capitol N St. O St.

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Tequila Museo Mayahuel

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Capitol Garage

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•

3 Fires Lounge

6•

Sapporo Grill

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Streets Pub & Grub

25th St.

21st St.

19th St.

18th St.

16th St.

Benefiting Shriners Hospitals for Children — Northern California

80

1000 K St. 1200 K St.

1501 L St.

1118 16th St. 1804 J St.

Federalist Public House

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Alley Katz

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from 3 Fires

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Note: This is a suggested route. Visit one or visit them all to sample their cool holiday specials.

CORNER OF 15TH & L | SACRAMENTO, CA | 916.267.6823

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11/19/15 11:14 AM

Now playiNg

ReviewS

3

A Christmas Carol

Nutty delight

By Jim Carnes

Photo courtesy of sacramento Ballet

Cunningham, Lauren Breen, Ava Chatterson, Katie Miller and Lauryn Winterhalder excel. Any performance is sure to enthrall. A side note: As in past years, the ballet has partnered with the Front Street Animal Shelter to find homes for cats and dogs featured in the show.

4 The Behavior of Broadus

Don’t get it twisted.

The Nutcracker

5

the nutcracker; 8 p.m. friday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. saturday, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. sunday, 7 p.m. monday, 1 p.m. tuesday; $19-$90. community center theater, 1301 l street; (916) 808.5181; www.sacballet.org. through December 22.

Ron Cunningham’s rendition of The Nutcracker, now on stage at the Community Center Theater, may be 28 years old this year, but it remains as enchanting as when the Sacramento Ballet first imagined it.

The story of Clara and her magical Nutcracker doll comes to life as the two take a dream adventure through the Snowflake Forest to the Kingdom of Sweets, where treat after treat (in the form of national dancing) is presented for her entertainment.

The Nutcracker is a true spectacle, with its 100-plus kids per show, the enormous growing Christmas tree, the fanciful battle in which Clara and the Nutcracker battle with the Mouse King and his rat pack, the glittering reindeer drawing the Snow King and Queen into the Snowflake Forest and the elegant Sugar Plum Fairy and her partner.

Many roles are double- and triple-cast, so pairings vary at different performances. Among the males, Stefan Calka, Jonathan Harris, Dylan Keane, Christopher B. Nachtrab and the two Richards— Porter and Smith—are strongest, while among the women (all lovely—and strong), Alexandra

In its 17-year history, Capital Stage has never done a musical, but now the company is testing the waters with The Behavior of Broadus, a bright, crisp and wickedly entertaining production written by the team known as Burglars of Hamm (Carolyn Almos, Matt Alms, Jon Beauregard and Albert Dayan) and directed

by Dayan with musical direction by Graham Sobelman.

It tells the incredible sort-of-true story of John Broadus Watson, father of behaviorism and modern advertising. What could be more wacky?

But wacky it is, with dancing barnyard animals (in amazing animal masks by Ann Closs-Farley), a wisecracking lab rat named Phil, a preacher turned scientist turned ad man, and lots of simulated sex, animal and human.

What ties it all together is the choreography of Ken Roht and precise dancing by the 11-member cast. Projections by Steve Decker, which adorn the stage’s back wall, give the piece historical perspective.

Francis Gercke as Watson and Don Hayden as the head of a university disciplinary committee give outstanding performances. Likewise, Alissa Doyle as Watson’s first wife, Andrew Joseph Perez as Phil the Rat, and Nanci Zoppi as Watson’s research assistant, lover and second wife are also excellent. Connor Mickiewicz as Baby Albert, whose behavior Watson molds and then changes, is excellent.

While Act 1 is a rollicking upbeat musical, Act 2 descends into darkness and drags a bit.

Still, backed up by a four-piece band led by musical director Sobelman, this is an overall fun play and a good first musical outing for the typically groundbreaking Capital Stage.

—Bev SykeS the Behavior of Broadus; 8 p.m. thursday and friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. saturday, 2 p.m. sunday, 7 p.m. tuesday and Wednesday; $35-$40. capital stage, 2215 J street; (916) 995-5464; http://capstage.org. through January 3.

The B Street Theatre offers an offbeat version of the Dickens classic, which features humor for adults who know the story and physical comedy for children who don’t. With Scrooge and an ensemble of four wonderful actors playing all the nonScrooge parts, the story moves quickly and keeps the audience laughing.

Sa, Su 1pm & 4pm. Through 12/27. $15-$20. B Street Theatre, 2711 B Street; (916) 443-5300; http://bstreet theatre.org. B.S.

4

Cinderella

This bawdy, ballsy adaptation of the shoeless-lass fairy tale has made a couple of return visits over the years, though it’s been six years since the Sacramento Theatre Company last staged it as its holiday play. Not much has changed. It’s still a fun, naughty-and-nice mashup that appeals to both kids and adults.

F 7pm, Sa 2pm & 7pm, Su 2pm, W 7pm. Through 12/27. $20-$40. Sacramen-

to Theatre Company Main

1 foul

Stage, 1419 H Street; (916) 443-6722; www.sactheatre.org. P.R.

4

Handle With Care

It’s Christmas Eve and grandma’s body is missing—and has to be found in 24 hours so her granddaughter can ship it back to Israel for a proper Jewish burial. The story here is presented in both English and Hebrew dialogue. This light romantic comedy is filled with irrational coincidences, improbable plot lines and unlikely love connections. But in the end, it works because it gives us less schmaltz and more heart. Th, F 8pm;

Sa 5pm & 9pm, Tu 6:30pm, W 2pm & 6:30pm. Through 1/3.

$23-$35. B Street Theatre, 2711 B Street; (916) 443-5300; http://bstreettheatre. org. P.R.

2

Miracle on 34th Street

A little girl has been taught to doubt the existence of Santa Claus.

When her mother hires Kris Kringle to play Santa for Macy’s, the child and her cynical mother are

transformed. Actors in this production transcend the 1940s-era poor material

by Meredith Willson. F,

Sa 7:30pm; Su 2pm. Through 12/20. $17-$25. Woodland Opera House, 340 Second Street in Woodland; (530) 666-9617; www.woodland operahouse.org. B.S.

5

Striking 12

A holiday show like no other, this musical blends pop, rock, jazz, rap and show tunes into a trippy story about seasonal affective disorder and being sad.

It’s also about loving and losing and learning to live on—and not at all in a sucky way. It’s bright and brash and beautifully executed. F, Sa 8pm; Su 7pm.

Through 12/20. $18. Green Valley Theatre Company in the Grange Performing Arts Center, 3823 V Street; www.greenvalleytheatre. com. J.C.

short reviews by Jim carnes, Patti roberts and Bev sykes.

2

3

4

faIr

GooD

Well-Done

5 suBlIme– Don’t mIss

Glad everyone got the memo about the metallic jackets.

Photo courtesy of the sacramento master sInGers

Sing for the holidays There are few new theatrical productions opening in late December. Luckily, there are plenty of holiday season concerts to enjoy—including the Sacramento Master Singers’ annual Sing We Now of Christmas program. Conductor Ralph Hughes is in his 30th year leading the group and the program includes his arrangement of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” (which will be sung by candlelight). This year will also include new works by composers Cecilia McDowall and Sir James MacMillan. 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Monday; $22. St. Francis Church, 1066 26th Street; (916) 788-7464. www.mastersingers.org.

—Jeff HudSon

12.17.15 | SN&R | 35

In the twilight

3:00PM & 7:30PM

12/20

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

12/23

MUPPETS CHRISTMAS CAROL

6:30PM

12/26

DIE HARD

7:30PM

12/27

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

7:00PM

1013 K STREET DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO • (916) 476-3356 • CRESTSACRAMENTO.COM

– through December 24th –

H O L I D AY

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UniversityArt.com 36 | SN&R | 12.17.15

Youth Baked.

4

by Jim Lane

say. He is at the spa with a cadre of young writers working on the screenplay of his next film, titled Life’s Last Day. Youth is Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s second Oh dear, you wonder, is Youth as obvious as English-language picture, but it retains Sorrentino’s all that? Well, no. There are times when the movie elegant Italian-ness. It’s redolent of Federico Fellini, his feels as placidly shallow as the pools in which the countryman and greatest cinematic forebear. It’s a movie spa’s guests soak themselves, but obviousness is not where very little actually happens, but in which there among its shortcomings. Sorrentino structures his is always a great deal going on—going on within the story delicately, like a barista making pictures in the camera itself (in Luca Bigazzi’s often stunning cinemafoam of a caffe latte, or a chef preparing a soup on tography) as well as in front of it. low simmer, stirring constantly and gently.

Michael Caine plays Fred Ballinger, a renowned Others at the spa figure in the story, such as British composer and conductor, quietly reveling in his it is. Chief among these are Ballinger’s daughter retirement at a picturesque spa in the Swiss Alps, and assistant Lena (Rachel Weisz), whose a discreetly luxurious hotel where he has solicitude fails to mask her resentment, been staying regularly for over 20 years. and Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano), a seriThere It’s his home away from home, refuge ous young actor preparing for his and retreat—although from what are times when next role—and trying to escape exactly, we can only guess. the shadow of a silly blockbuster the movie feels as We first see Ballinger parrying where he played a robot. placidly shallow as the questions of an emissary from How all these characters, Queen Elizabeth II. The emissary the pools in which the and others glimpsed in passing, (Alex Macqueen) has come to coax weave and flow around each spa’s guests soak the maestro out of retirement to other is Youth’s sensual pleasure, themselves. conduct a concert of his most famous and best not to say too much here; composition for Prince Philip’s birthday when so little “happens” in a movie, celebration. The man even dangles a the risk of spoilage is high. But there’s knighthood as an inducement, but Ballinger, a ruefully telling moment late in this visuever polite, declines. “Why?” the man asks. ally voluptuous movie that can’t pass unremarked: “Personal reasons.”

Mick is confronted by the star of 11 of his movies In time we will learn more about those personal (Jane Fonda, acidly funny), who breaks the news that reasons. The emissary will return, refusing to take no for she’s taking on a TV series and won’t be in Life’s an answer, and Ballinger’s studied politeness will crack, Last Day. “Television is the future, Mick,” she says. ever so slightly. The nature of those personal reasons “To tell the truth, it’s the present.” constitute a major thread in what we can loosely term No doubt. But movies like Youth, rare as they the “plot” of Youth. may be, belie the epitaph. Ω Also at the spa is Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), an old friend of Ballinger’s and a movie director equally famous. Where Ballinger is content to withdraw from his art, Mick clings to his own with the tenacity of a Poor Fair Good Very excellent man who fears he may not have time for all he has to Good

1 2 3 4 5

BY DANIEL BARNES & JIM LANE

fiLm CLiPS

3

Creed

Ryan Cooglerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s alternately thrilling and deflating Creed marks Sylvester Stalloneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seventh go-round as Philly palooka turned heavyweight champ and Red scourge Rocky Balboa, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to see why Stallone canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quit this character. Rocky is Stalloneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soul and legacy, and while the part still fits him like a fingerless glove and pork pie hat, he was wise to take a supporting role here. Creed reinvigorates the franchise by introducing a new lead character and threading him into the Rocky-verse, and Stalloneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s onscreen â&#x20AC;&#x153;blessingâ&#x20AC;? is essential to making that transition legitimate. Even better for a franchise that has indulged in its share of racism, the film focuses on a young AfricanAmerican (Michael B. Jordan), and invests him with the same common-man toughness and rough-edged likeability that made Rocky so popular in the first place. Unfortunately, after an astonishing centerpiece fight sequence, the film plummets into tired conventionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Creed proves just good enough to be disappointing. D.B.

2

The Danish Girl

Director Tom Hooper and writer Lucinda Coxon present a measured adaptation of David Ebershoffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s novel, which in turn fictionalized the true story of Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne)â&#x20AC;&#x201D;born Einar Magnus Andreas Wegenerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who in 1930 became one of the first persons, maybe the very first, to undergo gender reassignment surgery. The movie focuses on the understandably complex relationship between Wegener/Elbe and his/her wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander), and Redmayne and Vikander share an earnest screen rapport. Hooper and Coxon honor Elbe (who died in 1931 from complications of her fourth and final surgery) as a pioneer of the transgender movement, but measured and reverent as the movie is, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also rather drearyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the kind of embalmed, oversolemn opus where the actors whisper their lines slowly, one word at a time. J.L.

1

The Good Dinosaur

Pixarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest feature wonders what life would be like if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hit Earth. According to writers Peter Sohn (who also directed), Erik Benson, Meg LeFauve, Kelsey Mann and Bob Peterson, it would be like a western movie, with dinosaurs as farmers, cowboys and outlaws.

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a story, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an idea, and a half-baked one at that. Sohn and company, whose prior credits consist mainly of grunt work for Pixar (animator, storyboard artist, â&#x20AC;&#x153;additional voices,â&#x20AC;? etc.), were pathetically unready for prime time, and the result of their blown opportunity is an unrelieved disaster. First and foremost, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an excruciating bore, a nonstory inhabited by dull noncharacters. The only variety comes when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s even worse than boring, with nasty flashes of cruelty, sadism and ugliness. J.L.

2

The Hunger Games: Mockingjayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Part 2

Theseus wept. An alternately grim and goo goo-eyed wrap-up to the Hunger Games film franchise, Mockingjayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Part 2 reaps the mistakes sown by the previous entries. The gravest mistake, of course, was splitting the final book in Suzanne Collinsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; teen-lit trilogy into two parts. Born of pure greed, this mercenary move resulted in two diluted storylines, a scarcity of action and an insane amount of screen time spent loitering in living rooms and unlit tunnels.

Jennifer Lawrence returns as the mercurial and courageous Katniss Everdeen, caught between her hatred of the near-future fascist government of Panem and her mistrust of the rebel leaders guarding her back. Beyond its simplistic political allegory, Mockingjayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Part 2 is supposed to be the emotional crescendo to an epic love triangle, but due a complete lack of chemistry between Lawrence and her callow male co-stars, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all hollow, and the gold-embossed Super Happy Ending feels fraudulent. D.B.

ŠHFPA

Come to the Fassbender.

3

Macbeth

Shakespeareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Scottish playâ&#x20AC;? has been adapted to the screen by auteurs Roman Polanski and Orson Welles, and the title role of the murderous Thane has been played by actors such as Sam Worthington and James LeGros. Now director Justin Kurzel (The Snowtown Murders) takes his stab at updating the tragedy. Screenwriters Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie and Todd Louiso take some interesting chances with the materialâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) is a battle-scarred soldier disintegrating from PTSD, Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard) is less of a hysterical schemer and more of an abused and depressed housewifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;while Kurzel and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw strive for a balance between the highly stylized and the highly intimate. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot to like on a conceptual level, but the execution is onenote and monotonous, like Zack Snyder without the pulp madness, and while Fassbender and Cotillard are fine in the leads, they get strangled by Kurzelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overwrought visual style. D.B.

2

In the Heart of the Sea

Add Ron Howardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scaly sea adventure to this seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unusually large pile of cinematic chum. Chris Hemsworth stars, with little credibility, as a Nantucket-born sailor whose encounters with a monstrous white whale helped inspire Herman Melvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Moby Dick. Benjamin Walker plays the pampered and incompetent ship captain, offspring of a wealthy whaling family and Hemsworthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ostensible adversary, but we never get a feel for their relationship. Adapting Nathaniel Philbrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2000 book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, screenwriter Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) frames the central story of the vesselâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voyage and shipwreck as flashbacks told to Melville (Ben Whishaw) by the last survivor (Brendan Gleeson). Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a tired device that dilutes and distracts from the little drama that Howard musters, and leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Most pointedly: how do you go from fresh-faced teen to Brendan Gleeson in less than three decades? D.B.

3

Legend

Writer-director Brian Helgeland (adapting John Pearsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book) traces the squalid careers of real-life identical twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray (both played by Tom Hardy), who ran the organized crime scene in London during the 1950s and â&#x20AC;&#x2122;60s before Scotland Yard finally brought them down. Helgeland tells his tale with brutal aplomb, but if he meant to show what made these psychos tick, he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t succeed here; there may be no explaining these guys anyhow. Still, the glimpse of Swinginâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seamy underside is inherently fascinating, and Hardyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bravura dual performance is a stunner, sure to make everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s short list when award time rolls around. As Reggieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emotionally fragile wife, Emily Browning is an oasis of sympathy amid the squalor, the only person in the movie we really give a damn about. J.L.

3

The Night Before Three lifelong pals (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie) get together

â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;YOUTHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; IS SUPERIOR CINEMA,

ARDENT AND ARTFUL, HYPNOTIC AND HAUNTING.â&#x20AC;?

Peter Travers, YOUTHTHEMOVIE.COM

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT STARTS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18

for the last iteration of a ritual that dates from their teen years: a night of Christmas Eve revelry. The script by Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Evan Goldberg and director Jonathan Levine is disorderly, often obnoxious and rather too strenuous in its efforts to out-Farrelly the Farrelly brothers. But by golly, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty damn funny more often than not (Rogen does an extended riff on being strung out on too many drugs thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a classic of its kind), with an engaging air of a circle of friends having larky fun. And for a holiday movie thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s absolutely not for the whole family, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surprisingly sweet at heart. J.L.

4

SACRAMENTO NEWS & REVIEW THURSDAY 12/17 2 COL. ( 3.9" ) X 5"

FS/DM

#3

ALL.YTH.1218.SNR

Room

Adapted from a novel by Emma Donoghue, who also wrote the screenplay, Room views the world through the wide-shut eyes of Jack (an eerily good Jacob Tremblay), a precocious 5-year-old boy who lives with his mother in what appears to be a heavily secured garden shed. As Jackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mother, Brie Larson stands on the shoulders of her 2013 film Short Term 12 and establishes herself as one of the top craftspeople in her trade, laying out years of unspeakable horror with a gesture or a tremble. The sound, design, cinematography, story structure and performances are all impeccable; if the film were 15 percent less focused on the fuzzy-wuzzy, it might have even been great. D.B.

4

916-442-0985

Spotlight

Writers Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (who also directed) tell the story of the Boston Globeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pulitzer-winning investigation into the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and the cover-up by the Archdiocese of Boston. The movie is a self-conscious throwback to crusading-reporter flicks of the past, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a taut story well-told, suspenseful despite the fact that the world knows how it all turned out, and energized by an authentic sense of the dogged research and footwork at the heart of serious investigative journalism. The stellar cast is a major asset: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Brian dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Arcy James as the Globeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team of reporters, John Slattery and Liev Schreiber as their editors, plus Stanley Tucci, Billy Crudup and Jamey Sheridan. J.L.

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12.17.15

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37

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Blurred lines Aquifer’s journey to the center of creativity

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“It’s about going on a journey and coming back,” Goldsmith explains. “Carl Sagan sent out sounds recorded from Earth into the stratosphere into space, so if aliens ever got it, that would be the first thing they ever heard from planet Earth.”

The journey in Aquifer’s case is the band itself. They started in high school in 2003 as a trio in Amador County. The three guys lived in different towns in the area, but met on hip-hop forums and decided to get together.

“We were really the only three people in our area in our age group that were actually doing hip-hop. So, naturally, we started working together,” Fox says.

They went at it until 2009, and read ’em and rap. then whittled down to a duo. Fox and Goldsmith kept the band a priority for a few years but eventually it got pushed to the side as the two focused on other projects. Still, they wrote songs whenever they got together.

You can learn a lot about local rap duo Aquifer from During that time, Fox attended college in San its Facebook page.

Francisco. Once, for a class assignment, he took The two performers are in one photo, standing in field recordings of random people and noises on the front of a colorful background. While holding cats. streets of San Francisco. Some of those clips landed There’s a photo, too, of a patch that says “Aquifer: on the Adventure Club mixtape, which gives it a more Hip-hop music for the advancement of ferrets.” conceptual, themed sound.

And their current profile pic is a shot depicting “We … tried to match them to our songs,” says Bill Murray and Owen Wilson from The Life Aquatic Goldsmith of the field recordings. “After we with Steve Zissou. listened to our songs, we realized we have In other words, it’s maybe not the typia lot of nautical themes in our songs. cal hip-hop approach.

Neither of us know why. A lot of our Tommy Fox and Brannum “We’re stuff goes back to water and maritime Goldsmith have worked together for goofy dudes.” stuff. And I had a lot of those sounds nearly a decade under the Aquifer from San Francisco, which fits.” moniker but it’s perhaps only since Brannum Goldsmith The mixtape also serves as a earlier this year that the duo has really emcee, Aquifer teaser for what’s next as the duo preps come to accept its true identity. to work on a new full length in 2016.

“We’re goofy dudes. We’ve started When Aquifer started, they say, alternative embracing what we’ve become, which is rap and mainstream rap existed in two separate starkly outside of the form of what a rapper is very different camps. Now with a successful group supposed to be: aggressive or money-obsessed,” says like Run The Jewels straddling both worlds, that line Goldsmith. is getting blurred.

This isn’t to suggest that Aquifer’s music is “I love that that’s changing. The stuff that I listen silly. Quite the contrary. It’s thought-provoking and to the most now is like Open Mike Eagle, Milo, personal. But it’s still decidedly left-of-center when Busdriver, all very outside of the old box that a it comes to the places mainstream rap traditionally rapper used to have to be,” Goldsmith says. “We’ve goes. The duo’s latest mixtape, Adventure Club, been kind of doing that for a long time, but at least released earlier this year, is a collection of material now we know that everyone’s not going to hate us.”Ω Fox and Goldsmith recorded between 2011 and 2015—a period of time they were less active. It’s intimate, lyrical hip-hop with sci-fi-sounding beats Check out aquifer at 8 p.m. Friday, december 18, at Fox & Goose, produced by Fox. 1001 r Street. tickets are $5. Learn more at www.aquifermusic.com.

The record’s opening track is “Carl Sagan” and partially inspired the name of the mixtape. It also set the tone for the band and its return.

SouNd advice

HBD Dick Van Dyke!

Harmony: A ticket to see Dustbowl Revival last Sunday also got you a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity: the chance to sing “Happy Birthday” to Dick Van Dyke, and have him actually hear it.

He’s buds with Dustbowl Revival, and the Los Angeles band needed to make up for the fact that they were missing his 90th birthday. Hopefully Van Dyke likes iPhone videos of lots of people screaming out of tune.

Regardless, Dustbowl put on its usual rollicking good time, with doses of time travel to the 1940s, playful stories told with a wink and kazoo vs. trumpet battles.

The Wild Reeds stole the show, however, with a powerful folk set, which sometimes veered into altcountry and alt-rock territories. What set the Los Angeles quintet apart were its leaders Sharon Silva, Kinsey Lee and Mackenzie Howe, who sing with equal strength, beauty and distinct personality. Their harmonies create instant anthems and seem to soar to new heights again and again and again—just when you think it can’t get bigger, louder or more gut wrenching, it does. Then, they soften into intense vulnerability. By the end of their first song, every person in the room had fallen silent in awe. They stayed that way until the Wild Reeds finished, and then they called for an encore.

—Janelle Bitker jan elleb@ n ew s r ev i ew . com

A happy gloom: One of doom metal’s most depressing bands hit Starlite Lounge and everybody was very happy to see them.

Seattle’s Bell Witch came down last Tuesday and delivered a two-song set that lasted a good 40 minutes, using just a six-string bass and drum kit—along with extremely tortured vocals—to convey an all-encompassing sense of suffocating misery.

In April, the band released one of the best funeral doom albums of 2015, Four Phantoms, and the duo of Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman keeps rising in profile. And with good reason—not only is their latest album absolutely devastating in its choking atmosphere and moments of airy grace, but the passion and ferocity on display when they play is its own spectacle.

It’s worth noting that the crowd was sufficiently tenderized by Wrekmeister Harmonies before Bell Witch took

the stage. Wrekmeister, the pastoral doom project masterminded by J.R. Robinson, started slow and beautiful—sweeping strings, gentle ringing of bells—and then built and built until Desmond and Shreibman took up the rhythm section to pulse out overwhelmingly bleak, droning tones. The careful, thought-inspiring heaviness, coupled with trippy home videos projected over the proceedings, made for an entrancing trip through a certain kind of hell.

—anthony Siino an t hon y s @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

Loud vibrations: Fans of the 2004 rockumentary Dig got a special treat with a performance by psych-pop rockers the Dandy Warhols last week.

And while the Brian Jonestown Massacre wasn’t also on the bill, its tambourine player Joel Gion was— with a band of his own.

Gion played a solid set of psychrock tunes. He’s not the best singer, but his band was top-notch. Hell, he even has his own tambourine player now.

The Dandy Warhols’ songs sounded muddy and washed out and literally vibrated one’s insides. This was a good thing. The four-piece ran through several songs from its two-decade long career, applying a universal blown-out rock riff meets hushed low-end singing sound to all its tunes. Even familiar songs were barely recognizable. The crowd loved it, and why not? The Dandy Warhols have not released much new music lately, but they still come armed and ready.

—aaron CarneS

Sammies are go: A heads up: SN&R just kicked off the nominations process for the 2016 Sammies award show, scheduled to take place Wednesday, March 24, at Ace of Spades.

But first you have to tell SN&R which local musicians and artists you think are worthy of consideration.

Nominate your favorite acts to be included on the ballot across a spectrum of categories. The nominations period ends at midnight on Thursday, January 7, and voting will commence Thursday, January 21.

All categories are subject to change. Happy nominating! Learn more at www.sammies.com.

—raChel leiBroCk r ach e l l @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

12.17.15 | SN&R | 39

18 FRI

18 FRI

19 SAT

19 SAT

Phallucy

Windham Hill Winter Solstice Celebration

Ross Hammond

Joseph in the Well

Fans of Barbara Higbie, Lisa Lynne and Alex De Grassi take note: This show will only happen once around these parts, and it will also feature lesser-known musical HOLIDAY artists George Tortorelli, Aryeh Frankfurter and Dr. Alex Kelly. Whether you’re into the flute, cello, harp or the acoustic styling of De Grassi alone, there will be something for everyone. Windham Hill, a respected name in top-shelf new age and seasonal music, presents a delightful package sure to please both the label’s longtime enthusiasts and newcomers. 314 West Main in Grass Valley, www.degrassi.com.

—eddie Jorgensen

It’s been said before, but Sacramento is blessed to have some incredible local talent.

Ross Hammond is one of those guys, and he’s an incredible jazz guitarist who’s spent years exploring the different sounds of the genre. His latest record is a pretty JAzz lo-fi acoustic instrumental record of all Christmas tunes. The album, Reindeer Songs, is a collection of seven of his favorite classics (“Silent Night,” “Let It Snow” and “Silver Bells” among them). Hammond’s spin on these tunes makes for a wonderful, relaxing Christmas soundtrack; this holiday-themed show is part of his weekly Saturday afternoon series. 1716 L Street, www.rosshammond.com.

Join Sacramento’s favorite pop violinist Joe Kye for “Christmas in the Well,” his trio Joseph in the Well’s holiday HOLIDAY party. It’ll celebrate the release of his holiday EP, with both modern and traditional takes on five classic Christmas songs. The quiet thump of upright bass?

Sweeping, grand violin? Two-part vocal harmonies? Sounds like the holidays, indeed. Not sold? Kye also promises some top-tier local talent will make guest appearances. If you’re feeling the giving spirit, bring an old instrument—or a monetary donation—to benefit Sacramento public schools. 2837 36th Street, www.josephinthewell.com.

—aaron Carnes

—Janelle BiTker

Happy

Holidays

Happy Hour Drink Specials • No Cover Thur: 12/17 Fri: 12/18 Sat: 12/19 Sun: 12/20 Tues: 12/22 Wed: 12/23

X-Trio

Hunter & the Dirty Jacks

FRI Dec 18 9PM $8

Mr. December

SAT Dec 19 9PM $8

Island of Black & White

SUN Dec 20 8PM Free

Front the Band

Tues Dec 22 9PM Free

Michael Ray

WED Dec 23 9PM $5

Hot City Jazz

5:30 - 7:30PM

Pailer & Fratis

5:30 - 7:30PM

The California Stars 5:30 - 7:30PM

Blues Jam

4:00 - 7:00PM

Hans Eberbach

5:30 - 7:30PM

Sandra Delores 5:30 - 8:00PM

44 3 - 2797 www.torchclub.net

904 15th St. Btwn I & J Downtown Sac

(Across from Memorial Auditorium)

40 | SN&R | 12.17.15

THU Dec 17 9PM $6

NEW YEAR’S EVE BASH! Champagne Toast & Party Favors at Midnight

Ideateam Black Star Safari 9pm • $25

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

—Brian Breneman

CenTer for The arTs. 8 p.m., $27-$30

The BriCkhouse gallery, 7 p.m., $15-$20

Gift certificates to local merchants for up to 50% off

Most people return to their hometown for the holidays and engage in the obligatory hometown-bar-reunion activities—drinking to excess, prank-calling your old teachers, infidelity, etc. When members of Deftones, Daycare, Will Haven and Happy ROCK Fangs reconvene for the holidays, they put on slamming shows guaranteed to make your neck sore well into the new year.

Sacramento’s favorite proto-nu metalists Phallucy return to the stage this Friday at Blue Lamp, joined by Horseneck, (waning), DJ TrashEpiphany spinning between sets, and the premiere of Bottle Baseball, a locally produced short film. 1400 Alhambra Blvd, https://myspace.com/phallucypalace.

old soul Co., 10 a.m., no Cover

SN&R

The Blue lamp, 8 p.m., $12

THE HIPPEST, HORNIEST HOLIDAY HAPPENINg.

19 SAT

19 SAT

21 MON

23 WED

Atriarch

Christmas Jug Band

Winter Solstice Rock Poultice

A Harlow’s Hepcat Holiday

Starlite lounge, 8 p.m., $10

palmS playhouSe, 8 p.m., $20

Death rock, doom, black metal, sludge—if it’s brooding and misanthropic, it’s probably present at any given Atriarch show. Touring with the black-metal leaning Wolvhammer, the shamanic Atriarch may be the only band I’ve ever seen pull off the whole burningsage-during-a-set thing without looking utterly silly. This will be the second time the band brings its entrancing DEATH ROCK take on bleak and consciousness-altering heavy music to Sacramento since releasing its latest record, 2014’s excellent An Unending Pathway. Plus, a new local band, Worship of Keres, will make its first live appearance as the opener. 1517 21st Street, https://atriarch.bandcamp.com.

Christmas Jug Band calls itself “the kings of 100 percent acoustic folk-skiffle-swing holiday high jinks,” and the description couldn’t be any more apropos. For those who like to laugh and drink through the holidays, the Palms Playhouse will HOLIDAY COMEDY be party central for one raucous night. This cast of rotating Bay Area musicians does a handful of shows every year that, thankfully, includes the lost and forgotten town of Winters. Song titles include (but are in no way limited to) “Santa Lost a Ho” and the fan favorite “Rudolph the Bald-Headed Reindeer.” Come get your Christmas drink on. 13 Main Street in Winters, www.christmasjugband.com.

—anthony Siino

gameday

2 $ 00 7 $ 00 4 $ 00 4

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Pints Jameson, Muerto, Smirnoff

4007 Taylor Road, Loomis, CA countryclubsaloon.com

—deena drewiS

2708 J Street Sacramento, CA 916.441.4693 www.harlows.com 12/17 9PM $20ADv

Suga Free, B Legit

12/18 5:30PM $15ADv

CLoSe to You: a CarpenterS triBute 12/18 8:30PM $12ADv

B Side pLaYerS SoL PELIgRo

NFL Sunday Ticket 6 TV's "Between the Bunns" Serving Grub Every Game 916.652.4007

What better way to get sauced on Christmas Eve eve than in the presence of saucy burlesque troupe Midtown Moxies, over-the-top emcee Peter Petty and his seven-piece orchestra? The show is self-described as the “hippest, horniest holiday happening,” so there should really be little question as to what you’re getting, but in case you need more HOLIDAY specifics: The show will feature classic holiday tunes in the styles of Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Dr. Seuss and more. Probably not a family affair unless Grandma is into a sexed-up Bing Crosby number. 2708 J Street, www.peterpetty.biz.

—Steph rodriguez

Bud Lt & Coors Pints Pitchers

harlow’S reStaurant & nightClub, 6 p.m., $18-$20

’Tis the season for bands, booze and a kickass welcome to the winter solstice. This four-tiered event features the pop-rock stylings of Bellygunner; the multilayered, indie-rock magic conjured by the INDIE Royal Jelly (pictured) and Be Brave Bold Robot; and finally the psych/folk tones of Honyock. Together, this group of musicians invites one and all out of the cold and into a warm evening of music, those notorious Press Club tall cans and promises that Santa just might be in attendance.

Yet, it’s up to you to decide if his lap is worth sitting on. Be brave, bold showgoers. 2030 P Street, www.facebook.com/ bellygunnermusic.

—eddie JorgenSen

Every nfl $ 50

preSS Club, 8 p.m., $5

12/19 5:30PM $10

BeFore the Brave JoSH LANE, MADI SIPES & THE PAINTED BLuE (ALL AgES)

12/19 9:30PM $12ADv

Midnight pLaYerS

Coming Soon

12/26 Big Eyed Fish 12/31 Mustache Harbor 01/02 Todd Morgan & the Emblems 01/02 Tao Tariki 01/08 Elvis and The Experience 01/09 Chuck Ragan 01/13 Mike Dillion Band/Lil’ Smokies 01/14 Cory Morrow 12/20 5PM $15ADv the rat paCk ChriStMaS Show 01/15 Irishpalooza 01/15 Jelly Bread 12/23 5:30PM $18ADv 01/16 Stu Hamm Band a harLow’S hepCat hoLidaY with peter 01/17 JD Mc Pherson/HoneyHoney pettY and the Midtown MoxieS 01/22-23 Tainted Love 01/24 Chicano Batman 01/28 Led Kaapana 01/29 Night of Flamenco 01/29 Abney Park 01/29 Duendes – A Night of Falmenco 01/30 Mania: The Live Beatles Experience 12/25 8PM $10 the union 02/03 The Motet JAMES CAvERN 02/05 Joy & Madness 12.17.15 | SN&R | 41

THURSDAY 12/17

FRIDAY 12/18

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

Fabulous and Gay Fridays, 9pm, call for cover

Spectacular Saturdays, 9pm, call for cover

ANDREW CASTRO, 9:30pm, call for cover

WHISKEY ALLEY, 9:30pm, call for cover

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

PHALLUCY, HORSENECK; 8pm, call for cover

POISON IDEA, ALARMS, SHOVE IT, COLD Knockdown Muzik Cancer Benefit, TRAP, SURF COMBAT; 8pm, $12 1pm, call for cover

The Really Awesome Show with EMORY HAYES, 8pm W, call for cover

THE BOARDWALK

MINNESOTA, 7pm, $20-$25

VOLUMES, NORTHLANE, CANE HILL, COLDRAIN; 6:30pm, $15-$17

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Windham Hill Winter Solstice Celebration with ALEX DE GRASSI, 8pm, $27

COUNTRY CLUB SALOON

WESTBOUND 50, 9pm, no cover

BADLANDS

2003 K St., (916) 448-8790

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.

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

BLUE LAMP

1400 Alhambra, (916) 455-3400 9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley; (530) 274-8384 4007 Taylor Rd., Loomis; (916) 652-4007

DISTRICT 30

DASH BERLIN, 10pm, call for cover

FACES

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A cozy booty call The term “Netflix and chill” evokes family you’re hanging out on the couch, watching a DVD and “it just happened.” night—cuddled on the couch under a cozy A euphemism is also romantically blanket, passing a big bowl of gourmet popcorn, videos stacked and waiting on the confusing. For some people, Netflix and chill is like falling into sex, and coffee table. It evokes sleepovers hoping to wake up in like. with school friends—munchIt’s employing sex as stress ing pizza, and gossiping relief, or boredom interabout Hollywood stars For some people, vention, or to cope with while watching movies Netflix and chill is the lack of real intimacy. together. We relax, What if young adults we laugh, we scream like falling into sex, could talk comfortably and cry; we bond. But and hoping to wake about sex, admit to Netflix and chill is up in like. feeling desire (a natural not a cute name for the consequence of being quality time we spend with human) while also acknowlpeople we care about. It’s a edging to themselves that acting euphemism for sex, a booty-call on an invitation to have sex is not wrapped in a comforter. And its always in their best interest? What if they popularity tells us a lot about ourselves. also learned how to reduce stress on their own? Easing stress through activities like meditation, yoga, psychotherapy, massage We’re stressed and energy work, encourages personal The pressure of expectations (our own, our growth, as well as self-soothing. Making a family’s, our culture’s) is exhausting. High conscious choice to be sexually intimate, school is hard work. College is hard work. instead of falling into sex, engages Careers are hard work. We’re stressed for success. Relationships are an investment of personal power and clarity. our time, energy and attention, especially romantic relationships. The idea of a bae (“before anyone else”—an affectionate term for your soul mate) is more appealing than finding and staying connected to a bae. At least that’s the internal dialogue a lot of 20-somethings and teens use to justify the Netflix-and-chill hookup. The overscheduled lifestyle they are prepped for, and immersed in, leaves very little energy for courtship. Between studying to score a perfect GPA; 10,000 practice hours in the arts or athletics to achieve mastery; internships, work experience and income-generating employment, who has the energy for courtship, or even a real connection? Inviting someone to your dorm room or apartment to kick it with a DVD conjures memories of simpler times.

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A taxing proposal

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So is this Facebook dude’s new marijuana initiative gaining traction or what?

—Jah Q. Public It is picking up steam. However you feel about the initiative itself, it would seem that the people pushing it through are savvy operators.

For those of you not up to speed, here is a quick recap: Sean Parker, Facebook billionaire, has decided to sponsor an initiative to legalize and regulate adult-use cannabis sales in California. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act has been building alliances and picking up supporters (Gavin Newsom is a fan, as are a bunch of folks at Reform CA, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Marijuana Policy Project, The Drug Policy Alliance, Tim Blake from the Emerald Cup—I could go on but you get the drift). Parker has the money and he has the support of many of the big names, but I still have some misgivings.

If this law passes, adults over the age of 21 will be able to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and up to 4 grams of concentrates. They can also grow up to six plants. That is great. However, cities and counties can still ban personal-use outdoor growing and even ban cannabis businesses altogether. This is still a huge problem for me. Why should the people of Fresno, where medical cannabis is banned, have to do without while everyone else gets to have fun? It seems unfair. But that is a small quibble compared to this one: If this initiative passes, anyone possessing over 1 ounce of flower bud or 8 grams concentrate is subject to a $500 fine and up to six months in jail. No one should ever got to jail for possessing marijuana.

Ever. I cannot stress that enough. Ever, ever, ever. What if one of your scales is broken and you grabbed an ounce-and-a-half from one of your six plants? Would you have to go to jail? That’s just stupid. The whole point of legalizing marijuana is so people don’t go to jail. Also, this bill allows cities to add more taxes on top of the taxes that the state will already get.

I guess that’s cool, but making marijuana prohibitively expensive will do nothing to eradicate the black market. The AUMA tax is 15 percent. Add on a 10 percent tax from the city and maybe another 5 percent for the county, and now your $40 bag of adultuse goodness just cost you 52 bucks. The $45-an-eighth, no-tax black market marijuana would become the frugal option for the budget-minded stoner. And don’t think more growers will equal lower prices. The costs involved to comply with these new regulations will most definitely be passed to the consumer.

This law isn’t all bad, though. There are definitely some cool things, like allowing for on-site usage in private venues, but I think we should try to get a few more user-friendly and social-justice minded changes made before we go all in. Ω

The whole point of legalizing marijuana is so people don’t go to jail.

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Ngaio Bealum is a Sacramento comedian, activist and marijuana expert.

Email him questions at ask420@newsreview.com.

www.420MD.org 12.17.15 | SN&R | 49

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7 TIME C

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The cheapest and easiest way is to boil it. That’s right, place the pipe in a pot of water, put it on the stove and let it cook. The upside: The resin will come right out and you won’t have to do much scrubbing.

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FRee will aStRology

by Willie Clark

by rOb brezsny

FOR THE WEEk OF DECEMBER 17, 2015 ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Neanderthals

were a different human species that coexisted with our ancestors, Homo sapiens, for at least 5,000 years. But they eventually died out while our people thrived. Why? One reason, says science writer Marcus Chown, is that we alone invented sewing needles. Our newborn babies had well-made clothes to keep them warm and healthy through frigid winters. Neanderthal infants, covered with ill-fitting animal skins, had a lower survival rate. Chown suggests that although this provided us with a mere 1 percent survival advantage, that turned out to be significant. I think you’re ready to find and use a small yet ultimately crucial edge like that over your competitors, Aries.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Artist Robert

Barry created “30 Pieces,” an installation that consisted of pieces of paper on which he had typed the following statement: “Something which is very near in place and time, but not yet known to me.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, this theme captures the spirit of the phase you’re now entering. But I think it will evolve in the coming weeks. First it’ll be “Something which is very near in place and time, and is becoming known to me.” By mid-January it could turn into “Something which is very near and dear, and has become known to me.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “There is in every one

of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is uncanny, wild and lawless.” Greek philosopher Plato wrote that in his book The Republic, and I’m bringing it to your attention just in time for your Season of Awakening and Deepening Desire. The coming days will be a time when you can, if you choose, more fully tune in to the uncanny, wild and lawless aspects of your primal yearnings. But wait a minute! I’m not suggesting you should immediately take action to gratify them. For now, just feel them and observe them. Find out what they have to teach you. Wait until the new year before you consider the possibility of expressing them.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Congratulations! You

have broken all your previous records for doing boring tasks that are good for you. On the behalf of the other 11 signs, I thank you for your heroic, if unexciting, campaign of self-improvement. You have not only purified your emotional resources and cleared out some breathing room for yourself, but you have also made it easier for people to help you and feel close to you. Your duty has not yet been completed, however. There are a few more details to take care of before the gods of healthy tedium will be finished with you. But start looking for signs of your big chance to make a break for freedom. They’ll arrive soon.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The English word “fluke”

means “lucky stroke.” It was originally used in the game of billiards when a player made a good shot that he or she wasn’t even trying to accomplish. Later, its definition expanded to include any fortuitous event that happens by chance rather than because of skill: good fortune generated accidentally. I suspect that you are about to be the beneficiary of what may seem to be a series of flukes, Leo. In at least one case, though, your lucky break will have been earned by the steady work you’ve done without any fanfare.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): You may not have

to use a literal crowbar in the coming weeks, but this rough tool will serve you well as a metaphor. Wherever you go, imagine that you’ve got one with you. Why? It’s time to jimmy open glued-shut portals … to pry loose mental blocks … to coax unyielding influences to budge … to nudge intransigent people free of their fixations.

Anything that is stuck or jammed needs to get unstuck or unjammed through the power of your willful intervention.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The coming weeks will

be a favorable time for you to consort with hidden depths and unknown riches. In every way you can imagine, I urge you to go deeper down and further in. Cultivate a more conscious connection with the core resources you sometimes take for granted. This is one time when delving into the darkness can lead you to pleasure and treasure.

As you explore, keep in mind this advice from author T. Harv Eker: “In every forest, on every

farm, in every orchard on earth, what’s under the ground creates what’s above the ground.

That’s why placing your attention on the fruits you have already grown is futile. You can’t change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. But you can change tomorrow’s fruits. To do so, you will have to dig below the ground and strengthen the roots.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the coming

weeks, the pursuit of pleasure could drain your creative powers, diminish your collaborative possibilities and wear you out. But it’s also possible that the pursuit of pleasure will enhance your creative powers, synergize your alliances and lead you to new opportunities. Which way will you go? It all depends on the kinds of pleasures you pursue. The dumb, numbing, mediocre type will shrink your soul. The smart, intriguing, invigorating variety will expand your mind. Got all that?

Say “hell, no” to trivializing decadence so you can say “wow, yes” to uplifting bliss.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Garnets are

considered less valuable than diamonds. But out in the wild, there’s an intimate connection between these two gemstones. Wherever you find garnets near the surface of the earth, you can be reasonably sure that diamonds are buried deeper down in the same location. Let’s use this relationship as a metaphor for your life, Sagittarius. I suspect you have recently chanced upon a metaphorical version of garnets, or will do so soon. Maybe you should make plans to search for the bigger treasure toward which they point the way.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Ready for the

Cool Anger Contest? You can earn maximum points by expressing your dissatisfaction in ways that generate the most constructive transformations. Bonus points will be awarded for your ability to tactfully articulate complicated feelings, as well as for your emotionally intelligent analyses that inspire people to respond empathetically rather than defensively. What are the prizes?

First prize is a breakthrough in your relationship with an ally who could be crucial to your expansion in 2016. Second prize is a liberation from one of your limiting beliefs.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A fourth-century

monk named Martin was a pioneer winemaker in France. He founded the Marmoutier Abbey and planted vineyards on the surrounding land.

According to legend, Martin’s donkey had a crucial role in lifting viticulture out of its primitive state. Midway through one growing season, the beast escaped its tether and nibbled on a lot of the grapevines. All the monks freaked out, fearing that the crop was wrecked. But ultimately the grapes grew better than they had in previous years, and the wine they produced was fabulous.

Thus was born the practice of pruning, which became de rigueur for all grape-growers. What’s your equivalent of Martin’s donkey, Aquarius? I bet it’ll exert its influence very soon.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “The deepest urge

in human nature is the desire to be important,” said educator John Dewey. If that’s true, Pisces, you are on the verge of having your deepest urge fulfilled more than it has in a long time. The astrological alignments suggest that you are reaching the peak of your value to other people. You’re unusually likely to be seen and appreciated and acknowledged for who you really are. If you have been underestimating your worth, I doubt you will be able to continue doing so. Here’s your homework: Take a realistic inventory of the ways your life has had a positive impact on the lives of people you have known.

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.

Search your feelings The Force is strong this year. With the December 18 release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s a big year for Sith and Jedi alike. And what better way to kick off the new film than to talk to the Sith Lord himself? Darth Vader didn’t return our calls, but SN&R did catch up with Brian Clausse, the Commanding Officer for the Central California Garrison of the 501st Legion.

The Legion has been around since 1997, is dedicated to creating filmquality Star Wars costumes and does myriad events like the Rose Parade, Star Wars Reads Day, Mythbusters, Weird Al concerts and charity work.

We chatted with Clausse about how long making costumes can take, why he’s excited about The Force Awakens and whether anyone in his group has the guts to play as Jar Jar Binks.

Who shot first?

Oh, Han.

Favorite Star Wars character?

There’s so many of them, it’s just crazy. …

The reason I’m involved with the 501st is I will always like the villain characters; the Stormtroopers and Darth Vader and all of them. One of my favorite characters has always been the Stormtroopers, but lately, or not lately but more recently, I’ve kind of taken on a liking to Darth Vader a lot more since a couple of years ago I finished my Darth Vader costume and I’ve been trooping as Darth Vader. So, becoming him for the short period of time that I have, [I’ve ] gotten pretty close to him.

Do you see yourself as Darth Vader-like?

I don’t know. … You know, we’d all like to be the big bad guy that gets his own way all the time. No, I wouldn’t say I was really anything like him in real life. But it’s just fun to kind of separate yourself and become somebody else for a few minutes in the day.

Who else do you troop as?

I’m a Stormtrooper, Darth Vader and a Snowtrooper commander. And I’m also working on a Kylo Ren for the new premiere.

How long do costumes take to put together? They’re all handmade?

Right, yeah, we make all of our costumes ourselves, of course, with the help of our fellow Legion members. ... The Stormtrooper costume, my first one, it took me six months, about, because I was learning as I was going. But anybody can

photo by lisa baetz

probably put one together—it depends how long they have to work on it each day—but within a few months you could get something together. … I was able to get my Vader together probably within another six months, which is fairly quick. A lot of guys take a year, or even more, to get theirs together.

forward to seeing all the new characters and the armor and everything. it’s going to be great, especially for us who enjoy building these costumes.

Why has Star Wars managed to stay so popular?

Again, it’s the sense of adventure that it brought back to us when we were younger.

And then as we get older we want to continue that, even with our own kids and friends that we’ve made through the years.

We want to continue sharing that adventure, and the characters, and the whole world. It’s a place we want to continue to visit.

Who would win in a fight: a Wookie or a Tusken Raider?

I’m going to have to go with the Wookie.

Does anyone in the group have a Jar Jar Binks costume? I imagine he’s not popular.

Not anybody in our group, at least that I know of. But we do have one of our members that we’re always teasing that he should be because, you know, he’s so wild and crazy and animated. So maybe someday.

Which character are you are the most like?

I am probably—well, you know, we all want to be Han, but I think probably what I’m most like, I’m probably a lot like … I’m probably most like Obi Wan, to tell you the truth.

Special editions, or the original cuts?

Which movie is your favorite?

Wow, you know, that’s a tough one. I kind of like a mixture of the two. I recently took a look at the originals and I would have to say I kind of like the original.

What’s most exciting about the new movie?

Just seeing the story continue and being surprised at … where it goes. We’ve been watching the same Star Wars movies for the last 30-whatever years. So it will be nice to have something fresh and a whole new adventure to go on. So I’m looking forward to that aspect of it. And I’m really looking

I’ve always said that Empire is my favorite just because [there are] a lot of lessons in that that [I] kind of grew up with. But, the first one, of course, is the iconic look of everything. But, I would say that right now, it always comes back to Empire for me.

But we’re looking forward to the new one.

Maybe the new one will be even better. Ω

Check out the 501st legion at www.501st.com.

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