s-2016-05-05

BY JANELLE BITKER • PAGE 14

Lo c a L t r a n s it ’s

rough ride Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

cinco de mayo guide!

good moms,

bad moms |

Volume 28, iSSue 03

|

thurSday, may

inside

How the reality TV star survived The Voice, angry fans and her own demons

5, 2016

|

newSreView.com

2 | SN&R | 05.05.16

EditoR’S NotE

MAY 5, 2016 | Vol. 28, iSSuE 03

32

30

11 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.

Editor Rachel Leibrock Staff Writer Raheem F. Hosseini Arts & Culture Editor Janelle Bitker Assistant Editor Anthony Siino Editorial Coordinator Becca Costello Contributors Daniel Barnes, Ngaio Bealum, Alastair Bland, Rob Brezsny, Aaron Carnes, Jim Carnes, Willie Clark, Deena Drewis, Joey Garcia, Cosmo Garvin, Blake Gillespie, Lovelle Harris, Jeff Hudson, Jim Lane, Kel Munger, Kate Paloy, Patti Roberts, Ann Martin Rolke, Shoka, Bev Sykes, Graham Womack Editorial Intern Kris Hooks

59

Design Manager Lindsay Trop Art Directors Brian Breneman, Margaret Larkin Production Coordinator Skyler Smith Designer Kyle Shine Marketing/Publications Design Manager Serene Lusano Marketing/Publications Designer Sarah Hansel Contributing Photographers Lisa Baetz, Darin Bradford, Kevin Cortopassi, Wes Davis, Evan Duran, Luke Fitz, Jon Hermison, Shoka, Lauran Fayne Worthy Director of Sales and Advertising Corey Gerhard Sales Coordinator Joanna Graves Senior Advertising Consultants Rosemarie Messina, Olla Swanson, Joy Webber, Kelsi White Advertising Consultants Meghan Bingen, Angel De La O, Stephanie Johnson, Lee Roberts Sales Assistant Matt Kjar Director of First Impressions David Lindsay Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Services Assistant Larry Schubert Distribution Drivers Mansour Aghdam, Daniel Bowen, Heather Brinkley, Allen Brown, Mike Cleary, Jack Clifford, Lydia Comer, John Cunningham, Rob Dunnica, Chris Fong, Ron Forsberg, Garry Foster, Joanna Gonzalez-Brown, Greg Meyers, Aswad Morland, Kenneth Powell, Gilbert Quilatan, Lloyd Rongley,

05 07 08 11 14 20 23 25 28 30 32 39 43 59

STREETALK LETTERS NEwS ScoREKEEpER fEATuRE SToRy ARTS&cuLTuRE NighT&dAy diSh + off menu STAgE fiLm muSic + sound Advice ASK JoEy ThE 420 15 miNuTES

coVER dESigN By BRiAN BRENEmAN coVER phoTo By dARiN BRAdfoRd wARdRoBE By hANNAh BE hAiR/mAKEup By mATThEw JoSEph gALL

Lolu Sholotan, Jonathan Taea N&R Publications Editor Michelle Carl N&R Publications Managing Editor Shannon Springmeyer N&R Publications Writers Kate Gonzales, Anne Stokes Senior N&R Publications Consultant Dave Nettles N&R Publications Consultants Elena Ruiz, Julie Sherry President/CEO Jeff VonKaenel Director of Nuts & Bolts Deborah Redmond Human Resources Manager David Stogner Marketing/Promotions/Facilities Manager Will Niespodzinski Executive Coordinator Jessica Takehara Business Manager Nicole Jackson Payroll/AP Wizard Miranda Dargitz Accounts Receivable Specialist Kortnee Angel Sweetdeals Specialist/HR Coordinator Courtney DeShields Nuts & Bolts Ninja Christina Wukmir Senior Support Tech Joe Kakacek Developer John Bisignano System Support Specialist Kalin Jenkins 1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815 Phone (916) 498-1234 Fax (916) 498-7910 Website www.newsreview.com

Got a News Tip? sactonewstips@newsreview.com Calendar Events www.newsreview.com/calendar Want to Advertise? Fax (916) 498-7910 or snradinfo@newsreview.com Classifieds (916) 498-1234, ext. 5 or classifieds@newsreview.com Job Opportunities jobs@newsreview.com Want to Subscribe to SN&R? sactosubs@newsreview.com Editorial Policies: opinions expressed in sn&R are those of the authors and not of chico community Publishing, inc. contact the editor for permissions to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. sn&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or review materials. email letters to snrletters@newsreview.com. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form and to edit them for libel.

Advertising Policies: All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s standards of Acceptance. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes the responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message. sn&R is printed at bay Area news Group on recycled newsprint. circulation of sn&R is verified by the circulation verification council. sn&R is a member of sacramento metro chamber of commerce, cnPA, AAn and AWn.

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As journalists, it can seem strange when we talk about ourselves. It’s not that we never use “I” or write personal stories at SN&R—of course we do. But we also know our primary job is to serve our readers through solid writing, reporting, editing and design.

This past Saturday, SN&R was recognized for its efforts when the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s annual Better Newspapers Contest awarded us in five categories.

The big one is, well, big: General Excellence, first place, weekly division (circulation 25,001 and above).

We also won second place for Arts & Culture coverage—no small feat considering the ever-growing scene we cover.

In addition, the paper received two first-place reporting awards.

Alastair Bland’s look at how Sheriff Scott Jones has issued thousands of concealed-carry gun permits (See “The new Wild West”; SN&R Feature Story; July 30, 2015) won the Coverage of Local Government category.

Meanwhile, Joe Rubin’s story about the city of Sacramento’s costly water-meter install won first place for Best Investigative Reporting (See “Flushing money”; SN&R Feature Story; November 14, 2014).

Finally, SN&R took home top honors for Best Front Page (tabloid), thanks to art director Brian Brenemen and former art director Hayley Doshay.

All our wins are due to the collective efforts of everyone. We wouldn’t succeed without the hard work of every single person in this company— not to mention our dedicated team of freelancers.

None of it would be possible without the support of the paper’s publishers, Jeff vonKaenel and Deborah Redmond.

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Copyright © UC Regents, Davis campus, 2016. All rights reserved.

I’m savoring life’s simple pleasures again.

When throat cancer struck Jeff Mauerman he lost something most of us take for granted – the ability to swallow food and drink. The retired engineer and home brewing enthusiast was forced to take all nourishment through a tube in his abdomen. It seemed no one could help, until UC Davis doctors developed a revolutionary new swallow expansion device that restored Jeff’s ability to once again enjoy the fruits of his labor.

4 | SN&R | 05.05.16

See Jeff’s story at healthierworld.ucdavis.edu

“I don’t even Watch the neWs anymore.”

Asked At eAstern Avenue And Arden WAy:

What deserves more media coverage?

April MedinA clinical research

New businesses, as well as new programs, arts programs, personal gyms. … I would like to see what is up and coming. I want to know why [new businesses] are here in Sacramento and what is their goal. What do they think they are fulfilling in our community?

Saturday, June 4

MAdilyn sAffell waitress

More truth. I don’t even watch the news anymore. It is real pigeonholed to what we are supposed to think, instead of letting us make decisions ourselves and filter proper information. I agree with Amy Goodman.

Democracy Now! is where I try to find my news. The other news stations … push their own agendas.

robert e vAns

CArl burton

retired

retired

Information on technology and how technology is changing. I would like to know how it is affecting the lives of people in the Sacramento area. At one time, it was thought that grandma and grandpa knew absolutely nothing about technology. That has changed. Now grandma and grandpa are online.

Saturday, June 11

JessiCA stoner

sAM Choe

stay-at-home mom

Senior citizen issues. I see articles for the young folks, but I don’t see any for the older. 211 is a number anyone can call if senior citizens have a problem and [find out] how they can solve their problem. There are 500-and-some senior-living facilities in Sacramento and only about 20 volunteers to check up on their needs.

real estate broker

I would like to hear about the good things people are doing in their neighborhoods and their communities. There seems to be a lot of negative stuff. I think positive stuff would be a reinforcement and encouragement for people to get more involved.

I want to see what folks are doing to improve their community.

We need more local news on a regular basis. There is a lot of good value in small businesses and food places.

Everything is shifting to online businesses or big operations like Costco, Wal-Mart, etc. They are dwarfing small businesses.

We should be helping the local small business by putting them in the news.

Saturday, June 25

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BUILDING A

HEALTHY S A C R A M E N T O

Putting Health Care Careers into Context

BY N ATA S H A VO N K A E N E L

E

mmy Zepeda, 18, didn’t always know she wanted to make prosthetics. Like most people, she wasn’t even sure how someone would do that.

Then she enrolled at Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions, a high school focused on preparing students for careers in health. Right away in her ninth grade medical sciences class, she learned about many different careers in health care. Her ears pricked at the topic of bioengineering.

During her junior year, Health Professions helped her get a volunteer internship at UC Davis where Emmy shadowed different health professionals. Emmy remembers watching a man get fitted with his prosthetic leg for the fi rst time.

“Everybody was around him, helping him put it on correctly. Then they stood him up, and let go,” she recalls. “It was so cool to see his face, to see the emotions of his family members. He started crying. He could finally walk.”

Most high school students don’t have the opportunity to see moments like this firsthand, and for Emmy, that is what makes her high school so special. “That internship really sealed the deal for me going into prosthetics,” she says. “It was really cool seeing how they make them and how they give it to somebody and make their life better.”

With the help of The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities grant program, which funds Sacramento City Unified School District’s Health Careers Pathway Program, Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School is able to take students on field trips to medical sites, connect students with paid and unpaid internships, provide materials for Health Careers Pathway courses and develop a unique medically integrated curriculum.

“THAT INTERNSHIP REALLY SEALED THE DEAL FOR ME GOING INTO PROSTHETICS.” Emmy Zepeda, student at Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School

Emmy Zepeda, a senior at Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School in Sacramento, holds a display arm. A medical sciences pathway class helped pique her interest in prosthetics and now she plans on pursuing a degree in bioengineering. Photo by Natasha von Kaenel

According to Marla Clayton Johnson, the school’s principal, 54 percent of their students who enter post-secondary education programs choose a health care major. And unlike students who have attended more traditional high school programs, many of these students come with a fi rsthand understanding of what it takes to be a health care professional. This familiarity makes them more comfortable in difficult prerequisite classes than other students who may drop out, overwhelmed.

Emmy is currently fi nishing up her senior project on HPV and cervical cancer, while juggling another health-related internship with SCUSD’s Connect Center. When the summer ends, she is off to UC Merced where she will major in bioengineering with hopes of making prosthetic limbs one day.

Your ZIP code shouldn’t predict how long you’ll live – but it does. Staying healthy requires much more than doctors and diets. Every day, our surroundings and activities affect how long – and how well – we’ll live.

Health Happens in Neighborhoods. Health Happens in Schools.

Health Happens with Prevention.

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

SCUSD is always looking for health care professionals willing to open up their offices to students for internships or field trips, or to come out to the schools as guest lecturers or advisers on curriculum.

For more information about volunteering for the Health Careers Pathway Program, contact Ann Curtis at Ann-Curtis@scusd.edu.

PAID WITH A GRANT FROM THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT 6 | SN&R | 05.05.16

BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

www.SacBHC.org

Re “Right to relief” by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R Feature Story, April 21): My boyfriend and I just read your article about the homeless situation in Sacramento. He read it to me as we sat in Howe Park wondering how long it would be appropriate to sit here and use the restrooms. The article couldn’t have been more on point about the desperate situation we face every day just trying to meet our most basic necessities. We have been living in our car since March 4. It was like a domino effect happening, and our lives suddenly crumbled to this. It took us a month just to figure out the food banks (we were accidentally given an old Street Sheet). We want so desperately not to look like we live in our car and showering has been really tricky.

Michael and I look around and see so many worse off than us, even.

So we stay thankful we have each other and our car.

Abbie Whittington S acr ame nt o

Hide the homeless?

Re “Right to relief” by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R Feature Story, April 21):

I’ve wondered why nobody has considered putting the homeless tent cities either on Mather Air Force Base or McClellan.

Both have empty barracks they

Just guess Re “15 is OK” by Jeff vonKaenel (SN&R Greenlight, April 7): Sorry, Jeff, but the big picture is exactly what you fail to see.

I’ll stick with the most egregious failure and note that an increase in wages, particularly entry level, shrinks the workforce in that demographic. Unless you believe the false numbers issued that indicate 5 percent unemployment, that entry-level demographic is already underemployed. Most dangerously, when they’re not in the system as employed, they’re typically in the justice system as offenders.

You forgot day two of your economics class: To stimulate demand (employment), drop prices (wages). Simple lessons

that too many people forgot. I’ll give you another lesson for free.

I spent $26,000 advertising my small business with News & Review last year. I need to cut spending to pay for additional wages before I “raise prices,” as you state. Guess how much I’ll spend with you this year?

William Creighton Sacramento

On tHe new SaCramentO KingS lOgO: Like! Intended or not, the seams on the ball make me think of the confluence of our rivers. Cool! @gridtoWn

Correction Re “Bless this mess” by Dave Kempa (SN&R Beats, April 28): Due to a miscommunication between the writer and the Friends of East Sacramento volunteer group, the article included incorrect information.

The Friends of East Sacramento rents out its facility to religious organizations of any denomination. Discounted rates are also available to any group that rents out the community center on a regular basis.

@SacNewsReview

I was thinking of Highway 80/50 and I5. But yeah.

@coynebrendAn

Looks like the buildings have all collapsed - which makes the team look like some kind of natural disaster.

Facebook.com/ SacNewsReview

@SacNewsReview

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

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The proposed Measure B sales tax could fund light rail’s expansion to the airport and Elk Grove.

Photo BY IStoCK/MIlenKoDeSIgn

Lost in transit To succeed in November, a $3.6 billion transportation measure must play to the Sacramento suburbs

by Graham Womack

An extended version of this story is available online at www.newsreview.com/ sacramento.

8 | SN&R

On the morning of April 20, while a Sacramento Transportation Authority subcommittee discussed a measure that could dictate transportation planning for decades to come, staff members at Wellspring Women’s Center were helping its clients get bus passes.

The Oak Park-based center hasn’t taken a position on Measure B, a proposed half-cent sales tax that could generate $3.6 billion for transportation projects around Sacramento County over the next 30 years—but it has a stake in the outcome.

So do many others.

The ambitious sales-tax proposal comes at a tricky time, as elected leaders try to | 05.05.16

balance the needs of a struggling transit system against voter expectations and their own priorities. All those cooks have crafted a stew that plays heavily to the commuterfriendly suburbs, whose buy-in is needed for the measure to pass in November, but may do little to hit state-mandated pollution targets and expand services to the transit-dependent.

“I think what’s worrisome about a measure like this is that it tends to be detached from longer-term regional transportation planning goals, or there’s the potential for that,” said Gian-Claudia Sciara, a researcher for the Urban Land Use and Transportation

Center at UC Davis. “It becomes more about what can get everybody to approve the measure now.”

Measure B still has multiple stops before it arrives before voters, but most of its money is spoken for—earmarked for road repairs and highway expansions.

There’s even $30 million for a streetcar project that city voters rejected last year.

That leaves a quarter of the funds for Sacramento Regional Transit and, by extension, the working-class people who depend on it.

Like the clients of Wellspring, 89 percent of whom earn less than $15,000 a year and name transportation a huge

barrier to meeting daily responsibilities or receiving social services. For them, a discontinued bus route or increased lightrail fare means fewer groceries, says Corey Rodda, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer at the center.

“It’s really hard to survive when you’re in poverty, especially given the high rates that RT charges,” she said.

Despite its proffered billions, Measure B may not reverse those trends. In many ways, the sales-tax proposal represents a grand bargain with the best odds of success.

The question, now, is who gets left out?

It remains unclear where all that $3.6 billion will go.

Under Measure B’s expenditure plan, which the STA advanced on a 13-1 vote last week, 75 percent of the revenue in the first five years is slated for what are called “Fix It First” projects, mostly road and transit maintenance and rehabilitation work that has yet to be specified.

The emphasis on basic upkeep emerged for two reasons: Federal and state funding sources for these projects have dried up; and voters like them. In a March poll

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MoVing again of 801 possible voters, the Sacramento Transportation Authority says Fix It First projects drew the support of 91 percent of respondents.

Fix it First also appeals to local elected officials, many of whom moonlight on the boards of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, STA and RT. Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna and Sacramento City Councilman Jay Schenirer sit on all three, while many of their colleagues pull double board duty.

That helps, because STA board members must now get their jurisdictions to sign off on the proposal. Measure B needs the approval of seven city councils and the board of supervisors by early August to make the ballot, after which two-thirds of voters have to support it for it to pass.

That’s a high benchmark, one that could be missed if any organized opposition arises. In STA’s poll, 69 percent of respondents supported the measure, though that support dropped to 61 percent when arguments against the measure were presented.

Transit and housing advocate Russell Rawlings, who recently exited the city of Sacramento’s mayoral race, acknowledged elected officials’ narrow margin for victory.

“I think they’re really concerned [about the measure not passing],” he said. “Which means taking care of the county, which means most of the money going to the roads, which is what we all expected.”

In drafting Measure B, the STA board also made accommodations to business and suburban development interests.

During last week’s meeting, the STA board relaxed an air quality provision that drew complaints from Region Business, Associated General Contractors of California and the California Alliance for Jobs.

Another business-friendly consideration has Measure B steering roughly 70 percent of its projected $3.6 billion to road, highway and local transit projects. (Specifically, “local transit” mostly refers to implementing bike and pedestrian master plans for every city in the county except Isleton, and fixing the roads that buses travel over.)

Other big-ticket projects include a $200 million widening of the Capital City Freeway from P Street to Watt Avenue.

Sacramento City Councilman Jay Schenirer told SN&R that Measure B would also raise $30 million for the city’s $195 million riverfront streetcar project, which voters rejected last year under a lower price tag, but may be asked to reconsider.

On April 25, Schenirer and fellow Councilman Steve Hansen successfully pushed their RT board to adopt a $4.7 million design contract for the

streetcar, using money from the federal government and the cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento. After an hour spent discussing the contract, the RT board began considering possible system cuts, a conversation that it plans to continue at future meetings.

Rawlings, who was at that lightly attended meeting, says those priorities need to be reversed. While a fan of the streetcar idea, he thinks it’s the wrong time to invest in it while the regional transit system as a whole languishes.

“It’s the tale of RT really just self-destructing in so many ways,” he said.

says she’s considering filing a Title VI complaint against RT over the current Measure B spending plan. Title VI, part of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, requires that public funds be spent in a way that doesn’t encourage discrimination.

With much of RT’s Measure B share expanding light rail to higher-income areas, rather than restoring discontinued bus routes in minority communities, Valenzuela Garcia argues that’s not happening here.

“This measure, as it’s drafted right now … is going to violate Title VI,” she said. “There is no way they can justify that when they cut so much bus service and increase fares for rawlings says he is people of color.” concerned less RT general with how Measure manager Mike B divvies up its Wiley called that billions than what argument “a false RT will do with concept” and Organize Sacramento board member the share it does pointed to the STA Russell Rawlings receive. poll that showed 75 on the chances of Measure B not passing “RT does not percent support for have a good track extending the lines. record of spending He says he doesn’t fear money,” he said. “More a Title VI challenge, but services would actually get acknowledged many groups more people to participate in the depend on public transit. system. Any approach that doesn’t get us “We have very limited local support, and closer to that doesn’t make sense, in consequently it really causes us to be very my mind.” careful and look at how we can allocate all STA grappled with what to do about of our services in a productive way,” he said. public transit while drafting Measure B. A “While at the same time, we’re very sensicurrent sales tax, Measure A, allocates 34.5 tive to the transit-dependent needs that exist percent of roughly $30 million annually for throughout our community. It’s a delicate RT. With RT facing numerous problems, balance.”

STA has restricted how it can spend If anyone knows about that delicate Measure B money. balance, it’s the women of Wellspring.

“They’re going to have to do the Fix Wellspring gives out $18,000 a year in It First projects early on until they meet bus passes, with women lining up at 7:30 in certain other requirements like increasing the morning for them. But there’s demand ridership, increasing their fare box recovery, for more, its staff says, even as routes are those sorts of things before they can even reduced. look at thinking about doing expansions of “Essentially, what I hear over and over the system,” said STA board Chairwoman is that ‘I can’t get to the doctor’s. I can’t Kerri Howell, a Folsom City Council get my son to school. I can’t get to this vital member and candidate for Sacramento court appointment that I have to expunge County Board of Supervisors. “That’s one my record’ or these different things,” said problem that everybody has had with RT.” Genelle Smith, a program coordinator for But not the only one.

Wellspring.

Under Measure B, RT could receive So, on April 20, Smith and others $952.3 million over 30 years, with organized carpools to ferry 68 women to an $392.8 million designated for bus and train RT office at 13th and R streets. Wellspring replacement, maintenance, operations and provided each woman $3 to get a photo ID, security. The rest is for extending light rail so they could get a sticker on it that would and servicing new lines, including lines to allow them to purchase a $50 monthly Sacramento International Airport and Elk disabled pass.

Grove, which has attracted controversy.

Blocks away, Howell made the case for Oak Park Neighborhood Association a $125.6 million highway connector between Vice President Katie Valenzuela Garcia Elk Grove and El Dorado County. Ω

“I think they’re really concerned.”

Past the broken elevator and up three dingy flights of carpeted stairs, 20-odd homeless youth enjoy a last supper of sorts: chili dogs on paper plates.

It’s a busy Friday at Wind Youth Services’ drop-in center for area homeless youth. People nap or eat. A young man plunks out phrases on a wood-framed piano, while another plays a computer game with his headphones on. A teenage girl shows another one how to draw hands. A boy works up the courage to talk to her.

On May 5, Wind closed the Midtown center after nearly 16 months in the location, at J and 17th streets. Next stop is Oak Park, where Wind will restart services May 11, inside of a building owned

by Next Move Sacramento, a provider of family shelter and housing. By all accounts, the new place is nicer, with an outdoor area, two kitchens, showers and laundry facilities—amenities that the old location lacked, noted Wind Executive Director Suzi Dotson.

But it’s also outside of the central city and thus, harder for local homeless youth to access.

Dotson described the move to Oak Park as temporary, “until an affordable location can be identified,” and named affordability as the primary reason the drop-in center is moving.

It may also be a sign of a developing partnership.

In mid-February, Wind closed a six-bed adolescent shelter due to funding constraints, reopening it five weeks later with the help of the county and goodwill Sacramento Valley & northern nevada, which contributed enough money to keep the shelter open through the rest of the year. That led to talk of a potential alliance between Wind and Goodwill, which also has community partnerships with Next Move and other local nonprofits.

Nothing is final, but Dotson said Goodwill’s operational strengths—including in-house human resources, information technology and fund development departments—allow its partner organizations to focus on serving their disadvantaged populations.

Wind’s drop-in center was previously in north Sacramento.

Dotson acknowledged the Oak Park location may be less accessible for some.

One of those youths is 19-year-old Collin “C.J.” Jackson, a regular drop-in guest who camps with friends near the American River.

“I don’t know about anybody else, but it will be harder for me to get to,” he said of the new location. (Raheem F. Hosseini)

breaK in the caSe Four people were arrested in connection to the home invasion that left a man and his two sons dead last week, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department has reported.

On the morning of April 28, a 911 call brought authorities to a residence in the 8700 block of Ardith Way in south Sacramento, a sheriff’s department release states. Inside, 56-year-old Thanh Le and his sons, Dong Le, 32, and Tien Le, 21, were found dead from gunshot wounds, the victims of a believed home invasion robbery.

The arrests began a few days later.

On May 1, authorities detained Elijah Johnson, 21, at a motel in the 2600 block of El Centro Road, and arrested him later following an interview. A day later, 18-year-old Amanda Tucker and a 17-yearold female were arrested at separate residences. On May 3, Daniel Nguyen was picked up at an apartment complex.

Johnson and Nguyen were both charged with murder, while Tucker and the other female were charged with robbery. The investigation remains ongoing. (RFH)

05.05.16 | SN&R | 9

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10 | SN&R | 05.05.16

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Bravery in action On April 25, I learned something about bullying and courage by jeff vonkaenel

April 25th was the annual Muslim Day at the Capitol. Now, I have never attended any of the previous Muslim Days, sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, but trying to make America actually great again, I decided to go to the opening ceremonies held at the west end of Capitol Park.

The first thing I noticed were the buses. Then I turned the corner and saw the large crowd. Then I noticed that about half of the people attending the event were teenagers.

They were not dressed in the usual bright T-shirts proclaiming their school, but instead wore more grown-up clothes.

And these kids had their game faces on. They were there to get something done.

Curious, I pulled out my reporter’s notebook. These notebooks have magnetic powers.

They can either attract people or repel them. Today, the notebook had its mojo going, and soon I had seven young Southern California Muslim women talking to me about why they decided to take a ninehour bus ride to Sacramento.

They were here to meet with the state Legislature about numerous bills. One key bill was Assembly Bill 2845, the Safe Place to Learn Act, which promotes strategies to address bullying in schools, including bullying on the basis of religious affiliation or perceived religious affiliation.

I asked the girls if they had been bullied. They said yes, very politely, very calmly, as if I had asked them if the sun rises in the morning. They told me people had pulled off their headscarves. Six of the seven were wearing headscarves now.

They said they were constantly being asked if they were terrorists.

One young lady could not count the times that she has been told to go back to

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

her own country. She then explained, in a natural, native Los Angeles accent, “This is my country. I was born here. I have no other country to go back to.”

I was instantly impressed with my small Los Angeles focus group. They were smart, articulate and polite, the type of kids every parent dreams of having.

And then it dawned on me that these young girls, instead of dressing in the latest fashion, were putting on headscarves before they went into the jungle we call junior high. For their faith, and for their family, they were willing to set themselves apart. Even if it meant setting themselves up for abuse.

I was blown away. I remember junior high. There is a tremendous desire to fit in. These brave, young women are wise beyond their age.

These young women, along with about 600 other Muslims, met with 90 legislators and their staff. Sacramento Assemblymember Kevin McCarty told me, “I was happy to meet with the Council on American-Islamic Relations on their legislative priorities.

It was concerning to hear how bullying is a serious issue for children in their community and I am proud to support their legislative efforts to provide resources for Muslim students that are bullied at school.”

And I am proud just to have been lucky enough to meet these extraordinary young women. There are those who say that they are trying to “make America great again.” At the Muslim Day at the Capitol, I met with a group of young women who I believe actually can make America great again. Ω

I asked the girls if they had been bullied. They said yes.

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

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sweet irony Donald trump clearly angered the karma gods. Last week, a mass of protesters forced the GOP presidential frontrunner to climb a freeway median—instantly undermining his wall-obsessed immigration “policy”—on his way to and from a campaign event in Burlingame. Meanwhile, video of Sacramento-area activist Maile Hampton leading a flag-burning to protest “the Donald” at the same event riled his supporters to ugly social media threats and temporarily got Hampton’s Facebook page disabled.

The defiant activist got the page restored.

Embattled UC Davis Chancellor linda P. Katehi didn’t make it easy. Placed on forced academic leave last week by UC President Janet Napolitano, Katehi did everything but sink her nails into a mahogany desk to prevent her ousting. With an outside investigation ordered, Katehi’s future at UCD looks pretty bleak.

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A farewell SN&R’s founding editor says goodbye to the paper

by Melinda Welsh

Last December I wrote an essay “The Time I Have Left” (SN&R Essay, December 17, 2015) with thoughts about what to do with my life after being diagnosed with a terminal disease at age 59. Somehow, the piece—which appeared in the Los Angeles Times and SN&R—went viral.

In the weeks that followed, I received a tidal wave of comments and emails from friends, colleagues and many thousands of strangers. It was an unexpected gift, as if I’d been given the chance to be present at my own memorial service with people gathering in cyberspace to share kind reminiscences and thoughts about our common mortality.

My status today: I’m still alive and kicking and fortunate to be involved in immunotherapy clinical trials at UCSF Medical Center. I am responding pretty well to the treatments, which seek to rally my immune system to fight the cancer, and we hope I’ve been granted a wish to enjoy this wonderful life a bit further into the future.

Still, it’s time for me to say farewell in these pages.

I haven’t played a significant role at SN&R since the spring of 2012, so nobody is exactly going to miss me in the lineup. But as the paper’s founding and longtime editor, I thought I’d muse a bit before departing the field.

When Jeff vonKaenel and Deborah Redmond arrived in Sacramento in late 1988 with the goal of starting up an alternative paper, the town’s citizens were not yet familiar with the idea of a free-standing newsweekly that included local reporting, good writing and dazzling design. We attempted to change that. It stuns me now to think how much faith was placed in me and

my colleague Tom Johnson to create an editorial vision, build a stable of freelance reporters and writers, lay it all on the line before readers in week after week of the startup Sacramento News & Review.

But that’s what we tried to do.

We scrutinized local government.

We wrote about drugs and crime and homelessness. We championed the underdog. We helped spur the thriving of music, entertainment and restaurant scenes. We celebrated community heroes, caused some errant officials’ heads to roll and helped tip the scales as the Sacramento community came together around a few epic accomplishments, such as closing down an incompetently run nuclear power plant.

Mostly, we attempted to provide an alternative—to tell stories that otherwise weren’t being told and create a shared space for new voices to be heard.

As the decades rolled by, SN&R grew and broke through, thrived and survived. It is gratifying all these years later to know that the paper is still busy doing many of the very same things we started out with so long ago.

What do I remember most?

The people. The passions. The projects, like the times we’d convince alternative editors across the country to print stories at the same time on one theme (such as climate change).

Challenged to come up with the perfect “cover copy” for SN&R’s 10th anniversary issue—some catchy way to sum it all up—it struck me: Think free.

The two words became the company’s slogan; I’m honored that it remains so today.

As part of an attempt to live fully in the present, my husband and I have taken to creating occasions to consider choices we made in the past.

For example, we pulled several dozen spidery boxes of old SN&Rs from the garage last fall and stacked their contents—a thousand random issues from 1989 to the present—on every table, bookshelf and countertop in our home for seven days. Each paper was a memory waiting to be peeled back.

I expected this to be a kind of bittersweet, “this is your life” experience, but it wasn’t. Instead, we laughed all week long, recalling the highs and lows, sharing our best finds with others who had been there.

To me, the piles of papers were souvenirs that reminded of the creativity, hard work, conviviality and sense of purpose that I’d been immersed in all those years at the SN&R. They were also a signal of the continuity of things, and how, as Morpheus says in The Matrix Reloaded, “Some things never change. And some things do.”

From where I sit now, life is full of wonder. As I read the headlines on my iPad each morning, I marvel at the merged arguments there for grief and joy, hope and despair.

I’ve come to believe that our challenge as human beings is to embrace that complexity and—from wherever we find ourselves—devise our own best path forward in the finite amount of time we are alive on this Earth.

I consider myself very fortunate that my own life’s “best path” merged for many decades with that of the redoubtable entity that is the News & Review.

As I sign off, let me send a final message of gratitude to the gifted crew of reporters, writers, designers and others I was lucky enough to work with over the years at SN&R. And my devotion to the loyal readers who made our work possible. I owe much appreciation to Rachel Leibrock and Nick Miller, who were unswerving in their support these last few years.

And to Jeff and Deborah: heartfelt thanks for taking a chance on me back decades ago, for our partnership over the long years and for standing by me to this day. Ω

I consider myself very fortunate that my own life’s “best path” merged for many decades with that of the redoubtable entity that is the News & Review.

05.05.16 | SN&R | 13

The Lindsey Pavao How the reality TV star survived The Voice, angry fans and her own demons

by Janelle Bitker janelleb@newsreview.com photos by Darin Bradford

L

indsey Pavao crumbled onto a couch in a Los Angeles hotel hobby.

She was wearing a giant, off-white, marshmallow-like princess dress. And she stayed there, in that dress, sipping Manhattans, for three hours, thinking.

What now?

It was the night of May 1, 2012, and Pavao had just been kicked off NBC’s singing competition show The Voice, then the No. 1 show in America.

Under the bright lights on that huge stage, the Sacramento resident sobbed and thanked The Voice for making her dreams come true. She says it felt like getting fired on national television—more than sadness or regret, she felt panic.

As soon as Pavao stepped off camera, she was escorted into a trailer with a psychiatrist to make sure she could handle real life again. As a parting gift, the wardrobe staff gave her the over-the-top, Björk-style dress she was supposed to wear for the finale the next week. She now calls it her “loser dress.”

Still, Pavao had made it far, narrowly losing in the semifinals. For much of the season, fans downloaded her songs on iTunes more than any other contestant.

She sang privately for Lionel Richie and, another week, on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Her national fan base grew from nothing to enormous.

Since then, she’s tried to relate meaning from the experience and all of its fallout. She struggled with depression, online harassment and the task of putting out a long-promised album to an impatient following. It’s taken nearly four years, but now she’s ready to come out of hiding with a debut record from her new duo, Trophii. Will it find an audience?

“It’s very alternative and it’s going to turn a lot of people off,” Pavao says. “I had to let go of that idea of creating an accessible record for people who liked me on The Voice. The truth is, people who watch The Voice might not like this record. And that’s cool.”

“The unbreakable Lindsey Pavao” continued on page 16

14 | SN&R | 05.05.16

“feature story” continued on page XX

05.05.16 | SN&R | 15

“I just needed to find music I believed in.”

Lindsey Pavao

“The unbreakable Lindsey Pavao” continued from page 15

Lindsey Pavao with her partner and musical cohort in Trophii, Richie Smith.

Competition, fame and other conflicts and dramas On February 6, 2012, 17.7 million people met Pavao.

The Sacramento resident’s audition on season two of The Voice won raves from both the celebrity judges on the show and music critics at home.

Entertainment Weekly magazine immediately picked her out as a favorite to win the whole show. They praised her creative song choice—an indie transformation of Trey Songz’s “Say Aah”—and her half-shaved head.

Pop icon Christina Aguilera spun her chair around in approval after just 30 seconds, soon followed by soul singer CeeLo Green and country star Blake Shelton. They all wanted to coach her.

“I enjoyed every second of that,” Aguilera said on the show. “You have such a unique quality and tone to your voice.”

16 | SN&R | 05.05.16

Cue screaming and applause.

Despite Pavao’s poised appearance and surging popularity, she didn’t feel like she belonged on the show.

For most of her life, she felt lost and conflicted.

Pavao grew up in Manteca, Calif., a small orchard town. Her parents—a painter and a musician—raised her with art, and she gravitated toward music early on. At age 11, she picked up the violin, later ditching it for guitar, singing and songwriting.

Her mother, Deborah Pavao, describes her as a creative, bright and imaginative child, but still quite shy and quiet.

“I would have never imagined she’d want to play music for audiences,” Deborah says, remembering Lindsey’s early cafe gigs.

Of course, The Voice would come as a much greater shock than Pavao’s first coffee shop open-mic.

Pavao went to UC Davis in 2007 and dabbled in theater and improv comedy

while working toward her psychology degree. But the experience wasn’t adding up, tuition costs were high and she felt directionless. Did she even want to go to college, or did she do it because that was the expectation?

After two years, she transferred to Sacramento State and got a bartending gig at Pinky’s Bar & Grill. Her boss there, overhearing Pavao singing to herself, convinced her to audition for this new reality television show—Pavao had never heard of The Voice, but she went to the open casting call in San Francisco in August 2011.

“I remember going there specifically with the goal of getting rejected,” Pavao says. “I kept going through the audition process, and no one said no, and that was a hard thing for me to understand.”

That day in San Francisco, she waited for seven hours to sing for The Voice’s casting director. Her rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” impressed, and soon, Los Angeles was calling. With just five classes left

until graduation, Pavao dropped out of school and went to Hollywood. It’s still a strange thing for her to think back on, like a hypersurreal, blurry vision of adult summer camp.

“It was indescribable culture shock,” she says. “I didn’t know what was going on and I refused to acknowledge what was happening.”

Her challenges stemmed from longstanding self-esteem and identity issues.

She couldn’t wrap her head around the competition and the fame that came with it. The idea of self-promotion seemed foreign and bizarre, though in retrospect, necessary to win. And behind the scenes, there was constant conflict and drama.

One week, Pavao sang Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.”

Smoke inched across the floor of the stage while four dancers, wearing creepy masks and top hats, wiggled behind her.

She was so excited to cover one of her favorite songs, and to arrange it with a dark, trip-hop vibe.

the shaved-head girl,” someone would say. “Are you famous yet?” Pavao drowned in those passing comments.

By summer of 2013, she was so fed up that she scheduled a record-release show. She decided that, even if she wasn’t happy with the album, she should just do it and move on. The clock was ticking, fans were demanding progress.

But then, at the last minute, she changed her mind again and decided to keep her songs to herself.

“The reason I now realized I couldn’t finish that album is that I was taking on everyone else’s expectations,” she says.

“They’re small and they’re harmless and they’re well-meaning, but sometimes we isolate ourselves through these expectations people have of us.”

Pavao’s friend and local musician James Cavern, who also briefly appeared on a different season of The Voice, agrees the public’s perception of her—and thus, expectation—wasn’t exactly accurate. Part of that is because most contestants on The Voice have already been working on their music careers for years.

“She’s playing to a small crowd and, the next minute, to a million. That’s crazy,” Cavern says. “People assume she’s a seasoned vet and they forget she’s new.”

Her Kickstarter supporters certainly assumed as much. They expected a finished album within a year. Or two.

Or three. But it’s still not here, and there are more than 150 comments on her crowdfunding page from people wanting results. A recent example from February: “You’re a piece of garbage.

Thanks for nothing you fraud.”

These comments didn’t help Pavao’s creativity. Instead, she became a social media hermit, digitally afraid. She didn’t update her Facebook fan page—with more than 30,000 followers—for several months.

“It’s jarring. It’s like someone coming into your room and making a fool of you,” she says, pausing to laugh. “Generally people who get harassed on the internet have a bit more success than I do.”

Still, she understands why her fans are upset. She acknowledges that more

than three years is a long time to wait for an album. But she also points out that she doesn’t have a producer, manager or publicist, and she works two day jobs, including one as a yoga teacher.

“Adele took three years,” she says.

“And she’s got an army of probably 50 people behind her.”

And, contrary to what many Kickstarter supporters think, Pavao says she spent every cent from the crowdfunding campaign on her first album. But she needed to do it on her own timeline.

“My life hit a point where I was either going to fall apart giving a shit about everything, or I needed to not give a shit about anything,” she says. “I think that’s part of being an artist. You just have to be kind of an asshole.”

‘I remember looking in the mirror and seeing a clown’ Even in broad daylight, Pavao’s Midtown apartment is dark, thanks to the tiniest of windows. The living room’s brown carpet is covered in pedals, amps, speakers and cat toys.

Four dead sunflowers droop out of a vase on the bookshelf.

A large whiteboard commands the second bedroom—the studio—as the literal writing on the wall: notes on Trophii’s debut record, Vitamins and Flowers.

It’s February. Robert Cheek just agreed to mix the album and he’s now sitting on the couch, listening to a few rough tracks for the first time. Richie Smith, Pavao’s musical and life partner, brought him on—he’s worked on albums for Band of Horses, Tera Melos, Chelsea Wolfe and Life in 24 Frames.

“How’s ‘Imiote’ sounding?”

Pavao asks.

“Two-dimensional and dry,” Smith says. “A little shiny for my taste.”

Pavao hits play. There’s a groovy bass line, Pavao’s ethereal vocals and— this is still a rough mix—some crashing frequencies. Cheek’s eyes are closed in concentration, his foot tapping the floor.

Pavao’s small gray cat Demetrius—she calls him her “demonic cat”—hops onto

her lap and claws a chunk of her hair into his mouth. She does not resist his chewing.

“Awesome,” Cheek says, as Pavao pauses the track. “This is exciting.”

Trophii’s dream-pop sound is a bit reminiscent of Beach House, but more sonically challenging, with unusual time signatures, lots of textures, rich vocal harmonies and propulsive rhythm underneath it all. You won’t find familiar pop song structures or conventions.

“This record is like our unbridled, neurotic minds,” Pavao says. “We just went apeshit.”

Pavao and Smith first met online, sort of. In the summer of 2013, they both participated in one of Cavern’s big, briefly annual Radiohead tribute shows.

They signed up for “Paranoid Android,” began chatting online about music and, a few paragraphs later, Pavao popped the question: Would Smith be interested in co-writing the record Pavao was struggling to finish?

“I was very instinctual about it,” she says. “We just instantly had some sort of weird energetic connection.”

It began as a purely musical relationship. Smith invited Pavao to join one of his bands, Life in 24 Frames. But they became completely consumed by their own writing on the side. Smith, also playing in bands for Cavern and Joe Kye, dropped everything in the fall of 2014. They realized these songs, originally intended to be for Pavao’s first solo album, needed to be for a duo.

Trophii was born.

Vitamins and Flowers won’t be Smith’s first record, but it means more to him than anything else he’s written or produced.

“This is a bit more precious to me,” he says. “It’s very personal.”

Perhaps that’s why it’s taken so much time. That, and some technical difficulties. Pavao’s hard drive crashed in March, delaying the album’s release until, hopefully, sometime in May. But will Pavao’s fans from The Voice like it? She doesn’t know. Maybe.

Maybe some of them.

Knowing Smith’s ambitious songwriting, Cavern is a little concerned.

“The unbreakable Lindsey Pavao” continued on page 19

Judge Adam Levine wasn’t a huge fan, however, and criticized Pavao’s performance, saying he wanted to hear “more strength.” She immediately went from looking proud and ecstatic to dazed and deflated. Praise from Aguilera didn’t help.

“Honestly, I was like, ‘Where can I buy her album right now?’ I could listen to you all day,” Aguilera said.

“You stand alone in a category all of your own.”

As host Carson Daly went on to explain how the public could vote for Pavao, the camera remained fixated on her frowning face. That made a producer very angry. According to Pavao, he told her, “You’ll look grateful. You’ll look in the camera and you’ll fucking smile.

You don’t have to be here.” It marked a turning point.

“It was like, my introvertedness, my eccentricities, my sensitivity is not welcome here,” Pavao says. “They wanted to exploit extreme joy when you win and extreme sadness when you’re down.”

She wasn’t alone in finding the climate difficult. Fellow contestant Lee Koch agrees that the structure of The Voice caused plenty of stress.

“They kind of hold you hostage,” he says. “The anxiety builds up—not because we’re dying to win the show.

We want to carry on with our lives and we’re functioning in this weird, in-between space.”

Pavao was stuck in that zone for a year, but she eventually found her footing in Sacramento. She went on tour, found a day job and launched a Kickstarter campaign to help put out her first album, all within a few short months. Her new fervent fan base responded: 578 people pledged $28,039 in August of 2012. Sounds like good news, but in Pavao’s words, that was “the beginning of Pandora’s box.”

She fell into a deep depression.

For about a year-and-a-half, the record wasn’t coming together as she’d hoped.

“I was pulling my hair out,” she says. “Why can’t I finish this album?

Why don’t these songs sound right?”

It didn’t help that she got recognized on the street all the time. “Hey, you’re

“There’s a place for humility and politeness, but not when it comes to what you want artistically. Being able to draw that line is important. I didn’t back then.”

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05.05.16 | SN&R | 17

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“The unbreakable Lindsey Pavao” continued from page 17

“If there’s a lot going on, that’s hard to sing over,” Cavern says. “At the end of the day, her fans want to hear her voice.”

Pavao doesn’t care about that anymore, though. Sure, she hopes her fans like her work, but now, she’s making the music that feels right. She says Smith helped her learn to be more headstrong and less apologetic—something she had difficulty with on The Voice.

Wardrobe, for example, was always a battle.

Today, she’s wearing a chunky sweater, snowflake-patterned tights, flat boots and no makeup. On The Voice, she usually wore tiny, skin-tight dresses, high heels and makeup as thick as paint.

“I remember looking in the mirror and seeing a clown,” she says.

One time, she told the wardrobe staff that she wanted to wear pants for a change—and no high heels. They said yes, but only if they could cinch her waist in return.

“It was always this fight for femininity: as thin as we can get you, as flattering as we can make you look,” Pavao says. “It was hard to breathe with a big piece of plastic around my stomach.”

Not to mention sing.

“There’s a place for humility and politeness, but not when it comes to what you want artistically,” she says. “Being able to draw that line is important. I didn’t back then.”

Still, other people with The Voice didn’t see the meek girl Pavao describes.

To fellow competitor Koch, Pavao was one of few authentic people on a show full of overthe-top personalities.

“She always had well-thought-out stuff to say, but she was funny too,” he says. “Very cerebral.”

Perhaps no one got to know Pavao as well as Romeo Johnson, the anonymous vocal coach for the first four seasons of The Voice.

He used to tour as a backup singer with Michael Jackson and has big-name clients like Lady Gaga and Queen Latifah. He says he coached more than 100 singers for The Voice, but Pavao easily sticks out as one of his favorites.

“She’s very sensitive and very passionate.

In my opinion, you can’t be a really great artist unless you’re sensitive and passionate,” he says, pausing. “Sometimes, it was to her detriment.”

Pavao says she’d go to Johnson every week and cry, too overwhelmed by the spectacle of the show. Johnson saw that, but he also saw a singer so emotionally moved by music—and with such a beautiful voice—that he would become emotionally moved as well.

“Everyone just had so much respect for her within the competition,” he says, praising her hardworking, humble and relaxed nature. “She had so much balance.”

There is something calming about Pavao’s presence, which probably comes from her

five-year-long yoga practice. She wakes up every morning at 5 a.m. and practices for 80 minutes.

Before yoga, Pavao says she didn’t have a way to properly deal with anxiety. She’d curl into a stress ball in isolation. Now, she applies yoga’s lessons to the rest of her life.

Detachment is huge. So is acceptance. And self-love. She says she’s water and Smith is fire, and that’s why they make such a great team. Their artistic energies work, and thus, they’ve created something that finally works for her.

“I just needed to find music I believed in, that had nothing to do with anyone’s expectation, had nothing to do with success or popularity or appeal,” Pavao says. “I just had to do something that felt pure.”

A loss and a new calling It’s The Voice semifinals, and Pavao launches into a cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.” But this performance immediately feels different than her others on the show. There aren’t any backup dancers or flashy, colored lights. It’s just Pavao, strumming a guitar, with a dozen of her closest family members and friends sitting cross-legged in front of her, as if The Voice’s enormous stage was an intimate cafe.

The camera zooms in. Her makeup looks softer; her hair less massaged into place. Her relatively comfy-looking purple dress flows down to her bare feet.

Her performance is powerful, with her breathy tone and delicate falsetto shining through the indie folk ballad. And after the last note, she smiles—a massive, genuine smile that’s not for the camera or a producer or anyone else. She nailed it and she knows it.

Finally, after years of feeling lost and directionless, she feels like she’s found her calling.

Because, remarkably, she didn’t feel that way before.

“It took me fucking being on TV, going through this whole process, just to be like, ‘I like singing and I want to do this,’” she says, laughing.

The greater irony? Pavao got kicked off the show the next day.

Looking back, Pavao says she didn’t care about winning. The Voice served as validation, and now she’s found on the path she wants to be on. With the release of Vitamins and Flowers, she’ll finally feel free from her Kickstarter obligation and the expectations of her fans. She’s ready to move on.

“The Voice is about a voice. If you did enjoy my voice and you wanna hear what I have to say, it’s not Katy Perry covers,” she says. “I’m not ashamed of it. I’m not distancing myself from it. But you won’t see a big The Voice emblem behind my head.

“I enjoy the incongruent image, that I’ve done that and I am this.” Ω

05.05.16 | SN&R | 19

K

ristin Carpio has no memories of Mother’s Day before age 16. That was the year her mother died from cancer.

“Once she passed, all I felt on Mother’s Day was grief,” says the 56-year-old life coach. “All day, I would be thinking of my mom and feeling sad even as I was saying ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ to other mothers.

Watching people buying presents, eating meals out, kissing and hugging their moms, I would think: ‘I miss my mother.’”

But then, she says, a deeper awareness would kick in.

“I’d say to myself, ‘Really? Are you missing the mother you had?’ No. I was missing a mother, not the mother who passed. It was the relationship I was missing, a relationship that never actually existed.”

BY JOEY GARCIA askjoey@newsreview.com PHOTOS BY JON HERMISON

She pauses. “Our minds do interesting things.”

Joey Garcia offers insight into dealing with the mother of all holidays

Joey Garcia writes SN&R’s weekly Ask Joey column.

20 | SN&R | 05.05.16

While Mother’s Day can induce denial in some minds, President Woodrow Wilson anticipated something more positive in 1914 when he signed legislation designating a holiday to honor mothers.

Unfortunately for some, over the years, the second Sunday in May has become saturated in sentimentality and commercialization. National Restaurant Association 2013 data shows that more money is spent eating out on Mother’s Day, with 80 million people dining out on this day, than any other holiday, including Valentine’s Day. And there’s so much social pressure to celebrate every mother, it’s almost taboo to admit you had one who was closer to the Mommie Dearest standard than the Hallmark ideal.

But it can be healthy to talk about, too, especially for those looking to heal emotionally—or not repeat the mistakes of their mother.

Carpio says her mother was emotionally distant throughout their life together.

“There was no interaction. We never exchanged words like ‘I love you’ or ‘What’s going on in your life?’” she says. “I felt she was jealous of me because my father and I were close.”

By the time Carpio was a sophomore in high school, her mother had developed cancer. The lack of connection with her nowdying mother, coupled with her brother’s ongoing health problems, hit Carpio hard.

“I didn’t feel safe, emotionally or physically,” she says.

At 15, she moved out of her parents’ house and in with the family of a school friend.

“My friend and her mom were close. So it felt like home, even though it wasn’t my home.”

Douglas Michaels, a 45-year-old sales professional who asked that SN&R not use his real name, says he moved in with his grandparents when he was a tween, rather than continue the strained relationship he had with his “narcissistic and apathetic mother.” Their connection became so difficult that at times, “It felt more like we were brother and sister,” he says. “It was a strange dynamic.”

Being raised by his grandparents allowed Michaels to see his relationship with his mother more clearly.

“I realized our relationship wasn’t ever going to be idyllic, or Norman Rockwell. I had to make do with what was truly there,” he says.

Conversations with his somewhat celebrity-obsessed 75-year-old mother are always a surprise, he says.

“She’s never been that familiar with Prince. But after his death she watched Purple Rain, then called me and said, ‘Prince is the sexiest man I’ve ever met.’ She never met him.”

His mother has little interest in his life, he says, but still confides personal details that Michaels wishes she would keep to herself.

“After her two knee replacements, she told me, ‘You know, I’m not well enough for sexual activity.’ She’s a cross between Joan Crawford and Courtney Love.”

For Michaels, becoming an adult meant acknowledging his mother’s limitations, learning to appreciate who she is, and offering her an olive branch.

“I made amends for my part in what our relationship lacked. It brought us closer, but the challenges are still prevalent. I set healthy boundaries. I’ve also noticed the difference between helping her and enabling her. She’s my mother. I love her, but at times I don’t like her at all.”

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Aubrey Keys, a psychotherapist with the Multi-Cultural Center for Psychotherapy in Natomas, acknowledges that it can be difficult for people to talk publicly about having a mother who is emotionally distant or narcissistic, abusive or hypercritical because it violates the social norm of holidays like Mother’s Day. “The celebration of Mother’s Day is not bad in itself. But when families get together, there are opportunities to be retraumatized,” he says. “When we revisit those emotional attachments, the original difficulties become apparent again.”

I’ve learned through my work that life changes, like a death, marriage, divorce, even the birth of a child, can also trigger old wounds.

Years ago I was facilitating a women’s group in my home for women ready to take big risks in their choices. The week before Mother’s Day, one woman—I’ll call her Martina—was talking about her contentious divorce. Formerly a stay-at-home mom, the 35-year-old yearned to return to the modeling career she gave up when she married.

Her soon-to-be-ex ridiculed her, but she felt vindicated by her choices when she landed a well-paying catalog gig. Unfortunately, the job required travel, and that meant letting her husband win the custody battle.

Suddenly, overwhelmed by sobs contorting her lovely face, Martina’s deepest fear broke through in a harrowing wail: “I don’t want to be a bad mother!”

Between sobs, Martina admitted she was afraid of being a bad mother because she was raised by one. She believed her mother had emotionally abandoned her while she was growing up. Her mother was also on her ex-husband’s side in the custody battle, she said, intensifying those feelings of abandonment.

Keys says, without therapy, people often normalize their unrepaired relationships with their mothers.

“We move on to become the best parent we can be, but those painful things become frozen in our brain as events and get triggered during social celebrations like Mother’s Day. We work, become successful and we recreate fantasies about our relationships with our mothers that fit our sense of feeling good about ourselves.”

The alternative is to find a different maternal model. Through that, he says, we can discover who we are.

scHooleD oN fisH see DisH

26

Her cHeatiN’ Heart see asK JoeY

40

BirtHiNg tHe MotHer see 15 MiNUtes

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on tiny humans and big love

Aubrey Keys (top), a pyschotherapist, and Kristin Carpio, a life coach, both help patients work through various mother issues—and guide them toward compassion and understanding.

I’ve lost touch. I’ve missed events. But, I’ve gained so much more.

There’s so much social pressure to celebrate every mother, it’s almost taboo to admit you had one who was closer to the Mommie

Dearest standard than the Hallmark ideal.

“Maybe a neighbor who was loving to her children, attended church and invited you along.

In that scenario, or one like that, you would learn how to create a relationship model that allows you to connect to others.

Carpio says she remembers admiring the relationship her high-school friend shared with her own mother.

It must have inspired her, she says, but she doesn’t remember actually deciding to leave her family home for theirs. She does, however, remember the tremendous relief she felt at being out of her family’s home.

“As kids, we look for guidance and I had absolutely none. Maybe that’s what was scary.”

As a life coach with the Tao Center for Healing in Midtown, Carpio says she draws on her personal experiences to guide clients toward compassion for the way their mothers were raised, and to let go of judgment, sadness, pain and hurt around the relationship.

And, as a mother of three daughters, she has learned to navigate the motherdaughter dynamic differently.

I was terrified when I found out I was going to have a baby.

My Mexican heritage and traditional upbringing meant my mom stayed home with my brother and me, my dad worked 12-hour days and that was considered honorable.

Women stayed home, men went to work.

My mother gave birth to me when she was 16. In order to avoid a similar outcome, my parents filled my life with anti-sex, anti-boyfriend, anti-prom, anti-any-situationwhere-a-daughter-could-get-pregnant limitations. I graduated high school with honors in Bakersfield and eventually moved to Sacramento where I attended college to chase my journalism dream. All the while, I aimed to never live up to the stereotype ingrained by my parents.

But then there I was, 29 years old, and finding the courage to face the ultimate, life-changing “Yes, you’re definitely pregnant,” results from my over-thecounter pregnancy test. I felt scared. What would my family say? Would this let them down? Would i be viewed as less?

A failure, even? Then, new waves of anxiety arose as I pondered the potential loss of friends and the nightlife I’d most certainly walk away from.

But, as I reread the test results and wrapped my brain around the possibilities of what being a mom to someone could be, an internal switch flipped. Instead of staying out until sunrise, I would keep track of my baby’s growth in my tummy with an app that would tell me when he was the size of a grapefruit or small pumpkin. Suddenly, I was reading every blog, website and book that I could about motherhood, pondering the best decisions.

One year, hundreds of diapers and dozens of instagram snapshots of progress later, I have adjusted my life completely. I’ve lost some “friends,” but I ended up with stronger bonds. My partner and I choose our outings sparingly, and with that, the nights we do venture out to live music or a quiet dinner at a new restaurant feel more meaningful. I used to be very vocal about never wanting a child because I was living an empty party lifestyle.

Now, the choices I make are night-and-day and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Will I instill the anti-sex, anti-girlfriend, or boyfriend, propaganda with my own child? No. Instead, we’ll have conversations and I plan to be open to his ideas. I don’t want my son to fear the results of a test, but embrace the responsibility and see what love and memories it will inspire.

After all the new life adjustments and weird food cravings, my son Elliot is now 1 year old. He is intelligent. He has my killer eyebrows. He smells flowers and says, “Ooo, good!”

All of these attributes make being a new mom completely valuable. Sure, I’ve lost touch. I’ve missed events. But, I’ve gained so much more: a human being who likes kale and loves bananas, a tiny person who says “wee” when he goes down the slide at McClatchy Park and calls cats “meow meows.”

And, yes, sometimes it’s scary and hard and frustrating, but what new experience isn’t?

“When they called me ‘mom’ it didn’t feel real,” she says. “It took me a while to realize what that word meant to them, and to me.”

Her mother’s emotional distance also meant Carpio lacked the tools necessary to chaperone her daughters through the traditional rites of passage for American teens, like proms.

“I never had a mother who said, ‘Let’s take you to get a prom dress,’ or ‘Let’s get your nails done for a dance,’” she says. “When my daughters were invited to prom, I didn’t understand why their hair or nails were such a big deal to them. If we were picking out burial plots, well, I had experience with that.”

Finally, she realized that prom and its associated rituals should be important to her, because it was important to her daughters.

“I told them, ‘I need your patience,’” she says. “My daughters taught me a lot about how to be a mother.” Ω

—Steph RodRiguez

05.05.16 | SN&R | 21

NO COVER

c a l l f o r b o o t h r e s e r va t i o n s 22 | SN&R | 05.05.16

FOR THE wEEk OF MAY 5

Trains and Tripods Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7 Mike’s Camera hosts a special photography seminar and photo opportunity event at the California State Railroad Museum. On Friday evening, learn tips and tricks of the trade from former Sacramento Bee photographer Dave Henry, and on Saturday morning, put the skills you’ve learned PHOTOGRAPHY to good use in a private photo shoot at the museum before it opens to the public. $30-$60; 5:30 p.m. on Friday and 7 a.m. on Saturday at the California State Railroad Museum, 125 I Street; (916) 323-9280; www.csrmf.org.

—Lory GiL

Cowboy Breakfast Saturday, May 7 Many diners offer a “cowboy breakfast,” but what’s more cowboy than gobbling down giant pancakes at an actual cattle ranch? Listen to some cowboy poetry by Jeralynn Strong while you eat, OUTDOORS and after the meal, choose between a horse ride (if you have your own horse) or a hike. $15; 9 a.m. at Deer Creek Hills Preserve, 15489 Latrobe Road in Sloughhouse; (916) 612-3719; www.sacramento valleyconservancy.org.

—aaron CarneS

cIll a Gar cIa Illu str atIo n by PrIs

e don’t need to have met your mother to know that she probably got her fill of hotel Mother’s Day brunches after the first few, and if you’re over the age of 10, she really doesn’t want a bunch of handmade “Good for one load of laundry” and “No whining for 24 hours” coupons.

Check out a few ideas for more thoughtful gifts for the woman who, y’know, synthesized your entire being inside her body for nine months: On Saturday, May 7, the Indie Craft Fair pops up inside Shine (1400 E Street) from noon to 6 p.m.

Shop for that one-of-a-kind something for mom from more than 30 local vendors and crafters, or else bring her with you and get all mystical with tarot readings, henna tattoos and psychic healing. Find out more by visiting www.facebook.com/ SacramentoIndieCraftFair.

If mom’s got a sweet tooth, Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates (1801 L Street, Suite 60) is offering a special Mother’s Day macaron tart, with pâte sucrée, Meyer lemon curd, blueberry mousse and meringue. It's an 8-inch cake, which serves 8 to 10 people. It costs $42 and orders should be placed

by Thursday, May 5, for pickup on Friday, May 6, through Sunday, May 8. (And if you’re really smart, you’ll pick up a dozen chocolates while you’re at it.) Visit http://gingerelizabeth.com or call (916) 706-1738 to place an order.

On Sunday, May 8, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the California Auto Museum (2200 Front Street in Old Sacramento), go the slightly unconventional route with the Mother’s Day Tea & Talk. The discussion will cover the automobile’s role in the cultural shift between Victorian-era mothers and their freewheeling flapper daughters (and who can’t relate to a good ol’ fashioned generational rift?). There will be full tea service, plus the opportunity to take a photo inside a 1920s-era Model A. Tickets are $30-$35 and reservations are required; visit www.calautomuseum.org or call (916) 442-6802.

Alternatively, on the day itself, present her with tickets to the Family Secrets: Lasagna Bolognese class at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op (1914 Alhambra Boulevard), which takes place a few days later on Tuesday, May 10.

The class is taught by mother-daughter team Jane Hollander Bonifazzi and Terese Esperas, whose old-world family recipe originated in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The class goes from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and costs $50-$59. Call (800) 838-3006 or visit https://sacfood.coop to reserve your spot.

—deena dreWiS

BerryFest Strawberry Festival Saturday, May 7, and Sunday, May 8 Opt for the sweetest Mother’s Day in town with this jam-packed celebration of all things strawberry.

Expect two full days of tasty samples, cooking demos, live music, a Little Miss Strawberry pageant, a classic car show, a beer garden and more. Winner, winner, strawberries for dinner (and lunch FOOD FESTIVAL and breakfast). $5-$10; 10 a.m. at Placer County Fairgrounds, 800 All America City Boulevard in Roseville; www.feedmeberries.com.

—eddie JorGenSen

Farm-to-Fork Speakers Series: Beer Flights WedneSday, May 11 Can you imagine pre-flight hours and layovers without the option to have a beer? Get intimate with all things beer-related at the Sacramento International Airport, with a speech from Sierra Nevada BEER Brewing Co. founder Ken Grossman and free flights of beer from 10 local breweries. Free; 5:30 p.m. in Terminal B, 6900 Airport Boulevard; (916) 808-7777; https://sacramentocvb.queueapp.com/events/20998.

—deena dreWiS

Sarah Manguso Reads tHurSday, May 12 Do your navel-gazing Facebook statuses from five years ago make you cringe? Acclaimed author and poet Sarah Manguso knows that feeling, but multiplied by 800,000; in her 2015 book AUTHOR READING Ongoingness: The End of a Diary, she reflects and distills her diary of that many words, written over the course of 25 years. Free; 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. at Voorhies Hall at UC Davis, 1 Shields Avenue in Davis; (530) 219-8258; http://english.ucdavis.edu.

—deena dreWiS

05.05.16 | SN&R | 23

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Mall snack oatMeal cooKie gelato, Miabella gelato anD coffee Sometimes, you have to shop. You don’t want to go to the mall, but your friend wants that one particular thing and it’s not your birthday so you go. Reward yourself with a little gelato ($3.75 for a small) over at Market Square at Arden Fair. There, you’ll find Roseville-based Miabella Gelato’s satellite location.

It’s not destination-worthy gelato, but for a mall snack? It’s quality. I especially like the oatmeal cookie flavor, spiked with cinnamon and cookie chunks. It reminds me of the uber-processed, icing-coated versions of my childhood—in a good way, of course.

1735 Arden Way, http://miabellagelato.com.

—Janelle bitKer

Trending tea Matcha latte, Sweet Dozen

IllustratIon by Mark stIvers

Arena eats

by Janelle Bitker

More concessions: The future Sacramento Kings arena’s food program continues to sound appetizing.

Mulvaney’s Building & Loan, Petra Greek and Mikuni Sushi will join Paragary’s, Cafe Bernardo, Centro, LowBrau, Selland’s MarketCafe and Star Ginger at the Golden 1 Center.

Led by Michael Tuohy, Golden 1 Center executive chef and Legends Hospitality general manager, the goal is to source ingredients within 150 miles of the arena as well as highlight Sacramento’s food scene.

It’s a bold and rare commitment for a venue of this kind.

What will you actually find at the concession stands? Mulvaney’s will serve a red-chili pork sandwich with

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

slaw. Petra Greek will focus on gyro sandwiches. According to Sactown Magazine, Mikuni’s sushi rolls will only be found in premium dining areas for the special suite- and clubseating ticket holders.

To review, here are the other expected offerings thus far: woodfired pizzas from Paragary’s and Selland’s; burgers and shakes from Cafe Bernardo; tacos from Centro; bratwurst and duck fat fries from LowBrau; and banh mi from Star Ginger.

Cheers: Selland’s Market-Cafe (5340 H Street) added a happy hour menu, good between 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. In addition to deals on wines by the glass and beer on draft, there are a number of small plates for

$10 or less. They all sound simple, but because it’s Selland’s, they’re probably all delicious. Think warm brie with caramelized onions and crostini ($5); roasted prawns with cocktail sauce ($8); and crab cakes with roasted red pepper sauce ($10).

Vegetarian-friendly options abound, but not vegan.

County problems: Planning a lovely afternoon with the family, the dog, a picnic and some beers at the Ruhstaller Farm & Yard this weekend? Sorry, the Dixon taproom is closed. For how long?

The sign outside currently says: “Breaking the law since 1881. It finally caught up with us. Closed for a bit.”

Solano County cut off Ruhstaller’s power and deemed the infrastructure unsafe, citing issues like exposed power cords, according to the Sacramento Bee. In the Bee’s report, Ruhstaller’s J.E. Paino expressed fears about not being able to retain nine employees if he can’t reopen quickly.

Fans in the mean time can visit Ruhstaller’s downtown taproom (630 K Street) and look for updates at www.facebook.com/RuhstallerFarm. Ω

Matcha’s hipster cred isn’t slowing down. The Japanese cred isn’t slowing down. The Japanese green tea powder’s popularity exploded nationwide last powder’s popularity exploded nationwide last year, with big-name chefs sprinkling big-name chefs sprinkling matcha on savory dishes or savory dishes or plated desserts. Why so loveWhy so loveable? The bright green color green color is undoubtedly attractive, attractive, as is the nuanced, grassy nuanced, grassy flavor. For an intro, track intro, track down the Sweet Dozen Dozen food truck. The doughnut doughnut purveyor recently started recently started serving matcha iced latte-style iced latte-style ($3) as a mobile-only special. It mobile-only special. It carries a longer yet gentler caffeine high than espresso. yet gentler caffeine high than espresso.

No jitters, no crash. crash. www.sweetdozen.com.

—Janelle bitKer

Black is back Kohlrabi As part of the cabbage family, kohlrabi means “black turnip,” which sounds less appetizing than it is. While it’s appetizing usually associated with long-cooked long-cooked winter stews and roasts, kohlrabi makes a radishy, crunchy raw snack. I once once saw a group of 6-year-olds 6-year-olds inhale peeled and sliced kohlrabi with nothing more than a dip in plain vinaigrette. Choose the pale pale green bulbs for milder flavor; flavor; the purple ones pack a bit of of spice. Kohlrabi are winding down for the season, so add them to a crudité plate with colorful carrots, snap peas and fennel while you still can.

—ann Martin rolKe

05.05.16 | SN&R | 25

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A lesson in seafood

by Janelle Bitker

Skool on k

HHH 2319 K Street, (916) 737-5767, http://skoolonkstreet.com Dinner for one: $20 - $30 Good for: creative seafood dishes with Japanese accents Notable dishes: squid ink spaghettina, uni flan, namero

My server grins, like she can’t wait to say what she’s about to say.

“Do you need to study more?”

I’m at Skool on K, the new restaurant everyone seems to be talking about. I haven’t been asked if I’ve eaten at a certain restaurant yet this many times since Empress Tavern. In fact, the Skool talk beat Empress—perhaps because there weren’t months of buzz leading up to its casual opening in February.

Skool specializes in seafood and preciousness.

The latter can be heard in the server lingo and seen on the menu, typed onto ruled paper and affixed with a No. 2 pencil. The former is proudly displayed everywhere: tables wear fish hooks; sea urchins dot a wall; and a giant map of a tuna and its meaty parts makes for a compelling centerpiece. Japanese touches allude to flavor profiles: water glasses once functioned as sake vessels and colorful orchids draw your eyes to the open kitchen.

At 8 p.m. on a recent Friday, every seat is taken. Hip electronica is bumpin’. It feels like where you want to be, though also a little more cramped than you’d expect at a place where you can easily drop $100 for two.

There’s a reason why Skool feels like a place for a bigger, more happening city. One of the owners, Andy Mirabell, is a Sacramento native and wanted to open a hometown version of his original Skool restaurant in San Francisco. It’s a dual husband-and-wife affair. He and Olia Kedik-Mirabell manage front of the house, while Toshihiro and Hiroko Nagano lead the kitchen.

Regardless of personal connection, it seems inevitable that more and more Bay Area restaurateurs will flock to town. Is Sacramento ready for higher prices and more daring concepts? If Skool’s first months are any indication, the answer is a resounding yes.

Still, I felt mixed after my visits to Skool.

There were big hits and minor misses, yet my ultimate satisfaction rarely lined up with the bill.

Its signature dishes—squid ink spaghettina ($19) and uni flan ($13)—deserve the raves. The seafood-topped spaghettina impresses in particular, with its fragrant mix of lemongrass dashi broth, seaweed butter, garlicky tomato compote, shiso and red curry. Uni’s distinct flavor is lightened up for the creamy appetizer, but it can still be quite intense for the uninitiated.

I had never seen fish ribs ($12) on a menu before, and here they’re slathered in a sweet, whiskey barbecue sauce. It mimics the experience of eating pork ribs—right down to the finger licking—but I wished I could have tasted the actual fish more. Another starter, the eryngii fries ($8), left me frustrated.

The meaty mushrooms were difficult to bite into, and the cornmeal crust felt limp.

There are a few exquisitely plated dishes highlighting raw and cured seafood, or you can order a sampler trio for $28. My favorite is the namero, which has you make your own mini-hand rolls with herbaceous salmon tartare and quail egg yolk. I appreciate the other combinations in theory, such as amberjack crudo with smoky eggplant and pickled mushrooms, but the clutter of ingredients muddles the fish’s natural flavors.

For dessert, try the matcha cake ($8), a rich, flourless white-chocolate cake made uber-hip with the addition of earthy green tea. It’s the sort of thing you won’t find anywhere else in Sacramento—like many of Skool’s dishes, in fact.

Even if the prices are high and not every dish hits the mark, Skool is still a valuable addition to the local dining scene and will surely pave the way for more ambition. Ω

Is Sacramento ready for higher prices and more daring concepts?

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SN&R

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The craziest brunch day of the year is almost here. Mother’s Day means restaurants that normally don’t serve brunch suddenly do, and restaurants that typically serve normal brunch menus go big with multicourse, prix fixe affairs. Such is the case at Paragary’s (1401 28th 28th Street), which requires reservations for its $34 its $34 menu. Tables will start off with pastries, and and then diners can choose between several appetizer and entree options. There’s also also Hawks (5530 Douglas Boulevard in Granite Granite Bay), with four classy courses for $50. The The Street) Firehouse Restaurant (1112 Second Street) will open early with a $49.95 four-course menu, which includes several entree options. Kids are welcome, too, for $19.95. If fret. this is all sounding very expensive, don’t fret. a rare, Revolution Wines (2831 S Street) will serve a rare, Think clasreservation-only, à la carte brunch. Think classics like biscuits and gravy ($8), eggs Benedict ($12) and pancakes ($10). Or, you could always tell the kids to cook.

—Janelle Bitker

Smoothie operator

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Mom-doesn’t-cook Day

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By Shoka A good smoothie is hard to come by—that is, one that doesn’t contain dairy and isn’t an icy, watereddown frown inducer. In a years-long quest for a satisfying smoothie, the Nutty Cocoa Monkey—which kind of tastes like liquified Snickers bars— from Whole Foods Market’s juice bar is finally the one that earns recommendation status. However, be sure to request swapping the whey-inclusive vanilla powder for dates when ordering to make it vegan. The V Word’s obsession, er,

research, with the drink went into the test kitchen to replicate the recipe: 1 banana, 1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or other nondairy “milk”), 1 tablespoon of peanut butter (or other nut butter), 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, and 4 dates equals perfection. Then I realized the recipe is on Whole Food’s website under a less embarrassing name to say in public, “chocolatealmond banana smoothie.” Good news, though: I nailed the recipe!

try one of our new salads!

On StanDS

5.26

chicken caesar Great wall santa fe *spicy chopped romaine, chicken breast, seasoned chopped romaine, chicken breast, red chopped romaine, chicken breast, jalaceno, red peppers, fresh avocado, tomato, pepper peppers, mandarin oranges, cucumbers, croutons, shredded asiago and tossed in our creamy classic caesar dressing toasted almonds, fried won tons, shredded jack and tortilla strips served with our carrots served with Asian sesame dressing * All Salads come with a Half Roll & butter (excludes side salad) signature “Baja” ranch dressing

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ReviewS

Spellbinding and mesmerizing

by Bev SykeS

Photo courtesy of resurrection theatre

Sir and the extent to which he will go to keep his charge well and performing on stage. O’Neal is simply wonderful.

Rooker has fewer lines, but Sir is a towering presence, an egotist with chiseled features, expressive eyes and a booming voice, even in his doddering state. He appears to have Parkinson’s disease, with symptoms such as shaking hands and inability to remember his first lines, or even which play he is supposed to be doing. It’s a mesmerizing performance, as he goes from helpless old man to prodigious actor ready to take on the world … and back again as he stumbles off stage.

It all makes for a spellbinding evening of theater that deserves a larger audience. Ω

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the Dresser, 8 p.m. friday and saturday, $20. resurrection theatre, 1723 25th street; (916) 491-0940; www.resurrectiontheatre.com. through May 21.

Resurrection Theatre is located in the somewhat out-of-the-way California Theatre complex and, perhaps as such, there were only 30 people or so at the opening night for Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser.

This makes for something of an artistic tragedy because it features magnificent performances by two amazing actors, Shawn B O’Neal as Norman, a theater dresser, and Lew Rooker as Sir, the aging actor who is in no condition mentally or physically to perform King Lear.

The two are complemented by Karen Sandoval as Her Ladyship (Sir’s wife); Elizabeth Anne Springett as Madge, the no-nonsense stage manager who has been in love with Sir for years; and Meghan Cazadio as Irene, the starry eyed actress-wannabe/props mistress; as well as a number of supporting players.

But the play, directed by Paul Fearn, belongs to O’Neal and Rooker. O’Neal carries the show with the lion’s share of dialogue which reveals his 16-year dedication to and co-dependent relationship with

Playwright Aphra Behn, born in the early 1640s, is regarded as England’s first professional female playwright. She knew and used all the stock characters, plots and tropes as William Shakespeare, who preceded her, but with a difference.

Behn was, arguably, a feminist and her female characters were wise and wily in ways Shakespeare’s weren’t always. But just because Behn was a woman didn’t mean she couldn’t be ribald or raucous—as she certainly is in The Rover, now on stage at Big Idea Theatre.

The Rover tells the tale of two sisters—Florinda (Shelby Saumier), who is bound to wed a rich older merchant she doesn’t love, and Hellena (Nina Dramer), who is bound for life in a convent. The two are determined to experience life and love on their own terms, however, and that’s what they do, escaping to Naples during Carnival, where they encounter a bunch of rambunctious rascals and where disguises, duels and debauchery reign, until all’s well that ends well.

Gail Dartez directs, with swiftness and sureness, a large cast that includes: handsome Zachary Scovel as the suitor Belville; the more-than-likable Ian Hopps as the charming rogue Wilmore; elegant Eric Craig as the sisters’ patriarchal brother Don Pedro; and hilarious Paj Crank as Ned Blunt, who is “not an ass to be laughed at.” Except when he is.

—Jim Carnes the rover; 8 p.m. thursday, friday and saturday; $10-$20.

Big idea theatre, 1616 Del Paso Boulevard; (916) 804-6923; www.bigideatheatre.org. through May 28.

SN&R

Now playiNg Alice in Wonderland

This is a zany adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic by B Street playwright Greg Alexander.

This time around, Alice is a whiny teenager lost without her internet connection.

Good performances in a weird script, suited for ages 5 and up. Sa, Su 1pm and 4pm. Through 5/22. $15-$20.

B Street Theatre, 2711 B Street; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org. B.S.

5

The Hound of Baskervilles

Playwrights R. Hamilton Wright and David Pichette have adapted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most popular tale, keeping the basic mystery intact while pumping up the chemistry and humor between Holmes and Watson and adding

some plot and character twists along the way. Under the careful directing of Michael Laun, William Elsman (Sherlock) and Michael RJ Campbell (Dr. Watson) play off each other perfectly, and the rest of the cast members are equally entertaining. The production also benefits from an imaginative set, colorful costumes and captivating lighting and sound elements. Th 6:30pm, F

8pm, Sa 2pm and 8pm, Su 2pm, W 6:30pm. Through 5/15. Sac-

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

3

Mud Blue Sky

So much talent and preparation have gone into the B Street Theatre’s production of Mud Blue Sky that it’s a shame it isn’t in service of a better play. While the set design and costumes are excellent,

it’s Marisa Wegryn’s play that’s weak. What starts out as a sharp, snarky comedy about a reunion of three flight attendants in a motel room during a layover too soon loses focus. The playwright wants to make a serious comment on these disparate lives, but can’t make it work. Aiming for wistful and maybe hopeful, it just ends up sad. Th, F 8pm,

Sa 5pm and 9pm, Su 2pm, W 6:30pm. Through 6/5.

$23-$35. B Street Theatre, 2711 B Street; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org. J.C.

S hort reviews by Jim Carnes, Patti Roberts and Bev Sykes.

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Better than flowers This Mother’s Day, how about treating Mom to an orchestra concert? The Auburn Symphony (which features musicians from across the region) is performing at the Mondavi Center with Peter Jaffe conducting. Sacramento’s own Ira Gerswhin specialist, pianist Richard Glazier (pictured), will be the soloist for “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Also on the program: “Symphony No. 1 (Titan)” by Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture to Candide.” $40; 3 p.m. Sunday, May 8, at the Mondavi Center, 1 Shields Avenue in Davis; (530) 754-2787; www.mondaviarts.org.

On StanDS 5.26

“Hey, mom!”

PhOTO COURTESy OF ThE AUBURN SyMPhONy

—Jeff Hudson

05.05.16 | SN&R | 29

THE FILM THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE “I think the movie is something people should see.”

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The Marvel universe continues to expand, but in the wrong direction. Captain America: Civil War runs two hours and 26 minutes, and very little happens.

We can quickly summarize the script from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley. Dismayed at the burgeoning ranks of the superhero Avengers and the destruction they cause, the United Nations establishes protocols to govern their rules of engagement.

Right away, the deck is stacked. It happens as well in those movies set in the DC universe with the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel: The movie makers use CGI to throw Batman, Superman, the Avengers, whoever, into titanic battles, slaughtering innocent bystanders by the thousands and turning our heroes into heedless killer vigilantes. Then they put them on trial for being heedless killer vigilantes. We’re expected to forget that Batman, or Superman, or Captain America, didn’t really commit all that mayhem; the guys who made the movies did, and they did it because it’s what their audience wants to see.

But back to those U.N. protocols. Some Avengers agree that constraints are needed, and they meet in Vienna to sign on: Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine (Don Cheadle). Others refuse, distrusting government regulation and wishing to preserve their prerogatives: Captain America (Chris Evans), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).

The stage is set for a superpower showdown, a sort of comic-book-geek version of fantasy football.

by JIm LAne

There are some wild cards in play. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt), formerly an army general implacably opposed to the Incredible Hulk (missing here), is determined to bring the Avengers to heel. Meanwhile, a shadowy terrorist named Zemo (Daniel Brühl) schemes to sow discord and destroy the Avengers from within. And a lastminute recruit to Iron Man’s team is Spider-Man (Tom Holland). The lively, chatty Holland is the movie’s only real surprise, and a pleasant one; he promises to revive the Spider-Man franchise after its ill-advised fling with the creepy-crawly Andrew Garfield.

Captain America: Civil War is a full hour too long and so redundantly destructive it begs for U.N. protocols on superhero movies, but at least it’s cheerful about it.

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo have their limits, but they remember what The Dark Knight’s Christopher Nolan seems to have forgotten, and Man of Steel’s Zack Snyder probably never knew: These movies are supposed to be fun. The comic book audience gets its money’s worth, and almost every touch, right down to creator Stan Lee’s obligatory cameo, is met with affectionate chuckles.

But a word of advice if you’re more accustomed to living in a universe not named for a comics conglomerate: When you finally stumble out of the theater, you might want to de-nerdify. See an Ingmar Bergman film. Listen to some Bach. Read some Tolstoy. Ω

When you finally stumble out of the theater, you might want to de-nerdify.

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1 2 3 4 5 Poor

Fair

Good

Very Good

excellent

fiLm CLiPS

2

Elvis & Nixon

3

Green Room

BY DANIEL BARNES & JIM LANE

Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier follows up his energizing breakthrough Blue Ruin with this intense but generally unimaginative thriller. Anton Yelchin stars as the guitarist and reluctant leader of a bleary-eyed D.C. hardcore band on a disastrous cross-country tour that dead-ends in the Pacific Northwest. The band takes one last paying gig at a bar in the woods before heading home, but when they stumble upon a dead body in the green room, they are forced to defend themselves against neo-Nazi bar owner Patrick Stewart (playing against type, just not very well) and his hatchet-wielding minions. Saulnier excels at awkwardly violent and shocking set pieces but his comfort with intricate plotting and distinctive dialogue is still in the developmental stages. When it comes to suspense, he’s like a musician who knows all the notes but can’t find the rhythm, and Green Room is surprisingly plodding for a terse, largely single-set potboiler. D.B.

3

A Hologram for a King

Ah, white people—there truly is no personal issue so crushingly banal or microscopically inconsequential that they can’t tell a soggy, quasi-inspirational story about heroically overcoming it. Tom Hanks plays disgraced American businessman Alan Clay, who tries to find redemption in the unlikeliest of places: himself (cue AM rock staples). More concretely, Hanks’ IT salesman is trying to find personal and economic redemption in Saudi Arabia, where he has been sent to pitch the monarchy on a hologram conferencing system. That’s what the movie is about, I swear to God—Tom Hanks looking for Wi-Fi in the desert. And yet for all of the arms-crossed ill will that the premise engenders, writer-director Tom Tykwer has enough conviction and verve to hold your interest.

Hanks can do this sort of crumpled decency in his sleep, but he gives his all to Alan Clay, a show of faith in fairly shoddy material. D.B.

2

The Huntsman: Winter’s War

Writers Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin and director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan concoct a combination prequel and sequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, with fairly dismal results. Like its predecessor, it’s too dark and doomy to be any fun, and this time any link to the Brothers Grimm is tenuous indeed—it amounts to dropping the name of Snow White every half-hour or so, like a no-talent ham bragging about the famous stars he’s worked with.

The convoluted script has none of the emotional resonance that makes fairy tales live for centuries, and director Nicolas-Troyan (prematurely promoted from visual effects work) shows no understanding of the difference between wall-to-wall CGI and real storytelling magic. A good cast tries hard: Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain. J.L.

1

Mother’s Day

A hodgepodge of loosely connected characters (played by the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Jason

#artmix @crockerart fti

The latest attempt by Amazon Studios to poop in Netflix’s yard, Liza Johnson’s Elvis & Nixon boasts credibility-boosting above-theline talent in Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey, but it also feels strangely pointless. It concerns the King of Rock’s hazily motivated and unannounced visit to the White House in December 1970, where he met with pre-Watergate, firstterm President Richard Nixon, and posed for one of the most baffling and widely reproduced photographs of the 20th century. To its credit, the film doesn’t try to psychoanalyze Elvis, and it doesn’t try to turn this sociocultural footnote into an all-encompassing commentary on the era. To its shame, the film doesn’t really try to do anything at all, except maybe score some cheap laughs and roll its eyes at Elvis’ wardrobe. Much of Elvis & Nixon plays like an extended rehearsal for a Saturday Night Live skit that never made it to air. D.B.

“I don’t remember you being so furry in The Matrix.”

3

Keanu

The TV comedy team of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele make their big-screen debut as two nerds who go undercover (and over their heads) infiltrating an L.A. gang by pretending to be two out-of-town badasses—all to retrieve a beloved kitten stolen during a home invasion robbery. The movie isn’t to all tastes, and not for the prudish or easily offended; Key & Peele (abetted by director Peter Atencio and Peele’s co-writer Alex Rubens) trade in outlandish gender and racial stereotypes in a spirit of extravagant ridicule, and the violence (like the comedy) is way over the top, including the murder of Anna Faris (guest-starring as herself). But their anything-for-a-laugh method benefits from good comic instincts, and the gags come so fast that the duds are swamped by the frequent laugh-out-loud moments. J.L.

Sudeikis, Timothy Olyphant, Margo Martindale, Sarah Chalke and various lesser lights of the acting firmament) brace themselves for the inevitable pressure of the approaching eponymous holiday. Director Garry Marshall’s latest “holiday” movie sports a story (thrown together by him and writers Lily Hollander, Matt Walker, Tom Hines and Anya Kochoff Romano) undisturbed by any hint of the real world—does anyone but Hallmark really stress out at Mother’s Day? Has any place on Earth besides the set of this movie ever staged a parade for it, or a party with clowns and inflatable slides? It’s smug, cloying, shameless, false and sickly-sweet enough to make Billy Graham want to vomit. J.L.

2

Papa Hemingway in Cuba

Celebrity suck-up biopics, stories of famous people told through the eyes of their bottom-feeding sycophants, has become a subgenre in the world of independent film.

Just in the last year, we’ve seen Elvis & Nixon, Miles Ahead, The End of the Tour and Life, all told from the point of view of a person tangentially related to the film’s ostensible subject.

It’s an easy way to offer an awards-baiting role to a slumming actor while also avoiding paying for the rights to a life story that anyone cares about. In the plodding and perfunctory Papa Hemingway in Cuba, the story of the great writer’s final days takes a back seat to Giovanni Ribisi as Ed Myers, a real-life journalist/fanboy who conned and cajoled his way into Hemingway’s favor. It was shot in Cuba at Hemingway’s actual house and haunts, but that’s all there is to recommend about this tired film. D.B.

2

Ratchet & Clank

3

Sing Street

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An adorable little catlike creature (voice

by James Arnold Taylor) and his equally adorable robot sidekick (David Kaye) join the peacekeeping Galactic Rangers to thwart the evil plans of a mad villain (Paul Giamatti) who is running around destroying planets. Once you get tired of counting off the ripoffs from Star Wars, Power Rangers and so forth, questions inevitably pop into your head while watching this bubble-gum movie: When are the geniuses in Hollywood going to learn that no movie based on a video game has ever made a dime at the box office? Did Paul Giamatti lose a bet, or owe somebody a favor? How did this junk ever escape from the Cartoon Network? The original 2002 game was developed by a company called, ironically, Insomniac Games—a condition that this movie is guaranteed to remedy. J.L.

In 1980s Dublin, a teenage boy (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), tired of being bullied— from both ends, as it were, by priests and other students at his school—and eager to impress a mysterious girl he meets (Lucy Boynton), impulsively decides to form a band. Writer-director John Carney’s flippantly cheeky movie-musical echoes tales of the 1960s rise of bands like the Beatles and Rolling Stones: idle knockabout teens forming bands to pick up “birds,” then gradually, hit-or-miss, evolving a sound all their own.

And there’s more than a hint of the anarchic, freewheeling spirit (and contagiously joyous music) of A Hard Day’s Night. The only drawback for American ears is the mumbled, almost impenetrable Irish accents (subtitles might help); otherwise, great fun, with a terrific euro-grunge soundtrack. J.L.

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The Artery Foundation’s Eric Rushing reflects on his decades in music

by EddiE JorgEnsEn

stake in local establishments like LowBrau and Tank House in order to purchase a public relations company, High Road Publicity, and a local studio dubbed Gold Standard Sounds.

He and Bair maintain their two smaller venues, Goldfield Trading Post and the Boardwalk in Orangevale.

Still, there were some hiccups. For example, Rushing and Bair left their management roles at downtown’s Assembly Music Hall in the fall of 2014 The man behind, well, a lot of things. due to high overhead costs, and the Randy Paragary-owned building has remained vacant ever since.

“People should know when you start a business and have a decade-long legacy, it’s not all peaches When it comes to the music industry, and cream,” he said.

Sacramento’s Eric Rushing has done it all: a record Rushing also gets a lot of flack for his practice label, recording studio, management company, of having local bands sell advance tickets to play publicity company and a handful of live music his shows. If they don’t sell, they don’t get paid. venues.

“The scene is not what it used to be,” he says, What began with his own obsession for attenddefending his method. “I offer local bands the ing concerts grew into 720 Records, a record chance to play with national acts they would never label and booking venture he started in 1996. have the chance to. If anything, selling tickets Rushing modeled 720 Records off of Rusty Nail, helps local bands be relevant for the show and a small Sacramento label circa the early ’90s. they’ll get paid if they sell ’em.”

It released music by seminal local acts Regardless, Rushing’s main such as Far, Funky Blue Velvet and priority right now is his label, Prayer Wheel.

“The scene is which is steadier than Artery In 2004, 720 blossomed into the Foundation. For example, some not what it used Artery Foundation. As a full-fledged very successful acts, like The to be.” national company, Artery is now Devil Wears Prada and A Day practically a household name, with To Remember, left his manageEric Rushing showcases at major annual industry ment company for bigger founder, the Artery Foundation gatherings like South by Southwest opportunities. and Artery Recordings in Austin, Texas.

“A lot of bands have the ‘grass Rushing’s management roster is always greener’ mentality and end totals more than 25 acts, including up forgetting who did the real work to Conquer Divide, a scenecore metal outfit; get them there,” Rushing said.

Anvil, a legendary Canadian thrash band; and What will be Rushing’s biggest legacy? It’s Alesana, a metalcore act from North Carolina. too early to say, but it might be his pioneering of And he’s got a great team behind him, with Will the screamo and metalcore genres on a national Stevenson leading the management side and Shan level. The impact is in the numbers: Artery Dan Horan, a transplant from Century Media Recordings has sold more than 600,000 records Records, running the label, Artery Recordings. in six years, at a time when people seemingly no Most Sacramento bands probably think of longer buy music. Ω Rushing as the Ace of Spades guy. Though he still books the venue, he and partner Bret Bair are Learn more at http://arteryrecordings.com. now employees of Live Nation, which bought Ace of Spades earlier this year. Rushing also sold his PHOTO BY DARIN BRADFORD

CINCOW/DE MAYO PARTY FREE TACOS • 5-9PM

A household name

SN&R

SouNd advice

—EddiE JorgEnsEn

No one shows up for Satan: Ground Chuck looked at the bread-like pieces of white whatever on a platter

placed midstage. He gestured to the band onstage, Adeptus, then grabbed some of the stuff and started to chew after shouting “Communion for Satan!”

That was just about the vibe at the stacked black metal lineup Starlite Lounge hosted last Sunday night. Adeptus and Defecrator, the two area acts on the bill, did good work priming the crowd of maybe 15 people for Voices of Ruin and Ritual, one of the earliest American black metal bands.

Defecrator’s professional stage presence and aggressive bestial attack proved again that it may be the best local option for black metal right now—or the most profane and Satanic option, at very least.

And while turnout was far too low for such a good lineup, at least the people who did come, like Ground Chuck, were excited to be there.

Props to all of the bands for having a blast even when nobody shows.

Foreign dispatch: Chrch recently returned from a European tour that culminated in playing Roadburn Festival, a huge metal fest in the Netherlands featuring Converge, Cult of Luna, Blood Ceremony, Beastmaker, Mondo Drag and far too many other incredible bands.

Word is that while Chrch played a smaller stage at a capacity of somewhere near 300, people had to be turned away because so many wanted to see a Sacramento band do

its doomy thing. The band will tour again soon with Dopethrone (but will not hit Sac) and then duck into the studio to write a new record—so don’t expect to see a local show for quite some time.

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

www.momosacramento.com 5/5

UBER

THURSDAY WITH DJ 2RAW (FREE BEFORE 11 W/ COLLEGE ID) 21+

5/6

LOUIE GIOVANNI

5/13

DJ OASIS AND MATT CALI (HIP-HOP/R&B)

(HIP HOP/R&B)

5/14

91 .6

5/7

DJ JB AND DJ OASIS

do things to

in the

916

DJ SERAFIN (LOS ANGELES) (OPEN FORMAT)

(OPEN FORMAT)

2708 J Street Sacramento, CA 916.441.4693 www.harlows.com COMING SOON

5/5 7PM $25ADV

5/11 7PM $8ADV

WHITEY MORGAN, CODY JINKS 5/6 8PM

WHITEY MORGAN, CODY JINKS

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

Hey Jude: The first concert at the Golden 1 Center will be the one and only Sir Paul McCartney.

He brings his One on One tour—and his first local gig in more than 10 years—to the upcoming Sacramento Kings arena on Tuesday, October 4. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 6, at 10 a.m. More at www.golden1center.com.

SUMMER GUIDE

Courtyard sounds: If you haven’t felt ready to commit the funds to a concert at Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall, note that there are other ways to enjoy the performing arts center’s programming.

One of those is the Mondavi Center’s Corin Courtyard. The early, 6:30 p.m. concerts are not only free, but they are located in a prime outdoor event space, replete with a wine and beer bar, food truck, ample shade and a marvelous sound system.

Sacramento’s own jazz songstress Vivian Lee recently held court on the stage with her able quartet and played a set of her own tunes as well as songs from Antônio Carlos Jobim, Dave Brubeck, Rodgers & Hammerstein and more.

Lee’s quartet delighted fans and newcomers alike with a set that didn’t leave anybody feeling left out. Major props for the inclusion of older fare like “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and “Take Five.”

Lee looked aglow this particular evening, often starting songs with her lone finger snaps. Her band of seasoned musicians also added their own special swing and jazz elements. Of worthy mention was drummer Jeff Minnieweather, who played with such dynamics and finesse, one couldn’t help but stare in awe—or, as others demonstrated, film a video.

Many might assume playing an outdoor show is risky with this region’s frequent weather changes.

Instead, it proved to be the perfect precursor to the later Jackson Hall show with jazz diva Cécile McLorin Salvant. It drew quite a large crowd.

Not only was every table and seat taken, but many others improvised to find a good view, even taking over a staircase.

There’s just one more Corin Courtyard show until the 2016-17 season. It’s Sacramento’s indie-pop violinist Joe Kye, who will perform on Wednesday, May 11, leading into an evening with classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma. My only critique of the outdoor series? Book more. Book lots more.

On StanDS 5.26

A jazzy draw

2708 J Street Sacramento, CA 916.441.4693

SOLD OUT

5/7 7PM $15ADV

THE SIZZLING SIRENS 8 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EVENT

5/8 9PM $15ADV

THE STAGE

FEAT. BUENO, BIG OMEEZY, JG MADEUMLOOK AND MORE

05/14 Chris Pureka THE MAGIC 05/14 Saved by the 90s BEANS 05/18 Lisa Loeb FARHEAD 05/19 B.O.B. 05/20 Kris Allen 05/21 Foreverland (MJ Tribute) 5/12 9PM $30ADV 05/22 Musical Charis DJ QUIK 05/23 Caskey 05/24 Father 05/25 Ginuwine 05/26 Antsy McClain and the Troubs 5/13 5:30PM $18ADV 05/27 Mike Love PORTLAND 06/01 Islands CELLO 06/02 Orgone PROJECT 06/03 Tim Heidecker 06/11 Mania: Beatles Experience 5/13 9:30PM $15ADV 06/11 The Gatlin THE CHARMING BAND 06/12 Cherry Glazerr (SMITHS AND MORRISSEY TRIBUTE) 06/16 Pete Rock & CL Smooth 06/17 Wonderbread 5 05.05.16 | SN&R | 33

07 SAT

07 SAT

07 SAT

08 S UN

Recorded Freedom

Albert Cummings

Blaqk Audio

Megafauna

Colonial TheaTre, 2 p.m., $12-$15 Taking a stand against racism certainly merits parting with your hard-earned cash. Plus, this Rock Against Racism event will feature tons of awesome local groups; fittingly, it’s a cross section of punk, alt-rock and hip-hop.

Hip-hop duo Recorded Freedom is a local, conscious crew, and exactly the kind of act this event was designed for. The breezy, surreal beats bring to mind classic ’90s alt-rap, but these guys’ lyrics are synced Hip-Hop right in with today’s current political climate and their own personal trials and tribulations. Their hard-hitting, straight-tothe-point flow ties the whole thing together.

3522 Stockton Boulevard, www.facebook. com/RecordedFreedom.

el DoraDo hills Town CenTer amphiTheaTer, 2:45 p.m., no Cover While there are a number of good reasons you should attend the 13th annual El Dorado Hills Art, Beer & Wine Festival, the inclusion of Blind Pig artist Albert BLUES Cummings should top the list. For the uninitiated, this Massachusetts guitar slinger has released a handful of records since 1999 under the Swamp Yankee moniker and, of course, his own name. On his 2015 release Someone Like You, Cummings shows a mastery of the blues without sounding exactly like his influences.

4364 Town Center Boulevard in El Dorado Hills, http://albertcummings.com.

—eDDie Jorgensen

—aaron Carnes

et with code: snrtap k c i t ma ur

may

27 t h

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vip hour: 5-6pm | general admission: 6-9pm tickets starting at $35 | old town plaza in elk grove

www.elkgrovebrewfest.com download our app today!

34 | SN&R | 05.05.16

sTarliTe lounge, 8 p.m., $8

Blaqk Audio’s third studio album, Material, released on April 15, is notable as the darkwave duo’s most lyrically grim work to date.

What began almost 10 years ago as an electronic side project between Davey Havok and Jade Puget of the post-punk band AFI soon grew into an internationally worshiped duo with a devoted, cult-like online DARK WAVE following. Blaqk Audio’s debut album, CexCells, with its more synth-pop vibe, is reminiscent of groups like Depeche Mode or Soft Cell. Yet Material blends darker and more melancholy lyrics courtesy of Havok layered with Puget’s sorrow-driven soundscapes on keyboard and synthesizer.

1417 R Street, www.blaqkaudio.com.

—sTeph roDriguez

$5 OFF yo

aCe of spaDes, 8 p.m., $17-$20

Megafauna is a rock band from Austin, Texas, that melts faces. This is how they present themselves, anyway. But sure enough, their songs are rife with enough riffs to fill a 1970s rock ’n’ roll arena. But Led Zeppelin Megafauna is definitely not. There is something both urgent and foreboding about their music. The songs are dense and packed with so much energy that they never slow down.

Yet there’s something in their weird chords and lead singer Dani Neff’s offHARD RoCK kilter vocals that sounds like a warning of something disastrous on the horizon. Disaster never sounded like so much fun.

1517 21st Street, www.megafaunamusic.com.

—amy Bee

RIpE WITH paRTy poTEnTIal.

06 FRI

11 W ED

12 T HU

12 T HU

Roulé

Fmlyband

TV Girl

DJ Quik

Dive Bar, 9:30 p.m., no cover

GolDfielD traDinG post, 8 p.m., $12-$15

For years, LowBrau was a Tuesday night destination. What started as friends wanting a chill dance night without a ElEcTRonIc garbage playlist turned into Le Twist Tuesdays, a weekly event showcasing the sort of indie electronica and synthy pop nobody else was playing. That came to an end in March, when Le Twist Tuesdays became Le Twist Events. Roulé is its first pop-up, fittingly, back at the bar where Le Twist first started. Le Twist deejays Sam I Jam and Adam J, along with pal Shaun Slaughter (pictured), will set the mood with “feel-good house music and body moving delights.” 1016 K Street, www.facebook.com/ LeTwistTuesdays.

sophia’s thai kitchen, 9 p.m., $12

Did you miss Coachella? Are you skipping Outside Lands this year because it’s become too Outside Lands-y? Get a quick, concentrated hit of those festival vibes with electropop quartet Fmlybnd, hailing from Isla Vista, Calif. Fans of Chvrches, ElEcTRopop Glass Animals and Purity Ring will find much to like with the band’s highly danceable confections. Presently on a West Coast tour dubbed “Make America Dance Again” with Oliver the Kid and Dark Waves, the band’s most recent EP, Hearts on Fire, gets a little more sophisticated with its arrangements than earlier material and is right in line with the objective of its tour title.

1630 J Street, www.fmlybnd.com.

—Janelle Bitker

TV Girl doesn’t want you to know much about it. The trio hails from San Diego and makes retro, lo-fi pop music, but you won’t find any glossy press photos of them and it’s probably best to take your cues from the title of the band’s latest album, Who Really Cares. Of course, you should care if you’re into Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian or the Dandy Warhols, and—bear with me—Fatboy Slim. Yes, this lo-FI pop mysterious musical act loops and mixes and samples and is darn near hip-hop-esque at times. Intrigued yet? You should be. 129 E Street, Suite E, in Davis; www.facebook.com/tvgirlz.

MOONSHINE BANDITS DEMUN JONES - D-ONE

SATURDAY, MAY 7

BLAQK AUDIO NIGHT RIOTS - CHARMING LIARS

SUNDAY, MAY 8

MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK MICROWAVE - SPILL CANVAS

ADRIAN MARCEL

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

ALL AGES WELCOME!

FRIDAY, MAY 20

HATEBREED / DEVIL DRIVER DEVIL YOU KNOW

FRIDAY, MAY 27

FRIGHTENED RABBIT SATURDAY, MAY 28

KATCHAFIRE

MYSTIC ROOTS - ELEMENTS OF SOUL - DOLLAR$HORT

INSANE CLOWN POSSE

THE RIDDLE BOX TOUR

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18

SOMO QUINN XCII

—Blake Gillespie

—Deena Drewis

MONDAY, MAY 30

SATURDAY, MAY 14

Since the release of his 1991 debut Quik is the Name, DJ Quik has been a living Compton legend. As a solo artist he’s released nine albums, including HIp-Hop 2014’s The Midnight Life, and his production credits include Tupac’s All Eyez On Me, Snoop Dogg’s Murder Was the Case and the Menace II Society soundtrack. Oh, and he laced Shaquille O’Neal’s many rap records with production. DJ Quik’s silky flow makes him one of the original players on record, making any performance ripe with party potential. 2708 J Street, www.facebook.com/DJQuik.

—Deena Drewis

ACE OF SPADES FRIDAY, MAY 6

harlow’s restaurant & niGhtcluB, 10 p.m., $30-$35

TUESDAY, MAY 31

STEPHEN “RAGGA” MARLEY

COMING

SOON

06/03

Josh Thompson

06/08

A$AP Ferg & Tory Lanez

06/10

The Growlers

06/11

Morgan Heritage

06/18

Leon Larregui

06/19

Waka Flocka

06/25

Birdy

07/08

Restrayned

07/22

Carcass

07/23

Julieta Venegas

08/18

Fitz & The Tantrums

08/22

Digitour Summer 2016

08/22

Explosions In The Sky

09/28

Echo & The Bunnymen

12/16

Kidz Bop Kids

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ALL DIMPLE RECORDS LOCATIONS AND ARMADILLO RECORDS

05.05.16 | SN&R | 35

THURSDAY 5/5

FRIDAY 5/6

SATURDAY 5/7

BADLANDS

#TBT and 5 Card Stud, 8pm, call for cover

Fabulous and Gay Fridays, 9pm, call for cover

Spectacular Saturdays, 10pm, call for cover

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

Big Mondays happy hour all night, M; Karaoke, Tu; Trapicana, W

BAR 101

Thursday Comedy Open Mic, 7:30pm, call for cover

TODD MORGAN, 9pm, call for cover

DYLAN CRAWFORD AND ANDRE FYLLING DUO, 9pm, call for cover

JAMES PARR, 2pm, call for cover

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

DIRK DIG, TRE SOLID, TORREY TEE, YOUNG DROOPY; 9pm, call for cover

I Need A Soldier Exotic Male Revue, 8:30pm, $20-$25

THE SUMMER SET, HANDSOME GHOST, ROYAL TEETH; 6pm, $17-$20

BLACK SABBITCH, WORN THIN, LOVE REMOVAL MACHINE; 6:30pm, $12

WEDNESDAY 13, RELAPSE SYMPHONY, GRAVESHADOW; 6:30pm, $13-$15

NEKROGOBLIKON, PSYCHOSTICK, URIZEN, TRIKOME; 6:30pm Tu, $15

2003 K St., (916) 448-8790

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

THE BOARDWALK

MC MAGIC,

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

EMISUNSHINE, 7:30pm, $17-420

9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 7pm, $20-$25 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley; (530) 274-8384

COUNTRY CLUB SALOON

4007 Taylor Rd., Loomis; (916) 652-4007

Family Fun Day with MUSICAL ROBOT, 10am-4pm, no cover BOB WOODS & SWAMPBILLY, 5pm; OLD TOWN BOYS, 9pm, no cover

BARNYARD STOMPERS, 5pm; THUNDER COVER, 9pm, no cover

Corn Hole Tourney, 6pm Tu, no cover Boom Jinx, Genix, Sunny Lax; 10pm W, call for cover

DJ Chuckie, 10pm, call for cover

DJ Oasis, Joesph; 10pm, call for cover

Benji the Hunter, 10pm, call for cover

FACES

Everything Happens dancing and karaoke, 9pm, call for cover

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

Party Time dance party with Sequin Saturdays drag show at 9:30pm, $5-$12

FOX & GOOSE

MARTY COHEN & THE SIDEKICKS, 8pm, no cover

KEVIN SECONDS, 9pm, $5

GILLIAN UNDERWOOD AND THE LONESOME DOVES; 9pm, $5

Open-mic, 7:30pm M; Pub quiz, 7pm Tu; All Vinyl Wednesdays, 6pm W, no cover

GOLDFIELD TRADING POST

Line dancing lessons, call for time and cover

MIDLAND, 8pm, $5

Country DJ dancing, call for time and cover

Open-mic night, M; FMLYBND, OLIVVER THE KID; 8pm W, $12

HALFTIME BAR & GRILL

Karaoke happy hour, 7pm, no cover

ROGUE, 9pm, $5

Lynn’s Hangout Rockfest with ON THE FLY, RED RADIO; noon, call for cover

Trivia night, 7pm Tu; Bingo, 1pm W; Paint Nite, 7pm W, $25

HARLOW’S

WHITEY MORGAN, CODY JINKS; 8pm, $25-$125

WHITEY MORGAN, CODY JINKS; 9pm, $25-$125

Sizzling Sirens 8 Year Anniversary Event, BUENO, BIG OMEEZY, JG MADEUMLOOK, THE MAGIC BEANS, 8pm, $15-$25 CALI O, LUKE TAILOR; 9pm, $15-$20 8pm W, $8-$10

THE HIDEAWAY BAR & GRILL

Punk and glam night with DJ Annimal, 9pm, no cover

Cactus Pete’s 78 RPM Record Roundup, 8pm Tu; Twisted Trivia, W

LUNA’S CAFE & JUICE BAR

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

Nebraska Mondays, 7:30pm M; Open-mic comedy, Tu

MIDTOWN BARFLY

The Boombox, 8:30pm, $5-$7

Salsa Wednesday, 7:30pm W, $5

NAKED LOUNGE DOWNTOWN

LINDSAY DAHMS-NOLAN; 8:30pm, $5

1016 K St., (916) 737-5770

1001 R St., (916) 443-8825

Hey local bands!

1603 J St., (916) 476-5076

5681 Lonetree Blvd., Rocklin; (916) 626-6366 2708 J St., (916) 441-4693 2565 Franklin Blvd., (916) 455-1331 1414 16th St., (916) 441-3931 1119 21st St., (916) 549-2779 1111 H St., (916) 443-1927

TOMBOY, THE BAD OUTLETS; 8:30pm, $5

Sunday Mass with heated pool, drag show, 2pm, no cover

THUNDERVISION, 8:30pm, $5

VOTED BEST BAR IN ROSEVILLE! 2015 -PRESS TRIBUNE

TODD MORGAN DYLAN CRAWFORD & ANDRE FYLLING DUO may 08 JAMES PARR * may 13 SCRATCHDOG STRING BAND may 14 STILLWOOD SAGES may 15 FOREST BAILEY * may 20 BILLY MANZIK may 21 DEAR LEFT BRAIN may 22 DYLAN CRAWFORD * may 27 FELICE LAZAE may 29 SANDRA DOLORES * * SUNDAY ACOUSTIC SESSIONS 2-5PM may 06 may 07

27 BEERS ON DRAFT TRIVIA MONDAYS @ 6:30PM OPEN MIC WEDNESDAYS SIGN-UPS @ 7:30PM COMEDY OPEN MIC’S EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT 7:30PM PINT NIGHT MONDAYS 5-8PM

101 MAIN STREET, ROSEVILLE 916-774-0505 · LUNCH/DINNER 7 DAYS A WEEK FRI & SAT 9:30PM - CLOSE 21+

36

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05.05.16

EDM and karaoke, 9pm M, no cover; Latin night, 9pm Tu, $5

NAKED LOUNGE QUINTET, 8:30pm M; JOE KAPLOW, 8:30pm, $5

LIVE MUSIC

SN&R

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 5/9-5/11

DISTRICT 30

2000 K St., (916) 448-7798

Want to be a hot show?

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

SUNDAY 5/8

/BAR101ROSEVILLE

THURSDAY 5/5

FRIDAY 5/6

SATURDAY 5/7

OLD IRONSIDES

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

FUDI, RED ANCHOR; 9pm, $7

Lipstick, 9pm, $5

ON THE Y

Open-mic stand-up comedy and karaoke, 8pm, no cover

1901 10th St., (916) 442-3504 670 Fulton Ave., (916) 487-3731

SUNDAY 5/8

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 5/9-5/11 Karaoke, 9pm Tu, no cover; Open-mic, 9pm W, no cover

Karaoke, 9pm, no cover

Open 8-ball pool tournament, 7:30pm, $5

THE PALMS PLAYHOUSE

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

PISTOL PETE’S

OLEANDER, CALIFORNIA RIOT ACT; 8pm, $16.37

140 Harrison Ave., Auburn; (530) 885-5093

POUR HOUSE

SACTO STORYTELLERS, 8pm, call for cover

POWERHOUSE PUB

KENNY FRYE, call for time and cover

THE PRESS CLUB

ALL ABOUT ROCKETS, MINDFLOWERS, THE BADDEST BEAMS; 9pm, $7

1910 Q St., (916) 706-2465 614 Sutter St., Folsom; (916) 355-8586 2030 P St., (916) 444-7914

First Saturdays: Dan O and the Ignorant Boys, Travis N Brad; 10pm, no cover

VIRGINIA, 9pm Tu, call for cover

TAKE OUT, call for time and cover

CHEESEBALLS, call for time and cover

Live band karaoke, 8pm Tu, call for cover; 98 Rock Local Licks, 8pm W

Press Club Fridays with DJ Rue, call for time and cover

Pop 40 Dance Party, 9pm, $5

DJ Larry’s Sunday Night Dance Party, 9pm, call for cover

THE COMMUNITY, SECTION M, HYBRID CREEPS, RIOT RADIO; 8pm, $8

Sacto de Mayo Music and Art Festival, 2pm-2am, $10-$13

MEGAFAUNA, HONYOCK, INSTAGON, PINNACLES; call for time, $8

PISSCAT, THE ROLLIN’ BLACKOUTS, DAWGYZ; 9pm W, $6

SHADY LADY SALOON

Lolo Gervais with Boca del Rio Thursday 9pm, $6.

Torch Club Jazz pop

1409 R St., (916) 231-9121

STARLITE LOUNGE

1517 21st St., (916) 704-0711

STONEY’S ROCKIN RODEO

Country DJ dancing and live band karaoke, 9pm, no cover

Country DJ dancing and karaoke, 8pm, $5-$7

Country DJ dancing and karaoke, 8pm, $5

Country DJ dancing and karaoke, 9pm, call for cover

TORCH CLUB

Acoustic open-mic X-TRIO, 5pm; BOCA DEL RIO, LOLO GERVAIS; 9pm, $6

PAILER & FRATIS, 5:30pm, no cover; RED’S BLUES, 9pm, $8

The Count Benefit for American Cancer Society, 4pm; KATE GAFFNEY, 9pm, $7

Blues jam, 4pm; Front the Band karaoke, BILL MYLAR, 5:30pm Tu; MICHAEL RAY, 8pm, no cover 8pm Tu; THE LAST REVEL, 9pm, $5

1320 Del Paso Blvd., (916) 927-6023 904 15th St., (916) 443-2797

Country DJ dancing, 8:30pm W, $5-$10

All ages, all the time ACE OF SPADES

MOOSHINE BANDITS, DEMUN JONES, D-ONE; 6:30pm, $20-$22

1417 R St., (916) 448-3300

BLAQK AUDIO, NIGHT RIOTS, CHARMING MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK, MICROLIARS; $17-$20 WAVE, SPILL CANVAS; 6:30pm, $25-$30

CAFE COLONIAL

Consolcade retro console gaming, 6pm Tu

3520 Stockton Blvd., (916) 736-3520

THE COLONY

Black Sabbitch with Worn Thin and Love Removal Machine Saturday 6:30pm, $12.

The Boardwalk Hard rock

3512 Stockton Blvd., (916) 718-7055

SHINE

Sac’s Coolest Open Jazz Jam, 8pm, no cover

1400 E St., (916) 551-1400

FLIGHT MONGOOSE, CRIMSON, SO FO; 8pm, $6

HANS AND THE HOT MESS, MICHAEL RAY, EASY CHAIRS; 8pm, $6

adult

Delightful massage from a Latin expert

Print ads start at $6/wk. www.newsreview.com or (916) 498-1234 ext. 5 Phone hours: M-F 9am-5pm.

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The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message.

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05.05.16

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by JOEY GARCIA

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REAL PEOPLE, REAL DESIRE, REAL FUN.

Closed hearts, open mouths My girlfriend cheated on me with her ex-girlfriend. I found out because she said she was sick so I dropped by her apartment with soup and orange juice. Her roommate was surprised to see me. He said my girlfriend was out with this other girl.

He thought I knew. When I confronted my girlfriend, she said she wanted to break up.

But she wouldn’t talk to me about why she cheated. I’m heartbroken. Please help.

Sweetheart, she cheated because she wanted to break up with you, but didn’t have the backbone to tell you. Betrayals are often motivated by passive-aggressive behavior—expressing negative feelings indirectly.

Although it might be uncomfortable to initiate a conversation about something difficult, doing so is an act of love. Unresolved anger or hurt is fuel for drama. Instead of openly addressing painful feelings or concerns, one partner decides to withhold, triangulate, procrastinate or betray the other. Those reactions are backhanded expressions of anger that quickly become unconscious patterns.

Withholding sex, affection, information or conversation shuts the gate on intimacy.

It’s an effort to punish one’s partner while avoiding one’s own responsibility for the existing problem in the relationship.

Triangulation is confiding in others about the core problem in the relationship but failing to speak directly with one’s partner.

Turning others into confidants, without confiding in one’s partner, is a way of soliciting sympathy, approval and justification.

Passive-aggressive behavior also includes procrastination. When a partner drags her feet about facing or completing an agreed upon task, it’s sometimes the result of an unhealed hurt. But things can get nasty fast if that procrastination is wedded to sarcasm.

As in, reminding a partner that she promised to start attending a 12-step meeting and she responds with ridicule, scorn or contempt.

You now have a choice. You can sit in your sadness over losing a woman who didn’t care enough to engage in the most basic requirement of a healthy

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relationship: honesty. Or you can explore how you participated in your own betrayal.

Astonished? Consider reflecting on these questions: Did you cheat yourself by not speaking to your girlfriend about problems in the relationship? When your intuition nudged you to say that something was not quite right in your relationship, did you deny it? Shaking free of bad communication habits will help you shed problematic relationships faster in the future, while also making better choices with your heart. You might also be interested in reading my book, When Your Heart Breaks, It’s Opening to Love. Find it at Time Tested Books and on Amazon.

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Is there such a thing as a strain identification resource? I have a bud from Philly that I love, but I’d love to know what it is.

—H.M. First of all, does Philly have good local bud? I am inclined to believe that your weed is from California, Oregon or Colorado.

Kidding! I’m sure Pennsylvania has some good strains. Congrats on getting a medical marijuana law, by the way.

As to your question, the answer is: kinda. Leafly has a vast, comprehensive, and nicely laid out list of just about every strain ever. They break it down into different flavors and effects so you can cross-reference your observations and get a good idea about what you have in your bag (www.leafly.com/start-exploring).

Say your weed smells like pine trees and gives you a super-buzzy high. It’s probably Trainwreck, although it could be a Jack Herer or maybe a Pure Haze. It could also be a Trainwreck crossed with Haze. Or a Herer and Headband cross, or a T.W. x J.H. x Haze, or any of a kajillion different variations.

Pot strain identification is not an exact science yet. Mostly, you have to rely on your experience and memories to recognize the different strains. It’s really like being a sommelier, except for weed. Someone should start teaching classes.

That being said, there are a few folks working to make it easier for cannabis users with less experienced pot palates. The folks over at Pot strain the Cannabis Genomic Research Initiative identification (http://cannabisgenomics.org/research) are looking to map the DNA of cannabis, and is not an exact the good people of MyDx (www.cdxlife. science. com/overview-video) will sell you a machine that uses an “electronic nose” to figure out the THC, terpenes and other chemicals present in your pot sample. My guess is that in another five to six years, you will be able to pop a sample into some sort of device and get all kinds of information about whatever strain you have. Until then, keep smoking different strains to increase your personal database. Also: You can always bring me a sample and I will taste it for you and give you my scientific opinion.

Can I get a quick California legislative update?

—H.M.S. Wonkatania My pleasure. There are two interesting bills going around right now: AB 2300 (http://tinyurl.com/AptSmoke) sponsored by Jim Wood, D-Eureka, would allow landlords to prevent cannabis users from smoking pot. Landlords can already prohibit tobacco smoking, and Jim Wood sees this as the same issue, never mind the fact that pot smoke may be less dangerous than tobacco smoke.

Wood also has an excise tax bill in the works (http://tinyurl.com/ PotExcise). Beside the fact that Wood sneaked this bill into an unscheduled hearing to avoid getting an earful from cannabis advocates, this bill is not a good idea. Weed will make the state plenty of money. Call him at (916) 319-2002 and let him know how you feel. Ω Ngaio Bealum is a Sacramento comedian, activist and marijuana expert.

Email him questions at ask420@newsreview.com.

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Has Medical Marijuana iMproved Your life?

Capital Cannabis Guide is looking for stories of people whose lives have been positively impacted by the use of medical marijuana.

Contact editor Michelle Carl at michellec@newsreview.com to share your story.

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ot every medical cannabis product is designed to make your limbs loose and your eyelids heavy. Among the many wellness products offered by Holy Grail are a line of flavored, hemp oil-infused Energy Chews. Each individually wrapped Energy Chew provides 100 mg of caffeine (roughly the same amount as a cup of coffee) with a 1 mg chaser of CBD, promising chewers “3 hours of sustained energy.”

I usually get my daily caffeine fix from a cup of Old Soul or Counter Culture coffee, but the Energy Chews also offer 100 percent daily values of Vitamins B6 and B12, as well as 50 percent daily values of Vitamins B1, B3 and B5, so I’m all in. There are several different flavors available on the Holy Grail website, and I sampled the “Holy Hawaii” variety (there are also apple, mint and cinnamon Chews, all priced at $6.99/ tin for two chews). Given the quasi-exotic

My energy level and focus remained high throughout the evening.

It didn’t taste great, but compared to most energy products and chewable medicines, it was surprisingly palatable, sort of like a menthol Starburst, and there was no lingering aftertaste. The Energy Chew dissolved in my mouth within a couple of minutes, getting smaller with each chew like a Zicam, and I felt my eyes start to focus almost instantly. Despite a bad night’s sleep the night before, my energy level and focus remained high throughout the evening, and the only side effect was a powerful thirst.

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FRee will aStRology

by Willie Clark

by rOb brezsny

FOR ThE WEEk OF MAy 8, 2016 ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Silence is not silence, but a limit of hearing,” writes Jane Hirshfield in her poem “Everything Has Two Endings.” This observation is apropos for you right now. There are potentially important messages you’re not registering and catalytic influences you can’t detect. But their apparent absence is due to a blank spot in your awareness, or maybe a willful ignorance left over from the old days. Now here’s the good news: You are primed to expand your listening field. You have an enhanced ability to open certain doors of perception that have been closed. If you capitalize on this opportunity, silence will give way to revelation.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your ability to

accomplish magic is at a peak, and will continue to soar for at least two more weeks. And when I use that word “magic,” I’m not referring to the hocus-pocus performed by illusionists like Criss Angel or Harry Houdini. I’m talking about real feats of transformation that will generate practical benefits in your day-to-day life. Now study the following definitions by writer Somerset Maugham, and have faith in your ability to embody them: “Magic is no more than the art of employing consciously invisible means to produce visible effects. Will, love and imagination are magic powers that everyone possesses; and whoever knows how to develop them to their fullest extent is a magician.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): According to author

Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian word toska means “a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness.”

Linguist Anna Wierzbicka says it conveys an emotion that blends melancholy, boredom and yearning. Journalist Nick Ashdown suggests that for someone experiencing toska, the thing that’s yearned for may be “intangible and impossible to actually obtain.” How are doing with your own toska, Gemini? Is it conceivable that you could escape it—maybe even heal it? I think you can. I think you will. Before you do, though, I hope you’ll take time to explore it further. Toska has more to teach you about the previously hidden meaning of your life.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Gandhi’s

autobiography is on my pillow,” writes Cancerian poet Buddy Wakefield. “I put it there every morning after making my bed so I’ll remember to read it before falling asleep. I’ve been reading it for 6 years. I’m on Chapter 2.” What’s the equivalent phenomenon in your world, my fellow Crab? What good deed or righteous activity have you been pursuing with glacial diligence? Is there a healthy change you’ve been thinking about forever, but not making much progress on? The mood and the sway of the coming days will bring you a good chance to expedite the process. In Wakefield’s case, he could get up to Chapter 17.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the 16th century, European explorers searched South America in quest of a mythical city of gold known as El Dorado. Tibetan Buddhist tradition speaks of Shambhala, a magical holy kingdom where only enlightened beings live. In the legends of ancient Greece, Hyperborea was a sunny paradise where the average human life span was a thousand years and happiness was normal.

Now is an excellent time for you to fantasize about your own version of utopia, Leo. Why? First, your imagination is primed to expand. Second, dreaming big will be good for your mental and physical health.

There’s another reason, too: By envisioning the most beautiful world possible, you will mobilize your idealism and boost your ability to create the best life for yourself in the coming months.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Anytime you’re going

to grow, you’re going to lose something,” said psychologist James Hillman. “You’re losing what you’re hanging onto to keep safe. You’re losing habits that you’re comfortable with, you’re losing familiarity.” I nominate these thoughts to serve as your words of wisdom in the coming weeks, Virgo. From an astrological perspective, you are in a phase when luxuriant growth is possible. To harvest the fullness of the lush opportunities, you should be willing to shed outworn stuff that might interfere.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): On Cracked.com, Auntie

Meme tells us that many commonly-held ideas about history are wrong. There were no such things as chastity belts in the Middle Ages, for example.

Napoleon’s soldiers didn’t shoot off the nose of the Sphinx when they were stationed in Egypt. In regards to starving peasants, Marie Antoinette never derisively said, “Let them eat cake.” And no Christians ever became meals for lions in ancient Rome’s Colosseum. (More: http://tinyurl.com/historicaljive.) In the spirit of Auntie Meme’s exposé, and in alignment with the astrological omens, I invite you to uncover and correct at least three fabrications, fables and lies about your own past.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Charles Wright

marvels at the hummingbird, “who has to eat sixty times his own weight a day just to stay alive.

Now that’s a life on the edge.” In the coming weeks, Scorpio, your modus operandi may have resemblances to the hummingbird’s approach. I don’t mean to suggest that you will be in a manic survival mode. Rather, I expect you’ll feel called to nourish your soul with more intensity than usual. You’ll need to continuously fill yourself up with experiences that inspire, teach and transform you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Anybody

can become angry,” said Greek philosopher Aristotle. “That is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” I’m pleased to inform you, Sagittarius, that now is a time when you have an exceptional capacity for meeting Aristotle’s high standards.

In fact, I encourage you to honor and learn all you can from your finely honed and well-expressed anger. Make it work wonders for you. Use it so constructively that no one can complain.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): To celebrate

your arrival at the height of your sex appeal, I’m resurrecting the old-fashioned word “vavoom.”

Feel free to use it as your nickname. Pepper it into your conversations in place of terms like “awesome,” “wow” or “yikes.” Use a felt-tip marker to make a temporary VAVOOM tattoo on your beautiful body. Here are other enchanted words you should take charge of and make an intimate part of your daily presentation: verve, vim, vivid, vitality, vigor, voracious, vivacious, visceral, valor, victory and VIVA!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When he was

a boy, Mayan poet Humberto Ak’ab’al asked his mother, “What are those things that shine in the sky?” “Bees,” she answered mischievously. “Every night since then,” Humberto writes, “my eyes eat honey.” In response to this lyrical play, the logical part of our brains might rise up and say, “What a load of nonsense!” But I will ask you to set aside the logical part of your brain for now, Aquarius.

According to my understanding of the astrological omens, the coming days will be a time when you need a big dose of sweet fantasies, dreamy stories and maybe even beautiful nonsense. What are your equivalents of seeing bees making honey in the night sky’s pinpoints of light?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Sometimes, a

seemingly insignificant detail reveals a whole world,” says artist Pierre Cordier. “Like the messages hidden by spies in the dot of an i.” These are precisely the minutiae that you should be extra alert for in the coming days, Pisces. Major revelations may emerge from what at first seems trivial. Generous insights could ignite in response to small acts of beauty and subtle shifts of tone.

Do you want glimpses of the big picture and the long-range future? Then be reverent toward the fine points and modest specifics.

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.

Mother of mothers With Mother’s Day just around the river bend, everybody is thinking about Mom. But how often do we consider the people who helped a mom become Mom? We asked for insight from Rebekah Lake, a registered midwife with Capital Midwifery, and the conversation spawned multiple topics, such as yoga, some unique birthing situations and her idea of a perfect Mother’s Day.

What made you want to be a midwife?

I knew you were going to ask me that question. Midwifery is one of those things that you can’t not do. Yeah, you can’t not do it. It’s not something that you go, “Huh, I’m going to do that.” It kind of calls you, it draws you in.

When did you know that this was something you wanted to do?

After I had my last baby at home, the difference between having a baby in a birth center with a midwife and having a baby at home with a midwife was very different. Huge difference. And at that moment I was like, “You know what, this is how it’s always been done, this is how it should be. This is real care.”

What are the some of the benefits of home birth?

The benefits are personalized care. A lot of woman have had a baby in the hospital and then they realize that they don’t want to do that again. They want to have one person who cares for them through their whole pregnancy and they want that same person to deliver their baby and then care for their baby for six weeks. They like having hour-long appointments, they don’t have to wait in a waiting room, they don’t have to shuffle around the health care system, they avoid that whole mess. Healthy young people usually don’t interface with the health care system until they’re pregnant and then they go, “Holy shit, this is a nightmare and it’s super stressful.”

That’s when most people run into just how that system operates.

Right? No one goes to the doctor … and then they are like, “Oh! I’m pregnant, now I need to go to the doctor.” And then they are faced with their health plan and restrictions and, “Oh, well I can’t get you in for 12 weeks,” and then they sit there and wait an hour-and-a-half in the lobby for a 10-minute appointment and they don’t get their questions answered and, in the era of Google, where everything is instant, young families today, they’re not having it.

PHOTO BY EVAN DURAN

… They want someone who can give them advice on nutrition, yoga, like the hippie stuff. Well-being, health and wellness. And someone who’s younger and can hang out with them and make it an experience.

It’s like boutique care, it really is. Bringing the ancient traditions that midwives have always used with what the medical system has to offer. Kind of bridging the two.

What is prenatal yoga?

For me specifically, I became a yoga teacher in 2000 before I became a licensed midwife. So I use yoga, I use Ayurveda in how I practice midwifery.

And keeping the body fit is so important, staying active is so important. And making sure the baby is in a good position for birth and making sure a woman is fit for birth is critical. And making sure that the mind is right. Labor is hard work, and for a woman preparing for a natural birth, at home, there’s no epidurals. There’s no pain management, it’s really her ability to meditate, her ability to work with her body and the power of her own body and her own mind. And that’s where yoga comes in. … Yoga lets you feel intensity in your body and labor is going to be intense on your body. If you can get through hard yoga for an hour, you can get through a minute-long contraction.

unlicensed Little House On the Prairie, coming in on horseback, boiling rags.

And the reality is we bring emergency equipment, everything that would be in a labor and delivery room in a birth center, we carry.

What is your idea of a perfect Mother’s Day? My idea of a perfect Mother’s Day is hanging out with my kids watching them be the total blaze that they are. Which involves basketball and video games.

What are the most inconvenient places you’ve had to deliver?

I recently delivered a baby on a landing of a stairwell. I’ve delivered babies in every room in a house. In a kitchen, in a very small bathroom, in a shower stall, in a bathtub, in a back yard, in a birth tub, in a garden. You name it, I’ve had to be there.

Were those by choice or happenstance?

The landing was happenstance. The garden was choice. They had a beautiful backyard with a garden and that’s where they wanted their birth. But a lot of times, it’s wherever mom gets the urge to push. …

That’s the goal, mom is in charge and the midwife works around the mom. Ω

What are some common misconceptions about midwives?

That we’re not regulated. That’s a big one. A lot of people think of midwives as

Learn more about Rebekah Lake’s work at www.capitalmidwifery.com.

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