s-2016-08-04

FREE

ALLEN

WARREN’S NEIGHBORHOOD The District 2 councilman owes money all over town. He’s been sued dozens of times.

And North Sacramento loves him.

BY RAHEEM F. HOSSEINI

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Worst year ever?

Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

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Cap-and-trade in crisis mode Volume 28, iSSue 16

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EditoR’S NotE

AUGUSt 4, 2016 | Vol. 28, iSSUE 16

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24 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 Associate Editor Raheem F. Hosseini Arts & Culture Editor Janelle Bitker Assistant Editor Anthony Siino Editorial Services Coordinator Karlos Rene Ayala Staff Reporter Scott Anderson 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, Dave Kempa, Jim Lane, Kel Munger, Kate Paloy, Patti Roberts, Ann Martin Rolke, Shoka, Bev Sykes, Graham Womack Editorial Intern Jeremy Winslow

28 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, 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 Angel De La O, Stephanie Johnson, Matt Kjar, Paul McGuinness, Wendy Russell, Manushi Weerasinghe Director of First Impressions David Lindsay Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Services Assistant Larry Schubert Distribution Drivers Mansour Aghdam, Kimberly Bordenkircher, Daniel Bowen, Heather Brinkley, Allen Brown, Mike Cleary, Jack Clifford, Lydia Comer, Rob Dunnica, Chris Fong, Ron Forsberg, Garry Foster, Joanna Gonzalez-Brown, Greg Meyers, Aswad Morland,

67 Kenneth Powell, Gilbert Quilatan, Lloyd Rongley, Lolu Sholotan, Jonathan Taea N&R Publications Editor Michelle Carl N&R Publications Associate Editor Kate Gonzales N&R Publications Writers Anne Stokes, Natasha vonKaenel 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 Director of People & Culture David Stogner Marketing/Promotions/Facilities Manager Will Niespodzinski Executive Coordinator Jessica Takehara Director of Dollars & Sense 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

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Good things It’s been a very bad year.

The heartbreaking mass shooting in Orlando. Protests and civil unrest.

The awful deaths of black men at the hands of cops. The awful deaths of cops at the hands of radicals. A coup in Turkey. Senseless, gut-wrenching deaths in Nice.

Nearly every word that comes out of Donald J. Trump’s mouth or Twitter account.

It’s enough to make me want to climb back into bed until 2017.

Still, if I stop long enough to take a deep breath, I can remind myself that there are still some good things. On a recent sleepless night, I tried to count them like fence-jumping sheep.

There’s been civil unrest, yes, but there have also been important conversations about race, class and privilege. Conversations that will evolve into action and change.

There have been mass shootings and other horrific acts, but according to FBI data, violent crimes actually continue to be on the decline.

This is perhaps the most vitriolic election on record, but a woman was finally selected by a major party to be its candidate. My nieces will never have to wonder if they can do such a thing, too.

There’s been an onslaught of bad news from every corner of the world, but we’re still treated to fun distractions like Stranger Things and Pokémon Go. Everything feels so fraught with fear and uncertainty, but this weekend I harvested some of the first tomatoes that my black thumb has ever managed to grow.

It may seem like it’s been a very bad year, but the good things really are still there.

—RAchEl lEiBRock r a c h e ll@ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

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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4 | SN&R | 08.04.16

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“Drastic events leaD to cHange.”

aSked at the State capitoL:

How bad has 2016 been?

Spencer L amb unemployed

Let’s start with the election—that’s pretty bad. ... With Turkey having a rebellion, that’s pretty bad as well. So 2016 started out, in my opinion, fairly bad, but there’s some hope, because a lot of new technology is coming out, as it always is. But at the current moment, it’s not looking like the best year.

5 | SN&R | 08.04.16

brenda SoteLo journalist

I wouldn’t call it bad. I would call it a time of change. A lot of historical change going on. I think social media, for the first time in history, is playing a major role on people having a voice. That has led to a lot of tension, but also a lot of support from people to make change happen.

Joe corniSh retired teacher

For me, personally, it hasn’t been too bad at all. But I’m a little worried with Trump, because he is a wild man and a crazy man, and he scares me. He wants to build a wall to keep people out; he’s racist, xenophobic and sexist.

mariSSa GiLLer Tilly’s associate

I think for our generation especially—like, my generation—I feel like there’s so much that we can’t do, even though I feel like we have this voice. But I don’t think we’re actually doing anything about it or about the future. So 2016 is pretty scary, overall. If I had to sum it up in one word: scary.

ayo tayLor communications director

Our country needs to come together. This year—more than any other year in, like, the last three or four decades—shows the disparities economically, socially, on many different levels.

The youth is very important. … I mean, it’s very important they’re aware of what’s going on so history doesn’t repeat itself.

Shireen Sa xena student

Drastic events lead to change. ... It leads to more space for people wanting to know what’s your opinion: think about what’s happening around you, think about what your role in it is going to be and step up and help shape the future you want to see. Otherwise, it’ll get shaped for you by somebody like Trump.

6 | SN&R | 08.04.16

Email lEttErs to sactolEttErs@nEwsrEviEw.com

So sad, such BS Re “On political unicorns” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Editor’s Note, July 28): Perhaps in your personal life honesty, credibility and integrity are subjective. How very sad for you and the people you associate with. In my world, those traits are tantamount to a civilized society, and most people still adhere to those principals. I don’t agree with some of Bernie Sanders’ platform, but he, unlike Hillary or Donald, has always demonstrated those traits. The DNC threw him under the bus. Your sentence, “good for you for sticking to your convictions regardless of the possible outcome,” was a slam to those of us who still have convictions. I expect you are a “Hillary is a woman so vote for her as the lesser of two evils” person. BS. I (and a lot of other honest, decent people) would rather not vote at all if you have to “hold your nose” to vote. If that hands the election to Trump, so be it. At least I won’t compromise my beliefs to accommodate one party or the other. That’s hardly subjective.

Dan altman S acr am e nt o

Loving on Trump Re “On political unicorns”

by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R

Editor’s Note, July 28): Your paper and Rachel Leibrock have no morals or credibility. Her editorial

on Tim Kaine is a perfect example. He is a horrible choice for Democrats. But, he has a D next to his name. If Donald Trump had been named Hillary’s VP choice, you would be loving on him too!

Curt Fry Sacramento

Blame the liberal women Re “My White Privilege” by Jeff vonKaenel (SN&R Greenlight, July 28): I am so sick of the mainstream media portrayals of Republican-registered Biblebelieving Christians as a bunch of uncouth, uneducated hicks like those on Duck Dynasty. The media makes accusations about conservatives’ political beliefs based on what certain people say about immigrants and others not like them. Your article accuses presidential candidate Trump and conservatives who voted

for him as “tough on Islam” as if that means if all conservative Christians “hate” Muslims. No, the opposition to “Islam” is not racism against Arabs, but against an ideology that developed in the Middle Ages to take away control of the Holy Land from the Christian world, especially because they didn’t want Christians to decide to hand it over to Jews. Followers of this ideology that calls itself itself “peaceful” still make violent attacks against Christians in their countries as well as against Americans and Jews in Israel, and do it proclaiming “Allah” in their Koran. The liberal women we have in public offices such as Hillary Clinton haven’t made it clear to the Muslim world there will be retaliation for attacking Americans or Israel, and as president, Hillary simply will not have the respect of Muslims that they would have for a conservative Christian man.

Michelle Kunert via email

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1-800-429-1022 08.04.16 | SN&R | 7

Critics say the current cap-and-trade program fails to address the impact of unregulated toxic chemicals on low-income neighborhoods.

Capped out

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MARGARET LARKIN

California’s plan to improve climate policy by reducing emissions at the source is in crisis

by Will Parrish

California’s cap-and-trade program is a cornerstone of the state’s effort to curb greenhouse gases. But it’s also in crisis.

Faced with Republican opposition, Gov. Jerry Brown has so far been unable to muster two-thirds of state legislators to vote to extend the program beyond its current 2020 expiration.

Meanwhile, the latest auction of carbon-dioxide-emission allowances in May, which was supposed to generate more than a half-billion dollars for politicians to spend, brought in a paltry $10 million, as the California Air Resources Board sold a tiny fraction of the allowances it was offering.

8 | SN&R | 08.04.16 A version of this story originally appeared in the East Bay Express.

Graham Womack contributed to this report.

This could mean less money for local communities, which have already struggled to secure cap-and-trade funding.

As Evan Schmidt of nonprofit research and social advocacy group Valley Vision told SN&R, the six-county Sacramento region contains 6.2 percent of California’s population, but received 4.7 percent of funds for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Sacramento Mayor-elect Darrell Steinberg, who crafted the cap-and-trade legislation while in the state Senate and campaigned, in part, on his ability to raise local dollars through his statehouse connections, has been especially bullish about the program.

“I’m telling you, I’m going to fight for cap-and-trade dollars for Sacramento,” he told SN&R. “I wrote the law, and I understand the law.”

Cap-and-trade might have deeper issues, though.

Jesus Hernandez is a sociology lecturer at UC Davis who assists the North Franklin District Business Association. He said certain neighborhoods in the region do better at chasing the money, competitively available through a limited number of state agencies.

“You see this uneven balance of where the money goes,” Hernandez said. “These

issues are structural that people aren’t seeing, and that creates some really big problems.”

Hernandez, who helped North Franklin secure a $433,000 grant earlier this year from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments for neighborhood improvements, sees solutions beyond cap-and-trade.

“That’s not the panacea for neighborhood health,” Hernandez said.

There’s also a question of diminishing returns. Cap-and-trade’s purpose is to decrease emissions “and in the end not have any money come from the auction if we did our job right,” said Katie Valenzuela Garcia, who serves on the state Air Resources Board’s Environmental Justice Advisory Committee.

“I just don’t think it’s a long-term sustainable solution to have everything go through that litmus test,” said Jonathan London, director of the Center for Regional Change at UC Davis.

Still, it’s a lot of potential money, which might justify state lawmakers resolving the current drama with the program.

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Must-nAzi tV The governor has negotiated with oil-industry leaders about the possibility of scaling back some of California’s climate-change programs in exchange for the industry’s support for extending capand-trade, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month. And the Western States Petroleum Association, the main lobbying group for oil corporations in six western states, is especially keen on repealing California’s low-carbon-fuel standard, which is the world’s first regulatory program to require oil suppliers to slash the carbon footprint of their motor fuel.

But environmentalists are urging Brown not to “send the state’s climate change policies backward,” as Amy Vanderwarker, a co-director of the Oakland-based California Environmental Justice Alliance, put it. She and other advocates say cap-and-trade’s recent stumbles actually open the door to far better climate change policies.

For instance, her organization is supporting Assembly Bill 197, introduced in June by Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella. The proposed law deals at once with emissions, public health, and eco-injustice, activists say. It also encourages direct emissions reductions by the state’s oil refineries, fossil-fuel power plants and other major industrial emitters, as well as from the transportation sector.

“The keys to addressing climate change and the environmental-health crisis in communities of color are fundamentally the same,” Vanderwarker said.

Under cap-and-trade, the number of metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions allowed in the state is capped, and the allowable levels of pollution are steadily reduced, creating an economic incentive for companies to cut emissions.

Industrial entities then buy and sell pollution “allowances,” which lets pollution increase in one area of the state—often in low income and minority communities—so long as it decreases it somewhere else. California’s version of cap-and-trade also lets companies avoid regional pollution reductions by purchasing a certain number of “offsets” from carbonsaving projects elsewhere in the United States or in Quebec.

But dozens of unregulated toxic chemicals are co-emitted with greenhouse gases, a fact that critics say cap-and-trade fails to address and that perpetuates environmental racism, since most of those living alongside these polluting installations are low-income people of color.

“When an oil refinery wants to expand under cap-and-trade, they buy cheap allowances or offsets from somewhere else, and the people who live in the vicinity get stuck with the pollution,” explained Brent Newell, a staff attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty, & the Environment. “It’s a way of saying to these communities: You have to subsidize these major polluting industries with your lungs.’”

Valenzuela-Garcia, who grew up near California’s oil drilling mecca of Bakersfield, emphasized this point when she criticized the cap-and-trade program at a hearing in the California Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters this past April.

“Children in California shouldn’t continue to pay the price for the Air Resources Board’s unwillingness to change its course,” she said.

A March study by CEJA found that the leading purchasers of offsets under California’s cap-and-trade program from 2013-14 include several companies that operate in the Bay Area, such as Chevron, Calpine, Shell and Tesoro. For example, Calpine’s natural gas-fired power plant in Pittsburg has increased its greenhousegas emissions by more than 20 percent since 2011, but has used forests in North California and methane digesters on cattle ranches in Indiana to offset pollution increases.

An even more fundamental problem, environmentalists say, is that California’s cap-and-trade program is designed to ensure that it remains cheaper for oil and gas companies to continue burning fossil fuels than it would be to eliminate them.

Cap-and-trade proponents, by contrast, view the program as a balanced way of reducing pollution without unduly harming businesses and consumers.

“Cap-and-trade helps ensure that the state and ratepayers don’t bear the costs” of greater expenses to industry, CARB spokesman Dave Clegern wrote in an email.

According to a 2015 federal-government study, a ton of carbon emissions causes $37 in economic damage, in terms of decreased agricultural yield, harm to human health and lost worker productivity. A study last year

by Stanford University’s School of Earth Sciences placed the figure at $220 per ton.

Yet the cost under California cap-and-trade has hovered between $11 and $14 per ton.

Assembly member Garcia’s bill features a provision that calls on CARB to consider the full social cost of carbon emissions in future regulatory decisions.

Fossil-fuel industries have offered mixed signals concerning current positions

on cap-and-trade. In some situations, they have opposed the program on the grounds that it increases the cost of doing business.

But whenever threatened by more stringent regulations that go beyond capand-trade, industry leaders have spoken in favor of the program, with Western States Petroleum Association President Catherine Reheis-Boyd stating in a presentation to New Mexico oil-and-gas producers that her organization favors “a well-designed cap-and-trade program as a feasible and balanced approach to addressing GHG emissions.”

In addition to encouraging at-source emissions reductions, SB 197 would create a Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies consisting of three members of the Senate and Assembly each, who would provide greater oversight of CARB as part of an effort to increase that board’s transparency and accountability. Environmental justice groups and numerous other environmental groups have often complained about the agency’s lack of responsiveness to their concerns.

These groups have already scored a minor victory amid the uncertainty about cap-and-trade’s future. The state’s leaders have been pushing to become the only jurisdiction in the world that offsets its climate pollution through investments in tropical forest regions in the Southern Hemisphere. The common name for such efforts is REDD. CARB had planned to have a vote on linking its cap-and-trade program to Acre, Brazil, as early as spring 2017. But the agency issued a draft proposal last week to expand the greenhouse-gas capand-trade program beyond 2020, and this proposal does not include an international forest offset provision—a decision that postpones, but does not ultimately rule out, such a move.

Ninawa Huni Kui is a 35-year-old traditional indigenous leader of the Huni Kui people of forest-rich state of Acre in northern Brazil. In a conversation earlier this year via a Portuguese interpreter, his arguments against REDD offsets were reminiscent of California-based environmental-justice advocates that support on-site emissions reductions at polluting facilities rather than cap-and-trade.

“Our perception of California is that they are coming here to deal with their own environmental problems, and they should be solving those at home,” Huni Kui said. Ω

Leave it to neo-nazis to screw up a feel-good news story.

Undermining the message of “Blue lives Matter,” a selfidentified skinhead from Sacramento became the face of a propolice campaign over the weekend by tying blue ribbons around trees and lampposts in Folsom and El Dorado Hills to honor the law enforcement profession.

“We’re out here just trying to show support for those who risk life and limb for our safety and our security,” Derik Punneo told KXTV’s Ericka So in a story that both ABc10 and fOX40 aired over the weekend and featured on their websites.

There’s just one problem with this: Punneo is a selfadmitted skinhead who may have been involved in the June 26 capitol rally that erupted into violent mayhem when a group of white nationalists clashed with counter-demonstrators. The public catastrophe left 10 people injured, including five who suffered stab wounds.

Despite the heavy security presence of the California Highway Patrol and Sacramento Police Department at the rally, and an untold number of videos recorded and shared by both media and individuals, no one has been arrested in the weeks following the mass-casualty event. The lack of arrests spurred competing doxing campaigns, in which both sides posted and shared personal information of the people they believe were involved in the violence, including Punneo.

Social media users identifying as anti-fascists shared images and other personal information from the Facebook page of a user identified as “Derik Punneo (Strictly skinhead).” They also created a virtual wanted poster by placing a photo from the rally, of a man brandishing a knife, in a collage with other photos from Punneo’s Facebook page. Then there was the screen capture of a social media exchange involving a user named Manda Boone, who was named in the TV news pieces as Punneo’s girlfriend. At one point, Boone writes, “derik got stabbed.”

In other words, there’s a lot out there about these two. But apparently no one at ABC10 or FOX40 did their research before running the puff pieces about Punneo and Boone tying ribbons in support of cops.

By Tuesday, fOX40 had pulled the story from its website and replaced it with the following message: “Editor’s Note: This story has been temporarily removed pending an editorial review.”

ABC10’s website still had the print version of the story on display, which includes the reporter’s take on Punneo: “He understands how dangerous a life in law enforcement can be.”

(Raheem F. Hosseini)

All hAil dOzeR A cluster of boxes sits in front of the best canine detective in the state. Dozer, a seven- or eight-year-old Labrador mix and former rescue, is one of 14 dogs in California tasked with finding pests that arrive in the mail, often in fruit shipments. If pests get in, they can wreak havoc on crops and the environment.

The demo begins, and within 15 seconds, Dozer’s found his mark, ripping apart the box with devastating efficiency and theatrical flourish. Dozer will soon have a new counterpart. On May 24, the county board of supervisors authorized agricultural commissioner Juli Jensen to execute an agreement with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to receive up to $349,577.06 in reimbursement costs for its dog handler program in the 2016-17 fiscal year.

That money would allow the county to have two full-time dogs and handlers. (Graham Womack)

08.04.16 | SN&R | 9

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Boundary issues Remembering 2011, the Sacramento City Council votes to surrender redistricting authority

by Scott thomaS anderSon

Local governments aren’t typically known for giving up power, but Sacramento’s leaders just relinquished some, voting to allow residents the chance to enact a new commission with authority to redraw the city’s embattled political districts.

The move, which the city council passed unanimously July 26, follows an old debate over whether the current approach to redistricting empowers elected officials to shift financial influences, splice struggling neighborhoods or pound a wedge through the voting power of marginalized communities. Voters will get the opportunity to approve the commission in November.

When council members faced the task of altering Sacramento’s voting landscape in 2011, they heard concerns that Sacramento’s Latino community was being unfairly fractured by a new district map. That wasn’t the only flare-up: A clash over where the UCD Med Center was anchored, along with concerns about a lack ownership of Stockton Boulevard, also became part of the long motorcade of discontentment.

One champion for Sacramento’s new independent redistricting commission is District 6 Councilman Eric Guerra, who says he was inspired to run for office by how the issue was handled.

At the time, the city had formed a volunteer citizens advisory committee to direct council members on how to fairly represent various neighborhoods. A perception surfaced, however, that some of the committee’s members were steered by political biases and demonstrated a lack of transparency around at least one of the maps it produced. The committee submitted its final report to council members on July 6, 2011. To what extent its volunteer members’ contributions were ignored by the city council is still debated, though four of the five maps submitted went nowhere. A week after that gathering, Sacramento’s elected officials unveiled their own redistricting plan and at the next council meeting the past and current presidents of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce warned council members they were proceeding in direction that would dilute the voting power of the city’s Latino and AfricanAmerican communities. Between that meeting and the next, more than 150 residents expressed similar concerns during public comment.

Guerra was part of the Latino Working Group at the time and witnessed the consternation firsthand.

sc o tta @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

“The group I was involved with back then identified that there was essentially a major part of the Latino community that had been historically disenfranchised because of gerrymandering,” Guerra said. “The citizens advisory committee … came up with four proposed district maps that would have addressed that. The council threw out all of it … That really frustrated the Latino community.”

Eye on Sacramento President Craig Powell remembers the outcry after the council passed its own redistricting agenda.

“For the next few weeks after that, the protesters totally jammed the council chamber, its lobby and the front of City Hall,” Powell said.

In an attempt to avoid future clashes, the city formed a new public committee to work with its attorneys on framing the Independent Redistricting Act. California Common Cause, the Sacramento League of Women Voters and the League of United Latin American Citizens each gave significant input. Those groups now strongly endorse the ordinance that council members passed last month.

District 4 Councilman Steve Hansen, who was part of the troubled 2011 volunteer advisory committee before he ran for office, says previous redistricting efforts led to a situation where “the politics got very personal” but the council’s latest vote, however, rights those wrongs.

“The new commission makes the redistricting process truly independent,” Hansen said. “It gives the voters a reason to feel that the issue has truly been taken out of the hands of the elected officials.”

Local watchdog groups still worry about how the redistricting commission will be assembled, however, especially if the city hasn’t finalized its ethics committee by the time the commissioners are selected.

“If there is no ethics committee in place when the commissioners are picked, then the current ordinance is hyperspecific about who would qualify to be on a three-person panel to select the commissioners,” Powell said.

Powell says he would have recommended a different approach.

“It would have been better to stipulate that if there is no ethics committee in place, then the three-person panel picking the commissioners would all be retired judges,” he said. Ω

For some, a dream denied The Supreme Court’s ruling to stop benefits to undocumented parents affects entire families

by Montserrat Cortes

When I was 10, I moved to Sacramento from Acapulco, Mexico, with my mother and sisters in search of a better life. I am now 23 and have been enrolled in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals for two years, a program that provides me with protection from deportation, a work permit and eligibility for Medi-Cal. Unfortunately, because of the United States Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Deferred Action for Parental Accountability, the program will not be extended to include undocumented parents of citizens and residents. This is a hard loss for our nation’s undocumented families, especially for those living in California. Not only do undocumented Californians remain without the benefits that DAPA would have provided, but they also remain without access to affordable health care.

DACA has made some significant changes in my life, one of the most significant being access to California’s Medi-Cal program. I still recall the relief and excitement the day I received my acceptance notice. Having access to health care was important to me because I suffer from asthma, and I had not had a primary care doctor for 13 years.

Growing up, I lived in constant fear of triggering an asthma attack, which discouraged me from taking part in physical activities. On multiple occasions, my asthma attacks landed me in the emergency room—attacks that could have been prevented. If I had access to something as basic as a checkup and an inhaler, I could have lived a more productive, active and healthier childhood. As a child, the most critical years of my development, I lived without the ability to see a doctor. Taking steps to prevent and treat minor health concerns was not a reality for me. For 13 years, any health concerns I had either turned into full-blown emergencies or were left untreated.

I am happy to share that this is no longer the case. Through DACA, I have had Medi-Cal and the ability to visit a physician and receive treatments, like an inhaler. Up until recently, I was the only member of my family eligible for preventive care. And then just this past May, for the first time in history, California expanded Medi-Cal to include health coverage for all lower-income children, regardless of immigration status.

Thanks to this, my 15-year-old undocumented sister now has full coverage and no longer has to experience the stress that comes from not having access to care. My sister can see a doctor, get a checkup, receive vaccinations and access needed treatments.

For undocumented individuals and families, the fear of becoming ill or needing care doesn’t just come from not having access to treatment—the fear also comes from not being able to afford it and becoming a financial burden on your family. This is a fear that my younger sister, and many other undocumented children who now have access to MediCal, will no longer have to bear.

My family has submitted my sister’s Medi-Cal application and we are eagerly awaiting her acceptance letter. Having access to health care will allow her to live a healthier and more productive childhood.

I am thankful to our elected officials and Gov. Jerry Brown for making this commitment to the health my community.

However, I hope that one day all undocumented Californians, including my own adult family members and sister—who will age out of Medi-Cal at the age of 19—will have access to health care so they can live healthy and productive lives instead of living in fear. Ω

Montserrat Cortes is an Elk Grove area student.

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Infogroup, an Omaha-based marketing service that based its study of Most Hipster Cities in the U.S. on each city’s concentration of tattoo parlors, thrift stores, microbreweries, nonchain coffee shops and bicycle dealers, ranked Sacramento at No. 4. Since when was being a tattooed, caffeinated, biking, beer snob a lifestyle mutually exclusive to 20-somethings in nonprescription eyewear? Stick to corn data, Nebraska.

hillary clinton made history last week during the Democratic National Convention for, among other things, being the first woman to receive the nomination for president by a major party. Sweet. Too bad so many daily papers, including The Sacramento Bee, went with a front-page pic of her husband, Bill, the 42nd president. Sure, he gave a speech pitching his wife to the voting public, but c’mon.

“She wasn’t there!” editors protested in the wake of criticism. Funny how other papers managed to recognize the moment by running a photo of elated female delegates casting their votes or, hey, a shot of HRC beamed in via video message, thanking voters. Glass ceiling report: still needs a few more cracks.

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Of the many factors that contributed to the Sacramento Kings remaining here, add a soft spot in former NBA commissioner david Stern’s heart.

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North Sacramento Councilman Allen Wayne Warren stands outside the development company he founded a quarter-century ago. As he gets ready to begin his second term, questions linger about the intersection of his public office and private business empire.

14 | SN&R | 08.04.16

ALLEN WARREN’S NEIGHBORHOOD The District 2 councilman owes money all over town.

He’s been sued dozens of times. And North Sacramento loves him.

by RAHEEM F. HOSSEINI r a h eem h@ ne w sre vie w . com

S

teeped in the violet stage lights of the Artisan Theatre on Del Paso Boulevard, just down the way from the development company he founded a quartercentury ago, Councilman Allen Wayne Warren took his opponent’s best shot.

And then he smiled.

It was May 12, less than four weeks before 3,967 voters from this northeastern district of struggling businesses, derelict lots and resilient neighborhoods advanced Warren to a second term as their voice inside City Hall. At this candidates forum organized by the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership and North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, residents filled the auditorium to consider the alternatives.

The deliberations quickly spun one-sided.

At one point, rival candidate Sondra Betancourt asked the incumbent a pointed question: Did Warren, a prolific developer with ownership ties to dozens of properties in his district, stand to benefit financially from a land deal that would bring a Grocery Outlet to the supermarket-starved area?

Before Warren could answer, the audience pounced to his defense.

“You just want to own it!” one woman shouted. “Don’t hate on him because he got property.”

“We don’t even know who you are!” another man yelled.

Lesson learned: If you come at the king of District 2, you better not miss.

Raised in the heart of Del Paso Heights, the man called “Wayne” by those close to him left home a rising baseball star and reappeared years later as the people’s developer, building affordable homes in hardscrabble neighborhoods like his own.

Warren became the pride of the Heights, a prodigal son who returned to share his prosperity.

Photo BY DARIN BRADFoRD

At least, that was the narrative before the housing market collapsed and Warren’s business empire stumbled over bankruptcies and lawsuits.

In the years since, and mostly behind the scenes, a more complicated portrait has emerged—of an overextended developer who made promises he couldn’t keep, and who may be focusing on rebuilding his empire while the people he represents are left wanting and waiting.

According to a four-month examination of court documents and tax, property and other public records, Warren and his companies owe nearly $500,000 in overdue property taxes, unpaid state business fees and delinquent code enforcement fines.

Concerning the latter, three of Warren’s corporate entities owe nearly $12,000 in fines to the city he represents, which incurred the expense of removing weeds at more than a dozen of his vacant properties.

Seventeen are located in Warren’s district, meaning he’s inadvertently contributed to the very blight he was elected to resolve.

For his part, Warren says these figures only look bad if you consider them outside of a larger economic context.

“We probably had over $100 million of property in debt during the recession, and we paid it back,” he told SN&R during a wide-ranging interview at his New Faze Development Inc. headquarters. “Surviving the downturn, to me, greatly outweighs any criticism about me as a businessperson.”

Survived it he did. Today, Warren juggles both political duties and economic interests. But lines have been crossed. And there are questions whether Warren is using his office to dig himself out of the red.

“I don’t live for other people’s acceptance of who I am,” he told SN&R. “I know who I am.”

But does everyone else?

Mutual—or conflicted— interests?

The rectilinear headquarters to New Faze Development Inc. stand at the corner of Del Paso Boulevard and Winnipeg Street in North Sacramento. It’s a sand-gray building with lanky windows and a buzzer-entry door.

Its salvaged design is shrewdly industrial, conveying working-class authenticity even as the comforts of success harbor inside.

A stair column twists past well-appointed art pieces to Warren’s modest office, which is a good 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the building. But the developer-politician looks unbothered by the balmy conditions.

Dressed business-tropical in a light-pink linen shirt and khakis, Warren’s five o’clock goatee is dusted with silver, a gift from his demanding constituents, according to Mary Watts, a family friend who happens to be one of those constituents.

“He’s pulled in every direction,” said Watts, 73, founder of the TLC Soup Kitchen in Del Paso Heights. “I visited my councilman recently and saw that his beard was gray and said, ‘What are they doing to you?’”

On the day he met with SN&R, Warren had taken part in a strategy session to reopen a community center that had been leased out to a charter school for the previous eight years. The effort comes with an ambitious plan to launch a year-round college-andsports academy.

“That’s going to be a huge project,” Warren teased.

One of the project’s stakeholders, Richard Dana, said it wouldn’t be happening without Warren.

“Allen Warren’s neighborhood” continued on page 17

08.04.16 | SN&R | 15

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“Allen Warren’s neighborhood” continued from page 15

“In this particular case, we really turned to Allen for support within the city,” said Dana, executive director of the Mutual Assistance Network, a neighborhood improvement nonprofit in Del Paso Heights.

“Allen has been at the center of all of this.”

Watts and other residents also praise Warren for the opening of the Viva Supermarket in Del Paso Heights, an effort that began under his predecessor, former Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, but for which Warren gets props.

But Warren says he isn’t finished.

He’s working on a vision-board list of priorities for his next term—like renovating the Iceland Skating Rink and devising an economic strategy to transform the intersection of Marysville Boulevard and Grand Avenue into a town center for East Del Paso Heights. “It could be art galleries, it could be restaurants, it could be any number of things,” Warren said. “The fact that I don’t have to run in November gives me a bit of an advantage so I can really focus on finishing this year strong.”

He says one of his biggest priorities is eradicating blight in his district, so much so that his office led the city’s effort to hire 40 local high school students to comb the district looking for neglected lots, trashed alleyways and overgrown weeds, a wildfire hazard.

“I want our community to look healthy,” he told SN&R. “We want to promote pride of ownership.”

And yet, ironically, Warren’s high school force may end up tattling on him.

According to city records obtained through a public information request, 20 vacant properties belonging to three corporate entities operated by Warren have been cited for weed abatement or code violations.

He’s paid off one of those fines, appealed two and owes a total of $11,742 on the remaining 17.

This is the most obvious example of the collision between Warren the public servant and Warren the businessman. But it’s not the only one.

Warren’s emergence as a politician marks his second public reinvention—and his most fraught. What made him so well-regarded as a developer—his heavy investment in his own community—has opened him to conflict of interest perils as an elected official and questions about whose interests he truly serves—his constituents’ or his own?

For instance, Warren’s corporate aliases own dozens of real property interests within a three-block radius of the planned Grocery Outlet site, which encompasses 29,292 square feet along Del Paso Boulevard, between Darina and El Camino avenues.

Warren told a debate audience in May that he “put out a call to developers” to help initiate the sale of the city-owned site. And when

“I have a business life and I have a political life. People didn’t put me in office to be figuring out my own personal life. They put me in office to help them figure out issues in the community.”

Allen WArren councilman, District 2

the Sacramento City Council approved the $150,000 sale to Petrovich Development Co. on March 15, Warren didn’t recuse himself from voting in favor of the deal, despite the financial benefits a grocery store could have on his myriad nearby investments.

Warren’s Assent I LLC owns 42 parcels less than three blocks east of the Grocery Outlet site, parcels that are being developed into single-family homes by his New Faze Development company.

This is Renaissance Park—or the idea of it, anyway. Approximately 80 detached homes in various states of completion— some just wood skeletons, others fleshed in Sheetrock and dozens more fully formed under three coats of stucco. Near the entry point to this neighborhood, on a dirt lot cracked with weeds, a squat construction trailer belongs to New Faze Development Inc. This is Warren the developer’s latest gambit, what he describes as a $15 million investment in his community.

It’s paying off.

Assessor records show that Warren’s Assent I LLC has already sold 38 finished homes to individual buyers since May 2014.

A nearby grocery store should only increase demand.

Warren’s dealings on both sides of the aisle could very well put him in conflict with California’s Political Reform Act, which requires public officials to disqualify themselves from official matters that materially affect them—like encouraging a developer to build a desirable business within walking distance of his company’s brand new housing development.

“If a council member acts in his or her official capacity in a manner that benefits the member personally, that’s a problem,” said Hana Callaghan, of Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. “That’s a classic breach of the duty of loyalty that public officials owe to the public they are elected to serve.”

Assistant City Attorney Sandra Talbott told SN&R on Tuesday her office considered the matter covered by attorney-client privilege and was unable to comment.

Warren argues that the two aspects of his persona should be considered separately.

“I have a business life and I have a political life,” he said. “People didn’t put me

in office to be figuring out my own personal life. They put me in office to help them figure out issues in the community. And that’s what I’ve been doing.

“On the other side, I’m figuring out every day how to make my business grow or be better. Every day.”

But even those who respect Warren as a politician acknowledge his many property holdings pose a unique challenge for the city’s conflict-of-interest guidelines.

“In Allen’s case, it’s real tough when you got all these [holding] options and properties,” said Kerth, who lost to Warren in 2012.

“I think it’s just because the sheer volume of businesses.”

Beside Warren’s flagship company, New Faze Development Inc., SN&R was able link 26 business aliases to Warren, 14 of which owned 69 parcels as of August 2, according to state and county records.

That may yet be a partial list because of the fractured nature in which property ownership data is siloed between multiple state and local agencies. But it’s enough to illustrate the central dilemma: that he’s a man divided by his duties as a public servant and his interests as an entrepreneur.

It’s something Warren’s rivals and critics have suspected for years, though they’ve rarely been able to prove those suspicions.

“It’s certainly a question. It’s not an accusation, but it’s a question,” said Betancourt, a 63-year-old neighborhood association representative who challenged Warren’s candidacy for the second time. “How do we all benefit from this? How are we all better?

A lot of people have placed their faith in him.”

Betancourt tried raising a similar point during the candidates forum in May, but was drowned out by a partisan audience. In that moment, it was Warren who came to Betancourt’s defense.

“I think it’s a wonderful question,” he said, subduing the hecklers. “Let me just say that, over the last 25 years, my company has invested heavily in this community. Because I care about this community.”

Cheers ripped through the theater.

The moderator barked for order. Warren continued.

“Let me just say I’ve owned a lot of properties and I continue to own a lot of properties,” he said.

“And going to own some more, too!” a woman shouted.

“And I hope to own some more,” Warren said.

“Amen!” the woman said.

The crowd erupted. The moderator slumped. Warren sat comfortably under the spotlight.

“Allen Warren’s neighborhood” continued on page 18

08.04.16 | SN&R | 17

Even those who respect Warren acknowledge he presents a unique challenge.

By owning so many empty plots in his own district, those efforts to revive the local economy may also serve to line his pockets.

“Allen Warren’s neighborhood” continued from page 17

LIFTING The corporaTe veIL Mark Gallagher thinks he knows the kind of businessman Warren is.

In February, the Folsom attorney filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Warren on behalf of a landscaping company that says it’s owed more than $112,000 for services rendered at two apartment complexes that Warren owns through corporate aliases. The lawsuit is one of 34 that names Warren as a defendant or respondent dating back to 1994, according to a review of Sacramento Superior Court’s online database. Nineteen of the lawsuits were filed during peak recession years, from 2008 through 2012, when Warren was unable to secure financing for a number of in-utero development projects.

18 | SN&R | 08.04.16

“Allen was overextended,” said Kerth, the District 2 council representative from 1992 to 2000. “People who want their money have a long memory.”

Even as the larger economy recovered, additional lawsuits have been filed (and this doesn’t count the now-recanted sexual harassment claim made by a former staff aide). The most recent civil claims portray Warren as a corrupt businessman, who, not unlike Donald Trump, allegedly defrauded his investors while enriching himself. And, also like the Republican presidential nominee, they accuse Warren of using bankruptcy laws or limited liability shields to outrun his creditors.

“That’s kind of this guy’s M.O.,” Gallagher contended.

First, a primer on limited liability companies, or “LLCs.” As the term indicates, limited liability companies insulate their owners from the troubles of their business enterprises. If an LLC falls into debt or stops meeting its financial obligations, collectors can’t go after the owner’s personal assets to

recoup what they’re owed.

According to Franklin A. Gevurtz, a professor of administrative law at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, the category was created to encourage people to start small businesses, so they wouldn’t be afraid of losing everything if the startups failed. LLCs are also popular among developers, who create projectspecific LLCs to protect their companies from being dragged down by an unsuccessful venture. LLCs provide their owners, called “members,” with lots of legal cover. And it’s a status that Warren has put to prolific use.

Of the 26 past and present business entities SN&R linked to Warren through Secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board records, all but three are or were LLCs. Seven remained active, according to state records.

Asked about his propensity for forming LLCs, Warren described them as projectspecific partnerships that make accounting easier and “typically wrap up” when the projects do.

But LLCs can also be easily abused, say

legal experts.

Failing to adequately capitalize an LLC, misleading potential creditors about how much money it has (or doesn’t) and who is involved (or isn’t) are considered forms of business fraud, Gevurtz said. So is using the limited reporting requirements to siphon company assets into the owner’s personal accounts or other company accounts, especially when there are debts to pay.

During his reelection campaign, Warren loaned himself $27,800 in monetary and nonmonetary contributions from himself, as the head of New Faze Development Inc., and in direct contributions from two of his LLCs. One of the entities, New Faze Advisors LLC, owes more than $7,700 in unpaid property taxes to the county and another $2,500 to the Franchise Tax Board, county and state records show. Along with the other entity, New Faze Holdings LLC, all three companies have been sued as recently as 2013 for failing to pay alleged debts.

Gevurtz says this could be a problem.

“A company that can’t pay its bills

Warren, 52, was raised in the district he now represents as a city council member. He describes himself as a reluctant politician who ran to “lift up a community.”

Photo BY DARIN BRADFoRD

shouldn’t be distributing money, whether it’s to pay the owner’s salary or contribute to his campaign,” he said.

Gallagher said it appeared from his research that the councilman uses LLCs fradulently.

“This guy about uses them as a shell game,” he said.

It’s similar to the game Trump has been accused of running in his various business dealings, particularly the Atlantic City casinos he left piled with debt while somehow managing to clear a personal profit. It happens enough that there’s even a term for when courts discover the fraud—it’s called “piercing the corporate veil.”

Gallagher says he suspects that’s happening here, but is waiting on documents via a discovery motion to come to a final conclusion.

“Here’s what I will say: The apartment complex is generating money. It’s not going to the vendors. So it’s going somewhere,” he said.

In campaign finance disclosure forms

submitted by Warren, the two apartment complexes boast fair market values of more than $1 million each, and annual gross income in excess of $100,000 per complex.

But Warren is so behind on his property taxes for one of the complexes—he owes more than $208,000 in back taxes and fines for Alpine Terrace Apartments—that he risks losing it, said a county tax official who spoke on background.

Warren dismissed the landscaper’s lawsuit as politically motivated.

“I don’t even know who that company is,” he said. “I have never dealt with them.

They deal with the property manager. They just named me because they think that if they name me that I’m just going to buckle.

I don’t give a fuck about that.”

Gallagher offered his own colorful retort. “I don’t know how many exclamation points you can put after ‘bullshit,’” he said. “That’s nonsense.”

As for Gallagher’s client, Humberto Arreola, the owner of the landscaping company, he says he didn’t know who owned the apartment complexes until he called the property management company one day, frustrated about another unpaid bill. Arreola says the person on the other line clued him in to the big-name owner.

“When he told me who he was, I found out he was a city council [member],” Arreola said. “That’s when I started to worry about who owes me money.”

Whether Arreola ever sees that money is another question. Gallagher told SN&R he’s attempting to settle the case, but Warren projected confidence.

“I will tell you that, just about every lawsuit, if not every one, I’ve won them all.

Or, they were either settled and they were settled on my terms,” Warren said. “I don’t know that your court filings will tell you that.”

They don’t, actually.

Online court judgments and documents weren’t available for lawsuits prior to 2006.

Almost all of the settlements after that year were sealed, making Warren’s claim impossible to verify.

But in June 2015, a judge ordered Warren and four of his business entities to pay Wells Fargo Bank more than $516,000 in attorneys’ fees and other legal costs.

That legal battle started more than a decade ago, when the bank accused Warren and his business entities of failing to repay two unsecured lines of credit worth $1.8 million.

Warren says he’s appealing that decision.

“I believe I’m right,” he said. “If I believe I’m right, I fight.”

His unfinisHed masterpiece In person, Warren has all the attributes of a onetime baseball stud—the mellow selfassurance, the easygoing nature. He’s loose, jocular, especially when holding court on his favorite subject—his quixotic brush with the Big Show, a multiyear saga that broke his body but nurtured his ego. Speaking in his characteristically languid purr, Warren can be a spellbinding contradiction, like a breaking ball that sneaks past the strike zone.

In one breath, he’ll note that he doesn’t read the Sacramento Bee or SN&R and contends he doesn’t care what people think. In the next, he’s offering an unsolicited peek at his trophy room, where his awards from various organizations neatly array on a chestnut desk beside a large portrait of him, one of two in the building, and beneath an artist’s rendering of his incomplete masterpiece.

This is Del Paso Nueva.

Aside from the many unfinished development projects that permanently froze in time when the market collapsed, Warren’s most gutting failure occurred in late 2008.

Disagreements over loan repayments with a failing bank forced him to put three of his company’s subsidiaries under bankruptcy protection and, ultimately, surrender ownership of a trio of housing projects. One of those projects was the already-underway Del Paso Nuevo housing development in North Sacramento, which was supposed to bring a mix of market-rate and affordable homes to an area needing both.

Years later it’s the councilman who’s helping others put the finishing brushstrokes on it.

After years in limbo, the city and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency entered into a public nonprofit partnership with the development company Pacific Housing Inc. to complete the final half of a 300-home community in Del Paso Heights. At least 51 percent of the homes must be sold at affordable rates to families earning no more than 80 percent of the area’s median income.

“That project wouldn’t have happened if Allen didn’t push for it,” said Dana of Mutual Housing Assistance, which is conducting outreach and homeownership classes.

Dana says Warren pushed SHRA to put the next phase out to bid in an attempt to jump-start the development, even though he suspects it stung Warren not to be the one to construct it.

“I think it had to be frustrating in a way not to return to it in his original capacity,” Dana said.

In many ways, Warren’s story was shaped by the southern diaspora that brought so many black families to California during the earlyto-mid-20th century, as they followed rumors of prosperity and relief from racial hostility.

His mother’s side migrated from Shreveport, La., and his father’s side from “the woods” of Arkansas, he said, and was one of the first black families to settle in the Sierras. “A lot of black families from the south came to California looking for a better way of life,” Warren said.

The Warrens found it in Del Paso Heights.

Both his parents worked at McClellan Air Force Base—his dad painted aircraft—but still had to improvise when it came to feeding all eight kids. “I remember for a month or two straight, we had chicken pot pies every day.

I mean, literally every day,” Warren grinned.

“And even to this day, I still like them. …

They never made it seem negative.”

Warren inherited his athletic passion from his father, a high school football star in Quincy, where his records still stand. He has uncles and cousins who played in the pros, and it seemed that was where Warren was headed.

But when he was 14, a drunk driver killed his father just one mile from the homestead, at the very intersection Warren now wants to turn into a town center. The intersection where, years later, he built the current home of the Greater Sacramento Urban League, an education and employment center for underserved youth and adults.

That was cathartic, Warren said, “a way for me to do something positive at that intersection.”

But at the time, there was just grief.

Warren felt unmoored. His love of the game, misplaced. But he was excellent at faking it, better than most, and quickly developed a regional reputation as a triple-threat athlete at Grant Union High School. After a spell, the game started giving back.

By the time the New York Yankees called him up in 1988, crippling injuries made Warren question whether he really wanted to be there, taking at-bats alongside the likes of Bernie Williams and Deion Sanders.

“I knew I could play with them. There was no doubt in my mind,” he said. “And I knew my body wasn’t right.”

Warren returned to California State University, Hayward, and buckled down. His grades improved and he graduated, becoming the first in his family to do so. After a stint as a mortgage broker on the East Coast, Warren returned to Sacramento and started New Faze Development Inc. in 1993. In 2002, he relocated his office to its current location from Gold River. It was a statement, he says, made in response to a pair of high-profile homicides in the Del Paso Heights area—of a young artist just out of college and a former neighbor that Warren encouraged to get involved in the community.

He felt responsible.

“I felt like I owed the community more than I had given it,” he said.

It’s hard not to believe him. Ω

08.04.16 | SN&R | 19

James “Mr. V” Van Buren with members of the Grant Union High School drumline. Pictured from left to right: Katy Aguirre, Andrea Sepulbeda, Amir Reams, Demarri Richards, Marcio Foreman, Stephanie RomeroP

PHOTO BY DARIN BRADFORD

For Grant Union high School’s drum line, a chance to perform in Japan offers a world of opportunity

by Rachel leibRock r a ch e l l@ n e w sr e v i e w . co m

To learn more about the Grant Union High School’s fundraising efforts to visit Japan, visit www. youcaring.com/grantdrum-line-567993.

T

he cheerleaders are restless, but the kids in the Grant Union High School drum line are in the zone, caught up in their own rhythmic world: knocking sticks together—rat-a-tattat—driving a bass line against the floor with their feet—stomp, stomp, stomp—clapping in time to an imaginary beat—slap, slap, slap.

It’s midweek on a 104-degree day, and cheerleaders from every school in the Twin Rivers Unified School District have descended upon Rio Linda High School’s gym. The drum line is here to provide the body-shaking backline.

Everyone is practicing for a back-to-school rally that will be held for teachers and administrators later this month, but two of the squads are late. To pass the time, the cheerleaders are going through a routine but the cheer “We. Are. T.R.!” gets stuck on repeat as the cheerleaders try to figure out moves.

20 | SN&R | 08.04.16

Stop. Start. Stop. Start.

The drum line is ready, though. Quads, snares, bass drums lined up, waiting—the kids, all dressed in their white practice uniforms, keeping the beat, ready to jump into formation at the snap of a finger.

Nearby, the squad’s leader, James Van Buren— Mr. V to the kids—keeps up his own kind of rhythm, moving quickly through the gym, stopping to talk to a kid here, confer with a teacher there.

Formed in 2008, the Grant Union High School drum line is always set to go. Over the last eight years they’ve played too many shows to count, performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and traveled to Washington, D.C., to march in the National Independence Day Parade. In June they picked up their sticks and kits at a Sacramento rally for Hillary Clinton.

Now they’re preparing for another trip—this one to Matsuyama, Japan, where they’ve been invited to perform at the end of October to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Sacramento’s sister city agreement. To get there, however, they’ll need to raise $100,000. It’s a staggering amount, but the squad, which doesn’t receive school or district funding, managed to do it once before for that Washington trip.

For Amir Reams, 17, this chance to go to Japan is big. Really big. Washington, D.C., was amazing, but Japan represents an even bigger picture, he says. It means success, opportunity, the world.

“I like to accomplish stuff,” says Reams, a polite kid with a shy smile. “When will we ever get the chance to go to Japan again?”

That’s the thing, says Van Buren. When will they outside of drum line?

Calling drunken pinball wizards see nigHT&daY

23

winona, forever

see CoolHunTing

Grant Union High School, after all, is located in the heart of Del Paso Heights, a tight-knit community often plagued by crime and short on opportunity.

Drum line represents big possibilities for students who might not otherwise get them, Van Buren says.

“This is the little drum line in the hood and they got to be on Jimmy Kimmel,” he says. “We’re investing into this group.”

‘Our mission is to get to the top’ The cheerleaders are all finally here, lined up, chanting—“We. Are. T.R.!”—and executing moves with razor-cut precision. The girls face the drum line, which has assembled neatly into two rows and is now delivering a killer rhythm via an array of drums—booming bass kits, body-hugging quads and the simple snare.

For a few incredibly loud moments the gym swells with a cacophonous roar of noise and limbs—scissor kicks and fists pumping, drumsticks beating and hands slapping. Throughout, Van Buren darts back and forth, directing his kids with a wild wave of his arms.

This year, his squad includes several freshman and five seniors—five kids who’ll graduate and move on. The following school year he’ll cycle through another crop of freshmen.

It’s a challenge, says Van Buren, who also teaches science to special-education students at Grant.

“It takes a toll,” he says of the students who come and then, predictably, must go. “Morale, it’s low for a while, it’s a letdown, like having your better half go off.”

Still, he remains pragmatic on the subject.

“I try to not get so caught up in it; if I did, I wouldn’t be able to keep moving forward,” he says.

“It’s like a parent losing a kid who is going off to

“This is the little drum line in the hood and they got to be on Jimmy Kimmel. We’re investing into this group.”

James van buren leader, Grant Union High School drum line

27

wHaT’s Your damage? see sTage

college—you’re sad, but I’ve got other drummers, and you’ve got to show them that it continues.”

It doesn’t continue so much as it never seems to stop. The school year ended in early June and will commence again in just a few days. Pretty short as far as summer vacations go, but for the members of the drum line, the time off’s been nearly nonexistent. Three days a week—Monday, Wednesday and Friday—the squad meets in the band room at Grant Union High School to practice for several hours. Sometimes endless hours.

James Major, 14, is cool with giving up his free time to the drum line.

“This is important,” he says. “It’s better than staying home, watching TV.” Ezavion Coner, 14, agrees.

“Our mission is to get to the top,” Coner says.

“We may not be the best, but we’re the most active.”

For Samina Scott, 14, it’s not a chore, it’s the chance she’s been waiting for since she was a kid and the drum line visited her elementary school.

“I’d sit and watch the action, thinking ‘I’m going to do that someday,’” she says.

That desire—that drive—to perform is key, Van Buren says. Drum line takes skill, but it also takes commitment.

Most of the kids who start out don’t know the first thing about drum line, Van Buren says.

“They’re newbies, and they start out playing just two days a week before they transition to drum line. Then they do some basketball games, some football games.”

Once they know the songs, they join the main drum line, the group that performs at rallies and parades, the one that travels to other cities, maybe other countries.

That’s where the fundraising comes in; $100,000 might seem like a lot of money (it is, Van Buren acknowledges, it is) but it will go fast.

There are nearly 20 kids planning to make the trip—plus 10 chaperones—and plane tickets are $2,200 each. Then there’s lodging, plus the cost of shipping equipment overseas.

Van Buren is confident they’ll reach the goal; in the meantime, he’ll keep prepping them for performances. When opportunity comes, you have to be ready.

For him, it’s not just the chance to show off his kids to the world, the potential to travel. It’s about the possibility of giving them the world.

“This is history,” he says, looking around the gym. “[When they went] to Washington, D.C., they stood in the place where Martin Luther King gave his speech. They went into the Lincoln Memorial and stared up at him and read his words.”

He points to Reams, the polite senior with the sweet smile.

“He applied to lay the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C.—and he got to do it,” Van Buren says.

“That’s history,” he says again. “You can’t teach that in a classroom.” Ω

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YaCHT roCk

see eigHT gigs

40

Go off, get full Sacramento has a prolific food truck history. Whether it’s Food Truck Mania or lunches parked outside of popular destinations, this city’s mobile food scene is both seen and heard.

However, as someone who went to school in the Bay Area, I found that one specific food truck event was missing: Off The Grid.

Beginning six years ago in San Francisco, Off The Grid is a weekly food truck event that brings local vendors and live entertainment together for a few hours of good food, good music (if you don’t mind a dJ ipod) and good drinks.

After I migrated back to Sacramento last year—primarily because I graduated and couldn’t afford living in San Francisco (besides, who doesn’t miss the absurd Sacramento heat every now and again)—I realized I desperately missed Off The Grid. So, when I heard the event was making its debut in Sacramento this summer, and at the beautiful Crocker Art Museum no less, my heart soared; I had to check it out. (Off the Grid has other regional events as well, including in West Sacramento and Rancho Cordova).

My fiancée and I arrived an hour-and-a-half late.

As we walked toward the museum, we were greeted with the sight of a white truck with “Off The Grid” printed in big, bold, black letters on its side. It wasn’t the only vehicle: Trucks lined o street to the point where there were too many choices—11, to be exact.

Picking an option proved difficult. There were burgers, fish and chips, gyros, froyo, barbecue and salads, Mexican, Asian, new American and fusion.

The smell of fries freshly pulled from the fryer and seasoned beef cooking on the grill rode the wind, only making us hungrier. After walking O Street for what felt like an eternity, I finally decided to go with fish and chips from Rudy’s on the Roll, and my fiancée decided to go with Big C’s Burger from Cecil’s Taste.

We opted to share our meals—because that’s what couples do, right?—and ambled toward the open, seated area, following the music of the Black Pack, a group of musicians, songwriters, and producers playing a variety of original soul, reggae-funk fusion, and renditions of pop songs.

As we took our seats, my fiancée figured live music and good food should be accompanied by a good beverage. She found the open bar and bought an $8 blackberry margarita. Soon, we were reveling in the good food, good music and good company.

The place was packed, although many of those in attendance seemed to be employees of the museum. It’s a good option for anyone looking to soak in the sun with families and friends, actually. Think of it as a nightlife event that happens during the light of day.

Learn more about weekly Off The Grid events at http:// offthegrid.com/sacramento.

We decided to share our meals— because that’s what couples do, right?

—Jeremy WinsloW

08.04.16 | SN&R | 21

GET OUT THE

GE T OUT THE

Vote!

Food & Drink

Best food truck Bacon Mania Cali Love Cecil’s Taste Cowtown Creamery Culinerdy Cruzer Dog Town Dojo Burger Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen El Matador Mobile Mex Frenchy’s Waffles Fuzion Eatz Gameday Grill Gyrostop Gyro King Kado’s Asian Grill It’s Nacho Truck Mama Kim Cooks Rudy’s on the Roll Slightly Skewed Smokers Wild BBQ The Sweet Spot VolksWaffle Wandering Boba

Best IndIan AB Indian Sweets & Catering Bombay Bar and Grill

22 | SN&R | 08.04.16

Chaat of India Chaat Paradise Curry Club Haveli Restaurant & Banquet India Oven Kathmandu Kitchen Kaveri Madras Cuisine Mehfil Indian Restaurant Monsoon Cuisine of India Pooja Indian Grill Raja’s Tandoor Ruchi Indian Cuisine Sahej India Grill Samosa Garden Tandoori Nights Taj Indian Grill

Best place to watch sports Alley Katz Clubhouse 56 Coin-Op Game Room de Vere’s Irish Pub Fanny Ann’s Saloon Field House American Sports Pub Firestone Public House Goldfield Trading Post Hot Italian Joe Marty’s Bar & Grille K Bar Pizza Rock R15 Sports Corner

Thunder Valley Bar University of Beer

Best Baked goods ABC Bakery Baguettes Estelle’s Patisserie Ettore’s European Bakery and Restaurant Freeport Bakery Karen’s Bakery La Esperanza Bakery Mahoroba Japanese Bakery Megan’s Bake Shop New Roma Bakery Pegasus Bakery & Cafe Pushkin’s Bakery Starbread Bakery Village Bakery Yellowbill Sinful TreatsTower Cafe

pleaSe vote e availabl for s et qu n ba

Best Steakhouse

351–9100 • 604 Sutter Street Downtown Historic Folsom www.sutterstreetsteakhouse.com

PLEASE VOTE

- BEST SPOT FOR SANDWICHES -

8351 Elk Grove Blvd #100 • Elk Grove, CA • 916.685.4587 1417 R Street, Sacramento, 95814 www.aceofspadessac.com ALL AGES WELCOME!

Best doughnut shop 16th Street Donuts Bakers Donuts Broadway Donuts Danny’s Mini Donuts Donut Madness Donut Star Marie’s Donuts Spudnuts Stanley’s Donuts Sweet Dozen

Vote!

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9

P-LO

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30

SOLD OUT!

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More Categories & Nominees on page 26

FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 4

If you do me, I’ll do you opening reception Friday, august 5 Take 22 artists, throw their names in a hat, make them each pick one and have them each create a portrait of the artist they picked. Sound interesting? Then come down to the WAL Public Market this Friday for the opening reception of ART Sacramento’s fourth If you do me, I’ll do you group art show. Free; 6 p.m. at WAL Public Market Gallery, 1104 R Street; http://walpublicmarket.com.

—dave Kempa

Sacramento Black Women’s Health & Wellness Conference saturday, august 6 Get educated on issues of mental and physical health that affect black women at this inaugural health conference. There’ll be interactive workshops on finance, women’s health, mental health WELLNESS and more. Breakfast and lunch will be served, and a relaxing yoga session will be offered in the afternoon. $25; 9 a.m. at the UC Davis Education Building, 4610 X Street; www.sbwhwc.org.

—Lory giL

Medieval Battle saturday, august 6

I

s it safe to say at this point that gridcentric snobbery is on the decline?

Surely, we owe some thanks to the imminent invasion of chain restaurants around the new arena and correspondingly high rents that are going to force smaller upstarts to plant stakes elsewhere, but the folks behind Off the Grid should also get credit. Started in San Francisco in 2010, the organization aims to create ongoing events that connect people with others in and around their respective neighborhoods, mainly by rounding up food trucks. After launching in Sacramento last month, Off the Grid is presently up to four weekly events, which will run through the end of October: Sundays are for River Walk, which takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 651 Second Street. Food trucks, beer and cocktails, and live music will abound. Rent a shelter tent or cabana to stay shady, or else bask in the Chill Zone (read: a bunch of misters). Shade contraptions can be reserved in advance on the website.

On Tuesdays, the setup moves to the Crocker Art Museum (216 O Street) for Taco Fusion Tuesdays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Whether you’re suffering from Game of Thrones withdrawals, are a LARP enthusiast or would simply like to (playfully) beat on some fellow GAMES wizards with foam-covered weapons, get thee to Howe Park for this event hosted by Amtgard (a live-action role-playing game) group Mistyvale.

Newbies need not fear; it’s a strict bully-free zone.

Free; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Howe Park, 2201 Cottage Way; www.facebook.com/groups/Mistyvale.

Down some cocktails or craft beer, eat tacos from Chando’s Tacos, North Border Taco and Tacos Los Reyes, enjoy extended museum hours and maybe, after your third marg, groove to some salsa and mariachi music.

Work in the greater Rancho Cordova area? On Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., three food trucks roll out for Rancho Cordova Prospect Park in the parking lot adjacent to the Sacramento Children’s Museum (2729 Prospect Park Drive). On August 4, the lineup will be Cousins Maine Lobster, Dojo Burger and Luciano’s Scoop.

And finally, the pièce de résistance: Friday Nights @ The Barn will be making it’s debut on August 5 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. to officially debut the rad-looking event space in the Bridge District. Capital Public Radio’s Nick Brunner will be on the turntables, plus there will be artisan cocktails by Rye on the Road and food trucks. This week’s lineup includes Casablanca Moroccan and Mediterranean Food, El Matador Mobile Mex, Gaga’s Rollin’ Diner and more. Visit http://offthegrid.com/sacramento for updated food-truck lineups each week and additional details.

—deena drewis

Tournament of Bar Games saturday, august 6 Are you a pinball wizard whose skills are even more impressive after an IPA or four? Sign yourself up for the third annual Tournament of Bar Games stat, because your reputation and various prizes are at stake. Other competitive categories include fourplayer Pac Man, air hockey, giant Jenga DRINKS and various arcade games. $10-$15; noon to 2 p.m. at Coin-Op, 908 K Street; http://nightout. com/events/bargames3/tickets#.V5ktZ5MrJmB.

—deena drewis

Outword Supper Club tuesday, august 9 Join community-driven attendees as one of the longest-running publications supporting the LGBTQ community, Outword Magazine, hosts a dinner at the highly lauded Empress Tavern. Call Empress FOOD to make a reservation. $65; 5 p.m. at Empress Tavern, 1013 K Street; (916) 662-7694; www.facebook. com/OutwordMagazine.

—deena drewis

IllustratIon by sarah hansel

—eddie Jorgensen

08.04.16 | SN&R | 23

IllustratIons by Holly GerHarD

Meat in meat bacon-wrapped Meatloaf, sHady lady saloon Shady Lady Saloon got a new menu last week, and if meatloaf’s your bag, then strap on your finest dress bib and get over there for their bacon-wrapped offering ($17). Sure, you could also check out their other new stuff like foie gras, mussels, a veggie sandwich, etc., but how is any of that better than a hunk of meat wrapped in meat and drowning in brown gravy? It’s finely ground, cooked to a light pink at the center and rests on a bed of mashed potatoes alongside crisp green beans in a meaningless gesture toward healthfulness. 1409 R Street, http://shadyladybar.com.

—antHony siino

Much ado about Hullabaloo Hullabaloo 2012 old vines Zinfandel, Grocery outlet

IllustratIon by Mark stIvers

Japanese tapas

by Janelle Bitker

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

ponzu ($13.95). There are nine More than sushi: In a matter of months, Sacramento went from having types of ramen, including one with lobster ($50). And, buried in differzero to two izakaya-style dining ent sections, there are a few dishes options. unusual for Sacramento: stingray fin Takumi is now softly open at 826 ($7.95); salmon carpaccio with truffle J Street, in the former Sushi Paradiso oil ($14.95); uni carbonara ($14.95); space. While it also imports binchotan charcoal and offers a variety of grilled, and sea snail ($8.95) and foie gras ($14.95) yakitori. skewered items like Binchoyaki Izakaya Dining, Takumi sets itself Growth: Sacramento’s Fit Eats is apart with a much larger menu, expanding to the Bay Area within the including sushi. That fits, knowing next few weeks.

Takumi comes from the same owners Fit Eats is a meal delivery service, as Banzai Sushi and Banzai Japanese which allows you to order prepared Kitchen in Davis. meals that will eventually make their There are small, izakaya-style way to your doorstep in the middle of plates, such as honey miso ribs the night. The company also has retail ($8.95) and monkfish liver with 24 | SN&R | 08.04.16

locations in Midtown and Roseville.

With a new commercial kitchen in Hayward, CEO Don Arnold is planning to roll out food deliveries to the East Bay, South Bay and eventually San Francisco, a market crowded with all kinds of meal planning apps and businesses. How will Fit Eats carve its niche?

“Not too many are focused on healthy meals—they’re focused on the on-demand thing,” Arnold says.

Fit Eats also plans to open retail locations in Concord, Pleasanton and San Jose. The ultimate goal? Take Fit Eats national.

Hop farm update: Remember all that drama surrounding Ruhstaller Farm & Yard? For months, you’d see that tongue-in-cheek sign off the freeway: “Breaking the rules since 1881—it finally caught up with us—Closed for a bit.” Now, that closure is permanent.

JE Paino announced in July that he is officially abandoning—and tearing apart—the Dixon tap room. Videos document the slow demise on the Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ RuhstallerFarm. You can still taste Ruhstaller beer at the downtown location (630 K Street). Ω

To the nice woman I met in the Grocery Outlet wine aisle last week: I am so, so sorry for letting the secret out on this one. The Hullabaloo 2012 Old Vines Zinfandel ($6) is made by Nine North Wines out in Napa Valley, but the fruit is sourced from Lodi. Aromas of stewed fruits and smoky vanilla yield dried cranberry and medium tannins on the palate. Outside of Grocery Outlet, this wine’ll usually put you back $15, so put the extra cash toward a pairing of barbecued rib-eye steak.

1700 Capitol Avenue, www.ninenorthwines.com.

—dave keMpa

Summer apples Gravensteins Apples generally ripen in the fall, but the Sonoma gravenstein arrives in early August. This sweet-tart apple first came to Northern California with Russian trappers. It often looks glazed with red on a background of chartreuse. While Gravensteins make ideal pies, sauce and snacks, they’re losing ground to other varieties. Slow Food USA now includes them on their Ark of Taste, a list of endangered foods. Do your part by eating these beauties slipped into grilled sharp-cheese sandwiches or bathed in brown sugar and cinnamon for tarts.

—ann Martin rolke

All in the ’ohana

Folsom loves beer

By Ann MArtin rolke

Coconut’s Fish Cafe

HHH 1420 16th Street, (916) 440-0449, www.coconutsfishcafe.com Dinner for one: $10 - $15 Good for: fast-casual Hawaiian-style seafood Notable dishes: fish tacos, poke bowl

In Hawaii, ’ohana isn’t just a word for “family,” it’s the idea that all the people you love are connected and everyone is accountable to each other. Restaurants run best when they follow the same principle—everyone working for a common cause and not just for themselves.

Coconut’s Fish Cafe, which opened in late May in Midtown, brings ’ohana to the mainland with both its menu and attention to service. It isn’t a typical lunch plate joint, though, like you find on the islands or at L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Native Sacramentan Michael Phillips opened the first Coconut’s in Maui in 2009.

It quickly became a favorite with the locals for high-quality, affordable seafood—not easily found in Hawaii, shockingly.

Since then, he’s authorized several franchises of the Coconut’s concept and now helms the first California location with his daughter and son-in-law on board. ’Ohana, indeed.

Rather than the usual fried or stewed seafood, the focus is on healthy, fresh fish served Hawaiian style. Coconut’s uses wild- and line-caught Pacific seafood while sourcing locally for produce.

The biggest seller, both here and in Maui, is the fish tacos ($10.99 for two). Each taco gets its own plate, the grilled corn tortillas laden with seared mahi and ono, mango salsa, tomato salsa, cheese and the surprise hit ingredient: the house coleslaw.

The chunky slaw clears your sinuses with wasabi, but balances it with creamy coconut milk. Melted cheese is unusual with seafood, but it works here. The tacos barely contain all the flavors and textures, a nice change from simpler Mexicali versions.

Coconut’s sells four times more poke in Sacramento than in Hawaii, where it originated as a fisherman’s snack. Soy sauce, green onions and garlic mingle with large chunks of raw ahi to make a classic marinated Maui version of the dish, as opposed to made-to-order styles at spots like to Fish Face Poke Bar. You can get it as an appetizer ($10.99) or a bowl ($13.99) with brown rice and coleslaw.

The coconut shrimp ($8.99) make for another successful island-style dish. Judiciously breaded and well-fried medium shrimp match well with a spicy-sweet, Thai chili-pineapple sauce. The coconut isn’t overdone here, and adds a nutty richness.

There are lots of salads on offer, including a Super Green ($6.99) of kale and spinach with mango, macadamias and red peppers that’s exclusive to Sacramento. For $4 to $8 extra, you can add meat, seafood or a veggie patty on top.

We chose grilled mahi and shrimp and pineapple vinaigrette. While the ingredients each tasted great on their own, the flavors didn’t quite come together. We’d try it again with a different combination.

Another indication of ’ohana at Coconut’s is the extensive keiki (children’s) menu. Portions are good for the price, including a triple-decker grilled quesadilla ($3.99) and fish and chips ($6.99).

Ordered separately, the fries ($3.99) tasted so-so. They needed another minute of cooking and a touch more salt.

Be sure to try the beers from Maui Brewing Co. We especially liked the toasted coconut porter and the Bikini Blonde ($5.99 each) with hints of honey. As with the food, you order them at a counter and get prompt delivery even on busy nights. The servers seem genuinely happy to be there, which is refreshing. Wooden surf board tables and surf movies in the background lend a Hawaiian overtone without too much kitsch.

Midtown is bursting with new restaurants these days, but Coconut’s Fish Cafe offers a unique menu and manages to find the right balance of affordable, quick-casual and the personal touch of a family business. Ω

The focus is on healthy, fresh fish served Hawaiian style.

In the counties exhibit at the California State Fair, Sacramento showed off its beer pride. A spiffy map displayed the whereabouts of more than 50 breweries—both currently open and coming soon—beside the focal point: a brew bike. Though the mobile parties chiefly take place in Midtown, the rest of the county county is similarly beer crazed, with more and more beer festivals popping up every year. On Friday, August 5, the third annual Tap Folsom brings the beer love to Folsom’s historic district. Among the 40 breweries pouring tastes: Ballast Point, Green Flash, Drake’s Brewing, Ninkasi Brewing, Ommegang and Boulevard Brewing, along with lots of locals. A $40 p.m. ticket gets you unlimited pours from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., plus access to live music and food options, including Ben’s Huli Huli Chicken and Bacon Mania. Find the fun around 200 Wool Street and more information at www.tapfolsom.com.

—Janelle Bitker

Vegan burger surprise

By Shoka The vegan burger at Yard House is surprising. Surprising because Yard House in Roseville (1166 Roseville Parkway), a national corporate chain restaurant, even has a noomissions-or-substitutions-needed, clearly marked vegan burger on its regular menu. Heck, it’s on the menu twice—under the grilled burgers and the Gardein sections—and the patty tastes like chicken. That makes sense, since Gardein is a chicken substitute made of pea, wheat and soy proteins and ancient grains. A restaurant

manager said the patties, which also include kale and shiitake, are made from scratch in-house, and the staff preps vegan orders with separate cookware. The massive burger has peppery arugula, red onion, tomato and a slice of melted Daiya on a scene-stealing onion bun. The eatery’s atmosphere is loud and warehousial (it’s a word now, deal with it), with flat-screens everywhere, but the kitchen will veganize most burgers by request with the vegan patty, so, Broseville, here we come.

08.04.16 | SN&R | 25

Categories & Nominees continued from page 22

Arts & Entertainment Best all-ages music venue

Ace of Spades The Boardwalk Club Retro The Cozmic Café Naked Lounge Downtown ShineSol Collective Red Museum Cafe Colonial Country Club Saloon

Best author of fiction Lois Ann Abraham Jodi Angel Lucy Corin Pam Houston Christian Kiefer Yiyun Li Erika Mailman Doug Rice Kim Stanley Robinson William T. Vollman Mary Volmer

Best Big screen‘ Crest Theatre Davis Varsity Theatre Esquire IMAX Theatre Tower Theatre West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In

Best communitytheater group Actor’s Workshop of Sacramento Art Theatre of Davis Big Idea Theatre California Stage Celebration Arts Chautauqua Playhouse Closet Door Theatre Company Davis Musical Theater Fair Oaks Theatre Festival Green Valley Theatre Company KOLT Productions Main Street Theatre Works

Incredible Pets Pets to Go Pet Paradise Pet Xtreme Paws and Palette Resurrection Theatre Runaway Stage Productions Teatro Nagual Woodland Opera House

Best trivia night Alley Katz Blue Lamp de Vere’s Irish Pub Easy on I Fox & Goose Streets Bonn Lair The Depot Video Bar The Shack Kupros Craft House Sophia’s Thai Kitchen Revolution Wines Track 7 Brewing Co. Tokyo FroStreets of London

Best Brewfest California Capital Beer Fest California Summit Beer Festival Elk Grove Beerfest West Coast Invitational Rocklin Brewfest Raley Field Brewfest Bell Tower Brewfest Yolo Brewfest California Brewers Festival Sierra Brewfest Best of California Brewfest at CA State Fair Capitol City International Brewfest Davis Beer Week Bike and Brewfest Woodland Microwbrewfest

Sports & Recreation Best place to work up a sweat American River Crossfit BodyTribe Fitness

Capital Athletic Club Figure 8 Women’s Workout Fliptastic Natomas Racquet Club Results the 24 Hour Gym Rocklin Crossfit Sacramento Pipeworks Climbing and Fitness YMCA Ca Family Fitness Crossfit Natomas Warriorz Club Pirates Robles Fitness

Rise Wellness Sol Fire Body Advantage

Shopping & Services Best Boutique

Article Consignment Boutique Cuffs Heart Clothing Boutique Identity Boutique Krazy Mary’s Boutique Ladybuggz Boutique Racks Boutique Rire Serendipity Boutique Sugar Shack Boutique Old Gold Denim Spot Quality Boutique and Brew Sei Bella The Clothing Hang Up Boutique Swanberg’s

Best team Lady Salamanders Sac City Rollergirls Sacred City Derby Girls Sacramento Kings Sacramento Republic FC Sacramento River Cats Sacramento Rugby

Best place to kick some Butt Broadway Boxing Courage Martial Arts & Gym Joslin’s Martial Arts Center Kovar’s Satori Academy Moore’s Martial Arts Prime Time Boxing Club Robinson Taekwondo Self Defense & Personal Safety Academy Warrior MMA

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—Brian Breneman

A neuroscientist and science blogger for the Guardian, Dean Burnett’s debut is Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To (W. W. Norton, $26.95), which stresses that our brains, while BOOK wonderful indeed, are far from perfect. In fact, they are those imperfections that often have the greatest effect on our behavior, like opting for what “feels true” instead of facts. The good news is that Burnett is really funny—he’s also a stand-up comedian, and it shows. Better yet, he covers a lot of ground, providing solid information backed up by research, to tell us why we act so weird.

—Kel munger

—Brian Breneman

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Hey, just a friendly heads-up: Netflix’s newest mandatory bingewatch is Stranger Things. It’s a double-barreled blast of ’80s TV nostalgia that nods to nearly every scifi/horror property of the past 40 years, from The Twilight Zone to Under the Skin and more.

The setup is very Twin Peaks: When a young boy disappears, we’re introduced to the seemingly disparate residents of a small town. Viewers are plunged into an electrifying investigation into a web of unexplainable phenomena, shadowy government conspiracies and psychokinetic children.

Fans of Steven Spielberg, particularly E.T., will appreciate the expert mixture of dread, wonder, humor and pathos. Fans of John Carpenter will love the supernatural effects and excellent synthesizer score. Fans who remember the real ’80s—something far removed from the Day-Glo nightmare version often pushed by films and TV— will fall in love with the production design bathed in muted oranges, greens and browns.

The acting is on point as well: David Harbour as the tormented, pill-chewing small-town police chief with a heart of gold, Winona Ryder (crushing it) as the missing boy’s increasingly unhinged mother, and some of the most charming kids I’ve ever seen on screen.

The series is told across eight 45-minute long episodes—perfectly portioned for consuming in a weekend.

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It can be hard out there for responsible adults in the world of online gaming. No one really wants to spend his or her valuable downtime getting blown up by some angry teenager.

VIDEO GAME Enter Overwatch (PC, Xbox One and PS4, $39.99-$59.99), a new game from Blizzard. The games are all objective-based, meaning that there’s a strategy deeper than just “shoot to kill.” Choose from a stable of 23 heroes, each with unique abilities and suited to different roles on the battlefield. Want to be the shooty guy in the middle of the fray? There’s a character for that. Want to hang back and lay traps for the enemy? That one comes in “irradiated Australian lunatic” and “cosmopolitan Indian woman.”

One of the most appealing aspects of Overwatch is the design of these heroes. They all look and move like Pixar characters, and the sheer breadth of appearance represented here is something to be lauded.

Blizzard released a new hero into the game last week, and she’s a middle-aged Egyptian woman who speaks Arabic. That sentence alone is more diverse than the last 10 Call of Duty games put together.

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There is clever choreography by a Fred and Ginger-like couple (Elias Martinez and Rayana Wedge) whose dances between the dramatic scenes not only mimic the sentiment on stage, but also incorporate moving set pieces on- and offstage into the dances, a clever device by choreographer Sunny Smith.

Fishburn’s play exposes many aspects of the drone program and clearly expresses his frustration with the it and the apathy of the American people, but it does not pack the punch he intended.

The “shocking” finale is easy to predict early into the second act. Ω

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“yep, clowns are still creepy.”

Al and Homer: The Drone Play

3

al and homer: the Drone Play, 8 p.m. friday and saturday, 2 p.m. sunday; $15-$18. california stage theater, 2509 r street; (916) 6065050; www.ovationstage.com. through august 21.

Playwright Jerry Fishman has written an important play about an important topic for his stage debut.

Al and Homer: The Drone Play opened this week, under the direction of Penny Kline of Ovation Stage.

This is an uneven show, with many good things and some bad things. Topping the “good” list is Janet Motenko as a Puck-like clown, mostly silent, but the observer of all things.

It is the story of Al (Terry Randolph) and Homer (Brent Dirksen), two Air Force drone pilots with vastly differing opinions about the drone program, sitting together in a building on the Nevada desert tracking potential terrorists on the other side of the world. As the play progresses, their individual opinions put each other—and the world at large—in grave danger.

Homer is married to Amanda (Lynnette Blaney) and Al is dating her friend Nicole (Aviv Hannan).

The mounting pressure on the two pilots begins to affect both relationships.

At the same time, a reporter from Al Jazeera pops in from time to time with breaking news flashes of intensifying conflict between India and Pakistan.

Based on the 1988 teen cult classic film, Heathers: The Musical boasts some talented creators in Laurence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde) and Kevin Murphy (Reefer Madness). It gets a polished staging in this commendable—with reservations—Flying Monkey Productions show in West Sacramento.

Flying Monkey shows are entirely directed, choreographed, designed and acted by teens and young adults. There is excellent singing in such songs such as “Seventeen,” “Dead Girl Walking,” “Our Love Is God,” “Beautiful,” “The Me Inside of Me” and the oddly funny “My Dead Gay Son.” Westerburg High School is a place where bullies, a.k.a. the popular kids— cheerleaders, jocks, etc.—rule, and kids such as Veronica Sawyer (Courtney Clark) and Martha Dunnstock, often called “Martha Dumptruck” (Taylor Fuller) seemingly are no match for “the Heathers”: Heather Chandler (Chelsea Fitzsimmons), Heather McNamara (Breanna White) and Heather Duke (Cassidy Henson). Enter loner Jason “J.D.” Dean (an excellent, intriguing John Novotny) and things begin to change.

The show is a comedy, but it deals with some dark subject matter: gun violence, homophobia, bullying and teen suicide. The language is coarse and (implied) sex is prevalent. Two bully boys (jocks Stewart Wilson as Ram Sweeney and Nate Challis as Kurt Kelly) bravely appear in only their underwear for much of the show.

—Jim Carnes

heathers: the Musical, 7:30 p.m. friday and saturday, 2 p.m. saturday; $18. flying Monkey Productions, Black Box theatre, 1075 West capitol avenue in West sacramento; www.flyingmonkeyproductions.org. through august 6.

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$27-$99. Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, 2005 Highway 28 in Incline Village, Nevada; (800) 747-4697; http:// laketahoeshakespeare. com. J.H.

5

Higgins in Harlem

George Bernard Shaw’s story of Pygmalion is moved to New York’s Harlem in the late 1930s in this AfricanAmerican reimagining

by Lawrence Thelen.

Exceptional performances

2

3

FAIR

GOOD

SN&R

by Tory Scroggins as Henry Higgins and Missira Ross as Eliza Doolittle are given solid support by the talented cast under the direction of James Wheatley. Th, F, Sa 8pm; Su 2pm. Through 8/7. $8-$15.

Celebration Arts Theatre, 4469 D Street; (916) 4552787; www.celebrationarts. net. J.C.

Short reviews by Jim Carnes and Jeff Hudson.

4 WELL-DONE

5 SUBLIME– DON’T MISS

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This lively Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival summer show, staged in a 1,200-seat amphitheater, is a cheeky romp set to a Brazilian samba, with tipsy, scantily-clad masked revelers partying throughout Shakespeare’s farce about long-separated identical twins. With 17 actors, abundant music and dancing, this large production often resembles a musical theater extravaganza. Su,

T, W 7:30pm. Through 8/21.

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“Not mad, just sad.”

PHOTO COURTESy OF ACME THEATRE

—Bev SykeS

The

Davis’ renowned young people’s production company Acme Theatre presents this 1969 Jean Giraudoux story. Madwomen of Chaillot follows a group of mercenary business men who excavate the streets of Paris in order to reap the profits from the oil they’ve discovered there. Eccentric Aurelia enlists the help of her fellow “mad women” and other quirky villagers to halt the plot. Beautifully designed and directed

by Emily Henderson, the subject matter remains uncannily relevant in today’s world. 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. Brunelle Theater, 315 West 14th Street in Davis; (530) 902-4613; www.acmetheatre.net.

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At this point, even the most die-hard comic-book movie apologists would have to admit that the superhero genre is stuck in a rut. Audiences still dutifully attend every release, returning to theaters the way that the zombies in Dawn of the Dead returned to the shopping mall, as though keeping a muscle memory obligation to the collective unconscious. But people are also starting to catch on that they’re paying movie ticket prices to watch twohour episodes in a series that will never provide any payoff.

The genre demands reinvention, but for all of the chest-beating swagger and style of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, the needle hardly even flinches. A screenwriter turned director who excels at stories of violent group dynamics (Fury; Sabotage), Ayer probably squeezes the most disreputable fun into this PG-13 film as he was allowed. Yet all of the symptoms of the disease are still present: a surplus of origin stories, supervillains with nebulous motivations and a choppy plot forced to serve too many masters.

Less the DC Extended Universe answer to the Avengers series than the DCEU answer to Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad at least attempts to subvert the pompous morality of the genre, following a motley crew of criminals who exhibit more moral fiber than both Batman and the U.S. government put together.

Suicide Squad piggybacks on Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman v Screen Direction universe, but it is not indebted to the thundering overkill or solemn tone of those films. In fact, most of the action takes place in

by Daniel BarneS

Chicago-esque Midway City, rather than in Gotham or Metropolis.

The story opens in the shadow of Superman’s death, in a world terrified that the next alien god might not be so benevolent, where the government possesses expanded powers to brand mutants (ahem, “meta-humans”) as terrorists. Seeing an opportunity, cutthroat government operative Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, more badass than any of the gun-toting superheroes) assembles a team of easily disowned villains to fight the next threat, including hitmanslash-single-father Deadshot (Will Smith), demented ex-psychologist Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and brooding pyromaniac Diablo (Jay Hernandez).

And then there’s like five others plus a special ops team and a rotating cast of antagonists, and you get a backstory, and you get a backstory, and you get a backstory.

Everybody gets a backstory! Crazy thought: Have less main characters in this movie. The first half-hour of Suicide Squad crams in seven or eight origin stories, and every time the plot starts to build some momentum, someone else starts to explain their origin story.

All that and Ayer has to debut Jared Leto as The Joker, portrayed here as the skeevy, tattoo-covered bad boyfriend of Harley Quinn, and redefining the word problematic in the process. Suicide Squad spreads so thin that it only makes time for one layer of character development, even for the characters we actually come to care about. There is so much universe-building and overexplaining that the movie frequently forgets to have any fun. Ω

The movie frequently forgets to have any fun.

1 2 3 4 5 Poor

Fair

Good

Very Good

excellent

fiLm CLiPS

2

Café Society

An amiable Bronx youth (Jesse Eisenberg) is transplanted to Hollywood to work for his superagent uncle (Steve Carell)— and promptly falls for the uncle’s secretary (Kristen Stewart) as she shows him around town. Set in the 1930s of Radio Days and Bullets Over Broadway, writer-director Woody Allen’s latest recalls both those classics—the nostalgia for a lost entertainment world, the titillation of gangland connections—as well as the rueful memory of lost love in his masterpiece Annie Hall. The movie is trifling, always promising to be better than it turns out, but it goes down easily, and the self-referential echoes evoke more pleasure than disappointment.

The stars blossom in Allen’s hands—Eisenberg may be the best Woody-clone yet, and Stewart has never been anywhere near this interesting before. J.L.

2

Captain Fantastic

A man raising his six kids in a rigorous existence in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest (Viggo Mortensen) ventures down to Arizona for the funeral of his wife, where his in-laws (Frank Langella, Ann Dowd) express their determination to sue for custody of the kids and raise them with the benefits of “civilization.” Writer-director Matt Ross draws good performances from all concerned (including George MacKay and Nicholas Hamilton as Mortensen’s two oldest sons), and he treats his story evenly without setting up cardboard heroes and villains. But the pacing is a little too even—plodding, in fact, and the movie peaks two or three times before the closing credits finally roll. In the final analysis, Ross gives us little reason to care what happens to this smug hippie and his half-savage, know-it-all brood. J.L.

4

Ghostbusters

Four women (Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones) join forces to fight a supernatural infestation plaguing New York. The 1984 blockbuster’s avid fans may bristle at the effrontery of remaking it (with women, no less), and they may not care to cut the new version any slack.

But the plain truth is—with all due respect to Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and director Harold Ramis—the original was popular beyond its merits. The new one is every bit as funny, and with a rather more engaging story (by Katie Dippold and director Paul Feig). Tributes to the first movie abound, and everyone but Moranis makes an appearance. (Even the late Ramis is paid a sweet tribute.) McCarthy and Wiig shine, of course; Jones, too, but McKinnon steals the picture. J.L.

4

Save up to

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

Those boozy, self-absorbed women Edina and Patsy (Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley) are back, along with Edina’s longsuffering daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha)—and all that’s changed is that they’re 24 years older and Saffron has a teenage daughter (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness). Back in 1961, a lot of people tut-tutted that Bob Hope and Bing Crosby had made one too many Road pictures, and the same dynamic is at work here—except that Saunders and Lumley have stretched things out even longer than Hope and Crosby did. The BBC sitcom’s happy-camper fan base will probably be pleased, and there are celebrity cameos by everyone from Kate Moss and Lulu to Jon Hamm and Dame Edna Everage, but the hilarity is labored and dreary. Director Mandie Fletcher is powerless to strike sparks; the fire has gone cold. J.L.

3

BY DANIEL BARNES & JIM LANE

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

A problem boy in New Zealand’s foster child system (Julian Dennison) goes to live on a remote, hardscrabble farm with an older couple (Sam Neill, Rima Te Wiata). When the woman dies unexpectedly, the boy and

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“So friggin’ tired of this.”

Jason Bourne

Fugitive former spy Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is still scouring the world for clues to his true identity. Meanwhile, the CIA, with nothing else to do and showing a go-everywhere-and-see-everything efficiency that the agency only has in movies like this, plots to find and kill him. Director and co-writer (with Christopher Rouse) Paul Greengrass returns after a four-year hiatus in the Bourne franchise, which was enough to coax Damon back as well.

Following the convoluted story is getting to be more trouble than it’s worth, but Greengrass holds our interest with some high-adrenaline action scenes— including a climactic chase through Las Vegas that appears to kill bystanders by the hundreds (though not enough to jeopardize the PG-13 rating). Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones and Vincent Cassel co-star. J.L.

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STONEYINN.COM his new “uncle” go for an extended trek in the dense bushlands, where they become unwitting fugitives from justice and the objects of an intense and thoroughly misguided “manhunt.”

Writer-director Taika Waititi adapts the late Barry Crump’s novel Wild Pork and Watercress, and the result (besides the improved title) is a quirky delight, filled with rough charm, surprising adventures, disarming humor and near-impenetrable New Zealand accents. Neill and Dennison form a solid bond of screen chemistry, and the supporting players are well cast, especially Rhys Darby as a character aptly named “Psycho Sam.” J.L.

2

Ice Age: Collision Course

The fifth installment in the worst animated-feature franchise in movie history continues the formula of its predecessors: celebrity voices (Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Adam Devine, Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Lopez, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Jesse Tyler Ferguson), lame gags and frenetic movement, all in the service of a virtually nonexistent story—and the less sense it makes, the better.

And once again, inserted at regular intervals are the thrashings of that annoying squirrel and his slippery acorn (inspired by Wile E. Coyote but entirely lacking the comic genius of Chuck Jones). This rendition, like all the ones before, is a harmless but worthless waste of time; reviewing it is as pointless as spending a restaurant column covering the opening of the latest McDonald’s. J.L.

3

Nerve

A meek Staten Island teenager (Emma Roberts) impulsively joins an online game where players win cash for accepting dares; as the game progresses, the prizes get higher and the dares get more and more dangerous. Jessica Sharzer’s script (adapted from Jeanne Ryan’s novel) grows necessarily more far-fetched by the minute, eventually climaxing in a lecture on the dangers of peer pressure that practically flashes “Author’s Message.”

But directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman set a lively, suspenseful pace, aided by Madeleine Gavin and Jeff McEvoy’s razor-sharp editing. The movie’s not-so-secret weapon is

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the sympathetic Roberts and her chemistry with costar Dave Franco as a fellow player.

Emily Meade adds surprising depth to her role as Roberts’ BFF; other supports are good but tend to blur together. J.L.

3

Our Kind of Traitor

While vacationing in Morocco, a British university lecturer (Ewan McGregor) is befriended by a money launderer for the Russian Mafia who wants to defect (Stellan Skarsgård); reluctantly, the lecturer and his wife (Naomie Harris) are recruited to act as go-betweens for the Russian and an agent for British Intelligence (Damian Lewis). Adapted by Hossein Amini from the novel by John le Carré, the movie follows the same old line le Carré has been peddling for 50 years: The bad guys will always win, and the little guy will be lucky to escape with his life. Still, within that standard formula it’s expertly made—well-acted by all, with director Susanna White ratcheting up the suspense with a sure Hitchcockian hand.

Moroccan, French and Swiss locations are handsomely photographed by Anthony Dod Mantle. J.L.

3

The Secret Life of Pets

A loyal and affectionate dog (voiced by Louis C.K.) finds his universe turned upside-down when his human brings home a pound rescue (Eric Stonestreet) whom he instantly dislikes. Once again, what might have made a perfectly enjoyable seven-minute cartoon is padded out far beyond the limits of its paper-thin story, this time by writers Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch, and directors Yarrow Cheney and Chris Renaud. Moments of clever humor here and there become swamped in frenetic, extended action scenes and eruptions of genuine unpleasantness (typified by a demented human-hating rabbit played by Kevin Hart). Characters and their celebrity voices are too numerous and fleeting to register strongly; two standout exceptions are Jenny Slate as a sweetly fuzzy lapdog and Albert Brooks as a predatory hawk. J.L.

8/5 • 7:30 PM • LETHAL WEAPON 8/6 • 7:30 PM • PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) 8/13 • 7:30 PM • HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE 9/20 • 7:30 PM • GET THE LED OUT LED ZEPPELIN TRIBUTE BAND 1013 K STREET DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO • (916) 476-3356 • CRESTSACRAMENTO.COM

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a u g u s t

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2 0 1 6

no beer

it's the best time to try a new brew! pg 36

Find

exclusive happy hour deals at your favorite taprooms! pg 34 & 35

A Special Advertising Supplement to SN&R

08.04.16 | SN&R | 33

Doyle’S Pub aND TaPRooM 312 E. Bidwell St., Folsom doylespubandtap.com 916-983-8277

Featured this month

events

• Amnesia Haze IPA, Fieldwork Brewing Dank, juicy with a dry finish • Fruit Fly sour ale, New Belgium Dry-hopped with Citra, guava and passionfruit • Sour Barrel #3 wild ale, De Proefbrouwerij Golden and tart with a silky finish • La Folie sour ale, New Belgium Flemish sour brown • Saison-Brett, Boulevard Brewing Citrus and ripe melon with a dry finish

Del Pa

• SN&R Tap Map Happy Hour Tuesdays through Fridays, 3-6 p.m.

• Tappin’ It with Lagunitas Sat, 8/6, 6 p.m.

• Sippin’ on Some Sours Sat, 8/20, 11:30 a.m.

CoiN-oP GaMe RooM 908 K St., Sacramento coinopsac.com 916-661-6983

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locations this month for exclusive specials for readers.

events

• First Responder Helles Lager Sactown Union • Summer Crush Citrus Brew Device • Ready Set Gose Uinta Brewing Co • Mango Even Keel Session IPA Ballast Point

Check out

• Monday Free Trivia Nights Mondays from 7-9 p.m.

SacNewsReview/events @SacNewsReview or call locations for details. some beers subject to limited availablility

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Featured this month • Golden Rule, Fieldwork Brewing Crisp, fragrant double IPA with Cascade, Citra and El Dorado hops • Third Party Candidate, Clown Shoes Beer Imperial pale lager dry hopped with Idaho 7, Sterling and Columbus hops • Maui Waui, Altamont Beer Works A tropical west coast-style IPA with Citra and Mosaic hops

A Special Advertising Supplement to SN&R

34 | SN&R | 08.04.16

4

• Midtown Blonde Ale, Rubicon Special blonde ale made just for downtown Sacramento bars • Fruitlands - Passion Fruit Guava, Modern Times Beer Tart and fruity with a sour, salty taste

spotlight Check out Yolo Brewfest!

Sat, 9/3, 3-6 p.m., VIP Hour 2-3 p.m.

Heritage Plaza and Main Street in Woodland Gen. Admission: $35, VIP: $45 Yolo Brewfest will feature 30+ breweries, cideries and even a meadery, with local gourmet restaurants, a cigar lounge and live music and entertainment. Must be 21+ years old to enter. yolobrewfest.com

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Device Brewing company 8166 14th Ave., Ste A, Sacramento devicebrewing.com 916-737-2739

6

• In the Afterglow Munich-style Helles lager

Featured this month

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events • Wednesday Pub Trivia Wednesdays from 6-9 p.m.

• Capital Beer’s 4th Anniversary Brew Release Sun, 8/7, 12-9 p.m • SN&R Tap Map Happy Hour Flight of four tasters for $5!

Thu, 8/11, 3-9 p.m.

• Device Brewing’s 3rd Anniversary Party Sat, 8/27, 12-9 p.m.

50 Track 7 Brewing co.

3747 W. Pacific Ave., Ste. F, Sac (Curtis Park) 826 Professor Lane, Ste. 100, Sac (Natomas) track7brewing.com 916-520-4677 (HOPS)

80 160

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• Hoppy Palm Pale Ale Dry-hopped with minimal sweetness, Great American Beer Festival silver medal winner (avail. 8/26)

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• Blonde Ale, Drake’s Brewing A refreshing summer beer with a light body and 4.8% ABV • Mango Wheat Ale, Anchor Fresh mango aroma with 4.5% ABV • Dale’s Pale Ale, Oskar Blues Hop bitterness and a pine finish with 6.5% ABV • Haselnut Brown Nectar, Rogue Ales A rich, nutty flavor and smooth malty finish with 5.6% ABV

• SN&R Tap Map Happy Hour Fri, 8/12, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

A Special Advertising Supplement to SN&R

08.04.16 | SN&R | 35

A Special Advertising Supplement to SN&R

Taking the Road Less Traveled Why it’s the best time to try a new brew

I

Ken Anthony, owner and brewmaster at Device Brewing Company, encourages taproom visitors to try something new.

Photo by Anne StokeS

36 | SN&R | 08.04.16

t is said that life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. With all the diversity the world of craft beer has to offer, there’s never been a better time to stretch beyond the basic and venture outside your comfort zone.

It can be easy as a beer drinker to fall back on an old favorite. Maybe it’s a crisp, refreshing Pilsner, or a boozy IPA. But the beauty of the craft brewing boom is that it brings new styles to pubs and taprooms monthly, so drinkers can stray from the beaten path.

“People are getting into hop varieties and different hop flavors and characteristics, and they basically have been given a lot of options from every brewery,” says Ken Anthony, owner and brewmaster at Device Brewing Company.

These days there’s a beer for every palate — even for people who think suds aren’t their thing.

“You may not like beer, but that’s probably because you haven’t found your beer yet,” he says. “You might find something you absolutely love.”

For intrepid beer enthusiasts, Anthony says sours — beers that have been infused with bacteria to produce a bitter taste — are

a new frontier. The style is still gaining in popularity, and Anthony recommends the Rare Barrel in Berkeley to anyone seeking a good sour.

“You maY noT Like beeR, buT ThaT’s pRobabLY because You haven’T found YouR beeR YeT.” Ken Anthony

Owner and brewmaster, device brewing cOmpany

Beers aged in oak and wine barrels can also produce complex flavors, Anthony says, giving drinkers even more options.

Those who want to capture all of a beer’s complexity can take a cue from wine tasters and get all of the senses involved.

“You want to go through that experience of sight, smell and flavor and really experience the beer from start to finish,” he says. “If you don’t take the time to employ

by kAte gonzAleS your senses then you’re missing out.”

If someone doesn’t know what to order in his tasting room, Anthony recommends trying a few splashes of different beers or ordering a sampler flight.

“That’s a great way to sample what’s on the board and hopefully learn something new,” he says. “As breweries and craft beer bars, we’re here to educate the consumer.”

Craft beer newbies and enthusiasts alike will have a chance to gain insider knowledge about the brewing industry and rub elbows with reps from 21st Amendment, Sierra Nevada and local breweries here in Sacramento during The California Craft Beer Summit and Beer Festival, Sept. 8 through 10. The educational event will culminate with the Summit Beer Festival on Sept. 10, when more than 150 breweries will offer unlimited tastes of more than 400 beers.

“There will be opportunities to try basically every style of beer you can think of,” Anthony says. “There’s really something for everyone.”

Learn more about The California Craft Beer Summit and Beer Festival and purchase tickets at californiacraftbeer. com/2016-craft-beer-summit.

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38 | SN&R | 08.04.16

SouNd advice

The influence of mortality

Vortexes of sound and time Sacramento supergroup Sianvar pushes boundaries with new record PhOTO iLLuSTrATiOn By DAnieL DAre

Serendipitous: Last September, Scott Ferreter said goodbye to Sacramento

and any obligations that would distract him from his music. He quit his job and vacated his house, eventually settling into a nomadic lifestyle in the Bay Area. In between, he spent the winter at his mom’s place, meditating.

Why was his album taking so long to finish? How did he fall so behind?

What was holding him back?

In July, Ferreter, known around town as the frontman for the nowretired indie band Cove, finally finished

the record that’s been four years in the making. The goal was to honor his dead father, dive into loss and document his own grieving process. sianvar’s members move so fast that this is the clearest shot we could get.

by Mozes zarate

tracks are hardly B-sides. Nay, it’s clear Sianvar found its niche: accessible enough to move to, but Ask Donovan Melero how Sianvar makes its songs, unpredictable enough to dare an open mind. and things get kind of creepy. “[There are] weird time signatures, but some“It’s like one of those dolls with strings all over their times you don’t know you’re bobbing your head in bodies,” Melero said. “You let go of the lever, and all 7/8, because it has pop characteristics,” Melero said. the strings get super-loose.” Then, the five men jam it “Psychosis Succumbing” opens with melodic out, the lever tightens the strings and the doll limbs pull hypnosis, an eerie guitar riff foreshadowing what closer together. could be an emotionally grim and ponderous ballad.

Mind you, it’s not so simple to describe how Silence follows. Then, the band decides to open a Sianvar’s layered, erratic vortexes of sound conjure up. wound, and now there’s sound pouring everywhere.

Hear its newly released track, “Omniphobia,” a progFrenetic guitars bleed nonstop, and the rhythm rock bad dream littered with melodic contortions and sections ride rapid fire until it’s over. whispering subtleties, and one might think, “How?” Melero’s high-pitched howls fill the spaces However it happened, it was a slow birth. of these meticulously crafted franken“Omniphobia” and its nine other sonic arrangements, some parts emo, some bedfellows form Stay Lost, due Friday, parts hardcore. If you love Cedric August 5. While its first EP was There’s a Bixler-Zavala from the Mars Volta written and recorded in a swift three or Anthony Green from Circa familiar blood weeks, the upcoming debut fullSurvive, you’ll appreciate his style, length culminated over the course of work in the sound and if you enjoy music from the a year and a half, through sporadic if you fancy their post-hardcore era of the early 2000s, jam sessions booked whenever the then you’ll adore the entire package. other projects. stars, or their calendars, aligned.

Melero considers Sianvar’s sound Each member endures a hectic a throwback to that time, honoring the timetable, and for good reason: they traditions of those acts. all play in other established bands. Joe “Not only could the casual listener enjoy the Arrington (drums) and Michael Franzino (bass) hooks and sing along,” Melero said of one of his are wrapping up production of their fourth album with main influences, the Mars Volta. “A musician could Sacramento outfit A Lot Like Birds. Sergio Medina listen to it, and go, ‘Holy shit, these guys know how (guitar) is due to release a new album with his band to play their fucking instruments.’”

Stolas, from Las Vegas.

While the music can feel weightless, it’s also Will Swan (guitar), founder of Sacramento-born dense, prime to play on repeat. national act Dance Gavin Dance, runs Blue Swan All the while, Sianvar’s mission remains Records with Medina here in Sacramento, and will simple. No defined trajectory. No detailed hit the road with a new Dance Gavin Dance record schemes of fame and fortune. in the fall. Melero (vocals) just finished touring with “Just keep creating music and pushing boundHail the Sun and books shows for Blue Swan’s talent, aries,” Melero said. Ω including Sianvar. By miracle, August and September offered the only open window for the five to tour with Stay Lost.

Catch Sianvar at 6:30 p.m. Friday, August 5, at the Boardwalk, There’s a familiar blood work in the sound if you 9426 Greenback Lane in Orangevale. Tickets cost $14. More at www.facebook.com/Sianvar. fancy their other projects, but band’s three prereleased

“It turned out making the record was actually the thing driving my healing,” Ferreter says. “The reason the music hadn’t happened yet was because the healing hadn’t happened yet.”

In the studio, he broke down, sobbed and cracked open in new ways. But he also gave into spontaneity, adding vocals to a song that for years had been an instrumental, just because it felt right in the moment.

“Serendipity has totally been on my side,” he says.

The result is easily the biggest creative undertaking of Ferreter’s life: a 46-minute opus meant to be listened to start-to-finish, featuring 22 guest musicians and tons of tiny, recorded sounds with enormous significance.

See You in the Morning Light doesn’t have a release date yet, but he plans to host the Sacramento release show at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, a site of various recording sessions. Instead of using his given name, he’ll release the album under the moniker deep pools, a name that slowly revealed itself through meditation—and serendipity, a major driving force for Ferreter’s music and life lately.

Last week, he kicked off his most ambitious tour yet: a 55-stop journey from coast to coast, hitting houses, backyards and other intimate settings in nearly 40 states with fellow Bay Area-based artist Morgan Bolender.

For Ferreter, the Sacramento show was a homecoming: a living room full of family and friends. And yodels and bird calls.

He played Cove songs and a couple of tracks off the upcoming record—all familiar to local fans. But with Bolender providing beautiful harmonies and Ferreter’s soaring

energy, the songs felt more alive.

During his darkest number, he transformed into a sweaty wreck: twisted, lost and positively captivating. Tears dotted at least one attendee’s face as everyone reflected on their own losses and, hopefully, catharses.

—Ja ne lle bitk e r ja ne lle b @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

Dirty priest: If extreme metal with a little bit of melody and rock swagger is your thing, Cura Cochino serves to both ridicule and tease the aural senses.

Metalheads in the downtown Sacramento scene already know the group’s guitarist and backup screamer Kenny Hoffman from hosting countless shows under Buried In Hell. There’s also the lead vocalist who simply goes by “Priscila in Hell,” guitarist Jim Willig, drummer Andy Laughlin and bassist Biaggio D’Anna, who also plays in Modern Man. And while playing the upstairs of the Starlite Lounge during peak summer temperatures on a Thursday night may have seemed like a bad idea in hindsight, Cura Cochino’s onstage vibe couldn’t have been better. Wearing a black dress and high, risque boots, Priscila often stood with her back to the audience while concurrently screaming and antagonizing the crowd. Though it opened for two very accomplished acts, Atriarch and Sabbath Assembly, Cura Cochino never toned it down to appease the squeamish—or those without earplugs.

The macabre quintet just released a great three-song album, La Diseccion, which loosely sounds like a haunted Spanish-speaking woman fronting a doom metal choir for the eternally damned.

After a lengthy absence to regroup and tighten up some loose strings, La Diseccion proves yet again Cura Cochino is one of Sacramento’s heavier musical treasures. As evidenced on studio-recorded versions of “El Apocalipsis” and “Funebre Amor,” death’s recurring theme is all in good fun and even more in bad taste.

08.04.16

—Eddie Jorgensen

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05 FRI

05 FRI

06 SAT

Michael McDonald

Death Party at the Beach

Blitzen Trapper

Schools Not Prisons Tour Sacramento

Woodlake Hotel, 7 p.m., $40-$89

Cesar CHavez plaza, 5 p.m., no Cover

If your parents owned Doobie Brothers records such as Minute By Minute, Livin’ on the Fault Line or One Step Closer, chances are you’re already a hardSoFT Rock core Michael McDonald fan.

McDonald’s gruff singing voice is unmistakeable (and has been the butt of many a joke), and the man was a veritable hit machine in the ’80s. He still draws capacity crowds of a faithful following who know nearly every solo tune in addition to his hits with his former band. Call it yacht rock if you must, but it’s just damn good music.

500 Leisure Lane, www.michaelmcdonald. com.

—eddie Jorgensen

The standout indie lineup of Concerts in the Park is here—again. After getting rained out in May, this Geographer-headlined reboot promises more or less the same evening to close out the season. Locals Dusty Brown, Death Party at the Beach and Young Aundee are still on the bill, alongside Epsilona, who subbed in for Joe Kye. Do arrive early to catch Death Party at the Beach, an alternative outfit with major ’80s influences. There’s lots of synth, reverb and ALTERNATIVE catchy-as-hell melodies, led by vocalist Lance Derouin, who at times sounds eerily similar to Brandon Flowers of the Killers. 910 I Street, www.facebook.com/ deathpartyatthebeach.

HarloW’s restaurant & nigHtCluB, 9 p.m., $18-$20 In this day and age of music overrun with EDM influence, it’s nice to know there are still solid rock ’n’ roll bands out there, and Blitzen Trapper is one such band. With eight albums under its belt, it’s safe to say that the band is keeping the sounds of classic and southern rock alive.

Rock This endeavor comes together in its most recent album, All Across This Land, a batch of tunes that show the band in top form. It’s perhaps its most effective display of straightforward, heartfelt pinings yet.

Blitzen Trapper summarizes its appeal best: “Rock ’n’ roll won’t ease your mind / but you find it eases your soul.”

2708 J Street, www.blitzentrapper.net.

—Janelle Bitker

saCramento City College, 5:30 p.m., no Cover We spend too much money on prisons due to the troubling misconception that simply imprisoning people prevents MISc crime—so let’s dance about it. The #SchoolsNotPrisons Tour launches its 11-stop journey across California Saturday. Even if you’re not into headliner Ty Dolla $ign (pictured), there are plenty more artists. From John Forte’s brooding rendition of “Give Me Water,” to Buyepongo’s cumbia-merenguejazz fusion, this approach to fighting our unjust prison system is sure to be a blast.

3835 Freeport Boulevard, http://schoolsnotprisons.vote.

—amy Bee

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—dave kempa

rIFFS THAT SoAr So HIGH THEy lEAvE yoUr BlooD FrEEZING IN THE ASTrAl PlANE.

06 SAT

06 SAT

09 T UE

10 WED

The Sloths

Tele Novella

Wavves

Khemmis

Starlite lounge, 8 p.m., $10

the hideaway Bar & grill, 8:30 p.m., $8

Not a lot of bands can say that they opened for the Doors, but really, this isn’t even the most amazing thing about the Sloths. The five-piece garage-rock group had a short run from 1965-1966.

Years later, the two songs they recorded gained a cult audience (one 45 was going for $6,500 on eBay in 2011!). A few years ago, a writer seeking to tell the band’s story tracked them down.

GArAGE rocK Not only did they play live again, but they began actively touring, even recording a new LP for Lollipop Records called Back From the Grave. It’s eleven songs of killer proto-punk madness.

1517 21st Street, www.thesloths.org.

aCe of SpadeS, 7 p.m., $20-$23

Austin, Texas-based band Tele Novella’s forthcoming album, House of Souls, is set for release in September, and its single, “Heavy Balloon,” is a dreamy, pop-driven gem.

Vocalist Natalie Gordon also happens to be a Sacramento native and former INDIE/PoP member of the garage-rock duo Agent Ribbons, while members Jason Chronis and Matt Simon bring the indie-rock influence from their time spent in Voxtrot.

The result is a sound that dances along the lines of psych with a ’60s Nancy Sinatra appeal sprinkled with grim undertones and laced-in reverb. 2565 Franklin Boulevard, www.facebook.com/telenovellamusic.

—Steph rodriguez

Starlite lounge, 8 p.m., $8-$10

Nathan Williams added a “v” to a surf word, slapped reverb on a few bedroom recordings, and became an indie darling in 2008.

After that, Wavves became a shitPUNK show of too much too fast, cracking a young man’s head open on stage. Then, it was on to relationships with female indie contemporaries. It got really obnoxious for a minute. Then, he settled into himself, which is reflected on “Pony” from 2015’s V. Now, Wavves channels equal parts arrested development and adult anxiety.

“Tarantula” suggests “everything sucks if you don’t get your way,” but “Cry Baby” is a hyperaware self-takedown. 1417 R Street, http://wavves.net.

—aaron CarneS

Black Sabbath rules, but if you’re an unrepentant fool like me, sometimes you listen and think, “Where the hell are the Thin Lizzy-style twin leads that I so desperately crave?” Should you ever have been dumb enough to actually think that, you should know that Khemmis is the actualization of that dream. Stoner-friendly HEAvy METAl grooves, riffs that soar so high they leave your blood freezing in the astral planes and outright sickeningly delicious tones meld all of your heavy-metal fantasies into one clean, fresh and up-andcoming outfit that demands your attention.

1517 21st Street, http://khemmisdoom.com.

—Blake gilleSpie

—anthony Siino

ALL AGES WELCOME!

1417 R Street, Sacramento, 95814 • www.aceofspadessac.com THURSDAY, AUGUST 4

AARON WATSON CHAD BUSHNELL

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5

JACK GARRATT SATURDAY, AUGUST 6

BEAR HANDS / ATLAS GENIUS TUESDAY, AUGUST 9

WAVVES

STEEP LEANS - PARTYBABY

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12

CHASE RICE SCOTTY MAC BAND

SATURDAY, AUGUST 13

DAVID ALLAN COE RANCHO DELUXE

SUNDAY, AUGUST 14

LIL UZI VERT TUESDAY, AUGUST 16

MATISYAHU WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17

SCOTTTHESTAPP: VOICE OF CREED ANARCHY LACE - BRIDGE TO GRACE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19

TOO SHORT

COMING

SOON

08/18 08/20 08/22 08/23 08/24 08/30 08/31 09/10 09/16 09/17 09/18 09/25 09/27 09/28 10/01 10/02 10/05 10/06 10/07 10/09 10/10 10/11 10/14 10/15 10/21 10/23 10/24 10/28 10/29 11/02 11/04

Fitz & The Tantrums Sold Out! The New Photographers Digitour Summer 2016 Riff Raff I Prevail Explosions In The Sky Sold Out! Madeintyo, Salma Slims, Mynameisphin, Noah Wood$ Jake Bugg Coheed And Cambria Sold Out! Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Saint Motel RX Bandits Tech N9ne Echo & The Bunnymen Corey Smith Buckcherry Drive By Truckers Simple Plan Machine Gun Kelly Devin Townsend Project & Between The Buried & Me Beartooth Eric Hutchinson Steve Vai Halestorm Opeth Yellowcard Young The Giant Sold Out! Aaron Lewis Bad Religion Sold Out! Attila Colt Ford

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ALL DIMPLE RECORDS LOCATIONS AND WWW.ACEOFSPADESSAC.COM 08.04.16 | SN&R | 41

THURSDAY 8/4 BADLANDS

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.

SUNDAY 8/7

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

BLUE LAMP

1400 Alhambra, (916) 455-3400

TERMINALLY ILL, DEAD WEIGHT, SKULLDRUG; 8pm, call for cover

MASUMI MAX & SHANNON BROOKE “GIRLS” BOOK SIGNING; 8pm, $8

CITY OF VAIN, SCRATCH OUTS, WEST LORDS; 8pm, $10

THE BOARDWALK

SPAWNBREEZIE, MAKISI, NESI FINAU;

SIANVAR, MY IRON LUNG, SUBTLETY; 6:30pm, $12-$14

MAIDEN CALIFORNIA, ARMINIUS, FALL OF REASON; 7pm, $10

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

JAY BIZZLE, RON STUNNA, PRODBYJACKX; 7:30PM, call for cover

COUNTRY CLUB SALOON

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

BILL ALWIN & THE SKIPPY BOWL JUNKIES; 9PM, call for cover

DISTRICT 30

SIMON PATTERSON, 10pm, $5

1016 K St., (916) 737-5770

THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH, ADELITAS WAY, 3 PILL MORNING; 7pm Tu, $25-$30

REY REYNOLDS JR, 9pm, call for cover

FACES

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

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

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

FOX & GOOSE

MARTY COHEN & THE SIDEKICK, 8pm, no cover

KEVIN & ALLYSON SECONDS, MATT WOODCHEKE; 9pm, $5

FEMDOMCOM, 9pm, $5

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

CODY CANADA & THE DEPARTED, 7:30pm, $14-$16

Open-mic night, M, call for cover

HALFTIME BAR & GRILL

Karaoke happy hour, 7pm, no cover

Trivia night, 7pm Tu; Bingo, 1pm W; Paint night, 6:30pm W, $25

5681 Lonetree Blvd., Rocklin; (916) 626-6366

HARLOW’S

BLITZEN TRAPPER; 9pm, $18-$20

2708 J St., (916) 441-4693

THE STONE FOXES, 8PM, $12-$15

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

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

Lucas Coasta benefit show, 6:30pm, $10; AUGUSTINES, 8PM, $15

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 1414 16th St., (916) 441-3931

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

Nebraska Mondays, 7:30pm M, $10; Open Mic Comedy, 8pm Tu, no cover

MIDTOWN BARFLY

The Boombox, 9:30, $5

MELVV, TAISUN, VITAMINDEVO; 10pm, $5-$15

NATE GRIMMY, MUNECHILD, DOG RIFLE; 8:30pm, $5

LOS BOTTOM FEEDERS, CORY BERRINGER; 8:30pm, $5

2565 Franklin Blvd., (916) 455-1331

Salsa Wednesday, 7:30pm W, $5 TAO TIRIKI, WHAT ROUGH BEAST; 8:30pm, $5

2708 J Street Sacramento, CA 916.441.4693 www.harlows.com Friday august 12

COMING SOON 8/5 8PM $18ADV

8/10 6:30PM $25ADV

BLITZEN TRAPPER

LIL YACHTY

08/14 08/18

(ALL AGES)

8/6 8PM $12ADV

8/12 5:30PM $25ADV

THE STONE FOXES 8/7 5:30PM $10

LUCAS COSTA BENEFIT SHOW WITH TABAJARA 8/9 6:30PM $5ADV

DOG PARTY

(CD RELEASE PARTY) (ALL AGES)

|

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

THE HIDEAWAY BAR & GRILL

1111 H St., (916) 443-1927

SN&R

QB, YOUNG GULLY, C2DAJ, A. PAYNE, LADY KID; 9pm, $10

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

NAKED LOUNGE DOWNTOWN

|

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

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

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

42

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 8/8-8/10

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

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

9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 7pm, $20

1001 R St., (916) 443-8825

Want to be a hot show?

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

SATURDAY 8/6 Spectacular Saturdays, 10pm, call for cover

BAR 101

2000 K St., (916) 448-7798

Hey local bands!

FRIDAY 8/5

#TurntUp Thursday, 9pm, no cover

08.04.16

THE IGUANAS (ALL AGES)

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by JOEY GARCIA

@AskJoeyGarcia

Free-form love My daughter dated boys through high school, but never seemed really happy.

Now she is in college and madly in love with a young woman. Her father and I are happy that she is happy. Recently I confided in her that I had wondered long ago whether she was a lesbian.

My daughter became very upset and insisted that she is not a lesbian. I told her that she is in denial. I apologized immediately but she left the house and hasn’t responded to my voicemails. I feel awful. How do I repair this mess?

Say this: “You were right. I was wrong.

I’m sorry for imposing my belief system on your life. I love you but I didn’t show it well that day.” Then, hang up. Or if you have the privilege of an in-person convo, be silent while she responds. Let go of any attempt to mother her. Be present as one heart to another.

You must also forgive yourself for clinging to old habits of defining people, lives, gender, sexuality, etc., according to careful categories.

A cultural wave is washing us clean of those limitations. Join here: Your daughter is in love with a woman but that does not define who your daughter is. Your daughter’s love for, and partnership with, a woman is an experience of love that does not conform to physical form or definitions linked to sexual activity. Your daughter is simply in love with a person who happens to be in a female body. If you really want to push yourself beyond stereotypes, grab a pen and journal to free-write with this prompt: Who would I be, how would I live and who would I love if I did not define myself by the sex I was assigned at birth? There’s freedom—for you, for your daughter and for the community—in your honest response.

we had sex. I don’t think my husband has been faithful, either. Should I tell my roommate to move out before my husband gets here? Or do I tell my husband everything and work it out?

Why hold a hookup with a renter closer to your heart than you hold your man? Open up to your husband and admit you cheated. But yes, have your roommate move out first. And stop rationalizing your affair by saying that your husband probably cheated, too.

If you love your husband, and believe being together teaches you to grow in love, stay married. If not, create a life that changes you and others for good. The first step is to understand loneliness.

Sit by yourself in a quiet place, close your eyes and connect to the place inside you where you trust you belong and are appreciated.

Breathe into that positivity until it floods your body.

Once you embrace your ability to create fulfillment, you won’t use people to fill your empty spaces.

There’s freedom in your honest response.

My husband returns soon from a sevenmonth deployment. I was lonely while he was away so I rented a room to a college student, but never told my husband.

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What’s inside:

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The 420 51 Who’s Your Budtender?

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Open 10am - 7pm Mon-Sat 12pm - 7pm Sun

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Parties and pot

Bring in any competitor’s coupon* and we’ll beat it by $5 *That is CA Medical Board Standards Compliant.

Must present competitor’s ad. Some restrictions apply.

What kind of pot should I smoke if I want to be social at a party?

—Wanda Wallflower Good question. Different kinds of weed can definitely make you feel a certain way. Most indicas will give you the quiet introverted couch lock in a hurry. I have definitely killed a party or two with a fat indica joint (usually the Granddaddy Purple).

Also, be careful with concentrates and hashes. More than one person has dabbed into oblivion and sat in a corner at the party, staring into space and thinking their own thoughts.

Sativas and hybrids would be my advice. Trainwreck and its variants like Casey Jones are always nice. Blue Dream is a classic hybrid with a great flavor and good all-around effects. Tangie or some sort of Afgoo would also be a good choice.

If you feel like you are too stoned to talk, have some coffee. It will perk you right up. Oh, and if you are the type that gets crazy chatty after a joint, try to remember to let other folks get in a word or two— you know, like a conversation. Conversations are great. Listening to some rambly stoner dominate the conversation is not so great. Have fun socializing!

Now that the nominees have been decided, can you tell me which presidential candidate is best for cannabis legalization?

—John Q. Dublic Meh and meh again. Hillary isn’t great because she is a drug warrior from the old school, although she has come around a bit.

She is an astute politician—I am sure she can figure out which way the weed smoke is blowing. Plus, the Democratic National Committee does have a plank in its platform allowing for states to decriminalize or legalize as they see fit.

The Donald would probably be a nightmare. If he wins and makes Chris Christie the attorney general, all bets would be off. Christie hates weed.

Hates it. Christie is one of the reasons why New Jersey’s medical marijuana program has been beset with delays. I am always amused when the party of “small government” wants to continue throwing people into already crowded jails for using cannabis. There are no good reasons to put people in jail for using pot (unless you consider systemic racism and fealty to the private prison industry good reasons).

Then there are Jill Stein (Green) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian).

They would both legalize cannabis, but they don’t have any real chances at winning the presidency.

Remember this, though: So far, cannabis decriminalization or legalization has been a very local issue. Many cities are passing decriminalization ahead of statewide law reform. Look at the local races and make sure you vote for candidates that support commonsense cannabis regulation. National politics are big and flashy, but local lawmakers may have a bigger impact on your day-to-day lifestyle choices. Keep that in mind when you hit the polls. Ω

The Donald would probably be a nightmare.

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

Email him questions at ask420@newsreview.com.

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SN&R’s

54 | SN&R | 08.04.16

Photo by ken margi

Who’s Your Budtender?

Budtender Devon Blakes says finding a budtender you can trust is the most important thing for patients.

by ken margi

CirCle of TrusT

Devon: We try it. It’s not mandatory, but I think you have to try it out to really know what you’re selling. Most of the vendors will have websites, or bring in fliers and pamphlets with information. If we end up buying it, our buyer has them talk to us. Sometimes they give us free samples.

What should every patient know about their budtender?

Trusting your budtender is probably the most important. We are always trying to help out, but not every budtender likes the same thing. Some like smoking flower and some like concentrates. For a while I was only smoking concentrates, but it made my throat harsh, so I switched to edibles.

Speaking of edibles, what does Safe Capitol consider to be a single dose?

Your body weight goes into effect, and your metabolism. If you’re starting

“Everyone seems happy they’re coming in, or happy that they’re leaving with some good stuff.”

Devon Blakes Budtender, Safe Capitol Compassionate Cooperative

Does it help to quit for a while to lower your tolerance?

Oh yeah, definitely. You’ll rebuild your tolerance again after you restart.

Are you ever asked to push a particular strain or product?

No. It’s whatever helps out the patient.

Do customers ever ask to wait until you are available to serve them?

Certain patients like certain budtenders. If so it’s because I helped them find something, so they’ll come back to me because they liked my recommendation.

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out for the first time it’s going to be different as well. I usually say to start at about 25 mg, and then just keep adding to 50. I take about 250 mg per dose because I have a high tolerance right now.

Bus-80

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evon Blakes looks like someone you would love to take home to your parents. The likeable 20-year-old has been a budtender for over a year now at Safe Capitol Compassionate Cooperative, a North Sacramento dispensary that additionally focuses on veterans needs. “I really love the industry and want to grow with it,” says the Woodland native. “Everyone seems happy they’re coming in, or happy that they’re leaving with some good stuff.”

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*Doctor’s recommendation & CA I.D. required *Doctor’s

Produced by N&R Publications, a division of News & Review.

08.04.16 | SN&R | 55

SN&R’s

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.

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Free will astrology

by Kris HooKs

by rob brezsny

FOR THE WEEk OF AUGUST 4, 2016 ARIES (March 21-April 19): I apologize in advance

for the seemingly excessive abundance of good news I’m about to report. If you find it hard to believe, I won’t hold your skepticism against you.

But I do want you to know that every prediction is warranted by the astrological omens. Ready for the onslaught? (1) In the coming weeks, you could fall forever out of love with a wasteful obsession.

(2) You might also start falling in love with a healthy obsession. (3) You can half-accidentally snag a blessing you have been half-afraid to want. (4) You could recall a catalytic truth whose absence has been causing you a problem ever since you forgot it. (5) You could reclaim the mojo that you squandered when you pushed yourself too hard a few months ago.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): August is Adopt-a-

Taurus month. It’s for all of your tribe, not just the orphans and exiles and disowned rebels.

Even if you have exemplary parents, the current astrological omens suggest that you require additional support and guidance from wise elders. So I urge you to be audacious in rounding up trustworthy guardians and benefactors. Go in search of mentors and fairy godmothers. Ask for advice from heroes who are further along the path that you’d like to follow. You are ready to receive teachings and direction you weren’t receptive to before.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): When a parasite or

other irritant slips inside an oyster’s shell, the mollusk’s immune system besieges the intruder with successive layers of calcium carbonate.

Eventually, a pearl may form. I suspect that this is a useful metaphor for you to contemplate in the coming days as you deal with the salt in your wound or the splinter in your skin. Before you jump to any conclusions, though, let me clarify.

This is not a case of the platitude, “Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” Keep in mind that the pearl is a symbol of beauty and value, not strength.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): It’s your lucky day!

Spiritual counsel comparable to what you’re reading here usually sells for $99.95. But because you’re showing signs that you’re primed to outwit bad habits, I’m offering it at no cost. I want to encourage you! Below are my ideas for what you should focus on (but keep in mind that I don’t expect you to achieve absolute perfection): (1) Wean yourself from indulging in self-pity and romanticized pessimism. (2) Withdraw from connections with people who harbor negative images of you. (3) Transcend low expectations wherever you see them in play. (4) Don’t give your precious life energy to demoralizing ideas and sour opinions.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You’re not doing a baby

chick a favor by helping it hatch. For the sake of its well-being, the bird needs to peck its way out of the egg. It’s got to exert all of its vigor and willpower in starting its new life. That’s a good metaphor for you to meditate on. As you escape from your comfortable womb-jail and launch yourself toward inspiration, it’s best to rely as much as possible on your own instincts. Friendly people who would like to provide assistance may inadvertently cloud your access to your primal wisdom. Trust yourself deeply and wildly.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I hear you’re growing

weary of wrestling with ghosts. Is that true? I hope so. The moment you give up the fruitless struggle, you’ll become eligible for a unique kind of freedom that you have not previously imagined. Here’s another rumor I’ve caught wind of: You’re getting bored with an old source of sadness that you’ve used to motivate yourself for a long time. I hope that’s true, too. As soon as you shed your allegiance to the sadness, you will awaken to a sparkling font of comfort you’ve been blind to. Here’s one more story I’ve picked up through the grapevine: You’re close to realizing that your attention to a mediocre treasure has diverted you from a more pleasurable treasure. Hallelujah!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Could it be true that

the way out is the same as the way in? And that the so-called “wrong” answer is almost indistinguishable from the right answer? And that success, at least the kind of success that really matters, can only happen if you adopt an upside-

down, inside-out perspective? In my opinion, the righteous answer to all these questions is “Yesss???!!!”—at least for now. I suspect that the most helpful approach will never be as simple or as hard as you might be inclined to believe.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Your strength

seems to make some people uncomfortable. I don’t want that to become a problem for you.

Maybe you could get away with toning down your potency at other times, but not now. It would be sinful to act as if you’re not as competent and committed to excellence as you are. But having said that, I also urge you to monitor your behavior for excess pride. Some of the resistance you face when you express your true glory may be due to the shadows cast by your true glory. You could be tempted to believe that your honorable intentions excuse secretive manipulations. So please work on wielding your clout with maximum compassion and responsibility.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Did you

honestly imagine that there would eventually come a future when you’d have your loved ones fully “trained”? Did you fantasize that sooner or later you could get them under control, purged of their imperfections and telepathically responsive to your every mood? If so, now is a good time to face the fact that those longings will never be fulfilled. You finally have the equanimity to accept your loved ones exactly as they are.

Uncoincidentally, this adjustment will make you smarter about how to stir up soulful joy in your intimate relationships.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You may experi-

ence a divine visitation as you clean a toilet in the coming weeks. You might get a glimpse of a solution to a nagging problem while you’re petting a donkey or paying your bills or waiting in a long line at the bank. Catch my drift, Capricorn? I may or may not be speaking metaphorically here. You could meditate up a perfect storm as you devour a doughnut. While flying high over the earth in a dream, you might spy a treasure hidden in a pile of trash down below. If I were going to give your immediate future a mythic title, it might be “Finding the Sacred in the Midst of the Profane.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I’ve worked hard

for many years to dismantle my prejudices. To my credit, I have even managed to cultivate compassion for people I previously demonized, like evangelical Christians, drunken jocks, arrogant gurus and career politicians. But I must confess that there’s still one group toward which I’m bigoted: super-rich bankers. I wish I could extend to them at least a modicum of amiable impartiality. How about you, Aquarius? Do you harbor any hidebound biases that shrink your ability to see life as it truly is? Have you so thoroughly rationalized certain narrow-minded perspectives and judgmental preconceptions that your mind is permanently closed? If so, now is a favorable time to dissolve the barriers and stretch your imagination way beyond its previous limits.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Are you lingering

at the crux of the crossroads, restless to move on but unsure of which direction will lead you to your sweet destiny? Are there too many theories swimming around in your brain, clogging up your intuition? Have you absorbed the opinions of so many “experts” that you’ve lost contact with your own core values? It’s time to change all that. You’re ready to quietly explode in a calm burst of practical lucidity. First steps: Tune out all the noise. Shed all the rationalizations. Purge all the worries. Ask yourself, “What is the path with heart?”

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.

Ryan Chappell (left) and Gio Anaya put the “street” in streetwear.

PHOTO BY KRIS HOOKS

Streetwear on the street It didn’t take long for Ryan Chappell and Gio Anaya to get down to business after graduating high school. The two 18-year-olds—recent graduates of Capital Christian and Cordova high schools, respectively—skipped the old brick and mortar business model and decided to set a new local trend: the Streetwear Truck, a mobile shop run out of a truck painted with vibrant images of multicolored feathers. SN&R recently met up with the two teens to talk about using social media to build a brand and how they stay cool inside an aluminum truck.

So is this an old FedEx truck or UPS truck?

Chappell: It’s neither. It’s just a regular old step van.

How’d you guys get it?

Chappell: We were looking for a step van, and went through many trials and tribulations in finding one. We finally got in contact with this one guy through Craigslist, and his mom was actually going to use this step van for selling fruits and vegetables that she planted herself. But she found out it was too big … and he gave us a pretty good price.

Where’d the idea for the truck come from?

Chappell: We both have brands ourselves, so before the truck, we went in to a local store and they denied us. So we were like, ‘Let’s take it into our own hands and start our own store.’ I just graduated high school, and he graduated last year, so the funds for brick and mortar weren’t there, especially with a downtown space or in Elk Grove or wherever. We stumbled upon a trend in 2008 to 2011, and it was mobile shops.

How do you guys stay cool in the summer?

Anaya: (Laughs.) Doors open, leave the windows down, get some air flow.

Chappell: We’ve got a couple of fans running, but we’re working on getting a whole A/C system installed.

Anaya: It’s usually cooler past the afternoon into nighttime, and that’s usually when we get more customers. So it’s not usually as hot as normal.

How late are you usually open?

Anaya: Sometimes, like last time we set up on Second Saturday, we were there set up until almost 11 p.m. But almost everyone was going back and forth checking us out.

The cool part was that a lot of the people who were checking us out were way older than us and they still bought from our brands. It’s not just attention for youth, it’s also getting everyone else’s attention.

The truck’s paint job is pretty attention grabbing.

Chappell: It’s a funny story, actually. So the first time we came out to midtown, we were inviting everybody, and having our friends tell everybody about the truck. So we saw this guy and invited him in, and he was like, “Oh, your truck is cool and all, but you need something for the outside.”

We told him we were working on it and trying to get a wrap, and he said, “I have this friend that does lots of murals in the Sacramento area. His name is [Brandon Alexander].” … We got in contact with him and met up with him later. We came up with this idea of the outside of the truck, and he painted it.

What about the inside of the truck?

Anaya: It was kind of last-minute how it all worked out. I used to work at Kohl’s, and the

store closed down so they were selling all of the furniture. So I got a good deal on all of the furniture that they had, and that helped out a lot. Then we literally put the whole inside together in like three or four days.

How do you guys decide where to set up shop?

Chappell: We like to go where the people go. Wherever there’s a mass amount of people, we like to visit there. Our main goal is to be able to ask people on social media, like, “Where should we go on Tuesday of next week?” and they tell us. Then the place that gets the most votes, we’ll go to. But right now, we’re just picking and choosing in Folsom, Sacramento and Elk Grove and setting up shop.

The truck has a pretty nice following on social media already.

Chappell: Yeah, we’ve been using the ads—the Instagram ads, Facebook ads and Yelp ads—and those have helped out a lot in getting our name out there.

Anaya: They’re also from our own brands, too. … We just shout out each other, including the truck, so it’s basically just mixing our own brand’s fans so they get to know the truck.

It sounds like people are pretty receptive to it so far.

Anaya: The thing that matters to us the most is, when people walk in, it’s a new experience because most of them have never seen anything like this. Sometimes they just glance, but we tell them they could walk in, because that’s what it’s all about: to come in and check it out yourself.

So the positive feedback that we get has been more important so far than the actual sales that we make. Ω Learn more at www.thestreetweartruck.com.

08.04.16

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