Issuu

South Sac ’ s hidden homeless

Push to save historic punk venue

Capital Dance Project, back en pointe

Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

Volume 28, iSSue 19

thurSday, auGuSt 25, 2016

newSreView.com

2 | SN&R | 08.25.16

EditoR’S NotE

AUGUSt 25, 2016 | Vol. 28, iSSUE 19

23 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 Thomas 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

34 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,

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 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 Project Coordinator Natasha vonKaenel 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 Interns Holly Gerhard Senior Support Tech Joe Kakacek Developer John Bisignano, Jonathan Schultz System Support Specialist Kalin Jenkins

05 07 08 13 14 20 23 25 31 32 34 42 47 59

STREETALK LETTERS NEwS + beaTS ScoREKEEpER FEATuRE SToRy ARTS&cuLTuRE NighT&dAy diSh + off MeNu STAgE FiLm muSic + SouNd adVice ASK joEy ThE 420 15 miNuTES

coVER dESigN By BRiAN BRENEmAN coVER phoTo iLLuSTRATioN By SERENE LuSANo coVER phoTo By iSTocK/FELixmiziozNiKoV

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Reject fear It’s a fundamental right: The ability to relieve oneself with privacy and dignity. In March, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory stripped that right for the state’s transgender citizens, prohibiting their access to public restrooms by way of the North Carolina’s Public Facilities Privacy Act, more commonly known as HB2. The law prompted President Barack Obama to order public schools in the United States to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. California is ahead on this one: In 2013 Governor Jerry Brown signed into law protections for transgender students. But it and the president’s mandate have been challenged. On Sunday, a federal Texas judge blocked Obama’s order with a temporary injunction claiming it violates Title IX, the federal education law that prohibits discrimination based on sex. Title IX, Judge Reed O’Connor wrote, “is not ambiguous” in defining sex as “biological and anatomical differences.” It doesn’t surprise me that this injunction was handed down from my home town of Wichita Falls—a decaying North Texas city built on oil money and the military. This injunction is one born out of fear. Fear of change, fear of those who are “different.” Studies have shown such differences are neurological. For example, a 2013 Spanish study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, used MRIs to document genetic differences in the brains of transgender subjects. It’s time to acknowledge that gender identity is complex. It’s time to reject fear. It’s time to respect basic human dignity.

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

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“It stems from somethIng In my chIldhood.”

asked at 20th and J streets:

What are you afraid of?

Barret t Yandell

andreW hoWle

erin l andreth

book dealer

caregiver

manager

I am most afraid of being restrained physically, especially if I can’t move my arms. It stems from something in my childhood. It stems from a form of claustrophobia. It’s that feeling [of] not being able to move. When I am living on the ground floor, the door needs to lead immediately outside. I need to see it, know it.

I have way too many fears. The candidates we have now are scaring me. I fear for the country. I was in the military and young kids today don’t seem to join and help protect the nation. We are moving apart as a nation, but we have technology.

I like to plan for things so I don’t have to worry. I like to make sure I have enough money for things. I am thinking about my future. I usually run everything by my boyfriend and I talk to folks about plans. I don’t really have any huge fears for myself. I am concerned about our country.

dominque Wilson sales associate

I would say: death. I just [had] someone close to me die of cancer. It is hard to see someone you care about suffering. He was a father figure and it is still fresh. I am afraid of suffering and dying … [after] watching someone I care about go through those struggles. I spent time with him going to treatment, chemotherapy.

martha luJano Gonzale z

stephanie sal a zar

teleservice representative

I guess I’m afraid of not knowing things, like not knowing when I do something wrong. I am afraid to mess up. I am afraid of messing up in life. I like to think things through. I am afraid of stumbling. I don’t want to make big wrong decisions in life.

nurse

I am afraid of not having money. I am afraid that I won’t be able to provide for my family. ... I have always saved money since childhood. I have always had a fear of going broke. Sometimes I drive my partner crazy. Knowing I have enough to retire and live comfortably makes me feel safe.

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08.25.16 | SN&R | 5

BUILDING A

HEALTHY S A C R A M E N T O

Unlocking Potential #SCHOOLSNOTPRISONS CONCERT PROMOTES EDUCATION MESSAGE BY E D G A R S A N C H E Z

or a split second, the bad memories overwhelmed 20-year-old Michael Rizo.

The former gang member sat inside The Prison Cell, a traveling jail replica that stopped for the day at Sacramento City College. Inside the exhibit, amid recorded sounds of electronic doorrelease buzzing and slamming gates, Rizo gazed at mannequins depicting inmates caged behind heavy steel. “I didn’t like going in there because it brought back memories of something I don’t want to experience again,” said Rizo, of West Sacramento, who was repeatedly jailed for gangrelated violence from age 12 until his late teens. Rizo ﬂed the mock prison and joined more than 1,000 other youth enjoying the #SchoolsNotPrisons Concert Tour, sponsored by The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative. Keeping people out of prison is the driving goal of the 10-city free concert tour, which kicked off at Sac City on Aug. 6. Performers included rappers Ty Dolla $ign and John Forte, and Mariachi Arcoiris, believed to be the world’s ﬁrst LGBTQ mariachi. Dancing the night away, the youth smiled. But they became somber at The Prison Cell. The realistic, 24-foot “slammer,” created by Santa Cruz’s Barrios Unidos Prison Project, spotlighted The Endowment’s call for more schools, fewer prisons. According to The Endowment, since 1980 California has built 22 prisons, but only one UC campus (UC Merced).

“We want to keep people out of the prison system and in the educational pipeline,” Michael Poindexter, interim president of Sacramento City College, told the youth. “Stay in school!”

“EVERYONE THERE SUPPORTED THE BETTERMENT OF OUR YOUTH, THE BETTERMENT OF OUR FUTURE.” Michael Rizo, attendee at #SchoolsNotPrisons concert held on Aug. 6

... SOU

For the C

Echoing his comments: Marianna Sousa, student trustee on the Los Rios Community College District Board.

Amar Cid poses for a photo with a #SchoolsNotPrisons sign during a concert event Aug. 6 at Sacramento City College. The event sought to promote education as an alternative to incarceration. Photo by Anne Stokes

“We want money in our schools, not in prisons,” Sousa told the crowd.

These messages resonated with Rizo, a Caucasian raised by Latinos, who is active with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition. He will register to vote, and this fall, he will enter Sac City as a freshman.

Speakers encouraged concertgoers to learn more about the issues and get involved in their communities. While improving voter turnout among all voters is a goal, The Endowment’s Andres Reyes says the nonproﬁt is making special efforts to awake the “sleeping giant” — California’s Latino voter — with its “Vota!” campaign. Of the state’s 6.9 million eligible Latino voters, only 4.1 million are registered to vote. Too many don’t actually do so.

“The concert was a great event with a righteous cause,” Rizo said. “Everyone there supported the betterment of our youth, the betterment of our future.” Rizo is no longer involved in gangs. “Gangs are a waste of life, a waste of your childhood,” he said.

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

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

#SchoolsNotPrisons

Health Happens in Neighborhoods. Health Happens in Schools. Health Happens with Prevention.

PAID WITH A GRANT FROM THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT 6 | SN&R | 08.25.16

BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

www.SacBHC.org

Email lEttErs to sactolEttErs@nEwsrEviEw.com

Real talk Re “Bad bet” by Scott Thomas Anderson (SN&R News, August 18): I’m surprised SN&R wrote a story about gambling—sorry, “gaming”—in Sacramento. Most people don’t care about the fact that Americans spent more on gambling than all other forms of entertainment combined. Or that it has ruined peoples’ lives at the benefit of the government and tribes. Or that it gets away with things the tobacco and alcohol industry never could. The fact that most people in a gambling environment are exactly the people who shouldn’t be in it. The fact that gambling establishments basically self-regulate (like the oil industry). The fact that poor people spend indispensable and disproportionate amounts of money on gambling. The fact that the gambling industry has our government in its pocket as made evident by Jerry Brown fighting for gambling interests every chance he gets (so he can alleviate his budget). The fact that the gambling industry gets about half of its money from people ruining their lives using their product (depending on which study and gambling product you’re reading about). Anyways, good story. Go Steve Hansen. But really, how many tens of millions are spent at Thunder Valley every weekend and no one cares? Where else does that happen?

Audit them all!

Derelict perspective

Re “Judge not lest ye be audited” by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R Beats, August 18): The California Commission on Judicial Performance is long overdue for an audit. If the relevant documents aren’t shredded first, the audit will show that the CJP is more concerned with protecting bad judges than with protecting the public from bad judges. The retaliation-by-incarceration of CJP whistleblower Joe Sweeney should concern every California taxpayer and citizen. The agency needs to be reformed from top to bottom, beginning with the removal of Director/Dictator-for-Life Victoria B. Henley.

Re “Stunted growth” by Alastair Bland (SN&R News, August 11): This “derelict” wasteland and “toxic pile of dirt” was a relic Central Valley grassland that supported large vernal pools with thousands of Pacific chorus frogs and vernal pool species such as clam shrimp. The biological consultants for the environmental impact report surveyed unethically at the end of June 2005 which is way too late to detect most Central Valley species and after vernal pools have dried because the summer is a dormancy period. Now there are no frogs. I live just south of this project and witnessed the decimation of these precious habitats. It breaks my heart. Derelict is a matter of perspective.

Cathy Cohen Sacramento

Tucker Hoog W es t S acr am e nt o

Molly Ferrell Sacramento

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ONLINE BUZZ

On the fAte Of punk hOuse CAsA De ChAOs: So time to turn Casa into a squat? Move everyone in! cHavez D’auguSTine v ia Fa c e b o o k The owner has submitted a request to the city to review the historic eligibility of all three properties. The first step toward a “Demolition Investigation & Report” most likely with the intent to demo them. It is very easy to demo buildings in this city. If people dont speak out, these will come down. They probably will anyway because our preservation ordinance is not strong or enforced and public input is rarely considered. But the community will still try even if we fail.

@SacNewsReview

Facebook.com/ SacNewsReview

@SacNewsReview

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

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Homeless and in hiding South Sacramento encampment provided secret refuge for years—no wonder it had to go by Raheem F. hosseini

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

Kristen DiAngelo and Julie Debbs plot carefully through the rutted field, baked into a hard canvas of crabgrass and ankle-snapping knots by an inescapable summer sun. Weeping sweat and gasping in the hot, flat air, the two activists feel the eyes peering at them through blue tarps and plastic coverings that enclose a vein of shabby tents, tucked behind a dirt ridge in a commercial section of south Sacramento. “It’s OK,” DiAngelo calls out in a friendly voice. “We brought food.” Slowly, the denizens of this expansive homeless encampment filter out into the open. There are more than a dozen— mostly of Southeast Asian descent, dehydrated and dazed groggy by the sun—but this represents only a third of the people who called this field home and flew under the radar of Sacramento County’s lead homeless agency. Or at least they used to. Just weeks after this scene, on July 26, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department dispersed the encampment, whose existence has been a poorly kept secret for years. According to the county, 45 people were contacted and offered services during an operation that evicted them from the vacant lot and bulldozed their tents and belongings. Unsurprisingly, only a handful accepted those services. County officials told SN&R that two people received bus passes and that two others were referred to nearby food closets. Some denizens were also handed cards by a representative of Sacramento Steps Forward, the region’s primary engine for addressing homelessness. But the cards had typos, and the people who called the listed number for help were greeted by an error message. This being DiAngelo’s first true encounter with Sacramento County’s system of homeless care—as founder of the Sex Workers Outreach Project’s local chapter, she mostly deals with hospitals

8 | SN&R | 08.25.16

and law enforcement—she found herself bewildered and incensed: How does kicking these people out of the only safe place they knew get them closer to housing? And how inept is a system that can’t even get its own phone extension right? “They say it’s a code violation, an infraction, like jaywalking,” DiAngelo said of the county’s justification for clearing the encampment. “But I don’t see them bulldozing a jaywalker’s house.” The county termed the operation an “outreach effort.” Meanwhile, Steps Forward is still learning of encampments like these, spread throughout the county, far from basic services and populated by people who fear the very kind of “outreach effort” that forced this latest exodus. The camp’s existence tells a shameful story—that Sacramento’s homeless population is vaster, more diverse and more poorly served than previously known. No wonder it had to go. “All they did was disperse them,” DiAngelo said. “Nothing changed. In fact, they’re just worse off.” “May” arrived in the field with her sister roughly five months ago. (Because they fear reprisals for sharing their stories, SN&R is identifying the camp’s residents by pseudonyms.) A longtime south Sacramento resident whose family is Southeast Asian, May and her sister became homeless some months after their parents died. Her mother went first; she doesn’t say how. Three years ago, her father succumbed to cancer. May and her sister managed to cobble the mortgage together for four to six months before they ran out of money and were evicted from the family home. They slept in her sister’s car for a spell, but then it broke down. That’s how they came to the crux of barren land between 51st Avenue and 30th Street. “As soon as my dad died, my world

just flipped,” May, 27, said softly. “I feel I had nobody. But I’m still trying to hang on, y’know? Even though I don’t have a home to go home to.” In the field, the people made due. They faked a communal kitchen by repurposing discarded cabinetry and balancing large water thermoses on rickety stands for drink and bath. And when one of the less stable denizens started a grass and garbage fire, the entire camp rushed to extinguish it. “We have to do it,” explained “Sammy,” who wore a burgundy “Hmong Innovating Politics” T-shirt. “Everybody got to work out to help kill the fire before they show up,” he said, referring to the authorities. “So we glad we did it before they show up.” He pauses. “They show up.” It was always a matter of time until the outside world came calling. It was a SWOP client who tipped DiAngelo off to the camp’s existence several months ago. “I’d never seen anything like it,” she said. Amid piles of rank garbage, with no electricity or access to water and public facilities, the field became an imperfect haven for teems of people with nowhere else to go. It served as a known refuge for “working girls” displaced by law enforcement raids or bad situations, DiAngelo learned, but wasn’t exclusive to homeless sex workers. A sheriff’s spokesman says the department’s hand was forced by business and resident complaints made through its website. But Lt. Tim Curran says the department’s problem-oriented policing team was aware of the field’s use as a homeless encampment for a time before that. “That’s been going on for years,” he told SN&R. But it wasn’t really on Steps Forward’s radar until the agency was invited to send a navigator to assist in the July 26 operation. “It sounds like a population that was fairly

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

concealed,” said Steps Forward Executive Director Ryan Loofbourrow. Five days before the operation, sheriff’s deputies posted dispersal notices to each tent, photographing them to confirm delivery. On the day of, the county dispatched a pair of social workers and a mental-health clinician, but most of the camp’s residents declined their offers of aid. They were told to grab what they could and leave. Most of their possessions—tents, water containers and other gear—were promptly steamrolled by tractors. Sammy got out with a few clothes, his bike and deodorant. He lost everything else. “When I go back, all gone,” Sammy said. “All buried underground.” This was the group’s first encounter with Sacramento’s “continuum of care.” It was a year ago this month that Steps Forward hired someone to conduct homeless outreach in the area surrounding this camp. This “homeless navigator” was specifically assigned to work with property and business improvement districts along Mack and Florin roads. Since that effort began, the Mack Road Partnership has been learning of an emerging homeless population in the south area, said Executive Director Jenna Abbott. “We see a lot of new faces,” she said. Abbott says the navigator reports of making new contacts, rather than encountering a static population. “He’s seeing people that he hasn’t seen before.” The system is struggling to serve the population it already knows about. According to a June report from Steps Forward, only 6 percent of the 3,477 homeless individuals who applied for housing services during the past 18 months actually received some type of housing. But the numbers are actually worse, as another 700 fell off the queue after 90 days and weren’t counted toward the totals. Meanwhile, the discovery of hidden

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chaos theoRy Preservation Director Roberta Deering heard the cheers last Wednesday during her retirement ceremony inside of City Hall, but much of the crowd was there to prevent a different departure. More than 50 men and women—some dressed in black, some carrying skateboards—attended the August 17 meeting of the city of Sacramento’s Preservation Committee, which Deering was departing. They came to oppose rumors of a proposed demolition of three houses on 21st Street between P and Q streets by its current property owner. One of the homes in question is known as casa de chaos, a residence, music venue and home to some tenants for more than 20 years. On July 12, the landlord submitted an application asking the city to review whether the buildings’ historical significance would prevent him from demolishing or relocating them. Short answer: No. But there’s still a chance to prevent—or at least delay—any irreversible changes to the three homes on the grid. If the homes can win designation as a “historic district” on the California Register, then demolition plans may slow, requiring more environmental review by the city, said Garret Root, president of Preservation Sacramento, a nonprofit founded in 1972 that advocates for the protection of historic sites throughout the city’s development progress. Root says the city notified his group, the Midtown Business Association and other parties on August 3 that it had evaluated the properties and found them unable to claim individual historic status. That’s when Preservation Sacramento began pursuing this Plan B, based on a rich history that dates as far back as 1907. Deering had until August 26 to render a decision. (Root says she leaves office September 2.) Only time will tell what happens. “So far, we have 55 responses from all around the United States in support of keeping the buildings,” Root said. (Steph Rodriguez)

it WaRfaRe A large, vacant field south of the city was home to at least 45 homeless people on July 26, when authorities dispersed the encampment. Photos courtesy of Kristen DiAngelo

homeless communities could increase as Steps Forward hires additional navigators to go out and make first contact. Steps Forward is averaging about 200 intakes each month, Loofbourrow said. “They’re not newly homeless,” he added. “They’re just new to us.” But once discovered, where can they go? “The ultimate question is, ‘Navigate to where?’” said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “There’s no housing.” Around the same time as the Steps Forward report, the Sacramento County grand jury urged officials to declare a homelessness state of emergency. The reason the jury gave was because, despite

efforts of Steps Forward and its partners, homelessness had “only gotten worse.” seated beside each other in the shade of a tent delicately curated with lavender blankets, May and Sammy swipe at the incessant afternoon flies. Around them, their relatives and neighbors busy themselves in their new home, crouched behind an island of trash and loose branches just off a busy south Sacramento thoroughfare. The group found this spot after vacating the lot on 51st and, a few days later, being rousted from an area near railroad tracks by city police. Like the old lot, it’s another dead field, lacking water and electricity, wedged between an automotive shop and a psychic. But it’s also smaller and more

visible to outsiders. “The cops come often,” May said. “And most of us, we don’t really know our rights, you know? If they say, ‘Do this,’ then we would do [what they say]. Even though we’re not on probation or nothing, if they want to search us, we wouldn’t know how to say no.” This group is vulnerable to pressure tactics and shakedowns. When they first arrived, a man already living on the property charged them $5 a head, saying he had an arrangement with

Officials at the California Department of Veterans Affairs recently went before a legislative oversight committee to account for a $28 million computer system that never worked and put the health care of 2,200 veterans at risk. During the August 10 hearing, Assembly members heard testimony about failures in the state’s Enterprise-wide Veterans Home Information System, or Ew-VHIS. The program was created to digitize medical records for the men and women living in California’s special homes for disabled veterans. In 2006, the Department of Veterans Affairs began expanding its number of veterans’ homes from three to eight. The Ew-VHIS was built to ensure a smooth continuum of care for former service members. A state audit found the Ew-VHIS program offered anything but an effective method of care, shorting vets on prescriptions. The auditor’s findings also noted that CalVet leadership failed to track the system once it was up and running, and was unaware of its constant problems until 18 months after medical workers began reporting them. CalVet Secretary Vito Imbasciani told Assembly members that a potential crisis was averted for veterans living in the homes because on-site medical workers noticed problems with the prescriptions and got their patients medicine from other sources. (Scott Thomas Anderson)

“homeless and in hiding” continued on page 11

08.25.16 | SN&R | 9

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But before that happens, council members want Sometimes, Stephanie Raskin smokes marijuana to ensure cultivation facilities are odor-free, envito stop thinking about suicide. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression, she remains stable ronmentally friendly and properly vetted, surveilled and secured before allowing more into the city. “We through a blend of prescription pills that must be have to get it right,” Councilman Eric Guerra said constantly tweaked to match her body chemistry. before moving to extend the moratorium. When the pharmaceuticals fall short, she suppleRancho Cordova has employed a more ments her treatment with medical marijuana. But black-and-white approach. her hometown, Rancho Cordova, bans dispensaOn July 5, its city council cited its concerns ries. And the closest one is 11 miles away. with federal law still classifying marijuana as “It’s frustrating,” she said. “Especially with a Schedule 1 narcotic, even though President my condition, I get debilitatingly depressed to Barack Obama hasn’t targeted states that legalized the point where everything is a monumental task. marijuana and Democratic front-runner Hillary I only smoke because my depression can cause Clinton’s platform supports eventual legalization. suicidal thoughts. And sativa can keep me from A speaker at the meeting warned about the drug’s reaching those depths. I’m not one of those sit-on“increased potency.” the-couch stoners.” California Cannabis Industry Association Raskin brought her complaints to the Rancho Executive Director Nate Bradley calls potency Cordova City Council on August 1 and 15, concerns “fearmongering,” as highand says she will continue to attend potency strains have always existed meetings until it reconsiders the ban. and low-potent strains still exist. The council imposed the ban in “I only smoke In 2013, 154 people were 2013, and decided to uphold it a admitted to Sacramento couple of weeks ago, despite the because my County emergency rooms for tax benefits that City Attorney depression can cause marijuana, according to a report Adam Lindgren said the permitsuicidal thoughts.” by the Sacramento County’s ted sale of medical marijuana Department of Health and would bring. Stephanie Raskin Human Services. But that number Since she’s on a fixed resident, Rancho Cordova only represents 2 percent of that income, Raskin can’t afford year’s total of drug-related visits, a permit to grow personal-use with nearly 4,000 for alcohol. marijuana indoors as it costs $600 Bradley, a former police officer, claims per square foot. The cost is so prohibitive that Rancho’s dispensary ban only pushes marijuana that no one in Rancho Cordova has a permit underground. on record. Citrus Heights and Davis have “When you ban something, you don’t actually similar bans, but both have delivery services for get rid of it,” he said. patients in the area, while Davis doesn’t charge “So when a city bans it, what they’re saying personal-use permit fees. is, ‘I want it sold in my high schools.’” Sacramento allows residential cultivation Bradley says that concerned lawmakers would of marijuana for personal use and currently be better off mandating safety requirements, espeboasts 30 medical marijuana dispensaries, which cially since the Adult Use of Marijuana Act propoproduced $4 million in tax revenue during the sition boasts support from a coalition of lawmakers, 2015-16 fiscal year. civil rights organizations, environmentalists, retired On August 16, the Sacramento City Council police officers and medical professionals. It will unanimously extended by a year a moratorium on likely pass in November. If it does, the Department commercial marijuana cultivation so grow operaof Finance predicts an additional $1 billion in tions don’t proliferate before proper regulations statewide tax revenue—funds Rancho Cordova (and are in place. Once the moratorium expires on Davis and Citrus Heights) won’t see unless they lift September 18, 2017, the city could open up 22,000 their bans. Ω square feet for indoor cultivation in agricultural, industrial and general commercial areas. It’s already received inquiries from 600 potential applicants. An extended version of this story is available at www.newsreview.com/sacramento

“Homeless and in Hiding” continued from page 9

SN&R

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the property’s owner and could buy them a month without hassles. They paid up. A week ago, the police came and patted people down, took pictures. They didn’t protest. And last Thursday morning, a man arrived in a pickup truck and told them he had been hired to clear the field of its loose lumber. But he pitched them a deal: If they performed the labor, he wouldn’t call the cops on them. “Basically, we’re doing his job for him,” May said. By noon that day, they had created one towering pile at the field’s edge. Several massive nests of tangled branches remained. They did this work without pay or water, though they requested the latter. While this falls under the definition of labor trafficking, there would be no The camp’s police report, no call to the existence tells a cops. shameful story—that This group is trying to keep a low profile, avoid Sacramento’s homeless trouble, even as the field population is vaster, more attracts more people. diverse and more poorly DiAngelo counted 20 during an August 19 visit. served than previously She’s tracked down another known. 15 people to other locations, including two pregnant women hiding in a different field by the freeway. A navigator has visited this lot, offering help obtaining identification cards and signing up for MediCal. There’s been no real mention of housing, May said, but they’re not even asking for that. Their requests are spartan. A trash can, a water hose, a little plot of dirt where they won’t be troubled. “We just need water and the ground—land—that’s it,” she said. “Otherwise, we will take care of ourselves.” Ω

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The camp’s denizens lived in squalid, austere conditions, with no easy access to water or public facilities.

08.25.16 | SN&R | 11

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Should Ami Bera’s dad go to prison? Millions to PACs are legal, but $260,000 to friends gets one-year prison term by jeff vonkaenel

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By sentencing 83-year-old Babulal Bera to a year in prison in addition to a $100,000 fine, United States District Judge Troy Nunley wanted to send a clear message. And he did. Nunley’s ruling once again demonstrates that America has two judicial systems: One for the rich, powerful and sophisticated, and another for everyone else. While Babulal is not poor, he didn’t know how to work the system. Wanting to contribute more than the legal limit of $5,000 to his son Ami Bera’s campaign, he gave money to others, who then contributed to his son’s 2010 and 2012 campaigns. Prosecutors discovered more than $260,000 in illegally funneled donations. And Babulal admits that he did it. What’s strange is not that he tried to get around election laws, but rather, why he chose an illegal method when there are so many legal ways to accomplish the same thing. With the rise of super PACs, there are legal ways to give unlimited amounts of money in support of a candidate—and politically sophisticated donors know this. Big donors who understand the system often give millions of dollars to super PACs, which then produce mailers, conduct polls, buy TV ads and directly work to influence contested races. It’s not uncommon for wealthy family members to cut large checks to super PACs to support a relative’s campaign. And, if they give through a corporation, it may not even be traced back to them in the disclosure reports. Since the rise of Citizens United, this has become a regular occurrence—and political operatives know to direct wealthy donors to these channels. What separates Babulal from the thousands of others who are getting around election financing rules is that he did not use the correct procedure.

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

For this, he could spend a year in prison. In justifying this harsh sentence, Nunley told Babulal that “the harm you have done to the election process here is something that can’t be quantified.” Oh, please. If only we had an election process where Babulal’s $260,000 of donations could harm it. In Ami’s congressional races in 2010, 2012 and 2014, nearly $40 million was spent by all parties. The election financing process is obscene. And, the expectation that political donations will purchase political favors is also obscene. Ironically, Babulal’s contributions, because they were not tied to political favors, may be some of the cleanest money in the campaigns. I wonder how Nunley feels about the Koch brothers funneling $900 million into the 2016 elections. Don’t donations of this size do harm to our election process? And, as if Nunley’s ruling was not bad enough, former congressional candidate Doug Ose, who lost to Ami in 2014, complained that the sentence was too lenient. This is the same Ose who was born into wealth and who personally lent his own campaign over $3 million. But at least he knew how to play the game. The scales of justice are not balanced. Bank officials who immorally and illegally destroyed our economy in 2008 were let off with fines. Eighty-three-year-old Babulal, who didn’t understand the rules of the campaign financing game, is going off to prison. Given his age, Babulal’s one-year jail sentence may become his death sentence. Is this justice? Ω

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

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The california cap and trade fund awarded $30 million to Sacramento’s streetcar project on August 16. That’s good news after the venture was voted down in a 2015 ballot measure. Officials with Sacramento, West Sacramento and Sacramento County contributed $45 million to the project, the remaining $75 million of the $150 million dollar project would come via President Barack Obama’s proposed budget. If approved, the street car could connect the West Sacramento City Center to the Railyards and downtown Convention Center by 2021.

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Art, rAce money by Janelle Bitker • janelleb@newsreview.com

sac ra m e nto ’ s

couple of blocks off of Stockton Boulevard in a residential neighborhood, there’s a white wall that wasn’t always supposed to be white. Back in 2007, SMUD and a now-defunct community group hatched a plan for a mural on 14th Avenue commemorating local landmarks: the Colonial Theatre, Luigi’s Pizza Parlor, an old bowling alley, a couple of churches. Three years later, local muralist Shonna McDaniels gathered a group of painters and started working on the approved design, which featured seven Caucasian, one Asian and two African-American figures. At random, McDaniels began with the two black faces, painted with dark, dark skin. Immediately, some neighbors took notice. “All hell broke loose,” she says. “People were running outside, driving by calling us ‘niggers’ … asking, ‘Who authorized you Negroes to paint images of aliens on the wall?’” She had kids there, wanting to help but crying instead. With neighborhood complaints mounting, SMUD scheduled a community meeting less than a week after painting began. McDaniels describes the screaming gathering as “a total race divide.” Of the 45 stakeholders present, 37 opposed any kind of mural, while the rest just opposed the particular mural being created.

14 | SN&R | 08.25.16

s ce n e

And that was that. “An entire community shut the mural down because they did not want to see images that look like me,” she says. McDaniels is the founder of south Sacramento’s Sojourner Truth Multicultural Art Museum, which features a maze of murals depicting African-Americans such as Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Michael Jordan and Kanye West. Their bold, colorful images flow into the next effortlessly, forming a historical timeline. It’s one of a few places in Sacramento to see painted black faces. It’s also one of a few places to see a high volume of work by a black artist. A stroll through Midtown art galleries on Second Saturday rarely—if ever—yields many pieces by AfricanAmericans or other artists of color. The gallery owners tend to be white. The patrons tend to be white. The artists follow suit. According to the most recent United States census data, Sacramento’s population is roughly 45 percent white, 18 percent Asian and 14 percent black—and nearly 27 percent is of Hispanic or Latino origin. There’s a disparity, and it raises the question: Does art need to reflect the diversity of its city? Is there racism brewing in Sacramento’s art scene? Milton Bowens, a local black artist, says the easy answer is yes. The more nuanced answer, however, requires

photos by evan e. Duran

t o o

wh It e ?

diving into history, money and this city’s reputation in the art world. “The Sacramento arts community really needs to look at itself and be more honest about its liberalism or its inclusion, because racism is institutional,” Bowens says. “If we have institutional racism in the country, there’s institutional racism in the art world.”

‘The big elephanT in The room’ Bowens always tells stories through his artwork. In one collection, he examines growing up poor and black in America through food. Giant, mixed-media pieces evoke a satirical, pop-art aesthetic, with bare-bones recipes etched beside ever-familiar

logos for Crisco, Aunt Jemima and Albers Quick Grits. He approaches art as documentarian, preserving culture and educating the public, and says it’s part of why he’s so concerned with art history and how that history is represented. But does that portrayal—and the country’s long fixation on European art—really impact Sacramento’s art scene today? “More so than anybody wants to discuss,” Bowens says, chuckling. “It’s the big elephant in the room.” Bowens remembers purchasing his first art history textbook, Janson’s History of Art, in the 10th grade. It is and has been required classroom reading for decades, yet its early editions never mentioned women or AfricanAmericans. Bowens remembers seeing no acknowledgment of the Harlem Renaissance’s existence in edition after

“There’s a lot of us who feel we’re being pushed to the side because we’re not white.” Sonya Fe artist

The Brickhouse Gallery's curator Barbara Range is vocal about what she sees as an exclusionary art scene.

edition until 2006. “The textbook is reinforcing institutional racism in the arts,” says Bowens, who now creates art programs for the Twin Rivers Unified School District. Flipping through that textbook makes one thing clear: The people who control the narrative of the American art world are white, and Bowens says that extends to Sacramento. And no one can mandate a civil right for arts inclusion because art is a private industry. In other words, gallery owners can promote any kind of art they want and create all sorts of requirements for the artists they show. They can choose to only show oil paintings of landscapes by artists with a master’s in fine arts, for example. They can decline artists with a simple,

“This doesn’t fit our aesthetic.” Bowen runs into those words a lot—even when he researches the gallery, its artists and the type of work shown and makes sure his own pieces line up stylistically. Often, he says the only significant difference is that he’s black and the faces in his paintings are also black. So, why the rejections? “There’s other things they can create that shield them from the real conversation,” Bowens says. “Because at the end of the day, they’re looking at the artist, they’re not looking at the art.” But gallery curators deny that ethnic background is ever considered. “Race has no place in it at all. We’ve never looked at what race the artist is—if anyone is doing that, that’s horrible,” says

Amber Massey, director of Tim Collom Gallery in Midtown. “What it comes down to is the quality of the art.” Tim Collom’s clean, bright space is usually stocked with traditional landscapes, abstract paintings and figurative pieces—not the sort of racially charged work Bowens creates. Curators have told Bowens in the past that his work makes people too uncomfortable. Massey has never directly worked with Bowens, but says she understands why galleries would have reservations about showing overtly political or particularly challenging pieces. “In general, I think no one wants to take a specific side because they don’t want to isolate themselves,” she says. “Sacramento is a little more conservative, versus if you were to go to San Francisco.”

That’s why Bowens gave up on pitching Midtown galleries long ago. He says he already knows they won’t show him, and that’s OK. He gets his work regularly in the Brickhouse Gallery and arts spaces in local colleges, as well as the Bay Area and East Coast. Erika Byrd gave up, too. The local black painter now only submits to open calls, since her face definitely won’t be involved in the selection process. It’s gotten her portraits into the Kennedy Gallery, Brickhouse gallery and art complex, Elk Grove Fine Arts Center and a few festivals, she says. Still, she has a hard time selling any work in Sacramento and thinks it’s directly because of the color of her skin. She says if she’s standing by her work, art buyers

“ART, RACE & MONEY”

continued on page 17

08.25.16 | SN&R | 15

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“ART, RACE & MONEY”

continued from page 15

hurl questions and criticisms at her. “[They] dehumanize me,” she says. “If someone of a different descent tries to sell [my art], there are no problems—it’s the best thing since sliced bread.” Painter Demetris Washington, better known as BAMR, doesn’t bother with mainstream galleries, either. He’s been told by curators that his distinct, urban style—full of bold strokes, intense colors and hidden messages—stands out too much. Instead, he opts for pop-up shows inside cafes and smoke shops. Washington’s murals can be seen all over town, though: enormous bananas, ears of corn, carrots and tomatoes on Del Paso Boulevard; a giant hand gliding through sketched clouds with a trail of vibrant colors and contrasting shapes at the Warehouse Artist Lofts; a figure with an otherworldly eye for a head at 16th and T streets. None of those were funded by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, rather, he seeks out commercial property and private commissions. Despite all of his successes—his work on a Blue Moon beer bottle, a Sacramento Kings mural at age 19, a studio lined with commissioned pieces—he says he’s never earned any work from SMAC when he’s applied for projects. “I see that some artists are doing very well with them,” he says. “But I also see there are no other artists like me doing anything with them.” That’s the biggest issue to fellow muralist Shonna McDaniels, who has also unsuccessfully applied for many SMACfunded public art projects. She worries about representation, and not just the lack of people of color creating public art but the lack of people of color on the walls themselves. “In order to uplift the young men and women of color in our community, they need to see images that look like them,” she says. “If they never ever see any images that look like them, they think something is wrong with them.”

The diversiTy challenge When the Verge Center for the Arts reopened in 2014, founding director Liv Moe received a lot of flak. That’s because Verge is very different from most Sacramento galleries. It only shows touring work, which frustrates some locals, and it specifically focuses on promoting diversity, both in terms of cultures and disciplines. Moe remembers a scathing letter she received about six months after opening, and it still makes her laugh.

“The letter said something to the effect of, ‘You need to acknowledge that art is made by more than just women and minorities,’” she says, widening her eyes in exasperation. “Like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve had the spotlight for so long, you’re probably sick of hearing about us.’” A white male artist penned that letter, and he also complained about Verge’s video art installations. It’s clear not everyone wants change. “I think saying that implies there isn’t good art coming out of those communities,” she says, referring to the letter’s comment about minorities. “Like [that’s] the only reason you’d give someone a show from a background that’s different than what’s typically been promoted.” Away from Verge, Moe recalls a citywide, women-only studio tour in 2006, which wound up being decently successful. As the group planned the next year’s edition, the organizers all agreed adding men would ramp up attendance. That bummed Moe out, and she has since stopped participating in anything remotely exclusionary—even if it is promoting women. “If you put men on it, it’ll be a normal, popular thing,” she says, explaining the group’s rationale. “But if it’s women, very few people will come, because then it’s this women’s thing. There’s this perception that somehow we’d be making art that’s just about us.” Many artists of color feel similarly, that there’s a common belief they would only create art echoing their culture. Muralist and painter Sonya Fe thinks this plagues Hispanic and Latino artists in particular. She assumes that if curators or SMAC panelists see her name, they immediately envision Day of the Dead or Our Lady of Guadalupe. “There’s a lot of us who feel we’re being pushed to the side because we’re not white,” she says. Like some other local artists of color, Fe blames her lack of SMAC commissions on discrimination. Out of the 332 artists who have had public art projects commissioned by SMAC from 1975-2011, seven are black, 27 are Latino and 28 are Asian, according to a review by SN&R. It wasn’t possible to determine the backgrounds of eight additional artists, but the rest? White, though some potentially have a mixed heritage. Still, the numbers are striking. Less than 1 percent of SMAC’s public art collection was created by African-Americans. It’s easy for artists to grow upset over the course of several rejections. SMAC is complicated, though. Public art is complicated.

Milton Bowens stands in front of one of his distinctive mixed-media pieces, which you likely won’t see in a Midtown gallery.

Take the ongoing Sacramento Mural Festival, for example. The weeklong event links 12 artists with walls, which will each feature a completed mural by Saturday, August 27. Some locals are frustrated, though, that the festival chose only four Sacramento artists and, overall, predominantly white artists. Fe, McDaniels and Washington are among the rejected applicants who point out the lack of diversity, although there are two Sacramento-based Latino artists and one visiting Native American artist in the mix. Here’s the wrinkle: Even though the festival is presented and organized by SMAC, the funding comes from private sources, a.k.a. the building owners. That

means the owners needed to approve of the mural designs. Regardless, SMAC director Shelly Willis says decisions were chiefly made based on the applicants’ past work. “People’s ethnicity wasn’t considered,” Willis says. “You don’t see a photograph of the artist as you’re considering them.” That lines up with SMAC’s process for public-funded projects as well. According to Willis, no one looks at an artist’s name or résumé until deep into the decision-making period. It’s all about the quality of the artwork and proposal. Once a pool of finalists are selected, résumés come out and interviews are arranged. On major projects, such as those outside the Golden 1 Center, artists with more public

“ART, RACE & MONEY”

continued on page 19

08.25.16 | SN&R | 17

Food Is Just The Beginning Collective Giving’s September drive benefits Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services by Ken Magri

hroughout September, participating local medical marijuana dispensaries will be having an old-fashioned canned food drive to benefit Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services (SFBFS). But feeding the hungry is just one of the ways SFBFS assists needy families in Sacramento County. “Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services provides support to those in need in so many ways,” says Kelsi White, founder of Collective Giving, a charitable collaboration of Sacramento-area medical marijuana dispensaries that has chosen SFBFS for its fall donation drive. More than just a depository for distributing fresh and packaged food, SFBFS has 15 programs including adult ESL classes, computers, parenting, breastfeeding, cooking and gardening. In some cases SFBFS provides counseling, resettlement and legal services. Their 3rd Avenue facility has a seed bank for home gardening, and a clothes bank where clients can get a muchneeded outfit for a job interview, or a teenager might find gently used prom clothes. They have art and technology programs, as well as nature outings, for children of all ages. “Our goal is to expose kids to opportunities of all kinds,” said Kelly Siefkin, VP of Communications and Marketing. Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services Vice President Kelly Siefkin and President Blake Young pose next to a tower of produce sculpture at the organization’s Third Avenue location. The sculpture was created in collaboration with 30 SFBFS clients. Photo by Ken Magri

“We would like to put ourselves out of business.”

Local medical marijuana patients can assist in that cause by dropping off food donations in collection bins at participating dispensaries during the month of September. Collective Giving asks that you donate canned items such as tuna, chicken, beans, soups and vegetables. SFBFS shies away from canned fruits because so many come with added sweeteners. Instead, the organization suggests healthier non-perishables like pasta, peanut butter and nuts.

Blake Young, President and CEO, Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services According to SFBFS, 135,000 children and adults receive food and services from the nonprofit each month, but there are almost as many in the area who are not yet getting help. President and CEO Blake Young wants to reach those people, too. Beyond that, he dreams of self-sufficiency for everyone.

“Cannabis patients and the dispensaries really love to give back to the local community,” says White, who also manages the cannabis sections for News & Review in Sacramento, Reno and Chico, “and Collective Giving is a perfect vehicle for that.”

COLLECTIVES CARING FOR THE COMMUNITY.

“We would like to put ourselves out of business,” he says.

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Until that happens, SFBFS and its many partnerships work to give everyone access to enough safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. Young says food is the entry point for their complement of services that eventually lead a client out of hunger and toward financial independence. “You need education to change people’s lives,” added Siefkin.

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art experience rise to the top because they already know how to manage a budget, hire fabricators, work with engineers and make sure the piece doesn’t fall over and kill someone. “These are jobs. We forget that,” Willis says. “We have this image of the artist working alone in their studio making this big thing because they’ve done it over and over again. In public art, that’s just not the case.” Some artists point to the fact that the SMAC staff is all white as a reason for the lack of diverse representation. But SMAC doesn’t actually pick any of the artists chosen for public pieces—a panel does, made up of professional artists, the architect or designer involved in the project, and representatives from the community where the work is going to be placed. Still, do the panelists tend to be predominantly white? It might depend on the location of the artwork. Willis says she tries to ensure the panels are diverse. SMAC, after all, has a diversity statement. But she admits actually working toward true inclusion is a challenge, particularly since SMAC’s budget was hacked into pieces during the recession. SMAC still gets funding from a few places, but to get a sense of the loss, just look to the city’s funding. For 2015-16, the city allocated $539,325 to SMAC. In 2007-08, that number was nearly double at $950,538. The most dramatic cut happened in 2010-11, when the city also froze SMAC’s usual percentage of the Transient Occupancy Tax. Even though the economy has recovered, SMAC’s funding hasn’t been restored. Willis says she does what she can with her limited resources, even depleting SMAC’s reserves this year. Some one-time funding from the city allowed SMAC to add a cultural equity grant last year, which spread about $250,000 across 23 small organizations that work with underserved communities, such as Sol Collective, Sacramento Taiko Dan and McDaniels’ Sojourner Truth Multicultural Art Museum. The grant name alone, though, implies that there isn’t cultural equity in general. “That program wasn’t created in a vacuum,” Willis says. “There’s a hole and we need to recognize that and we need to get people to understand it and pay attention to it.” Along those lines, Willis says SMAC is actively working on collecting and interpreting data in the hopes of better serving all of Sacramento. “We’re aware of it, and we’re trying,” she says. For Marie Acosta, executive director of the Latino Center of Art and Culture,

“These are jobs. we forget that. we have this image of the artist working alone in their studio making this big thing because they’ve done it over and over again. in public art, that’s just not the case.” Shelly Willis

director, sacramento Metropolitan arts commission

SMAC is just one small part of a much bigger discussion about inequality in arts funding. In 2013, Acosta worked on a study for the Latino Arts Network of California, which analyzed Sacramento’s funding of all arts organizations. She found that in 2012-13, the city allocated $2,403,406 to the arts, but only $53,130 was distributed to organizations that serve people of color—all handled by SMAC grants. Most of the money went to the Crocker Art Museum, but the study also points out several loans and grants over the years given to the typically white-dominated opera, symphony and ballet. Has anything changed since the study came out? Acosta points to the city’s $3 million forgivable loan for the B Street Theatre, bumped up from the original $2.5 million late last year. “We support success, but there needs to be some sharing of resources,” she says. “Very few organizations get that kind of treatment, and it’s reflective of who historically gets that kind of treatment.”

The color of landscapes, socializing and free wine She wasn’t supposed to look, but Barbara Range peeked through the shades anyway. She saw fire, smoke and things a young teen should not see outside her home. Range was caught in the Watts riots in 1965, sitting in darkness for days, listening to sirens. “We all just thought we were supposed to forget about it … go back outside and play as if there weren’t tanks rolling down your street and no guy outside your house

with bayonets,” she says. And it scarred her for life. It’s why she says she’s so affected by police brutality today—why she’s dedicated her life to social justice and activism, even as the curator at The Brickhouse Gallery & Art Complex in Oak Park. It’s a gig that came to her when she intended to retire. Now, she’s one of the most open and vocal about what she sees as an exclusionary and racist arts scene. Located just off the bustling strip of Broadway in North Oak Park, the Brickhouse exudes a warm, community vibe: exposed brick, natural light and a lovely, shady courtyard with a pizza oven decorated with mosaic tiles. In the past, Range has shown elegant bridal gowns as part of a show commenting on gender, vintage skateboards with a street-art aesthetic made by Roseville-born Blockhead Skateboards and AfricanAmerican-made quilts steeped in history and politics. “The art I show here is very diverse, but am I gonna make sure ethnic art is shown at the Brickhouse? You’re damn right I am,” Range says. And as a gallery curator showing such art—and because of the Brickhouse’s location just southeast of Midtown—she feels she doesn’t get support from Sacramento. Instead, she gets more interest from artists and art buyers from the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York. Similarly, many artists of color say they have much less trouble selling art, arranging shows or even nabbing public art projects in other cities compared to Sacramento. Sonya Fe noted her work on a milelong mural in Los Angeles as well as a life-sized, fiberglass cow, now on display in Orange County. Shonna McDaniels recently had three pieces in a San Francisco show, The Black Woman Is

God, the sort of exhibit she says would never take place in Sacramento. Jack Hsiao, a local Korean artist who paints figurative nudes, says most of the work he sells in Sacramento actually ships out to art collectors who discovered his work while they were in town visiting. But maybe that isn’t a problem reserved for artists of color. Maybe Sacramento is not the thriving arts hub it claims to be. Who is making a living exclusively off of their art in Sacramento because of money that actually comes from Sacramento? Few, if any, Bowens argues. “A lot of people in Sacramento call themselves art collectors, but they worry about what art costs—then they’re not a real art collector,” Bowens says. “You can’t go to a Sotheby’s or Christie’s auction on a budget.” And that gets to a common argument: Second Saturday isn’t about art anymore, because people aren’t going to galleries to buy art. It’s about socializing and free wine. This whole idea that Sacramento is a thriving arts city? Bowens calls it a lie, a facade. As such, mainstream galleries line their walls with what Sacramento is known for in the art world, and thus, what is proven to sell: landscapes and still lifes. Whoever can best mimic Gregory Kondos and Wayne Thiebaud can probably get a show: a checkerboard of greens, browns and golds depicting Sacramento Valley farmland, picturesque under a radiant blue sky; or slices of lemon, partially obscured by the shadows of other lemons, basking on a picnic blanket. Portraits of black women? Those don’t fit the aesthetic. So, what can be done? Is Sacramento’s arts scene stuck in the ’60s? “This is just going to continue to be a changing process as our awareness of the world changes,” Liv Moe says. She cites history: Women didn’t begin to enter the art conversation until the ’70s, and Chinese and other forms of non-Western art didn’t receive much celebration until the early 2000s. Cities move at different paces. Perhaps, she says, Sacramento art will diversify faster as it grows more metropolitan. As for public art, Shelly Willis says SMAC is driven by artists. That means if artists want to see change, they should talk to her. She says temporary public art projects are the best way to fund more edgy work, but SMAC probably won’t work to create temporary public art opportunities unless there’s a demand for it. In other words, it’s up to the people—a sentiment echoed by many artists. “Unless someone forces a new narrative,” Bowens says, “the narrative never changes.” Ω

08.25.16 | SN&R | 19

Just

Dance When Sacramento Ballet dancerS loSt funding, they formed their oWn company— and they’re Back With a multimedia Spectacular

Capital Dance Project: dancers, choreographers, collaborators.

20 | SN&R | 08.25.16

by Juli boggs pHoTos by lisA bAETZ

even dancers stand at loose attention in a sunlit Midtown studio as their peer and choreographer Karina Hagemeyer experiments with movements in front of the wall-to-wall mirror. For this piece, dancers will be accompanied by a live taiko drum performance, one of nine planned collaborations for Capital Dance Project’s upcoming show, Behind the Barre: Made in Sacramento. “As angular as it can be. Long attitude,” Hagemeyer prompts as they run through the motions again to a recording of the syncopated drumming. Early last summer, Sacramento Ballet dancers were left surprised and disappointed when their seasonal summer layoff came earlier than expected due to budget constraints, canceling the popular Beer & Ballet they’d been working on at the time. Left with a program of choreography they’d already created themselves, the dancers chose to reconvene, secure new funding and produce the show on their own, presenting it as Behind the Barre at the Crest Theatre just 21 days later. They called their new, dancer-run collective Capital Dance Project. “I think that now looking back on it, this was something we had wanted to do for a while—start a summer program to keep dancers in shape and involved and creative,” CDP dancer and organizer Alexandra Cunningham says. “Those events last summer were really just a catalyst.” Now one year later, CDP is gearing up for its second annual presentation of Behind the Barre, this time with the significant modifier, “Made in Sacramento.” While many of the CDP’s 20 dancers hail from countries around the world, the upcoming performance focuses on the inspiration they all pull from the city they now call home, where a resurgence of innovation has appeared in the wake of increased attention and expectations. One can hardly talk about the state of Sacramento arts without mentioning Art Hotel. When the multi-artist undertaking debuted in February, Sacramentans seemed caught off guard by the strength of work they hadn’t thought the local art scene could provide. Art Hotel garnered widespread praise and recognition for both the participating artists as well as the larger Sacramento arts community. CDP was one such organization inspired by the impactful sum of its parts, seeing how interdisciplinary collaboration could result in a meaningful project that would have been impossible without a large, collective effort.

EscapE thosE summEr doldrums see NIGht&daY

BEttEr thaN KFc see Eat mE

“Collaboration is an amazing experience,” Cunningham says. “With dance in particular, where there are no words and we just have body language and music to guide us, it’s always interesting to get different perspectives on how to convey a scene or message.” To help interpret “ As dAncers, Ancers, the upcoming program, CDP paired multiple we’ve felt choreographers with six visual artists previously Al-life A reAl-life of Art Hotel, including Shaun Burner, Trent Dean, Raphael Delgado, nsformAtion trAnsformAtion Franceska Gamez, Waylon Horner and through the Kevin Zee. The program will also feature live rts.” Arts.” music components by electronic dance music Alexandra Cunningham producer Elijah Jenkins, Sacramento Taiko Dan organizer, Capital Dance Project and a classical trio— composer and violinist Andy Tan, cellist Alison Sharkey and pianist I-Hui Chen—performing an original composition created specifically for Behind the Barre. “As a choreographer collaborating with a visual artist, there is another layer of consideration when making a piece,” CDP dancer and choreographer Isabella Velasquez exhibits connecting to the Stefan Calka says. “You want to leave community through dance—like the rest of CDP. space for them in the choreography … because it’s not only the dance that is there for the audience to consider, you want to make sure the viewer is seeing everything the piece has to offer.” its outreach program for at-risk and Cunningham adds that the challenge underserved youth who lack access to of collaboration helps them grow as the arts. artists and performers, no matter what “As dancers, we’ve felt a real-life their discipline. transformation through the arts—how it “That’s what we’re most excited develops imagination and creativity and about, to pick a scene or idea and go in confidence, teaches you how to work so many different directions that you with people and express your voice,” might not have thought of individually Cunningham says. “[We] want to make as an artist yourself,” she says. sure kids in Sacramento can experience Though CDP began out of necessity that too.” to help dancers make ends meet between So far, CDP has opened its studio to seasons, it has already evolved into local student groups for two Behind the a creative opportunity for company Barre rehearsals and has reached out members to develop their professional to 15 local youth organizations, such as skills, connect with the community and 916 Ink and the Boys & Girls Club of present the world of dance to audiences Greater Sacramento, in the effort to get that the Sacramento Ballet has not had 100 kids in seats for each of its upcommuch overlap with in the past. ing performances. Just this month, the group was As its opening night approaches, chosen as a recipient of Sacramento Behind the Barre: Made in Sacramento Republic FC’s Glory Glory Sacramento is breaking the traditional mold of dance fund, granting CDP $15,000 to develop

lEGIt classY

see FoodstuFF

BoxEs, uNchEcKEd see musIc

Bananapocalypse These are the end times for the banana. Public Library of Science recently peeled back the results of a study detailing the current situation. Namely, black sigatoka, a disease capable of destroying banana yields by up to 50 percent, is threatening to drive the Cavendish banana, the most popular and commercially available kind, to extinction. Scientists speculate five to 10 years remain before we

collectively slip on the proverbial peel and behold the bananapocalypse. It was with this in mind that I found it prudent that I attend the seventh annual Banana Festival. After all, this was a living funeral, in a sense. I arrive at the festival a little past noon in time to catch the banana pie eating competition scheduled for 1 p.m.

competitive eating is like the ultimate Fighting championship for your insides and I’m most excited for this event. I hurriedly make my way across the uneven dirt plot serving as a parking lot. As I enter the gates, I first see oversized plush bananas with cartoon visages beaming at festivalgoers. I nearly step on a chihuahua in a banana costume. There are a variety of tents, some more confounding than others, and an assortment of spectacles: a foster parent booth; free book booth; various clothing, hat and jewelry booths; bands; deejays; a corral of ponies; pageants; bounce houses; various food vendors, all adding fried bananas to their menu for the occasion; dancers; drummers; clowns; a man carving figures out of wood with a chainsaw. I’m overwhelmed by the presence of the banana as a symbol and I’m surprised by the assortment of banana and nonbanana related activities and wares. The festival is well attended, mostly with families, and everyone appears to be having a good time. I make two laps around the grounds, but see no signs of where the pie eating competition might be. I spot a food truck selling banana lumpia for a dollar. I buy one and eat it as I continue searching for the contest. The lumpia offers a delicate pastry shell, similar to an egg roll, exploding with sweet banana mash on the inside. It reminds me of Chris Farley’s “fat man in a little coat” skit if it were edible. It is 4 p.m. I admit my failure in finding the banana pie eating competition. I wonder if I missed it entirely or if there were not enough pies or ingredients for pies because there are not enough bananas in the world to make them any longer. I snap out of my day-mare when a 7Up and banana ice cream float is handed to me. Considering the state fair and concessions costs at the movies, the Banana Festival’s prices are considerate and conducive to a family event. The festival organizers have proven, seven years and counting, that the banana will draw people. The festival serves as a fundraiser for the sojourner truth multicultural arts museum, named after the former slave, abolitionist and women’s rights activist. I didn’t know the proceeds benefit the museum before attending, and it makes me all the more glad that I and that many others did as well. sacramento needs art like the world needs bananas. As I leave I wonder, what will the new festival be and what new mascot will come to represent it when the banana is no more?

These are the end times for the banana.

by incorporating an interdisciplinary element: Dancers are choreographers and event planners, painters are participants in performance and musicians present both their music as well as themselves, challenging the notion of art as a rigid and solitary pursuit. By including these elements, CDP dancers are strengthening their own creative and professional repertoire as well as those of their collaborators from within the Sacramento arts community. “Our artists may have come from all over the world, [but] we’ve all spent time in Sacramento and we consider this our home,” Cunningham says. “We’re excited to reinforce that homegrown feel and celebrate the artists who love and want to be here.” Ω See Behind the Barre: Made in Sacramento at 6:30 p.m. Friday, August 26, or Saturday, August 27, at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street. Tickets cost $25. Learn more at www.capitaldanceproject.org.

—Karlos rene ayala k a r lo sa @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

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Stories on Stage: Jodi Angel FRIDAY, AUGUST 26 Selections from acclaimed author and Sacramento City College professor Jodi Angel’s memoir-inprogress will be brought to the stage LITERATURE by actors Ruby Sketchley and Kelley Yvonne Raines. This is a sneak peek at the author of the acclaimed short story collection You Only Get Letters From Jail. $10; 7:15 p.m. at E. Claire Raley Studios for the Performing Arts, 1425 24th Street; https://storiesonstagesacramento.com.

—DeenA DRewIS

Gender Bender Ball: Through The Looking Glass SATURDAY, AUGUST 27 Track down a Mad Hatter hat for the seventh annual Gender Bender Ball. The party is a fundraiser for the Gender Health Center, which provides services to the transgender community in Sacramento. PARTY There will be music, dancing, and Alice in Wonderland-esque shenanigans. Plus, the whole thing will take place in a Victorian mansion; $20-$25; 7 p.m. at Sacramento Hostel, 925 H Street; (916) 455-2391; www.thegenderhealthcenter.org.

—AARon CARneS

Curtis Fest SUnDAY, AUGUST 28

(Veggie) dog days of summer As it turns out, any assumption that the “dog days” of summer are in reference to feeling a little bulldog-ish in the face because of extreme beer and hot dog consumption is misguided. It also does not refer to sweating like a dog, or the time of year when baseball teams collectively look like all they want to do is take a nap. Technically, it goes all the way back to ancient Greece and the constellation of the dog Sirius’ position in the sky during the summer months. But for the sake of simplicity, let’s just acknowledge that civilization has mangled it such that “dog days” equals summer months that are hot AF (and like ballplayers, all you want to do is take a nap). In the last week of August, that’s what we’re up against; every other week leading up to this has been an endless blur of beer festivals, cocktail week felt about two months long, there were too many

illustration by MarGarEt larKin

can’t-miss concerts to count, and a steady diet of cheeseburgers has been par for the course. If you’re looking to lessen that summer bloat both bodily and mentally, check out the following: On Thursday, August 25, holistic health coach Michelle Mahlman leads the Mindful Eating workshop at Sunlight of the Spirit Books (2314 J Street) from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., wherein attendees will learn to focus back on the task at hand—eating—rather than, y’know, Instagram snooping on your ex while you shovel spaghetti into your face. It’s harder than it sounds. The workshop costs $25; visit www.sunlightofthespirit books.com or call (916) 440-1533 to find out more. Further your return to simplicity with one of the earliest iterations of entertainment known to mankind:

birdwatching. On Saturday, August 27, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., walk around American River Ranch (2140 Chase Drive in Rancho Cordova) during the Bird walk with Cliff hawley while you keep an eye out for native species and migrant birds that have stopped by for some Sacto sun. The cost is $8; visit http://soilborn.org or call (916) 363-9685 for more info. Then on Sunday, August 28, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., keep it cool and keep it healthy with the Food as Medicine: No-Bake Nourishment class at Yoga Seed Collective (1400 E Street, Suite B). Attendees will learn how to make a variety of sweet and savory treats that can all be made without an oven. The cost is $20 and you can register at www.theyogaseed.org or by calling (916) 978-1367.

—DeenA DRewIS

Curtis Park will be overflowing with myriad opportunities to see and purchase art at the 10th annual Curtis Fest, which will feature more than 70 artists and crafters. Expect lots of FESTIVAL visual stimulation in addition to a petting zoo, a face-painting fairy, great eats and live music. Free; 10 a.m. at William Curtis Park, 3349 W. Curtis Drive; www.sierra2.org.

—eDDIe JoRGenSen

Brazilian Day Street Festival SUnDAY, AUGUST 28 Couldn’t get enough of Rio during the Olympics? The annual Brazilian Day Street Festival is always a party, filled with music, food and dancing CULTURE that celebrates the culture. This year, there’s a particular focus on celebrating women, and attendees will have the opportunity to learn the art of capoeira. Free, 1 p.m. at 20th and J streets, http://brazacali.wixsite.com/brazildaysacstfest.

—DeenA DRewIS

$5 Tango Class TUeSDAY, AUGUST 30 Tango: the suggestive Argentine dance that everyone loves yet few can perform. Tango’s origins date back to the 1880s along the Argentina-Uruguay border’s River Plate, and it’s only fitting that these lessons take place along the Sacramento River. Come down to Old Sacramento for your DANCE discounted lesson. $5; 6:30 p.m. at Tango by the River, 128 J Street; www.rivertango.com.

—DAve KempA

08.25.16 | SN&R | 23

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Killer feast Fried chicken FeAst For tWo, MAgpie cAFe Every Thursday night, an absurd, Southern spectacular awaits at Magpie. The menu says the meal feeds two, but I’m not sure two mere mortals could ever finish the spread—nor am I certain it could even fit on a two-top table. For $40, you get six pieces of lemony, herby fried chicken, with crazy-crunchy, cornstarch-battered skin; fluffy biscuits with butter; tangy, crisp pickles; dense, creamy mashed potatoes; vinegar-spiked baked beans; and meaty braised collard greens. All at once. Pro move: Cram some chicken skin, a pickle and buttered biscuit into one oversized bite. Killer. 1601 16th Street, http://magpiecafe.com.

—JAnelle bitker

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More bubbly: East Sacramento just got a breakfast, lunch and dinner spot that celebrates drinking around the clock—drinking mimosas, specifically. The Mimosa House (5641 J Street) is an offshoot of the Early Toast restaurants in Roseville and El Dorado Hills. While the suburban restaurants offer huge menus with lots of MexicanAmerican influences, the Mimosa House keeps its offerings a bit more focused. There are pizzas, salads and a burger, but the small plates are a little more interesting and also lean distinctly Southern. Some samples: New Orleans-style shrimp dip ($9), mini shrimp po’boys ($12), fried chicken and waffle bites ($9) and chicken divan ($7), an old-school chicken and broccoli casserole.

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Still, the Mexican influence isn’t completely gone: There’s Taco Tuesday, where you can get $1 tacos at happy hour. The Mimosa House also features a full bar and craft cocktail menu, as well as its long, long list of $5 mimosas. Try champagne with mango juice and watermelon; pineapple, coconut and passion fruit; or go crazy with cranberry juice and Red Bull. You can also order a sampler of three mimosas for $13.95. Beer from the Bay: Berkeley-based Fieldwork Brewing Co. makes some of the best beers in the Bay Area, and now, Sacramentans can taste a solid chunk of its brews in one place. Fieldwork softly opened its long-awaited Midtown taproom (1805 Capitol Avenue) over the

weekend, with 16 beers on tap and a simple, rustic aesthetic. Among the options: a pilsner, saison, gose, breakfast stout and multiple IPAs, including Fieldwork’s distinctive Northeast-style IPAs, Pulp and Galaxy Juice. Barrel-aged brews? You bet. Come hell or: Highwater is officially open at 1910 Q Street. D.J. Rogers and Mick Stevenson of Dad’s Sandwiches and Dad’s on J rebranded Pour House, redesigned the interior, scaled down the cocktail program and totally overhauled its food offerings. As previously reported, lunch and dinner feature eclectic bar food with Southern, New Mexican and Filipino influences. Those same influences make their way onto the brunch menu. There’s an omelet with chicken adobo, black beans and cotija cheese ($10); fried chicken and waffles with mezcal syrup ($13); steak and eggs flavored with ancho chili ($14); and sausage gravy in a biscuit bread bowl ($8). Ω

While physically impossible, I think Wholehearted Juice Co.’s Superhero ($10 plus a $1 bottle deposit) just got me closer to the stuff of comic book dreams. It starts with cold-brew coffee the consistency of chocolate milk and gets infused with cacao, butter, vanilla and coconut oil. It gave me the surge of energy needed to diffuse the bomb, kick supervillain ass, rescue citizens and save the city. You can pick one up at Zuda Yoga (1515 19th Street, Suite 104), the Midtown Farmers Market or via home delivery. Go save the world. www.wholeheartedjuice.com.

—JereMy WinsloW

So cool, so raw AsiAn peArs In China, you should never share a pear. Why? The translation sounds like the word for “separate,” so it’s considered bad luck. It’s best to keep them for yourself and enjoy the cool, grainy lushness of Asian pears. Available in soothing earth tones of green, yellow and tan, Asian pears taste best raw. Their high water content makes them refreshing in salads and on cheese plates. Love Korean bulgogi? The marinade usually includes pureed Asian pears. Eat up quickly, because these pears ripen on the tree.

—Ann MArtin rolke

08.25.16 | SN&R | 25

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1310 Howe Ave #D · Sacramento, CA 95825 · 916-246-9443

On the sidewalk outside La Venadita, Bart Simpson says “Eat my gentrification.” Call it street art, vandalism or whatever you want—the cartoon character’s sentiments rang clear among many in Oak Park when La Venadita, a Mexican restaurant from a prominent Bay Area restaurateur, opened in May. Though it’s upscale for a place that specializes in tacos, the space feels casual overall. There’s counter service. You fetch your own water and napkins. The patio tables feature colorful floral prints, which match the interior’s hip, bright pink-andbrick-and-art aesthetic. It all adds up to $3.50 tacos, which some people will inevitably think is too much money to pay for a taco no matter the taco’s level of deliciousness. Most of the prices at La Venadita feel steep, but not because the food appears to be the same sort of stuff you can buy for much less at one of Sacramento’s many taquerias. A $3.50 taco can and should be in an entirely different category than a $1.75 street taco. It feels unique for Sacramento, but already, competition is brewing for La Venadita’s subgenre of Mexican food, which falls somewhere in between La Fiesta and Zocalo with the added benefit of a full bar. Nixtaco in Roseville is earning tons of praise and also charges $3.50 for a taco, and El Rey, another gourmet taco spot, is expected to open near the arena soon. And that’s a problem for La Venadita, because the food is not yet strong enough to make the excitement over its perceived uniqueness last. It

already doesn’t measure up to similar iterations in the Bay Area—including those by La Venadita’s owner, Tom Schnetz. The Sacramento native operates Berkeley’s Tacubaya and Oakland’s Xolo, among other hotspots. At less than four months old, La Venadita could certainly turn things around. For now, most dishes are too ho-hum. Take the enchilada dinner plate ($12), with two small, chicken- and cheese-stuffed enchiladas under a veneer of mole coloradita. The sauce was tasty, but lacked the deep complexity most moles provide. On the side? Underseasoned beans and bland, dry, green-tinted rice. Those same sides take up most of the chile relleno plate ($12), which offers one poblano chile stuffed with zucchini, corn, cheese and salsa. It’s an excellent chile relleno, but feels expensive when you’re still hungry after. A side of silky corn and zucchini pudding ($3) holds similar appeal flavorwise. Perhaps, La Venadita’s strength is vegetables. It’s certainly not seafood. The shrimp taco ($3.50) tasted purely of jalapenos. The tuna ceviche ($9.50) tasted purely of tomato and lime. With both dishes, I couldn’t taste the reason for ordering them. Bland proteins haunt much of La Venadita’s menu, actually. The chicken tostada ($5) revealed no detectable chicken flavor. Same with the crispy carnitas taco ($3.50), which held a bounty of stretchy cheese, brilliantly red tomatoes and, apparently, pork. The albondigas taco ($3.50) sounded exciting: two small meatballs on a layer of cheesy refried beans, in a taco? Unfortunately, the meatballs were a bit dry and, again, bland. Among those I tried, the vampiro taco ($3.50) was by far the most successful, with juicy, flavor-packed al pastor and a fried cheese skirt. It proved—along with some vegetarian dishes—that La Venadita has potential. With Schnetz’s proven track record, it should be much more than a hipster haven with pricey tacos, mediocre horchata and craft cocktails. Ω

A $3.50 taco can and should be in an entirely different category than a $1.75 street taco.

916.3868599 | 5301 Power Inn Rd, Sac, CA 26 | SN&R | 08.25.16

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

Wine and cheese make any party instantly classy—even in a college dorm room. That means a wine and cheese event in a legitimately classy place, the Old Sugar Mill (35265 Willow Avenue in Clarksburg), promises some serious refinement. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 27, and Sunday, August 28, the venue’s seventh annual Wine & Cheese Faire will offer a diverse array of cheeses to pair with tastings from about a dozen wineries. Take a class about pairing, and after, shop among the vendors touting gourmet olive oil, honey, nuts, jam, vinegar and other items that heighten the tasting experience. Round out the day with a picnic on the grass, enjoying a meal from a food truck and live music. Admission costs $45 per day or $10 for designated drivers. For more information, visit http://oldsugarmill.com.

—Janelle Bitker

This guy saves you money.

Calling classy gourmands

Modern, vegan-friendly Mexican Even before the fire, Cielito Lindo Mexican Gastronomy was vegan-friendly. The 2014 burn temporarily shuttered the modern Mexican restaurant (3672 J Street), but chef Ramiro Alarcon reopened in 2015 with a refreshed and expanded dining space. Pre-fire, Cielito participated in Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge, offering rarely seen house-made seitan. The vegetarian menu—some items have dairy—includes a Mexican lasagna made with cactus, poblanos, zucchini and eggplant and paprika sauce; and

enchiladas with chayote squash. The Sopa Verde del Campo—squash blossoms, cactus, corn, spinach, poblanos, purslane and garbanzos—is perfect for diners who are ready for something different but not too challenging. And then there are the aguas frescas. Made with celery, parsley and pineapple, the sweet and savory Agua del Campo doesn’t taste like it could be any better, but then the server says refills are complimentary. Por favor y gracias.

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By Shoka

08.25.16 | SN&R | 27

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ReviewS

Antony and Cleopatra

A troubled, wonderful world Photo courtesy of B street theatre

by Patti RobeRts

relations with—his white music producer Joe Glaser, who had dubious business tactics, and Miles Davis, who was both a friend and a critic. From the moment he walks onstage with Armstrong’s legendary gesture of forehead mopping and his distinctive gravelly voice, Kearne captures both the musician known by his audience and his more complex persona that he kept mostly hidden, including Satchmo’s prolific swearing. It’s a handsome production, with elements that help elevate the story, from a beautiful set adorned with life-telling props to lighting that emphasizes both mood and change of character, all highlighted with the amazing jazz sounds of the great Satchmo. Ω

Satchmo at the Waldorf

7 p.m. thursday, 7 p.m. friday, 8 p.m. saturday, 7 p.m. and 1 p.m. sunday, tuesday and Wednesday; $26-$38. B street theatre, 2727 B street; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org. through september 17.

Louis Armstrong, also known as Satchmo, knew how to play to an audience, both literally and figuratively. The world-renowned African-American jazz trumpeter, composer, singer and performer, was a success not only with his music, but also in his ability to cross over and be accepted by white audiences at a time when few were able to do so. In B Street Theatre’s current production, Satchmo at the Waldorf by playwright Terry Teachout, a curtain is pulled back to reveal Armstrong as a complex character who traveled a tough road. In a remarkable performance, actor Jahi Kearse embodies Armstrong, and takes us along Satchmo’s journey that started as a son of a prostitute in New Orleans through a musical career that traversed five decades from the 1920s through the 1960s. The talented Kearse gives a memorable one-man, threecharacter show—portraying not only Armstrong, but two men in the musician’s life he had complicated

Every Brilliant Thing

B Street Theatre regular David Pierini serves as storyteller, stand-up comic (and emcee) of this one-man show about a young man’s relationship with his depressed mother. He responds by creating a list of “brilliant things” to highlight the brighter side of life. This subject matter notwithstanding, this is a frequently funny and (on the

4 Poking at politics Jahi Kearse as the title chracter.

Shakespeare’s play is as much about the scandalous love affair between Marc Antony (Ryan Snyder) and Cleopatra (Imani Mitchell) as it is about the Roman Empire after the death of Julius Caesar. Zachary Scovel, Michael O’Sullivan and Steven Campbell are among standouts in a cast that delivers perhaps the most naturally spoken Shakespearean dialogue you’re likely to hear. Th, F, Sa 8pm. Through 9/3. $10-$16. Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Boulevard, (916) 960-3036, www.bigideatheatre.org. J.C.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe—which has been poking fun at politicians and other power brokers since the late 1950s—performs outdoors in Nevada City on Friday, in Davis on Saturday and in Sacramento on Sunday. This year’s extravaganza is an original musical titled Schooled, and the satirical show is set at a high school, experiencing financial distress, leading to underpaid teachers working with old textbooks in aging school buildings that are overdue for modernization. There’s a school board election underway, and the candidates include a tech industry tycoon who wants to privatize many aspects (and save money by replacing the flesh-and-blood faculty with “computer-generated teachers”); and a superannuated octogenarian history teacher who is an activist out of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration tradition. The whole thing is set to jazzy music, performed live with an infectious beat by a threepiece band. For those unfamiliar with the SF Mime Troupe, Michael Gene Sullivan—who is co-author of the script, and directed the show— stressed a point he always makes in interviews: “We don’t do silent mime. I can never say that too many times. We do political musical theater.” In other words, don’t expect Marcel Marceau. —Jeff Hudson schooled, 7 p.m. friday; $20; Pioneer Park, 421 Nimrod street in Nevada city; www.minersfoundry.org; (530) 265-5040. 7 p.m. saturday; free (donations welcome); community Park, 1405 f street in Davis. 5 p.m. sunday; free (donations welcome); southside Park, 2115 sixth street. www.sfmt.org.

fouL

whole) uplifting monologue, with some audience participation thrown in. Th, F

8pm; Sa 5pm and 9pm; Su 2pm; Tu 6:30pm; W 2pm and 6:30pm; Through 9/18. $23-$35.

2711 B Street; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org. J.H.

A Grand Night for Singing

Any night is a good night for the music of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, especially when the tunes are presented as lovingly and well as they are in this Fair Oaks Theatre Festival production. Deane Calvin proves herself to be an excellent chanteuse interpreter of these tunes. The remainder of the cast—Joe Hart, Jonathan Blum, Zane Boyer, Corey Winfield, Brittni Proffitt and Leann Frazier—acquits themselves nicely, too. F, Sa, Su 8pm. Through 9/18. $12-$18. Fair Oaks Theatre Festival, Veterans Memorial Amphitheatre, 7991 California Avenue in Fair Oaks. (916) 966-3686; www. fairoakstheatrefestival. com. J.C.

The Last Lifeboat

The drama set on the ill-fated Titanic focuses on the ship’s builder, J. Bruce Ismay. Amidst the catastrophe, he takes an empty seat on a lifeboat (1,500 others perished)—and then is vilified as a coward, because he didn’t “go down with the ship.” The play poses the intriguing moral question: What would you do in the same situation? F, Sa 8pm. Through 9/10. $12-$54. Main Street Theatre Works, 1127 N. Main Street in Jackson. www.mstw.org. J.H.

short reviews by Jim carnes, and Jeff hudson.

faIr

GooD

WeLL-DoNe

5 suBLIMe– DoN’t MIss

Not quite Disney. Photo courtesy of the caLIforNIa MusIcaL theatre

A darker tale Parents seeking a child-friendly, Disney-esque option, be warned, this Music Circus take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame is decidedly darker than the 1996 animated musical version on which it’s based. This rendition hews closely to Victor Hugo’s plot, which in turn makes for a dramatic and compelling story of love and revenge. The production does showcase Alan Menken’s Academy Award-winning score and also debuts several new songs. Trivia: Like his character Quasimodo, actor John McGinty is also deaf. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; $45-$88. Wells Fargo Pavilion Music Circus, 1419 H Street; (916) 557-1999; www.californiamusicaltheatre.com.

—RacHel leibRock

08.25.16 | SN&R | 31

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Best part of chariot racing? All the free bugs you can eat!

How bad is the new Ben-Hur? Let me count the ways. I’ll start with the script, wellspring of all lousy movies. This subliterate act of vandalism was perpetrated by Keith R. Clarke and John Ridley. Did either man bother to read Gen. Lew Wallace’s novel, or even the Classics Illustrated comic book? Did they sit down to watch the 1925 silent with Ramon Novarro or the 1959 Charlton Heston remake and doze off? Of all Ben-Hurs, this is the shortest since 1907; how did Clarke and Ridley cover the ground in 123 minutes? Simple: They cut half the story. Gone is Quintus Arrius, the Roman general who adopts Ben-Hur (Tony Huston) when the galley slave saves his life in battle. Gone, too, is Ben-Hur’s rise to wealth and fame as a Roman citizen. The dialogue sounds like it was written by 8-year-olds. In the trailer, Messala (Toby Kebbell) screams, “Are we having fun now, brother?” at Ben-Hur during the chariot race, so I knew not to expect soaring eloquence. Still, I was startled when Ben-Hur saw Messala’s battle armor and gasped, “Wow!” How long will it be, I thought, before somebody here says “OK”? Answer: about 45 minutes. The speaker was Morgan Freeman as the owner of Ben-Hur’s chariot team. And he said it twice. Freeman’s a smart actor; why didn’t he ask to change the line? Maybe he figured this was a stinker no matter what he did.

by Jim LAne

Ben-Hur’s director is Timur Bekmambetov, whose reputation rests on two terrible Russian vampire movies (Night Watch and Day Watch) and a terrible American one (Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer). Will his next movie be better (which seems hardly likely) or worse (which seems impossible)? Let us wait and hope for the best. Performances? Jack Huston as Ben-Hur shows little of the screen magnetism that runs in his famous family (Anjelica is his aunt, John his grandfather). Toby Kebbell rivals him in low-wattage presence. Morgan Freeman blows them both off the screen just by showing up. No one else makes the slightest impression. The chariot race? This shortest Ben-Hur has the longest race, which shows where the movie’s heart is. But less really is more; the 1925 and 1959 races will have your heart pounding; this one, gussied up with the usual physics-defying CGI, is as ho-hum as a Fast and Furious chase. Finally, the movie ends happily. Not because Ben-Hur’s mother and sister (Ayelet Zurer, Sofia Black-D’Elia) are cured of their leprosy or because the Hurs accept the Carpenter of Nazareth as the Messiah, but because Ben-Hur and Messala (literally) hug and make up, then (literally!) ride off into the sunset together. The movie has one merciful touch: Wallace, whose novel is so wantonly desecrated, is never mentioned in the credits. Wherever he is, I’m sure he’s very happy about that. Ω

This shortest Ben-Hur has the longest race, which shows where the movie’s heart is.

1 2 3 4 5 Poor

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fiLm CLiPS

Indignation

Best known for writing or co-writing nine of Ang Lee’s films, James Schamus makes his feature directing debut with this adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2008 novel. Logan Lerman stars as Marcus Messner, an intellectual Jewish atheist teenager who avoids the Korean War by attending a small Ohio college. Anti-Semitism, sexual repression, communistera paranoia and emotional insecurity swirl indistinguishable into a tornado of adolescent angst for Marcus, especially when he gets involved with a complicated female student played by Sarah Gadon. Indignation feels like the work of a writer turned first-time director: it’s patient and actor-friendly (the centerpiece scene is an 18 minute-long standoff between Marcus and the judgmental Dean played by Tracy Letts) with some novel-like dimensions, but the emphasis is placed on construction and texture at the expense of pace, momentum and visual language. The performances hold it together, including a scene-stealing turn from Linda Emond as Marcus’ mother. D.B.

Kubo and the Two Strings

Laika CEO Travis Knight makes his feature directing debut with Kubo and the Two Strings, an ambitious stop-motion fantasy adventure about a would-be storyteller repressed by a “cold, hard, perfect” father figure. This is where it should be noted that Laika is owned by Travis’ father Phil, a co-founder of Nike and one of the richest men in the country. I’m not sure how to apply that information, which pretty much sums up everything good but not great about Kubo. It feels like the film could (or should) be deeply personal, but it’s also a nonspecific tangle of cultural and thematic threads, with too much clutter and not enough urgency. The whole of Kubo ends up less satisfying than the sum of its set pieces … but what jaw-dropping set pieces! Kubo takes your breath away every few minutes, even as it keeps dropping more rules, back stories, explanations and stories within stories into the mix. D.B.

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Equity

A Wall Street investment banker (Anna Gunn) strives to put together an IPO for a burgeoning tech company, while struggling to overcome the stigma of another IPO that she supposedly blew earlier in the year. Briskly directed by Meera Menon and smartly written by Amy Fox, Sarah Megan Thomas and Alysia Reiner (Thomas and Reiner also play key roles, as Gunn’s assistant and a federal investigator, respectively), the movie is slick, well-crafted and fascinating in a watch-all-the-sharks-eateach-other way. There’s the usual drawback of these masters-of-the-universe movies: The ordinary folks in the audience get nobody to identify with; everyone in sight is either amoral, ineffectually honest, ruthlessly venal or some combination of the three. The variation on the theme here is that so many of them are women. J.L.

BY DANIEL BARNES & JIM LANE

Pete’s Dragon

The Disney film brand has been mired in an existential identity crisis of late, obsessed with sequels and remakes but fixated on re-examining traditional roles and institutional values. All that self-conscious re-branding leaves little room for old-fashioned Disney magic, and up until this year, the studio’s spate of live-action remakes of animated chestnuts has proved a dry well of pixie dust. That’s why it’s almost shocking that director and co-writer David Lowery’s genuinely magical Pete’s Dragon carries the Disney label. There is such a purity of vision to this thing, such a warm storybook vibe, and such a scarcity of the usual family entertainment pitfalls that it feels like the film was made in secret. There was little in Lowery’s previous work (he edited Upstream Color, produced Listen Up Philip and directed Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) to suggest he could summon the Disney magic, but Pete’s Dragon is his proof. D.B.

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They say “whoever smelt it dealt it,” but we say “open air, don’t care.”

Hell or High Water

This is another Bechdel test-failing, steak-and-eggs genre picture from Starred Up director David Mackenzie, with another lean and hardboiled script from Sicario screenwriter Taylor Sheridan. Chris Pine and Ben Foster star as West Texas bank robber brothers, the former a lifelong straight arrow trying to pay off a debt, the latter a loose cannon career criminal. Jeff Bridges is the gruff Texas ranger on their trail, a grizzled widower on the verge of retirement, all too eager to stave off his inevitable appointment with the rocking chair. All of the performances are strong, with Bridges especially nailing a tailor-made part, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is essentially No Country for Old Men without the existential poetry. Hollywood used to turn out solidly constructed, midsized genre films like this by the score, but now they’re so rare that Hell or High Water practically seems like a unicorn. D.B.

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Sausage Party

On the shelves of a supermarket, all the food items—frankfurters, buns, mustard jars, ketchup bottles, etc.—wait eagerly for the day they’ll be chosen by some shopper and transported to the “Great Beyond”—never suspecting that their true fate is to be chopped, cooked and eaten. Some of the jokes in the script are profanely funny (just imagine the double entendre possibilities of wieners sliding into buns) and the novelty of a raunchy adults-only cartoon has a naughty charge. That’s good for about 15 minutes, then all this food reaches its sell-by date and grows stale; the characters and story aren’t engaging enough to fill 89 minutes. Seth Rogen co-writes and provides a star voice, with other voices by his usual gang of buddies: Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, etc. J.L.

Southside with You

Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers play young Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama in this slight but sweet offering from first-time writer-director Richard Tanne. The film follows the future FLOTUS and POTUS on their first date in the summer of 1989, although Michelle is adamant from the beginning that it’s not a “date,” fearful that dating an entrylevel associate at her law firm could be viewed as “tacky.” Over the course of a day, the chain-smoking Barack gradually wears down Michelle’s resistance, with each giving the other a glimpse into their inner fears and desires, as well as a vision of the towering people they would become. They go to an art gallery, they have a picnic in the park, they get ice cream, Barack gives a speech in a church—it’s so respectful I could barely keep my eyes open, but first-rate performances from Sumpter and Sawyers pulled me through. D.B.

Suicide Squad

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. 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

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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. 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. D.B.

War Dogs

In the early days of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, two 20-something slackers, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller) hustle their way into the international arms business, making hundredmillion-dollar deals between bong hits and lines of coke. Todd Phillips’ direction is typically jerky and unsubtle, but his script (co-written with Steven Chin and Jason Smilovic, from Guy Lawson’s Rolling Stone article and subsequent book) follows the facts of Diveroli and Packouz’s true story fairly closely. And that’s enough—the mind-boggling chutzpah of these two sleazeballs (plus Hill and Teller’s strong performances) keep us watching in fascination. Packouz (who plays a bit part) comes off as more sympathetic, suggesting that he cooperated with the filmmakers more than Diveroli did. J.L.

Renaissance

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• Live DJ Mike Jones • Dancing • Food • Car Show AUGUST 26 • 7:30PM – 12AM $10 DONATION VFW Post 6158 • 8990 Kruitof Way • Fair Oaks, CA (corner of Hazel and Sunset • behind the park) 34 | SN&R | 08.25.16

doesn’t have a drummer right now, which might cause other bands to take a hiatus. Instead, for this upcoming show, they will try something they’ve never done before: Winnen will play drums and prerecord her guitar parts. Cresca’s website describes itself as a “queer prog-punk” band, but labels are tough. Members have considered other terms like “experimental” and “ambient,” but those terms have very specific connotations. Still, “prog-punk” doesn’t quite explain the unusual, unique sounds off their debut fulllength, Cresca II, which the band partially released this past spring. The songs so far are slow, eerie, heavy-alt, guitar-driven and punctuated with spooky synths—and more will come at some point in the future. There’s also a new dark and brooding EP, The Downfall of Feeling, that should be released in the next couple of months. “It’s not that I think genre doesn’t matter, but I think trying to put anything in a box is just kind of limiting,” Carmel says. In the band’s short existence since it formed in 2013, the members have gone through several phases. Matching hair, matching stares. The initial incarnation, which was under a different name, was a straight-forward pop-punk band. When they changed the name to Cresca, they were playing Think of Cresca as a group of dabblers. The goal isn’t progressive-metal songs that topped eight minutes in length. As they work on new material, they are to refine one musical genre, but to dip into a whole already trying out new, jazzy sounds with clean guitar bunch of different ones, like punk, metal, jazz and channels. styles that don’t even have names yet. “We can play with soft bands and “The idea is to write a song that uses heavy bands,” Winnen says. “You a technique that I’ve never used, or can put us anywhere and people a style I’ve never used,” guitarist “You’re not one are like, ‘Oh yeah, that makes Tristen Winnen says. “I can only sense.’” really write if I’m trying to of the two boxes So far, Cresca has played innovate.” that society decided with a lot of different bands, This adventurous approach to implement for some welcomed in the metal and reflects the members’ personalipunk scenes as well as on ties, and their unwillingness to reason. No one is.” more eclectic bills. On Friday, just accept reality as it’s been Tristen Winnen August 26, Cresca will play dictated to them by others. guitarist, Cresca alongside a garage-soul band, “I’ve always been a questionstandup comedians and local ing person,” Winnen says. “The promoter Jerry Perry, who will be moment my parents were like, ‘You getting interviewed on stage. In a way, are this,’ I was like ‘Why?’ We all feel this is the most appropriate lineup for this like this limited us as kids, and it limited our hard-to-classify band. growth.” “A lot of people started telling me, ‘I love you The current lineup of Winnen, bassist-vocalist guys because I don’t really know what to call you,’” Brianna Carmel and keyboardist Luis Quintero all Carmel says. “We talk about doing all kinds of identify a little off the spectrum of gender. things. Nothing’s really off the table, as long as the “Lately, I’ve been thinking that everyone’s queer music’s good and it has a certain feeling to it.” Ω on some level,” Winnen says. “You’re not one of the two boxes that society decided to implement for some reason. No one is.” Check out Cresca on Friday, August 26, at Naked Lounge, 1111 h Street. Their exploratory spirit comes in handy—for tickets are $5. For more information, visit www.crescaband.com. example, when members come and go. Cresca Photo BY ShoKA

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Good vibrations: The Beach Boys weren’t always about cars and girls and surfing. I See Love, a tribute album featuring a few local artists, covers Sunflower. It comes out on Wednesday, August 31, the same day as Sunflower did back in 1970. If you consider yourself a Beach Boys fan and have never heard of Sunflower, don’t freak out. It’s puzzling, actually, how the record could be so critically acclaimed yet also become so forgotten over time. The easy answer? There’s no colossal hit on Sunflower. The closest? “Forever.” Anyway, I See Love pairs 12 indie artists with Sunflower’s songs—in some cases, completely reimagining them so they’re barely recognizable. Still, the romantic, vibrant energy of the Beach Boys seeps through even the most synthy, electro-pop makeovers. It’s a beautiful, fun collection for both old Beach Boys fans and younger strangers. As far as locals go, there’s Nevada City’s Golden Shoulders turning “This Whole World” into a charming, low-fi indie rock track; Rob Brundage, formerly of Wife & Son, with a stripped-down, psychedelic version of “Got to Know the Woman”; and Mike Visser of Imaginary Tricks and former Sacramento band Frank Jordan added even more distance and spaciness to “All I Wanna Do.” Then, there’s Adam and Darcie, the Grass Valley indie folk duo. Adam Sanders actually got the whole project going about a year ago. Fittingly, the husband-andwife team covered the supremely romantic “Our Sweet Love” with layered vocal harmonies and a lovely, lush aesthetic. “It may sound overly rosy, but we believe there’s a need for more optimism, kindness, forgiveness, sunshine,” Sanders says. “Credit to the Beach Boys and the songs on Sunflower for offering a message that may be as timely today as it ever was.”

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Yard fest: Maybe it was the dog in a red tutu or the girls wearing flower crowns, but this backyard show felt very different than most backyard shows. That’s partially because it had a name, and most backyard shows don’t have names. It was Summer Opus, already in its third year. With that came stellar organization and professional sound, as well as multiple artists who were, in comedian Daniel Humbarger’s words, “painting the shit out of paintings.” Yes, there was a comedy hour, too. The mini-festival of sorts is partly organized by Andrew Barnhart, the frontman of on-hiatus electronic rock act Saint Solitaire. As such, lots of musicians were in the house—err, in the yard—and the lineup was stocked with talent. Headliner Life in 24 Frames was well-complemented by fellow local indie band Epsilona, whose set of psychedelic and ’80s power-popleaning jams felt in perfect sync with the gathering’s chill vibes. Watch out for Epsilona rocking LowBrau on Tuesday, September 20, for a Le Twist event—the group will release some new music that night. The only strange, out-of-place Summer Opus booking was Honey B & the Cultivation, the lone reggae act of the evening. The band delivered solid grooves and, to her credit, singer Honey B tried to work the crowd, weaving throughout the party instead of performing solely on stage. But folks seemed to lose interest right after the first song, when Honey B attempted to justify her use of a fake Jamaican accent—an accent she maintained while chatting in between songs as well. She said she grew up in the Central Valley, but since her mom taught in Jamaica, Honey B “spent some time there.” Clearly, she fell in love with the music, the culture and awkwardly speaking in Jamaican English. Coupled with her sports bra that read “Jamaica” underneath a fishnet tank top, Honey B presented herself as a massive stereotype. She also stuffed a scarf in her back pocket with Rastafarian colors, and her belt and earrings displayed red, yellow and green stripes as well. With reggae, it’s a particularly fine line between celebrating a style and

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Tey Yaniis

Mike Watt and the Secondmen

Tenement

Lucy Woodward

Shine, 8 p.m., $15 With warm, soulful vocals and a quick-hit delivery that veers into hip-hop territory, the debut full-length from Tey Yaniis delivers serious smoothness. It seemed like the local R&B singer-songwriter was working on The Soul Jones Collection for forever, but he quietly started handing out copies earlier this year. Now, it’s time for the big splash—and to party. Celebrate with R&B Yaniis and his band, along with Miss Mouthpeace and Ms. Lovely, for a night he’s calling “the Soul Jones Experience.” Then, look forward to more new music: Yaniis is already busy working on an EP, set for a fall release. 1400 E Street, www.facebook.com/ teontowers.

Cafe COlOnial, 9 p.m., $8

Old irOnSideS, 9 p.m., $12-$14 Mike Watt has been busy the past decade. Certainly, most people know him for Minutemen and Firehose. But ALT-ROck since then, he’s recorded several solo records. The Secondmen was formed to play his third solo album, 2004’s The Secondman’s Middle Stand, a strange concept album that ties his own brush with death in 2000 to Dante’s The Divine Comedy. He originally enlisted organist Pete Mazich and drummer Jerry Trebotic, and he’s got them back for this string of shows. 1901 10th Street, www.hootpage.com.

—aarOn CarneS

harlOw’S reStaurant & niGhtCluB, 7 p.m., $15-$18

In an alternate, more pure universe, Wisconsin cheese plays second fiddle to garage-rock band Tenement. There’s something distinctively Midwest about Tenement. It’s the blue-collar doo-wop bleeding into the basement where it holes up for hours on end, recording at a prolific pace. It encompasses that feeling of “nothing else to do/ but talk to you” that Big Star tapped into. It fits comfortably into a GARAGe ROck legacy of Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, Guided by Voices, and Violent Femmes. Predatory Headlights was its breakout record from 2015. 3520 Stockton Boulevard, www.facebook.com/tenement.

Pop singer Lucy Woodward has been around for a minute and she’s got the polish to prove it; her major label debut, While You Can, came out back in 2003 and included the top 40 hit “Dumb Girls.” In the years since, Woodward has POP grown up and pursued a jazzier, slinkier vibe, with last month’s release of Til They Bang on the Door to show for it. Though still thoroughly in the realm of pop with its eye on commercial radio, Woodward shows a grittier, more powerful side to her vocals on the cover of Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband.” 2708 J Street, www.lucywoodward.com.

—Blake GilleSpie

—deena drewiS

—Janelle Bitker

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Explosions In The Sky

Gravy Nation

Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires

Y La Bamba

Ace of SpAdeS, 7 p.m., $20 Although it’s been a while since many were introduced to this Texas-based act through, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever, Explosions in the Sky still has much to offer—most recently, The Wilderness, which came out in April. As might be expected, it’s an evolution that incorporates more AMBIENT ROCK electronic elements, though it’s still the same percussive, swelling band fans love. The group serves up a heaping serving of cerebral indie-rock fare that soars as high as the heavens without ever taking you to the underworld. 1417 R Street, www.explosionsinthesky.com.

—eddie JorgenSen

Sunday, September 11

UniverSity Union SernA plAzA At SAcrAmento StAte UniverSity, noon, no cover Gravy Nation doesn’t appear to be committed to any one musical genre; instead, it seems to lift bits and pieces from ROCK many different sources. Morsels of grunge are mixed with Stokes-era guitars. Tidbits of soul are nonchalantly partnered up with punk-sneer vocals. Just when Gravy Nation has pinned itself down—It’s pop! No, no, it’s alt!—the music changes up, and suddenly, bubble gum rock infused with ’60s psychedelia have taken center stage. Not to say overt changes occur without warning; Gravy Nation uses a deft, restrained touch. 6000 J Street, www.facebook.com/gravynation.

—Amy Bee

Friday, September 23

HArlow’S reStAUrAnt & nigHtclUB, 9 p.m., $40 Soul music’s raw emotion holds hearts hostage and at the same time inspires fans to work up a sweat on the dance floor. Its upbeat rhythms sway hips to the lyrical laments of soul legends like Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and James Brown. But artists like Charles Bradley, who released his first album, No Time For Dreaming, in 2011, prove it’s never too late to revive SOUL the soulful sounds of the ’50s and ’60s. Bradley will also perform songs from his newest album, Changes, released on Daptone Records. 2708 J Street, www.thecharlesbradley.com.

SopHiA’S tHAi KitcHen, 7 p.m., $7-$10 Feel lucky, Sacramentans and Davisites: Y La Bamba’s fourth and terrific new album Ojos Del Sol drops September 2, which means you get to celebrate a full day early with a live show. Hailing MEXI-FOLK from Portland, Ore., Y La Bamba’s latest is rich, textured, nuanced, evocative—I could go on and on with the adjectives, but just know that Luz Elena Mendoza’s vocals are both Old World and cutting-edge, backed by three-part harmonies that manage that same duality; all together, the band creates an experience rather than a simple sequence of songs. 129 E Street in Davis, www.ylabamba.com.

—deenA drewiS

—StepH rodrigUez

Saturday, October 8

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SN&R

THURSDAY 8/25 BADLANDS

2003 K St., (916) 448-8790

BAR 101 List your event!

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

Hey local bands!

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.

FRIDAY 8/26

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

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

BLUE LAMP

SUNDAY 8/28

SCOTTY VOX, 9:30pm, call for cover

MASSIVE DELICIOUS DUO, 9:30pm, call for cover

Deeply Rooted, 10pm, no cover

JUDAS THIEVES, DIO’S MAIDEN, LOVE REMOVAL MACHINE; 8pm, $8-$10

1400 Alhambra, (916) 455-3400

THE BOARDWALK

SATURDAY 8/27 Spectacular Saturdays, 10pm, call for cover

#TurntUp Thursday, 9pm, no cover

TURNOVER, TRIATHALON ANGELDUST;

9426 Greenback Ln., Orangevale; (916) 988-9247 6:30pm, $15-$18

CENTER FOR THE ARTS

NO MUTINY CLIQ, 7pm, $12-$15

Good Vibes, 10pm, call for cover

J.STALIN, EDWARD MENDOZA; 7pm, $20

LOLO GERVAIS, 8pm, $20-$27

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

COUNTRY CLUB SALOON

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

STAINLESS BROWN, 5pm, call for cover; MERRY MAC, 9pm, call for cover

DISTRICT 30

MILES MEDINA, call for time and cover

DJDM, GOLD MOZAE; call for time and cover

1016 K St., (916) 737-5770

FACES

2000 K St., (916) 448-7798

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

CHICKEN & DUMPLING, 8pm, no cover

1001 R St., (916) 443-8825

THE MINDFUL, MASSIVE DELICIOUS; 9pm, $5

THE NEW PAST, KEN KOENIG, BRIAN WATSON; 9pm, $5

GOLDFIELD TRADING POST

BRODIE STEWART BAND, 8pm, $5

Night club fight club sci-fi wars, 9pm, $10 Sunday Mass with heated pool, drag show, 2pm, no cover

GRACIANO’S SPEAKEASY

Open-mic night, M, call for cover

1023 Front St., (916) 321-9480

Westcoast poker league, 6:30pm, no cover

HALFTIME BAR & GRILL

Karaoke happy hour, 7pm, no cover

HARLOW’S

MLEO, 7:30pm, $8-$10

THE HIDEAWAY BAR & GRILL 2565 Franklin Blvd., (916) 455-1331

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

HIGHWATER

Punk & rock n roll, 10pm, no cover

DJ Deleo, 10pm, no cover

Top 40 dance, 10pm, no cover

LUNA’S CAFE & JUICE BAR

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

JAMES FINCH, NOAH NELSON; 8pm, $5

DAVID HOUSTON, STRING THEORY; 8pm, $5

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

Late night R&B, 9:30pm, call for cover

R&B neo soul &open mic, 9:30pm, call for cover

Jazz jam with Reggie Graham, 6:30, call for cover

TRAGICALLY WHITE, 9pm, $5 SAID THE SHOTGUN, 5:30pm, $6-$8; NEIL HAMBURGER, 10pm, $14-$17

2708 J St., (916) 441-4693

Trivia night, 7pm Tu; Bingo, 1pm W; Paint night, 6:30pm W, $25 STEELIN’ DAN, 5pm, $15-$20; DEZARIE, 10pm, $18-$20

RUBEN PAUL, TUNER SPARKS; 7pm, $17-$20

COMING SOON

THE COMEDY OF RUBEN PAUL

8/25 7:30PM $8ADV

MLEO

TURNER SPARKS

8/29 5:30PM $15ADV

8/26 5:30PM $6ADV

LUCY WOODWARD

SAID THE SHOTGUN ADAM VERONA

(ALL AGES)

9/1 8PM $40

8/26 10PM $14ADV THE COMEDY OF

CHARLES BRADLEY

NEIL HAMBURGER NICK FLANAGAN JOHNNY TAYLOR

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8/27 5PM $15ADV

STEELIN’ DAN

08.25.16

9/2 9PM $15ADV

TRACY CRUZ

BAKARITHABRIDGE, ADRIAN & STACI, CLASSIC CHRIS JONES

LUCY WOODWARD, 5:30pm M, $15-$20 Cactus Pete’s 78 RPM Record Roundup, 8pm Tu; Twisted Trivia W

2708 J Street Sacramento, CA 916.441.4693 www.harlows.com 8/28 7PM $17ADV

EDM and karaoke, 9pm M, no cover; Latin night, 9pm Tu, $5 Open-mic night, 7:30pm M, no cover; Pub quiz, 7pm Tu, no cover

1603 J St., (916) 476-5076

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

Big Mondays happy hour all night, M; Karaoke, Tu; Trapicana, W Trivia, 6:30pm M; Open-mic, 7:30pm W, no cover

1910 Q St., (916) 706-2465

SN&R

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 8/29-8/31

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

09/04 Tell the Wolves 09/05 Kindred the Family Soul 09/06 Luciano 09/08 Honey C 09/11 J. Sirus 09/12 Chuck Ragan/Nathan Maxwell (of Flogging Molly) 09/15 Carl Verheyen 09/16 Tainted Love 09/17 Café Musique 09/17 Slick Rick the Ruler 09/18 Ottmar Leibert 09/19 Andy Mineo 09/20 Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds 09/22 Whiskey and Stitches 09/25 Lera Lynn 09/26 Steve Gunn & The Outliners 09/27 Gaelic Storm 09/28 El Ten Eleven 09/30 Rituals of Mine (FKA Sister Crayon) 10/01 Elizabeth Cook 10/08 Survive

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

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THURSDAY 8/25

FRIDAY 8/26

SATURDAY 8/27

SUNDAY 8/28

MIDTOWN BARFLY

Salsa Wednesday, 7:30pm W, $5

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

NAKED LOUNGE DOWNTOWN 1111 H St., (916) 443-1927

SAM KINUNEN, MARTIN PURTILL, AIDEN KNIGHT; 8pm, $5

CRESCA, FAILURE MACHINE, JO-JO LOUIS; 8:30pm, $5

ERICA AMBRIN, PHAY; 8:30pm, $5

OLD IRONSIDES

Real live comedians, 9pm, $5

MIKE WATT & THE SECOND MEN, SICFUCS; 9pm, $12-$14

MAD QUEEN, EVOLUTION EDEN, HIGHWAY XII; 9pm, $8

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

ON THE Y

670 Fulton Ave., (916) 487-3731

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 8/29-8/31

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

Saturday night karaoke, 8pm, no cover

DUPLICITY, THE INITIATIVE; 8:30pm W, $5 Karaoke, 9pm Tu, no cover; Open-mic, 9pm W, no cover Open 8-ball pool tournament, 7:30pm, $5

Karaoke, 9pm Tu; Dart and movie night, 7pm W, no cover

LARA PRICE, 3pm, $10

Live band karaoke, 8pm Tu, call for cover

PISTOL PETE’S

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

POWERHOUSE PUB

SKID ROSES, 10pm, $10

614 Sutter St., Folsom; (916) 355-8586

THE PRESS CLUB

2030 P St., (916) 444-7914

THE BALLANTYNES, CELESTIONS, THE COLLYER BROS; 8pm, $10

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

Pop 40 with DJ Larry, 9pm, no cover before 10pm

Sunday Night Dance Party, 9pm, call for cover

Monday vibes, 9pm M, no cover

SHADY LADY SALOON

HOT CITY, 9pm, no cover

SWITCHBLADE TRIO, 9pm, no cover

CURRENT PERSONAE, 9pm, no cover

PETER PETTY, 9pm, no cover

Musical mash up, 9pm, no cover

STARLITE LOUNGE

CRIMSON EYE, CHROME GHOST, CAUSTIC CASANOVA; 8pm, $8

JUST LIKE HEAVEN; 8pm, $7

STONEY’S ROCKIN RODEO

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

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

Country DJ dancing and karaoke, 8pm, $5

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

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

TORCH CLUB

Acoustic with X-TRIO, 5pm; ISLAND OF BLACK AND WHITE, 9pm, $5

PAILER & FRATIS, 5:30pm; TERRY HANCK, 9pm, $10

DANIEL CASTRO, 9pm, $8

Blues jam, 4pm, no cover; FRONT THE BAND, 9pm no cover.

MICHAEL RAY, 8pm Tu no cover; RANELL CARPENTER, 9pm W, $5

1409 R St., (916) 231-9121

1517 21st St., (916) 704-0711 1320 Del Paso Blvd., (916) 927-6023 904 15th St., (916) 443-2797

Dio’s Maiden with Judas Thieves and Love Removal Machine Saturday 8pm, $8-$10. Blue Lamp Metal

All ages, all the time ACE OF SPADES

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, 7pm Tu, sold out; MADEINTYO, 7pm W, $20-$22

1417 R St., (916) 448-3300

CAFE COLONIAL

Open-mic, 9pm, no cover

COLONIAL FEST DAY ONE, 3pm, $10

THE COLONY

TURNAWAYS, THE MOANS, THE O’ MULLIGANS; 8pm, call for cover

COLONIAL FEST DAY ONE, 3pm, $10

3512 Stockton Blvd., (916) 718-7055

SHINE

Open jazz jam, 8pm, no cover

3520 Stockton Blvd., (916) 736-3520

1400 E St., (916) 551-1400

TEY YANIS, THE SOUL JONES EXPERIENCE; 8pm, $15

BAD MOTHER NATURE, BOURBON THERAPY; 8pm, $7

COLONIAL FEST DAY TWO, 3pm, $10

THE CAPITALIST KIDS, DEAD DADS; 8pm Tu, $6-$10

COLONIAL FEST DAY TWO, 3pm, $10

Steelin’ Dan Saturday 5pm, $15-$20. Harlow’s Rock

Midtown Out Loud Open Mic, 8pm W, no cover

08.25.16

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How to live free I’m 42 and gave up on having a fulfilling relationship because the men I’ve been with don’t communicate or want to do anything fun. It’s been a surprising relief. Suddenly I’m attracted to someone 20 years younger. Is this a midlife crisis? Or, if I don’t have expectations, am I free to do what I want? We’re always free to do what we want, honey, with two caveats: First, that we do no harm. Second, that we shoulder full responsibility for the way our choices impact others, the planet and ourselves. In reality, giving up on having a fulfilling relationship might be a symptom of hopelessness linked to depression. It can also be an act of spiritual surrender. But you gave up out of frustration. That’s why you experienced such overwhelming relief. Here’s a secret: Your frustration was born of clinging to a man long after realizing he’s not for you. In the future, once you share a reasonable request with the man you’re dating, and he proves he’s incapable, accept that he lacks the self-awareness necessary for change. Or acknowledge that your shared connection isn’t enough for him to want to change for you. Don’t be offended; it works the other way, too. You’re not willing to accept a boring guy and would rather do fun things with friends instead, right? Let’s chat about your current flirtation. You have a tingle of possibility, and no expectations at the moment. Whether or not it meanders toward commitment, the process of getting to know someone is still called a relationship. So is your flirtation a sign of a midlife crisis? Maybe. At midlife, our spiritual operating system reaches back into our personal history to reveal our most immature parts. If we lack self-awareness, we’ll avoid self-healing. Instead, we opt for whatever offers an adrenaline rush to speed us past seeing ourselves as we are. Are you willing to see yourself clearly? Do you have friends or a therapist honest enough to tell you the truth? Your answers will help you

decide whether it’s smart to pass go with your new man or not. When I try to talk to my boyfriend about our relationship, he says, “You’re overreacting.” I feel dismissed and get upset. How do you respond to a blanket comment like that from a significant other when you feel that you have a legitimate concern to discuss? Giggle. Telling someone they’re overreacting is an underreaction. But you didn’t see that because—wait for it—you are overreacting. Maybe your tone, or body language, clues your boyfriend in to the gravity of the upcoming convo, and he’s firing back passiveaggressively. Who’s right? Who cares? It’s not about being right. So try asking him to help you be a better partner. Let him know where you think you’ve blown it and why you need help. Laugh at your attempts to transform the relationship into one that you think will be better. Smile at your idea that your boyfriend is capable of change. Let yourself see your relationship clearly so you can decide whether to keep investing in it or not. Ω

Are you willing to see yourself clearly?

MedItatIOn Of tHe Week “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within,” wrote author James Baldwin. Are you naked yet?

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

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So I just heard that some people are using high doses of CBD to counteract the effects of ingesting too much THC. Does this really work? —Oso Hyman Good question. One of the things we know about cannabidiol (CBD) is that it acts as a sort of THC inhibitor. Cannabis plants with a high amount of THC but low CBD content will get you “higher” than plants with a high CBD content, even if the THC percentage is the same. No one has done any studies yet, but there are anecdotal reports of folks, especially those folks that enjoy cannabis concentrates (hash, wax, dabs, hash oil, etc.) or edibles, using either a sublingual CBD tincture or pills containing a high amount of CBD, to assuage the effects of overindulgence. In fact, my homie Grand Daddy Mike is working on a commercial product designed to lessen the effects of THC in case of accidental or intentional cannabis overindulgence. That being said, I wouldn’t recommend using high-CBD products as a magical “make yourself sober” pill. Generally, time (or being busted by an authority figure) is the only way to sober up. Don’t go around thinking you can smoke a bunch of dabs, eat a 200-milligram THC brownie and just pop a few CBD pills to smooth out before you get behind the wheel of your car. Be a responsible drug user. But, for real though, how cool would it be if there was a product out there that could counteract the effects of too much THC? Higher than giraffe boobies one minute, sober as a judge a few minutes later. Coming down from too much weed by using a different kind of weed seems counterintuitive, but it may be what the future holds. You can’t do that with booze. Marijuana is awesome. What’s up with the Department of Justice? Are they still going after cannabis clubs? —Khan Cerned They keep trying, and they keep losing. Last week, the Ninth Circuit court once again reminded the DOJ that the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment in the current budget prohibits the DOJ from going after businesses that are in compliance with state law. The DOJ tried to slip around the amendment with some legalese about “not going after the state, but going after individual businesses,” but the courts saw through their subterfuge and told them to quit it with the shenanigans and leave state legal cannabusinesses alone. The DOJ appealed, of course, and their appeal has just been slapped down by the Ninth Circuit. To wit: “at a minimum, [Rohrabacher-Farr] prohibits DOJ from spending funds from relevant appropriations acts for the prosecution of individuals who engaged in conduct permitted by the state medical marijuana laws and who fully complied with such laws.” Duh. The whole point of the amendment is to keep the DOJ from threatening and harassing and jailing legitimate cannabis companies, and the DOJ needs to accept that the world has changed, and cannabis businesses should be free to conduct business as long as they abide by state law. Ω

Time is the only way to sober up.

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

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very time I review medicinal cannabis chocolates, I feel the need to deliver a pre-emptive hairshirt public apology about my general ambivalence toward all things cocoa. I’m not technically a “chocolate person,” — I do like chocolate, just not in abundance and not in an undecorated form — but throw some caramel, nougat, nuts or vanilla ice cream in the mix, and I’m fully on board. Day Dreamers candy products are all chocolate-based, although there is some variance in flavor, strain and strength, including a Sativa Blueberry, a Hybrid Caramel Macchiato and a Sativa Peppermint. (They also produce vape cartridges, accessories and disposables, as well as oils, capsules and more.) I sampled the Sativa Chocolates, chunks of semi-sweet chocolate without any adjuncts, and while that’s obviously not my thing, I could appreciate the quality flavors and textures of the candy. It’s no surprise that Santa Cruz-based Day Dreamers won the High Times Medicinal Cannabis Cup for best edibles.

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The cocoa aroma, rich flavors and crumbly/ melty textures are all satisfying, and there’s a yummy dank taste on the finish. sample one whole piece and wait an hour before having another serving, but I had half a piece and felt heavy-lidded within 30 minutes. Day Dreamers also produces strain-specific chocolates, including a couple of high-CBD strains.

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FRee will aStRology

by Janelle Bitker

by rOB Brezsny

FOR THE WEEk OF AUGUST 25, 2016 ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks, I

hope you won’t scream curses at the rain, demanding that it stop falling on you. Similarly, I suggest you refrain from punching walls that seem to be hemming you in, and I beg you not to spit into the wind when it’s blowing in your face. Here’s an oracle about how to avoid counterproductive behavior like that: The near future will bring you useful challenges and uncanny blessings if you’re willing to consider the possibility that everything coming your way will, in some sense, be an opportunity.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Oh, how I wish

you might receive the grace of being pampered and nurtured and entertained and prayed for. I’d love for you to assemble a throng of nostrings-attached caretakers who would devote themselves to stoking your healing and delight. Maybe they’d sing to you as they gave you a manicure and massaged your feet and paid your bills. Or perhaps they would cook you a gourmet meal and clean your house as they told you stories about how beautiful you are and all the great things you’re going to do in the future. Is it possible to arrange something like that even on a modest scale, Taurus? You’re in a phase of your astrological cycle when you most need this kind of doting attention—and when you have the greatest power to make it happen.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I invite you to dream

about your true home … your sweet, energizing, love-strong home … the home where you can be high and deep, robust and tender, flexible and rigorous … the home where you are the person that you promised yourself you could be. To stimulate and enhance your brainstorms about your true home, experiment with the following activities: Feed your roots … do maintenance work on your power spot … cherish and foster your sources … and refine the magic that makes you feel free. Can you handle one more set of tasks designed to enhance your domestic bliss? Tend to your web of close allies … take care of what takes care of you … and adore the intimate connections that serve as your foundation.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): It’ll be one of those

rapid-fire, adjust-on-the-fly, think-on-your-feet, go-with-your-gut times for you—a headspinning, endorphin-generating, eye-pleasing, intelligence-boosting phase when you will have opportunities to relinquish your attachments to status quos that don’t serve you. Got all that, Cancerian? There’ll be a lot of stimuli to absorb and integrate—and luckily for you, absorbing and integrating a lot of stimuli will be your specialty. I’m confident of your ability to get the most of upcoming encounters with cute provocations, pleasant agitation and useful unpredictability. One more tip: Be vigilant and amused as you follow the ever-shifting sweet spot.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): At the risk of asking too

much and pushing too hard, my Guerrilla Prayer Warriors have been begging God to send you some major financial mojo. These fierce supplicants have even gone so far as to suggest to the Supreme Being that maybe She could help you win the lottery or find a roll of big bills lying in the gutter or be granted a magic wish by an unexpected benefactor. “Whatever works!” is their mantra. Looking at the astrological omens, I’m not sure that the prayer warriors’ extreme attempts will be effective. But the possibility that they will be is definitely greater than usual. To boost your odds, I suggest you get more organized and better educated about your money matters. Set a clear intention about the changes you’d like to put in motion during the next ten months.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Suggested

experiments: (1) Take a vow that from now on you won’t hide your beauty. (2) Strike a deal with your inner king or inner queen, guaranteeing that this regal part gets regular free expression. (3) Converse with your future self about how the two of you might collaborate to fully unleash the refined potency of your emotional intelligence. (4) In meditations and dreams, ask your ancestors how you can more completely access and activate your dormant potentials.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I hope you are not

forlorn, shivery, puzzled or obsessive right now—unless being in such a state will mobilize

you to instigate the overdue transformations you have been evading. If that’s the case, I hope you are forlorn, shivery, puzzled and obsessive. Feelings like those may be the perfect fuel—the highoctane motivation that will launch your personal renaissance. I don’t often offer this counsel, Libra, so I advise you to take full advantage: Now is one of the rare times when your so-called negative emotions can catalyze redemption.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): From what I can

tell, your vigor is peaking. In recent weeks, you have been sturdy, hearty, stout and substantial. I expect this surge of strength to intensify in the near future—even as it becomes more fluid and supple. In fact, I expect that your waxing power will teach you new secrets about how to wield your power intelligently. You may break your previous records for compassionate courage and sensitive toughness. Here’s the best news of all: You’re likely to be dynamic about bestowing practical love on the people and animal and things that are important to you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The odds

are higher than usual that you will be offered a boost or promotion in the coming weeks. This development is especially likely to occur in the job you’re doing or the career plans you’ve been pursuing. It could also be a factor at work in your spiritual life. You may discover a new teacher or teaching that could lift you to the next phase of your inner quest. There’s even a chance that you’ll get an upgrade on both fronts. So it’s probably a good time to check on whether you’re harboring any obstacles to success. If you find that you are, destroy those rancid old mental blocks with a bolt of psychic lightning.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The cosmos

seems to be warming up to your charms. The stinginess it displayed toward you for a while is giving way to a more generous approach. To take advantage of this welcome development, you should shed any fear-based beliefs you may have adopted during the recent shrinkage. For instance, it’s possible you’ve begun to entertain the theory that the game of life is rigged against you, or that it is inherently hard to play. Get rid of those ideas. They’re not true, and clinging to them would limit the game of life’s power to bring you new invitations. Open yourself up wherever you have closed down.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Are any of your

allies acting like they’ve forgotten their true purpose? If so, you have the power to gently awaken them from their trances and help them refocus. Is it possible you have become a bit too susceptible to the influences of people whose opinions shouldn’t really matter that much to you? If so, now is a good time to correct that aberration. Are you aware of having fallen under the sway of trendy ideas or faddish emotions that are distorting your relationship with your primal sources? If so, you are hereby authorized to free yourself from their hold on you.

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

favorable time to reveal that you are in fact a gay socialist witch who believes good poetry provides a more reliable way to understand reality than the opinions of media pundits—unless, of course, you are not a gay socialist witch, etc., in which case you shouldn’t say you are. But I do advise you to consider disclosing as much as possible of your true nature to anyone with whom you plan to be intimately linked in the future and who is missing important information about you. It’s high time to experiment with being more completely yourself.

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.

Guess her name In 1972, yarn and crafts shop Rumpelstiltskin only opened during lunchtime. Those were the days, huh? That changed a year later, though, when then-22-year-old Linda Urquhart bought the place with money borrowed from her parents—only $1,000 or something like that, she says. As shopkeeper and an avid knitter, she transformed Rumpelstiltskin into a destination, retiring in June after 43 years. Urquhart still knits every day—it’s a good excuse to watch television— and, now that free time is finally a thing, sat down with SN&R to talk about the shop’s beginnings, craft trends and how more dudes should take up knitting.

R Street is getting so trendy now. What was it like when you first moved in? It was dirt, railroad tracks and, in the winter, it’d be like a big pond. In fact, [the owner of] Alpine West—it was an outdoor store—for a publicity stunt, he got a kayak out, put it in the street, sat it in, took a picture. It looked like he was in a lake. (Laughs.) It was really a mess, and there was nobody around us. It was just the building. Fox & Goose didn’t open for another couple of years.

What did you do before social media and the internet to reach customers? We did mailers. We had to get a bulk mail rate. We had to stamp or get it printed. You don’t want to phone people, so we didn’t do that. In-store promotions. Old school stuff. Mailing lists. We did TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, all the old stuff.

When was knitting at its most popular? Probably 2008. It was a big crest for knitting. Nobody knows exactly why, but it was the stock market crash, people were out of work, people were upset. It’s a zen kind of thing. It makes you feel good to knit, and it’s social. And scarves were really big back then, and you could knit a scarf. I think a combination of factors just made knitting huge, and right before that, it was really bad.

Where is it right now? It seems to be really popular. A lot of young people are knitting. It’s really exciting because it used to be that you didn’t knit in public—it was kind of embarrassing. But now it seems to be a pretty hip thing to do.

PHOTO BY EVAN DURAN

Has Rumpelstiltskin had much competition over the years?

I still don’t see many men knitting.

In 2008, 2009, when it was so huge, I had 11 stores open up within 10 miles. And that was really scary because you think they’re going to dilute your customer base, but they all went out of business pretty fast. … We managed to outlive just about everybody. There are stores around now but nobody as old.

I’ve heard it’s good for your health. It’s supposed to be good for your brain: the counting and two-handedness. And blood pressure. For some reason, because it’s so slow maybe, it just sort of calms you down. There’s a thing too about mental illness and anxiety—it helps people with that because they have to concentrate on what they’re doing and they don’t think about stuff. It’s just very satisfying. You can buy a sweater or you can spend a million hours knitting one. (Laughs.)

How are you enjoying retirement? I’m very much enjoying it. I was feeling anxious about it because I’ve worked since I was born. (Laughs.) Very, very busy. But I’m kind of scheduled—I’m working for Habitat for Humanity, I just signed up [online] to read with kids and I’m gonna probably do some political volunteering. … And I just tore out my lawn. So it’s actually been pretty busy.

Were you nervous about having too much time? Yeah, I don’t like that.

Oh but there are! We have a lot more men knitting—not as many as women, but they get more attention if they’re knitting. A guy knitter! But a lot of them are knitting to make something for a girlfriend or to make something you need that not everyone else has: skateboarder hats, ski hats. There are a lot more guys knitting. It’s not a stigma anymore. Last year, I had a guy from Sac State. His assignment was to take a class where he’d be made really uncomfortable. And so he thought a knitting class. … Tattooed, bald, beard, big guy—kinda scary. He came to class and everyone was just like, “Oh nice to meet you.” Everyone was helpful and nice. At the end of class, he said, “I thought it would be different.”

So it didn’t make him uncomfortable? That’s really funny. Knitters are so inclusive and not judgmental—most of the time. … One day, I was at the store and three big, rough-looking guys rushed through the door and I thought, “Oh, I’m gonna be robbed.” And they were the cutest, nicest guys. They were in to buy yarn for crochet. It really has changed. Ω

Rumpelstiltskin is located at 1021 R Street. More at http://yarnyarnyarn.com.

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