s-2016-11-03

‘If Trump wInS …’

VoTe ThIrd pArTy?

by Scott Thomas Anderson /// page 14

eATIng SAcrAmenTo

05 08

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Charismatic candidate or embattled lawman—who is the real Sheriff Scott Jones?

Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

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Volume 28, iSSue 29

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TicKeT To a figHT on Donald Trump, but the 10 percent of likely voters supporting Libertarian Gary Johnson and the 5 percent supporting Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Another 2 percent said they would be voting for someone else.

That’s about one in six California voters supporting candidates not named Clinton or Trump.

“It’s pretty sizable from what we’ve seen in the past,” said Dean Bonner, associate survey director at PPIC. In contrast, in September 2008, just 3 percent of likely voters said they were voting for someone other than Sens.

Barack Obama and John McCain. Such low numbers for third party tickets may be related to the fact that no outside candidates were polling high enough to be mentioned by name in the 2008 survey.

It could also go beyond that.

“A majority of people are not satisfied with the candidates. And that wasn’t the case in September of 2008 and 2012,” Bonner said. In California this year, just 42 percent of voters said they were satisfied with their choice in candidates. In September 2008, 64 percent were satisfied.

“The higher levels of ‘not satisfied’ are where you see some of the higher levels of voting for third party,” Bonner added.

One such voter is UCLA sociology professor Gabriel Rossman, who plans to support either Johnson or Utah’s upstart conservative candidate, Evan McMullin.

“Absolutely not Trump,” he said.

Rossman has voted for candidates in both major parties the past four presidential elections. While he’d prefer not to vote for a Democrat this year, he says he doesn’t like the alternative. “If Romney were running I would be voting for him,” Rossman said.

“But he’s not.”

Distaste for the candidates runs deep.

Gallup’s most recent national favorability ratings—conducted before the FBI announced it was reviewing new emails potentially related to Clinton—show her at 40 percent favorable and 55 percent unfavorable. Trump hovers at 31 percent favorable and 64 percent unfavorable. These are record-shattering lows.

“We’ve never seen both nominees so highly unliked,” said Mindy Romero, director of the UC Davis California Civic Engagement Project. “Some of those people are thinking about, ‘If I’m going to vote, is there somebody else on the ballot that is palatable to me? That I can feel good about?’”

Trump’s unpalatability is pretty straightforward. He’s bragged about sexually assaulting women, championed racist and xenophobic policies and threatened to throw

his political rival in jail. In recent weeks and Trump had support from just 65 nearly a dozen women have come forward percent of young voters. with sexual assault allegations against him.

So is there a future for third-party Even hardline California Republicans politics in California? like Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, Bonner can’t definitively answer, given who is running against democratic Rep. the deep general dissatisfaction with this Ami Bera for his seat in Congress, have had year’s major tickets. But as young voters get to pull their Trump endorsements. Many older, he wondered: “How are their policy conservative voters instead find appeal in preferences going to equate to candidates?

Johnson.

And are they not going to be satisfied with Clinton’s problem is more nuanced. the two-party system, given that we had this Supporters of the Green Party’s Stein and election that in many ways has created this the socialists’ La Riva tack Hillary very tumultuous situation with how to establishment politics, they view politics?” of course. But they also “They view the role of work to mark her as government differently just as dangerous as than older people,” he The Donald. added.

“It’s disturbing Above all, that people are Romero wants worried what to see young Trump will do Californians to people in engaged. In 2014, America, but only 8.2 percent what will Hillary of eligible youth do to people in aged 18-24 voted.

Estevan Hernandez other parts of the Could a year like campaign coordinator world?” said activist 2016, marked by such James Lee “Faygo” a negative campaign and Clark in reference to U.S. two unfavorable candidates, military action abroad during leave an increasing share of the Clinton’s time as Secretary of State and population feeling disconnected from the her vote for the Iraq War as a New York process? senator.

And then there’s California’s blanket “A loss of life is a loss of life,” he said. primary system enacted after 2010’s Proposition 14. In this system, only the clark says he’s supported stein since her two candidates with the most votes from 2012 run for president, during which she the spring primaries make the fall ballot in garnered support from many Occupy Wall nonpresidential races, regardless of party Street activists as one of the first politiaffiliation. Some have expressed concern cians to adopt their rhetoric and visit their that this new system will leave third-party protests. Progressive voters—including candidates off general election ballots (and, young Bernie Sanders supporters who’ve thus, third-party-inclined voters disenvowed to never back Hillary—find appeal chanted and disengaged in the fall). in both Stein and La Riva’s anti-war, antiBut third-party backers can point to corporate and pro-working-class platforms. some victories. The Green Party lists 64 “There’s this phenomenon with young Californians holding office under their people where the young Bernie folks are ticket on their website. Libertarians claim having a really difficult time coming on 16 California officeholders. And the rise of board the Clinton train,” Romero said. socialist Kshama Sawant to Seattle’s city That fits with the numbers. In the council proved a powerful catalyst for the PPIC’s September 2016 poll, 72 percent of Fight for $15 nationwide. likely voters aged 18-34 were not satisfied “We’re seeing that there’s a huge with the candidates. disconnect between what we really need for “That same group of people, 32 percent ourselves and what our government is offerare saying they would vote for either the ing us,” said 25-year-old Nyree Hall at La Libertarian ticket or Green ticket,” Bonner Riva’s Sacramento office in early October. said. “That’s one in three.”

“So as we start getting older there’s going to And the trend is national. In an be more socialists in the local government.

August poll, the Pew Research Center I believe that we’re turning the government found that, among likely voters 30 and in our favor.” Ω younger, 19 percent supported Johnson and 9 percent Stein. Combined, Clinton

“People are tired of the same old thing— especially this election.”

A violent confrontation, recorded on video, between law enforcement and two regional transit riders caught fire on social media last week.

The October 26 video shows Golden Smith, 34, and Stacey Bledsoe, 48, in an expletive-filled struggle that ended with Smith tasered, Bledsoe restrained by the hair and both in jail.

According to Capt. Norm Leong of the Sacramento Police Department, the two ignored repeated calls by officers to stop for a fare check after stepping off the train at the 13th Street light-rail station. After a police officer and a transit agent caught up with them, it was concluded that they had paid their fares.

But the interaction didn’t end there. After finding outstanding warrants for both, officers decided to cite them for “delaying officers from their duties.”

The video, which had more than 42,000 views and nearly 1,200 shares on Tuesday, starts with matters already escalating to mutual combat. Smith can be heard saying, “You’re gonna break my fucking arm, man,” before it appears that he throws a punch and the two police officers begin grappling with him. He is wrestled to the ground as Bledsoe shouts “wait” and tries to break up the scrum.

As Smith is tasered, an officer can be heard shouting, “Get on your belly right now, motherfucker.” And after Smith appears to surrender, he can be heard imploring for help and alleging “police harassment.”

However events managed to escalate, the fact that Smith and Bledsoe, both black, were accosted by four white officers is something social media commentators definitely noted.

“The officers initiated the delay in the first place,” said attorney Mark T. Harris, a member of the new Law Enforcement Accountability Directive group, or LEAD. “They created the problem. This is just absolutely unconscionable.”

The light rail incident comes a little more than three months after the police killing of Joseph Mann, a mentally ill black man whose death has prompted calls for police reform after released footage showed officers attempting to run Mann over before shooting him 14 times.

“Sadly, sometimes this simple sort of encounter can escalate into a death when it comes to African-Americans who are on the receiving end,” Harris said. (Matt Kramer)

THougHT for fooD You think what you eat—that was the message a renowned nutritional expert delivered last week to a local audience of about 125 people.

On October 27, Dr. Liz Applegate, professor of nutrition and director of sports nutrition at UC Davis, spoke about how the food we consume impacts the function of our brains. Applegate’s address, “Brain Foods and Cognitive Health,” is part of a series of talks, hosted by the uc Davis MiND institute near Tahoe Park, that are focused on Alzheimer’s disease, memory loss and cognitive decline.

“People don’t know that the brain is another organ in your body that is very responsive to what you eat,” Applegate said.

The address was designed to encourage people to consider the impact that nutrition has on the brain. Like your heart, Applegate said, the brain is full of blood vessels that are impacted by nutrition and cholesterol levels. Highly refined carbohydrates, processed sugars and fats promote poor brain health and can hasten cognitive decline.

Applegate recommends consumption of green leafy vegetables, nuts, berries, whole grains and legumes coupled with small portions of meat, olive oil, weekly servings of fish and daily glasses of wine.

(Corey Rodda)

11.03.16 | SN&R | 9

by Scott Thomas Anderson

Badge of

myStery t

yler Gunn watches a bleak light fade in the business park on a mid-October evening. There’s no sign of Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones yet, and Gunn, a college intern working on Jones’ campaign, can only shift his eyes toward a cawing noise that echoes across the parking lot’s oil-stained cement and plum trees. It’s emanating from a platoon of Democrats in baggy Ami Bera shirts, waving signs and holding bullhorns as they gather for what looks like a small, pre-debate tailgate party.

There is no assembly for Jones, but there doesn’t need to be when he’s within a razor-thin margin of defeating the two-time U.S. representative.

With just an hour to go before the only debate in the race for the 7th Congressional District, Gunn notices the Bera crowd is mustering in a part of KVIE Public Television’s parking lot that’s generally not visible from any roads or freeways, aiming their demonstration at a small studio audience.

He’s completely unimpressed. For Gunn, the spectacle is more evidence he’s spent the last months working for the right politician. He’s written a college paper about Jones. He’s spread the campaign’s message. And now he’s here to watch a man who, in the eyes of supporters, presents an image Bera struggles to match: forcefully articulate, personally charming and unabashedly confident.

Tonight, Jones’ backers hope everything about his presence comes through on the stage, counterbalancing the long string of headlines the sheriff’s department has endured over allegations of deputy misconduct, sexual harassment and managerial nepotism. They want California to see the candidate they see, the man who promises to speak common sense to what they see as an out-of-touch power structure, the surgical problem solver who approaches political maneuvers like well-planned SWAT operations, the cutting-edge law enforcement commander whose anti-immigration YouTube message to the president went viral in the wake of a deputy’s murder.

Sheriff Scott Jones. The man who’s here to make you feel safe.

But some Sacramentans walking into the studio’s debate hall see a very different man. Critics see a onetime deputy sheriff who moonlighted as a private attorney, sharing an office with Donald Malone, a bail bondsman later sent to prison for trying to steal millions from the Treasury Department. They see an administrator who entered into a contract with the federal government to operate a jail facility for undocumented immigrants and then allegedly abandoned those detainees in crowded, filthy conditions where

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they lacked medical care and were forced to bathe themselves in toilet water. They see a law enforcement official who ran data-mining technology throughout Sacramento’s community—a practice that affected citizens, without local judges and defense attorneys even knowing.

Such perceptions about Jones’ strengths and weaknesses have all played out in the media. Now, with the hours winding down to Election Day, this debate may be the last chance for voters to answer a question:

scotta@newsreview.com

Charismatic candidate or embattled lawman—who is the real Sheriff Scott Jones?

Who is Scott Jones? Is he the charismatic, law-savvy politician with the experience and fortitude to stop narcoterrorists in California and jihadi fighters abroad?

Or is he the face of a dysfunctional agency rife with scandal and civil liability?

Perhaps he’s both.

Support your local Sheriff As the chanting from Bera’s supporters dwindles, Gunn strikes up a friendly conversation with an intern working on the congressman’s campaign. And then, out of nowhere, Jones appears next to the college students. He’s dressed to the nines in a dark suit and solid red power tie.

“There’s the best candidate,” Gunn pipes up.

“Well, I’m at least in the top two,” the sheriff says with an easy laugh. Jones is all smiles as he shakes hands with Bera’s intern and an SN&R reporter that his campaign has been dodging interview requests from for a month.

“Can I get a picture with you?” Gunn asks. Jones happily poses with the young Republican and then it’s off to stand in front of a television crew for a preview of tonight’s showdown. This is where some political observers think Jones shines. There’s a calm certitude in his posture. There’s a razor-sharp focus in his eye contact when interviewed. Jones’ supporters read much into that poise, including a powerful sense of self they believe explains why the sheriff hasn’t responded to Bera’s constant attack ads with equal turns in the gutter. For fans like Gunn, Jones’ efforts to run a positive campaign are a point of pride. Walking into the auditorium, someone mutters over Gunn’s shoulder, “I haven’t seen Bera yet, I wonder if he’s here?”

“He’s probably in a corner somewhere scribbling out a last-minute hit piece to pass out,” Gunn fires back.

Photo collage by brian breneman

he was really polished. He was sharp up there.”

Johnson leaves the studio with former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness, the man who brought Jones into, in McGinness’ words, an “inner circle” years ago, and who now agrees with Johnson’s assessment of the debate.

The next morning McGinness will tell listeners of his KFBK radio show that Jones was better spoken than Bera and had a much more commanding presence.

Even some of the college newspaper reporters who have just witnessed their first live political debate, in conversation, are ready to call Jones the winner.

Regardless of party lines, some here believe they’ve seen that long-arm-of-the-law certainty that so inspires Jones supporters.

But the sheriff still has one more choir to get out of the way before he can leave the building.

Jones walks into a room set up for a press conference. He answers the first few questions with the same gusto he showed back on the stage. But then one reporter homes in on the only nondirect answer Jones gave throughout his matchup with Bera. During the debate, the sheriff had been asked about climate change, to which he gave the same response he’s been giving around the community since his appearance in front of the Carmichael Tea Party in 2013: It doesn’t matter if he believes in human-caused climate change,

Jones told the panelist, because as a political leader he’ll support sensible clean energy initiatives regardless.

But now, standing in front of this press corps, at this moment, that dance has to stop. The reporter all but demands to know what Jones actually believes.

Does Jones think human-caused climate change is real?

“Well, there’s a body of evidence for both sides of the argument,” the sheriff says cautiously.

“But what do you believe?” the reporter presses.

“It just depends on what study I read,” Jones says as his voice shifts through several tonal gears. “I—I don’t know what to believe.”

Bera is watching behind the scenes, already preparing to walk out and raise the specter of what it would mean to have a congressman operating in Washington, D.C., from California—representing the state known around the world as a leader in environmental protection—who is actually a half-closeted climate change denier. And as this newspaper reporter points his notebook up at the sheriff, a man known for his spades of confidence suddenly appears to have none. It wasn’t the millions of dollars his agency has cost the taxpayers in lawsuits that knocked him off balance. It wasn’t the narrative of blood and tragedy that overshadows his department that nicked his demeanor. And it wasn’t Bera’s bland, overly rehearsed attempts to question his personal judgment that pushed him back.

No, tonight what hit the chink in Jones’ armor was the same thing that’s raised every question the public has about him—an old-school journalist refusing to settle for a lazy, evasive answer.

Jones has experienced these moments before.

When News10’s Thom Jensen began to uncover in 2014 that the sheriff’s department was data-mining information from people’s cellphones with its secret Stingray technology, Jones’ team reportedly stymied and stonewalled the reporter’s inquiries at every turn. This led to Jensen surprising the sheriff at a law enforcement graduation ceremony, where Jones’ signature coolness and disarming smile both evaporated on camera.

“We’ve dealt with your incessant badgering of our department,” Jones vented to Jensen after asking the journalist if he was proud of himself.

But Jensen’s investigative work was a topic of conversation 14 months later when Jones held a press conference in which he acknowledged that not only did the sheriff’s department have the technology, but its detectives had been using it to collect cellphone data in Sacramento County for years without a judicial review policy. Jones barred Jensen from attending that press briefing.

Since then his concerns about reporters appear to have grown. In July, the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board quoted a memo Jones sent out about news coverage around his administration losing the sexual harassment civil trial. In the message, Jones lamented that “the media” was trying to drag down the entire sheriff’s department’s image just to paint him “as disreputable.”

If Jones believed that in July, then there are few signs his fears have lifted. In early September, SN&R requested an interview with Jones for this story.

Initially, Jones’ campaign manager, Kyle McDonald, agreed to set up a meeting with his candidate.

As the weeks passed by, repeated calls and emails to McDonald failed to result in an interview date or even obtaining a basic schedule of Jones’ public appearances—the latter of which is conspicuously absent from his official website and Facebook page.

Now, Jones is walking out of the press conference without granting this paper an interview, and with a new question about climate change hanging over his head.

Despite proclamations of having a great relationship with the press, he hasn’t answered the hard questions about Johnathan Rose, immigrant detainees in his jails or the dozens of brutality claims against a handful of deputies still working.

But he walks out into the fall evening nonetheless, into the last days of a brutal election season where undecided voters now have one more dimension to consider in the ongoing enigma of deciding who he really is. The ongoing attack ads are aimed at a personality many find engaging, but the truth about the leader behind the badge is a story the public may never know. Ω

11.03.16 | SN&R | 17

by Moses Zarate

For one couple, Sacramento’s newest indie record label becomes a second chance

T

he phrase “friendship fever” started out as something uttered among a tight music community of friends having a great time—Christopher Watson first heard it while on tour managing Sacramento underground rock trio Frank Jordan in the early 2000s.

“It’s like when the feelings of camaraderie and friendship are so high, and you’re almost starting to imagine things,” he said. “Maybe they’re greater than you think they are, maybe they’re worse, but they’re intoxicating. It’s like a fever dream.”

And now, it’s a local record label run by Chris and his wife Sabrina Watson. Friendship Fever’s already signed seven bands, so far a collection of guitar driven rock, nostalgic ’80s synth and country. They’re distributed by an indie-specialized arm of SONY, and the goal is simple: put music—and building a community through music—first.

“The big dream is just to put out really great art,” Sabrina said. “We just want to find people that are doing amazing things and help get them involved with a team that’s really invested.”

There’s no strict hierarchy at the label. Headquarters are Chris and Sabrina’s home, where they sit across from each other all day. The project is still young, but they’re banking on their own scrappiness, business experience and a network of artists and industry vets who happen to be some of their close friends.

“It’s all kind of incestuous and crazy,” Sabrina said.

In coming back home to Sacramento a few years ago, one of the hardest decisions they had to make was leaving behind their successful first label, Park the Van. They ran Park the Van out of their apartment in New Orleans since 2004, jump-starting rock groups like Dr. Dog and selling 80,000 of its records.

Both got their starts in the music industry at around 17.

Sabrina, a New Orleans native, helped with art direction on the first Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. They met while she was on the Sublime street team and Chris designed webpages for Skunk Records in Long Beach.

Park the Van was one of their proudest accomplishments.

It was resilient, literally enduring Hurricane Katrina, despite the setback of having most of their product destroyed in the flood.

“We lost everything, but when you’re 22, you don’t really have everything, so that’s OK,” Sabrina said.

Chris left Park the Van in 2012. Dr. Dog signed to another label, Anti-, a few years before. Money got tight.

The economy was still recovering. Chris was getting burnt out, and a long spell of depression began.

He got a job offer with a music tech company—digital promotion and multimedia for artists like Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus. It promised a steady paycheck, and an opportunity to do something totally different. He took the job, and the two moved to Sacramento.

The company culture turned out to be quite different from Park the Van. “One of the first things my new boss said to me was ‘bread before cred,’” Chris said. “It was the exact opposite of how I operated my entire life.”

Still, in the next few years, he excelled there. He was promoted to vice president of operations. He managed a staff of 40, and he was making more money.

At the same time, he felt like he wasn’t who he set out to be anymore. His personal dreams, goals and creativity were being suppressed. The depression increased. He started drinking and doing drugs. It all caught up to him about a year and a half ago.

“It almost killed me,” he said. He resigned from the company, moved in with his parents and spent a good six months wondering what the hell he was going to do.

Then Sabrina proposed an escape, and last February, they took a road trip to Morro Bay. What transpired was a list of ideas for a new record label, a second chance to make it work.

They recruited old friends like Mike Cloward. Cloward, too, brings countless lessons learned from his bouts in the music industry. He founded international label Devil in the Woods in 1983 and a magazine by the same name in 1988.

He sold off the mag in 2006 and ended the record label in 2010, releasing some 117 records and an innumerable amount of cassette tapes by then. The label’s name was an idiom for fear of the unknown, which fit Cloward’s vision of wanting to sign unseen bands.

It translates well to Friendship Fever, which is meant to develop burgeoning artists.

“It’s not like we’re doing this label to sign the biggest band,” Cloward said. “It’s about making sure we help them achieve their dreams. If we have some fun along the way, make some fans, that’s great.”

That includes Minihorse, a stargaze-y, introverted soft rock group reminiscent of Grandaddy, one of Chris and Sabrina’s favorite bands. Its five-song EP, Big Lack, releases Friday, November 11, with a full-length planned for next year.

The group picked Friendship Fever because Chris was the only label rep who talked about the songs.

“It’s interesting that actually engaging with the music is not the first thing on some people’s minds these days,” said Ben Collins, Minihorse’s vocalist and guitarist.

Then there’s Imaginary Tricks, a performance art project fronted by Mike Visser, who once fronted Frank Jordan.

He’s an old friend of Chris and Sabrina.

Songs like “Bird” promise somber indie rock melodies filled with Visser’s raw introspection and frank expressions.

When they’re performed live, they gradually build and layer with looped guitar and bass lines, then drums, vocals and his bandmate Harlan Muir on keys. Imaginary Tricks’ LP, Skommel, is due next year.

It was either Visser or Devin Hurley, Frank Jordan’s bassist, that first came up with “friendship fever.”

“It was a term we used to say when we were kids,” Visser said. “Your buddies would yell, ‘You like him so much, you got ‘friendship fever.’ It was really corny and really endearing too.”

And after over a decade of carrying that phrase with them, it’s evolved in meaning.

“It really comes down to these great people that we’ve found in our lives that inspired us to do one thing or led us in the right direction, or helped each other when we needed them most,” Chris said.

Celebrate the launch of Friendship Fever at 6 p.m. Friday, November 4, at Red Museum, 212 15th Street. Suggested donation is $10, with Imaginary Tricks, Minihorse, Honyock and Pregnant Women on the bill.

More at www.friendshipfever.com.

PHoTo by ANDy PERSEPoNKo

18 | SN&R | 11.03.16

Wine country in a mall It seems fitting that one of Sacramento’s fanciest coffee shops located inside Sacramento’s fanciest shopping center decided it ought to serve wine, too. In September, Bailarín Cellars launched a small tasting room inside the Pavilions location of Insight Coffee Roasters (566 Pavilions Lane). This young, Sonoma County winery has already received a slew of accolades from the likes of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, Los Angeles International Wine Competition and Wine Enthusiast. Bailarín specializes in pinot noir utilizing Russian River Valley fruit but also crafts rosé, chardonnay and zinfandel. You can always visit the tasting room and taste five wines for $10, but if you do so at the grand opening party on Saturday, November 5, you’ll also get free appetizers and 10 percent off bottle purchases. At last, a little taste of Sonoma wine country so close to Williams-Sonoma. More at www.bailarincellars.com.

—Janelle Bitker

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Such a nasty Gary

By Shoka About a month ago, someone posted a rant on Vegan Life Magazine’s Facebook page about what to call vegan cheese—specifically, don’t call it cheese: “Call it Gary or something [but] don’t call it Cheese because it’s not CHEESE!!!!!!” The “real cheese fan” was six-exclamation-marks irate because the United Kingdom’s second largest grocery chain, Sainbury’s, began offering its own brand of vegan cheese products. But the haranguer wants to make the cheese aisle great again. “I’m not inter-

ested in your views … that ‘eating products from animals is bad for all the reasons everyone knows about.’”

But the vegan community embraced “Gary” faster than Elizabeth Warren at a Hillary Clinton rally taking back “nasty woman,” with memes, www. facebook.com/veganslovegary and a Change.org petition to officially change the term. The petition still needs 400 signatures, but it will apparently be sent to Gary producers and, uh, President Barack Obama.

Hilarious.

Sweet overload

By Janelle BITker

Takumi Izakaya

price—but I’ve had more uni-forward, less-shy pasta dishes at Italian restaurants. Diners who really want uni should just order uni at the sushi bar.

The standout is the tako-nomiyaki ($11.95), a 826 J Street, (916) 228-4095 flat pancake generously loaded octopus, cabbage, green onions and bonito flakes that dance on top. It Dinner for one: $12 - $30 strikes the perfect balance of flavors, with a pleasGood for: a more speedy and upscale izakaya experience ing texture and reasonable price tag.

Notable dishes: tako-nomiyaki, steak tsukemen, uni carbonara Other dishes cloyed with sweetness. With the grilled chicken hearts ($6.50), the sweet tare sauce completely obscured the hearts’ natural flavor—and most of Takumi’s skewers automatically come A guy walks into a sushi bar and says, “Do you coated with the stuff. Even the grilled rice balls have brown rice?” ($3.95) stunned with sugar—and burnt, bitter edges.

The chef lets him down gently without explanaSweet also dominated the honey miso ribs tion, before flagging down a fork for another ($8.95). With “miso” in the title, I hoped for some gentleman who thinks his California roll requires umami to come through, but all I could taste was stabbing. the sticky-sweet glaze. More problematic: One bite The reality of Takumi Izakaya’s location, just revealed that the meat was still refrigerator-cold. steps from the Capitol, results in a certain kind of After sending the trio of ribs back, a new plate lunchtime experience: fast, with many people who arrived—hotter, but tough with one persistent cold don’t really care about the word “izakaya.” spot.

Izakayas are traditionally casual Japanese Improper cooking and seasoning continued to gastropubs, where small plates are shared among plague meals. The tsukemen ramen ($14.95) groups of friends over hours of drinks. It’s a was the best version of the Tokyo slow, casual, lively thing. With its chic, dipping-style ramen I’ve found in contemporary dining room, Takumi Sacramento thus far, with a rich, takes a more formal approach deeply satisfying broth and while simultaneously attempting sprightly noodles. But the softfar too much. It’s an izakaya Shiso, yuzu truffle boiled egg was undercooked, and ramen house and sushi bar ponzu and cilantro are with unflattering globs of white with inconsistent results. goop spilling out, and the three strong ingredients The three-month-old steak was uneven: a fan of thin restaurant comes from the that should not fight for slices, with one end cooked to owners of Banzai Sushi and attention in one roll. medium-well and the opposite Banzai Japanese Kitchen, and to rare. I minded that less than as such, Takumi’s sushi and raw the fact that the steak didn’t taste fish items are respectably made. like much of anything.

However, some flavor combinations The fried stingray appetizer ($7.95) taste as ambitious as the restaurant and sounded incredibly exciting but turned out fall to similar fates. Shiso, yuzu truffle ponzu quite bland, with a side of spicy mayo that proved and cilantro are three strong ingredients that should to be a requirement for enjoyment. not fight for attention in one roll.

For now, look to Binchoyaki Izakaya Dining Among izakaya plates, one dish that begs to or Yakitori Yuchan in Davis for better izakaya be ordered is the uni carbonara ($16.95), ramen experiences. Still, there’s promise, especially with noodles coated in uni butter topped with a sliver its exciting ramen selection. The space is beautiful, of uni, salmon eggs and a single shiso leaf. It’s the service excellent and dishes glimmer with delicious—glorified butter noodles at a staggering potential—underneath the sugar. Ω

HH

11.03.16 | SN&R | 23

SouNd advice

Jazz hands: Sacramento has a bit of New York jazz to call its own.

After 14 years entrenched in New York’s jazz scene, Jacam Manricks left last year to take a lecturing position at UC Davis running a jazz composers workshop. He’s also bringing his music to venues in town.

He is releasing a phenomenal slice of his Big Apple life in the form of his fifth album as band leader, Chamber Jazz. His release show takes place Thursday, November 10, at Gold Lion Arts (2733 Riverside Boulevard).

Recording for the album took place in New York, of course.

Manricks played various woodwinds and featured prominent New York musicians to accompany him, like Ari Hoenig (drums) and Kevin Hays (piano) as well as Italian bassist Gianluca Renzi.

The record has both a lively and easygoing, mellow vibe to it. Yet, while the groove feels laid-back and white tablecloth-appropriate, there’s a complexity to the composition that’s striking and beyond the typical scope of jazz ensembles. This is a result of the very concept driving the album: Classical music is one of the album’s primary influences, hence the album name.

It’s not a complete departure from traditional jazz. Besides, classical music has always been an influence on the harmonic and melodic approaches of jazz musicians. But on Chamber Jazz, Manricks incorporates these elements more deliberately than the average jazz player.

He even studied three composers (Sigfrid Karg Elert, Beethoven, Jean Sibelius) to broaden his musical vocabulary for the album.

The result is sublime. These aren’t songs with mere repeating phrases and horn solos. Each track sounds as though it’s telling a complete short story. The entire record reads like novel, dripping with emotion but never overflowing.

—aaRon caRnes

Stay Classy, Tea Lovers AN INTERVIEW WITH THE TEA M.D. How does Classy Hippie Tea Co. engage people with the culture of tea? What about the company’s name appeals to tea drinkers?

naturally attracted to it. As far as the culture of the company, I believe some people just resonate with what it is to be a classy hippie.

I believe people engage with the name Classy Hippie in particular. Tea is the peace offering that welcomes you at the door. To me, “classy” is about allowing yourself to appreciate all of life’s awesomeness without apology. “Hippie” is doing it without ego. Now, a classy hippie is one that can take all of that awesomeness and use it to serve others — still without ego.

How do the events that Classy Hippie Tea Co. host draw in new tea lovers?

How can you direct people to the right tea based on how they’re feeling?

Our public events are a fun way of inviting people to participate in the Classy Hippie community. The Classy Hippie community is a member-based subscription service that offers everything from our Tea Sommelier’s top blends delivered to your doorstep monthly to tea and food pairings with guest chefs.

How does the work you do go beyond our community?

My primary communication language is how things feel in my body as I experience them. So it’s easiest for me to relate to others and better serve them when I have a baseline of how they are feeling. That’s why I ask people, “How do you feel?”

I believe that to serve the world, I must first serve my community. I have ambitions for Classy Hippie Tea Co. to be a global brand very soon. As for today, we make contributions to both local and international charities that restore communities affected by natural disasters.

How does the culture of Classy Hippie Tea Co. attract people?

I really believe that tea does the lion’s share of the work for me to draw people in.

Tea has such a big following worldwide that people are

classyhippieteaco.com

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

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grumpy thanks to an equipment malfunction), most just enjoyed the hell out of the show.

on sTands nov. 10

Legendary: What do you get when you pack a nightclub with a mix of millennials, Gen Xers and one of the most iconic alt-rock bands?

A roomful of pumping fists, dancing bodies, opinionated sniping and a solid if not particularly inspiring night of rock ’n’ roll, apparently.

That was the scene last Wednesday when the Pixies played to an enthusiastic sold-out crowd at Ace of Spades as part of a four-date “warmup” club tour ahead of its lengthier European trek.

The band was slated to take the stage at 9:15 p.m. but, instead, struck up the first chords of its 1989 single “Debaser” almost a half-hour ahead of schedule, plunging into a nearly 90-minute set that spanned its 30-year career.

The Pixies—original members Black Francis, Joey Santiago, David Lovering and new-ish member Paz Lenchantin—didn’t say much throughout the entirety of the set but that didn’t matter to the crowd.

Less talking equals more hits, after all, and the band had plenty of those to parade.

The 29-song set list covered the favorites with solid renditions of classics that still hold up and show why the Pixies were considered so revolutionary in the first place.

Blending pop, punk, post-punk and new wave with something decidedly indescribable, songs such as “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” “Gouge Away,” “Subbacultcha” and “Where is My Mind?” still reverberate with tension, melody and smarts. The band’s newer tracks exhibit a similar vibe, too, including the infectious “Um Chagga Lagga” and “All I Think About Now.” The latter song has been described as an homage to the Pixies’ original bassist Kim Deal (who departed the band a few years back) and, certainly, Lenchantin’s vocals recall Deal, but on that song (and throughout the night) she also proved she could easily hold her own.

It’s doubtful most in attendance were looking for the Pixies to break any new ground (they did that back in the late ’80s and ’90s, thank you very much) so although a few griped that the band lacked energy or seemed uninspired (or, at one point,

Top 50 ResTauRanTs Issue

Rock ’n’ jazz

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