he has the throne, but can the kings’ former center rule as general manager?
s ’ e d Vla Page 14
e k ma or k a e r b
by John flynn
n o s a se
Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly
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Volume 30, iSSue 27
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midterm voter guide page 12
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Editor’s notE
octobEr 18, 2018 | Vol. 30, issuE 27
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STREETALK NEwS ELEcTioN GuidE FEATuRE SToRy ARTS & cuLTuRE diSh STAGE FiLM MuSic cALENdAR cApiTAL cANNAbiS GuidE 44 ASK joEy 47 15 MiNuTES
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On October 11, Wind Youth Services executive director Suzi Dotson announced she was stepping down. Her farewell email didn’t include a reason, but I have my theories. Wind is the only nonprofit providing shelter and drop-in services to unaccompanied homeless youth in five counties. It offers a crucial lifeline to a critically underserved population. And yet it’s long had trouble surviving one day to the next. A near funding collapse in 2013. Frequent moves. A canceled contract when city staff objected to a Wind employee participating in the Right to Rest protest. Wind’s epic—but mostly behind-thescenes—battles with City Hall should serve as an example to any do-gooder working with marginalized individuals. If you fight for the people and not the privileged, there’ll be trouble. Dotson was often pulled into battles between apoplectic merchants, finger-wagging politicians and her own staff. She had an impossible task: keeping a financially strapped nonprofit afloat, being a stern advocate for her clients and appeasing those who simply don’t want to see homeless youth in public. Even though she’s not talking (Dotson hasn’t responded to a request for comment), I can imagine all this took its toll. Before ending her four-plus-year tenure, Dotson allowed Goodwill Sacramento Valley & Northern Nevada to absorb Wind, which has garnered mixed reviews from homeless youth advocates around the state capital. Goodwill, which facilitated the move of Wind’s drop-in center out of downtown to a building it owns in Oak Park, likes to get along with the powers that be. That’s not always good for those who lack power. In her farewell message, Dotson said she and the board developed a succession plan where she’ll train her replacement over the next three months. Wind’s new director will be Robynne Rose-Haymer, a former deputy director of Next Move Homeless Services, which is also overseen by Goodwill. Funny how that worked out.
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“… patience is alWays Kind of difficult When it comes to sports.”
Asked AT The sundAy FArmers mArkeT on 8Th And w sTreeTs in sAcrAmenTo:
Will the Kings ever be great again?
Angie TAylor wine and spirits sales
History shows bad picks. Who was it that we didn’t even work out and he became our No. 1 pick? … It’s those decisions that continue to make the Kings a bottom-feeding team, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the city. It has so much to do with the ineptitude of the front office.
JeFF keeFer occupational therapy assistant
That’s a difficult answer to give. I hope so. I think it’ll take a lot in management and some draft picks. Hopefully they can put a team together. But I don’t think it’ll be for awhile.
Need VeteraNs disability CompeNsatioN beNefits or Help witH aN appeal? law offiCe of steVeN H. berNiker,apC
JAmes Be AchAm
JAmie lee e ve
IT security
realtor
There’s always the potential for them to be great again. They’ve been great in the past, just weren’t able to finish up and get a championship. That doesn’t take away the success. So, it’s possible.
derrick rogers administrative assistant
I just feel like the mindset of the players now is they’re too hot to trot … I think if they get their head in the stands with the people before they get in the game, there’s a strong possibility that the Kings will be great again.
Yeah, I think we have the team. I think the thing with the Kings is, we need to just stay consistent. We got Fox, who played really well last year, showed that we could be clutch … We got Bogi, we got Hield, new guy Bagley, we’ll see what he can do.
sacramento area’s Dining guiDe
(916) 480-9200 2424 ardeN way, suite 360, saCrameNto, Ca 95825 Veteran adVocate:
camie Jo decker-Laske
Veterans assistance is our #1 Priority “ On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a Nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no Veteran behind.” – Dan Lipinski
4 | SN&R | 10.18.18
on stanDs
october 25
Ben owen physician
I think that they have the potential to. Just being located in this city, I think it’s a place that people can be invested in, in a program like the Kings. I think it’ll take time which, patience is always kind of difficult when it comes to sports. But yeah, I think that there’s potential there.
Email lEttErs to sactolEttErs@nEwsrEviEw.com
A woman’s right
would never want to date, hire or marry. Ken Lauszuz sa c ra m e nt o via email
Re: “Weathering the storm” by Kate Gonzales (Scene & Heard, October 11): Women deserve control over their bodies—all the way. Remember Senator Leroy Greene? He advocated the legalization of prostitution. He was a man of vision. Ask yourself: why is prostitution illegal? Do you have a good answer?
JuLie Bauer s acr a m e nt o v i a F ac e b o o k
A witch hunt fan, obviously Re: “Anger and change” by Rachel Leibrock (Editor’s Note, October 4):
Obviously you are a Salem witch hunt fan. A “man-hater” who runs around with a “pussy hat” on supporting any hysterical, probably mentally ill woman who failed at life and “blame men” not
themselves. “Women don’t lie,” what a crock! Why is it you only believe charges against Republicans? Do you want me to send a list of Democrat office holders with sexual assault charges against them that you females of virtue ignore like king of sexual assault Bill Clinton? … A lot of people reading your “note” are laughing at you; just another crazy toxic female I
Of somber importance Re: “After the war” by Scott Thomas Anderson (Feature, October 4):
Thank you for writing pieces like these. Very somber, but also very informative about this issue with the Hmong community. sarah McGinn s a c ra m e nt o via Facebook
As usual for you independent thinkers, don’t let the facts get in the way. Mob rule is always better than the law. BiLL sLaGLe sac r a me nto v ia e ma il
Business in conflict Re: “Improvement or exclusion” by Dylan Sbvoda (News, October 11):
One thing that isn’t mentioned that is of concern is that [Mayor] Darrell Steinberg, and the other city council members sit on the Board of Directors of these [business improvement districts]. As does Norm Leong of the Sacramento Police Department. JaMes cLarK sa c r a me nto v i a s a c t o l e t t e rs @ne w s re v ie w.c o m
Think free?
read more letters online at newsreview .com/sacramento.
That SN&R monopoly Are you at SN&R an equal employment opportunity employer? I feel the need to ask knowing Trump supporters are more than you can count on your readers’ fingers. Yet, your magazine employs only liberal writers. Seeing how you have a monopoly in the corner of SacTown as the only “alternative news,” I can only hope that someday the personal views of the writers control the content … not the personal opinion of the CEO/President Jeff vonKaenel or the left editors. Reading your magazine is becoming a chore. And since I don’t smoke pot, you have wasted a lot of paper each week on us that don’t. Which, I hope, is most of us clear thinkers.
Re: “Anger and change” by Rachel Leibrock (Editor’s Note, October 4):
@SacNewsReview
Facebook.com/ SacNewsReview
@SacNewsReview
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say have panicked doctors into sitting on their prescription pads. Rallied by Don’t Punish Pain, a national organization, it was a rare public defense of opioids amid an epidemic.
Approximately four dozen pain sufferers, advocates and caregivers rallied in front of the state Capitol on September 18, one of 80 demonstrations across the United States. Photos by Dylan svoboDa
For them, drugs are the answer Defending opioids amid an overdose epidemic, chronic pain sufferers speak out in Sacramento by Dylan SvoboDa and Raheem F. hoSSeini
Brushing teeth or applying makeup can feel like a game of Russian roulette to Jo Hewitt. Hewitt, founder of the VacavilleSacramento area Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association, a chronic pain support group, suffers from trigeminal neuralgia, or TN, which is sometimes referred to as the “suicide disease.” That’s because of the searing agony that can be triggered from the lightest of touches. According to the Mayo Clinic, TN affects the trigeminal nerve, which carries 6 | SN&R | 10.18.18
sensations from a person’s face to their brain. Mild stimulation of the face, even from a breeze, can shoot lightning into the brain. As a longtime pain patient, Hewitt says she’s proven capable of transitioning between marijuana and opioids to manage her discomfort. But because America’s opioid epidemic is threatening an unprecedented drop in mortality rates for the third straight year, Hewitt says she was denied an opioid prescription for a condition that can strike at any time.
ra he e mh @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m
“I’m your typical chronic pain patient,” Hewitt said. “For years I was on and off pain prescriptions. I transitioned over to pot and then later broke my hand and got diagnosed with [TN]—and when I asked to go back on pain meds, I was denied. I could barely get a Tylenol from the doctor.” On September 18, roughly four dozen people sympathetic to Hewitt’s plight or experiencing similar challenges gathered outside the state Capitol to protest federal prescribing guidelines that they
At the rally, Oroville resident Charlotte Elmore expressed her discontent with doctors’ flip-flopping attitudes toward powerful analgesics. “Years ago, I tried to tell my doctor I didn’t want my dosage to be so high and he told me he thought I’m good right where I’m at,” Elmore said. “Now, I’m physically dependent on them, and the guidelines are making my doctor lower my dosage to a level that’s too low.” Some studies show that the federal government may be overcorrecting when it comes to regulating pain patients’ access to medication. In an April 2018 study, Pain Medicine, a multidisciplinary journal dedicated to pain professionals, found that “many current assumptions about opioid analgesics are ill-founded. Illicit fentanyl and heroin, not opioid prescribing, now fuel the current opioid overdose epidemic.” But other studies show that prescription drugs, which are still responsible for a number of deaths and addictions, are the Pandora’s box that often lead directly to the abuse of fentanyl and heroin. According to the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, between 8 and 12 percent of opioid users develop a disorder; about 80 percent of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids. Dr. Jason Busse, a clinical epidemiology professor at McMaster University in Ontario, says that although some pain patients with a legitimate need for medication may fall through the cracks, legislation regulating opioid prescriptions was overdue. Busse said governments need to find a middle ground between the overprescribing of the late 1990s and 2000s, and the disinclination to prescribe he sees today and foresees for the future. “The pendulum tends to swing from one end to the other,” Busse said. “For years, there was fairly generous prescribing, often at very high doses, in the U.S. and Canada. Now, we’re seeing regulations on dosages and some prescribers choosing not to prescribe opioids altogether.
Folsom’s sprawl election see news
09
mayor pitches at summit see news
11
sn&r’s midterm endorsements see opinion
12
beatS
strange election Fellows
“I think we need to find that middle ground, a balance where we do a better job recognizing what kinds of individuals are unlikely to experience greater benefits than harm from prescription opioids.” California state lawmakers considered at least 20 opioid-related bills during the recent session. Senate Bill 1109, authored by Sen. Pat Bates, expands opioid education for physicians and surgeons, and Assembly Bill 2760, authored by Assemblyman Jim Wood, requires doctors to provide overdose-reversing medications when prescribing opioids. Both were signed last month by Gov. Jerry Brown. Pain patients want more. Lawrence Favero, a spokesperson for Don’t Punish Pain, said his organization is looking to amend California’s Pain Patients Bill of Rights. Favero says that although the bill guarantees opioids as an option for chronic pain, it gives doctors too much discretion and doesn’t go far enough in protecting patients. “Though it seems to provide some protection for chronic pain patients, it is too vague and has been largely ignored,” Favero said in a written statement to SN&R. “We have proposed changes that would provide more specific protections for patients, physicians and pharmacists. Focusing the responsibility for treatment on the physician and patient instead of government agencies and insurance companies.” Favero hopes that legislation strengthening the bill will be introduced during the next legislative session. it’s a balmy summer morning, even under a low-slung awning on the porch of a North Sacramento house. The big family that’s crowded under its brim is discussing the origins and local ripples of America’s drug epidemic when the sister who resides here shares her own brush with a public health crisis that is erasing scores of lives. Patricia Lester tells her siblings she only recently learned that a medication her doctor had prescribed her for three years was an opioid pain killer commonly administered to dogs and cats. The drug is called Tramadol. Some hard-up addicts snap their pets’ limbs to score from veterinarians’ offices. For Lester, who says she turned down her doctor’s offer of Norco explicitly because she feared the addictive lure of opioids, the discovery explained why she had been sidelined with extreme lethargy the past few years.
“It was like I was dying in my own about two prescriptions for every three [body],” she said. “And it was like the residents, the county says. spirit just said, ‘Quit taking them damn But that doesn’t reflect the true pills!’ And I became a human again.” toll of addiction. That same year, One of Lester’s sisters waits a comethe number of reported prescriptions dic beat before chiming in. for buprenorphine, a common opioid “Do you have any more?” she asked, dependency drug, marked a 247 percent prompting peels of laughter. increase over 2008. Some of that has Lester lets out a full-throated roar. to do with what happens outside of the “Hell no,” she retorted. “Look, I told county. the man I don’t want none of that While the rate is 50 opioid shit.” prescriptions per 100 people But many still do. In in Sacramento County, 2016 alone, more than the prescription rate 42,000 people died starts to redline in from opioids in the foothills and the United States, spikes off the according to the charts in the U.S. Centers for lesser-populated Disease Control upper reaches of and Prevention. the state. Placer That’s more than and El Dorado Dr. Jason Busse the number of counties are well clinical epidemiology professor, people who live over 60 prescripMcMaster University in Fair Oaks. Fiftytions per persons, five of those deaths while Amador and occurred in Sacramento Tuolumne counties County. peak past 112, CDC data In recent years, Washington shows. D.C. has made the opioid epidemic a In Sacramento County, opioids top public health priority. The U.S. are the primary drug of choice among Surgeon General’s Office identified homeless people as well as residents of doctors’ overprescribing habits since the the Land Park, Meadowview and Pocket late 1990s as a key factor in the misuse communities, the county’s Health and of opioids. In 2016, the CDC released Human Services Department reported prescribing guidelines aimed at cutting earlier this year. into a legal supply blamed for starting Back in North Sacramento, Lester scores of Americans on the path to and her family reflect on the toll that addiction. The guidelines recommend drugs have had since the crack cocaine nonopioid therapy, the lowest possible epidemic of the 1980s targeted commuopioid dosage effective, and reducing nities of color like theirs. the risk of over-prescribing through “So now it’s meth and ’surp and urine drug testing and prescription drug pills, fentanyl and norcos,” said monitoring programs. A patient’s mediMonique Smith, Lester’s niece. “I drive cal history should also be considered Uber. So I get all kinds of people in my before prescribing for pain, the CDC car.” recommended. Smith says she’ll take fares to the By 2017, the prescribing rate Roseville suburbs where mostly young, dipped to under 59 opioid prescriptions mostly white women hooked on smack dispensed per 100 persons, the lowest and other substances ask her to pray for since 2006. In total, 191 million opioid them. prescriptions were dispensed in the Smith tells them that she will. country. Outside of divine intervention, she According to a drug monitoring knows these women feel like they have surveillance report issued to county few options left. supervisors last year, local opioid “One girl was pregnant,” Smith said. prescriptions peaked in 2013 and have “Twenty-three years old and pregnant. started to inch down since then. More She was on meth. Her parents don’t than 1 million opioid prescriptions were know that she’s on those drugs. And it’s dispensed in Sacramento County in such a sad thing because it’s not a black 2015, according to local data, most of thing. It’s a universal thing.” Ω that for hydrocodone. That equates to
“I think we need to find that middle ground.”
Can an African-American woman break the all-white, mostly-male makeup of the citrus heights city council? That question has added intrigue to a small-town election featuring five candidates. Planning commissioner Porsche Middleton and Treston Shull, a labor law compliance representative, are competing with council members Steve Miller, Jeannie Bruins and Albert J. Fox for three available—but currently occupied—seats this November. Unseating incumbents is typically tough, but Middleton stands a better chance than she did two years ago, when she was one of eight candidates scrambling for two council seats. A transplant from Louisville, Ken., Middleton was appointed to the planning commission after her unsuccessful council run, where the former engineer currently weighs in on transportation and housing issues. One of the people Middleton lost out to in 2016 was Brett daniels, a polarizing figure who has endorsed her candidacy this time. Daniels was the subject of a police inquiry last year, after he sent an email to an old high school flame who says Daniels’ past attempts to get in touch verged on stalking. Police determined no crime was committed, but the allegation became public during Daniels’ run for sheriff earlier this year and prompted a public censure by the rest of the council. Daniels, who denies doing anything wrong, called the censure “unnecessary.” Back then, Daniels suggested next month’s election would be his payback. “And November, we’ll hopefully replace one of them,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the November election.” Asked about Daniels’ support and the allegations against him, some of which include claims that he made other women uncomfortable before he was fired by the sheriff’s department, Middleton treads carefully. “Harassment is definitely not OK,” she said. “But I don’t know. My personal experience [with him] does not reflect that.” While Middleton described Daniels’ endorsement as beneficial because he’s a Republican and she’s a Democrat, his name isn’t featured on the endorsements page of her candidate’s website. (Raheem F. Hosseini)
upshhh UPS’s slogan used to be “we run the tightest ship in the business.” Now that the parcel carrier has inked a controversial pact with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, anyone involved locally has the tightest lips in Sacramento. The Brotherhood, which represents more than 200,000 UPS employees nationally, ratified the contract on October 6, despite the majority of members voting against it. The agreement was ratified because just 44 percent of members voted in the election, according to Bloomberg. It’s unclear how the more than 1,400 ups employees in the sacramento region will be affected by the deal. But nationally, the agreement had a toxic taint for some because it created a low-tier position—a combination driver “to meet the demands of increased e-commerce and weekend deliveries,” according to a UPS website. Fabrizio Sasso, executive director for the Sacramento Central Labor Council, referred questions to the Teamsters Local 150. A representative for this group declined to speak for attribution. A UPS spokesman said via email that the new contract provides increased wages and benefits, as well as the creation of 5,000 fulltime jobs. The spokesman clarified the number of UPS employees in the Sacramento region but wouldn’t answer any other question from SN&R, saying, “We don’t disclose much local information.” (Graham Womack)
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Aaron Ralls, a former sergeant at Folsom State Prison, stands in front of his business, Lucky’s Barbershop. Local developers are spending big to keep Ralls off the city council. Photo by Scott thomAS AnderSon
Developer-to-council pipeline Folsom Ranch backers flood council race with money and mailers to defeat smart growth slate by Scott thomaS anderSon
An extended version of this story is available at newsreview.com/ sacramento
Aaron Ralls says when you’ve worn a badge in a prison yard alongside the Mexican Mafia, the last things you’re afraid of are developers and the Folsom Chamber of Commerce. Now, as the former correctional sergeant makes a bid for Folsom City Council, he’s starting to rethink that premise. Ralls is one of three planning commissioners at loggerheads with the council’s pro-development majority. Ralls and fellow commissioner Jenifer Lane are running for a trio of at-large council seats, and both say that rampant over-building and growing traffic issues are the reasons. “What’s happened to the traffic here is disgusting,” Ralls said. “I’ve lived in Folsom for 30 years, and I’m really worried it’s losing its character.” The chamber’s political action committee, meanwhile, is once again spending to keep longtime Councilwoman Kerri Howell behind the dais, as well as elect two other builder-friendly candidates. North State Building Industry Association is following suit, spending tens of thousands of dollars on the chamber-endorsed hopefuls—and putting Ralls directly in their sightline.
The chamber’s political action committee, Jobs PAC (formerly BIZ PAC), has long acted as a financial conduit between council members Howell, Steve Miklos and Andy Morin, and the owners of an embattled series of housing developments known as Folsom Ranch. Between 2013 and 2016, developers involved with Folsom Ranch gave more than $20,000 to the chamber’s PAC, which in turn spent three times that amount toward keeping Howell, Miklos and Morin in office. All three council members voted to grant the land entitlements that made Folsom Ranch a reality. Howell, the only incumbent now running for reelection, also accepted an additional $5,500 from Folsom Ranch developers in her failed run for county supervisor two years ago. Ralls says he wasn’t surprised that the chamber-Folsom Ranch alliance was against his campaign. Ralls and Lane have both raised alarm bells from their seats on the planning commission about the 2,600-acre Folsom Ranch, citing reports from state agencies questioning its water supply and wondering how incumbents could exempt it from regular traffic standards while downgrading the city’s
sc o tta @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m
overall traffic flow. While Ralls didn’t expect the chamber’s support, he says he was blindsided by North State Building Industry Association spending $34,154 in attack ads on him. The barrage came in the form of mailers and sponsored Facebook posts claiming Ralls didn’t vote in 21 of the last 26 elections. “The developers, and the chamber, which is in the developers’ pocket, obviously think I have a chance of winning,” Ralls said. “And they’re terrified of that.” Folsom Ranch developers have reason to be nervous about the upcoming election. In addition to Ralls and Lane, Barbara Leary, a smart growth advocate and member of the Sierra Club’s executive committee, is also running. While fourfifths of the current city council granted land entitlements for Folsom Ranch, most of the project’s developers still need to go through the final permitting and mapping process. The election of Ralls, Lane and Leary could swing the council’s balance of power away from the developers. That matters, says Leary, because the city of Folsom has a long history of letting developers out of agreements when the economy tanks. Leary doesn’t think Folsom Ranch’s
current park and open-space commitments are guaranteed unless the culture changes at City Hall. “During a downturn, you don’t know what kind of plans will come forward,” Leary stressed. Campaign finance disclosures reveal the chamber’s PAC has continued to accept money from developers and companies involved with Folsom Ranch. The PAC has given money to three candidates the chamber has endorsed: Howell, Sarah Aquino and Mike Kozlowski. North State BIA is spending far more to support the trio, having already dropped $19,575 on positive ads for the chamber’s picks, in addition to the 30 grand it’s spent attacking Ralls. Howell has consistently said that Folsom Ranch’s developers don’t carry undue influence with her. This week, Howell told SN&R she’s had no communication with the chamber’s PAC or North State BIA about how they’re spending their election money. Howell added that the city’s working on a plan to address traffic congestion. “My platform is what it’s always been—making sure that we remain one of the best places to live in Northern California,” Howell said. Aquino is the former chair of the chamber’s board of directors and previously served as president of its PAC. Aquino declined to be interviewed for this story. Kozlowski appears less embedded in the chamber, though he has well-documented financial ties to developers. When Kozlowski ran for county supervisor in 2016, the PAC for Region Builders spent more than $130,000 trying to elect him. Both Leary and Lane told SN&R they’re concerned about the relationship between the chamber and Folsom Ranch. The chamber’s CEO, Joe Gagliardi, wrote in an email that while a number of the Folsom Ranch developers are members of his organization, they’re not steering the chamber’s political agenda. Gagliardi also wrote that he doesn’t see a conflict with his PAC supporting Aquino, the person who’d previously run it. For Mark Moore, a retired firefighter who’s running for city council on a controlled-growth platform, those are claims that should give Folsom voters pause. “The chamber doesn’t even try to pretend they’re not running this town,” Moore said. “It’s turned into an acceptable corruption, because it’s so obvious to see.” Ω
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At housing summit, Mayor Darrell Steinberg says it’s sales tax or bust by Scott thomaS anderSon
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A public battle over stripped park West Sacramento Mayor Chris benches on K Street and continuing Cabaldon backed Steinberg up on that tensions over the city’s anti-camping point. ordinance backdropped a late-game “We may have turned the corner pitch by Sacramento Mayor Darrell when it comes to people weaponizing Steinberg at a housing summit this the term ‘affordable housing,’ but week. we’re far from being in a place where On Monday, while appearing at I think our voters will approve a propthe Sacramento Regional Affordable erty tax,” Cabaldon said. Housing Summit, Steinberg lobbied That’s made Measure U a gamble hard for his Measure U sales tax for some. Constructed as an initiative increase by saying it was the city’s that requires a simple majority vote main hope for tackling homelessness to pass, any money raised through the and tenant displacement. doubled-up sales tax will go straight “Our big play in Sacramento is into the city’s general fund, meaning Measure U,” he stressed, adding that the city council can spend it as it some of the new revenues would be pleases. used to create a capital equity fund Fiscally conservative groups such specifically for housing. The as Eye on Sacramento and the mayor estimated such an Sacramento Taxpayers initiative could generAssociation contend ate $450 million in that means the money “Our additional revenue raised through the big play in for affording living regressive tax will projects and an have to go toward Sacramento is arsenal of improved the city’s mounting Measure U.” homeless programs. pension debt rather “We can’t put than the prioriDarrell Steinberg on the measure what ties Steinberg has mayor, city of Sacramento we’re going to do, but outlined. Both groups I can be specific from helped form the No on my bully pulpit,” Steinberg Measure U coalition, which told the crowd. has made City Hall officials Steinberg made no mention of nervous about losing a revenue reinstating the city’s inclusionary stream they’ve already woven into housing rules that were ditched in Sacramento’s future. 2015, which mandated developers build Steinberg, who recently called for affordable units as part of any project. park benches to be returned to the He did address questions about why K Street corridor after Sister Libby Sacramento hasn’t attempted to pass Fernandez highlighted their removal a general obligation bond for housing, on social media as hostile to homeless a type of property tax hike that’s people, was also asked at the summit recently netted between $550 million why Sacramento hasn’t considered to $1.2 billion for jurisdictions such as passing a real estate transfer tax to help Alameda County, Santa Clara County build affordable housing. and the city of Los Angeles. “Part of it is a political consid“I’m fine with the concept, but eration,” he admitted. “A sales tax I’m wary of anything that requires doesn’t have built-in opposition, a real a two-thirds vote,” Steinberg said estate tax does. It helps when you’re of pursuing a bond. “We’ve had too trying to sell these things that there’s many attempts here where we’ve lost not a major-funded opposition getting on those votes.” involved.” Ω
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10.18.18
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electioN guide
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You better f@%#ing vote! SN&R offers its targeted endorsements for the 2018 general election You’ve run out of excuses. Thanks to the Voters Choice Act, Sacramento County’s pilot partnership with the state, it’s easier to register and vote than ever. And unless you’ve been blissfully living under a rock the last two years, you know the stakes have rarely been higher. With an insanely crowded midterm ballot, SN&R has decided to target the races and initiatives that could affect our readers the most. By all means, do your own due diligence. Research. Verify. Vote your interests. But please do vote. We live in interesting times. Your participation could help make them a little less interesting.
Governor Gavin newsom Look, we can all agree that it’s hard to get excited about stability, especially when offered in the form of a nakedly ambitious Bay Area politician who occasionally reminds us of Patrick Bateman. (We think it’s the slicked-back hair.) But stability is what Gavin Newsom portends as the next governor of California, as well as a reliably progressive foil to the mean-spirited tyranny of President Donald Trump. And those are two things this unlucky world desperately needs right now. Just because Newsom feels inevitable doesn’t mean he isn’t the best choice—by far—over Republican challenger John Cox. Where our current lieutenant governor and the former mayor of San Francisco has sketched out proposals to address housing affordability, homelessness and the environment, Cox is a one-issue pony, preying on populist ambivalence about the gas tax. And no wonder. Cox has nothing else to offer. After Brexit and Trump, Western civilization has had enough of hate-voting. Do the responsible thing. Elect Newsom.
LieuTenanT Governor ed hernandez 12 | SN&R | 10.18.18
aTTorneY GeneraL Xavier Becerra uniTed sTaTes senaTe, caLifornia Kevin de Leon Notice a lot of Kevin de Leon signs as you’re driving around downtown Sacramento? The same streets that have hosted protests against ICE and Trump appear to have more and more people voting “no confidence” in Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She’s been entrenched in the culture of Washington, D.C., for 26 years and seems increasingly out of touch with her constituents. Bottom line, in a political knife fight, we need a real combatant.
superinTendenT of puBLic insTrucTion TonY Thurmond Two Democrats are battling to be the top education official in California, but only one of them, Tony Thurmond, has the support of labor. His opponent, Marshall Tuck, is a charter school champion and currently enjoying millions of dollars in campaign support from that industry. Prior to working in education, Thurmond helmed a number of nonprofit organizations that worked with low-income foster children, at-risk students and families broken up by incarceration. Not surprisingly, perhaps, before Tuck got into school administration he worked in the financial world. Vote for Thurmond. The last thing California needs is a schools superintendent with one ounce of Betsy DeVos’ sensibilities.
uniTed sTaTes conGress, disTricT 4 Jessica morse In this race between incumbent Tom McClintock and newcomer Jessica Morse, the latter has proven herself to be green— flip-flopping on issues, for one example,
misrepresenting her accomplishments, for another. Still we’ll take unpolished and naive over McClintock any day. Morse, a Carmichael native who previously worked for the State and Defense departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development, supports, among other issues, compassionate immigration reform, accessible and affordable health care, and sensible gun regulation. All that and she’s simply not McClintock, a proud do-nothing who, at this point in his career, is perhaps most infamous for fleeing a Roseville town hall just weeks after Trump’s inauguration.
uniTed sTaTes conGress, disTricT 7 Toss-up Your choice is between a three-term Democratic incumbent who’s spent his political career not making waves, or a former Marine who’s big selling point is that he’s not Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, the last Republican to run for this seat. We agree with Rep. Ami Bera’s politics, but wish he’d actually express them through actual, you know, legislation. And we respect Andrew Grant’s evenkeeled temperament, but these midterms feel too important to toss a protest vote toward a Folsom businessman who would ease climate change regulations and inch health-care toward privatization. We’ll probably reluctantly side with Bera again, but damn Dems, enough with the empty suits already.
caLifornia sTaTe senaTe, disTricT 6 richard pan caLifornia sTaTe assemBLY, disTricT 6 JacaLYn “JacKie” smiTh
caLifornia sTaTe assemBLY, disTricT 7 Kevin mccarTY caLifornia sTaTe assemBLY, disTricT 8 Ken cooLeY caLifornia assemBLY memBer, disTricT 9 harrY he No, political neophyte. He doesn’t stand a chance against incumbent Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a fellow Democrat. And frankly, we probably wouldn’t endorse He if this race was close. Cooper, a businessfriendly moderate, is a steady establishment Dem, which we know sounds like faint praise—because it often is: He voted against increasing renewable energy targets and sat out a historic #MeToo vote to open up sexual assault settlements. But he’s also stood up against landlords who bully undocumented immigrants and opposed sexual orientation conversion therapy. He, on the other hand, is a question mark with a more progressive platform when it comes to the environment and criminal justice reform. This isn’t an endorsement for He—a Galt-raised, Sacramentoresiding IT manager—so much as it is a recommendation to remind Cooper that constituents notice when he gets too cozy with big campaign donors like the bail bond industry.
caLifornia sTaTe assemBLY, disTricT 11 Jim frazier proposiTions 1 & 2 Yes While the special interest groups decrying rent control often cite debatable data regarding its economic impacts, their
talking point about California’s low housing inventory being a key factor in the current crisis is a salient one. There’s almost universal agreement from builders and housing experts alike that the state needs more market-rate, low-income and extremely low-income units, both for combating homelessness and stabilizing rents. These two measures make modest steps in that direction. Proposition 1 authorizes $4 billion in general obligation bonds for housing programs and housing loans for veterans. Proposition 2 allows the state to set aside 10 percent of funds attached to the Mental Health Services Act to build homes for people living on the streets with mental illness. Only the most hardline tax contrarians wouldn’t vote for these measures.
ProPosition 4 Yes Bonds always make us nervous, but a $1.5 billion ask to build and improve children’s hospitals is money well spent.
ProPosition 5 no Redirecting school funding to older property owners is bizarro-land hooey.
ProPosition 6 no We get it, no one likes taxes. And these regressive ones always hurt the poor more than they do people who can afford the new 530e BMW hybrid. (You know who you are.) But we’ve been putting off critical infrastructure improvements forever, and construction apparently costs money. Twelve cents a gallon more vs. falling into the water with a crumbling bridge? Yeah, we’ll fork over the extra geldt and grumble about it. Alive.
ProPosition 8 Yes When in doubt, follow John Oliver. The British comedian and host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight already savaged private dialysis corporations that gouge desperate patients and then hook them up to unsanitary kidney-filtration machines. Now’s your chance to help stop them.
ProPosition 10 Yes Contrary to what critics are saying, this measure does not enact any form of rent control, at all, anywhere. What it does is give the authority over rent stabilization back to local governments. That power
was greatly curtailed in 1995 when U was passed at the height of the great major developers and special interest recession when cops and firefighters were groups convinced the legislature to pass being laid off and community programs the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing were shutting down. It was sold as a Act. Since then, cities and counties that stop-gap to restore basic services. Now, its engage in rent control protections can heftier version is being sold as a kitchenonly legally apply those regulasink answer to everything from the needs tions to units built before of underprivileged communities 1995. Rental homes, to keeping basic city services duplexes and newer online. But there’s a developments are credible fear that city’s We live in also exempt. escalating pension Proposition debt (now basically interesting times. 10 repeals a chasm) will eat up Costa-Hawkins, most of these dollars. Your participation could allowing local We understand the communities political calculus that help make them a little to chart their prompted city leaders less interesting. own way on rent to make Measure U control. Whether 2.0 a simple majority you’re a small ballot measure that feeds government libertarian straight into the general or a worried tenant, this fund, rather than setting a measure is a no-brainer. two-thirds voter threshold with more spending restrictions. But the bottom line ProPosition 12 is City Hall was warned for years not to build the temporary money into its longYes term budget, and that’s exactly what it did. The animals who provide us our meat Now, to not pass Measure U would blow and eggs deserve some walking-around a $50 million hole into frontline services, space. Supporting our furry and feathery which is the last thing Sacramento needs friends will make your next meal taste as it makes efforts to combat homelessness better. and the housing crisis. So we’re giving Mayor Darrell Steinberg the benefit of Measure L the doubt and believing that he will steer this money toward the people who are Yes affected most by a regressive tax, as he has Easily the least controversial local measure on the ballot, Measure L looks to end polit- promised. And we’ll be watching closely to make sure that happens. ical gamesmanship around redistricting in Sacramento by establishing an independent commission for that purpose. A coalition of nonprofits and good governance groups have spent more than four years carefully planning this move toward getting the public directly involved, one that includes the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and League of United Latin American Citizens. Every current council member has expressed support for the change, as have some of their toughest critics, including watchdog group Eye on Sacramento. The new commission will aim to be a cross-section of the community and the process for creating it will be supervised by the newly formed Ethics Committee. This is a slam-dunk vote for Sacramento.
Measure u a quaLified Yes Some don’t think the Sacramento City Council deserves this endorsement for renewing and doubling its temporary sales tax. The old half-cent version of Measure
sacraMento citY unified Board of education trustee area 2 ceciLe nunLeY This three-way race pits incumbent Ellen Cochrane against Leticia Garcia and Cecile Nunley. By most accounts Cochrane has done a fine job. But with the district facing a projected $24 million deficit this coming school year, Nunley may make for a much-needed new direction. A retired certified public accountant, she’s worked as a business director or chief business officer for various school districts, including the Dixon Unified School District. Her platform includes fiscal responsibility, school board transparency and fostering so-called “safe” classrooms. “Too many of our students do not feel safe in the early grades as they are excluded from the educational environment by some who view them
in a negative light,” Nunley writes in her political platform. “We must change this view and celebrate our diversity rather than divisiveness.” In a time when reports show the Sacramento City Unified School District suspends more black boys than any other district in the state, Nunley’s presence on the school board could provide crucial input and insight.
MaYor, citY of eLk Grove steve LY Mayor Steve Ly is facing stiff competition from Vice Mayor Darren Suen. The challenger has picked up key endorsements from three council members and former Elk Grove Mayor Sophia Scherman. Depending on your view, that might sound like a clear consensus, or it might sound like a networky Brown Act violation. Ly has only been in office for two years, which isn’t long enough to fairly judge if he can accomplish his ambitious agenda. That agenda includes luring new jobs to the city, increasing police staffing and school resource officers, fostering a local biotech industry that would work with Elk Grove’s pharmacy school, and finding a way to get the city its own hospital and emergency room. Ly deserves enough time to prove he can lead. He’s already proving it on the social front, using his refugee story to represent immigrants and new arrivals seeking the American dream.
MaYor, citY of West sacraMento christoPher caBaLdon Ooh, intrigue. Cabaldon, the seven-term incumbent, is facing his first credible political threat in a dog’s age from Joe DeAnda, a CalPERS spokesman (whose agency, incidentally, is taxing a lot of local governments these days due to ballooning pension bills). DeAnda has the money and union endorsements to go toe-to-toe with Cabaldon, a savvy deal-maker and big ideas guy. And DeAnda has at least one long-overdue idea: shifting City Council elections from at-large to by-district, which should improve the political representation of ignored communities. We’re all for that idea—but still support Cabaldon, a reliable public steward with a progressive conscience. Ω
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T he
Vlade Divac is entering his makeor-break year as the hometown team’s latest GM. Will the beloved former center rebound or flop? b y J o h n F ly n n
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t noon on September 24, I stood in the catacombs of the Golden 1 Center hoping to get into Kings Media Day, an event I hadn’t been invited to. I dressed in a polo, glasses and my SN&R-issued press pass, figuring my reporter costume might get me waved through without much scrutiny. I walked through a metal detector and introduced myself to the receptionist who, encouragingly, seemed impressed by my lanyard. As she prepared to wrap a purple band around my wrist, she asked who had told me to come. Uh … the media official I called told me the event was “full” when I let him know my plan to write about Vlade Divac. So I filibustered around the truth until she told me she had to make a call. I smiled and laid on the charm. “Can’t you just let me through?” “No.” “OK. Can I borrow that pen?” “You can … if somebody comes to get you.” Thirty minutes of thumb-twiddling later, somebody did: Chris Clark, the Kings’ head media honcho, shook my hand and told me I couldn’t come in. I told him I would be happy to stand against the wall, stay out of everybody’s way and just record what I saw and heard. In the nicest way possible, he told me that wasn’t going to happen. I could understand. Divac occupies a precarious position.
IllustratIons by serene lusano
14 | SN&R | 10.18.18
After serving as the maestro of the successful Kings teams of the early 2000s, Divac complicated his relationship with fans in 2015, when he became the team’s general manager, responsible for who’s on the team and who isn’t. Currently, he presides over a franchise with 12 years of losing basketball in the rearview mirror and a tough path ahead. As with anybody in his position, there’s been chatter about his competence. But Divac has been confident in his decisions. When he traded DeMarcus Cousins unexpectedly in 2016, he told The Sacramento Bee: “I believe we are going to be in a better position in two years. … If I’m right, great. If I’m wrong, I’ll step down. But if I go down, I’m going down my way.” This season marks the beginning of that critical second year. I wanted to talk to Divac, but finding myself blocked, I instead looked to those who have watched the slow-jogging, courtflopping, positively beloved Serbian center transform himself into a suit-wearing dealmaker trying to bring back the glory days of which he was a part. “From a player standpoint, he played on an awful lot of 50-plus win teams,” Jerry Reynolds, a longtime color commentator and former Kings coach, told SN&R in an interview. “It was not a coincidence. He’s basically just a winner. Whatever team he was on, he made it better. Everybody trusted him. Everybody liked him.” Unfortunately, Divac’s success as a player hasn’t yet translated to the front office. And now, after a few questionable decisions, fans who fondly remember Divac’s past will have to decide if they want him handling the Kings’ future.
Man in the Middle As a King in the early 2000s, Divac frequently guarded Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal: a Sisyphean task that defined the clashes between the dominant Los Angeles Lakers and the feisty Kings. In one treasured highlight from 2002’s Western Conference Finals, O’Neal blasts Divac backwards and dunks uncontested. Playby-play announcer Grant Napear screams, “That’s not an offensive foul?!” before Reynolds adds, “Vlade is lucky he has any ribs left.” The crowd grumbles. Teammates stagger. But Divac calls for the ball and jogs it up court, surveying his options. Then, almost imperceptibly, he picks up speed, blows by O’Neal and slams down on an unsuspecting Laker. The crowd loses it. Chris Webber flips the ball back to the Lakers with some renewed attitude as Napear howls his trademark catchphrase, “If you don’t like that, you don’t like NBA basketball!” Divac learned early on that it can be better to be underestimated than feared.
Born 1968 in Serbia, the lanky 7-foot-1 Divac first drew notice playing internationally for the soon-to-disband Yugoslavia. Drafted in 1989 by the “Showtime Lakers,” Divac, then 21, learned the American game under the tutelage of legends—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson—while mastering enough English to cameo in Space Jam. A deft passer and clever finisher around the rim, he lulled opponents to sleep in the post before spinning around them and flipping the ball into the cup for a “how did that just happen?” two points. In 1998, former Kings GM Geoff Petrie signed Divac for $60 million and six years, which is still the highest profile free agency signing in franchise history—something Divac hoped to change in 2015 when he became the team’s second GM under owner Vivek Ranadivé. Originally, Divac had been hired as an adviser/ambassador. But then Ranadivé ditched his first head coach, Mike Malone, followed by his first front office decisionmakers, Pete D’Alessandro and Chris Mullin. Divac had run basketball teams overseas and the Olympic Committee of Serbia. But there’s only one NBA. Former Sacramento Bee columnist Ailene Voisin, who’s known Divac since he entered the league, told SN&R that one of Divac’s early moves was a “disastrous” trade with the Philadelphia 76ers wherein the Kings shed expensive, unwanted players but gave up their 2019 first round pick, meaning that after this year’s season, the Kings won’t have a chance to add a top-tier talent in the draft. “When the job was offered, I think he really wanted it,” observed Reynolds, who has also served as the Kings’ general manager. “Having said that, it seems a lot easier than it is. I think Vlade has learned, like we all do in any job, that sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know.” Divac attempted to soothe tensions between head coach George Karl and Cousins after Karl had explored trades for the volatile center. The kumbaya moment never came. The next season, Divac replaced Karl with coach Dave Joerger, then traded Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans for a package centered around sweet-shooting guard Buddy Hield—a solid player, but nowhere near as talented as Cousins. “They’re the worst franchise right now in the league,” Voisin said. “They’ve got the longest playoff drought. They’ve assembled some young pieces, but you don’t really yet see any semblance of a team. Where’s the team there?” Divac selected Marvin Bagley III with the second pick in the 2018 draft. Bagley is a raw prospect who will fight for minutes with six other big men on the roster, which features zero high-caliber wings. Some fans wondered why Divac didn’t select flashy, playmaking wing Luka Doňcić—the 19-year-old MVP of
i think Vlade has learned, like we all do in any job, that sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. Jerry reynolds
former coach and general manager of the Sacramento Kings
the Euroleague, the second-most competitive league in the world. “I thought honestly [Doňcić] would fit our current roster better,” Reynolds said. “But the fact that Vlade and Peja [Stojaković] know what they know about the European game and chose not to [draft Doňcić], well, I’m confident they know more than I do.” In a post-draft press conference, Divac praised Bagley’s work ethic, scoring ability and versatility, then said the Kings are “a superteam, just young,” a bold claim, especially when renowned ESPN writer Zach Lowe recently ranked the Kings as the NBA’s least watchable team due to their lack of elite talent. “The bottom line is they drafted a lot of lottery picks,” Voisin said. “They can’t be just good players. You need a couple of them to emerge as stars because this league is built on stars.”
t h e V l a d f at h e r P a r t i i In the Kings Team Store, there hangs a rack of black jerseys, featuring a large, white 21 underneath the name “Divac,” a jersey that any fan can buy, but a number no King will ever wear again. The team retired Divac’s
number in 2009 at a ceremony where Chris Webber and Stojaković delivered emotional speeches, punctuated by hugs and I-loveyous. Fans chanted “Vla-de, Vla-de, Vla-de,” as Divac blew kisses to the crowd. “He’s one of the most compassionate, kindest people you’ll meet in sports,” Voisin said of Divac, who was named a United Nations Ambassador of Goodwill for his robust philanthropy. “His presence is just really unmistakable. He’s very dynamic and charismatic without being overbearing. He’s immensely likable.” Due to the less-than-promising present, Kings fans still romanticize Divac’s era. Hardly a month goes by without the Kings’ Twitter account posting a highlight compilation of Jason Williams, who played here for only three seasons—17 years ago. Nostalgia is one thing, but that’s akin to Uncle Rico talking about how far he could throw a football in high school. “It’s time to move on,” Reynolds said. “I loved that team, but we’ve just worn that out.” For fans to move on, the Kings need to take a measurable step forward. This past season, the young Kings disappointed most by finishing last in pace of play, thanks to mismatched starting lineups that paired speedster guard De’Aaron Fox with plodding former All-Star Zach Randolph. In the preseason, the team sought to address this, emphasizing their desire to play faster, shoot better and move the ball more—goals that have been in place since Ranadivé took over, yet have never been accomplished. The best case scenario for the team? Fox becomes an electric floor general. Harry Giles shows why he used to be the country’s top-ranked high school prospect. Bagley displays some star power. Justin Jackson, Skal Labissiere and Willie Cauley-Stein become more consistent. Free agent signings Yogi Ferrell and Nemanja Bjelica flourish in the Kings’ new culture. And guards Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic prove they could be starters on a playoff team. Reynolds feels Divac is safe if the Kings become more fun to watch, develop their players and win more games. But if the Kings stagnate, he said things could get “pretty ugly.” It sets up a strange dichotomy for Kings fans. Divac’s transition from the floor to the front office isn’t unprecedented, but nobody has done so well as a player while producing so few results as GM of the same team. As well-regarded as Divac is here, the clock is ticking. “I truly hope everything works for Vlade,” Reynolds said. “He’s a good man. But it’s a simple world. In the NBA, there’s a column for Ws and then one for Ls. And at some point, you got to get more Ws than Ls.” Ω
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— Y R O T s N O i s s e C C U s a
by James Raia
N O i T i d K iNg s e
Coaching the sacramento Kings is the least secure job in the NBa. Here’s why: erry Reynolds’ affable demeanor is uncharacteristic for the bright lights, booming music and power-jam egos of the National Basketball Association. But it’s an ideal trait for longevity. The league’s 30 teams are in a never-ending swirl of trades, trade rumors, front office turmoil, creative salary cap mathematics and the ominous phrase “future considerations.” Reynolds seems immune to it all. Head coach, interim head coach, assistant coach, director of player personnel, general manager, color commentator—Reynolds’ ability to adapt, hang around and return to the Kings in one capacity after another is both typical and abnormal at an organization whose coaching carousel never stops. Now entering its 34th season since the franchise departed Kansas City, the Kings have employed 17 head coaches and enough assistant coaches to affect Sacramento’s employment rate. According to the Elias Sports Bureau in New York, the keeper of all sports statistics, only the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets have had more head coaching upheaval than the Kings during their Sacramento residency. The Knicks and Nets have employed 18 head coaches each since 1985. One day, many years ago, Reynolds told me during a one-on-one interview for a magazine article that only “a handful of players in the league really make a difference; the rest are interchangeable parts.”
He still believes that today. “I’m one of those people who actually study the history of the league, players, coaches, the whole bit,” Reynolds told SN&R just before the start of the season. “It’s no secret it’s a players’ league.” If that’s true, does it really matter who the sideline generals are? Following the team’s 25th losing campaign last season, the Kings began their third season under head coach Dave Joerger this week. The team’s regular season opener was October 17 at home against the Utah Jazz. Six assistant coaches, three player development coaches and two trainers are also on staff. According to Reynolds, now an occasional broadcast sidekick to Grant Napear, the Red Bull-mainlining play-by-play announcer, that’s a lot of people with limited control over their professional fates. “I think coaches are very important,” Reynolds said. “I think Pat Riley is one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game, but there was a year in Miami when he won 17 games. He didn’t get dumb. Gregg Popovich had a 20- or 21-win season as well in San Antonio. Red Auerbach didn’t contend for a championship until Bill Russell arrived.” The Kings, like many NBA teams, have employed several former players as head coaches. Only one succeeded. Rick Adelman, a complementary player for several NBA teams including the Kings, coached Sacramento for
eight seasons, all playoff campaigns. He’s the only head coach the team has had with a winning career record. Adelman, who retired from coaching in 2014 with the Minnesota Timberwolves, has opted to live a quiet life in Oregon. He no longer grants interviews following the death of his son, R.J., who was killed in a car accident in February. During his interim head coach and head coaching tenure from 1987-1990, Reynolds’ record was 56-114. He’s among 16 of the Kings’ head coaches with losing records. But he fared better than others. Russell, the Hall of Fame center for the Boston Celtics, was a disaster as the Kings’ head coach. Only Tyrone Corbin and Kenny Natt, who also had brief head coaching tenures with the Kings, had worse records. Eddie Jordan, Reggie Theus, Paul Westphal, also prominent former players, all flopped as Kings head coaches. R.E. Graswich, a former Sacramento Bee staff writer and columnist, and Jeffrey Weidel, who reported on the team for the Associated Press, observed Kings coaches close range during games and practices. Both journalists conducted hundreds of interviews with the team’s coaching personnel.
since coming to sacramento, the Kings have employed 17 head coaches and enough assistants to artificially boost the city’s employment rate.
“a sUCCessiON sTORY” continued on page 19
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“a succession stoRy” continued from page 17
“Even though I had a courtside seat where I could analyze coaches, I’m not certain of their exact impact,” said Weidel, who ended his 25-year Kings reporting tenure after the team’s first season at Golden 1 Center. “I do know that a good strategist certainly can make a difference because many NBA games come down to the final minutes or even seconds. How a coach handles those pressure situations can often be the difference between a victory or a defeat.” Graswich, a Kings beat reporter for seven seasons, was less tactful. “I covered the Kings full-time from 1987 to 1993,” said Graswich. “The coaches were Bill Russell, Jerry Reynolds, Dick Motta, Rex Hughes and Garry St. Jean. Russell and Motta were hired in the naive belief that a coaching legend can overcome a losing culture. “Both insisted their gravitas and command over the roster would attract winners and inspire losers. The result was abject failure. The players—winners and losers alike—rebelled. Losses piled up, the legendary coaches got fired. Culture always prevails. Jerry [Reynolds] and Rex [Hughes] were placeholders. St. Jean bumbled along on the shoulders of Mitch Richmond.” Why former role players tend to outperform ex-superstars as coaches is not an exact science. But Reynolds has a theory. Guys like Russell and Magic Johnson didn’t have the patience for players who couldn’t do what they did on the court. Coaches like Steve Kerr and Adelman, who weren’t All-Star players, tend to be more patient. Gary Gerould, who began this season with a resume of announcing 2,611 Kings games, has observed the team’s coaching staff as intimately as anyone. “I wholeheartedly believe coaches do have a pretty dramatic impact,” Gerould said. “Obviously in that 34 years, coaching has changed a lot. In the old days, it was ‘it’s my way or the highway.’ Now, in the last decade or so, [it’s] so much more a players’ type of league. You need a coach and a coaching staff that touch any number of bases. I think you have to be as much a psychologist as a technician.” While Reynolds doesn’t necessarily want to see a return to the patrician days of lean coaching staffs, he also thinks there is such a thing as coach bloat, where some teams have one coach for every two players on the squad. “I certainly don’t agree with the way we had it when I was in the league,” Reynolds said. “The Kings had one assistant coach, most teams had two. But I always remember reading a book by the great Bear Bryant (the Alabama football coach legend). A football coach is a little different, but he talked about the thing that changed for him was that near the end of his career, he said, ‘I don’t coach players anymore, I coach coaches.’” Ω
a legacy
cut
Remember the Monarchs? yeah, they were cool. b y R a c h e l M ay f i e l d
seconds on the clock. Douglas sinks a three-pointer. Connecticut closes in on Sacramento, 59-61. 9.9 seconds on the clock. McWilliamsFranklin racks up her third personal foul. Penicheiro misses the first free throw, but lands the second. 59-62, Sacramento ekes out a three-point lead. 0.9 seconds left on the clock. In one last attempt to tie the game, Sales hoists a 22-footer … air ball. The timer buzzes. And with that, the Sacramento Monarchs triumph over the Connecticut Sun, delivering the capital city its first professional basketball championship. Thirteen years later, it’s still Sacramento’s only pro basketball championship to speak of. Nearly nine years have passed since the Monarchs were disbanded. Struggling to stay afloat during an economic downturn, the Maloofs cut them loose in hopes that they could hang onto the Kings just a little longer. Since Vivek Ranadivé’s acquisition of the men’s franchise and the completion of the Golden 1 Center, the question of a Monarchs revival has popped up occasionally. But a real, substantive answer has remained conspicuously elusive. Sure, Ranadivé has expressed some mild interest, but so far there’s no legitimate action plan. It’s the kind of radio silence that makes one wonder: Does Sacramento even want the Monarchs back? Since its inception, the WNBA has met an onslaught of challenges and criticism. Even during the 2005 finals, Marcos Bretón of The Sacramento Bee pulled no punches in critiquing the Monarchs franchise and the “unwarranted” amount of coverage they had received during what was, by far, their best season. “Let’s be honest,” he wrote, “let’s call the WNBA Finals what they are: a spectacle of limited interest. A niche event. Poorly attended games compared to the River Cats or even certain high school football games.” Three days later, the Monarchs secured their historic championship in a flurry of purple confetti. But to Bretón, it wasn’t about victories. It was about numbers. Attendance, ratings, sales. Numbers that, to some extent, factored in the Monarchs’ demise. Back then, I had a very different impression of women’s basketball. Maybe it’s because I was 11 years old and had no concept of advanced statistics or
corporate budgeting. In the early 2000s, the Monarchs felt just as omnipresent as the Kings. Shooting hoops during recess was as much about channeling Ticha Penicheiro as Peja Stojaković. My wall of posters wasn’t complete without taping Yolanda Griffith right up alongside Bobby Jackson. It never occurred to me that one team could exist without the other. For me, and many others, it was less about numbers and more about visibility. The Monarchs had a real presence, not just inside Arco Arena, but outside it too. As role models and community ambassadors, each member left a significant impact on Sacramento. Read to Achieve, Court of Dreams—the list of youth empowerment and local enrichment programs goes on. When we lost the Monarchs, we lost more than just a great team. We lost a part of what made Sacramento great. It’s a pervasive absence that can’t be ignored. High above the stands of the Golden 1 Center hangs the city’s lone championship banner. It’s a relic of the past, a bittersweet reminder of former glory days. Despite the center’s shiny visage, knowing the team that won that banner isn’t around to share the new arena is a hard pill to swallow. Today, the WNBA is a different league. Marketing strategies have evolved, and the level of competition has increased. And while average attendance has declined over the last few years, further analysis reveals a range of factors that aren’t always tied to audience interest. So, it begs the question: Are the numbers there to support a Monarchs rebirth? Maybe there’s hope. Or maybe it’s time to just get over it and root for the Los Angeles Sparks. Really, it’s up to Sacramento. Ω
10.18.18 | SN&R | 19
Unite Unite
Latin percussionist Sheila e. delivers a political record inspired by the ’60s, relevant today
the
beat by Steph RodRiguez
stephr@n ewsrev i ew.com
You should get out and vote—
everyone’s voice must be heard. That’s the plea from the Queen of Percussion, Sheila E. On her latest record, Iconic: Message 4 America, E.’s passions are in part ignited by the darker times in this country’s past, like the political heatwaves of the 1960s, an era she remembers through music. Her father, Latin rhythm legend Pete Escovedo, and his contemporaries wrote songs decrying the Vietnam War and preaching peace. Now, it’s E.’s turn to rekindle that fire and inspire fans to effect change, starting with November. E.’s built a career introducing the world to Latin-style beats, creating funky rhythms behind a rig of timbales, bells and blocks. Since her debut album The Glamorous Life in the ’80s, she’s provided the back beat for Ringo Starr, George Duke, and her even father, where she started performing in the Bay Area alongside him and her uncles at 5 years old. Famously, her life intertwined intimately and artistically with Prince. The two would later write and record music together and form a decades-long bond, from the Purple Rain recording sessions to touring as drummer and musical director for the late musician’s band. She’s now performing at an event we can all unite behind—regardless of our politics: the Capitol Mall’s Downtown Chowdown. Forty food trucks span three blocks, all to the tune of E.’s worldly movement patterns. SN&R chatted with E. about her upcoming performance, Iconic, her life with Prince and what keeps the butterflies fluttering before she hits the stage.
20 | SN&R | 10.18.18
Sheila E., whackin’ in black.
PHOTO COurTesy Of rOb sHanaHan
ELK GROVE RAMEN GEM See DISH
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SHuttING DOwN MARIjuANA bEER See DRINK
What was the inspiration behind Iconic: Message 4 America? I was writing a dance record that was going to be released, and the election and the things that were happening and the disrespect were so amazingly rude and awful for our country. I just couldn’t believe it, and I just thought, “I can’t put a dance record out. This is not cool. I need to say something.” The songs on the album are your versions of hits by artists like The Beatles and James Brown. How did you choose which songs to feature on the album? I chose to go back and listen to songs that I grew up listening to in the ’60s and the ’70s. … These songs back then, including my dad with Azteca, the band that he had, everyone was talking about peace, love or the [Vietnam War]. It was very political at that time, and so it was easy to choose songs that lyrically are still relevant to what is happening right now in our country. Are you looking forward to November’s election? Yes. Every day, we’ve been out posting things, making sure that people go out and vote. Our voice needs to be heard. Everyone’s voice counts. I hear people say all the time, “Well, it’s just me. I’m not really sure. I’m not going to vote,” or, “I don’t want this person to win so I’m not going to vote at all.” Well, you’re actually giving the vote to the person that you don’t want to win. I really want to make sure that people understand that we can be on the outside yelling at this building saying, “Hey, we want change!” But in order for change [to occur], people have to get involved in order for us to make change. Your father, Pete Escovedo, is also a famous Latin percussionist. I know he introduced you to percussion. What was it was like growing up in an active, musical family? He drew me to percussion: congas, timbales, bongos and percussion instruments from Cuba, from Puerto Rico, from Africa, from Brazil. He would have all those instruments in the house, every single day. It’s not like we watched a lot of television. Back in the day, it was all about playing vinyl. So my dad would practice to vinyl every single day. All day.
“I have butterflies, and I’m excited, and I never not want to go on stage to perform, whether it’s for five or 10 people, or for 5,000 or 5 million people. Sheila E. pop-singer/percussionist
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AftERSHOCK: wHAt A SHAKE uP See MuSIC
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SIStERS Of wINEMAKING See 15 MINutES
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And then he would have jam sessions or he would teach people at the house. Sometimes, in the middle of the week, his band would rehearse in the middle of the living room. So there was music every single day, no matter what. When did you pick up a pair of sticks yourself? Listening to all this music, I loved watching my dad play, and I would kind of mimic him after he would get up and rehearse and I would go outside and play. So I kind of soaked it up like a sponge, just sitting there watching him. I didn’t know I was going to be a musician, and he introduced me to it because this was his life. I wanted to be an athlete. I wanted to be more like my mom because she was such a tomboy and loved all kinds of sports and she liked to do everything. So, yes, he introduced me to it. But I didn’t think I was going to be a musician until I was 14 or 15 years old. You and Prince were very close friends. Tell me about the song you wrote about your relationship, “Girl Meets Boy.” Do you ever perform it live? I haven’t been performing it lately. I do another homage to him, which I won’t tell. You have to come to the show to hear it. That song was inspired after he had passed away, and sometimes it’s really hard to play that song, even as of now. So I choose to do it in and out of shows. It just depends on how I feel. A lot that I do involves him because we recorded and performed and wrote together and spent 30-something years together. It’s most of my life—or half of my life. A lot that I do in the show are songs that we’ve done together or we wrote or recorded, or I do an homage to him. So it’s always about him because we were such a great team and we were friends. He’s always with me no matter what. What are some of your first memories tied to music? [My parents] said that when I was 3 years old, the first thing I responded to musically that they noticed was a Jiffy commercial came on television, and I was so excited that I just ran to the television. Whatever the melody for the Jiffy commercial was, I just went crazy. Then at 5 years old, I remember it like it was yesterday, my mom getting me dressed to perform with my dad at a club called Sam’s Ballroom in Oakland. It was with my dad’s band, The Escovedo Brothers, him and his two brothers, and that was the first time that I played percussion on stage live with my father. Your first album, The Glamorous Life, had a lot of fun, dance-y songs that introduced a lot of listeners to the sounds of Latin percussion. After all these years, how do you keep those songs fun and relevant for you? Every day, I’m still nervous every time I hit the stage. I have butterflies, and I’m excited, and I never not want to go on stage to perform, whether it’s for five or 10 people, or for 5,000 or 5 million people. I just love doing what I get to do, and it’s because of the passion. I know what my purpose is, and I enjoy it. It’s never left me. I know that if those butterflies and that feeling of excitement ever [go] away that I should quit. But to this day, I’ve never not felt that, and that’s the true blessing. I know what I’m supposed to be doing with this gift, and I’m humbled and thankful and grateful that I’m able to do this. Ω
Cult problems Goth synthwave duo Venetian Veil performed an original score to F.W. Murnau’s horror film Nosferatu at the Red Museum Sunday night, and, uh-oh, I think I’m trapped in a
vampire cult now? Susan Hunt and Jim Willig have been creating music together for nearly 12 years, and they’ve been performing as Venetian Veil since 2011. Both had wanted to score a silent film for a while, but they were having a hard time choosing the right movie to fit their sound. “We were thinking of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at first, but there’s kind of some goofy comic relief in it that we were having trouble with,” Willig explained. Inspired by a depth of aural and cinematic influences including Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter and director Panos Cosmatos’ Beyond the Black Rainbow, their music evokes moody, atmospheric vibes that seem to conjure up astral projections and paranormal curiosities. Nosferatu seemed like a perfect fit. For the screening, everyone was dressed up in their Sunday best: black T-shirts, black jeans. One attendee pulled out a flask and began sipping on what could only have been human blood. Or wine. But probably blood. When the first image flickered onto the venue’s bare white wall, I was immediately reminded of how gorgeous this film is. Every shot is lit and composed with such immaculate detail to reflect the mood of its scene. A tale about evil’s infectious nature, Nosferatu relies on German expressionist techniques like atmospheric lighting and exaggerated shadows to communicate its dark, twisted themes. Just from a visual perspective, the film is a work of art. And the music? Otherworldly. Harboring echoes of Popol Vuh’s score for the 1979 version (Nosferatu the Vampyre) as well as original sounds and improvisation, Venetian Veil’s live performance was not supplemental, but essential to experiencing the film’s dramatic tension. The combination of guitar strums and synths swelling and contracting to the rhythm of the unfolding narrative resulted in an eerie, lulling sensation. I actually caught myself falling into a trance, and while I’m pretty sure only a few seconds had passed, it’s also completely possible that it was long enough for someone to bite my neck and suck out most of my life juices. So I might be trapped in a vampire cult now. As the last title card popped onscreen and the dark ambiance faded into silence, the audience broke out into applause. Performing music to a 94-minute-long film is no easy feat. You know what else is no easy feat? Escaping a vampire cult you may have been tricked into joining. Despite the amount of work that went into scoring Nosferatu, Venetian Veil is certainly interested in doing similar projects in the future. “So far we’ve been thinking about already existing silent movies, but it would be fun to score a movie that didn’t exist,” Hunt said. Willig also seemed excited about the idea. “I would love for a filmmaker to come to us, that would be killer. Panos Cosmatos, if you’re reading this, call me bro!” Also, Panos Cosmatos, if you’re reading this, do you have any tips on leaving a vampire cult? Just curious.
—Rachel Mayfield r a c h e lm@ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m
10.18.18 | SN&R | 21
iLLUsTRATiON BY sARAH HANsEL
Tacos por vida! FIsH TacOs, cHandO’s TacOs
The Tonkatsu Black, topped with wood ear mushrooms, is best enjoyed by adding a little pickled ginger to the dish.
Respect the egg Kotteri Ramen Bar 9015 Bruceville Road; (916) 509-9193 Good for: Quality ramen including an unusual version with dairy Notable dishes: Tsukemen, Kimchi appetizer
$$$
Japanese, Elk Grove
I love to read about food, in the small window of time when I’m not writing about food, or eating food, or thinking about what food I will eat next. Eater.com is a favorite website, and I will sometimes gaze longingly at listicles they post such as “where to eat ramen in San Diego,” with 13 ramen shops listed. Thirteen ramen eateries to argue and debate about sounds like heaven to me. Yes, San Diego is bigger than Sac, but we arguably have only two ramenfocused spots: No. 1: Ryu Jin and No. 2: Shoki. I’m not counting Rai Jin, the awkward café that is across the street from Ryu Jin, owned by the same people, yet somehow terrible. Why do we have a dearth of ramen-focused restaurants? Relief may come in the form of Kodaiko Ramen & Bar, which Kru chef Billy Ngo will be opening on K Street, but in the meantime, you can wait 20 minutes for a table at Shoki, or you can drive 20 minutes to Kotteri Ramen Bar in Elk Grove, where you’ll find steaming bowls of soup that stand rim to rim with the best in Sacramento. Due to the simple menu—mostly limited to ramen and a few apps—and the open kitchen in which furiously boiling pots and noodle strainers can be seen in continuous use, Kotteri has the feel of a Japanese ramen joint, but the lack of beer or sake on the menu stands out as an unwelcome American touch. You can “Kanpai!” with a soda or tea instead, but it’s not as festive. 22 | SN&R | 10.18.18
PHOTO BY BECKY GRUNEWALD
There are many fish tacos to be had in Sacramento, and sadly, a lot of them are not awesome. I can’t tell you how many previously frozen grocery store fish sticks I’ve tasted wrapped in a soggy, corn tortilla that resulted in such profound disappointment that I quit ordering fish tacos altogether. At Chando’s recently, I decided to break my moratorium and try the grilled Fish Tacos ($1.99). I was pleasantly surprised to find tender slices of citrus-marinated tilapia fillet, grilled delicately on the inside and crispy on the outside. Each taco is dressed with shredded cabbage and chipotle sauce, then left for you to finish with a generous lashing of fresh lime juice. These fish tacos are the first I’ve had in a while that hit all the right notes: cheap, light, flavorful and fantastically satisfying. Various locations, chandostacos.com.
—sTePHanIe sTIaveTTI
Autumn buzz Hammer IPa, FaIr Oaks brew Pub
by BecKy GRunewald
Kotteri is serious about the egg, as evinced by the perfect soft-boiled egg floating in my soup visit after visit. Not only is the yolk optimally gelatinous and deep yellow each time, but they are cut in half, thereby allowing the interior to warm in the broth. The other standout component of Kotteri soups is the chashu (sliced pork belly), which is thick-cut, unctuous and deeply pork-y in a way that somehow doesn’t flavor the relatively light and mild tonkatsu and miso broths that it swims in. Billed as the “signature ramen,” Hokkaido Cheese Ramen ($10.95), topped with Parmesan and butter, is almost as ridiculously comforting as the Italian dish Cacio e Pepe (made simply with cheese, pepper and pasta). Black and Red Tonkatsu, and Miso Ramen ($9.95), are topped with wood ear mushrooms and perhaps too many bland beansprouts. The soups benefit from adding pickled ginger (50 cents), but are otherwise delightful. Even better is the Tsukemen ($9.95), a beautifully composed dish of noodles, egg, ground pork, chashu and nori, meant to be dipped in cool sesame broth. While the Tsukemen is perennially awkward to eat, the salty, umami richness of the ground pork combined with the smoky broth makes it worth the struggle. Appetizers are uneven: fizzy, housemade Kimchi ($3.95) is a nice addition to any order, but Karaage (deepfried, boneless chicken, $5.95)) is bomb on one visit and under-fried the next. Fried Squid Legs ($5.95) are tender but gummy and oil-slicked. Open since May, Kotteri looks to be quite popular, and often has a short waiting list. It’s a welcome addition to the area dining scene and a key component if we ever reach ramen saturation to rate a top 10 list. Ω
As autumn weather starts to creep in, the need for a good malty beverage increases tenfold. Fair Oaks Brew Pub’s Hammer IPA ($6) is a good place to start. Brewed with a combination of CTZ, Simcoe and Cascade hops, this beer has quite a bit of striking power and—if you’re particularly sensitive to high hop concentrates—will likely hit you over the head. Still, flavor-wise, it’s a light enough brew that easily balances the bitterness with more earthy, citrusy notes for a smooth finish. It pairs well with the pub’s outdoor ambiance and local chickens, who tend to croon on about their troubles to anyone who will listen. 7988 California Avenue, fairoaksbrewpub.com.
—racHel mayFIeld
THE V WORd
A harvest of vegan events October is full of options for the vegan and vegan-curious community. Trying to get a taste of the vegan menus at all of the three dozen Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge restaurants (sacveganchefchallenge.com) will keep one busy enough, but one could also get educated at Marga Den Hoed’s Vegan Desserts cooking class at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op Thursday, October 18. The agenda includes whipping up apple crisp with whipped cream, carrot cake, brownies and marzipan chocolate drops. The class is at 6 p.m. at 2820 R Street; get tickets ($49) at https://sac.coop. Or trek to San Francisco for the World Veg Fest Saturday, October 27 to see 20-plus plant-based superstar speakers, like Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and Sacramento’s own Timaree Hagenburger. The fest is 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at 1199 9th Avenue in Golden Gate Park, and costs $5-$10. There will, of course, be vegan food and samples—enjoy stuffing your face with them!
—sHOka
Photo courtesy of transPlants brewing comPany
CatBirD was a CBD-infused beer. Then the feds ordered Transplants Brewing Company to stop production in May.
dRiNk
Thank you for voting Kupros! ’18
1217 21st St • 916.440.0401 | www.KuprosCrafthouse .com
Thai Food & gluten free options
CBD buzzkill
coconut
the
by Daniel Barnes
For Sarah Luker, Transplants Brewing Company’s head brewer, the combination of cannabis and beer always felt like a natural fit. After all, there are strong chemical similarities between cannabis flowers and hop flowers, and breweries are constantly appropriating stoner terminology like “dank” and “kush” for their hoppy beers. “Honestly, we were smokers before we were drinkers, so the idea of anything cannabis-related was intriguing,” says Luker, who co-owns the Palmdale craft brewery along with husband and former home-brewing partner Matt Luker, as well as Corey Cordovano. “It was something we were always interested in.” Earlier this year, Transplants released an IPA called CatBirD that was infused with an extract of hempderived CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid famed for its anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving powers. The beer sold like gangbusters at a premium price, with each $9 pint carrying a roughly 10 milligrams payload of CBD. “We had older people that would come in or somebody who injured themselves, who would say, ‘I had this one beer and now my joints don’t hurt as much,’ and it was in a method that was comfortable for them to consume.” Unfortunately, the feds raided the party in May, as Transplants became one of several breweries to receive a letter from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, ordering them to stop production on any cannabis-related beers. “They were going to people’s social media, their websites, and obviously we weren’t hiding it, so they found out,” Luker says. “They were very nice, because we had beer fermenting at that time, and they let us go through that. They didn’t ask us to do anything but stop making it.” SN&R could not find any Sacramento breweries that released a CBD beer, but San Francisco-based Black Hammer, which created eight CBD-laced brews, also received a letter from the TTB. Like Transplants, they were permitted to sell the CBD beer
Eat. Drink. Be Merry. Repeat.
that was already fermenting for on-site consumption at their taproom. Meanwhile, Heineken-owned Lagunitas earlier this year introduced Hi-Fi Hops, a hoppy, nonalcoholic water-infused beverage with the psychoactive cannabinoid THC, but it’s only available at dispensaries. “It’s beer companies coming out with water,” Luker says. “That’s not the game that I’m in.” According to one legal expert, it may be a long time before any craft brewery legally produces an alcoholic beer containing CBD. “The ingredients that go into beer are governed by the TTB,” says Dan Croxall, a McGeorge professor who teaches the only craft beer law class offered for credit at an American law school. “Because of the state of the administration we have in power, it seems very unlikely to me that the TTB will ever say that it’s OK to add marijuana-based products to your beer.” That crackdown on the federal level has been just as severe on the state level. Two weeks ago, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill banning the sale of CBD beverages in bars and restaurants, effectively killing a CBD cocktail scene that briefly flourished following recreational legalization. Meanwhile, international beverage conglomerates are getting in position to dominate the nascent cannabis beverage market in Canada. Constellation Brands, which owns everything from Svedka Vodka to Clos du Bois wine to Corona beer to “fake craft” brands like Ballast Point, recently purchased a stake in Canopy Growth Corporation, the largest marijuana producer in Canada. Luker is hopeful that well-funded corporations will push for changes in the law that might allow her to brew CatBirD again, but Croxall is more skeptical about the long-term benefits of big companies seizing control. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Croxall says. “... If the big guys own all the production capabilities, it could be difficult for the little guy to get in.” Ω
on t
Thank you for VoTing uS
Best Thai 10 beers on tap Happy Hour 4:30-6pm $3 beers, wine & appetizers 1110 T ST. SacramenTo, ca 95811 | 916-822-4665
check yelp for daily $2 beer SpecialS drunken noodle •Midtown•
Powered by The Coconut Thai Food & Gluten Free Options
$2 BEEr Daily happy hour 4:30-6pm • $3 beers, wine & appetizers 2502 J St. Sacramento, CA • 916.447.1855 Check Yelp for Daily $2 Beer Specials 10.18.18 | SN&R | 23
now playing
Reviews
4
7pm. Through 10/21; $15-$38;
The Crucible
History comes and stays by Jim Carnes
Photo courtesy of celebration arts
The cast brings forth some strong performances of Arthur Miller’s allegorical work, staged at an interesting time in our country’s history. The production elements are appropriately simple—plain costumes, a minimalistic set and a syncopated soundtrack which adds to the growing tension of the story. Thu 7pm, Fri 8pm, Sat
2pm & 8 pm, Sun 2pm, Wed
1 foul
Sacramento Theatre Company Main Stage, 1419 H St., (916) 443-6722; sactheatre.org. P.R.
5
Ironbound
Lyndsay Burch directed Martyna Majok’s prize-winning dissection of the American dream as experienced by a Polish immigrant woman (strikingly portrayed by Dana Brooke). Tue 6:30pm,
Wed 2pm & 6pm, Thu 8pm, Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm & 9pm and Sun 2pm. Through 10/28; $33-$47; B Street Theatre at the Sofia, 2700 Capital Ave., (916) 443-5300, bstreettheatre.org. J.C.
short reviews by Patti roberts and Jim carnes. check out the “on stage” section of the events calendar on page 29 for more upcoming live performances.
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fair
GooD
Well-Done
5 subliMe– Don’t Miss
Photo courtesy of GreG Dean
Have you seen my wife?
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
5
thu 8pm, fri 8pm, sat 8pm, sun 2pm. through 11/20; $15$20; celebration arts theatre, 2727 b street, (916) 455-2787; celebrationarts.net.
August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is the second in his 10-play “Pittsburgh Cycle” chronicling African-American life in each decade of the 20th century. This installment is set in a Pittsburgh boarding house run by Seth and Bertha Holly, played with steady precision by Kevin Johnson (not the former Sacramento mayor) and KT Masala, and deals with the lives of its various inhabitants who are all from the South and traveled North in search of a better life. Among them are the eccentric Bynum Walker, a mystic clairvoyant whose ancient spirituality is referred to as “voodoo” (Larry Robertson in a stellar performance); Jeremy Furlow, a young ladies’ man up from Texas (the enthusiastic Lewis Keys); and Herald Loomis, a mysterious stranger searching for his wife (the intriguing Andre Ramey). Loomis is most closely tied to the Joe Turner of the title. Turner was a real man (actually named Joe Turney, and the brother of Tennessee governor Pete Turney), who—though slavery was illegal— captured young black men and put them to work for seven years on his plantation. Though freed from his indenture, Loomis cannot escape the effects of Joe Turner’s brutality. Each of the characters is searching for identity, as Americans, African-Americans and as free men and women still dealing with racism and discrimination. Ω 24
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10.18.18
3 A very Christie mystery A Murder is Announced is not only a whodunit, it’s also a whodunit-to-whom, since both the murderer and the victim aren’t revealed until the second half of this Agatha Christie mystery. City Theatre makes this production a fun event by having audience members turn in guesses at intermission, which produces much debate among the theatergoers. This crime story is simple with the conclusions complex—just like most of Christie’s mysteries. An ad in a local paper announces a date and time when a murder will occur, along with the location: Miss Blacklock’s English village house. Some think it’s a joke, others are a bit frightened. Among the houseguests is Christie’s famous detective, Miss Marple, who starts poking around the house, unveiling hidden identities, motives, suspects and family secrets. All action takes place in a Victorian-style parlor, a handsome set complete with period rugs, armchairs, cabinets and a fireplace. And the cast works well together, with the more theatrically experienced, older trio of ladies, leading the way—Kathleen Poe as Miss Blacklock, Georgann Wallace as Dora Bunner and Nanette Michael Rice as Miss Marple. The stumble here is the wide range of accents by the cast, some subtle, others over-the-top, which makes the dialogue hard to understand—a challenge, since the play is all talk with little action. —Patti RobeRts
a Murder is announced: fri 7:30pm, sat 2pm & 7:30pm, sun 2pm. through 10/21; $10-$18; city theatre, art court theatre, sacramento city college, 3835 freeport boulevard; (916) 558-2228; citytheatre.net.
romance is a game for fools, marianne (elizabeth Dean), left, and roni (Leah Finity), right, used to say. That was before they fell into a bizarre time portal for an audience’s amusement.
Worlds of difference Just two characters make up Nick Payne’s award-winning play about romance, Constellations, but there’s a third element with an enormous presence in the work: atypical narrative structure. Marianne (Elizabeth Dean) and Roni (Leah Finity) are simultaneously romantically entangled and not, as they run through variations of the same scenes, each featuring a different outcome. The script is often opaque with its descriptions of quantum mechanics, but the exploration of this will-they-won’t-they-havethey-already relationship set in multiple universes is whimsical, mostly comprehensible and relatable. Sarah Diaz directs. Fri 8pm, Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm. Through 10/21; $16-$20; Errant Phoenix Productions at William J. Geery Theatre, 2130 L Street; (415) 963-2442; errantphoenix.com.
—Maxfield MoRRis
fiLm CLiPS
Broken promise
The Oath ike Barinholtz (center) stares forlornly while Tiffany Haddish (right) sips wine and checks out completely.
by Daniel Barnes
For angrily self-righteous liberal Chris (Barinholtz) and sympathetic but increasingly impatient Kai (Haddish), the impending signing deadline only adds more stress to an already stressful family dynamic. Chris’ sister Alice (Carrie Brownstein) is a fellow liberal, but brother Pat (Jon Barinholtz) is a pugnacious conservative who brings along his Kellyanne Conway clone girlfriend Abbie (Meredith Hanger), while his parents (Nora Dunn and Chris Ellis) are largely ambivalent but completely tactless nonetheless. Most of the first half of The Oath is at least affably aimless, filled with leisurely paced scenes that hit all the expected notes of family dysfunction and political tribalism. It’s in the second half where the narrative wheels start turning, and the film goes completely off the rails. After a series of increasingly intemperate family arguments, a couple of stoic government spooks (John Cho and Billy Magnussen) visit the house, and the situation escalates into a slapstick hostage crisis. Complications pile on from there, but like many a feeble social commentary before it, every intractable conflict in The Oath suddenly gets resolved when an old white man shows up and says words. Of course, the toothless satire might be less noticeable if the comedy wasn’t so similarly gummy, but most of The Oath is rambling and uninspired, mostly amounting to one-note stereotypes shouting at each other. If you want to satirize something that poses a clear and present danger, then don’t be so damn safe. Ω
1 2 3 4 5 Poor
22 July
3
Bad Times at the El Royale
3
First Man
On July 22, 2011, right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik carried out two deadly attacks in his native Norway. First, he detonated a bomb that killed eight people in the government center of Oslo, then he drove 40 kilometers to a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utøya, where he shot and killed 69 more people, most of them teenagers. This sobering but soporific Netflix docudrama from international tragedy specialist Paul Greengrass (United 93; Captain Phillips) covers the story from the perspectives of the survivors, the lawyers and the politicians, but very little in this cumbersome film connects beyond a superficial level. Although the film is entirely in English, director, co-writer and co-producer Greengrass made 22 July with a Norwegian cast and crew, yet it feels like he was so concerned about skirting the exploitative pitfalls of turning real-life tragedy into entertainment that he forgot to make the film entertaining. D.B.
2
When your serial molester president starts putting serial molesters on the Supreme Court, it’s time to at least consider the possibility that safe and tidy political satire as we know it is dead. Even Veep creator and In the Loop director Armando Ianucci looked to straight history rather than disguised fiction for his latest farce, The Death of Stalin. If satire is indeed deceased, then the ostensibly timely but hopelessly limp and scattershot comedy The Oath simply dumps another shovelful of dirt on the grave, as the film tries and fails to coast on its own hot-button fumes towards an easy resolution. The Oath was co-written and directed by Ike Barinholtz, who also stars alongside Tiffany Haddish as a liberal married couple hosting Thanksgiving dinner for their politically divided family during a particularly contentious political moment. Barinholtz’s previous directing credits are limited to a handful of episodes of The Mindy Project, the sitcom on which he played a supporting part. That aesthetic feels right for The Oath, a film that can’t follow a single thread long enough to make it to a commercial break. Barinholtz lays out the film’s high-concept stakes straight away, mostly relying on timely and on-the-nose news reports to forklift plot information: America’s conservative president has demanded that every citizen sign a patriot’s oath pledging fealty to the government, with a deadline set for the day after Thanksgiving. As the deadline approaches, the country grows increasingly fractured, with riots on the rise and ominous reports of a shadowy and sinister government agency harassing and arresting holdouts.
2
by Daniel Barnes & JiM lane
Fair
Good
Very Good
A once-trendy, near-deserted Lake Tahoe motel and its closet-junkie clerk (Lewis Pullman) play host to a motley assortment of guests (Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, John Hamm, Dakota Johnson), none of whom is quite what they seem. Writer-director Drew Goddard gets off to a stylish start, with a burst of Tarantino-esque narrative energy and a garishly beautiful retro-’60s look courtesy of production designer Martin Whist and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey. But Goddard can’t sustain it past the first 25 minutes, much less for the full two hours and 21 minutes. He piles so many turns into his plot that it simply feels like constantly changing the subject. He keeps us guessing for a while, but by the time Chris Hemsworth shows up as a Manson-style psycho, we just want Goddard to wrap things up and let us go home. J.L.
Director Damien Chazelle and writer Josh Singer (adapting James R. Hansen’s biography) follow the career of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) from his days as a test pilot to his landing on the moon as commander of Apollo 11 in 1969. The movie suffers from Chazelle’s mannered camerawork, always too close to the subject (closeups seldom include chins and foreheads in the same shot); it feels like it was designed to be watched on an iPad rather than in a theater. Gosling’s customary diffidence makes Armstrong seem cold and distant as the moon itself, while his wife Janet, as played by Claire Foy, comes off as a nagging shrew; it makes for an off-putting combination. Ultimately, the movie is proficient but unsatisfying—we leave the theater feeling like we know less about Armstrong than we did going in. J.L.
4
3
The Old Man & the Gun
4
The Sisters Brothers
Writer-director David Lowery, adapting the New Yorker article by David Grann, tells the true story of Forrest Tucker, the career criminal who spent half his life in prison and the other half escaping and robbing banks with courtly panache. Casting Robert Redford as Tucker carries unavoidable echoes of his Sundance Kid, and Redford embraces those echoes with understated enthusiasm. The whole movie has a looselimbed, shambling, unpretentious charm, not unlike the matter-of-fact bemusement of Grann’s original New Yorker piece. Adding professional heft to the supporting cast are Sissy Spacek as his unsuspecting sweetheart (a fictional compilation of various women), Casey Affleck as pursuing detective John Hunt (real name and all) and Danny Glover and Tom Waits as members of Tucker’s “Over-the-Hill Gang.” J.L.
As blockbuster cinema continues to abandon any film not tied to a lucrative intellectual property, it has increasingly been left to independent cinema to pick up the genre movie slack. Left almost entirely to antiestablishment veterans and aspiring auteurs, the western genre has particularly enjoyed a revisionist revival of late. Films as diverse as Kelly Reichardt’s naturalistic Meek’s Cutoff, Tommy Lee Jones’ bleak The Homesman and John Maclean’s slightly absurdist Slow West have brought new energy and urgency to a horseshoed genre that once seemed destined for the glue factory. Jacques Audiard’s ramshackle western The Sisters Brothers rides in the same revisionist posse, and although it doesn’t offer much to the genre that is new or unique, it still makes for thoughtful and moving adult entertainment. Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly star as the titular siblings, bickering brothers and bounty hunters practicing their deadly trade across the Oregon Territory. D.B.
2
A Star is Born
The Hate U Give
An African-American teen (Amandla Stenberg) leads a double life, being one person in her gritty neighborhood and another at the upscale, white prep school she attends. When her best friend, unarmed, is shot and killed by a white cop, it forces her to rethink her priorities. Based on the novel by Angie Thomas, Audrey Wells’ screenplay strikes a perfect balance between comingof-age story and social-justice-warrior manifesto, never resorting to slogans, clichés or cardboard characters. Director George Tillman Jr. draws full-dimensional performances from Russell Hornsby and Regina Hall as Stenberg’s parents, Common as her policeman uncle, K.J. Apa as her white boyfriend, Anthony Mackie as the neighborhood drug lord—and most of all, a commanding, star-making performance from Stenberg herself. J.L.
This creaky, lumbering, rock ’n’ roll romance is the third official remake of William Wellman’s 1937 showbiz melodrama A Star is Born, itself an unofficial remake of George Cukor’s 1932 film What Price Hollywood? The greatest version of A Star is Born was also made by Cukor, this time in 1954, but like the 1976 remake with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand, this newest version concerns musicians instead of actors. Bradley Cooper makes his directorial debut and stars as Jackson Maine, a shambling country-rock god drowning in booze and pills, at least until a golden-voiced unknown named Ally (Lady Gaga) offers a lifeline. However, while Ally’s career begins to take off, Jackson’s career trends in the opposite direction, and he seeks further refuge in self-destruction. Both leads are fine, albeit one-note, and cinematographer Matthew Libatique supplies some sharp images, but the movie is pervasively musty and false, with some brutally bad songs to boot. D.B.
1
Venom
A crusading reporter (Tom Hardy, acting moronic), through his own troublemaking stupidity, loses his job, his girlfriend (Michelle Williams) and his apartment, which makes him ripe for a takeover by a slimy alien “symbiote” imported from space by a sinister tycoon (Riz Ahmed) as part of his research into curing cancer. I swear I am not making this up. It’s writers Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel “reimagining” the archvillain from Spider-Man as a sort of antihero along the lines of Deadpool. It’s a measure of the power of Marvel Comics when they think they can get away with an out-and-out stinker like this, but they’ve gone too far this time. The writing is terrible, the acting is worse (only Williams survives with any dignity) and the direction by Ruben Fleischer virtually nonexistent. J.L.
excellent
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Aftershock levels Sacto The annual hard rock and heavy metal fest brings Deftones, System of a Down to town by mozes zarate
m o z e s z @ne w s re v i e w . c o m
You should be
getting it once a week. if you would like to carry the paper for free, call GreG at 916.498.1234, ext. 1317 or email GreGe@newsreview.com n e w s r e v i e w.c o m
Leather corsets, faded band T-shirts and none of the above: last weekend, people of all stripes (and some in Tim Burton-approved striped socks) packed Discovery Park for the seventh Monster Energy Aftershock, Sacramento’s rock and heavy metal festival for people who aren’t snobs. Sorry. That sounds defensive. You’re not a snob if you didn’t go. But you missed out, unlike apparently a lot of people, from the greater Sacramento area, up and down California, even Nebraska. Sixty-thousand, according to organizers. This year, the park capacity was upped from 25,000 to 30,000 per day, and both days sold out, in part for the two headliners: Sactown’s Deftones, playing a 30-year anniversary hometown show, and System of a Down, on tour these past few years after a decade-long hiatus. But not only. Alice in Chains, Slash, Godsmack, Incubus, At The Drive-In, Dance Gavin Dance and 30 other bands made for an intersection of tastes that ranged from heady to broey to glammy to emo, which meant that the music mostly kicked ass each day. And if it didn’t, what were you doing there? Snob. Some Saturday highlights: A medley of bands played a tribute to Vinnie Paul, the famous Pantera drummer who died this year. Particularly sappy was the final moment of the set, where members of GWAR, Korn, Godsmack and others played “Walk,” Pantera’s radio beatdown tune, or in those few minutes of violent moshing, a warm anthem for a heavy metal family reunion. Korn’s Jonathan Davis delivered his own set of mellow nu-metal on the Monster Energy mainstage, balanced later with 311’s full-throttle reggae pop rock. Let’s face it, Saturday night was mostly about Deftones, playing what was likely their biggest
Photo by ashley hayes-stone
Deftones vocalist Chino moreno, overlooking what’s likely the biggest hometown crowd they’ve played in 30 years.
hometown crowd to date. The band entered to raucous applause, busting out mostly mellow material, and looking as gods would projected on hundredfoot high screens flanking the stage. Sacramento deities born out of South Sac and old dives like the Cattle and Press clubs in the ’90s, now here in front of thousands of their peeps. To drummer Abe Cunningham, being a part of the festival meant resurrecting old Sacramento. “Sacramento was always a rock town,” Cunningham said. “Just having that back and having a major festival … People come from around the world, so it’s really cool.” On Sunday, Dance Gavin Gance, the other Sactown band, blended pop, prog-rock and screamo gloriously to the midday crowd. Dorothy, a rock goddess in the vein of Joan Jett, turned heads as she carried her voice across a human sea. At Drive-In’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the frontman who wins the award for most random and entertaining histrionics, pleaded the crowd to believe women’s stories of sexual assault and gender inequality. Aside from the usual Dippin’ Dots and beer booths, there was a makeshift Guitar Center in the Music Experience tent, where folks tinkered with amps and guitars for sale. More disturbing: a pinup dominatrix in stilts walked the park offering alcohol and body blows for cash. Seriously, it was weird. She’d pour down the hatchet, then punch the customer in the cheek before they could swallow, or leave a hand print on their bare belly. Unity through music was a common takeaway at the festival. Just ask Robbie Gibbs, who traveled from Fairfield with his family. We did. “The color of each other doesn’t matter. What we believe doesn’t matter. It’s about the music and having a good time. I fucking love that,” Gibbs said. Gibbs said he came for System of a Down, and so did I. The Armenian troupe’s set didn’t feel like a cheap nostalgia trip. One after another, these hyperpolitical, brash and uncanny songs rattled the crowd with lyrical tongue-twisters and world music married to hardcore punk. Before the festival started, our photographer and I were coy (read: snobby) about who we were excited to see. Many of these bands were some we’d been jazzed about in middle and high school. By the time System got onstage, it didn’t matter. We were singing off-key to “Cigaro” and “Chop Suey” like nobody was listening. Ω
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for the week of october 18
by maxfield morris
PoSt eVeNtS oNLINe For Free At newsreview.com/sacramento
MUSIC THURSDAY, 10/18 KeoLA BeAmer & JeFF PeterSoN: Hawaiian guitar legends Beamer and Peterson provide the soundtrack to Moanalani Beamer’s traditional dancing. 7:30pm, $12-$48. Harris Center, 10 College Parkway in Folsom.
JuPIter & oKWeSS: The band from the Democratic Republic of Congo brings their high-energy second album, Kin Sonic, and The Jack Moves join. 8pm, $20. Harlow’s, 2708 J St.
mAKo: The DJ known as Mako makes a stop
th
h roug
Posehn in the membrane Punch Line Sacramento, variouS timeS, $25 Comedian, writer and actor Brian Posehn is coming back to do stand-up in Sacramento, where he was born and Comedy educated. A writer and actor on Mr. Show, as well as a whole slew of other creative titles including a co-writer of Deadpool comic books and roles on sitcoms and movies, Posehn’s a bit of a jack of showbiz trades. He attended Sacramento
tICKet WINdoW JIM MESSINA Everyone’s second
favorite member of Loggins & Messina is ready to play. 11/3, 7:30pm, $22-$58, on sale now. Harris Center, harriscenter.net.
BREAkING BENJAMIN Playing with
Five Finger Death Punch. 98 Rock presents this lighthearted romp of hard rock. 11/13, 6pm, $45-$165, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.
GHOST The mysterious, satanic
Swedes wear masks and makeup and rock hard. 11/13, 8pm, $39.50-$75, on sale now. Community Center Theatre, sacramentoconventioncenter.com.
JOHN CLEESE Famed for both his
humor and comedy alike, Cleese will speak, but if you want to go, you’ll have to purchase tickets to all the speakers in the series. 11/14, 8pm, $65 plus series tickets,
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Stingers up, Brian Posehn!
in Sacramento. 9:30pm, $7. The Park, 1116 15th St.
StANLey JordAN: Jazz guitar tapper Stanley Jordan will absolutely go to town on the fretboard. 7pm, $40. B Street Theatre, 2700 Capitol Ave.
FRIDAY, 10/19 eLeFANte: The 2005 Latin Grammy Award nominees have gone through some lineup changes over the years, but much like an elephant saxophonist, they never forget how to play music. 7pm, $42-$52. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.
LAurIe LeWIS: Country music from an awardwinning singer-songwriter. 7pm, $35. B Street Theatre, 2700 Capitol Ave.
mr. P ChILL: The longtime Sacramento emcee
State, and looking through the list of notable alumni, he appears to be the one of most famous stand-up comedians to come through. Sure, there are other amusing ex-Hornets: Tom Hanks is definitely pleasant and folksy, Carlos Alazraqui is another funny stand-up guy. Anyway, come get a taste of comedy from a successful, ex-Sacramentan. 2100 Arden Way, punchlinesac.com.
will perform, as will J. Smoo, Mr. Hooper and One Lost MC. 9pm, $5. Old Ironsides, 1901 10th St.
myLeS PArrISh: Parrish is on his Family Over Everything tour, making poppy rap music. 6:30pm, $18-$20. Holy Diver, 1517 21st St.
SteeVeN SANdoVAL: Sandoval has a big ol’ voice, perfect to accompany Mariachi music performed by 14 artists from Guadalajara. 7:30pm, $39-$69. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.
WCr PLACer’S 2018 ANNuAL BAttLe oF the BANdS: The Women’s Council of Realtors
Why buy tickets? Same reason as everything: to escape a deep ennui.
on sale now. Community Center Theatre, sacramentoconventioncenter.com.
kEVIN HART Comedy by Hart comes
to Sacramento on his The Irresponsible Tour. 11/16, 7pm, $38.56-$153.56, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAkE You need a
little Timberlake in your life—some ex*NSNYC action. 11/18, 8pm, $49.50-$250, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.
FLEETWOOD MAC You were there for
them when Rumors came out, and Tusk— now it’s time to support the band when they need it most: during their golden year tours. 11/23, 8pm, $69.50-$149.50, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.
LINDSEY STIRLING The violin
was made cool by Niccolo Paganini,
but Stirling is keeping it updated for today’s dang millenials. 11/24, 8pm,
$34.50-$129, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.
TRANS-SIBERIAN IBERIAN ORCHESTRA The
Orchestra goes on their Winter Tour, really ringing in the holiday season with two shows. 11/30, 3pm &
7:30pm, $36.75$66, on sale now.
Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster. com.
RIP, Papa III.
presents a battle of the bands—sure, they’ve sold you a house, but can they put on a good music fight? See Flight 19, Four Barrels and On the Fly vie for $1,000. 5:30pm, $40. Blue Goose Event Center, 3550 Taylor Road in Loomis.
SATURDAY, 10/20 rhye: The previously mysterious singer with a sweet, soft, breathy voice is joined by Your Smith—and when the two are combined in one night, you may just overdose on mellow. 7pm, $29.50. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.
roCKtoBerFeSt!: Benefiting the Silver Orange, the teenagers’ music/art space and nonprofit, this show features Tom Goyen, Roland Tonies, The New Crowns and more. 2pm, $5-$10. Two Rivers Cider, 4311 Attawa Ave., Suite 300.
snr c a le nd a r @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m
Online listings will be considered for print. Print listings are edited for space and accuracy. Deadline for print listings is 5 p.m. Wednesday. Deadline for NightLife listings is midnight Sunday. Send photos and reference materials to calendar editor Maxfield Morris at snrcalendar@newsreview.com.
SUNDAY, 10/21 tLAtZotZoNALoyAN INdIgeNouS muSIC: It’s an indigenous music jam, so bust out your instruments to get in touch with your roots. 1:30pm, no cover. Sol Collective, 2574 21st St.
WEDNESDAY, 10/24 dAVIS FArmer’S mArKet PICNIC IN the PArK: The last picnic in the park for the season features music by The Notorious Shank Brothers: a bluegrass band. Have some other fun at the picnic, with foods, drinks as well as child-sized entertainment. 4:30pm, no cover. Central Park, 301 C St. in Davis.
PAt metheNy: The jazz guitarist with perennially large hair fills the Crest with music and enough ambience to fill an oil tanker with pure, undiluted ambience. 7:30pm, $45-$85. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.
teCh N9Ne: See the independent rapper’s event highlight on page 29. 6pm, $38$42. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.
FESTIVALS FRIDAY, 10/19 SACrAmeNto INterNAtIoNAL Auto ShoW: Drive your car to Cal Expo in order to see other cars at this three-day event! See the event highlight on page 31. 10am, $5-$13. Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd.
StAmP & SCrAPBooK eXPo: A stamp aficionado who also scrapbooks walks into an exposition and feels right at home—the exposition in this short story was this one. With an abundance of crafts to suit your needs and workshops to get you out of your scrapbooking comfort zone, this is a place to be. 9am, $8-$15. Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St.
SATURDAY, 10/20 2018 SKIN CAre WeLLNeSS FAIr: Finally, a fair for the largest organ on the human body— skin. Shop till your skin is fully pampered at this event featuring skin care superstars, skincare activities and more. 5:30pm, $15$35. Grand Sheraton, 1230 J St.
gIBSoN rANCh PumPKIN FeStIVAL: It’s year two for Gibson Ranch’s P-Fest, and there’s no shortage of pumpkins. Drop by for activities the likes of which kids and adults alike with certainly remark upon with favor: hay wagon rides, a hay bale maze and more. 11am, $5. Gibson Ranch Park, 8556 Gibson Ranch Park Road.
A NeIghBorhood FeStIVAL to BeNeFIt SAC CIVIC BALLet: This festival features dance performances, classes and all the requisite food/drink provisions you expect from events—as the name heavily implies, this event benefits Sac Civic Ballet. 11am, no cover. Compton’s Market, 4065 McKinley Blvd.
moNSter BASh 2018: Come dressed to the nines or tens in your Halloween best. With a DJ of some rapport, a dance floor calling out to you and edible Halloween fare, this
SATURDAY, 10/20
The Haunted Fort Sutter’S fort, 6:30pm, $6-$10
“Sutter’s Fort is surely haunted,” the young woman muttered as she perused a Wikipedia page detailing John MUSEUMS Sutter. She was considering attending the Haunted Fort event, a frightful night featuring performances by B Street Theatre, interactive stations and historical figures sharing their stories. As she closed out the tab, shutting her laptop, she heard a screeching sound—unmistakably, it was a ghostly voice. She listened, and could just make out the words, “Purchase a family pass to save money.” 2701 L Street, suttersfort.org/event/hauntedfort2018.
family-friendly night will be ghoulishly devilish and devilishly ghoulish. 6pm, $25$35. Sacramento Children’s Museum, 2701 Prospect Park Drive, Suite 120 in Rancho Cordova.
SUNDAY, 10/21 DIWALI MELA 2018: Celebrate Diwali with music from a band, bouncing held in a bounce house, free dinner and more fun activities. 3pm, no cover. Quarry Park Amphitheater, 4060 Rocklin Road in Rocklin.
SAC COMIC-CON: See most things comical in Sacramento at this convention of artists, creators of cartoons and more. There’s producers of The Spectacular SpiderMan series, Tracy Lynn Cruz (the Yellow Ranger from Power Rangers Turbo II and Power Rangers in Space) and more comic folks. 10am, $10. Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St.
FOOD & DRINK THURSDAY, 10/18 A LOCAL AFFAIR: Taste complimentary wine from Everhart Cellars & Hart 2 Hart Vineyards at this free event—expect a number of vendors, too, including Indie Sweets, a confectioners shop. 5:30pm, no cover. California Welcome Center, 2085 Vine St. in El Dorado Hills.
FRIDAY, 10/19 PAINT THE TOWN PURPLE: It’s a night of painting and draining glasses of libations, all for a good cause. As you put pigment to canvas, nosh on nosh and participate in a silent auction for a purple purse designed by Serena Williams, you’ll be supporting the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. 6pm, $25. Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S St.
SATURDAY, 10/20 BURLY BACKYARD BBQ IV: It’s the fourth year of this backyard bash-stravaganza, featuring music by Drop Dead Red, PRVLGS, The Phantom Jets and more. There will also be live art, children’s activities, cornhole and doodles, along with drinks and BBQ. Just like in your own backyard, well-behaved dogs are welcome. 2pm, no cover. Burly Beverages, 2014 Del Paso Blvd.
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS ETIQUETTE BRUNCH: Learn all about dining etiquette and partake in a Día de los Muertos brunch that goes into the history of the holiday. 10am, $59. WLD BOAR MKT, 1115 21st St.
HALLOWEEN SPEAKTEASY 2018: Come dressed ready for Halloween, and ready to duel with tea in the Tea Dueling Championship. To the
is the story the two young lovers so timeless we mustn’t ask why? Romeo and Juliet—in a theater near you. Through 10/21. $5-$12. 8401 Center Parkway. puppet comes to the very same stage that has held the likes of Linda Ronstadt—and also the unique Linda Ronstadt. See the Panto puppet performance of the story of the fake boy who becomes a real boy, live on stage. Saturday 10/12, 1pm. $11.50-$18. 10 College Parkway in Folsom.
best of my knowledge, that entails dipping tea cakes into tea and removing them in one piece. Come have some cakes, tea and entertainment. 7pm, $20-$30. Nautilus Tea Company, 11771 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Fair Oaks.
FILM THURSDAY, 10/18 FAR OUT-SKI AND SNOWBOARDING FILM PREMIER: See the beauty of mountains covered in snow through the eyes of folks who went to those mountains to ski on that very snow. 7:30pm, $10-$20. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.
MOVIES ON THE VERGE: Milford Graves Full Mantis. A renowned percussionist with beautiful opinions about rhythm and swing, Milford Graves is the subject of this documentary that explores his life, his life’s work and his life’s work’s roots. 7:30pm, $5$7. Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S St.
SATURDAY, 10/20 WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL ON TOUR: As the world melts and “plastic garbage just wandering around” becomes the largest natural resource, this touring film festival hopes to help push preservation. The South Yuba River Citizens League is hosting the fest, promoting themes of water quality, conservation and other pressing environmental concerns. 6pm, $15-$20. 24th Street Theater at the Sierra 2 Community Center, 2791 24th St.
Prevention. Get ready to laugh for a cause—the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Saturday 10/20, 7pm. $20. 1050 20th St., Suite 130.
THUNDER VALLEY CASINO: Jimmy O. Yang. The hilarious fellow from Silicon Valley and Crazy Rich Asians and Hong Kong performs to great appeal. Friday 10/19, 7:30pm. $34.95. 1200 Athens Ave. in Lincoln.
SACRAMENTO FINE ARTS CENTER: Bold Expressions. Some non-spooky artwork for the Halloween holidays, this juried exhibition shows the best artwork that artists submitted. Through 10/28. No cover. 5330 Gibbons Drive, Suite B.
LUNA’S CAFE: Sac Unified Poetry Slam. This free-form show brings the entire room along for a slam poetry journey. The audience members become the judges, the poets remain the poets, and the fun is literally palpable. Friday 10/19, 8pm. No cover. 1414 16th St.
24TH STREET THEATRE: The Rocky Horror Show LIVE! Green Valley Theatre brings you the rockiest show other than the famed Tucson Gem and Mineral Show—The Rocky Horror Show. Get your dose of the “Time Warp” and all the other cult gems, all performed live. Through 10/31. $20. 2791 24th St.
CALIFORNIA STAGE: Times Like These. This drama delves into the story of Meta Wolff, a Jewish actor in Germany between the years 1934 and 1938. She’s banned from the stage and works with her husband, Oskar Weiss, to confront Nazism through work on the stage. Through 10/21. $15-$20. 1725 25th St.
CAPITAL STAGE: Sweat. It’s the Pulitzer Prizewinning story of a group of factory workers who, against the odds, lose their jobs and fall out of friendship. Through 11/18. $22$47. 2215 J St.
COSUMNES RIVER COLLEGE THEATRE: Romeo and Juliet. Wherefore art theaters performing Shakespeare anon? Is it indulging the fancy of lower royalties, cutting emoluments? Or
MUSEUMS
SUTTER STREET THEATRE: Evil Dead The Musical. Ash Williams, the mild-mannered store employee famously portrayed by Bruce Campbell, comes to sing and kill a whole bunch of evil dead. Through 11/10. $15$25. 717 Sutter St. in Folsom.
CALIFORNIA STATE RAILROAD MUSEUM:
THE MINE SHAFT: Heartstoppers Haunted
ON STAGE
ELK GROVE FINE ARTS CENTER: Journey of Hope. Mental illness comes into the spotlight in this exhibit that paired local writers with artists. The collaborative efforts are a good example of how we can’t treat mental illness alone; we need to reach out for help and end the stigma. Through 10/20. No cover. 9080 Elk Grove Blvd. in Elk Grove.
HARRIS CENTER: Pinocchio. Pinocchio the
PHOTO COURTESY OF FRIENDS OF SUTTER’S FORT
ART
House. The scariest show since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece of terror, Cats, features four unique haunts in a spooky clime. 7pm. Through 10/31. $25-$80. 2300 Mine Shaft Lane in Rancho Cordova.
ULTIMATE TERROR SCREAM PARK: Ultimate Terror Scream Park. Sure, you’ve felt terror before, but was it ultimate terror? I doubt it. See if this does it for you. Through 10/28. $25$50. 4909 Auburn Blvd.
VILLAGE GREEN PARK’S AMPHITHEATRE: The Taming of the Shrew. The Bard’s work returns to the stage for another showing, this time testing his comedic chops with the story of Katherina, Bianca, Petruchio and company. Katherina becomes “Kate” for this staging, and the mix-ups will certainly continue thusly throughout the work. Through 10/28. $10. 3141 Bridgeway Drive in Rancho Cordova.
WILLIAM J. GEERY THEATER: Constellations. Multiverse, meet romance. Audience, meet Constellations. It’s a match made by Nick Payne, the playwright of this work. Through 10/21. $18. 2130 L St.
Spookomotive Train Ride. As if trains weren’t already a ton of fun, this event ups the ante—guests can come dressed as witches and wizards and travel aboard a real, living, breathing, sentient train. It’s fun for the whole family! Saturday 10/20 and Sunday 10/21. $6-$15. 111 I St.
CROCKER ART MUSEUM: An Evening with Donlyn Lyndon. Spend an evening with Donlyn Lyndon, whose name is a delight to say and whose work as an architect is a delight to behold. An architect noted for contributions to The Sea Ranch, Lyndon will speak on the community. Saturday 10/20, 6pm. $25. 216 O St.
FAIRYTALE TOWN: Safe & Super Halloween Dinosaurs. Trick-or-treat with a dinosaur theme! It’s a safe evening, despite the fact that real dinosaurs weren’t all truly safe to be around (see Spielberg, 1993). That aside, there are treats, a costume parade, dinosaur activities and other fun. 5pm. Through 10/28. $10-$12. 3901 Land Park Drive.
HISTORIC OLD CITY CEMETERY: Lantern Tours 2018. The Historic Cemetery comes alive with the dead, who share their stories with visitors. It’s only okay because the people died a long time ago—if they had died recently, it
CALENDAR LISTINGS CONTINUED ON PAGE 30
SUNDAY, 10/21 AIA FILM CHALLENGE SCREENING: Take in some architecture via film in this screening. You’ll see short films about architectural trends and marvels, and you can purchase some brew and barbecue. 2:30pm, no cover. Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse, 1322 V St.
COMEDY LAUGHS UNLIMITED: The Sweet Spot Sacramento. If you wish your spoken word nights were a little more lively, come check out this night of entertainment with a burlesque bent, with comedy, fashion music and more. Thursday 10/18, 8pm. $20-$40. 1207 Front St.
PUNCH LINE: Brian Posehn. See event highlight
on page 28. Through 10/20. $25. Mike E. Winfield. Spend some time with the comedian famous for appearances on a number of shows. Sunday 10/21, 7pm. $16. 2100 Arden Way, Suite 225.
SACRAMENTO COMEDY SPOT: Benefit Show, American Foundation for Suicide
WEDNESDAY, 10/24
Tech N9ne Ace of SpAdeS, 6pm, $38-$42
Skilled as a wicked-quick rapper, the Kansas City born-and-raised Missourian is stopping through Sacramento MUSIC again this year. He brings along artists Futuristic, Dizzy Wright, Krizz Kaliko, Optimiztiq and Charlie Muscle, but he also brings a recent beer partnership with a local-for-him brewery. Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing Company made Bou Lou, a wheat beer collab between the two hometown fixtures. Stop by to check out what the independent rapper is laying down on tour, because he might stop soon. 1417 R Street, aceofspadessac.com.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FUSEbOx RADIO, CC bY SA 2.0
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See more eventS anD SUbmit yoUr own at newSreview.com/Sacramento/calendar
CaLenDar LiStinGS ContinUeD From PaGe 29 could be offensive. through 10/27. $40. 1000 Broadway.
maiDU mUSeUm & HiStoriCaL Site: Archeology of Everyday Life and Warrior Women in Pre-Historic California. Come learn about California in a way you won’t from the nightly news—in the form of lectures on the pre-history of the area. Eric Wohlgemuth and Al Schwatala share their presentations. 1pm. through 10/20. $4-$5. 1970 Johnson Ranch Drive in Roseville.
ranCHo CorDova Library: Haunted Forts for Families. Take two parts cardboard, one part imagination, two parts blankets, 15 parts creativity, and what do you get? A fort to play in, hopefully! Have a fun time at this family program. Friday 10/19, 6pm. no cover. NorCal Bats. Get to know some local bats from the area, see what they’re capable of and what their preferences are. Friday 10/19, 3:30pm. no cover. 9845 Folsom Blvd.
SaCramento HiStory mUSeUm: Honoring Our Past. This evening at the museum lets community members discuss the traditions of Dia de Los Muertos as well as honor members of the community making a difference. thursday 10/18, 6pm, call for cover. 101 I St.
SUtter’S Fort State HiStoriC ParK: The Haunted Fort. See the incredibly haunted event highlight on page 29. Saturday 10/20, 6:30pm. $6-$10. 2701 L St.
BooKS Saturday, 10/20 bLaCK women teLL taLeS writinG GroUP: Come to this writing group to get some words and ideas on paper, no matter what those words are. 10am, no cover. Underground Books, 2814 35th St.
SPortS & outdoorS Friday, 10/19 DeSiGn | aCCeSS oPen ProJeCtS toUr: Check on some architectural projects that are going on in this great big city of ours, with a focus on adaptive reuse, alleyways and intriguing designs. noon, no cover. Various locations, map delivered upon registration.
Saturday, 10/20 5tH annUaL waLK4LiteraCy: Take to your feet for a great cause: literacy. Amble through the streets for awareness, and to raise money for children’s programs and teaching kids to read. 9am, $20-$35. McClatchy Park, 3500 5th Ave.
HowLin’ on tHe ParKway 2018: Walk a dog along the river for a great cause: providing dog poop bags along the American River Parkway. This is a great way to potentially solve the problem of too much dog poop getting into the river. There will be a two mile walk, costumes, prizes and all kinds of fun dog activities. 8am, no cover for kids, $5. William B. Pond Park, 5700 Arden Way.
UC DaviS HorSe Day: This day is dedicated to horses and the people who are enthused by them. Show up overly eager to participate in equine workshops, learn from horse experts and get absolutely buckwild (pun intended) with educating yourself on horse things. 10am, $15-$40. Animal Science Horse Barn, 448 La Rue Road in Davis.
Urban DeSiGn SCavenGer HUnt: More architecture events—check out the highlight below if the idea of espying architecture appeals. 1pm, $10. AIA Central Valley, 1400 S St., Suite 100.
Sunday, 10/21 HaLLoween HorSe SHow: Horses meet the scariest month of the year, and the result is a lot like a regular horse show, but with more costumes and some fun classes. 9am, call for cover Sacramento Horsemen’s Association, 3200 Longview Drive.
internationaL oaK SoCiety ConFerenCe: Did you know the International Oak Society Conference is held in Davis? While registration for the conference closed
Saturday, 10/20
Urban Design Scavenger Hunt AIA CentrAl VAlley, 1pm, $10
Trawling the downtown area for architecture sounds like a perfect afternoon—mix in a competitive aspect and it’s even perfecter. This scavenger hunt aims to draw your attention to local architectural marvels that you might otherwise pass by. Teams of five assemble for the hunt of a lifetime—and if you can’t make a team or prefer to meet new like-minded SPortS & oUtDoorS people, you will be assigned a team. Winners get trophies, and you all meet at Hot Italian at 4 p.m. for the closing ceremonies. AIA Central Valley, 1400 S Street, Suite 100, ea18designhunt. brownpapertickets.com.
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Friday, 10/19-Sunday 10/21 Sacramento Auto Show Cal Expo, 10am, $5-$13
Face it, America, we’ll always have a soft spot for our four-wheeled friends. If you’ve got the car FeStivAlS bug, spend some of your weekend around them. Friday, you can see an autonomous auto from Phantom Auto with the co-founder. Throughout the show, you can get behind the wheel of a large automobile, see some antique motorcycles, drifting vehicles and also PHOTO COurTESy OF dESTinaTiOn8inFiniTy, CC By Sa 3.0 some vintage campers. Basically, if it’s got a motor and wheels, you might find it here. 1600 Exposition Boulevard, sacautoshow.com.
months ago, this free introductory event held in the Arboretum’s Shields Oak Grove is an open celebration of oaks and their trademarked acorns. 8am, no cover. UC Davis Arboretum, 448 La Rue Road in Davis.
SUNDAY YOGA: Yoga in a brewery? What will they think up next, beer in a yoga studio? I hope so! This free event with provided mats brings the studio to a brewery near you. 10:30am, no cover. Sactown Union Brewery, 1210 66th St.
tOUR D’ARCHiteCtURe BiKe tOUR: Hop on your bike and see what the architectural world has to offer locally. This nine-mile jaunt across the streets of Sacramento makes detours to see ongoing architectural projects, restaurants and new developments. Register in advance! 10am, $20. AIA Central Valley, 1400 S St., Suite 100.
TaKE aCTiOn THurSday, 10/18 CAPitOl BRieFiNG UNDOCUMeNteD StUDeNtS iN CAliFORNiA HiGHeR eDUCAtiON: This information session delves into the problems that undocumented students in California’s education system have to deal with and the actions the legislature is taking to assist them. There will be speakers from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and more. 1pm, no cover. California State Capitol, 1315 10th St.
HeAltHY BOttOM liNe DiAPeR BANK: Give some diapers to families that need some assistance. There’s lots of spots to donate—research it. 7pm, no cover. Choices for Children Diaper Bank, 3161 Cameron Park Drive, Suite 101 in Cameron Park.
CLaSSES THurSday, 10/18 Bite OF DeSiGN: Learn about the design of restaurants at this powerful brain trust of an event, stocked with architects, restaurant owners and chefs to take on the complexities of planning out a business. There’s a presentation, a tour and a menu sampling. 2pm, $10. Solomon’s Delicatessen, 730 K St.
SaTurday, 10/20 MYRtle PReSS OPeN PRiNtMAKiNG StUDiO: Get to printing your designs, one way or another, at this silkscreening, printing pressing and etching lab. A lab tech will be present to help assist if you need it. 10am, $10. Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S St.
OAK PARK FiX-it CAFe: Come and get help fixing things in your life, whether it’s an article of clothing, a bicycle or many other things in your life that might be a little to a lot busted. Share some expertise and receive some in kind. 11am, no cover. Oak Park United Methodist Church, 3600 Broadway.
Sunday, 10/21 SOUlS OF tHe CitY SUGAR SKUll MAKiNG: Decorate a sugar skull with the finest decorations around, including colorful sugar, glitter icing and more. It’s a Día de los Muertos tradition. 12:30pm, $10 suggested donation. Sol Collective, 2574 21st St.
TuESday, 10/23 tHe ARt & SCieNCe OF CHeeSeMAKiNG PARMeSAN: Instead of wasting your money on “parmesan cheese” made from lowgrade cardboard, learn how you can make your own parmesan, with real ingredients— like milk! And vegetable rennet! Bring a small hunk of cardboard to discreetly gnaw on if you feel so inclined. 6pm, $55. Community Learning Center & Cooking School, 2820 R St.
WEdnESday, 10/24 iMMiGRAtiON FORUM AND WORlD CAFe: Join a discussion on immigration that includes such organizations as Freedoms for Immigrants, NorCal Resist, the AB 540 and Undocumented Student Center at UC Davis and more. Learn what you can do and what there is to do about an incredibly pressing issue. 5:30pm, no cover. International House Davis, 10 College Park in Davis.
tHe ReNt’S tOO HiGH! ACCe BeNeFit eveNt: The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and Sol Collective’s activist school come together for a cause—fighting for rent control and raising money for ACCE Actions’s services. Food and drinks will also be made available. 5:30pm, no cover. Sol Collective, 2574 21st St.
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THURSDAY 10/18 Badlands
2003 k ST., (916) 448-8790
BaR 101
101 MAIN ST., ROSEvIllE, (916) 774-0505
FRIDAY 10/19
SATURDAY 10/20
SUNDAY 10/21
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 10/22-24
Poprockz 90s Night, 7pm, call for cover
Fierce Fridays, 7pm, call for cover
Spectacular Saturdays, 7pm, call for cover
B.P.M. & Sunday Funday Remixed, 4pm, call for cover
Karaoke Night, 9pm, T, call for cover; Trapicana, 10pm, W, call for cover
Albie Aware Fundraiser with the Steve Stizzo Trio, 6:30pm, call for cover
The Herald and Seth Kaminsky, 9:30pm, no cover
Güero, 9:30pm, no cover
Big Sticky Mess, 8pm, no cover
Flip the Switch, At Both Ends and Grande Canyon, 6pm, no cover
Halloween Fest with Aye Tee, DJ KeDD-e and more, 9pm, $10-$12
Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper with Haunt and Crimson Eye, 8pm, $20
Big sexy BRewing Co.
5861 88TH ST, SUITE 800, (916) 374-7332
Blue lamp
1400 AlHAMbRA blvD., (916) 455-3400
The Atlas Moth, (waning) and Battle Hag, 8pm, $12-$15
The BoaRdwalk
PHOTO cOURTESY OF INGO RAUTENbERG
Laura Rain
FaCes
Faces Karaoke, 9pm, call for cover
Absolut Fridays, 9pm, call for cover
FaTheR paddy’s iRish puBliC house
One Eyed Reilly, 7pm, call for cover
Whiskey and Stitches, 7pm, call for cover
435 MAIN ST., WOODlAND, (530) 668-1044
with The Caesars 9pm Friday, $8 Torch Club Blues
Pool Party, 9pm, no cover
Every Damn Monday, 8pm, M, no cover; Noche Latina, 9pm, T, no cover
The Taylor Chicks and KTalon Band, 9pm, $5
halFTime BaR & gRill
Groove Thang Acoustic Trio, 9pm, call for cover
Groove Thang Acoustic Trio, 9pm, call for cover
Jeff Austin Band, 9pm, $18-$20
The Dream Syndicate, Matthew Sweet and the Nickel Slots, 8pm, $25-$30
John Paul White and Jessica Malone, 8pm, $20
Beerlords, Elder Abuse and Light the Way, 8pm, $5
Hippie Hour Jam, 5pm, no cover
haRlow’s
2708 J ST., (916) 441-4693
Jupiter & Okwess and the Jack Moves, 8pm, $20
hideaway BaR & gRill
2565 FRANklIN blvD., (916) 455-1331
highwaTeR
1910 Q ST., (916) 706-2465
holy diVeR 1517 21ST ST.
Like Pacific, ROAM, Story Untold, Bearings and more, 6:30pm, $15
kupRos
Dylan Crawford, 8pm, no cover
1217 21ST ST., (916) 440-0401
with Your Smith 7pm Saturday, $29.50 Ace of Spades R&B
Sequin Saturday, 9:30pm, call for cover
The Roa Brothers, the Herald and Heather Evans, 9pm, $5
5681 lONETREE blvD., ROcklIN, (916) 626-3600
Rhye
Cardiac, Murderthroat, Focara, Smack’d Up and Pecker, 8pm, T, $10
Fox & goose
1001 R ST., (916) 443-8825
PHOTO cOURTESY OF NEIl kRUG
Shrine of the Serpent, Gloriam Draconis, Expain and more, 8pm, $10-$12
¡Cumbiatron! Dia De La Cumbia, 9pm, $5-$10
9426 GREENbAck lN., ORANGEvAlE, (916) 358-9116 2000 k ST., (916) 448-7798
Pint Night and Trivia, 6:30pm, M, no cover; Open-Mic, 7:30pm, W, no cover
Cuffin with Good Co., 9pm, $5
HOF Saturdays, 9pm, $5
Myles Parrish, 6:30pm, $18-$20
Syml and Dizzy, 7pm, $15-$18
Open-Mic Night, 7:30pm, M, no cover
Shitshow Karaoke, 8pm, M, no cover; Record Roundup, 8pm, T, call for cover The Trivia Factory, 7pm, M, no cover; Geeks Who Drink, 6pm, T, no cover
¡MAYDAY!, 1TON, D.U. Ivan, Optimiztiq, SsappyY, Ac3 and more, 7pm, $15-$18
Cane Hill, Sharptooth, Afterlife, Ambers Wake and more, 6:30pm, W, $13-$15
Kupros Quiz, 7:30pm, no cover
Leo Bootes, 5pm, T, no cover; Ross Hammond, 7:30 pm, W, no cover
luna’s CaFe & JuiCe BaR
Joe Montoya’s Poetry Unplugged, 8pm, $2
Sac United Poetry Slam, 8pm, no cover
Invisible Disabilities with Ali Yada and Drew Kimsey, 8pm, $10
Comedy with Imin, 8pm, W, $5
momo saCRamenTo 2708 J ST., (916) 441-4693
Animals in the Attic and Spooky Mansion, 8pm, $7-$10
Jerm Deezy, FFMB Malc, Duxe Ru and Rehbands, 6:30pm, $15-$20
Anxious Arms, Soft Nerve, Marigold and Slumped, 6pm, $8
Two Tone Steiny & the Cadillacs, 6:30pm, W, $8
old iRonsides
Open Acoustic Jam, 8pm, no cover
Mr. P Chill, J Smoo, Mr. Hooper and One Lost MC, 9pm, $5
We are Your Friends Dance Party, 9pm, $5
Live Music With Heath Williamson, 5:30pm, M, no cover
Open-Mic Comedy/Karaoke, 8pm, no cover
Carneficina, 24Gore, Bavmorda and Pent Hate, 8pm, $10
The Plowzone, 8pm, call for cover
Tuesday Night Karaoke, 9pm, T, no cover
1414 16TH ST., (916) 737-5770
1901 10TH ST., (916) 442-3504
on The y
670 FUlTON AvE., (916) 487-3731
voted best dance club in sacramento by kcra a list 2016-17-18
blues, brews & bbQ on the blvD oct 20th
free Dance lessons nightly. karaoke up front, country dJ in back
ALL YOU CAN EAT!
$13.50 LUNCH $24.50 DINNER
*ask for details
Regular Menu Available Dine-In, Carryout MANA JAPANESE RESTAURANT & SUSHI BAR
Friday 11am10:30pm
Saturday 11:30am10:30pm
916.971.0728 • 2580 Alta Arden Expressway Sacramento, CA 32
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live music friday & saturday
nights 7:30-10pm
free cover charge Bring this ad in. 21 years and over. expires 10.25.18
thursDay night footballl
*Saturday & Sunday all day dinner price Mon-Thurs. 11am10pm
live music
Sunday 11:30am9:30pm
2 for 1 drafts. $0.50 wings. $1 chile dog. no cover charge
1320 Del paso blvD in olD north sac 2 steps from downtown | 916.402.2407 stoneyinn.com for nightly drink specials & events
Submit your Calendar liStingS for free at newSreview.Com/SaCramento/Calendar THursDay 10/18
saTurDay 10/20
sunDay 10/21
Gurf Morlix and Blackie Farrell, 8pm, $22 Duo Quartet, 8pm, $22
Crying Time, 8pm, $20
Nik Bärtsch’s RONIN, 3pm, $22
414 Main sT., Placerville, (530) 303-3792
The Jeffrey James Show, 8pm, call for cover
Uncommon Ground, 8pm, call for cover
Stephen Yerkey, 1pm, call for cover
Powerhouse Pub
Madison Hudson, 9:30pm, call for cover
Press Play, 10pm, call for cover
8 Track, 10pm, call for cover
Ryder Green, 3pm, call for cover
Live Band Karaoke, 8:30pm, T, call for cover; 98 Rock, 9pm, W, call for cover
Pop 40 Dance with DJ Larry, 9pm, $5
Sunday Night Dance Party, 9pm, no cover
Monday Vibes with MC Ham & Friends, 9pm, M, no cover
Palms Playhouse
13 Main sT., WinTers, (530) 795-1825
Placerville Public house
614 suTTer sT., fOlsOM, (916) 355-8586
The Press club
2030 P sT., (916) 444-7914
friDay 10/19
Danger Inc, Lightweight, Sad Girlz Club and Tastebudz, 8pm, call for cover
red museum
Audio Waffle with Buk Buk Bigups and more, noon, $8-10
sacTown union brewery
Sunday Yoga, 10:30am, no cover; Comedy Showcase, 7pm, no cover
212 15TH sT., (916) 750-4733 1210 66TH sT., suiTe B, (916) 272-4472
social nighTclub
1000 K sT., (916) 947-0434
Saints and Sinners, 10pm, no cover before 11pm
DJ Romeo Reyes, 10pm, no cover before 10:30pm-$5
MOnDay-WeDnesDay 10/22-24
Open-Mic, 7pm, M, no cover; Empire Vault Game Night, 6pm, T, no cover PHOTO cOurTesy Of cHascar
Stanley Jordan
The sofia
Stanley Jordan, 7pm, $40
Laurie Lewis, 7pm, $35
JD Souther, 7pm, $55
sToney’s rockin rodeo
Stoney’s Thursdays, 9pm, no cover
Hot Country Fridays, 7pm, $5-$10
Blues, Brews & BBQ on the Boulevard, 8pm, $5
Sunday Funday, 8pm, no cover
Kurrency King, Right Back and more, 6pm, call for cover
Bump City, 3pm, call for cover
3rd Sunday Country with Buck Ford, 2pm, call for cover
Laura Rain & the Caesars, 9pm, $8
Loose Engines, 5:30pm, call for cover; Sam Pace & the Gilded Grit, 9pm, $8
You Front The Band, 8pm, no cover
Gabe Carpenter Trio, 8pm, T, call for cover
Yoga at Yolo, 11am, no cover
Trivia with Geeks Who Drink, 6pm, T, no cover
2700 caPiTal ave., (916) 443-5300 1320 Del PasO BlvD., (916) 927-6023
swabbies on The river
5871 GarDen HiGHWay, (916) 920-8088
The Torch club
904 15TH sT., (916) 443-2797
Rockin’ Johnny Burgin, 9pm, $7
Two rivers cider
West Coast Swing, 7:45pm, T, $5; College Wednesdays, 9pm, W, $5-$10
7pm Thursday, $40 The Sofia Jazz
Silver Orange Benefit with Roland Tonies and more, 2pm, $5-$10
4311 aTTaWa ave., suiTe. 300, (916) 456-1614
yolo brewing co.
1520 TerMinal sT., (916) 379-7585
all ages, all the time ace of sPades
1417 r sT., (916) 930-0220
Mayday Parade, This Wild Life, William Ryan Key and more, 6pm, $29.50-$32.50
Elefante, 7pm, $42-$52
cafe colonial
Build Them To Break, One Armed Joey and more, 8pm, call for cover
3520 sTOcKTOn BlvD., (916) 718-7055
The colony
3512 sTOcKTOn BlvD., (916) 718-7055
Born Sick, Brown Dynamite, HUGOxSÁNCHEZ and Splitjaw, 8pm, $7
shine
The Shine Jazz Jam, 8pm, no cover
1400 e sT., (916) 551-1400
Parie Wood and Josiah Gathing, Chad Copher and Taylor Wilde, 8pm, $8
Insane Clown Posse, 6pm, M, $25-$30; Tech N9ne and more, 6pm, W, $38-$42
Rhye and Your Smith, 7pm, $29.50
Mau and Augustus, 8pm, call for cover
PHOTO cOurTesy Of cane Hill
Cane Hill
Mishe Allure, Perfect Score, Seafloor Cinema, Nosedive and more, 7pm, $10
Questionable Trivia, 8pm, W, no cover
with Sharptooth and more 6:30pm Wednesday, $13-$15 Holy Diver Nu metalcore
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12 Acres 3 Bed / 3 Bath 1,700 sqft Beautiful Views Room To Build Shop David Black (530) 370-3360 Lic #01715554 Owner, Robert Moore (530) 514-2463
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white letters on black backgrounds, each sign states the facts in simple sentences. To fight criticism that legalization increases usage, especially among youth, one Weedfacts billboard states, “Since legalizing marijuana in 2012, Colorado has had no increase in youth marijuana usage. Neither has Washington.” Weedmaps director Carl Fillichio said the messages are backed by data. “Opponents of cannabis legalization continue to voice concern that legalization leads to increased youth access and usage rates,” Fillichio said. “But in fact, this has not occurred in legal jurisdictions.” Fillichio characterized Weedfacts as Get parenting tips from a billboard. an educational campaign, rather than a promotional one. Photo by Ken Magri “Weedmaps launched the Weedfacts campaign to help dispel some of the myths about cannabis, and foster real dialogue about its legalization,” Fillichio said. “It is our goal to foster informed discussion among neighborhood residents, Billboards say a lot about cannabis. Who’s doing the talking? community leaders and elected officials, and encourage more research and debate from people on both sides of the issue.” Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a selfby Ken Magri described bipartisan group, has a different outlook. According to Luke Niforatos, SAM chief of staff, the group seeks “a billboard with its apparent anti-cannabis percent report looking at an outdoor ad while i was driving through the worst of middle road between incarceration and message placed in the heart of cannabis each or most of the time they pass one.” this summer’s Mendocino Complex fire, legalization.” country. As the boards become a frequent a billboard suddenly emerged through “We are for smart policies on The billboard seemed to have no obviformat for social commentary, the haze near Laytonville. It showed a marijuana that reject both some in the cannabis conversation between two parents and their ous sponsor, and the outdoor advertising commercialization and company wouldn’t reveal the client. With industry are now daughter about cannabis. criminalization,” Niforatos its drab colors and shadowed figures, the employing them “Under 21 Weed Can Wait” the wrote to SN&R in an “Weedmaps sign looked like a throwback to the 1950s. to change public advertisement read in all caps. “We don’t email. Nevertheless, it caught my eye. attitudes. want you to use cannabis,” the silhouetted launched the He added that “Talk to your teens … they will listen,” Weedmaps, an parental figures say. The daughter, also a SAM’s billboards Weedfacts campaign to it concludes. I agreed. As a lifelong potonline directory silhouette, but marked with a pink cartoonaim to promote help dispel some of the smoker, I once asked my 15-year old son to for cannabis ish brain, asks, “Why not?” The answer: health-first and wait for adulthood so his brain could better businesses, “Your brain is still growing.” myths about cannabis.” smart policies that develop. But, do billboards like this ever began a billboard In the last few years, public discussion decrease marijuana Carl Fillichio start a conversation? campaign in 2016 of cannabis by way of billboards has use in addition to its director, Weedmaps Research from the Arbitron National called Weedfacts. increased in states where adult use is legal, legal consequences. In-Car Study, 2009 edition, the most recent Most of the billboards according to a study released last May One of SAM’s edition of this study, seems to think so. discuss the benefits of by Rand Corp., a nonpartisan research billboards from 2014 It found that “71 percent of travelers cannabis legalization, like organization. But the messages vary, often look at the messages on roadside opioid avoidance, Medicaid and so do the groups behind them. I was “Blunt converSationS” continued on page 39 billboards” and more than one-third or “37 savings and DUI reductions. Using plain curious about who paid for the Laytonville 10.18.18 | SN&R | 35
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to over-prescribe the highly addictive drug meant for severely ill cancer patients. Critics argue Insys donated to defeat that went up near MetLife Stadium in Prop. 205 after concluding that legal cannabis New Jersey featured a football player would hurt profits for the corporation’s new underneath the words: “Motivation, synthetic cannabis-based pill for anorexia, Perseverance, Determination.” Next Syndros. to that was a cannabis leaf under the On the “yes” side of Arizona’s Prop. 205 words: “None of the above.” The tagline: was a group called the Campaign to Regulate “Marijuana kills your drive. Don’t lose in Marijuana Like Alcohol. Its billboard the game of life.” reversed the parent/child role, asking young Niforatos sees billboards like this as an adults to explain to their parents why pot is effective way to get SAM’s anti-marijuana safer than alcohol. message out to the news media and social One billboard shows a young girl in the networks. He adds that the group’s billboards foreground with her mother behind her. The are a means to combat the narrative pushed question: “Have you talked to your parents by pro-cannabis companies that marijuana is about marijuana?” a harmless and benign substance. “For decades, the federal government “Unfortunately, we cannot compete with distributed anti-marijuana propaganda to the pot industry’s millions in paid billboards parents and encouraged them to share it with that litter cities across the country,” their children,” said CRMLA chairman, Niforatos said. “But we do try to J.P. Holyoak. “Younger voters counter the misinformation need to talk to their parents of the industry with about marijuana and billboards that share make sure they underthe truth.” stand it is actually In the political less harmful than realm, billboards alcohol.” are a big busiThe effectiveness in election ness of any years. In 2016, advertised they were used message depends to help defeat on the viewer’s the Arizona point of view, Marijuana but it also helps Legalization to know the Initiative, Luke Niforatos, motivation behind the Proposition 205, chief of staff, Safe Approaches to messenger. which proposed legalMarijuana And the mysterious izing the possession and “Weed Can Wait” billboard in consumption of marijuana by Laytonville? As it turned out, it was people 21 years and older. sponsored by the Laytonville Healthy Start Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy Family Resource Center, a nonprofit group created a billboard that read: “Every three funded by government grants and private days someone dies in a marijuana-related donations. traffic death in Colorado.” The director of the nonprofit, Jayma Recall that Colorado was the first state to Spence, said the message was specifically adopt recreational cannabis in 2012, but state intended for kids living in the Humboldt officials cited that the statistics displayed by region. ARDP were misleading. Yet the damage was “Since Laytonville is in the heart of the done: Arizona voters opted against Prop. 205 ‘Emerald Triangle,’ those of us who work in November 2016. with kids and families have wondered how What’s more, ARDP’s anti-205 campaign to best approach the subject of youth use was fueled by a $500,000 donation from of marijuana when the area is known for Insys Therapeutics Inc., a pharmaceutical the growing/production of it,” Spence said. company whose majority owner, John “Our message of ‘Weed Can Wait’ is Kapoor, was charged last year with meant to encourage parents to talk with racketeering. The Department of Justice their kids about waiting until they are older alleges that Kapoor also participated in the to use substances. Even if adults or parents illegal distribution of a fentanyl spray called use around them.” Ω Subsys and was involved with bribing doctors “blunt conversations” continued from page 35
“Unfortunately, we cannot compete with the pot industry’s millions in paid billboards that litter cities across the country.”
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GettinG reacquainted with cannabis?
Caution: Weed is still illegal I want to get into the cannabis delivery and distribution business. Any tips? —Wee D. Livery
iLLuStratioN By maria ratiNova
Be careful. It’s kinda rough out there. One might think that running a cannabis delivery service would be easy-peasy, especially since people living in cities and counties that don’t allow brick-andmortar dispensaries love getting weed delivered. However, many cities are cracking down on delivery services, I guess because common sense is harder to find than good weed. But yeah. Go ahead. We need more good delivery services. Check the Bureau of Cannabis Control website for good info, get your money and your crew and your insurance together, and have at it. And I know I said this before, but: Be. Careful. The California Highway Patrol is going after delivery services and especially distribution companies. Just last month, the CHP detained a truck from Wild Rivers Transport, a licensed distribution company. Instead of releasing the drivers and the legal contents of the truck, the CHP called on the Department of Homeland Security to impound the truck and its contents. No charges were filed. Pot is still illegal under federal law, so the Department of Homeland Security (and the Drug Enforcement Administration) can pretty much do what they want. And if the CHP is working with the Feds to get around state law and continue to harass law-abiding citizens, asset forfeiture is gonna skyrocket. Good luck.
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What’s the best way to figure out how my cannabis was grown? —Praven nonce
Um, ask the grower? Find the brand on Instagram? As cannabis becomes more and more like the fancy booze industry, it should become easier to find out where and when and how your weed was grown. I live in California, so it is easy for me to find out the provenance of my pot. Hell, the fancier companies love to tell you that their bud was grown deep in the heart of Mendocino County, under the watchful eye of an ancient and venerable hippy farmer who only visits the big city when it’s time to buy new shoes. But when you visit places where weed is still prohibited, like Nashville, they have good weed but no one knows or admits to knowing where it is grown or even what sort of strain they have. Just a few years ago out on the West Coast, there were a bunch of “farmers market” style cannabis events where cannabis users could visit different booths and get a chance to talk to the growers to learn about their techniques and ingredients. Sadly, farmers markets are no longer allowed in the new “legalization” era, although there are definitely a few underground farmers markets, especially in Sacramento. However, Gov. Jerry Brown did just sign a law allowing for smaller scale cannabis events where legal growers can hawk their wares, so maybe in a few more months or years, we will once again be able to have legal farmers markets, and cannabis users will find it easier to learn about the cannabis they consume. Ω
Ngaio Bealum is a Sacramento comedian, activist and marijuana expert. Email him questions at ask420@newsreview.com.
@Ngaio420
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and publish one copy to read to yourself I am on disability for psychological reasons related to being sexually abused when you feel lost and frightened. during childhood. Through good therapy That could be enough. If it isn’t, you I developed insight, skills and coping will know what to write next to take strategies. I want to be a writer. Writing yourself forward. is a doorway to my most intimate self. It’s also helpful to establish a writI have some talent but don’t know what ing practice. Set aside a time to write. to do with it. I tell myself: “Just write Build self-trust by showing up for for you!” My childhood created an adult yourself as promised. Write anything who literally cringes when people walk that comes to mind, but keep writing. past my front windows. How do I keep Start by setting a timer for 10 minutes. avoidance and mistrust from shackling Allow it to be all the time you need. my authentic voice so I can write with Remind yourself that you have a writing less fear, regardless of outcomes? Your childhood trauma might not be the practice. You don’t have to be perfect or do it perfectly. You just have to be reason you struggle to write with the you. One book that helped me is freedom you imagine possible. write with abandon is, The Most creative people wresWar of Art: Winning the tle against restraints. Inner Creative Battle, One step Some obstacles are by Steven Pressfield. self-imposed, the toward writing Read it as a sacred result of family text, not as a selffreely is to release or friends urging help book. That them to consider your struggle toward means when you arts a hobby, and get to the end, self-expression from not a career path. start over at the Culturally, the arts the thought that is the beginning and read are not embraced result of childhood it again. And again. with the same Let its wisdom open trauma. enthusiasm as say, the seams of your soul sports, and that can be and you will fill pages intimidating to creatives. and pages with the stories A physical or psychological only you can tell. Ω challenge also creates difficulty, as you already know. And, many truly talented people don’t see themselves clearly, so they believe they are not good enough. You are not alone in the effort MedITaTIon of THe Week to understand your creative longing and to express it. You are a member “You can’t use up creativity. of a tribe that is essential to human The more you use, the more you consciousness. have,” said Maya Angelou. What One step toward writing freely is are you doing with your life? to release your struggle toward selfexpression from the thought that is the result of childhood trauma. It might be. It might not be. But settling on the idea as reality gives you a place to stay stuck. Instead, see the beauty Write, email or leave a message for and the terror you have lived through Joey at the News & Review. Give as a source to draw from as you write. your name, telephone number Write a memoir and be a guide to how (for verification purposes only) and question—all to live despite a debilitating trauma. Or correspondence will be kept strictly confidential. write your life story as fiction and pen Write Joey, 1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA changes in your story that give you joy. 95815; call (916) 498-1234, ext. 1360; or email Or write a how-to-thrive-as-me book askjoey@newsreview.com.
“True Stories and Margaritas,” a reading co-hosted by Under the Gum Tree and Hippocampus literary magazines, will be held on Saturday, October 20 at La Venadita in Oak Park, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Writers from both publications will read from their work, including Joey. Join us!
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FRee will aStRology
by James Raia
by ROb bRezsny
FoR tHe Week oF oCtoBeR 18, 2018 ARIES (March 21-April 19): Humraaz is a word
in the Urdu language. Its literal meaning is “secret sharer.” It refers to a confidante, a person in whom you have full trust and to whom you can confess your core feelings. Is there such a character in your life? If so, seek him or her out for assistance in probing into the educational mysteries you have waded into. If there is no such helper you can call on, I advise you to do whatever’s necessary to attract him or her into your sphere. A collaborative quest may be the key to activating sleeping reserves of your soul wisdom.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author
Roberto Bolaño suggests that the world contains more beauty than many people realize. The full scope and intensity of this nourishing beauty “is only visible to those who love.” When he speaks of “those who love,” I suspect he means deep-feeling devotees of kindness and compassion, hard-working servants of the greater good, and free-thinking practitioners of the Golden Rule. In any case, Taurus, I believe you’re in a phase when you have the potential to see far more of the world’s beauty. For best results, supercharge your capacity to give and receive love.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Once upon a time you
were walking along a sidewalk when a fairy floated by and whispered, “I’m willing to grant you three wishy-washy wishes for free. You don’t have to do any favors for me in return. But I will grant you three wonderfully wise wishes if you perform three tasks for me.” You asked the fairy, “What would those three tasks be?” She replied, “The second task is that you must hoodwink the devil into allowing you to shave his hairy legs. The third task is that you must bamboozle God into allowing you to shave his bushy beard.” You laughed and said, “What’s the first task?” The fairy touched you on the nose with her tiny wand and said, “You must believe that the best way to achieve the impossible is to attempt the absurd.”
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You Crabs tend to be the stockpilers and hoarders of the zodiac. The world’s largest collections of antique door knobs and Chinese restaurant menus and beer cans from the 1960s belong to Cancerian accumulators. But in alignment with possibilities hinted at by current astrological omens, I recommend that you redirect this inclination so it serves you better. How? One way would be to gather supplies of precious stuff that’s really useful to you. Another way would be to assemble a batch of blessings to bestow on people and animals who provide you with support.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Chinese mythology tells
us there used to be ten suns, all born from the mother goddess Xi He. Every 24 hours, she bathed her brood in the lake and placed them in a giant mulberry tree. From there, one sun glided out into the sky to begin the day while the other nine remained behind. It was a good arrangement. The week had ten days back then, and each sun got its turn to shine. But the siblings eventually grew restless with the staid rhythm. On one fateful morning, with a playful flourish, they all soared into the heavens at once. It was fun for them, but the earth grew so hot that nothing would grow. To the rescue came the archer Hou Yi. With his flawless aim, he used his arrows to shoot down nine of the suns, leaving one to provide just the right amount of light and warmth. The old tales don’t tell us, but I speculate that Hou Yi was a Leo.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): You now have
maximum command of a capacity that’s a great strength but also a potential liability: your piercing brainpower. To help ensure that you wield this asset in ways that empower you and don’t sabotage you, here’s advice from four wise Virgos. 1: “Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.” —psychotherapist Anthony de Mello. 2: “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” —poet Mary Oliver. 3: “I like to wake up each morning and not know what I think, that I may reinvent myself in some way.” —actor and writer Stephen Fry. 4: “I wanted space to watch things grow.” —singer Florence Welch.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “There are works
which wait, and which one does not understand for a long time,” wrote Libran author Oscar Wilde. “The reason is that they bring answers to questions which have not yet been raised; for the question often arrives a long time after the answer.” That’s the weird news, Libra. You have been waiting and waiting to understand a project that you set in motion many moons ago. It has been frustrating to give so much energy to a goal that has sometimes confused you. But here’s the good news: Soon you will finally formulate the question your project has been the answer to. And so at last you will understand it. You’ll feel vindicated, illuminated and resolved.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Many seekers who
read horoscope columns want common-sense advice about love, career, money and power. So I hope I don’t disappoint you by predicting that you will soon have a mystical experience or spiritual epiphany. Let me add, however, that this delightful surprise won’t merely be an entertaining diversion with no useful application. In fact, I suspect it will have the potential of inspiring good ideas about love, career, money or power. If I had to give the next chapter of your life story a title, it might be “A Thousand Dollars’ Worth of Practical Magic.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1962, when
she was 31 years old, Sagittarian actress Rita Moreno won an Academy Award for her role in the film West Side Story. In 2018, she attended the Oscars again, sporting the same dress she’d worn for the ceremony 56 years before. I think the coming weeks will be a great time for you, too, to reprise a splashy event or two from the past. You’ll generate soul power by reconnecting with your roots. You’ll tonify and harmonize your mental health by establishing a symbolic link with your earlier self.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The Committee to
Reward Unsung Good Deeds hereby acknowledges your meritorious service in the trenches of the daily routine. We praise your tireless efforts to make life less chaotic and more coherent for everyone around you. We’re grateful for the patience and poise you demonstrate as you babysit adults who act like children. And we are gratified by your capacity to keep long-term projects on track in the face of trivial diversions and petty complaints. I know it’s a lot to ask, but could you please intensify your vigilance in the next three weeks? We need your steadiness more than ever.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You need a special
pep talk that’s best provided by Aquarian poet Audre Lorde. Please meditate on these four quotes by her. 1: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.” 2: “We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.” 3: “You cannot use someone else’s fire. You can only use your own. To do that, you must first be willing to believe you have it.” 4: “Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.” 5: “The learning process is something you can literally incite, like a riot.”
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Warning: My
horoscopes may interfere with your ability to rationalize your delusions; they could extinguish your enthusiasm for clichés; they might cause you to stop repressing urges that you really should express; and they may influence you to cultivate the state of awareness known as “playful wisdom.” Do you really want to risk being exposed to such lavish amounts of inner freedom? If not, you should stop reading now. But if you’re as ripe for emancipating adventures as I think you are, then get started on shedding any attitudes and influences that might dampen your urge to romp and cavort and carouse.
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 realastrology.com.
Barrels of sisterhood Rachel and Sami Ruddick are sisters, best friends, roommates—and they run a business together. Their family has owned a vineyard in Ukiah for generations, and using the grapes, the sisters recently started a smallbatch winery called Largo Ridge Wines. Whenever there’s business to discuss, the women take to the back wall of the cavernous midtown coffeehouse, Identity Coffee. Laptops open, the sisters might be examining their business’ website, designed by Rachel. On their website, Sami and Rachel double as models, pictured holding glasses and bottles. Rachel, 22, also designed the winery’s labels, while Sami, 25 is more focused on the winery’s business components. They enjoy what they do, something apparent in their omnipresent enthusiasm. SN&R sat down with the pair to talk wine.
How did this all happen, two sisters running a winery? Sami: We are technically the fifth generation of our family growing grapes. Right now our dad runs the ranch. We sell our grapes to other wineries, but no one in our family has ever before made wine with our grapes. … I had an internship with a winery that ended. I asked my dad what he thought about experimenting with some grapes. My sister was in art school, she knew all about marketing, so we put our heads together and decided to do it.
What kind of acreage of grapes are we talking about? Sami: Since we do sell to commercial wineries, we have about 100 or 125 acres, but we also have pears, with about the same amount. For the wines we’re making, it’s less than an acre.
What’s it like financially, running a winery at such a young age? Rachel: It was an investment for our family and us. Our family helped us get started a lot. We are hoping to grow a lot so that it will be a mutually [beneficial] relationship for all of us.
You live here, but the winery is in Ukiah. You must know the route really well. Sami: It’s like, exactly 102 miles away. I look on my GPS all the time. On a typical weekend, we are rushing back and forth all of the time. We are trying to make the best of it.
Rachel Ruddick, left, and her sister Sami, right, live and breathe grapes. It’s in their blood. PHOTO BY JAMES RAIA
How long have the two of you had an interest in wine? Sami: Since high school, I knew I might want to take over from my dad someday, and I was super interested in the wine industry. I’ve experimented with wine and loved wine for a long time. It just came naturally. Rachel: We were always exposed to wine growing up in the wine industry, so it’s just always been around, and family has always talked about it.
Can you tell me about your wine? Rachel: Our first vintage was 2016 cabernet. It takes about two years to finish cabs. With our chardonnay, which we just released, it was our 2017. It doesn’t take as long.
What have your friends said about your wines? Sami: Everyone loves our labels. Rachel designed them. When it comes to the wines, they’re different. They are lighter, more approachable wines. A cabernet traditionally is a big, heavy wine. Our cab is not. It has all the characteristics of a cab, but it’s lighter and smoother. You can drink it without food. A lot of people don’t necessarily like a cab, but they like ours.
by-the-glass list, so that’s super exciting for us. The owner let us know it was going to be on the menu. We’ve been in twice already.
Have you had pitfalls? Sami: Oh my gosh. We had no idea how to start a business, for one, and a wine business, for two. There have been so many roadblocks, with Rachel being in school and me moving here. It’s been really difficult but worth it. Rachel: We definitely made some mistakes in the beginning, and some mistakes that cost us some money, but we’ve come back from that. And luckily, we are starting small with the hopes of growing big, rather than putting everything into it and then not getting anything in return.
Have you ever experienced any adversity in your business because of your gender? Sami: We have experienced people in the industry just not us taking seriously because we are a different face. Rachel: A lot of times in the wine industry, you just don’t see faces of who’s making the wine. … It’s more of an image … But for our brand, we want people to get to know us. Ω
Where is the wine available? Rachel: It’s available online now on our website, but it will soon be available in some stores and restaurants. Hook & Ladder just started serving our cab on its
Largo Ridge Wines’ Cabernet Sauvignon is $30, its Chardonnay is $16. For more information, visit largoridgewines.com.
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