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In the shadow of tyrants The biggest threats to Iranian-Americans are the leaders of Iran and America

by Raheem F. hosseini, page 14

Sacramento’S newS & entertainment weekly

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Volume 31, iSSue 13

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thurSday, july 11, 2019

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contents

july 11, 2019 | Vol. 31, Issue 13

This year, the California State Fair & Food Festival has vendors dishing out some unique food such as deep-fried orange Fanta. (Yes, the soft drink!)

editor’s note letters essay + streetalk greenlight 15 minutes news feature arts + Culture musiC stage

04 05 06 08 09 10 14 18 22 23

24 dish PlaCe Calendar CaPital Cannabis guide ask joey

24 26 28 35 42

Cover design by maria ratinova Greg Meyers, John Parks, Jenny Plummer, Lloyd Rongley, Lolu Sholotan, Carlton Singleton, Viv Tiqui

N&R Publications Editor Debbie Arrington N&R Publications Managing Editor Laura Hillen Associate Publications Editor Derek McDow N&R Publications Staff Writer/Photographer Anne Stokes

Our Mission: To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages employees to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live.

N&R Publications Staff Writer Thea Rood N&R Publications Editorial Coordinator Nisa Smith Marketing & Publications Lead Consultant

Editor Foon Rhee News Editor Raheem F. Hosseini Managing Editor Mozes Zarate Staff Reporter Scott Thomas Anderson Copy Editor Steph Rodriguez Calendar Editor Maxfield Morris Contributing Editor Rachel Leibrock Editorial Assistant Rachel Mayfield Contributors Ngaio Bealum, Amy Bee, Rob Brezsny,

Steve Caruso, Joseph Engle, Sherri Heller, Rod Malloy, Celeste Worden, Greta Beekhuis

Aaron Carnes, Jim Carnes, Joey Garcia, Kate Gonzales, Howard Hardee, Ashley Hayes-Stone, Jim Lane, Chris Macias, Ken Magri, James Raia, Patti Roberts, Dylan Svoboda, Bev Sykes, Graham Womack

Creative Services Manager Elisabeth Bayard-Arthur Art Directors Sarah Hansel, Maria Ratinova Publications Designer Katelynn Mitrano Publications and Advertising Designer Nikki Exerjian Ad Designers Naisi Thomas, Cathy Arnold Advertising Manager Michael Gelbman Sales & Production Coordinator Skyler Morris Senior Advertising Consultants Rosemarie Messina, Kelsi White Advertising Consultants Michael Nero, Rodrigo Ramirez, Vincent Marchese

Director of First Impressions/Sweetdeals Coordinator Trish Marche

Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Assistant Lob Dunnica Distribution Drivers Mansour Aghdam, Beatriz Aguirre, Rosemarie Beseler, Kimberly Bordenkircher, Mike Cleary, Tom Downing, Marty Fetterley, Chris Fong, Ron Forsberg, Michael Jackson, Calvin Maxwell,

Elizabeth Morabito

Marketing & Publications Consultants

President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Director of Nuts & Bolts Deborah Redmond Director of People & Culture David Stogner Nuts & Bolts Ninja Norma Huerta Director of Dollars & Sense Debbie Mantoan Account Jedi Jessica Kislanka Payroll/AP Wizard Miranda Hansen Developer John Bisignano System Support Specialist Kalin Jenkins 1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815 Phone (916) 498-1234 Fax (916) 498-7910 Website newsreview.com Got a News Tip? sactonewstips@newsreview.com Calendar Events newsreview.com/calendar Want to Advertise? Fax (916) 498-7910 or snradinfo@newsreview.com Classifieds (916) 498-1234, ext. 5 or classifieds@newsreview.com Job Opportunities jobs@newsreview.com Want to Subscribe to SN&R? sactosubs@newsreview.com Editorial Policies: Opinions expressed in SN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permissions to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. SN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or review materials. Email letters to snrletters@newsreview.com. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form and to edit them for libel.

Advertising Policies: All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes the responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message.

SN&R is printed at PressWorks Ink on recycled newsprint.

Circulation of SN&R is verified by the Circulation Verification Council.

SN&R is a member of Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, CNPA, AAN and AWN.

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Name calling

by Foon Rhee

That led to suspicions of attempted vote-rigging. John Cox, general counsel for Petrovich Development Co., denies any cheating. In an email, he said so many votes came in because of appreciation for the $170 million the company will eventually invest in Crocker Village.

The city decided to count only one vote for the same name from the same IP address. Removing duplicate votes still left 210 The name for a public park is the for Petrovich Family Park latest dispute at Crocker Village. in the final tally on May 22, putting it in first place.

In second place with Nothing is ever easy with developer Paul 88 votes is Donald Irving Petrovich’s project in Curtis Park. So why should Rivett Park, to honor a Curtis Park resident who the name for a little park in the middle of Crocker retired as a city parks supervisor and was active in Village be any different? local history groups before passing away in 2009.

As usual, this fight is full of murky accusations In third with 77 is Ray Eames Park, to recognize a and has become very personal and very ugly. native Sacramentan who was a pioneering artist and Petrovich wanted to name the 3.5-acre park for designer and who died in 1988. his father, Alexander John Petrovich, who he says Those top three vote-getters go to the city’s is a decorated World War II veteran who landed on Parks and Community Enrichment Commission, D-Day and helped liberate the Dachau death camp. which is scheduled to debate the name on Aug. 1 so But City Hall nixed that idea because Alexander it can make a recommendation to the City Council.

Petrovich didn’t make the significant contribuSchenirer says he may recuse himself from voting. tion to Sacramento required under city policy.

That’s probably a smart move, given past lawsuits.

Petrovich, however, blames Jay Schenirer, the city Petrovich has been warring with Schenirer and councilman who represents the neighborhood, for some Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association leadblocking the name. ers for years on his project of housing and shops on Schenirer denies that and says the park naming 72 acres that used to be a Union Pacific railyard. is going through the normal process.

After the city approved the project, Petrovich Petrovich then suggested naming the park for proposed a 16-pump fuel station at the Safeway his family. “To do otherwise is simply an overt act that anchors the neighborhood shopping center. of bias and a hateful act by a handful of people to Even after he threatened to bring in a discount inflict severe bias towards a family that has contrib- grocer if he didn’t get his way, the council rejected uted so greatly to Sacramento and the region as a the gas station in 2015. Petrovich sued, and his whole,” concludes an eight-page letter to the city lawyers uncovered emails and texts suggesting that listing all the charitable contributions the family has Schenirer had colluded with neighborhood leaders. made and all the jobs it has created.

A judge ruled in January 2018 that Schenirer was The city conducted an online survey, biased and overturned the 2015 decision. The city is and nearly 1,600 votes—an unusually high appealing that ruling. number—were cast for 15 different names.

Trying to mend fences, Schenirer posted a letter So city staffers dug deeper and found that 210 in March urging Curtis Park residents to welcome votes for Petrovich Family Park came from the new Crocker Village families. “They feel some a single IP address, which means they were of the animosity against the developer has shifted to cast on the same computer or network. Nearly them,” he wrote.

1,000 more came from IP addresses that voted The dispute over the park name isn’t going 10 or more times. to help. Ω Photo by Foon Rhee

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Re: “The case for reparations” by Derrell Roberts (Essay, July 4): The case for reparations for our nation’s sin of slavery is a strong one. But, in a real sense, there have already been reparations. Consider the more than 300,000 Union soldiers who died in the Civil War in the fight to save democracy and to end slavery, including the men of the 20th Maine who died keeping the Rebs from taking Little Round Top, securing the victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, saving the Union and keeping those treasonous dogs such as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis from tightening the grip of slavery.

William J. HugHes s acr am e nt o / v i a e m a i l

Phony discrimination Re: “The American story is the immigrant story” by Pat Fong Kushida (Feature, July 4): Another lefty crying and moaning about phony discrimination. Her parents arrived here legally, most likely as they did not prefer to live under communists. She was not discriminated against unless her family lived in communist Oakland or Berkeley, where they bused people from their neighborhood school to some other school without spending a dime on fixing the actual problems in the schools.

Look at her success story and contrast that with Americans who never got out of poverty, crime and prison. There is a difference between her parents and other folks, who wanted to succeed and figured out how to do that rather than depend on welfare and government handouts.

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On the front lines Re: “Hunting poachers” by Scott Thomas Anderson (Feature, June 27): Bless these state game wardens for the work they do. Many Americans are unaware of the rampant poaching and illegal grows that are destroying our wild places.

They think it happens in Africa and Russia. This article provides a close look at how bad it is here in California and how important these wardens are to safeguarding our wildlife.

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Alleged cop killer’s fate Re: “Lying in wait” by Raheem F. Hosseini and Mozes Zarate (News, June 27): California being California, if the killer is convicted of anything, he will spend the next three decades in confinement, yelling about his rights until he dies a natural death.

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Real rent control Re: “Stone cold sober” by Scott Thomas Anderson (News, July 4): If Mayor Darrell Steinberg was really interested in alleviating the skyrocketing housing costs, he would support rent control measures instead of sabotaging with scare tactics or his laughable temporary three-year, 5% rent hike cap on rentals more than 20 years old. He wouldn’t be peddling the developers’ and real estate lobby’s lies that rent hikes result in less affordable housing available in rent control markets.

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august 11. read more letters online at newsreview.com/sacramento.

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essay

by Megan BlackWell

streetalk

by Patrick Hyun Wilson

Asked At the stAte CApitol:

Biggest risk taken?

Make your mark Young professionals are helping drive Sacramento’s renaissance

R Aquel Vill AlpAndo nurse

Learning how to ride a motorcycle at the age of 50. I still own a motorcycle. Every decade—30, 40, 50—I have to do something extraordinary. When I turned 60 I did parachuting off boats. Every 10 years I do something very risky.

I still ride.

elizAh Cl AboRne CRosby Sacramento is in the middle of a once-in-ageneration renaissance, and at the heart of it all, young professionals are the drivers, the doers and the champions that our city needs.

Over the course of a decade, Metro EDGE has created a space for the next generation of leaders to support the growth and development Megan Blackwell, marketing manager at Otto Construction, is the of our region. And with a bright future on the 2018 Sacramento Metro Chamber Young Professional of the Year horizon for our city, there is no better time to and served as communications chairperson and co-chairperson for join.

Metro EDGE. Metro EDGE’s mission is to engage a diverse network, develop critical business skills, give back to the community and During my four years on the leaderempower leadership. Through volunteer leadership council, I witnessed the organization ship opportunities, monthly networking forums proactively address our city’s challenges and and educational seminars, as well as the annual issues. It is important for young professionEmerge Summit, Metro EDGE is inspiring als to engage in these high-level discussions change and encouraging civic engagement as and debates. They raise families, purchase personal and regional priorities evolve. homes, vote in elections and become With my fellow EDGErs, I want to civic leaders. Through Metro give back to a community that we EDGE, I was able to establish love. Metro EDGE has provided a platform for our next us with the place, time and Metro EDGE’s generation of leaders to team to do it—together. develop—not just for mission is to engage a My EDGE story began now, but for decades to in 2010, shortly after the diverse network, develop come. It cultivated a organization was founded. critical business skills, give group of emerging leadI joined to become part ers who are not afraid back to the community of something bigger than to fail—exactly what’s myself. They say it is all and empower needed by a forwardabout who you know, and thinking, progressive city leadership. that could not be more true on the rise. than in Sacramento. EDGE This year, Metro EDGE connected me to like-minded will celebrate a decade of young leaders. I was surrounded by success. If you are committed to people who wanted to do more, be more making our city a great place, consider joining and see more.

Metro EDGE, attending the Emerge Summit or In true Lady Bird fashion, I left Sacramento participating in a monthly event. briefly in 2014 because I thought it was the Could I have found success without Metro best thing for me at the time. I was lucky EDGE? enough to telecommute for my job and stayed Maybe. But I can wholeheartedly attribute connected to Sacramento. Being away only my career path development to it. I know that made me realize that my heart belonged to I’m a better person with incredible friendships, this city. And EDGE was ready to welcome a more prepared and connected employee and me back so I could replant my roots, develop an incredibly passionate Sacramentan because my new path and blossom into a community of it. Ω champion.

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PrEP navigator

Being a black trans woman. The average life expectancy for a black trans woman is 35. I’m 43 … My mother was amazing, she always told me if I choose a path, do the best that I can do and be the best human that I can be.

sAmAnthA dAniels student

I’m not a risky person … I get more out of small things than big things. I once saw a mail truck get towed and I thought, “Are you serious? That happens?” So it’s just the little things that entertain me.

hAnnAh stRom-mARtin writer

Becoming a mother … You’re raising an actual person! But you can’t think about that too much.

And it’s also a risk because who knows what the future is going to hold … So there’s lots of layers of risk, but I’m really glad I did it.

miChAel Fole y librarian

I’m not a very risky person …

Right now, I don’t want to get injured working out or anything like that ’cause life is too short for that and I’m 60, so I have to be cognizant of risk … I’m not going to go skiing anymore, for example.

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greenlight

Attn: California employers

by Jeff vonKaenel

If you are one of the 300,000 California business owners who do not offer your employees a retirement package, now is the time to sign up for the CalSavers program. This state program, which launched July 1, allows employees to take a payroll deduction to contribute to a state-run 401(k) retirement plan.

Employers don’t have to sign up right away. You have until June 2020 if you have 100 or more employees, or until June 2022 if you are a small employer with between 5 and 49 employees. But let me tell you why you should sign up now.

When I first heard about this plan, I was worried that it was one more program that would cost employers money. But that’s not the case.

CalSavers is designed for the estimated 7.5 million working Californians who do not have an employer-sponsored retirement program. If these employees retire with only Social Security, they will get on average $1,461 per month.

That will barely cover the necessities.

So CalSavers allows these employees to make a voluntary contribution, between 1 and 8% of their wages, to a personal 401(k) plan. If employees move to another job, their CalSavers plan goes with them. And all that employers need to do is manage payroll deductions, a process most employers are already very familiar with.

I learned about this plan when our publications division was contracted

by AARP to assist with CalSavers outreach. I met with local employers and CalSavers staff in Fresno, Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento and San Francisco. At each of these two-hour sessions, the CalSavers staff explained the details of the plans, local business leaders expressed their concerns and CalSavers addressed those concerns.

I learned a lot. For example, I saw how different the issues were in each part of the state. Farmers in the 8 | Sn&r | 07.11.19

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

Central Valley, with many foreign-born workers, had very different questions than tech-centric San Francisco employers. The CalSavers program came into being with support from SEIU Local 1000 and the California Teachers Association. As I learned more about CalSavers, I, too, became a believer.

Why? First, this would provide all California employees access to a retirement savings plan. The deductions and the compounding interest will help make retirement more comfortable.

Second, the process is easy.

Employers are responsible for adding and removing employees and managing payroll deductions. And once their employer signs up, it’s an easy process for employees.

And third, because the plan is post-tax, a CalSavers account can be a rainy day fund. Employees will have some money to draw on for a medical emergency, a car crash, a lost job or anything else that life throws at them.

This alone could be a real lifesaver.

But another huge benefit is that the CalSavers plans have low fees. The projected fees start at less than 1% and over time are expected to decline to 0.5%. This is significantly less than most private sector plans available for small employers, which have fees between 1 and 5%, averaging more than 2%. Lower fees translate to higher savings for your employees.

So, dear employers, this means that you can offer your employees a better plan than all those other businesses trying to steal them away. Sweet! Sign up now. Ω

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

15 minutes

by Maxfield Morris

m a x fi e l d m @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

Jake Hay spends his days corralling influencers.

PHOTO COURTESY OF POPSHORTS

Capitalizing on influencers Jake Hay’s career in publicity began in the glitzy, no-nonsense world of the high school superintendent’s office. At 16, Hay was writing press releases for the Folsom Cordova Unified School District, and suggested the app the district now uses to communicate with students.

Now 24 and living in Orange County, Hay works at PopShorts, a company that utilizes social media influencers in marketing campaigns. He’s head of business development, reaching out to new clients and new influencers and making headway into new fields.

They’re primarily promoting movies, working with just about every studio in Hollywood— but Hay is helping them branch out. SN&R talked to the former Folsom resident about the wide realm of social media marketing.

When did influencer marketing take off?

There are some people who will tell you it’s been going on for 10 years. They count blogs mentioning brands as kind of the birth of it, and I think that is probably where it began, but it’s such a different beast now. I’d say probably 2013 is about the time when it became defined.

What’s your job at PopShorts?

Sales is a strong capacity of it, that’s probably the core of my day-to-day, talking to clients, talking to prospective clients and trying to get us into new verticals. We just signed a new deal with Ford that activated over Fourth of July, and that’s our first time working with an automotive brand.

Do you have a favorite campaign you’ve gotten to work on?

One of my favorites would have to be American Assassin … American Assassin is the classic kind of action film, right? This kid gets recruited to become this assassin and he thinks he knows it all, but he has to learn along the way, because he doesn’t actually know it all. You’ve seen 100 films like it. But what we did for it was really cool—we created a one-day action crash course that

walked through the actual training that the actors did for American Assassin. So we took these influencers to Taran Tactical, which is a really famous action combat training facility in Los Angeles. And there, we taught them how to do hand-to-hand combat for the movies … they learned to throw axes … and all of this content was then distributed across different channels.

What’s it like working with those influencers?

I’ve worked with 7-year-olds, and I’ve worked with all the way up to George Takei, who’s obviously a bit older, and everything in between. The kids are awesome. You’ve never met kids more mature.

They’ve been taught that this is a business. … You have some divas, there are some people who think that they’re A-listers because they have a million followers on Instagram—but they’re few and far between. Audiences can smell an influencer who’s full of themself.

What’s your background in?

If you rewind all the way to growing up, I’m from Folsom … and when I was in high school, Folsom Cordova Unified had a really special program they put together. It was an internship program for high school students to work within the superintendent’s office of the school district. So when I was 16, I got recruited because I was the leader in our district for speech and debate, and they wanted me to work in kind of a PR capacity under the PIO at the district. So at 16, I was making press releases and doing media interviews … that was the opportunity to set my path. From there I went to Cal State Fullerton.

There’s some line on the PopShorts website about activating influencers that reminds me of in Jason Bourne; how they call in those assets.

Sure! I mean, it’s not so different. … For example, when we do action films, working with young male audiences, we’re always working with Steve-O. We have a great relationship with him. … We’ll put him on an action film, and it’s really easy for us to call him—and in that case it is like Jason Bourne. We just say, “Hey, Steve-O we’ve got one for you,” and he says, “Alright. I’ll throw myself through a window.” And he does all his own stunts, too. Ω

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Michael Perrault, a developmentally disabled renter, surveys the apartment from which he was recently evicted.

Photo by Karlos rene ayala

Out and alone Three-day eviction notice puts disabled man into homelessness as city’s rental crisis intensifies

by Scott thomaS anderSon

to read more about past housing bills that have stalled, visit sacblog.newsreview. com for an extended version.

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Anthony Orcini says a 30% rent hike put his developmentally disabled brother onto Sacramento’s streets.

In a city with few tenant protections, such stories have become common enough that Mayor Darrell Steinberg recently alluded to the area’s “affordability crisis” in a speech about spiking homeless statistics. From City Hall to the steps of the state Capitol, political gridlock around the state’s housing crunch has yielded everbleaker reports.

Extremely low-income families have been hit particularly hard, but people |

07.11.19

including Orcini’s brother, Michael Perrault, represent an even more vulnerable category of renter. Since 2017, local nonprofits for the physically and developmentally disabled have warned that their resources are stretched to capacity. Andrea Croom, director of InAlliance, says some people have been waiting three years to get into her agency’s housing program for the severely disabled.

“Our ability to take new clients has stalled,” Croom said.

In 2018, housing specialists also warned the City Council about renters

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

with cerebral palsy facing eviction. Their Supplemental Security Income checks can’t keep pace with rising rents, experts said, especially in a city where many landlords won’t accept Section 8 housing vouchers.

Last week, Housing Now’s Patti Uplinger told SN&R the situation for disabled renters is, generally, as challenging as ever.

“I just read the report that Sacramento came in as one of the highest cities in the nation for year-to-year rent hikes, for the third year in a row,” Uplinger said. “I

can just look back to last October when I was working with Sacramento Self-Help Housing to get people into the county’s shelter system. Most of the people we took off the streets, and off the river, were seniors with disabilities.”

That reality might be hard for some in the public to envision. For Orcini, it’s a reality that his brother is living every day now.

“It worries me,” Orcini admitted.

“It’s not safe or easy for him to be out on those streets.”

On a Wednesday morning in June, the lobby for the courtroom that handles evictions in Sacramento County was full.

One person who has had trouble navigating the system is Perrault, who’s actually something closer to Orcini’s adopted brother. Orcini was friends with Perrault’s parents for 15 years before Perrault’s mother, Ellen, died of cancer in 2008. When Perrault’s father, John, got sick with an infection in 2012, he asked Orcini to look out for his son.

Orcini says that Perrault, 38, has the comprehension of a teenager. Perrault

They save horses, don’T They? see neWs

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World War III, World War Me see Cover

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beatS

CavIng To prIesTs describes himself as having cognitive challenges and a significant learning disability, which led his father to set up a special needs trust for him.

For a few years after his father passed, Perrault tried living with extended family.

He clashed with relatives about how they handled his late parents’ property and says they started talking about putting him in an institution. That’s when Orcini stepped in to become Perrault’s roommate, allowing him to be semi-independent. The two moved into a small, run-down apartment attached to a four-plex on Del Paso Boulevard.

Between 2016 and 2019, Orcini and Perrault lived in the unit without problems.

Then, in January, county records show the complex was purchased by Roseville-based landlord Shahab Riahi.

Orcini and Perrault soon complained to Riahi about a host of maintenance issues, including backed-up toilets, black mold, rats under the floors and a roach infestation.

They say their neighbor Robert Gavey, a military veteran and professional truck driver, also complained about the conditions. According to Orcini and Perrault, Riahi was slow to fix problems, but it only took him a few months to hit them with a $200 rent hike. That boosted their monthly payment to $900 for a roughly 600-squarefoot, one-bedroom apartment in a highcrime neighborhood. (Sacramento police got into a gunfight with a gang member in front of their driveway in 2016).

Worse yet, Perrault says Riahi came by and pressured him to sign papers agreeing to the rent increase while Orcini was away on a trip.

“I told him I’m not going to sign anything unless it’s read to me and I understand what it is,” Perrault recalled with frustration. “And he said to me, ‘If you don’t sign this right now, I’ll give you a three-day notice and you’ll have to leave.’”

Perrault says he believed he had no choice, even though he told Riahi he didn’t know what he was signing. He also remembers Riahi warning him that once the litany of issues got solved, the rent would be going up to $1,200 a month.

The rent hike was in March. Orcini and Perrault were already behind on their payment because someone broke into their unit and stole $500 in cash from Perrault.

(Perrault gets SSI, Social Security income and some survivor’s benefits, totaling about $1,500 a month).

In April, the roommates say they had Riahi’s rent, plus some of the back rent.

Their landlord didn’t want it. Instead, he handed them a three-day notice to

pay the whole amount or be evicted. available housing aren’t the biggest drivers They were evicted. of the housing crisis, but rather years of Riahi also evicted Gavey, who could not stagnating incomes weighed against soaring be reached for comment. rents.

Reached by phone, Riahi told SN&R “It turns out it’s not so much about that Perrault, Orcini and Gavey were all poverty as it is about extracting wealth from behind on rent and evicted on the advice people who earn the lowest wages … by of his attorney. Riahi pointed out that, in charging more for less,” Gladstone said in the case of Perrault and Orcini, the judge her series. in their eviction case sided with him.

For tenants whose personal experiences Riahi also said he didn’t see any problem make that last statement ring true, this with having Perrault sign papers when he year’s political battles have so far been a was alone since Orcini frequently mixed bag. messaged the landlord.

Assemblyman David Chiu’s Orcini started living in AB 1482, which would bar his truck. At first, Perrault single-year rent increases “I never stayed with a friend. from being more than the thought I’d be Worried he was becomConsumer Price Index ing a burden, Perrault plus 5%, was still active homeless.” started camping in a tent as of press time. Another Michael Perrault in Hagginwood Park. He bill, AB 329, is also Developmentally disabled says two strangers tried still alive. It’s aimed at renter to rob him and threatened prohibiting landlords from his life. At that point, discriminating against tenants another friend let Perrault who rely on Section 8 vouchers. move temporarily into his garage.

In the last three years, So far, Perrault has struggled to underSacramento County’s elected officials stand how he can get access to the special have heard myriad stories of disabled needs trust his father left him. He and residents and low-income families having Orcini showed SN&R a confusing series Section 8 vouchers that no one will take. of emails from the law firm administering Croom said that even if AB 329 passes, the trust. It has become even more difficult the severely disabled clients at InAlliance while dealing with the stress of being will still face an uphill battle because homeless. their only income is SSI. “I’m trying to figure things out for “If your voucher is for $600, try finding myself, but what happened to Michael is a place for $600,” Croom said. “They still truly wrong,” Orcini said. have to meet the same requirements any renter would have to in terms of a down does anyone in power truly stand with payment and income.” renters?

Of all the different tenant protection That question has echoed across bills introduced during the recent housCalifornia as one governmental body after ing crisis, none included language that another yields to pressure from the real would give physically and developmenestate lobby to block tenant relief initiatives. tally disabled renters special protection Democrats introduced a slate of new from no-cause or greed-motivated evicbills in 2019 aimed at giving tenants a fighttions. Uplinger, who has worked with ing chance to avoid unfair evictions and the disabled for years, does not recall displacement. The Orange County Register any lawmaker trying to champion that published an editorial assailing all of these type of safeguard. proposals. Entitled “Sacramento’s war on That means disabled renters who landlords will only worsen the housing haven’t made it into a nonprofit program shortage,” the editorial decried the would-be are on their own. It’s a realization that tenant protections as “the greatest assault on hit home for Perrault last week when he property rights in the history of the state.” brought SN&R to his former apartment The Register furthered argued that any state and discovered Riahi had thrown many where the government is so restrictive with of his possessions into a Dumpster. rental pricing but not costs will discourage “It’s been hard, painful and scary,” construction of new housing units.

Perrault said of the last few months. “I But after spending the year investigatnever thought in my wildest dreams and in ing the nation’s eviction epidemic for her my life that after I lost my parents it would series “The Scarlet Letter,” On the Media’s come to this point. I never thought I’d be Brooke Gladstone had a different take. homeless.” Ω She argues unemployment and a lack of

Despite recent revelations about the toll the clergy pedophilia scandal has exacted on California, lawmakers caved to pressure from Catholic Church higher-ups and withdrew legislation that would have required priests to report abuse revealed to them during confession.

State Sen. Jerry Hill, a Silicon Valley Democrat, pulled his controversial Senate Bill 360 the night before a July 9 hearing by the Assembly’s Committee on Public Safety. Clergy are already considered mandated reporters under state law, meaning they must report to authorities suspected instances of child abuse or neglect, though that requirement ends inside the confessional booth. SB 360 would have lifted the seal on penitential communications between parishioners and their priests, as well as confessions made by other clergy members or church employees.

Some Catholic groups criticized the bill as intruding upon a sacred relationship, and celebrated its withdrawal.

“The idea of having the government police the details of a Catholic sacrament is draconian,” Catholic League president Bill Donohue said in a statement.

Some, including Catholic theologian Rich Raho, who works at Chicago’s oldest all-boys Catholic high school, had a different take.

“Make no mistake, while CA #SB360 has been pulled from consideration and many consider this move a win, opponents of the Bill and abuse survivors argue that the Sacrament of Confession is being used to cover up abuse,” Raho, campus minister and religious studies instructor at Saint Patrick High, tweeted July 8.

In March, the roman Catholic diocese of sacramento released its long-awaited list naming more than 60 priests and deacons credibly accused of sexual abuse. (Raheem F. Hosseini)

saC’s MeTh ‘Tax’ Two alleged gang members in Sacramento were recently indicted for trafficking methamphetamine in connection with an interstate drug ring. One also allegedly funneled money to organized crime inside the state prison system.

In June, a federal grand jury handed down indictments for 35-year-old Manuel Reyes and 35-year-old Elton Padilla. According to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Russell Custer, Armando Garcia—known on the streets as “Thien Quach”—used Reyes and Padilla to move sizable quantities of meth from los angeles to sacramento.

“Reyes is cousins with Garcia,” Custer wrote in court filings.

“Reyes is a suspected Howe Park Sureno gang member and Mexican Mafia associate.”

The agent added that Padilla is also believed to be a Howe Park gangster.

Custer indicated Reyes and Padilla were charging a $100 “tax” for the Mexican Mafia on every $400 worth of meth they sold around the capital city.

Around the same time, in the fall of 2018, Reyes and Padilla’s alleged associate Erick Stephen Perez was arrested for allegedly transporting narcotics through Glen County while carrying a stolen 9-millimeter Glock. The 32-year-old Perez now faces felony gun charges.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently told SN&R that, in 2018, it experienced a 500-pound jump in methamphetamine seizures in Northern California from the previous year.

While meth trafficking is up regionally, federal gun charges like the ones just leveled at Perez’s are at a national five-year high. That information was released in a new study by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Clearinghouse. (Scott Thomas Anderson)

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State Fair thoroughbred racing returns to Cal Expo on July 12. Cal Expo is considered one of the safest tracks in the state. aPhoto by William Vassar/Vassar PhotograPhy

Death on the track Thoroughbred racing returns to State Fair after a spate of fatalities

by Debbie Arrington

California horse racing has a lot riding on what happens this summer in the Sacramento region.

Thoroughbreds return to the State Fair on Friday, July 12, for 11 racing days.

Meanwhile, experts at UC Davis will try to unravel the cause of deaths of 30 thoroughbreds since Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park in Southern California, as well as help determine what can be done to stop future catastrophic injuries.

Responding to public outcry over the fatalities at Santa Anita, California’s most prominent track, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing the California Horse Racing Board to immediately suspend racing at any licensed track. The Sacramento-based board already has the nation’s toughest 12

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regulations on medicating horses and enacted more restrictions.

Effective July 1, out-of-competition drug testing was greatly expanded with the racing board vowing to prosecute violators. The Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at UC Davis already tests more than 40,000 samples from race horses annually, looking for more than 1,800 substances.

Despite the controversy at Santa Anita, “the irony is, we’ll end the fiscal year [June 30] with the second lowest number of fatalities we’ve had since 1990 when we started our necropsy program,” said Rick Arthur, the state’s equine medical director and a member of UC Davis’ veterinary school. “That’s within 10% of last year, which was the lowest we had since 1990.”

major injuries. But three fatalities in Cal Expo may serve as an example June brought the total to 30. of what can go right on track. During Four of the horses that died the annual State Fair meet, the 1-mile were trained by Hall of Famer Sacramento oval hasn’t had a fatal Jerry Hollendorfer, who has about breakdown in racing or training in two 120 horses in his care. In June, the years.

Stronach Group, which owns Santa “I’d put my tracks up against anyone Anita and Golden Gate Fields in in the U.S.,” said Larry Swartzlander, Albany, banished Hollendorfer and executive director of California kicked out his horses from both tracks.

Authority of Racing Fairs, which overWith more than 7,000 career victories sees the State Fair and other fair meets.

“Our No. 1 priority will always be safety and nearly $200 million in earnings, Hollendorfer is Northern and track condition.”

California’s all-time Any time a horse dies winningest trainer. for any reason at any Hollendorfer has California race track reserved 40 stalls at or training facility, “Our No. 1 priority will Cal Expo for the its remains are always be safety and State Fair meet. brought to UC “The CHRB has track condition.”

Davis for examinano action against tion. Last year, Larry Swartzlander, Jerry,” Arthur Santa Anita averexecutive director, California said. “That was aged 2.04 deaths Authority of Racing Fairs entirely a decision per 1,000 racing

by Santa Anita.” starts; the national Swartzlander average was 1.68. credited Cal Expo’s safety The spike in fatal injurecord to track superintendent ries at Santa Anita spotlighted Steve Wood, who has manicured racing what can go wrong in horse racing. A surfaces from Australia to Dubai. wet winter with 16 inches of rain at the “The key to a good racetrack is Arcadia track created havoc with track the drainage system and the base,” maintenance.

Swartzlander said. “If there’s damage “It certainly appears associated with to either one, it’s like running over wet weather,” Arthur said, noting that 19 potholes.” of the first 22 deaths at Santa Anita were Besides the lives of horses, a lot related to ankle fractures. of jobs are at stake. According to the “About 85 to 90% of fatalities can be American Horse Council, American traced to a pre-existing condition,” he racing is a $36.6 billion business, added. “It’s not just one bad step.”

Before races, every horse is examined employing more than 472,000 people and about 3 million horses. Americans by a fitness veterinarian, the state wager about $13 billion a year on veterinarian and a safety steward on site. thoroughbred, quarter horse and harness Use of X-rays and PET scans can reveal racing. those issues before fatal injuries occur.

California is a big player in the ‘A silver lining’ sport, ranking behind only Kentucky and Florida. In 2018, 3,874 races in “I actually see a silver lining in California were worth a total of more this,” Arthur added. “It’s certainly than $136.8 million, according to The galvanized attention to safety. … The Jockey Club. tragedy at Santa Anita really presented Despite the tragic Santa Anita winterus with an opportunity to get some things done that we hadn’t been able to spring meet, California horsemen are looking ahead to a good summer. do previously.”

“Morale is very good, very upbeat,” After suspending racing for three Swartzlander said. “Most horsemen weeks in March, Santa Anita had an figure there’s not much they can do extremely safe streak in April and about it. They’ll follow the rules. The early May; more than 7,000 timed racing industry has to take responsibility workouts and about 800 starts with no for what it does.” Ω

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In the shadow of tyrants As tensions escalate between an incoherent Trump White House and a confrontational Islamic Republic, an Iranian-American writer considers the revolutions that shaped his destiny

by Raheem F. hosseini raheemh@newsreview.com

D

awdling along a loping sidewalk on the Asian side of Istanbul—the literal dividing line between East and West—Pesar obsesses about name brands.

• Iran’s second and current Supreme Leader Ali Khameni and America’s 45th president, Donald Trump, are locked in a political conflict that could lead to real bombs and blood.

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“Are they important in America?” he asks, before sharing that they’re a big freaking deal in his native city of Tehran, where 10% of Iran’s 83 million people reside.

I’m not sure what to say, mostly because this is a new responsibility, speaking for an entire country. A semi-big deal, I guess? I don’t know, I tell him, I feel like there’s a fine line between buying something you like and looking like a NASCAR driver.

But yeah, some people get off flashing labels as a shorthand for status or depth. In America, I tell him, we call these people tools.

Tall and reedy with round, owlish eyes and a nose that swerves as if from a calligrapher’s pen, Pesar ignores the glances of female passersby and takes this in. Most of his questions about America seem like tangential curve balls, but they all hit a strike zone for my cousin: Ultimately, he’s trying to gauge the cultural distance between an aspiring expatriate like himself and the America that has millions of young Iranians drunk on its myth.

To Persians seeking asylum, escape or merely economic

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opportunity, the American brand still mattered.

But that was four long years ago, before Donald Trump hollowed out this country like it was a struggling hotel chain desperate for his naming rights—before he jealously scrapped Barack Obama’s denuclearization pact with Iran, renewed crippling economic sanctions and instituted a travel ban that dammed the outbound tide of educated Iranians emigrating to America—as my father did 50 years ago.

Pesar won’t join his uncle. (“Pesar” is a derivation of the Farsi word for “cousin.” Because of the Iranian mullahs’ hypersensitivity to anything resembling criticism, I’m not identifying him.)

Despite reelecting a moderate president who has inspired more women to doff the mandated head coverings while outdoors, Iran remains choked by a handful of fanatical mongers and brims with young people yearning to escape its dead-end economy.

Pesar attended grad school in Turkey in the hopes of becoming more appealing to U.S. immigration officials. In March 2015, standing at the threshold between eastern and western civilizations, I told my cousin, “You’re a man without a country.” He nodded reluctantly. Today, he’s stuck in Iran as our two nations stand on the brink of an unnecessary, reckless and purely ego-driven war.

Maybe you’ve heard the drumbeat: sabotaged oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and a downed U.S. drone, an airstrike called off by Trump at the last minute and a check-raise by Iran’s

leaders to boost uranium production.

No one is backing down, no one is making sense.

So far, this narrative has been driven by bellicose governments—our temperamental commander-in-chief and Iran’s supremely grumpy supreme leader. While they posture and prevaricate, everyday Iranians do what they’ve always done—navigate the whims of false idols.

Their country almost charted a much different course, one that could have seen Iran become a secular republic instead of the world’s first Islamic state. Instead, the geopolitical gods intervened and forever bent the fates of the Iranian people, including the Hosseinis.

Battered nation syndrome My dad immigrated to the United States on a student visa in 1969, a full decade before a popular uprising toppled centuries of monarchic rule.

If you know anything about Iranian history, you probably have this vague notion that the 1979 revolution came down to a two-sided beef between the pro-West shah and the anti-West Ayatollah Khomeini. But that’s as two-dimensional as it sounds. And in Iran—a country roiled by internal ethnic and religious differences, paradoxical motivations and external meddling—everything has always been more complicated.

Until the late 19th century, in fact, half of Iran’s people still lived like nomads and even more couldn’t speak the native tongue, said Serpil

Atamaz-Topcu, a Sacramento State University history professor specializing in this era of the Middle East.

“It was very difficult to control all of Iran,” Atamaz-Topcu said. “There was no real unity.”

The Qajar Empire didn’t necessarily create any, either. Lacking a strong military, the Qajars allowed Iran to fall under the shadow of the competing British and Russian empires around the time of the Industrial Revolution.

To stay in power, Iran’s rulers allowed the two countries to veto deals between Iran and outside parties.

But political reformers wanted their country to pursue the technological advances and constitutional changes they saw taking hold in Europe. Shia religious leaders, whose role was compartmentalized by the Qajars, wanted to expand their own power over the state.

Conservative clerics and liberal reformers agreed on one thing, however: The empire had ceded too much to imperialist interests. At the turn of the 20th century, their uneasy alliance sparked a constitutional revolution that was half-successful: While they forced out the Qajar shah, the reformers, at least, fell short of creating a secular political government by and for the Iranian people.

Instead, they succeeded in replacing one monarch with another: An uneducated soldier who crossed the Caspian Sea and claimed the capital before it slipped into the hands of the Russian Bolsheviks, who were carving up much of the Persian mainland in a proxy war with the Brits.

The British-backed forces of Reza Khan seized Tehran in 1921 and negotiated the Bolshevik release of the country’s northern territories. Iran became a nation state after World War I, but under one-man rule with only a symbolic parliament.

Reza Shah Pahlavi was a study in paradoxes. Like his friend and contemporary Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who transitioned the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey, he was an ex-soldier with nationalist and secularist ideas.

Unlike Atatürk, Reza Shah didn’t fancy sharing power. He crushed popular uprisings while instituting some of the very reforms—creating secular judicial and modern educational systems—his liberal critics wanted.

overtures to the Third Reich, which the Allies didn’t like.

To secure the continuation of the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Shah left his country in 1941, provided his 19-year-old son inherited his throne.

Mohammad Reza Shah proved more pliable to foreign interests.

Iran became a critical supply route in World War II. The British transported munitions and other supplies to the Russians using Iran’s railroads and highways. The outsiders confiscated Iranians’ property if needed. Clashes flared on the borders.

The Swiss-educated, battleuntested Mohammad Reza Shah faced domestic challenges from the outset.

His people saw him as weak and unworthy. They may not have liked the father, but they feared him.

• Reza Shah Pahlavi, right, with U.S. President Harry Truman in Washington D.C., November 1949.

Photo via NatioNal archives aNd records admiNistratioN

That strong-arm style kept the shah in power until World War II, when he came into conflict with the British and the Russians, now uncomfortable allies against the creeping threat of Hitler.

Reza Shah was making diplomatic

“That’s when the parliament, for the first time, takes over actually,” Atamaz-Topcu said.

The shah saw his power wane as a new prime minister asserted his independence from both the monarch and

his foreign allies. England, Russia and the United States all had established footholds in the Middle East country by then, but there was an unmistakable momentum, Atamaz-Topcu said. It was interrupted.

“That could have changed things for Iran in the long run if that actually continued,” she said. This could have transitioned into a more parliamentary democracy-style of administration. But unfortunately, especially with the U.S. involvement, this was not possible.”

Diverting Democracy It was the early 1950s, and in the southern farming village of Rafsanjan, the Hosseinis caught their first glimpse of American ingenuity.

Hamid bounced on the back of his father’s motorbike as it nettled through the ragged countryside to a shanty abutting a wide, plowed field.

It had been a long, jostling ride for a boy his age.

Ali Akbar’s second-born enjoyed these overnight tours of his father’s lands. They would make camp in a shack and wake early to plant pistachio seeds alongside the hardhanded grownups. Sometimes Baba even let him hold the money before he portioned it out. It all felt so magnificently consequential.

The workers were the ones to point out the strange chalk markings on the rocks. No one knew what they signified, but some days earlier they had heard—and then saw—what looked like a giant, metal horse fly circling above. They’d never seen a helicopter. Nor did they know that American mining interests discovered valuable copper secreted in the earth.

Too valuable for Ali Akbar to keep.

No law insulated a subject from his king’s desires.

Weeks later, Hamid tottered after his father into town, past the glinting bronze statue of their dour-faced ruler. The late morning sun daubed the square in a gauzy brown gold. Up ahead, a scrum of villagers celebrated or argued, Hamid couldn’t tell which.

His eyes followed their gesturing hands. Suspended from the second floor of a storefront, he saw a donkey.

No, not a real donkey, Hamid realized.

Fake, like a large puppet.

Hamid would learn the term for it when he was much older: “effigy.”

The men of the village called it by another name: “shah.” After what happened next, they would pretend

• Russian and British soldiers rendezvous near Qazvin, Iran in 1941.

Photo via wikiPedia, Public domaiN russia

they never said such a thing.

Nearly 900 kilometers northwest, in the capital of Tehran, CIA-backed fighters were recapturing a country that was shifting away from centuries of dynastic rule.

Mohammad Reza Shah had left Iran. The government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq had sidelined the monarch with democratic reforms. Mossadeq successfully nationalized the country’s oil industry, which the British had been able to exploit due to its support of the shah.

Finally, Iran had the governance and resources to control its own fate.

Britain didn’t let that happen.

Its leaders fumed at losing its sweetheart stake in Persian petroleum, organizing a worldwide embargo and freezing Iranian assets. When that didn’t work, they pitched their U.S. allies on a covert operation to reinstall the shah. President Harry Truman balked, but he was a lame duck.

London refined its case to the new administration: Mossadeq was soft on communism. A democratic Iran would turn red in the brewing Cold War. President Dwight D. Eisenhower greenlit Operation Ajax. Together, the Western powers concocted a secret plan to replace Iran’s prime minister with a puppet general, and set the embattled shah back upon his throne.

The coup de’tat lasted only three days in August 1953, but reverberates even now, as the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran goad each other into an armed conflict.

“Without the American support … the shah really couldn’t survive that long politically,” Atamaz-Topcu explained. “So basically it was the

“ War is not a distant memory in this country.”

AssAl RA d research fellow, NatioNal iraNiaN americaN couNcil

In the shadow of tyrants coNtiNued oN page 16

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Americans who put the shah into this really strong position and allowed him to be an authoritarian ruler similar to his father.”

If it didn’t happen—if the CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service didn’t prop up a fading ruler who devolved into brutal paranoia—Iran might resemble Britain today, with a mostly symbolic monarchy and agenda-setting parliament, Atamaz-Topcu posited.

But history unfolded the way it did. Hundreds were imprisoned, tortured, executed. Mossadeq spent the rest of his days confined to his home. And a boy who was not yet my father looked to his next adventure.

In the shadow of tyrants continued from page 15

Bastard of the revolution Hamid read his wife’s letter again hoping to reverse its portents. It was the summer of 1979 and the 32-year-old California transplant was stuck in powder-keg Tehran.

Ruhollah Khomeini was coming, the people said, and the grim-faced cleric with the populist message wanted everyone on the rooftops shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

Hamid joined his sisters and tried to summon the words from the night sky.

“I couldn’t speak,” he recalled recently. “Nothing comes out of me because it isn’t real.”

All my father wanted to do was ask his pregnant wife what happened.

Hamid moved to America in 1969.

Despite all those nights of sequestered studying for the cutthroat entrance exams, he fell short of being admitted to Iran’s prestigious universities. After the army, Hamid asked a friend what they would do. Go to America, the friend replied.

The 22-year-old and three mates landed in San Francisco. They adapted quickly to the counterculture lifestyle; the language came with more effort.

Hamid’s student visa obliged him to an enrollment-hungry college in North Carolina, but a friend found a way for them to all stay in Northern California.

They enrolled in Cosumnes River College and eventually transferred to Sacramento State.

Hamid had gone home before—to bury his older brother and then his father. He went back this time for a happier reason: In 1977, he married my mother, a German woman with permanent residency in the United States. To fall under her green card status, my dad was required to apply through any U.S. embassy outside the United States. Even then, immigration law was convoluted.

Hamid chose the one in Tehran, where his family had moved. His plane touched down in a roiling landscape.

In the years since the United States helped him reclaim power, Mohammad Reza Shah had evolved into the sort of West-courting authoritarian that made his father such a perplexing figure. The shah’s western supporters saw glitzy nightclubs and casinos, Persian women wearing glam fashions and even a red-light district with sanctioned prostitution.

The vast majority of Iranian people experienced a different reality.

Thousands were imprisoned and tortured because of their political views. The shah’s secret police, SAVAK, was rumored to have dumped hundreds of dissidents from a plane into the ocean and to regularly bribe people to spy on their families.

My father’s cousin once disappeared for weeks because, it’s believed, he was standing near a group of politically active university students. Hamid remembers his mother admonishing loose talk inside the house with these words: “Don’t. The wall has ears.”

Atamaz-Topcu underlined the disconnect between the cosmetic changes the outside world saw and the substantive reforms the shah denied his people.

“The revolution devours its children.” o l d F re n ch adag e

• Family photos from Tehran in 1979 captured history as it unfolded, with ordinary Iranians—including women in modern dress—marching in defiance of the shah.

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“He was a big fan of western lifestyle. But the western ideals that would have made the biggest change in Iran—the political ideals—he didn’t try them at all,” she said.

I can’t but help note the echoes to America today: A leader who accepts help from foreign governments, who lives extravagantly and derides democratic ideals. Where have we heard that recently?

“It was almost like here,” my dad said. “The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.”

That discontent created fertile ground for the 1979 revolution.

While Khomeini, an exiled preacher whose sermons circulated throughout Iran via underground recordings, was the spiritual leader of the revolution, he wasn’t its only member. Nor was it a given that he would preside over what followed.

“The whole revolution, it wasn’t just Muslims,” said Ali Hosseini, my uncle. “It was lefties, communists, it was everything. … There were so many groups that came together.”

But that’s the thing about revolutions. You have to be exceptionally lucky to stick the landing. As I write this on our nation’s birthday, I’m reminded the American Revolution ended with a reluctant leader more interested in establishing an enduring system than his own legacy. America

got General George Washington. Iran got Ayatollah Khomeini.

Once he arrived, barreling through the packed streets of Tehran in a victory caravan my father witnessed, Khomeini began asserting his will. He spent the next few years eliminating rivals and allies alike to consolidate his power. Just as the shah removed the hijabs, Khomeini saddled them back on. He was a mirror image of the man he replaced: Secular shah or fundamentalist cleric, they both acted without the consent of the governed.

Iran’s famed universities closed for three years, until they could be cleansed of their “imperialist” curricula and consecrated in the new regime’s version of Islam. Ali watched gunfights at Tehran Polytechnic—now called Amirkabir University of Technology—from his high school window. His wife walked to her newly gender-segregated classroom shielding her eyes from the posters of maimed or killed soldiers on her school walls.

She was 7.

Life to them felt unrecognizable.

As for my dad, he finally made it back to California after nine long months. After my mom died in 2016, he found the letters they wrote each other during their involuntary separation. They’re filled with the plaintive, sweet and sad longing of two people who don’t know how their story ends.

What was it the author Philip Roth wrote? “Turned wrong way round, the relentless unforeseen was what we schoolchildren studied as ‘History,’ harmless history, where everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable. The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.”

The terror of the unforeseen is what these letters dredge up— exchanged by two people who were younger then than I am now.

For my dad, they jogged memories of a wife who tried to meet him in Iran, but was stranded in Germany when the Tehran airport shut down; of the car he sold for her airfare and their rent; of the cruel way that distance, time and hardship erode a couple’s resolve and dim their shared memory, until soul mates almost become strangers.

Somewhere in there they lost a baby.

On the rooftop in Tehran, my dad was unable to fete a god he

• One of the mullah’s sons owns the mall in Tehran, which includes a library patterned after Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Most people cannot afford to shop there. Right, the view of Tehran from Azadi Tower, which translates to “Freedom Tower” and used to bear the shah’s name until he was overthrown.

Photos by Jasmin shoemaker

didn’t believe in. Once he got home—to his real home—Hamid and Lissy rebuilt what the revolution sundered. Nine months later they had a child. My dad ran through a list of names until my mom stopped him. She liked that one. She liked what it meant.

And that’s how I came to be called Raheem.

Iran so far away It’s a weird feeling owing your existence to a personal tragedy and a historical revolution. That’s a cosmic debt I don’t think I’ll ever comprehend.

Maybe that’s why I’ve always felt ambivalent about visiting my father’s homeland. (That, and the fact that under Iran’s conscription law, I owe two years of military service to a country I’ve never seen.) Until now, I’ve only known Iran through the people who left it.

I asked a childhood friend who recently returned from a 10-day visit to Tehran in May what it was like. Jasmin Shoemaker grew up in a house a couple blocks from mine with two Iranian parents. Jasmin said making her first visit to Iran in her 30s was like realizing Atlantis was real. “It was cool to see so many people speaking Farsi and looking like me,” she said. “It was starting to feel like a make-believe place.”

Jasmin and her mother went during Ramadan, and it grated to have to drape themselves in modest coverings

and closed-toe shoes in the stifling heat—especially when men around her wore T-shirts.

But the thing that stuck out to her maybe the most was how worn down the people were by the sanctions.

Iranians, who are known for generous overtures, were instead haggling over money. Jasmin spent $90 on a hand-carved cane for her husband. The exchange rate: 4 million tumans.

“I felt really awkward and uncomfortable to be dropping that kind of cash when people don’t know where their groceries are coming from,” she said. “I feel like there’s a tension there right now. … How much pressure can people take?”

Consider the Iranian predicament: 46% of the country is between the ages of 25 and 54, and the median age is 28. A staggering 69% of the population lives in packed urban centers.

Meanwhile, a small cabal of aging and ultra-conservative mullahs death-grip power like they’re already frozen into rigor mortis.

Heap onto that a teetering pension system and the threat of hyperinflation, is it any wonder so many young people yearn to leave?

In 2009, the International Monetary Fund ranked Iran first out of 91 developed nations in the number of educated citizens emigrating outside the country. More recently, in 2014, Iran’s minister of science, research and technology estimated the county’s brain drain amounted to 150,000 expats each year.

“Iran is not the same Iran,”

Atamaz-Topcu noted. “These people, they did not live under the shah’s rule.

They did not live under the first years of the revolution and they have different expectations. First and foremost, they want freedom.”

They can’t seem to get it.

It’s been 10 years since the Green Revolution, when mostly young Iranians took to the streets to contest a stolen presidential election. They were put down without mercy or reservation, by religious hypocrites who learned too well how to bolt the doors behind them. My aunt’s cousin learned this on the damp floor of a jail cell, begging a guard to stop kicking him. The student summoned the name of the prophet Muhammad’s daughter.

The jailer cursed and rammed a boot into his captive’s head. A week after he disappeared without warning, my aunt’s cousin returned home shaken, whispering that the mullahs import their torturers.

There are reports that elements within the Trump administration— namely National Security Adviser John Bolton—want to squeeze Iran so hard that the people rebel against the regime.

“They want there to be so much pressure … that they’re hoping people will fight their government,” said Assal Rad, a research fellow at the National Iranian American Council.

Both Rad and Atamaz-Topcu see parallels to America’s misguided—perhaps fraudulent—invasion of Iraq, which bequeathed countless deaths and

disfigurements, as well as a quagmire that siphoned this nation’s prestige and economic future.

“War is not a distant memory in this country,” added Rad, an Iranian-American who last visited the country in 2015. “It defined a generation—and it defined a landscape. If you step [foot] in Iran, you’ll know there was a war here.”

And there’s little appetite for a new one, whether it’s with the mullahs or United States. In a nation that stretches across a million miles of rugged, mountainous land between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, still wounded by its own revolutionary history, scarred by foreign intrusion and strangled by gangster-like regimes, Trump’s incoherent strategy is only building popular support for Iran’s hard-liners, Rad said.

Think of it this way, my aunt said: “You would rather deal with a bad dad than a stranger who abuses you, because at least he’s your dad.”

Congratulations, President Trump, you’ve made the ayatollahs look sympathetic by comparison.

My uncle reminded me there’s a saying that the revolution devours its children. He was referring to Iran. But I think it could yet apply here, too.

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X-21 and VHS

PA RK How nt Sacramento weage from a blank papter to writing a ching of skateboard history 18 | SN&R | 07.11.19

W

hen it started in the 1950s, skateboarding was called “sidewalk surfing,” used by surfers to maintain muscle-memory when the waves calmed.

It was popularized in the ’70s and ’80s, a technically intoxicating action sport that attracted rebels and outcasts.

Skateboarding has hit the big time. It will be featured in the Olympics for the first time, in 2020 in Tokyo. It is a $5 billion industry worldwide. It’s everywhere, in video games such as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and movies including 2018’s Skate Kitchen—and in Sacramento’s backyards and streets.

Sac has been a blip on the skateboarding scene compared to Santa Cruz and the sport’s birthplace, Los Angeles. But the city has its share of heavy-hitters: Girl

Skateboards pro Brandon Biebel is known worldwide; Omar Salazar has his own shoe with Nike’s skateboarding division; and Henry Sanchez made waves with his Blind Skateboards video “Tim and Henry’s Pack of Lies” in 1992.

Sacramentans even helped invent classic tricks. The “no comply,” aka the step-hop—where skateboarders jump with the board using one foot to clear gaps and obstacles—was popularized by Sacramento legends Randy Smith and Ray Barbee.

“We weren’t just lightweight skaters,” said John Cardiel, a local pro who snagged Thrasher magazine’s coveted Skater of the Year award in 1992.

SN&R caught up with a few longtime skate rats to revisit Sacramento’s rise in skateboarding.

Downtown Sacramento in the ’90s was quiet.

A ghost town after work, skaters flocked to unmarked curbs and ledges, forging memories on Sutter Middle School’s smooth and shaded pavement on I Street and the Cesar Chavez Plaza grounds on J. “Sidewalks everywhere, ledges, handrails everywhere,” Cardiel said.

Alongside skaters were police officers, particularly Gary McLaughlin, who local pro Mike Rafter said “definitely, probably, confiscated more skateboards than any other cop I could even imagine anywhere.”

Skaters often take refuge at skate shops, re-upping on boards and wheels, editing photos and videos and watching clips by companies such as 411 Video Magazine. Kids purchase their first board and interact with other skaters, including local pros.

Sacramento, however, didn’t have many shops in the ’90s, with Mountain & Surf Pro Shop on K Street being the biggest. People did not steal from it “because the employees were cool,” Rafter said.

Before it became a skateshop, X-21—at 21st and X streets—was a used clothing and furniture thrift store that sold skateboards at half-price. The shop, which eventually closed, had expanded its skateboarding inventory and shrunk the rest, becoming Sacramento’s homegrown skate shop run by a then-17-year-old Rafter, who later rode for Creature Skateboards and Santa Cruz Skateboards, both based in Santa Cruz.

In 1993, he got sponsored by Chapter 7 Skateboards in San Diego. Rafter traveled abroad and regularly toured other states, shooting photos and filming videos for Thrasher magazine. He worked alongside the late Jake Phelps (1962-2019) on features and the competitive skateboard scavenger hunt “King of the Road.”

Back at the shop, Rafter and his longtime friend Domingo Vasquez videotaped everything they could and released a few shoots, including a 30-minute video featuring other locals such as Aric Hondel and Matt Rodriguez.

The series of VHS tapes, one of which is titled “X-21 VIDEO 3,” kick-started careers.

Skaters jumped huge gaps, strung together successful tricks and slammed hard. Joe Sierro (who went on to ride for Think Skateboards), Mako Urabe (People Skateboards), Aric Hondel (who helped Rafter create Flatspot skateshop on 21st Street, a successor to X-21),

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Matt Rodriguez (Chapter 7), Rafter and others became staples.

“All the skaters from the ’90s ended up in [those videos], and then they were all pro skaters,” Rafter said.

He bounced between filming and skating and eventually landed a job as a photographer and videographer at Thrasher.

Rodriguez also filmed videos in Sacramento.

Like Rafter, Rodriguez grew up around downtown. Before riding for Stereo Skateboards (founded by My Name Is Earl actor Jason Lee) in 1992, Rodriguez’s first sponsor was Blockhead Skateboards in Roseville. That sponsorship led to Chapter 7, then to Mountain & Surf, then Stereo, where most of his “1996 Tincan Folklore” video was filmed in Sacramento, including

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along Capitol Mall and Sacramento City College. “[My friends and I] used to skate Memorial Auditorium, then we’d go to the Twin Towers,” Rodriguez said. “It used to have the big pyramid in the middle. That, Cesar Chavez Plaza and Memorial [Auditorium] was our stomping grounds.”

“We brought ramps there, flat bars, and we even did some concrete. We basically forced the city to get behind it. all the skaters around at the time all came together and helped out.”

Matt Rodriguez Sacramento skateboarder

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Unmarked ledges While Rafter’s X-21 established a hub for Sacramento skaters to create videos, Rodriguez helped create a haven were they could congregate: 1814 19th Street, now a Safeway.

Rodriguez recalled Sacramento not having a single skate park in the ’90s; the closest was in Benicia, 52 miles southwest.

“Eventually, we just got fed up,” Rodriguez said. “We had a little renegade, public domain park at 19th and R. … We brought ramps there, flat bars, and we even did some concrete. We basically forced the city to get behind it.

All the skaters around at the time all came together and helped out.”

Through the efforts of Rodriguez and Rafter, Sacramento got its first real skatepark: 28th and B Street Skate Park, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2020.

All three pros miss the old times.

“I feel like the skateboard energy in the greater Sacramento area is all contained in these skateparks,” Cardiel said. “I don’t see waxed curbs. I don’t see waxed ledges.”

The streets have also changed, Rafter said.

“The architecture has changed so significantly that there’s less things to skate [in downtown],” he said. “If you would’ve built that same stuff in the ’90s we would’ve been all over it because there was no security.”

But Sacramento is still breeding skaters of impeccable caliber, said Rodriguez, who teaches classes at 28th and B. He’s stoked about new local pros, including PLA Skateshop’s Bryan Whalen and Miles Silvas, and listed other amateurs, including Anthony Gonzales, David Failla, John Worthington and Sean Bluiett.

Rafter says he doesn’t skate much anymore, busy handling software for Apple.

After a spinal cord injury in 2004, Cardiel doesn’t skate much either, but often hustles through traffic on a fixed-gear bike.

Rodriguez still skates casually and professionally. “We been putting Sac on the map way before we had a basketball team, and skateboarding will continue to do that and it does,” Rodriguez said. “Worldwide, people think of California—Frisco, L.A. Better believe Sacto’s in there.” Ω

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Sign up for a Skate Camp at 28th and B St. Skate Park. Ages 5-18. Open to all skill levels. $120 per person. 10-1pm each day. Snacks provides. Classes are five days, Monday-Friday. July 15-19 and Aug. 15-19. To register, visit cityofsacramento.org/ParksandRec/Youth-Division/Youth-Sports-andSummer-Programs/28th-and-B-Skate-Park. 20 28th St., (916) 494-8724.

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Defined literally, “landscape” refers to a viewpoint of natural, often expansive scenery—think mountain ranges, beaches and rural valleys.

In a new exhibit opening July 14 at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis, the term encompasses much more.

Landscapes Without Boundaries: Selections from the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art Collection, uses paintings, drawings and sculpture to explore the concept of vistas. It largely maps post-World War II Northern California terrain and features works by Robert Arneson, Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Martin Ramirez and Wayne Thiebaud, among others.

Curator Dan Nadel says the concept surfaced after he was called upon to sort through the museum’s archives.

“So many of these artists who were from Northern California were doing something unexpected in the ’60s and ’70s,” Nadel explained during a recent phone interview from his Brooklyn home.

That unexpected element, he says, largely centered on the concept of landscapes.

“It was surprising because if you look through the collection of art being made in New York or Chicago at the time, that would not emerge,” he says. “They were painting what they were seeing and the way they were living and what their concerns were.”

The term “landscape” is broadly defined, he adds.

“There’s the internal psychological landscape and mapping of the mind, there’s turning the landscape into a surreal or fantastic place and there’s inventing landscapes to suit artistic needs,” he says.

Robert arneson’s “The Palace at 9 a.m.” depicts the late Uc Davis art professor’s childhood home in Davis.

The concept is represented in myriad styles, including surrealism, Native American, outsider and post-modern.

There’s Thiebaud’s oil on canvas pieces “Reservoir and Orchard” and “Brown River,” both of which present an aerial view of agricultural fields near Davis. Roy De Forest’s looming “Every Trapper Should Have an Indian Dog” dominates its space with bright and busy details. In contrast, Joan Brown’s “Buffalo in Golden State Park,” a graphite on paper illustration, is almost primitive in its simplicity.

The exhibit’s centerpiece is Robert Arneson’s 1974 glazed earthenware sculpture, “The Palace at 9 a.m.” The sprawling piece, presented to the viewer at a slightly tilted angle, is at once abstract and specific in its depiction of the late artist’s childhood home on Alice Street in Davis. The celebrated sculptor, who died in 1992, taught at UC Davis just shy of 30 years.

Nadel, who says he wanted the exhibit to touch on the suburban landscape, calls it the exhibit’s “ultimate object.”

“It’s a map of his mind and meditation on fatherhood and family, and a meditation on landscape art itself,” Nadel says.

Arneson’s widow, Sandra Shannonhouse, says “The Palace at 9 a.m.” offers an autobiographical view of his childhood living in the so-called “Alice house.”

“Bob did a lot of pieces about Alice Street,” she says. “He was involved in it emotionally and psychologically.”

The piece also serves as an unintentional link of sorts with ColorForm, an exhibit that runs concurrently at the museum and features sculptures and drawings by Kathy Butterly, one of Arneson’s last MFA students.

The two exhibits weren’t initially intended to show together, Nadel says, but their relationship is nonetheless tangible.

“Kathy is making extremely intimate and humanscaled, psychologically incisive works,” Nadel says of Butterly’s compact ceramic pieces.

“In this sense, the show is about the humane approach to the idea of landscape and what it can offer as an idea,” he says. Ω check out Landscapes Without Boundaries: selections from the Jan shrem and maria manetti shrem museum of art collection. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., tuesday-sunday, July 14-dec. 15. manetti shrem museum of art, 254 old davis road in davis. admission is free; manettishremmuseum. ucdavis.edu.

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was trying to reclaim the disparaging name—and in 2017, won their case.

But then Thunderpussy got a message back that the cases were different, so its appeal was grouped in with FUCT’s. It’s unclear when a final decision on Thunderpussy’s trademark will come through.

“I can’t imagine that they’ll come back with another excuse,” Petty says, “but they very well may, and we’ll just have to keep fighting.”

Thunderpussy and lightning aren’t so frightening.

Until then, rock ’n’ roll waits for no government’s approval. “I could be having the worst day ever and walk in front of a crowd—and all I want to do is entertain them,” Petty says.

Are you familiar with … “the equivalent of the The band tries to channel its favorite 1970s rockprofane past participle form of a well-known word ers: Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Queen and AC/DC. Not of profanity and perhaps the paradigmatic word of surprisingly, it draws a primarily male crowd. profanity in our language”?

“I did suspect there would be more of an older, That’s how U.S. Deputy Solicitor General middle-aged, male contingency that was going Malcolm Stewart referenced FUCT—a streetwear to flock toward this thing,” Petty says. “I brand that was previously denied a tradedon’t know if that’s because we’re mark—during April 15 arguments in women and men are attracted to front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I could be Seattle-based rock band us, or if it’s because we play having the worst Thunderpussy, set to play Holy such ballsy rock ’n’ roll, and day ever and walk in Diver in Sacramento on Saturday men generally love that.” night, watched the case attenAt the same time, front of a crowd—and all tively. But what does FUCT there are also young girls I want to do is entertain have to do with Thunderpussy? coming out to shows with them.”

Well, both of their their moms. That there’s an applications for the Patent and audience is immaterial to Whitney Petty Trademark Office were rejected on Petty.

Thunderpussy started as lead guitarist, Thunderpussy the grounds that they were “scandala passion project between her ous and immoral.” In June, however, and Sides. Their first show was the nation’s highest court ruled that the a set at The Pink Door in Seattle ban violates the First Amendment. in 2014—Petty improvised guitar licks The band’s legal fight began in 2015. “We got onstage while Sides crawled through the audience this flat-out denial letter, citing Urban Dictionary— singing. They released a self-titled debut in 2018, something about finger-banging,” Thunderpussy lead and have stayed true to the basics throughout.“I guitarist Whitney Petty says. “It was like, ‘What the just went into it wanting to make music with f--k are you talking about?’

Molly,” Petty says, “and if that meant jumping Benjamin Kerr, a lawyer and friend of the up and down on my bed in front of a mirror, group, helped Thunderpussy with its appeal. At that’d be fine with me.” Ω first, Petty, lead singer Molly Sides and bassist Leah Julius were told to wait until the outcome catch thunderpussy 7 p.m. saturday, july 20 at holy Diver. Black Pistol fire also of another rejected trademark case, one by Simon performs. tickets are $15. 1517 21st st. for tickets, visit holydiversac.com.

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thu 7:30pm, sat 7:30pm. through 8/3; $5-$25; sacramento city college Main auditorium 3835 freeport Blvd., (916) 558-2228, sacramentoshakespeare.net.

Sacramento Shakespeare Festival is interrupting a 32-year-old tradition of staging its summer repertoire outdoors. Because of planned renovations to the 100-year-old William Land Park amphitheater, this summer the festival is temporarily moving indoors to Sacramento City College’s Performing Arts Center.

This does make a change of atmosphere—no picnics on the grass, no stars above and no ducks quacking from the pond. But there’s still a festive feel at the new location with a food truck and picnic tables outside the auditorium, while inside are the blessed advantages of air conditioning, indoor bathrooms and seats with backs.

Shakespeare in Love opened last weekend, and the new location serves it well with a creative set reminiscent of London’s traditional two-story Globe Theatre stage.

Written by playwright Lee Hall, the story is adapted from the film of the same title, and is in many ways an improvement from the movie. The premise remains—a struggling, penniless playwright named Will Shakespeare tries to overcome writer’s block, pay off debts and break into a newly established theater world.

It’s basically plays within a play about plays. It’s a Shakespeare shaky about his craft. Not only is it fun to see how his work comes about, but also how his plots are affected by his own world.

This is a tightly directed play with strong, charming leads, period-perfect music and costumes; impressive sword fighting; and a scene-stealing dog.

No outdoor stars this year, but plenty of indoor, onstage stars. Ω

5 Next in line Four-time Tony award winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is currently running in repertory with The Tenth Muse at the Davis Shakespeare Festival. Under the direction of Gia Battista, Gentleman’s Guide is superb, from the ensemble to the music to the physical comedy.

Monty Navarro (Daniel Sugimoto) learned late in life that his mother was disinherited by her wealthy family for marrying beneath her status, and was forced to spend the rest of her days earning a meager living as a washer woman.

Monty is actually the ninth heir to the D’Ysquith (pronounced DIE-skwith) family. To avenge his mother, Monty decides to kill each of the other heirs, leaving himself as the Earl of Highhurst.

Kyle Stoner has the challenging role of playing all eight of the doomed D’Ysquiths. He creates unique, wacky characters, including the pompous Lord Adalbert to the dramatic Lady Salome.

Monty is not only a serial killer—he’s also juggling relationships with both his married ex-girlfriend and his current fiancée. The very funny “I’ve Decided to Marry You” was performed at the 2013 Tonys.

Kyra Kozlenko and Alyssa Giannetti are outstanding as Sibella, the oversexed mistress, and cousin Phoebe D’Ysquith, perhaps the only good person in the show.

This is a fast-paced, exuberant and truly funny musical, with a live nine-piece orchestra directed by Tom Abuzzo.

stage pick if life is a cabaret, then we should be just fine … right?

Fatherland and the band Forget your troubles for an evening and grab a seat at the infamous Kit Kat Klub, setting of the 1966 musical Cabaret and a backdrop for post-World War I Germany. The story centers on the relationship between dancer Sally Bowles and writer Cliff Bradshaw, while in the background the Nazi Party slowly gains power. Sierra Stages revives a story that, more than 50 years later, maintains its relevance with its acute examination of minority scapegoating, militaristic nationalism and the rise of fascism. Thu, 7/11, 7pm; Fri, 7/12, 8pm; Sat, 7/13, 8pm; Sun, 7/14, 2pm; Through 8/3; $25-$35; Sierra Stages at Nevada Theatre, 401 Broad St. in Nevada City; (530) 346-3210; sierrastages.org.

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a Gentleman’s Guide to love and Murder : fri 8pm, sat 2pm; through 8/4; $15-$30; Davis Veterans Memorial theater, 203 e 14th st. in Davis, (530) 802-0998, shakespearedavis.org.

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fair

GooD

Well-Done

suBliMe Don’t Miss

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Frik’n Vegan’s Philly cheesesteak sandwich (left) is 100% plant-based with a nacho cheese-like sauce.

Sweet Cheeks Fried Treats (right) figured out how to deep-fry orange Fanta topped with whipped cream.

Photos courtesy of frik’n vegan and sweet cheeks fried treats

Tastes of the fair Deep-fried Fanta, vegan Philly cheesesteaks and the return of a popular taco: Here’s SN&R’s guide to State Fair grub

by Steph RodRiguez ste p h r @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

Each summer, the California State Fair rolls into town illuminating the night sky in neon lights as the sweet and smoky aromas of funnel cakes and meats on-a-stick waft from the peak of the giant Ferris wheel down to the main stage. This year, organizers are putting more emphasis on fair eats by branding it the California State Fair & Food Festival.

From July 12 through July 28, fairgoers can purchase a food festival pass for $28, which comes with four vouchers that allows them to enjoy special menu items from more than 30 vendors scattered throughout Cal Expo. Items such as a vegan Philly cheesesteak sandwich, deepfried Fanta (yes, the soft drink!), loaded mac ’n’ cheese and large taco bowls stuffed with all the traditional fixings are just a taste of what to expect.

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“We have several new food vendors coming this year. The one I’m most excited about is Frik’n Vegan,” said Sabrina Washington, media director for Cal Expo and the State Fair. “However, longtime fairgoers will be happy to hear about the return of the original state fair tacos … There are people who have been coming for 30-plus years just for these tacos.”

Paz Negrette and his family have been selling their soft, rolled beef tacos to loyal customers since 1947. Located in the Mexican Village behind the rodeo, The Original State Fair Taco booth is run by Negrette’s daughter Nina Martinez and her husband Benny Martinez nowadays, but the family recipe has remained the same. Last year, Negrette wasn’t able to make

the trip to Sacramento from his home in Stockton, and customers definitely noticed.

“We had phones ringing off the hook,” Benny Martinez said. “People were very angry that we weren’t there because they’ve been eating tacos for four to five generations. They said it’s the only thing they come to the fair for.”

He remembers attending the Fresno County Fair when he was 4 with his dad, who worked as a maintenance employee. The Negrette family was there selling their popular tacos.

“We would drive around in a little golf cart and we’d stop and we would get some tacos. That’s my memory.

That’s what I love,” Martinez said. “If you’ve never had one, I guarantee you,

you’re never going to find one like it anywhere else.”

Although the festival pass doesn’t buy the taco as the special menu item, the Negrette family is preparing a crispy taco bowl filled with the same beef that’s rolled in their beloved tacos.

Beyond Mexican food, there are several bites that are the epitome of classic fair fare: Giant corn dogs, egg rolls on a stick, smoked turkey legs, a huge pile of curly French fries, funnel cakes and, of course, more deep-fried sweets.

Jacqueline Bradbury of Sweet Cheeks Fried Treats has been selling deep-fried Oreos, Pop-Tarts and other crispy confections for the past 10 years at the fair. For this year’s food festival, Bradbury came up with a new menu item: deep-fried Fanta.

“It always gives us a bit of a challenge to create stuff that’s unique and fun,” Bradbury said. “We do the liquid in the batter, it’s in a cup and it has powdered sugar with orange Fanta on top of it. You don’t drink it. You eat it.”

After stopping by various food booths and braving a few wild rides, all of those sweet treats and greasy bites can turn into real gut busters.

Blake Aguilar of Frik’n Vegan hopes to be the plant-based answer for fairgoers looking for healthier options. Located in B Building next to the main stage, Aguilar and his small team will dish out vegan Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.

When he went full vegan last November, Aguilar said he was on a mission to recreate his favorite comfort food without compromising taste.

So he spent months perfecting both the faux meat and cheese recipes before finding the precise texture and flavor he craved. The “meat” is made from a flour extract called vital wheat gluten and the sandwich is packed with traditional ingredients such as onions, bell peppers and a nacho cheese-style cheese sauce served on a fresh hoagie. Each Philly has 22 grams of protein, which Aguilar said beats out a regular cheesesteak.

“Back when I ate meat, you season everything … With that in mind, it’s really no surprise that the same flavors can be replicated in plant-based products,” Aguilar said. “I wasn’t going to do my previous favorite food a disservice ... I know it sounds silly, but it just showed me what could be done with plant-based foods in a home kitchen.” Ω hungry for your favorite state fair comforts? visit castatefair.org/food-festival-2019 to purchase tickets and learn more.

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This summer is somewhat different for zucchinis in the Sacramento area.

Courtney Smith is a farmer with the Loving Nature Farm in nearby Clarksburg, and a vendor at the bustling Sunday farmers market at 8th and W streets. She told SN&R that fans of the versatile vegetable should expect harvest season to be a little later than usual.

“Zucchinis will be late to come up this year because of the way the rains happened,” Smith said, referring to Sacramento’s recordsetting rainfall in May. “They’ll be harvested when we get more sun-mid-to-late June.”

Why be concerned with these green garden gourds we call zucchini? The USDA says that a medium-sized zucchini has just 33 calories and is a good source of calcium, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin and vitamin C. They’re also remarkably filling.

If you’re looking to make them even more filling, you could head to Willie’s Burgers on Broadway for its fried zucchini ($5.30). When your receipt number is shouted from

the pickup counter (“171!”) you’ll find a heap of steaming, goldenbrown battered zucchini slices with a generous helping of shredded Parmesan cheese, little chunks of garlic and garlic salt. A sampling yields an instant flavor explosion: The breading makes them taste like vegetarian State Fair corn dogs, though the batter is made with wheat flour. It comes out crunchy-chewy, and the zucchinis inside are moist like ripe peaches.

Over on Folsom Boulevard, Brandon Barlow, head of production at V Miller Meats, recommends zucchini skewers paired with sirloin steak grilled on the barbecue.

Barlow cuts the zucchini lengthwise and lathers them with a paste ground down with a mortar and pestle.

“Mint goes really well with the zucchini, and fresh herbs,” he said.

“You make it into a paste with olive oil and garlic.”

For the sirloin chunks, he recommends a spice rub.

If you’d rather leave the preparation to a chef, you could go to Mother on K Street, where co-owner

Ryan Donahue believes zucchini is “a good player in any dish.”

Mother’s Garden Ratatouille ($16) includes green zucchini, red onion, grilled tomato (for a bit of umami), red wine and a side of garlic bread.

And then there’s zucchini bread.

Just across the street from Mother at Ambrosia Café, you can get a giant slice of cinnamon zucchini bread, a wholesome Sunday brunch option that smells spicy like pumpkin pie.

It’s topped with an aromatic cinnamon frosting that assaults the palate fiercely, but the zucchini flecks in the bread have a way of equalizing its otherwise overpowering flavor.

A slice is just $2.50, and you can watch cars, pedestrians, bicycles and light rail trains jockey for position outside the tall street-side windows.

Something else interesting to try is the orange zucchini flower, or blossom. They can be battered and fried just like the zucchini slices at Willie’s and the bloom attached to the fruit looks something like an exploding party popper. Ω

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garden

place

is expanding!

The Place section is expanding starting in August! In addition to the garden column, look out for new content provided by N&R covering Real Estate, Design and more.

Down on the farm

by Debbie Arrington

Get your business noticed by real estate, desiGn and GardeninG-savvy readers! to advertise, call us at (916) 498-1234

Consult. Design. Construct.

Free on-site consultation and design services 10% OFF your landscape project *With coupon, one per household. Please present coupon at time of estimate. Expires 12-31-19. Call for details, restrictions apply.

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Photo by Debbie Arrington

OUTDOOr LIVING SPeCIALISTS

Plants grow on air (mixed with moisture and nutrients) in The Farm’s aeroponic tower gardens at the 2018 California State Fair.

How does a kiwi grow? What do hops look like on the vine? Can strawberries live on air?

Find the answers down on The Farm.

Tucked behind Building B at Cal Expo, The Farm is a lush, 3.5-acre oasis away from the midway and food booths. But more than any other exhibit at the State Fair, it demonstrates best where our food comes from.

As the California State Fair celebrates its 166th summer, one sliver has remained true to its agricultural roots: The Farm shows off the bounty of California.

The State Fair opens Friday, July 12, for a 17-day run. Unlike many other exhibits, The Farm is tended (and visited) year round. It’s a favorite destination for local school groups. Each year, it also produces about 10 tons of fresh vegetables and fruit for Sacramento area food banks. Most of the harvest will be picked after the fair closes July 28.

The appeal of The Farm is easy to understand.

In its compact demonstration gardens grow about 90 different California crops, including apples, artichokes, watermelons and zucchini. Wine grapes, grains, vegetables, dwarf fruit trees, herbs and more create a walk-through sampler of the state’s ag diversity.

First planted in 1984, The Farm started as an educational exhibit to teach city folks who had never seen a tomato on the vine about how food is grown.

The tomatoes still earn oohs and aahs, but now they

come in at least 12 varieties and in yellow, orange, green, purple and black as well as red.

Over the decades, more crops were added to the mix and became their own Farm landmarks.

For example, the gnarly and twisted kiwi vines have grown thick as tree trunks. Beneath their overhead trellis, their weird fuzzy fruit hangs down in clear view amid the thick (and welcome) shade.

In recent years, The Farm has morphed into a primer on drought tolerance and low-water gardening as well as sustainability. A display garden outlines step by step how to replace a lawn.

Good bugs buzz away in an insectary devoted to pollinators. Coming this season: Interactive ag exhibits that allow patrons to get the feel of farming (and selfies, too).

Want to grow your own beer? Check out the hops climbing up the arbors. Love salsa? See peppers, tomatoes and onions in abundance. And take home some recipes.

During the fair, more than 100 UC Cooperative Extension master gardeners staff The Farm’s question booth. Got a pest dilemma or a mystery plant?

They’re ready to tackle all sorts of garden issues.

Some of the most popular recent additions illustrate ways to grow more food in less space with fewer resources. Vertical gardens, the 6-foot aeroponic towers, use pressurized air to push water and fertilizer up a central column; that moisture steadily mists plant roots.

According to its developers, these towers can produce 30% more food with 90% less water in 90% less space—and no soil.

Yes, strawberries—and tomatoes—can live on air (if it’s mixed with moisture and nutrients). See for yourself at The Farm. Ω

event Details 166th California state Fair cal expo, 1600 exposition Blvd., July 12-28 admission: $14; seniors (age 62 and older), $12; youth (ages 5-12), $10; children age 4 and under admitted free. parking, $15.

Debbie Arrington, an award-winning garden writer and lifelong gardener, is co-creator of the Sacramento Digs gardening blog and website.

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for the week of july 11

by maxfield morris

POSt eVentS OnLIne FOR FRee at newsreview.com/sacramento

Music thursDay, 7/11 CLeMÓn: If you’re like Clemón, you probably want to celebrate his birthday. Join the Barbados-born musician for a birthday celebration along with opening support from Skyler’s Pool. 8pm, $12-$15. Harlow’s, 2708 J St.

HeatHeR eVanS: Local music enthusiasts rejoice—Heather Evans is performing with House of Mary and Hannah Jane Kile, two similarly local groups. 8pm, $10. Momo Sacramento, 2708 J St.

SHaWn MenDeS: Is Shawn Mendes dating

20

Leading Ladies

friDay, 7/12 BaCHeLOR PaRaDISe: An album is coming from Bachelor Paradise. Celebrate its release by hearing the band perform. 8pm, $7. Old Ironsides, 1901 10th St.

COnCeRtS In tHe PaRK: There’s another

Main Street theatre WorkS, 8pM, $12-$20 Some days you just need to take a ride and catch some theater near a former gold mine. If you’re feeling On Stage that urge, consider looking no further than the Main Street Theatre Works production of Leading Ladies. It’s the age-old story of two washed-up thespians in money trouble who end up conning an elderly rich woman by pretending to be

Photo courtesy of charr crail

t FRI/Sa H g tHROU

Can you truly blame some fellas for pretending to be the nieces of a wealthy dowager to exploit her financially?

Camila Cabello? Is their hand-holding in public strictly platonic? Are they building toward a budding, blossoming relationship?

Don’t expect to find an answer to that question at this concert featuring Mendes, the Canadian singer-songwriter. 7:30pm, $79-$537. Golden 1 Center, 500 David J Stern Walk.

her nieces. The Ken Ludwig-written, Allen Pontes-directed work contains, as you might have guessed, some cross-dressing and plenty of laughs. To boot, it takes place in the Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre and marks the 25th season of the production company putting on productions. Make a trip of it and join in the fun. 1127 North Main Street in Jackson, mstw.org/tickets.

Concert in the Park this week, this time featuring a band that has “Park” in its name. If you guessed the Arden Park Roots, you’re right. There’s also Harris Rudman, Weirdoze and Robbie. Angel is making art, there’s all the usual accoutrements of the evening, plus you can get a free bracelet if you’re 21 and older. 5pm, no cover. Cesar Chavez Plaza, 910 I St.

DeCOnStRUCt: You’ve been clamoring for their return incessantly since their departure about 10 years ago—join the band’s new lineup and hear their new album, Ashen Empire, for an evening of local music. 8:30pm, $12-$15. Harlow’s, 2708 J St.

D-LO: Catch D-Lo, Andrew Miller and Yung Tay

all in one convenient location. 7pm, $16. Holy Diver, 1517 21st St.

tICKet WInDOW MartiNa McBriDe Country pop’s

on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster. com.

still on the menu—don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, it’s always been on the menu—and Martina McBride’s doing the offering now at the California State Fair. Grab a reserved seat ticket soon. 7/28, 8pm, $25, on sale now. Golden 1 Stage at Cal Expo, etix.com.

iroN MaiDeN Does Dave Matthews not

with French Montana, Moneybagg Yo, Chevy Woods, DJ Drama and Amine. 8/11, 6pm, $18.75-$89.50, on sale now. Concord Pavilion, concerts1.livenation.com.

JoNas Brothers The

Wiz Khalifa Catch the rapper onstage DaVe MattheWs BaND They’re

liable to make a 10-course meal out of any song they may play, they’re on tour and they’re coming to a venue close to your apartment, Kelly. 9/7, 8pm, $47.31-$109.69,

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Get to the ticket store for a special deal on tickets.

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count as hard enough rock for you? Well, Iron Maiden’s a step in the right direction, two days later. They’re on their Legacy of the Beast tour and are playing with the Raven Age. 9/9, 7:30pm, $49.50-$129.50, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.

Brothers are back together, and they along with their team decided it would make financial sense for them to stop in Sacramento at the Golden 1 Center.

Don’t go breaking Help show

that the Jonas Brothers have a market here by purchasing a ticket. Bebe Rexha and Jordan McGraw also will play. 10/15, 7:30pm, $29.95-$199.95, on sale now. Golden 1 Center, ticketmaster.com.

FeeLIng MYSeLF: HBK Skipper is taking a firm grasp on the steering wheel of this evening.

There’s music, along with music from Miles Medina, Azure and DJ Glo. 7pm, $18. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.

RICK SPRIngFIeLD: Richard Marx also fits

the bill at this evening of Richards. 7pm, $39.95. Thunder Valley Casino, 1200 Athens Ave. in Lincoln.

RUtHIe FOSteR: Austin, Texas produced Ruthie Foster, and she produces sounds of a wide variety, from blues to jazz to gospel to R&B and beyond. Katie Knipp is also performing, and she’s in the blues crowd too. 7pm, $50. The Sofia, 2700 Capitol Ave.

VInCe VICaRI: He’s a pop icon from Sacramento, he was profiled by Goodwill Sacramento and he’s releasing an extended play record at this party. 7pm, $7. Goldfield Trading Post, 1630 J St.

tHe WaVe: Where else can you listen to the

up, Nick, Joe and Kevin.

Wave, the Philharmonik, Andru Defeye, Kare and MC Radioactive? Aside from at home

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.

on your music collection, this is your best bet. 8pm, $10. Sol Collective, 2574 21st St.

saturDay, 7/13 MUSIC MaKeRS MInI FeSt: Join Hacker Lab and some folks from Library of MusicLandria, along with some of the drinks from Burly Beverages. Have food, drinks, listen to music—all to benefit MusicLandria. 4pm, $10-$20 suggested donation. Hacker Lab, 2533 R St.

suNDay, 7/14 a tRIBe QUaRtet: Catch this quartet at the Midtown Vanguard Jazz Series at CLARA. The quartet is called A Tribe Quartet and will share some jazzy sounds. 6:30pm, $10$20. CLARA, 2420 N St.

CLaSSICaL COnCeRt: Concerts are for classical music, and this concert features classical music from Sophia Bacelar and Noreen Polera. There will be some hits from Samuel Barber’s Cello Sonata and George Gershwin’s “Summertime.” Show up and enjoy the sounds. 3pm, $20. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St.

CReatIOn DIStRICt aLBUM ReLeaSe PaRtY: Hobo Johnson and So Mu are performing at this album release party for the Creation District. Show up and get a dose of Hobo Johnson if you didn’t get enough at his recent Concert in the Park. 6pm, $15. Ace Of Spades, 1417 R St.

gOLDIe: It’s Goldie’s first show in the headline spot. Catch him performing along with King Cool Code. 7pm, $10-$25. Holy Diver, 1517 21st St.

MoNDay, 7/15 HORSe JUMPeR OF LOVe: The rock band is coming to Sacramento. They’re from Boston, they’re slow rockers and they’re a trio. If you see more than three people onstage, you might be at the wrong show. 7pm, $10-$13. Momo Sacramento, 2708 J St.

tuesDay, 7/16 aUgUSt BURnS ReD: For the past 16 years, the metalcore band has been creating shrieky rock assembled with a classical twist. Catch them on their 10 Years of Constellations tour. 6pm, sold out. Ace of Spades, 1417 R St.

festiVals friDay, 7/12 tHe CaLIFORnIa MeRMaID COnVentIOn: Hello!

Are you a mermaid or a person who has a fish tail instead of legs? Then this convention is the right place for you. You’ll head to this convention and learn all about the professional mermaid industry, get together for some swimming sessions and lectures.

It’ll be a whale of a time! Or a mer-whale of a time. 7pm, $47. Rusch Park Community Center, 7801 Auburn Blvd.

saturDay, 7/13 eLK FeSt SeRVICe FeStIVaL: Elk Fest is here for you, and it always will be. It’s a festival for

Thursday, 7/11

ArtMix: Combust CroCker Art MuseuM, 6pM, $20

While other folks spend time and money this August getting to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, you’ll be having the time of your life staying in Sacramento. Instead MuseuMs of burning, you’ll be ArtMixing it up at the Crocker in a Playathemed installment. There will be music from DJ Freddie Silva and DJ Hopkins, fire art and circus excitement. Plus, there’s a Playa Marketplace along with a Burner Fashion Show. Get your Burning Man fix early. 216 O Street, crockerart.org.

fun and excitement, but it’s also a great way to figure out what kind of service activity you intend to participate in. There’s a service fair and more to help you fulfill that goal. 11am, no cover. Morse Park, 5540 Bellaterra Drive.

suMMeR NIGHTs OF IMPACT: Join the Fruitridge Collaborative for some summer nights spent amongst the community. There’s going to be food, there’s going to be community, there will be activities and more. 5pm, no cover. Fruitridge Collaborative, 4625 44th St.

PhoTo CourTesy of Bry ulriCk

Kenobi, a talking robot and the rest. 7:30pm, $9.50-$12.25. Crest Theatre, 1013 K St.

saTurday, 7/13 GATHeR MOVIes AT THe FORT: Watch movies outside the walls of Sutter’s Fort. This extra-special installment of the gathering is a 1990s-themed evening. You’ll watch Jurassic Park and A League of Their Own if you can get through both of them. 5pm, no cover. Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park, 2701 L St.

THIs MIDTOWN BLOCK PARTY: Come out and join the party! It’s one of the only parties featuring the French producer Dombresky, Hollows, Oshiin, Nord and Czechmate. Come hang out and listen to music. 4:30pm, no cover. THIS, 1050 20th St.

suNday, 7/14 2019 sACRAMeNTO BAsTILLe DAY WAITeRs’ RACe: Waiters from local restaurants will go head to head and toe to toe as they race to bring water around the block two times without spilling it. These talented waiters will be trying their darnedest not to water the pavement, so come check out the festivities. 4pm, no cover. The Handle District, 1801 L St.

Tuesday, 7/16 TOuR OF sACRAMeNTO VALLeY sTATION: Ever been to a train station? Sure, you’ve been to ride a train, but have you ever been on a tour of one? Join in the fun in this tour of the revamped, restored and remodeled Sacramento Valley Station. 5:30pm, $10$20. Sacramento Valley Station, 401 I St.

food & driNk suNday, 7/14 FARMeR’s MARKeT: Join this farmer’s market to have some produce and support some local farmers and their fresh fruits and vegetables as well as other products. 8am, no cover. El Dorado Hills Town Center, 4364 Town Center Blvd Suite 310 in El Dorado Hills.

CoMedy FLAMINGO HOuse sOCIAL CLuB: Bobby’s World Comedy Show. Join Robert Omoto for this comedy show featuring Dauood Naimyar and headliner Anthony K. Thursday 7/11, 8pm. $10$20. 2315 K St.

PuNCH LINe: Joel Kim Booster. The L.A.-based comedian is coming to town for a series of shows that you’re personally invited to. Through 7/13. $20. Keith Lowell Jensen, Unclean Live Album Recording. Show up and start laughing with Keith Lowell Jensen at his live album recording. 8pm 7/14. $16. Sacramento Comedy Showcase. See various live comedic performances at this Sacramento showcase. Wednesday, 7/17 8pm. $12. 2100 Arden Way, Suite 225.

sTAB! COMeDY THeATeR: The Licorice Boys Take It To The Limit. Chris Emery, Jack Brown and Jesse Jones are going to improvise a comedy show for a long time. Two hours is the stated goal, so see what that could even possibly look like. Friday 7/12, 8pm. $7. Forbidden Knowledge Book III-Signals from the Voidstar. It’s time for Book III of the Forbidden Knowledge series, meaning Court Hansen and Charlie Norton are opening your unadulterated eyes to the horrors and truths of the universe, with special guests Sarah Kullbom, Michelle Petro and Parker Newman. saturday 7/13, 8pm. $7. 1710 Broadway.

oN sTaGe AuBuRN GARDeN THeATeR: Puppet Art

filM friday, 7/12 sTAR WARs A NeW HOPe: Relive the magic of the Star Wars franchise at the Crest Theatre.

Catch this first installment, then show up the next couple of days for the next couple of movies. There’s Luke Skywalker, Ben

Theater. The Auburn Library hosts an enchanted evening with puppets and the Puppet Art Theater. You’ll see a classic tale with an updated twist. There’s no cover charge, though your pre-registration is required. Thursday 7/11, 9:30am. No cover. 350 Nevada St. in Auburn.

CALeNDAR LIsTINGs CONTINueD ON PAGe 30

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SEE MORE EVENTS AND SUBMIT YOUR OWN AT NEWSREvIEW.COM/SACRAMENTO/CALENDAR

SATURDAY, 7/13 Heritage Trail visits Telephone Museum roseville TelePhone museum, 10am, no cover

TIM COLLOM: Ali Futrell Oops it Up. Ali Futrell is sharing a solo exhibition called “Ali-Oop!”, but that’s not all. There will also be collaboration with Jose Di Gregorio and Beau “Bonzo” Thomas. Through 8/1, no cover. 915 20th St.

MUSEUMS CROCKER ART MUSEUM: ArtMix Combust. Check

Heritage Trail means 26 museums from Roseville to Lake Tahoe MUSEUMS are inviting PHOTO COURTESY OF QUINO AL you, the public, to check out their historic offerings free of charge. This weekend includes a stop at the Roseville Telephone Museum—an exciting turn of events. Accept the charges and show up to take in the plethora of antique audio devices, including rotary and novelty phones, switchboards and more. Learn about the history of telephones in the area and gain some valuable knowledge from docents. 106 Vernon Street, consolidated.com/museum.

out the Burning Man-style ArtMix feature on page 29. Thursday 7/11, 6pm. $20. Plein Air Drawing for Beginners. Ever want to get started drawing landscapes out in the real world? Of course you have. Join the Crocker and learn how you can start drawing the world you see around you on a daily basis, or less often. Saturday 7/13, 10:30am. $165. 216 O St.

ROSEVILLE TELEPHONE MUSEUM: Heritage Trail at Roseville Telephone Museum. Catch this truly wild museum event featured on page 30. It’s got more historic telephones than you could shake a telephone stick at. Saturday 7/13, 10am. No cover. 106 Vernon St. in Roseville.

SACRAMENTO HISTORIC CITY CEMETERY: Extra!

CALENDAR LISTINGS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

COLONIAL HEIGHTS LIBRARY: Youth Art Code“The Garden” Exhibit Opening & Reception.

Check out the LED art display that Youth Art Code’s students made this summer. 4:30pm.

Through 7/13, no cover. 4799 Stockton Blvd.

BIG IDEA THEATRE: Jasper. The play critics and audiences alike are saying Jasper is almost through with its run. Catch it while you’re still capable. 8pm. Through 7/13. $12. 1616 Del Paso Blvd.

DOWNTOWN COMMONS (DOCO): 2nd Saturday Arts and Crafts Fireworks. Join the Verge Center for the Arts and DOCO for some homemade firework-inspired party crackers. There will be confetti, candy, noise and more. 10am. Through 7/13, no cover. Downtown Commons.

CELEBRATION ARTS: Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed.

Celebration Arts shares this Danai Gurira story of five Liberian women in 2003 at the tail end of the Second Liberian Civil War. Through 7/18. $10-$20. 4469 D St.

CLARKE DOMINGUEZ MEMORIAL GYM: Wild Things! hosted by Rocklin Library. Animals are coming to the Clarke Dominguez Memorial Gym, and they are indifferent about your attendance. Show up anyway to see some native and exotic animals. Register in advance. Friday 7/12, 1pm. No cover. 5035 Meyers St. in Rocklin.

EXHALE SMOKE SHOP: Cannabis Art Show.

Smoke Shops aren’t just for smoke paraphernalia anymore, they’re also for art shows. Check out Exhale’s exhibit inspired by cannabis. Saturday 7/13, 4pm. No cover. 2830 E St.

JAYJAY: Hot Fun. New work by Kristin Hough, Jeff Mayry & David Mohr. Catch this new show that features colorful work from Kristin Hough, Jeff Mayry and Daviv Mohr, opening this Thursday. Through 8/10, no cover. 5524 B Elvas Ave.

LAUGHS UNLIMITED COMEDY CLUB: The Moore Brothers. Join Khiry Malik Moore and Terry Moore for a night of spoken word poetry, along with music from trumpeter TahreeAmir. Thursday 7/11, 8:30pm. $10-$15. 1207 Front St.

KENNEDY GALLERY: Urban Identity - My Life On The Grid. You may not have realized it, but there’s artwork all through the city—and not just the murals. Join Kennedy Gallery’s resident artists for a look at the city in a new light, shining a bright extravagance onto the alleys and architecture. Through 8/3, no cover. 1931 L St.

MAIN STAGE THEATRE WORKS: Leading Ladies.

Check out the event highlight on page 28 for all the details on this work. Through 7/20. $12-$20. 1127 N. Main St. in Jackson.

SACRAMENTO CITY COLLEGE MAIN AUDITORIUM: Shakespeare in Love. It’s a story about the life of Shakespeare instead of a story by Shakespeare. Watch as the Bard plagiarizes from his own life to meet a deadline. Through 7/28. $20. 3835 Freeport Blvd.

MICRO GALLERY: New Art at Micro Gallery.

Check out some new art at the Micro Gallery with some paintings by Jim Abuan and Laura Stokes. Through 7/27, no cover. 1200 S Street, Suite D.

SACRAMENTO FINE ARTS CENTER: Found Art. You can find art in any number of places, including in the street or on the road or in someone’s backyard. See where these artists took inspiration at this found art exhibit. Through 7/14, no cover. 5330 Gibbons Drive, Suite B in Carmichael.

ART CASA DE ESPAÑOL: Chilean Watercolor Exhibit at CASA de ESPAÑOL. Catch Constanza Domínguez’s watercolor work while you can.

She’s visiting from Chile and you can meet her on Saturday, the closing night of the exhibit. 5:30pm. Through 7/13, no cover. 1101 R St.

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and meet the artists. 5pm. Through 7/13, no cover. 2574 21st St.

SOL COLLECTIVE: Tletica / Con Fuego. Join this

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installation work from Kalli Arte Collective featuring the work of Adriana Carranza and Alfonso Aceves. There will be an opening reception on Saturday at 5 p.m., so join

Extra! Read All About It!. One last hit on the learning train! Stop by the Historic City Cemetery for a tour of some of the most newsworthy stories you can hear about in a cemetery. Saturday 7/13, 10am, no cover. 1000 Broadway.

SACRAMENTO HISTORY MUSEUM: Second Saturday Activities at the History Museum!.

Spend your Second Saturday with the Sacramento History Museum. There will be living history activities and plenty of gold-panning for you to roundly participate in. Saturday 7/13, 10am. $5-$8. Spanish Speaking Underground Tour on Second Sundays. Next up is a Spanish-speaking version of the classic tour of Old Old Sacramento’s underground. Catch it every second Sunday of the month. Sunday 7/14, 3pm. $12-$18. 101 I St.

SACRAMENTO ZOO: CELEBRATE! Meerkat Day. Meerkats arranged this publicity stunt to promote themselves, but that’s okay, because they’re cute. Celebrate the animals and do some celebratory arts, crafts and raffles in support of their existence on this mortal plane. Saturday 7/13, 9am. 3930 W. Land Park Drive.

SATURDAY, 7/13 COMMUNITY BOOK SALE-ARDEN-DIMICK LIBRARY: Book sales—they’re helpful for picking up some books, but they’re also helpful for the library to run its programs. That’s right, folks, you’re going to be filling up bags with books for only $6 while also supporting the library’s esteemed programs—and anyone who would attempt to impugn those programs, even by telling an objectively funny and harmless joke, is a fool of the highest degree. 10am, no cover. ArdenDimick Library Community Room, 891 Watt Ave.

SPORTS & OUTDOORS THURSDAY, 7/11 DANCIN’ IN THE ALLEY: Have you ever danced in an alleyway? Ever taken some fancy steps while making your way through the city? Of course you haven’t, but you can start today. Show up and join Dance on the Edge as they dance in an alleyway. 6pm, no cover. Cantina Alley, 2320 Jazz Alley.

FRIDAY, 7/12 SCOOT SCOOP: Hello! Want to run a total of 3 miles and eat a total of one scoop of ice cream? Catch this event highlight below.

You won’t regret it. 6:30pm, $5. William Land Park, East Park Road.

WILD WEST DINNER TRAIN INDEPENDENCE DAY BBQ: There’s no time like the present to step back in time, so join this wild Westthemed train ride and have a real heck of a blast. 6pm, $45-$55. Sacramento RiverTrain in West Sacramento.

SATURDAY, 7/13 UFC FIGHT NIGHT: Catch a UFC fight at the Golden 1 Center if you like watching people fight—I suggest dealing with your aggression the way the rest of us do, by hitting cardboard boxes with a baseball bat. You know, healthy life habits. 2pm, $56.41. Golden 1 Center, 500 David J Stern Walk.

FRIDAY, 7/12

Scoop Scoot William land Park, 6:30Pm, $5

Do you like ice cream? Alert someone in the media, because you’re unique! Seriously though, plenty of other people like ice cream.

SPORTS & OUTDOORS You can still get some, though: At the Scoop Scoot, you run 1.5 miles, eat a scoop of Vic’s ice cream then run 1.5 miles back to Land Park for some music, good times and a beer garden. It’s a tasty way to get active, and you’ll have your choice of strawberry, chocolate or vanilla—plus, it benefits local children’s hospitals and Front Street Animal Shelter.

East Park Road in Land Park, scoopscoot.org

WEDNESDAY, 7/17 BIG TRUCKS SUMMER GARBAGE TRUCKS: Catch some of the biggest and best garbage trucks absolutely going to town on furniture. They’ll crush some stuff, then your kids can explore them. 9:30am, no cover. Maidu Regional Park, 1550 Maidu Drive in Roseville.

RIVER CATS BASEBALL CLINIC: If you’re a kid between the ages of 7 and 12, you’re invited to participate in this baseball clinic taught by former professional ballplayers. Show up, get some knowledge, hit some balls, field some balls and more. 9am, $20. Raley Field, 400 Ballpark Drive in West Sacramento.

LGBTQ SUNDAY, 7/14 OUT AT THE FAIR: There’s a whole bunch of LGBTQ activities at the State Fair on July 14. You can check out a concert from T-Boz and Chilli, and you can get free Pride flags while supplies last. It’s included with your fair admission—the State Fair is open now, by the way. 10am, $8-$45. Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd.

TAKE ACTION THURSDAY, 7/11 LET THEM EAT CAKE: Support Sacramento Self-Help Housing with this cake-eating fundraiser to support the group. 5:30pm, $40. Beatnik Studios, 723 S St.

SATURDAY, 7/13 PARADISE CAMP FIRE VICTIMS FUND RAISING COUNTRY DANCE: It’s time to dance for a cause with the Pioneer Congregational Church. It benefits the Paradise Camp Fire Victims Fund and features line dance lessons and dancing. 6:30pm, $10 donation. Pioneer Congregations UCC, 2700 L St.

PSYCHEDELICIOUS FUNDRAISER: Check out this evening of music from Psychedelicious that’s extra delicious because its proceeds will be donated to Queen Sheba Restaurant in the wake of their fire. DJ Razzle will be in attendance. 3pm, no cover. Queen Sheba, 1704 Broadway.

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THURSDAY 7/11

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Star Wars: Episode V, 7:30pm, $10-$13

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Irish Jam Session with Stepping Stone, 8pm, no cover

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Hot Country Fridays, 7:30pm, $5-$10

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For more cannabis news, deals & updates visit capitalcannabisguide.com

cannabis and your liver see ask 420

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Artist Delgreta Brown’s “Afro-futurism”-style artwork will be on display during Exhale Smoke Shop’s cannabis-themed exhibit.

Photo courtesy oF delgreta brown

elevated artworks Exhale Smoke Shop throws a cannabis-themed art show just in time for Second Saturday

by Steph RodRiguez

two years ago, exhale smoke shop in Midtown hot boxed its entire store—legally.

Shop owner Ryan Donnelly says this unique opportunity occurred in the years before the state Bureau of Cannabis Control cracked down with regulations that are in place today.

Donnelly says he applied for a liquor license through Alcoholic Beverage Control, had police officers on site and fenced off the store’s perimeter in celebration of 4/20, the annual stoner holiday.

“This place was filled with 100-plus people all smoking,” Donnelly says.

“There’s not one place yet where stoners

can come together and meet just like a bar. You can go sit down and have a beer with your friends, but there’s literally nothing like that so we have to create something.”

But now, on-site consumption is decided by each local government and Sacramento does not allow it. Still, Donnelly says he aims to use Exhale Smoke Shop as a place for art shows and live music where fellow stoners can meet and feel a sense of community.

On Saturday, July 13, in partnership with Monthleaf, a local cannabis subscription box company, Exhale Smoke Shop is hosting its latest art exhibit with more than 10 artists showing

ste p h r @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

works that were inspired, in some way, by cannabis.

“We might not be able to smoke at the event, but we can come together and know we have the same interests,” Donnelly says.

Bryanne Vincent, curator for the event and CEO of Monthleaf, says she approached a lot of the artists participating such as Delgeta Brown, who has shown her “Afrofuturism”-style acrylic paintings in galleries from Yuba City to San Francisco.

“I’m really just trying to put forward an image that shows a more prosperous future for the community of color with specific regard to African Americans

because that’s my community and that’s my perspective,” Brown says. “… A lot of my art will show a lot of African Americans looking very prosperous, very regal. And to me, to paint things like that, it’s empowering.”

Brown tore her Achilles tendon last year and says she was offered an edible by a friend. She says it helped, and replaced her prescription pain medication. A believer in holistic health, Brown says cannabis complements the natural herbs she uses for relaxation, such as lavender and chamomile.

“To me, it felt like a safer alternative because if you take too many painkillers it damages your kidneys … I healed naturally, too, I didn’t have to have the surgery,” Brown says.

During her creative process for this upcoming exhibit, Brown says she thought about her experience with the edible.

For live entertainment, classical clarinetist Brennen Milton is scheduled to play laid-back numbers throughout the evening. Milton has performed at

“elevated artworks” continued on page 37

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“ElEvatEd artworks” continuEd from pagE 35

Artist Ciara Cumiskey says cannabis calms her down and helps her let the brush strokes lead the way.

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Carnegie Hall and also with the Sacramento and prints, which features curvy feminine Philharmonic. With 20 years behind the figures, space and animals. woodwind instrument, he says he often uses “Some of my works are not necessarily cannabis to get past his performance jitters. cannabis inspired, but they’re cannabis “A lot of times, I get anxiety and have inspired,” she says, laughing. “Most of my small panic attacks,” Milton says. “After work is done under the influence.” the cannabis has induced that, next thing Her favorite piece that will be on you know the downbeat comes and I’m just display was inspired by a photograph of performing and having a good time.” her friend who is smoking a blunt, a fitting Artist Ciara Cumiskey is curator at piece for a show that takes cannabis and Gallery 1075 in West Sacramento, where challenges artists to incorporate it into she also does graphic design. Her pinup polished works of art. and comic book-style art will also be on “The way she was holding it, and the display during the show. For Cumiskey, way her lips were, it looked sophisticated cannabis calms her thoughts to a point and classy and sexy while also infusing the where she says she no longer second use of cannabis,” Negrete says. guesses her work.

Painters, crocheters and mixed-media “I’m a frequent worrier. I’m either artists will all participate in the exhibit. consumed by the past, or fretting Raffles and prizes, such as a about the future. And my Monthleaf subscription box, relationship with cannabis will also be up for grabs is that it really helps me as well as an exhibit on calm down and live the history of cannabis “Some of my works in the moment,” she to help educate are not necessarily says. “The other day non-users. cannabis inspired, but I had one plan, but “We are lookfound myself calm ing for ways to they’re cannabis inspired.” enough when the normalize cannabis,” Appria Negrete paint strokes took me Vincent says. “The artist in a different wave, I war on drugs has just followed that wave caused a lot of damage in a completely differto the community. So ent direction than I had we’re trying to create an planned.” atmosphere where people who When mixed media artist Appria do consume feel like they are safe, Negrete isn’t creating artwork on canvas feel like they can talk and bond.” Ω or Bristol, she’s also known to paint a few faces. During Hacker Lab’s Pride event in June, she showcased some of her artwork See all the cannabis-inspired art on display starting July 13 at Exhale Smoke Shop, 2830 E St., (916) 382-4856; and also painted kids’ faces. For this art Facebook.com/exhalesmokeshop916. show, she’ll be selling 11-by-17 originals

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By Ngaio Bealum

as k 420 @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

Like more money with your weed? See online-only discounts at: capitalcannabisguide.com.

Good for the liver I’ve heard marijuana use fights the negative effects of alcohol on the liver. How?

You have heard correctly. Weed does indeed help your body counteract the damage that excessive drinking can inflict. How? Because cannabis is a natural and effective anti-inflammatory, that’s how.

What happens is this: Booze causes inflammation and scarring of the liver, which is not good. However, the liver is full of cannabinoid receptors, and if someone were to activate those receptors by smoking weed, the damage and scarring can be reduced and the liver can have a chance to repair itself.

But there’s more: According to a study published in 2018, alcoholics who were also considered “dependent” on cannabis had way better liver function than those who didn’t smoke weed at all, proving once again that weed is great for harm reduction. However, while cannabis may help people avoid severe liver damage, drinking to excess is not the best way to maintain one’s health. As with all things, moderation is the key.

Cheers!

What’s the best way to get high at work?

Um, don’t? Would you show up to work drunk? Would you want to work with a drunk person?

I get that being drunk and being stoned are two different things, but being under the influence of drugs while at work is a bit unprofessional, yes? I mean, unless you work in the cannabis industry and your job is to try all the new weed, or write weed reviews or advice columns or

something similar, just stay sober until you are off the clock.

“But, I’m a budtender! I work in a cannabis club!” So what? Listen, weed is awesome, but it also makes people forgetful, giggly and inattentive. Just like budtenders hate it when a customer shows up too high to talk or pay attention, no one wants a budtender who can’t give good service or answer questions.

Unless you are medicating for pain relief or some serious issue, being stoned at work is not a good idea. If you really, really need to be stoned at your job, I suggest two things: First, look at your drug use and make sure you aren’t ignoring a dependency issue. Weed isn’t addictive in the traditional sense, but people can develop a habit.

Second, maybe try an edible, so you don’t stink up the place when you walk in. Be careful though: Get too high at work without smelling like weed, and folks will think you are plain old goofy instead of a goofy stoner.

Can I do anything with the cannabis that I’ve already vaped?

Yes. Use it to make a cannabis-infused oil or butter. Vaped weed still has a usable amount of THC, and making a butter (or a tincture if you are fancy and have the time) is the easiest way to get that THC out of the plant and into your bloodstream. Ω

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

@Ngaio420

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Free will astrology

ask joey

For the week oF July 11, 2019

Spirituality and religion

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’re in the Land

by JOey GARCIA

I’ve accomplished a lot of healing through psychotherapy. Now, my mental and physical health are in decline again because of problems with my partner. I would call what is going on between us abusive. yet friends tell me that I’m a spiritually enlightened person. how can I unite more fully with my divine purpose and calling?

Imagine your calling or purpose as ordinary, not as something exceptional and luminous or beyond whatever you are engaged in. At this moment, answering your question aligns with my calling and fulfills my purpose. So did my activities earlier today: writing in my journal while sitting outside, playing with my dog, welcoming five plumbers into my home to undertake scheduled repairs, showering, writing a love note to a friend, noshing on a healthy breakfast. Each action reflects a reason I have for being on the planet: to experience life in a body, to savor, to sense, to receive and to give back.

If I believe that my purpose or calling must be more heroic, I might be in danger of ego inflation. This doesn’t mean I should avoid ambition. It doesn’t mean I ought to keep my goals small and manageable. A healthy ego can enjoy audacious goals. To nurture ego health, nourish your soul through silence, solitude and time in nature. The soul comes alive in simple pleasures.

One life purpose to consider is choosing freedom from violent relationships. You can become a beacon for how to leave abusive relationships behind forever. A competent psychologist can help you navigate that path. Give yourself the gift of receiving professional support.

I have valid spiritual gifts according to a Catholic priest who is my spiritual director. In my home parish, my spiritual gifts were acknowledged and appreciated, but I was also judged, harassed and condemned. Now someone is attempting to ostracize and silence me.

Is Catholicism an untenable path?

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by ROb bRezsny

@AskJoeyGarcia

I’m not an expert on Catholicism, but will say that some individuals who were judged, harassed, condemned and scapegoated during their lifetimes were later canonized as saints. I’m not saying that you will be canonized or that suffering is required—not at all.

Rather, it’s helpful to remember that mystics, saints and martyrs frighten religious institutions. An individual’s intimacy with God is threatening to any religion because it challenges the status quo. The point of a religious institution is to remain unchanged, thereby proving the eternal, enlightened and divine nature of its founder(s).

It’s worth noting that some researchers say there’s a thin line between mental health and certain religious behaviors.

Daily Mass can be a habit that grounds a person in faith. Attending daily Mass can also activate compulsive traits that do more harm than good. Religious ecstasy is an altered state of consciousness that includes visions and emotional euphoria.

Religious ecstasy is also a symptom of several psychiatric and neurological disorders. If mental health is an issue in your life, you might not see the problems that your spiritual gifts evoke in yourself or others. If your spiritual director is unable to guide you through these difficulties, find another who can. Ω

MedItatIoN oF the week “We are all given a gift of existence and of being sentient beings and I think true happiness lies in love and compassion,” said actor Adam Pascal. Where does your happiness reside?

Write, email or leave a message for Joey at the News & Review. Give your name, telephone number (for verification purposes only) and question—all correspondence will be kept strictly confidential.

Write Joey, 1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815; call (916) 498-1234, ext. 1360; or email askjoey@newsreview.com.

of Green Magic. That’s potentially very good news, but you must also be cautious. Why? Because in the Land of Green Magic, the seeds of extraneous follies and the seeds of important necessities both grow extra fast. Unless you are a careful weeder, useless stuff will spring up and occupy too much space. So be firm in rooting out the blooms that won’t do you any good. Be aggressive in nurturing only the very best and brightest.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Eight years ago, researchers in Kerala, India went to the Padmanabhaswamy Temple and climbed down into centuries-old vaults deep beneath the main floor. They found a disorganized mess of treasure in the form of gold and precious gems.

There were hundreds of chairs made from gold, baskets full of gold coins from the ancient Roman Empire and a four-foot-high solid statue of a god, among multitudinous other valuables.

I like bringing these images to your attention because I have a theory that if you keep them in your awareness, you’ll be more alert than usual to undiscovered riches in your own life and in your own psyche. I suspect you are closer than ever before to unearthing those riches.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Children need to learn certain aptitudes at certain times. If they don’t, they may not be able to master those aptitudes later in life. For example, if infants don’t get the experience of being protected and cared for by adults, it will be hard for them to develop that capacity as toddlers. This is a good metaphor for a developmental phase that you are going through. In my astrological opinion, 2019 and 2020 are critical years for you to become more skilled at the arts of togetherness and collaboration; to upgrade your abilities so as to get the most out of your intimate relationships. How are you doing with this work so far?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Vantablack is a material made of carbon nanotubes. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the darkest stuff on the planet. No black is blacker than Vantablack. It reflects a mere 0.036% of the light that shines upon it. Because of its unusual quality, it’s ideal for use in the manufacture of certain sensors, cameras and scientific instruments. Unfortunately, an artist named Anish Kapoor owns exclusive rights to use it in the art world. No other artists are allowed to incorporate Vantablack into their creations. I trust you will not follow Kapoor’s selfish example in the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, it’s crucial that you share your prime gifts, your special skills and your unique blessings with the whole world. Do not hoard!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Hi, my name is Rob Brezsny, and I confess that I am addicted to breathing air, eating food, drinking water, indulging in sleep and getting high on organic, free-trade, slavery-free dark chocolate. I also confess that I am powerless over these addictions. Now I invite you to be inspired by my silly example and undertake a playful but serious effort to face up to your own fixations. The astrological omens suggest it’s a perfect moment to do so.

What are you addicted to? What habits are you entranced by? What conditioned responses are you enslaved to? What traps have you agreed to be snared by? The time is right to identify these compulsions, then make an audacious break for freedom.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): When cherries are nearing the end of their ripening process, they are especially vulnerable. If rain falls on them during those last few weeks, they can rot or split, rendering them unmarketable. So cherry growers hire helicopter pilots to hover over their trees right after it rains, using the downdraft from the blades to dry the valuable little fruits. It may seem like overkill, but it’s the method that works best. I advise you to be on the lookout for similar protective measures during the climactic phase of your personal

ripening process. Your motto should be to take care of your valuables by any means necessary.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Please don’t try to relax.

Don’t shy away from challenges. Don’t apologize for your holy quest or tone down your ambition or stop pushing to get better. Not now, anyway.

Just the opposite, in fact. I urge you to pump up the volume on your desires. Be even bigger and bolder and braver. Take maximum advantage of the opportunities that are arising, and cash in on the benevolent conspiracies that are swirling in your vicinity. Now is one of those exceptional moments when tough competition is actually healthy for you, when the pressure to outdo your previous efforts can be tonic and inspiring.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I can’t decide whether to compare your imminent future to a platypus, kaleidoscope, patchwork quilt or Swiss Army knife. From what I can tell, your adventures could bring you random jumbles or melodic mélanges—or a blend of both. So I’m expecting provocative teases, pure flukes and multiple options. There’ll be crazy wisdom, alluring messes and unclassifiable opportunities. To ensure that your life is more of an intriguing riddle than a confusing maze, I suggest that you stay closely attuned to what you’re really feeling and thinking, and communicate that information with tactful precision.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Every year, thousands of people all over the world go to hospital emergency rooms seeking relief from kidney stones. Many of the treatments are invasive and painful. But in recent years, a benign alternative has emerged. A peerreviewed article in a scientific journal presented evidence that many patients spontaneously pass their kidney stones simply by riding on roller coasters. I doubt that you’ll have a literal problem like kidney stones in the coming weeks. But I do suspect that any psychological difficulties you encounter can be solved by embarking on thrilling adventures akin to riding on roller coasters.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In his book The Histories, ancient Greek historian Herodotus told the story of a six-year war between the armies of the Medes and the Lydians in an area that today corresponds to Turkey. The conflict ended suddenly on a day when a solar eclipse occurred. Everyone on the battlefield got spooked as the light unexpectedly dimmed, and commanders sought an immediate cease to the hostilities. In the spirit of cosmic portents precipitating practical truces, I suggest you respond to the upcoming lunar eclipse on July 16-17 with overtures of peace and healing and amnesty. It’ll be a good time to reach out to any worthwhile person or group from whom you have been alienated.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): My astrological colleague Guru Gwen believes that right now Aquarians should get scolded and penalized unless they agree to add more rigor and discipline to their rhythms. On the other hand, my astrological colleague Maestro Madelyn feels that Aquarians need to have their backs massaged, their hands held and their problems listened to with grace and empathy. I suppose that both Gwen and Madelyn want to accomplish the same thing, which is to get you back on track.

But personally, I’m more in favor of Madelyn’s approach than Gwen’s.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): As a self-taught rebel poet with few formal credentials, I may not have much credibility when I urge you to get yourself better licensed and certified and sanctioned.

But according to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming months will be a favorable time for you to make plans to get the education or training you’re lacking; to find out what it would mean to become more professional, and then become more professional; to begin pursuing the credentials that will earn you more power to fulfill your dreams.

Quick, get down to the shopping mall and shop!

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