San Diego CityBeat • July 31, 2019

2 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

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UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

Yes, I’m having a NIMBY moment

T

he other day, I came out of my house to find a scattering of yellow papers up and down my street. I’ve lived in my place for nearly 20 years, and I’ve watched my North Park street transition from a more rough-around-the-edges neighborhood to one that is filled with luxury cars and otherwise well-meaning gentrifiers. Sure, I don’t miss waking up in the middle of the night to a meth addict on my roof, but I do miss the simplicity of finding convenient parking.

SETH COMBS

Save 30th Street Parking flyers The yellow papers littering the street surprised me. It’s been a while since random wrappers and cigarette butts littered the ground of my block. Sure, I still often have to dodge a landmine from one of the lazy neighbors not picking up after their dogs, but trash on the street has been uncommon post-gentrification. I picked up one of the leaflets to find it was a flyer promoting Save 30th Street Parking, an organization devoted to combatting the mayor’s decision to install protected bike lanes along 30th Street from Juniper Street all the way up to Howard Avenue. One of my immediate neighbors is helping to promote the organization. I don’t imagine he littered them. It’s much more likely the flyers blew off the doors, mailboxes and windshields he was leaving them on.

It’s been a while since I’ve felt a sense of NIMBYism. In fact, the only time I’ve ever felt it was when the affluent, mostly white homebuyers began to snatch up all the properties in my neighborhood post-recession.

And whereas there had been plenty of park-

ing spaces on my street before, my neighbors (let’s call them Chad and Kelly) suddenly needed to park their other SUV on the street since there simply wasn’t room for both vehicles in their driveway, a luxury that most people who live on the street don’t even have.

So when I saw this yellow flyer, I was, as the kids put it, “triggered.” I wanted to walk over to my neighbor’s house (which has a driveway, by the way) and scream at him not only for the unsolicited, illegal placement of his flyers, but for being so naïve as to think he was some kind of savior for those who supposedly depend on these parking spaces. I wanted to tell him that parking on 30th had never really been a problem until people like him moved into the neighborhood. That it was exactly this post-recession influx of new homebuyers and renters that caused all the traffic problems in the first place. That much of the issues with parking have more to do with people parking their precious Teslas and Range Rovers in a way that other cars can’t fit behind or in front of them, lest someone nudge and scratch their bumper while trying to parallel park.

But most of all, I wanted to tell him about the hypocrisies of well-meaning progressives. There has never been a Trump sign in my neighborhood. Hell, I’ve been there long enough to where I remember Gore/Lieberman signs. And the inconvenient truth is that most of my neighbors, and a good chunk of North Park residents in general, love the idea of doing something about climate change but want others to do it for them. If it inconveniences them or it means personally sacrificing something, that just won’t do. Chad and Kelly have a Bernie Sanders 2016 sticker on their Prius, but they’re the same couple that complains if they have to park a block away and walk (oh, the humanity!) to get to their front door.

And people are falling for it. There are literally hundreds of available parking spaces on 30th-adjacent side streets like Grim Avenue and Dale Street, but that won’t stop homeowners from complaining that they don’t want people parking there either. And despite the countless information and studies out there that points to protected bike lanes being good for local businesses and helping to combat congestion and climate change, opponents will continue to point out their well-meaning intentions as they litter your street with flyers.

—Seth Combs Write to seth.combs@sdcitybeat.com

This issue of CityBeat is dedicated to Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. May she find all the neck tats she’s looking for at the U-T.

Volume 17 • Issue 50 EDITOR Seth Combs WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos STAFF WRITER Andrea Lopez-Villafaña COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer Ryan Bradford Edwin Decker Alfred Howard John R. Lamb Rhonda “Ro” Moore

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JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

CHRISTIANITY = HUMANITY?

Ed’s so well balanced as a human being that he makes me envious [“An open letter to Christians from an Establishment Clause-coveting infidel,” Up Front, Sordid Tales, July 24]; I want to point out my conclusion from all the arguments on the Mt. Soledad Cross during the past 25 years, is that the cross is no longer seen by its protectors as a religious symbol per se, but unconsciously think of it as the natural symbol of humanity, not Christian or otherwise, but all of humanity, as they have psychologically merged humanity with Christianity to make them one thought, which is why some members of the supporting group some years ago actually said that the cross is not a religious symbol; to them, Christian is humanism, just as it is the new Judaism, as in “New Testament.”

I like your point that, if Christians don’t stop their own demands for dominance, some day in the long future the religion will bite the bullet from another religion taking over.

If that was your point!

Saul Harmon Gritz Hillcrest

WHAT IF…

Re: “Speculative contemplations post-Comic-Con,” Up Front, From the Editor, July 24.

What if… all the e-scooters and e-bikes just went away? Because enforcement (as you say) combined with vandalism, theft, and lawsuits made them no longer a viable business? I think the police are just hoping the last three will solve

4 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

the problem before they need to take any action.

What if… the city took over an older hotel and turned it into a homeless shelter, converting the meeting rooms into clinics and therapy rooms? And trained the now-homed in hotel services and other employable skills? This idea was tried at an old Motel 6, as I recall, and failed. But I contend that the Motel 6 was too small to succeed. A large hotel would be able to provide more services all in one location.

What if… more people paid more attention to my genius ideas? I did have some success with my ideas while living in Hawaii, so there is that.

Oofy Prosser Hillcrest

LOCAL DINING HAS A LONG WAY TO GO

I think there are two main reasons San Diego will continue to remain behind the Michelin curve [“Opulence and restraint,” Up Front, World Fare, July 17]. One, service is really lacking. And I don’t just mean failure to fold napkins. I mean basic failure to understand what is on the menu and failure in any attempt to explain the menu. I have had quite a number of “are we ready to order” as my first contact experiences in S.D. Thats fine if I am at a brewpub. Its not if you are aspiring to more.

Secondarily, there are a lot of really poor wine lists here. Perhaps this is because of a lack of support. Maybe its poor distribution but the number of wine lists that lack anything beyond the Top 100 hits on it is pretty surprising.

The arrow is pointing up in San Diego but diners should not kid themselves that this city is in the upper echelon yet. It has a long way to go.

BC, via sdcitybeat.com

WE HAVE A

PODCAST! Did anyone catch that New York Times article on John Hickenlooper that lead with the presidential candidate telling a joke? “What’s the opposite of woe?” asked the former Colorado governor. “Giddy up!” Wow, that’s a bad joke but not as bad as the ones that podcaster extraordinaire Matt Strabone often tells at the end of his bi-weekly podcast, Show in Progress with Matt Strabone. In this week’s episode, Strabone tackles the arbitrary nature of political party identification when it comes to local politics.

Strabone also speaks with two local officials—City Councilmember Monica Montgomery and San Diego Community College District Trustee Sean Elo—about how they’ve been faring since they were elected in 2018. As always, Strabone ends the show with one of his signature jokes. Prepare yourself. Show in Progress is available pretty much anywhere podcasts are available, but readers can find it streaming on sdcitybeat.com as well.

TABLE OF CONTENTS UP FRONT From the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Letters to the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spin Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Backwards and In High Heels. . . .

Well, That Was Awkward . . . . . . .

3 4 5 6 7

FOOD & DRINK World Fare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene . . . . 9 Final Draught. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

THINGS TO DO The Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Calendar of Events. . . . . . . . . . 10-12

ARTS & CULTURE Theater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Feature: T. Greenwood. . . . . . . . . . 15 Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-18

MUSIC Feature: A.A. Bondy . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Spotlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Black Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 If I Were U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Concerts & Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . 23-25

IN THE BACK Astrologically Unsound . . . . . . . . 25 CannaBitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

@SDCITYBEAT

JOHN R. LAMB

UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Scooter purgatory The search for someone to blame is always successful.

I

—Robert Half

n a memo that reverberated like a strike from Wonder Woman’s golden lasso, City Councilmember and 2020 mayoral candidate Barbara Bry sent San Diego’s shared-mobility universe into a tizzy last week by declaring that the city should hit the brakes on the popular e-scooter craze.

“Today I am calling for a moratorium on electric scooters in San Diego until we demonstrate that we can develop a fiscally responsible, well-thought out plan that ensures public and environmental safety,” Bry concluded on Friday in a brief written statement that provided scant details on a pathway forward.

Scooter supporters immediately took to social media to admonish the coastal councilmember.

@SDCITYBEAT

“Hi, I’m Barbara Bry,” sniffed one Twitter response. “Welcome to #BanDiego.”

Others suggested, presumably tongue-in-cheek (but who knows?), that perhaps a ban on cars would be more effective in addressing climate change and safety concerns. Scooter defenders frequently invoked the word “ban.”

In a brief interview later, Bry told Spin, “It’s not a ban. I’m calling for a moratorium until we can get our act together.”

That’s a tall order for a city whose acting abilities are far outweighed by its promotional skills.

San Diego is tops at talking about the need for more affordable housing, but hesitant to attack the problem. The city has a dire homelessness problem, but words have done little to stem the crisis.

Bry’s detractors note that she is in a pitched battle with state Assemblymember Todd Gloria and other opponents to become San

Diego’s next mayor. And like her cautious approach to housing that drew cries of “NIMBY!” from certain quarters, her concerns about the booming e-scooter business has now drawn jaundiced reactions questioning her political motives.

Some might argue that she’s attempting to appeal to older, more entrenched voters who are worried about change: that she’s pandering to single-family suburban homeowners who hate bike lanes and worry about strangers parking in front of their houses.

Bry counters that she has raised red flags about the scooter boom since its inception in early 2018, when scores of the tiny-wheeled devices suddenly appeared on a wide swath of city streets and with seemingly little local oversight. She makes no bones that she would have preferred a more orderly introduction through an RFP (request for proposal) process similar to the ones undertaken in cities such as Santa Monica and San Francisco.

Instead, the city—with a nod from Mayor Kevin Faulconer—let the various shared-mobility-device companies (which also includes dockless bikes) fight it out amongst themselves for market share. This resulted in shouts of joy from some and shrieks of terror from others, but the ensuing chaos eventually forced the city to consider

After the city impounded nearly 2,500 scooters and bikes during Comic-Con, mayoral hopeful Barbara Bry called for a moratorium on the shared devices. tighter restrictions on the companies, which went into effect July 1.

Those new regulations for dockless scooters and bikes include tighter parking rules and reduced speeds in certain “geo-fenced” areas such as beach communities and areas of downtown.

Operators must also now pay permitting fees to the city and face impound fees for illegally parked devices removed by the city. This new rule received considerable media attention during the recent San Diego Comic-Con, when an estimated 2,500 ride-share scooters and bikes were impounded near the Convention Center. The devices were banned from the immediate area around the downtown facility for the event, but it was clear that neither the city, nor event organizers, were prepared for the influx of devices that attendees used to get there.

“The companies were doing their best to comply with the rules,” said Barbara Lamb (no relation) of the city’s Environmental Services Department. “But a lot of the attendees didn’t necessarily know what the rules were, let alone follow them.”

She said most of the companies were prompt in picking up their impounded scooters and bikes from the city’s maintenance yard, although not all of them have paid the impound fees. Lime, for example, still had an outstanding bill of nearly $45,000 as of Monday despite picking up the 689 devices confiscated during Comic-Con. Bird, meanwhile, took the biggest hit, city records show, when it paid more than $67,000 to spring 1,035 devices from city clutches.

“Safety was the number-one driver for the impounds,” Lamb explained to Spin. “It was not a neener-neener-you-didn’t-followthe-rules kind of a thing. Police officers were identifying publicsafety hazards caused by too many scooters. It wasn’t arbitrary. It was, ‘Yikes, they’re piling up and people could get hurt tripping over these things.’”

She said scooters were found blocking sidewalks and wheelchair ramps, some even scattered

in streets. She said the companies have been “very pleasant and cooperative” in the aftermath, adding, “They were overwhelmed, too.

None of them anticipated the volume that was experienced.”

Alex Youn, a spokesman for Lime, acknowledged as much, but said in a statement that Bry’s proposal is an overreach.

“With more than three million trips taken by riders across San Diego, a moratorium will only harm those who have come to rely on scooters every day as a greener, more affordable way to move around the city,” Youn said. “Lime continues with work closely with the City of San Diego and local community partners to ensure a safe and responsible environment for riders and non-riders alike, and help alleviate the congestion and emissions challenges we all face.”

But for folks like Alex Montoya, a triple-amputee resident of East Village involved in a federal lawsuit alleging the devices discriminate against people with disabilities, Bry’s proposed pause is a welcomed development, despite the lack of details.

“I’d like to learn more,” he said.

“I can’t say I’m for or against it. But I think it’s worth hearing more, because an elected official is finally taking our concerns seriously.”

A spokesperson for Assemblymember Todd Gloria told Spin “a ban is not the answer” but suggested that “there’s more the city can (and probably) should do.” They included a letter Gloria sent on the matter to city officials in April.

It included imposing a “dynamic cap” on the number of scooters allowed, limiting hours of operation, and using an RFP process to limit the number of device operators in the city to three versus the current half-dozen.

From Spin’s perspective, it actually sounds like the two leading mayoral candidates are more aligned on the issue than the uproar over Bry’s proposal suggests.

Ah, politics!

Spin Cycle appears every other week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com.

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 5

UP FRONT | OPINION

AARYN BELFER

BACKWARDS & IN

Ordinary people

A

HIGH HEELS

nyone can be a humanitarian. Just ask my friends Marie and Curtis.

“At first, we thought we would have familiar food ready,” Marie tells me. “Tortillas, beans, rice and salsa. But when we got some pizza for our first guests, a mother with two young children, and saw the look in their eyes upon seeing the pizza. We knew we had the perfect universal food choice.”

And this is how the lives of Marie and Curtis (not their real names) took a turn toward the unfamiliar.

In July 2017, the couple began hosting activists from around the country, strangers so disturbed by the notion of children in detention, that they made the pilgrimage to San Diego in order to do something.

Then, Marie and Curtis attended a meeting held by a coalition of organizations, including the Otay Mesa Detention Resistance and Al Otro Lado. They learned of the need for temporary housing for asylum seekers following their release from our local concentration camp (aka the Otay Mesa Detention Center).

I imagine my friends, who have been together 42 years, merely had to glance at one another in that moment and knew, without much dialogue, that they were about to turn their guest room and guest bathroom into a refuge for refugees. Regardless of how they arrived at their decision, this regular couple has opened their home to some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

“When we get a text during the day that we might have a guest, we double-check our guest room to make sure there are clean sheets, a toothbrush and toothpaste, two accessible outlets for the ankle monitor battery charger and a cell phone charger,” Marie tells me in a text. “We also learned to have a box of extra-large bandages there to ease the pain of ankle monitor blisters, and a scissor in case they have to cut their pants to get them over the bulky ankle monitor.”

In the evenings, their guests get a meal, a shower, a bed and kindness. In the mornings, Curtis makes them breakfast. The couple may take them out back to visit with their chickens. And then Marie and Curtis take them shopping; their treat.

“We’re able to do it,” they tell me in unison.

Since that first night seven months ago, the pair has sheltered 17 asylum seekers, including several trans women. All are merely passing through on their way to join their sponsors and wait for their day in court. The longest anyone has stayed is one week; the shortest, the length of a single five-hour nap.

Marie and Curtis’ home is an oasis in the chaos of flight to safety from a faraway homeland: Colombia, Mexico, Sierra Leone among others. And this must be stated: Nobody—and I mean nobody—leaves their home, their family, their friends, their work, their country, simply because they’re unhappy. People

leave because conditions are untenable; they leave because they face domestic violence, sex trafficking and a slew of the most depraved kinds of horrors.

Reader, imagine for a moment what it would take to walk away and to leave everything behind. Imagine what it means to run with a small bag of personal belongings and a prayer to live through whatever may lay ahead. I urge anyone reading this to pull up a Google map and look at the distance between, say, West Africa and Tijuana.

“We had a gentleman here from Sierra Leone, he was only like 21 or something,” Marie says, her voice getting quiet and her eyes fixed on a spot on her lap.

She described how his father and uncle had been murdered and he was given the choice to join a gang or meet the same fate.

“He is a devout Muslim... and to kill one person is to kill all of humanity and he knew if he was in a gang, that’s what he would have to do. So somebody sponsored him to fly to Brazil. And then he made his way, and he was in a tiny boat crossing and people didn’t make it on his boat… He told us his whole journey through jungles on foot, country after country after country.”

Indeed, all of their guests have told them stories.

“Some start talking right away and others take more time,” Marie explains. Sometimes she doesn’t know what her guests are saying; she just knows they need to get it out, and she needs to bear witness.

So she looks into their eyes and nods.

When a translator is present, she writes down their stories in a notebook or on whatever paper is closest. Her guests have drawn pictures on paper, on envelopes. The young mother, the first guest, was adamant that people see a drawing she made on a Kleenex. In it, she depicts a crying person handcuffed and being marched by an ICE agent toward a cinderblock building. The sketch is particularly brutal against the delicate tissue in my hand.

Others have drawn maps of their confines at Otay Mesa Detention Center and detailed descriptions of what happened to them at the hands of staffers. I’ll save that for later columns, but suffice it to say, the lights being on 24/7 and the movie Frozen playing on loop all day, every day, are the least of the barbaric conditions.

The trauma is visceral, but once the asylum seekers arrive into Marie and Curtis’ sanctuary—fitted with an ankle bracelet and carrying in a red mesh potato sack whatever belongings ICE didn’t manage to lose—they can exhale for a bit. For at this moment, they are safe, because ordinary people took action.

May we all find a way to be so ordinary.

Nobody—and I mean nobody— leaves their home, their family, their friends, their work, their country, simply because they’re unhappy.

People leave because conditions are untenable.

6 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

Backwards & In High Heels appears every other week.

Write to aarynb@sdcitybeat.com.

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | VOICES

RYAN BRADFORD

WELL THAT WAS

AWKWARD The horror of celebrity interviews

C

elebrity interviews are strange, man. I don’t do a lot of them, but I’ve done enough to know they can become veiled media circle-jerks. Entertainment journalism is often PR pretending not to be PR; overbearingly positive and promotional. I think back to a few weeks ago when my barber told me that he cancelled his subscription to the San Diego Union-Tribune because it was too negative. He said he wanted to read more positive stories. I couldn’t help but think he should read a lot more entertainment journalism.

I’m not above doing celebrity interviews, however, especially not on this day: The day I get to meet Greg Nicotero, one of my horror movie heroes.

It’s the ass-crack middle of Comic-Con and I sit my sweaty self down in Aqua Salon C at the Hilton Bayfront. In a couple of minutes, Nicotero—The Walking Dead executive producer and gore-effects extraordinaire—will walk through the door to discuss his new show, Creepshow, a horror anthology series based on the 1982 George Romero film of the same name. A few of the show’s stars will join him, including Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring from Breaking Bad) and DJ Qualls (the distinctively skinny actor from Road Trip and The New Guy).

Other journalists begin to trickle in. Before the cast arrives, a dude in a dressy vest enters and asks to join our table, but he does so in a way that’s loud and, to me, feels threatening. It’s like he’s trying to establish dominance over the rest of us. He introduces himself as a writer from a big-shot horror entertainment site. Then Mr. Big Shot pulls out a massive, nearly-empty plastic jug of Starbucks coffee and places it on the table, as if to say I’m ready, bring it on. Total power move.

“I’m gonna go smoke,” Mr. Big Shot says.

When he’s gone, the other journalists and I make fun of his massive coffee jug. It feels good to be united against this guy whom I’ve decided I hate.

Mr. Nicotero and his cast members rotate around the room—hitting each table for roughly 10 minutes.

As expected, Nicotero is a delight. He talks about updating ’80s horror for the modern age and the trials of directing 12 episodes on a tight schedule. I nearly pee my pants with excitement when he talks about the practical, non-CGI monster effects they use for the show.

Actress and ’80s scream queen Adrienne Barbeau, star of both the original and new Creepshow, is unable to attend the interview because she’s sick. However, one of the producers has her on speaker phone, which he brings around to each table. At that point, Mr. Big Shot leaves to take a leak. Probably due to all the coffee.

Rude, I think. Unprofessional.

When DJ Qualls sits at our table, Mr. Big Shot bo-

garts the interview, and the two hit it off with such a strange, bro-like repertoire that I’ll just let the transcription speak for itself: Qualls: I love doing horror movies because they shoot at night. A lot of actors hate night shoots but I love them... And I love fake blood. I wish I could show you this great photo that I have on my phone toward the end of my episode.

Some other journalist: You can totally show us.

Mr. Big Shot: Yeah, fuck it! [big laughter, very pleased with himself].

Qualls: [Scrolling through his phone] Oh, look at my mummy mask, dude. I bought an ancient Egyptian mummy mask.

Me: Wow. [This is my only contribution to the interview] Qualls: I really love ancient Egyptian shit. And it’s legal. It came into America in 1948 before the 1970 law. I’m really careful about that kind of shit. But I love old stuff, and people don’t realize how affordable antiquities are, because they’re not rare because everyone who was buried for 2,000 years had all the same shit... [still scrolling] I don’t know where the picture is.

What month is this?

Me: [general confusion] Mr. Big Shot: This is now July.

Qualls: [still scrolling] There’s me wearing a top hat. [Big Shot laughs heartily] You know what’s funny? Do you guys have this— when you give your phone to show somebody a photo and—probably not so much with women, but men definitely—if you swipe one pic over, you’re going to be seeing my dick.

Mr. Big Shot: I’ve never sent an unsolicited dick pic in my life!

Qualls: The only dick pics I’ve ever sent are to people who’ve asked for them... or for humor.

Mr. Big Shot: To your bros!

[At this point, I’m not sure what’s going on. A very Talking Heads-ish Well-how-did-I-get-here? moment] Qualls: Yeah.

Mr. Big Shot: All my bros have seen it.

I feel bad for the one woman at our table, who has to endure this kind of enabling bro shit just so she can write her piece. I feel bad for everyone at our table who has to endure this. In a professional setting, this kind of conversation would warrant strict disciplinary actions and sexual harassment training.

I watch Mr. Big Shot put his coffee jug back in his bag. Throughout the interview, he had never taken a sip. He had just wanted us to see it.

So, there you go, barber. There’s your positive story.

When he’s gone, the other journalists and I make fun of his massive coffee jug. It feels good to be united against this guy, who I’ve decided I hate.

@SDCITYBEAT

Well, That Was Awkward appears every other week.

Write to ryanb@sdcitybeat.com

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 7

UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE Falling in line

I

f a city has a public market, it’s a good bet it’s a great place to get a bite to eat. In fact, those markets are usually crawling with great casual dining options.

Oddly, that hasn’t always been the case at the Mercado Los Globos in Ensenada.

One of the standout exceptions, though, has been Antojitos Mary Cristy (Avenida Revolución & 9th, 22840 Ensenada, BC).

That runs into another truth about exploring just about any city: If a restaurant’s lines are long, it’s almost surely going to be a good place to eat. And the line at Mary Cristy’s is almost always long. So long, in fact, that when I last wrote in this space about the Los Globos market, I had “never braved” that line. This decision, it turns out, was my loss.

Mary Cristy’s menu ranges from gorditas and sopes to pozole and menudo, as well as quesadillas and various beverages. But the best thing to get there is one of the various tamales they have on offer.

Which tamale to order is not a particularly big issue, because it’s not the tamale’s filling that stand out. The real showstopper is the steamed masa that surrounds those fillings.

The ingredients are simple: masa harina (ground corn flour), lard, chicken broth and salt. The result, though, is anything but simple. The flavors are rich and savory with a hint of sweetness around the edges. And while Mary Cristy is definitely not shy with the lard, the effect goes beyond that. It’s almost earthy with a somewhat ethereal lightness. The steamed masa of Mary Cristy’s tamales is not just a delivery device for fillings. It’s an utterly critical— and marvelous—part of the culinary experience.

Beyond that incredible steamed masa, though, the fillings of Mary Cristy’s tamales do some of the heavy lifting as well. My favorite was the chicken

8 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

mole tamales. The brown mole peeking through the masa as the tamale is opened would suggest flavors darker than the complex ones that are revealed on the palate. The flavors there border on the exhilarating: Nuts, sweet spices and savory chicken, all of it melding with the masa.

The queso y rajas (cheese and poblano chile) tamales were almost as good, and are as much about texture as they are flavor. The Oaxaca cheese is squeaky, rubbery and a bit firm, contrasting with the soft chiles and light masa. But the flavor is equally good with the cheese adding richness and the poblanos providing a hint of spice.

MICHAEL A. GARDINER

Chicken mole tamale Mary Cristy’s pozole is good too, but their menudo rojo is even better. The tripe and cartilage are perfectly cooked: tender and toothsome. The menudo broth is meaty and rich and quite good on its own, but a squeeze of lime (perhaps the most underrated ingredient in Mexican cuisine) reveals layers of flavor and complexity that just keep building. My only mistake was ordering the small instead of the large.

There’s a reason there’s almost always a line out the door of Antojitos Mary Cristy when nearly every other restaurant at the Los Globos market has space to sit. Those who frequent the market know the good stuff is worth the wait.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

@SDCITYBEAT

UP FRONT | FOOD & DRINK

ANATOMY OF A COCKTAIL SCENE

BY IAN WARD

#62: For the ’gram at WhipHand

people. It’s both solitary and voyeuristic.

It’s a bit like having anthropophobia in a room full of a billion mannequins.

It’s a bit abhorrent to be on Instagram ’m going to throw a fact out there as much as I am, but it is unavoidand readers can take a moment to able in my profession. I can’t think about it if they so think of any other field as choose: One billion people growingly dependent to use Instagram a month.

Instagram as much as Just to put that in perthe hospitality indusspective, there are 7.7 billion try.

Maybe fashion, but people in the entire world as even then, I’d still specuof April 2019. And it took over late that it’s a tie. As a result of 200,000 years of human histhis, the aesthetics of the cocktory for the world’s population tail have been rapidly evolving, to pass a billion. morphing daily to be more InNow, with that figure in sta-friendly.

This comes in the mind, consider this: Instagram shape of colors, garnishes and, users post an average of 500 of course, glassware. million stories a day. That’s in Take the Yeezus Candle at addition to the 95 million reguWhipHand (935 J St., whiphlar posts that are uploaded daily. andsd.com) in the Gaslamp, for Even more shocking: Instagram example. It’s a perfect example users like 4.2 billion posts per day. of Insta-worthy cocktail porn.

So, on an average day people What is scary in this Brave New are viewing more than double the World of cocktails is the shifting amount of human beings on Earth of focus from taste to visuals. The but in pictures.

Yeezus Candle, however, is a rare However, as far as Instagram exception in that it has both. The goes, I still find myself in an endless scroll of narcissism and self- Yeezus Candle cocktail in and of itself is a variation of a Jungle Bird cocktail, a promotion. I go to a bar, get drunk and have a phone in my hand in a desper- rum-heavy drink beloved for its seemate desire to avoid bar conversations at all ingly perfect combination of sweetness, costs. I drunkenly contribute to the 4.2 bil- acidity and bitterness.

The Yeezus Candle, which is served lion likes a day out of a core need to avoid in a glass meant to resemble a veladora prayer candle, forgoes the rum and subs YEEZUS CANDLE in a lovely dynamic of both cognac and As prepared at WhipHand mezcal. The cocktail’s creator, Rob McShea, also adds a brown ale reduction, 1 oz. Cognac which adds a beautiful element of rich1/2 oz. Mezcal ness to the cocktail. The Yeesus Candle 1 oz. Aperol was designed to pay homage to “old” 1 oz. Pineapple juice Kanye West, who seemingly lost his way 1/2 oz. Fresh lemon Juice from the type of good music he made in 1/2 oz. Brown ale reduction the ol’ days before Instagram.

1/4 oz. Strawberry syrup

I

Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin with crushed ice. Whip and dump into a tall glass.

Garnish with a mint bouquet and an orchid.

@SDCITYBEAT

Anatomy of a Cocktail Scene appears every other week. Write to ianw@sdcitybeat.com.

BY BETH DEMMON

FINAL DRAUGHT August is for anniversaries

COURTESY OF ALESMITH BREWING COMPANY

W

ith over 150 breweries in town, there’s a statistical chance that at least one of them is celebrating an anniversary on any given weekend.

Only Karl Strauss Brewing Company has hit the big 3-0, but three other breweries are entering their mid-twenties in the next few weeks.

Coronado Brewing Company, AleSmith Brewing Company and Stone Brewing all started in the late ’90s, when the idea of San Diego craft beer was still in its infancy. There wouldn’t be an official local Brewers Guild until 1997, San Diego Beer Week was another decade away and the number of breweries was still in the single digits.

All of these early entrepreneurs have seen massive changes to the industry and region, according to Stone Brewing executive chairman and co-founder Greg Koch.

“It would be hard for today’s craft beer drinker to imagine what it was like back then,” says Koch. “In 1996, you’d have been challenged to find an IPA on tap.

There were maybe 15 bars and restaurants that had more than 10 beers on tap. Today, there are more than 1,000.”

Peter Zien, owner and CEO of AleSmith since 2002, acknowleges that there has obviously been “crazy big growth numbers” in the San Diego beer scene the past two decades, but it’s the longevity of the industry that’s been interesting to him.

“Back in the mid-1990s, we weren’t at all sure that craft beer would survive. Today, I am quite confident that craft beer is here to stay,” says Zien.

Even with the industry sea change that’s unfolded over the past two decades, Coronado co-founders and brothers Rick and Ron Chapman say the future is bright for their brewery and the local scene at large. Still, they have some advice for newer breweries that may be struggling to stand out in the crowded marketplace.

“Great beer will always win, and while

Peter Zien and Bill Batten in 2002 breweries around the country start to struggle, it will be the breweries that put quality first that will continue to thrive.”

Coronado is ringing in its 23rd year at their Bay Park tasting room (1205 Knoxville St., coronadobrewing.com) on Saturday, Aug. 3 from 2 to 7 p.m. For $15, the 21-and-over celebration will include live music, food specials and first crack at the 23rd anniversary hazy double IPA. AleSmith will kick off year 24 with a weekend full of cheese, art, music and, of course, beer. From Friday, Aug. 9 through Sunday, Aug. 11, expect its Miramar location (9990 AleSmith Court, alesmith.com) to be jam-packed with guest beers on tap, collaborations (including multiple barleywines with original AleSmith founder Skip Virgilio, who now brews at Gravity Heights) and even a barrel-aging class led by Peter Cronin, AleSmith’s quality supervisor.

Finally, Stone is turning 23 and celebrating with their annual birthday beer festival on Sunday, Aug. 18 at their Liberty Station location (2816 Historic Decatur Road, stonebrewing.com) from 3 to 6 p.m.

Tickets to the 21-and-over event are $35 and will include 20 two-ounce pours from over 50 breweries, live music and even a cigar lounge.

Write to bethd@sdcitybeat.com or check her out on Instagram at @thedelightedbite.

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 9

EVENTS

SHORTlist

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

MIDDLETOWN AND CHULA VISTA

HELPING BANDS

We pride ourselves on our local music coverage and devote plenty of space in the paper to all the shows and artists that are worth checking out. So it’s not often that we use this space to showcase local shows. But we’ll happily make an exception for two concerts this week that not only feature some excellent local artists, but also benefit two organizations that are near and dear to our hearts.

First, we’ve written about the De La Flow hiphop-en-español showcases before, but the one on Saturday, Aug. 3 will be particularly special since proceeds will benefit Families Belong Together, a nonprofit on the frontlines of the battle to reunite thousands of families separated by Trump’s cruel immigration policies.

“As the founder of De La Flow and Siseñor Entertainment, I believe hip-hop is music for the people,” says De La Flow founder Karlo Roshnaye. “My staff and I believe donating this money will help someone get a chance to live the American dream that we have the privilege to enjoy. This is what America is about.”

There will be an open mic from 9:30 to 10 p.m., followed by performances and sets from a host of local DJs and MCs including Phalasee, Jorge Quema, Ital Santos and headliner Eptos Uno. It happens at Diamond Jim’s Night Club (773 Third Ave., Chula Vista) and admission is $5 at the door. More info at

DOWNTOWN

WALK IT OUT There’s often an overwhelming feeling that comes with thinking about what we, as just one person, can do to help our homeless neighbors. The annual A Short Walk Home is a practical and fun start. Not only can readers help raise much-needed funds for Father Joe’s Villages homeless programs by participating in a scenic, two-mile walk, but they can also learn about practical ways they can continue to help.

It begins at 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3 at Spanish Landing Park (3900 N. Harbor Drive) and ends with participants walking through a giant frontdoor finish line. Stick around to learn more about how you can continue to help or write letters of encouragement. Registration is free at fjvwalkhome.com, but be sure to get all your friends and followers to donate. Every bit helps.

COURTESY OF FATHER JOE’S VILLAGES

HTo Do · A Mending Project at MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner Blvd., Downtown. A new workshop-based exhibition conceived of by artists Michelle Montjoy, Anna O’Cain, and Siobhán Arnold, and which is in response to the escalation of political, social, and economic tensions in the United States. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Through Sunday, Sept. 22. Free-$10.

858-454-3541, mcasd.org HSongs That Never Die at MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner Blvd., Downtown.

Artist Marnie Weber’s 2015 filmic installation about the Spirit Girls, a fictitious allfemale rock band whose members died tragically in the 1970s. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Through Sunday, Oct. 27. Free-$10.

858-454-3541, mcasd.org

Rod of Correction facebook.com/DeLaFlowWEST. There’s also the Border Angels Benefit Show happening Sunday, Aug. 4 at 8 p.m. at The Casbah (2501 Kettner Blvd.). For those unfamiliar with Border Angels, it’s a local all-volunteer nonprofit that works to dispell the myths surrounding immigration (founder Enrique Morones can often be seen taking down right-wing pundits on cable TV), while also performing hands-on work like legal assistance and water drops along crossing routes in the desert.

For the event, a host of local bands in a range of styles—from metal and punk to politically-inflected hip-hop and honky-tonk—will perform with proceeds benefitting Border Angels. Admission is $8 and acts include Rod of Correction, Se Vende, Cabron and more. Full lineup and more info can be found at casbahmusic.com.

SHELTER ISLAND AND MISSION VALLEY

NEW WAVE San Diego is home to a lot of things, but most still don’t know we host the largest annual tiki festival in the world. Tiki Oasis, the five-day celebration of Polynesian lifestyle and kitsch, is returning with a new theme: 1980s surf music. The festival kicks off at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 7 with a meet-and-mingle buffet at Bali Hai Restaurant (2230 Shelter Island Drive) before moving to the Crowne Plaza San Diego Hotel (2270 Hotel Circle North). The event includes the annual car and art shows (open to the public), a ukulele jam sesh, a costume contest and burlesque show, educational seminars and lots of live music. Main ticket prices range from $30 to $155 for a four-day pass, but many of the seminars and special events are sold à la carte (no main ticket needed). For more schedule and ticket details, visit tikioasis.com.

SPIKE MARBLE

HMore like a Forest: Paintings and Sculptures by Richard Allen Morris at MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner Blvd., Downtown. A reprisal installation of the local artist’s 1988 show, which featured Morris’ evocative sculptural work. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Through Sunday, Oct. 27.

Free-$10. 858-454-3541, mcasd.org HI Rang a Silent Bell at Art Produce Gallery, 3139 University Ave., North Park. A site-specific installation in Art Produce’s storefront gallery from artist Tessie Salcido Whitmore, who is known for using quotidian materials, such as found objects, 99-cent store colorful seasonal items, and common household goods. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 2. Free. artproduce.org HUnauthorized Version at Art Produce Gallery, 3139 University Ave., North Park.

New paintings from Cindy Zimmerman that incldues visual chapters, footnotes, and remnants of the life of Mary Magdalen.

Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2.

Free. artproduce.org HINTERCHANGE at North Park Main Street, 3939 Iowa St., North Park. A street art project walking tour of six public art installations are going up around North Park in unexpected places. Participating artists include Robert Andrade, Ashley Fenderson, Xuchi Naungayan Eggleton and more. From 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. Free. interchangeprojectsd.com HRadiant Architecture: The Visionary Work of Eugene Ray at SDSU Downtown Gallery, 725 W. Broadway, Downtown. Exhibition comprised of original hand-drafted architectural renderings and plans, ephemera, collages and more that share a visionary way of viewing the universe and urban space. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3 through Sunday, Oct. 6. Free. 619-501-6370, art.sdsu.edu Lupita Shahbazi at Project Reo Collective, 2335 Reo Drive, Ste. 6, Paradise Hills.

Multimedia artist Lupita Shahbazi will present new paintings that deal with themes like storytelling, memory and naturalism.

From 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. Free. facebook.com/events/460160871470354 Gallery Selections 2019 at Sparks Gallery, 530 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Showcase of six artists whose work features strong narratives and shows talented craftsmanship and execution. Artists include Derek Weiler, Evgeniya Golik, Lynn Christopher and more. Free.

Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3.

619-696-1416, sparksgallery.com HRadical Inclusion at Sophie’s Kensington Gallery, 4186 Adam’s Ave., Kensington. Professional artists and young artists with autism collaborate for a curated exhibit. The exhibit is inspired by Andrea Moriarty’s book, Radical Inclusion: What I Learned About Risk, Humility and Kindness from My Son with Autism. From 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. facebook.com/ events/445587356173249

A Short Walk Home 10 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

Tiki Oasis

H = CityBeat picks

Au Naturale: Nature’s Art at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor and Interpretive Center, 1 Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Carlos. A group show from the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild that includes paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints aiming to exemplify the wonder found in the plant and animal life. Opening from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. Free. mtrp.org

BOOKS HJanet Fitch at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The bestselling author of White Oleander will sign and discuss her new novel, Chimes of a Lost Catheral. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 31. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com HPatrick Coleman at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The poet, writer and Assistant Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego will sign and discuss his debut novel, The Churchgoer. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 31. Free. mystgalaxy.com Jack Carr at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The bestselling author and former Navy SEAL will sign and discuss his new thriller, True Believer. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1. Free. 858454-0347, warwicks.com Ian Winer at Barnes & Noble, 3150 Rosecrans Place, Point Loma. The new age author will discuss and sign his book, Ubiquitous Relativity: My Truth is Not The Truth, and answer questions from the audience. At 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. Free. 619-225-0465, stores. barnesandnoble.com Caitlin Rother at Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. The New York Times bestselling author and former investigative reporter will read and discuss her new book, Hunting Charles Manson.

From 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. Free. sandiego.librarymarket.com David Ellefson and Thom Hazaert at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The musician and A&R rep will discuss and sign Ellefson’s new memoir, More Life with Deth, about his time in metal band Megadeth. There will also be a live performance from Woke Up Dead, a tribute to Megadeth. At 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Mary E. Pearson at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The bestselling fantasy author will sign and discuss her latest, Vow of Thieves. At 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. Free. mystgalaxy.com J. Ryan Stradal at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The chef and food writer will sign and discuss his new novel, The Lager Queen of Minnesota. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6. Free. 858454-0347, warwicks.com Scott Hylbert at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The former local will discuss and sign his new thriller, Task Lyst. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com

COMEDY Lil Duval at House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. The rapper and stand-up comedian Roland Powell (better known by his stage name, Lil Duval) stops by on his Living My Best Life Tour. At 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2. $50-$65. houseofblues.com/sandiego

DANCE HDon Juan at the San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. San Di-

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 @SDCITYBEAT

@SDCITYBEAT

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 11

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

der Angels. At 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. $8. casbahmusic.com

10 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7. $20-$120. facebook.com/events/638965606603447

ego ballet dancers will perform a selection of 15-minute pieces from the ballet, Don Juan as part of the ongoing exhibition Art and Empire: The Golden Age of Spain. At 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2.

Free-$12. sdmart.org

Beach Punx Fest IV at Winstons OB, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. This annual music fest features seven punk rock bands including Late for Life, The Midnight Block, Batlords, Delma, Midnight Track, Western Settings and The Gay Agenda. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. Free. http://winstonsob.com/

HEverything is Terrible! at The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. The Chicago-based video and performance collective is known for their hilarious and bizarre videos that have been culled from abandoned and forgotten media. At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7. $15. casbahmusic.com

FOOD & DRINK HTacos & Beer Fest at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Enjoy tastings from over 100 local breweries, as well over two dozen restaurants serving up signature tacos. Ticket price include racetrack admission, five beer tasters and two tacos. From 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. $35-$45. 858-755-1141, dmtc.com Taste of Encinitas at South Coast Hwy. and Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Sample food and drinks from over 25 restaurants, sip on local wine and craft beer and enjoy live music along the way. From 5 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6. 760-943-1950, encinitas101.com

MUSIC Carlsbad Music Festival at St. Michaels By-The-Sea Episcopal Church, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad. Beachside celebration of music ranging from classical and indie rock to electronic and jazz, with performances curated by CMF Founder and Artistic Director Matt McBane. Various times.

Friday, Aug. 2 through Sunday, Aug 4.

Free-$10. carlsbadmusicfestival.org HBorder Angels Benefit at The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. Rock bands Rod of Correction, Se Vende, and more perform to benefit the nonprofit Bor-

San Diego International Organ Festival at Spreckels Organ Pavilion, 2125 Pan American Road E., Balboa Park. Thomas Hospital, holder of the grand organ at SaintEustache Church in Paris, will perform his works for one of his first concerts in the USA. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5. Free. 619-702-8188, spreckelsorgan.org

SPECIAL EVENTS

PERFORMANCE

H Bon Odori Festival at Japanese Friendship Garden, 2215 Pan American Road E., Balboa Park. The “Gathering of Joy” festival will include paper lantern crafting followed by a lantern ceremony as well as dancing, food, crafts and entertainment. From 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2 and Saturday, Aug. 3. Free-$12. niwa.org/odori

Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola) at La Jolla Country Day School, 9490 Genesee Ave., La Jolla. The operatic masterpiece presented by Opera NEO will be performed in Italian with English subtitles and accompanied by music from a live orchestra. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2 and Saturday, Aug. 3 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. $10-$55. 619-356-1848, operaneo.com

HBirth of San Diego Lowrider Culture at Bonita Museum and Cultural Center, 4355 Bonita Road, Bonita. The authors and filmmakers will lead a lecture and book signing of San Diego Lowriders: A History of Cars and Cruising, followed by a film screening and car display. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2. Free. bonitahistoricalsociety.org

HSteam Powered Giraffe at Mandeville Auditorium, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. The local steampunkinspired musical project presents a show that combines sketches, pantomime, improvisation, theater and original music. At 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. $15-$100. spgiraffestore.com

HLatin American Festival and Mata Ortiz Pottery Market at Bazaar del Mundo, 4133 Taylor St., Old Town. Folk artists from all over Latin America gather in Old Town to demonstrate their craft and showcase their wares, including embroidered textiles and the Mata Ortiz style of pottery. From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2 and Saturday, Aug. 3 and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday Aug. 4. Free. bazaardelmundo.com

HA Taste of Carmen, at Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. An abbreviated dinner show production of the opera Carmen, with Spanish tapas and drinks available for purchase. From 8 to

12 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

HA Short Walk Home at Spanish Landing Park, 3900 N. Harbor Drive, Downtown. Local nonprofit Father Joe’s Villages

hosts this annual walk to end homelessness. The walk will end with participants walking through an oversized front door to symbolize that every person should have a home. From 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. fjvwalkhome.com HImpossible Science Festival at Fleet Science Center, 1875 El Prado, Balboa Park. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn how to turn objects invisible, explore levitation, play with the science of mind control, and other amazing feats of science. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3 and Sunday, Aug. 4. $21.95$24.95. 619-238-1233, rhfleet.org HNeighbors Arts Festival at 130 E. 8th St., National City. The one-day arts and culture event and fundraiser for A Reason To Survive (ARTS) includes live music, food, art from local creators, and a beer garden featuring local brewers. From 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. $10-$50. areasontosurvive.org Island Vibe Music Festival at SDCCU Stadium, 9449 Friars Road, Mission Valley.

Enjoy dance performances, authentic food and music performances from The Green, Maoli, Irie Love, FIA and Swells. From 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. islandvibemusicfestival.com Clairemont Family Day at South Clairemont Community Park, 3605 Clairemont Drive, Clairemont. The 30th annual event will have free pony rides, a pancake breakfast, live entertainment by community performers and family-friendly attractions such as laser tag and hamster balls. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. Free. clairemontfamilyday.com Julian Natural Wonderfest at Jess Martin Park, 2955 Hwy. 79, Julian. The second edition of this festival brings in ambassadors from NASA and conservation orga-

nizations to speak about environmental issues; for children, there are opportunities to meet hawks, barn owls and other wildlife. From 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. Free. visitjulian.com Julian Starfest at Menghini Winery, 1150 Julian Orchards Drive, Julian. The San Diego Astronomy Association hosts this “public star party” under the skies of Julian; camping, wine and apple pie are all available. From dusk to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. Free-$40. julianstarfest.com HFarm to Bay at Living Coast Discovery Center, 1000 Gunpowder Point Drive, Chula Vista. The 10th annual event includes dozens of restaurants, wineries, breweries and farms coming together for a night of snacks and sips. Benefits LCDC’s programs to educate locals on ways to protect and sustain coastal wildlife. From 4 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. $100. 619409-5900, thelivingcoast.org HChula Vista Lemon Festival at Third Avenue between E and G Streets, Chula Vista. The annual festival celebrates everything lemon-related with a lemon pie eating contest, Lemonade Bandstand, and plenty of opportunities to consume the sour fruit in food and beverages. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4. Free. thirdavenuevillage.com

WORKSHOPS Made by X: Michelle Montjoy and William Feeney at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 1100 Kettner Blvd., Downtown. Two featured artists will teach participants to peel, whittle and wood burn their own walking stick followed by a test-walk around downtown. From 6:30 to 9 p.m.

Wednesday, July 31. Free-$40. mcasd. org

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THEATER In love and war

KEN JACQUES

D

ogfight is one of the great underrated musicals of the 2000s. Adapted from a 1991 film into a 2012 stage musical by Peter Duchan—with a score and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (who would later collaborate on the Tony-winning Dear Evan Hansen)—Dogfight is a bracing, immersive show that thoughtfully poses questions about beauty, machismo and war.

Cygnet Theatre’s production of Dogfight was one of the local theatrical highlights when it was staged in 2015. Still, the emotional complexion of this musical, when well-executed, transcends production budget, and this is evidenced by the current staging by the Coronado Playhouse community theater. What Coronado’s Dogfight may lack in resources and cast experience, it makes up for with perceptive direction by Teri Brown, kinetic choreography by Patrick Mayuyu and a versatile six-member band capable of balancing the score’s dramatic highs and lows. Most of all, it beguiles and devastates thanks to the performance of Sara Ah Sing, a junior at Point Loma Nazarene University, who demonstrates bravery and intuition beyond her years with her turn as Rose Fenny.

It’s Rose, a dowdy waitress in a San Francisco diner, who is unwittingly recruited by a cocky young Marine named Eddie (Adam

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OPENING: 33 1/3 – House of Dreams: The hit musical based on the story of Stan Ross and Gold Star Recording Studios, the L.A. hit factory that produced songs from the Beach Boys, Richie Valens and Sonny & Cher. Presented by San Diego Repertory Theatre, it opens Aug. 1 at the Lyceum Theatre in the Gaslamp. sdrep.org A Bright New Boise: Samuel D. Hunter’s dark comedy about a man looking for a fresh start, but whose life begins to unravel once his co-workers find out about his past. It opens Aug. 2 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. onstageplayhouse.org

Dogfight Sussman) to be his date on the last night before he ships out for the Vietnam War in 1963. The “dogfight” is a crass competition among the hell-raising Marines to bring the ugliest dance partner to a party, with the winner getting a $500 prize. In a single night, this cruel ritual evolves into an uneasy but genuine love story between Rose and Eddie.

When the night ends, the brutality of the war imparts the true meaning of ugliness.

Ah Sing’s vocals, especially during the sentient ballads “Pretty Funny” and “Give Way,” are fervent and tender, as is her painful aloneness after she learns about the awful trick played on her. The vocal shortcomings of some of the other cast members are

evident, however, and the acoustics in the Coronado Community Playhouse are inconstant, particularly when the actors are moving up and down the split-level set.

There’s no loss of urgency, however, in a production that this longtime community theater (73 seasons and counting) can be proud of.

Dogfight runs through Aug. 25 at Coronado Playhouse. $22-$28; coronadoplayhouse. com

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

All Shook Up: Set in 1955, this hit musical features the music of Elvis Presley and centers on a small town whose residents have mixed feelings about the arrival of a guitar-playing outsider. Presented

by San Diego Musical Theatre, it opens Aug. 2 at the Horton Grand Theatre in the Gaslamp. sdmt. org Footloose: The Musical: A young man moves to a small town only to find out that dancing is outlawed, but that doesn’t stop him from moving those hips.

Presented by Ovation Theatre, it opens Aug. 2 at the Brubeck Theatre at Palomar College in San Marcos. ovationtheatre.org Friends! The Musical Parody: A comedic musical that lampoons the characters from the hit ’90s TV sitcom about six friends living in New York City.

Presetned by Right Angle Entertaiment, it opens Aug. 6 at the Lyceum Theatre in the Gaslamp. friendsparodyontour.com

For complete theater listings, visit sdcitybeat.com

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 13

14 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

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CULTURE | LITERATURE ESMEE STEWART

very summer for the last 15 years or so, local writer Tammy Greenwood (who goes by the byname T. Greenwood) has driven to a rustic cabin 20 minutes from where she grew up in Vermont. The family cabin, which overlooks a pond and has spotty telephone and internet service, is where Greenwood— along with her husband, two daughters and two dogs—attempts to reconnect with her rural roots.

One would think the author of a novel that Greenwood describes as “Thelma and Louise with kids” would harbor romantic feelings about these types of cross-country treks, but that’s simply not the case.

“We found the fastest route with the cheapest places,” Greenwood says from the Vermont cabin. “We just suck it up and go.”

But Keeping Lucy, which will be published Aug. 6 by St. Martin’s Press, is more than a road novel. The story centers on Virginia “Ginny” Richardson, a young Massachusetts woman who struggles to come to terms with her daughter’s difference. Born with Down syndrome, that daughter (Lucy) is taken from Ginny and sent to a special school for children with disabilities. Two years later, when Ginny discovers that the school is at the center of a scandal alleging horrific conditions, systemic neglect and institutional abuse, the mother takes matters into her own hands.

Greenwood, the author of 13 novels, has always been fascinated with old asylums and abandoned institutions. She based the fictional school in Keeping Lucy on Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded, the largest institution of its kind in Massachusetts. The facility was leveled with a class-action lawsuit after conditions at the school were made public. Incredibly, the school remained open until the early ’90s.

This gothic setting provides the backdrop for the rest of the novel. Ginny defies both her lawyer husband, Ab and his powerful family, and hits the road with her two

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T. Greenwood children, Peyton and Lucy, as well as her best friend Marsha.

“That was in my mind for a longtime,” Greenwood says. “Thelma and Louise with kids. I wanted to look at a couple of characters who were in different places in their roles as women.”

But what’s fascinating about Ginny is that she’s not an adventure-seeking feminist, but rather an ordinary housewife in extraordinary circumstances.

“In 1969, most women were not feminists. Ginny lives in a time of great change, but she’s under the thumb of her husband,” Greenwood explains.

Perhaps the most harrowing aspect of Keeping Lucy is how it forces the reader to consider how American society treats people with disabilities—both now and in the recent past.

“1969 wasn’t that long ago,” Greenwood says. “While researching this book I talked with a lot of people with children who have disabilities. I was shocked by the number of people who were encouraged to give up their children. It would be unthinkable now to send away a child with Down syndrome.”

In the past, public schools wouldn’t take children with disabilities, forcing parents to give up their custodial rights and place them in special schools that were often havens for serial abusers. By and large these were par-

ents who were following a doctor’s recommendation and believed they were doing what was best for their children even if they were unwittingly putting them in harm’s way.

“I think people don’t want to believe it could happen,” Greenwood says. “It’s been COURTESY OF ST. MARTIN’S PRESS

such a short period of time since our attitudes were so despicable and degrading. It was in many readers’ lifetimes. I think that’s scary for them.”

Writing this book was challenging on a number of fronts, but one of them wasn’t the time frame. Even though Greenwood was approximately Lucy’s age in 1969, she’s comfortable writing historical fiction.

“I’m cozy in the ’60s and ’70s. My mom was only 18 when she had me. My dad was 23. I feel like I’ve inherited so much through their memories and stories. I haven’t struggled to capture the feeling of that time period.”

Many of the details from the road trip in Keeping Lucy come from her own memories as a child.

“We used to drive from Vermont to Florida in the ’70s in a Volkswagen bus,” Greenwood recalls, before adding that she had wanted to write a book about ’70s Florida for a long time.

Greenwood also makes use of her parents’ memories. In a particularly evocative passage, Greenwood describes passing a farmhouse on fire. Another scene takes place in Atlantic City, which Greenwood visited with her family.

“I used to dance in Tony Grant’s Stars of Tomorrow show at The Steel Pier,” Greenwood recalls. “My dance teacher would bring us and we would perform. My dad is very frugal. So we’d stay at cheap motels that were pretty seedy.”

Ginny’s eye-opening visit to Atlantic City coincides with a massive protest against the Miss America pageant.

“That’s the wonderful thing about writing historical fiction,” Greenwood says.

“You find things that fit perfectly with what you’re doing.”

Few writers are as prolific as Greenwood.

Keeping Lucy is her 13th novel, and her second with St. Martin’s Press. In addition to writing books, Greenwood teaches for San Diego Writers, Ink and The Writer’s Center.

She’s received grants and fellowships from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She’s also a three-time recipient of the San Diego Book Award.

“I think for me the key is I do my writing first,” says Greenwood when asked what the secret is to keep producing work at her pace. “I get up early and write. I’m a firm believer in word count quotas. Because I do it first thing in the morning I have the rest of the day to teach and grade papers and other things that bring in income.”

However, it wasn’t always this way. Early in her career she’d often wait for inspiration to strike, but she says becoming a parent changed that.

“I figured it out when I became a parent,” Greenwood says. “When I’m working on a project, I write seven days a week, no breaks.

It’s ritualistic.”

Later this month, when Greenwood packs up her car and points it west, she will be taking a much more circuitous trip back to San Diego, with stops at bookstores all over the country to promote Keeping Lucy, with a stop at Warwick’s in La Jolla on Aug. 25.

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CULTURE | FILM COURTESY OF MK2 FILMS

Fight smart

At War

Stéphane Brizé and Vincent Lindon team up for a blunt working class protest film

by Glenn Heath Jr.

E

ffective class dramas decline the urge to turn ple? This is, of course, an age-old question that’s been their subjects into martyrs. Director Stéphane around in some form or fashion for centuries. Many of Brizé proved as much with 2015’s The Measure the film’s best sequences revolve around this dilemof a Man, scrutinizing relevant social issues in mod- ma, and underneath it all lives the boiling specter of ern France through the conflicted perspective of an violence ready to spill out.

Still, Laurent and his allies constantly urge their unemployed blue-collar family man played by Vincent Lindon. This moving and subtle film respects the angry contingent to refrain from violence and to audience enough not to be obvious in its critique of “fight smart.” Brizé’s protracted dialogue sequences are tongue-lashings of the highest order, and they unfeeling capitalist forces.

Brizé’s clanging new protest film, At War, falls provide a vessel for these tensions during crucial parshort of that mark. It depicts the lengthy battle be- leys where structure and etiquette fall apart at the tween striking union workers and their shady corpo- slightest change in tone.

At War builds toward a pivotal meeting between rate managers in the most unequivocal terms possible. Laurent Amédéo (Lindon) personifies this aggres- Laurent’s now divided collective and the German CEO of their company. Thankfully, sive and confrontational style Brizé doesn’t soften the gutting as the head mouthpiece for the reality that sometimes being nearly 1,100 employees of Perrin AT WAR face to face with your opponent Industries in Agen, who are told is worse than getting ignored all their plant will be permanently Directed by Stéphane Brizé together. Eventually, one runs shuttering due to increased Starring Vincent Lindon, Mélanie out of minions to demonize and competition.

Rover and Jacques Borderie must confront the fact that corThe German corporation that Not Rated rupt institutions are harrowingly owns the plant signed an agreeeffective at destroying momenment with the workers two years tum. previous in order to avoid this As an actor, Lindon is at his best when he’s quietly very scenario, asking them to work more and get paid less, as well as forfeit all their bonuses and benefits. stewing, but this brutish performance affords very few So the closure sends shockwaves through an industry opportunities to do more with less. This makes sense considering the film’s brazen downer of an ending. In town already on the verge of economic collapse.

Jumping between street demonstrations, angry the final moments, Brizé makes it blatantly clear Lauprotest marches and tense meetings, At War remains rent lacks dimension only because he’s been stripped at the ground level of a prolonged struggle. In the of it by societal injustice.

In the end, it feels like a cop out. Brizé commits beginning, multiple union leaders share Laurent’s enraged sense of activism, and the group presents a the mortal sin of simplifying a complicated situation formidable presence during heated negotiations with where economics and empathy collide in multiple various levels of corporate lackeys well-versed in the ways. If only At War (opening Friday, Aug. 2, at Digital Gym Cinema) took a moment to present the perart of gaslighting and condescension.

Aside from referencing scraps of personal infor- sonal ripples created by lengthy class combat instead mation regarding Laurent’s family situation, Brizé of simply relying on rigid assertions about greed and divulges very little about the lives of any characters selflessness.

While the inherent rage of At War is necessary, so beyond their surface level ideological motivations.

This makes for a banal panorama of stock person- to is some fundamental understanding of the charalities, some of whom become conveniently spineless acter’s deeper motivations. By stripping this story of once the exhaustion of constant protest begins to take any nuance, Brizé dips his toes into the iconography a toll. of propaganda.

Under these trying circumstances, At War is most interesting when it asks this question: Can compro- Film reviews run weekly. mise really be achieved when money supersedes peo- Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com

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JULY 31,2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 17

CULTURE | FILM COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

David Crosby: Remember My Name

The journeyman

D

avid Crosby: Remember My Name opens with the famous rock musician lamenting all the bad decisions he’s made over his nearly five decades in show business. Although he’s best known for playing in groups such as The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Crosby’s rampant drug addiction and unchecked ego have cost him a lot of precious time. They’ve also cost him many of his closest relationships, most notably with his longtime bandmates Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.

The series of intimate confessions—captured while Crosby treks across the country on his latest tour—aren’t meant to conjure up pity for the aging rocker.

Still, director A.J. Eaton’s documentary often falls prey to some of the same hypocrisies exhibited by its subject, a surly man who bemoans that “time is the final currency” even as he openly admits that family plays second fiddle to his music.

Cameron Crowe, the filmmaker and former music journalist who has interviewed Crosby multiple times over the years, functions as the film’s moderator. He’s not immune to hero worship, though, and the toughest questions about Crosby’s personal choices are left unchallenged, specifically as they relate to the consequences of splitting time between family and the open road. The more interesting film would be a domestic portrait wherein Crosby’s wife Jan would get far more screen time.

David Crosby: Remember My Name (opening Friday, Aug. 2) comes across as a strategic attempt to reconcile and revise history, albeit one that nicely doubles as a survey of 20th century pop culture and politics. Still, the sense of des-

18 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

peration in the film’s title is hard to deny, as if the legendary rocker was somehow worried that his place in music history will slip through the cracks of public consciousness.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

OPENING At War: Employees fight back after a successful French company decides to shut down a factory despite record profits.

Opens Friday, Aug. 2, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Battleship Potemkin: Sergei Eisenstein’s silent masterpiece looks at the plight of the Russian proletariat who are mistreated and abused by Russia’s ruling class in the early 1900s. Opens Friday, Aug. 2, at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

David Crosby: Remember My Name: The legendary musician of The Byrds and CSNY opens up about past regrets and memories while on tour. Opens Friday, Aug. 2, at Landmark Hillcrest Cinemas and Angelika Film Centers Carmel Mountain.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw: Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham reprise their roles from the Fast & Furious franchise in this high-octane action spin off. Opens Friday, Aug. 2, in wide release.

Mike Wallace Is Here: A documentary about the career of the famed 60 Minutes journalist whose work has heavily influenced generations of broadcasters and writers. Opens Friday, Aug. 2, at Landmark Hillcrest Cinemas.

Three Peaks: Director Jan Zabeil’s domestic thriller follows a German man whose relationship is turned upside down when the woman’s son begins to question their relationship. Opens Friday, Aug. 2 at the Landmark Ken Cinema.

For complete movie listings, visit Film at sdcitybeat.com.

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COURTESY OF A.A. BONDY

MUSIC

he first time I saw A.A. Bondy was in 1999 at The Casbah. Bondy, who was then going by Scott Bondy, was the frontman of the Birmingham, Alabama rock band Verbena.

At one point in the show, he was howling into the microphone, letting his voice crack and distort at the end of a verse. To say he looked and sounded like Kurt Cobain is an understatement. The similarity was no accident, and was entirely the reason I was there that night. I’d read an article that favorably compared Verbena to Nirvana and mentioned that Dave Grohl had produced their major-label debut. I got to the club after midnight to find a small crowd rapt by the tall, bleached-blond Bondy channeling Cobain’s energy into something that was definitely Nirvana-adjacent, but nonetheless original. They were fucking great.

I don’t recount these details when I speak to Bondy over the phone. He’s calling from Mississippi, where he has mostly resided since the Woolsey Fire burned his L.A.-area house down last November. Thankfully, the massive wildfire didn’t consume his latest album, Enderness, which he finished recording the day before evacuating, just ahead of the flames.

I do mention that he’s played at The Casbah at least five times, maybe more.

“Have I played there five times?” Bondy asks. I tell him he definitely has, carbondating the shows I’d personally seen him perform there.

“Wow. I guess it’s just a constant somehow. You park the van, the planes fly

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A.A. Bondy over the club, you go walk around a couple streets up and look for something to eat, and then usually drive back to L.A. the night of the show ’cause it’s two hours, and maybe you can still find some people who are awake.”

Verbena recorded one more album for Capitol Records that, despite all the band’s momentum and promise, was their last. The group dissolved and Bondy looked inward, re-emerging in 2007 as A.A. Bondy and with a folk-blues sound on American Hearts.

The record was a critical success and he continued to plumb the well of Americana deeper in 2009 with the excellent When the Devil’s Loose. And while he drove a broodier backroad on the well-received Believers in 2011, Bondy kept touring behind each album, always coming through San Diego and occasionally catching North County breaks.

“I surfed Encinitas,” he says. “I’ve surfed Swami’s before; I surfed frickin’ Cardiff.”

After Believers, however, Bondy seemingly disappeared. He last played The Casbah in 2012. Then, a few months ago, he resurfaced with the self-recorded Enderness. It’s his

California album of sorts, with electronic keyboard, synth and looped beats echoing through an ethereal headspace.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Bondy says when I ask if he’s staying in Mississippi for a while.

“It’s a good place to focus on work in a way

that L.A. isn’t, because there’s no sunshine.

You can’t just like, blow it all off and go get bummed out at Zuma [Beach].”

Enderness draws a metaphysical map of where Bondy’s been in life. On “Diamond Skull,” he sorts out a cultural ephemera of Adderall, funeral sex, Old Glory and his name spelled out in cocaine. Analogs of Charles Manson and Squeaky Fromme appear in the ambient requiem “Fentanyl Freddy” with the titular character described as being out pawning his neighbor’s lawnmower. The songs convey a wry fatalism drained of ego.

Perspectives shift and narrator/character Bondy is in no rush, carefully laying each syllable over a wary digital landscape.

I ask how it feels to perform his new songs alone, with just a keyboard and no backing band.

“It’s pretty liberating actually,” Bondy says. “The real question was, what were people going to feel about it, and would they tolerate it? In Europe there was a kind of fan that was really kind of disturbed by the lack of guitar. Why would you go to a show where you know somebody’s different, and expect them to be who they were 10 years ago? It’s a weird thing.”

San Diego is Bondy’s last stop on a 37show tour. He’s playing only a select few of the old songs, and just one or two per show.

“They’re certainly easier to do now than if I were to be doing them with a guitar,” Bondy tells me. “They’re definitely bigger feeling.

The thing about those songs, when you play them on a guitar, there’s a certain tenderness that exists. But once you add drum samples and atmospheric keyboards… I think that tenderness can exist, but there’s other points to contrast against, with almost a karaoke aspect to it. Which is more fun for me.”

Guitar and harmonica became obstacles to transcending Americana’s ballast. Now Bondy floats an uplifting melancholy on a synthesized hum, a reminder to stay tender through the tough times.

On the misty “In the Wonder,” he sings, “See the city there / And the water rise? / Have another drag / Take another ride.”

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen,” Bondy says. “I mean, if you look at any culture or any civilization, they all run out of whatever they ran out of. The ships appeared on the shore one day and the white man came with fuckin’ smallpox in the blankets.

This is the story of everything. If you turn off all the fucking news and you’re not a farmer, you can probably just go on pretending that it doesn’t exist.”

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 19

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MUSIC

BLACK

ALFRED HOWARD

GOLD Antisocial media

T

he first time I ate LSD, lightning struck a woman sitting in front of me at a concert.

No really, this literally happened. It was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, a 1998 festival-type show held at the old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. From what I remember, the band Live played that day and performed their hit song, “Lightening Crashes.” Maybe the lightning strike was their fault, but I really don’t think that much of them and I definitely don’t believe they have cosmic powers.

Nonetheless, the lightning strike was a moment saturated with epiphanies for me.

Catch me on the street some time and I’ll tell you all about them, but we’ll focus on one particular epiphany in this column.

Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters were playing when the lightning strike happened and they continued to play through the ensuing melee, unaware as to what was transpiring on the opposite side of the stadium. I was on five hits of acid and wasn’t exactly sure what was happening either, so I continued to dance, legs and arms flailing as if they were being controlled by some sort of epileptic puppeteer above me.

At some point, my neighbor told me to “run.” Everyone else seemed to be running, so, being a natural follower, I joined in and began to run as well. Mind you, this was before mass shootings were a regular occurrence and received with the commonplace yawns of “is it Monday already?” This was unexpected chaos in a public place. No one knew what had happened, but the sound was violent, sharp and loud and the fear was palpable.

I saw an older man and asked him what

was going on. He turned toward me, his face an unshaven swirling paisley flesh nightmare emitting words like slow vomit and with a pronounced stutter.

“Could have been gunshots, could have been fireworks, could have been lightening,” he said. His speech impediment was like a traffic jam of words and it all came out like a sentence that should have taken him four seconds, but instead took up

“I’ll Know It’s Love For Sure”

by Pure Release the duration of Herbie Hancock’s set. And though I was losing my mind on panic and hallucinogens, I’ve always been very polite and heard him out.

This moment would define the rest of my life thus far, as I’ve spent most of the regretted time of my life inside a conversation I wanted out of. There’s been many moments where I spiritually left my body and watched my limp physical self endure one-way conversations with a verbal pugilist. Conversations at a swap meet while searching for rare records, for example, are very dangerous. I don’t only recall the re-

cords I’ve found, but I also remember the ones I missed and they linger a bit longer on my memory. I remember the day a man named Zlatan got a Velvet Underground record (with the Andy Warhol banana still intact), because I was trapped in a conversation about motorcycles with an elderly man. I neither know, nor care about motorcycles. I assume now that the elderly man now believes he once had a conversation about motorcycles with Gary Clark Jr. I was on my way to that Velvet Underground record and could have scored it, but my momentum was derailed against my will.

I’m not against having a friendly conversation at the swap meet. It’s just that there are safer hours later in the day after you’ve already walked miles through the same repetitive junk. That’s when you can start chatting up your friends, who are often looking for the same things you are.

On a recent excursion, I was walking next to my friend Bernie. He’s the owner of Beat Box Records in Barrio Logan. It felt safe and we were having a great conversation until, suddenly, I looked over and Bernie was gone. Seems my friend is nimble as all hell and split mid-sentence to go grab a rare San Diego record: Greg Clayborn’s “The G Man From Me to You.” When I went over to join Bernie, I found myself, yet again, getting lectured on motorcycles by an elderly man. This time, however, I took a lesson from Bernie.

In my peripheral vision, I saw a guy put a box of 45s on the ground. I practically ran over the Easy Rider chatterbox to get to those 45s, as if he stood between me and my life and lightning was about to strike. This is how I got a copy of Pure Release’s “(You’ve Gotta) Stop, Look and Listen,” which I ironically sold to Bernie at a discounted price for teaching me the lesson that no conversation, even the decent ones, are worth having if it means missing out on a record.

Pure Release plays music that I appreciate, but it isn’t exactly for me. I’m technically a happy person, but I’m not a slapthe-bass, disco falsetto crooning type of happy. I’m more a Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”-kinda happy. The B-side, “I’ll Know It’s Love For Sure,” is actually much better. Still, this was a dope 45 to find and, when lightning strikes, it’s totally worth nearly knocking an elderly man over to get where you need to be.

THE

SPOTLIGHT TIM ELLIS / FLICKR COMMONS

O

“Weird Al” Yankovic

ne of my most cherished memories is of road trips with my stepfather. Being that he was an avid outdoorsman, this often meant we were traveling to remote places that didn’t have a lot of radio reception. This was long before smartphone Bluetooth pairing and CD players became standard in automobiles. This often meant my stepdad and I were stuck listening to a few cassette tapes in the hours between destinations.

One of those tapes was “Weird Al” Yankovic’s soundtrack to his one-and-only movie venture, UHF. For those who haven’t seen UHF, I’m not going to recommend it, but I loved it as a kid. And the soundtrack? Pure gold to a 10-year-old. His standard parody hijinks were there. Dire Straights’ “Money for Nothing” was now about The Beverly Hillbillies. I tried SPAM for the first time on one of these road trips simply because I was obsessed with the song of the same name (a parody of R.E.M.’s “Stand”). But UHF was actually one of Yankovic’s more original albums and my stepdad and I guffawed over silly songs such as “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” and “Generic Blues.”

There were other tapes in my stepdad’s Chevy Blazer and I owned other Yankovic albums before and after, but none were as special to me as UHF. To this day, I still hope to see that giant ball of twine (yes, it actually exists) and I often wonder whether the SPAM in a musubi roll tastes just a little bit better to me because “Weird Al” loved that mystery meat so much.

“Weird Al” Yankovic plays Aug. 4 at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

—Seth Combs

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 21

MUSIC

BY CITYBEAT STAFF

IF I WERE U Our picks for the week’s top shows

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31

PLAN A: Spotlights, Vampyre, Death Eyes @ Bar Pink. Brooklyn’s Spotlights have a hard driving post-metal sound that’s leveled out by frontman Mario Quintero’s calming voice. They accurately describe their sound as “DreamSludge,” as it’s the perfect balance of beauty and bombast. Austin’s Vampyre is equally killer but with a more aggressive, post-hardcore vibe. PLAN B: Buddha Trixie, Ignant Benches, Los Shadows, Espresso, Glow @ Queen Bee’s Art & Cultural Center. A pretty great lineup of local bands. Buddha Trixie, in particular, plays an excellent blend of pop and garage-rock that’s infectious. BACKUP PLAN: Psychic Graveyard, Plack Blague, The Gay Agenda @ Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, AUG. 1

PLAN A: Alison Sudol, Wsprgrl @ Soda Bar. Hopefully readers caught our feature last week on Sudol, the actress and singer/songwriter who used to go by the name A Fine Frenzy.

She’s back after a long hiatus and sounds rejuvenated on her new songs. PLAN B: ‘Slasher Basher 3’ w/ JARA, Inspired and the Sleep, Boychick @ Bar Pink. This is pretty cool. A night of classic horror filminspired music from a nice selection of local bands.

BACKUP PLAN: William Clark Green, Coby Lee Brooks @ The Casbah.

FRIDAY, AUG. 2

PLAN A: Talib Kweli, Z-Trip @ Music Box. Nothing beats a Black Star show, but we’ll take one-half of the iconic hip-hop duo any day of the week. And unlike his bandmate Mos Def, Kweli continues to produce quality albums filled with empowering, activist-minded rhymes. PLAN B: Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Blondie @ Pechanga Resort & Casino. Rock legend Elvis Costello has done a lot of acoustic tours over the past decade so it’ll be nice to see him play the classics with a full band. And you can’t beat Debbie Harry and company as an opener. BACKUP PLAN: Action Beat, Gritos, Binge @ Whistle Stop.

SATURDAY, AUG. 3

PLAN A: A.A. Bondy @ The Casbah.

Check out this week’s feature on the elusive and mysterious A.A. Bondy, who just put out a challenging new album after an eight-year absence. PLAN B: Ötzi, Egrets On Ergot @ Bar Pink. Oakland trio Ötzi sound like Bikini

22 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

Kill if that band had listened to Joy Division and The Cure on a loop. It’s abrasive, dark post-punk that’s filled with stark imagery and killer bass lines. BACKUP PLAN: Foxtide, Street Surfers, Lucas Stonehouse, Kaitlyn Elizabeth, Elisia Savoca @ Che Café Collective.

SUNDAY, AUG. 4

PLAN A: Rod Of Correction, Se Vende, Cabron, Stuntdouble & Tenshun, Palomino @ The Casbah. A night of punk and metal for a great cause. See this week’s Short List section for more information.

PLAN B: “Weird Al” Yankovic @ San Diego Civic Theatre. Our editor has a soft spot for the polka-playing, song-spoofing parody singer. Check out this week’s Spotlight section for his loving tribute. BACKUP PLAN: God Module, Inva/ID, Aaimon @ Tower Bar. KEVIN BROWN

Ötzi

MONDAY, AUG. 5

PLAN A: Flux Quartet @ White Box Live Arts. The music of this NYC-based string quartet can often sound cacophonous and improvised, but it’s also the type of music that listeners get lost in once they give themselves over. It’s beautiful and bizarre; discordant and delightful. BACKUP PLAN: Les Enfants, Sweet Tooth @ The Casbah.

TUESDAY, AUG. 6

PLAN A: Black Taffy, Mystery Cave @ Whistle Stop. We once decribed the music of Dallas-based producer Donovan Jones (aka Black Taffy) as sounding like “RZA huffed a bunch of ether and tried to score a Spaghetti Western.” We’ll stick by that, but it’s also hypnotizing, as evidenced by his latest LP, Elder Mantis. BACKUP PLAN: The Slow Kill, Chris Avetta Band, Latifahtron @ Soda Bar.

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MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Subspecies (Soda Bar, 8/13), Ian Olney (Soda Bar, 8/25), RacketGirl (Soda Bar, 8/26), The Loons (Soda Bar, 9/10), Delvon Lamarr (Soda Bar, 9/16), Chance the Rapper (Pechanga Arena, 9/18), I AM (Brick by Brick, 9/22), The Strawberry Moons (BUT, 9/24), Kayo Dot (SPACE, 9/30), Mercury Rev, Beth Orton (BUT, 10/1), Psyclon Nine (Brick by Brick, 10/2), Bit Brigade (Brick by Brick, 10/8), Joseph Arthur (Soda Bar, 10/17), Rocket from the Crypt (House of Blues, 10/25), Love Revisited (Casbah, 10/26), Agnostic Front (Soda Bar, 10/26), Face to Face (Observatory, 10/27), Cory Wong (Music Box, 10/27), Justin Townes Earle (Casbah, 10/29), TR/ST (Observatory, 10/31), Dirtwire (Music Box, 10/31), LITE (The Irenic, 11/4), The Dangerous Summer (Soda Bar, 11/12), Black Belt Eagle Scout (Ché Café Collective, 11/15), Moonchild (Music Box, 11/16), DIIV (BUT, 12/5), Allah-Las (Observatory, 12/13), Chon (Observatory, 12/14), Insomnium (Brick

by Brick, 4/2).

ALL SOLD OUT Jeff Bridges (BUT, 8/6), The Psychedelic Furs (Observatory, 8/6), Death Cab For Cutie (Observatory, 8/9-10), Touché Amoré (Ché Café Collective, 8/13), Orville Peck (Casbah, 8/15), David Grisman (BUT, 8/29), Queen Nation (BUT, 8/30), Still Woozy (Music Box, 9/30), The Marshall Tucker Band (BUT, 9/12), Oliver Tree (Observatory, 9/18), Girl in Red (HOB, 9/27), MXMTOON (HOB,

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10/2), Marc Broussard (BUT, 10/5), Jonas Brothers (Pechanga Arena, 10/7), Morcheeba (BUT, 10/13), Tyler Childers (Observatory, 10/15), Two Door Cinema Club (Observatory, 11/8), Built To Spill (Casbah, 11/14).

CANCELLED ZZ Ward (Humphrey’s, 8/2).

GET YER TICKETS Blink-182, Lil Wayne (North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre, 8/7), Kacey Musgraves (Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, 8/27), Andy Grammer (HOB, 9/2), Carrie Underwood (Pechanga Arena, 9/10), Tony Bennett (San Diego Civic Theatre, 9/14), Chance the Rapper (Pechanga Arena, 9/18), Yungblud (Observatory, 9/19), Cigarettes After Sex (Observatory, 10/5), The Japanese House (Observatory, 10/11), The Who (Viejas Arena, 10/16), Judah & The Lion (Observatory, 10/17), Senses Fail (HOB, 10/19), Hozier (Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, 10/26), Helmet (BUT, 11/7), King Princess (Observatory, 1/28).

JULY WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 Everything Is Terrible! at The Casbah.

Stranger at Belly Up Tavern. Psychic Graveyard at Soda Bar.

AUGUST THURSDAY, AUG. 1 Easy Wind at Belly Up Tavern. Alison Sudol at Soda Bar. Born of Osiris at

House of Blues. Talib Kweli at Music Box. William Clark Green at The Casbah.

Pete Case at Whistle Stop.

FRIDAY, AUG.2 Rascal Flatts at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre. Mystic Braves at The Casbah. These Handsome Devils at Music Box. Lil Duval at House Of Blues. Bad Cop/Bad Cop at Soda Bar. Billy Bio at Brick by Brick. The Head & the Heart at Observatory North Park.

SATURDAY, AUG. 3 Dead Horses at Soda Bar. A.A. Bondy at The Casbah. Holy Grail at Brick by Brick.

The Molly Ringwalds at House Of Blues.

The PettyBreakers at Belly Up Tavern.

Vinyl Junkies Record Swap at The Casbah. Leilani Wolfgramm at Music Box.

SUNDAY, AUG. 4 Bars of Gold at Soda Bar. Chrome Waves at Brick by Brick. Border Angels Benefit at The Casbah. Island Vibe Music Festival at Music Box.

MONDAY, AUG. 5 The Bacon Brothers at Belly Up Tavern.

Lord Huron at Humphrey’s. Les Enfants at The Casbah. The Shellshocks at Soda Bar.

TUESDAY, AUG. 6 The Slow Kill at Soda Bar. Doc Hammer at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 7 The Original Wailers at Belly Up Tavern. Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones at The Casbah. Blink-182,

Lil Wayne at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre. Frank Iero & The Future Violents at House of Blue. Weyes Blood at The Irenic. No Strings Attached at Music Box. The Stalins of Sound at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, AUG. 8 The Surfrajettes at The Casbah. Leonid & Friends at Belly Up Tavern. Beach Bums at Soda Bar. 3rd Ear Experience at Brick by Brick.

FRIDAY, AUG. 9 Chris Young at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre. Master at Brick by Brick.

Sidney Gish at Ché Café Collective. The Paladins at Belly Up Tavern. Ruby Haunt at Soda Bar. The Soft White Sixties at The Merrow.

SATURDAY, AUG. 10 Lost Dog Street Band at The Casbah. The Como La Flor Band at Music Box. One Drop at Belly Up Tavern. The Quakes at Soda Bar. Damage Inc. at House Of Blues.

SUNDAY, AUG. 11

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 14 Planet Booty at Soda Bar. Devotchka at Music Box. The Routine at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, AUG. 15 The Fabulous Thunderbirds at Belly Up Tavern. Mike Love at Music Box. Doom Bloom at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, AUG. 16 Summer Salt at House Of Blues. The Dollop at Observatory North Park. The Devastators at Belly Up Tavern. Ringworm at Soda Bar. Electric Mud at Music Box.

SATURDAY, AUG. 17 Khofa at House of Blues. The Sleepwalkers at Soda Bar. The Bomboras at The Casbah. SD City Soul Club at The Merrow.

SUNDAY, AUG. 18 Hawthorne Heights at The Irenic. Kyle Kinane at The Casbah. Flynt Flossy at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, AUG. 19

Prince Daddy & The Hyena at House Of Blues. Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters at Belly Up Tavern. Planet B at The Casbah. Pinkeye at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, AUG. 12

Bad Books at The Irenic. Rotting Christ at Brick by Brick. Steve Earle & The Dukes at Belly Up Tavern. Dezorah at Soda Bar. Boris at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, AUG. 20

Elway at Soda Bar. Rorre at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, AUG. 13 Lucifer at Brick by Brick. Inure at The Casbah. Subspecies at Soda Bar.

Justin Hayward at Belly Up Tavern. Kadavar at Brick by Brick. Generationals at The Casbah. Gypsy Temple at Soda Bar.

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 23

BY CHRISTIN BAILEY

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21 Snail Mail at The Irenic. Blackfoot Gypsies at The Casbah. Jack Symes at Soda Bar.

THURSDAY, AUG. 22 Kacey Musgraves at Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre. Kenny G. at Humphrey’s. Mijares at Balboa Theatre.

Kyle Craft & Showboat Honey at Soda Bar. The Surrealistics at The Casbah.

Alesana at Brick by Brick.

FRIDAY, AUG. 23 Metalachi at Belly Up Tavern. The Avett Brothers at San Diego Civic Theatre.

SOJA at Del Mar Fairgrounds. Leoni Torres at House Of Blues. Molly Burch at Soda Bar. Nebula at Brick by Brick.

Beach Goons at The Irenic. Homeshake at Observatory North Park. Emo Nite at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, AUG. 24 Super Diamond at Belly Up Tavern. Tuxedo at Observatory North Park. Martin Campbell & Al Campbell at Music Box. Shonen Knife at Soda Bar.

SUNDAY, AUG. 25 Boz Scaggs at Humphrey’s. Man Or Astro-Man? at The Casbah. Ian Olney at Soda Bar.

MONDAY, AUG. 26 Pink Martini at Humphrey’s. Evan Konrad at The Casbah. RacketGirl at Soda Bar.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach. Fri: JohnnyGo, Revival.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., Normal Heights. Wed: ‘#HipHopWeds’.

Thu: ‘Trancension’. Fri: ‘House Music Fridays’. Sat: DJ Fingaz. Sun: Jamison Yergler. Mon: ‘Organized Grime’. Tue: ‘Deep House Central’.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: Tim Dillon. Fri: Tim Dillon. Sat: Tim Dillon. Tue: Open Mic. The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Road, Spring Valley. Wed: Karaoke. Thu: Colourshop, Jessica Lerner. Fri: Last Option, Jumped In, Garage Sale Monster, HellFire Blackout. Sat: 54 Reasons, RomanWatchdogs, PunchCard, The A-Bortz. Sun: The Velvicks. Mon: Trivia. Tue: Karaoke.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., Downtown.

Fri: Autograf. Sat: Cassian, Willaris. K. Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., North Park. Wed: Spotlights, Vampyre Death Eyes. Sat: Otzi, Egrets on Ergot.

Beaumont’s, 5665 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Thu: Aquile. Sat: Slower.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: Stranger, Iron Sage Wood. Thu: Easy Wind. Fri: The Stranger, Mike Santoro, Graceband. Sat: The PettyBreakers, Justin Paul Sanders. Sun: Del Mar Jockeys Karaoke Contest. Mon: The Bacon Brothers, Cindy Alexander. Tue: Jeff Bridges (sold out).

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

24 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

ASTROLOGICALLY UNSOUND Weekly forecasts from the so-called universe ARIES (March 21 - April 19): This week will be like an electrical box warning sign; not only will it kill you, it will hurt the whole time you’re dying.

LIBRA (September 23 - October 22): Don’t say anything unless you can back it up. Actually, you can say it if you’re certain no one else can prove otherwise.

TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): This week will feel like when you turn to pull into the only available parking space and discover there’s actually a Vespa scooter sitting right in the middle.

SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21): Some days you are the bird and some days you are the ancient Antarctic worm that was frozen in ice for a millennia and recently thawed and began moving again.

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Forgive yourself for mistakes you made in the past, as well as the mistakes you are making right now and even the mistakes that are in the pipeline for you in the next 20 minutes!

I mean, why not?

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 - December 21): You may hear a devastating rumor about yourself this week and, remarkably, it might not even be any of the rumors you started yourself.

CANCER (June 21 - July 22): If you have to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you only have to wait for your eyes to adjust to the dark if you haven’t cleaned your floors.

LEO (July 23 - August 22): This week, resist whatever inclination you may have to let your sunglasses do the heavy lifting when it comes to expressing your personality.

VIRGO (August 23 - September 22): Six months from now, you will wish you had started a project six months earlier.

Then you will think it is too late and then, six months after that, you’ll wish the same thing again.

CAPRICORN (December 22 January 19): Beauty and youth are not synonymous; you can get hotter and hotter every day just like planet Earth, and with equally catastrophic results.

AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18): It’s fine to exploit the fact that other people appreciate that you create the illusion that you’re busy. This is especially true given the fact that they don’t actually see all the work that has been done.

PISCES (February 19 - March 20): I really can’t think of anything to say for this one and I’m certain it’s indicative of your current astral alignment more than any sort of personal failing on my part.

Astrologically Unsound appears every week. Follow Christin Bailey on Twitter at @hexprax.

@SDCITYBEAT

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., City Heights. Fri: Sonic Attack.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington St., Mission Hills. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’. Thu: ‘Poptart’. Fri: ‘We Are Yr Friends’. Sat: ‘Just Like Heaven’. Sun: ‘Blonde 54’. Mon: ‘Goth Nite’. Tue: Techit Easy’.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave., Carlsbad.

Sat: Big Dude.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park. Fri: Billy Bio. Sat: Holy Grail. Sun: Suicide Forest.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Wed: Everything is Terrible. Thu: William Clark Green, Coby Lee Brooks.

Fri: Mystic Braves, Thee Allyrgic Reation, DJs Mike Turi & Andrew McGranahan.

Sat: A.A. Bondy. Sun: Border Angels Benefit. Mon: Sweet Tooth, DR3AMBR05, Les Enfants. Tue: Doc Hammer, The Waste Aways, Steeltoe.

Che Cafe, 1000 Scholars Drive S, La Jolla. Sat: Foxtide, Street Sufers. Sun: Summer’s End Metal Fest.

The Holding Company, 5046 Newport Ave. Wed: Nick Bone & The Big Scene, Two Reverends One Sinner. Thu: Headphone. Fri: Spencer Yenson and the Fever, Andrew Barrack. Sat: MDRN HSTRY, Whiskerman, Aviator Stash. Sun: Boy Named Sue, Shoeless. Tue: ‘Reggae Tuesdaze’.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Downtown. Wed: Gian Marco. Thu: Born of Osiris. Fri: Lil Duval. Sat: The Molly Ringwalds. Mon: PigPen Theatre Co. Humphreys Backstage, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. Wed: Clapton

@SDCITYBEAT

Hook. Thu: Barbwire. Fri: The Groove Mercenaries. Sat: Wildside. Sun: Rosy Dawn Band. Mon: Billy Watson. Tue: Casey Hensley.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. Thu: ‘Shake Your Bones’. Fri: ‘Ascension’.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Sat: Kennady Tracy, Natalie Gheorghita, Cordelia Degher.

Mon: Open Mic. Tue: Comedy Night.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave., Coronado. Wed: JG. Martinis Above Fourth, 3940 Fourth Ave., Hillcrest. Thu: Anna Danes. Sat: Spencer Day. The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., Hillcrest. Thu: ArKay, Digital Lizards of Doom, The Brothers Burns, BJ Jezbera. Fri: Sluka, Wily Savage, Underground Lounge.

Sat: ‘Bear Night’. Sun: ‘Playground Dance Party’. Tue: Stay for Fireworks, Minimum Contacts, Kitty Plague.

Mother’s Saloon, 2228 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Tue: Trivia.

Mr. Peabody’s, 136 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Thu: The Sickstring Outlaws. Fri: Cadillac Fringe, On Point Promotions. Sat: Salty Papa. Sun: Tony Ortega Jazz Jam. Mon: Open Mic. Tue: Karaoke.

Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy.

Thu: Talib Kweli, Z-Trip, Abjo. Fri: These Handsome Devils, Thieves Like Us, ShadowPLAY. Sat: Leilani Wolfgramm, Tapeheads, Flowmads. Sun: Tenelle, Mahi Crabbe, Dom & Nico, KL Noise Makerz.

The Office, 3936 30th St., North Park.

Wed: Selena Under Cover. Thu: ‘Dig Deeper’. Fri: ‘All-Vinyl Happy Hour’. Sat:

‘Strictly Business’. Mon: ‘Motown on Mondays’. Tue: ‘Night Shift’.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Thu: ‘Undone on Thursday’. Fri: Nghtmre. Sat: Savi.

Panama 66, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park.

Wed: ‘The Wednesday Jam Session’. Fri: The Ripening, Blind Mountain Holler. Sat: The Amalgamated, Steady 45s. Sun: Uptown Rhythm Makers.

Shellshocks, Roman Watchdogs, Bathwater Babies, Color Til Monday. Tue: The Slow Kill, Chris Avetta Band, Latifahtron.

SPACE, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights.

Thu: ‘The Hip Hop Collective Part IV’. Fri: ‘Rituals’. Sat: ‘Hide & Go Freak’. Sun: ‘Pocari Sweat’. Tue: Karaoke.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St., Midtown. Fri: Guy J Dosem. Sat: Distrikt.

Parq, 615 Broadway, Downtown. Fri: Lil Duval, DJ Obscene. Sat: Chuckie.

Sycamore Den, 3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: Paul Gregg. Tue: Trivia.

Pour House, 1903 S. Coast Highway, Oceanside. Wed: Open Mic.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Sun: ‘Pants Karaoke!’.

Proud Mary’s, 5550 Kearny Mesa Road, Kearny Mesa. Wed: Linda Berry, John January.

Tin Roof, 401 G St., Downtown. Wed: ‘The Corner’. Thu: ‘Saved by the Rood - ‘90s Dance Party’. Fri: Keep Your Soul.

Sat: Manic Fanatic. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Culinary Fight Club. Tue: Boon & Kiel.

The Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest. Fri: ‘Bad Behavior’. Sat: ‘Sabados en Fuego’.

Sun: ‘Noche Romantic’.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., Hillcrest.

Wed: ‘Mischief with Bianca’. Thu: ‘Techniche’. Fri: ‘Electro-Pop’. Sat: ‘Voltage’.

Sun: ‘Discoteka’.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. Wed: Boss Jazz. Thu: Swing Thing. Fri: Ian Patrick Cler Trio.

Sat: Baja Bugs. Tue: The Works Jam. Rosie O’Gradys, 3402 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. Wed: Gaby Aparicio.

Thu: DJ Ratty. Fri: CYOA. Sat: Bonneville 7. Mon: Jazz Jam. Tue: ‘Adams Gone Funky’.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. Wed: Psychic Graveyard, Plack Blague, The Gay Agenda. Thu: Alison Sudol, Wsprgrl. Fri: Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Dog Party, Pity Party. Sat: Dead Horses, Mara Connor. Sun: Bars of Gold, Shades McCool, Phantom Twins. Mon: The

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., Bay Park. Wed: The Jazz Pocket Swing. Thu: The Rockin’ Aces. Fri: Bump City Brass. Sat: Detroit Underground. Mon: ‘Sexy Salsa & Sensual Bachata’. Tue: Sue Palmer.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., City Heights. Thu: Los Freneticos, Dethsurf, The Fink Bombs. Fri: ‘Hip Hop vs. Punk Rock’. Sat: Burn Burn Burn, The Lucky Eejits, Fishing for Chips, Them Cuts.

U-31, 3112 University Ave., North Park.

Thu: ‘BoomBox Thursdays’.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St., South Park.

Wed: Riff City Comedy. Thu: Peter Case.

Mon: ‘Electric Relaxation’.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach.

Wed: ‘Club Kingston’. Thu: Ocean Beach Hip Hip Social. Fri: Electric Waste Band.

Sat: Sure Fire Ensemble, Boostive. Sun: Karaoke. Mon: Electric Waste Band. Tue: Ed Fletcher’s Birthday Drum Bash.

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 25

26 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · JULY 31, 2019

@SDCITYBEAT

BY JACKIE BRYANT

IN THE BACK

CANNABITCH Face time

B

eing a good journalist requires a good amount of skepticism. And when it comes to reporting on medical cannabis, Colorado artist and photojournalist Nichole Montanez possessed that in spades.

“In 2010 we passed a medical cannabis bill here in Colorado and I—just like a lot of other people—just thought it was an excuse for people to get high. I didn’t really believe in it,” Montanez says.

In 2013, Montanez found herself laid off from her local newspaper. That’s when a colleague suggested she write a freelance piece about the rise of medical cannabis in Colorado. Specifically, the story would focus on Charlotte Figi and her family.

Charlotte began using CBD oil at age five to treat the devastating symptoms of Dravet Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy.

The youngest medical cannabis applicant in Colorado at the time, Charlotte had been suffering 300 grand mal seizures a day (think the violent kind that causes unconsciousness) and unable to walk, talk or eat.

After starting experimental CBD oil treatment, she had only three or four seizures a month and began living life as a normal kid.

Montanez had followed the Figi’s story

@SDCITYBEAT

closely, particularly because her own niece, Hailey, was similarly afflicted with Dravet Syndrome.

“I figured even if I didn’t believe in it, other people seemed to find it interesting so maybe it was worth a story. I approached [the Figis] about a story and they agreed,” Montanez says. “I went to shoot photos at their house and almost immediately, I NICHOLE MONTANEZ

“Kennedee” from Face of Cannabis changed my mind about medical cannabis.

Charlotte was eating food herself after previously being tube-fed. My niece could no longer feed herself and had recently had a feeding tube installed.”

Still, Montanez’s story didn’t come out for another year. The Figis were reluctant to let Montanez publish due to the precarious nature of being public with a child who

uses cannabis products, even for health reasons. When the Colorado Springs Gazette finally published the story in August 2013, Montanez was inspired to include portraits of other children whose families moved to Colorado for their compassionate stance on medical cannabis use for children.

Montanez thought it would be a quick project and that she would eventually move on to other topics. But over the years, families kept contacting her asking that their children be photographed and included.

Cannabis activists in other states, like Georgia, for example, used images of the children to pass similar pediatric medical cannabis bills in their own legislatures.

Eventually, Montanez compiled all of these images into an exhibit, which debuted in Colorado in 2014. The photo gallery is now called Face of Cannabis.

Rob and Allison Benavides, well known in San Diego for being medical cannabis activists due to their son’s seizure disorder, were one of the families photographed by Montanez. Earlier this year, they asked if she would show her 284 portraits at La Bodega Gallery in Barrio Logan (2196 Logan Ave.).

She agreed and Face of Cannabis opens at the gallery on Aug. 3 from 5 to 10 p.m.

Throughout this process, Montanez tells me she had no idea she was documenting

NICHOLE MONTANEZ

“Emily” from Face of Cannabis the rise of medical cannabis use and activism at such a pivotal time. Since she began photographing children, almost every state in the nation has seen shifts toward cannabis legalization. As far as anyone can tell, hers is the only project documenting this medical development.

“The children need to be kept at the forefront of this movement,” she says. “These kids kicked in the door and made sweeping changes. Now, as cannabis is becoming more mainstream and set to be a multi-billion dollar industry, I want to make sure that they don’t get lost and put back inside. They deserve more credit than that.”

CannaBitch appears every week. Follow Jackie Bryant on Twitter at @jacqbryant.

JULY 31, 2019 · SAN DIEGO CITYBEAT · 27