Reports from the scene

Shot on Scene

It was a who’s-who of local glitterati at the grand opening of Super El Camino last Wednesday night. Architects, artists and artisans abounded, but the restaurant / club formerly known as Airport Lounge even managed to pull in guests from the future. Take Robin Hood: Prince of Hipsters pictured here. He managed to distract this hottie with his shiny silver space jacket (all the rage in the year 2387) just long enough to snag her pearls. Not that we blame him. When the place is charging 22nd-century prices for sub-par margaritas, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor is a holiday sentiment I can get behind.

—Seth Combs

Locals Only

Matt Kelly, guitarist for indie-rockers CHAZ, is in critical condition at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest after being struck by a semi truck on the morning of Dec. 18, according to a post on MySpace and a report on the website Bikesd.org. The accident occurred at Fairmount and Orange avenues in City Heights.

According to a friend, Lauren Leonard, who sent Bikesd.org an e-mail explaining the incident, Kelly was traveling eastbound on Orange when the semi clipped him from behind and ran him over without realizing it. Kelly was dragged about 20 feet underneath the truck before the driver stopped. After paramedics and authorities worked for 20 to 40 minutes to get him out from underneath, he was rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered that his pelvic blade and femur were shattered, along with internal bleeding. Kelly underwent four surgeries.

After he regained consciousness, Kelly was able to wiggle his toes and smile at his sister, but he’ll remain in the hospital for several more weeks and will need more surgeries to repair his bones, Leonard says. A concert was held at Kelly’s house (nicknamed the Piano Shop House) on Sunday evening with Long Beach band Crystal Antlers headlining and donating the $500 raised at the door to help with Kelly’s medical bills. The family has also set up a website, www.friendsofmattkelly.com, for additional donations.  

—Seth Combs

The Enrique Experience

Celebrating Christmas? That is so 2,000 years ago. Just ask the folks with the Humanist Association of San Diego, organizers of our city’s first-ever HumanLight festivity. Held at Hillcrest’s Joyce Beers Community Center and billed as “a year-end spectacular,” the new secular holiday—free of mysticism, bright-nosed reindeer and jolly old elves— aims to celebrate a brighter future through humanist philosophy and community.

Inside the meeting hall, a potpourri of pop hits blared, including, ironically, George Michael’s “Faith.” A few strands of twinkling lights aside, the decoration was bare. There was neither mistletoe nor Santa hats, but the mood was joyous just the same.

“Welcome! I promise this won’t hurt a bit, unless you’re into pain,” organizer Jason Frye told the audience. The night’s program included the projection of several videos, including one by the king of auto-tune, Stephen Hawking, and another by wealth management firm PNC that tabulates the real costs of the items mentioned in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Apparently, a partridge in a pear tree will run you $159.99, down 27 percent from last year, while nine ladies dancing experienced a rise and will set you back a cool $5,473 bucks.

The evening also included the lighting of three candles, representing compassion, reason and hope; a PowerPoint run-through of HASD’s 2008 activities; and a cameo of an image of Jesus hugging a dinosaur.

“That’s Raptor Jesus. He went extinct for our sins,” Frye joked. Later, the illustration inexplicably popped up again, and thus was dubbed “the second coming.”

There was also a lecture by Brian Keith Dalton, whose web show Mr. Deity offers an irreverent take on the day-to-day operation of heaven (with Dalton, a former Mormon, playing the “Big Man” himself).

“Religion is good in small doses, like a good drug,” Dalton opined, adding: “It should be done in private, on a weekend and next to a bag of Doritos in case you get the munchies.”

Before heading out, I paid a visit to the dessert table and was surprised to encounter Christmas-tree-shaped cookies and fruitcake. Oh well, old habits die hard.

—Enrique Limón

Goodbye, North Park

After nearly 10 years and almost 100 Saturday nights, Ray at Night organizer and co-founder Gustaf Rooth says he’s moving his flagship gallery, Planet Rooth Studio Gallery, to Hillcrest.

“Yeah, it’s on Fifth Avenue, in between Thorn and Upas,” Rooth tells CityBeat. “It’s a Craftsman home built in 1892, two stories, 3,800 square feet, a shop in the back and another cottage behind that. I’ve transferred over my business license. We’re gonna throw soirées there that are just going to be insanity.”

As much as it breaks his heart, he’s pretty much done with North Park. While he will still promote Ray at Night on the website that he owns (www.rayatnight.com) and plans to help host art shows at Bluefoot Bar & Lounge to run in conjunction with the monthly art walk, he wants to focus more on Planet Rooth’s new location. Describing it as a “bigger, better and improved” location for the gallery, Rooth says he originally wanted to expand into a neighboring space next to the current location, but the landlord would not let him.

“I told my landlord that I wanted to expand to the space next door,” Rooth says. “I told her that I need more space, and initially she was all happy about it, but then two days later, she was, like, ‘No, I don’t want to rent more space to you. I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.’

“Most everyone is bummed I’m leaving,” Rooth says. “And I am upset, because I could have expanded here, and this could have happened in North Park. Now that I’m not gonna do that, some people might call me a sell-out, but I don’t have much of a choice.”

Rooth said the recent changes in the neighborhood’s nightlife scene has made it an unbearable place to live and work (Rooth also lives above the gallery) and that the arts-and-culture scene in general has suffered because of the patrons that flock to bars like True North and West Coast Tavern.

“To be blunt, it’s living here between 11 and 2:30 at night.” Rooth says. “They talk about how they want San Diego to have live / work spaces. Well, I live and work in one of those spaces, and I can complain about what’s going on. People tell you over and over, ‘Well, you shouldn’t live in the city.’ I shouldn’t live where I am because these people have no drunk etiquette? I’ve never yelled and beat up my friends or thrown bottles and left garbage on the street when I’m drunk. And they think that’s going to get better?”

This is on the heels of a New York Times story proclaiming North Park a hot national destination. The story featured Rooth and his gallery.

“It’s great that it’s put San Diego on the map, but North Park’s success is coming at the immediate expense of the people that have lived here for years,” he says. “Once, it was about being part of something, now we can’t get far enough away from it.”

Planet Rooth will hold its last show during the 100th Ray at Night on Saturday, Jan. 9. For more on Rooth, see www.lastblogonearth.com.

—Seth Combs