San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
A photo by Roberto “Bear” Guerra will be on view at World Refugee Day event at MoPA
Art
Newbies: If you read CityBeat’s arts blog, you
know that artists Louis Schmidt and Matt Coors are opening Double Break
(1821 Fifth Ave.), a new gallery and design shop in Bankers Hill. The
two recent graduates of UCSD’s master’s program say they’ll show the
work of established and emerging artists in the gallery side and cool
arts and design-type stuff in the shop side. From 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, June 17, they’ll get things going with a book-release celebration for the Gravity and Trajectory publication Stopover in a Quiet Town by
Scott Lyne. The first three volumes of the book will be on view in the
shop, and the exhibition will showcase new artwork by the Gravity and
Trajectory crew, Sadie barnette, Micki Davis and Lyne. doublebreakstore.com
Animal instincts:
Spirit animal, power animal, energy animal—no matter what it’s called,
we all have one. Whether it’s an eagle, a wolf, an owl or a bear, power
animals are thought to give strength when strength is lacking. And, it’s
also kind of awesome to think that we’ve all got a bit of an animal
inside us. The folks behind Voz Alta Project and Thumbprint Gallery gave
more than 20 local artists an assignment to create works depicting
their inner power animals. From 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday, June 18,
head to Voz Alta Project Gallery (1754 National Ave. in Barrio Logan)
for Power Animals, where you’ll see canvases that include everything
from zebras to polar bears. The show runs through June 25. vozaltaprojectgallery.com
To the east: The La Mesa campus of National University will inaugurate its first art gallery, dubbed “214a,” with the opening of Spiral Bound,
an exhibition of San Diego and New York artists’ notebooks and
sketchbooks. Ranging from photocopies of pages and entire sketchbooks to
digital, video and animated versions of sketchbooks, the show will
feature 40 artists (a nod to the university’s 40th anniversary) and give
viewers an intimate and informative look inside the artists’ processes.
The opening will happen from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 18,
in Room 214a at National University (7787 Alvarado Road) and will
feature music from Green Fire Jazz. The show will be on view through
July 16. Email acyr@nu.edu if you have questions.
Music
Pushing the limits: The soundON Festival of modern Music is not for the timid. An annual event put on by arts nonprofit San Diego New Music and featuring works by contemporary composers from around the world, it highlights some of today’s most challenging avant-garde music. From Thursday, June 16, through Saturday, June 18, at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St. in La Jolla), the NOISE Ensemble (the festival’s performers-in-residence) and California’s Formalist Quartet will team with a klezmer virtuoso, a sound artist and an electronics wizard to perform works by adventurous composers like Mauricio Meza, Rei Munakata and Frances White. But these won’t be traditional concerts: Festival-goers can dig deeper into the music by attending open rehearsals, workshops and a community concert in which anyone can participate, no matter their level of skill. Find ticket prices and a full schedule at ljathenaeum.org/new_music.
Books
Get your goat-sucker: In Scotland, it’s Nessie. In the Pacific Northwest, it’s Bigfoot. Here in border country, the best, coolest, most elusive mythical beast is the Chupacabra, the goat-sucker. Is it a shape-shifting vampire? A government experiment gone wrong? A mangy, hairless wild dog? Or just the figment of the popular imagination? Benjamin Radford, managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, uses interviews, field work and forensic science in an attempt to get to the bottom of the cryptozoological mystery in his book Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore. He’ll discuss his research at 7 p.m. Monday, June 20, at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore (7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. in Kearny Mesa). Free. mystgalaxy.com
Food & Drink
Beerversary: Three years ago, we CityBeatniks had an idea: Invite local brewers to showcase their beers at different pubs around town once a month and practically give them away to thirsty brew aficionados (at first, we did give them away before upping the price to $1), and in the process, turn people on to both new beers and new places to drink them: Win-win-win! From 7 to 11 p.m. Monday, June 20, we’ll take over Blind Lady Ale House (3416 Adams Ave. in Normal Heights) and celebrate the event’s success at the CityBeat Beer Club Three-Year Anniversary. A $35 ticket gets you two flights of six five-ounce tasters (or four full beers) and a buffet of Blind Lady pizza. Tickets are available here.
Special Events
Rescue me: It’s a little-known fact that San Diego is also the refugee capital of the United States: Every year, thousands of people from conflict-ridden countries like Iraq, Somalia and Burma are resettled here to start life anew. The local refugee population will be feted at the first-ever World Refugee Day, a free multimedia event from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 19, at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. There will be video installations by the nonprofit AjA Project; the local premiere of Where We Live, a documentary about an Iraqi refugee family in San Diego; and photography by Pulitzer Prize winner Don Bartletti, voiceofsandiego.org’s Sam Hodgson and local photojournalist Roberto “Bear” Guerra. Even better, refugees will be serving delicious food from their home countries. sdrefugeeforum.org
Spoken Word
Telling tales: Psychologist Jerome Bruner said that narrative evolved from the need to make sense of things: Stories help us create order from chaos. The San Diego Storytellers know this well. Perhaps that’s why a segment of the San Diego Storytelling Festival: Voices at the Waters’ Edge, happening from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 18, includes a trio of vets—from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars—who’ll talk about their experiences. The daylong event also includes stories from the border, urban legends (intriguingly titled “Blood and Guts”) and so-called “fringe” stories: edgy tales that’ll be weaved at 5 p.m. There’ll also be workshops on finding and recording stories. It happens at the Encinitas Library, 540 cornish Drive. Free. A schedule of events is at storytellersofsandiego.org.
