Saturday, November 30: Inaugural North Park Live!

It's such an honor to have been asked to work with North Park Main Street again in helping book some events. The first one happens on Saturday, November 30 and features free live music starting at noon and lasting through the late afternoon. I booked five of the venues, but there's also stuff at Bar Pink, The Office, 619 Spirits, Red Wing and others to make it a robust and fun-filled Small Business Saturday. I'll be running around, but hope to bump into lots of friends and neighbors throughout the day. See the schedules below to plot out your day!

• North Park Live & Small Businesss Saturday:
• Luc Trahand (12pm), Gaby Aparicio (1pm), Heather Marie (2pm), Nena Anderson (4pm) @ Bivouac Ciderworks
• Shelbi Bennett (12:15pm), Julia Sage (1:15pm), Erik Canzona (2:15pm), Michael McGraw (3:15pm) @ Working Class
• Julia Sage (12:15pm), Shelbi Bennett (1:15pm), Michael McGraw (2:15pm), Erik Canzona (3:15pm) @ North Park Brewing Company
• Gaby Aparicio (12pm), Luc Trahand (1pm), Nena Anderson (2pm), Heather Marie (3pm) @ Tamarindo
• Nate Donnis (12:30-2pm), Timothy Joseph (2:30-4pm) @ Original 40 
• Rob Bondurant (12pm) @ 619 Spirits

Things To Do In San Diego: Tuesday, November 26-Monday, December 2, 2019

I feel like I have all these little things up in the air, so I'm super ecstatic that it's Thanksgiving week and that it's supposedly gonna be all stormin' around here, so maybe I can catch up on life and spend some time at home getting my shit together, enjoy the holiday, and then be ready to bust ass on Saturday for North Park Live, an inaugural event that I helped book. I feel like last week was crazy, but in reality I only went to Death Cab for Karaoke on Wednesday, and then did Wonderfront on Friday and Saturday. But Nova also had a soccer tournament, so I was up almost 24 hours when it was all said and done, with her morning soccer game in Escondido, then a couple hours at Safari Park, then lunch, then her second game, then home to charge phones, then Wonderfront, then Casbah for Phantogram until closing. Between Friday and Saturday I walked 17 miles and on Sunday I was still exhausted, which unfortunately is a major trigger for anxiety paralysis and I could barely drag myself out of bed let alone do another day of the festival. I won't dwell, however. Onward and upward to the week ahead. Listings through Monday are after the jump.

Purina Sponsors San Diego Humane Society Adoptions For $5

Thanks to a sponsorship from Purina, all adoptions through the San Diego Humane Society are only $5 from November 19-December 1st! We're celebrating our 'Gotcha Day' with Strawberry next week and we can't really imagine our little family without her. Ficus was also adopted through the Humane Society foster program. If you have room in your home and your heart, consider adopting this season. The Humane Society has three main campuses- Gaines Street in San Diego, Escondido, and Oceanside, and the hours are generally 10am-6pm (but check the website for special hours and satellite locations.)

10 Ways Pets Support Mental Health:

1.  Interacting with Pets Lowers Our Stress Hormones
2. Pets Protect Against Childhood Anxiety
3. Our Pets Make Us Feel Needed
4. Pets Increase Our Sense of Self-Esteem and Well-Being
5. Cats and Dogs Are Great Examples of Being in the Moment
6. Pets Support Recovery from Mental Illness
7. Pets Help Us Build Healthy Habits
8. Our Pets Help Build Relationship Skills
9. Pets Support Social Connection
10. Pets Give Us Unconditional Love

Things I'm Reading & Watching: I'm With The Band: Nasty Cherry | The Testaments | One Night In Georgia | Whisper Network |

A Very Old Picture of KITTEN

I've been working through Christmas movies, so I have another post in the works for those, but I'm killing time this morning so I thought I'd stop lollygagging on all my draft posts. So there are a few new things I've watched and read and you can read about them after the jump.

"Nobody has any authority on the fucks other people give."
                                                                       -"The Testaments" Margaret Atwood

Behind The Scenes at Wonderfront

Wonderfront is just a few days away and I'm certain that this water falling from the sky will be gone in time for the whole thing to go down beautifully. I haven't quite decided if I'm gonna be on the fast-track and try to see a little bit of everything or if I'll just be super casual and see what I see, but either way, I'll have my camera in tow and will be posting as much as my batteries will allow. Anyway, they posted this behind the scenes video and I have to admit, they got me pretty excited. If you still need info or tickets, get it all here.

Things To Do In San Diego: Tuesday, November 19-Monday, November 25, 2019

It was a great week of music so I'll recap, but I also wanna say that this weekend is the inaugural Wonderfront Festival, and while I've been festival averse in the past, this one seems navigable and you can find all the set times and info on my old post, but also they dropped an app for iOS and and Android, so you should definitely download that before the weekend. Last week was busy af...on Wednesday I went to Built to Spill and The Office after. On Thursday we went to see The Driver is Red and hear holocaust survivor Rose Schindler at Bread & Salt, then I went to Music Box for Art Alexakis and after caught Hovvdy at Space. On Friday night I went to Cold War Kids and Samia at Observatory, but I was kinda struggling so I didn't quite make it till the end of the show. I did start reading a great book that I couldn't put down and finished over the weekend called Whisper Network which kinda kept me up all night. (You can check out the ebook on the San Diego Public Library app) and then Saturday Nova played her last game of her season. Then Saturday night I worked for The Ocean Blue at the Casbah, and Darren came and met me and we went to Livewire after all of that. On Sunday I went to AMSD for the first time ever to catch Trashcan Sinatras, who performed A Happy Pocket and Weightlifting in their entirety for a breathtaking show. Come Monday, however, I was bed-ridden with allergies because it was like 90+ degrees in November. Ugh. I'm feeling better though, and excited for Wonderfront, and then next weekend with North Park Live and things are feeling good, though I haven't really found much time to post any pics and it's kind of a constant weight I can't really shake. But so it goes. If you wanna see my show pics, you should just follow my Instagram anyway. Listings through Monday are after the jump.

Things To Do In San Diego: Wednesday, November 13-Monday, November 18, 2019

The holidays are approaching and I am imagining in my brain that things slow down and I can get caught up and chill a bit but it's not really looking that way. But it does mean that I kinda keep blowing off shows I want to go to but just can't muster the energy. So last week I really only ended up catching French For Rabbits at Space, working for Skegss at the Casbah on Friday, and working for Rhett Miller at Music Box on Sunday. We also had some fun time hanging out with my family over the weekend, and we spent Veteran's Day at the Safari Park, where you can see this adorably loving lappet-faced vulture pair, who are always nuzzling and working together to adjust and build their nest. It's hard to get up there these days, since the sun is setting so early and they're only open until 5, but both the Zoo and Safari Park have some great extended hours for the holidays, so I'll add my Holiday Event Guide to the list of the million things I need to do. Already this week I've missed Broncho and Drew Holcomb, but I'll try to get my biz together so I can enjoy some shows this week. I'll be shooting at the Music Box for Art Alexakis on Thursday, and Cold War Kids at the Observatory, and I'll be selling merch for The Ocean Blue on Saturday. I'm also really excited to catch Trashcan Sinatras on Sunday at AMSD. Listings through Monday are after the jump.

Coming Soon: North Park Live! - Saturday, November 30th

I've been super busy lately but I couldn't really talk about it until it was all locked in and confirmed, but I'm happy that I've been asked to do a couple projects with North Park Main Street. The first of those is North Park Live, an event in conjunction with Small Business Saturday presented by My Point Credit Union.
There will be shopping and dining specials, live art, and lots of free live music spread across numerous venues. I'm pleased to share that among the artists, you'll be able to catch Erik Canzona, Michael McGraw, Heather Marie, Nena Anderson, Gaby Aparicio, TJ, Nate Donnis, Luc Trahand, Shelbi Bennett, and Julia Sage. Lock the date into your calendar and make sure if you're gonna spend money this holiday season, to consider shopping local.

Things To Do In San Diego: Tuesday, November 5-Tuesday, November 12, 2019

I already told you that I mostly stayed home like a hermit because I was sick and stuff, but I pulled it all together to get to Dia de los Deftones which was pretty fun. I hadn't been to the Sycuan Park at the Park and I was impressed with the layout and it looked like it would've been pretty fun to do all the decorating and stuff that they laid about the park. Me and Tim Fears were both shooting, so we got there early enough to catch all the acts. After the event, we caught Black Mountain at the Casbah. That's pretty much the extent of my whole week, though Nova and I wandered Ikea without a purpose to hang out and eat in their cafeteria. There are some great shows this week, but I've got a lot on my plate, so realistically I'll probably take it easy until Skegss on Friday. Listings are done through Tuesday this week, since Monday is Veterans Day...all after the jump.

Things To Do In San Diego: Friday, November 1-Monday, November 4, 2019

Today is the kickoff for San Diego Beer Week and I feel like I got enough posts in this week that I'd bring the updated listings back up to the top. I added a few Dia De Los Muertos events and some of the venues that didn't have listings when I did these on Monday night. I'm still feeling under the weather and mostly at home taking it easy, though I did get out of the house on Wednesday to La Jolla Cove while Nova was at soccer, maybe for the last time since Daylight Saving Time is ending this weekend. I also did a little shopping while Nova wrapped up trick-or-treating with her friend, so I guess my isolation made me buy new beds for all the pets so all my pictures of them don't have 15 beach towels strewn across the sofa. I'm shooting Dia de los Deftones, so I won't be holed up all weekend, but mostly I'm hoping to get up to the Safari Park for their Dia De Los Muertos weekend. We shall see... listings through Monday are after the jump.

Things I'm Reading & Watching: Katie Hill's Amazing Parting Words | Looking For Alaska | Wired | CityLab

I only knew about The Testaments, Margaret Atwood's long awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, about a week before its release, but the second I heard about it, I reserved any format I could on every library I could (San Diego, Chula Vista, San Diego County) and within a week or so of release, I already had the book from one library and the audio CDs from another. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to the book at all...it was the same time the Casbah was transitioning from Ticketfly to Eventbrite and I was buried in work, but I've now got the audio recording and am listening as I work, as I clean, as I lay around being sick. Darren is listening, too. So today, I was watching this amazing speech by Katie Hill, and he walks into the room. And granted, he couldn't really make sense of what was being said but says, "Oh, you must've caught up to me and passed me, I haven't heard that part yet." I don't know if I should laugh or cry. That he could hear the words of Katie Hill, and mix them with The Testaments says so much about where we are. Yesterday he asked me if Nova was too young to experience "toxic masculinity" and I said it's something females experience from the time we're born, then proceeded to give examples. Listen to Katie. It's 8 minutes long. Take the time. And let's at least celebrate today's Impeachment vote victory. Still such a long way to go.


more watching and reading after the jump: