Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, August 31-Wednesday, September 6, 2022: 50 Cent | Sylvan Esso | Owl Be Damned | Ziggy Alberts | Senses Fail | Nitzer Ebb | Counting Crows | Weezer | Young The Giant | Nate Bergatze | Corteo |

As I mentioned in the last post, it's been a pretty good week, albeit hot AF, and I'm really really trying to take a long weekend so of course I'll be on my phone doing all the things expected of me, but I'm gonna try to enjoy the zoo, do some shopping, and generally lounge around. It's supposed to be a cooler weekend and I'm here for it. I don't know if I'l get around to updating this post, because inevitably people shoot me emails about things I missed, but just know there's a lot to do this weekend. Too much, in fact, to waste time sitting around online. 

Love you. 

Stay safe out there. 

Newsy Things & DIary: Goodest Boys Detect COVID | Watch Out For 'Pirola' | Lithium Battery Danger | The Fight For Restoring Endangered Species Act | Late Links On Hilary |

Denny (8.18.23)

It's time for me to do listings so I probably should've posted these links last week, but then Hilary happened (or didn't, really, thankfully) and I was posting like crazy, and then we were luckily spared but I've been busy with work and I did some side merch gigs three nights in a row and then this week has been hot and miserable, so sitting on my laptop has kinda been the last thing I've wanted to do, but it's always a way to clear the slate, get these things posted and then move on to listings. Old news in some cases, but new COVID variants news and other things, too. 

I will say again that the San Diego Zoo's summer hours are ending on Labor Day and this has been such a joyful summer spending time there, particularly watching 8 year old Denny the gorilla transition from his family group in the afternoons to his bachelor group with his brothers in the mornings. If you get a chance, go see them. It's a rare thing to be witness to and to watch his brothers teach him how to be a proper gorilla dude. 

Stay safe out there. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, August 24-Wednesday, August 31, 2023: Pleasure Pill | Chris Shiflett | Ugly Things Weekender | Bully | San Diego Fest | Michael Bolton | Justin John Rodriguez Benefit | Dogstar |

Justin John Rodriguez

I'm sorry these are a few hours late, but I need to jet, so if I missed anything, I'll update tonight when I'm working at Music Box. There's a ton of good stuff this weekend and kids are mostly all back in school and things are good, but COVID is up, so do what you gotta do to stay healthy. 

I love you. 

Stay safe out there. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, August 23-Wednesday, August 30, 2023: Listings To Come

I just wanted to do a quick post to let you know listings will NOT be posted at 6am on Thursday. I spent Wednesday at a Memorial for a close family friend and I lost steam afterward and couldn't finish. I'm halfway done with listings for the week and I hope to have them up before the afternoon, but I desperately need sleep. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

I love you. 
Stay safe out there. 

Hurricane/Cyclone Hilary : San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld To Close Sunday | California State Parks Urges Public to Limit Outdoor Activities During Hurricane Hilary (Press Release) | Humane Society | Other Storm Stuff.

 So I'm sitting at Music Box while I sell merch and I'm checking email and watching socials roll in about the storm. It's like the two worlds. Half of downtown is raging like a regular Saturday night, and half of downtown has sand bags and boarded up windows and the City placed lines of sand bags and hay rolls around storm drains. It's super weird. I'm inside and have no idea what's actually happening outside, but I'm glad that we decided to fix the roof of our van and repaint it last year because otherwise it wouldn't be able to have handled the winter and spring storms, let alone what is expected from this one. Hopefully our studio can handle big rains and winds? Fingers crossed. I'm posting a lot on Instagram, kinda like I did with updates back in the day on this little site called Twitter before that sociopath took it over, but you should know that lots of events, particularly outdoor ones are being canceled or postponed. The San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and SeaWorld are all going to be closed. Weirdly, as of 9pm Saturday, America's Finest City Half Marathon & 5K are still happening. I guess I'll be cracking open a freshie of Bulleit and sleeping in on Sunday. So far, San Diego Unified is still preparing to be open on Monday for the 2023-2024 school year, but if you're a parent, you should make sure you're opted into their texts by sending "YES" to 67587. Hopefully you have water in case ours gets tainted...that's kinda my biggest fear about all of this is our aged infrastructure causing the damage: backed up storm drains, downed power lines, water main breaks, backed up sewage mixing with potable water. Gross. Hopefully the warnings are all overblown, but I'm glad I'm a prepper nonetheless. I mean, I'll find any excuse to already be wearing my Chooka rainboots, because, hey, that storm could hit by the time I'm getting out of this show around midnight. And if the roads are undrivable, I have enough shit in my van to sleep a few days. (Joking, not joking.)  At the very least, charge your phones in case power is interrupted. I don't trust SDG&E for shit. And let's all pray our wi-fi doesn't go down. 

Stay safe out there. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, August 17-Wedneday, August 23: Ben Heyne 30 Years at The Casbah | Tab Benoit | Surprise Chef | Voice of Baceprot | Boy George | Os Mutantes | The Silent Comedy | Young The Gian & Milky Chance | Duran Duran | MMJ | Jason Mraz | Mt. Joy |

Ben Heyne Celebrates 30 Years at The Casbah

It's always a great feeling when I finish the listings and this week I switched up the picture because our sweet friend Ben is celebrating 30 years at the Casbah! I'm coming up on 15 in January and have had the joy of working with cantankerous Ben all these years. Thursday night will be a free show with awesome bands, but you should really just come down and tell him how awesome he is and gush about him because it will embarrass the hell out of him. 

There are a lot of great shows this week, but take heed of all the Hurricane Hilary warnings. I mean, come on. Really? A HURRICANE is going to affect San Diego? Well, maybe, and that means you should plan accordingly, maybe some of these outdoor shows could be affected so check your venues before you head out in case circumstances change or events are postponed. Watch out for falling stuff - trees, palm fronts, and the like, and maybe stay out of the ocean until this whole thing passes. And if it passes with no effects, great. But don't be the dumb-dumb driving in Mission Valley and getting a flooded car because you didn't heed the warning that the San Diego River could be gushing by the weekend. 

Be smart. 

Be safe out there.  

UPDATES: The free The Silent Comedy show at Moonlight Beach will be postponed with a new date TBA. The Wave SC game has changed start time, Padres have moved Sunday's game to Saturday at 12:10pm

Newsy Things & Diary: More COVID Eris Information | New National Monument | Hurricane Hilary Could Slam West Coast | Maui Fires Aftermath |

An Old Photo Of Devi, RIP

I'm not good at letting go of things. Grudges, either, but in this instance I mean actual things. I have diaries from junior high and high school. I don't dare read them because who needs that cringe in their adult life? But I know that I have them. Same with photos. Great photographers take lots of photos and know how to cull those photos; they know that there are photos nobody ever needs to see, especially in context of perhaps great photos taken in the same surrounding moments. 

I'm not one of those people. 

My laptop is running out of space (again) so it means that all the photos and videos I currently have on here need to be sorted by place or band or species or event or what-have-you so that when (if) I ever need to access them, I know where to look. But I'm not culling, only sorting. And I have A LOT of photographs. They track where I've been, what was important or funny or beautiful to me in a particular moment, and sometimes how fast I could adjust my camera settings to get a moment...like when I was shooting a concert or trying to get pictures of my roof opossum at night and then go to take photos of animals the next morning and now my settings leave me with overexposed gorillas or orangutans or capybaras. 

I don't mind having the external hard drives that will one day obsolete or unusable, but going through everything is quite a process and stirs up so much memory and emotion...the pandemic, Nova growing up, my doggy getting older, animals at the zoo, places I've been, travels, bands I've seen.

And then I start finding the markers of the passage of time. Bands that broke up or a band member died. Friends who've died. My sister-in-law and my dad dying and all the photos of the past, the holidays and gathering and the more recent funerals and memorials. I'm getting older. Death becomes a part of life. Last week my high school best friend's mom died and next week will be her memorial. Even though I hadn't seen her in years, it hits hard. 

It's a lot. 

So bear with me this week as I try to move at least half a terabyte off my computer, and then 100 gigs off my phone, and then try to keep it organized and keep it together emotionally, all the while watching the slow drip of transferring data from one device to another.

 

There was a ton of news this week, particularly the Lahaina, Maui fires and devastation and yet more indictments of TFG. I'm not linking anything about the latter, I just don't think that POS warrants any more bytes than I've already given in this sentence.  

Hurricane Hilary (hilariously names, if we're being honest) is perhaps coming. Be prepared. 

Stay safe out there. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, August 10-Wednesday, August 16, 2023: Donny Benet | Wild Child | Smashing Pumpkins | Cigarettes After Sex | The Spits | The Price of Dope | Lower Class Brats | Post Malone | Gipsy Kings | Fools & Fables |

So this week is looking up! The Adams Avenue Street Fair lineup has been released, I got to go to the Phoenix, Japanese Breakfast, Sir Chloe, and Beck show on Tuesday, and Darren is finally COVID negative (and he tested twice on different brands to be sure)!! And Nova and I didn't get it so we did a good job isolating even though it really, really sucked. I felt like I was living out of my van trying to make myself scarce around the house and we missed our 12 year anniversary but we spent Wednesday together at Sea World using my All-Day Dining pass that I earned doing their "Passport To Summer" promotion and testing the value of the thing, and if two humans can actually eat every 90 minutes. The answer was YES but one pass was enough for both of us (with leftover desserts and a chicken sandwich we brought home.) We only did a partial day, so I imagine it would be a whole other thing if we'd been there since opening or if we were there on a busy day, but it was pretty awesome and we definitely ate in excess of the value of the thing if we were to have purchased all the things separately. He'll be back at work on Tuesday and Safari Park late summer hours end this weekend, so head up there and ride his tram in the evening if you get the chance!

There's a lot of great stuff coming up in the next week and I know a lot of people are already back to school or preparing for it, so enjoy the last free days you might have but don't be afraid to bust out those N95 masks in busy indoor locations because "Eris" is no bueno and is extra catchy even if the symptoms weren't debilitating, at least for D. 

And, if you are here checking for event listings I guess I consider you insiders, so I'll tell you that the Casbah website and ticketing is going through some backend tweaks, not initiated by us, so the site may be a little wonky at the moment. Particularly shows that are SOLD OUT not showing as such and FREE events like Ben Heyne's 30th Casbah Anniversary Show and Adams Avenue Street Fair saying "tickets at the Box Office" when we know no Box Office exists. We're working on it and pushing to get it better, but bear with us while we figure it out.  

Stay safe out there. 

Newsy Things & Diary: COVID Variants Arcturus & Eris Dominate | Denny Diary | County District 4 Special Election | FDA Approves Postpartum Pill | SD Approves Streetlight Cameras |

 

Denny The Gorilla, 8.5 years old  (8.6.23)

I was scrolling through my old Instagram posts because I was trying to find the day that I decided that I was going to become friends with a gorilla. That first post was in February of 2020, just before everything shut down because of COVID. It wasn't the first time I met him, I have pictures of him over the years, including at just a few weeks old, but now was different. I had no idea then that this little gorilla would so quickly become such a huge part of my life and change me in so many different ways. 

Denny became a habit. I'm a bit obsessive about, well, everything, so when I decided that we would be friends, I adjusted my life accordingly. Not so much at first, but as I grew to "know" him and the rest of the gorillas at San Diego Zoo, and after the zoo reopened after COVID shutdowns, I was there as much as I could be. I mean, it has been a long time that I've been taking photos there or dragging my laptop around and plugging in to get work done, or dragging Darren so many times that he eventually decided to work for SDZWA, but suddenly I was compelled to be there at a particular time every day, or as many days as I could, to see him. Over time, this has meant gigs of videos and photos, but it has also meant meeting a whole group of interesting and diverse zoo friends, marginally better sleep and work habits, not as much drinking and fewer late nights. It has also meant fewer shows and participation in other life events, but the reality is I needed a little diversion from some things that weren't feeding my soul. I was burning the candle at both ends and it wasn't doing me any favors.  

It has also been emotional. I was with Denny when my sister called to tell me that she was flying to New Mexico because our sister-in-law wasn't expected to make it through the night; that cancer had taken over her body. Denny was at the glass and put his hand to mine as tears rolled down my cheeks. When just a couple weeks later, on Easter Sunday, my sister called to tell me my dad took his last breath, Denny pulled his burlap sack over his head and put his forehead to mine through the glass before I left to join my family. Last week, I was watching him interact with his parents for the last real time as I was on the phone finding out my high school best friend's mom was placed in hospice, where she would pass just a couple days later. We were on the phone for awhile before Denny came over, and I ended the call. "I have to go, my gorilla is asking to see my phone."

And it's all so weird. Darren has COVID, so in an effort to let him get real rest in our house, I've been spending full days at the zoo as much as possible. Part of that has been watching Denny as he's been moved from his family troop with his mom and dad to the bachelor troop with his three silverback half brothers. It was gradual until it wasn't. We all knew it would happen, just not so suddenly, going from Monday with his brothers in the morning to his parents in the afternoon to Tuesday only with his brothers. Full-time. And it's funny, Denny has been so readily accepted by the bachelors (mostly. Ekuba will come around) that I haven't really been able to snap any great photos of him. This one I chose is from Sunday, the 12 year anniversary of the day Darren and I met!! (and no, Darren doesn't get a post because we'll postpone any celebration until he's well and back in the world of the COVID-free.) 

I'm not trying to compare or conflate this gorilla growing up with losing my sister-in-law or dad or my best friend's mom, but it marks the passage of time. That we all get older. That time stops for nobody. That sometimes all we have is this very moment. But it's all this excitement about Denny and his life changes that makes it easier to accept changes in mine. So yes, Darren will get a full celebration. And I will mourn the loss of my friend's mom properly with her family. But for now, this little ape gets the love, because I'm a profoundly different human because of him.  

Stay safe out there.
Tell your people you love them.  

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, August 3-Wednesday, August 9, 2023: Tiki Oasis | Danny Elfman | Suzanne Santo | Ramy Youssef | Weathers | BLEACHED Festival | ArtWalk | Swive | Thr Good Life | Trombone Shorty | Beck & Phoenix | Noah Kahan | Donny Benet |

Ugh. Sooo COVID is back in my household. Darren woke up on Wednesday feeling like he had a terrible hangover. Only problem was he hadn't consumed any alcohol. He was a little perplexed then decided to test, and alas, those super dark double lines appeared. Of course, we share a household and a bedroom and space so I tested but so far I'm negative and have no symptoms indicating I may be pre-positive. Just Tuesday I was saying how we hardly see each other around here because Nova is off doing their thing and I'm always at the Zoo and Darren is always at work, and then I'm up super late in the living room while everyone else is asleep to make sure I'm all caught up with my actual job, plus email and all the stuff that comes with having this here website. When I do sleep, there's a fan blasting on me from one direction and an air conditioner from the other. All this to say, I really, really hope I can dodge getting COVID again. For now, Darren feels like shit and is isolating in our studio, and we've got fans and air purifiers and open windows and doors as much as possible. Still, it's a little shocking considering his job is like 96% outside. I am so sad for him. Having COVID is really isolating and lonely, besides it being scary and feeling like absolute crap for days. 

And I know this is supposed to be the part of my weekly listings where I mention all the amazing shows and events coming up this week, but the truth is that last week a friend of mine told me that half his friend group that went to Comic-Con tested positive, another friend was canceling his life because his household all tested positive, and you just start to hear about more and more people getting sick -- we're what, like 9 or 10 months past our boosters with new ones yet to be approved -- and testing, and thus public data are non-existent. It's kinda up to us to pay attention to this shit. Literally. (San Diego Wastewater Surveillance). 

Anyway, I always say "stay safe out there" but I mean it. Of course, because I'm a close contact I'm masking up again after months of being lax about it. I'm back on guard. But there are still lots of outside things to do. And I guess I'll be burning through tests in the meantime. Enjoy the amazing shows and events this week. But maybe give everyone a little extra breathing room and keep to well ventilated spaces.  

Stay safe out there. 

Rosey's Diary & Newsy Things | Clear The Shelters: No Fee Adoptions | Some County Parks Close For August: It's Too Hot! | COVID Uptick |

Tornero, an ambassador sloth, as seen at San Diego Zoo (8.2.23)

I'm gonna keep this week's post pretty short because all the national news is about the indictments of TFG and seriously, who cares? If he can still run we're all just stuck seeing his stupid face non-stop for the next year anyway. And then all the local news is about the so-called "camping ban" and we just have to hear that one 'homeless advocate" over and over talking about how nothing being done works but never hearing what he's ever actually offered to actually deal with the problem so that is, well, a giant yawn, too. Go read Voice of San Diego or KPBS news for all the back and forth on that ad infinitum. 

As for me, Nova is done with Upward Bound for this summer, so we have a couple weeks before their band camp and then school starts again. Darren is busy working his ass off at the Park and as you can imagine, the heat just takes it out of you so he's pretty beat when he gets home from work. I've been doing my usual and have a fun group of zoo friends I see pretty regularly. I worked both Lucy's Fur Coat Shows this weekend and Friday was a blast, but Saturday's crowd was...how do we say...weekend warriors? Not quite as fun but the band still slayed. My niece turned 16 so we also did a birthday thing on Monday and the rest of the time, I just stay out of my overheating apartment and try to get my daily steps and plenty of outdoor time. I'm gonna start listings tonight but we'll see how far along I get because I got a lot of sun today and it also really took it out of me. We're going to the Fred Armisen show on Wednesday, so I guess I better get the listings cranked out before that happens. 

Stay safe out there. If you have room in your home, go help Clear The Shelters.