Wonderfront Adds Bands & Releases Lineup By Day

I worked through the night, and then when I was finally ready to go to bed, of course what I'd been waiting for finally came through and I'm glad I check my email one last time before getting some sleep. Today, Wonderfront added the final artists to the lineup as well as publishing the breakout of bands by day.

The new acts are: Guitar Legends 3 (featuring an all-star band of surprise guests) | Migos | J.I.D. | Jhay Cortez | Khea | Wild Belle | Gioli & Assia | Grandma | Jesse Baez | Banda Tierra Brava | Los Crecidos | Seis en Linea | Cydeways | Glades |  Brewfish |

Wonderfront Festival will take place November 22-24, 2019 at various locations along and around the waterfront area. Tickets and details are available here.

For your information, full press release after the jump.

Seaport Sessions Kick Off This Thursday!

Growing up in Chula Vista, my mom cultivated a love for music in me from a very young age. I was never personally musically inclined, but we always went to free street fairs and concerts, whether or not we knew the bands playing. My earliest recollection of such events were the free Seaport Village concerts. They were by the (now defunct) Jolly Roger, and we'd go upstairs to their bar where they always had a free spread of hors d'oeuvres and on special days, my parents would order us virgin strawberry daiquiris (basically milkshakes, tbh) and then we'd go watch the band and the funny "old" (everyone is OLD when you're 5) people who would come to dance to the music. Well, now I'm OLD, and I'm glad to hear someone is activating the space again before the temporary renovations get underway and down the line when Seaport Village becomes unrecognizable. From what I've heard, these will at least run through December, so we'll keep you posted as more bands and talks get added to the calendar.

World Beach Games Bid Adios To San Diego

I'm pissed. I need to vent.

This week in the news, there were numerous stories about the ANOC World Beach Games pulling out of San Diego. If you were unaware, the short story is that San Diego was supposed to host the inaugural World Beach Games here in October, an event which had already been postponed from 2017. For shorthand, the event was literally known as "San Diego 2019," so, uh, so much for that branding. Whatcha gonna do now, ANOC?
My thoughts, after the jump. 

National Geographic Traveler Names San Diego/Tijuana in Top 20 "Go Now" Top Trips of 2016

It's November 19, just a week shy of Thanksgiving, and it is 78 degrees outside in Normal Heights. No doubt San Diego is an amazing place to live. It recently occurred to me that November 5 marked 9 years of San Diego: Dialed In, and my output has certainly changed and morphed over time (though not my ability to craft run-on sentences). Despite our worthless mayor and our city's financial future being threatened by this thrust to make the Spanos family and the NFL rich off of our city that is literally falling apart and currently declared a state of emergency, I still love this beautiful city and the life this little blogging pursuit has afforded me (including a new job I'm super excited to share in the coming months). So I haven't done a local news roundup in ages, but my buddy Derrick Chinn of Turista Libre posted this link on Facebook and it seemed worthy of reposting while I have some screen time. In a shocking twist, this article, about the San Diego & Tijuana Region as a travel destination, didn't even mention craft beer. What it did mention was our coastline, Quatro Milpas, our culinary scene, The Lafayette hotel, the zoo, and of course, Turista Libre.

BEST TRIPS 2016 - NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER: SAN DIEGO/TIJUANA

Baja Artesenal Craft Beer Bar in Tijuana, 1/1/2015

View of Revolucion from patio at Hotel Ceasar, 1.1.2015

Patio of Mamut Brewery in Tijuana 1.1.2015

The Debut of Tourism, San Diego's Newest Band

My friends Dustin and Frank asked me to write about the debut of their band Tourism on Friday night at the Soda Bar. I thought it would be better if they wrote about it themselves. Here's the goods:

When you say Tourism aloud, what does it bring to mind? Color, novelty, movement, mystery. I feel like our name is fitting both for our vision of the kind of strange, intricate pop we are trying to make as well as the way in which we are sampling the many tastes and textures of our favorite music, past and present: The Zombies, The New Pornographers, Elvis Costello, The Kinks, Girls, Magnetic Fields, the Beach Boys. As a songwriter, I’m trying to tap into a certain feeling that these artists have given me, while adding to it my own experience and sensibility. It is a rewarding process to see the skeletons I bring in get fleshed out by the band, finding new corners and hidden spaces, as we shape the songs into something we think you’ll find exciting.

Our debut show is this coming Friday, December 16th, at Soda Bar. We are incredibly pleased to be opening for two of our favorite acts in San Diego: Cuckoo Chaos and Jamuel Saxon. It is an auspicious beginning for our band and we hope you’ll be there to experience it with us.

<3,

Dustin / TOURISM

San Diego Sightseeing

I have been busy, busy, busy since I started my new job- working full-time and even plenty of overtime on top of my usual blogging/show going all the while working in my CityBeat column. Sometimes, like last night, it means staying home and missing a great show- like Sea Wolf :( But I'm not complaining...this week is a short work week and I got the coolest job assignment for tomorrow. And I need your help.

My agency is pitching a major automaker, so my assignment is to get a rental car from the automaker and drive around the city, taking pictures of the vehicle in spots that are representative of San Diego and the "San Diego lifestyle". I have plenty of ideas, but I'm a little concerned with finding spots where I can legally park, capturing the vehicle and the hot spots in the background. If this was your task, where would you go? I'm open to all ideas and suggestions. And the bonus is that any photos we don't use for the pitch will be posted here, so the task is really two fold. Really, what could be more fun than driving around a new vehicle in this city that I love, taking pictures of the places I love, all the while getting paid and getting to expense a lovely lunch?

It's one thing to not dread going to work in the morning. It's another entirely to actually look forward to getting to work. What a total 180 from four months ago.

Leave your comments on the spots that represent this place that we call home...

Sorry Excuse For A Blogger: Visiting the San Diego Zoo, Superbad, MTV

A great deal of my personal and free time is spent enjoying music. For me, as many people, it's about the escapism of it...lyrics and music I may or may not relate to, accompanied by a few cocktails to help me forget about the hum-drum of working a 9 to 5. The funny thing about that, is that now that I'm unemployed, there's nothing to escape from. I mean, I will have to buckle down and find a new day job, but I've really thoroughly enjoyed this week, spending time with my family, particularly my new niece Johanna, and haven't been spending all that much time in front of the computer. I'll get back on it, post my pics from Monday (maybe when I get home tonight), but it's funny how much living there is to do in this town.


Today, my friend Darcy, my sister, Johanna and I started our day with an early lunch at Ponce's (always delicious), then we spent the day climbing the inclines of the San Diego Zoo. Let me say, if you're a softy (like I am) and all in love with the wonder of life (as clearly I am these days), then this is a great time to go to the zoo. There are babies EVERYWHERE. Not just the typical mom's with strollers, I'm talking about all that winter lovin the animals made has produced results.


From the second you walk in and see the dozens of flamingo chicks, to the duck chicks, all the way down gorilla tropics to the baby monkeys in Ituri Forest (where did the otters go?), to the ridiculous line hoping to catch a glimpse of the pandas (though easier to just check the panda-cam) to the new baby giraffe that was born last Thursday and is already 6 feet tall.

My only regret was that we didn't stay into the nighttime zoo action, when all the animals go kinda nutso. It's nice to be a tourist in my own city.

I was home by 4:45, enough time to shower and head down to get in line for the screening of Superbad. Daye sent out the e-mail this morning, and being free with my time, I took my laptop and iPod down and sat my ass in line by 5:20 for the 7 pm showing. It wasn't long before the line was wrapped down the street and several of our friends showed up. We were able to secure almost two full rows for the screening. I was up late last night watching various stars of the film promote on late night shows and with 3 different clips, knew this was a movie I'd want to see and it didn't disappoint. It is funny. People are calling it "the funniest movie of the year" though I would argue that there's not really that much competition in the arena. This movie was hysterical, despite the absolute OBSESSION with dicks, fellatio, tits, booze, dick, dick, and more dick. Behind all of it, there is a good story about how we deal with the transition from high school to college, knowing we'll have to part from some friends and life as we knew it. There were moments that reminded me a lot of other movies in the high school/college party genre...Garden State in some of the party and cop scenes, American Pie in some of the "shocking" sex moments, Napoleon Dynamite in the dorky language of high school, but those are all good places to draw from and the movie was hilarious. My only disappointment is that in a packed theatre, you miss a lot of the dialog from people laughing so hard...but for me a problem because I know I probably won't see the movie again till I buy a DVD after the release...which could be 6 months away. If you're not averse to theatres, however, I highly recommend seeing the movie when it is released on August 17th, or if you're lucky, catch the screening next week. If I get info on that, I'll pass it on. And a special shout out to the uber sweet girl who sat in our row. "Those seats are saved," we said. "Too bad." Aww, I love the kindness of strangers.

Anyway, I was deciding on where to go and what to do tonight and then quickly changed plans when I discovered that the new Real World is on, followed by the new Hills that I missed. omg. I don't really care that I'm 30. I love this shit. Maybe I'll hit the Ken Club after, but for now, I want my MTV. (ps- actually the Hills are reruns that I never saw. New episode on Monday)