What’s Happening This Week? (November 7-13, 2014)

Let’s skip over the fact that I haven’t done one of these event roundup posts in three years. Three years? Good Lord. Yeah, let’s just forget about that. “What’s Happening This Week?” is a weekly (duh) roundup of art, food, beer, and craft events around San Diego. It does have a bias towards Uptown events… but I want this to become a comprehensive weekly resource, so please, please, please let me know if I’m missing anything, if there are any cool galleries I should check out, etc!

This week we have my mom’s birthday, the monthly Ray At Night Art Walk with a photographer’s opening reception at Visual, and readings.

Saturday, 11/8:

• 6-10pm: Ray at Night Art Walk. Artists’ receptions, boutiques, and galleries in addition to live street performances and local food vendors, held between University Ave. and North Park Way in North Park!
• 6-10pm: As part of Ray at Night, Visual Shop (3776 30th St) will be holding the opening reception for Echoes, a solo exhibition of photographic works by Brittni Cute. Music and entertainment from Modern Times Brewery and Roric.
• 7-9pm: Brought to you by The Radvocate and So Say We All, The Radvocate Reading Show is an evening of fiction and poetry readings and unofficial release party for their horror anthology States of Terror – Vol. 1. Beer and wine provided so 21+ only. $5 suggested donation. @ the Media Arts Center (2921 El Cajon Blvd).

Saturday, 11/9:

• 7-8:30pm: “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda…” Stories of regret, opportunities missed, and lessons learned. So Say We All presents Long Story Short at Broke Girls’ Coffee Bar (3562 Adams Ave). $5 suggested donation.

Tuesday, 11/11:

• 7pm: Perform, collaborate, get feedback at the Music Collective, hosted by Expressive Arts (3201 Thorn St). $5-10 suggested donation.
• 10pm: Whistlestop (2236 Fern St) presents Videodrome, music videos, viral videos, clips, and trailers. Free.

Thursday, 11/13:

• Happy birthday, Mama!
• 6-9pm: Craft Beer & Bites (SDBW Edition) at the Makers Quarter (1050 Park Blvd) presents live music and live art demonstrations, along with a homebrewing station, local craft beer and food trucks, craft cocktails, and wine. $20 in advance or $30 at the door.
• 8:30pm: The Tin Can hosts their weekly open mic. Buy a burger from Doods Foods ’til 10pm. And cocktails and craft beer at the bar ’til close. No cover.

Did I miss anything? Do you have a opening reception, art show, poetry reading, open mic, meetup group, etc. coming up? Shoot me an email at info@jlowatari.com.

This Friday: Brunch @ Toronado w/ Pizza Port Solana Beach and Heart & Trotter

Umm, yes please.

Toronado is partnering up with Pizza Port Solana Beach and Heart & Trotter to throw a prix fixe brunch on Friday morning.

With 7 (seven!!) pairings, $55 per person is an absolute steal. Goat cheese pate? Grilled lamb belly with naan? Pork sirloin ramen? PLEASE. Someone be my sugar daddy (or mommy!) and take me to this!

And that’s not even mentioning the Pizza Port beer paired with all that drool-worthy food! Head Brewer Devon Randall is providing specialty beers for the occasion. I would LOVE to get my lips around the Pizza Port/Automatic Brewing collab Beer Hunter, brewed for Michael Jackson’s (the beer hunter) birthday. This batch has been barrel-aged with cherries.

Heart & Trotter successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign last October to provide monthly packages of hormone-free, antibiotic-free meat to customers. Working with local ranchers, the duo who founded the company want to open a location right in San Diego. They’ve done butchering demonstrations, most notably at Alchemy in South Park, taking down a beef hindquarter in front of diners.

East Bay Depot for Creative Re-Use

Is there anything in San Diego like The East Bay Depot for Creative Re-Use?

A few years ago, during one of my first visits to the Bay Area, a good friend (hi Meghan!) took me on a tour of Oakland. Knowing my crafty inclinations, we walked into what looked, in my mind’s eye, like a huge warehouse — like crafting heaven. Aisles and shelves and tables and boxes full of all sorts of off-the-wall material: bins of milk and egg cartons, old sewing patterns, crumbling sheet music, broken hand mixers, and binders and manila folders, in addition to more traditional crafting materials like fabric, markers, crayons, and chalk.

I dream of this place.

So is there anywhere in San Diego like this? Architectural Salvage in Little Italy comes close, in the sense that it’s a space filled with a random assortment of stuff, but it doesn’t come close to the eclectic, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” vibe of the Depot. And in the early days of my craftiness (ie high school), I had some luck finding craft material through the Freecycle group in Escondido, but a quick browse of the San Diego Freecycle group looks devoid of anything useful, unless you want 60 moving boxes.

I long for broken hand mixers.

SD Food Trucks website

If you’re like me, you like to check out the San Diego Food Trucks Facebook page everyday. WELL, if you do NOT have Facebook, you can now visit their new website. Yay for information that is not dependent on Facebook!

Check out the website! It’s in a format that is much easier to read than the Facebook news feed, in my opinion.