S1: It's time for KPBS Midday Edition. On today's show , the arts and culture shaping San Diego. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. A new book explores life growing up in the border town of Calexico back in the 70s and 80s. Then we learn about the life and work of a comic artist that has largely been forgotten to history. All that , plus your weekend arts preview. That's ahead on Midday Edition. Chaotic , dusty , loud and perfect. That's how writer Mariano Vélez describes life in Calexico in his book , Mostly made up stories from a Small Town. Nobody. It's a short story collection based on his own upbringing in the region during the 70s and 80s. And Mariano joins me now to talk about the talk more about the book. Mariano , welcome to the show.
S2: Good morning. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
S1: Great to have you here. So , you know , the inspiration for this book actually came from your time teaching. Take me to the moment. You know , you made that that call you decided. I want to write a book about life in Calexico.
S2: Uh , well , just to backtrack a little bit , um , growing up , getting together with family , you know , we had barbecues every other week , and stories were always told. So when I became a teacher and , uh , and we did a lot of writing , we did a lot of reading of stuff. I came across a book by Gary Soto , you Fresno based author , called Baseball in April , and it too was a collection of short stories , and in talking to the students I had at the time , it just occurred to me that maybe I should share my own. And so , uh , I made notes like any , any anybody who writes will do. And , uh , over time , it's just that life got in the way , and I could just never find the right time or inspiration to to finish it off. But that's how it originated about 27 years ago.
S1: And you you actually prepared a short excerpt here. I'm wondering before you read it.
S2: It's called La Rampa. And it really just centers on on what life was like in the late 70s , early 80s with kids riding around bicycles in their neighborhood , freedom and everything that associated with that.
S1: Um , and so what makes growing up in a smaller rural town. Special for you.
S2: I think just the fact that we had freedom to do things. Even even now , with all the modern upgrades that we've had since , uh , a small town just brings a certain tranquility to to just being out and about something you don't see in the bigger cities.
S1: So , you know , let's hear can you read a little bit of the story for us ? Sure.
S2: Uh , there was a time when summer didn't come with plans or permission slips. No schedules , no supervision , just a long stretch of sun drenched days and the unspoken rule. Once breakfast was done , you were free to disappear. As long as you made it back. Before the streetlights buzzed on. We didn't need parks. We didn't need playgrounds or jungle gyms. We had bikes with wobbly handlebars , sun bleached streets full of potholes , and just enough bad ideas to keep things interesting. Most of them were beat up and hand-me-downs or garage sale rescues , barely holding it together with faded paint and rusted chains. But to us , they were stallions , Spaceships. Chariots of freedom. Some of us even zip tied milk jugs to the frame so they'd rattle against the tires. And the louder the clatter , the more it sounded like a roaring bike. They carried us past. Or limits the limits of our blocks. And straight into the heart of mischief. A cracked sidewalk became an obstacle course , a dirt alley , an off road adventure. And the curb curb was just a ramp waiting to happen. Back then , your bicycle wasn't just a way to get around. It was freedom on two wheels. No license , no gas money. No adult supervision required. Just hop on. Kicked the pedal backwards to release the brakes , and you were off a pint sized outlaw with a banana seat and training wheels long gone. Riding around town felt like being part of a mini Hells Angels , minus the leather jackets and felony records. We rolled in ragtag gangs , handlebar streamers flapping like war flags , taking over sidewalks and back alleys like we own the place. The louder your chain rattled , the tougher you were. Curbs weren't obstacles. They were launch pads. We'd lined up like Evel Knievel. Apprentices count down and launch off the edge like it was the Grand Canyon. Some kids nailed the landing. Others face planted gloriously into the gravel. Either way , you earned your stripes. And heaven forbid someone added a ramp made of plywood and a cinderblock. Suddenly we were defying gravity , showing off the neighborhood kids and occasionally running home with a freshly skinned knee and a proud story to tell. Moms were always ready with their mercurial , that stinging red badge of honor that somehow made everything worse and better at the same time. Ouch. Those bikes were passports to the corner store , the canal bank , the empty lot with the tire swing , or just around and around the block until dinner.
S1: And so I'm going to hop in here. There's so many great images there. Really takes me back to my own childhood. I mean , this takes place in a time in a much different time before , you know. Technology captured kids attention , as it does today , you know. Can you talk more about the time period and how that played a role in your stories ? You , you know , wrote about here.
S2: Well , that's that's exactly when I grew up. This was even before the Atari hit the market. So video games were not quite in place yet.
S1:
S2: Very much. You know , we were sent outside , you know , just just to be. And so growing up in that era , we just had to invent stuff to do , you know , perfect time to get into mischief and whatnot. And we had the freedom to do it. You know , something that's not so much true nowadays.
S1: You know , this these stories also explore life in a border town. You know , how did you want to capture that ? And in that part of the story here.
S2: For me , it's in different parts of the book. But for me it was because I have family across the border. It was the perfectly normal thing to do. I think about it now , and , you know , we talk to kids who cross the border. They're crossing internationally. You know , to us that's a normal everyday thing. Anybody that lives away from a border , Doesn't see that kind of life. And for me , it was just two different cultures that were just perfectly okay to mix together.
S1: You call these mostly made up stories.
S2: This monster ramp that we'd built and jumped off of. Kids would say , nah , you made that up. I'm like , no , I didn't. You know , that actually happened. And so , uh , the idea stuck with me. You know , it's fantastical , the kids nowadays to hear stuff like that because it's not something that they can comprehend. Just like I'm sure a 95 year old person can't quite grasp where technology is now. So mostly made up just just goes with the way the the stories feel.
S1: It's one thing to share these stories out loud at a family party or , you know , in a classroom with your students , as you mentioned. But it's another thing to kind of put pen to page here. Walk me through the craft behind the book and how you , you know , took these experiences you had and turned them into stories.
S2: Well , it was a direct segue from from getting together with family and telling the stories and just putting them down on paper. Now that I think the catch was to make it so that the reader can jump on in and feel like part of it , uh , without feeling like it's being narrated. I think that's where the balance was , was with this book. Um , not something that came very easily. Again , it's something that I thought of about 20 years ago and started developing more in earnest , uh , about a year ago when I started working with our school newspaper as we relaunched it. It's , uh , I wanted it to feel like we were hanging out , telling a story. I didn't want it to feel like it was something very formal. So it's very nostalgic. It's very , very. Sit down and let's have a chat. Kind of storytelling.
S1: You said , you know , writing didn't come easily here. Talk more about that process with us.
S2: Well , like anything else , if it's going to be put out to the public eye , it has to have a certain level of of. I say I don't want to say perfection , but it has. It just can't be any kind of writing. There has to be a bar that we need to reach. And I think as a teacher , that was that was my goal. But , um , finding the right words that , that convey the messages is where the trick is. Um , not something that comes very easily in late nights , draft after draft after draft , and then bouncing it off of people , just having people read it and say , hey , this work is not working or this is confusing. Uh , it's just a lot of it's not just writing , but it's talking to people as well.
S1: Well , it seems like that sharing storytelling aspect of it's really important even in your writing. Like , I think a lot of people think of writing as just this solitary exercise , but there you mentioned sharing it with people you've , you know , repeatedly referred to your family and storytelling there. Talk to me about what it's like to , you know , share your writing and kind of take it off the page and not hide it. Like I think a lot of people do that , start projects like this. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Well , it's it's a lot of this is still relatively fresh to me. The book was launched about two months ago , but the stories have been around for a long time. Um , I think the exciting part is having people outside of the family read them and finding something that that they connect to , uh , something that they can relate to is like they've experienced something similar. And now there's another story there to tell. It's , it's it's almost like it's a start of a cycle that just keeps going and going as people come and go and listen and read and , and share their own experiences.
S1: You gave us a taste earlier of one story , La Rampa.
S2: I want to say from elementary school to early high school and everything in between , there's there's stuff about my time in high school. There are things about junior high school , a lot of baseball , which is something that we did a lot of in Calexico growing up. You know , I had a little league field just around the corner from the house , and when we weren't doing chores or anything else , we were playing ball. So that a baseball plays a big role in in the stories. There is one at the very end of the book called mariachi versus migra , about an experience I had while in college in LA. You know , being a mariachi musician in full get up , get into a car accident with a border patrolman. And there we are on the side of the road arguing. You know , back then that didn't seem like much. But I put that in today's context. And now we have a viral story.
S1: The book is completely self-published.
S2: I went into the publishing thing completely blind. Um , no idea what it would take to get it published. Uh , first things first. Got to get it on the page and then we'll see. Um , but as I started researching what it would take to get published , I came across self-publishing. And there's there's various places to get that done. But Amazon was an easy one to do. Uh , the hardest part is , is I have to do everything else. I have to basically give them a complete , finished manuscript ready for publication. Uh , but it takes it takes somebody else to read it with different eyes , to give you feedback , to make sure it's publication ready. And that's that's not an easy feat. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of work going to back to revise stories. Um , and just a continuous process of reworking things until it's ready to go.
S1:
S2: I tended to work a little bit off the beaten path just to make sure kids could get their voices heard. Um , I still believe that , you know , we have a role where we do a lot of data collection , we do a lot of standards , and and sometimes that's a hindrance. I think kids need a little bit of freedom just to write , because get your stuff out there and then whipping it up. Um , but it starts with telling the story. You're picking your story , and there's a lot of things out there that , that , that they can share small experiences , you know ? Um , I guess my own experience is proof of that.
S1: You know , we began this conversation with your words describing the Calexico of your youth.
S2: It's grown a little bit. The community , the border town itself hasn't really changed much. Um , the difference is , is it's the access to technology where we don't have kids playing on the streets as much. The fact that the world is moving faster , there's more danger out there , if you want to call it that. I think families are more reluctant to let the kids hang out outside for long hours without supervision. Um , because I still see kids riding bikes. I still see kids playing ball. I still see , you know , kids inventing games to play , but just not at the level that it was 30 , 40 years ago. So , um , because it is such a small town in a very remote place in California , it's it's it's not changed much.
S1: You know , KPBS has a podcast , Voices Del Valle , which is , you know , produced by young people in the Imperial Valley in El Centro. And it's interesting , I think they have an episode about what it's like to grow up in a rural community. You know , like Calexico , like , you know , in Imperial County. You know , I'm curious , you know , working with youth today.
S2: Um , again , for me , it's. I was an outdoors kid. I skin your knees , you know , bloody knuckles all the time. Get your hands kind of dirty. A lot of kids don't do that anymore. Um , but they have that curiosity still there. They just have different technologies to explore those means. Um , while we were out there inventing games , kids are out there recording it. Um , they they can document their , their their mischief a lot easier than we could back in those days. And that in and of itself , is a story to tell.
S1: Yeah , absolutely. I've been speaking with Mariana Velez. He's the author of the book , mostly made up stories from a small town. Nobody. Mariano , thanks so much for joining us today.
S2: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
S1: Coming up , Caitlin McGurk works at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum , where she discovered some cartoons she fell in love with.
S3: The jokes were really witty and feminist and edgy. And , you know , upon first looking at them , I thought they were probably from like the 60s or something.
S1: But they were actually from the 1920s and 30s. Hear more when KPBS Midday Edition returns. Welcome back to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hindman. Caitlin McGurk is the curator of comics and cartoon art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Librarian Museum. That's where she discovered the art of Barbara Sherman , a name mostly forgotten to history that inspired McGurk to write the book. Tell me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins the Life and Art of Barbara Sherman. The book won an Eisner Award last summer at Comic-Con and just had its second printing. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando sat down with the author. Here's that conversation.
S4: Caitlin , I had the opportunity to meet you at Comic-Con last year when you were collecting an Eisner for your book. Tell me a story. Were The Bad Girl Wins , which is such a fabulous title , and explain a little bit about where that title comes from.
S3: That was such a dreamy experience for me. I still kind of can't believe that it's real. And then I glance over at the award and remember , like , wow , that actually happened. So the title Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins is adapted from a caption from one of Barbara Sherman's cartoons , and Barbara Sherman is is the focus of my book. She was an amazing kind of pioneering woman cartoonist , one of the first women to work for The New Yorker magazine starting the year it was founded in 1925. And I , you know , went back and forth with a million different title possibilities and just kept coming back to that one , because it's very layered about her story and what she experienced , how she chose to live and where her legacy was left when she died , versus the retelling of it , to try to bring her back into new light and put her in the actual canon of comics history properly.
S4: And how did you first come across her work ? Because you're obviously too young to have actually seen it , like when it was being published.
S3: I was born and raised in New York , and I spent a lot of time with my my lack of social life , just digging through boxes in the collection to familiarize myself with what was held here. And one of those boxes contained really , really stunning original drawings by this artist whose name I didn't recognize , just was signed Sherman , and whose style I was just so , so compelled by. The jokes were really witty and feminist and edgy and , you know , upon first looking at them , I thought they were probably from like the 60s or something. Soon found out they were by this woman artist who was largely forgotten to to time. And they were actually from the late 20s and early 1930s. And I'm someone who just really loves an underdog story , and the less I can find out about something , the more I really want to know. And so that was back in 2012. And then in 2024 , my book came out about her after really that much time of of researching and , you know , just trying to connect the dots of who this remarkable woman was.
S4: Well , it's funny you mentioned that you felt it had possibly like a 60s vibe , and it really came from like , the 20s and 30s. And as somebody who's obsessed with film , that's pre-Code era in Hollywood movies where , like , it did seem like women were able to do a lot more than they did in the decades in between like that and the 60s.
S3: That's absolutely right. And I've made that comparison a lot , where it just feels like , oh , there's all of this potential and amazing things happening in this incredible energy and freedom , and then it just gets squashed. And and one of the things that was really interesting for me in writing this book and presenting how , you know. Figuring out how I wanted to present our story to the world is showing how one artist or one person's story can be completely , you know , sublimated and changed based on the greater cultural forces that are going on around them and , and how that can those things can come to define a person's output. And their voice , you know , might get changed as a result of it. So that's certainly the case for Sherman.
S4:
S3: But it's but it's still perfect somehow. Like , she has this amazing ability to , like , just capture movement and the slightest facial expressions and stuff and really convey a lot of emotion through them in these what look like almost kind of like dashed off ink , gouache drawings. There are ways in which the style almost looks like fashion illustrations , but they're really beautifully done , and the stuff that she did for The New Yorker was entirely in black and white , because that's how the magazine worked. And her later work , which was for Esquire and King Features , is really vivid color work , all of which looks magnificent , though I'm a bigger fan of of the earlier stuff and at that time too. This is from 1925 until , you know , the early 40s , late 30s , early 40s. She's writing all of her own captions as well. So there is a practice historically in the world of of magazine cartooning , where cartoonists will partner with a gag man or gag writer who submits the captions or the ideas for the joke , and the artist just kind of works them up themselves. Sherman , in her earliest days , did both herself , so it was really her voice that was coming out most clearly in that early stuff. And the voice that's there is really , really sharp and feminist , pretty daring. She's very openly critical of marriage and child rearing and relationships and and but there's no one she doesn't skewer. She's really , um , turns it on on women as well and just had a really interesting , like , wise cracking outlook on people who maybe took themselves too seriously , especially the wealthy and high society types. It's always been fascinating to me to look at her stuff from The New Yorker and realize , you know , the people she's poking fun at are the people that the magazine is kind of catered to. And I think they kind of got a kick out of it , whether they were kind of looking over their shoulders and wondering if it was about themselves or not. Who knows ? But yeah , it's just it's just brilliant , witty stuff.
S4: Well , what I love about the book is not only is it lavishly illustrated with her cartoons , but you pick a number of them and we get to see them. We get to see the joke and appreciate the humor. But then you go on to give it some context and analyze it so that we look back at it again and kind of find more layers. So this is , I think , like especially true in some of the ones where you say she has kind of this challenge to gender roles and this bit of queerness to the cartoons. But talk about how you decided to write this and kind of give it this analysis , as well as just kind of chronicling her life.
S3: The biggest challenge with writing this book is that there is extremely little surviving biographical information about Barbara Sherman. So Sherman lived a super private life. She never formally married or settled down. She didn't have kids. She passed away in the 70s and has no. There's really no surviving relatives or friends around to talk to and during her lifetime there were almost no interviews with her. That was one of my biggest challenges is how do I , like , hone in on a picture of who this person is ? How do I fill out , you know , the content of this book and convey , you know , the messages I want to convey when I don't have a lot of primary sources. So I used everything I did have primary source wise about her , tracked down a lot of different people that I could interview who either lived in the same areas as her or knew her when they were very little things like that , and then wrote about the world and industry that she lived in that was around her in order to close in on a picture of who she was , and then beyond that , really used her art itself to tell me who she was , and that the voice behind them is very , very strong. And so without making any gross assumptions about her lifestyle or her beliefs , just without any like , hard source information , I was still , though , able to glean a lot about her personality from them and throughout the book , analyze a lot of her cartoons , but particularly the ones that she did for The New Yorker. That , to me , have a really clear , queer lean to them. And it was a lot of fun for me to to look at these , as well as to get really familiar with all the published work of hers that was out there , and then all of the unpublished work and , and drafts of things that got changed throughout the editorial process. Really fun stuff to look at and to connect to things that were going on in her personal life as well. A lot of her work , especially for Esquire , but some for The New Yorker too , pokes fun at older men and younger women , which is not , of course , a trope that she invented. However , she herself had some reasons for having an opinion about that. Her father , her mother , had passed away in 1918 , and when her dad remarried in the 30s , he remarried a woman who was over 30 years younger than him , which made Barbara's stepmother eight years younger than she herself was. And it's fascinating in her cartoons in the 30s to see that topic really come out , and for her to really poke fun at the men in those situations. So , yeah.
S4: Well , the other thing you do is you give context to the time period in which she was working , because someone who maybe is 20 something might look at a cartoon and kind of laugh , but not appreciate the fact that , oh , you know , a woman smoking here might mean that she could get cited by the police for doing something illegal. So having that additional context kind of gives more weight to some of the things she was doing. Absolutely.
S3: Absolutely. And she worked over such fascinating time periods. You know , starting she was at The New Yorker from 1925 till 1944. And just in that time period alone , there was massive changes. But she continued to publish with other publications like Esquire and King Features until the 1960s. And so even more changes from the 20s to the 60s. Seeing the way the world really American society changed and developed. But looking at it through the lens of a cartoonist's a single cartoonist's work is really amazing because , you know , to get back to what we were saying earlier about the code , what ends up happening is by the , you know , postwar era , she is not able to get her own work published , meaning cartoons that she's written herself and drawn. So she starts leaning really heavily on cartoons that gag writers , which are almost exclusively men , are writing for her , and most of them are very like male gaze cartoons that are like , you know , jokes about dumb blondes and things like that.
S4:
S3: My all time favorite is the one that is on in the artwork on the cover. So it's not actually it doesn't have the caption that the cover has , but it's this just beautiful drawing of two women looking at a letter together and they're like kind of cuddled up close to each other. They're both smoking , they're on a couch , you know , the physical , the body language between them is very , very intimate and one is looking over the shoulder of another who's reading a letter. And the caption says something like , um , gosh , he loves you just as much as he loves me or something like that. And it's it's to me , the perfect Sherman cartoon , because it's showing these women who are clearly either like dating the same guy and they don't care , or they're more interested in each other than they are in this gentleman who's pursuing them both. So that's another thing I love about her early work is her women are never really in competition with each other. They're always sort of like co-conspirators. And that's really just , I don't know , really lovely and kind of radical to see.
S4: And you said you were introduced to her work at your job , and you are a curator of comics and cartoon art.
S3: He was a newspaper strip cartoonist from the 30s into the 70s. Milton Caniff had attended school here at Ohio State in the 20s , and then , when he retired in the 70s , donated his collection to Ohio State's library system. And that's when this place was originally founded. And once word got out back then that there was an institution in Columbus , Ohio , that was actually interested in preserving comics and cartoon art , which most other places were not. You know , at that point , this format was still very stigmatized. People from all over the world started sending us their material. So from the 70s on , we're coming up on our 50th anniversary. It has grown exponentially , and our collection now has over 3 million pieces in it. We have a public facing reading room and museum , so a lot of the work that I do is curating exhibits for the museum. I'm a faculty member at Ohio State , so I get to teach about comics and cartoon art history and work with cartoonists to help them make decisions about preserving their work and whether it's going to come here or not. All kinds of fun stuff. It really is. It's the best. It's the best possible place for comics in the world , and I hope for any fans out there will make a trip out here to see us.
S4:
S3: I have been just in love with this art form for so long , and when I was in undergrad , I really , really got obsessed with the comic form's ability to portray memory and consciousness and things like that in a way that I don't feel like other formats can do quite as successfully. That's a big , a big one. I also just love how sort of egalitarian it is and how it's the most universal language that there is. There's a million different arguments about defining cartoon art and comics , and you know , what's the right ? What are the right terms to use sequential art as a term a lot of people use now , you know , images in a sequence conveying meaning of some kind , that is cave paintings , that is hieroglyphics , that is that is the oldest form of the most universal form of human communication. And so I think there's just something really powerful about them and the , the , the borders that they break down and how boundary lists they can be in that way , how people can learn to read through them , how you can read a wordless graphic novel in any country or with , with no ability to read at all and still get the message from it. I think it's such a beautiful , powerful medium and that it was disrespected for for far too long. And I'm so glad that there are actual , you know , comic studies programs out there now. And people are really , like finally digging into preserving this history. It feels late. You know , I think there's a lot that's been lost because of how not seriously , it was taken for so long. But you know , better late than ever , I guess.
S1: That was curator of comics and cartoon art Caitlin McGuirk , speaking with KPBS Beth Accomando about her latest book , Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins The Life and Art of Barbara Sherman. Up next , we hear about arts and culture happenings around town in our weekend preview. KPBS Midday Editions back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS midday edition. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hindman. This weekend in the arts , we have some new visual art , the unlikely pairing of chamber music and surfing. And we'll also take a moment to remember one of San Diego's musicians who left us too soon. Joining me with all the details is KPBS arts reporter and host of the Finest podcast. Julia. Dixon. Evans. Hey , Julia.
S5: Hey , Andrea. Thanks for having me.
S1: Great to have you here. So let's start with some visual art. It's barrio art Crawl on Saturday , and actually you have a couple of specific things to check out , starting with a brand new gallery space.
S5: Yeah , and this is pretty exciting to me because it's actually not a brand new space. It's an existing business that I already loved , and they're doubling down on art. It's Por Vida , Chicano owned coffee shop right on Logan Avenue , and they announced that they're going to start a series of visual art exhibitions , transforming the coffee house into an art space , but still being a coffee house. And local Chicano artist tech Pat Patricia Cruz will be the first artist in. In a video that they posted announcing the exhibit , Chris said that the body of work was inspired by a quote her father used to say to her , it translates to the land is calling me. Um , her paintings are these really vivid ? They're portraits. They're scenes with nature , magical realism , and they kind of study the ways in which her family , her ancestors , are tied to the places they come from. And this exhibit , the celebration kicks off at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Though the coffee shop opens at 8 a.m..
S1: And just down the street at the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center , there's an artists panel. Tell us about this.
S5: Yeah , this is for the exhibition fragments del Barrio. It's a collection of art and ephemera from artist Ramses Noriega. And he is a longtime Chicano art movement pioneer and activist. And his art centers on a lot of , like , political graphics and posters from the 60s and 70s. It's really comprehensive , really powerful exhibit. The art is gorgeous. The displays of the posters and all the historical stuff is also really compelling. And he'll be in conversation with the curator of the exhibit , Rafael Barrientos. Jose Montes , who's the founder of the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center , and Professor Denise Lugo. The panel is 1 p.m. on Saturday.
S1: Very cool. So I mean , if someone hasn't been to Barry or Carol before. Tell us a little bit more about what they can expect.
S5: Yeah , it's the second Saturday of the month. It runs from noon to eight. Um , kind of like this all day long thing that you can pop in on centered along Logan Avenue. So just a couple blocks from the trolley station , all the restaurants , cafes , galleries , shops are open vendors set up along the sidewalks. There's often lowriders and live music. A lot of the galleries or businesses that that feature local art. They'll open their new exhibits that day. And so there's often like a bunch of little receptions. You can also just , like , wander aimlessly , grab a cup of coffee or a snack , and you'll probably stumble upon art.
S1: Well , like you said , these sort of spaces change. They might be a coffee shop in the day , and they kind of transform into art space. It's really , really lively. Um , okay. In classical music , we have this combination of of , you know , classical music paired with surfing. Tell us about that. That sounds interesting.
S5: So it's a it's a production of Art of Ilan. It's a chamber music nonprofit. And they've commissioned filmmakers to create new videos of surfing footage , which I don't know about you , but to me is a non surfer , like , fully addictive , beautiful stuff , I love it. Um , and they'll project these films along the back wall of the concert hall and they're bringing in local chamber group Horsemen Quartet to perform a bunch of music ranging from Beethoven , Haydn , Ravel to Terry Riley , Kenan Azmi and more , just like a really great variety of chamber music. Each ticket includes a drink , and you can bring those drinks into the performance hall , which is always great. It's Sunday evening at 7 p.m. at the Conrad in La Jolla , and they actually just switch stages to the larger Baker Bomb Concert hall just because of demand. It sold out fast. So now there's tickets available. And that's a bonus for everyone because that's a really incredible , incredible space for music.
S1: Yeah , it sounds really cool to check that out. So in the theater world now , a couple of smaller local companies have shows opening this weekend. Let's talk about one of them. Onward theater. Right.
S5: Right. So Onward theater is relatively new on the scene. They just launched in 2024 , and their next production is Adam Rapp's 2006 Pulitzer finalist. It's called Red light Winter , and it follows two friends who travel between Amsterdam and then back to New York , and in the process , they meet this prostitute who ends up getting caught up in this web of obsession with these friends. It has some really heavy themes. Also a note it contains nudity and the performances kick off with a pay what you can preview. That's tonight , and then they're going to be on stage every weekend through January 24th at Lightbox Theater and Liberty Station , and all shows are free for members of tribal nations with identification.
S1: And then there's a songwriter showcase at the Jazz Lounge , and that's also on. That's on Sunday. Tell us about that.
S5: Yeah , this is hosted by San Diego folk music great Jeff Berkeley. Um , performers are Cara Cormier , a folk singer. Um , her music has a lot of , like , comedy and a lot of those , like , oh , that's so real moments that you get from those , like , comedic performers , but also Allie Rowell. I have been a fan of Allie Rawls since she submitted to the NPR Tiny Desk Contest. Um , a couple years ago. This is her track projector screen.
S6: I know what it feels to be afraid of nothing at all. I can't sing. We are. Rolling across the projector screen.
S5: So this concert is at the Jazz Lounge. It's this really intimate setting in Rolando. Table seating. It's great spot. That's 7 p.m. on Sunday. Um , yeah. It's going to be great.
S1: Really beautiful sounds there. You can find details on these and more arts events on our website at KPBS. But before we go , Julia , the San Diego music scene lost one of their own in recent weeks. Tell us about Tim Loman.
S5: Yeah , Tim Loman , known for his one man band , Low Volts. He was a long time performer , as a lot of these tributes rolled in on social media. Last week or so , he's been called a fixture quite a bit , and that is a great term for him. Um , he performed a lot Everywhere. And also like. Not just here , but he also just got back from a European tour , um , in the rock and the blues scenes over the years here , he's had a lot of acclaim. Back in 2011 , he won at the San Diego Music Awards. He won Best new artist and Best blues album for twist , shake , grind , break. Uh , let's listen to I Cried My Guts Out from that album.
S7: I see you walking on down the street. You know I'm there. But you just lay down at your feet. I seen you riding in his big car. flat is compensating for a lack of charm.
S5: So he has this distinctive voice , distinctive slide guitar , just like this grit. And he'd even show up with a flute sometimes , believe it or not. Um , every time I've seen him play , it was just mesmerizing. Like this mix of high energy rocking but really intimate at the same time. Um , he was also in another band , Blackout Party. They won a San Diego Museum Award or San Diego Music Award the following year for their album bottom of the sea , and he supported other bands throughout the years to. He's released music steadily for over a decade , including , just Last month , an original Christmas song. His last full length , Forbidden Frequency , came out in 2024 , And this is the track. You're my favorite song from that latest album.
S8: Baby , come home.
S7: You're my favorite. Song.
S8: Song.
S7: Let me turn your.
S8: Back on home. Baby come home.
S7: You're my.
S8: Favorite song. Let me turn your back on.
S1: I've been speaking with KPBS arts reporter and host of the finest podcast , Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , thanks so much.
S5: Thank you. Andrea.
S7: Baby , come home now. It's half past. Don't know where you go.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm Andrew Bracken , KPBS. Midday edition airs on KPBS FM weekdays at noon , again at 8 p.m. you can find past episodes at KPBS or wherever you listen. Thanks again for listening. Have a great day.
