Self-taught local mixed media painter Mark Fox makes “urban outsider folk art” that we’ve been big fans of since first discovering his stuff back in ‘08. In fact, after featuring him in the mag way back then, we even collaborated with him on a Submerge T-shirt design (hit us up if you want one, we might have a couple lying around). His style is unique and he’s been doing his thing for many years, having really mastered his craft. Check out Mark Fox and Friends in person at Little Relics (908 21st Street, Sacramento) through Oct. 31, 2015. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Visit Mark-fox.com for more on the artist.
“A decade of musical ephemera, propaganda and juvenalia” is what to expect when you step foot into the University Union 2nd Floor Gallery at Sacramento State to see Better Living Through Modern Lehzure: The Gigposters of Jason Malmberg. Malmberg’s resume is impressive: he’s currently the head designer behind TBD Fest’s slick branding, he’s also Sactown Magazine’s art director, and he’s even created official gig posters for such acts as Cut Copy, Justice, Foals, Drive-By Truckers, Future Islands, Mogwai, The Walkmen, Surfer Blood … the list goes on and on. His solo show at Sacramento State runs Oct. 26 through Nov. 19, 2015. Opening reception is Oct. 29 from 6–8 p.m. Free and open to the public. Check out Decabet.com for more on the artist.
A native of Santa Cruz, Jeremiah Kille is the epitome of the word “maker.” When he’s not hand-shaping surfboards, he’s creating insanely amazing artwork that explores “themes of nature and coexistence.” Some of his work is currently up at The Urban Hive (1931 H Street, Sacramento) and we highly suggest stopping in to see it with your own two eyes. Some of the paintings are huge and jaw dropping. The show is up through Oct. 31, 2015. Visit Jeremiahkille.com to learn more about the artist.
The Mowgli’s are a Southern California-based, seven-piece pop-rock band with the sort of buzz that most record label execs would sell their soul for. When they first hit the scene in 2013 with the release of their debut album Waiting for the Dawn (which hit #4 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and produced the mega-hit single “San Francisco”), their catchy sound and message of positivity and love resounded with audiences worldwide. Opportunities started knocking down the door and The Mowgli’s soon found themselves on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Conan, as well as crushing their own headlining tours and wowing massive crowds at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Bumbershoot. Their sophomore album, Kids In Love, was released earlier this year and the single “I’m Good” has a whopping 16 million streams on Spotify, proving their early success wasn’t a fluke. Luckily for Sacramentans, The Mowgli’s are making their way through town for a not-to-be-missed show at Sacramento State’s University Union Ballroom on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015. Tickets are a straight up steal at just $15 for the general public (students pay just $10 in advance, $12 at the door). This all-ages show kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and will feature opening sets by locals James Cavern as well as The Tipsy Hustlers. Visit Sacstateunique.com for a link to buy tickets or call UNIQUE Program’s line at (916) 278-3928 for more information. You can also snag tickets in person at the ASI Student Shop on the 3rd floor of The University Union.
If you find yourself needing a good laugh on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 head on over to Sacramento State’s University Union Ballroom for a stand-up comedy show featuring three top-notch performers for the low, low price of free! Headlining will be 22-year-old Samuel J. Comroe, a brave young comic who shares his trials and tribulations about living with Tourette Syndrome in a hilarious and unforgettable manner. Opening for Samuel will be Los Angeles-based comedian Anyi Malik and the 2014 San Francisco International Comedy Competition winner Kabir Singh. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. This event is in support of Hornet Weeks of Welcome. Pro tip: there is free parking after 6:30 p.m. on the sixth floor of Parking Structure III. Visit Sacstateunique.com for more information.
You’ve probably encountered someone like the character Creed Bratton from The Office. He’s that guy you don’t really know but you see every day. He seems innocuous from a distance, but there’s something about him that keeps you from getting too close. Then maybe one day you’re at the snack machine, pushing up against the glass because that Snickers bar you just purchased got stuck on the spiraling metal wire that holds the candy in place. Suddenly you hear an unfamiliar voice from a very familiar face. Perhaps he’s trying to make bizarrely humorous quip about your plight … or maybe he’s equating your struggle with the candy machine to society’s battle with the covert forces of the Illuminati. Whatever he said, for a moment, you were time twisted from your mundane life to some dark, twisted form of Narnia.
The man Creed Bratton is only slightly like the famous character he portrayed on one of the past decade’s most defining sitcoms. However, in many ways, he’s way more fascinating.
Bratton, a former student at Sacramento State, backpacked overseas for a few years before returning to California to start a band with Warren Entner called The 13th Floor. By 1967, the band changed its name to The Grass Roots and went on to record a few popular radio hits including “Let’s Live for Today.”
Though he got his start in music, it was acting that Bratton actively tried to pursue while he was in college.
“I was always planning to be an actor,” says Bratton, who studied drama while at Sacramento State. “Music was just something I did. I didn’t know until I went to school that everyone didn’t know how to play music. I just thought everybody does this, you know?”
At a young age, Bratton (born William Charles Schneider, later changed to Chuck Ertmoed when his mother remarried) had an ear for music. He first took to the trumpet before picking up the guitar.
“My grandparents had a country-western band called The Happy Timers,” he remembers. “When I was a little kid, I’d sit down and watch them play. I used to go down to Long Beach from the mountains and be with them for two months in the summer … I’d listen to stuff on the radio and just figure it out by ear.”
By 17, he was working professionally as a musician, but after he left The Grass Roots in 1969, his artistic career hit a bit of a snag, or as he put it in our interview, “35 years of thinking I’m not going to get anything going.”
Over that time, though, he never gave up. He spent his time “working, writing, going to class,” he says until, eventually, he once again struck pop culture gold.
“Now I have my second wind as it were, and I’m off doing these shows again,” Bratton says, gearing up for a California tour that will bring him back to Sacramento. “I’m having a great time.” Submerge had the pleasure of speaking with Bratton about his surprising and remarkable career as an actor and musician.
It’s amazing what the music scene in the late ‘60s meant to American culture, and it still has an effect today. What was it like for you living through that time as a musician?
At the time, it was very innocent. The pot wasn’t anywhere near what it is today. It was very mild. We experimented with stuff. For musicians at that time, it wasn’t looked down upon. You were doing what you were supposed to do. You were going to the other side of the veil, finding little chestnuts and bringing them back and writing them down and playing them for people. That was the deal. Some people didn’t come back. I was one of the lucky ones who … What were we talking about?
Badda boom! Drum roll!
It was the ‘60s. It was the best bite of the apple. There was no AIDS. It was free love and pot and everyone was fucking each other and painting flowers on their faces. It was pretty cool. And then it got weird in the ‘70s, but from ‘66 to the early part of the ‘70s, it was just fantastic.
I saw a quote on IMDb that was attributed to you where you said how you did a lot of acid, but never had a flashback.
Exactly! I paid good money for that acid. I deserve a flashback [laughs]. That’s just a joke, though. I would be scared to death if I had one those! I don’t even need that. All I have to do is be locked in a room where they’re smoking that pot from nowadays, and I’ll be crawling the walls [laughs]. I think Louis C.K. says it best, the best way to do drugs is not do them for a while, because when you do them it’s really amazing.
I know, I’m waiting until I retire so I can smoke a joint one more time …
When I’m doing acting and trying to memorize lines, I just can’t do it. It messes with my memory too much. It’s nice to do when you’re on vacation and you’re hanging out with somebody on the beach. That would be great. When it comes to work and stuff, it just interferes.
I know a lot of people know you from The Office, so I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about that. I thought it was really cool that you pitched your character to the show’s creators.
I actually shot an audition tape. I recently found that audition tape, actually. I thought I had lost it. I was working on Bernie Mac, I met Ken Kwapis [director for both The Bernie Mac Show and The Office] and we became friends on the show. When I heard about The Office, I contacted him. He said that they were already cast, but he’d try. He talked to Greg Daniels and said I was a very interesting guy and a musician, and they put me in the background. I left Bernie Mac to take a shot at doing this. I was just starting to get lines on Bernie Mac, but my gut said do this [The Office]. Within one week, I knew there was so many talented people that I had to do something. I wrote an hour’s worth of stuff, like what would happen if someone had stayed on drugs and stuff and ended up at a paper company and created this character. I went to my buddy Joe Moore, who was an A.D. on Bernie Mac, and with his help, I adlibbed a bunch of stuff and picked the best out of what we did and gave it to Ken Kwapis, who was still directing on the first season, and Greg Daniels. The second season came in, and in the first or second week, they threw a script on my desk and said, well, everyone thinks you’re really funny, so here you go. It was a 6-and-a-half-page scene with Steve Carrell, and I was like, “Oh my God, this is it!” It was scary. After it aired, I came in on a Friday, and we aired on Thursday, I saw Rainn Wilson and John Krasinski and they gave me a big bro hug and said I’d knocked it out of the park. That meant so much to me. The next thing you know, I became a series regular. I tell actors all the time, if you’ve got strengths or weaknesses, use them. Make a video and use that as your audition.
The character became such a cult figure, too.
It was amazing how people loved that character, that crazy guy. People still get disturbed when I’m talking to them, and they’re like, “You’re not that Creed guy,” and I’m like, no! It’s close to how I talk and stuff, but still not me, obviously.
I think part of it is that everyone knows someone like that in their lives, that peripheral character who you don’t know much about, but he says that weird thing that you can’t believe just came out of his mouth.
[Laughter] Well the writers took that thing … I would just laugh at the table reads seeing some of the stuff they came up with for me. They did a lot with a little with that guy.
It’s been a couple years now since The Office ended. How has it been winding down from that?
Oh man, I missed it. I remember after the hiatus period, like three months or so, I found myself one morning driving in my car and I was starting to head back to the studio where we shot. I was like a homing pigeon, you know? I’ve done some independent movies, like Band of Robbers, which turned out really well and it will be playing film festivals. I also did Grace and Frankie for Netflix and recorded some new stuff. And of course I’ll be coming to Sacramento. That starts off my California tour. … I want to give a big shout out to Duane Heglie, can you put that in there? He’s my buddy from college and high school. We went to Sac State together.
Your most recent album came out in 2011. Are you working on new material?
I have six solos and four with The Grass Roots. I think about the time I hit a dozen, I’ll make one that really clicks. But right now I’m working on a pilot called Feather Peak that we’re trying to get greenlit. I play a character who lives up in the mountains. He’s a caregiver, but he writes music too, so I’ve been writing songs for the show, and they’re really good! I’ve been doing three or four of them in the show now. They’re all brand new. I’m going to be recording them pretty soon in Los Angeles.
A character who lives in the mountains who plays music, that sounds pretty close to home.
He’s a caregiver who has this ability to realize that when people are dying they hold on to things that keep them from passing on to the other side in a tranquil way. He’s able to facilitate this. … It’s kind of like Northern Exposure meets Touched by an Angel meets the Creed character [laughs], which is kind of an interesting concept if you think about it.
Duane, if you’re out there, this one’s for you. Join Duane and surely many others when Creed Bratton plays live at Harlow’s in Sacramento on Aug. 11, 2015. Ngaio Bealum will take the stage to open the show. Tickets are $15 in advance and can be purchased through Harlows.com.
**This interview first appeared in print in issue #193 (August 3 – 17, 2015).
From infancy to young adulthood, our brain is developing to understand the material world around us. As social creatures, a large part of this development is dependent on our relationships (nature vs. nurture, to put it simply). Arguably, some of the most valued relationships we will develop are with those most influential to us. If you don’t agree, why not ask David Wetzl’s art students. For two decades, Wetzl has been momentously impacting his students at Sacramento State and Sierra College. But after recently being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative disease affecting the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, Wetzl has decided to retire and dedicate his time to his personal works. Until March 1, JAYJAY Gallery (5520 Elvas Ave.) will be exhibiting Wetzl’s recent and classic works. Come see his beautiful response to this obstacle in life (for free), from Wednesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For questions or specifications on exhibit show times, call JAYJAY Gallery at (916) 453-2999.
Watsky is clever. It’s apparent through his instrumental manipulations; he takes beats, samples and melodies from a variety of artists (Deer Tick, Kanye, Hall and Oates and Snoop Dogg to name a few) and intelligently reconstructs specific aspects of tempo and placement, while supplementing his own musical ideas. Watsky is a poet. His lyrics are an evolved version of spoken word; he transforms situations of humor, irony, emotion and honesty into incredibly visual wordplay and smooth poetic phrases. His lyrical intentions can be confrontational, but he presents them in a very approachable manner. Watsky is an entertainer. He’s enthusiastic, engaging, animated and unpredictable…and he’s going to be performing at Sacramento State on Dec. 5, 2013 (tickets can be found at Georgewatsky.com). Watsky is not someone to miss. Not only does he have incredible stage presence, but he is the kind of artist that leaves you feeling kind of inspired after listening to his music. Get your tickets; you’ll be regretting it if you don’t.
Artist Susan J. Silvester finds a nurturing home in Sacramento
A blue-faced bunny girl clutching a limp, stuffed toy launched an entire series of artwork for Susan J. Silvester that she—and a growing number of fans—adores for its dramatic reflection of her dark, feminine voice.
Animals, imaginary lands, costumes, facial expressions and unusual body forms combine to represent Silvester’s self-proclaimed creepy genre.
The audience doesn’t really know if these forlorn, timeless beings are humans in fuzzy costumes or part human, part animal.
“They are sort of the same,” Silvester says from her home in Sacramento, where she does her digital work when not painting in her Verge Center for the Arts studio space. “I didn’t know that was going to happen but I’m a big fairytale and sci-fi fan (I love Dr. Who), so they’re human but they’re not. It’s creepy. It’s sort of based on medieval costumes that I saw and I learned how to sew. I do them kneeling a lot, so it’s an odd pose, because it’s kind of religious but kids do that a lot.”
Silvester’s first solo show, at Gallery 2110 and the Sacramento Art Complex, will be available to view next month and represents a psychological realm, another space that has to do with deep emotion and feeling. Think Pan’s Labyrinth meets 16th century portraiture.
At first, the art seems so sweet and delicate, and it is, but then it also conjures up feelings of entrapment and childhood confusion.
“I have a female voice, but then, I am a female,” says Silvester. “I just see that in the work, it expresses me. Even though these [faces] are not me they are me, because they are aspects of my personality, pieces of me.”
The first bunny girl was a result of a bad review she received while working on her master’s in painting at Sacramento State.
“Basically I got slammed in my review at school, and I got sad so I decided I’m going to draw people how I want to, and so I did,” she says. “I like people as animals. But it’s faux fur, it’s not real. I’m a vegetarian.”
The campus trees, squirrels and overall environment worked as a muse, as did Silvester’s more than 30 years of experience that ranged from Web design to art fabrication and replication animation.
Some of the particulars of these jobs are incredible. Silvester has built massive fiberglass sculptures for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, created objects like children’s toys for comic strip Family Circle and designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website.
Her artistic ability and dark humor came in handy when she worked on Pee-wee’s Playhouse and the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios. Perhaps more impressive, however, was her work as an art fabricator in New York—her home state—for leading pop artists Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, Marisol and Lynda Benglis.
“As an artist, especially in New York, you just survive,” she says of the experience. “That was all sort of dark and wacky, so my work is still playful and dark.”
While working on the Back to the Future ride, Silvester decided to go back to computers and stop making large models as she had been for sets and other artists.
“I probably created enough toxic waste to last 100 million years,” she says. “I made a set that was 30-by-70 feet out of that foam that never breaks down and it was huge and disgusting. There were these huge bugs that came out of it. It was horrible. I said that’s it, I’m done with this, and then transitioned into computers. It was a good call.”
Silvester feels her digital work is almost more difficult than painting because she sees every flaw magnified.
“It’s really labor intensive and a lot of people don’t understand but this is all hand drawn,” she says of her digital work. Sometimes I’ll scan in my drawing but then I still have to paint it. I touch every part of that freaking piece. And when you flatten things (in Photoshop) then you have to fix it. I’ll still print something out and will see something and no one else will but I know it’s there. When I started painting, I kind of missed the ‘undo.’”
Silvester paints using mixed media, acrylics and oil. She has also recently incorporated her sculpting skills into her solo genre, sculpting bunny girls using clay and covering them with felt. If she completes the pieces, she may also include them in her show.
“I’m trying to show where I started and where I’m going so it’ll be interesting and help round out the show,” she says.
When she’s not in her studio or feverishly fixing every line and dot on her digital drawings, Silvester is teaching at the Art Institute, a job that has helped her go beyond “just surviving” as she did years ago in New York.
“Now I can do my art because I have that [the teaching],” she says. Silvester teaches color theory, drawing and design at the institute and also instructs senior classes at the Natomas Art Center in Folsom.
The art scene in Sacramento is also more her pace, Silvester says, after honing her career in both New York and Dallas.
“Since I moved here in 2001, the art scene has changed so much,” she says. “It’s expanded but it’s still a core group. I like knowing the different artists and seeing what they’re doing.”
She adds that attending school in Sacramento and having a studio at Verge has also positively affected her work and given her the confidence and feedback she needs.
“It has been a good place for me and we just kind of share ideas and critiques, so it’s really great for artists.”
Check out Gallery 2110 this July to see more of Silvester’s creations. A reception will be held July 13, 2013 from 6 to 9 p.m. Visit Susansilvester.com to follow her work.
Comedian Sammy Obeid sets a milestone in consecutive nights of stand-up
Sammy Obeid is a workaholic of the highest order. While most people strive to have their weekends off after five long days in the office, this comedian plans to work the stage every single night for 1,000 nights in a row. After a few months of working and realizing that he hasn’t had a day off since Christmas 2010, Obeid asked himself, “Why not just keep it going?”
Submerge caught up with Sammy over the phone on day 804 and the 10th anniversary of his first time stepping up on stage as a comic.
“I reached 100 [days], and I said, ‘You know I can make a full year record out of this and go to 365.’ I did that,” Obeid said. “When I made the 365, I got a Facebook message from my friend who said, ‘Hey man, I heard a comedian once did two years in a row performing every night…’ I said, ‘If I do that, I’m going to do 1,000 days.’”
Obeid has been working so much in the past two years, he considers his afternoon gigs as a “day off” or as he joked on Facebook a day off is a night performing comedy in pajamas. Recently he has cut down the workday by performing one or two sets instead of three or four in one night.
“I’m on my eighth wind right now or something. There was a point earlier when I was getting really burnt out and I kind of just took it easy, rested and regenerated. The last 100 days or so I’ve been resting and trying to get my health back,” he said. “It’s been one heck of a ride that’s for sure. I’m definitely looking forward to the end, but I feel like I have a wind right now. I’m going strong. And I’m so used to this, it’s becoming normal.”
Obeid has not only broken the previous record of performing stand-up comedy for the most consecutive nights on day 731, but he has plans to take it to the next level of performing.
“I needed to set up the margin so nobody else ever beats it. That and 1,000 is a nice round number,” Obeid explained.
Since the comedy bar is set so high, he knows that his final day is going to be a special one and is hoping to catch more attention to the public. In order to document his crazy comedy life correctly, he matches his everyday show with an everyday blog update on his website, Sammyko.com. You can keep track of what city he will be in and the type of challenges he goes through on a daily basis. Aspiring comedians can find helpful tips from a traveling comic, or people interested in what life would be like for a performing comic can find hilarious tales from his everyday life. You can read how he conquered performing on Monday in San Francisco, dealt with a “horny heckler,” how he got called a “genius” by the legendary Louis C.K., and received a compliment from Howard Stern while performing on America’s Got Talent.
“‘Well Sammy, I think you made the right choice.’ The crowd cheers. ‘I really like what you’re doing, and you know me, I love racial comedy. I think you’ve tapped into really something special there,’” Sammy wrote in his blog after day 441, after receiving honest words from Howard Stern.
On top of keeping up his blog and working a show every night, Sammy is being followed by a cameraman throughout his shows to film the comedy marathon.
“The whole time I thought it would be really cool to get a guy to follow me around, and I wouldn’t have to pay anything because I don’t have any money. It turns out I met a guy who’s been waiting to find the perfect project to put himself into,” he said. “We are going to turn it into a full-on movie, and recently I’ve a lot of good financial success, so I can actually pay him now and we can get better equipment. It’s really coming along.”
Originally from Oakland and a UC Berkeley graduate, Obeid first started comedy after one of his college professors suggested he try it out. After bombing the first time on stage, he became discouraged and decided that maybe comedy wasn’t the right career for him. But a few years later he enrolled in a public speaking class and ended up winning one of the national tournaments. After realizing his speaking skill, he decided to brave the stage once more in San Jose for a comedy competition. Although he didn’t get the winning title, he performed very well on stage getting plenty of laughs.
“I found out what I was good at, which was public speaking, math and making people laugh,” he said. “I left college with knowing that’s what I’m good at, which didn’t tell me at all what I should be doing in life [but] that’s how I ended up becoming a comedian.”
He graduated with a 3.9 GPA double major in Business and Mathematics. But Obeid’s education is used every day on stage to come up with jokes that are creative and smart.
“I think about comedy mathematically, jokes are equations in a way. I have a very technical way of looking at things,” explained Obeid. “Everybody has a different comedy style, some people are off the whim, some people are very structured. I have a mathematical intuition when it comes to comedy.”
His natural intuition has paid off, on top of attempting to complete the most consecutive nights of comedy, he as appeared on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, the Food Network, and is a current member of the Coexist Comedy Tour and the Axis of Evil New Generation Tour. He also started his own comedy enterprise with a group of friends called KO Comedy, where they promote and perform shows. Throughout his success he has noticed how much stronger and funnier his set has been.
“The comedic growth that I’ve experienced is pretty immense and (this is a double negative) but you can’t not get good from doing comedy every night. It’s inevitable, it will just happen,” he said. “I’m just amazed of how much more power I feel like I have, how much more control I feel I have over a crowd, and having more material. I would have never thought this was conceivable two years ago.”
The last day of work for Sammy Obeid will be on Sept. 21, 2013, making it officially 1,001 consecutive days of stand-up comedy. Now working on this eighth wind, quitting is not even an option for him but he does look forward to his future day off.
“I don’t even know what I’m going to do yet. But it’s going to involve locking myself in my room or a few days,” joked Obeid.
Sammy Obeid will perform a free show with Mike E. Winfield at Sacramento State’s University Union Ballroom on April 4, 2013. On April 7, Obeid will headline a show at Punch Line in Sacramento. Tickets for the latter are $15.
This Wednesday, Feb. 20 will see a DJ event of epic proportions at District 30 (1022 K Street) as Red Bull Thre3style University takes over the popular downtown nightclub. Regional DJs will compete for a chance to win an all expense paid trip and invite to compete at Red Bull Thre3style University in San Francisco on March 7 at Manor West.
Rocking the party will be Jurts (representing Sacramento State), Heartworm (also representing Sacramento State), T-Roy (representing Chico State), Kronyak (representing University of Nevada, Reno) and Dr. Freezy (representing Sierra College). There will also be a special opening set by Penthaus, resident DJ for District 30’s “I Heart House Music Thursday’s.” Here is how the voting will work for the competition: Each person that comes through the door gets a voting ticket. In addition to that vote, each time someone buys a Red Bull drink they get another ticket. Each DJ will have a box that you can drop a ticket in to vote for them. They each get a fifteen minute set to showcase their skills and they must play at least three different genres of music. The goal is simple, rock the party the hardest!
There is no cover and the doors open at 9 p.m. 21-and-over only. Get there early, because the first 50 people get a free drink ticket! If you or your group needs a sober driver, Red Bull is hooking up a promo code to get $20 off a ride from Uber, who will pick you up and take you home in a Town Car! Just download the Uber app on your iPhone or Android device and enter the promo code “SacRedBull” and then request a ride.
Sacramento’s own Cole Cuchna, formerly of The New Humans, will be showcasing some of his latest compositions at his senior recital at Sacramento State’s Capistrano Hall, room 151. A guitarist turned pianist, Cuchna is a contemporary composer who cut his teeth creating rock and pop music. For his senior recital, he will be joined by musicians such as Ryan Sulieman, Erina Satio and Vincent Antolini. This exciting night of original compositions is free, and will begin at 7 p.m. A reception will follow the event. For more info on Cuchna, go to http://Colecuchna.com
