Tea is the most consumed beverage in the world after water, yet in the United States, we have only recently considered tea plant terroir like we do with wine grapes, scrutinized leaf freshness like hops or considered tea-food pairings for a party.

Wait, you don’t do that with your tea?

If you have tea FOMO, don’t run out and buy a bunch of tea plants (Camellia sinensis) just yet. The Sacramento region is not ideal for tea production without significant investment (look up tea expert Roy Fong, who has spent years and more than $1 million in Esparto, Yolo County, to start one of the only two known tea farms in California).

Perhaps a better introduction to all things tea would be to pay a visit to Nami Thompson, who has owned Tea Cozy with her husband Mike for 20 years. Located just inside Arthouse at 1021 R St. (next to Fox and Goose), Tea Cozy provides several dozen fresh, globally sourced loose leaf teas, as well as knowledgeable staff in a calm, jolly space lined with tea accessories—anything from Anglophile goodies like lemon curd and shepherd’s pie spice mix, to Chinese serving sets.

Thompson’s idea for Tea Cozy came from time spent with her British mother-in-law, who at the time was suffering from cancer and was the reason the couple left Washington State to settle in Sacramento in 1998. Prior to the move, Nami was a product developer/designer for major companies like Eddie Bauer, and Mike worked as a civil engineer.

“We quit our jobs without having jobs here and moved to Sacramento,” Thompson says as she pours a deep, beautiful, ruby herbal tea of her own concoction called Moulin Rouge (dried elderberry, raisin and hibiscus) into tiny white teacups. “My husband said I should start my own business because of my background. At that time, I read about old tea rooms closing in Los Angeles, and I thought, ‘I love that idea.’ My husband’s mother was from England and she introduced me to tea with milk and biscuits, and I liked that tea time was intergenerational; I liked the idea of kids and older people sitting and talking together.”

Interviews with women who owned and operated tea rooms in the Sacramento region helped Thompson realize a restaurant wasn’t her cup of … well, you know. These entrepreneurs woke early to prep kitchens, cook, clean, set up shop, handle employees and much more. Advice from her banker brother that a tea room wouldn’t turn tables fast enough for a profit also worried her.

“We liked tea, but didn’t know anything about tea,” Thompson says of the shop idea. “The knowledge would come along the way. So I started the tea shop with the tea I would have with my mother-in-law.”

Thompson attended the annual World Tea Expo to get more exposure, and joined tea associations and mailing lists, getting samples and choosing which to sell in the shop, which at the time was much smaller in the back of the building where the freight elevator was located.

Over the last 20 years, Thompson and her employees have sat with top tea experts and distributors from around the world to learn and bring knowledge back to their corner of Sacramento. Aside from the historical and cultural education, Thompson says she always listens to what flavors her customers want.

“I know everyone says this, but I feel like I have the best customers,” she says with a big smile. Indeed, nearly every customer who walks in during our interview she knows by name, and they each stop to chat about their latest purchase.

Though Thompson is not a tea sommelier (she says they do exist), her palate has developed over these last few decades in a way that she can tell subtle differences in teas, knows the right way to brew each kind and has a knack for unique blends and flavors that customers may request.

“The water that you’re using, the amount [of tea] you’re using, the temperature of the water, how long you steep the tea, when you pick the leaf and if you pick on time … it all makes a difference,” Thompson says. “If the leaf looks really dry and brittle and can look dusty, then you won’t have as much flavor.”

Thompson notes that now some of the big tea bag companies will put dates on the boxes sold at the grocery stores, and that the quality has gotten better.

Flavor profiles are very important to Thompson. She says that the shop staff tries to always use natural ingredients to meet flavor needs. For example, Thompson works with a company that does freeze-dried fruit that has a cut that is finer to get the flavor into the tea. Thompson purchased blueberries from the company and is working on a flavored tea.

Tea Cozy has a unique, smoky Earl Grey, a tea called Purple Rain that brews purple, as well as a custom Moroccan Mint blend. They also provide specialty orders to Sacramento businesses Tapa the World, the Kitchen (for cooking with teas) and Bottle and Barlow for creative tea cocktails.

The possibilities for food and drink uses and for new ways of serving tea seem endless to Thompson. The market, she reports, has yet to pick up on tea the same way it’s done with craft beer and wine.

“When we went to talk to our oolong distributor recently, he said there are trends in ready-to-drink teas that you could serve in wine glasses and people can sip and still participate in parties without seeming like a party pooper,” Thompson says. “At the last tea expo, we did a cheese and tea pairing, and tea affects the creaminess of the cheese. The idea is that people put milk in their tea, so why not pair it.”

The idea is not farfetched in many parts of the world; in Mediterranean and Eastern European cuisine, pairing a sweet or herbal tea with baked cheese dishes is common.

Thompson notes she actually prefers plain and simple teas so that she can then pair them with her meals or desserts (she drinks five cups a day, preferably with food).

The options seem endless, but what are the benefits? Why replace tea with water in your cooking? Why opt for tea over a Track 7 brewski?

For 3,000 years, the Asian cultures where tea originated have claimed myriad medicinal benefits to tea drinking. According to the UC Davis Global Tea Initiative for the Study of Tea Culture and Science, the National Institutes of Health has “identified a need for more research into tea’s anti-carcinogenic potential,” and the possibility of “improving cardiovascular health and mental acuity, but no health claims have yet received U.S. government approval.”

Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague, UC Davis chemistry professor, created immune-stimulating molecules called glycolipids for treating cancer and HIV and is researching glycolipids that are present in tea.

Of course, economic benefits also exist with tea, as commercial production has yet to flourish but seems on the horizon.

“Tea is exactly where the wine industry was 100 years ago in California,” Gervay-Hague notes on the Global Tea Initiative website.

Thompson thinks American tea culture will shift from its current unceremonial, speed-driven teabag ease to something more deliberate and contemplative. She has met people more recently who run tea shops or frequent them that give her this sense.

“In Newcastle, I met a guy who brings just one Chinese tea back from overseas and serves it, and he invited me to come sit and have tea, not like in a restaurant,” Thompson says. “I have met people here who are more interested in the leaf and the processing of it.”

The Global Tea Initiative is holding their third annual symposium Feb. 22–23, 2018, at the UC Davis Conference Center Ballroom free to the public, with the theme of “The Future of Tea: Issues in Sustainability and Preservation.”

Previous Global Tea Initiative symposiums have brought in experts who speak to both scientific and social aspects of the drink. Thompson notes she heard from a man who patented his own Taiwanese tea ceremony, and from a woman who studied the families of plantation workers. This year, Thompson is working to secure a new type of license that will allow her to hold tea tastings and classes in the shop.

In the meantime, if you don’t feel up to the challenge of brewing the perfect cup of Thompson’s Moulin Rouge—which for us deepened in color and thickened in texture over the course of an hour or more to the point of a sweet, heavenly balsamic reduction—try the acceptable ready-to-drink alternative in town: rooibos on nitro at Temple Coffee Roasters on K Street.

5 Tea Tips from Nami Thompson:

1) If you wanted to host a tea tasting party (and considering it is both National Hot Tea Month and Dry January, you should), stick with one region and try the white (youngest freshest tea leaves), green (unoxidized leaves) and black (oxidized leaves) varieties to taste the range of that region. Or, choose one type of tea and try it from different regions.

2) The temperature of the water can affect the tea leaves. Green tea should steep in less than boiling water, or 185 degrees.

3) New tea drinkers should consider their caffeine tolerance and those who can’t handle caffeine could start with white tea.

4) Seasoned tea drinkers could try Pu-erh, a black tea twice oxidized that can steep up to 20 times with subtle differences in flavor each time.

5) Moderation is key.

Tea Cozy is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday’s from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday’s from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Monday’s. They are located inside Arthouse at 1021 R Street. Learn more at Teacozy.biz or call them at (916) 441-3546.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 14 – 15 of issue #257 (Jan. 15 – 29, 2018)**

Need some excitement to start the new year? Come see the Monster Jam Triple Threat Series at the Golden 1 Center, taking place Jan. 19–21. The event will feature “the eight most intense athletes of Monster Jam,” using fierce and customized trucks, ATVs and Speedsters. The eight competitors include Krysten Anderson (driving Grave Digger); Armando Castro (driving El Toro Loco); Cynthia Gauthier (driving Monster Mutt Dalmatian); Bernard Lyght (driving Alien Invasion); Tristan England (driving EarthShaker); Camden Murphy (driving Pirate’s Curse); Travis Groth (driving Megalodon); and Tyler Groth (driving Zombie). The Monster Jam will be packed with plenty of excitement, as twins Tyler and Travis Groth compete against each other; 19-year old Krysten Anderson carries on the family legacy of the Grave Digger (her father, Dennis Anderson is the creator, team owner and former driver of Grave Digger); and rookie of the year Camden Murphy emerges from “The Dark Sea” with Pirate’s Curse. Also, fan favorite trucks Alien Invasion, El Toro Loco, Monster Mutt Dalmatian and EarthShaker will compete in some of their first races of 2018! The first event starts on Friday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. The jam kicks off Saturday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m., while the Pit Party is open from 4:30–6 p.m.—pit passes are available to purchase for $10 each. The final day commences Sunday, Jan. 21 at 1 p.m., with the Pit Party open from 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. Tickets are on sale now through Golden1center.com starting at $15. All ages!

**This write-up first appeared in print on page 10 of issue #256 (Jan. 1 – 15, 2018)**

Key Lewis is currently writing his biography. But he’s not planning on it to be the lengthy, wordy and slightly boring tome that will help you fall asleep at night. In fact, you will only find his memoir in the comedy section of the book store. He plans for his biography to be on stage and recorded in front of a live audience.

“How can I bottle this up into an hour and some change?” asked Lewis. “I know the jokes and I just kinda let the story tell itself.”

Lewis plans to lay out his life on stage in a thought provoking but hilarious way by mapping out his life struggles and realizations behind a microphone. He will relate personal stories throughout his life, from being in foster homes to being together with his wife for 29 years into a timeline of jokes on stage.

Lewis will be recording his upcoming DVD Half Black, Half White, Looks Mexican at Punch Line in Sacramento on Jan. 14, 2018. He will be “starting from day one” with his first memory at 5 years old to the stories of his everyday life with his wife and kids today.

Submerge caught up with Lewis after his drive up from Los Angeles at Oak Park Brewing Company in Sacramento—not only his hometown but his old neighborhood where he grew up—to talk about his upcoming comedy DVD, growing up in Sacramento and a few life lessons.

“It’s 80 degrees in L.A. right now,” said Lewis with a laugh. Currently residing in the slightly warmer L.A. area, Lewis thought it was important to have his DVD filmed in his hometown. Although there are a lot of opportunities in the comedy world in L.A., there is nothing like being in your own Sacramento laughing with old friends.

“For me, this is home. My family, my dad, the people I went to school with, everyone that watched me from being a kid to an adult and knows the struggles and the things that I had to deal with are from here.” said Lewis. “So what better place for me to recite stories or talk about my life and have them remember, ‘Oh hey, I was with him when he used to be that little punk in the ninth grade.’”

Growing up in the melting pot that is Sacramento, Lewis was able to connect to different groups of people, varying in age, sex and race. A lot of his material and characters are based on his experiences growing up surrounded by different cultures from his local neighborhood of Oak Park. He has learned how to connect with different people based on the different environments he grew up in.

“As a comic, you perform in [front of] such a broad range of folks and you become more personable because you have that ability. One day you might be performing for an elderly group of folks that are all white folks and then the next day you might be performing in front of a Latino crowd,” explained Lewis. “It’s just a good strength to have to be able to relate to everybody in some way, shape or form.”

Lewis uses the name of his DVD, Half Black, Half White, Looks Mexican, as almost a disclaimer for his comedy, in order to prepare the audience for what type of jokes they can possibly expect. Originally coming from another comic introducing him to the stage, the title stuck and it’s the perfect introduction to his biography.

“I think it’s a great icebreaker. The opener is more me talking about my father; there’s not a billboard that shows a black man that is embracing a half-black, half-white baby that looks Mexican,” joked Lewis.

Spilling out all of your life’s struggles and talking about your family’s stories in front of strangers sounds gut-wrenching to most people, but Lewis sees it as a heavy responsibility to be able to relate to people on a whole new level with laughter.

“Making people laugh that you don’t know is very empowering,” he said. “It’s a truer form of communicating.”

As a kid, Lewis used the power of laughter to fight off his first bully, but today he uses that honest form of communication by spreading much deserved smiles to troops overseas. As a Navy veteran, Lewis is now a part of the GIs of Comedy, a troupe that is made up entirely of military veterans who travel to different countries to perform for soldiers. Recently coming back from Iraq just a few weeks ago, Lewis has traveled to six different countries in the past four years, spreading laughter around the world. When performing in front of a group of soldiers, the comedy is no different than a local comedy club.

“I don’t do a lot of military jokes,” said Lewis. “I talk about what’s going on with my wife, my kids, and life. I just make fun of stuff; it takes them away from the, ‘Yes Sirs’ and ‘No Sirs.’”

From Iraq back to his home base in Sacramento, Key finds it important to push the envelope on stage, and ranges his topics from politics to everyday situations with his daughter, while still maintaining a balance of “likability” on stage. He brings to the stage what most people don’t even want to talk about at the dinner table—honest but in your face comedy. He wants his audience to relate with him in the small quirks of the everyday life of being a family man.

During a recording in front of an audience, anything can happen; there is no redoing a joke to make it sound better or funnier. The recording will take place in one day, but there is an early “clean” show that is more family friendly and a later “dirty” show for the audience members who don’t want anything edited from the jokes. Lewis wants to make his comedy accessible for anyone who wants to laugh.

At the end of the day, Lewis has very simple advice about doing comedy: “Don’t be a dick.”

“You don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, you don’t want to degrade somebody,” said Lewis. “You can be as funny as you want to be, but don’t be a dick to some undeserving patron that just wants to laugh. Just figure out a way to have fun, make it plausible, and just don’t be a dick.”

Don’t be a dick. Be a part of Key Lewis’ DVD release at Punch Line (2100 Arden Way, Sacramento) on Jan. 14, 2018. He will perform two shows (at 8 and 10 p.m.). For more info and to order tickets, go to Punchlinesac.com.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 12 – 13 of issue #256 (Jan. 1 – 15, 2018)**

Ohana Fiit, a new dance class company teaching out of two locations in Sacramento and Elk Grove, has your resolutions covered, whether your goal is to lose weight, tone up, learn something new, have fun, make new friends or engage your kids in more activity. Started just this year by Jennifer “Mahina” Leslie and her husband Ron, their Friday classes at Sierra 2 Center and Thursday classes at Unlock Nutrition are already heating up. They’re hoping to bring their Hot Hula Fitness classes to other areas of Sacramento, and their eventual goal is to have their own studio.

When I attended two classes with my gal pal, the music was Lil Mama’s “Shawty Get Loose,” which seemed an unconventional choice for a hula class. It made the hip shaking movements of hula feel a bit more like booty shaking, and I couldn’t help but smile that hula smile while I danced.

“As a certified Hot Hula Fitness instructor, they do give us some songs to go with the dances, and they’re all instrumentals,” Mahina says of her music selection for class. “I use those for the first week, and then, to change it up a little, I look for something with the same tempo. Something not too fast, not too slow, but if you’re advanced, you can speed up your hips double time while the steps stay the same. When the hip movements increase, you burn even more calories!”

Both classes follow the same routine. So if you can’t make it on a Thursday or a Friday, or you want to come an extra day, the classes are structured so that both classes work on the same dance. “In the beginning of the month, you learn a couple of eight counts, then you learn a couple more each week,” Mahina says. “By the end of the month, you learn the whole dance! I may change the songs between classes, but the choreography stays the same.”

Mahina endeavors to make hula accessible to all ages and all skill levels. When she shows the more advanced students a more challenging version of what she’s teaching the class, her mastery of the dance hypnotizes. Watching Mahina snap into double time hip movements and sink closer to the earth with strong legs, offset by lovely, graceful hand gestures and a welcoming smile, makes anyone wish they could dance like that on some beach. And with a great teacher like Mahina and practice, learning to dance hula is totally within reach.

Most people who opt to take the class don’t gravitate toward hula, specifically. It’s more about the fitness payoff. It is estimated that someone who is at a beginner or intermediate level burns 200 to 600 calories an hour, depending on the intensity of their effort. An advanced student might shed 900 calories in a one-hour class. Additionally, you work your obliques, abs, back, hips, legs and arms, engaging all your muscle groups in the movements.

In partnership with Kendrick and Charil Daniels at Unlock Nutrition, Ohana Fiit cross pollinates their customers by offering a free Herbalife smoothie after class.

“Because it isn’t a full studio like Sierra 2, we offer a shake after class,” Mahina adds. “We also understand that class is at 7 p.m., which is most people’s dinner time. So, you dance your little butt off and get the shake after.”

At only $10 a class, that’s a pretty awesome deal and an affordable way to realize weight-loss related resolutions, if I do say so myself.

Lightning struck Mahina when two worlds she loves collided. “I started hula dancing when my family lived back in Hawaii, and I was really little,” she says. “I had to stop hula dancing because my parents moved to California. It was when I was around 15 that my mom found a halau here in Sacramento, and joined. And I found out that I really like fitness later on in life, too, so I found a platform for that. When I realized I could combine hula and fitness, I thought, ‘This is amazing!’ Honestly, my favorite style is Tahitian dancing, and the great thing about this is you can take it fast, which is more of a representation of Tahitian dancing, or you can take it slow, but the movements are still the same. So I was like, ‘Let me certify!’ but it was really hard to find a job as a group instructor. So we decided to just make our own class.”

By “we,” Mahina is referring to her and her husband, Ron. The couple are both busy promoting, growing their clientele, filming classes, designing T-shirts and more, on top of day jobs. In spite of their demanding lifestyles, you can see they’re truly in love and on a path together, with purpose.

“We met at a gym. She was looking at me and doing pull-ups. That’s my story. Her story is a little different,” Ron jokes and Mahina giggles. “We saw a lot of families not doing fitness together. Parents might go to the gym, the kids might do football or whatever, but they don’t do anything together. We do a lot of things with our kids, and that’s how we came up with the Ohana fitness concept.”

Mahina continues, “My husband and I are truly passionate about fitness, and we didn’t want there to be an issue for moms, dads, uncles, aunties to have that barrier, to be able to enjoy fitness, especially on a weekly basis, so we’ve really embraced our name Ohana Fiit, and we allow the kids to come in. It doesn’t matter as long as they’re at least 2 or 3, you’re keeping an eye on your child, they don’t disturb class in our studio. They are more than welcome to come and play with other kiddos and run around. We have a couple videos in class where we’re all dancing, and this little baby just runs across the screen. The kids haven’t been too crazy, so we just embrace it. Bring your little one in, come in and dance, sweat, and have a good time with us!”

When asked if she wanted to share anything about Hawaiian culture beyond the dance steps, she says, “Other than embracing the culture, it’s about embracing family. That’s truly a part of the culture. Being welcoming, and offering what you have to offer, even if it’s just a good time, or a shoulder to lean on, or someone to talk to after class.”

Ohana Fiit is a family affair. Of her family’s involvement in the business, Mahina says, “My daughter, Alisa, takes the Hot Hula FItness classes with us, and she learns the dances. I don’t teach them to her ahead of time, so she learns them at the same pace as the rest of the class. And Devyn, who is also an instructor here, teaches Pound Fitness. And Ron takes classes when he can.”

“I started because I wanted to have respect for what she did,” Ron adds. “I’m a gym guy. But I decided to go ahead and try it out because we also want to promote this platform for men. And with her teaching style it’s fun and easy to learn.”

I asked Mahina how she got her Hawaiian name. “Mahina Malamalama. That is my full, given Hawaiian name,” Mahina says. “My kumu at the halau took the definition of my birth name, and combined it with what she thought I brought to the group. My birth name, Jennifer, references nice, smooth skin. My kumu felt like I brought energy and lightness to the group because I’m always kidding around. In hula culture, there is a goddess, Hina, who is known for having nice skin. So altogether, Mahina Malamalama means the brightening of the moon. Like when you look at a full moon and there’s a ring of light around it.”

Let’s dance around the moonglow.

You can try Ohana Fiit Hot Hula fitness classes on Thursdays 7–8 p.m. at Unlock Nutrition (10044 Bruceville Rd., Ste. 140, Elk Grove) and Fridays 7–8 p.m. at Sierra 2 Center (2791 24th St., Sacramento). For more info, go to Ohanafiit.com.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 20 – 21 of issue #256 (Jan. 1 – 15, 2018)**

“When you down they criticize ya,
when you up they wanna ride
I’m just tryna keep it moving,
been stuck so many times”
– “Love you Back,” Humble Beginnings

OMB Peezy moved from Mobile, Alabama, to Sacramento at the age of 12. At 20, he is already being dubbed by The FADER as “the future of rap.”

OMB Peezy (OMB stands for “only my brothers”) built a name for himself early in his young career as a masterful freestyler, attaining exposure to a large audience via YouTube. When Peezy posted his video for the track “Lay Down,” he drew the attention of Bay Area rapper Nef the Pharaoh.

Through Nef, he was able to grab the attention of veteran artist E-40, which led to Peezy signing to E-40’s label Sick Wid It in February. E-40 then connected Peezy with 300 Entertainment (home of Young Thug, Hopsin and Fetty Wap). On Oct. 11, 2017, OMB Peezy celebrated his first release, a six-track EP titled Humble Beginnings.

“Humble Beginnings, you know, basically starting my career,” said Peezy in an interview with Submerge. “I’m letting everybody know I was always hood in the beginning, because in the beginning you got to be humble.”

For the new album, Sick Wid It/300 enlisted producer extraordinaire Cardo Got Wings, who has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Though the two never worked together in person, Peezy loved the chemistry between his words and Cardo’s beats, and was more than happy with the end result.

“It was easy working with Cardo,” said Peezy. “It’s not that easy working with a lot of producers. And him, we was getting a lot of work done. It’s crazy, because me and Cardo never met personally in real life, if I’m not mistaken. But we came up with some raw ass work that’s about to go down in the history books … shout out Cardo Got Wings, that’s my dog.”

Peezy feels strongly that the message he was trying to craft was executed exactly as he intended, and he should be. [Humble Beginnings] represents the rapper’s style well, and does a good job conveying his message. In “Talk My Shit,” Peezy beams with pride on his recent accomplishments while reflecting on where he’s come from; in “Doin’ Bad” Peezy talks about recognizing that fame and money aren’t going to solve all his problems. As for the sound, from the first track to the last, there is a cohesive plan, and it’s well executed. For Peezy, getting things right on his first impression to the greater public was of the utmost importance.

“I was completely satisfied with how the tapes came out,” said Peezy. “You know, all of the things I expect to tell in my story, you know what I’m sayin’? And he gave me the perfect beat to tell my story. The tracks, as far as “[Doin’] Bad,” “[Block] Up,” “[Love You] Back,” “Go Down,” shit like that … I feel like he came with the perfect sound.”

While Peezy has been perfecting the art of writing and freestyling, one of the aspects of his newly propelling career is the area of live performance. While Peezy had performed often for friends, and even worked in the studio, it has only been a short time since he first stepped foot on stage, and the experience was eye opening.

“I actually started performing like 11 months ago,” said Peezy. “I started writing when I was like 8. Then I recorded my first song when I was 12. [My first live performance] I was nervous as fuck. Nef the Pharaoh had brought me out on his birthday in Sacramento, that was my first performance. I was nervous as a motherfucker. I wasn’t even rappin’ fully in the mic. I ain’t even know how to perform.”

In the past 11 months, Peezy is still nervous before a show on occasion, though the experience is definitely making the process more familiar, and that familiarity is breeding a certain level of self-confidence. “I be nervous, be gettin’ butterflies before the shows,” said Peezy, “but soon as I walk on stage and I hear them screamin’ for me … I can have the baddest stomach ache on earth, as soon as I walk on stage and they scream my name, all that shit just be in my past.”

A key factor in the young rapper’s rise to recognition has been some of the veterans Peezy has helping spread the word. It’s these same assets that will help Peezy make his recent rise sustainable, by passing on the valuable knowledge they’ve built through years in the industry. E-40 is a prime example of the heavy hitters Peezy has in his corner, and while E-40 hasn’t changed anything about the music Peezy puts out there, his influence is undeniable.

“E-40 hasn’t influenced me on my music style or nothing,” said Peezy, “but he motivated me and gave me good words of encouragement and life advice. He’s influenced my career. My style is myself.”

From the first time he stepped into the studio to the recording sessions that resulted in Humble Beginnings, much of life has changed for OMB Peezy. Besides getting signed, touring and dropping his debut EP, the studio experience has changed for Peezy as well, resulting in his recording sessions to be a lot more … relaxed.

“Shit has changed,” said Peezy. “My first time getting in the studio, my mom didn’t know I smoke weed. So I couldn’t smoke weed. Boom. But now, shit I be smokin’ weed in the studio, pipe kicking ‘round, me gettin’ my vibe right. Shit be going good. My vibe has changed a whole lot.”

While Peezy still reps Alabama, he has spent a good chunk of his formative years in California. However, before Peezy headed out to the West Coast, he was a bit skeptical about his new place of residence.

“My impression of California was like—I ain’t gonna lie, I was young-minded—I didn’t think there was no black people or none of that type of shit out here,” said Peezy. “I thought it was all white people, all palm trees, everybody was friendly and shit. I didn’t think there was no hood, I didn’t think there was no projects. And it was different.”

Still, whether Peezy identifies as Alabamian or Californian, he has much love for the state and city he calls home.

“I love Sacramento,” said Peezy. “Sacramento showin’ me pride and love. I love California. I love all of it.”

See OMB Peezy live at The Boardwalk (9426 Greenback Lane, Orangevale) on Jan. 5, 2018 at 8 p.m. This is an all-ages show, and tickets are $20 in advance. For more info, go to Boardwalkrocks.com.

**This article first appeared in print on pages 18 – 19 of issue #256 (Jan. 1 – 15, 2018)**

We’re inside the Golden 1 Center, downtown Sacramento’s gargantuan postmodern beacon designed for tempting the titans of celebrity down from the mothership to pull an earthly audience into a liminal space of awe and forced perspective—somewhere between a circus maximus and a Seaworld for celebrity encounters. It takes a particularly deft performer to collapse the distance to provide the sort of intimacy one might expect from a block party or mid-sized theater. Sidestepping the risk of becoming stuck inside a Kafkaesque trap of ostentation (see: Kanye’s floating nightmare last year), Jay-Z wears his surroundings with confidence and nonchalance, powering through 30-plus songs from 20-plus years and setting the perfect example of what an elder statesman rockstar of hip-hop can deliver.

Vic Mensa

The 4:44 tour features an apt pairing act for Hova in the form of Chicagoan Vic Mensa, hot on the heels of his own revealing “blueprint,” The Autobiography, which dropped mid-summer. Though at Mensa’s age, a fledgling Jay was just starting to make his presence known on cuts by Big Daddy Kane, the up-and-coming 24-year-old fits like a puzzle piece alongside the older, more established rapper’s history of achievements. Backed up by a multi-instrumentalist duo on keyboards, guitars and drums from a “pod” in the center of the stage, Mensa slams through a wall-to-wall set of solid hits (surprisingly, with one album, a few EPs and a mixtape to choose from). Bouncing around the stage decked out like a red flare, he is tonight’s conduit to the current generation of MCs: politically engaged (“16 Shots”), emotionally open (“We Could Be Free”) and melodically inclined (“Rollin’ Like a Stoner”).

The thematic blood running through most 4:44 shows is the leaving of legacies and the act of waking up, or being woken up, as it turns out. The story behind the emotionally scourging title track of Jay-Z’s latest album (referencing the exact minute his clock read when he woke up to write his heart into the song) is about the urgent call from the ether one gets somewhere around middle age that demands to know what legacy you’ll leave behind—for your children, for your world. Jay-Z has had several serious wake-up calls in the past few years that have changed his relationships—to his wife, his children, to his storied career and to the image that built the mountain on which he now stands. While there is no way he could abandon the songs that fueled his rise like “99 Problems” and “Big Pimpin’,” Jay succeeds in strategically distancing these crowd-igniting tracks from his more redemptive, reflective material.

There’s an element of rebirth in the show as, on a series of monolithic screens vertically shielding the stage, Jay’s visage slowly catches fire, starting with the massive gold chain around his neck. During this segment, one runs the danger of getting hypnotized by the burning pits of his eyes as they smolder away for what seems like ages. As the Orwellian monitors move away up toward the ceiling, the man arrives, out of the ashes of self-made destruction, ready to take aim at his ego with high-energy set opener “Kill Jay-Z.” With his band carefully hidden in recesses in the middle of the stage, he takes on the weight of an arena’s focus with ease, strongest as always in solo form.

It helps that the 4:44 material is catchy and good enough to take up a good 25 percent of the setlist; but more than that, the new songs lend themselves to a more stripped-back, one-on-one style production, as nearest to rap’s function as can possibly be, letting the man speak for himself about his mistakes and his triumphs.

Jay-Z

Almost every other album in his discography gets a few songs’ representation (excluding American Gangster), with a notable extra few from 2003’s Black Album, which brought the curtain down on another era of Jay-Z’s career. Only in 2017, the question of that career’s longevity has long since been solved. He holds in his hands one of the game’s deepest and most accomplished discographies, and can more than satisfy any audience goer’s tastes. Favorites “Empire State of Mind” and “Hard Knock Life” get a sea of smiling faces and phone screens swaying, followed by the sweetest track off the new album, “Smile.”

The night ends with an encore of special gravitas, a cover/mashup of Linkin Park’s “Numb” from a compilation Jay did a decade before. Here, a few off-the-cuff musings about Chester Bennington and the divergent relationships that happiness and success can take in a person’s inner life provide one of the most moving moments of the night.

For an artist who can comfortably wear the mantle of legend and everyman interchangeably, who promotes prosperity while avoiding crass display, who has straddled several eras of hip-hop without letting his image slip away from him, tonight is typical. For the fans, it is a phenomenon, with not a note out of place. Leave it to a professional.

**This review appears in print on page 25 of issue #256 (Jan. 1 – 15, 2018)**

“Do I look like I’m from Sacramento?” begins Lady Bird, the film that marks the directorial debut of Sacramento native Greta Gerwig. Despite the protagonist’s deepest convictions that Sacramento is only worth it if you have a house in the Fab 40s, Lady Bird is one of the most beautiful love letters ever to be written about our city (I mean, there’s probably not many of those floating around, but that’s beside the point).

For the hometown premiere/sneak peek of Lady Bird, which took place at—where else—the Tower Theatre, Gerwig did more than just send a love letter to Sacramento. She delivered it herself, making her way down the (short) red carpet surrounded by flashing cameras and onlookers, heading to dinner at the neighboring Tower Café. And true to the Sacramento spirit, Gerwig took an Uber.

After appearing in more than 25 films including Frances Ha (2012), which she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, Greenberg (2010), To Rome With Love (2012), Jackie (2016) and 20th Century Women (2016), Gerwig has an impressive stack of credits as an actress and cowriter. Lady Bird is her first time writing and directing a feature film. And holy cow(town), are critics loving it.

Photos by Wes Davis

Wearing a simple black dress and silver heels, Gerwig gave the impression that she was on her way to her first school dance and she was nervous, but it was the kind of nervous that Molly Ringwald owned in every John Hughes movie in the ‘80s. Gerwig was still the coolest girl in the room. And she was happy to be here. She leaned in as I peppered her with questions about Sacramento. “I love it here. I was raised here, my family is here, I hate that I don’t get back enough,” she said.

Lady Bird is a coming-of-age story about a very confident Catholic-high-school senior, Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, played by a feisty Saoirse Ronan, who hates Sacramento, hates her all-girl Catholic school and hates her mother—played by a wounded-yet-tough Laurie Metcalf. Lady Bird is hell-bent on getting the fuck out of Dodge.

Just like Lady Bird, Gerwig attended an all-girl Catholic school (St. Francis High School, where else?) in the early 2000s, where she undoubtedly hung out in the same places as her leading lady in the film. While this movie is not an autobiographical depiction of Gerwig’s teenage years, there are emotional similarities and parallels within her own life.

“There’s going to be a lot here that you recognize,” she laughed as she addressed the Tower Theatre, filled with friends and family, which made the sentiments all that more sweet. According to Gerwig, her first-ever crush was also sitting in the theater (watch out, Noah Baumbach!).

Lucas Hedges and Saoirse Ronan | Photo by Merie Wallace, courtesy of A24

Gerwig said Lady Bird is a love story, but not in the traditional sense.

“I wanted this to be a love story between a mother and a daughter,” she said. “I feel like that’s such a beautiful, complicated, amazing relationship that doesn’t get enough time in movies. We treat it like it’s a side-note to the main story, which is usually a romance for a woman. But what if that’s the main romance? I mean, I think everybody knows that moment in a movie where a person runs through the airport looking for someone, but what if it’s a mother looking for a daughter?”

As the two central characters in the film bicker and disagree with each other as mothers and daughters do, Gerwig said the chemistry between Ronan and Metcalf was on-point from the beginning.

“When Saoirse read the script she contacted me and said, ‘I know I’m from a tiny town in Ireland, but I’m telling you, I know this story. I know it in my bones. I know I can do this,’” Gerwig explained. “And she was right.”

As for Metcalf, who nails the part of the prickly-yet-lovable Marion, “After I offered her the role, she said, ‘I currently have a 17-year-old who is trying to kill me, so let’s do this movie,’” Gerwig recalled.

Gerwig’s goal was to have her characters be nothing more than real.

“The daughter can be a jerk, it doesn’t mean she’s a jerk completely. You can say the wrong thing and want to take it back,” she said. “If you try to paint it as all ‘perfect,’ the love wouldn’t seem real. And the love seems real because these are not perfect people. And there are no perfect people.”

Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf | Photo by Merie Wallace, courtesy of A24

Gerwig knows a thing or two about getting those real emotions out on the screen. In an essay she wrote for The New York Times Magazine titled “One Scene, 42 Takes and 2 Hours in a Bathroom Stall,” Gerwig broke down each take of a particular scene in Frances Ha that she couldn’t get right. She described the painstaking frustrations of understanding the need to perform well, but not being able to because she was too busy getting in her own way. This experience fueled her empathy while writing and directing Lady Bird.

“Every moment—in front of the camera and behind the camera—I’ve spent on set, I use as my own film school,” she said. “It sounds ridiculous, but when I decided I wanted to direct this film, it was like that scene in Karate Kid when he realizes he can do karate when he’s waxing the cars. I was the Karate Kid. I knew it instinctively, and I had on-the-job training watching other people work. I was so lucky to have been around so many great directors, cinematographers and production designers. They taught me how much work it is, but also how much joy it is to see it come to life.”

Sam Levy and Greta Gerwig on the set of Lady Bird | Photo by Merie Wallace, courtesy of A24

While Lady Bird may be a fictional character, Sacramento rings true in this film—from the Tower Bridge, to familiar murals on bodega exteriors, to houses in the 40s, to That Rose Garden Everyone Takes Their Parents to When They Visit.

“With Sacramento, there are specific streets I love, places I love and murals I know—all these details were important to the story,” Gerwig said. “And when I brought my crew from L.A. to Sacramento, they were all checking Zillow to see if they could get a home here!”

And Gerwig pulled no punches when her Lady Bird characters crack jokes that only locals would appreciate (a character response to a high school girl driving a Land Rover: “They should outlaw those things. They’re not off-roading. They’re going to the Pavilions.” Or Lady Bird’s mother telling her to just go to City College, then jail, then back to City College). The film is chock-full of hometown gems that will have every patron in the theater nodding voraciously, or in some cases simply stating, “Oh honey, I know.”

“I wanted to capture something that I couldn’t understand in a profound way until I was leaving. The older I got, the more I appreciated what an incredible place this is,” Greta said. “This was really a desire to make a movie about home, and home is something that you can really only understand as you’re leaving, and you can’t really understand how much you love it and how much it meant to you. Sacramento is that place to me. This is that love letter.”

Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig on the set of Lady Bird | Photo by Merie Wallace, courtesy of A24

But like any good love letter, there are a lot of painful truths in this tale. Beyond the mother-daughter struggle, this film tackles betrayal, disappointing sex (which Lady Bird is assured is going to happen a lot in her future) and the stupid things teenagers do in reaction to simple obstacles in life. In fact, Gerwig remarked that, “with every character in the movie, I wanted it to seem like every single character is in the middle of their own opera, and if you followed any one character they could have their own movie.”

One thing Gerwig does not do is feed the stereotype of the Catholic school experience.

“I have actually known a lot of groovy nuns and priests in my life,” she said. “They were thoughtful and empathetic. I think sometimes they get reduced to their role or their outfit. I wanted them to seem like people.”

Photo by Wes Davis

Speaking of human nature, I asked Gerwig a typical question: What do you have to do when you visit Sacramento? Her answer came quick. “I go to Tres Hermanas. I went this morning and ate tamales at 11 a.m.,” she said without shame, and in this moment I saw Lady Bird in real life. Sacramento salutes your good taste in Mexican food, Greta.

Perhaps one of the most stunning takeaway moments in this film (besides Gerwig admitting she almost added a title card at the end saying, Call your mother!) is when Lady Bird is meeting with Sister Sarah Joan, the school principal, who tells Lady Bird she is impressed with her detailed essay for a college scholarship: “It’s clear how much you love Sacramento,” says the nun. “I guess I pay attention,” responds a surprised Lady Bird. “Don’t you think they’re the same thing?” asks the wise nun.

Indeed, maybe they are.

Lady Bird opens in Sacramento on Nov. 10, 2017. Check local movie listings for times and theaters. Go see it. Colin Hanks would.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 20 – 21 of issue #252 (Nov. 6 – 20, 2017)**

As the temperature grows colder, and the excitement of the holidays begins to fill the air, the changing season brings about an array of winter activities. The seasonal ice skating rink in downtown Sacramento has returned, giving you the chance to enjoy the magic of this joyful cold-weather sport with your family and friends. The trees surrounding the ice are wrapped in colorful lights and festive music drifts across the rink. Merry ice skaters of all ages and skill types glide around, some soaring with effortlessness and grace, and others armed with the solid determination to improve their balance and pick up on a new skill. Throughout the next few months, the rink will be featuring a variety of theme nights, including a Throwback ‘80s night on Dec. 14 and a Throwback ‘70s night on Jan. 11. Come dressed up according to the theme/era, and be ready to ice skate to classic hits from that time period! The rink is regularly open Monday through Thursday from 2–8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m.–10 p.m., and 10 a.m.–8 p.m. on Sunday. Hours will extend during the holidays. General admission costs $12, and includes skate rental. Children under age 6 may skate for $6. Ice scooters for beginners and lockers are also available to rent. Learn more at Godowntownsac.com.

**This write-up first appeared in print on page 12 of issue #253 (Nov. 20 – Dec. 4, 2017)**

As much as I love being on the move—road tripping, planning the next vacation, running to the bike trail after work to catch the last light of the day—sometimes all I want is an inexpensive but delicious glass of wine to end my day. Sacramento is becoming one of the more hip towns in California, if not in the entire nation. With that being said, I expect some of the best happy hours to be dabbled throughout the city. After searching and searching for “the best wine happy hour in Sacramento,” I came up with next to nothing. There are endless articles that talk about “the best happy hours,” but those span over 30 miles in distance and cover a large variety of drinks and eats. So, what’s a girl to do? This article differs a bit from my usual outdoor escapades, but as the final warm weather wave is upon us, I think it is necessary to enjoy those after-work patios with a large glass of red in a happy hand.

Commence thesis-level wine happy hour investigation. I made a list of all the wine bars, dive bars, fancy bars and restaurants in Sacramento proper that claimed to have a wine list on their happy hour menu. This process involved calling, networking, Google searching and diving deep into Yelp reviews. Obsessive is a term too light for the research I was gathering. If becoming a self-proclaimed wine connoisseur is on your list of things to do, just attempt to create your own “best wine happy hour” list and you will not only gain a perfected palate, but as it turns out, you will also get loads of free wine in the process. This list is based off about 20 happy hours that I took part in—and I’ll tell you right now, I had more than a glass of wine at each of these venues. I’m awarding myself an expert happy-hour-goer for this achievement. Enough rambling, let’s get to the best wine happy hours in Sacramento (with nice patios, because this girl likes to be outside).

The Grand | 1600 L St.

Makes me happiest: Monday–Friday, 5–7 p.m., $5 glass rotating

You know it, but most likely have never actually experienced this Sacramento gem. Not only is this one of the smallest wine bars in the entire United States, it is one of the oldest buildings on the block. The charm this place emanates makes my heart soar. Located on the corner of 16th and L streets, the patio is inconspicuous for its popular location, and a perfect place for people watching or chatting with the cute and friendly bartender. With many Mediterranean wines to choose from, The Grand is my favorite happy hour spot for wine in Sacramento.

58 Degrees & Holding | 1217 18th St.

Makes me happiest: Monday–Friday, 3–7 p.m., $5 glass of red, white or sparkling

This one stole my heart with the experience. Immediately when walking in, the sommelier introduced herself, sat down and was more than willing to chat with us and share endless information on their selection of wines and bites of food. I started with a glass of red, followed with a glass of white and was convinced to finish with a glass of sparkling. Show up on Thursday with a date and get down on dinner for two and a bottle of wine for $40. Needless to say, I have been back.

Lucca Restaurant & Bar | 1615 J St.

Makes me happiest: Monday–Friday, 3–6 p.m. (Thursday all night!) $5 glass

When I am in happy hour mode, I am also in frugal mode. Taking one look at Lucca, I knew I would be spending a pretty penny. To my surprise, a glass of red followed the $5 trend of my favorite places and the quiet atmosphere calmed my work-induced, stressed mind.

Revolution Wines | 2831 S St.

Makes me happiest: Tuesday–Friday, 3–6 p.m., $5 rosé and white, $6 red

Hipsters and young folk, Temple coffee next door, Natural Foods Co-op across the street. You get the idea. This laid-back venue is great for an after-work pick-me-up or cooldown. You can buy jugs of wine or bring back your jug for a refill. Wooden and well-lit with large windows, this one is high in my book.

The Rind | 1801 L St., Suite 40

Makes me happiest: Er’ day, 3–6 p.m., $2 off
Three words: wine and cheese.

Sit on the patio and plan your next vacation with a glass of red, white, rosé or sparkling, and until next time, adventure on.

Jonathon Bafus considers himself a musician first, but he’s also a talented painter. The Sacramento artist tends to blur the lines between music and art when it comes to his creative process. Typically, you start with an idea as a springboard, but as you dive in, the idea shapeshifts so that concept meets reality. But art is tangible, and music is not. What happens in an audio landscape is a moment in time that passes; changes in visual landscapes are permanently recorded in layers of paint, even if painted over. Bafus enjoys where these worlds collide, and how they differ, and so he makes time for both art forms.

Fittingly, Gentleman Surfer, the band Bafus plays drums for, self-describes their music as “adventure music.” When pressed for a comparative description, Bafus says the closest artists would be Frank Zappa and Devo—both highly artistic performers, though those muses are always changing for Bafus, musically. Gentleman Surfer just completed recording a new album, Hard Pass, a couple of weeks ago, for which an album release party is currently in the works.

Bafus’ brightly-colored, geometric yet organic works will be on display at WAL Public Market (1104 R St.) for a month, beginning First Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, in a solo show entitled Cubic Fruit Plate. Each piece featured in the exhibition has the capacity to induce a trance-like state as you stare at the shapes created in structure and chaos.

A Foothills native, Bafus now lives in the Warehouse Artist Lofts with his fiancée, Trisha Rhomberg—a fellow artist and co-owner of local boutique Old Gold—and their 3-year-old daughter, Elide. We sat down to discuss Bafus’ process and passion for art, in hopes that you, our readers, will go take a gander at his awesome show this month while you can.

Do you plan shapes and design ahead of time or does it take form as you go?
A little of both. I usually start with a very basic idea, and there will be a couple of shapes I want to work around or some sort of overall balance I want to create, but once I start making a couple of the forms, I’ll work off that and change my mind a bit as I go. It becomes pretty organic and the choices aren’t terribly difficult once it gets going.

When it gets toward the end of it, the choices get harder and the room for error gets slimmer. I’m a slow and methodical painter. It’s about the process for me, and it’s meditative, so I’m not really worried about how long it takes. It’s done when it’s done.

Do you ever get to the end part and fuck up? Do you work with it or scrap it when that happens?
I don’t usually scrap the whole thing; I will end up changing a whole part of a painting based on one mistake, though. It’s when you get to the end that it becomes critical, and that’s when I start cursing out loud the most. Usually I’m on the floor on my stomach, with a flashlight in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, looking at it from, like, an inch away, burning a hole in my eyes. That’s the only way I can look at it at that point to make sure the edges are right.

You talk in your artist bio about being interested in structure and chaos. Can you talk a little more about that?
That really applies more to my music. It’s true of art, too, but a snail-paced version of that, and I can always fix things. When you’re playing music, you can’t fix things; they just happen the way they happen.

What materials do you use when you paint?
I just use acrylic, and I usually paint on canvas or panel. I’m back and forth between the two. I can’t fully decide which one I like the best. An analogy is my drum kit that I use. I have a few things that I like for different reasons, and I always go back and forth. So when I’m on canvas, I’m like, “Oh man! I can’t believe I don’t always use this!” Then I go back to the panel and I’m like, “Why haven’t I been using this the whole time?! It feels totally different and so cool.”

I don’t tape edges or anything, I just use brushes and get real close. I’m totally obsessed with brightness and opacity. You’d probably never be able to tell, but I go over the areas on paintings, like multiple times. It’s sort of the only way I can be pleased with it and not see the light shining through.

Does your daughter get into doing art and music with you?
She loves painting and coloring and stuff. Coloring a little more. Music we’ve dabbled [with] a little bit. She’s got a toddler’s attention span, so she’ll try stuff out for a minute, at best, and want to move on. So I’ll get all this paint stuff out and lay out a mat, and she’ll paint for, like, three minutes and be done. Or I’ll put her at the drums and she’ll tap around for 30 seconds and be satisfied. It is something we do together. I can tell she’s interested. At that age, they just want to try stuff out.

How do you balance fatherhood, work, music and art?
It’s really hard. Right now I’m a stay at home dad, which I’ve been doing since January. It’s different and I really like it, but it’s stressful in its own way. It feels harder than going to a day job, because I care about it more, obviously. It’s got a whole emotional rollercoaster element because I’m not—I hate to say it, but—phoning it in like I would at some day job. I haven’t really found the job of my dreams that I’ve worked at yet, so it’s usually just kind of getting it done and going home.

The balance thing is really hard. With painting, I’ve kind of had to prioritize, and so I don’t paint much. Every once in a while I get into a big creativity spurt, but generally I have to choose. Music is something I have to do every day. Painting is something I can live without every day, although I would like to do it constantly. I hadn’t painted in quite a while before the beginning of this year, and then I started trying to do more, and I got some encouragement to do more. I’ve had to trade in a lot of days of practice that I wish I’d had.

There’s sort of an anxiousness thing. Playing drums is an essential part of my daily well-being. If I don’t do it for a couple days, I start to feel really anxious and everything is just off. But I don’t feel like I’m going to explode if I miss a day painting. I envision myself painting constantly when I’m an old man and I can’t do anything else. That’s my distant dream.

Jonathon Bafus’ solo exhibit Cubic Fruit Plate is on display now through the end of the month at WAL Public Market, located at 1104 R St. in Sacramento. The market, which also features a number of local eateries and shops, is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday’s. For more information, visit Walpublicmarket.com or Facebook.com/WALPublicMarket.

**This interview first appeared in print on pages 12 – 13 of issue #252 (Nov. 6 – 20, 2017)**