Arts DEVO

Playing games Maybe, like Arts DEVO, you’ve been noticing the promo online about rapper Game (formerly “The Game”) coming to the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds on June 26. The only problem with that promising scenario is that no one told the folks at Silver Dollar Fairgrounds about it. At press time, the Facebook event page for the show featured several comments from the fairgrounds that read: “This concert will not be at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds. Someone must have made an error.”

The error appears to have been made by Colin Sweeney, the same promoter who advertised a show by rapper Coolio at Lost on Main on May 8 that was canceled at the last minute. When contacted by phone about the phantom Game concert, Sweeney’s initial “official comment” was: “Screw Chico!” He went on to insist that he had scheduled the show at the fairgrounds. He also bemoaned Chico’s lack of an audience for big-profile acts and said that the Coolio show was canceled due to low presales.

Silver Dollar Fair Manager Scott Stoller said that, while he had communicated with Sweeney in the past about other potential shows, no contracts were ever entered into and no dates were ever confirmed. In fact, Stoller said that a previous show being promoted by Sweeney was publicized as happening at the fairgrounds despite not having been confirmed with his office, which led to Stoller deciding to not work with Sweeney on any shows, ever.

“[It’s] absolutely ridiculous [for him] to think that there’d be anything different,” Stoller said in reference to the possibility of the Game show happening at the fairgrounds.

A quick check of the live calendars at Game’s artist, record-label, management and Facebook sites had no shows for Chico listed. By press time, Game’s management had not returned phone calls seeking comment.

If you bought one of the $30 tickets for the show, it would appear you are owed a refund (and possibly a clear explanation). For his part, Sweeney says that he will give the “$190” worth of ticket sales back to the opening act (local rapper Lynguistix) from whom people purchased tickets.

On holiday with DEVO I am going to take a measure of pity on my readers and not rub everyone’s face in the details of the glorious time Mr. and Mrs. DEVO spent vacationing in Monterey County last week. Instead of showing slides of my pale legs skipping across the sand, I will take the opportunity to simply recommend a few destinations for those who might be considering a coastal getaway this summer:

• Phil’s Fish Market, Moss Landing: The BBC recently called the ocean-side market and eatery one of the five best beach restaurants in the world. I don’t know about that, but sitting in the shadow of the Moss Landing Power Plant’s giant smoke stacks and enjoying the trough-sized bowl of cioppino made with fresh clams, mussels, whitefish, calamari, Dungeness crab, prawns and scallops was about the best seafood experience I’ve ever had.

• Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur: A steep turn off Highway 1, down a two-mile-long one-lane road, opens up to a secluded white-sand paradise. (Runner-up beach, the picturesque Carmel Beach.)

• Gravity Garden, Carmel: To prove that the stacked-rock sculptures that cover his property on the outskirts of Carmel weren’t set in place with the aid of any adhesive, sculptor Jim Needham casually reached out and pulled the top rock off one stack and then effortlessly, while still talking to us, balanced it right back in place. Awesome. www.rockstacker.com

• Restaurant 1833, Monterey: World-class meat-fest: Beef bone-marrow appetizer, pan-roasted duck for him and bacon-wrapped pork loin for her. Best meal of our lives, hands down. www.restaurant1833.com