It’s Monday, 5:00 a.m. at Mission Beach. Russ Gish and his son Lance have already been here an hour, sweeping the sand with a contraption that looks like a skinny, upright vacuum cleaner with a …

Armando was looking forward to meeting with Lucy that Friday evening, October 26, 2007. A laborer for a tree-trimming company, he borrowed his sister’s ’96 Mustang and drove to where Lucy asked him to meet …

One-Sided Report I live as close to the river as one should, and if and when the 100-year flood hits, it will most likely take my home with it (“There Is No San Diego River,” …

Proposition 2, the measure that would lessen restraints of some kinds of farm animals, including chickens, has so far drawn $7000 worth of support from Jerry Cesak, one-half of the famous Jeff & Jer radio …

One of the oddest political websites this season is spikemike.com, a full-on — if not particularly artful — attack on San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre. At the top of the page is a video …

It’s down to the final week of the campaign, the time when special interests that don’t want their contributions widely reported — at least not until after the election — start dumping money into the …

Thirty Years AgoThe final indignity, scratched by some nitwit on the exact spot where PSA Flight 182 crashed, is this: PSA 128. Leiserson, a photographer for Channel 8, and Fitzsimmons, a photographer for the Union/Tribune, …

Had the kids taken an expedition to the Sahara desert? Their lips looked as if they had — white, peeling, cracking, and bleeding. My daughter had ripped off a chunk of lip, and a bloody …

A few months back, I went to an event in Oceanside that I was told was a divorce party for a guy, but it ended up being more of a car show, as most of …

Today, there are three kinds of people: the haves, the have-nots, and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-haves. — Earl Wilson Six months ago, when I first felt the rippling effects of the subprime mortgage meltdown, I began systematically …

It sat there, not ominous or inimical, but mysterious. The TV. I’ve moved in with a roommate to save some money this year and to shed my old barrio. My roommate has a TV big …

Spectacular exposures of colorfully banded and folded metamorphic rock gave “Rainbow Canyon” its so-far unofficial title. The canyon’s colorful nature is enhanced even further during a peak wildflower season, when the place looks like a …

“Yes on 8,” read the sign held by the man across the street from San Diego Christian Worship Center. Pastor Art Evans did mention Proposition 8 on Sunday, but he kept it pretty brief: “We …

Continuing with Mike Kelly, 64, volunteer coordinator and conservation chair at Friends of Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. Friends focuses on Peñasquitos Canyon, leading interpretive walks, maintaining trails, helping out, and, when called upon, tracking wildlife, …

Fall is the most fun season to write in and about. I have exhausted the famous Hemingway quote to F. Scott Fitzgerald in one of their letters, used it time and time again in this …

Fever Crotch’s drummer whacks his drum — the box he’s sitting on — with his bandaged hand and teases his cymbal with a drumstick held in the other. The guitarist howls some lovelorn lament. But …

This restaurant is closed. Is Samurai Jim a jinx on bargain-price restaurants? Last time it was a vanished barbecue joint that sent us fleeing to the very minor mercies of the meatloaf at Maryjane’s. This …

Photographs and words have been doing their rather stiff box-step dance since the beginning. In the 1840s, Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of the negative-to-positive process, published The Pencil of Nature, a collection of photographs accompanied …

I was up north for 26 years. I came back to San Diego by invitation from an ex-wife. Two of my grown sons were in town, and my partnership in a newspaper in the Comstock …

“Plein air,” says Daryl Millard, owner of the Daryl Millard Gallery Solana Beach, “means painting a scene outdoors in the elements” where one can see, smell, hear, and feel what one is painting. It is …

If a band is going to release a self-titled album, it’s usually the band’s debut. If it’s the band’s third album, it’s a sign that the band is trying to reinvent itself. Secret Machines did …

At Santogold a couple of weeks ago I met a traveling salesman. He was roughly my age, 50-ish. He confided to my girlfriend that he preferred new rock rather than classic rock. He said that …

This is the new world order. Any movie that wants to be seen as Serious, however delusional it may be, wants to enter the Oscar race, and therefore wants to make its entrance in the …

Drummer Garrett Sisti of the punk/psychobilly Wrecking Crew played a three-band gig at the Leucadian on October 17 sponsored by No Cover magazine. “They did it for a good cause,” says Sisti, “and nobody could …

Before singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson played the Poway Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, October 18, I met Sammy, an L.A. guy selling concert shirts for $20 apiece in the parking lot. “They aren’t selling …

“Even though we felt teaching popular songs for free on YouTube would benefit the original artists, a few labels felt otherwise,” says Next Level Guitar cofounder Tim Gilberg in a press release. He and fellow …

James Brady/New Day Mile: “During my teens in New Jersey, I attended a Sunday Bible study every week. The woman running it asked if my band would like to play at the youth-group meeting at …

from recent posts on the San Diego Musicians page at craigslist: “Female Vocalist: I love to sing [but] I dont have a way to do it without irritating the neighbors of my apartment complex…maybe a …

Twenty-nine years ago this week (11/4/79), the Knack played downtown’s Fox Theatre, a show that sold out in just a few hours. The band opened with the first three songs from their newly released album …

Artist: Bless 619Song: “Diego Rivera” (from the CD Diego Rivera)Heard By: Anthony Lukens, Golden Hill The beats are pretty good, but I didn’t really dig on the emcee until he said, “There’s so much drama …

Hey, Matt! Last night I was reading Silence of the Lambs, and it got me wondering. When humans are cooked up, are they more like beef or pork? Not that I ever plan on finding …

A couple years ago, when I was living back in Albany, NY, my girls and I were chilling at my place after leaving the bars around 4:00 a.m. (one of the perks of living in …

Name: Michael Woodbury Age: 29 Lives in: Chula Vista Occupation: Video-game designer Post-Surf Food: Spicy bean burrito Girls in the Water: “No…I mean, yes.” Michael tends to avoid the beaches in the summertime. “I don’t …

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival turns five this year and continues to draw light from ever-brighter stars in the foodie firmament. This year, the headliner is Ted Allen, who is, among other …

What do you get when you cross Little Mary Sunshine with the Abominable Snowman? You get an email newsletter named Wolverine Network, sent to a list of prominent San Diegans, some still powerful. The publisher …

Author: Joshua Rhome Neighborhood: El Cajon Age: 30 Occupation: Student I sit here in the little room I rent in a house off Magnolia Avenue and think about El Cajon and my past and how …