In Kearny Mesa, on a road called Opportunity, people in the Transportation Management Center watch over us. The operations room looks like a set from a film on NASA space travel. Designed like a theater, …

They passed on in 2007: January 12: Jimmy Cheatham, 82/Jazz trombonist, UCSD educator, recording artist. January 27: Glenna Hazleton, 91/Founder of La Jolla Athenaeum noon mini-concerts, 1970. February 6: Frankie Laine, 93/1950s--1990s crooner, TV and …

" 'Well, let's have a benefit show for you!' -- that's what everybody was saying," relates Glossines singer-bassist Amber Everson. The native San Diegan needs surgery to remove a polyp from her vocal cords as …

Jess Reed, singer/songwriter/guitarist with Diamonds of Rome, says, "If a band is starting up, you have to do everything you can do to promote. Competition is really fierce. If you really believe in your music, …

When San Diego's Creedle suspended operations a decade ago, the quirky avant-rock-jazz band had streamlined down to a quartet. In 1996, the bass/drums/guitar/sax lineup released its third and final album, When the Wind Blows -- …

Will the Union-Tribune be cutting back on its music coverage? Earlier this month, a memo from U-T management to employees said that 43 editorial positions were going to be eliminated, including 3 "critic" positions from …

San Diego musicians did not have a major impact on the national album charts in 2007. Angels & Airwaves' second Geffen album, I-Empire, debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart when it …

Artist: Mike “The Feel” Schaub Song: “The Greatest Wife in Texas” (from the CD One Man Wilding) Heard By: Rebecca Moos, Mission Hills His voice sort of reminds me of Nick Drake. His voice wasn’t …

Nothing can be said of track 5, “Lazy Naked Sundays,” except it is downright irritating. The other songs reach the ear somewhere in the range of “slightly talented beach jam-band pabulum” and “overwrought pretentiousness.” Agave …

Name: Lyn Siem and Lisa Carulli Live: Ocean Beach Surfing: Black’s Beach Black’s Beach, famous for being “clothing optional,” is also a favorite of surfers because of its ability to hold a large swell. While …

The Box is nothing if not forward thinking. Who cares about “Sports Year in Review” rehash stories? Not me. Not you. Stories about the past bore forward thinkers. Anybody can write about what happened; the …

Fifteen Years Ago The death of shopping center czar Ernest Hahn last week got plenty of coverage in the San Diego Union-Tribune. There were three stories and one editorial the day after his death, and …

One:We sit silently together for an hour every day, each of us pretending to be engrossed in the iPod/the book/ the computer/the knitting/the cell phone/the journal we brought to entertain us for the duration of …

One breast implant was punctured three weeks into his practice. Saline shot into the air.

“I hate the holidays,” he had said on more than one occasion. “The obligation, the pressure, the spending money on things that people don’t need.”

What book are you currently reading? “The History of Christendom, which is actually a series of six books. Only five are published — I’m waiting for the sixth. I just finished the fifth one: The …

Who could have foreseen the housing bubble? And its malodorous bursting? Well, San Diegans, certainly, should have seen it, and some did: until late 2005, home prices had soared beyond anybody’s imagination as buyers grabbed …

Paul Sommers promised his mother, when she was dying in 2002, that he would wisely invest the money she was about to leave him. After she died, he began looking for land in East San …

“One nesting pair of California barn owls could consume as many as 2000 gophers, rats, and mice.”

A great blue heron ambles on stilt-legs across the reed-fringed shallows, stabbing occasionally at subsurface morsels of food. A willowy egret glides in for a perfect landing, scattering concentric ripples across the surface of the …

San Diego city councilwoman Toni Atkins’s significant other, Jennifer LeSar, has asked the City’s Ethics Commission for some conflict-of-interest advice about her relationship with several unnamed clients who apparently may soon be doing business at …

Speaking of private flying, the most dangerous local airport of 2007 turned out to be County-owned McClellan-Palomar in Carlsbad, with a total of five fatalities in two separate accidents. The first, on April 29, involved …

“This year five shows announced themselves ‘Broadway bound’ even before they opened!”

“When I was courting my wife, I’d turn up outside her home with ten mariachis.”

If you and your eating buddies feel like tasting your way through several Asian countries and are looking for economy fare, then Chow is designed for you. It’s the latest venture of restaurateur Alex Thao, …

“These are people who are established. They’re well known for writing books.”

A number of spiritual currents ran through the service on the Sunday before Christmas at Hope United Methodist; several made themselves felt within the choir’s opening set. We began with the traditional: a straight-up rendition …

Wow. 2008 can choke on it. First day, I was shot in the butt with a BB gun. I’m not kidding. Some little terrorist with a pump-action Daisy and a swift bicycle lay in wait …

Louis XIV formed in early 2003 when former members of alt-country locals Convoy chose sexed-up pop over redneck rock. In January 2005 the Illegal Tender EP, self-released on their own Pineapple Recording Group label, popped …

It’s probably a bad idea to name your band with a Beatles reference, especially if you write melodic, exquisitely arranged guitar-pop songs with lots of vocal harmonies. That’s like having a Led Zeppelin-y hard-rock band …

“I wasn’t a singer,” says Jeannie Cheatham after I tell her how much I have enjoyed her singing over the years. “I was always a piano player,” she says, “that played for other vocalists.” Maybe …

Francis WeidingerIndependent filmmaker Lost Horizon: Garden of Eden in black-and-white. Frank Capra can be awesome, funny, and satirical. But in Lost Horizon, he got lost. It’s still fun to take the trip and see utopia …

Shameless Abe Lover Dear Ollie, What is this morbid obsession you have with Abe Lincoln? (“Remote Control King.”) You have mentioned him randomly in your last three columns. Have you ever asked yourself why it …

Fifty on Their Heels manager Scott Pactor offers advice on how bands can land repeat paying gigs: "Low bar total equals failure, high bar total equals success," he blogs at catdirtsez.blogspot.com. "The success of the …

Four years ago, usgennet.org issued a report on the cemetery located in Nestor off Saturn Boulevard, near Coronado Avenue. The report indicated that the 20 found gravestones were "unmarked," "broken," "toppled," "disintegrating," "buried," and "vandalized."The …