As far back as I can remember, my parents expected me to go to college and get a degree before I thought about working. It was a given. To them – adults with only high …

The Smoke Fairies had me at "Frozen Heart." Actually, on more comprehensive listening to their collection of bits ’n’ pieces, they had me at "When You Grow Old." Will you remember me, the singer wonders. …

Once known as the “sixth Eagle,” John David (aka J.D.) Souther walked away from the music industry in the 1980s to try his hand at acting; he returned 24 years later in 2008 with If …

Steve Miller is back with his first new studio album in 17 years, featuring the Gangster of Love's re-discovery of his Chicago blues roots. This album showcases the signature Miller Band sound with the addition …

Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects have described their music as “lowrider, Latin dub music,” but that doesn’t do justice to how mysterious it is. Trumpet and sax drift in and out of bass-heavy rhythms, …

“People have told us we sound like the Black Keys meets the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,” says Lucina Gonzalez, singer for Black Hondo. “Or the Jefferson Airplane. Shocking Blue kisses the Doors. Or PJ Harvey in …

Pixar’s Toy Story 3, or if it makes any difference Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3, adds little but minutes to the previous sequel, and for a computer-animated children’s film it adds quite a lot of …

Jung-Ho Pak and Orchestra Novaban keep St. Paul’s Cathedral on their list of venues (along with Sherwood and Qualcomm auditoriums) despite a multitude of problems that the venue presents. For starters, the lack of parking …

Thirty-Five Years AgoTHIS EERIE MALE still playing long shots, nevertheless would like an eerie female around the house. Special inducement, summer trip to Lake Erie. KIM: What’s this about Gharlene taking over the Coordinator’s office? …

Chris Braciszewski’s alter ego is Snuffaluffagus, based on a large wooly mammoth that lived in the imagination of Sesame Street’s Big Bird. It also happens to be the name of Braciszewski’s collaborative music project. “I’m …

“Dancey music will always be coveted by people.... It’s this inevitable thing about the human heartbeat and how we relate to rhythms,” says Keith Milgaten of electro-pop trio Jamuel Saxon over a beer at Small …

When ex-Paladin Dave Gonzalez plays a CD-release show at the Casbah Friday night with his new “Texas funk” band the Stone River Boys, he will in effect be honoring his San Diego roots by performing …

Word blew in from the desert that San Diego mystic-pop trio Maquiladora was re-collecting for a tour this summer. Follows is an e-chat with cofounder Eric Nielsen from the beardo’s O.B. dojo of drone. How …

Thursday 24Catchiest sets to get to this week are two SanFran bands, current standard bearers of the Bay Area’s indie scene, Ty Segall and Sonny & the Sunsets, at Bar Pink Thursday night. Segall is …

Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a garment, wear The beauty …

In spring and late summer, the “elfin forest” of chaparral in the Santa Monica Mountains takes on a dozen shades of green and bursts forth with nectar-bearing blossoms that are often more attractive to the …

Mediaweek reports, “Through the first 14 matches of the World Cup, ESPN and ABC have delivered an average crowd of 3.35 million viewers, marking a 64 percent increase from the same period in 2006....” The …

Almost always, the deeper an economy plunges, the more vigorously it springs back. But this Great Recession is different. Therefore, it’s time for a reality check. Economic growth — in the United States and in …

Slap, slap, slap. Joanna’s whipping those dough balls into tortillas. “Busy day today,” she says. She’s working right here with her tables and pans, out on the Astroturf entrance to Don Diego’s, a red, orange, …

It’s summer-movie time, bringing all those boyish action flicks, indefatigable heroes with glam starlets breathing heavily all over them. This story, however, features a heroine, a dynamic brunette with more energy than Lara Cross, a …

Shout Out To A Brutha Thank you for the article “I Was Bred for This” (Cover Story, June 17), about “Sgt. Tom O’Brian.“ If he was deployed from Fort Lewis, Washington, around July of 2009 …

“The disk is a whale,” Howard Blakeslee, science editor at Associated Press, wrote to George Ellery Hale in 1934. “Every detail is on a scale so much larger than anything heretofore attempted.” “And if the …

Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man. — Erica Jong The phone rang. I grabbed the receiver, glanced across the counter at David, and said, “Two guesses.” “Don’t …

Life changed after that jump…. I’d suddenly stepped to the highest level of daring, a level above even that which airplane pilots could attain. — Charles Lindbergh That quote about skydiving caught my eye. Perhaps …

Dear Matthew Alice: My mother showed me a trick to do with a big shell she has, and I want to know how it works. When I put the shell on my ear, I can …

Recipe by Mario Cassineri, executive chef, BICE I don’t cook when I am at home. If I am alone or have time off, I go out to restaurants to see what is going on in …

Membership: 80 Families Pastor: Father Simeon Corona Age: 45 Born: Los Angeles Formation: Lutheran Bible Institute, Seattle, WA; Concordia College, St. Paul, MN; Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA; Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, …

Lions and Tigers and Xolos In a dusty field behind a racetrack in Tijuana, the line of cars trying to park snakes into the distance. Once we park, we look around and see that we’re …

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, fresh off his “strong mayor” ballot victory, may have come up with a unique way to use the expensive reclaimed water that the City is capable of churning out at …

The wife of Bill Lerach, onetime lawyer and investor champion who did a stretch in federal prison after copping a plea to fraud charges related to a client kickback scheme, gave a cool $1000 to …

“People who have hallucinations after operations sometimes ­don’t seem to come all the way back. Part of them gets lost. The hallucination can be at least as good, as powerful and compelling and meaningful as …

On April 4, Easter Sunday, Blanca Quintero was driving in Mexicali to visit her mother’s crypt when the magnitude 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake began rocking her SUV. Cracks opened in the street before her, and …

81 pounds of wood and steel Valentine’s Day, 2010: Strolling through the outer edges of downtown before heading home for the evening. Passing Salvatore’s Cucina Italiana at the corner of Front and G and glancing …

When Sharon Jones was eight or nine years old, her father took her to see James Brown. The Godfather of Soul made an indelible impression. Decades later, Jones told NPR that she believed she never …

The last time Sammy Hagar had a hit single, The Karate Kid was a new story, the San Diego County Fair was called the Del Mar Fair, and the speed limit really was 55. But …