From the start, Buster worked hard to prove that he's a graffiti artist, not some little hoodlum with a sneer on his face, paint stains on his fingers, and a can under his jean jacket. …

Marty Walsh settles into a metal chair inside the Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge in North Park and allows himself to savor some memories of the American newspaper business. Marty, now 62. toiled in the …

Dear Matthew Alice: Plants are supposedly able to feel the vibes of the people who take care of them and those of other plants in their proximity. Do plants in the kitchen feel any remorse …

“Everybody I know is dead. All the big shots that hung around the Grant Grill; they’re all dead now.” The liver-spotted hands of Kent Parker clench, relax. “San Diego was a much tougher town then …

I got a phone call from Bruce, a housepainter in Fallbrook. Bruce owned a two-story rental unit in East San Diego, and his tenant had moved out. He needed help getting it ready for the next lucky person.

One thing Robert Smyth likes about his used Merkur is that it's a turbocharged car with no sign on it saying "turbocharged." Power without show: that's Smyth (he pronounces it "Smith"). At 40, he is …

Dogs: are too worthless even to kick. Kicking a dog is like beating a rug; killing a dog is like washing one. Dogs are stupid and breathy, rugsmelly, dogloyal: who needs ’em?

Dolores Huerta: There’s a blacklist. Very definitely, if the foremen or contractors know a worker is union, they won’t hire him; or if they do and they find out, they’ll get rid of them.

You gotta make money, man! Tired of being broke, man!” Charles McPherson Jr. — son of alto sax giant Charles McPherson — grins as he shouts over the music blaring from the boom box on …

Mank Larson, a San Diego writer, claims he'd be useless without a computer. "I bought this thing two years ago just for word processing. Now it's taken over my life.” Larson (who prefers not to …

The WELL evolved from the back-to-the-land utopianism that produced Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog, and Brand, who writes on The WELL as SBB, was one of the system's founders and developers.