The Sunrise Powerlink gleamed for the first time in Sempra Energy’s eye on November 1, 2002. At the company’s San Diego headquarters, an energy-management expert from Shell Trading gave a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the potential …
Unlike corporate sportswriters, the Box owns its preseason baseball predictions and is unafraid to review them in the public square. Kindly stay behind the yellow line and step this way. Follows is from the April …
It was September 17 of last year, and City Attorney Mike Aguirre was making headlines again. This time the subject was an impending water shortage, and Aguirre had called a news conference to demand a …
On April 27 of this year, craigslist, the online classified advertising behemoth, carried this small notice: “I am requesting information on Jeffry Wetzel from Poway, CA. We invested $135,000 with what he calls a hedge …
Name: Jason Sporer Age: 24 Lives: P.B. Surfing: O.B. Pre-Surf Music: Tool Post-Surf Food: Smoothie “Fights are definitely part of the surf culture. I’ve never been directly involved, but new surfers should stay out of …
Bing Crosby (left, in the white jacket and straw hat) at the Del Mar Racetrack’s setting of a memorial stone, 1936. (The track opened the following year.) To the right of the hoist chain, the …
Album: For the Win (2007) Artist: 12 Cent Label: Olde Tyme Productions Where available/price: Interpunk.com for $8. Music Trader in Pacific Beach for $8. Songs: 1) FTW! 2) 1231 3) Meat Rent 4) Vital Organ …
Clue: Regal entrance to Winnie's place? Describe this location, name the nearest cross-streets, and win a Reader T-shirt. Enter by completing the form below. Last week's place: (clue: Tower of faith — for 100,000 of …
While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was high in May 1959, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash. Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual after the singer reportedly told …
“Right after I turned pro in ’99, I had a bad break at the YMCA skate park in Escondido,” says Sayvinyl singer/guitarist Jesse Fritsch. “I sort of sat on my ankle and it just popped. …
“We kicked 2 Live Crew off the tour today,” said local musician-turned-promoter Willie Carter (aka Willie Psycho) on May 20. Just days before, he’d sent out a press release touting the Crew’s “comeback.” According to …
“I had show offers before I even had band members, as far away as Texas,” says drummer Doug Smith of Nite Romantics, a Duran Duran tribute band that debuted this month at the new Channel …
“I was trying to keep it on the down low,” says Defamation League vocalist Chaz Lomack of his arrest in SDSU’s recent federal drug sting. “I was sitting in jail watching Fox 6 news, and …
Artist: Marcelo Radulovich Song: “Turn on the Phone” (from the CD Mercurio) Heard By: Tracey McDonough, Point Loma Marcelo Radulovich — you need to choose a sound because you are going all over the place. …
The question fomented by the new Indiana Jones film was whether or not, nineteen years after the last one, Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg still “have it.” Which of course begs the question of whether …
War Stories is fronted by singer-keyboardist Evan Robinson who, though he wasn’t born in San Diego, has lived here for most of his life and has “San Diego” tattooed on his knuckles. He says the …
I first heard Sonny Landreth when he was playing behind John Hiatt. The Goners, of which Landreth is a member, have logged a lot of road time as Hiatt’s backup band. Landreth is a hired …
The Black Angels take their name from a Velvet Underground song, use a photo of Nico on their T-shirt designs, and proudly declare their allegiance to the grand tradition of psychedelic music in their home …
Vocabulary is a word I rarely use. When I do, it is usually in the context of a word not in someone or other’s vocabulary, in an effort to define him or her. As in, …
First it was Fresh, a pricey seafood house owned by Sammy Ladecki (of Roppongi and pizza-chain fame). Then Ladecki sold it in August 2006 to Arturo Kassel, and it became Fresher, still a seafood house, …
Hey! What’s up? Wass goin’ on? Was it something I said? A moment ago, I was sitting in the middle of a sidewalk café, surrounded by tables, chairs, a canopied counter. Now, the whole thing …
I am sitting on my patio in mild shadow under the blades of a broad-leafed banana tree and late-spring sky washed with high clouds like feathers, angels wings, and fish bones. It won’t be long …
The interior of St. Margaret’s church has an oddly spare quality — the huge central dome gives the impression of an old-fashioned Catholic church, the sort that might be swarming with statues and stained glass. …
Buttery, is something my friend came up with. It means that you did something with no problems. It’s very slick and smooth, something that gave you no problems. Another expression that I say a lot …
Palomar Mountain has dodged a couple of bullets in recent years. Wildfires in 2003 and 2007 have threatened to seriously damage San Diego County’s foremost example of oak-coniferous woodland, but the forests of Palomar have …
Dear Poor People Who Live Next Door to Me, I am dreadfully sorry to bother you, but could you be a little quieter, please. Propping up on your front porch 19 screaming babies, each with …
What book are you currently reading? What page are you on? “Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Gowers. I’m on page 32.” What do you make of it? “It’s not purely mathematical writing, but …
A good writer is not, per se, a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender. — Jim Bishop There are two kinds of women: those who don’t …
A friend of mine was going to a party in Irvine and asked if I wanted to write about it. I told him that Irvine was outside my scope, but I went anyway. When I …
I scanned the line of buses that had just arrived at the stop through my too-big designer rip-off sunglasses that let me pass for Italian when I wear them. The 14C pulled up, probably late, …
I had only seen it done in sitcoms — a giant hairy gorilla proposing to a girl standing shocked at the front door — until last week. A friend relayed her proposal story. It wasn’t …
Thirty Years AgoDear Matthew Alice:With the biggest proposition in years coming to the vote June 6, I’m completely bewildered over what could, should, or would happen if Proposition 13 passes.G.A.B.North Park The thunder of debates …
“On the banjo, as on a guitar, there are pieces of metal — on ours they’re made of nickel silver — called frets,” says Carolina Bridges, director of public relations for Deering banjos. “They have …
She sent me an email from work: “I’m bringing some friends over to help me move my stuff out at 6 o’clock. It’ll take a few hours. You probably shouldn’t be there. You can if …
A bevy of some of California’s biggest plaintiffs’ attorneys are lining up behind San Diego Community College District Board president Marty Block in his Democratic primary bid for the 78th District seat of termed-out GOP …
A good example of how money is channeled through state campaign committees, obscuring the original, sometimes controversial sources, can be found in the recent campaign filing of George Plescia, termed-out GOP assemblyman from La Jolla. …
Late last month, San Diego voters began getting so-called robo calls on behalf of city councilman Scott Peters, one of four candidates running against incumbent city attorney Michael Aguirre. The taped caller identified herself as …
The City of San Diego purchased the site for the new Mission Hills Library, the former IBEW Building on the corner of Washington and Front Streets, back in 2003. Two years after the purchase, the …
A representative for the owner of the Cape May Apartment Building at 5104 Cape May Avenue in Ocean Beach passed out old photocopied documents to the members of the Ocean Beach Planning Board during their …
Recipe by Deborah Scott, executive chef at Island Prime, Kemo Sabe, and Indigo Grill. I’m from the South, so I love ribs and side dishes like spoon bread, which hardly anyone out here is familiar …
Sitting quietly in the front row, applicant Beth Joseph of Ocean Beach was at her second planning board meeting in five months and it won’t be her last. Joseph’s plans to build an upstairs office …
We don’t see each other much, and we’ve maintained the loosest of contacts over the 30-plus years we’ve known each other. I hadn’t heard from him for about 3 years when he called me last …
At the Greater Golden Hill Maintenance Assessment District (MAD) meeting on May 19th, most of the members spent the entire 90 minutes in protest to the hiring of a project manager without their consent. Some …
Some people divine the future in tea leaves, others in pork bellies. Campaign contributions are also a way of seeing what is on the horizon. Greg Cox has been a San Diego County supervisor since …
In western lore, an hombre named the Wizard of Wichita would ride into a town, stride into a saloon, take one quick look around, and unerringly identify every no-good son of a bitch in the …
Dave Koz plays the Gaslamp Jazz Festival this Saturday, May 24 One of the most versatile musicians of the smooth jazz format these days has to be saxophonist Dave Koz. His latest CD, At the …
Heymatt: How far inland can seagulls be found? Are they looking for quieter digs, or are they just lost out there? — Charlie Bingbang, inland Hey, Matt: I’ve been feeding a motley group of pigeons …
Clue: Tower of faith — for 100,000 of us. Describe this location, name the nearest cross-streets, and win a Reader T-shirt. Enter by completing the form below. Last week's place: (clue: At what point pleasure?) …
Album: Young Mass (2008) Artist: Young Mass Label: self-released Where available/price: Access Music in Pacific Beach for $8.95. Online at CDBaby for $7.99, Amazon for $8.99, and iTunes for $9.99 Songs: 1) Intro — Message …
A craigslist post by the San Diego Repertory Theatre is generating controversy online. An upcoming production of The Princess and the Black-Eyed Pea musical was seeking “AFRICAN AMERICAN singers, actors, dancers, and musicians” for what …
Last month, the Guana Batz played a sold-out Belly Up show opening for Mike Ness. Last week, the Escondido-based band accepted an opening slot on two dates of Rancid’s upcoming fall tour. Guana Batz bassist …
Happy Songs About the War, a one-man musical developed by local singer-songwriter J.D. Boucharde, debuts May 25 at Compass Theatre (formerly 6th@Penn) in Hillcrest. “It’s a dramatic, semi-fictional production,” says Boucharde, “using multimedia, monologues, humor, …
Fairfield Fats Band guitarist George Davis is probably best known by his artistic alias Geo, a longtime local-concert-poster artist whose work centers around hard-rock shows. “I began by doing a banner many years ago for …
Name: Blair Dribben Age: 26 Lives In: Pacific Beach Pre-Surf Music: Anything Post-Surf Food: Pizza Blair says, “Surfing has been with me my whole life; it controls where I live. I moved here from Hawaii …
The League of California Cities, operating out of a posh Sacramento office, is funded by cities with taxpayer dollars to lobby for legislation dear to the hearts of city councils throughout the state. The group …
The University of California just hiked annual student fees by 7.4 percent, but that hasn’t stopped the hallowed institution from handing out of ever-higher salaries. UCSD is still searching for someone to become the school’s …
General Atomics megamillionaire Linden Blue and ex–Jerry Sanders chief operating officer Ronne Froman have been an item for more than three years now, showing up together once a month or so in the column of …
Thirty Years AgoThe sport survives around here — in Escondido, Solana Beach, Harbison Canyon, La Mesa, San Marcos, and Eden Gardens — but that kind of cockfighting is very secretive and done on a small …
The afternoon nappies are starting to take their toll on my husband Patrick. Coffee has become his drug of choice. I wondered if there might be a gentler solution — a change in diet. Something …
Italians run late; they just do. In my nine months here, I have been trying to figure out if this is due to a relaxed nature — not living by appointments and PalmPilots and the …
You can never figure out which events will bring out the partiers. A few years ago, there were several “420” parties on 4/20. This year, I didn’t hear about any. But, on Cinco de Mayo, …
If sisters were free to express how they really feel, parents would hear this: “Give me all the attention and all the toys and send Rebecca to live with Grandma.” — Linda Sunshine David staggered …
Conversation between Garfield and Seinfeld Seinfeld: Hey there, Garfield. Looks like you’re having a tough weekend. Didn’t know you liked the sauce so much. Garfield: You couldn’t put that together? I love lasagna, kicking a …
Perched several hundred feet up on a rocky slope north of Escondido, Dixon Lake stores drinking water and serves as a recreational resource as well. The lake’s camping facilities, picnic grounds, playgrounds, boat rentals, hiking …
I’m originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and all my slang is dirty South. “I’onte mut know,” is something that you say if you don’t know an answer. Like if someone asks you if you’re going to …
A splatter of yellow vomit, left over from Saturday night’s Gaslamp revelry, baked in the Sunday-morning sun. Around it, glossy promo cards featured pictures of lightly dressed young women, advertising the weekend’s festivities. Down the …
Wrapping up farewell visit to Fairbanks, Alaska, my hometown for 25 years. I have coffee and this morning’s Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in hand. There’s an ad about a football game in the sports section. Professional …
“They were strict vegetarians, even shunning eggs, and throwing away any food that the ‘shadow of an Englishman had crossed.’ ” This is a quote from the Wikipedia entry for J. Krishnamurti, describing the man’s …
What is it about acting that can grab a person’s full attention — and often hold it for a lifetime? Recently I got to dramaturge Holy Ghosts for the Sullivan Players. Romulus Linney’s drama concerns …
Editor's note: As of 2010, this restaurant is closed. Love? This could be it. The question hits me mid-bite into my second-ever quesotaco. It’s a scrunch of crispy grilled cheese over little chunks of steak …
Sometimes change is good. Take Parallel 33. “It’s right in my neighborhood, but I haven’t eaten here in years,” said the Lynnester, buttering her baguette slice. “I ate here all the time when it first …
People always talk about fighting traffic tickets in court. But what does it really mean to “win”? It’s not as if you won a trip to Hawaii. It’s not as if the state pays you …
The fluorescent light from the Budweiser lamp made the cigarette smoke appear as if it were dancing in the back room of McMurphy's Pub in La Mesa. By the end of league night, puddles of …
The University of California San Diego has a system regarding on-campus housing for returning sophomores. Toward the end of the spring quarter, all freshman students seeking on-campus housing for the following year are put into …
“I believe that in the history of the Fallbrook Music Society you would find a group of people who moved here, who enjoyed music and arts, and thought, ‘Boy, it’s a pain to have to …
San Diego’s Trummerflora Collective is intended to “provide a network of support for San Diego’s experimental and improvised music community.” The musicians seem very sincere, and most have extensive academic credits, but I confess I …
The music blog Idolator recently posted an item called “Three Indie Rock Nightmares.” My favorite: “I’m stuck in a world where indie rock has slowly transformed from amateurish, enthusiastic rock with zine-fueled anti-consumerist, small-community leanings …
As we ease into the lazy summer pace of one blockbuster per week, we also settle into the provincial screening schedule of forever lagging a week behind. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal …
Artist: Titanarum Song: “Aging Quickly” (from the EP Spastis Progressivus Aggressiorum) Heard By: Xavier Hernandez, City Heights I thought that it was pretty fucking intense. My whole thing is that I think there should be …
Bay Area punk band the Dead Kennedys still get airplay for their classic thrash anthems “Holiday in Cambodia” and “California Über Alles.” Though the band still tours, lead singer/songwriter Eric “Jello Biafra” Boucher has not …
The acronym for Greater Golden Hill’s clean, green and safe program, MAD (Maintenance Assessment District) was extremely fitting when council representative Diana Jurado-Sainz, from Ben Hueso’s office, addressed the community at the Greater Golden Hill …
With all of the arguments over immigration I am sometimes afraid to tell people that I work in the Mission Park area in Escondido, home to one of the largest concentrations of immigrants in San …
Skateboarding was one of the biggest issues of the night at the Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee meeting on May14th. “Have you heard those skateboarders doing the Kamikaze run on Sunday nights? Apparently they start …
Muslims from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, the Philippines, Pakistan, Somalia, Guyana, and Eritrea
On May 13, Steve Francis leaned up against the wall at the Joyce Beers Community Center in Hillcrest and took a few deep breaths before speaking to the Hillcrest Town Council Meeting in the Joyce …
On April 25, the stock of Herbalife Ltd., which sells weight-loss and energy products through multi-level marketing, plunged by 9 percent to $40.08. On that day, San Diego fraud sleuth Barry Minkow had revealed that …
‘I characterized that administration as ‘form over substance.’ They were more concerned with how their guy looked than to do the right thing.” That is John Torell, who was San Diego city auditor from 2005 …
On the afternoon of April 3, barefoot surfers ran down the concrete steps at Swami’s in Encinitas toward ideal surf conditions. The waves were chest high and clean, with not even the slightest breeze present. …
Clue: At what point pleasure? Describe this location, name the nearest cross-streets, and win a Reader T-shirt. Enter by completing the form below. Last week's place: (clue: Son of a beach) Charles the golden retriever …
In his latest annual financial disclosure statement, filed last month, San Diego police captain Bob Kanaski reported receiving four tickets to the Chargers-Colts game in November of last year worth a total of $900. Kanaski …
Average San Diego citizens who have a hard time getting through to Mayor Jerry Sanders and the city council might be amazed at how easy it is for high-powered city lobbyists to get their feet …
San Diego State University has been getting more than its share of bad ink lately, what with the campus drug raid last week. But at least one top SDSU executive has good news to report: …
Thirty Years Ago “Got a bell at Palm and Kettner. Anybody for Palm and Kettner?” The call means someone at that corner has telephoned for a cab. But Taheri, cruising nearby, considers the location of …
‘Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them.” I slumped into my La-Z-Boy as I finished reading this …
The ceremony will begin in five minutes. Rows of metal foldout chairs are arranged neatly in the center of a long rectangular room. At the far end, flanked on either side by personnel standing at …
I went up to Fallbrook a while back for a Fallbrook Film Factory event called the Comic and Animation Filmfest. I had met Dean LeCrone at a previous party, and he had made a documentary …
Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. — Woody Allen I led David to the nose of the ferry — it was a gusty day and the sea was choppy, so the ride …
If you’re a complete debauchery amateur, Vegas is racy. Other than that it’s about as provocative as birthday cake. Considering my 20s, gambling, booze, drugs, and women are a Monday-morning stretch and yawn. The one …
Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park consists of over 4200 acres of shallow canyons, sandstone rock formations, narrow strips of oak and riparian woodland, and hillsides draped with aromatic sage-scrub vegetation. Subdivisions press against the …
Mothers got more than just a mention at Faith Community’s Sunday service, but they weren’t the main attraction. The music leader paused in the midst of the opening 30 minutes of hymns to ask “a …
Three o’clock in the morning. Looking out a second-story bedroom window. This is the Charlie Simmons/Sheree Dohner once-abandoned barn, now, after more work than I care to think about, transformed into an honest-to-God estate, 15 …
Did you miss Mother’s Day? Did you fail to observe it and your mother is still alive? I did for many years, even as a child. It was, after all, my mother, Mary Jane Arburn, …
The La Jolla Playhouse’s 33 Variations, about Ludwig van Beethoven’s obsession with a paltry theme by Diabelli, concluded its run in early May. San Diego theater’s homage to the maestro continues at the Old Globe, …
Hank had been on about this for the longest time. He’s a carpenter and wannabe carver, and he reckons the carving of the horses in the carousel at Seaport Village is the best. In the …
A few days before the grand opening of the splashy new Dish restaurant-nightclub in Hillcrest, I decided to check out one of its forerunners. Dish had been bombarding my email with publicity releases that glittered …
“In June 2000, the highly invasive Caulerpa taxifolia — the aggressive algae which has destroyed thousands of acres of the Mediterranean Sea — was discovered [in the Agua Hedionda Lagoon], most likely dumped into the …
“I can see them now! They’re coming over the walls!” Chilling words, made even more frightening by the fact that they were coming from my roommate’s bedroom. Steve had shown up out of the blue …
Cory Oliver lives in Pacific Beach and attends High Tech High Media Arts in Point Loma. He is 16 and plays guitar in Oden’s Fist, a band he formed with school friends a few months …
To say the least, Speed Racer is colorful. Color-overflowing, to say a little more. Color-engulfed. The live-action version of the late-Sixties made-in-Japan TV cartoon (which I never saw) is of course, in our day and …
Artist: Three Day Old Beaver Song: “TMNT” (from myspace.com/threedayoldbeaver) Heard By: Tad Wuertz, College Area I thought the music was really good. The guy could play guitar and sing really well. I could imagine if …
Last week, Defamation League cofounder MC Chas Lomack, 22, who performs as Khemical Ali, was one of the people arrested in SDSU’s federal drug sting. Lomack was charged with selling cocaine and having marijuana plants …
Kiss bassist Gene Simmons came to town on April 23. He showed up at six different 7-Elevens to sign autographs and promote a new energy drink called Frank’s. A crowd of almost 100 waited for …
“We played on the rooftop of the venue,” says local ’70s cult bandleader Gary Wilson of an April 26 gig at Sunset Boulevard’s Eighteen-Thirty club. “We went on about 12:45 a.m. I’m surprised the cops …
Gringos Cantina in Pacific Beach advertised a Cinco de Mayo party for weeks; the restaurant intended to hold it in their parking lot – very close to the beach – on Saturday, May 3. Because …
Guitarist Stevie Salas appeared last Wednesday at the Sports Arena, fulfilling his role as musical director for American Idol finalist Jordin Sparks (on tour opening for Alicia Keys). Salas first appeared on the scene in …
Twenty-nine years ago tomorrow – 5/16/79 – the Police played the long-gone Roxy club on Cass Street in Pacific Beach. Broadcast live on 101.5/KGB-FM, the performance was widely bootlegged, the most common version being San …
Album: Love Love Love (2007) Artist: Steven Ybarra Label: self-released Where available/price: iTunes for $9. Songs: 1) Love Love Love 2) All I Am 3) The Beauty of Your Love 4) Please Please 5) The …
Senator George McGovern (left of center), 1972. He swung through town that year in his presidential campaign against Richard “Dick” Nixon. A Democrat and WWII combat veteran, McGovern’s election would have amounted to a referendum …
Name: Sheena Casamassima Age: 20 Lives In: Mira Mesa Surfing: Law Street, Pacific Beach Pre-Surf Music: Jack Johnson Post-Surf Food: Any fast food “It was a gnarly day for me,” Sheena says of the most …
It’s been seven years since a few North Park galleries first had the idea to close down Ray Street to traffic and open it up to art-loving pedestrians. Since then, the monthly gallery art-walk on …
I’ve seen every cut of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and yet when I watched his new-absolutely-last-I-promise director’s cut, I’d never felt so pierced by the importance of photographs in the movie. The Terrell Corporation manufactures …
Recipe by Christian Graves, executive chef, JSix Restaurant. I like to cook whole things — chickens, ducks, fish. Whatever the boys will eat. If my kids have some part in the whole act, they are …
At the Uptown Planners Committee meeting on May 6th, Mark Freed of Landmark Development, pitched a proposal for a five story, 66 foot tall, mixed use building on the corner of Park Boulevard and Polk …
Brunch is nothing more than breakfast with a markup. The mother in your life can get eggs and French toast any time she wants, so why not give her a fun new experience, one tailored …
Being in the Navy seems like the perfect time to be single. Sailors are young, many just out of high school. They’re always traveling the world. Reaching a foreign port is one of the craziest …
“Chasers is the new Scolari’s,” singer Vv Morgue says of the North Park bar. “Scolari’s no longer has bands, so their crew all moved on over to Chasers to pick up the pieces.” Last year, …
Although a March 25 San Diego Union-Tribune article announced that “Street Scene is poised to reclaim the streets that inspired its name,” founder Rob Hagey has taken out a special-events permit to hold it in …
When an abandoned 18-foot boat loaded with marijuana washed ashore April 21 at Sunset Cliffs, a KUSI News reporter interviewed one damp, long-haired, shirtless witness who called the huge stash “the harvest of Neptune.” The …
The Four Kings played a local battle-of-the-bands show at the House of Blues last August. “At the end of the show the four of us were taking different trips up and down the loading elevator,” …
Artist: Archways Song: “Jinx” (from the CD Lest We Forget) Heard By: Dan Watman, Stockton I liked it a lot. The guitar riff was catchy and original. I liked the style of music — it …
Call me an ingrate, but I cannot suppress the comment that Landmark Theatres have finally found a slot for Hou Hsiao-hsien only after the Taiwanese filmmaker made a film in France and in French, and …
I was scraping by as a line cook in San Francisco in the mid-’80s when my landlord offered me the job of managing a 24-unit apartment building on Pine Street. It sounded like easy money: …
What San Diego musician can claim the title of Most Local Airplay? Pinback? P.O.D.? Jewel? The honor goes to Leonard Tucker. You many not recognize the name, but odds are you know the voice. Here’s …
New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore’s jazz has more to do with the rowdiness of rock than with free-form intellectual explorations of melody. That’s not to say that Moore is a failed rocker turned jazzman or …
There’s a song called “Oil Man’s War” on Canadian alt-country singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards’s new album Asking for Flowers, but it’s not about you-know-who or you-know-where. No, it’s the story of a young American couple, Bobby …
“The word ‘zydeco’ comes from the Cajun-French song ‘Les haricots san pa sale,’” says Peter Oliver, musician and co-promoter of the Gator by the Bay Festival. “In French that means ‘the snap beans aren’t salty,’ …
Having lived in San Diego since 1980, one would think that I would have long ago gravitated to residence in the northern portion of the county. It seems, by consensus, to be more generally livable …
DOWN IN THE DRAINS: It’s on the first sunny day after a string of rainstorms when Robert R. slides his blue SUV to the side of the road somewhere in UTC. In the passenger seat …
Over the door is the “dough” — the Chinese ideogram for the Tao (pronounced “doe”), meaning “the way” in general, and in Taoism, the way of the universe. (George Lucas calls it “The Force,” and …
Najem Al Ekabi sits beneath the forest of red, white, and black Iraqi flags. He’s intent on a video on his laptop. “Look, see?” he says. “The one on the left. That’s me. Winning the …
“He had become a public figure, as no composer had done before. Unlike composers of the preceding generation, he had never been a purveyor of music to the nobility he had lived into the age …
I began tai chi lessons in February 2004. Since there is nothing in my past that would foreshadow an interest in tai chi as opposed to, say, an interest in small-town bars, I decided this …
Things I took away from Sunday’s service at Father’s House Church International: Israel and the Jews are important. An Israeli flag stood on one side of the stage. One of the hymns, in the midst …
I worked with special-education kids for a very long time, and you have to be really careful what you say around them. You can’t cuss or say anything dirty because they will pick it up …
The Laguna Mountain range, just east (and squarely in the “rain shadow”) of the nearby Cuyamaca Mountains, snags just enough moisture from passing Pacific storms to support a forest of scattered live oaks, black oaks, …
Hold on to your butts, kids! Here comes another installment of...The Underpants Tablecloth-Caped Avenger! Disguised as my nebbish alter ego, Johan Awesome, I patrolled an enclave of Kensington. Ol’ Black Betty, the Six-Speed Bicycle of …
Families with babies and families without babies are sorry for each other. — Ed Howe The gestation period had only been three months — from the date I conceived my little one to the moment …
I usually dress up for theme parties, but when I hit The Wizard of Oz theme party in North Park, I didn’t have anything to wear. I wasn’t about to make myself look like a …
The paved road stops at Al Qaim, a military base in northwestern Al Anbar province. Another 40 kilometers further along muddy and half-formed paths is a small combat outpost near the Syrian border. Surrounded by …
Pride goeth... My best gal pal Bernice has a niece, newly engaged and eager to learn the secrets of domestic bliss. Bernice sent her to me for an introduction to the kitchen. I was pleased …
Thirty Years AgoWhen Weird Marvin screams, he means business. He says he once screamed from the top of Mount Helix and a friend over on Mount Miguel heard him. Now Marvin is screaming off Hawley …
Some San Diego city hall insiders are expecting the investigation announced this week by Mayor Jerry Sanders of that controversial Otay Mesa Blackwater training facility to be a whitewash. Exhibit number one, they argue, is …
EdVoice, that controversial Sacramento lobbying organization, has already rolled out at least two mailers on behalf of 78th District Democratic assembly candidate Marty Block, chairman of the board of the San Diego Community College District. …
The long-running dispute between the Barona Indians and their neighbors over pumping water for the tribe’s golf course apparently demanded a recent firsthand inspection by county supervisor Ron Roberts. On February 20, according to recently …
Clue: Son of a beach. Describe this location, name the nearest cross-streets, and win a Reader T-shirt. Enter by completing the form below. Last week's place: (clue: Christa and crew, remembered) Graffiti tribute to the …
Name: Frank Age: 35 Lives In: Mission Beach Surfing: Mission Beach Pre-Surf Music: Band of Horses Post-Surf Food: Anything healthy Frank had a nasty collision one evening at La Jolla Shores. “As I was starting …
Excavation of the Spreckels Theatre building at 121 Broadway, c. 1908. Sugar millionaire John D. Spreckels is said to have had it constructed to coincide with the Panama Canal’s opening. (San Diego vied to be …
Dear Matt: When I was a little girl, my mother always cut my hair in bangs, straight across my forehead. I was looking at some old pictures lately and suddenly wondered why that hairstyle is …
Single: Don’t Wake the Sun (2008) Artist: Writer Label: self-released Where available/price: At live shows, Lou’s Records (Encinitas), Off the Record (North Park), M Theory (Mission Hills), and Spin Records (Carlsbad) for $5. Online at …
Last month, Disco Pimps front man Eric Alexander opened the Stage Saloon downtown. Formerly the Heat Supper Club, the 300-seat room at 762 Fifth Avenue becomes one more county nightspot at least partially owned by …
On April 21, local attorney Bob Ottilie went to the city council meeting with a Personnel Department list of salaries made by city employees last year. That day the council would reverse a decision it …
It’s always said that San Diego tourism, the county’s third-largest industry, is insulated from — if not immune to — recessions and high gas prices. When the economy sags and/or gas prices zoom, Angelenos and …
In the canyon separating Washington Street and the 163 onramp in University Heights, a trail leads down to an intricate homeless encampment. The camp is small and well organized. On one side of the twenty-foot …
Clue: Christa and crew, remembered. Describe this location, name the nearest cross-streets, and win a Reader T-shirt. Enter by completing the form below. Last week's place: (clue: Boxed-in rubble-rouser) The demolished College Center shopping center …