Content for Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Blog Entries

Audio clips

News & Stories

Like, No Duh

SDSU associate professor of psychology Jean Twenge polled 1068 college students on August 25 and found out something most adults have known since the creation of Britney Spears: not only are they narcissistic and attention-seekers, ...

San Marcos Hotel

The question that San Marcos residents ask Mayor Jim Desmond most often: What's going on with the unfinished Marriott hotel project? The project, on the corner of Las Posas Road and Los Vallecitos Boulevard, has ...

The Case of the Blue Violin

Jennifer “Spags” Spingola and her blue violin have been around the world. The flying V, six-string electric violin was made for her nine years ago by Wood Violins of New York. “It’s one of a ...

What Do You Tenori-On?

“I heard about the Tenori-On when it was being test-marketed in the U.K. in 2007,” says Eric Van der Wyk, aka King Tet, reportedly the ninth person in the U.S. to obtain the experimental Japanese ...

An Epitaph for East Memphis Slim

When Memphis session player and producer Jim Dickinson passed away at age 67 from heart complications on Saturday, August 15, few music fans may have realized how vast his résumé was — one that included ...

Dangerous Bird

I ran into Nick Simmons, the son of Kiss bassist Gene, at Comic-Con. I told him I caught the episode of his reality show on which he sang. I told him he had a good ...

Mettle Test

The telephone rings. Then it rings. Then, like an irate brat, the phone REALLY RINGS. And you wonder: where have I heard that progression — an everyday object grown monstrous — before? Soon it dawns. ...

Flying Solo

Language...has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone. — Paul Johannes Tillich As I stood to one ...

The Russians Have Come, The Russians Have Come

The latest offering of “alternative” cinema at the Reading Gaslamp comes up easily to the Landmark caliber. Which, in light of such recent specimens as Captain Abu Raed, Shrink, and The Stoning Soraya M., isn’t ...

Calexico

Calexico leaders Joey Burns and John Convertino have been playing in their signature mariachi-indie-rock-experimental-spaghetti-western-film-noir-soundtrack style since the early ’90s, when they were part of the all-instrumental combo Friends of Dean Martinez. But that doesn’t mean ...

I Blow Smoke on Your Law

Sitting on a park bench at Prescott Promenade on a hot July afternoon, John stares at a brawny tattooed man in his 50s smoking a cigarette under a “No Smoking” sign. “Who knows what this ...

Musical cash

When it came to raising and spending campaign money, it was a busy first half of 2009 for termed-out Democratic assemblywoman Lori Saldaña. She spent the $11,898 remaining in her 2008 reelection kitty on a ...

Brown-out

Ex–Democratic state senator Steve Peace, now working for ex–Padres owner John Moores, gave $6500 last week to the campaign fund of Attorney General Jerry Brown, expected to run for governor next year. On July 29, ...

Phoning it in

Upon his exit from the state Assembly last year, termed-out ex–GOP leader George Plescia of Del Mar bagged a lucrative four-year job as a member of the seven-member Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. One of five ...

Yay for American Cars

As I write this, Transformers 2 has just finished taking in over $200 million in five days. One of the main characters in that film is a robot who disguises himself as a 2009 Chevy ...

Dog Bar Afternoon

Do I follow the crowd? Hell, yes. This one, anyway. It’s Sunday afternoon, down at Quivira yacht basin. I’ve been wandering past boats with names such as Sonny Daze, Bad Habit, Sea Ya, and Bad ...

Unforgettable: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Dare Part 3

A SPECULATION. John W. Collins had nothing left. One of San Diego’s most beloved citizens and president of California National Bank, Collins lost his wife and two children in a boating accident in 1890. Eighteen ...

My Boy Duncan

Thirty Years AgoI miss Duncan Shepherd and I’ll tell you how much. I was thinking about this as I was ironing the other day, and if I ever have a boy I would not hesitate ...

The Art of War

What are you reading? “The Art Of War, by Sun Tzu. I was joining the Marines, and I was in here for a book on the history of the Marines. I saw The Art Of ...

I’m a ’70s Girl

Rachael Gordon’s sound, style, and her very life play like something out of the late ’70s. Musically, she says, “I’m into all sorts of things. There’s some garage rock, some power pop, and some folk. ...

A Threat from the East

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your ...

Clearing the Bases

Back in 1998, then–Padres majority owner John Moores promised that if taxpayers would pour more than $300 million into a ballpark, he would produce teams that were competitive. Maybe he meant that he could produce ...

Sail Away

“Hotel restaurant” used to be shorthand for “What’s that slop you’re eating?” — back in the era of moldy “colonial” inns and all-one-mold “family” chains (remember Howard Johnson’s Motor Inns?). But not now, and certainly ...

Letters

A Punch, No Pipe Q-Ball is full of sh** with his story about getting hit from behind by a steel pipe at the 4th&B show on August 8, 2009 (“Rack ’Em,” “Blurt,” August 20). I ...

The Silver Wink

"Do you think there are 1000 active winkers in the country?” I’m speaking to Rick Tucker, 54, collector, historian, webmaster, and former pairs champion of the North American Tiddlywinks Association (NATwA). Said group is holding ...

Girl Talk

When Wired magazine gave Girl Talk a Rave Award in 2007, I think Gregg Gillis was still working his day job as a biotech engineer, jetting off to weekend concerts around the globe, his coworkers ...

The City Needs Me

Gregory Page, one of San Diego’s most prolific singer-songwriters, says he plans to stay put even as many artists leave town for New York and L.A. “It seems that we have an exodus. If everybody ...

Tiawnee, I Vomited a Rainbow, and Hello Drama

Artist: Tiawnee feat. Mr. SplifSong: “School Girl Crush” (from the CD Young Love)Heard By: William, San Diego Personally, I can respect hip-hop and rap music, but that song didn’t really have a lot of composition ...

Gethsemane Lutheran Church

On Friday, August 21, the Church Council for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to “commit itself to finding a way for people in...publicly accountable lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered leaders ...

South Fork Trail

The easygoing descent of the South Fork Trail doesn’t take much effort. You simply put one foot in front of the other and let gravity do the rest. The well-graded trail descends (or ascends if ...

Résumés

"Is there a Résumés for Dummies?” asked my nephew Freddy. “I’ve been looking for a job for two months with only one callback.” I didn’t have a book for him, but I did have a ...

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Recipe by Jason Knibb, executive chef, Nine-Ten Restaurant I got into cooking because I used to surf in the day and needed a night job. One day, a friend of mine asked me to fill ...

Fishlike

Todd Robinson of the La Jolla Swim Club set the men’s Catalina-to-California-mainland swim record on August 25, with a time of 8 hours, 5 minutes, and 44 seconds. Beginning from Catalina Twin Harbors at around ...