HOW I SNUCK INTO AROUND 100 LOCAL CONCERTS Following is one of the first articles I ever wrote for the Reader, back in the early '90s ------------------ Like this blog? Here are some related links: OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - …

Moz trib, local clubs dissed online, and my prison run-ins with the Manson girls

ROCKIN’ TATTOOS; LOCALS TALKING TATS Tattoo shops flourish in San Diego, and pretty much always have. Customers used to be perceived, correctly or not, as coming from predominantly military, blue collar or “outlaw” (bikers and ex-cons) backgrounds. In actuality, practitioners …

RATT & ROLL OVER - Beyond Behind t/Music... The partially reunited Ratt appeared at Viejas on April 20th – not sher about you, but I fully remember all the lawsuits and nasty accusations that flew between members past and present, …

Plus local Buffy screening earns an axe, more Beatles In San Diego!

JUST SING THE HITS, AND THE CROWD IS HAPPY – When Bands (Barely)Reunite Nostalgia is a bread and butter business. San Diegans are regularly afforded the chance to see bands whose last chart hit was in the Stone’s age, whose …

Celeb interviews gone horribly wrong

I hear it all the time. "Wow, I wish I had your job - you get paid to have fun and hang out with famous people!" What folks don't seem to understand is that 1) just cuz someone's famous, doesn't …

Bastard Sons, crappy gigs & Pastor Dave’s Christian Goths

Johnny Cash died four years ago last month (9-12-03). Singer/guitarist Mark Stuart of the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash – a band endorsed by the Cash estate – recalls recording at Cash’s home studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, in 2000. “We …

Memories of Lennon, Rookie Card does the USSR, and an entry with Wild Man Fischer

Along with many vidiots my age, television was the teat that nurtured us all, and I was less weaned than most. I recall "discovering" the Beatles on a Smothers Brothers show from October 1968 (which I recently re-watched, spotting a …

In the Gaslamp, even bathrooms are going condo...

TIJUANA BATHROOMS: EVERYBODY’S GOTTA GO SOMETIME Every weekend evening, thousands of people travel southbound across the San Ysidro-Puerta México Port of Entry. The majority will pass right by Plaza Viva Tijuana, a retail commercial center adjacent to the border station, …

Instead of a lawsuit, I was served brunch...

Yoko's personal secretary called me early on a Friday afternoon. "Miss Ono and her companion will be arriving in Dalton Georgia around 3pm tomorrow. She regrets that she won't be able to accompany you to your residence, the demands on …

Urban Entertainment Guide, plus "Humanure Art Show" inspired by Cattle Decapitation

TALES OF THE PALMS HOTEL - More Lost Gaslamp Tales, circa late '70s/early '80s On arriving in SD in 1978, eighteen and on my own for the first time, I rented a room at the Palms Hotel on 12th and …

Merry musicians meet many muppets

THE ZZ TOP STORY: AN ILLUSTRATED ROCK TALE Billy Gibbons’s family weren’t typical Texans. Dad was a New Yorker who’d moved south in the thirties, settling in Houston. A part-time conductor for the Houston Philharmonic, the classical pianist had also …