Bouquets of roses and daisies stand on either side of the casket. The left half of its lid is open. Overhead, eight-inch stained boards slant toward the crest of the ceiling. The Cypress View Chapel …

Movies reviewed this week: The Incredibles, Ray, Saw, Sideways, and Surviving Christmas In bare outline, Sideways would look like a hundred other buddy comedies. Jack is getting married in a week. Miles, his freshman roommate …

"The day before, we had dropped off the masters to a new CD we were working on."

Some of the most geologically instructive vistas in San Diego County can be seen by walking the narrow strip of sand and/or cobbles below the Leucadia (northern Encinitas) sea bluffs. If you want to avoid …

Inner Voices: Selected Poems, 1963-2003 Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004. 420 pages; $35. Paper Trail: Selected Prose, 1965-2003 446 pages; $35. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Inner Voices: Selected Poems, 1963-2003: The poems of Pulitzer Prize-winner …

"There are two groups of people who attend Old Catholic churches. The first are those who are not happy with the Roman Catholic Church and the second group of people were not attending any church …

Po Pazzo What would make someone open another restaurant when he's already got three of them -- including two just down the street? In the case of Joe Busalacchi, owner of Po Pazzo on India …

When Franke Lauria said, "Click on the 'My Computer' icon," he says, the customer told him, "I'm a Protestant and I don't believe in icons." "Why don't you click on the little picture called 'My …

Greg Shaw, founder of Bomp Records, died from heart failure Tuesday, October 19. "The man single-handedly saved San Diego's music scene in the mid-'80s," says Shambles guitarist Bart Mendoza. "He signed the Tell-Tale Hearts, Crawdaddys, …

"The club felt it was too risqué. I mean, we're talking about pasties and a G-string. People wear less than that on the beach in San Diego." Sean Suicide is the tour manager for the …

"There won't be an interview, I'm afraid," said Courtney Love's stage manager, a young, skinny guy with glasses named Chris. I met him and my photographer at the west-side entrance of 4th & B on …

“If you don’t like it, you pay nothing. If you do, you pay double.”

Encinitas-based Switchfoot is at the front of the pack when it comes to sold-out concerts. According to Pollstar magazine, which monitors box office receipts on a week-to-week basis, venues across the country are reporting 100 …

"Some of the functions have moved to New York," said Danny Stein, CEO of eMusic, explaining why half of the local staff of eMusic will be moving to the other coast by the end of …

Reviewers at PitchforkMedia.com have featured three local bands on their website -- Pinback, Hot Snakes, and Castanets. Pinback is Rob Crow (formerly of Thingy and Heavy Vegetable) and Armistead Burwell (a.k.a. Zach) Smith (formerly of …

"I'd say 30 to 40 percent of the touring bands I deal with use samples or some type of prerecorded tracks." Sound tech Larry Ashburn, whose Audio Design provides the sound system at Soma, is …

Acoustic blues band Dudes on Diesel get no respect at GarageBand.com. Their band info lists San Diego as their hometown; they are currently ranked 124 out of 135 in the category of "Blues." Their "signature …

From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! --Cornish prayer My key twisted in the door and I leaned on the handle. Enough time …

A round the time of my ten-year high school reunion, two movies about reunions came out (Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion and Grosse Pointe Blank). I always thought writing about a reunion would be …

Presidents and sports. It's a strange topic in the sense that anything having to do with presidents is strange, so you start from a place that has little resemblance to ordinary life. Figure there's 300,000,000 …

The national accounting firm of KPMG must feel like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, now tootling around San Diego. KPMG's mission is to rid the town of rats. But in two cases, the firm hasn't …

Scripps Health, the county's medical giant -- with 5 hospitals, 12 clinics, and 10,000 employees -- has settled with an Encinitas man who accused the nonprofit health-care operation of using a bogus name to collect …

Baby Peter has made his appearance into the family. He's my niece Maria's first baby, and the family is in a baby blue twitter. For a baby gift, I want to put together a basket …

Mattster: Consider this. Could a pigeon walk if you put his neck in a brace? I say no. -- Birdman, San Diego Of course the elves couldn't resist this one. They headed out with Grandma's …

Matthew: It's coming up on holiday time again, and I can't wait until egg nog is back in the dairy case. Why don't they sell it all year round? -- Waiting, the net Eggnog in …

Dear Matt: How high up over a country is international air space considered to begin? -- J.K., Leucadia Can't pull any official treaties or international agreements out of the hat to answer this one. Before …