It's a beautiful Monday morning in mid-August, somewhere in the dusty hills of East County. Sun beams through the window of this small building, glinting off a smooth metal object cradled in Conrad Grayson's outstretched …

'Just because you like it doesn't necessarily mean it's well made.'

'For Iraqis who have been suffering inside Iraq and those who have been violently uprooted, the word 'today' begins in 1963 with the fascist military coup that brought the Baath Party, in which Saddam Hussein …

I've gone to parties that lasted until morning light but never to a party that started in the morning. Until last month, when I went to a US Airways event that started at 9:00 a.m. …

This past week was a bear. A good word for a bad week, I suddenly notice, though I don't know why it fits so well. I have no real familiarity with bears; and while they're …

Often dry or merely trickling, Ortega Falls can come to life for days or for weeks following any significant winter storm. During the unusually wet years of 1997 and 2005, when the region received double …

Shady Alleys I once knew a woman who grew marijuana in a small pot next to her kitchen sink. She was going through chemotherapy for breast cancer and smoked cannabis to ease the nausea, vomiting, …

Matt: My phone is listed on the do-not-call registry. Yet it seems that every candidate for the 50th Congressional seat has called my house to urge me to vote for them. Okay, I think it …

'Poetry-drenched, lyric-oriented folk jazz" is how Randy Phillips describes her music. "With a little Joni [Mitchell] and Ani [DiFranco] via Sarah McLachlan and Mary Chapin Carpenter." The 1976 SDSU graduate (with a degree in sociology) …

Hey Matt: Please help! Roaches are everywhere! I've tried everything to try to get rid of them. I know you'll have a good solution. I just know it. Adrian, San Diego I think you have …

"Twenty-two people played on our new CD," says Burnt singer/guitarist Danny Franco. His North Park--based punky-reggae collective rehearses and records in a former tattoo parlor on 30th Street. "The space was a bona fide shithole. …

"After 9/11, people said, 'Hey, things are serious now.' It seemed like electronic music went into a decline after that," says Jon Bishop, one of San Diego's best-known techno DJ/recording artists. He moved here 25 …

The "Ché" in the Ché Café's name refers to Argentine-born revolutionary Ché Guevara but also serves as an acronym for "cheap, healthy eats." But the vegan fare at UCSD's campus venue has been unavailable for …

Daredevil Jane guitarist Matt Anderson put his former girlfriend back in the tabloids with a call to Howard Stern's radio program on March 28. His ex, original Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress Kristy Swanson, made …

Hector Penalosa's MySpace page says he's 37, which would have made the onetime Zeros bassist around 8 when the punk pioneers released their debut single in 1977 ("Wimp"/"Don't Push Me Around"). "Yeah, I lie," Penalosa …

To finance Rookie Card's upcoming release, the band took advantage of their April 3 Casbah gig and turned it into a fundraiser. Guitarist/vocalist Adam Gimble assembled musicians and dancers to entertain the audience. Near the …

Thirty Years Ago In what could have passed as a dress rehearsal for this summer's Democratic national convention, some 325 voters jammed a Clairemont junior high school to pick a slate of 10 potential delegates …

Snooping for porn when I was a kid was more important to me than school or my friends or pets or damn near everything except breathing or eating. If given the choice, I would have …

The Brief History of the Dead: A Novel by Kevin Brockmeier. Pantheon, 2006; $22.95; 252 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: "Remember me when I'm gone" just took on a whole new meaning. The City is …

The City coughs up more than $15 million annually to support a ballpark that was supposed to pay for itself. That expense would be $3 million to $5 million a year less if city hall …

"What makes this day special?" asked Pastor Bruce Humphrey of the crowd seated beneath the octagonal dome that is the roof of Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church. The congregation answered, "This is the Sunday we …

Early this year, Papa John's closed 14 pizza stores in Tijuana. You'd think the people who run Mama Mia Pizza, the locally owned chain operating in the city, would be happy to see a competitor …

Deep cover Backers of moving San Diego International Airport out of Lindbergh Field insist that they are going about their business in full public view. But sources inside the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority …

It was early on a Saturday morning and showering was my only accomplishment thus far. I was digging through a pile of clean laundry, looking for a shirt to throw over my blue jeans and …

It's a Wrap It is one of the first sunny days in this godforsaken town. I roll up my sleeves, glance into the empty expanse of the U-Haul, and think, Finally, I am a real …

“It was a little shack. It had no roof. But he worked so hard, he fed my parents.”

My pop loves his pan-fried bacon. Microwave bacon will not do. "It never gets that crunchy texture," says Pop. It's been his guilty pleasure for years, and it got guiltier when the doc told him …