My friend Adrian and I approached the darkened North Park apartment, and I sensed something wrong. It was and is my own apartment, one I share with my 28-year-old son, Geoffrey. The hour was early, …

The transition between youthful cynicism and the attitude "What's to be grateful for?" was characterized by "Things could be worse" in my late 30s, when I couldn't avoid flat-out gratitude for surviving lymph cancer. Actually, …

My dad still calls a refrigerator an "icebox." He got it from his dad, who got it from his dad. You see , Great Granddad Olivieri delivered ice in a horse and buggy through the …

This is a type of science fiction generally restricted to the printed page.

Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days FROM THE DUST JACKET: "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or …

Thirty Years Ago From the window by my desk I can see a sign advertising an auto dealership. I can also see it from the bedroom window, the kitchen window, and the rear balcony. To …

Despite all you read, San Diego is not eating humble pie. It's swilling korn likker. Last week, shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission slapped the City with one of the most biting sanctions ever …

San Diego city water staffers have long been pushing the idea of "toilet-to-tap" water treatment, a controversial plan to convert raw sewage into drinking water using a high-tech filtering system. The program has never gotten …

Reeve Oliver's first major-label album was set for a January release, but a spokesman for band manager Dan Field says Capitol Records will now release the self-titled CD "in early summer." Capitol Records publicist Ambrosia …

Marcos Curiel, former guitarist for Chula Vista--based P.O.D., was asked to leave the Christian rap-core band in 2003. Fans bought four million copies of the first two P.O.D. albums on Atlantic (The Fundamental Elements of …

"There's no big breakup story," says singer Brandon Welchez of the soon-to-disband Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower. "We're all still friends and still doing various band projects together." Recalling offbeat tour experiences, Welchez …

"It's Not Easy Being a Chick Rocker," says VV Loveland of Scary Mary. "One time at Scolari's, this guy shows me his penis while I'm onstage. He was drunk and dancing and jiggling it around …

Two weeks ago, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders got what amounted to a public spanking from the Union-Tribune, which ran a front-page story recounting how Sanders PR minion Fred Sainz and his assistants regularly heap …

One of Mayor Jerry Sanders's most faithful supporters has been Pauline Foster, widow of clothing magnate and South Bay real estate whiz Stan Foster. Ever since Sanders started running for mayor back in May 2005, …

After 18 years of effort by the Fallbrook Land Conservancy, nearly a dozen small- to medium-sized parcels of property around Fallbrook have been set aside as public open space and wildlife habitat. Just north of …

Wikipedia defines screamo as being "...a musical genre which evolved from emo, post-hardcore, more specifically hardcore emo in the early 1990s. Characteristic of the genre are hardcore screaming vocals and harmonized guitars.... In California in …

Kyle Ponterio says he is one of about 30 professional marimba players in San Diego and the only player in a local rock band. "I was teaching percussion at a local school," says the classically …

"You should have been here last night," said Rabbi Scott Meltzer to me before the service. Last night, the Shabbat Kehilati Service & Dinner had started at 6:15 and lasted until 10 p.m. Still, the …

Past the age of four, Halloween is no longer an excuse for your mom to slap a ridiculous Tigger outfit on you and parade you around the neighborhood like a show pony. In elementary school, …

I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you. -- Roy Croft David is leaving me. I've seen this coming for months now -- …

Galileo 101, like all heavenly bodies, is ever in transit -- and has been since it first entered our solar system. When new, it offered "avant-garde Italian" food that has gradually evolved into adventurous Euro-Cal …

Sure seems Carlsbad is voting with its feet.

Sucks that the mix CD is going to disappear, much like the mix tape it killed before. The iPod giveth, and the iPod taketh away. Listen, it was probably the ultimate in easy "get to …

This week, I have to reckon with Gladys. Three of my dearest friends and I are gathering for a Christmas party at Chez Kelly, and the e-mails have been flying fast and furious as we …

Dear Matthew Alice: While wandering through department stores this weekend, I saw hundreds of ugly articles of clothing on sale that no one would ever buy at any price, no matter how low. With all …

While North Park's boundary lines are debated, its hub is the intersection of University Avenue and 30th Street, which is where its story begins. Just northeast of Balboa Park, North Park is an epicenter of …

It's late August, seven o'clock in the morning. I am standing on the bank of the Thamalakane River, ten kilometers upstream from Maun, waiting for my captain to pick me up in a ten-foot punt. …

"The Kumeyaay were seasonally migratory people who followed food," says Linda Hawley, volunteer trail guide for Mission Trails Regional Park. "They would summer in Point Loma for the fish and abalone, which were plentiful then, …

'I'm just trying to keep real punk alive and keep rock and roll dangerous," says Tim Raldo. "I'm doing shit a lot of people wish they had the balls to do. I've cut myself onstage, …

'I smell red fruit - red plums, red cherries, a little cranberry.'

Of the 50 or so Halloween parties I was invited to, I attended five. The fourth was at a house in Clairemont, and it was packed. Most of the people there were not in costume. …

I am acquainted with a big-city newspaper columnist who, every Thanksgiving, announces that many readers have written and e-mailed asking for his adorable, heart-tugging Thanksgiving column...the one he wrote in 1988, the one he replays …

About a minute and a half after last week's Reader hit the streets, the Alice offices were blitzed with bumper car e-mails, including confirmations of sightings: I followed one down Gopher Canyon. It was going …

Dear Matthew Alice: I've often wondered, would it be economically feasible to build an exercise machine that could generate electricity? It seems to me that if all the Exercycles, treadmills, elliptical machines, etc., at our …