One Sunday in November 1989, Barry Lall, an Indian-American doctor, was driving over the Coronado Bridge with his wife Hema, their four-year-old son Arjun, Lall's father and mother, and a real estate broker. They were …

Some people talk a good talk, but in the end, they don�t really know much.

On June 21, the first day of summer, San Diego First Assembly Women's Ministries held their first meeting of Hot Summer Nights ("Fun in the Son"). The walls in the spacious meeting room were tan, …

'I have a wall of books in my office that is 90 percent fairy tales from around the world," says professional storyteller Harlynne Geisler. Geisler has divided her books into subcategories: "Hispanic, African, African-American, Spooky, …

"Well, there's what I really did Friday night and then there's this version." This large stranger and I were in one of my favorite coffee houses that's too far away from where I live now …

"He looked like a Tijuana skinhead," says Allen Camp, the soundman who worked June 18's all-day show at Heartland Masonic Lodge in El Cajon. Camp describes the primary assailant who led the charge to beat …

Hank Williams III's recent obscenity-laced appearance at the Fiesta del Sol was a topic of discussion at the June 14 Solana Beach City Council meeting. Although no action was taken, some councilmembers suggested that the …

Promoters of the TeleMagica Art and Music Festival (held in Jacumba June 16--18) say, "The highlight of the event was 'The Return of the Buffalo' opera spectacle: a Scottish kilt-dressed narrator followed by children twirling …

"Yes, it is true, we have broken up," says GoGoGo Airheart drummer Andy Robillard on the band's MySpace blog. "At least I can say without any reservations whatsoever that we never put out a shitty …

"I just got a bill for $8000, and that was just for the orthopedic surgeon," says Ben Labrake. "I haven't even received the hospital bill." Labrake attended the June 2 Battalion of Saints and Dirtbag …

"We get occasional audience members who give us a hard time over it," says bassist Mike Johnston, whose band Sirhan Sirhan is named after the assassin who shot and killed Robert F. Kennedy 38 years …

Matthew Alice: I've seen signs along the roads leading to San Diego stating that the elevation is 11 feet. Exactly where is the spot where the measurement was taken? Or is it an average elevation: …

Due to media info glut I will forego World Cup references, save for one thought. World Cup games begin with 45 minutes of commercial-free soccer followed by an intermission long enough to prepare a wholesome …

Cooper Canyon Falls roars with the melting snows of each spring season, then settles down to a quiet whisper by summer. This year's near-normal but unusually late rainfall and snowfall in the San Gabriel Mountains …

Poet's Choice by Edward Hirsch. Harcourt, 2006, $25, 448 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: In Poet's Choice, the gifted poet and critic Edward Hirsch offers a new way to look at the world through the …

I arrived at Armando's 40th birthday party in a bad mood. I was invited by his girlfriend Laurie. She and I talked on the phone, and I learned that they had worked together and dated …

Thirty Years Ago In San Diego, even the big agencies are having their share of troubles. The local Pinkerton Agency hires only two full-time detectives, while Wackenhut supplements investigative work with security guard service and …

Crystal called and invited me to come over because she had marijuana. Knowing that my grandparents would not let me out of the house, I snuck downstairs in my pajamas, avoiding all the creaks in …

San Diego needs Napoleon III. To be sure, he may have been a bastard. Literally and figuratively. Because of his mother's fondness for recreational adultery, it is not clear that he was, as claimed, the …

Adult society, at every level, is depraved. Walk up to any jerk on the street and ask to go through the pictures on his cell phone. He sure as hell won't let you. He's got …

Diana Cartman (a pseudonym) suffers from a recurring nightmare. The dream runs like this: Cartman watches television in her living room a few blocks from the ocean in Imperial Beach. It's getting late, and she …

On his official website, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders solemnly promises that he will run an open government, featuring what he calls "transparent decision-making." But some of his people apparently haven't gotten the message. Take …

San Diego's On Broadway Event Center, famous for its glitzy disco action, has been sanctioned by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission for allegedly failing to properly report $12,931.26 in campaign contributions it made to …

You're not having an LSD flashback. The psychedelic sounds of Silver Sunshine come courtesy of guitarist Richard Vaughan, bassist Stuart Sclater, and guitarist/organist Conor Riley, who frequently whips out a vintage Mellotron, just in case …

“You’ve got to distinguish between your id and your superego.”

No one can be as calculatedly rude as the British, which amazes Americans, who do not understand studied insult and can only offer abuse as a substitute. -- Paul Gallico I should have felt something …

Around the Kelly household, husband Patrick is called "Barbecue King." As the days grow longer, our kids tromp about the back yard later into the evening, and the barbie gets smoking. Tri-tip and sausages are …

Where We Are Going It's 5:39 a.m. on the day of the rehearsal dinner. I'm sitting here typing what will be my last blog before my wedding and subsequent honeymoon. I'm tired. My feet are …

Lei Lounge has been generating a lot of buzz lately. Like last week's Confidential, it serves a summer-friendly menu of creative global tapas meant for sharing, along with a drink list of what I'd call …

Hey, Matt: Seeing my homemade ice cubes cloud up my gin and tonic is a bummer. O sage of San Diego, is it possible to make clear ice cubes at home? If your answer is …

During the 2005-2006 school year, 8250 tenth graders in the San Diego Unified School District were enrolled in World History 1 and 2. The students focused on world history in modern times, roughly from the …

"Men in Our Lives: A Litany for Father's Day" opened the service. The congregation recited, "Blessed are you, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, wellspring of all generations. As did our fathers in ages past, so …

'I love my 25-year-olds. They're just learning, and they come in all the time.'

'People have been cruising for more than thirty years," says Jon Henriquez, tour manager of Lowrider Events. "The lowrider movement took off in the early '80s, but now it's more mainstream...you'll see lowriders in Pepsi …

"I was a successful stockbroker with over a million dollars in the bank," says After the Crash singer Jake, "but I lost it all on April 4, 2000, as the market was having its biggest …

"At nine in the morning, I knew all was not well," recalls Detroit transplant Lonnie Goldberg of the 2003 wildfires. He lived in Tierrasanta at the time. "The air was acrid. It looked like we …

Ocean Beach resident Brendan B, a 25-year-old rapper from Chicago, has no record label, no management, and no airplay for the 13-song demo he's been handing out. "I work at Sunshine Company in Ocean Beach," …

On June 7, smooth-jazz KIFM morning host Melissa Sharpe said something on the air that caused her to be fired in the middle of her shift. "My general manager said I don't connect with you …

"She thought I was Bono," says Pavel Sfera of Ireland's president. Sfera met her at a public appearance he made in Dublin last month. Sfera was in high school in 1982 when he started hearing …

I am writing this on a Sunday morning, actually, Father's Day. That's a small patch of history behind us (you and I) if it's any at all (was yours memorable?) It's an overcast, quiet day …

Before he joined a Scribe Amidst the Lions, drummer "Nate [Ball] was more or less using his drum kit for dirty laundry bins," says singer Kristofer Towne. After their first practice session with Ball evolved …

Dear Matthew: I've noticed something weird on our local TV news stories on courtroom appearances by alleged criminals. When the arrestee is standing up in front of the judge at arraignment, they often have their …

Most companies live by the old axiom: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." It's the rationale for diversification -- entering disparate businesses in an effort to spread risk. But diversification carries risk too. …

Last summer I reviewed a sports documentary, Murderball, about a team of quadriplegics who play kick-ass rugby on custom-built wheelchairs. The movie is so good (later nominated for an Oscar), that the fact its main …

Combining beach, lagoon, crest, and canyon, this looping hike touches upon every natural landscape the community of greater Del Mar (the west-of-Interstate-5 part, anyway) has to offer. On a typical early-summer day, with a tepid …

La Mesa mayoral candidate Craig Maxwell is the kind of guy people used to describe as strapping. He's over six feet tall, trim through the middle, broad and muscular in the chest and shoulders. The …

After that hot trudge across the parking lot to wait in the long lines at the gates of the San Diego County Fair, do you dream of being appointed to the board of the 22nd …

Radio station 103.7 changed its format from classic rock to talk radio. Listeners disapproved, but was it necessary to have two stations in town playing Boston, Journey, and Heart? And 103.7's new shows are funny. …

Ex-Democratic state senator Dede Alpert, once mentioned as a possible San Diego mayoral candidate, is making waves in the state's capital by promoting the interests of the cable TV industry without bothering to register as …

One of the biggest local donors to a single cause so far this political season has been R.B. "Buzz" Woolley, the La Jolla investor, who gave $94,700 to the EdVoice Independent Expenditure Committee on April …

The Hard Way (Jack Reacher Novels) by Lee Child. Delacorte, 2006, $25, 371 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Former MP Jack Reacher was alone, the way he liked it, soaking up the hot, electric New …

Thirty Years Ago The Grossmont commencement ceremony was punctuated by water balloons. The seniors were christened with bottled water stolen from the science labs.... "Five years ago the valedictorians would get up and blast the …

Hi, kids! I'm Jose El Burro. Welcome to My Neighborhood. Let's take a look around. Here we are at 36th Street and University. Look at that pink building over there with the stars painted on …

How did The City's Finest meet? "I've known Brian and Robby since we were in middle school, although I didn't join the band until just before college," says rhythm guitar player Chris Lenz. "I used …

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. -- Raymond Lindquist When overwhelmed with options, I revert to what I know. If confronted with an extensive menu at a high-end restaurant, I scan …

Vow Incited The serrated blade squeezed through the bread and slid into my skin. My heart leapt. I jumped up in pain, dropped the knife, and clasped my finger with the opposite hand. A single …

My best friend Bernice is wearing her bikini. I lost that battle two years ago. But I can still wear shorts -- the old gams still have a little tone. And the maintenance isn't too …

"If you’re from Bosnia, why do you call it Greek food?"

'Our band blends the fuck-it-and-just-play mentality of punk with the theatrics of cabaret," says Tragic Tantrum Cabaret singer/guitarist Zeph. The performance-art duo composes songs around a melodica and a toy xylophone. "There's a lot of …

This restaurant is closed. Now that summer's here, many of us like to eat a little lighter and stay out a little later. Fulfilling these desires are several new supper clubs that specialize in "small …

'Is competitive racewalking like most sports? You're done by the time you hit 35?" "It's endurance athletics," Curt Clausen says. "If you're willing to put in the time and put in the training, you can …

“A cactus will take a bullet just like a person, because of the thickness of their skins and all the water in them.”

'It's like you're selling your soul to the devil or something.'

'Telemagica means 'far magic.' We're expanding as far as possible, to other planets, to other beings we can't see," says Kirk Roberts, cofounder of Telemagica, an annual arts-and-music festival in Jacumba. "For example, we needed …

A guy who identifies himself as Al operates a "punk, international hip-hop, and women's music" Internet radio station called www.radioactiveradio.org. Al says an anonymous benefactor is responsible for broadcasting his programming over the airwaves, on …

Last Friday, Reeve Oliver was one of the two local groups to play 91X's 11-band X-Fest show at Coors Amphitheatre. The preceding Monday (June 5), 91X DJ/music director Marco Collins alluded to some inter-station squabbling …

"They hijacked the name [UV Tigers]," says a music-scene insider who claims that Ocean Beach band Cape May registered the Internet domain name of the UV Tigers, another local band. Cape May lead singer Andre …

"Lots of people in San Diego listen to and/or make emo and/or screamo music (which is hard for me to consider music), and it just sounds so bad to me and lots of them have …

"Right before the show, the promoter, Josh Andrande, calls to say Cypress Hill wants $3000 more cash to headline," says Stiletto Silhouette singer Jason Fitzpatrick. "Something about they were paid half in Mexican money... We …

This is my least favorite time of year for many reasons that essentially boil down to the irrational. The clearest statement of the reasoning behind this is that this season is too hot. I have …

'The Parsky team" is now famous -- as well as infamous -- in Rancho Santa Fe. There is another "Parsky team" in the secrecy- shrouded Caribbean tax haven of the Cayman Islands, but that's barely …

Offense, too, is in the eye of the beholder. On April 29 and 30, the Imperial Beach Art Guild sent eight members to display their work at Little Italy's ArtWalk San Diego. The guild's president, …

As of early this week, only one campaign committee weighing in on the move of San Diego International Airport from Lindbergh to Miramar had filed its official papers with the county registrar of voters. A …

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders has quietly approved a $50,000 contract to appraise the 80 acres under Qualcomm Stadium owned by the city's Water Department, which holds it in trust for the benefit of its …

San Diego Metropolitan magazine is out with its annual issue dedicated to the "Tribute to Women and Industry," a dinner run by the YWCA recognizing local female professionals. Part of the celebration includes dozens of …

Hi Matt: I see "tribute" bands in the Reader all the time (Steely Damned, a Steely Dan tribute band; Iron Maidens, female Iron Maiden tribute band, etc.). Do these bands have to get approval from …

Topped by craggy blocks of white conglomerate rock, Castle Peak affords what is probably the most expansive view of San Fernando Valley's west side. From the top, a sea of ground-hugging subdivisions is seen lapping …

On June 6 -- that's 6-6-06, for Satanists keeping score -- federal agents raided the Scottsdale home of Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Jason Grimsley. This visit was a follow-up to an April 19 drop-in conducted by …

Mary Jo and her friends Jackie, Mary Ellen, and Kelly decided to form an organization that "fights frump," an anti-Red Hat Society. A friend once told Mary Jo, "We don't see you wearing a red …

Thirty Years Ago When tickets for David Bowie's San Diego concert went on sale, a first-year law student from Pacific Beach bought 240 tickets -- all were in the choicest sections of the Sports Arena …

When I was eight, I ripped the skin off my right arm. I had been riding bikes with Timmy Sanguinetti at the churchyard. It was a day of us tear-assing all over. We had seen …

No Good Deed by Tom Basinski. Berkley True Crime, 2006, $7.99, 293 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Two days before Christmas in 1998, David Stevens's Chrysler LeBaron exploded into flames in the upscale California neighborhood …

Discussing San Diego's newly famous acoustic guitar crooner, Jason Mraz, Jason Turtle says, "When I was performing with Jane Lui, we had a few gigs with him and were beginning to try to collaborate. This …

“Even the ground meat’s kosher, for Jewish and Muslim customers.”

Do not allow children to mix drinks. It is unseemly and they use too much vermouth. -- Fran Lebowitz "Ah, shit, don't open it. I already know what it is. Look, there's a rattle drawn …

"Lord Jesus," said worship leader Jason Denison after the opening set, "we come before you with all kinds of stuff going on in our lives.... Would you meet us where we're at, Lord Jesus? Would …

Matrimony Eve First, it was more than a year away. And then it was months and then weeks. Now it is days away, and soon it will be hours, minutes, seconds.... "It" is the moment …

My friend Bernice has shed the poundage. Dutifully hitting the gym every day and sticking with her South Beach Diet brought back her pre-baby body. Next month she and her husband are celebrating their anniversary …

From a clearing just below the summit of Wooded Hill (the highest wooded promontory in the Laguna Mountains), a spacious panorama of two nations unfolds. The blue, south horizon lies somewhere in Mexico, and your …

In the office where I met David Omen Acana II, paramount chief of the 800,000-member Acholi tribe in northern Uganda, a large color photograph of two hippos hung on the wall behind him. The animals, …

I was concerned by how much she enjoyed making plush toys squeal.

'The one thing that's crucial in this business, is not to pretend you're something you're not.

"We knew we would not be allowed to play [the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon], so we decided to take it over and do our own thing," says Dune Murderous of Defamation League. The local hip-hop …

On May 27, lawmen snuffed out a show at Stripline, a new all-age venue in San Marcos. The promoter, who had hosted four shows there during a two-month period, didn't have an entertainment license. "The …

Credit P.O.D.'s Sonny Sandoval for those tykes in your kid's kindergarten class named Nevaeh (pronounced neh-VAY-uh). According to the New York Times, the name's popularity is rising faster than any other in the past 100 …

This weekend, former Ché Café sound engineer and booker Bob Bellerue will enter the UCSD venue for the first time in 15 years. He'll perform as Halfnormal, his L.A.-based noise project. Bellerue ran the boards …

On May 25, aspiring rapper Lawrence Christopher Smith was sentenced to 84 years to life in prison for the November 2004 shooting death of Dom Perignon Champagne in Southeast San Diego. During his sentencing for …

In mid-May, Chula Vista police arrested the operator of El Jibarito Music Studio, Walter Rivera, and charged the 49-year-old with ten counts of lewd acts with a victim under the age of 14. The "inappropriate …

"Over 50 percent of my roof is gone, and all the wiring has to be replaced," says Candye Kane, who recently returned from a European tour to her partially burned North County home. "I had …

When Ashlee Simpson appears at Viejas Casino Concerts in the Park tonight, June 8, she'll be in possession of a bag of Ricola cough drops, some Dentyne Ice or Orbit gum, a small bottle of …

'The Scripps Park Project proposes to enhance this postcard-perfect place. I think they have some political agenda," says Jaruska Solyova. "This city is quite bankrupt and quite corrupt. With improvements done by the architect, [the …

Memorial Day weekend is over as I write here and so this will not exactly be timely, but Judith Moore, a friend and long-time editor of this paper, died very recently. I see she is …

A cool late afternoon or early evening in June is perfectly fine for exploring the aptly named Boulder Loop Trail in Daley Ranch -- Escondido's 3000-acre open space preserve. During the next six weeks, the …

“I need to put a little more junk in my trunk.”

At the Belly Up Tavern I overheard some girls talking about a Memorial Day party. I asked them if I could go. Two of them looked at me as if I was crazy, but one …

Time for our annual hockey column, a "Sporting Box" tradition that enriches itself year after year. San Diego, the seventh-largest city in the United States, is running low on major-league franchises. We have no NHL …

Gladness Blooms Hmmm...the happiest and saddest I've been in my life... Seems simple enough, but it's not. I was having trouble coming up with answers, so I asked around. If you're married, your wedding is …

Thirty Years Ago The recent swell of Letters to the Editor on the subject of my sourness, or sore-headedness, or however it's diagnosed, has reached a point where it seems advisable for me to step …

Maybe you have a philosophy. Maybe it has to do with Santa Claus clapping his hands and pop! out comes everything. Out comes the Milky Way and our solar system and down here, on our …

When a Gene Makes You Smell Like a Fish: ...and Other Amazing Tales about the Genes in Your Body by Lisa Seachrist Chiu. Oxford University Press; 2006; $27; 240 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: From …

Crash Carter was formed in North County in late 2004 and pairs drummer John Mears and bassist Jeff Bowman (both formerly of surf rockers Tower 7) with singer/keyboardist Casey Gee. "We're just three groove-oriented guys …

"We were meant to live for so much more/ Have we lost ourselves?" Switchfoot played through the speakers as congregants found their seats for Missiongathering's first service in their new venue, there amid the Moroccan-tinged …

Voyage, travel, and change of place impart vigor. -- Seneca Four people in the past three days have asked me the same question: "How does one pack for that long?" As I prepare to be …

Bachelor's Rant The wedding is nearing. As the bachelor and groom to be, let me testify that people believe its novel to joke about me getting married. Those who consider themselves funny spread crude remarks …

Uncle Max is at it again. It seems he's got himself a new gal -- Mae. "A real Southern Belle," he proclaims. "When she drinks her iced tea, she rests her wrist on the side …

"Have a seat, watch the game while I cook you up something good to eat," says chef Mel Johnson, owner of Batter Up! "That's my attitude, that's what Batter Up! is about -- like you …

The government's Enron prosecutors exulted last month that the guilty verdicts prove "no matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules." Some TV talking heads are rejoicing that corporate …

Each new chapter of the bribery scandal that began last June with the unmasking of now-imprisoned former GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham seems to bring a new local character to light, revealing to the nation …

Someone's been out polling on the airport issue, paying a Houston, Texas, public opinion survey company an unknown amount of money to conduct an elaborate 30-minute telephonic question-and-answer session with likely voters about their position …

Architect Homer Delawie, who survived his share of scandal and political heat during many years as one of then-San Diego mayor Pete Wilson's appointees to the planning commission -- including long-ago battles over the future …

Medicine is very lucrative for physician Jim Dunford, part-time medical director of the City's Emergency Medical Services. According to his statement of economic interests, filed March 15, Dunford, professor of clinical medicine and surgery at …

At Times It Was Like Shared Music, at Times Like a Skin Graft or Root Canal — Stephen Dobyns I do at a coffin sale — Dorothy Stewart A Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cake …

No one's ever asked me about my wedding before. Have I even thought about it? I don't think so. Not recently, anyway. I was a bride? I have to squeeze my brain like a grapefruit …

I was nervous in the final minutes before my wedding, but not for the usual reasons. I was 22, young, but I had known Deirdre since I was 18 and dated her since I was …

Everyone should be married — once, I think, just as everyone should be fat — once. I am lucky in that I have very little at all bad to say about my one experience with …

We didn't elope in the traditional sense, Annelies and me. No ladder up to her window in the middle of the night. We borrowed her dad's car and left after breakfast. We were married over …

I was 19, Mike was 21, and it was still early enough in the '60s that "The Sixties" had barely begun. My high school sweetie foolishly introduced me to his "brilliant friend" the summer before …

Yes. Steven and I had a wedding. A real celebration of not only our relationship but also a big thank-you to all those close friends and family who gave us support and encouragement. I suppose …

I made my husband Ernie wait three days for an answer to his marriage proposal. I had traveled to be with him for Easter, and he proposed after the midnight vigil Mass, April 1995. I …

Two interesting pieces of information about myself, each of which is 100 percent true: 1) My first Holy Communion was at the second wedding ceremony of my only marriage, and 2) My only religious confession …

Saying "I do" was the easy part. There used to be this redwood church, A-frame, about halfway between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz on Highway 17: some rough-hewn pews, but no altar, no icons, just …

I was wearing nothing but a red plaid pajama top when Bryan proposed to me. He was so many things that my wild, hippie family was not: gentle, legally employed, and in therapy. I adored …

"William, do you take this woman, Lita..." Ah, the Reverend Jones. It's 6:30, Saturday evening, August 21, 1982. I'm standing in front of 35 friends here in the old Authors' Lounge of the Oriental Hotel, …

"Never say never," I thought to myself as I slid into my wedding dress in early May of '96. It wasn't that I had once supposed I would never get married. I was 25, in …

I first got married at 21. I didn't intend to get married. One evening my girlfriend led the conversation into a general discussion of the institution of marriage, and the next thing I knew we …

On September 15, 1962, Ellen and I got married. She was 22 and I was 26. Standing at the altar, I was thrilled as she walked up the aisle with her father to the strains …

The evening after our wedding Kevin and I sat on my — I mean our — vintage mauve velvet sofa and ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. This was before I was a vegetarian, before I knew …

"I probably shouldn't have stayed up so late," I thought as I paced back and forth in the little sacristy at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut, nervously flipping the long tail of my …

Happy weddings are all alike; every unhappy wedding is unhappy in its own way. I've been married three times. My first and third were both happy, and startlingly alike. Both took place within a few …

'I think as our vineyards mature, we'll buy less and less from out of the area.'

'Hergé projected everything he wanted to be onto his characters. How different the artist is from his creation is what I found to be the most interesting [about the film]," says Phillip Gay, department chair …

Something about Friday, quitting time at work, is much like Christmas morning as a kid. Of course, nothing will compare with that, but the comparison stands in the sense of pleasant, pleasureful possibilities about to …

A party I went to in Clairemont had trouble written all over it. The host had a live band in a residential area, and he took down the fence separating his house from his neighbor's …

Hello: I received a phone call on my cell phone from 999-999-9999. They kept calling and calling, and for a while I only got dead air when I answered. However once when I answered a …

Dear Matt: In my college days it was "common knowledge" that a sharp rap on a cold beer would "reinfuse" the carbonation and prevent the foam and spray when the can was opened. Any truth …

San Antonio Canyon, a yawning gap in the towering San Gabriel Mountains, serves as the main gateway to the third highest mountain mass in Southern California -- Mount San Antonio, or Old Baldy. At 10,064 …

Last week I had lunch (lunch being a burger and a beer) with a woman I've known since the 1970s. She's a civil attorney now, seven years divorced, and is thinking about rejoining the hunt …

Thirty Years Ago ALL ANIMOSITIES aside, I would like to organize a party for people who regularly place Reader personals. Interested "regulars" reply through the Reader. The Ad Tracer. -- CLASSIFIEDS, June 3, 1976 Twenty-Five …

Social pressure is about the worst kick to the ghoulies that a man in his prime can take. Rowland McCowan would tell you that himself if he were still around. You can be charging ahead …

Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi. Shaye Areheart Books, 2006, $23, 246 pages. Yuri Balodis, the hero of Red Weather is an exile from a country he's never seen. He's never been there, yet it dominates …

I used to say that you could get married when you ran out of things to do. So we got engaged after two rounds of Long Island ice teas at Carlos Murphy's bar on a …

'Now, with the Internet being where it is, there's little that a record label can actually do for you," says Jamie, a jazz violinist, composer, label owner, and multimedia artist. "The Internet gives you world …

The hard rat-a-tat of the drums set the beat for the choir as they processed into the high-ceilinged church. Swaying, bouncing, and clapping, they mounted the stage and sang out in a near-shout over the …

The trouble about always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind. -- G.K. Chesterton "Did you fast?" The seated …

Are You Still There, God? I am not getting married in a church. I guess that is fitting seeing that I have not practiced formalized religion in over a decade. I was raised attending a …

My beloved husband Patrick spent many teenage years on the golf course. He played for four dollars after school and caddied on weekends at a high-end country club near his house. Caddying made him spending …

Chunks of ice rode the whitecaps as the Nantucket ferry steamed out of the harbor in Woods Hole and into the Atlantic. The March wind had driven Isabel into the warmth of the cabin, while …

When former Unbroken vocalist Dave Claiburn left San Diego for the Midwest, he had no idea how much he'd miss the city he called home from 1991--1994, or three of the greatest years of his …

Hardcore punker Sam Ilich now knows that the excessive punk lifestyle has its limits. "After I lost my home and my marriage [in 2000], after a decade of destroying clubs and fights and turning down …

Following the lead set by Jared Leto, Keanu Reeves, and Russell Crowe, Adam Brody of Fox TV's OC launched his career as a touring rocker last week at the Jumping Turtle. His four-man band Big …

Live Irish music has done well for Ned Giblin. It's been packing his Carlsbad restaurant and café Tom Giblin's (named after his late father) for six years. The Irish food/music/Guinness formula worked for him as …

"For years, it was called the KSON Flatbed Show," says Steve Nichols of the mobile soundstage he's renamed the Rolling Radio Show. "Al Turner at KSON drove it, but after he lost his vocal cords …

San Diego's old financial scandals never seem to die. Decades after the principals have gone to the hoosegow and been released, the muck keeps rising to the surface. An example is Whispering Palms, a residential …

The year 2005 saw a significant increase in arrests and incidents for the San Diego Trolley system. According to a report obtained from the Metropolitan Transit System, the agency that runs the trolley, serious crimes, …

How hard is it to get information out of San Diego State University? Very, says attorney Anne Brunkow, an opponent of the school's plan to build 540 units of faculty housing and a hotel in …

Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, the ex-governor and former presidential candidate now regarded as favored to capture the Democratic nomination for state attorney general in next week's primary, has been picking up sizable support from some …

With less than a week to go until the June 6 primary, last-minute money continues to roll into local campaign coffers. Among the more notable contributors, Rancho Santa Fe's Robert Spencer Douglass. Douglass owned the …

“Feeling sick? Try Israel’s Tonic! Garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, lemon, apple, beet, and carrot."