Of all the sand in San Diego, one strand wins mythic status. Most of the place is inside a state park, it runs along a length of two miles walled by 300-foot bluffs, and it …

'People just went ballistic over that combination.'

"We called every sub shop in Jersey and we couldn't find him," says guitarist Mike Santos about his effort to locate drummer Scott Clark. Their former band, Lucy's Fur Coat, was asked to regroup for …

"Since it's O.B., bartering with people seems pretty natural," says O.B. Cooperative Records owner Jose Maldonado, whose recording studio and record label are based in his soundproofed Brighton Avenue garage. "A lot of the equipment …

Carnifex vocalist Scott Lewis says America's leading death-metal band has become stale. "Cannibal Corpse is part of the old regime. The whole satanic image with corpse paint and long hair and gauntlets like Slayer is …

"San Diego isn't all swimsuits, sunburns, and palm trees," according to hip-hop website BallerStatus.net. "It's also Dickies suits, burners [handguns], and pounds of trees [marijuana]. That's the 'Daygo' the City doesn't want you to hear …

"A guy saw me play on KUSI [TV] and called me up and asked to play Java Jo'z," says local singer-guitarist Josh Damigo. "I thought they went out of business." Java Joe's, the Ocean Beach …

The second Friday in September. I'm not there yet, and if you've picked this paper up in a timely fashion neither are you. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say …

On September 11, 2001, local country singer Ronny Corbin was a pilot for United Airlines. "The morning started with the 90-mile drive from my then--San Marcos home to LAX. My captain and I had been …

In the teen section of Scripps Mesa Bible Church's library/snack room, Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X gets face-out treatment. Someone has taken a highlighter to certain passages. One such: "I wonder that all things seem …

The parallel plotlines take a long time to shed any light on each other.

I don't know why I associated a crashing sound with my truck. Maybe it's the way my brain orders things according to luck. A basket full of chocolates, drugs, money, and strippers' phone numbers flies …

Ex-congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham was packed off to prison for accepting bribes from Defense Department lobbyists, but the scandal hasn't crimped the campaign fund-raising style of his onetime close GOP colleague Duncan Hunter, chairman of …

Flash! Chargers linebacker shot in front of his house by off-duty cop. I'm sure you know what this means. That's right, it's time to play "If I Were Steve Foley's Attorney." The story so far, …

Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg by Alice Goldfarb Marquis. MFA Publications, 2006, $35, 321 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Clement Greenberg dominated the American art scene and is still considered the …

Thirty Years Ago From deep within a mountain tunnel a light is visible. Suddenly the tunnel is filled with a fierce metal beast, charging at breakneck speed toward the station. It careens around a corner …

If I found ten $100 bills lying on the ground, I would look around to see if anyone else was looking at me and then I'd pick up the money and put it in my …

San Diego's picturesque "canyons" -- the narrow ravines slashing into the city's elevated plateaus ("mesas") that overlook the bay and the ocean -- number in the dozens. The so-called mesas are actually marine terraces, the …

An employee of Island Prime Steakhouse on Harbor Island Drive called to tell me about an event there, a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The event was called "Lock Up," and it would begin …

'All my favorite bands keep putting out albums that I can barely listen to," says Russell Logan, singer for San Diego band Sliver. "It feels like a sad market where one-hit wonders exist because of …

'Kids today..." That's the tagline for my great-aunt Gladys. She's 75 and full of energetic complaint. Not a visit goes by when she doesn't train her sights on "kids today." "Are too lazy; watch too …

Parade of Weirdness The Set-up: Although I usually profess to hate humanity, the truth is that I am a dedicated observer of human quirks and oddities, particularly the collection of human quirks and oddities that …

Oh, lucky are the residents of Solana Beach! They've got sand, they've got money, and now they've got an eatery to equal those of San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. The opening of the sleek …

'Old-school characters wore Pro-Keds or Adidas, big metal belt buckles that had your name on it, and their clothes were more fitted," says hip-hop enthusiast Mike "Logik" Matcke. "Back then they used to have to …

'Mother, this town is so corrupt/ May I probe why it rots?"/ "Yes, my darling daughter/ But don't connect the dots." The City of San Diego has paid more than $30 million to consultants like …

Former congressman Jim Bates is telling me the story about the first vote he cast as an elected official. "It made me an enemy for life," he says. The previous fall, in 1970, both Bates …

The campaign committee of San Diego city councilwoman Donna Frye, who was easily reelected this June 6, ended the first half of the year with $8240 in the bank. On June 13, exactly a week …

The repeatedly postponed sentencing of William Robert Bradley, the Metabolife millionaire and onetime business partner of San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders in a failed high-tech licensing venture, has been put off once again. This time, …

It's 2:30 a.m. I swear, it's so tombstone quiet here in Coronado you can hear a penny drop. I know 'cause I just dropped one. Searching my pockets to see if I have enough for …