“He’s restored that villa to a fare-thee-well. That’s the trouble with Americans; all that money and no taste.” — Jonathan Trevanny, Ripley’s Game I: Acquisition This story begins with an ending: an estate sale in …

Kenneth Reisig belongs to a bevy of volunteers who post retail gasoline prices on sandiegogasprices.com. The resource belongs to GasBuddy Organization Inc.’s collection of websites that allow consumers to compare gas prices in cities all …

LETTERS A Puzzle, A Dog, And A Smoke I just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed reading the article entitled “I Never Inhale” (Cover Story, September 25) as I was sitting on my …

As the Union-Tribune hovers closer and closer to possible death, awaiting a buyer to rescue it from oblivion, parent company Copley Press has been rushing to clean up some messy loose ends. Latest development: Copley …

Back in 1997, Chargers owner Alex Spanos didn’t have anything at all good to say about voter referendums. That was when the multimillionaire developer was waging war against San Diegans who were seeking to put …

The pro- and anti-gay-marriage campaigns continue to rack up prodigious contribution totals. Last week the Yes on 8 forces, seeking a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, picked up $5000 from La …

Thirty Years AgoThe lobby of the downtown library, normally not the scene of high drama, was the arena for some cops-and-robbers-style action last Wednesday at lunch time. When a young man (carrying a hidden copy …

Halloween-costume planning around here starts before the previous Halloween’s candy has been eaten. Detailed conversations, elaborate sketches, and shopping lists are tossed about among the kids in preparation for the next year’s holiday. This past …

I saw an ad for a CD-release party for LL Cool J. It’s funny because when bands invite me to CD-release parties, they aren’t really parties. It’s usually the band playing a small venue for …

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. — William Morris David was both appreciative and apprehensive when I offered to help him. He desired …

Good lord, I need to get out of this slum. While watching TV the other night, a knock came at my screen door. “Does José live here?” the man said, pointing down to indicate he …

Few travelers on Interstate 8 in eastern San Diego County fail to be impressed by the enormous stacks of rounded boulders thrusting skyward over the high-desert landscape. On this hike, you’ll get up-close and familiar …

“New Eyes for New Hearts” was the theme of the service at Christian Church of Lemon Grove. On the stage, four tall boxes wrapped to look like presents made splashes of bright color in the …

Only three months until Christmas! It’s enough to throw me into a panic now, weeks earlier in September. This gives rise to my thoughts this morning on drama. I, for one, have been surrounded by …

Welcome back, Baby Boomers and suburban-raised Gen Xers, to your childhoods. Minus, of course, bedwetting, skinned knees, dorky shoes, schoolyard bullies, mean girls, broken skates, school-cafeteria lunches, Dick and Jane, et al. Your second childhood …

I arrived in San Diego on the 4th of July, 1979, on a Greyhound bus I had boarded in Louisville Kentucky after two previous bus changes out of Port Authority. I was 27 years old, …

Here’s another bucketful. Blindness. Serious-minded science fiction, allegorical as you like, about an epidemic of “the white sickness,” a new form of sightlessness that plunges the sufferer into blinding light instead of traditional darkness. We …

Peter Wolf aside, the real spark plug in the J. Geils Band was a harmonica player named Magic Dick. His solo blowout “Whammer Jammer,” performed with all of the random energy of a beehive on …

You get a lot of practice singing when you have a baby. You try to get the little one to sleep by singing all the lullabies you can think of, and quickly you realize you …

When asked about her stage name, DJ Miss Lisa says, “I used to be a go-go dancer, and when I was at Taxi in La Jolla [a club popular in the ’90s, gone but not …

Holly JonesCurator, San Diego Women’s Film Festival, sdwff.org Expired, by Cecilia Miniucchi, is one of those under-the-radar movies that went to DVD before even reaching a San Diego theater. Luckily, this impressive directorial debut will …

Inside Alliance Gym, near downtown Chula Vista, Eric Delfierro bustles from one end of the gym to the other, sweating almost as much as the 15 mixed-martial-arts fighters he is training. Of those 15 fighters, …

From 1986 to 1988, the Oakland Athletics had back-to-back-to-back Rookies of the Year: Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Walt Weiss. Under ex-lawyer Tony La Russa’s management, the team looked set for a generation. On November …

Sunday evening. Light's fading. Wandering up Ash and Union, the echoey streets of the world above Broadway. You know, wrong side of the tracks. All the cool eateries are in the Gaslamp. Up here, especially …

The Dalles, Oregon, is found on the south bank of the Columbia River, 85 miles upstream from Portland. Today’s population of 12,000 is about what it was 20 years ago. They grow cereal grains, sweet …

In the summer of 2001, shortly after graduating with a master’s in politics, I landed a one-year internship with the Congressional Hunger Center to study poverty and food banks in Phoenix, Arizona. I was young, …

“The Ranchita Rocks music festival in Ranchita near Ramona was a disaster,” emails attendee Andrew MacDonald of the three-day concert event held September 12—14. “The thousands of attendees got much less than what they paid …

“For years, I drank and used drugs out of shame over it,” says Adriana Smith, known by Guns N’ Roses fans as the girl heard having sex with Axl Rose in the recording studio during …

“I’ve been offering free music-video production, but either the bands suck or the singers who respond are 16-year-old girls,” says Shannon Wafford of Snow Productions, a local production company. “I ran ads in the Reader …

Tony Randall and Kris Rochester (aka Tony and Kris) recently departed from KUSS “New Country” 95.7 FM. In December 2003, Clear Channel lured Randall and Rochester away from KSON with a five-year contract that reportedly …

“I got a call from a friend that works with Stevie Wonder,” says local percussionist Steve Haney. “He mentioned that he had an opportunity for me to record with Stevie. Stevie had an idea to …

Artist: The Bigfellas Song: “California King” (from the CD Chubbed Up) Heard By: Gil Ronduen, Paradise Hills It was folky. When it first started off with the piano, it sounded like the intro to a …

Dear Matt: They’re already starting to advertise for old people to get flu shots this year. It’s starting to piss me off. I don’t get the flu in the winter, I have about five colds. …

Name: Matt Fielder Age: 27 Lives In: Ocean Beach Occupation: Actor Pre-Surf Music: Tone Loc Girls in the Water?: “Yes, please!” Matt has been surfing since he was seven years old. He grew up in …

Hubris and horse manure go together. Just look at the national economic scene: in the past half century, America has turned economic logic on its head, with the gunslingers grinning all the way. Now we …

Recipe by Matt Gordon, Urban Solace. I got into cooking as a way of self-defense growing up. I worked in restaurants in high school and stayed in it through college, as a sous chef. I …