On a winter night in 2002, Christopher Yanov, the founder and sole staff member of Reality Changers, sat with a handful of eighth graders and their college-student tutors in a meeting room in the Iglesia …

Throughout last winter and spring, one could put one’s ear to the wind almost anywhere in North County and hear the buzz of chainsaws as avocado farmers cut down their trees. While this tropical fruit …

Listen To Louie’s Re Louie’s Suds n’ Sun (“Use Me, Then Lose Me,” “City Lights,” December 18). I hope the Reader keeps covering this story. I graduated from SDSU in 2006 and will always fondly …

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!Thy leaves are so unchanging...Not only green when summer’s here,But also when ’tis cold and drear... Hubby Patrick heckled me with his singing because our Christmas tree’s leaves were anything …

There was an October wedding in Coronado with a reception on Soledad Mountain. A guy named Jeff called to suggest I crash the Hawaiian-themed affair. I wore a Hawaiian shirt to fit in. The problem …

“Someone smells a little too human at Trader Joe’s.” — Shindotv on Twitter I bowed forward 90 degrees and slowly lifted my right leg into the air behind me, like a ballerina only not as …

Christmas is getting harder to dodge as a topic, and I may have outwritten that one. I think I have columns running right past that date. Either way, allow me to indulge in a favorite …

What are you reading? “The Ten Roads to Riches, by Ken Fisher. Also, 50 Prosperity Classics, by Tom Butler-Bowdon. And Seinology, by Tim Delaney.” Tell me about them. “Ken Fisher is one of Forbes’ 400 …

The rambling Puente Hills, overlooking the San Gabriel Valley to the north and Orange County to the south, interrupt what would otherwise be a continuous spread of flat, nondescript suburbs. Rising no higher than 1500 …

Rain made a clown out of me. Not one of those funny clowns, if there ever was such a thing, but rather a sad-faced, hobo clown who forever looks as if his coffee is cold, …

It’s still a Norv Turner team, make no mistake, but in spite of that, the AFC West championship now lies in San Diego’s hands. Or Denver’s, depending on your point of view. If the Chargers …

Each holiday season, Lamb’s Players presents an annual Christmas show at its resident theater and a three-hour extravaganza, An American Christmas, at the Hotel del Coronado. Set 100 years ago, the program for American Christmas …

I admit it: I’m moth to the flame. Just ambling down Garnet, around 8:00 at night. Place is buzzing with life. But right across from Longboard’s rowdy crowd, I start feeling the pull of this …

Olivetto is no relation to the fabled Oliveto up north in the Rockridge District of Oakland — there’s no Paul Bertolli in the kitchen, creating legendary handmade salumi from scratch. But, with that out of …

At the age of 14, Anna Troy and her 13-year-old sister Lindsey performed as a duo called the Troys. They cut a demo and landed a major recording contract with Elektra. “The Troys were going …

There’s a funk band playing just about every night in some packed club somewhere, and the best or most famous funk bands tour all the time. But funk bands typically don’t sell a lot of …

Christmas Island was formed in August 2007. “Lucy [Wehrly] and I had already been dating awhile when we decided to play music together and record some songs,” says Brian Island. Brian’s on guitar; Lucy’s on …

Don’t open before Christmas: The Reader is the trite and true story of a once fat and sassy alternative free weekly, now struggling for survival amidst a plummeting economy, skyrocketing paper costs, shrinking page size, …

Christmas is on my mind. As a season in San Diego it is to me as cruel as April was to the poet T.S. Eliot. New Year’s, I maintain, does not matter so much. My …

Artist: ZankSong: “Sorry” (from the CD Without a Bridge)Heard By: Abe Sanchez, Rosarito, Mexico It’s not bad. It’s something I’d definitely listen to on the radio, but I don’t know if I’d go out and …

Lou’s Records, about to enter its 30th year of business, is in “serious financial trouble,” according to a store employee. The source and others say that the Leucadia record store is experiencing at least temporary …

Accused of attacking several local goths, James Eric Benham was sentenced in late November for two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts of assault. Victim James Howard of the Gothic Volunteer Alliance says the Navy …

Heavy Glow recently recorded an EP at Velvet Revolver’s L.A. studio with guitarist/producer Stevie Salas. “Slash’s guitar was there,” says front man Jared, “and I played it while we recorded. I met [GNR/VR drummer] Matt …

Randy Seol/Strawberry Alarm Clock: “We got to play the big music festival, Cal Jam II [in 1978], on a side stage. It was a big production, with modern dancers and backing singers. For some reason, …

Last Saturday, the San Diego African American Musician Heritage Foundation inducted local jazzman Jesse Davis into its hall of fame. Davis shares this distinction with local luminaries such as Fro Brigham, Hollis Gentry III, Carl …

"The pride and presence of a professional football team is far more important than 30 libraries.” Intelligent people laughed when former pro-football-team owner Art Modell made the comment. Now San Diego, painfully broke, is the …

Dear Matt: Why does my fish blow bubbles? Sometimes it will just be hanging out and all of a sudden it will cut loose with a bubble from its mouth. How does air get in …