Author: Susie Harris Neighborhood: University Heights Age: 63 Occupation: Retired Today I brought my glass and plastic bottles to the local recycling center. The building I live in has no provisions for pickup. The man …

Just before 6 o’clock, on October 28th, the Fire Marshal for the City of La Mesa stood outside City Council Chambers. The room was at capacity. No one would be allowed in unless seats became …

It’s Monday, 5:00 a.m. at Mission Beach. Russ Gish and his son Lance have already been here an hour, sweeping the sand with a contraption that looks like a skinny, upright vacuum cleaner with a …

Artist: Bless 619Song: “Diego Rivera” (from the CD Diego Rivera)Heard By: Anthony Lukens, Golden Hill The beats are pretty good, but I didn’t really dig on the emcee until he said, “There’s so much drama …

Twenty-nine years ago this week (11/4/79), the Knack played downtown’s Fox Theatre, a show that sold out in just a few hours. The band opened with the first three songs from their newly released album …

from recent posts on the San Diego Musicians page at craigslist: “Female Vocalist: I love to sing [but] I dont have a way to do it without irritating the neighbors of my apartment complex…maybe a …

James Brady/New Day Mile: “During my teens in New Jersey, I attended a Sunday Bible study every week. The woman running it asked if my band would like to play at the youth-group meeting at …

“Even though we felt teaching popular songs for free on YouTube would benefit the original artists, a few labels felt otherwise,” says Next Level Guitar cofounder Tim Gilberg in a press release. He and fellow …

Before singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson played the Poway Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, October 18, I met Sammy, an L.A. guy selling concert shirts for $20 apiece in the parking lot. “They aren’t selling …

Drummer Garrett Sisti of the punk/psychobilly Wrecking Crew played a three-band gig at the Leucadian on October 17 sponsored by No Cover magazine. “They did it for a good cause,” says Sisti, “and nobody could …

This is the new world order. Any movie that wants to be seen as Serious, however delusional it may be, wants to enter the Oscar race, and therefore wants to make its entrance in the …

At Santogold a couple of weeks ago I met a traveling salesman. He was roughly my age, 50-ish. He confided to my girlfriend that he preferred new rock rather than classic rock. He said that …

If a band is going to release a self-titled album, it’s usually the band’s debut. If it’s the band’s third album, it’s a sign that the band is trying to reinvent itself. Secret Machines did …

“Plein air,” says Daryl Millard, owner of the Daryl Millard Gallery Solana Beach, “means painting a scene outdoors in the elements” where one can see, smell, hear, and feel what one is painting. It is …

I was up north for 26 years. I came back to San Diego by invitation from an ex-wife. Two of my grown sons were in town, and my partnership in a newspaper in the Comstock …

This restaurant is closed. Is Samurai Jim a jinx on bargain-price restaurants? Last time it was a vanished barbecue joint that sent us fleeing to the very minor mercies of the meatloaf at Maryjane’s. This …

Hey, Matt! Last night I was reading Silence of the Lambs, and it got me wondering. When humans are cooked up, are they more like beef or pork? Not that I ever plan on finding …

Photographs and words have been doing their rather stiff box-step dance since the beginning. In the 1840s, Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of the negative-to-positive process, published The Pencil of Nature, a collection of photographs accompanied …

A couple years ago, when I was living back in Albany, NY, my girls and I were chilling at my place after leaving the bars around 4:00 a.m. (one of the perks of living in …

Fever Crotch’s drummer whacks his drum — the box he’s sitting on — with his bandaged hand and teases his cymbal with a drumstick held in the other. The guitarist howls some lovelorn lament. But …

Fall is the most fun season to write in and about. I have exhausted the famous Hemingway quote to F. Scott Fitzgerald in one of their letters, used it time and time again in this …

Continuing with Mike Kelly, 64, volunteer coordinator and conservation chair at Friends of Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. Friends focuses on Peñasquitos Canyon, leading interpretive walks, maintaining trails, helping out, and, when called upon, tracking wildlife, …

“Yes on 8,” read the sign held by the man across the street from San Diego Christian Worship Center. Pastor Art Evans did mention Proposition 8 on Sunday, but he kept it pretty brief: “We …

Spectacular exposures of colorfully banded and folded metamorphic rock gave “Rainbow Canyon” its so-far unofficial title. The canyon’s colorful nature is enhanced even further during a peak wildflower season, when the place looks like a …

It sat there, not ominous or inimical, but mysterious. The TV. I’ve moved in with a roommate to save some money this year and to shed my old barrio. My roommate has a TV big …

Today, there are three kinds of people: the haves, the have-nots, and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-haves. — Earl Wilson Six months ago, when I first felt the rippling effects of the subprime mortgage meltdown, I began systematically …

A few months back, I went to an event in Oceanside that I was told was a divorce party for a guy, but it ended up being more of a car show, as most of …

Had the kids taken an expedition to the Sahara desert? Their lips looked as if they had — white, peeling, cracking, and bleeding. My daughter had ripped off a chunk of lip, and a bloody …

Thirty Years AgoThe final indignity, scratched by some nitwit on the exact spot where PSA Flight 182 crashed, is this: PSA 128. Leiserson, a photographer for Channel 8, and Fitzsimmons, a photographer for the Union/Tribune, …

It’s down to the final week of the campaign, the time when special interests that don’t want their contributions widely reported — at least not until after the election — start dumping money into the …

One of the oddest political websites this season is spikemike.com, a full-on — if not particularly artful — attack on San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre. At the top of the page is a video …

Proposition 2, the measure that would lessen restraints of some kinds of farm animals, including chickens, has so far drawn $7000 worth of support from Jerry Cesak, one-half of the famous Jeff & Jer radio …

One-Sided Report I live as close to the river as one should, and if and when the 100-year flood hits, it will most likely take my home with it (“There Is No San Diego River,” …

Armando was looking forward to meeting with Lucy that Friday evening, October 26, 2007. A laborer for a tree-trimming company, he borrowed his sister’s ’96 Mustang and drove to where Lucy asked him to meet …

What do you get when you cross Little Mary Sunshine with the Abominable Snowman? You get an email newsletter named Wolverine Network, sent to a list of prominent San Diegans, some still powerful. The publisher …

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival turns five this year and continues to draw light from ever-brighter stars in the foodie firmament. This year, the headliner is Ted Allen, who is, among other …

Name: Michael Woodbury Age: 29 Lives in: Chula Vista Occupation: Video-game designer Post-Surf Food: Spicy bean burrito Girls in the Water: “No…I mean, yes.” Michael tends to avoid the beaches in the summertime. “I don’t …

Author: Joshua Rhome Neighborhood: El Cajon Age: 30 Occupation: Student I sit here in the little room I rent in a house off Magnolia Avenue and think about El Cajon and my past and how …

The City of Encinitas has been toying around with Hall Park -- a proposal for a 44-acre park with five lit soccer fields, two baseball fields, a dog park, and walking trails -- for over …

At the October 21st Chula Vista City Council meeting, Chula Vista resident Carlos Lopez approached the podium for his three minutes of public comment. Trailing him was his friend and neighbor, Theresa Acerro. In Lopez’s …

San Diego River? “There is no San Diego River,” says Pete Cuthbert. “What you’re dangling your toes in is the Colorado River, the Sacramento River, the Feather River — but not the San Diego River.” …

At the October 20 meeting of Greater Golden Hill’s Maintenance Assessment District (MAD), the board members sitting at the U-shaped set of banquet tables outnumbered the audience eight to three. The poor turnout contrasted with …

Guitarist/singer/songwriter Rich Kunz never told his architecture-firm coworkers about his self-described “stoner-rock heavy metal band” called Ride the Sun. “I didn’t want anyone to know I played heavy rock-and-roll music. Architecture designers almost always wear …

The song “Higher Than Hope,” by Finnish metal band Nightwish, is about local deejay Marc Brueland, who lost his battle with cancer five years ago this week, on October 25, 2003. Sample lyric: “The hopes …

The Flimz, featuring singer-songwriters Annie Dru and Amy Mayer, may be the first San Diegans to impersonate a vice-presidential candidate in a video. On October 10, the pair posted their third scripted video, “Palin’s VPilf …

“Nobody really knows why Isis didn’t use their full time [on stage], but [their early departure] allowed Earthless to literally steal the festival,” says Steve Dolcemaschio of Tee Pee Records. He refers to this summer’s …

“I emailed Skip [Seip, of Never Say Die Productions] from something I saw on craigslist,” says “Mike,” who plays in one of the four metal bands (the Blood of the Covenant, Aten, Desolator, and Mindstress) …

"End Times Christian Soldiers Mission," says the church near Oak Park School. Lord, why does everyone love this "end is nigh" stuff? I'm aboard the 955 bus, heading south toward National City. On the other …

When it opened on Broadway in 1933, Jack Kirkland’s subhuman dramatization of the Erskine Caldwell novel Tobacco Road received mixed to negative reviews. Even though it had “spasmodic moments of merciless power,” wrote critic Brooks …

I ask, “How do you track and what do you track?” “You track by sign. The easiest sign is a print, whether it’s a bird on the ground or a coyote or bobcat. A lot …

Enter the Dragon! I am breathing fire after enjoying the spicy cuisine of Szechuan every night for a week. One of my favorite occasional email pen-pals, a UCSD social science prof (another expat New Yorker), …

Now is the onset of a delicious annual malady that might be called the Halloween syndrome, particular to Southern California. Why Halloween seems to be so thoroughly milked in this part of the world is …

“Mystery School” (westernmysticism.org) ran a full-page ad in the Reader: “Stars transform into great explosions of light, scattering particles across the universe. We are all made of stars. Imagine what we can become.” The line …

These words must be said with enthusiasm. Geektastic is something you say to show pride in being a geek. Really, you can add “-tastic” and “-tacular” to any words to make them better. Dorktacular and …

A week ago Saturday, as President George W. Bush and other federal officials hastened to bail out the U.S. economy, Democratic San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre, facing his own uphill battle against his better-financed …

With a drop-off-and-pick-up transportation arrangement, you can enjoy a challenging hiking traverse across the north end of the Verdugo Mountains, ascending through La Tuna Canyon Park on a rough foot trail and descending toward the …

George W. Bush is an American hero, and let me tell you why: because if he can make it, anyone can. All it takes is money. Look at him. That stiff Porky Pig impression every …

What are you reading? “It’s a book called The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by Don Miguel Ruiz. At first, I didn’t really get it. The introduction is sort of crazy — …

Marriage is a great institution, but I’m not ready for an institution. — Mae West The rain fell in big droplets on the centuries-old cobblestones in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. As we searched for shelter, I …

There were two parties I missed that I was bummed about. These guys that throw an annual jet-ski party called me afterward and said that they got around the beach booze ban by drinking out …

“I’ve had crud in my sinus cavity for three days,” griped my husband Patrick. “When I blow my nose, I’m seeing colors that I normally associate with zombies.” “Well, thanks for sharing,” I replied. “Maybe …

Thirty Years AgoOn this hot morning in May, as I load up my old battered red backpack at the Inaja Memorial Picnic Ground and prepare to head off into the brush, there’s a cowboy sitting …

“John McCain is such an easy target,” says Bill Hurd, press secretary for the political satire comedy troupe The Capitol Steps. “He’s the oldest candidate we’ve ever had — therefore you can make all the …

Local record label Single Screen Records was launched in 2007 by Jackson Milgaten (singer-guitarist for the Vision of a Dying World) and Craig Barclift (bassist for the Powerchords). “Both of our own bands are on …

Kaki King first started getting attention about five years ago as a short, young woman who could play the guitar like a brilliant maniac. Her style, inspired by the late Michael Hedges, was as much …

Forget everything you knew about Chris Cornell — he’s not the same guy anymore. In fact, Soundgarden is the first thing that you have to get out of your head if his new collaboration with …

Rana Sampson, an ex-cop, law-enforcement consultant, and wife of San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, has given $1000 to the campaign against Proposition 8, the measure to outlaw gay marriage in California. Last year, the mayor …

Heymatt: If I replaced the fluorescent bulbs five feet above my head at work with bulbs from a tanning bed, would I give myself a nice year-round tan or a bad case of cancer? — …

Album: Plastic, Fake, and Frozen (2007) Artist: The Apes of Wrath Label: self-released Where available/price: At M-Theory in Mission Hills for $6.99. Online at Amazon for $6.23; Emusic and Rhapsody.com for $6.83. Band: Jake Bankhead …

Six years ago today (10/23/02), during their set at the downtown Hard Rock Café, Rookie Card guitarist Adam Gimbel plugged into a Judas Priest guitar display. “I’ve heard reports of other bands interacting with the …

San Diego’s fourth-largest industry, tourism, looks as though it will take a hit in the current (fourth) quarter, and the pain will persist well into next year. This will hurt the ailing economy because the …

Speculation abounds about whether or not John Moores will have to unload at least a part of his San Diego Padres baseball team in order to come up with enough scratch for a multimillion-dollar divorce …

So Cows Can Lie Down Thank you for your attention to Prop 2 (“Breaking News,” October 16). Prop 2 is a modest initiative that will allow farm animals to do four things: stand up, lie …

Allied Waste Services, the national waste hauler that operates the City of San Diego’s Sycamore Landfill off State Route 52 at Mast Boulevard near Santee, is ramping up its campaign to expand the facility. Neighbors …

9:30pm. Thursday. Starving. Waiting for my chicken to cook on my itsy propane grill. Occupying my time with a $3 merlot from Jaycee's and listening to 88.3. Go out in the backyard with a plate …

During the October 15th meeting of the Imperial Beach City Council, a request for a continuance by applicant Jim Kennedy to install a T-Mobile telecommunications tower next to an apartment building resulted in a bad …

Amid the 11 acres of “lush tropical” backdrop at Kona Kai Resort and Spa on Shelter Island, Mayor Jerry Sanders addressed the San Diego Taxpayer’s Association on the economic hardships the city of San Diego …

You’re standing on a street corner in San Diego. It is summer in, say, North Park: the corner of 30th and University. Actually, you’re a good light-year away; you have to be; it’s brutally hot, …

Strange, what you take away from a baseball game. I watched the Tampa Bay/Boston contest into Saturday night (Sunday morning on the East Coast). It was a five-hour, 27-minute, 11-inning heart-clutching duel. The Rays won …

‘I don’t think the American taxpayer needs to be stepping in,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson assured the citizenry on February 27 of this year. Half a month later, the Federal Reserve bailed out Wall Street …

At Bernardo Winery, one of the oldest olive oil producers in California, oil flow has come to a standstill. While the Rancho Bernardo company has historically produced 300 to 400 gallons of olive oil per …

Video Flimflam We are appalled to read that the San Diego airport authority put out a $200,000 promotional video on NBC following John McCain’s acceptance speech at the GOP convention (“Breaking News,” October 9). Are …

The battle over Prop 2, the Humane Society–sponsored measure to limit allegedly cruel confinement of chickens and other animals on California farms, is heating up, and a bevy of well-heeled San Diego–area denizens are choosing …

On another ballot front, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, proprietors of a big East County casino, gave $175,000 on September 16 to the campaign against Proposition 5, which would expand state drug-treatment programs …

North County GOP congressman Darrell Issa became a hero to those opposed to the $700 billion bad-mortgage bailout that was muscled through Congress two weeks ago by the Bush administration and establishment politicians from both …

Thirty Years AgoI would like to reply to the letter “A Moron Lovely As A Tree,” October 5. First of all, you should pay no attention to such low-grade and unintelligent criticism. I think your …

“Sometimes a man gets a hankering,” my husband Patrick said last week, “a hankering for food of a color rarely found in nature, a hunger for crunchy snacks that leave greasy, gritty residue along your …

I received word about a few parties down south on a Friday that I was to drive up to L.A. I decided that I’d hit them both before the long drive. The first was for …

“Those who look like the artists they are portraying will probably go far,” says producer Randy Wood. “A Michael Jackson impersonator — with all the dancers and everything — went to Mexico last year and …

Brightblack Morning Light is one of the leading players in the music scene that’s sometimes called freak folk, sometimes called the new, weird Americana, but is probably more accurately called the new hippie. And I’m …

It was a comment that my girlfriend made that initially sparked my interest in Black Kids. “They sound…derivative,” she said, searching for the right word. I wondered, after so much rock heritage, is it still …

“I’ve been a musician since I found out what musicians do for a living,” says guitarist Joey Harris. “I tried being a salesman once, and it sucked just as bad as I sucked at it. …

The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces. — Maureen Murphy "Okay, here’s the deal,” I said, as Amy set her purse …

Like a donkey on a tilt-a-whirl, I have no business being in a kitchen. With that in mind, I’m going to share some of my cost-cutting-cooking and home-organizing tips. First, what you want to do …

In the 1970s, the once tiny and now thoroughly suburbanized community of Alpine displayed a sign along its main highway boasting “Best Climate in the USA by Government Report.” The town’s boosters eventually got what …

Two armed security guards stood at the ticket-check tent outside the synagogue before the Yom Kippur evening service. Inside, things were more jovial: a man assigned to keep things reverently hushed had fashioned a title …

I am, I guess you could say, a bit of a cutup. It’s true. I’m known for my wry sense of humor in certain circles, and more than once, believe me, I have left fans …

PROGRAM NOTES: Moxie Theatre invited me to dramaturge its latest production. My notes for the program grew beyond its confines, so I decided to present them here. Kate Walat’s Bleeding Kansas begins in 1855, the …

It's 6:30 in the morning. Loan ("Lo-Ann"), the beautiful, solemn-faced Vietnamese girl in the green smock, hands me the note. It's from my lifeguard buddy. "Ed: Time and tide wait for no man. Off to …

"Why did you choose this restaurant?" asked my friend Mark en route to Tender Greens. A fair question, to be sure, since I'm scarcely one of those Hollywood/Park Avenue size-two types who lunch on a …

Both Scott Carhart and Helen Flaster are undoubtedly animal people. Their family pets number 26: seven dogs, seven cats, three horses, two goats, two tortoises, two turtles, two birds, a miniature horse, and a few …

The preponderance of Claude Chabrol’s fifty-some films fit under the umbrella of “thriller,” and no matter how tepid the temperature of his more recent ones — The Bridesmaid, Flower of Evil, and presumably the one …

The music of Brad Paisley, Roy Orbison, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and local troubadour Gregory Page is included on the soundtrack of the new Billy Graham biopic Billy: The Early Years, released on October …

According to an insider who was at REO Speedwagon’s Harrah’s Rincon’s Pavilion show on October 2, hard-of-hearing band members torpedoed their performance. “The guys are so fucking deaf,” says the insider, “they demanded that the …

Randy Fontaine and the Swingers celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, but the ultra-lounge combo’s venues keep disappearing. “It seems like we have the anti-Midas touch,” says Fontaine. “It’s happened, like, four times to us: …

“I get to keep my minivan,” says MP3tunes owner Michael Robertson, who is claiming a victory in the copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by EMI last year. The record company accused Robertson and his Sideload.com of illegally …

On October 4, Ray Suen appeared on Saturday Night Live, playing instrumental backup with the Killers. Though he wasn’t seen on the band-photo cards preceding each of the band’s two songs, he was prominently featured …

Before Jimmy Buffett takes the spotlight at Cricket Amphitheatre tonight, October 16, “purchaser, at its sole cost and expense, shall provide Artist with five limousines or four 15-person passenger vans.” When dinner is served for …

Artist: Fiffin Market Song: “The Wild Rover” (from the CD Lost at Sea) Heard By: Chase Edwards, North Park I liked it. It made me want to drink beer. It reminds me of the Dropkick …

“Drive America,” by the Cathryn Beeks Ordeal, was the most-downloaded MP3 from SDReader.com during September. Below is an interview with songwriter Cathryn Beeks. What was the best road trip you’ve taken, and how did the …

Dear Matthew Alice: What would happen if lightning hit railroad tracks? Would everybody on the train be electrocuted if lightning hit the cars? — William, via email Where do you people get these questions? We …

Name: Neil Salunga Age: 29 Occupation: Firefighter Lives in: San Ysidro Pre-surf music: N.W.A. Girls in the water?: “Total distraction.” Neil Salunga recounts the experience of getting attacked by a shark: “A year ago, I …

A small group of Mission Hills residents are so adamant about scoring parkland for their neighborhood, they are willing to spend over a million dollars to hardscape a third of an acre of environmentally sensitive …

On October 8, the Oceanside City Council meeting got off to a fiery start. The first speaker, Ray Melendrez, president of the Oceanside Firefighters Association, accused Councilman (and mayoral candidate) Rocky Chavez and Councilman Jerry …

District 3 councilmember Toni Atkins issued a press release on October 7, asking for reconsideration of the Navy’s plan to redevelop the Navy Broadway Complex. The project puts 15 acres of waterfront property into the …

They’re still building roads out on Otay Mesa, about three miles north of the international border. The hot tar takes longer to set in the incredible heat. The smell hangs thick over the brown hillsides …

Twenty-nine years ago tomorrow (10/10/79), the Clash headlined a bill at downtown’s Golden Hall that included the Standbys, a local band. For this date on the “Clash Take the Fifth” tour (a few weeks before …

“I couldn’t speak English at all when I moved from Japan to America [in 2003],” says Four Minutes Til Midnight guitarist Kenta Hayashi. “I had a really hard time. I was totally alone.” He says …

The Legendary Mighty Raw Tones Experience and Revue has been playing San Diego for over 30 years. The rock/blues band’s current lineup has been together “easily 20 years,” says Point Loma guitarist/surfboard-shaper Scat, who explains …

The Penetrators got their break in the mid-’70s, opening for the Ramones at SDSU’s Montezuma Hall. “During that period,” says singer Gary Heffern, “we racked up a number of concert disasters all over San Diego. …

“It was like playing Bob’s Country Bunker in The Blues Brothers.” Guitarist Ben Jones says his band Soul Plow didn’t get pelted with beer bottles, but playing Mulvaney’s Wagon Wheel in Santee on September 26 …

Like any aficionado of the Western, or of any other genre for that matter, I’m picky. The nonaficionado, if he ventured to attend at all, might have been quicker to accept last year’s remake of …

“One electric motorcycle, called the ‘Killacycle,’ goes from zero to sixty in one second,” says Paul Thomas, organizer of the Kick Gas Festival, an electric-car-racing and eco-fair event being held at the Barona Drag Strip …

The origin of Hotel St. George dates back to a night at the Casbah in November of 2007. “Erik [bass] and I met and had ourselves a bit of a pity party about the demise …

“Music speaks to us so powerfully,” writes Diane Ackerman in her book A Natural History of the Senses, “that many musicians and theorists think it may be an actual language, one that developed about the …

Jolie Holland didn’t come from out of nowhere, she just sounded that way. The Texas-raised singer-songwriter had already been a founding member of the Vancouver, B.C., old-timey band the Be Good Tanyas before she moved …

"Let's do it," said Naomi. Wow. I never thought she'd agree. I wanted her to show me what's going on with these new, like, artisanal dessert places popping up around town. Turns out she's curious …

At a time when the light at the end of the tunnel must be an oncoming train, Lamb’s Players Theatre is staging Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s harbinger of hope. Based on Elizabeth Spencer’s 1960 …

As always, it is a little odd writing this column at something of a remove, a matter of a week or two, sometimes as much as a month, though I try not to do that …

There is no I or, in this instance, no finger in “team.” As you’ve heard by now, Trevor Wikre, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound offensive right guard for the Mesa State College Mavericks, snagged his little finger …

The pale-blue elementary school auditorium that houses the Chapel was a little more full than usual on Sunday. The extra attendees were there to witness the ordination of Roger Ziegler, a minister to Yard Three …

“Bikeroni” means urban biking, music, and art all combined together. It’s all about an experience that can’t be defined by what it really is; it’s what you make of it. I ride a road bike …

In 2003, a big parcel of land on the west rim of the San Fernando Valley — the private Ahmanson Ranch — was reborn as the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve. The new …

Waiting for Sarah Palin’s appearance at the vice-presidential debates was like waiting for one of those predator crab things to latch onto my face and lay eggs in my mouth. Something horrible was on its …

One way to prevent conversation from being boring is to say the wrong thing. — Frank Sheed ‘How do you say, ‘Your mother is a toad’?” I said, lifting my pen in expectation. “I don’t …

I went to a fund-raiser for the music departments of Point Loma High and a community middle school. The small donation included a spaghetti dinner that came with an impressive spread of food. But it …

“Maybe I should just shave my head like that Sinéad woman did,” complained Aunt Azelda, dropping a rare pop-culture reference. Azelda was staring at her reflection in the vanity mirror, lamenting time’s gradual ruination of …

Thirty Years AgoTO RELATIVES of PSA-Cessna crash: Do you want the truth, the facts? Write J.P., P.O. Box 9224, San Diego 92109. PHOENIX SUNSHINE: I’m male, 17, and interested. Would you like to see Styx? …

"Spare a buck?" Scott asks. That's what starts it. I'm ambling innocently up Fifth toward University when I come across Scott, squatting against a wall, smoking. He gets me at a weak moment. So happens …

Recipe by Brian Malarkey, Oceanaire Restaurant. I became a chef after a lot of trial and error with other professions. The culinary major came after the business, history, theater, and liberal arts majors. When I …

Floyd Smith and Larry Gordon, 1963. The duo started Gordon and Smith Surfboards four years earlier. A local surfboard shaper, who did fiberglass work for Gordon and Smith in the ’70s, says for each fin …

Album: Crime Desire (2007) Artist: Crime Desire Label: self-released on Life’s a Rape Records Where available/price: Lou’s Records in Encinitas for $10; online at myspace.com/crimedesire for $10. Songs: 1) Untitled 2) Succubus 3) Nadir 4) …

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders has entered the fight against Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage measure on next month’s ballot, at least by proxy. The Sanders family imprimatur comes in the form of a fund-raising …

On Thursday, September 4, viewers by the millions tuned in to see Republican presidential nominee John McCain make his acceptance speech. But those watching KNSD, Channel 39, the NBC affiliate in San Diego, got an …

Baby Talk Recently you published a letter (“We’re Cornball Rednecks,” October 2) from a reader bitching and complaining because you dared to print something positive about San Diego (“Foreign Tourists Invade,” Cover Story, September 18). …

On June 3, Election Day, Steve Aceti’s cell phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Calls came flooding in about Proposition G, a measure to help fund sand replenishment on Encinitas beaches by charging an extra 2 percent …

In San Diego’s hemorrhaging real estate industry, it’s better to be upside-down and rich than upside-down and poor. That may sound axiomatic — it’s always nicer to be rich than poor — but carriage-trade folks …

Mayor Sanders has stopped shaving in the shower; altering his shaving habits, he says, saves about 25 gallons of water per day. “It takes a while to shave this big of a face,” Sanders joked …

A congregation of community preservationists gathered in the creaky upstairs room of the Grace Lutheran Church on Park Boulevard on September 30th for a candidate forum with council candidates Sherri Lightner, Stephen Whitburn, Todd Gloria, …

On Saturday, September 27th, a small crowd of civilians assembled inside Building 12 of the Navy Broadway Complex for the first of three public hearings on the redevelopment of the 15.5-acre site in between North …

“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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

“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 …

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’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 …

“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 …

“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 …

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 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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

“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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …