Not long after the New Year, my friend and neighbor here in Zacatitos, Marilyn Z, sent me an email saying that, at 81 years of age, she had lost her battle with cancer and had …

Approximately 250 people were evacuated from the 419-room Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine Wednesday morning, October 7. Smoldering cigarette butts ignited towels on a housekeeper’s cart in a hallway on the fourth floor. A …

Authorities have arrested three Tijuana teenagers for allegedly killing a man who refused to pay a prostitute for services, the Baja California attorney general said in a statement issued on Tuesday, October 6. Sulivan Ibarra …

Two male transients robbed another male transient of his pants in the Best Buy parking lot on Fletcher Parkway on Sunday, October 4. “Typically, the kind of crimes we see for transients are drunk in …

In the Vista court on Friday, October 2, a Los Angeles man pled not guilty to multiple counts of identity theft and grand theft stemming from his arrest at the Valley View Casino. Judge Hockett …

Starting on October 9, Little Italy venue Anthology will join forces with KPRI (102.1 FM) to broadcast a live, two-hour music show, Homegrown Fridays Live. Airing from 10 p.m. to midnight, additional concerts will take …

“I moved to Paris to pursue my own music as a composer,” says San Diego singer-guitarist Nick Norton (a Park Tradition, Honest Iago), who last year was awarded a scholarship by the European American Musical …

You simply wish to nip over to France for a couple, three weeks, prior to the full-on rush of prize-hunters in the year’s final quarter, and you find on your return that new movies by …

When As Tall as Lions played the Casbah this summer, Dan Nigro told the audience that he’d been waiting 27 years (basically, his entire life) to rock the Casbah. “It was a joke, you know? …

When the Andy Warhol Museum decided recently to hire a band to write a soundtrack for Warhol’s famous silent-film screen tests, it couldn’t have picked a more appropriate act than Dean & Britta. Watching the …

Electro-dance-punky quartet the Attack!! was founded in 2008 by singer-guitarist Ivan Tamayo (Kiss Me Katelynn, Suspect Jones) and drummer Bryan Famous (London Ghost Show). After playing their first gig at L.A.’s Viper Room, they were …

Tranquil Mine Canyon and its several tributaries slash deep into the Pinyon Mountains of central Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Day after day, year after year, the parched ravines and boulder-splintered hillsides lie open to the …

As my eyes adjusted to the half-light of the church and my ears absorbed the happy boom of the band, I thought, is that the theme from Friends? It was. A little ways into the …

My friend Christian Cullen was telling me a story of how he was robbed in his apartment at dead-blank, carotid-artery range by two inept assailants with a .45. They mistook Cullen for a major marijuana …

Ken Carpenter doesn’t look like a dramatic lead. Soft-spoken, bespectacled, a slight humble stoop in the shoulders, the 57-year-old’s a successful insurance salesman in Lincoln, Nebraska. He’s been with one woman for the past 40 …

Thirty Years AgoDear Matthew Alice:While standing in the license-renewal line for an hour and a half the other day at the Department of Motor Vehicles, I realized that this chore is one of our society’s …

Trekking in Nepal involved 25 grueling vegan days of rice, lentils, mustard greens, noodles, barley stew, and boiled potatoes (and one glorious night of smoky yak steak and real mashed potatoes from the best darned …

Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, of a garden, in his 1854 collection of stories Mosses from an Old Manse: “I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation …

In L.A. at an autograph and collectors’ convention, I smiled at Playboy Playmate Candy Clark as I walked by her table. She was charging $25 for her autograph. I glanced at her price list and …

Heymatt! I don’t know what to do. I’m only in high school, but I found a gray hair on the side of my head a few days ago. My hair is turning gray already. What’s …

Recipe by Gerald Warner, executive sushi chef, Café Japengo Cooking is a family thing for me. We live in a cul de sac, so sometimes the neighbors come over, too. A lot of times, I …

“You are Crocktastic!” “Well, they don’t call me Crockalicious for nothing.” This back-and-forth at our family reunion happened between hubby Pat and sis Meg, aka Crock-Pot Queen. The Kelly home doesn’t even own a Crock-Pot. …

“And now for a special live report from the border, here’s our border-affairs reporter, Ed Bedford. Ed?” Cue Ed: “Yes, Cindy. I’m actually standing on the border. One foot on either side, my right planted …

Artist: Derren RaserSong: “Home in This Direction” (from the CD Home in This Direction)Heard by: Jason B., Normal HeightsThe song had a lot of warmth and immediacy to it. It was almost like he was …

“We’re not an Apple licensee, so we have to be careful how we market them,” says Digital Group Audio president Erik Groset, creator of the portable Livespeakr system, designed (but not licensed) for iPhones and …

Local acoustic picker Jim Earp went to the annual Walnut Valley Music Festival in Winfield, Kansas, this year and came home with honors. Earp says he tied for fourth place in the International Finger Style …

At 2:00 a.m. on August 26, Donna Liebrich left San Diego and headed east on I-8 for the Mexican border. Mexicali, her destination, is a good two-hour drive, depending on the Border Patrol checkpoint and …

Reality In Writing I was crying (laughing) over Diva’s column this week (Diary of a Diva, October 1). Me being “Mom” to Barb and Stephanie’s actual mom, I knew of these antics but would allow …

Comic Woody Allen once postulated that murderers should be given the death penalty before they commit the crime, thus sparing the life of the victim. That’s typical of Woody’s wild imagination, but it’s no wilder …

Though it says it is hard up for money to fund the daily workings of government, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is looking for a new lobbyist to influence affairs in the murky …

Politics is a year-around game, and the San Diego congressional delegation is busier than ever collecting money for next year’s reelection races. But sometimes it takes a bit of detective work to find out where …

The City of San Diego has formed a “multi-department Mass Care and Shelter Planning Committee” to put together a plan to use Qualcomm Stadium during disasters such as the October 2007 wildfires. According to a …

“Hay langosta aqui! Tres por quince dolares!” Ten legs jut out from a slender form. It’s dark red in parts and golden in other sections. Your salivary glands are jolted. Yes, Puerto Nuevo lobster times …

I’ve made countless artistic pilgrimages throughout Europe, but Barcelona is one of my favorite destinations. Artists love Barcelona! The Museu Picasso, set up at Picasso’s wish, is the expression of his passionate connection with the …

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another. — Adlai Stevenson I sidled up to David and waited for him to finish explaining his artistic …