I always pictured myself in California. After my boyfriend Aaron received job offers in Oklahoma City, Topeka, and San Diego, we decided we would head to the land of fruits and nuts. Within a few …

A 48-year-old American living in TJ for 12 years was viciously mugged Monday, September 21, while riding his bicycle to the San Ysidro border crossing in the early-morning hours. As he sped along the pedestrian …

At last week’s Pacific Beach Town Council meeting, Lou Cumming, member of the PB Town Council and sub-committee chair of their Safe & Beautiful Committee, addressed the crowd and spoke about his efforts in keeping …

Honest Iago’s album-release party for Straight on ’Til Morning happens Thursday, September 24, at Dream Street. “People can expect a lot of instrument switching with horns and electronics and such,” says singer-guitarist Nick Norton, who …

Burning of Rome used five impaled pig heads as props during their set at the 2009 San Diego Music Awards. “It’s pretty creepy,” says a fellow performer and one of the night’s award-winners. “I don’t …

Zack Wentz, primarily a drummer and vocalist, is somewhat of a minimalist with regard to band lineups — Kill Me Tomorrow is a three-man act, and the offshoot, Tender Buttons, was one person on keyboards …

Too bad for San Francisco’s Dodos — some critics were not happy with the changes that producer Phil Ek brought to their sound on Time to Die. They whined that Ek cleaned up the rough …

Om is a metal band — sort of. I should just get that out of the way first, because otherwise the following is going to seem misleading. Okay, here goes: Om’s new album is called …

Thirty Years AgoThis is the way Ted Uhler commutes from his Spring Valley home to his job downtown: Uhler sets his alarm for 5:30 a.m. and hustles to get out his door by no later …

Artist: Civil UnrestSong: “Delusion of Truth” (from the CD Ravaging the Purity)Heard by: Mike Adams, South BayIt’s pretty good; I’d like to hear more of them. It’s close to generic metal, but it’s better than …

“San Diego will always have a special place in my heart as the place I began my career in rock ’n’ roll,” expressed the late author Jim Carroll 20 years ago. It was in an …

In San Diego, those who do good do not do well — from an income standpoint, that is. The professions devoted to helping people down on their luck, such as social work, are not at …

What are you reading? Megan: “This summer, I’ve been reading a lot of chick-lit — books about girls and their adventures with their careers and with men. I’d been reading more serious stuff for school, …

“I didn’t stay for 30 years,” says pastor Felix Villanueva of his career as a Navy chaplain. “I only stayed for 21.” Because of Iraq. “That conflict was what prompted me to retire. I was …

The Box has taken the pledge to stop writing Chargers Suck columns, and I think a fair-minded person would have to say I’ve held up my end of the deal. That’s not easy when Norv …

The late Herb Gardner (he died in 2003) hand-wrote his plays on a Central Park bench. One day, the author of A Thousand Clowns watched two old men nearby, one black, one white. They would …

“I starred in Star Trek. You don’t recognize me?” Bill looks at our blank faces. We don’t recognize him. “Okay, so not exactly a starring role. I’m the guy in the gray jumpsuit with a …

Don’t cry for Laurel. It has gone to a far better place. Reincarnated as Cucina Urbana, you can now hang your hat (on the back of your chair) without a preprandial wardrobe change or bank-balance …

One of the greatest casualties of the First World War was information. A devastating H1N1 influenza virus broke out early in 1918. Even though it originated, some now speculate, in Haskell County, Kansas, the virus …

Hey, Matt: Why does all seafood smell the same, even though it comes from such different kinds of animals (mollusks, arthropods, vertebrates)? Okay, so maybe it doesn’t all smell exactly the same, but similar. The …

Housework, if it is done right, can kill you. — John Skow David emitted a little grunt each time he advanced, making it only a few inches at a time as he faced the wall …

I went to a pool party in San Marcos in August that began with a morning visit to a Stone Brewing Company beerfest. I showed up after everyone had made it back to Heidi’s house. …

The guys in new-wave band Lights On are working hard to turn fans on to their retro British synth-pop sound. Lucky for them, the licensing company they hired last year is just as diligent. In …

"This story isn’t about me!” Richard Eckfield, who’s been on a three-year crusade to get a train stop built at the Del Mar Racetrack, is adamant. “It’s a much larger issue.” But Eckfield’s relentless dedication, …

Who Were They? Re “But After All, He Was a Man” (“City Lights,” September 17). I have been reading the Reader on and off for well over 20 years, and this is the first time …

When longtime Union-Tribune senior editor Lorie Hearn departed the paper this summer to set up the nonprofit Watchdog Institute for investigative reporting, the project was billed as a way of saving local journalism “in an …

A subsidiary of a company run by an Aleut shareholder-owned Alaska Native village corporation based on remote Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea, 800 miles west-southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, is being sued by U.S. …