The tenth floor of San Diego city hall is like a submarine in the sky. Behind sealed windows and an electronic-buttoned security door are the cramped offices of eight councilmembers, who themselves are sardined in …

A less-than-successful effort of a Tijuana resident to remove a palm tree resulted in the local fire department’s required assistance in a neighborhood approximately 12 miles east of central Tijuana on the afternoon of September …

Last Thursday morning, August 27, some people in northbound I-5 traffic probably noticed the green California Department of Fish & Game truck parked on the side of the freeway, above the Batiquitos Lagoon. Unfortunately for …

Two females were able to escape an attempted kidnapping on Tuesday, September 1, at approximately 2:35 p.m. in front of the Lew's Market on Imperial Avenue. According to a police dispatcher, the suspect was described …

As a heat wave ripped through Southern California on Friday, August 27, it became too much for one customer at the C Street Jack in the Box. At about 2 p.m., the man was waving …

UCSD political science professor Peter Gourevitch, who has taken over as acting dean of the university’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies while full-time dean Peter Cowhey is away on extended leave advising the …

“I’m a serial collaborator,” says Christopher Leyva of Blizzard and Revolution 89. In addition to his band projects, Leyva has collaborated with Greg Laswell, Phil Solem (the Rembrandts), Steve Poltz, members of Louis XIV, producer …

The Thermals’ 2006 album The Body, the Blood, the Machine was a punk-rock concept album about an America tyrannized by a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. Sound familiar? One online commenter described The Body as sounding like …

Last year filmmaker Eddie Martin announced plans to make a biopic of the life of the late Bon Scott. Not a bad call. As former lead singer of AC/DC, Scott’s fame was palpable at the …

Collision of the end of summer and the start of fall: massive pileup. Quite separate from the seven new movies that opened in our town last Friday alone, eight more are slated to open this …

Gaaron VarnerThe Cinema Drinker I recommend Strange Brew. Disclaimer: This movie does not accurately depict the brewing process...just a warning to all those home brewers out there! On to the movie, eh? Any movie that …

Thirty Years AgoDear Matthew Alice:Are there more men than women in San Diego?— Curious Couple, San Diego Men generally outnumber women in this city and will continue to do so in the next decade, according …

Somewhere in San Diego a tantalizing Holy Grail of rock performance history is awaiting discovery in a dusty corner…maybe. As documented in Richie Unterberger’s comprehensive new book White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by …

Days after returning from a solo tour opening for two-piece folk-punk act Andrew Jackson Jihad, Jackson Milgaten sits at a table inside North Park smoothie joint Señor Mango’s for an interview and update on the …

Gabey D’Schiavone spent the ’80s on the Sunset Strip in L.A.’s glam-band scene. His band, Ambush, played the same clubs — Gazarri’s, Troubadour, Roxy — that cradled Poison, Ratt, and Mötley Crüe. “All my friends …

Wall Street absolutely loves the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC). That’s a major reason why backcountry folks may have to swallow San Diego Gas & Electric’s loony scheme to shut off those rural residents’ power …

Pyles Peak is just one bump in a series of several distinct high points stretching between Cowles Mountain and Fortuna Mountain in East County’s Mission Trails Regional Park. Collectively, the high points make up a …

Last week I visited Gethsemane Lutheran Church in the wake of the Evangelical Lutheran Conference of America’s decision to allow partnered homosexuals to serve as clergy (in certain circumstances). This week, I crossed the parking …

The NFL season is upon us, and fans by the tens of millions are setting aside family time, domestic chores, and community service to meld with their HDTV. Let them — the Box is stalking …

Another hot — really freaking hot — August weekend. A Sunday morning, actually, and I’m greeting the (in theory) post-church crowd in and around Horton Plaza with the perfectly civil question, “Wassup? Know I’m sayin’?” …

In the 1950s, led by John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, British playwrights railed against the establishment’s bankrupt values and hypocrisy. In the 1990s, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, and others became part of the “In …

Truluck’s is a Florida-based surf-and-turf house specializing in crabs — above all, Florida stone crabs, but also Maine Jonahs, Pacific Dungeness, never-frozen (they claim) Alaskan King, and even a bit of Maine Peekytoe and blue …

Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway. — Author Unknown "Two cups of coffee and I’m still groggy.” I brought my fingers to my forehead and kneaded the area around my brows, as much to relieve …

When I checked my voice mail to see if anyone called in a party, I heard there was a barbecue in Crest, so off I went. Marilyn had a big house with a pool in …

Matthew Alice: Is all rice for human consumption actually farmed from earth? I find it hard to believe that every grain of rice sitting in stores or being processed for sale throughout the world is …

Recipe by Chris Walsh, executive chef, Bite. Back in the ’80s, when I was executive chef at California Cuisine, cooking went through this really exciting time. All of a sudden there was Alice Waters and …

“The first concert I ever saw was Assassin in early 1985, at Straita Head Sound in La Mesa,” says Deep Shag Records exec Michael Reed, who ended up running the band’s fan club. “They were …

On April 12, 2007, I did some concrete work in the backyard of my Rancho Peñasquitos home with the help of my wife, son-in-law, and two close friends. I rented a cement mixer in Poway, …

Erratum In last week’s “Off the Cuff” column, the wrong photo was used for the Barry Ladd interview. Hey, Man, Back Up Regarding Rachael Gordon’s little interview (“I’m a ’70s Girl,” August 27) in respects …

You might call it MySpace for La Migra. Alan Bersin, ex–San Diego schools chief and President Barack Obama’s “Border Czar” in the Department of Homeland Security, has set up an online social networking site called …

How are you going to keep the cops down on the farm once they’ve seen Coronado? That seems to be the question facing the federally funded National Institute of Justice, which is hosting the Technology …

Charlie Robison delivers his signature whiskey-soaked country on Beautiful Day. The theme of the collection, most noticeable on tracks such as "Reconsider" and "Down Again," is emotional turmoil, a response to his divorce from Emily …

Councilmember Marti Emerald continues to be a driving force behind pedicab regulation reform in the city. Ever since 60-year-old tourist Sharon Miller died as a result of getting thrown from a pedicab on July 4, …