Not long ago, Forks, Washington, was among the dreariest and most unremarkable expired lumber towns in the country. Teenagers would kill time getting twisted on the “A” road, a desolate lumber route rumored to be …

I started writing on the Reader blog recently, simply for fun and to put out some fun little fiction and non fiction stories and some that had more depth. I am not a trained writer …

"For a variety of reasons, companies are still able to provide limited benefits to partners of same sex couples," said Marc Solomon, marriage director for Equality California, at a June 30 meeting of San Diego's …

“There’s a study by Barry Bittman,” says Davida Price, “that found that 30 minutes of drumming actually improves the production of T-cells.” Price, 29, is a certified music therapist. “Those are the cells that are …

Lights On celebrates their debut full-length Here Comes the Ocean with a release party on Saturday, July 3, at the Tin Can Ale House. “We’re doing a vinyl and cassette release only, with a digital …

Thursday 1If Björk is your brownie, my little pop-sweet indie geeks, then Parisian pair CocoRosie is that half-baked, which can be good, too, non? Cult-y Casady sisters Bianca and Sierra broke with the first wave …

Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, If I Contend Justus quidem tu es, Dominie, si disputem tecum Verumtamen justa ad te: Quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c. Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend With thee; …

I’ve known…I’ll call him “David,” for 32 years. Like most people, I have several circles of friends. There’s a circle of artists/writers/actors, a circle of blue-collar Alaskans, and a circle of tai chi practitioners. David …

Settling down in a Starbucks on Fifth in the Gaslamp on a drizzling Monday morning, I am attempting to pore over the U-T to see what I missed over the weekend — what, maybe, I …

Rachel Hauck’s set for Surf Report, at the La Jolla Playhouse, tells much of the story by itself. A sleek unit structure, upper walkway and open lower area, serves as a house, an office, even …

“Danger: Sheer Unstable Cliffs. Stay Back." The sign has been hammered into the sand a couple of yards from the edge. No fence. Big slab of rock down in the ocean looks like a fossilized …

I had to think twice about trying Little Sheep, a Mongolian hot-pot restaurant, but I figured that if I hated it, I could title the review “Baah, humbug!” That’s because my prior experience with hot …

Depression Definition While it is worthwhile for Don Bauder to have administered a dose of reality to the discourse over the “economic crisis,” for example, as to the mendacity of the Federal Reserve chairman, “Snail …

“Unless he changes his position, Jeff Light is going to be known as Jeff Darkness.” Thus speaks Sandra Dijkstra, a nationally known literary agent in Del Mar, talking about the new editor of the Union-Tribune. …

I grew up in a religion that loved everything I would be taught to disdain in graduate school: America, authority, marriage, motherhood, and divine revelation. My father was a history-reading intellectual who treated me like …

Bianca and Sierra Casady can and often do make beautiful music, but they don’t make it easy for anyone to love them. First, there are the publicity photos in which the sisters appear dressed in …

In early January, Leon Russell underwent brain surgery at an undisclosed hospital in California to correct what was described as a chronic condition. Some news reports also claimed that the 68-year-old Oklahoman had suffered heart …

Since 2005, after making more than $1.5 million profit from selling the Singing Serpent Studios property on 17th Street near City College (co-owned with partners), Rafter Roberts has been able to finance his own rhythmic …

My 14-year-old’s birthday is just around the corner. “He’s too old for toys,” says my husband. “Maybe he just needs bigger toys,” I answer. “Our go-carts run on gas and have a 200 cc, 6.5-horsepower …

Melissa MolinaFilm critic,latinoreview.com Joss ­Whedon’s short-lived cult show Firefly spawned the feature Serenity. Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew dodge the Alliance ­that’s hunting for his two newest additions. The film is full of …

Latest outflow from the sluggish mainstream and the rushing ­tributaries: Winter’s Bone. Debra Granik’s top-prize recipient at this year’s Sundance festival, a poky, low-key, somewhat parsimonious rural thriller with a simple set-up: if absent Dad, …

We learn geology the morning after the earthquake. — Ralph Waldo Emerson I felt the tremor in my feet before I heard the familiar groan in the walls — my home bracing itself for a …

Dear Matthew: Is it just me, or does food generally taste better when we’re hungry? I swear I can barbecue for the family at home and the food doesn’t taste special, but then we can …

Membership: 3000 individuals Pastor: Jim Standiford Age: 62 Born: West Virginia Formation: University of Redlands, Redlands, CA; Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA Years Ordained: 40 San Diego Reader: How long do you usually spend …

1. One Southern California municipality recently offered its citizens big discounts on electric lawnmowers if they would drop off their old gasoline mowers at a local stadium parking lot. 1950 mowers were collected. What stadium …

Democratic congresswoman Susan Davis, already the junket queen of San Diego’s House delegation, has been racking up more miles of late. She and her husband, physician Steve Davis, went away to a swanky resort hotel …

San Diego city officials are spending $11.8 million to study whether sewage can be converted into drinking water, but their personal water supply is entirely another matter. According to a recent request for proposal, the …

Complications for the City of Chula Vista and police chief David Bejarano have begun to pile up like cars on a rain-slicked San Diego freeway. In early April, Art Moreno, head of Presidential Security Services, …

Thirty-Five Years AgoOne might begin to enumerate the virtues of the Old Globe’s Much Ado About Nothing by talking about the lighting. Lighting designers tend to be among the least noticed — and often enough …

“Jay Bogart — that was his punk name — was killed by a guy who went by the name of Chris Jarhead and whose actual name was Chris Cruise.” Eric Rife talks about a scene …

San Diego dream-pop indie band Little White Teeth headed into SDRL Studios in April of 2009. Fourteen months later, Little White Teeth, whose songs are tinged with influences from Low, Yo La Tengo, and Galaxie …