The bus spit me out in the small lumber town of Rio Dell. It was nearly 3 p.m., but the weather was fair and my demeanor expansive. I called my mom and ate a few …

“I say a lot of crazy shit that pisses people off,” says Tha Core front man Crhymes, “so regular radio isn’t gonna play my shit. DagoSD.com goes out totally uncensored to around 60,000 hip-hop peeps …

Something to live for (now that March Madness has passed): the new Alain Resnais film, Wild Grass, new as of the Cannes film festival last May, has popped up on the Landmark schedule for the …

On a recent episode of the radio show Sound Opinions, rock critics Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis talked about the brilliance and occasional cheesiness of Cheap Trick. To illustrate the former, they mentioned phenomenal classics …

Euro futurepop duo VNV Nation picks up where New Wave left off, but the VNV approach adds weight and heft to the otherwise limp-wristed dreck that pop radio drowned in back in the ’70s and …

“Drugs used to do for me what a phone booth did for Superman,” says Gary Lee Ernst, singer and guitarist for Christian rockers In the Midst 777. “I was in and out of jail about …

This March 26, as in years past, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders filed an annual Statement of Economic Interests, required under state law, listing something called Maxxum Equity Fund, which the statement identifies as a …

Two weeks ago the South Bay Expressway, run by a subsidiary of Australia’s Macquarie Infrastructure Group, filed for bankruptcy, a victim of high gas prices and generally recessionary times. But before it went officially broke, …

This year’s prize for most unusual source of income reported by a member of the San Diego City Council has to go to the Seventh District’s Marti Emerald, who reports selling her “personal gun collection” …

Recipe by Fabrice Hardel, executive chef, Westgate Hotel. I’ve been cooking since I was a teenager and have worked all over the world. I started cooking in France and then England and then worked in …

“Mommy, my eyes don’t hurt!” My ten-year-old had just finished a three-hour session in a neighbor’s pool and, lo and behold, her eyes were not red, not stinging. “It’s because I have a saltwater pool,” …

Today marks 20 years writing this column. Follows is where it started, taken from a column I wrote in April of 1990. *** The jukebox plays, I had a girl, Donna was her name, followed …

“Look at my boys!” says David Dadon. His son Barry is busy at the cash register. Jacob’s in the kitchen. “Barry’s the business genius,” David says. “Jacob’s the chef. He graduated at the top of …

Cygnet Theatre is fast becoming Sondheim Central. Their Little Night Music captivated audiences, they are stage reading/singing Passion on April 12 and 13, and their current Sweeney Todd threatens to blow out the doors at …

Beatle Booster Thanks much for the short piece on Brian Ellis (“Boundless,” Music, April 1). One thing I have learned from decades of reading music journalism is that performers who publicly disrespect the Beatles are …

Thirty-Five Years AgoCarlos Santana sauntered quietly onto the stage of the Sports Arena. A sole purple spotlight centered on his diminutive frame as he bowed for five seconds in silent meditation. Santana, resplendent in an …

By the 1880s, Renoir was well established and well to do. He’d already fought what he called les combats de l’impressionisme and triumphed as the impressionist with the most glamorous palette, the sunniest disposition, and …

Dude, your band’s from where? Ah, yes, the local music coverage angle that never quits: debate over claimed/perceived/insufficient geographic affiliation. San Diego CityBeat scribe Todd Kroviak weighed in last Wednesday (3/31) with a column entitled …

At 3:39 a.m. on January 7, 2007, Columbia Street was almost deserted. Little Italy had been plagued with car burglaries — “It got where you couldn’t drive too many of the streets down there without …

Seventies punk band the Cardiac Kidz are back at it. “We’ve been rehearsing for a month, just to see what comes of it,” said singer-drummer Jim Ryan. Other original members include guitarists Billy Williams (rhythm) …

“I’ve been doing benefit concerts for the past few years for the Flight 93 Memorial project,” says Greg Keiling. “One of my good friends, a person I used to work with, was a passenger. Her …

Thursday 8The China Invasion tour, featuring garage-pop trio Carsick Cars, hits town tonight. The Beijing band’s ‘07 s/t debut caught the eye, er, ear of Thurston Moore, and the cats played some dates with SY …

Acacias Strolling many years ago Down a street taken over by acacias in bloom I found out from a friend who knows everything That you had just gotten married. I told him that I really …

Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, one of San Diego County’s largest coastal wetlands, spreads far and wide in Sorrento Valley, between La Jolla and Torrey Pines. Nearly all of this marshy area belongs to Torrey Pines State …

Boys dressed in suits and ties greeted me at the door to the Lamar Kingdom Hall on the evening of March 30. Inside were more boys in suits and ties and girls in dresses, all …

Zero Tolerance, Few Details Apparently, some of the kids at Thurgood Marshall Middle School held a “Bring Your Guns to School Day” on Thursday, March 18, but the administrators were less than impressed with the …

It is an age-old cliché that when in the process of shuffling off this mortal coil, one’s entire life flashes before one’s inner vision (“eyes,” they say, but I assume “inner eye” is what is …

Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings. — Evan Esar The sky was clear and the air was an agreeable 68 degrees — ideal conditions for visiting the zoo. When I …

Those euro-zone countries get everything backward — working to live instead of living to work. That’s what we smug Americans think. Take Greece. It has promised too much too soon to its pensioners, whose average …

Chris Faust thinks San Diego Gas & Electric’s approach to installing the new, much-ballyhooed smart meters isn’t “smart.” In fact, he alleges, it’s dishonest — part of the utility’s campaign to raise rates whenever possible …