Vince Clarke, modern-day Bach? For those of you not tuned when Yaz (Yazoo in the U.K.) did this the first time around, I figured I'd get your attention. Realistically, Vince Clarke (the half that doesn't …

During a city revenues update to the Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday morning, chair Anthony Young asked for a date when committee members could view the City's revenue receipts for fiscal year 2010 to …

Thirty Years AgoFour o’clock on a Sunday afternoon is perhaps not the most convenient time for a concert; the wooden pews in USD’s Camino Hall are surely a minatory foretaste of Hell; and during Father …

The graffiti wraps the California Theatre in a ten-foot-tall necklace of yellow and black and silver, squished-together letters shaped like half-inflated airbags. The odd thing is whoever did it also surrounded it with a new …

Everything you never wanted to know about the advent of Facebook, where “friends” gather on the Internet, will be revealed in The Social Network. That’s not to say you will understand it. Structured as an …

Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don’t. — Lord Raglan It was warm and sunny the Friday before Labor Day — a perfect day to go to the zoo, or at least …

Membership: 400 Pastor: Gene Beezer Born: Punxsutawney, ­PA Formation: Bachelor’s, Houghton College, NY Ordained: 48 Years San Diego Reader: Can you think of a time when you gave a sermon which ­flopped? Pastor Beezer: I …

Look at me. I’m standing on a deck in the middle of Oregon. There are people inside the house. It’s not my house, you don’t know them. They’re drinking and singing and playing guitars. You …

Q: What are badlands? A: “Wasteland” that has been eroded into unusual shapes by wind and water — originally from the French term les mauvaises terres. Our local version of this, the Borrego Badlands in …

AFC West: Kansas City (3-0). Not bad for a team that’s only racked ten wins over the past three seasons. Is Kansas City worth a 3-0 record? Chiefs head coach Todd Haley says, “We’re still …

Coming in to work today, I found on my desk a five-year-old copy of this publication. Pretty much five years ago to the day I had written, “It is not the usual thing for the …

An alert to my colleagues in the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle: I hereby nominate Rob McClure for a Craig Noel Award, Lead Performance in a Musical, Male. His Charlie Chaplin in Limelight, at the …

It seemed like a good idea...a great idea. What can beat sunset, PB, and happy hour at a place where you’re gonna see the green flashes? At a place that’s filled with experts? Because, well, …

Around the middle of the meal at West Coast Tavern, I realized that I’m really getting into the gastropub craze. They’re multiplying in nearly every neighborhood, offering an easy way to eat out with friends …

How ’Bout Those Amish? With regard to the Reader of September 23, in the letters to the editor on page 63, there is a letter from a Name Withheld entitled “Illegal Islam.” I would just …

Robert Byron of La Mesa, who claims to be the only living direct male descendant of the poet Lord George Gordon Byron, gave us a call the other day. He sounded pleased. Although he’s known …

At the former City Heights site of Radio Room and Zombie Lounge, recently unveiled Eleven offers (mostly) free live music with a warm, locals’ bar atmosphere. The latest enterprise of Hamilton’s and Small Bar founders …

What are you reading? “Black Elk Speaks, by John Neihardt. I picked it up because I had taken some eco-theology courses at my university a while ago and had read some small excerpts from it …

The notion of a man-god, or of a human being endowed with divine or supernatural powers, belongs essentially to that earlier period of religious history in which gods and men were still viewed as beings …

The rain has held back for days and days, My God, in my arid heart. The horizon is fiercely naked — Not the thinnest cover of a soft cloud, Not the vaguest hint of a …

“What ever happened to home economics class in school?” asked my Aunt Azelda. “So kids don’t learn to sew. Sew what?” I joked. Yeah, she didn’t think it was funny, either. “We have everything from …

Jon Spencer named his band the Blues Explosion, but it was never about the blues. With Judah Bauer and Russell Simins, Spencer tapped into the vein of the truest American roots music — plantation, country, …

Since their debut release two years ago, School of Seven Bells has racked up a lot of comparisons to My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins, but there’s nothing special about that: Pretty much anyone …

It was more years ago than he can remember when Tom Courtney, a blues singer from Texas, became known as Tomcat. “It was some woman in New Mexico that gave me that name,” he says. …

Compared to her cramped apartment in L.A.’s trendy Silver Lake neighborhood, the Mission Valley condo that Lorelei Plotczyk (bassist-vocalist for indie band Film School) moved into is a welcome change. “It’s in Mission Valley — …

Matthew: You’d better help me or I’m in bad shape. My dad absolutely loves old-time country-western music, and he blasts it all over the house all day long. I don’t even know their names, but …

Late August, over 50,000 participants from around the world spent a week in the Black Rock Desert of northwest Nevada for the 24th annual Burning Man. A handful of San Diego performers braved the Martian …

What do the Silent Comedy, Transfer, Republic of Letters, and David Maldonado have in common, besides being nominated for San Diego Music Awards? They have all played or recorded with classically trained multi-instrumentalist Marta Zaludova …

Ryan Hiller moved from New Orleans to San Diego in 2006. He had played Winstons during a 2003 national tour. “After Katrina, I knew I needed a change,” he says, “and the beautiful women and …

While everyone frets about burgeoning obesity, a local medical equipment maker is getting rich off the fat of the land. Yes, fat asses are delivering fat assets to ResMed, which makes equipment to relieve sleep-disordered …

Robert Duane Mason was 60 years old when his body was discovered in his home, a modest house in a quiet Encinitas neighborhood where he had lived for 20 years. The homes on Pegaso Street …