The Hip List

Thirty-Five Years Ago
On the night of Tuesday, September 28, in a boxing ring constructed inside New York City’s newly renovated Yankee Stadium, a heavyweight championship bout will be held between the aging, invincible Muhammad Ali, and the ambitious, ingratiating Ken Norton.

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali...is the world’s most famous black man. Whether or not he wins against the challenger, Ali will remain the world’s most famous black man.
— “RUBBER MATCH,” Alan Pesin, September 23, 1976

Thirty Years Ago
Visitors to Mt. Hope Cemetery, the largest of four graveyards located in Southeast San Diego off Market Street and the only one owned by the City of San Diego, are warned of the cemetery’s high incidence of crime by a prominent steel sign at the entrance that reads: “For your protection, lock all valuables in trunk of car. Be aware of suspicious individuals. If possible, DO NOT VISIT ISOLATED AREAS ALONE!!”

In the last six months, police have logged a dozen crimes at the cemetery.
— CITY LIGHTS: “DESPAIR AT MOUNT HOPE,” Thomas K. Arnold, September 24, 1981

Twenty-Five Years Ago
Before Sorrento Valley became a light industrial ghetto, it was the site of one of coastal San Diego’s oldest and largest Indian villages. Two thousand years before Christ, local natives inhabited the creek beds where Soledad, Carroll, and Peñasquitos canyons open out toward Peñasquitos Lagoon. And they were still there in 1769, when the Spaniards started colonizing the West Coast.... [O]ne of the last undeveloped and unexcavated parcels where the village stood has recently suffered an ignominious series of mishaps whose fortuitous nature could only be perpetrated by the white man.
— CITY LIGHTS: “WITH FORKED BULLDOZER,” Neal Matthews, September 25, 1986

Twenty Years Ago
What topsy-turvies this wacky world has seen of late! Right on the heels of the death of Communism, a delegation of officials from our new, tenth sister city VLADIVOSTOK, once the Soviet Union’s biggest hush-hush military port, blew into town recently to say a hearty dos vedanya to CAPITALISM! A week of visiting typical American restaurants, businesses, and homes ­­— in La Jolla — culminated last Friday in a banquet bash at the culturally representative U.S. Grant Hotel.

This pencil pusher, accompanied by a fave gal-pal, holed up in the gloom posh of the hotel bar while the Ruskies supped.
— LIZ LANG’S ON THE TOWN, Liz Lang, September 26, 1991

Fifteen Years Ago
A cool coastal breeze, worming its way up through Mission Gorge and Sycamore Canyon, ruffles the mirror-like surfaces of the seven Santee Lakes and sets cottonwood leaves aflutter. A damp, wholly agreeable odor permeates the wooded shorelines. Does it spoil this pleasant experience to realize that these bathtub-shaped impoundments store reclaimed wastewater, used for irrigation since 1962?
— ROAM-O-RAMA, Jerry Schad, September 26, 1996

Ten Years Ago
When we’re under attack...it is disrespectful to go out and play music.

An insider with decades of experience in San Diego radio thinks it was wrong for 92.1 and Sets 102 to not air nonstop news coverage on the day of last week’s terrorist attacks. All the other English-speaking FM stations in San Diego carried nonstop news coverage last Tuesday. Sets and 92.1 balked at giving up music for news.

“Even if everyone else was reporting on [the attack], it is still your public duty to use the public airwaves to serve the public,” says the insider.
— BLURT, Ken Leighton, September 20, 2001

Five Years Ago
“The only reason our friends put up with us is because they think there is a chance they might get laid,” say the Rock Sluts on their MySpace page. The local club grrrls have posted a “Guide to Keeping Your Man” for others who date musicians. Among their tips:

“No rumpshaka dance during the show unless your man is in 2 Live Crew.”

“If you’re a stripper, keep work on the pole, not at shows. Not everyone wants to know Victoria’s Secret.”

And finally, “Don’t make out with other band members’ girlfriends at the bar. Save that for the afterparty.”
— “THE HIP LIST: BEST GROUPIES — ROCK SLUTS,” Jay Allen Sanford, September 21, 2006