Content for Wednesday, January 17, 2018
News & Stories
Little Italy’s big — massive redevelopment
In my heart I hate it — arguments with Little Italy's density flacks
The Little Italy I love has always been its sumptuous food and sensual people, both of which, despite the nouveau riche takeover of late, remain as present and prosperous as ever. That Little Italy is ...
Hidden gems: Life of Pi and In Bruges
Under the public radar
People always dread when their favorite novel gets adapted into another medium. So you can imagine how I felt when I heard Ang Lee was going to direct Life of Pi. But I was never ...
A reason to break from the corporate state
Valentine's Day perfect for you
Dear Hipster: Why does the Valentine’s Day stuff come out the day after Christmas? — S. Commerce, bruh! Sometimes, I actually think we are headed toward a future straight out of a George Saunders story, ...
Labels come and go, John Hiatt stays
Belly Up show with the Goners features Sonny Landreth
You can’t make this stuff up. John Hiatt, from Indianapolis, left home as a teen troublemaker in a rock band. He landed work in Nashville — not as a dishwasher or a grocery bagger, but ...
Cháo, one of the great porridges of the world
Slurp it like an emperor
There ain’t nothin’ in this whole wide world as comforting and warming and tastebud-caressing as Asian porridge. Known as jok in Thailand, baw baw in Cambodia, cháo in Vietnam. At this very moment, I’m chowing ...
Trump’s local ambassadors
Douglas Manchester and Ric Grennell have longtime San Diego ties
Two Californians on president Donald Trump’s list of administration nominees submitted to the Senate this week for confirmation have longtime San Diego ties. Most famous is ex–Union-Tribune publisher Douglas Manchester, whose 2017 nomination by Trump ...
Not Yo' Mama's gin and tonic
Ryan Jones makes lemon work with cucumber
Co-owner of Pillbox Tavern, Ryan Jones has something preposterous. He’s messed with that bit of perfection known as the gin and tonic. And what he’s come up with — well, it’s not your dad’s gin ...
Shot in one 90-minute take
Like walking through a museum of emotion
The Witch is a supernatural horror story that is wonderfully menacing and draws a gloomy, sinister picture of a Puritan family living on the edge of the woods in 17th-century New England after being banished ...
That cruise-ship show-band gig
Gabriel Sundy developed his sea legs while playing sax
Multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Sundy came to an important insight four years ago. “I had been performing in San Diego for a long time, but I wasn’t making enough money, even though I was doing a lot ...
Is small-batch bread necessarily good?
Watch for the bandwagon jumpers
Dear Hipster: Is “craft” beer more authentic than “artisan” bread? Am I better off with hand- or homemade? Is small batch better or worse than limited edition? I am lost in a sea of hipster ...
Astronomy led to Judaism
Rabbi Michael Samuel likes preaching on ethical monotheism
Membership: 60 Rabbi: Michael Samuel Age: 64 Born: San Francisco Formation: Tomthei Temmimim, Israel; San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo Years Ordained: 41 San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon? Rabbi ...
They said they’d only reunite “When Hell freezes over.”
Catch shows by the Eagles, Psychedelic Furs, Kyle Craft, Pale Waves, and Lido Pimienta this year
For most locals who spent time in our cars listening to the radio in the ’80s, one could almost guarantee that any skip across the dial would find the Psychedelic Furs oozing out the back ...
Faulconer takes care of the humble business
City seeks to rent trailer-borne mobile shower units
It’s been a downward trip for San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer from touting a new taxpayer-subsidized NFL stadium to taking care of the humble business of cleaning up downtown’s homeless hepatitis epidemic, as evidenced by ...
That fat analog sound
My Belles A is "absolutely worth repairing”
Maybe it’s when a man starts to feel a bit broken down and disposable himself that he starts to look around for things that are worth repairing and saving. Things like this Belles A amplifier ...
Link two trails in La Costa, get a four-mile hike
Experience different habitats on La Costa Valley and La Costa Glen trails
La Costa Valley and La Costa Glen are Carlsbad City trails that are near each other and relatively short. They are within or in close proximity to similar riparian and coastal chaparral/sage scrub habitats, but ...
Conflicted 1950s housewife
Far from Heaven and Brief Encounter go deep into the social issues of the period
The two films I would recommend would be Far From Heaven and Brief Encounter because both deal with the marital struggles of a mid-century housewife being conflicted with what is desired by them and society. ...
Belly Up vs. Kaaboo
Longtime locals poised to book new Del Mar track venue — but wait...
The coast was clear for the Belly Up Tavern to take over booking for the state-of-the-art concert venue located on the Del Mar Fairgrounds. A committee appointed by the board that oversees the fairgrounds (the ...
An eight-million dollar view on Lookout Drive
Construction money built this one
The newly constructed estate at 7750 Lookout Drive sits at the northern foot of La Jolla’s Mt. Soledad, privately tucked into the hillside yet still affording ocean views toward La Jolla Shores. “Enter this elegantly ...
This just in: Observatory's troubles far from over
Venue's 15-day suspension over, but issues remain with fire dept., code compliance
Lt. Steven Behrendt of the San Diego Police Department’s Vice Operations issued the following statement this morning (January 17th): “Based on the incident that happened at the Observatory on June 7, 2017, and other prior ...
A rock and my disinclination to kick at it
Seven haiku
Library sink tableau two pages hardcore porn small sunscreen tube The bride and the groom and a little brown-haired girl sticking out her tongue Fourteen hours waiting for this train hello again, wink the stars ...
It’s true what they say about Hamilton
Faster and deeper
Art can alter life, literally. In 2015, the Treasury Department planned to take Alexander Hamilton’s portrait off the ten-dollar bill. The indefatigable Founding Father was too controversial (he came close to advocating dictatorship and a ...
Wife locks husband in chicken coop
There is a great gulf between us, millions of years wide.
I gave my wife five chickens for Christmas. A friend gave her three more, for a total of eight, which is also the number of children we’ve conceived. (Two made their exitus before being born.) ...
It's good to be King Taylor Project
"We all have a big part in writing new music for the band.”
“The band started as something Josh and I joked about when we got engaged, that we were starting a ‘King Taylor project’ together,” says singer Sandi King of her collaboration with singer/guitarist Joshua Taylor. The ...
Wanting to eat the Tide Pod is perfectly natural
Will you pay more for it?
Dear Hipster: Will I die if I eat a Tide Pod? — Derek You will probably die, yes. I won’t blame you. Wanting to eat the Tide Pod, at least a little bit, is perfectly ...
Burglary victim leads cops to crooks
“I was kind of dragging the police along behind me.”
Computer theft tracked to Mission Valley hovel.
Beat the January slump with these events
Women’s march, circus pirates, monster trucks, Restaurant Week, and Hostiles
Thursday | 18 Circus Vargas: Pirates Death-defying acrobats, daredevils, flying-trapeze artists, jugglers, contortionists, clowns, and motorcycles in a swashbuckling, pirate-themed circus spectacular. Arrive 30 minutes early for an interactive pre-show celebration, where kids can learn ...
Democrat dad’s cram school
Winward is “transforming how students master the ACT and SAT”
Super-rich Democratic congressman Scott Peters of La Jolla, who has touted his efforts to lower federal student loan rates, has invested between $15,000 to $50,000 of his own money in a La Jolla start-up called ...
Carmen as revenge fantasy
New staging is not defiant, it's childish
An Italian opera company is said to be producing a version of Carmen in which Carmen is not stabbed to death by Don José. In fact she lives at the end of this production. In ...
Local record releases in January
From traditional blues to songs "about things that keep me up at night"
