Cover Stories
Not long after the New Year, my friend and neighbor here in Zacatitos, Marilyn Z, sent me an email saying that, at 81 years of age, she had lost her battle with cancer and had …
Barrio Logan?” says Dave. “I tell you, soon there won’t be a Barrio Logan. It’ll be swallowed up by downtown.”Dave and Tennessee and I stand in the dark on National Avenue, by 16th Street, right where …
I always pictured myself in California. After my boyfriend Aaron received job offers in Oklahoma City, Topeka, and San Diego, we decided we would head to the land of fruits and nuts. Within a few …
Xavier Nuez photographs alleys. His candy-colored images of urban decay have been exhibited internationally, including here at the San Diego Art Institute, and featured on NPR. Ruin is his gig. “History,” Nuez says. “Rust, bent …
Roll 'em! Straight-to-camera, Guy Harinton yells, “Why can’t I kill one of them little fuckers?!” He’s frothing. Here, at the Embarcadero’s Coronado ferry landing, a foreign-student pedicab driver has just ridden off with a load …
The tenth floor of San Diego city hall is like a submarine in the sky. Behind sealed windows and an electronic-buttoned security door are the cramped offices of eight councilmembers, who themselves are sardined in …
As I write this, Transformers 2 has just finished taking in over $200 million in five days. One of the main characters in that film is a robot who disguises himself as a 2009 Chevy …
High school is a lot like the reality show Survivor. Mismatched people are plunked into a one-way-out lawless arena where they form alliances, learn from each other, and with as much luck as skill, duke …
Paul Bacon had long since advanced from detox to stints in jail. It was 2002 and he was incarcerated again, looking at 90 days. One morning, a public defender arrived at his cell to offer …
I am old, I am old. I shall wear my trousers rolled. At 36, I’m a good two years out of the demographic sweet spot, and if people aren’t trying to sell you things, there’s …
In late May 2008, I woke up in my sister’s house in Indianapolis. I was getting ready to leave for the airport, and I saw a commercial on TV about visiting San Diego. The commercial …
Tiffany is tall; her chunky red heels — dark red, bordering on purple — make her taller. Red seams run up the back of her black stockings to the hem of her black dress, patterned …
It’s a beautiful day in Pacific Beach as Nate approaches the bronze pelican statue on the boardwalk. He’s slight and blond, spectacled and clad in jeans and an army-green T-shirt. He squints. The sun’s so …
“This is a joke,” says my three-year-old as she thumps into the kitchen. Patches of red dot her pale cheeks, and I can see nearly all of her tiny teeth inside her wide-open grin. Clearly, …
Let’s say you’re a redhead. Duck, that is. Or a scaup. Or a falcon looking for rabbits. Or a coot, ruddy duck, bufflehead, or — more likely over Mission Bay these days — a seagull …
Many of us watched the Chargers’ season-ending run this past winter and, amid the cheers and groans, saw a 30-second TV ad starring LaDainian Tomlinson. Well-dressed and calm, he’s holding a postgame news conference. A …