Golden Dreams
When Max Robert Daily ran Oslo Sardine Bar inside Logan Heights’ Bread & Salt art center, visitors would ask, “Is this art?” Fair question. Now that he’s setting up in a Seaport Village storefront, the …
“What year is this?” asks the gentleman passing David Benardo on his way into the Bali Hai on Shelter Island. He has noticed Benardo’s pristine white Volkswagen Beetle convertible parked outside, and as he leans …
“Whew,” says Dan Laster. He flops into a chair at the Cafe Madrid in Coronado. “Been walking?” I ask. “Riding. Bike riding.” “Around the island?” “From Canada.” “Riding a bike from...Canada? How long did that …
You could call John Drehner a Luddite, a technophobe, or just a grumpy old man. Except he’s not grumpy. Ask him to imitate anyone from Bogart to Reagan to Trump. The guy has them nailed. …
Casually Googling to figure out which one was Elsa and which one was Anna was enough to awaken the Algorithm, and it wasn’t long before I was presented with a sidebar ad from Target that …
John Leguizamo is having a moment. His one-man show Latin History for Morons, which relates his effort to instill a sense of Latin pride in his middle-school-aged son, played San Diego over three years ago. …
It is 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon. Sun’s rays climb slowly up the beautiful urban forest of downtown El Cajon’s 30-foot pine trees. I meander down East Main, really because I like to see the …
Mary C. was in a bit of a hurry. She parked curbside and hurried in. Next morning she came out and found a used Social Security envelope under her driver’s side windshield wiper. Somebody had …
“Free snake removal,” read the ad on Craigslist. “I am a lover of snakes and hate seeing them killed. I relocate all the snakes I catch. I am an expert on the snakes here in …
On November 10, America’s Got Talent kicked off its latest multi-city audition tour at the San Diego Convention Center. Comedian Sam Brilhart brought the chicken costume he started wearing on the Santa Monica promenade “just …
You might say Cayla Croft comes from an accident-prone family. “My uncle broke every bone in his body, some several times over,” she says. “His name was Evel Knievel.” Knievel was the most famous stunt …
It’s November 1 as I write this, the Catholic Church’s Feast of All Saints. I’m sitting in Chula Vista’s Lauderbach Park, looking from the vacant community center to the homeless encampment on the hillock and …
“It’s coming! It’s coming!” The guys by the recording equipment hunch over on the platform. “You ready? Take off your hats, everybody!” “Don’t stand too close!” You can see the twin headlights blinking oddly as …
Alexander Dafnis is up a tree. “This way?” he shouts down. “No. Now it’s tilting more,” says Alejandra, the gal looking up from the wood-decked courtyard. The camphor tree, originally from China, provides dappled shade, …
The afternoon sun that tries to slant its way into Café La Maze’s open front door runs smack into a brick wall, but the accompanying breeze does a neat little dogleg and finds me at …
Liquid future Bartender Whit Rigali and agricultural economist Sam Chereskin didn’t set out to make vodka. They wanted to make bourbon. But what do you know: bourbon takes time to age into its glory, and …