True adventures of San Diego, part 2
San Dieguito River, hitching on trucks, waterless in Borrego, escape from Vietnam, Devil's Peak in Baja, accident in Baja, wild horses of Coyote Canyon
8:30 a.m., June 17
Solana Beach
Too ugly
And NASCAR said they were too fast
“They were considered ugly and too expensive,” says Bob Meigs, of his rare 1970 Plymouth Superbird. Meigs, a Solana Beach collector of classic cars, is the car show coordinator for the San Diego County Fair. ...
Solana Beach nexus for border resistance
Catholic church meeting of responders
A little over three months after launching a volunteer-driven campaign to shield undocumented San Diegans from immigration action and assist those caught up in raids, the San Diego Rapid Response Network held its second official ...
Keeping blues out of the Museum of Past Glory
Southern Avenue's name is a nod to Stax Records
The last time the soul band Southern Avenue blew through town, I commented in these pages that maybe a decade on the road would put grit into their sound. Sounds like they’ve done it in ...
Doshay family agreed to pay $500,000
Parents of victim continue lawsuit vs. Solana Beach School District
The family of the seven-year-old girl who was grabbed by Jack Doshay nearly three years ago has agreed to a “good faith settlement” of $500,000, to be paid by the Doshay family, according to court ...
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 ...
One of the Kings Men down
Car-club members remember drag-strip buddy John Scheunemann
In the 1950s and ’60s, the Kings Men Car Club of Solana Beach dominated the Southern California drag-racing scene. Most of the club’s members, at one time numbering up to 30, caught the racing bug ...
Brazilian rhapsody in Solana Beach
Bebel Gilberto records EP at Belly Up
Born in New York City but raised in Mexico and Brazil, Bebel Gilberto springs from a musical family — her father the bossa nova pioneer João Gilberto, her mother the singer Miúcha — and she’s ...
North Mississippi Allstars at Belly Up — a prayer for peace
More dead in the Tallahatchie?
In 1996, when Luther and Cody Dickinson started the North Mississippi Allstars, blues-festival promoters and record-label hacks alike saw the band as the potential salvation of a very stale blues scene (i.e., better ticket and ...
San Dieguito High honors classmates killed in battle
Twenty names read on Saturday, most by someone who knew them
During the Vietnam War, Del Mar resident 1st Lt. Jimmy Mitchell, a member of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, landed at Chu Lai in South Vietnam. On an August 31, 1965 patrol, the Marine from ...
Belly Up County
Tavern's talent-buying blokes expand territory
Having Lady Gaga, Jimmy Buffett, and the Rolling Stones drop by for a show may be the Belly Up Tavern’s most visible triumphs. But behind the scenes the booking staff of the Solana Beach venue ...
Del Mar anguishes over short-term rentals
Racing season visitors are a tradition
As high tourist season approaches, Del Mar is on edge. What will happen with vacation rentals? Last month, the city council drew a line in the sidewalk, separating homes and commerce. Interpreting the zoning code, ...
Tiny Restaurant, Big Plates
Pillbox Tavern takes over where Dairy Queen left off
“Come on in!” a large group of people yelled from the front patio at the Pillbox Tavern & Grill, toasting us with beers while balancing babies on their hips as my friend Valerie and I ...
Solana Beach Antique Warehouse ceding ground to Williams Sonoma's West Elm
Until 1977 it was Tri-City Roller Rink
With the recent closure of Solana Beach’s Antique Warehouse, in the Cedros Design District, the 35-year old business brings up memories of years gone by. Not necessarily from only the customers and renters of the ...
Fanclub lets the flannel fly
Scottish alt-rockers Teenage Fanclub deliver the hits and Here to Belly Up
Touring in support of their 2016 album, Here, the Scottish alt-rock band Teenage Fanclub marched into the Belly Up and delivered a set composed of fan favorites. Fittingly, the band started with “Start Again” off ...
Dave Wakeling beats back the storm
The English Beat hits with the hits
Despite a torrential downpour, fans packed the Belly Up in Solana Beach for a fun-filled evening with the English Beat. Just shy of his 61st birthday, Dave Wakeling acted like an old-time vaudevillian as he ...
Then the circus came to town
Why roots-rocker Alejandro Escovedo bailed on Austin
Roots-rocker Alejandro Escovedo jumped ship from his longtime base of Austin, Texas, to what would be considered a less-hip locale — Dallas. So, is this the Lone Star State version of ditching San Diego for ...
Lunch near the track a good bet
North County Fish Market — away from the beach but still a catch
The Fish Market on the border of Del Mar and Solana Beach has been a go-to spot for me since it opened in 1981. It’s more laid back than the coastal restaurants on the beach, ...
Blind Boys of Alabama still hungry after 80 years
"The Blind Boys of Alabama like to eat."
Maybe someone warned him about the Belly Up Tavern’s location in laid-back Solana Beach. Maybe it was the venue’s seated-show setup. Maybe it was because his group was playing on a Sunday night. Whatever it ...
Revivalists or revitalists?
Indie rockers who have discovered soul and R&B and, in their own DIY way, have revitalized that music
The Revivalists (no, they don’t live up to their name, but we’ll get to that later) are among the crop of indie rockers who have discovered soul and R&B and in their own DIY way, ...
Dandy Warhols dandy but distant
Distortland's San Diego tour stop not the Dandy's best outing
On a rainy December night, the Dandy Warhols rolled into the Belly Up on their Distortland tour. As much as I dig the Dandys, I have to say this latest show in San Diego was ...
Sounds of freedom from Fishbone
Fishbone offshoot Trulio Disgracias hits O.B.'s Holding Company on Wednesday, December 28
“The very first time Fishbone played the Belly Up,” recalls bassist Norwood Fisher, “our [former] guitarist Kendall Jones jumped up and cracked his cranium on the side of one of the hanging speakers during our ...
Soul man: Lee Fields & the Expressions
Soul singer Lee Fields brings his Special Night tour to Belly Up
A hit with the younger crowd — this, after four decades of pounding the road and getting older all the while. Lee Fields is 65. And the irony is, the better he gets, the more ...
Homeopathic doctor said what?
Medical board levels charges against "Be Well Associates" physician
The Medical Board of California has filed an accusation against Dan Orville Harper, MD, who practices at Be Well Associates in Solana Beach. He is charged with negligence, gross negligence, and unprofessional conduct in his ...
Lucy Ring's spaghetti western
"We’re all big fans of trippy filmmakers like Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch"
“We changed our name to the Lucy Ring because Sean Cox started playing with us, and he was so good, he quickly began singing some lead,” says bassist/singer David Hyman of the band formerly known ...
City report confronts problem of food container recycling
"Banning their use is the best solution."
Polystyrene food containers will continue to end up in San Diego's landfills, according to a report to the city council this week. The containers are too likely to contaminate the other recyclables with food waste ...
North County growers sell and tempted to sell land
"I don't let them tell me [the value]. I'm not interested."
Two more family-owned plant nurseries on the ocean-view ridges just east of I-5 are headed toward being developed: one in Encinitas and one in Solana Beach. Tayama Greenhouses, on Requeza Street in Encinitas, will be ...
Guided by Pollard
At over two hours with two encores, you got to wait for the GBV nugs
In 2014, five guys played the Belly Up under the moniker of Guided by Voices. A pair of these musicians was present at this year’s show — Robert Pollard (singer) and Kevin March (drummer) — ...
What is a bass player?
Rodrigo y Gabriela slay Belly Up flamenco style
On night one of two evenings of sold-out shows consisting of four musicians comprising two bands, the Belly Up became a stage for dynamic duos. Warming up the crowd was the Irish acoustic guitar-and-drum bundle ...
This Broncho has a reverb tank
Tulsa quartet tours through town behind this year's sticky 'gazer Double Vanity
Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Broncho has traded in the new-wave sound prevalent on their last album, Just Enough Hip to Be a Woman, for a reverb-drenched collision of ’80s synth-rock and dreamy shoegaze. With three LPs out, ...
Solana Beach seeks electricity options
SDG&E, meanwhile, seeks approval to campaign against community choice
Last month, Solana Beach announced the hunt for a service provider to help launch the county’s first local power program, which aims to curb greenhouse gases. This month, a war on community choice aggregation, as ...
Acid-funk Allstars
Greyboy, Denson, Vokab, Belly Up
Doubtless that anybody in the Green Circle Bar in San Diego in 1993 heard a future Rolling Stone when the house deejay introduced his latest project, a collaborative between the turntables and live music he ...
The Guitar Shorty story
The backflipping bluesman from Texas
David William Kearney, from Houston, tells many entertaining stories about music-industry luminaries such as Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy and Guitar Slim, and for all I know, they’re true. Even though his own star never ...
Resident Putin
The Residents are not who you think they are — wait, who do you think they are?
Two key points about the Residents: nobody knows who they are after 40-plus years (though they’ve taken to calling the three people on stage “Randy, Chuck, and Bob”), and they always employ masks, costumes, and ...
The Ramones of post-rock
Jazzy Tortoise takes The Catastrophist to Belly Up on Tuesday
Jeff Parker officially joined Tortoise on January 1, 1997. He had been playing in an unofficial capacity with the band for some time before that. He sat in during hometown gigs in their native Chicago ...
Cream of the L.A. pop-rock crop — the Shelters
One of Tom Petty's favorite new bands plays Belly Up Tuesday night
Enough bands like the Shelters, and Los Angeles could come back to its former glory days as the bull’s eye of the rock-and-roll business. It used to be that way until the digital age scrambled ...
The devil in Anderson East
The Southern R&B artist was born to cover Rod Stewart
Anderson East performed his soulful Southern R&B for a packed house at Belly Up Tavern Sunday on the last night of his Devil in Me Tour. A four-camera crew recorded the show for a KPBS ...
Masuo Sato returns to Masuo’s
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Once upon a time, Masuo Sato opened up a sushi restaurant in Solana Beach. He did well, endearing himself with the locals. His restaurant built a reputation as a reliable sushi joint where friendly people ...
The beach belongs to all of us
Surfrider joins suit against Solana Beach homeowners
The Surfrider Foundation announced Wednesday (February 17) that it will join in the defense of the City of Solana Beach, which was sued in April 2013 by a group of bluff-top homeowners. The suit was ...
Firemen’s empire
“We are treated as one district now — the closest fire truck goes.”
Residents of Encinitas, Del Mar, and Solana Beach may soon see a different name on the side of their fire trucks. The combined department’s name change is part of a management agreement reached a few ...
Expensive, and worth it
Just another night at Pamplemousse Grille
Diamond solitaires and pearls glimmer in the dim. A woman laughs loudly, sharing a private joke with the bartender as she orders another $20 glass of wine. A table of attorneys from L.A., fresh from ...
Complete with kangaroo court
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Great Nome Gold Rush
When a card game in London turns deadly, Sherlock Holmes follows the one clue that will save his client from the gallows — a land deed — all the way to Alaska. But at the ...
De facto seawall denied
Coastal commission tells beach club to pound sand
Despite a push by San Diego County supervisor Greg Cox to approve it, on January 14 the California Coastal Commission shot down the Solana Beach & Tennis Club’s attempt to get permission to fill in ...
Ty Segall and the Muggers accost Belly Up
In keeping with the new record's title, Emotional Mugger was seen in Solana Beach
Ty Segall and the Muggers absolutely defiled the elegant Belly Up stage with a robotic sludge-rock display of psychedelia that they vomited into the crowd, causing a transfixed batch of humans to go haywire. Witnessing ...
Nothing Cheap about these Rock and Roll Hall of Famers
Cheap Trick kicks down the hits and fistfuls of guitar picks at Belly Up
Two days before learning they would join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2016, Cheap Trick brought their classic power pop to the Belly Up. The band opened the show with the ...
Cracker, Camper, and the Sharknado debate
Camper will be tackling its 1988 album Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart in its entirety
David Lowery’s dueling musical outfits, Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, are in town to play their annual year-end concert at Belly Up on Sunday. The decade-long tradition, however, features a twist this year. Lowery tells ...
Forty years of Robert Cray
Blues slinger more of a singer?
Forty years of Robert Cray: all the while, some among us are waiting for that guitar of his to quicken into flames, rather than smolder like last night’s fire. Not a very heroic guitar hero, ...
Tragicomic Chapatti at North Coast Rep overly simple but executed with skill
A gentle exorcism
By their pets, ye shall know them. If so, then Dan and Betty, in Christian O’Reilly’s Chapatti, are worlds apart. She’s a cat lover with “19 and counting.” Although her marriage was brutal, she somehow ...
Gram Rabbit's desert space rocktronica
Jesika von Rabbit's band hops into Belly Up on Wednesday
Gram Rabbit, from Joshua Tree, California, has been around for at least a decade and has released several albums, beginning with 2004’s Music to Start a Cult To. An underwear manufacturer broke them out in ...
Eagles of Death Metal and the seven-year itch
Hughes and Homme go Zipper Down
The Eagles of Death Metal has never been a band that cares much about being labeled irreverent. With tongues firmly wedged into their cheeks, Jesse Hughes (on vocals and guitar) and Queens of the Stone ...
Light comedy lite
The Fox on the Fairway at North Coast Rep has no redeeming social value, and that's fine
It’s tournament weekend at Quail Valley Country Club. They have their annual match with a dreaded — albeit evil — opponent. Crouching Squirrel C.C. has better golfers and just absconded with Quail Valley’s only decent ...
Dumb Numbers — one part vegemite
Aussie noisemaker Adam Harding enlists American allies for new record, Belly Up show
Dumb Numbers’ Adam Harding, late of Australia, likes to make music with his funky friends, who include the Melvins, David Lynch, and Jesus Lizard’s David Yow — when he isn’t shooting videos with many of ...
Doshay was out for Labor Day
Accused kidnapper made bail (again) on September 4
Family members of Jack Henry Doshay, 22, were brought before a grand jury in San Diego County last month. According to papers in the court file, three of the persons listed were Glenn, Karen, and ...
