John Bucur is a barista in a San Diego coffee bar, but he’s got another life. A life filled with…algae. “Here’s the thing about algae,” he says. “You can grow it anywhere. On parking building …

Caw! Caw! Talk about a dawn chorus! Six in the am. Half a dozen crows swoop and holler above the little patio in back. They keep it up for half an hour before I finally …

Tyler Barry points his two metal rods towards the earth in front of him. He’s not exactly looking at what he’s doing: his eyes are closed, as though he’s listening for something. Then he starts …

My buddy Kevin and I see her just about every time we head for what until recently we called our polar bear ocean swims. Because every day, she’d come swooping around the wide curves of …

“I’m really just a rock and roll girl,” says Teresa Gunn. “But this has made me a poet of the streets.” “This” is Gunn’s program of arts for young mothers at the margins of San …

I wasn’t paying much attention to anything except this dog, Teo. Milton Cadiz, his owner, was explaining to me what had happened. I knew it was something bad, because the little guy had only two …

“Crackles and pops?” says Greg Hildebrand. “They’re the most valuable part of vinyl recordings. They give them individuality.” Hildebrand owns one of the better-known havens of hard-to-find LPs in the county, Cow Records in OB, …

The sun is hot. The sun is yellow. The sun is in the sky. It’s been a long day for Jovanna Venegas, starting out as she did so early in her room in the house …

Travis Jackson has been here before. Good times and bad. And he still has faith in the sport fishing business. Proof? He’s refitting a 62-foot boat, Patriot, to take passengers down to places like Cabo …

“Me?” says Robert Alfonso. “I am a half-breed.” He says it just as a matter of fact. No apology, no irony. A statement about his life as an “Indo-Dutch” child. We’re sitting at his new …

“OMG,” says my friend Erik. He’s calling me from McP’s Irish pub on Coronado’s Orange Avenue. “Get your butt down here right now. A beer god has descended!” He clicks off and I go on …

It’s the cold night of January 28. Outside the Mexican consulate in Little Italy, a bunch of journalists, maybe half of them American, half of them Mexican, gather for a vigil. We’re paying tribute to …

The Silk Road Ends in San Diego “One of the Russians said, ‘Treat these [Russians] and kill these [Afghans].’ The other doctor said, 'How can I do that?’ The Russian said, 'Like this!’ and he …

It’s a miracle! She’s back! Heather the hummingbird is back! I’m talking about the little hummingbird who whirred into town one day and started threading together a perfect egg cup nest on a dangling branch …

“The Red Flag Now Flies Gallantly Over Tijuana!” reads the headline in Hellraisers Journal, Saturday, May 27. Of course, that’s Saturday, May 27 of 1911. Things were happening, right outside where I’m at in TJ, …

San Diego’s active Haitian Pastor Johny (sic) Oxeda has a new weapon: his food truck. He uses it to reach out to his flock, to give them a taste of home. Also, to spread Haitian …

“Attention!” It’s midnight on Friday. A shirtless, tattooed guy jumps up onto the counter at Danny’s, the Coronado bar in which Navy Seals and other special ops types like to gather to let off steam. …

Captain Billy Hunts a Human Martinez escaped in the brush. But his wounds— three buckshot near his right lung, two lower down — and the December cold forced him to the Gaskills’ house at 4:00 …

My good neighbor Kevin and I are walking into the ocean, towards the white waves of a gray winter’s day. Water temp is high fifties. Knife-like breeze makes the air feel colder than the water. …

I was reminded of my meeting with President Jimmy Carter the other day when news broke that the organization he’s intimately involved with, Habitat For Humanity, had come up with their first-ever 3-D printed house. …

Old Haunt “They tore down the original hotel and put the facade in crates. Then they tore down another building and put that façade in crates. Then they built a new building, stuck the old …

Risky Wasteland Because the ordnance littering the Carrizo Impact Area was dropped from planes, a lot of it imbedded itself in the sand as far as 30 feet down. Over the years, the earth has …

My friend John Drehner is in ebullient pre-Christmas spirits. “What do you get when you cross a centipede with a chicken?” he shouts, rubbing his hands against the chill. “Uh? Uh? More drumsticks. Bada-boom!” He …

“Can we be serious!” That’s me, trying to get a shot of Allison (“Allie”) Demers, 22-year-old stage actress, singer, composer, veteran of acting school, recipient of an MFA degree in musical theater from Indiana University, …

Where the Bikes Are I noticed one guy playing pool using a broom as a cue. He looked as if he might have been an extra in a movie with a title like Chainsaw Rapists …

I’ve always been a tad cynical about anything cute. Think portraits of children with giant Disney eyes. But I do have chinks in my armor. Here’s one: ambling down C street in Coronado t’other day, …

It’s one of those evenings. I’m in The Studio in Hillcrest with my friend Eric. He’s introducing me to his friend, the artist Elisabeth Sullivan. And straightaway, I’m mesmerized by this painting of hers. It’s …

Roommates from Hell I walked outside to the storage door. I pushed on the door and opened it. I saw the rope around John’s neck and John’s face looking at me. I screamed and ran …

Koch Overboard Jack told me how a retired SEAL officer and CIA operative had recruited SEAL Team guys for a commando op: to recon the underwater hulls — and especially the keels — of the …

“They’re pouring!” says my friend Kim. We all stand up — some to get out of the splash zone, some to see just how people have been doing this for hundreds of years. We’re in …

“I don’t know how he does it,” says my friend Gene. “He just seems to have the Midas touch.” He’s talking about his son Marc Miller. On October 28th, Marc’s San Diego surfboard company, Isle …

How to Do Genealogical Research in SD “On July 1, 1769, soon after the arrival of Father Serra, burials began in consecrated ground on Presidio Hill.... Even though people began moving off Presidio Hill and …

“Stop the Tyranny!” “Unvaxxed doesn’t mean infected!” I’m surrounded here. “Here” is the late October City Hall demo against vaccination mandates for city employees. Cops and firefighters, mainly. The city has told them December 1st …

When Dick Nixon Came to Town San Diego entrepreneur Arnholt Smith, one of Nixon’s earliest supporters, remembered a melancholy evening in the early ’60s when Nixon was holding a meeting and asked him to get …

All my nephew William wants to do is go home. He can’t. He is my namesake and my nephew. The kid can cook. He’s from New Zealand, but spends half of each year working as …

“Look! Look at this! Crumbling! And they’ve even taken the historical marker plaque off the wall.” This is my brother-in-law Fred, back in town, visiting the old family home. His family were Bandinis; their pride, …

Best Friend to Joshua Trees Is there anything to be done about the plight of the Joshua tree? While state and federal agencies dither over whether the imperiled desert dweller deserves endangered species protections, one …

What do rich people hoard? I tear over at 8am to find out. This is when the Baby Del estate sale begins. Baby Del’s owner, Susan H (she doesn’t want to give her last name), …

“I was sexually abused as a child,” says Benie Kouyate. By making that simple statement, she has broken a thousand taboos. If publicly admitting such abuse is difficult here, it is impossible in Africa, she …

“I realized I was a comedian when I was 10 years old,” says Abel Silvas. “My dad wanted me to continue the tradition of our Mission Indians, and become a violinist. So he brought me …

You know from the way the parking ladies are dressed that this is going to be a classy event. We’ve gravel-crunched from Diana’s car to Del Mar’s polo paddocks. Our ticket says “Table #8.” Heavens …

You really notice the season’s changes at the beach. For starters, where are the umbrellas? Where are the people, lying around like seals on towels? More important, where is the family of young great whites …

It’s the evening of September 8 at Coronado’s Bistro d’Asia; everybody’s happy, in a gallows good-humored sort of way. Like passengers appreciating the band playing on the Titanic. And as the evening sky turns cerulean, …

“Born in the Cradle of Civilization,” reads the tagline on Josh Christy’s card. And that is a true statement, if not quite a complete one. “I spent my first ten years in Saudi Arabia,” he …

Porno King Tied to T.J. Hot Spot Reached by phone on May 14 at his residence in Rosarito (he also owns and rents a gated luxury condo in Tijuana, directly behind the American consulate building), …

“My mama’s a witch and daddy’s a sorcerer,” says Irish Eddie Murphy. He sits down outside the liquor store, stroking his beard. I offer coffee or Coke, but nope. “I’m going to get myself a …

Evening neighbors’ conversation: “Why don’t they get off their fat asses and find a job?” Annie’s talking about the homeless people she passes every day on her way back from work. “We can’t afford them! …

I have always loved the word “loquacious.” I also love the word “screwball.” And I especially love when the two come together in screwball comedies. If ever a rash of movies was by definition loquacious, …

“Limo driving?” says Corb. “It’s not all bad.” The guy should know. He has been driving execs around for 25 years. “I started in 1996, when the Republican Convention was on. I never left. I …

Happy Endings on Convoy Street In all the years I lived in and visited Korea, almost always staying in some relative’s household, I went to countless parties. When they were outside the household, they were …