I’d read my fellow Golden Dreams writer Matt Lickona’s funny July 3rd account of the “Before I die I want to…” chalkboard outside The Alibi bar, in Uptown at University and Richmond. I happened by …
October 17, 2018
Back to profile
Stories by Bill Manson
To see him face consequences
National champion auto racer
The guy is 21. When I was 21, I didn’t yet have my first car (which would be a Fiat 500). This guy — from San Diego — is driving Formula 4 cars 150 miles …
October 17, 2018
Grow your guitar
“San Diegans could be growing their guitars in their front yard,” says Scott Paul. Say what? “Yes! Thousands of trees reach the end of their life cycle, and what happens? Too often, cities will mulch …
October 3, 2018
Public pianos
They’re are a worldwide phenomenon. They say 38 cities have installed pianos worldwide so far, including London, Boston, Los Angeles. And Coronado. Saturday afternoon. Sunny, breezy. Chloe Albert’s bored. She’s with her mother, the Coronado …
October 3, 2018
The two coasts: drifting apart?
Are San Diegans becoming as different from New Yorkers as bonobos have become, say, from chimps? Biologist Nathan Lents was in town the other day, talking at the Central Library and on KPBS about how …
August 8, 2018
Jaws of life (Release the Kracken!)
“Conserving our planet one fish at a time.” You do a double-take when you see the sign. Because Randy Hupp’s a commercial fisherman. But he is serious about this. What he’s started, from his home …
August 8, 2018
Joy Juice
“Two claps!” says Tysheen. “Now, shout it out.” “Bula!” “OK. Gulp it down in one. And, one more clap!” This is kava-drinking in City Heights. Boy. Have to say. It’s ceremonial and it’s fun. Only …
July 25, 2018
The heart of democracy
The one thing you notice about these taxi drivers is they’re always talking. Laughing, shouting, arguing, confiding. They’ll stop only if a passenger comes trundling across from the Santa Fe Depot to their Kettner Boulevard …
July 25, 2018
Avenue Mural Project brought in a heavy
Has anybody seen the movie, Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment? About this crazy artist who couldn’t bear to see a bare wall? Each time, he had to fill it with a mural. It was …
July 11, 2018
Willy Clauson came back to Tijuana
My passport ran out of juice last year, just when the Mexican government was deciding it wanted to see official papers as foreigners headed south. That’s the only reason I didn’t hear, until the other …
July 11, 2018
Latin jazz for the pure of heart
Bill Caballero turns his trumpet towards Roy Robinson. Robinson lights up. His hands flail back and forth from one conga drum skin to another. Then Caballero’s wailing trumpet takes up a response. People watch the …
June 27, 2018
French bowls without wine
This is Chris Conway’s first day. He’s been meaning to come do this with his dad Gareth for years. But now here he is, in a game he’s never played, French bowls — boules, if …
June 27, 2018
Why not fish jerky?
Why not fish jerky? “I was sitting on a mountaintop in the Gila Wilderness,” says Nick Mendoza. “I was thinking beef jerky, and then the thought came: beef jerky? Why not fish jerky?” Mendoza was …
June 13, 2018
How to stop the lemmings
Is an upstairs office in downtown Coronado going to save the world? Out of his modest headquarters on Orange Avenue, Marshall Saunders founded Citizens’ Climate Lobby back in 2007. His idea was that we had …
May 30, 2018
Draw the dog
Lyla sits still like a pro. Which is a miracle here in the middle of flailing dogs and foamy beers and baby strollers. The little black and tan pooch obviously doesn’t know what’s happening, because …
May 30, 2018
Ben Franklin, Kim Kardashian, and me
“What do Ben Franklin and Kim Kardashian have in common with me?” asks Cristy Boisvert. “Psoriasis.” I’ve just met Cristy here, on Silver Strand beach, soaking up the morning sun in today’s cold wind. Behind …
May 16, 2018
Dance like everybody's watching
Another lunchtime, another sandwich and coffee in the park. Horton Plaza, where the sunken space is now strewn with Parisian-style park tables and chairs. It feels oddly underemployed, even though lots of folks are out …
May 16, 2018
"This is how it should be."
“You see this? This is how it should be,” says David Sanchez III. He’s leaning over and pointing to the exaggerated solid chrome wheel rim of a black 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air that’s sitting on …
May 2, 2018
"You can eat this?"
“Watch out for rattlers,” says Will. Which is a problem, because my mycological friend Kim and I are down on our knees in the thick, soft, untrodden leaf loam they call oak duff. We’re looking …
May 2, 2018
The Chart Lady of Point Loma
“Paper charts need no batteries.” Ann Kinner, Captain, US Coast Guard, has put the little sign strategically among all the rolls of charts in her Seabreeze Book and Chart Store in Point Loma. It’s the …
April 18, 2018
Sacred acorn paste of the Kumeyaay
Tipoff from my friend Ed: “Haute Kumeyaay Cuisine. Barona. Be there or be square.” “There” is at Barona’s Cultural Center. This Mexican pop-up chef, Gilberto Morales, who created his Baja-based Restaurante Nomada — Cocina Itinerante, …
April 18, 2018
Sushi's cruel amusements
Can we stop this already? I’m in a Japanese sushi eatery. The sushi chef - attractive girl – takes this live shrimp, throws his rear end into the fryer, brings it out red and cooked, …
April 4, 2018
Quartyard II aims for East Village's sweet spot
By the time you read this, Quartyard II should be up and running. That’s what they promised. But I’ve been wandering past this replacement location at 13th and Market in East Village for months, chafing …
April 4, 2018
How wrong we’ve been about saké
The other day, Cowboy Star, the very Texan steakhouse on 10th and Market, staged an interesting dinner: a nine-course meal built around Wagyu steak and saké. “We had seven different sakés to pair with the …
March 21, 2018
$350,000 just the beginning
I admit it. I’ve got the bug. There’s something about wooden boats that makes me go all gurgly inside. But add in the word schooner, and I go twice as gurgly. Those yachts with their …
March 21, 2018
Orange Avenue block sold – goodbye to real Coronado
It has that weird feeling, like Dead Man Walking. We’re at the bar. Jimmy has got me my regular Arrogant Bastard. Tiger does a pretend growl. “That Arrogant Bastard.” Miguel the chef sits with his …
March 7, 2018
Birdman of East Village
Has anybody seen the Birdman of East Village lately? Okay, that’s just what I call him. I met Victor Vasquez, 53, taking his three birds: Sydney, 30 years old, a medium sulphur-crested cockatoo from Papua …
March 7, 2018
Original Pulp Fiction manuscript found in a Carlsbad garage
OMG: I’m holding it in my hand. A hand-typed script movie people would kill for. I just ran across it in this rare and ancient bookshop and literati haven, in an alley off Carlsbad Village …
March 7, 2018
The $400 hangover cure
“Always have a job and a hustle.” That’s what Cheré’s mom told her. Cheré Amor Vassell has followed her mom’s advice. In her 13 years as a nurse, she has worked in Virginia, Japan, Florida, …
February 21, 2018
How to tie a bow tie
The Pass, the Under, the Wings, the Flop, the Hole, the Prep, the Stuff, and the Cinch. That’s all you’ve got to learn if you wanna tie a bow tie in front of other people …
February 21, 2018
San Diego in the '50s and '60s
The Polio YearsI began to wonder whether I would just be a cripple the rest of my life or permanently stretched out in an iron lung. While I lay moaning in the back seat on …
July 30, 2017
Skydive dive
It’s not what you expect to find next door to Father Joe’s, but right on the corner of 14th and Imperial you can now join the craze for indoor skydiving and then nosh on a …
June 18, 2017
San Diego sidewalk cafe rules don't make sense
Question:How come you can drink a glass of wine at some sidewalk cafés and not others?Scene One: You don’t even want to know when this is. But I was a student, in Wellington, New Zealand. …
May 10, 2017
MishMash and Iron Fist bring burger-beer bars to the barrio
There’s a lot of change in Barrio Logan. The building boom on César Chávez has brought several new places. For starters there’s Mariscos El Pulpo, a Mexican-style sports bar-eatery. Then there’s Malane’s place, MishMash, this …
March 24, 2016
Hotel del Coronado expels prince
It was 10:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 7, 1920. Britain's prince of Wales stood at the entrance to the Crown Room in the Hotel del Coronado. He had come for a dinner-dance in his honor. He …
July 22, 2015
San Diego Reader 2015 Fun issue
Urban Adventures Beach Town Suburban Ocean & Bay Backcountry Mexico
June 10, 2015
San Diego pit bull owners and their detractors
I have a dog in this fight. Or, rather, I had a cat. Mr. Whiskers was my buddy for 12 years. He sat by my computer while I worked, came with me on walks under …
April 22, 2015
Get metaphysical
Get into the gourd Fallbrook Painting and carving gourds has to be the most fun gift-making hobby in, well, actually, 15,000 years. That’s how long our ancestors have been using and carving gourds. And we …
December 3, 2014
Barking SEALs on Osama bin Laden killer
One thing you know: in Coronado, at SEAL hangouts such as Danny’s Palm Bar and McP’s Irish Pub, the talk has been all Robert O’Neill. Matt Bissonnette. Team Six. The Shooter. The Point Man. Zero …
November 26, 2014
Not the Israel my parents fought for
What does Miko Peled think of what’s been happening in Gaza? “There’s only one way to describe what’s happening now. It’s a massacre. There is no way to justify it, to excuse it, to paint …
October 8, 2014
Joseph Abramowitz scoffs at Alzheimer’s tests
There aren't too many doctors on planet Earth who think like Joseph Abramowitz.
July 30, 2014
I have loved Tijuana
Everybody knows that Pasaje Rodriguez is shaping up to be the coolest passage in TJ. But who knew of the jewel right in its heart? Pasajes (passages) are the arcades that run from Revolución through …
May 14, 2014
Did Chris Kyle deck Jesse Ventura at McP's in Coronado?
It’s a Friday night. I’m heading into McP’s, the Coronado pub where Navy SEALs hang out. McP’s was recently in the news because Prince Harry turned up with his buddies while he was helicopter training …
August 7, 2013
Good and ghastly ideas for San Diego's waterfront
What could we do with our waterfront, if we really put our thinking caps on?
November 28, 2012
How many people assassinated Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta?
"That’s my story!” whispers Dora Elena Cortés. The newspaper headline on the screen reads “Colosio, Víctima de un Complot.” It’s a tense scene in the movie Colosio — El Asesinato (Colosio — the Assassination). Somebody …
August 8, 2012
Original Artists Work to Restore Chicano Park Murals
Armando Nuñez is touching up a skeleton. “That first day,” he says, “I brought a half-gallon can of green bathroom paint. Everybody brought whatever they had. That’s how it was. We didn’t plan. We just …
July 4, 2012