I could have interviewed Dr. Arsalan Azam about lots of different things. I could have asked for stories from his nearly 10 years of working in emergency medicine: delivering babies, assessing the schizophrenic and the …
April 6, 2022
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Stories by David Kohanyi
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Daydream MD: Ketamine crusader
San Diego Mycological Society’s 24th annual Fungus Fair: a mushroom meetup
The mushroom: a symbol of ecological renewal, of alternative medicine, of psychedelic exploration. I see them everywhere these days: on clothing and murals and stickers, in cultivation kits that I can buy at my kids’ …
March 24, 2022
The Party for Socialism and Liberation stands with “revolutionary optimism”
In the middle of February, the Reader got word regarding an upcoming rally at Teralta Park in City Heights. Kwame from the San Diego branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) wanted to …
March 24, 2022
The living art of bonsai is alive and well
It is nine in the morning on a Wednesday, and within the confines of Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden, a few bonsai enthusiasts are moving quietly among the birds and the dew, tending to their …
February 23, 2022
Toasting Cap’n Keno’s
When I worked in North County some years ago, I would regularly drive by Cap’n Keno’s on the 101 and admire it, in the same way I would admire Leucadia’s Log Cabin Apartments or the …
February 9, 2022
Where the heart of Beyond Van Gogh is situated
Immersive art exhibits have grown in popularity recently, with installments like the recently closed Sistine Chapel Exhibition in Mission Valley now featured all over the world. Here in town, we still have Beyond Van Gogh, …
February 9, 2022
Ae Southammavong levels up on Next Level Chef
Ae Southammavong says she always liked cooking. As a little kid in Laos, she learned things in the kitchen at home, and by the time she was about 10, she was helping her parents prepare …
January 26, 2022
Revisit the Old West at the Olaf Wieghorst Museum
As a rule, I drive slowly whenever I’m not on the freeway, slowly enough that it bothers even my patient wife a bit, But I need to drive slowly enough to allow for my persistent …
January 26, 2022
Bosko Hrnjak: the midcentury maker
Even if you knew nothing at all about artist Bosko Hrnjak, you could glean a pretty good sense of who the man is and what he cares about just by taking a look around his …
January 12, 2022
Pondering Impermanence at PHES Gallery in Carlsbad
Carlsbad’s PHES Gallery is an attractive and compact building that sits on a quiet stretch of State St. close to the heart of the Village. While it is a new institution — having opened in …
December 29, 2021
A visit to Sherman Heights’ Longplay
I am driving slowly down Imperial Avenue, looking for parking. My van’s windows are down, and I can hear the buzz of morning activity. Some barbers are opening their shop, joking about something. Across the …
December 29, 2021
The master pipemaker behind J. Alan Pipes
Briar boss The dwindling remnants of San Diego’s coastal glow are fading into a mild Autumn dusk as I arrive for my meeting with master pipemaker Jeff Gracik. I find him in the spot where …
November 3, 2021
San Diego Reader’s Best Of issue 2021
Best Friend to Joshua TreesIs 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 local …
October 20, 2021
The Integratron: a tool for soundness
The situation of so many structures in Southern California feels haphazard: buildings plunked down here or there by whim or whimsy. But the Integratron really belongs in its place: an auspicious spot in the Mojave …
October 6, 2021
Papa Smurf goes electric
I’ve wanted to interview local health practitioner Ryan Smith (www.santesmith.com) ever since an observer at one of his presentations told me, with admiration rather than scorn, “He is like a mad scientist.” Smith himself has …
October 6, 2021