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Thanks for the dough, $hamu!
Hard to know who to love less -- ever-pragmatic Governor Jerry Brown who always manages to tailor his political positions to suit his big-money friends or the exploitive Sea World operation that gets its marketing director on the Gov's big-deal Mexican trade trip. Looking on the bright side, maybe Brown was hoping Sea World would decamp to Mexico where ethical treatment of animals is a low priority. (For evidence, see any Mexican zoo or the film "Amores Perros.")— August 20, 2014 12:29 p.m.
Steakhouse wages
It's hard to stay wedded to mainstream political parties or their candidates -- or to voting at all -- in this era of limitless Big Money being funneled into rinky-dink political campaigns for a single new seat on San Diego City Council. California Teachers -- the biggest richest most powerful lobby in Sacramento -- just made a $30K down-payment on the election of an inexperienced newcomer Democratic grant-evaluator to our city council? And the various wings of the local GOP are pouring money into the city council election of a whippersnapper former office boy to the former councilman-now-mayor? It will be a leap of faith to dutifully cast a ballot in this race in November.— August 20, 2014 12:15 p.m.
Manchester vs. Jacobs, round two
Douglas Manchester's U-T seems to have a revolving door for hired-gun "writers" financed by the conservative Koch Brothers who come in as needed to push a right-wing cause and then disappear to their Texas badlands. Is this what San Diego's daily paper has become? And will nominal Democrat/definite plutocrat Irwin Jacobs offer more than lip service to maintaining the City Council-passed increase in the minimum wage? Will he ante-up real money needed to defeat the Chamber of Commerce referendum to repeal the wage hike, as the Chamber successfully did with the Barrio Logan Community Plan?— August 19, 2014 10:12 p.m.
Name shame
Teddy Rodosovich above has a good point. The reporter says, "Kerr-Bache and her parade organization may be on the right path...." Really? He claims he talked to "ten La Jollans" of whom only three are mentioned, and then only by their first names "Scott, Betsy and Dee," all of whom favor keeping "Christmas" in the name of the La Jolla Christmas Parade. When everybody and their brother has changed the name of their holiday extravaganzas to something friendlier and, as in the case of Balboa Park's "December Nights," to a far more evocative and poetic moniker, La Jolla has moved from public to private sponsorship to preserve the name of its Christmas Parade. It seems a pity not to be able to embrace the true spirit of the season and get current with the times.— August 19, 2014 9:49 p.m.
The sky is falling in Italy
Bari is one of the poorest cities in Italy located in a very poor region. Even with State subsidies, it is no wonder that Opera there is suffering. I recently heard from an American opera apprentice from Kansas that the best place to work in Europe today is Germany, where a singer is hired for an entire season and receives full benefits. Not one-gig-at-a-time beggars-can't-be-choosers American-style.— August 18, 2014 11:59 a.m.
Ian Campbell blasted in opera magazine
It is easy to blame a strong-willed genius when everything is going south. I think Ian Campbell was worth every penny he was paid -- whatever his faults and shortcomings. I attended several San Diego operas back in the pre-Ian Campbell days and found them so ridiculous I didn't darken the Civic Theater door again for twenty-five years. When I did return, I was astonished to find out what a wonderful experience opera could be -- beautiful voices, stunning stage sets and costumes, elegant dancers, excellent musicians from a live orchestra. It would be fun to see Gilbert & Sullivan on-stage here and even some of the great American musicals like "Showboat" or "Porgy and Bess." But Ian Campbell's San Diego Opera was truly "world-class" -- a much misused phrase in this place hyperbolically called "America's Finest City." I think Campbell is due credit for what he accomplished.— August 18, 2014 11:50 a.m.
Welton's top 10: local show edition
Prospero/Ellis Rabb had a gigantic undulating blue silk cape in the 1974 "Tempest" that has stayed in my mind's eye all these 40 years. That production was magical.— August 17, 2014 5:43 p.m.
Proposed La Jolla music venue challenged in suit
I'm sure Tapenade's owners having to relocate in the La Jolla market is very difficult and expensive, what with how area landlords are said to gouge for rents. (Many storefronts on Prospect St. are vacant and scuttlebutt has it that property owners would rather forego tenants than lower their usurious rates.) I hope the Diots prevail. They run a wonderful French restaurant.— August 17, 2014 5:06 p.m.
Bikers for Christ roll up to Mt. Soledad
Well, Bikers for Christ couldn't have missed their destination at the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial up in the much-embellished middle of the City of San Diego's Mt. Soledad Park. There's now a gigantic bright 5-by-50 foot-long sign affixed to a south-facing curved concrete wall with the name writ large, round insignias for each military service branch and a website address. Dark gray plaques (for sale) are multiplying faster than rabbits along other curved walls on the tiered bases of the Memorial. (Think brick and black wedding cake with a spiky-fenced Christian Cross instead of a bride-and-groom at the central summit.) Who gave permission for this mammoth yellow, red and blue sign? Not us, said the local CA Coastal Commission office. City Development Services? Closes at 2 p.m.Thursdays so no answer there at 2:20 p.m. Department of Defense/U.S. Navy overseer of the Mt. Soledad Memorial in D.C.? Three hours later than San Diego at 3 p.m., so forget it. Local Mt. Soledad Memorial Association receptionist in La Jolla didn't know who gave permission for the big sign, but she said it's been up since Memorial Day.— August 7, 2014 4:08 p.m.
Sheriff’s dept. mismanages inmates’ cash
How long has Gore been Sheriff? Was he some newbie to law enforcement before he got appointed? The answers are A Long Time and No, He Was an FBI Guy. He should know better and clean up this egregious lack of the simplest accountability: keeping track of inmates' cash. (Maybe Gore was too busy colluding with City Attorney Jan Goldsmith and D.A. Bonnie Dumanis and ex-SDPD Chief Bill Lansdowne on matters of local GOP politics. Sheesh.)— August 7, 2014 2:11 p.m.