Issues / 1999
1999 was the 100th anniversary of "America's greatest composer."
Classical Just got Teldec''s new CD, Tribute to Ellington, with Daniel Barenboim on piano, Don Byron on clarinet, vocalist Dianne Reeves and conductor/ arranger Cliff Colnot (plus a multitude of some 10 jazz artists and ...
Chef Profile
There's no real secret when it comes to building a better burger, if you're asking Nabeel Bahu. Along with his brother, Nadeem, they opened the first R.G. Burgers in the Carmel Crossroads eight years ago. ...
Ann and Jake Hougham--Arroyo Seco River Alliance
In a year that has been marked by numerous, high-profile skirmishes over land use in Monterey County--from September Ranch in Carmel Valley to the Mountain Valley project in Salinas--no group of individuals embodied the true ...
Brian Contreras--Executive Director, Second Chance Youth Program
Standing amidst images of Cesar Chavez, Mayan relics, and a full wall of awards, Brian Contreras says that the honor he values most isn''t in a frame. "Last month a clean-cut, good-looking kid stopped me ...
Ed Leeper--Freelance Activist, Artist
Ed Leeper is the kind of guy people either love or hate. Whether he''s performing in the roles of activist or artist, Leeper is an outspoken--and many would say eccentric--critic of militarism and of growth ...
Lee Hulquist--M.O.S.T./I-HELP program director
"Where are you staying tonight?" Lee Hulquist asks the grizzled, older man wearing a tattered plaid shirt. He points off to the dunes behind the Salvation Army building in Sand City. "Over there," he answers. ...
Jeff Field-- Training Officer, Pacific Grove Ocean Rescue
If you believe that people are born with a destiny, that each person who appears on the planet arrives with a predetermined mission in life, then there''s no doubt about Jeff Field. His destiny is ...
There's never been a better time for Champagne than New Years' 2000.
"In victory you deserve it, in defeat you need it." Although no one is exactly sure who came up with this snappy phrase, it pretty much describes how Champagne fanciers the world over feel about ...
The people--that's you--will have a voice on a new public-access TV station.
The Media Earlier this month, the Monterey City Council--that intrepid guardian of the peoples'' rights--voted to defend free speech at the Tuesday farmers'' market on Alvarado Street. Now, thanks again to Monterey city mothers and ...
Your Letters
World Treachery Organization We should replace the World Trade Organization with a system that gives priority to humanity and the environment. The WTO institutionalizes the historical advantage of the North--specifically the USA--and threatens planetary well-being. ...
What to get the chef who has everything? Something weird, of course.
At last, a Web site cure for those troublesome culinarians who seem to already have everything. Beam yourself to www.cooking. com, and with a click of a mouse and magic wave of a charge card, ...
Squid Fry
Actually, I Think It Kinda Looks Like Elvis The year in Pacific Grove started with savage gangs of raccoons pooping in every available sand box. And Squid thought it would end with gallons of sewage ...
Bicentennial Man is a surprisingly restrained exploration into the melding of man and machine.
Movie Review Is it me or was Robin Williams far less irritating during his years as a self-centered, substance-abuse casualty? Granted, his manic, cocaine-induced performances on "Mork and Mindy" and the old "Richard Pryor Show" ...
Street Talk
No one really knows for sure when Christ was born. Have you ever thought about why we celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25? Michael Frei Age: 22 Resides: Monterey Occupation: Student Does it bother you that ...
Chef Profile
For 35 years it was the place where you dropped off your good shirts and trousers and were told you could have them back on Tuesday after 12. Clayton Cleaners did a lot of laundry ...
The political tide having turned, Cal-Am says it's no longer married to a dam.
Water Sit down. You may have thought you''d never be reading this, but the California-American Water Company is now willing to consider a solution to the Peninsula''s chronic water problems that does not include a ...
From The Editorial Desk
Weekly readers responded again this year with stories that ran an impressive range of styles and emotions. More than 130 stories were submitted by adults in this year's contest, and about 50 more were turned ...
Godspell entertains, with some fine singing performances, at the Wharf Theater.
Theatre Godspell, written by John Michael Tebelak and first produced at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1971, consists of a string of stories and parables ostensibly based on the Gospel of St. Mathew. (There''s a ...
SECOND PLACE Coast Weekly 99 Word Short Story Contest
He wouldn't let her help him, so she turned away, busying herself. She reached, her hand shaking, for a raggedy tennis ball-what was it doing on the counter? The neighbor boy escorted them, riding his ...
Helping people to voice their opinions amidst the clutter of everyday life.
Activism Think about what you can accomplish in 20 minutes. Get through the lunchtime line at the post office. Weed a square foot of your back yard. Make a stir-fry. Imagine using that paltry amount ...
A unique approach to selling art from Germany to P.G.
Fifteen years ago, KAZU 90.3 FM radio program coordinator Brita Heizmann owned an art gallery in her native Germany. She installed a vending machine which, in previous times, used to dispense eggs, wrapped carefully in ...
Your Letters
When Cops Act Badly I wish to extend my gratitude to the editorial staff of the Seattle Weekly, and to the brave and determined citizens who participated in the Battle of Seattle ("Taking it to ...
THIRD PLACE Coast Weekly 99 Word Short Story Contest
It was an old man sitting on a bench. In the park, lost in thought. It was Henry Green. In his lifetime, Henry had celebrated winning world wars and neighborhood ball games. He had built ...
FIRST PLACE Coast Weekly 99 Short Story Contest
She remembered the way he tasted. Salty. Warm. Of coffee and brandy and toothpaste and cigarettes. She remembered his coal-black hair falling in his eyes. Short and slightly curled above the ears. She knew his ...
Prospects of Monterey's rock scene dwindle.
R o c k "I didn''t think the music scene was all that bad," said Blue Butter''s guitarist Steve Mosely at Laundry Werx Studio''s christening party when we talked about the frightful deterioration of our ...
If the Peninsula becomes an exclusive community for the wealthy, what'll happen to the poor?
Poverty Last month the Weekly profiled the Johnsons, a working-poor family struggling to find a home they could afford after being evicted by the Seaside Assembly of God. They''re in a shelter now, hoping to ...
If the Battle of Seattle is any indication, Gen-Xers have finally found their political voice.
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy''s oft-quoted words from his inaugural address ring ironic in the ears of Generation Xers, who ...
East Salinas street theater takes on Dickens.
If you blink quickly, you might miss a unique production of Charles Dickens'' A Christmas Carol. Although A Christmas Carol is pretty much standard holiday fare throughout the English-speaking world, there''s nothing standard about the ...
Your Letters
Save What's Left Thank you for the in-depth article on endangered species in Monterey County ("Endangered Monterey," 11/18). I don't believe that any other newspaper in the area has done an article like this. It ...
New no-kill policies are saving hundreds of stray pets.
Pets It''s been four months now since the winds of compassion swept change through Monterey County''s animal shelters. July 1 ushered in the Hayden Bill, which extended an animal''s stay in a shelter from three ...
Recycling Starts At Home
Recycling Starts at Home 12/16/99 Follow these guidelines to ensure your recycling doesn't end up in the landfill. Cans and bottles should be empty. Don't waste water washing them, but do scrape out excess food ...
A somewhat uneven presentation of Sean O'Casey's coming-of-age closes at the Indoor Forest Theater.
The Indoor Staff Players'' current production, Pictures in the Hall, directed by Nick Hovick, is a reader''s theater piece based on the second volume of Irish playwright Sean O''Casey''s autobiography and adapted by Paul Shyre. ...
Dreaming Of A Green Christmas
This time of year, household garbage typically increases. Here are some simple steps to reducing holiday waste using the three R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Nearly 40 percent of garbage is paper, so get creative ...
Artifacts
Laughing Eyes The newest offering from the much-plombed Weston family well is Laughing Eyes, a compilation of letters written between legendary photographer Edward and his son Cole from 1923 to 1946, edited into book form ...
Haul out the lights and dust off the gourds for one more holiday decorating spree.
Window Seat "Pouf it out, toward me," she insists. "No, no--to the left. That''s it. Right there. Now swoosh the one above it. No, not that one, the next pouf over. More pouf! Give me ...
For December 16 through 22
Art EventsMonterey Museum of Art--Civic Center Third Thursday. Special Event. The Juan Sanchez Ensemble entertains with music from Spain at the museum's regular Third Thursday series. View current exhibitions: Artists' Miniatures 1999, more than 115 ...
Every year, each of us throws away almost 1,500 pounds of garbage. But where exactly is "away?"
In a tiny, windowless building on the edge of a vast hill of garbage, something just short of a miracle happens every day. Two rumbling generators--machines that look like huge grasshoppers--transform the exhalations of rotting ...
New recording studio opens for musicians by musicians.
Rock Sean Michael White (formerly of Nectar Of The Gods and Juice) called last week with an invitation: "We''re having a party to celebrate the opening of a new recording studio in Pacific Grove," he ...
Street Talk
It''s a question that''s almost out of gas, but we couldn''t resist. Is there extraterrestrial life out there in the cosmos? The idea fills our minds with wonder, about just what might be flying, or ...
Squid Fry
Where the Hooves Hit the Road I must admit, I'm a little disappointed that Assemblymember Peter Frusetta has chosen not to throw his 10-gallon hat into the 17th Congressional District ring. I was so looking ...
How Are We Doing?
State law mandates that at least 50 percent of our garbage be recycled by next year. As of 1998, only Monterey and Marina had met that goal. Marina*--54 percent Monterey--54 percent Seaside*--48 percent Pebble Beach--39 ...
Rob Schneider's Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo targets the lowest common denominator.
To paraphrase: If you put a rare tropical fish in a blender in Act One, you''d better make sure you''re serving fish frappes by Act Three. Ah, the simple pleasures of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo--what ...
One hundred-plus years of photo history on display at juried art show.
No other medium of artistic expression has undergone greater or more numerous transformations in the past 100 years than photography. Although a 19th-century invention, in terms of its social and cultural impact, photography is very ...
Chef Profile
Pagrovians all know it as the quaint, century-old Victorian where Northern and Southern Italian dishes have been the specialty for almost 20 years--the result being enough hand-cranked pasta to circle the earth about eight times. ...
Despite a recent snub by California farmers, the future of industrial hemp looks bright.
Agriculture To Sam Clauder, it seemed like a no-brainer. As director of the Coalition for Agricultural and Industrial Renewal, Clauder saw little reason why California farmers wouldn''t want to join his group''s campaign to re-legalize ...
Squid Fry
Next, He'll Be Dean... Seems that students entering Monterey Peninsula College are treated to a slice of college life with an orientation video depicting MPC's campus. Only problem is, one of the MPC staffers starring ...
Stepping Out needs a little tightening up.
Stepping Out, writtten by Richard Harris, presented by A.G.O.G. productions and directed by John Newkirk, is an ensemble piece that revolves around a dance class. Not a class of future professional dancers, but a class ...
Female detective is railroaded into a bad turn-of-the-century Utah nightmare.
In a world dominated by James Bond-type adventurers and macho detectives using brute force rather than brains to solve problems, Pacific Grove author Dianne Day has created a unique heroine for her series of mystery ...
Feminist historian Riane Eisler turns from tracking the goddess to teaching the kids.
Carmel author Riane Eisler broke into the international spotlight 11 years ago with The Chalice and the Blade. This book charted a revisionist interpretation of human history, pitting patriarchal, warlike, "dominator" societies against matriarchal, peaceful, ...
Chris Cain does the blues for Christmas, Peter Rowan returns.
What''s Up, Chuck? Chris Cain''s newest album, Christmas Cain, opens with "Not in the Mood for Christmas." It''s good bar-room blues: soulful, smoky vocals, sensual keyboard and guitar work, and all the themes you want ...
Chef Profile
Part of the charm of dining in Carmel is the small, out-of-the-way places whose discovery brings a sense of adventure. Such is the case with Tommy's Wok, opened this October and tucked inside a narrow ...
The first "Monterey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival" celebrates an American dream.
There''s a scene in The Blues Brothers when Elwood asks a waitress what kind of music they usually play in her honky tonk. She answers, "Both kinds of music: country and western." Don''t look for ...
Smuin Ballets delivers visually arresting performance of contemporary and traditional dance.
Except for the seasonal glut of Nutcrackers, the Monterey Peninsula is a good place to starve for want of professional dance. Anyone who attended the Smuin Ballets at Monterey''s Santa Catalina School last weekend, however, ...
Artifacts
Write That Screenplay, Now! OK, you've mulled it over, talked out the plot, developed your characters over a brew or two, fantasized about who would play the leading lady. But have you rolled that mouse ...
Photography and painting are combined in unique ways in Carmel art show.
A certain wariness bordering on full-blown schizophrenia has often characterized the relationship between painting and photography. For as many painters as there were who recognized photography''s role in creating a bridge to modernism for painting, ...
Salinas doesn't have enough Big Brothers to go around.
The Children In 1904, a concerned court clerk by the name of Eric Coulter stood before a judge to speak about a young man about to be jailed. "There is only one way to save ...
Sitting around the old Lodge campfire, trading tales of Pebble's golf legends.
Watchers of Monterey''s Cannery Row history debate know who Neal Hotelling is. He''s the guy who shows up at Monterey City Hall week after week, month after month, to defend the Row''s unique character at ...
Lady fighter pilot takes to the skies in a winner-take-all action/adventure set in the Middle East.
Lt.Randi Cole is tough, smart, beautiful, fearless, and one of the U.S. Navy''s top test pilots, a wise-cracking holy terror at the stick of an F/A-18 Hornet flying machine. She''s a lot like the young ...
The Festival of Lights signals season for festive feasting.
Window Seat Officially, it''s known as the Festival of Lights. Unofficially, it''s known as the Festival of Latkes. It started last Friday at sundown, and if you''re looking at the Jewish calendar, that would be ...
MPC's Moon Over Buffalo is just the antidote to holiday shopping.
At this joyous season when rabid shoppers are the bane of your existence and when peace and good will toward men seem far away, you might find you need a laugh or two or three. ...
Street Talk
Perhaps everyone has a book inside their heads waiting to be written and made into a TV miniseries. Celebrities and their kids are able to write and publish almost anything. But what about the "little ...
From The Editorial Desk
Monterey County has a tradition of literary fertility. Some of the most notable writers of the 20th century practiced their craft here, at one time or another: John Steinbeck, Jack London, Robinson Jeffers, Henry Miller...
Performances in The Green Mile are so excellent you may forget you're being manipulated.
It''s the velvet glove over the iron-fisted clobber. Frank Darabont''s direction in The Green Mile, based on Stephen King''s serial novel, is smoothness itself, with a superior cast--James Cromwell, Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Sinise--in ...
Dee Dee Ramone relives the past with a revived punk sound.
Rock It should be a rockin'' good show at Long Bar tonight, with Dee Dee Ramone, former bassist of the legen-dary punk rock band, The Ramones. To quite a few people The Ramones, emerging from ...
For December 2 Through 8
Smuin Ballet Saturday, 2 and 8pm; Sunday, 2pm. Carmel Bach Festival hosts "A Christmas Evening" of dance to baroque music. Performing Arts Center, Santa Catalina School, Mark Thomas Drive, Monterey. $30. 624-2046. Handel's Messiah Sunday, ...
The life of a food-and-wine professional is nonstop, eat-and-drink madness.
Window SeatThey work a lot, these food and wine people, usually about 12 to 14 hours a day. They''re on their feet all the time. They obsess about food constantly, though you''d be hard-put to ...
Music winding down at Morgan's? Celtic and jazz traditions continue, empire grows on Cannery Row.
What''s Up, Chuck?There''s a fistful of performances during what may be the final couple weeks of live-music at Morgan''s Coffee and Tea. According to owner Morgan Christopher, he doesn''t plan to present anything after Dec. ...
They roamed China's rivers for more than 50 years; now models of those ships are on display in Monterey.
A unique collection of model Chinese sailing ships, or "junks," on display at Monterey''s Maritime Museum beginning this weekend, provides a fascinating glimpse into a bygone world. "Floating Treasures from the East," which runs at ...
Squid Fry
Is That Paper Or Plastic For Your Bud, Squid? Squid is obliged to partake of a cold brewsky now and again, especially during the holidays. And when the urge hits, I ramble down Munras to ...
Harid String Quartet displays a technical virtuosity... and a fragmented vision.
ClassicalThe three faces of Harid appeared recently during a seance in Carmel. As Chamber Music Monterey Bay''s second offering of the season, the young but accomplished Harid String Quartet revealed something of an identity crisis ...
Once again, the Pebble Beach Company takes aim at an artist with the nerve to "sell" the Lone Cypress.
Your Rights The saga of the Lone Cypress--otherwise known as Monterey artists v. Pebble Beach Co.--continues, with the company firing off yet another "cease and desist" letter, this one to a Santa Cruz greeting card ...
Chef Profile
The name of the place is well-chosen. The serpentine ascent up to the hotel is rewarded with dizzying treetop vistas of rugged coastline meeting roiling surf, ceaselessly tumbling against the shore. Viewed from inside this ...
Your Letters
Good Work I want to commend you for your journalistic guts. "Forsaken" (11/24) was a glaring expose on religious hypocrisy, without a doubt one of the major problems on this planet. A little more practicing ...
Artifacts
The Row in Pictures What a find it is--close to 500 never-before published photographs of Cannery Row, circa 1957 and ''58. Snapped by Annapolis, MD, photographer J. Robert Lewis, and laid aside for 40 years, ...
Marlie Avant portrays poet/recluse Emily Dickinson in Carmel.
"People in small towns must have their local characters," announces poet Emily Dickinson in the first few minutes of William Luce''s one-woman play, The Belle of Amherst, opening at the Carl Cherry Center in Carmel ...
Princess Mononoke combines breathtaking animation, clever dialogue and a powerful earth-centered message.
"Akira Kurosawa meets Walt Disney on the deck of the Rainbow Warrior" is as good a peg as any to hang on this remarkable film, but let''s not simplify things too much. Princess Mononoke is ...
Dorothy's Place/Franciscan Workers
Dorothy''s Place/ Franciscan Workers 30 Soledad St./Salinas/424-1102 (Administrative office) 715 Jefferson St./Salinas/757-3838 Founded: 1982Annual Budget: $300,000($50,000 for food) There''s no reason why you would go to Soledad Street. No reason, unless you''re one of the ...
From The Editorial Desk
The strength of America's democracy depends upon its people: their energy and willingness to involve themselves in the business of making this a better society. Volunteerism is, therefore, a fundamental part of the American political ...
Street Talk.
Monterey's much-anticipated skate park officially opened last week near Lake El Estero. Even before the park opened, hoards of young skateboarders, in-line skaters, and bikers dropped in, carving the bowl and catching wicked air off ...
Ruth Gilbert's photographs stretch the horizon of the soul.
Photography Ask internationally renowned photographer Ruth Mayerson Gilbert which photographers have most influenced her own picture-taking and, after casting about for a moment in search of an answer, she begins talking about some of the ...
Animal Friends Rescue Project
Animal FriendsRescue Project P.O. Box 51083/Pacific Grove/333-0722 Founded: 1998Annual budget: $30,000 Animals are euthanized at the Monterey County SPCA. They''re euthanized at virtually every animal shelter in this country--tens of millions of cats and dogs ...
It's time to think about what holiday traditions you'll adopt.
It was a Czechoslovakian Christmas blessing, but now all anybody can remember is that the first part sounded like "kuti, kuti." Once, in a very different life within this same lifetime, my then-father-in-law, Frank, would ...
Your Letters
Flaming Indignation Finally, articles and information like "Money to Burn" (11/11) may make a difference in how wildland fire protection, education, and training may be conducted in the wildland and wildland/urban interface zones of Monterey ...
The People Speak
How many times have you read Street Talk and thought, "Geez! I could think of better questions than that!" We gave folks on the street the chance to tell us what they''d ask if they ...
Artifacts
Prodigal Dancer When Salinas Performing Arts, Inc. presents its Nutcracker ballet this weekend at Sherwood Hall in Salinas, it will be a kind of local-boy-makes-good fairy tale. The role of the Cavalier, more commonly known ...
With Sleepy Hollow, director Tim Burton serves up another gothic visual treat.
You''ll notice Washington Irving''s name is absent from the title of Burton''s new film. That''s due in no small part to the fact that this version of the story owes less to Irving''s original tale ...
Holy Fire
Asmiling young woman handed me a program as I walked into the Seaside Assembly of God on a recent Sunday. I slipped into a pew near the back, hoping to watch unnoticed as people filed ...
Chef Profile
Duck into this diminutive deli cafe out of the fray of the Crossroads Boulevard, pick up a menu, and it quickly becomes clear that there's a whole lot more than meets the eye at La ...
Not every endangered species story has a bad ending. A few good endings along the way have brought great cause for celebration.
For a while it looked bad for our familiar California (or eastern North Pacific) gray whale. Things are looking good now. Originally listed as endangered on June 2, 1970, with an estimated population of 12,567, ...
Squid Fry
I Said Command-C, Not Command-X, You Idiot In what appears to be its crusade to erase the legacy of former City Manager Tim Brown, the Seaside City Council has lowered the axe on Information Systems ...
Street Talk
California''s kids are surrounded by dollar signs, yet nearly a third live in poverty. To them, this might as well be the Great Depression. What are we doing wrong? How can we do better? Stephanie ...
Even after 40 years in the public eye, Joan Baez's career and life keep transforming.
Joan Baez has been many things. In the late ''50s she was a teenage singer, breathing new life into old folk songs. By the mid ''60s she had become an iconic figure on the New ...
From The Editorial Desk
Fish and frogs, pines and plovers are just the beginning.The Central Coast is a haven for imperiled flora and fauna.
Monterey Peninsula Art Foundation show reveals a wealth of local talent.
There are two inescapable conclusions to be drawn after a visit to the Monterey Peninsula Art Foundation''s bi-annual members show, now on display at the Pacific Grove Art Center. The first is how many wonderfully ...
Chef Profile
Cozied up right next to the bay with one of the best locations on Cannery Row, the Chart House was ready for a new look, and got one. Part of a restaurant group that operates ...
Kids' Art Contest Winner
Sometimes you have to be a parent to enjoy a children''s art show, but the Big Sur Land Trust''s "Walk on the Wild Side" competition, designed to strengthen local children''s connection to the beauty of ...
Art News in Brief
Saving the Slough On Oct. 14, the Weekly reported on a group of North County landscape artists who had begun staging weekly Thursday "paint-ins" at the Elkhorn Slough to protest a development project planned for ...
Locally written play about a family ravaged by Alzheimer's makes a successful debut at Western Stage.
"Escuchame. Listen to me." This is a phrase repeated often in Looking for Words, a new work by Salinas playwright Michael Roddy currently playing at the Western Stage in Salinas. If you are willing to ...
Kids' Art Contest Winner
Sometimes you have to be a parent to enjoy a children''s art show, but the Big Sur Land Trust''s "Walk on the Wild Side" competition, designed to strengthen local children''s connection to the beauty of ...
Your Letters
Enough Growth, Already Thank you for your editorial on Cal-Am's proposed Carmel River dam ("Dump the Dam, Once and For All," 11/11). Superb! Good to see someone cut through the rhetoric and tell it like ...
