Issues / 2006 / Jun 29
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT | Brightblack Morning Light | Matador Before he performed at Big Sur’s Fernwood this past January, I interviewed Nabob Shineywater, Brightblack Morning Light’s cannabis-fueled leader, about his band’s debut for indie rock ...
The Book Lover
Jan Neal hustles to reestablish Salinas libraries.
>>LOCALHEROS When acting Library Director Jan Neal asked one of her employees recently how far he’d gotten in inventorying the vast stacks in the John Steinbeck Library, he replied, “Well, I discovered Europe, but I ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Artistas Unidos | Back Porch Fabrics | Breakthrough | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel ...
Oceans 18 reinvents mini golf.
Under black lighting that makes everyone’s teeth look like they just went through an extreme whitening process, I get the first hint of the day that I might be a bit undergunned. “I used to ...
The Jobs Educator
Jose Luis Fernandez teaches people how to work.
>>LOCALHEROS Underneath the dark three-piece suit and slick fedora hat, Jose Luis Fernandez is a humble man. “I am no hero in what I do,” he says quietly. “I’m only able to do what I ...
The Pool Man
A local coach commits to pulling water polo out of obscurity.
When Ken Esaki returned from the armed forces to Monterey County in 1975 he recognized a void in the area’s endless activities and sports: there was no water polo. Over 30 years, thousands of players, ...
Fisherman’s Friend
Chet McAndrews helps disabled vets get out on the water.
>>LOCALHEROS The vet was only three months removed from a devastating combat injury. Confined to his wheelchair, he was scared to death of leaving the hospital, let alone getting lifted onto the deck of a ...
Time and Money
The state brings in a budget on schedule for the first time in years.
California lawmakers approved a $131 billion budget for the state late Tuesday night. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the budget soon, before the end of the fiscal year, meaning the state’s spending plan ...
Bluesman Honored
John “Broadway” Tucker wins Mobay Award.
On the Monterey Bay Blues Festival’s Main Stage, local blues legend John “Broadway” Tucker lets loose on his last number, a spirited version of Louis Jordan’s “Caldonia.” The 62-year-old jogs in place and pumps the ...
An Explosive Drama
Talking To Terrorists exposes the people behind the masks.
Four paramilitaries in fatigues aim AK-47s with laser-scopes over the heads of the audience as a child screams. The opening image of PacRep’s powerful new piece of documentary theater, Talking To Terrorists, is just the ...
A Modern Boy’s Hero
Lara Croft is not just a sex symbol for teenaged males. She’s a role model.
>>OPINION In the video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is a blend of Indiana Jones and Victoria’s Secret. As she runs through the catacombs, her spectacular chest heaves and her behind wiggles. In quiet moments ...
Future big box drainage fixed as Marina rediscovers vernal ponds.
Seven years of idleness has created a number of problems at the soon-to-be-opened Wal-Mart location in Marina. While some of these decays, like a leaky roof and broken tiles, are limited to the actual site, ...
Scavenger Hunt
Scientists catch and test the condors that ate squirrels shot with lead-based bullets.
Monterey County condors made national news last week when 11 of the 13 condors from Pinnacles National Monument were observed feeding on dead squirrels. Biologists feared that the squirrels had been shot with lead-based ammunition ...
A Different Kind of Warrior
Dan Millman’s classic new age work, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, comes to the big screen.
Yoda, of course, said it best: “Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things.” And yet they’re the same psychological impediments that keep hotshot UC Berkeley gymnast and stridently cocksure Olympic hopeful Dan Millman (Scott ...
9th Circuit decision on Padilla could rekindle local land use fight.
At the tail end of an oral argument in the federal courthouse in San Francisco on Thursday, Judge Harry Pregerson asked attorney Frederic Woocher: “What’s the big deal?” The 13-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ...
A House of Movement
A House of Movement
We humans love the concept of flow, a feeling that can be pesky keeping once found. We cherish the flow in moments, conversations and in relationships. Chinese ancients taught about the flow of energy through ...
The Ambulatory Activist
Helen Tolerson is everywhere—from the AIDS center to the Blues Fest.
>>LOCALHEROS Helen Tolerson is happy to be alive. She says as much frequently, but she shows it much more effectively. She thumps her chest when she talks about helping local minorities cope with AIDS. She ...
Politics Beats Policy
The president’s friends abandon him on immigration.
>>THELOCALSPIN Immigration reform is dead, for now, although it will be months before it is laid to rest. There will be hearings throughout the country later in the summer, where politicians will continue to “debate” ...
Wild Animal Rescuer
Linda Gonzalez feeds birds and Bambi at the SPCA shelter.
>>LOCALHEROS It’s loud and smelly in the SPCA’s Wildlife Center. Baby birds squeak and timers beep constantly, signaling that it’s time to feed a hungry beak. Birdcages sit on tables and shelves that line the ...
The Royal Treatment
A Monterey tradition lives on at Municipal Wharf II.
The Royal Seafood sensory experience begins long before the garlic and petrale sole hit the pan. It starts with the trip down Wharf Two toward the corrugated tin building that houses Royal Seafood’s wholesale market: ...
Street Talk
Asked at the Salinas Relay for Life at Hartnell College.
Q: What local hero do you draw inspiration from? Follow-up What superpower would you like to call your own? KELSEY STUMPF | Student | Salinas A: My soccer coach. He pushes me to be my ...
A Musical Feast
A Musical Feast
ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?… Sometimes, while expectorating this weekly slop-sink-full of fluff (don’t remember having ever seen a double-hyphenated doozie like that before), I’ll engage the radio option on my trusty Dell and let ...
PublicCitizen
ONGOING COMMISSIONERS NEEDED | SALINAS—Monterey County District 1, which encompasses most of Salinas, has vacancies in the Agricultural Advisory Committee, Community Action Committee, Community Restorative Justice Commission, Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and more. Interested? Call ...
SquidFry
SquidFry
GET OFF YER ASSES… How many college students does it take to turn the country around? More than voted in the last presidential election. According to a new, nationwide survey conducted by the PANETTA INSTITUTE ...
Letters
Letters
POOR PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER Bravo to Jeremy Seabrook for is brilliant deconstruction of the term “development” [“Development Destroys,” June 22-28]. Reading it, I was reminded of a quote by Satish Kumar, a Jain monk ...
A Teacher of Values
Alicia Garcia-Gozbekian empowered a group of Salinas students at just the right time.
>>LOCALHEROS It was a spring morning at Harden Middle School in Salinas and Alicia Garcia-Gozbekian, a fifth-year teacher at the school, heard the voice of the vice principal over the intercom. “‘We understand there’s a ...
Surface Feature
Director Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns fails to find what motivates a superhero.
Director Bryan Singer doesn’t waste any time letting you know that he’s going retro for his franchise re-boot Superman Returns. The block-letter opening credits swoop and whoosh just the way they did in Richard Donner’s ...
