Vital Force
Taj Mahal took his own path to musical success.
Taj Mahal got valuable musical advice from blues elders, including Lightnin’ Hopkins, when he first embarked on his unconventional path as a musician. “They all said don’t get stuck playing one type of music, because ...
Plucked to Play
One of the best guitarists in blues started in classical music.
The blues hit young Joe Bonamassa like a lightning bolt. At the time, Bonamassa was reciting classical music pieces verbatim on guitar. But when at 8 years old the guitarist discovered British blues rock guitarists, ...
Down, But Never Out
Vocalist Bettye LaVette persisted until she got the career breaks she deserved.
After recording what was supposed to be her first album and long-awaited breakthrough in the music industry, vocalist Bettye LaVette got a phone call. The record executive on the other end of the line informed ...
True Blues
Master-mentor relationships help keep an American music form pure.
No American music has a richer mythology than the blues. There’s the gripping lore surrounding blues music’s first superstar, Robert Johnson, who allegedly sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange ...
Young Love
The Homemade Jamz Blues Band’s skills belie their youth.
Listening to songs from The Homemade Jamz Blues Band’s debut CD Pay Me No Mind, certain images come into focus. With numbers like “Penny Waiting on a Change” sung in a knowing growl over highly ...
Issues / 2008 / Jun 26
Celebrating Democracy for Over 200 Years
Independence Day, 2008
On July 4, 1776, the 56 courageous signers of the Declaration of Independence committed an act of treason by registering their desire to overthrow the King of England, in favor of self-governance. The Declaration may ...
Letters to the Editor for Jun 26, 2008
NOT ABOUT DOGS VS. HORSES In response to Celia Petroum Costis’s letter [“Love From Afar,” June 19-25] regarding the fate of the Marina Equestrian Center, Ms. Costis believes that the horses at the equestrian center ...
Only themselves to blame for not asking the tough questions on the war.
The past few weeks have been thrilling politically. Barack Obama’s victory in the Democratic primary offers not merely the opportunity to turn the page on America’s most destructive presidency but also to open as exciting ...
Umbapa Mow Wow
The Oak Ridge Boys play a pair of shows at Golden State.
The Oak Ridge Boys have had the distinct pleasure of playing to the most powerful person in the world on at least six occasions– the country pop group has performed for six sitting presidents of ...
In Memory
Gangsters shot and killed Jose “June Bug” Soto. Now his family patrols Salinas streets in an effort to prevent future violence.
The night begins with prayer. A dozen parents and church members form a circle and shout invocations at the bustling corner of Natividad and East Laurel streets in Salinas. They ask for God’s protection before ...
Updates
CLEANING HOUSE… Looks like the Pacific Grove City Council will sport several new faces next year. Two of the three incumbents whose terms are expiring– Susan Nilmeier and Daniel Davis– say they will not run ...
Ash From Above
Wildfires miraculously spare the air we breathe.
With roughly a dozen fires torching the Central Coast in the past two weeks, local medical workers have braced for a spike in respiratory complaints. But despite the spread of haze across the sky, the ...
Art Listings for Jun 26, 2008
Art Listings for Jun 26, 2008
OPENING THIS WEEK alternative café New Brow: various Lowbrow artists, opening reception 6-9pm, 6/27. 1230 Fremont Blvd., Seaside. 583-0913. carmel mission Carmel Mission in Art Retrospective, Phase III: Works on Paper: Drawings, watercolors, etchings, lithographs, ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Jun 26, 2008
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Mexican: What do you think would happen if U.S. citizens could as easily buy land and set up businesses in Mexico as Mexicans can do in the U.S.? Might that be a big boost ...
Ripping Clint
Eastwood portrait and torn version up for sale.
Play Misty For Me is one of the most iconic films of the Monterey County area, known for its native scenery, local flavor (including shots at the Jazz Festival), and Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut. Now, ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$735,000 Recent Sale 19735 Pinehurst Lane, Salinas Built: 1973 Size: 2,801 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, 1 floor, 2-car garage Amenities: Pool and hot tub, 2 fireplaces, wood-burning stove, automatic sprinkler system, hardwood floors ...
In Hot Water
A look at the best local places to soak in natural hot springs.
Steam rises into the crisp night air from crystal clear waters in a rock-lined tub. The smell of sulfur tickles the nose. One hundred seventeen-degree mineral water, cooled to an agreeable 103 by mountain spring ...
Photographer friend leaves more than images behind.
Angela died last Thursday. She was only 51. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around that reality, even though she had been battling a particularly insidious form of brain cancer for more than a ...
Speaking In Numbers
The Weekly Tally
$27.6 Million suppression costs through June 22 for the Indians Fire in the Los Padres National Forest, which has included 68 crews, 112 engines, 14 helicopters, seven air tankers, and 14 dozers. information, call (805) ...
Reprise
Art-House Action: The Norwegian film Reprise captures the rush of creating art.
With all due respect to (yawn) Iron Man, the first great action movie of the summer has arrived, and it has nothing to do with superheroes– unless your idea of a superman is a J.D. ...
Close to home
County picks a site for reentry facility.
After months of scouting far-off spots in Soledad and even Fort Ord, Monterey County has found a state reentry facility site closer to home. A county ad hoc committee wants to put the prisoner rehabilitation ...
Public Citizen
6|28 SAT AG AGAINST HUNGER | SALINAS—Ag Against Hunger’s gleaning program coordinates the picking of crops left after commercial harvest, and donates the produce to local food banks and pantries. Help harvest crops at today’s ...
Squid Fry for Jun 26, 2008
Squid Fry for Jun 26, 2008
HMMMM… Squid has always given lots of love (and ink) to Rep. Sam Farr for standing up to President Bush and voting consistently against the war in Iraq. Farr was one of the few who ...
Disaster Dress Rehearsal
Home-schooled boys with fake guns creep around Seaside High.
Two males wearing camouflage and toting long guns crept through the gully between Monterey Road and Peninsula Point Drive, moving in the direction of Seaside High School. It was May 19, and school was in ...
Plot Twister
Rushad Eggleston’s new project: the Tornado Rider.
Local cellist Rushad Eggleston has been nominated for a Grammy for his work with Fiddlers 4, delivered jammed out acoustic music in Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, done the alternative bluegrass thing with Crooked Still ...
How do you mope when you’ve got the blues?
Asked at the Marina Library in Marina.
Follow up: What kind of music gets you out of the funk? KEVIN CLARK | Student/Server | Marina A: I usually just watch a lot of “Seinfeld.” We have every single episode. I like it ...
Something Building
CET success story and aspiring contractor inspires by example.
Behind Soledad’s Center for Employment Training (CET) facility, an old power plant looms like a ghost against a backdrop of rolling hills. Inland heat warps the landscape and draws sweat to the faces of men ...
Slow Ripening
Sluggish permitting pushes P.G. Farmers Market date to July 21.
The Pacific Grove Certified Farmers Market is moving at the pace of an heirloom tomato plant, taking its sweet time getting to the point people can enjoy it. In February, city officials predicted the market ...
Home Page
Many windows give gracious style to Carmel Highlands home.
Counting and recounting could be a charming game for children in this house of windows. The foyer alone has six, all two-stories high, and there are about 40 windows all told within 2,875 square feet ...
food chain
Happy to Be Nappy
CRUSHING DRIVE… In the past, I have periodically focused on some of the more vile members of the sub-class of species running our world into the compost heap of history and fired a few volleys ...
Wall-E
Love Bot: In the lyrical WALL-E, a machine teaches humanity how to re-discover beauty.
For 700 years, WALL-E– a Waste Allocation Load Lifter robot, Earth Class– has been doing the job he was programmed to do. Left behind on an Earth no longer inhabitable by humans, the solar-powered WALL-E ...
Way Cooler Water Cooler
Atmospheric water generator among exciting developments announced at eco event.
The giver of life has been given new life. Or at least that’s one way to look at the implications of a brand-new technology that local green-project developers Earth Smart Solutions will debut as part ...
Plate Expectations
Sushi by the Bay has its strengths and weaknesses. Plan accordingly.
The Superman Burrito had me ready to fly. The Popcorn Lobster looked popping on paper. And I figured the Hungry Roll would bury my appetite. They didn’t. That’s the trouble with expectations– they can really ...
High-Powered Lowbrow
Alternative Café and its New Brow exhibit give the area a much-needed jolt of good urban art.
Near the intersection of Seaside’s Fremont Boulevard and Hilby Avenue, sitting discreetly behind a 7-11, a plain building is quietly acting as a magnet for a meteor shower of art that is anything but quiet, ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): Welcome to Part Two of your outlook for the second half of 2008, Aries. We’re checking up on how you’re progressing with the challenges you were given near the end of ...
New Acting City Manager Named
The Del Rey Oaks City Council on Tuesday appointed Dewey Evans as acting city manager. Evans is chief executive officer of Seaside Basin Watermaster and Carmel-by-the-Sea’s treasurer. Evans will relieve Ronald Langford, who served the ...
