Things We Lost in the Fire
Big Sur residents and businesses total their losses – and wait for more help from the feds.
Sula Nichols watched the fire destroy her Partington Ridge home. “I saw it burn from around the corner,” she says, standing in the dirt where her house used to be. “I saw the cloud of ...
Issues / 2008 / Jul 31
California considers ban on plastic bags — would be the first state to adopt measure.
A year ago we reported on the growing island of plastic trash, now twice the size of Texas, floating about 100 miles off the California coast. The story reported how every plastic product ever manufactured ...
Energy, sexism and Barack Obama: The first woman speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, discusses her new book about power in Washington, D.C.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who represents California's 8th Congressional District, covering much of San Francisco County, is the highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history. And she has a new book coming out this ...
Little Miracle
As it celebrates a 10-year anniversary, tiny Parsonage Winery closes in on cult status by way of big flavor.
Frank Melicia cultivates and crushes and barrels and bottles a small river of grapes every year. He can identify a Syrah vine’s sickness with a passing glance. When he’s not winemaking– or in the field ...
Seizing the Day
Marina Democrats are organizing for council, water board seats.
The nascent Marina Democratic Club hopes to seed the City Council and Marina Coast Water District board with progressive-minded party members. The group, which had its first meeting July 2, is busy developing a ticket ...
Shopping has become the new reading.
When was the last time you read a John Updike novel cover to cover in a single sitting? Or even a John Updike book jacket cover to cover in a single sitting? While dour eggheads ...
Gonzo
American Iconoclast: Skilled documentarian Alex Gibney trains his lens on Hunter S. Thompson in Gonzo.
Hunter S. Thompson wasn’t just a great storyteller; he was a great story himself, partly because he became his stories. As inventor of the “gonzo” style of journalism– with its rampant passion for drug-fueled, first-person ...
Home Page
Pacific Grove cottage’s facade gives way to another world inside.
Scott Hunter and Doree Hyland are life/business partners, who for many years have pulled rundown houses from the grip of neglect and rebuilt them. If the couple’s current home is any indication, the seemingly effortless ...
Second Life
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History metamorphoses into a private-public partnership.
Consider it a small-town crisis averted, or an eco-arts revival. However you slice it, the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History’s comeback is all the more dramatic considering the 125-year-old landmark was on life support ...
Letters to the Editor for Jul 31, 2008
WRONG MAN, WRONG TIME John McCain thinks that by the year 2030 the Unites States should build 45 new nuclear-powered terrorist targets. The United States already has over 100 nuclear-powered terrorist targets, and not one ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Jul 31, 2008
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Mexican: What’s with calling yourselves “La Raza?” Being Mexicans, Chicanos or whatever isn’t enough– now you’re THE race? Sounds pretty racist to me. –The Race Is On Dear Gabacho: Few things annoy the Mexican ...
Divinely Equine
There’s a wealth of action to soak up at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Classic– for more than just horse lovers.
Everything is moving quickly. Every muscle on the horse seems to bulge beneath his thin brown fur as his powerful hooves kick dirt into the air. Everything’s rider, Duncan McFarlan, makes a clucking noise with ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): Work can be hazardous for the actors who portray cartoon and fairy tale characters at Disney theme parks. The U.S. Health and Safety Administration reports that one-third of them have suffered ...
Blue Up
Curtis Salgado inspired The Blues Brothers, then survived terminal cancer.
By 1980, The Blues Brothers were a household name. What started out as a Saturday Night Live skit starring comedians John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd had developed into a real touring band with a double-platinum ...
Mad Dope Mag
New local literary journal Cadillac Cicatrix quietly gathers quality content with plenty of edges.
When a new magazine appears on local news shelves, its cover typically features a sultry woman emerging from a pool or a picturesque sunset along the coast or, equally predicatable, a heavily shadowed lone cypress. ...
Good Out
Church network pushes for county reentry facility.
Charlie Russell knows the revolving door of California prisons well. Russell, who grew up in Los Angeles, has served time on four different occasions for everything from stealing cars to dealing crack cocaine. Whenever he ...
Real Deals
Three good values and a tale of two bakeries.
The chef is smiling. That’s not terribly surprising, because he’s talking about food. Sous Chef Shean Suter stands tableside at California Market (622-5450), touching on everything from $300 cookbooks to his genetic tendency to sneak ...
News Updates: Marina Dunes' easy money; Pacific Grove's Library; Condos by the highway; the green city of Salinas; Cort courts voters.
DUNES DAY… In January we detailed the city of Marina’s plan to pump an additional $70 million in redevelopment funds into The Dunes on Monterey Bay. The Fort Ord Reuse Authority however, wasn’t eager to ...
Public Citizen
7|31 THURS NON-BILLABLE HOURS | SALINAS– Hors d’oeuvres, pizza and wine at this mixer make networking carefree and tasty. Think of all the free legal advice disguised as party chit-chat you can soak up. (That’s ...
Session With a Dog Psychic
A local sage plies the minds of two pure-bred pooches.
Over the course of the $40 half-hour, there are many things the dog psychic says about Baby B and Little G. For instance, Baby B really wants to be a vegetarian. Little G, meanwhile, is ...
Speaking In Numbers
The Weekly Tally: The Grateful Dead's legendary Laguna Seca show
20 Years, as of Tuesday, July 29, since the Grateful Dead performed their legendary Laguna Seca show, blowing through a set list that started with “Iko Iko,” “Walkin’ Blues” and “Candyman” and closed with “Gimme ...
Brave New World
Cabrillo’s world premieres challenge listeners to embrace modern music.
But for Elliott Carter, who at 99 is very much alive and still accepting commissions, John Corigliano would qualify as an elder statesman among American composers. “I don’t feel 70,” protests Corigliano, as he prepares ...
Art Listings for Jul 31, 2008
Art Listings for Jul 31, 2008
OPENING THIS WEEK CARMEL FOUNDATION Abstract acrylics by artist of the month Karen Hunting. Outcalt Activity Building, Eighth and Lincoln, Carmel. 624-1588. carmel valley art association Fall Spectacular: new show by Leslie Hodgin, Stephen Schindler, ...
Tell No One
Tell Everyone: Rousing French thriller Tell No One barrels along at a thrilling pace.
Tell No One, French director Guillaume Canet‘s excellent adaptation of Harlan Coben’s best-selling novel, has everything a great personal-paranoia/persecution movie needs: a citizen-hero who refuses to capitulate to unseen and malevolent powers that are, for ...
Food Chain
Up and at ’Em
RISING THOUGHT… This morning was one of those mornings– awake too early to truly be called morning, later than what normal people would call night. So I sit here clicking away at this keyboard and ...
Sax For Stax
GERALD ALBRIGHT
Saxophonist Gerald Albright made a name for himself in 1991 with the release of an astoundingly first-rate live recording. His technical brilliance was perfectly matched by a soulful honesty that made him widely popular, not ...
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
COLDPLAY
From 2000’s piano-based, virgin-mopefest debut, Parachutes, to 2005’s X&Y, Coldplay morphed into a bombastic, synth-heavy arena-rock group, like U2. For Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Coldplay enlisted Brian Eno, a frequent ...
What lights your fire?
Asked at Salinas Rural Fire Department in Monterey.
Follow-up: What is your favorite food to barbecue? SCOTT ANDERSON | Firefighter | Salinas A: Woodworking. Making cabinets in particular is my getaway. Gardening and doing yard work with my wife really lights my fire ...
Squid Fry for Jul 31, 2008
Squid Fry for Jul 31, 2008
HOT BREAKFAST… Nothing wakes up Squid for the weekend like a little friction, so readers can imagine Squid’s disappointment when it appeared that Saturday morning’s NAACP Youth Summit was going to be all happy politicians, ...
At Mount Zoomer
WOLF PARADE
Three years later, Wolf Parade’s breathless debut Apologies to the Queen Mary is as exhilarating and, by Canadian indie-rock standards, charged as the day it came out. Follow up At Mount Zoomer doesn’t reach that ...
By The Numbers
$720,000 Recent Sale 18463 Deertrack Place, Salinas Built: 1999 Size: 2,841 square feet, 1 acre Features: 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 floors, 3-car garage Amenities: Fireplace and 2-sided fireplace in master bedroom, 2-story living room, ...
Experts may beg to differ, but Americans know the truth.
There’s a debate in the media about the recession. On the right are those who say that the economy has never been better. Not so fast, says the official left: we’ve (just) started a recession. ...
A Senegalese drum group goes off with serious joy.
The rhythm at this drumming event may be off, but that’s not the point. When the area’s Senegalese drumming community converges at Park Avenue Studio on Sundays, it’s about the spirit. Senegal native Abdoulaye Diallo ...
