Liquidity Love Fest
Varietals are the spice of life at the Monterey Wine Fest.
The word “epic” gets overused and abused. But the Monterey Bay Aquarium is an epic place to taste grape juice. Shapely concrete spaces calm and inspire. Every tasting table enjoys a backdrop of monkey-faced eels ...
Amazing Grapes
San Bernabe Vineyard, the third largest in the world, combines mass with class.
Winemaking in Monterey County isn’t pretentious. We don’t put on airs like counties to our north, and our grape growers are farmers, not Silicon Valley execs-turned-vintners. Here, it’s more toe-in-the-dirt. Winemaking is humble; it’s about ...
Issues / 2010 / Jun 10
Clean and Green
A brand new affordable housing complex designed for the homeless mentally ill breaks new ground in Salinas.
Sunflower Gardens, a small complex developed by Interim Inc, built to house 23 adults opens June 18 in Salinas. Builders say they've achieved a couple of firsts. The project is expected to win Platinum level ...
Seaside Reprieve
Parents to MPUSD: Save our schools!
Several hundred parents confronted MPUSD Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd Monday, June 14, at a meeting at King Middle School, demanding the school rescind proposed cuts in the district's pre-school and child care programs. Shepherd handed the ...
Hot Water
PUC concludes a week of Regional Water Project hearings in S.F.
The California Public Utilities Commission held a week of hearings on the Regional Water Project in San Francisco June 7-11. The mayors of five Peninsula cities intervened June 8, and Citizens for Public Water officially ...
Higher river flows bode well for steelhead.
Last summer was a tough one for Carmel River steelhead trout. But this year appears to be flowing much better. "As the summer of 2010 begins we find much better spring conditions on the river ...
Friendly Rock
Photos and video from Woodsist Fest at Henry Miller Library in Big Sur.
Lots of flannel, beards and indie-rock music filled Henry Miller Library in Big Sur on Saturday during the all-day Woodsist Fest put on by FolkYEAH! presents. Rock quartet Real Estate finished up a night under ...
Green Means Go
Sustainable Brands Conference puts a marketing spin on the planet.
The sad truth is, we're probably doomed. Our oceans are choked with plastic, our babies are little bundles of flame retardant, and a very cute grebe in Madagascar just went extinct. But the folks at ...
The Karate Kid
Enter the Draggin’: Remake of young Kung Fu classic packs a soft punch.
“Karate! Kung fu! Whatever!” Mom says. Exactly! Who cares what the Asian ass-kicking is called. Not important! The important thing is that the cute little American kid will teach the Chinese ignoramuses a thing or ...
What do birds think about humans?
Asked at Monterey Market in Monterey.
Follow-up: If you were a bird, where would you leave your droppings? BILL SOLLER | Nurse | Seaside A: What are they going to leave on the ground for us to eat? Hot Concept: Selma ...
Ready to Reload
Sheriff Mike Kanalakis and challenger Scott Miller head to a runoff after fiery primary.
Alittle after 8pm on election night, 40 to 50 Mike Kanalakis supporters – most of them white and over 50 – orbit around a generous spread of appetizers at Zeph’s One Stop in Salinas: kebabs, ...
Karma Policing
Quick Indian, fab froyo, wine notes and a hard-to-believe soft opening.
In only four months, Monterey’s number of quick-Indian spots has zipped from zero to two, with the Ambrosia India Bistro (641-0610) opening a tiny but tasty cafeteria version of the place our readers vote Best ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): The “secret” is in plain sight. The “hidden resource” is freely available for anyone who intends to use it with integrity. The “lost key” is very close to where you left ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$330,000 Recent Sale 364 English Avenue, Monterey Built: 1973 Size: 1,452 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Wood-burning fireplace, fenced yard, walking distance to beach Seller: Porfirio Salinas and Roxanne Orellana ...
Cattle Call
Lou Calcagno wins a fourth term as District 2 supervisor.
As friends and family walk into the Whole Enchilada in Moss Landing, Lou Calcagno welcomes each group with a hug or a handshake. “Get in line for food – there is plenty for everyone,” Calcagno ...
Taking Root
CSUMB’s The Trees has quickly grown into a “art rock” presence in Monterey.
Listening to The Trees’ “Monterey Bay” or “Sounds of the Cypress,” you feel like you’re seeing this region in a new light – an eerie modern light that bores right through the saccharine painterly interpretations ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican!
SPECIAL SUMMER EDICIÓN Mexican seafood cocktails look like the perfect summer lunch for a girly girl like me – cool, light, high in protein, low in carbs – but every time I go to a ...
The best of our web exclusives.
Strawberry Jam…The state’s giving the public an extra month to comment on the state Department of Pesticide Regulation’s proposal to register methyl iodide, a highly controversial, carcinogenic fumigant for conventional strawberries such as those grown ...
Short and Sweeter
Big Sur International Film Screening Series 2010 only improves on first four.
The roots of the Annual Big Sur International Film Screening Series took hold after Magnus Toren impulsively purchased a film projector on eBay from a preacher in Kentucky. “I don’t remember how I could have ...
Double Drama
Strong debuts for The Year of Magical Thinking and To Kill a Mockingbird.
“This happened on December 30, 2003. That may seem like a while ago but it won’t when it happens to you.” So begins Joan Didion’s one-woman play, The Year of Magical Thinking, adapted from her ...
Thrash Talk
Salinas-bred Psychosomatic headlines Casa Sorrento show with Los Dryheavers and Cheapskate.
Bassist-singer Jeff Salgado of the thrash metal trio Psychosomatic explains that his band’s crudely named songs are more than just raunchy punch lines to bad jokes. They are odes to good friends. “We’re just paying ...
Just in time for the U.S. Open - the great bottled-water scam.
We think of ourselves as shrewd and thrifty shoppers. Yet when it comes to bottled water, North Americans are conned to the tune of $15 billion and eight billion gallons annually, paying twice for a ...
Sports Crazy
ESPN’s Rick Reilly talks Sports From Hell in Pacific Grove.
He braved temperatures at the Sauna World Championships that gave one competitor pus-filled sacs “the size of a $3 pancake.” He chronicled inmates trying to snatch a $500 poker chip from between a 2,000-pound bull’s ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen
THURSDAY 6|10 JOHN LAIRD TOWN HALL MEETING | MONTEREY – – John Laird, candidate for California’s 15th Senatorial District, talks about his record and what he would change in Sacramento. 6-8pm, Center for Change, 60 ...
Getting axed from HP doesn’t qualify Fiorina for Senate.
As the current California contests illustrate, we may still be living in a land with the best political system money can buy. The startling rise of Carly Fiorina to Republican senatorial nominee is a case ...
Questionable Propositions
Voters snub PG&E, and critics say “open primaries’’ may lead to abuse by special interests.
Former Central Coast ssemblyman Fred Keeley called then-assemblyman, now-Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado’s backroom deal a crime when Maldonado, a Republican, voted with Dems on the state budget in exchange for getting the “open primary” measure, ...
Into the Woods
New York’s Woods hang at Henry Miller.
When singer-guitarist Jeremy Earl of the New York-based band Woods began his own record label, he was only releasing albums on cassette tapes. Format was unimportant; Earl’s main objective was to get great new music ...
Penny Farthing Tavern
Salinas’ Penny Farthing Tavern returns with a cleaner look and improved food.
“Good beer and fancy food should be kept separate… like church and state,” rogue food writer/chef Anthony Bourdain once declared. “That wall crumbles and all will be chaos.” The return of Salinas’ most revered pub, ...
Bird Brain
An ill-advised hummingbird emergency affirms the role of SPCA Wildlife Rescue Center.
Baby Bird was having a bad day. Baby Bird was a striking Allen hummingbird, red and green with some brown feathers, a member of a species that can hover, fly forward, backwards, vertically up or ...
Squid Fry for Jun 10, 2010
Squid Fry for Jun 10, 2010
LOSERS ON PAPER… Between Ron Holly’s Résumégate, the superintendent circus and a sheriff candidate catastrophe in which they’ve somehow collectively indicted themselves and one another of (at least) one crime each – including stupidity, double ...
Letters to the Editor for Jun 10, 2010
BIG MAC ATTACK In reference to your ejection of black ink upon our Local Lunch at McDonald’s (“Squid,” June 3-10), I’d like to direct you to the statement of a newspaperman on Oct. 9, 2008: ...
Art Listing for Jun 10, 2010
Art Listing for Jun 10, 2010
HAPPENING THIS WEEK ALTERNATIVE CAFÉ Fables and Follies: The new show by the risk-taking folks of Alt Cafe is curated by Creep Machine, which is a website (and, we’re guessing, some people) who curated the ...
School Superintendent Stays
Kotowski fends off challenge; Zeeb, McPherson remain in treasurer/tax collector race.
Incumbent County Superintendent of Education Nancy Kotowski enjoyed big-name endorsements, a hefty war chest and name recognition as she edged out challenger Donna Alonzo Vaughan, nabbing 52 percent of the vote to win a second ...
