Combining Forces
MJF vet Billy Childs performs a commissioned piece with the Kronos Quartet.
Good things happen when Billy Childs is on the bill at Monterey. Regularly featured at the Fairgrounds since Tim Jackson was hired as the director of the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1992, the pianist/composer is ...
French Toasts
Les Nubians blend political concerns with passionate sounds.
The sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart weren’t trying to jump start a musical movement, but as Les Nubians, the siblings are an international Francophone force, delivering lithe vocal harmonies and uplifting messages set to a ...
Country Cool
Delbert McClinton continues to cross genres with a performance at 53rd MJF.
Delbert McClinton’s latest CD, Acquired Taste, is all over the place. With its streaking guitar and Latin percussion, “Mama’s Little Baby” could be a lost Los Lobos song. “I Need to Know” is a grimy ...
Celebration Time
Trombone Shorty focuses on the positives of his native New Orleans.
New Orleans native Trombone Shorty’s “Hurricane Season” is not what you might expect. Rather than a somber ballad detailing the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, the song is downright celebratory, an instrumental anthem that deserves to ...
Issues / 2010 / Sep 16
Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell was blocked in the Senate Sept 21.
The Senate action could be as much about partisan bickering ahead of contentious mid-term elections as it is a reflection of lawmakers' views on the rights of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the ...
Filmmaker Michael Moore snags John Steinbeck award.
The award is called "In the Souls of the People", a phrase borrowed from the Steinbeck novel, "The Grapes of Wrath" and is given out by San Jose State University's Steinbeck Center. "My father would ...
Two of PG&E's 100 highest risk gas pipeline segments are in Monterey County.
One of the segments is a 437 foot stretch near Aguajito Road and Highway 68. The other consists of some 1320 ft. of pipe in a rural area near Hwy 101across from Hartnell Road near ...
Transit Tragedy
Bus kills Monterey pedestrian
Monterey resident Sam Conboy died on Sept. 17, a day after he was hit by an MST Bus downtown. Conboy had been trying to cross Pacific Street at Del Monte at 6 a.m. on Sept. ...
2010 Monterey Jazz Festival
Saturday Night brings ukuleles, soulful croons and progressive quartets to the stages of the jazz festival.
Fusion, funk and five-star groups performed on Saturday evening of the 53rd Monterey Jazz Festival. Young ukulele phenom Jake Shimabukuro took to the Garden Stage during his debut in Monterey and wowed a sardine-packed audience ...
DRO Fest
Del Rey Oaks celebrates 57 years
More than 150 residents gathered in Del Rey Oaks Park on Sept. 19 to enjoy barbecue, live music, a chili cook-off, face paint and bouncy houses. Seaside Fire Department was on hand to help kids ...
2010 Monterey Jazz Festival
Photos from Les Nubians kicking off a soulful Friday night in Monterey.
The French-sister duo Les Nubians filled the main stage area with smooth croons and an "Afropean" sound on Friday evening of the 53rd Monterey Jazz Festival. For over the a decade, the sisters have been ...
Jazz Fusion
The 53rd Monterey Jazz Festival stretches out its arms to embrace a broad musical palette.
At the opening night of the 53rd Monterey Jazz Festival, French/Chad world music sisters Helene and Celia Faussart had the main stage audience enraptured with their cool soul grooves and colorful garb and make-up. Roy ...
Tap the Savings
Water conservation rebates just got plusher.
Saving water nets more than karmic payback. California American Water and Monterey Peninsula Water Management District are now offering homeowners plumper rebates for investments in water-conserving appliances and landscaping, including: $1.25 per square foot for ...
Squid Fry for Sep 16, 2010
Squid Fry for Sep 16, 2010
LET FREEMAN RING… On Squid’s slimy desk, marinating in spilled coffee and sprayed ink, sits a thick folder called the Only-in-Carmel Irony File. It just got thicker, with new plans for e-mail policy and openness ...
The Town
Ben Affleck thriller represents a stunning directoral coup.
Who’da thunk Ben Affleck would turn out to be one of the most enthralling American film directors of the early 21st century? Because now, with The Town, we have proof positive that his first film, ...
Domestic dad is more than just a hot piece of status.
People over the years have called me many things. My favorites include: wordsmith, Next in Line and, of course, Beaver – because it rhymes with my last name. If I don’t ease off the pizza ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Sep 16, 2010
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Mexican: I work at a large Orange County hotel where 80 percent of the employees are Latin American, primarily Mexican. I love working with them. However, one thing that bothers me is that when ...
Water Guns
Grassroots group revives call for a public takeover of Cal Am.
As if California American Water doesn’t have enough to worry about – with one state order to stop overpumping the Carmel River, another to deal with the obsolete San Clemente Dam, pressure to fix aging ...
Art Listing for Sep 16, 2010
Art Listing for Sep 16, 2010
HAPPENING THIS WEEK ALTERNATIVE CAFÉ A Trip Worthwhile: Gene Guynn’s fleshy, messy portraits and Christopher Polentz’s skewed paintings of oddly affecting people share some DNA, Jason Snyder’s ominous paintings of partial people (you’ll see what ...
Forever Mine
Rita Hosking plumbs historic depths to take her music higher (and to Pacific Grove).
Rita Hosking has always wanted to go down into a mine and perform. Her great grandfather, a Cornish immigrant, often sang in the deep dark tunnels while he worked in the Grass Valley Empire Mines. ...
What unusual pet do you wish you could have?
Asked at All Pets Hospital in Salinas.
Follow-up: What pet would be a nightmare to live with? ANTHONY PARKER | Social Worker | Salinas A: I would love to have an orangutan. They’re goofy-looking and entertaining. The kind of pet you could ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): When teen pop star Miley Cyrus appeared on David Letterman’s late-night TV talk show, band leader Paul Schaeffer asked her if she lip-syncs to pre-recorded music during her performances. Miley replied ...
Perfect Pairing
The Highlands’ Paul Fried and Matt Bolton combine talents to deliver an impressive wine dinner series.
With few exceptions, when it comes to ultra-premium, multi-course menus paired expertly with notable wines from around the world, the distance between Monterey and the Michelin-starred chefs and wine cellars of San Francisco and Napa ...
Letters to the Editor for Sep 16, 2010
Shelf the Library Tax No one disputes Pacific Grove’s library is the most used and best loved institution in our community. Battle lines are being drawn between proponents of a $6 million parcel tax to ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen
THURSDAY 9|16 KUDOS FOR GREENS | SEASIDE – At the City Council meeting, Mayor Ralph Rubio joins State Assemblyman Bill Monning and Congressman Sam Farr to commend The Green Team, Sustainable Seaside and four neighborhood ...
Painting the Town Red, White and Green
Salinas festival celebrates 200 years of Mexican independence.
It was on Sept. 16, 1810 that Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo cried out for the people of Mexico to rise up against the Spanish. Two centuries later, thousands descended on East Alisal Street to commemorate ...
Same Old ’Hue
Incumbent Salinas mayor seems a shoo-in for another term.
Two-term Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue looks like the man to beat in this fall’s election as he tells Alisal Rotary Club members about his battle against crime in the city. “There is a shark in ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$810,000 Recent Sale 99 Copa del Oro, Monterey Built: 1951 Size: 2,379 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3-car garage Amenities: Fenced and landscaped yard, indoor barbecue area, sunroom, hardwood floors Seller: Craig Smith ...
Even locavore ALBA staffers can get lazy with lunch.
On a recent foggy morning, I drove with two food activist companions down a long, dusty road in Salinas towards a hotbed of contradictions. We were on our way to visit one of the beacons ...
So This Is Reality
Why reality TV, California wines and heirlooms don’t suck.
Last week, in front of a national television audience on ABC, 28-year-old Jesse Kovacs rolled around on a yellow Lamborghini, making out with a vapid co-star. In this week’s last episode, he was voted off ...
Fighting Chance
A Salinas team takes some fierce skills to the World Martial Arts Games.
John Wolf and Aaron Cruz had no intention of qualifying for the World Martial Arts Games at Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas. Wolf, 32, says last March they were just accompanying their friends and ...
Rust Never Sleeps
Monterey native Jolene Rust is suddenly everywhere alongside Michael Franti.
A couple years ago, Jolene Rust wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life. She dabbled in a little bit of everything: acting, modeling, singing and songwriting. “I was going in and out ...
Pastures of Discontent
Residents organize against proposed Corral de Tierra shopping center.
Development has long been a hot-button subject in Corral de Tierra, the valley that John Steinbeck called the “Pastures of Heaven.” Later this fall, the county Planning Commission will hold a hearing on a 10-building ...
The best of our web exclusives.
South County Sweep….Soledad, Greenfield, Gonzales and King County police carried out their third joint effort to nab known gang members Sept. 8. By the end of the night, seven individuals were in custody. Police say ...
Potential curator steps up as Carmel debates the historic mansion’s fate.
Silicon Valley executive Les Albiol says he has the answer to Carmel’s decade-long struggle over whether to preserve or sell Flanders Mansion. Albiol, a Carmel native, has offered to fix the 1920s English Tudor revival ...
