Passivhaus Movement
Carmel project incorporates pioneering German standards to get aggressive energy savings.
Insulation isn’t sexy, and high-performance windows and doors probably won’t set anyone’s toes-a-tingling either. But opening up an energy statement and seeing at least an 80 percent drop in the bill? That’s some swoon-worthy stuff ...
Home & Garden 2011
Dirty Advice
If the Weekly specialized in house and garden porn – that fabulous subset of the magazine world where all surfaces gleam, all furniture is perfectly arranged and all of the flowers and vegetables are in ...
Broken bottles, a missing garage and Red Tag Dave
How renovating a house was as much about building tension as building a home.
How long into a renovation project is it reasonable to begin fantasizing about taking a hit out on your contractor? And by fantasy, I mean talking to a friend who happens to be a criminal ...
Issues / 2011 / Apr 07
Soul Surfer
Despite the harrowing true-life story it’s based on, Soul Surfer fails to make waves.
Based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm to a shark at the age of 13 before going on to become one of surfing’s all-time legends, Soul Surfer is faith-based ...
Funky and Fabulous
Gnarly Nature produce, Passionate packaging and outstanding Afghan.
The mutant carrots are twisted and pale. The beets are eerily elongated. The yellow squash looks like a bony alien spaceship. But that’s not the crazy thing about new upstart Gnarly Nature Organic Produce (383-9215), ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican! 04.07.11
Dear Mexican: I’m a blanquita, and I’ve recently begun dating a caliente mexicano. The first time we were intimate, I noticed his necklace (which I had always assumed to be a rosary) was a name ...
Carmel Valley Neighbors Drop AT&T’s Call
Local outcry stalls approval of proposed cell tower
AT&T says Carmel Valley needs a new cell phone tower at Holman Ranch. But a group of upset neighbors doesn’t want to hear it. The company is proposing to build a 40-foot wireless telecommunication facility, ...
Recovery Review
Feds audit Housing Authority’s use of stimulus bucks.
The feds are taking a closer look at how Monterey County’s Housing Authority spent millions of dollars in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. In 2009, the Housing Authority received almost $3 million in stimulus ...
Engine Stall
Green Vehicles faces rent, cashflow issues in quest to build niche electric vehicles.
Salinas’ great green hope may be sputtering to a stop. Documents obtained by the Weekly show Green Vehicles, an electric carmaker that operates out of the old Firestone plant outside Salinas, is behind on its ...
Badder Still
George Thorogood and the Destroyers roar into Salinas.
Apparently George Thorogood has the endurance of a lifetime long-distance runner. After spending years playing the dingy bar circuit throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, the bluesman – who returns to the Fox Theater in ...
Broken Business
Recent business deals gone bad have left behind a path of wreckage and foreclosure.
Perry’s Dry Cleaners on South Main Street in Salinas has changed hands three times since 2008, each transaction ending in a legal dispute. The most recent buyer, Salinas-based Monterey Business Brokers, is now under investigation ...
Public Citizen 04.07.11
Get Involved
ONGOING ADOPT A PET | SALINAS – Monterey County Animal Services is offering a “tax break adoption special,” with dogs available for $100 and cats for $50. Friends of County Animal Services is supporting adoption ...
Narrowcasting enables revolution, humor. Hop aboard.
One of the more bizarre interviews I had during my time as a tech reporter in Silicon Valley involved the co-founder of microblogging service Twitter, though it was more of an e-mail exchange than an ...
Brezsny's Astrology April 7-13, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When he was three years old, actor Charlie Sheen got a hernia from yelling too much and too loud. I definitely don’t encourage you to be like that. However, I do ...
Proof Pudding
Approaching pumpkin from a different angle is the best way to celebrate squash.
Pumpkin pie is misunderstood in many ways. To name a few: it doesn’t need to be sweet, it isn’t only for the holidays, and as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t even have to exist. ...
The Public Voice
Pas de Tout I am currently studying theater arts at Monterey Peninsula College and have taken dance classes with Walter White, Janet Butler and Deanna Ross (“College presidents worry about ‘brain drain’ as lawmakers cut ...
Your Highness
heir Lowness: 'Your Highness’ quest gets lost in clowny, immature, improvised humor.
Wait. What? David Gordon Green, the edgy arty poster boy for reflective, solemn character studies that peel the veneer away from the American mythos – films such as George Washington and All the Real Girls ...
Rising Sound
Hiroshima re-imagines jazz – and looks to boost Japan.
The Los Angeles-based jazz band Hiroshima – performing at CSU Monterey Bay’s World Theater tonight – was born in the late ’60s after Dan Kuramoto, who was a multi-instrumentalist in an acid rock band, met ...
Screen Savers
Monterey Bay Film Festival lights up minds in Pacific Grove, at CSUMB World Theater.
Revolution is in the air at the fourth annual Monterey Bay Film Festival, which takes place this Friday and Saturday, April 8-9, with a diverse group of offerings from international filmmakers, teen film students and ...
Hot Wheels
The smokingest sport in town, roller derby, readies for a fast-moving rematch in Marina.
Torn stockings, heavy makeup, leopard print undergarments and colorful tattoos blur by. The smacking of polyeurathane wheels echoes off the curving, crosshatched roof. A sell-out crowd pours in from the damp night and fills bleachers ...
Street Talk 03.24.11 (Asked at Carmel Middle School.)
What does “roller derby” make you think?
Follow-up: What would your derby nickname be? LAURA WEINBRENNER | Student | Monterey A: I play field hockey, and it’s like that: A bunch of tough chicks, with sticks as weapons. I’m lookin’ to knock ...
New Carmel Bay Players group presents a masterful 'Some Girl(s)' at Carl Cherry.
New Carmel Bay Players group presents a masterful 'Some Girl(s)' at Carl Cherry.
Playwright Neil LaBute gets labeled a misanthrope and a misogynist because he primarily writes about men who hate their fellow human beings or themselves, and hate or fear or hurt women. It’s probably a credit ...
Squid Fry 04.07.11
Squid Speaks
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE… What’s the name of that book Squid’s been meaning to check out? Ah, that’s it: How to Influence Friends and Win Big Lucrative Contracts. On second thought, Squid should just give Monterey ...
The Deep, the Dark and the Weird
Symposium highlights local marine research with worldwide impacts.
It’s blindingly dark and close to freezing in the Davidson Seamount, a gaping chasm 4,000 to 11,500 feet below the surface of Monterey Bay. Thanks to the photo-snapping, deep-diving robots engineered by scientists at Monterey ...
Base Jumping
7 Orange ABC brings the Acoustic/Electric to Carbone’s.
Keigan Skydecker’s Acoustic/Electric series should find a beautiful beginning in its new Carbone’s home Saturday: It will start out back, near the fire pit, with the Song Preservation Society – an acoustic incarnation of 7 ...
