Bunny Nightmares, Meatball Heroes
Your bizarre dreams manifest in print in our 101-Word Short Story Contest.
In an office where the placement of a comma can cause a fight, imagine the battle that goes on when it comes time to read and select the winners – and the best of the ...
Issues / 2011 / Dec 22
Test For Success
MPC, Hartnell leaders question state task force recs for community colleges.
It’s hard to find an area of California’s infrastructure that’s not facing a bleak future these days. But even as public safety and parks and rec departments take big budget hits, it’s arguably the state’s ...
Frozen Volleyball
A hardy bunch of beach players celebrate 20 years of ‘frosty palm tree’ tournaments in Carmel.
It’s a Saturday in November when a local crew shows up at Carmel Beach wearing costumes which will never be confused with gold medalist Misty May’s beach-volleyball bikini. One guy wears a black beard, a ...
Brezsny's Astrology Dec. 22-28,2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the fictional world of the wizard Harry Potter, muggles are people who have no magical powers. Because of their deficiency, certain sights may be literally invisible to them, and certain ...
By the Numbers: 12-22-11
Real Estate
$865,000 Recent Sale 164 Carmel Riviera Dr., Carmel Highlands Built: 1959 Size: 2,100 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, landscaped yard, large patio, hardwood flooring Seller: Aurora Loan Services Buyer: ...
Turn It to ’11
Tapping a deliciously rock-star year in local food.
It’s not every day that you get to trash talk Thomas Keller. But that’s what tastemaker Robert Weakley of Coastal Luxury Management (324-0771) did last week, after San Francisco Chronicle critic Michael Bauer posted a ...
Letters to the Editor 12-22-11
Duck Tales This is the goofiest town (“Monterey debates future of Alvarado, starting with Mucky Duck,” Dec. 8-14). Does Monterey get that people who choose to live downtown are usually trying to get closer to ...
Salumeria Luca
Feeling Cured: Salumeria Luca unfurls an impressive assemblage of Italian charcuterie, sandwiches and other treats.
The first I heard of Salumeria Luca was from a friend who bought her father a salami sandwich for his birthday. He promptly reported that it transported him back to his native Italy with the ...
Traumatic Arts
Central Coast Center for Independent Living helps victims put a face to traumatic brain injuries.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but some photos do more than share a story. Victims of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) attending a support group at the Central Coast Center For Independent ...
Epics, Artists and Revolutionaries
Touring 10 of the best books of 2011.
They sweep from graphic novels to frontier foodie-ism, from timeless talents reexamined to new breakout authors, from spooky religious investigations to spookier studies of why good looks mean great salaries. You may not be able ...
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo glossier than the Swedish version, but not nearly as good.
As a depressing indicator of Hollywood excess, I haven’t come across a more illuminating one lately than this: Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, the 2009 Swedish film that became an international hit, reportedly cost $13 million ...
Love Lights
One of Monterey County’s most popular acts is back with a New York state of mind.
Local crowds feed off Mike Brandon’s energy like they are eating their first meal in weeks. At rowdy house parties on the CSU Monterey Bay campus, shows at the defunct Monterey Live and rock venues ...
We Bought a Zoo
Bring tissues: You’ll sniffle (happily) at the new Matt Damon vehicle We Bought a Zoo.
Director Cameron Crowe casts a heart-warming cinematic spell that will milk many a tear from its widespread target audience. However calculated to meet the demands of family-friendly holiday movie fare, We Bought a Zoo does ...
Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol
Mission: Impossible gets an action-packed fourth installment, but it’s all been done before.
Perhaps it’s the fact that I just finished reading Jaron Lanier’s counterintuitive but deeply persuasive polemic You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, or maybe I’m just suffering from sequelitis, but my reaction to Ethan ...
Simple Pleasure
The Juncos lay their folksy fundamentals on the Pierce tasting room for free.
The Santa Cruz-based Juncos seem to sense that few musical things can tip people into a feeling of pleasant simplicity like acoustic harmonies, lively string instruments and lyrics about living life. Songs like “Jesus Gonna ...
Limitless Sky
Nico Georis’ Sky Country brings a sweet collage of influences to a special holiday show with Tornado Rider.
Without warning, Eyezon Soweto jumped on stage during Sky Country’s set at the Nacarubi Festival in Big Sur last summer. To listeners it felt as if he was pushed onto the stage by some divine ...
Public Citizen 12-22-11
ONGOING TOY DRIVE | PACIFIC GROVE—Donate new, unwrapped gifts to the Crime Prevention Officers Association’s annual toy drive for families in need this holiday season. Deliver toys 10am-5pm through Dec. 23. Drop off at In ...
Pain in the Asphalt
County investigates itself for alleged illegal dumping at an allegedly illegal dump.
When Joseph Pastore responded to a downed tractor-trailer on Highway 101 one night last month, he saw thousands of gallons of hot asphalt sealant oozing from the tank and flowing down an embankment. Pastore, division ...
Supes sign off on Apple co-founder’s plans for ranchland conservation in Carmel Valley.
Tech investor and the Apple Computer co-founder Armas Clifford “Mike” Markkula, widely regarded as the adult supervision to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the company’s early days, has the county Board of Supervisors’ approval ...
Bright Spots
Public schools are finding learning opportunities in solar energy.
B udget cuts and revenue losses are clouding financial forecasts at schools across California. Yet even as classroom sizes balloon and arts programs wither, one capital-intensive trend is making notable gains: solar power. Locally, private ...
While the world slept, the poor were demonized and the middle class collapsed.
Class happens when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or shared), feel and articulate the identity of their interests as between themselves, and as against other men whose interests are different from ...
Names in the news, and why they matter still.
I admit it. I was jealous. Weekly arts writer/calendar editor Walter Ryce landed some astounding interviews this past year (Cheech Marin the art collector, a strange night on the town with actor Tom Sizemore) and ...
Squid Speaks
A LUMP OF COAL… Squid’s making a list, Squid’s checking it twice. That’s right, Squid-a-Claus is coming to town. Squid’s got a bundle of gift certificates: for Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado, endless double-doubles from In ...
Street Talk 12-22-11
What do you like to do when the weather gets cold?
Follow-up: What do you avoid? BERNIE RICHTER | Nonprofit Worker | Santa Cruz A: Get under the covers and watch a movie. I like to watch documentaries. Nature and science, especially. Truth in Advertising: Buy ...
Puppet Upgrade
Paper Wing’s racy, irreverent, Tony-winning Avenue Q does Sesame Street one better.
Racism has not been this funny since Chappelle’s Show. And not just racism, but homosexuality, urbanity, profanity and reality. As a result Avenue Q has deservedly won itself three Tonys with its zeitgeist-tapping, coming-of-age, musical ...
