Pour Some Spreckels on Me
If you must invade Monterey County’s singular company town, follow the rules.
In Spreckels, the hiccup of an agrarian town outside Salinas with 16 square blocks and zero main streets, there are seemingly as many rules as there are households (229). Rules like those outside the brick ...
Spreckels’ Star Turn
The longtime local chef with a plus-size personality takes to TV.
Chef Todd Fisher can appear to be everywhere at once, with a source of protein nearby. One moment he’s celebrating the Fourth with his family in their hometown Spreckels, the next he’s helping prep things ...
Issues / 2012 / June 28
Yoga’s New Flow
The latest wave in a genre swimming with them: paddleboard yoga.
Given that a standard Lululemon yoga tank top costs $52, it can seem a little ironic that “Friends are more important than money” stares out from the center of the wildly popular workout retailer’s mission ...
Brezsny's Astrology June 28-July 4, 2012
Free
ARIES (March 21-April 19): If you play solitaire, your luck will be crazy strong in the coming weeks. If you have candid, wide-ranging talks with yourself in the mirror, the revelations are likely to be ...
Bacon is Boss
A reminder that crisp pig is crucial, as are better Aquarium restaurant hours.
The other day Sticks chef Todd Fisher made sweet tastebud love to something called “Millionaire’s Bacon.” They make it at Sweet Maple in San Francisco’s Japantown (415-655-9169) – super-thick-cut stuff, almost a quarter pound a ...
Courthouse Café
Guilty Pleasure: Sworn testimony that The Courthouse Café offers arresting eats.
Going to court has never been something I really dreamed of. Something about “felony” and me in the same sentence makes me lose my appetite. After a couple of visits to the Courthouse Café, though, ...
Letters To The Editor 6.28.12
HEARTLESS RIVER I had to laugh after reading your article on the Carmel River a couple of weeks ago (“The Carmel River is a wisp of its former self, but hope is around the bend,” ...
Magic Mike
It’s Got No Clothes: Magic Mike is short on magic character development and nudity.
For a movie about guys taking their clothes off, Magic Mike is rather tame, and rather dull. Magic it certainly ain’t. Though the general consensus among fans seems to be that this is a film ...
Ted
Ted Conference: Seth McFarlane’s teddy bear pic has Family Guy fun, but still feels like it’s been done.
In a lesser universe, this story of the misadventures of a miraculous, talking teddy bear and his human, 35-year-old best friend forever might have featured Adam Sandler (as the voice of the bear) and Jim ...
Twang Thang
An Evening of Bluegrass brings seasoned pros and talented locals to Pacific Grove Art Center.
David Grier’s father Lamar played banjo with the Bluegrass Boys in the mid-’60s alongside the legendary Bill Monroe. But Grier doesn’t make a big deal about growing up surrounded by bluegrass gods. “It’s just like ...
Tribal Stomp
Twenty versatile acts gather on a South Coast mountaintop for two days of music, dancing and camping.
Just getting to the remote site where the annual Nacarubi Music Festival kicks off on Friday is a feat. Once you’re there, it’s like finding gold at the end of a rainbow. In this case ...
Songwriter Royalty
Lucinda Williams builds on a rep as one of the greatest of a generation at Henry Miller in Big Sur.
After a career that’s included 18 Grammy nominations – and three wins – and the title “America’s Best Songwriter” from Time in 2002, finishing a new song is still more gratifying for Lucinda Williams than ...
Parks Pardoned
Big Sur state parks, Moss Landing surf spot spared in eleventh-hour deals.
UPDATE 6/28 5:20pm: The freshly signed state budget has allocated enough funding to keep all of the parks on the closure list open, according to State Parks Monterey District Superintendent Mat Fuzie. Don’t cry for ...
Battle for Fort Ord Real Estate
Del Rey Oaks keeps trying to quit a jilted, but stubborn, resort developer.
As cities across the state face huge debts in the wake of their dissolved redevelopment agencies, tiny Del Rey Oaks is pursuing a luxury project on the former Fort Ord. “We got lucky on this ...
Alvarado Al Fresco
Monterey trials downtown revamp, with street seating in place of parking spots.
Henry Ruhnke imagines a stroll through downtown Monterey, past cafes with outdoor patios. He looks wistfully at photos of the quaint dirt roads that once formed Alvarado Street and Calle Principal, though those were paved ...
Seaside police chief takes pay cut, adds P.G. workload.
Seaside is dealing with a serious rise in gang violence, but Police Chief Vicki Meyers says the city’s deal to share her with Pacific Grove won’t hinder those efforts. “I believe this will enhance police ...
Rippling Impacts
Residents of Carmel Valley public-housing complex allege mismanagement.
Rain Johnston stands outside the apartment that was her home until just 30 minutes ago, fidgeting with a miniature American flag. The management shut her out, she says, before she could get her medications for ...
Artistic Explosion
CSU Summer Arts unloads a month of improv, animation, art, theater and film on Monterey County.
There’s a flood of arts and culture coming to the Peninsula, and its headwaters are building up at CSU Monterey Bay. The California State University system’s Summer Arts program, which began in 1986 and has ...
Tea Party-backed effort threatens California voter rolls.
Threaten to curb someone’s right to own a gun in the state of Florida and you’re likely to provoke a war – you’ll be threatened, castigated, called un-American. You’ll have to pry that gun from ...
Rocking On
Local teen climber Val Hooper finds mental balance by dangling from steep stones.
Halfway up the Cuidado face on the west side of Pinnacles National Monument, rocks break off under Val Hooper’s fingers. She’s sport climbing with her coach Charles Schrammel, and already a few hundred feet up ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 6.28.12
ONGOING RECOGNIZING PEACEMAKERS | COUNTYWIDE – Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, is accepting nominations for the California Peace Award. Recommend local leaders who make their community more peaceful. July 24 deadline. 759-8676, www.asmdc.org/members/a28/peaceawards. VOLUNTEER WITH SENIORS ...
Squid Speaks
THE LAST DROP… Squid once drank a few too many sips of Kool-Aid and felt, yes, hope for Barack Obama. But Squid’s natural cynicism was restored soon after the 2008 elections, and Squid saw right ...
Street Talk 06.28.12 (asked @ GameStop in Monterey.)
What is your most unique hidden talent or skill?
Follow-up: What superpower would you give the president? CHRIS FUGATE | Night Auditor | Pacific Grove A: I can sound exactly like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. Power Pledge: The superpower to stick to his ...
