The Boomerang Roomie
An essay on living at home, with the ’rents, when that wasn’t part of the plan.
Every morning I wake up at 6am to a coffee grinder. It’s triggered by my roommate. And my roommate is my mother. I am five years out of high school and one year out of ...
Issues / 2012 / Sept 06
Stirring Straw
A gifted pair of Mesoamerican artists bring a stunning and unique Aztec art to market.
A woman wanders through the Old Monterey Marketplace on a Tuesday afternoon, her eyes moving quickly from handcrafted jewelry stands to a Jamaican food truck. Suddenly she stops, turns around and walks a few paces ...
Brezsny's Astrology September 6-12, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Life tests you all the time. Sometimes its prods and queries are hard and weird; they come at you with non-stop intensity. On other occasions the riddles and lessons are pretty ...
By The Numbers 9.06.12
Real Estate
$735,000 Recent Sale 262 Watson St., Monterey Built: 1900 Size: 1,890 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car carport Amenities: Fireplace, tub with jets, loft, partial basement, fenced yard, automatic sprinkler system Seller: Michael ...
Rockin’ Oatmeal
Haulin’ Oats’ mosh pit of organic morning-flavor-in-a-jar earns rabid fans.
Historically, when you woke up on the frumpy side of the futon, the Callin’ Oates Hotline was there. You could ring 719-266-2837 and the options – and your optimism – opened up: Press 1 to ...
Grape Caper
Exploring one local winemaker’s obsession with local grapes.
Winemaker Ian Brand’s favorite task is to drive down dirt roads and knock on doors whenever he spots rows of unfamiliar grapevines. With permission granted he “pokes around in the soil to see what’s going ...
On the Level
The Monterey Bay Film Festival bursts with leading minority and upcoming student filmmakers.
How many black filmmakers can you name? I can think of Spike Lee, Charles Burnett (check him out), Gordon Parks, Forest Whitaker, Tyler Perry, the Hughes Brothers, John Singleton. Um. That’s about it. Why does ...
Letters To The Editor 9.06.12
Hey Squid I take exception to your “Pants Off Dance Off” column calling Republicans “dumbasses” (“Squid Fry,” Aug. 23-29). You should be corrected: Anyone with intelligence would recognize “dumb elephants”; dumbasses are Democrats!! Thank you ...
The Cold Light of Day
Turn Off This Light: Henry Cavill’s pretty face isn’t enough to save lackluster The Cold Light of Day.
The Cold Light of Day! Brought to you by the Madrid Film Tax Credit Production Office and the Society for the Promotion of Henry Cavill as the Next Big Thing! What’s that? You’ve never heard ...
The Words
Borrowed Words: There’s nothing writerly in this bland psychological thriller about writers stealing from other writers.
For a film about writers, The Words isn’t particularly well written. Scripted and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, the movie features a familiar plot: A struggling novelist stumbles on an unpublished manuscript and ...
Lips Service
Flaming Lips’ multi-instrumental songwriting-talent Steven Drozd on Terror and six-hour songs.
The perpetual circus that is the Flaming Lips is more than just music. After nearly 30 years, the Oklahoma natives continue to unleash psychedelic electro-pop – including masterpieces like Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and ...
Next Level
Ziggy Marley proves he doesn’t need to ride on his father’s coattails in more ways than one.
Sometimes it seems Ziggy Marley’s creative juices could fill the Grand Canyon: He’s not just a prolific singer and songwriter, he’s the guy behind Coco’Mon flavored organic coconut oils, he founded the charity U.R.G.E. (Unlimited ...
Head Count
Community colleges juggle student budget formulas with further cuts looming.
The state budget could be a useful math lesson for community college students – but only those left after cuts reduce seats in the classroom. Monterey Peninsula College has lost 1,440 state-funded slots for full-time ...
Improving Grades
Monterey County’s students make steady gains on state tests.
Monterey County’s public K-12 students are still performing below state averages. But County Superintendent of Schools Nancy Kotowski says there’s reason to feel good about the latest California High School Exit Exam and Standardized Testing ...
Homeward Bound
A rise in homeless students outpaces new shelter and transitional housing options.
United Way packed 1,465 donated backpacks with binders, pens and pencils as part of the nonprofit’s Stuff The Bus campaign this summer. But it’s not enough to equip even half of Monterey County’s homeless students ...
Women’s Art Caucus conference brings feminist edge to Salinas.
When the College Art Association appointed an all-male board in 1972, women arts students organized what would become the Women’s Caucus for Art, a nonprofit dozens of chapters strong. WCA’s regional Honoring Women’s Rights Conference ...
Rethinking Higher Ed
As CSUMB launches into a self-assessment, interim president strives to cozy up to the community.
IIt’s SWOT time at CSU Monterey Bay. The two-day exercise—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats—started Wednesday, Sept. 5. It’s the first step toward updating the university’s strategic plan and achieving Interim President Eduardo Ochoa’s goal of identifying ...
The GOP ambitions under the Romney/Ryan facade.
I’d been in Tampa for all of 15 minutes, and I was already late for something. Of course, I knew that the real Republican National Convention would occur far from the klieg lights and sound ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 9.06.12
ONGOING CODING POWER | SALINAS – CoderDojo invites young geeks to share what they’re working on and learn how to develop websites, apps, games and more. 10am-1pm every other Saturday beginning Sept. 8. Hartnell College ...
Squid Fry 9.06.12
Squid Speak Spoken Here
OFF THE RAILS… With all the blubbering Mitt Romney admirers were doing at the RNC, oohing and aahing over slideshows of Mittens’ baby photos, Squid was inspired to pull out Squidlet scrapbooks from long ago. ...
Street Talk 09.06.12 (asked @ Wild Goose Cafe in Carmel Valley.)
What work of art best reflects your identity?
Follow-up: What cafe snack would you be? ERIKA RAY | Dyslexia Foundation | Carmel Valley Q: Rembrandt’s “The Prodigal Son.” It’s the story of someone who strayed from spiritual life but returned and is forgiven. ...
Animal Intensity
Edward Albee’s absurd The Zoo Story emerges well-acted and engaging at Stardust Playhouse
Simplicity is the key to Stardust Playhouse’s The Zoo Story. Armed with nothing more than a park bench, a few leaves and a crudely-painted backdrop of New York’s Central Park, the Monterey theater leaves the ...
The Raw Deal
Unpasteurized milk is fresher and tastes better. It might even do your body good – if it doesn’t make you sick.
I stuck my head out the back door and took a desperate gulp of fresh bay air. Holding my breath, I knelt back down on the newspaper spread on my kitchen floor and willed myself ...
