Thursday, June 25
An exhibit at Monterey Museum of Art pays tribute to one of MoCo's most recognized--and unknown--local artists.
One of Monterey County''s most ubiquitous artists is finally getting some recognition. From the statue of Father Junipero Serra at the intersection in Carmel where Serra Avenue, Portola Road, and Guadalupe Street collide, to the ...
Pared down, but still the only street theater in town.
Pac Rep''s TheatreFest, which opens this Saturday in Monterey''s Custom House Plaza, has been bringing free street theater to the public for 15 straight summers. There have been a lot of changes along the way. ...
Bird Of Paradise/oak Deli
Cheese cubes, unidentified deep-fried dough balls, carrot and celery sticks with ranch dressing--if you've attended a gathering with a couple of hundred people, you've no doubt dined in such a manner. "A lot of times, ...
Kevin Cain, lighting designer for MPC's Mr. Whatnot, brings a world of experience back to MoCo.
If you go see Mr. Whatnot, opening this weekend at Monterey Peninsula College, look up at the lights. You''ll see almost twice as many lighting instruments hung in front of the proscenium as you''d see ...
Synergistic Matrix Tandy Beal and Phil Collins create a dynamic program.
Sometimes synergy seems equal in importance to talent. With results clearly beyond the sum of their parts, dancer Tandy Beal, musician Phil Collins, and the Santa Cruz-based ensembles they lead, wowed a small audience at ...
What's really left of the old Cannery Row, and what will happen to the rest?
It''s nothing new to talk about the need to preserve historic sites on Monterey''s Cannery Row. The city and local preservationists have been struggling with that problem at least since the last sardine canneries closed ...
Steinbeck's gift to us may be a strong sense of where we live.
Even people who don''t consider themselves readers read Steinbeck, a man who wove poetry from the lives of ordinary men and women, and art from the green hills of Salinas and the gray/blue waters of ...
Dance offers gay teens a chance to enjoy their own version of an adolescent ritual.
At first glance, it looks like your average high school dance. Nervous-looking teenagers dressed in hip outfits lean against the walls, trying to look cool as they watch a group of their peers gyrate to ...
Schedule of Events
Friday 6:30pm Grand Opening Gala. Champagne and hors d''oeuvres in exhibit gallery, themed food stations in ballroom for strolling dinner, music provided by pianist Jonathon Lee and the Hartnell Jazz Band. $150/person. Saturday 9:30am Grand ...
Kid Picks
You*th Theater If there's a child in your family, aged 6-11, with a burning desire to act with the professionals, then this is the opportunity you're waiting for. "We are specifically giving them some theater ...
Imagine There's No Lamb Chop
If you''re trying to substitute zucchini for lamb, it''s guaranteed that imagination will be the biggest ingredient in every recipe. And while you''re not ever going to talk somebody into squash if they''re licking their ...
The 13th annual Monterey Bay Blues Festival charts a course back toward mainstream blues.
If you''re looking at this year''s Monterey Bay Blues Festival schedule and thinking that it looks bluesier than ever, you''re right. According to MBBF''s selection committee chairman Lee Durley, the lineup for this year''s festival ...
National Steinbeck Center--Heeere's Johnny!
At long last, the National Steinbeck Center opens this week in Salinas. Will tourists flock to see our county''s most famous literary son? That depends on who''s asked. Gerhard Beuttler and M. Maltzahn Ages: 59 ...
Cashing in on Steinbeck
Of Price and Men The cards have been dealt and the money is on the table. The city of Salinas now must wait to see whether celebrating John Steinbeck as a native son is enough ...
(Or boozy, skirt-chaser makes it big in books.)
Steinbeck. Steinbeck! I never wanna hear that name again. Thus spoke one of my English teacher colleagues as he was leaving the Peninsula for a job down south. His tone was a mixture of relief ...
Letters
Article Disappointing "Sources say" if you writers at CW put a little more time into finding yourselves than trying to find gossip to print, the world would be a better place. In regard to your ...
Director Steven Soderbergh captures the feel and attitude of Elmore Leonard's story about a hard-time thief.
Finally, a film adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel that really captures that author''s seedy, South Floridian love of small-time hoods and big-time losers. Granted, Jackie Brown mined similar territory some months back, but director ...
Ganging Up on Civil Rights--Are Salinas injunctions to stop gang activity fair?
Under our Constitution, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The city of Salinas is trying to turn the presumption of innocence around by suing 63 people to prevent them from standing, sitting, or walking ...
How will a new regulation affect jade collecting?
An exception to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary''s blanket ban on jade collection along our protected coastline is due to be signed this week, but locals aren''t sure if it represents a loosening or ...
Music: Play and Work--Workin' in the city, learnin' from success and playin' at the Fairgrounds.
It''s been another one of those crazy weekends running all over the place observing musicians at work. I always feel a little sheepish about using the word "play," even though it''s what you hear all ...
Ch-ch-ch-Changes--Both Morgan's Coffee and Tea and The World Music Festival reveal transformations.
Do all good things come to an end? Of course not. Sometimes they mutate. In the case of Morgan''s Coffee and Tea, owner Morgan Christopher announced earlier this week that this will be his last ...
Thursday, June 18
A planned arts marathon hopes to convey Hatton Canyon's unique beauty to a broader audience.
Those of us who have walked through Hatton Canyon already know that it''s pretty as a picture--and know there''s more than one reason to fight for its survival. For those who haven''t ever ventured up ...
Controversial group says men should be able to opt out of unexpected parenting.
Deadbeat dads look just like you and me. Then again, so do many murderers, robbers and rapists. So when you meet a deadbeat dad and he tells you a sad story, are you allowed to ...
Pacific Repertory Theater's production of a new translation has almost everything to recommend it.
There are many things to recommend Pacific Repertory Theater''s current production of Cyrano. First, there''s John Wells'' new adaptation of Edmond Rostand''s original script (in French, from 1897) which smooths out some of the rough ...
Monterey Boy Scouts and gay rights' activists face off over city-funded building repair.
Should the city of Monterey spend $52,000 in public taxpayer money to repair a building it leases to the Boy Scouts of America, a private organization that excludes gays and atheists? That''s the question being ...
Squid's Squibs
June 11, 2:45pm Squid here, on location at the National Ocean Conference, feeling duped. Contrary to my nature, I was ready to disregard the cynics and embrace Congressman Sam Farr''s promise that "this conference is ...
An enigma wrapped in a conundrum sealed in a vapor-lock baggie that--surprise!--actually makes some sense.
In the five years since creator Chris Carter brought his conspiracy-laden, UFOlogist''s dream-come-true television show to the Fox network, the ongoing saga of FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson)--he of ...
Father's Day Without A Father--What any man with a few spare hours can do to help.
Father''s Day. Many dads are getting the full treatment: tickets to a Giants game, furry Uggs, even breakfast in bed. Lucky dads, getting their hugs from lucky children! The way things ought to be. And ...
Will Whole Foods be a shoppers'' paradise, or another link in the chain gang?
When Whole Foods Market opens its 87th store in the Del Monte Center on June 24, will the event simply be another example of another corporate giant, swooping in to "crush the competition," as founder ...
Singin' Their Songs--Three very different singer/ songwriter shows this week offer a wide range of music.
There are really three singer-songwriter shows this weekend that you don''t want to miss: Amilia K. Spicer, Lucy Kaplansky and Bryan Kelley. Trying to describe almost any of the many singer/songwriter types who come through ...
By Catherine Coburn
Noun, verb or adjective, "barbecue" is intrinsically American. It doesn''t matter whether you''re eating it, doing it or just got a hankering for your favorite style of chicken, beef, fish, or zucchini. It''s a curious ...
The Monterey Rock&Art Festival enters its second year buoyed by enthusiasm.
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. The second annual Monterey Rock&Art Festival lives, thank you very much. "We''re going full force," says Blake Mallory, brother and band-mate of festival promoter Uncle Jam (Brad Mallory). "We''re ...
Acoustic Alchemy Returns--Despite death of co-founder Nick Webb, Greg Carmichael and friends keep music alive.
The lilting beauty of the steel-string guitar melody, melded with a warm cushion of nylon-string guitar accompaniment and filled achingly with the understated drum and bass lines in the song "Vapour Trails" on Acoustic Alchemy''s ...
Father's Day--Dear Old Dad
Although Father''s Day isn''t as widely celebrated as Mother''s Day, families will gather on Sunday for picnics and dinners and perhaps even buy gifts. For some, however, Father''s Day won''t be celebratory at all. Today, ...
New Takemitsu--Late Japanese composer remembered in two new CD releases.
Among contemporary film composers, few are as admired by their peers as Toru Takemitsu. Indeed, he was one of only three composers to get his own dedicated documentary in Music for the Movies, the comprehensive ...
Ye Admiral Benbow Tavern
If Robert Louis Stevenson were hanging around downtown Monterey, he'd likely wander into the Admiral Benbow to enjoy a Cornish pasty and a pint. The tavern takes its name from Stevenson''s tale of the fabulous ...
Cannery Row's historic designation won't stop the wrecking ball.
While local preservationists and historians hailed this week''s announcement by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, placing Cannery Row on its 1998 list of the country''s 11 most endangered historic sites, the designation in and ...
"fathers' Rights" Means More, Not Less, Time With Your Kids.
Most Fathers'' Rights organizations in this country are working to increase--rather than decrease--fathers'' involvement in their children''s lives. They advocate a man''s right to be a better father, not a man''s right not to be ...
Letters
Re: "Collision Course" Enjoyed the June 11 article by Richard Pitnick. The June 24 meeting is scheduled to be held at the Hyatt Regency from 10am to 1pm. Please note that only one PUC commissioner ...
Gillian Anderson talks about her character, the series and the movie.
Positioned beneath the bob of red hair, the sparkling blues eyes and the aquiline nose, it shines, the Smile. Yes, Gillian Anderson, 29, who plays dour Dana Scully on TV''s "The X-Files'''' can flash her ...
County, labor pressure area hospitals to lower some of the highest rates in the nation.
Faced with an employee health insurance plan profusely bleeding red ink because of high hospital costs, Monterey County is putting together a managed care plan that demands lower hospital rates. As the county''s biggest employer, ...
Thursday, June 11
Bluegrass With a Twist Czechoslovakian, North Carolinian, and Panama Red-ian bluegrass dominates music this week.
Let''s start with bluegrass, there''s a lot of it around here this week. The state-of-the-art Media Room plays host to a pair of bluegrass-ish concerts this week: On Friday, Druh Tr va, a quintet of ...
A series of 12 short trips that can reclaim the joys of summers when you had a real vacation.
Remember when summer vacation meant three months off? When the last day of school was filled with the promise of lazy days and hanging out with friends, and adventure was just around the corner? When ...
Culinary Paths
Sticking to your principles is a thing to be admired. Whether you insist on the purity of ground, drained and pressed soybean curd for your personal protein allotment, or you whoop in excitement at the ...
The Truman Show is a pretty good movie. But would you ever want to watch it again?
Question: Is The Truman Show really the subversive film that all the advance hype would have us believe? Or is it merely this season''s way of spelling Gump? Answer: It''s a little of both, though ...
Pornophony on Video--Dark production of Richard Strauss'' Salome has a little of everything.
Richard Strauss'' opera Salome, based on the Oscar Wilde story, made the composer rich enough to buy his spacious villa at Garmisch. Already adept at exhibiting such family values as sexual relations between a grown ...
Holiday Heaven--Summer Time!
Yes summer is finally here, and Monterey County residents are looking forward to a scarce season of sun-drenched days along the coast. Could it really be time to relax and soak up some ultraviolet rays? ...
OmBUDDIES program joins seniors and kids in a bond that transcends years.
Ask OmBUDDIES what they like about the program and they all have only one thing to say: everything. Once a week OmBUDDIES get together, seniors in nursing homes and assisted living facilities and kids, mostly ...
Cut this out, tape it to your refrigerator, or mark your personal calendar. There's something for everyone this summer.
June 12-14 Old Monterey Sidewalk Arts Festival. Downtown Alvarado Street is lined with booths, featuring hand-crafted sculpture, painting and ceramics. Also held in August. Monterey. 655-8070 20 Monterey Rock & Art Festival. A music and ...
Lighthouse Bistro
If you're one of those people who likes to read menus like other people read novels, you'll find that the menu at Lighthouse Bistro is tantamount to the New York Times list of best sellers. ...
Letters
Squid Got It Right Squid stepped on the water district's "tale." Their letter last week trying to claim that they want public input directly contradicts a long track record of District actions. In the past ...
The dream of a multi-pronged approach to arts splits up.
If change is good for the soul, then the three spirits gallery in Sand City should have achieved nirvana by now. It appears that the earthly trinity has split, and each fragment is struggling to ...
Plenty to choose from when it comes to summer theater fare around Monterey County.
Summer''s the time when the local theaters move into high gear, offering fairy tales in the great outdoors, Gypsy in Monterey and Salinas, a little Steinbeck, some Shakespeare and lots of stuff for kids. Without ...
Living in paradise may be expensive but there are enough free things you can do to make up for it.
Yeah, yeah. We''ve all heard it again and again: Living in Paradise is expensive. But there are also a ton of things you can do around here that cost nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. All it ...
Dark Skies, Dark Vision--The gray skies haunting MoCo seem appropriate harbingers for a punk concert.
When I talk about the weather in this column, I usually refer to how the sun came out, summer is here, everyone is happy. Baloney. It''s all a ruse. The world is a gray place. ...
Expect new surcharges when you visit national parks this summer.
With the recreation season unfolding across California and beyond, outdoor enthusiasts should brace themselves for broadening surcharges affixed to Mother Nature. Such is the new reality forged by the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, a mandate ...
Blue and Green--This week's National Oceans Conference is an opportunity to showcase environmentalism.
I was dismayed to read your coverage of the National Oceans Conference in the June 4 edition. Your paper missed the point of the conference entirely: This conference is about substance; it is about protecting ...
Blundering and Plundering
County Class Clash It''s finally becoming clear why the 450 attorneys and managers who work for Monterey County are squawking over changes in the county health insurance plan. As reported here a couple weeks back, ...
A new 90-photograph exhibit matches the diversity of local photographers' group.
You want diversity? You got it. The Image Makers, an informal group of 44 local photographers, is opening "Collective Visions," an exhibit of 90 photographs at the Pacific Grove Art Center on Friday. According to ...
Relations between Cal-Am and water district to be tested at June PUC hearings.
To hear officials with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (MPWMD) tell it, all is smooth sailing between the district and the California-American Water Co. (Cal-Am), at least in regard to the processing of Cal-Am''s ...
Thursday, June 4
Jose's Mexican Food
Neither fire nor flood can hold the carnitas at bay--not if you're Marco Maldanado and burritos are your business. The electrical fire that sent Maldanado on sabbatical for almost an entire year now seems to ...
The Wharf Theater depends on outside productions and lavish musicals.
Ah, those grand old musicals. Cabaret. Oliver. Bye, Bye, Birdie. Cabaret...again. Think musicals around here, and you don''t have to think further than Monterey''s Wharf Theater. Sure, MPC, Hartnell, PacRep and the Outdoor Forest Theater ...
Food providers look to new sources to feed the hungry in Salinas.
"Just because people are farmworkers doesn''t mean they have access to food," Luis Sierra, food-security project coordinator for the Rural Development Center (RDC) in Salinas, told a coalition of representatives from social service organizations serving ...
Kid Picks
8monday Camp for Kids Remember day camp? Singing goofy songs, making s'mores, getting poison oak--what more could a kid want? The city of Seaside has a whole new take on day camp. "Sea Otters, Sea ...
New photo exhibit highlights the intimacy of art.
At a time when art needs to scream to be heard above the cultural din, there is something to be said about imagery that beckons with a whisper. Local art photographer Claire Lerner''s current exhibit ...
Cool Jazz, Hot Rock--Sultry Denise Perrier sings, Daniel Krasner debuts, One Stupid Punk presents.
With a voice as sultry as a summer afternoon on the bayou of her homestate of Louisiana, Denise Perrier has the ability to steam up a room. So, bring along some cool refreshments and someone ...
The Cowboy Way--For The Sons of the San Joaquin, cowboy music offers insights into a better way of living.
"I''m the cowboy of the group," says Jack Hannah, singer/guitarist/songwriter of the Sons of the San Joaquin. "The other guys ride once in a while but I do cowboy work all the time. I break ...
Hungarian Rhapsodized--Sir Georg Solti's final recording soars.
Last summer, barely two months before his sudden death at age 85, Georg Solti made his final recordings, with the Budapest Festival orchestra and choirs. Like the program itself, the occasion was a personal homecoming ...
Not much of the ocean conference is open to the public.
Wanna take part in the National Ocean Conference, and watch the country''s top ocean experts confer with the county''s top political leaders? Well, you can''t. Sorry. But the invite-only conference is being followed up by ...
MAC Attack--Monterey businesses say "yes" to arts, historic preservation and no to MAC.
If we are to believe last week''s tirade on the Monterey City Council by Morgan Christopher ("Public Forum," May 28), then we would have to believe that we are led by a council of artistically ...
Is the National Ocean Conference a chance to save the seas or just a podium for politically palatable platitudes?
President Bill Clinton will arrive in Monterey to proclaim his support for oceans on June 12, the day after Vice President Al Gore earnestly listens to testimony from the sea of experts assembled at the ...
Viva Tequila
You tried rubbing cabbage juice on your forehead. Then you sucked on a sugar cube drizzled with clove oil. Then you even gingerly attempted quaffing a cocktail of boiled and strained banana peels--all to no ...
The conference as viewed from the left.
One of the most cynical eyes watching the self-congratulatory formation of the National Ocean Conference is that of Capt. Paul Watson, a radical ocean activist who helped found Greenpeace before pursuing an even more bold ...
Carmel Valley's real-life "horse whisperer" helps human and horse to develop better ways to interact.
For once, Hollywood wasn''t too far off the mark. In The Horse Whisperer, Robert Redford portrays Tom Booker, a man gifted with an almost uncanny ability to understand, and communicate with, horses. Although these "horse ...
Director Neil Jordan captures the horror and the humor of Patrick McCabe's surreal coming-of-age novel.
Deeply tragic yet savagely funny, The Butcher Boy is an audacious account of a troubled and violent childhood. Set in a small rural town in Ireland in the early 1960s, the story was adapted for ...
Is the National Ocean Conference a chance to save the seas or just a podium for politically palatable platitudes?
President Bill Clinton will arrive in Monterey to proclaim his support for oceans on June 12, the day after Vice President Al Gore earnestly listens to testimony from the sea of experts assembled at the ...
Sonne sneaks in, Pennycook sweeps District 2 as primary '98 tallies close.
In a stunning blow to conventional wisdom, challenger Gordon Sonne this week defied Norm Hicks'' incumbent advantage and huge campaign war chest to become Monterey County''s newest sheriff. But incumbency and campaign contributions easily won ...
Bread and Nutter
Nutter Buttered During his 26-year reign as Monterey County''s agricultural commissioner, Richard Nutter has been the farmers'' best friend, so it''s no surprise that he is being fted at a high-priced send-off party by the ...
National Oceans Conference--Spotlighting the Oceans
The National Oceans Conference, to be held right here in Monterey, is approaching. All the hot-shots will be present, from that bad boy Clinton, to Sam Farr and other local representatives. Local marine research institutes ...
CW tries to track down the environmental VP.
It began before I arrived at Coast Weekly, with letters and calls to the White House. We wanted to interview Vice President Al Gore, the environmental crusader, the main official ear at the National Ocean ...
Letters
Not So Limited The "Squid Fry" column in the May 14 edition gave the inaccurate impression that the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District has limited participation in its citizens conservation committee to certain groups. The ...
