Thursday, September 24
The 10th annual Monterey County Artists Studio Tour offers opportunity to meet local artists.
All too often, art is seen as a product, a commodity hanging on a shop wall, waiting for a new owner. There''s little chance of the buyer ever making contact with the artist who created ...
In Other News...
The Mayor and the Model Carmel Mayor Ken White wants to know why the $65,000 Caltrans model of the proposed Hatton Canyon Freeway is available for private parties, while his repeated requests to host the ...
Summerhouse
Carmel Valley is the kind of place that for years just sort of kept its own pace. Quiet and sleepy used to describe it; these days it's better characterized as wide-awake and bustling along. And ...
What is Up? For the second week in a row there's more good music in town than you can see.
Shazam!! It's like a slumbering, powerful beast awakening after a long summer's nap! The local music scene is rearing up with power and gl...uh...sorry, I got carried away. But for the second week in a ...
Local actor Michael Jacobs rounds out those tricky vowels.
Got a heavy Brooklyn accent? Can''t wrap your tongue around an "ing?" Give Michael Jacobs a call. Jacobs, one of our area''s finest actors, is also one of the handful of local theater folk who ...
Letters
Addendum to Scott I read with interest an article by Scott MacClelland, entitled "Musical Milestones, a look at where classical music has been and is going in the Monterey County area," which was printed in ...
Kid Picks
3/saturday Monarchs, Munchkins and Masked Men If you're a P.G. parent, you've no doubt been there before, but if you're not, the "aww" factor alone merits a trip to watch the 59th Annual Butterfly Parade. ...
Marina candidates focus on planning, growth and getting along.
If a genie had washed up on the beach in a bottle, rambled down Reservation Road and granted the city three wishes, Marina couldn''t have asked for more. With the promise of potential growth as ...
Developers present initial plans for Armstrong Ranch.
After half a century of anticipation, the development of Armstrong Ranch--the largest piece of privately owned, undeveloped land in Marina''s sphere of influence--is apparently off and running. At last week''s Marina City Council meeting--attended by ...
Darren Aronofsky's low-budget sci-fi flick is like a full-bore panic attack.
Brilliant, surreal, and emotionally draining, this first feature from American Film Institute grad Darren Aronofsky recalls such low-budget sci-fi epics as Tetsuo: The Iron Man and more traditional paranoiac suspense films (Adrian Lyne''s Jacob''s Ladder ...
Restaurant Buzz
Easy come, easy go. Or so it would seem, in the capricious world of the restaurant business. Ask the people who are in it and they''ll tell you it''s not for the money, it''s just ...
Jazz Fest Hangover--Memories of the festival remain but must make room for this week's music.
It was ''round midnight Sunday when powerhouse Ray Drummond''s All-Star Excursion Band roared its final chord, signaling the end to the 41st Monterey Jazz Festival. Drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith drove the band ferociously all the ...
Above the Curve--Students happy with CSUMB
Unconventional programs, elite faculty, and interaction between teachers and students are the hallmarks of CSUMB-and that''s what the university community wants, it seems. By and large, the school got above-average marks from the students we ...
A thought-provoking tour leads walkers through 5 billion years of history in less than one mile.
"...A severed hand is an ugly thing, and man dissevered from the Earth and stars and his history--for contemplation or in fact--often appears atrociously ugly..." --"Not Man Apart," Robinson Jeffers Almost five billion years ago, ...
Finding Quality--It isn't always easy to hear the best of the new composers--until after they're dead.
If you wanted to get to the wheat of new music without sifting through all the chaff, how would you do it? Be assured there are ways but unfortunately you won''t find much help. A ...
A critical look at Cal State University Monterey Bay--is CSUMB meeting its own goals?
"Dr. Smith''s overall strategy for building a strong university is to establish that it is first and foremost the questions that drive an educational institution''s quality of evolution, not necessarily traditional answers." --from the CSUMB ...
Bassist/composer--and former Seaside resident--wrote suite for Jazz Festival.
When Ray Drummond composes for his All-Star Excursions band, it''s like trying to solve a musical riddle. "One of the questions I''m trying to answer with the band is what might have happened if we''d ...
Pacific Grove City Council race revolves around priorities and personalities.
To hear incumbent Pacific Grove City Councilmembers Robert Huitt and Steven Honegger tell it, the city, like a well-oiled music box, is tinkling along nicely. Sure, maybe the city needs a minor tuning but, overall, ...
Literacy Comes Home--Basic skills programs on laptops make all the difference for struggling adults.
For the past two years, I have been coordinator of an innovative new program at the Monterey Adult School called the Basic Skills on Computer Program. This program is designed to help adults improve their ...
Thursday, September 17
Keep It Clean--Here's a chance to do something about trash on the beach.
Coastal Clean-up Day, which takes place this Saturday, is the largest volunteer effort in the world. Over 92 countries and 55 U.S. territories participate in this event, now in its 14th year. In 1997, over ...
Vocal Workshops--I Cantori di Carmel offers workshops for singers.
Editor''s Note: Things are really crowded in the paper this week; Scott''s column will return to it''s usual length next week. I Cantori di Carmel has announced a series of four vocal workshops to be ...
Raining, Pouring From country to blues to contemporary folk and beyond, this week's a music lover's dream.
They say when it rains, it pours. And you''d be hard pressed to find a musical weekend that proves the adage more succinctly than this one does. Let''s take things in order--and briefly. First, tonight, ...
Your Right to Know
Time for a Change? When we last left the Monterey Planning Commission, members had been relieved of their chair-selection duties. Now it seems commissioners have also been relieved of the privilege of relieving themselves--at least ...
Tim Jackson and Lee Townsend lead the way in finding new acceptance for West Coast jazz.
The West Coast has begun to develop a reputation for an irreverent, devil-may-care style of jazz that has found favor with young audiences in the Bay Area--but which is still struggling to find favor with ...
Don't Miss This...Some hot suggestions for the Monterey Jazz Festival and more.
Alright! It''s Jazz Festival weekend. You didn''t think I was going to write about anything but jazz, did you? Okay, I promise I''ll mention a bit about what''s going on outside the 41st Monterey Jazz ...
Headline performer at Salinas Country Music Festival wears different hats.
As Clint Black was becoming one of the most successful artists in country music during the early 1990s, he frequently stressed in interviews that it was important for him to protect the authentic country sound ...
Local HEAL head Michelle Rolfe is tired of the bad news about AIDS.
Monterey HEAL head Michelle Rolfe has kept low-key about her HIV-positive status since she was first handed her test results 10 years ago by the Monterey County Health Department. She was 21 years old and ...
Letters
Also Seeking Missing Kids Mr. Reese, in his Public Forum article (Aug. 27), made reference to the fact of the absence of Op/Ed articles and letters to the editor by the date of his writing. ...
What we've all been waiting for?--The Report is Out
The media would have us believe that the entire country is incapacitated by the Clinton sex scandal. But, as Washington works itself into a frenzy, the laid-back folk of Monterey County continue life as usual. ...
Guitarist Pat Metheny returns to his musical roots with his Monterey Jazz Festival debut.
Few jazz musicians have garnered more widespread recognition or explored more diverse musical terrain than Pat Metheny, whose brilliant 1976 debut trio recording, Bright Size Life, heralded the emergence of one of contemporary jazz''s most ...
Director John Dahl offers a thorough look at underground poker, but little to make us care.
Though it deals us a pleasantly engaging look at New York''s underground world of high-stakes poker games, Rounders is hardly the straight flush we''ve been anticipating ever since director John Dahl electrified the screen with ...
Political outsiders want a piece of the rich little Sand City.
Like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, longtime Sand City Mayor David Pendergrass once experienced a moment of political awakening that changed his life forever. According to Pendergrass, years ago he saw a bumper ...
A California group of AIDS activists claims everything we know about HIV and AIDS is wrong.
AIDS is caused by the HIV virus. It is highly contagious, transmitted by blood and other bodily fluids. An HIV-positive individual will eventually develop AIDS, a fatal disease for which there is no cure. These ...
Project Inform spokesman has tried nontraditional and conventional AIDS treatments.
Ben Collins is the spokesman for Project Inform, a San Francisco-based AIDS organization with close ties to the National Institutes for Health. He believes in and advocates for conventional wisdom concerning AIDS and HIV. HEAL ...
UFW steps up efforts to unionize local strawberry pickers
A storm has been brewing for more than two months over at the Coastal Berry Company in Watsonville, where the United Farm Workers (UFW) has been denouncing the July 23 "union" election of the ad-hoc ...
Cibo Ristorante
For the last eight years, Cibo has become widely known in the Monterey area as the place to be for jazz. It's the kind of place that the 30s-and-up crowd can comfortably go to listen ...
As more radio stations turn to test marketing, less diversity in jazz is heard.
Nearly every format on the radio dial--from country to classical--now relies on test marketing before any music crackles over their airwaves. But the use of so-called "research" hasn''t stirred up as much acrimony in any ...
The Staff Players' 1998-'99 season holds some surprises.
The 1998-''99 season announced by the Staff Players this last week is even more eclectic than usual. While the schedule reflects the theater company''s adherence to older and classic plays, the coming season offers a ...
Three local photographers showcase the emotions behind the music.
Like the accomplished musicians they have documented for many years, local photographers Edie Ellis, Marianne Mangold and Will Wallace combine a technical mastery of their "instrument," along with an instinctive feel for the emotional essence ...
Risotto Perfecto
MFK Fisher called it a "more intelligent" way to cook rice. The diva of Italian cooking, Marcella Hazan practically does a thesis on it in her book, Marcella''s Italian Kitchen. And Cibo chef and owner ...
Thursday, September 10
Miguel Harth-bedoya
Concert V * March 21-23, 1999 Soloist: Burt Hara, clarinet Program Highlights: Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A, Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique" Resume: At age 29, Harth-Bedoya would seem to have the world by the ...
Future Past
Thumbing through a dusty old cookbook a while back, a yellow and tattered recipe fell from its fragile leaves. It was someone''s special version of Christmas pudding, clipped from a newspaper, published in a column ...
Bernard Rubenstein
Concert III * Jan. 24-26, 1999 Soloist: Wolfgang Basch, Trumpet Concert Highlights: Hayden's Trumpet Concerto in E flat, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances Resume: Rubenstein's most recent long-term appointment was as music director ...
Pac Rep's pared-down Antony and Cleopatra hits the mark.
Pacific Repertory Theater''s artistic director Stephen Moorer has taken it upon himself, much like British wunderkind Kenneth Branagh (who, unlike Moorer, believes Shakespeare probably existed), to put on all of the Bard''s plays--eventually. Popular favorites ...
A committee of nine wrestles with how to choose a leader for a $1.1 million arts organization.
For the Monterey Symphony''s musicians, board, patrons and fans, choosing a conductor is a lot like choosing a mate. They''re looking for someone who''s passionate, but reliable. Someone who can take charge--and take criticism. Someone ...
Stammtisch
If you speak schnitzel or have been meaning to learn, it might be time to throw on your dirndl, grab your liebling, and head on over to Seaside. You'll find no fewer than five varieties ...
CW's guide to the men--and woman--trying out for the chance to be symphony conductor.
Seven conductors--six men and one woman--from small-to-medium-sized symphonies around the country will one by one, take to the podium this year during the Monterey Symphony''s guest season. Each candidate was given a guest soloist and ...
Kate Tamarkin
Concert II * Nov. 15-17, 1998 Soloist: Takov Kasman, piano Program highlights: Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 in G major Resume: Now finishing up her eighth and final ...
Enrique Barrios
Concert V1 * April 11-13 Soloist: Howard Zhang Program highlights: Mozart, Symphony No. 31, Bartok, Concerto for Orchestra Resume: Currently music director of the Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra in his home town and the Morelia ...
Name Games
Story Time, P.G. Style After more than a year of squabbling, the City of Pacific Grove remains on the ground floor (or is it the basement?) on how to define the word "story." And, stay ...
Why I don't want Ted Rall speaking for my generation.
Having a conversation with Ted Rall--the disaffected, thirtysomething, nationally syndicated writer/cartoonist--is almost as circular, frustrating and vaguely unsatisfying as reading his new book, Revenge of the Latchkey Kids. It''s a lot like many of the ...
Darryl One
Concert VII * May 23-25, 1999 Soloist: Oliver Kern, piano Program highlight's: Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade Resume: Since 1995, One has served as music director of the symphony in ...
Ramble On--Ramblin' Jack Elliott returns; Kristina Olsen visits; Thunderbirds on deck.
What''s more to be said about Ramblin'' Jack Elliott? That he''s one of the true living legends of folk music is already well known. Early influence on Bob Dylan, ditto. His nasally growl is virtually ...
Max Bragado Darman
Concert IV * Feb. 21-23, 1999 Monterey Symphony Chorus Program highlights: Brahms Schicksalslied (a choral work) and Beethoven's Symphony 7 Resume: This native Spaniard is the founding music director of the Orchestra of Castile and ...
Letters
Carpal Tunnel Advice Excellent article on carpal tunnel ("Hand Stand," Aug. 27). I would like to add that many massage therapists take special training to be able to help people with this problem. Employers with ...
Reggae Redux--Pato Banton sits out Reggae Fest but stands out at McGarrett's.
"Jah blessed us and we had great weather," says Andr Smith, co-producer for the Monterey Bay Reggaefest, about last Saturday''s fourth edition of the festival. On Monday morning, he was still busy wrapping up the ...
Dmitry Yablonsky
Concert 1 * Oct. 18-20, 1998 Soloist, Alexander Kniazev, cello Program Highlights: Prokofiev: Classical Symphony Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations, featuring cellist Alexander Kniazev Brahms: Symphony No. 1 Resume: Although Yablonsky studied at Juilliard (pre-college division), Yale ...
Director Mark Christopher's 54 is a vapid reprise of the '70s.
Disco may suck but it''s certainly not dead, as evidenced by the recent spate of ''70s revival films. From Boogie Nights to The Last Days of Disco, everything old is new again--much to the chagrin ...
Exhibit chronicles a quarter century of work by the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District.
The exhibit opening at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History this week is part art, part history lesson and part call to action. The exhibit, titled "Open Space, Open Minds," is a collection of ...
Two measures attempt to fund school facilities in Salinas.
With two failed bond measures in the last three years, Salinas school officials and supporters are doing more than hoping the third time will be the charm. Bond measures M and H together provide for ...
What comes down, must go up--Monitoring the Market
Neither turmoil in Russia nor a tumbling Wall Street could put a damper on market optimism in Monterey County. P. Fiambolis Age: 36 Occupation: Greek Officer Resides: Monterey Will the stock market plunge have any ...
Favoring Conversion--Highland's Inn plan won't cause any environmental impacts.
The proposal for timeshare use at the Highlands Inn has worried some neighbors. They fear more people, more impacts, less quality. As an environmentalist, I have reviewed these fears and the facts. The fears are ...
Ghost of Rachmaninoff--New technology summons spirit of pianist past.
The more his recital audiences demanded that Sergei Rachmaninoff play his own Prelude in C sharp Minor, the more he loathed the piece. As wildly popular as it was in those days, it might not ...
MST drivers say tough conditions could prompt strike.
When you board a Monterey-Salinas Transit bus, the last thing you want behind the wheel is a driver who''s been on the road nine to 15 hours a day, every day for the past several ...
Thursday, September 3
Dakota Jake's
Jorge Couto, chef at Dakota Jake's, is quick to tell you what they're not: They're not about high prices and wimpy portions and they don't stand on formality, pretending to be five-star. They are a ...
A look at changes in MoCo's environment, business, the arts and dining in the last decade.
environment Paradise Lost? A pitched battle has raged over Monterey County''s sensitive environment. By Richard Pitnick Through the eyes of a newcomer, Monterey County''s spectacular ocean vistas, expansive farmlands, and forests of oak, pine and ...
Coast Weekly's covers provide a pictorial history of the paper and the community.
Sometimes pictures truly are worth a thousand words. Each and every week, our cover image is a topic of hot discussion: What''s the most important story? How do we best represent that story on the ...
Letters
Beyond Bedlam I would like to share a few comments which came to mind while reading an article which appeared within your Aug. 20 issue, "Bouncing to Bedlam" by Chuck Thurman. While I personally thought ...
Director/writer Tamara Jenkins tackles the problems of female adolescence.
It''s 1976 and Viv Abramowitz (Natasha Lyonne) has all the typical problems of a 15-year-old female adolescent. On top of that, there''s her flaky family life which consists of being the only female in a ...
Director Neil LaBute moves from boardroom to bedroom but still sees the dark side.
Although Neil LaBute''s audacious debut film, In the Company of Men, is a tough act to follow, the writer-director''s sophomore effort, Your Friends and Neighbors, finds LaBute''s audacity hardy and intact, even if it now ...
Water rights questions sink September Ranch development project for now.
With the Monterey County Planning Commission voting Aug. 26 not to approve the proposed September Ranch subdivision, it will now be up to the county board of supervisors this fall to decide whether developer Jim ...
Controversial, Daring & Proud Of It--We celebrate 10 years of raising hell
We asked, you answered and...sob...you love us. At least that''s the feedback we got when we asked how we were doing after 10 years. No, we didn''t pay these folks. Thanks for the compliments (and ...
Not My Fault --The sting operation was not my fault but I'll take credit for Monica (Sista Monica).
I just want to stress one thing: This was not my fault. But I got a call bright and early on Monday from one nightclub owner who swears that I got local law enforcement all ...
The history of Coast Weekly is filled with memorable highs--and lows.
It''s been the best at times, it''s been the worst at times. The history of almost every longterm project is dotted with notable successes and equally notable embarrassments. Sometimes these high and low points are ...
Cw Factoids
In 1995, the publisher of Coast Weekly awoke to see Saturday's edition of the Monterey Herald. The lead cover photo was shot at Friday's Pebble Beach Tennis Challenge. In that photo, and in the stands, ...
Desperate cities learn to woo business interests.
Cities need the business community more than ever before. Thanks to voter initiatives drastically curtailing the abilities of local government to levy taxes or collect fees, sales tax revenue and job creation have become cities'' ...
The history of Coast Weekly is the story of determination and commitment to community.
There are days it seems like a long, strange trip, and on other days it seems incredibly straightforward and short. In the last couple of weeks, we''ve been rummaging through old copies of Coast Weekly ...
From There to Here
When you consider that today''s scientists are at the polar ice caps collecting data explaining 200,000 years of global climate history, the 10 years of local history covered by Coast Weekly seems pale in comparison. ...
Meet some of our regulars.
In the past 10 years, we''ve received hundreds of letters to the editor. Many have been from several dedicated writers, who put pen to paper regularly to right wrongs and make their opinions known. Here, ...
Seaside improving auto mall before Salinas mall opens.
Fearful the new, soon-to-be-built Salinas Auto Mall will cut into one of its biggest sources of revenue, the city of Seaside is dumping a half-million dollars into improvements to the 27-year-old Seaside Motor City. The ...
Sponsorships
Why should a media organization sponsor a non-profit organization? Partly because stewards of the First Amendment have a valuable role to play in letting the public know who needs your support and who's working to ...
CW's 10 Years of Honors
Coast Weekly has been the recipient of close to 50 prestigous national, state, regional and local awards since 1988. National Awards: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) &bul; Investigative Reporting ("High Stakes Bingo"), First Place (1996) ...
The 1998-99 season of Performance Carmel continues the series' tradition of offering eclectic, challenging works.
Since its founding in 1991, Performance Carmel has consistently brought world-class performance art to Monterey County. The lineup for the ''98-''99 season of Performance Carmel was released recently, and it features a schedule that equals--or ...
Monterey Bay Reggaefest promises plenty of Jamaican music for all tastes.
In its fourth year of existence, the Monterey Bay Reggaefest taking place this weekend presents a solid lineup of artists led by headliner Eek-A-Mouse, whose music and performance are suited for youth, says festival promoter ...
Of Meat and Men
Weenies and Meanies? Old Monterey Business Association (OMBA) Executive Director Jane Harder was on a roll last week. And we''re not talking sausage rolls here folks. Somehow, she got it in her head that OMBA ...
It was a different world when CW was born in '88.
It''s fall 1988. George Bush is running for the White House (remember Michael Dukakis?), the Iran-Contra affair is just heating up, Geraldo Rivera has brought tabloid TV to primetime; Jim Bakker, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, ...
Big City By-The- Sea
If you''ve been in the area for a while, you might remember the restaurant that used to be at the Pine Inn in Carmel. A few years ago, it was quite a different place, charming ...
There have been many issues Coast Weekly has championed in the last decade.
Being the reflective voice of Monterey County. Humanizing issues and institutions through quality writing. Creating a forum for diverse viewpoints. Pointing our light on those in need. That was our original mission, established in our ...
Ten years of letters to the editor.
One of the things we hope we provide for the community is a place to air people''s views and opinions. Over the years, our letters section has become a more-and-more interesting page, and has offered ...
Introducing the state ballot measures for November.
What do you get when you combine Meathead, horse meat, lame duck, three cherries, fat cats, oxygen and trapped game? What else but the California initiative lineup for the November 1998 ballot? Unlike June''s initiative ...
Musical Milestones--A look at where classical music has been and is going in the Monterey County area.
In our region, new classical music gets an annual physical exam courtesy of the Cabrillo Festival of Santa Cruz. We are happy to report that during the last few years the patient has seen an ...
Madame Olga foretells our future.
As the dense fog swirling in the crystal ball begins to clear, I peer down at Monterey County. "This is Monterey County of the year 2008," hisses the craggy Madame Olga, waving a bony hand ...
The past is brought to life in the photographs of Linda Butler.
Light is the essence of photography, delineating both form and space in a way that indelibly expresses the transient nature of human experience. For artist/photographer Linda Butler, whose just-published monograph of Italian architectural studies and ...
We asked community leaders to wax eloquent on the occasion of our anniversary.
Much to our chagrin, our guest editorial writers even said nice things, although we gave them permission to offer their suggestions for our improvement. We are honored to include the distinguished comments of Bob McKenzie, ...
Meet some of our regulars.
In the past 10 years, we''ve received hundreds of letters to the editor. Many have been from several dedicated writers, who put pen to paper regularly to right wrongs and make their opinions known. Here, ...
Local media is a moving parade.
Remember Karen Wittmer? Chris Dix? Fred Hamilton? Stan Hall? Bill Brown? Oscar Perado? Reg Henry? Norm Spaulding? Lew Leader? I do. I remember them all because these were my peers, as editors, publishers and top ...
The medium is the message for Monterey County murals.
There is a cultural renaissance blooming throughout Monterey County, but it isn''t to be found in the area''s fine art museums or commercial art galleries Instead, this flowering of art is to be found on ...
Jazz & Rock--Jazz Store continues, three spirits returns.
Following two sold-out shows with pop/jazz vocalist Kenny Rankin this past weekend, The Jazz Store presents another round of vocal sophistication for your listening pleasure. John "Buddy" Conner, "a big man with a powerful voice, ...
