Thursday, October 28
Interrogated, surveilled, and told to keep quiet, many Asilomar workers say it's time to join a union.
When he was called on the carpet for wearing a union button at work, Maximino Hernandez knew it was time for him to move on. Financially speaking, quitting his $7.54-an-hour gig at the Asilomar Conference ...
You don't have to crack the latest annual report of the American Water Works Company to figure out that this is a hungry corporation.
Or, better put, thirsty. That one word, "More"--printed underneath an eerily computer-altered picture of a glass of water--says it all. American Water Works, which counts Cal-Am among its country-spanning network of 23 subsidiaries, wants more ...
Students welcome skeletons, marigolds, and eulogies into the classroom for Day of the Dead.
Papier-mache skeletons in brightly colored window displays along Watsonville''s Main Street wish passersby "Happy Day of the Dead," a greeting that may ring strangely in Anglo ears. But the Mexican celebration Dia de los Muertos ...
Cornucopia Cafe offers a world of organic eats and drinks. They're still searching for the right kind of wine.
If you caught the opening of Cornucopia Cafe last Wednesday (see Chef Profile), you may have already taken your palate on a world tour, without having to leave town. I started at the coffee bar, ...
Street Talk
Congressional Republicans have once again killed campaign-finance reform. Thus is lost another opportunity to fix an electoral system that more and more appeals to billionaires and actors, and less and less attracts honest, sincere people. ...
Even Meryl Streep can't save horror flick director Wes Craven's misguided attempt to switch genres.
Just because a story is true doesn''t mean it will automatically make a great movie. Believing that flawed logic is horror director Wes Craven''s (Last House on the Left, Scream) first mistake. His second mistake ...
Squid Fry
Last week, I unfairly misrepresented an effort by Mark Talbrook to build a single-family home in Big Sur''s Pacific Valley. An attorney claiming to "represent" several Pacific Valley residents called and said they were concerned ...
CSUMB Prez Attacked
The house and car of CSU Monterey Bay President Peter Smith and his wife, Sally, were vandalized early Saturday morning. According to a campuswide e-mail written by Smith, a group of young men made the ...
For Oct. 28 through Nov. 3
Carl Cherry Center for the Arts We Are One. Opening Reception. An exploration of themes and techniques in printing with works by Rumiko Okerse, Lesley Spowart and Elizabeth Stokebye. Guadalupe at 4th, Carmel. 624-7491. Reception: ...
Chef Profile
Cornucopia Cafe, a dream in the hearts and minds of two partners for almost as long as they can each remember, has arrived. John Zobler began the Cornucopia Market 22 years ago, specializing in the ...
Tuesday's water board election could decide the fate of a new Carmel River dam.
It should come as no surprise that the California-American Water Co.''s proposal to build a new dam on the Carmel River has surfaced as one of the defining issues in Tuesday''s water board election. Despite ...
GiftHorse races to the top with its single, "Heather's Arrest;" McGarrett's tries live music (again).
Rock The critics are drooling over GiftHorse, a four-piece Los Angeles band that came out of nowhere with its 1999 indie debut album, Excess, Lies and Heather''s Arrest (on Pinch Hit Records). Their musical abilities ...
For the sake of the environment and your wallet, vote for Molly Erickson and Kris Lindstrom.
If ever there was such a thing as a "watershed" election, the race for the three seats on the board of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District certainly qualifies. Tuesday''s election could result in the ...
Your Letters
Come Clean on Growth Ironically, it seems that the Carmel Valley Property Owners Association (CVPOA), which has been lobbying the county about the deplorable traffic situation on Valley roads, wasn't happy when the Planning Commission ...
Thursday, October 21
Squid Fry
In these vastly complicated and uncertain times, Squid has been turning to the Bible in search of guidance and understanding. Squid''s latest sermon to readers is suggested by a phone call from someone "representing" a ...
Chef Profile
Believe it or not, anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 consumers in Maui consider their daily idea of paradise to be a big, juicy cheeseburger, and Cheeseburger In Paradise knows how to keep the patties flipping. ...
There's a world of difference between five zeros and six zeros.
Where else but on the Monterey Peninsula can you find, within a 10-mile radius, homes selling from the low $200,000s to almost $20 million? Where a tear-down can cost more than $300,000, a "modestly priced" ...
When the going gets tough, the tough turn to... tuna noodle casserole?
What is the recipe for comfort? If you read this week''s Chef Profile about how two entrepreneurs successfully figured out that cheeseburgers are the steadfast opiate-of-choice for hungry, foot-weary travelers of the Western hemisphere, you ...
Your Letters
The Truth about Cancer I find it ironic that La Mirada's new art exhibition is titled "Making Strides: Journeys Through Breast Cancer." It is ironic because, as Kira Corser said in your Sept. 30 special ...
Concert seasons open with diminished returns.
Classical A shocking decline in orchestral disciplines greeted the Monterey Symphony''s audience last Sunday in Carmel. The messiest reading of a Beethoven symphony in recent memory opened the new season, under a guest conductor, even ...
School officials pull the plug on showers for men without bathrooms of their own.
Poverty For more than six years, Monterey Peninsula College has stepped up to fill one the biggest voids facing people with no home--and therefore, no place to take a shower. Three days a week, about ...
Despite the rich cinematic style of sex, lies and videotape director Stephen Soderbergh, The Limey leaves a slightly sour taste.
In Steven Soderbergh''s new film The Limey, Terence Stamp plays Wilson, a Cockney thief freed after a long stretch in jail. He''s come to Los Angeles on a mission of revenge. His obvious target is ...
Trick-or-treat!
Let''s face it. Kids love Halloween. Candy, more candy, and a few goblins. So we scoured Monterey''s parks to catch local experts in the spirit. What''s haute for Halloween this year? Solomon Ashurst Age: 8 ...
Artist Rafael Perea de la Cabada lets the work speak for itself.
In an era when many artists find it necessary to construct an elaborate conceptual framework to prop up or justify their art, it is particularly refreshing to encounter an artist like Rafael Perea de la ...
Friday open-mic nights in Pacific Grove provide good, clean fun for America's Last Hometown.
Pacific Grove--the town that rolls up its carpet at dusk, the town with no rowdy bars or weekend nightlife. Right? Then what''s that sound coming from the Juice and Java coffeehouse at the corner of ...
for Oct. 21 through 27
Hanson Gallery Special Event. A memorial exhibit is held 10/24, 2-4pm for the late sculptor Frederick Hart, whose "Three Soldiers" graces the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. Ocean Avenue at San Carlos Street, Carmel. 625-6142. ...
For the few, the proud, the determined, the pride that comes with building your own home outweighs the pain.
Memories haunt the details of the home that Alan Marks built. Over here, in the corner of this upstairs bedroom, a cat door is cut into a wall leading out onto the deck. It got ...
Plans to bring Amtrak to the Peninsula hinge on Seaside.
Transportation Want to be able to take the train to San Francisco? Better call Seaside City Hall. Amtrak''s ready to roll. The state has given most of its OKs. County transportation officials have access to ...
Mind's Eye sees passion and Dread Zeppelin may prove that Elvis is still alive and kicking.
Rock Mind''s Eye, a Southern California alternative rock band that''s returning to Monterey in early November, is slowly rising on the music horizon with an unpretentious yet complex, rich sound. Formed in 1990, the core ...
From The Editorial Desk
Your home may be your castle, but it can also be a real pain in the tookus. There is really no place else where most of us can invest so much time, energy and cash ...
Thursday, October 14
The Real Housing Crisis
It''s instructional--perhaps revelatory--to know that the average price of a house in Monterey County is $337,295. There''s even a little bit of sympathy that could be extended to folks trying to make ends meet while ...
The Weekly's readers share their memories of the Loma Prieta earthquake.
On Oct. 17, 1989, the earth shook and dramatically changed many lives in Northern California. In this issue, at the approach of the 10th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, we share our readers'' memories ...
Singers/songwriters Steve Seskin, Peter Tork and Eric Andersen highlight week of original music.
What''s Up, Chuck? It''s largely a retro sort of week around town with appearances by ex-Monkee Peter Tork and Greenwich Village alumni Eric Andersen. But before we get to those well-known names, let''s start with ...
Rouse On!
Thank you for your recent article on the Monterey Coastal Initiative ("Taking the Initiative," 9/30). At first, the "Rabble Rousers" headline on the cover gave me pause. According to my dictionary, I''m not "rabble." Having ...
The Uninvited attempts to go it alone.
Rock With their latest release, It''s All Good (Half-Baked Records), hitting the streets on Oct. 1, The Uninvited has turned its back on what frontman Steven Taylor describes as "corporate bureaucracy." With the release, the ...
Squid Fry
Squid''s here to tell you that water board candidates Molly Erickson (Division 3) and Kris Lindstrom (Division 4) are far ahead of their respective opponents--in fundraising, anyway. Campaign finance statements reveal that, as of Sept. ...
In September 2000, Monterey is set to host an ambitious, world-class international film festival.
Cannes on the Pacific? Sundance in Seaside? More than a decade after the demise of the first, short-lived attempt to hold an annual film festival on the Monterey Peninsula, a local group has announced plans ...
In-your-face violence masks a surprisingly subversive movie about men and their fists.
In trailers for the film Fight Club, Brad Pitt keeps begging, "Hit me." Viewers who wish they could take him up on the offer will be surprised to discover that Fight Club is one of ...
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News BriefsMonterey Pays Up A seven-digit lawsuit against the city of Monterey has finally come to an end, with city officials forking over $2.5 million to a disgruntled property owner. That includes $1.05 million in ...
Today's trends in dining include ingredients that once were considered offal.
"Why," author MFK Fisher wants to know, "is it worse in the end, to see an animal''s head cooked and prepared for our pleasure than a thigh or a tail or a rib?" And furthermore, ...
Twenty-four years in the restaurant business, and not once has Gino's experienced a labor shortage.
That's just one of the benefits of being a family-run operation made up of five brothers and sisters, their various spouses, and six nieces and nephews. In the front of the house and in the ...
Thursday, October 7
Chef Profile
Steve Potovsky woke up one morning and said, "I hate winter." That was in Toronto, a place not particularly noted for its balmy Februarys. "I'm an American!" exhorted the Oakland native. "I'm going home!" So ...
Cities use your money to pay for a lot of things--including works of art.
Public ArtHow much would you pay for a 7-foot-long bronze sculpture of a mama grizzly bear? Say we throw in two cubs. How does $95,000 sound? That''s what the city of Monterey is paying East ...
Street Talk
Next year, Monterey County residents will join the nation in voting for Bill Clinton''s successor. Yet on a recent afternoon on Alvarado Street, most people we chatted with didn''t have much to say about the ...
Kaufman and Broad's plan to develop Fort Ord may leave Seaside holding the short end of the stick.
Fort Ord''s Future It''s a developer''s dream: more than 100 acres of prime real estate steps from the beach. Residential lots with coveted views of Monterey Bay. A former military base ripe for redevelopment. But ...
Oct. 7-13
THURS. OCT 7 7:30pm... World Music Festival #1 (Fiddle Without Boundaries), Sunset Center 7:30pm... Merry Wives of Windsor, Golden Bough 8pm... A Girl on the Prairie, Indoor Forest Theater FRI. OCT. 8 7:30pm... World Music ...
Squid Fry
With Friends Like These... Contrary to the suspicions of many, Squid is not a giant squid. As you may recall from grade-school biology, the giant squid (Architeuthis dux) is the world''s largest invertebrate, growing up ...
Don't Blame the Big-Boxes --and more
Don''t Blame the Big-Boxes In response to Los Angeles Assemblymember Dick Floyd''s anti-big-box bill ("Big-Box Blues," 9/23), neither the federal nor state government should be in the position to dictate which legal, commercial enterprises are ...
New art exhibit on breast cancer celebrates the triumph of the spirit.
They are one of our culture''s most powerful and provocative symbols, embodying our most deeply held notions of sexuality, womanhood and the more nurturing aspects of the life force. For the eight women artists participating ...
Everyone's so nice in ...and now Miguel that there's little dramatic tension.
Jim Hughes' and Will Graveman's ... and now Miguel, currently playing at The Western Stage, is the story of a young boy, Miguel Chavez (Spencer Genesy), from a close-knit family of sheepherders. Miguel's fondest desire ...
David O. Russell's Three Kings is a morality show, an action flick, and wry commentary, all in one.
Few are the ways that remain to behave as an original outlaw or antihero in American movies these days. So it practically moves us to stand up and salute when Three Kings shows how sedition ...
for October 7 through 13
Art Events Carmel Art Association Menage a Trois. Opening Reception. Works by Peninsula sculptor Eleen Auvil and painters Belinda Vidor and Robert Bradshaw. Reception: 10/9, 6-8pm. Also, works by five CAA artists (Melissa Lofton, Micah ...
Nationally hailed pianist Jon Nakamatsu opens Salinas Concert Association season.
Classical Most of his Sunnyvale high school students were stunned to hear that their German teacher, Jon Nakamatsu, had won first prize at the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Most of them didn''t even ...
Pac Rep's production only scratches the surface.
Pacific Repertory Theatre''s production of King Lear, directed by Stephen Moorer, is the final production of this year''s Shakespeare festival. And, while it is a fair rendering of the great Shakespearean tragedy, it is the ...
