Thursday, October 26
Who you're going to meet, and what to do when you get to the fiery abyss.
rock There are some people in town who do things that just plain seem to be unfair and who deserve an eternity of pain and unrelenting torture. So for the spirits that will come plunging ...
Squidfry
Chair Wars, Part IINever before has the Squid seen such a ludicrous display of civic tyranny as has played out in the Griffin Plaza fiasco. For those of you who missed Squid''s last ditty on ...
From The Editorial Desk
When I was a kid, my grandfather and I used to go fishing aboard his Boston Whaler, a small boat that was barely a match for the sea. Sometimes we'd catch bucketloads of fish, other ...
Alberto's embodies the essence of authenticity.
Here''s the way it was supposed to go. We (the Stooges) were gonna hit a certain cafe in Pacific Grove for a nice evening meal. It was a Wednesday, about a quarter past six, just ...
A billionaire's plan to rescue--or ruin--public education.
Ask Tim Draper, the principal backer of this year''s school voucher initiative, what he wants to be remembered for and the man hardly hesitates. "Viral marketing and education," he told me in an interview last ...
Bo Skovhus' appearance for the Carmel Music Society didn't live up to expectations.
classical It took a considerable imagination to complete the musical picture Bo Skovhus unveiled in Carmel last week. Perhaps the Danish baritone''s graceful manner and handsome good looks won him a Carmel Music Society contract, ...
Genghis Blues is more than a simple documentary about a musician's trip to Asia.
An Invitation When I was a kid, my grandfather and I used to go fishing aboard his Boston Whaler, a small boat that was barely a match for the sea. Sometimes we''d catch bucketloads of ...
Once Upon a Mattress
An unusual press release landed on our desk this week. It was on Monterey Mattress Company letterhead, but it was accompanied by a photograph of Carmel jazz musician Bryan McConnell with the caption, "First Artist ...
In Pacific Grove, it's a 10-candidate race in a two-issue town.
If elected, above four candidates would be first-time councilmembers. Clockwise from upper left: Dan Miller, Susan Goldbeck, Roger Pasquier and Bill Corcoran. If the other municipal elections on the Peninsula seem remarkably devoid of defining ...
The local chapter of the United Nations Association promotes human rights here and abroad.
Above photo--Larry Levine (right), president of the Monterey Bay UNA and Timmi Sellers, secretary of the Board of Directors. If Larry Levine had his wish, you''d wake up every morning thinking of children''s health care ...
Blair Witch 2 is a cheap knockoff of the low-budget original.
above photo--Think of it as Blair Witch for the pre-teen crowd-- The Little Vampire joins BW2 as one of this weekend''s Halloween offerings. There is no actual "Book of Shadows" in Blair Witch Project 2, ...
From Australia to Yugoslavia, the 15 documentaries in the festival take viewers around the world.
Session 1, Friday, 7pm Asimbonanga (South Africa), 6 min. In Zulu, A si m''bonanga means "We have not seen him." This animated short is choreographed to the song of the same name, which was written ...
Growth and violence are the key issues in Salinas this year.
With Cisco Systems'' proposed development in Coyote Valley on the brink of passing, the Nantucket housing complex in North Salinas still embroiled in debate, and last spring''s wave of shootings a fresh and painful memory, ...
Savion Glover's hip-hop style started the tap dancing revival.
Savion Glover is in San Francisco to perform his critically acclaimed (and generally sold out) improv show, "Foot Note: The Concert" at the Golden Gate Theater, but the Monterey Peninsula may get something even better ...
There are sprinkling of ways to celebrate Halloween...sort of.
what''s up, chuck? The good news is that the streets should be a little safer this year for pint-size ghouls and goblins. With Halloween falling inconveniently on Tuesday, there''s a definite dearth of booze-and-boos activities ...
Thanks, But...
Thanks for pointing out that the Monterey Council adopted many of my previous campaign issues: historic preservation, temporary rejection of the Marketplace, and open space preservation ("Deja Vu," October 19-25). Coast Weekly is wrong in ...
Streetalk
So election season is in the air. It''s time to get on the old pig of politics and find out what people think about our electoral process and the next president of the United States. ...
CSUMB grad Anthony Puente made a film that's wise beyond its years.
Meet Carlos Rodriguez. He''s the Latino counterpart to Beaver Cleaver: A normal, happy teenager with a loving family--in his fantasies, that is. In reality, Carlos is a friendless, fatherless, only child whose days are steeped ...
Thursday, October 19
One Main Street shines under new management.
Last month the three amigos from Hullabaloo, the newly opened joint venture right in the heart of Old Town Salinas, took over food and catering services at One Main Street, the cafe at the National ...
A Pacific Grove artist finds the meaning of life written in stone.
831. Tales from the area code Don Wobber''s secluded Pacific Grove compound is a shrine to jade. Jade boulders line the driveway like the busts of religious icons, while a jade-lined footpath leads to his ...
Our Very Own Superman
Well, tie me up and grill me in lemon juice and dill. I never knew our very own Jeff Denham (that all-American blond Republican candidate for 28th District Assembly) was a "superstar." But when the ...
It's easy to see why Girlfight has risen to the top of the heap.
Nicely executed and extremely likable, Girlfight is a rousing, girl-positive, indie success story whose dynamic rhythms deliver a connecting punch. The movie has an integrity of feeling and spirit that carries it through its often ...
By Aaron S. Birk
street talk It''s been rainy as of late and the sun has made small but tantalizing appearances from behind the clouds. No human being should have to endure this indecisive weather. Like the chaos of ...
Why are more MoCo chefs using organic produce? Because it tastes better.
growing green Above photos: Cal Stamenov, executive chef at Bernardus Lodge, and Wendy Little, chef at Corkscrew Cafe, agree on the merits of organically grown vegetables and fruits. The menu at the Cypress Grove Cafe ...
The artworks of Emile Norman and Eve Tartar grace many of the Central Coast's public spaces.
To appreciate art in a museum setting, most people have to put themselves into a kind of mental "art zone." The zone allows us to stare at a painting or a sculpture for several minutes, ...
Monterey County growers lead the charge in the organic produce revolution.
growing green Above photos--From left to right: Organic farmer Vanessa Bogenholm in her strawberry fields;Mark Marino of Earthbound Farms in Carmel Valley; the glories of organic kale. The revolution began for Vanessa Bogenholm about six ...
Western Stage's adaptation of Viva Zapata! is on track but still needs work.
In choosing John Steinbeck''s screenplay for Viva Zapata! as the basis for a stage adaptation, Harvey Landa made a hard choice. First, he was risking comparison with a great film: The black-and-white drama was directed ...
Save an act of God, the same ol' faces will lead Monterey into the 21st century.
In terms of election-time fireworks, expect fizzles from Monterey this year. The problem with Monterey is that it doesn''t really have any problems, at least not any that make for juicy election-time arguments. Sporting a ...
A tale about missed opportunities, a public relations campaign and 400 of Skip Barber's closest friends.
It''s hard not to notice that last Sunday at Laguna Seca, a couple of Panoz Le Mans Cars and two Dodge Vipers replayed a corporate drama whose curtain fell just weeks ago. In Sunday''s American ...
Museum Quality Event
Every now and then, ArtiFacts encourages people to think ahead, to be proactive, to make plans and buy tickets in advance, that sort of thing. This, gentle readers, is one of those times. On Friday, ...
Sample several varieties of singer/songwriters, and guzzle a glass of premium jazz.
what''s up, chuck? While the rock environment struggles locally, and blues offerings have generally lapsed into a comfortable repertoire of performers, the singer/songwriter scene remains strong. Probably the biggest reason for that is obvious: It''s ...
Can wine really be organic? Read the label.
growing green According to the Environmental Protection Agency, of the 560 million pounds of herbicides and fungicides used by the agricultural industry each year, 375 million pounds are carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic. It is no ...
This is not your parents' Oldtown Salinas.
Oldtown Salinas appears to have all the trappings of a vibrant, economically viable downtown. Replete with purple-haired kids hanging out in front of the Cherry Bean cafe and a new aggressive anti-panhandling ordinance, the district--recently ...
Candidates All Wet
I was surprised that neither Marina mayoral candidate ("Face Off," 10/12-18) expressed any interest or concern about the danger of the city of Marina losing its water supply to the steadily worsening seawater intrusion problem. ...
Thursday, October 12
These days, absentee voters have the power.
Saying that Election Day is Nov. 7 is not the whole truth. It''s one of those little white lies people embrace because it''s convenient to do so, like accepting that Christ was born on December ...
Hot Club, hot issue, hot Morgan; Charles Lloyd in Carmel.
what''s up, chuck? Maybe the hottest show in town this week is Hot Club of Cowtown at Morgan''s Coffee & Tea. This is the third time Hot Club has been through our cowtown-cum-resort community and ...
Joan Allen shines in The Contender, Rob Lurie's political drama opening this weekend.
Vice presidential nominee Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) is the new appointment of a lame-duck president, in director Rob Lurie''s new film, The Contender. She''s about to be confirmed when rumors of a decades-old peccadillo become ...
You Know It's a Small Town When...
Pacific Grove really knows how to pack in the excitement. The latest flap took place outside last week''s city council meeting. Seems council candidate Dan Miller took exception when attorney Mary-Margaret O''Connell implied that Miller''s ...
A native daughter with an indie streak makes good on the cyberfrontier.
It''s easy to pick out Lisa Radon at the coffee place where we meet. She''s the one with the green plastic thick-rimmed glasses, the loud plaid miniskirt and the modish, no-nonsense ''do. But what really ...
Tutto Mondo Trattoria satisfies on a variety of levels.
We have progressed so far from basic survival. We take for granted aspects of life that our foreparents could not even have conceived attainable. The very idea of a food reviewer--someone who critiques the quality ...
Wales' Treorchy Male Choir falls short in Salinas.
classical Wales came to Salinas last week when the Treorchy Male Choir opened the Salinas Concert Association''s 2000-2001 season at St. Paul''s Church. But somehow the performance seemed little more than a watered-down reflection of ...
Bio-tech Marches On
Your cover article on biotechnology ("Hello Dolly," 9/7-13) was a heart-stopper that I expected would generate plenty of comments. I think Mr. Middlebrook''s letter in the next issue was all I read. These are the ...
Our Prayers Almost Answered
Faithful readers of ArtiFacts (someone.... anyone?) may remember a couple of months back when we were complaining about California''s pathetic excuse for a poet laureate, Charles B. Garrigus. It''s nothing personal; we just think that ...
Do you want to make tea (or music or art) at the BBC? You'll be able to do it again one day, but not before next June.
Students who fought--and who will pay--for the $600,000 rehabilitation of the Black Box Cabaret at Cal State University Monterey Bay are anxious to meet again in the only campus venue that feels like their own. ...
Open-mic nights, band website reviews, and new Amazon Mollies.
rock There are lots of local songwriter showcase/open mic gigs that don''t get much ink. These showcases give musicians a chance to flex their craftsmanship without having to face the grim expectancy of a crowd ...
Marina 2020 Vision wants to draw a line in the sand past which Marina cannot sprawl. Depending on your point of view, the urban growth boundary will either save the city or pass off its housing proble
Ken Gray seems an unlikely figure to stage a coup. Slight in stature, wearing tinted glasses a bit too big for his face, and walking with a slight slump in the shoulders, he's not exactly ...
By Aaron S. Birk
street talk You know that song "Mamas, Don''t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys"? Well, maybe there aren''t enough farmers and ranchers in our country anymore. Maybe our society is chock-full of lawyers, ...
Living the good life on a sailboat at anchor.
831--Tales From The Area Code If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.--Lin Yutang In July, the sailor and I sailed out of Monterey ...
The maligned holiday treat isn't just tasty. It's good for you.
sidedish Go ahead--have your little laugh. Tell the one about how there''s only one fruitcake in the world that just keeps getting passed around. Calvin Trillin beat you to it, but go ahead and tell ...
Thursday, October 5
Johnny Apodaca paints the rhythm and the drama of Monterey's landscape.
For more than 20 years, Seaside artist Johnny Apodaca has charted the physical and spiritual geography of Monterey County. It is not the picturesque Central Coast characterized by luminous waves lifting toward Pebble Beach''s Lone ...
Breakfast and lunch adventures at the Trailside Cafe.
It was dawn (actually about 8:15am). We snuffed out the campfire, packed up the tent, saddled up the horse and headed out along the Rec Trail in search of the Trailside Cafe. Regular morning joggers, ...
Local shows this week and ass-biting albums to watch for this month.
rock The Monterey reggae group Jonah & the Whalewatchers perform at Ocean Thunder on Saturday. The singer and leader of the group, Alex Shirley, stopped by the Artists Showcase at Viva last Tuesday to play ...
Streetalk
Whether it''s the materialism of Barbie, the pelvis of Elvis, or Ben Franklin''s sharp wit as expressed in the book Fart Proudly, everyone needs a hero to emulate and admire. These folks are no different, ...
Remember the Titans fails to do justice to either football or the social movement of the '60s.
Irealize I''m a tad out of touch here, but when did we switch from "baseball, apple pie, and Mom," to "football, jail time, and nasty-dancin'' cheerskanks?" My favorite all-American sporting team remains the Brooklyn Dodgers, ...
Letters
Inexcusable Cover I noticed your feature on George W. Bush this past week ("The Bush League," 9/28-10/4). Alfred E. Newman? I know your paper prefers, endorses and cheerleads for Al Gore, but this latest bias ...
Performance artist Laura Dare turns herself inside out and upside down.
''I want to cram as many lifetimes into my lifetime as I can," says Laura Dare, barely pausing to catch a breath as she talks enthusiastically about her involvement in the upcoming Carmel Performing Arts ...
The State Theatre's time may have come at last.
Ron Weitzman is looking for a little cash these days--about $2.28 million. Could be a little more, could be a little less; it''s hard to say right now. But Weitzman, as president of the State ...
All the Peninsula's a stage during the Carmel Performing Arts Festival.
(above photos) Singer/songwriter Linda Arceo, and actor Geoffrey Rivas, who plays Emiliano Zapata in the Western Stage''s production of Viva Zapata!, are two of the participants in this year''s festival. The fourth annual Carmel Performing ...
Three independent agencies fashion a safety net for Sand City's homeless mentally ill.
You might not think of Sand City as a place with a population of homeless folks suffering from mental problems. But Sand City lies on a stretch of road well-traveled by transient people and referred ...
In the struggle for the hearts and votes of Latinos, Republicans are doing well, but Democrats are doing better.
Recently, a new slogan was added to the list of Republican campaign pins for sale online. Scrolling down past "Miami Relatives for Bush," "The Liberal Media Sux," and "STOP HILLARY NOW," you come upon a ...
Artifacts
Film Festival for Humans Don''t say we never did anything for you. Together, Coast Weekly and the United Nations Association of Monterey Bay are bringing you your very own international film festival--the first general interest ...
by Rebecca Crocker
Hoping to strengthen the burgeoning Green Party-labor alliance, the Green Party is not on the sidelines in the duel for the Latino vote. Craig Coffin, Green Party candidate for 17th District U.S. Representative, who has ...
From The Editorial Desk
Career politicians seem incapable of grappling with many of the public's concerns. Issues like campaign finance reform or medical care seem to be just beyond their reach. But give credit where credit's due: When it ...
John Garcia comes to Monterey; John Hiatt goes to EMusic.com.
what''s up, chuck? John Lee Hooker can be pretty blunt when it comes to his criticism of other musicians. In an interview a few years ago, he turned his attention to fellow blues legend B.B. ...
Nearly hidden on Alvarado Street, the Monterey Chess and Dart Center is a world apart.
831--Tales From the Area Code It''s an unremarkable doorway on Alvarado street, set back in an alcove stained by weather and time. Even the handmade sign declaring it the entrance to the Monterey Chess and ...
A remarkably civil mayoral and city council race in Seaside may spell progress for the future.
Depending on your perspective, this year''s council/mayoral race either represents a lovefest of unparalleled proportions in Seaside or is an amazing example of coattail riding. Not only is incumbent Mayor Jerry Smith running virtually unopposed ...
