Thursday, January 29
Word Warrior
Local poet helped forge links between feminism, black power, and new literature.
Perhaps…I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am a woman, because I am Black, because I am a lesbian, because I am myself—a Black woman warrior poet doing my work—come to ...
Theater Listings
Theater Listings
theater now playing Kissin’ Cousins, or Beverly’s Hillbillies Fri-Sat 8pm. Ma and Pa Kettleman’s farm mortgage is due, but villain Vivian and her sidekick Betty Bogus have their eye on the couple’s lucrative corn and ...
Lit
Speaking Up for Change: An interdisciplinary writing program at CSUMB shows students the power words can have.
Ten years before she founded the Creative Writing and Social Action Program at CSU Monterey Bay, Frances Payne Adler wrote a poem, “Raising the Tents,” that presaged her future work: In the first years of ...
Art Listings
Art Listings
art openings events Monterey Museum of Art Civic Center Meet the Quilters, Saturday 1/31 at 2pm, meet some of the artists and discuss the art and craft of quilt-making, in conjunction with Remaking Tradition: Contemporary ...
Streettalk
Who’s on First?: Asked on Alvarado St. in Monterey
Q: Is this the end of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign? Follow-up: Who should the Democrats select to run against Bush? Ralph Terrana Musician | Seaside A: No. I don’t see anything wrong with his speech. ...
Letters
Squid’s Questionable Taste About the only thing we can say about remotely pleasant squids is, to borrow words from a great poet, “We’d rather see than be one.” Or eat one, for that matter. But ...
Good and Fast
Adrian’s Gourmet Kitchen dishes it out natural.
The new century heralds the rise of the upscale deli-café: fast, high-quality food. Adrian’s Gourmet Kitchen is the newest local example of this fashion that I estimate has already assumed a more fundamental, fade-proof status. ...
Underage rock band finds a venue.
With the recent closure of Prunedale’s Jim Dandy’s, there are few places where a group like Episodic can perform. The group, which plays dark rock in the same vein as Tool and A Perfect Circle, ...
Beantown Beats Move West
Crown City Rockers bring da conscious noize.
After getting some rave reviews for their first full-length CD by Rollingstone.com and Billboard magazine, the members of the Oakland-based hip-hop outfit Mission hit a couple of major snags. First, the group discovered that the ...
Doodlin’ classics from Fil Lorenz Soul-Tet.
Fil Lorenz Soul-Tet plays Sixties music, but don’t expect to hear Bob Dylan or The Beatles from this quintet. “We pay tribute to a lot of the Blue Note masters like Lou Donaldson, Stanley Turrentine ...
News Feature
All For Nothing: An assignment to Iraq yields more questions than answers.
This officer stands up to get her prize. She’s wearing a sweatsuit and a gun in the mess hall with a hundred or so other soldiers at a place called Camp Muleskinner, a cavalry fort ...
North Shore Noir
Tropical setting inspires small-time thief to do big things in Elmore Leonard’s The Big Bounce.
The Big Bounce was Elmore Leonard’s 1969 initial venture into the crime fiction style that would remain his trademark. His witty and cynical dialogue resonates here on-screen as coming from a writer with equal parts ...
Dancing Through It
A new dance form for Africa is born of the pain of genocide.
Dramatizing genocide seems like courting professional disaster. How can an artist take on this subject and not risk scaring an audience away? Yet this is exactly what Senegalese choreographer Germaine Acogny, doyenne of contemporary African ...
Freedom’s Just Another Word
An exhibition of Big Sur artwork reveals more passion than precision.
The key to understanding and appreciating Sparks Fly Upward: Big Sur Artists 1950-1990, the new exhibition at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in Carmel, is Henry Miller. His writings about Big Sur and ...
Artifacts
PEOPLE’S POET…The city of Pacific Grove will soon be looking for a new poet-in-residence. Current PIR Ryan Masters, who has graciously served in that position for the past 18 months, will be stepping down at ...
Vreeland Leaves Hopeful Legacy
Her two decades on the city council were part of a lifetime of commitment to her community, friends say.
On Monday afternoon, just a bit more than 24 hours since Ruth Vreeland died, Monterey Mayor Dan Albert could not look beyond the fact that his longtime colleague on the city council was gone. Asked ...
Americana On Air
Arden’s Garden brings acoustic roots-rock to community TV.
About two years ago, every time that Arden Eaton went out to eat, she would scope the establishment to see if it would be a good place to throw a concert. After a year of ...
Color of Money
Easy St. Billiards owner Michael Stansbury takes on an up-and-coming player.
With only three balls left, Jose Miguel lays his pool stick on the green felt of the billiards table and walks into the bathroom at the back of Easy Street Billiards, an all-ages pool hall ...
Newsbriefs
Sunset Center’s Future in Debate The public is invited to attend a town hall meeting on Thurs., Jan. 29, to discuss the future management of Carmel’s newly reopened and beautifully remodeled Sunset Community and Cultural ...
Off To The Races
Animated Triplets Of Belleville charms with jazz and offbeat characters.
French animator Sylvain Chomet’s feature debut The Triplets Of Belleville is like one of the most charming and whimsical cartoon shorts in a tournée of animation, blown up to feature length. There have been lusher ...
Foodchain
MAD ABOUT BEEF…Before I dive into all the action that is happening or has happened, a word about the recent scare regarding beef. There have long been abominable practices perpetrated upon animals by unscrupulous “farmers” ...
Squidfry
DIALING FOR DOLLARS…Last week Squid inked Seaside Mayor/County Supe candidate Jerry Smith for accepting a $1,000 campaign check from Seaside Highlands developer Danny Bakewell, Jr. Squid thought the deal smelled more than a little fishy, ...
They’re Hanging with Howard
Five Monterey activists are on the road with Dean.
Monterey, Jan. 14 I meet up with David Stanley and Kelley Stanley (no relation) at a coffee shop downtown the day after Dean finished third in the Iowa caucuses. After months of phone banking, handing ...
Thursday, January 22
Art Listings
Art Listings
art openings | events Carl Cherry Center Sparks Fly Upward: Big Sur Artists 1950-1990. Thirty paintings, prints and sculptures by 11 artists who lived and worked in Big Sur over 40 years, including Henry Miller, ...
Homepage
Monterey Whimsy
In a neighborhood located just a few blocks from Lake El Estero, the Naval Postgraduate School, and downtown Monterey, sits Gary and Bebe Cottons’ two-bedroom bungalow. It’s so cute, that people walking by often slow ...
Theater Listings
theater | now playing Adam & Eve: The Diaries Fri-Sat 8pm, closes Sun 2:30pm. Staff Players Repertory reprises its two-person show featuring Marcia Gambrell and Ron Cohen. $16/general, $12/students and seniors, $6/children. Indoor Forest Theater, ...
Hip-Hop and Apple Pie
The Black Box Cabaret is a hang-out, a concert hall and a coffee house.
“Check, check one, check two.” The words echo within the empty café as sound technicians test the PA system at the Black Box Cabaret, the student-run pub at CSU Monterey Bay. Its black walls, black ...
A Lucky Roll
Fine acting heats up tantalizing Las Vegas noir Cooler.
We all have bad days when nothing goes right. But Bernie Lootz, the protagonist of the wily noir drama The Cooler, is a professional loser, a man whose bad luck is so perpetual and unvarying ...
Karate Kids
Kindergartners find the warrior within.
A bunch of four- and five-year-old boys are lined up in front of the mirror at American Karate in Monterey, stretching, doing mini pushups, bragging about their punches as they throw them at their reflection, ...
Newsfeature
Women at War: Women in Iraq—Iraqis and Americans—confront a troubling landscape.
President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq put Donna Hinton in a strange position. A 43-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, a self-employed real estate broker and a practicing Buddhist from Long Beach, California, she ...
Streettalk
Out of This World: Asked at Monterey Peninsula College
Q: What do you think of President Bush’s new plan for space exploration? Follow-up: What single comfort item would you bring with you if you were to travel to Mars? John McCleave Retired | Seaside ...
California Dinin’
City Diner Serves Up Neighborliness and Vittles.
I always head out to Seaside’s City Diner (formerly Emy’s) whenever I get a hankering for chicken fried steak with biscuits and gravy. City Diner’s combo comes with two eggs and your choice of hash ...
Squidfry
FIELDS OF GOLD…Now the million-dollar “affordable” homes are finally starting to make sense. According to the latest campaign disclosure statements filed by the Monterey County supervisorial hopefuls, Jerry Smith (the Democrat-turned-Seaside-Mayor-turned-Republican-turned-candidate for County Supe) was ...
Under Cover
Monterey Museum’s quilt show illustrates the evolution of a folk-art form.
The notion of evolution has become part of the modern and post-modern canon. The modernist story has artists striving toward some philosophical goal or truth, developing innovative techniques or forms toward that end, advancing. Subsequent ...
Second Helping
Santa Cruz Rocker Goes Punk
After years of playing in the Santa Cruz funk rock band Soba, guitarist/singer Mike McGuire discovered punk rock, and it changed his life. Now, McGuire is the driving force behind Santa Cruz’s newest punk rock ...
CHOMP wellness program teaches patients to fight risk with vigor.
It was 5am on Dec. 22, 1986, and Ron Pasquinelli was sound asleep. That’s when it hit. “I woke up, and it felt like someone put my shoulders into a vice and squeezed,” he recalls. ...
Letters
Governator Attacks Workers While everyone agrees that workers’ compensation costs have risen, no one asks why. Schwarzenegger simply blames lawyers, fraud, and injured workers, arguing benefits are too high. In reality, workers’ comp benefits in ...
Golf? or Spa?
A guy’s guide to the smarter gender’s recreation.
My wife Landry and I are different. On vacation, we both enjoy golf, but she’d much rather play a quick seven holes and then beat a quick retreat into an orange-scented spa somewhere for a ...
Two Local Voices
Another Option brings together a rapper-poet and a singer-poet, both from Salinas.
After seeing singer Yvette Brooks perform at a Salinas open mic night, producer/MC Roy Waxx knew he had to work with the young woman. So after Brooks’ performance of “Brown Eyes,” an original song, Waxx ...
Artifacts
FOR POSTERITY’S SAKE… Photographer and author John Livingstone is launching a two-year project to digitally record images of businesses of the Monterey Peninsula. He plans to spend 2004 and ’05 on the project, which will, ...
Newsbriefs
Supes To Vote On Gallo Expansion The county Board of Supervisors will vote on Jan. 27 on a proposal by E&J Gallo to more than double its Soledad-area vineyard. The project, which was approved by ...
King Cotton
The King of California is a true story that reads like a pirate adventure.
Jim Boswell is a cantankerous old bastard with pale blue eyes, thin lips and a couple fingers missing on one hand, and he keeps to himself with almost pathological ferocity. He also controls more agricultural ...
Foodchain
OPERA MAN…Interestingly, even though it’s winter and hibernatory (another one from the dictionary of Ray) fantasies lull us into the chrysalis comfort of our beds (kind of like my writing) there is quite a bit ...
Health and Fitness
Strong To The Core: Martial artists work out on a deeper level.
From the outside, the Body Worx martial arts dojo looks like any one of the businesses lining Broadway in Seaside—the laundromats, Mexican restaurants and thrift stores. But inside, certificates of young black belts and photos ...
Green Card Blues
Pres. Bush’s immigration reform proposal receives mixed reviews from growers and workers’ advocates.
The guest worker program President Bush announced two weeks ago and touted during his State of the Union address Tuesday, has been called a step forward in immigration policy. But it could also be two ...
Discspace
Discspace
ROSCOE HOLCOMB An Untamed Sense of Control Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Responsible for a revived public interest in bluegrass music, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack is mostly the work of studio musicians, who have ...
Thursday, January 15
Eve of Destruction
Photographer Michael Katakis documents pre-civil war life in an African village.
Contemporary maps of the West African nation of Sierra Leone still show the town of Kainkordu marked in the easternmost section of the country. But what exists as a name on a map exists no ...
Tell It To a Marine
DLI Russian-language student hosts his own TV show on bare-bones filmmaking.
Some people talk about producing an indie film on a used car budget. David Vargas, a local filmmaker and active duty Marine, talks about making movies on a lunch money budget. The former theater major, ...
Discspace
Discspace
THE LOST PATROL Songs About Running Away Burning Heart Records The Lost Patrol’s second release, Songs About Running Away, is not what one would expect from Dennis Lyxzen, a Swedish punk rocker known for songs ...
Foodchain
WELCOME TO MY LIFE…Hello there everyone, and welcome back to this regular weekly grind-it-out stream of semi-consciousness. My last three columns were cranked out (crazed publishing elves on crank) before the holidays. But before I ...
Newsbriefs
Green Lights Up For Grabs Sometimes business and environmental interests coexist in a way that makes everyone feel like they’re coming out ahead. Such is the RightLights program of the Santa Cruz-based nonprofit Ecology Action. ...
Dock of the Bay
Sea Harvest’s new Moss Landing location serves great seafood by the seashore.
I’m at peace when I’m near the ocean. It’s probably some recessed childhood memory I can’t seem to touch. But it’s there. In particular, I’m fond of life that breathes in and around the sea: ...
Special Report
At its most basic, a reporter’s job is to do just that: report. Here’s how that works—you go to where the story is. You keep your eyes and ears open, and your mind, too. You ...
Homepage
Windows to the Water in PG
When Randall Nottenkamper and his late wife decided to tear down and rebuild their Pacific Grove cottage 13 years ago, they created a home that would maximize the feeling of being a part of the ...
Picking Up the Pieces
In the heart of a broken country, American soldier-diplomats are trying to create democracy amid chaos.
Four days after they’d nearly been slaughtered in an ambush outside Fallujah on the morning of Christmas Eve, Maj. Woody Nunis’ shorthanded civil affairs team takes another hit. Driving back the half-hour from Baghdad late ...
Streettalk
Ronald, Arnold, Who’s Next?: Asked at Morgan’s Coffee Shop in Monterey
Q: What celebrity do you think would make a good (or bad) politician? Follow-up: Which would you rather be, a movie star or a politician? Mark Bava Event Producer | San Francisco A: Probably Richard ...
Loved to Death
Charlize Theron stuns in her portrayal of a serial killer.
There’s no excuse for murder. But there are always circumstances, and these are shrewdly explored in this biographical drama of American serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a hard-luck prostitute in Daytona Beach, Florida, who killed six ...
Unreal Rockers
Stones-mania tribute band swaggers at Sly’s.
Jim Riddick takes his job very seriously. As Keith Richards in The Unauthorized Rolling Stones, Riddick wants to get all the details of the infamous guitarist down. That means that the Bay Area guitarist has ...
Art Listings
Art Listings
art openings | events Bagel Bakery Dale Lefler, Sally Weil and Larry Bordan show their work. 1132 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove. 625-2317. Ends 2/29. Carl Cherry Center Sparks Fly Upward: Big Sur Artists 1950-1990. Thirty ...
Artifacts
SLOBODAN ON FILM…On Wednesday, Jan. 21, the Peace Coalition of Monterey County and Democracy Now, a new student organization at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, will screen Bringing Down a Dictator, a film documenting ...
Squidfry
TONY IN T4…Tony, Tony, Tony. You never call. You never write. Squid misses you, Tony Anchundo. Maybe it’s because Squid’s a lowly print cephalopod, and the wannabe film star—who also heads the Monterey County Elections ...
Blood Brothers
Carmel Valley Rotary spearheads Nigeria’s first safe blood donor system.
This Friday, the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital in South East Nigeria will inaugurate that African country’s first known safe blood bank system—thanks to the Rotary Club of Carmel Valley. In May 2002, Carmel Valley ...
Cowardly Wit
Robert Colter shines in Present Laughter.
When Noel Coward’s Present Laughter is done well, the farce begins mid-crescendo and launches skyward in a wildly frenzied arc. Right now it’s being done well by Robert Colter and the Unicorn Theater at the ...
Schwarzenegger’s first budget finds billions in the coffers of cities and counties.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $99.1 billion budget proposal balances the state’s deficit by taking money from cities, counties and the poor, according to local elected officials and Sacramento Democrats. The budget plan, released Jan. 9, cuts ...
Hardcore Humorist Busts out
Funnyman Robert Hawkins’ stage act is even too much for Fox TV.
When the United States military invaded Iraq, Robert Hawkins, a former expert combat medic in the Army, decided to rejoin the armed forces. Instead of applying ointments to injured soldiers during his trip to Iraq ...
Theater Listings
theater opening Adam & Eve: The Diaries Opens Fri 8pm, continues Sat 8pm, Sun 2:30pm. Staff Players Repertory reprises its two-person show featuring Marcia Gambrell and Ron Cohen. $16, $12 students and seniors, $6 children. ...
The Supes race could leave the Peninsula under-represented.
Seven would-be county supervisors faced each other and about 50 members of the voting public for the first time last week and sparred about all the usual issues: affordable housing, water, the General Plan, the ...
Thursday, January 8
Streettalk
Mad About Beef: Asked in Monterey
Q: Has the report of mad cow disease in Washington State affected how you eat? Follow-up: What’s your favorite beef dish? Ray Chudy Teacher | Monterey A: I think about it but it really hasn’t ...
Ska Rollers
Warsaw’s nonstop tour stops at Viva.
The guys in Warsaw probably have some outstanding stories from the road. The Arizona ska quartet has performed 300 shows a year for the last eight years. In 2001, the band was ranked number seven ...
Fear of Flying
If I can drive a Volvo, I can fly a Cessna.
On the morning of Dec. 3, just weeks before the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight, I wake up and listen, hopefully, for the sound of rain. Chances are good; it’s been raining ...
Theater Listings
Theater Listings
theater openings Follow Your Heart, Live Your Dreams Opens Thurs 7:30pm, continues Fri-Sat 7:30pm, closes Sun 2pm. Lyn Whiting directs this medley of Broadway musical hits. $22. Magic Circle Center, 8 El Caminito, Carmel Valley. ...
Art Listings
Art Listings
art openings | events Carmel Art Association Oil landscapes by Mark Farina, oil paintings by Y.S. Lim and masks by Kathleen Crocetti (see story p.36). Reception: 1/10, 6-8pm. Dolores between 5th and 6th, Carmel. 624-6176. ...
News Feature
Behind the Curtain: George W. Bush’s war on the environment is being carried out by bureaucrats with strong ties to the industries they regulate.
In Washington, the most important decisions are made by bureaucrats, and George W. Bush has learned that lesson well. More than any other president in recent history, he has filled key behind-the-scenes jobs with lawyers ...
Off The Books
Salinas council approves budget with significant cuts to libraries.
By Last Tuesday the Salinas City Council drastically cut funding to the city’s three libraries. The decision came as part of a larger, $3.6 million budget reduction plan that tied the Council 3-3 in its ...
Private Justice
Following a distinguished career, Judge Richard Silver does some legal business.
He was known as the “judges’ judge,” the man on the bench who resolved some of the county’s most Byzantine disputes, who taught his counterparts in Russia about administering justice, and who poured himself into ...
Spurs ‘n’ Spuds
Grab some ribs and cozy up to the fire at the Running Iron.
I’m pretty sure that the J-Gate shifter in my car was created with Laureles Grade in mind. The direction of the drive makes a difference—reason enough to head over the mountain from Highway 68 onto ...
Letters
Renters Need Civic Support I applaud the efforts of County Supervisor Lou Calcagno to assist mobile home residents at the Monte Del Lago project who are facing massive rent increases [“Mobile Homeowners Stuck,” Dec. 24-31, ...
Gov. Schwarzenegger says a tax increase would be ‘final nail’ in state’s coffin.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his State of the State address on Jan. 6 warned that spending cuts in his upcoming budget would be painful. But the real news will come Friday, when the governor’s office ...
A New Year in Baghdad
A memo from the front lines of an aftermath to war.
To: Editors Fr: Scutro Re: Iraq January 5, 2004 I have eight full notebooks, several hours of audio tape and 15 rolls of film to distill from my two-week assignment in Iraq. (I have a ...
Tall, Dark and Handsome
The Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra’s leading man.
The most unique member of The Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra is a tall, skinny thing with a real deep voice—the rare Buffet (Evette-Shaefer) Eb contrabass saxophone, which weighs 45 pounds and stands six feet, eight ...
Mannish Blues Boy
Young Jr. Deville is ready to rock the blues.
When Jr. Deville hopped up onstage for the first time at the Concord Blues Festival, he says, it felt like the sort of moment that only happens in daydreams or movies. DeVille says that earlier ...
News Briefs
Chamber Hosts Supe Candidates The race is on for two seats on the County Board of Supervisors, and on Friday, Jan. 9, all seven candidates vying for the 4th and 5th Districts will debate key ...
Discspace
Discspace
THE TWILIGHT SINGERS Blackberry Belle One Little Indian Records Greg Dulli’s old band, The Afghan Whigs, was probably a marketing nightmare for the band’s record company. In the beginning of their career, The Afghan Whigs ...
Telling Tall Tales
Big Fish’s sunshine blinds us to Tim Burton’s past dark efforts.
Tim Burton is all grown up and getting serious with this wildly scattershot tale of a dying old man and serial liar (Albert Finney) and his estranged son (Billy Crudup), who arrives at his father’s ...
Squidfry
LETTUCE AND LIBRARIES…Squid’s going to try to be nice in 2004, and swears to do Squid’s best to point out the good thinks happening in Squid’s community. Like the $4 million gift by the Tanimura ...
Artifacts
ART BY WEB…PG writer/filmmaker Gregory Moleski has launched an impressive new Web site to give local artists an easy-to-use, wide-ranging forum for selling their artwork. Carmel Art Colony, which went on-line Jan. 1, is, Moleski ...
In Plein Air
Painter and art teacher Mark Farina puts his own stamp on local landscapes.
They seem to be everywhere these days: plein air painters whose buttery little works capture picturesque local views. Perhaps it is a result of the beauty found here, what with the rocky shores, weather-beaten trees, ...
Foodchain
Last week everyone else got to sound off about their 10 fave raves of 2003. What am I, chopped liver? Here’s mine, in no particular order. 10. Opening night of the Masters of Food and ...
Homepage
Pacific Heights in Seaside
True, there are no shops in the condo complex itself, but the mature landscaping, neatly maintained structures, and quiet streets make it feel like a city within a city. On a Tuesday morning outside of ...
The Wandering Jews
Weekly editor Sue Fishkoff finds meaning among the traveling emissaries of Chabad-Lubavitch.
Weekly staff member (she is now the newspaper’s associate editor), Fishkoff also worked as a reporter for the Jerusalem Post for seven years. Four years ago, she was approached by an editor at Schocken who ...
