Thursday, November 24
Mambo Master
Pete Escovedo lends percussive power to Yvette Y Su Orquestra.
Salsa bands live or die by their percussion sections. If the timbales and the congas consistently lock into a propulsive groove with the bassist and pianist, the combo will keep the dancers happy, and the ...
Home-Less in Paradise
In a hilltop forest bordering a wealthy Peninsula enclave, renegades and outcasts practice bare survival.
In a densely wooded, stunningly beautiful 140-acre greenbelt located in the heart of the Peninsula, 30 to 40 homeless men, women and teenagers eke out a hidden existence. For years, maybe decades, these disenfranchised people ...
The City of Light in Black and White
Local photographer captures Paris street life.
Meredith Mullins says she spent 15 years trying to get Stevan, a dignified Montmartre street artist, to let her take his picture. Every time she asked he would politely but resolutely hold up one hand ...
One Marina development lawsuit settled, one to go.
A lawsuit settlement reached two weeks ago over the Marina Heights development won’t add any new low- or very low-income housing units to the 1,050-home project. But it will help poorer residents find homes, says ...
TheaterListings
| theater opening | Dandy Dick Opens 8pm Sat; continues 2pm Sun. A pious country vicar needs some additional cash flowing into his humble church. When his sister—a female jockey who has mastered the man’s ...
Frosty the Iceman
Fairgrounds will become a winter wonderland as Monterey on Ice offers a cool holiday chill.
Holiday magic—like most magic—can have wonderful and strange results. In North Monterey, the results include a giant fuzzy otter slipping around on a 90-foot-by-60-foot ice rink. In the Main Arena of the Monterey Fairgrounds. In ...
News Briefs
Protest leads to firing of Marina Shell manager A local filling station operator who waged a one-man war against the oil industry has lost a big battle. Mehdi Shahbazi, retail manager of the Marina Shell ...
Spin Control
Safeway’s not the victim, insist Monterey officials.
Monterey City Manager Fred Meurer wants to set the record straight. Following a barrage of e-mails and phone calls from citizens concerned by Safeway’s recent statements in a full-page advertisement, Meurer says he’s eager to ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Back Porch Fabrics | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel | Exotic Fine Art | ...
Keys to the Highway
The Mark Kaye Band comes to town from the Mission District via Menlo Park.
The pop funk group the Mark Kaye Band has played all over the Bay Area—everywhere from the Last Day Saloon, a popular San Francisco venue since 1973, to Blush, a new 6,000 square foot dance ...
Squidfry
GAY-BASHING BARBARIANS AT THE DLI GATES…Squid considers Squidself a fairly evolved creature (for an ink-squirting invertebrate). And as such, Squid is creeped out by certain un-evolved behaviors. For instance, Squid believes discrimination against gay men ...
Gameday means great taste and more filling, with a Cannery Row pub crawl.
Fantasy football has taken on new meaning. It’s no longer a rotisserie league for stats-centric NFL fans; it’s a world where the gleaming breakfast buffet is as long as a third and 20, a bank ...
Ring of Fire
Joaquin Phoenix excels at playing Johnny Cash during his rowdy days in Walk the Line.
Johnny Cash circumvented the rowdy mantrap of diminishing rock ‘n’ roll returns (which muffled virtually all of Sam Phillips’ six-string cocksmen in the end) by giving up his one true love—little white speed pills—for his ...
Broken Dream Street
Big plans move forward as Salinas’ most rundown neighborhood gets a boost of cash from the feds.
The abandoned buildings, overgrown lots and homeless camps of Soledad Street sit right in the heart of Salinas, in the old Chinatown area, just blocks from the Steinbeck Center, the new Maya Cinemas, and Oldtown’s ...
Foodchain
The Art of Going Out
How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away?…I was musing about one of the double-edged swords of the restaurant business—the regular customer. As a restaurateur, it’s great to be able to rely on ...
Homepage
A Garden in Carmel
Nestled in between the criss-crossing patterns of boxwood in Susan and Fritz Grau’s Carmel garden are small dishes of beer. Slugs and snails meet their fate in this non-toxic fashion. “I’m very proud of the ...
Word Weary
Word Weary
Myla Goldberg’s novel about spelling-bee fever, a family in chaos, and religious/mystic exploration arrives on the screen with all its faults intact, but few of its charms. This is second-rate Hallström, drama plus whimsy that, ...
Street Talk
Gravy Training: Asked at Garden Health and Fitness in Monterey
Q: What’s a creative way to burn Turkey Day calories? Follow-up: What Thanksgiving staple do you find it easiest to binge on? Kadria CatalanoFitness Instructor/Mom | Sand City A: Go for a nice, long, beautiful ...
Letters
Making It Good I’m enjoying your latest issue on “Green Money” [Nov. 17-23]. I’ve reached the page regarding investments, however, and I was very disappointed that you didn’t choose my favorite green investment as your ...
The Night Before Christmas
Charlie (John Cusack) and Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) spend Christmas Eve taking in strip shows and concealing a crime in
The Ice Harvest is a poor man’s cross between the Cohen brothers’ Blood Simple and Fargo, with a sprinkle of atmosphere copped from The Ice Storm, albeit at Christmastime. It’s an anti-Christmas black comedy for ...
Maureen vs. ‘Men’: From one smart female columnist to another…
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is 53, unmarried and childless, and it’s the fault of men. You know, “men”? That undifferentiated mass of easy generalizations? I have the impression that someone wrote her new ...
Thursday, November 17
Big business and religion combine to create an environment toxic for science.
Sound science, data quality, intelligent design: although innocuous-sounding, these phrases are weapons in a war, a war that aims to bring objective, disinterested science to heel. Take the phrase “sound science,” for example. You might ...
Catalog Green
A sustainable shoppers guide
What is a healthy environment worth? What is survival worth? Is it worth spending around 20 percent more for the items we use every day? Because that’s what it costs. Speaking in Monterey last month, ...
The Funny Podiatrist
The foot bone’s connected to the funny-bone in Dr. Scott Smith’s office.
It is a surreal couple of minutes. Located in a small office that makes some broom closets feel spacious, Dr. Scott Smith is on a roll. Beneath a shelf of hardback books with titles like ...
TheaterListings
TheaterListings
| theater opening | Box and Cox Opens Sat 8pm; continues 2pm Sun. This charming comedy unfolds in the room of a London boarding house, where Mr. Box ( a printer) and Mr. Cox (a ...
Street Talk
Q: This grocery store is scheduled to lose its lease in April 2006. What do you like about it? What would you miss? Follow-up: What is your most common purchase here? Ann Nareg Med Tech ...
Office Supplies
Office Supplies
• American Performance Toner Cartridge for HP Laserjet 4MV (remanufactured) | $79.99 • Hewlett Packard Toner Cartridge for HP Laserjet 4MV (new) | $152.99 Laser toner cartridges are made of plastic, iron and aluminum parts—all ...
Gardening
Catalog Green
• Whitney Farms Vegetable Food | $4.79 •Miracle-Gro All Purpose Plant Food | $7.97 Studies at the University of Wisconsin have shown that acidic chemical garden fertilizers are causing serious, permanent damage to our soils. ...
Clothing
Catalog Green
• Patagonia Men’s Classic Retro Cardigan (fleece made from recycled plastic soda bottles) |$175 • L. L. Bean Men’s Knife Edge Fleece Jacket | $79 Oil makes plastic, including 40 billion plastic soda bottles made ...
Shades of Green
Congress passes rule that could water down organic label.
Sales of organically certified foods are leaping by 20 percent every year as more people turn on to the organic-is-better philosophy. But an Oct. 28 vote by the US House of Representatives could cheapen the ...
Letters
Jet Skis Out of Sanctuary I read with interest about the ongoing controversy over tow-in surfing in the Monterey Bay Sanctuary [“Smoke on the Water,” Nov. 10-16]. With all due respect to balls-out tow-in surfers ...
Catalog Green
• Éminence Herbal Eye Contour Cream | $60 • Matis Les Yeux Repairing Eye Cream | $68 Matis Les Yeux may be fit for royalty, but it’s not that great for Mother Earth—or your internal ...
A Tuscan Holiday
La Giostra brings genuine Italian countryside touch to casual dining or fancy lunching.
By Tuscan authenticity is unavoidable in the new little cucina on Munras in Monterey. It smells wonderful as it bakes in the oak-fired oven. It’s audible in the accents. It’s visible in the pizza crust ...
Newsbriefs
Bingo, Bank Robbed Two armed robberies in two days kept Seaside police detectives working overtime last weekend. The first incident took place during Friday Night Bingo at the Oldemeyer Center, while the second incident occurred ...
Smells Like Teen Spirit
The magic comes from the character growth in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
J. K. Rowling’s mega-selling series of books has been talked about for any number of reasons—its pop culture ubiquity; its ability to make a generation of video game and iPod junkies actually read; its alleged ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Back Porch Fabrics | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel | Exotic Fine Art | ...
HOMEPAGE: A Victorian-Lovers Victorian
HOMEPAGE: A Victorian-Lovers Victorian
In the area known as Pacific Grove Retreat is a pale-blue painted Victorian that for the past 104 years has lent a dignified presence to the neighborhood. Built in 1901 by the Chivers brothers, Henry ...
Black is Back
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is famed screenwriter Shane Black’s triumphant comeback.
Blammo! The directorial debut of screenwriter Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight) is a suckerpunch-and-a-half, a trippy tribute to LA noir that blazes through its running time, a genre-busting blitzkrieg attack on Hollywood ...
Beatles Live Again
The White Album Ensemble brings Sgt. Pepper’s to the Golden State Theater.
In 1967, The Beatles issued their biggest musical statement to date with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A meticulously recorded 13-song album, Sgt. Pepper’s was groundbreaking in many ways. It features probably the most ...
Catalog Green
• Seventh Generation Disposable Diapers (30 count) | $12.99 • Huggies Supreme (56 count) | $10.99 The Archives of Disease in Childhood report that, among other harmful chemicals, disposable diapers like Huggies contain dioxin—a byproduct ...
‘Tis the Season Already
No Depression November…There is no denying the holiday season is upon us. I have been struggling with my feelings during this time of year for so many years that I don’t even know how many ...
Catalog Green
• Driscoll’s Organic Strawberries | $4.99/pint • Well-Pict Conventional Strawberries | $1.98/pint This is from an online journal called the O’Mama Report, and it’s true: “A typical grower of conventional strawberries may use methyl bromide, ...
Frustration with sprawl—and with pro-sprawl supervisors—ignites two citizens’ initiatives.
Monterey County voters are taking land-use policy decisions into their own hands. On Nov. 10, smart-growth supporters started collecting signatures to put a general plan initiative on the June 2006 ballot. Two days later Butterfly ...
Squidfry
Squidfry
PUBLIC SERVANTS…Last week’s events played out exactly like Squid predicted: On Nov. 7, the County Supervisors approved Butterfly Villages, the first piece in the larger Rancho San Juan development. And on Nov. 8, the public ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
INTENSE |The Bohemian Pimp Project | Defend Music Hailing from Schoolz of Thought and the obscure (yet Roots-approved) 3 Nations in 1, Illadelph rapper Intense breaks out on his own with his solo debut, The ...
Big Ticket Items
Catalog Green
• Toyota Prius | $21,275 • Toyota Corolla | $14,585 The Toyota Prius lives up to its reputation as a planet-protecting purchase in gas savings and emissions reduction. It is much greener than its relatively ...
Household Items
Catalog Green
• Dishmate with grapefruit essence | $3.25/25 oz. • Palmolive Ultra Concentrated Soap with Orange Extracts | $3.49/25 oz. Palmolive’s powerful grease-cleaning agents quickly break down the toughest baked-on grease without breaking down your skin, ...
Thursday, November 10
Quite a Catch
Noah Baumbach’s exceptional The Squid and the Whale examines a dysfunctional New York family.
The opening line lays it all out on the table: “It’s Mom and me versus you and Dad.” Young Frank (Owen Kline) is merely delineating sides for a family game of tennis, but when that ...
Smoke on the Water
Big-wave towsurfing will become a thing of the past if jet skis are banned in the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary.
Consider the following four portraits of the jet ski in Monterey County waters: • A jet ski tows a surfer into a 50-foot wave at Ghost Tree, the mysto-death wave off Pescadero Point in Pebble ...
Public water supporters soldier on, and vow to keep fighting Cal Am.
As the poll numbers scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen showed Measure W losing by a wide margin, the NBC weight-loss reality show The Biggest Loser filled the remainder of the picture. The ...
Letters
DROUGHT IS NOT FUNNY Does the Weekly think that our vulnerability to a drought is a laughing matter? [“The Heroic Tale of Measure W,” Oct. 20-26]. While portraying people as superheroes in their cartoon, the ...
Life and Death and Fine Dining
Life and Death and Fine Dining
HEAVENLY RESERVATIONS… The only way I can start this column this week is by acknowledging the passing of one of our venerable eating institutions, the OLD BATH HOUSE, in Pacific Grove. On Nov. 6, after ...
HOMEPAGE: Image Makers
Faux-finish artists make any wall look like a fantasy-come-true.
Lisa Haas-Cappuccio’s got a fancy name, a fancy van and a fancy job, but comes off like a gal you could sit down and have a beer or two with. Haas-Cappuccio, a decorative painter based ...
Second Act
Camper Van Beethoven continues three-year reunion tour in Monterey.
Even though Camper Van Beethoven would eventually become one of the biggest underground rock acts of the late ‘80s, and helped start the whole indie rock thing, singer/guitarist David Lowery and his bandmates did not ...
DiscSpace
FATLIP | Theloneliest Punk | Tasty Vinyl After more than five years of hiatus, former Pharcyde MC Fatlip is back, seeking his redemption with his long-awaited solo debut, Theloneliest Punk. Despite the years gone by ...
Squidfry
BAD DREAM, PART II…Squid’s had a recurring nightmare since squidolescence. Squid is falling, all twisting tentacles in the wind, from this sparkling 14-story building that doesn’t exist. Well, Squid hadn’t had that nightmare for years. ...
Supes Subvert Referendum
Voters reject Measure C; supervisors allow development anyway.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected the huge Rancho San Juan development on Nov. 8. But their vote may not mean anything. Less than 24 hours earlier, Monterey County Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve Butterfly Village, a 671-acre ...
Victors say the governor’s special-election defeat signals his doom.
Election night was young. Any results you could hang your hat on were least a couple of hours away. But John Ferrington, a teacher at Gavilan View Middle School, was already in full-tilt party mode. ...
Simple Sauces
Three ways to celebrate the end of tomato season.
Caprese—made with ripe, just-picked tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, garden basil and spendy olive oil—is one of life’s simple, perfect luxuries. But I’m tired of it. I’m tired of thick slices of heirloom tomato on my sandwiches; ...
Street Talk
Smack Down!: Asked at Moss Landing
Q: If you were a WWE wrestler, what would be your name and story?Follow-up: Who would be your nemesis?Justin Yannone Chef | Aromas A: The Oaf. I was created by mad scientists, went bad, and ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Back Porch Fabrics | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel | Exotic Fine Art | ...
Rock Life for Sale
Local bandleader offers up the contents of his garage to appease the music gods.
Keith Bruecker says he wrote his best songs while homeless. “I didn’t have anything to do all day except write music,” he says. “I slept in the bed of my truck with my musical instruments ...
News Briefs
Salinas’ Lights Off It appears Salinas’ Holiday Parade of Lights has become a victim of its own success. According to Luis Alvarez, president of the Oldtown Salinas Association that has run the popular holiday event ...
Victory for V
Salinas leaders celebrate a big win—finally.
The polls had just closed Tuesday night when Mayor Anna Caballero made her way across the parking lot of Chapala Restaurant in Salinas. She adjusted her wine-colored suit jacket and flashed an uneasy grin. “I’m ...
The Waiting Game
Based on the bestselling memoir,
With Jarhead, the director of American Beauty has adapted Anthony Swofford’s 2003 bestseller about his maddening stint with the Marines during the first Gulf war into an equally maddening movie that portrays Our Boys as ...
FILM: World in Motion
International documentary festival offers global inspiration.
Courage and hope arrive this weekend in the visage of the late Sergio Vierra de Mello, the charismatic UN humanitarian who spearheaded miraculous recoveries in places like post-Khmer Rogue Cambodia and civil-war-stricken Mozambique. The same ...
Instant History
Playback brings actual Salinas Stories to the stage.
An audience member stands up and tells a personal story from her life. A group of actors standing on stage improvise it. Drama doesn’t get more spontaneous, immediate and simple than this. It’s Playback Theatre, ...
October was bad for the world and everyone in it—especially the president of the United States.
Even though last month provided us with a fair amount of devastating natural disasters, war, incompetence, fear, sickness, deceased civil rights leaders, corruption and mediocrity, I believe the tone was truly set by the makers ...
TheaterListings
Links to theater/stage organizations within this section: | CET & Indoor Forest Theater | MPC Drama Dept. | MoCo Theatre Alliance | Pacfic Rep | Unicorn Theatre | theater opening | The Cherry Orchard Opens ...
Thursday, November 3
As Election Day approaches, MPUSD’s forensic audit looms large.
When community member Shauna Rowe submitted a document titled “Why You Must Do a Forensic Audit” to a divided Monterey Peninsula Unified School District last September, she set off a series of events which has ...
True Blues
Maria Muldaur reflects on recent triumphs.
Maria Muldaur doesn’t want to talk about the past. She shies away from a discussion about starting a roots-music revival act, the Even Dozen Jug Band, with famed players David Grisman and John Sebastian back ...
Letters
NO ‘ROCKETS RED GLARE’ IN THE SUNSET I had gone to Sunset Center to hear some beautiful symphony music, but suddenly a huge flag comes rolling down in back of the musicians with people rising ...
Even if the governor does not want you to vote, we do.
For the past week or so, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been making “robo-calls”—auto-dialed telephone calls delivering pre-recorded messages—reminding Californians to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8. But, tellingly, these calls are not going out to all ...
Real Life Drama
El Teatro Campesino celebrates its 40th Anniversary.
Luis Valdez was an aspiring 25-year-old playwright 40 years ago when he left the San Francisco Mime Troupe to join César Chávez, who was organizing farmworkers in Delano, Calif. With the blessing of Chávez, Valdez ...
TheaterListings
TheaterListings
Links to theater and stage organizations within this section: | CET & Indoor Forest Theater | MPC Drama Dept. | MoCo Theatre Alliance | Pacfic Rep | Unicorn Theatre | theater opening | Dining to ...
The Naked Truth
Atom Egoyan’s
Up until now, Atom Egoyan was probably best known as the director of 1997’s The Sweet Hereafter, a slow cooker of a film about a small Canadian town dealing with a school bus accident that ...
Colorful Character
A cartoonist for men’s mags and Mann Packing, Eldon Dedini looks back on a vibrant career.
The name Eldon Dedini may not ring a bell, but one glance at the 84-year-old Monterey County native’s iconic cartoons will likely elicit instant recognition and a wry grin from generations of “gentlemen.” For the ...
Thrifty and Content
The Goodwill store on Lighthouse Avenue lives up to its name.
One of the coolest things about thrift stores is you never know what you’re going to get. That’s especially true at Monterey’s Goodwill Industries store at 571 Lighthouse Ave. Of the three Goodwill locations in ...
ENDORSEMENTS 05: District and School Board
VOTE NOV. 8, 2005
SPECIAL DISTRICTS MONTEREY PENINSULA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT Judi Lehman Four years ago, Lehman ousted then-director Ron Chesshire from his seat on the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District. During her tenure, Lehman has promoted conservation and ...
Upper Crustacean
Julihanh does French-Vietnamese seafood with saucy style.
Despite the grey-bearded elder sitting almost in my lap, the heat melting the ice cubes in my beer and the thick language barrier, the meal I had in a tiny fishing town outside of Nha ...
Hayride to Hell
The Devil Makes Three turns rockers onto old-timey string music.
It doesn’t make sense on the face of it, these tattooed hayseeds from Vermont stirring the punk-rock masses into a clodhopping frenzy with their banjos and standup bass. But there it is, every time The ...
Two Party Party
Panettas honor Senators Feinstein, Lieberman and Collins.
Leon Panetta has long opined that the country’s leaders need to fight for the interests of their constituents, not fight with each other. In a recent commentary, Panetta, a former Central Coast congressman, says he’s ...
Crude Conspiracy
Marina gas station manager attacks oil company profiteering.
Consumers complain about high gas pump prices all the time. And not without reason, as gas prices and oil companies’ profits soar. But when the same complaints—conspiracy theories included—come out of the mouth of a ...
SquidFry
SquidFry
UNDER THE WIRE… If there’s one thing Squid has learned, it’s this: Don’t get in between a hungry cephalopod and a slightly smaller, weaker cephalopod. It’s only vaguely more dangerous than getting between the MONTEREY ...
ENDORSEMENTS 05: Ballot Measures
VOTE NOV. 8, 2005
STATE PROPOSITIONS | Special Election Initiatives Among the politicians in our state and nation, there are some who are deeply committed to pubic service, and some who are deeply cynical. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is neither—though ...
HOMPAGE: Upmarket Dreamhomes
HOMPAGE: Upmarket Dreamhomes
Realtor Jamal Noorzoy, who specializes in high-end properties in Carmel and Pebble Beach, has been the top producer for Alain Pinel Realtors for the past four years. Two of his current listings—one on San Antonio ...
We Want You
Street Talk -- Asked in front of the Lodge at Pebble Beach.
Q: Who is your favorite political non-politician? Follow-up: Who would you have play Governor Schwarzenegger in a movie? ALMA LIGOURI (Greg Ligouri) | HR Recruiting | Herdon, VA A: Bill O’Reilly. He’s pretty well-balanced and ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Back Porch Fabrics | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel | Exotic Fine Art | ...
FOODCHAIN: November Warmth
LET THERE BE LIGHT… Turning the clock back…it’s just unnatural. It’s not supposed to be dark out during happy hour. I mean, the whole point of happy hour is to get happy…obviously, the best way ...
Low Expectations
Steve Martin and Claire Danes hawk shallow goods in
Like some heroine from a 1950s melodrama, Mirabelle (Claire Danes) sells the strangely anachronistic accessory of long evening gloves at the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. She is the human equivalent of an elevator button: ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
FATLIP | The Loneliest Punk | Tasty Vinyl After more than five years of hiatus, former Pharcyde MC Fatlip is back, seeking his redemption with his long-awaited solo debut, Theloneliest Punk. Despite the years gone ...
NewsBriefs
IN THE ZONE They’re cute. They’re furry. And they are banned from migrating to Southern California. On Nov. 3, in Monterey, the public can weigh in on the federal sea otter recovery program and controversial ...
Imagine a Better Salinas
Measure V could help the city become a better place to live.
Mayor Anna Caballero is sitting at a small table at Starbucks on Constitution Avenue in Creekbridge, staring out the window at her city. She’s lost in thought, daydreaming about what lies ahead for the city ...
Bill would cut strings from campaign dollars.
The idea behind state Assembly Bill 583 is simple: politicians needn’t tangle with money that has strings attached to it. While that scenario resonates loudly among those who feel that California’s ever-increasing, record-breaking campaign contributions ...
