Thursday, December 28
FastReads, Pt. I
Winner and Runners Up. The Weekly’s readers prove (once again) that a good short story can be really, really short.
There are probably 101 ways to judge a contest like this, the Weekly’s annual celebration of supershort fiction. This year, as in the past, we used a two-stage process, with four judges reading every story ...
Mad Game
A take-no-prisoners trip through New Year’s Day football and beyond.
>>TV Cereal and milk. Wine and cheese. College football and New Year’s. Long have such combinations been wonderful together. The full sunup-to-sundown college football feast, however, only happens once a year. That makes for one ...
Under Cover
Robert De Niro directs The Good Shepherd, a film about the beginning of the CIA.
Long on ambition but remarkably unspectacular, The Good Shepherd traces the origins of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through the career of a man caught in the turbulent midst of it all. The grand intentions ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Artistas Unidos | Back Porch Fabrics | Breakthrough | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel ...
New Year’s Live
Three choice live music events to close out ’06.
On a night crowded with en vivo options, several shows stand apart—and offer locals and visitors a healthy diversity of good club-based entertainment: Kent Burnside and the New Generation Kent Burnside learned an important lesson ...
Organic Evolution
Many Salinas Valley residents don’t have access to the organic crops they pick.
Walking slowly down a muddy farm road, Deborah Yashar points to a row of white, sweet-smelling flowers planted next to green shoots of broccoli. The alyssum flower attracts beneficial insects that protect crops from pests, ...
Letters
A selection of letters from 2006.
Jan. 12 SHORT SHORT STORIES: TOO SAD Next year, a few months before the contest [“Fast Reads,” Jan 5-11], could you put your 101 word short story judges on Prozac? Thanks. —Anne Jones | Pacific ...
FastReads, Pt. III
FastReads, Pt. III
>>HONORABLEMENTION JUNIOR HIGH From the triple chair he glanced at Doc’s Cornice, the sneering windswept lip of mountaintop, and knew then that he would do it. He was riding alone; Pete and Katie—his best friend ...
PublicCitizen
ONGOING POLICY AND PANETTA |SEASIDE—Applications are now being accepted for the fall 2007 Master’s in Public Policy Program. Application deadline is March 1 for the class that starts next fall. CSUMB will host an open ...
New Year’s in Art
First Night Monterey builds a community preparing for its one big event.
>>FIRSTNIGHT First Night Monterey can already count itself a triumph, even at the time of this writing, long before thousands pour onto the streets, plazas and public buildings of Old Monterey to take part in ...
Street Talk
Asked at the Quad at CSUMB.
Q: MAKE A BOLD PREDICTION FOR 2007. Follow-up: What was your top moment of 2006? JACQUELINE TATUM | Student | Los Angeles A: Gas prices will continue to rise, that’s for sure. I’ve been reading ...
A blistering itinerary to end the year with fun.
>>FIRSTNIGHT With as many as 23 activities going on at any given moment, the First Night festivities in Old Monterey can get overwhelming. To wit: the Weekly’s crack Higher Math Committee calculated two gazillion possible ...
The Game of His Life
PG Muni stalwart Pete Vitarisi calls it a career.
Golf is a game of numbers. Unsurprisingly, longtime PG Municipal golf pro Pete Vitarisi owns a few interesting ones. Take 60: Vitarisi is one of only four people to ever shoot that unlikely low score ...
Bay Windows
Bay Windows
The regal Victorian at 566 3rd St. in Pacific Grove could still be back in 1890, occupied by Mrs. I.D. Rodgers, whose name sits low in gold letters on a dark green wooden plaque on ...
Produce anxiety is bad for the industry’s pocketbook and your stomach.
Salinas Valley farmers are fighting yet another allegation of tainted produce, this time with lettuce served at Taco Bell. While local leaders have come out swinging, demanding solid confirmation before any claim is made against ...
The rare chemistry of the Cypressaires.
On Tuesday night I was serenaded by 24 men. Normally, that would constitute an uncomfortable set of circumstances. It didn’t—these were the members of Monterey Cypressaires Barbershop Chorus, some of the most affable gentlemen found ...
Some New Year’s Love
Some New Year’s Love
NOW’S THE TIME… I love this week between Christmas and New Year’s. I think maybe I used to love it a lot more back in the day when life was not so super-charged with pressure. ...
Better Yet
Will’s Fargo improves upon a proud tradition in Carmel Valley.
Will’s Fargo Dining House and Saloon seethes with incongruity. It’s a steak house with a weakness for vegetables. The chef is French and the customers are cowboys. It still wears its original 1959 décor, yet ...
Squid Fry
Squid Fry
HORRAY FOR OUR SUPES… Maybe it’s the eggnog, or the Christmas lights, but Squid would love to give County Supervisor LOU CALCAGNO and the rest of the Board a big holiday hug. Yes, supervisors, Squid ...
The Ringer
Rocky Balboa works better in the past tense than in the present.
Over the closing credits of this sixth installment in the Rocky series, we see images of ordinary people running up the now-iconic steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and striking fists-skyward poses. It’s a ...
FastReads, Pt. II
FastReads, Pt. II
>>HONORABLEMENTION BREAKFAST The secret war between Eggs and Donuts would remain an unknown chapter in 1960s Americana but for the careful drawings of an astute 6-year-old. Thanks to his records we now know how the ...
Thursday, December 21
Letters
Letters
POVERTY IS WAR Mohandas Gandhi said something to the effect that “poverty is the greatest kind of violence.” I’m not sure if stating this in the superlative is completely balanced, but I think it’s indisputable ...
Happy Hanukkah From Woodie
The Klezmatics bring Guthrie’s
About 20 years ago, a disparate group of musicians with backgrounds in avant garde jazz, alternative rock, Eastern European folk and contemporary classical music founded The Klezmatics to supplement their incomes by playing bar mitzvahs ...
Sacramento Dems introduce barrage of bills to deal with health care crisis.
The battle over health care reform—likely to be the biggest fight in Sacramento in 2007—started on the first day of the new legislative session. On Dec. 5, state Senate and Assembly Democrats introduced several health ...
Remembering How to Believe
The stories of the season can still teach us.
>>THELOCALSPIN It’s such a good story. A bright new star appears in the sky. Three wise and wealthy men from three different lands each independently feel the need to start walking. They bump into each ...
PublicCitizen
ONGOING POLICY AND PANETTA | SEASIDE—Applications are now being accepted for the fall 2007 Master’s in Public Policy Program at Cal State University Monterey Bay. The program is a partnership between CSUMB and the Leon ...
Hillary Clinton appears ready to put an end to speculation over her presidential bid.
>>OPINION Hillary Clinton called New York Representative Eliot Engel on Monday morning to ask him to support her potential candidacy for president of the United States. “She essentially asked me if she were to do ...
Views to the Past
Views to the Past
>>REALESTATE After passing through a coded electric gate with a discreet gold sign reading Asoleado, then driving up and down, curving around on arguably the smoothest paved road within 300 miles while being distracted by ...
A peaceful world orgasm awaits this Friday.
The countdown to Synchronized Global Orgasm has dripped to just hours and minutes now. It is scheduled to happen all day Friday, Dec. 22, on the winter solstice. The organizers are egalitarian—all people from “anywhere ...
Street Talk
Asked at Costco in Sand City.
Q: WHAT GIFTS DO YOU WISH YOUR KIDS WERE ASKING SANTA FOR? Follow-up: What would Santa want for Christmas? LESLEY BORMAN | Mommy | Salinas A: Toys for other kids, for those who don’t have ...
Shakeup at the Y
State receives complaints of religious intolerance and racial bias as longtime employees flee YWCA.
The YWCA of Monterey County—whose mission is to eliminate racism and empower women—has become entangled in allegations of racial and religious discrimination and reprisals against female employees. Two former employees and a long-time volunteer at ...
Happy Happy
Happy Happy
BLESSINGS ON YA’… This is the Christmas issue, baby, hanging out with loved ones, sitting around an open fire (this column works great when placed underneath the kindling to start that fire), taking the second ...
From Santa’s Mailbox
Real letters to The North Pole from local kids on the “nice” list.
Where do all the wishes go? Like the sweet “I deserve this because I’ve been trying so hard to be good” and the raw “I’m ready to receive my Lego fortress now”? Or the detailed ...
Nice Little Pick-Me-Up
A 23-year-old carves out a caffeinated part of Lighthouse’s character.
Some sort of Hawaiian gargoyle creature looks down at patrons from atop a ledge above the front counter. Next to it sits a giant throne embellished in red velvet. Mod black-and-white checkered tiles cover the ...
SquidFry
SquidFry
IT’S GOOD TO BE GOP… Squid has nothing against Republicans. They throw better parties at nicer places, with really good food and booze. And in Monterey County—where only 31 percent of voters are registered Republican—they ...
Barnyard Switcheroo
Martinis are out and margaritas are in at the new (old?) Bixby.
Just a year and a half ago, Bill and Teresa Lee, the duo behind the much-beloved Billy Quon’s and Bahama Billy’s, threw open the doors of Bixby Martini Bistro in the Barnyard where Thunderbird Books ...
Kids in a Queue
Thousands of local kids wait for subsidized childcare.
There are more than 3,500 Monterey County kids waiting to get into a government-subsidized child care program anywhere in the county, from infant care to after-school care. Each child is listed with the Monterey County ...
Boxed Out
A guide to the best CD and DVD box sets of the season by our contributors: Tamara Parker, James Kelly, Felicia Feaster, Mosi Reeves, Curt Holman, Tony Ware
Michael Jackson | Visionary: The Video Singles (Legacy/MJJ Greatest Hits) | $149.98 Most of Michael Jackson’s best video singles, including rare remixes and alternate takes, and a couple of frankly odd choices make up the ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
A Taste of Monterey Landscape paintings by Salinas artist Rick Deragon. 127 Main St., Salinas. 751-1980. Alison’s discoveries art gallery Photography by Stan Friedman and Derrick Brown; watercolors by Gabrielle Moroe-Gordon. 19 E. Carmel Valley ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
ALICE SMITH | For Lovers, Dreamers & Me | BBE First the bad news: Alice Smith is doomed, at least from an industry perspective. She’s both genuinely weird and genuinely talented, a recipe for failure ...
Thursday, December 14
Public Citizen for Dec 14, 2006
Teddy Bear Drive COUNTYWIDE—Now through Dec. 31, the sheriff’s office is collecting new stuffed animals for needy children during the holidays, or to give to kids after a traumatic event. Donations accepted; checks should be ...
SquidFry
SquidFry
BAD FAITH… Before Squid approaches treacherous waters, Squid makes sure to stockpile extra ink to ward off predators. Similarly, seeing a lawsuit looming, the City of Marina is storing up a wad of cash. The ...
A Homebuilder’s Home
A Homebuilder’s Home
When Bill Westphal bought the little two-bedroom one-bath house, he had plans to remodel it and live there for the foreseeable future. That was in 2001, and after five years of effort, the house, in ...
History, politics and music collide on one weekend.
The three events took place on three successive nights within a three-block radius. They were completely different and totally unrelated: one explored political science, one celebrated local history, and the third combined guitar-rock and freak-folk. ...
County Avoids Conflict
Stamp says planners rescheduled public hearing on CV Ranch to exclude him.
County Supervisors will vote on a controversial Carmel Valley development proposal at a meeting on Dec. 19. The project’s attorneys from the Salinas law firm Lombardo & Gilles will be there. The attorney for the ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
GOB IRON | Death Songs for the Living | Transmit Sound/Legacy Gob Iron, which is Britspeak for “harmonica,” is the new side project of Jay Farrar (Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo) and Anders Parker (Varnaline). Recorded ...
Farm Team
A live action take on Charlotte’s Web comes to the big screen.
Measuring director Gary Winick’s live-action adaptation of Charlotte’s Web against the 1995 classic Babe can set off a chicken-or-the-egg kind of argument. Wilbur, the porcine hero of the new film, looks, behaves and even sounds ...
Jolly Well Right
Jolly Well Right
>>FOODCHAIN HO HO HO...Merry Christmas. Let’s all go down to the local fast food joint and suck up some trans fats. Bah humbug, trans fat lovers, the end is near. The latest blow struck against ...
Multicultural Marina
Che Pez Grill tries to squeeze a lot into a small room.
Wide-ranging menus make me feel schizophrenic. That happens here at Marina’s Che Pez Grill—do I feel Italian (Eggplant Parmesan), Thai (Thai Chicken Salad) or South American (Argentinian Skirt Steak)? For better and for worse, the ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Artistas Unidos | Back Porch Fabrics | Breakthrough | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel ...
Schuur Fire
Grammy-winning jazz chanteuse Diane Schuur brings ace quartet to Golden State.
The definition of what exactly constitutes a jazz singer is a perennial argument starter, and looking at vocalist Diane Schuur’s recent career, it’s easy to see why. With two “Best Jazz Vocalist” Grammys under her ...
Street Talk
Asked at the Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey.
Q: WHAT IS THE MOST ANNOYING THING ABOUT THE HOLIDAYS? Follow-up: What are the best and worst gifts you have received? PIXIE GEESAMAN | Retired Marketer | Monterey A: The Christmas ads that start before ...
Shrinking Students
New CSUMB president seeks to increase enrollment.
For the second year in a row, Cal State Monterey Bay is poised to fall short of its enrollment targets—and lose $2 million as a result of its disappointing numbers. CSUMB and Humboldt State were ...
Wage War
Will Smith portrays a father trying to scrape by on limited means in the surprisingly effective The Pursuit of Happyness.
It was 1988 when DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince hit mainstream gold, when the duo’s sophomore album became a smash hit, propelled by the hit single “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” And ever since ...
Bad Fantasy
Bad Fantasy
A long time ago in a land far, far away, Eragon began production without any ideas to call its own and no sense of pride in what’s being created. The result is a movie that ...
The Anti-Classics
Recent releases show how not to make a Christmas movie.
* HOLLYWOOD HOLIDAYS At The Today Show’s annual Halloween costume contest this year, first prize went to a kid dressed up as Ralphie Parker, the boy who got his tongue stuck to the flagpole in ...
The Classics
Golden State presents a season of seasonal greats.
* HOLLYWOOD HOLIDAYS If you hadn’t noticed already, 2006 is the year of A Christmas Story, the pitch-perfect 1983 film about Ralphie Parker’s quest to get a Red Rider BB Gun from Santa Claus on ...
Letters
Letters
SQUID SHOULD PROOF THE WEEKLY Maybe Squid should pull his pointy little head out of his pointy little tokhes and pick on someone his own size. Last month was the TV news diary that reinforced ...
Local Blessing
Sardine Factory icon Ted Balestreri stars as an angel in a brand new film.
Ted Balestreri tells a story about a scene in the soon-to-be-released local film Where’s Marty?, in which he plays the titular archangel Marty. Fittingly, this scene takes place at Balestreri’s restaurant, the Sardine Factory. “I’m ...
Ghosts of Christmas
Surprising new holiday albums from Bette to Bootsy.
It’s a creepy, sometimes horrific, fall ritual: Just after All Hallow’s Eve, the dead and long-forgotten rise from their graves and beg the living to again lend them their ears—and open their wallets. This march ...
FORA Caves To Developers
Board delays vote on prevailing wage.
Scared of a lawsuit, board members of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority last week delayed a vote to ensure construction workers receive a prevailing wage on the former military base. FORA’s board was expected to ...
The new permanent Moon base does not require international support.
>>OPINION We cannot go back to the Moon by ourselves” has become one of those Washington mantras that gets repeated over and over without anyone really knowing whether it’s valid. NASA has made clear that ...
Hip-Hop Plus
Local vocalist A. Lee and her band stay home but stretch boundaries.
Local neo-soul singer A. Lee’s debut album, The Channel, is a potpourri of jazzy piano vamps, woozy instrumentals, spacey funk and hard-hitting hip-hop numbers. It opens with “The Pilot,” a minute-long solo piano composition by ...
‘One Last Chance’
Panetta sees a slim possibility for peace in Iraq.
>>THELOCALSPIN In the week since it was released, the Iraq Study Group’s long-awaited report has been the topic of countless newspaper articles, talk shows and speeches. In all of this, it’s difficult to find anyone ...
Celtic Christmas
Molly’s Revenge headlines holiday romp in Carmel Valley.
A trip to Ireland may be out of reach this holiday season, but a Celtic celebration is closer than you think. The Hidden Valley Music Center presents the rip-roaring traditional Irish combo Molly’s Revenge on ...
Remaking the Classics
Putting a contemporary edge on the holiday screen gems.
* HOLLYWOOD HOLIDAYS Everyone loves the holiday classics. But some filmmakers can’t leave well enough alone—don’t they know we like our black-and-white, and that sometimes simplicity is holy? At least three classic holiday movies are ...
Thursday, December 7
SquidFry
SquidFry
DON’T FIGHT CITY HALL… Squid likes big, pretty buildings—especially ones that don’t flood or contain asbestos. This is why Squid wasn’t too happy when, in August, the MONTEREY CITY COUNCIL voted to scrap plans for ...
Dive and Destroy
An underwater effort to hunt and remove Undaria pinnatifida comes up empty—thankfully.
Baby-blue-and-pink creatures with 19 arms glide slowly along the ground. Organisms with elaborately-costumed exoskeletons walk up walls. Tall white metridium anemones resembling mutant cauliflower wave their bushy crowns in the green water. But so far, ...
Canine Sign Language
A local professor teaches dogsto better communicate.
The dog is counting. She looks at the four dog biscuits laid on the table and then proceeds to lift her right paw four times. Once she’s completed her count, she looks up at her ...
A Forced Stop
Owners of a roadside stand found in violation of building codes may have to close shop.
Bake’s a white dog (part Westie) who likes to walk costumers to and from their cars parked off Highway 1 in Moss Landing. Elkhorn Farm & Mercantile, the business inside the old white barn, belongs ...
Arnold makes Sacramento Republicans obsolete.
>>OPINION You think the factional fighting between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis has gotten ugly? Just wait until January, when Sacramento opens up for business again and the bloodletting commences between Governor Schwarzenegger and his own ...
County cites new/old evidence found in response to attorney’s threatening letter.
The debate about whether a Carmel Valley development project will move forward without any environmental review will have to wait. A public hearing on a plan to subdivide 218 acres of open space at Carmel ...
PublicCitizen
12|7THURS SEASIDE CITY COUNCIL | SEASIDE—City Council meets for longtime Councilman Darryl Choates’ last meeting and the swearing in of newcomer Dennis Alexander and returning Councilman Tom Mancini. 7pm. Council Chambers, 440 Harcourt Ave., Seaside. ...
Alien Invasion
Nonnative species have taken over San Francisco Bay and could mount an underwater attack on the rest of California.
If you want to see a freshwater harbormaster freak out, walk up and tell him that you just found a zebra mussel on a piling. The joke also works on biologists, fish and game wardens, ...
Monterey Cowboy
Mike Beck has the horses to match the hat, and his music is as real as he is.
Two years ago, singer/songwriter Mike Beck started off on a pilgrimage through California’s Central Valley. Beck, a fixture in the local music scene since his appearance in the late ’70s as a founding member of ...
Long Live the Lounge
An evolved coffee concept moves into downtown Monterey.
Here, the only grind (besides the one transforming beans) is deciding which of the many soothing spaces to lounge in. Or on which wavelength to do it—the Sunday morning newspaper and mocha? The Wednesday night ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
TOM WAITS | Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards | Anti Tom Waits has always done things differently. Recently, he embarked on a mini tour of the Southeast, because the gravel-voiced troubadour said he needed to ...
Goliath Has Fallen
A comics historian eulogizes his superhero namesake.
>>OPINION I died last month. Violently. In public. During a heroic struggle. Obviously, I think it’s an event worthy of some kind of tribute, but sadly there hasn’t been much. A few emails expressing sympathy, ...
Water Foes Hug
Cal-Am chief faces off with water board for rare holiday lovefest.
People are nicer this time of year. Except when it comes to snagging a parking spot downtown or fighting over the last Sony PlayStation 3 at Target. Or waiting in line at the post office ...
Breaking the Fix
State government should look more like California.
>>THELOCALSPIN “In the first six years of the 21st century, there have been 300 legislative elections in the state. In 297 of those elections, the political party of the incumbent maintained control. Most of the ...
Gettin’ With It
Gettin’ With It
BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE… Normally (oh yeah Martha, like there’s anything normal about this guy), on the day of my deadline, I sit in my home office early in the morning—really early in the morning—and ...
Saints and Rock Stars
El Teatro brings
Rattles clack through the hollow nave of Mission San Juan Bautista as a 2006 performance of La Virgen del Tepeyac begins. More than 50 feathered dancers, singers and musicians in Aztec regalia dance into a ...
A History of Violence
Mel Gibson captures the simple story of an intense personal quest in Apocalypto.
You won’t read much about Apocalypto that isn’t first and foremost about Mel Gibson. It is, perhaps, unavoidable; the film’s director is the drunken, ranting, reputation-self-immolating elephant in the room. Frames of the film will ...
Letters
Letters
CITIZENS ARE VOTING WITH THEIR WALLETS In Eric Johnson’s desperately written opinion, the “will of the people” is not being respected by the County Board of Supes, who kowtow to powerful pro-development interests [Local Spin, ...
Home of Choice
Home of Choice
Dr. Louis Hong remembers growing up in Seaside with his sister (now also a doctor) and how they played on the street in front of their house. “It was safe because there wasn’t any traffic, ...
Heart of Darkness
Blood Diamond has lots of sparkle but little value.
Major motion pictures about African social problems always face a Catch-22. To attract Western moviegoers, the films need to cast big stars—usually white ones—in leading roles. So stories about the hardships of black Africans end ...
The county’s first biodiesel plant opens.
Restaurant French fries can clog more than arteries. All that deep-fried goodness comes from cooking oil, which, after its culinary use, is destined for the landfill—or as the EPA’s Patricia Norton pointed out last Friday, ...
Street Talk
Asked at Mal’s Market in Seaside.
Q: What do you think about when you hear the word “alien”? Follow-up: What’s your favorite alien movie? IAIN MCKAY | Construction | Monterey A: Mexicans, although it depends where I am. I work construction, ...
ArtListings
ArtListings
Links to galleries within this section: Artistas Unidos | Back Porch Fabrics | Breakthrough | Carmel Art Association | Carmel Foundation | Center for Photographic Art | Chapman Gallery | Coast Gallery | Concepts Carmel ...
