Thursday, December 27
Don't talk on a cell without a headset while driving, or use the terms "idiot" or "lunatics" in 2008.
More than 3,100 bills were proffered by busy California legislators in 2007. A whopping 909 of those bills were signed into law, with the vast majority taking effect Jan. 1. Most of the bills updated ...
Boxing Match
Two-Buck Chuck shocked the world; then box wines turned the tables.
Jaws gaped last summer when the judges of the revered California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition named Charles Shaw’s 2005 Chardonnay the best in the state. Known as Two-Buck Chuck thanks to its once-shocking $1.99 ...
Dirt Farmer
LEVON HELM
Levon Helm, legendary drummer for The Band, is enjoying yet another round of critical acclaim – this time for a solo release, Dirt Farmer, his first studio album since 1982 and one that has already ...
How to get what you want at First Night Monterey.
It is that time of the year again when it’s the time for next year, yet again. Not confused yet? Log onto the First Night website (firstnightmonterey.org), click on the “Event Program Guide” tab, and ...
Carmel's cozy Chez Christine feels like home, only the food tastes better.
I first heard about Chez Christine last summer, but didn’t get around to visiting then. The details were hazy. Something about a French woman, Christine, and her husband, the chef, who makes everything, including the ...
Huckabee is doing exactly what the nation's founders sought to guard against.
Mitt Romney achieved a rare political feat when he delivered his “Don’t let my Mormonism cost me this election” speech. With barely 20 minutes of disjointed rhetoric about the role of faith in public life, ...
Dragon Slayer Needed
Foreclosed Carmel Highlands home will challenge, reward its buyer.
It’s located in one of the most coveted parts of California, in one of the most desirable areas of Monterey County, within an exclusive enclave of heavily forested land so secluded that tourists couldn’t find ...
Snubbing Snobbery
Ashamed of that cheap wine you're buying? Maybe that's because wine writers don't take either of you seriously. They should.
According to independent research, Wine Spectator has 2,298,000 affluent readers who love wine. The number occasionally climbs a bit, but the message, which appears regularly on one of the venerable magazine’s heavy, oversized pages, is ...
Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman portray middle-aged children in The Savages.
Julie Christie gave one of the year’s most graceful film performances in Away From Her, playing a woman quietly surrendering to Alzheimer’s at a comfortable nursing home in a bucolic setting. In the first scene ...
Public Citizen
GET INVOLVED IN 2008 Visit the websites (below) for meeting schedules and agendas, and attend public meetings. It’s your civic duty. City of Carmel-by-the-Sea | ci.carmel.ca.us City Hall, Monte Verde between Ocean and Seventh, Carmel ...
Letters to the Editor for Dec 27, 2007
Like The Dinosaurs Literacy–are we for it or against it? Current trends seem to indicate that we are against literacy! Note, for example, when city budgets are under consideration, the city library is one of ...
Global warming drives some marine animals north up the Central Coast.
As global warming tweaks weather patterns – contributing to more droughts, hurricanes, wildfires and floods – it’s prompting some people to move to more environmentally hospitable places. After Hurricane Katrina, for example, a reported 14,000 ...
How Al Jazeera helped create a Middle East mainstream media.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush declared that the terrorists “hate our freedom… They can’t stand the thought that people can go into the public square in America and express their differences with government.” ...
Marina woman finds inspiration in martial arts.
Sonya Haramis is at peace. Not in the Buddhist sense, or the feeling one gets after a massage, but in her own way – a peace achieved through a commitment to advanced martial arts, and ...
Station Control
City Councilman wants to see a park, not homes, in final phase of Marina Station.
A coyote cuts across a grassy hillside on Armstrong Ranch north of Marina. As cars hum by on Highway 1, Marina City Councilman Ken Gray points out patches of coastal dune scrub and a bright ...
Dark Stars EP
WHITE MAGIC
In the post-Dylan landscape, the art of storytelling has warped into a cannon of impenetrable self-indulgence. Mira Billotte, an exception to this trend, understands both the power of allegory and that less is more when ...
If you could erase one day or scene from the past year, what would it be?
Asked at the Cherry Bean in Salinas.
Follow-up: What is the best thing that could happen to you in 2008? APRIL LOPEZ |Student | Gonzales A: The first day I got my driver’s permit, I was driving my dad’s truck and hit ...
An NPS expert on Arctic ice loves what he does. So does Al Gore.
t’s the end of the world as we know it… and Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski feels fine. This, despite the fact that the Naval Postgraduate School associate research professor spends most of his time – sometimes ...
Flat Broke
No easy answers for Pacific Grove's fiscal quagmire.
Four Pacific Grove City Councilmembers eat sandwiches and drink beer at Monterey’s Crown & Anchor Pub in the late hours of Dec. 12, talking about anything but their city’s budget mess. State law prohibits a ...
Great local wine values and a retort from Bouchée's wine mastermind.
Bouchée Wines point man Kerry Winslow doesn’t have a problem with Robert Parker. “We must admit both Parker and The Wine Spectator have done wonders for the wine industry,” he says. “While Spectator seems highly ...
Bowled Over
Reliable insight into the BCS end of a season that shocked all the experts.
We really should have seen this coming. The moment triple zeros appeared on the scoreboard, signaling the conclusion of Appalachian State’s upset of the University of Michigan, we should have known that this would be ...
Oldtown Salinas hotel delayed again
Add another three months to Salinas’ prolonged pursuit of a downtown hotel. Developers have asked for more time to finalize the design concept and business terms for a hotel and condominium complex planned for Main ...
Power Outing
Better Late… I just got home. The clock in the downtown right-hand side of the screen says 2:50am. That’s absurd. You can’t go out around here and get home at 2:50am. The night – actually, ...
Five affordable bubblies for the big toast.
There’s no substitute for Champagne, especially come Dec. 31. Unfortunately, it’s (frequently) flipping expensive. But before crying into a bottle of Cook’s, try one of these, which, being sparkling, will lift the spirits and lessen ...
Squid Fry for Dec 27, 2007
Making The Grade… People don’t except much from Squid: Tiny brain. Cold blooded. Not nearly as good looking as some of the other cephalopods in the sea. And, truth be told, Squid likes it this ...
The skills that make Calvin Keys a great teacher charm Hyatt audiences all weekend.
When Bruce Forman was creating the JazzMasters Workshop, the local nonprofit organization that provides free jazz guitar clinics to any young musician who shows up at one of the designated sites around the country, he ...
Artlistings for Dec 27, 2007
OPENING THIS WEEK Steinbeck center Discovering Nature’s Alphabet: photo exhibit by Brian Boyl and Krystina Castella. One Main St., Salinas. 775-4721 or steinbeck.org. Gallery at 417 Group show of D. Gorman, J. Guignard, M. Johnson, ...
In Rainbows
RADIOHEAD
For all but blinkered loyalists, anticipation and trepidation ebbed and surged as the wait for a new Radiohead record stretched on and on and on. There were label issues, solo records, side projects and break-up ...
By the Numbers
$387,500 Average sales price of houses in east Salinas, October 2007 $383,278 Average sales price of houses in south county, October 2007 $4,377,113 Average sales price of houses in Big Sur, October 2007 Source: Monterey ...
Juno shines due to new screenwriter Diablo Cody and young actress Ellen Page.
The 16-year-old title character of Juno takes three tests before accepting that she’s pregnant “for shizz.” Juno is no slutty cheerleader or latchkey kid who doesn’t know better. Instead, she’s a wise-beyond-her-years tomboy whose defining ...
Thursday, December 20
Time Out of Mind
Todd Haynes' I'm Not There features six actors playing different facets of Bob Dylan's personality.
“Idon’t belong to anybody,” goes a verse from the titular song, which may very well be the point, or at least one of them, in a film that was “inspired by the many lives of ...
One Man, 1,000 Instruments
The bizarre story of a local man and his abiding love for music.
Sean Folsom lives in a pocket-sized one-room cottage just beyond Carmel Valley Village. He owns the adjacent main house, but rents it out to help support his three children – and to fund his ever-increasing ...
He’s Got That Funny Feeling
Collin Moulton makes fun of homeless pets, God and his own mom.
Local comedian Collin Moulton knows that real-life experiences are better grist for his comedy routines than made-up situations. Therefore, like many comedians before him, Moulton retells true stories about his life with the comic elements ...
The Other Moth
This year's oak moth epidemic leaves local trees ugly, not dead.
They’ve been busy – feeding off oak leaf surfaces as larvae, wolfing down entire leaves as red-headed worms, morphing into tannish-brown moths, fluttering around in courtship, and laying clusters of whitish eggs on neighborhood oak ...
Public Citizen
ONGOING FEED THE HUNGRY | COUNTYWIDE—Hunger and poverty exist even here, in the salad bowl of the world. Help out by donating food or money through the Food Bank for Monterey County. F815 W. Market ...
Foodchain
Stirred Up
Ballin’ With Chain… Every year during the holidays I like to vary up the Chain a bit, sometimes wondering into various reflections about the holiday season, sometimes ruminating on the state of the restaurant, wine ...
Right Time, Right Place
Chanticleer's distinctive male-only sound evokes the Renaissance.
In 2005, Mikhael Rawls, a 17-year-old countertenor (or male soprano), was denied an audition in Texas’ all-state soprano choir competition because the part is traditionally sung by a female. Although he felt most comfortable singing ...
Jayson Fann's latest Spirit Nest creates peace from myriad sticks.
A thick 10-foot wooden ladder leads up to a circular entrance wreathed with a spray of branches – oak, plum, willow, and eucalyptus. Each bough gracefully bends to form this supple arch, almost as if ...
Choc Full
The Chocolate Factory in Seaside churns out sweet dreams.
Among the joys of living in a new town are meeting new people, exploring new neighborhoods and finding new places to eat. It did not take me long to discover The Chocolate Factory on Fremont ...
Ag Contractors Accused of Corruption
Lawsuit says ag company stole from farmworkers
When celery harvesters left his crew, supervisor Jorge Aguilar allegedly kept some of the farmworkers on the payroll. Aguilar, who used to work for Castroville-based Sea Breeze Harvesting, then pocketed the checks of the “ghost ...
Sing a Silly Song
Walk Hard's musical numbers help the faux biopic shine.
There are so many things for which we should thank Judd Apatow in this joyous time of year. He made it through the fire of failed-but-brilliant television comedy like Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared to ...
Lacerated Throats
Sweeney Todd delivers grand spectacle, but the tunes could use some sharpening.
If you love musical theater – and I’ve yet to meet anyone who is ambivalent on the subject – you can be a bit… unreasonable when it comes to interpretations of beloved shows. “Richard Gere ...
Mighty Rights
Poll shows we care a lot about human rights.
While the topic of human rights is frequently in the news, mainstream media coverage of human rights invariably describes violations in faraway lands. Social injustice in the United States almost is never discussed in terms ...
Short Takes
101 Short Story Contest Winners
More than 200 readers took the time to enter the Weekly’s contest for short sagas. The quality of many of the entries was high – choosing one winner was hard. We also awarded second and ...
Crisis Management
Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, with a new office in Salinas, fills the need following the Women’s Crisis Center closure.
For 31 years, the Women’s Crisis Center in Salinas shelled out services mostly free of charge to survivors and families of sexual assault and domestic violence. But it doesn’t exist anymore. In August, out of ...
Art Listings for Dec 20, 2007
Art Listings for Dec 20, 2007
OPENING THIS WEEK Del Campo Gallery Miniature exhibit by H. Apelqvist, K. Licht, S. Healey, L. del Campo and others. Hwy 1, Loma Vista, Spirit Garden, Big Sur. 667-2618. Highlands sculpture gallery Mobius strips and ...
Saline Solution
Monterey council OKs evaluating feasibility of a desalination plant
Monterey may join the list of California cities looking to the sea as a solution to its water shortage. At a recent City Council meeting, council members agreed to move forward with a preliminary step ...
Give the short story of your life in 15 words or less.
Asked at the Fishwife next to Asilomar Beach.
Follow-up: If someone made a movie about your life, who would play you? Whitney Stone | Waitress | Carmel A: Wanderlust and independent. Also, justice-seeking, Constitution-lover, sensitive, and compassionate. Closer Than You Think: Natalie Portman ...
Letters to the Editor for Dec 20, 2007
Letters to the Editor for Dec 20, 2007
Wounded Heart I was raised in the “Valley of Hearts Delight,” now known as Silicon Valley, where every neighbor had at least one or two fruit trees in their yard (cherry, fig, apricot, plum, peach) ...
Raul Malo
Marshmallow World and Other Holiday Favorites
Raul Malo has carved out a musical niche, conquering every genre from country western with his former band the Mavericks to jazz with this year’s After Hours. With the release of his latest project, Marshmallow ...
The Hives
The Black and White Album
The Black and White Album marks the attempt by Sweden’s The Hives to fully transform themselves from mere garage-revivalists into a straight-up party band. It’s The Hives at their most radio-friendly. Gone is the bleak ...
Peter White
Peter White Christmas with Mindi Abair and Rick Braun
The best new Christmas jazz CD this year is Peter White’s collaboration with trumpeter/flugelhorn player Rick Braun and saxophonist/vocalist Mindi Abair. Their collection of enjoyable and breezy interpretations put many similar albums to shame. Their ...
Built-in Views
Pacific Grove home's master suite is a dessert worth savoring first.
The crown jewel of this 1,487-square-foot house from the 1940s is appropriately located in the premiere spot at the top, occupying the entire second floor. Revealing these details first, instead of later, ignores the recommendation ...
Heritage Foundation says let them eat broccoli.
While most Americans were planning for the annual ritual of over-consumption known as Thanksgiving, the good folks at the Heritage Foundation, America’s leading architects of conservative thought, were doing their part to add to the ...
Squid Fry for Dec 20, 2007
Squid Fry for Dec 20, 2007
Extreme Makeover… Squid feels for Marina, really. While some cities struggle with things like, say, violent crime, or multimillion-dollar budget deficits, Marina city officials tackle the hard stuff: a new city logo. Last year, the ...
Thursday, December 13
Freeze Frame
Carmel’s Robert Knight shares the icy photo that earned him international accolades.
By Susan Lukowski It was late afternoon in the storm-tossed Scotia Sea just off the frozen coast of Antarctica’s South Georgia Island. A small group took off in a Zodiac to explore the waters near ...
THE CULT
Born Into This
Twenty years ago, producer Rick Rubin thrust an obscure British psychedelic alt-rock band by the name of The Cult into the mainstream with Electric, still the best AC/DC record that AC/DC never recorded. From there, ...
Sex abuse allegedly occurred under former Monterey vicar’s watch
Diocese of Orange County Bishop Tod D. Brown has tried mightily to position himself as a leader in the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal. He’s settled multiple lawsuits, met with victims, and has urged his fellow ...
Like the Back of His Hand
Professor dedicates himself to learning all he can about Elkhorn Slough.
Rikk Kvitek knows nearly every inch of Elkhorn Slough. For the past 25 years, Kvitek, a CSUMB science and environmental policy professor, has been studying environmental changes in the slough and surrounding wetlands. “The loss ...
The Audacity of Oprah
Her backing Obama could invigorate our political landscape.
This Christmas, the film The Great Debaters will come to theaters nationwide. Starring Denzel Washington and produced by Oprah Winfrey, it tells the story of an award-winning team of debaters from Wiley College, a small, ...
U2
The Joshua Tree: 20th Anniversary Remastered
Long since resigned to the coffee tables of khaki families or wedged on shelves next to the Bible and The Da Vinci Code, it’s easy to forget the widescreen impact of U2’s 1987 world-altering breakout. ...
Unique Local Recipes
Inventive Eats Five local chefs lay out unconventional holiday treats.
The holiday for monsters normally takes place at the tail end of October. No longer, says the fine-food-wielding man in L’Escargot’s Carmel kitchen: Chef Kerry Loutas would like to introduce “Monster Nog,” his chief celebratory ...
Imagine That
Drew Harrison evokes Lennon in Monterey, then joins a Beatles tribute in Salinas.
Drew Harrison has a tradition that he has enacted every New Year’s Eve for the past 31 years. On the cusp of the new year, Harrison makes sure that he hears John Lennon’s “Imagine” no ...
Public Citizen
12|13 THURS MONTEREY YEAR IN REVIEW | MONTEREY—City Council’s joint study session with board and commission chairs includes 2007 annual reports and a look ahead to 2008. Ferrante Room, Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza, ...
Letters to the Editor for Dec 13, 2007
Letters to the Editor for Dec 13, 2007
Help Us Out, Weekly Mr. Anderson’s article [“Miles to Go Before I Eat,” Nov. 29-Dec. 5] illustrates the rewards and challenges of being a “localvore.” However, I think that he and the Weekly did the ...
After the breakdown of state socialism, success as a market economy cannot be immediate.
The explosion of capitalism in China has many Westerners asking when political democracy – as the “natural” accompaniment of capitalism – will emerge. But a closer look quickly dispels any such hope. Modern-day China is ...
MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA
Live At Montreux 1974-1984
In the wake of Miles Davis’ jazz-rock explorations, fusion bands such as Weather Report and Return to Forever were born. Less easily accessible was the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Led by guitarist John McLaughlin, himself a Miles ...
Fields of Science
Salinas Valley tech center could bring new ag innovation to salad bowl of the world.
Salinas Valley lettuce could become much more than a salad staple, according to Dr. Henry Daniell, professor and trustee chair at the University of Central Florida. Daniell has produced insulin from genetically-modified lettuce, and the ...
Word Up
Ol' Factory Cafe reminds us why we love spelling bees.
Americans are infatuated with spelling bees. It’s the reason the National Spelling Bee is broadcast nationally on ESPN every year. It helps explain why the intellectual competition is featured in the 2002 Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound, ...
Department of da Fence
Bidder alleges Seaside unfairly treated his minority-owned business.
A fence-building company is sour at the city of Seaside for flip-flopping on its bid requirements for a local project. But the City says the company’s got its chain link all in a bunch over ...
Look Again
The outside of this Carmel home belies the distinctive touches inside.
Anyone looking at this house from the outside will be amazed to discover the trove of revelations inside. The view of the house from the street isn’t the best: the facade is flat, straight up ...
By The Numbers
Condominiums 55 Total of new listings in October, Monterey County. 245 Total as inventory in October, Monterey County. 18 Closed sales in October, Monterey County. Source: Monterey County Association of Realtors
Slough of Change
Scientists and activists aim to save Elkhorn Slough from erosion and development before it's too late.
The tide is high at Elkhorn Slough, as it usually is this time of year. Harbor seals and sea otters take refuge in the sheltered waters, sunning, feeding on crabs and entertaining kayakers. By now, ...
ArtListings for Dec 13, 2007
ArtListings for Dec 13, 2007
OPENING THIS WEEK AVERY GALLERY Photography by Gerardo Perez. Artist reception 12/14, 7-8:30pm. Seaside City Hall, 440 Harcourt St., Seaside. 899-6811 or 794-2334. concepts gallery Trunk show of jewelry by Maggie Ferrari, 12/13, 4-7pm. Ocean ...
Naan Starter
India Clay Oven likely to close Monterey location after 15 years.
The nose-twitching smell of stale grease occupies the kitchen air. A creepy, high-pitched whine stirs from an industrial fan tucked into a corner. Outside the kitchen, next to the iconic painted window that has greeted ...
Squid Fry for Dec 13, 2007
Squid Fry for Dec 13, 2007
Nice Kitty… Oh, Darryl, when will you ever learn! Seaside voters ousted the long-time city councilman last year, perhaps because they were tired of Darryl Choates’ bluster and bullying antics – like threatening future pay ...
Atonement
Atonement ponders the words that wound.
In Atonement, the wrong word seen by the wrong eyes – in this case, a bookish, sheltered 13-year-old girl – can have tragic repercussions. Director Joe Wright shows a masterful command of dramatic scale, at ...
What Scares You Most About The Ocean?
Asked at Phil’s Fish Market in Moss Landing.
Follow-up: What ocean creature do you identify with the most? JOAN GARCIA | Board of Education Trustee | Hollister A: The pull of the tide. I’m from a place with a lot of lakes. Out ...
Hearty Winter Fare
PacRep’s The Full Monty satisfies theatergoers’ hunger for edgy, character-driven musical-comedy.
For years, a clipped-out BC Sunday comic was pinned to my office wall. In the drawing, one animal character slumps against a rock saying, “I’m going to turn this experience into a book about the ...
Now She Gets It
The allure of Elkhorn Slough is clear from the vantage of a kayak.
In Monty Python’s Spamalot, there’s a song called “The Song That Goes Like This.” It’s too long, it changes key, and it parodies Broadway musical love songs. (Its opening lines: “Once in every show there ...
Food Chain
Grand Designs
Count It… This fine publication that so graciously allows me this weekly rant recently put out its 1,000th issue. That’s consecutive, friends, with nary a burp. That translates into 19 straight years of bringing you ...
Margot at the Wedding
The Squid and the Whale director Noah Baumbach takes another look at family with Margot at the Wedding.
Like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? for the Prozac set, Noah Baumbach’s gloriously dysfunctional Margot at the Wedding centers on two emotionally toxic sisters trapped in an old house filled with jealousy growing like a ...
Lars' Star Track
Already ambitious MC Lars further expands his sound.
Teenager Elisa Greubel immediately identified with MC Lars’ “Download This Song,” a plea for the record industry to change. At the time, the Recording Industry Association of America was suing Greubel and her family for ...
Serious Swell
Admiration for Peter Davi only grows with his dramatic death.
The first beach I went to in Monterey County was Asilomar. That day I noticed a guy who looked like the Incredible Hulk pushing a small, blond-haired, 10-year-old boy into the whitewash. I never knew ...
Thursday, December 6
It’s Not Over Yet
Newspapers still have a key role to play in our lives.
I was struck this past weekend by the announcement in the Monterey County Herald that the Sunday “Commentary” section I was reading would be the last one printed. According to a note from Opinion Page ...
Cheer Schmeer
Cheer Schmeer
Merry Me… This time of year really starts the emotional sap oozing out of our family trees. The holiday season exposes my innards (emotionally speaking) more so than any other time, excepting of course those ...
Raw Talent
Etta James continues to push the envelope at the Golden State.
“You better roll it while the rollin’ is on/ roll on, roll on, roll on.”Etta James’ career in the music scene took off with her first recording, “Roll with Me Henry,” in 1955, at the ...
Grand Land
Carmel Valley house sits on lush acreage along the river, offering peace and beauty.
1947 was a very good year, a very good year for a meadow of level land to transform into a home, grow trees, have horses roam. Sweet piece of heaven, 1947. The story may not ...
Al Gore, accepting the Nobel Prize, called his loss for president painful, but a "precious gift" that led to his immersion in the fight to stop global warning.
Former vice president Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10. He shared the award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, "for their ...
The California Experiment
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s green state and the mathematics of carbon.
If you wiped California off the face of the planet, just made it disappear – left behind no car or SUV, politician, person or cow – you’d eliminate only about 1.6 percent of the greenhouse ...
Breaking News: Judge tells Earthbound Farm to stop selling Carmel Valley heirloom apples.
Earthbound Farm won’t be selling any of its rare, pink-fleshed apples any time soon—or giving them as gifts, or sprouting new trees from the old ones in Carmel Valley. This directive comes from Monterey County ...
Bad Like Me
Lead singer Arcelio Garcia explains why everybody wants to be like Malo.
Arcelio Garcia, lead singer of the pioneering Latin rock outfit Malo, is not bashful about broadcasting his band’s influence on the current Latin music explosion. “There’s a difference between the creator and the imitator,” he ...
Green Commitment
Local governments are taking global warming fight in their own hands.
Monterey city officials hosted a green building expo last week, and in January, a green building ordinance will begin making its way through the city’s approval process. Encouraging businesses and homeowners to go solar and ...
Back in the Saddle
Ian Tyson headlines the Monterey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival.
Few musicians have reinvented themselves as successfully as Ian Tyson. In the early ‘60s, Tyson began a musical and romantic collaboration with Sylvia Fricker. Calling themselves Ian & Sylvia, the couple and eventual spouses were ...
The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass loses tension with its abrupt pacing.
If you pay attention to entertainment headlines, you’re probably aware that some religious groups have worked themselves into a lather over The Golden Compass. Armed with the knowledge that author Philip Pullman – on whose ...
High Stakes
Without U.S. participation, the first-ever global-warming treaty was doomed to only partial success. Will Bali be better?
Ten years ago, the nations of the world gathered in Kyoto, Japan, to move to prevent dangerous interference with the planet’s climate. Many hoped meaningful steps would be taken to protect the Earth for future ...
Sleuth
Michael Caine graduates to the elder man’s role in Sleuth, but the movie still flunks.
It takes something really special to bring together a Nobel Prize-winning writer, a director renowned for his Shakespeare adaptations, a two-time Oscar-winning actor who also happens to be a knight of the British realm, and ...
Dem Votes
Central Coast Democrats descend on Salinas for straw poll.
After Hillary Clinton lost more ground in Iowa polls, her campaign this week dug deep into Barack Obama’s presidential aspirations. Clinton’s camp cited Obama’s kindergarten essay “I Want to Become President” to counter Obama’s statement ...
We’re Getting Warmer
Why has so little been accomplished to halt global warming?
I remember so well the final morning hours of the Kyoto conference. The negotiations had gone on long past their scheduled evening close, and the convention-center management was frantic – a trade show for children’s ...
Acting Locally
CSUMB and Monterey Institute of International Studies pledge to teach sustainability.
The transformation of former Fort Ord into CSUMB evokes sayings like “turning swords into plowshares” or “bayonets into baccalaureates.” Now the campus is embarking on another about-face: the conversion of a polluted military base into ...
Up the Wrong Tree
Pebble Beach fixes botch in proposed fire code.
Pebble Beach Community Service District made a hasty revision to its proposed fire code update after a local environmentalist pointed out an error he feared would force the removal of “possibly a million” native Monterey ...
What eco-friendly custom do you practice now but didn’t 10 years ago?
What Earth- Damaging Habit Is Hardest To Quit?
STEVE BUCK | Painter | Pacific GroveA: Well, I work with paint, so some of the chemicals involved can be bad for the environment. We try to be as conscientious as possible.Another Layer: Actually, we ...
Ragtime Revolution
Twelve standout pianists converge for a rare show in Pacific Grove.
Acrobats and magicians mingle with roughnecks in a smoky house of ill repute. A barelegged burlesque singer wearing a risqué, sleeveless chemise and short skirt gathered at the waist scampers off the stage. A spectator ...
Four other outstanding acts round out the festival round-up. All performances take place at the Monterey Marriott.
R.W. HAMPTONA former cowboy who has driven cattle and shoed horses, Hampton is involved in many artistic endeavors to keep the Western lifestyle in the spotlight. The horse enthusiast has appeared in films including The ...
ArtListings for Dec 06, 2007
ArtListings for Dec 06, 2007
OPENING THIS WEEK ANTON GALLERY Water: clay sculpture and ceramics by Mark Tanous. Opening reception with artist 12/8, 6-8pm. 1095 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove. 373-4429 or antongallery.com. BATISTA MOON STUDIO Open house reception of A ...
Second Life
How a secondhand uniform changed a Lockwood homemaker’s world.
Diane Pirzada has long had a strong sense that a special mission awaited her. “I’d always felt there was something calling me,” says the energetic mother of three.Four years ago, the former flight attendant and ...
New Monterey business makes water filtered, tasty and bottle-free.
By now, all San Francisco public buildings should have made the switch to bottle-less water dispensers, using Hetch Hetchy drinking water. The move is a result of the mayor’s directive requiring city and county agencies ...
Big Shots
Monterey County stars at a new photography exhibit.
Marilyn Monroe shines a tired smile at photographer Margarete E. Clovis. Around them, onlookers pack shoulder-to-shoulder, waiting excitedly for a chance to meet the Hollywood idol. More pour out on the street. The year is ...
Desert Greenhouse
What global warming could do to the world’s deserts.
How will global warming affect the world’s deserts? Scientists in Nevada predict potentially heartbreaking outcomes. Imagine a future where hundreds of thousands of people in the more arid parts of the country flee wildfires. Imagine ...
Letters to the Editor for Dec 06, 2007
Letters to the Editor for Dec 06, 2007
Traffic Safety No Accident A couple of years ago I went to a traffic safety meeting at Mid-Valley Fire Station because there are too many accidents on Carmel Valley Road. When it was finally my ...
Squid Fry for Dec 06, 2007
Squid Fry for Dec 06, 2007
Sex And Taxes… Squid feels a tad bit sleazy when driving past L’Amour Shoppe adult DVD store on East Alisal Street in Salinas. Apparently, L’Amour’s services are in high demand: The store has tried to ...
Oil spill in San Francisco Bay underscores deficiencies in safety regulations and rules of the sea.
The first headline the San Francisco Chronicle ran after the Cosco Busan crashed into a Bay Bridge protective fender Nov. 7 implied that nothing terrible had happened. It read, almost comically, “CRUNCH!” Initial reports suggested ...
PublicCitizen
ONGOINGDONATE KIDS’ BOOKS | SALINAS – Friends of the Salinas Public Library seek donations of new and gently-used children’s books for distribution to kids up to age 6 at the Story Time programs in Salinas ...
Shipping Shape
Moss Landing’s Diamond Organics sends prime local produce all over the country overnight.
Minot, North Dakota is quite a ways from the Central Coast. There the soil, setting and the seasons do not allow for the fields of greens which are enjoyed here, where arugula and radicchios abound ...
Hot Numbers
20: Inches in median worldwide sea level-rise by 2100 from ice melt caused by global climate change, as estimated by the 1995 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 30: Percent by which auto makers who want ...
