Thursday, January 25
Here Comes the Son
Neal Pollack tries to be the ultimate indie dad.
In his new memoir Neal Pollack tackles a question of great consequence for his generation: Can I be a father and still retain my indie cred?At once witty, charming and tedious, Alternadad takes a familiar ...
Bad Ride
The Hitcher is another ill-conceived attempt to revive a horror classic.
Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company continues strip-mining the horror films of my youth with this pointless remake of Robert Harmon’s 1986 genre semi-classic. First came Bay’s The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ...
Letters to the Editor for Jan 25, 2007
Letters to the Editor for Jan 25, 2007
SCHWARZENEGGER’S UNHEALTHY PLANI never thought I’d say it, but I, too, applaud Gov. Schwarzenegger’s apparently genuine commitment to bipartisanship [“Local Spin,” Jan. 11]. I’m sick of the shrill rhetoric from the right and the left, ...
Dark Beauty
Trentalange sings pretty songs about violence and death.
Trentalange’s 2006 album, Photo Albums of Complex Relationships, is a beautiful bummer. On the Portishead-inspired “In the Ground,” lead singer Barbara Trentalange sings about a dead lover, over dreamy pop girded by a programmed drumbeat. ...
Rural Rules
The Windmill keeps South County running.
The satisfaction derived from our lunch represents a role-reversal: Normally we at the Weekly are honored to send readers to good locally-owned eateries well worth the visit; in this case, by virtue of its repeat ...
Steve Jobs Attempts World Domination
With the arrival of the iPhone in June, Apple may become the company of the future.
>>TECHYou’ve got to feel sorry for the richest man in the world. After all, here’s Bill Gates a couple of weeks ago, giving the keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the largest ...
Ban Buzzwords
People, please! Limit terms such as…well, ‘term limits.’
>>FORUMEvery year, the media tends to beat certain words, phrases and concepts to death. Remember the Axis of Evil? Hanging chads? Soccer moms? Shock and awe?Forget overexposure. These things quickly clock past cliché and head ...
Good Weather Report
PLAYING THROUGH…Rather a quiet winter. Even the El Niño rains have not yet materialized. I hope Mother Nature doesn’t wait until the AT&T to water these gardens. A little touch of weather here and there ...
ArtListings for Jan 25, 2007
ArtListings for Jan 25, 2007
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 ...
PublicCitizen
ONGOINGSANCTUARY SEATS OPEN | COUNTYWIDE—Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary seeks applicants for advisory council representing agriculture, business and industry, commercial fishing, recreational fishing, recreation, research and conservation, and two at-large positions. A primary and alternate ...
Unlikely Local Legend
The NFL’s Jeff Garcia started accomplishing the improbable at an early age in Gilroy.
The role of underdog is not new to Jeff Garcia. He knew it as early as 9, when he was a quarterback for the Gilroy Colts.Garcia’s undersized Colts faced the top-seeded Santa Teresa Bulldogs in ...
Spaghetti Hill Story
Monterey considers historic value of Lower Old Town.
Craftsman, Spanish Colonial and Queen Ann style homes line the streets in Monterey’s Lower Old Town. The neighborhood—which sits above downtown, west of Van Buren Street between Pacific Street and Van Buren Circle, with Clay ...
Asked at Pacific Grove Post Office.
Street Talk
Q: WHAT DID YOU ENJOY AS A KID THAT YOU WISH YOU COULD STILL DO?Follow-up: What was your favorite childhood story?TRISHA | Shaman | Pacific Grove A: I lived on a farm in Minnesota and ...
Empower Outage
Former YWCA employees say they were persecuted for being white and non-religious.
Three former employees of the YWCA of Monterey County are suing the Seaside organization for race and religious intolerance and demanding payment of lost earnings and benefits.The lawsuit, which includes one current employee as a ...
Real Men Respect Women
New PG High program teaches boys about their role in preventing rape.
Organizers set the social for Dec. 20 at Pacific Grove High School. Principal Stan Dodd was there. So was varsity football coach Buck Roggeman and staff from the Monterey Rape Crisis Center. They wondered if ...
Love and Rock and Roll
Beezle breaks down barriers.
We had nothing in common. He had a cap slung low over his eyes as though he was trying to hide his identity. He wore a hooded sweatshirt with the word “Revenge” on the front ...
Throw It Back
Catch and Release is way too predictable to be effective.
In Hollywood’s romantic comedies, the first slap always precedes the first smooch. Catch and Release offers a how-to lesson in the movie maneuver.You need an attractive but initially bickering couple, here played by Jennifer Garner ...
Salinas’ Last Bookstores
City leaders watch their final remaining bookstores leave with anger and angst.
A little girl with long dark hair and a baseball cap runs to the end of the B. Dalton bookstore in Salinas. She is looking for Harry Potter. Her father trails behind and slowly walks ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
THE SHINS | Wincing the Night Away | Sub PopWincing the Night Away is yet another crucible on which the future of rock—and especially indie rock—allegedly hinges. Even before its release, Wincing was whacked around ...
Thursday, January 18
The Kid's Aren't All Right
The Kid's Aren't All Right
In August 2000, a Southern California drug dealer with the unlikely name of Jesse James Hollywood kidnapped 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz as collateral against a drug debt owed by his older brother. Hollywood’s crew kept watch ...
Asked at Plumes Coffee Shop in Monterey.
Street Talk
Q: SHOULD THE US GOVERNMENT BE SPENDING MONEY ON SPACE EXPLORATION? Follow-up: Hypothetically speaking, which destination in space would you most like to visit? MICHAEL SALAZAR | Physical Science Teacher | SeasideA: Yes, the universe ...
Monterey Bay’s oldest fishery thrives under the commercial wharf.
The post-sunrise sky throws golden beams through the network of plank walkways and concrete pilings beneath Wharf Two in Monterey. With a creak and a purr, a sea-rusted winch lifts a dripping otter-proof cage from ...
Harmonious Kin
Lorraine Feather brings family tradition to Jazz and Blues Co.
Lorraine Feather’s name goes a long way toward explaining an upbringing steeped in music. Not her surname, mind you, which comes courtesy of her father, the late, legendary jazz critic and songwriter Leonard Feather. No, ...
FORA will remove unexploded artillery twice as fast as feds.
Gazing from his second story office window on Fort Ord, Michael Houlemard points to a row of three silver vents protruding from the smooth, sand-colored dirt across the street. The vents, which are part of ...
Seeds of Change
Local activists help advance a global attack on poverty $1 at a time.
They are not the most modest New Year’s resolutions: rescuing millions from poverty and helping revolutionize the way the world treats its poor. But Carlyle and Alfred Seccombe of Carmel Valley, as the Central Coast’s ...
Pinnacles National Monument
Activities and Resources
5000 Highway 146, Paicines. 389-4485 or nps.gov/pinn. HIKING: The 30 miles of trails here range from easy to strenuous. Many trails intersect, and you can plan a short-loop or an all-day hike. Anticipate incredible rock ...
Mood Food
Eating can be a more emotional exercise than many realize.
>>HEATLH&FITNESSCharles Manson, one of the most damaged human beings in recent history, made a lot of bad decisions. Among them, we now know, was what he chose to eat for breakfast. According to a highly ...
ArtListings for Jan 18, 2007
ArtListings for Jan 18, 2007
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 ...
Peak Fitness
From its caves to its climbs, Pinnacles National Monument is a great winter hub for healthy activity.
>>HEALTH&FITNESSHundreds of bats hang three feet above my head. In some areas, they lurk within inches. They’re hibernating, yet I can only imagine the consequences should my backpack accidentally scrape one off the cave wall. ...
The Way We Live
The Way We Live
GO GO GO…I think we are shooting the wild rapids of deadline river, thrashing about in a heightened adrenaline frenzy, deludedly (that’s made up) presuming we are controlling our vessels. Each day, we make it ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
FRANK ZAPPA | Trance-Fusion | ZappaForget Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen and Buckethead. Late-model guitar shredders of all generations must bow down to Frank Zappa. The hallowed guitarist, satirist, free-speech advocate and composer of rock, ...
Making Tracks
TAMC plans for Caltrain commuter service, but has the train already left the station?
In 2010, the Transportation Agency of Monterey County (TAMC) sees 530,000 commuters from the county hopping on trains and arriving in cities like San Jose and San Francisco. The agency plans to extend a Caltrain ...
A New Kind of Fun
Cheeky Spanks emerges from cover.
The cover of local rock band Cheeky Spank’s debut CD is a photo of a green mailbox with the words “it’s not what you think” written across it. And in fact, with a truly eclectic, ...
A Bigger Playhouse
MY Museum launches expansion campaign with parade.
Nine plastic contact-lens cases, six inches of bubble wrap, a few feet of plastic-coated telephone wire, four cardboard tubes, a glue gun, glitter and ta-daa! Well maybe some yarn, yes, and paint, don’t forget the ...
Highlands Views
Highlands Views
Heading east across Fremont Avenue toward Seaside High, directly through a large intersection, at the portal between the Sand Dollar and Edgewater Shopping Centers, is a two-lane curving road where a right turn on Coe ...
Letters to the Editor for Jan 18, 2007
Letters to the Editor for Jan 18, 2007
A LESSION IN SCI-FI SUB-GENRESI didn’t care for the opening phrase of Dan Hudak’s synopsis on Eragon. Dan needs to do a little research in the sub-genres of what movie book writers call Sci-Fi/Fantasy. The ...
The End Game
Farr’s recent move points to a better approach in Iraq.
>>THELOCALSPINSam Farr’s response last week to President George Bush’s “new way forward” in Iraq was swift and bold—and, in the short run, hopeless.Within a few hours after returning to his office Thursday morning following the ...
Shrill rhetoric has eclipsed intelligent discussion on The O’Reilly Factor.
>>FORUMOn October 5, 2006, Bill O’Reilly left his fellow Fox host Neil Cavuto nearly speechless with a rant against the liberal financier and philanthropist George Soros, whom Cavuto had just interviewed. O’Reilly called Soros “the ...
A Grown-Up’s Fairy Tale
Pan’s Labyrinth is a daring work of startling imagination.
When fascism is the rule of the land, the only choices for its citizens are submission or covert resistance. For a child—a being who, by definition, is powerless and whose socialization requires some amount of ...
Local law students tackle actual issues in an imaginary court.
Dr. Robert Carpenter is both a citizen and an enemy of the United States. The professor was arrested after providing an electronic forum for members of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iraqi militants. Carpenter is also fake. ...
Journey on Lighthouse
The Persian Grill’s exotic tastes create a memorable experience.
As a resident of New Monterey, I’m at all times convinced that the stretch of Lighthouse between the Presidio and PG is one small step from taking off. One great bar and this neighborhood is ...
Thursday, January 11
A local Martin Luther King, Jr. event won’t sugarcoat.
Dr. Charlie Mae Knight doesn’t shy away from controversial issues. As a result, when the 74-year-old educator and activist moderates a city of Seaside event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this Monday, she predicts ...
Squid Fry for Jan 11, 2007
Squid Fry for Jan 11, 2007
LAWYERS NEED JOBS TOO... Squid wonders: When Fort Ord closed and local leaders were wondering how to offset the jobs lost, did they consider balancing the lost wages with attorney fees? Carmel Valley lawyer RICHARD ...
Life Goes On
Life Goes On
HARD WORK… It’s a rainy morning and I’m sitting here enjoying the solemnity it brings. Simultaneously, I worry about the many businesses in town facing the harsh realities of winter on the Monterey Peninsula. Of ...
Gilded Cage
Curse of the Golden Flower completes Zhang Yimou’s trilogy
At the end of the Chinese historical epic Curse of the Golden Flower, tsunamis of soldiers wash down endless staircases and across field-size courtyards outside a 10th-century imperial palace. One army wears black armor, the ...
Corps Values
Monterey is home to a number of still-vigilant Peace Corps returnees.
Fifteen years ago a young Celia Bosworth of Pacific Grove traveled to the tropics to fulfill an ambitious dream. In a rural Costa Rican hospital she undertook a Peace Corps assignment to improve the conditions ...
Post-Party Politics
California shows the way to a bipartisan future.
>>THELOCALSPIN Arnold Schwarzenegger waxed boldly optimistic during his State of the State address Tuesday night, painting the future in bright tones and proclaiming the greatness of California and its people. That is in keeping with ...
Group says Supes’ General Plan Update must be killed outright.
Voters may see three general plan-related measures on the June ballot. But that may be too late for them to have any say about some controversial developments.Last week, as County Supervisors approved their long-awaited land-use ...
Simple Beauty
Marlyn’s American Grill makes the view of Lake El Estero look even better.
The lake gets little love. Think about it. Dwarfed by its fancy “biggest ocean in the world” neighbor, Lake El Estero gets the short end. But it deserves more credit: Note the underrated fitness circuit, ...
Pop Artist
Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham showcases bold solo work at Golden State.
Lindsey Buckingham says it was a demand from his bandmates in Fleetwood Mac that inspired him to start putting out solo records consisting of his more musically adventurous work. Buckingham, the band’s guitarist, songwriter and ...
PublicCitizen
1|11-1|13THURS-SATFREE TIRE DISPOSAL | SALINAS—Drop off car and small truck tires with or without rims. No businesses; residents only. 9am-5pm. Sun Street Transfer Station, 139 Sun St., Salinas. Free. 755-1300 or svswa.org.1|11THURSHOMELESS CENSUS | SEASIDE—Attend ...
Peripheral Vision
With Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood observes a decisive World War II battle from the Japanese point of view.
For years, we thought Clint Eastwood was a taciturn man of action—until it turned out there was a sensitive ponytail tucked up under the Man With No Name’s sombrero.Oh, he had us fooled good, what ...
Paint and Place
Rollin Pickford exhibit at PG Art Center captures the artist’s ‘spiritual home.’
Purple-black watery clouds loom bottom-heavy with pigment over a shining white farmland roof. Under the dark sky the roof looks wet and reflective, but is in fact white only because it has been left unpainted. ...
Big Plans
Former council members want full evaluation of Del Rey Oaks’ growth.
Mike Ventimiglia and Jack Barlich were political rivals when they served on the Del Rey Oaks City Council. As soon as he lost a mayoral bid to Barlich in 2002, Ventimiglia resigned after 18 years ...
UC MBEST protests water allocations.
A University of California economic development center says it won’t be able to expand its campus if the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) depletes its potable water reserve.The FORA board is expected on Friday, Jan. ...
Asked on Cannery Row.
Street Talk
Q: HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED DUE TO THE NEW CONSTRUCTION?Follow-up: What do you anticipate happening upon its completion?DAVE TROMBETTA | PR and Sales Manager for Bubba Gump | Pacific GroveA: Nothing has really changed. It’s ...
ArtListings for Jan 11, 2007
ArtListings for Jan 11, 2007
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 ...
Liberalism In Iran
>>OPINION They are not just reading Lolita in Tehran. They are also reading Hannah Arendt, Karl Popper, Jurgen Habermas and Richard Rorty. A Velvet Revolution inspired by Western liberal philosophers is underway in Iran. The ...
An American Band
David Bromberg brings acoustic all-stars to Sunset.
For guitar lovers of a certain age, the news that David Bromberg is back on the scene will induce a little shiver of anticipation. For those too young to remember the multi-instrumental master, Bromberg was ...
Letters to the Editor for Jan 11, 2007
Letters to the Editor for Jan 11, 2007
LUMINARIES’ TOP TEN LISTS FOCUSED ON FLUFFLive music has been illegal in the City of Carmel since the mid 1930s. The ban is now lifted and The Cypress Inn has presented live jazz three nights ...
Era Appropriate
Era Appropriate
>>REALESTATEJohn and Cheryl Dietrich’s house at 619 Hillcrest in PG was likely built in the ’30s. While remodeling has integrated the best of current conveniences, the place has maintained its noir integrity. Buying and selling ...
Red, Spite and Blue
As Democrats promise a new era of cooperation, partisan rancor still rules on Capitol Hill.
Sam Farr sits back in a leather chair in his office, gazing out the window and speculating about the future. In his red-checkered shirt and goofy green frog tie, he looks like a man permitting ...
History Rots
Preservationists say Carmel is purposely letting Flanders Mansion deteriorate.
The Flanders Mansion is turning into a ruin. The roof leaks. Mold and water stains from broken pipes mar the walls inside the two-story Tudor Revival cottage, built in 1925. Bats are the only inhabitants ...
Thursday, January 4
Letters to the Editor for Jan 04, 2007
Letters to the Editor for Jan 04, 2007
A selection of letters from 2006, continued.Aug. 3PIRATES: COOLER THAN PRIESTS AND SOLDIERSYour article [“The Pirates of Monterey,” July 13] by Jessica Lyons inspired me to go out and get the book, The Burning of ...
Hard Sell
Newly elected Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue aims to change city’s fortune.
Mayor Dennis Donohue observes about a dozen middle-school age kids as they paint Christmas tree ornaments and snack on tortilla chips in the East Salinas Family Center. It’s an ordinary scene of after-school activity at ...
The Top Ten of 2006, Pt. II
Highs and Lows, Kids, New York, Books Lust
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNRULY—TOP 10 HIGHS AND LOWS OF 2006 By Erhman Hall | Rocker (Nancy Boys, Pillow Fighters) and bartender 10. The BBC. The Black Box Cabaret at CSUMB has the ...
Classical Contemporary
Classical Contemporary
It was nighttime in New York City during a busy season when I spoke with Kazuhide Isomura by phone. In his 38 years as founder-member and violist of the Tokyo String Quartet—an ensemble considered by ...
Good, Bad and Ugly
The top ten local stories of a (mostly) weird year.
>>THELOCALSPIN10. GOOD: GLOBAL WARMING DISCOVERED—BIODIESEL COMES TO SOUTH COUNTY. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth premieres in Monterey at a Weekly-sponsored event, featuring a panel of local scientists who are even smarter on this topic than ...
Asked at Park Row in Salinas.
Street Talk
Q: WHAT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS HAVE YOU BROKEN?Follow-up: WHAT'S ONE THAT YOU ACTUALLY KEPT?PETE SANTISTEVAN | Palette driver| SalinasA: All of them. Everybody makes and breaks the same ones, to lose weight, do right by ...
No Kids on the Block
The effective futuristic film Children of Men depicts a world without youth.
This year’s early Oscar favorites for Best Director include names like Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Babel’s Alejandro González Iñárritu and Dreamgirls’ Bill Condon, but of all the pictures I saw in 2006, it’s difficult for ...
Planning By Ballot
Nobody guessed it would come to this. And nobody is very happy about it.
Monterey County Supervisors shocked just about everyone three weeks ago, when they unanimously voted to put the future of the county in the hands of voters. Ever since county planners and consultants began writing the ...
The Top Ten of 2006, Pt. I
Music, Movies, Incidents, and Reminders
TOP 10 MUSICAL MOMENTSBy Dennis Murphy | Bass player, bandleader, year-after-year winner of the Best of Monterey County “Best Local Musician” award10. Watching JazzMasters founder Bruce Forman do his magic (voluntarily) every Monday night at ...
The Top Ten of 2006, Pt. IV
Dangers, Dilemnas, Distractions and Advantages, Inspiration, Oceans and Venues
TOP 10 2006 DANGERS, DILEMMAS AND DISTRACTIONS OF BEING A BELLY DANCERBy Jamaica Sinclair | Leader of Troupe Diva 10. People think you are scantily clad, but it takes you over an hour to get ...
ArtListings for Jan 04, 2007
ArtListings for Jan 04, 2007
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 ...
SF exhibit offers glimpse of rare beauty.
It’s not often that we have the chance to experience the best that the world has to offer. I strongly recommend that everyone within range of these words make a pilgrimage to the Palace of ...
Highway 1 Heaven
Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn does it rustic and oh-so-right.
For something to be truly luxurious, it has to be more than just pleasurable. It must also be rare. Which explains why Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn—which brilliantly combines the pleasures of great food and feather ...
Beyond Big
Benching 800 is just the beginning with Garden Fitness owner Matt Lamarque.
Matt Lamarque’s physical strength is undeniable. In 2005, the Monterey native bench-pressed 801.2 pounds, roughly the weight of two silverback gorillas. The lift set a world record in the 242-pound weight class that still stands. ...
Let’s Get Started
Let’s Get Started
NEW YEAR’S REVOLUTIONS… Happy New Year’s everyone. It still blows my mind when I look at the date and see the year two thousand seven. I know the calendar is only an arbitrary form of ...
His Father’s Son
Steve March Tormé makes a mid-career move toward his dad’s music.
Steve March Tormé has spent most of his career avoiding the standard route, a road that his father helped pave. The son of the brilliant jazz singer Mel Tormé, March Tormé was also a child ...
PublicCitizen
12|8MONSCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT | SALINAS—Join the Oath of Office ceremony for Dr. Nancy Kotowski, Monterey County Superintendent of Schools. A brief reception follows. 9am. Monterey County Office of Education, 901 Blanco Circle, Salinas. Free. 755-0301.POWER OF ...
Local channels, seers and psychics peer into ’07.
“It is going to be the most intense year,” says Lilyana Bethanee of Toro Park, “that any of us alive have ever lived.”This trance channel and Reiki master-teacher bases her prediction on a deep study ...
DiscSpace
DiscSpace
SCOTT WALKER | The Drift | 4ADOn his first proper album in 11 years, the 63-year-old onetime teen idol continues to challenge both listeners and musical conventions with bleak, existential, romantic and fright-inducing cabaret music ...
The Top Ten of 2006, Pt. III
Eating Out, Culture Events, Championship Moments, Art Works
TOP 10 REASONS TO EAT OUT IN SALINASBy Lauren Cercone | Marketing consultant; executive board member, Friends of the Salinas Public Library10. Portobello’s broccoli salad turns up regularly on buffet tables around town and is ...
