Tuesday, March 31
Joanna Newsom debuts new songs in Big Sur
On Saturday night in Big Sur, about 75 (Pitchfork claims 50, but many folks were milling outside due to the sold-out show) people crammed into Fernwood's main hall to see singer/songwriter Mariee Sioux, but were ...
Number 10
Salinas teen shot and killed last night
Sixteen-year-old Ismael Mandujano was shot and killed in a drive by shooting last night, Salinas Police said. At about 11:30pm, Mandujano was walking with friends near the corner of East Street and North Hebbron Avenue ...
Monday, March 30
Top Cop
City manager defends new police chief’s record
A private investigator hired by the city of Salinas confirmed that past allegations, including sexual harassment claims, were unfounded against soon-to-be police chief Louis Fetherolf, City Manager Artie Fields announced today. Fields officially named Fetherolf, ...
Saturday, March 28
Art and Soul
A locally-made art documentary premieres at the first Golden State Film Festival in Monterey.
The movie is a piece of art itself as the its subject is art for the sake of art. "New Brow: Contemporary Underground Art" premiered tonight at the first Golden State Film Festival in Monterey. ...
Friday, March 27
Water District and Watermaster boards butt heads over ecoresort’s water permit.
The Seaside Groundwater Basin Watermaster and the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District are in a pissing match over the water distribution permit for the proposed Monterey Bay Shores Ecoresort in Sand City. In February the ...
East Salinas to receive millions of dollars under 10-year California Endowment initiative
The California Endowment is setting the stage for a 10-year, health improvement project that will pump millions of dollars into Salinas’ poorest neighborhoods. Dubbed “Building Healthy Communities,” the endowment will fund a strategic plan in ...
Thursday, March 26
Salinas to offer jobs to gang members
Salinas will receive a $357,021 grant to target high-risk gang members and offer them job training, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today as part of $9.2 million in grants to combat gang violence. Salinas is one ...
Furry Medicine
Natural Veterinary Therapy gives pets Eastern healing.
Performing chiropractics on a cat seems like a great way to get maimed. Similarly, sticking needles in a rottweiler sounds like an exotic and grisly form of suicide. But these are precisely the sorts of ...
Siouxie’s Cue
Defying genres with an intense vision.
On her “Buried in Teeth,” singer/songwriter Mariee Sioux pours a barrage of hallucinatory lyrics over simple acoustic guitar music that recalls early Elliott Smith. “Buried in teeth/ Can’t tell if I’ve got rivers or veins/ ...
Squid Fry for Mar 26, 2009
Squid Fry for Mar 26, 2009
CAMPING IT UP… Squid loves camping. There’s something about a wet tarpaulin, the smell of dew in the morning, climbing out of grimy long johns and scraping loose eggs out of a pan that reminds ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$1,200,000 Recent Sale 24760 Summit Field Road, Carmel Built: 1974 Size: 2,621 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, views of Point Lobos, vaulted ceilings, chef’s kitchen, deck, stone and wood ...
Quick hits on previously reported news
Updates
MORE PENINSULA BUDGETS SINK… Last week on www.montereycountyweekly.com, we reported the cities of Seaside and Pacific Grove have joined the growing list of local jurisdictions whose budgets are getting redder by the month. As Seaside’s ...
We’ve got gangs we don’t need. What are some that we do?
Asked at the John Steinbeck Library in Salinas.
Follow-up: What would be the initiation? A: A song and dance gang. It would bring a little cheer to the city. Getting Jiggy: Do a square dance with the mayor, because he looks like he ...
Saving Salinas
Officers Fire Back
Gang members aren’t the only ones firing their weapons more in Salinas in recent months. Salinas-area law enforcement officers have been involved in four shootings since July. The most recent incident took place Feb. 3 ...
Sunshine Cleaning
Amy Adams, Emily Blunt shine in a different kind of chick flick.
New directions in chick flicks: dried arterial blood sprays, maggots, and heart tugs. That’s the situation for Sunshine Cleaning’s Lorkowski sisters, Rose (Amy Adams) and Norah (Emily Blunt), a pair of down-on-their-luck Albuquerque women who ...
Full Circle
Proyecto 360 uses street cred to educate families about gangs.
Former gang members, juvies and drug addicts have banded together to renew a Salinas youth violence prevention program. Antonio Avalos, who used to run Barrios Unidos, recently resurrected his anti-gang activism under the name Proyecto ...
Moro Better
A key component of Elkhorn Slough makes an inspired recovery.
Elkhorn Slough Foundation volunteer Rick Fournier and the rest of our small flock of tour members stand under the bluest skies in weeks. Nearby tree limbs are swooning with the morning breeze’s caress when he ...
Monsters vs. Aliens
Don’t Worry, “B” Happy: Monsters vs. Aliens avoids Pixar comparison by wallowing in genre pleasures.
Creature features, alien invasions, 3-D gimmickry – from start to finish, Monsters vs. Aliens celebrates some of the staples of the 1950s “B-movie.” And in a way that’s perfectly fitting, because maybe it’s time to ...
MMA’s Midlife Renewal
50/fifty show showcases works that will get the museum through next half-century.
Fifty years ago, in 1959, the average cost of a movie ticket was a dollar; NASA introduced the country to the first astronauts; Fidel Castro came into power, and Hawaii and Alaska became states. Into ...
Art Listing for Mar 26, 2009
Art Listing for Mar 26, 2009
OPENING THIS WEEK AVERY GALLERY Disappeared: A public showcase of structures that are no longer in existence by watercolorist Ann Downs. The exhibit also includes photographers Nancy Raven and Steve Zmak capturing footage of scenery ...
Enter the Chamber
Kalichstein - Laredo - Robinson trio brings brio to Carmel.
For more than three decades, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio has mined the great mother-lode of classical piano trio literature. They are still at it, and once again coming to Sunset Center to nourish the droves of ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): Don’t you think it’s time you toned down your manic aspirations? Aren’t you curious about the sweet, sensitive success that could be yours if only you got really calm and peaceful? ...
Of Snick and Steinbeck
P.G. cartoonist restores his muse.
J ohn Steinbeck is looking a little haggard these days: His bronze skin is cracked, his fragile arms cobwebbed and his noble face slathered in a clear lacquer. “He’s got writer’s stigmata,” Pacific Grove visitor ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican!
SPECIAL APRIL FOOLS’ DAY EDITION Dear Readers: In honor of April Fools’ Day, I’m turning over the column this week to those who think America can stop the Reconquista. Following are the winners of my ...
A cultural renewal amidst challenging times.
Don’t tell anyone, but there’s been a cultural renaissance going on around these parts. The Golden State Film Festival has been bringing in some of the most renowned filmmakers in the world to Monterey County, ...
D'Anna Thai Kitchen
Currrying Flavor: The inviting D’Anna Thai Kitchen satisfies Marina’s Southeast Asian fix.
Arestaurant located in a converted house has some immediate advantages. There is a coziness that no amount of decorating in a commercial building can provide. The act of walking through the front door of a ...
Crop Rotations
Downtown businesses want P.G. Farmers’ Market to move.
Ashuffle of a few blocks could make all the difference. That’s the message from Pacific Grove’s Downtown Business Improvement District, which claims the P.G. Farmers Market is hurting a majority of retailers neighboring the weekly ...
Old King Cole
Allan Harris pays tribute to the smooth one.
Jazz vocalist Allan Harris has a very poetic way of describing why he thinks the music of vocalist Nat King Cole still resonates with people. “He interprets songs the way an average person dreams,” Harris ...
Home Page
A Carmel Valley home with classy cleavage.
Creativity is more than just imagination: It’s inseparably bound to intent and effort. One adds the dominion of perseverance. Jacqueline Carlin has each part of the equation; she’s a productive artist. Her imagination is visionary ...
Pole Results
Marina man invents something he calls “landboarding.”
“No one wants to look silly,” Rod Whisenand says as he uses ski poles to propel himself and his long skateboard forward. “Some days I think, ‘I don’t want to do this,’” he adds, “but ...
EPA moves to regulate global warming
Finding says greenhouse gases endanger public health.
The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the first steps to limit greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Late last week, the EPA submitted an “endangerment finding” for greenhouse gases to the Office of ...
Public Citizen
3|26 THURSDAY ECONOMIC TURBULENCE TALK | MONTEREY – Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe discusses “Financing Retirement in Turbulent Times” as part of York’s Think Forward Forum Series. Space is limited; call or register online. 7:30pm. ...
Letters to the Editor for Mar 26, 2009
DIFFERENT TOON I demand that the Monterey County Weekly publish an apology for Ruben Bolling’s cartoon, “Medicated Morty,” (March 19-25), which has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiing equal treatment of people with disabilities ...
Bean Me Up
World cultures reveal how to enjoy more beans (and greater health)—with less gas.
It is time to eat more beans. Cheap, nutritious and, when properly prepared, delicious, beans have nonetheless gotten a bad rap in America, where they retain the stigma of a poor man’s horn section, and ...
Monday, March 23
Pressing Situation
A look at how 40,000-plus Weeklies get put on the page every Wednesday at the San Jose Mercury printing press room.
Did we mention the ink?
Alexander Payne, the director of Sideways, spoke at screenings of his Citizen Ruth and Election on the third day of the Golden State Film Festival.
He's a dead ringer for British actor Steve Coogan. He grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and shot three of his four feature films there. He directed Election, purportedly Barack Obama's favorite film on politics. These ...
Saturday, March 21
A Golden Night at the Golden State
The Golden State Film Festival opens on a high note with a champagne reception, Peter Bogdanovich, and The Last Picture Show.
The inaugural Golden State Film Festival began with a relaxed and intimate champagne reception on the mezzanine of the Golden State Theatre to the strains of a string chamber trio. The festival's first luminary, Peter ...
Friday, March 20
Peter and the Festival
Opening night of the first annual Golden State Film Festival.
After asking Peter Bogdanovich for three minutes of his time for a quick portrait in the lobby of the historic Golden State Theatre in Monterey, I snapped five frames and told him I was done. ...
Pacific Grove announces another budget shortfall.
Two years of dramatic cost-cutting measures have not gotten the city of Pacific Grove onto stable financial ground, according to the newest budget update. While the current fiscal year’s budget remains balanced, city officials now ...
County Unemployment Rate Hits 16.2 percent
Monterey County's unemployment rate rose to 16.2 percent in February, its highest mark in 10 years, according to state estimates released today. The county shed an additional 2,600 jobs between January and February, bringing the ...
Thursday, March 19
Salinas Police Officers narrowly reject pay cuts
The Salinas Police Officers Association Wednesday narrowly voted against taking a pay cut to help the city balance its budget. The police union, by a margin of 50-47, rejected the city’s offer to forgo a ...
On the Ropes
Salinas City Council says no to Wal-Mart supercenter—retailer takes fight to voters.
After delivering an uppercut to Wal-Mart last week by preempting the big box peddler from building a supercenter, the Salinas City Council waits for the corporation’s counterpunch: A referendum to repeal the council’s ordinance. Signature ...
Maha
Maha Mania: A farmers market Lebanese favorite opens permanent digs in Monterey.
Lebanese food. Can you define it? Me neither. For some reason, Americans refer to cuisine from all the countries between Greece and India as “Middle Eastern,” blurring the distinctive flavors of individual nations. Then again, ...
Post War Peace
Fort Ord Dunes State Park’s recreation reincarnation is a beautiful thing to behold.
During Fort Ord’s active years, the area that just became Fort Ord Dunes State Park earlier this month would have been a beehive of military activity. From inside the 52,000-square-foot Stilwell Hall, the sounds of ...
Squid Fry for Mar 19, 2009
Squid Fry for Mar 19, 2009
CUTE COPPERS… Squid doesn’t often respond to personal ads. They’re so tedious. Call random number. Meet here under fake name. Wear stripes. Ugh. But Squid’s thinking of taking a crack at a recent ad on ...
Beating a Dead Moth
With spray plans canceled, LBAM activism must evolve or die.
A sexy moth scent changed Elsa Dooling’s life. The Carmel mother was among more than 600 Central Coast residents who reported health problems after the fall 2007 aerial spraying of pheromone products targeting the invasive ...
Art Listings for Mar 19, 2009
Art Listings for Mar 19, 2009
OPENING THIS WEEK ARTISANA GALLERY This treble-billed art show, which runs until May 1, features the works of Frances Campbell, Mahlon Coleman and Mary Ann Kennedy. 309 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove. 655-9775. ArtSong Youth Arts ...
Screen Tests
A fan’s guide to Golden State Film Festival events.
Movie magic is coming to Monterey, with an ambitious new program offering a wide variety of screenings, from box-office hits to cult classics. FRIDAY, MARCH 20 6pm, 7:30pm Reception and presentation with Peter Bogdanovich. 9pm ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$650,000 Recent Sale 10111 Blue Larkspur Lane, Monterey Built: 1973 Size: 2,736 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, deck, hot tub, fenced yard, sprinkler system, skylight, wet bar Seller: Aurora ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): The 1906 earthquake that hit San Francisco also demolished downtown Santa Rosa, about 50 miles to the north. During the rebuilding process, Frank Doyle, a local businessman who referred to himself ...
Psyched Up
Two nights, four bands—moongerms, reptilianaires, Strangefeather and Mystery Lights—drive the week’s best young psychedelic rock.
Last year, the moongerms headlined a tapestry-laden garage of a CSUMB apartment to celebrate the winter solstice. It was a raw throwback to the acid tests of the ’60s: An overhead projector cast organic flashes ...
desperate affection for the best
The story of how one lass tumbled head over heels for the Best of Monterey County.
The feeling washed over her senses like a sudden summer rain, warm and pattering. No simile could quite quantify this particular passion – amorous like bonobos in mating season, desperate like a recovering addict at ...
Describe your ultimate in-county dream day.
Asked at Coffee Mia in Marina.
Follow-up: What category for the Best Of (real or imaginary), should you win? AIMEE REACH | Student | Marina A: Tanning during a sunny day at Lovers Point Beach with some cute boys around. Sore ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Why is it that when I go to the Mexican supermarkets to buy productos femeninas, fully 98 percent of the aisle provided for such things is composed of maxi pads and the limited ...
Best of Monterey County ’09
Shopping And Services
The experience pressed heat to her cheeks. Sweet, sauna-like humidity moistened her inner thighs. Her temples beaded with delicate pearls of perspiration. Bess Oph’s body was completely alive and in the moment. Bikram Yoga was ...
Eyes of a Child
Local activist brings a girl home from Gaza to restore her sight.
Seasde peace activist Hanan Shawar thought she was delirious. For about a week in early March, she and two colleagues had been filming the destruction in the Gaza Strip in the wake of Israel’s 22-day ...
Don’t we have bigger issues to worry about than droopy pants?
What else is the law but a metaphorical belt designed to uphold propriety and keep us from exposing our inherent baseness to each other? This is what an epidemic of legislative tailors seem to believe: ...
Gomorrah
Gunfire and Brimstone: Gomorrah skillfully shows the quiet scourge of the mob.
Gomorrah begins with an otherworldly image of a man bathed in blue light, and it’s apt that one of the few moments that show us actual mobsters doing actual mob things evokes the notion of ...
Tough Love in Juvenile Court
Judge Jonathan Price works to rehabilitate Monterey County’s youth.
An ashamed-looking teenager shuffles into Judge Jonathan Price’s courtroom wearing bright orange sandals. The 16-year-old boy settles into a wooden chair next to his cheerless mom, as well as his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Lorraine ...
Hot Pato
Pato Banton blazes into Salinas to play Giovane’s— and help local kids.
While most musicians embark on national tours to introduce more people to their music and make some money, Grammy-nominated reggae vocalist Pato Banton says he has another reason for taking on an ambitious 50-state U.S. ...
Far East Carmel
Tradewinds celebrates a half-century of family-owned hospitality in Asian-influenced style.
Tradewinds Carmel’s owner-operator made her debut at the old Carmel Hospital the same year her late father opened their beautiful bungalow hotel. The platform beds in its 28 rooms arrived from Bali, where they were ...
Letters to the Editor for Mar 19, 2009
Waste Management There is no flotsam (or, for that matter, jetsam) in the photograph! (Feb. 26-March 4). In a nutshell, f&j are from vessels (floated off or jettisoned), and everything in the photo is natural. ...
Quick hits on previously reported news
Updates
SEASIDE, BOUND… History takes time, and so does documenting it. Three years after launching the Seaside History Project, Stanford historian Carol McKibben’s book, Seaside – part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series – hits ...
Duplicity
Erin Shlockovich: Duplicity wastes talents of Julia Roberts, Clive Owen in contrived corporate thriller.
Writer/director Tony Gilroy – the director of Michael Clayton and The Bourne Ultimatum – runs his ship aground with a smarty-pants crime romance set amid the world of corporate espionage. Über spies Ray (played by ...
Singing Praises
1964 The Tribute stakes its claim to the Beatles-cover crown in Carmel.
When four fellow musicians from Akron, Ohio, decided to start a Beatles tribute band in 1984, Mark Benson says it wasn’t resemblance that got him first dibs on playing John Lennon. “I owned the station ...
Wal-Mart critics have a point, but Salinas needs the business.
The Salinas City Council recently passed a so-called big box ordinance. I respect my colleagues on the council and from time to time we disagree on critical issues.This is one of these times. The City ...
The Lovely Woods
A Carmel home with style and grace.
Decades ago, Alleene Withers was teaching school in a little town near Sacramento when she accepted a job on the Peninsula, a place she had visited. “And of course I fell in love with it,” ...
Seaside City Council considers deferring police and fire raises.
The city of Seaside is even deeper in the red than officials thought. And public safety officers, who ducked the first wave of salary adjustments in February, are now being asked to make concessions. In ...
Sashimi Dream
A revelatory sushi discovery and a dozen other delicious developments.
“Mackerel,” the brooding sushi chef mutters, passing along the pristine plate. “No soy sauce!” I take Shinichi Yamada’s solemn commandment as a good sign: It reveals, ever so subtly, how seriously he takes his fish. ...
Public Citizen
3|19 THURSDAY SIX YEARS OF WAR | MONTEREY – The Peace Coalition of Monterey County holds a demonstration on the sixth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. 5-7pm. Window on the Bay Park, Del Monte Boulevard ...
Conducting Electricity
Max Bragado-Darman, guest Asier Polo look to further energize Monterey Symphony audiences.
Max Bragado-Darman wasn’t heading toward a celebrated career in music – he wasn’t interested. “But during my youth, I went to a rehearsal and was bewitched by the sounds and the spectacle of the orchestra,” ...
Friday, March 13
Think Pink
Monterey teachers protest layoffs.
Pink t-shirts, hats, pants and hair doused Colton Hall's green lawn on Friday, March 13, as nearly 150 local teachers, educators and students gathered to protest the diminishing state of education in California. The state's ...
State budget still $8 billion short.
Despite lawmakers’ efforts to close a $42 billion deficit, the state is still $8 billion in the hole, according to budget analyst Mac Taylor. In his March 13 report, Taylor calls the spending plan—a complex ...
Thursday, March 12
Local sea-foodies weigh in on "sustainable" bluefin.
Japanese and Australian researchers have pioneered a new farm-raised bluefin tuna that they say can satisfy sushi-lovers' consciences—along with their palates. Wild stocks of bluefin have tanked due to overfishing fueled by high demand. A ...
Highway 1 to receive federal stimulus money
The California Transportation Commission today approved federal stimulus money for upgrades to Highway 1 in Monterey County, one project among a list of 57 state infrastructure projects totaling $625 million. The $2.5 million Highway 1 ...
The Road Rules
The Refugees love touring – and detonating rock stereotypes.
No, the name of the band has nothing to do with The Fugees – different generation, different style, different ethnicity. And even though The Refugees are made up of three respected female musicians – Cindy ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$520,000 Recent Sale 18910 Joaquin Court, Salinas Built: 1979 Size: 1,928 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 3-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, views of the valley, granite kitchen countertops, deck Seller: P. and L. Donahue ...
July 4 Fizzle
Seaside City Council postpones vote on fireworks ban.
For more than 40 years, Seaside summers have meant roadside stands peddling snakes, spinners and snappers—thanks to city laws allowing the sale and use of legal fireworks. On March 5, the Seaside City Council considered ...
Art Listings for Mar 12, 2009
Art Listings for Mar 12, 2009
OPENING THIS WEEK ArtSong Youth Arts Festival Entry ArtSong is looking for performers and artists, 12-20 years of age, for a March 23-28 event featuring dance, spoken word, music, drama, 2D and 3D art of ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Mar 12, 2009
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Mexican: Not sure if this has been asked before, but how do you feel about Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio? I think the guy’s a racist who’s just out to get Mexicans to fulfill his ...
The Naked Truth
Maria Bello heats things up onscreen while maintaining her cool.
Talking about the reaction to The Cooler, William H. Macy said the darkly comedic thriller generated differing responses at American and European film festivals. Across the Atlantic, festival attendees launched into discussions about The Cooler’s ...
Ponying Up
Monterey Race Place is more than a place to jump on a horse race.
Tension mounts as the gathered crowd stares at a mosaic of television screens. The TVs beam in races from far-flung tracks in Louisiana and Argentina, but Jelly Hansberry, a PGA Tour caddy in town for ...
How do you define “dumb”?
Asked at Garden Health and Fitness in Monterey.
Follow-up: Who is the smartest politician in history? ANNIE HOLLYWOOD | Sales | Carmel A: Not having common street sense. Or like blurting things out without thinking. That’s what I always tell my husband. Running ...
Lucky Day
A four-leaf-clover look at the best local St. Paddy’s Day options.
Everybody, it seems, will be slapping corned beef, cabbage and green beer around their bar for March 17’s annual amateur night. This makes for no small amount of entertainment, but for locals looking for a ...
Ear Marks
Immediate things for the headphones and speakers.
Here are some tips on unearthing great new music and overlooked classics from the annals of the Internet. Go to www.montereycountyweekly.com/music to view the video clip of the week. CLIP OF THE WEEK | “Ceremony,” ...
The Class
Class Title: An unsentimental education in a French drama.
The gulf that sometimes emerges between meaning well and doing well is just one of the sharply observed human experiences illuminated in this French classroom drama. When the best-laid lesson plans fail, liberal-minded teachers faced ...
An old school editor who was young at heart.
There’s a funeral in Los Angeles on Friday. I wish I could be there, but duty calls. I’d like to think my old boss Jim Bellows would understand. A newspaperman to his core, Jim died ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras is known as “the father of numbers.” He taught that mathematics provides the ultimate truth about reality. His otherwise productive career went through a rough patch when ...
Hum Baby, Hum
Del Rey Oaks Police Chief drives Hummer as city looks to cut costs.
He patrols one of the Peninsula’s tiniest cities, but Del Rey Oak’s Police Chief Ron Langford drives a big cop car: a Hummer H2. The black, unmarked beast dwarfs the white Crown Victorias parked behind ...
Monterey City Council and public get first look at 2009-10 budget.
Cuts – in library hours, recreation programs, police positions and every other city department – are coming to Monterey. The city needs to trim nearly $6 million from its budget, and on Thursday, March 12, ...
Home Page
Update on a creative remodel.
In general, when a house is described as cute and charming, the images invoked are something like batted whiffle balls: brief, breezy, inconsequential. In this case, though, the descriptives are substantive. The inside of 891 ...
Squid Fry for Mar 12, 2009
Squid Fry for Mar 12, 2009
UNDERWATER RANTS… .As Squid makes its way through its vast oceanic domain, Squid sometimes finds Squidself the subject of unseemly attacks on its credibility, yea, even its veracity. Squid has thick skin in the course ...
Public Citizen
3|12 THURSDAY SALINAS REDEVELOPMENT | SALINAS – The city hosts a downtown redevelopment workshop with Salinas Renaissance Partners, the development group headed by Carmel’s Robert Leidig. 4pm. City Hall Rotunda, 200 Lincoln Ave., Salinas. Free. ...
Peak Experience
Banff Mountain Film Festival channels reels of adventure at CSUMB.
Scotland’s Dumbarton Rock is a 240-foot-high slab of volcanic basalt that once housed a military stronghold that repelled enemies for 1,500 years. Now, the rock face, which looks like an oversized castle turret, turns away ...
Bringing Home the Bacon
Farr earmarks millions for Monterey County.
Sometimes it takes an inflatable pig to make a point. On March 7, a group of about 100 people calling themselves the “Monterey Tea Party” protested the federal spending bill at the Window on the ...
Feast Eyes Here
A local chef is lauded while standout seafood persists in superior places.
A Pagan shall be queen. Sunday, March 22, the Monterey Bay Chapter of the American Culinary Federation will name the Culinary Center’s Mary Pagan Chef of the Year as part of its 35th annual dinner ...
Directors’ Cuts
Golden State Film Festival brings Peter Bogdanovich, Alexander Payne to Monterey.
Warren Dewey says he bought the Golden State Theatre in 2004 because he loves movies. He’s the kind of film buff who spends months trying to obtain an original print of Play Misty For Me ...
Letters to the Editor for Mar 12, 2009
The Davis Cup Maureen Davidson’s excellent feature “Photo Finish?” (March 5-11) was a comprehensive and accurate recounting of events leading to the present state of play at the Center for Photographic Arts. Having had the ...
Notes from the Underground
“New Brow’’ indie art documentary merges politics, punk rock and street smarts.
It opens with a montage, the camera panning over canvases covered with bewitching, radical art; the artists paint and narrate, speaking on the people, places and things from which the work came; an indie or ...
Che
Latin Quarters: Soderbergh gives Guevara his due, and then some.
Che is a movie in two parts. However, even though those two parts are directed by the same man, star the same actor and tell, in succession, the same story – the adult life of ...
Quick hits on previously reported news
Updates
STIMULATING SCHOOLS… Monterey County school districts will get a boost of federal stimulus money to serve disadvantaged and disabled students. Central Coast schools are expected to receive approximately $11.5 million for Title I and $22.6 ...
Into the Fire
Fitz leaves LandWatch to help start new progressive nonprofit.
A fter nearly four years on the front lines of Monterey County’s land-use battles, Chris Fitz, LandWatch Monterey County’s executive director, says he’ll step down at the end of the month. But he’ll continue to ...
Dametra Café
Little Wonder: Tiny has rallied a big Carmel following in no time.
Waiting customers stand outside. Some step inside the small restaurant behind others waiting ahead of them. Their eyes do a quick study of the 40 or so seats to see who’s on dessert. I’m glad ...
Wednesday, March 11
A growing band of California's coastal Pinot Noir winemakers are rebelling, seeking a lighter, drier Pinot flavor.
From Wednesday's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/dining/11pour.html?_r=1&8dpc
Friday, March 6
Seaside City Council postpones vote on fireworks ban.
For more than 40 years, Seaside summers have meant roadside sales of snakes, spinners and snappers—thanks to city laws allowing the sale and use of legal fireworks. Last night, the Seaside City Council considered ending ...
Thursday, March 5
Seaside considers banning fireworks.
For more than 40 years, Seaside summers have meant roadside sales of snakes, spinners and snappers – thanks to city laws allowing the sale and use of legal fireworks. Tonight, the City Council considers ending ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Mar 05, 2009
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Readers: Before we move on to your spicy preguntas, a bit of housecleaning. Primeramente, gracias to all the Know Nothings who responded to my 100-word-essay challenge asking them to justify loving legal Mexicans but ...
Art Listing for Mar 05, 2009
Art Listing for Mar 05, 2009
OPENING THIS WEEK ArtSong Youth Arts Festival Entry ArtSong is looking for performers and artists, 12-20 years of age, for a March 23-28 event featuring dance, spoken word, music, drama, 2D and 3D art of ...
YAC’s art projects have ripple effects for old and young alike.
As concerned community members, parents and artists, and in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, we opened Youth Arts Collective nine years ago, in downtown Monterey. YAC, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is an after-school ...
White on Black
Steve White raps about Obama’s ethnicity and a hell of a lot more.
Over a comedy career that’s spanned 20-plus years, Steve White, formerly of Las Vegas and now settled in L.A., has appeared all over the comedy map – most recently in Japan. What was he doing ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$310,000 Recent Sale 1945 Gladstone Way, Salinas Built: 1999 Size: 1,437 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: New carpet, paint, tiled kitchen countertops, landscaped yard, fireplace Seller: M. and J. Ouita ...
Row Crop
Real Life on Cannery Row harvests information on the real folks that inspired Steinbeck’s classic.
Looking down the touristy thoroughfare of Monterey’s Cannery Row, beneath a snowstorm of seagulls, it takes a mighty imagination to picture the area that inspired John Steinbeck to write his classic Cannery Row. Using vast ...
Wendy and Lucy
Beautiful Losers: is a beautifully acted and directed blue-collar winner.
Right now there is no one chronicling the unsung existences of Americans on the far margins of society in film as well as writer/director Kelly Reichardt. In her overlooked 2006 feature Old Joy, the rift ...
Squid Fry for Mar 05, 2009
Squid Fry for Mar 05, 2009
Addition By Subtraction… Squid enjoyed Herald publisher Gary Omernick’s first-ever byline on the opinion page on Sunday. The Herald is for sale, Omernick noted, you can buy a copy for a buck-fifty at 7-Eleven. Funny. ...
Raging Violence
Another deadly week in Salinas.
Gang violence continued to besiege Salinas this past week with two teens and one man shot and killed, bringing the city’s death toll to nine this year. During the evening of Feb. 26, Carlos Mejia, ...
Keytar Hero
Kevin K’s passion for his rare instrument is clear – and rather contagious.
evin Kooyumjian beams like he has just won the lottery. Only the musician who goes by the stage name of Kevin K isn’t psyched because a scratcher just won him millions, but because he is ...
The great American ethanol scam
I ’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again here: corn-based ethanol is a loser, a subsidy for farm states and the politicians who represent them. According to David Pimentel, a Cornell University agricultural ...
Belt, Tightened
Monterey County struggles to fill a multi-million budget gap.
Long gone are the days of (expensive) wine and roses in Monterey County. Instead, county employees can look ahead to furlough days and putting money into their own retirement plan – and, likely, layoffs. At ...
Two by Four
Take 2 uses an array of lead vocalists to craft far-ranging, flattering imitations.
“We are almost like the modern day Rich Little’s of singing,” Chaz Ross says, comparing his Bay Area cover band, Take 2, to the famous impressionist. To mimic a wide variety of artists, Take 2 ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” said Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff. “It’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do ...
Now Recording
StoryCorps gathers real stories in Salinas.
All too often the stories of the past are left there. StoryCorps – in collaboration with National Public Radio, the National September 11th Memorial and Museum, the American Folk Life Center at the Library of ...
Photo Finish?
The rise, fall – and revival – of the Center for Photographic Art.
It was a rich old time by all accounts, when genius walked afoot on the Big Sur Coast, when the dining tables of Carmel Highlands homes were pounded during passionate speeches by talented inebriates of ...
Getting Warmer
Beach fires are a great way to blow off steam in an ever-cooling economic climate.
There were once days when the news was just the news. It was bad normally, rife with woe typically, yet somehow bearable, tempered by experience and the notion that things swing back around eventually. Then ...
Home Page
Ranch-style home is a major fixer, but has potential.
As it stands now, it’s a forlorn house looking more than a little forgotten. It’s likely that with even less dreary weather wrapping everything in sight there would be precious little cheer here anyway. The ...
Here and There
Bay Area alt-rockers bring eclectic sounds, impressive resume to Monterey.
In less than a couple of years, the San Francisco alt-rock band Here Here have played enough big shows to make veteran rock groups jealous. After just one gig at a small venue, San Francisco’s ...
Letters to the Editor for Mar 05, 2009
Butterfly or Pig? Last week’s Weekly article, “Good Growth,” called out Monterey Coastkeeper as among the organizations opposed to the Monterey Bay Shores Resort.Rana Creek Architecture’s Paul Kephart suggests that by opposing green-featured projects environmentalists ...
What is the most important lesson that you’ve learned in life?
Asked at REI in Marina
Follow-up: Any further words of wisdom? JUSTIN NEILL | Carpenter | Monterey A: Not to convey too much about yourself. Golden State: I treat others how you would want to be treated. LAURA JENSEN | ...
Watchmen
Watchmen heroically translates the heady graphic novel to the big screen.
It was said of the 1987 superhero deconstruction graphic novel Watchmen that it was unfilmable. Originally released as a 12-issue comic book, its story was epic, marshalling science fiction, Egyptian and Greek mythology, politics, (reworked) ...
Quick hits on previously reported news
Updates
WATER BOARD DAMPENS ECORESORT… Developer Ed Ghandour’s proposed hotel and conference center on Sand City’s shoreline has taken another setback – and we don’t mean its distance from the high tide line. On Feb. 26, ...
Kids Play
Youth-boosting events headline a buffet of nourishing food news.
Chewing on a partially lit cigar, George Lopez took a chomp out of Pacific Grove. Lopez, who has a home on the links in Pebble Beach, took to gnawing on P.G. after the AT& %s ...
Cost of Living
Marina City Council mulls mobile home rent-control ordinance.
As the Marina City Council nears a long-awaited decision on whether to regulate mobile home rents, entrenched interests on both sides are gearing up for a fight. Park residents are circulating a petition to lower ...
Public Citizen
3|6 FRIDAY CHILDREN OF WAR SYMPOSIUM | MONTEREY – Renowned international speakers share their experiences during the time they lived and worked in war zones around the world. 7-9pm. James Irvine Auditorium, 499 Pierce St., ...
Nice Courses
Beguiling bargains appear in several places on Cannery Row.
This luxury-for-less storyline soars with the famous soup, climaxes with the main course and closes with a tableside Caesar. But it starts with the heart. As part of the beautiful thing John Pisto’s Whaling Station ...
Dammed If You Do
Cal Am’s decision to strengthen the San Clemente Dam risks a bigger ratepayer burden.
California American Water had planned to re-route the Carmel River, but it recently changed its own course – announcing that it will strengthen the San Clemente Dam with steel-reinforced concrete, rather than remove it as ...
Wednesday, March 4
Doctors can't heal injured 16-year-old bald eagle.
Bald Eagle 5M, the Big Sur raptor who won biologists' hearts when she came back on their radar after a 14-year absence, was euthanized March 3 after veterinarians determined that her injured wing could not ...
Monday, March 2
Fort Ord Dunes State Park to fully open Tuesday
Fort Ord Dunes State Park will open to vehicles Tuesday, a week after the 979-acre property was officially transferred from the federal government to the state. The park, which includes four miles of ocean beach, ...
Two Teens Gunned Down in Salinas
A shooting suspect broke away from a relative’s grasp and evaded a witness that followed him in his vehicle after shooting two Salinas teens Sunday. At about 12:30pm the two victims, ages 16 and 19, ...
