Thursday, March 31
China Delight
Fine China at the Crossroads: China Delight proves a fresh find for fabulous lunches at the mouth of Carmel Valley.
Even though it’s been a couple of years since China Delight lost its lease and moved into a new space on the opposite side of Crossroads, patrons are still discovering that the restaurant moved. For ...
Shaky Plans
Diablo Canyon license assumes highways would be passable.
When the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a license in 1984 to operate the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, the NRC said the risk that a nuclear accident and road-disrupting earthquake could occur simultaneously was so small ...
Proving Paternity
Teenage sexual assault victim sues former Salinas PD employee for child support.
Weeks after a former Salinas police department employee was sentenced to prison for raping a 15-year-old girl, the girl is suing the city of Salinas and seeking unspecified damages to cover child support for a ...
Squid Fry 03-31 -11
RINGING ENDORSEMENTS… Between the snapping of mammal jaws and a hectic schedule of personal trainer sessions as Squid tries for a role in an upcoming Lawrence Roeck production, one would be hard-pressed to blame Squid ...
Keeping the “community” in community college.
Disclosure: I teach photography at Monterey Peninsula College. MPC is currently facing deep budget cuts to a number of programs, including my own. While the potential loss of my teaching position is certainly mournful, it ...
Public Citizen 03-31-11
Get Involved
ONGOING TOOLS FOR CAREGIVERS | MONTEREY – The Health Projects Center offers classes on managing nutrition, memory loss, hygiene and other issues that arise when providing care for a loved one. 1-3pm. Four sessions, Thursdays ...
As our quality of life sinks lower, time to consider merit pay for Congress.
Public school teachers have taken a beating from politicians, opinion-makers, business and foundation leaders and just about everyone else. Lazy teachers, it is said, have wrecked our public education system. A March 2010 headline in ...
Highway 1 collapse forces alternative education for Big Sur students.
Kaili Alexander has a five-hour commute to Carmel High School that takes her through two counties and over three highways. Fortunately, the Big Sur resident only makes the arduous trip twice a week—along with a ...
Gen Next Jazz
The Next Generation Jazz Festival assembles hundreds of rising musicians for days of free music.
Friday through Sunday, the 40th Next Generation Jazz Festival at the Monterey Conference Center will showcase 64 bands, made up of more than 1,200 of the most talented students this country knows, from Omaha, Neb., ...
Source Code
Game Over: Source Code takes a potentially explosive drama and blows it.
If you haven’t already seen 2009’s Moon, in which Sam Rockwell is a lonely lunar astronaut making discoveries about his own identity, I beg you to do so before you see Source Code, which will ...
Jane Eyre
The latest Jane Eyre is just a little more passion away from being super powerful.
Jane Eyre, one of cinema’s most frequently filmed novels, is once again on our screens in a handsomely mounted new version. That Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic novel, which was published in 1847, has seen so many ...
The Public Voice
Spinal Bonds My name is Khambrel Green. Six years ago, I received a C-4 Spinal Cord Injury from a 9-foot fall. A former employee at Seaside’s Artmax, I was a youthful member of Monterey’s vibrant ...
Crash Course
Panetta Institute discusses future of California’s public education.
For a high school graduate, being accepted into college is an exciting accomplishment, but California State University Chancellor Charles Reed says, “It’s not only getting students in, it’s getting students to graduate.” With the state’s ...
Three-Course Carmel
Fresh fodder from a trio of culinary pillars.
I’ve watched Carmel icon Rich Pepe – he of Peppoli and Little Napoli fame – trade punches with a pro boxer a fraction of his age and earn the keys to Hoboken, N.J., from the ...
By The Numbers 03-31-11
Real Estate
$1,225,000 Recent Sale 32694 Coast Ridge Road, Carmel Built: 1980 Size: 3,300 square feet Features: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3-car garage Amenities: Ocean views, fireplace, wraparound deck, outdoor pizza oven, guest quarters Seller: Paul Porch ...
Paper Wing Theatre is the most unruly theater company in the county.
Watch Out.
In October 2009, audiences showed up in droves to a chilly, tiny space in New Monterey to see a performance that melded avante garde theater, multi-media visuals, and a four-piece rock band performing the music ...
One Woman’s Wild Ride
Carmel’s Herma Smith Curtis is a personality who rubbed elbows with history.
Hitler patted her head in Vienna. She dodged bullets and survived the Nazi occupation in Austria. She later served cocktails to celebrities. And she eventually became a woman who many called the Queen of Real ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 03.31.11
Dear Readers: Rather than me punk ustedes with a prank, I give you the cruelest joke of all – ex-congressman and eternal Know Nothing Tom Tancredo! In return for him graciously allowing us to debate ...
A History of Violence
Paper Wing unsettles with A Clockwork Orange.
Paper Wing likes to take on projects that are both ambitious and logistically challenging – in 2010, the company took on a blood-soaked adaptation of REPO: The Genetic Opera, and scored high. Before that, in ...
Math for Dummies
College presidents worry about “brain drain” as lawmakers cut deeper into higher education.
Time continues to tick away on the state budget clock, leaving local colleges in limbo. Late last week, Gov. Jerry Brown signed budget bills that would hike community college fees from $26 per unit to ...
Street Talk 03.31.11 (asked @ Outdoor World in Monterey.)
What was your most dangerous outdoor experience?
Follow-up: What tip would you give someone seeking adventure? TONY DIGIROLAMO | Sport fisherman | Monterey A: One day in Carmel Bay the rock cod fishing was so good we stayed out when the weather ...
Downtown Brown
Unearthing the lost tale of James Brown performing live in Monterey.
Back in January of 1979, soul and funk great James Brown walked onto a Monterey stage and began chanting, “I’m back.” Then the charismatic tuxedo-clad performer, who was already sweating like a boxer in the ...
Seeing Redman
Joshua Redman comes back to the future.
That jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman has been selected as artist-in-residence for the Next Generation Jazz Festival – which mentors the best high school jazz musicians in the country – is the latest milestone in the ...
Double Trouble
General Bye Bye and the Angry Orts headline two rowdy shows at Jose’s in New Monterey.
Kraftwerk-inspired General Bye Bye traveled all the way from the luminous streets of Paris, France to play Jose’s tonight. When the zany trio is on tour in the United States, frontman/singer/multi-instrumentalist Philippe Beer-Gabel says the ...
Thursday, March 24
Naughty By Nature
The Phenomenauts use talent and subterfuge to get top gigs.
The best way to understand the crazy, talented and esoteric Phenomenauts is to revisit the 2003 Warped Tour. The quintet wasn’t part of the tour, but that didn’t stop them from showing up unsolicited and ...
Cat’s Game
Eldridge “Big Cat” Tolefree and the Hipnotics light up Sly’s.
Eldridge “Big Cat” Tolefree and the Hipnotics have a case of the blues that’s on scale with their stage presence. Tolefree cites his East Bay hometown Russell City, which is “just across the tracks” from ...
Haley Storm
A Big Sur photographer releases an acclaimed new book full of gripping decay.
If Bruce Haley’s been there, chances are you haven’t. In his 23 years as a professional photographer, the Big Sur resident has sought out the hinterlands of the globe, traversing such regions as the rebel-held ...
Cal Am wants to go back on desal ratepayer agreement.
At a time when Cal Am ratepayers deserve clarity, they’re getting a glassful of silt, and it seems they’re being asked to gulp it down all at once. Last week the Weekly reported Wedbush Securities, ...
Science Returns to EPA
Years after approving the strawberry fumigant methyl iodide, EPA may reconsider.
Methyl iodide will face renewed scrutiny from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency is asking for public comment on a nearly year-old petition filed by farmworker and environmental advocacy groups that calls on the ...
Coastal Meltdown
Blakeslee goes nuclear on PG&E, says Diablo Canyon plant puts people at risk.
Two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan and emergency workers struggled to keep the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from melting down, California lawmakers convened the state’s own nuclear plant operators to ...
Educating the Spectrum
Students, schools reaping the benefits of new autism education model.
About six years ago, Katie (not her real name), who is autistic, couldn’t read “Don’t Walk.” Her mom worried she’d never develop basic comprehension to keep her safe while crossing the street. “She was using ...
Log Jammed
Planning Commish blocks MST expansion plan in defense of the trees.
It’s cliché to name subdivisions after the habitats they pave over. But in the case of Whispering Oaks, a proposed 58-acre business park on the former Fort Ord, the name’s irony didn’t go unnoticed. On ...
Highway 1 through Big Sur slide area now closed to all – foot power included.
The California Department of Transportation closed a severely damaged section of Highway 1 near Rocky Point to pedestrians and cyclists Monday, despite Big Sur residents’ requests to allow for grocery and pharmaceutical relays. Big Sur ...
Julia's
Vexing Veggie: Julia’s in Pacific Grove gives vegetarians and vegans hope, or at least a little.
Though vegetarianism has been embraced by an ever-increasing number of our populace, one thing remains sadly the same: Herbivores face a dining-out dilemma. Sure, the rabbits among us can focus on a few things at ...
Amazing Race
A different sort of education documentary schools Carmel, then Monterey.
Documentary films on America’s flawed education system aren’t rare, but the recent momentum behind Bay-Area produced Race to Nowhere certainly is. Despite the fact that marketing for the film is purely online and word-of-mouth, the ...
Vision Quest
Rachael Short’s crushing accident reminds us that the star photographer sees things in her own unique way.
Rachael Short decided to ditch school about 12 years ago. It wasn’t to smoke a joint or mess around with a boyfriend. It was to chase clouds. Short would have struggled to pay attention that ...
Yay for Beer
New hope for a craft-beer outlet, surprising chef migrations and roses.
As the Brewers Association reports an 11 percent growth for U.S. craft brewers in 2010 and a brewery count that climbed to its highest level since 1900 – and there’s a new iPhone case (called ...
Squid Speaks
COCK BLOCK… Squid normally sleeps the sleep of the just. Yet Squid often finds a good snooze elusive when visiting cephalopod relatives in North County. That’s because the NoCo has a rooster problem, and a ...
Street Talk 03.24.11 (Asked @ Kula Ranch Island Steakhouse)
What would be the hardest part of being paralyzed?
Follow-up: Where is your favorite place to take photos? RALPH JIMENEZ | Plumber | Prunedale A: I would miss the closeness and intimacy of making love to my wife. Cliff Note: Lovers Point is always ...
Public Citizen 03.24.11
Get Involved
FRIDAY 3 | 27 FIGHTING CANCER | MONTEREY – Cancer survivors will model in a fashion show at the American Cancer Society’s annual Celebration of Life, in honor of the D’Arrigo family’s $1 million contribution ...
Killer Ladies
Relentlessly creative combo Trusting Lucy visits London Bridge Pub.
Initially, it was hard for Trusting Lucy’s Linda Arceo and Lisa Long to imagine joining forces to play music together. They came from two different musical worlds, after all: Arcero is a self-taught guitarist who ...
Obama’s security troika runs headfirst into another conflict.
So Obama’s women wanted war against Libya. We’d like to think that women in power would somehow be less pro-war, but in the Obama administration it appears that the bellicosity is worst among Hillary Clinton, ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 03.24.11
Dear Mexican: I often pick up the Albuquerque Alibi to read your babosadas. Now, let me get this straight: You appear to be a bright guy who claims to have the Mexican people all figured ...
Brezsny's Astrology March 24-30 , 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Were you under the impression that the sky is completely mapped? It’s not. Advances in technology are unveiling a nonstop flow of new mysteries. In a recent lecture, astronomer Joshua Bloom ...
By The Numbers 03.24.11
By The Numbers 03.24.11
$6,500,000 Recent Sale 3105 17 Mile Dr., Pebble Beach Built: 2006 Size: 4,940 square feet Features: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathroom, 3-car garage Amenities: Ocean views throughout, three fireplaces, sauna, elevator, courtyard, limestone floors Seller: Murray ...
Crash Burn
Picking up the legal pieces after the accident hasn’t been pretty.
No one can restore what has been lost, but the legal battle over the tragic accident involving Rachael Short last Halloween continues. A calendar hearing for the attorneys handling the case is scheduled for March ...
The Public Voice
Planet Organic U.C. Berkeley’s molecular biologist Kathleen Collins said she’d move if she lived near a field where methyl iodide was applied (“The controversial fumigant methyl iodide may soon be applied to local fields,” March ...
Sucker Punch
Cheat Shot: Sucker Punch swings and misses on plot, but the visuals kick ass.
“You control this world,” psychiatrist Dr. Gorski (Carla Cugino) tells the women in a mental institution in Sucker Punch, and within those four words lies the film’s greatest virtues and biggest flaws. The virtues are ...
Paul
Alien Approach: Paul is refreshingly nerdy, otherworldly, sweet, fantasy fun.
What if you and your most superbly geeky bestest friend met an alien? I mean an honest-to-Carl Sagan extry terrestrial. What if? You would plotz. You would. Like Nick Frost’s Clive does here, you would ...
Thursday, March 17
Dirty Redux
The Blue Fin reboots its live music with Dirty for Doris? and Vulture King.
The Blue Fin’s back. After a couple months without serious live music shows, Blue Fin Cafe & Billiards is reinvigorating their presence as a live music venue with a new stage, fine-tuned PA system, rewired ...
Brezsny's Astrology March 17-23, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Like Bob Dylan in his 1962 song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” you’ve done a lot of rough and tumble living lately. You’ve “stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains.” ...
By The Numbers 03-17-11
Real Estate
$663,000 Recent Sale 4382 Shoreline Ct., Seaside Built: 2005 Size: 2,465 square feet Features: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Ocean view, landscaped yard, updated kitchen, vaulted ceilings, breakfast nook Seller: Jeremy and Deirdre ...
California Star Seafood
Lifetime local fisherman Ron Aliotti smokes up some serious fish for area farmers markets.
Carmel native Ron Aliotti knows as much about fish as Eric Schlosser knows about fast food. As a kid, he worked down at Fisherman’s Wharf, filleting fish for local party boats and occasionally working as ...
Carmel’s Coming Out
Carmel-by-the-Sea the movie finally makes its local debut at Sunset.
Local film director Lawrence Roeck is in the enviable position of being a go-to guy for the Eastwoods. Raised on the Peninsula from age 1, Roeck (pronounced “rock”) dreamed of making films as a teenager ...
The Public Voice
The Art of the Budget Thank you for covering the MPC Governing Board meeting on March 8. (“MPC may cut a dozen teachers and ax entire departments because of the state budget deficit,” March 10-16). ...
Limitless
Not So Smart: Limitless doesn’t completely seize its prodigious opportunity.
Slacker writer gets handed a pill that amps him up. Not in an intoxicated way. In a best-person-he-can-be, using-100-percent-of-his-brain sort of way. You’ve seen the trailer: He writes his novel – which turns out genius ...
Music Mends
An unparalleled local jazz lineup rallies to help one of its own, George Young, deal with loss.
Music can help the healing process. For multi-instrumentalist/composer George Young, it’s been vital following the sudden death of his daughter, 41-year-old Dayna Hersh, in late January. “[Music] has always made it easier for me to ...
U.S. nuclear hubris mixes technological arrogance with profit motive.
Tshe “impossible” is underway in Japan. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake has badly shaken up several “indestructible” nuclear plants. Reactor No. 1 at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is in partial meltdown, and reactor ...
Public Citizen 03-17-11
Get Involved
ONGOING POSTERS FOR HEALTH | COUNTYWIDE – Students in kindergarten through eighth grade are invited to enter the health department’s “Stay Healthy” poster contest. Entries should cover themes like hand washing or eating healthy. Deadline ...
Squid Speaks
CASTING CALL… Squid has decided to stop waiting by the phone. Local filmmaker Lawrence Roeck never called to offer this cephalopod a role in his seminal Carmel The Movie (now titled Carmel-by-the-Sea), about our crown ...
Reader's Poll 2011 - Specialty Foods
Specialty Foods - Best Of Monterey County 2011
To claim the pinnacle of any sport, elite athletes understand they have to use the finest fuel. Arguably the greatest Olympian ever, Carl Lewis, swore off animal-based proteins while training and drank upwards of 32 ...
Reader's Poll 2011 - Restaurants
Restaurants - Best Of Monterey County 2011
Montrio Bistro had Best Restaurant in Monterey in a headlock – in other words, owner Tony Tollner and his team were on top of their game. But they didn’t rest on their pancetta-wrapped prawns, instead ...
Reader's Poll 2011 - Around Town
Around Town - Best Of Monterey County 2011
In the cold, dim, dawn light, a single marathoner broke from the pack of trembling runners at the starting line – into the forest. He barreled at a tree, stopped, spun, planted his back against ...
Reader's Poll 2011 - Arts, Entertainment, Nightlife
Arts, Entertainment, Nightlife - Best Of Monterey County 2011
For a lower-case band, honeymoon peels off some capital-letter Harmonies. But while the fullness of the Best Local Band’s four female voices is formidable, their lyrics penetrating and their instrumentation, from banjo to piano, soul-rending, ...
Japan’s nuclear disaster spurs local supplement rush.
As the world turns worried eyes towards Japan’s nuclear power plants, some locals are scrambling to protect their thyroids in the event radioactive fallout reaches Monterey County. Potassium iodide (“KI” in chemistry shorthand) is a ...
Reader's Poll 2011 - Editors’ Picks
Editors’ Picks - Best Of Monterey County 2011
An endless view shimmers from the cliffs to the horizon. An iced cocktail clinks with conversation. The sun dips; laughter rises. This is life on top. The key detail: This reverie isn’t running upwards of ...
Discharging Ag
Both sides dissatisfied with proposed new water pollution rules for farms.
After two years of revisions, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will vote on a new rule for agricultural water quality March 17 that will, in essence, require the largest farms to pollute ...
Gifts of Life
Salinas teen’s death prompts organ, tissue donations helping dozens.
Salinas High School junior Kyle Beardshear bowed his head and prayed over pizza with his friends during a high school youth program at First Presbyterian Church of Salinas on March 6. After their lunch together, ...
Leadership Gap
Two weeks until Guillen resignation is final; Carmel slow on finding a replacement.
More than six months after reaching a $600,000 settlement over allegations its city administrator sexually harassed female underlings, the Carmel city council reached an agreement with Rich Guillen to tender his resignation by the end ...
Breaking down what makes the best, the best.
In some people, the best can bring out the worst. We’re not naming names, but consider the experience one staffer had while discussing this year’s “Best of Monterey County” with his own mother during a ...
Garden of Eatin’
Rio Grill’s new look, debut foodie video, and the two biggest events of the year.
There is evidence that Rio Grill Exec Chef Cy Yontz is a bad-ass. There are the tattoos, the towering presence, the steely gaze and the fact that, when asked what three things he would take ...
Reader's Poll 2011 - Shopping and Services
Shopping and Services - Best Of Monterey County 2011
For many, nothing could matter more than the care of their beloved Bobo – so finding a local pet store that’s on top of its game is nothing less than crucial. Then again, for some ...
Water Bondage
Investment bank warns of potential problems with structure of desal project.
Financing the regional water project could be a hard sell, according to investment analysts. In a response to Monterey County’s request for proposals to underwrite the desalination plant, Wedbush Securities, the largest California-based investment bank, ...
Names Game
Barry Finnerty taps legends for jazz inspiration.
Guitarist Barry Finnerty has the kind of stories that go perfectly with a fifth of Old Crow, like the time he was shafted out of his payment for a gig with the late bass-phenom, Jaco ...
School of Thought
New MPC class, sustainable design nonprofit EcoLogic prioritize places of learning.
Lazy Lucy is slumped in a school chair. Her classroom’s air is thick and stuffy. The box-like space lacks natural light. Her cross-multiplication isn’t going so well. She craves escape. While Lazy Lucy is fictional, ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican! 03.17.11
Dear Mexican: Why does the chupacabra only live in Hispanic areas (including the South Bronx) but never in rural Mississippi? - Spooked in Soho Dear Gabacho: This column is not ¡Ask a Hispanic!, but I’m ...
Wednesday, March 16
Valerie Arveson
The Crown & Anchor 150 Franklin St., Monterey 646-6496, www.crownandanchor.net It’s 5pm on a Thursday afternoon, and patrons circle the bar at Monterey’s Crown & Anchor Pub. In a dark “Crown” sweatshirt and black shorts, ...
Nepenthe
510 Highway 1, Big Sur 667-2345, www.nepenthebigsur.com The family-owned-and-operated coastal spot made lasting impressions on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton while filming The Sandpiper in 1963 and has been doing the same to visitors ever ...
Café Rustica
10 Delfino Place, Carmel Valley 659-4444, www.caferusticacarmel.com A cozy and charming atmosphere, delicious wood-fired pizzas, creative salads and California-infused European comfort food make Rustica Carmel Valley’s little gem. A great wine list, locally sourced produce ...
Cantinetta Luca
Dolores between Ocean and Seventh, Carmel 625-6500, www.cantinettaluca.com Executive Chef Jason Balestrieri brings out bold, authentic Italian flavors – grilled octopus, wild arugula and roasted beets, grilled king prawns with corona beans – using fresh, ...
Kula Ranch Island Steakhouse
3295 Dunes Road, Marina (at Sanctuary Resort) 883-9479, www.kula-ranch.com Consisting of equal parts all-American steakhouse, tropical Tiki lounge and destination sushi bar – a veritable mirror of mellow Marina – Kula Ranch is a culturally ...
Fandango Restaurant
223 17th St., Pacific Grove 372-3456, www.fandangorestaurant.com On any given day, Fandango’s dining room is filled with locals (and visitors) of every stripe, there to celebrate just about any occasion – from the white-haired couple ...
Passionfish
701 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove 655-3311, www.passionfish.com All the sustainable ethics, farmers market freshness and fiendishly wise wine finds in the sea wouldn’t mean much if Passionfish didn’t create tastes like these: Gorgonzola salad with ...
Cannery Row Brewing Company
95 Prescott Ave., Monterey 643-2722, www.canneryrowbrewingcompany.com Buzz. Crowds. Slick design. Rockin’ music. Cool indoor and outdoor spaces. Seventy-three beers on tap, 30 small batch bourbons. A menu of both classic and modern American entrees, as ...
Montrio Bistro
414 Calle Principal, Monterey 648-8880, www.montrio.com Whether it’s an after-work drink and a snack or a fancy celebratory dinner, Montrio Bistro delivers for every occasion. It’s easy to tear through Chef Tony Baker’s “Small Bites” ...
Thursday, March 10
Separating Church and State
Lawyers in abuse case claim Salinas PD is too tight with accused priest to investigate.
Attorneys representing the victim of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest have asked the Salinas Police Department to recuse itself from the case, citing an entrenched relationship between law enforcement and ...
Budget Brawl
Republicans may not support a deal that puts higher taxes on the June ballot.
Republican lawmakers this week again insisted on a cuts-only budget, while Democrats argued that filling the $26.6 billion hole this way would cripple the state. Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown’s self-imposed March 10 deadline to reach ...
Rock Shock
Sean Smith promises potent surprises at East Village.
Avant-garde guitarist Sean Smith is debuting something he is calling “the master set” this Saturday at East Village. “It will encompass the past, present and future of my music,” Smith says. “We’re going to f*cking ...
Truth’s Loose
The rising Truth & Salvage Co. visit Fernwood as part of nonstop tour.
For Truth & Salvage Co. – playing Fernwood on Saturday – 2010 was one hell of a year. They played the renowned Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, toured with the Avett Brothers and opened shows ...
Mars Needs Moms
This movie needs help.
Based on a children’s book by cartoonist Berkeley Breathed (known for his Bloom County comic strip), Mars Needs Moms is a tone-deaf animated disaster. Executed with the same creepy motion-capture animated design that gave The ...
Letters To The Editor 03.10.11
SHAMEFUL SNARK Squid’s snarky tone when relating anonymous reports of financial travails at the Monterey Herald is badly misplaced (“Squid Fry,” March 3-9). The Herald is easily the most reliable and comprehensive source of Central ...
Redwood Revisited
The new chef at Fernwood’s Redwood Grill gives Big Sur new flavor that’s well worth a nibble.
Big Sur’s Fernwood is many different things to many different people. It’s the favored longtime watering hole for Big Sur locals. For tourists, it’s an affordable option for campsites, cabins or motel rooms. It has ...
Furry Foodies
What singing French bulldogs and pies in the sky have to do with dinner.
Last week two French bulldogs sang me an enthusiastic (and ear-splitting) National Anthem in the Weekly lobby. “Suuuuure,” you say, “next you’ll tell me they’re no longer serving chowder samples on Fisherman’s Wharf.” Well… they ...
By The Numbers 03.10.11
Real Estate
$1,023,000 Recent Sale 3265 Martin Rd., Carmel Built: 1952 Size: 1,507 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathroom, 2-car garage Amenities: Two fireplaces, breakfast nook, borders on Carmel Mission, hardwood floors Seller: Lynda Swannie Buyer: ...
Brezsny's Astrology March 10-16 , 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Dear Mr. Astrologer: Like the god Prometheus, I stole fire from the gods and gave it to people who sometimes make awful use of it. As punishment, the gods chained me ...
God and the Gangster
A once-made mob man shares his story with Salinas.
Michael Franzese’s entry into mafia life was greased by his bloodline. His father, John “Sonny” Franzese, was an underboss of New York’s Colombo crime family, one of five ruling families. (The New Jersey branch of ...
Battle: Los Angeles
L.A. Haze : Battle: Los Angeles has its moments, but they repeat themselves.
The first time we see the Marines in Battle: Los Angeles in a confined space fighting off an alien attack, it’s tense and exciting. Then it happens again. And again. And… ultimately the same scenario ...
Brain Drain
MPC may cut a dozen teachers and ax entire departments because of the state budget deficit.
Ansel Adams played an instrumental role in creating the Monterey Peninsula College photography department, according to its supporters at the March 8 board of trustees meeting. But next year, the popular program located in the ...
Surreal Sunset
Three wildly diverse shows make for an epic weekend at Sunset Center.
A graceful trio balances violin, cello and piano melodies in G major. Next a raucous reincarnation of Queen’s Freddie Mercury dons an icy white suit and tears through “We Will Rock You.” Then aluminum-coated robots ...
The Diocese of Monterey mess gets messier.
Sometime soon – perhaps by the end of the month – attorneys for a 21-year-old man who says he was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest as a teenager at Salinas’ Madonna del Sasso church ...
Street Talk 03.10.11 (asked near the Shadow Box in Seaside)
What is something you want to make amends for, but never could?
Follow-up: What petty crime do you commit most? DIANE MARTIN | Registered Nurse | Seaside A: I wish I could have spent more time with my parents when I was younger, I didn’t appreciate it ...
Squid Speaks
SHROOMING ON HOT AIR… In this wet winter weather, Squid almost forgot that delicacies like shitakes and oysters are fragile little fungi. A busted propane boiler at Ortiz Produce in San Juan Bautista made for ...
Public Citizen 03.10.11
Get Involved
ONGOING ART STUDIOS AVAILABLE | SEASIDE – Arts Habitat is looking for creative tenants for its affordable studios in its well-lit building on Broadway. Tenants will be accepted based on commitment to artistic pursuit and ...
Local agencies threatened by cuts to AmeriCorps.
As the budget battle looms in the nation’s capitol, leaders of local nonprofits fear a domino effect over GOP plans to kill funding for AmeriCorps. The Service Learning Institute has 12 AmeriCorps VIPs at agencies ...
Bi-Polar Water
Seaside’s water board candidates toe the growth-versus-conservation line.
The midpoint between November and June usually means a break from elections. But campaigning is in full effect in Seaside, where Brenda Lewis and Tom Mancini are vying for the open seat on the Monterey ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 03.10.11
Dear Mexican: When the Second World War ended, the Germans and Japanese had to return all territories they had acquired by force. The U.S. acquired most of the West by force from Mexico. Agreed the ...
The Midas Touch, The Midas Effect
The controversial fumigant methyl iodide may soon be applied to local fields, despite dire warnings from some of the best scientific minds in the country.
If politics make for great live theater, then a Feb. 22 hearing held in Sacramento about the controversial strawberry fumigant methyl iodide might have been scripted by Franz Kafka. And much like a Kafka tale, ...
Thursday, March 3
Government aid to Big Pharma hard to swallow.
Our president is doling out welfare payments – unfortunately, to one of the world’s most profitable and socially corrupt industries: pharmaceuticals. Barack Obama’s administration is ponying up $1 billion to create a new branch of ...
Musical Chairs
Gonzales’ councilman steps down, eyes supervisor seat, leaves hole on LAFCO.
Matt Gourley, a longtime Gonzales City Councilman, shocked the tiny city when he resigned last month. He didn’t step down amidst scandal. In fact, the city’s solid and Gourley wants to focus on his family ...
Planned Parenthood could lose needed dollars with pending U.S. Senate vote.
As the health insurance debate rages, another medical fire has ignited as the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban federal funding for services that include birth control, health screenings and other care at Planned ...
Fluid Movement
Local group says it will ask voters to dissolve the Peninsula water district.
A citizens’ group that wants to dissolve the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and take over Cal Am’s local water system says it plans to start circulating petitions mid-March in an effort to get the ...
The Adjustment Bureau
Destiny’s Fate: Matt Damon’s The Adjustment Bureau presents big questions with an iffy plot.
You know when something feels “right,” and everything in your body is telling you it’s the right thing to do? That impulse is at the heart of The Adjustment Bureau, only the hook is that ...
Rango
Great CGI, clever themes and top directing make Rango the best movie of 2011 so far.
A stranger shambles along the dusty main street of a down-on-its-luck town and bursts through the swinging doors of the saloon, causing a sensation. It’s not an ordinary town, even by the standards of the ...
The Public Voice
CIVIL DISCOURSE I think it is inaccurate for Squid to suggest that the Monterey County Planning Commission lacks civility in conducting its meetings or its business. (“Squid Fry,” Feb. 24-March 2). Please consider that boards ...
Jarring Experience
Testing out a Happy Girls Kitchen class proves pickling can be (very) powerful.
Behold the power of the pickle. It provides a snapshot of seasonal flavor, a moment preserved in time – and a jar – and the delicious promise of future enjoyment. That preservationist power doubles as ...
By The Numbers 03-03-11
Real Estate
$367,000 Recent Sale 725 Alice St., Monterey Built: 1952 Size: 789 square feet Features: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, car port Amenities: Fenced yard, new carpet and paint, dual-pane windows Seller: Carmelita Croft Buyer: Ashley Hefner ...
Squid Fry 03-03-11
Squid Speaks
FOURTH ESTATE BLUES… If a tree falls on 8 Upper Ragsdale Drive, are there any journalists left to make a sound? It’s a question that keeps Squid up nights following word from a tipster that ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican! 03.03.11
Dear Mexican: I am a mocha skinned woman with long, curly hair and darkbrown eyes. Puerto Ricans always ask if I am Puerto Rican, Dominicans just come and start speaking Spanish, Cubans ask if my ...
Spungin Special
Wild tastes by way of Big Sur and Bernardus, plus Charlie Sheen advice.
Last week Bernardus pastry master Ben Spungin took a precious stash of chanterelle shrooms and packed them into his dehydrating machine. When they emerged, gills dried, flavors concentrated, he pulverized them. The resulting gold dust ...
Brezsny's Astrology March 3-9, 2011
Brezsny's Astrology March 3-9, 2011
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “The most fundamental form of human stupidity is forgetting what we were trying to do in the first place,” said Friedrich Nietzsche. So for instance, if you’re the United States government ...
Street Talk 02-17-11 (Asked @ the American Tin Cannery in Pacific Grove.)
What sacrifices do you make?
Follow-up: What would you hate to give up? AMANDA PREECE | Aquarium Aviculture Intern | Monterey A: I’m an unpaid intern, so I have to sacrifice extra expenses, like chocolate and sweets until I give ...
Banking on Jobs
Monterey County commits to economic development, creates a new department.
Even as funding for existing public programs faces deep cuts, Monterey County is cobbling together a budget to create an Economic Development Department. “We are in a time of crisis,” Redevelopment and Housing Director Jim ...
Sugar and Smoke
The county considers tobacco-free workplaces and the state weighs a soda tax.
In a shift from creating smoke-free to smoker-free environments, the County Board of Supervisors is considering an outright ban on smokers working at the health department and Natividad Medical Center. Under the proposal, applicants would ...
Dixieland ABCs
A definitive dictionary of Monterey’s Jazz Bash by the Bay.
Army The 101st Army Dixieland Band, which draws from classical and jazz backgrounds, is Colorado’s oldest military band. 101st Army Dixieland Band "Dogface Soldier" SFRaeAnn --> Big Mama Sue Kroninger Kroninger thumps her washboard so ...
Velvet Crush
The Velvet Teen unloads fierce electronic sound and a new reflective rock on Planet Gemini.
Last October, the Velvet Teen were invited for a week-long tour in Japan. The cinematic quality of the music seemed to have mass appeal among the Japanese youth, who packed every one of the band’s ...
Bloody Crucial
How CHOMP’s Blood Center draws upon a community to save lives.
Inside a small, white-walled room, a tall, raven-haired woman covers a series of questions. Have you come into contact with anyone with hepatitis? Have you been outside the United States in the past 12 months? ...
From the Field to the Fork, Tracing the Traceability Issue.
Consumers groove on knowing where their food comes from, but for the ag industry, it’s become a matter of safety and profit.
The announcement on Sept. 15, 2006 was unprecedented: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers they should not eat fresh spinach. By then, three people were already dead after an outbreak of E. coli ...
Killing the Workforce Investment Act budget suicidal.
The newly elected majority of the House of Representatives passed their budget bill, HR1, two weeks ago. It has been temporarily shelved while the leadership works until March 18 to avoid the government shutdown that ...
Public Citizen 03-03-11
Get Involved
ONGOING FUNDRAISING TOOLS | COUNTYWIDE – Nonprofits can apply for grants to participate in a program on diversifying revenue with the Academies for Social Entrepreneurship. The California Endowment will give scholarships for up to eight ...
