Thursday, September 29
A Deeper Look at MPUSD Board Candidates
Two newcomers to school board politics promising to shake up the status quo are challenging incumbents on the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Board of Directors. The races, coming on the heels of a tumultuous ...
Two newcomers challenge MPUSD incumbents.
Two challengers in the Monterey Peninsula School District Board of Education election promise to shake up the status quo. Jon Hill, who moved to Monterey in January, says he has decades of experience as a ...
RMC Gets Tough on County
Regional Desal Project contractor wants to get paid.
RMC Water and Environment is on strike. The Walnut Creek-based contractor managing the $400 million Regional Desalination Project says it won’t do any more work for the Monterey County Water Resources Agency until it collects ...
50/50
Mad Dramedy: 50/50 treads the tricky boundary between comedy and drama beautifully.
Director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) has a knack for conveying unconventional drama with enough droll spice to make the medicine go down easily, even if the subject is cancer. Television-producer-turned-screenwriter Will Reiser (Da Ali G ...
Higher Ground
Actress Vera Farmiga steps behind the camera in her pointed look at life as a conflicted Christian.
At the start of Higher Ground, a shaggy young man is proclaiming, in the woodsy, sunny outdoors, the cleansing light that Jesus has filled him with. He is Ethan (Joshua Leonard), husband of Corinne (first-time ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 09.29.11
Dear Mexican: Every time I ride my bike through the barrio in a city, the same question comes to my mind. Why do so many Mexican business owners sit huge stereo speakers outside their stores ...
Letters To The Editor 09.29.11
The Great Uncrowding Although Gov. Brown likes to cite other states’ attempts at similar legislation, nothing is comparable to what California, a beast like no other, is currently attempting to do (“More than 30,000 state ...
Mixed Greens
A search for a standout Peninsula salad yields up-and-down outcomes.
Ah, Monterey County: replete with greens, so-called salad bowl of the world, seemingly the perfect place to feast on a heaping helping of arugula with fresh toppings and a from-scratch dressing. Right? Alas, it’s not ...
Heart of a Memory
An engineer-turned-entrepreneur turns fingerprints into treasured artifacts and even memorials.
Fingerprints, nature’s epidermal signifiers, are often associated with caution-taped crime scenes and the worst kind of criminals. Sometimes, they form messy tracks on oft-used objects. At others, they determine the cause of a death and ...
Knockout Art
Extensive events at Chautauqua Days and Art in the Adobes enter the art ring this weekend.
The collision of overlapping big events happens a lot in Monterey County, especially during the festival-prone summertime. It just happened two weeks ago, with the Monterey Jazz Festival and the American LeMans Series making noise ...
For Real
A search for foodie meaning, from school lunch to Brendan Jones’ new Lokal restaurant in Carmel Valley.
Somewhere between Chef Cal Stamenov’s garden tasting menu and a roasted Cachagua General Store oyster, my mind made its way to rabbit. Not the rabbit loin with onion soubis, lardon, haricots verts, chanterelles and sauce ...
Brezsny's Astrology Sept. 29-Oct 5, 2011
Brezsny's Astrology Sept. 29-Oct 5, 2011
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’ve got a challenging assignment for you. In accordance with your current astrological omens, I am inviting you to cultivate a special kind of receptivity – a rigorously innocent openness to ...
By The Numbers 09-29-11
Real Estate
$1,050,000 Recent Sale 2691 15th Ave., Carmel Built: 1955 Size: 1,590 square feet Features: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom Amenities: Beach views, vaulted ceilings, hardwood and clay tile floors Seller: Roclan Maguire and Norma Prince Buyer: ...
Miller and Moore
Thurston Moore translates his Sonic Youth to the age-old redwoods.
Having seen Thurston Moore wring glorious noise from his electric guitar by beating it with drumsticks or scraping it across scaffolding at various Sonic Youth concerts, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that his ...
Double Bacon
Movie icon Kevin Bacon and his composer bro Michael bring Carmel some Philly-style brotherly love.
For actor/director Kevin Bacon and his older brother Michael – an Emmy Award-winning television and film composer with eyes as crystal blue as his brother’s – time is extremely limited when it comes to their ...
Street Talk 09.22.11 (asked @ Asked at The Works in Pacific Grove.)
What is most central to your identity?
Follow-up: What is a new interest of yours? MORGAN SINCLAIR O’CONNOR | Barista | Pacific Grove A: I love my bike more than anything. His name’s Algonquin. I name everything. When I freak out or ...
Preston Pickle
Marina, FORA quarrel over future of Preston Park, past Army agreements.
Paula Pelot considers herself an unofficial historian of Preston Park. Given that she’s lived in one of its 352 residential units on the former Fort Ord since the affordable housing community’s inception in 1997, she’s ...
Undergrad project on the Salinas River raises questions about academic freedom.
It’s no secret the Salinas River is impaired – as is the battle over its regulation. Ag and enviro camps are warring again, and California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, near the river’s ...
Public Citizen 09.29.11
ONGOING ADVANCING TECH SKILLS | SALINAS – Hartnell College partners with Monterey County One-Stop Centers and the Office for Employment Training to offer a certification program in sustainable ag tech and green construction. Grant funds ...
Squid Speaks
A TEACHABLE MOMENT… Squid would’ve made a good 19th-century teacher, able to wrist-slap eight out-of-line students at once. Likewise, that skill could’ve served this cephalopod well were Squid counsel for the Monterey County Water Resources ...
Trucking Greens
Stricter tailpipe emission standards drive major upgrades for produce haulers.
Pass through the Salinas Valley on a fall afternoon, and you’ll see signs of a healthy ag economy: harvest crews traversing lettuce fields, fumigators prepping with tarps, and refrigerated produce rigs barreling down the roads. ...
A Central Coast attorney’s killing helps shine a light on the hidden tragedy of domestic violence.
What is the leading cause of injury to women in the United States? If you guessed car accidents, you would be wrong. In fact, more women are hurt by their partners than by any other ...
The Worst-Kept Secrets
Project Censored highlights the year’s most relevant ignored news.
In an age of blogs, tweets, hacks and piles of beans spilled by Wikileaks, the notion of media censorship may seem dated. But the rundown of stories Project Censored calls attention to this year serves ...
The Monterey Regional Waste Management District deserves a little respect.
Penny tears a chunk from her lunch of quail, swallows it quickly and goes in for another bite. Her eyes dart back and forth; she seems worried about someone taking her food away. After devouring ...
Thursday, September 22
The Best, Baby
Wine & Dine wow, a Carmel restaurant’s coup and pop-up foot juggling.
We are talking caramelized day boat sea scallops with fingerling potatoes. Fluffy spinach dumplings in a dreamy Parmesan cream sauce. Sixteen-ounce single bone-in prime short rib cooked for four hours in stout beer and homemade ...
To Air, With Humans
Sean D. Tucker, Canadian Snowbirds lead symphony of aerobatics at International Airshow Salinas.
Normally International Airshow Salinas organizers like it when stunt planes lead the news. Not this time. On the heels of the fatal crash that killed 10 at the Reno Air Races a week before its ...
Trickle Down
Steve Collins tells his version of the desal story – in a claim against the county.
Enough of the accusations and reports that point fingers at agencies and officials for the alleged conflict of interest ordeal that imperils the Regional Water Project. On to the legal complaints. Stephen Collins, the former ...
Battle Scars
Monterey Peninsula College works with feds to help vets on the edge.
Jeanne OBrien remembers the whirring of the helicopter taking off beside her, then the plank of plywood hitting the back of her head and slamming her forehead into an ammo can. That’s when her memory ...
By The Numbers 09-22-11
Real Estate
$565,000 Recent Sale 4792 Paradise Cove Ct., Seaside Built: 2005 Size: 2,337 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, chef’s kitchen, tub with jets, balcony, landscaped yard Seller: Sue Sato Buyer: ...
Local projects stall as court considers cities’ case against the state.
A court battle over state legislation to eliminate local redevelopment agencies has brought major projects to a halt countywide. “Essentially, everything’s on hold,” says Daphne Hodgson, Seaside’s deputy city manager. That includes redevelopment projects officials ...
Rising Tides
County joins 350.org’s global day of action in making climate change top of mind.
Current climate change research suggests sea levels could rise by as much 2 meters by the century’s end. That figure doesn’t mean much abstracted to a global scale, but when applied to the coastline near ...
Street Talk 09.22.11 (asked @ Caffe Trieste in Monterey.)
Street Talk 09.22.11 (asked @ Caffe Trieste in Monterey.)
Follow-up: Who is your favorite innovative thinker? AIDAN STELZRIED | Student | Pacific Grove A: Jessica Black. She’s inspiring a lot of… bad music. Pop culture is just getting out of hand. Locked Down: John ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 09.22.11
ONGOING CITY REDISTRICTING | SALINAS – The city redistricting committee invites the public to provide input on redrawing City Council district lines. 6pm. Sept. 28, Laurelwood School, 645 Larkin St.; Oct. 26, Teamsters Hall, 207 ...
Squid Speaks
TREE TAGGERS… Squid once had a neighbor who got his environmental rocks off by slapping “SUVs Heart Terrorist Oil” bumper stickers on parked gas-guzzlers. A sympathetic cause, yes, but Squid doubts any weary working parents ...
The Great Uncrowding
More than 30,000 state prisoners will shift from state to county control starting Oct. 1 – including 300-plus headed to Monterey County.
In Monterey County’s “situation room” at the county probation department, local law enforcement and public health’s top brass – Sheriff Scott Miller, Probation Chief Manuel Real, District Attorney Dean Flippo, Chief Judge Timothy Roberts and ...
Moneyball
Pitch Perfect: Brad Pitt, Moneyball win big by moving beyond baseball.
Baseball, it can be said, is no longer a sport for the masses. The games take forever, there’s often not much action, and the prevailing notion that it’s the “American Pastime” is more a vestige ...
Electric Company
Matt the Electrician returns with new tunes, more beard.
Matt Sever, aka Matt the Electrician, has never played by the rules: After a short stint as a journeyman electrician, he decided to move to Austin, Texas – without knowing anything about the city – ...
Rocking Hunger
Aaron Gillespie’s Hellosomebody Worship Tour makes a stop in Monterey.
Aaron Gillespie’s tour has an admirable mission that goes beyond spreading the word of Jesus through music: raising money through merchandising (a $25 watch feeds 125 people) for nonprofit Hellosomebody to serve needy kids around ...
In-N-Out Tug-O-War
Marina courts the cult burger joint; Seaside scouts for a second chance.
Double-double, chocolate shake and fries. That’s the typical In-N-Out order for both Seaside Mayor Felix Bachofner and Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado. As the fast-food company roots for a Monterey Peninsula outpost, both mayors say they ...
Local Spin: Risque Business
In the dog-eat-dog world of news, who’s wearing Milkbone underwear?
It’s hard to choose a favorite among the many comic moments from KION-TV’s parsing last week of the Weekly’s Smart Guide. There was the on-air intro, a stern Marc Cota-Robles leading with random nouns: “Hemp! ...
Golden Lochs
Portland’s Loch Lomond throws a whirlwind of instruments at Fernwood’s redwoods.
Seems there’s not one instrument on the planet that Loch Lomond frontman Ritchie Young won’t tackle. He plays everything from the mandolin and concertina to percussion and guitar. “I’m really stubborn,” Young says. “I was ...
Opinion: One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican! 09-22-11
Dear Mexican: I am a half-breed, and recently I’ve been reading a lot about the drug violence in Mexico. I’ve become increasingly disturbed by the way in which we Americans are directly contributing to this ...
Changing the food system won’t come from Congress, but from educated eaters
In the forty years since the publication of Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet, a movement dedicated to the reform of the food system has taken root in America. Lappé’s groundbreaking book connected ...
The Public Voice
Letters to the Editor 09-22-11
Into the Breach Many thanks to Kera Abraham for her excellent article on the continuing efforts to restore and preserve the Carmel Lagoon State Park (“Vinyl barrier brokers truce between enviros, homeowners on the Carmel ...
Salsa Season
Keys to a jarring experience from a special character named Roy.
I learned the ways of canning salsa from a used-car salesman named Roy. He looks like Willie Nelson, bandana and all, and speaks with a southern twang thick enough to get your truck stuck in. ...
Debut Bonfire Heights assembles speakers who have changed the world with vision and verve.
It seems so simple. A small, basic lantern, little more than a flashlight, but bright enough to illuminate a small room. In a place like Kenya, though, it can mean everything: a chance to study ...
Brezsny's Astrology September 22-28, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I have a simple philosophy,” said Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a self-described hedonist who lived till the age of 96. “Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches.” That’s not ...
Thursday, September 15
Big Scores
Tracking the must-sees at the 54th annual Monterey Jazz Festival, from Herbie to Huey to New Orleans’ nicest.
The legendary Billie Holiday headlined the inaugural Monterey Jazz Festival back in 1958, along with Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and the Modern Jazz Quartet. On a rare recording of her performance that night, the airplanes ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 09.15.11
Dear Mexican: I live in upstate New York and while we have a relatively small Mexican population, we have a large number of Puerto Ricans, especially in the community I live. Here’s my question: a ...
Squid Speaks
BROKEN GLASS… Squid’s known for being a highly efficient door-to-door canvasser, what with Squid’s ability to wield eight clipboards simultaneously. But even during the heated primary season, when Squid’s blood reaches the boiling point rather ...
Drive
Throttle Back: Drive revs up a genre by defying its tired Hollywood conventions.
Remember Drive Angry from early this year? (I hope you don’t.) This is not that movie. This is not Nicolas Cage Hollywood-glammed as a violent demon who really really gets a kick out of fast ...
Sustainability Academy’s cash flow problem complicates drug drop box program.
The idea sounds simple enough: Give people an easy way to dispose of their unwanted meds, and they’ll stop tossing them in the toilet (which pollutes the groundwater) or in the trash (where they can ...
Zipped Up
County Parks Department is quietly considering a zipline at Jacks Peak.
Jacks Peak Park is a suite of subtle sounds, from woodpecker taps and warbler whistles to the clip-clop of horse hooves. Perhaps soon, adding to that song will be the human “wheee!” That is, if ...
Beyond Steinbeck
The Last Otter Hunter tells the story Cannery Row’s definitive historian always wanted to.
When Michael Kenneth Hemp moved to Monterey in 1979, it is tempting to imagine that Doc Ricketts and John Steinbeck breathed a sigh of relief from on high. Over the next decade, the author established ...
Letters To The Editor 09.15.11
Animal Style Regarding the proposal/attempt to lure In-n-Out Burger to Marina: Would not the city be much better served by approaching the likes of Trader Joe’s? (“Squid Fry,” Sept. 8-14.) Not only Marina, but the ...
Vesuvio
Through the Roof:Rich Pepe gives Carmel more bustle, housemade breads and Italian flavor with new Vesuvio.
Vesuvio, named after Italy’s Mount Vesuvius, erupted three months ago in the old Piatti Ristorante space at Junipero and Sixth in Carmel. As the volcano responsible for burying the town of Pompeii and a symbol ...
Bacon and Beets
Montrio rules, plus a smorgasbord of “quick bites.”
Surprise: Montrio Bistro (648-8880) business is up since Restaurant 1833 came in. In case you need a reminder why: Chef Tony Baker is a fiendish gastro-genius with an affection for superior purveyors. His oatmeal-crusted brie ...
Scenes from Above
Local theaters, local arts battle for audiences and relevance in a down economy.
Theater In this recessed economy – an environment where live theater is regarded as an intellectual luxury, where entertainment is converging with powerful technology to reach wider and more frugal audiences – theater companies are ...
Literary Living
The Carmel Authors & Ideas Festival enters its fourth year in feisty fashion.
William Shakespeare could rise from the grave, show up in Carmel and offer to talk about great plays and literature as part of the upcoming Carmel Authors & Ideas Festival. But if he couldn’t rock ...
Valuing free and independent media, too.
Because the news is my business, I was stunned by Executive Editor Joe Livernois’ admission in Saturday’s Herald. It wasn’t the paper’s rationale to stop publishing the stock market listings that got my attention. What ...
By The Numbers 09-15-11
Real Estate
$2,225,000 Recent Sale 151 Highland Dr., Carmel Highlands Built: 1921 Size: 4,035 square feet Features: 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Ocean views, four fireplaces, skylights, vaulted ceilings, guest house Seller: Paul and Audrey ...
Brezsny's Astrology September 15-21, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “An awakened Aries would rather err on the side of making a daring, improvisational mistake than cuddle up with passionless peace,” writes astrologer Hunter Reynolds. “He or she knows that creative ...
Canny Athletes
Analyzing achievement through the Triathlon at Pacific Grove.
After another mouthful of salt water, before a peek above clawing kelp reveals a surge of sea washing over the 60-some swimmers nearby, and right around the moment a second overhand right from a swimmer ...
East Epics
Chinese acrobats, rare Kabuki theater swoop into World Theater.
When the thunder spirit Kaminari roars against Sendo, a boat man wearing a feminine mask, it will be the first time the two Japanese Kabuki characters meet on an American stage. They’ll do it Sunday ...
Street Talk 08.18.11 (asked @ Stone Creek Kitchen in Del Rey Oaks.)
What is the healthiest thing about your lifestyle?
Follow-up: How do you feel about Spandex? NICOLE LITTERINE | Supervisor | Monterey A: I love to hike. I hike Big Sur, I get outdoors as much as possible and I go spinning like crazy. ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 09.15.11
ONGOING GUITARS NOT GUNS | VARIOUS LOCATIONS – Volunteer as a guitar instructor to give at-risk youth the opportunity to realize their creative potential. Time commitment is an hour a week for eight weeks. Locations ...
Pixel Porn
How an IP address led to an international child-porn investigation.
Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Investigative Sgt. Terry Keiser remembers when child pornography investigations relied on eight-track tapes and paper trails. “We were working through the Postal Service to hand-deliver evidence,” the 42-year veteran investigator recalls. ...
Workers, Disunited
UFW and D’Arrigo file competing complaints against each other.
A United Farm Workers march through the San Joaquin Valley to the capitol ended with cheers over Labor Day weekend, after Gov. Jerry Brown reached a compromise on rules that will make it easier for ...
Carolina Cali
Singer-songwriter Gabriel Gandzjuk brings his North Carolina-inspired tunes to the Pierce Ranch Tasting Room.
Afew years ago, Gabriel Gandzjuk followed his dream girl from California to North Carolina. “Fate brought us together when she was tearing out of town and I followed her,” he says. “I needed a break ...
Fall for It
A snapshot of the months ahead, with special notes on particular performances.
Sept. 16 Mad Magazine’s Joe Raiola: American Heretic 7:30pm. Henry Miller Library, Big Sur. 667-2574, www.henrymiller.org. Sept. 23 Monterey County Artists Studio Tour Gala Party | 7-9pm. Pacific Grove Art Center, Pacific Grove. 659-5003, www.pgartcenter.org. ...
Music for Morrison
A longtime Monterey Bay Blues Festival legend gets local support at Sly’s after suffering a serious loss.
Los Angeles-based blues singer Barbara Morrison is known for a powerful voice that spans an incredible range of two-and-a-half-octaves. Los Angeles Times music critic Zan Stewart is just one of the people to take notice. ...
Thursday, September 8
Laboring For Doulas
Natividad seeks trained emotional support in the delivery room.
Having a baby can be the most joyful experience in a woman’s life—or the most frightening, if she doesn’t have someone to guide her through it. Natividad Medical Center is hoping to fund a team ...
Letters To The Editor 09.08.11
Law & Order: Seaside Get a dog, buy a gun, shove some dip under your lip, and sit in a rocking chair facing a window that you leave open on purpose (“Seaside burglaries on the ...
An Iraq War vet suggests: Stop relying on empty symbolism and choose leaders wisely.
A patriot, as defined by the dictionary, is someone who defends popular liberty and zealously safeguards his or her country’s welfare. Certain things come to mind: defending your nation, paying your taxes and making sacrifices ...
Rising Sun
Trump trumpeter Chris Botti kicks off a tasty season at Sunset Center.
Chris Botti is an alum of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People. But he’s much more than just a pretty face: The contemporary jazz trumpeter has not only received five Grammy nods, three of his ...
Other Comers
A peek at Sunset season ahead.
>> To many, Kevin Bacon will always be known as the feisty Chicago teen Ren McCormack in Footloose or the muscleman hero in Tremors, but the Philly-native can also play music. The Bacon Brothers (Sept. ...
Sizzling Beef
Hot controversy on the grill in Carmel and hot Big Sur tickets.
There are plenty of intriguing story lines circling a skirmish over a proposed eatery-by-the-sea. Carmel’s premiere hotelier-restaurateur wants to extend his impressive record of new businesses with a concept not seen around here. Opposing sides ...
A few days and opportunities to pay tribute to 9/11 victims.
A few local papers have been asking readers to send in their 9/11 stories for weeks now, memories and pictures that will be cobbled together into story packages to help note one of the most ...
Bonsai Freedom
How a big paralyzing problem found a tiny sculpted escape.
I t took a long, anxious night spent lying face down on his lawn in the pouring rain before Dennis DeGray realized he would never move the same again. On a wet October evening four ...
Local docs receive big bucks from leading pharmaceutical companies.
Nearly 70 Monterey County medical professionals are on Big Pharma’s payroll, according to new data compiled by independent investigative news organization ProPublica. That’s a huge jump from the last list, which only had 17 names ...
LULAC Look Back
Crecencio Padilla’s new book on the League of United Latin American Citizens is loaded with local civil rights history.
T ransforming decades’ worth of news clippings, letters and notes into an accessible archive is no easy feat, but Crecencio Padilla has succeeded with his self-published LULAC Legacy in Monterey County, a comprehensive history of ...
The Long Aftermath
A terrible day for America has turned into a devastating decade of wars.
After witnessing the first jetliner crash into the Twin Towers on that Sept. 11 morning, a friend’s wife and 7-year-old daughter fled to their nearby Manhattan loft and ran to the roof to look around. ...
Place Apart
Restaurant 1833 uses setting and gold-plate-pedigree chef to match the hype and then some.
Monterey’s 1833 Restaurant, named after the building’s year of origin, is the latest in a series of restaurants to occupy Stokes Adobe, the home of former mayor James Stokes, whose name stuck with it. The ...
Street Talk 09.08.11 Asked at the Monterey County Fair.
What do you take for granted most? Follow-up: What event helped you see everything differently?
Wesley Adams | Disc Jockey | Seaside A: Little things. Food. To look in the fridge and choose. Some people don’t have that. Golden Rule: I was walking into Chipotle. There was a guy about ...
By The Numbers 09.08.11
Real Estate
$620,000 |Recent Sale 4984 Beach Wood Ct., Seaside | Built: 2004 | Size: 3,303 square feet | Features: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage | Amenities: Ocean views, balcony, fireplace, walk-in closet, tub with jets ...
Reel Treat
Monterey Underwater Film Festival pulls in a school of superior artists and their award-winning work.
Most people who find themselves in the ocean will probably try to avoid sharks. Berkley White tries to get close enough to touch them. The owner of Monterey’s Backscatter Underwater Video and Photo, which has ...
Fight of Our Lives
Warrior knocks audiences to emotional places, deserves an Academy Award (or two).
Sports movies are rarely so good that they make me want to stand up and cheer, but Warrior did just that. It also made me cry. This is a powerful, heartbreaking story about two estranged ...
B&B Bargaining
Labor disputes linger at three Carmel hotels; management calls on courts.
A s many workers settled in for a Labor Day weekend of barbecues and beer, 120 Carmel hotel staffers and their supporters gathered Sept. 1 for a march from La Playa Hotel to Pine Inn, ...
Apocalypse Nuts
Bellflower feels devoutly bad ass and almost nauseatingly unique.
As I write this, London is burning, Japan is irradiated and Rick Perry is on the verge of formally announcing his presidential intentions. In short, the Apocalypse—or something more secular, and therefore worse—is ramping up ...
Squid Speaks
FLASH FRIED… When residents hungry for a new restaurant organize to bring it to town, their efforts usually take the form of City Hall testimony or a polite petition. Squid likes Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado’s ...
9/11 Hindsight
MIIS faculty take a grim view on terrorism 10 years after 9/11.
E ven as the Arab Spring transitions to autumn, and protesters across North Africa and the Middle East risk their lives to overthrow choking regimes, terrorism experts in Monterey caution against optimism that democracy will ...
Rokkera On
Some of the biggest names in Mexican music converge in Salinas for a lil’ Revolucíon.
El Tri may not be a household name in Monterey County, but for fans of rock en Español, they’re bonafide legends. And now, these founding fathers of the genre—who have been captivating audiences for over ...
Fox Trots
Fleet Foxes and The Walkmen draw a sell-out crowd to Big Sur.
Since Fleet Foxes first played in Big Sur at the Spirit Garden a few years back, the bearded, Seattle-based youngsters have been on a rapid ascent in the music world. They return on Sunday to ...
Tongues of Terror
The Defense Language Institute shifts focus for a post-9/11 world
O n a recent Friday morning at the Defense Language Institute’s Franklin Street gate, a security guard is checking for bombs beneath a Monterey-Salinas Transit bus headed to the Presidio of Monterey. There’s no reason ...
Thursday, September 1
By the Numbers 9.1.11
By the Numbers 9.1.11
$420,000 | Recent Sale | 315 Prescott Lane, Pacific Grove Built: 1949 Size: 1,200 square feet Features: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2-car garage Amenities: Patio, fenced yard, workshop, double pane windows Seller: Timothy Ronsse and ...
Eroded Faith
Scramble to repair Salinas Valley’s rubber dam raises serious structural concerns.
A fter only its second summer in operation, the Salinas River’s rubber dam needs emergency repairs due to erosion of the river bottom. The $14 million project promised to solve the seawater intrusion problem threatening ...
The Price of Aging
Budget cuts slash senior services just when aging baby boomers need them.
For Jo Anne Curtis, 61, of Salinas, the Alliance on Aging’s group peer counseling is what’s keeping her aging parents alive and independent. Her 88-year-old father is blind, hard of hearing and suffering from arthritis ...
Wrong Battle
The Debt owes its audience a little more cohesion to match the entertainment factor.
In director John Madden’s remake of a 2007 Israeli film by the same title, what starts out as a gripping Cold War-era espionage thriller devolves into utter fantasy. Told mainly in flashback sequences, the story ...
Bloody Aliens
England’s Attack the Block moves the extraterrestrial attack flick to a fresh and clever new ’hood: the projects.
Smart, quick, funny, and economical, Attack the Block is an alien-invasion movie that is a breed apart. Set largely within a London housing project, the film turns on the idea that its young hoodlum protagonists ...
Lessons, and a lawsuit, in Salinas’ great green hunt.
Dennis Donohue, Jim Pia, Jeff Weir and Vanessa Vallarta seem unlikely hunting partners, but this week, they threw on their cammies, grabbed their metaphorical rifles and announced they were going on a Moose hunt. Almost ...
Squid Fry 09-01-11
Squid Fry 09-01-11
THANK YOU FOR CHOKING… A sketch of actor Aaron Eckhart’s chin, taped to Squid’s computer monitor, is a constant reminder of what industry lobbyists are trained to do. In Thank You for Smoking, Eckhart plays ...
Staying Afloat
Museum of Monterey hires director; money woes persist
I t’s tempting to call new Museum of Monterey Director Lisa Coscino “captain”: She’s just taken the wheel of the former History and Maritime Museum anchoring Monterey’s Custom House Plaza. “We use ship metaphors all ...
Type Cast
Salinas’ Jerry Wallace taps out a fascinating—although endangered—existence as a typewriter repairman.
O nce a high-speed business tool, the typewriter has become a decorative bookend, a quaint relic. Some crafty folks see the machines as nothing more than art project fodder, shopping for cheap typewriters just to ...
Recipes For Life
A surprising Cindy Walter session, tomato talk and a bunch of bites.
A beautiful thing blossomed on the industrial streets of Sand City last weekend with the 10th annual West End Celebration. This page lacks the acreage to acknowledge all the collaborators who made the swirl of ...
Tomato Secrets
’Tis the season for a local farmer to reflect on one of her favorite things, its top types and a righteous recipe.
The best part of the summertime Caprese salad was once considered deadly. In an age gone by, the most vegetable-y fruit was actually seen as an aphrodisiac. And, at one time, they worked as a ...
Front Burner
Burning Man strives for relevance beyond the desert playa.
When Burning Man sold out July 25 (a record 51,454 tickets at up to $360), a friend posted on Facebook: “You could pay $800 for a BM ticket, or come over, I’ll throw glitter at ...
Big Fair Flair
Blue Öyster Cult, WAR bring trove of longtime fan favorites to the Monterey County Fair for a couple of free shows.
The chances are high that everyone knows at least one tune by each of the two classic rock outfits playing free-with-darn-affordable admission shows at this year’s Monterey County Fair. Blue Öyster Cult (Thursday 8pm) was ...
A Labor Day tribute to the area’s relentless bands and the grooves they demand.
The sexy festivals come once a year. The hotshot headliners—of late, the Trace Adkins, the Moonalices and Blue Öyster Cults of the world—perform and then never return. All the while, week after week, Monterey County’s ...
Billboard Battle
Woman leading Greenfield recall alleges the city is blocking justice for her murdered son.
A cross the street from Greenfield’s new city hall on El Camino Real towers a billboard offering $50,000 for information on the 2004 murder of Ricky Torres. The reward money is from a state grant; ...
Villas de No Agua
State water board says Carmel condo project might violate cease-and-desist order.
The state’s squeeze on Carmel River pumping just won’t leave Monterey County alone. In the latest hiccup for planners, the state water board suggests the proposed Villas de Carmelo project may not have the water ...
Letters To The Editor 09.01.11
Geographic Logic Your redux of real estate pricing was only mostly correct (“Salinas housing prices are about to plummet,” Aug. 25-31). “Salinas” in federal government number crunching means the whole of the Salinas metropolitan area; ...
The Kochs are at it again, this time promoting ultra-restrictive voter identification laws.
V oter fraud is virtually nonexistent in America, but this imaginary crime still serves to justify a wave of new voter registration laws—often requiring a state-issued photo ID—that Republican legislators have rapidly spread across the ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 09.01.11
Dear Mexican: I see a lot of vatos around wearing the clam digger pants with the knee-high white socks and white sneakers. While this is nothing new, I’ve noticed recently that the shoes and socks ...
Brezsny's Astrology 9.1.11
Free Will Astrology By Rob Brezny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Strange but true: To pave the way for your next liberation, you will have to impose some creative limitation on yourself. In other words, there’s some trivial extravagance or unproductive excess ...
Asked at Best Buy in Marina: What obsolete technology do you prefer to newer gadgets?
Asked at Best Buy in Marina: What obsolete technology do you prefer to newer gadgets?
Linnea McWhirter | Student | MIIS A: I prefer catapults to artillery because you can launch anything. Like peasants or diseased cows. Not a Peep: Twitter. Because celebrities are the worst people in the world ...
