Thursday, August 30
Fan Fair
Foghat and The Chris Gardner Band highlight the music lineup at the Monterey County Fair.
After a day of fishing on Long Island’s North Shore, Roger Earl is pleased with his haul: Two blue fish that he plans to fillet, brine and smoke for dinner. Earl is also pleased with ...
Taking Council
Five candidates for two open seats have different priorities, visions for Monterey.
Alan Haffa has spent a lot of Saturday afternoons on the Colton Hall lawn this year, where he was active with Occupy Monterey. Now, the Monterey Peninsula College professor is looking for a seat at ...
Gypsy Kings
The Gaucho Gypsy Jazz Band Trio makes a good thing better, stops by Museum of Monterey for a special show.
Dave Ricketts remembers a time, not long ago, when the clerks at his local music store referred to gypsy jazz as “fag music.” Now he says those same guys hit him up for advice about ...
Squid Speak, Spoken Here
DINING IN… Squid admits to peeking at the tabloids in the grocery check-out line. Squid might even buy one, if only the skinny celebrities didn’t make Squid feel like such a glutton. So, in the ...
Lawless
In High Spirits: Prohibition-era Lawless soars with powerful storytelling, masterful acting.
If this wasn’t based on a true story, you’d scoff. Forrest Bondurant, Depression-era entrepreneur, is legendary in rural Virginia, rumored to be invincible because he survived a Great War military attack that killed all his ...
KSBW’s reasons for censoring Western Stage make no sense.
In the 13 or so years that The Marketing Department (TMD) has been in operation, the Salinas-based agency has produced hundreds of commercials and purchased – in the estimation of founder and president Nick Pasculli ...
Public Citizen 8.30.12
ONGOING PARK STEWARDSHIP | VARIOUS LOCATIONS – Join the Monterey Peninsula Regional Parks District and Big Sur Land Trust in volunteering to maintain and protect local parks. 8:30-11:30am every third Saturday and Wednesday at Carmel ...
Bay to Bay
Morro Bay, Monterey land grant to bolster family-owned fishing operations.
The cities of Monterey and Morro Bay, 120 miles apart on the Central Coast, have both managed to hang on to their family-run fishing operations in spite of rising fuel costs, tighter regulations and foreign ...
A Student’s Split Identity
As civil war buffets her childhood home, a local explores her sense of self.
The signs of her struggle are subtle. She’s quiet and calm about the loud and unnerving things taking place in her childhood home of Damascus, Syria – even as her family’s house is rendered uninhabitable ...
Water Wait and See
Cal Am and friends drop lawsuit challenging state’s water-supply smackdown.
The state water board’s local opponents have rolled over on a major lawsuit involving the future of the Monterey Peninsula’s water supply – for a few years, at least. In July a group of litigants ...
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m afraid your vibes are slightly out of tune. Can you do something about that, please? Meanwhile, your invisible friend could really use a Tarot reading, and your houseplants would benefit ...
Nifty Fifty
Classic arts powerhouse Hidden Valley Music Seminars – long standing but little known – starts to celebrate a half century with La Boheme.
Despite its long existence in a pastoral field off Carmel Valley Road, backdropped by the Santa Lucia foothills and surrounded by white oak trees, music training and performance center Hidden Valley Music Seminars, for many ...
By The Numbers 8-30-12
Real Estate
$250,000 Recent Sale 1431 Hilby Ave., Seaside Built: 1955 Size: 1,080 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1-car garage Amenities: Large fenced yard, hardwood floors, patio, updated kitchen Seller: Cornelius and Amy Wigg Buyer: ...
Letters To The Editor 8.30.12
Bank On It Your article suggesting that cities use eminent domain to revalue mortgages for homeowners who have negative equity is legally possible but politically untenable (“The feds won’t do it, and neither will the ...
Smooth as (Philip) Glass
The famed composer brings a smaller (but faithful) festival back to the Monterey Peninsula.
The innovative 1982 feature film Koyaanisqatsi, the first of the “Qatsi trilogy,” uses the popular medium of movies for a work of meditative, spiritual, environmental and apocalyptic art. Some may admit, without regret, that they ...
400° Gourmet Burgers and Fries
Taking Heat: As 400° Gourmet Burgers and Fries tries to merit the lofty price points, at least the shakes are unbelievable.
Local restaurateur David Fink’s newest eatery, the swank burger joint 400° in downtown Carmel, certainly makes a statement with its high ceilings, polished metal furnishings, funky light fixtures and crisp checkerboard tiling. But when a ...
Fashion a la Food
How an Oaklandish dinner hits on news back home – and how our transplants are scheming up north.
It’s a Monday night dinner to rival Cachagua General Store’s. In… Oakland. OK – downtown Oaktown Tamarindo’s upscale Mexican prawn tacos and queso fundido differ from CGS’s rustic bone marrow and salmon soup, and the ...
Street Talk 08.23.12 (asked @ Lake El Estero in Monterey.)
If you could re-do one thing in your life, what would it be?
Follow-up: What is one thing you did right? KATHY ROBINSON | Homemaker | Aliso Viejo Q: I would have gotten married at an earlier age so I could have children. I got married at 37 ...
Celeste & Jesse Forever
Hot Pain: Best friends divorce in a Celeste & Jesse Forever story that finds charm wrapped in deep discomfort.
When women have meltdowns in the movies, the meltdowns rarely overstay their welcome. A box of tissues dispatched, a Ben & Jerry’s gorge, maybe a bottle of wine (but never more than one). “Keep it ...
Pundits are turning Paul Ryan from a right-wing ideologue into a bold intellectual – and framing the election in the process.
One reads of people obsessed with finding Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. These folks may be annoying, but for most of us, they are not really a problem. The same can’t be said of ...
Hot Air
Plasco puts trash gasification plant on hold after state declines to redefine renewables.
The 30 million tons of garbage Californians cart of to landfills every year will keep piling up for a while. Ottawa-based Plasco Energy Group is halting plans to build a gasification plant in Gonzales, shifting ...
Thursday, August 23
Cab to Heaven
Rombi Vineyard lands in Carmel Valley Village with a world-class Cabernet Sauvignon.
It’s everything you want: balance, body, mouth feel, complexity, finish. Wine made from a single, local vineyard by a winemaker who spends as much time in the vines as anywhere else on the planet. Only ...
Letters To The Editor 8.23.12
Counting the Cost Thank you for bringing this to the public’s attention (“Former warden says California can’t afford the death penalty,” Aug. 9-15). It really hit my hot button. I am shocked at the amount ...
Hit & Run
Spinning Wheels: Dax Shepard’s charm highlights an otherwise lackluster chase flick in Hit & Run.
Dax Shepard’s sophomore directorial feature – following the awkwardly staged show-biz parody Brother’s Justice – is a bizarre mélange of earnest and romantic road movie, high-octane chase picture reminiscent of everything the mustachioed version of ...
Take Coverage
County lags in implementing bridge plan for low-income residents under Obamacare.
Democrats deployed simple arithmetic to maneuver healthcare reform through Washington: More preventive care up front equals lower total healthcare costs down the road. But as Monterey County officials crunch the numbers, they’re looking at big ...
Peninsula activists envision a community time bank.
With more than 30 years experience in information technology, Seaside resident Catherine Crockett could charge upwards of $75 an hour for her services. But the computer wiz would gladly fix a neighbor’s laptop in exchange ...
Mommy Made Me
Pulitzer-nominated Now That’s She’s Gone brings Ellen Snortland to Cherry Center.
Ellen Snortland describes her one-woman show as less Mommy Dearest than “Dear Mommy.” It’s a fair evaluation. Her 2008 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Now That She’s Gone is a memoir that doubles as a chronicle of ...
Todd Akin has secured the rapist vote, but who else’s?
It would be easier to believe the story happened this way: The national media, as it is sometimes wont to do, confused a piece from humor site The Onion with actual news, then reported it ...
The Republicans’ best bet, a win by voter suppression, will be greeted with a national shrug.
Everybody, even the Republicans, is talking about how choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate has made winning the election just that much harder for Mitt Romney. But maybe the choice makes it just a ...
Life is Shorts
Hundreds of short films boil down to the Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series grand prize Sunday night at the Henry Miller Library.
For me, the Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series didn’t begin with the first public screening on June 6. It started April 4 with an email from Magnus Toren, Henry Miller Library’s director and ...
Public Citizen 8.23.12
ONGOING WOMEN IN BUSINESS | SALINAS – Rise Leadership Forum launches a training program for women executives and entrepreneurs. Group meets 11am-5:30pm the second Friday of the month for a year, beginning Sept. 14, at ...
Bahn Mi Bar
It’s the Banh: Noodle Bar’s sibling Banh Mi Bar brings the best fresh sandwich value in town.
What is it about the restaurants in Marina? Have they all somehow locked in 1985 food prices from their distributors? Is the city cutting them some sweetheart tax breaks? Or is that Marina itself is ...
Squid Speaks
OM AMEN… Every night before beddiebye, Squid folds all 10 appendages and gives thanks to Poseidon. Thanks for the many fish in the sea, thanks for election-season entertainment, and thanks for that handy little thing ...
Street Talk 08.23.12 (asked @London Bridge Pub in Monterey.)
What would you put in a time capsule?
Follow-up: What will people remember about us a century from now? JESSICA ONKEN | Server | Monterey A: An iPhone or and iPod. Some of the books that are popular right now like Twilight or ...
On the Tracks
Businesses and nonprofits duke it out over proposals for old train depot in Monterey.
When Ellen Martin, executive director of First Night Monterey, spent a week sick in bed a little over a year ago, she started daydreaming about how to get more eyes on the art hundreds of ...
Esalen Escalation
Lawyer letter deepens the tension at Big Sur sanctuary.
It should be party time at the Esalen Institute: The retreat center, a place of inspiring beauty on the Big Sur coast, is in its 50th year. But in the midst of anniversary-themed celebrations – ...
The Imposter
Scary Switcheroo: The Imposter chronicles a real-life child disappearance, and the con-man who took the boy’s place.
Truth is stranger than fiction, and sometimes vice versa. But when the elements of a mystery become so impossibly obscured by the sheer emotional drama of a crime – a crime that actually might not ...
Ray of Sunshine
Ray Charles Tribute and The African Showboyz lead loaded lineup for free and charity-driven West End Celebration in Sand City.
No need to fret if you didn’t score tickets to the sold-out Gentlemen of the Road Stopover with Mumford & Sons this Saturday, Aug. 25, at the Fairgrounds. Across town, the West End Celebration is ...
The Human Factor
A couple who the Mortgage Resolution Partners plan could have helped fought for their property all the way to jail.
On March 13, 2011, the same day that a massive tsunami struck the coast of Japan, Robert and Carrie Butler – he’s a cement contractor, she’s a massage therapist/stay-at-home mom – were being handcuffed and ...
A Blueprint for Recovery
>The feds won’t do it, and neither will the banking industry. So why is a plan that could help local homeowners and reset the economy ticking off so many people?
It’s an idea so crazy it just might work. It was born with a bunch of rich liberals with consciences who were demoralized at the state of the nation and of what they generally describe ...
By The Numbers 8-23-12
Real Estate
$275,000 Recent Sale 1217 Luzern St., Seaside Built: 1958 Size: 784 square feet Features: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1-car garage Amenities: Wood-burning fireplace, patio, partial basement, hardwood floors, fenced yard Seller: Federal National Mortgage Association ...
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Do you know what a controlled burn is? Firefighters start small, manageable fires on purpose so as to eradicate brush that has accumulated too close to wooded areas. With less fuel ...
Lost in Time – Really
Searching for a lost Carmel time capsule reveals other memories of 1962.
In 1962, Ann Ostenso was figuring out how to sit down in front of a second-grade classroom while wearing a mini-skirt. “Pantyhose had just come in,” she said. “We were wearing skirts 5 inches above ...
One-Man Jam
James Findlay enlists Granted Earth to help bring his solo instrumental project Concave to life at Jose’s.
James Findlay is the David Blaine of music. Put him in a recording studio alone – with drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and a vibraphone – and he will escape with an album that sounds like ...
Monday, August 20
Of DREAMers and defecators
Dear Mexican: I was in a taco shop in the bathroom stall and saw your racist dribble in La Prensa San Diego (the paper was being used as ass wipe I guess). Whatever you say ...
Thursday, August 16
Painting Patience
A third-generation thangka master adds color to Pacific Grove.
In the business district of downtown P.G., there’s a shop the size of a moderately wealthy woman’s closet. It’s adorned with vibrant Tibetan peace flags and exudes the scent of burning sage. A single step ...
Street Talk 08.16.12 (asked @ East Village Coffee Lounge Rubber Chicken Poetry Slam.)
Street Talk 08.16.12 (asked @ East Village Coffee Lounge Rubber Chicken Poetry Slam.)
Follow-up: Who is the master of that art? ANDRE CARDOSO | Student | Pacific Grove A: Parkour. It’s creates an interesting visual. It’s a sport and an art at the same time. And it takes ...
Song Birds
Tumbleweed Wanderers’ infectious harmonies quickly gain widespread attention.
For some bands, finding the right producer can be an endless trek. Not the Tumbleweed Wanderers. After visiting touring indie rocker John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studio in San Francisco, their search was over. “We could ...
Best Hell Ever
A family comes together and falls apart in Tracy Letts’ unmissable hit August: Osage County at Paper Wing.
Forget what you know about Paper Wing Theatre: their dark, gothic tendencies, their guerilla tactics, their sweet tooth for pop culture. With their production of Tracy Letts’ 2007 play August: Osage County, which won the ...
Killer Joe
A Killer Epic: Famed director William Friedkin riffs on film, philosophy and life as his Killer Joe opens at the Osio.
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing can be made,” says director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection), channeling the philosopher Immanuel Kant. Friedkin was in San Francisco recently for a ...
Livin’ Easy
The California Roots Summer Mix-Up brings nine bands to the Monterey County Fairgrounds.
Back in May, the third annual California Roots Music & Arts Festival brought nearly 20,000 people to the Fairgrounds for a two-day event headlined by Pepper and SOJA. Saturday’s California Roots Summer Mix-Up – a ...
The Expendables 2
The Art of Bore: The worst thing about The Expendables 2 is the chance for The Expendables 3
If you could drop a bomb on The Expendables 2, that would be like totally awesome, man! Er, sure, but I was thinking you could wipe out ’80s action heroes, and that would be a ...
Foul Folk
St. Vincent Folk brings dark-humored music to Big Sur’s renovated Maiden Pub.
Sometimes you have to ask: “Is that you who farted under the covers?” Or maybe that’s just Vincent Bernardy. He poses that very question in “Drug Lovers” on his most recent St. Vincent Folk album, ...
Bikinis and Caviar
From L.A. Food & Wine 2 to Curly’s Barbecue, tastebuds are buzzing.
At one afterparty, Christina Aguilera stood directly in front of Seaside-based DJ Hanif Wondir’s turntables and threw her arm up and down while her dancer pals danced on his subwoofers. On the same dance floor, ...
Cross Purposes
Fitness freaks brace for impact as popular CrossFit empire fights off a possible buyout.
A nasty divorce and ownership battle are putting Santa Cruz-based CrossFit through a grueling workout. Part fitness phenomenon, part way of life, CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program that Greg Glassman, a former gymnast, ...
Losing My Religion
A worldly revival is poised to hit Monterey’s Golden State Theatre.
That hot little fire that combusted from cleaning products in a closet of the Golden State Theatre on March 17 might have been the spark for a music and culture revival in downtown Monterey. It ...
One-Horse Town
Seaside moves to annex Monterey Downs project; activist lawsuit alleges conflict.
The city of Seaside wants Monterey Downs, possibly the swankiest development ever to trot through City Hall, all to itself. But first it’s getting the full headache associated with the contentious proposal, which would plop ...
Letters To The Editor 8.16.12
Stale and Uneasy All cities should sit up and take notice (“Fresh & Easy Abandons Peninsula Sites,” Fresh Squid newsletter, Aug. 13). These corporations are not motivated by caring about the residents of cities or ...
Squid Speak Spoken Here
TIDY UP… Squid was of a mind to straighten out the lair last weekend and maybe even do a little cooking. But when Squid oozed over to the local home improvement store for supplies, the ...
Lokal
Crisp Character: Lokal Restaurant slathers unique personality on Carmel Valley’s plate.
Little about Monterey County’s new foodie outpost, Lokal, is business as usual. The rustic DIY aesthetic, servers swooning over the dishes and the cuisine itself all trickle down organically from its unorthodox founder/chef Brendan Jones ...
More Funk in the Trunk
There’s plenty more during Car Week to buckle into, and parts of it are free.
The Car Week lineup event is almost as long as the Tour D’Elegance parade – and growing annually. Here appears a list of increasingly-popular-but-less-publicized events, including those earlier in the week, so car lovers can ...
The Car, Reconsidered
An event-by-event look at the futuristic designs that changed automotives – and will appear across Monterey County for Car Week.
The question hangs in the air like a poof of exhaust from a 1923 Duesenberg over the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance: With a culture steering toward greater gas efficiency, electricity and more mass transportation, what ...
By The Numbers 8-16-12
Real Estate
$837,500 Recent Sale 1003 Egan Ave., Pacific Grove Built: 1941 Size: 1,584 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Ocean/golf course view, fireplace, large yard, remodeled kitchen with granite countertops Seller: Matt ...
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): These days you have a knack for reclamation and redemption, Aries. If anyone can put fun into what’s dysfunctional, it’s you. You may even be able to infuse neurotic cluelessness with ...
Job Closeout
Economic Development Department braces for calamity with looming Capital One, Fresh Express layoffs.
As two major Salinas employers prepare to slash staff, bare-bones county employment services are hoping a $1 million grant can help almost 950 workers get back on their feet. The last 13 of 75 Fresh ...
Cranky Cat
Comedian and car lover Adam Carolla brings his sarcastic shtick to Carmel’s Sunset Center.
Adam “Ace” Carolla is a funny man who comes from a family that didn’t seem like it would produce a funny person. “There was nothing going on around the house,” he says in his laconic, ...
Public Citizen 8.16.12
THURSDAY 8 | 16 CITY SPORTS | SEASIDE – City Council hears a report on athletic fields and decides whether to grant a fee waiver to Seaside Youth Football for the 2012 season. Council also ...
Alarming Salinas dog deaths distract from the real danger.
Here’s how Sunday nights work at my house: We eat dinner around 7:30pm. Our idiot dogs – a dyspeptic Jack Russell named Oliver and an exuberant Corgi mix named Lola – stand in the window ...
The wealthy aren’t just steering politics, they’re conscripting it from the will of the people.
Are you sick of hearing about the 1 percent yet? Well, don’t be. There’s a big reason everyone is talking about the ones on top: They’re more powerful and rich now than they have ever ...
County D.A. joins suit after local Walgreens stores are found violating waste laws.
The nationwide drugstore chain Walgreens is under scrutiny for its waste disposal practices in light of a civil suit filed in Alameda County on June 18. Allegations made by 35 California district attorney’s offices include ...
Monday, August 13
What's in a shirt and why the Latino obsession with death?
Dear Readers: The Mexican is currently smuggling mescal out of Oaxaca and into hipster bars nationwide, and thus gives you two oldies-but-goodies. But I do want to give a shout-out to Olympic silver medalist Leo ...
Thursday, August 9
Dry Heaves
Carmel River steelhead impacted by late and sparse rains.
It’s a sunny, blue-skied morning along the Carmel River. But as he walks along the dried-up riverbed, Frank Emerson sees a critical lack of rain. Earlier this summer, when the river was low but still ...
Tasty Tunes
The Carmel Supper Club returns with two nights of barbecue and music courtesy of the acclaimed Allan Harris Band.
There aren’t many musicians who can claim Tony Bennett as a mentor. Allan Harris is one of them. “Bennett changed my life and focus as an artist,” Harris says. “If I were a painter it ...
The Campaign
What’s Right?: The Campaign turns the political process red with laughter.
Here’s a new twist. Picture a Republican politician with humanitarian ethics. Now imagine said unicorn in the corporeal being of Zach Galifianakis, making the most of every effeminate gesture he can muster as small town ...
Good Weird
San Diego’s The Burning of Rome makes music using everything but the kitchen sink.
There are more instruments used on The Burning of Rome’s forthcoming album With Us (to be released on Sept. 18), than there are cars in Jay Leno’s garage. In addition to the usual suspects – ...
Getting Sleepy
A monkey-minded reporter attempts a journey to a past life. It might not matter if it’s real.
In a previous incarnation I was a man. A builder named Hiro with long black hair, living in the Andean foothills before there were South American countries. My father is a mediator in our village. ...
Mother of Reinvention
A look back at the reborn Museum of Monterey (aka MoM) suggests it’s cleared the storm that nearly wrecked it.
Just a few years ago the former Monterey Maritime and History Museum, run by the 82-year-old Monterey History and Art Association, was close to becoming Monterey history. It was hosting lectures and exhibits on Hotel ...
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Apollo astronaut Russell Schweickart had a vision of loveliness while flying through outer space in his lunar module. “One of the most beautiful sights is a urine dump at sunset,” he ...
By The Numbers 8-09-12
Real Estate
$482,500 Recent Sale 508 Herrmann Drive, Monterey Built: 1953 Size: 1,282 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage, guest house Amenities: Wood-burning fireplace, patio, tile flooring, vaulted ceilings, breakfast nook, hot tub Seller: ...
Ridiculous Democrats and Preposterous Republicans
Local political theater veers into the absurd, with Republicans claiming a disproportionate amount of insanity – and power – in deep blue Monterey County.Local political theater veers into the absurd,
The spokesman for the Monterey County Republican Central Committee thinks the U.S. government ought to operate like organized crime. “It should act more like the mafia,” Paul Bruno says. He elaborates from there: Any experienced ...
Healing Helpings
Cancer-Fighting Kitchen author Rebecca Katz delivers delicious therapy.
Cookbook author Rebecca Katz wants to shake up the seating chart at dinner. “Great taste and great nutrition don’t sit at opposite sides of the table,” she says. “That’s the power of yum.” The chef ...
Hero Sandwiches
Rescue on a Roll: Hero Sandwiches saves the day for busy breadwinners with inventive creations.
It wasn’t the kind of message you’d expect from a lunch delivery spot: “You know what to do, you know when to do it.” Actually – having only heard of the essentially undercover sandwich service ...
Letters To The Editor 8.09.12
Life on Wheels Honoring Chris Essert with Walter Ryce’s article was very kind and thoughtful (“Car-less Chris Essert is a diligent patron of all things cultural [and cheap] in Monterey County,” July 26-Aug. 1). I ...
The Bourne Legacy
Generation Kill 2.0: Dual assassins live parallel lives as a new Bourne hero emerges.
Is it worth $10? Yes. The Bourne Legacy takes the franchise in a smart and practical new direction, but due to a dragging, convoluted story it’s also not as good as its predecessors. For clarity: ...
Goodwill Soured
Marina property dispute leaves Goodwill’s Shoreline Conference Center unfinished.
Goodwill Industries’ Shoreline Conference Center in Marina is designed to impress. Its culinary arts program is complemented by conferences, job placement services and programs for at-risk youth. The grounds include a new organic garden, photogenic ...
Journalists work to get late Herald editor Ed Kennedy a Pulitzer for WWII reporting.
He witnessed Germany surrender to the allies in 1945 and broke the news that WWII was over, arguably the biggest scoop of the 20th century. And yet Ed Kennedy’s reporting – which defied a U.S. ...
Rules of the Road
Fort Ord’s Eastside Parkway heads to court; MPC dismissed from case.
A proposed shortcut through the former Fort Ord is taking the long route, with what could be a stop in court before breaking ground. The $20 million Eastside Parkway would run from Parker Flats to ...
Tapping Reserves
Aromas residents prepare for prospecting; Graniterock lawyer works for oil company.
Watsonville-based mining giant Graniterock is working to assure Aromas residents that seismic testing by an oil-exploration company won’t lead to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. “We are not in the oil business,” Graniterock President and CEO ...
Sea Change
Oxnard’s happy-go-lucky Sea Lions bring bright, ’60s-inspired Cali-pop to the Alternative Café.
The highlight of the Sea Lions tour in Japan last February wasn’t one of their Tokyo shows. Or visiting any of the sights like Mt. Fuji. It was a booze-fueled night of karaoke. “We were ...
At the convention, Dems have a chance to right Bill Clinton’s wrong on defining marriage.
The two major political parties of the United States are imperfect vehicles, but when they take stands on fundamental issues, these powerful institutions provide a measure of where not just politics is, but where the ...
Former warden says California can’t afford death penalty.
From the time a death penalty case enters the court system in California, the count begins. There’s an estimated $40 million a year spent on death penalty cases at the county court level. Then $72 ...
Squid Speaks
LAW AND ORDER: SEASIDE… Squid is a fan of police procedurals, those fabulously formulaic television dramas featuring mix-and-match cops and plug-in plot lines – a Criminal Minds marathon and a little shrimp-flavored popcorn makes for ...
Street Talk 08.09.12 (asked @ Del Monte Beach.)
What would you have hypnosis change about you?
Follow-up: What’s the worst thing to do while hypnotized? MIKE SHEA | Carpenter | Monterey A: Just to be calmer. I moved up here and lost a lot of money on some business projects, so ...
Public Citizen 8.09.12
THURSDAY 8 | 9 FORT ORD FUTURE | SEASIDE – Conservation Lands Foundation leads a meeting on the possibilities for the newly designated Fort Ord National Monument. The support group is expected to work with ...
Monday, August 6
Why do Mexicans rape so much and why do they always yell "Cu-le-ro" at bands they love?
Dear Mexican: So often when we see Mexican bands perform in the U.S. and Mexico, they crowd at some point starts chanting "¡Cu-le-ro!" ("Ass-hole!"). Why does the crowd yell "Cu-le-ro" at a band that they ...
Thursday, August 2
Letters To The Editor 8.02.12
Ord-inary People It amazes me that you keep printing John Hutcherson’s letters as he is obviously confused about what is happening at the former Fort Ord (“Letters,” July 26-Aug. 1). As a lifelong resident of ...
Brezsny's Astrology August 2-8, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The astrological omens suggest that you now have a lot in common with the legendary Most Interesting Man in the World – adventurous, unpredictable, interesting, lucky, one-of-a-kind. To create your horoscope, ...
Quick-nics, Baby
Fast-but-fabulous ideas for gourmet-sandwich-lunch-in-the-sun.
Sometimes the Epicurean culture needs new terms to keep track of all the updates. Think about it: None of the now-commonplace terms like “locavore,” “gastropub,” “probiotic,” “slow food” – or even “sustainable” and “foodie” – ...
Street Talk 08.02.12 (asked @ Marina Goodwill.)
What could you talk about for 40 years without getting bored?
Follow-up: How would you describe your oldest friend? LINDA STEWART | Art Curator | Marina A: Nature. I hike. I camp. I ski. I water ski. It’s better than walking around a gallery all day. ...
Squid Fry 8.02.12
Hable, Calamar
POKER HAND… Squid thinks eight-legged creatures should qualify as a full jury. On another legal note: As alleged victims of sex abuse by former Salinas High School counselor Gilbert Olivares start seeking compensation for their ...
Salinas rallying cry: Don’t let the sun go down on V.
Set aside, just for a minute, the public relations disaster the city of Salinas has created by the way it has handled the messaging around Measure V, the half-cent sales tax measure Salinas voters passed ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 8.02.12
ONGOING ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT | VARIOUS LOCATIONS – The Alzheimer’s Association offers support groups for caregivers, family and friends. 1:30-3:30pm Wednesday Aug. 8, Sally Griffin Center, 700 Jewell Ave., Pacific Grove; 6-8pm Monday Aug. 13, 1000 ...
The feds are poised to cut another $1.5 trillion from the deficit, and women will suffer the most.
Remember when Congress almost defaulted on our debt? It may seem like a distant nightmare, but we’re still living with repercussions from the debt ceiling showdown. In order to get Congress to lift the ceiling ...
Hospital Hole
Salinas Valley Memorial faces costly future solo, FPPC investigates board chair Jim Gattis.
After a failed courtship with some of the country’s biggest health care providers, Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare is left with looming massive financial obligations it has to face alone. The hospital needs to be rebuilt ...
$1.3 million federal grant aims to boost community health in Seaside.
The leading causes of death in Seaside are heart disease, cancer and accidents, according to a California Department of Health report. But a new initiative aims to make the city a healthier place all around. ...
Carmelita Conflict
Deals with developer Agha complicate P.G. mayor’s role in Peninsula water authority.
The city of Pacific Grove and its mayor, Carmelita Garcia, have been getting cozy with the leader of a proposed water desalination project. And some are questioning how it might color P.G.’s role on the ...
Swimming Upstream
Steve Collins portrays himself as victim of county scheme; county might sue him back.
The abandoned Regional Water Project still isn’t water under the bridge. For the first time since the project agreements started unraveling, former Monterey County Water Resources Agency board chair Steve Collins is speaking up to ...
Holman In One
Texas hotel developer flirts with downtown Pacific Grove; city scurries to accommodate.
Nader Agha, who owns the historic Holman Building in Pacific Grove, has a new BFF in San Antonio, Texas-based hotel developer H. Drake Leddy. The two recently joined forces to build the hotel city leaders ...
Getting Heavy
Maryland doom legend Scott “Wino” Weinrich and Conny Ochs kick off U.S tour with two stops in Monterey.
Henry Rollins might describe Scott “Wino” Weinrich best in a documentary on the history of the rocker’s doom metal outfit The Obsessed. “The guy’s got no bullshit,” Rollins says. “He says it and if you ...
Total Recall
Memory Maker: Revamp of Schwarzenegger hit Total Recall lags in the beginning, delivers in the end.>Memory Maker: Revamp of Schwarzenegger hit Total Recall lags in the beginning, de
It’s an ingenious premise: Life is boring and you’re unfulfilled. How cool would it be to have new memories implanted in your brain, and you can’t tell that they’re fake? What Total Recall does with ...
Tuff Stuff
The Woodsist Fest sold out months ago but there’s still plenty of music rising in Big Sur on Friday.
Kyle Thomas is en route to a swimming pool in Portland. The vehicle driving him is zipping way above the legal speed limit to ensure that he’ll have time for a dip before a show ...
The Queen Of Versailles
Damned Dream: The Queen of Versailles shows the diminishing American Dream through one billionaire family.
Director Lauren Greenfield struck documentary gold when she started filming the Siegel family in 2007. At that time, the billionaire couple was constructing their dream home, a 90,000-square-foot house with 30 bathrooms and 10 kitchens ...
Free to Read
A new exhibition at Steinbeck Center fights censorship so readers can decide what to read.
Oakland Artist Woody Johnson admits he was ignorant. “I was fooled into thinking the U.S. was so free and that banning books was something… dictatorial nations did,” he writes. “Until I saw the list.” That ...
So Fresh So Clean
The Bench lays out an eye-catching reinvention of the longtime Pebble Beach legend Club XIX.
Take the old stately lady of Pebble Beach restaurants, give her a bath and flip her on her head. Shoo away the pretentious-and-fading French food. Sweep in a new patio with firepits and a wide ...
The 40-Year Lunch
Local artists and art lovers make a lasting tradition of meeting at Fifi’s for lots of talk.
In the back corner of Fifi’s Bistro, aging artists gather over red wine and French bread. The weekly gathering, which they’ve named “Fifi’s Salon,” started in the late 1960s, but the individuals at the table ...
By The Numbers 8-02-12
Real Estate
$9,250,000 • Recent Sale 14 Spindrift Lane, Carmel Highlands Built: 2001 Size: 4,980 square feet Features: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 3-car garage, guest house Amenities: Ocean views, 3 fireplaces, elevator, library, gym, two refrigerators, indoor ...
Something Fishy
Seafood fraud disguises farmed salmon as wild, tilapia as snapper and sole as sand dabs. What’s on your plate – and how did it get there?
After scanning the menu at Rappa’s seafood restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey, Geoff Shester settles on sand dabs. Ashley Blacow goes with king salmon, and I opt for local Pacific cod. The waiter looks ...
