Thursday, January 26
Letters To The Editor 1.26.12
Off With Their Heads A common fallacy made by those who do not understand money is an argument based on equality. Money is not inherently equitable nor does it convey uniformity in quantity or status. ...
Techno Beat
New county I.T. director plans big advances, leaves behind controversial legacy.
With shades drawn, the 911 dispatch center in Salinas is a dimly lit room save for the glow of computer monitors mapping as many as 3,000 calls a day. With a $12 million upgrade to ...
Spearfishing Meditation
Local freedivers hunt both seafood and serenity.
Bryan Mabrey slides off the side of a red, 16-foot Tarpon kayak. He’s a half mile from shore, 24-inch plastic fins strapped to his feet. Armed with his favorite spear gun, he’s hoping an olive ...
Movement Moves On
Occupy Monterey leaves Veterans Park; Saturday meetings to continue.
It was a quiet exit, though organizers say Occupy Monterey is from over. At 5pm on Jan. 23, there were still a few tents set up at Veterans Memorial Park in Monterey. A solo police ...
Street Talk 01.26.12 (asked @ Peter B’s in Monterey.)
What is something you’re always on the hunt for?
Follow-up: Besides romance, when do you like to be hunted? JEFF BARETT | Teacher | Monterey A: Quiet time. In this hyper-connected, media-driven world there’s just not enough time to sit and be offline. Tools ...
Squid Speaks
DARWIN AWARD… Squid’s done some stupid things. Like stick both slimy tentacles on a frosty telephone pole. And go on that two-day nitrous binge (Phish Tour ‘98!). But Fort Ord Reuse Authority attorney Jerry Bowden ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 1.26.12
ONGOING LANGUAGE SKILLS | SEASIDE – Practice your English at these two-hour ESL classes through May 5. 6pm Tue and Thur; 3:30 and 6:15pm Wed; 10am Fri; 1pm Sat. Peace Resource Center, 1364 Fremont Blvd. ...
NAACP President Ben Jealous decries national addiction to incarceration over education.
MCWeekly: Who are some of your local heroes in the Civil Rights struggle? And why? Ben Jealous: It was a whole family of people active in the NAACP. They had faith in me, got me ...
A community waits to see where Salinas Valley Memorial money is going.
In April 2011, healthcare industry hired gun Lowell Johnson was brought in by the board of the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System to do a very specific job: Get the board out of the mess ...
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Local activists head to D.C. to push for Fort Ord National Monument.
With more than 60 public agencies and a dozen-plus citizens’ groups claiming a stake in the former Fort Ord, consensus on how to manage it is as rare as the black legless lizard. So the ...
Salinas landfills consider rate hikes; Calcagno threatens to pull service
Conservationists are familiar with the perverse economics that drive consumption: Water utilities make money selling more water, and landfills collect fees for dumping trash. Successful trash diversion efforts at Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority “have ...
Freeze Tag
Seaside stalls in the wake of redevelopment ruling.
One of Ray Corpuz’s final acts as Seaside city manager was to issue an immediate spending freeze, impacting all vacant full-time positions – except, apparently, his own. Corpuz, who was out of the office as ...
Strung Together
The Israeli Chamber Project believes music can rise above borders.
Clarinetist Tibi Cziger, founder and artistic director of the Israeli Chamber Project, says his touring ensemble is completely apolitical. But sometimes, the mere presence of his chamber group in certain areas makes politics unavoidable. “Recently, ...
Mighty Whispers
Transcendental Vision inspires ambiguity, contemplation and quiet.
There’s a certain kind of salesmanship, promoted by the city council and developers and residents, that pushes the concept of Sand City as an arts enclave. But Sand City is stubbornly Sand City, a place ...
Country Road
Five musicians of all different walks of life come together in the name of bluegrass.
“Bluegrass has brought more people together and made more friends than any music in the world,” bluegrass legend Bill Monroe said. “You meet people at festivals and renew acquaintances year after year.” Monroe’s words certainly ...
Brezsny's Astrology Jan 26-Feb 1, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The coming week is likely to be abnormally free of worries and frustrations. I’m afraid that means you’re not going to have as much right to complain as you usually do. ...
By The Numbers 1-26-12
Real Estate
$820,500 Recent Sale 629 Jewell Ave., Pacific Grove Built: 1920 Size: 1,500 square feet Features: 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Bay window with bay view, wood-burning fireplace, patio, fenced yard Seller: Michele Harrah ...
Magic Chance
Jaqui Hope parlays hitchhiking into standout live music.
About a year ago, Jaqui Hope hiked alone up into the mountains of Palo Colorado in Big Sur on what she calls a “vision quest.” For more than 30 hours, Hope meditated in the wilderness ...
The Beautiful Struggle
As the Monterey county branch of the NAACP enters its 80th year, the activists who helped build Seaside into a center of black power look back on the fight for equality.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday commemoration compels the nation to revisit the life and work of the civil rights leader, while Black History Month shines a light on major black figures of the past like ...
Albert Nobbs
Gender Benders: The quiet heroines of Albert Nobbs take a fine and sorrowful turn at playing the opposite sex.
There’s a priceless moment in this odd film wherein a bearded, bearish Brendan Gleeson, as an alcoholic physician, turns to his hotel’s servant, the titular Albert Nobbs, and utters the classic male complaint: “Women.” The ...
Going Fish
New Schooners Coastal Kitchen gives Monterey County what looks like a landmark seafood restaurant.
This weekend a big fish gets bigger. And fresher. Schooners Bistro on the Bay (372-2628) has long charmed visitors and locals alike with a combination of sturdy sustainable snacks, lively cocktails and on-top-of-the-ocean views of ...
The Grey
Lost in The Grey: Men battle their innermost demons while battling nature in the bleak Alaskan wilderness.
A strand of Moby Dick runs through director/co-writer Joe Carnahan’s wild and wooly tale of survival in the Alaskan wilderness. Like Moby Dick, this amorphous story is an anti-narrative made up of dark encounters with ...
Bacon Sprouts
Bringing out the best of Brussels sprouts and love for bacon vinaigrette.
Brussels sprouts with bacon is hardly a new idea, but the combination has taken off lately. The pair has become a menu meme, a darling of online recipe searches and food TV. Given the recent ...
Thursday, January 19
Against the Grain
A handful of heady restaurants give Monterey County hope – and flavor – without wheat.
Imagine your diet without cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch or pasta for dinner. Those with an allergy or intolerance to gluten, the primary protein in wheat and similar grains such as barley and rye, ...
Water-Supply Polo
Regional Project’s death breathes life into Peninsula mayors’ alternative.
The Regional Desalination Project has absorbed a series of blows since entering the ring in March 2010: public backlash, unmet financial obligations, conflict-of-interest charges, a lost court battle. On Jan. 17, California American Water finally ...
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Extremely Long, Incredibly Annoying: 9/11 serves as a cheap gimmick in this film take on Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel.
“As with anything,” Thomas tells his nine year-old son Oskar, “if you want to believe, you can find reasons to.” So true, and prophetic. For surely if you want to believe in Extremely Loud and ...
Asked at Lollapalooza in Monterey.
What creative things do you do to exercise your mind?
Follow-up: How do you define health? MARIA S. BECK | Receptionist | Monterey A: Through argument with people, my family, friends, etc. I try to introduce myself to new perspectives and challenges. Or I get ...
Squid Speaks
HOIST A GLASS… “He was a black sheep, a permanent pariah. He learned no lessons, he acknowledged no mistakes… He did what he wanted to do and he said what he wanted to say.” Quick ...
Musings on an uninsured friend, Natividad’s Anthem issue.
A good friend of mine has, for the past few months, suffered one of the worst chronic coughs I’ve ever heard. It started with a cold, and it’s never gone away or gotten better. But ...
Room Underrated
As Carmel innkeepers push renovation tax incentive, union insists on worker protection.
When 16 protesters sat down in Carmel’s Camino Real in October, waiting to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience, they hurt the feelings of former owner John Cope. He insists he made an ...
Swapping Sacramento for Salinas
Pacific Grove Mayor Carmelita Garcia retools her ambitions for higher office.
Hers was one of those candidacies everyone seemed to know about, but few could confirm – until Jan. 17, when Pacific Grove Mayor Carmelita Garcia announced she’s dropping out of the 29th Assembly District race ...
Solid Foundation
Nonprofit scandal nears resolution with a proposed new fund for AIDS patient housing.
It seemed almost unspeakable at the time. A Seaside-based nonprofit serving people with HIV/AIDS stood accused by the state Attorney General’s office of misspending $2.8 million from its general fund and an endowment for housing ...
Pipe Dreams
A screwball musician brings his unique passion to Pacific Grove.
Composer, studio player, theater musician, teacher, multi-instrumentalist and 2006 Bush Artist Fellow Dick Hensold has always marched to the beat of a different piper: When the self-proclaimed “music geek” was a teenager, he’d diligently study ...
Irish Spring
Celtic trio Molly’s Revenge helps celebrate the birthday of Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns.
In 2004 and 2005, Molly’s Revenge performed at the Shanghai International Music Festival in China. The acoustic Celtic trio’s performances were a smash. “The people of Shanghai received us with open arms and wild applause,” ...
Haywire
Secret Agent Meh: MMA star Gina Carano’s brawn meets director Steven Soderbergh’s brains – and it goes kind of Haywire.
We’ve seen this movie before. A helluva lot. Secret agent/gun for hire/covert badass gets burned. Who did it? The bad guys? The colleagues? The boss? Our Hero has to work hard and fast to pull ...
Letters to the Editor 01-19-12
Cause and Effect For 30 years, cities in California have used redevelopment agencies to appropriate the schools’ portion of tax local property taxes to themselves (“Supreme Court decision dooms redevelopment agencies, leaves cities reeling,” Jan. ...
Getting Fishy
Inspiring ways to turn the tide against destruction of our oceans.
Part of me thinks it’s kind of cool when I discover that, say, there’s a cheese out there worth $500 a pound – and it’s from Swedish moose cows. But when I learn that a ...
By the Numbers: 01-19-12
Real Estate
$2,150,000 Recent Sale 2705 14th Ave., Carmel Built: 1990 Size: 2,497 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: 3 fireplaces, central air conditioning, patio, deck, landscaped yard, wine cellar, vaulted ceilings, ocean ...
Brezsny's Astrology Jan. 19-25, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Macy’s ad I saw in the newspaper had a blaring headline: “Find Your Magic 2.0.” The items that were being touted to help us discover our upgraded and more deluxe ...
Artful Dodgers
Seven of Monterey County’s greatest artistic minds will be honored at the seventh annual Champions of the Arts.
It’s not the kind of thing you expect to hear from a film professor. “Film is one of those industries where if you’re good at what you do, it doesn’t matter what kind of degree ...
The City Pool Wisdom
The guy in the next lane knows a lot about a lot, including nutrition, and lives to share it.
When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) went before Congress, Seaside’s Rick Lagerstrom read the whole thing. He powered through all 906 pages despite the fact he’s not in government (though he ...
Gray Hair Hip Hop
A Pacific Grove woman earns national TV appearance with surprisingly lively dance.
Silver-haired Pagrovian Carol Kuzdenyi wasn’t supposed to earn the big audiences by dancing hip-hop on YouTube. She’s a master out of the San Francisco Conservatory, a choir director and piano and voice teacher based in ...
The Kelp Conditioning
Open-water swimming off Pacific Grove’s coast nets a dozen understandings.
When all you see – and smell – of kelp are decaying strands on the beach, the notion of a vibrant undersea forest is more mystery than majesty. But swimming along and below the water’s ...
The Extreme Relaxation
CVAC’s cutting-edge hydrothermal experience aims to soothe Monterey County with intense temperatures.
First comes the choice, then the moment of truth. The choice arrives after 25 minutes sweating in a massive Finnish sauna. It’s between cold-plunge pools: one chilled to approximate the Pacific Ocean (marked with a ...
The Mermaid Treatment
Aqua Wellness Day Spa brings a new element to pampering.
Eyes shut, I can’t see the meditating gold frog perched beside the pool. But I can hear my own heart, and the water flowing past my ears, and a low hum from the chest of ...
Thursday, January 12
A rundown of Monterey County's best options for de-hoarding.
MONTEREY NPS Foundation Thrift Shop Corner of Moran Circle and Leahy Drive, Monterey, open from 375-0886 Store Hrs: Monday & Thursday 10am -1pm; donation drop box. Most wanted: kitchen, bed and bath, children’s items. Proceeds ...
The entertainment industry has failed to explain why the U.S. economy collapsed.
As protesters continue to provoke fresh real-life confrontations with our financial oligarchy, the American culture industry has followed its own instinctive path, forging heroic narratives about the nation’s financial woes that gravitate into a Neverland ...
A Running Start
Three Supes up for re-election face early competition, negative campaigns.
Byrl Smith has kicked off the year by walking the streets of Seaside, Marina and South Salinas for up to five hours a day and knocking on doors. As the widow of former County Supervisor ...
The Invisible Michelangelo
Dong Sun Kim’s murals quietly capture the beauty of his adopted country.
Dong Sun Kim is a stealth artist. As he guides his brush around a pencil outline of a woman posing against a spectacular, wall-spanning Monterey Bay vista, he reveals that he’s making this work of ...
Brezsny's Astrology Jan 12-18, 2012
Brezsny's Astrology Jan 12-18, 2012
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Sanskrit word tapasya is translated as “heat,” but in the yogic tradition it means “essential energy.” It refers to the practice of managing your life force so that it can ...
By The Numbers 1-12-12
Real Estate
$730,000 Recent Sale 1110 Seaview Ave., Pacific Grove Built: 1938 Size: 3,178 square feet Features: 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3-car garage Amenities: 2 fireplaces, wood flooring, fenced yard, deck with barbecue area Seller: Bank of ...
Communication Nation
From niche musings on sandwiches to holistic, holy views of Big Sur, here are some top online voices of the Central Coast.
Weblogs (or, in the vernacular, blogs), launched in the ’90s with a small and dedicated band of geeks, and they’ve never really fallen out of fashion. They’re the modern version of water-cooler chat. Hell, they’re ...
Yeah, Dog
Domingo “Dingo” Rivera leads the people to the party – and tubes of Doggie Stylez meat.
Marina resident Domingo Rivera does some things. He helps host KDON’s Morning Madhouse and helps host VIPs at top-spots like Surrender and Encore Beach in Las Vegas. He started working at Marinus by 22 and ...
Sushi Moto
New, mini Sushi Moto revs up large sound and big selection of creative rolls.
Upon entering new Sushi Moto near the Golden State Theatre in downtown Monterey, the first thing I noticed was the extremely loud techno music. Intermingled with some Lady Gaga, it laid out a much different ...
Letters To The Editor 1.12.12
Occupying Thoughts A few comments (“Occupy Monterey looks forward to an uncertain future,” Jan. 5-Jan. 11). 1) Thanks for the timely story. 2) There are no fees, the city agreed to waive the fees as ...
Two Pack
Singer-songwriters of two different generations provide solid options for Saturday night.
A few years ago, the 1970 Louie and the Lovers vinyl Rise sold on eBay for around $80. It was the only copy available on the mega online auction site. The Salinas-based outfit behind it, ...
Dub’s Steps
WC brings a storied hip-hop career to the Planet.
His name is William Calhoun, but you can call him Dub. That’s shortened down from initials “WC,” amended to “Dub C,” then clipped to just “Dub.” The South Central-L.A. resident is one of the original ...
A public process for an invite-only crowd.
Stakeholder: [steyk-hohl-der] A person or group that has an investment, share, or interest in something, as a business or industry. You know, most days I feel pretty damn invested in Monterey County. I live in ...
Squid Fry 1.12.12
THE DAY THE MUSIC… Squid thinks she did the seemingly impossible, borrowing a page from Footloose: Moving into a hamlet virtually bereft of consistent live music and not only establishing a steady venue for waves ...
Street Talk 09.22.11 (asked @ Toro Place Cafe in Salinas.)
What would you put on your own giant cut-out?
Follow-up: Where would you put it? LISA GONZALES | Waitress | Salinas A: A ’67 Camaro. It’s my favorite car. Keepin’ It Classic: I’d put it off 101, right by the mall exit to remind ...
Hoarders’ Rehab
Winter is prime season for de-cluttering.
Aromas-based professional organizer Christy Best has seen hoarding at its worst. She recalls one client in Monterey who slept under her kitchen table because it was the only clear space in the house. That’s a ...
Empty Lots
Supreme Court decision dooms redevelopment agencies, leaves cities reeling.
Marina’s share of the former Fort Ord offers unparalleled views of long-delayed development. There’s Marina Heights, the 248-acre swath slated for over 1,000 homes, which was approved in March 2004 but remains undeveloped. There’s the ...
Contraband
Smuggler’s Blues: Contraband has Mark Wahlberg playing family man as he’s dragged back in to a life of crime.
Have you ever had the experience where one small thing takes you out of an otherwise decent movie? Contraband is an average action pic with plausible twists and a fun story. But the villain, played ...
Shear Reception
British native and longtime local musician Martin Shears encourages people to use cell phones during his shows.
Recently singer-songwriter Martin Shears developed an online request form with Ike Marr, the other member of his acoustic duo, Ike and Martin, who perform regularly in the Lake Tahoe area. This is how it works: ...
Carnage
Parlor Bullies: In Carnage, helicopter parents learn painful lessons about playground peace.
A common complaint lodged against films adapted from plays is that they never unloose from the staginess of their origins. But in Carnage, adapted by Yasmina Reza and director Roman Polanski from Reza’s hit play ...
Thursday, January 5
Eyes Have It - Pt.2
More of the interview with Face of Islam photographer Jean Brenner.
You started out as a painter. When did you start showing your photographs? I started in 1993, when I had my first show. I [had done] a lot of landscape paintings, based on things I ...
I Melt With You
Starring Big Sur: The director of the new indie film I Melt With You talks about shooting in Monterey County.
Even though Rob Lowe, Jeremy Piven and Thomas Jane star in I Melt With You, director Mark Pellington believes that the film might not have gotten a theatrical release if it hadn’t been set in ...
Making Goals
Seaside’s Cutino Park gets a water-wise makeover.
Grass is so 2011. The new trend at city parks is a low-maintenance native landscape. Seaside’s David Cutino Park, a multi-use ball field on Noche Buena Street and San Pablo Avenue, recently made the upgrade ...
LOCAL SPIN: Frankenfood Fight
Initiative on GMO labeling could change how we eat.
Food Inc.’s stranglehold over the nation’s food and farming system is about to be challenged in a food fight that will largely determine the future of American agriculture. A coalition representing a broad and unprecedented ...
Very Fast Gas Relief
Local pioneer of aerodynamic motorcycles aims to ride without foreign oil.
Like a lot of people, 69-year-old Craig Vetter begins his days at a local coffee shop just down the road from his house in Carmel Valley. It’s how he gets there that’s different. He drives ...
What’s Cookin’
A stirring look at eight things bubbling up in the broth for 2012
There will be Prohibition-style tastings. There will star chefs who obey and those who rebel. There will be fines, loopholes, a drop in consumption and an equal surge in confusion. Or so says Michael Ginor ...
Pick Your Poison
State figures on pesticide use show increasing reliance on methyl bromide alternatives.
It was a good year for strawberries in Monterey County, and also for the pesticides that make them a nearly $1 billion crop. The quantity of pesticides applied locally to all crops rose to nearly ...
By The Numbers 1-5-12
Real Estate
$405,000 Recent Sale 703 Ocean Ave., Monterey Built: 1926 Size: 2,013 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms Amenities: Fireplace, wood floors, fenced yard, refrigerator and dishwasher included Seller: Marilyn Buck, Matthew Lemarque and Deanne ...
Public Citizen 01-05-12
ONGOING P.G. PLANNING | PACIFIC GROVE – City staff host community meetings to discuss P.G.’s fiscal outlook and service challenges. 6pm Mon Jan. 9, Monterey Bay Charter School, 1004-B David Ave.; 6pm Tues Jan. 10, ...
Eyes Have It
Face of Islam closes human and geographic gaps at Pacific Grove Art Center.
Jean Brenner has traveled across Muslim countries for nearly 20 years, each time bringing back pieces of each country, culture and people she’s encountered, both in stories and in the photographs she’s taken since 1993. ...
Doomsdaze of 2012
Mayan theories and astronomy conspiracies abound, making the upcoming year – if it lasts – one for the paranoid records.
By now, the holiday detritus has mostly been put or tossed away, the menorah placed on the shelf, the dying Christmas tree out on the curb or the aluminum Festivus pole back in the garage. ...
Caffe Trieste
Cool Beans: Espresso pioneers of the West Coast Caffe Trieste bring good java, Italian cuisine and lasting legacy to Monterey.
Ever since Caffe Trieste first opened its doors in 1956 in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, it’s been a Mecca for artists, writers and freethinkers to congregate. In a swirl of caffeine and hot, frothy ...
Letters To The Editor 1.5.12
Born to Run Good to know that Jason Burnett will run. Now who can we get to bump Dave Potter from the Board of Supervisors? (“Squid Fry,” Dec. 29-Jan. 4). Any real progressives out there ...
Postmod Piano
Armed with an unusual instrument, Eliza Rickman conjures up a one-of-a-kind sound.
After Eliza Rickman graduated from college, she started gigging around Los Angeles. The petite, porcelain-skinned girl – an army brat born in Okinawa, Japan – was tasked with the constant challenge of hauling her enormous ...
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Following his breakthrough movie, 2008’s Let the Right One In, Swedish director Tomas Alfredson returns with his first film in English, the sprawling spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which opens this Friday at Century ...
Bargain Beats
The first ever Acoustic/Electric Festival at Fernwood offers a monster amount of music that won’t break the bank.
Back on Oct. 4, Keigan Skydecker held the 12th and final installment of his widely popular and mostly free Acoustic/Electric Concert Series, which showcased everyone from sci-fi psych rockers Howlin’ Rain and metal guitarist Scott ...
Gimme Shelter
Occupy Monterey looks forward to an uncertain future.
The 20 or so tents clustered in Monterey’s Veteran’s Park look worse for wear Dec. 29 after nearly two months of continuous use. Their occupants, a mix of the older homeless population and younger (but ...
Street Talk 01-05-12 asked at Pilgrim’s Way Bookstore in Carmel.
What is the best evidence that the world is ending?
Follow-up: What three things would you bring if you survived? PAUL FRIDLUND | Bookstore Owner | Carmel Valley A: The insanity of the people in Washington. They are not serving the people anymore. There is ...
Pacific Grove’s ambitious tree plan makes its long-awaited debut.
The city of Pacific Grove is hoping to put a long battle over its tree policy to rest with a new Urban Forest Management Plan. But the 178-page draft, released in mid-December, might raise as ...
The federal prison system includes units where inmates can be rarely seen or heard.
When the Abu-Baker family arrived to visit their father, Shukri Abu-Baker, at the secretive federal prison known as a Communications Management Unit (CMU) in Indiana this past fall, they were forced to sit in silence ...
Squid Fry: 01-05-12
Squid Speaks
PLEASE, NO MOORE… Squid had a classmate in high school who flicked wads of paper at Squid’s head in math class. Squid ignored him for most of the school year and then, one foggy morning, ...
Runoff Standoff
City of Salinas fights stricter (and more expensive) urban stormwater rules.
Forty volunteers woke up in the middle of the night in early October during the first heavy rain of the year, collecting water samples from 20 points where stormwater carries everything in its path directly ...
