Thursday, May 31
Pay to Play
Enviro, business PACs throw big dollars at county supervisor races.
When yard signs spring up like mushrooms, it signals the season of big campaign spending. The cost of those signs, and the glossy brochures stuffing mailboxes countywide: $1.1 million. That’s what the eight candidates for ...
A River Tamed
The Carmel River is a wisp of its former self, but hope is around the bend.
After giving several talks on his new book, Ray March is irritated with the inevitable audience question about solutions. “I’m the messenger,” he says. “I don’t have the answers.” The pathetic state of the Carmel ...
Land Gamble
The Esselen Nation makes an encore bid for a piece of Fort Ord.
Louise Ramirez stands on the side of Reservation Road in Marina and points through a chain-link fence, past beeping construction machinery, at a green ridge in the distance. “That’s what they promised us, that 45 ...
Street Talk 01.26.12 (Asked @ Carmel River Beach.)
Street Talk 01.26.12 (Asked @ Carmel River Beach.)
Follow-up: Your favorite beach, river or body of water? TIMON SLOAM | Artist | Los Altos A: It’s one of my favorite places to paint because it gets beautiful evening light and good protection from ...
Squid Fry 5.31.12
Squid Speaks
IN THE FLOW… After an exhausting trip to the calamari debacle on the wharf (see second item), Squid oozed back to the lair and hunkered down with a bowl of shrimp-flavored popcorn and a 38-page ...
Microenterprise abounds, and Jill Allen wants to harness it.
It’s Friday afternoon, and that means it’s payout day for the artists of the @risK Gallery on Salinas’ Soledad Street. Those artists who have sold pieces in the past week come in at the pre-appointed ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 5.31.12
SATURDAY 6 | 2 NEIGHBORS BESIDE NEIGHBORS | CARMEL VALLEY – Sara Sturtevant, director of the Mandell Gisnet Center for Conflict Management at Monterey College of Law, presents on the Neighbor Project and resources available ...
A farm-worker-turned-farm-owner urges a phase-out of all fumigants.
California’s strawberry farmers are about to get the help we need to make our farms both “greener” and safer, with new farming techniques. State officials recently announced an exciting new effort to help farmers transition ...
Surf’s Up
Venture airline attempts Netflix-style travel subscriptions out of Monterey.
No planes, no FAA approval? Apparently no problem for Surf Air, a would-be luxury airline with a business model modeled after Netflix. The company doesn’t actually own or operate an aircraft yet. It’s still waiting ...
Punched Out
Youth boxing program continues in wake of molestation arrest of veteran coach.
The teen alleging Salinas boxing coach Daniel Lujan molested her has heard from a few skeptics, but police say that’s typical in these cases. “We have had at least one call vouching for his character, ...
Killer Clown
Henry Phillips’ blend of comedy and music earns a rising cult following.
Typical Henry Phillips tunes start saturated in ’70s-era, James Taylor folk. “She never was abused when she was younger,” he sings with Neil Diamond tenderness. Then, when you least expect it, Phillips employs a mild-mannered ...
Smart Travels
Hard traveling provides an endless source of inspiration for singer-songwriter Jordan Smart.
The other day, a woman approached singer-songwriter Jordan Smart while he was playing his guitar at Lovers Point. It was the fifth anniversary of her husband’s death and she was spreading his ashes in the ...
Making Noise
Wasted Noise’s debut album arrives with a release party at Casa Sorrento in Salinas.
Reggae-rocking local favorite Wasted Noise is readying to release its first full-length album on Friday at Casa Sorrento. The popular Salinas band has been together since 2005 but when they’ve inched close to dropping an ...
Headhunters
Head Game: Norway’s Headhunters conjures the intensity of the Coen brothers without the payoff.
“You don’t need a Ph.D. to realize I overcompensate for my height,” smirks Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie). A short, po-faced corporate headhunter, he works overtime trying to keep his Nordic goddess of a wife (Synnøve ...
Snow White and the Huntsman
Snow What: Latest iteration of fairy tale irritates and bores, just like Kristen Stewart.
We’re seeing a lot of Snow White lately – see also: Mirror, Mirror – and I’ve been trying to figure out why. It’s probably down to the backlash against women daring to demand agency over ...
Letters To The Editor 5.31.12
Strings Attached I am again saddened by the folks who are seemingly puppeteering Byrl Smith (“Bad advice drives Byrl Smith’s campaign to cynical places,” May 24-30). There were two separate opinion pieces today: a letter ...
The Mexican Eats
Weekly contributor Gustavo Arellano’s smart new book Taco USA defines Mexican-American grub.
Gustavo Arellano writes “Ask a Mexican,” a controversial weekly Q&A in which he answers, with pointed humor, various questions about Mexicans. (The syndicated piece has been discontinued in the Weekly’s opinion section in print but ...
Time to Eat
If Carmel’s current, major food moves take you into a time warp, you’re not alone.
I keep waiting for Marty McFly to blow past me on Carmel’s Ocean Avenue in his DeLorean, or for Bill and Ted’s excellent phonebooth to come crashing into the Bernardus lavender gardens. “Who knows?” I ...
By The Numbers 5-31-12
Real Estate
$1,000,000 Recent Sale 10 Via Paraiso, Monterey Built: 1930 Size: 1,800 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, patio, fenced yard, workshop, hardwood floors, koi pond Seller: Joseph and Linda Byrd ...
Brezsny's Astrology May 31-June 6, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Let’s waltz the rumba,” said jazz musician Fats Waller, suggesting the seemingly impossible mix of two very different types of dancing. That’s an excellent clue for you to follow up on, ...
Cold Precision
Jack Storms’ very uncommon glass art stars in a big show at Jim Miller Gallery in Carmel.
As one of just three standout “cold glass” craftsmen in the country, Jack Storms is already a rare enough artist. (Most glass is super-heated and blown into shape, or cast in sand.) But he’s the ...
Crafting Creativity
Small artisan-supporting Etsy works to launch local craftspeople toward profitability.
The names are the same. So is the retail platform: Etsy. And the result: success. Monterey County residents Sarah Burns, Sarah Cerney and Sarah Lapp each use Etsy, an increasingly popular online hub that supports ...
Thursday, May 24
Brezsny's Astrology May 24-30, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “My soul is a fire that suffers if it doesn’t burn,” said Jean Prevost, a writer and hero of the French Resistance during World War II. “I need three or four ...
Gilbert’s Kids
The story of Popular Salinas High counselor Gilbert Olivares was already a stunning one. Now, new investigative discoveries deepen the drama – and the disbelief.
This wasn’t normal. The boy usually guarded his iPod touch closely, never leaving it laying around, never letting his mother or sister look at it. But it was there, sitting out. Her brother had been ...
Deepening Roots
The third annual, two-day California Roots Music & Arts Festival brings its biggest names yet to the Fairgrounds.
Three years ago, when the Weekly spoke with Jeff Monser prior to his inaugural California Roots Music & Arts Festival at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, he didn’t really know what to expect of his one-day ...
Chowder Heading
Chris Shake, Calamari Fest and Cooking for Solutions take a savvy and savory tact: smart seafood.
Audio clip Cooking for Solutions: Michel Nischan's Acceptance Speech if (AudioPlayer.check()) { AudioPlayer.init('audio_player_8', 'http://mcweekly.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/', 'inline'); } else { document.write('Download audio clip') } Download audio clip Chris Shake can’t imagine life without calamari and clam chowder. ...
Street Talk 01.26.12 (asked @ Old Monterey Marketplace.)
What was your initial reaction to the Salinas High scandal?
Follow-up: How do you feel about the coverage it’s getting? BAILEY JONES | Cashier | Salinas A: I graduated from Salinas High last year – I didn’t believe it at first because he worked with ...
il calamaro parla
FIT-FOR-FAT… Squid’s all for transparency in government, but when it comes to elections, some personal things are best kept private. Wouldn’t we be better off not knowing the details of John Edwards and Rielle Hunter ...
Bad advice drives Byrl Smith’s campaign to cynical places.
On Monday morning, Rick Taylor, the Los Angeles-based operative managing Byrl Smith’s campaign in the 4th District County Supervisor’s race, called to say he understood Smith – whom the Weekly categorically did not endorse – ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 5.24.12
ONGOING REVISING FORT ORD | VARIOUS LOCATIONS – Fort Ord Reuse Authority is reassessing the 1997 Base Reuse Plan, and the public is invited to participate. 6:30-9pm Tues. May 29, Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola ...
Why does mainstream media claim the U.S. protects human rights?
Try as they may to make the news as boring as possible, U.S. media outlets keep churning out hilarious “news” stories. Hardly a day passes without the release of some piece whose content is so ...
On the Rise
Nonprofit helps pull women and kids out of Third-World poverty with home-based sales.
Call them Tupperware-style parties with a charitable bent, or Avon-flavored sales with a goal of helping women in developing countries. Rising International, which bills itself as the only nonprofit to target the direct-sales market, is ...
Downtown Up
Monterey nightlife may be safer, but bar owners struggle with early closing times.
Come July, nightlife fans can experience Monterey as it was in 1930. Jason Coniglio is using his local family history to re-open his grandfather’s bar – My Attic – inside the adobe at 414 Alvarado, ...
Police Log Ride
A review of Seaside’s police reports from 2012 charts part of a community’s character.
The city of Seaside keeps a journal, and it’s called “The Monday Report.” The extended memo from the city manager to the mayor and City Council includes everything from local house-sale trends to updates on ...
Painful Cuts
Healthcare advocates call governor’s budget revision a “body blow.”
It was bad enough when California was looking at a $9.2 billion budget deficit. But a recent update upped that estimate to almost $15.7 billion, and now Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing even deeper cuts. ...
A City Divided
Three Greenfield City Council members face recalls in fallout from police merger.
Stroll down Greenfield’s El Camino Real, and you might mistake the main drag for a quiet Mexican downtown. It’s not just the Spanish-language signage, but cultural cues – men leaning against walls with lowered hats ...
Underground Epic
Live from the BASSment’s open mic sessions ignite enthusiasm in the local music scene.
In a dimly lit, low-ceilinged space below hip gastropub Cannery Row Brewing Company, an expertly executed cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” takes a wonderfully unexpected turn into The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm.” Following ...
A Dog of a Story: Darling Companion takes the boring travails of rich people to the dullest of lows.
Dogs and spouses: Both make fine companions until they misbehave or run away. Lawrence Kasdan, the filmmaker who so well encapsulated generational preoccupations in The Big Chill and Grand Canyon, tries to do the same ...
Men In Black III
Back in Black: Men in Black III offers a funny and fun look at aliens among us, and the cops who love them.
That old canard is right: comedy is not easy. Science fiction comedy is even less easy. Which is why there are so few examples merely of attempts, and, of course, far fewer actual successes. In ...
Letters To The Editor 5.24.12
Strange Bedfellows My Republican absentee ballot just arrived in the mail. When confronted with an intellectual challenge, you begin your search for an answer. Maybe IBM’s Watson supercomputer can help. Well, lucky me, the Monterey ...
Double Feature
A new Share a Movie with MoM plus the classic Films in the Forest spool superb films.
Two local film series launch within days of each other, and though they seem like similar animals, they have different stripes. Armed with a new projector and stereo sound in their 90-seat theater, the Museum ...
Yaki Maki
Plus-Size Sushi: Yaki Maki provides Marina with large-scale Japanese fare.
The prospect of going to a strip mall that has a tire store in it to eat sushi seems, at first thought, like a bad idea. Yaki Maki, Marina’s three-month-old sushi restaurant, has moved into ...
Under Water
Former vice principal Raul Ramirez gets strong backing despite sex case conviction.
Jane Doe did everything she could to keep her relationship with former El Sausal Middle School and Alisal High School Vice Principal Raul Ramirez a secret. When the cops started asking questions, Ramirez told her ...
Scout’s Honor
Disputed paternity test for former Salinas PD youth adviser led to reduced charges.
When Jane Doe’s baby bump started showing, the hallway rumors about her secret relationship starting growing too. Scott Callan, a former adviser in the Salinas Police Department’s Explorer Program, admitted to having sex with the ...
By The Numbers 5-24-12
Real Estate
$1,200,000 Recent Sale 534 Crocker Ave., Pacific Grove Built: 1961 Size: 3,092 square feet Features: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: 2 fireplaces, deck, fenced yard, tub with jets, vaulted ceilings, guest quarters Seller: ...
Thursday, May 17
Letters To The Editor 5.17.12
Instituting Change The “blame the victim” stance Wheeler takes re: Jim is nauseating; I was there, I know what Jim experienced, that the people in power there abandoned him when he needed real support and ...
Dear Chefs: Save Us.
Dear Chefs: Save Us.
Food stamps. Lawsuits. Stage plays. These are not the typical kitchen tools. Then again, the chefs deploying those devices aren’t your typical tastemakers. They are some of the best and most progressive chefs in the ...
A Thin Line
America the Beautiful 2 and a new eating disorder center reveal how we slip into dieting dilemmas.
Last weekend, The Avengers raked in $100 million from 4,349 movie screens, for a total two-week gross of more than $373 million. Its budget: $220 million. Big numbers. But big deal. Last Friday evening, Monterey ...
Homeless, Harmonious
Shelter Outreach Plus and San Jose Symphonic Choir collaborate on a concert in Monterey to benefit outreach.
There are plenty of obstacles Shelter Outreach Plus confronts as one of the oldest homeless services providers on the Monterey Peninsula – hunger, fear, stigmatization, stereotyping and insensitivity among them. So it shouldn’t be a ...
Brezsny's Astrology May 17-23, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Is there a difference in sound quality between relatively inexpensive modern violins and the multi-million-dollar violins created by master craftsmen in the 1700s? In research done at the Eighth International Violin ...
By The Numbers 5-17-12
Real Estate
$545,000 Recent Sale 668 Pine St., Monterey Built: 1956 Size: 1,080 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, 1-car garage Amenities: Ocean view, hardwood floors, patio, full basement Seller: Nancy Napoli Buyer: Noris Orsi Broker: ...
Spicy Thoughts
Lokal plates buzz-worthy grub worth waiting around for, plus so much more.
You never see it on menus, but you feel it when you look at the right ones. You can’t buy it at the flyest farmers markets, but it’s an ingredient in all the best dishes. ...
Vote Sanchez, Parker and Potter
With District 5 the most contentious, the Weekly announces its endorsements.
District 1 County Supervisor Sergio Sanchez District 1 pits veteran supe Fernando Armenta against two veteran Salinas City Councilmen, Sergio Sanchez and Tony Barrera. While other supervisors’ races may seem more fractious on the outside ...
Ale Tales
Carmel Valley ‘Beer Geek’ publishes Teachings From the Tap: Life Lessons From Our Year in Beer.
The Geeks had it good. Carmel Valley’s Merideth Canham-Nelson and Chris Nelson had mastered the complicated equation of finances, travel tables, buzz management and day jobs – as a clinical social worker and beer-tender/web designer, ...
The Dwight Stuff
Shane Dwight leads a crop of musical entertainment at the Castroville Artichoke Festival.
Sometimes agony breeds brilliance. Seasoned bluesman Shane Dwight – performing with his band at the Artichoke Festival on Saturday at 3:30pm – recently delivered his most poignant and lyrically-driven album in the wake of a ...
Turning Paige
The Dani Paige Band hopes Grateful Dead vibes direct their new album toward mainstream success.
A lawyer can be a band’s best friend, especially if they used to represent the Grateful Dead. Last February, the Dani Paige Band’s entertainment council scored an opportunity for the outfit to shoot a video ...
Revving the Engine
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Terry Sylvester highlights this year’s Rock & Rod Festival.
Terry Sylvester’s 2010 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Hollies isn’t one of his fondest memories. “I enjoyed it but it was kind of ruined for me by Mr. Graham ...
Armchair Politics
Three Salinas electeds joust for supervisor seat, one from a living-room campaign HQ.
County Supervisor Fernando Armenta makes no bones about his dislike for Salinas City Councilman Sergio Sanchez. Before Sanchez entered the District 1 race against Armenta, he helped get the three-term incumbent elected. But reflecting last ...
Brick by Brick
Local groups bring Mexican-style public square to Salinas’ Closter Park.
One of the most notorious East Salinas neighborhoods is getting a makeover, courtesy of a diverse group of Rotarians bent on making its park a safer gathering place. Five Salinas Rotary Clubs are pairing with ...
Jumping the Gun
Salinas to test tech that points cops to crime scenes – before crimes are committed.
If police could predict the aftershocks of a shooting – where and when retaliatory bullets would fly – they could arrive on the scene in advance, in hopes of intercepting a crime instead of chalking ...
Updated list of public-employee salaries reveals some fat local paychecks.
Curious how much taxpayer money your local public servant is pulling in? The answer’s as close as a few clicks. State Controller John Chiang has updated the online list of public-employee salaries and benefits in ...
Two Words: Plastic Bags
Carmel Planning Commission says boo to a ban, but Mayor Burnett isn’t dropping it.
A quotable scene in The Graduate includes the advice, “There’s a great future in plastics.” But that was 1967. Forty-five years later the material is ubiquitous, and activists are working to conscript it to history. ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 5.17.12
THURSDAY 5 | 17 PROTECTING PROPERTY | CARMEL – Realtor Heather Gass speaks on reducing land-use controls and municipal advisory councils. Sponsored by the G16 Coalition (formerly Carmel-Carmel Valley Coalition). Noon lunch, 12:30pm program. Quail ...
Squid Speaks
BAG-ASSWARD… The Carmel Planning Commission’s hearing on a proposed plastic bag ban got scrappy May 9, when environmentalists supporting the ban were evenly matched by business owners opposing it. Some of the naysayers had the ...
Street Talk 01.26.12 (asked near El Palomar in Monterey.)
What have you tried to cut out of your diet?
JAMES REAL | Cashier | Manchester, England A: Food in general. Sometimes I just feel fat. Men can be anorexic too, you know. I usually can last four days before I cave in and have ...
Battleship
Bored Game: Despite its classic board game inspiration, Battleship founders.
It’s pathetic enough that Battleship is pretty much the dullest alien invasion movie ever, featuring an uninteresting incursion by nondescript aliens doing boring things and not even blowing shit up in exciting new ways. But ...
Thursday, May 10
In Bloom
Gardens & Villa stops at CSU Monterey Bay on their way to the top.
Over the past couple months Santa Barbara’s Gardens & Villa have been getting their first tastes of large-scale success. “All of the sudden we’ve been playing for huge crowds in huge spaces,” says bassist Shane ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 5.10.12
ONGOING | VOTER ED | COUNTYWIDE – Future and eligible voters ages 12-22 are invited to enter the county Elections Department’s poster contest. Entries should reflect the value of civic participation and address the theme ...
The Long View
The 30th Wildflower Triathlon defines endurance, inspiration and effort.
“Long” is an elastic term. Case in point: Seventy-plus miles of swimming, biking and running – covering about the distance between Monterey and San Jose – is not long for some, since it’s the kiddie ...
The Buddy System
Developer claims Salinas mayor tried to swing massive redevelopment project to friends in high places
First the real estate deal fell apart, and then so did the legal mediation that followed in its wake. As Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue enters his final months in office, he faces a legal battle ...
A Capitol Idea
Five contenders for two Assembly seats prepare to face off in an open primary.
When Bob Fultz talks about government getting out of the way of the private sector, he sounds like a classic small-government backer. He’s hoping his campaign catchphrase – the D next to his name is ...
Dissed Utopia
Esalen Institute’s ‘global community’ protests manager layoffs.
Daniel Cryns’ 58th birthday was a rough one – and not just because April 18 was his first day back to work after his brother’s memorial service. During Cryn’s morning check-in with his staff at ...
Encore Act
Enviros, conservatives back ’80s supervisor Marc Del Piero for a return to the board.
An unusual lineup backs water rights attorney and federal bankruptcy trustee Marc Del Piero for county supervisor, including LandWatch board members, the Green Party of Monterey County, Young Professional Republicans of the Central Coast and ...
Super Sonic
The White Hills bring heavy doses of guitar-driven space rock to Seaside.
The thunderous roar of the White Hills’ hurts-so-good decibel level will be unleashed upon the diorama-sized Alternative Café on Saturday. Seaside’s eardrums may never be the same. But the New York City-based duo – usually ...
Endless Notes
A hard-working man’s bushel of instruments keeps his performance fresh.
“I started fooling around with the concept of a one-man band with a lot of different instruments,” Al Frisby says. “I wanted to do something that was different from the lounge guitar act or jazz ...
It Otter Be in Pictures
Otter 501 gets a new release, in a waterway and a theater near you.
Alone and stranded by a storm, a three-day-old sea otter doesn’t stand a chance by itself. The film Otter 501 tells the heart-warming story of how this pup is rescued and the many challenges it ...
Letters To The Editor 5.10.12
Artichokin’ I’d like to go on record as stating that I have never used an artichoke as a marital aid, and what’s more, my husband hasn’t had to “resign” himself to my cooking, he quite ...
Chain Reaction
Braving three on-fire Salinas franchise restaurants that opened in the last month and a half.
Part of it is the 5-foot-4-inch pink pig mascot hamming it up in the entryway at Famous Dave’s. Part of it is the wait for a table at BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse: Even though the ...
Mother Lode
What and where to eat to best honor the best mamas in Monterey County.
I am not this way because the first thing that ever happened to me – after I was born, unbreathing – was a fat slap on my spanker. I am not this way because I ...
Real Estate
$339,000 Recent Sale 1277 Harcourt Ave., Seaside Built: 1979 Size: 1,686 square feet Features: 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms Amenities: Duplex with two units, ocean views from all rooms, new carpet and paint Seller: Flores Brothers ...
Brezsny's Astrology May 10-16, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In one of your past lives, I think you must have periodically done something like stick your tongue out or thumb your nose at pretentious tyrants – and gotten away with ...
Wrestling Tongues
After a long hiatus, the annual DLI Language Day is again open to the public.
A great golden dragon bobs and weaves before an awestruck crowd. The beat of Chinese drums keeps the time of the graceful dance. Costumed people with poles glide beneath the satin dragon skin, moving in ...
Sex and the Senior Set – 5
Foster the People: Grandparent program connects seniors to struggling kids, and everyone benefits.
Over the last six years, 69-year-old Richard Rangel has had 24 grandkids. “This is the most rewarding thing in my life,” he says. “I’m so proud.” He isn’t referring to the biological process by which ...
The Senior Con: With age comes those who try to take financial advantage of it.
Senior citizens – even those who believed they were financially prepared for retirement – have been among the hardest hit in the economic downturn. And the financial stressors that Monterey County seniors face are what ...
Sexuality in Senior Homes
There’s nothing golden about living in lockdown, feeling like a criminal while trying to steal some sexy time with your sweetie – or yourself. And yet for some seniors in assisted living facilities or residential ...
Sex and the Senior Set - 2
Dirty, Boozy Birds: When it comes to sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, your parents – not your kids – may be the more likely culprits.
A February study published in the Student British Medical Journal is only the latest in a string of reports to find sexually transmitted disease rates increasing dramatically among seniors. Some 80 percent of British, Canadian ...
Sex and the Senior Set - 1
How physical lovin’ changes when you reach 60 and beyond.
The month of May is designated nationally as Older Americans Month. In recognition, the Weekly has partnered with the Monterey County Area Agency on Aging to publish the 2012 Best of Monterey Bay® Senior Resource ...
After last week, it shouldn’t be a Capital One card.
This is what a bloodbath looks like. One day after Capital One officially took ownership of the credit card business of Asia-based HSBC, one of the largest non-government employers in Monterey County, Capital One announced ...
Hable, Calamar
INTO THE LIGHT… Squid was floating in the deep, meditating where it’s too dark to see much of anything. So Squid was surprised when a tentacle brushed Fort Ord Reuse Authority attorney David Balch. Though ...
Street Talk 01.26.12 (asked @ the MPC gym
.)
What’s your favorite foreign phrase?
Follow-up: Make up a word to describe how you are feeling today. MO MANN | Professional College Athlete | Seaside A: Mahalo, it means hello and goodbye. I love Hawaiian stuff, and I like the ...
Thursday, May 3
Now that methyl iodide has been pulled, what’s next for California growers?
The recent announcement by Arysta LifeScience, the manufacturer of the soil fumigant methyl iodide, of its product withdrawal from the California and U.S. markets represents a significant development in the campaign to protect workers, rural ...
Jane Parker and Byrl Smith are leading fundraisers in the the supervisors races this spring.
Jane Parker and Byrl Smith are leading fundraisers in the the supervisors races (where three of five seats are up for election June 5) this spring, each already having spent in the six-figures by March ...
Woody and John: 3.0
It’s the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s birth, and the folk legend’s message still rings true at this year’s Steinbeck Festival.
When the Grammy Museum honored Woody Guthrie’s centennial in Los Angeles last month, award-winning folk musician Johnny Irion was there, fighting on behalf of a group of middle-school bellringers. All because his Uncle Thom was ...
By The Numbers 5-3-12
Real Estate
$900,000 Recent Sale 24255 San Pedro Lane, Carmel Built: 1960 Size: 1,388 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Ocean view, fireplace, deck, patio, fenced yard, tub with jets, breakfast nook Seller: ...
Brezsny's Astrology May 3-9, 2012
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): On the one hand, you’re facing a sticky dilemma that you may never be able to change no matter how hard you try. On the other hand, you are engaged with ...
Kids on the Block
Neighborhood Watches spring up in Salinas, undeterred by a violent crime in Florida.
The Eagle-Bison neighborhood of East Salinas is a known destination for trick-or-treaters. It’s also within about a mile of three homicides that took place in the past month. On Halloween night 2007, after a few ...
Jobs Vs. Shrubs
Byrl Smith faces off with incumbent Jane Parker on a platform of growth and jobs.
Byrl Smith is logging serious miles in her bid for county supervisor. Since January, she says, she’s been walking District 4 (Seaside, Marina, Del Rey Oaks and South Salinas) daily, and will continue doing so ...
’Choke Artists
Wildly creative home artichoke recipes – from chips to cakes – and a peek at the passion behind them.
They email things like “I am infatuated with the ritual of dressing up and then gradually undressing a beautiful artichoke, devouring it layer by layer.” They say things like, “They’re fresh, they’re here, they’re happening.” ...
Lookin’, Cookin’
A Chef of the Year tale made for Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Cooking for Solutions.
When 2012 Cooking for Solutions Chef of the Year Michel Nischan got his first ever chef job (in 1981), he went looking for local farms like his late grandfather’s in the surrounding area. Only outside ...
Celluloid Heroes
The stories of John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie and the era that saw their creative heights come to life on the screen.
The National Steinbeck Center has treated its namesake festival as a foundation upon which they can build in many directions. It makes sense. The most studious scholars might be challenged to find new sustenance in ...
Marley
Reality Doesn’t Bite: Bob Marley was human after all and much more than a brilliant musician.
There’s so much material out there on Bob Marley that one would think his 36 years of life had already been amply covered since his 1981 death. Apparently, the closest people to Marley – including ...
Bound to be Glorious
An event-packed Steinbeck Festival reveals not-to-be missed performances and discussions, done in a Woody way.
The Steinbeck Festival re-populates the world of Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, often with friends, relatives and experts – from now and his nascent years – thrown in for good measure. Step into the shoes ...
Street Talk 01.26.12 (asked @ Carmel Plaza.)
What interesting or atypical items do you like to collect?
Follow-up: What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever found? AUSTIN MCKENZIE | Student | Visalia A: Wine corks, for their texture. Some have nice red staining. Those I use for art projects. Funny Bunny: We found ...
Squid Fry 5.03.12
Squid Speaks
ENTERTAINMENT BIMONTHLY… Squid got a chuckle out of the Monterey Bay News & Views cover shot of Nader Agua, oops, Agha, next to a water tank, with the headline, “Which Desal Plan is Worth Its ...
Nonprofit printer on Soledad Street takes to social media.
Michael Scharen has an advanced degree in physics from Kent State University, credit for helping Nobel Prize-winning physicist J. Robert Schrieffer write a few papers and a work history that includes dot-com-era stints as an ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 5.03.12
THURSDAY 5 | 3 MEETING MARATHON | SEASIDE – The City Council meets early to hear from the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, followed by a meeting of the successor to the Redevelopment Agency and ...
Salt Solo
State PUC says Cal Am can ignore county and go it alone on desal plant; county says, ‘What?’
Like a let-down lover who swears off dating, California American Water is trying to go it alone. Cal Am’s latest desalination proposal, dubbed the Water Supply Project, makes the company the owner and operator of ...
Unusual collaboration puts Big Sur locals in charge of Coastal Trail planning.
An 11-year-old state law aims to create a continuous hiking trail along the entire California coast. But in 2007, when the California Coastal Conservancy put out bids for a consultant to design the Big Sur ...
Through Rose-Colored Glass
Local sea glass collectors find treasures – and peace – along Monterey Bay shores.
Rob Ellis sets out in the muted late-afternoon sun, searching for glass for it to shine through. He plucks a clear piece from the tide line, then tosses it back because of its sharp edges. ...
Big Buck
Lindsey Buckingham, of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Fleetwood Mac, comes to Carmel.
Even if you’re not a Fleetwood Mac fan, you’ve probably heard of their 1977 release Rumors. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, it’s the sixth best-selling album in U.S. history. Glee recently devoted ...
Girl Talk
Girl Talk
The female presence in this year’s Hipnic lineup is dynamic. Nicki Bluhm – returning with her band the Gramblers (7:25pm Friday; campground stage) – has been a Hipnic fixture since its inception, getting better every ...
The Avengers
Awesome Assembly: The Avengers’ all-star cast and fantastic plot pushes the superhero genre to the next level.
How many superheroes spoil the broth? More than six, apparently, at least when Joss Whedon is wrangling them. Because there’s an awful lot of stuff crammed into Marvel’s The Avengers. Not just six superheroes – ...
Sound Tribute
The Hunger Games inspires a powerhouse list of top movie tracks.
The release of the hit film The Hunger Games and its accompanying soundtrack, including original tracks from artists as diverse as Arcade Fire and Taylor Swift, had some thinking about the history of pop music ...
Letters To The Editor 5.03.12
Labor Pains As one of the eight women mentioned in the first paragraph, I wanted to add my thoughts (“Local hospitals battle for the earthy birth market,” April 26-May 2). Saying that the local doula ...
Glass Half-Full
Composer Philip Glass scales down festival; plans benefit for Henry Miller Library.
The rumor that year two of Philip Glass’ Days and Nights Festival has stalled is not true, but fans can expect a dramatically smaller version. Instead of the three-week whirlwind at Hidden Valley and Henry ...
