Sexy Small
Quail Moto enters its fifth year with new tweaks on classic bikes.
Somebody invited a moped guy to the motorcycle party. But the vehicle he’ll share with audiences is as anticipated as any coming for the fifth annual Quail Motorcycle Gathering, a celebration of motorcycling heritage and ...
The Big Bang
Advocates say firearms legislation in California misses the mark on proper gun control.
Chris Gillespie, owner of Markley’s Indoor Range and Gun Shop in Watsonville, jokes that buying a gun in California is like buying a house or a car because of all the paperwork. In reality, buying ...
Packing Heat
Want to legally carry a concealed weapon in Monterey County? Be prepared for a long application process, and a very long wait.
“I wish he had never pulled a gun.” That’s the only thing Phil Nash would change about the evening he shot a man in self-defense. In April 2001, Nash, then an officer with Carmel Police ...
Licking the Habit
George Krieger started one of the best stamp collections in the world out of boredom.
As a 7-year-old boy in Queens, George Krieger traveled to Africa without leaving his house. Or at least he felt like he did when his uncle, who worked in the coffee-and-tea industry, would bring Krieger ...
HOME AND GARDEN 2013 - Everything Zen
Three Seaside residents take the unconventional approach to their yards.
Frog Days Of Summer “I’m a frog addict,” claims Pauline Burton. “And the (plastic lawn) flamingos bring out the color of the grass.’ Burton has lived at her home on Juarez Street near the top ...
Enter the Vampire
Behind the mythos of the cowboy window washer with a beard.
Thomas Skeens’ signature look – a tattered and weathered cowboy hat adorned with tons of feathers and doodads – is so classic around Monterey County he got picked as an extra in a Clint Eastwood ...
Lore
Children of War: Lore tells the tale of a fallen Nazi’s children, and their secret journey to find a home.
If she keeps making films like the German-language Lore, director Cate Shortland (Somersault, starring Abbie Cornish), should be remembered quite well in the emotional-portrait filmmaking world. In her sophomore effort, Shortland brings the story to ...
Make it Snappy
Monterey County offered up a wide range of emotions in 2012.
Whenever someone says Monterey County is boring, I laugh. There was a lot to see in the county last year. Photo Gallery 2012 Photos of the Year - News and Feature On the fun side, ...
Seriously, I’m Santa
Pagrovian carpenter visits Monterey Bay Christmas events by way of the North Pole.
At a certain age, many men dye their gray hair a younger-looking color. But Vern Brischke does the opposite: He dyes his reddish-brown hair gray and silver. For the last four years, Brischke has added ...
Hard Pressed
A young entrepreneur and an old printer make a statement that looks and feels timeless.
With a loud, rhythmic, mechanical kathunk!, Alissa Bell’s nearly century-old printing press chugs into action. The rich and sweet smell of fresh black ink fills her studio, which occupies part of a metal hangar-type building ...
Fortune’s Fate
Bad timing and very bad health brings lottery winner and wife to foreclosure.
At the home where Brandie and Edwin Hannon once lived, a rotating shift of security guards stands by 24 hours a day to keep the couple from moving back in. Now staying with family, the ...
Animal Intensity
Edward Albee’s absurd The Zoo Story emerges well-acted and engaging at Stardust Playhouse
Simplicity is the key to Stardust Playhouse’s The Zoo Story. Armed with nothing more than a park bench, a few leaves and a crudely-painted backdrop of New York’s Central Park, the Monterey theater leaves the ...
Dual Engines
Carmel Valley’s Nick and Todd Grice work and play together on the race track.
Nick and Todd Grice wanted to ride motorcycles so badly that as kids they would make engine noises while cruising around on bicycles. “We just always have been fascinated by them,” Todd says. The brothers, ...
Ups and Downs
A look at the major pluses and minuses for four top Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix contenders.
Casey Stoner + Has the ability to be victorious on nearly any bike. He won the world championship on separate bikes (Ducati in 2007 and Honda in 2011) and both years he won the U.S. ...
Quick Nick
Former MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden might be the last and best American motorbike hero.
Nicky Hayden tucks into a 350-pound Honda RC211V motorcycle so tightly it’s hard to tell where the machine stops and the man begins. With the finger dexterity of a orchestral violinist‚ he squeezes his brakes ...
Civil Duties
Monterey County Jail reduces costs by hiring non-sworn officers.
In order to put more deputies on the streets and cut costs, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is partially staffing the jail with civilians to watch over inmates. The position for what’s called a Custody ...
Seaside police chief takes pay cut, adds P.G. workload.
Seaside is dealing with a serious rise in gang violence, but Police Chief Vicki Meyers says the city’s deal to share her with Pacific Grove won’t hinder those efforts. “I believe this will enhance police ...
Rocking On
Local teen climber Val Hooper finds mental balance by dangling from steep stones.
Halfway up the Cuidado face on the west side of Pinnacles National Monument, rocks break off under Val Hooper’s fingers. She’s sport climbing with her coach Charles Schrammel, and already a few hundred feet up ...
The Banger Beat
Seaside police struggle to quell a spike in gang activity.
On a recent evening, Seaside patrol officer Eddie Enriquez stops two Hispanic males on the street. One of them, he says, is a known Norteño gang member. Enriquez pats the young man down, looking for ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
Mentoring on Mountain Bikes
The Little Bellas do more than bring waves of young girls to the sport – they get them hooked for life.
After a grueling, 20-minute mountain sprint bike race, most top-tier professional athletes prefer a cold drink and a massage, but Lea Davison, who races for the Specialized Factory team, prefers to help young women pedal ...
Bean Burrito Bagel Master
An enthusiastic home baker crafts Jewish comfort food out of frustration and inspiration.
Monterey’s Steve Souza started baking bagels out of a specific kind of anger. About five years ago, he received a bread maker from a friend after expressing interest in yeasts and crusts. But he had ...
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 ...
Through the Looking Glass
The past year brought a range of stunning portraits - and surprising emotions with them.
In retrospect, I’m surprised the picture isn’t blurry given how much my hands were shaking. In fact, I almost put the camera down and considered deleting the picture. Instead I took a breath and kept ...
Inside Track
Looking at the Red Bull MotoGP from the photo pit provides a new reckoning of the breakneck race.
Andrew Wheeler compares motorcycle racing to ballet. “It’s like dancing on a knife edge at higher speeds,” he says. “You can relate to their form, on a human level.” This is what inspires him to ...
Skin Close
Jon and Susan Baker both got their first tattoos later in life, but their uncanny commonalities don’t stop there.
Susan Baker didn’t get her first tattoo until after 60. Same goes for Jon Baker, her husband. At the time of their first tattoos, though, the couple hadn’t started dating, nor reconnected since high school. ...
One of a Kind
The third annual Quail Motorcycle Gathering brings truly unique muscle to a truly unique party.
One morning, Ian Barry woke up and decided to build motorcycles. “I just blocked off the next five years of my life and basically lived in the garage working on bikes,” says Barry, who grew ...
Dusty Roads
The Untainted Utopia of Summer Camp in Big Sur.
“Hi, gang, I’m here for another year!” “Hi, here for another year!” roars a crowd of a few hundred Boy Scouts, adult leaders, parents and a few dozen camp staff. “No, no, no, that’s not ...
Highway 1 collapse forces alternative education for Big Sur students.
Kaili Alexander has a five-hour commute to Carmel High School that takes her through two counties and over three highways. Fortunately, the Big Sur resident only makes the arduous trip twice a week—along with a ...
Planned Parenthood could lose needed dollars with pending U.S. Senate vote.
As the health insurance debate rages, another medical fire has ignited as the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban federal funding for services that include birth control, health screenings and other care at Planned ...
Fight Night
Photos and video from the Winter Brawl of mixed-martial arts at the Fox Theater in Salinas.
Despite the rain, the Fox Theater Salinas was full of heavy-hitting mixed-martial arts action during the Winter Brawl hosted by Central Coast Throwdown. Local fighters Jonathon Gaxiola and Adrien Olivas both won their bouts and ...
Tall Standing
Video: The rise of the giant nutcracker on Candy Cane Lane.
Nearly 50 years ago, Howard Cowen hand-built the infamous, giant nutcracker that stands tall over Candy Cane Lane in Pacific Grove. In the video below, Cowen gets help from his two sons, Ron and Ken, ...
Mossy Scene
Photos and video from Surf Hound Studios in Moss Landing during The Good Sams CD release show.
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Voodoo Mojo
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy swings into Carmel’s Sunset Center.
What does long-time swing jazz band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy have in common with Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and actors Gary Coleman and David Cross? All of these showmen starred in the same animated ...
2010 Big Sur Food and Wine
Photos and video from the second annual food and wine festival hosted on the coast of the Big Sur.
Henry Miller Library hosted quite a tasting event for the taste buds on Saturday afternoon. Mundaka in Carmel was there. So was fresh bread and cheese from Esalen. And a fresh sushi smorgasbord from Treebones ...
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
Buzz Worthy: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest completes the trilogy with great acting and lots of answers.
Unfortunately, like good things, all good stories must come to an end. So it goes with author Stieg Larsson’s best-selling “Millennium” trilogy that started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, progressed with The Girl ...
Halloween 2010
Photos of spookiness and ghoulish good times around Monterey.
Photos from Halloween night. Photos from the annual Monterey Zombie Walk.
Global Tuner Grand Prix
A wet weekend of racing and time trails at Laguna Seca.
Cloudy skies and rain didn't stop a weekend of racing as orange ponchos bearing the Mazda Raceway logo were handed out on Saturday and Sunday. The Global Tuner Grand Prix consisted of three classes of ...
A wet weekend of racing and time trails at Laguna Seca.
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Al Jardine Plays Big Sur.
The Beach Boys' original member plays for a hometown crowd on Friday evening.
Al Jardine of the Beach Boys had a line of fans snaking up Highway 1 outside of Henry Miller Library on Friday evening before his first ever Big Sur show. Jardine, with the help of ...
2010 Carmel Art & Film Festival
Photos and video from the opening night of the Carmel Art and Film festival.
An Albert Einstein created by street artist Mr. Brainwash looked on from the bushes, holding a sign reading: "Love is the answer." A giant, black dog splattered with pink paint—another Brainwash piece—guarded the enterance to ...
2010 Carmel Art&Film Festival
Photos and video from the opening night of the Carmel Art and Film festival.
An Albert Einstein created by street artist Mr. Brainwash looked on from the bushes, holding a sign reading: "Love is the answer." A giant, black dog splattered with pink paint—another Brainwash piece—guarded the enterance to ...
2010 California International Airshow Salinas
High-flying planes and stunt pilots fill the Salinas sky.
An early cloud cover brought about possible fears of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds not being able to fly to close out the airshow, but a bright sun halted that as the Thunderbirds took formation ...
Punk Revival
Agent Orange, Daikaiju and Psychos in Love invade Monterey.
Agent Orange has been around the block almost three decades—releasing catchy, surf punk into the atmosphere at high volumes—and their crowd Saturday night proved it. There was the skinny kid getting tossed around the mosh ...
Paper Trails
A peek at three often overlooked peeps who get the Weekly on the street.
The clock was creeping toward midnight when the vomit rained from above. Weekly delivery coordinator Cecilia Traver was aiming to reload a particularly lonely red box in Monterey when she noticed someone sitting on a ...
2010 Monterey Jazz Festival
Saturday Night brings ukuleles, soulful croons and progressive quartets to the stages of the jazz festival.
Fusion, funk and five-star groups performed on Saturday evening of the 53rd Monterey Jazz Festival. Young ukulele phenom Jake Shimabukuro took to the Garden Stage during his debut in Monterey and wowed a sardine-packed audience ...
2010 Monterey Jazz Festival
Photos from Les Nubians kicking off a soulful Friday night in Monterey.
The French-sister duo Les Nubians filled the main stage area with smooth croons and an "Afropean" sound on Friday evening of the 53rd Monterey Jazz Festival. For over the a decade, the sisters have been ...
2010 Triathlon at Pacific Grove
Photos from the annual swim, bike and run from Lovers Point
One swimmer even bared the cold Monterey Bay weather without a wetsuit on Sunday morning as triathletes in different classes took off during the shorter "sprint" race. A 0.25-miles swim, 12.4-mile bike ride and a ...
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