This Saturday is record store day. Celebrate with Recycled Records (504 Lighthouse Ave., Monterey). They're participating on June 12 and July 17 with a new vinyl release each day. Are you really even cool if you don't like vinyl? Visit their Facebook for updates or give them a ring at 375-54…

Fire up the kiln, Monterey GlassWorks is opening their giant garage door to reveal the inner-workings of their glassblowing studio. On June 5 starting at 3pmvisitors can drop by, bring a beer, nosh on some appetizers and watch glass blowers at work, including artists-in-residence Aya Oki and…

California will officially reopen on June 15. But until then, there are still plenty of virtual experiences to enjoy from the comfort of your desk, err, couch. 

Now that your tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the National Steinbeck Center have been booked, here are few more virtual and in-person events to fill your free time. 

No excuses. Whether you’re staying home for the foreseeable future, or ready to stretch your legs and explore the real world again, the world of arts and culture in Monterey County is accessible to all. Here’s just a few events to look forward to this weekend, and beyond. 

Plays? Yes, please. Drive-in movies and an Aquarium reopening? That, too. Tacos and beer and other delicious food offerings from food trucks? Of, course. This weekend and beyond, has a lot in store for Monterey County in the virtual and real world. 

On the morning of Saturday, April 24, a gloomy overcast morning finally made way for a sunny day and messages calling for unity during a rally to protest the recent rise attacks and racism against Asians. The rally took place at the Colton Hall lawn and over 100 people gathered on the grass,…

Welcome to the Orange Tier, Monterey County. As restaurants, movie theaters and other entertainment venues make some adjustments and prepare for a big transition, here are few virtual and non-virtual events to put on you calendars.

Welcome to the Red Tier, Monterey County. So far it looks like we're staying put. As restaurants, movie theaters and other entertainment venues make some adjustments and prepare for a big transition, here are few virtual and non-virtual events and contests to put on you calendars.

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's recital of her poem "The Hill We Climb" is having a ripple effect on the local level. It helped usher in Salinas' search for its very own youth poet laureate, and may have even inspired the competitors who participated in the Poetry Out Loud Compe…

Welcome to the Red Tier, Monterey County. As restaurants, movie theaters and other entertainment venues make some adjustments and prepare for a big transition, here are few virtual and non-virtual events and contests to put on you calendars. 

Though it is located in Carmel, the 100-plus year-old outdoor Forest Theater is an important stage, not only in the city but the surrounding communities as well. The theater company Pac Rep recruits local actors from all over the county, while all it's users, including the Forest Theater Gui…

Remember going out to the movies? That hasn't been a thing since March of 2020, but some theaters in Monterey County are reopening their doors today, March 19. 

There is a distant glimmer of normalcy in the arts and entertainment world, as restaurants open back up for outdoor dining and entertainment (and indoor dining at limited capacity, expected as early as Wednesday, March 17—just in time for St. Patrick's Day), performance venues and gallery ge…

Following National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's performance of "The Hill We Climb" on Inauguration day, there was a renewed sense of the power of poetry. The effects even rippled all the way to Salinas, where former city council candidate and community organizer Andrew Sandoval began …

The city of Soledad celebrates its centennial today, Tuesday, March 9 with some creative Covid-safe festivities. There’s a cake contest at 2pm (streamed live via Facebook), a community desert grab n’ go at 3pm, and at 5pm a car parade down Front Street, ending at City Hall, followed by firew…

"The house is art in itself," says Kim Stemler, a board member of the newly formed Emile Norman Arts Foundation. Stemler is aptly commenting on the recently purchased house of Emile Norman, the Big Sur artist known for his mosaics, sculptures and woodwork. And his house, located on Pfeiffer …

Since 2012, when Andrew Hurchalla was working at nonprofit Sunset Cultural Center or organizations that hosted events at the Sunset Center, like the Carmel Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA) or the Carmel Bach Festival, he believed he received more than just push back when advocating for his …

There is a distant glimmer of normalcy in the arts and entertainment world, as restaurants open back up for outdoor dining (and entertainment) and performance venues and gallery get creative in the virtual world. Here are a few events to look forward to in the near future.

Venues may have gone dark due to the pandemic, but like any Greek tragedy, the drama happens off stage. In 2017, Carmel handed over the running of the 100-plus year-old Forest Theater, a property the city owns, to Sunset Cultural Center Inc., the nonprofit which also runs the Sunset Center—t…

There is a distant glimmer of normalcy in the arts and entertainment world, as restaurants open back up for outdoor dining (and entertainment) and performance venues and gallery get creative in the virtual world. Here are a few events to look forward to in the near future.

Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, two CIA agents and former lovers are reunited years after a traumatic hostage situation in Vienna, Austria. Together, they mull over whether or not their agent had been compromised. This, in short, is the premise of American author Olen Steinhauer's spy fiction All …

Film classes are not usually a compulsory course in school, but that doesn't mean that there are a lack of aspiring local filmmakers out there. The Monterey County Film Commission is now accepting applications for the Richard Tyler Film Student Scholarship Award Program through April, 7, 2021. 

If there was one person that was going to innovate what a virtual event would look like, musician and innovator Philip Glass would be a great bet. And innovate he has. The 2021 Days and Nights Festival has yet to be scheduled but until then the team behind the festival has curated a series o…

The world of jazz just became a little quieter. On Feb. 9, the Armando Anthony Corea, better known as Chick Corea, passed away from a rare form of cancer that was diagnosed in its final stages. The announcement of his death was made on Corea's Instagram page on Thursday, Feb. 11.

Six schools were represented this Saturday in the countywide Poetry Out Loud Competition. Hosted by the Arts Council of Monterey, the competition welcomed  teenaged contestants from Alisal, Pacific Grove, Rancho San Juan, Soledad, Gonzales high schools and York School to the (virtual) stage …

On Feb. 6, high school-aged poets from all over the Monterey County, compete in the Poetry Out Loud competition. Students from Alisal, Pacific Grove, Rancho San Juan, Soledad, Gonzales high schools and York School perform spoken word poetry in the competition hosted by the Arts Council for M…

We all know that 2020 has been an incredibly difficult year—we need not belabor that point. And neither the Covid-19 pandemic nor the deep inequalities it has exposed will go away the moment the clock strikes midnight. Finding a worthwhile “new normal” is going to take work and careful effor…

When Covid-19 forced the Monterey-based nonprofit children’s museum MY Museum to close, Executive Director Lauren Cohen knew she needed to find a way to continue serving the children and families that normally fill the museum.

With all the shutdowns and delays, 2020 proved a rough year for the movies. But even without movie theaters and movie theater popcorn, it wasn’t all bad—after all, this is the first year without a new Marvel Cinematic Universe release since 2011. Instead, 2020 offered a tasteful spread of pe…

Over 12 years, Melinda Collis has built a successful business and devoted following at her vintage clothing store, the Cat's Meow, in New Monterey. Her shop has been through a few chapters here (for her first three months in 2008, the store was in Sand City) and now it's time for another new…

It's a sad day for downtown Monterey, which is losing two businesses housed in the same building. 

As Hollywood became the motion picture capital in the early 20th century, filmmakers turned to the diverse landscape of California for locations that resembled different parts of the world. 

When I walked into the Seaside headquarters of Monterey County Weekly 13 years ago, to apply for a job as a writer, a loud rap song was bumping through the lobby. I asked the office manager, Linda Maceira, what that was about. She said it was “Hip-Hop Thursday.” Right then I knew I had to wo…

Piglet racing, corn dogs, petting zoos and rides. The Monterey County Fair is one of the showcases that brings these things together on the Peninsula, for a few days every year. This year will be the exception. 

Paper Wing Theatre does big musical numbers, small productions with edgy plays, play-reading festivals featuring new works—the gamut. It's long occupied a building on Hoffman Avenue in New Monterey, which is slated to become apartments. That meant goodbye after 30-plus years as a performing …

It's not just private businesses that have been champing at the bit to reopen. Included in Gov. Gavin Newsom's reopening phase 2.5, along with dine-in restaurants and barbershops, are libraries, which are allowed to reopen for curbside pickup. 

Over 100 years ago, artists and other creatives were drawn to the tiny town of Carmel-by-the-Sea as a place of rest and inspiration. Back then it was word-of-mouth that spread the village's reputation far and wide. Today, it's Instagram.

War is hell. Watching beautifully made movies about war is not. Here are some of our favorite war films, TV miniseries and books to keep you enthralled—a fews steps back from the frontline—until Veteran’s Day in November.

The show will not go on this year.