It’s an odd feeling. I’m standing here at 12th and Imperial, waiting for my stretch limousine, aka the number 901 bus, when I spot these gentlemen. And gentlemen they are: they’re dressed in white shirts, …
April 2, 2024
Bill Manson writes cover stories and features for the San Diego Reader.
Some samples of his early writing:
July 25, 1996:Song for the Uprooted (mariachi music in TJ's Zona Norte)
March 19, 1998: Larry's Best Gal (interview with Larry Lawrence aide Norma Nicolls)
March 16, 1995: Coyote, Tarantula, Silence, Sea (the four corners of San Diego County)
Sept. 24, 1998: Cunanan's Last Laugh (computer game based on gay serial killer)
March 25, 1999: Kidnapped! (Georgina Crespo's abduction from Coronado Cays)
Articles by Bill Manson
The Gentlemen of San Diego want to be better versions of themselves
La Valencia Hotel brings back The Whaling Bar
Whew. Something has been made right in La Jolla. For the last decade, everybody I’ve spoken to has talked as if a little piece of this town’s soul had been ripped out. A piece that …
April 2, 2024
Pet pig perches in pocket
Video:GOLDEN DREAMS: Escondido doula gets a taste of celebritySometimes, you get reminders that Escondido is still a country town in some ways. Like today, this gal comes into one of the coolest coffee hangouts here, …
March 14, 2024
Looking back at race relations in Coronado
Video:GOLDEN DREAMS: Looking back at race relations in CoronadoWas Coronado San Diego’s most culturally diverse city, back in more racially divided days? The city’s historical society would like you to think so: it’s holding a …
March 13, 2024
Why parrots are so good for San Diego
Video:COVER: Why parrots, godwits, and bushtits are so good for San Diego“Get there by dusk,” says my friend Larry, “and prepare yourself for a whole lotta noise.”Photograph by Jim Brown, iStock / Getty ImagesSo here …
February 28, 2024
The two Mary Beths break out, buy a truck camper, and hit the road
Video:GOLDEN DREAMS: Two Mary Beths break out, buy a truck camper, and hit the road.What are the odds? Two women sitting next to each other. Strangers. They introduce themselves.“Hi. I’m Mary Beth.”“Well actually, I’m Mary …
January 17, 2024
San Diego's mural maestro, Hanna Daly
Hanna Daly is putting finishing touches on the larger-than-life dancing lady she has painted, freehand, on the alley-side wall of a dance studio in Coronado. It’s the kind of mural Daly can knock off on …
December 29, 2023
Tracing the vibrant history of cochineal
Tuna found in the desert? OK, fair enough: that’s tuna, as in the Spanish for prickly pear, the fruit of the nopal. Ken Factor and I have spotted an ancient cactus tree growing close to …
December 27, 2023
Rubber band boy Shay Horay makes his way into the Guinness Book of Records
Talking of boy wonders: Shay Horay is known as Rubber Band Boy, or the Master of Rubberbandology, or The One-Man Rubber Band. He was my last interview before returning from Aotearoa-New Zealand (as it is …
December 1, 2023