Photo by Rick Geary

The chanciest hamburger can be found at The Boll Weevil.

• ALAN PESIN, FILM CRITIC,
• NORTH COUNTY LIVING
• High Lights and Low Laughs in San Diego Sports

1. It was revealed that the San Diego Padres could have signed Catfish Hunter but for one stipulation in the contract: that Catfish sing the MacDonald jingle in blackface during Ray Kroc commercials. Hunter rejected the clause, and Bavasi-Bavasi-Kroc enterprises asked for a half hour to think up excuses to feed the press and public instead of Catfish burgers. Catfish Hunter became the New York Yankees’ Most Valuable Player and the American League’s Cy Young Award winner.
2. The San Diego Chargers sucked over 50,000 fans to their Monday night game against the New York Jets. Half those attending, caught in traffic jams, missed the first quarter and Jimmy Jones replacement of disciplined Joe Namath at quarterback. The opening line of Pick’em had gone to Jets minus 4% before the pre-game announcement of Namath’s benching and the game being taken off the betting board. Bookies spent busmen’s holidays watching the game, while Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s security forces were investigating an Atlanta Falcon’s cheerleader for pot-smoking.
3. Jerry Gross was fired from his contract as TV 8 Sports Director. The Channel 8 higher-ups accused Gross of blaming Los Angeles Laker entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke for the demise of the San Diego Conquistadores. The split was self-defeating for both sides. Now Gross has nowhere to peddle his interviews with San Diego Mariners player’s wives, and TV 8 is stuck with a cowboy-Okie-illiterate Hoppy Hines handling the sports reporting.
4. At Del Mar Racetrack’s summer meeting there were three horses paying over $100 for a $2 win ticket. Surprisingly enough, two of these were owned and trained by the same people. Eleven horses opened at 10-1 or higher in the morning line and won as favorites wire to wire. They call this “the sport of kings” because the public pays tribute every race to the in-the-know owners and trainers.
5. The Andy Williams San Diego Open was played during a four day freezing windstorm without benefit of CBS, NBC, or ABC coverage. Seventeen of the top PGA moneywinners did not show up, and the $30,000 first prize went to somebody more deserving. This year CBS is promising Palmer, Nicklaus, Player, Trevino, and more. However they are not promising them for the AWSDO.

• LOU CONDE, COUNTY SUPERVISOR, 3rd DISTRICT
• The most dangerous acts taken by the County Board of Supervisors

1. The attempt to take over County Jail by eliminating the sheriff. This has resulted in very serious legal problems, and also is wrong because the sheriff was a county-elected official chosen to perform the duties taken from him.
2. The Board’s changes of mind about the building of the Youth Development Center in Otay Mesa. Some sociological types felt it wasn’t good to banish juvenile delinquents to the boondocks because of separation from their families and because the existing facilities at Rancho del Campo and Rancho de Rayo were of World War II vintage. So we spent a half million dollars in engineering and architectural studies. Then Walsh changed his mind to look into scattering out the delinquents out into residential communities. The communities were up in arms about that, of course. Now, we’ve finally decided to go back to Rancho del Campo and Rancho de Rayo and try to remodel those old structures.
3. The attempt to move the airport to Otay Mesa. That would have a calamitous effect on hotels and the tourist industry. Luckily the Board finally changed its mind. At least it’s put to rest for a while.
4. The Board’s failure to come up with proper rules on gas vapor at the gas station pumps. The local companies spent over $3 million on installing the equipment to control the vapor, and now the two firms who make the equipment are on the verge of bankruptcy, and file equipment doesn’t work. The ironic thing is that the E.P.A. is mistakenly using our supposed success and is now forcing 8 major U.S. urban areas to follow our example.
5. The Board’s decision to eliminate the Veterans Service Office and shift the veterans to the Welfare Office. It makes it very demeaning for the veterans who feel they’ve earned their benefits.

• DUNCAN SHEPHERD
• READER MOVIE CRITIC
• Movies in San Diego, 1975

• Unexpected Arrivals:
• Francesco Rosi’s Lucky Luciano
• Yvonne Rainer’s Film About a Woman Who...
• Claude Pinoteau’s The Great Manhunt (Escape to Nowhere)

• Better Late Than Never’s:
• Satyajit Ray’s Days and Nights in the Forest
• Robert Altman’s Thieves Like Us
• Martin Scorcese’s Mean Streets

• Where, Oh Where Can It Be’s:
• Peter Bogdanovich’s At Long Last Love
• Robert Mulligan’s The Nickel Ride
• Peter Fonda’s Idaho Transfer
• Maximilian Schell’s The Pedestrian
• Louis Malle’s Lacombe, Lucien
• Freddie Francis’s Craze and Young Dracula (Son of Dracula)

• VERNA LARABEE
• SPOKESPERSON FOR THE OCEAN BEACH RAG
• What Made San Diego a Terrible Place to Be in 1975

1. The 11 percent unemployment rate.
2. The reduction of human care services as a result of cutbacks in all the area clinics.
3. The likelihood of a ban on nude bathing at Black’s Beach.
4. The apathy of the public towards local elections.
5. The paper-pushing by federal bureaucrats. Of $8 million allocated to some program $7.9 million ends up going to pay for the administration of the program.

What Made San Diego a Great Place to Be in 1975

1. The O.B. People’s Food Store moved and prospered.
2. The success of San Diego’s senior lunch program.
3. Admission of the C.I.A. that they tried to frame Peter Boehmer and others in Ocean Beach with a foolish scenario.
4. Happy Hardin Concert at the beach in the fall.
5. Formation of a local Hard Times committee under Dickie Magidorf, CALPIRG

The four best bargains of 1975

1. A cremation from Telophase Society, $250.
2. A five-pound bag of sugar, down 23% from April’s $1.77.
3. Neutering your tomcat for $10 at the Grossmont Animal Hospital.
4. Buying Ovral birth control pills at Staler’s Pharmacy in the beach area.

The four worst bargains in 1975

1. A burial at Glenn Abbey Cemetery, $835, minimum.
2. A ten pound bag of potatoes, up 51% from April’s 59 cents.
3. Having your cat spayed at the Village Vet Clinic, $50.
4. Buying Ovral birth control pills at Bonhams Rosecrans Pharmacy.

• JERI DILNO, DIRECTOR,
• GAY CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES
• The five most comfortable places for a gay person in San Diego; 1975

1. Balboa Park, Gay Pride Day,June 28.
2. Monday night dinners at the Gay Center.
3. The Apartment on Sunday afternoons.
4. For women, the San Diego Women’s Music Festival in September.
5. For men, Tuesday nights at the Gay Center.

The five most uncomfortable places for a gay person in San Diego; 1975

1. To be stationed at MCRD.
2. Anywhere in town holding hands with a person of the same sex.
3. In the library, reading Dr. Barbour’s archaic views in the Evening Tribune.
4. Speaking before the Exchange Club in La Mesa.
5. In the closet.

• RICK LIEBERT
• KGB RADIO
• The Worst of San Diego Media - 1975

1. The TV 8 Evening News.
2. The “Hawkers” on KPBS Pledge Nights.
3. The San Diego Union.
4. KCBQ’s “Change Your Jock” billboards.
5. The Mike Douglas Show sequences filmed here.

The Best of San Diego Media - 1975

1. Sargent Bilko and The Honeymooners — channel 6’s alternative approach to television.
2. Channel 12’s Amateur Talent Nights.
3. Westcott Motor’s audition winner sales commercials.
4. Harold Greene
5. The KGB Chicken.

• KEITH NEWBY, KSDO RADIO
• The best of San Diego media, 1975

1. Harold Keen’s appreciation luncheon.
2. The holes in KSDO’s studio carpet were patched.
3. KSDO was sold to Combined Communications.

The worst of San Diego Media, 1975

1. Folding of the Sails.
2. Judith Campbell’s non-news conference.
3. The KFMB TV-8 strike.
4. KSDO was sold to Combined Communications.

• JONATHAN SAVILLE,
• READER CRITIC
• The Best of 1975 in Music and Theatre

The best concert of the year was of course Artur Rubinstein’s appearance at the Civic Theatre, playing the Brahms First Piano Concerto with Peter Eros and the San Diego Symphony. Rubinstein remains not only the greatest pianist in the world, but the best by a very large measure. He does more for every piece of music he plays than even the most able of his competitors: every moment is a living one, full of expression and musical meaning. At the age of eighty-nine, he has lost none of his technique, his musicianship, his personal charm, or his loving attachment to the world. My favorite picture among the many taken during Rubinstein’s stay in San Diego is of his visit to the Zoo, showing one of the happiest and most talented octagenarians of all time with a baby chimpanzee, each contemplating the other with the liveliest curiosity.

The best vocal recital was that of Eleanor Steber at the Hotel del Coronado. After experiencing vocal difficulties and being retired from the Metropolitan, Miss Steber has recovered the full glorious bloom of that tender, youthful, vibrant voice, and her sensitivity to phrasing and dynamic shadings is greater than ever.

The best chamber music concert was given by the Tokyo String Quartet at San Diego State. There are so many fine quartets around, many of them made up of quite young musicians, that for such a group to be outstanding it must be supreme. “Supreme” describes the Tokyo Quartet, whose playing has an innerness and intensity — an almost mystical identification with the music — that is scarcely to be matched elsewhere. Aside from the hypnotically expressive playing, the moment I remember with most pleasure from this concert was when, between movements, one of the young Japanese musicians roused himself from his utter absorption in the music, like a deep-sea creature slowly drifting up from the depths, and murmured to the rapt audience, “Please close the door. There is a draught.” A wonderful little shock — because the audience, their minds completely taken over by Bartok, had for the moment forgotten the existence of words, draughts, doors, buildings, and the great globe itself.

The best performance by a local group was the San Diego Symphony’s exciting reading of the Brahms First Symphony, under Maestro Eros. For virtually the first time, I became convinced of this conductor’s excellence — his integrity of style and conception, his driving' forcefulness, his own authentic musical personality. And I also realized that the orchestra has at last become one which, in its better moments (and his was assuredly one of them), can provide a sturdy rival to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The best dramatic offerings of the year were Shaw’s You Never Can Tell and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, both at the Old Globe. Craig Noel’s stylish staging of the Shaw play uncovered every bit of amusement and pseudo-wisdom in this typically Shavian work (pseudowisdom because it only seems wise until you have left the theatre); his actors were chosen and directed with the wonderful theatrical sureness that marks Mr. Noel’s directorial style and that has made him, over the years, so precious an asset to our community. The Much Ado, during the summer Shakespeare festival, rescued a play that is often relegated to the status of a second class Shakespearean comedy.

Tire beauty of the scenery and costumes contributed to the poignant note of melancholy that was struck throughout; the acting was delightful; and the whole production seemed a perfect, polished jewel, the excellence of which neatly concealed the play’s flaws.

• KATHY GILBERT
• CENTER FOR SERVICEMEN’S RIGHTS
• The Most Outrageous Events of 1975 in San Diego’s Military

1. The decision of the commander of the USS Horne to disregard the warnings of Navy safety officials and sail back to San Diego.
2. The unwarranted attacks on black Marines by the city of Oceanside and the Marine Corps Command.
3. The Marine Corps’ handling of the deaths of two children last month on an abandoned firing range by Camp Pendleton.
4. The repeated F14 crashes at NAS Miramar. There’s a $814 million junk pile of FI4s unable to fly, some of which have been cannibalized for parts.

San Diego’s Military Heroes and Heroines of 1975

1. Dave Medina, charged with mutiny for reporting unsafe conditions onboard the USS Algerholm. Charges were later dropped by the Navy command.
2. Marine Tad Hille, court-marshalled in Japan and San Diego for political beliefs and activities.
3. The editors of the Sterrett Free Press, a ship’s underground paper that protested living and working conditions.
4. The Navy wives investigating and protesting inadequate military health care.
5. The women and men who fought the Navy for their Variable Re-enlistment Bonus.

• GARY REES
• BEACH AREA COMMUNITY CLINIC FACILITATOR
• The five events that made San Diego a great place to be in 1975

1. The appointment and election of Jess Haro as city councilperson for the 8th District.
2. First anniversary celebration of Las Hermanas Women’s Coffeeshop.
3. The firing of Police Chief Ray Hoobler.
4. The founding of a local chapter of the Grey Panthers.
5. No MacDonalds drive-thru was built at Black’s Beach.

The five events that made San Diego a terrible place to be in 1975

1. The San Diego Opera still performed all its works in English.
2. The retention of Patrolman Craig Short by the National City Police Department after the shooting of Luis Rivera.
3. KGB did a third Homegrown album.
4. The V.D. rate increased by seven percent in the county.
5. The city was left without a pro basketball team.

• TED BURKE,
• READER CONTRIBUTOR
• Best Concerts

1. Jeff Beck/Mahavishnu Orchestra — Community Concourse
2. Gentle Giant — Community Concourse
3. Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow — Santa Monica Auditorium
4. Harvey Mandel — Another Bird
5. The Paul Winter Consort — San Diego State
6. Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac,Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc., - Balboa Stadium
7. Chic Corea/Larry Coryell — Community Concourse
8. Joe Pass — Catamaran Hotel

Worst

1. Aerosmith
2. Led Zeppelin
3. J.J.Cale
4. Jerry Garcia Band

Best Albums

1. Blow by Blow - Jeff Beck
2. Free Hand - Gentle Giant
3. Nuthin’Fancy - Lynyrd Skynyrd
4. The Last Record Album - Little Feat
5. Koln Concert - Keith Jarrett
6. Gorilla — James Taylor
7. Sedaka’s Back - Neil Sedaka
8. Northern Lights Southern Cross -The Band
9. Lamb Lies Down On Broadway -Genesis
10. Bad Benson - George Benson

Worst Albums

1. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen — The “next big thing” is actually a musical cowpie. Springsteen could write a song-about going to the corner drug store to buy a pack of cigarettes and be able to cram it full of the myths upon which rock used to be based. An anachronism in his own time.
2. Rock of the Westies - Elton John — A hack slices himself thinner with each outing. Elton is now transluscent.
3. Horses - Patti Smith
4. Nighthawks at the Diner - Tom Waits - Waits and Smith are two talentless characters who, through making capital of their rough edges (“style” in their eyes) and unending references to their literary gurus (Rimbaud for Smith, Kerouac for Waits), have convinced some people that they constitute something unique in the world of pre-fab rock. But Smith never evokes the hallucinogenic gloom of Rimbaud, and Waits is incapable of even a decent Kerouac parody, which should be like shooting ducks in a barrel. Waits is using blanks, Smith is just plain boring.
5. Blood On. the Tracks I Basement Tapes - Bob Dylan — A slight return of the counter cultural ebb tide.
6. The Who By Numbers - Hang it up guys.
7. Metal Machine Music — Lou Reed — Static for the psychotic.
8. Tommy Soundtrack - Beating a dead horse for fun and profit.

• Will The Real Bruce Springsteen Please Stand Up Award:
• To Bob Segor, whose time is overdue

• Small Town Elitists Award
• To Horsefeathers, for billing themselves as “Southern California’s most unique band.”

• Best Local Bands
• Harlequin, Grace, Horsefeathers, Blitz Brothers, Jumbalaya

• ELEANOR WIDMER
• READER CONTRIBUTOR

1. The best view and the most costly and disappointing cuisine can be found night after night in the Marine Room of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.The sauces are a travesty and the chef seems to cook like a muddled amateur who doesn’t know pretentious from good cooking.
2. The best intentioned in its theory and the worst in execution for American food proved the Butterfield Express.The management seems to be working on improvements, but the dreariness of the food can’t be compensated for by the pert and cheery waitresses. Sorry, because I wanted this one to succeed.
3. The slowest service with the sea food served at tepid temperature was The Sea Thief. Again, the decor is congenial and the fish is tasty once it arrives, but the wait makes you feel that you should be paid, rather than the other way around.
4. The chanciest hamburger can be found at The Boll Weevil. At times it appears fresh and tasty, at others it makes you ill. The manager was unflappable when I complained: “Lady, we got standing room most nights, so how can the public be wrong?”
5. Are you a rising film maker who would like to stage a night in hell? Try Organ Power Pizza. The food is awful and the noise, the lights, the organ, could be used to epitomize Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust. Unless you crave nightmares, avoid this one.
6. The biggest disappointment for the mayvin who hoped for a marvelous delicatessen was The Mayvin. From what tundra do they procure their corned beef? However, the worst so-called pastrami sandwich that came under a false flag was served at The Oak Tree House. I couldn’t believe that something so akin to pressed ham could be labeled pastrami.
7. The most tasteless Mexican food in a pleasant atmosphere can be found at Tizoc’s. Everyone seems to have a good time, but the portions are small and the food seems barely heated. Tony’s Jacal: fear not, you’re still at the top of my disappointment list.
8. Greasiest silverware and dishes: International House of Pancakes, Washington St.

• ANN WATSON
• ANTI-COMMUNIST COMMENTATOR FOR XEMO
• Most outrageous acts in San Diego in 1975

1. All the hubbub about the white deer. It showed the American people were very naive and childish. They put their sympathies in the wrong places. Our city fathers — Jim Bates — are even contemplating using our money to build a monument to this animal. I think that’s sick. I love animals, I want them well cared for. But we’re going overboard. We forget the man on the street who’s life is on the line to defend us and protect us. The funeral they gave this animal was sickening.
2. The kangaroo trial that was held on the police officer in National City. The police officer did his job. But he was pronounced guilty by the local radio and t.v. before the case was investigated. He was pronounced innocent on investigation.
3. The Black’s Beach issue was very stupid. We have more and bigger problems. I don’t know how much money was wasted with time spent on this issue. If people want to be in the nude they can in their homes in their pools. It just shows San Diego is made up of many immature people.
4. The increase in juvenile delinquency. Everyone blames the schools. But I feel the parents are basically responsible. Children have no other thoughts. They only think about getting out on their skateboards and bicycles. They never crack open a book. They want to learn to play an instrument. They want to bang on drums and guitars.
5. Ecology. A large majority of our youth talks about ecology but they throw trash everywhere. If a nation is not willing to discipline itself like this, it will lead to totalitarianism where • discipline will come from a dictator. We have fallen into a pit of self-deception here.

• BARRANCE Q. ZAKAR
• KFSD-FM
• High Splendor Potential — Jazz Records 1975

1. Bobby Hutcherson — Montara
2. Chico Hamilton - Peregrinations
3. Jan Hammer — The First Seven Days
4. John Abercrombie — Timeless
5. Ralph Towner & Gary Burton — Matchbook
6. McCoy Tyner — Trident

• STEVE ESMEDINA
• READER CONTRIBUTOR
• Best Albums

• Country Life/Siren, Roxy Music
• Death And The Flower/The Koln Concert, Keith Jarrett
• New York Fall, 1974/Five Pieces, Anthony Braxton
• Natty Dread, The Wailers
• Still Crazy After All These Years, Paul Simon
• There’s A Trumpet In My Soul, Archie Shepp
• The Last Record Album, Little Feat
• Northern Lights-Southern Cross, The Band
• Follow My Mind, Jimmy Cliff
• Atlantic Crossing, Rod Stewart

Worst

• Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, Elton John
• Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen
• The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Joni Mitchell
• Man-Child, Herbie Hancock
• By Numbers, The Who
• One Of These Nights, The Eagles

Best Concerts

• McCoy Tyner, Back Door
• Little Feat, Sports Arena
• Mahavishnu Orchestra, Golden Hall
• Weather Report, Civic Theatre
• AWB/Kokomo, Sports Arena
• Joe Farrell, George Benson, Civic Theatre

I wish I had gone - Toots And The Maytalls, Balboa Stadium

Worst

I skipped them - Elton John, Jethro Tull, The Eagles I should have - Aerosmith, Herbie Hancock, Graham Central Station How Could You Be Soo Good On Record And So Lousy In Concert - Jeff Beck, Golden Hall Vice-Versa - KC and The Sunshine Band, Sports Arena

• Special Awards
• The Rock Criticism Finally Pays Off Award: Bruce Springsteen
• Runner-Up: Patti Smith

Businessman Of The Year

Clive Davis, President of Arichta Records. Anyone who can have Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, TTie Breckers, and Mai Waldron on the same label with Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Bay City Rollers, and The Outlaws is either an artistic pervert or an economic genius.

The Pauline Kael I’ve Said A Mouthful Award

Jon Landau, the rock critic whose declaration that Bruce Springsteen was the “past, present, and future of rock and roll” got him a position as Springsteen’s manager, thus requiring that his beaming mug be plastered on the pages of Time, Newsweek and other periodicals.

The Bye-Bye Birdie Award for Sublime Vulgarity

Ken Russel, for turning The Who’s Tommy, “the twentieth-century’s greatest work of art” (huh?) into a two-hour rococo pig sty; a fitting fate for the first rock opera.

Stop In The Name Of Love Award:

Diana Ross, who after such a smashing debut as an actress in Lady Sings The Blues succumbed to a ranting variation of the same role in Mahogany.

Trend Of The Year

Disco-decadence. At last Muzak became a recognizable force on the pop charts. By adding a barely funky beat, people such as Barry White, Van McCoy, MFSB, Percy Faith, and The Silver Convention got Muzak out of the office and onto the dance floor.

Maybe This Year:

Roxy Music, The Wailers, Archie Shepp, and Anthony Braxton will make their way to San Diego; Bryan Ferry will get his Tuxedo on the cover of Newsweek; Peter Townshend, Neil Young, and Mick Jagger will collaborate on an album, Rock’s No Fun Anymore, But It’s All I Know; Talented local bands like United States Monsters, Grace, Glory, Harlequin, Horsefeathers and Doomsday Watermelon will get the widespread attention they deserve.