I'd press play on my older brother's boom box, and listen to the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA." The volume never passed two; I was terrified of discovery by my mother who had a ban on rock music.

My first favorite album was the original cast recording of Oklahoma. Mom says when I was a baby, she'd put on the record as she lay me down to sleep and by the second line …

Thirty Years Ago Jack Nicholson is heir apparent to the middle-age actor role vacated by the romantic comedians of black-and-white days, the epitome of the lawyer, doctor, journalist, or fugitive from the Mann Act. Jack …

Hellllooooooo San Diego, and welcome to my blog, Bumblebee Sweet Potato. The Bumblebee is my daughter, who's turning 6 in September. The Sweet Potato is my son, who's turning 2 next week. As to how …

Sergio Castro performed "spoken word" for a crowd estimated to be 170 people. "Worship is dangerous. Worship of God is forbidden in many parts of the world. Music reaches into the subconscious. Music is a …

"We would play four to five nights a week," says Warren Lovell, Big Time Operator band leader. During the years '97--'99, BTO played Croce's, the Cannibal Bar, and Tio Leo's. "A lot of the swing …

Thirty-one years ago today (8/11/74), Frank Zappa brought his Mothers of Invention to Golden Hall for a show immortalized on the bootleg LP Golden Debris. The audience was let in while the band performed a …

Megadeth Man and Fallbrook resident Dave Mustaine recently told KNAC's Philthy Phil that he won't perform certain songs now that he's embraced Christianity. "The ones that I did that I'm not doing anymore that to …

A former Marine lance corporal pleaded no contest July 28 to one felony count of lewd and lascivious acts against a child. Dario Ambriz, 23, was stationed at Camp Pendleton in 2004 when he met …

"I still want to talk to their agent," says Street Scene promoter Rob Hagey about why the Black Eyed Peas were an hour late for their appearance. "I want to know exactly what happened." What …

"I am told 'irie' means getting high and Stone Senses mean your senses are getting stoned," says Ofelia Escovedo, board of directors president of Carlsbad's annual Fiesta del Barrio. At a meeting last week, the …

Former Stone Temple Pilots Robert DeLeo (bass) and Dean DeLeo (guitar) have teamed with Filter front man Richard Patrick to form a still-unnamed band. In October 2001, Patrick joined STP onstage in Chicago to sing …

When Styx plays Viejas Casino Concerts in the Park on Saturday, August 13, expected munchies include a bag of assorted candy ("Snickers, Kit-Kat, Milky Way, etc."), a box of sourdough pretzels, a jar of soy …

'I dreamed I was playing onstage and I was really confused because the song I was playing didn't seem to be the same song the rest of the band was playing," says Kyrsten Hopkins, bass …

Before puberty, before a scalding flood of hormones seared my synapses and boiled my cerebellum, I was a smart kid. My parents blame the eventual change on a month spent in the mountains of Wyoming …

I'm a lousy housekeeper, and by the end of the week dishes are stacked on every available surface of my kitchen. The thought of cleaning them is overwhelming. So I've developed this ritual. I slip …

You could move. -- Abigail Van Buren, "Dear Abby," in response to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to …

"So, what do you think?" That's my dad's standard phrase. The phrase he speaks when he doesn't have anything else to say. When silence pulls the room into its vacuum, "So, what do you think?" …

Around ten o'clock every morning, a prep cook strolls through the kitchen of a Mission Valley restaurant crying, "Red Bull. Red Bull. Red Bull." He collects $2 each from waiters, busboys, and cooks to buy …

Without question, nerds boost the local economy. But so do smerfs. Indeed, San Diego should post a sign on the outskirts: "Smerfs Welcome." Smerfs are notorious cheapskates, but their dollars are green. In the tourist …

Five years ago, criminal defense and civil rights attorney Mary Prévost began investigating how the City and County of San Diego conducted blood draws from people suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. But …

For cyclists, skaters, walkers, and runners, the vast Mission Bay Park features something quite hard to find in our topographically wrinkled county: dead-flat terrain. Now that fine new or refurbished concrete sidewalks snake around South …

Living Room by Geoff Bouvier. Copper Canyon Press, 2005; 96 pages; $14. FROM THE DUST JACKET: "Readers may be voyeurs, but the subtler gifts are not for the fast glancers. Take a good slow second …

“There’s a group of us, We’ve got all the answers to the world’s problems, right here.”

"Where are people buying these decals?" After ten dead-end calls, Patrick slumped over the telephone, exhausted by his futile hunt. He was trying to buy stick-figure family decals for his sister's car. She has 13 …

'How did you come upon this?" Beth Shannon says, "My sister made a donation in my name." We're talking about Old Friends, a Kentucky nonprofit "dedicated to providing a dignified retirement to old champions." Old …

'The idea is to bridge the world of art and science," says Wyland, an artist, author, and educator who goes by one name. The artist's role in conservation is even bigger than his life-size murals …

The movie Wedding Crashers became number one at the box office after playing in theaters for several weeks. The word-of-mouth on this movie has made it a hit. Vince Vaughn is hysterical. (Swingers, a 1996 …

“The things that inspire me? There are some truly crazy, crazy people out there.”

Ortega seems to be a common name for San Diego restaurateurs. There are four Ortega's restaurants around town, each independently owned. The newest is part of a loosely connected chain run by a member of …

Movies reviewed this week: Four Brothers, The Aristocrats, King of the Corner, Last Days, The Devil's Rejects and The Dukes of Hazzard

Dear Matt: I was wondering. If a set of identical twins married another set of identical twins, and each couple had a child, would the two children be identical? -- Ag, the net UCSD's medical …

Heymatt: How come during rush hour the slow lanes are faster than the fast lanes? -- Y.F., the net First of all, because the fast lane is fast in name only. In a finely tuned …

My hand paused before the mascara reached my lashes and I inhaled deeply — it was almost time. The mounting passion in her voice, off-key yet somehow harmonizing with the piano's crescendo, jerked me to …

When I was 12, most of my time was spent (a) being mad at absolutely everybody and everything, (b) writing furiously, or (c) being mad at absolutely everybody and everything and writing furiously at the …

"Like a Rolling Stone," the most famous song on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, portrays somebody who thought she was on top contending with her fall to the bottom. It's a fun song but not …

What one album would I take with me to a desert island? Immediately, it occurs to me that perhaps I shouldn't take any music with me at all. I'd have my untainted memory of other …

In 1991, God seized my attention. So did Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and U2. I was 20, a freshman in college, raised Catholic but without much understanding or interest in practicing my faith. I had plenty …

RE: the rock and roll album and unfurnished island situation. I'm going to have a problem packing my rucksack. The fact is, I don't have a relationship with music, although at one time in my …

"Dancing in September" wept from the doorway of a music shop. I pulled my scarf and jacket collar open, exposing my neck and ear. I stayed on that street for the day. I wanted to …

Artur Schnabel Plays Beethoven, Volume 1 Sonata no. 19 in G Minor, op. 49, no. 1 My father bought my first piano from the Briscoes in Sumter, South Carolina. We knew the Briscoes from church …

James Taylor was the soundtrack for my adolescence. I would sit in the living room and play his records over and over on our big console while I tried to imagine what anyone would ever …

"If you like Hendrix, you'll like this," my guitar teacher said, handing me a cassette of the Psychedelic Furs' second album, Talk Talk Talk. More than 20 years later, I have no idea what he …

Though I had anticipated its arrival, I dreaded this day. The exact hour when the desire to experience something thrilling had effervesced within me for so long, it expired. Cognitive reservoirs of gumption, drive, purposefulness …

I was grounded, which was a worse proposition than it sounded in my house. I was 14. It was 1965. My father's decree, he knew not to what he was consigning me. A summer in …

It was the stuff we did in high school band class that eventually told how my life would play out. It's hard to imagine any public school music class as being influential, but this was …

Stranded on a desert island, I'd find relief from the blazing sun in the wintry imagery of Joni Mitchell's album Hejira. Just gazing at the black-and-white album cover would start cooling me down: Joni in …

It's not that I listen to it very often -- I don't think I've listened to it once in the past 15 years. Even if I owned a copy I wouldn't be able to play …

The summer of 1976, PBS broadcast The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein. Each week Bernstein explained the structure and the meaning of music as well as the crisis of harmony composers …

I met Joseph when I was 25 and he was 52, eight years younger than I am now. I shared my one-bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side in New York City with night-crawling cockroaches …

In the age of the iPod, I can't imagine not bringing a music mix with me to the proverbial desert island. In fact, it goes further back than the iPod. I grew up in the …

This is a weighty matter, or would be if there was the slightest possibility that it might actually happen. In my case it's complicated by the fact that I'm older than dirt, and have more …

These days when you can download all sorts of music into an iPod and burn your own CDs, it's odd to think of taking one prerecorded CD to a desert island. But the spirit of …

My life changed forever when I was 13 years old. Up until this time, my thoughts were filled with jumping my BMX bike off curbs and lighting things on fire in my back yard. This …

I've been sleeping on a lumpy sofa for several days, and my back is on fire. The sofa isn't in my own house, a take-no-prisoners zone I return to only to collect fresh clothes, but …