Pacific Beach. 2:00 p.m. A typical, sunny summer Saturday. The smell of spilled beer mingles with sea mist and wet wood. I'm bar-hopping, and not one establishment I enter at midday is empty. Many are …
July 19, 2007
News & Stories
Pacific Beach cracks down on beach boozers
Them
Fear is not the natural state of civilized people. -- Aung San Suu Kyi If the morning had been anything other than unremarkable, I might have been better prepared for the terrible onslaught that was …
July 19, 2007
Bonita Orthodox Presbyterian Church
July 15 was summer intern Christopher Chelpka's first Sunday morning sermon at Bonita Presbyterian. "Many seminaries are starting to require these guys to go out and have a testing of the gifts they think they …
July 19, 2007
Hater High
Best known as Tom Waits's alma mater, Hilltop High's current rock scene is identified by its two active camps: you have the fashion-conscious emo kids and the always-aggro hardcores. No One Home, nicknamed the "Hispanic …
July 19, 2007
Street Hits the Road
The Union-Tribune has shrunk its weekly eight-page "Street" section from eight pages to one. Over its 21-month history as a pull-out section in "Night and Day," Street had featured local-music types such as Michael Horvath …
July 19, 2007
Shipwrecked
"It was a full-on bar brawl, like you see on Most Shocking Videos," says VV Morgue of a July 5 event she promoted at Chasers. As the band Ghost Ship was playing, Morgue reports, "I …
July 19, 2007
Housebroken
Habitat House, a residence and home recording studio at 1008 21st Street, has been hosting house parties with live music for several months. Upwards of 100 people attend, with cover charges usually waived due to …
July 19, 2007
Love Juice Liquidation
When Brian Witkin opened his Love Juice Labs last year, he scoffed at those who dismissed the discount recording facility as "McStudio." He maintained there were three other successful Love Juice Labs, all franchised by …
July 19, 2007
The Reader's Eye on Television
San Diego Public Access Channel presents: Sex Education as Taught by Your Bashful Nephew Hi, I'm Ollie, your bashful nephew. They told me to give this sex education class on the TV because I screwed …
July 19, 2007
Xeriscape: Rock Rose, Kangaroo Paw
'We hit 115 [degrees] here last July, and the rock rose and lavender did fine," says Don Schultz, horticulture manager for the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College. In the desert, where temperatures recently reached …
July 19, 2007
Windansea Beach, La Jolla
Name: Larry Davis Vehicle: 1995 Toyota pickup Lives: University City Surfing: Windansea Beach, La Jolla "Not born here, but raised here," Larry Davis said. "Moved here from Memphis, Tennessee, when I was two or three. …
July 19, 2007
Room for Jell-O
Making it to two parties in one night isn't usually a problem, but driving down from L.A. for a 5:00 p.m. event, traffic gets in the way. The first event was a fundraiser for Habitat …
July 19, 2007
Avalanche Jetty, Ocean Beach
Name: Julian Vereda Home: San Diego Vehicle: 1991 Jeep Wrangler Surfing: Avalanche Jetty, Ocean Beach While serving aboard the USS Cleveland (LPD-7), Julian Vereda saw the greatest site ever offered to any surfer: Cortes Bank …
July 19, 2007
Dream Come True
"They want to have their own private label - the family wine."
Slam Pick, Talent, Muffin Top
Chris Hall Age: 32 Occupation: Remodel/construction Lives: Mission Valley "Slam Pick" is what we call the last girl at the bar. She's just hanging out until closing time, waiting to get picked up. A lot …
July 19, 2007
Spunk
'The band started out as a one-off thing, to play a Halloween party with our friends in the band Three Piece Unit," says Dave Howarth, guitarist for Blue Shift. "When we started getting gigs at …
July 19, 2007
Mid-Summer Sports Issue
Regulars are aware that the Box regards American politics as a spectator sport. There are star players, teams, leagues, playoffs, and a national champion. Fans follow the game from childhood on, and once a fan …
July 19, 2007
Sunroad, McMillin, Pardee pay to rewrite Otay Mesa community plan
What is it about Sunroad Enterprises and regional airports? During the same period in which certain City planners were plotting to use Sunroad's defiance of federal and state air safety laws as a pretext to …
July 19, 2007
Copley Press sells nine newspapers in Illinois and Ohio
On April 11 of this year, Copley Press, parent of the Union-Tribune, sold nine newspapers in Illinois and Ohio for $382.5 million. Now we know: those papers were losing money. The buyer was GateHouse Media …
July 19, 2007
Barona Indians kick up motorcycle dust onto San Diego Country Estates
On a weekday, the west end of Barona Mesa Road in San Diego Country Estates is as bucolic a spot to live as any in San Diego County. An eclectic array of $600,000 homes on …
July 19, 2007
San Diego Library Foundation only scrapes together $2 million
Almost six years ago, on July 30, 2001, the San Diego city council, led by Mayor Dick Murphy, voted to give $1 million to the San Diego Library Foundation, a small nonprofit group incorporated only …
July 19, 2007
Literary agent Sandy Dijkstra attacks Union-Tribune killing of book section
The great debate over the demise of the Union-Tribune's freestanding book section rages on, led by outspoken Del Mar literary agent Sandy Dijkstra. "My point is that even though the U-T's revenues may not be …
July 19, 2007
Crowd Pleaser
Looking for an undemanding summer bagatelle? Go see the Old Globe's Measure for Measure. It's a real crowd-pleaser. Of course, if you want an earnest exploration of one of Shakespeare's most intricate works -- designed, …
July 19, 2007
I dream of Paul with more frequency in the summer, and he is always a boy.
Summer seems to be more and more a reminder of mortality -- traditionally, poetically, ass-backwards from the norm, I would think. When my English teacher Mr. Grey asked the class of high school sophomores why …
July 19, 2007
The Case of the P.B. Mermaid
The Case of the P.B. Mermaid All manner of stuff sails in through the open windows here at Alice Inquiries and Pedicures, LLC. Some of it from places not very near us at all. A …
July 19, 2007
Exploding Heads
Dear Matt: I just received this e-mail. "Doctors are blaming a rare electrical imbalance in the brain for the bizarre death of a chess player whose head literally exploded in the middle of a championship …
July 19, 2007
A Motel 6 of the Mouth
I've always wondered why I've never seen any reviews of The Shores, the less formal, less ambitious restaurant next door to the exalted Marine Room, but under the same ownership and same awesome executive chef, …
July 19, 2007
Catch the cool evening breeze from a hilltop in Heller's Bend Preserve near Fallbrook.
Once rich in rural landscapes, the area between Fallbrook and Bonsall has experienced a lot of suburban growth -- everything from full-blown subdivisions to large-acreage lots with mini-mansions placed on them. Fallbrook remains the "avocado …
July 19, 2007
Flavored Water
The bottled-water section dizzied me as I searched through the sea of containers for flavored water with no sugar. I was hunting out beverages for Jennifer, a pregnant pal of mine who has gestational diabetes. …
July 19, 2007