On a winter night in 2002, Christopher Yanov, the founder and sole staff member of Reality Changers, sat with a handful of eighth graders and their college-student tutors in a meeting room in the Iglesia …
December 23, 2008
Blog Entries
- Wherever You Go, There You Are
- The Fabled Green Flash, Liquidambar Trees, and Jupiter-Mercury-Venus and the Moon in the Southwestern Sky
- 35 Seconds a Life...
- Burger Commercials
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News & Stories
San Diego gangbangers pushed to college
O Christmas Tree
O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!Thy leaves are so unchanging...Not only green when summer’s here,But also when ’tis cold and drear... Hubby Patrick heckled me with his singing because our Christmas tree’s leaves were anything …
December 23, 2008
Why they're stumping San Diego's avocado trees
Throughout last winter and spring, one could put one’s ear to the wind almost anywhere in North County and hear the buzz of chainsaws as avocado farmers cut down their trees. While this tropical fruit …
December 23, 2008
Playoff Scenerios Bought and Sold
It’s still a Norv Turner team, make no mistake, but in spite of that, the AFC West championship now lies in San Diego’s hands. Or Denver’s, depending on your point of view. If the Chargers …
December 23, 2008
The Ten Roads to Riches
What are you reading? “The Ten Roads to Riches, by Ken Fisher. Also, 50 Prosperity Classics, by Tom Butler-Bowdon. And Seinology, by Tim Delaney.” Tell me about them. “Ken Fisher is one of Forbes’ 400 …
December 23, 2008
Hellman Wilderness Park
The rambling Puente Hills, overlooking the San Gabriel Valley to the north and Orange County to the south, interrupt what would otherwise be a continuous spread of flat, nondescript suburbs. Rising no higher than 1500 …
December 23, 2008
Rain Made a Clown of Me
Rain made a clown out of me. Not one of those funny clowns, if there ever was such a thing, but rather a sad-faced, hobo clown who forever looks as if his coffee is cold, …
December 23, 2008
Restaurant Porn, Italian Style
Olivetto is no relation to the fabled Oliveto up north in the Rockridge District of Oakland — there’s no Paul Bertolli in the kitchen, creating legendary handmade salumi from scratch. But, with that out of …
December 23, 2008
Bubbly Fish, "Old McDonald"
Dear Matt: Why does my fish blow bubbles? Sometimes it will just be hanging out and all of a sudden it will cut loose with a bubble from its mouth. How does air get in …
December 23, 2008
Quaint Past
Each holiday season, Lamb’s Players presents an annual Christmas show at its resident theater and a three-hour extravaganza, An American Christmas, at the Hotel del Coronado. Set 100 years ago, the program for American Christmas …
December 23, 2008
Finish Line
Don’t open before Christmas: The Reader is the trite and true story of a once fat and sassy alternative free weekly, now struggling for survival amidst a plummeting economy, skyrocketing paper costs, shrinking page size, …
December 23, 2008
Christmas on the Loop
Christmas is getting harder to dodge as a topic, and I may have outwritten that one. I think I have columns running right past that date. Either way, allow me to indulge in a favorite …
December 23, 2008
Happy Anniversary?
Lou’s Records, about to enter its 30th year of business, is in “serious financial trouble,” according to a store employee. The source and others say that the Leucadia record store is experiencing at least temporary …
December 23, 2008
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
There’s a funk band playing just about every night in some packed club somewhere, and the best or most famous funk bands tour all the time. But funk bands typically don’t sell a lot of …
December 23, 2008
Timberlake: Very Impressive
Heavy Glow recently recorded an EP at Velvet Revolver’s L.A. studio with guitarist/producer Stevie Salas. “Slash’s guitar was there,” says front man Jared, “and I played it while we recorded. I met [GNR/VR drummer] Matt …
December 23, 2008
Strange Stage Moments
Randy Seol/Strawberry Alarm Clock: “We got to play the big music festival, Cal Jam II [in 1978], on a side stage. It was a big production, with modern dancers and backing singers. For some reason, …
December 23, 2008
Nuke the Atoll
Christmas Island was formed in August 2007. “Lucy [Wehrly] and I had already been dating awhile when we decided to play music together and record some songs,” says Brian Island. Brian’s on guitar; Lucy’s on …
December 23, 2008
Virtual Water Cooler
“Someone smells a little too human at Trader Joe’s.” — Shindotv on Twitter I bowed forward 90 degrees and slowly lifted my right leg into the air behind me, like a ballerina only not as …
December 23, 2008
Tiny Bubbles
There was an October wedding in Coronado with a reception on Soledad Mountain. A guy named Jeff called to suggest I crash the Hawaiian-themed affair. I wore a Hawaiian shirt to fit in. The problem …
December 23, 2008
Zank, Jack, and Ron
Artist: ZankSong: “Sorry” (from the CD Without a Bridge)Heard By: Abe Sanchez, Rosarito, Mexico It’s not bad. It’s something I’d definitely listen to on the radio, but I don’t know if I’d go out and …
December 23, 2008
Tinsel on a Palm Tree
Christmas is on my mind. As a season in San Diego it is to me as cruel as April was to the poet T.S. Eliot. New Year’s, I maintain, does not matter so much. My …
December 23, 2008
Know Your Enemy
Accused of attacking several local goths, James Eric Benham was sentenced in late November for two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts of assault. Victim James Howard of the Gothic Volunteer Alliance says the Navy …
December 23, 2008
Give the Kid a Job!
Last Saturday, the San Diego African American Musician Heritage Foundation inducted local jazzman Jesse Davis into its hall of fame. Davis shares this distinction with local luminaries such as Fro Brigham, Hollis Gentry III, Carl …
December 23, 2008
Pie A-Peel
I admit it: I’m moth to the flame. Just ambling down Garnet, around 8:00 at night. Place is buzzing with life. But right across from Longboard’s rowdy crowd, I start feeling the pull of this …
December 23, 2008
Pro-football pushing San Diego closer to bankruptcy
"The pride and presence of a professional football team is far more important than 30 libraries.” Intelligent people laughed when former pro-football-team owner Art Modell made the comment. Now San Diego, painfully broke, is the …
December 23, 2008