In Kearny Mesa, on a road called Opportunity, people in the Transportation Management Center watch over us. The operations room looks like a set from a film on NASA space travel. Designed like a theater, …
January 2, 2008
Blog Entries
- New Year's Resolution Rant
3 comments
- Truck Dismantler Shot, Killed in Lakeside
- Officer Stryker Slain in Line of Duty
1 comment
- Homicide Probe in Child's Suspicious Death
- Case of the First 2008 Homicide
News & Stories
CHP and Caltrans are watching us drive on the freeway
In a Better Place
They passed on in 2007: January 12: Jimmy Cheatham, 82/Jazz trombonist, UCSD educator, recording artist. January 27: Glenna Hazleton, 91/Founder of La Jolla Athenaeum noon mini-concerts, 1970. February 6: Frankie Laine, 93/1950s--1990s crooner, TV and …
January 2, 2008
Glossines with Benefits
" 'Well, let's have a benefit show for you!' -- that's what everybody was saying," relates Glossines singer-bassist Amber Everson. The native San Diegan needs surgery to remove a polyp from her vocal cords as …
January 2, 2008
Now Listen Up
Jess Reed, singer/songwriter/guitarist with Diamonds of Rome, says, "If a band is starting up, you have to do everything you can do to promote. Competition is really fierce. If you really believe in your music, …
January 2, 2008
Sax Worker
When San Diego's Creedle suspended operations a decade ago, the quirky avant-rock-jazz band had streamlined down to a quartet. In 1996, the bass/drums/guitar/sax lineup released its third and final album, When the Wind Blows -- …
January 2, 2008
Everyone's a Critic
Will the Union-Tribune be cutting back on its music coverage? Earlier this month, a memo from U-T management to employees said that 43 editorial positions were going to be eliminated, including 3 "critic" positions from …
January 2, 2008
Who Charted?
San Diego musicians did not have a major impact on the national album charts in 2007. Angels & Airwaves' second Geffen album, I-Empire, debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart when it …
January 2, 2008
Mr. San Diego, Convoy, DUI
Fifteen Years Ago The death of shopping center czar Ernest Hahn last week got plenty of coverage in the San Diego Union-Tribune. There were three stories and one editorial the day after his death, and …
January 2, 2008
Chow of Thao
If you and your eating buddies feel like tasting your way through several Asian countries and are looking for economy fare, then Chow is designed for you. It’s the latest venture of restaurateur Alex Thao, …
January 2, 2008
Lost Horizon, Wizard of Oz, Monkey Business
Francis WeidingerIndependent filmmaker Lost Horizon: Garden of Eden in black-and-white. Frank Capra can be awesome, funny, and satirical. But in Lost Horizon, he got lost. It’s still fun to take the trip and see utopia …
January 2, 2008
The History of Christendom
What book are you currently reading? “The History of Christendom, which is actually a series of six books. Only five are published — I’m waiting for the sixth. I just finished the fifth one: The …
January 2, 2008
Get Paid Lately?
Fifty on Their Heels manager Scott Pactor offers advice on how bands can land repeat paying gigs: "Low bar total equals failure, high bar total equals success," he blogs at catdirtsez.blogspot.com. "The success of the …
January 2, 2008
Mike “The Feel” Schaub, 12 Cent, Little Man T
Artist: Mike “The Feel” Schaub Song: “The Greatest Wife in Texas” (from the CD One Man Wilding) Heard By: Rebecca Moos, Mission Hills His voice sort of reminds me of Nick Drake. His voice wasn’t …
January 2, 2008
Sanctimony
One:We sit silently together for an hour every day, each of us pretending to be engrossed in the iPod/the book/ the computer/the knitting/the cell phone/the journal we brought to entertain us for the duration of …
January 2, 2008
TiVo for the New Year
Wow. 2008 can choke on it. First day, I was shot in the butt with a BB gun. I’m not kidding. Some little terrorist with a pump-action Daisy and a swift bicycle lay in wait …
January 2, 2008
A Good Place
“This year five shows announced themselves ‘Broadway bound’ even before they opened!”
January 2, 2008
Get Back Loretta
It’s probably a bad idea to name your band with a Beatles reference, especially if you write melodic, exquisitely arranged guitar-pop songs with lots of vocal harmonies. That’s like having a Led Zeppelin-y hard-rock band …
January 2, 2008
Two Exec Jets Flying
Speaking of private flying, the most dangerous local airport of 2007 turned out to be County-owned McClellan-Palomar in Carlsbad, with a total of five fatalities in two separate accidents. The first, on April 29, involved …
January 2, 2008
The Moves
San Diego city councilwoman Toni Atkins’s significant other, Jennifer LeSar, has asked the City’s Ethics Commission for some conflict-of-interest advice about her relationship with several unnamed clients who apparently may soon be doing business at …
January 2, 2008
Pepe's Place
“When I was courting my wife, I’d turn up outside her home with ten mariachis.”
Hunky Dory
Louis XIV formed in early 2003 when former members of alt-country locals Convoy chose sexed-up pop over redneck rock. In January 2005 the Illegal Tender EP, self-released on their own Pineapple Recording Group label, popped …
January 2, 2008
Sport Year in Preview
The Box is nothing if not forward thinking. Who cares about “Sports Year in Review” rehash stories? Not me. Not you. Stories about the past bore forward thinkers. Anybody can write about what happened; the …
January 2, 2008
San Elijo Lagoon
A great blue heron ambles on stilt-legs across the reed-fringed shallows, stabbing occasionally at subsurface morsels of food. A willowy egret glides in for a perfect landing, scattering concentric ripples across the surface of the …
January 2, 2008
Agave, Radiates Your Head
Nothing can be said of track 5, “Lazy Naked Sundays,” except it is downright irritating. The other songs reach the ear somewhere in the range of “slightly talented beach jam-band pabulum” and “overwrought pretentiousness.” Agave …
January 2, 2008
Merry Tuesday
“I hate the holidays,” he had said on more than one occasion. “The obligation, the pressure, the spending money on things that people don’t need.”
January 2, 2008
Jeannie Cheatham
“I wasn’t a singer,” says Jeannie Cheatham after I tell her how much I have enjoyed her singing over the years. “I was always a piano player,” she says, “that played for other vocalists.” Maybe …
Black's Beach
Name: Lyn Siem and Lisa Carulli Live: Ocean Beach Surfing: Black’s Beach Black’s Beach, famous for being “clothing optional,” is also a favorite of surfers because of its ability to hold a large swell. While …
January 2, 2008
At the Cusp
“These are people who are established. They’re well known for writing books.”
Barn Owl Boxes
“One nesting pair of California barn owls could consume as many as 2000 gophers, rats, and mice.”
January 2, 2008
Not to fear, Joseph
A number of spiritual currents ran through the service on the Sunday before Christmas at Hope United Methodist; several made themselves felt within the choir’s opening set. We began with the traditional: a straight-up rendition …
January 2, 2008
Dr. Robin Hood
One breast implant was punctured three weeks into his practice. Saline shot into the air.
January 2, 2008
Potrero land purchaser tries his best to obey fire regs
Paul Sommers promised his mother, when she was dying in 2002, that he would wisely invest the money she was about to leave him. After she died, he began looking for land in East San …
January 2, 2008
In San Diego, homes of 900 square feet were going for more than $400,000
Who could have foreseen the housing bubble? And its malodorous bursting? Well, San Diegans, certainly, should have seen it, and some did: until late 2005, home prices had soared beyond anybody’s imagination as buyers grabbed …
January 2, 2008
Mt. Olivet Cemetery, 1963
Four years ago, usgennet.org issued a report on the cemetery located in Nestor off Saturn Boulevard, near Coronado Avenue. The report indicated that the 20 found gravestones were "unmarked," "broken," "toppled," "disintegrating," "buried," and "vandalized."The …
January 2, 2008