Miki Vale hails from Oxnard, California, making her musical debut on The Awakening, a 2004 compilation album from SGM (Sleeping Giant Music). In 2006 she collaborated with fellow Oxnard hip-hop artist Kankick for a 7” …
March 26, 2008
Blog Entries
News & Stories
Strength in Numbers
Killer Kabobs
The vapors, the vapors. Oh, man. Me thinketh I shall swoon. Unlike Bill Clinton, I inhale deeply. Rose aromas? Cardamom? Honey? It sits steaming under my schnozz here at the granite-top counter as I wait …
March 26, 2008
Light of Life Church
“Allow yourself to simply be one with the service,” read one of the suggestions in the program for the Good Friday Taizé Service at Light of Life Church. But there’s nothing like a nagging cough …
March 26, 2008
Cavalcade of Raunch
There is no way around it, not for several more weeks; I can’t get out, cruising on crutches to look into neat stuff to do on Fridays or weekends. I am reduced to poring over …
March 26, 2008
Presumption of Death
What book are you currently reading? “Presumption of Death, by Perri O’Shaughnessy.” Tell me about the book. “It is a legal thriller. It is about an arson in Carmel Valley. Two boys went into the …
March 26, 2008
Bitter Sugar, Waking Ned Devine, No One Writes the Colonel
Lisa FranekFilmmaker and lecturer, SDSU Arturo Ripstein’s No One Writes the Colonel is just beautiful. The camerawork is amazing; it’s filled with rich colors. It’s a beautiful storyline that’s dark and dreary but still really …
March 26, 2008
Party Poopage
An anonymous letter sent to a handful of city departments and the state bureau of Alcohol Beverage Control has put a stop to Mission Bay Boat & Ski Club concerts organized by Cathryn Beeks. She …
March 26, 2008
Crazy
People fall in love. They fall in love with other people, with their pets, with the city they live in (or the city they don’t live in), with books, entertainers, crystals, artichokes, and, ranking near …
March 26, 2008
Roger Revisited
Thirty Years AgoA former alcoholic, Sister Winnie first immersed herself in rescue work 28 years ago when she took over the city’s oldest such haven (then 25 years old) and rechristened it God’s Extended Hand. …
March 26, 2008
Woof!
“I wasn’t mentally stable on that first record,” said Tom DeLonge recently to the Ventura County Reporter; DeLonge referred to the 2006 Angels and Airwaves disc We Don’t Need to Whisper. “I was spun out …
March 26, 2008
No Drug-Dealing Nonsense
In February, Lil Niqo played an international rugby tournament at Petco Park that included teams from 16 countries. The rapper – a third-grader at Pepper Drive elementary in Santee – has had a few good …
March 26, 2008
Bad Big C
Brassy blues diva Candye Kane has been diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine tumor, a form of pancreatic cancer. On February 22, Kane was admitted to the Scripps Encinitas emergency room with abdominal pain. The symptoms …
March 26, 2008
San Diego breweries face hops shortage
Yuseff Cherney says his revered and super-bitter Dorado Double India Pale Ale has become too expensive, if not impossible, to make. Cherney is head brewer at Ballast Point Brewing Company, which has breweries in Linda …
March 26, 2008
Baby Band Blues
Louis XIV is on tour supporting Slick Dogs and Ponies, the band’s second Atlantic album. Released January 29, Ponies has yet to break into the Billboard Top 200 album chart. One insider says that being …
March 26, 2008
She's a Keeper
Spring is here and pal Bernice has soccer on the brain. A layer of dust has descended on her cleats in the closet. Her shoe size is a higher number, as is her jersey size; …
March 26, 2008
Sweet deal
It’s politics with an inside twist at the County Administration Building, where Jim Duffy, a sheriff’s lieutenant, took over earlier this year as Republican county supervisor Ron Roberts’s chief of staff. Son of the late …
March 26, 2008
Jay Reatard
Jay Reatard is the questionable stage name of prolific Memphis resident Jay Lindsey, who has been recording and releasing music for about ten years as a solo artist and with the Reatards, the Lost Sounds, …
March 26, 2008
The Problem with Really Good Times
Post Date: March 12, 2007Post Title: The Problem with Really Good TimesIt’s partly the empty chest of a lingering hangover, but at the end of weekends like this I feel like breaking down over the …
March 26, 2008
Mystery Meat
There were a couple of video-release parties I hit downtown. The first was for a band called Crash Encore. It was a video-premiere party for their song “Stormy Weather” at the Buzz Clothing Warehouse on …
March 26, 2008
Dollar flows
Employees of a small defense contractor headquartered in Mission Valley have created a stir in local political circles with their flurry of contributions this past fall to Third District San Diego city council candidate Todd …
March 26, 2008
Watch the Birdie
“There is a kind of goofy stereotype of birdwatchers, that birders always have that funny hat and something like a fishing vest with all those pockets,” says biologist Tom Troy. “I don’t have one, but …
March 26, 2008
Frankenyeast
File Under: Fiction Is Good for You. I was reading Peter May’s crime novel The Critic, which took as a dramatic starting point the murder of a famous wine critic, one Gil Petty. The hero, …
Almost a Boy Scout
For a long time, the only development project in my neighborhood belonged to a swarm of wasps building a papery hive in the corner of an abandoned storefront. They were the only things fighting entropy …
March 26, 2008
Holy Jim Falls
Sometimes the intimacy of a small, hidden waterfall is more aesthetically rewarding than the thunder of a famous one. Such is the case with Holy Jim Falls. Tucked into a short, steep canyon draining the …
March 26, 2008
New Model Army
I tell Justin Sullivan that without rock, I might not have survived adolescence. I tell him that my 1960s teenage alienation was overwhelming, that rock lyrics put better words to my black anger than I …
March 26, 2008
Chain of Gold
No, to answer everybody’s first question, the flashy new Gaslamp Nobu is no relation to our sweet and humble Solana Beach Nobu, owned by Nobu Tsushita. For better or worse, our Nobu-sur mer merely shares …
March 26, 2008
Modern Day Moonshine
Album: Same Old Fight (2007) Artist: Modern Day Moonshine Label: self-released Where available/price: At live shows for $8, or order it online from myspace.com/moderndaymoonshine for $8. Songs: 1) Intro 2) Such a Shame 3) Unite …
March 26, 2008
San Diego to Sacramento
Big labor is throwing in big money to oppose San Diego fifth district Republican city council candidate Carl DeMaio, a self-styled government reformer opposed by city employee unions. A state campaign disclosure filing made earlier …
March 26, 2008
Stones
It takes a bit of cheek to call a film Flawless. Especially a Demi Moore film. In it, she carries that affixed chip on her shoulder into the role of the sole female executive at …
March 26, 2008
Thanks to Jack by Jordan Keith
It was one of my favorite events of the year: the Brazil Carnaval at 4th&B. She and I had just met, but we danced the samba as if we had known each other forever. The …
March 26, 2008
Night Rider
Name: Jeff Marr Occupation: Lab technician Age: 38 Lives in: Ocean Beach Night-surfing: Dog Beach Pre-surf music: Marvin Gaye Post-surf food: Fish tacos “It’s so peaceful and beautiful at night, I can literally walk out …
March 26, 2008
Shore Stop
Fishing is boring, unless you catch an actual fish, and then it is disgusting. — Dave Barry The way my friend Jen tells it, her boyfriend Rob arrived home from work an hour before sunset …
March 26, 2008
The Too-Late Shift, 1972
Gail Jones at the downtown Woolworth’s store, 1972. Jones and a friend, waitresses at the store’s café, were in the dressing room changing their clothes when management locked up at 6 p.m. and went home …
March 26, 2008
Hot Topic Nu-Metal
Artist: The Devastators Song: “Land of Woe” (from the CD Better Days) Heard By: Nicholas Kistler, Golden Hill I was listening to it and, sure, I heard a beat that was synonymous with reggae, but …
March 26, 2008
Name This Place
Clue: Dead reckoning at holy field. Describe this location, name the nearest cross-streets, and win a Reader T-shirt. Enter by completing the form below. Last week's place: (clue: Exotic auto zone, commercially speaking) San Diego …
March 26, 2008
How Sam Became the Cooking Guy
Sam Zien is a regular guy. He’s a husband, he’s the father of three teenage boys, and he has two dogs, an orange Labrador and a Chinese Crested. He also happens to have both a …
March 26, 2008
The search in San Diego for chivalry, knot tying, writing by hand, blacksmiths, etiquette, navigation
Seemingly everything has been called a “lost art.” Spelling, conversation, keeping a secret, note taking, listening, and even (why not?) hollering. One string of online text even refers to the lost art of blogging.What constitutes …
March 26, 2008
SDG&E to install 2-way meter readers
The Iceman Cometh, predicted playwright Eugene O’Neill, but eventually, the iceman went, and so did the milkman and the doctor willing to make house calls. Next to disappear: San Diego Gas & Electric meter readers. …
March 26, 2008
Award-winner milks Big Bear resort
Ponzi schemes — in which early investors are paid off with funds from later investors — are most often tied to stocks, commodities, and currencies. But just a few years ago, when Southern California real …
March 26, 2008