My cell phone was apparently assembled at gunpoint by drunk Yugoslavians in the year 1984. The only way for it to receive any sort of discernible transmission within my house is for me to hold …
January 14, 2009
Blog Entries
- LA Times Editor Says Online Ad Revenue Enough to Cover Entire Print and Online Payroll
10 comments
- The Dark Roast
- Fabiani Is Principal in New Consulting Firm Featuring Both Republicans and Democrats
2 comments
- Waterfalls, Tree Aloes, and the Evening Star
- Buying Brides With Beer
10 comments
- St. Augustine evens score with University City
1 comment
- Food
2 comments
News & Stories
Where can I get some peace and quiet? Not PB, not Poway, not Hillcrest, not downtown
Is Moores Jumping Out Just in Time Again?
In the past, pro sports has been considered somewhat recession-proof. Not this year, and perhaps not in 2010. Attendance is already sagging, despite the slashing of some seat prices, even in the affluent National Football …
January 14, 2009
Pisco Sours and "Kung Fu" Squid
Vagabond was a sensation when it opened in the spring of ’06. As the realtors say, it had a huge edge: location (times three). Restaurateurs Philippe Beltran and Jerome Gombert chose to open an eclectic …
January 14, 2009
The Inside Story
Thirty Years AgoSo you think Dylan is a has-been/ And Ronstadt is adolescent cheesecake./ Well, bein’ dumb is no original sin,/ But you still gotta live by the choices you make./You know critics are frustrated …
January 14, 2009
Linguine with Sea Urchins
Recipe by Gordon Smith, private chef and former owner/chef, Gordon’s Basil St. Cafe. I’ve always been a chef in San Diego for San Diego. In the ’90s, Basil St. Café was one of the first …
January 14, 2009
Bayside Trail
The Bayside Trail, sweeping downward from the old lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma, offers an incomparable view of the city of San Diego and its watery environs. Amid the sweet-pungent sage scrub …
January 14, 2009
Continuation School Sports
I spent the morning calling small high schools in East County, asking if our state-budget debacle has affected their sports programs. This led me to Calexico, California, the person of principal Dan Plough, and his …
January 14, 2009
Pizza Nut
There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won’t, and that’s a wife who can’t cook and will. — Robert Frost I felt a twinge in my stomach and looked …
January 14, 2009
Crossroads Church
“You don’t argue with a calling,” said Pastor Matt Ortiz before the service in the refurbished school auditorium. “We started out in west Chula Vista, but God called us into National City. I was talking …
January 14, 2009
Backyard Bow-Hunting in La Jolla
I live in La Jolla, once a scrub-covered area of sandstone hills and arroyos, now covered with homes that, come a half inch of rain or so, slide down said hills into said arroyos. No …
January 14, 2009
Unfree Wheelers
Another few stragglers from the year gone by.... Revolutionary Road comes confusingly too soon after Reservation Road, a mere year apart, although in fairness the novels on which they were based (by Richard Yates and …
January 14, 2009
Dream Burgers
“It’s demeaning,” says Carla. “Treating them like sex objects. And the men! They look so stupid, like kids spying on a nudist camp.” Part of me agrees. On the other hand, my buddy Frankie — …
January 14, 2009
Some Should Die
More people should die. Our only problem as a society is that we lack the moral resolve to let it happen. We have no distinguishable line to draw — everyone on this side we will …
January 14, 2009
Rockin' Around the Block
When I was four, I formed two distinct memories of events that happened at Christmastime. The first was when my mom, newly single, took my older brother and me to see Santa Claus. We didn’t …
January 14, 2009
Dog Sense, Hair Loss
Matthew: My dog, a sweet, goofy retriever, can always tell when my husband is coming home. He heads for the garage door every night about five minutes before I hear his car. I know lots …
January 14, 2009
Cover Crops
“I could break a Mack truck’s windshield with some of these grocery-store tomatoes,” griped my gardener friend Shawn. “I hate buying produce at the grocery store. This is San Diego; I should be able to …
Doubt and Indecision
In the past minute or three I’ve been trying to determine what it is that so distinguishes one month from another. What is it that transpires from January to February? For comparison, I’ve thought of …
January 14, 2009
To the Marrow
When American Buffalo premiered on Broadway in 1977, critics had to devise new terms to praise David Mamet’s craft. It wasn’t simply realistic, they said; it was “micro-real” or “hyper-real” or even “really real.” Mamet’s …
January 14, 2009
Hungry Boyz
When Boyz II Men appear tonight at the House of Blues, they want only “white meat chicken, no fried.” They’d also like baked salmon, steamed lobster, grilled jumbo shrimp, grilled tuna, and pasta (“prepared in …
January 14, 2009
Knuckle Bonus-Jacks
Twenty-nine years ago this week (1/18/80), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sold out downtown’s Golden Hall. It was the band’s first time in San Diego since playing SDSU’s Montezuma Hall two years earlier. Concert reviewer …
January 14, 2009
Hobby Lobby
My favorite slang word comes from a Leslie Hall skit. She calls a place the Hobby Lobby. My friends and I took the term “hobby lobby” and started using it to mean something that is …
January 14, 2009
In and under the hood
With state budget problems festering and vital services being cut left and right, attention has inevitably turned to the state-subsidized leased wheels used by most members of the California legislature. On the assembly side of …
January 14, 2009
Bust out
KPBS, the public broadcasting operation run by San Diego State University, is out with its financial report for the 12 months ending in June of last year, and it reveals that cash dedicated to actual …
January 14, 2009
Beach House
Beach House is the name of the band, but “Bleak House” is more like it. The duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally specializes in beautiful but slightly unsettling music built on slow drumbeats, droning …
January 14, 2009
Most Downloaded, December
“All I Got,” by Astra Kelly, was the most-downloaded MP3 from SDReader.com during the month of December. Below is an interview with the songwriter. What inspired you to write “All I Got”? Astra Kelly: The …
January 14, 2009
In Your Face, MySpace
Ross May, singer-guitarist with Faded Chroniclez, played twice at West Hollywood’s Whisky a Go Go last year. Each gig cost his band $600. “We had to drop a deposit of half up front when we …
January 14, 2009
Happylicious
Happy Ron’s appearance on Sunday, January 18, at Clairemont’s Blarney Stone Pub will be his 1000th open-mike performance. “I started in 1997, and believe it or not, poetry open-mikes are the most borderline violent,” says …
January 14, 2009
Eventual Rebound Girlfriend
Nam Chi Vu of San Diego’s Riboflavin is a rare multi-threat talent. As a bassist, she’s among the city’s two or three best, comfortable playing classical, jazz, and rock. Now she’s involved in a local …
January 14, 2009
No Rock and Roll Excess
Liquid Blue became the greenest band in the world in 2008,” according to bandleader Scott Stephens, “as we installed solar panels at our office and recording studio and implemented many other green programs.… “We use …
January 14, 2009
Pols in the headlights
In recent news from the state capital, Lori Saldaña, assembly Speaker pro tempore, has moved into Capitol office 3152, “known for having some of the nicer window views in the Assembly,” according to Capitol Weekly. …
January 14, 2009
Qualcomm stadium parking lot – older computers are more valuable for recyclers
It’s not yet 9:00 a.m. on September 6, but the late-summer sun is already baking the blacktop of the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot. It’s hot and promises to get hotter. Sweat drips from the foreheads …
January 14, 2009
New Stephen Birch Healthcare Center Unveiled
On Saturday, January 10, 2009, the new Stephen Birch Healthcare Center at Sharp Memorial Hospital was officially unveiled to the public. Hospital staff members were on hand at the 315,000-square-foot, 334-bed facility to provide tours …
January 14, 2009