An explosion rocked the residents of an Imperial Beach apartment complex at around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 28. Residents of the Imperial House Apartments at 1047 Seacoast Drive were sent scurrying from their units when …

During the May 27 meeting of the Solana Beach City Council, councilmembers made permanent a ban outlawing brews, wine, and cocktails, making dry the last of San Diego County’s beaches during busy summer months. (Del …

Imperial Beach councilman Fred McLean died of cancer on Sunday, May 24. Three days later, former mayor Diane Rose was appointed by the city council to fill his seat, despite the fact that an ad …

The “Toy Gun Bandit,” who has been robbing small businesses in the Mira Mesa area for the past five weeks, struck again on Friday, May 23. He entered the am/pm store on Black Mountain Road …

I am a regular rider on North County Transit District (NCTD) buses and the Sprinter. Over the years, I've developed friendships with several of the bus drivers. Their union, which includes maintenance workers (about 80) …

Officials from the Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) continue on their cross-city public relations tour to promote the construction of a new downtown civic center. Last week, the group showed their stuff to a near-empty …

Brian McCauley owns Traditions Tattoo shop at 1835 Palm Avenue, an old metal warehouse that once was home to an auto-parts store. “The neighborhood is messed up” says McCauley, a soon-to-retire Navy sailor. “We have …

Poway city councilmembers appointed a new — er, old councilmember on May 26 to fill the vacant seat left after the passing of former mayor Mickey Cafagna last month. After two special city council meetings, …

“I couldn’t believe it,” says the veteran San Diego lifeguard. “A kid shouted, ‘Hey, look!’ And I saw two of them with their parents, and I suddenly realized, oh my God. On a day like …

“The script was written based on the high school scene in coastal North County San Diego,” says Fabulous Rudies singer Tom Voris, music director for the upcoming film Punk Rock High School. “It’s based on …

What are you reading? “Because of Romek, by David Faber. It’s a Holocaust memoir. David Faber is a Holocaust survivor, and he lives in San Diego. Essentially, it’s about how his brother Romek saved him. …

“Service?” asked the smiling man at the entrance to the AMC Theatres in the Otay Ranch Town Center. I was a little surprised — it’s 10 in the morning — but he had reason to …

This is Saturday night, May 23, my birthday. I am celebrating at Jikojim, a Soto Zen retreat center in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The center has a Zendo (meditation hall), a dorm, a residents’ building, …

St. Vincent is the nom de rock of one Annie Clark, a young singer-songwriter shredder who has done time backing Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree. When I first heard Marry Me, St. Vincent’s debut …

In junior high, Kelly Dalton started writing songs and playing in bands and then began gigging, touring, and recording in his teens and 20s. “In the late ’90s I was in a punk band called …

Joey Harris and the Mentals are promoting their new ten-track self-titled album with a June 14 release show at Brick by Brick. “Mojo Nixon and Paul and Caren Kamanski will be joining us onstage,” says …

I love my father as the stars — he’s a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart. — Adabella Radici Dad sat on my red couch, his left hand clutching his right. …

On May 15, 1972, Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace had toned down his vein-bulging, racist views and began to rise in the opinion polls. He gave a speech at a shopping center in Laurel, Maryland. …

As the economic climate has turned even the well employed into the “working worried,” people accustomed to eating most dinners out are cooking at home — despite the long hours and killer commutes that initially …

Up here near the 94 College exit, a blue 1966 Valiant sits parked between a Frazee’s and a Weight Watchers place. Only one man in this town has a sky-blue ’66 Valiant: my buddy Rod, …

Cleaning out the disc bin on my desk, the Sendak-like pen-and-ink critters on Da Bears’ Classics/Cobra caught my eye. The collection was recorded from 2006 through ought eight. Better late than never, eh? And never …

The quiet, shady interior of El Prieto Canyon seems impossibly remote given its stone’s-throw proximity to the edge of an Altadena subdivision. Majestic live oaks flank the canyon’s stream, casting dense pools of shade. A …

Other casualties of the Election Day massacre may include the KPBS public broadcasting operation, owned and operated by San Diego State University. The bad budget news couldn’t come at a worse time. Hurting from previous …

Thirty Years AgoTwo years ago, small businessmen and poor Mexican-American homeowners in downtown Escondido led a campaign against the razing of portions of downtown for a shopping center to be developed by Ernest Hahn. On …

The Surfrider Foundation and Sierra Club are out with their environmental rankings of California Coastal Commission members, and San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso shows up near the bottom, at 10 out of 12, with …

A New Ubu I enjoyed your cover story of May 21 on Zirk Ubu by Thomas Lux (“Bless This Crew of Visionaries”) but was somewhat disappointed that he didn’t recognize the literary allusion in the …

As last week’s losing ballot propositions went down to the wire, the list of political losers began to mount. Among them, San Diego district attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who showed up on a list of those …

Rich Grosch, a staffer with Democratic assemblyman Marty Block, says he reimbursed the Viejas Indian tribe for the $37.11 in food and drink he consumed with Block and other staff members at the tribe’s restaurant, …

With two blockbusters in a single week — Terminator Salvation, alias T4, and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian — the summer sequels would appear to have leaped over the prequels. (Siding with, …

‘Remember when all you needed was a coat hanger you could slide over the window?” asked Patrick as he stared into our locked car at his keys dangling in the ignition. “You’d loop it down, …

On May 29 and 30, the Casbah will host the Ché Underground Reunion, a gathering of bands and fans who frequented UCSD’s student-run co-op Ché Café in the early ’80s. Organized by the online community …

How to explain what I was doing in Escondido as parking-lot cop on a Friday night in May for “Cruisin’ Grand: Pre-’74 American Hot Rods, Customs, Classics, Vintage & Muscle Cars.” Since I was 15, …

Dear Matthew Alice: When you give somebody mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, you’re blowing air out of your mouth into their lungs. I always thought that when we blew out air, there was no more oxygen in it …

A recent picture of the band Propagandhi shows four guys, a few of them approaching middle age, who look more about golf or office jobs than flat-out aggressive rock and roll. Founded in Manitoba in …

Artist: MutantspaceboySong: “Lost in Time” (from the CD Mutantspaceboy)Heard By: Rob Scheuch, Mission HillsI thought it was very different. It was mostly synthesizers. It started out really slow and then progressively picked up and got …

Last year, math-rock trio Swim Party sent a few of their songs and a brief bio to producers at Fuel TV’s action sports show, The Daily Habit. About six months later, a producer from the …

A mural at the San Elijo Retail Center in Cardiff-by-the-Sea has gone away. Local artist Kevin Anderson completed the four-by-seven-foot painting a year ago at the request of Commercial Facilities, Inc. The company manages the …

What began as a local backcountry struggle over San Diego Gas & Electric’s proposed Sunrise Powerlink is now a national issue, one that opponents of the project hope will challenge a key energy strategy of …

While Imperial Beach lifeguards prepared for a public safety demonstration on Saturday morning, May 23, a father and son aboard a sinking fishing boat gave rescuers a real emergency to deal with. “A fishing boat …

A 64-year-old grandmother is behind bars in Tijuana, accused of killing her 1-year-old granddaughter in a fit of rage by throwing the toddler down a staircase, causing fatal brain damage. According to a statement issued …

On Friday, May 22, according to county sheriffs’ radio traffic at about 11:50 a.m., the sheriff’s department received a call on a bank robbery in progress at the Citibank located at 13408 Poway Road. The …

On Friday, May 22, at about 5:45 p.m., the sound of crunching metal brought many neighbors out of their houses. A young man in a late-model Jeep Wrangler had swerved off Highway 94 west and …

Soon, the city council will decide on whether to enter into an agreement with Gerding Edlen Development for exclusive negotiations on a new downtown civic center. Jeff Graham, vice president of redevelopment for CCDC, likens …

It’s rattlesnake season again. With the recent warmer temperatures and sunny afternoons, encounters between local hikers and snakes are becoming more common. Iron Mountain Trail, on the outskirts of Poway, has been host to a …

At least six residents of the Presidio Place condos in west Mission Valley have had enough with the noise from the adjacent YMCA just south of Friars Road. So they have sued the YMCA. Plaintiffs …

A New Zealand white rabbit discovered last month by campers at Oceanside’s Guajome County Park has tested positive for Tularemia, or “rabbit fever,” a rare infectious disease that can cause severe illness and death in …

What caused a healthy 60-foot pine tree to snap at the base and crash down on Torrey Pines Road during rush hour last week? Typically, wet weather can soften areas around roots. But May 14 …

At the foot of the wooden Imperial Beach pier on a gray Wednesday morning, environmental group Heal the Bay issued San Diego County’s annual report card for water quality at its beaches. There was some …

Before visiting San Diego's Zirk Ubu, the last time I'd gone to the circus, I'd walked out with 50 pounds of elephant dung in a cardboard box on my shoulder.

Poway mayor Don Higginson promised May 19 would be an interesting night: the city’s four sitting councilmembers were scheduled to appoint a candidate to fill the vacant council seat left after mayor Mickey Cafagna lost …

“Is it really out of line to post your songs for sale on another band’s MySpace page?” posits rock trio New Day Mile. “Yes it is!” they say. Singer-guitarist James Brady is all for self-promotion, …

The 454-acre Del Dios Highlands County Preserve, recently unveiled just outside the North County community of Del Dios, now provides a direct connection between Del Dios Highway and the popular Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve. Formerly, …

I can’t believe it. Here I am on deepest Revolución, when I spot that black hat, that gray-red beard, that loping walk. It can only be one person. “Willy?” I say. Willy Clauson has stuck …

“Our music is very lyric driven,” says Eben Brooks. “If I had to choose a genre, I would call it progressive acoustic rock, but by progressive I mean politically and personally progressive. It’s possible for …

"What’s the matter with you kids? It’s frozen pizza!” I couldn’t believe it — my own children picking at the cheese on top and regarding me with mournful eyes. And me trying to get out …

Just For The Record I am writing with respect to your story, “Who Is the Union-Tribune’s New Owner?” (Cover Story, May 14), which does not fairly reflect or accurately characterize myself or my firm. To …

There was a moment, or at least it seems like a moment now, when you could roll into the filling station as the gauge fell to a quarter, plop a $20 on the counter, and …

‘We invent ourselves,” Walter Franz tells his brother Vic, “to wipe out what we know.” The title of Arthur Miller’s 1968 drama, The Price, points in various directions, none of them fixed. Ostensibly, it’s about …

Thirty Years AgoIn April my dad and I flew to La Paz, a fishing resort near the end of the Baja Peninsula, some 750 miles south of San Diego. From there, we traveled by bus …

I covered a hundred miles driving to three different parties on one recent Saturday. The first party was up in Murrieta. I would’ve blown it off, but it was for an old high school friend …

Did you see the story about college coaches using Twitter to recruit? Twitter, for those doing max time at Pelican Bay, is a social networking stop on the internet inviting passersby to post messages of …

While the mainstream has wound down to its summer speed of one blockbuster per week, the alternative cinema has been spewing out counterprogramming aplenty, some of it by big fish. The Limits of Control is …

Nobody on his deathbed ever said, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.” — Paul Tsongas I rolled onto my right side and stretched my left arm toward the nightstand. I simultaneously …

Before Taylor Swift appears at the Sports Arena on Sunday, May 24, her personal tour bus must be stocked with a bag of Tostitos tortilla chips, three boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese, a bag …

When acoustic songster and mustache enthusiast Dagart decided to play 30 shows in 30 days at various locations around Southern California, he chose real-time social messaging network Twitter to announce the spontaneous gigs. “I wanted …

The Dears have a lot in common with Arcade Fire. Both bands are from Montreal. Both are led by a husband-and-wife team. Both make powerful, emotional indie pop. And both are critics’ favorites. In other …

Album: Psychothermia (2009)Artist: CanoblissLabel: Self-releasedWhere available/price: iTunes, $7.92; CDBaby, $7Songs: 1) Notorious 2) Psychothermia 3) Convicted Again 4) Adios 5) Take Vics 6) Slingshot 7) Pangea 8) Convicted Again (radio edit)Band: Johan Maldonado (vocals), Samson …

In time of relationship meltdown, what man would not want to cop some Ben Folds attitude? “Wish I hadn’t bought you dinner,” he sings in “Song for the Dumped,” “Right before you dumped me/ On …

Rancho Santa Fe School District trustee Richard Burdge and Friends of Rancho Santa Fe Schools, a political committee for which he was treasurer, are set to pay a proposed $19,000 fine to the state’s Fair …

“I spent the night in jail after spending the day feeding the homeless,” says Joel D. Mutch, aka Point Blank, of hip-hop trio Even Keel. On April 30, Mutch says he and other artists from …

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Three members of the Hempfield Area School Board in Pennsylvania are in hot water for spending more than $9000 of school district funds on a junket to the National School Boards Association convention in San …

Marco Mitrowke, loss prevention manager for the local retail clothing chain Everything 5.99, was not what I expected. The job title “loss prevention manager” conjured images of a strapping, muscular young man wearing a T-shirt …

Author: Siobhan Braun Neighborhood: Tierrasanta Age: 30 Occupation: Stay-at-Home Mom We moved to Tierrasanta from the heart of El Cajon. The townhome we rented in East County was three blocks away from the liquor-store double …

Four thousand people made their way into the Mt. Carmel High School stadium to hear American Idol contestant Adam Lambert sing on Friday, May 8. Why was Lambert there? Because a return to one's high …

Tijuana’s municipal health department has begun a citywide operation to hunt down, capture, and kill dogs found running loose on the streets in an effort to stem an outbreak of illnesses caused by the tick-borne …

For the past three weeks, a lone male has been robbing stores in the Mira Mesa area. He strikes late at night, when there are no customers. He enters quickly, shows a knife, and demands …

District 1 Councilmember Sherri Lightner isn’t San Diego’s most outspoken city politician. Typically, her comments at council meetings are succinct, slightly awkward, and usually start off with a clumsy grab at the microphone. She’s not …

On Monday, May 12, San Diego County schools were given a total of $126 million in federal money, part of the Obama administration’s stimulus package. Most districts received millions: San Diego Unified, $30 million; Chula …

At a community meeting at the Mission Beach Women's Club on May 12, Councilman Kevin Faulconer and Mayor Jerry Sanders announced that curbside recycling for Mission Beach would start on July 1, 2010. Mission Beach …

A 17-year-old Tijuana boy faces up to 50 years in prison after his May 13 arrest for the alleged murder of a man who refused to lend the teen five pesos — about 38 cents. …

Author: Elizabeth Salaam Neighborhood: City Heights Age: 35 Occupation: Writer/program coordinator My husband and I rent a condo in City Heights. We have 812 square feet, two bedrooms, and a bath and a half to …

A man was found dead at a busy Tijuana industrial park early on the morning of May 12. Police cordoned off the area and turned away workers on their way to nearby factories. According to …

In a May 12 memo to the mayor’s office, District 5 councilmember Carl DeMaio requested that plans to construct a new city hall building be demolished. Armed with information from commercial lease consultant Irving Hughes, …

A new view of the Middle East in local news coverage?

Three weeks ago, in an effort to increase downtown parking space, the City of Oceanside added diagonal parking on Civic Center Drive, a five-block street behind City Hall. Unfortunately, someone forgot to first measure the …

This time of year, hordes of flies visit our 1930s-built home. One would think we were in farm country the way the flying pests invade. The real culprit for the invasion is our lack of …

Artist: Manic DiffusionSong: “Mr. Badd Guy” (from the CD Orange Rhymes)Heard By: Lincoln Lee, Fashion Valley I thought it was good. It’s not my type of genre, but I liked the solos, the riffs, and …

Michael McQuigganSan Diego programming director, FilmOut, filmoutsandiego.com C.R.A.Z.Y. is one of the best French Canadian films ever! This epic film follows the relationships of five brothers and their parents, told specifically through the eyes of …

The Big Shovel Steve Aceti continues to B.S. the Reader (“Here Comes the Sandman,” “City Lights,” May 7). The Reader could do an interesting article on Aceti and CalCoast (taxpayer funded). I’d be happy to …

It’s not on the scale of Watergate, but Sempra Energy’s recent gift to one Republican state politico bears a whiff of nostalgia for the good old days of the 1970s. This March 5, the utility …

Youth is a disease from which we all recover. — Dorothy Fulheim ‘That’s the third billboard for 17 Again that we’ve passed in as many blocks. I forgot how thick they lay it on here,” …

Thirty Years AgoSan Diego County is the third largest egg-producing county in the nation. The 114 poultry ranches in San Diego, with more than six million chickens, do a $50-million-per-year business. Although the world’s largest …

A fitting session with costume designer Jennifer Brawn Gittings begins to look a lot like Christmas. She hauls racks of clothes and boxes of shoes to Diversionary Theatre’s small dressing room, where the four actors …

Alison Brown went from playing banjo outside of Shakey’s Pizza in La Mesa to performing with Alison Krauss + Union Station, being named the Banjo Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, …

No one wants to see a show where everyone onstage is standing motionless behind a keyboard. For years, electronic-music acts have struggled with different ways to address this — with varying levels of success. They’ve …

It’s Easter morning and I’m driving home from the sunrise service at The Fields Church in Carlsbad and listening to NPR’s Weekend Edition because it’s early and the voices on NPR are so soothing, when …

The Cliks (not to be confused with the Clicks, a three-woman punk outfit from Brooklyn) are a “queer-identified” (this from the band’s management) Toronto power-pop trio. They are fronted by a transgendered androgyne whose name …

Heymatt: I was on a walk the other day and it suddenly occurred to me that birds are very loud. I mean, considering how small they are. How can something so small make so much …

Recipe by Mark Kropczynski, executive chef, Grant Grill. My kids (aged 15 and 9) will eat whatever I put in front of them. They’ve had duck confit, lobster, chanterelles, and all kinds of fish. We …

San Diego just lost another all-ages music venue. Sergeant Glenn Giannantonio of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department says that an April 18 show at the Jumping Turtle in San Marcos got out of control and …

“It was our first gig outside of San Diego,” says Guava Belly singer-guitarist Dan Hammer of the band’s April 22 set at the Roxy in L.A. “The offer was to play a reggae night, provided …

There was a time when I was an ambitious, snot-nosed, obnoxious young dude just getting into the radio business. Not much has changed, but I digress. Around that time, I became interested in finding out …

The death of another famous San Diegan brings another memory of an infamous San Diego scam. Last month it was the passing of George Munger, owner of the now-defunct Piret’s restaurant chain and recipient of …

There are lots of local film festivals, but Fallbrook’s is my favorite. This year’s second annual started on Thursday, April 23, but it wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that my girlfriend and I made it. We …

Clunk! Man. Umberto Falcone’s kinda surprised I’ve tossed the bocce ball anywhere close to the jack. Call it beginner’s luck. Luck: Guess that’s how this whole sea-urchin thing started too. Though now that I think …

Decades-old O’Neill Regional Park near Rancho Santa Margarita has a newer “appendage” — a six-mile piece of the Arroyo Trabuco, a shallow, gradually descending canyon going south toward Mission Viejo. An old fire road along …

A multi-deejay event called Klub Therapy debuts Friday night at the 8Teen Arts and Cultural Center in North Park. It is one of the first all-ages music events at the venue, which opened last December …

“I wrote the song when he was on that Rock Star Supernova show,” says “Dangerous Dave” Swain of local punk-rock trio the Bugs. Swain’s talking about their controversial track “Dave Navarro’s Goatee Fucking Sucks.” He …

In January, I began teaching two philosophy classes, one in the classroom and the other online. “The thing I don’t like about online classes,” says one of my classroom students, “is that you can’t see …

The stunning 50 percent plunge in Phoenix’s home prices has attracted national attention. By contrast, San Diego’s condominium market, which has seen values fall by 55 percent, has suffered in relative silence. That may be …

According to National City Police Department radio traffic, at approximately 10:10 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, two men walked into the GameStop store in Plaza Bonita Mall and tied the employees up, placing posters over …

About five minutes after leaving the top of Cowles Mountain on Saturday, May 9, six flashlight-toting hikers encountered something they had never seen before. It was approximately 8:30 p.m. on a dark night, with the …

Remember last June when the City approved a balanced budget for this current fiscal year? Well, councilmember Donna Frye discovered during Monday’s city council meeting that the balanced budget doesn’t appear to be balanced. While …

At approximately 6:05 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, three San Diego police officers boarded the 15 bus at Interstate 15 on El Cajon Boulevard. Two officers boarded through the rear and motioned to two passengers. …

Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach was locked down shortly before dismissal time on Friday, May 8, while sheriff’s deputies conducted a neighborhood search. Deputies sought two males, 17 to 18 years of age, …

A lone transient brought fear and terror to downtown San Diego on Sunday, May 3. The unnamed man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt, climbed to the top of a crane on the construction …

Visiting the San Diego County Animal Shelter in Bonita last week, it became apparent that the shelter is home to a disproportionately large number of pit bulls and pit-bull-mix dogs. According to Daniel DeSousa of …

Todd Shallan, president of the Coronado Chamber of Commerce and general manager of the Hotel Del, began a presentation to Coronado City Council on May 5 by saying, “Our economy is not going to get …

Like the sidewalks and streets that surround the city’s parking meters, the relationship between Uptown Partnership — the group responsible for addressing parking issues in Hillcrest, Banker’s Hill, and Mission Hills — and the residents …

I’ve been unemployed for ten months and have been able to provide for my family, but after filing my taxes and having to pay, I knew I could use a little help. Our local elementary …

A 911 call on Monday, May 4, brought emergency teams and a fleet of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department vehicles (including battalion chief 1's red Chevy Suburban) to the Lyceum Theatre entrance of Horton Plaza. According …

A 22-year-old male was stabbed to death late on May 6 in the 1200 block of 13th Street. Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon at approximately 10:45 p.m. …

Author: David Alton Dodd Neighborhood: Tijuana Age: 47 Occupation: Engineer Mona was cute in an odd way that you couldn’t put your finger on. I was a freshman in a college near Los Angeles, or …

A bomb scare caused the shutdown of the Poway Skate Park and library on Saturday, May 2. The county sheriff’s office forced dozens to evacuate the library and cordoned off the area just after 4 …

Michael Vogl, revenue collections manager for the city, blames the media for spreading false information about the mayor’s parking meter utilization plan. He says news outlets are unable to explain the detailed proposal in 30-second …

“Don’t,” says my stepmother. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” Her voice is tinny through the speakers of my cell phone. “Why not?” I ask. She pauses, considering. “The whole thing just sounds…dangerous,” …

It’s not even Memorial Day and people are arguing over sand on the beach. But this isn’t just any sand. The argument is over new sand, or what its supporters prefer to call “beach renourishment.” …

Thirty Years AgoBy now the Navy’s environmental study on the proposed expansion of its Balboa Park hospital into Florida Canyon has met with much disapproval. The Navy hopes to obtain the property to build its …

While most of the Anza-Borrego Desert swelters, the temperature hovers as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at the “high desert” locale of Culp Valley, 3400 feet above sea level. Culp Valley is the only …

In the sleek, two-story lobby of the Potiker Theater, a soldier saluted, quarter-turned to the east, shoveled imaginary dirt, quarter-turned to the south, peeled imaginary potatoes, turned west, lifted imaginary weights, turned back to where …

Tucson is a place of dust and red squatty rocks and ancient cacti and retirees playing golf and a desert heat in the summer so intense that buying a tank of gas becomes a spiritual …

And so begins the summer of ’09: prequel, prequel. The first of these, opening Friday last, is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, entrusted to director Gavin Hood of little Tsotsi from South Africa. (How much say does …

Chad teaches at SDSU and lives in the Clairemont area. He threw a party for his 30th birthday about a month ago. I brought a few women with me. We stopped and bought some booze …

Here’s Ben Rothman, 25, a graduate of UC San Diego in psychology, a waiter, a construction worker, and currently ranked number 2 in the USA and 29th in the world. Two weeks back Rothman won …

Industrial-arts programs were important to Bob Taylor and Greg Deering when they were growing up in San Diego. It was during woodshop classes they made their first instruments: Taylor made his first guitar in his …

“Sometimes life is so good,” I sighed, sipping my dirt-cheap caipirinha. Sam and I watched the ferry pull into the Coronado pier, disgorging commuters marching landward in their varied gaits and garbs. A white-sailed catamaran …

Heartbroken Narcissist Nasreen Atassi should hope that her article “Searching for San Diego’s Sea Turtles…and a Job” (Cover Story, April 30) will not be read by anyone in San Diego County who is in a …

San Diego ranks high on the list of California jurisdictions where federal judges issued the most wiretaps last year, according to the recently released 2008 Wiretap Report by the Administrative Office of the United States …

Will an unruly punk show end live music at the Jumping Turtle? Sheriff’s deputy Sgt. Glenn Antonio said every patrol car assigned to San Marcos the night of Saturday, April 18, was called to the …

“Welcome home!” read the handpainted banner in the vestibule of the half-saucer church. Inside, homemade signs rose up on coat-hanger posts from the pews: “Where we love is home.” “Home is not a place, it …

Hey, Matt: So what’s with the funky lighting along the new 5/805 merge? They have cute red-and-white beanies, antennas, and really cool monkey trapezes. I’ve only seen this style of lights in one other place …

Q: How would you describe what you do? A: “Curator and devotee of experimental, classical, electronic, and improvised music,” says Bonnie Wright. Since 1995, when she opened the doors to the Spruce Street Forum, Wright …

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts. …

Is there a political method to the madness in last week’s pension-board shake-up by San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders? With the city council assenting, the mayor switched out three incumbent boardmembers with three new ones …

Is Republican mainstay and Chargers owner Alex Gus Spanos really making campaign contributions to liberal Democratic state attorney general Jerry Brown? That’s what it says on a campaign finance filing by Brown last week: a …

I judged a battle of the bands last Tuesday night at the Hard Rock Café, home to Mojo’s leathers and Madonna’s bulletproof bra. The event was the San Diego leg of the Ambassadors of Rock …

“Every gig we’re surprised by someone who looks like a vocal outcast but who burns the mike,” says Pickford’s Party drummer Eric Ganci, whose band plays live behind amateur singers at Rock Out Karaoke. “We …

I was laid off in February 2009. Forty-five minutes into my shift, the district manager approaches me and says, “Can I see you in the office?” While en route to the office a customer stops …

“Sugar,” by Josh Damigo and Rob Deez, was the most downloaded MP3 from SDReader.com during the month of April. Follows is an interview with the duo. Sounds as if you’ve got a Jack Johnson–meets-spoken-word style …

Many of the more than 100 vendors at Rock Paper Scissors, a consignment store on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach, have been clamoring for their money after the business stiffed them when it closed in …

A couple of years ago, when the Shins were just getting ready to release their third album, Wincing the Night Away, lead Shin James Mercer told Pitchfork, “One thing I worry about is that Malcolm …

Recipe by Christopher Lee, consulting chef, Suite & Tender. The thing about food that people don’t realize is that we’re all involved with it — either consciously or subconsciously because you have to survive. I …

Budget and Finance Committee chair and councilmember Tony Young and his budget-frenzied colleague Carl DeMaio are beginning to see eye to eye on ways to reform the city’s budget process. As the estimated $60-million-plus shortfall …

Pampas grass, a native of the Andes, is invasive plant number one in Encinitas. It has been planted by some people for its large, showy plumes; however, those plumes produce millions of seeds that are …

In a scene reminiscent of a late 1960s Vietnam War protest, Horton Plaza Park (on Broadway between Third and Fourth avenues) was packed with noisy demonstrators on Saturday, April 25, between 3:00 and 4:30 p.m. …

Last Thursday morning, April 30, the body of Richard Howard Liams Swink was found lying on the sidewalk outside of the Ocean Beach library on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Injuries to his abdomen and chest seemed …

Councilmember Carl DeMaio isn’t the only budget watchdog in town. On Thursday, April 30, District 7 representative Marti Emerald issued a memo to Budget Review Committee chair Tony Young that listed a few of her …

Mayor Jerry Sanders wants to make some progress on managed competition. There hasn’t been much since 2006, when voters passed the initiative to move towards privatizing city services. Yet, in the recently submitted 2010 budget, …