On the morning of September 13, several of residents of South Mission Beach woke up and witnessed two rare sightings: a sunny morning devoid of any persistent marine layer and an animated pod of dolphins …
September 15, 2010
Blog Entries
News & Stories
Dolphins Spotted in Mission Bay
San Diego Sheriff’s ASTREA Helicopter Makes Third Rescue in a Month
San Diego Sheriff’s ASTREA helicopter came to the rescue once again on El Cajon Mountain in Lakeside Sunday night. Three hikers were hoisted to safety after becoming lost without warm clothing, food, or water. Their …
September 15, 2010
Transient Lived in Escondido Garden Shed
For several nights in August, a perplexed resident of Mountain Shadows Mobile Home Park in Escondido heard voices coming from her next-door neighbor’s coach. Whether she was out on her back porch or lying in …
September 15, 2010
Does the D in Prop D stand for "Dash for Cash"?
“On July 1, 2011, we have a $72 million budget deficit that we have to fill,” District 3 council representative Todd Gloria said to 50 people at a September 14 forum on Prop D, the …
September 15, 2010
The Grass Is Totally Greener in San Diego
While there has been an exodus of musicians from San Diego in recent years — including Anya Marina, Barbara Nesbitt, the Album Leaf, John Miller, Kim Divine — musicians are also relocating to San Diego. …
September 15, 2010
San Diego's Record Release Roundup
Del Mar singer-songwriter Michael Tiernan releases his 11-track album L.A. Can Wait this week. A free single, “Easy,” is available for download at Tiernantunes.com. Peter Sprague plays an album-release party for Calling Me Home on …
September 15, 2010
Judgement Day String Metal, Ty Segall's Melted, and Saccharine Trust — It's a Sexy Week at Soda Bar
Thursday 16Los Angeles electropop trio Autolux will get all Transit Transit on Belly Up tonight. The shoegazers’ sophomore record dropped last week and is sure to be the batch to put ’em on the map. …
September 15, 2010
All the Naughty Girls
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. — Ralph Waldo Emerson An electronic melody toodled in the other room. Like a mob of meerkats, …
September 15, 2010
Field Rations at Letty's Bean Shack
"See the field?” says this guy waiting for the Number 3 bus. “Your place is just past it. Looks like the Little House on the Prairie.” A field? In Hillcrest? Carla and I have been …
Lights On Has East Coast Clout
“It seems the fans were more into us in New York than they were in San Diego.” Tim Hines plays guitar in the band Lights On. He lives in La Mesa. He’s not sure why …
September 15, 2010
Norman Mailer Could Make a Phone Book Fascinating
This weekend, the second one in September, now (as of publication) passed, I will be doing something I have never done before: reading a second book in a row by Norman Mailer. I sense “T.G.I.F.” …
September 15, 2010
The Boss’s Daughter
For your Mafia fix, you can safely go to The Sicilian Girl, a fictionalized factual story from the fatherland, focussed on (at the start) the ten-year-old daughter of a soon murdered mob boss, slowly simmering …
September 15, 2010
Public Funding
San Diego Unified school board candidate Steve Rosen has been making a big deal about how his company, TV Magic, has repeatedly volunteered its services for the benefit of local students. “Steve and his company’s …
September 15, 2010
Life's Like a Dream in North Coast Rep's Becky's New Car
If you don’t blink, Stephen Dietz’s Becky’s New Car makes for an entertaining evening. Blink, however, or pause for reflection, and how and why things happen would perplex even the most gullible among us. Maybe …
September 15, 2010
Delivery Dining: Food When You Want It
Mama said there’d be days like this, but I don’t remember anything about “weeks and weeks like this.” Normally, I’d try to save a report on food-delivery services for the rains of winter, but in …
September 15, 2010
Two Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
OzymandiasI met a traveler from an antique land Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled …
September 15, 2010
They Shoot Engineers, Don't They?
ON THE PHONE, EDITH, my re-employment dominatrix, was emphatic: “Wear a tie, Mr. Looper, and don’t be late.” Let go, and “out-placed” as a senior design engineer at 58 years of age, I am about …
September 15, 2010
Excerpt from "The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature" by Har Dayal
A Buddha is primarily a fully “enlightened” being. But the characteristic attributes and qualities of a Buddha have been described and enumerated in several definite formulae…. A Buddha is one, who has acquired the ten …
September 15, 2010
The Midwinters: “The Hold Death Cab for Steady”
“We figured out we had enough in common to make music we liked,” says Matt Cliff, bassist for indie-pop rockers the Midwinters. “We started playing shows around San Diego and Southern California in 2006. With …
September 15, 2010
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and Neon Indian at Open Air
I used to think Phoenix was no more than a band of trendy French guys who had managed to leverage their connection to the band Air into a friendship with filmmaker Sofia Coppola and a …
September 15, 2010
Excerpt from "The Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel" by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
Because men had eliminated God from life, nay, even from nature, and found the basis of life in possessions and its aim in enjoyment, deeming life the product of the multitude of human desires, just …
September 15, 2010
Hydroponics = Tomatoes Year-Round
“Imagine if I could grow tomatoes year-round…” I said as I came in from the garden. “One word,” replied my husband Patrick. “Hydroponics.” John at Mr. Hydro in Solana Beach (858-259-9100; mr-hydro.com) gave me an …
September 15, 2010
No Way — the Villain's a Lawyer in this Comic Book Story
It’s a story out of a comic book: two decades after losing a high-profile court battle, a lawyer steps from the shadows to avenge his past failure. In late August, Los Angeles–based attorney Kenneth Feinswog …
September 15, 2010
Scale Palomar Mountain the Hard Way
Most visitors motor right up to the cool forests of Palomar Mountain’s parks or observatory on the curling South Grade or East Grade roads. Exercise-minded hikers might try an alternative east-side approach that actually reaches …
September 15, 2010
Frozen Beer, As Crows Fly, 3D Fireworks
Howdy, Matt: The other day I had a couple of brews that I’d left out and they were warm, so I put them in the freezer to hurry up the cold. These were beers in …
September 15, 2010
Paul Collins’ Beat: The King of Power Pop!
Contrary to what you might think, true indie rock was invented during the late 1970s by bands that recorded in analog studios, released music on records (or cassette tapes), and hoped for a sweet record …
September 15, 2010
The Taunting Goes Too Far in Suburban Texas
Every long once in awhile the story of one human being frames a national issue with such fierce honesty that even the hardest-hearted sports fan has to stop and pay attention. This happened Thursday night, …
September 15, 2010
Prop R, for Rewards at Southwestern College
When big business was selling the public on the need to approve multimillion-dollar school bonds, whose needs were they talking about? In 2008, a majority of South Bay voters agreed to open their wallets for …
September 15, 2010
The cheap motels on San Diego's Midway Drive, the vending machines
A VOICE BELLOWS THROUGH THE DOOR. “San Diego Sheriff’s Department, open up!” I wonder if cops learn how to do that in the academy. “It’s gonna be all right,” my mom says, feigning confidence as …
September 15, 2010
In Search of the Perfect Body — 35 Years Ago
Thirty-Five Years AgoDoctors will take into consideration the reasons for the surgery and the patient’s financial condition. Example: a starving actress who needs cosmetic surgery may be in a better situation for reduced fee than …
September 15, 2010
Lincoln Acres family cited for illegal house
On September 11, 2009, Mike and Zerla Bell closed escrow on their first home, a 1302-square-foot single-family residence in Lincoln Acres. It was a big step for the Bell family, who had been living in …
September 15, 2010
Who Is This Winery in Ramona?
Dennis Grimes spends the first half-hour of every day “tending to Twitter, being a cheerleader” for Ramona Valley wine. From September 6 of this year: “94F today, 47F low & 83F tomorrow Ramona Valley AVA …
The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten — Three Mile Pilot
It could and probably will be posited once The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgotten goes under the critical microscope that post-rock trio Three Mile Pilot didn't disband so much as reproduce. A little indie-rock …
September 15, 2010
Carlsbad City Council Accused of Fascism
"You all are fascists," yelled 53-year-old Carlsbad resident Richard Shapiro during his three-minutes of public comment to the Carlsbad City Council on September 14. "Because of a word I was removed from this hall. That's …
September 15, 2010