“Councilwoman [Pamela] Bensoussan, what planet do you think you are on?” asked Derrick Roach at the Chula Vista City Council meeting on July 27. Roach is a San Diego–based private investigator and Republican candidate for …
July 28, 2010
Blog Entries
- All-hazard Local Emergency Response Theory as Emergency Management by Objectives
- Thunderheads, Orioles, and Fleas
- Did Somebody Change the Charter?
58 comments
- How Good Is Good Enough?
4 comments
- Gin's Lead Indicators Still Rising Moderately
News & Stories
P.O.'d P.I.
Miscellaneous Heathens
My wife and I arrived at Ocean Beach's Dusty Rhodes Park at about 6 p.m. on July 24. A couple hours earlier, an open-to-the-public, free-of-charge dance party had gotten under way. A DJ spun energetic …
July 28, 2010
Left Turn for the Worse
On July 26 at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Midway Drive, half a block off West Point Loma Boulevard, a young woman in her early 30s driving an Acura struck a man in his 60s while …
July 28, 2010
Meds Surrender
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted last month to implement the placement of receptacles for safe disposal of prescription drugs. The drug-disposal boxes resemble post-office mailboxes, except they're not blue and are …
July 28, 2010
(Bad) Luck of the Irish
After 3:00 a.m. in front of the O.B. International Hostel on July 22, a trio of female holiday-makers from Dublin, Ireland, were robbed at gunpoint. The women, all in their 20s, said they were talking …
July 28, 2010
The Friendliest Place in Town
“It’s not technically an outreach,” Park Gallery host Ryan Burke tells me after an evening band practice with his alt-rock band the Morning Glass. “We don’t have sermons here. It’s strictly to serve the community. …
July 28, 2010
What's Your News IQ?
1. La Jolla artist and publisher Jim Lee recently won notoriety for redesigning which comic hero? A. Spider Man B. Superman C. Dick Tracy D. Wonder Woman 2. Caltrans has proposed expanding Interstate 5 from …
July 28, 2010
St. James By the Sea Episcopal Church
Membership: 1200 individuals. Pastor: Randal Gardner (Rector) Age: 57 Born: Denver, Colorado Formation: Seattle Pacific University; Church Divinity School of the Pacific-Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Years Ordained: 25 San Diego Reader: How long do you …
July 28, 2010
Godless politics
Sometimes Facebook pages are revealing because of what they omit about their owners. Take the case of political consultant Larry Remer, fresh from Democrat Juan Vargas’s razor-thin victory over Mary Salas in the 40th District …
July 28, 2010
Brazil To Go
I haven’t been on an airplane since aforetime 9/11 or taken an international airplane ride since 1995. No reason, no plan, just the way the cards were dealt. Still, it is strange: prior to 1995, …
July 28, 2010
Greased wheels
Forget the deficit, local government agencies continue to lavish tax dollars on representatives in Washington, D.C., to lobby for even more taxpayer cash. In the second quarter of this year, the San Diego County Regional …
July 28, 2010
Cheese, Redux
Holy cow. This might be a first in San Diego. “Yours?” I ask the gal. Her name’s Verena. Verena Garnett. “It’s me and my sister’s,” she says. We’re looking at a little red three-wheeled auto-rickshaw, …
July 28, 2010
Dischord Prohibition
Thursday 29Key words: Reis, Froberg, Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Night Marchers, Obits. Kinda falls apart there at the end, huh? Not tonight, punk, as Reis’s Night Marchers goose-step into Casbah behind Froberg’s Obits. …
July 28, 2010
One Terrific Pig
How about “Pig Supreme?” asked one of the lambs. “No good,” said Charlotte. “It sounds like a rich dessert.” — E. B. White When my friend Sara announced the impending arrival of her new pet …
July 28, 2010
I Just Saw a Frightful Monster
When he recalled his early years in San Diego, Herbert Hensley loved to tell about the time Jimmie Dillar saw the devil. In June 1890, as he explored the treeless mesa where Balboa Park stands …
July 28, 2010
Just a Pinch
Lowering the temperature on the Cold War, below freezing, Salt exposes a subterranean population of Russian “sleeper” agents with far more nefarious designs than those of the eleven happy capitalists rounded up recently (and for …
July 28, 2010
Stumbling on Happiness
What are you reading? “Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert. It’s a psychological perspective on how people conceive of happiness and why that conception is false. We try to predict what will make us happy, …
July 28, 2010
Vapor Rap
When Blizzard Entertainment announced its new game Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty would be released July 27, players were left wondering what ever happened to Starcraft: Ghost, originally announced for a 2002 debut but so …
July 28, 2010
In the Reader five, ten, fiteen years ago...
Thirty-Five Years Ago Greg voluntarily entered detox on Saturday at 7:20 p.m. He had worked all day and was taking advantage of his Memorial Day holiday to dry out. The first procedure was a brief, …
July 28, 2010
Another Love
At the theater critics’ annual Craig Noel Awards ceremony, recipients thank fellow artists and friends for support. But just what does that support entail? What, for example, is it like to be married to an …
July 28, 2010
Want a Slice?
San Diego–based Webceleb, a dot-com startup that went live in March, bills itself as a “social marketplace where you can get paid to download music.” Cofounder Scott Fetters says that the price of a song …
July 28, 2010
Coffee Culture
Java Joe’s last official promotion at the Café Libertalia on Fifth Avenue in Hillcrest was Bushwalla’s performance on Saturday, July 17. For the past year, Joe Flammini had an arrangement with Libertalia owners Donna Orlando …
July 28, 2010
Guidelines
Here’s what you need to do, since time began: find something — diamond-rare or carbon-cheap, it’s all the same — and love it all you can. It should be something close — a field, a …
July 28, 2010
Temper Trap
An echoing, U2-like guitar part chimes along and a high, Jeff Buckley–like voice croons. This is the opening of “Sweet Disposition,” the breakthrough song by Melbourne, Australia’s Temper Trap. It sounds like romance and youth …
July 28, 2010
Kinky Friedman
In 2006, Richard S. Friedman — an entertainer who fronted the Texas Jewboys, a band known for such songs as “Asshole from El Paso” and “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore” — ran for …
July 28, 2010
Swami's Beach
Looking for a place to escape the summer heat? Look no farther than the scenic strand of beach stretching south from Swami’s Park in Encinitas. The walk on the sand isn’t difficult, and if you …
July 28, 2010
Massive
Dubstep is characterized by ultra-heavy, dark, articulate sub-bass and borrows from drum-and-bass, grime, two-step garage, and instrumental reggae (dub). Although the genre was established over a decade ago in South London, dubstep is only now …
July 28, 2010
Herbal PMS Relief
“Late night?” I joked with my friend Kendra. She’s not much of a drinker, but she looked awful. “It’s cramping,” she replied. “I almost couldn’t get out of bed this morning. And I don’t want …
July 28, 2010
The emptiness of 2010 SDSU grads
Every May, after the tasseled hats have fallen to the ground and the graduation parties have died down, hundreds of thousands of new graduates enter the workforce. Or at least that’s the plan. Late last …
July 28, 2010
Very few of San Diego's ballpark condos were built because of the ballpark
‘If you build it, they will come.” It works in fantasy movies (Field of Dreams, 1989). But it hasn’t worked in San Diego’s East Village. As part of the $301 million ballpark subsidy, developers created …
July 28, 2010
San Diego State college housing will ruin Del Cerro
There’s a wild place in the heart of San Diego that only a few people know about — visited by even fewer — and if San Diego State has its way, it may share the …
July 28, 2010
Crash and Burn
Shortly after 5:00 p.m. on July 25, an out-of-control truck hit two parked cars, slammed into another parked truck in a driveway, and ended up plowing into a garage on the 8100 block of Calico …
July 28, 2010
Punk Rock Bowling, Henderson, Nevada
Henderson in Nevada, Sunset Station, Punk, Bowling, Pabst Blue Ribbon. What’s the connection? Three words. Punk Rock Bowling – a weekend of raucous and drunken activities having something to do with bowling and music. Normally, …