If you’ve ever had a bad toothache in your upper jaw, you know the general area where the human animal experiences life in its greatest intensity. You can’t get away from the pain because it’s …
July 6, 2016
News & Stories
Empty-nose syndrome sufferers feel invisible
Really frequently flown
An already well-traveled San Diego city retirement fund executive has hit the road again in 2016, picking up luxury hotel, airfare, and food freebies from real estate investment funds doing business with the city. Last …
July 6, 2016
Ms. Midday Hilary Chambers changes stations
Is it another case of DJ musical chairs or a key player jumping off of a sinking ship? Hilary Chambers, who only uses her first name on the air, spent the past eight years at …
July 6, 2016
Bawk bawk! Chicken broth!
Sometimes, there’s no homemade chicken stock in the freezer. So I zipped around San Diego and gathered up a bunch of chicken juice — mostly broths, but also a few boxed stocks — from the …
July 6, 2016
Seventies animation classics
Wizards (USA, 1977, Twentieth Century Fox), a classic Ralph Bakshi film, mixes animation and rotoscoping. At the time it was to save money and time but it resulted in a unique effect. The story is …
July 6, 2016
Black jacks and brown turkeys
Summer crops are coming into full swing, meaning heirloom tomatoes are on the way. On the sweeter side, stone fruits will be joined by melons as the month goes on, with sweet and spicy peppers …
July 6, 2016
Teenage blues
“Candye Kane was a great musician.” Guitarist Serena Geroe, age 15, admits she never saw the late blues diva perform live but says she follows her on YouTube. In July, the band that Geroe fronts, …
July 6, 2016
Dumb and tender
"Over here!” It’s the beautiful Carla. Fresh from her frou-frou session at Diane’s salon (“Diane is the only person in this world who understands my coiffure needs, darling”) here on the Emerald Isle of Coronado. …
How is dictatorship still a thing?
Unless you saw it at SD Fringe, none of you reading this will see Qaddafi’s Cook, which dramatizes the life of a Mexican chef who tripped on Ayahuasca and took a job as one of …
July 6, 2016
Chaos of fragments
For his masterpiece A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat chose a fairly remote island on the Seine about four and a half miles from Notre Dame Cathedral. He studied, sketched, and painted between …
July 6, 2016
Unpeaceful goings-on
A non-profit founded by Democratic state senator Steve Peace has just registered to lobby in San Diego. The Independent Voter Project is pushing for a charter amendment to require the top two vote-getters in city …
July 6, 2016
Fangoria meets post-apocalyptic perfection
Turbo Kid (Canada, 2015, Epic Pictures Releasing) caught me by surprise just by the simple review I read: “Mad Max on BMX Bikes!” After reading that, I needed to see it. Simply put, it’s Fangoria …
July 6, 2016
The Poet of the American Revolution
The American Soldier A Picture from the Life To serve with love, And shed your blood, Approved may be above, But here below (Example shew,) ’Tis dangerous to be good. — Lord Oxford Deep in …
July 6, 2016
Enter the Fro zone with AJ Froman
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Freak Out!, the first of some 60 Frank Zappa albums. Last weekend a new documentary called Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words was released to …
July 6, 2016
Avoid the bane of surf-fishing
Bill Varney, through his books and clinics, has been leading the light-tackle charge in California; no longer do surf anglers need a 14-foot surf pole and a five-ounce sinker. Varney recently led one of his …
July 6, 2016
God got second-career guy’s attention
Mt. Olive Lutheran Church Membership: 128 Pastor: Bill Baker Age: 58 Born: Buffalo, NY Formation: Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO. Years Ordained: 8 San Diego Reader: What’s your favorite subject …
July 6, 2016
Best access to San Luis Rey River’s wild side
There are relatively few places where the public has access to the San Luis Rey River in its native wild state. For most of its 55-mile length it has been extensively modified by flood-control projects, …
July 6, 2016
All Hail the Queen of Customer Service
What you need to know about Margaret Parker (besides the fact that this is not her real name) is that when it comes to customer service, she doesn’t play. According to her own estimation, she …
July 6, 2016
The hippest things on Earth
Dear Hipster:Where in the human body is hipsterness most strongly concentrated?— Jeff, Lemon Grove This may come as something of a shock, but contemporary hipster scientists have isolated the human tonsil as the probable source …
July 6, 2016
Death-jump blues rocker "Hot Rod" DeMink
Something to see, when the dude pulls off a headstand using his big fat red Gibson as a counterbalance, and not missing a beat while grinding out a note-for-note textbook-perfect guitar solo. The deep back-bends, …
July 6, 2016
The Old Globe arrests the dead butcher Macbeth and his fiend-like queen
Macbeth knows how to kill, but he has never committed murder and fears the consequences.
July 6, 2016
Improv’s no joke
Don’t Think Twice, opening August 12 at Landmark’s Ken Cinema, is Mike Birbiglia’s second feature as a director. The comedy introduces us to a six-person improv troupe that dwindles in size as the top floaters …
July 6, 2016
Over 15,000 square feet of living space
Beds: 8 Baths: 14 Current Owner: Thomas Powell List Price: $15,999,000 The 9.3-acre estate at 18181 Vis Roswitha, situated in Rancho Santa Fe, has spent years looking for its ideal buyer. That buyer would have …
July 6, 2016
Aggressive transients put Ocean Beach on edge
On April 29, Blair Aeria’s father was doing what he does several times a week, spending time with his two grandchildren, aged one and three, at Cleator Community Park in Ocean Beach. “My dad had …
July 6, 2016
Royal Headache and festivals for fuel
Though they come from “the land down unda,” Australia’s Royal Headache has been growing a loyal following in the states. That’s not bad for a quartet two LPs into the game. The group is about …
July 6, 2016
Waste a lot, want more
In July 2013, a new computer system was installed at the State of California’s veterans home in Chula Vista, and things quickly went awry. After repeated complaints from clinic staffers, the chief medical officer ran …
July 6, 2016
Letters about this; letters about that
Not All Kids Steal Re: “Steal Beer and Die,” June 30 cover story Let me tell you something. “Just over the point of not being a misdemeanor” is grand theft, okay? If I had not …
July 6, 2016
The film that set the bar for romantic comedies
Claudette Colbert proves the leg is mightier than the thumb when hitchhiking in the 1934 romantic comedy It Happened One Night (1934, Columbia). The film set the bar for romantic comedies to come. It’s a …
July 6, 2016
June 30 Crossword Contenders
Martha Awdziewicz, Clairemont, 11. L. Barling, El Cajon, 11. Evelyn Bowser, Hillcrest, 11. Dennis Butterworth, San Diego, 11. Chris Byzewski, San Diego, 11. Joseph Ciprian, Little Italy, 11. Annette Coppede, San Diego, 11. Allan Dorfman, …
July 6, 2016
June 30 Sudoku Contenders
Evil Bliss Beedle, Encinitas, 11. Gregory Chauncey, La Jolla, 11. Joseph Ciprian, Little Italy, 11. Alford Claibone, San Diego, 11. Patrick Driscoll, Santee, 11. Rafael Gaceta, San Diego, 11. Don Ganoe, San Diego, 11. Larry …
July 6, 2016