“Deport the eucalyptus back to Australia!” That’s Johnny Sevier, a certified arborist, on the tree he loves to hate but that many San Diegans revere, the ubiquitous eucalyptus. Long an arboreal staple in San Diego …
June 1, 2016
News & Stories
How eucalyptus has hurt San Diego
Creation of First Man and First Woman
Using signs but without speaking, the gods tried to instruct the people, but they were not understood…. The gods appeared on four days in succession and attempted to communicate through signs.… On the fourth day …
June 1, 2016
There must be better ways than saying “no”
Dawns Each dawn is an amazement. From the subterranean corridors of night, my slippery crags and sucking mudslides, desperate scrambles, floundering through snow, wallowing waist-deep through murky waters. Your maze of unlit streets, criss-crossing freeways, …
June 1, 2016
Dine in ambiance and luxury
Two members of San Diego’s Democratic congressional delegation have been picking up some big-money love from a controversial Washington DC lobbyist tied to the real estate development business. First it was La Jolla’s Scott Peters, …
June 1, 2016
Vintage Henry
“We recorded this album one hundred percent analog with engineer Jordan Andreen at Audio Design Recording here in San Diego,” says Daniel Cervantes of Mrs. Henry’s upcoming self-titled two-volume set. “Tracked on vintage gear, while …
June 1, 2016
Goat-bloated from Café Royale
It’s the kids. They’re all over the table. And into the spaghetti and goat. All except Anas and Khalid. The two older boys are plowing into their own plate of chicken drumsticks. Their dad has …
Charley don’t like 50-year-old guys acting like little girls
Name: Charley Stevens Age: 28 Occupation: Bartender Location: Sunset Cliffs Subs Charley Stevens speaks like a surfer with slow and lazy vowels. He moved to Ocean Beach four years ago. He learned to surf in …
June 1, 2016
Lorraine Castellanos — an introverted extrovert
‘It’s so new that I don’t know where it’s going to go,” says musician Lorraine Castellanos over coffee at Lestat’s on Adams Avenue on a windswept afternoon. She is speaking of her latest project, a …
June 1, 2016
Johnny Brown’s out
Downtown Johnny Brown’s, whose location across the San Diego Concourse from City Hall made it a dingy watering hole for San Diego city hall politicos, folded earlier this year. Now the site is up for …
June 1, 2016
Blueberries wane
Summer is coming, and while summer squash harvests are well underway for farms around the county, as June progresses we’ll see more and more local tomatoes, especially good news as a couple of producers will …
June 1, 2016
Eve of construction
Stories about musicians suffering for their art are legion. Few of them involve rollerblading. But Eve Selis says her new record, See Me with Your Heart, never would have happened if she hadn’t torn her …
June 1, 2016
No bay at Border Field State Park for about 7000 years
Border Field State Park is where delegations from both the U.S. and Mexico began the survey of the border in 1850 after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was concluded on February 2, 1848, officially ending …
June 1, 2016
The only fitting approach
About halfway through the first act of Cygnet Theatre’s production of Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird, after the “showing” of the play-within-the-play, but before the “We need new forms” speech, occurs a brief dialogue between …
June 1, 2016
Flower choices for the low-water garden
On the hottest day of last summer, we hosted a wedding reception in our backyard. The thermometer hit 103 degrees as the guests arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon. Our guests clustered in the shady …
The photo is not the boss of Kim Reasor
No one ogles the industrial vistas of Southern California. Those unsightly realms where giant cranes stipple the skyline. Where ship containers are stacked unemptied of their new Curvy Barbie dolls for Walmart. Where thickets of …
June 1, 2016
I've made thousands off those idiots
While the local booking company Gigtown remains controversial, one San Diego band and a hardcore critic are glad they’re here. Launched last year by Andy Altman with a reported $3 million investment by his father, …
June 1, 2016
How to deal with a frenemy
Dear Hipster: I have a pretty tight circle of friends, one of whom, who I don’t consider a close friend, exhibits some pretty disreputable behavior. Basically, he never has anything nice to say about anyone, …
June 1, 2016
Debating Love & Friendship
I think I was maybe 12 when I first saw Citizen Kane. Here’s what I knew going in: Orson Welles had been the voice of the Shadow in my brother’s beloved collection of old radio …
June 1, 2016
An aunting expedition to SeaWorld
My sister Jane was along to spend time with me and properly watch after her progeny, lest I drop one of them into the shark-petting pool or something.
June 1, 2016
Gory reunion
“I’m getting my old band back together.” Diana Death is jet-lagging from her recent trip to London and back. She tells me the original plan was to travel as part of the El Vez Punk …
June 1, 2016
The ruby sea dragon
It washed up on a Perth beach nearly a hundred years ago and had been stashed away in Western Australia Museum’s collection from 1919 until recently, when scientists at Scripps Institute of Oceanography obtained and …
June 1, 2016
Skate park in City Heights still not open
City Heights was supposed to have a skate park by now. While construction of one free-to-use municipal skate park is now nearing completion and another is slated to open in 2017, District 9 councilwoman Marti …
June 1, 2016
Acid-funk Allstars
Doubtless that anybody in the Green Circle Bar in San Diego in 1993 heard a future Rolling Stone when the house deejay introduced his latest project, a collaborative between the turntables and live music he …
June 1, 2016
Union-Tribune hearts Faulconer
Whether by coincidence or not, a lavish high-society fundraising bash for the USO has been turned into a well-timed campaign tribute to San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, thanks to his longtime patron, Republican kingpin Doug …
June 1, 2016
Lose the doofus Marine haircuts and the Smith Brothers Cough Drop beards
Touched I was in a hurry and wasn’t going to pick up the last Reader at my local Circle K. As I started to pull away, I changed my mind. For some reason, I (out …
June 1, 2016
How they deal with the world
Wolf Children (Japan, 2012, FUNimation) is a heartwarming Japanese anime about a mother who struggles to raise her kids that happen to be part wolf. The kids try to figure out who they want to …
June 1, 2016
May 26 Crossword Contenders
Jason Passchier, San Diego, 7. Martha Awdziewicz, Clairemont, 6. L. Barling, El Cajon, 6. Evelyn Bowser, Hillcrest, 6. Dennis Butterworth, San Diego, 6. Chris Byzewski, San Diego, 6. Joseph Ciprian, Little Italy, 6. Annette Coppede, …
June 1, 2016
May 26 Sudoku Contenders
Evil Bliss Beedle, Encinitas, 6. Gregory Chauncey, La Jolla, 6. Joseph Ciprian, Little Italy, 6. Alford Claibone, San Diego, 6. Patrick Driscoll, Santee, 6. Rafael Gaceta, San Diego, 6. Don Ganoe, San Diego, 6. Larry …
June 1, 2016