This city is brutal — Booking = Gambling. By Dryw Keltz You could learn to be a rock star — From seminars to jazz camps to rock-n-roll schools. By Dave Good Haydeé Jiménez was born …
March 2, 2016
News & Stories
San Diego's music makers and shakers
San Diego's spring record releases
Wayne Riker Brotherhood’s Blues Convocation record drops March 1, featuring selections that showcase Delta, Chicago, gospel, and jump blues by Freddie King, Jimmy Reed, John Mayall, and more. The debut album from Rob Crow’s Gloomy …
March 2, 2016
The dark ways people treat each other
You’re a fan of classic Hollywood cinema, you’ve seen all the greats that show up on Turner Classic Movies, but did you know about the first “real” Kubrick film? The Killing (USA, 1956, United Artists) …
March 2, 2016
Two poems by Steven Milne
Road Accident A night of glassy ghosts in the meadows. A black night of ice and rain, winter’s voltage set hard to stun, the earth hammered into unpredictable motion. The road was closed, I later …
March 2, 2016
Financial debacle is a résumé highlight
There was a lot of nasty fallout from San Diego’s infamous pension mess of the early 21st Century, starting with the political demise of Republican mayor Dick Murphy, who abruptly quit office in April 2005 …
March 2, 2016
CodeBlue goes deep house
It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times — for electronic dance music. “EDM has become so huge in San Diego that we get some of the biggest artists, like Oliver Heldens, coming …
March 2, 2016
Scripture served warm
Membership: 34,000+ (entire SDSU faculty, staff and student body) Pastor: Darin Johnson Age: 49 Born: Sioux Falls, SD Formation: Iowa State University, Ames, IA; Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago; Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA Years …
March 2, 2016
Victor Mature recites Hamlet’s famous speech
The Guardian said of Cry of the City (USA),1948, 20th Century Fox), “The German-born Robert Siodmak brings a fascinatingly Italianate, neorealist touch to this hardboiled noir thriller from 1948.” The film has a great lineup …
March 2, 2016
Scott Tournet's starting from scratch
When Scott Tournet last checked in with the Reader, it was three years ago. He’d moved to San Diego from his native Vermont the year before and he’d recently recorded his first solo album at …
March 2, 2016
Order up: the most expensive thing at El Carrito Nuevo
“No!” says Carmen. “Finish first. You will eat my camarones hot.”
March 2, 2016
Down the rabbit hole with Birdy Bardot
Emily Reilly. It’s a name you might not naturally associate with San Diego’s music scene. And yet, she’s one of the busiest in the biz, lending her vocals to no less than three bands: Birdy …
March 2, 2016
Moonshine and Dominican beans unite
As more local breweries have partnered with local roasters, coffee beers have become something of a regional specialty, racking up national awards left and right. Now, as San Diego’s craft-spirit scene has grown past its …
March 2, 2016
Wage hike campaign begins
Politically ambitious San Diego Unified school-board member Kevin Beiser is throwing a bash to raise cash on behalf of the campaign for the minimum-wage measure on June’s ballot, saying, “The best way to help kids …
March 2, 2016
Hipster bulldog mania
Dear Hipster: Why do hipsters like bulldogs? I thought bros favored bulldogs, especially when they could be taught to skateboard. — Dana The past decade has been kind to bulldogs, and their French cousins, which …
March 2, 2016
Fallbrook's underworld of artists
It was a book about making bold life choices that inspired Dail Croome to quit his job, sell his house, and hit the road with his two sons and two other musicians. Croome: “I had …
March 2, 2016
A salute to Swedenborgian Hall
On Sunday, February 7, parishioners lost their church, and local theater lost a space. After a farewell service in the sanctuary, where each member signed the paper of dissolution, the Swedenborgian Church of San Diego …
March 2, 2016
Getting personal with Waxahatchee
After releasing two lo-fi solo albums on independent label Don Giovanni, Katie Crutchfield delivered her musical project, Waxahatchee, to a larger home. Her first release on Merge Records was last year’s Ivy Tripp — a …
March 2, 2016
Watch birds eat flies and shrimp at Saltworks
If you head out of Chula Vista Marina into the open bay and make a left turn to the south, you’ll see a spit of land jutting westward out into the east side of the …
March 2, 2016
Recapping the Oscars
Oscar recap: And the dead frog goes to... It was almost the Oscars that weren’t, the first time since age seven where I couldn’t invite Hollywood’s elite into my living room for its annual epistle …
March 2, 2016
West Sycamore Open Space
West Sycamore Open Space is an extension of Mission Trails Regional Park that was opened to the public in December 2014. It is adjacent to Gooden Ranch Sycamore Canyon Reserve and has interconnecting trails with …
March 2, 2016
World War I refought in San Diego
When Raphael Courtney was two, his mother took him to live in her father’s National City home. Her husband had recently died in a plane crash. As the boy matured, he and his grandfather grew …
March 2, 2016
Haydeé Jiménez was born to make connections
I first met her three years ago at a Chinese-Mexican pop-up dinner that her brother was hosting in Tijuana. At the time, Haydeé was living in Berlin working for global collaboration platform Rockajoint. She moved …
March 2, 2016
Epic chokes from the history of modern sports
Now we come to Preventing Motor Skill Failure Through Hemisphere-Specific Priming: Cases From Choking Under Pressure. Authored by those impetuous funsters at Faculty of Sport Science, Technische Universität München, located in München, state of Bavaria, …
March 2, 2016
Phone calls are the lobster bisque of communication methods
Dear Hipster: My phone doesn’t get service at home, so I sometimes message mutual friends from my boyfriend’s phone. Whenever I do that, I suffer the strangest quandary. I wonder, is it better to a) …
March 2, 2016
Ghosts on the patio
“It all started in my backyard in the summer of 2014,” Andrés Corella recalls. “We did it to share music with friends. We had no intention of making it a big public thing. They were …
March 2, 2016
Mr. Cheese
David decided to dress in the lounge spirit, in an ensemble I referred to as “the afterparty” look: a tuxedo with the bowtie untied and hanging from his neck.
March 2, 2016
This city is brutal
Soda Bar booker Cory Stier put it best when he described his job as akin to running around like headless poultry. Look for the following five decapitated chickens to continue to run their butts off …
March 2, 2016
You could learn to be a rock star
It’s worked out that way so far for a 2012 San Diego Reader notable band: “All three of the kids in Big Bad Buffalo were students here,” School of Rock regional music director Tyler Ward …
March 2, 2016
Chargers’ PR is a grating insult
Spanos poured gas on the bridge while his jilted lover traveled across it.
March 2, 2016
Promoters of the local dream
Tim Pyles loves Sundays. That’s when he gets to play the local bands that excite him... on 100,000 watts. “The Schizophonics…the Sesh…Adam from Burning of Rome…the Prayers, even though they are controversial. [Front man] Rafa …
March 2, 2016
UCSD and USC battle in court
The costly legal battle between taxpayer-supported UCSD and private Los Angeles–based University of Southern California continues to slowly wind its way through federal court here, as lawyers for both sides run up more billable hours. …
March 2, 2016
It’s not like I’m there to make money
Dan Atkinson “I started at the Athenaeum in 1989, before there even was a jazz series,” recalls jazz program coordinator Dan Atkinson over lunch in La Jolla. “It hasn’t been a constant series of challenges; …
March 2, 2016
To Gary from Carlsbad
What a Difference a Zero Makes Re: “The Glamour Track Is Mountain Lion,” February 25 cover story I’m wondering if the writer meant 400-600 mountain lions populating San Diego County rather than 4000-6000 (noted in …
March 2, 2016
Challenging fate
A Place Beyond the Pines (USA, 2012, Focus Features), masterfully written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, is an incredibly ambitious, novel-like exploration of how fate is challenged and often reinforced by intentions and consequences. Ryan …
March 2, 2016
February 25 Crossword Contenders
Martha Awdziewicz, Clairemont, 5. Dennis Butterworth, San Diego, 5. Chris Byzewski, San Diego, 5. Leslie Chase, Campo, 5. Joseph Ciprian, Little Italy, 5. Allan Dorfman, Del Mar, 5. Chad Griffith, Poway, 5. Susan Haley, Chula …
March 2, 2016
February 25 Sudoku Contenders
Evil Bliss Beedle, Encinitas, 5. Gregory Chauncey, La Jolla, 5. (winner!) Joseph Ciprian, Little Italy, 5. (winner!) Patrick Driscoll, Santee, 5. (winner!) Rafael Gaceta, San Diego, 5. Don Ganoe, San Diego, 5. Paula Henderson, La …
March 2, 2016