The large picture windows at Lotus Garden Seafood and Noodles restaurant in City Heights overlook the corner of Euclid and University. Over a heaping plate of chicken chow fun, one can observe the comings and …
February 14, 2018
News & Stories
San Diego's City Heights on the way up
Black-metal punks
Patrick Erhard is the lead singer/bassist of Ash Williams, the punk band that one reviewer said “wishes it was a black metal band.” The SDSU grad started booking his own punk shows two years ago. …
February 14, 2018
New job posting at the U/T
The new face of reporting at tronc belongs to a computer, based on the latest online help-wanted ad posted for a “content specialist” by the Chicago-based newspaper chain with a strange name that just agreed …
February 14, 2018
Unlimited toppings for $10!
"J ó étvágyat!” says Zorka. It means “Bon appetit,” in Hungarian, she says. She’s from Budapest. We’re sitting in this brand-new, two-week-old pizza-and-salad joint, in East Village. Man, I’ve been waiting for this place to …
February 14, 2018
Grails not nearly as shape-shifty as prog rock
Right about the point when you’re thinking this is a band that should have never left the garage, Grails delivers. The band has a sound that is its own: in this case, nuanced, shadowy, ominous …
February 14, 2018
Where it's always 1997
Dear Hipster: Why can I not divide by zero? I feel like there’s some Illuminati conspiracy to cover up the truth. — Z. Math has nothing to do with it. As anyone with an ounce …
February 14, 2018
S&M (smut & moronity) with Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed at last, that is, as moviedom’s favorite boy-beats-girl franchise draws to a halting climax. This viewer needed closure after having survived the first two, so it just makes sense that I cast …
February 14, 2018
Material witnesses at Adams Avenue Theater
The Reader recently reported that Discount Fabrics on Adams Avenue will be shutting down due to the sale of their building. The story mentioned that the establishment (located at 3325 Adams Avenue) was once a …
February 14, 2018
Wintry Sisyphus
It doesn’t much matter how I came to be in my recent predicament — stranded in the Evanston, Wyoming, Comfort Inn, just over the Utah border, staring out of the second-story window at the parking …
February 14, 2018
Immigrants welcomed at Ascension Lutheran Church
Membership: 70 Pastor: Rick Fry Age: 43 Born: Springfield, OH Formation: Wittenberg University, Springfield OH; Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Hyde Park Years Ordained: 6 San Diego Reader: What’s your favorite subject on which …
February 14, 2018
Three short hikes in high part of Anza Borrego
At an elevation of 3400 feet, Culp Valley not only provides relief from scorching desert temperatures in the months when it is too hot to hike at lower elevations in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, but …
February 14, 2018
Ladera Street stairs closed. Too dangerous.
On February 13th, San Diego city officials closed the beach access stairway at the western end of Ladera Street. An adjacent bluff failure that landed at the base of the stairway is the cause of …
February 14, 2018
S.D. marijuana merchants pour cash into political action committee
With marijuana sales finally legalized in California, local pot merchants have been pouring cash into a political action committee known as Citizens for Public Safety and Safe Access, sponsored by the Association of Cannabis Professionals. …
February 14, 2018
Academy Award–nominated short films at the Ken
Ten years ago, the Academy Award for Best Picture went to No Country for Old Men — a solid choice, even though I would have gone with There Will Be Blood. (Not that you asked.) …
February 14, 2018
The Wasteland Weekend guys
When Authentic Sellout guitarist Christian Borja pens songs, he tends to envision images that correlate with the lyrics. While he was writing “Radiate,” many of these images were post-apocalyptic. Vocalist Sulo King landing the band …
February 14, 2018
February 8 Crossword
Johanna Barry, Pine Valley, 3. Orville Brown, San Diego, 3. Mark Burton, San Diego, 3. Joseph Ciprian, San Diego, 3. Ron Hootman, Santee, 3. Richard Hutchings, Santee, 3. Robert McQuay, San Diego, 3. Thomas McVeagh, …
February 14, 2018
February 8 Sudoku
Claiborne Alford, San Diego, 2. Frank Barnes, San Diego, 2. (winner!) Isabella Bosch-Sorensen, San Diego, 2. Mark Burton, San Diego, 2. Joseph Ciprian, San Diego, 2. Roger Coutinho, San Diego, 2. Kelly Cunningham, Del Mar, …
February 14, 2018
February 8 Brainstorm
Joseph Ciprian, San Diego, 3. Mark Burton, San Diego, 2. Richard Hutchings, Santee, 2. Thomas McVeagh, Lakeside, 2. Johanna Barry, Pine Valley, 1. Sandy Carpenter, Lakeside, 1. Gia Consoli, San Diego, 1. Monty Davis, Santee, …
February 14, 2018
It was a bus stop, and past midnight
Border Town Graduates Although we’re closer to feeling the grass pulled over our lips forever, we still bare our dirty teeth and laugh. We managed to look twice our age, and now our wrinkles won’t …
February 14, 2018
175 hours of yoga instruction brings LP to light
“I think there’s a benefit to not being with a label and self-financing, because I have a lot more freedom,” says musician Sharon DuBois, who just completed her latest album (Into Light) after almost three …
February 14, 2018
Seller is willing to accept Bitcoin
“Welcome to Rancho Escondido Groves, your very own private 290.95-acre luxury mountain top estate.” So begins the sales pitch for the property at 1830 Rincon Avenue, in equal parts a development opportunity and potential paradise …
February 14, 2018
Thanks for the chops, School of Rock
San Diego’s Elise Trouw got bumped from Jimmy Kimmel Live January 30. Was the local 18-year-old multi-instrumentalist bummed because porno actress Stormy Daniels hogged all her time? “I wasn’t worried about it,” says Trouw. “These …
February 14, 2018
Talk of the occasional guava pastry leads to a physics lesson
Dear Hipster: Why is there never any parking near hipster coffee shops (especially ones that contain guava pastries)? — Janelle Khaleesi There’s a simple answer and a hard answer. I’ll give you the easy one …
February 14, 2018
What use UTC has of books
Books do furnish a room, but not at Pottery Barn in University Town Center. Even the writing desk is piled high with leather travel cases instead of readables. The only exception — the John Derian …
February 14, 2018
Comic-hoarder’s hell is a Poway picker’s heaven
Recently, a Poway thrift-store owner made what’s being called the biggest score in local comics trading history when he bought the collection of a deceased L.A.-area hoarder. “The house is an extreme case [of a] …
February 14, 2018
Border czar Alan Bersin sets up BorderWorks Group
Clinton administration border czar Alan Bersin, who subsequently ran San Diego city schools before becoming Barack Obama’s Customs commissioner until failing to get Senate confirmation, could soon be cleaning up as the new anti-Trump of …
February 14, 2018
My 14-year-old niece is the reason I saw Hamilton?
Sitting in a sold out Civic Theater, 15 minutes til showtime of the undisputed theatrical event of the season, and as the seats begin to fill it dawns on me: I’m not the only one …
February 14, 2018
More on the casino in Jamul
Re: “The casino’s been built — Jamul is still fighting it,” cover story. As I was reading the article about the Jamul Indian Village, I had to contain my disgust at the statement that Erica …
February 14, 2018