Downtown San Diego Stories
146 Point Flame They called a snake in Vietnam “Two-step Charlie.” A rock asp — get bit and you went down in two steps. So you had maybe 10 or 15 seconds to curse or …
Ceremony, by Michael Kass “Michael,” she said, “it’s not going to work out.” Michael Kass was a 35-year-old white male who, along with other “First World problems,” looked to go zero-for-eternity in relationships. He had …
Hundreds of protesters descended on the plaza outside federal government offices downtown on Wednesday evening, July 9, as part of a nationwide day of action in support of a stream of Central American children and …
"Come in, sir,” says this voice. It’s a guy looking through a partition. We’re inside an ancient, 100-year-old building right by the ballpark. I just wandered in here looking for food. We’re in this passage …
Some discoveries: 1 — No non-bionic reviewer can cover everything. Maybe not even a team of pundits, since each day has nine time-slots and usually five shows on at once. That’s 45 shows per day, …
It’s too bad San Diego can’t just adopt the Haste Theatre. Give them a nice, intimate space and let them showcase their fantastical (sometimes tragical) tales. Not only that, the London-based group would give locals …
Ever hear of the Weavers? No? Well for over a decade the government wanted to keep it that way. The Weavers were a folk music group long before it became popular. They composed and sang …
The final concert of the Mainly Mozart Festival was off the chain. "Off the chain" — what does that even mean? From Urban Dictionary: "Out of control, wild fun. Just like when your pitbull gets …
Red Shoes Revamped and other works Though I used to do a mean James Brown (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”) and a so-so “Electric Slide,” I’m no expert on dance. I can appreciate the …
Fire in the Meth Lab A Fringe frustration: when a group from France cancelled their appearance, the Lyceum Theatre had an open slot. For one hour only, on Saturday Jon Bennett performed a work-in-progress, knocked …
Rosaria: “Then I’ll take him by his hand and we’ll jump straight down into the blue sea. He will think it’s a game.” Three characters. Sicily, 1980s. The uncredited lighting for this one-act tragedy from …
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s 1933 “Ballet chante” — sung ballet — encapsulates many of Brecht’s themes in a short, spare piece. The full title’s “The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petty Bourgeoise.” In nine …
Dr. Frankenstein’s Traveling Freakshow, Tin Shed Theatre Company The Fringe’s “Off Broadway” space is the stage of the Spreckels Theatre. Tiers of folding chairs, their backs to the house seats, provide an intimate atmosphere. Tin …
The first San Diego Fringe Festival was such a hit last summer, this year’s has doubled in size. It now runs eleven days, and offers over 80 entrants. Most will give five performances instead of …
El Henry, Herbert Siguenza, of Culture Clash fame, has written a rousing, funny, and eloquent script based on Shakespeare’s history play, Henry IV, Part one. We’re at Aztlan City — i.e. post-apocalyptic San Diego in …
It was the culmination of a year of elaborate planning at city hall and a major source of income to Katherine Stuart, wife of mayor Kevin Faulconer. And word was out to private security forces …
I’m not much of a Yelper, but when I was searching to verify the address for the new Pizzeria Mozza restaurant at the Headquarters two weeks after it opened, Yelp was the first site that …
I wouldn’t have expected top-notch fine dining from a mammoth national organization like Darden (which owns 2100 restaurants, including Olive Garden), but because my fancy foodie friends Bill and Jane approved of and recommended it, …
"Even though the politicians have stopped talking about it, we still need immigration reform," said Genoveva Aguilar, one of about two dozen protesters who gathered outside the federal courthouse downtown on Friday afternoon, June 13. …
What's the best lunch deal at The Headquarters downtown? Four slabs of ancient cheese in a stretch of crunchy baguette and a fresh pear for $6.50. That's a deal? You betcha. Those four golden slabs …
If you’ve seen that look, that frozen Alzheimer’s stare, on the face of a loved one, you have to wonder what’s inside. If, that is, you can get past the unthinkable horrors a.) of no …
Surely downtown residents would be thrilled to discover the city kept a secret stash totaling $23.5 million that could only be spent filling downtown's potholed streets, building parks, leveling uneven sidewalks, or funding public safety …
You ever spend a few days with people who are showing you their city and all the hot spots in the tourist guide? By the time the fourth day rolls around, if you’re lucky and …
The Book of Mormon Maybe THE most hype-heavy show ever to come to the San Diego Civic lives up to all the accolades. Witten by the creators of South Park, the musical is guaranteed to …
“This place looks out of my league,” my friend texted me hours before we were planning to meet downtown for drinks and appetizers. He was referring to the Cat Eye Club, which, during its first …
‘We have signs outside that say, ‘Home of the Salty Dog,’ so people think we’re claiming we invented the Salty Dog,” bartender Daniel Baker says with a laugh. “But I have to tell them that, …
A group of picketers took to the streets outside newly installed California Assembly speaker Toni Atkins’s office Friday afternoon, May 30, in protest of her vote in favor of Assembly Bill 2145, which environmental activists …
First things first. A word to every theater lover in San Diego who can’t afford a full-priced ticket to this truly remarkable event: two-and-a-half hours before every performance of The Book of Mormon, Broadway/San Diego …
If there's one thing Jahja Ling and the San Diego Symphony can do, it's play Brahms. Over the past few seasons we've heard all four of the Brahms symphonies and each time the performance has …
The San Diego Symphony concert the weekend of May 16-18 was a mixed bag for me. I'm not speaking of the performance, but the repertoire. The opening piece was Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky …
City-council candidates Lorie Zapf and Chris Cate have a solid partner in the Downtown San Diego Partnership. The agency that manages the city's largest property-based improvement district and its CEO Kris Michell has gone to …
This coming weekend is the penultimate concert in the Jacobs Masterworks Series at the San Diego Symphony. The concert features the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 — the "Rach 3" as it was referred to …
Environmental activists representing SanDiego350.org assembled downtown on Tuesday, May 14, to confront governor Jerry Brown — here on a visit —and to urge support of SB 1132, which would ban a controversial method of extracting …
“Anyone who does happen to lose their lunch while sailing will get it back with a gift certificate to a restaurant just down the street.”
Jsix at the Hotel Solamar downtown closed down at the beginning of the year to revamp the menu. The restaurant now promises food that is organic, sustainable, hormone-free, and that supports local farmers. All of …
The San Diego City Council on Wednesday, April 30, removed the historic designation for a house at 1619 J Street — but is banking on the owner, Jerry Navarra, to move it rather than tear …
“I must’ve looked pretty awful,” says a character in one of Peter Devries’ novels. “When I asked the bartender if he served Zombies, he said, ‘sure, what’ll you have?’” Ya gotta love the old ones! …
A group of about 50 activists rallied Wednesday morning (April 30), holding a prayer circle on the city seal 12 floors below the city-council chambers downtown in support of council president Todd Gloria's proposal to …
I was tempted to recite the musical biographies of Emanuel Ax and Christoph von Dohnányi but that is always boring, especially when the musicians are Emmanuel Ax and Christoph von Dohnányi — meaning they’re such …
One perk of writing for Feast! is that I get to eat out a lot. But to look at it another way, I have to eat out a lot. Like anyone else, I have those …
At approximately 7:00 p.m. on April 23, fire alarms went off at the Hotel Sanford in the 1300 block of Fifth Avenue. As the alarm is connected to the San Diego Fire Department, they and …
Mark Rothko and his fellow Abstract Expressionists (though they didn’t like the name) battered the Cubists to pulp. Now, as Rothko contemplates what could be his masterpiece — and the place to showcase his special …
Just as the success of the Moonshine Flats country bar downtown seems to signal a turnaround in the live-music scene, word is that the Gaslamp will get another live venue in late May or June. …
Saturday night at the Jacobs Music Center was about the most fun I’ve had at a symphony concert. The buzz before the April 12 concert was alien to those hallowed walls — at least in …
The Project Trio was in town last weekend. I had recommended them sight-unseen earlier in the week. Having now seen them at the Jacobs Music Center on Sunday, I can say they are the most …
A Canadian drywall contractor was kicked off the job at the $150 million, 45-story Pinnacle Towers development on the 1400 block of Island Avenue downtown for failing to obtain a California contractor's license, the state …
A pair of protest groups descended on the convention center Friday morning, April 11, to picket outside a medical convention, only to find that their target, former secretary of state and likely presidential candidate Hillary …
I hate to pigeonhole a place, but when you stake out a central-Gaslamp location, write the word "Shots" in giant letters along the back wall and name it Werewolf, you've pretty much decided to cater …
After a few months of operation, Lucky Liu’s still hasn’t gotten a license to sell alcohol. Either the ABC is trying for restaurant infanticide, or owner Alex Thao and his associates were overly optimistic about …
Downtown residents are being warned to expect a major disturbance on Saturday morning, as work crews will be pouring concrete for the slab of a new headquarters building for Sempra Energy. Partial street closures will …
The fellows from Rumbling Tins Construction brought their pleasant clamor to the Westgate Hotel to offer patrons a trifecta of cocktails as part of a recent tasting soirée. A five-member collaboration of jiggering journeymen, Rumbling …