Downtown San Diego Stories
We haven't had an esoteric pick of the week for a while and it just so happens that the San Diego Symphony has selected one for us. They are performing Harmonielehre by John Adams this …
Finding the $185 million to pay for construction of San Diego's Central Library was a constant struggle. The city, which at the time was trapped under a structural deficit, relied heavily on private donors to …
“It makes no sense,” David said as he scowled at the room. “There’s just no point to having those books haphazardly placed around on shelves. And those meat hooks randomly on that one chandelier when …
In this day and age of computer-generated sounds and images, as the precious bud of virtual reality starts to blossom upon our consciousness, it’s nice to be reminded that technique often trumps technology. On Saturday …
If the new manager of a posh, Madison Avenue restaurant could watch his busboys work in the “back of the house” he’d never cut their “shift pay.” Or would only do it to save his …
The overture to Die Fledermaus is usually reserved for New Year's Day but the San Diego Symphony decided to use it on a new season's day. This Viennese war horse, or Lipizzan stallion, as the …
The father of a mentally ill inmate who was seriously injured after jumping from a second floor at San Diego's Central Jail has filed a lawsuit against the County of San Diego. Jonathan Thomas jumped …
Jerome Navarra, co-founder and owner of Jerome's Furniture, kept his 2014 promise to move — rather than demolish — the formerly historic Sanford B. Myers Spec House on 16th and J Street on Wednesday, October …
La Cage Aux Folles at San Diego Musical Theatre. You have until Sunday, says our guest reviewer Jon Reimer, to “throw on a wig, put on your best pair of heels, and head on down …
As we enter the Tenth Avenue Theatre space, tall, barbed-wire fences flank both sides. Ushers don black vests with bold white letters across the back: THURSTON. A soundscape rumbles in the background. We are in …
The transition begins with the 2015-2016 San Diego Symphony season on Friday, October 9, at 7 p.m. The transition refers to Jahja Ling’s stepping down as the music director for the symphony after the 2016-2017 …
San Diego Musical Theatre is transforming the beautiful Spreckels Theatre into a Mediterranean drag club for their current production of La Cage Aux Folles, now through October 11. The musical follows Georges, the owner of …
The latest local climate action group to launch, dubbed San Diego Coalition to Preserve our Common Home, gathered on the steps of Saint Joseph Cathedral downtown on Thursday morning (September 24) to cheer on Pope …
René Barbera gave his North American professional debut recital at the Balboa Theater on Saturday, September 19. The concert opened San Diego Opera’s 2015-16 season. Mr. Barbera started the concert with a piece by Rossini …
The perfect theatrical storm’s a seamless combination of a great production of a great play or musical. The audience goes to unforeseen places and becomes so attuned, as T. S. Eliot wrote, that they “are …
The ultracompetitive restaurant landscape around the DOWNTOWN neighborhoods of Marina, Gaslamp, and East Village leaves little room for error in what's already a risky enterprise. The mere fact these restaurants survive recommends them. That they …
Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol cleared homeless camps around the Highway 94 off-ramps and I-5 overpasses next to downtown on Friday morning, September 4. Around morning rush hour, homeless people gathered downhill from the …
The consulting firm of Convention, Sports and Leisure International has come out with a $90,000 study telling San Diego that if it builds a contiguous convention-center expansion, it will gain $157.1 million in direct convention-attendee …
Suddenly Labor Day Weekend is upon us. The ship is turning. Summer is slipping toward the western horizon and frivolous activities are being replaced with serious endeavors. The pastoral Major League Baseball begins to yield …
"My name is Bhim. The name means ‘bravery.’” Bhim’s as tall standing as I am sitting, but he’s stocky, fit-looking, and confident. He’s wearing a Nepalese-style cap, with a little replica of two crossed knives …
Violet studies faces. She even sketches their features in a book. For her own, she’d like a composite: Rita Hayworth’s skin, Ingrid Bergman’s cheekbones, and Grace Kelly’s petite nose. Violet’s obsessed with facial features. When …
Phora connected with fans, his “family” to use his words, with intimacy in the House of Blues’ Voodoo Room. At a time in hip-hop when artists are preoccupied with describing often fictitious material possessions and …
What’s this? Craft beer on Fifth? That’s right. Our downtown strip is straying further from its time-honored formula of tourist traps and EDM cesspools to bring West Coast suds to the Gaslamp. Nearby establishments such …
"Tapioca is just healthier. And it’s our native food. Tapioca is a Brazilian plant.”
A lot has, and hasn’t, happened in the decades since downtown’s public restroom shortage came to light. Two grand jury reports and vast sums of money have been aimed at the problem, the homeless population …
One good thing about the dissolution of redevelopment tax in San Diego: tens of millions of dollars seemingly appear out of thin air. The most recent pot of redevelopment gold was discussed at an August …
Filipino cuisine has been tabbed by food experts and national magazines as “the next big thing” for several years now. While San Diego does offer a number of restaurants serving traditional dishes such as lumpia, …
If you’re thinking about doing a half marathon event this month, you better get on it. The Stairway to Heaven trail half-marathon is already sold out but it looks as though the America’s Finest City …
Kiss Me Kate. The Old Globe’s mega hit must close Sunday. No if’s, and’s, or could we start again please’s. In 2013, Darko Trasnjak, former artistic director at the Globe, brought us a gem of …
After being dark for two-and-a-half years, the Little Italy space formerly known as Anthology has been renamed the Music Box and crews are racing to have the remodeled restaurant/bar/music venue opened in time for the …
The Fringe Festival ends this Sunday. As does one of San Diego’s best dramatic productions in years. The Quality of Life. Intrepid Theatre Company mounted Jane Anderson’s heart-wrenching, gut-busting play at the Carlsbad Village Theatre, …
Manchester Financial Group now owns 49 percent of the downtown building that formerly housed Sempra Energy, at 101 Ash Street. It bought the minority share in the property for $20 million, reported the San Diego …
Brace yourself for a gratuitous personal plug. With all due respect to my esteemed colleague, Jeff Smith, I thought my “review” of Kiss Me, Kate would mark a first and last move away from cinema. …
Big Kitchen: A Counter Culture Musical. San Diego should confer the equivalent of knighthood on its special ones — those who have devoted decades to making some part of “America’s Finest City” approach that inflated …
The Other Don Quixote. Three clowns – replete with red noses – represent three after-hours workers at a film studio. The set, like most at the Fringe, is rudimentary, made up of bare bone essentials: …
Yellow Heaven. “One performer’s journey” — that’s the way, according to the old joke, you refer to a show about which you’re uncertain of the specifics. Yellow Heaven, performed by author Debi Ham, has sympathy …
Scenes From Mars One: Now With 68% Less Gravity!. Mars One Productions’ Scenes From Mars One is an irreverent spoof of disastrous theatrical experiences. A depressed director puts on a never-before-produced show, written by his …
Falling Man. In his one-man, completely improvised dance/theater piece, Leonard Cruz tackles topics that range from 9/11 to his own days as a troubled frat guy searching for acceptance at UCLA. Wildly different themes? Sure. …
Blamed: An Established Fiction. In Rose & Rue Theatre Company and the La Habra Theatre Guild’s new play, a troupe of ladies, dressed as if fresh off the boat at the turn of the 20th …
¿Y Tú Qué? When the prima ballerina couldn’t use her legs, she created a “dance on wheels.” Rossana Penaloza performed in Peru (her home country), Havana, Cuba, and Mexico City, always to robust applause. For …
So Small a Thing. Even tragedy can be played for comedy. Dominique Salerno’s scripts opens years following the gruesome events in Euripides’ Medea. Stuck together on an elevator for the deceased, the angry Medea (Jennie …
Bodies Are Not Borders. A woman and two men sit with their backs against a stark orange fence patched by sheets of corrugated steel. A second woman, on her back, slides out from a doggy-door-like …
The Hustle. Lion Fludd, from Las Vegas, Nevada, may start out nervous in his one-man magic act. But he eases into his most impressive skill, his humor. His concept is street-style hustling magic, from card …
Put Your Face On. Touted as a parade into the complex human psyche, Put Your Face On is The Great Borealis & Pisces Dance Project’s two-part modern dance expose of the dark emotions that bubble …
84 Gradini. Kinetic Giuseppi Mortelliti tells his story as much with his body as his words. His character, Fabrizio, learns that “life is made of stairs, of obstacles, of ups and downs.” But he has …
Tears of the Knife. Ah, the Fringe Festival! Where else in San Diego can you walk into a theater and see a hanged man, his head in a gunny sack, looming above the stage? And …
There’s that eyeball-buster logo again! The third annual San Diego International Fringe Festival begins Thursday, July 23 and runs through August 2. That’s eleven days. As fans of the first two found out, they go …
Later this summer, longtime North Park coffee roaster Caffé Calabria will launch its first offsite expansion in 15 years, opening a satellite coffee bar in a ground-floor storefront at the 1 Columbia Place high-rise in …
Comic-Con-themed music events around town on Thursday include Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions at Embarcadero Marina Park South, with orchestral arrangements performed to visuals drawn from video games. The House of Blues will host its annual musical …
Beds: 3 Baths: 5 Current Owner: Eleanor Jaffe Asking Price: $4,900,000 On the block this week is an “alluring, stylish, and swank” 22nd-floor loft in the heart of downtown, featuring three bedrooms, five baths, and …
I’ve tasted my way around gỏi cuốn (salad rolls), phở (rice noodle soup), and lemongrass chicken; I’ve sampled “classic dishes” such as ca kho to (fish in a clay pot), and several versions of bánh …
I’m amazed how many restaurant delivery apps and web sites have sprung up in San Diego the past few years. Read about some of them here, here, and here. As I dig deeper into available …