Once, as I strolled Old Town Temecula, pleasing coffee aromas lured me to a storefront I hadn’t expected: that of a family-run Cuban restaurant. Should I go in? I was supposed to be in the …
October 17, 2023
La Jolla Stories
With help from the whole family, Havana Kitchen finally opens in San Diego
Gonzo Report: Hunting for Hunter S. Thompson at La Jolla Playhouse
In my youthful and more formidable years, I typed out Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas line for line, chapter by chapter, just as the original gonzo journalist did with The Great …
October 12, 2023
Fear and Self-Loathing in La Jolla
Frank. Frank the Tank. Frank. The. Tank.Frank is the Tank — well, sometimes… Let me explain.Frank — and we’re not going to use his last name here, in order to, as they say, “protect the …
October 11, 2023
Asian Arts & Crafts in the pocket of La Jolla
Let’s start off this week by disclosing a little secret: while there are plenty of outlandish homes for us regular folk to gawk at on Zillow and similar real estate sites — especially in a …
September 1, 2023
All-year restriction of Point La Jolla to sea lions up in air
The May-October sea lion pupping season closure at Point La Jolla may become year-round. Last week, the environment committee voted unanimously to send the recommendation to the full City Council. A history of humans harassing …
July 24, 2023
The Manual Shambles of Kevin Ring and Bart Mendoza
Singer/guitarists Kevin Ring and Bart Mendoza co-founded Manual Scan back in 1981, and have gigged together in The Shambles as well. But the way Ring tells it, the earlier appellation has been a little busier …
June 29, 2023
Antique collectives gone in Solana Beach, Ocean Beach, Carlsbad, Ramona, almost gone in Normal Heights
Antique stores and malls are fast becoming antiques themselves. The famed “Antique Row” along Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, which at its peak numbered 25 stores — and gave the stalwart Antique Row Cafe its …
June 28, 2023
Gonzo Report: Sickness can’t stop drive to hear Mark Dresser
My nephew arrived at my North Park shack around 6:15 on a clear Monday evening for our trip to The Loft at UC San Diego. I’ve been feeling like hammered shit due to an ailment …
June 15, 2023
Waterbeds – from my La Jolla garage studio to Paris
The first time I lay down on a waterbed, I thought, “Who wouldn’t want one of these?” The undulating motion of the water, the evenly distributed pressure against my body — so relaxing, and sensual …
May 31, 2023
Ginsberg thought I was an airhead, Vonnegut said I was 'loose'
I hesitate to admit this, but much of my writing is rooted in dreams. Before your eyes roll back in your head and you start struggling with whether or not to feign interest — you …
May 17, 2023
The Artificial Intelligence of the Generative Grounded Transformer: this time, it's personal
“It’s almost like an infant,” says Jonathan Bickoff. It’s a refreshingly simple take on one of the most tortured topics currently getting bandied about among La Jolla’s digi-pioneering crowd: AI. Artificial Intelligence: an evolution-leaping phenomenon …
May 17, 2023
Why La Jolla and Pt. Loma areas lack sidewalks and Burlingame exults in them
This lowly but common part of every city’s infrastructure, as the National Association of City Transportation Officials so eloquently states on its website, plays “a vital role in city life. As conduits for pedestrian movement …
San Diego Reader 2023 Music & Arts issue
On May 11, the Federal Department of Health and Human Services will end the Covid public health emergency. But the bureaucratic behemoth is a slow-footed beast; John Q. Public knows the pandemic ended some time …
March 29, 2023
Gonzo Report: Dodging the storms at La Jolla Community Center
As much as I was looking forward to the 2023 debut of the Fourth Friday Jazz Series at the La Jolla Community Center, I have to admit that, due to the relentless deluge of doomsday …
March 16, 2023
Erica Saphire’s tiny world
Take two Titan Krios microscopes, a whole lot of viruses, and a sharp scientist, and you have full-on war against immune-disease. I’m still in the thrall of this local research tank which is looking into …
March 9, 2023
La Jolla house touted as part of the Green Dragon Colony established by Anna Held
We don’t seem to care very much about old buildings here in San Diego. I spent some time looking for a nice old home to write about here, as I tend to do every couple …
March 1, 2023
January near misses in Tourmaline, Windansea, Sunset Cliffs surf
Last month, San Diego's gnarly surf kept lifeguards busy towards the tail end of January. The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department lifeguards even helped rescue folks from a plane that landed on the surf. On January …
February 7, 2023
La Jolla Institute for Immunology studies the affects of Alzheimer’s in women
Dr. Sonia Sharma makes no bones about it: when she’s studying immune diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, she concentrates on women, not men. She is also one of those vital, loquacious academics who actually likes …
February 3, 2023
Salk and pepper
“How to find the Salk Cafe?” replies this kindly professor type to my query. “And you’re walking? Ha! Head west on Gilman Drive. Turn right onto Mandeville Lane. Turn right onto Muir Lane. Turn left …
December 15, 2022
Returning to the opulence of La Jolla’s Chelsea Street
Let’s talk about what makes real estate unreal, and therefore worthy of consideration by our esteemed selection committee (members: me) for inclusion in our annals. For years, it was all about the dollar signs. Show …
December 8, 2022