The latest Christian worship fad – in National City In one pickup truck, a teenager has his arm stretched across the seat back. The boy's hand is fondling his girlfriend’s hair, but the girl is …
June 12, 2023
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Stories by Connie Bruck
Chula Vista drive-in church strangely intimate
Everything outside of South Mission Beach was hickville
End of the cool life in South Mission The mudflats sometimes stank at low tide; it wasn’t really a bad smell, but a grassy, muddy smell that could be pleasant if you associated it with …
June 4, 2023
Tom Wolfe absorbs Windansea subculture
Too Outrageous for La Jolla Beach People say old surfers never die. They dry up like some sunbaked seaweed and are blown away by the offshore breeze. Before their end, they may move the knotty …
June 3, 2023
Tom Shaw and heavenly transport on Imperial Avenue
Apostolic Prayer Temple, house of exaltation I came here, to the Apostolic Prayer Temple, a storefront in between a nightclub and a fish market in Encanto, to see the Rev. Tom Shaw in the Gospel …
December 18, 2022
Toughest block in the Gaslamp, Horton-Grand teeters
Eight Ball in the Corner Pocket You could smoke a joint so long as you kept it at a respectable distance from Mrs. Yamada. You could do most anything you wanted except fight, which brought …
February 20, 2022
Truth about TJ taxis, cut-throat upholstery competition
I am my own queen "Once, a guy, a drunk guy took my taxi from downtown. He wanted to go to this particular colonia, this neighborhood. It was raining, I remember. When I got there, …
October 4, 2021
McGovern vs. Nixon, Amway in Pacific Beach, La Jolla's radical chic
Mood on Campus "I just said I hope 19 — marijuana — passes." "Yeah, I do too. But I don't think it stands a chance." "I'd rather have it win than McGovern." "Well, I'd rather …
May 10, 2021
Early San Diego Punk, Muzak all over town, exhibitionist Disco, Penetrators at the Hong Kong Cafe
Why Those Little Punks By Jeff Spurrier, Aug. 3, 1978 | Read full article The Zeros, in typically unpretentious fashion, have assumed the empty throne as San Diego's best New Wave band, and they show …
January 30, 2021
San Diego to Boston hitchhike, drugs in San Carlos, Spring Valley commune
Bound for Boston Ride-sharing: Don't go near a 3x5 card on a bulletin board. Rosie made her appearance. She was accompanied by a suntanned twenty-two-year-old wearing a headband and short pants. His name was Henry. …
January 3, 2021
Best Reader stories from 1977
A separate peace What was I (a Jew — and a nonobservant one at that) doing with such a piece? I’d never spoken to a nun in my life. All I remembered of them from …
November 9, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1974
Monument Road The peaceful atmosphere along Monument Road is astonishing. Only 15 or 20 minutes from downtown, a ride along southernmost San Diego's Monument Road is like flipping through a book of Dorothea Lange photographs. …
October 27, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1973
Serious witches in San Diego Force claimed he had played a role, witch-wise, in the indictment of San Diego's former Mayor Curran and his staff, in the Yellow Cab Scandal. “A friend of mine, Jodi …
October 26, 2019
Encanto – snubbed but proud
On top of this little corner of the world Here on Skyline Drive, great swaths of sward stretch out below, springy and green. Here, there are vacant lots littered with possibility, within sight of a …
May 13, 2019
Holy Week in San Diego: our mish-mash of Christianity
Medical explanation of Christ's crucifixion and other Easter stories The severe scourging, with its intense pain and appreciable blood loss, most probably left Jesus in a preshock state. Moreover, hematidrosis had rendered his skin particularly …
April 15, 2019
Explorer scouts help LAPD make busts
WE HAVE pulled over to the side of the road, primed for transgression. As usual on a Friday night, latecomers for “Laserium” at the Griffith Park Observatory are parking their cars further and further down …
March 17, 1977
Vows of enclosure: Carmelite nuns in Normal Heights
The night before I was to visit the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Normal Heights, I called a friend, feeling anxious and full of misgivings. This story was not my idea, I complained, but the editor’s …
February 3, 1977
Loma Portal nudity healthier than Carol Doda era in San Francisco
Could one of these girls walk into a place like the Voyager over on Harbor Island, and act like a lady?
May 30, 1974
Combo Bravo? Combo Boo?
The curtain rises, and a young man dressed as an Elizabethan page walks to the center of the stage. He unrolls a long parchment scroll with gold lettering, and proclaims: "Let's welcome here this night …
February 14, 1974
Serious witches in San Diego
Force claimed he had played a role, witch-wise, in the indictment of San Diego's former Mayor Curran and his staff, in the Yellow Cab Scandal.
November 1, 1973
More House commune funded by real estate inflation
“What more could I want?” asked Barbara. “I have a mansion, a pool, a butler, a maid, my old man, my kids, limousines. I live the the people I love. I never have to do any housework, I only cook a meal if I feel like it!"
September 6, 1973
San Martin used to be the dump for all Tijuana
We sit in the outer room of the Clinica San Martin, trading words like amulets. Each one, an additive charm, wards off the silence of estrangement, builds bridges of humor at the difficulty of our …
August 16, 1973
Encanto's Apostolic Prayer Temple, house of exaltation
"I want to testify." A large black woman in blue-flowered dress stands swaying slightly, heavily, "I want to thank God for coming with me on this journey..." her voice trails off, and her body becomes …
July 12, 1973
National City's protege of Blind Lemon Jefferson, friend of Howlin' Wolf
"I was supposed to record with Howlin’ Wolf in Chicago. Wolf killed a guy over a woman, he was sentenced to the penitentiary for 25 years. That knocked out my record chances, back in 1930.”
July 5, 1973