Entries
Why Britney Spears Hates San Diego (and we're not fond of her, either)
The Access Hollywood promo showed Britney Spears flashing flesh, as a hyperactive voiceover announced “Britney is willing to do anything to top Janet, even if it takes getting nasty in the Onyx Hotel! Coming up – sex in San Diego!” …
Cartoonist Confessions - Secrets Behind Overheard In San Diego & Famous Former Neighbors
Plus bad reviews for the new Hard Rock, Life Between Deadlines, That Old House, more
Overheard In San Diego and Famous Former Neighbors are anomalies in the comic strip world – they’re based on real people, places, and events. Overheard made its debut in early 1996. Originally, I was only the writer – Scott Pentzer …
30 Celebrities Reveal "What I Like (Or Hate) About San Diego"
THIRTY CELEBS REVEAL “WHAT I LIKE ABOUT SAN DIEGO” For around 10 years, almost every time I interviewed a celebrity coming to town, I asked them about San Diego. I wanted to elicit their memories of the city, find out …
Undercover Chronicles 2 – I Was An Undercover Bouncer
(My staff shirts) An estimated 1,500 people attended the 1998 edition of Live on the Bay, where I worked undercover as security. Campland’s sites were more than eighty-five percent full for the event. The only complaints …
Blame the Reader for Boy Shakira
How we discovered & named Boy Shakira, plus a poem about record collecting
BOY SHAKIRA IS ALL MY FAULT During the last season of America's Got Talent, the most controversial contestant was easily Boy Shakira, a heavyset man in a blonde wig and halter top, enthusiastically belly-dancing to both cheers and jeers. Didja …
Undercover Chronicles #1 - I Was An Undercover Ticket Scalper
Louis XIV Downunder allstar jam last week, More Cartoon Rockers & Virtual San Diego
********************************************* *********************************************** YOUTUBE GEMS THIS WEEK I spend hours combing YouTube for the coolest gems, so you don’t have to! First up, here’s Louis XIV in Australia last week, November 11th, onstage with the Vines, Howling Belles, …
The Day Jimi Hendrix Came To Town
Backstage and behind the scenes for a legendary local gig
May 1969: Two hundred years after Father Junípero Serra founded the first California mission on Presidio Hill, San Diego celebrated its bicentennial. The Ferry still shuttled passengers and cargo across the harbor, as it had for over eighty years, but …
Frank Zappa Comics And Stories, plus Top 5 Lists, Fallen Pinoy Idol
FRANK ZAPPA COMIX AND STORIES TOP 5 CLUES THAT YOUR LOCAL BAR IS FULL OF JUNKIES 5) People keep trying to sell you car stereos. 4) Customers complaining about no locks on the bathrooms. 3) Nobody ever touches the munchies. …
Battle of the Local Blues Lovers
BATTLE OF THE LOCAL BLUES LOVERS (Art by Ken Meyer, Jr.) “My enemies have betrayed me have overtaken poor Bob at last An’ ‘ere’s one thing certainly they have stones all in my pass.” (Robert Johnson “Stones In My Passway”) …
How I Snuck Into Around 100 Local Concerts - Confessions of a Concert Crasher
HOW I SNUCK INTO AROUND 100 LOCAL CONCERTS Following is one of the first articles I ever wrote for the Reader, back in the early '90s ------------------ Like this blog? Here are some related links: OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - …
Rockin' Tattoos - Locals Talkin' Rockin' Tats, plus Morrissey/Smiths trib, club reviews, and Charles Mansonites
Moz trib, local clubs dissed online, and my prison run-ins with the Manson girls
ROCKIN’ TATTOOS; LOCALS TALKING TATS Tattoo shops flourish in San Diego, and pretty much always have. Customers used to be perceived, correctly or not, as coming from predominantly military, blue collar or “outlaw” (bikers and ex-cons) backgrounds. In actuality, practitioners …
Ratt Doesn't Want You to Read This Blog - Beyond Behind the Music
RATT & ROLL OVER - Beyond Behind t/Music... The partially reunited Ratt appeared at Viejas on April 20th – not sher about you, but I fully remember all the lawsuits and nasty accusations that flew between members past and present, …
Just Sing the Hits - When Bands (Barely) Reunite
Plus local Buffy screening earns an axe, more Beatles In San Diego!
JUST SING THE HITS, AND THE CROWD IS HAPPY – When Bands (Barely)Reunite Nostalgia is a bread and butter business. San Diegans are regularly afforded the chance to see bands whose last chart hit was in the Stone’s age, whose …
My Worst Celebrity Interviews Ever
Celeb interviews gone horribly wrong
I hear it all the time. "Wow, I wish I had your job - you get paid to have fun and hang out with famous people!" What folks don't seem to understand is that 1) just cuz someone's famous, doesn't …
Johnny, Jesus, and the steaming pile of doo doo
Bastard Sons, crappy gigs & Pastor Dave’s Christian Goths
Johnny Cash died four years ago last month (9-12-03). Singer/guitarist Mark Stuart of the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash – a band endorsed by the Cash estate – recalls recording at Cash’s home studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, in 2000. “We …
Locally-made John Lennon documentary film
Memories of Lennon, Rookie Card does the USSR, and an entry with Wild Man Fischer
Along with many vidiots my age, television was the teat that nurtured us all, and I was less weaned than most. I recall "discovering" the Beatles on a Smothers Brothers show from October 1968 (which I recently re-watched, spotting a …
An Excrement Job - Tales of Tijuana Bathrooms
In the Gaslamp, even bathrooms are going condo...
TIJUANA BATHROOMS: EVERYBODY’S GOTTA GO SOMETIME Every weekend evening, thousands of people travel southbound across the San Ysidro-Puerta México Port of Entry. The majority will pass right by Plaza Viva Tijuana, a retail commercial center adjacent to the border station, …
My Brunch With Yoko
Instead of a lawsuit, I was served brunch...
Yoko's personal secretary called me early on a Friday afternoon. "Miss Ono and her companion will be arriving in Dalton Georgia around 3pm tomorrow. She regrets that she won't be able to accompany you to your residence, the demands on …
Tales of the Palms Hotel: Late '70s/early '80s Gaslamp, plus Local Website Review: CityVibz
Urban Entertainment Guide, plus "Humanure Art Show" inspired by Cattle Decapitation
TALES OF THE PALMS HOTEL - More Lost Gaslamp Tales, circa late '70s/early '80s On arriving in SD in 1978, eighteen and on my own for the first time, I rented a room at the Palms Hotel on 12th and …
ZZ Top: An Illustrated Rock Tale, plus Local Musical Kids TV Show, more
Merry musicians meet many muppets
THE ZZ TOP STORY: AN ILLUSTRATED ROCK TALE Billy Gibbons’s family weren’t typical Texans. Dad was a New Yorker who’d moved south in the thirties, settling in Houston. A part-time conductor for the Houston Philharmonic, the classical pianist had also …