Monterey County Weekly back issues from April 2008:
STReeT TaLK
Apr 03, 2008; ... Asked at Blockbuster Video in Marina. Q: WHAT MOVIE SHOULD EVERYONE SEE BEFORE THEY DIE? Follow-up: What movie should never have been made? What is a funny movie you've seen? JO ANN MCCLAIN Accountant | Castroville A: No Country For Old Men was an ...
All About the Grind
Apr 03, 2008; ... Local skate standout Zarosh Eggleston conjures his most inspired move yet. His passion is evident everywhere. The walls of his home are lined with more than 350 skateboards. His mailbox is made of skate decks. In his living room, hundreds of skate magazines pile up like the Leaning Tower ...
LOCAL POT-BUSTING TEAM LOSES FUNDING
Apr 03, 2008; ... Volunteers prepare to clean up busted grow sites. The 15-year-old County of Monterey Marijuana Eradication Team soon may be jonesing for more green. COMMET, which was granted $177,000 in the 2007-08 fiscal year, recently received notice from the Governor's Office of Emergency Services ...
THE BIG JOKE
Apr 03, 2008; ... April Fools marks the start of a local comedian's National Humor Month. With April Fools Day unacceptably brief and tax time seriously grim, Carmel's Larry Wilde established April as National Humor Month in 1976. Wilde also gave the little town that has everything the ultimate luxury ...
Never-Ending Story
Apr 03, 2008; ... State order to stop overpumping the Carmel River elicits boos, cheers from Peninsula residents. If the state orders California American Water to reduce the water it pumps from the Carmel River by 50 percent over the next seven years, Peninsula hotels will shutter their doors and ...
SQUID FRY
Apr 03, 2008; ... AIN'T NOBODY HUMPIN' AROUND.-.Squid gives Carmel-by-the-Sea props for its brand-spankin'new city website-featuring meeting agendas, hot events and (soon) videos of City Council meetings. Squid looks forward to sprawling on Squid's computer chair, cracking a beer and basking in the heated ...
Wherefore, Gore?
Apr 03, 2008; ... FORUM Inconvenient Al makes his party wait. History may record that there were three distinct windows of opportunity for Al Gore to play a decisive role in this year's Democratic primary contest. The first was in the days leading up to Super Tuesday, on Feb. 5, when it ...
Twenty-Year Itch
Apr 03, 2008; ... THE LOCAL SPIN Dems come-from-ahead campaign has a familiar look to it. Over the past few weeks, I've wrestled with the feeling that history will repeat itself and the Democrats once again will blow their chance to take back the White House in November. I've had visions ...
Last Call
Apr 03, 2008; ... Juilliard String Quartet showcases major works for CMMB's last concert of the season. The last time the Juilliard String Quartet played at Sunset Theatre was before total renovation of the place. A passing blackbird attracted to the aphoristic "complete" string quartets by Anton Webern ...
Real Rocker
Apr 03, 2008; ... Poison frontman-reality star Bret Michaels aims to set Salinas on fire. Reality television hit a new level of ridiculousness when the VH1 reality show "Rock of Love" debuted in 2007. The program, now in its second season, features a parade of frequently soused female strippers and rock ...
Catching On
Apr 03, 2008; ... Mouth of the Valley finds its groove. Sean Michael White sits at a desk in an octagonal room that doubles as his living room and recording studio. In front of him, lines of music scroll across a computer screen like the ultrasonic imaging of a heartbeat. "So Stunned," a song by his new ...
Olympic Food Fight
Apr 03, 2008; ... Fast Food Nation vs. the People's Republic of Mystery Meat. The U.S. Olympic team has decided to take its own food to the summer games in Beijing. The decision, which China called "a pity," was precipitated by a U.S. Olympic Committee official encountering a 14-inch chicken breast in a ...
Special Judgment
Apr 03, 2008; ... THREE LEGENDS SHOW THE KIDS HOW IT'S DONE. The 15 judges who will evaluate the 50-plus student bands that will travel here to compete would make a pretty insane group themselves-Ron Westray, George Stone, Lauren Sevian, Jon Nordgren, Mike Galisatus, Lynne Fiddmont, Matt Falker, Sal ...
Serious Pluck
Apr 03, 2008; ... CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE LEADS A STACKED NEXT GENERATION FESTIVAL LINEUP. Don't let the name fool you. While the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Festival showcases talented high school and college musicians, the event also offers plenty of opportunities to catch some of the ...
A Legend is Born
Apr 03, 2008; ... IN THE BEGINNING ...I had been anticipating opening day at the first ever Pebble Beach Food & Wine for a while. I remember sitting on the patio at Spanish Bay on a magnificent afternoon about seven or eight months ago, helping the beverage department reduce its inventory, when Rob Wcakley and ...
Takin' One for the Team
Apr 03, 2008; ... Takin' One for the Team Director George Clooney is not afraid to poke fun at himself in the football farce Leatherheads. George Clooney's 1920s football comedy Leatherheads-his third film as a director-sums up the modern-day matinee idol's attitude toward his own fame. Clooney ...
Painful Beauty
Apr 03, 2008; ... Painful Beauty Lovely storytelling gives way to terminal despair in Snow Angels. Near the beginning and the end of writer/director David Gordon Green's Snow Angels, he features an identical montage of small-town Northeastern everyday life-provided "everyday" takes place in the ...
Interior Angles
Apr 03, 2008; ... Carmel cottage's allure comes from subtle and unusual touches. Norma Prince lives in an enchanting house. Her pleasing decor happens to bring to mind a cottage-like adjective, but not to exclusivity. If s also elegant with a simple layout and inherent magnetism. It's small-less ...
Land War
Apr 03, 2008; ... ALBA farmers clash with staff over leases, treatment and produce prices. Irene Zamudio touches the soft green leaves of her organic fava beans. Raspberry plants sprout a row over as traffic buzzes past on Hall Road in Las Lomas. In about a month, the berries will be ready to harvest. But ...
Green with Envy
Apr 03, 2008; ... Carmel-by-the-Sea resident wants to install a fake lawn. Carmel-by-the-Sea resident Sidney Widrow stoked controversy when he applied for a permit to install synthetic turf on roughly 140 square feet of his front lawn. The application has prompted debate among city officials, residents ...
The Real Dirt
Apr 03, 2008; ... Planned Del Rey Oaks resort would sit on top of major munitions area. A posh golf course resort that would double the size of tiny Del Rey Oaks will go before the city's Planning Commission on Wednesday, April 9. The commission will study changes in city code that would allow Federal ...
Freedom Fighter
Apr 03, 2008; ... Iraqi author and activist visits Monterey. The Ba'ath regime jailed and tortured Haifa Zangana while she was a pharmacy student at Baghdad University in 1972. She and three friends, all Iraqi Communist Party members and in armed struggle against the Ba'ath Party, were imprisoned. Her ...
Spot On
Apr 10, 2008; ... P.G.'s "Green Spot" makes its public debut at the Good Old Days. On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Pacific Grove, Applied Solar Energy's Oliver Boekbinder, lanky and scruffy, chats with a visitor about solar batteries. His co-worker Nora Carlton, neat and compact with redframed glasses, ...
STREET TALK
Apr 10, 2008; ... Asked at the Giant Artichoke in Castroville. Q: POST OFFICES MAY BE CLOSING. WHAT GOVERNMENT SERVICE DO PEOPLE TAKE FOR GRANTED? Follow-up: What would you put on a stamp? CAITLIN KILTY Teacher | Prunedale A: Probably law enforcement We are always on the ...
ROCKERS TO ROLL
Apr 10, 2008; ... Say No More holds a benefit for a bus. A few weeks ago, the members of pop rock band Say No More were barreling across the flat-as-a-board Texas countryside in their 1973 Dodge Tioga, a big van they had nicknamed "Gumby" for its stagnant-green paint job. The band, which began at Salinas ...
On Your Feet
Apr 10, 2008; ... P.G. mayor envisions a "pedestrianized" downtown. During his State of the City address in March, Pacific Grove Mayor Dan Cort proudly ticked off the City's recent accomplishments. P.G. had balanced its budget, planted thousands of trees, joined the county tourist bureau, signed ...
CSUMB PROFESSOR AWARDED FULBRIGHT SCHOLARSHIP
Apr 10, 2008; ... Prestigious award will send service-learning director to South Africa. After 11 years of shaping CSUMB's Service Learning Institute into a national model, Seth Pollack will help confront an international epidemic. As a Fulbright Scholar, Pollack will work with South African academics ...
Butterfly Reborn
Apr 10, 2008; ... Monterey County, developer and opponents reach agreement on controversial subdivision. After 20 years of legal battles and ballot-box fighting, county officials, land-use watchdogs and developer Moe Nobari have reached an agreement about the planned Butterfly Village subdivision. As part ...
Stalling Pattern
Apr 10, 2008; ... Ballot counting changes, but Carmel voters stick to the tried and true. For nearly four hours late Tuesday, April 8, it was a waiting game in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Conversations piddled around grandkids, travels and recent surgeries but inevitably returned to a central question: "When will ...
LOVE FEST IN SALINAS
Apr 10, 2008; ... County, Salinas officials agree on tax sharing, farmland preservation. Monterey County Supervisors and Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue practically had a group hug Tuesday, April 8, after announcing an agreement over tax sharing and farmland preservation. While Donohue didn't cry on ...
Brown Out
Apr 10, 2008; ... New column powers down racism by busting stereotypes. Ot began as a one-time, satirical column in OC Weekly, featuring the most outlandish questions and answers staff writer Gustavo Arellano could devise. A big reader response was anticipated to the column, "Ask a Mexican," which ...
SQUID FRY
Apr 10, 2008; ... OUTTA HERE ...After five years at the Monterey County Herald, Executive Editor Carolina Garcia is departing our shores for the overpopulated, smog-choked, landlocked San Fernando Valley. On Monday she was named executive editor of the Los Angeles Daily News in Woodland Hills. Both newspapers are ...
A Lot of Character
Apr 10, 2008; ... Former Weekly associate editor was known for his curiosity, zest for life. Monterey County lost one of its good men last weekend in the passing of Chuck Thurman. James Charles Thurman was 53, and long-time readers of the Weekly will remember him in a variety of roles: as an arts ...
Walking Meditation
Apr 10, 2008; ... Walking Meditation Robert Larson and the Marlboro Man. Digital communication floods modern human existence so inescapably that its ubiquitous grid structure has become the normal page on which daily life is written and filmed, bulletined, messaged and photographed. Santa ...
The Big Shot
Apr 10, 2008; ... Local photographers among nominees for the world's best XXL Biggest Wave photo of the year. When Sand City photographer and surfer Wayne Kelly arrived at Ghost Tree just after dawn on Dec. 4, he wasn't impressed. "The buoys indicated there was the potential for XXL-sized waves, ...
Out of the Woods
Apr 10, 2008; ... Luckily for us, Arlo Guthrie, who visits Sunset on Sunday, never realized his dream: to be a ranger. Arlo Guthrie never meant to have a musical career that has spanned almost five decades. Even though his dad, Woody, was one of the most influential American songwriters who ever lived, ...
The Bridge Called My Back
Apr 10, 2008; ... EMCEE CHANGE The Bridge Called My Back Para La Gente Records With The Bridge Called My Back, Emcee Change of the local rap funk outfit Para La Gente strikes off on his own with a 13-song, 50-minute-long solo outing. Wisely mixing up the subject matter on the release, ...
Music For A New Millennium
Apr 10, 2008; ... CINDY BLACKMAN Musk For A New Millennium Sacred Sound Cindy Blackman, who has worked with Prince and been Lenny Kravitz's drummer since 1993, has a secret: She's one of the world's most-esteemed jazz drummers. Recorded in 2005, but unavailable until now due to her touring ...
Strangle Course
Apr 10, 2008; ... Flash in the Pan fields more often-bizarre questions from readers. Q: Dear Flash, I hear that you're not supposed to use olive oil for frying. But I'm vegan, so my oil options are limited, and olive oil is my favorite! -Frazzled Frybaby A: The ...
Could We Survive
Apr 10, 2008; ... JOSEPH ARTHUR Could We Survive Lonely Astronaut Joseph Arthur belts out six folky ballads on Could We Survive that will leave nobody surprised that Peter Gabriel was the first to bring him into the spotlight. The graphic lamentations of war Arthur provides on the ...
Back for More
Apr 10, 2008; ... WHERE THE LEGENDS GO ... Although it has been two weeks, post-partum waves of euphoric joy, laughter, fond memories and flowering legends still ripple across the Monterey Peninsula and the rest of the food and wine world from the giant splash cannon-balled by the Pebble Beach Food & Wine ....
Street Perspective
Apr 10, 2008; ... Street Perspective The recent winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year revisits the holocaust with fresh eyes. Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch bears little resemblance to the innocent, law-abiding victim in most Holocaust movies. Indeed, with his prominent jaw, ...
Intelligent Life
Apr 10, 2008; ... Intelligent Life Smart People's great cast punctures the world of academia. Intelligence runs in the Wetherhold family DNA. Smart People's curmudgeonly protagonist, Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid), indifferently teaches literature at Carnegie Mellon University, where his ...
Treasure Trove
Apr 10, 2008; ... P.G. mid-century-modern apartments offer bay views, bright interiors. Pacific Grove has the newest Tenants in Common on the Peninsula. Beth Cort refurbished and redesigned the 1962, two-section building, constructed before architecture had changed dramatically from the 1950s into the ...
Lightning Up
Apr 17, 2008; ... The 4/20 Reggae Festival rastafies an easy Sunday afternoon in Salinas. Though his band is headlining the 4/20 Reggae Festival at the Fox Theater this weekend, Ralston Grant of the longtime reggae group the Twinkle Brothers has no idea what 4/20 means. "I don't even know what ...
EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED
Apr 17, 2008; ... EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED (Not reviewed this issue.) Ben Stein leads a journey to find out the truth behind Intelligent Design and whether It is an authentic science being suppressed by a scientific establishment that is ...
RIPPLE EFFECT
Apr 17, 2008; ... Monterey's Sea Studios focuses its latest episodes on how simple choices affect more than the world's oceans. Sea Studios Foundation, headquartered on Cannery Row, is churning out ocean-focused nature shows almost as fast as the restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf churn out clam chowder ....
Political Déjà Vu
Apr 17, 2008; ... Simán Salinas may return to state politics; Butch Lindley considers county supe post. The June 3 ballot will ask voters two questions. First: "Shall Jeff Denham be recalled (removed) from the office of state Senate District 12?" The next item on the ballot asks voters to choose a ...
'A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT'
Apr 17, 2008; ... Event promotes literacy in Monterey County and worldwide. One quarter of Monterey County's residents read below the fourth-grade level, according to a Community Foundation for Monterey County report This same study found H percent of county residents aren't literate in any ...
Carving Out an Existence
Apr 17, 2008; ... Ex-doctor-now-sculptor Paul Wilson faces death, keeps creating. Every one of Paul Wilson's wood sculptures begins and ends with what nature gives him. "God in Paul," is the phrase Bill Mack, a longtime collector of Paul Wilson's wood sculptors, uses to define the sculptor's ...
Surprising Development
Apr 17, 2008; ... THE LOCAL SPIN Long-contentious Butterfly Village project shows some hope. Last week, Monterey County and the HYH Corp. agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by HYH against the county, in which HYH claimed that the county had treated it unfairly with respect to its proposed ...
SQUID FRY
Apr 17, 2008; ... BOW WOW WOW ...Squid hearts Doggy style, the debut album from Snoop Dogg that takes Squid back to happier days: sitting on Squid's front porch sipping, well, gin and juice, of course. (Truth be told: Squid hates gin, but Squid imbibed away for the sake of the song. About the chronic: that's a ...
Washington at War
Apr 17, 2008; ... FORUM The rationale behind staying in Iraq is less valid with each passing day. Any discussion of the congressional testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker must begin with this stipulation: It was an exercise in PR, not policy-making. Whatever the two ...
LENDING A HAND
Apr 17, 2008; ... Options to help avoid foreclosure. Socorro Bernal has heard plenty of sad stories as the lone foreclosure counselor for the Monterey County Housing Alliance, a Salinas-based nonprofit that helps residents In danger of losing their homes. "We have adult men crying, adult women ...
Monochrome Magic
Apr 17, 2008; ... Monochrome Magic Michael Kenna's photographs reveal the rewards of patience. Very still, this square: night stillness, with a halo of light emanating from behind an erect trio of cigarillo-slender smokestacks. Two bristling tangles of pipes and lights, and then at dead center, ...
Play Like Girls
Apr 17, 2008; ... Eccentric rockers Agent Ribbons arrive at Live. The release of Agent Ribbons' 2006 album On Time Travel and Romance was a ploy to lure a comic book artist to the band's hometown: The quirky duo's vocalist/lead guitarist Natalie Gordon admits she fabricated a CD release date for her group ...
SHAKEN FOUNDATION
Apr 17, 2008; ... County foreclosures are expected to almost double this year; bargain hunters are in the driver's seat. Her son killed himself over a house. At least that's what Maria Alonzo believes. Abel Cardona Jr. and his wife, Maria Solis, bought the north Saunas home in May ...
Attack & Release
Apr 17, 2008; ... THE BLACK KEYS Attack & Release Nonesuch Attack & Release features an unexpected pairing: Danger Mouse of the hugely successful soul/hip hop outfit Gnarls Barkley with the blues-rock duo The Black Keys. On past releases, The Black Keys had recorded their primal ...
New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War)
Apr 17, 2008; ... ERYKAH BADU New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) Motown Erykah Badu never has been an artist whose music you get upon the first listen. Her first three releases unearthed a deeper level of appreciation with each spin. Such is the case with her latest, the politically ...
Mickey Hart's Mystery Box
Apr 17, 2008; ... MICKEY HART Mickey Hart's Mystery Box Shout! Factory "Silence spread thin like the skin of a drum, first there was rhythm then there was none." "The Last Song" on Mickey Hart's Mystery Box, written by longtime Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, reminds us that for ...
Flavor Savior
Apr 17, 2008; ... Flavor Savior Michel Richard has summoned something spectacular (again) with Carmel Valley's Citronelle. Chef Michel Richard is our culinary community's man of the hour. I've been anxiously enduring a fair grace period for his new restaurant, Citronelle, to find its rhythm in its ...
Death, Taxes, My Synapses
Apr 17, 2008; ... MONEY MAN ...Well, the taxman hath come and gone, bless his heart. Hopefully you all found a way to recoup a good amount of the tithing you all so patriotically committed to the many important programs our steadfast government is spending our money on. Interestingly, the first college I went to ...
One-of-a-Kind Ride
Apr 17, 2008; ... The Sea Otter Classic adds new gears to remain the biggest draw in the biz. Mountain bikers rush down hills like wild stampeding animals. Technical riders hop their bikes through tight obstacle courses like nimble ballerinas. Bikes soar like metal birds above manmade berms. All ...
The First Course
Apr 17, 2008; ... A taste of the flavors that will spice up the Weekly's newest element of epicurean fare. There's a lot on Monterey County's plate-ours is a complex epicurean atmosphere. So, starting this week, the Weekly offers something appropriately complex to complement our existing food ...
American Imperiled
Apr 17, 2008; ... American Imperiled Morgan Spurlock takes a wild swing at the War on Terror. The same personal, quippy filmmaking that made Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me such a breezy delight all but dooms his second feature-length effort, Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? It's one thing ...