Monterey County Weekly back issues from August 2008:
Hanging With Jesus
Aug 07, 2008; ... A report from the ground at Spirit West Coast. The T-shirts say things like "Silly Rabbits, Jesus is for Everyone" and "Virginity Rocks." Banners line the sides of vendor booths announcing that "National ProLife Cupcake Day is on Oct. 9" and "Pornography is for ...
STReeT TaLK
Aug 07, 2008; ... Asked at Spirit West Coast at Laguna Seca. Q: WHAT TEMPTS YOU THE MOST? Follow-up: What would Jesus do tonight? RON JAMERSON Retall Store Manager | Grast Valley A: Money-and having the security to take care of my family. Some nights I work later to support ...
HARD RAIN'S A-GONNA FALL
Aug 07, 2008; ... With the Big Sur fires mostly contained, officials prepare for mudslides and floods. As if on cue, a tumble of rocks smacked into a truck holding emergency response workers in Big Sur. It was July 23, and the county's emergency service team was giving its federal counterpart a ...
Dirty Glossy Things
Aug 07, 2008; ... Misleading flier goes out to voters as they receive mail-in ballots for Measure W. A notorious anti-tax group is drawing fire from Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System supporters for distributing a flier that exaggerates hospital executives' salaries just before voters received ...
Tased 'n' Confused
Aug 07, 2008; ... Seaside PD installs Taser cameras; fatality court date set for next year. Seaside Police Officer Uriah Allen puts on his game face-jaw set, eyes trained ahead-and prepares to get tased. Allen's jolt comes at a turning point in the Seaside Police Department's relationship with ...
Money Pit
Aug 07, 2008; ... Marina pumps millions more dollars into The Dunes. The Marina City Council Aug. 5 voted to inject nearly $106 million in redevelopment funds into The Dunes on Monterey Bay, despite insistence from residents to postpone the complex development deal. After a nearly four-hour ...
UPDaTeS
Aug 07, 2008; ... TAX MAN COMETH.It's day 36 of the fiscal year (as the Weekly goes to press) and still no state budget. Democrats in Sacramento suggest new taxes to close the $15.2 billion deficit; Republicans balk at the suggestion, although earlier this week one key GOPer appeared to have a change of heart: ...
Unstacking the Deck
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE LOCAL SPIN If Obama doesn't talk about race, then who will? Myron Wyckoff Carmel Valley is troubled by the turn the presidential contest took last week. The retired Army sergeant first class was referring to assertions by John McCain's campaign that Barack Obama ...
SQUID FRY
Aug 07, 2008; ... WELCOME TO DEATH ROW ...Ol' Squid's got more original gangster in common with the best West Coast rappers than most bipeds might think-beyond the bitches and the blunts. Like Tupac Shakur, Squid has long known what it's like to have All Eyez on Me. Like Snoop Dogg, Squid knows what it's like to ...
Israel, Iran and the Bomb
Aug 07, 2008; ... The U.S. must lead the effort for a nuclear-free Middle East. Israel and the entire Middle East are approaching a stark existential choice: a nuclear holocaust or a nuclear-free Middle East. "Israel will almost surely attack Iran's nuclear sites in the next four to seven months," ...
Law and Albacore
Aug 07, 2008; ... Oceana board member and actor Sam Waterston on the state of the sea. Something about Sam Waterston exudes authority. Maybe it's his unwavering eyes beneath a thick bushy brow, or his tendency to enunciate words with a crispness that matches his perfectly tailored suit. It could be his ...
Crude Awakening
Aug 07, 2008; ... If it leaks, a sunken tanker holding 3 million gallons of oil could mean a Central Coast disaster. It was two days before Christmas in 1941, barely two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The crew of the Montebello knew there were Japanese submarines off the California coast, but ...
Grease Spots
Aug 07, 2008; ... Save Our Shores renews its boater outreach program. This summer, after a three-year hiatus, Save Our Shores re-joins the swell of Monterey Bay area advocacy groups with an eye on oil contamination. Rather than focusing on the splashy oil spills that make headlines, SOS works to prevent ...
Oil Errs
Aug 07, 2008; ... When it comes to petroleum pollution, there's plenty of blame to spread around. Tar balls on beaches and oil-coated cormorants make the presence of oil in the cold, gray Pacific undeniable. Here are some of the top culprits: * Oil platform leaks. In 1969 the blowout of a Union ...
Of Steinbeck and Mexico
Aug 07, 2008; ... Annual festival celebrates Salinas' native son, and, this year, his love of Mexico, its people and culture. Today and for the next few days, a man is being remembered and celebrated by the national institution created around his life, ideas and legacy. John Steinbeck was a writer and ...
Fiery Lit
Aug 07, 2008; ... Ping Pong celebrates another ambitious edition of its art-and-literary journal. Jonathan Ames' short fiction story "Book Tour Diary" would have pleased Henry Miller. It reads like a little black book of sexual escapades, but with a strange revelation that drops the reader into messy ...
New World
Aug 07, 2008; ... Sandy Cressman found her jazz soul in Brazil. Brazilian songs have spiced up the jazz repertoire ever since bossa nova recordings topped the pop charts in the early 1960s. But few American jazz singers have immersed themselves in Brazilian music as deeply as Sandy Cressman. Born ...
Just Heating Up
Aug 07, 2008; ... The Red Hot Blues Sisters stoke the fire at Sly's. Since they first started working together in 2004, vocalist Suze Sims and guitarist Teri Anne Wilson of The Red hot Blues Sisters have been on a roll creatively. On their latest CD, Red on Blue, the two women were inspired by coffee on ...
Reformation Affirmation
Aug 07, 2008; ... Getting back together was the best move The Starlite Desperation has made. It begins with military precision. As drummer Jeff Ehrenberg and bassist Dana Locano lock into a rhythmic stomp, singer and guitarist Dante Adrian White adds strafing shards of guitar fire to The Starlite ...
Modern Guilt
Aug 07, 2008; ... BECK Modern Guilt DGC Records Produced by hot beatmaker Danger Mouse and bearing an ominously portentous title, Modern Guilt raises expectations that its creator, Beck, has no interest in living up to. A moody run-through of the thematic preoccupations that have consumed ...
Two Men With the Blues
Aug 07, 2008; ... WILLIE NELSON AND WYNTON MARSALIS Two Men With the Blues Blue Note Even if you know Miles Davis titled one of his pieces "Willie Nelson" out of respect and admiration for the country crooner, you still might think this pairing with Wynton Marsalis might be a disaster ....
Fire Songs
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE WATSON TWINS Fire Songs Vanguard The vibe of this first full-length album from The Watson Twins is wholly American, and that encompasses a whole lotta elements: soul, country, R&B, folk, indie rock, gospel and jazz. Once one learns that the Watson Twins ...
Fringe Benefits
Aug 07, 2008; ... HOPE FLOATS-AS sunshine begins to crack through the foggy days here in never-never land and smoke recedes, rebuilding proceeds and our summer accedes, word of special tributes and fundraisers abounds as we neighborly folk try to contribute something tangible to the people whose lives were ...
Garden of Eatin'
Aug 07, 2008; ... Garden of Eatin' Gardiner's Resort now uses its stunning setting as a spot to serve food. After 51 years in business, Gardiner's Resort, Carmel Valley's renowned "world's first tennis resort," decided to invite the neighbors to dine. Visitors are now welcome for lunch and dinner ...
Vayniac Nation
Aug 07, 2008; ... The new-media mogul who spits for Joe Six-Pack. Let's dispense with professional jealousy right off the bat: part of me wanted to hate Gary Vaynerchuk's new book, 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World, because all of me wishes I'd written it. But ...
High Times
Aug 07, 2008; ... High Times Pineapple Express takes a funny but unfocused stroll through 1970s cinema. Like Ric Ocasek and Paulina Porizkova, the match just did not compute. Screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were part of the Judd Apatow comedy stable, the guys behind the broadSi ...
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
Aug 07, 2008; ... CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN (Not reviewed this issue.) Cheaper by the Dozen is a family-oriented movie with an unbeatable cast of Hilary Duff, Ashton Kutcher, Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt and many more. The Bakers, a family of 12, move from a small town in Illinois to the big city to the displeasure of ...
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2 (Not reviewed this issue.) The saga that began with four lifelong best friends who mysteriously fit into the same pair of pants continues in this sequel. After living together in Maryland for 18 years, all four girls are now college-bound and plan to ...
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) (Not reviewed this issue.) This classic musical fantasy finds Dorothy and her dog, Toto, swept into a strange land called Oz after surviving a tornado ....
GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Aug 07, 2008; ... GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON *** Hunter S. Thompson wasn't just a great storyteller; he was a great story himself, partly because he became his stories. As inventor of the "gonzo" style of journalism-with its rampant passion for drug-fueled first-person narrative that ...
BUSTIN' DOWN THE DOOR
Aug 07, 2008; ... BUSTIN' DOWN THE DOOR (Not reviewed this issue.) A new wave-riding documentary tells the story of surfing's emergence as a professional sport. The ...
HANCOCK
Aug 07, 2008; ... HANCOCK ** 1/2 The most awesome power of Will Smith's comic-bookish dramedy Hancock is its ability to turn superhero clichés upside down. Directed by Peter Berg, Hancock's revisionist take on superheroes at first ...
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
Aug 07, 2008; ... JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH ** Journey to the Center of the Earth is billed as the first live-action, non-documentary film shot in digital 3-D-a full-color process that still requires special glasses. The story proves rather tame, as Brendan Fraser, his spunky nephew and a hot Icelandic ...
MAMMA MIA!
Aug 07, 2008; ... MAMMA MIA! ** 1/2 First let me soothe the jangled nerves of any purists in the house: Yes, Mamma Mia! stays faithful to its source material. By source material, I mean, of course, the hit theatrical show that strung together a bunch of ABBA chart-toppers and shoehorned a pittance of plot in ...
MONGOL
Aug 07, 2008; ... MONGOL ** 1/2 Russian director Sergei Bodrov spares no expense in re-creating the world of the 13th-century Mongolian steppes, but Mongol is not, as some might hope, The Lord of the Rings: The Asian Edition. As Kazakhstan's Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film, it is essentially the origin ...
SEA MONSTERS (3D)
Aug 07, 2008; ... SEA MONSTERS (3D) *** This story has a sturdy backbone, which is fitting for a story about paleontologists unearthing skeletons from a one-time massive inland sea that covered much of the U.S. 80 million years ago. In other words, it's not just about the bone-snapping 3-D action that evolves ...
SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE
Aug 07, 2008; ... SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE *** 1/2 I'm not the first to make the comparison-that the women of Sex and the City make for a special kind of superhero in American pop-culture iconography. Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha may be larger than life, their pocketbooks and professional highlights ...
SPACE CHIMPS
Aug 07, 2008; ... SPACE CHIMPS (Not reviewed this issue.) From the makers of Shrek, this animated flick features a ...
STEP BROTHERS
Aug 07, 2008; ... STEP BROTHERS ** Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly)-the titular pair in Step Brothers-are 40-year-old losers, unemployed and still living at home with their respective single parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) when those parents meet and decide to get ...
SWING VOTE
Aug 07, 2008; ... SWING VOTE * 1/2 Kevin Costner's comedy is fueled by the balloting debacle of the 2004 presidential election and the proximity of the 2008 vote. That may make Swing Vote timely, but that doesn't make it good. When ne'er-do-well Bud Johnson (Costner) passes out drunk and his precocious young ...
TELL NO ONE
Aug 07, 2008; ... TELL NO ONE *** 1/2 French director Guillame Canet's TeH No One has everything a great personal-paranoia/persecution movie needs: a citizen-hero who refuses to capitulate to unseen and malevolent powers that are out to destroy him; love and desperation as motivating forces; random violence; at ...
THE DARK KNIGHT
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE DARK KNIGHT *** 1/2 Here is the ugly truth nobody at Warner Bros, can possibly utter aloud: The death of Heath Ledger will be good for The Dark Knight's bottom line. Make no mistake, the movie was going to be huge anyway; 2005's Batman Begins didn't exactly under-perform at the box office ....
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR 1/2
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR 1/2 It's been seven years since husband-and-wife adventurers Rick and Evelyn O'Connell (Brendan Fraser, playing lndy, and Maria BeIIo, playing Rachel Weisz, poorly) last kicked off the wrappings of undead Egyptian lmhotep, and by golly, they are one ...
THE WACKNESS
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE WACKNESS *** Writer-director Jonathan Levine's ingratiatingly funny comedy The Wackness does more than just riff on a time and place; it belongs to that great fraternity of novice-and-mentor films, à Ia Cinema Farad/so, in which an inexperienced person comes of age with the help of a kindly ...
THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE 1/2
Aug 07, 2008; ... THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE 1/2 There's something horribly amiss with a film that feels as though it had been adapted from the anonymousfan-fiction slush pile. But there you go: Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Andersen) are nothing if not master and mistress of the painfully ...
U23D
Aug 07, 2008; ... U23D *** 1/2 The always-evolving boys from Dublin hit another plateau with the first concert film shot entirely using 3-D technology. And it's a stunner. It captures a massive concert in Buenos Aires from their "Vertigo" tour, with swooping cameras, seas of cheering fans, ...
WALL-E
Aug 07, 2008; ... WALL-E **** For 700 years, WALL-E-a Waste Allocation Load Lifter robot, Earth Class-has been doing the job he was programmed to do. Left behind on an earth no longer inhabitable by humans, the solar-powered WALL-E gathers and compacts garbage, stacking the cubes in skyscraper-sized towers, over ...
WILD OCEAN 3-D
Aug 07, 2008; ... WILD OCEAN 3-D *** This 3-D IMAX film looks at the way migrating shoals of sardines and other small fish affect marine and terrestrial species on South Africa's Wild Coast. When the spinning bundles offish reach the region every year, it drives the small fish's predators into ecstatic feeding ...
Estate Tax
Aug 07, 2008; ... Estate Tax In this new version of Brideshead Revisited, times takes its toll on the film's two protagonists. I'm not sure that Evelyn Waugh, a Roman Catholic convert, would have endorsed this accomplished adaptation of his 1945 novel about the pre-World War II chasmic divides of ...
Adobe to Adore
Aug 07, 2008; ... Carmel Valley home's features are surprising and intriguing. Bernard Jones had been successful in the adobe brick business before the "mid-century" subdivisions arrived. By 1960 there was little interest in adobe so he designed several post-adobe homes in Carmel Valley to be built with ...
Serving a Winner
Aug 07, 2008; ... Newly renovated public tennis courts have Seaside beaming. On a breezy summer Friday, Seaside's Wheeler Street tennis courts-perched above the city like a condor's nest-pulse with festivities. Dozens of community members are here to celebrate the ribbon cutting of four refurbished tennis ...
Chop Job
Aug 14, 2008; ... Riding the skies in the sheriff's whirlybird. Crammed in the back seat of a Monterey County Sheriff's Office helicopter, I feel like I'm in a squirrelly crop duster-not an omnipotent criminal chaser. The chopper flies low over row crops outside Saunas' fog. Sprinklers shoot water across ...
STReeT TaLK
Aug 14, 2008; ... Asked at Highlands Gas Station in Carmel Highlands. Q: DOES YOUR CAR HAVE A NAME? IF YOUR CAR COULD TALK, WHAT WOULD IT SAY? Follow-up: What is the fastest speed you have ever driven or been driven by someone else, and in what kind of car? TIM ...
SUR SENSATION
Aug 14, 2008; ... The coast's biggest benefit goes off beautifully. Siku Glacier Ice Vodka martinis poured from ice sculptures and wine from more than 10 local wineries flowed perpetually. A maze of more than 150 silent-auction items, including local art, wine and gift certificates, occupied tables and ...
The Dirt on Gases
Aug 14, 2008; ... EPA's global warming whistle blower Jason Burnett sets his sights on local politics. During his first stint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Jason K. Burnett tried to set tougher standards for lethal soot particles. The Bush administration killed the proposal; shortly ...
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Aug 14, 2008; ... Salinas' pitch to bring prestigious Rocky Mountain Institute to town. Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue wants to bring in esteemed environmental consultation group Rocky Mountain Institute to evaluate how the Salinas Valley can move toward alternative energy and develop green-collar ...
Veggie Rail
Aug 14, 2008; ... Grower-Shipper Association studies delivering Saunas Valley crops by train. Dom Nunes Jr., president of The Nunes Company, remembers when Saunas Valley lettuce was packed into refrigerated railcars and shipped across the country by train. "They'd come right into our coolers, right into ...
Kittens and Cougars
Aug 14, 2008; ... Recent urban sightings underscore the need to study local mountain lions. On a typical foggy morning in early July, Kathy Aliotti's walk with her chocolate lab in Monterey's Via Paraiso Park took an unexpected turn. As she neared the baseball diamond, she came upon a mountain lion ...
UPDaTeS
Aug 14, 2008; ... SLICK MOVE ...After we reported that Save Our Shores has returned to Monterey, the state Department of Fish and Game's Office of oil Spill Prevention and Response announced it will give oil spill equipment and response training to the Monterey Fire Department. A state grant provides the ...
Bag Blockage
Aug 14, 2008; ... Bill targeting plastic grocery bags stalls in state Senate committee. Assemblyman Lloyd Levine was jogging next to the Los Angeles River, gazing at the sparkling water, when he noticed plastic bags strewn across the river's banks, the surrounding trees, even floating on the river's ...
CORRECTIONS
Aug 14, 2008; ... Federal law does not prohibit City Watch from taking a position on Measure W, a Salinas hospital bond measure. The story "Dirty Glossy Things" [Aug. 7-13] stated the ...
Neighborhood Scoop
Aug 14, 2008; ... THE LOCAL SPIN Ice cream social yields more than a tasty dessert. I found the flier tucked under the welcome mat at my front door. "Dear NeighborsYou're invited to the party of the year. Our very own neighborhood ice cream block party, celebrating good neighbors, good ...
SQUID FRY
Aug 14, 2008; ... FOWL PLAY ...Squid has been stuck to the edge of Squid's seat-mainly to stave off "office butt"-while following three pigeon poop threads on the RG. message board www.morriefisher.com. The site, of course, isn't sanctioned by former mayor Morrie. Most of the posts are from site ...
Flocking to the Faith
Aug 14, 2008; ... FORUM Obama's faith-based plan courts GOP votes. In the old days politicians would slip preachers some hundreds under the table, and preachers would deliver the flock on Election Day. It was borderline illegal, but at least it left the Constitution alone. The same could not be ...
Tarnished Legacy
Aug 14, 2008; ... FORUM Solzhenitsyn's final years a paradox. When I first heard of Alexander Solzhenitsyn during my childhood in the Soviet Union, he was the officially reviled author of forbidden books. To my anticommunist parents and their friends, he was a hero who had challenged the leviathan ...