Cover Story
The nosh pit: What happens when humans, vegetables, and entertainment collide at SLO Farmers’ Market
View scenes from the Farmers’ Market. White-haired and clear-eyed, Ruth “The Flower Lady” Scovell has seen her fair share of marriage proposals. That is, they happen to unfold right in front of her, on the fated patch of Higuera Street located directly in front of her table at the Downtown SLO Thursday Night Farmers’ Market.…
South County Sanitation District ditches legal battle
After years of battling state water quality authorities, the South County Sanitation District is moving toward flushing its legal battle with the regulatory body down the drain. After a closed-session discussion at a June 1 meeting, legal counsel for the sanitation district’s board of directors announced that it had come to an agreement with the…
Jay Farrar of Son Volt to play songs from ‘Trace’ June 17th at Live Oak
For a lot of rock music fans, Uncle Tupelo (1987-1994) was their introduction into alt-country. Yes, Jason and the Scorchers had already combined punk and country in the early-’80s and the Long Ryders had helped create the L.A. cowpunk scene in the ’80s too, but Uncle Tupelo’s 1990 album No Depression finally codified the alt-country…
Deep purple: A new study outlines the economic impacts of SLO County’s wine industry
Paso Robles is known for big wine, especially fruit-forward, voluptuous cabs and zins—the kind that come with both a high alcohol and sugar content and the promise of purple teeth. The region’s darling wine industry is also now lauded for being a serious economic engine, the prime driver for transforming a place once known as…
Committee says no rights violated in Cal Poly agribusiness grievance
A former chair of the Cal Poly Agribusiness Department, who alleged in a grievance that school administrators violated faculty members’ rights during a contentious department chair selection process last year, was unable to sway a faculty panel in a hearing on May 23. The four-person committee unanimously concluded in a June 6 decision that there…
Guilty Pleasures: Zoombies
When? 2016, Not rated. | Where? Netflix. Zoombies. No, it’s not that weird dance-exercise craze your grandma signed up for at the YMCA last year. That’s Zumba. Zoombies a recently released horror movie available for streaming that you should go and check it out right now. The plot of Zoombies shouldn’t really surprise anyone, given…
SLO County Library’s summer reading program uses pool, prizes as incentive
While kids might be eager to ditch the books when the school doors close in June, summer is actually a perfect time to have (gasp!) fun with reading. The tiniest of readers all the way up to young adult high school readers can participate in the San Luis Obispo County Public Library’s “On Your Mark,…
Artist Steve Thomas creates limited edition Cal Poly print
It was the best of times; it was the most expensive and yet broke of times; it was college. With graduation on June 11, all those bucking mustangs rearing to run wild and free out of the stables of San Luis Obispo might also be feeling a tad nostalgic and searching for a memento of…
Cut the cheese
The cheesiest: The Mac and Cheese Festival is slated for June 18 and is not to be missed, especially if you are a fan of the universally adored comfort food (plus, there’s local beer!) Slurp down samples from a slew of local Central Coast chefs all vying to win the honor of first place Get…
Viewer Discretion
PHOTO BY DYLAN HONEA-BAUMANN
What is SLO County’s best culinary asset?
Jim Loring truck driver “There’s a lot of good restaurants. It’s a much greater variety than we used to have.” Biba Pickles superstar promoter “I’m old fashioned—I miss the SLO Foster’s Freeze.” Austin Bertucci downtown ambassador “You get to meet the people that are growing your food, and the variety is awesome.” Rosemary McKenney domestic…
Lone Madrone 2012 Points West Red and Reef Points Hard Cider’s Soundings
What does a “summer barbecue red” taste like? Let me tell you. It tastes like this ruby-colored mix of grenache, mourvedre, and syrah caressed by a splash of soft cinsaut and a dash of peppery counoise. Does it sound like I’m speaking Latin? Sorry. All you need to know is: This hot blooded Paso-grown blend…
Window of opportunity: Chef Jeffry cooks wine country comfort at Barton’s Kitchen Window
Paso Robles is home to a portal that leads into a delicious dimension. One moment, you’re sitting on the patio outside Barton Family Wines sipping a pink glass of 2015 Grey Wolf Soul Mate rosé—the next, amazingly yummy things are emerging from Jeffry’s Catering at Barton’s Kitchen Window. It’s like magic. We’re talking quesadillas with…
Web series by Paso-based Juice Media uses crowdsourcing to decide Dream Eater’s next tasty adventure
#DreamEats. It’s the Instagram hashtag taking California foodies by storm, and it’s leading local artist Dina Mande and her Paso Robles-based film production company Juice Media all over the state to capture California’s most beloved culinary establishments on film. Mande and her team are the producers of the popular, award-winning web series, California Dream Eater,…
Cougars & Mustangs
Summer is here! It’s time to not forget that even though you’ve broken loose of school, you still need to behave with proper etiquette, people! Fair treatment of our fellow man, our bodies, and ourselves, should be a year round thing. I’ve got some tips for you as you get ready to celebrate the end…
Teachers at California Men’s Colony call state’s current pay structure unfair
The union representing teachers in California’s correctional facilities is negotiating a new contract with the state, but some members worry that their pleas to address salary parity are being ignored. In particular, some members are pushing the union, SEIU Local 1000, to change the pay structure that applies to educators in the California Department of…
Clarification
• In the online June 2 news story “Middle school student seeks restraining order against 60-year-old Los Osos man,” the opening sentence was changed to read “A 12-year-old girl is seeking a restraining order against a 60-year-old Los Osos man after she said he approached her multiple times and exhibited behavior that made her uncomfortable…
Grover Beach offers cash for cops
Grover Beach needs more police officers, and now the city is willing to offer cash to get them. On June 6, the Grover Beach City Council unanimously approved a hiring incentive package it hopes will make the police department an attractive prospect for police officers looking for work in a competitive market. “Grover Beach, like…
State races take shape
While the results of Katcho Achadjian’s bid for a seat in the U.S. Congress is still somewhat up in their air, local voters already have a clear idea of the two politicians who will duke it out to fill his now vacant seat in the state Assembly. Preliminary voting results indicate that Democrat Dawn Ortiz-Legg…
SLO Supes: Let the battling continue
It’s one down, two to go for the highly coveted San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisor seats up for election this year. Two incumbents were looking to keep their seats, and 5th District Supervisor Debbie Arnold got her wish, garnering more than 50 percent of the vote in the two-person, winner-take-all primary. Third District…
Carbajal, Fareed lead Congressional race, Achadjian close behind
Slideshow: Get down with election night in SLO County. As the primary election results rolled in during the late-night hours of June 7, Katcho Achadjian gathered with his family, staff, and inner circle of supporters, enjoying the balmy evening on the backyard patio of a private residence on the outskirts of Arroyo Grande. Achadjian—one of…
The craft: Sipping suds at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival
By the time I walked through the gate and into the Paso Robles Event Center on Saturday, June 4, the temperature was already nearing 100 degrees. I’d been out of the air-conditioned sanctuary of my car for less than five minutes and could already feel myself cultivating my first official sunburn of the summer. It…
Good enough to eat: SLO photographer Kendra Aronson puts food in focus
It happens every night. No iPhones or books are allowed at the sacred affair that is dinner at Kendra Aronson’s home in San Luis Obispo. And you eat it seated around a table. It’s always been this way, for as long as she can remember, going back to growing up in her parents’ home in…
Growing up too fast and slow: ‘Bye, Bye Birdie’ is SLO Little Theatre’s season closer
That first celebrity pop star crush in the tween years is filled with nights spent staring dreamily at posters and listening to top hits on repeat while doodling their name in hearts on notebook pages. Oh, to be young. Children of the ’90s, think how much your younger self would have lost your mind if…
Clubs 6/9/16 – 6/16/16
Goin’ South THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Rd., Shell Beach, 773-5000, cliffsresort.com. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Rd. in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the Pismo Beach location every Fri. and Sat. from 6-9pm. Tennessee Jimmy Harrell and Doc Stoltey play on…
Election blues
Are you sick of all the electioneering, advertising, canvassing, and cajoling to vote this way or that? Whew! It’s nice to have the primaries out of the way, eh? Of course, since there’s five more months until the general election, expect a continued onslaught of advertising and press releases. I’m just hoping now that 24th…
Two flawed presidential candidates
This comment is in response to the June 2 commentary in New Times, “Dump Trump” by Zaf Iqbal. This second-in-a-row, monthly anti-Trump rant confirms my belief that rather than sharing any objectivity, Mr. Iqbal has made up his mind with an obvious academic-oriented, left-leaning bias. In contrast, though I support Trump, I see both candidates…
California’s gun ban is almost here
California politicians have been trying to take guns away from law-abiding people for years without success until now. A few years ago they started to eliminate the ammo used in guns by banning lead bullets in areas where condors live because they said they were dying after eating lead fragments from bullets in dead animals. …
God is pro nuke
The letter from S.A. Myers—a rebuttal to William Gleoge’s May 26 “Make your political support about nuclear energy” letter—missed the main point in Bill’s letter: Fossil fuel kills. Whether quickly by smoke and ash from dirty coal-fired power plants, or a slower death from carbon pollution and climate change, we’re just as dead. The fact…
Nuclear energy is cleaner than fossil fuel
I thank S.A. Meyers of Orcutt for the June 2 letter to the editor, “Nuclear energy can be dangerous,” responding to my May 26 letter, “Make your political support about nuclear energy.” We need to focus strongly on nuclear power versus the burning of fossil fuels. This is, without hyperbole, the most important topic in…
New feminism
A few months ago, my boyfriend and I stopped by a hair salon so I could get a quick haircut. As summer approaches, I like to get my hair cut super short. Having long thick hair in the heat can feel like having Gollum profusely sweating and permanently clasped to the back of your head,…
