Cover Story
Skin tech: Estheticians on the Central Coast beautify skin with techniques old and new
Low level electrical impulses push through layers of facial skin at A Beautiful Face Salon in Templeton. It sounds like torture, but really it’s just an electrical facial—and salon owner Linda Davis said the impulses mimic those currents produced by the human body. Called microcurrent treatment, two white wands with metallic tips work to lift,…
Social media sound off
Adam Hill was denied the chance to serve as chairman of the SLO County Board of Supervisors for the second year in a row. Our readers weighed in on our Facebook page.
Morro Bay residents concerned about potential building height increases
The Morro Bay City Council responded to community outcry over a proposal to allow three-story tall buildings within the downtown area by removing it from the city’s downtown strategic plan at a Jan. 23 meeting—but didn’t ditch the idea entirely. “There’s so many beautiful views of the rock, even over buildings, where you have the…
Move over diet food, SLO’s Nourish satisfies
Not your mom’s healthy meals Nourish is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The restaurant is located at 1126 Morro St. next to Granada Hotel and Bistro, which offers small plates from 3 to 5 p.m. daily and dinner service from…
Security bollards for downtown SLO: $1.2 million, city says
Retractable steel bollards and other unspecified infrastructure meant to block inroads to the San Luis Obispo Farmers’ Market and deter a theoretical vehicular attack will cost the city $1.2 million, according to city officials. While details on the plan are sparse, City Manager Derek Johnson said he plans to make “substantial progress” on the project…
Surfin’ USA
Beachfront beauty: Pismo Beach’s newest lodging option, Inn at the Pier, opens next month. What does that mean for you? Well, locals can now chomp on light and shareable bites with ocean views at the inn’s rooftop poolside lounge (the full bar serves cocktails, craft brews, and Central Coast wines alongside seasonally driven small plates.…
Perez murder trial begins
Jurors heard opening arguments on Jan. 23 in the murder trial of a Grover Beach man accused of stabbing his roommate to death and lighting the body on fire. While SLO County prosecutors claimed that the man, 43-year-old Manuel Jesus Perez, pre-planned the murder of his housemate Joseph Charles Kienly IV, a lawyer for Perez…
Distilled and chilled
Fog rolls in: Los Osos is home to a new distillery and it’s shrouded in a thick misty later of mystery! Find out all about the new Foggy Bottom Distillery for yourself with a whiskey tasting. The new hangout is located at 905 Los Osos Valley Road, suite B, and is open Saturday and Sunday…
County drops Community Choice Energy effort
The city of San Luis Obispo is looking for partners on a new Community Choice Energy (CCE) program—which turns local governments into renewable energy procurers and electricity sellers—but it won’t be able to call SLO County. County supervisors voted 3-2 on Jan. 23 to abandon any further exploration of forming or joining a CCE. Supervisors…
Vino vivacious!
Crash course: Wanna be a winemaker for a day? Who wouldn’t? It’s a lot less work when you’re only making one bottle! Blend your own wine like a pro and enjoy consuming it by lunchtime at Mitchella Vineyard and Winery’s newest seminar series. (Next class is Jan. 28 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Go…
Losing it: Dieting trends for 2018
It’s January, which means many of us who spent 2017 glowering over our beer bellies at the growing number on the bathroom scale are trying to keep our New Year’s resolutions to shed a few pounds and get back in shape. In 2018, dieting trends range from the sensible to the downright bizarre (bugs, anyone?)…
Next stop, the Railroad District!
Hop on this gravy train before it chugs away from the station! The San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum is hosting a unique Art After Dark event this Feb. 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. and guess what? It’s totally, 100 percent, not-even-joking free! Not much is truly free in this topsy-turvy world, especially “date night.”…
Everything did: Big city beauty trends arrive in SLO
Hey, gorgeous For more information about going hairless via sugar, getting your hair styled for an upcoming event, or getting some semi-permanent eyebrows, visit theskinboutiqueslo.com, sloblowoutbar.com, and winkslo.com. My own daily beauty routine is admittedly minimalistic. Still, I feel a twinge of envy when friends in the LA area talk about the latest hair, makeup,…
First ever Cambria Film Festival focuses on romance
Happily ever after The Cambria Film Festival will run Feb. 8 to 11 with screenings and events at the Cambria Center for the Arts, the Pewter Plough Playhouse, and Hearst Castle. Prices range from $8 for a single screening to $75 for a festival pass. An opening night reception will be held Feb. 8 at…
Ancient oils: Morro Bay’s Poppy Products keeps the chemicals out of their skincare
Bathe yourself in milk and honey, scrub yourself with sea salt, and throw some aloe vera and rose water on that pretty face of yours if you want to achieve the beauty of Cleopatra. Rumor has it the Egyptian queen was obsessed with maintaining her youthful skin, creating her own regimens and products with what…
Ben Riddering turns discarded tree roots into sculptures
Repurposed Ben Riddering’s root ball sculptures will be on display at the SLO Museum of Art’s Dimensions show through Feb. 18 and at The Phantom Project exhibit (downtown at 959 Higuera St.) through the end of January. For more information about the exhibits and Riddering’s work, visit sloma.org and benriddering.com. In the back left corner…
A Ventura cider company burns in the Thomas Fire
Anna and Dominic O’Reilly worked to get their business, Anna’s Cider, going last September but lost their facility, equipment, and first batch of hard cider in last December’s Thomas Fire. The Ojai couple is the first commercial hard cider producer in Ventura County. Dominic has a long background in winemaking. He got his start in…
Learn the art of story telling with Jack Davis
Everyone has a story to tell. Whether it’s a comedy or a tragedy, learn the art and craft of this human tradition at the Story-Telling Workshop with Jack Davis on Jan. 27. The event will be hosted by Central Coast Comedy Theater as part of the first ever SLO Coast Comedy Festival and held at…
SLO Rep brings New Jerusalem to the stage
What happens when a community is charged with judging one of its own for a nearly impossible-to-prove crime? The SLO Repertory Theatre presents one scenario in its staged reading of New Jerusalem, showing Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 3 at 2 and 7 p.m. Baruch de Spinoza is a young merchant and the…
‘Phantom Thread’ delivers powerhouse performances amid flawed characters
PHANTOM THREAD What’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? The Palm, Stadium 10, Galaxy Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice) reteams with Daniel Day-Lewis in this story of dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock, who…
Learn calligraphy from a pro
If your own chicken scratch handwriting bears a closer resemblance to a doctor’s hastily written prescription than a work of art, consider attending the Intro to Modern Calligraphy Workshop on Feb 3. Held at The Wedding Space in SLO from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the event will be taught by professional calligrapher Raina Toy-Smith,…
Bingeable: The Crown (Season Two)
When? 2017 What’s it rated? TV-MA Where’s it available? Streaming on Netflix If the impending nuptials of Prince Harry and Megan Markle seem just too far away to beat, never fear, season two of Netflix’s The Crown is here to give us our royal fix while we wait. The historical drama picks up where the…
Film Listings 1/25/18 – 2/1/18
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME What’s it rated? R Where’s it showing? The Palm It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-old American-Italian, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther…
Five days, 14 shows, 33 acts!
Prepare yourselves, live music nuts, because there’s a tsunami of shows descending on SLO County this week. Strap in, pull out your calendar, and let’s take this one day at a time. Thursday, Jan. 25 You can start your evening with a Numbskull and Good Medicine Presents show at Morro Bay’s The Siren with Smooth…
This is not a nice business
The ugly spectacle that politics has become is unlikely to soon get any less nauseating. Nor should it. Not with the people in office today who call themselves Republicans. These are some serious nihilists. It’s zero-sum in their moral math, and the losers are everyone not on their side. There are more of us than…
Tsk, tsk, New Times
My jaw just dropped as I read Karen Garcia’s Get Out story “Hidden oasis” (Jan. 18) extolling the virtues of a visit to Montaña de Oro State Park. She “felt like a 10-year-old again searching for the smoothest rock to add to my collection,” she revealed. Well, the reason “this place is a veritable gold…
Leisurenauts: Three days in Cali’s retirement mecca
It’s Tuesday, Jan. 2, and my wife, Anna, and I are trying to get on the road to Palm Springs—Rancho Mirage specifically—where we plan to vacation until Saturday in my wife’s grandparents’ swanky sixth floor apartment in the Desert Island Condominiums on Frank Sinatra Drive. We’re talking lush white carpets, copious mirrors, and saucy naked…
Our right and duty
In the Jan. 18 New Times, Robert C. Cuddy wrote a lengthy opinion piece defending Adam Hill (“Time to speak out”) and castigating the public that spoke at the Jan. 9 San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meeting. From the tone of Mr. Cuddy’s opinion piece, one would think that the people who spoke…
Offshore omen
What accounts for our inability to learn from the past? Why do we thoughtlessly invest in short-term projects that imperil ecosystems, species, and the planet? Is it lack of imagination? Systemic inertia? Simple greed? The most recent shortsighted, dangerous, and greedy plan by the Trump administration is to allow drilling by oil and gas companies…
CAPSLO, county to pursue a detox facility at new homeless center
Citing a glaring need for more drug and alcohol detoxification services in San Luis Obispo County, on Jan. 23 the county Board of Supervisors signed off on conceptual plans to build and operate a new detox treatment center in SLO. Proposed on the property that will house the Community Action Partnership of SLO’s (CAPSLO) new…
The hypocrisy of night access to open space
Last Tuesday, Jan. 16, the San Luis Obispo City Council voted 3-2 to open night biking on Cerro San Luis Natural Reserve. The policy of forbidding night biking on the mountain had been set into place by previous councils that understood the necessity of protecting wildlife from destructive activities in our natural reserves, and a…
Crazytown
Did you hear Grover Beach resident and alleged roommate slayer Manuel Jesus Perez, 43, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to stabbing his roommate to death before setting his body afire? Apparently Perez, his victim, and two other roommates rented rooms in a worse-than-Haiti shithole flophouse where many residents were current or recovered…
Pismo council extends moratorium on tattoo parlors, other businesses
As it eyes plans to revamp its downtown core, members of the Pismo Beach City Council voted to extend a temporary moratorium on tattoo parlors, smoke shops, and other businesses deemed “inconsistent” with the city’s future plans. The council initially passed the temporary moratorium—which also includes massage parlors, plasma donation centers, payday loan businesses, gold…
Trump is missing compassion
I’d like to compliment Editor Camillia Lanham and reporter Karen Garcia on their well-written articles in the Jan. 11 New Times: Lanham’s Volunteers 2018 article, “Responding to Crisis,” and Garcia’s news article, “Grover Beach mother deported to Mexico.” The two articles may not seem related, but they both have the commonality of spotlighting neighbors supporting…
