Cover Story
A musical barn raising: SLO Tracks founder Vincent Bernardy handcrafts a stage for all ages
Everything was running on schedule when The Spaces Between stepped onto the flatbed truck-turned-stage at SLO Tracks in February. About 120 people flocked to the 100-year-old barn for the venue’s second show. Some of them lounged on couches and chairs while others perched on wooden benches repurposed from old feeding troughs. Outside, friends swapped smokes…
SLO County aims to get a new boat for recovery and panga patrol
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department will be adding a new boat to its fleet to help the department deal with an influx in pangas. The SLO County Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead April 22 to use $493,013 in federal grant money to buy the boat and such other specialized equipment as night…
Save Cambria’s Wise Owl during an April 26 fundraiser!
Editor’s note: Unfortunately, the Jessica Fichot concert at the Steynberg Gallery has been cancelled due to illness. She plans to reschedule in the near future. Places for creative people to meet and share their work with art lovers are few and far between, mainly because things like poetry and folk music and arts and crafts…
Lisa Coffman’s second book of poems, ‘Less Obvious Gods,’ elegantly enumerates the divinity of subtle forces
The patriarchal saint of Surrealism, André Breton, wrote that “poetry is made in a bed like love”—but what he meant was that the best poetry is made that way. In Lisa Coffman’s Less Obvious Gods, this is exactly how the poems are made. Coffman, who teaches at Cal Poly, originally hails from east Tennessee. The…
Inmate death ruled accidental
The death of an inmate at the San Luis Obispo County Jail has been ruled accidental, according to a recently released coroner’s report. Josey Richard Meche died while in custody in the early morning hours of March 12 after he was found waving a stick in someone’s yard on the evening of March 11. According…
Who would you like to most see in concert and why?
Allison Tuohy student “The Jay-Z and Beyonce tour because it’s true love in music.” Jodi Ehrenkranz student “Bastille. As long as they play ‘Pompeii’ over and over again.” Dani Berton student “Flume because he played last weekend and I’m still upset I missed it.” Courtney Carbonetti student “An ’N Sync reunion tour because they’re awesome.”
Hipster saint: Take Two Live at The Palm screens ‘Lenny’
All the hippest cineastes around these parts know that it’s worth rolling out of bed one Sunday every month for Take Two Live at The Palm, a program devoted to screenings of an eclectic range of classic and underappreciated films, hosted by Jim Dee and Bob Whiteford. They’ve got an extra hip one this time.…
Come to Earth Day on April 27 at El Chorro Regional Park!
Is it just me, or does it seem kind of ridiculous that we have to dedicate a day to remember we’re stewards of planet Earth? I mean, shouldn’t we think about that every day and in every action and decision we make? Between the climate change deniers, the people who admit climate change but say…
Cal Poly University Art Gallery’s ‘Annual Student Exhibition’ showcases a dizzying array of styles and forms
I’m going to let you in on a little secret—the “Annual Student Exhibition” at Cal Poly’s University Art Gallery isn’t just one show—it’s at least two or three. Once you’ve accepted the breadth of the exhibit, the dizzying range of skill and vision starts to become exciting. You may be confused, but you certainly won’t…
Do you hear what I hear?: 97.3 The Rock brings community radio to the coast
What if there was a radio station you could listen to in your car and didn’t have to hear the same song three times in an hour? And what if this radio station played not just eclectic music, but had small talk shows with dozens of local people from the community discussing the things that…
Cougars & Mustangs
Somewhere out there, in the California night, other souls release a strange magnetism that tickles one’s impulse to give praise. But who or what are these strange wraiths that flicker across the coastal landscape? You can call them a lot of things (all very nice, of course). Let’s begin by referring to them as the…
Learn where the Morro Bay mayoral candidates stand on the issues
In less than a year and a half, much has changed in the small, fog-soaked town of Morro Bay. A long-time City Council member and the mayor were ousted and replaced by what many locals perceived as a new guard. The much beleaguered wastewater treatment plant was finally scrapped and sent down a new path…
Fire extinguished?: After a decisive rejection, the Five Cities Fire Authority searches for a way forward
As the final tally was announced on the afternoon of April 18, faces around the room were uniformly crestfallen. For Five Cities Fire Authority Chief Mike Hubert, the three FCFA board members, and the handful of off-duty firefighters in attendance, this was the worst possible outcome: an emphatic rejection of the $1 million-per-year benefit assessment…
Correction
The corporate structure was misstated in the April 17 article, “A solar company sues … itself?” SunPower sold its membership in High Plains Ranch IV to an AT&T subsidiary.
Morro Bay reaffirms a water emergency
Morro Bay city officials have reaffirmed that the city is in an emergency situation with its water supply. In late 2009, city officials first created the emergency declaration, which states that the city is in an emergency whenever deliveries from the State Water Project dip below 35 percent of normal. Though the declaration is still…
SLO sexual assaults are likely related
A recent string of sexual assaults could be related, and local police are hoping to find more information to identify a suspect. On April 18, a woman reported that she was attacked from behind while walking in the Mustang Village area off Foothill Boulevard in San Luis Obispo. The attacker, who police describe as a…
Supes reject an appeal and approve a Cypress Ridge subdivision
The multi-faceted dispute over air quality on the Nipomo Mesa was ignited again at the April 22 meeting of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors. Ultimately, the supervisors unanimously denied an appeal from local activist Kevin P. Rice and approved plans for a 21-home subdivision on the Mesa. Rice—a frequent political candidate and…
Atascadero inches toward a half-percent sales tax
With its miles and miles of crumbling roads and not a whole lot of money available to fix them, Atascadero has taken one step closer to pitching to voters a half-percent increase. The Atascadero City Council heard from an independent pollster that assessed general feelings and possible support for a measure that, if placed on…
A nut’s nut
I’ll be the first to admit that in the past I’ve been pretty liberal with the word “nut.” I’ve used it to describe local “activists” who love nothing better than trying to catch small-town politicians with their pants down. I’ve used it to describe just about anyone who has issued an opinion on the Los…
Join me in promoting small businesses
In response to the Shredder column “It’s 2014; do you know what year your senators are living in?” of April 17, I don’t believe women are paid less than men as all the women I know are smarter than, better educated, and earn more than their male coworkers (yes, I recognize my opinion isn’t a…
Let’s get our road-based pride back
“New Scenic Shasta Gorge Highway Boasts 5 Major Bridges in 4.5 Miles. By F. W. HASELWOOD, District Engineer” “California Scores High Among States for Economy of Road Expenditures” “Good Roads Paid High Dividends to California in 1931” These are three headlines taken from the 1931 edition of California Highways and Public Works. I found this…
McDonalds isn’t for you, it’s for all of us
In the recent McDonald’s brouhaha in Los Osos, it was the drive-through opponent who likened Los Osos to “Mayberry,” that fictional Hollywood-idealized rural TV town from 50 years past, that finally had me fed up with the restaurant’s foes. Much of the anti-drive-through faction acted like quaking virgins facing Mongol hordes—wringing their hands over a…
Whose basin is it?
Some North County interests believe they are so special that they require a brand-new governance structure to manage the groundwater beneath their vines. Their proposal, which is so special it requires a special vote of the state Legislature, is embodied by Assemblymember Katcho Achadjiian’s bill AB 2453, which would conveniently place 90 large landowners in…
Clubs 4/24/14
Goin’ South … THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Road, 773-5000 or cliffsresort.com. CUVEE BISTRO AND CHAMPAGNE BAR: 550 1st St., Avila Beach, 595-2245. Live music Thurs. and Sat. 6-9pm. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Road in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the…
Alta Maria 2011 Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley
In 1966, after meeting the ardent, young Paul Wilkins when he was a member of the Vines to Wines Club at Cal Poly, I knew the viticulture student was headed to stardom. His finely-crafted wines prove it each year. It was an extremely cool season for West Coast wine regions. Yet this pinot noir is…
Spring peas, pretty baby bells, and quinoa
The bright, sunshine-filled days of spring urge tiny sprouts to begin bursting through the rich earth in flourishing farms all over the Central Coast. Those delicate, tiny green leaves pushing through the tilled soil will soon yield sweet ripened strawberries, brilliant blueberries, leeks, and miniature lettuces that will soon be harvested for the farmers markets.…
Kitchen learnin’ with Central Coast Culinary
I’d like to say that with spring, many great food events arise with the blooming flowers, but living on the Central Coast, there is always something food-and-wine related happening. Like Debbie Duggan’s Central Coast Culinary, or CCC, a company that offers event planning, catering, and most importantly, cooking classes. If the name Debbie Duggan sounds…
