Cover Story
A very leaky 2013 in review
2013 was the Year of the Leak. Or maybe it was the Year of the Web Hoax. Either way you look at it, we could only go with one theme and the leak was easier to illustrate on the cover. So without further ado: January THE MORRO BAY STORM The year kicked off with a…
What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Patrick Scudder building maintenance supervisor “I don’t even have a New Year’s resolution.” Noelle Garcia Cal Poly student “Try a new cocktail every day.” Robert Gibbs U.P.S. “I don’t have a New Year’s resolution. I don’t believe in them.” Dylan Wilmsen musician “I don’t have one.”
Le fromage, le fromage!
Cheese seems to be the theme this December, and who doesn’t like cheese anyways? Cheese can be paired with just about anything: wine, beer, fruit, nuts, meat, honey, chocolate, you name it. Radio stations are already talking about tickets for the Mac & Cheese festival next summer, we just ran a cover story about the…
Laetitia Brut Cuvée and Verdad 2012 Grenache Rosé Edna Valley
Laetitia Brut Cuvée Got bubbly? It’s almost New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and the best way to celebrate either of those days is to have plenty of sparkling wines on hand. We are quite fortunate to have an excellent local producer like Laetitia that produces a range of fine bubblies at prices…
Nichols brothers’ popular dinner house has reopened at the Red Barn in Santa Ynez
Watching Jeff Nichols walking around his new dining room in Santa Ynez greeting regular guests who were also longtime friends, I could see the diners’ excitement over being seated at their table. Their broad smiles clearly said, welcome back, chef! Brothers Jeff and Matt Nichols, both of whom are chefs/proprietors, were an overnight sensation when…
Auld Lang Syne of the times
Hello again and welcome back to “Sittin’ In for Glen Starkey!” I would like to begin by posing a question to you: Should old acquaintance be forgot? The answer, my friends, is a resounding NO! As that drunken New Year’s Eve midnight sing-along-slash-beloved-classic poem devoted to friendship reminds us, we should indeed not let another…
Metal, mariachi, and machismo
It’s Thursday, Dec. 20 at 9:21 p.m. when I meander into SLO Brew to the heady sounds of Metalachi, a group with the distinction of being the first heavy metal mariachi band. After wrapping up a Led Zeppelin cover, the band gives a lengthy shout-out to all the cholas and “reformed cholas” in the audience.…
Oh no they didn’t!
The arts scene of San Luis Obispo County can be cutthroat, and this year was no exception. This week, in the tradition of the most salacious gossip mags in the grocery store checkout aisle, New Times dishes on the sexiest stand-up scandals, Shakespearean kerfuffles, and arty oopsie-daisies of 2013. Happy New Year!!! COPYCAT? Did…
This leak smells of asparagus
You’ll have to excuse spelling errors and splatters in this week’s column; the Martha Stewart goons who run the editorial department asked me to write about leaks so I obliged them by writing this at the men’s urinal at Beverly’s. Those of you who were reading carefully will recognize that I dropped my first major…
Letters at the end of the year
People love to tell us what they think about the stuff we’ve published, the stuff we forgot to publish, the stuff we “refused” to publish, the stuff we shouldn’t have published, and anything else that might or might not have ever appeared in our pages. Some letters don’t make it to print because they’re missing…
Lil’ libraries
Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, a collection of short stories by Flannery O’Connor, the British murder mystery Death of a Cozy Writer, one fifth of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians pentalogy, the occasional surfing magazine—you could find these at your local library or bookstore, but they might just be available in your neighbor’s front yard. That…
Cougars & Mustangs: ‘Twas the day after Christmas
Ah, the day after Christmas. A day for reflection on events past as one stares at the snow-laded fields outside … Only, y’know, when you live in San Luis Obispo, you’re never going to actually see that snow. The idea is even funnier considering that winter actually starts in the month of December. Ultimately, whether…
Capps grills NRC head over Diablo safety and transparency
Democratic Congresswoman Lois Capps expressed some very pointed concerns about seismic safety at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to the head of the facility’s federal regulator. What she got in response was essentially a “we’re looking into it.” On Dec. 12, the Subcommittees on Energy & Power and Environment & the Economy held a joint…
Phillips 66 rail spur critics speak out at workshop
As oil giant Phillips 66 barrels forward with a fast-tracked proposal to ship oil by train through San Luis Obispo County, local citizens had their first formal opportunity to scrutinize the plan at a Dec. 12 workshop. At a cafeteria-cum-auditorium in Arroyo Grande’s Mesa Middle School—with a glittering disco ball and prominent Tom Sawyer banner…
Contracts approved for women’s jail expansion
Plans to begin building an expanded women’s jail for the county moved forward with the approval of more than $31 million in construction contracts. However, in what county officials called “disappointing,” the cost for the project has already exceeded original estimates by several million dollars. On Dec. 17, the San Luis Obispo County Board of…
Drive well, eat turkey
You’re driving through downtown San Luis Obispo, navigating the crowded streets where pedestrians strut this way and that, trying to keep an eye out for an open parking space as your child in the backseat rattles off their Christmas wish list from the car seat. You approach a red light, come to a complete stop,…
Theater community loses dedicated son and friend
James Lee Buckley, son of the Pewter Plough Playhouse founder and Artistic Director James Buckley (known as JB), died Dec. 22, just two and a half weeks shy of his 66th birthday. Buckley was a familiar face to anyone who spent time at the theater where he ran the bar and café, coordinated marketing efforts,…
