Cover Story
No more, no less: What’s the state of SLO County homelessness in 2015?
View a slideshow of San Luis Obispo’s Prado Day Center. If you’ve spent much time on the Central Coast, you’ve probably heard of the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness. Adopted in 2008, the much-ballyhooed and boldly titled San Luis Obispo County-wide plan outlines an ambitious, multi-pronged strategy to take a bite out of what was…
If you could invent a sport, what would you call it?
Kara Leonard barista “Ankleball.” Martha Cody Cal Poly administrator “Dog hiking.” Jacqui Diaz barista “Coffeeball.” Alex Mendoza Jamba Juice “Footskeball.”
Local emcee James Kaye brings his laidback lifestyle music to SLO Brew on Feb. 26
Some guys know how to have fun, and James Kaye is one of them. His most accomplished video is One of Those Days, a song with an amazing hook and a video that depicts a leisurely day partying with friends. It’s a classic hip-hop milieu, replete with poolside antics, pretty women, and bros getting into…
Acclaimed local poet Glenna Luschei holds free writing workshop
For nearly 50 years now, Glenna Luschei has been writing poetry. In the late ’60s, she began publishing poetry on the Central Coast and founded her own poetry journal, Solo Press, providing local writers with an outlet that continues to this day. Over the years, Luschei has taught at Cal Poly, won a fellowship from…
A couple dozen film fans braved the rain to attend a food- and drink-filled Oscars party at the SLO Elks Lodge!
It’s Sunday, Feb. 22, and the SLO Elks Lodge is slowly filling up with film fans as the red carpet Academy Awards pre-show screens on the many flat screen TVs in the bar. My wife, Anna, and I have laid out a spread of pizza, veggies, cheese and crackers, and chips and dip, augmented by…
Pas de dudes: Acclaimed transvestite ballet troupe Les Ballets Trockadero return to the PAC
In 1962, Lariska Dumbchenko made history as “the first ballerina to be shot into orbit.” According to legend, when she was up in space, she “delivered handy make-up tips to an assembled crowd of celebrities back on Earth.” Currently, she dances alongside the illustrious Helen Highwaters and Maya Thickenthighya (a dancer purported to have “radioactive…
And the award goes to …
It’s that beautiful time of year when celebrities throw on their sequins and high heels and congratulate each other for their willingness to bring laughter and tears into the lives of us workaday plebeians. God bless them for sharing their beautiful faces and only slightly overwrought insights. Inspired by their example, I’ve decided to devote…
Cal Poly stages experimental play about human behavior, ‘The Other Shore’
Here’s a rope. Let’s play a game.” This is how The Other Shore, the latest production from Cal Poly’s Theatre and Dance Department, begins. Just moments before, the audience had gathered in the lobby of the Spanos Theatre. We were given white crates and told to follow the guide toward an enclosed setup on stage,…
Local officials are hoping social media will help engage more citizens
It’s going to take a custom piece of software running all day, every day, for about three months to convert AGP Video’s archives into the new file format. “When I started, there were three of them,” CEO and cofounder Steve Mathiew remembers of the video file formats he used when the company was founded in…
Supervisors approve San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach trail
In a Feb. 24 hearing filled with optimism, grand plans, and neon bike jerseys, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors unanimously gave the green light to a planned 4 1/2-mile trail segment that would complete the Bob Jones Trail between SLO and Avila Beach. Though the vote was a major step forward for…
Clubs 2/26/15-3/5/15
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 Pismo…
Firestone Walker UDBA and Donati Winery’s 2012 Immigrant
I don’t care how many Firestone Walker Brewing Co. “805” handles pop up across the land. “What we drink around here” will always, irrefutably be Double Barrel Ale. If you’re really local, you might even remember what that delicious beer tasted like “back in the day.” From what I hear, the iconic Central Coast standard…
Check it out
The clever folks at Vivino have created a nifty wine guide influenced by Chinese Zodiac signs (how groovy is that?). See who makes a great wine drinking partner and who doesn’t, what your lucky wines are, and the best regional wine styles to fit your Chinese zodiac sign (tune in and drop out at vivino.com)…
Cougars & Mustangs
Lover of wordplay and rhetorical snark that I am, it is taking me an immense deal of restraint to not explode into ridiculing laughter at the following announcement because I’m not convinced that reaction is warranted in this particular case. But with the way every excited toss of collegiate confetti into the buzzword-perfumed air can…
‘Hey, it’s Kiwi Bob!’: An exotic fruit is a Central Coast staple thanks to three generations of green dreamers
One dark and stormy Wednesday morning in Nipomo, Bob “Kiwi Bob” Criswell found out just how akin to family his farmers’ market customers truly are. At daybreak, his son, Michael, decided there had been enough snoozing in the Criswell household. Always a fan of selling kiwi at the local farmers’ markets with his family—the same…
Loving cup: Spearhead Coffee in Paso Robles sees coffee as an experience
The owners of new Paso Robles café, Spearhead Coffee don’t just see coffee as work fuel, they see it as an experience, even a worldview—something with every bit as much depth as a fine glass of wine, a gourmet meal, or an expertly crafted cocktail. According to Spearhead co-owner Jeremy Sizemore, it all starts with…
Game, set, pickle: Pickleball is creating a multi-use crunch on other sports
On a cool February afternoon shaded by the lingering Morro Bay fog, almost 50 people and about four dogs gathered at Del Mar Park to play or watch pickleball. Pairs of pickleball players rotated onto three makeshift courts on what is usually a roller hockey and roller derby arena. A few newbies played on the…
SLO County Supervisors move forward with exploring a permanent ordinance to stabilize pumping from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin
Coming to yet another tight vote on the topic, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors reached a decision that could clear the most recent logjam in the arduous process of wrangling the ailing Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. On Feb. 24, the supervisors moved in a 3-2 vote to direct staff to draft options…
Morro Bay city officials debate the future of the Morro Bay Power Plant
One year after the Morro Bay Power Plant’s closure, city officials are again planning how to handle the property formerly occupied by Dynegy. On Feb. 24—the same day Dynegy announced its 2014 financials, which included an announcement that it was unable to find a buyer for its three California power plant sites—Morro Bay city officials…
South County Advisory Council recommends rejecting a Nipomo medical marijuana dispensary
Ethnobotanica representative Stephanie Kiel took a deep breath as she walked outside of the South County Advisory Council (SCAC) meeting on Feb. 24. “That was rough,” she said. Kiel had just spent an hour and a half listening to comments and fielding questions from council members and Nipomo community members about a proposed Ethnobotanica brick-and-mortar…
Support public art!
Don’t let Peg Pinard and other self-proclaimed art critics dominate this conversation (“Arts and crass,” Feb. 19). There’s a small campaign in progress to show support for all of the utility box artwork. It asks everyone to “like” the SLO Public Art Facebook page and to leave a review on its page that mentions support…
Please do run for office, women!
The editors blew the strength of Heidi Harmon’s exhortations in her opinion piece in last week’s New Times because of the misplaced comma in the last line (“Run like a girl,” Feb. 19). The last line should be “You should run for office, and when you do, run like a girl!” However, I could figure…
The Dreamers deserve better
Well, the Do-Nothing Republicans in the Do-Nothing Republican-controlled Congress in Washington have, with the help of a racist conservative judge in Republican Texas, finally done something. Together, they have thrown cold water on the hopes of millions of American kids, known as “Dreamers” because they believe in this country. I have trouble with the latest…
50 Shades of No Way
I do not think I have ever read a funnier or more honest review of a movie than Cliff and Jessica’s commentary on 50 Shades of Grey (“Coming attractions,” Feb. 19). It had me laughing out loud, and although I had not planned to see the movie, nor read the book, it almost makes me…
#FireSeasonIsComing
Dear Californians: Please stop making smug Facebook posts about your January trips to the beach when you know the East Coast is getting the crap beat out of it by a storm. Please stop responding to your friends’ posts about snow and the importance of layering with reminders that if they’d just been smart enough…
