Cover Story
A return to the Montebello
One by one they grinned, backslapped, and handshook their way past each other into the small conference room. Here—attended by his earnest aides—was Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, the lawmaker who had gathered the group together. Already at the table, fiddling with the projector, was the oil-spill expert with the sardonic sense of humor (his screen-saver image…
What is your Motto?
Sharon Sobraske artist “Love is everything.” Laura Carlise artist “Anything is possible, if you want it enough.” Nick Olson student “’No one can make you feel inferior without your permission,’ as Eleanor Roosevelt said.” Dave Hovde television weatherman “First or last.”
Artifacts
Art After Dark Feb. 5, 6-9 p.m. Anam-Cre’ Pottery Studio: 570 Higuera #140 (SLO Creamery) 544-1850. Empty Bowls Throw Fest, benefits the Food Bank, everyone welcome to glaze bowls. anamcre.com ARTS Space Obispo: 570 Higuera #165 (SLO Creamery) 544-9251. HEARTS Obispo 4, silent auction featuring art to give as Valentine’s Day gifts. Bids close at…
VIP hound!
As I look around at all the beautiful people filling up Native Lounge, I can’t help but think I must look like a turd in a jewelry box. Thanks for protesting, readers, but seriously, everyone here is younger and more beautiful than me! What? You didn’t exclaim, “Oh, no! You look great!” OK, I see…
Old mucky brush
Josephine Crawford’s series of face paintings began when a restaurant owner in Phoenix, a fan of her work, asked her to sketch faces onto the walls of his business. He wanted her to paint the faces quickly, without sketches or planning. She internalized this working method over the next five years, quickly creating a series…
Love is not a mass-produced Valentine
Looking at the assembly of handmade Valentines at ARTS Obispo—paintings, photographs, sculptures, and jewelry with a handful of less easily identified craft-type items in the mix—it’s difficult not to ask, ‘How did a blood-pumping organ come to represent love?’ Though Hearts Obispo 4, ARTS Obispo’s annual Valentine’s Day exhibit, fails to answer this particular question,…
Comedy headliners take the stage
Take a date and laugh hysterically at “The Big Laugh” comedy showcase on Valentine’s Day at the Atascadero Lake Pavilion. The comedians are all touring headliners, including Lizette Mizelle, Tapan Trivedi, Kirk Zipfel, Justin Worsham, and Darren Carter “the party starter.” They’ve appeared on the Tonight Show, Showtime, The Late Late Show, and Comedy Central.…
Pass or fail
Two days after announcing they will scale back summer school this year, Cuesta College officials may have more bad news to report—that’s if accreditation regulators decide the college hasn’t made enough progress in key areas. “We are a long, long ways away from losing accreditation,” Cuesta College Vice President of Academic Affairs Cathleen Greiner emphasized.…
How would you rate your imprisonment?
Richard Etzler and his wife Phuong (pronounced “Foon”) had never had a gun pointed at them before. But on Jan. 8 while trying to pass through the U.S.-Mexico border port of San Ysidro, the couple and two of their friends, let’s call them John and Nicole, had at least a dozen guns pointed at them…
Bad news for bears
A revised plan to open San Luis Obispo County to bear hunters has done little to stop criticism since the California Department of Fish and Game first proposed open season. Specifically, the department’s draft environmental document, released on Jan. 27, could pave the way to open up a portion of the county to bear hunting,…
County settles Wilcox suit
In an anti-climatic ending to perhaps the juiciest scandal to hit the county in 2009, the Board of Supervisors authorized the settlement of a lawsuit by former Assistant County Administrator Gail Wilcox. On Feb. 2, the county grudgingly settled with Wilcox’s attorneys for a total of $180,000, in exchange for her dismissal of all claims…
City Council sides with farmers’ association
The San Luis Obispo City Council advised the Downtown Association to compromise with the Farmers’ Association and allow the farmers to have some say in the workings of the famous Thursday Night Farmers’ Market. Proclaiming the farmers an essential part of the weekly event, the council members said farmers’ representatives should have a legitimate and…
Roosters to be euthanized
Who says there’s nothing to do in unincorporated Arroyo Grande on a Sunday morning? Police raided an alleged cockfighting tournament south of Arroyo Grande on the Nipomo Mesa on Jan. 31, sending more than 300 participants fleeing into the adjoining countryside. San Luis Obispo sheriff’s deputies, Arroyo Grande police, and California Highway Patrol officers moved…
Painting? Pony up!
Is it a sign or a mural? Is art a sign? What is a mural? If you live in Atascadero, these are tough questions to answer—and for at least one business owner, the only answer is this: A mural costs $605. Keith Schmidt’s attempt to gussy up a bare white wall on his K-Man Cycle…
Humans are warming Earth
Local media recently published commentaries skeptical of global warming and climate change. The gist of these comments amounts to two assertions: 1. No credible evidence exists that the earth is warming (there have even been assertions the Earth is cooling) and 2. Human activities have had no discernable influence on the Earth’s climate. Both claims…
Brian Reynolds, Director
NEW TIMES: Has the library acquired anything new? REYNOLDS: Well, we have a new service, called Book Club in a Box. We buy certain titles, around ten to 12 books and allow book clubs to read and discuss them. We also have Tumble Books, which is a service that allows kids to have eBooks read…
Change (back)
2008 was a time of monumental shifts in politics. Barack Obama crowd-surfed on waves of change to become America’s first black president. In SLO County—where they generally don’t allow black people—there was change, too. Replacing a board of supervisors that defined government openness mainly in the way some supervisors openly chummed it up with money-grubbing…
The law should not disadvantage gay partners
I am tired of hearing how gay marriage threatens family life (studies show only a third of families live the two-parent mom/dad model anymore), or how it has “always been this way” (read your damn Bible and early history, already). I am equally tired of seeing LGBT groups fruitlessly bang their heads against a wall…
Worry about gangs, not medicine, Nipomo
The Nipomo City Council should be more worried about gangs from L.A. that have invaded than someone from L.A. who wants to bring relief to the infirm through a pot dispensary. Living on the Central Coast for the last 30 years has shown me Santa Maria and Nipomo are crime magnets, period; marijuana dispensary or…
Water deal clears the way for developers
Robert McDonald was right on in his reference to the movie Chinatown in his story about the unnecessary overabundance of water coming to SLO town (“How dry we’re not,” Jan. 21). Approval of the Nacimiento pipeline was a cleverly manipulated strategy among county and city politicians and pro-growth business entities. Though I explained to our…
Don’t drill, conserve
Stop the presses: Oil has been leaking out of fissures in the ocean floor (“Resume drilling,” Jan. 28) for thousands of years! The drill-baby-drill fan club loves to cite the stats for oil seeps (250 barrels a day in the Santa Barbara Channel! An Exxon Valdez every six months in the Gulf of Mexico!), based,…
Consider the consequences
I have been thinking about the debate in this country over climate change. Considering both sides, I come back to one basic question: what if they’re wrong? On one side of the debate, I hear arguments that measures to adjust for climate change require huge investments at a time our economy is in trouble, we’re…
Reform or expire
My Republican friends who think climate change is not being caused by human activities (“Bad data underlie global warming claim,” Jan. 21) should consider why major metropolitan areas have spare-the-air days. It’s because such results of human activity as vehicle emissions, power-plant emissions, and agricultural emissions foul the air to the point it is harmful…
Kokkonen’s clinging to Palin’s skirt
I was mildly surprised New Times would serve up Matt Kokkonen’s stale, half-baked “commentary” denying global warming (“Bad data underlie global warming claim,” Jan. 21) after it had been published and refuted in two other local media earlier in the month. Perennial losing GOP candidate Kokkonen appears to be trying a new way to set…
Sound data substantiate global warming claim
Not all data relating to climate change may be as dubious as those presented in Matt Kokkonen’s commentary (“Bad data underlie global warming claim,” Jan. 21). Consider the Keeling curve, for example. In 1958, Charles David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography began collecting atmospheric CO2 data at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the…
Go back to school, Matt
Matt Kokkonen’s semiliterate and facile interpretation of a few snippets of neighborhood temperature data as proof that “The foundation for the claim for man-made global warming … is fallacious” reveals the workings of a mind both uninformed and partisan (“Bad data underlie global warming claim,” Jan. 21). Among the items on a long list of…
Santa Barbara Wine Co. 2008 Pinot Noir SBC County
This was my favorite of the two wines from this brand. Tasty and well- balanced, it offers tangy cherry, strawberry, and plum flavors with nuances of toasty oak. It’s quite tasty and easy sipping on its own. It’s also a good choice for dinner, whether it’s steak, lamb chops, poultry, ahi, or salmon. It retails…
Santa Barbara Wine Co. 2008 Chardonnay SBC County
This tasty Chardonnay offers simple but flavorful notes of tart green apple, lemon, and spicy vanilla. An easy-sipping wine, it’s also good with food, thanks to subtle oak treatment. Try it with fish tacos, fish and chips, tuna or shrimp salad. A good deal this week at Scolari’s, normally $15.99, it’s sale-priced at $10.99.
Italian soul food
Everyone loves classic Italian cuisine; whether served in a setting called trattoria, pizzeria, or ristorante. Restaurants offering such fare flourish in every small town and city in America. SLO County certainly has more than its fair share of Italian eateries, most of them upscale: Buona Tavola, Café Roma, Giuseppe’s, Rosa’s, and their off-shoots. Yet it…
Clubs
Goin’ South … CAFÉ ANDREINI: 131 E. Branch St., Arroyo Grande, 481-6117. Thurs.: Live music at 6pm. COFFEE BEAN AND TEA LEAF: 750 Five Cities Dr., Pismo Beach, 773-6420. Music Night every Sat., 6:30-8:30pm. DOLPHIN BAY/LIDO: 2727 Shell Beach Rd., Shell Beach, 773-4300 or TheDolphinBay.com. ELMO’S NIPOMO SALOON: 131 South Thompson Road, Nipomo, 929-5362. Karaoke…
Happy birthday, Bob Marley!
Bob Marley would be turning 65 on February 6. Like John Lennon, fans are left to wonder what more he might have accomplished had he not died an early death. Two local people, who every year keep Bob’s flame burning in the minds of reggae fans, are Wendy of Bali Isle and her husband Derrick…
