Cover Story
What happened?
JANUARY Don’t things always start out so fresh and so clean after the New Year? Then Greka spilled 84,000 gallons of crude oil—their second spill in as many months. Somehow, this spill went undetected for 12 hours, mixing with rainwater, and flowing into a nearby creek. Silly Greka! The Governator proposed closing 48 state parks,…
What were the best and worst events of 2008?
Lynn McKibben retired from Cal Poly Best: the new president Worst: the Iraq war Dan Grivjack PG&E employee Best: Obama elected Worst: Russian invasion of Georgia John Domingoz farmer Best: my and my family’s health Worst: stepfather’s death Julia Loveshine dancer Best: meeting my true love, Sunshine Worst: losing hope in humanity
Dry Creek Vineyard 2005 Meritage Dry Creek Valley
From one of my favorite wineries in Sonoma County, this is only the second vintage of their premier blend and it’s beautifully-crafted. Made of the five noble Bordeaux varieties, it’s based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with Petite Verdot, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc. Although still pretty tannic it quickly opens, revealing delicious aromas and flavors…
Kathy’s Pick
Pipestone Vineyards owners and winemakers Jeff and Florence Pipes said this special wine was hand-picked from the rockiest, most difficult growing areas in their 11-acre vineyard. Aged in 100 percent French oak barrels, it shows only in smoky, toasty notes. This well-balanced wine is quite interesting in its layers of delicious flavors. It’s a meld…
Pipestone Syrah 2005 Reserve Paso Robles
Pipestone Vineyards owners and winemakers Jeff and Florence Pipes said this special wine was hand-picked from the rockiest, most difficult growing areas in their 11-acre vineyard. Aged in 100 percent French oak barrels, it shows only in smoky, toasty notes. This well-balanced wine is quite interesting in its layers of delicious flavors. It’s a meld…
Get more for less!
I’m so grateful it’s January because there’s no month I look forward to more for dining out around SLO County. Surprised? Well, this is the time of year when our restaurants offer the best deals you’ll find on a menu anywhere. “Restaurant Month” was created by the SLO County Visitors & Conference Bureau (SLOVCB) to…
CD Reviews
Diplo / Santogold—Top Ranking Diplo has positioned himself as a ubiquitous DJ, popping up anywhere a new sound is in development or just as a new artist is rising. He collaborated with M.I.A. on her early Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1 mixtape release, championed the sound of Brazilian baile funk with Bonde De Role and…
Meet nu-jazz!
I just didn’t listen to enough new releases last year to come up with a top ten worth a damn, and if I had, all it would have is my narrow, subjective opinion of what I liked best. When I think about it, unless a reviewer listens to everything that comes out, all top ten…
Cain slays
Reid Cain’s voice sounds like a corrugated tin roof being ripped from its rafters by a dustbowl twister. Calling it twangy is an understatement akin to calling cow patties inedible. Full of “character” (not the positive kind), Cain’s voice is a creaking leafspring on 1940 Ford pickup, the sound of a slamming screen door when…
Screen printing goes green
Freshly out of Cal Poly in 2003 with a degree in business finance, Peter Imai faced a challenge familiar to many new alumni upon entering the job market: how was he going to put his new credential to work? “Like many people, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” said Imai. “I didn’t want…
Three spills for Greka; leaders cry foul
Greka President Andrew DeVegvar said the energy company has been the victim of a “political overreaction” in the final days of 2008. He made the statement at a Dec. 29 press conference, criticizing Santa Barbara County’s response to a series of recent accidents at the company’s Bell Lease facility in Santa Maria: Dec. 26, 27,…
Correction
In the Dec. 25 cover story, “Devil Winds,” Mark Somerville’s name was misspelled.
Long road still ahead for Santa Margarita project
The Santa Margarita Ranch project has been approved, but the fight is far from over; project opponents are gearing up to sue. Nothing is on paper yet, but members of the smart-growth nonprofit North County Watch say they intend to file a lawsuit to overturn the approval. “At this point we’re committed to moving ahead,”…
TV won’t go quite blank, just get way duller
You may have seen the warnings. The roughly 17 million Americans who get their television via analog signals, they warned, will see their screens go dark on Feb. 18 when television stations across the country switch to digital signals. Now, however, those TVs won’t exactly go dark on that day. A last-minute bill co-authored by…
Drop the phone, and other new laws
OMG, it’s no LOL-ing matter. As of Jan. 1 California drivers will have to keep their thumbs on the steering wheel and off their cell phones. Since July, it has been illegal to drive while talking on the phone without a hands-free device. Texting used to be OK, so long as texters weren’t violating other…
R.J. McMath
NEW TIMES: What’s the best part of your job? What’s the worst? McMATH: The best part is driving around beautiful women, for sure. The worst part is cleaning up puke, which is something that spans all age groups and genres—I’ve cleaned up a 21-year-old’s puke as well as an 80-year-old’s puke. NEW TIMES: Are there…
Come together
I am taking a crash course in politics 101. Now, how to act as fellow countrymen and see the good in each other: Is that possible while still being effective? Where is that middle ground? So much of the material I read is filled with negativity and mudslinging. Is it not possible to present the…
Racists defaced Obama bumpersticker
After waking to the first day of Christmas vacation, we saw an ugly reminder that, although most ignorance and bigotry has been bred out and the Deliverance recessive gene pool has been inbred to the point of minority, the traits still fester in our county. Over the Obama/Biden ’08 bumper sticker on our car,…
Start buying
With our nation in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Congress must be willing to take bold, decisive action to spur a housing and economic recovery. Unless we halt the slide in home prices, the nation’s housing and economic woes will grow even worse. This is why a robust housing component must be…
Don’t pour, parent
In regard to Mark Jansen’s letter about serving alcohol to kids at family dinners (“Parents should teach children how to drink,” Dec. 25)—ummm, I don’t think so. Mark, you seem to think all it takes to teach alcohol responsibility is to let the little ones dabble before they’re out on their own. Should I let…
Oceano loses
I read in New Times that Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area brings money to Pismo Beach (“Offroaders bring prosperity,” Dec. 25). So what? Pismo got rid of cars on its beach years ago but supports cars on our beach for its own profit. I call this Bullshit, with a capital letter. Does the ODSVRA’s…
Don’t pave the park
On Tuesday, January 6, the SLO City Council intends to push through paving a vital part of our only downtown park in order to gain 12 parking spaces for seniors at a cost of $200,000. Must this decision come nine days before we begin our budget debate in a time of economic tsunamis? How…
Work together
The letter from John Gajdos (December 25), saying essentially that if you lie down on the beach at Oceano you should expect to be run over by a gasoline-powered vehicle, is striking. By the same logic, the family of the little 4-year-old boy who was killed by a truck some months ago while playing in…
Offroaders tend to camp
As my commentary, “Let’s Return to Nature” (Dec. 20) stated, Dean Runyan Associates found that tourism brought a billion dollars to our county in 2006; but all campgrounds here, both state and county, including the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, brought only $23 million. Offroader Kevin P. Rice, attempting to convince us that…
Forget pity
Please forgive me for not feeling too sorry for Eddie Tolosko, the homeless guy portrayed in your oh-so-sympathetic story about his tent being “destroyed” by park rangers (“Merry Christmas,” Dec. 18). Let’s look at the facts here. Tolosko had been squatting on public land for 11 years. Presumably (since your story doesn’t say otherwise)…
Messages to the new board, part five: Let’s get energized
Editor’s note: This is the fifth of five monthly Sierra Club commentaries devoted to policy recommendations for the incoming County Board of Supervisors. When the United States failed to sign the Kyoto Protocol pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, U.S. cities and counties stepped up to the plate. The success…
Write it off
You’ll have to forgive any errors in this column. I’m txting the entire thing to New Times, on deadline, Gonzo-style, while driving back from Tijuana on the Cinco. It’s already been a long drive, and I’d love to dictate the thing over the phone, but talking while driving is illegal, wrong, unethical, and immoral, as…
Mozart your way to 2009
Curtis Pendleton, Festival Mozaic’s executive director, has a few words for all you Mozart lovers out there: “Since our closing concert in July, Festival Mozaic music director Scott Yoo has had several busy months of conducting and playing around the world, making the six weeks he spends in SLO each year the longest period of…
Funk it up
New Times What is your history in the art world around town? Helms I’ve been, well I don’t know if you’d call me a professional artist, but I have producing and making the Breakfast at Tiffany’s show (a previous art exhibit hung at Barnes and Noble in SLO inspired by the movie). New Times So…
Get ready for public transport!
In the country that fell in love with the automobile, public transport systems serve a cross-section of the population. The very old sidle in next to the very young, the homeless make room for the former drunk drivers, and the environmentally conscious shove a bun for the mentally unstable. From childhood, it is generally understood…
Green and gainfully employed
Growing Grounds is a place of peace in San Luis Obispo’s bustling—not by city standards perhaps, but certainly from a rural perspective—downtown. Spanish herb jars, books about gardening, gazing balls, jars of olive oil, and citrus-honey-and-lemongrass scented soap indulge all five senses. It doesn’t hurt that the majority of the goods are located outside, beneath…
