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Neighbors helping neighbors: During the pandemic, mutual aid groups proliferated throughout SLO County to help community members who fell through the cracks
As a high school student, Carmen Bouquin wanted nothing to do with the agricultural industry or food production. Now they (Bouquin uses they/them pronouns) help others grow food in the name of mutual aid. Bouquin grew up gardening in New Mexico but when they moved to northern San Luis Obispo County as a teen, they…
The Kingdom
What’s it rated? R When? 2007 Where’s it showing? HBO Max Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor, Patriots Day) directs this post 9/11 film about an elite team of FBI investigators seeking the truth about a terrorist bombing on an American military base in Saudi Arabia. The film truly got short shrift upon its…
Between Cubensis, The Molly Ringwald Project, and Flannel 101, you can hear music from the ’60s through ’90s this week
The upcoming show I’m most excited about is Numbskull and Good Medicine’s Charley Crockett concert next Friday, July 9, at BarrelHouse Brewing (doors at 6 p.m.; all ages; $25 to $30 at eventbrite.com), but unfortunately for non-ticket-holders, this one’s already sold out. Crockett is hotter than a pistol right now, and he’s got a great…
Mighty Cap Mushrooms grows in Paso Robles
Beyond blue oysters To learn more about Mighty Cap Mushrooms, visit mightycapmushrooms.com. You can also follow Chris Batlle on Facebook and Instagram @mightycapmushrooms. San Luis Obispo County tourist activities are endless—from ocean sports, zip-lining, and wildlife viewing to dining and perusing historic missions and castles. But one option reigns supreme, according to the SLO Visitor…
Central Coast Community Energy overhauls rates, looks to ramp up local energy programs
Since Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) first launched in 2018, it’s made two promises to its ratepayers from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara counties: that it will provide carbon-free electricity, and it will provide that electricity at a discounted rate. While the regional public power provider says it still intends to keep both of those…
The Luffa Farm in Nipomo will teach you something new about nature’s sponge
What comes to mind when you hear the word “luffa”? Is it the brightly colored, meshy plastic bath sponge? The rough, dense exfoliator, often tacked to the end of a wooden stick, that you might find at the drugstore? If you haven’t yet visited The Luffa Farm in Nipomo, chances are these are the only…
Grover Beach supports proposed affordable housing project
Grover Beach is moving forward with a proposed housing development that would create more than 50 low- and very low-income apartments in the heart of town, a proposal that some community members are hailing as an example of the solution to California’s housing crisis. “It’s the gold standard in sustainability to have affordable housing right…
State finds deficiencies in Paso and Cuyama basin plans
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) published its first reviews of local groundwater sustainability plans as part of a 2014 state law regulating groundwater—and two Central Coast aquifers are included in the initial wave of feedback. DWR reviewed and found “deficiencies” in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin and Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin sustainability plans—declining…
Draft Avila Community Plan available for review until Aug. 13
San Luis Obispo County residents have a little more than a month to voice their opinions about a plan that will shape the future of development, recreation, and conservation in Avila Beach. In May, after nearly five years of work, SLO County Planning and Building published a 241-page draft of the Avila Community Plan, which…
COVID-19 Delta variant detected in SLO County
San Luis Obispo County recently reported its first case of the COVID-19 Delta variant, which research shows spreads more easily and quickly than prior strains of the coronavirus. The SLO County Public Health Department announced the first Delta case on June 29, as part of a weekly COVID-19 update that reported 34 new COVID-19 cases…
Festival Mozaic celebrates its 50th anniversary July 24-31 with concerts throughout SLO County
Listen up Some concerts are already sold out, so visit festivalmozaic.org soon to buy your tickets to this year’s Festival Mozaic, which features concerts throughout the county from July 24 to 31. Festival Mozaic Executive Director Lloyd Tanner is ready for his trial by fire. Hired after the 2019 festival, the seasoned arts administrator thought…
Great American Melodrama announces 2021 season, starting with new vaudeville revue, Comedy Tonight
The Great American Melodrama in Oceano presents Comedy Tonight, an original two-act vaudeville revue, which is scheduled to premiere on Thursday, July 15. Performances will run through Sunday, Sept. 12. Described as a two-hour evening of puns, parodies, song, and dance, Comedy Tonight will mark the Melodrama’s first production since its closure in March 2020.…
Foundation for the Performing Arts Center announces its new executive director, Anne Branch
Anne Branch, who most recently served as executive director of the Napa Valley College Foundation, recently stepped into her new role as executive director of the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center (FPAC) in San Luis Obispo. Throughout her career of more than 20 years, Branch has helped raise more than $50 million for several…
Functioning brain cells
Have you ever had the urge to play Russian Roulette? It’s a simple game, full of suspense, hope and dreadful anticipation. The rules are simple. Load a revolver with one bullet, spin the cylinder, place it against your head, and pull the trigger. Sounds like fun, does it not? The odds are straightforward. You have…
Fully enfranchised
Women’s March San Luis Obispo organizers are deeply alarmed by recent drastic changes to our electoral system. Today we urge each person in our county to show up and speak up for safe, fair, and fully enfranchised elections. Four years ago during the first Women’s March in San Luis Obispo, thousands took to the streets…
F9: The Fast Saga is spectacular nonsenseF9: The Fast Saga
Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Star Trek Beyond) directs this ninth installment in the popular Fast & Furious franchise. This time around, Dom (Vin Diesel) is confronted by his estranged brother, Jakob (John Cena), who’s been enlisted by villain Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen) to find a device that…
Get yourself or someone else the help they need
I’d like to add my voice to that of the people who would like to see a better outcome when law enforcement encounters a mentally unstable person during the investigation of a crime. So far I haven’t seen any mention of Laura’s Law, or as it is called in SLO County, AOT (this is an…
Science, groupthink, and trust
As some of you may have noticed, the theory that the source of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a lab in Wuhan, China, is no longer just the stuff of fevered right-wing fantasies and rabid Trumpists, but has become mainstream. In fact, by the time that this column runs, the lab-release scenario may be…
Cruel Summer
What’s it rated? TV-14 When? 2021 Where’s it showing? Hulu From executive producers Jessica Biel, Tia Napolitano, and Michelle Purple comes this unconventional drama about getting the life you’ve always dreamed of and the price you pay for living it. The episodes span three years, intermixing timelines to build the story of what really happened…
Cutting corners
What do you do with a New Times? Wrap a fish, line a bird cage, pack it into moving boxes? Well, apparently, this paper isn’t good enough for any of that. It isn’t even good enough for a person whose Facebook name is Sandy Boo to wipe her own ass with. Boo, who said she…
