Cover Story
Amended SLO Brew relocation approved by council
As 70-something-year-old king of the surf guitar Dick Dale shredded onstage at the famed SLO Brew, city council members grappled with the fate of the legendary microbrewery and undisputable center of San Luis Obispo’s music scene. On Nov. 20, the San Luis Obispo City Council unanimously voted to deny an appeal of…
Santa Margarita Ranch lawsuit heads to court
Almost four years since the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors overruled their planning commissioners and approved the sweeping Santa Margarita Ranch L.L.C. development in an 11th-hour split decision, the issue is now on its way before a county judge. SLO Superior Court Judge Jac Crawford will hear arguments from attorneys for environmental groups…
Seismic testing sunk
@font-face { font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } ORIGINAL STORY (4:53 p.m. on Nov. 14, 2012): Tears were shed, laughs were shared, activists in animal costumes required translators,…
What the hell, America?
On Tuesday, Nov. 6, at 11:12 p.m. (8:12 p.m. our time, which is the only time that matters), NBC called Ohio, and the election, for Barack Obama. Fox News surprised everyone and horrified Karl Rove, by following their example within minutes. The country breathed a sigh of relief at the early call; maybe some people…
The beat goes on
All things must end, but it was certainly with great sadness that Still Time (formerly Longview), a band that started at Cal Poly but soon was touring the nation, eventually disbanded. Many of us had come to love the Ben Harper-esque sound of the band and its often poignant music, but when one song ends,…
Va va vhoom!
It’s Sunday, Nov. 11, and I’m at The Z Club to meet and talk to members of SLO Tease, the local neo-burlesque troupe that formed about a year ago and is about to embark on its third series of shows next weekend. It’s just a rehearsal, but the place is buzzing with activity. People are…
Flirting with nothingness
Richard Tuttle is frank about his work’s inaccessibility. “Among the interested public, one out of 10 gets my work,” he says with a shrug in an opening scene of Richard Tuttle: Never Not an Artist, Chris Maybach’s 2005 documentary on Tuttle’s life and art. And watching Maybach’s film—which screens Monday, Nov. 19, at the San…
Exotically domestic
The work of San Luis Obispo artist Lena Rushing is instantly recognizable. A mix of figurative expressionism and surrealism with some mixed-media touches, Rushing’s pieces often feature subjects in bizarre or incongruous situations. It’s no surprise that women with exotic animals—an anteater delicately curled around a girl’s slender wrist; a warthog doubling as a footstool—are…
Clubs: 11/15
Goin’ South … BRANCH ST. DELI: 203 E. Branch St., Arroyo Grande, 489-9099. Live music Fri. from 5:30-8:30 p.m. THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Road, 773-5000 or cliffsresort.com. 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…
La Bicarelle 2011 GSM Provencal
A blend of organically grown Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah, this tasty wine is bargain priced. While I didn’t enjoy it when I tried it with a tomato-based pasta dish, it would be quite tasty with a roast beef sandwich, cheeseburger, or sausage pizza. Easy drinking on its own, it’s a good choice as an aperitif…
Dierberg Chardonnay 2009 Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley
I loved this full-bodied Chardonnay, impressive in its elegance and richness, grown in Santa Maria Valley. Beautiful notes of ripe pears and apples meld with delightful notes of minerals, spice, and honey. Its oak aging is subtly integrated. An irresistible sipper anytime you crave a good glass of wine, it’s also very well suited for…
Lido redux
I was among the first eager diners crowding Lido at Dolphin Bay Resort when the doors to the new restaurant opened in Shell Beach in 2006, and I have returned too many times to count since then. The first year I enjoyed my birthday there, feasting on a variety of fresh shellfish on an iced…
PG&E’s pending seismic assault on the sea
Why pretend that the real players who hide behind their false corporate facade, conceal their identities behind their public spokespeople, and never tell the whole truth, the ones Romney famously called just regular folks like you and me (to counter the claim that corporations are not people), are going to suddenly change their anti-environmental ways…
The next presidential cycle (apparently) has begun
Happy the election is over? While doing household chores not requiring concentration, I will turn on the TV, which, during daytime, means 24-7 cable TV: CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News (but the latter’s facts are seldom reliable). Wednesday, Nov. 7, just after elections, while doing mindless household chores, I turned on the TV. One cable…
Something odd has happened
Isn’t it odd that the first GMO plants were cultivated in 1996? Isn’t it odd that obesity was declared an epidemic in the United States in the year 1999? Isn’t it odd that when I drove around the Central Coast, all I saw was “vote yes on 37” signs and stickers? Isn’t it odd that…
Believe in America
I understand that the Koch brothers reportedly planned to spend $400 million to support their candidates and causes in this last election. That would be $400,000,000 from one family—and some still say the rich aren’t attempting to buy our democracy? Thankfully, what we witnessed on election night was still the result of grass-roots democracy in…
Here’s to Paso
A door closes, and opportunity opens another. I have been very fortunate to have made new friends and rekindled old ones. All have a story to relate if we just take the time to listen. Some wanted a little change, some more, some none at all. As I walked the neighborhoods, listening to what I…
Liberalism and environmentalism aren’t boogeymen
I was all set to write a letter replying to Gary Karner’s “Liberals succeed!” (Nov. 8) when I turned the page and beheld Jackson Minasian’s opinion piece “Put students before fish.” Faced with this festival of misinformation, I have to do a two-fer. Mr. Karner: “Liberals” and “liberalism” are not catch-all descriptions for “anything I…
Dear Shredder,
What part of this picture do you not understand (“Who you gonna save?” Nov. 8)? Fifty-nine percent of SLO business owners and residents recently polled are opposed to more bars and nightclubs in the Downtown. SLO has the highest number of bars per capita of any city in California (and perhaps the nation), and the…
Save Our Downtown deserves better
Upon a request by Glen Starkey to discuss with him the proposed expansion and relocation of SLO Brew to the Carrisa building on Higuera, we met in the garden at Linnaea’s, and I thought we had an interesting, productive, and fair discussion on the subject. After reading this week’s New Times’ Shredder (“Who you gonna…
Cougars & Mustangs
No, no, you’re not doing it right. It’s money you’re supposed to be throwing at me, not rocks. Why do you all groan as I carol? ‘Tis the season, after all. At least, every store in America would have you believe it is, and as good, upstanding capitalists, aren’t the businesses we patronize the voices…
Welcome to chefs’ paradise
A humming refrigerator greets visitors who enter what could only be described as an extravagant food preparation zone. The word “kitchen” doesn’t quite cut it. The room is filled with items plucked from the dreamscapes of passionate chefs. Silver stoves and counters line the walls, and a 30-quart mixer waits patiently in the corner. A…
Super (meh)jority
California Democrats woke the morning of Nov. 7 to a world utterly without limits: Tax hikes? Sure. The ability to override governor vetoes? That too. Cooperation enough to pass a balanced budget on time? Maybe. The power to push forward high speed rail? Likely. The will to repeal Proposition 13 and restore the Golden State…
Sensitive information
He wasn’t supposed to have the names, dates of birth, electronic signatures, and social security numbers of every single person associated with a paramilitary group for California’s youth at his fingertips, but he apparently did. According to legal documents, investigators seized a San Bernadino-based captain’s laptop and a USB drive on Aug. 23 and found…
SLO firefighter gets axed
Despite having his criminal case dismissed following a highly publicized mistrial, a San Luis Obispo firefighter has been let go. On Nov. 6, John Ryan Mason, a 10-year veteran of the department, was fired from his position with the city following a lengthy trial for assault and battery stemming from a late-night incident at a…
District pooh-poohs sewage penalty
A “huge” $1.1 million penalty issued by local water-quality officials last month—after hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage spilled from a treatment plant in Oceano in 2010—is “unconstitutional and unreasonably high,” according to an appeal filed by the South SLO County Sanitation District. The appeal also disputes the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s…
Paso lender faces five years for fraud
Linda Ann Kennedy, former president of 21st Century Financial Resources, Inc., pleaded no contest on Nov. 6 to four felony counts and 10 special allegations related to fraudulent practices involving hard money loans on real estate projects throughout San Luis Obispo County, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office. The crimes occurred…
Price Canyon annexation moves forward
In another split vote, a divided Pismo Beach Planning Commission narrowly signed off on a draft pre-annexation and development agreement for the contentious Spanish Springs project. The commission voted 3-2—with one commissioner absent—on Nov. 13 to recommend that the City Council approve the project and its accompanying development guidelines when it goes before the council…
Odd contraption to bridge Morro Bay downtown-harbor gap
It’s called a “funicular,” and it looks like the result of a passionate hook-up between a trolley and an escalator. The device, which consists of a tram-like vehicle pulled along a slope by a cable, was chosen by the Morro Bay City Council on Nov. 13 as its preferred means for connecting the city’s popular…
Cuesta programs plead for mercy
It was kind of like speed dating (but sadder) when faculty members and division chairs representing roughly a third of Cuesta College’s 74 degree and certificate programs were each given three minutes to beg for their program’s continued existence and answer questions from the College Council on the afternoon of Nov. 13. As part of…
What would you rather be doing right now?
Jason Dufurrena attorney “Surfing in warm water.” Christina Fisher full-time mom “This is exactly what I want to be doing—eating ice cream with my daughter.” Derrick Adams nurse “Vacationing on a cruise to Jamaica.” Alba Quintanilla retail clerk/ school tester “Nothing. I’m happy. I’ve got a job and no bills.”
