If you’re looking to give back this holiday season, volunteer and donation opportunities abound
Holiday stress is real. Whether it’s financial pressures, an overwhelming schedule, strained family dynamics, loneliness, or setting unrealistic expectations for the holidays to be “perfect,” forces out of our control can exact a mighty toll on our mental health during the season. The good news is, myriad studies show that volunteering our time and talents…
High life
Remember Jimmy McMilian, the NYC activist and perennial candidate who started the Rent Is Too Damn High Party? The Black Vietnam vet had wicked cool whiskers and was mad as hell at the cost of housing. Most of us in California can relate. The rent is too damn high. The cost of buying is too…
Norma Moye keeps Paso Robles’ Vine Street Christmas tradition alive
When Norma Moye bought her Victorian home on 18th and Vine in 1975, she never imagined it would grow into a community-wide holiday spectacle. Today, her vision is the Vine Street Victorian Showcase, a festive celebration that draws thousands to her Paso Robles neighborhood each December. Visit Paso and be merryThe Vine Street Victorian Showcase…
Lucia Mar votes to retain appealed library books at Arroyo Grande High School
Calls to remove Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and Push by Sapphire have hit public school libraries across the country including at Lucia Mar Unified School District, which rejected the appeals. “I cherish the First Amendment, and I believe in the experts on the Library Review Committee,” Lucia Mar board member Colleen Martin…
A Santa Ynez couple publishes a Christmas picture book
Every year in Solvang, community members gather around a giant Christmas tree for the lighting ceremony. The festivity draws from a tradition in Denmark, where people hold hands around the tree and sing. Spotted in SolvangFind Ferd and the Magic Hat: A Solvang Christmas Story on the shelves of Santa Ynez Valley shops, including Valley…
City unanimously selects Black and Veatch to lead design of Atascadero’s wastewater treatment plant replacement
Atascadero plans to upgrade its existing wastewater treatment facility with the help of Black and Veatch, which the City Council recently approved a design contract with. Atascadero City Manager James Lewis told New Times in an email that the engineering company has a track record of success designing and managing wastewater projects on the Central…
SLO Community Cares has been welcoming the homeless with a holiday feast and warm clothing for nearly 30 Christmases
For decades, San Luis Obispo Community Cares has ensured there’s a place homeless people can turn to for comfort on Christmas Day. This year’s holiday feast at the SLO Vets Hall will be a far cry from how organizers Sheri Eibschutz and Naomi Blakely started in 1997—a meal served to the unhoused at the Grange…
SLO County supervisors reject rent increase for Harmony-managed mobile home parks
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors unanimously shot down controversial mobile home park management company Harmony Communities’ attempt to increase rent at two local mobile home parks through a hardship request. “When revenue fails to keep pace with inflation while expenses grow dramatically faster, the long-term viability of the community is at serious…
A Christmas Carol inspires this year’s decorations at The Carrisa
For the past three months, there’s only been one thing on Scott Chedester’s mind: Christmas at The Carrisa. Get festiveChristmas at The Carrisa opens on Thursday, Nov. 20, with hours from 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and 4 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Find The Carrisa at 736 Higuera St. in…
Funding for new engine and staff to strengthen Cambria Fire Department
Last year’s dual fire engine breakdown exposed a major vulnerability in Cambria’s emergency response system. Now, the Cambria Community Services District (CCSD) has been awarded nearly $1 million in federal Community Project Funding to replace one of those engines, with support from U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Monterey). “The constant threat of wildfires that we face…
Santa Margarita’s Christmas at the Ranch celebrates third year of holiday cheer
The 14,000-acre ranch that temporarily housed thousands of firefighters—dispatched from agencies across California to contain the Gifford Fire in August—is inviting them back to see the former site of their base camp in a different light, literally. All aboard!Christmas at the Ranch is located at 9000 Yerba Buena Ave., Santa Margarita, and is open Fridays…
Graphic novelist Amy Chase to sign copies of Abuzz in Dr. Cain’s Comics
Between hormonal shifts, intense emotional developments, social pressures, and identity formations, high school is inherently drama-filled, which makes it the perfect setting for an updating of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, a comedy about feuding and romantic pairings. Meet the authorAuthor Amy Chase—whose previous work includes Archie Comics’ horror line, My Little Pony, Dungeons…
Gallery at Marina Square presents Debbie Gedayloo’s needle felting
A happy harbor seal smiles while swimming on its side. A colorful, iridescent hummingbird hangs in midair. A button-festooned elephant lumbers along. These are a few of fiber artist Debbie Gedayloo’s charming ornaments. She also has several highly textured landscapes hanging in Morro Bay’s Gallery at Marina Square. According to her artist statement, Gedayloo is…
American painter Mark Beck’s work returns to Cambria’s Vault Gallery
Mark Beck was a SLO County fixture for many years before moving to New Mexico, where he was born. While in San Luis Obispo, he taught art at the California Men’s Colony. He’s known for stunning landscape paintings that reside at the crossroads of realism and impressionism. After a long hiatus from showing his work…
The Running Man is funny, action-packed romp
Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgram vs. the World, Baby Driver) directs and co-writes this dystopian sci-fi thriller based on Stephen King’s 1982 novel The Running Man (published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman), about a televised gameshow in which contestants are allowed to go anywhere as they’re pursued by “hunters” hired to kill…
Death by Lightning chronicles the assassination of President James Garfield
James Garfield is a name you’d expect to find as the answer to lightning trivia, and as a decidedly non-history buff, I could have told you he was president—but not when or for how long. Also, I’d probably have said Andrew Garfield—another person altogether. Point being, this four-part series was an amazing way to cram…
A House of Dynamite is an all too plausible nuclear war scenario
Kathryn Bigalow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) directs Noah Oppenheim’s script about a missile launched at the U.S.—but by whom and why? Told from three different perspectives, the story depicts the various governmental elements scrambling to determine how to respond. As political drama goes, it’s gripping and feels all-too plausible. A HOUSE OF DYNAMITEWhat’s…
Pono Pacific Kitchen launches craft vodka and gin label
When bartender Dylan Koch makes Pono Pacific Kitchen’s Water Lily cocktail, he gently shakes together gin, Cointreau, and Crème de Violette. Koch pours the cocktail into a Nick and Nora glass, the kind that “looks like it would be at a luncheon in the 1950s,” he described. Visit for happy hourFind Pono Pacific Kitchen at…
Holiday Guide 2025
What happened to 2025? It’s almost over! As the holidays draw near, maybe some of their special magic can bring us together in the spirit of the season. We’ve included some things that could help in our annual Holiday Guide! Pay it forward SLO County abounds in holiday volunteer and donation opportunities Merry on Vine…
Rod & Hammer Rock hosts Central Coast Sessions, a benefit for KCBX on Nov. 22
First, don’t forget the New Times Music Awards is at Rod & Hammer Rock on Friday, Nov. 21 (7 p.m.; all ages; $15 at my805tix.com). You’ll hear performances by Dubwise Collective, Gehrig Kniffen, Harmony Chabot, Hot 45, Miss Leo, Pete Pidgeon, The Flower Machine, and The Vargo Paradox. The next day, turn around and head…
It’s time for a divorce, Democrats
Let’s face it, it just isn’t working. You Democrats have grown too far apart. It is time for a divorce. After losing the election to political zombie Donald Trump, who arose from the crypt of loss, impeachment, and prosecution, you are looking for a way forward. New leadership is being pushed by your progressives, with…
