Cover Story
Floating the Marcus Langseth
Pacific Gas & Electric’s plan to conduct high-energy, three-dimensional reflective seismology surveys off the Central Coast has drawn the ire of environmentalists and ratepayer watchdogs across the state. But what’s the real risk of harm to marine life? And will the academic research vessel provide the best data to finally understand the elusive seismic risk…
Have you ever won a trophy?
Alicia Becerra employment service specialist “I won Dimple Darling when I was like 3 or 4.” Oscar Gonzalez artisan “I got a swimming award for performing all the swim styles accurately at a day camp.” Barbie Santos stylist “I won second place for a beauty school competition.” Lydia Behm student “Swimming when I was 4.”
Rocktober time!
I grew up on beer, brats, and polka music in Wisconsin, except I was too young to drink the beer, but that didn’t stop my parents from taking me along to the outdoor food and music festivals that popped up on weekends, which were great times to get together with the community and have some…
Get Met!
For the past two years, “The Met: Live in HD” series has been bringing live broadcasts from New York’s Metropolitan Opera to Cal Poly’s Performing Arts Center, allowing Central Coast residents to enjoy the works of Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Handel, and Mozart at bizarrely incongruous hours. (Thanks to the time difference, many of these productions…
The real rebel
Thanks to the likes of Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen, motorcycles have earned a storied place in American culture. They’re what rebels ride. They’re cool. They buck the system. And obviously, the louder, the faster, the more complicated the bike, the more badass, right? While that might be the conventional wisdom espoused by guys on…
‘We put fear and prejudice on trial’
A heated court trial is, in many ways, like a piece of theater. It’s a grand production with a hero and a villain, filled with heartfelt monologues and tense dialogue, delivered before a crowd of gasping onlookers. And no one knows exactly how it ends. In the case of 8—Dustin Lance Black’s new play chronicling…
Say what?
The story of Starfucker is one so paradoxical, it ought to cancel itself out. It all began in 2007 as the solo project of Portland native Josh Hodges, for whom the tongue-in-cheek moniker, it seems, was mostly about flipping the music industry the bird. While touring with another band, Hodges recalled, “I heard this girl,…
Clubs: 10/11
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 Pismo…
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere
It happens every day. You look up from your lowly cubicle, tired from long hours of pretending to answer e-mails or counting the amount of times your desk mate sighs audibly, and you realize it’s almost the witching hour: 5 o’clock. Suddenly your step becomes a little lighter, and if you listen hard enough, you…
Marques de Caceres 2011 Rioja Rosado
I often hear people speak of dry Rosé as a summertime quaffer. But there’s no drink-by-this-date-or-season stamped on pink wines that I’ve seen. I drink dry Rosé as an aperitif any time of year. You’ll find this light, crisp Rosé tastes of strawberries, raspberries, and cranberries. But if you like sweet white Zinfandel, this style…
Wild Horse 2010 Pinot Noir Central Coast
This versatile Pinot Noir offers attractive aromas and flavors of ripe blackberry, black cherry, and plum, very nicely offset by red notes of tangy cherry, raspberry, and a lengthy spicy finish. It’s quite drinkable on its own and will create interesting food and wine pairings. This well-balanced wine plays well with everything from salmon and…
Harvest fun
I’ve attended these excellent wine festivals in SLO County and in our southern neighbor Santa Barbara County for almost two decades and found both multi-day events appealing on many different levels. Now, there’s plenty of information online at their websites—pasowine.com or sbcountywines.com, respectively—where you can buy tickets, make reservations, and learn everything you need to…
Brenden Gebhart: professional slackliner
NEW TIMES First of all, what is slacklining? GEBHART Slacklining is the act of walking on 1- or 2-inch webbing strung between two points. It differs from tightrope walking because the line has slack, which allows for movement in any direction—side to side, up and down. It’s sort of a cross between a tightrope and…
And now, my rebuttal
Ken Goodman’s letter, “We need to avoid economic disaster” (Oct. 4), has various misstatements requiring rebuttal. Goodman writes, “[Michael] Sullivan says, ‘Page claims that President Obama accomplished nothing in his first term.’ Page never said that!” Actually, Otis Page did say that (Sept. 13) when he wrote, “President Obama’s speech at the DNC was filled…
Check out the truth, then think!
Wanting to attend an important county meeting the night of the presidential debate, I recorded the program. When I viewed it later that evening, I was disturbed by the president’s uncharacteristically dispirited performance in the face of some blatantly untrue statements made by an energized, constantly smiling Mitt Romney. After viewing it another time, I…
The crystal-clear realization
Watching the presidential debate, I was enjoying Romney’s strategy of carefully rehearsed zingers. They were obviously the result of a large group of professionals and were worthy of sound bites by Jessie Jackson or Fox News. About half hour into the debate, I found myself leaning toward Romney and noticed that his flag pin was…
Here’s my students’ experience
You are invited to hear a true story about Lois Capps and Kevin McCarthy, and I think it says something very important about Lois Capps. Please keep this in mind if you are in the new Congressional District 24. Last year, I taught American government and economics to three classes at Arroyo Grande High School.…
Move somewhere else if you like costly gas
This latest spike in gas prices is an act of greed by the oil companies. They want gas to be $5 per gallon, and they will ease it up and than down and up again until they get what they want. It’s a game with them, and they are getting away with it. What will…
Carpenter’s got my vote
I urge everyone to vote to reelect Councilman Dan Carpenter for SLO City Council. Dan is the only candidate who brings such a broad mix of experience in private enterprise, public administration, and local government to the position. Growing up, going to school, working, and raising a family in San Luis Obispo has given Dan…
Consumers bear the brunt of this wrong-headed ban
As I write this, it’s been barely a week since the anti single-use plastic bag ordinance went into effect here in SLO County, and the grumbling over this wrong-headed decision by the county supervisors to impose such a nonsensical solution on the general public is getting louder by the second. Do the do-gooders really think…
The Walmart Four are just stalling
I’m writing in response to the Jerry James cartoon in New Times that shows the four Save Atascadero members being charged by tanks (Sept. 20). I feel that there needs to be a change made to it. There should be strings attached to these four characters, as they are merely puppets being puppeteered by temper-tantrum…
Come again another day
So, water started falling from the sky. Yeah. I pay good money to live in a place where stuff like that doesn’t happen. But there I was, writing my column outside—in the buff and on my trusty Commodore 64, the way God intended—and instead of sunshine beating down directly on my totally and oddly hairless…
Hearing a lot about Proposition 37?
Proposition 37 gives Californians the chance to vote for our right to make an informed choice when buying food—specifically the choice of whether to consume food that has been genetically engineered. In polls, more than 90 percent of us want genetically engineered foods labeled. Nearly a million California voters signed petitions to get Proposition 37…
Cougars & Mustangs
Is it me, or is it always some sort of season related to being sick? There’s cold season, flu season, allergy season, rabbit duck season—why, that’s four seasons already! Few people remember the moment in Fantasia, during the Nutcracker Suite, where one of the sugar-plum fairies, after coaxing a beautiful flower to bloom for spring,…
Produce gone political
Kale–a leafy, green vegetable that shares an ancestry with cabbage—is now exceeding its expectations of simply holding nutritional value. This high-vitamin produce is being used to promote the rights of individuals by helping the fight for same-sex marriages. Bambu Batu, a local business that specializes in bamboo products, is selling shirts that say, “KALE: it’s…
Seeds for rent
Seed slavery. Seed dictatorship. Seed sovereignty. These unusual-sounding concepts are at the root of a growing local—and global—effort to save and exchange seeds, free of charge, at a community level. Spurred by the rise in corporate ownership of the world’s seed stocks, and by an increasing number of patented, genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds, thousands…
Struck out?
A pack of cigarettes costs about $6, but one man’s nicotine craving combined with a penchant for petty theft could cost him 25 years to life in state prison. His name is Richard Martin Loots, and the 39-year-old San Luis Obispo County resident was arrested in April for attempting to lift 11 cartons of smokes…
SLO police take pay cuts
The union representing the county’s highest-paid police officers has accepted concessions in contract negotiations settled Oct. 8 with the city of San Luis Obispo. The SLO Police Officers Association agreed to forego cost of living increases until at least 2016, and current pay will be reduced by four percent over the next two years. While…
Chamber scores free rent in Morro Bay
After several weeks of back-and-forth bickering, the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce got everything it wanted from the City Council at its Oct. 9 meeting: a new pad big enough for three offices, a guaranteed three-year lease, and practically free rent at just $1 a year. Back in August, the council approved the concept of…
A SLO council candidate is back in the race
A former candidate for a seat on the San Luis Obispo City Council has thrown his hat back into the ring for the upcoming November election, just more than a month after he suddenly withdrew his name from the race, citing what he described as an “apathetic” electorate. But on Oct. 9, a reinvigorated Matt…
Sewage spill brings a penalty–and an appeal
Attorneys for the South SLO County Sanitation District are getting ready to file an appeal against a $1.1 million penalty for spilling 674,000 gallons of raw sewage two years ago. Members of the Regional Water Quality Control Board decided on the penalty amount on Oct. 3, after a marathon 16-hour hearing last month. A few…
Arroyo Grande outlaws mobile dispensaries
In light of an ambiguous grand jury report, the city of Arroyo Grande is playing it safe and cracking down on medical marijuana delivery services within its city limits. On Oct. 9, the City Council unanimously approved an amendment to its ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries; the new language includes mobile dispensaries or collectives in…
Former teacher’s rape charges dismissed
A former teacher with Coast Union High School in Cambria had rape and related charges against him dismissed in late July, according to court records. Atascadero resident Walt Vickrey, who worked for Coast Union for more than five years, was initially arrested Nov. 11, 2010, on suspicion of multiple felonies related to spousal rape and…
Price Canyon gets a green light from Pismo commission
Audience members shook their heads, spoke with muffled voices, and occasionally snickered as the Pismo Beach Planning Commission discussed the Price Canyon planning area at its Oct. 9 meeting. Many community members expressed hesitation about moving forward with the project, but the commission voted 3-2 to put it on the City Council’s plate and recommend…
