Cover Story
Trouble on the wine trail: Residents in Adelaida say enough is enough as the area becomes a popular destination for wineries and weddings
Century-old almond trees, walnuts trees, vineyards, quaint farmhouses, and bare brown earth smatter the hillsides expanding north from the Wild Coyote Estate Winery and Bed and Breakfast. Brown Southwestern-style adobe walls decorated with pops of color perch near the top of the winery’s property with coyote bush and other wild vegetation at its back. In…
Cart before the horse
Fellow environmentalists, often in their zeal to reach worthwhile goals, do not stop and think! Not every proposed environmental law is one that they should rally around just because it deals with the environment. We are awash in potentially harmful changes in the world and in particular within the United States. By 2055, it is…
What is your favorite local winery and why?
Andy Scott brewmaster “Kelsey Winery in See Canyon, because they make innovative wines and because peacocks.” Anthony Neumann booking manager “Epoch Winery in Paso, because the winemaker is super into what she does.” Jackie Parker retired “Halter Ranch, because they have great wine and my son works there.” Lupe Solis employment services specialist “Sculpterra, because…
Aid-in-dying bill now California law
California is now one of a handful of states that will allow adults suffering from terminal illnesses to end their own lives. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill, known as the “End of Life Option Act” into law on Oct. 5. Authored by state Sens. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) and Lois Wolk (D-Davis), the bill would…
Small gift, big impact: Hats for Hope offers support to cancer patients
A small but well-timed gesture of support can go a long way. At Hats for Hope, a local charity, that is the guiding philosophy it follows when helping Central Coast residents with cancer. Hats for Hope’s singular mission is to provide free wigs, hats, and other head coverings to people in cancer treatment. While a…
Cougars & Mustangs
One doesn’t often get to speak about Cal Poly and Star Wars in the same breath without having to seriously force a joke. Get it? Force? Thanks to a talented team of Cal Poly students taking first place at the Paperboard Packaging Alliance (PPA) Student Design Challenge at the end of last month, however, such…
ADA lawsuit filer strikes again in SLO County
The SLO County business community is likely experiencing a bad case of déjà vu as a wheelchair-bound sex offender continues filing lawsuits accusing area businesses of non-compliance with disability access laws. Since January, Arizona resident Robert McCarthy has filed a total of 14 separate lawsuits against SLO County businesses in Cambria, Morro Bay, Los Osos,…
Welcome to the froyo district: Guerilla ad campaign criticizes downtown SLO’s development
Mysterious fliers advertising new frozen yogurt offerings are popping up on empty storefront windows across downtown San Luis Obispo. So SLO Town’s getting more options to satisfy residents’ insatiable appetite for paper bowls full of pastel-colored goodness, right? Don’t get your hopes up. The color advertisements—printed on 8.5-by-11-inch paper and taped in rows over for-lease…
Meathead Movers lead charge against domestic violence
Meathead Movers’ 14-year-old policy of providing free moving services to victims of domestic violence is getting some overdue recognition in a big way. A Sept. 4 article in L.A. Weekly about the SLO-based moving company “went viral” last month, generating hundreds of thousands of shares on social media and dozens of additional media stories about…
SLO County SWAT lends hand in Tulare County gang arrests
Members of the SLO County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team helped another Central California county round up and arrest several members of a notoriously violent gang during an Oct. 1 sweep. Department spokesperson Tony Cipolla confirmed that the department was part of a multi-agency task force that arrested 52 individuals as part of an ongoing investigation…
SLO County looks at energy-providing alternative
San Luis Obispo County will join several other local government entities in taking a stab at assessing what it would mean to be a community-based energy provider. The Board of Supervisors voted on Oct. 6 to participate in two studies to determine the feasibility of two different Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) programs. If such a…
Bob Forrest and Ian Brennan share their work about recovery on Oct. 17 in Big Sur’s Henry Miller Library
If you’re old enough, you’ve experienced trauma, addiction, divorce, sexual abuse, death, and more. Maybe your experience is firsthand, maybe through a friend or relative, but either way, the lingering question is how to survive, recover, and thrive again. Next Saturday, Oct. 17, two artists and friends will present a special evening at Big Sur’s…
Innovative performance group Deep Blue offers workshops at Spanos Theater
Are you experiencing a musical rut? Do you retreat into the same handful of songs whenever you’re looking for a little ambiance? Did you last dance on Dec. 31, 1999—and that was only because you thought the world was going to end anyway? Try this foolproof plan for musical liberation: Australian experimental music, dance, and…
L’Heure Bleue Galerie celebrates grand opening in Cambria
Cambria isn’t just ground zero for wacky scarecrows this fall. There’s a brand new art gallery—L’Heure Bleue Galerie—opening up shop at 4210 Bridge St. in the quaint, art-fueled downtown. A grand opening celebration kicks off on Oct. 10 with a morning painting demonstration by gallery artist Elizabeth Jackson at the Harmony Café at Pewter Plough…
The nutty dioramas of Hellie Blythe are on display at Studios on the Park
Take a peek into Hellie Blythe’s cigar boxes and you will glimpse a whole new, wild world. Found objects, miniscule shells, and whimsical trinkets come together to create a “world of historical nonsense” you have to see to understand. Need a visual? Imagine the artist’s “Viking Raiding Party: Raw Fish Will be Served:” a cigar…
Heart, soul, and sequins: Central Coast Follies stages annual benefit at Clark Center
It’s Oct. 2, and I’m sitting smack dab in the middle of the Clark Center’s second row—next to my mother, of course, as she is the only person I hang out with these days. She’s pretty cool, I guess. (She’s going to read this and be like, “I guess!?”) Peppy dancers tap their little shoes…
Kreuzberg Lounge’s Wednesday open mic turns 2
When Kreuzberg Bar and Events Manager Mitchell Shira began planning the lounge’s first open mic night in 2013, he was overtaken with a sudden pang of anxiety. “Not because I was nervous about hosting it; it was more the fact that other people performing makes me nervous,” Shira said with a sheepish grin. “I want…
Revenge, betrayal, and gypsy clowns: OperaSLO brings ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ and ‘Pagliacci’ to the PAC
“Opera” has a bad rap. Chances are—if you’re under 50—you’ve probably never seen a true operatic performance, let alone a “good opera.” You may think the art form is all about funny hats, shrill glass-shattering voices, and antiquated themes disguised in Italian. Maybe you’ve seen late-night television glimpses of The Who’s Tommy, produced in 1969…
For shame!
I’ve been really getting into dog shaming photos. You know the ones. A photo of a cute little dog with a sign around its neck: “I let strangers pet me. And then I bite them.” Or “I pee a little when I see people outside, and I know it’s wrong, so I lick it up…
Serra is no saint
The Chumash were the only culture in this area for more than 6,000 years. The European invasion about 300 years ago changed this. An agent of the Spanish Inquisition, Junipero Serra enslaved the Chumash and forced them to build his churches, roads, and government buildings. Serra should not have received sainthood (“Mission to sainthood,” Oct.…
In response to ‘Man of His Time’
It will certainly be a challenge to clarify some of the lengthy collection of misinformation included in the Oct. 1 cover story (“Mission to sainthood”), so I will be unnecessarily brief: 1. Serra’s extraordinary life is extraordinarily well documented. As part of the canonization process, many years ago EVERY KNOWN document related to him was…
We don’t need another National Marine Sanctuary
Proponents for a new National Marine Sanctuary off our coast keep repeating the mantra: “We need a National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) in order to stop offshore oil drilling.” What they continue to ignore is something called Measure A. Passed by SLO County voters in 1986, Measure A requires “ … voter approval of any onshore…
My thoughts on the Roseburg, Ore., shootings
Here we are again, counting up the bodies and picking up the pieces, rending our hearts in despair and wondering what in the world we can ever do to put an end to this national nightmare, to these episodic spasms of madness and mayhem. I feel like I’m getting too good at writing these pieces…
We need to clean up the Cal Poly area
With rains coming and Cal Poly in session, the city of San Luis Obispo should really look at cleaning up those neighborhoods of trash. Anyone who walks east of Highway 1 toward Morro Bay and west from Monterey Street will notice tons of trash beneath the freeways, along sidewalks, lining creeks and parks. The piles…
Rabbit Ridge Paso Pure Rootbeer and Qupe Winery’s 2012 Los Olivos Cuvee
I enjoyed my cold bottle of Rabbit Ridge’s Paso Pure craft root beer on a handsome day at Centrally Grown in Cambria. Overlooking the seaside cliffs, chowing down on a killer Santa Rosa sandwich (with pickled onions and grilled chicken), and hanging out with my husband and mom, I can’t remember the last time lunch…
Suds
Beer geeks, have you heard? Brewer Chuck Silva of Green Flash Brewing Co. in San Diego has his eyes set on opening a new craft brewery in SLO. The Central Coast native will return to his old stomping grounds and brew up something frothy and delicious in the coming months. Stay tuned for more deets…
Aye, pour me a jug o’ scrumpy: Bristols is dry, English-style hard cider with a swashbuckling side
The juice is flying and the gears are running hot at Bristols Hard Cider’s production facility in Atascadero. A group of Sunset SAVOR Adventure Tour thrill seekers pack into a little cinder-block room adjoining the tasting room, where a rainbow of heirloom apples is currently being cleaned, crushed, and pressed before our very eyes. The…
Clubs 10/8/15 – 10/15/15
Goin’ South THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Rd., Shell Beach, 773-5000, cliffsresort.com. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Rd. in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the Pismo Beach location every Fri. and Sat. from 6-9pm. Tennessee Jimmy Harrell and Doc Stoltey play on…
