Cover Story
Courting disaster
When Gabrielle Rivera got a text message from her volleyball coach at around 8 p.m. on a Friday, she was immediately shocked and panicked. Her reaction wasn’t because of the time; she was used to texts from her coach at all hours. But this message carried an added threat. Her coach, Jon Stevenson, told her…
Talk with your mouth closed, young lady! Oh, wait.
Are your table manners up to snuff? Do you chew with your mouth closed? Dine with your napkin in your lap? Get your mealtime behavior in check with Golly Gee-pers Table Manners Card Games, a new invention from stay-at-home mom and Cal Poly graduate Staci Ericson (Disclosure: Ericson is this writer’s second cousin.) Looking for…
Dancing vines
The great outdoors isn’t always the most hospitable venue for ballet. In fact, it may well be a disastrous choice. But it’s a fitting challenge for Ballet Theatre SLO, a local dance company whose upcoming season seems to have a welcome why-not streak running through it. Called Ballet in the Vineyards, the company’s season benefit…
Breathe deep
You know how I can tell Cal Poly is about to start? Because there’s a ton of awesome music happening this weekend and into next week, that’s how! From SLO Brew’s packed schedule to Otter Production’s Avila Beach blowout concert to Pozo Saloon’s country throw down and so on, there’s just one great show after…
‘I’m a nut, but not just a nut.’
In case you are unaware, New Times Managing Editor Ashley “Cinderella Story” Schwellenbach is gaga for Bill Murray. Since she came on board, to coincide with our coverage of the SLO International Film Festival, our staff made a Bill Murray film called There’s Something About Murray, and we created a mocked-up editorial staff photo of…
Blushing petals
Artist WB Eckert is constantly surprised at the effect his innocent calla lily paintings have on viewers. Most people, understandably, are stricken by their beauty, their unexpected translucence, and the way they seem to thrive and expire with equal grace. Many leave feeling afflicted by the flowers’ alien strangeness. Some, oddly, feel their cheeks reddening…
Clubs
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…
The bay’s biggest battle is back
He had black cod and oysters. He had abalone. He had heirloom tomatoes and blood oranges. And, armed with nothing more than these ingredients and his will—and, OK, other cooking supplies and equipment—he forged a menu that earned him victory in the inaugural Battle of the Bay at last year’s Savor the Central Coast event.…
Want food and wine news?
Starting this week, New Times will be printing Bites—morsels of interest to the local foodie and wine community—each week in our Cuisine section. This space is for news of all kinds related to the industry, from grand openings to hirings to events to whatever. We’d say we’ll include everything but the kitchen sink—except the kitchen…
Dr. Loosen 2010 Riesling Mosel
Last vintage, this German white was a tad sweeter than usual, but I prefer this 2010, which only hints at sweetness. Its pretty nectarine and apricot flavors harmonize with notes of ripe pear, honey, and lime; it’s so balanced it belies the fact that you paid little for it. Dr. Loosen’s (German pronunciation, loh-zen) value-priced…
Evening Land 2008 Pinot Noir Oregon
For those who love Burgundy-style Pinot Noir, this tasty, value-priced (compared to its peers) Pinot Noir is just the ticket. It offers ripe aromas and flavors of cherries and blackberries with seductive notes of blueberries, minerals, and herbs. It drinks nicely alone, but it shines with foods like braised beef, roast leg of lamb, or…
You say tomato, I say tomahto
“Did you know that black tomatoes have the highest amount of lycopene?” asked Ralph Johnson of Johnson Farm, a farmer for more than 25 years, who grows some of the finest lettuce and heirloom tomatoes I’ve had on the Central Coast. “Lycopene is a great source for antioxidants in darker brown and purple-colored tomatoes, and…
Theeeeyyy’re baaaack!
You know the signs: Poly freshmen wandering around downtown with a glazed look in their eyes, elementary kids carrying backpacks bigger than they are: School’s back in session. Between new classes, navigating campus, and settling into college life, students have a lot on their plate. Here’s a list of websites that should help streamline a…
American workers deserve respect
“The middle class would not exist without organized labor,” Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed, more than once, during his recent speech at the AFL-CIO 25th annual Labor Day picnic. He is entirely right. With our nation’s unemployment stuck at more than nine percent, with millions of Americans futilely looking for good jobs, the need for…
Stop acting like a Republican, Mr. President
If you are sick you cannot work! Isn’t that what we all felt when we supported the EPA? Refusing to update the smog standards will more than likely cost thousand of lives. The protection of our environment is actually good for our economy. Updated standards would reduce health-care costs and compel companies to invest in…
Put a moratorium on beach and dunes driving
We residents of Oceano and Nipomo attended the public hearing the Air Pollution Control District (APCD) and State Parks held about the particulate matter (PM10) emission from Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (ODSVRA). We clearly heard the State Parks’ expert announce that the PM10 emission from the area on which driving is allowed is…
It’s not that hard to hire someone new
The San Luis Obispo City Council has been reporting on how financially strapped this city is, and yet they are again hiring an expensive consultant to “search” for a police chief. It shows that, while so many families are having to deal with financial setbacks, this city still isn’t changing the way it does business…
Want to save the country? Listen and fix housing!
Regarding your Sept. 8 commentary, “Flee the temples of consumerism”: Not buying stuff from China is not going to save Americans from poverty or provide more jobs. It is a novel idea, and many believe it is an answer. But nature has it that no matter where you go, people want more. If you look…
We’re in a bad state if we need such protection
I still don’t think Mr. Tanner gets the point (“You’re still doing it,” Sept. 8). HR 2584 was stopped before it became law. However, a bill attached to the budget passed last August allowed Congress to take the North American Grey Wolf off of the endangered species list. According to the Sierra Club, this was…
You named names!
Shredder, I’m impressed with your latest blab concerning De Vaul’s harassment team (“Sweet Dreams,” Sept. 8). This is almost like the days of old when your column was informative and pointed. Naming names and filling in where and what each of the principals did to force this kind of ending is truly the kind of…
SLO Council, don’t forget we have to live here
I just wanted to share with you the great comfort I take in knowing that even in the deepest of recessions and darkest of depressions, our local and state government can still take the time to legislate the details of our lives. What with imminent state bankruptcy looming over our heads, at least if Senate…
If you could ride any animal, what would it be?
Aubrey Staats accountant “A giraffe, because it is so tall and they run pretty good. It would be like a massive horse.” Robert Heineretter student “Dolphin, because I like the water and the ocean and how flowy it would be.” Rose Fortune student “A polar bear. When I was little, I read His Dark Materials…
Red, white, and boo
The lead article in the Sept. 8 paper (“Pencils ready, citizens) is trite, considering illegal people receive the same benefits of taxpaying Americans.
Joe Yukich
NEW TIMES How’d you decide to add the comedy aspect to a small sushi joint? YUKICH There’s not a whole lot of options for entertainment in Morro Bay. If I had to listen to one more night of bad karaoke, I was going to shoot myself in the face. NEW TIMES How do you…
County Animal Shelter’s really full
It looks like it’s a bad month to be a dog or cat in the San Luis Obispo Animal Shelter. The shelter is crammed full of dogs (more than 70) and cats (230), two or three to a cage. Unless there’s a sudden and unexpected upswing of adoptions, many of these animals will likely be…
Cougars and Mustangs
It’s health care, health care, health care these days. That headline over there? Health care. Tonight’s newscast? Health care. The cough that won’t quite go away? Yeah, it’s health-care related. And most health-care discussions these days come with furrowed brows, partisan political rhetoric, or both, creating rhetorical furrowed partisan political brows. While health care may…
Unions fight Morro Bay contract terms
Approximately 30 members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 620 packed the Morro Bay Veterans Memorial Building on Sept. 13 to protest the City Council plan to adopt a new labor contract. The imposed contract contains an unprecedented alteration to retirement benefits and employees’ contributions, which will make it harder for 45 of…
Two-wheeled mallet-swinging madness
Lazy Sunday afternoons are nice, but they’re nothing to write home about. Better stories start with action, adventure, and bike polo, which is why Santa Margarita resident Dustin Cocco organized a weekly get together where people can beat boring to death with wooden mallets. “Scoring a goal is the best feeling in the world,” Cocco…
The age of ‘reason’
In 1925, the landmark Scopes “Monkey” trial turned a small Tennessee hamlet upside down in a battle between the theories of creation and evolution. Not wholly unlike that highly publicized trial, which would alter the court of public opinion over evolution, a recent trial concluded in San Luis Obispo Superior Court. It had all the…
International plan of mystery
Perhaps the most controversial thing about Cal Poly’s international business concentration is that it’s not that controversial. It isn’t the most popular choice among the school’s business majors, nor is it the least. It’s neither costly nor problematic nor a blight on an otherwise pristine college of business. In fact, the international business program is…
Court employees take furloughs
As the San Luis Obispo Superior Court is feeling the shock of a more than $1 million shortfall in its 2011-12 budget, the largest union representing court employees has voted to accept furloughs to stave off layoffs. According to Mike Woods, representative for the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Local 620, which represents more than…
County seeks seismic expert
San Luis Obispo County wants to keep an eye on Pacific Gas and Electric’s seismic studies of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Six months after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami led to a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, SLO County supervisors voted unanimously to find a seismic expert who can represent…
Correction and clarification
• The location of a “big new box store” was misstated in the Sept. 8 commentary, “Flee the temples of consumerism.” The store is in San Luis Obispo. • The Sept. 8 story “Harford Pier repairs begin” needs clarification: The Olde Port Inn restaurant will be open for dinner during repair construction on the Harford…
What we did on our summer vacation
Post Labor Day, New Times staffers have been reflecting on the eventful season we’ve enjoyed. The biggest news was that we won a gaggle of awards in our circulation division. Flock of awards? Passel? Skulk? Murder? Shiver? From the Association of Alternative News Weeklies came second place honors to Steve E. Miller for photography and…
And the winner is …
In the 11th hour, San Luis Obispo County sealed the deal to sell 415 tax-defaulted properties in the California Valley. On Sept. 13, SunPower subsidiary High Plains Ranch, LLC, delivered a bid of $1.9 million and a $190,000 down payment for a package of 1,052 acres in the isolated area on the eastern border of…
A new music Mecca
A once unattainable dream has become a reality in Paso Robles wine country thanks to an approval from the Paso Robles Planning Commission and City Council, which greenlit a 3,300-seat outdoor amphitheater at Vina Robles Hospitality Center on Mill Road. The upscale venue, scheduled to break ground in spring of 2012 and open in May…
Supes split again
It should have been an easy vote. But it wasn’t. One week after achieving a compromise on how to redistribute San Luis Obispo County supervisorial districts, county supervisors are back to a split vote. On Sept. 13, supervisors Jim Patterson, Bruce Gibson, and Adam Hill took a vote to move forward a plan that would…
Spiked!
Scientists have this term for things that happen repeatedly. They call it a “pattern.” For example, if you spent months elaborately constructing a sandcastle replica of the Eiffel Tower and someone kicked it over just as you were shaping the gawky tourists, you’d be angry. Then let’s say it happened again with your Taj Mahal…
