Monday, January 30, 2017

Things To Do In San Diego: Monday, January 30-Thursday, February 3, 2017


I have to say, it has been a very challenging week. It's emotionally confusing, too, because the executive branch is systematically destroying everything with the full complicity of the legislative branch and it's just horrifying, but then we have to live our lives and it was actually a pretty great week. Darren and I did a nice rainy day hike at Mission Trails, I went to the Minor Threat night at the Office, on Thursday we drove out to Laguna and the snow was amazing and probably unlike I'll ever see again in this county for years, and Saturday Nova had her first derby exhibition and she killed it, scoring 29 points in her two turns as jammer and getting her team's MVP award, and then Darren and I got to see Hamilton Leithauser on Saturday night. So it was a lovely week on the homefront, horrifying on the national one. It's a new month this week, so Black Cat, El Dorado, Sycamore Den, and Tio Leo's haven't yet updated. Monday through Thursday archives are after the jump.


Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Oppose the Demolition of the California Theatre!

It's no secret that I have a strong distaste for many in our local government of late. The same guys who think a tax-funded parking garage belongs in Balboa Park, the same people who basically offered Spanos a $1 lease for life on land most recently valuated at $180 million, and the same people who continually hire Ortiz to fix our roads and sewers (only for their streets to crack, sink, leak or otherwise fail, like clockwork, 2-3 years post construction). Needless to say, I don't have much faith in them doing right by the people and resources of this City. Maybe the Historic Resources Board will be our last hope, against City staff recommendations. This could be the last chance to stop the demolition of the California Theatre and the Caliente mural in one fell swoop.


More eloquent words from my friend, Jaye McCaskill, President of SOHO:

Please do whatever you can to support the preservation of San Diego's California Theater -- the city's only remaining grand theatre of the 1920s that has yet to be restored and brought back to life. Out-of-town millionaire developers are claiming "financial hardship" as their reason to demolish the theater, and are instead proposing to build a phony-baloney quasi-reconstruction of only some of the historic architectural elements (which we know from multiple past experiences is all talk and never comes close to looking like the original). To add insult to insult, once again the fix seems to be in at the City, with Historic Resources Staff supporting this horribly flawed development project. If you can make it to the Historic Resources Board hearing on Thursday morning, please let the members of the HRB board know that you expect them to adhere to higher ethical standards than City staff and to do whatever they can to protect this severely endangered historic resource. If you can't attend the meeting, there are other things you can still do. Please read below and SHARE, SHARE, SHARE! (And also please note that the venue for the HRB meeting is not the usual place or at the usual time.)

You can read the full text of SOHO's e-mail here.

Most importantly, plan to attend the HRB meeting at 9:30am on Thursday, January 26, in the North Terrace Rooms, City Councourse, 202 C Street.

Please act now by contacting the HRB and other officials to oppose this unlawful demolition of a grand San Diego landmark. We also need you to attend this crucial HRB meeting. Your emails and your presence at the meeting matter! At the meeting, you also can either speak or cede time to SOHO.

Take Action Now. Write:

  • Historical Resources Board (historicalresources@sandiego.gov)

  • HRB Secretary Shannon Anthony (SAnthony@sandiego.gov)

  • Mayor Faulconer (kevinfaulconer@sandiego.gov)

  • and your City Council member HERE.

    Monday, January 23, 2017

    Things To Do In San Diego: Monday, January 23-Sunday, January 29, 2016

    I confess that I didn't drag my camera out much at all this past week, so this one is from the week before when we went in search of the Rancho Penasquitos waterfall. This was a very low key (somber) week, so besides working the Daniela Andrade show on Thursday (and an encounter with an asshole Vice cop) and the SoundDiego live show on Friday, I was very much a homebody this week. I didn't watch a single second of the inauguration, and while I was proud to see so many amazing people marching on Saturday, my late Friday left me zonked out for Saturday. It's a very southern California thing to freak out and stay in because of the weather, but seeing the streets of Talmadge and City Heights flood out the way they were on Friday, if I don't have to leave the house, sometimes I just won't. Maybe I'll pick up this week. Monday through Sunday archives are after the jump.



    Monday, January 16, 2017

    Things To Do In San Diego: Monday, January 16-Sunday, January 22, 2017


    I spent the past week kind of miserable. I mean, besides the overwhelming depression of the upcoming inauguration, I was fighting sickness--that thing where you feel like you're getting sick but you load up heavily on vitamins and fluids and sleep and mostly never get fully sick-- and I also tweaked my back last weekend, so I'm walking like I'm twice my age and suffering from hyperkyphosis. Still, it was a pretty awesome week when I did get out of the house. On Tuesday, we went to the Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve and hiked to the waterfall which I'd never seen before. I mostly laid low the rest of the week, but on Saturday we were up early to do the San Diego River Foundation annual estuary cleanup, then we had a late lunch at Ponce's and zipped up to the Safari Park, then left all the kids at my mom's so we could see Tig Notaro at the Observatory. January continues to be a slow (and depressing) month, but get out and see some shows if ya can, or hit up some of our cool locally owned spots for San Diego Restaurant Week. Monday through Sunday archives are after the jump.


    Wednesday, January 11, 2017

    Newsy Bits: 91X Radio Shakeup & Goodbye Chargers?


    I'm stunned to read the news that Michael Halloran, program director and afternoon host at 91X, has been let go. I mean, I guess we're all used to the radio shuffle here in SD, every year seems to see some big shakeup and as SoundDiego mentions, we should expect to see more when 94/9 begins their Padres broadcasts, but it doesn't mean we ever get used to it...not as listeners of the stations, not as friends of the jocks and programming directors and music directors, and even as a veteran of advertising where this kind of thing seemed to happen all the time. When I was let go from The Observatory, Hal was one of the only people to call me to check on me and I only hope he's staying in San Diego because he's an essential part of our music culture. I suspect, based on this inquiry about Garett Michaels "logging off" of KFM-BFM on Friday (and disappearing from their website), we might conclude he'll be installed as PD of 91X or oversee programming for multiple stations. But I guess we'll know when we know.

    Here's the full article on SoundDiego

    Bye-Bye Chargers?
    In meantime, there's another article circulating social media, and that is this ESPN story that the Chargers are, in fact, leaving San Diego with an announcement to come tomorrow. While I would love for this to be true, as I commented on Facebook, I would love to do a FOIA request on all of Kevin Faulconer's e-mail tonight. And Sherman, and Zapf, and all of the City Council for that matter. This has been going on for years, of course, even before the renovations and upgrades that got us the blackout ticket purchase deal. I hoped that with November's resounding votes against Prop C & D, that this issue would be dead and gone. But I'll believe it when I see it. Meaning even if an announcement is to come tomorrow, I won't believe it. Not until the Chargers kick-off on someone else's, not paid for by San Diegans, field.

    Let's think about this. This is the same team that "essentially pays no rent". This is the team only willing to contribute $350 million to a new San Diego stadium, even though leaving will cost them a $650 million relocation fee. And if they decide on moving, they still have to find a place to play until that L.A. stadium is finished in 2019. You really think they're playing in Carson Inglewood with half the seats as the Q for two years?? And on a really superficial level, you think they want two blue & gold teams in the same stadium? Give me a freaking break. I'm just not buying it.

    But I hope it's true. We've wasted enough City and County resources and money on this billionaire family. Time to move on.

    Monday, January 09, 2017

    Things To Do In San Diego: Monday, January 9-Sunday, January 15, 2017

    I usually take this moment to talk about my real life. Tonight, I'm just trying to sleep, trying to not be a part of all of this. I'll get to it eventually, but for now, good night. Archives for Monday through Sunday are after the jump.



    Monday, January 02, 2017

    Things To Do In San Diego: Monday, January 2-Sunday, January 8, 2016

    Hello, 2017! So where did we leave off? On Friday, Darren and I walked in the rain for dinner at Dao Fu, a quick drink at Sycamore Den, and to catch Josh Damigo's birthday show at Lestat's. Our New Year's Eve involved a couple hours at the Lafayette masquerade party (and an amazing set by Oh, Spirit!) before heading to the Ken Club to karaoke the way into the New Year. Mostly we've been working on this massive undertaking. We bought a t-shirt quilt, so we've basically been going through years of concert shirts that have outlived their wearability and will be putting together 88 shirts to send. It's been a lot harder whiddling down our collections than we thought. Anyway, this week Nova returns, work should remain relatively quiet, and hopefully we'll find a good little roadtrip or something before the week is over. Sites haven't all been updated, so we're missing some listings from Black Cat, El Dorado, Sycamore Den, and Whistle Stop. Monday through Sunday archives are after the jump.