Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, October 26-Wednesday, November 1, 2023: Halloween | Dia De Los Muertos | Interpol | Good Morning | OFF! | Geese | Men I Trust | Say She She |

I am aware that I am no fun. The only thing I like about Halloween is that it means we're getting closer to Christmas. Darren is pretty excited about the costume he's been planning all year, but I think with a Santa Ana expected on the day itself, he might have to retool his costume which involves a very heavy knit sweater. 

I do enjoy participating in Dia de los Muertos events, and with so much loss this year, it will definitely be more resonant, but we've never been traditional and had an ofrenda, so I'll just have to keep it in my head and my heart or visit others. I know people love this time of year, however, so I tried to gather as many events as I could for everyone to pick from. 

There are a ton of great shows -- with or without the Halloween element -- so it should be easy to find some fun this weekend. This is the first Interpol tour I've missed in a long time, but I know they're always incredible live. I'll be working tonight and tomorrow for comedian Leanne Morgan and I really enjoyed her Netflix special -- I'm right in her demo--, so those shows should be pretty fun (though they're already both sold out). Beyond that, it's the final weekend of HalGLOWeen at the San Diego Zoo and the Autumn Festival at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, so I will do my best to take advantage before hours cut drastically in November.  The usual suspects will have their big things to do this weekend -- kpbs, San Diego Magazine, and Pacific (subscription required) -- in case I missed anything. 

Stay safe out there. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, October 19-Wednesday, October 25, 2023: Memorial For O | Claud | Abraham Alexander | The Cult | Willi Carlisle | The Breeders | Ritt Momney | Atta Boy | Christopher Cross | Interpol |

I think I might have to reassess when I'm publishing listings. I've been starting them on Tuesday nights and then finishing on Wednesday night, but since Darren's only day off during the week is on Wednesday, it's kinda sucks to be up late working on Tuesdays if he wants to hang out or plan something for Wednesday. So it ends up that I'm here on my couch at 3:45am watching some snob New Yorkers freak out about preschool applications on RHONY2 as I work, and I dread that I won't be able to fall asleep the second I close this laptop. My actual work has been kind of insane this week so I felt tethered to my phone and laptop all day, even if I am sitting at the zoo while doing it. So I shall sleep and hopefully get a little break in the day, and then Darren, the kid, and I are going to see Claud at The Loft which should be fun since I haven't been there in a few years. I'll also be working at Ritt Momney on Saturday, and The Sound on Sunday. 

There are a ton of really great events coming up this week, and I'm sure I missed a ton of stuff, but the most important thing you should know is that there is a memorial for O on Sunday at the Sound. The "tickets" are free, though there is paid reserved seating, and I'm aware that there will be a couple bands and plenty of tributes and a lot of stories being told about such an amazing dude, and the loss we all still feel since he's been gone. If anyone reading this would like to volunteer for the event in hospitality or ushering or a few other things, I know they could definitely use the help to keep it all seamless. Reach out to me and I can connect you with the proper people. 

Stay safe out there. 

| COVID-19 | San Diego County District 4 Supervisor Election In Effect | Governor Newsom Signs/Vetoes A Boatload of Bills | Baby Tigers Debut At San Diego Zoo Safari Park |

Mama Diana and one of her tiger cubs at San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Taken 10.15.23)

I guess I haven't been writing much, so apologies for that made me go overboard with a super long header in the last listings. I'm gonna start working on this week's listings while I watch the Real Housewives of New York, since I didn't really know they've pretty much aired the whole season with the new cast. I guess I traded in Housewives for zoo animals, which are way better, but I can't have that all the time. Since the last one was long, this one will be short. I've been doing the usual, though I worked at Quartyard for Cheekface last week and I really dug their lyrical style, and Sunday I spent 12 hours at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, because I went up early with Darren and we ended up staying to do a cart safari and then spent nearly an hour with the platypus, whose enclosure lights turn on at 6pm. A pretty magical day. The highlight, of course, was seeing the Sumatran Tiger Cubs, who made their public debut over the weekend. A friend and I were tipped off that they'd be out around 10am, so we did Darren's early tram then staked our spots and had a sweet time just watching them play.  

Note, I had a lot of problems trying to upload photos, so I was finally able to do it from my phone, but I'll add more if/when the issue with Blogger resolves. 

Stay safe out there. Lots of kids hacking at the zoo makes me think a COVID surge is coming with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve right around the corner. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, October 12-Wednesday, October 18, 2023: Bandalos Chinos | Richard Marx & John Waite | JMSN | Field Medic | Nickel Creek | Matt & Kim | Pkew Pkew Pkew | Jalen Ngonda | Angel Olsen |

I am beat. It's been a busy week of family stuff and birthdays and work and entertaining and I know the life of this laptop is coming to an end, so that's a whole other headache I need to deal with and start planning for because it's not gonna survive my daily zoo trips much longer. 

I always fit my zoo time in, but I also went to the El Cajon Oktoberfest at the German American Societies Club over the weekend with my family then got dragged to my niece's soccer. Man, I am glad our kid dropped out of that soccer life. It's so demanding and stressful, I don't know how so many parents do it, especially on competitive and pricey club teams, but that's neither here nor there. 

After my zoo time on Monday, I sold merch for corook at the Casbah, which was a pretty fun show. On Tuesday, my mom had to drop her vehicle in El Cajon to get some work done on it for a few days, so we were all over the county. We went to Miramar to visit my dad's grave. That's not really my thing...I feel my dad with me all the time and I don't need a marker in the ground to remind me of him, but it makes my mom happy so it was worth the drive. Afterward I dragged her to the zoo and she fell in love with my little langur and all the birds and my little Aisha. I took her back to Chula Vista, and then I probably shouldn't have gone shopping but I couldn't resist. I was so tired of driving and what better way to get out of traffic for awhile then to buy new shoes? 

On Wednesday I tried to crank out the listings and get ahead of work before I caught just an hour with the gorilla boys before Darren and I raced to Carlsbad to meet up with his cousin who was visiting from Geneva. I booked a tour at Carlsbad Aquafarm, where they sustainably farm mussels and oysters using the intake water at the desalination plant. It's a really cool cycle and system and the tour was very cool, and culminated with our guide teaching us how to shuck the half dozen oysters we got to eat at the end of the tour. Highly recommend this experience. 

Of course, that means I was on my phone while we hung out at the beach, making sure I was caught up with work stuff, which gave Darren a chance to catch up with his cousin. After that, we drove back south and I popped by for the last hour of zoo, and then spent Wednesday night busting ass to get the listings done. But I did them, even if I'm going to bed way later than I planned. 

My cousin is coming to town this weekend and I am working at Quartyard on Friday and have some other plans, so I don't suspect I'll be updating here much if I missed anything. I hope everyone has a really great week ahead.

Ohhhhh. And kind of a big deal...Casbah is a finalist for the Hometown Venues of Consequence thing and I had to answer all their questions, so check that out and GO VOTE for the Casbah. Like everyday.  

I love you. 

Stay safe out there. 

And RIP to my favorite walrus, Mitik, who passed away over the weekend. What a heartbreaker. 

Spooky Season Events at San Diego County Parks

This only covers COUNTY events, not CITY events, but some of you may find this useful. 
For more information, go here. 

Things To Do In San Diego: Thursday, October 5-Wednesday, October 11, 2023: Oktoberfests | Miniaturized | Lewis Black | Sure Fire Soul Ensemble | Owl City | Clem Snide | 98° | corook | Psychedelic Furs & Squeeze | Orions Belte |

I was working on listings on Tuesday night and then Darren started telling me how he was telling his friends at work about our experience at the LA Zoo and the Abandoned Zoo and for some reason, they all started telling him about the Big Bear Alpine Zoo, and suddenly we were trying to plan a day trip to go there on Wednesday. Spoiler alert - we didn't go. I still worked until 2 in the morning that night, and when my morning alarm went off (yes, I set morning alarms now) I snoozed it and decided there would be no road trip, that I had too much work to do, and that I would sleep in a little bit longer. So Wednesday ended up being a pretty typical work/zoo day for me, but after all my family stuff was done and I got back to doing listings...well, you can see there is SO.MUCH.STUFF happening this weekend. I used to really pride myself on covering everything, but on a weekend like this, I've certainly missed some things and I expect to be so busy that I'm definitely not going to update or put links to everyone else's listings here. So, forgive me. I did my best. And it's 4am and I'm wiped out and I would like to have a day on Thursday, so email or text if I missed anything obvious, but otherwise, enjoy the weekend and all the street fairs and Oktoberfests and live music. We live in a pretty amazing place.

Stay safe out there. 

Newsy Things & Rosey's Diary: Birthday Week | Order Free COVID Tests | West Nile In San Diego | Blue Envelope Program | LN Drops Merch Cuts In Smaller Venues | SD Is Greenest City In America | Your Baby Name Is So Basic |

Lauren Eve Mayberry at the Troubadour, Los Angeles (9.29.23)

I've been doing my best to be out and living life. I have a couple separate posts in the pipeline, but since it was my birthday, I've been online as minimally as possible. Obviously I've been at the zoo pretty much every day, except that Darren and I drove to LA on Thursday night and spent Friday at the Los Angeles Zoo, went to the Abandoned Zoo, hit a great street taco vendor near Silverlake, then went to WeHo for our show on Friday night at The Troubadour with Lauren Eve Mayberry, then drove back home. On Saturday I hit the zoo again before Darren, Toby (fka Nova) and I went to see The Tallest Man On Earth at the Observatory. I was starting to feel pretty rundown, but fought it off with fresh air, cold medicine, and a ton of tea and honey. I did COVID test just in case and was thankfully negative, but I have been back to carrying a mask and using it when it feels necessary. 

Sunday was the first night of HalGLOWeen at the San Diego Zoo, and I was loaded up with hot tea (Zoo hack: take a hot beverage tumbler and teabags and ask for free hot water from the concessions) and got to see some of the animals after dark as well as the amazing mariachis that play every hour at Sabretooth Grill. Now that it's October, I've been busting my ass to stay on top of work so that I can have freer days because Darren has been loading me up with behind-the-scenes Zoo tours. On Tuesday, I did a "surprise tour" which took us in the care specialist areas of the Koalas, Elephants and Giraffes, and on his Wednesday day off, we did Giraffe and Friends, which took us to the Hamadryas Baboons, and then again to Elephants and Giraffes, but which felt a lot longer and gave us a better and longer chance to feed the giraffes. I stayed until near closing, picked up my fam and we went to Chula Vista for my niece's birthday. My brother is also in town briefly, so all the cousins were together and we ate and talked and had cake and so now I find myself, once again, catching up on work after midnight. 

There's obviously a ton of nonsense happening in news and politics right now, but these are older links I collected and I'm honestly so sick of TFG and his whackjob party that while I pay attention to everything going on, I'd rather not platform or amplify any of it here. 

On the other hand, I will say THANK YOU, JOE BIDEN! If you have student loans that were in default, you can apply for FRESH START and it will wipe those negatives from your credit report and start you back into repayment status. In doing so, you also kinda get a free 30-45 days before repayment, even though technically repayment was supposed to start this month. I believe you can apply for FRESH START through the end of 2023. 

And also, they indicted someone for the murder of Tupac! 

Life is bonkers. 

Listings are coming. So are some other posts, but probably not tonight. 

Stay safe out there.