One of the best things about early summer in San Diego has been the San Diego International Fringe Festival. Music acts, theatrical groups, stand-up comics, and performance artists from all over the world gather here—and in more than 200 cities worldwide—for this celebration of all things fringe-y. The pandemic put the kibosh on the Fringe, […]
Back when she was a young girl on the brink of a bright road to musical success, Mary Chapin Carpenter was in a car with friends going down a dark road at one in the morning. It seemed her entire life was ahead of her. She leaned her head back, closed her eyes and “Wild […]
“To change the world, you’ve got to be really depressed,” singer-songwriter Judy Henske once told me. “You have to have an attitude that things are really bad, and we have to change them. But I kept cheering up all the time.” When Henske was a rising folk music icon in the early 1960s, folkies were […]
DATELINE: Balboa Theatre, San Diego—I’m waiting in the lobby, looking for the person who’ll take me backstage to interview emerging blues artist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram before his show here in May 2022. While I wait, I decide to sample early the new brand of edibles I brought for tonight’s concert. As is the case […]
Blues Lovers United of San Diego announces the return of the Blues Music Summer Camp, which is scheduled for August 8-12. It’s been three years since the last one. That’s three years of listening to the teenager down the street grind out the opening chords of “Smoke on the Water.” Do yourself and the neighborhood […]
Travel through Ramona and you’re bound to hear a few things: red-tailed hawks calling out across pastures, the clip-clop of horseshoes on pavement, and the hum of cars as locals go about their daily errands. But turn your head in the right direction, and you may hear a few bars of music drift through the […]
A plot of land that has been vacant for many years in Julian will soon be transformed into a new, vibrant town square, and a celebratory ‘soft opening’ is planned for June to introduce the idea to the community. The lot, at the corner of Washington and Main streets, had in the past been home […]
The lights go down at Seattle’s White River Amphitheater, and the spotlights illuminate Taylor Swift and her band entering the stage. Swift waves, and the amphitheater roars with cheers. Or it might be Bruno Mars and Silk Sonic thrilling thousands as they make their great dance moves in Detroit’s Ford Field. Or it might be […]
Claudia Russell cuddles a skittish sand-colored Chihuahua in her poncho as we eat breakfast on an outdoor patio at a local bistro. The local goddess of all things jazz, her long hair swept by a slight breeze, pauses mid-bite to tell me this: “curator: that’s the best compliment anyone could ever give me.” This in […]
