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Gems on The Boulevard Series: Coffee and Tea Collective

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By Omar Passons / eat.drink.give.go

I’ve been frequenting places along El Cajon Boulevard for a few years now and been on my own personal crusade to help clean it up.  So I was thrilled a few months back when a new coffee spot opened up near 30th and ECB.  Let’s talk about the good folks at Coffee and Tea Collective.

So, the North Park Community Association–a group most known for organizing and raising money for the Bird Park Summer Concerts–has over the last several years made improving all of our community an important goal.  What I’ve found interesting and cool is that the most important improvements to the stretch of El Cajon Boulevard in North Park over the past five years have been the opening of honest, energetic small businesses.  One of the most recent additions is a group who take creating a great cup of coffee as seriously as, well, I dunno, serious other things.  Point is, it’s a cool spot.   [Read more…]

My Bloody Valentine

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It’s the Monday before Valentine’s Day and merchants across America are happily preparing for our annual romance-driven consumer frenzy.  Indeed this schmaltzy commodification of love is worth around $14.7 billion dollars a year with much of it ending in the predictable disappointment that comes when we realize that our frantic, frequently anxious lives just don’t measure up to the prepackaged saccharine dreams we are sold.

Valentine’s Day is the sanctification of an empty, soul-killing romance narrative, a celebration of the notion that the most precious and intangible human emotion can be summoned by the magic of the sexless dollar.  In sum, as currently constituted, Valentine’s Day is where real love goes to die.

The roots of what we think of when we think about buying something to signify love are as American as apple pie, and we might trace the origins of the total commercialization of romance to 1913 when Hallmark began to mass market Valentine’s Day cards as we know them.  This commercial landmark was preceded by the work of Esther Howland who, in 1850, first started to produce and sell Valentines, starting the move away from exchanging personally crafted cards or even poems to trading commodities made by someone else.   [Read more…]

Homelessness: NIMBYism

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NIMBY is the abbreviation of the phrase, “Not In My BackYard.” It is a term used to describe the negative emotional reaction that some of us experience when we fear that other people, who belong in a group other than the group to which we align ourselves, may live near or among us.

NIMBYism is the term used as a noun as in the sentence, “Group homes for people with severe mental challenges are not welcome in this neighborhood because of the NIMBYism of its residents.”

The focus of NIMBYism can be any race, economic class or any basis upon which similarly situated people can be distinguished from other groups.

The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that the first known use of this term was in 1980. However, the negative emotional response to people unlike ourselves living in our neighborhoods developed long before its use in everyday parlance.   [Read more…]

Protest the Keystone Pipeline at Mission Bay – Sunday, February 17th

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San Diego Joins National Protest Against Keystone XL

A number of prominent environmental organizations and groups have come together to organize a San Diego protest against the Keystone Pipeline and to fight against climate change – joining groups nation-wide for a day of action.

Groups such as SanDiego350.org, Citizens Climate Lobby, Sierra Club San Diego, Environmental Health Coalition, Women Occupy San Diego, and many other organizations are planning a rally on Sunday, Feb. 17th, at the Mission Bay Park Visitors’ Center, in east Mission Bay, near the I-5 freeway. Protesters are being asked to wear all-black.

Protests are also happening in Los Angeles , San Francisco and other cities across the country.

The pipeline is designed to carry dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S.

San Diego speakers include:

The Weight of Affluence

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By Leo Lobbestael

I never really came from money, so to speak.
I mean we always had enough to finance whatever was needed.

And needs back when I was younger was a pretty flexible intangible. 6 through 15: candy, sports equipment, and anything “cool” was equal to breathing, thinking and freedom of speech.

From 16 – 19 it was primarily cars and girls. Anything that increased my access to both of those was milk from natures breasts.   [Read more…]

Calif. Shooter Christopher Dorner: ‘I am a Man Who Has Lost Complete Faith in the System’

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By Steven Hsieh / Alternet

Editor’s note: The republishing of this article is not intended to condone murder for any reason. Rather, it is to turn attention away from the modern-day manhunt glorified by mainstream media, in which sightings of Dorner have occurred simultaneously in multiple areas, and instead highlight the deeper societal issues at hand.

Today, Los Angeles police continued the manhunt for a former police officer that allegedly killed three people in a rampage targeting LAPD police and their families. In pursuit of the alleged gunman LAPD officers shot two women they mistakenly believed were driving Dorner’s car.

Christopher Dorner who was fired from the police department in 2008, posted a 6,000-word memo to Facebook before his alleged killing spree began Thursday. The manifesto explained how his experiences with the LAPD, which he said included years of unchecked corruption and racism from his colleagues and superiors, were his motivation for the violence. Dorner claims he lost his badge in 2008 for trying to expose corruption in the department.

The corporate media’s account of the story, however, nearly entirely ignores the former officer’s lengthy explanation, perhaps in efforts to cast Dorner as yet another lunatic in an era of mass (and mostly unexplained) shootings.   [Read more…]

BFF Means “Best Friends Forever,” Even in the Face of Alzheimer’s

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by Marian Karpisek with Mnimaka Brockett, Mahtowin Howe, Nere Lartitegui, Maruca Leach and Jean Stein

Our bright, creative and loving friend, Sunny, began slipping away from us several years ago. At first we weren’t aware of the reality, thinking “of course every one forgets words or thoughts from time to time.” But as the months went by and Sunny’s thought processes continued to decline, it became evident that what was occurring wasn’t a momentary glitch, but something much more serious.

The diagnosis of Early Onset Alzheimer’s did not come as a shock, but sad confirmation of our observations and fears. Now the question became, what can we do to make Sunny’s life as good as possible? Of course her family is her first line of support, but friends fill an important role that family alone cannot. Thus, the “Sunny Support Group” (SSG) was born, connecting six women who all loved Sunny, but did not necessarily know each other well.

Our goals are to ensure that Sunny continues to be surrounded by friends and to keep her connected to the outside world for as long as possible. Through these goals, we can give Sunny more moments of happiness and joy as we continue our friendship with her.   [Read more…]

A New “When Sunny Gets Blue”

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I like days like today, days when you find yourself in a nice groove, where your every move is smooth, where you walk whistling with a cup of coffee from the Deli to your home and turn the radio on and sounds come out to where you are and take the already mellow mood you’re in to another place, another dimension.

I mean Jazz 88.3 was pouring out some lyrics in my living room that stopped me in my tracks: “When Sunny gets blue, she breathes a sigh of sadness” and it was sounding so good I couldn’t feel anything but gladness. One of my all time favorite songs; I’ve heard it most of my life by some of the greats. Johnny Mathis did it sweetly with strings. Sarah did it sassy the way she did everything. Anita O’Day swung it in her inimitable sultry way. Barbra did it. Nat did it. Mel Torme.

It was Steph Johnson hanging out with Claudia Russell on the Jazz Ride Home – and, oh, she sang the hell out of that song.   [Read more…]

An Expensive Lesson

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Those of you that have read my articles over the past year or so know that I am devoted to my 11 year old – soon to be 12 – Golden Retriever, named Buddy. He was definitely my deceased husband’s dog and I feel like he is the last remaining link between Bob and I. Yes, I have three daughters, but they are the product of my first marriage and Bob and I had no children between us.

When Buddy was a pup, I told Bob that we should have named him “Shadow” because he followed him everywhere. But our previous dog – another Golden – was named “Pal” and Bob wanted something close to that name. Hence “Buddy”.

Unless you are a dog lover you will not understand what I am about to say, but if you are a lover this will make perfect sense to you. When Bob died, almost 3 ½ years ago, Buddy mourned as much as I did. His “security blanket” has always been the swimming pool, maybe because he and Bob spent many hours swimming together. He would go and sit on the steps, maybe swim a lap or two, for hours on end. It was as if he was waiting for Bob to come out of the house and jump into the pool. Day after day that dog would wait for his master to come home. The house smelled like a locker room, because a hairy wet dog does not smell good – to anyone except maybe another dog.   [Read more…]

San Diego For Free: Padres FanFest – This Saturday, February 9th

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A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Location: Petco Park – 100 Park Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92101 (Downtown)

Free Hours: Saturday, February 9th from 10 AM – 4 PM

Best For: Baseball fans, the perenially optimistic, those with an affinity for brown and/or retro clothing, families

Website

The San Diego Padres had an eventful off-season and are gearing up for spring training and the home opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, April 9th.   [Read more…]

Atheists Take a Stand in East County

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Atheist Groups Sponsor Billboard in Lemon Grove

Right alongside 94 East is a new bill board in Lemon Grove. It’s quite a shocker if all you’ve ever seen are commercial ads, for this one is about religion – in a way.

It states very clearly:

Atheism – A personal relationship with reality.

The new billboard is sponsored by a coalition of groups that adhere to atheism and it went up at the end of January. The billboard is east and near the Federal Blvd freeway exit off 94. The groups include The San Diego Coalition of Reason and American Atheists, who spent $4,000 on the billboard – which did not appear lit up at night.   [Read more…]

Graffiti and Shattered Glass on 45th Street: Unknown Causes, Unclear Remedies

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A few days ago I was sipping my morning coffee and heard loud voices in front of our little house on 45th Street in City Heights. I walked outside to find two neighbors gathered around the broken windshield of a car parked there. Their voices were strained and angry. Then they would go quiet for a few shocked moments before resuming the conversation.

This is the third time that the windshield of this particular car has been smashed. James poked around in the plants outside my fence and found a large triangular rock that fit the bill for the weapon used to smash the windshield. I learned that this particular car has also been hit in the past with graffiti and its tank filled with sugar.

The conversation changed to one of speculation about motives. Was there something about the owner of the car that engendered these acts of vandalism? This is City Heights, so the first question is whether the vandalism was gang motivated, right?   [Read more…]

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