Entertainment/Arts

Appreciating Escondido City Hall public art

As I walked around Escondido on Saturday, I happened upon some beautiful public art near City Hall. My first photos show an installation called Circle of Music. The four sculptures, fitted with speakers that play soft music, are part of the larger Monuments to Time in the Corridor of Life, Art and Culture, a series of interactive pieces created in 1998 that extend from the…


Used books still in style at Cassidy’s

(Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end as Cassidy’s Books closed its doors in July 2020. This story, alas, must serve as an homage to what ws once an incredible experience for those who love books.) Tom McDevitt’ sat behind the large front counter at Cassidy’s Books, in the shadow of Fry’s Electronics at a back-of-the-curve, out-of-the-way strip mall considering North…


From Janis Joplin to Vista biz for Lee Bittner

Times they have a-changed since the countercultural 1960s. So has drummer-turned-Vista-restaurant supply company owner Lee Bittner — to a degree. A former drummer with Janis Joplin’s Big Brother & the Holding Company, Bittner, 54, has toned down his personal act somewhat these days. But he maintains a lot of the core values of that youthful age which he combines with modern-day business acumen and a…


Three-Dot Lounge goes loco, er, local

There was a method to the madness of presenting San Francisco legend Herb Caen’s three-dot lounge history along with its various re-interpretations. That was to set up Escondido Grapevine’s own three-dot lounge approach to local and state news. For more about the concept, visit our story here. For more local three-dot news, keep on trucking below… Time to get smART at the Seventh Annual Escondido Youth…


Welk Resort Theater 2019 season begins

Welk Resorts Theatre today kicked off its 2019 season this week with San Diego theatre royalty starring in “Menopause the Musical.” The 29th season of the famed Welk Theatre, which underwent a lobby remodel in 2018, also features Tony Award-nominated “The Addams Family,” which will run Sept. 6 to Nov. 10, and Larry Raben‘s new “Welkome Home for the Holidays!” running Nov. 22 to Dec….


It’s on for new Palomar $1M presidential suite

Construction of Palomar College President Joi Lin Blake’s $1 million office suite is moving forward after she defended the project on Friday to the school’s committee that oversees bond spending. Committee member Michael Hunsaker asked the group to consider cheaper options for Blake’s office after inewsource reported that the college is spending bond money to remodel its new $67 million library to build a top-floor…


Dr. Bronners goes from soap to Moonlight

Whether it’s Lil Debbie shilling out relationship advice or Sunny D igniting a conversation about depression, contemporary brand Twitter can be a depressing and dark place. Nothing feels more cynical than when a brand appropriates the standardized millennial voice — ironic, detached, dejected — and uses it to hock their emulsified meat products and drinkable corn syrups. There’s no commitment to justice here, there’s just…


That happened. News you may have missed

This week promises a new overload. Michael Cohen testifies for three days before Congress, including a public Wednesday slam-fest. Donald Trump goes on formerly busted heel spurs to Hanoi to hold another fake summit with the evil murderous North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Congress will pass a resolution blocking Trump’s fake national emergency. It goes to the Senate. Former national security advisors from across…


‘Museum of What: Love Tour’ charms

It’s a bit pricy at $24 admission, but definitely different. They’re talking a pop-up 16,000-square-foot exhibition that opened Valentine’s Day at a former patio furniture store in the T.J. Maxx shopping center in Encinitas. Called “Museum of What: Love Tour,” this is a non-traditional pop up museum featuring an array of blissful exhibits that will inspire you to live, laugh, and love, according to founders Ann Delaney and Kyle…


In this CSUSM ‘classroom’ there are no walls

Powerful mural resides in the heart of the library By Christine Vaughan, CSUSM News Center (Used by permission.) Staircases by their very nature are passageways. But one stairwell at Cal State San Marcos is causing passersby to pause. Spanning across two floors in the architectural center stairwell of Kellogg Library is a mural titled “In This Classroom, There Are No Walls.” Painted in subdued yet boldly contrasting earth…