This is the true story...

There are a million different versions of “the real world” and Alephonsion Deng has survived through two very different versions of it. There was the one where he was fighting for his life in Sudan and the other, fighting to understand his new life in San Diego. The change proved to be quite difficult as he was living with death on his mind but as he says in this first person article: “Now I'm a man with the seeds of love, dignity and hope in his heart.”

I actually saw Deng speak at an event at Canes Bar and Grill. He and his two friends were eloquent, funny and good natured. Their book: They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky is out. Pick it up when you get a chance.

"Ladies sea men straight ahead!"

Fleet Week in San Diego begins today (It's actually a month long thing).

Ladies (and/or Gentlemen) claim your sailors.

Part III: Everything Turquoise AGAIN

Bars & Nightlife

Best Beach Bar : The Turquoise (it’s NEAR the beach, sheesh)

Best College Bar : Man, when was the last time I went to a college bar. I guess PB Bar and Grill, there seems to be a lot of college goers there.

Best Dance Club : Actually, I quite like The 5th Quarter, which I think is now called Whiskey Girl? Something like that. They have a good stage to lounge and dance on, yeah, this one time… (well anyway, they also play Bon Jovi sometimes, COME ON! Who could ask for anything more?)

Best Neighborhood Bar: The Turquoise (AKA Café Bar Europa). It single handedly MAKES North PB THE neighborhood to live in.

Best Downtown Bar : Pretty soon there’ll be a Turquoise down there (so I’ve heard). I won’t go there, but still.

Best Gay/Lesbian Bar : I’ve only ever been to The Brass Rail… latin night… loved it…

Best Happy Hour: (Well the hour I had with your Mom last… stop it, just stop it) Man I gotta call my friend Vanessa, she would totally know the answer to this one.

Best North County Bar : And she’d know the answer to this one too.

Best Brewery : And probably this one too

Best Pub : The Blarneystone, Clairemont Shopping Center (next to Vons). Seriously, a pub in a shopping center and it’s actually REALLY fun (especially when they start peer pressuring you to down your drink).

Best Pick-up spot : The West End, tail end of Turquoise Street. Trust me. Ripe, for, the picking…

Best Upscale Bar: The Turquoise… it’s every kind of bar.

Best Wine Bar

Best Sports Bar

Best Cocktails: The Turquoise has this one martini called The Turquoise.. RULES.

Best Dive Bar: The West End (it’s DIVE man… but worth it)

Part II: If I leave it blank it means I don’t want to play favorites with all my favorite classical music groups and all ages venues…

Arts, Music, Movie

Best Live Theater Company

Best Classical Music Group

Best Dance Group

Best Art Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Downtown BECAUSE that’s the first place Lori and I ever saw Transfer play (Thursday Night Thing, GO THERE). But if we’re not considering Transfer in the answering of all questions (and how could we not?!) then I’m going to say the Art Institute of San Diego Museum, there are some talented folks studying round these parts.

Best Non-art Museum : Oh man do I want to write the Museum of your Mom, but I’m going to be serious and go with the Natural History Museum.

Best Museum for Kids Natural History Museum... and I’m not just saying that because it’s really the only Museum I’ve been to that’s not an art museum.

Best Movie Theater It’s definitely the one at Mission Valley Center, and not because it provides for the best movie experience but because seriously most of the times I went there it provided for the best ENTERTAINMENT experience. Take the time I saw a guy bitch slap this teenage kid for kicking the back of his seat and insulting his girlfriend. Plus the kid had been periodically throwing AOL CD’s at the screen and giggling about it. So when he got all bitch slapped by some 40 year old guy the entire theatre started CLAPPING while the teenage kids went whining out of the theatre with their cell phones out. “Yeah, call Daddy for your ride home” someone yelled. That was the ONLY thing that made watching “The Grudge” bearable. So maybe it should be nominated for “Best Movie Theatre to watch a not so great remake of a Japanese Horror Movie.”

Best Film Festival

Best All-Ages Venue

Best Local Club for Live Music : Ima gonna go with The Casbah. Sheesh, no brainer.

Best Large Concert Venue : I like Viejas, but I don’t know if that’s quite “large” enough.

Best Music Store : So I download…

Best Local Band : HOLY CRAP REALLY?! TRANSFER, TRANSFER, TRANSFER…

Part 1: (Yes, there's parts!) Everything Turquoise...

Man that took a while. But as I’m sure you’ve been on the edge of your seat wondering WHEN I was going to tell you my picks for the Union Tribune’s Reader’s Poll: Best of San Diego… here goes.

RESTAURANTS

Best Romantic : The Coronado one my now husband took me to on our first date. It over looks downtown San Diego and makes chocolate lava cake that puts you into such a chocolate fantasy haze you go out and marry the guy four months later. Alright, one Google search and confirmation with my husband later: Peohe’s
Best Italian : Rafaela’s (and we will soon feature Rafaela’s all on its own).
Best Chinese : Panda Country Restaurant on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. (Go North Clairemont!) It got to the point that I’d go in there during lunch and the owner lady would go “orange chicken?” Yeah lady, orange chicken.
Best Mexican : Jesus Christ it’s San Diego, it’s all good Mexican Food. The best is Cotixan’s on Genesee.
Best Seafood :
Best Thai : There’s this one place, it’s on Convoy street. I think it’s called Thai Palace. But you really can’t go wrong heading to Convoy Street for the good Asian eats. Like they have this one spicy Chinese restaurant, which by the way, is SPICY (so warned).
Best Pizza : Pizza Chicago Pacific Beach and not just because we sat out on the deck, drank a gallon of beer and ended up passing out on the beach for two hours after that.
Best Vegetarian Menu : That would be, Spread? Is that the name of it??? Lori and I went there once and if that actually IS the name of it I totally missed an opportunity to make very lewd jokes while at dinner.
Best Steaks: Lori doesn’t eat red meat and the rest of the time I lived in SD I was on a writer’s salary.
Best Brunch Lips, Gospel Brunch… not the food but the all you can drink mimosa’s and hot Drag Queens…
Best Budget Dining : The Café Bar Europa
Best Late-night Dining : The Café Bar Europa
Best Family Dining : at your mom’s house. I’m sorry, the joke was bound to work its way in there at some point and gimme some credit this is TAME by industry standards (the industry of bad your mom jokes that is). Perhaps the family dining at your Mom’s house really is the best… I know your Mom was last night (sorry I did it again, forgive me).
Best Hotel Restaurant : The Marriott in Coronado has a good restaurant buffet that’s outdoors and everything. Great views of downtown San Diego too.
Best Coffee Shop Café 976 on Cass Street. Take dates there, you know the ones that insist on the “I want to have coffee and see if you’re worth a real date” dates, because it’s pretty there and because then you can make them buy you nicely priced good food… so there we’re actually on a REAL DATE any way! (And girls, tip, don’t keep dating that guy. Find the guy that really DATES you… it does happen.)
Best Fine Dining : WRITERS salary
Best Dessert : That could quite possibly be the chocolate lava cake I mentioned before. However, Extraordinary Desserts in Little Italy and Hillcrest, that’s an experience. Though it kind of looks like Ikea sponsored the one downtown… man… is that some good cake.
Best Catering : The last party I had catered was done by Vanessa, she’s excellent. You should hire her for sure (except she’s mine!)
Best French: The French Gourmet, also best croissants, best chocolate croissants, best am and cheese croissants, best shortbread cookies (they also made my wedding cake which was the best). Man I miss San Diego eating.
Best Japanese/Sushi Surprisingly there is a Sushi place in this little shopping center across the street from the original Rubio’s on Mission Bay Drive, however I DO NOT know the name. I typed it in to Google and came up with Sushi Ota. A beautiful Japanese gal (my technical step mother in law) took me there. So it got that stamp of approval. You really can’t judge a book by its cover as it is located right next to a 7-11 and across the street from my old gynecologists office (seriously!). When my husband and I showed up he immediately said something like “what is my Dad thinking?! We can go get something else after this if you want.” But, ya burnt Husband! as the sushi was very good.
Best New Restaurant : I haven’t been back in a year… oh god I’m gonna cry.
Best Buffet : Writer’s Salary so I never had the chance to experience the buffet at the Hotel Del, but I’ve heard rumblings that it’s pretty darn good.
Best Tapas That would be Café Bar Europa or “The Turquoise.” (Look, we used to hang there all the time. The bartenders are hilarious and low key, the chef is friendly and likes to experiment with this choices for the menu, the menu is reasonably priced, the atmosphere is excellent, the live music rocks, and the owner is hilarious. I took first dates there, had birthday parties there (they provided pink balloons!), celebrated holidays (really important ones like Mardi Gras), did my engagement dinner and wedding reception there… I’m not trying to give away the secret to a good time in San Diego (because at one point word of mouth got around and the place got SO popular on Friday and Saturday night, I stopped going for fear of being rubbed down by one of the many sweaty bar guys you usually only find in downtown PB. This bar/ restaurant/ café RULES).
Best Indian That would be Café Bar… okay just kidding. Never really did the Indian food thing.
Best Greek A big fat question mark from yours truly.
Best Breakfast The Mission in Mission Beach. Rosemary Potatoes…

End of part I. Will work on the next segment. Sheesh, Sign on San Diego sure does expect a lot from their readers!

Lived there, lived there, lived there next to this guy who came to worship our Christmas Tree

I'm a big fan of The Reader (who isn't, well I'm sure some people aren't) and I often imagine the people who actually work their being too cool for school San Diegans who make it their job to expose the bitter underbelly of the entertainment capital of the world. I write about "hey here's something fun to do in San Diego" and they write about "hey here's a corrupt city council men and what he's been doing in San Diego."

I am not a hard nosed, ear to the ground journalist (as I would get a little lost on the way to my in your face interviews and end up at some Transfer show) but I do appreciate The Reader's attempt to educate as well as provide pages and pages of ads for cheap boob jobs.

This weeks reader is a littl different, as explained by The Editor:

Editor's note: More than 600 San Diegans submitted stories for the Reader "My Neighborhood" writing contest. Ocean Beach led all communities with over 20 entries. Writers 10 to 87 years old sent pieces from as far north as Fallbrook and as far south as Tijuana and from most every neighborhood in between. A Marine lieutenant in Iraq wrote to us about the La Jolla neighborhood he misses. Over the next four weeks, 41 of the best neighborhood stories will appear in the Reader.

The stories are cute. The cover story recounts the home you can find in North Clairemont (I lived there, I actually liked Clairemont... they were simple times. Then one time our next door neighbor who had no other family came over and saw I put up a Christmas tree and proceeded to worship said Christmas tree, gently caressing it's blue and white lights and humming to himself. Finally he asked if we could take a picture together in front of the tree (not even kidding) and when my at the time boyfriend went to snap it, our neighbor looks down at my chest and says "man you've got some great tits." And that is North Clairemont...).

Come to discover people can make any neighborhood home, and everyone has their love for their community. Check out "Imperial Beach Needs More Girls" on Page 6.... cute (Imperial beach was where my now husband lived when I met him. It does need more girls... perhaps we'll be bringing some girls back here....soon...).

You can find the cover story here.

I've been really trying baby... trying to hold back this feeling for so long...

San Diego Sexual Medicine @ Alvarado Hospital

I want to write something snarky and trite about this, but guess what I actually think it's a good idea.

San Diego Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital provides patient care, education, and research in the field of sexual medicine. Sexual medicine attempts to improve sexual health through the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of conditions or diseases that involve sexual function. Sexual medicine takes into account the individual and the couple through medical, psychological, and social sciences. All people have a right to sexual health. At San Diego Sexual Medicine, sexual health rights of patients and partners are respected and supported.

We live in a world with enough sexual questions and repression and not enough time to explore the vast world of sex and sexual desire. I get it. And at least someone is talking about it. So go Irwin Goldstein for setting up a place where people can get help for their sexual dysfunctions.

I know a couple of ex boyfriends that coulda used you. Ba dum dum...

San Diego Sexual Medicine will open its doors this summer on the Alvarado Hospital Campus in San Diego, California.

It's Friday

*To sleep, perchance to dream*... of San Diego

You can check out the San Diego Music Awards Acoustic Showcase tonight at Clare De Lune.

Head on over to Earth Dance on Saturday from noon- 7:00pm in Balboa Park (save the world one dance step at a time).

Do a little Sunday Brunch at Lips (have a lot of mimosa).

And gear up for the San Diego Music Awards Monday... Go Transfer!

You can stop holding your breath now... there you go... let it all out

It's a girl!

Oh yeah...

this chick needs her “printer fixed.”

But it’s craigslist after all, so warned…