A tour through noir writer Jim Thompson’s San Diego

It’s a tale of crime fiction, despair and the bottle

But Chandler isn’t the only legendary crime writer to have lived and written in San Diego. The other is Jim Thompson. Maybe you’ve never heard of him.

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Tuesday, January 15,2013
Retro Issue

Goodbye, Whaling Bar

La Jolla watering hole is gone, but three other mainstays persist in dodging time’s harpoon

By D.A. Kolodenko

One weekend last fall, I took the woman for whom I'd fallen to visit two of my favorite places in San Diego, Kitchen Creek and The Whaling Bar: wilderness and civilization.

Tuesday, November 20,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

Hello, new life

I’m ending this column so I can focus on helping orphans in Mexico

By D.A. Kolodenko

When she was 11, Marzena’s 35-year-old father died of cancer. Four years later, her mother, at age 37, also died of cancer. Relatives decided that 15-year-old Marzena would leave Poland to live with her father’s sister in the United States.

Monday, October 22,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

Atop Palomar Mountain

San Diego’s spiritual mecca needs our help

By D.A. Kolodenko

Life is fleeting. It’s good. It’s bad. Then we vanish. It’s pointless one minute and precious the next. Who knows what it’s for?

Monday, September 17,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

There are no speakeasies in San Diego

Noble Experiment and Prohibition are more like great saloons

By D.A. Kolodenko

Imagine you’re inside a bar in San Diego. Let’s say it’s in the attic of a shoe-repair shop in a part of town where you don’t want to walk around at night. You can get the password only by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to a post-office box.

Wednesday, August 22,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

Soul sores

10 disgraces of San Diego spaces

By D.A. Kolodenko

There may be more pressing misuses of our public and private spaces, like lack of adequate homeless shelters, but these are my 10 pet peeves of the last 10 years. The dominant theme: carelessness.

Wednesday, July 18,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

Friday the 13th was just another day

Get over it already!

By D.A. Kolodenko

Last Friday was Friday the 13th! So what? You don’t actually believe that bullshit, do you? Apparently, you do. Or at least a lot of you do.

Wednesday, June 20,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

Why I prefer bars without televisions

Starlite Lounge and Jaynes Gastropub are two local spots that understand

By D.A. Kolodenko

I like endearing aspects of our culture that are fading away, and a main one is a bar without a television.

Wednesday, May 23,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

Remembering the Great Blackout of 2011

What were you doing when we all went off the grid?

By D.A. Kolodenko

Earlier this month, the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) ended its eight-month review of the massive power outage across San Diego, Imperial County, Yuma and Baja California on Sept. 8, 201

Wednesday, April 18,2012
Inside a Whale's Vagina

Welcome to San Diego, where hate happens

Remembering the day I got beaten up in La Jolla

By D.A. Kolodenko

The patrol car arrived and two officers stepped out and took a look at us teenage musicians with our weird clothes and knew all they needed to know.