SQUIDFRY: Sand Man…

SAND MAN… As Squid began streaming the June 6 Marina City Council meeting into the lair, Squid had a full bucket of shrimp popcorn at Squid’s side, ready for a long night. The topic of the evening was whether the city would potentially declare the Cemex sand mine a public nuisance, which could be grounds to shut it down.

Cemex, as expected, sent someone to argue on the company’s behalf, and that man was Los Angeles-based attorney Jeffrey Dintzer, who argued it was a quasi-judicial hearing and that the company was not given due process. He also disputed whether the mine is causing erosion, and offered the council a nine-page evaluation of the peer-reviewed scientific reports of the mine by Florida-based coastal scientist Stephen P. Leatherman, who wrote the evaluation on behalf of Cemex. Squid immediately googled Leatherman – who, it turns out, is quite tan – and found his website, drbeach.org.

“My love of sand began as a child,” his website reads. “I had the biggest backyard sand box in Charlotte, North Carolina.”

Squid got Squid’s tentacles on the “Dr. Beach” report, and it only took until the second paragraph before Squid coughed up shrimp popcorn.

“The beaches along the undeveloped shore of southern Monterey Bay… are not being eroded away,” Leatherman’s report reads. “Instead, beaches are migrating landward and maintaining their width.”

Right. That’s called erosion.

SLOW CLAP… Once in awhile Squid gets an itch to leave the lair for an evening. One indulgence is a night out at the Monterey Symphony, where Squid opts for nosebleed seats. So Squid was depressed when the symphony announced it was dropping Friday night concerts at Sherwood Hall in Salinas for their 2017-18 season, meaning just Saturday and Sunday shows at Sunset Center in Carmel.

Squid understands the logistics: The Carmel shows were drawing more cash – about 10 times more – and many of the Salinas shows were filled, symphony reps say, because of comped tickets. Still, it felt like a big loss to the arts scene in Salinas.

The symphony announced this week that they’re not cutting ties entirely with Sherwood Hall. It turns out storing a Steinway piano requires a lot of room – like a music hall-sized room – and the symphony has one at Sherwood Hall. And there it will stay. So there’s a concession: Salinas gets to be the symphony’s storage shed. Sherwood will also still be a rehearsal space (thanks to that piano), and audience members will be invited to attend Friday rehearsals at no charge.

It’s something, but considering Friday nights used to be the weekend program kickoff, it’s a bit of a low note.