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"It was not like anything I had ever seen before," Alejandro Otero says. It turned out his home was hit by debris from the International Space Station that had been circling the Earth for three years.

The earthquake that hit the Middle East Monday is creating a humanitarian crisis in northwest Syria, an area already struggling from a decade-long civil war. Then, cold blooded animals that require heating lamps are jacking up the heating bill for a local nonprofit that helps rescue the reptiles. Finally, in our weekend arts preview, we have a play about birding, new classical music, some Black History Month-inspired artmaking and more.

At its best, the influential online music pub — which Condé Nast announced last week will be folded into GQ — created a rare and precious space to slow down, pay attention and really listen.

Andrew Alcasid will give an artist’s talk on April 11. His installation, “Turning Pages,” at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library has drawn viewers to his intimate drawings and alterations that highlight the library’s architectural assets. A graduate of the museum studies program at San Diego Mesa College, Alcasid also studied figure drawing at Miramar College and in the North Park Drawing Group. He has held artist residencies at Bread & Salt and Helmuth Projects, creating site-specific interventions. With an eye for scale, he began experimenting with street art and became a member of the electrical box program. His large-scale murals include “Omega” in Mira Mesa and “Cube, Palm, Orchid” in Normal Heights. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2019, Alcasid focused his energy on smaller scale still-life paintings. His partner, Aubrey Mejia, a floral designer, brought a variety of flowers to hospital and home as Alcasid underwent chemotherapy, and his resulting watercolor series of simple daisies in glass vases became the subject of the sold-out show “Get Well Soon” at Visual Art Gallery in North Park in 2021. Continuing the collaboration, the couple began the “Turning Pages” series. Combining both shared passions of reading and drawing, they used the time during the global pandemic and Alcasid’s convalescence to create the quiet studies on view at the Athenaeum through May 6, 2023. Athenaeum Music & Arts Library on Facebook / Instagram

June is Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness of a disease that affects over 6 million Americans. Also, we take a look into the role sleep plays in our overall brain health and well-being.

A study showed states made more mistakes when executing Black prisoners by lethal injection than they did with prisoners of other races. Execution workers and race experts said they're not surprised.

From San Diego weekend arts preview (KPBS feature): Minerva Cuevas' new exhibition at ICA North is literally coated in oil. The next artist in residence at the Encinitas branch of the new Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego is the Mexico City-based interdisciplinary, conceptual artist. There are three distinct parts to this exhibition: one is a gigantic mural, with red paint and black oil, with an easy-to-imagine fantasy world where the oil has taken over the natural world. Another is sculptural displays of vintage oil and petroleum-based products and advertisements, sprouting with plastic flowers. The third, my favorites of the exhibition, are landscape paintings — think serene ocean waves gently lapping against a rocky coastline. Cuevas dips the edge of each canvas in a viscous tar used for asphalt and roads ("chapopote" in Spanish). The tar adheres but oozes thickly off the canvas, ultimately drying into a sculptural element that's equal parts ominous symbolism and grotesque, ink-black stalactites. — Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS Exhibition details: Cuevas' work will be on view at ICA North from Saturday, Feb. 19 through May 1, 2022. Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Make a reservation here. Free/pay as you wish. Cuevas' studio work hours are February 19, 20, 26, 27, and March 5 from 3-5 p.m. Opening reception: Friday, Feb. 18 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. with music from DJ Sam Sega and an artist talk/Q&A. RSVP here. Related links: ICA San Diego on Instagram ICA San Diego on Facebook The New Institute Of Contemporary Art San Diego Wants To Question Everything (KPBS feature)

El Paso has scrambled to move migrants off the streets and into shelters as temperatures plummet below freezing, but federal law dictates which migrants can stay inside city facilities.

Ukraine's bookstores have expanded despite the war, fueled by interest in works by Ukrainian writers, some who have been killed by Russian forces. But a Russian missile struck a top printing plant.

A photographer and writer follow Ukrainian families whose lives have been upended by conflict since 2014. Their stories show an enduring will to live, even as war rages on around them.