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Under a settlement reached Wednesday, the city has given itself until the end of the year to sunset a controversial program that requires people to pay for parking at Balboa Park.

An evening of improvised, creative, and experimental music & sound featuring: Intangible An a Los Angeles-area quartet exploring overtones, extremes of density and volume, and intersections of multiple improvisational traditions. Formed in June 2023, they have performed across California, including at UCLA, Cal Arts, Open Gate, the Wonder Valley Experimental Music Festival, SF Sound, Luminex, and on KFJC radio. They have collaborated with vocalist Ken Ueno, video artist Carole Kim, and dancers Oguri and Roxanne Steinberg. Each member brings an unique combination of experience in improvised, composed, and traditional musics of multiple cultures: gamin (piri & saenghwang), Robert Reigle (tenor saxophone), Jeff Schwartz (bass), and Tim Feeney (percussion). Anita Chandavarkar, Leanna Keith, Lyra Montoya flute trio: Flutist Anita Chandavarkar is an improviser, interpreter, and composer. She has collaborated with such groups as Ensemble Dal Niente, ALEA III, Callithumpian Consort, and Brooklyn Raga Massive, and has worked with such composers and performers John Adams, Tony Arnold, and Jason Eckardt. Anita also studies bansuri in the Maihar Gharana of the Hindustani North Indian Classical tradition. A freelance flutist, artist, improviser, and composer from Seattle, Leanna Keith (she/they) delights in creating sound experiences that make audiences laugh, cry, and say: “I didn’t know the flute could do that!” Their works focus on timbre-shifting, the mixed-race experience, queer theory, and the breaking of genre boundaries. Leanna is obsessed with conduction, butoh, taiko drumming, circus arts, and the limitless capacity of humanism in sound creation. She is dedicated to playing music by living composers, and advocates for the usage of music as social activism. Lyra Montoya is a woodwinds specialist, composer and performer. Her work explores the intersections of identity and positionality through mixes of Music notation and improvisation, and how performance practice and musical concept reflect the priorities of the performance event.

This weekend in the arts: Lots of new visual art celebrating printmaking, architecture, the Barrio Logan neighborhood, found art shape-shifters, and longtime public art collaborators; plus Sudan Archives, poetry and sound, Britten's "Sea Interludes," costume designer Edith Head on stage, Ephrat Asherie Dance, a book festival, Tết Festival and more.

**What: Live Jazz! **When: Every Thursday starting around 4 for 2 hours or so (subject to weather) **Where: Outside at 5626 Bloch St. San Diego (University City) 92122 **Seating is outside around the neighborhood or in your parked car. Bring your own chairs or a blanket. Picnicking and wine tasting are popular. Perfect for a jazzy happy hour. Dogs on leash are always welcome. Masks and other Covid protocols are at the audience’s discretion. **FREE for all ages; kids to seniors. **Who: Here’s the expanded collective of scoundrels (a.k.a. The Front Porch Pandemic Jazz Band): Saxophones - Greg Pardue Keyboards - Jack Hoffman, Chris Penny, Biz Nguyen or Max Zape Bass - Roy Jenkins, Mark Phelps, Mark Delin or Gedeon Deak Guitar - Alex Lopez Drums - Larry Friedman, Jack Hoffman, Mike Masessa or Gary Chun Trumpet & Flugelhorn - Jim Napier Vocals – Mark Phelps or Gary Chun (Plus additional guest musicians and vocalists) The music we play is classic jazz, standards, swing & blues from the Great American Songbook along with Latin & island styles like Bossa Nova, Samba, Calypso and Reggae plus we've even been known to funk it up. Most of the songs are classics by musicians & composers such as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, the Beatles, Nora Jones, Sting, Grover Washington Jr. and many more. We know (or can fake) 100’s of songs and we’re always expanding the song list so you never know what we might pull out of our hat. We happily take requests if we know the song or have a chart. Songs are called out on the spot, arrangements can be on the fly and it’s never the same song list from week to week. Even the lineup of musicians changes slightly from week to week. It’s loose, it’s flexible & most of all it’s fun. Come join us and tell your friends! HISTORY of the FRONT PORCH PANDEMIC JAZZ JAM (2020-2025): "Back in April 2020, 3 long time professional San Diego musicians found themselves without any gigs or opportunities to play with other musicians because of the new Covid 19 Pandemic. Having gigged together in various bands for many years, on April 30, 2020 (UNESCO International Jazz Day); Greg Pardue (saxophones), Jack Hoffman (piano) and Roy Jenkins (bass) decided to try jamming outdoors on Greg's front porch where there was plenty of fresh air, a light breeze and room to observe the new concept of "social distancing". They had so much fun and the neighbors were delighted, so they decided to make it a weekly jam and invited a few friends to check it out because, being outside in San Diego with mild weather, it was relatively safe for an audience and the musicians even in the throes of the pandemic. Word got out about great live jazz every Thursday afternoon when public live music performances were almost non-existent. Several local TV stations checked them out and even interviewed Greg and the event garnered local and even a little international media coverage. During the first couple of years the band grew from 3 to 6 musicians in any given week and the audience grew to 30-50 people from all corners of San Diego county. There's also been other musicians and audience members from all around the US and Europe stop by to check it out while visiting San Diego. Word has really gotten out and it proves Jazz is truly an international music. Because the musicians are having so much fun, it has become a rotating collective of around 20 musicians from all over San Diego county and southern CA. And as the world has started to get a handle on Covid, the audience has also been having more and more fun. It's now become a regular "All Ages Jazz Happy Hour". Audience members bring picnics, have wine tastings and some bring their kids, dogs and bicycles. A weekly local running club now has the event on it's route. Another nice surprise has been on the academic side. USD Music professor, Dr. Angela Yeung, has made the Front Porch Pandemic Jazz Jam a class field trip every year since 2022. Thankfully the neighbors and the University City community have enthusiastically supported the weekly event since the beginning. April 30, 2025 marked the 5th Anniversary of the Front Porch Pandemic Jazz Jam and the musicians and audience are still having so much fun each week it shows no signs of stopping any time soon. In keeping with the regular Thursday afternoon schedule, their anniversary will be celebrated on May 1 (weather permitting). THE BASICS: San Diego Reader Best of 2021 – Winner - Best Local Band San Diego Reader Best of 2022/2023/2024 – Finalist - Best Local Band San Diego Reader Best of 2021/2022/2023/2024 – Finalist – Best Cover Band San Diego Reader Best of 2021/2022/2023 – Finalist – Best Neighborhood Event San Diego Reader Best of 2024 - Finalist - Best Place to See Live Music Outside

Stream now with KPBS Passport on KPBS+ / Watch Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026 at 11p.m. on KPBS TV. In 1955, Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey was the chief pathologist of Princeton Hospital who stole Albert Einstein's brain while performing the autopsy on the world’s most famous scientist.

The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using technology driven by artificial intelligence.

The Democratic Party wanted a review of the 2024 election. Then, the DNC learned the report was incomplete and unverifiable, party chairman Ken Martin said Thursday, releasing an annotated version.

Iran selected Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader. He is the son of the previous supreme leader. Also on Sunday, the U.S. announced the death of a seventh service member in the war.

The nomination comes after months of interim leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Newsom has already vowed to tank a proposed ballot initiative that would impose a 5% wealth tax on the state’s billionaires to bolster Medi-Cal. Progressive lawmakers and their allies in labor and health seem hopeful that Newsom could support a different long-shot funding idea.