05-09-24

40 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY May 9-15, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com CHILL Forget the drinks for a moment, because the first thing that grabs you upon entering the lobby of the Monterey Tides hotel is not the menu of fresh cocktails and gastropub bar bites. It’s the floor-toceiling windows with an expansive view of Monterey Bay, waves crashing just below you through the panes. This, thankfully, remains unchanged. Ongoing renovations most recently impacted the lobby bar from December until April 26, when it reopened. (The physical space is relatively unchanged. There are updated decorations and furniture, but the major features—those windows!—remain untouched.) What is new is the cocktail menu, currently in testing mode. The Moon Light Affair is brisk and refreshing, shaken and served up. This bar has long done an excellent job of executing fruit-forward drinks (in this case, passionfruit) without making them too sweet. The scotch is obscured, but that’s OK because cucumber, lemon and elderflower offer lively tones. Lively is perhaps the best description of the test drink menu. A nonalcoholic raspberry lemonade is similarly fruity but sour and bright, not too sweet. Construction continues, with piles of lumber in the outdoor extension of the lobby bar. This hotel, perched precariously on the beach over rising sea levels, is one of those places that could never be built today. Its very existence is a relic of another time, but its drink menu is definitely of the moment. The lobby bar in Monterey Tides is open 3-10pm Sun-Thu, 2-10pm Fri-Sat. 2600 Sand Dunes Drive, Monterey. 394-3321, montereytides.com. Tidal Wave The new lobby bar at Monterey Tides hotel offers the same stunning view and fresh cocktail menu. By Sara Rubin SEND IDEAS TO: chill@montereycountynow.com SARA RUBIN ARIES (March 21-April 19): When my friend Jessalyn first visited Disneyland as a child, she was smitten by its glimmering, unblemished mystery. “It was far more real than real,” she said. “A dream come true.” But after a few hours, her infatuation unraveled. She began to see through the luster. Waiting in long lines exhausted her. The food was unappetizing. The actor impersonating Mickey Mouse shucked his big mouse head and swilled a beer. The days ahead may have resemblances to Jessalyn’s awakening for you. This jolt might vex you initially, although I believe it’s a healthy sign. It will lead to a cleansed perspective that’s free of illusion and teeming with clarity. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Keizoku wa chikara nari is a Japanese proverb that means “To continue is power.” I propose you make that your motto for the next four weeks. Everything you need to happen and all the resources you need to attract will come your way as long as your overarching intention is perseverance. This is always a key principle for you Tauruses, but especially now. If you can keep going, if you can overcome your urges to quit your devotions, you will gain a permanent invigoration of your willpower. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Do you believe there are divine beings, animal spirits and departed ancestors who are willing and able to help us? If not, you may want to skip this horoscope. I won’t be upset if you feel that way. But if you do harbor such views, as I do, I’m pleased to tell you that they will be extra available for you in the coming weeks. Remember one of the key rules about their behavior: They love to be asked for assistance; they adore it when you express your desires for them to bring you specific blessings and insights. Reach out, Gemini! Call on them. CANCER (June 21-July 22): I’m taking a gamble here as I advise you to experiment with the counsel of visionary poet and painter William Blake (1757-1825). It’s a gamble because I’m asking you to exert a measure of caution as you explore his daring advice. Be simultaneously prudent and ebullient, Cancerian. Be discerning and wild. Here are Blake’s directions: 1. The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom, for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough. 2. If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise. 3. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. 4. No bird soars too high if it soars with its own wings. 5. Exuberance is Beauty. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Cosmic energies are staging a big party in your astrological House of Ambition. It’s a great time to expand your concepts of what you want to accomplish with your one wild and precious life (hat tip to poet Mary Oliver for the phrase). You will attract unexpected help as you shed your inhibitions about asking for what you really want. Life will benevolently conspire on your behalf as you get bolder in defining your goals. Be audacious, Leo! Be brazen and brave and brilliant! I predict you will be gifted with lucid intuitions about how best to channel your drive for success. You will get feelers from influential people who can help you in your quest for victory. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Is it possible to be too smart for your own good? Maybe, although that won’t be a problem for you anytime soon. However, you may temporarily be too smart for some people who are fixated on conventional and simplistic solutions. But I will not advise you to dumb yourself down, dear Virgo. Instead, I will suggest you be crafty and circumspect. Act agreeable and humble, even as you plot behind the scenes to turn everything upside-down and inside-out—by which I mean, make it work with more grace and benefit for everyone concerned. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In my fairy tale about your life in the coming weeks and months, you will transform from a crafty sleuth to an eager explorer. You will finish your wrestling matches with tricky angels and wander off to consort with big thinkers and deep feelers. You will finish your yeoman attempts to keep everyone happy in the human zoo and instead indulge your sacred longings for liberation and experimentation. In this fairy tale of your life, Libra, I will play the role of your secret benefactor. I will unleash a steady stream of prayers to bless you with blithe zeal as you relish every heart-opening, brain-cleansing moment of your new chapter. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the coming months, I will encourage you to keep deepening and refining the art of intimacy. I will rejoice as you learn more and more about how to feel close to people you care for and how to creatively deal with challenges you encounter in your quest to become closer. Dear Scorpio, I will also cheer you on whenever you dream up innovations to propitiate togetherness. Bonus blessings! If you do all I’m describing, your identity will come into brighter focus. You will know who you are with greater accuracy. Get ready! The coming weeks will offer you novel opportunities to make progress on the themes I’ve mentioned. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You could offer a workshop on the perks of wobbliness. Your anxious ruminations and worried fantasies are so colorful that I almost hesitate to tell you to stop. I’m wondering if this is one of those rare phases when you could take advantage of your so-called negative feelings. Is it possible that lurking just below the uneasiness are sensational revelations about a path to liberation? I’m guessing there are. To pluck these revelations, you must get to the core of the uneasiness. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): During the last 11 months, life has offered you unprecedented opportunities to deepen and ripen your emotional intelligence. You have been vividly invited to grow your wisdom about how to manage and understand your feelings. I trust you have been capitalizing on these glorious teachings. I hope you have honed your skills at tapping into the power and insights provided by your heart and gut. There’s still more time to work on this project, Capricorn. In the coming weeks, seek out breakthroughs that will climax this phase of your destiny. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Naturalist and author Henry David Thoreau declared, “We need the tonic of wildness.” Amen! In my view, you Aquarians especially need this sweet, rugged healing power in the coming weeks. Borrowing more words from Thoreau, I urge you to exult in all that is mysterious, unsurveyed, and unfathomable. Like Thoreau, I hope you will deepen your connection with the natural world because it “it is cheerfully, musically earnest.” Share in his belief that “we must go out and re-ally ourselves to Nature every day. We must take root, send out some little fiber.” PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I have four questions and homework assignments for you, Pisces. 1. Is there a person in your inner circle who is close to ripening a latent talent that would ultimately benefit you? I suspect there is. What can you do to assist them? 2. Is there a pending gift or legacy that you have not yet claimed or activated? I think so. What would be a good first step to get it fully into your life? 3. What half-dormant potency could you call on and use if you were more confident about your ability to wield it? I believe you now have the wherewithal to summon the confidence you need. 4. What wasteful habit could you replace with a positive new habit? FREEWILLASTROLOGY In addition to this column, Rob Brezsny offers EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES and DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES. To buy access, go to www.RealAstrology.com. Audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700. By Rob Brezsny • May 9-15, 2024 ♦ 3 Card Poker ♠ Century 21st No Bust Black Jack ♣ Texas Hold’em ♥ Baccarat FULL BAR! BLACKJACK BONUS POINTS PAYS UP TO $20,000 SMALL TOWN BIG PAYOUTS! 1-800-Gambler • Gega-003846, Gega-Gega-003703, Gega-000889 Gega-000891 Gega-002838 The Marina Club Casino ensures the safety and security of all guests and team members at all times, while providing exceptional service. 204 Carmel Ave. Marina 831-384-0925 casinomonterey.com ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦ Just minutes from Downtown Monterey Where Monterey Comes To Play

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==