The thing I love about a printed newspaper or magazine is that I find little things I might have overlooked online. It’s where I learn so much.
For example, this month I was reading the Calendar section and saw that writer Mat Weir recommended a Kuumbwa show with multi-instrumentalist Barbara Higbie.
So, since I like Mat’s tastes, which tend toward harder rock and punk, I checked her out to see how he wandered into jazz and New Age sounds.
Next thing, I bought her piano album, because it’s soothing and interesting. I love being turned onto new things. It’s like going into Bookshop Santa Cruz and seeing what the staff recommends or asking a clerk at Streetlight Records what they like.
I’ve gotten so much music that way, things I never would have found otherwise.
Then, there’s Christina Waters’ story this week about the millions of dollars one woman donated to local arts organizations. Gabrielle Stocker is a true hero and Christina is the first media person to find out about the bequest because of her contacts in the county.
It’s nice to be at a publication called Good Times, which can feature so many of the good things going on around us, when so much of the rest of the national news is tragic. No good deed here should go unpublished (maybe that should be our motto?).
We also feature the local return of Cheryl Anderson, who left as director of the Cabrillo Choral and has taken the helm at the choral for Peace United Church and is bringing in the important piece, “Considering Matthew Shepard”, which got bumped during the pandemic.
Finally, the most fun I had this week was reading about why I should care about soccer. I asked the first editor I had in my long and unstoried career Tom Brew to write about his favorite sport. Brew, who fixed my copy at my first job in Bradenton, Florida, is fanatical about the sport, traveling the world to see games and putting everything else aside to watch them on TV.
I asked him to write a sidebar to the main story we ran about all the things going on in Santa Cruz for the World Cup and he cranked it out in about half an hour.
It didn’t really convince me to actually watch a game, but I do enjoy the fanaticism and revelry of the people who love it. I remember well when Brazilians took over Los Gatos in 1994 when their team played in Palo Alto and I found it almost as interesting as a No Kings Day rally.
If only that energy translated to politics. We’d have a different country.
Have a great week.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
ON TRACK 35mm photograph of Engine No. 2 up at Roaring Camp Railroad, the oldest locomotive in their arsenal. Driven by friend Charlie, taken on Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend 2026. Photograph by Sean Mohoot
GOOD IDEA
To protect Californians at home, the Department of Toxic Substances Control’s Safer Consumer Products Program has proposed a rule to restrict manufacturers from selling cleaning products containing hydrofluoric acid across the state. The proposed ban is the first by DTSC utilizing new authority to allow the department to act faster to protect Californians from dangerous products.
Exposure to hydrofluoric acid can lead to severe acute toxicity, permanent injuries, and even death. Removing hydrofluoric acid from cleaning products will reduce these risks at home. Critically, safe alternatives to hydrofluoric acid in cleaning products already exist.
GOOD WORK
Encompass Community Services will hold a Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for the new Sí Se Puede Behavioral Health Center, a substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health outpatient and residential treatment facility in Watsonville.
The celebration will take place on Friday from 11am to noon at 161 Miles Lane. The event will feature speakers and guided tours of the new campus.
Increasing access to trauma-informed, high-quality care for individuals and families seeking mental health and substance use recovery services is especially urgent for the historically underserved and predominantly Latinx community.
