Considering their name is taken from one of the show’s most famous catchphrases, it should come as no surprise that the Do’h Brothers are major fans of The Simpsons. “I used to have a whole room in my house with a bunch of Simpsons stuff—it’s become my daughter’s room at this point,” says guitarist/vocalist Dave Muldawer....

Probiotics with bite from Ozuké, plus baking workshops at Companion Bakeshop Ozuké pickled veggies—future-forward foods from Boulder, Colorado—have captured our fancy. Like many of us, we are now consumed with the need for probiotics and fermented condiments, like kimchi, kraut and pickles. We currently adore the electric-purple beets, dulse and kale—an intensely delicious slaw of the...

I am not gluten-free. However, I focus on a vegan raw diet so that really limits my intake. Bill Gibson, Santa Cruz, Sales           I’m hardcore, I don’t do any gluten, processed oils or processed sugars. I survived 10 metastasized bone cancers, and realized that it all starts with the sugar, gluten...

Sci-fi thriller ‘Self/Less’ doesn’t live up to director Tarsem Singh’s potential By any name and any copyright, Self/Less is John Frankenheimer’s 1966 film, Seconds, a second time around. It’s another disappointment from Tarsem Singh that is, once again, likely not his fault. At a comic convention a few years back Singh told the audience that his...

Trula Hickman of Sentinel Printers on running a green, custom print shop in an evolving industry A petite blonde with astonishing eyes, Trula Hickman presides over a domain that has one foot in historic craft and the other in digital detail. The domain is the 150-year-old Sentinel Printers, where Hickman and her husband Neil Hickman keep...

Cabrillo Stage musical ‘Schoolhouse Rock Live!’ maximizes the fun of cult TV touchstone If you grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons in the ’70s or early ’80s, you’ll love Schoolhouse Rock Live!, the first production in Cabrillo Stage’s summer musical series. The source material was not a cartoon series in the traditional sense (like, say, Rocky...

Win a pair of tickets to Sticky Fingers at The Catalyst Club on SantaCruz.com Sticky Fingers, a reggae fusion indie-rock group out of Australia, is playing the Catalyst next week. With two top-40 albums under their belts (Caress Your Soul and Land of Pleasure), the Sticky Fingers have become an international sensation, with musical influences including...

Big Stone Soup is a brand new band, but its members go way back together. Keyboardist Steve Sofranko met guitarist Jerry Brown back in 1988 at a Grateful Dead concert in Maine. Both of them had been following the Dead around and hit it off, and drove back to the Bay Area together. Once there, Brown...

Why aren’t locals collecting the food assistance for which they’re eligible? Despite the area’s reputation as a place people migrate to for handouts, far fewer people in Santa Cruz County are receiving CalFresh benefits, or food stamps, than are eligible for them. The city and county governments, in partnership with community organizers, are ramping up efforts...

Health beneficial olive oil could be the state’s next best drought-resistant crop A table-top staple as ubiquitous in Italy as ketchup, mustard and butter in the United States, Italians love their olive oil so much that some use it in their babies’ first bath. But olive oil is also extremely healthy when used in the more...