Why there’s no such thing as too much Italian food in Seabright Apparently, there can never be enough Italian food in Seabright. Tramonti Pizza, which opened in 2012, positioned itself right next to two much-loved Seabright fixtures, La Posta and Engfer Pizza Works, and yet it seems to be doing just fine. The restaurant aims for...

Novice hiker hits the road to redemption in ‘Wild’ It may be that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. But the years of psychological turmoil leading up to that step prove at least as compelling as the journey itself in Wild, the screen adaptation of the bestselling memoir by Cheryl Strayed...

Elves and orcs are just going through the motions in the final chapter of Peter Jackson’s ‘Hobbit’ trilogy Bleary visuals, a blearier narrative, and a stage groaning with characters in search of a stopping point—The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies is the keystone in the arch between the two trilogies. The masonry is shaky:...

SPOT ME The holidays are a time for giving. This year, they will not be a time of free parking. Santa Cruz City Council decided this fall to discontinue the practice of bagging parking meters for the week before Christmas. The two-hour parking, which was meant to encourage local shopping, was often unenforced, making it almost...

How Tabitha Stroup has built her rapidly expanding jam empire Tabitha Stroup designs, cooks and packages her innovative and seriously appealing line of small-batch handmade jams, chutneys and condiments from a well-equipped kitchen on the Temple Beth El property in Aptos. Monday morning she and an assistant are cranking to get 500 cases of product ready...

Santa Cruz’s Slow Gherkin reunites for two Bay Area shows this week Ever had the kind of life-defining relationship you couldn’t give up, even long after it was over? Not even that you couldn’t, just that you didn’t want to, because you knew no matter how bad it ended, you’d never have anything like it again?...

New book recounts a buddhist pilgrimage that encountered craziness of all types—especially in Santa Cruz For a Buddhist monk who once took of a vow of silence for six years, Rev. Heng Sure is a pretty chatty guy. He describes his two-and-a-half-year-long “three-steps, one bow” pilgrimage up the California coast—from Los Angeles to Ukiah, passing through...

Experts weigh flood concerns with coho salmon and steelhead habitat Last summer, stagnant water from the San Lorenzo River seeped into the basement of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Maintenance crews struggled to keep the flooding waters out of the basement, but couldn’t remove it fast enough. “The immediate effect of the flooding is that we...

A beginner’s guide to understanding and exploring the uncanny world of lucid dreams “Are you dreaming right now?” asks science writer and dream researcher David Jay Brown. We are sitting in the ivy-draped courtyard of Laili, next to a babbling fountain and a rowdy dinner party of 10. “No!” I say, sure of the answer to...

Films This WeekCheck out the movies playing around town.With: Reviews, Movie Times click here.Santa Cruz area movie theaters > ....... New This Week ANNIE The delightful Quvenzhane Wallis (last seen in Beasts of the Southern Wild) takes on the iconic role of the beloved orphan heroine of comic book page and stage in this updated revamp...