My friend Emma from London came to visit for a few days in early March, so I took her wine tasting in the Santa Cruz Mountains—a rare treat for her, as there aren’t too many vineyards in the middle of London. Her visit reminded me how fortunate we are to live in this paradise of ultra-fresh produce, with grapes...

GO FUND HIM With his facial locks and ubiquitous black pants and jacket, Alekz Londos, 34, looks like a hipster panhandler—which is, in a sense, what he is. For a decade, Londos has raced to disaster scenes to document them and provide relief. But he’s so unassuming, it takes time to realize he’s the real thing....

40 years on the movie beat in Santa Cruz Santa Cruz in 1975 was heaven for a fledgling film buff. The movies were great: Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather Part II, Nashville. Admission was $2.50 for a double bill. Those were the days! Much has changed in the world since then—especially the movie scene and the...

Probably the ’70s, because Santa Cruz is such a fly-your-freak-flag place. That was when free love and hippiness was in vogue. Shane Reber, Santa Cruz, Caretaker                   I'd probably run with the ’60s, because I was born in them. And I liked all the music of that time....

Films This WeekCheck out the movies playing around town.With: Reviews Movie Times click here.Santa Cruz area movie theaters > ....... New This Week THE AGE OF ADALINE Blake Lively stars in this fantasy drama as a woman who has remained 29 years old for nearly a century who risks her isolated existence when she falls in...

City brings bike and pedestrian planning together Cycling and transportation activists have long been partners, but in Santa Cruz they could soon be walking down a new path to closer collaboration than ever before. The Santa Cruz City Council voted on April 14 to begin work on a new Active Transportation Plan that will consolidate the...

How reading Lisa Jensen’s reviews taught me to love film It’s almost hard to imagine now how rich the cinematic fare was in the 1970s, even in a relatively small cultural outpost like Santa Cruz. Virtually all of the film venues that we enjoy today were in full throttle then, plus there were other long-forgotten movie...

Win tickets to see the Santa Cruz Symphony at the Santa Cruz Civic on SantaCruz.com Closing the season in dramatic style, the Santa Cruz Symphony, along with the Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus, present Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Described as an “awe-inspiring choral masterpiece,” Carmina Burana is based on medieval songs discovered in the library of a monastery in...

Sibling rivalry is an age-old rock ’n’ roll trope; just ask the Beach Boys, the Kinks or Oasis. Ben Lomond alt-rockers and brothers George and Henry Chadwick went so far as to reference it in their band name, My Stupid Brother—a name they came up with after a fight. However, they aren’t exactly Noel and Liam...

Pete Yorn goes back to where it all started on solo acoustic tour The way Pete Yorn talks about his own songs doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. “I just write about weird, mundane, everyday things,” says the L.A. singer-songwriter by phone, as he prepares for a seven-date tour up the coast that will bring...