Inspired by the nostalgic longings of childhood, Zayante Creek Market and Deli has been Jamie Forrest’s passion project since she took it over three years ago. A chef for more than 30 years, her resume includes time in four different Michelin-star restaurants as well as partnering in opening several places across the country. Eventually wanting something all her own, when she and her husband moved here, she came across the location and fell in love with its historical provenance (formerly the Zayante post office/train post) and proximity to where she lived, allowing her the privilege and honor to support her own community.
Forrest says her spot has old town country store vibes with vintage eclectic Americana décor—“a little bit of everything and a lot of nothing.” Homemade daily specials complement classic deli offerings like a “French dip on crack” Italian roast beef sandwich and other between-bread bests include a pulled pork sandwich with dad’s homemade barbecue sauce, pickled red onion and dill pickles, and the grilled Zesty Zayante with spicy mayo, salami, pepper jack cheese, pepperoncini and jalapeño. Rotating meaty spaghettis are another popular offering along with classic sides like mac-n-cheese, pasta salads and deviled eggs.
Tell me your business origin story.
JAMIE FORREST: It goes back to being a kid in rural Georgia. We didn’t have much money so we would take Sunday drives in the country and find these little knick-knack stores and delis. What I’m trying to do here is emulate those special childhood memories and revive that feeling of being welcomed and acknowledged. As an adult moving into big cities, I lost that feeling. And now living here in the country again, it feels like I’m back where I am supposed to be, returning to where my heart is and my roots are. Sitting on our store’s porch and looking out over the mountains is the most at peace I’ve ever been.
Where did you get your passion for food?
As a foster kid growing up and being hungry. I grew up around a lot of processed low-end food, and I wanted to know what good food was, so I started working in restaurants in high school and became a chef through the school of hard knocks. Now here I am, providing really good food that’s affordable for my community.
Who doesn’t love a singer-songwriter who isn’t afraid to plug in? Also, a woman with a poison pen, full of piss and vinegar, instead of a whiney dude with a broken heart? Malibu Barbabe fits the bill. In the tradition of 4-Track Demos era PJ Harvey and early Liz Phair, Barbabe attacks the strings while singing songs of love, lust and other amusements with a wicked sense of humor and a poet’s command of language. Fellow singer-songwriter Mya Byrne and San Francisco’s Country Risque will be on hand to get the crowd good and warmed up. KEITH LOWELL JENSEN
Pulsating basslines and infectious grooves are calling everyone to the dancefloor at this all-out, inclusive dance party. A colorful blend of Bay Area-based DJs will deliver an experience that’ll keep bodies moving and spirits soaring, with a central goal of building community and creating a safe space for self-expression. People can shake it to sets deeply influenced by global and West Coast bass, Latin rhythms, and hip hop, featuring the sounds of El Papachango, Wet Panther, RatchaelBeats, Cocoa Crescendo and Grewvangle. Attendees will get lost and found in this sonic celebration that’s “cheaper than (but not to be replaced by) therapy.” SHELLY NOVO
As Lotus Lab prepares to unleash Tides of Mystery in July, they must have realized the anticipation and excitement could be too much for some partygoers. So, to relieve some of the pressure, they’ve arranged an official (don’t fall for any knock-offs) pre-party this Friday featuring DJs Sakiya, Zipse and Neumonic. Of course, they always run the risk that they’ve put together too killer of a lineup and the pre-party will surpass and eclipse the main party. It’s probably a good thing they’ve decided to chance it. However, to be safe, it’s best for everyone to attend both events. KLJ
Family life can be hectic and chaotic. Take a night off from the family to enjoy this one-man comedy show that focuses on the frenzy of family life: Empty Nest and All the Rest: A One-Man Comedy Show by Clay Hausmann. During the show, Hausmann will break down how women and men think and figure out what fills the void when the kids leave and don’t come back. Additionally, this show is a benefit. All the proceeds go directly to The Landing, a performing arts center, which is run by the local nonprofit Scotts Valley Community Theater Guild. This organization and venue are dedicated to putting on accessible shows, so take a break from the family to laugh at the chaos that comes with having one.
ISABELLA MARIE SANGALINE
INFO: 8pm, The Landing, 251-B Kings Village Rd, Scotts Valley. $40. 566-9411.
METAL
UNHOLY THINGS
Formed almost exactly a year ago to the day, Unholy Things is psychedelic-dipped, Hamm’s beer–soaked heavy metal that’s perfect for destroying any sense of common decency. Completely skipping the studio, this Santa Cruz metal trio went straight to recording a six-song live album last April from the “expedition to the ocean’s floor” of dive bars, the Jury Room. Take some ibuprofen with a six pack and get ready to headbang the night away with them as they rip it up at the Blue Lagoon with fellow heathens Heavy Blazer, Midnight Dumpster Fire, Sequitur and Nuisance in Public. MAT WEIR
INFO: 8pm, Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 423-7117.
HIP HOP
LARUSSELL
Brimming with talent and a rapidly growing fan base, LaRussell has been called hip-hop’s #1 prospect but maintains remarkable humility and stays devoted to his hometown of Vallejo, California. Influenced by classic Bay Area hip hop and hyphy, LaRussell has been cosigned by some of the most notable Bay Area rappers, including E-40, Too Short and P-Lo. LaRussell has a purity about him, in his authentic storytelling, his “pay-what-you-want” merch and shows, and his sonic backing, featuring harp, flute and small choir. It’s a wave of good energy with touching lyrics, danceable rhythms and LaRussell’s big, beaming smile. SN
INFO: 3pm, Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25. 713-5492.
SUNDAY6/29
PUNK
45 GRAVE
Coming out of 1979’s L.A. punk scene, 45 Grave are widely recognized as pioneers of deathrock and horror punk. The original lineup featured prominent figures from other bands, including The Gun Club and The Germs. The band’s 1983 debut LP Sleep in Safety is a genre classic. 45 Grave even made inroads on MTV with their track “Evil.” The band has gone inactive twice over the years, but returned in 2004, led by original vocalist Dinah Cancer. 2012’s Pick Your Poison was well-received, and their continued presence on the live scene underscores the band’s enduring legacy. BILL KOPP
Citing influences including Nirvana, Neil Young, and (more contemporarily) MJ Lenderman, Oakland-based musician Sam Carpenter calls his solo project John Turkey’s Nightmares. A prolific artist, Carpenter has an extensive catalog. His current tour focuses on Rock a Pee Jay!, an album first released in 2020 and featuring tracks like “Maggot Merry,” “I Was Told There Would Be Food Here” and “Too Tired to Stand Up and Go to Bed.” He’s nothing if not concise: those three creaky folk-flavored tunes blow by in a total of less than five minutes. JTN’s spooky vibe may remind some of Skip Spence’s Oar. BK
Author and journalist Rachel Kushner will be reading from and signing copies of her latest book, Creation Lake. A two-time finalist for the Booker Prize and National Book Award, Creation Lake follows the story of Sadie Smith, who is instructed to infiltrate a group of French environmental anarchists but discovers it might be at the risk of losing her humanity. Described as “wickedly entertaining” by The Guardian, this is Kushner’s fourth novel and is based on the events of UK undercover agent Mark Kennedy and environmental activist Eric McDavid. MW
INFO: 7pm, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. 423-0900.
There’s a song by country singer Trace Adkins, “All Hat, No Cattle,” based on the phrase applied to people who dress the part of a cowboy without having lived the life.
Look out onto the packed dance floor of Western Wednesday, the ascendant monthly live country western band dance party at Moe’s Alley, and see if you can gauge who’s a real cowboy, or which dance partners are in ideological opposition outside that venue. The beauty is, with everyone in that aesthetic uniform, you can’t.
Only the mirror knows that night as they cinch their bolo ties and smooth their poodle skirts if they’re cowboy-cosplaying to the nines, or debuting a secret identity a beach town makes them bury. Either way, they look good, and word is spreading to scenes known for their rich history and contribution to the country sound, like Nashville, Bakersfield or Austin.
“The people are a lot better looking in California,” says Mark Stuart of the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, laughing.
He clarifies, saying it isn’t just the genes in our particular tide pool that made him headline these western music and dance shows three times.
“The attention to detail and enthusiasm people bring to dressing up helps bring out the excitement [in the band]. It adds another level of, I don’t know…”
Glamor?
“Glamor, yeah! Their individual style.”
Promoter Lane Cunningham, grown in the Central Valley soils of Turlock, says no one is going to “scoff” if you’ve never roped a steer in the crisp dawn—dress-up is part of the draw that made them sell out their January show and nearly sell out their June one.
“I don’t even reach out to bands anymore,” Cunningham says. “I have to turn bands away. I’ve had 2025 booked since…the beginning of 2025.”
The inimitable WW style is catalogued on their Instagram by photographer Natasha Lozanoff, who also shoots tintypes with Cunningham and Sean Skaife as Midnight Oil Collective, in cavorting dance floor candids and smiling posed shots that call to mind an adult yearbook.
We Santa Cruzans see your cowboy hat and boots and raise you a punk band tee and partially bleached shag cut.
Call it blasphemy or flattery, but Stuart claims Cunningham, together with Moe’s owner Brian Ziel, “managed to take something as hip and cool as the Continental Club [in Austin] and put an even more fun, showy spin on it, curated great music, and made it the event you want to be at.”
SOFT KNEES, FULL HEARTS, CAN’T LOSE Karianna Crowder and Darrow Feldstein take advantage of the 8pm-midnight dance floor. PHOTO: Natasha Lozanoff
WESTERN WEDNESDAY…78 OF THEM
People are pregaming in the REI parking lot when I arrive on May 21. They crowd in their flatbeds or hang out on their hood, crushing Coors in the chimera of a Santa Cruz sunset, the encroaching fog soft-focusing the twinkling light. Building their dancing courage as they wait for the doors to open.
Technically, the show kicks off at 8pm on a Wednesday that floats according to the venue’s busy schedule, but Cunningham tells me the start time is malleable, depending on the lackadaisical arrival of Santa Cruzans, who may not seem like we’re going to show up until we do.
That’s a heart attack for a booker.
“Every time at 7:50 you’re like, ‘oh my gosh, there’s only 20 people here and 15 presale tickets,’” he says. “Then by 8:30, it’s packed.”
I’m waiting for 7:30, when a rotating team of dance coaches take early birds through a breakneck tutorial in two-step, a basic dance routine that goes together with this type of music like bubbles and sarsaparilla.
Tonight, that’s Seth Burgess and Rebecca Tivang. Other nights it could be Peter Lollo and Nicole Sahabian, or Cunningham himself and Lena Pine-Campbell (“Lena n’ Lane” really popped on posters). Burgess tells me he loves the “plug and play” aspect to the lessons, giving newbies just enough know-how to feel competent, then the band starts before the momentum can dissipate and confidence wanes.
On that note, he gives the sharpest two-finger whistle I’ve ever heard to summon all potential two-steppers. Tivang asks everyone to circle up around them.
The name of the game, he says, is “soft knees.” Rather than being too erect and stiff, softening your stance makes your knees the conduit of the music, allowing you to bounce to the beat.
“I’m telling her as Lead with my body where that beat is,” he dictates as he demonstrates. “It doesn’t have to be the beat that the band is on, but…”
The two of them sway in unison sans backing music, which would be impossible to instruct over.
“Oh yeah,” he says.
A titter of nervous laughter erupts, like high schoolers in Sex Ed. Dance centers you in your body, and bodies are vessels, simultaneously erotic and embarrassing. The coaches take this interruption in stride, used to it.
“We keep that pulse the whole time,” he says. “That’s the foundation of our communication together. And if all we do is that, everybody that didn’t take the lesson is going to go, ‘Damn, those people know how to dance.’”
More laughter, punctuated by a slow whoop. Burgess calls for everyone to try this, then pick who’s going to lead and who’s going to follow.
“This is a six-count dance. If you can count to six, you can do it.”
He uses the polar landmarks of the room to direct people’s feet: the stage, the bar.
“Leads are going to start on your left foot, Follows, on your right. We go band…bar…step-step, band…bar. Each of these is a discreet step. Slow…slow…quick-quick.”
The venue resounds with boots scooting and stomping in unison. Watching their footwork I become mesmerized by their footwear, boots of every creed: Blundstones and blunt-tipped; pointed toes or curling up like an elf’s; tan for work, black, white and heeled for dress; flat circumferences and cut V tops; decorated with etchings and stitchings, one with a still life of flowers; weighted with buttons and buckles; sleek as a sports car; purposefully wrinkled like the wizened face of an old rodeo star.
Once opener Lasers Lasers Birmingham starts, the instructors show what they can really do, kicking up their legs, spins and dips galore, eager to utilize floor space before it gets annexed. Moe’s fills up quickly, the early birds embracing the right-on-timers, then the stragglers. Some leap up and down when their hoedown homies arrive, or into their arms. Too many reunions are weddings and funerals—hard to believe this is monthly. The energy is intoxicating.
When the crowd closes in a little too tight and it’s a little like swing moshing, I look for an out. There’s the mezzanine next to the stage, where older and less fleet-of-foot folks can watch the bands. There’s near the bathrooms and merch table, where I’m told some dancers go to enjoy the extra elbow room. I choose the patio.
Jenny Wright, a local children’s dance teacher who knows everything from the Lindy Hop to hip-hop, tells me that after a while you learn “floor craft,” or how not to run into people.
In the modest smoking section I meet Payton Vermeesch, who plays in two of Cunningham’s bands, Lane & the Longbeds, and Ernest Tubb Time Machine. Vermeesch is proud of Santa Cruz’s willingness to embrace this musical genre.
“Even if they’ve never seen a pedal steel [guitar] or a fiddle,” he says, “they’re down to come out.”
After I put in my order at the Taqueria Agave food stand for a fried avocado taco, I meet Rylan Hunt, who says WW is a “generator of energy for the dance community here.”
The more dancers I meet, the more I realize the ecosystem that Western Wednesday supports. They tell me if I really want to dance, I should come to Two-Step Tuesday, or Salsa by the Sea Sundays, or Santa Cruz Swing at the 418 Project.
Cunningham’s Instagram bio is “I’m a member of a country club,” and just by being here once, I feel one two-step closer to belonging.
THREE HUNDRED’S A CROWD Promoter Lane Cunningham and dance coach Rebecca Tivang (left) scoot boots while the getting’s good. PHOTO: Natasha Lozanoff
BIG C, LITTLE c
The question of who is country for is crashing headlong into the current national conversation about who this country is for.
Pop country music star Morgan Wallen recently got tarred and feathered for walking off the final segment on Saturday Night Live, when the cast unites onstage with that week’s host and musical guest for hugs and congrats. Instead, he mounted his private plane and posted to social media “Get me to God’s country,” as if certain parts of America are holy, and certain parts, like coastal cities, ain’t.
This followed the furor over Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter, which tapped into Black pain over race records vshillbilly music, when R&B was segregated from country western, undercutting a shared folk music tradition in the American South. Guess who got to be the keepers of the country flame, and who received a pittance of credit for starting the fire long ago?
“The undercurrent of white supremacy in country music is there and I don’t think it does anyone any good to pretend that it’s not,” says Laura Benitez, whose San Francisco band The Heartache is a WW fixture, playing at least twice under original paterfamilias Mischa Gasch’s tenure, and twice after he bequeathed it to Cunningham.
The day we spoke, protests against ICE raids were in full bloom, but she told me that navigating as a progressive Latina singer is a continuum. There’s the ruinous microaggressive racism from people who insist they can’t pronounce her surname, and then there’s dread.
“I don’t know if who’s coming through the door in a cowboy hat is someone who’s going to buy a CD or beat me up,” she said. “I don’t know, and I have never known. My existence has always been a risky thing.”
Cunningham and Ziel make her feel safe, however, a rarity in male promoters and venue owners who are often “gatekeeper-y.”
Ziel, for his part, made sure inclusivity was part of the business model. A day after his daughter’s graduation from UC Santa Barbara, where grads from 33 countries in her Brain Science college proudly grafted their flag onto their caps, he tells me he uses a different Austin club as a paragon than Stuart mentioned: The Mohawk, whose motto is “All Are Welcome.”
Applying that ethos takes elbow grease, which Ziel is happy to do. Promoter Folk Yeah! is sending rock chanteuse Ezra Furman to Moe’s on Aug 6, and he’s accommodating her request that the venue’s bathrooms be made non-gendered. Non-binary outlaw country music comet Jaime Wyatt crashed through in March on a Tuesday, and queer roots musician Adeem the Artist accompanies Dallas’ own Vandoliers, whose lead singer recently went through trans rebirth to become Jenny Rose, on July 5.
Moe’s doesn’t limit booking to gender binaries, or country to Wednesdays.
The venue might be best suited to provide a safe space to get your ya yas out in these fraught times because of the day Ziel and his business partner Lisa Norelli closed the deal with the previous owners: January 6, 2021.
“I’ll never forget,” he said, “our phones kept buzzing while we were trying to sign the paperwork, and we look and see the Capitol’s been stormed.”
They learned how to run a venue when its veterans were learning how to function and stay open during Covid. Everything they built as pestilence infrastructure makes them more coveted today. Ventilation for vulnerable immune systems? Patio expansion? Turns out, Benitez says, those have another benefit.
“Nobody wants to sweat through their shirt,” she said—not the bands, but especially not the crowd. “Learning to dance is a very vulnerable thing. Who wants to humiliate yourself in close proximity to a stranger?”
Along with Moe’s “intimate, friendly size,” she finds the welcoming nature of the dance community another essential ingredient to WW’s delectable “special sauce.”
Bakersfield’s Zane Adamo, whose Soda Crackers have played thrice, says the Santa Cruz setting sells itself. A graduate of CSU Monterey Bay, he has fond memories of the area, but no one’s more excited than his bandmates when they find out he booked WW.
“They’re like, biting my arm off,” he says. “‘Can we go tomorrow?’”
He’s grateful for WW offering a show opportunity in the center of the week, when pickings are slim. The dance halls of Bakersfield, known for its rough and tumble sound to counter Nashville’s sheen, are closing one by one, and historical memory is short.
“Buck Owens, one of the biggest stars of the Bakersfield sound, he and his family worked in the fields with Mexican migrant workers,” Adamo says. When the ecological horror of the Dust Bowl met the economic horror of Wall Street, the people who coalesced in the labor camps made music together “after the day’s work was done.” That’s why you can hear Mexican phrasings, along with Black blues, and German and Czech polkas, in country.
LOVE AND OTHER HUGS Western Wednesday regulars reunite with best friends and make new ones. PHOTO: Natasha Lozanoff
ROOTS RADICALS
A native of Cologne, Germany, Gasch is a living testament to country being for everyone. He had a vision of Western Wednesday after visiting The White Horse in Austin, where two or three live bands played for two hours each and the dance floor was packed from 8 to midnight.
He grew up playing in punk and hardcore bands near Stuttgart, where there weren’t as many Trans-Ams and Ford F150s as Mercedes and Porsches, and Johnny Cash and Hank Williams took a backseat on German radio to Truck Stop, a best-selling band with all the country accoutrements but which sang primarily in German, with songs like “Der wilde, wilde Westen.”
After moving here and starting a honky-tonk band, Miss Lonely Hearts, in 2011, he used his booking agency smarts to wrangle a monthly three-night circuit: Western Wednesday at the Crepe Place; Honky-Tonk Thursday at Overland in Oakland; Outlaw Friday at The Hideaway Bar & Grill in Sacramento, all with one local and one touring band. He did this for two or three years before shifting sole focus to Santa Cruz, employing fun perks to encourage participation and consistent attendance: on-site tintype photos; punch cards netting you free beers and signed band posters; $2 off discount for wearing cowboy boots when that wasn’t a given.
“It was a nice night,” recalls Cunningham about WW’s beginnings. “Plenty of room to dance.”
He went every month, and Gasch passed it on to him after personal commitments persisted. After Bocci’s Cellar removed its bocce courts, he thought there’d be even more room to dance there, and booked a date with their excited management that never happened in February 2020. Five days before, the headliner, Hank & Ella with the Fine Country Band, notified the club that a bandmate had cancer, and didn’t think it wise to play.
Little did Cunningham know when he canceled it, but WW wouldn’t restart until January 19, 2022.
In the meantime, Cunningham met Ziel and Norelli through Summer Ziel, a friend who owns Tomboy vintage, the clothing shop on Soquel Avenue, who were enthusiastic about giving WW a new home at their “new” Moe’s. He admired their sound guy, and decided to work with friends over the Bocci’s team whom he didn’t know as well. This ethos—work with who you know—has served Cunningham well. People warn against going into business with your friends, but when it’s zero profit…
“All the money that we make from the door, I give to the bands.”
Even the gorgeous film Lozanoff shoots on comes out of his own pocket.
“I’d rather the bands get it, especially bands on tour, and they tell their friends’ bands about [WW].”
Ziel gave him the option of having his own company, tasked with ticket sales and promotion, or letting Moe’s handle that internally with staff like Sarah Guidon, who’s designed everything WW in the last year or so, and shaving more off the back end.
“Cool,” he said at the time. “You guys take care of that.”
He wanted to focus on contacting and contracting with bands, because there is a finesse to it. WW requires a certain type of band who: knows country standards, particularly roots; have enough material if they’re the only band to play two sets with an intermission, or be okay with an equal co-headliner payment; keeps banter and self-promotion to a minimum besides merch because monologues are awfully hard to dance to. Keep the music flowing and the dancing constant, even if the tempo might change.
“When I write the setlist for Western Wednesdays it’s two hours of shuffles and straight eights,” Benitez says, beatboxing to differentiate them for me.
“The shuffles are meant for couples dancing,” Adamo says. “A straight beat lets the line dancers know what step is coming next.”
Any complaints from interested parties who want to play WW but not play by those rules, Cunningham politely, and he’s nothing if not polite, tells them to not let the barn doors hit them on the way out.
SWING KIDS
I arrive a bit late to the 1.5 Intermediate Swing class social at the 418 Project the night after Western Wednesday because Cunningham says they’ll be busy filling out consent forms.
He catches me admiring the planetarium-like decorations and the neon light fixtures near the ceiling, framing what is now essentially a ballet mirror.
“They turn on the neon especially for our class,” he says, beaming. Ordinarily it’s prohibitively expensive.
He points out regulars who made a considerable voyage here: from Hollister, over the hill, Monterey. Some of them were at WW last night.
What’s the difference between 1 and 1.5? Other classes are 2 and 3.
“1.5 is more abstract and improvisational than 1,” he says. “It just felt like an extension.”
Outside of this dance hall, Leading and Following can be an existential dilemma. Here, it just means a supplemental distribution of dance moves. Gender is irrelevant.
Lisa Marie Howe, a WW regular who subs for Lozanoff on camera duties when needed, offers to lead and I accept.
“I found partner dancing after the pandemic,” she tells me. “We were all starved for touch and Western Wednesday offered us an opportunity to touch and be touched in safe, supportive, community-building ways.”
The song ends and I offer to lead Shelby Northrup, a recent transplant from San Diego, where she says the swing scene is remarkably small. Seeing familiar faces here and at WW has facilitated her making friends, and the dance community has a group chat where they post cheap or free events.
What does she love most about WW?
“It’s the only time of the month I get to wear cowboy boots.” She laughs. “That’s fun.”
An older woman asks me to dance and is frustrated by my lack of coherent moves, eyeing me incredulously as we jerk around the floor, but she’s nice about it when we part.
“You should come back next week,” she says. “Have you been to Western Wednesday?”
Cunningham learned Western swing from Burgess, and is now so advanced that he teaches, although not tonight. The reason he schedules a free two-step dance lesson after doors open at WW is to pay forward kindness shown him in Louisiana circa 2008, watching Cajun bands with a friend, dancing the only way he knew how: “clogging,” aka “flat-footing,” aka “buck dancing.” It was a solo dance, and everyone in the joint was partner dancing. Two girls approached to recruit them to the cause.
“’Hey, that’s cool, but do you want to learn to two-step?’” they said.
His Turlock twang goes falsetto.
“Heck yeeeah, let’s go.”
You can purchase tickets in advance for Western Wednesdays via moesalley.com. For information on Santa Cruz Swing, visit santacruzswing.com.
Santa Cruz is so much more than a surf town—it’s a sanctuary for wellness seekers. Whether you’re visiting for a weekend or a local looking to explore new fitness options, the area offers a vibrant array of yoga, Pilates, barre and movement experiences designed to nourish body and soul. Whether you’re seeking a vigorous workout, a peaceful meditation or a unique movement experience, Santa Cruz has something for everyone. Embrace the opportunity to rejuvenate your body and spirit in this coastal wellness haven.
Yoga: Beachfront Bliss to Studio Serenity
Santa Cruz Yoga—A variety of classes suitable for all levels, from beginners to experienced practitioners. Skilled instructors lead each session, ensuring a safe and fulfilling practice. Drop-in session: $20. santacruzyoga.net
Yoga Center Santa Cruz—This Iyengar yoga studio provides a spacious room with natural light and essential props. Drop-in classes are $20, payable directly to the instructor. yogacentersantacruz.com
Hot Elevation Studios—Hot room classes are between 90-95 degrees with wäarm room and cycle classes set to a comfortable 80-85. Choose from hot pilates, yoga sculpt, cycle, barre, TRX, MIXT™, HIIT and hot yoga—including power, slow flow 26+2. Drop-ins: $30. hotelevationstudios.com
Breath and Oneness—Immerse yourself in a transformative journey of self-discovery and wellness with a wide array of classes—Vinyasa Flow, Gentle and Restorative Yoga, Qigong, Reiki, Sound Baths and more—infused with unique elements that cater to both beginners and seasoned practitioners. Drop-ins: $24. breathandoneness.com
Pilates & Barre: Strengthen and Tone
Club Pilates Santa Cruz—Offering low-impact, full-body workouts, Club Pilates provides a variety of classes that challenge both mind and body. A complimentary 30-minute intro class shows off the state-of-the-art equipment and studio; additional classes are $39. clubpilates.com
BodyFit Santa Cruz—This Pilates fusion studio on the Westside features Pilates, barre, strength training and reformer classes for both group and private instruction. Offerings are designed to challenge and inspire at every level. Solo session: $90; Duet session: $62. bodyfitsantacruz.com
Unique Wellness Experiences
Pacific Edge Climbing Gym—Get on the wall to experience Pacific Edge’s Yoga Suspension System. This class combines a yoga flow with wall suspension and inversions. Drop-ins: $18. pacificedgeclimbinggym.com
Beach Yoga at Sunny Cove—Sessions at Sunny Cove Beach are offered by Pleaure Point Yoga. Experience the blend of sun, sand and sea as you practice yoga in a serene environment. Bring a large beach towel and/or yoga mat, water, sunscreen and sunglasses; layered clothing recommended. Drop-ins: $22. Offered year round; check mindbodyonline.com for cancellations due to weather.
A cool breeze cut through the chatter on the rooftop patio, where the weight of all the tech talk at a recent networking event was nearly tangible. Feeling slightly out of place, I struck up a conversation with a man in reflective wraparound sunglasses. As we talked, we realized we’d met before—during an interview at a local yoga studio, where he’d joined the conversation as the CEO.
This evening, I also learned he co-founded CrossFit, the privately held global fitness brand now estimated to generate over $100 million annually. Clearly Hot Elevation is in good hands. I ask him whether the popular yoga studio, which is slated for relocation in the fall of this year, is worried about competition. “No,” he confidently replies. “We know we just have to keep innovating.”
The comment stayed with me as I stepped into the elevator down to Pacific Avenue and all through the drive home. It somehow felt counterintuitive based on my traditional yoga teaching, which was more about cultivating inner self-awareness than even the postures we learned. But I get it: If consumers demand innovation, businesses need to respond to survive.
Still, I continued to wonder, does yoga really have to keep innovating to stay relevant? No doubt this practice will help you to strengthen, lengthen and balance your physical form. And a one-hour heated power vinyasa class is a great way to burn all kinds of calories. But is that really the true intention of yoga?
The Yoga Lifestyle
As yoga teacher Alisha Slaughter told a recent class of practitioners at Capitola’s Breath+Oneness, “With all the unrest in the world, I feel like yoga is an act of rebellion. By regulating our nervous system, refusing to get caught up in the confusion, we’re standing up to the man.”
Long before yoga was a billion-dollar industry with fancy gear and branded water bottles, it started as a quiet revolution—one that found fertile ground here on the edge of the Pacific. Santa Cruz may be known for its surf, redwoods and laid-back vibe, but it also holds a significant, if often unsung, place in the history of yoga in the West.
The roots of yoga in Santa Cruz stretch back to the 1960s and ’70s, when seekers began looking beyond conventional religion for spiritual guidance. At that time, Mount Madonna Center—now a world-renowned yoga and retreat destination—was just beginning to take shape.
Founded in 1978 by students of Baba Hari Dass, a silent monk from North India who taught classical Ashtanga Yoga and philosophy, Mount Madonna brought a deep authenticity to the region’s yoga culture. It wasn’t about perfecting your handstand or earning a teaching certificate; it was about transformation through disciplined practice, service and self-inquiry. That foundation continues to inspire generations of yogis today.
The practice arrived at UCSC in a series of classes led by Ann Barros in the late 1970s. Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz community was also home to other spiritual leaders and influences. From the Vedanta Society’s teachings on Pacific Avenue to community centers offering everything from breathwork to Kundalini, yoga became part of the city’s countercultural DNA. It was never just fitness. It was a lifestyle, a worldview, a spiritual practice.
TriYoga was one of the first yoga centers to appear in Santa Cruz. This flowing, meditative style of yoga described as systematic practice designed to awaken the body’s natural rhythms and inner wisdom was founded by internationally renowned teacher Kali Ray. The studio remained a viable part of the community from 1986 to 2019, and although no longer part of the Santa Cruz scene, the teaching continues on a global level today.
Eventually the Pacific Cultural Center, formerly located on Seabright Avenue, expanded the Ashtanga tradition from Mount Madonna to Midtown. It was also the studio where I first discovered yoga, becoming part of a community committed to practicing with renowned teacher Kelly Blaser.
In 1988 Yoga Center Santa Cruz was founded by Ruth Hille, Juliet Heizman and Susan Merritt as an Iyengar-based studio, a practice known for its use of props such as belts and blocks. Iyengar is a form of another style, Hatha yoga, which focuses on the structural alignment of the physical body through the development of asanas, or postures. Renowned teacher Kofi Busia later joined and continues to teach there today.
By the ’90s and early 2000s, the yoga scene had begun to expand. Village Yoga, the first local heated studio, arrived on the scene in 2001. Co-founder Amy Mihal explains she and Sally Adams “were young and just so passionate about sharing our love for the yoga” after completing their Bikram training in 1999. They were based in San Francisco and didn’t know much about Santa Cruz, other than there weren’t any hot yoga studios there. Looking back, Mihal says, she can’t believe they “had the gumption” to start Village Yoga.
It was around this time that yoga started to find its way into mainstream wellness culture. Surfers, college students, tech workers and new moms all started discovering the benefits of a regular practice. Yoga became less of a fringe pursuit and more of a community touchstone. By 2009 there were more than 20 yoga venues in Santa Cruz, each with a varying technique and purpose.
What made our hometown yoga scene unique wasn’t just its accessibility—it was its authenticity. This wasn’t LA or NYC, where yoga often came wrapped in hype and hashtags. In Santa Cruz, yoga was still grounded in service, spirit and community.
NAMASTE Yoga remains a tool for grounding, growth and grace. Photo: Wendy Yalom/Mount Madonna
Pandemic Pause and Quiet Return
When COVID-19 hit, yoga, like everything else, went quiet. Studios shuttered, classes moved online, and shared practice turned into solo sessions in front of laptop screens. Some longtime studios closed for good, while others decided it was time to get creative.
Teachers began offering donation-based classes in parks, on beaches and under redwoods. Online platforms blossomed, and many local instructors built followings far beyond city limits. In some ways, the pandemic reminded us of yoga’s most important teaching: how to return to ourselves when the world turns upside down.
Today, yoga in Santa Cruz is thriving once again—but with a renewed sense of purpose. It’s less about chasing the perfect pose and more about cultivating resilience, healing and connection. Most studios managed to reopen; some, like Yoga Center Santa Cruz, were forced to relocate. Last November they reopened in the former Hart’s Fabric space.
I spoke with Maya Lev, Yoga Center Santa Cruz’s studio owner since 1993. She says that in the months since their move, all of the teachers are experiencing a resurgence. It’s typical to have 25 to 28 students attend a Sunday morning class, most of whom Lev describes as “in the upper years,” including many former yogis, but more younger people as well. “After 30 plus years of teaching, I’m happy to say traditional yoga is alive and well. Like any good product, fads will come and go but thanks to word of mouth and loyal customers, quality always sustains.”
Village Yoga’s Amy Mihal says in terms of student trends, she sees so many types of people from all walks of life; a wide range of ages, a lot more men and younger people coming in. She attributes this to benefits which go beyond the physical. “For many people yoga also addresses a sense of mental well-being, emotional balance and just helping people feel grounded, stable, strong and steady not just in the physical plane but really in all of the parts of our humanness.”
A Living Legacy
Whether you first experienced yoga through a class at Cabrillo, a retreat at Mount Madonna, or a session at your local gym, chances are it left an impression. Because yoga is more than just a workout—it’s an invitation to turn inward. It’s a spiritual practice that’s not about religion; instead, it’s about tuning into your deepest sense of self. It’s how we remember to slow down and breathe in a world that too often urges us to speed up and scroll on.
“The heart of the personal and spiritual growth that is yoga’s true potential lies less in the specific movement sequences and more in how you pay attention as you move and how you apply the resulting insights to your daily life,” Dr. Amanda Blake writes in Your Body is Your Brain. “When you learn to pay attention in this way you can do so just as easily walking down the street as you can in the studio.”
As we continue to navigate uncertainty—climate change, social unrest, personal upheaval—yoga remains a powerful tool for grounding, growth and grace. And in Santa Cruz, it’s not going anywhere.
So unroll your mat. Inhale the salt air. Exhale the noise. And whatever your practice looks like, know you’re part of a movement rooted in wisdom, community and the simple act of coming home to yourself.
Monthly subscription services have become commonplace in our lives, with everything from magazines and streaming services to clothing bundles, specialty flowers and pet care boxes. But a member-based monthly service is now coming to an unexpected place: your doctor’s office.
A relatively new model for family physicians called Direct Primary Care is rapidly emerging. In this scenario, family physicians charge patients a monthly, quarterly or annual fee. According to the American Association of Family Physicians, this fee covers all or most primary care services, including clinical and laboratory services, consultative services, care coordination, and comprehensive care management.
Dr. Jeannine Rodems is the practice lead at Santa Cruz Direct Primary Care. After getting her undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz, she went to medical school at UCLA. She had been in private practice in Los Angeles, but felt dissatisfied and unfulfilled with the “onerous demands” of insurance companies that resulted in less time talking to and working directly with patients and more time spent on paperwork and regulatory burdens. In response, she founded Santa Cruz Direct Primary Care in 2016 and never looked back.
“Santa Cruz Direct Primary Care was founded to provide a simpler model of healthcare to deliver what matters most to patients—excellent care, personalized service, access when you need it, and affordability,” she says.
At Santa Cruz Direct, care is provided under a monthly fee, based on age. And here’s the twist: they don’t take insurance.
While that may sound counterintuitive or even a bit scary, Dr. Rodems makes an important distinction: “Health insurance is not health care.”
“And besides,” she adds, “many people have enormous deductibles or are under-insured, which creates potentially high risk for big surprising bills if someone needs an emergency room visit.”
In the Direct Primary Care model, the monthly costs are predictable. But the real advantage for patients can be summed up in one word: access.
In the insurance-based model, patients can find themselves waiting several weeks if not months for a basic appointment. And many times, that visit amounts to a terse 5- to 7-minute conversation with a doctor who is looking less at the patient and more at a tablet or computer because they need to capture insurance codes. They aren’t truly listening to or connecting with the patient to understand and resolve their issue. Even worse, that visit can often end with a referral to a specialist, and those appointments are even harder to come by—which further delays patient care.
Dr. Rodems founded her practice as a response to these challenges, which can be as frustrating for doctors as they are for patients. “We can see more patients at a lower cost without insurance,” she says.
This is due to the fact that the staff, operations and back-office systems needed to process and file insurance claims actually diminishes the care while increasing the cost, something the Direct Care model strives to eliminate.
“We aren’t beholden to the insurance world, so we don’t have all the overhead,” Dr. Rodems says. “This keeps costs down. It also enables us as doctors to get back to our roots…like ‘old-fashioned’ family physicians. We get to know you. There is trust and continuity. We can step back and really listen. We can coordinate care, manage complex conditions and advocate for our patients. The insurance-based, fee-for-service model doesn’t support that.”
At Santa Cruz Direct Primary Care, appointments are set at 30- to 60-minute increments to ensure unhurried visits and adequate time to address patient concerns and medical decision-making. Email, texting, phone and after-hours access to physicians is provided and included with the monthly fee. Collaboration with patients is prioritized and specialty care is possible due to the time the doctors can dedicate to each person’s unique needs.
Direct Care proponents believe that providing more time for detailed discussions with patients results in better long-term health, better treatment decisions, and better overall well-being for patients and their families. The Direct Care model also can provide a broader range of socio-economic groups with access to care at a lower cost than the insurance-based model.
A similar but slightly different spin on the “monthly doctor subscription” model is called “Concierge Care.” The main difference from Direct Primary Care is that Concierge Care tends to cater to higher-income populations and may continue to accept insurance and bill a patient’s insurance company for covered services. This creates higher overhead, which is why Concierge Care can be significantly more expensive than Direct Primary Care.
Dr. Rodems says that she has a variety of patients, but they all have one thing in common. “They have a deep desire to better connect with their doctor,” she says. “They want someone they can trust. Some patients have complex medical management needs. They need access and advocacy. That’s precisely what we provide.”
For more information about Santa Cruz Direct Primary Care, visit santacruzdpc.com.
The proposed 22-mile rail/trail from Watsonville to Natural Bridges will cost an estimated $4.3 billion to build and as much as $41 million a year to operate, according to a new study released by the Regional Transportation Commission—figures more than four times the estimated costs released in 2022 during the campaign in which voters approved the concept with 70 percent of the vote.
The RTC originally bought the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line from Union Pacific in 2012 for $14.2 million.
Public meetings were held last Monday and Thursday to go over a draft report released June 6, in which it listed the costs and estimated ridership of 3,500-6,000 passenger boardings per weekday for the year 2045.
“Boardings” and “ridership” refer to the number of times a person rides the train. A single person can account for multiple boardings in one day.
The project’s new price tag is a divisive topic among community members.
“We’re in this for the long haul and we know we’re years away from the community having to make funding decisions,” said Matt Farrell, the board chair for the interest group Friends of the Rail Trail. “RTC’s work helps us understand how rail transit could work and what it will take to make it a reality.”
Farrell referred to the current progress being made on the project as “something we can all agree is great news.”
Others are more skeptical.
Bud Colligan, who works with Greenway—the local organization in support of preserving the rail and creating a trail over it—said, “The $4.3 billion is absolutely beyond the capacity of Santa Cruz County taxpayers.”
The RTC should “invest in transportation that actually moves people,” he added, suggesting Santa Cruz METRO and ParaCruz as better options.
Speakers at the Monday meeting from the RTC and the engineering companies HDR and Fehr and Peers reviewed the data presented in the Zero Emission Passenger Rail Trail or ZEPRT’s Draft Executive Summary. The summary was published Friday and details the RTC’s preliminary plans for the 22-mile rail system.
HDR is a multinational engineering firm based in Nebraska that has offices in 15 countries. Fehr and Peers is a transportation planning and engineering firm with offices across the nation. They are headquartered in Walnut Creek.
In 2023, the county secured funding to finance a study conducted by HDR, the preliminary results of which are presented in the Executive Draft Summary. It was expected that the full study would take about two years, and the Final Concept Report is planned for submission sometime this fall.
According to the summary, the RTC projects a daily ridership of 3,500-6,000 boardings per weekday for the year 2045, although they plan to open the rail line sometime before that year.
The train cars that the RTC plans to use will have a maximum capacity of 234, with room for 116 seated and 118 standing passengers.
There is no exact figure for estimating weekend ridership, but it is expected to be lower than weekdays, which is in line with the RTC’s goal for the ZEPRT to primarily be used by commuters.
The current plan is for the rail system to operate daily from 6am to 10pm, with train service every 30 minutes. The RTC estimates that it will take 40 to 45 minutes for the train to travel from the southernmost stop in Pajaro to the northernmost one at Natural Bridges Drive in Santa Cruz. HDR Project Manager Mark McLaren said the train could “operate safely” at up to 60 mph.
One of the project’s long-term goals is to connect the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line to other rail systems in Castroville, Monterey, Gilroy and the Bay Area via the Pajaro station. An estimated 10% of riders would transfer in Pajaro, according to Fehr and Peers civil engineer Matt Haynes.
The annual cost of operation, with trains running every 30 minutes, is estimated to be up to $41 million. Alternatively, if the trains were to run every 60 minutes, the estimated annual cost could be up to $21 million.
There will be nine stations at the following locations: Pajaro, Downtown Watsonville, Aptos, New Brighton Road (intended for students of Cabrillo College), Capitola near Park Avenue, 17th Avenue, Seabright Avenue, Beach Street in Santa Cruz, and Natural Bridges Drive.
The Downtown Watsonville and Beach Street stations are expected to have the highest numbers of weekday riders, with 800-1,200 and 800-1,500 daily boardings, respectively. Capitola Station and Beach Street are projected to have the highest weekend ridership.
According to the RTC’s summary, the trains will be fully ADA compliant and will be able to accommodate multiple types of mobility devices and bicycles.
Much of the discussion at the Regional Transportation Commission Meeting on Thursday was about how the county intends to finance the project. According to McLaren, there are two possible federal grant sources: the Federal Transit Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration. McLaren said the FTA rarely gives grants above 50% of the cost, while the FRA has historically covered up to 80%. The county would apply on the condition that the ZEPRT is an inner-city rail system.
RTC officials said the cost to the county could vary from 20 to 50 percent of the total $4.3 billion and the board voted for the RTC staff to prepare a report estimating the taxpayer responsibilities for each amount.
According to RTC Executive Director Sarah Christensen, the largest grant to date that the county of Santa Cruz has received for the rail corridor was a $67 million Active Transportation Program grant in 2022.
However, there are portions of the overall cost that cannot be funded with federal or state grants, and therefore must be paid for by the community—such as the annual operating costs, which could be up to $41 million.
The county is also responsible for funding pre-construction environmental analysis, which could take about three years and would cost between $14 million and $16 million, according to McLaren.
In a response to these conditions of the project, Commissioner Kim De Serpa said, “People are tired of shouldering the burden of communities that can’t make ends meet.”
Commissioner Manu Koenig also questioned the financial feasibility of the project.
Koenig speculated that the county would have to raise its sales tax rate from where it currently sits at 9.75% to as high as 12.5% in order to be able to fund the project and the operating expenses. That increase would make Santa Cruz County’s sales tax the highest in California.
He called the expense a “crushing amount,” and said, “The pressure on our local sales tax capacity…would take all the oxygen out of the room for funding any other kind of service through sales tax pretty much ever again.”
When asked if she thought the county could realistically afford the project, Christenen said, “If we prioritize this project over other needs, and we are serious about delivering this project, our team is going to figure out how to get it done.”
De Serpa said she would not support “any effort to take money away from roads and infrastructure.”
She said that the community has other transportation-related needs, such as a lack of sheltered bus stops and roads in need of repair.
CLEAN FUEL The RTC proposes a hydrogen-powered commuter train and had a sample riding the tracks before the 2022 election. Photo: Brad Kava
The projected expenses and ridership numbers are based on preexisting rail transit systems throughout the United States that the RTC deems comparable to the ZEPRT. Some of these systems include the eBART in the Bay Area, SPRINTER in San Diego, and the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART).
However, the reliability of these comparisons is questionable.
SMART initially projected a daily ridership of 5,200 in a 2014 forecast submitted to the Federal Transit Administration. Sonoma and Marin counties have a combined population of about 736,219.
Santa Cruz County has a population of about 267,551 (according to the Santa Cruz County website), and the ZEPRT has a projected daily ridership of up to 6,000.
SMART did not meet its anticipated daily ridership rate of 5,200. In a Draft Strategic Plan for the years 2025-2030, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District said “the SMART pathway averaged 63,610 users per month” in 2024, which is about 2,120 per day.
They also said that one of their goals for the next five years is to “increase ridership to 5,000+ per day.”
Commissioner Steve Clark expressed doubt about the accuracy of the RTC’s comparison of the ZEPRT’s ridership model to that of San Diego’s SPRINTER rail.
Clark said that the Sonoma-Marin and San Diego metro areas have a “much larger population area,” and asked, “How do we get to that ambitious conclusion that we’re going to outperform those systems?”
The original projected daily ridership for SPRINTER was 11,000 in 2012. During the fiscal year 2023- 2024, SPRINTER reported an annual total of 1,822,849 boardings, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. That’s an average of about 4,994 boardings per day.
According to McLaren, stops at each station are expected to last about 90 seconds, approximately adding an additional 10 minutes to the total trip time for anyone traveling from Pajaro to Natural Bridges Drive.
Two previously proposed station locations—at Ohlone Parkway in Watsonville and 41st Avenue in Capitola—were removed from the updated proposal. Although these are well-traversed areas, McLaren said they were withdrawn from consideration because of concerns about losing ridership over excessive travel time.
The projected total cost of $4.3 billion is broken down into different categories.
The previously calculated Conceptual Railroad Bridge Replacement and Rehab Cost of $980 million is now included in several of the cost categories listed in the Draft Executive Summary, the largest of which is titled “Contingency.”
The Contingency cost of $1.283 billion is allotted for all of the unknowns regarding construction of the rail.
The $980 million cost was calculated earlier this spring because 28 of the 33 bridges along the rail line need replacing to make the project feasible, and the remaining five need repairs. However, this amount does not account for other expenditures, such as rail construction and the implementation of signal systems.
“At this point [the contingency] is essentially the insurance policy to make sure that as the project moves forward, there aren’t risks that come forward that would significantly impact the cost of the project in a way that’s detrimental,” McLaren said.
The Final Project Concept Report will be submitted sometime this fall.
Although it is a founding principle of our great democracy, many people do not understand what the absence of “The Rule of Law” really means.Because I lived in Guatemala for several years, it means to me that if your car is stolen there is zero possibility that you will get it back. It also means that if you own a business, you must pay “renta” (protection) to the local gang. A big part of the reason that our country is descending into chaos is the lack of respect for our laws. Who is responsible for this? Mostly, our current president, who ignores our laws, and his supporters that, after over 60 lawsuits concurred that Trump lost the 2020 election, continue to believe that the election was rigged. So, if you are one of those folks who believe that the 2020 election was rigged, you are an enemy of our beloved democracy, and I will stand in your way.
Don Eggleston | Aptos
RAIL/TRAIL OVERVIEW
The RTC has a bloated plan that is missing key components and will have to charge a ticket and parking amount that is so high [$21 to $32 per day] in order to cover costs that no one will ride. The rail design is for heavy freight that runs up the cost when there has been no appreciable freight on the present line for years. Where do you park the thousands of cars each day when there are no available spaces today?
This project should be changed to trail only. WHO ARE THE POTENTIAL RIDERS? The present-day traffic on Highway 1 is made up of workers coming from Watsonville to work in the shops and businesses of mid-county and Santa Cruz along with college students. These are the people we are trying to move to our rail system and most of them are low-income or no-income travelers and they cannot afford a break-even rail plan.
The current fare for a Metro all-day pass is $6. The Highway 1 widening project will improve the commute time, especially for buses. So why would a low-income person or student pay over $30 to ride the rail versus ride the bus for $6 which takes the same time to get from Watsonville to Santa Cruz?
Do you really believe that the public will approve a sales tax increase to 12%? I do not and several supervisors do not either.
Bill Beecher | Aptos
DEFEND FREEDOM
Our democracy is dying. It is being bludgeoned by fascists who care only about power. We have one hope, the same hope that has saved us before: Every American, regardless of party, must stand up and defend freedom. Donald Trump and his sycophants are attempting an armed takeover. Trump has amped up his scare tactics to justify turning our streets into battlefields. Then, by his order, he would pit our U.S. Armed Forces, sworn to support and defend the Constitution, against the very people who believe the same. Statements of solidarity, email petitions or letters to the editor are not enough. It is time to vote in the streets. Show up. Future generations are counting on us to defend the Republic. We are you: your relatives, your neighbors, your fellow countrymen, your fellow humans. We can do this. We MUST do this. We will do this.
The first thing you’ll notice in our cover story, a report from Ukraine in the center of a war, is that although the headline talks about the bravery and victimization of teen girls by Russian troops, there are no photos of the girls.
Santa Cruz author Steve Kettmann gave me a quick lesson on why not: we have to protect their identities.
But they did open up with Kettmann, a father of two children who spent a week doing relief efforts and researching a book on the war in a place few would dare to tread. Kettmann runs the Wellstone Center, a writing institute in Soquel, and has reported on politics and sports for national publications.
There are two photos that really tell the story: Kettmann and partners in front of a beautiful building, then another shot the next day, after it was bombed to rubble. I give Kettmann high praise not only for going there but also for filing the story on deadline over Father’s Day weekend. That’s what great journalists do.
A side note in keeping with the theme of an alternative entertainment weekly is that one of the people he met over there was Ken Casey, singer and bassist for Boston punk band the Dropkick Murphys, who was bringing aid, including an electric wheelchair for a victim of Russian bombing.
Kettmann was frightened by the cruelty of Russians so unabashedly attacking civilian targets and kidnapping young residents, and he was inspired by the courage of the Ukrainians.
“Ukraine will keep fighting, no matter what,” he writes. “Even if their cities are overrun and they have to take to the hills or the sewers or a remote location where they pilot drones that wreak havoc. As one Ukrainian told me, ‘One thing that Ukrainians do best is we can adapt to pretty much anything and make the best scenario out of the worst possible situation.’”
Thanks for reading.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
LOOKING FOR HOME There are so many pets at the SPCA shelter looking for a new home. Go check them out. Photograph by Rebecca Hall, rebeccahallphoto.com
GOOD IDEA
Community radio station KSQD, known as K-Squid, holds its fourth Broadcast and Podcast Workshop, planned for Salinas at the El Gabilan Library, July 19, 1:30-3:30pm. The series is scheduled to continue Aug. 20 in Marina and Sept. 18 in Monterey.
It will cover interviewing techniques and best practices, how to pick and use the right equipment and editing for radio and podcasts. All experience levels are welcome. To register contact Omar Guzman at Om**@ks**.org. K-SQUID broadcasts at 90.7 Santa Cruz, 89.7 Monterey, and 89.5 Salinas. Visit KSQD.org.
GOOD EATS
Remember Santa Cruz Burger Week? It’s now Bay Area Burger Week, with restaurants participating from the North Bay down to Silicon Valley. Visit BayAreaBurgerWeek.com or download the app for Android or Apple phones. The following local restaurants are participating: Belly Goat Craft Burgers, Churchill and Beers, Emerald Mallard, Hook & Line, Hula’s Tiki Bar and Grill, Laili Restaurant, Laughing Monk Brewing, Makai Island Kitchen & Groggery, Pana Food, Parish Publick House, Pono Hawaiian Kitchen and Tap, Riva Fish House, Rosie McCann’s, Salty Otter Sports Grill, Seabright Social and Sevy’s Bar + Kitchen.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“More parents would face the impossible choice between paying rent and buying groceries, and homelessness will increase.”
Aries writer Joseph Campbell was a world-renowned mythologist. His theories about the classic hero archetype have inspired many writers and filmmakers, including Star Wars creator George Lucas. As a young man, Campbell crafted the blueprint for his influential work during a five-year period when he lived in a rustic shack and read books for nine hours a day. He was supremely dedicated and focused. I recommend that you consider a similar foundation-building project, Aries. The coming months will be an excellent time for you to establish the groundwork for whatever it is you want to do for the rest of your long life.
TAURUS April 20-May 20
In Japan, komorebi refers to the dappled sunlight that streams through tree leaves. It names a subtle, ephemeral beauty that busy people might be oblivious to. Not you, I hope, Taurus! In the coming weeks, I invite you to draw on komorebi as an inspirational metaphor. Tune in to the soft illumination glimmering in the background. Be alert for flickers and flashes that reveal useful clues. Trust in the indirect path, the sideways glance, the half-remembered dream and the overheard conversation. Anything blatant and loud is probably not relevant to your interests. PS: Be keen to notice what’s not being said.
GEMINI May 21-June 20
In Finnish folklore, the Sampo is a magic artifact that generates unending wealth and good fortune. Here’s the catch: It can’t be hoarded. Its power only works when shared, passed around or made communal. I believe you are close to acquiring a less potent but still wonderful equivalent of a Sampo, Gemini. It may be an idea, a project or a way of living that radiates generosity and sustainable joy. But remember that it doesn’t thrive in isolation. It’s not a treasure to be stored up and saved for later. Share the wealth.
CANCER June 21-July 22
Tides don’t ask for permission. They ebb and flow in accordance with an ancient gravitational intelligence that obeys its own elegant laws. Entire ecosystems rely on their steady cyclical rhythms. You, too, harbor tidal forces, Cancerian. They are partially synced up with the earth’s rivers, lakes and seas, and are partially under the sway of your deep emotional power. It’s always crucial for you to be intimately aware of your tides’ flows and patterns, but even more than usual right now. I hope you will trust their timing and harness their tremendous energy.
LEO July 23-Aug. 22
Some jewelers practice an ancient Korean art called keum-boo, in which they fuse pure gold to silver by heat and pressure. The result is gold that seems to bloom from within silver’s body, not just be juxtaposed on top of it. Let’s make this your metaphor for the coming weeks, Leo. I believe you will have the skill to blend two beautiful and valuable things into an asset that has the beauty and value of both—plus an extra added synergy of valuable beauty. The only problem that could possibly derail your unprecedented accomplishment might be your worry that you don’t have the power to do that. Expunge that worry, please.
VIRGO Aug. 23-Sept. 22
Some Indigenous cultures keep track of time not by clocks but by natural events: “the moon when the salmon return,” “the season when shadows shorten,” “the return of the rain birds.” I encourage you to try that approach, Virgo. Your customary rigor will benefit from blending with an influx of more intuitive choices. You will be wise to explore the joys of organic timing. So just for now, I invite you to tune out the relentless tick-tock. Listen instead for the hush before a threshold cracks open. Meditate on the ancient Greek concept of kairos: the prime moment to act or a potential turning point that’s ripe for activation.
LIBRA Sept. 23-Oct. 22
Botanists speak of “serotiny,” a plant’s ability to delay seed release until the environment is just right. Some pinecones, for instance, only open after a fire. What part of you has been patiently waiting, Libra? What latent brilliance has not been ready to emerge until now? The coming weeks will offer catalytic conditions—perhaps heat, perhaps disruption, perhaps joy—that will be exactly what’s needed to unleash the fertile potency. Have faith that your seeds will draw on their own wild intelligence.
SCORPIO Oct. 23-Nov. 21
One of your superpowers is your skill at detecting what’s unfolding beneath the surfaces. It’s almost like you have X-ray vision. Your ability to detect hidden agendas, buried secrets and underground growth is profound. But in the coming weeks, I urge you to redirect your attention. You will generate good fortune for yourself if you turn your gaze to what lies at the horizon and just beyond. Can you sense the possibilities percolating at the edges of your known world? Can you sync up your intuitions with the future’s promises? Educated guesses will be indistinguishable from true prophecies.
SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22-Dec. 21
Sagittarius-born Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) got a degree in law and economics and began a career teaching those subjects at the university level. But at age 30, he had a conversion experience. It was triggered when he saw a thrilling exhibit of French Impressionist painters and heard an enthralling opera by Richard Wagner. Soon he flung himself into a study of art, embarking on an influential career that spanned decades. I am predicting that you will encounter inspirations of that caliber, Sagittarius. They may not motivate you as drastically as Kandinsky’s provocations, but they could revitalize your life forever.
CAPRICORN Dec. 22-Jan. 19
The ancient Egyptians revered the River Nile’s annual flooding, which brought both disruption and renewal. It washed away old plant matter and debris and deposited fertile silt that nourished new growth. In the coming weeks, Capricorn, I suspect you will experience a metaphorical flood: a surge of new ideas, opportunities and feelings that temporarily unsettle your routines. Rather than focusing on the inconvenience, I suggest you celebrate the richness this influx will bring. The flow will ultimately uplift you, even if it seems messy at first.
AQUARIUS Jan. 20-Feb. 18
Medieval stonemasons worked not just in service to the immediate structures they made. They imagined eternity, laying foundation blocks in cathedrals they knew they would never live to see completed. I think you are being invited to do similar work: soulful construction whose fruits may not ripen for a while. A provocative conversation you have soon may echo for years. A good habit you instill could become a key inheritance for your older self. So think long, wide and slow, dear Aquarius. Not everything must produce visible worth this season. Your prime offerings may be seeds for the future. Attend to them with reverence.
PISCES Feb. 19-March 20
In the frigid parts of planet Earth, some glaciers sing. As they shift and crack and melt, they emit tones: groans, pulses, crackles and whooshes. I believe your soul will have a similar inclination in the coming weeks, Pisces: to express mysterious music as it shifts and thaws. Some old logjam or stuck place is breaking open within you, and that’s a very good thing. Don’t ignore or neglect this momentous offering. And don’t try to translate it into logical words too quickly. What story does your trembling tell? Let the deep, restless movements of your psyche resound.
Bests include pulled pork sandwich with homemade barbecue sauce, and the Zesty Zayante with spicy mayo, salami, pepper jack, pepperoncini and jalapeño.
LaRussell has been called hip-hop’s #1 prospect. LaRussell has a purity about him, in his authentic storytelling, his “pay-what-you-want” merch and shows, and his sonic backing, featuring harp, flute and small choir — 3pm Saturday at The Catalyst.
There’s a song by country singer Trace Adkins, “All Hat, No Cattle,” based on the phrase applied to people who dress the part of a cowboy without having lived the life.
Look out onto the packed dance floor of Western Wednesday, the ascendant monthly live country western band dance party at Moe’s Alley, and see if you can gauge who’s...
TriYoga was one of the first yoga centers to appear in Santa Cruz, described as systematic practice designed to awaken the body’s natural rhythms and inner wisdom.
A relatively new model for family physicians called Direct Primary Care is rapidly emerging. Family physicians charge patients a monthly, quarterly or annual fee.
There are two photos that really tell the story: Kettmann and partners in front of a beautiful building, then another shot the next day, after it was bombed to rubble.
