Films This WeekCheck out the movies playing around town.With: Reviews, Movie Times click here.Santa Cruz area movie theaters > ....... New This Week THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 Jennifer Lawrence returns again as Katniss Everdeen—along with most of the original cast—in this first installment of the third and last book in Suzanne Collins’ dystopian futurist...

John Carpenter’s truly bizarre ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ gets a cult In 2012, Wesley Freitas wrote the music, sang lead vocals, and directed the video for “Batman Maybe,” a Dark-Knight-themed parody of Carly Rae Jepsen's song “Call Me Maybe” that was perfectly timed with the release of the last installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy....

Dogville. The best movie that everyone else hates.June Rose, Santa Cruz, Sock Flinger                 The Lone Ranger. The jokes were good, but it was very subtle. It was not very well received, I don’t know why.Brisia Alcaraz, Santa Cruz, Full-Time Mom           Kids, from 1995....

Owning a burrito joint isn’t all fun and games Jose Hernandez, who owns Jalapenos Taqueria, is always grinning from behind the cash register, and lately there’s a lot to smile about. The Laurel Street taqueria’s affordable burritos are some of the tastiest downtown. And the business is preparing to do a remodel this year, when it...

A nuanced kale salad recipe, holiday wine pairings, and local finalists in the 2015 Good Food Awards Tired of that delicious but predictable green bean casserole? Bored with a salad that doesn’t fit in with stuffing and mashed potatoes? How about an updated kale salad this Thanksgiving?  Stay with me. Dried blueberries could be the new...

There is no misunderstanding just how important music is to Joshua Lowe. “I’ll love my child and wife until I die, and I will play music,” says Lowe, who sings and plays the guitar and banjo in his band, Joshua Lowe and the Juncos. “Those are pretty much the only concrete truths in my life.” His...

It’s time to start thinking about which wines will take center stage at our holidays—be it to serve with dinner or to give as a gift. I highly recommend this delightful wine I came across recently: River Run’s Carignane 2012 ($25). Sometimes known as the “forgotten grape,” Carignane wine is not always easy to find, even...

Choo-choo Trestle It’s full steam ahead for construction on the new La Selva Beach train trestle. It took about a week to tear down the rusty structure built in 1926, and the new bridge is expected to be completed on schedule, by the end of December. Train service in the county is on hold indefinitely while...

Jewel Theatre delivers witty backstage comedy ‘Enter the Guardsman’ It’s a plot as old as the theater itself: a husband disguises himself as another man to try to woo his own wife and test her fidelity. It was already a little creaky when Hungarian dramatist Ferenc Molnar made it the basis of his 1910 farce The...

Eye Music will showcase poetry performance by American Sign Language masters Affable and intense in a self-effacing way, Larry Polansky could easily be dubbed a renaissance man if he weren’t so modest about his far-ranging expertise. Musician, composer, software designer, experimental educator, and tireless scholar, Polansky is the force behind the upcoming—and unprecedented—Eye Music: American Sign...