Local glassblower Peter Vizzusi has found a following with his unique creations As Peter Vizzusi moves quickly (he does everything quickly) down the stairs leading to his glassblowing studio, I am plunged into a King Solomon's mines of dazzling hand-crafted treasure. Arranged like celestial gems, row after row, are the iridescent striped, dotted, and brilliantly hued...

Full Cycle Tawn Kennedy of Greenways to School is introducing a new program that lets Watsonville kids earn bikes by helping out their community. Students at an eight-week summer Bike Tech class at Pajaro Valley High School can work for a new set of wheels by volunteering— helping at school gardens, or with events, for example....

Santa Cruz City Council finds a compromise on campaign finance reform The debate over campaign finance reform in Santa Cruz took a surprising turn last week, when Santa Cruz City Councilmember David Terrazas proposed reinstating a voluntary limit on campaign expenditures for City Council races, after joining in a vote against a similar proposal two...

UCSC humor study literally pulls legs and yanks chains to measure brain’s responses The physical act of pulling someone’s leg can make you a funnier person. At least for a short period of time following the act, says Patrawat Samermit, a Ph.D student of cognitive psychology at UCSC. The same is true for yanking someone’s chain....

Films This WeekCheck out the movies playing around town.With: Reviews, Movie Times click here.Santa Cruz area movie theaters > New This Week BEGIN AGAIN See review. (R) 101 minutes. Starts today (Wednesday July 2). DELIVER US FROM EVIL Eric Bana stars in this horror thriller based on the supposedly true story of an NYPD officer who...

Saturday is Independence Day, and the 238th birthday of the United States. The U.S. Sun is 12 degrees Cancer, and Sirius, the blue star where love originates, is 13 degrees Cancer. Sirius and the U.S. are aligned. We are in the sign of Cancer now, the sign that receives and distributes ray 3 (which contains new information) and ray...

Darlingside reach back to their heroes for a folk-rock revelation on new EP They say that timing is everything, and for the string-based indie folk quartet Darlingside, this has certainly proved true. The circumstances which led to the creation of their newest release, the Woodstock EP—which finds them collaborating with singer-songwriter and fellow Massachusetts native Heather...

Researchers at UCSC have discovered an innovative and totally gross way to revolutionize the production of hydrogen fuel using only sewage and sunlight It's midnight on the bottom floor of UCSC's Physical Science building. The doors are locked and the motion sensor lights have been dim for hours, but doctoral student Hanyu Wang is still in...

Pop parody, faux-faith merge in Cabrillo Stage’s energetic ‘Altar Boyz’ To kick off its 2014 summer musical theater season, Cabrillo Stage delivers a terrific production of an oddball show, Altar Boyz. A long- running hit that ran off-Broadway from 2005 to 2010, the show is designed as a revue-style jukebox musical; it purports to be a...