The New Group of World Servers is preparing for the Gemini Solar Festival occurring next Thursday, June 12, at the time of the full moon. This is the third of three spring festivals (Aries, Taurus, Gemini), and is accompanied by the cosmic forces of reconstruction.  The festival is also called the Festival of Humanity and World...

Doughnuts are an American staple. But San Francisco’s Bespoke Doughnuts is completely flipping the whole idea on its head with flavors like Roasted Pear and Walnut, Herb Pesto and Hummus and Honey Lemon Mint. The company was formed last year by Santa Cruz ex-pat Reilly Meehan and partner Brian Christie. They are joining forces this Friday...

New plan seeks to prepare historic landmark for the next 100 years  It extends 2,745 feet over the cyan waters of the Monterey Bay, and about 22 feet above them, atop a colonnade of more than 4,500 Douglas fir piles. The Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf has served the city for 100 years, and is an anomaly...

Five things we’ve learned from city budget meetings It’s budget season again, and things in Santa Cruz’s city government are looking up—thanks, partly, to a rebounding economy and the recently increased transient occupancy taxes. Santa Cruz also got its bond rating upgraded to AA+, putting the city’s credit on an equal footing with the nation’s. The...

Santa Cruz celebrates the Rio Theatre’s anniversary  The Rio Theatre is hosting a birthday bash, and guests are expected to party like it’s 1949. It’s the venerable local venue’s 65th, and her caretakers are inviting the community members that have supported her throughout the years to come and have some fun. “Our celebration is for the...

Homelessness and drug use. We need to take care of our population in town, and we need to help the people that need help. Damon ShanleSanta Cruz | Controller         Petty crime related to drug addiction and use. I think nothing comes close to that. Laura BatchaSanta Cruz | Executive Director    ...

Films This WeekCheck out the movies playing around town.With: Reviews, Movie Times click here.Santa Cruz area movie theaters > ....... New This Week COLD IN JULY Michael C. Hall stars in this slice of Texas noir as an ordinary guy cheered on for shooting a burglar who broke into his house, who then has to contend...

When local folk and bluegrass quartet Steep Ravine prepared to record their debut full-length album, Trampin’ On, they wanted to make sure it was a very different experience than the one they had recording their first EP a few months earlier. “When we recorded our EP, we turned our bass player Alex Bice’s bedroom into a...

Gold Rush town inspires Little Hurricane’s new album When listening to Gold Fever—the new album from San Diego duo Little Hurricane, who play the Catalyst on Thursday—there are moments when you cannot help but be transported back to California’s Gold Rush years. The album is rugged and raw, and the songs feel so earthy that you...

  ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ doesn’t play fair with its mutants It’s just not the same, the fifth time around. Merging the plot of Chris Marker’s La Jetee with the adventures of the usual gang of mutants, X-Men: Days of Future Past continues the unresolvable debate over minority acceptance, between the anxious liberal Charles Xavier...