Musical Brothers Moshe and Boaz Vilozny return to The Ugly Mug for a special reunion show on March 27th.
Boaz was an early member of The Devil Makes Three and penned the DM3 tunes, Working Man’s Blues, and Holding On. Moshe started a popular world music group called Universal Language while he was a student at UC Santa Cruz.
“I was the singer-songwriter for Universal Language. We headlined the Catalyst main stage. We played Reggae on the River and Sierra Nevada Brewery. We were a well-known group,” says Moshe from his home in Santa Cruz.
“I was born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Santa Cruz, California. I come from a musical household and I first fell in love with music as a child singing songs in Hebrew with my family. I studied piano and saxophone at an early age, switching to guitar in middle school when I got my hands on my dad’s old guitar. That’s when I started writing, singing, and recording my own songs,” says Moshe.
Universal Language began as a fun project amidst studies, grew wings, and it soared. Other notable members of the band, the Staiano brothers, Gianni and Randall went on to become the funk gods known as 7Come11. Moshe was finally playing the songs that he had written in high school with a full band. Life was good.
“I released my first full-length studio album “Revolución” as part of my capstone project as a Language Studies major at UCSC. The album features my original songs in English, Spanish and Hebrew,” Moshe says.
Moshe could also be seen working in rooms all over town, from the legendary Palookaville, to the historic Catalyst and finally for over a decade at the beloved Moe’s Alley.
“I did my CD release party with Universal Language at Moe’s in 2005,” Moshe begins. “That show sold out, and the owner, Bill Welch, hired me to help book more diverse music than just blues. I started doing all the world music stuff and then Latin stuff. And then that ended up being a full-time thing. I thought I was just going to do it like while I was in college, but I ended up doing it for over 15 years,” says Moshe.
“When my brother had his first kid, he left Devil Makes Three,” says Moshe. “But he always kept writing. He has a new EP out called Lay Awake, and that’s on all of the platforms.
“As time marches on, people grow and get families of their own, and don’t necessarily want to be on tour all the time.”
At this rare show the brothers will do some solo work and then perform a set together. What makes it doubly auspicious is that they both have a deep connection to the Ugly Mug. “This year marks 30 years since Ugly Mug opened in 1996. And my first gig was in 1996 at The Ugly Mug. My brother, Boaz, worked as a barista at the Ugly Mug in 1998. And that’s where he met his now wife, who was also a barista there,” says Moshe.
When COVID happened, like most people, Moshe began to reconsider what a career as a musician looked like, and that’s when he began to work on his teaching credential. “I had two young kids at that point. And I’m like, I’m not just going to wait around and see what happens. I’m going to go ahead and just be ready. I got my teaching credential and that’s how I ended up moving into working as the music educator at Gault & Monarch schools in Santa Cruz.”
Moshe considers this new phase as a teacher his second act.
“I did 20 years of booking. And now I’m teaching music and I’m also still performing. The first couple of years I really didn’t feel like I had time to do my own music, but now I’m feeling inspired. I got asked by Jackie Green to open for him and I’m talking with Redwood Mountain Fair and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass again. That was the last big event I did before COVID.”
Moshe has a new 7-inch vinyl that he’s really proud of, and it will be available at the show. Pressed by Atomic out of Oregon, it has all the trimmings. With cover jacket art and four songs.
“It’s 10 bucks for the 7-inch,” the says. “And I’m heading to Portland this summer and they’re easier to deal with not melting than full albums.”
Some of the tracks have been released from the EP including, Sand in My Pocket, and Old Shoes, and are also available on all the platforms. And at this show, many of both brothers’ songs will be performed live. Boaz is visiting from Portland, Maine and this is his first Santa Cruz appearance in several years.
Moshe and Boaz Vilozny perform on Friday, March 27 at 7pm at the Ugly Mug CoffeeHouse, 4640 Soquel Dr, Soquel. Tickets are $20 and available at cafeugly.com
It turns out Andrew McCarthy, the actor whose earnest, likable presence helped define an era of 1980s popular movies, from St. Elmo’s Fire to Pretty in Pink to Less Than Zero, doesn’t just play a writer on the screen, he really is a writer—a good writer with a lot to say.
McCarthy will be at the Rio Theater on Saturday, March 28, talking about his latest book, which I can’t recommend enough, if you’re someone who has wondered why men aren’t able to make a priority of friendship the way women do, especially as they move from the active merry-go-round of the twenties (captured in St. Elmo’s Fire) to the inevitably more isolating forties and fifties and sixties.
“On the rare occasion I did form a new connection, the motivation to nurture it was often lacking,” McCarthy writes in Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America.
“Whether a reaction to the hollowness of some insincere friendships made during my early fame, or a fearful nature, or just becoming set in my habits, I found myself uninterested, even unwilling, to reach out to new friends. No matter—I was happy in my own company and with that of my wife and children. And there was always work. Life felt full—at least full enough.”
Then one day at home in New York, McCarthy’s 21-year-old son Sam asked him: “You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?”
McCarthy started thinking about it and took a kind of inventory on his friends, and had to face the fact that friendships that once felt vital and nuanced now felt stale and at times rote. He and his friends didn’t see each other that much. When they had time to talk, it was usually just enough time to catch up, not to explore anything in a meaningful way.
His son’s question set McCarthy off on an internal journey and an epic road trip, like Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty racing around the country in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, seeking out friends to reconnect or recharge or just explore friendship in all its facets.
This is a fun, full-speed-ahead travelogue. “Something on my dashboard pings, breaking my road-induced trance,” McCarthy writes in an early chapter on visiting Ohio. “I’ve gone too far west. But the ping is telling me I need to fill my gas tank. On the outskirts of Brookville, Ohio, I turn into what can only be viewed as further deterioration of American culture and ingenuity—the combination gas station/convenience store/fast-food restaurant, which has become inescapable across the country. These over-lit, soulless pods of supposed plenty have cancerized the environs of small and midsize towns, where other, more locally nurturing options might prosper. That this is low-hanging fruit for complaint does not make it any less true. I find such places depressing in their ‘convenience’—peddling alienation.”
McCarthy is that rare sort of writer who brings you along with him on the ride, which fits, since it was actually in travel writing that he found his voice. He talks about a fall 1995 day in Vietnam like it was yesterday. He was walking down the street in Saigon when a friendly kid on a scooter pulled up next to him and struck up a conversation.
“Hop on!” the kid said. “I give you ride.”
“Leave me alone,” McCarthy told the 16-year-old kid.
That wasn’t happening. McCarthy climbed aboard that scooter and spent the day with the boy. Before that, he’d been an actor who loved to travel and wanted to write about it, and after that, he found his voice as a travel writer.
“That day changed my life, yeah, absolutely,” he said. “He wouldn’t leave me alone.
He showed me where his mother painted the public garden, where his father got arrested, and the temple where he was dragged to. That was the first thing I ever wrote. I was so excited in my hotel room, I just grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down what happened. … I felt like myself from the toes up. I wrote that and just thought: My god, there I am.”
McCarthy’s friends’ project could end up taking him forward to uncharted territory. It’s one thing to tell stories from your days as a young film and stage actor, and quite another to veer off in an unexpected new direction like this, basically offering a kind of intervention to increasingly friendless guys in their forties and fifties and sixties who could use a nudge. As the usually stodgy Kirkus Reviews gushed in a positive review, “Thoughtful and well written—and a good prompt to call an old friend.”
McCarthy’s 10,000-mile trip was not just about talking to old friends; he also looked for opportunities to talk about men and friendship at any chance he had. “People are reluctant to discuss friendship because it has no immediacy, no monetary value,” McCarthy writes, but give them an opening, and they often surprise you.
“The rewards of my cross-country efforts far outweighed the discomforts of the road or any emotional risk I at times felt,” he writes in the book’s final pages. “These reunions have helped me to reclaim access to an expansive, secure, playful, and generous part of myself I thought had been worn down by life, or at the very least, a part I felt I could no longer readily access. How grateful I am to have been proven wrong.”
See Andrew McCarthy 7pm Saturday at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, tickets at tickettailor.com. 1 ticket + 1 book ($33.97) or Double package with 2 tickets + 1 book ($39.98). Photo with the actor included.
Jörg Reddin’s final concert with this season’s SC Baroque Festivals was a sensory tour through the vocal glories of the 16th century. Given fresh voice by the superb UC Santa Cruz Chamber Singers directed by Michael McGushin, the program offered a steady stream of enchanting solos, duets, trios and quartets, each underscored by the bass work of Roy Whelden and lively harpsichord of virtuoso Jonathan Salzedo.
Outstanding programming in this penultimate concert of the Baroque Festival’s 2026 season had the audience cheering its approval.
Ensemble Monterey delivers
Lori Schulman’s adroit vocal abilities and the edgy spirituality of Caroline Shaw’s compositions are a perfect match. Shaw, the youngest Pulitzer Prize-winner for Music, moves through musical genres like smoke on the water. She writes outside predictable musical tropes, using the voice as an ecstatic cry, or moan, or gospel prayer. In her compositions—and in Schulman’s effortless vocals—the human voice becomes renewed as both animal and angel, reaching into new sonic territories.
Shaw, a founder of Roomful of Teeth, likes to lean the voice against percussion punctuation, and in the two pieces Schulman interpreted the strings played as syncopated percussion.
Great programming on the part of Director Erica Horn’s musical team. As was the pairing of Peter Lemberg’s satiny oboe and Schulman’s coloratura on Bach’s Wedding Cantata. Supported and interlaced with the Ensemble’s impeccable instrumentalists—David Dally and Shannon D’Antonio on violin, Miriam Oddie on viola, Kristin Garbeff cello and Christine Craddock on bass.
The final piece of the evening, a lengthy five-movement Schubert Piano Quintet in A Major, amounted to a concerto spotlighting the fiery piano work of Lucy Faridany. This romantic piece showed off the ensemble dynamics, each instrument organically in sync with each other. However, so spellbinding were the previous two Shaw songs that the Schubert felt a bit anti-climactic. EM’s next concert in Santa Cruz is Sunday, April 12, 7 pm at Messiah Lutheran Church. ensemblemonterey.org
Save the date for the SC Chorale
Mark your calendars now for the Bach-intensive May concerts by the region’s top choral ensemble—the Santa Cruz Chorale directed by Christian Grube. A quartet of magnificent cantatas for chorale, soloists and chamber orchestra, will fill Holy Cross Church with the sounds of the matchless maestro of intricate vocal music. May 23 – 8pm, May 24 – 4pm. Holy Cross Church, 126 High St, SC santacruzchorale.org
KYLE SMITH Kyle Smith is constantly switching lanes. Threading his California Reggae roots with hip hop, punk rock, and pop, he has created a sound that flows through genres like water. Hailing from Ventura, California, his songs live in the uncomfortable territory of mistakes, addiction, and imperfection. Lost Cause debuted at #2 on iTunes Reggae Albums in 2021, and the momentum hasn’t let up since, evidenced by a relentless touring schedule and a consistent output of new music. Enraptured by hooks that lodge themselves in the chest long after the set ends, his fanbase of self-described outcasts suggest something deeply resonant arises from Kyle Smith. SHELLY NOVO
LAKECIA BENJAMIN Coming out of New York City’s Washington Heights, alto sax player, band leader and composer Lakecia Benjamin broke out on her recorded debut Retox in 2012. Benjamin’s style and skill had already earned her opportunities to work with a wide array of artists including the Count Basie Orchestra, Clark Terry, Harry Belafonte, Kool & the Gang, Macy Gray, The Roots and Stevie Wonder. As a recording artist and top-billed performer, her synthesis of jazz, funk, rhythm and blues and hip-hop elements has earned Benjamin numerous accolades. Her song “Noble Rise” was nominated for a 2026 Grammy in the Best Jazz Performance category. BILL KOPP
INFO: 7pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $58/adv, $63/door. 427-2227.
AMERICANA
MOSHE & BOAZ VILOZNY The Santa Cruz-raised Vilozny brothers (Moshe and Boaz) return to The Ugly Mug for a special reunion show. Boaz was one of the founding members of The Devil Makes Three and penned the DM3 tunes, “Working Man’s Blues,” and “Holding On.” Moshe started a world music group called Universal Language, who headlined the Catalyst main stage, played festivals and Chico’s Sierra Nevada Big Room. Over the years, both brothers have raised families and are chomping at the bit for another gig at Ugly Mug. Moshe played his first gig there in 1996. And Boaz worked as a barista in 1998, which is where he met his wife. DNA
AMADEUS While he only lived to age 35, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was staggeringly prolific, composing more than 800 works and exerting a major influence upon Beethoven, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. Peter Shaffer paid tribute to Mozart by writing the historical fiction play Amadeus in 1979. His Tony Award-winning play was adapted into a motion picture in 1984. That Amadeus won eight Academy Awards. Santa Cruz Symphony combines music performance with dramatic readings adapted from the play. An additional performance will be held Sunday March 29 at 2pm. That concert takes place at the Henry J. Mello Center. BK
INFO: 7:30pm, Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St., Santa Cruz. $45-$130. 420-5240.
FUNK
MILD UNIVERSE
MILD UNIVERSE The universe can be cold, chaotic and uncertain. Then again, it can be chill, groovy and flowing. Or maybe that’s just Mild Universe, the funk-soul-rock collective hailing from San Francisco. From their humble beginnings in 2019, the group has grown to a seven-piece ensemble that synergizes funk grooves with soul vocals all sailing on a river of in-the-pocket drumming and lively horns. Singer Jamie Zimmer has the kind of voice that is calming, like the voice of wisdom coming from another plane of existence. Their debut album, Everything Must Change, came out in 2024 and was recorded in only two days, which is incredibly hard to believe with its rich textures and nuanced flavors. MAT WEIR
QINGMING FESTIVAL The MAH is honoring the annual Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping, festival. This holiday honors our ancestors by taking time to clean their graves and leave offerings. Starting at 9:30am, participants will gather at the museum. From there, folks will walk from the museum to the Chinatown Dragon Archway to enjoy a historical talk. Afterwards, they will walk to the Evergreen Cemetery to commemorate the holiday and begin cleaning the graves and making offerings. This event offers not just a chance to connect with ancestors; it also gives participants the opportunity to connect with community and share traditions with each other. ISABELLA MARIE SANGALINE
INFO: 9:30am, The MAH, 705 Front Street, Santa Cruz. 429-1964.
MONDAY 3/30ROCK
NICK LOWE Nick Lowe has been in the music business long enough to have produced Elvis Costello’s earliest records. Even so, he’s managed to reinvent himself as the sharp-tongued but tender-hearted, solo songwriter, who carries an easy authority of someone who has simply seen more of life than most. Since The Impossible Bird in 1995, he’s quietly assembled an impressive series of late-career catalogs in rock, each album warm and wickedly well-crafted. The New York Times called his live show “elegant and nearly devastating,” which reads exactly right for a man who makes wit look effortless. SN
INFO: 8pm, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz. $37. 423-8209.
TUESDAY 3/31
ACOUSTIC
JOHN DOE WITH DARIUS KOSKI It’s a meeting of the punk minds. Despite his inconspicuous name, John Doe is known as one of the legendary punk song writers for his work in the seminal 1977 Los Angeles punk band, X. Of course, that is only the tip of the musical iceberg as Doe has 15 solo and collaborative albums under his belt, is an acclaimed poet and has a lengthy list of IMDB credits longer than the president’s tie. He will be joined by Darius Koski, the lead guitar player for the San Francisco–by-way-of-Santa Cruz punk act, Swingin’ Utters. True punk icons! MW
NICK LOWE Nick Lowe has been in the music business long enough to have produced Elvis Costello’s earliest records. Even so, he’s managed to reinvent himself as the sharp-tongued but tender-hearted, solo songwriter, who carries an easy authority of someone who has simply seen more of life than most. Since The Impossible Bird in 1995, he’s quietly assembled an impressive series of late-career catalogs in rock, each album warm and wickedly well-crafted. The New York Times called his live show “elegant and nearly devastating,” which reads exactly right for a man who makes wit look effortless. SN
INFO: 8pm, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz. $37. 423-8209.
WEDNESDAY 4/1
EXPERIMENTAL JAZZ
THE THING A Swedish experimental jazz band called The Thing? Your ears should be pre-fluffed to take in the international flavor. Apply appropriate seasonings. The Thing has been on the Swedish Free Music scene for 26 years, and Mats Gustafsson on saxophone has been disintegrating old form structures and replacing them with alien-inspired, bizarre soundscapes. Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) bring thunder and driving rhythms that fuel Gustafsson’s breathtaking solos. DNA
INFO: 8pm, Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. $25 713-5492.
In 2020, Hillary Talbot was living in Santa Cruz, spending her off-hours surfing, sailing, and snow skiing when she could get away and her on-hours working as an advisor to startups and small businesses. She ran a company she founded, Sail Community Capital, that helped entrepreneurs grow their businesses by raising capital from their community.
“Many company founders have great ideas and passion for their work, but reach a point when they have the potential to grow, need to grow to sustain operations, but don’t know how to raise money and scale,” said Talbot. “They don’t know how to approach investors, maintain presentable books, and are generally maxed out in time and energy.”
The energetic Talbot could help with all of these things.
Also in 2020, Jenny Kuan was teaching entrepreneurship at Cal State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) and thinking about her research from her days as a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, where she studied networks and how networks form, which led her to the early venture capitalists. Venture capital (VC) is a highly networked industry and Kuan discovered that collaboration was vital in the formative years of VC in Silicon Valley.
Kuan learned something else. Female founders receive only two percent of VC funds in the US, minority founders are largely overlooked, too, and few founders outside of Silicon Valley, especially those who did not attend Stanford or Harvard, are funded by VC.
ALL PRO Jenny Kuan was raised in Michigan and moved to California to attend Stanford, where she received a master’s degree in industrial engineering. In her spare time, when most of us would have been napping, she also became a professional violinist. PHOTO: Contributed
At CSUMB, Kuan had an idea sparked by a female colleague who had been an executive in a large tech firm that was acquiring other companies, selling off divisions, and making big financial moves. The colleague felt she had been left out of conversations her male colleagues were having, even though she was just as senior.
“I realized that if we could educate experienced women on venture capital, we might support more female founders,” Kuan recalled. “I talked to my colleague about starting a class and what I should teach. She loved the idea.”
Kuan went to work, developed a course—Venture Capital for Women 101—and to make it accessible, she planned to teach it during lunch and free of charge.
At this time, Kuan and Talbot crossed paths.
GROWING BUSINESS Hillary Talbot ran a company she founded, Sail Community Capital, that helped entrepreneurs grow their businesses by raising capital from their community. PHOTO: Madelon Martin
“I met Jenny when I was invited to be a guest speaker at the monthly meeting of CSUMB’s Institute for Innovation and Economic Development (IED),” said Talbot. “Jenny was involved with IED and she was interested in my work.” (Kuan is now the executive director of IED.)
“Hillary was doing really cool projects and operating all on her own, which I thought was incredible,” Kuan said.
A little backstory: Talbot grew up in Vermont and moved to Lake Tahoe so she could Alpine ski race while receiving a BA in international studies with a minor in entrepreneurship from Sierra Nevada University. She began supporting small businesses at an incubator in the North Lake Tahoe region and by the time she was in her thirties became an early-stage investor, a consultant with California Manufacturing and Technology Consulting (CMTC), and a four-time business founder. She moved to Santa Cruz in 2017 to live with her then-boyfriend and made it the home base of Sail Community Capital.
Jenny Kuan was raised in Michigan and moved to California to attend Stanford, where she received a master’s degree in industrial engineering. In her spare time, when most of us would have been napping, she also became a professional violinist. Kuan began applying to orchestras in the Bay Area and wondered why they were all nonprofits. At this point, she had a baby at home and decided that life as a student made more sense in the early years of motherhood and that she might learn more about nonprofits by studying business at UC Berkeley.
Back to 2020, when Kuan was ready to teach her class, she knew that an important part of the education for women should include the way that early VCs collaborated by meeting informally over lunch to talk about the companies they funded, help one another with the problems they were having, and co-invest.
Kuan invited Talbot to take her course. Talbot did, and it wasn’t long before the super-active skier, surfer, sailor, and now runner was itching to start a fund. Typically, VCs create a fund and select approximately 10 “portfolio companies” to support per fund.
Talbot asked Kuan to partner with her to start her first fund.
“I don’t do things,” Kuan told Talbot. “I hope my students go off and do things. I’m a professor. I research. I teach.”
“Well, I’m not doing this without you,” said Talbot.
Kuan thought about it and decided she could justify a side hustle in venture capital as a field experiment. She asked herself, “If we had this fund, what would we invest in? Could we even find any good companies to put a theory to the test? What could we learn?”
This was during the pandemic when the stock market rallied unexpectedly. “Many people who own stocks found themselves with a windfall and wanted to use it to help others,” said Kuan. “Some people refer to venture capital as ‘vulture capital,’ but that is a misunderstanding of what venture capital has historically been; it can be impact-driven.”
Soon être Venture Capital was born—a VC company by, for and about women and underserved founders, which isn’t the only big idea that separates être from most VC firms. Big ideas is another. être is mission-driven and funds technologies that solve large, societal challenges, primarily in health care, the environment, and economic empowerment.
Talbot’s father is French and she chose the name être, which means “to be” or “to come into being.”
“The things we are doing we really, really believe in,” said Kuan.
Talbot and Kuan interviewed potential clients through Talbot’s relationship with CMTC, but none worked out. That year, 2021, Kuan was a visiting professor at Tulane University in New Orleans where she met Trivia Frazier of Obatala Sciences, a biotechnology company that was promising but undercapitalized. Obatala became être’s first portfolio company.
“When we invested in Obatala, organ-on-a-chip was in its nacsency,” said Talbot. “We knew it could be used for rapid drug discovery and were starting to hear about the FDA wanting to get away from mouse modeling. Obatala was able to speed up the time it takes to bring drugs to market and also reduce animal testing by using discarded human tissue for drug testing.”
“New Orleans doesn’t have a VC industry and Trivia, a Black woman, was in the process of raising capital,” Talbot said. “It’s difficult for all founders to find a lead investor, and it’s difficult for female and minority founders to find investors of any kind.” être believed in Frazier and her work and stepped up to lead.
In VC, a lead investor not only provides capital but prices a company—the correct term is “valuation,” structures the deal terms, provides support and guidance, and takes fiduciary control of the company by taking a seat on the board.
Kuan said they have been surprised at how few VCs lead. “Startups need a lead investor to determine the price of the shares, which organizes other investors.”
Talbot had been a presenter at the Water, Energy and Technology Center at Cal State Fresno, where she met Wendy Owens, the founder of a firm that became être’s next portfolio company. Owens founded Hexas Biomass, a producer of plant-based raw material that is carbon negative and can either replace wood to build materials, textiles and more or can be used as fuel. She needed a lead investor.
A bit more on how VC works: When a VC begins by creating a fund, the VC raises a predetermined amount from investors that the VC will invest in a number of portfolio companies—funds the VC will have for about 10 years. The typical number of portfolio companies the fund managers select is about 10.
Success is measured in two primary ways in VC, which is well-known to be high risk, high reward. VCs choose companies they believe will return 10 times on the initial investment and that will have an “exit,” which means the firm will be acquired or have an initial public offering (IPO).
In être’s first fund, Hexas was the first to be acquired, which took four years and happened in December, 2025.
“Hexas is going to have a big environmental impact and we got to be a part of that,” said Kuan. “The founder is happy with the deal, and that’s also important. Somebody else is going to take the baton, and it’s just huge.”
Obatala is another of être’s successes though it has not yet been acquired. With être’s support, Obatala has attracted significant new customers (pharmaceutical companies), is cash-flow positive, and growing.
Another of être’s portfolio companies, hampr, on the surface, doesn’t sound like a big idea solving a big problem. The online platform matches people who need their laundry washed with people who live near them who will wash their laundry. But similar to what Uber did for those who need part- or full-time work with flexible hours and independence—and no boss—hampr provides a new kind of earning power: income for stay-at-home parents, caregivers, the elderly and anyone who wants to work flexibly from home.
“Jenny and I love the trash-to-treasure space,” said Talbot. “That’s where garbage is upcycled before it hits the landfill. Eorte in Los Angeles has captured our interest.” The hotel industry adds 12 million tons of linen waste to the landfill annually—white cotton sheets and towels—and Eorte is diverting it to create uniforms for medical and hospitality staff. “The founder worked for iconic fashion brands like Guess, bebe and LaCoste, and he has a flair for design,” Talbot said.
So, how does one become a venture capitalist? You have to be rich, right?
“I drive a Subaru Forester,” said Talbot. “I’m not wealthy. Anyone can start a fund and attract capital from high-net-worth individuals as well as institutions such as foundations, college endowments, and pension funds. It’s all about convincing them that you have skills.”
So there’s that. Conversations with Talbot and Kuan are peppered with jargon such as fractional talent, seed and pre-seed funding, LP (limited partner), C-Suite, and more. Some services they perform are: develop startup teams, lead funding rounds, engineer successful exits, and much more. The breadth and depth of their knowledge certainly sounds convincing, and Kuan’s academic and professional background gives enormous cred to the pair.
“We’re so complementary, I’m 100 percent certain I would not be doing this without Hillary,” said Kuan. “She’s strategic and so detailed. She has really good instincts and sees opportunities. She also creates community and is an incredible networker.”
Talbot spoke about her partner, “Jenny has an ability to see the big picture and consistently guides our company toward solutions with remarkable patience. She’s an excellent teacher, too, which is how we’re able to help so many learn to do what we’re doing. And we’re just beginning.”
To find companies, Talbot likes to “hunt.” She looks online at accelerators and searches relevant topics that pique her curiosity. être also receives referrals from their network, and more recently, they receive cold outreach from new online platforms that promote fundraising services to founders, which is unwanted VC junk mail because few companies meet what être is looking for.
When evaluating a potential client, the dynamic duo considers whether the idea behind a company’s product or service is big enough to IP–go public–and whether it fits their mission. Then they look at whether the business has acquisition companies in mind, if there are current customers as well as diverse types of potential customers, and sufficient support to get to market and test the business’s hypotheses.
Kuan and Talbot have now designed four courses that are taught at no charge: Breaking Into Venture Capital: A Starter Class for Women; Venture Capital for Women 101; Venture Capital Investing for Women; and Lead Investor Training.
“Teaching is a superpower,” said Kuan. “I had been in academic places that emphasized research, where teaching is treated like a burden and class sizes are large. At CSUMB, the focus is on teaching. I love it!”
In the past five years, more than 400 women and a few men have graduated from être’s VC classes, and the courses are only the first phase of a larger vision to shift the paradigm. Kuan and Talbot are building a more inclusive VC ecosystem by introducing the women graduates to the partners’ existing network and to each other for support and to form partnerships.
“More venture capitalists are needed, especially women who can lead companies,” said Kuan when asked about the future of être.
By definition, venture capitalists support the companies they fund with managerial guidance, but être believes the high level of support they provide to their portfolio companies distinguishes them from other VC firms. In fact, it’s their business model.
“We want to be their first call on their best day and on their worst day,” said Talbot. “We’re here to help fix whatever issue they’re experiencing.”
“Many VCs do what is called ‘spray and pray.’ They spread cash around,” Kuan said. “That’s not how it works. I teach in the class that success comes from hard work. être is doing the work.”
“There are universities producing great intellectual property, like UC Santa Cruz, but 99 percent have trouble commercializing the technology. The government, the Department of Defense, all these guys have trouble getting stuff commercialized,” said Kuan. “Most of the time, they overlook the hard business side, the business problems that need to be solved, the hands-on good management. This role has been undervalued. Who was the third guy at Apple? Mike Markkula.”
Markkula, a trained engineer and already wealthy through tech success, was the third person at Apple at age 33. He has been called “the real power at Apple” and the “adult in the room” as he provided founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak with startup and managerial guidance.
There are tech startup support groups and individual investors in Santa Cruz County currently, and some that have waxed and waned: incubators, accelerators, angel investors, and the like. Many communities with strong university research experience a “brain drain,” a loss of students after they graduate due to a lack of high-level jobs to retain them. When asked about UC Santa Cruz as a source of startups, Talbot said UC Santa Cruz lacks a business school to support technologies that are developed.
“UCSC is great at research but is missing the commercialization piece to harness the talent. This is why investor education is so important,” said Talbot.
Kuan and Talbot have begun conversations with UCSC’s tech transfer office to start a program to train investors. “We think there’s a potential synergy here with all of the great intellectual property coming out of UC Santa Cruz, along with the business school at CSUMB and the women in venture capital we train, some of whom are sidelined before their time or retiring too early,” said Kuan.
“There has been some good work done in our community, but I feel that we’re passing a torch between the previous generation of investors and the new,” Talbot added. “Many people coming out of tech earn $300,000 or half a million or more who could write $15,000 or $25,000 checks for startups, but they’re not encouraged to do so.”
Talbot’s favorite part of being a venture capitalist goes back to Kuan’s research, where early VCs met to talk about the problems facing them and their portfolio companies.
“We’re honest about the knowledge gaps we have,” said Talbot. “We tap our colleagues and co-investors for industry knowledge or technical expertise that we don’t have.”
Kuan said that her research also shows that it was a remarkably small number of people the early VCs started with. “If we could recreate that here with a small number of women with the right spirit, it could become something really, really big. Very few people can make a huge impact,” Kuan said, sounding like Margaret Mead, the famed cultural anthropologist.
Step into any health food store and you’ll find shelves lined with capsules, powders and tinctures promising everything from sharper focus to better sleep and a stronger immune system. It’s an easy sell. Who wouldn’t spend an extra $20 for a shortcut to feeling better? As one marketing specialist told me, “these days people are opting for an aspirin over a treatment plan.”
Which explains why Americans spend tens of billions each year on supplements. But here’s the catch: for many of the trendiest products, the science hasn’t quite caught up with the marketing.
That doesn’t mean these ingredients are useless. Many come from long-standing herbal traditions and may offer subtle benefits. But subtle is the key. The bold claims on the label often greatly outpace what research can reliably prove. And in many cases, the same compounds exist, more naturally and affordably in foods you can find in the produce aisle.
Here are seven popular supplements that may not be worth the splurge.
Medicinal Mushrooms
From reishi lattes to lion’s mane capsules, “functional mushrooms” are having a moment. They’re marketed for everything from immune support to brain health.
But while early research is intriguing, there’s little evidence that powdered or encapsulated mushrooms deliver noticeable results. As one biochemist I spoke with put it, if you enjoy mushrooms in a stir-fry or soup, great, they’re nutritious. But the pricey powders may not live up to the hype.
Turmeric Capsules
Turmeric has earned its reputation as a powerful anti-inflammatory spice. The problem? Its active compound, curcumin, is notoriously hard for the body to absorb.
Supplement companies attempt to solve this by adding black pepper extract or other enhancers, but results are inconsistent. For most people, incorporating turmeric into cooking may be just as beneficial as taking a concentrated formula.
CBD (Cannabidiol)
CBD exploded onto the wellness scene almost overnight, promising relief for anxiety, pain and sleep issues. While there is some evidence supporting its use for specific medical conditions, the research behind many everyday wellness claims remains limited.
There’s also the issue of quality control. Studies have found that some CBD products contain inaccurate amounts of the compound. Until regulation catches up, it’s a buyer-beware category.
Ginkgo Biloba
Once hailed as a natural memory booster, ginkgo has been studied extensively for its potential to improve circulation and protect against cognitive decline.
Large studies haven’t found consistent evidence that it significantly improves memory or prevents dementia. While some users report feeling sharper, the overall scientific consensus is underwhelming.
Echinacea
Many people take it at the first sign of a sniffle, hoping to shorten the duration of illness.
But research is inconsistent. Some studies show a modest benefit, while others show no difference compared to a placebo. It’s not necessarily harmful, but it may not be the immune miracle it’s made out to be.
Green Tea Extract
Green tea itself is a wellness staple, rich in antioxidants and linked to a range of health benefits. But concentrated green tea extract, often marketed for weight loss, is another story.
The evidence for fat-burning effects is weak, and high doses have even been linked to liver issues in some cases. A simple cup of green tea may be the safer, more enjoyable choice.
Homeopathic Remedies
Perhaps the most controversial category, homeopathic remedies are based on the idea that extremely diluted substances can trigger healing.
The dilutions are so extreme that many products contain little to no measurable active ingredient. Large scientific reviews have found no convincing evidence that these remedies work beyond a placebo effec.
The Bigger Picture
It’s easy to get swept up in the promise of a quick fix, especially when it comes in a neatly packaged bottle. But the truth is, most of the heavy hitters for long-term health don’t come from a supplement aisle, or the medicine cabinet for that matter.
They come from daily habits.
A Mediterranean-style way of eating, rich in vegetables, healthy fats and whole foods. Regular movement, whether that’s a coastal walk, a yoga class or a weekend hike in Wilder Ranch. Consistent sleep. Time outdoors. Connection with others.
These aren’t flashy. They don’t promise an overnight transformation. But they’re backed by decades of research, and they work. And that kind of wellness doesn’t come with a label.
Elizabeth Borelli is a local wellness advocate and workshop teacher. To learn more about the Mediterranean Diet, benefits and recipes, visit ElizabethBorelli.com
How about wine from Sicily? The Fina Kebrilla Grillo Sicilia DOC 2024 is only $15 a bottle – money well spent on this interesting white wine made from Sicilian grillo grapes. It is fresh and inviting – with balanced acidity.
Knives Out
It’s rare to meet a professional knife-maker, but True Tourtillott is just that. He is the owner of Alma Knife Co. and makes every single knife by hand. Check out Tourtillott’s website at AlmaKnifeCo.com
Dreamy Tea
The company Dream Tea NYC has come up with a smooth black tea called the Brooklyn Blend. It’s fruity peach and smoky, floral lavender, inspired by the creative energy of Brooklyn. And if you have walked the Brooklyn Bridge, you’ll know what I mean! Great for the holidays is their Gingerbread Blend – or the delicious Chai Blend with hand-ground masala chai spices. Dreamteanyc.com
Winery Name Change
Clos La Chance Winery in San Martin has a new name! It is now called CordeValle Winery. The new owners say “Same stunning vineyard. same warm hospitality … just a fresh identity to reflect all of the new ownership changes.” Cordevallewinery.com
Healthy Foods to Try
Instead of the usual potato chips, try Cactus Crunch chips. They’re crunchy chips made with natural ingredients such as nopal flour, corn, spinach, and flax seed. They’re also gluten-free and vegan-friendly, and come in different flavors. Cactus-foods.com
SHARE fermented foods are produced in Switzerland as a gut-healthy source of ??? HASSY Avocado Oil
Pacific Coast Vineway
Heading home after a wine-tasting trip to Paso Robles, we drove back north on the recently opened Hwy 1–taking in breathtaking coastal scenery. Ensemble Hotels has launched a seven-day itinerary with a three-hotel stay during this coastal journey, including La Bahia Hotel & Spa in Santa Cruz, Bernardus Lodge & Spa in Carmel Valley, and Vinarosa Resort & Spa in Sonoma County. This luxury package is available February to December, 2026. Contact Ella Henry at Murphy O’Brien Public Relations at eh****@**********en.com for more info.
In addition to authentic Chinese dishes, Fusion Fare features what chef/owner Hongmin Mo calls “having fun” when he uses his creativity to combine cross-cultural cuisines.
Born in Szechuan, China, he learned to cook from a young age with his parents, then went to culinary school before immigrating to America and ultimately landing in Santa Cruz. Cooking professionally here and further perfecting his skills, he also wanted to learn English and American culture, so he looked for and found an opportunity at Google, where he opened an authentic Chinese café.
This experience taught him not only about managing and operations, but also about the magic of collaborating with other chefs and styles of cuisine. Inspired, Mo says he wanted to do “something fun” and Fusion Fare is that, opened a little over a year ago in downtown Santa Cruz.
Served amidst what Mo describes as a modern Chinese ambiance, highlighted appetizers are the pork-filled Red Oil Wontons and the Golden Pockets with lamb, beef, onion and bell pepper stuffed inside a flour tortilla. Entrée favorites include the authentically Chinese Lotus Root Stir Fry with firm tofu and a slightly spicy/numbing herb chili sauce, a masa flour yellow curry dish with chicken thigh, potato and coconut cream, and the fried Chongqing Spicy Chicken dressed and wok-toasted to marry the savory and spicy flavors.
An herb-braised duck is also on the menu, and desserts include a sesame ball filled with red bean paste and a coconut cream bowl inside a crunchy shell.
Where did your love for fusion originate?
HONGMIN MO: When I worked at Google, I got to know many other chefs during our monthly chef meetings. We would talk about other menus and I would try all the other cuisines. I became really intrigued by those new flavors and dishes, gained a new passion for other culture’s food and was inspired to integrate them into my own cooking.
How did the first year of business go?
Very well, people here in Santa Cruz have been very supportive. Business has been good, especially given that we don’t advertise, so much of it is based on word of mouth. We have developed a loyal clientele of regulars and continue to have new guests try us out as well. We have gotten great feedback and people really love the food.
1003 Cedar Street, Santa Cruz, 831-266-5834; fusionfarerestaurant.com
The risk you run when carefully guarding a big reveal is that anticipation can gin up expectations, so to speak, and even a good debut can’t match the promise.
So the fact that Alley Oop! delivers big after three years of waiting represents an accomplishment in itself.
The suggested attitude posted next to the red carpet entrance—“Dress sharp, speak easy,” “Leave the headlines at the door,” “No phone calls, no flash photography”—finds satisfying realization inside.
The fashion-forward clientele, leopard print on the barstool backs, the shiny bar surfaces, fluted bank seating, and the Bukowski quote by the exit all harmonize, even without a player on the vintage piano, which I imagine takes this Oop up that much higher.
That effect is aided by sleek drinks done with precision and served with ease, like the textbook Sazerac I felt obliged to try, given owner Max Turigliatto’s stated New Orleans-style inspiration for the place, and a very specific gin martini request my comrade made.
While we went classic, the opposite side of the slate does house creations ($14-$16). That includes the likes of the Green Room (with cucumber-infused eau de vie, Antica Torino Genepi, aloe liqueur, lime, celery bitters, soda water) or the Baritone Sax (Hine Rare cognac, Cocchi Barolo chinato, sirop de canne, angostura, absinthe spritz), a tidy reflection of Alley Oops’ emphasis on the premium French cognac and brandy beverages, and a nod to Turigliatto’s musical background.
The food menu hits with a compact and crave-worthy lineup with treats like the Alley-Oop burger ($20), grilled lamb chops ($22), prawns vol-au-vent ($18) and 3-gram mounds of Ostera Royal caviar ($10).
In short, this is just an outstanding addition [like the new bar-lounge-restaurant I spotlighted last week, The Hotel (200 Locast St., Santa Cruz), heaven-sent for a pre- or post-show pairing with neighboring Kuumbawa Jazz Center.
jazzalleylounge.com
POT COMMITTED
The spring brings a sea change to the Monterey Bay fishery and its two most lucrative catches, historically speaking, crab and salmon. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has flagged Friday, March 27, as the conclusion of conventional trapping in the zones that our coast, to prevent migrating whales and turtles from becoming entangled with the gear’s ropes. But so-called pop-up traps retrieved by remote signal, without vertical lines, are now permitted through the spring, meaning sustaining income for crabbers and local crustaceans for us. Check out the deep dive I did for the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust, “Crab Season’s New New Reality Isn’t What You Expect,” at montereybayfisheriestrust.org. Recreational ocean salmon fishing in California, meanwhile, will return this spring after three years of closure, beginning April 11 south of Pigeon Point, wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Regulations/Salmon.
FLAVOR OF FREEDOM
Some 50+ vintners of the Santa Cruz Mountains assemble for the 2026 Grand Wine Tasting ($85) at the storybook Mountain Winery in Saratoga on Sunday, March 29, winesofthesantacruzmountains.com/events/gt2026…The Santa Cruz Vegan Chef Challenge continues to add participating restaurants for an explosion of animal-free offerings next month, including recent additions Areperia 831, Pharaoh’s Plate, Circle & Square Bistro, Chaminade Resort, Davenport Roadhouse, and Girasol Pizza, veganchefchallenge.org/santacruz…The Homeless Garden Project hosts an “Evening of Hope” at the Del Mar Theatre on April 15, featuring a screening of Jane Goodall: The Hope along with a panel discussion with community leaders and voices such as author Jonathan Franzen ($18 donation), homelessgardenproject.org…Dr. Jane Goodall: “What you have to do is to get into the heart. And how do you get into the heart? With stories.”
The Santa Cruz mountain good folk, Wolf Jett, are having a release party for their third studio album, titled Letting Go, on March 28th, at the Felton Music Hall.
The eponymous single “Letting Go”, is a transcendent gem. The wizards of Wolf Jett, take the listener on a sonic expedition full of beatific harmonies.
The extended Wolf Jett family, includes the extraordinarily talented Jason Crosby (Phil Lesh & Friends, Jackson Brown). “Letting Go” continues Wolf Jett’s ability to manifest that sweet spot in sound that you want when blasting while you’re driving in a hot car, on a Sunday afternoon.
Produced and recorded in Oakland by Jonathan Kirchner (Con Brio), Letting Go, is a the culmination of a four-year collaboration with Kirchner. Whatever alchemical magic occurred within the soundproof walls of the recording studio, Wolf Jett has emerged like a prehistoric direwolf. One hundred percent adaptive and able to survive all environments.
2024’s release Time Will Finally Come, was a powerful collection of songs, establishing the bands versatile dexterity, the craftsman-quality built songs, and a unique, but familiar, sound that is rough, sweet, and cosmic.
On that album, Wolf Jett was already fully into the mystic. For example, “Don’t Give On Me Now” is a down and dirty song about seeking redemption, but it’s uplifting and wouldn’t be out of place in a hip church. Don’t miss the crunchy organ solos at the conclusion; this makes for an ultra fine listening experience that you’ll want on repeat.
Letting Go, is the bands calling card to the world.
Let’s wax hyperbolic. Wolf Jett is a fully formed dynamic band whose music reminisces of 1960’s congregates like Delaney and Bonnie, who also enlisted the widest circle of talented friends to bring their songs to life. Wolf Jett isn’t fucking around. They’re ready.
Considering the arduous journey of the band, Letting Go is a beyond the pale achievement of endurance and talent. From his home in Boulder Creek, singer-songwriter Jon Payne talks about some of the more recent changes in Wolf Jett’s line-up.
“We had a couple of member shifts this year,” Payne begins. “We welcomed Allyson (Makuch, on vocals) and Rory (Cloud, on guitar). They’re also a couple and they do their own music together. And they joined our band kind of in lieu of Laura (T. Lewis on vocals) and Will (Fourt on guitar). Laura just had her second baby. So she’s deep in motherhood and just couldn’t commit to touring right now because she wants to raise her child. And Will and his wife adopted a child. And so parenthood kind of took two of our longer term members and we’ve evolved and shifted with some new folks. And we actually added a keyboardist and a percussionist, Alex Benjamin. And so now we’re like a six piece band and we’re all in,” says Payne.
Chris Jones (singer/songwriter) and Payne put together Wolf Jett in early 2020. Just before the release of their debut album Wolf Jett, the world wide pandemic shut down the dream of being a traveling band.
To make it even more biblical, that August, the CZU Lightning fire consumed Big Basin State Park and much of the Santa Cruz mountains. Payne and his family, and his band, lost their home and studio to a stupendously wide-reaching tragic event.
Besides being an authentically fresh frontman, Jones brings a Southern aesthetic that is elemental in the successful dynamic that drives Wolf Jett. In a country that is polarized, Jones genuinely hopes that Wolf Jett can bring people together.
“We’ve kind of gone for a more international sound,” says Jones from the road. “I am from the South. I’ve lived in New York. A lot of bands are very regional, but we built this band to be a traveling band. We go to Colorado and Oregon and back to the South again. We are able to hit people all over the country. Right now what we need more than ever, and I know this is a cliche, but I’m putting my money where my mouth is in saying that, we need to be moving out of our regions and exploring other people’s cultures. And immersing ourselves in other people’s cultures so that we can have more empathy of what other people are thinking. People on both sides of this divide in America have way more in common than what they’re focusing on, on the internet. In the deep south, it’s a completely different political environment. But music can always transcend those boundaries. That’s like the overarching theme of our band,” says Jones.
Wolf Jett will be at the Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy 9, Felton, on Saturday, March 28th, at 8pm. Tickets are $29 and more information can be found at feltonmusichall.com
From Baroque brilliance to modern vocal innovation, Ensemble Monterey delivers a concert that pushes classical music into new territory. At Holy Cross Church, May 23, 8pm, May 24, 4pm.
With women receiving just two percent of venture capital funding, two local founders are building a new model to change who gets funded—and who succeeds.
