The Board of Supervisors will consider extending its moratorium on PG&E’s SmartMeters at its Jan. 10 meeting. What would extending the moratorium accomplish? Does the Board have any plans to approach the installation of SmartMeters differently than it has been?

Josh Montoya refuses to give anything less than his full attention when it comes to any musical experience—a trait that makes him both an excellent musician, and a terrible multitasker. “I can’t even drive with music on,” he says. “It would be like bringing a Gameboy to an art museum.” Since 2008, he’s provided lead vocals and acoustic strums for The Taxi Project, as well as composed and arranged tunes for the sprawling band.

Editor’s Note: The following article was birthed thanks, in part, to the fearless efforts of “private, secret and classified media” from anonymous”whistleblowers”—otherwise known as gtleaks. In fact, our exclusive website, which was secretly launched early last year, has nabbed too many secret documents to list—and most of them hitting front pages of major news organizations. Early releases included major documentation of Wal-Mart hitting Santa Cruz, a Banana Republic outlet store arriving somewhere along Pacific Avenue and just-released data of a three-way thoroughfare along a major Downtown Santa Cruz strip. There’s more. (There’s always more …)

Movie stories light up the screen in 2011

Big surprise: movies about movies shot to the top of the list of films I loved in 2011. Movies about art, writing and Paris also earned a place in my Top 10, along with the usual assortment of strange bedfellows—Werner Herzog, Almodóvar, Harry Potter. Aside from those films still playing in town (which you should run out and see on a big screen right this minute), this list should give you some eclectic ideas for your post-holiday Netflix queue.

Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
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Santa Cruz native, Dillon Baiocchi, represents a new generation of musicians that’s putting a fresh spin on contemporary jazz music. Inspired by Santa Cruz’s natural beauty, his unique jazz blend cooks with the diverse bop styles of his current home base: New York City. Just three years ago Baiocchi graduated from Soquel High School, and today he is a student at the New School of Contemporary Jazz Music.

Curly-haired girls can have a hard time in the hair department. Frizz, knotting, flat spots, unmanageable curls, limp spirals. Straight-haired girls have no idea what we have to go through. That’s why there are a slew of curly-haired products on the market, but finding the “right” one for your hair type can be as annoying as trying to spring life into your flat curls. That’s where lines like Ouidad come in. Called, “The Curl Experts,” Ouidad is a New York and Santa Monica based salon that specializes in cutting and styling curly haired girls. The salon, spearheaded by its master hairstylist, Ouidad, also offers myriad products for every curly hair type out there. In my case, my hair falls somewhere between “wavy” and “curly.” (The other options are “tight curly” and “kinky.”)

After struggling for years with a Kim Kardashian-sized body shape, and never finding a pair of jeans that fits me just right, I heard about a line of jeans by Levi’s called Curve ID. So, on a whim, I decided to stop in at the Levi’s store in San Francisco and give these curvy jeans a try. The first thing that happens when you approach a rack of denim is that a salesperson kindly asks if they can help. And for once, I finally said, “yes.” She boldly measured my hips and waist and without telling me my actual measurements (thank you!), and guided me toward the Supreme Curve pile of jeans. (These are the largest of the four curve options, and typically fit a woman who has a 10-inch ratio between her waist and hips. That means little waist, big butt.)

All I wanted for Christmas was most definitely not a partridge in a pear tree, but rather a pair of Chelsea Crew oxford pumps, “Sierra Tie Shoe,” selling at Bunny’s for around $50. The faux leather, apricot color is a “green” shoe with a hefty dose of personality and style. it radiates “chic” and stands out in the crowd. The heel height runs at about two inches, but it doesn’t feel like you’re walking on stilts. These old-fashioned looking shoes are comfortable, hip, and the neutral hue complements any style.

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