Andy Huynh moved to Santa Cruz from his hometown of Los Angeles at 20, saying he preferred the area’s small-town vibe and that “the skies were actually blue.” He cooked at a dozen local restaurants, learning from esteemed chefs along the way while honing his craft. When his focus, inspiration and culinary values eventually aligned, he formulated a business plan and did extensive R&D before founding Full Steam Dumpling five years ago.
Located in the Santa Cruz Arts Center, a bustling downtown community hub currently undergoing an extensive remodel, Full Steam features a diverse blend of Asian food favorites drawing on myriad influences. The dumplings headline—the most popular is the chicken and leek sausage gyoza—and other offerings include a pan-seared pork bao bun with black vinegar and a beef/baby leek wonton with Szechaun red oil. The ginger scallion clams, beef brisket chow fun and lamb chops with king trumpet mushrooms are some other hits.
Tell me your chef origin story.
ANDY HUYNH: I’ve worked in a bunch of restaurants, from fast-food chains to fine dining and everything in between. I started to find myself in farm-to-table restaurants with frequently changing menus based on the seasons, and that is when things started to get more interesting to me. I met some great chefs along the way, like Kendra Baker and Jessica Yarr—and then Brad Briske from Home, where we cooked everything under the sun constantly, which really sharpened my skills and made my hustle stronger. I got a clearer and broader picture of what it meant to run a restaurant, and after a while I knew it was time and I had to open my own spot.
Are you excited about your space’s remodel?
At first, I wasn’t looking forward to it at all because it meant I had to pause what I was doing. But I was inspired to use the lull to continue to level up our game and train staff, deep clean, reorganize and rewrite the menu to get to the next level. I’ve been spending a lot of time back on the line and really look forward to fully reopening so that I can share some new dishes and a side of my cooking beyond ramen and dumplings.
Open Wed.–Sat. 5–9pm. 1001 Center St, Santa Cruz, 831-200-4433; fullsteamdumpling.com.
You’re not going to get much fast food or restaurant chain content in this space, ever.
But it was interesting to see the American Customer Satisfaction Index create a stir in announcing its latest fast-food rankings, partly because Chick-fil-A dropped out of the top slot for the first time in years.
For the record, the top five went like this: 5) Hardee’s, 4) In-N-Out, 3) Chick-fil-A, 2) KFC, 1) Del Taco.
Which inspires a few thoughts.
#1: My primary joy on this list is invisible: In-N-Out’s “secret” menu. Grilled cheese with chopped cascabella peppers and grilled onions, Neapolitan shake and animal-style fries, please.
#2: I do dig Del Taco, but I’m saddened DT weakened its vegan/vegetarian program and abandoned its Beyond Meat options.
#3: The Santa Cruz area enjoys an incredible counterpoint to all of the above in Pretty Good Advice, which added its second location (1319 Pacific Ave.) earlier this year. I just swung by the debut spot (3070 Porter St., Soquel) for all the convenience, satisfaction and value of a FF joint without the grease, stomach ache or self-loathing.
The California Ranch Burger charmed with avocado, melted American cheese and the signature vegetarian patty, hand crafted from black beans and quinoa boiled in tomato paste and veggie soup stock.
As good as that was, the drippy Final Meltdown with fried egg, crispy potato, sautéed mushrooms, pepper jack and jalapeños on ciabatta upstaged it with complementary textures and sauces.
I’ll be back for a salad (maybe the watermelon-and-arugula or the peach-and-basil) and the “chillin” corn bisque, all assembled with produce straight from chef-owner Matt McNamara’s family farm.
Maybe I’ll sync the stop with National Fast Food Day on Nov. 16, but likely sooner, while wishing there were PGA outposts all over. prettygoodadvicerestaurant.com
MORE FAST FUN
Looking up National Fast Food Day led down a gopher hole of goofiness and helped generate a different ranking: a list of my new favorite national “holidays”:
#5: National Make Up Your Own Holiday Day (March 26)
#4: National Gorilla Suit Day (Jan. 31)
#3: National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day (Aug. 8)
#2: National Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day (Jan. 22)
And #1: National Everything You Think Is Wrong Day (March 15).
And while it’s not a secret menu item a la In N Out, I did come across a great tip from Ringer Food News co-host David Jacoby: When decorating your froyo at a spot like Top a Lot Yogurt (738 Water St., Santa Cruz)—layer toppings in their usual place and as a foundation.
He calls it “bottoming.” Hallelujah.
CHOW CHATTER
Chef Lance Ebert, aka Santa Cruz Bread Boy, and Humble Sea Mountain Tavern made for a smash hit on the burger front. Now Ebert’s got foodies aflutter with the Emerald Mallard iteration of their collaboration, with expanded hours (Thursday to Sunday) and expanded French bistro–leaning menu (steak frites, Caesar salad, oysters, duck croquettes), emeraldmallard.com. Gourmet Grazing on the Green, a pastoral portal into food, wine and other artisan intake, is scheduled for Oct. 5 in Aptos Village Park: 60 local wineries, a bunch of chefs, a bushel of breweries, starring produce from local operations Coke Farms and Watsonville Coast Produce, plus live music by Cooper Street, sccbg.org/gourmetgrazingonthegreen…Tickets are now available for Santa Cruz Permaculture’s 2024 Harvest Dinner, on its farm near Año Nuevo State Park this Oct. 12, featuring Chef Tod Nysether doing the food and guest speaker/Rumi poet Eric Schneider providing the awakening, santacruzpermaculture.com…And here comes Carmel’s own Eric Schlosser to put a bow on things: “Fast food is popular because it’s convenient, it’s cheap, and it tastes good. But the real cost of eating fast food never appears on the menu.”
Although there are over 7,000 varieties of apples, your grocery store probably offers no more than 15. But you shouldn’t feel deprived. Having 15 alternatives is magnificent. In fact, most of us do better in dealing with a modicum of choices rather than an extravagant abundance. This is true not just about apples but also about most things. I mention this, Aries, because now is an excellent time to pare down your options in regard to all your resources and influences. You will function best if you’re not overwhelmed with possibilities. You will thrive as you experiment with the principle that less is more.
TAURUS April 20-May 20
Taurus comedian Jerry Seinfeld, now 70 years old, has testified, “As a child, the only clear thought I had was ‘get candy.’” I encourage you to be equally single-minded in the near future, Taurus. Not necessarily about candy—but about goodies that appeal to your inner child as well as your inner teenager and inner adult. You are authorized by cosmic forces to go in quest of experiences that tickle your bliss.
GEMINI May 21-June 20
I’m not saying I would refuse to hire a Gemini person to house sit while I’m on vacation. You folks probably wouldn’t let my houseplants die, allow raccoons to sneak in and steal food or leave piles of unwashed dishes in the sink. On the other hand, I’m not entirely confident you would take impeccable care of my home in every little way. But wait! Everything I just said does not apply to you now. My analysis of the omens suggests you will have a high aptitude for the domestic arts in the coming weeks. You will be more likely than usual to take good care of my home—and your own home, too. It’s a good time to redecorate and freshen up the vibe.
CANCER June 21-July 22
These days, you are even smarter and more perceptive than usual. The deep intelligence of your higher self is pouring into your conscious awareness with extra intensity. That’s a good thing, right? Yes, mostly. But there may be a downside: You could be hyper-aware of people whose thinking is mediocre and whose discernment is substandard. That could be frustrating, though it also puts you in a good position to correct mistakes those people make. As you wield the healing power of your wisdom, heed these words from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Misunderstandings and lethargy produce more wrong in the world than deceit and malice do.”
LEO July 23-Aug. 22
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had an older sister, born under the sign of Leo. Her nickname was Nannerl. During their childhoods, she was as much a musical prodigy as he. Supervised by their father, they toured Europe performing together, playing harpsichord and piano. Nannerl periodically got top billing, and some critics regarded her as the superior talent. But misfortune struck when her parents decided it was unseemly for her, as a female, to continue her development as a genius. She was forcibly retired so she could learn the arts of housekeeping and prepare for marriage and children. Your assignment in the coming months, Leo, is to rebel against any influence that tempts you to tamp down your gifts and specialties. Assert your sovereignty. Identify what you do best, and do it more and better than you ever have before.
VIRGO Aug. 23-Sept. 22
When an infant giraffe leaves its mother’s womb, it falls six feet to the ground. I suspect that when you are reborn sometime soon, Virgo, a milder and more genial jolt will occur. It may even be quite rousing and inspirational—not rudely bumpy at all. By the way, the plunge of the baby giraffe snaps its umbilical cord and stimulates the creature to take its initial breaths—getting it ready to begin its life journey. I suspect your genial jolt will bring comparable benefits.
LIBRA Sept. 23-Oct. 22
Many people living in the Napo province of Ecuador enjoy eating a dish called ukuy, which is a Kichwa word for large ants. This is not an exotic meal for them. They may cook the ukuy or simply eat the creatures alive. If you travel to Napo anytime soon, Libra, I urge you to sample the ukuy. According to my reading of the astrological omens, such an experiment is in alignment with the kinds of experiences you Libras should be seeking: outside your usual habits, beyond your typical expectations, and in amused rebellion against your customary way of doing things.
SCORPIO Oct. 23-Nov. 21
The theory of karma suggests that all our actions, good and bad and in-between, send ripples out into the world. These ripples eventually circle back to us, ensuring we experience events that mirror our original actions. If we lie and cheat, we will be lied to and cheated on. If we give generously and speak kindly about other people, we will be the recipient of generosity and kind words. I bring this up, Scorpio, because I believe you will soon harvest a slew of good karma that you have set in motion through your generosity and kindness. It may sometimes seem as if you’re getting more benevolence than you deserve, but in my estimation, it’s all well-earned.
SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22-Dec. 21
I encourage you to buy yourself fun presents that give you a feisty boost. Why? Because I want you to bring an innovative, starting-fresh spirit into the ripening projects you are working on. Your attitude and approach could become too serious unless you infuse them with the spunky energy of an excitable kid. Gift suggestions: new music that makes you feel wild; new jewelry or clothes that make you feel daring; new tools that raise your confidence; and new information that stirs your creativity.
CAPRICORN Dec. 22-Jan. 19
On a Tuesday in August in 2012—one full Jupiter cycle ago—a Capricorn friend of mine called in sick to his job as a marketing specialist. He never returned. Instead, after enjoying a week off to relax, he began working to become a dance instructor. After six months, he was teaching novice students. Three years later, he was proficient enough to teach advanced students, and five years later, he was an expert. I am not advising you, Capricorn, to quit your job and launch your own quixotic quest for supremely gratifying work. But if you were ever going to start taking small steps towards that goal, now would be a good time. It’s also a favorable phase to improve the way your current job works for you.
AQUARIUS Jan. 20-Feb. 18
Three years ago, an Indonesian man celebrated his marriage to a rice cooker, which is a kitchen accessory. Khoirul Anam wore his finest clothes while his new spouse donned a white veil. In photos posted on social media, the happy couple are shown hugging and kissing. Now might also be a favorable time for you to wed your fortunes more closely with a valuable resource—though there’s no need to perform literal nuptials. What material thing helps bring out the best in you? If there is no such thing, now would be a good time to get it.
PISCES Feb. 19-March 20
For many years, I didn’t earn enough money to pay taxes. I was indigent. Fortunately, social programs provided me with food and some medical care. In recent years, though, I have had a better cash flow. I regularly send the US government a share of my income. I wish they would spend all my tax contributions to help people in need. Alas, just 42 percent of my taxes pay for acts of kindness to my fellow humans, while 24 percent goes to funding the biggest military machine on earth. Maybe someday, there will be an option to allocate my tax donations exactly as I want. In this spirit, Pisces, I invite you to take inventory of the gifts and blessings you dole out. Now is a good time to correct any dubious priorities. Take steps to ensure that your generosity is going where it’s most needed and appreciated. What kind of giving makes you feel best?
While it’s true that cannabis is one of very few issues where the major political parties find some common ground (on both sides of the question), it should come as no surprise that, as the Republican Party gets nuttier and nuttier, the things Republicans say about weed become ever more outlandish.
The latest bit of lunacy came last week from J.D. Vance, who has been spewing all kinds of weird stuff since Donald Trump picked him as his running mate, while other weird stuff he’s said in the past has come to light. For instance, he believes that “childless cat ladies” have “no stake” in America, and that “post-menopausal” women are useless unless they’re helping to raise grandchildren.
Compared to that kind of stuff, his thoughts about pot might seem almost normal. But they’re really not. On Aug. 16, Vance appeared at an event put on by the Milwaukee Police Association (the cop union). There, he claimed that a cop had told him that “we’ve got fentanyl in our marijuana bags that our teenagers are using.”
This either didn’t happen or the cop who supposedly said that to Vance made it up. The “pot laced with dangerous drugs” myth is a very old trope. As a parent of “three young kids,” Vance told Milwaukee’s finest, he was “certain” that “one day, one of my kids is going to take something or do something that I don’t want them to take. But I don’t want that mistake to ruin their life.”
That’s rather hard to parse, but it seems like Vance is convinced that his kids—now ages seven, four and three—will one day smoke weed, and he’s very worried that there might be fentanyl in “the marijuana bags” that their kids will eventually get their pot in.
While anybody can lace anything with anything, and weed with other drugs mixed into it is not unheard of (though usually with the consent of the user), the story of fentanyl-laced weed came about simply because fentanyl is the most recent scare-drug for prohibitionist types who know that everyone by now knows how relatively harmless pot itself is. At the moment, “fentanyl” is the scariest thing they can conjure up. You might have seen the stories of people declaring, falsely, that merely touching the stuff can kill you.
Last year, New York State’s Office of Cannabis Management reported that there have been zero confirmed cases of fentanyl-laced pot.
Meanwhile,the obvious response to this myth is to note that legalization would solve the whole thing. Nobody at your local dispensary is likely to lace their strawberry kush with hard drugs.
Vance’s record on cannabis is mixed-to-negative, if that even matters. He has generally opposed reform bills that make it to Congress, but he has also stated that states should be allowed to legalize and that criminal convictions for pot crimes should be expunged. But he’s also said that using weed can “lead to violence.”
In Milwaukee, Vance’s weirdness continued. He blamed President Biden’s “border policies” for this fentanyl-containing cannabis that worries him so. And in another hard-to-parse statement, he declared that “I want [kids] to learn from it. I want their parents to be able to punish them. I don’t want our kids to make mistakes on American streets and have it take their lives away from them.”
Most often, such myths seem to originate with cops and prosecutors. Since people in those positions are widely seen as trustworthy, and are often quoted with no pushback by credulous journalists, the myths take off and become part of the national political dialogue. Last year, Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida proposed an amendment to direct the Government Accountability Office to study the fake problem of fentanyl-laced weed. Buchanan’s colleagues quickly put the kibosh on that.
And what happened after Vance’s appearance before the Milwaukee Police Association, where he spewed a bunch of lies and made a bunch of weird statements about weed and other things? The police union endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket, of course.
We are part of a symbiotic relationship with something which disguises itself as an extraterrestrial invasion so as not to alarm us.
—Terence McKenna
Santa Cruz resident and author David Jay Brown might be, in a county brimming with psychedelic experts, Santa Cruz’s Psychedelic Laureate. As Brown says in the intro to his freshest (Brown is the author of 19 books) collection of interviews with inspirational brains, titled Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity, “Psychedelics have become so mainstream that there was a hit Broadway musical theater production—Flying Over Sunset—about Cary Grant, Aldous Huxley and Clare Boothe Luce’s LSD experiences. There’s now even a television dating show called Love Is Magic, filmed in Jamaica, where the contestants are tripping on magic mushrooms.”
And for anyone with even a slight grasp on the subject, you know that talking about psychedelics, which used to be very hush hush, are now plotlines in TV series, Facebook pop-up ads, New York Times bestsellers and local Meetup groups. David E. Kelley’s Nine Perfect Strangers—where Nicole Kidman, ethereal as always, gives wealthy patrons powerful, perhaps too powerful, psychedelic sessions in a fictional town in California—is a mighty long leap from Doogie Howser, M.D. Welcome to 2024.
Time Travel
In the early 1980s, Brown had just graduated from the University of Southern California and was combing through a catalog of classes offered at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. “I saw that Timothy Leary was giving a workshop at the Esalen. It turned out that was Tim’s last workshop,” Brown says.
“I met a young woman there named Carla, who lived in Santa Cruz at the time, and I hadn’t even heard of the town before. She invited me here and I fell in love,” he recounts. “It was the combination of cafes where people just hung out and talked philosophy, and great bookstores and the redwood forests, and the most beautiful beaches. It was like paradise. I realized a huge part of Santa Cruz’s population had experience with psychedelics, and that was one of the main things that drew me here. Santa Cruz had this exceptionally intelligent community, and everybody here had tripped. Everybody.”
PSYCHEDELIC PIONEER Author David Jay Brown has written 19 books, many dealing with drug exploration. Photo: Contributed
You Know It’s Going to Get Stranger
In Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity, Brown’s interviews with people from wildly varying disciplines highlight (it is well documented) that not only do people who take DMT (aka N.N-Dimethyltryptamine) encounter the same strange “alien” entities, in the same bizarre plane of existence, but there are also healing properties in DMT that can help those suffering with PTSD and crippling addictions.
So what exactly is going on? Are people just hungry, perhaps ravenous, for undeniable life-changing transcendent moments that can be accessed through psychedelics? Experiences that not only question our sanity, but the very fabric of existence?
Or are we talking more about the recreational and medicinal usage? Because if DMT, ketamine, ayahuasca, psilocybin and MDMA can heal trauma, unleash decades of resentment, build bridges between couples that have forgotten how to talk to each other, and pull our legions of vets out of depression, then that is fantastic. Case closed. Lobby for usage, donate to Santa Cruz’s MAPS (maps.org), and let’s get on with the healing.
But what if we are on the verge of much deeper and stranger truths? What if, as our world disintegrates, we suddenly have some sort of proof that other inhabited dimensions exist?
Brown’s other new book—The Illustrated Field Guide to DMT Entities: Machine Elves, Tricksters, Teachers, and Other Interdimensional Beings, coming out this fall—is a meta-analysis of entities that people encounter on the drug DMT. The Field Guide has incredible, trippy, beautiful illustrations, created by Sara Phinn Huntley. The crossover between the two books is that while DMT usage is on an upswing, it’s happening during a time while there is a looming, fast-approaching “something” that humans are beginning to feel vibrating in their molecules. This unquantifiable event is referred to as the “Singularity”—and it is the point where all of our predictive models (i.e., weather, economics, AI, the future of Hollywood, technology) break down, and we are unable to predict what comes next.
Unfortunately for the dogmatic, you can expect a lot of resistance and denial coming from inside your own head. But for those with limber minds, it is extremely worth checking out Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity. Brown has explored these ideas of new (ancient?) worlds and the technopocalypse with, if not the most well-known, then definitely some of the most colorful thinkers of the 21st century. People like comedian Duncan Trussell, biologist Rupert Sheldrake, journalist Hamilton Morris, speculative historian Graham Hancock, graphic novel legend Grant Morrison, cognitive neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge and many others, who are all notable and highly readable (push past the stuff you can’t grok, and keep going).
Brown’s introduction in the book should be published as an essay available to everyone, tacked on doors and read aloud in pubs—like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Brown is not prone to sugar-coating the truth. The opening essay sends up the tie-dye Batman signal, because according to Brown, trouble on planet Earth is brewing. In fact, it’s boiling.
It’s a heavy read as Brown makes a compelling case that the end (or beginning?) is nigh. “Here’s the bottom line,” Brown writes. “Humans move around 51 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year and this—along with other more powerful greenhouse gases—is the primary cause of global warming. We need to reduce that number of emissions to zero as quickly as possible and develop carbon-capturing technologies if we want to have any hope of our civilization surviving this next century and not facing the very real prospect of human extinction.”
And like Common Sense, which pushed for independence from England, it’s time for humanity to extricate itself from the chains of corporations—and governments—that favor profits over people. That is if we want to survive. Most of the minds Brown engages with in Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity talk about their experience with DMT, but like a good interviewer, Brown leaves out his own experience.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS The ‘Field Guide’ depicts entities that people encounter on the drug DMT. Illustration: Sara Phinn Huntley
David Jay Brown on DMT
“In 1983,” Brown begins, from his home in Aptos, “the person who turned me on was Bruce Eisner (author of The MDMA Story). Eisner was a big part of the Santa Cruz psychedelic community. Bruce said to me, ‘Oh, I have some DMT. You wanna try it?’ And he opens up his kitchen drawer. It’s one of those kitchen drawers that has every loose nut, bolt, matchbook and odds and ends in it. Spilled on the bottom of the drawer is this orange powder, which he scrapes out. It seemed a little sketchy.
“Bruce brings out this giant bong in the center of the living room,” Brown continues. “He gets out a blow torch, because DMT has to be heated to a high degree. He tells me that I have to take three large hits off the bong. It tastes absolutely disgusting, just like burning plastic. After my first hit, I’m higher than I have ever been on LSD. And I still have two more hits to go. Seconds were expanding into minutes. And while I was holding in my third hit, there was an auditory ‘pop.’ Then, another world popped into my reality and I was able to look around 360 degrees.”
In this new world, Brown encountered creatures and technology that became the subjects for his new Illustrated Field Guide to DMT Entities. “Suddenly,” Brown continues, “amidst a swarm of playful elves, a towering mantis-like scientist notices me and starts inserting electrodes and sensors into my brain. It was testing or measuring something about my responses. And it kept saying, ‘Like this? Like this?’ as though it was changing or adjusting something, and I was tasting bitter, and sweet, and metallic, and different taste sensations. Every possible sensory sensation you could imagine, and a million different other ones, were overwhelming me. I was pleading with this being to stop. It was just too much for me to experience.
“Then, slowly, I felt myself starting to come back to the living room with Bruce, and my very first thought was, ‘Oh. Yeah. I’m a human being that did a drug.’ Not a day has gone by since that experience that I haven’t thought about it. It had such a profound influence on me that I’m still writing and thinking about it today,” he explains.
Epilogue?
Brown is a modern-day Studs Terkel—if, rather than jazz greats and the common person, Terkel had interviewed the psychedelically bent, android-obsessed, radical mystics of the 21st century.
Some other threads in Brown’s Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity: What happens to consciousness after death? Can AI become cognizant? Was there an advanced ancient civilization on earth that we have no record of? Are UFOs the same thing as faeries? And one theory that is making the rounds asks if we are currently living inside a computer simulation.
Brown’s interview with Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers puts a fine point on the need to have a skeptical mind when contemplating the fringe. Brown and Chalmers use the movie The Matrix to explore the healthy, critical approach. “It’s interesting if the red pill actually was a psychedelic,” Chalmers comments. “I wondered when I first watched The Matrix movie, how is Neo so sure that the red pill has actually led him to escape the simulation? For all we know the red pill is like an amazing psychedelic that introduces you into a new simulated reality. Suddenly he finds himself the master of the universe, on a hovercraft fighting against the machines and so on. It’s like this is, if anything, more like a psychedelic reality. So if I were Neo, I’d start to worry that the red pill hadn’t led him to escape the simulation, but just to go ever deeper into new levels of simulations.”
Is nothing real? Or is everything real? When technology exponentially grows, like fission in a nuclear device, what does it become? Could it become a time machine? Did the Singularity already happen? Like an episode of Lost, have we time traveled back to right before it occurred, so we can stop it?
One thing that is clear in all of David Jay Brown’s books is his love for humanity and his quest for knowledge. Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity will take you on a trip you might never forget. And that’s a good thing.
Find cool archives at DavidJayBrown.com and get information about all of his books on amazon.com—including Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity and The Illustrated Field Guide to DMT Entities: Machine Elves, Tricksters, Teachers, and Other Interdimensional Beings—but buy them locally.
Sam Kabert showed up to his first breathwork experience in Santa Cruz wearing a T-shirt with the word “creator” written in collegiate-style font across the chest.
The tee resonated since he thrived bringing ideas to life, be it creative content, promotional products or podcasts. That year—2019—Kabert earned recognition for his entrepreneurial hustle, his business reaching the million-dollar mark, and making Silicon Valley Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list.
“My facilitator opened her door, saw my shirt and said, ‘Oh how perfect, we’re all creators—you are Creator,’” Kabert shares. He also admits the gravitas of her reflection was completely lost on him at the time.
Today he is the author of a book called Overcome the Overwhelm, In it Kabert walks through a six-step process to cultivate moment-to-moment awareness, following the acronym B.R.E.A.T.H.: breathe to slow down, relax to feel, energy to reveal, accept to surrender, transform into empowering beliefs, and habits to integrate.
Before he discovered his techniques, he appeared successful. In reality, he’d emotionally hit rock bottom, enveloped by a numbing depression. Refusing to fold, he committed to climbing up and out. He’d try anything—even this bizarre breathwork practice.
That session eventually led Kabert to Ayahuasca and a path—marked with plant and earth medicine guideposts along the way—toward remembering who he was at his core.
Now, Kabert’s a creator of a different kind, leveraging personal transformational insights from deep inner work and health and wellness certifications to offer safe containers to others on their journeys toward self-rediscovery.
As someone newly exploring the idea of plant medicine, I went to Kabert for guidance on where to start, what to consider, and how to make the most of the experience when “called.”
Find Your Psychedelic Compass
Kabert advises that when embarking on a journey of any kind, it’s important to identify where you’re headed.
So ask yourself what you seek. Is it peak performance? Personal or spiritual transformation? Emotional or trauma healing? Or are you looking to explore the outer and inner limits, “psychonaut” style?
In short, get clear on your intentions. Kabert created the “Psychedelic Compass” workbook, where prompts help readers identify “if medicine makes sense for you, which medicines would be ideal for your situation, how to vet facilitators, and how to integrate the lessons and experiences of medicine ceremonies into your daily life.”
“It’s common for a certain medicine to ‘call’ you,” Kabert says, “meaning it enters your awareness in undeniable ways. It’s like there’s a force beyond words guiding you to the medicine. As the saying goes, ‘When the student is ready, the teacher appears.’”
While his book describes common medicines, their uses, and their accessibility, he stresses that nothing replaces doing “your own research to dig deeper to discern which may be best for your specific needs.”
Integrate Daily
Kabert warns against using plant and earth medicine as a crutch—an unconscious chasing of peak experiences—rather than as a tool for lasting personal growth and transformation. The key to the latter is integration. And the key to integration is staying present.
“One thing’s certain: a medicine ceremony will change you,” Kabert stresses. “How you integrate the insights that arise from that experience is more fluid, but maintaining presence—while it seems so simple—helps.”
The easy-to-remember structure allows you to tap into states of being accessible in plant ceremony—where we can rewrite the codes that have programmed us, and transform limiting beliefs that hold us hostage,” Kabert says.
In the evenings, on Pacific Avenue, a woman with a tray full of various psychotropic candies wanders around looking for potential customers. You’ll know her when you see her, for she has long platinum-blonde hair, a bright red mushroom hat, and wings on her back. Her occupation? Professional Mushroom Fairy.
I didn’t know what she was selling until I approached her and queried, “Can I ask you a few questions?” She paused and looked at me. “Are you a Fed?” she said as her eyes analyzed me to see if I was worthy of her time and trust.
“Nope, just a measly journalist looking for a story,” I said.
“Well, what’s your question?” she asked as she stared at me. “What are you selling?” I asked. She looked down at her tray and then back up at me. “‘Shroom chocolates. Do you want to buy one?” she asked.
“No, I just wanted to talk to you. Maybe write a story about you,” I said.
“All right, follow me. I need to take a break at my car,” she replied as she started walking.
I followed her to her car like a duckling following its mother. As we were walking, we saw two men pissing on the wall of Streetlight Records. When we passed, one of the men turned around and called, “Hey, wait, How much for a bar?” The mushroom fairy stopped in her tracks, turned toward the rowdy gentleman, and said, “$40 for a full bar, $10 for 1.4 grams,” she said sternly.
As the two of them were talking, I reached my hand into my purse and held onto my pepper spray in case something bad was about to happen.
“$40? Come on, that’s too much, and it’s for my friend,” the man whined. He sounded like a child who was just asked to clean his room.
“Well, surely your friend has friends, and I mean money,” she said in response to his whining.
I looked over at his friend, who was still pissing on the wall, seemingly oblivious to the exchange. After a few more minutes of back-and-forth bargaining, the man reluctantly walked away to join his friend.
With that brief encounter behind us, we continued on our way. As we reached her car, the Mushroom Fairy opened her trunk and pulled out a bong. I took a seat on a nearby cement lamppost and watched as she prepared a mix of tobacco and weed to smoke, finally taking a moment to relax.
After a few minutes of light-hearted banter, The Fairy revealed that she was born and raised in Bonny Doon and that, outside the shroom business, she enjoys growing herbs to make essential oils and raising birds like chickens, turkeys and geese.
What got her into the fungi world was the healing ability of the plant in general: “I was diagnosed with cervical cancer a while back, and I was able to reverse and heal myself with not psilocybin, but mushrooms in general,” she said. “But I already had the knowledge of psilocybin, so I decided to dig deeper into it.”
The Fairy expressed that she likes to use psilocybin every now and then as a meditative medicine during personal ceremonies and wishes to share with others the healing experiences she’s had.
“I’ve had really informative and transformative trips, so to speak, but I believe in microdosing. You can do a lot of inner work, and it’s a good medicine,” she said.
The Fairy said that their mushrooms are sourced from the Bay Area, and it’s not very common for someone who sells drugs to reveal where they source their product from. The type of mushroom used in the chocolates is Enigma mushrooms, a capless type of mushroom with a high concentration of psilocybin.
“It’s like a sativa, in cannabis terms. It’s a head high, not a body high,” she explained. “It’s very functional, very enlightening, makes you want to go on a hike.”
The Fairy explained that this is a part-time gig for her, but she makes a decent amount of money doing it.
So far, the only hangup for her is supply and demand. “Everyone loves our products, and sometimes we get pretty swamped with people, you know, just being busy,” The Fairy said.
Despite it being difficult to meet demand, she said the highlight of her work was the connections and communities she’s made and become a part of.
“It feels like an ever-growing system of mycelium people,” she said.
Her advice for people reading this is simple yet profound: be a good person, be honest and stand up for what you believe in. These guiding principles have shaped her journey and continue to influence her work.
For those curious about trying her chocolates, she recommends starting small. “Start with one of our squares, which is 0.30 grams. It’s like a medium microdose and intensifies with each chocolate you eat,” she advises. This careful approach reflects her commitment to responsible and mindful consumption.
Meeting the Mushroom Fairy provided a glimpse into her world. From her perspective, this work goes beyond selling psychotropic chocolates. What she’s offering, on her journeys through downtown Santa Cruz, may be dreams, but not only of the psychedelic variety. She envisions building community, promoting healing, and sharing her knowledge and experiences. Not bad visions to have.
Three Sticks Wines has made an exceptional chardonnay with grapes from One Sky Vineyard. One of their more beautiful properties, nestled on the top of rural Sonoma Mountain, “this unique site is unusually high for Chardonnays, lending itself to layered, multi-dimensional wines.”
The name One Sky comes from the vineyard’s elevation—from the heights of San Francisco to the coast of Sonoma, “epitomizing that we all live under one sky.”
Opening up this 2022 Chardonnay ($80) to share with friends on a warm summer’s evening is a delightful experience. One of the joys of life is sharing wine such as this—and Three Sticks believes in the power of wine to bring people together in fellowship around the table.
Three Sticks produces extremely focused, 100% estate-grown, small-lot pinot noir and chardonnay of world-class quality. Check their website to learn about visiting (by appointment), and to “experience the magic” of their 1842 Vallejo Casteñada adobe.
Three Sticks Wines, 143 West Spain St., Sonoma, 707-996-3328. Threestickswines.com.
Fundraising with Friends
An Evening with Friends is a superb fundraiser dinner for Hospice of Santa Cruz County to be held at Lester Estate Wines in Aptos. Hosted by its fundraising arm, Friends of Hospice, the sumptuous three-course dinner will be prepared by Brad Briske of Home restaurant and paired with the exceptional wines of Lester Estate. A silent auction will be followed by a live auction, with offerings that include a week on Maui; An Evening of Song with professional mezzo-soprano Diane Syrcle; four nights at Vista Ridge, Sedona; Allegretto Hotel overnight stay and wine tasting in Paso Robles, including VIP tickets to Sensorio light show; a Napa Valley Getaway with wine tasting and overnight stay; and more. The event is 3-7pm on Sunday, Sept. 22. Visit hospicesantacruz.org/ewf for info.
I remember seeing booths at Santa Cruz street fairs calling for the legalization of cannabis. I used to laugh and think those people are smoking too much of their product because that’s never going to happen.
Oops.
Now dispensaries are everywhere and a generation has grown up knowing they can buy cannabis as easily as they can buy alcohol.
Then, 14 years ago, I published in Santa Cruz Patch a regular column by David Jay Brown, who was leading the push toward legalizing psychedelics, noting studies that showed they were critical in helping mental health problems such as PTSD.
I worried about having this in a mainstream publication, until I saw the numbers. Brown’s column had hundreds of thousands of views each week from all over the world. He was at the forefront of a movement and catching on fire. And now, you can buy psilocybin mushrooms in all kinds of places, legally.
The author of 19 books, heralded as a “psychedelic laureate,” he is the subject of our cover story by the mononymous comedian and journalist DNA. This is living history and we are at the tip of the spear here in Santa Cruz. It’s a fascinating read.
On the psychedelic theme, we have a story on a therapist using plants in treatment, written by Amy Smith. And Ruby Lee Schembari meets up with a mushroom fairy who dispenses her wares downtown.
You can’t say we don’t take you down paths you might not ordinarily find.
Are you troubled by the closing of the Crow’s Nest Thursday beach parties because of a shooting in the parking lot a few weeks ago? We are for several reasons. First, we’re shocked there’s been no arrest. There were witnesses who saw it and took down the license plate of the shooter. But one thing I know about police reporting: they may have good reasons for not talking about the case yet. Then there was the move to shut down the Crow’s Nest beach parties, which has elicited many negative notes and letters. Why shut this one down and not the other gatherings in town, including the Capitola Wednesday beach party and the Midtown Friday party? Josué Monroy updates the news in this week’s issue.
Thanks for reading and please let us know your thoughts at editor@weeklys.com
Brad Kava, Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
WASSUP? Shadowy characters seek shelter at Seacliff. Photograph by Eric Olsen
GOOD IDEA
Have your apple pie announced as the “Best in Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley” at the 47th Annual Apple Pie Baking Contest, held on the opening day of the Santa Cruz County Fair.
The contest is coordinated by the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau and has been held every year since 1977. It is sponsored by the Pajaro Valley apple growers, shippers and related industries as well as pie lovers throughout the county. Entry forms are at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Office, 2601 East Lake Ave in Watsonville, and at santacruz.fairwire.com. Deadline is Sept. 3. Judging will be at noon Sept. 11 at Paddy Smith Park.
GOOD WORK
The Ocean Film Festival World Tour comes to the Rio Theatre Sept. 7 with more than two hours of movies to inspire you to explore, respect, enjoy and protect oceans. The festival includes films of varying lengths and styles covering topics such as ocean adventure and exploration, the oceanic environment, marine creatures, ocean-related sports, coastal cultures and ocean lovers. A portion of ticket and beer sales will be donated to Save our Shores.
To our friends and family in the music community and beyond.
Tammi Brown needs our support. As you may know, Tammi was recently and very unexpectedly diagnosed with stage 4 reproductive cancer with lung metastasis. This horrible disease means she is unable to perform. Your donations will displace that crucial loss of income and help cover mounting medical and living expenses so that Tammi may focus on her health and loved ones at this time.
Tammi has dedicated her career to singing uplifting, healing melodies. For the past two years, she has sung with Bobby McFerrin & Motion weekly at The Freight in Berkeley, and monthly at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. She is on faculty at Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs School. She performed the Ella Fitzgerald songbook to much acclaim in Santa Cruz earlier this summer. Tammi tours extensively with Lauren Monroe. She’s an integral member of Raven Drum Foundation, the philanthropy run by Lauren and her husband, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen. That’s really just the tip of the iceberg!
Tammi has given her all for us, and she promises to fight off this cancer with everything she’s got. Let’s rally for Tammi, keep her in our prayers, and use this opportunity to give back generously!
As the country and the rest of the world experience another year of scorching heat waves, private for-profit utility companies—which we rely upon for our basic necessities like heating, cooling and electricity—are keeping us reliant on climate-wrecking fossil fuels while reporting record profits.
When they work well, utilities exist in the background of our lives: they power our homes, cool us down when it’s hot, and give us heat when it’s cold. But too often, they are sources of aggravation: The power goes off when it’s dangerously hot or cold out, our bills skyrocket, and these for-profit companies threaten to shut off services when we’re unable to pay.
We know that climate change raises those stakes even higher, and utility companies themselves play a massive role in exacerbating the climate crisis: 80% of electric utilities in the U.S. run on fossil fuels.
Shifting utilities to clean energy is integral to working toward a safer climate, but these private, for-profit companies would rather maintain the status quo and keep the public in the dark. Utility companies are charging us more while they get paid off by the fossil fuel industry to block the transition to renewable energy.
Utility companies have gotten away with profiting at the expense of people and our planet for too long. It’s time we hold them accountable and demand they stop using our money to burn our future while individuals and families struggle. We deserve an energy system that allows everyone to have access to clean and affordable energy.
ARIES March 21-April 19
Although there are over 7,000 varieties of apples, your grocery store probably offers no more than 15. But you shouldn’t feel deprived. Having 15 alternatives is magnificent. In fact, most of us do better in dealing with a modicum of choices rather than an extravagant abundance. This is true not just about apples but also about...
It should come as no surprise that, as the Republican Party gets nuttier and nuttier, the things Republicans say about weed become ever more outlandish.
Ask yourself what you seek. Is it peak performance? Personal or spiritual transformation? Emotional or trauma healing? Or are you looking to explore the outer and inner limits, “psychonaut” style?
Three Sticks Wines has made an exceptional chardonnay with grapes from One Sky Vineyard. One of their more beautiful properties, nestled on the top of rural Sonoma Mountain, “this unique site is unusually high for Chardonnays, lending itself to layered, multi-dimensional wines.”
The name One Sky comes from the vineyard’s elevation—from the heights of San Francisco to the coast of...
I remember seeing booths at Santa Cruz street fairs calling for the legalization of cannabis. I used to laugh and think those people are smoking too much of their product because that’s never going to happen.
Oops.
Now dispensaries are everywhere and a generation has grown up knowing they can buy cannabis as easily as they can buy alcohol.
Then, 14 years...
