Scotts Valley police arrested a 36-year-old San Lorenzo Valley man on burglary, rape and false imprisonment charges on Oct. 18.
When the call for service came in at 2:24pm, the day before, the Scotts Valley Police Department dispatched three officers to the location, in southern Scotts Valley.
“They arrived eight minutes later, and then—pretty immediately after—both of our detectives responded,” said Det. Sgt. Meredith Roberts. “It was a fresh crime.”
Investigators quickly developed a subject, who they said was a former partner of the victim.
According to Roberts, as part of the investigation, officers offered appropriate medical and emotional support resources to the victim.
“First and foremost, we made sure that everyone was safe,” she said. “We worked together to determine the best course of action moving forward.”
Police said they had to hunt the suspect down as he’d already left the scene.
“Detectives worked through the rest of the evening to find the suspect’s location,” Roberts said. “They were able to take him into custody the next morning.”
The arrest occurred in Ben Lomond without incident, she added.
Police said they aren’t aware of a restraining order taken out by the victim against the suspect.
Michael Richard Kelly was charged with eight crimes (seven felonies and a misdemeanor): felony burglary, felony domestic violence, felony assault with intent to rape, felony rape, felony oral sex assault, felony penetration with a foreign object, felony violent false imprisonment and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.
Kelly, who remains in custody with bail set at $150,000, is scheduled to make his next court appearance on Nov. 14.
Happy Halloween, your yearly reminder that no matter how normal cannabis becomes as legalization and popular acceptance grows across the land, there will always be cops and politicians out there spreading moral panic about the plant, and lots of reporters who are eager to help them do so.
This year, as every year, we’ve been subjected to a spate of scare stories about how some people like to toss cannabis edibles into the bags of trick-or-treaters. Never mind that 10 seconds of thought should be enough to convince anyone that this makes no sense. That’s because after 10 seconds, tops, the obvious question will arise: why would anybody do that? Cannabis is expensive. What would be the point of shelling out for the stuff only to slip it to a seven-year-old in a Barbie costume? To get a neighbor’s child high? To what end?
Scare stories like this long predate the moral panic surrounding cannabis. In the days of yore, the myths included the one about hiding razor blades in the center of apples (as if giving out apples on Halloween weren’t evil enough) and the one about people injecting heroin into Snickers bars.
There are, of course, people out there capable of doing such things, and much worse, and there have been sporadic reports over the decades of purposely tainted treats being passed out. But it’s such a tiny number over such a long period that it’s accurate enough to say: “That never happens.” One big reason it never happens is that it would be so easy to catch the psychos doing it.
The same is true of cannabis, but in this case it makes even less sense because, at least with the myths involving murderous lunatics, there’s a kind of motivation behind the act: murderous lunacy. But what would even a lunatic get out of some kid feeling kinda weird two blocks away and 60 minutes or more after having been slipped a cannabis treat?
No matter. This year, as in other years, law enforcement agencies are issuing dire-sounding warnings. Earlier this month, the St. Mary’s, Kan., police issued a “community advisory” about what it called “THC-infused gummies and snacks marketed to children ahead of the holidays.”
There is of course no indication that the gummies are “marketed to children,” much less that there’s any reason to believe anyone would toss them into kids’ treat bags. It’s all basically made up. That didn’t stop KSNT, the Topeka NBC affiliate, from passing along the “advisory” to viewers and readers with zero skepticism applied.
But it happens in big, sophisticated cities, too. Last year, WLS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Chicago, warned about “the risks of dangerous drugs being mistaken for candy.” CIting “doctors,” the station reported that “those incidents increase around Halloween, especially now with some drugs looking more and more like colorful treats.”
The online article for the report also mentioned “rainbow fentanyl” after the Drug Enforcement Administration issued an idiotic warning of “Mexican cartels” making colorful fentanyl pills in order to get kids hooked. NPR admirably exploded that myth.
The doctors in the WLS report didn’t really back up the warnings. They just said it’s a good idea to be careful with cannabis treats (not to mention dangerous narcotic drugs). Given that so many cannabis manufacturers insist on making their products look like they came from the candy aisle at CVS, that seems like good advice. And it’s true that accidental ingestion happens way too frequently, including with kids. Last year, it happened in Winnipeg, when a woman passed out some cannabis treats to kids, apparently by accident. As is always the case with cannabis, nobody really got hurt. In this case, there weren’t even any reports of kids eating the gummies.
The good news is that it seems like the scare stories are growing slightly less frequent, and are perhaps getting slightly less silly. Warnings from police agencies more often just warn about such accidental distribution rather than trying to get people to be terrified of their neighbors, though of course that’s still happening.
More good news: nothing this year has reached the standard established in 2017, when a TV reporter in Charlotte, N.C. issued grave warnings about people sneaking CBD treats into kids’ bags. That’s right, CBD, which doesn’t cause a high. The reporter warned parents about how CBD can cause “a relaxing feeling.”
“What is your favorite radio station? — What makes it great?”
Louisa Balderas, 24, Assistant Manager at Festa Coffee in Capitola Mall
“KZSC because it’s so random, and never the same songs like other stations. I don’t even know what genre they play, music that I wouldn’t ordinarily listen to. They play songs in other languages, and I’m like, cool!”
Matthew Domenicelli, 19, Deli
“I listen to the one my dad listens to, which is K-PIG. And also the nighttime alien conspiracy show. I really like the UCSC station, and I wish I could DJ there.”
“I like KKUP from Cupertino, it’s very eclectic, all different genres. I like K-PIG, but they’ve gotten too Western, like Nashville. I like Americana, but every time I listen to it, it’s more Country Western. And I like KSQD.”
Ryan Klaner-Glenon, 22, Graphic Designer
“I’ve gotta shout-out KZSC, UC Santa Cruz radio. I like how it’s student-run, so every person that’s hosting it has a personal connection to their music. It’s fun to listen to stuff that I wouldn’t listen to normally.”
Kris Berardi, 24, Student
“KZSC because I have a friend that works there, and they play a good, eclectic mix of music.”
Stephen Hekhuis, 70, Dog Walker
“KSPB from the Stevenson School in Carmel is pretty funny sometimes when a student hasn’t done it before. I listen in my car, but I just switch around a lot if the music is dorky or the talk is uninteresting.”
At the bottom of the metal staircase that shoots up from Laurel St. near the San Lorenzo River, three small trailers sit together.
They look like storage lockers on wheels. Built by Santa Cruz/San Jose-based non profit Simply Shelter, these “tiny shelters” serve as a refuge for unhoused individuals. They’re just big enough for a person to sleep in and store a few belongings. A vent on the ceiling provides airflow and a triangle-shaped aperture on the side brings in some sunlight.
“It gets you out of the weather, gets you some privacy. You don’t have to carry your bedding around. It’s very helpful,” says Marvin Griffith.
Griffith slept in a tiny shelter until recently. He stayed in it for about three months before moving on to transitional housing with the help of a county program.
He first noticed the shelters when an unhoused acquaintance of his acquired one. That led him to connect with Alekz Londos, who started a tiny home project in Santa Cruz that would eventually morph into Simply Shelter.
“Alekz got in contact with me and that kind of started the process,” Griffith says. “I had already known a couple of the people that were staying there. I think there’s five [tiny shelters] here in town right now.”
Londos’ project first gained notoriety in 2020 during the pandemic, when he built his first tiny shelter for Ken Atkins, an unhoused man with a congenital heart condition. Atkins wanted to isolate from others to protect his health. Local news outlets picked up the story and Londos’ project got wide exposure.
“I just thought ‘I’m gonna make something that is more mobile and more versatile,’” Londos says. “It’s like a survival shelter.”
Londos, who has a background in freelance journalism and environmental activism, was inspired by tiny homes in drawing up plans for his shelters. He created a GoFundMe to build his first shelter and raised over $6,000. One runs around $1,200 to build.
As buzz around the project grew, Londos knew he needed help if he was going to expand his operation.
“I was building my second unit and I got overwhelmed with the complexity of organizing people: getting volunteers, getting supplies and scaling up,” Londos says. “It was hard for me to scale up because just so many people wanted these units.”
Simply Scaling Up
Londos’ project grabbed the attention of San Jose resident Jay Samson.
Samson, who works as an aerospace engineer for NASA, was looking for a meaningful project to get involved with. At the outset of the pandemic, he was taking a leadership course that required him to put a team together and complete a project. While some groups tackled simple tasks like organizing a closet, Samson immediately thought of Londos’ tiny shelter project.
“Alex had this idea of bicycle locker-sized enclosures. So I remembered that when I was in the class and I said, ‘Damn, I can make hundreds of those.’ I could bring people together and just really transform homelessness,” Samson says.
Londos took him up on the offer and Samson began to expand the operation into what is now Simply Shelter. Samson began holding build days at his home with dozens of volunteers showing up to work on the shelters. Through word of mouth and tabling at events like First Friday, the project grew.
“The amount of support that we get is tremendous. I mean, so many people signing up and wanting to get involved in some capacity,” Samson says. “So, it’s really inspiring.”
Samson is now in the process of registering Simply Shelter as a nonprofit organization, which would give it access to grants and the ability to hire employees. At the moment, the project is primarily funded by Samson.
To date, the team has built 12 shelters after Londos’ initial two that he built himself. The demand for these shelters is high and the project is partnering with the Santa Cruz and San Jose Downtown Streets Teams to help reach potential candidates. A “community steward” program was also launched to vet potential candidates, check in with shelter residents and address any issues. Samson says that they are not opening up an official waitlist until they have more units built in order to not give “a false sense of hope” to people interested in them.
When speaking with potential shelter occupants, the community stewards will run through a list of qualifying questions. If claustrophobia is an issue, the shelters might not be a good fit, Londos says. Shelter occupants are also expected to follow certain guidelines, including a no hoarding policy. Occupants must also use the shelter for sleeping, not just as a storage unit.
Londos says that shelter occupants make the effort to follow the rules and have built a sense of community around the project.
Marvin Griffith recognizes that the tiny shelters are not for everyone, but that those who take advantage of them are one step closer to more permanent housing.
“It gave me the ability to kind of take care of my stuff and move forward,” Griffith says.”it’s a good step up, but [..] it’s got to be seen that way, not as an end-all [solution].”
Griffith has a medical condition that will require him to get surgery and is currently staying at a hotel while he goes through the process. He is hoping to save some money and find stable housing after he recovers.
Griffith believes it’s important for people to understand that the unhoused population is not all the same. While some individuals do remain in those circumstances by choice, most others, like him, are looking for a way back to permanent housing.
“You have to care if you want to get off the streets,” Griffith says.
Londos and Samson are happy to do their part in helping people get back on their feet. For Samson, stepping into a leadership role while working on Simply Shelter is gratifying.
“It’s really beautiful and it’s fun to lead people,” Samson says. “ I’ve never led before. My whole life, I’ve avoided leadership. I just chose to just do my work as an engineer and never lead so this is a huge motivator.”
Londos says that Simply Shelter is looking for more volunteers to join on build days as winter begins. They’re hoping to connect with others that are passionate about the unhoused issue.
“It’s like a puzzle and we have most of the puzzle together,” Londos says. “ And we were just missing a couple of [..] pieces.”
Visit simplyshelter.org for more information or to volunteer.
On Monday Oct. 30, Supervisor Zach Friend participated in a White House executive order event that established rules and regulations concerning artificial intelligence.
Back in September, Santa Cruz County became one of the first jurisdictions in the state to adopt a policy laying out guidance over how its employees use AI. Specifically, Friend said, the county wanted to ensure AI policies protected personal information and informed the public when they are interacting with an AI tool, and provide a choice to “opt out.”
It was due to the county’s work spearheading AI regulation that Friend was invited to the event at the White House. The new executive order, issued Monday, will implement checks and balances on the technology and will ensure AI systems are safe, secure and trustworthy, avoid discrimination and provide new tools to individuals to avoid fraud and deception.
“I think there’s a strong consensus that we didn’t get the regulatory frameworks around social media correct. So using AI as an opportunity as the next stage of technological innovation, there is a desire to harness what I believe will actually be even more transformational than social media,” Friend said.
At the county level, from May to September, county employees logged 33,000 sessions using AI tools, with roughly 10% using the tools. Friend said that employees mainly use AI tools like ChatGPT for writing emails and other correspondence.
“Our county policy created a value set of things that we thought were really important, such as data privacy and security in particular around health information and informed consent,” Friend said.
Friend, who is part of the National Association of Counties AI Committee, said that other counties reported using AI tools to streamline processes such as property taxes or generating board letters and meeting agendas packets. Santa Cruz County doesn’t employ AI tools in that way—yet.
“We can’t come from a place of fear of the technology and then regulate it to a point where it doesn’t serve a value but we need to be aware of the fact that it could create issues,” Friend said. “Harness its potential while still creating privacy, security and equity. Those were our values and very similar to the White House. They focused on workers rights, for example, to ensure that AI benefits workers as opposed to creating job displacement.”
I have seen the future of rock, as Jon Landau famously said, and it’s not a performer, but a venue—the Godzilla-sized golf ball of a hall in Las Vegas, named the Sphere.
U2’s show there last weekend was unlike anything I’ve seen in my years of concert-going. The sound was perfect, the videos, which covered the whole of the dome, from floor to ceiling, were mind-blowing and it was the apotheosis of the art of presenting a concert to an audience of 18,600 people.
It’s the largest spherical structure in the world at a cost of $2.3 billion. It has what looks like a typo–167,000 speakers– and features the highest definition LED screen ever made. It has haptic seats and artificial wind that pumps pleasing scents. There is also enough room in the spacing of the seats to be comfortable and each seat has high speed internet, which you will need to blow away your friends with videos.
I almost don’t have words to describe the two-hour performance of the band’s “Achtung Baby” album, along with some greatest hits.
A few impressions:
At one point they turned night into day. The sun rose, the dome seemed to fall away and we were all standing in the Nevada desert. This wasn’t like some Disney trick, where you feel skeptically manipulated the whole time. It was a complete take over of the senses. The light, the images, the air…it was like a 4-D experience. We were out there together and had a great band providing the soundtrack.
Not only could you hear every instrument more distinctly than on the best home stereo but you could really hear every word singer Bono said between songs, as if he were speaking directly to you in the front row. How many shows have I been to where the between-song patter was more of a blur of static than genuine communication? And no performer was better suited to be heard than this Irish poet, who spoke about religion, war, faith, marriage.
There are few bad seats in the house (some blocked views under an overhang in the 100 section). The rows are steep and tough to navigate, but not only does every row feel closer to the band than in any other arena, but the visuals extend from roof to floor, and can be seen as well from the highest and furthest seats.
Since the Beatles played baseball stadiums where they could barely be heard, rock shows have focused more on packing the house than on sound, with the exception of a few acts: Pink Floyd; the Dead; Springsteen; Taylor Swift. But none has devoted as much passion to the art of large concerts as U2, from 1993’s circus-like Zooropa tour to 2014’s Innocence + Experience show, where they built a screen down the middle of the arena.
What’s the local angle? We are looking at building a new arena in Santa Cruz for the Warriors, which will also feature music performances. Let’s make sure they give us the best in sound and lights for artists, not just sports. This thing will be dated the minute they build it, but we should make sure they go for the best quality for sound and vision.
As for the Sphere (which is really only 80 percent round) I’m going back ASAP, even though the trip costs about a month’s salary. I’ve waited a lifetime for a venue that made musical magic instead of killing it and I need to see it again.
Brad Kava Editor
THE FUTURE IS SPHERE Two views, inside and outside. Photos by Brad Kava
Quote of the Week
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time” —Leo Tolstoy
GOOD NEWS
The Watsonville City Council in March will consider either shortening the crosswind runway at Watsonville Municipal Airport—or deactivating it altogether—which is the airport’s effort to meet Federal Aviation Administration guidelines and keep its pilots safe.
Either move would open up portions of the city for development such as housing and businesses, Watsonville Principal Planner Justin Meek said.
Included in the master plan update—which was paid for with a $550,000 grant from the FAA—is potentially lengthening the 4,500-foot main runway to 5,181 feet, reconfiguring several taxiways, improving airfield drainage and boosting security for the pedestrian and vehicle access gates.
Inside your loop pedal is a world that is entirely your creation; yes, sometimes you do get to be God.
Usually that means becoming a novelist, or inventing new math, or saying “yes-and” in improv, but digital technology has placed a record-and-overdub stomp box under the foot of every musician who dreams of a bigger sound, of layering soundtracks to create a world of their own making.
At Rick Walker’s Live Looping Festival this weekend, there will be 35 acts and that means 35 completely unique experiments with loop pedals; be it a funk groove, a wind scape, a wall of orgasms, ten part harmony, or white noise from hell. What would it feel like to hear 99 strips of bacon dropped into a pan of hot grease at the same time? What will the artists at Rick Walker’s looping festival ask us to feel?
“Looper pedals are devices that record parts of your performance and play them back for as long as you want them to,” says the website Swamp Industries. “Most looping pedals now have the ability to record multiple layers on top of each other and some even give guitarists the option to add in.”
Operating a loop pedal is intuitive; if you can tap your foot in time, you can stomp on the box on the first beat to start the recording. Another tap of the pedal will playback what you just recorded. Step on it a third time and you can record an overdub track.
You can keep adding overdubs until you reach white noise or pass out.
I pass out after way too much weed and way too many overdubs (I get loopy) with my guitar at high volume. In my own little world with my Boss RC-3 Loop Station and my guitar I sound like a band. I build funk grooves and rap at farmers markets. I have risen to the top of the bottom rung of show business.
RICK WALKER with LOOPERS-GUITAR. Photo: Dan Coryo
Victor Wooten Gets Loopy
Master of funk Victor Wooten sleeps with his basses and writes bass grooves with his looping pedal. His favorite quote is from poet Maya Angelou,
“People won’t remember what you said, people won’t remember what you did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
In his book The Spirit of Music Wooten says, “If I can grab you with feeling, I got you, then I can make you listen. That’s the power of playing simple and repetitive. By the third time through, you get it, and you’re lost to the groove and we’re off on our metaphysical, musical journey.”
Wooten says repetition is how we live, “B. B. King played the same five notes for seventy years and changed the world. Repetition in music creates the feeling of wholeness, the feelings that make emotional engagement irresistible. My looping pedal is one of my favorite friends to jam with, because the looping pedal never gets tired. It never judges. If you didn’t like the last line you recorded, you can erase it and re-record that line. You can explore this wild, wide realm of music in any way you want.”
The Birth of the Loop
“Repetition is a form of change,” says Brian Eno.
Looping was born from experiments on tape in the early 1950s. The name of this technique derives from its realization: to join the two ends of a tape to create a closed loop, without a beginning or end. Local guitarist and bandleader Rhan Wilson (Jazz The Dog) remembers his start.
“When I was 15, I had the original looper; it was called an Echoplex. It was literally a loop of tape, and I would play two chords on that looper and then practice over it for hours, practicing solos over the chord pattern.” A drummer was walking by, stoned on LSD, and he was lured into Rhan’s garage by his Echoplex and guitar, and they started playing together. Stories like this repeat in Santa Cruz over and over like an endless loop.
In the 1970s King Crimson founder Robert Fripp and master producer Brian Eno called their looping recordings Frippertronics. They taped and looped ambient sounds and recorded the 1973 album “No Pussyfooting,” an experimental work where the artists recorded on one reel-to-reel recorder and recorded that recorder onto a second one, adding guitars, creating a dense ambient sound.
It was not a hit, to say the least, but like other records, like the Velvet Underground’s debut, few bought it but thousands were inspired by it.
Frippertronics guitar looping master Michael Peters tells me he is looking for a new state of mind, a different sense of when time stops.
“It feels like everything is here and now, but stuff keeps developing anyway. I had a moment of realization when I saw how a fountain was standing still and moving at the same time. Computers let me experiment with searching for that clarity again.”
Rick Walker’s Live Looping Festival is the Space X of music.
Ringmaster Rick Walker
“It’s a way for one person to make an awful lot of noise,” says looping guru Robert Fripp of King Crimson.
Apart from all the pop, rock and funk of looping, there is a whole other universe of experimental looping, and that is what will go down at the Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre Friday, Nov. 3 through Sunday, Nov. 5.
This is Rick Walker’s Y2K23 20th Anniversary International Live Looping Festival. It’s live, nothing is pre-recorded. There is one thing that I can promise you about the festival performances: they will be like nothing you have ever heard before. It’s live looping, the musical version of the improv actor’s “yes-and.”
Geekamighty! Is this eclectic, motley crew of nerds a cult? A subspecies? They all seem to know each other and support each other. They are not in it for the money, that is not possible. Maybe they’re in it for the digital facilitation of deep emotions. Maybe this is how we fall in love with our AI.
I asked the festival producer and ringmaster Rick Walker, “Who are you people?”
“I think we are cyclically rhythmical human beings.” (Rick beats the microphone against his chest to simulate a heartbeat.)
“Lub-dub, lub-dub… and when you walk places… dup, dup, dup, dup. We are bipedal, our planet revolves every 24 hours. We mark our lives by our cyclical revolutions around our nearest star. If you look at all the dance music of the world, you have parts that are played cyclically, we are rhythm machines.” I agree, thanks to the Catholic Church, practicing the rhythm method has produced so many of us.
“But why looping?”
“I’ve always loved drum machines, sequences and computers, things that were rigid, and alien, and then do things with them that were really human. That’s what brought me to looping. I have hosted 70 artists from 17 countries and they are all really in love with live looping.”
“Why did you name your festival the Y2K23 International Live Looping Festival?”
“I stole the name from Michael Peters. He made a project called MYY2k in the year 2000, making a separate audio recording every day for that entire year.”
“How did you become a looping festival producer? How did you get into this game?”
“I was lonely. I wanted to meet other people who were excited about this new technology, which was really brand new and affordable. So, I started doing small live looping festivals in Big Sur, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Menlo Park, Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco. For a couple years I did that, I made these little festivals.”
“What are we likely to see at the festival this year?”
“We are a live looping festival. We don’t allow people to come in and just play loops and manipulate them like DJs. As a matter of fact, we’re very strict about that. We don’t let that happen.
“So, any loop you make, you have to make it in front of the public. You have to be a good musician; you can’t just be pushing buttons.
“When you’re a looper, you actually are doing real time composition extremely fast, improvising. It’s the exact opposite of Schoenberg. You have people who are very conceptual, loopers who come to play in the festival are very intelligent. Thirty-five artists are going to play this time. Every single one of them is different. The weekend nights I always save for the foreign artists because I want them to have the best slots. They’re coming from far away, right?
“We have Friday and Saturday night and the Headliners concert on Sunday. And then on Saturday, I have a special event the whole afternoon, it’s going to be a bass looping festival. Only bass players from 2 to 7 Saturday, including a lot of local loopers. It costs $25 a day to get in.”
For more about Rick Walker, check out his Ted Talk: TEDxSantaCruz: Rick Walker – An Interactive Presentation of Live Audio/Visual Looping
Some of the Looping Festival Acts
Bill Walker
Bill Walker – bro on the show Rick Walker says about his brother Bill, “He is a fantastic guitar player and has tremendous command of the technology, it’s like a symphony using one guitar. He is a tech genius and also a great slide player; the combination is magical.”
Bill Walker tells me, “Our live looping community is a diverse group of musicians, and what ties us together is this technology that we all use in different ways to extend our range to layer tracks. I’ve used a looping station in a duo that sounds like there are ten of us. I’m always creating loops and then stripping them away and then putting them back in.”
He also uses a Looperalative, a machine invented and produced by Bob Amstadt, another performer in the festival. These guys are so connected, they invent tech for each other.
To see Bill Walker in action, go to: Bill Walker + Violoncheloops Live Improvisation at Y2K18 International Live Looping Festival.
Michael Peters, layering with rotating wheels
Michael Peters
Playing deeply layered soundscapes, at times bluesy, at times Indian, Michael Peters has been looping even before there were loop pedals.
“I started experimenting with a “Frippertronics” setup around 1979, and used it on several live concerts. Eventually, like everyone else, I started to use the new analog, and later digital delays because they could create the same long delays without being as cumbersome and heavy as a pair of tape recorders. As wonderful as digital loop boxes are, the less-than-perfect sound of tapes seems warm and organic in comparison. In live situations, there is definitely something magical about the pair of rotating tape wheels. It creates a world, like sediments in geology, it contains some layers that are disappearing while new layers are being added.”
You can read Michael’s Looping History at: https://loopers-delight.com/history/history.html
Michael Frank, edgy to a point
Michael Frank
Michael Frank taps his fingertips in off-beat rhythms up and down the neck of his guitar, the rhythm counters the throb of electronic sounds, also made with effects on his guitar. The whole thing is like a meditation, a dark mantra perhaps. Frank, 66, was born in Gologne, founded the band The Absurd and has continually used loop pedals, playing at the first Cologne Livelooping Festival in 2008.
You can read more about Michael Frank at: https://www.y2kloopfest.com/2023/09/24/michael-frank
Joel Gilardini, not your father’s Swiss watch, more doom-sludge with digital accuracy
Joel Gilardini
Rick Walker says he is most proud to bring Joel Gilardini to Santa Cruz, and calls him the leading expert in the loop relative world. Gilardini is an experimental guitarist and sound designer based in Zurich, Switzerland. He is the mastermind of the experimental-doom-sludge project The Land of the Snow.
Sludge metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that combines doom metal and hardcore punk. Joel is a member of the noise-industrial combos Mulo Muto and Psychic Drones.
You can learn more about Joel Gilardini at: https://www.youtube.com/user/joelgilardini
Katie Martin, a woman of substance
Katie Martin
Katie Martin is a multimedia artist and songwriter based out of Alabama, with a unique blend of blues, folk, and soul that is immediately compelling.
Mixing hand drawings, photography, videography and prose, each album is paired with a collection of artwork in both the digital and physical realms so that the listener can experience the albums on multiple levels. She has performed in Live Looping and Songwriting festivals across the United States and Mexico.
As an artist whose work emphasizes introspection and growth, Katie’s songs have also been featured on the “Women of Substance: Music with a Conscience” podcast.
You can learn more about Katie at: katiemartinmusic.com
Laurie Amat, porn orchestra
Laurie Amat
Laurie Amat never actually got to wear the head of a giant Eyeball, but she did work as a backup singer for The Residents. Laurie Amat has been called “The Voice on Everyone’s Lips”. She explores the broad possibilities of voice, breath and body in live performance, recording and multimedia.
Ms. Amat’s approach to singing has always stemmed from the power of the voice as an instrument which conveys natural human emotion. The result is a visceral and sensual exploration, which continually challenges boundaries. Her recording and performance techniques have expanded to use electronic devices as sound-altering instruments.
Ms. Amat’s experimental checkered past also includes performances and recordings with The Residents including her vocal direction/vocals for the critically acclaimed “Residents’ Freak Show”, performed in Prague, CZ.
In addition to her extensive solo voice-work, she collaborates in a wide range of groups and performers such as The Reverend Screaming Fingers (Lucio Menegon), The Ambassador of Trouts (Adrian Gormley) and is a member of the Porn Orchestra.
You can learn more about Laurie Amat at: You Tube/Laurie Amat performs in the 2021 PVDLoop Festival!
Bob Amstadt, the Looperlative Creator
Bob Amstad
Bassist Amstadt was drawn to bass guitar and the new wave/punk/post-punk (now termed dark wave) 30 years ago and was mesmerized by what could be done with early looping technologies. He invented his own looping technology, now known as Looperlative, a breakthrough device used by some of the other acts in the festival. Michael Peters is using one of Amstadt’s loopers.
You can learn more about Bob Amstadt at: amstadt.com.
If Life Is A Cycle, Looping Is A Bicycle
The legendary Laraaji, pioneer of ambient music, says, “My music turns into wafting sound. The idea is to move faster than the mind can track, so the mind gives up and goes to a relaxed place and gives up thinking for a while.”
Rhan Wilson agrees, “It’s repetition, and I think that allows us to get closer to God. In a pattern we can meditate, we go deeper. African music is very repetitive, and that’s how you get the emotion. Rick Walker’s looping festival is so cool, all these different people are finding different ways to use this tool.”
Music critic Bill Kopp says, “It’s a tool we’re still discovering the possibilities for.”
Exploring the possibilities is the name of the looping game. Live looping has turned into something anyone can do; rockers, meditators, sound-scapers, even comics who build funk grooves to tell jokes over. There is a whole new world in that little digital box, tap your foot and it’s yours to create.
The Y2K23 20th Anniversary International Live Looping Festival will be on Nov. 3, 4, 5, at the Actor’s Theater, located at 1001 Center Street in downtown Santa Cruz. Tickets are $25 a day. For information about the festival, please go to: https://www.y2kloopfest.com/
What is the evidence, despite what nearly all economists believe, for the assertion that Santa Cruz’s housing market is somehow not subject to the economic law of supply and demand (as “Housing for People” promoters claim, and the Editorial Note repeats in the 10/18 issue)? No one expects more building of market rate apartments to completely ‘solve’ affordability, but it will affect it. Even without the required affordable housing, building new, denser housing frees up older, less expensive housing elsewhere for others. The “Housing for People” initiative should more accurately be labeled “Less, More Expensive Housing for Fewer People” given its likely (and possibly illegal) effects on our housing market. Santa Cruz is changing regardless of some people’s interest in trying to keep it the same forever (ignoring that they or their forebears changed it when they arrived…). Either it will become increasingly exclusive, or we can actively shape it to provide more housing opportunities for our workers and younger generations who otherwise need to go elsewhere.
Dan Brumbaugh
Santa Cruz
HOUSING AND SUICIDE
For many of us, November is the month of Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday season. It is a time when people gather with family and friends to express gratitude and appreciation for the good things in their lives. Families celebrate Thanksgiving as one of the few days of the year they are blessed to have so many loved ones under the same roof. Those less fortunate may spend Thanksgiving in homeless shelters or the cold. A few may receive a traditional Thanksgiving lunch, but many others will go hungry.
November is National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. The purpose is to raise awareness for unhoused children and families and to educate the public on ways to help end thiis occurrence. Estimates say 1.3 million children under six experience homelessness in the United States. Over one-half of them experience depression and anxiety.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, approximately 550,000 unaccompanied youth and young adults up to age 24 experience a homelessness episode longer than a week. 43% of homeless youth are unsheltered. Many of them have experienced significant trauma before and after being unhoused.
The Jason Foundation is dedicated to the prevention of youth suicide through educational awareness programs that equip us with the tools and resources to help identify and assist at-risk youth. If you have friends or loved ones who are homeless, it is necessary to know the warning signs and risk factors associated with suicidal ideation. Knowing this information could be crucial in saving that young person’s life. For more information, please visit www.jasonfoundation.com.
Kari Faux is on her way up, and no one is going to stop her. The Little Rock-based rapper has bars, and she knows it. Think Cardi B, think Megan Thee Stallion; Kari Faux matches both women with clever lyrics, confidence, and sexuality. Tracks like “Leave Me Alone” will resonate with introverts who require personal space. Childish Gambino has already guest starred in a music video, and surely it won’t be long until the rest of the industry’s innovators snap to attention when they hear her name. JESSICA IRISH
This month’s First Friday jaunt in Boulder Creek will not be complete without a stop by Lille Aeske Arthouse’s latest exhibition: “Grim Reaper, Reimagined” by Caitlin Jemma and Aleah Pechthalt. Working across media, these two Washington State artists explore the human form and associated concerns surrounding sexuality, age and impermanence. Jemma’s photography presents a twist on the mythic Grim Reaper, taking aesthetics that are generally gloomy and making them glam. “The Glam Reaper,” she writes, “is our galactic mother who reminds us that we are all made of stardust.” On Saturday evening, she will be playing disco-folk tunes from her recent album, True Meaning. ADDIE MAHMASSANI
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood disbanded in 2019 after the tragic death of guitarist Neal Casal, but the band’s music lives on through the Santa Cruz-based Brotherhood of Freaks. A seasoned tribute band, this musical brotherhood consists of local greats Steve Sofranko, Mike Cross, Mike Johnson, Paul Garcia and Kyle Gorath. One part Rolling Stones, one part Grateful Dead, one-thousand parts CRB and a lot of heart come together onstage to create a big danceable party AM
If it’s possible to be too fun, Say She She wins the award. The multi-national trio of Piya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham and Nya Gazelle Brown converged in Manhattan after pursuing music separately in London, DC, and New York respectively. Often clad in funky black and white with bejeweled Gogo boots, these women are expert vocalists, crafting tight, shimmering harmonies that fuse R&B, soul, funk, psychedelia and, of course, disco. Their sophomore album Silver has received rave reviews, with The Guardian describing it as “infused with the wonky post-disco spirit of early 80s NYC.” AM
The man. The myth. The storyteller. Henry Rollins is a man who does what he wants and always has. He became one of the most recognizable hardcore singers alive after joining Black Flag in 1981. Known for his blatant honesty, fast-paced mind and insane performance style that threatened a bloody beating to anyone who looked at him wrong. He covered himself in tattoos back when that was a shocking thing. After Black Flag he formed the Rollins Band and continued being one of the hardest frontmen in music. More than that, he is also an author, an activist, an actor, an avid record collector, an even more avid reader, world traveler and the list just keeps going on. Basically the last true Renaissance Man. MAT WEIR
Nathan Hill, whose debut novel, The Nix, arrived with a splash in 2016, comes to Bookshop Santa Cruz to celebrate the release of his sophomore novel, Wellness. In Wellness, Hill tackles the world of diet culture, exploring the evolution of a long-term relationship along the way. The result is a moving meditation on aging, love, and the multitudes of human experience. His ability to span decades, as well as page numbers, has earned him comparisons to Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace. But those guys ended up as recluses, and Hill is on tour— seems wise to catch him now, before he follows suit. JI
INFO: 7pm, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. Free. 423-0900.
TUESDAY
HIP HOP
NONAME
When it comes to the world of chill, introspective slam-poetry hip hop with jazz tendencies, Noname is one that continues to change the game. She first gained notoriety in 2013 when she appeared on a mixtape by Chance the Rapper. She dropped her debut mixtape, Telefone, in 2016 to much acclaim. Two years later she released her first album, Room 25 to even further acclaim. Then, she pulled back, tweeting that her heart wasn’t in it anymore as she turned her attention towards activism and launched her Noname Book Club. The club has spread to 17 cities and focuses on members reading radical books by authors of color. However, it looks like Noname has returned to the road this year, first appearing at Coachella last April. MW
INFO: 9pm, Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $28.50adv/$33door. 713-5492.
INDIE ROCK
THE CRANE WIVES
Formed in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2010, The Crane Wives have encompassed the true meaning of indie rock. They play folk. They play rock. Their first album, 2011’s Safe Ship,Harbored was self-produced. If the name sounds familiar that’s because they took their name from the 2009 Decemberists’ album, The Crane Wife. In the past 13 years The Crane Wives have released six studio albums, and three live ones including one recorded during the lockdown in true indie rock fashion. This Tuesday, Felton Music Hall, nestled among the redwood groves, will be the perfect venue for their rootsy sound. MW
Chef Jessica Yarr knows how to cook up a good time.
Santa Cruzers familiar with her Chicken Foot pop-up downtown have known this for a while. Now the gentle people of Felton, where she came of age at her parents’ Bigfoot Discovery Museum and recently opened The Grove Cafe + Bakery, are learning that in full-flavored ways.
As of late last week, national audiences got their own serving.
Last Thursday and Friday, Yarr appeared on Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay.” After she took down fellow chef Matthew Zafrir in a qualifying cookoff—surprise ingredient: white asparagus—she picked the food item she wanted to outcook Flay on: pierogies, a nod to both her grandmothers’ heritage.
Before Yarr v. Flay, show co-host/celeb chef Anne Burrell—an alum of Pebble Beach Food & Wine, which returns in 2024 after several years dark—yelled something like, Be warned! adding, “Flay is short for flavor!”
Yarr didn’t flinch. “Yarr is short for Y’are going down!”
While I didn’t taste their creations, it’s hard to believe the judges got it right in voting Flay victorious, especially if authenticity matters. (Flay’s take looked more empanada than anything.)
Meanwhile, Yarr featured pierogies as a special in Felton last weekend, where fresh pop-up events, expanded hours, local wine and craft beer represent new updates.
New hours are 8am-4pm Tuesday-Thursday, 8am-6pm Friday-Saturday (with 3-5 pm happy hour) and 8am-3pm Sunday brunch. Nov. 10, a four-course vegan tasting menu featuring Goldmine Adaptogens arrives, and feels like a winner.
thegrovefelton.com
REALLY DOUGH
One kitchen door closes, another opens: Reef Dog Deli is done in Capitola, but a promising new occupant opens this month. La Marea Café (marea meaning “tide” in Italian) will star Detroit-style pizzas, salads and seasonal specials from Westside Farmers Market darling Jayne Dough (aka Jayne Droese), plus fresh coffee from Syllable Coffee, sourdough bagels and other breakfast goodies. jaynedoughpizza.com
SIPPY TRIPPY
Sunday, Nov. 12, Downtown Wine Walk’s fall edition drops tasting stations at an archipelago of retailers. Given the roster of participating wineries—including Big Basin Vineyard, Raffaelli Vineyards, Doon To Earth, Random Ridge, Lago Lomita Vineyards, Inversion Wines, Roudon-Smith Winery, Bargetto Winery, Birichino, Stirm Wine Co., Rexford Winery and Windy Oaks Estate—the $45 passport presents sturdy value. downtownsantacruz.com
KEEP IT COMING
Turbo news nibbles: 1) Santa Cruz’s own Cruz Foam—the crew behind a Styrofoam alternative crafted from shrimp shells that’s handy for food handling—just earned a nod as one of Time Magazine‘s Best Inventions of 2023 for Cruz Cool, a proprietary cooler made from the same stuff; 2) Big Sur Food & Wine takes flight (and pours flights) this weekend, Nov. 2-4, bigsurfoodandwine.org; 3) Winemaker Mark Bright’s bespoke Saison Cellar & Wine Bar is officially open in Scotts Valley, saisoncellar.com.
Happy Halloween, your yearly reminder that no matter how normal cannabis becomes as legalization and popular acceptance grows across the land, there will always be cops and politicians out there spreading moral panic about the plant, and lots of reporters who are eager to help them do so.This year, as every year, we’ve been subjected to a spate of...
“What is your favorite radio station? — What makes it great?”
“KZSC because it’s so random, and never the same songs like other stations. I don’t even know what genre they play, music that I wouldn’t ordinarily listen to. They play songs in other languages, and I’m like, cool!”
“I listen to the one my dad listens to, which is K-PIG....
I have seen the future of rock, as Jon Landau famously said, and it’s not a performer, but a venue—the Godzilla-sized golf ball of a hall in Las Vegas, named the Sphere. U2’s show there last weekend was unlike anything I’ve seen in my years of concert-going. The sound was perfect, the videos, which covered the whole of the dome, from floor to ceiling, were mind-blowing...
At Rick Walker’s Live Looping Festival this weekend, there will be 35 acts and that means 35 completely unique experiments with loop pedals; be it a funk groove, a wind scape, a wall of orgasms, ten part harmony, or white noise from hell. What would it feel like to hear 99 strips of bacon dropped into a pan of hot grease at the same time?
What is the evidence, despite what nearly all economists believe, for the assertion that Santa Cruz’s housing market is somehow not subject to the economic law of supply and demand (as "Housing for People” promoters claim, and the Editorial Note repeats in the 10/18 issue)? No one expects more building of market rate apartments to completely ‘solve’ affordability...
If it’s possible to be too fun, Say She She wins the award... Often clad in funky black and white with bejeweled Gogo boots, these women are expert vocalists, crafting tight, shimmering harmonies...
Chef Jessica Yarr knows how to
cook up a good time.
Santa Cruzers familiar
with her Chicken Foot popup
downtown have known this for
a while. Now the gentle people
of Felton, where she came of age
at her parents’ Bigfoot Discovery
Museum and recently opened The
Grove Cafe + Bakery, are learning
that in full-flavored ways.
