Chardonnay 2009

The United States is such a geographically diverse country that I never cease to be amazed. Coming from the pint-sized country of England, when I travel the wide-open spaces of the U.S., it always takes my breath away. My husband and I recently did a road trip to Yellowstone—our second time there—taking in Badlands National Park and the Black Hills of South Dakota also. Because we were staying in cabins in the national parks, we took our own wine – as well as an abundance of snack food.

Imura Japanese Restaurant serves sushi, shioyaki and some Korean specialties too

If you’d like to improve your sushi-making technique, Chef Jim Song stars in an informational five-minute video on the website of Watsonville’s Imura Japanese Restaurant. In it, he makes rolling a compact, symmetrical California Roll appear error-proof. At Imura you will find this perfectly made roll along with other traditional Japanese dishes and locally uncommon culinary gratifications.

In the evenings, the setting sun casts its rays on a vibrant, standing-room only crowd on the deck of Caffe Pergolesi. But on a fall morning I discovered a sea of tranquility.

The dozen or so patrons included retirees discussing football, an occasional studying student or businessperson channeling Cruzio’s free wifi, and a constant stream of acquaintances choosing from the caffe’s long list of caffeinated beverages.

With the Nov. 2 election just around the corner, and a whole slew of candidates running for local office, now is a good time to start narrowing down your picks. Is there a question you’d like to hear the city council candidates answer? Good Times would like to know. Send in your question for the council hopefuls and be automatically entered to win some stellar prizes, including dinner for two at Clouds, tickets to the Jack-O-Laughter 2010 at the Rio Theatre on Oct. 29, and a dozen cookies from Pacific Cookie Company. Your question could also be selected for the candidate questionnaire in GT’s forthcoming Election Guide. Questions will be accepted for the Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Capitola and Scotts Valley city council candidates, as well as for the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors contenders. Just email your question to le*****@gt******.com, with “Candidate Question” in the subject line, to enter.

A guided tour into the hidden world of Santa Cruz geocachers
As worldwide phenomenons go, geocaching has remained remarkably ambiguous. Of the people who have heard of it, or think they may have heard of it, fewer still could actually tell you what the sport entails. What makes this really surprising is that geocaches aren’t necessarily hidden away in the lonely reaches of Nisene Marks, Wilder Ranch, or other remote areas (though some certainly are); they’re everywhere. Many are right in the city—underfoot, overhead, or in plain view.

“You can drive anywhere and be like, ‘oh yeah, there’s one there, and there…’” says Pam Baldwin (a.k.a. Evil Cow Pie) who has hidden more than 380 caches and found almost 3,100.

The Science Sundays lecture series explains how climate change affects California’s wineries
On a warm and sunny Sunday in this temperamental summer, it’s easy to let your mind wander away from the various environmental problems plaguing the world today. That stuff is depressing—for example, a gulf that seems to be more oil than water, covering its wildlife in a slick, crude sheen while stalling local fisheries and economies to near insolvency. Not to mention the silent moans of countless trees lost to deforestation. And, of course, there are the lovable polar bears and penguins, already on the endangered species list, that see their habitat melt away due to the increase of greenhouse gases and annual temperatures.  

Anti-Abortion protestors picket Planned Parenthood for more than a month
With summer ending and tourists making the return voyage home, Santa Cruzans might notice a new fixture on one downtown street—a mass of anti-abortion protestors.

These protestors are part of an international effort called 40 Days for Life, whose mission is to “draw attention to the evils of abortion” with 40 days of prayer, fasting, vigil, and community outreach, according to the organization’s website. The website also boasts that this season of anti-abortion picketing will be the largest pro-life movement in history.

This year, protestors involved with 40 Days banded together for the first time on Sep. 22 to stand in solidarity against abortion. The organization has been holding vigils since 2007, but this autumn marks the organization’s largest campaign yet with 238 participating locations, one of which, for the first time, is Santa Cruz.

This was the scene at the recent Capitola Art and Wine Festival. Wine was selling as briskly as ever (one of the few truly recession-proof commodities). But many artists, especially among the stalwarts who do this show every year, had to depend on smaller items—cards and prints instead of original art, earrings instead of more elaborate pieces of jewelry—whose sales added up to a show that was good, but not as sensational as in palmier days of yore.

Despite sluggish sales at outdoor shows or in galleries, however, there’s a slight uptick in commissions, mostly from private collectors who know exactly what they want and aren’t afraid to ask for it. By “collectors,” I don’t mean philanthropic billionaires cruising in stretch limos, or swanky nobles, à la the Medicis, throwing around purses of gold (not that every artist alive wouldn’t love to have a patron like that, but let’s try to stay on track, here). In real life, especially here in Santa Cruz, collectors are ordinary working folks with mortgages, families, and property taxes, just like the rest of us. In tough economic times, an artist’s best friend can be the collector who already knows and appreciates his or her work.

The vast scope of the Hollywood lit vegetables greeted me as I entered this blown out “Health Food Store.”  I remembered those dusty, dank dungeons in the 60’s posing with good intentions, and vastly more supplements than organic wilted lettuce and peppers. These little stores emerged in direct opposition to the supermarket culture with it’s bright branded labels.  Originally associated with hippies and health food “nuts,” the stores are mainstream.  Not that Whole Foods didn’t give the health craze a beautiful sheen, years ago.  It’s just that here, now, in Santa Cruz, our own Westside Health Food Store went “Gigante!”  The food to supplement proportion has switched but the concept is the same.  Healthy Food.  You can even get kombucha, that semi-illegal substance of the yoga crowd, on tap.  This is modern culture. Superb.

New Leaf West Side    1010 Fair Street

What exactly is a snood? A) A furry, ape like creature living in the jungle canopy of Borneo, B) A netlike piece of fabric that covers the back of a woman’s hair, or C) A cream filled Croatian pastry similar to an éclair. Did you choose B? Congratulations! You know your fashion history. Since the Middle Ages, women have been wearing snoods, essentially a type of hood, to keep their intricate hairstyles intact. Snoods eventually fell by the wayside until the Civil War era, when they came back into fashion in the form of net like headbands that were woven into elaborate up-dos. Snoods went out of fashion again, only to reemerge as this season’s must-have accessory. Among the more enviable snoods are the papaya orange Missoni or the iconic checked Burberry variety. Get your snood quickly before it disappears from the fashion landscape for the next 100 years.