Fergie sings about Lovely Lady Lumps, but for those of us who struggle with not-so-lovely bumps on the backside of our arms, and sometimes on our thighs, we aren’t singing. These bumps are the result of an un-curable skin condition called Keratosis Pilaris. My dermatologist explained to me that it’s actually hereditary. If you have KP, you need a solution for the red bumps on the backs of your arms and legs that won’t go away, no matter how much you scrub at them. Even though it’s an un-curable situation, you can keep those pesky bumps at bay by using a few choice products that genuinely work—if you use them regularly. KP is caused by blocked hair follicles. So here are a few products that will help clear things up for you: AmLactin, an over-the-counter moisturizer that helps significantly; DERMAdoctor KP Duty Dry Skin Repair Kit; Papaya Body Lotion by Mario Badescu; and A.H.A. Botanical Body Soap by Mario Badescu. Good luck, and say good-bye to your lady bumps.

Food, love, identity blend in tasty, but uneven ‘Soul Kitchen’
It takes a healthy appetite for slapstick to digest Soul Kitchen. This multicultural comic confection about a foundering restaurant in a shabby neighborhood in Hamburg, Germany, draws much of its humor from such material as pratfalls at a funeral, a popped vest button that lands in the wrong place, and a character who keeps throwing out his back, forcing him to scuttle about like Quasimodo. Still, beneath the fizzy froth of physical gags simmers a more tender-hearted tale of food, love, and identity, with a protagonist teetering at the axis between them all.

‘Mademoiselle Chambon” explores sensuousness of longing
Not all the French hang out in the bistro, sipping cognac and discussing arty things. What’s interesting right away about Mademoiselle Chambon—literally, from the very first image—is the thoughtful way it sets up a working-class milieu. Jean (Vincent Lindon), a construction worker, spends his days ripping out drywall and mortaring bricks. His wife, Anne-Marie (Aure Atika) works on an assembly line. When they help their little boy, Jeremy, with his grammar homework, they are as mystified as he is about the test questions, but the three of them gamely work their way through the lesson together and come up with the correct answer.

Get growing! Our annual Fall Home & Garden issue tills the creative soil of locals—on the farm, in the garden, in the living room, and beyond.
Inside:
Love Them Apples 
TerraGnoma Time
Madison Interiors
Get Baked: Solar Ovens
Feng Shui It
Taking Gardening to New Heights
You, Your Garden, Your Food
Seven Tips for Your Fall Garden
Greenspacing
Seven Household Tips for Fall

The second annual Ethnic Dance Festival brings rhythms from around the globe to Santa Cruz
Other than American Indians, the United States really doesn’t have much of a history in the world of ethnic dancing. Immigrants from abroad brought the rhythm and music from their native lands to our shores and created myriad hybrids that Americans claim as their own—but truth be told, they are merely the coalescence of ethnic dances from across the globe. For this reason, many people choose to adopt the dance of an ethnicity other than their own in a fervid attempt to gain connection to a movement larger than themselves.

Deakin crafts tunes, and more, on his own
In certain circles, Animal Collective is a veritable god-like force, essentially unassailable critically for creating some of the most important experimental music of an entire generation.

Conversely, member Josh Dibb (aka Deakin, coming to the Brookdale Lodge on Tuesday, Sept. 28 with supporting act Price Rama), doesn’t have the kind of confidence you’d expect of a prophet. However, he does have at least one thing in common with Jesus Christ.

“Carpentry, I think, has been my other really big source of money and work, aside from music,” says Dibb, recalling his days as a set-builder for what he calls “off, off Broadway” productions in New York City. This was during a time after dropping out of Brandeis University in Massachusetts, a decision that clearly still weighs on him.

With so many street performers on Pacific Avenue hacking their way through played-out classic rock covers, it takes a unique sound to even catch my attention. Take, for instance, Matador: I’m still captivated by its music almost two years after I first saw the duo perform. With Mathew on guitar and Dorota strumming the violin, both going only by first name, Matador formed by chance when Mathew was couch surfing at a mutual friend’s house. “It was just random,” says Dorota. “[We] happened to be at the same place on the same day.” That meeting resulted in the two writing music the very next day. Three years later, they are still at it. “Writing music is kind of like a science experiment,” Mathew states. “We start with a little piece and then we work on it,” explains Dorota. “We’ll try it a billion different ways until it grows into a complete mess, then we bring it back.” With this method of controlled chaos, Matador unleashes a river of melody that’s hauntingly beautiful one moment and dangerously explosive the next.

Plus Letters to Good Times

Fall has arrived and so, too, has an increased tempo that will take us toward the end of 2010, and into another new year. Not so fast—there’s a lot to explore between now and December. And this week, in our annual Fall Home & Garden issue, we do just that. In crafting this year’s issue, we were particularly  impressed with gardens, and “growers” for that matter. As we move into an abundant time of harvest, take note of a few locals spotlighted this week who’ve mastered the art of generating lush gardens, particularly Cynthia Sandberg of Love Apple Farm (page 16). There are a few garden-related events taking place in the coming weeks that stand out, too, so it’s a bonanza out there. Check out more H&G stories online at goodtimessantacruz.com, as well exclusive tips for your home and garden by a well-known local designer and grower. Dig in.

I think that it’s ridiculous that people are protesting it and that it’s a racist and stereotyping kind of a thing.  Just because certain factions of the Islamic state committed violent acts against Americans it doesn’t condemn all the people that are American citizens and have a right to practice their faith. Forgiveness is much more powerful than holding resentment and it would help everybody.
Alethea Hasbrouck
Santa Cruz | PhD Student