Pinot Gris

One of the most fun areas to go wine tasting is in the Swift Street complex in Santa Cruz. Ever since a group of about a dozen wineries got together and formed Surf City Vintners, the place has been a hive of activity.

Vino Tabi, which belongs to the group, is an eclectic winery run by accomplished winemaker Katie Fox, who always offers a warm welcome and is happy to share her knowledge of wine.

Summit Kitchen has commuters covered with ready-to-heat meals, flowers, and smoked hot dogs
I traded a commute down industrial Highway 101 for the idyllic redwoods of Highway 17. The slow trek up the mountain was ideal for dreaming and planning, but once I hit the summit, the sweeping view of Monterey Bay and drop in temperature shook me into reality.  “What’s for dinner?” I would distressfully inquire.

Good Times readers voted Drunk Monkeys the Best New Restaurant in 2009. Since then, owners Dameon and Laura DeWorken have shuttered their Seabright restaurant and gone mobile, serving Asian Street Food from a ferociously painted catering truck.

This self-proclaimed Westside Lurker is often found on Mission Street at CVS Pharmacy or U-Save Liquors, and is also is known to haunt the corner of Encinal and Sylvania by Costco. In this new business model, roach coach meets high tech, as DeWorken occasionally updates the Drunk Monkeys facebook page with his location. Fans, currently numbering 678, or anybody else can also text him for a real-time update.

FashionART Santa Cruz Runway Show may be the most enchanting fashion spectacle in town
The style conscious among us have just spent the last few days reveling in the razzle-dazzle of the New York Fashion Week runway shows that stream oh so glamorously across the Internet. We have been accosted with everything from Derek Lam’s ’60s-inspired minimalism to Charlotte Ronson’s ladylike grunge, the likes of which have been touted as the new staples we simply must possess in our closets come spring 2011. But as the ostentatious hullabaloo of New York Fashion Week dies down, what is a fashion-minded girl to do without the prospect of another runway show until the London Fashion Week commences in mid-October? Local fashionistas need not resort to a three-week period of melancholy because Santa Cruz has a chic extravaganza of its own to fill the gap.

Lively cast makes the most of Cuba-set comedy ‘Clouds’
Four men, one woman, a vintage Cadillac, and miles and miles of hot, dusty roads on the island of Cuba, 10 years after the Revolution. Are they in Paradise or Hell, on the road to destiny or disaster? The answer is all of the above as the opinions of these characters—and the audience—shift like errant trade winds from moment to moment, in Michael Frayn’s comedy, “Clouds,” the lively inaugural production of the sixth season of Santa Cruz’s own Jewel Theatre Company.

SANTA CRUZ – UC Santa Cruz celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, and what better way to celebrate than being ranked the 68th best university in the world? That’s right—Times Higher Education, with provider Thomson Reuters, recently released its ranking of the world’s universities. Our city on the hill placed strong, coming in ahead of Dartmouth and University of Southern California.

City of Santa Cruz unveils the latest draft of its Climate Action Plan
“Come gather around people, wherever you roam, and admit that the waters around you have grown.” While Bob Dylan may have written those lyrics as a political metaphor, today they ring true for an entirely different reason—the times are changing, for the planet that is.

Whether it’s global warming or just a rapid intensity in conditions, most people today believe we are living in the times of climate change. Scientists from around the globe believe human activity is to blame for the increase in carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) that quickly gather in our atmosphere. This accumulation of GHGs greatly increases the planet’s natural greenhouse effect, resulting in potentially catastrophic weather conditions. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.”

City council candidates run from one forum to the ‘Next’
Eight candidates, three council seats, and a zillion forums are the makings for a busy election season. In the last few weeks, the Santa Cruz City Council hopefuls have been making the rounds at a variety of community forums aimed at getting to know them better. The roster of candidates includes incumbent Lynn Robinson, who is running for reelection, Transportation and Public Works Commissioner David Terrazas, who ran for the council in 2008, retired firefighter Ron Pomerantz, Planning Commissioner David Foster, grant writer Steve Pleich, insurance salesman Kevin Moon (the outspoken Republican of the group), real estate agent Hilary Bryant and nonprofit worker Gus Ceballos.

Plan to create a Santa Cruz currency takes hold
Thanks to the efforts of one local organization, Santa Cruzans may soon find themselves in possession of a unique local dollar.

The organization in question, New Earth Exchange, hopes to create a network of currency that would promote sustainable local businesses. In addition to New Earth Exchange, Transition Santa Cruz and Transition San Lorenzo Valley are official sponsors of the program. The yet-to-be-named program would band together a group of local businesses that would exchange credits in an attempt to create a network not dependent upon the flailing contemporary U.S. economy and the domination of large corporate retailers.

These local businesses would be bound by a system of mutual exchanges and benefits for the customers, according to Langdon Roberts, New Earth Exchange organizer and the director of the Center for Transformative Neurological Physiology. “The economy is very complex and the design is really not that efficient,” says Roberts. “But it’s the best people have been able to come up with, at least until now.”

(Note: Writing humorous essays involving hurricanes during hurricane season is insensitive, reckless and ill-advised. The author recognizes this. She is currently planning a series of pieces on drunk Santas, so clearly has no perception of social boundaries. She feels awful about this.) 

September is underway, another school year has begun, and I, along with legions of my writing peers, had planned an annual ritual dripping with nostalgia: a poignant, amusing column on the back-to-school miracle affecting anyone past the age of … back-to-school, waxing poetic about sharpened pencils and fresh lined paper. I had even undertaken a project to empathize with my kids’ hours of mind-numbing boredom during less than interesting academic subjects. (FYI, I intended to study a topic about which I have absolutely no curiosity whatsoever, find chillingly dull, and causes my eyeballs to melt from lack of interest: What to Expect When I’m Expecting. This took much consideration. My list also included Other People’s Drug Trips and Hedge Funds. Also note— it’s very difficult to think of things about which one doesn’t give a hoot. It’s elementally counterintuitive.)