When I was younger, an occasional buffet meal was an opportunity to gorge myself on the less healthy foods that I rarely saw at home. Like piles of bacon and a table-full of desserts. Now I appreciate buffets as a quick lunch stop. The new Thai Village restaurant in the King’s Village Shopping Center offers a small, fresh buffet ($8.95) that was well-attended by local Seagate employees last week.

Ballot measures can be tricky to understand (it takes some skilled reading-between-the-lines), which is one reason it’s so handy to see who has endorsed or opposed a proposition. Last week, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors thought it would make its position clear on Proposition 23: in a nutshell, that it’s a big step backward for the Golden State. Think of Prop. 23 as sort of the reversed AB 32; the latter was California’s clean air law that passed in 2006, setting greenhouse gas emission reduction goals for the state and implementing new accountability measures for polluters. Prop. 23 is backed by Texas oil companies and, in the words of a statement released by Supervisor Neal Coonerty, it “would roll back California’s clean energy and air pollution reduction standards.” 

Free Radio Santa Cruz returns after brief displacement
It’s not easy being free. There’s bound to be someone who will want you to pay for it. Or tell you how to express your freedom.

One local experiment in freedom has resounded on Santa Cruz airwaves 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past 15 years. But on Tuesday, Aug. 3, the experiment—known as Free Radio Santa Cruz (FRSC) 101.1 FM—went off the air and left a gap in independent local broadcasting. However, the silence didn’t last long: the underground station recently found a new transmitter location and is, as of this week, back on the air.  

Cancellation of Cabrillo’s Chinese language program causes a stir
Budget cuts: two of the most dreaded words in current economic times and, unfortunately, also two of the most common. With the state’s deficit at a staggering $19.1 billion, funding for social programs has been hacked away, leaving schools and communities to deal with the brunt of the blow.

For most of the Golden State’s public schools, this means having to cut many needed and desired courses. Cabrillo Community College is no exception.

What are some of the biggest issues surrounding vacation rental homes in the county, and how are they being addressed?

Coastal neighborhoods have seen an increase in both the number of vacation rental homes and the year-round marketing of those homes. This evolution has caused growing problems for residential neighborhoods, where the complaints include loud, late-night parties, excessive traffic, loss of neighborhood parking, and garbage. The vacation rentals are in essence a commercial business in a residential neighborhood.Unlike hotels or motels, there are currently no restrictions or limits on vacation rentals, nor are any operational permits required. Capitola is currently the only jurisdiction in the county to govern vacation rentals. The city requires a permit and a business license and limits where rentals can go. Monterey and Carmel have much stricter rules, essentially banning short-term rentals in all residential districts.

Woo hoo. A knife fight and pirate sex in the first chapter! Love it!” This was the very first comment posted on my serial novel-in-progress, “Runaways: A Novel of Jonkanoo,” now going up online, one chapter a week (runaways-jonkanoo.blogspot.com/).

This is the gratifying part of the writing life, feedback from happy readers. It’s the part that those of us who toil away just under the radar of traditional publishing crave the most. Yes, the act of writing itself has to be its own reward for so many of us who keep plugging away because we just can’t stop ourselves; the stories demand to be told, and we are liable to get pretty snippy about it if they’re made to fester too long inside some murky cranial passage or other, waiting to be born. But reader response is both invaluable and irresistible.

We’ve blogged about Nuala leather products in the past, but recently, Obsessive Beauty had a glimpse at some of the gorgeous work that Terry McInerney has been creating as of late, and her new line of leather accessories has us drooling. McInerney, a local mom in Santa Cruz, has been cutting and sewing together a new batch of inspired purses, messenger bags and more. What particularly caught our eye are her new wallets ($55)—with simple studded hardware and pockets that will fit your debit card, driver’s license and much more; they come in black or a chestnut color and are vastly unique. Another captivating item of McInerney’s are her leather cuffs, which have a vintage broach embedded on them ($42)—they offer a splash of rough femininity to any outfit. McInerney is also responsible for the recent brouhaha over a certain leather cuff watch that she recently created. A chunky leather band wraps around your wrist, with a classic watch face attached to it. It fits in perfectly with the sturdy, military-inspired looks that were featured on the runways. Perfect for fall. (These can also be custom-ordered.) Visit etsy.com/shop/nualaleather to make an inquiry, or find Nuala leather on Facebook.

Plus Letters to Good Times
Sometimes, during large family gatherings, my Polish aunt would burst out into song—sometimes dance—and croon refrains of Bobby Vinton’s “Melody of Love.” She loved it because parts of the song were actually sung in Polish. She sang it so often during the ’70s that somehow it became embedded into my psyche. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Imagine whistling that at a junior high school dance when all you’re really wanting to do is impress somebody.

‘Alice Creed’ a gutsy, audacious three-character thriller
There are few things more exciting in moviegoing than finding a truly original film by someone you’ve never heard of before. Think back to the first time you saw Christopher Nolan’s Memento, say, or Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects. Remember that feeling of, “Wow, where did this guy come from?” You may get that same hit of awe, coupled with a gleeful sense of discovery, when watching The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a gutsy, disturbing, scrupulously well-honed little thriller from rookie British auteur J Blakeson.

It’s really a tale of two dancers. One, Li Cunxin, a peasant boy plucked out of his rural Chinese village and sent to the Beijing Arts Academy toward the end of the Mao Zedong regime, became one of the most prominent ballet dancers in the world. The other, Chi Cao, is the phenomenal young Chinese ballet star who plays Li in Bruce Beresford’s heartfelt, rewarding film. Scripted by Jan Sardi (Shine) from Li’s autobiography, the film sticks to the highlights of Li’s incredible journey, but dramatic resonance and Beresford’s beautifully shot dance sequences keep the viewer enchanted. The sixth of seven sons, Li grows up in a poor family presided over by loving parents (Joan Chen is wonderful as his humble, but feisty mother); newspaper lines the walls and they share a communal soup bowl at mealtimes.