Jean-Michel Cousteau carries on his dad’s profound legacy
When you’re the son of perhaps the most famous waterman in modern history, you know you’re going to be thrown into the world of ocean adventuring. For Jean-Michel Cousteau, such was the case—literally. At the age of 7, when his legendary father, the revolutionary explorer Jacques Cousteau, strapped an oxygen tank to his back and tossed him overboard into the Mediterranean Sea, the Frenchman inherited an insatiable curiosity and a subsequent need to protect the aqua underworld.

Many wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains are in the most idyllic spots. There are too many of them to list in this issue, but here are a few that Bacchus has blessed us with. They are all well worth a visit, for their location as well as their wine.

Five of our delightful local wineries have banded together and formed a group called Summit to Sea. Each of these has its own distinct charm, and each sits on a prime piece of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Gabriella Café blends incredible house-made pasta and charcuterie, local organic produce, sustainable fish and pasture-based beef

To mark our return home and the final day of vacation, my husband and I settled into a cozy table at Gabriella Café. It had been some time and a chef ago since our last visit.

We began the evening with a bottle of unfined and unfiltered Sangiovese from Healdsburg’s Peterson winery ($34). Gabriella’s famous focaccia that night was topped with green and sweet caramelized onions which took the edge off of our appetites.

We then enjoyed long paper-thin shavings of tender asparagus ($11) dressed with flowery Sevillano olive oil and topped with truffled pecorino sheep’s milk cheese and bits of red kohlrabi.

Welcome to the 2010 Best of Santa Cruz Readers’ Poll, in which you the reader voted for the area’s most popular shops, dining spots, arts and entertainment, and so much more. This year’s voting attracted more than 4,000 online voters and features more than 150 little-known facts about all of the winners. There’s more: Take note of our Critics’ Picks, too, where GT scribes ponder the Best and Worst around town. It’s our most extensive collection—ever!—of what’s best in the county. Dive in …
Best of Santa Cruz Shops>
Best Arts, Entertainment & Nightlife>
Best Food & Drink>
Best Health & Fitness>
Best Professionals>
Best of the Rest>
Critics’ Picks>

Red Sparowes give history lessons through instrumental music
Post-rock is challenging music. It’s not exactly jazz, and it doesn’t take the same kind of abstract understanding to wrap one’s head around; but still, instrumental music can often initially be outside of the comfort zone of many rock faithful who eventually gravitate from the softer croons of Death Cab towards the drifting soundscapes and sludgy guitars of acts like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky.

Moreover, there’s the confusing issue of how music without lyrics is used to express specific thematic elements that a vocalist might directly address. If Explosions’ “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” is about a sunken Russian Submarine, do specific movements in the song correlate to specific happenings on board? Or is it a more general inspiration?

Is Stanley Clarke the Rosa Parks of the electric bass?
With all the Victor Wootens, Michael Manrings and Marcus Millers out there, it’s easy to forget that not so very long ago, the electric bass was relegated to the back of the musical bus: While the lead instrumentalists frolicked in the spotlight, the bassist’s job was to do little more than keep time with the drummer and lay down simple grooves.

Then came Stanley Clarke. With the possible exception of Jaco Pastorius, no musician has done more than Clarke to help establish the bass guitar as a lead instrument in its own right. In the early ’70s, Clarke—previously known for his work with the fusion group Return to Forever as well as with jazz players like Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Art Blakey and Pharoah Sanders—took flight as a solo artist. Though it was almost unheard-of for a bass player to act as the leader of a band, Clarke’s undeniable skills made short work of the naysayers’ prejudices. 

“None of us have ever played anything like this before,” singer Kelly Koval says of her five bandmates in Audiafauna and the surprising folktronica sound they’ve stumbled upon. “There’s no real lead instrument,” she continues. “It all just builds into one. We are one big instrument.” And as one big instrument, the 22-year-old and her cohorts are making one big impression. A fresh mosaic of acoustic strings, electronic soundscapes, dreamy vocals and brash hip-hop nuances, Audiafauna combines the classical with the cutting-edge—and it’s making plenty of ears perk up around town.

To the outrage of many Democrats, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not plan to consolidate the special election to fill GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado’s Senate seat with the November general election. Maldonado plans to resign his seat today, April 27, after being sworn in as lieutenant governor.
Because the Legislature waited until last week to confirm Maldonado, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had the option of combining the special election with the November 2, 2010 general election. Many Democrats prefer that option, believing that a higher turnout would increase their chances of winning the seat and that it would be unwise for the state to spend $2.5 – 3 million on a special election.
The governor stated that with the looming budget battle, it’s his responsibility to fill the seat and have a full complement of legislators as soon as possible.

I’ll paddle board to the mile buoy to find that peace and tranquility. It’s a cathartic spot.
Yuri Springer
Santa Cruz | Biologist

Finding a job in today’s world can seem futile, but there is one burgeoning industry that has real promise: let’s just call it “going green.” Just ask the folks behind Soquel High School’s Mechanical, Engineering and Construction (MEC) Academy, which was recently awarded a grant by the California Department of Education to continue offering its students specialized learning experiences that prep them for entering green tech, construction, engineering and more. Props to them for preparing the leaders of the future for the industry of the future.