Students and workers attempt to join forces against unfair management practices
Since the words “UC Santa Cruz Protest” generally bring to mind images of enraged students chanting, marching, blocking traffic and wreaking as much havoc as possible, the student/worker “protest” for accountability that took place April 7 would more aptly be termed a “discussion.” The 15 students and workers who attended decided there were too few bodies to hold a true protest, so they used the time together to discuss some of the problems facing UCSC: budget cuts, lay-offs, the suspension of the community studies major, and the lack of a cohesive group for students and workers.

Boy saves medieval masterpiece in lovely, animated ‘Secret of Kells’
A boy on a heroic quest is not an unusual subject for an animated family film. But there’s an extra layer of intrigue when the quest involves creating and preserving one of the most beautiful pieces of artwork in human history. When Irish animator Tomm Moore set out to make his first feature, he decided to delve into his own Celtic heritage for inspiration; the result is the lovely and poetic The Secret Of Kells, which imagines the story of a boy in a medieval monastery who helps to save the gorgeous 9th Century illuminated manuscript known to history as “The Book of Kells.”

Lust, longing, betrayal, revenge, madness. These are the elements of grand opera, used to swoony effect by veteran Italian filmmaker Marco Bellochio in his arresting Vincere (Victory). His subject is the woman and child Benito Mussolini left behind while reinventing himself as Il Duce. Political content is acute throughout; the director draws parallels between Mussolini’s opportunistic path from young Socialist troublemaker to Fascist dictator and the ruthlessness with which he abandons the woman who loves him. But the film plays out as a rapturous fever dream of love and loss told entirely from the viewpoint of Ida Dasler (played with simmering grace and erotic intensity by Giovanna Mezzogiorno).

GT travels. (We can’t always stay home.) On the heels of San Jose’s breathtaking “Ovo” experience, we went behind the scenes to capture the inner workings of another Cirque du Soleil show, “KA.” Take a peek:

What was just a menacing rumor for more than a year now has become reality at UC Santa Cruz: The Community Studies major has been axed. The university’s Academic Senate Committee on Educational Policy announced their decision to “suspend the major” on Wednesday, April 7, thereby “restricting new admission to the major for at least two years,” according to an open letter released by the office of the Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor. Community studies is a popular and one-of-a-kind program that allows students to zero in on a field of community organizing or action, and requires all students to complete a six month field study. The decision to cut the program (although prospective students and students currently in the major will be able to continue) came as a result of a multi-million dollar target budget reduction UCSC was tasked with slashing by the UC. Outraged students and faculty, led by the Coalition to Save Community Studies, have already organized around the news. They will be gathering at UCSC’s Quarry Plaza at noon before marching across the campus in protest.

Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With reviews and trailers.

So it’s a week later and if the finale to Blackest Night last Wednesday wasn’t amazing enough, the nerd hangover from Wondercon is still pounding pretty hard. Overall, I have to say that this year may have been the best ever with so many incredible names showing up to meet and chat up the fans (That’s me with DC Chief Creative Officer and overall bad-ass Geoff Johns!).

It wasn’t so much about the panels this time without a Watchmen or Star Trek sized flick to look forward to in the coming months. Nope, this year was all about running around artist’s alley and snagging as many signatures as I could (which turned out to be a lot more than I’d hoped for!).

Plus Letters to Good Times
Desal Disappointment
Look At This Way…

On Jan. 12, a 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti leaving it in ruins. Three months later, residents and relief workers in the island’s capital, Port-au-Prince, are still picking up the pieces, emotionally and otherwise. Our country poured out massive support, and so did a creative entity here, known as Shelter Systems, created by local Bob Gillis—the man sold his first patent for a small tent design back in 1975. Gillis, and his unique 14-foot dome tents are the subject of this week’s compelling cover story, penned by Linda Koffman.

Bob Gillis carved out quite the niche for himself with his enterprising geodesic dome tents. Now, the tents are helping victims devastated by the Haiti earthquake.

Haiti. Burning Man. The North Face backpacking company. Each shares an unlikely connection: one Santa Cruz tent company and the inventor behind it. It’s hard to believe that cutting edge, durable tents now being distributed to many homeless Haitians were born out of a forest in Aptos.

When Bob Gillis sold his first patent for a small tent design to The North Face in 1975 for $500, he didn’t know it would forever revolutionize backpacking tents from being A-frames to the geodesic dome shapes seen around every campfire today. Nor could he have guessed that more than three decades later, after blooming because of a little festival known as Burning Man, his Santa Cruz company, Shelter Systems, would end up providing tent refuge for thousands of Haitians.