Being a music promoter is like being a skier or farmer. You might get too much of what you want and it kills business, or too little.
Their livelihood can be made or broken by the weather, the competition, the ticket prices and the temperament of the acts they book.
I was part of the team that brought Ben Harper to the Santa Cruz Blues Festival and we took a beating with about a half-full audience. It was reportedly the first time in his career that Harper didn’t sell out a show. He still got his paycheck. I lost my house.
But I have no hard feelings. Harper was one of the first rock stars I interviewed while I worked at the Mercury News and his first album had just come out. He was playing a brew pub in San Jose for radio station KFOG-FM.
He was still living at his parent’s house in Claremont when we did the phone interview, and he told me that if I was ever up after 2AM to give him a call because he had to stay awake for early flights to Australia, where he was big.
Knowing that there was room to play soccer at the outdoor venue, Harper put on a memorable show, adding an hour to the scheduled setlist and giving fans one to remember. The band Was Not Was did the same thing, adding an hour to their set while fans were walking in.
We were trying to appeal to younger fans but took a beating because the band MGMT siphoned them off with a CIvic gig the same night.
Those sets may not have eased all of the pain of losing my residence, but they were among the finest hours of music I’ve heard.
So it is for promoters like Michael Horne, who brings in the three-day Mountain Sol Festival this weekend, and Britt Govea, who brings Sun Ra’s Arkestra to the Rio Sunday. They take big risks so we can see our favorite artists.
These aren’t big corporate entities. They are music fanatics like me and you. Go support them.
Brad Kava l Editor
Photo Contest
DOWN BELOW Santa Cruz Wharf Wonder taken on July 5. Photograph by Jim Potterton
Good Idea
Last week, the U.C. system awarded U.C. Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS) $2 million to develop an art exhibition that advances climate resilience and social equity. Rachel Nelson, director of the UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences, will be teaming up with Ocean Science Professor Ari Friedlaender on the $2 million grant project to develop a traveling art exhibition that will connect climate change impacts on whales and other marine animals with the precarity of vulnerable human communities.
Good Work
California State Parks wants the public to weigh in on the future of Seacliff and New Brighton State Beaches to help protect these beaches from the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise and extreme weather. Residents are invited to take an online survey to share information on preferred recreational activities and what they value when visiting the parks. Weigh in at: SurveyMonkey.com/r/ZZZH2BG
Quote of the Week
“Most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.” —Michael Rivero
It was a half-century ago, but 70-year old trumpeter Michael Ray still vividly recalls his first encounter with the Sun Ra Arkestra, as a teenager attending an outdoor music festival in suburban Philadelphia. “The first thing I noticed was all the musicians had suitcases filled with sheet music.”
Along with some jazz standards, the suitcases held some of the roughly 1,000 compositions recorded by Ra, the eccentric, trailblazing keyboardist and bandleader whose dozens of singles and more than 100 albums made him one of the most prolific musicians in history.
Ray is one of the longest-tenured members of Sun Ra’s Arkestra, which comes to Santa Cruz on Sunday, September 17 for an 8pm concert at the Rio Theatre.
It’s been 30 years since the visionary, Afro-futurist bandleader/pianist/composer/ poet/philosopher/mystic/trickster self-described space traveler left planet earth, but the band bearing his name continues to make new music and tour internationally, in the tradition of jazz “ghost” bands that keep going long after their leaders have passed.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama — or Saturn, according to his version — Herman “Sonny” Blount started his career back in the swing era as a pretty conventional pianist and dance band leader in his hometown.
In 1946 Ra moved to Chicago and worked as a pianist and arranger for the highly-under sung bandleader Fletcher Henderson. Ra spent less then a year in that role, but it had a major impact on him. He still played Henderson’s music for the rest of his career but focused mainly on creating music that mixed beauty and chaos.
In 1954 Ra became a bandleader with his own growing ensemble, the Arkestra, moving his base of operations to New York City in 1961 and then settling permanently in Philadelphia in the fall of 1968.
Somewhere around that time Ra decided that “space is the Place” – also the name of his best known composition – and started rewriting his backstory to fit a glitter- covered, future-focused stage show that put a galactic spin on the old dance band tradition of jazz as entertainment.
Ra’s career was a testimony to his resilience and ingenuity. He started the Arkestra during a period when touring big bands confronted extinction due to a tsunami of converging trends – the birth of rock n roll, the rise of television and the fast-rising cost of touring, among them.
The Arkestra became a 24-7 way of life not only for Ra but also for many of his sidemen, Ra set up a commune of musicians in Philadelphia, requiring some of his acolytes to live with him, drug- and alcohol-free at the band’s longtime headquarters, a building at 5626 Morton St. in Philly (now listed as a historic landmark).
Ra dealt with the dicey musical economy of the fading big band era by going DIY, starting his own Saturn record label, with hand-decorated album issued 100 or so at a time, today prized by collectors worldwide. It added up to dozens of singles and over one hundred full-length albums (some on major jazz labels), making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century.
The concert Michael Ray saw in his hometown set the course for the rest of his life. “I remember there were singers and dancers, and two drummers…..” Weeks later he encountered Ra again, riding the municipal trolley.
“I told him I really enjoyed the concert. He invited me to a rehearsal but I couldn’t make it because I had a Delfonics gig at the Academy of Music.” When he finally got to a rehearsal at Arkestra headquarters, “I saw Egyptian art everywhere, keyboards.. milk cases filled with cassette tapes and even music in the refrigerator,” Ray remembers.
“One of the first things he told me was ‘I know everything you need to know about music.’”
Described by the leader as “tone scientists dwelling in the half-between world,” Ra’s bands play music that might suddenly veer from Duke Ellington-style formality to nursery rhymes set to music, to abstract, electronic and acoustic cacophony. The sage who defined jazz as “the sound of surprise” could have been talking about Sun Ra and his evolving bands.
Listening to Sun Ra’s early records from the 1950s reveals that Ra was ahead of his time, anticipating developments like free jazz and electronics. Nobody could mix the past and the future like Sun Ra’s groups, with concerts full of aural and visual exotica.
After the leader, the Arkestra’s two best known soloists were longtime saxophonists Marshall Allen and John Gilmore. When they took the music “outside,” Allen and Gilmore’s double sax improvisations could sound like two howling wolves engaged in a game of primal tag.
Gilmore, also a respected mainstream tenor man, died in 1997. Multi-instrumentalist Allen succeeded Ra as the bandleader, but his age (99) has limited him to playing concerts in the Philadelphia area, where he still lives.
Although his cosmic public persona didn’t show it, Ra was a taskmaster, according to Ray, who retains some nostalgia for marathon Arkestra rehearsals that might last for 12 or 14 hours, “Until you fall asleep or try to sneak out of the room. He would tell us to go back and put some okra in the moon stew, But he didn’t want to leave the room ’til the food was ready.”
“It was ‘old school meets young kid,” Ray says. From the start, Ra tried to discourage Ray from listening to “Earth music,” like the Nancy Wilson cassette he had in his tape player. Ray grew accustomed to middle-of-the night visits from Ra, bearing freshly-written compositions for the band to learn.
“When you’re with Sun Ra, you’re in his world. He had a strange way of doing things, but after a while you get adapted.“
“He never got mad but he was a very strict bandleader, it was intense training all the time, always rehearsing. He’d say, ‘Always play with alacrity, or you can be replaced by a button.’ You always gotta be swingin’ on that horn.’ I guess that came from his time in the Fletcher Henderson group,” says Ray, who is writing a thesis on “vibrational music.”
The parts Sun Ra wrote for each band member could be pretty complicated, requiring those long rehearsals. “He would expect us to ‘Emulate what you hear, at the same time you hear it,” Ray says.
Still, few bandleaders in history inspired dedication and deep loyalty like Sun Ra. Ray attributes that to the leader’s exhaustive knowledge of music.“Sun Ra studied all forms of music, from country western to Brahms. He would mix all the genres together, but always have that ‘gutbucket’ thing; he was always connected to the blues.”
Ray estimates Ra’s blend of abstraction, complexity and down-home earthiness produced somewhere around 5,000-6,000 pieces of music, much of it still unheard by earthlings.
With around 13 members, including vocalist and violinist Tara Middleton – who took the place of the late, memorably regal June Tyson – the 2023 version of the Arkestra continues to tour the U.S. and abroad. Ray laments the current Arkestra’s very un-Ra like lack of rehearsals, which limits the performing repertoire somewhat.
He’s not always happy with current bandleader Noell Scott’s choice of material. “With 5,000 or 6,000 tunes, why are we limited to always playing the same songs on tour, his favorites?” Fortunately, this being jazz, the Arkestra can reshape them every night. And those tunes can take a lot of bending and twisting, like the metal skin of a spacecraft.
In his fifth decade with the band, Michael Ray is durable, too, still committed to the sky-gazing mantra “Space is the place.”
Something feels poetic about an upcoming book talk at legendary Bookshop Santa Cruz.
Sunday, Oct. 29, author/photographer/former molecular biologist Nik Sharma—who sits atop a growing stack of cookbook resources like James Beard Award-nominated Season:Big Flavors, Beautiful Food and The Flavor Equation—presents Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals.
It’s an inspiring compilation of 50+ vegetables from 15 different plant families that author/TV personality Sola El-Waylly calls, “everything you’ve ever wanted to know about produce…from their origins to the history of their cultivation, and, of course, all the ways to make them delicious.”
That feels fitting, even preordained, for several reasons. One, Sharma’s visiting the fertile bed that grows so much of what his book celebrates. Two, he’s doing it in the heart of a city that’s long pushed the seed packet on veggie-forward fare.
Three, he’s appearing with the enthusiastic endorsement of another pioneering author/chef/creative, Brant Terry, who spoke around this time last year at Homeless Garden Project’s Sustain Supper about justice and his book Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora, another incredible compilation.
“Veg-Table cements Sharma’s status as one of the most important cookbook authors of our time,” Terry says. “He always has his finger on the cultural pulse, and, with the recent uptick in interest in vegetable-forward cooking, this cookbook could not be more timely. Like his other books, this one is thoughtful, steeped in research, bold, and bursting with flavor.”
By the way, HGP’s Fall Sustain Supper lands Saturday, Oct. 28, with star chefs Yulanda Santos (Aubergine), Anna Bartolini (la Balena) and Emily Beggs (Kin & Kitchen) and featured speaker Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer-prize reporter and author of Smarter Faster Better and The Power of Habit.
While we’re talking recipes that tell stories, one atypical collection—which became an outright smash sensation on YouTube amid COVID—has earned a hard cover version. I met Max Miller at the Bay Area Book Festival this summer, where he packed the auditorium with his passion for researching recipes and sharing the stories that come by studying—and cooking—everything from World War II-era “s*** on a shingle” to what various classes ate aboard the Titanic. Interested explorers can check out “Tasting History With Max Miller,” both the video series and the cookbook, via his website. “I hear from viewers all the time, ‘I don’t love history but I love the stories you tell,’” he told me after the festival. “It’s like, ‘My dear, those stories are history.’”
youtube.com/c/tastinghistory
LATE SUMMER BUMMER
One of the area’s best sandwich shops, Reef Dog Deli of Capitola, closes Sept. 23. Chef-co-owner Anthony Kresge cites the expense of putting in a permanent parklet (and paying for building permits and to rent the parking spots), as reasons he’s going to shut down. Here’s hoping wonders like the Reefy (beef brisket pastrami made and smoked in house, melted Vermont sharp cheddar, onion jam, whole grain mustard on griddled Jewish rye) find a new home elsewhere.
Jewel, the megastar folk-rock-pop singer who was born of the 90s Gen X angst amid her grunge counterparts, is a perfectly measured cocktail of artistic talent, intellectual postfeminism and an advocate for mental wellness. And, despite being a multi-platinum, award-winning recording artist with one of the best-selling debuts of all time, this singer/songwriter supports happiness first, music second.
“I’ve always looked at it as a job to be a musician, but my number one has always been to be happy,” she says.
Jewel, 49, was born Jewel Kilcher in Payson, Utah, but relocated with her family shortly after birth to Homer, Alaska. “My grandmother had been an aspiring opera singer and poet in Europe before the Second World War,” she says. “They escaped the war and went to homestead in Alaska,” which is how Jewel’s family ended up in The Last Frontier.
“I came from a musical family, everybody played and taught themselves instruments,” she says. “Because she didn’t get to pursue her creative career, [my grandmother] taught all her kids to sing. It’s just very much in my family.”
Musician parents, Atz Kilcher and Nedra Carroll, divorced when Jewel was a child, but she continued to tour and sing with her father despite his alcoholism and abuse. “I grew up singing with my dad since I was 8, and singing with my parents on stage since I was 5,” she says. During this time, her dad also taught her how to yodel.
“I moved out at 15 and started writing music to help with my anxiety, honestly,” says Jewel, having relocated to a private arts school called Interlochen in Michigan after winning a vocal scholarship. “It was just something that really calmed me down and helped me understand my world.”
At Interlochen, she really dug into songwriting and learned the guitar. Then, at 18, she moved to San Diego with her mom. “I couldn’t afford my rent after my boss withheld my check because I wouldn’t have sex with him, and so I ended up living in my car,” she says. “Then, my car was stolen and I ended up homeless.”
Things spiraled downward for Jewel, but she refused to let that get the best of her. Jewel turned to music—but a hidden vice was bubbling just below the surface.
“To cope, I never stripped or did drugs, but I was shoplifting as a way to deal with my anxiety and to provide for myself,” she says. “I used music to help get me through this. I came up with songs like ‘Who Will Save Your Soul’ and ‘Hands’ as a way to understand the world, my environment and the things going on around me.”
Just look at me sacredly, religiously, hungrily
Around the time that the singer found herself living in her car, she was also hustling to play gigs in coffee shops and bars in San Diego. While at a gig in PB’s Innerchange, she was discovered and later signed a record deal with Atlantic. “I ended up getting discovered while performing cover songs,” she says. “At first, there were two people, then four, then 12 and then 75.”
With the onset of this new success, Jewel’s anxiety grew. “I was getting panic attacks and agoraphobia [an extreme anxiety disorder that involves a fear of not being able to escape crowded places]—things weren’t going well.”
As her popularity expanded, she also saw the need to smarten up about the music industry’s business practices. “As I got more recognized, I wanted to study what that meant for myself, so I rented a bunch of books from the library about music contracts,” says Jewel. “If you’re given a $1 million advance, that’s expected to be paid back with interest, probably in millions, over the course of your career.
Jewel had a good run of hits from her 1995 Pieces of You album that contained songs like “You Were Meant For Me,” “Who Will Save Your Soul” and “Foolish Games.” This was followed by 1998’s Spirit, a more folk-meets-rock album starting to percolate with subtle hints of pop found in 2003’s O3O4 album.
“After Spirit, I took two years off before making more albums,” she says. “Later, I took seven years off to raise my son before returning to music.”
Kase, Jewel’s only child from her six-year marriage with rodeo cowboy Ty Murray, frequently duets with his mom on stage. Of their performances, the most notable was probably their December 2021 duet of “Hands” on the Masked Singer, the season that Jewel won the show.
In fact, Jewel’s most recent album, 2022’s Freewheelin’ Woman, came out less than six months after her appearance on the Masked Singer. “I wrote 200 songs to get the 12 I like for that album,” she told OneMind.org last March, “and dig into a deeper, more raw place of who and what I am now.”
In the end only kindness matters
Parallel to her growing musical career, Jewel has always aspired to delve more into human psyche and mental wellness. Just this year, she co-founded a virtual community called Innerworld. It is a membership-based platform that allows people to anonymously work through mental health challenges in a safe environment.
“I wanted to support accessibility with mental health and a virtual environment is a great way to do that,” says Jewel. The format is peer-to-peer with self-created avatars who are led by guides trained in Cognitive Behavioral Immersion [the term used for cognitive-behavioral skills within the metaverse], according to Innerworld’s press release.
“What’s really great are the results that we’re getting from this VR platform because it can help people from all over the world,” says Jewel. “We’re really making an impact and I think it’s just going to continue to grow.”
Prior to Jewel’s advocacy and participation with Innerworld, and simultaneous to the height of her career in the early 2000s, was her conception of the Inspiring Children Foundation.
“About 22 years ago I wanted to see if the tools I had built for myself would really work for others, so I co-founded the Inspiring Children Foundation,” she says. “It’s a non-therapeutic approach to helping at-risk youth understand their worlds.”
Jewel’s mission was to help children understand what’s going on inside and provide them with behavior tools backed by science to help them become the best versions of themselves. “Therapy never worked for me, so I started this program for children that helps them in understanding mental health as well as themselves,” she says.
The program is leadership-based and provides youth with a “psychology for life,” approach, according to Inspiring Children’s press release. “We’re helping children with gratitude and how to deeply appreciate their opportunities, which brings out their best in everything that they do,” says Jewel.
Inspiring Children focuses on academics, athletics, entrepreneur skills, tennis, sports, and mentoring and mental health counseling to cultivate the program’s 10 pillars of growth. It does this through 40 tools to help children “find mastery in the art of living.”
“I think about the tools and skills that I needed when I was younger, and then really tried to address that when putting together this program,” says Jewel.
The early developments of what’s now Inspiring Children came at the height of Jewel’s anxiety and curiosity about her own mental health journey. “I never thought that I’d have a career in music,” she says. “It’s always been my mental health journey first, then music second. I would just write, play music and use poetry as an outlet.”
As Inspiring Children was in its infancy development, Jewel’s 2003 0304 was released and met with a bizarre controversy. Fans and non-fans were questioning her choice of genre-switching and experimentation, which fueled the artist’s rebellious nature against being pigeonholed as a 90s folk singer. “Oh no! A folk singer from the grunge era is attractive and put on a mini skirt,” she says. “I still stand by all of those songs.”
“Intuition,” specifically, made an uproar during that time. “Oh yeah, that song was very controversial,” she says. “People thought I was selling out and took the video seriously without seeing that I was making fun of videos of that time.”
I mean, there was even a ticker tape at the bottom of the video at one point saying, ‘Jewel’s music sounds much better now that she’s dancing’,” she laughs.
Jewel went on to create 10 more studio albums, including her most recent, Freewheelin’ Woman. “I really let myself immerse in a spiritual rewilding,” says Jewel. “This is sort of my reawakening to the raw creative energy that I started out with.”
The new albumblends Jewel’s classic prophetic lyrics with funkier beats than past albums. Most of the songs are danceable and woven with light notes of country-meets-blues-meets-disco. “I like to experiment and explore when it comes to music,” she says. “I make personal decisions for why I make music; because it makes me happy.”
In the past, Jewel has drawn on support from musical legends like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. “When I was on tour with Bob Dylan, he really encouraged me to stay true to myself and my music,” she says.
If she could, Jewel says that she would have loved to meet Etta James, Cole Porter and Ella Fitzgerald. “I feel like there are a lot of people I’ve drawn musical inspiration from,” she says. “If I wasn’t out there blending genres and paving the way, there wouldn’t be artists like Taylor Swift.”
Jewel is slated to play at this year’s Mountain Sol Festival in Felton’s Roaring Camp Railroads on Sept. 15 at 7PM. “I never really put together a setlist before a show,” she teases. “I kind of gauge it based on the crowd, so who knows what you’ll get!”
Before becoming co-owner of Shockwave Food, area native Brandon Burgess was a bouncer at the Felton Music Hall – the venue where the cuisine is currently being made and served. When Burgess originally tried the food and loved it, he was so inspired that he wanted to become part of the business and help it grow.
With a background in restaurants as well as personal training, nutrition and construction, he combines his business savvy with executive chef/co-owner Stephen Geyer’s food, which Burgess defines as Cali-fusion elevated bar and comfort food. Menu stand-outs are four-piece fried chicken, with mashed potatoes, green beans and a biscuit to complete the ensemble.
Diverse dishes include the barbacoa and miso pork tacos, the chicken shawarma and falafel wrap. Another rockstar is the double-decker Mountain Burger, a “Big Mac on steroids.”
Shockwave is only open when the Music Hall has a show (usually on weekends, check for hours).
What inspired you to become part of Shockwave?
BRANDON BURGESS: One night I was bouncing and went back into the kitchen. Stephen, our head chef, was having a bad night. He was saying he was going through a lot in his life and might have to look for other work. I told him his food was amazing and the best I had eaten in Felton, and I would hate to see him go. I asked to help in the kitchen, and he agreed to let me for a month to see how it went. That month we did a lot of business and we both agreed to keep going and see Shockwave reach its potential.
Tell me more about Felton Music Hall?
It is becoming the place to go in Felton for great entertainment, and good drinks and food. We have a wide range of music from country and bluegrass, to reggae and Grateful Dead-style. We also feature singer/songwriters, DJ’s and electronic music. The building itself is the oldest on the Felton strip and has quite a bit of history. It has a real mountain vibe with some cool architecture featuring natural woods, metal and brick.
Trust winemaker Randall Grahm to come up with an eye-catching label for his 2022 Clairette Blanche. It’s a picture of an eye – which Grahm describes as a “wide-open optical aperture.”
Named “Perfect Clairetty,” this 100% Clairette is “lightness captured in a glass.” Clairette is an ancient variety originating from southern France. Crisp and clean, it is definitely an “Old Skool cépage,” and “delightfully démodé,” says Grahm, who is never stuck for words! This lithe and agile wine ($30) has a primary taste impression of pome fruit – along with citrus, lemongrass and anise. Grapes are from Beeswax Vineyard in Monterey.
Nicole Walsh, winemaker for Grahm’s brand of Bonny Doon, owns and operates Ser Winery. She and Grahm share a tasting room in the center of Aptos Village, next to the Bay View Hotel. Bonny Doon Vineyard, 10 Parade St., Suite B, Aptos, 831-612-6062. Bonnydoonvineyard.com
An Evening with Friends – Hospice Fundraiser
Many local wineries have donated to the upcoming Hospice of Santa Cruz County fundraiser, An Evening with Friends – Silver Mountain Vineyards, Alfaro Winery, Stockwell Cellars, Ser Winery, Sarah’s Vineyard, Integrity Wines, Hallcrest Vineyards, and Equinox Sparkling Wine. These wonderful wineries are well worth a visit. An Evening with Friends is 4:30-8:30pm, Sunday, Oct.8 at Seascape Golf Club. Tickets and info: ev****************@ho**************.org or call 831-430-3084.
Chez Mima Redwood Retreat Camping & Cooking Mima Lecocq is an alum of one of this country’s most famous restaurants – Chez Panisse in Berkeley. She is now doing cooking classes in a most unusual setting – outdoors under the redwoods on her own private property in Corralitos. Accommodations are available in a rustic cabin or tent for a night or a weekend – and you can take your own food and wine! chezmimaculinary.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries photographer Wynn Bullock had a simple, effective way of dealing with his problems and suffering. He said, “Whenever I have found myself stuck in the ways I relate to things, I return to nature. It is my principal teacher, and I try to open my whole being to what it has to say.” I highly recommend you experiment with his approach in the coming weeks. You are primed to develop a more intimate bond with the flora and fauna in your locale. Mysterious shifts now unfolding in your deep psyche are making it likely you can discover new sources of soulful nourishment in natural places—even those you’re familiar with. Now is the best time ever to hug trees, spy omens in the clouds, converse with ravens, dance in the mud, and make love in the grass.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Creativity expert Roger von Oech says businesspeople tend to be less successful as they mature because they become fixated on solving problems rather than recognizing opportunities. Of course, it’s possible to do both—untangle problems and be alert for opportunities—and I’d love you to do that in the coming weeks. Whether or not you’re a businessperson, don’t let your skill at decoding riddles distract you from tuning into the new possibilities that will come floating into view.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Fernando Pessoa wrote books and articles under 75 aliases. He was an essayist, literary critic, translator, publisher, philosopher, and one of the great poets of the Portuguese language. A consummate chameleon, he constantly contradicted himself and changed his mind. Whenever I read him, I’m highly entertained but sometimes unsure of what the hell he means. He once wrote, “I am no one. I don’t know how to feel, how to think, how to love. I am a character in an unwritten novel.” And yet Pessoa expressed himself with great verve and had a wide array of interests. I propose you look to him as an inspirational role model in the coming weeks, Gemini. Be as intriguingly paradoxical as you dare. Have fun being unfathomable. Celebrate your kaleidoscopic nature.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” Cancerian author Henry David Thoreau said that. I don’t necessarily agree. Many of us might prefer love to truth. Plus, there’s the inconvenient fact that if we don’t have enough money to meet our basic needs, it’s hard to make truth a priority. The good news is that I don’t believe you will have to make a tough choice between love and truth anytime soon. You can have them both! There may also be more money available than usual. And if so, you won’t have to forgo love and truth to get it.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Before she got married, Leo musician Tori Amos told the men she dated, “You have to accept that I like ice cream. I know it shows up on my hips, but if you can’t accept that, then leave. Go away. It is non-negotiable.” I endorse her approach for your use in the coming weeks. It’s always crucial to avoid apologizing for who you really are, but it’s especially critical in the coming weeks. And the good news is that you now have the power to become even more resolute in this commitment. You can dramatically bolster your capacity to love and celebrate your authentic self exactly as you are.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Virgo writer Caskie Stinnett lived on Hamloaf, a small island off the coast of Maine. He exulted in the fact that it looked “the same as it did a thousand years ago.” Many of the stories he published in newspapers featured this cherished home ground. But he also wandered all over the world and wrote about those experiences. “I travel a lot,” he said. “I hate having my life disrupted by routine.” You Virgos will make me happy in the coming weeks if you cultivate a similar duality: deepening and refining your love for your home and locale, even as you refuse to let your life be disrupted by routine.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): My hitchhiking adventures are finished. They were fun while I was young, but I don’t foresee myself ever again trying to snag a free ride from a stranger in a passing car. Here’s a key lesson I learned from hitchhiking: Position myself in a place that’s near a good spot for a car to stop. Make it easy for a potential benefactor to offer me a ride. Let’s apply this principle to your life, Libra. I advise you to eliminate any obstacles that could interfere with you getting what you want. Make it easy for potential benefactors to be generous and kind. Help them see precisely what it is you need.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In your history of togetherness, how lucky and skillful have you been in synergizing love and friendship? Have the people you adored also been good buddies? Have you enjoyed excellent sex with people you like and respect? According to my analysis of the astrological omens, these will be crucial themes in the coming months. I hope you will rise to new heights and penetrate to new depths of affectionate lust, spicy companionship, and playful sensuality. The coming weeks will be a good time to get this extravaganza underway.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Is it ever morally permissible to be greedily needy? Are there ever times when we deserve total freedom to feel and express our voracious longings? I say yes. I believe we should all enjoy periodic phases of indulgence—chapters of our lives when we have the right, even the sacred duty, to tune into the full range of our quest for fulfillment. In my astrological estimation, Sagittarius, you are beginning such a time now. Please enjoy it to the max! Here’s a tip: For best results, never impose your primal urges on anyone; never manipulate allies into giving you what you yearn for. Instead, let your longings be beautiful, radiant, magnetic beacons that attract potential collaborators.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Here’s a Malagasy proverb: “Our love is like the misty rain that falls softly but floods the river.” Do you want that kind of love, Capricorn? Or do you imagine that a more boisterous version would be more interesting—like a tempestuous downpour that turns the river into a torrential surge? Personally, I encourage you to opt for the misty rain model. In the long run, you will be glad for its gentle, manageable overflow.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): According to the Bible’s book of Matthew, Jesus thought it was difficult for wealthy people to get into heaven. If they wanted to improve their chances, he said they should sell their possessions and give to the poor. So Jesus might not agree with my current oracle for you. I’m here to tell you that every now and then, cultivating spiritual riches dovetails well with pursuing material riches. And now is such a time for you, Aquarius. Can you generate money by seeking enlightenment or doing God’s work? Might your increased wealth enable you to better serve people in need? Should you plan a pilgrimage to a sacred sanctuary that will inspire you to raise your income? Consider all the above, and dream up other possibilities, too.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean author Art Kleiner teaches the art of writing to non-writers. He says this: 1. Tell your listeners the image you want them to see first. 2. Give them one paragraph that encapsulates your most important points. 3. Ask yourself, “What tune do you want your audience to be humming when they leave?” 4. Provide a paragraph that sums up all the audience needs to know but is not interesting enough to put at the beginning. I am offering you Kleiner’s ideas, Pisces, to feed your power to tell interesting stories. Now is an excellent time to take inventory of how you communicate and make any enhancements that will boost your impact and influence. Why not aspire to be as entertaining as possible?
Homework:For three days, love yourself exactly as you are. Don’t wish you could change yourself. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
Promoter Michael Horne has put on 4,000 concerts in 40 years around Santa Cruz, but you probably don’t know his name.
His company, Pulse Productions (with partner Steve Wyman of Boulder Creek Brewery), is putting on its ninth Mountain Sol Festival this weekend at Roaring Camp with some of the top names in folk, rock, jam bands and reggae, including Jewel, Ben Harper, Railroad Earth, Samantha Fish and a long awaited return of Burning Spear.
“Artists love that space,” he says of the vintage train park. “It’s funny how they react when the steam whistle goes off. One year, Ani Difranco modulated her song to the note as the train went by.”
Horne, 65, started a long and varied music career in the San Lorenzo Valley where he moved from Palo Alto right out of high school. He started a natural foods store, People’s Natural Foods, before succumbing to his passion for music.
He opened a record store called Feltunes on Highway 9 and blasted travelers with music from his outdoor speakers. Then, he opened Blue Rhythm Records in Capitola, which was named for his grandfather’s jazz band. Next stop was Palookaville, a live music venue in Soquel that was known for bringing big names to a small place. In his first 60 days, he brought in Ray Charles, Al Green and James Brown to town, and in his first 10 days at Palookaville charged $5 a night to see Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, Mavis Staples, Zap Mama, Paula Poundstone, Peter Rowan and Jerry Douglas.
“I thought, man, I’m in the game,” he says. Horne began booking shows at Cocoanut Grove, the Veteran’s Hall and the Civic, as well as bringing reggae artists down the coast to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.
He also studied music in the West Indies and as a steel drum player headed the band Santa Cruz Steel in the 1980s, while owning a record label specializing in Caribbean music. He also DJ’ed at KUSP-FM.
“Every year I say it’s my last year,” he says. “I’m following in (retired concert promoter) John Sandidge’s footsteps. It’s keep going, keep going man, until you drop.”
Some of the acts he’s most excited about this year are Jewel, who makes her local debut; Keith Greeninger, with whom he sits in on percussion; Samantha Fish, who is a breakout blues star and plays to huge audiences; The Nth Power, a funk and soul band fronted by drummer Nikki Glaspie, who played with Beyonce for five years and with the New Orleans outfit, Dumpstafunk. They do an Earth, Wind and Fire tribute.
Some of Horne’s career highlights:
James Brown: “He busted my chops backstage. I was so green and he knew it.”
Al Green for two nights at Flint Center and Cocoanut Grove. Green asked for a limo and Horne rented the car and a suit, and became his driver.
The Moby Grape reunion at Palookaville. He contacted an agent who told him that the bad news was that bassist Bob Mosely was living under a bridge in L.A.–but the good news was “I know which bridge.” The reunion brought tears to the crowd’s eyes and captured the magic of one of the biggest bands to break out of Santa Cruz.
Johnny Cash at the Civic: Horne was so excited to meet longtime road manager Lou Robin, and the two gabbed so much backstage that he only got to hear the last two Cash songs. When he finally met Cash after the show, the legend said, “Thanks for the work, son.” Recalls Horne: “He was old school, a class act.”
Fela Kuti at the Civic: the African star accompanied by a troupe of wives and musicians, wrapped his feather boa about Horne and led him around the venue smoking and talking to people like they were old pals. “Don’t call my agent anymore,” Kuti said. “Next time, call me direct.”
He also brought Bill Cosby to town a few times. “Sometimes you meet your heroes and they are better left in the bubble,” he says.
The future is always relevant: after a decade-long dormancy, two animated satires of futurism re-emerge like cicadas.
Season 11 of Futurama continues The Simpsons’ co-creator Matt Groening’s brash vaudeville about a trio of working stiffs a couple of eons from now.
Fry (voiced by Billy West) was a minimum-wage Buck Rogers who was flash-frozen and thawed out to find a strange new world of aliens, robots, mutants and celebrity brains in jars. TV stalwart Katey Segal plays Leela, dressed in a husband-beater shirt, one eye eclipsed by a peekaboo haircut. Thanks to corporate takeover, this rough and ready cyclops is now a Disney princess.
Their friend without loyalty is a metal-clad trickster figure called Bender Rodriguez, alcohol-fueled and always with a stealthy claw on your wallet. In one great 1999 episode, Bender was sentenced to robot hell for impiety towards a church similar to the Scien-t-l-gists. As voiced by Dan Castellaneta (the larynx of Homer Simpson) Robot Satan sang out the charges: “Fencing diamonds, fixing cockfights, publishing indecent magazines…”
The first episode of Hulu’s reboot alludes to the four times Futurama was canceled– a satisfyingly modest approach to resurrection. And the dead theatrical actor Calculon indeed is sprung from robot hell to star in a revival of a centuries old soap opera, “All My Circuits” on the streaming network Fulu.
“All My Circuits” becomes a matter of life and death, since Fry foolishly quested to watch every television show ever made and may now cack from the ordeal. Professor Farnsworth (named in honor of the San Francisco-based inventor of TV, Philo Farnsworth) gives his diagnosis: “Fry will be dead by lunch. I’m having ham salad.” The show is a little unlimber after its 10-year nap, but between the reliable characters and the first episode’s piquant gags about TV writers on the brink, it’s possible this new Futurama will brush off the cobwebs, rise and shine.
The difference between DC and Marvel in the 1960s was that the former sold stories that ended in no more than about two issues, returning the colorful characters to square one. By contrast, Marvel was a pop-culture Iron Mole, drilling deeper and deeper into a cranium-addling Hyperborea.
Similarly, Futurama is something you can pick up on fast. However, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick’s The Venture Bros is a real labyrinth. The show is resurrected in the fragrantly-titled full-length feature Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart.
There’s a very pretty speech at the end of Baboon about ‘complications,’ a watchmaker’s term for the extra dials and hands on an expensive chronometer. After 10 seasons and 10 dead years, the show is loaded with complications, gears within gears, and increasingly Pynchonian references.
The show is an elaborate war of trust funders. The theme is a generation feeling like peewees compared to their globe-bestriding fathers. Yet the show has a never-disguised horror of the criminally vicious things those mid-century titans did to dominate the world.
The anemic protagonist Doctor Rusty Venture–well-known as a coaster on his super-scientist father’s legacy–single-parents his likable beta-male sons Dean and Hank. Opposing the Ventures is the fiendish Monarch, a butterfly-obsessed supervillain whose love life and labor troubles make him a study of resounding failure. Even the most capable man around, secret agent Brock Sampson, is stuck in 1973, with a mullet, muscle car, and a Swan Songs records tattoo. Brock is voiced by Patrick Warburton in a manner best described as “What would John Wayne sound like if he was really macho?”
In Baboon, Hank goes nomad after learning of his brother’s betrayal; he’s plagued with multiple personalities as he crosses the country in search of his long-lost mom. In New Jersey, The Monarch is recruited by ARCH, an efficient new player on the ‘antagonist solution resource’ scene. Its CEO is a supervillainess challenging the century-old Guild of Calamitous Intent, which has been ineptly regulating super-criminal behavior ever since Fantomas terrified Paris in the 1900s.
Forgotten ‘60s starlet Bobbi St. Simone (voiced by Jane Lynch) is key to the riddle.
Baboon serves up filial love, as well as a little note about putting away childish things during
this era of superhero glut. Yet it doesn’t stint on jaw-clenching, ripsnorting adventure.
What a coincidence, the two beloved shows returned simultaneously. Maybe the elders were right when they said our heroes would come back from the grave during the End Times.
ROAR It’s hard to describe Roar musically. It helps to understand that they are based out of Phoenix, Arizona. The scene there is eclectic and the bands all seem to hang out—groups like emo-rockers Jimmy Eat World, video game math rockers Minibosses, folk-punkers AJJ and nerdcore rapper Mega Ran are all best buds. Roar fits into this hodgepodge scene nicely with an interesting take on psych-pop that never feels retro and certainly has the spirit of the desert emanating from the tunes. Band leader Owen Evans even drummed for AJJ for a six year period. Roar’s weird production and hyper catchy hooks fit in with the current era of internet “everything is available to everyone” distribution. The band even had their song “I Can’t Handle Change” go viral on TikTok, because of course they did. AARON CARNES
PERSON2PERSON What does one get when they cross two of the world’s premier saxophonists with the same last name? The smooth, cool jazz sounds of Person2Person featuring Eric Person and Houston Person (no relation). The two first joined forces on stage 14 years ago in Rochester, NY and had such a good time–and great response–they’ve continued the collaboration ever since. Eric and Houston are musicians’ musicians, two widely acclaimed players in the jazz world who have performed or recorded with the likes of McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton, Lou Rawls, Horace Silver and many more. MAT WEIR
INFO: 7pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St.,Santa Cruz. $36.75/adv, $42/door. 427-2227.
FRIDAY
FOLK-ROCK
IAN GEORGE Often compared to the Australian crooner Matt Corby, Minnesota-born singer-songwriter Ian George declares on his website, “We are all in this thing together. I love you.” His songs follow this kind and open ethos, though he is “inclined to be difficult every once in a while,” as he admits in his latest single “Grassy Knoll.” He’s from the land of a certain mythic songwriter whose sneering face happens to grace the Crépe Place stage, and his voice (unlike that other guy’s…) is to die for: give Ian George a serious shot this Friday. ADDIE MAHMASSANI
INFO: 8:10pm, The Crépe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10/adv, $12/door. 429-6994.
THEATER
SOMETHING ROTTEN! Mountain Community Theatre anticipates Spooky Season with a month-long run of the witchy and riotous musical Something Rotten! Set in 1595 (and written, for the record, in 2015), the Tony-winning show follows two brothers striving to live their theater-making dreams in a landscape dominated by the one and only William Shakespeare. When a local soothsayer predicts that the men will achieve success by setting a theatrical narrative to music, the first musical is born. This over-the-top comedy, originally conceived by Broadway luminaries John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, has won countless fans in less than a decade and shows no sign of slowing down. AM
INFO: 8pm, Park Hall, 9400 Mill St., Ben Lomond. $30/adv, $35/door. 336-4777.
SATURDAY
POP
KPOP NIGHT KPop is the ultimate form of pop music. The groups take influence from any and every genre and refine it into the hyper-catchiest, danciest earworms that have ever existed. Certainly BTS, and all the individual members of the “army” get lots of attention, rightfully so, but there are a ton of great KPop artists that have mastered the craft of engineering the best pop music that has ever existed on planet earth. Party company You Had To Be There is bringing an infectious night of KPop to Santa Cruz this Saturday. And the only thing they request is that everyone come dressed in their favorite KPop threads. Oh, they also demand that everyone dance their asses off. No ifs ands or buts about it! AC
RUSS RANKIN Punk’s not dead but it definitely has changed. Take this Saturday’s acoustic punk show at the Blue Lagoon. Featuring four punks normally known for their loud music (Nick Machado from The Hit System, Chon Travis from Love Equals Death, Ben Perdition from Stumbling for Miles and Santa Cruz’s own Russ Rankin of Good Riddance), this night will showcase the guys’ softer, quieter, acoustic sides. Rankin is sure to play some of the songs off his 2022 acoustic album, Come Together Fall Apart, and audience members might even be blessed with a couple of new tracks if they’re lucky. This show is proof that punk hasn’t lost its heart. MW
INFO: 9pm, The Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 423-7117.
SUNDAY
JAZZ
SUN RA ARKESTRA Esteemed promoter (((folkYeah!))) brings Afrofuturist pioneers The Sun Ra Arkestra to town for a concert of dreams. At 99-years-old, alto-saxophonist Marshall Allen, who has been a member since 1958 but isn’t traveling with the band, leads the famed group through its 60+-year sojourn across swing, rock and blues. The 2020s have proven productive for the musicians, with 2020’s Swirling soothing pandemic blues and 2022’s Living Sky helping to revive the world. Go see this oracle of a band. AM
INFO: 8pm, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz. $31.50. 423-8209.
MONDAY
POP
G Flip gets percussive at the Catalyst Atrium on Monday night
G FLIP Fans of power ballads and dance beats will find a reason to go out on a Monday night! Yes, G Flip is the spouse of Netflix reality star Chrishell Stause of Selling Sunset, but they are also talented in their own right, featuring the complex percussion that kicked off their musical career on every song on their latest album, Drummer. With lyrics that span topics from gender identities to big love stories, G Flip’s songs are full of joy, humor, and a tinge of melancholy. This is pop music for the queer kids! JESSICA IRISH
GONDWANA For nearly four decades reggae act, Gondwana, have been bringing the irie vibes to audiences around the world. Because of this, they are one of the most internationally known Chilean bands playing today and recognized as one of the leaders in the Latin Reggae movement. Formed in 1987, they rose from the underground music scene during the brutal reign of dictator Augusto Pinochet and have continued their message of love, universal unity and praise ever since. This Tuesday they are joined by local act, Santa Cruda, for an uplifting night of celebration and life. MW
Being a music promoter is like being a skier or farmer. You might get too much of what you want and it kills business, or too little. Their livelihood can be made or broken by the weather, the competition, the ticket prices and the temperament of the acts they book.
It was a half-century ago, but 70-year old trumpeter Michael Ray still vividly recalls his first encounter with the Sun Ra Arkestra, as a teenager attending an outdoor music festival in suburban Philadelphia. “The first thing I noticed was all the musicians had suitcases filled with sheet music.”
Sunday, Oct. 29, author/photographer/former molecular biologist Nik Sharma—who sits atop a growing stack of cookbook resources like James Beard Award-nominated Season:Big Flavors, Beautiful Food and The Flavor Equation—presents Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals.
ewel, the megastar folk-rock-pop singer who was born of the 90s Gen X angst amid her grunge counterparts, is a perfectly measured cocktail of artistic talent, intellectual postfeminism and an advocate for mental wellness. And, despite being a multi-platinum, award-winning recording artist with one of the best-selling debuts of all time, this singer/songwriter supports happiness first, music second.
Before becoming co-owner of Shockwave Food, area native Brandon Burgess was a bouncer at the Felton Music Hall – the venue where the cuisine is currently being made and served.
Trust winemaker Randall Grahm to come up with an eye-catching label for his 2022 Clairette Blanche. It’s a picture of an eye – which Grahm describes as a “wide-open optical aperture.”
Promoter Michael Horne has put on 4,000 concerts in 40 years around Santa Cruz, but you probably don’t know his name.
His company, Pulse Productions (with partner Steve Wyman of Boulder Creek Brewery), is putting on its ninth Mountain Sol Festival this weekend at Roaring Camp with some of the top names in folk, rock, jam bands and reggae, including...
The future is always relevant: after a decade-long dormancy, two animated satires of futurism re-emerge like cicadas.
Season 11 of Futurama continues The Simpsons’ co-creator Matt Groening’s brash vaudeville about a trio of working stiffs a couple of eons from now.
Fry (voiced by Billy West) was a minimum-wage Buck Rogers who was flash-frozen and thawed out to find a strange...
Esteemed promoter (((folkYeah!))) brings Afrofuturist pioneers The Sun Ra Arkestra to town for a concert of dreams. At 99-years-old, alto-saxophonist Marshall Allen, who has been a member since 1958 but isn’t traveling with the band, leads the famed group through its 60+-year sojourn across swing, rock and blues.
