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Things to do in Santa Cruz for the Week of June 28 – July 4

Things To Do This Week

June 27, 2023

Things to do in Santa Cruz for the Week of June 28 – July 4

MUSIC & ARTS

Dumpstaphunk and 7 Come 11 You don’t have to go to New Orleans to hear the great sounds of the Bayou. You can just hit Moe’s Alley Friday night to hear this band that has descended from the Neville Brothers and Meters. Dueling baselines from Tony Hall and Nick Daniels III set off one of the dirtiest rhythm sections on the planet, while Ivan Neville lights up the Hammond B3 keys and cousin Ian Neville’s funky guitar riffs send the groove into overdrive. Dumpstaphunk tosses around lead vocals and four-part harmonies the way Sly & the Family Stone did, but with three studio albums under their belt, Dumpstaphunk stands on the merit of their own material. Santa Cruz’s 7 Come 11 is one of our favorite local funk bands, heavy on the Hammond B3. Tickets are $30 for the show at 1535 Commercial Way. You’d better get them ASAP.

GET UP STAND UP at open mic night at the Ugly Mug. You don’t have to be ugly to play. Just bring some songs and treat an audience to your music. We’ve played it and loved it. It’s every Monday from 5-8pm at 4640 Soquel Drive. PS: Famous people got their start working at the Mug. We’ll have a story on that before too long.

Get Your Poetry On at Abbott Square’s spoken word open mic on Tuesday and every other Tuesday. Make your own fireworks with words from 7-9pm at 727 Front St.

COMMUNITY

Fourth of July We are reeling from the fact that there are NO official fireworks for the Fourth of July. Scotts Valley, which put on a great show last year, canceled. Sadly, what that means is more illegal fireworks all over scaring animals and threatening to start fires.

But there are some great things to do during the day in Watsonville and Aptos.

Aptos has a daylong celebration, starting with the world famous World’s Shortest Parade at 10 am at the intersection of Soquel Drive and State Park Drive and ends at Trout Gulch Road. Send photos of your favorite floats, groups, pets, cars, and bands to ch**********@***il.com for awards for the marchers.

The after party in Aptos Village Park runs from noon to 4pm with activities for the whole family including games, food, beverages, craft vendors, and dancing to the band James Durbin and The Lost Boys for a $5 donation.

In Watsonville, you can see 65 great parade performances. The 4th of July Parade, known as The Spirit of Watsonville, starts at 12:30pm at St. Patrick’s Church and rolls along Main Street to the Watsonville Main Post Office Branch.

Marchers include the Watsonville Community Band, classic cars (Watsonville Impalas and others), and several equestrian groups.

Mike the Magician’s Summer Reading Magic Show Anyone who can get kids away from the screens and into reading is a magician. Mike the Magician does just that with a participatory magic show at the downtown Santa Cruz library Wednesday 2-3pm. Free. 224 Church Street.

831-427-7713. We recommend you get there early for great seats. On the same day he’s at the Live Oak Branch Library 11am-noon and the Felton Library 4-5pm.

Michigan Malcontents

Music

Jeanette Prather

June 27, 2023

For frontman Joe Casey of Detroit’s Protomartyr, one of the most exhilarating rock bands today, the years between the band’s last release, 2020’s Ultimate Success Today, and the recently released Formal Growth in the Desert saw seismic shifts in his life.

Within those three years, he weathered the death of his mother, celebrated love by becoming married, and moved out of his longtime home after a series of break-ins.

Speaking to Good Times the day before the acclaimed post-punk band embarks on an American tour—which features Kelley Deal of the Breeders joining the band on keyboards, backing vocals, and guitar—Casey admits that transformations don’t come easy for him. “I’m a person that doesn’t like change,” he says. “I see change as a symbol of time moving forward. When I was a kid, I didn’t quit Boy Scouts. Our troop disbanded. I stayed in Little League Baseball far longer than you are supposed to stay in Little League Baseball.”

A few moments later, Casey comes to a conclusion. “Having the amount of different things happen to me over the last year, I decided to embrace change more,” he says.

What has stayed the same for Protomartyr on the new album is that Casey still speak-sings fascinating lyrics over music conjured up from the band that can range from atmospheric noise to pummeling riffs.

One new wrinkle in Protomartyr’s sound on Formal Growth in the Desert is a slight western twang on opener “Make Way” and later song “Polacrilex Kid.”

“Greg [Ahee] always has a general musical idea that he wants to explore because he is a guitar player that secretly hates the guitar,” Casey says. “So, he is always trying to think of different ways to introduce different sounds so it is just not all guitar.”

Before recording the most recent album, Ahee was in Chicago, where he wrote some scores for some short films. “He was listening to a lot of Ennio Morricone, a lot of western soundtracks, so he locked into wanting pedal steel,” Casey says.

Always an intriguing lyricist, Casey takes aim at life’s biggest concerns on the album—death, love, grief—though he notes that the music always comes first. “When I listen to the music—I hear it in its raw form—and that sparks certain emotional responses or reminds me of something,” he says. “I think, ‘OK I can do a chorus here.’”

One of the heaviest songs on the album is “Graft Vs. Host.” About the passing of Casey’s mother, he sings “She’d want me to try and find happiness in a cloudless sky.”

“These people that we love, they don’t want you to forever wear the funeral shawl and be down and full of sadness over their loss,” Casey says. “They want you to be happy.”

Less personal but no less successful, “Fulfillment Center” is a two-minute tale of two characters—or “two conceits” as Casey puts it—that drive around the country hoping to locate a shipping warehouse where their wildest dreams can come true. It’s clearly a swipe against Amazon’s stranglehold on American culture. “The big metaphor in that song is that we have these mega-rich people that don’t pay any taxes and control our politics and control the way that we live,” Casey says. “They offer us the idea that you can get anything that you want from Amazon—and that’s kind of amazing—but you are basically feeding the beast. So, you are actually trapped in their dream.”

Not all songs deal with such weighty matters. Coming on like Protomartyr’s take on Radiohead’s “Idioteque,” “Fun in Hi Skool” is essentially a diss track where Casey bellows over a skittering drumbeat. Records release party that happened at a Detroit Tigers game.

The biggest surprise on the album is the stately closer, “Rain Garden.” Casey sings about newfound love. It ends with a couple of words never uttered before on a Protomartyr album: kiss me. “I feel like I had to write about my life and obviously one of the ways I got out of this deep sadness was love and getting married,” Casey says. “But I want to be careful with it because if that becomes too big a focus on albums then I’m just worried that someday they’ll be like, ‘well here comes Joe’s divorce record.’”

Protomartyr and Immortal Nightbody perform Sunday, July 2nd, 830pm. $22/advance, $25/day of the show. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz.

https://moesalley.com

https://folkyeah.com

The Bard Quotes for Santa Cruz Shakespeare 2023 Season

Stage

June Smith

June 27, 2023

The Bard Quotes for Santa Cruz Shakespeare 2023 Season

Managing Director Mike Ryan says that his favorite is probably “One fell swoop” from Macbeth, Act 4, Sc 3.

Actress Hayley Huntley was introduced to Shakespeare at eight years old, when her mom signed her up for a Lake Tahoe Shakespeare camp. “The kids in my age group put on Twelfth Night while the teens put on The Merchant of Venice. I was cast as Feste the clown, which initially devastated me because it was supposed to be played by a ‘boy’ and was not a lead role (I wanted to be Olivia, the grieving princess, the damsel in distress) but my mom gave me a pep talk. Where I saw disappointment, she saw an opportunity.

She said that a small part might nonetheless become a great part if I changed my attitude and tried to make it my own. She was right. Having loved that experience, I dedicated myself to becoming a professional actress, making a career out of playing the ‘funny sidekick.’ And I’ve discovered that playing the leading lady—while it gets your name on the billboard—isn’t always as fun as playing the clown. All that glitters is not gold.”

English professor Jeffrey Smith says, “My first significant encounter with Shakespeare was in 1981 when I took a class at San Jose State University, reading ten plays. I was also assigned to read King Lear in three other classes, reading those four times. Around 1993, I got the wonderful opportunity to teach a summer class in Shakespeare at Chabot College, where I made my choices of plays to assign based on what was being offered at Shakespeare Santa Cruz that year and some students from that class joined me at the Glen to see a performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Then, every summer, starting with Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s inaugural year of 1982, I read one or more of the plays shortly before seeing them performed. I needed to read quickly, and this helped me develop the facility for reading Shakespeare that I enjoy today. It also enabled me to provide a helpful synopsis of each play to the friends who accompanied me to the various plays, a synopsis usually delivered as we stood in line to enter the Glen.

Several years later, I took a graduate class in Shakespeare with renowned professor Richard Levin at UC Davis in which we read all 154 sonnets and several of Shakespeare’s plays.

This was a deep immersion into the magic and complexity of Shakespeare’s way with words: his punning and his innuendoes. I enjoyed it a great deal and jumped at the chance to serve as a teaching assistant in Dr. Levin’s Shakespeare class titled ‘C The Middle Period.’

In 1999, as part of my duties, I delivered a lecture on the rarely performed play Troilus and Cressida. At UC Davis, there was an unspoken preference for instructors to teach a Shakespeare play in the lower-division introduction course, and I chose to teach a play that I had seen performed by Shakespeare Santa Cruz around 1989, All’s Well That Ends Well, a ‘problem comedy’ with some off-color incidents that make for lively classroom discussions.

In teaching this play, I employed Dr. Levin’s technique of helping students use the Oxford English Dictionary to define and discuss keywords in important speeches from the plays.

I have continued to teach All’s Well That Ends Well when teaching a course titled ‘Critical Thinking and Writing about Literature’ at Contra Costa College and taught it during the spring semester.

I now know this play like the back of my hand, and it has greatly enriched my life and my appreciation of the bard.”

Twenty of the most common phrases coined by the Bard:

1) “Knock knock! Who’s there?” – Macbeth

2) “Set my teeth on edge” – Henry IV

3) “Fair play” – The Tempest

4) “For goodness’ sake” – Henry VIII

5) “Break the ice” – The Taming of the Shrew

6) “Dead as a doornail” – Henry VI

7) “Good riddance” – Troilus and Cressida

8) “Love is blind” – The Merchant of Venice

9) “Wild-goose chase” – Romeo and Juliet

10) “Jealousy is the green-eyed monster” – Othello

11) “In a pickle” – The Tempest

12) “Laughing stock” – The Merry Wives of Windsor

13) “Wear my heart upon my sleeve” – Othello

14) “The world’s my oyster” – Merry Wives of Windsor

15) “All that glitters (glisters) is not gold” – The Merchant of Venice

16) “All’s well that ends well” – All’s Well that Ends Well

17) “Be-all and end-all” – Macbeth

18) “A sorry sight” – Macbeth

19) “All of a sudden” – The Taming of the Shrew

20) “Heart of gold” – Henry V

Market Fresh

Dining Reviews

Jeanette Prather

June 27, 2023

Let’s jump in with sins occasionally committed by eateries and restaurants.

One: Stocking a massive menu covering all sorts of disparate items like sushi and flatbreads and barbecue.

Two: When you ask a server what they recommend, they say, “Everything’s good,” which helps…not at all.

Both those things had me worried about a pair of family-owned markets.

Palm Deli sits just off the freeway in Aptos and its sister spot The Point Market tucks on the coast on East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. Both came recommended by reliable foodie friends in the respective neighborhoods. With peak picnic season here and their locations close to the beach, I hoped they might provide the tools to make readers summer superstars.

Then I saw Palm Deli’s got enough on offer to make The Cheesecake Factory blush. They do smoothies and coffee drinks, milkshakes and protein shakes, corn dogs and enchiladas, avocado toast and açaí bowls. three soups of the day, seven more daily specials like meatloaf and barbecued tri-tip, eight different salads, 11 panini, 12 types of tacos, 14 burgers,19 sandwiches, 33 burrito choices around 35 branded hot sauces—though they also make five different salsas made in house available by the pound.

It’s a staggering selection—without dipping into the nice wines, curated chips, house pastries or espresso bar.

When I asked for some leadership, one regular customer and a staffer essentially told me Everything’s good.

Anwar Ayyad, whose family owns the Palm Deli amid the redwoods did later recommend the Fuego Joe with thin-sliced Buffalo chicken breast, avocado, tomato, Dijon, jalapeños, pepper jack, pickles, onions and Cholula hot sauce—and it was damn good.

At Point Market I’m going with the recommendation of Anwar’s cousin Muhammad Ayyad: The Cali lunch burrito with French fries (inside), carne asada, sour cream, cheese, cilantro, onion and avocado.

The lineup isn’t quite as relentless here, but close enough. They do all the burgers, burritos, tacos, a few salads, a bunch of breakfast plates (chilaquiles!) omelets and a selection of things “from the fryer” like calamari, which is a substantial amount to sift through on its own. Plus a bunch of their own takes on sandwiches and paninis.

Paired with a cliff-clinging location, it presents plenty of reasons Point Market has become a community pillar for more than picnic prowess.

Muhammad also added another I didn’t expect: An inventory of staples like shampoo, toothbrushes and lotions. “Whatever they need, they ask, and we get it,” he says. “They tell us, ‘You saved us. I don’t have to go into town.’ We enjoy seeing our customers happy.”

FEELING FELTON

Speaking of summer superstars, a community fixture is back and better than ever on Zayante Road. The pool deck opened after major renovations last summer flanked by local craft beers and wine. (The Beer Thirty team is directing things, after all.) But the airy restaurant only recently debuted with Chef Jon Dickinson leading the kitchen after stints at many of the area’s best restaurants, and growing up tending tomatoes in his family’s lush Santa Cruz garden. “I got exposed to working with organic foods at an early age,” he says. He’s focusing on upscale comfort food—think braised chicken leg, steamed Manilla clams, short rib tacos, robust sandwiches and, yes, smoked trout chowder and whole-roasted rainbow trout too.

thetroutfarm.com/

SQUID GAME

Seafood Watch released an updated assessment of California market squid for the first time in four years and—amen—California market squid remains a Best Choice. Other interesting items from the report: Market squid is the largest fishery in the state (in terms of catch volume and revenue), representing 66 percent of all landings across California ports, with 141 million pounds worth $84 million coming ashore. In other words, I’m now hungry for the calamari at Aldo’s Harbor Restaurant.

seafoodwatch.org/recommendations

aldossantacruz.com

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

It’s an interesting moment in food literature history. Or at least that was running through my mind while volunteering at the Bay Area Book Festival a little while back. That’s where I saw new cookbook author Max Miller talk about the YouTube cooking show that spawned the book. It’s worth checking out: “Tasting History With Max Miller” charms by way of incredible stories that emerge as he parachutes deep into famous foods like the very first PB&J and World War recipes like SOS.

youtube.com/c/tastinghistory

Ivéta

Foodie File

Andrew Steingrube

June 27, 2023

Before opening Iveta’s original Westside location in 1999, John Bilanko was a lawyer for 25 years in his hometown of Chicago. He began to contemplate a move when he did some legal work in Silicon Valley and liked the area. When his two daughters decided to attend UCSC, it sealed the deal—he and his wife moved to Santa Cruz. He decided to retire as a lawyer and open a restaurant. Iveta, which has downtown and campus locations a full espresso bar featuring traditional Italian-style coffee. The Westside location, open every day from 8am-3pm, has a decidedly European sidewalk café feel set with marble tables and bar, and an outdoor patio. House made scones include lavender white chocolate, apricot and cranberry orange. Breakfasts include a scrambled egg sandwich, breakfast burritos and tacos. For lunch, try classic BLT and turkey/Havarti sandwiches, Italian mixed green salads and minestrone and chicken pozole.

GT cross-examined Bilanko.

How does your law background help with Iveta?

JOHN BILANKO: The legal training makes it a lot easier to navigate the administrative requirements involved in running a restaurant—issues like liability, health code regulations, employee welfare, taxes, city codes and negotiating leases. Being a restauranteur requires many different hats and a diverse skill-set that my law experience has provided.

Tell me about your coffee supplier?

We use Lavazza coffee, a fourth-generation family business that has been around for 125 years. They are the most popular brand of coffee in Italy and invented coffee blending. They source from all over the world in a very sustainable way, and blend for certain flavor profiles to maintain consistency. I like it because it’s smooth, rich, balanced, robust and not bitter with a very nice feel on the palette.

2125 Delaware Avenue, Santa Cruz, 831-423-5149; iveta.com

Free Will Astrology with Rob Brezsny

Astrology

Rob Brezsny

June 27, 2023

Week of June 28

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Visionary author Peter McWilliams wrote, “One of the most enjoyable aspects of solitude is doing what you want when you want to do it, with the absolute freedom to change what you’re doing at will. Solitude removes all the ‘negotiating’ we need to do when we’re with others.” I’ll add a caveat: Some of us have more to learn about enjoying solitude. We may experience it as a loss or deprivation. But here’s the good news, Aries: In the coming weeks, you will be extra inspired to cultivate the benefits that come from being alone.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The 18th-century French engineer Étienne Bottineau invented nauscopy, the art of detecting sailing ships at a great distance, well beyond the horizon. This was before the invention of radar. Bottineau said his skill was not rooted in sorcery or luck, but from his careful study of changes in the atmosphere, wind and sea. Did you guess that Bottineau was a Taurus? Your tribe has a special capacity for arriving at seemingly magical understandings by harnessing your sensitivity to natural signals. Your intuition thrives as you closely observe the practical details of how the world works. This superpower will be at a peak in the coming weeks.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): According to a Welsh proverb, “Three fears weaken the heart: fear of the truth; fear of the devil; fear of poverty.” I suspect the first of those three is most likely to worm its way into your awareness during the coming weeks. So let’s see what we can do to diminish its power over you. Here’s one possibility: Believe me when I tell you that even if the truth’s arrival is initially disturbing or disruptive, it will ultimately be healing and liberating. It should be welcomed, not feared.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Hexes nullified! Jinxes abolished! Demons banished! Adversaries outwitted! Liabilities diminished! Bad habits replaced with good habits! These are some of the glorious developments possible for you in the coming months, Cancerian. Am I exaggerating? Maybe a little. But if so, not much. In my vision of your future, you will be the embodiment of a lucky charm and a repository of blessed mojo. You are embarking on a phase when it will make logical sense to be an optimist. Can you sweep all the dross and mess out of your sphere? No, but I bet you can do at least 80 percent.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the book Curious Facts in the History of Insects, Frank Cowan tells a perhaps legendary story about how mayors were selected in the medieval Swedish town of Hurdenburg. The candidates would set their chins on a table with their long beards spread out in front of them. A louse, a tiny parasitic insect, would be put in the middle of the table. Whichever beard the creature crawled to and chose as its new landing spot would reveal the man who would become the town’s new leader. I beg you not to do anything like this, Leo. The decisions you and your allies make should be grounded in good evidence and sound reason, not blind chance. And please avoid parasitical influences completely.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I rebel against the gurus and teachers who tell us our stories are delusional indulgences that interfere with our enlightenment. I reject their insistence that our personal tales are distractions from our spiritual work. Virgo author A. S. Byatt speaks for me: “Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.” I love and honor the stories of my own destiny, and I encourage you to love and honor yours. Having said that, I will let you know that now is an excellent time to jettison the stories that feel demoralizing and draining—even as you celebrate the stories that embody your genuine beauty. For extra credit: Tell the soulful stories of your life to anyone who is receptive.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the Mayan calendar, each of the 20 day names is associated with a natural phenomenon. The day called Kawak is paired with rainstorms. Ik’ is connected with wind and breath. Kab’an is earth, Manik’ is deer and Chikchan is the snake. Now would be a great time for you to engage in an imaginative exercise inspired by the Mayans. Why? Because this is an ideal phase of your cycle to break up your routine, to reinvent the regular rhythm, to introduce innovations in how you experience the flow of the time. Just for fun, why not give each of the next 14 days a playful nickname or descriptor? This Friday could be Crescent Moon, for example. Saturday might be Wonderment, Sunday can be Dazzle Sweet and Monday Good Darkness.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): From 998 till 1030, Scorpio-born leader Mahmud Ghaznavi ruled the vast Ghaznavid empire, which stretched from current-day Iran to central Asia and northwestern India. Like so many of history’s strong men, he was obsessed with military conquest. Unlike many others, though, he treasured culture and learning. You’ve heard of poet laureates? He had 400 of them. According to some tales, he rewarded one wordsmith with a mouthful of pearls. In accordance with astrological omens, I encourage you to be more like the Mahmud who loved beauty and art and less like the Mahmud who enjoyed fighting. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to fill your world with grace and elegance and magnificence.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): About 1,740 years ago, before she became a Catholic saint, Margaret of Antioch got swallowed whole by Satan, who was disguised as a dragon. Or so the old story goes. But Margaret was undaunted. There in the beast’s innards, Margaret calmly made the sign of the cross over and over with her right hand. Meanwhile, the wooden cross in her left hand magically swelled to an enormous size that ruptured the beast, enabling her to escape. After that, because of her triumph, expectant mothers and women in labor regarded Margaret as their patron saint. Your upcoming test won’t be anywhere near as demanding as hers, Sagittarius, but I bet you will ace it—and ultimately garner sweet rewards.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn-born Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) was an astronomer and mathematician who was an instrumental innovator in the Scientific Revolution. Among his many breakthrough accomplishments were his insights about the laws of planetary motion. Books he wrote were crucial forerunners of Isaac Newton’s theories about gravitation. But here’s an unexpected twist: Kepler was also a practicing astrologer who interpreted the charts of many people, including three emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. In the spirit of Kepler’s ability to bridge seemingly opposing perspectives, Capricorn, I invite you to be a paragon of mediation and conciliation in the coming weeks. Always be looking for ways to heal splits and forge connections. Assume you have an extraordinary power to blend elements that no one else can.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Dear Restless Runaway: During the next 10 months, life will offer you these invitations: 1. Identify the land that excites you and stabilizes you. 2. Spend lots of relaxing time on that land. 3. Define the exact nature of the niche or situation where your talents and desires will be most gracefully expressed. 4. Take steps to create or gather the family you want. 5. Take steps to create or gather the community you want.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’d love you to be a deep-feeling, free-thinker in the coming weeks. I will cheer you on if you nurture your emotional intelligence as you liberate yourself from outmoded beliefs and opinions. Celebrate your precious sensitivity, dear Pisces, even as you use your fine mind to reevaluate your vision of what the future holds. It’s a perfect time to glory in rich sentiments and exult in creative ideas.

Homework: Find a way to sing as loudly and passionately as possible sometime soon. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

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MUSIC & ARTS

COMMUNITY

FEELING FELTON

SQUID GAME

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

Pinot Noir 2021

Lester Estate Wines Sundowner Concerts

Papa’s Favorite Smoothies

How does your law background help with Iveta?

Tell me about your coffee supplier?

“Are there actually secret, hidden tunnels in the hills and mountains north of town? And what are they?” —George

“Why did it take more than 100 years for Santa Cruz to discover that Loudon Nelson’s name is actually London Nelson?” —Christine

“’Skinwalkers’ are shapeshifters from Native American legend. Have they been seen around Santa Cruz as people say?” —Matty

“Why are the roads so crazy in this town, were the city planners high when they designed the streets here?” —Clay

“I first saw the Court of Mysteries on Fair Avenue when I moved here in 1986, and I’m STILL wondering what it’s all about.” —Raymon

“Why is the Brookdale Lodge on Highway 9 so haunted, and why have so many different ghosts be seen there?” —Jen

Week of June 28